Tall Orders And Impossible Things

Participants:

cat_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif helena_icon.gif

Scene Title Tall Orders And Impossible Things
Synopsis Helena and Elisabeth get briefed.
Date May 15, 2009

Village Renaissance Building, Cat's Penthouse


The night has passed, daylight makes its way through small spaces between curtains hiding the street side windows in spots. Cat is up and moving, she at least believes Helena is still asleep, as are the people sheltering two floors down. There are things to be done. Give Candy a job or combination of jobs. Talk with Isabelle about Old Lucy's and the business of giving back her business. Speak with Alexander about Abby having a place for him in her apartment. That's a tricky one, a thing she likely speaks with Helena and Teo about first. Then there are the very much not small matters of Edward Ray and his gang.

There is coffee and food available. Steak and eggs, orange juice. And a copy of today's New York Times. The iPhone is put to use, texting a member of the NYPD to come pay a visit as well.

The call from Cat is not unusual, and Elisabeth isn't expecting much of anything from this early-morning summons. She's been awake for hours, having been visited by Niles Wight and then dealing with the murder scene across the hall from her apartment all morning and not being able to say anything about it. When she comes to Cat's doors, she looks tired. The smell of coffee is welcome indeed. "Morning," she greets as she steps off the elevator.

Helena wakes up at a fairly decent time, the first thing she indulges in being a shower. Cat's wardrobe will have to do for fresh clothes, and Helena is shameless if there are any concert t-shirts to go with any sweatpants to be had. Once she feels clean and not wearing clothes that smell like she's been singed, she pads out in the living room, lured by the smells of coffee and steak. As Elisabeth makes her appearance, she smiles faintly. "Morning, Liz." she says, like she just saw her yesterday. Well, maybe a couple of days ago. Oh wait! She did!

There are indeed such things to wear, although for Helena's frame they're a bit oversized. The doors are unlocked and open for Elisabeth to enter through, not that they'd need to be with a way given for getting in on her own. Cat, seated at the table, remains quiet. She wears a pensive expression, one which gives away the weight of things coursing through her brain, and quirks a smile. "So, last night I got this call from the ruins of the Deveaux building…"

About the time Cat starts to open her mouth, Helena's voice sounds. And Elisabeth's eyes swivel to stare at the source of the sound. "Oh…… oh my GOD!" she practically squeals. "Helena, you made it!" Liz moves immediately to hug the little blonde exuberantly. A billion and one questions, but only two that matter. "Are you okay? Was there anyone with you??" Because right now, she's just thinking Helena appeared the same way Cat did, just…. a month late.

Helena accepts the hug warmly. "How you doing, Chicken Little?" she says fondly, and then says, "There were eight of us. We sort of took a little trip forward in the timestream…2019, to be exact. We were there for a bit, and it was hell and high water getting back. I've got a lot of stuff to share, but I kind of have to be careful about who gets to know what." There's a pause. "Trask is here, and he's safe, but don't rush off to meet him quite yet, okay?"

She detaches herself to go collect food and caffeine. "Did you cook this yourself, Cat? God, it smells wonderful. All they have in the future is food pills." She's…kidding, right?

"2019," Cat replies. "That makes sense, it matches with some things we've had going on here." And her face shows dismay, but maybe not so much surprise, when the comment is made about food pills. "Damn," she murmurs. "How bad was this future you visited?" In her mind it makes sense to hear a claim like that, given the visitations she's had and the presence of people wanting to prevent it, but with little detail.

"I can follow a recipe well enough, but this isn't my work, Storms." Nothing further is said, she opts to let Helena tell tales of her own accord.

Did the petite woman just call her Chicken Little? Elisabeth has to laugh, acknowledging at least mentally that the appelation may be apt. The news that eight people were there — that was good news. Relief is clear in her expression as she asks, "Good. Alex? Who else?" she asks quickly. She's betting Alex is a big 'yes' just because Helena wouldn't be otherwise so calm. "God… I'm not even sure I want to know about the future, given what's already bit us in the ass…." She looks at Cat and says, "2019. That can't be coincidence, can it?" She sighs. "I got paid a visit by Niles Wight this morning. I'll fill you in over coffee."

