xp_logs | Jean-Paul, Laura, Vanessa & Bishop

After another day on the job the various investigators of X-Factor find their way back to the office to fill one another in on their findings.

Jean-Paul opened the door for Laura as they made their way into the X-Factor offices and pulled out the piece of paper that he'd scribbled their mark's supposed address on. The man hadn't come back out after going in, at least not while they'd been there, and they'd stayed for a good bit of time to make sure. "He is a very... boring man," the Quebecois noted, opening the laptop so he could write up their findings for the day officially.

"Very boring, and oh so very simple, apparently." So much she had felt like she would fall asleep half the time, actually. "He just wanders around and apparently checks several spots every day, and that's it." The frustration was evident in her voice. "And we made sure he wasn't tailing anyone, so unless he was following someone as random as himself, I'm pretty sure this guy isn't really looking for victims." She could be wrong though, and because of that they had followed him and taken notes and everything. Still, frustrating was frustrating.

"Well, he's not exactly innocent either," Vanessa put in. Her head poked out from around a corner where she was hidden with a laptop and a bean bag chair. Clearly she was in the lap of luxury. "Tall, dark and stoic found out he was wanted for questioning in connection with some dead EMTs. Classy, huh? And his name is Karl. Karl Lykos."

Bishop glanced at Vanessa as he walked in, catching the end of her description. He would have commented but he didn't want to derail the group think. It had it's uses and listening helped him.

"Boredom, it is not always so simple," Jean-Paul muttered, typing from a list of locations he'd typed into his phone all day. "Sometimes, it is a good hiding place for bad intent." He was only half paying attention to what he said, the other portion of his attention on the words he was typing and the keys his fingers were hitting, and it showed in his tone. Looking up, he asked, "How is the name spelled?"

"Karl with a K, and his last name is l-y-k-o-s." After some consideration, Vanessa stretched out on the floor so she could attempt to look at Jean-Paul and Laura while not really moving from her alcove. "The guy goes off the grid a couple years back around the time of the incident with the EMTs. No bank accounts, no cell phone plan, no address. He's probably at like a residential hotel or in an efficiency paying with cash month to month and using a pre-paid cell for his phone." Her tone sounded slightly annoyed because it made their job harder, but she'd give him credit for going off grid properly. "What'd you guys find out? Other than that he's boring."

Laura stood behind Jean-Paul, eying his typing with some interest. So their boring guy wasn't so plain after all. "Not to praise this Lykos guy, but if that boredom was an act, then he deserves an Oscar right away." There was no grin attached to it, no; he had managed to fool her and Jean-Paul, and Laura didn't like it one bit. Turning to Vanessa -well, what she could see of Vanessa- Laura shrugged as she extended her arms backward, stretching them as they moved up. "He could be following a route, contacting people here and there, but he never stops for too long anywhere. Doesn't really do much talking, though, and doesn't try to go unnoticed...although he pulls that one naturally."

"Oui," Jean-Paul agreed with Laura's assessment, though he was now busy typing Lykos' name into his phone so he'd have it for future reference. "But I am not so sure he takes a route, as you say." Looking up from his mobile, the Quebecois leaned over so he could peer at Vanessa. "Before I returned to the mansion last year, I wandered. Boston, Ottawa, Las Vegas, Chicago. I did not have a plan, but there was something, always, that made me stay in one place, you see? What is making him stay here?"

Vanessa shrugged, though it wasn't very obvious with her on the floor like she was. "I don't know. Ties of some sort? He might really be as boring as he seems. His possible involvement with those EMTs could be a fluke. Maybe he doesn't know anywhere else? Besides, if you're going to try to be the nameless faceless New York is a decent place to do it. It used to be dense and congested it, and it still sort of is in the areas where people are. But there are a lot of places to hide now, too. Places that haven't been rebuilt, for example."

As the group spoke, Bishop began to organize. He used note cards for ideas and posted them on the cork board, drawing lines between fundamental concepts with yarn and anchoring with thumb tacks. He let the group think for a moment, his mind compiling ideas silently.

"Well...we are trying to connect him with the murders, right? So he is around because of the mutants that were killed, so if he is still around, it could mean he is either looking for someone, or killing those energy controllers sort of mutants?" It sounded as trying to connected the dots a little too much, but if Lykos was their man, then he needed a mobile. "Although why would he hunt down mutants- no, wait I can answer that myself."

Jean-Paul arched an eyebrow and turned so he could look at Laura properly. "Oui? What is the answer to your question, mon ami?"

Laura crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "Well, why does anyone want us dead? The ones that don't think we are devil spawn are so terrified they just want to close their eyes and pretend we don't exist, so if this Lykos is completely crazy, he could very well be in his own holy mission." She shrugged, uncomfortable of bringing up such topic; it certainly sucked when you knew your genes made you a target of violence for no reason. "Maybe a mutant that could throw fire or something killed his son or whatever, and now he's hunting energy wielders? I know it doesn't make sense, but neither does half the things I've seen since I got to the mansion."

"Oi! Padawan, Vespa Special, we don't even know that he is our guy or that all of the missing people are dead. What we know is that he has to know something. He must have seen something. He could be in cahoots. He could be an innocent bystander. Hell, he could be the real target with these people taken to torment him somehow." Vanessa sighed and actually got up, leaving her laptop on the bean bag chair. "For all we know he went off the grid because something big and bad came after him and now it's finally caught up to him. It's just as possible that Lykos needs our help as it is that he's the bad guy. Don't jump to conclusions, it impairs your ability to see the possibilities and you'll end up blindsided by a granny with a walker or summat."

"Maybe these places are places he's found the people he's looking for. That he's not looking for specific people, just the specific type of people that he has found in these places before." Bishop mused mostly to himself as he completed the timeline and tracking board.

Letting the granny with a walker comment go, Jean-Paul accepted the reorientation of their conversation with an easy shrug. "Oui. And so - I have input the information on his habits in District X so far. Places and such. And we will continue to follow him until it is time to speak with him. But we should do this soon, non?"

"Do you have a hot date tonight? Because we could always send you to go pick him up, see if he likes long walks on the beach and which drinks with umbrellas he prefers," Vanessa joked in a serious tone. "We'll keep you two on him tomorrow, Bishop and I can see if there's anything else we can dig up on him and then get with the questioning of him in the afternoon, aye?" She raised an eyebrow at Bishop for confirmation. The guy with actual police detective skills should be the one to question the guy wanted by the police for questioning, she thought. Her attention went back to Jean-Paul and Laura. "But no engaging him yourselves."

Bishop nodded, "We can try. He won't want to tell us much but we might be able to play it right."

Jean-Paul gave Vanessa a small salute. "Oui, no engaging him ourselves."

Vanessa nodded. "Good. If he's dangerous and he's more than a casual bystander then I don't want to risk underestimating him. I'll see if I can find out anything about him being a mutant." She'd learn a little hacking when she worked for Snow Valley, part of their tendency to try to get everyone trained a bit in everyone else's skills. It might not be good enough to hack into medical records, but she could try. And if all else fails she could pull it off in person by stealing them.