I13: Missing Elements

[Will Stanton]

The police had cordoned off Elements with black-and-yellow police line tape, and the X-Teams were in, trying to find clues to the missing students.

"Alright, let's split up in here -- see if you can analyze any of the traces of that gas we've got going on here, while the rest of us look for some physical evidence or something.

What the hell happened?" Will mused, standing at the entrenceway.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Someone signed up to get a pretty brutal beating," Ryan said as he surveyed the scene. As people rushed about, he held his hand out, trying to detect the traces of energy, soul and otherwise, from the encounter. "People've screwed with my kids before, but this is just dancing straight over the line."

[Will Stanton]

Will nodded. "We'll get 'em back, Ryan. In the meantime, you've trained 'em well; they can handle themselves.

...Somewhat.

I'm going to go see if this place had security cameras. We need to get some of the science guys in here and try to detect whatever it was that this gas was--if we can trace that, maybe we can figure out where they went, or who took them."

[Sara Stanton]

"We should be able to piece together the mass-spectrum of the gas." Sara says, waving around some kind of handheld scanner.

[Byrna Cooper]

"Well, the gas, mostly.. But there is also signs of a big, tough struggle. And with what we know about the students, they must have been really tough.. Probably superhuman.."

Bear sighed, her x-Ray vision glow fading.

"Mr Bowen is going to throw a fit. T-Bow getting kidnapped again, Not to mention everyone else.."

[ASHLIE]

"I am afraid I did not detect any unusual network, cell-phone or radio activity over the last couple hours to trace, X-Team Entity." Ashlie addresses Will.

[Rachel O'Brien]

"I'll collect the blood samples." Rachel said "Maybe some of it isn't from our kids."

[Will Stanton]

"What about the people hosting this event? I refuse to believe a bunch of metahumans got kidnapped by coincidence. Maybe they were set-up?"

[ASHLIE]

"I am tracing the mass-mail that was send out concerning this place."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan scowled, dropping his hands back to his side. "God damn it... if there was anything to sense here, it's been wiped clean. Maybe an EM wave... could be anything." He reached back for his phone. "So plan B, time to see if there's any aerial footage."

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear nodded, pulling up a copy of the forwarded email on her phone.

"It could easily have been a trap.. This entire setup."

[Will Stanton]

Ryan scowled, dropping his hands back to his side. "God damn it... if there was anything to sense here, it's been wiped clean. Maybe an EM wave... could be anything." He reached back for his phone. "So plan B, time to see if there's any aerial footage."

Will quietly swore.

"OK, check the aerial--they had to have a...a truck or something to carry all these people.

Unless they're teleporters, but one crisis at a time."

[Nash Riley]

Nash had brushed up against the doors when they entered and gotten a small sense that caused him to investigate them further.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear walked around, looking for more signs of whatever happened, as well as where the gas was dispersed from.

[ASHLIE]

"It appears the e-mail was routed through several off-shore proxies within the Tor network, originating from a local public access point. I should be able to identify the device should it connect to the internet again but there is a high probability they abandoned it because of that fact. It could be valuable regardless and I recommend a search in the vicinity of Maldon's Book Barn to potentially retrieve the device."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan got on his phone and began surveying the scene as he spoke quietly into the receiver as he walked.

"This is Agent Ryan Gabriel, Security code three-five-seven-delta-omega. Pull my current location and get any surveilance from the last forty-eight hours. Scour for unusual activity, with priority on recent departures. Send a copy to my access file. I repeat, security code three-five-seven delta omega." He glanced up as Ashlie gave her report, then added the Maldon Book Barn to the surveilance list.

[Narrator]

GAS
Sara's scanner picked up traces of philloniumhydroflexate, a rather rare and bizarre chemical,very rarely used as a knockout gas. It was highly unstable, so it wasn't often a gas of choice.

BLOOD SAMPLES
Initial scans based on in-the-field lab equipment didn't detect any non-human blood, or anything of that nature. Preliminary typing and DNA sampling indicated only XI students in the mix.

THE DOOR
The doors had been forced shut and locked from the inside--indicating that whoever the goons were, they didn't have outside help.

