2007-07-29: Playing God

Starring:

DFMarcus_icon.gif DFClaudine_icon.gif Eric_icon.gif

Summary: Agent Brooks hunts down one of the terrorists under the city.

Dark Future Date: July 29th, 2009

Playing God

The Underground

With news that human Company agents were on their way, gathering at a spot on tenth, Claudine has decided to test them out, really wanting to see if they are able to take out evolved agents. It's a way to test their mental and physical fortitude as she's going to pull the punches on this, even if the empowered agents of the corrupt government arent. Alas, she ended up just destroying a few cars and makes her way into the tunnels from one of the sewer systems. "They just dont make agents like they use to.." she muses to herself.

She's not yet in her own tunnels, and is wandering threw the sewers on her way to her tunnels, and as such, anyone looking for her might happen to find her. There is a known terrorist who can move the earth, cause earthquakes and even make minivolcanos. Anyone knowing Claudine's past wont have a hard time guessing who it is…

Agent Brooks is moving down the tunnels under the battle, side arm out, scanning for Claudine, he had a hunch this is where she would withdraw to.

Thats the great thing about the underground, flickering lighting. So thats why an Agent and a terrorist arn't the only ones down here. There's a third figure, just casually waiting in the shadows of one of the twists and turns in the sewers. Waiting in Claudine's line of march. Wearing a pair of black jeans and a dark grey shirt the man half blends into the darkness. Of course thats intentional, as his face is almost entirely indistinct, its features almost entirely blacked out by the lighting. So he waits patiently for Claudine to notice him, a half smile on the face under the darkness.

He wonders just what because of the party girl he met.

She really is being a hypocrite right now. When she first started agent training, she could barely shoot a gun, though, she was able to hold her own against Magneto Junior back in the day. The young Filipina strolls along at a casual pace, not thinking anyone would dare go after her in the sewers considering well, that it's her turf.

Down here, she doesnt even need to really see. She's one with the earth now and she just speaks up. "What do you want?" raising her brows towards Eric as she tucks some loose locks of hair behinds her ears. "An idiot is following me onto my own turf, so we best make a move on. Unless you're one of those idiots from up above as well." No, she doesnt recognize Eric, cause well, she cant see his face. Lest she be rather embarassed from making drunken moves on him all those years ago.

Brooks is still a bit off, listening to what he hears, he moves slowly down the tunnel.

"…mmmm, just to talk," Eric replies with a slight shrug of his shoulders, hisvoice rougher than it used to be. Scars and time will do that too one. A glanceback over her shoulder and he just raises an eyebrow…not that she can tell, but the tone of voice might be obvious. "…and no, I'm not one of those idiots from up above. Though why don't you just get rid of the one following you if you are annoyed by him?" He asks, his accent clipped and precise, with an almost german accent to it. As he steps away from the shadows the darkness remains around his face, as he shrugs on a jacket, the holster rigs for a pair of pistols visible for a moment before he shrugs the coat on.

"Maybe I want to see if he'll actually pose a threat? I'm considered a vet agent..those were newbies that had no idea what they were dealing with. Disappointing considering they have complete files on me considering I was one of theirs for a while.." she says with a shrug of her shoulders. That would be a surprise to Eric..maybe? The spunky, bubbly girl from all those parties was actually a sooper seekrit agent of doom? Who knew? She never gave off agent vibes back then..did she?

"If they're going to be fighting the man, they better be use to fighting the evolved. If anything it'll give him or her as the case may be good practice. I'm all for helping the newbs. It's not like our goals are that different. They just dont like people like me.."

Brooks chuckles softly, from down the hall, giving up his stealth, and revealing his position by lighting a ciggarette, his gun still out in his other hand, "I don't know about posing a threat, but it could be kinda interesting, you teaching me a thing or two for a change"

Eric shrugs slightly as he follows Claudine easily enough, though when the voice speaks up from behind them he just turns slightly to regard it with the mask of shadows still surrounding his face. A smirk crosses his features though before he just shrugs lightly towards Claudine. "Your home, your call. I'm just here for a bit of information is all. I can wait."

A soft chuckle escapes her lips as she recognizes the voice. "I supposethat wouldnt be too bad. Follow me.." she motions, heading towards parts of thesewers that people typically dont go cause well, who really goes into sewers anyway? "I'd rather not stay here. I dont know about you two, but the stench is something I can live without.." and she guides them through a seemingly never ending maze until they reach a dry domeshaped area carved from the very rock underneath the city.

