Determining Mirtis' Powers

I was handed a file. It was filled with pictures and with notes by Armsmaster including the results of witness statements, maps of the area, positioning of blood spatter. There was a lot of confusion from the witnesses, and not just about the faces of the perpetrator or perpetrators.

Fifteen minutes flipping back and forth through the notes as the Director spoke to Miss Militia and Armsmaster finally gave me some answers at least.

“All right,” I said.

They stopped talking, and the two heroes looked at me. I presumed that the Director was watching her screen. If I'd really wanted to, I knew enough about her to manipulate her even through a screen, but that would leave records that might be uncomfortable for me.

“I think there was one assailant,” I said.

“I agree,” Armsmaster said. “Take me through your reasoning.”

“First, the timelines roughly match up if you throw out the outliers; some people have a really distorted sense of time when things like this happen. He came in from the north, killing six guards there. I'm assuming some sort of telekinetic ability based on the nature of the wounds. He pulled four men off the roof, snapping their necks in the process even as he let them drop to the ground. He snapped the necks of two other men guarding the entrance.”

“It could have been a speedster,” the Director said.

“There are pine needles covering the ground. Today was a windless day, but it was windy over the last few days. It left a carpet of pine needles just covering the north side of the building. Armsmaster arrived before anyone else, and footage from his helmet cams show that there weren't any tracks across the lawn. The entrance is to the south, and this was the back door. I'd expect that a minimal level of scouting would have shown that this was the best area to attack from; the ABB likely expected an attack from vehicles and the road is to the south.”

Somebody like Sophia could have managed not to disturb the leaves, but she wouldn't have been able to manage what followed.

***

Choice