So Not Telling Her That

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif warren_icon.gif

Scene Title So Not Telling Her That
Synopsis Captain Oblivious and the people he hangs with
Date Mar 12, 2011

Redbird Security Solutions


The late and relatively quiet morning is quickly interrupted with a particularly chipper Warren Ray. He steps through the doors of Redbird, sliding across the floor with his black unbuttoned suit jacket and matching tie dragging behind his quick movements. "El-e-o-v-e, that's how I choose to spell love!"

He has a bouquet of yellow sunflowers in one hand, and as he steps at the receptionist a long bendy robotic tentacle-like arm springs out of his jacket and holds out a second bouquet, this one red roses, offering it to the woman behind the counter. "'Cause I'm siiiingin' in the rain! Just siiingin' in the rain!" he shouts, completely unrelated to his last made up song.

The robotic arm detaches and he spins as he starts to head down the halls. "I'm laughing at clouds! So dark up above! I'm singin', singin' in the rain!" He may be confusing his life for a musical at the moment, but at least this is relatively harmless insanity…

As the tentacle-borne bouquet springs out from inside Warren's jacket in the direction of the receptionist, Joanna screams at the top of her lungs and tries to leap back, a process that has the chair she's in clattering back onto the floor. He's always sort of terrified her, and sudden robotic extensions were apparently too much for her.

The noise brings Cardinal out of his office in a rush, the door flung open as he steps out into the hall, reaching for the gun inside his suit jacket… and then he pauses, straightening, his expression turning somewhat exasperated. "Warren," he sighs, his hand falling to his side, "Jesus. Have you become completely detached from reality again?"

It's Saturday — a full day off. Elisabeth cannot remember the last time she got one. The whole team was given the day. They've been busting their tails. She was sitting on top of Richard's desk awaiting the man who is coming in, looking very casual and at ease. Until the screaming starts. By the time the blonde hits the doorway, half a step behind Cardinal, she too has a weapon in her hand pointed at the floor. (It wouldn't do to shoot him in the ass, would it?)

There is a sigh and Elisabeth shoves the mass of blonde off her face, the riot of waves falling clear past the middle of her back. She moves to shove her own weapon back into the inner pants holster in her jeans, tugging the soft lilac cardigan and white pullover down over the butt. Christ. "Jo, you okay, hun? Why don't you go ahead and take your break a bit early," she gently encourages the girl. "Go get yourself something nice from the bakery, okay?" Poor girl. Redbird's going to be paying a shrink for YEARS for her.

"I'm just in a great mood! Thanks to future you I've decided to enjoy life a bit. Live, love, conquer the corporate world, the American dream! I have flowers for Elle." Warren swings the bouquet from side to side a bit as if to indicate its presence. "You should take time to smell some flowers. Here, have some." This time they're held up to Cardinal's nose.

A gloved hand raises to brush the flowers away from Cardinal's face, his tone rather dry as he observes, "I think I liked you better as a depressive. And sure, Ezekiel's a great guy, up until the point that he destroys the entire universe with his Blasphemy Engine. Or, failing that, makes sure we're all being enslaved by Humanis First…" He turns a bit, moving towards the stairs, "You can bring the flowers to Elle in a minute. C'mon downstairs."

Elisabeth eyes Warren and looks…. vaguely alarmed. Thanks to future Card he's in a great mood? Christ. That cannot be good. With a heavy sigh, the blonde flanks Warren and nudges him toward the stairs to the lower level. Basements are good.

"You two worry too much. Just because the guy is evil doesn't mean I can't get a few life changing epiphanies. Besides, he wants to hook Elle up to a machine that could kill her, do you really thing I'd side with him having that knowledge?" Warren asks all of this very casually, getting nudged along before he starts heading down the stairs. "So what's this all about?"

"You know, aside from your own life-changing epiphanies," Cardinal says with a slow shake of his head as he makes his way along towards the door, unlocking it and starting down the stairs towards the second locked door, "We do have business to handle. There's something I'd like you to look at, and a proposal to make for your company to work on…"

Elisabeth follows the men downstairs and murmurs quietly, "Besides…. some of the rest of us get our own life-changing epiphanies that are in direct opposition to yours." Her tone is a bit grumbly. The top door is closed behind her only after Cardinal opens the bottom one and flips on the lights. Even now, the complete darkness will throw her into a panic.

"Alright alright, I won't be cheerful around you two manic depressives." Warren throws his hands up in defeat and his eyes shift to their silvery state as soon as they arrive below, taking in the area. "All of my best work happens in basements."

"We haven't gotten a lot of use out of the basement since Ezekiel teleported into the place," Cardinal admits rather sourly as he walks along in, his head shaking slightly, "It's really annoying having an enemy that knows everything you do, by the way, I'm just saying…" He crosses the room towards a larger cabinet, reaching into a pocket to pull out his keychain, rattling the keys around before sliding it into the lock.

