You are (Not) the Heroes IC

From Crimson and Sunset, with perceptions of 25+:
There are also very faint hoof prints on the ground, but so faint that it's virtually impossible for it to be from a pony.

With knowledge rolls of 30+, they find that the print suggests someone pony shaped, but so impossibly light that they'd literally have to be made of thin air. outside of ghooooosts (which are not generally regarded as existent in canon) there isn't anything that could possibly make something like this. They know it's likely not someone floating themselves or flying, since that produces a very distinct print that is different from what an actually very light person would produce.

It would seem that Crimson's distrust of their backer was well placed, through he was tactful enough not to call out the lizard here and now. Such doubts and suspicions could be shared with the rest of the team elsewhere. Instead he decided to do something useful and attempted to find how the intruder had gotten in and in theory gotten out again...

Apart from confirming Gaia's findings, there was something that drew Crimson's eye... a series of footprints that had been left behind that were... strange in how light they were. In fact, baring the existence of ghosts (which he had always had a bit of wriggle room about; Sure they most likely didn't exists, but you never knew for certain...) he couldn't think of a damn thing that would make marks like this. Even something floating wouldn't do it...

This was a mystery and Crimson didn't like mysteries... mysteries got ponies hurt and killed.

"Might be a good idea to sweep the rest of the building to see if anything else is missing... or damaged... or possibly set to explode."

Daff nods, backing Gaia's words, if with different motivations.

"Mister Author, don't worry. We'll figure this out and we'll help keep your suits safe and we're going to make sure that demonstration goes right!" There's a thump as he stomps a large hoof for emphasis. The steely determination's shaped itself into a blade inside the pony. There's something personal to all this now. "That's a promise. Rousseau would promise too, but it's his nap time," he adds, with the exact same level of seriousness.

"I dunno... Miss Sunset's got a good point. If we're not sure what we're up against, we can't set a good trap even if we use the demonstration as bait. We should at least try and figure out how whoever did this managed to do... this." Dove looks around nervously.

"Security teams one through five, do a sweep of the tower. I want a report on all machine functionality and data security. Prepare countermeasures for  teleportation, invisibility and intangibility." Lexicon touches a claw to where you presume his ear is - dragons have internal ears, so it's not entirely clear - and issues a quick series of commands. With that done, he turns to look at the group with a serious expression on his face.

"Ideally the demonstration would go on as planned. LexiCon has a reputation of security and stability to uphold, and the demonstration has some of the busiest and most important individuals in the city as part of the audience, so rescheduling will be difficult. However if it comes to it, I will arrange for the demonstration to be postponed until this issue is resolved."

Madame Mask can't really identify any points on the wall that might be used as a hidden door or secret exit. Pushing on the wall gives nothing, and for all intents and purposes it seems to just be a plain wall.

After a moment, Lexicon frowns, putting his claw up again. "Mmm... Mhm, I see. Good, keep searching."

"There's been a blip in the motion sensors just before the blackout. Faint, but there. Going from ground level through the wings to the lab. It was so faint that the officer in charge passed it for a glitch. There weren't any blackouts anywhere else."

"So I reckon this happens a lot, then?"

To herself, Sunset thinks that perhaps the city's supers know something about Lexicon Author that Sunset didn't, if they came at him often enough for him to have security protocols and countermeasures against them.

"Makes sense Sunset. Brand new, experimental technology can easily start someone up as a super... or be sold to a third party for quite a large amount of money." Crimson answered, his mind trailing back to some games that he used to play with some friends of his before they decided to try out as supers themselves. "After all, that armor you were wearing before would be worth a fair bit to certain people... but I don't think our prep is interested in profit..." Crimson glanced over at the impaled suit of dragon armor, frowning a little as he walked closer in order to inspect it closer, trying to get a better idea of just how the damage had been done.. as well as get a look at the suit itself "This seems more like a personal grudge then anything..."

