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The New York City branch of the Psionic Scientific Investigation Division (PSID) lies in the Queens district of the city. The building appears on the outside as a stereotypical office building although made more of stone and concrete as the building has been there for a few decades. In the public eye, these are the offices of Techlock Industries, a Cyber-Security company but this is just a front to draw off any inquiries the public might have. The offices and cubicles are used for the day to day bureaucracy of the PSID but accessible by high security stairwells and elevators is the sub-basement where the equipment is kept and distributed and where there is holding cells for captured prisoners.
After years of training all of you have become full agents of the PSID and assigned to the same team code named "Team Gerico". Still for the first few months your lives as agents have been fairly uneventful. Each of you are provided a cubicle along with a computer, printer as well as office supplies and you spend a majority of your day behind a desk. Your days often involved filling out paperwork and/or contributing to research projects. You all are left to wonder when you will finally be sent out into the field.
On a Friday morning of April 15, 2016 you all receive an Email in your office mailbox calling you all to meet with Director Andrew Smythe, the head of your branch of the PSID. The Director rarely has spoken to all of you, only calling you individually once a month to assess your work performance. This is the first time you've been called as a team. Suffice to say you all gather at 9:00 AM in the director's office.
The office is a measure of perfection. The Director keeps his office perfectly clean and everything in its proper place. The office is sizeable with some couches and comfy chairs off in one section of the room to accommodate group meetings. There also is a small bar that is fully stocked with a mix of fine looking beverages. Some high tech upgrades have been done to this office as well. A large wall panel that conceals a sizeable video screen and some high tech jamming devices to block the room from outside surveillance and disrupt any form of recording equipment when active.
Director Andrew Smythe is a veteran of the PSID. What you know about him that while he is not a Psionic-User he has a Null augmentation that makes him utterly immune to any form of psionic mind reading and control. Those of you with psionic senses draw a blank when trying to gauge him with any form of psionics on him. As for his looks, he is a 5"10 gentleman with brown hair with gray streaks at the sides. He appears maybe in his late 50's but nonetheless fit for his age. He usually wears a pair of mirror shades. When you have seen his eyes you have seen that his irises have a silver sheen to them and you suspect his eyes are probably replaced with ocular implants. He is always dressed in a black over white suit and his shoes shine like mirrors.
When the group enters his office, he checks a bracelet on his wrist that appears to have some digital displays. He looks to you and says.
"It appears that you are five minutes late Team Gerico. I hope you are more prompt on your arrival in future assignments."
While you THINK you are on time, arriving at 9:00 am promptly, the more military minded among your team know that in any form of Government outfit, 9:00 am means 8:55 in Government time. But still the mention of the word "Assignment" catches your interest.
He gestures to the couches and chairs in a section of the room.
"I am not a man who likes to waste time with pleasantries. A suspected psionic incursion occurred in the Bronx at the Brooklyn Generation High School. The result being sizeable property damage as well as the death of two security guards."
He points his hand toward the paneled wall and it opens to reveal the large video screen. He presses a few buttons on his wrist bracelet and it shows a picture the front of a school which has a rounded front entrance that stretches 3 stories. What you can see is that the front windows have been shattered outward and the front reinforced doors look like they have been busted outward and while they still hold the fibreglass is shattered and the doors hang loosely on shattered hinges.
"As you can see by the glass pattern that the damage originated from within the building."
He flicks to the next picture to an inner hallway where lockers have been either ripped open or tossed around like rag dolls. Trophies and picture frames like scattered throughout the halls. But what really catches your eye is two bodies that look like they've been flattened by a truck. There is blood everywhere and their bodies are heavily mangled but you can tell by the uniforms that they probably were security guards.
"The adjoining hallway to the north of the lobby seems to be the originating spot of the Psionic Incursion. By the path of destruction, whatever force was unleashed went from the northern hallway and made a direct line toward the front entrance destroying many things in its path.
He shows several pictures of the path of destruction down the hall to the lobby before flipping to the close up of the mangled bodies. A look of horror is on their shattered faces and both have discharged tasers lying near them. "The two security guards Andrew Cade and Vernan Thomas appear to have used their tasers before they were killed. Cause of death has been ruled to be from massive bodily trauma."