Helena pours herself some coffee and gets herself some meat and eggs, and goes to settle on the couch. "I was kidding about the food pills." she promises. "Believe me, I wouldn't look this well fed if they didn't have real food." She takes a bite of her dead cow and almost swoons. "Eight of us: Me, Alex, Trask, Django - you don't know him, he was a prisoner in Moab and he's - he's good. Isabelle, Lucrezia - that's Teo's aunt. And then two more. Jessica, who may or may not be fixed now up here," she taps her temple, "And Elle Bishop. I don't know if you know her, but she's a Company Agent. And she makes things a little complicated."

Elisabeth raises a single eyebrow at the list. And she's kind of wierded out. "Wait… Isabelle? Oh Lord." The woman wants to kill Liz, she's quite sure. She knows nothing about Lucrezia, and the news that Jessica's there also makes her look relieved. That's a motley collection of people who went forward ten years. She moves to pour herself some coffee, and then can't seem to keep herself away from the food either, suddenly finding her appetite for the first time today. It's been a brutal morning. "I shudder to think what kind of things you guys have seen in the intervening ten years. The big question, I guess, is what you know that we need to know in order to move forward." She slants Cat a meaningful glance. "I think I've changed my mind about your and Hana's stance." On Pinehearst, she means.

Taking up a plate of her own and following, Cat listens intently to the spoken words. It's a bit of a walk to the couch where Helena settles, the penthouse being just as spacious as it was ten years forward, although right now it's sixth floor instead of seventh. She sips from the coffee and occupies a comfortable chair, nodding from time to time as she begins to eat. "Is it a horror show in some respects, Helena?"

Elisabeth gets a slow nod, but few words. So much to brief on.

"Not seen, but know about. The internet's still alive and well. It's…not pretty. But it's also not important right now." She looks over to Cat. "The future - the one we were in, anyway? On the surface it was beautiful. Incredible, everything we ever dreamed of. But there were cracks under the surface like you wouldn't believe." She shakes her head, studies Elisabeth. "Pinehearst…to be honest, I'm not sure. I think it could go either way, but regardless: Arthur Petrelli is a dangerous man and anyone who crosses him should be very, very careful. And not just in the broadest sense. He's a power thief. If he touches you, he can take your ability."

But then, "Cat - remember the river metaphor? It's a lie. Or at least, whatever Dr. Ray believed at that time, is wrong. Things can change, in big ways."
Elisabeth looks puzzled now. "Wait…." So much to brief on indeed. "Well, it makes sense that things can change in big ways. The question there is: Which changes are going to result in good outcomes with as few bad outcomes as possible. And there's honestly no way to really answer that." She hesitates and says quietly, "Niles Wight freed his younger self somehow from Level 5. He says he's on the loose — and he came to me begging me to do whatever I have to in order to ensure that young him doens't become him."

She glances at Cat. "He said Pinehearst is basically a huge evil and kind of based on what he said, I'm getting the impression that maybe they're doing the same kinds of things the Company is. Locking up people who dont' agree with them or …. maybe those they decide are too powerful to be trusted in public? I don't know for sure."

"In the future I went to? They pretty much controlled everything. The Company had long been destroyed, but - did I mention a lot to cover?" Helena sighs as she sips her coffee. "The big stuff should probably wait until Teo is here as well. There are some more immediate concerns. I'm not sure if Jessica and Niki are resolved or not, but there was a chance that they've been fixed. Our other immediate concern is Elle." She looks over at Liz. "I've had Trask basically keeping her nullified, effectively her jailer. Except I things got a little…um."

There's a pause and Elisabeth stares at Helena. The first thought that passes through her mind is intrigue that someone was able to help Jessica and Niki, though she's not precisely sure what state the other blonde was in. The second thought, she sort of blurts out, "You do know that we're not monogamous, right?" Because she doesn't really need to know about Norton's sex life except where it impacts her personally… but seriously. A Company agent?? "What the fuck is he thinking? Can she be even remotely trusted? Some of them can…." Sometimes."

