Calculus of Love Chapter 4: Investigations

Universe: Save the Day, created by Zia

Artwork by Dbull of Stratagem on a tablet.

Tags: Badger, Coyote, Superhero

3,200 words

Hi there folks! So, this scene is finally done, at least done enough to Post. As a quick recap, since I has been a criminally long time sinc ei posted in this series:

The badger Stratagem is a superhero detective, and he has been asked by the FBI to solve a break in at the Boston office of the Super Affairs Division, where the encrypted server which stored all of their most secret data had been stolen. The server contained all the top secret data the S.A.D. knows about the various superheros of the world, and the badger needs to find it before the encryption can be broken…

***

Stratagem let out a long, frustrated sigh, and leaned back in his chair in the central control room of the Bunker. The badger pulled off his goggles and rubbed his tired eyes, blocking his vision of the Extraordinaries base, and the endless lists of useless information he’d spent all day gathering.

“That doesn’t sound good,” a jovial voice said from behind him, and Stratagem turned his head, blinking bleary eyes at Star Coyote, who sat at the main monitoring console. The blue clad coyote spun his chair around, looking Stratagem over critically in the dim light of the Bunker. “You don’t look so good either, Strats. You alright?”

The badger made another rumbling sigh, which ended up being more of a growl. He hadn’t meant to emote so vocally with his teammate in the room, but for a moment he’d forgotten the coyote was there. “Yes Ted, thank you. I’ll be fine,” The badger twitched and ear and shut his eyes, resisting the urge to take off his goggles and rub them tiredly. Instead, Stratagem carefully cleaned his goggles with a cloth, carefully adjusting the delicate device. “I just need more rest. Hopefully if I get a few hours of sleep, then this will all make sense to me.”

“What have you been working on back here anyway? You’ve been in here since I got on shift four hours ago.” The coyote came over to where Stratagem was working, squinting in the low light at the three screens the badger had been using, and what he saw clearly made no sense to Star Coyote. The lists, photographs, and columns of data did not make much sense even to Stratagem at this point.

“Has it been that long?” the badger muttered, stifling a yawn as he felt the tightness in his muscles from sitting still. He had definitely lost track of time. So he leaned back further and began a slow stretching routine, carefully flexing and relaxing his arms and legs in deliberate motions, one after the other in order to prevent them from cramping up. It was something Stratagem had developed to work out the kinks and knots in his muscles in the most economical fashion possible, without risking tweaking or pulling anything by stretching haphazardly after sitting too long. It was a routine he’d developed based on old techniques for long term meditation, and was the best remedy for the aches and pains of working too long at the computer.

“Yah, and Solarcoon said you’d been here his whole shift too.” The coyote leaned in close, reading the tightly packed text on the main document Stratagem had been taking notes in. “You got a new case?”

The badger eyed Star Coyote carefully, but suppressed his natural instinct to shut off his terminal and prevent his team mate from reading his notes. There was nothing in there that would upset the SAD if Star Coyote saw it, he’d been careful not to even put such information onto the base computers, and he’d finally learned how poor an idea it was too keep things from the others. Especially from Ted. “Yes, I do. I’m working a case with the FBI but I’m not making much progress unfortunately.”

“Working with Crick’s team at the SAD, you mean. Something top secret?” The coyote glanced at him, eyebrows raised behind the blue mask he wore.

“Yes, and I’m afraid I can’t share the details, but!” the badger cut the coyote off before he could object, “That doesn’t mean you can’t help. Someone, likely a super scientist, stole something quite valuable from the Boston office and they want me to look for it.”

“They must be real stumped if they’re asking you.” The coyote stepped back as Stratagem stood up in order to finish his stretches. The badger motioned for Star Coyote to take his chair and replaced his goggles, walking over to the monitor station to watch the news feeds as the coyote read his notes.

Rather than bothering to try and read Stratagem’s infamously cryptic notes, Star Coyote tabbed through the surveillance he’d been looking at and asked, “So, what have you got so far?”