BEAR'S WALKABOUT
There were plenty of signs of a fight going on! People tossed every which-way, chairs and tables broken and shattered, and the like. Most of the footprints were a ragged mess, though there was something off about them...something hard to put one's finger on, immediately.

The gas had come out of tiny, almost hidden devices installed in the airvents--and when I say installed, they looked like they had been there since the building was last refit.

SHIELDTECH
That was the odd thing--there WASN'T any unusual activity. The XI kids could all be seen entering the club, but that was it--the scanners didn't register anyone else entering the club.

Nor using the iPad, for that matter--but iPads don't use themselves. The fidelity wasn't good enough to get a good satellite view of the Maldon Book Barn, not on that scale, but no figures could be easily identified at the time ASHLIE claimed the device was in use.

[Nash Riley]

Nash walks further inside towards the group gathered inside.

"The doors are ridiculously overbuilt for either a club or a factory, but that's not the strangest thing though. The doors have locks that require a key to open them, from inside."

[John Hino]

"I guess I'll go scan around the bookstore then. You coming with, ASHLIE? Two of us ought to locate it all the more quickly."

[ASHLIE]

"Certainly, Mister Hino!" Ashlie says, saluting.

[John Hino]

"You... don't really need to salute me," he chuckled as he headed out.

[Will Stanton]

"Nash, are you saying the club was in on this, in some way?"

[Roland Sackville]

There was a screech as a Pontiac Aztek pulled up outfront of Elements, and out stepped a very angry, very old man, carrying a very sharp sword, shoving his way through the gathering crowd.

[Nash Riley]

"Its looking like it might be, I'll know for sure when I give the rest of the place a look over."

With that he starts walking around the perimeter of the room.

[Sara Stanton]

"Professor Sackville..." Sara says, sounding confused but trying not to stand in the way of the angry guy with the sword.

[Roland Sackville]

"Why haven't you found them yet," Roland growled at Sara.

[Narrator]

"Its looking like it might be, I'll know for sure when I give the rest of the place a look over."

With that he starts walking around the perimeter of the room.

There was nothing there out of the ordinary.

That, actually, was out of the ordinary in and of itself--there was NOTHING there. No extra stock of drinks, no video equipment, bupkis--how the hell were they planning to open up the next day?

[Sara Stanton]

"Why haven't you found them yet," Roland growled at Sara.

"We're working on it..." she shrinks back a little.

[Roland Sackville]

"What on Earth is taking so long! Ride out, and don't stop shedding blood until the ones responsible have been brought to swift justice."

[Sara Stanton]

"Why... why don't you come back when we've figured out where they are and you can get to the... the blood-shedding."

[Nash Riley]

Nash continued walking around the sides of the room, looking for another exit if there is one, or any adjacent rooms to the sides.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan, in the meantime, was back on the phone, rather angrily protesting what he was seeing on his screen. He hung up again, storming back over to the group. "Nothing. Abso-goddamn-lutely nothing. No trucks leaving, nothing to show they left... hell, nothing to show anyone other than them was here in the first place. Is there any underground access we've found?"

[Will Stanton]

"What do you mean, 'nothing to show they were here'? You mean the images are obscured?"

[Narrator]

Nash continued walking around the sides of the room, looking for another exit if there is one, or any adjacent rooms to the sides.

There was nothing on any of the sides--what you saw was what you get, mostly.

However, one of the corners appeared a bit...hollow.

[Roland Sackville]

"Why... why don't you come back when we've figured out where they are and you can get to the... the blood-shedding."

"This is intolerable. Someone must have seen something. Drag them all in and question them!"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Here, look," Ryan said, accessing the surveillance file and showing Will what it had shown him. Or, rather, had not shown him.

[Sara Stanton]

"This is intolerable. Someone must have seen something. Drag them all in and question them!"

"We're trying, okay! No one knows anything and they just seem to have vanished."

[Nash Riley]

"Hmm..." Nash investigates the hollow corner more closely.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie padded up to the group still in wolf form. She'd been sniffing around carefully to see if she could find any sort of a trail.

[Will Stanton]

"Here, look," Ryan said, accessing the surveillance file and showing Will what it had shown him. Or, rather, had not shown him.

"Well, what the everflying fuck. They didn't kidnap themselves, and this is a bit much for a prank. Invisible, maybe?"