2009-11-01: Options

Starring:

Elena_V4icon.pngEric_V4icon.pngGene_V4icon.png

Date: November 1, 2009

Summary:

After being broken out of prison, Gene talks with Elena and Eric about next steps. It leads to a hair-brained scheme that goes against a certain woman's advice.


"Options"

Random Apartment

For the most part, Gene has been sleeping or silent for the entire drive from Otisville to New York City. To say that he has had a stressful time of things has been an understandment. But finally, the crew decide their next course of action. Gene is strangely silent, more than willing to let others decide what is to be done of him and the events to come.

Now wearing the jeans and Death Star T-shirt given to him, Gene exits the van, leaving that jumpsuit inside. Someone else can deal with it, he doesn't even want to look at it. Without taking his eyes upward, Gene makes the shortway from the curb to inside the appartment building. He takes off his sunglasses, but keeps the black hat on. While he keeps his eyes downward, he has the manners to keep the door open for Elena.

New York City was still a few hours away. The gang has managed to rent an apartment midway to the Metropolis That Never Sleeps, but it would be good to get a few moments' worth of rest before starting out again. Elena has finished working the gas mask out of her face, stepping out of the van and letting Gayden, Eric, and Jaden do whatever it is they need to do. Meanwhile, she'll shut the door, and lead Gene up to the stairs to the lobby, and then the elevators leading to their sparsely furnished but largely empty temporary base of operations.

She doesn't say anything until she unlocks the door and opens it, walking in and making a beeline for the refrigerator. She was starving. Gene could probably use a decent meal, but all they had, really, were a bunch of hotpockets. "Do you want anything to drink?" she asks Gene, looking over her shoulder. "We have water and cola."
"Mountain Dew if you got it. If not, water works," the Geek God says before wandering off on his own. He opens and closes doors until he finds the bathroom, where he turns on the lights and makes his way in. He checks his eye, which seems to have healed entirely. Hard to tell in those cruddy lights at the prison. He begins to wash his face for a few moments, using his arm to dry himself off if there isn't a towel available. After he walks out to accept his drink, he gives a tired sigh. "If I had know what I was getting you and Charlotte into, never would have dragged you into it."

"Nobody knew," Elena replies. "It was an accident, Gene. Besides, you sacrificed yourself to make sure I got away, remember? They could've easily nabbed us both." She hands him a plastic bottle of water, taking her own and leaning against the kitchen counter. The sharp crack of the cap twisting is the only thing that marrs the silence, for the moment, before she takes a thirsty swig, dark eyes locked on her friend and inspecting him for injuries. He seems relatively intact. Relatively.

"We cleaned out your lab," she tells him. "Peter and I. We also managed to take Artoo to a secure location, and we had your roommate stay in a hotel for a few days in case the guys that took you went snooping around your stuff at home. We also took your pictures, just in case." She sighs softly and lifts a hand to rub her face. "How are you? Do you need a doctor?"

Moving to lean against a wall, Gene uses his shoulder to place his weight than resting his weight around his spinal area. "Nah, the burns on my back scabbed up for the most part. It gunna leave some scars, but eh, nothing new for that region." He opens the bottle before downing some of the wonderous Gamer's Nector… Wait, that isn't Mountain Dew. He eyes the bottle until he reads that it is indeed water. Shrugging it off, Gene drinks some more before he almost spewls the water across the room. He lerches over after catching himself before he looks over toward Elena. "Gwen is staying at a hotel? Did you know what hotel?"

"I don't know. Peter used Persuasion, he wasn't specific," Elena tells Gene. "And if he does know it'll be a little tricky to ask him considering no one knows where he is. There was a mass rescue effort in the transport train….people Peter rallied broke out who they could but judging by a transmission by this person called Rebel, Peter got captured. Cass is trying to put together a rescue." She rakes her fingers through her hair. "I haven't gotten in touch with her since after she talked to me. Mostly I was just trying to find out where you were. Plenty are going to try and help out in his case, they can do without me for a little bit while I tried to get you out, with no help from Charlotte, mind. She got out, by the way, a few minutes after they captured you."
"Broke out? That means that the woman we were after is still out at-" Gene shakes his head, just letting one fist bang lightly against the wall. He is tempted pull a Hulk, just let emotion take over, but like he usually does, he keeps his cool. Besides, he doesn't have TIME to get angry. Not now. "Well, at least we know she's keeping herself out of trouble. Hopefully, she's keeping her head low. Like tags on an Internet page, certain names draw needed attention. The one that gets most attention is the one he knows least about. "Rebel?"