Rolls:

Despite the gravity of the situation Dove finds it hard to suppress a giddy smile as he listens to the theories and hypotheses thrown around. "It's just like in the detective comics...!" He grins widely, before shaking his head and donning his serious face. "Mr. Author, may I go and check out the path which had the motion sensors triggered? I feel like something might come up from there."

Motion sensors. A faint blip. Somepony invisible, but not quite? Or really fast? Daff makes a face. Evil was easier to deal with when it wasn't so complicated!

"Rousseau and I would like to go too," he says after Dove. "Maybe Rousseau can detect something with his psychic abilities!" he says hopefully. "If he wakes up by then," the pony adds.

Gaia morphs back into her base pony form, and steps up to Dove and Daff. "There's safety in numbers. I'll tag along."

The others seem to be grouping up to go investigate. Sunset puts her gun away for the time being.

"Don't reckon ya got files or somethin' on these supers? Cuz I reckon I should have a gander at 'em while everypony else is lookin' around downstairs. See if I can narrow down who your ghost is."

"Precautions are always wise," Lexicon says in response to Sunset's first question. "LexiCon carries information and technology that could change the world, and not necessarily for the better. We take no chances when it comes to security - though, it seems we've been one-upped on that front..."

Just as Lexicon pointed out, Crimson finds that the pipe was forced between a seam in the armor platings, a weakness in the armor which would not have been easily exploited in the heat of combat. Whoever did this had time to spare, as it's not a simple matter of ramming a pipe into the suit, but carefully teasing the armor plates open so the pipe can be stabbed through. It requires a level of technical expertise that probably calls for specialized training, and even in Crimson's experience he doesn't think he's seen mechanical sabotage this well-executed. Below the veneer of brutality, it's really quite a remarkable feat of engineering.

The suit itself is a very impressive piece of equipment. Compared to the mass-produced models, Lexicon's suit is definitely significantly more powerful - the limbs are fitted with artificial muscles that amplify the user's strength without hindering agility, the armor is designed to disperse blunt force impacts (the only kind of damage dragon scales have no resistance against whatsoever), and there seems to be some sort of mechanism to harness dragonflame as ammunition for the various projectile weapons embedded into the suit.

At Dove, Daff and Gaia's offer, Lexicon nods. "I'll have the section opened for you, and give you access to the security records in question."

Then turning to Sunset, Lexicon thinks for a moment before shrugging. "We don't really have a list of suspects quite yet, but I'm sure we can find a list of individuals with the relevant abilities to pull this off."

(((party splits up)))

---

Team Talks to Animals (Daff, Gaia, Dove):
Lexicon calls up a generic guard to lead you down to where the trail of sensor blips pick up, which starts at ground level. The trail goes through a seemingly meaningless string of rooms, and it's clear that the infiltrator isn't using the doors, as there are instances where the sensors in directly adjacent rooms were triggered, but the rooms aren't connected by doors or even a single strip of hallway. The guard waits at one side as you begin your investigation.
(Perception prompt, or whatever other skill that you think might be relevant)

---

Sunset:
Lexicon produces a datapad from somewhere and passes it to Sunset. A lot of the access is restricted, but there's a database of enhanced individuals known to be active in the city that is accessible. Filtering through the irrelevant individuals, she comes across a still fairly sizeable population of possible culprits, who possess some form of invisibility or disguising ability. Only a few, however, have direct links to LexiCon, either due to being supplied with equipment developed within the Lexicon labs, or having run afoul of the corporation previously. Given Lexicon's previous hypothesis that the culprit is someone who despises the company, it leaves only a couple of suspects: Haven, an ex-hero-turned-villain with a penchant for dimensional magic, and Vanish, a mysterious individual who possesses the unique ability to travel  distances in the blink of an eye - not teleportation, not superspeed, but something entirely unexplainable.

Haven was a righteous hero who vehemently believes that LexiCon is the ultimate supplier of his entire rogue's gallery, and thus is responsible for the death of his sidekick in a terrible accident. In his desperation to prove it, committed numerous crimes ranging from breaking and entering to aggravated assault. Shamed by the hero community for his actions, Haven turned to the darker side of the city in his vengeance against Lexicon Author.

