Fly On The Wall

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif elle3_icon.gif jaiden_icon.gif

Scene Title Fly On The Wall
Synopsis Cardinal and Liz come back to Redbird expecting Elle Bishop. They don't quite get what they were expecting.
Date October 4, 2010

Redbird Security


It's a little before sundown in New York - bit before six in the evening. Traffic in the streets is bustling as people try to get home, the subways packed. Even walking is difficult with the crush of people going wherever they're going, which is why Jaiden is staying right where he is in Redbird Security. Peering out the front door at the cloud-covered sky, he frowns. Weather looks to be changing for the worse rather than the better. Once the traffic is a little lighter, he'll have to break out the jackets and winter things.

Turning on his heel from the glass door, the man heads toward the back, toward the stairs leading toward the basement where the firing range lives. Might as well bust some caps while he's waiting.

Elle's spent most of the past two days staring at mirrors, unable to take her eyes off of this new face she has. It's not her looking back, it is someone entirely different. Different hair follicles (the red is natural), dark green eyes, an almost angelic face, and pale skin all over. It's wierd, seeing someone else where your own reflection should be. And it's taking quite a bit of getting used to.

Not even her voice is the same. Not even her fingerprints are the same. Nothing is the same.

Her clothes and purse are all she has left of her old identity. She hopes that her ability, the tattoo on her hip, and the knowledge she has will be enough to persuade Cardinal that it really is her. If not, she's rather screwed. The slender redhead is wearing jeans that are definitely ill-fitted, a bit too loose on her slender frame, and a dark blue shirt with a magnet and little electric bolts printed over its surface in yellow. On her feet, a pair of tennis shoes.

With a frown on her face, she pushes through the crowds of people, making her way into Redbird Security with a frown on her delicate features.

The sound of the door opening and closing gets Jaiden's attention just before he heads down the stairs, the man pausing to look at the skinny redhead that just stepped into the buiding. Red hair, red bird. Who would have thought that it'd attract such lovely birds?

"Evenin' miss." He moves down the hall, toward the front door where she stands. "We're kind of closed for the evening, but I can get your information and have Cardinal or Elisabeth give you a call during business hours in the morning."

Elle blinks a few times up at Jaiden as he enters, her brows raising slightly as recognition dawns across her features. She knows him! But…he doesn't know her. She fidgets slightly, peering up at Jaiden. "Actually, I was needing to speak to Cardinal personally. It's actually very important I talk to him, and…well, even if I have to wait, I will."

The slender woman picks up a strand of her hair, peering at it for a moment, before tossing it over her shoulder. It's still so weird, being a different person, hearing a different voice come out of her mouth.
Well, that's the problem, actually." Jaiden sounds apologetic. "Mr. Cardinal isn't in right now." Mr Cardinal? The man probably is sneezing right now since he's being spoken of in such odd and interesting ways. Mister cardinal. He'd laugh, almost certainly!

"Well, if I can get your name and contact information, as well as the services you require, we'll get him back to you as soon as possible." He gives her a warm smile and moves behind the desk, boots thunking on the floor as he walks, bending to rummage around for a pen and a pad of paper from the mysterious hole beneath the counter.

Elle bites her lower lip for a moment. God, this is awkward. Mr. Cardinal prompts a small snort from the woman. "You know, I've heard Richard called so many things, but the least expected is to hear 'mister' in front of his name." She's even called him Dick more than once.

Then, she bumbles a bit. "Well, uh, that's the thing. I came to talk to him about my name and contact information. I'll sit here and wait until morning if I have to, but it's really, really important. I'm, ah, Eleanor. Eleanor Bishop." Preposterous!

Hey, it's a business and we'll at least make the boss sound good to people who might be prospective customers! If Jaiden knew that Eleanor was Electric Insane Elle, he'd probably just call Cardinal 'Cardinal' instead of putting on airs. Her name is scrawled down on the pad and Jaiden grabs the phone, stabbing a button to ring upstairs. "Hey Elisabeth?" Jaiden nods to the woman. "There's an Eleanor Bishop down here, wants to see Cardinal and doesn't want to leave until she does."

