Falafels with a Terrorist

Participants:

magnes_icon.gif tracy_icon.gif

Scene Title Falafels with a Terrorist
Synopsis Why is it always the falafel place? Magnes tracks down Tracy to try and get his name cleared; Tracy's head explodes.
Date May 25, 2009

Burt's Falafels

The usual. Burt and the Falafels..


It's early in the afternoon, a bit after lunch, and Magnes, using Delivery Boy Techniques (TM), has tracked down one Tracy Strauss to a Falafel place. Business is winding down with the passing of lunch, which gives him plenty of room to scan the area. He's wearing his silver-rimmed glasses today, figuring people won't instantly recognize his face that way (Works for Clark Kent), and his shirt is modelled after Captain America's, with blue jeans and battered white sneakers on. Where could Tracy be…

Oh, wait, there she is! Stepping through the door in a navy pantsuit, lips painted a dark red, as usual, and her hair up in that extreme power-pony-tail. "Hi, Burt." She says, not paying attention that there's no one else in there but the boy in the corner, Burt and herself. Burt, the man behind the counter, comments that Tracy is later than usual, and she waves it off to work. "Vegetarian, please." He nods, heading in back to get some more of those onions she loves.

Magnes walks over to Tracy, stopping about three feet away from her, watching from the side. "M-N-Miss…" Oh, crap, she is way hotter than her photo. "N-Nevermind! No, wait, I have a question. Wait! It's not a question, I have to talk to yeah, y-yeah, I have to talk to you." Deep breaths, in and out, in and out… oh god in and out! "I didn't mean it like that!" he quickly says in an apologetic tone, even though he didn't even say the words outside of his own head.

She'll never get a falafel in peace. Not one. But for Tracy, that's alright. Peace is boring, anyway. Turning, she flashes him that confused half-smile of hers. "If…you're a reporter, I suggest you work on your delivery. Unless…" She turns to face him, leaning on the counter with that same half-smile growing into a half grin, eyeing the boy playfully. "Is this her way of telling me I need a bodyguard? Tell her I'll call the police as soon as I've got time…"

"W-what?" Magnes is dumbstruck, what is this woman talking about? "No, I'm not a reporter, and I don't know why you need a bodyguard. Can we go sit in one of those corners and talk? It's important." he says a bit more calmly now; she won't bite, hopefully.

Tracy turns back to Burt who is handing her a falafel-wrap. She takes it, nodding with a friendly smile and handing over some cash. "Alright…" She agrees, not really trusting but willing to give the kid the benefit of the doubt. Either he's a really good actor or he's legitimately nervous. Considering how many bad actors end up without work in NYC when they don't hit it big…well, benefit of the doubt. "What's your name?" She asks, her smile failing into a line of confusion and slight concern. Not so much for him as for the situation in general. But a little bit for him - she's not frozen through yet.

Magnes starts walking toward a booth, sliding in toward the window to wait for her. "Well, see, my name's Magnes J. Varlane, the guy from that whole Japan thing." he admits, wincing slightly, as if expecting her to suddenly explode.

She doesn't exactly explode, but as she slides into her seat it's clear she's on the very edge of it. That name came up so recently, too. But remember - some creep came up to her in this very falafel joint. That doesn't mean he's a terrorist. But it does make her wonder briefly: Why Her? "The Evolved fight. I remember, it was all over the news. What do you want with me?"

"Well, I saw you in the group, the people who called hiro a terrorist. You seemed like the nicest one, so, I tracked you down." Magnes explains his not-so-good plan, but hey, he's desperate right now, trying legal options before resorting to random possibly-terrorist groups. It's what Superman would do. "I'm sure they'll all be calling me a terrorist soon too, and, I was wondering if you could fix it somehow. Hiro's not a terrorist either, I went back in time, I saw what happened. Hell, Sylar didn't even do it, but I'm more concerned with Hiro and myself right now."