Helena admits, "I don't know, and it's pretty clear he wasn't, but I will say this - she almost wasn't there at our pick up. Norton started to go look for her, and when I told him to stop and come back, and that we couldn't risk seven lives for her one? He did. So I'm reassured as far as that goes, but we still may need to do some tinkering before we release her into the wild. She was blindfolded on her way here, so she doesn't know where she is. We need to find out what her intentions are and then maybe have Kinson do some work on her."

He'd have given up getting home…. for a Company agent? That information seems to hit Elisabeth like a blow to the stomach. She puts her fork down and looks vaguely ill. "Wow," she says quietly. "That's…. unexpected. Christ… how long were you there?" she asks. It seems out of character for the guy that she's got an on-again, off-again relationship with.

Elisabeth glances up and grimaces, "You know what? Never mind…. it's beside the point, ultimately. What she'll do now that she's back is a far higher priority. Sorry."

"About six weeks?" Helena hazzards. "I'm guessing based on the date, that time was running more or less in parallel, here. So Elle's our first order of business. We've also got these fugitives from the future to deal with, and you know, I'm tapped for ideas on that." Her lips press together tight. "I wish Conrad were here. He'd be the first I'd go to about them." So she knows about Conrad then. She bites her lip and smiles. "In the future? He's considered a huge hero. That's on my list of things that I'm gonna make sure is gonna happen, even if it kills me." Heh.

"So you know about the visitors," Cat asks, having taken time to just listen and absorb data as Helena shares it, "and their plan to change things? They've been busy, Edward paid me a visit." Silence settles in again as she calls up memories of Conrad, and softly agrees. "He needs a memorial."

The news about Conrad? That makes Elisabeth grin with a nostalgic affection for the audiokinetic. "He was…. really an amazing guy," she says quietly. She's never really spoken about her relationship with the man except to Cat, but the news that he's a hero? "He'd have laughed his ass off about that. Really." She looks at Helena. "He'd have thought it was stupid. But he deserves it for what he did." She shoves a hand through her hair and looks between the other women.

"Wight said Edward offered him the opportunity to get out of prison, but he's not in on the actual plan — he and the murders he's committing are a distraction, a red herring. Ultimately, …. " She bites her lip. "Listen, you can take this with a grain of salt, but the way he came to me? The way he asked… or really, begged… for us to get to his younger self, who is apparently riding the high of his abilities but not yet a complete sociopath… makes me lend a bit more weight to the argument that Pinehearst may just be trading one version of the Company for another."

"Funny." Helena says, "But most of the people in 2010 wanted me to avoid mentioning their futures. And this guy wants us to change his. If we even can. But it may be that we could. I'm not sure what it is Edward Ray is hoping to accomplish, or any of them - but I do know that they're not bevolent people. I want a better understanding of their endgame. Is there any way we can do that?"

To Helena, Elisabeth says, "Actually, there are at least two people I want to change the futures of. Niles Wight — he's the one who came to me — and Taylor Reed, who is apparently a kid right now. Technopath. Somehow got himself trapped in the 'net in the future, and his future self has been a complete thorn in the side of a lot of people, including Hana and myself. He took over the body of an old student of mine from the high school." She shakes her head. "If we can get to him early enough, we can keep him from getting stuck in the 'net, I'm hoping. I've put mail out to Hana on it, actually, to see if she can get to the kid before I can. I doubt he's even manifested his talent yet, so not entirely sure how to find him before that happens — no way to know which Taylor Reed in the greater New York area he is. Unless I maybe approach Robin Hood himself," she muses aloud thoughtfully.

And then derails herself. "The third one I'd like to see us help is Tyler Case. My colleague had evidence that he claimed would exonerate the kid, before the Company swooped him up." She looks at Helena and says quietly, "Unless I miss my guess here, they've all come back to change their own circumstances, and we have no way to actually verify what their future circumstances actually were… but if we can intervene in the current-time ones, that might be enough to shift the balance, if you know what I mean."

