Participants:
| Scene Title | Technical Assistance |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cardinal is looking for a few good brains. But not in the way Sylar is. |
| Date | August 25, 2009 |
Dorchester Towers: Alec's Apartment
Alec's home was seemingly bought right out of an Ikea show room floor. A large corner sofa with chaise faces a 50" fancy plasma TV complete with all the fixin's. Odd geometric bookshelves line the walls, their contents extremely eclectic, from fiction to classics to an entire shelf filled with texts concerning his profession. A hall, walls lined with various blueprints to buildings as if they were family photos, leads to a bathroom and a few more rooms. A master bedroom, an office, and a spare room that is simply made up almost as an after thought. All in all the place is the expected home of a thirty-something successful businessman, everything is well designed and comfortable and packs just enough character to be pleasant.
Although under most circumstances Cardinal has an objection to doors, he figured that it might be best if he didn't break into the apartment this time— people tend to take it more pleasantly when you knock first. Which is what he does, knuckles rapping upon the wood outside the apartment's door before drawing back to stand there. A set of oakleys are settled upon his face, his dress actually nice today in the form of a decent black suit. Faux-silk, in point of fact, black tie, black shirt, generally black.
It's almost as if he's going for a theme here!
Alec answers the door with a full mouth and a cold drink in hand. He blinks and eyes Cardinal for a moment, looking confused before the face clicks. "Oh!" he mufflespeaks before waving inside. He closes and locks the door behind the other man before heading to the kitchen/bar, where a plate of nachos are still steaming. He swallows, "Liz said you wanted to talk." he heads for the kitchen, "Want a beer?" on the bar next to the nachos is a text book, first aid and emergency medicine. The apartment is clean, neat, stylish, hell if it wasn't for the stainless steel door on a full hinge with a cross bar locking system built with a facade to make it look like a plain wooden door on the outside, one would think the guy was completely normal.
"I know, I'm actually dressed nicely for once, I don't think my own mother'd recognize me if she were alive," replies Cardinal with dry amusement crackling in his tone when it takes the man a moment, stepping along inside past the other man and looking about the place casually as if he hadn't been there before. "Nice place… and sure, I could use one. It's been a few months, if you know what I mean," he chuckles, glancing over, "Nice work at Pinehearst, by the way."
Alec returns with a cold beer in hand, "Heh, I wasn't at Pinehearst just did the prep work, but thanks. I tried to be of use. Violence isn't really my thing, I'm more of a brain then a brawn." Alec's ID is his single greatest asset, namely the fact that it's still secret. As far as everyone, save three people, is concerned Alec is a normal Engineer with some tech skills he uses to help out Phoenix. He tosses Cardinal a Hieniken, "Help yourself to some nachos too, always make to many. So what can I do for ya?"
"I need brains," Cardinal replies easily, catching the bottle without a problem and twisting off the cap— stepping over to a garbage can to drop the gleaming cap within in a tumble, he gestures with the bottle itself towards the other man, "I can get brawn anywhere, and in nearly limitless numbers. Phoenix, for example." That last a bit dry, before he takes a swig of the beer.
Alec nods his head, "They are a bit of a blunt instrument, but they have a few brains in the mix, if you can get them to sit down long enough to talk to you. But… I'll bite, what can I help you with?" he asks, climbing up on a bar stool and munching a nacho laden with cheese and happiness.
"The problem is direction, which they lack…" Cardinal lowers the beer in his hand, shifting to settle his backside on one of the other barstools and gesturing a bit, "…I help them out, but there's other projects that need taking care of. Important ones. And, to be honest, I'd rather Phoenix keep to the whole 'public relations' thing— anything destructive or shady they engage in just lowers their chances of being taken seriously when they say that they're the good guys. And they're our best chance for Evolved equality, an' all that shit."
Alec chuckles and raises his soda, "Hooray equality. Fore score and seven years and what not." he munches another nacho, "So, what do you need?" he asks again curiously, "Because it sounds like you're talking something shady and wicked."
