Participants:
Scene Title | Discussing Bulletholes And Badges |
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Synopsis | Reed responds to Niles' call for help. They discuss what it's like being a girl, bulletholes and certain SCOUT operatives. |
Date | May 2, 2009 |
Textile Factory 17
That was a damn bad night, there's no other way to put it. What was supposed to be a simple revenge killing for someone who was of no importance to anyone, ended in a giant mess full of cops and heroes. Niles has been in the factory all night long. His wounds aren't severe, but they do need to be cleaned properly, else they're going to get infected. He's slumped on a chair, more than the recommended dose of Tylenol in his system, a messy bandage over his side and blood seeping through the material of his sleeve.
He sent out a general call to the others asking for assistance, but also to warn them.
Reed had rather wanted to avoid approaching the others in this form. While it doesn't necessarily hinder them in the work they are trying to do, it's almost reluctant to give this up because she has been enjoying being human again. Leaving this body leaves it wide open to being snatched up again by Mallory who is now inside the net like he was. Therefore, she doesn't easily have access to places she might normally have actually being in the net.
Finding this place was a bitch. She never actually had to walk here before, but after several bus transfers, she finally locates the place and slides the door open stepping in to let it shut behind her. Only because Niles sent out some sort of S.O.S., did she bother even coming here in the first place. "Anyone here?" she calls out, forgetting that none of them have seen her in this form, or even know she's in an actual body.
Niles is muzzy-headed from the drugs and a long night of restless sleep. His head jerks up and his eyes try to focus on the stolen form of Reed. But his reflexes aren't completely dulled. He manages to send out one silvery-blue replicant that travels like a blip through the air and settles in front of her. "I suggest you turn around and walk back out, girl. And forget you ever found this place."
He's like the Wizard of Oz putting on a show. He couldn't manage a lethal voltage in this state.
Glancing at the charge that fizzles in front of her, Reed takes a step back. "Listen, dipshit. It's me. Taylor. Reed." That should explain everything, right?" She doesn't step forward. "What the hell happened to you?"
The replicant of Niles tilts his head and the shape of eyes squints at the girl in front of him. "…what?" A beat, "You can possess people?" That doesn't exactly put the duplicator at ease. In the background, his injured physical form gives Reed a very similar suspicious look to the one his replicant is giving.
A very girly sigh comes out from the former boy as she turns towards the laptop and makes it play some current music. It lasts about 30 seconds or so before she cuts it off. "Not people — other technopaths. I happened upon one who was kind enough to trade places with me." Okay, not entirely the truth, but it's not like this group is the most honest of folk. Reed turns back to Niles and reaches up to brush some hair out of her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. "Do you want me to help you or should I go ahead and leave now?"
This causes a rumble of laughter from Niles that ends in a short, painful cough. The replicant grins at Mallory-Reed and disappears. His physical body shifts forward. "Somehow the bloody cops knew I was coming. For some reason they cared that I wanted to kill a little trailer rat. The authorities know about us, Reed. Somehow. And I'm sure my former friends didn't fail to mention the fact that I look ten years older than I should."
"What the fuck did you do?" Well, that language is definitely part of Mallory. Despite being a teenager, Reed never was one to toss around the F-word casually. She seems to be struggling a bit with keeping his own identity. She even dressed rather plain to come for this visit, as opposed to wearing the 'very girly' outfits she purchased for her new form. "I thought we were supposed to keep a low profile." She moves close and looks to check for whatever wounds he may have.
"It wasn't as if I planned this." Niles gives Reed a very sharp, dark look. "I had some people who fucked me over in the past and I wanted to make sure that they couldn't. In case all of this didn't work. But somehow the police knew I was was coming. I don't understand how they would, or even why they'd care. The pigs never gave a damn about us when we needed help befo..—ffuck." He hisses air between his teeth.
The wound on his side is the more serious one. Given it's his left arm injured and his right side, it made bandaging himself very difficult. He only managed to get disinfectant on part of it, and the bullet wound through his side could probably use stitches.
