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July 4, 2012: Following a series of fires at various research labs over the world, Halo and the Cyrus Dain have been sent by the SIA to find the source and stop it. What was first considered an issue for the police quickly became an issue for the SIA when two of the agents sent to find the arsonist were found with their bodies burned beyond recognition. The hunt has brought the two agents to a small laboratory just outside of Salem, Oregon. They suspect that the arsonist they are looking for has come to Doctor Ibrahim Holloway for shelter.

Unlike Cyrus, Halo couldn’t simply change her clothing on a whim. In fact she suspected being comfortable was somewhat a foreign concept to Cyrus. Either way, upon arriving at their hotel she went to her own room to change and otherwise get ready to continue the investigation. She had a feeling a few people would recognize the SIA uniform, though she wore it nonetheless. While hers was the same in appearance it was in different in that it lacked the Kevlar and bullet proofing other agents wore. Her own bullet proofing was a lot better and restricted her movements a lot less. Then she went and knocked on the door the Cyrus’s room.

“Hiding things from you? That is impressive.” Halo had to wounder if a technopath was involved in this case in some way to hide an electronic trail from Cyrus. “I guess that means we'll have to do things the old fashion way. We have a location, let's go scout of Doctor Holloway's lab and see what we can see.” If she was bothered by Cyrus's lack of intel she didn't show it, though truth be told he had definitely spoiled her since they became partners with the ease that he usually came up with information. To be fair, what the two of them could 'see' on a simple scouting mission was a lot more than two human cops.

With Cyrus's gesture, Lexi began heading down the hall towards where the rental car was parked. “I can, but couldn't you send some of your bugs inside?” She inquired. They were so small she doubted anyone would notice his nanites crawling around the lab, though perhaps there was some distance he could no longer control them while keeping control of the rest of his body. “If you want me to look, then you should drive.” In the event that anything did go wrong and they needed to make a quick getaway, it was generally helpful if the person behind the wheel consciousness wasn't elsewhere.

“I'm not sure where you got that impression.” Halo answered with a bit of a laugh. She didn't exactly talk about her powers a lot to be fair. It felt too much like bragging perhaps, though in retrospect she should probably fill Cyrus in on her full capabilities if he was going to keep assigning her jobs. She slipped into the car before explaining further. “I use Astral Projection. It's a bit like being a ghost really, but it certainly doesn't make me omniscient.” It was the best she could think of to describe the experience, at least in a few sentences, though she could go in deeper detail if Cyrus wanted.

“You can always just ask if you are curious about something.” Though now Halo was kind of curious about what he had found on Google. Perhaps she ought to look herself up, something she had never thought to do before. “Unfortunately in this case the practical functionality of our powers are rather similar, even if the method we use is vastly different.” They each had their minor pros and cons that might give one of them the edge over the other depending on the variables in the situation. For example walls were no barrier to her in the event of a pneumatically sealed room, and unless there was someone with the ability to detect projection she was completely invisible. Still the chances of someone noticing Cyrus's nanites was next to nothing given how small they were, and what were the chances of someone having a sealed room he couldn't get into? “Let me know when you are ready for me to go in.”

“I spend forty plus hours a week with you Cyrus. I think I can handle your awkward questions.” Halo pointed out. Perhaps she should take him out somewhere in an attempt to teach him how to deal with social scenarios. Start with something small like a restaurant, dealing with a waitress, and go from there. She had a feeling he might not agree to that however. With Cyrus's go ahead Halo closed her eyes and took a breath. The closing of the eyes wasn't really necessary, but one time she had forgotten to and ended up with bloodshot eyes for a week. It seemed like no amount of eye drops would stop the stinging they had dried out so bad. Then she was floating outside her body. It was always a little strange to look at herself sitting there. She flew off towards the building, and passed through the walls like a ghost. Time to see what was happening here and what she could find out about the arsonist and the doctor.

The sight of the dissected heroes shocked her. Halo had come across some gruesome crime scenes her in past, but there was something about the precision and callousness of how this was done. She could only hope the young heroes had died painless deaths before meeting this fate, though she could decide if it was better or worse for their family members to know about this or to continue to think they were missing. She would have liked to turn back at the laboratory, but the job demanded she press forward. Room to room she passed, until she found not one, but both their targets. While she had a guess at what Holloway meant by cut from the same cloth, it would have been nice to know for sure. If only she was stronger at astral projecting, she could have pulled some ghost like stuff and scare them right out of the building and into Cyrus's waiting arms. Unfortunately she had no choice but to return with nothing more than the knowledge she had gained.

“They are both there. They're...experimenting on supers. Dissecting them. All the young heroes who are missing. They know we are investigating Gabriel, but Holloway doesn't know we are here yet. He said him and Gabriel were cut from the same cloth.” Her report was delivered in a calm and soft monotone that meant she had detached herself from whatever emotion she had been feeling before speaking. Which meant what she had seen had bothered her more than she was willing to let on.