Participants:
| Scene Title | He Makes Me Laugh |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Conversation about an ongoing investigation and other things. |
| Date | February 27, 2009 |
Elisabeth's apartment in Dorchester Towers
This is a pretty standard two-bedroom apartment, although the occupant has gone to some effort to make it her own. Although the carpet is the ubiquitous beige, the walls are painted a soft rose-gray mauve shade, giving the main living space warmth. A dark gray sectional sofa sits in the living room facing an entertainment center that contains a state-of-the-art stereo system and a less upscale television setup. A coffee table sits in the curve of the sectional, and floor lamps bracket the ends of the furniture. The dining area hosts a four-seater square oak table and chairs, with the table generally host to a slew of mail and papers. An oak sideboard against the wall has candles on either end of it and a glass bowl with a fake arrangement of flowers. A small wine rack sits next to the sideboard, home to no more than nine bottles. The kitchen is small, but functional, painted a soft yellow color with a transparent blue glass backsplash. Off the living room are two bedrooms, one of which has the door closed and the other appears to be a home office. Its walls are a soft shade of green, and it contains a desk with a high-end computer setup and a bookcase stocked with textbooks.
Back and forth, Cat and Elisabeth have gone today. Cat is asked if she knows how to find Flint Deckard, the answer is no. So the panmnesiac guitarist/attorney/activist not above violence/interrogator of Carmichael types contacted Teo. Teo told her the man in question is or should be hiding from people who want to arrest and/or kill him, and wonders why Elisabeth is seeking him. So…
The best way to get that answer is direct from the source. Cat arrives in Dorchester Towers, glances briefly at the door of apartment 101 which she still rents and has kept up by functionaries, and quietly remembers time spent with Dani inside it.
It's a brief thing, then she's into the elevator. Destination: the third floor where she exits and knocks on the portal marked 304.
The knock on the door comes just as Liz is dressing to go out. She opens the door, tucking a black V-necked blouse into a comfortable pair of jeans, and looks only half-surprised at Cat's presence on the other side. "Hi," she greets mildly. "C'mon in." She walks through the apartment, leaving Cat to close the door behind herself, clearly a little… not really agitated, just perhaps a bit off-kilter. She moves to pull her hair up into a clip in the bathroom mirror and discards that quickly, making a face of disgust. This is stupid. Heading back out into the living room carrying her sneakers, she says, "Okay… I'm ready. Whatcha got?"
The door does in fact close behind Cat, and the blonde is observed briefly, a slight smile forming on her features. "It seems you've a date. Elisabeth. Me, I only have questions. What was it," she queries, "Flint Deckard may have witnessed? Teo says he's either hiding from people who want to arrest or kill him, and if he isn't he should be."
Sliding her feet into her sneakers, Elisabeth walks around her apartment gathering up the stuff she'll need for tonight. Most importantly, her backup piece, which she put in an inner pants holster at the small of her back while she talks to Cat. "There've been a string of murders that appear to be tied together by one person's presence. Now… frankly, I don't much care if the guy's running around killing off Triad members too much, but the fact of the matter is, he appears to be Evolved, and there's been at least one civilian death. According to the intel I've got, Deckard saw the last one — where some poor bastard was literally liquiefied. I *really* need to know what he saw, if he saw anything that can help me." She pulls her blouse down over the weapon. Only then does she hesitate. "It's…. sort of a date, sort of…. I'm not sure what it is," she admits. "Certainly not what I expected."
She listens in silence, and a speculative expression forms. "Liquified?" Cat asks, "Liquified how? You suspect there's been a string of murders where someone used an Evolved ability to melt the human body?" She doesn't appear squeamish, however, not after the info dump Peter gave her months before which amounted to a ringside seat at the Nuking of York minus the whole bit of getting blown up or radiation poisoned in the process. Or after helping put those parts of Rickham which had gotten out back on the inside while Abby healed the man.
Shaking her head, Elisabeth says, "No… apparently the guy has some kind of shapeshifting ability. The people who've seen him describe him as almost literally looking like the devil himself — red eyes, crap like that. We believe that he's got claws of some kind, and that there's some kind of major electrical discharge when he shifts. The first body was gored, the second electrocuted, and the third is the one Deckard got caught on a traffic camera near — that's where the liquiefied body came in. I'm not sure exactly how it fits, except that this person we're trying to track down was there — AND there was gunfire exchanged. So… I just need to talk to him, Cat."
She nods slowly. "I'll go back to Teo and we'll see if we can locate him, pass the word about this, Elisabeth," Cat assures. The details of what she was told are processed in her head. Shapeshifter with an electrical discharge, one body gored, one juiced to death, the third melted. That one causes her mental wheels to freeze and almost start to rewind. No, she decides, without replaying events or conversations in her mind's eye. It couldn't be that. They resolved that problem.
Nodding, Liz says, "I'd appreciate that." And then she eyes Cat. She knows that look by now. "What? Something about it tripped something for you. What is it?" She stops moving around the apartment and studies Cat.
Now she does replay the conversation she thought about, to be sure she has the details right when speaking of them. Cat's eyes go distant, an indicator of that taking place.
New York Public Library
December 22, 2008
Edward slouches back in his chair, running his hands over his head, "I conferred with colleagues in Universities across the country, and none of them had ever heard of a virus strong enough to wipe out ninty percent of the human population. But that's when my notes get even more difficult to decypher, there's mention of the virus mutating and uniting with a pre-existing chemical agent which inflicts Non-Evolved individuals with Evolved powers that quickly go out of control as their cell-walls deteriorate and rupture, causing them to melt into heaps of" Edward stops, shaking his head slowly.
