574 Monroe Ave.
Tuesday May 27th, 2025 7:10 P.M.
It doesn’t take long for the next call to come in. You’re the newest team in Detroit’s HCIU, and so you’re on call for the night shift. You never know when someone’s evening will come to a tragic end. When it comes across, the address is familiar: The Danger Room, a gym for heightened individuals downtown. An ambulance crew with a suspicious death on their hands phoned it in.
It’s nearly dark when you arrive. The ambulance lights stain the buildings red. It’s all the familiar sights of a crime scene outside: the curious passersby, the lights, the feel of the air about the place.
Moving inside, the lobby is like that of an old boxing studio. Photos of old fighters hang about the walls as well as smiling, prominent gym members. Behind the photos and memorabilia, the walls are stained with cigarette smoke. The whole place smells of sweat. A greasy man looking to be in his mid-forties waits for you in the center of the lobby, fidgeting. Dressed in a stained t-shirt and sweat pants, the guy looks like a working class joe minus the expensive wrist watch and iphone 9 belted to his waist. He’s got sweat across his forehead and a worried air about him.
Officers, Lou Hutkins. I’m the owner here. Please, follow me back to the…uh…scene.” He tells you a bit about the Danger Room, and about the scene, as he walks. ”Only someone who’s got proof that they’ve got the power can use the machine suited for it. You gotta sign a disclaimer too.”
He leads you through double doors and into a labyrinth of corridors, obviously expanded many times over the years into the adjacent buildings. Some rooms hold machines with big motors for the super strong, some hold hardened targets for blasters, some are fireproofed, and some hold barriers of all types of materials for the ghosters, or phase mutants. Mr. Hutkins points all of these machines out as you go. It’s clear they cater to all types of powers here.
Then you turn a corner, and the blade room is next.
Ambulance workers mill about, and perk up as you enter. The machine in the center is a monstrosity: blades of all types and sizes with rotating, extending arms. And in the center of them all, a well-built man stands impaled, still held up by the blades. Blood echoes out from the machine.
What do you do first?
Vincent steps into the room and winces as he sees the victum. He pulls out his pad and pencil and begins looking over the scene. "Lou, do you have the victim's name and disclaimer on file? Was anyone on scene around the time to make sure that people didn't use machines they weren't supposed to?" he asked as he stepped up to the well built man and began to look over the body more closely, listening to the owner as he did his work.
Hmmm. This equipment looks pretty expensive. This place should have a top-notch security system: with cameras.
Evidence Collection, spending a point to try find if the place was wired for video
Jeremy stays in the hall for a moment before following the rest of the detectives in. He gives the room a once over before walking towards the machine. He looks over the machine looking for any possible defects. "How old is this machine?" If possible Jeremy tries to get around the entire machine and look it over.
DeAndre steps out of his car at the scene. As he prepares to enter, he stamps out cigarette and pulls a new pack out of his pocket. Without lighting it he puts a new smoke in his mouth, and takes a good look at the face of The Danger Room. ”Nice place. Must be doin well.”
When he’s introduced to the owner, DeAndre shakes the man’s hand and lets him talk to his fellow investigators while he looks the place up and down. As the man talks, DeAndre’s mind begins to wander. Noticing the Smoke stains on the walls, he absently pulls on his unlit cigarette, ”Anybody smoke in here after the incident?”
As the scene in the blade room comes in to view, DeAndre stops in his tracks and sighs ”Great… That’ll be replacing the monster in my nightmares for a few nights…” Stepping up the paramedics, ” You the first reponders? What’s the deal?“
While he listens closely to the paramedics, he’s also scanning the room for any fleeting details his crew hasn’t dealt with yet.
The two EMT's on the scene perk up when Vincent asks his question to Lou and then when DeAndre addresses them directly. Before Lou can say anything, one says, "Vic's name is Randall Holfstadter." The EMT hands DeAndre Holfstadter's address. It's nearby, downtown.
Lou clears his throat, "Yeah, that's right. The machine? Pretty new. Look. I...can't stay in here. Please, if you want to talk follow me to my office."
He goes to leave, but obviously hesitating for anyone to follow.