Giving you all a chance to look it over he turns off the display and says to the group. "My initial analysis of the scene leads me to believe that this may be the case of a Psionic Manifester unleashing an ID monster in the vicinity of the school. The perpetrator is likely a student as in one of the classrooms there was some disruption including a sprawled message in spraypaint insulting one of the teachers, Miss Roberta Gerard, an English teacher at the school.
He then looks back to the group, "Your ultimate mission is locate this Psionic Manifester and bring the subject in to be quarantined. Your first task in this mission however will make use of interpersonal and investigation skills. You will go to Brooklyn Generation High School investigate the scene and perform whatever damage control you can. You will need to spin a story that the public will find believeable. I would also recommend giving the police are given a red herring so to speak. Under no circumstances should the New York Police Department engage this subject. If this manifester unleashed an ID monster on security guards, they would have no qualms using such powers on armed police officers."
He looks to the group and says, "You will be given a standard issue surveillance vehicle and necessary false identification for this mission. You will also be provided with Psi-Nullification formula to inject the subject and suppress their psionic abilities temporarily. As this mission will involve dealing with the public only conventional sidearms will be issued in the field. Is there any other questions you have before you proceed to gather your equipment and head out into the field?"
"Sir, do we have any prior historical records of this school? Any similar incidents in the area? Have we isolated the electronic surveillance records from the area?"
Christopher shed his customary lab coat and recording equipment for this meeting, wearing a muted black suit and comfortable dress shoes. He studies the pictures and videos as shown with intense concentration, looking for clues visible or irregularities that stand out.
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Director Smythe says in response, "Brooklyn Generation High School is in a rather low income area of the city and has a reasonable amount of criminal actvitity. As for the school itself, never has it had an incident of this serious nature although it has had a few cases of spray painting by some local riff-raff but never on the inside of the building. Due to it being a risky neighborhood the school has a budget for security staff as well as some internal cameras in the halls. As for irregularities, there has been no recorded Psionic Incursions in that vicinity of Brooklyn. This would be the first.
He lets his words sink in and continues "As for electronic surveillance the internal and external camera footage was the first to be taken by the police when they arrived. Currently we are working to secure the footage ourselves but the PSID has some red tape to work though to have the footage released into our custody. Until we have a chance to look through the footage I cannot speculate what if anything was recorded. Such footage will be forwarded to your team once it becomes available."
"Shouldn't be too hard to cover up the incident in the initial reports. I'm thinking gas company and insurance claim responders for identifications. Everyone will assume explosion of some kind already. injected Zeva who was sitting all the way back in her chair wearing a fine brand name grey pant suit, which she wore with disdain. "Tracking down the suspect may not be so easy though without some authority... Perhaps homeland security doing a precautionary inspection? she wonders aloud for brainstorming.
"Homeland sounds like out best approach. Gives us a good angle to insert into all aspects of the investigation, and with a little backstopping there's no reason we won't appear to be legit. At least on the surface."
Considering the damage and the obvious internal origin of the "explosion" Christopher begins working out just what could have conceivably done this, barring the obvious answer of a psionic creature.
"The doors and walls look superficially enough like explosive blast damage, at least a mid-grade low-explosive type. Perhaps our 'terrorists' have been recruiting some home-grown mad scientists based around low-income science teachers or students."
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Director Smythe listens to your suggestions and says, "I will leave to your digression of what cover identity you wish to use and how to facilitate the cover up. So long as your methods get results that are required. The public needs an excuse they can accept and the police need to be either taken off the case or given a false lead."
"I was thinking school shooting, myself. We could pull out the federal uniforms that would let us investigate without raising questions - and we might even get to take the case out of police hands. On the other hand, those cases are high profile in the media." Sarah looks a little lost, uncharacteristically. "But you're absolutely right, we need something explosive. How many people know about the security guards? Our story might collapse, if the media catches wind of them having fired their tasers at a gas leak."
"Concussive force of the initial blast was enough to trigger the firing mechanisms in the tasers perhaps." Zeva added leaning forward in her chair. "But we can discuss this on the way, I imagine the sooner we get in there the sooner we can control the public appeals. I'll take care of requisitions and transportation consistent with our identification." Zeva stands up and looks to the director for permission to leave.
