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Mike Brooks was known as an electronics geek and a pretty funny guy.  He was thought to be a class clown with a gift for physical comedy.  He was also a black belt in several martial arts that most people couldn't pronounce.  He had been in the electronics club and the science club, but had recently left both.  The only club he was still in was the science fiction club.  Sarah was able to learn this much as Dave introduced her to some of his friends.  His army of minions, which were students, janitors, lunch ladies, administration secretaries, bus drivers, and librarians.  They were all very friendly, and Dave made sure that Sarah was paying attention as he chatted them up.

OOC: Laying the ground work, since I'm not sure exactly how you wanted to confront Mike or what exactly your plan was going to be.

OOC: Drop a sack over him and beat him like a pinata until he confesses or candy falls out.  Or we could figure out some sort of plan B.

Colin is always for direct plans. Find him with an excuse, shake his hand, ask him a few questions.

OOC: Is that good for you or you'd prefer something subtler?

Sarah considers plans with Colin.  "So you like the direct approach.  Hi, how are you, let me see your aura."

She considers it.  "It's not bad but I think he'll be on guard against you.  If he's friends with Preston they may have already had a chat about your visit.  Do you have to make contact with someone?  Maybe Sylvia or Sammy could do some recon on him.  Find out if he's got any particular activities we should be interested in.  You can get vibes from objects right?  Maybe we can find the robots.  Did you ever examine Preston's machines?  What if they were involved but he never knew it?"

"I do have to make contact. As far as I know. I could just brush against him 'accidentally' in the hall, though. Preston could have told him I'm paranoid, not that I get visions from a mere touch. And about the robots... uhmmm..."

He thinks about it a bit.

"You know, that's an interesting idea. Somebody could have stolen both Kirby's and Preston's work. I'm not sure I have much of a chance to touch them now. Unless... somebody sneaks me where they're kept." he says with a grin.

Sarah grins broadly with devilish glee.  She says, "Do you know where they are being kept?  Do the police have these inventions?  If I can sneak a peek at the room I can get you there.  I can try without looking but.. it's not so easy."

"No, I'm not sure. When he came at the door he was dirty as if he had been working, so his lab is probably in his room or somewhere in his house. I guess we could check from the windows, but I'm more interested in what he keeps at school. The school seems to be always involved.
I don't think anymore he has anything to do with the robberies, but he could have kept there something that gave someone ideas. Whoever the robot guy is, he's good, he managed to turn Kirby's ray into something way smaller, he could have borrowed ideas from Preston's robots as well. And a lot of other 'villainous' devices have been found by the police last time they checked. Maybe we should spends some time at the school to check if there's something they haven't found. Now that I think of it, they've let Mr Heep keep some of that stuff. I could try to get a reading out of that."

Sarah offers, "Preston was working on a big robot in his garage.  Looked about the size of a small car.  It will probably be pretty easy to get in to see the stuff with Mr. Heap."

"Let's get at school and see if we find him, then." Colin says grabbing his jacket.

*fnord*

After a couple of hops Sarah and Colin appear a half block away from the school.  Walking the rest of the way gives the illusion of having actually faced the cold for a few moments. 

Mr. Heep is in his classroom, grading papers when they arrive.  He nods when they come in, and once he's finished looks up at the pair.  "Afternoon.  Can I help you with something?"

"Good afternoon, Mr Heep. I've got something to show you. Maybe you could tell us what you think."

He gets out the robbery video and shows it to him on the teacher's laptop.

"See here? The device this robot uses is extremely similar with Kirby's tunneling ray, don't you think. I have been wondering if there is any connection between this robberies and our school. So, have you still got the stuff the police found when they searched the school for weapons. I hoped you could let me touch it. I don't know if I'll feel anything, it's been some time, but it might be interesting."

"Well, that is pretty similar to the tunneling ray.  There are still unfinished gadgets left, but the police took everything else."  He gets up from his desk and takes his keys out.  "Let's take a look, the leftovers are in the storage closet in back."  He goes to the back of the class and into the store room, at the back of that he uses a key to unlock a closet.  "This is all that's left."  he says.

There is an assortment of unfinished devices, nothing that looks too sinister.

OOC: Colin and Sarah need Notice Checks

Notice check (1d20+12=29) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1430212)

Colin takes each of the objects in his hands, trying to figure out what they might do, and if any of them are similar to the ones used by the robots in the video.

OOC: Notice Check (1d20+8=19) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1430329)

IC:  Sarah lets Colin do his thing.  She stands by in case some completely harmless, not at all sinister looking device activates and starts spitting death beams around.  Not that that is likely to happen. 