DeAndre takes the information from the paramedics. "Thanks guys. You can step outside while we start our investigation. Don't go too far, we'll probably need more information from you. You got a card with your names?"
Once he gets the EMT's contact information, he'll step out with Lou. "Yo, I'm goin out for a square. You find surveillance, you let me know, ya?" he'll say to his crew.
As he heads down the hall with Lou, he'll light up the cigarette he kept in his mouth, then he'll gesture his pack towards the gym owner. "Hell of a way to end your night! You know much about Mr. Holfstadter?
dot
Buford steps into the room, and stands at a spot where he can see the whole room, the body, and the machine. He then opens his senses.
DM
First Olfactory center, to see if he detects any "out of place smells". Then Spacial Awareness to reconstruct the crime, including any footprints, signs of struggle, weird patterns of blood spray etc. If necessary he will then use his microscopic vision to further investigate anything unusual.
Mr. Hutkins, can you show me to the monitoring station for the video-cams?
You don't think you've ever heard of a drug that can suppress mutant powers, however, but that doesn't mean one has never been developed.
As he is walking down the hall to his office, he says, “Oh, the surveillance and the members' files are in my office with me.” He offers no more on the subject.
Lou says to DeAndre: ”Yeah, it’s been a tough day all around.” He waits to say more, looking back over his shoulder a couple times toward the crime scene. When he gets into his office with anyone else following, he closes the door and relaxes a little, but not by much."
The office is small and crammed full of old photos and old boxing trophies. There is a drink cabinet behind a solid-looking desk. A big-screen TV covers one whole wall and is wired into the gym’s closed-circuit cameras and shows all of the feeds.
Lou sighs. He takes a glass and a bottle of Jack Daniels out from the well-stocked drink cabinet and pours himself a long drink. ”I’ve known Randall for awhile. Great kid, talented you know? It’s a loss for everyone here.” He shakes his head. We haven’t had an accident in years, not since that fire nine years ago. And I took every precaution, and still this happens. I can show you the gym’s files. Holfstadter definitely had Blade Immunity, blood test confirmed it. We only give the key to the machine to those that’ve been confirmed for that ability, but the door’s not locked, just the machine.”
He takes a swig of his drink and sits down behind his desk.
Vincent looks over what he can on the victim but Lou's mannerisms bother him. He could tell the man was stressing about something and surprisingly it wasn't the murder. He realized there was little else he could do here at the scene so he took out his cell phone and made a call to a good buddy down at the lab. He called in the favor and promised them lunch and a bit of help if he got the chance.
Vincent knocked on the door politely before he stepped inside to join Jeremy and Lou. He closes the door behind him and leans on it to listen for the time being, picking when he might need to step in and give a little push.
As DeAndre makes his way around the room checking out the details of the office, he lets Lou talk. Only after the gym owner sits down does the detective speak up, "It's cliched as hell, I know, but did Mr Hofstadter have anybody who'd want to hurt him? Or maybe someone who'd want to smear your gym's reputation?
"what's got this guy spooked with all the cops around? gotta be someone f*ckin with this dude. More importantly, how the hell does a cutter end up impaled?"
Hearing the knock at the office door, DeAndre will let Vincent in. "Lou, we haven't officially introduced ourselves yet, these are Detective Delaney, and Jeremy Marsten. My name is Detective Holmes. In the other room are detectives Deveraux and Jeffers. We're with DPD Heightened Crimes."
When Lou is distracted enough by the other two detectives, DeAndre will make his way to the filing cabinet. [b]"these the files?"[b] he'll say as an offhanded question, and with a gesture, [b]"mind if I... ?"[b] DeAndre trails off
"Cliched? Well I don't know nothin' about that, but Randall was kind of a cocky guy. Rubbed some people the wrong way I guess. I know Skip didn't like him, but he didn't really bother anyone else."
He nods at DeAndre's introductions. He takes another swig of his drink, and motions to the cabinet with his glass.
"Go ahead, Detective, if you want."