To Cat, she replies quietly, "One of his other lovers and I went in together on a memorial." She starts to laugh. "It's a plaque that overlooks the police station."
"It's not like it was before," Cat begins, "where he had evidence and exhibits which confirmed suspicions and led to a plan he shared with us for defeating Kazimir. He came only with a request to help the Company not be wrecked, a demand to know what side I'm on, and an undefined threat should I do anything he'd call dangerous. He was also ten years older, his current self is in Company hands, I'm told."

There's a deep breath and a few beats of internal pondering.

"What's the state of justice in 2019? Are people still being disappeared without trial?"

"The future's already been changed." Helena points out. "So the question becomes whether or not they've already succeeded, and whether any further alterations on their part make it better or worse. God, I hate temporal physics." This from a blonde suburban almost co-ed. She leans back. "We're going to have to hammer out some goals and set to getting them accomplished. But what about on your guys' end? What sort of movements has Phoenix been making? How's Teo's leadership?"

Her brow furrows as Helena bypasses the question and moves on to another, which prompts Cat to try a different tack in floating it again. "It would help in gauging how to proceed if we know details. Like the state of justice in that year, if people are still being locked up indefinitely without trial. Arthur Petrelli tells me he has a plan to restore the Presidency to what it should be, and he seems very interested in us. He's had us watched via precogs and clairvoyants, I was told, when he knew things I'd not have liked him to know." And she grimaces. "I shook the man's hand." Her eyes widen a bit at the close call, but she shakes it off soon enough.

"Teo's a solid leader. We worked out where you were held and organized the raid to free you. That's been our biggest project. After that, we worked at regrouping and Doctor Ray began to give us headaches."

"So," Cat suggests, "maybe I should start at the beginning and go through all of it, you can supply thoughts on motivations along the way?"

Elisabeth says, "Well, here's my thought…. whatever you learned in the future, Helena… for good or for bad, certainly there are things we can do to change some things. You can't second guess today's actions, though, because what you saw in the future hinged on so many things. Some things will be pivotal to making a future, some things …. contribute but are far more peripheral, if you know what I mean. Like the Bomb … if we could go back in time to stop the Bomb, would we have stopped Registration? Maybe… or maybe it would have just delayed it until something else major brought Evos into the open. I think it would have happened ultimately anyway. The only thing we can do with what you know from the future is hope to avoid some of the pitfalls you may know about while we keep on doing what we're doing."

She pauses and looks at Cat. "And on some level, I have to wonder if we need to go ahead and approach Goodman and suggest that he go public now rather than later…. and that might let us focus just on Pinehearst perhaps?"

Helena sighs a little. "There was a President, and a working government. The Evolved were fully integrated, there was even an Evolved militia. People had the right to register or not as they saw fit, and there was - is a formula that ennables non-Evolved to become so synthetically." She nods to Cat in approval, and then shrugs a little toward Elisabeth. "I could see it going either way. That's the line Edward Ray gave me, and yet here his future self is, trying to change his destiny. So I'm a little less inclined to believe in the river, now." She looks back to Cat. "Start at the beginning."

"Frontline," Cat muses quietly as Helena speaks of the militia. It's in the documents taken from Carmichael they made Elisabeth ignore knowing, and it's been mentioned here and there in the papers. Also mentioned by Arthur Petrelli. But she won't elaborate on that yet.

"After the raid on Moab, we all got scattered. I found myself in three places at once, five hours after I spoke to you at Moab as we were about to withdraw. The weird part is I hadn't lost enough blood to have been there all that time. It took a few weeks to locate all all but the eight of you who traveled forward. The first indication of trouble came soon after the prison raid when Hiro Nakamura's sister told me his abilities were switched with Nathan Petrelli. Hiro now flies, Nathan manipulates space and time. Nathan, in this situation, is ten years older than the President of today. Kimiko also later confirmed, after I sent his photo, that Tyler Case did the switching."