"We definitely need some cameras and evidence collection equipment. It'll help sell our story as well as give us the opportunity to gather some clues."
Christopher gets up and heads to his desk, gathering up some tools and equipment that may prove useful.
Christopher tosses his gear together; phone, multitools, pads and the like, before heading to the quartermaster's office.
"We're going to need an evidence collection kit, plenty of caution tape, so e Homeland Security credentials, and a couple of high-res cameras. And some transport, something that screams "Feds" like a black Suburban or a Crown Vic. Thanks!"
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You head to the sub-basement of the PSID headquarters and approach the requisitions desk. Manning the desk is Heather Gerard as the requisition officer and Rodger Kirkland who is the security officer for the storage area. Heather is a fit looking woman in casual business attire in her early 40's.
She looks to the group as you approach and says, "Ah yes, Team Gerico. I have recently received confirmation from Director Smythe to make sure you have the required equipment for this mission. Please make your requests and I shall see to it that they are delivered if such resources are warranted."
After hearing Christopher's requests she says, "Homeland Security credentials can be fabricated for your team along with official records of your employ for the agency. Evidence Kits, caution tape and cameras seem like reasonable requests. As for your vehicle, you have already been slotted for a black van with federal plates. Inside the van there is a workstation with a portable field labortory. The van also has bullet resistant glass and metal, runflats, GPS tracker and external micro-cameras. It should be sufficient for your field work."
She takes out a metal case from behind the desk and says, "In addition you will have these."
She opens the case, inside is 4 injection guns and 4 vials of a yellowish liquid. "These are PSI nullification drugs. Inject them into a Psionic user and their powers will be nullified. As for the duration it usually lasts 12 hours but can vary depending on the potency of the Psionic user. As for weapons each of you will be given a standard issue Glock 20. Those of you with more proficient firearm skills may request a single rifle or shotgun based weapon but remember to use these in only high combat situations."
Zeva ritualistically, or as a machination goes through her weapon check and equipment inspection ensuring all the Ts are crossed and every clip is fully loaded. She requests her checked metal briefcase where she normally checks her belongings in every morning, peeking inside to ensure her stuff hasn't been touched.
If anyone had sent requests for additional equipment and didn't accompany her, she fills out those forms as well making sure to get a large black duffel bag to carry it all in or in case later anyone needs to be carried in it.
Don't forget the duct tape, metal retraints, and zip ties.
The requests for Zaviera were simple, and standard, given her position. Typically, there were three cases that went wherever she did. The first was a medical kit that allowed for treatment of non-life threatening injuries to an individual that was conscious and mobile. The second case was for stabilizing the more serious injuries until the individual could be taken to a hospital. The third was a portable workstation that let her do any spot research. She usually did not see any action until something went wrong.
Until then, she fully expected to be doing background research and tracking down what errant leads they could find unless it reached areas that she could not cover. Stepping up, she took one of the requisitioned firearms and examined it, checking the ammunition and sights, making sure that the weapon was functional. It would get cleaned later when there was little to do.
The guns and their injectors were something that she was familiar with at a glance. She had done some looking into the chemical formula of the drugs and knew how and why they worked. "A note to those of us that will be carrying the guns. You will need to close with the subject to inject them." It was said with an air of stating the obvious, but she had found that emphasizing the potential threat prevented injuries later. "The quantity needed to nullify abilities makes ranged application slightly impractical"
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The members of Team Gerico get to gathering their equipment. The PSID is well stocked with equipment and can fill most of your requests. Duffel bags and cases are in abundance if you need them. For special gear outside the normal mission parameters or your team roles require filling out forms. Suffice to say any non-consumable gear is expected to be returned at the end of the mission. If you lose gear, you'll likely have more forms to fill out. Such is the way of government bureaucracy. You currently cannot requisition "Alien Tech" at your current clearance rating though so any such requests will be refused.
"Ill drive." Zeva says, as she twirled the key fob around. "Let's get going."
Christopher takes his issued Glock and slides it into his shoulder holster, opposite the magazine pouch under his other armpit.
