There've been a series of break-in at three different cathedrals in the city.  But the perpetrator hasn't stolen anything or desecrated anything.  Rather, on all three occasions, they've returned religious relics or other items of great significance to the church.

There are three existing "crime-scenes"

• St James Cathedral, Emerald city's oldest Roman Catholic cathedral
  Item returned: documents related to the ordination of the first bishop ordained at that church.  Removal date is unknown.  Church officials were actually unaware that they were missing, but have verified their authenticity.
• St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral (Anglican)
  Item returned: "horizontal trumpets" associated with the largest pipe organ in Emerald City.  Removed in 2011 and disappeared from storage.
• First Baptist Church
  The written speaking notes
  of the sermon given at the first service in the church Sanctuary, dated September, 1912.

On their own, none of these warrant any real police investigation.  But in all three cases, the churches were locked up or had staff in attendance when the items were "returned".  No signs of entry or exit was visible.

Classified information indicates the presence of  small traces of a powder or dust in a dark purplish color around the rooms in which the artifacts were discovered.

Your police contact is Detective Horowitz.

You can attend any of the churches in question and I'll provide a contact there (or you can make up a name... whatever works for you).


So... What's the first step?

Given there was no reason to go to one church over the other first, Sphere decided to just start with the St. James Cathedral as he was a Catholic himself. Mind you, he wasn't a super hardcore one and in some ways was a liberal recovering Catholic, but Catholic was the religion he identified with currently none the less not to mention how he was raised.

Anyone who wanted to come with he offered to draw into his orbit and fly over there with him.

So the first step he made was to contact Horowitz and introduce himself and establish a rapport, and ask if he knew who their contact at the cathedral was.

Sphere also gave some orders to some lower-ranked AEGIS agents and technicians to go to the Cathedral and gather samples of the mysterious powder that the report says was found at the scene, and return to headquarters and run lab work on it, and report the results to him (and Ember and Alicia) as well as Director Maddox immediately once analysis was completed.

"I'll go with you Sphere.  Might be beneficial to have multiple eyes on a scene."  Ember Saint announced while the other man was requesting the AEGIS Forensics team to the scene.  "Might also be good to compare the powders between each scene to see if we are dealing with a single source--or multiple sources."  He looked to Alicia.  "You coming with or doing your own thing?"  He offered a smile.  "Your choice."

Preferring to fly himself, Ember Saint, being slower than Sphere in the air decided to leave first.  He covered himself in his plate mail type of armor and sprouted his golden feathered wings before taking off towards the Catholic Church.  When standing still, his wings just appeared to be smoldering, but in flight they flared brighter and trailed small flames as he went.  It was harmless visual effect, but obvious that Ember Saint's powers were not suited well for subtlety it seemed.


OOC: Activating Armor and Wings!

Ember Plate Armor: Protection 7 (armor, fire, psychic, +7 Toughness;
 Impervious [4 ranks only]; Noticeable: heavy plate armor)

Smoldering Golden Feathered Wings: Flight 7 (when they appear, they
seem to smolder at the edges when still and trail harmless flames
when flying, fire, psychic, Speed: 250 miles/hour,
0.5 miles/round; Wings)

"I agree. I'll have Forensics collect samples from each of the three sites and compare them. Good call. Ember." He said as the other man flew off in a blaze of fire.

He focused and activated his wind mantle, because why not? Better safe than sorry. He looked at Alicia.

"If you're coming with I'll orbit you with me. Let me know love." he said as he suddenly began to slowly float in the air a foot off the ground.

OOC: Activating Wind Mantle. Will fly over to the cathedral and join ember unless Alicia is coming, in which case he'll devote energy to full-power orbit so she can fly at 250 MPH and he'll fly them both over.

"I am so jealous of the two of you right now," Alicia responded after seeing that both of her companions had possessed the ability to fly. "I wasn't lucky enough to get flight as a power so it looks like I'll be coming with you," she told Sphere.

OOC: GM Sphere will orbit her and fly them over to the cathedral.

Alicia, Ember Saint, Sphere @ St James Cathedral

When the three arrived at the cathedral, the main hall was open and there were perhaps fifteen to twenty people within.  An older man in a full-collared shirt and cassock entered the confessional and moment later a young man entered the other side.

Towards the front, a younger priest, with dark hair and an easy smile talked with a trio of older ladies, while two women moved industriously up and down the rows spraying and cleaning the furniture...

When they entered the main hall virtually all discussion came to a sudden halt as all eyes turned towards them.

Or, more specifically, all eyes turned to the fiery winged plate-mail covered figure that seemed almost like one of the angels right out of scripture.

The young priest offered a few more quick words with the ladies, then quickly--very quickly--made his way to meet the trio...

"You..."  he almost fell over himself as he approached.  "What are you... Can.. can I help you?"


Entirely your call if you'd given them notice you were coming or not...   The police detective in charge would probably also be able to give you access to the powders collected at the scenes, but that's a police thing, not a church thing...

