Twitchy Telekinetic Terrorist

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif elisabeth_icon.gif griffin_icon.gif

Scene Title Twitchy Telekinetic Terrorist
Synopsis Elisabeth finds that Cardinal is friends with one. The trio has a relatively pleasant chat, all things considered.
Date February 02, 2011

The Nite Owl


The Nite Owl is still in business. The hows and whys of that would probably amaze some people, but it's practically a legend. The place bustles in the early morning hours with cops and construction people, lunchtime is usually the public works and construction guys, and it used to be that in the mid to late afternoon, the high school crowd hung out here. It's been a long time since that happened. Now after work is the blue-collar office types heading home, some of them avoiding passing the hulking wreckage that was once their child's high school.

Elisabeth comes here to remember — and to keep remembering — why she fights. The message she left on Cardinal's desk the other night was that she had information on the dome and she wanted to meet him. This was their agreed-upon location. And when the blonde comes in wearing scuffed jeans, snow boots, and a heavy lined denim jacket, she looks right at home. At least as at home as a woman looks among the construction types. She heads for the booth toward the back without even thinking about it. It's where she always sits, and she expects Richard to meet her there.

Of course, Richard doesn't only meet her there; he beat her there. The suit isn't appropriate to a place like this, so he's in his street clothes sprawled in the back of the booth, relaxing with a milkshake in hand and his legs stretched out under the table. "Hey," he greets, chin raising up in a nod to Elisabeth's approach, "What's up?"

And sitting directly across from one Richard Cardinal is a face that is likely extremely familiar to one Elisabeth Harrison. Griffin Mihangle, who is dressed in slightly ripped jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie, is seated directly across from Richard, taking up the other half of the under-table space with his own legs stretched out. He has his own milkshake, a cheeseburger, and some fries, which he is casually munching on.

"That thing was smart. It almost got up onto the roof I was on." He mumbles this in a low tone to Cardinal, shaking his head. "I'm amazed we got out of that alive, much less unharmed." He doesn't notice Liz - at least, not until Cardinal draws attention to her by offering her such a casual greeting.

White begins to creep up over Griffin's green eyes, the man paling visibly as he examines the woman approaching them. Oh. He knows her.

The smile the blonde proffers at the man who greeted her is abruptly and instantly shattered when his companion turns around and she gets a load of his face. Elisabeth pales visibly, and the only thing that keeps her from quite literally taking that sonuvabitch into custody is the fact that he's clearly sitting here chatting away with her very relaxed lover. "Richard," she greets in a voice taut with shock. She slides into the seat next to Cardinal, blue eyes wary and cool to the point of glacial on the man across from him. The silence field that snaps into place as she does so guarantees no one else hears the gritted teeth hiss as she asks, "To what do I owe the pleasure of this surprise, love?" she asks.

Uh oh. Someone's in trouble. Cardinal isn't sure who it is, but hopes it isn't him.

"Um…" A look between the pair, cautious, as he draws his legs in and sits up slowly, "…I take it you're already acquainted?" Back and forth, a look, hand waving between them, "There some history here I don't know?"

Griffin's eyes have that odd white to them by the time Liz has settled into her seat, the effect of his ability that she didn't get to see last time when he was wearing the dark sunglasses. He looks almost like a blind man up close, save for that odd hint of a glow behind his eyes. They get brighter when he is operating at the higher range of his ability.

And he's staring at Liz, tension visible in his posture. Nobody can see the two hands of telekinetic origin that hover over Liz's head. His muscles tight, he reaches for his milkshake, slurping some down. "We've met briefly." His voice is just as tight as Elisabeth's, and his eyes are definitely not leaving her. "Back before the 8th. When I was still hanging out with the late 'RC'." The initials cause the man to curl his lip slightly in distaste for that time of his life.

Griffin tilts his head to one side, drawing his own legs in as he sits up. The only reason he hasn't gone to quite literally throwing her out of the establishment before making a hasty getaway that would no doubt make the news, is because of the fact that Richard seems to know the woman.