Vanish, meanwhile, is an absolute mystery because they have never been caught or indeed even spoken to. Even their name is just a name by the media. All that is known is that Vanish targets LexiCon facilities, and they enjoy unerring success in doing so.

Neither individual's modus operandi fit what Sunset saw exactly, but both make for reasonable guesses.

"So," Gaia says casually as she starts to look around for any traces. "Who's betting ghosts? It won't be the strangest thing to come out of this city, I'm sure."

Perception: 9+11=20

As the evidence of what this infiltrator was capable of started to mount up alongside what little pieces of evidence that they could find, Crimson decided to go and have a look at the list of suspects that Sunset had been given access too. Walking over and looking over her shoulder in order to read over the two primary suspects, he couldn't help but think back at what he remembered about Haven. His fall had been a tragic affair what with the death of his sidekick, but his methods of trying to prove his claims that LexiCon was supplying his rogue's gallery were not the right way to try and deal with it. Granted it was almost certain that LexiCon was supplying his villains, he doubted it was because they were members of some secret club that got a discount; LexiCon sold technology and Villains tended to like technology so of course there was going to be some degree of overlap.

Still, he had to wonder... Did Haven have the engineering know how to actually inflict the kind of damage of the suit of armor that he had seen? It didn't seem like the kind of damage that someone who didn't know exactly what they were doing would be able to inflict. To that degree, he tried to call up any facts, myths or rumors that he could count on about Vanish to try and get a better idea of seeing if they were their... well, target. He remembered that Vanish attacked LexiCon stuff but -how- did they do it? What sort of damage did they leave in their wake?

Rolls:

As she turns the datapad for Crimson to read, a thought occurred to her.

"Whoever dropped that message on us thinks Author stole tech for his exosuits, and they know 'nuff about 'em to know how to run a steel pipe clean through one. And they breezed right through this here buildin' without trippin' a single alarm; by the time the alert when up, they'd already up 'n' vanished like a fart in the wind."

The datapad fidgets in the air while Sunset thinks.

"Dunno 'bout this guy, but if I wanted to pull somethin' that off, I'd go with a classic: steal a badge off somepony with the right clearance, get the keys 'n' a jumpsuit from the janitor, and roll on in like I'm on my way to scrub the toilets. Save the powers for when I'm ready to spring the surprise 'n' bolt. Might should ask if the same pony opened the doors along the route that blip took."

"Ghosts?" Daff asks, startled. For a moment, he looks just a little... concerned. Not afraid. Definitely not. Just concerned.

"Whoever did this must be able to walk through walls. Or teleport! We should keep following their trail. Maybe the way they went up will tell us more about them. Or if they did any other sneaky-evil things besides damage Mister Author's property."

As he takes a closer look around at the room they're currently at, he asks the other two. "What do you think about them? Those suits?" He's not really a very subtle pony. There's excitement in his voice when he mentions them.

Perception:

At Gaia's question about ghosts, Dove shivers a little. He's not sure how well pigeon poop works on ghosts. He's a little worried he'll be not as useful against ghosts. Worried. Yup. Not scared, because Dove Colt is never afraid.

"Makes sense," Dove comments on Daff's assertions about the enemy's abilities. "We have a teleporter right here, and I swear I've seen Zellbriq go through walls that one time. It's definitely not impossible."

When the conversation turns to the suits, though, Dove's excitement starts to show through his hero professionalism (whatever little of it the little colt has, anyway).

"Oooh. Uhm. They're cool! It didn't do so well against Crimson but Crimson's an experienced hero so it makes sense. Sunset couldn't use her usual tactics with the suit on, too. So it's kind of great that even then Sunset could beat Crimson. If every police pony in the city wore one of those, the streets would be super safe from crime."

Perception:

Daff does an even worse job than Dove hiding his enthusiasm.

