6117/Murder University

Murder University
Date of Scene:	05 January 2019
Location:	Greenwich Village, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Strange things have been happening at ESU lately...
Cast of Characters:	Jericho, Smart Alek, Ravager, Professor Zoom

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Jericho has posed:
    It's bright and sunny today on the ESU campus, though that sort of weather in the winter time does tend to bring rather frigid temperatures, so students and staff are hurrying to their classes with their hands in their pockets and their heads down out of the wind.

    But it's not just the weather that has everyone on edge these days...it's probably been on the news, but there has been a series of strange murders around campus that all seemed to start with a break-in at the bursar's office that resulted in someone hacking student records. Not everyone is certain that was connected to the killings, but the odd thing about the murders themselves is that they all seemed to be perpetrated by different people, all of whom either committed suicide afterward, or seemed to have no memory whatsoever of what happened following the incident.

    As it is then, the campus is crawling with NYPD, though the detectives involved have come to the conclusion that a metahuman or multiple metahumans are likely to be involved, and therefore have requested the help of the metahuman community on this.

    Anyone wishing to help in some way has been asked to report to the Bursar's Office where the first break-in occurred a couple of months back.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek has a bad habit of listening into the police band, and in this case, it might pay off, as he arrives on campus. He sees the various law enforcement, keeping his head sort of looking at his feet. He sheepishly makes his way to the bursar's office. The amount of people around making him feel a bit uncomfortable but, he'll deal with it. He'd love to help in anyway, if only to maybe bump into a true hero, that would be cool.

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson is in Disguise <tm> with her clever Marilyn Monroe sunglasses and detective trenchcoat. Today she's poking around this stupid campus in this annoying weather and her scowl makes it obvious how she feels about full sun during the most frigid temperatures yet. She has on fuzzy boots though, so it's not full on angry Rose. She walks from the parking lot onto the campus and idles around while eyeing those who pass by her.

Professor Zoom has posed:
Director Harrison Wells of Future Solutions is a guest speaker at ESU today. This exact date being chosen was not a coincidence; it's a date allowing him to be seen among the onlookers without attracting suspicion.

Unknown to all involved, a highly advanced computer virus had been inserted into the system by Gideon, and there were very well hidden spy cameras in the offices of the ESU feeding Eobard information on the ongoing investigation. The hi-tech contact lenses over his eyes gives him a holographic view of everything as he watches from a bench... one of those windows in his view being the technologically 'aligned' assassin doing his work.

A bench just enough out of the way that he can superspeed his way to fixing potential issues.

Jericho has posed:
    The office is bustling with activity, from students needing financial services of some sort to police still working on investigating the crimes to tired university staff just doing their every day jobs.

    When Alek walks in, his unusual appearance immediately catches the attention of the NYPD, who had been hoping some willing meta would show up to help but thus far hadn't seen anyone, since Rose is still lying low. One of the detectives approaches him.
    "Hello sir, my name is Detective Justin Barclay. I...assume you're here to help?" he asks, looking hopeful and sticking out a hand for Alek to shake.

    Director Wells doesn't really arouse any suspicion or attention...well, until a lanky-looking undergrad suddenly approaches him. "Dr. Wells? Oh-oh my god! I can't wait to listen to your talk later today...I've always been uh, fascinated by the Speed Force, you know?" He comes off as the sort of guy who follows of ALL of Wells and Future Solutions' social media and whatnot but is trying not to seem like -too- much of a crazy fan...

Professor Zoom has posed:
An amicable smile greets the undergrad, and Harrison offers the young man a handshake. "It's really a fascinating science. STAR Labs likes to pretend they're at the forefront with research, but they have too many other concerns." Harrison offers in gentle ribbing for his rival, "I look forward to educating you, young man."

In his vision, Alek gets his attention. Gideon immediately pulls up public information about Alek. Nothing further though, since Eobard can't give verbal commands to Gideon yet, over the commlink, "I'm just taking a bit of peace and quiet to myself for now though, if you don't mind."

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek looks at the hand a moment, his blue eyes do indeed set him apart... something he might have forgotten about at times, he does eventually shake it, a very light shake, "I heard about something happening and you needing perhaps a little help somehow? I.. see things alot differently then most maybe it can help here.." he looks around, "anyone else show? I was hoping to see..." he trails off a bit

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson is following Alek closely as soon as she spots him with her highly advanced precognition powers, or maybe she just sees that his eyes are glowing. Rose is at the front of the office outside in the cold, watch Alek walk along amicably, perhaps planning something in her mind. She churns it over and stops as she sees Alek go inside, not following him herself. She glances through the glass doors inside and cases the joint with a few glances, then eyes the ugly carpet.

