Participants:
| Scene Title | All Grown Up |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Veronica stops by to thank Magnes for his help, giving him comic books and proclaiming him to have matured. |
| Date | July 7, 2010 |
Gun Hill Magnes' and Elaine's Apartment
Elaine's out running errands, no doubt with people definitely watching over her, ready to pounce on the ex if he makes a move. Magnes' Gun Hill apartment is much like his Dorchester once, except far more homely and modest. He has the book cases of comics, comics sitting in containers on the blue carpet inbetween bookcases and under the windows, his entertainment center with the 50 inch HDTV and plenty of DVDs and blu-ray movies. There's three doors other than the front door, two bedrooms and a bathroom, and there's the little kitchen area not really covered by a door, one simply walks into it. Also unlike his past apartments, there's a very apparent feminine touch to this one. The scents he never bothered with the freshen up the place, a few articles of clothing thrown here and there, girly magazines on the table, and possibly the fact that he doesn't actually have the geeky posters up outside of his room anymore.
Right now he's laying across the couch with a pair of blue jeans on and a black t-shirt with a Black Lantern symbol on the front, flipping through a comic book.
Veronica doesn't like owing people, and there's quite a few people she owes right now in this life. Gabriel Gray and Kayla Reid are among them. Magnes, she can at least thank. She has a bag of food, Chinese since she knows that Magnes would turn his nose up at any pizza not made by Panucci or himself, and another bag full of comic books. She knocks on the door of the apartment. It's after hours, so she's dressed in shorts and a Yankees t-shirt, feet in tennis shoes, hair in a ponytail — about as casual as Magnes has ever seen her, if you don't count the camouflage gear in the Argentinian jungles.
"Hold on I'm coming." Magnes stands and heads over to the door, unlocking things and opening it for her, motioning for the couch. "Hey, Veronica. Uh… did you get fired?" is his reaction to her casual attire, eyebrow raised as he closes the door and starts locking it again. "Elaine's out, shouldn't be back for a few hours."
"I worked all weekend, and on the 4th, so I got off work early. No, I'm not fired," Veronica says with a chuckle. She looks tired, dark circles under her eyes hinting at her lack of sleep. "I brought dinner. You can save it for you and Elaine, if you like, or we can eat." She lifts the bag of food, then hands him the bag of comics instead. "And… I went to some comic book store and asked for anything rare that they only had one or two copies of that a collector would like. I have no idea if you like anything in there or if it's all lame, but, Merry Christmas." There is at least a couple of thousand dollars' worth of comic books in the bag, all in dust covers to protect the pages.
Magnes takes the bag, eyes wide with disbelief without even opening the bag. He rushes over to the couch and plops down, then finally looks inside, eyes widening even more. "Jesus Christ." He looks up at her from the bag, possibly threatening his face to stick like that. "Are you serious? Like, I can keep these? What did I do?" Apparnetly he doesn't think espionage and betraying his team is worthy of these comics. "Amazing Spider-Man 129, first appearance of the Punisher, and… and…" He sighs, trying to catch his breath.
"Yes, they're yours. There's little certificates of authenticity as well, if any of that matters," Veronica says with a pleased chuckle, moving to the sofa to sit beside him. "So I did good? I mean, I know Spider-Man's a gimme, and all, but I don't know much about that stuff. Whatever I know, you taught me, and that's not a lot. And you don't remember, for that matter."
She sets the food down on the coffee table, way away from the comics. "Look. I owe you. Big time. And Gabriel, too, so you know, pass it on to him that I'll buy him lunch or something if he trusts me enough to do so," she says, glancing at him and then the floor. "I can't really tell you why it was so important, but it was. Were you okay? Not hurt? Your team didn't blame you for anything, I hope?"
"I remember some things, but like I said, hard to place the discussions with specific people, I've just gotten ideas of who people are in my memories, like, they've become their own people, I guess? Like mentor one and mentor two… Mentor one was like a mother to me, and I think she kicked me in the crotch for some reason…" Magnes shakes his head, memories clearly hazy, and then, yay, comics! "No," And thank god Magnes unplugged the television and everything when she called, or he'd be screwed. "I told the team we were set up, and I took the computer out with gravity, which weakened me a lot because of something else I was dealing with, and just plain being hard, but they didn't catch on. Plus I think that whole smoke bomb in the elevator thing might have impressed them."
Vee's eyebrow ticks up. Smoke bomb in the elevator? Magnes is becoming Batman after all. "Impressive. So … as far as you know, you were just rescuing the lot of Evolved folks there? No one specific? How'd you get mixed up with these people? They seem really dangerous, Magnes. You're too good for this kind of thing. You can't do this sort of gig and be as honest, as nobleas you are. It'll change you, and I would hate to see that," she says quietly, then smiles up at him. "Even if I was grateful as hell that it was you who came after me in that hallway, and not some one who would have killed me."
