The Trojan Horse Ploy

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif magnes_icon.gif

Scene Title The Trojan Horse Ploy
Synopsis Cardinal runs into Magnes in Japan, and tells him to pass on a warning… but whose interests does he truly have in mind?
Date May 19, 2009

Private Dojo


Later in the afternoon, in a small dojo with some martial arts equipment on the walls and a wooden martial arts dummy off in a corner, it's seemingly empty, except for the sound of someone working out. The doors are locked and this Nakamura owned property is clearly not public. The hard wood floors are empty, yet the sound of someone straining persists. If one looks up, they'll see a white male with wet hair that covers his eyes, a far more toned body than one is used to seeing Magnes with, only wearing some white martial arts pants held up by a white belt. He's doing situps with a long metal pole in his hands, and due to the longer hair obscuring his face and the different body, it's not obviously Magnes.

It's a rather thorough reconnaisance that's being undertaken at the moment, a shadow moving through the properties of Kaito Nakamura that Richard Cardinal can identify. That shadow remains unseen as it slips under doors, through windows and underfoot, learning all that it can. A pause in a pool of darkness just beneath the edge of a doorway, noting the gaijin doing situps in the dojo.
Well, he's certainly unusual in the midst of all of this asianness.

Magnes slowly stands, briefly brushing the hair from his face and giving a glimpse at who he is, then he pulls the training dummy out and starts slamming hard kicks into it, mixed with slams of his pole at the joints. "Man, I still miss the elbows and knees directly like five out of ten times." he says in a disappointed tone, then smashes a hard gravity-enhanced fist into the face of the dummy. "But I can break a nose, you dumb dummy!" he says with an amused laugh. One has to laugh in the midst of painful training on a schedule that he simply does not have the option of backing out of; that would mean defeat. Physically and mentally, he seems to have changed a bit in this short time, mainly with a confidence that wasn't there before.

He also has a hell of a lot of bruises.

..wait. Wait, that's a familiar voice. The shadow merely stares - without any eyes - for long moments, before gliding back from around the doorway. Stillness for a few moments, before Cardinal ducks his head into the training room, looking up and over towards the gravity-controller with a rather bemused expression. "…Magnes? What the hell are you doing in Japan?"

Magnes looks over at the familiar voice, tilting his head as he swings his pole on to his shoulders, casually hanging his arms over it. He stares at the man in confusion, then asks, "What are you doing in Japan? I'm training, learning martial arts and stuff." He looks down over his heavily bruised body, then says, "They said when the bruises and hairline fractures heal, I'll have more stamina and endurance. I've got bruises on my bruises." he says with an exhausted sigh. "And I'm on a strict schedule."

"Business," Cardinal replies easily, taking a step in and leaning back against the dojo's wall; arms folding over his chest, he crooks a faint smile, "I'm picking up some old aircraft parts for the Chief that aren't available in the States anymore, for our older fleet. And a few other things. Don't let me interrupt…" A faint chuckle, "…finally convinced Nakamura to teach you, then?"

"Yeah, but, I've got two questions." Magnes asks in a suspicious tone. He never did trust Cardinal all that much for some reason, something he frequently shows, like right now. "This is private property, so why are you in here? And if you say you came to see me, how'd you know I was here?" he asks, since you can never be too careful with people in America slapping a big terrorist sign on Hiro's back.

"I didn't come to see you," Cardinal replies with a low chuckle, his head shaking just a bit as he notes, "You do recall I asked you to get me in touch with your friend, awhile back…? You never did, he's in Japan, so, I'm looking for him. As for why I'm in here…" Dryly, he notes, "I never particularly cared for 'keep out' signs. Given everything in the news, I can't exactly just make an appointment."

"I came here to find out what was going on with him, I just never got a chance to contact you again. Too busy getting my head pounded into the ground." Magnes sighs, his eyes slowly closing for a moment, obviously tired and ready to sleep already, but he snaps out of it and moves his pole around to start going at the dummy again. "I don't know what's going on in America, but I don't like it. Hiro's not a terrorist, I went back and saw what happened, and believe me, there's no way Hiro would do that. Hey, you're always investigating things, do you know a guy named Adam?"

A slight shake of Cardinal's head to the former, noting wryly, "Well, technically he is a terrorist, but I doubt he had anything to do with the specific terrorist acts he's being blamed for at the moment… but that's our President for you." A pause, then, one brow lifting, "Adam… I know a lot of Adams. I'm guessing you mean Monroe, though?"

"Yeah." Magnes says as he swings a shin into the dummy's head, then starts pushing it back into its corner, apparently done with it, for now. "I met him, I don't like him. He seems like he's trying to turn me against Hiro, and he knows all about this Company thing no one bothered to tell me about. I mean, come on." He raises his hand to point at the Company marker on his neck. "How many of you knew about this? You're all always keeping secrets, thinking I can't handle it."

