Log Info
Title: Described as…
Emitter: Amy
Characters: Amy, Jerry, Sasha
NPCs: {$npcs}
Place: Student Center, Computer Room
Time: Early Evening, before dinner.
Summary: Hours after the aborted attack on Wooten High, Amy, Jerry and Sasha try to put together the pieces…Follow-on from 64 Degrees and Cloudy
_( 1st Floor Student Center - Eastern Grounds - Steranko Institute )__
As you enter the first floor of the student center, the visitor's center is immediately on the right, with a campus map displayed on the wall next to it. To the right is the school's book store, with various little chotchkes with the school logo, snacks, school supplies, and books. Further back is an arcade, with a few pinball machines and video games, though most of them have been replaced with pool tables. There's also a small snack bar that sells hamburgers, pizza, and the like for those that don't want to leave their fun to head to the dining hall.
__
Monday, 20/SEP/10.
Later that day, after classes and study halls, finds Amy in the Student Center, textbook open before her, but being ignored as she scribbles at a spiral notebook, a can of slowly warming grape soda next to her. "Okay, go through it again." she murmurs to herself, starting to recount the morning's events, ticking off each detail off on her fingers and checking them against her notebook. "Okay…gotta pencil that in." she says, coming up with something she missed the first time.
Jerry comes in to the Student Center, side-by-side with Sasha, the boy waving to a couple of people in the near distance as they pass by, then going back to chatting with his girlfriend.
And yup, there's Sasha. She strides in with Jerry, chatting about…something. "So I'm just saying, it'd be totally awesome to get out there, is all," she says. "And doing it alone would just be *strange*." She waves. "Hey Amy," she says. "You look….studious."
"Oh, hey guys." Amy says, looking up from her notepad. "Just trying to get what happened earlier down and see what I can make of it." she sighs, reaching for her soda and taking a sip. "Ugh….hot and flat….not good." she says, pulling a face. Slowly, she hauls herself from her seat and gives a long, joint popping stretch.
Jerry smiles as he plops down at the table. "Yeah," he says, as he looks with distaste at the thought of warm soda. "I /think/ I dropped in on the FBI or.. something. I dunno, but hey, they were acting equally suspicious. They can't bitch if they attack teenaged crime-fighters," he smiles.
"You think?" Sasha asks, as she takes up her own seat. "That's a hell of thing to not get."
Amy makes her way over to dump her skunked soda in the trash and snags another from the machine. "That's one of many things about this that doesn't add up." she comments, stifling a yawn behind her fist as she retakes her seat. "Who the hell were they and what were they up to?" she asks. "I don't suppose you got a plate number, didja?" she asks Jerry.
Jerry gives an embarrassed head shake. "Nah, I figured I'd be hauling them to jail, not letting them go. I didn't look. Anything about tweedle-dumb and tweedle-dumber with the shotguns?"
Sasha just listens for the moment. "Shit. I should have gotten that," she says, crossing her arms and looking rather self-judgmental.
"Don't feel bad, guys, I didn't think to get anything but that one kid's name. Shoulda kept his damn driver's license." Amy sighs. "Matthew Erich Thomas…that's still messing with me. Why the hell do all these freakazoids have three first names? I mean, does that creep anybody out but me?"
Jerry smiles a little. "Net search turn up anything?"
"Me a little," Sasha admits. "But I thought the real crazies had a middle name of 'Wayne'. But anyway…." she says with a light shrug. "Can't we just gang up some police reports or whatever?"
"Nope. Nothing but the world's most boring Facebook page." Amy sighs, shrugging a little. "Guy's a nerd. I mean with a capital 'N'. Twenty six tweets slobbering about that dumb ass game. Bunch of links to hentai sites. Not a single _hint_ he was thinking about doing anything remotely nutty." she says. "Eh, Sam'll have to shag those, or maybe Timothy, I got a feeling he's pretty good at that kind of thing, Sasha. No way I'm gonna try. I'll get caught."