Jericho has posed:
    The young man laughs and nods. "Totally agreed! I've done some of my own research, and--" But then Wells kinda...tells him to leave him alone for the time being. His gaze falls just a little. "Oh, um--right. Sorry, I'll get out of your hair." But then he perks back up. "Catch you after the talk this afternoon, then!" Off he goes, but as he crosses the street at the intersection just in front of the bursar's office, a white Nissan suddenly runs a red light and runs him right over traveling at a speed far beyond the lawful limit. And to make matters worse, it doesn't even stop, simply continues speeding down the road. Immediately a small crowd rushes over to him, including police who happened to be in the vicinity. Traffic starts to back up.

    Inside the office, Detective Barclay nods. "Yeah, as good as I am, we've determined that a metahuman must be involved and that's when I usually find myself way out of my league." he admits. "Let me get your name and contact information, then we'll get started and I'll tell you everything we know. Sound like a plan?"

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek says, "Not sure you ask this of everyone however name is Alek Simon" he rattles off a street address in Brooklyn, when he hears something outside, something sounded quite off just a moment ago, "Umm, I think something just happened.." as he starts to see live camera from people's smartphones outside, "Someone got run over by a car.""

Professor Zoom has posed:
When the man gets hit, Harrison glances over, but other than a frown, there's no serious reaction. The Fast Maniac Alive has seen plenty of death... and this is just one more death that's happened already for him.

Eobard is far more interested in Alek, "Gideon, run a search on the newcomer from the historical database. I want to know if he could interfere with my plan."

Over in a secret chamber in Future Solutions, the Quantum AI known as Gideon gets to work immediately, "As you wish, Professor Thawne."

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson stands at the side of the road and doesn't do anything to help the poor guy as he gets run over while crossing the street. Since she's standing right there, she sees the whole thing and watches the white Nissan take off. She takes note of the license plate.

Jericho has posed:
    "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Simon." Barclay replies as the two shake hands. Then he frowns as his phone vibrates and he looks down at it, learning of the development outside just as Alek had. "Damn," he mutters. "Another one. Just means we'd better get to the bottom of this sooner rather than later." He takes down the name and contact information, then motions for Alek to follow him toward the back and into an empty conference room. "Come with me, we'll have to discuss the evidence in private."

    As Rose memorizes the Nissan's license plate, she will see a flash of something related: the vehicle still careening down the street on the edge of campus, but it suddenly veers off of the road and strikes a lamppost, causing it to fall down on top of the car. If she gets moving now, she might be able to beat the police to this scene, as it is yet to happen...

Professor Zoom has posed:
"Known as Replicator on the professional gaming circuit, and a known metahuman of some degree. He was involved in fighting computer crime to a minor degree. There's nothing to suggest potential abilities, Professor Thawne." Gideon replies over the commlink. Harrisons eyes stay on where the car went as he replies, "let me know if the cameras change that."

Patience is a game Eobard has learned well over the years... he can wait another few hours for this to play out.

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson blinks as the future events surprise her, and she crosses the street to head down the block to the yet-to-occur scene although glances around at several points, as her visions sometimes aren't all that detailed or clear. She pats her trenchcoat, discovering that she doesn't have any grenades or explosives to detonate the car or incite a lot of violence. She glances up at the lightposts that line the street, maybe wondering why the driver of the Nissan is such an idiot, then looks back ahead for the right lightpost.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek heads into the private room behind the detective,his eyes stay pretty much on the floor a bit, he mentions, "If I seem wierd.. it's just me, I am definitely interested in helping, even if my body language says something else.. talking with people is so difficult at times." as his eyes wander to the officers but then disconnects quickly to the wall and then down to his feet, "I assume it's a theft of some kind. It is the bursar's offic."

Jericho has posed:
    It seems Rose is just in time, as she rounds a corner, the vehicle in question comes hurtling down the street and slams into a lamppost near her just as it did in her vision. In fact, if she hadn't seen it beforehand, she might have been concerned that the car would hit -her-. But as it is she shouldn't have reason to fear. Then, again just as she had seen moments ago, the post cracks and falls on top of the car, causing its roof to cave in.