"History?" Elisabeth inquires of Cardinal, those blue eyes turning toward him. "You could say that. Your friend tried to fuckin' kill me." She rests on her elbows on the table. "Gave me the last concussion I had. Now… given that you're sitting here all chummy, am I to gather that I'm not allowed to vibrate his brain into tapioca?" she asks in a faux cheerful tone that doesn't quite touch her eyes. "Nor run him in either, I presume."

"Christ." Cardinal leans forward, resting an elbow on the table and rubbing one hand against his head; thumb rolling back and forth over his temple. "Elisabeth Harrison… Griffin Mihangle. Griffin's the one whose sister got killed by Heller, Liz. He's stayed at the library before, and has been pretty helpful since Rupert went down."

A glance across the table, dry, "Apologizing might help, Griff."

Griffin's eyes glow just a little bit more, four of those vectors coming to float over Liz's head. "In my defense," he murmurs to Liz, doing his best to keep his tone level and steady, "I wasn't actually trying to kill you. Or anyone, for that matter." He wearily watches the woman, folding his hands in front of him on the table as she leans forward.

"But for what it is worth, I apologize for giving you a concussion. That truly wasn't my intent." More so, he was trying to stay alive when she was attacking him. "Contrary to popular belief, I am not the crazed madman that the media paints me to be." He just doesn't fuck around when it comes to the things he considers to be important.

The mention of his sister prompts a flinch from the lanky fellow, and he reaches for his milkshake, slurping it down in lieu of lighting up the cigarettes that he's started smoking when not around his son.

Those blue eyes study the man in front of her thoughtfully and Elisabeth says quietly, "Apology accepted. Rupert Carmichael fucked up a lot of people. I'm sorry about your sister. And just for the record, if I can get my favorite snipers anywhere near his ass, they're taking the shot."

Turning to look at Cardinal, Liz sighs. "Okay… so I have good news and bad news about the dome. First, there are at least four people in there I know we can count on. Maybe more, I don't know. Second, they're getting fresh air. Think of it like an air filtration system — it's semi-permeable so air's getting in, but the smoke and debris can't get out. So eventually that's going to foul the air they are getting, but it buys a little time. Water can also pass through, I had our water manipulator try it. It requires a lot of pressure and effort to make the water bleed through, sort of like cheesecloth, but it can be done. The bad news is that power cannot go through. I can't manipulate sounds on the other side of the barrier, as an example. Telepaths can't read through it. Things like that." She pauses. "And Eve has said it's not an Institute thing."

"That doesn't mean it isn't something they did by accident," Cardinal points out cynically, "The Flash was one of their mistakes, for instance… whatever it is, I'm sure they saw it coming. It's a major crisis point, so Ezekiel'd know about it, more than likely." A frown, "Wonderful. The government wouldn't do anything this blatant… so why?"

Well. That certainly went better than he expected. Griffin offers a slow nod to Liz at her return to his apology, slurping down his milkshake a bit more before setting it back down on the table to focus on that wonderfully greasy cheeseburger. "I appreciate it," he murmurs across the table to Liz.

As talk of the dome begins, Griffin's brow furrows slightly. He doesn't quite know anyone stuck in there - thank goodness. But he still worries for all of those within. "Perhaps it wasn't even an intentional act. There's been no demands made public by whoever is responsible, that I have seen. It's just…there." He tilts his head to one side. "Perhaps we're witnessing the effects of an accidental manifestation." Another side of the fence, perhaps.

"Ezekiel?" Brows raise. Huh?

"No, I mean…." Elisabeth paused. "When it popped up, Eve got in touch. She'd seen it. She just didn't know when. But she'd already confronted Broome about, and I gather they also knew it was coming but couldn't determine who or when." She grimaces a little. "So it's not the Institute and most likely not the government." She glances at Griffin. "An accidental manifestation makes a good deal of sense, actually. I've got one FRONTLINE member, an ex-Phoenix operative, and a couple of our own in there feeding me as much intel as they can get, but … it's not much." She grimaces. "And the mood in there is going to go south pretty fast if we don't figure it out."