Sarah notices something on one of the shelves looks somewhat familiar.  When she gets a better look at it she realizes it's part of the gun she saw used at the mall when her and Megan went shopping.  The gun that shot through the armored car.  Picking through the other items she finds several more parts for that.  Laid out on a table they resemble the gun, but she's not sure if it's all here or not.

Colin gets images from some of the parts.  The three boys that were arrested for the incident in the auditorium are among them.  Some of the images are of other students admiring the piece.  One of the items in particular is interesting, it's an old Polaroid camera (very old), that has assorted electronics and such inside.  The images from this one are of someone very excited, explaining how the devices works to the person holding it.  Colin is sure it's a student, but doesn't recognize them.  The person holding the device looks around, and picks up a heavy wrench off the work bench and smashes the excited student in the head, then the vision fades.

Sarah looks at their finds and then looks at Colin.  "I don't know if we got any closer to one mystery or just unlocked several more.  Did you uncover anything?"

"Your gun was handled by the same people who put the love goo gas in the auditorium. I'm not sure what that means. I guess we should talk to Chris about this. But this camera has an interesting story too. Mr Heep, do you know what it's supposed to do?"

While waiting for the answer, he gets out his notebook and starts sketching a portrait of the student that got smashed while his face is still fresh in his mind.

Mr. Heep looks over the camera, shaking his head.  "No, but there was a web site we found that had a lot of old super hero and villain gadgets on it."  He goes to his laptop and starts searching, "Maybe it's described there."

While Mr Heep searches for the site, Colin finishes his sketch.

"The inventor looked pretty much like this." He says, showing it to Sarah and the teacher. "Does it remind you of anyone? He looks like a student."

OOC: Did it look like the student died or was just injured?

"I might have to go to the library on check on yearbooks who he is."

Sarah looks at the picture and tries to recall anyone. 

"This is a good start.  The yearbooks should help unless they turn out to be one of those 'not show in photo' kids."   

"Hmm, he looks familiar.  Check the yearbook photos for the Science Club picture."  He turns back to the computer for a moment, "The camera on this website is something called a PsychoChronoMetron."  Mr. Heep says as he reads the text.  "It was used by a villain called Freeze Frame back in the fifties.  According to this it can distort time and allow the user to edit history."  he reads a bit more.  "The site doesn't give much in the way of technical specs though, since the actual PsychoChronoMetron was never found."  Mr. Heep looks up from his laptop towards the camera.


OOC: No way to be sure, whoever hit him put the camera down right after that, so you lost the image.

"Are you saying that this villain was never caught, and yet somone looking at this website recreated his camera, that can actually change history??! How is it supposed to work? Can you show me?" Colin says, handing the camera to the teacher.

"Ah."  Mr. Heep sets the camera down.  "It doesn't say, it only says that it was supposed to be able to distort time and change history.  Freeze Frame robbed art galleries, securities exchanges, and a few banks.  He was never caught, and eventually stopped committing crimes around 1958.  The site just has some pictures from newspapers and some drawings."

"That's completely awesome!" says a dazzled Sarah.  Change history.. I can change someone's mind but to actually manipulate past events...  Sarah was a bit stunned. 
"Could someone really mimic inventions just from the details of a website?  I mean the site is detailed but it's not a step by step villains how-to is it?"

Colin frowns. "Can we try using it? With your supervision, I mean. As a scientific experiment. I'd like to know if it works in case they now have a more efficient version."

"Well, for some of the gadgets the website has very detailed specifications and diagrams.  The PsychoChronoMetron doesn't have any real details, so I doubt they recreated it from here.  The fact that it's an old camera suggests that this might actually be it."  He opens the camera to reveal some pretty strange looking parts inside.  "This certainly isn't modern solid state technology, more like 1950's era primitive transistor stuff."  He closes the camera up and sets it back down.  "As for using it in an experiment, that may not be such a good idea.  We don't have any idea what it really does.  Maybe some more research before we try anything like that."

"I see." Colin thinks about it a bit more, then he looks like he got an idea.

"Some more research. Exactly. Well, thank you, Mr Heep. We'll let you know if we find out anything."

Once they're out of the classroom, Colin turns to Sarah.

"Ain't it a good thing that we happen to know someone who was on the hero scene in the 50s?" he says with a grin. "We just have to get Jack, and ask him if he remembers anything about this Freeze Frame, or if he could ask his friends."

