Participants:
| Scene Title | Tell Him About The Twinkie, Ray |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Warren made a visit to Cambridge and he's got some things to say. |
| Date | Feb 19, 2011 |
Redbird Security Solutions, Cardinal's Office
As soon as Warren was allowed to go back into the office to meet Elisabeth, tears begin to well up, and he closes the door to try and pull her towards him for a firm embrace. "I need to do this, Elisabeth, just… give me a minute." It's only the middle of the afternoon, but he seems more emotional than normal, as if he were holding it in for a while.
They're using Richard's office — Elisabeth doesn't have one at Redbird. She's dressed for being out in the armor, her sleek black pants and pullover the gear she uses beneath the Horizon uniform. She turns to look at the door when it opens and she has a frown. The only reason she's here is that he said it was urgent. All hell is breaking loose with Dome stuff today. She starts to ask what the hell's going on, and then he's suddenly hugging her!
Elisabeth stiffens under his hands. "Warr…" And then she sighs heavily and wraps her arms around the man. Because who the hell else does he have to offer comfort of any kind? She simply holds him and rubs his back for a long couple of minutes, giving him time to pull himself together.
"Sorry, I heard you died in another timeline, Cardinal, our Cardinal, told me about that. I didn't ask the other Cardinal, but I learned… a lot." Warren pulls out his iPhone after releasing the woman, handing it to her. "Keep it for as long as you need to analyze things."
He's then turning a chair around to take a seat and face her, leaning his left elbow on the table so he can rest his head into his gloved hand. "I don't even know where to begin. I know my future, a future I'll do anything to avoid. I know the Institute's apparent true goal. It was a long talk. And I spoke to my father, though his speech was limited to using a computer to talk for him. Cardinal is my brother, in a loose sense. His parents entrusted him to Edward, our parents were good friends. He wants me to make sure that Cardinal and my sisters are safe."
Elisabeth grimaces and sighs softly. "I'm sorry…. I wasn't sure I wanted you to know that much." She takes the iPhone and then grins slightly. "You keep giving me these things and I'm going to be in debt to my friggin' eyeballs." But she pockets the device.
Moving to rest the back of her hips against Cardinal's desk, Elisabeth crosses her arms and listens. "You must remember to be very careful to take anything he says with a tub of salt, Warren. He'll tell you just enough truth to make you believe." She warned him before. "Ezekiel — which is what we're generally calling the man up there, though I prefer calling him Dick some days — told me what his plan was and then promptly sent a fucking assassin to try to take Richard out yesterday." There's a subsonic bass hum in the room suddenly, the blonde's tone neutral. The rage only shows in the inaudible ranges.
"I could tell he was hiding things from me, but I felt he was sincere about some things. Still… he wants to use Elle as some sort of battery, in a machine that I design in the future and he won't tell me the purpose of or let me see." Warren shrugs, yawning from a lack of sleep. "The things he told me about my future, I just… I could see myself headed there. I don't want that to happen, I want to get married and have children, and invent. I don't want to become some sort of Doctor Octopus who's addicted to being augmented."
"Oh, and…" He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a card: The Commonwealth Institute, printed in blue-white over a DNA helix, and under it reads: Warren Ray, Research Consultant.
"Did he tell you why he switched Elle's ability to someone else instead of just using her as a battery now… now…?" A stir of anger in the air, a whisper-hiss painted black with hatred as darkness spills up across the wall behind the desk, the shadow crossing over the Mendez hanging on the wall and then down to the floor once more. Shadow pulls outwards into three dimensions, Richard Cardinal stepping free with a scowl twisting his lips, "It's because he's killed everyone else he's plugged into that fucking Abomination Machine."
The sound of Richard's voice coming from the shadows behind her brings Elisabeth's head briefly around only to pinpoint his location unerringly just before he pulls into three dimensions. Then her blue eyes come back around to Warren. "The man into whom he put Elle's power was snatched to run the thing and he actually did die and was broug…." Elisabeth's voice trails off and horror darkens her features as she bolts up off the desk. "Oh God, Richard!"
"When I told him not to hurt Elle, he said ideally they wouldn't have to, and then corrected himself by saying he absolutely wouldn't hurt her. He said that sometimes he has to remind himself not to cross a line." Warren turns to watch Cardinal, motioning him over. "I won't let anyone touch Elle, and I need to find out what this machine is. If I built it, I can probably understand it. But he did say I was always augmented in the future…"
At Elisabeth's reaction he looks somewhat confused, immediately focused on her. "What's wrong?"
"I know." Cardinal's hand slides over Elisabeth's shoulder, his fingers curling in to squeeze against it lightly; his gaze averting as a sigh spills past his lips, "I know, Liz. I know. At this point, though, I don't… think there's anything we can do. Just hope for the best."
He looks back over to Warren, then, "You were working off the designs of one of Edward's old colleagues at MIT, Ronald Mallett. The machine can send messages into the past."