Elisabeth settles back to listen to Cat lay all the information out. She picks up her fork and starts to eat while she listens — this is gonna take a while.
Helena is a little surprised Cat knows the name. "Frontline, yes. And you're never going to believe who - well, nevermind, it isn't important." Then relief, "Hiro's alive, good…" Though she makes an oh-shit face when she hears that 2019 Nathan has Hiro's abilities.

"Next I learned Adam Monroe has acquired the assistance of Ethan in acting against Hiro, the source says the sins of his father are being called into account. It presents some danger to the source if Adam learns info was shared, but I warned Hiro. I won't just let him be blindsided." Cat studies Helena's face as she speaks, adding "I was also at that time told Adam Monroe had been part of the Vanguard."

"Next in line was preventing Niles Wight from carrying out a murder I was given a vision of by Reverend Joseph Sumter. Niles is also from the future, and from what his intended victim said has a broken mind. His ability involves making electrical copies of himself."

"Then Edward comes to visit. Future Edward. He asked for help with keeping the Company from collapse and sinking Pinehearst, but had no evidence to support such a ludicrous thing as assisting the Company. He had Tyler Case with him, the future Tyler, and called him John. Tyler showed up when the power was cut off, as if he were teleported in during a moment of stopped time, teleportation, or both."

"I asked if he was behind Adam going after Hiro, and Edward said I should ask Father that question. So I agreed to arrange a meeting with Father, and at Edward's demand I messaged his technopath, Robin Hood, to say it was set."

By the look to her face, the meeting with Mason Chesterfield must've been a bodyslam event.

Helena absorbs the information about Adam, at least until it gets to the Ethan part. Helena's face becomes almost a snarl, but she keeps herself in check. "Niles Wright is the one who's asked Liz to stop his present self from his current path." She frowns. "So now we're being used as pawns between the Company and Pinehearst. There may be future ramifications to that, but I'll pick up the points later." A blink. "Your father…?" Did she think Cat sprang from Zeus' head, fully armored? Maybe.

She nods. "The man who raised me, along with Mother," Cat states. There may be something in that, she didn't say he was her father. "I met with him, intending to lay it all on the table. Edward mentioned him having an ability like his own when we worked with him before once. Father, I learned, came to the meeting with that same purpose. He says he worked for the Company long ago, and now works on a project with Arthur, one he recently took over. He said he's known for some time I'm an Evolved person, and spoke a lot of being proud of me. But there were shocks. In the eighties, the Company created a serum to install abilities in people. Two of the scientists involved, working under a Doctor Zimmerman, were Harold and Alisa Forrest. They had an infant daughter, Jane Forrest."

Helena nods. "I know - about the serum. But you - wow." Helena blinks. "That's just…wow, Cat. Are you okay?"

"I am now," Cat replies with a faint nod. She's somber, it had an impact, this much is clear. But she's not going to let on more than she can avoid. "You know about the serum," she continues, "because Edward told us about it. How it merged with the Shanti virus in the future he warned himself about to make it so much more deadly. And that failed versions of it cause things like the man I shot that night here in the Village. The melting. Doctor Zimmerman, along with the Forrests, made a working formula and several children were injected with it. At least one of them didn'

Helena shakes her head. "No, no." she says. "I know about the successful versions of the serum. Actually…" she looks sidelong, and doesn't finish the sentence. Maybe she doesn't want to talk about it with Elisabeth here.

"I am now," Cat replies with a faint nod. She's somber, it had an impact, this much is clear. But she's not going to let on more than she can avoid. "You know about the serum," she continues, "because Edward told us about it. How it merged with the Shanti virus in the future he warned himself about to make it so much more deadly. And that failed versions of it cause things like the man I shot that night here in the Village. The melting. Doctor Zimmerman, along with the Forrests, made a working formula and several children were injected with it. At least one of them didn't manifest until her late teens. The formula, though, was destroyed by a lab fire in 1984. The Forrests died in it."

"The Chesterfields, also working with the Company then, had lost their own daughter of the same age during heart surgery. It was suggested to them by Charles Deveaux, a Company founder, they take in Jane and raise her. So they did. But they simply slipped her into their deceased child's name and life."