Cardinal exhales a faint snort of breath. "The opposite. Were you ever briefed on all the…" A vague gesture of the ex-convict's hand, "…time travel bullshit? Edward Ray, the people who went forward, all of that shit that was the entire reason we started the Pinehearst operation?"
Alec makes a waffle motion with his hand, "I'm the unevolved guy in the room remember? They like me but they're not entirely sure they trust me. I picked up a few bits here and there, but not enough to catch what all was going on."
"I'll give you the cliff notes version," Cardinal replies after another swig of beer, leaning back a bit and offering the man a wry look, "I know they're not good at keeping people in the loop. Anyway, the short version goes, in the future this asshole named Arthur Petrelli was going to take over and institute his lovely fascist paradise. Which is why I turned him into a fine layer of genetic sludge."
Alec blinks. "Huh. Well… Thanks are in order?" he offers with a wry grin of his own. "So that explains why I was asked to make an idiot proof demo plan. Now he's doornails in the metaphorical sense, Pinehearst is a parking lot, what do you need from me?"
Cardinal exhales a faint chuckle, "As if I did it alone… and I didn't do it out've charity, I was on the chopping block too. Bastard took my hand." He brings it up, fingers wriggling, "I got better." That hand drops down to his knee, and he looks over seriously, "There's a… problem, with what we did. Echoes. Butterflies and hurricanes. There were a number of threats, not just to the city, but the world, that Petrelli dealt with in the future timeline. Threats that're still there."
Alec ah's a bit. "So what you're saying is you offed Stalin a little bit before he could make his soldiers weaken Hitler's armies at Stalingrad and now that you're done with that looney you all just realized you freed up Hitler to run crazy?" he nods. "I can see how that would be a bitch."
"Pretty much," Cardinal's head bobs in a nod of agreement, "Fortunately, we do know that Hitler's out there - so to speak - and we're working to hunt him down, along with all the other little Hitlers that're stirring in the background. And this is serious shit. I have people on Staten right now who're working to counter a guy named Norman White that, if not stopped, will sink the entire fucking island and hit Manhattan with a tidal wave. And there's another group that, if we don't figure out how they're going to do it, are going to rain nuclear goddamn fire down on the United States."
Alec blinks. "Whoa." he says, setting the soda aside. Well, Cardinal just got Alec's attention. 'Nuclear' is a word that does that well. "What do you need from me?" he asks curiously, "Seems like with all your abilities you guys would be better suited to saving the world then me." he pokes the text book on the counter, "I'm just the help."
Cardinal exhales a faint snort of breath. "Bullshit," he replies firmly, prying a finger away from the bottle to point at her, "Complete, utter, and entire, Bonder. Abilities don't mean shit." That hand lifts, and he knocks a knuckle on his cranium, "This does. I killed Petrelli without a single power, and I did it with this, and with people to manuever into the right position. We need to fix the future, and we can't blunt-force that with a fucking fireball or summoned storm."
Alec grins a bit at Cardinal's words, shrugging noncomittally at the way the other man puts it. "Okay, let's say I agree with you." wink wink nudge nudge, "I've joined up with the good guys already. What else do you need?"
Long distance to Rose: Cardinal laughs. Always the plague.
"You say that like there's only one bunch've good guys," Cardinal replies with a slightly-amused note, a brow arching over the edge of his shades, "You're smarter than that. Nothing's black and white, only varying shades of grey. What I'm telling you is that there's shit that needs to be done, and if Phoenix does it, it could fuck up their long-term mission." A slight lean, "It won't be pretty, it might be messy, and unlike the firebirds I doubt anyone'll ever know our names, or what we did. But if it means stopping the Vanguard from dropping nukes, or White from wiping out the city with an earthquake, or all the rest of the shit that Ray has me cleaning up, then I'm okay with that."
Alec caught a key word in there that has him curious, "Okay, I'll bite. Let's say I sign up, say I help you. What would you be needing? Explosives, tech, gear, I toy with all manner of things. I'm not bad with a set of lock picks." smirk.