Okay, now her head is leaning towards explosive. She even looks it - you don't need X-ray vision to see the migrane that's developing between those cold blue eyes. "Whoah…okay…stand back now." She lifts her hand to get the damned boy to hush for a second. "You're Nakamura's protege, right? And you went…back in time. To the bomb, and Sylar isn't the culprit?" Tracy lets her hands sit on the table, peering across at him. "Would you care explaning that in this reality, where sequencial order and reasoning are still prevalant?" Because none of that made sense to her, not a syllable of it.

"Exactly." Magnes agrees with a firm nod of his head. "Sylar was there, that much is true, but, Sylar killed Hiro's best friend, then Peter Petrelli comes and explodes. I know time travel seems like a bit much, but…" He holds his hand out for her's, which is a bit shaky, cheeks flushed. His nervousness obviously has more to do with her than anything else. "I completely kick the crap out of one of the laws of physics, is time travel so crazy?"

And now he's lost her. "Peter Petrelli." She says, skeptically, assuming now that he must be a bit off his rocker. "President Petrelli's brother, you're blaming Peter Petrelli for the worst terrorist attack in human history? Those are….very stiff charges to be pressing. Time travel aside, do you have any proof of this?" She folds her hands on the table - mostly to keep them from shaking. After all, she's sitting with an Evolved terrorist accomplice with only a can of mace and Burt the falafel guy to protect her.

Alright, she's not gonna take his hand, so he pulls it back with a mixture of disappointment and relief. If he could just amaze her with gravity, which solves everything. "Other than being there, talking to Sylar once myself, and knowing people who are close to both Sylar and Peter, I guess I don't have hard proof." Magnes slumps, elbows resting on the table. Alright, Peter thing was a bad idea. "But that's not the point at all, I came to you about me and Hiro, if Hiro's even still alive after Japan. Isn't there a way you can clear our names? I mean, that guy I was fighting, he kidnapped Hiro's sister, and he was trying to kidnap me, I didn't know what to do. They could have been doing anything to her…"

Tracy drops her face into her hands. And it just remains there for a moment. So much…so much…and she's so lost. "I'm not a lawyer." She explains, sitting up again. "Homeland Security has their reasons for declaring your friend a terrorist. I'm a Communications Director, I communicate for them. Not for you. But…just humor me here." She lets her hands drop, and keeps her eyes closed as that migrane seems to grow. "The other stuff aside," which she will ask about in a minute, "the only way to have your name cleared is to clear his, which is to say, prove that he was not responsible for the bombing. If what you say is true, which I'm sure it isn't, then you're cleared if you can prove it. Real, actual proof. If you fake it, you're in trouble."

"How do you prove a guy exploded in Manhattan? Come to think of it…" Magnes has clearly never thought of it, but he raises his slumped posture and asks, "How could there possibly be proof of any of this? I mean, what, did they find DNA at ground zero of a nuclear explosion?" He takes deep breaths, more deep breaths, don't get too excited, stay calm! "I'm not defending Sylar as a person, I can understand why the President would protect his brother and blame someone like Sylar. I mean, Sylar hunts us, Evolved, he hunts us, kills us, and steals our powers. I went back in time with Hiro, we stood outside of a diner while Sylar was killing his girlfriend years ago. I watched Sylar cut Hiro's best friend to pieces. So, I'm not defending Sylar, I just, I want the truth, you know?"

And now Magnes has overstepped the line. Tracy has a hard time staying in her seat at this point. "Let me….get this straight." She forces herself to be calm. "In order to defend your relationship with a reported terrorist, you accuse the President of the United States of lying to the American people about the worst terrorist and nuclear attack in history simply to protect his brother, and to instead place the blame on a known serial killer? Do you have any idea what kind of a conspiricy you're talking about? Not to mention how unlikely it is?"

"I'm not some conspiracy theorist, I've met Sylar. I know how messed up he is, he's the most powerful person on the planet, he doesn't lie about killing people, he'll proudly say he's killed someone and then he'll kill you." Magnes points out very bluntly, trying to hammer the point home. "And when I asked him if he did it, he said he didn't. On top of everything people have told me, asking him myself was the most convincing."