He considers signing out an M4 or 12 gauge, but decides against it for today.
"Sounds good to me, let's get moving."
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You reach the van and indeed it is a pretty decked out vehicle. It is sleek black in colour with no obvious markings and with specialized government plates so that the police will know to give you some leeway with the traffic laws along with the features mentioned by Heather. You all pile into the van. Suffice to say the van can fit up to 6 people as well as some storage space in the back for equipment.
Piling into the van with Zeva taking the wheel you drive the van out of the basement, exiting from a doubled sealed garage entrance and proceed to travel to Brooklyn Generation High School. When you arrive you see the place is still quartered off. Obviously the school has been closed down due to these events and a number of police cars are still on the scene securing the area. In addition you see a News Van of the local Channel 8 News Team as well as an unmarked vehicle which is probably a detective wagon. As you approach in the van an officer waives you down to stop your vehicle.
When you stop and roll down the window the police officer (Officer Larington) says, "This is a crime scene sir. Please show your identification or vacate the premises."
Christopher shows his Homeland Security credentials with confidence.
Squinting to make out the name on his tag, he addresses the patrol officer at the cordon, "Afternoon, Officer Larrington. My colleagues and I will need to speak with the incident commander and somewhere at least partially out of view to.park the vehicle. Can you guide us to the best spot, please?"
"Specialist Margaret Hall, Homeland Security." Zeva says as she offers up her identification. "We will be setting up and initializing primary investigation into this incident. This should be cleared with your chief if you haven't been informed already. If your Brooklyn Crime lab is already here, we'll be needing them to give us a report of everything up to now and turning all evidence over to our agents."
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The officer looks at your badges. "Homeland Security? What involvement would you folks have in of a double homicide with vandalism case?" he says in surprise and a bit of confusion but taking the badges at face value for now. "Alright you can park your vehicle near the patrol car over there but Detective Vincent is the one in charge of the scene here. Its up to him if you'll be allow onto the scene. Wait at your vehicle until he gives clearance for you to enter the scene."
"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Officer. I will allow my colleague Specialist Hall to fill you in, but out team needs immediate access to the scene. If you would radio to Detective Vincent to expect us immediately, that may save some time."
Once the van is pulled up and out of general view, Christopher pulls on some latex gloves and grabs his evidence kit and a camera.
"Big brass ones and a confident demeanor, right team?"
He walks towards the scene, staying out of the line of sight of the reporters as much as possible.
"I'm sure Officer Larry was a little, confused." Zeva comments as she parks the vehicle. "I'll get this cleared up while you guys get ready. Don't touch my stuff back there."
Zeva checks her weapon and grabs her sunglasses before stepping out of the vehicle to make sure local PD isn't deliberately impeding transfer of the crime scene over to Gerico's control.
"So, where is Vincent right now? Let's go get him while your partner radios him."
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Well while you take time to park, gather out of the van and get your bearings a plain clothed man with brown hair probably in his 40's approaches the team. On his belt he has a badge of the NYPD. He looks a bit agitated probably cause this crap had to fall on him lap early in the morning and disrupt his sleep cycle. He approaches the face of the group and says.
"Detective Curtis Vincent, New York Police. I heard from an officer that you are agents of Homeland Security. I have a subordinate calling in your credentials now just to be sure of your authority. In the meantime I would like to know what interest Homeland Security has in this case. Sure the scene is grizzy but I would hardly call it a terrorist attack. What terrorist group would bother killing two security guards when there is more overt ways to get their point across. A terrorist attack doesn't explain what i've uncovered in my investigation of the scene."
"Homeland serves much more than simply hunting down terrorists, Detective. I'm this particular instance, the threat is not so much what is known, but what is not. There are things we cannot speak of, security clearances and need to know, I'm sure you understand. Frankly, things you don't want to have in your head. Simply put, our agency is concerned there may be a bigger picture in play here, and would like to contain any issues at the smallest level possible. If our suspicions turn out to be unfounded, we'll gladly turn over the scene to your expertise. "
"And what have you uncovered so far in your investigation so far?" Zeva adds, placing her thumbs in her belt.