"I don't know who he is. This is the first I've heard of him," Elena tells Gene simply after another swig of water. "He seems to know all of our numbers, however. He managed to get me, and Eric, and Cass… either he's a mutual acquaintance or he got his hands on someone's address book with all of our numbers in it. Other than receiving a message from him, I don't know what else. He seems to be on our side, but you never know."

"I'll need to talk to Cass. If she is coming up with a plan, I'm sure she knows more about the situation. I didn't get anything from him, but well, when my backpack was fried, I lost my cellphone along with a few other things on my person. I guess hacking into the government's web and figuring out what this roundup is all about is next on the agenda too. If they have the listing of people they are going after, can give me a list to pull from and more people to warn," Gene states, taking a pull from his water bottle as well, downing the entire thing like a frat boy downs beer.

"Considering I have no job, no life, looks like tearing this government agency is the only real proactive option I got left." Gene looks down for a few moments before he smirks. "Eh, guess it wouldn't be a superhero's life if things got simple when you solved a major crisis, right?" He pushes off the wall to pass Elena, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I'd ask you and the rest of the guys to stay low now that I'm safe, but I know there is a fat chance of that happening."

Ah. Yes. The Secret Base. The sound of a key in the lock hearalds the arrival of someone who either is trying to get in the wrong apartment, or who knows just who might be here and wants to visit, OR…the arrival of someone bearing gifts and toys for all. A muffled curse from the other side of the door before the portal swings open to reveal Eric, his arms laden with a few boxes. It seems he /does/ come bearing gifts. Toyboxes and foodboxes at the moment. Well. Brown cardboard boxes that might at least have toys in them.

"Hey you two, help me out here would you?" He calls as he shuts the door behind himself and notes the pair in the room. "I brought a few things to spruce up the place." And things for Elena to cook. Cause. You know. She's good at it.

At the hand on her shoulder, the junior reporter shakes her head. "You know we'll never leave you to the wolves, Gene. You just got your second chance at life… we weren't going to just let you spend it behind bars. Besides, we owe you." She owed him plenty. "I think right now the advice given to me was to run. The moment we got you back, that's what we all ought to do, or at least lie low. I think that might be the best plan….to cool the heat off us for a while before doing what else we need to do. The next steps. I need to go back to New York at some point, the rest of my family are still there. There's also Peter's rescue." She hesitates, at that. "Cass contacted me and Eric, but I think whatever she's planning, you should come too, Gene. Wherever he's being held chances are there'll be more information there on the people doing this."

She looks up when Eric opens the door and moves inside. Food. Elena glances at the boxes. "….I hope you've got more, that's not going to be enough to feed me," she tells him, moving over to help grab the boxes.

The young geek offers a way toward Eric, but decides drops the greeting for something that he feels more than entitled to do. Complain. Better cranky than shellshocked though, right? "I've been back from horrible prison and you are making me move boxes. This is criminal!" He moves to get a box. "I can't run. Not now. The government threw down the gauntlet and now it up to super geniuses to handle. If you convince me that this 'Rebel' guy has a solid plan, I'll step out. Otherwise, it is my sacred duty to keep you all safe." There is a short pause before he adds under his breath. "…And maybe do some kidnapping."

"I'm making you bring in your own super-laptop that I smuggled out of the Lancaster Building yesterday, yes. I'm making you do that." Eric replies towards Gene as he hands the Schmart Guy a unmarked cardboard box. "So I think you can deal with it." He adds with a smirk before he turns a laugh on Elena and hands her a different box. "There is more in the car, I'll bring it up in a bit." He adds with a shake of his head. He knows how that girl can back it down and away. "So…talking about what to do next eh?" He asks as he looks towards the pair of them. A slight frown comes to his face as he sets the box down and then fishes around inside of it for a vanilla pepsi. No, he doesn't look all that happy when rescuing Peter is mentioned. "…I sware, I'm going to get him one of those tall princess hats with a veil if he keeps getting captured like that." He says with a sigh before he looks back up between the pair of them. "…yeah, I kinda thought you would say you arn't running Gene. I have a fallback plan incase we do need to get out of the country, but I wasn't expecting to be going anytime soon."