"Our main target was Niklaus Zimmerman, I was told in my briefing that he's Evolved and was captured by the Company two years ago. He was supposedly held by corrupt government members, similar to Moab, and if we could, we were supposed to let out anyone else in the process." Magnes carries his bag to the second room, which he uses as his work area, and shuffles around there for a fire proof file cabinet. Where all his rare comics go. "I was only in Messiah because I wanted to see what Claire got wrapped into. Then it started to seem like a great idea, at least until Peter revealed himself as the leader, and then started spouting all of these insane terrorist plans about assassinating people and blowing things up. I plan to get out of it as soon as I can talk to him, but I have some pressing matters, like meeting with my parents finally, and getting rid of my girlfriend's stalker ex boyfriend."
So Messiah was after Zimmerman. Veronica doesn't let the fact this bothers her show in her face — Cardinal probably already knows all of this and more if Claire is involved in Messiah. She shakes her head. "Get out. Petrelli's just one bad thing after another, Magnes. Don't work with him. I'm sure he probably thinks what he's doing is right, and he's probably doing it for the same reasons all of us do some of the things we do, but he seems to fall from one bad thing to another. One of these days it's going to catch up with him." She leans her head back, rubbing her eyes tiredly. "Stalker ex boyfriend? Do I want to know? Good luck with the parents thing."
"I wouldn't trust Peter Petrelli to lead a school of fish. I just want to talk to him first so that he knows I'm not going to suddenly become their enemy or something. I intend to take a neutral stance." Magnes walks back out after she hears the lock on the cabinet clicking, then he takes his seat on the couch again, reaching to dig through the food. "And Elaine's ex is calling her from some unknown ID. He's been harassing her a lot and threatening to get at her through her friends and stuff. I'll take care of it, she was really worried but I reassured her."
Veronica nods, reaching over to ruffle his hair. "You've grown up a lot in the past year, Magpie," she says, voice fond and somewhat wistful.
"Look, if you don't see me again for a while, I just wanted you to know I appreciate what you did the other day. It was really brave, to help me, and to mess with your team's plans. It was courageous. Heroic. You've done more than you know, and I want you to know that, even if the world never knows, I know. And it means the world to me," she murmurs, eyes down, voice huskier than normal, though she'll chalk it up to being tired. Too many night-time trips moonlighting.
"I did what I thought was right, and I trust you to know what's best more than anyone on my team did. Though I did have a certain trust in Gabriel, I know him better than I think a lot of people do, and Messiah doesn't seem like his thing." Magnes smiles and looks down at the food in his lap when she says he's grown up a lot, but he doesn't say anything to it. "I'm never gonna stop doing the right thing, and bettering myself. I don't think killing so many people and blowing things up is going to solve anything. But before you leave, I thought I'd ask," He turns his head, and points to the isotope mark. "Do you have any idea how to get rid of this tracker? Adam says I need to cut it out. And before you say anything, I'm not working for Adam, I'm using his resources and trying to keep an eye on him to make sure he's not shooting people. I was going to tell you, but I hadn't gotten the chance."
Her brows knit together. "Get me my fucking tranq gun back from him if you can," she says bitterly. "And my ring." She's still bitter over the loss of her weapon, badge, tranq gun and ring, but the tranq gun is more of a commodity right now. The others are fairly replaceable. "I don't think it's that simple or else more people would have done it. I think that marker is just a visual indicator but the elements stay in the system permanently."
Her hand automatically rubs at her own absentmindedly. "Be careful with him. He's the most dangerous of all the founders, really. The others know what they did in the past is wrong but are trying to improve the situation. He thinks just killing everyone who pissed him off is the solution. At any rate, he'll have his wish soon — the problem is, what rears its head in place of the Company is going to be worse. You saw the people in that room, right?"
"Yeah, the Ferry have rescued people in vans like that too, but just assassinating people can't be the solution. Either way, I work for the government, and you know what? I'm not afraid to say that I support it to some level. I think we need to stop what's going on, but, I don't know how, and I'm also not afraid to say that other people do, and I'm going to let them do it. This is over my head." Magnes makes a gesture, moving his hand right over his head. "I'll stick to what I know, I'll save who I can, and if people need me, I'll help with the best of my abilities, but there's a limit to how far I'll go against the government. Do you understand that? Can you? I just wanna know."
Veronica nods. "It's good to have limits. Don't let anyone make you do anything you're not willing to, all right? Stick to your guns, or — you know, your non-violent morals, in this case. I respect that." She smiles sadly. He tried to save lives the other night — she killed at least two men. Granted, the French cryokinetic would have anyway.
She reaches suddenly to hug him, and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Be good, Magnes. I gotta get. Take care of your girlfriend, and try to stay out of trouble." She stands, leaving him the Chinese food for himself and Elaine, and begins to head to the door.
"Good night, Veronica. I appreciate everything, especially those comics. God I need to go make sure they're really there…" Magnes acts as if she just gave him the Holy Grail with authentic Jesus blood, but stands up so he can see her out. "Maybe one day I can introduce you to Elaine, you two would definitely get along. She's Scottish, you're tough, more or less the same thing."
She appreciates him for saving her life and helping them get Zimmerman to safety. He appreciates her for some rare comics. Call it even. "She's lucky to have you looking out for her. It's good to see that you have something good in your life. Makes all those pow-wows in Argentina worthwhile," she says with a smirk. "Be good, kid." And with that, she's out the door, in hopes of getting some R and R with her own significant other.