"I know! Just think! All the good ponies - even normal ones like me - could fight evil just as well as super heroes! Though I probably wouldn't fit in one of those, but that's alright, because I have Rousseau, and he's just as good as any power suit!" He pauses abruptly as a certain squirrel wakes enough to thump him in the head. "Even better than any power suit!" he corrects.

His voice lowers a little. "This could change everything! Nopony will ever have to worry about evil getting their loved ones once there's enough of these!"

Team Talks to Animals:
As they talk, Dove's sharp avian eyes pick up on very subtle tracks along the ground that match the tracks within the room - there's little doubt whoever was in the experimental room was also here. Within each room where the motion sensors were triggered, the tracks lead from one end of the room to the other, leading into a wall, and starting again at the next room at the same spot. There is also something quite curious that Dove and Gaia pick up, which Daff only just manages to notice after the other two point it out - the walls where the tracks terminate at have very faint bumps and roughness on the surface that isn't found in the other walls. There even seem to be very faint pores between the walls.

Team Still In The Room (Sunset/Crimson/Madame???):
His knowledge of Haven is limited, and largely second hand, but Crimson's memory tells him that with Haven's extensive experience dealing with Lexicon's enterprise, Haven might well have the technical know-how to do this, though it's a shaky possibility.
Vanish, meanwhile, Crimson has a better idea about because on multiple occasions he has considered taking him on himself. Vanish represents perhaps the pinnacle of hero achievement - even the Power Ponies have failed to capture him (though they came the closest to doing so by most accounts). Vanish's modus operandi is mysterious, but a few trends have been identified. He's almost always incredibly understated on the entry and exit - seemingly appearing out of thin air and disappearing back into it when he's done. Vanish is nonviolent - extremely so, there has been no record of any violent skirmish with vanish, since he's almost always able to just slip out of any trap or attempt to capture him. He tends to sabotage either industrial equipment or ruin administrative efforts, but not very delicately - more than once he has blown up entire warehouses (but somehow leaving no one harmed, though with soaring costs to state).

Lexicon, meanwhile, nods at Sunset's statement. "That's a good point." He moves to check a few things, muttering under his breath into his microphone, before shaking his head. "There were no records of any opened doors or exits. Whoever came here, they came in unauthorized."

"This... isn't Haven's work." Crimson admitted openly before glancing between Sunset and Lexicon. "I'm not sure if you've seen the aftermath of one of Haven's attacks Sunset but I know you have Lexicon and we both know he isn't this subtle or precise. Besides, if he was going to launch an attack on this place he wouldn't have stopped at just ramming a pipe through your personal suit of armor; This would be the 'Big One' for him and he would have to commit everything to make sure it worked out the first time because he would not get a second shot at this."

Raising his hoof to rub his jaw, he looked somewhat uncertain about as he confessed "This does appear more in line with Vanish's methods, but I don't think it's Vanish themself. For starters, Vanish wouldn't have left a message behind. Not leaving calling cards is why no one knows who or what Vanish is...  " Crimson needed to move a little so he started to pace around in a circle, finding the movement helping him think. "So what we're dealing with here is somepony who has a brilliant mind for engineering... or at least is familiar enough with Lexitech to appear brilliant at engineering who is familiar enough with the security and lay out of this building to get around without being spotted or triggering an alarm... or at least trigger one in such a way that the security team takes it seriously. Considering they also knew that their target-" He took a moment to nod at Lexicon himself for a second "was located in this room at the time, they either have a pretty good idea of your personal schedule and knew that you would be here around this time or have some means of finding out where someone in the building is currently located."

"They also know that you have a personal suit of battle armor, where you keep said battle armor and the security measures you know doubt have around it to try and prevent this sort of thing from happening well enough to remove it from said hiding place to bring it here..." Crimson suddenly stopped pacing; While the mask he wore might have hidden it a little, his eyes had widened as an idea came to him. "That's it... " Turning to Lexicon, he quickly asked "If we can figure out how they found out about the armor and it's location, we might have a lead that can take us to our target. After all, I doubt you let the fact that you have a personal set of battle armor be something the general public can find out about, let alone where you actually keep it when you're not using it personally."