"It's that Charles Deveaux, the building was his," she states on resuming. "The formula stocks were lost in the fire, and another Company founder, Kaito Nakamura, locked the recipe away. Arthur is now trying to recreate the formula, that's what Father is doing with Pinehearst, and I suspect the fact of Kaito having the recipe and trouble heading Hiro's way isn't a coincidence."

She floats a question. "The formula works in the future? It didn't create some widespread disaster, people aren't being rounded up as test subjects resulting in mass murder? I speculated that might be the reason for Edward's actions."

"I didn't look into the progress of its development while there," Helena admits. "But - " she turn turns abruptly. "Elisabeth, you are absolutely not to repeat this. This is slit-your-throat before speaking stuff until it's determined otherwise, no shit, I mean it. Okay?"

Elisabeth has been listening all this time, and she has some things to add, but before she does so Helena's words hit her. Turning blue eyes on Helena, she asks quietly, "Have I given you cause to doubt that if you said keep my mouth shut, I couldn't do it?" That actually bothers the hell out of her. Who did she become in ten years that Helena believes her not trustworthy. "Say what you have to say, and then I'll put my two cents' worth in."

Her narrative pauses there, Cat looking between the two of them, eyebrows raising. Where the hell did that come from? Concern forms in her own mind over what they become, what they're up to, and she arrives at a question to ask. Later. After Helena speaks what she's got now.

"I have three samples." Helena announces. "Of the successful formula, with me. We could study it…or, and/or, we could offer it to people we trust if they want to take the injections. Off the bat I can think of two people I'd be willing to make the offer to, to be quite frank."

Elisabeth blinks and stares at Helena. "My God," she murmurs softly, stunned.

"Who are they?" Cat asks quietly. So Arthur got the recipe. "Are Hiro and Kaito alive, in this future?"

"Who are who?" Helena asks in confusion. "Oh, you mean - Teo, for one. And maybe Ben. I'm not sure. Kaito had already passed, but he managed to leave something of a legacy. Hiro was killed while we were there. Arthur had gone after them both, Kaito because he was apparently a huge threat to Pinehearst, Hiro because he wanted to keep us from returning to the present." She looks to Elisabeth. "It's not that I don't trust you. It's that I need you to understand just how important it is for you to keep this from being spread around, or at least, carefully controlled."

Elisabeth nods slowly and meets Helena's eyes, searching for something. Whatever it is that she sees seems to satisfy. "I have a couple more pieces of intel to throw on the pyre at this juncture. There's an ATF agent out there with a serious mad-on for running in a guy named "Mort." According to the same source that Cat got her info from, this guy has been or did plan an attack on the NYC Company holding facility…. I believe it's actually already been accomplished, based on Niles Wight's words to me in the wee hours."

"Most likely scenario there is that Mortimer is tied in with the Adam Monroe crowd, what with Monroe's serious hard-on for killing anyone Company-related. The source says that's totally a personal agenda, and Monroe's got at least some of Fedor's people accompanying him. So we can't compromise this intel, or our source is gonna be a dead man. In the meantime, we fucking well had Monroe in custody and couldn't do anything to hold him because there was nothing in the computers on him. I didn't know until it was too late. But the Company now has a huge mad-on for him, too, because he's the one who killed Kat Marks."

Elisabeth sighs quietly. "I'm seriously telling you this whole idea of six degrees of separation is bullshit." She slants a glance at Cat. "In my day job, I'm stuck working with Company agents at times, and there's one in there that I trust well enough to info share once in a while. Someone informed this contact of a throwdown within the Company ranks in the future — and I think they may already know who Goodman is. I think this informant is also from the future, a girl named April Bradley who I believe to be a Company agent… that might be one of the ways he's trying to keep the Company from falling on its ass when Goodman announces."

