2007-03-09: A Matter Of Perspective

Starring:

Anders_icon.gif Claudine_icon.gif Clint_icon.gif

Date It Happened: March 09, 2007

Summary: Clint's all in the hospital, just waiting, when Anders and Claudine play "Bad Cop" and "OMGWTFputthedownsawdown! Cop". In the end, it's all just a matter of perspective, as Clint finds out.

Log Title


Company Facilities, Somewhere in New York

Poor, poor Clint. Still stuck in the damn hospital of these damn psychopaths. Maybe he should play along. But he doesn't have what they want. He doesn't know where these paintings are. And his arm still hurts from where he got shot. He's not in his bed right now, pacing around. The damn pills they've been making him take are negating his powers. But they're forcing them down his throat. At gunpoint, a couple of times. So how can he not take them..

Well, not all of them are psychopaths. Some are just amazingly sweet as he'll soon find out. With that, Claudine heads into the door, wearing a pair of jeans and a white blouse as she brings in a tray of food, some DVDs and some books for leisure reading. "Hello, Mr. Evans, how are you doing today?" she chirps brightly while looking for a place to set the things down. "I brought you a few movies and some books..hope they're your taste. I really didnt know what you'd like, but I brought your generic boy action movie type things..you like action, right?" she says, smiling warmly in the end.

Clint turns around when she walks in with the books and DVDs, "You sure they'll let me have those?" He asks, "Last I heard, your folks were kinda pissed off at me since I won't tell them where a bunch of stupid paintings are."

"Well, whether they're pissed at you or not, that doesnt mean that they want you to go insane from boredom. I know I would if I had nothing to do.." Claudine says, smiling once again as she finishes setting things down. "And you know, if it helps, I believe you when you say you dont know where the paintings are.." she says, just trying to make conversation for now.

"I don't know why you don't just get one of your mind readers in here to prove it." He says, "That I don't know where they are. I mean, if you belive me, that's great." He says, "Would it help if I said I was sorry for breaking into your base of operations and holding your boss hostage?"

"Why are you so hostile, Mr. Evans?" Claudine asks with her brows raised while shaking her head a little. She takes out a few pills and a glass of water. It's almost time afterall. "I havent done anything wrong to you, and so I'd like some common courtesy ya know.." With that, she offers the pills and water to him. He should know what it is.

Speaking of people currently pissed at Clint, Anders appears in the doorway a little after Claudine, in his "spook" outfit, all smart black suit and tie, though his sunglasses are up on his forehead, which sort of ruins the impression. "Miss Salonga, congratulations on the field work earl-" Of course, then he recognises Clint, "Hello there," he says, voice and expression both icy, "Its Captain Baseball Bat Boy."

Clint looks at Claudine as she asks him why he's hostile, "I dunno. Maybe because your agents broke into my apartment, tried to taze me, and then shot me." He says, "That might be a reason why I'm somewhat hostile. My powers can't even hurt anybo.." He looks up at Anders, "Well, okay, so maybe I can use my powers in a violent way if I want to." A faint smirk crosses his lips.

Claudine looks on over towards Anders and beams at the congratulations before letting out another oye. Great. The male machismo, her favorite thing in the world. "Look..instead of having a pissing contest where you both try to 'out man' each other, can you just please take your medicine, Mr. Evans? And the whole holding our boss hostage..and breaking in..not a good idea. The Company does a lot of good, so please..just take this.."

"You are not the only one, Mister Evans," Anders says, walking over to Clint, "Take your medicine, please, you would not like the alternative." The big man says, turning to Claudine, "Agent Salonga, I would appreciate you keeping such comments to yourself in front of the subject, has he told you where the paintings are yet?"

Clint snorts, and takes the pills and the water, and downs them, "I've told four different agents that I've got no friggin' idea where the paintings are. I don't know where Hiro took them." And to himself, he reminds himself that as soon as he gets out of here, he's sending the FBI to this place so they can arrest all of these sons of bitches for them holding Clint, and god knows who else, against their will.

Claudine chews on her bottom lip as her cheeks flush a slight tinge of red before bowing her head to Anders. He does outrank her afterall. "I'm sorry.." she says sheepishly before shaking her head. "He says he doesnt know." sighing a little before turning her attention to Clint, her voice soft and rather gentle. "Mr. Evans..the paintings are very important, and if you remember anything..even the slightest little thing that you might think is trivial..it could turn out be useful. And of course, if it is, I'm sure they'll be happy and more than willing to let you return to your life.."

