Revelations and Threesomes

Participants:

cardinal3_icon.gif elisabeth2_icon.gif veronica3_icon.gif

Scene Title Revelations and Threesomes
Synopsis Both are discussed, as well as a possible meeting between the shadow man and one of the heads of the Company, when Liz, Veronica and Cardinal chat.
Date March 31, 2010

Dorchester Towers Elisabeth's Apartment

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.


She's taking the opportunity to get her laundry done. And to have some alone time. With another blizzard blowing through in the next few days, Elisabeth is pretty sure she's not going to get a lick of time to herself, so she's managed to finagle some time for today. Last night was kind of rough anyway, what with getting Rebecca to go view yet another death site. She sent Veronica what little information was able to be gleaned and invited the agent to stop in at the apartment when she could manage a bit of off time. For coffee, not for strictly business.

It feels… odd, to be so domestic right now. She hasn't had a day off in so long, she hardly knows what to do with herself. She's folding clothes and setting them on the couch, singing along with the MP3 player that's running through her stereo speakers. "All that noise, all that sound, All those places I got found. Birds go flying at the speed of sound, to show you how it all began…." Elisabeth voice trails off as she remembers she's got company, and she grins slightly, looking for the tattered shadow. "I never thought to ask you what kind of music you actually like, you know," she observes mildly.

Veronica laughs from her corner of the couch, cold hands warming as they wrap around a mug of coffee. "This kind, actually. Pretty much an alternative rock girl, so this works just find. Keep that rap and country noise away from me, and I've never been one for Top 40 type stuff," she says with a smile. It's odd, to be in someone's apartment in a friendly sort of way — most living rooms she's visited since being in New York were business calls. "I can't believe the weather's going to get worse. You know, come to think of it, I don't even know who's on that case, if anyone is. I'm sure someone has to be, though," the Company agent says, thoughtfully. "Really, when you think of it, whoever is doing this is causing as many or more deaths than those using a more … direct approach." She shakes her head. Something to ask about.

"I don't even want to think about the weather getting worse," Elisabeth admits. "We're already facing supply shortages for the people who need it most. Kershner has us out there backing up the National Guard units. So far, things have been quiet, but…. I have a feeling that after this weekend, that's not going to be the case. And the worst part is, the people hardest hit will also be the ones who suffer most when the convoys start to get hit." She grimaces. "I hope whoever's causing this is caught and negated…. at least until they can figure out why the hell they're doing it. But I have to tell you, I'd prefer you didn't repeat that." She glances to Vee. "Some of my friends would burn me in effigy."

The agent shakes her head at the dire situation. "It's awful. And now it's most the eastern seaboard, not just New York… that's a hell of a lot of power. I don't think wishing that they were negated makes you a bad person, Liz. I would think some of them might be inclined to agree with you, even if they wouldn't admit it aloud." She chuckles, taking a sip of her coffee. "And as long as they only burn you in effigy, not the real thing, who cares?" The last is said with a bit of a smirk.

"Negated…" Negated… A derisive little twist of a whisper as a shadow stirs along over the back of the couch, tendrils and shredded tatters of tenebrous form creeping over the cushions between Veronica and the laundry, "…the death toll is likely higher than Hokuto's… if whoever's doing this is doing it on purpose, and doesn't have a damn good reason, they deserve a bullet in the head…" A bullet...

"Hello, Agent Sawyer," Richard Cardinal whispers distantly, "Good to see you again." Again…

There's a faint grimace as Veronica thinks people she knows might agree. The woman has met Cat, right? Elisabeth's expression softens visibly, though, at the whisper that slides through the room, and she sets the shirt she was folding onto the growing pile of folded items in front of her to turn the stereo down. It keeps Richard from having to shout. "If they're doing it on purpose, I can't say I disagree," Elisabeth says softly. "My bigger concern is if they're not. Because that's a hell of a lot of power to be pulling in for such a sustained period, you know?"

The whispery voice gets a slight jump, and Veronica moves to put the coffee down on the coffee table before she spills it. Her dark eyes move to the shadow creeping up the cushions. She smiles, a bit tentatively — she can tell that the form is not right or whole, having seen it often enough in Argentina. "Shade," she murmurs, her voice gentle, as if speaking loudly might scatter all those tatters to the wind. "If they're doing it on purpose, they… what? What about Hokuto?" She turns to look at Liz, then the shadowy form of Cardinal. The Company agent, ironically, is in the dark on this one.