"She has told people about Company agents being executed in the future for nothing more than being Company agents. Now, I've been approached by my own contact's boss — he seems like he may be on the up-and-up, attempting to weed out bad agents because he doesn't want good ones getting killed just for doing their jobs to the best of their ability." She shakes her head. "I just … don't know how far to trust him."

Her eyes close for a moment, both sad at hearing of Hiro's death and relieved it doesn't happen in the near future, and she nods at spots as Elisabeth speaks. "The Company," Cat eventually comments, "needs to crash and burn in any case. It serves absolutely no useful purpose, and is corrupt to the core. If there are honest, decent agents working there, they should act now. Make public everything they know, come clean, and save themselves. If they're decent, then they can handle being exposed unless they look like they're trying to cover up. Some, however, may only believe they're clean. 'Just following orders' is no excuse. It didn't work for the Nazis at Nuremberg, and it shouldn't now."

"This isn't a case of good and evil." Helena declares. "It's the lesser of two evils. Pinehearst in its own way will become just as corrupt. I have the feeling that the Company may have even started out in the same way - benevolent intentions, gone twisted. The Company is just a crystal ball into what Pinehearst can become. I agree that the Company needs to be brought down, but we may either need to bring Pinehearst down too, or find a way to change it into what it could be, as opposed to what it becomes."

Elisabeth smiles slightly and looks at Helena. "And being home less than a day, you've already come around to Hana and Cat's way of thinking where it took me weeks." She shakes her head. "This is why I'm a foot soldier, and not one of the leaders."

"It's about power," Cat says, nodding toward both, speaking quietly. "Power corrupts. Arthur may already be corrupt, having been with the Company. He may become corrupt if Pinehearst succeeds, or more corrupt. Hana said if the Company fails, something could take its place and be even harder to root out. She insists she won't work with anyone who works with Pinehearst or the Company, they're sides of the same coin. The trick, I think, is helping the Company falls in such a way as not to empower Arthur."

Her next words are for Elisabeth, with a thin smile. "You said you needed more evidence. I admitted I needed more data. So I found it. It seems Helena, also, has seen the proof firsthand."

"I'm so glad I've only just had breakfast." Helena announces it. "It makes tall orders and impossible things so much easier to deal with."'

Elisabeth actually laughs at Helena and can't help herself. "I can believe three impossible things before breakfast…. or something like that." She giggles a bit, picking up her coffee to drink from it, and then finally shakes her head once more. "Good Lord… and in the midst of all this world-shattering drama, I gotta deal with Trask fuckin' a Company agent who might kill us all by tomorrow." She snorts. "Well… he can't give me shit for my choice in men when he finds out about Alec," she comments to Cat with a smile.

She lets out a quiet chuckle at Elisabeth, and takes a moment to look Helena's way. "There's a lot more to tell you. I should summarize all this into the files so you can read and add as needed, but…" Cat takes a slow breath, letting it out before she covers this part. "You asked for Peter. He's staying at the Dispensary. He… He was visited by Tyler Case, Helena. He, Gillian, and Gabriel. Peter doesn't know his new power yet. I don't know what Gabriel has. But Gillian… You should stay away from her if at all possible. I counseled she should avoid people, but I doubt she will. She's got Absorption."

Helena all but gets to her feet, though she's hardpressed not to. "I need to see him," she says. "Please." She tries not to sound urgent and maybe a little greedy, but there's an edge to her voice, an unease that she clearly wants to put to rest.

Elisabeth blinks and stares at Cat. She's been far, far out of the loop, clearly. She had no idea Cat had put all of them at the Dispensary… and doesn't like it. But she bites her tongue, for after all she is a foot soldier. "How the hell did Tyler Case find them?" she bites out.

"Teo gave Peter shelter at the Dispensary," Cat replies as she stands. "I don't know where or how Tyler found them, but he did. Allen Rickham was with him. They weren't at the Dispensary when they got switched, though." That much she seems sure of.

"I've still got the boat, Helena," Cat states. She starts to get out weapons for the trip, Staten Island being what it is. Her intent is to take Helena to Peter. Invitation to join them is extended to Elisabeth.

There is, of course, time for all to finish eating before they go.


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