"That's… an awfully impressive display of power for an 'accidental manifestation' though," Cardinal points out, his lips pursing in a tight line, "I mean, Sprague was one thing, but— this is on a whole different level. It's sustained and near-impregnable. It…" A pause, "Hrn. I wonder if the compass can still read through it."

He gestures a hand slightly to Griffin, "The head've the Institute. Anyway…" Back to Liz, "That's not our job. Not this time. Well— it's yours, as FRONTLINE, but we can't put too many resources towards the dome right now, Liz. We can't miss this opportunity."

"Something needs to be figured out…" Griffin tilts his head toward the pair, thoughtfully munching on his cheeseburger. "But it's difficult for us to do anything out here. Whoever did it is likely still in there with everyone else." He frowns. Why would someone do something like that, anyhow? "What about amp?" He tilts his head toward the two, brows raising.

Elisabeth simply nods. "I'm dealing with it, the eggheads are dealing with it. You guys stay out of it, except where it concerns contractors. The compass wouldn't help you in there anyway. Suresh is in the goddamn bubble. It's not the center that I know of, either." She then looks puzzled. "What about amp?" she asks of Griffin. "You want to feed someone that shit and see if they can break it? " She rolls her eyes. "And if we amp someone to try to get them through, the feedback on that attempt could be ugly. The science geeks are just about done with the calculations of the exact center, and I'm hoping to send a team there to see what they find."

"It's pointless to try and brute force through it without knowing exactly what it is," Cardinal says with a tight little shake of his head, "As for the compass— just a theory. I don't have mine right now anyway, I lent it to Daph' for a mission." A lean back in his chair, and he exhales a sigh, "Any word on Alia?"

Griffin shakes his head. "No. It could have been someone on amp who created this thing." Griffin raises his brows, leaning an elbow against the table as he finishes the last of his cheeseburger. "Could be why it's so solid." The man shrugs, slurping down more of his milkshake with a frown on his features. "I - don't know much of anything about this, though. Happy to leave it to the eggheads."

"Nothing," Elisabeth tells Cardinal softly. And then she looks intrigued by that notion. Hey, it's as good a theory as anyone else's. "It'll be something I mention to the people inside when they go looking," she tells Griff. "That thought hadn't occurred to me, honestly."

"I've never seen a power usage that had such a… lingering effect," Cardinal admits with a slow shake of his head, "I mean, there were the storms, but even that was just a matter of occasionally pushing the clouds and air into place when they drifted. This isn't like anything I've ever seen before."

The tall, lanky fellow across from Richard and Liz offers a slow nod, faintly smiling. Well. This doesn't seem to be going so bad. The white, by now, has faded from his green eyes, leaving him looking rather normal as he eats. He's finally letting his guard down around the woman, if only a little bit. "It - it reminds me a little of Marjorie's ability." He frowns. "But on a much larger scale."

As Griffin relaxes, Elisabeth unconsciously does as well. She glances up as the door to the diner opens periodically, checking out the newcomers. But the silence field remains — it's not as if that's an unusual thing to the wait staff in this place. She's been coming here for years. The cup of coffee that appears at her elbow brings a faint smile to her lips and she settles back into the bench's back with a heavily doctored mug. "Marjorie?" she asks. "Never mind… best not to elaborate. If it's someone I need to know, he'll tell me," she says, jerking her head at Richard briefly. "Tell me about the power, though."

Cardinal, for his part, never knew her ability either; he remains silent for now, sipping the milkshake threw a straw as he regards the other man, a brow raising a little.

"My sister. She could create force fields." Griffin frowns quietly, pushing his plate away from himself, most of the fries left unfinished. "I don't know exactly how it worked, but…she could stop bullets, and she could stop my ability." Which he's sure this Dome thing can do as well. "And apparently, she stopped a van from hitting my son, when she manifested. It was crushed, my son was unharmed."