"I get it now... Not everything is on the up and up. Too bad, that just means more potential suspects for us... Damnit." Thinking to himself as he thumbs through the files. He takes his time casually noting all the names, pictures and powers associated with each file, but plays it off as though he's still listening to Lou.
"I gotta ask man, how do you keep a place like this open for so long? You've got the shiney new machines... that can't be cheap, and the building has basically been rebuilt. You ain't got enough membership money to support that, so what's going on?"
Buford turns to grab Lorena's attention.
"Poor guy. Looks like he put up quite the fight before the machine took him. See all these bruises from deflecting blades. And, I'd think murder for sure, look how this buttons all smashed up. Maybe it was supposed to be an emergency stop or something. Know anything about how machines work?
I'm going to see what the surveillance vid shows. I'll also see if I can't get an operating manual for this dam thing, find out what kind of safety features it had. Do we know if there were people in the adjacent rooms? Who was the first person on the scene?
One of the EMT’s pipes up on their way out. ”I’ve got some mechanic experience, used to work on motors all the time.” He hesitantly goes over to the back of the machine, and if no one objects, he lays down and starts to work. While he works, the other EMT says to Lorena, ”First on the scene was one of the trainers giving a tour to a new member. The gym doctor, Eric Rowan, attempted to render aid, but could not get him out of the machine. He went home, traumatized.”
After a minute or two, the EMT at the machine brushes himself off and says, ”I think it’s been tampered with. The wires to the control plate here and the emergency stop have both been cut. Looks like someone knew what they were doing with this thing.”
The coroner arrives a few minutes later and sets down his kit and snaps on his gloves. ”Detective Devereaux, are you all done in here?” he asks.
Hutkins says to DeAndre, ”Well…we’ve got the mutant community with us. You know, backers and donations and stuff like that.”
Hutkins says, ”I guess, if it’s really necessary officers. Today’s disc should still be in there.” He presses a button on an expensive player and takes out the disc and places it in a case. ”Here you go. The stack of discs there are for the weeks before. You could play them here if you want, or use our TVs in our break room. Or I guess you guys got computers in your cars too. Whatever you need.”
Combing through hours of the footage is particularly dull, but your expertise in picking out detail with images comes in handy. You find that a strange individual in a hooded rain jacket and jeans entered through a side door reserved only for staff yesterday afternoon. On the video, he makes his way through the building straight to the knife machine. He is careful to keep his face hidden from the camera and his hands in his pockets, but through glimpses in reflective surfaces, you are able to tell that he is a Caucasian male in his mid-forties. He seems to know his way around the gym very well.
There’s an odd incident that was captured on one of the external cameras. A man matching the description of the suspect walking into the gym walks out of the alley next to the gym minus the rain jacket and meets a teenager on the street. They have an argument. The older man’s face is obscured, but the teenager’s face is not. He is well-built, with a handsome face, red hair, and striking features. He seems very intense.
A young teenager with striking features and red hair shows up several times on other sections of security footage. He is demonstrating a potent Wind Control power. In a custom wind tunnel machine, he maxes his speed out at 92 mph.
Watching unrelated footage, you start to notice a trend. All of the footage is of mutants with combat powers such as Quills, Natural Weapons, and blast powers and such. All footage of other members with less combat-worthy powers has been deleted to save storage space.
In regards to a manual for the knife machine, Hutkins says, ”I’m not sure about a manual, but Skip Adams is our mechanic. He built the machines. Might want to ask him.” He gives you the address, which is just a few blocks from the gym.
We'll also need the service and maintenance records for the machine too.
Lorena collects the disk.
All your equipment looks pretty new though, business must be good huh?
"Yea, I 'spose that's true, given how few gyms like this are around, with so many supe's now. Thanks for the information."
"This guy must think I'm a f*cking idiot. This just makes more work for us. It'll be our luck that some shark's got half a mill sunk in here, and he's just trying to send a warning..." DeAndre lifts his foot, and puts his smoke out on the sole of his shoe.
"Delaney... Marsten... Gunny..." He'll nod to the other detectives as he steps out of the office.
DeAndre leans against the wall and sighs, as he pulls his phone from his pocket and starts texting.