As the others readied themselves, Zaviera set herself up in the back of the van, utilizing the workstation in the van, and the one that was part of her kit to begin looking at what had been uncovered with the evidence shown. Provided that panned out, she would then began the dull and boring task of filtering through it again. There had to be some links with what happened, so (depending on the access they had been granted) she began looking at the time the incident occurred, and tried tracing the route of damage to try to reconstruct what class was where at the time.
It was likely going to take most of the day just to get that far and start narrowing things down, and all this presumed that the perpetrator was someone that attended the school. Did this school have cameras? Something else to look into. It was going to take a while, but she had time until someone (hopefully no one) got hurt.
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Before he can respond fully the Detective's cell phone rings. He steps off for a moment, talks for a bit and comes back and says, "It appears your credentials are confirmed and I am to cooperate with your investigation."
Curtis Vincent moves in closer and says quietly, "As for what has been determined so far, the bodies were torn apart by what looks like a wild animal. Except that the hand marks at the scene have 4 digits and a thumb. Only animal I could think of having something like that is a Gorilla. Except that there ain't no gorillas I've heard of that are that big. The Bite Marks are like nothing I've ever seen. And whatever did this rampaged through the halls smashing lockers, tables, chairs, display cases and everything else in its way."
"So large ape run amuck... Zeva smiles. "Alright, Ill start a sweep as the rest of the team sets up. Detective Vincent, I know you know this already, but until our investigation is clear here you are to keep silent on this; not one word. We will also need to speak to the the first responder to the scene. Now, if you'd be so kind as to point me in the right direction."
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Curtis Vincent says, "I will keep what I have said in confidence. As for the first responder, that would be officers Norbert and Peters. They are currently down at the station getting debriefed and filling out reports. I have already questioned them and they have no new information. As for the event, it appears to have happens at roughly 3:10 am today. First responders arrived roughly 3:30 AM and secured the scene."
Christopher continues into the scene, taking photos of the damage and any suspicious areas. He pays particular attention to signs of explosive damage and any signs which appear out of the ordinary.
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Those who wish it are lead to the scene and indeed it is a mess. There are lockers that have been torn and tossed about with large claw marks. as for the bodies themselves look like they have been torn apart. Give me an investigation roll to see if you can pick up any other evidence in the current location.
Upon arriving, Zeva steps in front of Vincent crossing her arms, "Thank you detective, now we'll need a moment alone."
Waiting until after the team has privacy, "Well I missed the mention of torn apart from the director. I hope one of you can come up with something better than an explosion because Vincent is already looking for something larger than an ape with hands."
Zeva does her thing, thinking of explosives that might explain some of the destruction. Searching for anything interesting and drawing conclusions.
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With Zeva`s demolitions check you can tell for sure this was not done by a bomb. There is no bomb fragments or explosive residue and there does not seem to be any blast marks that show a point of orgin. No this was done by extreme physical force which would probably take something like an elephant to accomplish. As for her spot check she observes the scene and sees that the path of destruction began at the trophy shelf at the end of the hall and lead all the way to the entrance where it shattered the doors from the inside. Still it does not explain how a large creature such as this could have got into the building and could have left without leaving a chain of destruction beyond the area of the school. It is as though the source manifested out of nowhere and then vanished from existence.
With a Natural 20 on the spot check though you do find what looks like a small streak near the display case, probably denoting a partial footprint of a shoe that scraped against the floor left by someone else who was in the area at the time.
investigate
Christopher is careful to document everything and catalog all the images on his notepad. When Zeva mentions the footprint, he takes detailed images alongside a scale for inspection later.
"My best suggestion: a red herring, some kind of technological "terrorist" threat. Perhaps an exoskeleton system or robotic combat model? Something to sate their curiosity and explain thus level of damage. Need to know is only gonna go so far."
"Won't saying 'Terrorist' alone warp the media into a frenzy and inflate local and state police budgets to levels we can't deal with? Maybe a gang would be large enough to cause this kind of damage? Perhaps they were using an experimental drug that went missing from a research lab. It would explain the rending of the security officers, the damage, Homeland's presence, and spin Vincent in the direction of fighting gangs; a noble cause but hopelessly time consuming."