“Nothing,” Stratagem said with frustration. “There was no physical evidence left behind, and no digital traces either.” The badger held up a claw, “And I’m sure about that, which disturbs me greatly. They gave me both physical access to the scene and digital access to their system. I also have my own ways into the Boston S.A.D. networks, and there is no evidence that someone unauthorized was in their building. There has been barely any chatter among the powered community, and nothing at all in the mundane criminal chatter. All I’ve been able to accomplish is ruling out the most likely super scientist suspects.” The badger kept one eye on the monitor station while using his goggles to arrange his files and display them on the main monitor of the situation room so they were both seeing the same photographs and surveillance as he spoke.

“My first suspect was Xavier Aucoin, the Interrutorre.” Stratagem brought up the file on the technological supercriminal, and a photo of a very angry beaver’s face appeared on the screen, with personal details and archive footage arrayed around him face. “The object stolen is valuable for the information it contains, and hacking the SAD would indeed be the masterstroke he’s been looking to ‘prove himself’ as the best hacker who ever lived.”

“Isn’t he still in prison though?” Star Coyote asked, smirking as the video file began to play. He could still remember how Interrutorre had screamed and raged when being captured in the battle of Portland. The beaver was one of the few lower level supercriminals who hadn’t been part of the main escape afterwards when Rigger had broken most of his fellow supercriminals out of jail.

“Yes he was, at least until a week ago. He finally managed to escape during the extradition transfer to Canada.” Stratagem brought a few pictures of a busted open police convoy, obviously crime scene photos based on the markings and presence of cops in the background. “He did so with help I suspect, as I doubt he could obtain the materials he’d need to create a device capable of causing that level of damage to the vehicle carrying him while under guard, and he doesn’t have the level of Super Science to do so, but I’m afraid there’s not much to go on in that case.”

“Sounds like a good suspect then.” Star tabbed through a couple of the photos, sliding them around the screen via the computer’s touch interface. It was a needless frivolity using huge touch screens like this, a mouse worked perfectly fine after all, but being able to shift things around like pieces of paper helped Stratagem think.

“He would be yes,” the badger said sullenly, sliding a timeline up to the top of the screen they were looking at, “except that the timing is off. The theft occurred six days before Interrutorre escaped.”

“Rats,” Star muttered, looking thwarted. Stratagem was momentarily amused by how expressively the coyote’s face showed that emotion, his canine features pinched and eyes squinting. Then, the coyote's ear twitched to the side, and he leaned forward with interest. “Do you think… maybe that's not a coincidence? It’s possible he was working with whoever hit the SAD. Maybe they got his transport plans at the same time as they stole the…” Star Coyote eyed the badger, but Stratagem just shook his head, looking apologetic. “Well whatever it is they took, the FBI usually coordinates that sort of prisoner transfer, right?” the coyote finished lamely.

“It’s possible... the thief might need Xavier to break into the device they took.” Stratagem rubbed his chin, thinking it through. Perhaps whoever had taken the server wasn’t capable of breaking the encryption on their own? That was likely in fact, given how secure it was, and the beaver would make an excellent ally in that effort. “I will need to see if that information was stored in the Boston site, if it was that’s a potential lead.”

Star Coyote flashed Stratagem a broad grin, and then looked thoughtful again. “If he can’t be your main suspect, who else are you looking at?”

Stratagem waved his paw, tapping phantom keys through his goggle interface, highlighting the next two photos in a series of faces on the main screen. “Lux is still convalescing in Bermuda after the incident with Living Code, and she’s been joined for the last two months by Thrum.” The mouse and squirrel’s file photos were of them in their former lives, not police mug shots like Interrutorre’s had been. “They’re reforming their partnership it seems, both romantically and criminally. Neither of them has left the island in the last month however, and they have more than enough money to last another four months, even at the rate they’re spending it at their private resort.”

“Seems unfair we know where two supercriminals are, but can’t go after them.” Star crossed his arms, legs bending slightly so he floated in the air beside Stratagem’s chair. The badger noted this because it was something Ted did whenever he felt defensive, or worse, that the team should take action but weren’t.