::U got anything in there 4 me to peep?::
::Gym owner hiding where $$ is coming from::
::and no machine manuals. I guess they're built by "Skip" the gym handy man, got his address if you want to roll over with me?::
::... Gotta glass of scotch with your name on it after we finish up there.::
::Taking blood-hound to skip's. If you get anything, let me know.::
::Let me get my hands on those disks back at the station, I'll see if I can pull anything interesting off of them.::
Vincent could tell the man was sweating about something and he wasn't sure what but he was getting annoyed by the fact that he may very well be withholding evidence. He walked up to the desk and put his hands on it leaning in towards Lou.
"You seem nervous, now in my line of work that means someone is not telling me the truth. Now that may mean you are just trying to hide something from me, or it may mean you are lying to me...either way that is bad for you. You see, I'm not a patient man. In fact, I really hate coming back a second time to get the story straight so here's what I am gonna do. We are here for about this man's murder, I don't give a s&#* if you are up to your eyeballs in debt to the mafia or the japs or whatever you got going on. So if you got info that can lead me towards any suspects I gotta know...It ain't my business to go writing you up on anything else, but if you make me come back and I found out you held out on me...well let's just say things are gonna get real difficult for you." he said getting closer to the man as he talked and takes the glass and the Jack Daniels from the man.
Hutkins says to Detective Jeffers, "Yeah it's been good I guess, I've got the maintenance files here." He pulls a file out of his desk and hands it to the detective. The files have the logs of every maintenance performed by Skip Adams. A quick scan reveals there haven't been too many maintenance calls over the two years they gym bought the machine.
He bristles at Detective Delaney. "Woah woah woah. I want this @#$hole taken down as much as you guys. Randall might've been a big personality, but I knew the guy. He didn't deserve anything close to this. You find this guy, maybe you put him in the ring with me."
Buford shrugs after putting the scene together. Useful information, but nothing that gets me closer to the who-dun-it. He is getting ready to head out of the room when his phone buzzes. He steps out before checking the text....
To Holmes
:: Yeah just finished up here, and on my way out.
:: I'll ride along with you, and if you switch out that scotch for a cold brew, I'll take you up on that as well.
If I haven't already been formally introduced to Hutkins, I will do so now.
What seemed to the cause of Mr. Adam's dislike of the victim?
::Meet you out front::
DeAndre slips his phone back into his jacket pocket, and pulls out his keys. Heading down the hall, he slips another cigarette into his mouth. Remembering that he hasn't seen where he's going, he pulls his phone back out of his pocket and punches in Skip's address to google maps. After the map loads, he takes a quick look at it, and pockets the phone again.
Out front, he lights up his smoke.
"Yo! Hound-dog! D'you catch anything in there?"
He presses the button on his keyfob to unlock the car, and raises the police tape line for his fellow
Buford walks out front and spots DeAndre lighting up a cig. "That's gonna kill you you know".
He then walks closer, shivering a bit at the chill wind.
"Poor guy put up quite a fight before he died. I'm not really mechanically inclined, but it looks like the machine emergency stops had been disabled. From the looks of his body, he fought it off for some time, but it finally got him. Bet something like that would get your heart pumping".
Buford follows Holmes to his car, and opens the passenger side and sits down.
"So I assume you know where we're headed? Might want to share that info with the rest of the gang, just in case things go south. Maybe they don't hear from us by a certain time the cavalry storms in"?
Hutkins says to Detective Jeffers, “Dunno. Guess just rubbed him the wrong way. He always complained how cocky Randall was, how he flaunted his powers around."
It doesn’t take long for you to drive to Skip Adams’s residence. He’s got an apartment on the second floor of a building just a few blocks away from the gym. Records say he also owns the workshop that takes up the whole bottom floor. The lights are on in the workshop. The doorlight flickers occasionally as you pull up, and outside the door the air smells of grease and solder. Inside, through the windows, you can see the mess. Parts lay everywhere of every type of engine and machine. You can see two figures leaning against a work table with mugs in their hands, sipping casually.
When the knock comes, a middle-aged man with big glasses answers the door. ”Yes?”