    Barclay nods. "It's all right, Mr. Simon." he replies, understanding in his voice as he sits down and motions for Alek to do the same. "I know life can be...challenging for some metas."

    He takes a folder out of his briefcase and puts it on the table in front of him. "It all started with a break-in to the server room here at the Bursar's Office. Someone came in, and hacked student records. They were...-very- prepared. Enough to know that this wasn't just some petty criminal looking for something interesting to do. The virus was extremely advanced, like nothing we've ever seen here before. We still haven't even managed to find out what exactly they took or which student's information they were after." he exhales briefly. "But, after recent events, we have an...idea. Shortly after the break-in, this kid went missing." he opens the folder to show a profile of one 19-yr-old Joseph Wilson, a freshman here at ESU. "But, at the time no one really thought much of it, since he did come back apparently unscathed after a couple of weeks. Then the murders started, at a party at some frat house. It was..." he shakes his head. "They all started killing each other."

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek reaches out and touches the folder, and in that moment it's materials were scanned into his memory, he looks through his memorized copy of the folder.. he looks into the ether a moment, "Joseph Wilson one of those who was involved in this outburst of violence?" Part of his brain is also checking to see if the network has anything 'wierd' that differs from other networks, perhaps they installed a backdoor while they were in there. "Or... was he the cause of it?" the mention of meta abilities, conspiracy and violence..

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson is almost on top of the accident as it happens, and stands there apathetically as things play out like they did in her vision, "Took that corner too fast, fat idiot," she comments to herself, watching the car for a moment. She walks over to it and leans down, looking inside the side window, "Are you dead?" she asks, knocking on the window sarcastically. *Knock knock*

Professor Zoom has posed:
Now that's interesting.

Glancing around for passersby, Harrison stands and makes a beeline to get out of sight down an alleyway. Alek was easily monitored by spy cameras and the virus in the network... Rose... is another matter.

Once out of sight, the button on the side of his costume ring is pressed in, and 'Harrison' disappears from campus. Within a second, red lightning starts to arc over his body as the costume is released directly ahead, and the Reverse-Flash costume is donned before red lightning streaks up to the nearest rooftop, before Professor Zoom jumps from one rooftop to another, getting into line of sight to watch the wreck -and Rose- from afar.

On the network, Gideon is still monitoring the University when Alek starts to poke around electronically... and he not only comes across something incredibly complex that's been evading detection from the outside, but some form of intelligence in the distance, connected remotely. It's unlike anything Alek has come across. He has no comparison to draw from to really understand the entity.

Immediately, that virus he found is causing scorched earth, erasing everything it gets it's hands on and starting to create overloads all over the network. Some of this damage might even go into the physical world with overloaded capacitors.

That connected... entity... severs the connection to the university immediately afterwards, preventing tracing.

"Professor Thawne, the metahuman has some sort of control over electronics. To preserve my cover, I had to terminate the network and my own connection to the university." Zoom doesn't answer her yet, his attention on Rose as he stays just out of sight, watching.

Jericho has posed:
    Barclay sighs. "That's the thing, Alek. As far as any witnesses are concerned, Wilson was not even present on the site of any of these murders. They all seem to be using random methods by random people. A hit-and-run, like we saw just now, or just any available tool like at that party. "However, what we do know is that he is a metahuman who apparently has the ability to control others. Not exactly sure how it works, but that's what public record indicates. As for a motive, we're not sure of that, either. All the people who died were connected to one man, Fredrick Thomas, the host of that party where the first murders occurred. But Thomas isn't connected to Wilson in any way...that we know of."

    If Alek has memorized the contents of the folder, all of this information is there. Thomas seems to be your typical frat boy. Parties a lot, is rich, is into sports and such.

    "Mr. Simon...I don't know what your abilities are, but if you have any kind of hacking talent, or anything to do with computers, maybe you could start by trying to figure out if Wilson was the one being targeted by whoever breached the network 2 months ago, and any information about just who they might be." Barclay continues.