The cabinet's opened; revealing a jury-rigged hanging system for the suit of Horizon Armor that it contains.

Elisabeth mumbles behind Warren, "Manic depressives my ass. You try outthinking yourself all the time." She bites her tongue, though, and walks with them. Actually, this part, she's surprised by. She hadn't expected this and there's a faint frown beneath her brows. "Are you planning on having him upgrade it? Cuz…. I already let him inspect mine to within an inch of its life," she asks curiously.

"I have some designs and prototype parts created from what I observed of her's, but actually having one to inspect hands on… I could do a much better job of minimalization." Warren heads over to the side, pulling a stethoscope from his jacket to place the buds into his ears, the bell of the scope against the suit's chest, then knocks on the armor. "And need I remind you that I have enemies I haven't even met yet. Three or four other past lives here."

"There's one minor modification I wouldn't mind, actually," Cardinal says with a shake of his head, stepping over to tap a tank on the leg, "This suit's got liquid sprayers that fire from the arms… I'd like to be able to slot in a pressurized gas canister instead." Two guesses what sort of canister he plans on plugging into the suit, and the first guess doesn't count.

"But mostly," he says, crooking a faint smile in Warren's direction, "I want to know if you can make something a little more — stripped down and mass-producable for Redbird Security forces."

Well, it's not a huge surprise what Richard wants. A little one, to be sure, but not a huge one. Elisabeth walks to the desk at the center of the room and hauls her behind up to sit on the edge of it, swinging her feet. The soft green pullover and jeans are casual and it appears she's staying comfortable. Although she does slant a somewhat disgruntled glance at the ceiling.

"If we remove some of the bulkier protective parts of the armor, and replace it with more ergonomically designed armor. I've been looking into some research from the University of Texas and Trinity College in Ireland." Warren takes his 'scope to drape it around his neck, turning around to face the two. "I've taken their research and have been working on carbon nanotube composite fibers, perfecting a process to mass produce them mechanically. They're said to be tougher than any other man-made or natural polymer fiber, and my testing is proving that to be true. They're seventeen times tougher than kevlar and four times than spider silk, not to mention two times stiffer and stronger than steel fiber while being twenty times tougher."

He crosses his arms and looks down a moment in thought, processing… "When I perfect this process the only somewhat bulky armor parts will be things like gadget holdsters and minimized gas canisters. I intend to create a five three layer full body suit. The outer and inner layers will be the fibers, the layers inside of those will be a very thin air sealed layer, and within that will be a sheer-thickening fluid."

"Right." There's a long moment's silence as Richard regards Warren for a moment. He's never been the technical sort. "So… can you do it? I'm sure it wouldn't be as powerful as the Horizon armor, but so long as it's enough to give my people an edge, I'll be happy with it. And it'll be a good base for our corporate partnership, as well."

Elisabeth stares at Warren with the same befuddled expression that Cardinal is sporting for a moment. "And can you do it without the Institute getting hold of it and otherwise bastardizing it the way they're doing with every other piece of technology they can get their hands on?" she asks tightly. "Cuz I'm not looking forward to living in drone land where we're all running away from freakin' jets blasting shit in the city."

"Don't worry about the Institute, I do my work in two different highly secure areas of my factory. The only downside to this is that I'll have to make each suit catering to a specific person. So I'll need measurements from everyone you want a suit for, and any abilities would help too." Warren reaches into his pocket for a pen and a piece of paper, starting to write everything he says.

"I'll be sacrificing everything I consider non-essential. So no strength and physical enhancements in exchange for more dexterity and protection. You'll have your night and heat vision, but for safety reasons the only remote communications will be between the suits themselves, and within a specified range. Depending on an individual's abilities the suits might differ from eachother." He points the pen at Elisabeth, having laid his flowers down at some point. "But I don't think Elisabeth's gonna need any enhancements, she seems to always make my technology feel obsolete."

"The majority've my people aren't Evolved," Cardinal admits, "I'll submit the measurements for some of the most… reliable people I have for the first test run, including myself in case I need to make an appearance in uniform and I can't use the Horizon." He nods slightly, allowing, "We need them to be cheaper than Horizon, at the very least. I may be sending people over to Iraq if the military contract goes through, and I'm going to want to outfit them."

She looks taken aback for a long moment, and then actually blushes. Elisabeth's smile is a touch on the shy side as she glances toward Cardinal — she doesn't seem to know how to take Warren's compliment. "I … didn't mean to?" she tries as an apology. "I did tell you what I could do," she adds. And then she pauses, tilting her head and biting her tongue. She'd thought he meant for Endgame. But he doesn't just mean them — he means for the business too. That's a bit of a switch for him, to her mind.