"my sister keeps telling me that... And I keep telling her the day I wake up and can't run my ten mile, is the day I give it up"
He sits down in the driver's seat and starts the car.
"already sent the text bud."
Arriving at Skip's shop, DeAndre will knock. When the man in big glasses answers he'll say "looking for Skip. He around?
So how is access to this place controlled? Key-cards? Door-codes? If I'm a member, and I want a late-night work-out, how do I get in?
Hutkins can tell you that door codes are given to anyone who signs up for a plus membership. Also, with any asking around with cop talk or bureaucracy, you can find out pretty quick that the gym's record is clean with the exception of a fire that broke out nearly ten years ago that killed one person.
The man with the glasses says, "That's me, what's this about?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
DeAndre will be looking in to the shop behind the man as he reaches into his coat's inside pocket and pulls out his badge to show the man. "I'm Detective Holmes and This is Detective Deveraux, we're with Detroit PD. Do you mind if we come in? We'd like to ask you some questions."
DeAndre will keep his hand lingering in his coat pocket pretending to situate his badge... Close to his gun.
Buford follows DeAndre in, letting him take the lead as he's the more social of the two. He also fumbles and shows his badge, stepping up for support. He extends his olfactory senses to see if he smells anything out of the ordinary.
Skip says, ”Uh, sure officers.”
He lets the door open and leads you into the workshop proper. The smell is even worse here, like fireworks or heavy welding. On the far side of the workshop floor, another man sits on a stool sipping his coffee. He tilts his head, looking at you. He’s reasonably well built, in his late forties or early fifties, and has graying hair along the sides of his head.
Skip says, ”Sorry Duke, if you’ll excuse us a second. The officers want to talk.”
The man, Duke, says, “Okay. I’ll be in the back. Excuse me gentlemen.”
Skip then turns back to you and gestures to the stools. He says, showing a bit of emotion, ”Please, take a seat if you like. I…heard about the incident at the gym. Duke was just by to tell me. Hofstadter wasn’t the best of people, but he didn’t deserve this. I suppose they told you I built that machine, and I built it with all kinds of safety measures just for this. The thought of something I built killing someone…” he trails off then.
He says, ”What did you want to ask me?”
"d'you mind if I smoke?" he says, pulling out his pack and lighter. He gestures the pack towards Skip offering him one.
"you design and build those machines yourself? he'll wait for a response before asking "you got schematics and manuels that we could get copies of?"
Make a somewhat exaggerated display of intently typing some notes on my IPad.
Buford then steps into the room as well, looking around the room. "More importantly, how hard would it be to sabotage the machine, so that the emergency stops don't function"?
You notice a pair of photos placed prominently on Lou Hutkins’s desk: one shows a striking woman demonstrating the Water Blast mutation, sending a wrecked car flying through the air with the force of the water, the other is a group shot, showing the same woman next to a smiling man, what looks to be a younger Hutkins, a flint-eyed man, and a grinning man with a toolbelt on. Judging from the clothes and hairstyles, both photos were taken ten years ago, which means that the woman must have been one of the first mutants.
Skip says to Detective Adams, "Sure. I've got everything backed up on my computer. I can give you a flash drive of it if you want. Don't use much paper these days."
He says to Detective Deveraux, "Uh, well I mean you'd have to really know a lot about it to be able to do that. It's got two emergency stop functions, and knowing which wires to cut for both of them would require a pretty intimate knowledge of the machine."
Detective Holmes walks to the computer and places his hand on it. A second passes and his eyes roll back in his head.
After a minute or two, his eyes release the obvious tension.
::got a computer here with schematics on it, might be worth taking to the lab::
To: Lab Tech:
::send a forensics van to pull a computer hard drive to 1231 Smith St.::
"You build all these alone? That's a lot of work for one guy"
"Skip... I'm going to give you one chance to answer truthfully, before my husky friend and I put you in cuffs for lying to a peace officer. Why are you lying to is?
.
@Deandre: you find all the schematics within his computer and more for other machines. Skio is quite that industrious engineer.
@Lorena: Skip is the one with the tool belt. The flint-eyed man is not Hofstadter.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"I'm going to have this hard drive taken to the station. We will copy it and get it back to you as soon as possible."