    Inside the car as Rose peers in through the window is a very traumatized looking young woman, probably another student. She is bruised and bloodied but probably not mortally injured. She stares at Rose, panicked and confused. "I-I...what happened? I was driving, and then--p-please, I don't know what happened, and I swear I wasn't on drugs and I haven't been drinking since last weekend I swear!!" she starts to sob.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek nods slowly, "I'm scanning the network a bit now.. If I can touch one of the servers on the network, I can get interact better with it. can you lead me to one of them?" his eyes are not a steady blue if the officer was to notice, they seem to actually be flickering a bit kinda like overhead lighting.

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson smiles sadistically, "I really do wish I had a grenade, you stupid idiot. You ran that f***** guy over in a stupid-ass Nissan," she says, eyeing the car, "It's not even a good stupid-ass Nissan," she comments, "Who are you? Who hired you? Are you just a random idiot?" she wonders. She raises her foot and whams the heel into the door, hoping to wedge it in place, "You're not going /anywhere/, hot stuff!" she says. *wham wham* "Hopefully the police will get you out," she says, going around to do the same to the other door on the stupid-ass Nissan. She pulls her lighter out of her pants and tries it, but it doesn't go off, "Maybe". She keeps trying it.

Professor Zoom has posed:
The virus does it's work as Alek pokes around. He was only giving it a light touch before, but within a few seconds the damage being done will be fairly evident. The source of the damage keeps shifting, if Alek tries to find it. It seems to have an uncanny ability to protect itself from threats.

"Find another way in if you can, one that doesn't draw attention." Eobard orders of Gideon over the link as he watches Rose from the rooftop. The lighter gets a glance... but otherwise, Professor Zoom stays where he is.

Jericho has posed:
    Barclay nods. "Of course, come with me." He gets up and leads Alek to a server room farther down the hallway, the machines all stacked up on each other and blinking with various colors of LED indicators. "If touch will facilitate the process, touch away."

    The girl stares up at Rose, terrified as the other woman starts trying to trap her inside the car. Her sobbing reaches a new level of hysterical, now. "Wh-what?! I-I...I ran someone over? Oh my god...oh my f**ing god..." But then she sees Rose trying a lighter. "N-no! P-please! I didn't do this I swear to god I didn't DO this! I'm not working for anyone, I'm just a s-student! My major is vocal performance I was on my way to a music workshop, I don't know what happened, I don't know what happened!!" she begs. The lighter finally goes off, and with the damage from the lamp, some of the fuel tank is leaking a bit....

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson squints at the woman in the car, trying to understand this idiot, "Shut the f*** up, you don't know what the f*** you're talking about," she says, then looks at the lighter and pictures her father as an evil supervillain giving her instructions, "Do it, kill her. Burn her alive. She deserves it. Don't be weak," he says to her in her mindseye. Rose frowns at what the evil supervillain says to her, "I'm...going to...think..." she mutters over the decision but closes the lighter with a sigh. She puts her hands on her hips and eyes the woman, "You did this. That guy probably had twice as much brains as you do," she says.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek nods as he touches the server, "I'm gonna be going a bit.. out there, if I fall catch me.. thanks" this is where his 'gifts' excel as he makes physical contact, the physical arrangement of bits and bytes are copied into his brain, it's probably one of the fastest offsite backups ever made, without even using software nor disrupting the system itself. The mysterious virus has already done it's damage though, the server's internals look like someone took a nuke to the internals. He stands in the middle of a trash pile, frozen in time... he sighs and speaks audible to the detective outside, "A virus went nuclear, it's gonna be a bit before I can even get a command prompt. I've made a backup of the scrambled hard drives, but.. it's gonna be a while to figure out the FAT structures."

Professor Zoom has posed:
By the time Alek has gone into the server, the hard drives and the network itself have been nuked. There's still some data to erase... but the virus scrambled everything first; quick and effective. Of course, Gideon didn't count on a metahuman who was a living computer who could in time reverse that damage.

Meanwhile, outside, Eobard is still watching Rose for the moment. Gideon is handling the university for now, and the AI hasn't told him the operation is a lost cause yet. Somehow, Rose knew of this wreck before it happened... making her a target of interest.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek is wandering around the wasteland of the server of the university. The libraries of data in shredded piles, he's going to lock this place down though, alot of clean up to do... he reaches out to the server's router and attempts to shutdown all outside access. Alek has the advantage of actual physical access so he'll be able to work without interruption, the poor students will lose their access to porn and people won't be able to work from home, ooh first world problems.