Under his helm, Ember Saint's face fell into a teeth clenched frown that spoke of the awkwardness he now felt.  Thankfully his expression was hidden from view of everyone else.  Still, he realized too late the spectacle he just unintentionally created by walking in with his wings still out.  In a church.  He looked like a...  oh damn.  Why didn't he think about this before?  In a blink the smoldering wings disappeared leaving him in his heavy plate armor only at the moment.

He reflexively made a half step forward when the priest stumbled.  "I'm Ember Saint."  He said his name when asked and then let out a barely audible groan that he hoped the priest at least would not hear.  This, only afterwards realizing the situation was in danger of awkwardness overload.  He turned the expressionless helm to the others as he continued.  "From AEGIS.  We, um, are here, um, about the, um, break in?"  While it was not intended to be a question, he found his mouth betrayed his uneasy feeling due to the hundreds of butterflies currently stampeding in his stomach.


OOC: Switch off the wings!  Keep the armor!

Upon entry of the cathedral, Alicia Alvarado takes a moment to respectfully stop at the holy water font, dip her fingers in, and make the sign of the cross -- an act that would be familiar to a fellow Catholic like Sphere.  Going to church regularly was expected in her cultural background.  She had put in plenty of time in churches during her childhood praying for family members who shared the same struggles against cancer that would eventually afflict her as well.  Although she knew that her cure was the result of the colony that she carried inside her, Alicia's faith had to allow that divine intervention in setting up those circumstances played a part in that.

"We've been asked to assist Detective Horowitz," Alicia chimed in after Ember Saint had introduced himself and the reason for them being there.  "We know that you probably already discussed this in great detail with the police already.  They're experts at what they do and we're not here to interfere with their investigation.  Because of the unusual nature that your items were returned, they seem to think that a group like us might be able to explain something that's out of the ordinary," she explained.  "Will you let us take a look around and maybe direct us to anyone that may want to talk about it?"

Sphere waited politely while everyone spoke and waited till they finished before he spoke up.

"I am Sphere, from AEGIS as well. A pleasure to meet you Father..." he said.

"We're here for the investigation like my peers just mentioned. I also wanted to give you forewarning that there will be agents under us coming soon to do some forensic work. We will do our best to respect the relics in this holy place though while we're here." he said.

"We need to piece together what happened, as we don't know if a true crime has taken place yet or not as the motive of the perp is unclear. Could you please tell us what you know and also show us the relics and the areas with powder?"

The young priest's face relaxed immediately.  his hands clasped in front of him, he was, however, acutely aware that all eyes in the cathedral were on them.  "Of course.  MY apologies.  I was expecting you... just not.  Well, it's been a strange couple of days.  Please, follow me."

He introduced himself as Father Angus Murphy, and led them back out f the main hall through the lobby and a storage area that opened out into the adjoined parish building.

"Detective Horowitz and--well, all the ECPD rally--have been very accomadating, but the presence of the forensics technicians upset some of our , ah, elderly parishioners.  If it's at all possible, the church would appreciate some discretion in your work.  We rally hadn't expected three of you for what must be a relatively minor issue."  He led them through the parish hall and unlocked one of the three plain wooden doors that led to the classrooms and office-spaces.   Past the mechanical room and the electrical room, was the archives.

The room was perhaps ten feet across.  There was a window, but it had been painted over and looks like it had been undisturbed for several years.  There were two locked filing cabinets on one side and two small book-cases on the other, on either side of a medium-sized reinforced safe.  there was a small desk up against the far wall, (with the window) and another door leading to a closet-sized office-space to the right hand side.  "We store records here for ten years, before archiving off-site.  Key documents--such as the ones returned, are usually stored here, in the safe.  There are other things stored here, too.  Mostly regalia."

"The documents were discovered on top of the safe."  Murphy sid.  "Here.  In a locked room.  There are perhaps five of us who have the key to this room."

"The dust was located here, before the safe." Murphy said.  "ECPD took most of it, but they let us keep some for our own purposes--mostly to justify to the Bishopric that something strange had happened and to perhaps exculpate us from responsibility for the documents having gone missing in the first place."

"I'm afraid we weren't expecting any kind of follow-up.  So, the room was cleaned after the technicians were here. "  Murphy offered.   "But, I'm afraid matters are becoming more.... um... complicated."

Father Murphy took a breath.   "Since the return of the documents--documentation of the ordination of Bishop O'Dea, there have been... unexplained phenomena.   Some of the buildings here have long been held to be haunted.  We like to call them our 'Kindred spirits'"  he said with a bit of a smile.   "It adds character it's never manifested as anything more than unexplained noises, the sound of feet shuffling and the occasional voice heard in an unoccupied room.   But..."

Murphy opened the door to the little office space.   "This appeared yesterday.  Detective Horowitz told us to preserve the room."

The closet-space office was dark and featured little more than a writing desk and a standing lamp, a circular metal garbage can with wast-paper within, and a several small photographs of a group of priests, gathered outside the cathedral proper.  None of them appeared to be formal photographs, more of relaxed casual memories...

But at the very front of the desk, perhaps an inch from the seating edge, the words "Omnia possum in eo qui me conforta" appeared to have been burnt into the wood.