DeAndre leans against the desk, as he prepares to light his next smoke. He looks at Deveraux, before deciding to put it back in his pack. "F*ckin right, gonna kill me... Best not mess with his nose in here, anyways. There might be blood to smell or something important."
"Skip, I need to be honest with you... Right now, you are the only person, that we know of, who has the knowledge necessary to remove those fail-safes. It doesn't look good for you right off the bat. Now I don't tend to jump to conclusions, but my gut is telling me you're not responsible for this, but we need your help to find out who is. So, who else knows how these machines are put together besides you?"
Jeremy looks over Lou's office again and focuses back onto the desk and looks at a few of the pictures on the desk. "Who are other people in these pictures?" Jeremy motions to the two pictures on the desk as he asks the questions.
Hutkins says to Detective Marston, ”Well, that’s me, Skip with the belt, the other two are Marsha Collins and Henry York. This place used to be the Southside Boxing Club, but after the ghost flu hit and Marsha started to get the water blast mutation and Henry got fire control, well, I had the idea of bringing in some equipment to cater to mutants. It grew pretty quick into a gym just for mutants, so when there was a gas leak and half the place caught fire, we rebuilt it into the Danger Room, off’a some comic or something.” He looks down solemnly. ”Marsha died in that fire. Duke was angry for awhile, but it was an accident. They had a son, Alan, before she died. Great kid.”
He’s not lying, but you get the feeling that there’s more to the story than he’s letting on.
He shakes his head. “Uh, where was I? Oh, yeah, Dr. Rowan showed up a bit after that, and became our doctor on call ever since. Henry left awhile back, dunno where he went. So out of the old gang, it’s just me and Skip, and Duke comes around too. We’re still friends.”
Skip says, "It's easy for me to give out my information, officers, but I'm not comfortable in giving out others'. I don't want to intrude on others' privacy."
Skip says, "I guess it'll be all right. The list of people familiar with that machine is pretty short. Other than Hofstadter, there's me, Duke, his son Alan, the doctor Eric Rowan, and Lou Hutkins."[/b]
He reaches into his pocket and hands a business card to Skip. "Thank you Skip. Here's my card if you hear anything, don't hesitate to give me a call."
DeAndre stands up. "unless detective Deveraux has any further questions at this time, I think we're done here."
"Let's hit it"! Then when they are out of earshot. "Where to next"? Should we rendezvous with the others, and do an information dump"?
We'll also need today's door-logs, of course.
She stands.
Detective Delaney, is there anything else we need here?
Vincent stood there taking in everything that was being mentioned and trying to make sure nothing was skipped. "You said that, Skip was it, disliked Randall. What kind of rivalry was it between the two? Anything to do with the machines themselves not keeping up with his abilities?" he asked curiously.
"Was there anyone else from the gym perhaps that were in a friendly competition with him?" he asked scribbling in his notepad.
"Sure," Hutkins says to detective Jeffers. He turns around and pulls out another file at the top with a date range on the top. "Here you go. Like I said, we don't keep the workout rooms themselves locked, so anyone could'a done something to them." He sighs. "Going to have to get some keycards or something for those rooms now I guess."
To detective Delaney, he says, "Yeah, Skip didn't like him much. Hofstadter never really said anything bad about the machines. Skip's got a great head for them. But I guess Hofstadter figured Skip was jealous or something, about his powers. Always said it when they got into it a couple times. They avoid each other mostly."
"No one else in particular comes to mind. He's got a way about him. Rubs some people the wrong way."
"Sure no problem," Skip says. "I'll do whatever I can. The guy was kind of a @&%hole but he didn't really deserve to die. Good luck, detectives."
Heading out of Skip's shop:
"Yea, let's meet up with the rest, see what they've got. We've got forensics coming to pick up the hard drive so that'll be back at the shop. Did you smell anything other than grease and sweat?" he says as he lights up another smoke.
DeAndre flips his phone open...
::just wrapped up at Skip's. Sent forensics to collect his computer drive. Its full of info on those machines. You guys get all the info you need? Meet at the bar for drinks and to trade info?::