The streets were dark by the time Sandra, Ai, Vadim and Richard arrived at the scene. The streets were wet and dark with soot and on each side cordoned off with black and yellow tape. A police car on each side of the barricade held off nosey bystanders as the police forensics team was digging through the ashes and burned bodies were slowly extracted from the mangled mess of metal that had once been a bus full of seniors on the way to a bingo afternoon. A few dozen people were still hanging around the disaster area on each side of the barricade, a few snapping pictures of the site. Three ambulances were standing by but it was pretty clear no one had made it out of the conflagration alive. Behind them 4 more vans from the LA county Morgue to take away the bodies.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:12, Sun 13 Nov 2016.

Richard's face was set into a grim, placid mask as he surveyed the site.  The car ride had been blessedly uneventful, allowing him time to review the limited data available to them, including the security camera footage -- which was a good start, but not exactly enough to get him the depth of clarity that he wanted to be able to reconstruct the scene as it happened.

"How close to ground zero do the two of you need to be in order to do what research we're planning?" he said, looking back to his fellow agents.  "I can get us as close as we need."

Sandra had been lost in her thoughts for the whole ride as she stared out the window of the car. She had donned the same personal protection kit completely covering her clothing, limbs, and head in a protective hazmat suit.

At the scene she busied herself with taking initial, mundane readings of the area with her instruments to establish her base line. She was measuring the humidity when Richard's question caught her attention.

"My effective range depends on what needs to be done," she said, then cleared her throat. "So until I know more, closer is likely better for me."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:57, Wed 16 Nov 2016.

Vadim put the van into park as he silently exhaled.  For someone in as much pain as he was he still drove at least as well as the average person on the street around them...and he thanked the Primal Unity that he didn't have to do any complex driving yet or he would likely fail horribly.  He looked over to Richard, "I'll stay here in case you need a quick evac..." he coughed once and then twice and then stilled as he looked back at them, "Good hunting."

Sandra's measurements showed high levels of local humidity, probably stemming from the tons of water the fire department had used to douse the conflagration.

(to get closer you'll need to get past the police barrier)

"We'll be in touch as needed."  Richard nodded to Vadim and led the other two further down to ground zero of the bus incident.  One hand was already reaching for his FBI credentials, ready to present them to tired beat cops who were probably well fed up with having to be at the scene of such a horrible crime.  The sight of a highly-placed agent, in the proper 'uniform,' with the proper ID, with ecclectic specialists in tow, was an image the NWO had long cultivated to get such folks to relax a bit, knowing that help had arrived.  Why else would his superiors have encouraged CSI-style police shows to be so common?

Richard will be leaning on his Influence (FBI) 3 to get us past the cops, in combination with an Appearance+Expression roll.

01:31, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 4 successes using 8d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 ((7,3,10,7,6,2,1,7)).

Richard flashed his credentials and he was let through the police barrier with Ai and Sandra following him. Richard was talking to the cops and about to follow Sandra and Ai to the burned out bus when a woman's voice called to him from behind the police barrier:"Sir! Sir. Anna Porter of the LA Times. Can you explain why the FBI is interested in a burned out bus?". Anna had lightbrown half long straight hair and a sprinkling of freckles. She wore Jeans and a white jacket and carried a brown leather briefcase. Holding out a microphone she smiled at Richard:"Can you comment?".

Ai and Sandra were led to the bus by a fireman. He looked down at Ai and commented to Sandra:"Why are you bringing a kid to a bus accident .. ?".
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:26, Fri 18 Nov 2016.

Richard glanced over from his conversation as the reporter butted in -- like they always do -- and excused himself from his conversation.  "Nothing tremendously exciting, Ms. Porter," he said, almost apologetically.  "We received word that one of the persons on this bus may  have been connected to a person of interest for us.  We're simply here to verify some additional facts related to that case.  I personally don't expect to find anything, but diligence is key in these things."

09:55, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 3 successes using 8d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 1,7,3,5,8,10,2,9.  manip+expression to dissuade reporter.

"Thing is, agent .. witnesses saw a burning man walk away from the bus and heal before their eyes. I'm not sure exciting is the right word but it's certainly interesting", Anna looked over at Ai and Sandra a little further ahead and pursed her lips:"Little young, isn't she? Bet there's a story there too".
She walked away from the police line toward the car Vadim was in and she typed something in her phone as she walked:"I'll be over there in case you have more information after your research". She glanced over her shoulder, winked at Richard and tapped her nose:"I can smell a good news story, agent".

She left Richard a bit frustrated that she shrugged off his usually succesful subterfuge.

Sandra blinked at the fireman. The question had caught her off guard and she had no cover story to make any lie she said seem plausible. Further, she was still getting used to all of the (sometimes gruff) nuances of people in the professional world outside of academia and science.

"Who.. her? Um," she said. It didn't help matters that he was absolutely right. She looked back and forth between Richard and Ai. Suddenly, she was struck by inspiration from student group work in her undergrad years: deflection of responsibility. "I uh.. I just get and analyze the evidence." she said with growing confidence.

Sandra jabbed a thumb in Richard's direction. "He's the boss."