"I've heard he is," Jerry says when Timothy is mentioned. "So.. hmm. Nothing on there, no notes or anything. OK, with the other attack linked to this game.. you think it could be the common thing? I mean, I guess anything could trigger a guy like this, but have you checked out forums related to the game - maybe he posted there? Used the same user name?"
Sasha slouches slightly. "Do we even know what the target was?" she asks. "I mean there's got to be a motive, right?"
"Hey, come on, guys." Amy protests with a chuckles, swigging thirstily at her soda. "I have had _class_ today, ya know?" she comments. "Hadda run my internet search in the library on the qt, Ms Constanze would've wigged, he caught me working on something other than classwork." she says, pulling a face. "Cops are probably about two dozen steps ahead of us by now. That report's looking more important by the second."
Jerry snorts. "No actual crime except maybe looking suspicious; I bet they're already out on bail by now," he says, clearly disdainful of the cop's ability. "It would take 'em away from doughnuts and coffee too long."
"Um…." Sasha starts. "I know we need to be enterprising super-kids and everything, but why *shouldn't* we just let the cops deal with it?"
"Heh, good question." Amy replies. "Lack of anything else to do? I dunno….Something about this just…bothers me. We've got two people on two different sides of the planet going bonkers, violently bonkers at that, over a video game. Shit! I wonder…" Amy says, sitting bolt upright. "There's supposed to be some kind of big computer system here, right?" she asks.
Jerry looks at Sasha like she just grew another head. "Like, what? Where's the fun in that? I bet we could even mark this down as extra credit or something." He looks to Amy and nods. "Yeah, what are you thinking of?"
Sasha raises her hands. "Hey, I'm just asking!" she says. "Like I don't mind prying into things? Totally cool with it." Sasha cricks her neck. "Yeah, I think so. Why?"
"That business in Japan….If we could find out more about that, we might be able to tell if we're really onto something or just running around the grassy knoll." Amy muses. "If that computer's any good, we can get the Japanese police file. Check the witness statements. See if anyone spotted anyone hanging around the area, watching."
"And why are we not in there right now?" Jerry says with a sly smile. "Come on, let's see what's to be seen?"
Sasha gives Jerry a look. "*You* just want to fly off to Japan and start asking question, don't you?"
"Eh, because I don't know where it is?" Amy chuckles, slugging back the rest of her grape soda and starting to gather her things, stuffing them into her backpack. "Lead the way, Jerr-o."
Jerry grins at Sasha. "I /would/ but I don't speak a word of Japanese. Even after all that anime. Anyway. Computer room…" he says, standing and indeed leading the way.
Sasha gets up too, ready to follow after the others. She's not entirely clear what she can add, but fuck it, what else is she doing with her time?
"I just hope the computer can translate, or we are seriously wasting our time." Amy comments, chucking the empty can in the trash as she shoulders her backpack.
Jerry walks across the quad to the computer room, looking, then entering the usual domain of the IT nerds. "/I/ hope you know how to use a computer," he says.
Sasha's halfway out the door with the rest when her phone rings. "Crap. I gotta take this," she says. "I'll catch up, I hope."
"Eh, I can…..sort of." Amy replies, wincing a little. "Just don't let me zap the thing by accident." she chuckles. "I don't think they'd appreciate that very much."
Jerry flashes a smile at Amy, then waves to Sasha as she has to bow out. Soon, he's padding around the computer room, keeping watch as it were for curious onlookers while Amy does her thing. "Be careful, too," he says.
"Heh, gosh…no pressure." Amy comments, taking a seat at the nearest terminal and starting to tap out commands. "Okay….wow…this thing is big." she notes. "Heh, they oughta keep a better lookout on this sucker." she snerks. "Wrong person gets in here, they could do some serious damage. Okay…."
Jerry looks over Amy's shoulder, starts to say something. "I don't.. think that gets you in," he says, looking towards the nerd-herd area down the hall.