"We also have to check the yearbooks for this guy. He might have interesting things to tell us, well, if he's still alive. He was hit pretty hard. Aaand, we have some question to ask to the love goo guys too. Sylvia might help, don't you think?"

He thinks again. "I'm not sure if all of this brought us any closer to to the robberies, or to what Brooks and Wilde might have been plotting. I miss my notes. I hope Logan gets them back to me soon. What do you think we should do first?"

Sarah waves goodbye to Mr. Heap.

Outside she says, "Well, we're here so we could go check out the yearbooks.  Then why don't we see if we can get your notes if you think they will help.  Was Logan making a copy or what?  While you are contacting Logan I'll give Jack a call and ask for a meet later today if he's available.  Then we can get the gang up to speed and hopefully find some answers."

"Well, I don't need them back yet. I just miss them because penning down my ideas usually makes me see things more clearly. Or gives me even more ideas. Whatever. You're right, let's hit the library and check the yearbooks. While you call Jack I'll Call Chris and ask him if he know anything about those guys."


A minute later....

"Hi Chris. Have you got a moment for me? Sarah and I found out something strange."

Sarah dials the Jack Phone.  If secret agent man picks up she asks, "Hey Jack can we pick your brain for some ancient history?"

While talking she digs out the last four yearbooks and flips open to the science club and any other geek club if Colin doesn't immediately spot the culprit. 

"That seems to be the subject of so many of your phone calls."  Chris says with a chuckle.  "So, what can the PCD help you with that doesn't risk getting them in trouble with your mom?"


"Between you and Sylvia I could wear out a belt on spanking some respect into you.  What is it from antiquity that you need exactly?"


The pictures of previous Science Clubs reveals the answer to who the boy that got hit was.  Tom Renquist.  He was a Sophmore last year.

"Awww you wuv us!" says Sarah with some glee.  "It's way back when the world was in black & white.  We wanted to find out about a criminal called Freeze Frame and his camera called a.. PsychoChrono something or other."


"Well now we just need to find out if he's a junior this year or another local disappearance."

"Name sounds familiar.  during the fifties I think, McCarthy and the Red Scare.  This guy could walk into a place and walk out with anything he wanted and no one would remember a thing.  I could make a few calls, see if I can get more details."

"Well, earlier in the year, Sarah and a friend of hers were at the mall, when an armored car was robbed and a firefight ensued. Then a charming superhero showed up and smashed the robbers' car and got them arrested. Well, they had a gun, a kind of space gun, that pried a hole in the armored car with no trouble at all. Sarah remembers it quite well, and among the stuff that got confiscated after, you know, the other gun incident at our school, there are several pieces of another gun that could be its twin sister.
So I checked if I got any vibes from them, and guess what, they have been handled by the same guys that have been arrested yesterday for spreading the love goo gas in our auditorium. I thought you should know, they probably know something about it.
Any chance we could be there behind the mirror like in the movies when you interrogate them? Please?"

"Well, they've already started confessing to gassing the auditorium and the movie theater.  They say they made the gas themselves, but we're not so sure.  I'll drop by and pick up the parts for the gun, see if they can be any help with that.  As far as you being around for an interrogation, that's not likely since they've got legal counsel and parents hovering around."

Sarah says, "Your the best!  If I don't pick up just email me and cc Colin okay?  Bye, see you at the next class."

She waits for Colin to finish his phone call and searches the yearbook for other references to Tom Renquist in other clubs or activities.

"Awww. Well, I understand. Let me know if I can help you check out anything. Later, Chris, and thank you."

He turns to Sarah. "Chris will come and pick up the parts of the gun, and will interrogate those guys about it too. I think we should ask Donnie and ask him if he can wind up with a spell or something to know who put all that info up on the net. Let's go back to Mr Heep and ask him if he remembers anything about Tom Renquist."


An idea starts forming in Colin's mind, but he doesn't say anything for the moment.


"Mr Heep, the Police is coming to take the gun parts. And we found out the guy. Tom Renquist, he was a sophomore last year. Do you remember anything about him?"

"Renquist."  he says, turning to his laptop.  "That name is familiar.  Yeah, here it is.  Oak Park boy missing."

Mr. Heep shows your the article from the Chicago and local papers.  Tom Renquist was reported missing.  Police conducted a search, but he was never found.  Authorities eventually assumed the boy had run away and the search was called off.  It goes on to talk a little about Tom.  He was active in school government and the swim team, good student that was well liked.  The family offered a sizable reward hoping that someone might find him. 

Sarah looks at Colin and asks, "Do you think you can find him?"

Colin's face grows dark and his jaw stiffens. "I'll try."