"That is a shame, Mr. Evans, it really is. Now you will have to be interrogated," Anders says, with an odd sort of detachment in his voice, "Miss Salonga, I must advise you that this may become.. messy, unless you have a strong stomach, you may be better off elsewhere." Anders smiles then, pulling a surgical tray over to the bed along with a stool, "May I call you Clint, Mr. Evans? We shouldn't be so formal."

"Oh, so now it comes down to torture." Clint says, "And I suppose you can call me whatever the hell you want, since you're the ones holding me hostage." A faint sigh finally escapes him. Why can't these people leave him alone? He kinda wishes he'd just kept his nose out of things now. Being a hero wasn't supposed to end up like this. He was supposed to defeat the badguy and save the day.

Claudine shakes her head, "I..I'll stay.." she says sounding a bit uncertain as she was told to keep an eye on these shadier activites. The Company isnt made of criminals and psychopaths afterall, so she needs to stick around to stop things if they go awry. "Mr. Evans, if you would just cooperate this would be so much easier.." she says with a soft sigh.

"It doesn't have to come down to torture, Clint, as Agent Salonga says, it could go a lot easier. We could, for example, spoil you until you feel you owe us the location of the paintings, but I tend to reserve that sort of treatment for people who do not hit me with baseball bats, say," Anders says, grinning and pulling a little leather case from his coat pocket, placing it on the surgical table and opening the buckle on it, "We do have a new lab tech and sometimes he makes mistakes with the chemicals."

Clint sighs a little bit, "I told you all, for the five millionth time, I don't know where the god damned paintings are. You think we're stupid? I told Hiro specifically /not/ to tell me where the paintings were in case I did get captured." It's the same reason Jane didn't know where Clint was staying at, "I can tell you all what I remember about the paintings, but that's about it."

"Mr. Evans..have you seen the paintings? You might not know where they are, but if you have information on what was on the paintings that could prove to be just as useful.." Claudine says as she looks on over, watching the two, hoping that there's no squishy sounds should Anders do something gross.

Pulling the little leather case open to reveal, instead of the expected syringe, a very sharp little knife, Anders nods, "That really is a shame, Mr. Evans, I was hoping to get myself an ear," he says, with a disappointed sigh, "Perhaps, perhaps, you could tell us more about Hiro." The man pauses, to pull the wicked little knife out and smile, "I take it you appreciated my little joke about the chemicals, Mr. Evans, it may well be the last funny thing you get to hear," he continues, airily, "Does "Hiro" have any friends we should know about? How did you meet?"

"You want to know how we met? It was when your big dude with the metal skin decided to knock him out and take the paintings after the van crashed into Common Grounds." He says, "He seemed insistant on getting the paintings back from the big, evil company. So I figured I'd help him."

"So..someone tells you that we're the big bad empire and you believe him?" Claudine asks with a bit of disbelief at that, just shaking her head once more. "How did you know you could trust this..Hiro person? Maybe he's using you..or maybe he's making you his fall guy..I mean, you arehere instead of him.." she suggests while wincing a little as she sees the knife. Oh dears..that cant be good.

"Good Samaritans are so few and far between, you should be commended," Anders says, apparently sincerely, "However, as Agent Salonga noted, you seem to have the rawer deal in the matter." The man nods, "I'd like to offer you a deal, Clint, since I can't help but appreciate your good faith in this "Hiro", I will tell you something and you will tell me something as important in return," he still smiles, though he stands now, to lean slightly closer to Clint, "What I know is that this "Hiro" is responsible for several incidences of outright terrorism against American Citizens, and what I want to know is, "Which ear do you prefer?"

Clint backs off a step at that question, "Yeah? Like what?" Clint asks, "Did he mastermind 9/11 or something? The only crime against Americans I've seen is by you guys. Now look, I'll tell you about the paintings. But that's all the info I got."

"See..he'll tell us about what he knows about the paintings. If he has seen them and can describe them, then having the real paintings wont be needed as much, right?" Claudine says with a bright smile, with a sigh of relief as hoepfully the ear wont be cut off. "And no need to do something permanent..he's kinda cute..in that whole rebel without a cause kind of way. Now, once we get done with that, I'll go make some apple pie and bring it in with some ice cream so we can celebrate your cooperation, yes?" She definitely doesnt want to see ickyness going on afterall.

"I don't hear "left" or "right", Mr. Evans," Anders says, knife still ready, "Though i do appreciate your willingness to compromise, Agent Salonga will take your statement and perhaps I will only take half an ear in deference to her being attracted to you?" Anders is all smiles and sarcasm, hell, he'd be phenomonal as a customer service rep, if it wasn't for the overt threats, "Or, you could work for us, contact this "Hiro" and have him meet you, perhaps that would be a better compromise?"