Amy chuckles and rolls her eyes when her efforts are rewarded with the loading screen to Bejeweled 2. "Eh…no….I think you're right." she says, frowning a little as she exits the program and starts poking around methodically. It takes a bit of doing, it takes a _lot_ of doing, really, but she manages to find a link to international police reports. "Bingo…Okay…Japan…..What was that city again?" Amy asks. "Starts with N….Nago…Naga?" she asks, then chuckles. "Cripes, I sound like the guy from Army of Darkness."
Jerry says, "Nagoya," Jerry says, having looked at the clip in his notebook. "Try their internal files, first?""
Amy nods a little, typing in the name of the city. "Eh…okay…That's not really what I'm looking for…" Amy replies as the screen fills up with the front page of the local newspaper from the past two weeks. "Wait….no…You wanna give it a shot?" she asks, gesturing to the terminal. "Can't do any worse than I am."
Jerry shrugs. "I can try," he says, settling in and logging on, then clicking on the unfamiliar interfaces. "Um, hmm, here..?" he says.
Jerry's able to home in on the Nagoya PD's internal server after a few minutes. The computer's translation software makes it much easier to poke about once he's there. Further in, he comes across a solid wall of numbers with the names of various detectives attached to them. Case numbers, looks like, organized by date.
Amy peers over Jerry's shoulder and curses quietly as the boy magically finds the very thing she was trying to find on his first go. "See? Computers hate me." she sighs. "Date organized? Lemme check my notes…." she says, fishing out the notebook from her backpack. "Went down on the 18th of this month."
Jerry clicks, zooms, clicks again as he focuses on the dates and sorts.. "OK, let me see.."
The Steranko Institute: Jerry spends a hero point.
A little more digging comes up with Case #4213-091810, lead investigator, Detective Juro Akihito. Not a hell of a lot to investigate, at least not according to the Detective. One Kazuki Ishikarii, 23 years old, a technician at the Nagoya TV Tower, where the attack was staged, walked into the tower's Observation Gallery during a tour for a group of Korean businessmen, started screaming "Free Hauser!" in English, and stabbed 23 people, killing 8, seriously wounding 10, before being subdued by security, receiving a fatal blow from a police baton in the process. He died two hours later at University Hospital from a severe brain hemorrhage.
"Whoa…" Amy says, whistling softly as she reads the text. The crime scene photos more or less put paid to any thoughts of dinner. "Jesus Christ, Dude." she says, shaking her head a little. "If we hadn't stopped those two knuckleheads…" she breathes, shuddering.
Jerry hmmms and nods, scratching the little patch of stubble on his chin. "Maybe, yeah; shotguns can't hurt me, but still.." He taps and clicks, reading, saving to his private student file, hmming again. "I wonder if they've done an autopsy, see if they had anything weird in their bodies. Maybe they were drugged, or had brain lesions or something…"
"Sounds like it." Amy points out. "The final report does mention he died of a severe brain hemorrhage." she points out. "Wait….shit…is this all there is?" she asks. "Page forward some, see if you can find any witness statements and the like."
Jerry mmms, and clicks on links, follows to where files from depositions should be. "Lessee here.. Nothing in the text so far, maybe they haven't attached them to the file?"
"Huh…that doesn't sound like the Japanese. You know how orderly they keep everything." Amy frowns. "Try the hospital?" she suggests.
Jerry hmmms and clicks, following the emergency numbers and references. "OK, not sure about medical records. These are the admissions, and the morgue reports.. here.."
"Okay…wait…go back one." Amy says, pointing. "Ishikarii Kazuki, right there…" she reads. "September 18, 2010."
Jerry nods and zooms in, clicks, begins to read. "OK, this looks promising. Here's the video and audio. Can this thing translate that stuff?"
"Eh, only one way to find out." Amy shrugs, wincing a little bit. "You really want to _watch_ the autopsy?" she asks. "I mean, isn't that a litte….much?"
Jerry shrugs. "If we find out something, it's worth it," he says, clicking on the link. "The text isn't telling me much; they keep it all in these video logs, I think." He sits back as the video begins, watching and listening to the translation.
Amy takes a _deep_ breath and settles in for a moment, swallowing hard as the autopsy begins.