Tracy is the queen of spinning the truth. But even this boy is going a little too far out there for her. "So now you're admitting that you've been in contact not only with Hiro Nakamura, but the most wanted man in the world, Sylar, as well? And your defense for being in cohorts with a serial killer now is that he is not a part of the Manhattan bombing, so that makes it all okay?" She shakes her head, pushing her falafel aside. "I can't believe this is your defense. I'm no lawyer, but I could drive…..the titanic through there. Proof is what helps you, not stories."

"Well going from pizza boy to terrorist is a bit of a stretch, it's not like I'm an expert at this. And I've never met someone so skeptical before." Magnes sounds almost frustrated, his flustered cheeks now more from exhaustion than anything else. "And what do you expect me to do about Sylar? You may as well just tell Booster Gold to go fight Mister Mxyzptlk."

Huh? "I'm fairly certain I have no idea what you have just said." She's not fairly certain - she's entirely certain. "But you came to me for help, remember? I'm not here telling you what I think, I'm here telling you what you would need in order to have your name cleared in public. Having Sylar's location might be good for a plea-bargain, although like I said. I'm no lawyer. What exactly did you come here, thinking I'd do? That I would hear your story, some stranger I've never met, and stand up and denounce the President and his brother as liars and murderers?"

"I don't care if you denounce the President's brother or not, that'll get out eventually, I'm not even worrying about it. I just thought you'd listen to me and then clear my name by telling the real story or something. I wasn't even really sure what you do until now." Magnes starts to stand, straightening his glasses. "This was a waste of time, the last people I should expect to help me are the government." he says with a look that says 'I'm disappointed in you', getting ready to turn around and leave.

Tracy isn't about to let that happen. "Wait." She says, her voice firm as she reaches out to grab his arm. "I can't let you do that. I have to call the police, you know I have to." She so confused, and in truth, actually torn. Why her? Why come to her? Why expect something like this from her? "If you could prove anything you say, I'd be the first to walk you right up the steps into the Congressional building. But as you can't….I'm sorry." And she kind of is, he seems way too young for all of this. But? She takes out her blackberry with her free hand to start dialing.

"I'm sorry, you're a really nice person, but I can't afford to go to jail yet, I have to clear me and Hiro, and I won't get a fair trial." While she's holding his arm, his free arm goes very heavy and hangs down, trying to do the same to her phone arm in an attempt to make her drop the blackberry. "Thanks for listening though; and we're not terrorists."

Tracy is distracted when her phone is suddenly pulled from her hand, looking down at it, rather amazed at first. But her eyes look back up to him, and she retains her hold on his arm. It's not a death grip, but its' firm. "Then let me take you in. We can talk to the police, Homeland Security. If your story's true, they're the ones who can help you. Not me." Burt looks over, not hearing the words but looking a mite confused. "There's no reason you wouldn't get a fair trial!"

"I'd just be billed as some terrorist, because of footage that doesn't even tell the whole story. We're in America, once you have the terrorist label, your life is over, that's why I'm trying to clear my name before someone publically declares it." Magnes tries to jerk his arm away, no longer using his powers to make either of them any heavier, he just tries to march to the door. "Have some faith, I didn't do anything, I just have to find people who can do something about it. And please don't try to stop me, I don't like using my ability on people against their will."

Tracy holds onto him for only a moment longer. "If you go to the police now you'll only be a witness, you can clear this up long before anything is announced!" But she stops dead in her tracks and releases him like he were hot when he mentions using his ability. Tracy isn't stupid, she has no death wish. Besides? He's a terrorist until proven otherwise in this world. No telling what he might do.

"I promise, if I can find no other solution, I'll come back to you and put my fate in your hands." Magnes says with a friendly smile, looking back at her one last time, then exits the building and jumps high into the air. Yeah, he's gone.

Tracy meant to say more. She wanted to. She wanted to tell him that if he left her here with no explination, it would be over. There would be no other solution. It would be public by tomorrow, because she'd have to tell them everything that she knew. Her hands trembling, Burt rushing to her side to check on her, Tracy bends to pick up the phone and begins to dial Matt Parkman's number…


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License