Stratagem simply nodded in agreement, not wanting to derail their conversation rehashing the legitimacy of that kind of extraterritorial action. “That’s why they chose the unfortunately welcoming island of Bermuda; they limit extradition to super villain level crimes only. They make too much money off the regular criminals to turn them away.” The badger’s goggles glinted as he shook his head, “Regardless, it’s not them.”

Star Coyote’s ear flicked and he tilted his head slightly, looking down the line of faces and not seeing what he was looking for. “You don’t think it could be…”

“Living Code is still firmly in captivity,” Stratagem turned the image of the beautiful beach resort into the live feed from Living Code’s containment cell, which showed only a disconnected floating block of crystal, glowing with an inner light. “And, he would not have been able to remove the object, which was stolen physically, not digitally.”

“Are you sure he can’t reform his body?” Star Coyote muttered as a picture of the containment cell the now digital being who had been Living Code was stored inside. He had once been a wolf, before converting himself into a solely electricity based entity.

“I am reasonably certain, and he certainly cannot do so from inside the cage which Wrench and Circuit have formed for him. Their control over leap tech is exceeded only by their father, and Rigger has no love for Code after the incident.”

“Where did you track Rigger down too?” Star prompted, knowing full well that the badger would have done so. Stratagem smiled slightly, noting what that phrasing meant. Star Coyote wasn’t expecting to second guess the badger in this exchange, but rather to help Stratagem put his thoughts in order by presenting them to someone else. When Star Coyote had first learned Stratagem’s identity as Professor Samuel Bernadette, it explained why the badger seemed so fond of giving lectures. Teaching was how Stratagem thought, and the badger had noticed that Star now took on the role of student when this sort of conversation happened.

Stratagem highlighted Rigger’s face, and the very right most photos in his suspect line up. The otter’s grinning face had smudges of grease in his fur. “He’s operating somewhere in your area right now, upper west coast, possibly in Seattle or Vancouver. I’ve tried to narrow it down, but as always, my information is spotty. Circuit says that he hasn’t disabled the tracking device he uses to keep in touch, but the otters are still not willing to let me have the frequency they use to keep in contact with their father. ”

The coyote snorted in a disdainful way. “Of course not.” Star, like the other Extraordinaries, was not happy that the two otters refused to help capture their father.

Samuel smiled slightly at the annoyed tone his friend used. “Yes, they’re rather touchy about him. But he’s effectively at the bottom of my list of likely culprits, at least within the known supercriminals. The object which was stolen is certainly worth enough to entice Rigger, but it’s not his style. He has always preferred physical wealth over information, and the theft was too clean.” The photo next to Rigger’s lit up, an elegant fennec fox in a fancy green dress and party mask, “Ms. Q is more likely to dabble in blackmail, but she’s busy planning some other heist out west as well. I’ve been helping Emma keep track of her.”

“I bet Force Vixen will enjoy stomping her down again,” Star coyote said with a grin, “She was rather annoyed when Ms. Q was acquitted at trial like that.”

“Yes she was, and it showed we’ve been underestimating Q.” Stratagem said with a bit of sharpness in his tone. “I’m still not sure how she convinced the FBI to intervene on her behalf. And that’s part of why I don’t think she’s involved now. The S.A.D. were the ones who made the motion at trial to drop the charges against her, and they don’t want us finding out why. If Ms. Q was involved, they would have kept me from knowing about the theft, rather than bring me in.”

“That leaves what,” Star Coyote looked at the middle of the line, tilting in the air as he floated just over the badger’s shoulder as the next two faces were highlighted, a red panda and a wolf. “Whirlwinder and Dr. Orgon? Of all the super criminals and villains out there, those two screw up are on your list of potentials?”

“They are superscientists,” Stratagem stared, and cringed a little at the coyote’s snort of derision. “At least… after a fashion. Their devices are almost entirely leap rather than tech, and I think that only a super scientist could have managed the theft without leaving a trace.”

“Well wouldn’t it be more likely be Dr. Schmeterling or Xerxes? Hell, Dr. Fabulous has more science chops than those two guys.” Star waved a paw dismissively at the monitor.