Elle fidgets quietly. She doesn't offer anything else, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear. A brief glance is cast toward her reflection in the Redbird logo, frowning. Ohhh, this is all so awkward. He probably won't even believe her. As he pulls out his phone, she fidgets even more, turning her dark green gaze up toward the ceiling.

She certainly doesn't look like Eleanor Bishop.
The phone hangs up, Jaiden giving Eleanor a small smile, crossing his arms over his chest. "They're on their way down." And, true to his word, they are.

Elle nods quietly, and quietly rummages in her purse, pulling out her wallet. She's got the same stuff, but she just looks like she's an entirely different person, and sounds nothing like Elle Bishop. With her luck, someone's going to try shooting at her and accusing her of being an impostor. Wouldn't be a difficult conclusion to reach. She stays a little bit close to the door, just in case.

It takes them a while to arrive, having to get across town from near Central Park. But Elisabeth and Cardinal let themselves in with keys and the door's locked securely behind them barely after they clear the doorway. Elisabeth's blue eyes look wary and more than a little confused. There's someone other than Elle here with Jaiden. But didn't he say….? She twitches a little, and merely asks, "What's up?"

Cardinal steps along into the lobby after her, pausing a half-step behind Elisabeth and turning his gaze towards the redhead with a bemused sort of expression. A mute echo of Elisabeth's question as he looks to the pair, one brow lifting over the edge of his shades.

The time passes with Jaiden doing his best to look busy, using the computer at the desk to look up random Wikipedia articles so it looks like he's doing research. When the pair walks into the door and locks it, Jaiden stands. "Hey there, you two. Sorry for cutting your walk short, but I thought this might be a shade important. This lady." Jaiden indicates the angelic redhead, "Specifically asked to see Richard there and didn't feel too much like leaving until she did. " And Jaiden didn't feel like acting as a bouncer, either.

By the time they arrive, the slender, innocent-faced redhead has taken a seat in the lobby, fidgeting with her purse, As Elisabeth and Cardinal make their way in, she turns her eyes up toward them, brow raising. She's quiet, for a moment, then she raises her hand in a sheepish wave. "Um…hiiiii." She smiles. "I have some, uh, explaining to do, I'm sure." She fidget fidgets, then offers forth her registration card. Elle's registration card.

"Did you know there are actually evolved out there who can completely change your appearance like you were some human sculpture or something? I'm Elle." The pale redhead fidgets. "And one such Evolved kinda sorta choloroformed me yesterday and decided to give me a— uh, a makeover."

Elisabeth slants a look at Richard — she'd told him that Elle had wanted to see him. But the redhead's claim is bringing her up short, with narrowed eyes. She's well aware of that ability… Sal hasn't been around in months though. "Chloroformed," she repeats, her tone skepticism itself. "For a makeover." All right…. first thing's first. May as well get it out of the way and she blurts the first thing that comes to mind. "What was my son's name?"

Cardinal's brow only furrows all the more as the card's produced and he gets a good look at what it says; glancing from the card, to her face, and back again a few times. "Uh… huh." The man regards her with a dubious sort of expression, his jaw setting as he waits for her to answer Liz's question.

It appears to be a classic case of Good Cop/Elisabeth. One would be surprised at how well FRONTLINE training teaches one to be assertive in situations where decisive action is required and can give the person being questioned a bit of an off-balance feeling. Jaiden's seen it happen with drill sergeants, mafia bosses, and lawyers. Why not here too?

Jaiden crosses his arms, glancing to Liz momentarily at the start of the questioning, then actually doing a double-take as her SON is mentioned. This will be an interesting conversation, he thinks. And if he's required to get someone wet, so be it.