Kneeling down, Reed goes through the first aid kit that has been open and left there when Niles tried to bandage himself, rather poorly at that. She has no idea how to dress a wound, so she walks over and unplugs the laptop, letting it run off the battery and bringing it over. Without touching it, it starts to work, pulling up a browers and doing some high speed searches. Finally there's some pictures that pop up as Reed begins to remove the old dressings. Then something occurs to her. "Wait. They knew you were coming? What the fuck? How can that be true? Everyone has been keeping a low profile. I've been monitoring all resources." Dammit!
She tosses the old bandages into a pile to be taken care of later. Following the instructions on screen, Reed sets out to try and bandage him the best she can, having no clue if there's a bullet inside him or now. Nothing she can do about that anyway. "The others are going to shit bricks."
"It wasn't anything I did." There's a sharp defensiveness in Niles' voice. But he's had a shitty night, so he can be forgiven, yes? "No one should have cared that Aria died, and it would have ensured that she wasn't alive to testify against my release a few years from now. No one cared when I got rid of Thea." He winces as Reed cleans the wound along his side. This isn't the only scar that ticks up the convict's side - just a new bullet wound to go with several shiv marks. "I've been discrete. They've got — " wince, " —…nothing on the transformers."
"There must be a precog in their ranks. Someone who knows we're out to destroy the timeline and is passing on information to the authorities." Bad news indeed.
Shit. Reed raid on the abandoned Company sight wasn't all that fruitful, at least that he's aware of. Most of the computers have been nuked, either on purpose or as a result of violence. She is probably going to have to go into — "What was it? NYPD? Company? Any ideas?" she asks as she applied some gauze, putting quite a bit of pressure on the would as she reaches for some tape.
Niles lets out a cry of pain. He bites his lower lip and forces himself into a more calm place. "I don't know. They didn't flash any badges. Could be they weren't cops at all, but one was wearing armour and they had radios. If you could…—" wince. "…if you could hack in to the directory for the police and the FBI, I could scan through and tell you if I recognize any of them. There was a blonde woman and a tall man with glasses and pointy cheekbones. A darker haired woman and this younger guy who could fly." And Gio. Goddamn Gio.
The wound has already started bleeding again. It did from the moment the old bandage was removed, so the red liquid smears over Reed's hands as she works. "Okay, just about done here." Some tape is applied to the wound and she stands. She finds a sink and washes off her hands before she returns. That is something she is still getting used to. The normal parts of living. Washing, eating, that sort of thing. She pulls over a chair and picks up the laptop and starts typing. Well, not really typing as much as holding the laptop. Windows begin to open and Reed focuses on what she's doing as she reaches out to try and slip into NYPD's database. It was basically just like at the clothing store. He just told the firewall he had permission to be there and it let him slip in. He starts to scan, first pulling up blond female. Pictured 8 at a time in 2 rows of 4. "Let me know if you recognize the blond."
Niles reaches for a bottle of Tylenol and pops a few with a swallow from a bottle of water. And then he inches forward, using his heels to roll the old office chair over towards the laptop. He has to blink to focus on the screen. His mind is fuzzy, his body worn.
As he watches the screen, his gaze flicks occasionally over to Reed. "You…weren't a girl before…were you?" Hey. Someone had to ask.
Reed turns to /stare/ at Niles for a moment. "Shut up. It was the only body I could find."
Turning back to the screen and flipping through alphabetically, she finally hits the H's and Elisabeth's picture shows up as part of the eight. "How many fucking blonds do they hire at NYPD?"
"It was an honest question." Though Niles' expression grows in amusement. Hah. "Any body is better than no body, mmm? How do you feel?" In his ribbing of Reed, he nearly misses Elisabeth's picture. "Wait. Stop. Go back. There." He points at Harrison's picture. "That's her."