Elisabeth frowns and looks at Cardinal. It's not as if it'd be the first fucking time someone's pulled shit like that. It's testament to how fucking INSANE her life is that Elisabeth can't help but wonder. "Was there anything that could…. get through her field?" she asks Griffin.

"April could too," Cardinal adds, quietly, pausing for a moment, "Ah. Can that is. She was still alive last I saw her."

I'm not sure. I only got to see it in use twice that I can recall…never got the chance to learn more about it." He frowns quietly, shaking her head slowly. "I know that I couldn't." And usually, it's not difficult for him to break things. After a moment, he straightens a bit. "Peter Petrelli copied her ability, once. He may know more about it than I do."

"I don't think I knew that." About April's powers, Elisabeth means. She didn't actually know the woman after all. She sips the coffee thoughtfully. "Well, … as I said, we've at least learned that it's semi-permeable." She grimaces a little at Petrelli's name. Might be an avenue to follow up on as well, though she does comment, "He's unlikely to come talk to me. But if you happen to run into him on your jaunts, if he's willing to talk to me I'm not likely to go run him in. If he can give us some insight, I'll keep his involvement entirely on the down-low." It's really all she can offer.

"I wonder if Bao Wei could pass through it…" A loose drumming of Cardinal's fingers over the table's edge, "It's more than a force field, though. It interferes with everything, and— I mean, the person sustaining it would /have/ to have slept by now, wouldn't they?" A grunt, "Peter's probably too busy brooding in a fucking corner to come out into the light."

Elisabeth smirks at Richard and swallows a mouthful of coffee. "You know… I'd comment that it was a mean thing to say, but I'm just going to bite my tongue. I don't know the man. Be down on him if you want." She shoves her free hand through her hair and asks mildly, "Anything I need to know from your end before I go back into the lion's den?"

"I'll keep that in mind, should I run into him any time in the near future." He needs to look the power mimic up, anyhow. "I wouldn't be surprised if Richard is correct, though." The man smiles faintly. "Peter…is a brooding hermit kind of fellow."

Cardinal shakes his head just a little. "I've tried, and tried," he makes a dismissive gesture, "Every time Peter starts making progress, he takes a nose dive into his own navel again, and I think he's tattooed 'you suck' there, or something."

Griffin…can't help but laugh a little at Cardinal's remark, nodding quietly in agreement. "Kid's got some issues, definitely." He likes the guy and all, but he is a bit of a depressive recluse, even more so than Griffin tends to be. And Griffin is pretty damn depressive.

The blonde reaches up and rubs her forehead, laughing softly. "You know…" Elisabeth shakes her head and then just breaks into giggles. "Yeah. I'm clearly far more tired than I should be. Right down into the gutter." She sip her coffee.

"I swear," Cardinal's nose wrinkles in a grimace, "Petrellis. Fucking Petrellis."

Griffin promptly sets about finishing off the last of his milkshake, turning a glance toward Liz, then to Cardinal. After a moment, he reaches to pull out his wallet, thoughtfully watching the two. "Couldn't agree more." Petrellis indeed. Griffin pulls out enough to cover his meal and a decent tip, setting it on the table.

Then, he turns green eyes toward Liz, brows suddenly raising. "I - I had a dream with you in it." It suddenly just occurred to him.

Elisabeth almost chokes on her coffee and looks at Richard. "I draw the line at men who have to tattoo instructions on their belly buttons," she retorts in a deadpan that would do Felix proud. And then her blue eyes go to Griffin, and in spite of the amusement factor that was making her giggle there's a more wary look to her now. "Is this a good dream or a funeral dream?" she asks quietly.

Cardinal's nostrils flare in a bit of a snort, and he reaches over to playfully swat Elisabeth's arm. "Crazy woman," he mutters, glancing back to Griffin, then, and pausing. "Joseph's funeral?"

Griffin leans back in his seat, using his napkin to wipe off his hands and mouth of any leftover grease from his meal. "As envious I am of Cardinal having such a lovely woman on his arm, and as much as I wish I could say it was a good dream, it was indeed a funeral dream." He pauses, tilting his head toward the woman. A glance is cast briefly toward Richard, then around the restaurant, then back to Liz.