"Yeah, I thought it was a little extreme, too. He changed…everything." She frowns down at herself. "Feeling kinda violated, really. He strapped me down. Only reason I didn't kill him was because I would have set my head on fire. Damn rainy weather." Then, just as quickly as Liz asks that question, Elle fires back with, "Cameron, but he hasn't been born yet. Unless you're pregnant now…" She tilts her head toward the blonde woman, her dark green eyes focused on the woman.

Reaching into her purse, Elle pulls out a business card for an artist, offering this to Cardinal. "His name is Julius Reinheldt. He apparently does this kind of thing for a fee, normally. But he also likes to chloroform random people and change them without consent. Something about a need to or something?" She shrugs. "He was pretty nice, for a kidnapper."

Elisabeth doesn't miss Jaiden's response in her periphery, her laser bright blue eyes never leaving the redhead. The flash of hurt at the information is masked almost before it has time fully form. Elisabeth glances at Jaiden briefly, but her gaze turns to Cardinal and says softly, "It's her." Fewer than a dozen people altogether in this time know about her son — the one who will now never exist. She steps back and lets Richard deal with the rest of this, now that it appears safe enough, crossing her arms over her chest.

That small number of people doesn't appear to include Cardinal, who as what he thought was a trick question is answered with specifics reacts with a momentarily startled look in Elisabeth's direction — and then realization sets in, and he grimaces in momentary empathy, looking away from her to the redhead at hand.

"You have a fetish for being kidnapped and tied to things, don't you?" It's a sarcastic comment drawn from the headache that stirs within his skull, one hand lifting to rub against his brow, "Christ. Alright… so can he undo this?"

Her being the electric blonde chick Jaiden was specifically brought in to hose down if she got out of hand, Elle? It's good he kept his hands free, just in case something happens. A bottle of water on the desk is slowly picked up, the cap unscrewed like he's about to take a drink, the water inside roiling like an angry sea. On the outside, though, Jaiden is as calm as calm can be. "You look good as a redhead." Nothing like a little compliment. "Sound different too. A bit lower in the register. Bet you could sing a lovely alto now."

Elle frowns toward Liz, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear with an apologetic look on that innocent-looking face of hers. Whatever the case with the fellow, he certainly did a good job on her. Dark green eyes turn toward Cardinal, then, and the redhead smirks faintly. "I really do, it seems. I think I'm going to start trying to actively put a stop to that. It's beginning to get on my nerves."

She tilts her head toward Cardinal. "It's temporary, apparently. Only lasts one month, then I'll turn back to normal. I'm sure he could easily change me back, though." She looks like she has mixed feelings on the whole thing. She glances down at her pale arms, then back up to Cardinal and Liz. "I dunno, it's kinda…interesting. Wierd. Very weird. But interesting."

A small smile is cast over to Jaiden. "Thanks? It's…not really my face, but…" She shrugs, her cheeks tinging a faint rouge.

Elisabeth meets Richard's eyes. Later. Jaiden's gaze is briefly met as well. She'll answer questions later, if he wants to ask them. Not now. Now is for letting Jaiden and Cardinal handle Elle. "If it's temporary, it means I don't have to hunt him down and bring him back at gunpoint. We'll be a little calmer about the situation," the blonde says with a glint in her eyes that does not bode well for a certain artist. She might go jack his ass up anyway. "I'll be downstairs," she says in Richard's direction. "Let me know when you're done." She's brusque at the moment, but maybe it's because she said out loud something she hadn't ever planned to actually speak of. And before there's much else said, she heads for the basement. To focus on shredding something with either a huge number of rounds…. or maybe just vibrating it to death.

"If it's temporary… at least that's something," Cardinal exhales a sigh that stirs over the heel of his hand and his wrist in a spill of breath, "We're going to need to pick this guy up, though, if he's kidnapping and experimenting on people then we can't just let him wander around freely. That sounds like the sort've asshole that Moab should have been keeping held…"

There's a pause at Elisabeth's words, and then he nods after her, saying simply, "Alright."