"I can't leave until things are settled with my family. I want them out of the line of fire before I do anything to help," Elena replies, her voice firm and taking on that tone that suggests that she's not budging in that point. Peter will have to be shuffled a little lower on the priority list in this case - the man can regenerate and about a dozen superpowers at his disposal, she has minor siblings and a father to worry about who don't have the same swiss-army knife capabilities. However when Eric mentions a princess hat and veil, she bites back a groan and settles for just opening the box and peering inside it for something decent to eat. "Nothing's changed," she mutters, and it's clear that she's not happy about it. "After a year, nothing's changed." Peter was almost thirty. A Company agent. He fought villains for a living and he still gets captured and God knows what else. It was almost embarrassing. "Who are you intending to kidnap?" she asks, glancing over at Gene.

"An old friend of mine. Found out she was working for the government. If she's working with Department of Homeland and getting involved with this stuff, it might be best to pull her out for her sake," Gene states as he seats himself on the ground and pulls out the laptop. First thing he does is open up the laptop. He peers at it, clearly checking it over for… something. He doesn't seem to find it, only continuing speaking once it is sealed back up and he turns it on. As he speaks, he doesn't look up, though he seems to frown slightly. "Don't be too hard on him. I mean, it's kidnappapoolza this year or something. Sure if there is a rescue operation going on, he'll be fine. Keep the fallback option open, depending on how I end this chessgame, might not be allowed in the US ever again."

"Aruba is beautiful, the Cayman Islands don't ship people out…we have options," Eric replies as he sets his own box down and turns to lean against a counter as he watches the pair of them. "There should be some frozen pizzas in the fridge that you can nuke if you want something bigger than that." Ah frozen foods. The staple of the batchlor. "…I'll set up a few emergency plans for family and friends then." He nods once towards the pair of them before just reaching out for a moment to rest one hand on Elena's shoulder for a moment in a easy squeeze. "…well, we all changed at least." He replies back towards her before he nods once towards Gene. "I know I shouldn't be, I know. It seems that everyone is getting picked up this year. I'm just glad Jaden and I have stayed under the radar for so long." A blink then as he process what else Gene is saying. "…er…what would your old friend's name be..?"

Elena lifts a brow at both Eric and Gene, though she relaxes slightly when the former reaches out to squeeze her shoulder. Patting Eric's hand absently, she turns so she could nuke a few pizzas. Why? Because she's starving, and she is with two young men. She's going to go through the entire large box of them at this rate for all of them. Still, while she's quiet, she listens attentively. "Yeah, which friend?" she asks, looking over her shoulder at Gene.

The young genius continues his work, still not looking up. Already he is pooling together the weapons of war, talking with a few of his hacker friends. He might even be trying to recruit a few of them. After all, there are as many hackers with hatred for the government as Trekkies with BO. "Roberta Sachs. Goes by Bert," he states in a somewhat distracted tone.

"…mental note. When buying food, go somewhere to buy in bulk." Eric mutters as he watches Elena and her appitite. A smirk crosses his face then before he turns with a suprised look back towards Gene. "…Bert…" Pause. "…yeah. We…um…met her." He says as he reaches up to rub at the back of his neck for a moment. "She was worried about you and we wondered if she would help…scared her half to death I think."

"Half to death?" Gene repeats, looking up from his work to glance from Eric to Elena, but when he continues, he focuses on Eric. A brow is quirked clearly uncertain of this. "What happened after I was taken? How did you meet her?"

"She called us," Eric replies with a shake of his head. "Or at least Elena, trying to figure out just what happened to you. We went by to see her, but she apparently found /something/ out that scared her. She nearly threw us out of her apartment, even when we said we were only looking for you. She might have dug too deep trying to find out something about you and found out about whatever agency is trying to take all of us and lock us away."

Ding! Pizza is ready - Elena grabs some oven mitts and yanks out the food to put on the kitchen counter, cutting it into slices so people can start digging in. If not? More for her. She grabs a slice, blowing at it for a moment and gnawing on it. To Eric's words, she nods. "And then tried to deny that she sent it because she was afraid she'd get into trouble," she adds.