“I know, I know. But this was executed entirely out of Xerxes’s wheelhouse-”

“You mean it was done quietly, without any casualties,” Star Coyote seethed softly.

“Exactly,” Stratagem agreed with barely contained disgust before continuing. “And Schmeterling is still in lock up in Germany, thankfully. Fabulous would never have been able to carry this off without leaving some kind of evidence behind, and frankly neither could Whirlwinder or ‘Orgon’,” the badger said the word like an elderly woman handling something distasteful, which made Star Coyote smile, “but I’m running out of super scientist candidates to run down.”

Star Coyote glanced at him, and then the list of potential criminals. “You haven’t got Professor Maestra on here, and you haven’t mentioned him.”

“No, I haven’t, and he’s the only outstanding supervillain I’m considering at this point. It will be an absolute disaster if it is The Professor, but I think that they may be too tied up in the UAE still to have the oppertunity to pull this off.”

Star Coyote looked at the row of faces, each one a criminal, but none of them really a suspect. “Okay, so it’s none of the usual suspects. What about unusual ones? You said this would take Leaptech to pull off, are there any superscientists who are morally grey enough to pull this off? Is there anybody who has gotten out of the game and fallen off your radar?”

Stratagem mused on that idea. There were more than a few super scientists who had dabbled in crime in the early days of leap tech who had forgone the supercriminal route when trying to make leap tech legitimate proved to be profitable. He worked with a couple at MIT in fact, like Dr. Stratus or Professor Carson. He didn’t think the mole or tiger might be suspects, but there were others like them out there. "It’s always possible it was the Mason, few people know buildings like they do."

Star Coyote quirked an ear, "Sorry who?"

The badger used his goggles to bring up another file, adding it to the line even though it lacked am I.D. photograph. The most Stratagem had was a few grainy security stills, showing what might be a bull from behind. "The Mason is a sort of super architecht and builder. I've run into their work a few times, but they don’t really do anything that attracts most of the team. They're one of the few people that the super criminals and villains will trust to design lairs and bases. Small time operators like Rigger and Whirlwinder don’t need his help, and Dr. Xerxes and Schmeterling prefer to build their own lairs, but most supervillains don’t. The Mason is discrete and highly capable. They'd be an amazing designer if they had something resembling a moral compass. He’s done work for Power Puma and Etnior in the past."

"Have they ever broken into anything before?" Star asked, amused by the idea of a supervillain architect. "I mean, if they're that good at building bases and homes, I'd suppose they'd be good for a break in."

"Only a few times, and they're often hired to do it for soemone else. Usually a crime family like the Alabasters or Pour Liberte use him to raid another super base. Not many people can afford him. I'll have to look into it. I have very little direct evidence about the Mason beyond his handiwork, and I haven’t discovered their legal identity. Last I looked, they were operating somewhere in Arizona."

“Is he the only inactive superscientist?” Star frowned when Stratagem nodded, and then said, “Somebody new then?”

“No, it doesn’t make sense for...” Stratagem waved his paw at the large screen sighing as he ran into his promise to the S.A.D. not tell anyone about the details. “I wish I could tell you more, but the nature of the theft really does rule out most of the minor players. Only someone serious, likely with an established super criminal past, would be involved in this kind of theft.”

The coyote’s eyes narrowed, and his expression darkened. “You’re seriously worried about this, aren’t you? It’s that big a deal?”

Stratagem stood very still, looking up at the screen of super criminal suspects, and then he nodded slowly. “Yes Star, I think there might be a very real problem brewing with the S.A.D. I’ll see if can bring you in on this case.”

“After you sleep, you look exhausted.” Star Coyote smiled and patted the badger on the shoulder. “Promise me you’ll actually go to bed, maybe the answer will come to you after you get eat something and get a good night’s rest.”

The badger nodded a bit ruefully, bidding his fellow hero goodbye and heading to the apartment he kept at the base. He did eat something, and he would sleep, but Stratagem didn’t think he would be getting a good night’s rest until this case was solved.