She can't shake the absolute horror. Glancing at Warren, Elisabeth bites her lip. "It's… an aftereffect of the kind of healing that he underwent," she says quietly. Simply leaving it at that. Her hand slips up to twine her fingers through Cardinal's, though, squeezing tightly. Oh God. That's just plain traumatizing to realize what could happen to Aric. "Uhm… right. So… yes, basically, the man has tried everything else and he's assuming Elle's power under Elle's own control will be able to do it. Hoping that it won't kill her, but he can't know that for sure. And assuming that he can revive her if it does kill her." She grimaces. "But…. apparently by reviing her…. well, you eventually return to the 'natural state', if you know what I mean. Not that spontaneous death at an unexpected moment is anything different than what the rest of us get anyway," she observes on a sigh.
"I can't let her power that machine. Sending messages to the past? That's far too much power for anyone to have. Overthrowing the government, it's all so insane. I told him my plan to integrate my technology into the government instead of overthrowing it, that way I could keep them in line with a person acting as a proxy to threaten action when they decide to start oppressing the public." Warren has a vague idea of what the current topic with Aric is, but otherwise stays out of it. "Ezekiel told me that I should tell the plan to both of you, and that I should support Redbird so that my business seems viable and my plan can go through faster and easier."
"Personally, I think that the fucking thing will shred the time-space continuum as soon as it's turned on," Cardinal observes rather darkly, "The second it's turned on, an infinite number of contacts with an infinite number of timelines will occur at once, and fuck if I know what that'll do. It's the sort of thing that'd probably give Hiro a heart attack." Then he pauses, surprised, "What, like— a corporate partnership?"
Elisabeth shudders at that idea. "Oh great. Thank you, I needed that mental image before I trundle out onto the streets of this hellhole city with a snowglobe on the horizon." She rolls her eyes. Oh! Removing her hand from his, Elisabeth moves to hand him the iPhone Warren gave her a few minutes ago. "Here… this is the recording." She slants a glance at Warren and then considers. "Time has inertia," she murmurs. Glancing between them she asks quietly, "Another way to make sure that the way Warren gains the power that Zeke wants him to have is realized? It can't happen here the way it originally did, right? Because… Redbird didn't exist, if I understand right. Zeke was busy running the Institute. In a few years."
"This thing is never going to happen, we just have to make sure it never gets a power source, or sabotage it." Warren then nods at Cardinal's question, grinning slightly. "Yeah, a partnership. I don't see why not, there's no legal reason why we shouldn't pool our resources, and my company is just going to get bigger."
"Alright." Cardinal nods, once, taking a breath and then exhaling it slowly, "It might be his suggestion, but I'm not going to turn down a good idea just because of that. We'll get our lawyers together to draw up the details. What— " He pauses, "— what exactly does your company do, Warren? Technology's vague."
Elisabeth just shakes her head a bit. Good Lord. "All right, boys," she murmurs quietly with some sense of amusement in spite of the realization she came to about Aric. "Now that you've broken my brain because … you know… cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! You two go talk about the twinkie. I'm going back to work."
"Call if you need anything, Elisabeth." Warren raises a hand in parting, and immediately turns his attention back to Cardinal. "Well, it's vague because that's exactly what my company does. I have patents in most areas that technology can reach, with the exception of computers. I've innovated and patented a lot of designs, some even with some digital capability, using programmers to aid in some designs."
He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a blackberry, offering it over to the man. There's already a long list of patents to scroll down. "From kitchen appliances to security systems, I plan to have my technology in, well, everything."
The blackberry's taken in Cardinal's hand, thumb drawing down the list as he tries to pretend he knows what the fuck he's looking at. "Tell Felix," he offers absently to Elisabeth as she departs, "That Mister Ziadie still needs to take a drug test. It must've slipped his mind. I'll talk to you later, babe…" He looks back up, a brow lifting as he adds, "And robots, of course. Well, I'm getting more government contracts by the day - I'll be shipping people over to Iraq soon. So the better our gear and technology, the better work we can do."
"Did you know that those robots in Midtown were a Department of Evolved Affairs test? They apparently sent the Institute a warning to pull their Evolved agents out before it actually happened. And speaking of the robots." Warren holds a finger up, looking a bit serious now. "I might end up working with a man named Colin Verse soon, he's a programming technopath who works on AIs. Right now he's working on something called the ALIA projects, for the DoEA. Any idea what that's about?"
Cardinal regards the other man for a moment… taking a breath, then exhaling it. "Have a seat," he says, sliding the blackberry over and dropping himself back down into his chair, "Alia is my technopath. The Department kidnapped her into their custody recently. They forced her to use herself as the AI for the AETOS and hunter-drone robots, holding her body hostage in one of the Institute's coffins to make her do what they wanted."
Elisabeth glances at Cardinal and nods. "Sure, I'll tell him." And then she looks toward Warren again with a scowl. "Yes. We did know they're DoEA. I was specifically informed to keep my nose out of it." But it's the name Colin Verse that brings those blue eyes back to arctic cold. "Motherfucker," she swears in a sudden fury. "The absolute gall of that bastard! Now he's fucking working with Humanis First??" she demands. Remember that rage thing? The one that's subsided a lot since her powers were blown out? Yeah…. not so much. The bass hum below the threshold of hearing blasts through the room ruffling papers and hair lightly.