"Once I perfect the spinning process then it'll just be a matter of buying materials and building more machines. You could say that I'm building the most complex sewing machine in the world. Building the machines will probably cost a bit, but in the end this will be much cheaper than those Horizon armors. I'm already cutting out much of what makes them so expensive." Warren holds out the paper of just what he'll be cutting from the suit, mostly everything he's just said, just giving a written reference in case the older of the two forgets. "Oh! Those suits from that new G.I Joe movie? Kind of a good idea, except more Snake Eyes masks with cool techno visors." He holds his hands up to his face, making glasses with his fingers.

"I think those are a little beyond modern technology," says Cardinal— although he's not entirely sure. After all, there are killer fucking robots roaming around Midtown. He shakes his head slightly, reaching out to take the paper and looking over it, making a note to ask Alia to translate it all into english for him. "Alright. Let me know once you've filed the… patents and all, and we'll announce our partnership on this. I'm sure you can turn out all sorts of other gadgetry shit that we could use too."

"Warren… have you been back up there?" To the Institute, Elisabeth means (obviously).

"I meant as far as minimalization design aesthetics go." Warren thumbs at Elisabeth. "That means she gets boobs on her armor." he points out with a firm nod, then raises an eyebrow at her question, shaking his head. "No, but I need to. I have to figure out if they know the location of Heller. He… killed a friend of mine, just to get to someone else. A pretty innocent person not in the middle of anything."

"We can't deal with Heller right now," Cardinal admits with a tight grimace, his gaze cutting back to the cabinet and the armour hanging in it, "I wish we could. He's basically Elisabeth's dark mirror - he's in charge of Einherjar. Oh. Sorry." A snort, "Frontline Oh-Ess."

Elisabeth slants a glance at Cardinal. And then she sighs. "Goddamnit." She shoves off the desk, moving to pace the room. Her jaw clenches and she turns on Warren. "Moving on Heller now is a fucking suicide mission. He's sitting out in the middle of Staten fucking Island surrounded by a FRONTLINE unit and the fucking drones that you helped create and that you and Alia are supposed to be helping destroy now. You can't get to his ass right now, and truth be told, Warren? You don't want to. Not yet. We need those fuckers fried in the court of public opinion — absolutely and totally outed as a militant arm of Humanis First if we're going to have any goddamn chance of heading off what's coming." So much for relaxation. Elisabeth's ability only feels muffled to her down here; it's mainly because it's contained somewhat within the sound-absorbing materials built right into the basement walls and ceiling. It doesn't actually stop her agitation from creating the ripples in the air that almost seem like heat waves as the brush past the two men.

"You think I don't want to take him right on out of the picture?" Elisabeth demands. "That fucker is executing civilians under the same name that I have to operate with. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to operate a FRONTLINE unit full of people who actually do want to help only to have my own allies questioning where my loyalties might fall? Taking that sonuvabitch down like the dog he is only makes us look bad. And if we become that enemy, Roosevelt Island becomes Auschwitz. And God help us, I'm pretty damn worried that the day's coming where I'm going to wake up one morning and I'm the fucking guard at the gate! I can count on two people in my squad. Maybe three — the other one is so enamored of the drones you made that I don't know whose side she'd be on if all hell broke loose."

"If that's the case, if it's how you really want to take down Heller, then maybe I should introduce you to the woman's brother. He's the one who plans to kill Heller as soon as humanly possible. Very powerful telekinetic… I think." Warren walks over to the Horizon armor and places his hand against it. "I'll need to take this thing apart and take lots of pictures, so I might be down here for about an hour or two. Could someone tell Elle I'm here, but I have to do something first?"

"We know Griffin." It's a simple statement, Cardinal's head shaking slowly as he steps away from the cabinet and Warren, "He was part of Messiah, when Carmichael and Peter were still running the show… just make sure you can put it back together when you're done, eh, Warren? And remember what I said about the gas sprayer…"

Ugh. Elisabeth rolls her eyes and looks at Cardinal. "We need that meeting. We need people all on the same page or for God's sake, I'm going to … explode into little bitty particles of annoyed blonde," she informs him on a sigh.

"Yes, yes, I'll remember the gas. And I'll put it back together. Alright Iron Man, time to take you apart!" Warren holds his hands up and a bunch of tools just slide from under his sleeve on tiny appendages "And I love it when Elle does that." is his response to Elisabeth exploding into little bitty particles.

"If Elle did that," Cardinal points out dryly, "You would be melted into tiny little bits of intuitive."

He moves to step along back towards the stairs, his head shaking, "…yeah, we do. I suppose we should invite Gadget Boy here along too."

Elisabeth pivots on her heel. "I'll ask the conflict analyst type to join us as well," she murmurs. "I'm heading her way anyway today." She offers a faint grin. "I need a day off. In a serious fashion. So I gave the squad the whole day unless something major hits. Chick flicks for the win."

Warren pulls the armor down to the ground and starts working at it with a speed that would make anyone think he was breaking it. But he's actually pulling it apart quite expertly, his new tool setup eliminating the need to stop and search for new ones. "Oh, and tell her 'invisible kiss delivery'."


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