"…what," Cardinal asks, his brow furrowing a bit, "That birthmark? Or mole? What is it?"

"Company tracker." Magnes answers, sitting his pole on the floor as he gets down on his knees, then starts doing pushups. "I was 'bagged and tagged', and they erased my memory or something. Adam says he was a part of the Company, and he knows how it works."

"Hmn. You learn something new every day…" Cardinal's head drops back against the wall, his gaze hooding behind the shades he's wearing, expression thoughtful, "…I believe he did. I could tell you some things about Monroe, Magnes. But there's a price."

"And what's that?" Magnes cautiously asks, silently counting his pushups, still blatantly distrustful.

"I have information. I was trying to go through Hiro, but as you know…" A wry twitch of Cardinal's lips, "Didn't work so well. So." He points a finger at the other man, "It's information that needs to go directly to Kaito Nakamura. The big cheese. Assuming that you can get in to meet with him."

"I'll ask Hiro's sister if she can get me a meeting, it's probably easier that way, knowing how Hiro is with his father." Magnes agrees, standing up straight and taking very deep breath, apparently trying to concentrate. "I'll see what I can do. If nothing else, I'll guarantee not to tell Hiro and his sister the information. So, are you gonna tell me about Adam?" After his deep breaths, he starts to jump high into the air, very slowly, then pushes off the ceiling with his finger tips and gently lands on to the ground again, doing that repeatedly for some reason.

"Adam Monroe," Cardinal recites then, lifting one hand to scratch at the stubble under his chin with an absent brush of fingertips and fingernail, "Evolved ability of self-regeneration. A former member of the apocalyptic group known as the 'Vanguard', under Kazimir Volken. Heard of them?"

Magnes shakes his head at that, after a running low gravity leap, stopping on the ground and stumbling forward a few feet. "Never heard of them. Tell me more about them. And self-regeneration, so, he's like Wolverine?"

"I guess," admits Cardinal, "I've never actually seen it myself. The Vanguard were a group that apparently had some fucked-up idea to wipe out ninety percent of the human race with some sort of virus, and rule over the remains. These days, Monroe claims to have 'not agreed' with their goals, but, fuck— " A laugh, "— wouldn't you? He also claims to be a former member of the Company, with a huge grudge against them."

"I knew he was up to no good. He was saying stuff about how genocide was a great idea if it would save a lot of people." Magnes stops and takes another deep breath, grabbing his pole from the floor and looking Cardinal in the eye. "He claims he's Abby's 'friend', but she says it's nothing like that, she thinks he's just some guy from the bar who buys her things. She doesn't understand that he could be dangerous. I'm afraid that she might not take me seriously and get hurt by him."

"I'm worried about that as well…" Cardinal meets the other man's gaze grimly, "…her friend from the bar, Huruma? She's his… well, she's in bed with him in one sense or another. Too close for my liking." He gives his head a shake, "I'm going to try and talk to her, I didn't know he was getting… that close."

"Call her as soon as you can, there's no way to know if Adam's still here or not. And if he has an agenda against the Company, then this could mean Hiro's in trouble." Magnes says without adding much information, instead waiting to see how Cardinal replies.

"Speaking of." Cardinal regards Magnes with a flat, serious gaze now, "The information. It's vital this get to Kaito, in person preferably. Writing is too risky." A pause, glancing about as if to ensure their privacy, "You have to let him know that someone… is trying to steal a formula from him. He'll know which one, and what it means."

"Do you um, know about Kaito? Because I haven't asked Hiro or his sister yet." Magnes asks, quite obviously not asking what Cardinal knows specifically. Need to know basis! "But don't worry, I'll get the information to him. If all else fails, I'll walk right up and knock on his office window."

"I know a few things," Cardinal says with a faint smile, pushing off the wall, "Thank you. And… seriously, I mean it on how serious this is. This is potentially world-ending shit here, Magnes, and I'm relying on you to get the job done."

"I'll tell him right away. I'll go to his office right now and completely skip Hiro and Kimiko." Magnes assures, walking over to his pile of clothes so he can change. "I've got this covered, just go call Abby now."

"If there's one person I can trust to not be corruptable," admits Cardinal ruefully, turning to step back out, "It's you. Thanks. I'll go give her a call as soon as she's off work, assuming she's keeping the same schedule… thanks, Magnes. I'll talk to you soon."
Out into the hall, out of sight and he bleeds away from the physical to the darkness, and he's gone.

Only… he's not. A pale shadow mingling in wait for the gravity-manipulating hero, for its chance to slip under a shoe or into a pocket and follow along with him. That's it, little superhero. Just get me in to Kaito… and tell him the formula's in danger. He'll check on it to make sure it's still there, and then it'll be mine. Everything is going precisely according to plan…


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License