"She was the Nightmare Man… or part of her was…" The shadows settle on the back of the couch, trailing torn bits and pieces down the front of it as Richard focuses on communicating, "…I suppose we all have our dark sides." Our dark sides…

"Funny, Richard," Elisabeth snorts quietly, returning to continue folding while they all talk. Dark sides indeed. "Hokuto's was … a whole new definition of 'dark side.' Like… the Darth Vader of dark sides." She shakes her head. "It wierds me out that the same person who was able to help me after Humanis First had their hands on me was the person behind The 35."

Veronica is quiet, staring at them, then closes her eyes for a moment. "I … I didn't know." Obviously, from her reaction, she also knew Hokuto, which may or may not be surprising to them - after all, who in this city doesn't know one another? Everything is a tangle of alliances, cross alliances, double agents, and whatever else. "I guess that's why she was murdered… And she was behind the 35? That's…" her face is pale. Someone she knew, and worked with tangentially if only for a short time recently — days? — was capable of that. "I don't even know what to say." She wonders if Corbin knows what Hokuto did — would it help ease his pain at all?

"Does it seem like the Evolved are more prone to MPD, to you…? I mean, Hokuto, Mortimer, Jessica…?" A whispered hypothesis from Cardinal as he considers the matter, "…I wonder if there's a biological or psychological reason for that…" For that…

Elisabeth is actually kind of surprised Veronica knew Hokuto. "Didn't realize you were into the tarot, Vee," she comments mildly. "Or were you just working the case?" SHe keeps folding clothes, and then pauses to consider the query. "Well… I don't know if there's a larger proportion than normal…. I'd say if there is, it would tend to run higher because of certain kinds of powers? But Niki'd be sort of the exception to that thought, without a mental power."

"That's an interesting question. I might have to ask the new shrink at work about that, if I were inclined to ever talk to her," Veronica says with a smirk, recovering from her shock. "Hypnosis is her power — I'm sure you'll understand why I want nothing to do with her." Aside from the fact that she straddles the loyalty fence, there are the things they don't know about her — the fact she was Persuaded with a capital P to join the Company based on lies, the fact she's dating Winters. "It's an interesting thought. I would guess the mental powers cause a break — especially the younger the Evolved is when they manifest. Like Mortimer. He might have been all right, if his father hadn't pushed him."

She smiles at Elisabeth. "Not into the tarot, no. I've always been a disbeliever in things like that. I just know her … loosely, and of course we're looking into her murder. This puts a new spin on it. I'm sure the upper brass knows about her being the Nightmare Man, but my lowly clearance ass didn't."

"Niki's just really strong, though… eh… I'll leave that sort of theorizing to traitors like Suresh…" A whispered sigh from Richard as he dismisses the thought, "…I'm going to have to have Mortimer dealt with, one of these days. Crazy sonuvabitch… did I tell you that he was researching ways to kill me, Liz?" To kill me..

"Yeah, you did," Liz replies with an annoyed look. "He better hope I don't get my hands on him. He likes to approach me to chat about Cass. He about had a stroke when I told him she was knocked up over there in England." She shrugs slightly. "But he's loonier than a toon, and if he's trying to kill you, I'm not going to balk at putting a bullet in him." There's a flash of blue eyes at that. "But Vee didn't hear that from me." She grins wickedly. "Oh, Veronica… remember that day you asked me if he was a danger? The answer's yes… In my opinion, he's a danger to everyone around him. You should run him in."

"Jack's more in control these days I think than Mortimer, which worries me," Veronica says darkly. "I'll … see what I can find out about his plans to kill you, Cardinal. And see if I can talk him out of it. Or at least get Mortimer to agree not to let him kill you… they have some weird system of checks and balances — one isn't allowed to do something the other is morally against. The problem is they both have screwed up morals." She rubs her eyes. "If I survive this caseload, it's going to be a miracle. It's not bad enough I'm chasing serial killers. I'm working with them, too."

"You're wrong, Veronica. Mortimer is. He's doing a lot of things… that he's not letting Jack know about. Doesn't even let Jack know where his Midtown headquarters is. He's planning to go after Rebel, he's going after Gabriel…" A hint of anger stirs in Cardinal's hissing voice, "…and don't tell him. Then he'll know I know certain things, and he'll come after me. It'll endanger a little girl's life."