Jericho has posed:
    Sure enough, as Gideon's virus starts destroying everything, the University network suddenly shuts down, kicking everyone out of it. Distant complaints can be heard from the office up front as the staff's work is unexpectedly interrupted. Barclay frowns as Alek updates him on the situation. "Damn." he mutters. "I take it you'd wager whoever these people are, they have serious resources..." A sigh. "Well I suppose you might as well get started on that. I'll watch your back if you need to tune out uh...the real world."

    As Eobard is monitoring his experiment, whatever system he has in place to keep tabs on how things are going suddenly starts to flare up with alerts that it is failing. The subject was somehow managing to overpower it...for the time being. Sure enough, as Thawne watches Rose decide not to blow up the car after all, even as she closes the lighter Wilson appears in his physical form and puts his hand over hers in an attempt to close the lighter. The woman in the car was in the middle of continuing to insist she wasn't guilty, but she stops and her jaw drops when he seems to appear out of nowhere...

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek talks with the real world, though he's staring into the ether, "Yeah, it sensed I was here.. it nuked everything and left nothing of itself behind. I made copies of the servers and locking them down. I'm hoping nothing was important in these piles."

    In the digital world, he's puting up wooden beams on the gateway to the outside world. He sees a pile nearby, some playboys partially burnt, next to a pile of what looks like torn pages from a paper report.

Professor Zoom has posed:
Blue eyes narrow slightly as the HUD in his eyes updates courtesy of Gideon. "Trying to make this technology work is useless. Everythings too primitive to manage it." Eobard grumps as he stands. "Too many variables. Time to clean up."

Red lightning sparks over his body as Professor Zoom starts to superspeed around campus. He's going just fast enough to not be seen... but definitely fast enough to leave split second visible red lightning trails as he goes. All the spy cameras he setup are taken and the areas they were in are cleaned up. It's only a few seconds, but the cameras are accounted for... but those precious few seconds have confirmed a Speedster was involved.

A pouch on his yellow suit is opened and filled with the cameras, before he goes back to monitoring Jericho himself. "Now then... do I need to clean you up too?" Eobard muses to himself as he watches the scene play out.

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson seems surprised as Jericho appears next to her, then smirks, "What the f*** do you think you're doing asshole?" she asks him. She attempts to shove him in the chest, "Get the f*** back--" she lets out.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek starts going about rearranging the file allocation tables and searches out for the last log on where all this data was going or perhaps the access logs on where this virus came from. Hopefully, there isn't another access point that let them in before.

    In the real world, he's just a guy seeming to almost hug a server motionlessly, it's quite an odd sight.

Jericho has posed:
    Jericho is shoved back as Rose strikes out at him, holding up his hands to show that he didn't mean to do her any harm at all. Perhaps he should have expected that reaction, but he was just worried she would actually blow that poor girl in the car up. There's something oddly familiar about Rose though, that he can't quite put a finger on. He hasn't seen her before, but...yep, and now he finds himself staring at her.

    Eobard's actions go mostly unnoticed by the police or really anyone, given he is moving far too quickly for anyone to see, and they weren't really even aware of the cameras in the first place.

    Back in the server room, Barclay watches as Alek works, ready to defend him in case anyone came in here, but it's quiet thus far. Though, his physical position is somewhat...strange. Ah, metahumans.

Ravager has posed:
Rose Wilson holds her hands out and she stares daggers at Jericho, as if to say, "Hey, what the fudge dude?" but she doesn't actually say it. She smirks as Jericho keeps looking at her, "What the f*** are you looking at?" she wonders. She then waves her hand at him, as if to say "Screw you I'm leaving," but she doesn't actually say it. She then walks off.

Smart Alek has posed:
Alek begins to whistle merrily in the real world and in the digital... he merrily rearranges the data so he can get access to the logs, he keeps an eye on any other activities on the servers, ready to shut the whole thing down again if he sees activity again on the network. The speedster does his stuff in the physical domain, the virus probably killed their connections earlier so he wouldn't notice the vanishing connections.

Professor Zoom has posed:
It's around the time Rose turns around and walks off that Zoom takes his chance. The subject needs some adjustment, so time to take him off the board. Red lightning trails as Professor Zoom moves to grab Jericho by the throat. His Negative Speed Force aura envelops the man in a split second, before Zoom takes off, superspeeding his way away and back towards the initial lab the adjustment took place.

The university was a promising attempt... but it failed.

Back to the design phase.