"Is she still captured? If she is, I can probably get her out. I have full reign over getting resources from the Cambridge facility, I plan to read everything possible on those coffins and how closely they kept to my designs with those robots. I can develop non-robotic countermeasures." Warren crosses his arms, leaning back in the chair. "Oh, before you came in, did you catch the part about being my brother?"
"No. She was already extracted," Cardinal says with a slow shake of his head, "Hector… we need to extract Hector, too, I highly doubt that he's working there willingly. I may have a plan there, but I'll need a live feed camera that can see him." He leans back, "I'll send Alia to you. The two of you can get together and compile everything you know about the…"
Beat.
"…what?" Blink. "No. I'm not, Warren…" He snorts, "Whatever Edward told you. I already ran our DNA."
Well, hell. She's gonna be late this morning. THey'll have to deal with it. Elisabeth remains, though silent now. Fuming over Dickhead working with Humanis First, but her attention has to be on this conversation. That other thing will wait a bit.
"That'd be great. I also saw their production line. Robots building robots." Warren notes out of the blue, but continues on with the topic of family. "No, see, your parents and my father were close friends back when he was around my age. You were trusted to him if something ever happened to them, and well, something happened. But then he said he was a coward. He didn't elaborate, mostly because he's very weak right now, I didn't want him to strain himself. But for all intents and purposes, he obviously took care of you long enough to consider you a son. You were one of his main concerns as soon as I mentioned my sisters being safe, he was… crying, and emotional, he couldn't stop apologizing and straining himself to explain. But I told him it was alright, that he should just focus on getting better and we'd sort this out later." Or, some variation of that.
Cardinal's gaze is unreadable behind his shades as he regards the man across the desk for a long moment. A hand lifts, rubbing his lower face, and then falls. "I can believe that," he says quietly, "Who they were. That he promised them that. He broke that promise. He didn't even take care of me for a day, Warren." There's a sharp edge to his words, "So let's just drop it."
Elisabeth winces a little and turns her face toward Warren, keeping her control her ability tightly focused. In a very quiet tone that carries to his ears and his ears only, she whispers softly, Don't push this. Please. Just… leave it alone, Warren.
Warren's eyes momentarily shift to Elisabeth, then back to Cardinal. "Alright, but… I'm his son, and as far as I'm concerned, you're family, even if you don't see it that way. You've gone out on a limb for me with absolutely no reason to trust me, so, to me, that's good enough." There's a pause, then a smile as he holds his hands up to lighten the mood. "Just don't get on hugging terms with me. Ezekiel was totally going to hug me."
"Trust me," Cardinal replies with a snort of breath, "I wasn't about to." He hesitates, then asks— trying to push back the coldness there, suppressing whatever had upset him so suddenly, "Do you have your sisters' contact information, or should I let them know that the manipulative bastard's awake?"
Maybe it's not completely suppressed.
"Actually, Valerie appeared like some sort of ghost, she told me to ask you guys about how to find them. So…" Warren shrugs, staring at Cardinal expectantly. "How do I find them?"
Elisabeth snorts quietly. "Lying prick was probably to stick a tracking device on you or something heinous," she mutters with a scowl. Her opinion of Ezekiel these days is very low.
"You both know how to get me if you need me," she says in a more normal tone, sighing even as her phone starts buzzing. "Christ. I can't even have a cup of coffee most days before I have the phone in my ear!" Elisabeth bitches mildly. She rolls her eyes at Cardinal. "I'll call you later, babe." Even as she leaves the office, she's activating the earwig that was hidden beneath her hair with a cranky tone, "If the world is not fucking ending, call me back in five minutes. I want coffee first."
"I had to shut down the safehouse they were staying in," Cardinal admits with a shake of his head, hands spreading slightly, "I'll give them a call and tell them to get in touch…" He tips his chin up in a raise to Liz, "I'll talk to you then. Go, go, get to work. Christ."
Leaning back again, the chair rocks slightly, and he regards Warren thoughtfully.
"I discussed things with Ezekiel, there doesn't have to be any sneaking around to go to my factory or for me to come here. That was all a part of my plan, really. Perhaps I could meet my sisters in a mall, somewhere crowded, then I could at least spend some time with them and not just sit around." Warren stands up, stretching, then starts heading for the door. "There's probably more things to discuss, but we can do that later. I should get to the dome, I need to get Elle out of there."
"Vaya cos dios there, Warren," Cardinal says, raising a hand slightly, "Let me know if you need anything. I'll talk to the girls, and I'll — get Alia, too, arrange a sit-down so we can figure out the tech thing. I'll get my lawyers working on paperwork, too."
"Just give me a call when everything's sorted." Warren waves once without looking back, then heads out as the door closes behind him.