A few moments pass, and the shadow whispers, "Which killers?" Killers…

"Jack, last I talked to him, was keeping Mortimer at bay. And I've been to his midtown headquarters with Jack at the helm. He's the one who showed me where it was. I think." Dealing with one body and two personalities is confusing. She rubs her eyes and shakes her head. "I won't tell him, though. I know he wanted Liette for … I don't even know what, but I told him he was being selfish." She sighs and glances from the shadowy tatters to Elisabeth and back. "The microwave case and the copycat case."

"He wants to use her to murder people. To circumvent their… abilities and kill them…" Cardinal's voice is a low hiss, "…the girl doesn't even know what death is. The copycat case. There…" Sylar… A silent pause, "…Liz can take you to the site of the latest killing. I already asked her to… get Nakano." Rebecca…

"He wants to use her to murder people. To circumvent their… abilities and kill them…" Cardinal's voice is a low hiss, "…the girl doesn't even know what death is…." There's a long, silent pause, and then he whispers, "…what do you know about the Commonwealth Institute, Sawyer?" The Institute…

"I won't let him do that. She's out of his care, anyway, from what I understand," Veronica says, leaning forward and rubbing her eyes. "Commonwealth… It's a biological research facility, over in Massachusetts, right?" Veronica says, glancing up. "Suresh works there, I believe. Why'd you say he's a traitor?"

"It's also the answer to the last question I asked you," Cardinal replies in a dark hiss, "Before you knew that I was still alive…" Alive…

Veronica sits up, running her hands through her hair. "Those doctors? All of them? What's going on there?" she asks. "I hit mostly dead ends in looking into it. I had a feeling it was government, since I wasn't given an official okay to look into it. They're sitting there under our nose in a public facility? Do they have something to do with this flu?"

"I don't know if they created the flu… but they're certainly taking advantage of it…" Advantage…

The shadow's silent for a long moment, before whispering, "…do you think the Company is involved? Do you think they'd really… be trying to corral the Evolved up into ghettos? Working with butchers like Gregor?" Gregor…

"I don't think so," Veronica says slowly. "Bishop seemed to want me to look into it — I just don't have the clearance to get much on it, and then all these murders… to be honest, I don't think the Company has the government's support right now. My boss seems to be trying to prove we're not outdated, now that Frontline is around, and one of my partners seemed to think Lazzaro deliberately got in his way of following a very dangerous suspect the other day. Our Evolved agents weren't given any vaccines — have to wait in line like the general public. And something about getting in the way at another site the other day… keeping our people out. We're the red-headed stepchild right now, Shade. We might deserve that, but…" she shrugs. Whoever it is in control now might be a worse danger than the Company ever was — that part goes unsaid.

"That's about what I thought… things are about to get very bad, Sawyer… and I think the Company's been infiltrated. One of my agents found a box of Company files next to Institute documents…" Documents… A whispered sigh from Cardinal, "…maybe I should take Peter's advice and… go talk to Angela." Angela…

"Who? Where?" the agent says, brows knitting together as she looks at the shadow. "I can … try to arrange a meeting if you like, though if you're talking to Petrelli, I'm sure he's a better link to his mother. I'm certainly not close to the upper brass."

"I'm not talking to Peter right now. The sonuvabitch blew my cover to Kershner…" An angry little hiss from Cardinal, "…don't tell the bleeding-hearts about it, but… do you think you could set up a meeting? Outside of… official channels." Channels…

Veronica raises a brow, not certain who the 'bleeding hearts' might be. "With Angela Petrelli?" she asks. "Or someone else? I can try. I don't know how much clout I have… and it's probably going to open up a whole can of worms, but …" But. There's a reason she's friends with Liz and Cardinal. "I guess that's what they get for sending me off to Argentina, though, right?"

"Angela Petrelli… you shouldn't get into any trouble for it, Veronica. You went on a government mission with me, completely legal and authorized, and I contacted you to ask for a meeting with her… I wouldn't be surprised if she was expecting it…" The harpy… A whispering sigh from the living shadow, and Cardinal admits, "…let me deal with the worms." The worms…

Vee's eyebrows rise at that echoing "harpy" whisper and she chuckles a little. "I'll see what I can do, Shade. She probably already knows that I was looking into those scientists, so you're probably right. I just… don't trust the current management as much as I did the last, you know?" Martin Crowley in particular. "I really think I've been put on the cases I have been because my boss hopes I disappear never to be seen or heard from again," she adds drily. "His partner wouldn't mind if I did, that's for sure."