Reed ignores the question at first, clicking on the picture of Elisabeth Harrison and pulling it full screen with some states. "Harrison, Elisabeth. Detective." Reed pulls up some of her history. Shit. "She's pretty good at what she does. She's going to be a problem." It's a fair assessment as Harrison appears to like to have her hands in the middle of just about everything. "It's — different. And no, I wasn't a chick before. I was a guy. Weird thing is I can access some of her memories. Not everything is open, but occasionally, I'll have a memory and know it's not mine but hers. It's kind of freaky." She says before she starts a scan for the male, letting it scroll through as before.
"Wait…SCOUT? Godddamn it." Niles mutters and sits back. That causes him to wince and a hand goes to his side. "Bring up a list of SCOUT operatives. If there was one there, there's likely to have been another." He looks at Reed with something akin to sympathy. "So. Are you planning on staying in there, or trying to find a male body?"
"I dunno. I've come across to technopaths. This one, and another. I've got a very strong impression that one was also a female. And a bitchy one at that." She can only hope that perhaps there's a male technopath out there. She shifts focus to SCOUT operatives, letting them scroll back casually. Reed totally missed that SCOUT thing, but again, he would have no reason to know a hell of a lot about SCOUTS. "What does that mean? SCOUT? I haven't heard about that before." Pictures continue to move by.
"They're a special task force with Evolved cops. Specifically assembled to deal with the Evolved. They're…" Niles snorts. "…they were, a pain in the arse to me and my people. Irony now that they seem to be helping th..ah, him." He points at the picture of Jordan Baxter. "Flyboy." A grunt. "This is not good news. These people have resources. And I doubt they're going to give up now that they've caught my scent. I need to find out how they knew I was going to be at the theatre."
Reed looks at Baxter for a few moments. "Anyone else we need to be on the watch for? I guess I'll try and pay a visit to this Harrison chick and Baxter guy's computers. See if I can find anything else out. Maybe they keep a log or journal on their systems." She glances over to Niles to see if he has anything else she needs to be looking for on this laptop.
"I'm not sure if the other guy, the dark-haired man or the other woman were cops. And knowing the identity of those two is a good place to start." Niles rubs at his chin and inhales through his nose. "I appreciate your help, Taylor." For a sociopathic killer, he does seem quite genuine.
Reed snaps the lid closed on the laptop and walks it over to plug it back in. "I haven't seen the others to let them know I have this body, or to let them know that someone else is in the net now. I am not certain how adept a technopath she might be, to know if she can trace any of my steps back here, but be aware she's out there." She turns and asks. "Is there anything else you need? I should get back before 'the brother' starts to wonder where I've run off to."
"Do you believe she'll be a threat to us? Should we use even more caution? Or do you think she's just desperate to get her body back?" Niles stands with some effort and reaches for his coat. He has a hotel room to crash at and he could use some sleep. A bit of a wolfish grin appears. "You sly dog. You're actually living her life? That takes talent. I once knew a metamorph who was completely useless because she couldn't impersonate her own sister if she tried."
Reed grins, "Well, I've made a few changes which probably would raise a few eyebrows, but otherwise, I'm doing okay. I have minimal interaction with anyone who might know her /really/ well, which helps. It also helps that I have sporadic access to her memories." She thinks for a moment. "As far as a threat goes, I can't be sure. I am not sure how adept she is at this. We'll find out soon enough — and yes, she was not happy when I tricked her out of her body. She will be looking for find it very soon."
"Well, you can't really blame her. I can imagine it's not very pleasant to be a disembodied spirit in the technological wilds." Niles grins at Reed once again. He looks almost…proud. "Good for you, Taylor. I admire a man who takes what he needs. And thank you again for your assistance. I'll brief the others, or you can, depending on which one of us sees them next."
Not entirely sure how she feels about that, perhaps there's a small amount of pride inside Taylor at the compliment. She stands and shrugs. "Eh. No biggie. It feels nice to actually be able to breathe, eat and feel again. Anyway, I can still be reached as always. Oh, and she has a cell phone." she copies the number down and leaves it. "I'll see what I can find out with those SCOUT folk and get back with you." Reed turns and slips out of the factory, sliding the door shut behind him, leaving Niles to his own devices.