Autopsies in Japan are, no shock here, performed in the same manner as autopsies anywhere else in the world. Dr. Yamagutchi works quickly, but carefully and methodically. There's significant defensive wounds on the young man's forearms as he tried to shield himself from the security guards, and later, the police as they fought to bring him down. Both wrists are broken, both bones Radius and ulna in his right arm are badly broken. Internal organ weight is on the line for someone of Ishikarii's size and age. His last meal was a bowl of miso nikomi udon noodles the night before, washed down with a little sochu, not even enough to get him drunk. No drugs or alcohol in his bloodstream at the time of death. All in all, Kazuki Ishikarii seems like a healthy, 23 year old.
The policeman's baton fractured his skull as he fought to subdue the knife-wielding killer. But it isn't depressed, in fact, the doctor performing the autopsy marvels that it did the kind of damage it did to the brain tissue underneath. An examination of his brain reveals why. Kazuki Ishikarii had a massive aneurysm building up in his occipital lobe. One good blow from a stout bamboo club was all it took to cause it to begin to swell beyond the point of no return.
Jerry doesn't seem that discomfited, or at least he hides it well. "Well, shit, no wonder.. he does have a deformity.." the teen says, licking his lips thoughtfully, stroking that little chin scruff again. "I wonder if dude here has something like that?"
Amy only has one really bad moment, when Dr. Yamagutchi scoops the body's internal organs into the scale, otherwise, she surprises herself by being a little stronger-stomached than she thought she'd be. The bit with the brain she finds particularly fascinating. "It's possible. Think we should give the cops an anonymous tip?" she asks, reaching for her cell phone.
Jerry hmmms and nods. "Couldn't hurt. If they're both about to go nuts, might save someone from getting hurt."
"Heh, eh, Jerry." Amy comments as she starts to dial 911, but stops herself. "Wait…better not use my personal cell phone. See if this thing can redirect calls so they can't trace it." she says. "But..yeah, like I was gonna say, they already _did_ go nuts." she chuckles. "Sane people don't show up to crowded high school auditoriums with loaded semi-auto shotguns. Even in hostage situations."
Jerry shakes his head. "No, I mean like bash their brain out in their cells, grab a cop through the bars and hurt him, stuff like that. If they're just time bombs waiting to go off like Japanese dude here… they can do worse. A lot worse." He frowns at the screen, and reads more.
"Ah…..good point." Amy nods, pursing her lips. "This thing tell us anything about where they are now?" she asks. "Think you can forget about 'em being out on bail, not until tomorrow."
The Steranko Institute: Jerry spends a hero point.
Jerry nods and types, then clicks, moving through menus. "Lemme see.. Cove City, PD, assessment files.."
The assessment file reveals that 18 year old Matthew Erich Thomas and his would-be partner in mass murder, 17 year old Jason Lee Hall are both in custody for interrogation. As to what's being said to or by them, the file isn't saying. It's too early in the game for anyone to have put an official report in the computer just yet.
Jerry reads this to Amy and sits back. "Shit. Email them from an anonymous box, or get a secured phone from Tim?" he says, thinking. "They haven't gone off yet. Maybe we're seeing something that ain't really there."
"Maybe…I dunno…" Amy sighs, shrugging a little. "You got all the copies from the Japanese files?" she asks. "Send 'em to me, will ya? I'll take a look-see when I get back to my dorm." she says, stretching again. "Heh, I know what I'll do. I'll call 'em from that pay phone at the BP." she chuckles. "And I'll wear gloves this time." she adds.
Jerry quirks a smile. "Done, and .. .transferred. There you go," he says, logging out and standing up. "So far, so good.."
"Yeah…" Amy replies, stretching again. "We're making some headway." she yawns. "We just don't know where we're headed."
Jerry shakes his head. "I don't care where it heads, so long as we can do something cool," he grins.
"At least we're doing _something_." Amy replies, nodding. "Right now, it's not so cool. But maybe they'll be some asses in need of a kicking down the road." she grins. "By then, I'll be more than ready to provide one."