"I, meanwhile," Cardinal replies with a twitch of his lips, "Can usually manage to check my e-mail. Technology is not my friend, to be honest, past a few very specific skillsets of mine… and demolitions definately isn't something I've got any talent with."
Alec chuckles, "I like tech, and I'm handy with it. I'm decent at a lot of things. Product of a misspent youth. I take it you came here to recruit me, not with a specific job in mind?"
"More or less," Cardinal admits easily, "We haven't really talked before, although Liz did have me check into you when you first came onto the scene, so I figured I should get around to it." He grins, "She vouches for you, which means a lot in my book."
Alec barks a laugh, "Well, I suppose I can't really fault her for that. I dug deep enough into her." Alec nods at Liz's word, "Mine too, though I never looked into you for her, I'll make a point to be nosier in the future." he's kiding.
At that, Cardinal chuckles under his breath, "No need, she was my arresting officer when we met. I'm sure she's got my entire file sitting around somewhere…" A hint of amusement weaves through his tone, "…I'm not the same man my file says I was anymore, though. There's more— important things."
Alec nods his head, "That much I understand." he admits. "I wasn't a pleasent individual either. Seems our Liz has a knack for finding the diamonds in the rough, if you pardon the Disney moment there. But enough male bonding! One beer and some chatter about a woman is as far as I go. We keep this up we'll be hugging and crying and watching The Notebook together and I draw the line at Notebooking another dude."
"Hear, hear," Cardinal raises the bottle in a casual toast, "I've never seen The Notebook, and I'd like to avoid that particular achievement for the entire rest've my life. Nor do I cry. I'm far too bad-ass to be seen doing that, after all." A grin there, his head shaking, "Just wanted to feel you out on the situation, is all. I could use a man with your talents at some point. I could use some security set up at my HQ, for instance, at least some damn cameras."
Alec chuckles, "Security I can do. Next time you're around ask Liz about it, I did her place for her." which is now damned near a fortress. Ish. She wouldn't let him go to nuts. Pity. "Well, here." he jots something down, "That's my phone. You need me for something, gimme a ring." he slides some scrap paper over with his company's letterhead on it.
The paper's taken in hand, and Cardinal tucks it into a pocket. "Well, if you enjoy that kind've work, you'll have a field day, given the digs I've set up shop in," he chuckles a bit, "I'll give you a call. We're having a little— get together and information exchange next Wednesday, if you're interested. Not this one coming up, you know, the one after. Locating priority issues and deciding how to deal with them."
Alec nods his head, "I guess. Truth be told, I have a bit of a public life, I try to keep my blip on the 'big bad guy' radar down to itty bitty. But I figure a meeting couldn't hurt to much. I'll bring the nachos?"
"Sounds good," Cardinal pushes himself up to his feet, stretching slightly, "And, hell, Bonder, we can't all live in the shadows. It'd be a fuck of a time getting anything done. I mean, who could order pizza?"
Alec hrms, "Which ever one of you can turn invisible?" he offers helpfully as he too stands. "Okay, so, rebuild the city, play nice with Phoenix, work with your group, and somewhere in there find a new girlfriend and manages something like a social life. God. It's such a good thing I'm an insomniac."
At that, Cardinal exhales a low chuckle, "Hey, you should try my life one've these days. I'd pick up yours any day've the week— can't really help with the girlfriend business, I'm afraid. Two've the girls living on site are way too young for you, and the other one's dangerously insane. In a helpful way, but I wouldn't want to date her, hot as she might be."
Alec chuckles, "I'm done with crazy thankyouverymuch, and I'm not old enough for a young trophy girl yet. I'll just have to suffer through somehow." he smirks a bit, "Luckily I'm sure the lot of you will keep me busy. At least I won't have to worry about what to do when I can't sleep."
"You sleep?" An amused quip, as Cardinal heads for the door, "Talk to you soon, then."