Now all she had to do was pray that got him to leave her alone.

Ms. Porter did not solicit an outward reaction from Richard besides a professional irritation and disinterest.  Internally, though, what she said was fairly concerning.  Some of the eyewitnesses were maintaining their story, it seemed, and he didn't have the expertise to wipe that level of evidence from everyone present.

Triage, then preserve.  Learning about the perp was a high priority, and the rubes were mucking with the evidence he needed to get that clear picture.  The reporter was gathering her own data; she likely wouldn't find any hard evidence that pointed to the existence of the burning man, but she could be useful as a reference point.

Richard took his sunglasses out of his pocket and snapped them open, placing them onto his face.  The world lit up with augmented reality; keeping the two fingers of his left hand on the frame, he began surveying the scene, hoping to get a clearer visual picture to relay to the others.

Making use of the Retrospective Visualization process, Time 2 and adding Mind 2, to mentally walk the scene backwards to the time of the explosion.  Should be coincidental, so a total difficulty of 5.  I'm most interested in learning the Burning Man's mental state and surface thoughts around the time the bus impacted him, but any details the on-site cameras may have missed could also be useful.  Using Perception+Investigation to try and reduce the difficulty, and presuming I'm going to need at least two successes to get the time frame right and get into this guy's head.

06:07, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 1 success using 5d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 7,4,1,2,9.  perc+investigation forensics the crash site.  Should reduce the magic difficulty by one, to four...

06:09, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 1 success using 2d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 4 with rolls of 6,3.  arete time 2 mind 2 retrocognition 1.

06:09, Today: Richard Jackson rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 4 with rolls of 8,10.  arete time 2 mind 2 retrocognition 2.  3 successes is theoretically enough, but can roll again if needed.

Richard began looking around the area, searching for clues that would reveal the events that transpired a few hours ago.

The bus was the most obvious starting point. Richard silenced a fireman who wanted to say something about Ai with a wave of his hand as he began to see a pattern in the trail of clues left behind that told the story of what had happened a few hours ago. Sandra and Ai watched Richard wander the crime scene in reverie.

Anna wandered to Vadim's car and waved at him, then gestured for him to roll down his window.

Vadim smiled slightly as he rolled down the window at the advancing reporter.  He didn't know who she was yet but he had used his phone to call up the various reports that already had come out to see if he could narrow the field and learn a little about her while she was digging for a story, "Looking for a quote or snippet of fact Ms...?". The smile interrupted by a mix of his lingering cough from his youth and a spasm from the electricity that had hurt him.

He removed his handkerchief and dabbed the sides of his mouth, "Apologies a little under the weather."

"Maybe I just wanted to say hi", she smiled back and leaned against the car:"Your 'collegues' are an ecclectic bunch. The young girl is too young to be FBI, right?I'm Anna by the way".

Vadim chuckled softly, "Interesting fact about the FBI...not everyone is a Special Agent that works for them Anna even thought that is what most people see and associated with them.  Skillsets beyond that are only limited by Federal hiring laws, the relevant statues and if they are consults or interns."

He might not be NWO but he knew not only the lingo but also how to soften it into something far more believable.  The best were rooted firmly in the truth and he knew as part of the Syndicate just how valuable in other ways information was rather than simply manipulation.  He blinked his eyes a little slowly, "It's nice to meet you Anna, I'm Vadim..." he looked over at the bus and shook his head, "...sad business no?"

"Yea ..", Anna replied:" .. but child labor laws still count and she can't be older than 15 ..".
She glanced at Ai in the distance, then looked back at Vadim:"Yea .. what do you think happened?".

Relieved that the fireman had accepted her answer, at least for the moment, Sandra tried to look busy while she waited for more direct access to the scene. She did, however, listen in on Richard's and Vadim's conversations as best she could. She was quite impressed with their handling of the onlookers.

Of -course-.

Richard let the state of heightened awareness recede, falling back into N-time awareness, then tapped his earbud.  "+Fujiwara, Reyes, join me when you're ready.  I'd like to see if you can either get an organic sample of something I believe to be our perp, or pick up any sort of data that suggests extradimensional travel.  This was a targeted hit.+"

When the both of them arrive at his final destination -- where the asphalt of the road meets the pavement of the sidewalk -- he indicates to Ai where he's found some sort of organic sample.  "This is where the perp left the scene," he said quietly, squatting down.  "The trail leads into the alleyway..."

"Well truthfully I haven't asked how old she is cause it's not kosher to ask a woman but I know from working experience you could look at a girl like her and think she couldn't be fifteen and in truth she would be twenty seven and have five advanced degrees and be trapped in the underground sex trade." remarked Vadim a little sadly.  He'd seen it from both sides of the rails and while it might be a little strange to segway into it would likely diffuse the personnel questions she had and focus back on the site.  Besides tangential small-talk was a good way to pull out small snippets of information from people without them realizing it.

He shook his head and coughed before looking back at the scene, "We don't know," he paused before adding, "yet.  Follow the facts, run down the science of what happened and we will figure out what happened here..."

Vadim turned his head away from the scene and then asked her, "How about you?  What do you think happened?"