"Sounds like she is the perfect target to be kidnapped. I mean saved. I mean… Um, Savnapped? I guess that's the best way to do it. Saving people through kidnapping." Gene gives a firm nod at the fact before he makes a shocking realization. "If I did this, though, I don't become evil like the Company right? Because part of being a hero is not becoming the thing you hate."

"Honestly? If she's not Evolved, she's not in any danger," Elena replies. "Right now they're only targetting people like us. If your friend is one of us, we definitely have to get her out of there. If not? I say let her be. She's safer there than we are out here." She crosses her arms over her chest. "Might be better to just find her and let her know what's going on, then let her make a choice as to whether to stay or go. You don't need to kidnap anybody."

"Savenapped," Eric contemplates that word for a moment. "I like it." He adds with a nod of his head. "Its a very descriptive term…and no, we would be doing it for a good cause. Though…hrmmm…they think they are doing it for a good cause too. It might be better to let her have her own choice in the matter. Like Elena…just said. If she's not evolved her only danger is going to come from digging deeper than she should…and that might not happen."

"But if she is working for the government, they might be making her do stuff she doesn't want to do. And if they find out there is a link between us and stuff like that, they might try and use her against me. But maybe this is just my inflated genius ego talking or something," Gene states, sighing as he rests the back of his head against the wall. "I'll try talking to her, but I doubt she's Evolved. Just wish it was back in the days when I had to worry about was how I was going to kill Sylar and keep that John guy from putting Elena in exploding buildings."

Closing the laptop for the most part, the dark haired hero looks to both of his friends. "Watch check." He holds up his own wrist. It's bare, but well, he was in prison. And he's calling the watch check, so he gets to be immune. Or something.

"I'd do that first," Elena replies simply. "Just…do me a favor and bring back up when you do talk to her." She lifts up her own hand. Her watch is still there.

Raising his own hand Eric slides back his sleeve to reveal that yes he does have a watch on. "…you need a new super-gadget watch Gene?" He asks as he flashes the man a half-grin before he shakes his head. "Yeah. Back in the good ol' days right? But can't go back I guess. You want to go alone if you talk to her or you want me to go with, just-in-case you need a quick getaway." He /is/ good at quick getaways.

Giving a smirk, Gene lowers his hand again. "I'll make one for myself before heading down there. A few other stuff here and there too… I'd make one for Gwen too, but I'd need her… input if I can hope her to wear it. I never thought a person would wear shoes that cost more than some cars, but she manages," Gene offers as he rubs the back of his head. Not like Gwen is an easy topic for him to talk about since she is by far a difficult person to understand (or justify bankrolling). "I was thinking about heading down myself or just sending Arnie to be my go-between, Eric, but if you want to go along, we can do that." He looks over toward Elena. "Bring who back? Myself or someone else? I'd talk with my grandfather, but I'm worried that if I get contact with him, it might cause more trouble than it solves."

"Back-up, Gene. Bring back-up," Elena reiterates, polishing off half a pizz and starting on her next piece. Someone is hungry. "Anyway, we should all get some shut-eye before driving back to New York tomorrow. I want to see what Cass's plan is…. after that we'll see how it goes. None of us are running, it looks like."

"Well…" Eric drawls. "…you didn't really expect us too did you Elena? We all take good advice so very well." He says with a smirk towards her before he shakes his head and nods. "Right then, we should get some rest, and if you do go yourself I'll go with you Gene if you want. I'll get some parts and a place to use em set up somewhere as well. Controling intrest in Lancaster Eletronics better be good for at least that." Then a blink as he looks towards Elena. "Hey! Leave some for us!" He calls as he goes to nab himself a piece before figuring out just where he is going to be sleeping tonight.

"Batman doesn't have to use the Buddy system… But fine," Gene says quietly as he pouts. He gives Eric a nod before he closes up the computer, having sent the needed 'pings' and e-mails out before letting the laptop close. Seems like the Geek wants to get some sleep too.

"…yeah well…" Eric adds as he brings Gene a plate of the last piece of pizza. "When you can breathe in space, you don't have to use the Buddy System anymore."

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