"You're right, of course. Home grown synthetic drugs, crazed gangers, that might work. We can seize the science lab while we're at it, if that might help."
"Wait, seriously?" Zeva says stopping what she was doing, surprised. "You think that might work? Girl's got to get lucky every once and awhile," she mentions, smiling and proud.
"Yeah, I think it might. Especially if we can tie it to some recent weirdness from the area."
Christopher think for a minute, "We should check the news and police blotter foe "linked" cases...if something like this gets on the wrong path early on, there's all kinds of confirmation bias we can exploit for ease of direction."
"So now that we have a scapegoat, what do you think actually did this?" asked Zeva, as she sent a text to HQ for a local PD incident report that listed anything that could be useful as Christopher mentioned.
"I'm thinking Id manifestation. A fairly powerful, if unfocused one though. Physical strength but no energy manifestation. Interesting. "
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Warren gets a call on his cellphone. Picking it up you hear your hear your handler, Shawn Crawford from the office voice over the phone.
"Agent Warren, we have just secured the security footage from the police. Unfortunately we did not get the full scale of the attack as for some reason the camera feed cut out in the area soon after a creature manifested. An encrypted copy will be forwarded to your Laptop momentary. As by usual protocol keep whatever you receive in complete confidence."
Minutes later Warren's laptop gets a ping. You get the encrypted files and use the codes you know to decrypt the security. You then head somewhere private to view the video.
You get some spliced video of a person wearing a hoodie sneaking through a dark hallway. It appears they definitely took pains to cover themselves up wearing a full ski mask and a pair of googles as well as gloves and thick clothing but the person does have a feminine build to say the least. The video swaps as the person sneaks up to the 2nd floor of the school and to one of the classrooms. She seems to stare at one of the doors and then opens the door going into the classroom. About 10 Minutes pass when a security guard comes rushing into the classroom. The person runs out and bolts toward the stairs.
Following the footage the prowler runs in the direction of the entrance only to be cornered by two security guards who pull out tasers and seem to be doing an arrest procedure. The individual looks at them in panic and then falls to her knees and seems to grab her head and scream. Suddenly a blast of force knocks the two security guards backward. They pull themselves to their feet as a shimmering force takes the form of of a large creature probably about 10 feet tall but is rather hard to see due to the poor lighting conditions of the hallway. It seems to roar and then the camera feed cuts out.
"The real thing huh? Bout time." Zeva says cracking a reluctant smile after the video feed dies. "We should probably have a look at what that girl was looking into on the second floor. She came here to do something, maybe we'll see upstairs."
Zeva heads upstairs to the room the girl visited to investigate.
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Arriving at the room you see it is a classroom. The books and displays suggest that this is an English Classroom. The desk looks like it has been stripped and its contents scattered as though it was vandalized. In addition there is a message spraypainted in red that spells out on the board "F&*K Wuthering Heights". What do you do?
"Someone's not a fan of Bronte, I see. Check the room, maybe our unknown subject left some more clues up here."
Christopher snaps a bunch more pictures, making sure to take in the overall disarray and graffiti.
"You don't happen to have any of those sensory powers, do you, Rigas? Cuz that might make this a whole lot simpler."
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"I may be a spook, but I'm not that bad." Zeva gives Sarah a glance. "Sorry, not that psi-gifted people are all bad."
"I bet that spray can is around here someplace, I don't think it was in the video. We can trace the paint to a store and get their surveillance and purchase information if there aren't any prints."
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You don't find the spray can. It appears the vandal took it with them. However with a natural 20 on a search check of the room you can see some outlines of hand prints in the papers from some residue from the spray paint. The hand prints definitely show a slender hand, probably a female hand. Also examining the door you can tell that the locks have a key on one side and a twist lock on the other. The Vandal did not appear to use a key in the video. It could be possible telekinesis was involved in the door being unlocked as in a school like this all classrooms are locked after dark.
Christopher takes plenty of pictures, and carefully bags the hand prints themselves.
"More and more evidence this was a spontaneous manifestation. She got spooked, was being threatened by the rent-a-cops, and reacted reflexively. This person could still prove valuable to the Department. I hope we can bring her in peacefully. "