Jaiden hopes Elisabeth will remember the rules of the range and clean up her spent brass, rack her weapons, and generally clean up after herself. He watches as the blonde heads downstairs, the heavy door shutting with a *thud* and a click of the lock before he turns back to Elle and Cardinal. "So…why'd he pick you? Just a random snatch off the street or something?" The potential espionage uses of a man who can shape faces and voices is limitless. Want to look like Mohinder Suresh for a month? If he can turn Elle into a petite redhead, he could do that to just about anyone.

"You were lucky, Elle. IF his powers could go deeper than that, he could have stopped your heart, made you mute, taken your eyes….I don't like to imagine it."

Elle offers a small wave after Liz, her head tilted to one side. "Night, Liz." She tilts her head toward Cardinal, then, nodding slowly. "I think I can handle a month of a different face, honestly. I think it'd be nice to just…not be me for a little while. You know? Plus, I look kind of like an angel." She feels like she can make such speculations, since this isn't her face. She tilts her head toward her shoulder. "But by all means, track that fucker down. But, if you get him, I want to zap him. I owe him one."

Her dark green gaze veers over to Jaiden. "Random grab, I guess. He was fixed up like an old homeless man. I was being thankful that Card gave me shelter when I needed it, and the fucker chloroformed me." She frowns. "Woke up naked and strapped to a table, and he was wearing this creepy ass lab coat." She frowns. Felt like tiny bugs were crawling all over my face." Then, she nods. "He said that he killed someone by making their trachea cease to exist."

"Christ." Cardinal's lips purse in a tight grimace, stepping along over towards the receptionist's desk and turning to sit on its edge as he slouches back a little, hands resting to either side of him, "Julius Reinheldt… I'll make some inquiries. If he makes a living off this sort of thing, then he can't be that difficult to find. Call me weird, but after the whole business with Gregor, I don't have a lot've patience for mad scientists."

"Christ. It's not the mad scientists you need to worry about. They're crazy - you know what to expect from them. The ones that are seemingly sane frighten me the most 'cause they just act so bloody normal while they do abnormal things." Jaiden takes a sip of the bubbling water, setting it on the counter where it slowly fills to almost full as he walks around the desk to stand in the hall, taking it off the desk and drinking again. "I can't see him making a living at it. Or even being registered. Something like that is pretty harsh and would get him vanished in a heartbeat."

"Hm, you're not weird for that, Richard. I…really don't blame you." She tilts her head to one side, holding a business card out to Cardinal. "I acted like I was all interested and such, since…well, I would have looked kina weird if I had zapped him by the time my hair dried. And he gave me his business card. Pretty unintelligent move for a kidnapper, to just outright give his business card to someone he just chloroformed." She crosses her arms over her chest.

"Then again, my hand was still crackling when I asked him for the business card." Elle smiles charmingly up at Cardinal.

"You're… you're kidding." Cardinal stares at the card offered out in his direction, and then he reaches out to collect it between two fingers, turning it over and regarding it with a frown pursing his lips, "He actually have you his business card? Yeah, I think this one falls into the 'crazy' category, Jaiden…"

"If we hand him over to the authorities, he'll end up in Commonwealth custody… damn. There's got to be something we can do with him."

"At least put him up in Hollywood where he can make actresses look even prettier than they already are. Hell, it's like a bad Twilight Zone episode." Jaiden gives Elle another look over and a long, low whistle. "Crazy as an outhouse rat or not, the man does good work." The man chuckles, then straightens, turning serious. "You need backup for this, I'll come with you, Card. But for right now, I'm going down to see how Lizzie's taking this." The door opens and the firing range downstairs is deathly quiet. Hooboy.

"Eeeeeyeah, just a little crazy. Thinking on it, he could be good for covert operations. For those of us who can't do awesome things like you, Mr. Cardinal." She smirks over to Jaiden for a moment, then back to Cardinal. "For what it's worth, it was the most pleasant kidnapping I've been the victim of. He even turned up the heat for me because I was cold. I have to say, I was very pleased with my kidnapping experience, as much as one could be with…this." She gestures to her willowy frame, and offers a wave to Jaiden.

