I12DT - Where were you on the night of...

[Samantha McManus]

The headmistress sent an e-mail requesting ASHLIE's assistance in her office. After sending, she waited.

[ASHLIE]

After about 1.2 seconds the air shimmers and Ashlie's avatar appears.

"You require my help with something?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye. We need to go through the security footage and logs for what Miss Romanov has done for the past few days. Look for anything out of the ordinary."

[ASHLIE]

"Define out of the ordinary please." she asks as she loads up the security footage.

[Samantha McManus]

"She's a creature of habit for the most part. Look for her being out at odd hours, going places she usually doesn't."

[ASHLIE]

"There's is not enough data yet for me to reliable extrapolate her standard behavior patterns but I will see if anything deviates from the norm." she says, rapidly running through the footage with a facial recognition sub-routine looking for signs of Natalya.

[Narrator]

Most of the footage showed Natalya during her normal work hours doing normal work things. There were a couple of segments of her prowling the grounds at a late hour, but she didn't seem to do anything unusual and it would probably be just as easy to chalk that up to her persistent security paranoia.

[Samantha McManus]

"Alright, can you bring up a log of what she's accessed on the system?"

[ASHLIE]

"Certainly." she chirps and pulls up a list of network logs, filtered to Natalya's work computer, cell-phone, laptop, etc.

[Narrator]

She hadn't wandered outside her access areas on the internal network. Her website history was, perhaps, a bit dubious but no more so than anyone else avoiding work during your average day.

Her cel logs were a slightly different matter. It looked like she had made a couple of calls during her off hours when she wasn't on campus. Those calls correlated with a temporary shift in security assignments. Analysis would show that such a shift would leave a temporary gap in coverage about 30 minutes after the assignments changed. The gap would be self-correcting, but it would be open.

[Samantha McManus]

"Alright, let's narrow security footage to that gap in the assignments."

[ASHLIE]

"RIght away!" she says and pulls up rows of footage while searching for activity, trying to account for the occasional hit caused by squirrels or birds.

[Narrator]

To Sam's eyes, nothing much would happen in the gap. ASHLIE, however, would notice a distinct humanoid shaped disturbance in the footage similar to what one would associate with some sort of personal camouflage. It came in, moved off camera, and then left again the same way before the gap had corrected itself.

[ASHLIE]

"There is a humanoid-shaped photonic disturbance in the images. It appears to sufficiently mimic the standard visual spectrum of it's surroundings but is slightly off on broader bandwidths, which would indicate a technological-based cloaking attempt. I can attempt to introduce a false color shift to make it visible." she says, doing just that.

[Samantha McManus]

"Visual camouflage. That's a bit distressing. Do we have any indications whether that's a mutant, or someone with a good budget for toys?"

[ASHLIE]

"According to my information mutant-cloaking abilities fall into two categories. Subconscious mental manipulation or physical manipulation of lightwaves. The former would be ineffective on cameras and the second would be have a broader effect across the spectrum so I would conclude that this is the result of technology engineered to mainly obfuscate the visible spectrum."

[Narrator]

Introducing the color shift did present a clearer picture of the individual but not much detail. By body structure it appeared to be female and had either claws or long fingernails. The image also revealed what was presumably long hair.

[Samantha McManus]

"Ashlie, can you cross-reference that physical build with our files?"

[ASHLIE]

"Certainly."

Code: Select all

>> Extrapolating estimated height
>> Cross-referencing database within a 2 inch margin
>> Discarding Will.Stanton
>> Discarding Alexandria.McDougal
>> Discarding Astrid.Abramovic

[Narrator]

There was quite a bit of discarding. The build matched two individuals at the school with a reasonable degree of confidence, but no certainties. It also matched quite a few outside the school.

Resident matches:
Robyn Delaney (Confidence issue: Light refraction makes exact weight difficult to determine, but silhouette skews heavier than match's)
Samantha McManus (Confidence issue: Seriously?!)

Outside Matches (all with similar lack of data confidence issues):
Serena Drew
Merriem Drew, aka Leona Hiss aka Viper aka...
<insert list of assorted female super villains as well as a few shapeshifters with preferred forms in that size range>

[Samantha McManus]

"Wouldn't surprise me if HYDRA were sniffing about..."

[ASHLIE]

"Do you want me to try and detain them the next time I detect them?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Either personally or with the aid of security personnel, aye."

[ASHLIE]

"I will prioritize construction of a mobile detaining unit then, with your permission."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'll gladly sign off on that."