"Kazimir Volken becomes the grand poobah of the whole damned world. And somehow in the midst of this, a man named Sylar ends up taking over for him, adopting his name, and becoming the next Kazimir Volken. I I can hardly make heads or tails of half of his handwriting, it looked all to be rather frantic. He claims Peter Petrelli made an attempt to time travel," It's said rather incredulously, "Back to stop the virus, but somehow only made things worse. So the notes say another candidate was chosen and sent back, and I have no idea who it is. The notes are implicit that I'm not to interfere." He grimaces sligtly, "My future self If I am to believe all of this, seems rather concerned for my well being." There's some information Edward leaves out, personal things detailed in the documents.
Helena sucks on her lips. "The only other person I know of who can time travel is Hiro Nakamura, and he's been missing for quite some time." she says. The information is almost too much to process in one go. "So we need to find the mortars, and stop those people from being attacked by HomeSecand we're actually going to need them. I'm going to have to tell Matt everything." Then there's a pause. "They - they might even call the Company. This is huge."
"I I've seen this virus in action before," Cat states. "October 20th, at Greenwich Village. Peter told you about it. Two men appeared to be rampaging down a street. One had energy coming from his body, blowing things up, the other had acid or alkaline on his hands. They were taken to the Company by Peter. And I remember hearing him say something about a Doctor Knutson." She calls up the memory of that night's events to view them from start to finish and be sure of details. "He told me they were sick, not crazy." Then she glances over at Helena's mug shot. "I can't be sure, but Agent Parkman may mean to keep his word, but he isn't the only person in HomeSec. If you enter a HomeSec facility to visit Peter, and he isn't there to run interference, they've got you. I'm your attorney, but I really don't think they care about such things."
"It made me think of something regarding the virus Volken was going to use, how it was ostensibly, according to Doctor Ray, composed of two parts which made it so lethal. One part Shanti virus, the other part a chemical agent of some sort. But… that can't be connected here. We solved that problem."
Cat here opts not to share the full story, to not dwell on how they know the Shanti virus came from the Company, but they never identified the source of the chemical agent, or what its purpose was.
"I don't think it's virus-related, Cat. The electrocuted guy, it would seem to me, may have just been too close to the guy when he shifted. The liquified body definitely doesn't seem to fit the MO so far, but … that's really why I need to ask Deckard what exactly he saw. There are just too many unknown variables here. Hell, I can't even figure out yet how the second guy ties in to the first." Elisabeth rolls her eyes.
She nods. "I don't think so either," Cat replies. "It's just with the way my thing works, when a mention is made of melted people, something in me is going to start going there." She rests eyes on the blonde's features to gauge if that statement is taken as sensible.
"I'll pass the word and see if I can dig the man up to speak with you, or get him to tell me what he saw myself if he refuses to come in. Hopefully he isn't lying so low as to not be found."
Then she turns partway for the door, commenting "Have fun on your date. Enjoy knocking boots." A playful grin is flashed.
There's a faint grin, and Elisabeth says quietly, "He doesn't have to come in, he just needs to talk to me. By phone if he wants." She tilts her head and says, "Not sure it'll go that way." And then she grins wickedly. "Your engineer has turned out to be quite the interesting individual, Cat."
"Has he now?" Cat asks, turning back to face the less tall and paler haired woman in full with intrigue showing. "I've not told him anything, haven't seen him again since that day in the village, but I did see his information. One never knows when an engineer is needed. I'm doubting he'd be one to bring in, but maybe, just maybe, if I wanted a building modification to be done and not appear on any blueprints or public records…"
There's a shrug. "I'm not saying he's trustworthy or that you should tell him anything," Elisabeth qualifies. "But…. he makes me laugh." She pauses and admits softly, "I haven't had much to laugh about recently, you know?"
"I know," Cat replies in a subdued voice. "Same with me. It'd only been five weeks, part of me feels guilt over it, like I didn't wait long enough, but she did say to live well. The night of the battles, after making it back from Jersey City, I went straight to the arms of a man."
There's a long moment of silence and Liz says quietly, "Teo says he's alive. But he's still got no specifics, and … I just… want a few minutes that aren't about work or… wondering. He wouldn't want me to sit here and freak out all the time. So your engineer asked me to the movies, and I said yes."
"That guy… it had to be a guy," Cat shares in hushed tones, "no other woman compares. Probably never will. He gets it. Doesn't press, just accepts where I am in my head, and hasn't run away. I go to him, use a guest room, or a safehouse unit. Never my own bed. I can't do that, I won't, because given what we do, if something happened and he was lost, I'd have to move. Again."
She lets a few beats pass in silence, chasing away those thoughts.
"Life can be too short to worry all the time. We have to live too, or we lose our sanity. Enjoy the movie. Hell, enjoy Alec. It's all part of not letting the bastards grind us down."
Elisabeth looks up at her and smiles slightly. "I kinda thought you'd understand. If anyone would." She sighs and says, "I feel weird about it. But not weird enough to say no."
There's a nod, and she again turns partly toward the door. "See you later, Elisabeth," Cat offers. She exits, and the door closes behind her, leaving the officer to her evening's plan.
 February 28th: Lassie Rides Again |
 February 28th: Escaping Reality |