Elisabeth has been listening along, silently folding clothes and putting them away. Packing some into bags that will go back to the base with her. She glances up finally and says quietly, "The Company agents weren't vaccinated? FRONTLINE was required to be among the first people given the stuff. It sucked shit. I felt horrible and my abilities flickered in and out like mad." She hesitates and glances at Cardinal. "And they've taken over Miller Airfield out there as a base of operations. It may be that it's the Site you were looking for."

"I found Site 17. The outer district of Staten Island… we're too late…" Too late… A hint of frustration and resignation, as Richard observes, "…the timetable's already up. It's their move. This all goes back to Kershner. Kershner took the scientists. Kershner heads up FRONTLINE…" The Queen…

Veronica shakes her head at Elisabeth. "Apparently we're not important enough to merit them," she says a bit bitterly. "I'm not Evolved, but a good lot of us are. My guess is they're trying to weaken our workforce. They want us to fail, they want us out of the picture. Why, I'm not sure. I mean, that's a bit much if it's all just … agency rivalry, right?" She glances over at Cardinal's shadowy form and frowns again. "What site is that?"

Elisabeth can't touch the argument about weakening the work force. But she does tell Cardinal, "I'm not sure Kershner knows much about what's up either, Richard. To be quite honest, she knows a lot…. way the hell more than she'd ever admit to me, obviously… but I know that my squad hasn't been asked to do anything on Staten. As yet. And whatever it is that she's up to, those orders are coming from higher up."

"Government Reclamation Site 17. The Oakwood Outer District… it was in the news the other day. I was surfing the news sites and caught sight of the term…" Cardinal's shadows slither in a twist along up and over Elisabeth's shoulders, draping over them, "…they're rounding up the sick right now, probably. Tomorrow, they'll be quarantining Site 17. Stillwater and the Guard." Too late…

Frowning, Veronica reaches for her coffee cup to sip again, though it's a touch cool. "I've been in a bubble working on the murders, I swear. All right. I'll see what I can do about getting you an appointment with Petrelli." She sets the cup down. "I should go… more wild goose chases to do, you know?"

Elisabeth snickers softly. "Tell you what…. when the shit stops hitting the fan, Vee… you, me, and a bottle of tequila. How's it sound? I make a mean pitcher of margaritas." Her smile is amused as she remembers the last time she had a pitcher of those, her blue eyes drifting over Richard's form.

"What," Cardinal whispers, "None for me?" For me?

"I'm there. I'll even drink the worm," Veronica says with some amusement as she stands. "Good to see … both of you." Sort of. She'd rather see Cardinal's corporeal form than the tattered shadow, but, like the rest of his friends, she'll take what she can get.

At that, there's a waggle of blonde brows in Cardinal's direction. "Babe, if you're ever solid enough to drink margaritas with me, I've got something far better than tequila to give you." Elisabeth grins, that wicked twinkle in her eyes pure naughty Liz. It doesn't bother her a bit that Vee is still standing there.

"Oh," teases the living shadow, "Threesome?"

The agent heading for the door just shakes her head and laughs, glancing over her shoulder at the blonde and the shadow draped over her shoulders. "I'm going to go before I get in more trouble than I already am," she says, perhaps a touch of pink gracing her high cheekbones. "I'll give Liz a call if I can set something up with Angela."

Chuckling, Liz murmurs to the shadow on her shoulders, "It'd serve you right if I said yes and brought Felix." She looks back to Veronica and moves to walk her out. "All right. That'd be good — don't use names, just text me a day and time. I'll make sure he gets it." Just in case Rebel's watching her phone or something. She's starting to feel paranoid.

"I can answer my own phone again," Cardinal's whisper stirs suddenly, "It was set up with voice commands now. I'm getting pretty good at it. And… no. I've seen too many of Felix's insides for one lifetime, thank you very much." Crabs…

If he were solid, Elisabeth would smack him for that. "That's too wrong for words, Richard," she retorts, smacking her own shoulder. For all the good it does.


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