Dove looks around, stooping close to the ground, before following a barely visible track to the wall.

"Here - this is on the side of the wall - and I think there was one on the opposing wall too." He narrows his eyes. "Something definitely passed through here - I think this is like footprints but for intangibility. We're definitely dealing with a phaser here."

He then looks up, a glint in his eyes - it seems he's gone into full detective colt mode.

"I'm gonna check for similar marks on any equipment or doors or things - maybe if we figure out what the infiltrator has handled we'll get a better understanding of what their mode of operation is."

Perception to follow the trail and find any more points of contact: 18+19=37

Sunset looks over the suit as she listens in on Crimson's idea.

"Gotta be somepony else," she thinks aloud. "Ya named Haven 'n' Vanish, but this don't fit either of 'em exactly. They called Mr. Author 'Thief King'. Means somepony's a might bitter 'bout somethin' they worked on, thinks he mighta stole it."

Her eyes drift to the faint hoofprint.

"Ain't intangible," she continues. "They left prints, so they got mass 'n' weight. Invisible pony weighs the same as any other pony, prints woulda been deeper. Teleport wouldn't o' left a trail for the others the follow."

Suddenly Sunset's eyes light up.

"They got mass 'n' weight...but they got less of it, makin' for a shallower hoofprint. No open doors or exits on the way up, ya said. Means they had to go right through the walls to get here. I wonder..."

She looks back to the datapad, erases the previous powers from the search, and replaces them with the words "change density".

Team Talks to Animals:
The new tracks reveal some new information - the infiltrator seems not to have done anything to the computer systems as none of the 'phasing marks' are found on any electronic equipment. There's also a few sets of tracks that don't seem to lead anywhere in particular, just terminating at walls that don't appear to lead to any rooms. It's a dead end, so to speak.

But just as Dove Colt thinks the lead has dried up, he finds that the walls seem to be hollow...

Team Still In The Room:
There are a few heroes with density manipulation abilities, but most use them to control size rather than for use as phasing, and none of the ones who use it for phasing have a concrete motive for attacking LexiCon. However, one thing does catch Sunset's eye - a restricted document under the 'equipment' directory, titled 'Prototype Stealth Suit, codename <Presence>'. The document summary indicates it is the project document for the stealth suit being developed by Lexicon Labs but the file itself cannot be opened.

Lex frowns at Crimson's suggestions. "The Warsuit was an off-the-books project. Only a select few individuals know of its existence... and they've all been thoroughly background checked. All designs are done on pen and paper. There's no reason for anyone else to know about it, unless -- unless our infiltrator is one of them." He shakes his head again. "But - no, that's impossible as well. I've confirmed their loyalties, all of them."

"While a possibility, I'm not saying that the small clawful of beings that you gathered together for this project are responsible..." Crimson decided to stress... even if it was a likely situation. "But somewhere along the line, there was a leak somewhere in the system that our mysterious saboteur exploited and if we can locate where it was and how they took advantage of it, it might just give us a much better idea of whom we are up against."

Glancing at Sunset to see if she had located anything of interest, Crimson continued as he asked "Would you mind if we talked with these trusted employees of yours? Also any cleaning staff... or cleaning robots that you had assigned to the area you were making this project." It was amazing how often people forgot about the cleaning staff at times; After all, someone had to make sure that the secret base looked nice and you couldn't expect the guard ponies or the scientists to do it. Cleaning robots tended to avoid the whole 'talking to anyone in a bar after work' problem which was a major boon, but they could be hacked... one cleaning robot with a camera sending information elsewhere and all that hard work keeping the project quiet was wasted.

Sunset holds up the pad.

"Project Presence. Some kinda stealth suit, came up when I looked for density changers. Lab for it sounds like a place to start."