"In any case, with a Social Security number, I could quite literally walk into a police station and register myself with an entirely different identity. Voice is different, eyes are different, hair is different, even my fingerprints are different." She tilts her head to one side. "I know you like to get information…well…"

"We aren't the Institute," Cardinal says quietly, his voice firm as he looks up once more, "I'm not going to take on someone who… does this sort of bullshit to people. After seeing the reports of what Gregor did with flesh and muscle and meat, I couldn't deal with someone like this guy. But we can't just leave him hanging around for Harper to pick up…"

There's a pause, "The Ferry might find him valuable."

Elle slowly raises to her feet. She's the same height as always, but she's built completely differently now. "I don't care what happens to him, I just don't want the Institute to get their nasty fingers on him. That would be like handing Harper a silver platter. It's just…not something that I would be willing to do, you know?" She runs a hand through her red hair.

"It's so weird…everything's different. Thanks for not accusing me of being an imposter and shooting me." She smiles faintly. "I've decided that I'd like to tell my dad that I'm still alive, somehow, like Liz offered…if possible. And…I want to work with you guys. I don't remember some things about talks I've had with you, but I know that I'm supposed to keep it a secret that you really aren't the callous bastard you try to come off as sometimes."

Another charming smile is cast up to Cardinal.

"Hush." Cardinal flicks a look over to her, his lips twitching in a little bit of a smirk, "I'm an asshole, and that's all there is to it… alright. I want you to take this card over to the Verb, and ask for Catherine Chesterfield. If anyone asks, you're a messenger from me. As far as the Ferry knows, Elle is an Institute agent, so I'd go by a psuedonym if anything. Tell her what the guy's capable of and all."

"I'll talk to Liz about - ways to get a message to Bob."

The little redhead leans toward Cardinal, grinning. "I think otherwise, but we'll just let people think that I think you're an asshole." She reaches out and takes the card back from him, placing it back into her purse as she mentally files down the name and location in her head. "Hmm…do you have any means to get me a new social security number?" She tilts her head toward Cardinal.

"I feel like I could really make something of this. Nobody recognizes me now. I could shake Desmond Harper's hand right now, and he would think he was just shaking the hand of some tiny redheaded woman, instead of Elle Bishop. Not that I'd want to shake his hand…I think I might have to melt his eyes if that were to ever happen." Elle offers a faint smile up to Cardinal, doing a little twirl.

"Not to mention, that Warren Ray guy won't recognize me."

"No." Cardinal regards her seriously, "I don't. Alternate identities is not something we're equipped to handle right now, Elle, and given that I just cleared your record there's not a whole lot of reason for it either… it's temporary anyway, you just said, so just use it for what it's worth while it lasts."

Elle stops twirling, blushing a bit. "Thanks again for doing that…" She leans her rear against the desk, now, fidgeting. "I've read through all of my notebooks, about everything that's happened since I got back from Chicago. I really would like to help you guys in any way I can. I wrote down that you stuck up for me when you could've just as easily handed me back to the Institute on a silver platter, if you wanted to."

The tiny redhead fidgets. "Why'd you do that for me? I haven't done anything but probably cause trouble for you, I'm sure."

"Because everyone deserves a second chance, Elle…" Cardinal pushes off the desk's edge, then, gaze drifting towards the hallway leading to the basement door, "…and, to be honest? I owed your father that much, even if he is kind of a slimeball. So, six of one, half dozen of the other."

A look over, a faint smile twitching to his lips, "'Sides. It pissed Harper off something awful."

"Well, thanks for being the one to give it to me." She tilts her head up toward the man. "If there's ever anything you need me to do…ask me, and I'll do it." She nods sagely. "My dad is a slimeball…but thank you."

"I wish I could've been a fly on the wall when you called him."


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