Then, his eyes snap back to Cardinal. Well, that's interesting. "Yes. Joseph Sumter's funeral." The man nods slowly. "As you apparently know, I'm not the only one who had the dream."

She's amused at the swat. Elisabeth slants Cardinal a glance but leans forward on the table to nod at Griffin. "No one can hear," she murmurs. "It's been that way since I sat down. And yes… we know a number of people had the dream. Could you tell how far in the future it actually was? Did anyone give a date or anything? Because right now…." She trails off. "Honestly, it seems far enough in the future that it doesn't seem entirely relevant as of yet," she admits.

"It's odd, really," Cardinal's brow furrows, "It makes me wonder how you had the dream. Delia wasn't involved with it, certainly— and Christ, remind me to tell you about her later, Liz— Hokuto's dead… none of you're precogs or dreamwalkers that I know of."

Griffin watches the pair, nodding slowly to Liz's assurance that nobody can hear. She can do things with sound, that's right. Pretty nifty, having a privacy screen like this. "I couldn't tell for sure, but…I'd say somewhere around 15 years or so into the future." He tips his head toward Liz, brows raising. "My main concern is why the dream even happened. I know that Abigail Beauchamp had it…who else did?" He tilts his head to one side.

The man looks thoughtful. "Kaylee— she told me that Abigail's dream was from Abigail's perspective. Mine was from mine. If that's relevant at all." He shrugs quietly, frowning down at his empty milkshake glass. "I felt the age in my bones."

Elisabeth's answer on who else had it is thoughtful. "Fifteen years… that's a bit lower on the radar than current events." And then the blonde stops. "Wait…. you, Kaylee, Abby…." With a glance at Richard, the blonde frowns. "The person who told me about it first was also associated with the Ferry. I'm … not liking that."

"It sounds like how Joseph's power works," Cardinal observes, wiping a bit of milkshake off his lips with the back of a gloved hand, brow furrowing a little, "Showing you your own future from your perspective, but… he'd have to be there using it, it wouldn't work on all these different people. The fact that it was //his/ funeral can't be a coincidence, though."

The hawk-nosed man tilts his head to the side, watching the couple in thoughtful silence. "Kaylee didn't actually have the dream, but…now that I think about it, a majority of the people there did have something to do with the Ferry." He tips his head toward Liz, quietly rubbing his fingers over that new beard he sports these days.

"Well, for the people at the funeral to have Ferry connections, not so strange really," Elisabeth points out. "I just don't like the sense that it's being aimed at them." She shrugs a little. "Anything comes my way, I'll pass the word. My usual couriers are caught in the dome, but I might have other avenues to get it to them. Not sure what else to do."

Griffin nods slowly. "I meant that all of the people in the dream were associated with the Ferry in some way, shape or form. So…assuming that much…everyone who had the dream is likely Ferrymen." He tips his head toward Liz and Cardinal, thoughtfully watching the couple. Then, he reaches out, offering his hand to Liz.

"If you're with Richard, you're good people. So I'd like to extend an offer to help the both of you, if you're ever in need of a twitchy telekinetic terrorist's talents. Try saying that three times fast." The man smiles across the table. Once the handshake is complete, Griffin raises to his feet. "See you both around." And then, he's on his way toward the door, leaving the couple to enjoy their lunch.

He tries not to stay in one place for too long.

There's a faint grin as Elisabeth takes Griffin's hand. "You're not the only one with domestic terrorism on your rap sheet, Mr. Mihangle," she tells him quietly. Some of us just went on suicide missions and got a clean slate. "Don't get caught," she advises. "There's gonna be jack and shit I can do for you if it happens. But I'll definitely keep the offer in mind. Never know when we'll need another gun hand." She watches him gets up and go, taking another sip of her coffee before leaning back once more in the bench she's sharing with a Cardinal and glancing up at the man. "You do have the most interesting friends, babe."


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