Clint considers. Work for the bad guys to set Hiro up? He could always double cross them as soon as they took him off of his pills. Disapear. Go off the grid, so to speak. He's not sure which option to take, "Hiro is…Well, what's the word I'm looking for…Optimistic, I guess. He seems to think that it really is his job to save the world. He says he's done it before, with some flying exploding man, or something.

The Company arent badguys..there are all different sorts of shades..it's more of a spectrum of alignments more than anything else. "This guy thinks he can save the world. Well..good for him!" Claudine beams brightly, "But back to the paintings..can we focus on that? I really dont want your ear cut off..I'm not a fan of blood letting you know..I even squirm and scream if I watch a scary movie.." she admits ruefully. "So..tell us about the paintings. Please?"

Chaotic neutral all the way, baby, "Oh, well, as long as you are content to let a terrorist dabble with exploding flying men, Mr. Evans, I will just sit here and let Agent Salonga take your statement," Anders grins and does just that, sitting back down, but at least the knife gets put away, "Go ahead, Agent."

"Alright, look." Clint says, "Here's what I know about the paintings. One of them had a tornado rampaging through downtown Manhattan." He says, "Another one had a biohazard vial getting smashed open. Then there weer a lot with people in them. Most of them were hard to make out. It's like the guy who painted 'em was high or something. Supposedly they tell the future, which I assume is the reason you guys want them so bad."

Claudine beams brightly as she takes out a notepad and pulls up a chair to sit in front of Clint, ready to take notes. "You know..you might wanna try to have a better judge of character. This Hiro guy seems really shady if he put you up to breaking into the facility and holding the big bossman hostage. I mean, think about it..he convinced you to do something illegal, and you're the one in here, having to answer for his ideas. And come on..this guy thinks he can save the world..kind of cuckoo much?" she says with a bright smile the entire time. "We want to save the world too ya know..from the crazy sorts like him. So I think it's all a matter of perspective, Mr. Evans." sage nodding in the end.

Once he starts describing the paintings, she jots down the notes, raisingher brows, looking rather concerned at the thought of a biohazard vial getting smashed open. That's underlined for sure. "So, a tornado rampaging through Manhattan..and then one with a lot of people? What's gonig on in the painting with a lot of people?"

Anders is content to sit and listen, nodding and smiling at Clint as he talks.

Clint tries to think, "I dunno. It was on a rooftop. It was a chick threataning a little girl. There was a guy there too. I think it was a guy. But it was hard to tell. It looked like he might have been watching, but I'm not sure.."

More notes are scribbled, especially with the part about a little girl being threatened. That's never a good thing. Claudine hrmms for a few moments as she looks over to Clint once more. "Anything else you can remember? How many paintings were there?"

A loud beeping and brring noise starts from Anders' jacket, causing him to check his pager, sigh and stand, "Thank you for your co-operation, Mr. Evans, I will be back tomorrow, things must be attended to." and, with a nod to Claudine, "You are doing well." he heads out.

More notes are made, and she looks over to Anders, smiling warmly as he heads out the door. "See, now that wasnt so bad. All you gotta do is say please.." Claudine says with a warm smile, while crossing her legs to get a tad bit more comfortable. "Now..about this 'Hiro' fellow. What else can you tell me about him? His powers? Why he thinks he can save the world? And this exploding man..do you know what his plans are?"

"The exploding guy already happened. Late last year. Don't you remember in the news about the explosion above New York?" He asks, "As for Hiro…Well, he can teleport like me." He doesn't bother telling her about the time travel bit. She doesn't need to know that.

"I remember hearing a few things about it.." she says softly while continuing to scribble down some more notes. "So he teleports as well..what else can he do? And who are his associates? Do they have special abilities as well?" she asks, being as thorough as she can.

Clint shrugs his shoulders, "That I don't know." He says, "I met him like twice before we came to the Kirby Plaza building to get the paintings. That's it.."

Claudine seems satisfied with what she found out in the end, and so she eases on up. "Well..thank you for your cooperation. Eat on up and get some rest, you must be hungry, and I apologize for Ander's behavior. He's special." she says with a bright smile as she heads towards the door. "If there's anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable, do let me know.."

Clint nods a little bit, "Look, just try to get me out of here. I don't want anything else to do with your company. Really."

"We really arent bad people, Mr. Evans. We do good work. They helped me control my powers, and countless others as well. You might think we're some bad evil empire, but we're not. We want to help evolved individuals to try to reach their potential, but at the same time, protect them from others who would exploit them and from themselves so they wont be idiots blowing themselves up with their power or thinking they're so high and mighty that they put the rest of us in a bad light. So I hope you keep that in mind next time some guy tells you to try to break into our facilities.." Claudine says with a smile in the end, flipping her hair back before heading out the door.

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