There's a few creature comforts there, like a bed (full sized), some preserved foods, and other such things. She isnt taking them to her actual base, that would be stupid. "Here we go.." flopping onto the bed as she turns on the lights. She can navigate through the dark, but once the lights go on, it might be a little bit..painful.

Brooks follows smoking his cigarette, and being careful about his footing. He steps into the lion's den without too much fear.

The lights don't seem to bother the darkness around Eric's face, as he leans against the wall. "…you two are apparently old friends." He says with a ghost of a chuckle. "Far be it from me to intrupt some tender reunion. Besides, age before beauty and all that." He says waving Brooks frowards with the back of his hand.

"We knew each other..back in a better time.." Claudine admits ruefully as she runs her fingers through her hair and flops onto her bed, though her brows quirk as the darkness remains around Eric's face. "So..it doesnt matter who goes first, but since you.." and she points towards the shadowed one, "I dont know..you go first. Or you can go at the same time. I can listen to both.." shrugging her shoulders as she moves her hands, two chairs of rock rising up from the ground. "Not exactly the most comfortable, but it's what I can provide.." deciding to lay down in the end.

Brooks finds himself a nice solid wall to lean against, taking another drag of his cigarette, he waves at Dark Shadows, letting him start.

"It'll work," Shadow replies with a slight shrug. "…I'm not here to examine the comforts. I'm just here for some information, like I said." He pauses a moment. "I'm a broker of sorts, I've been hired by someone to find out information on an old murder. Laurence Lancaster. Died about a year and a half ago in an explosion. I'm willing to pay well if you…either of you…" The shadow face nods towards Brooks. "…have any information on just /who/ planted the bomb that killed him."

"I free humans and bring them to other countries. I'm not a private investigator.." Claudine says matter of factly as she runs her fingers through her hair, wrinkling her nose the entire time. "I'm not the person to ask if that's what you're looking for. You want someone killed, sure I can do it. You want someone maimed? I can do that too. But solving crimes..not my cup of tea."

Brooks nods, listening to the conversation, "Information is not one of my commodities either. I am not selling"

"…I wasn't asking you to be," Eric's voice is mild as he shrugs slightly before he pushes himself off from the wall. "I was just asking if you know anything,if not then I supose I have no further business here." He adds as he seems content to turn towards the door the three entered though. "…I supose I'll be seeing you around then. Or not as the case may be." He adds as, hands in his pockets, he turns slowly away from the pair and starts to stroll off.

"If I hear anything about a Laurence Lancaster while I'm maiming, then I'll let you know somehow. If the ground is rumblin then I'm close by.." she tells the shadowed man as she eases on up and shrugs her shoulders, humming a soft tune under her breath. They'd both recognize as it as "Wade in the water"..

Brooks nods, and shakes his head, watching the unknown shadow walk away, frowning a little, the edge of his mind remembering something about a person who looked like that before, he files it away, not something to worry about right now, and turns to Claudine.

As the shadowed man leaves, she sighs softly under her breath and peers curiously towards Brooks. "Your men need better training. They didnt last five minutes against me and they outnumbered me at least ten to one.." she grumbles, slightly disappointed with what had happened.

Brooks nods, "Sorry they didn't fair better, I'm sure you would have prefered we grabbed you, and shut down your operation completly?

"Shut down this operation and you can be damn well sure that more humans will be brought to internment camps by the president.." Claudine says matter of factly, sounding slightly bitter about the whole thing. "They couldnt handle one evolved..the government has lots of idiots under the control of that bastard. I pulled my punches and made sure no one died. You think they're going to do the same should they find out what the Company is trying to do? Petrelli already hates the Company for what we did to his family.."

Brooks says, "We should have done more sooner, if we had moved against them then, this would have never happened."

"By what..exterminating all evolved? No..that's not the way. That's one of the reasons we left Primatech.." Claudine says matter of factly as she eases on up and stares at Marcus for a while. "If you're going to defeat Petrelli and his people, you're going to need to think like them."

Brooks says, "Not exterminating, just removing thier powers""

That is certainly news to her. "Have you been able to do such a thing yet?" Claudine asks, somewhat worried if they are able to do things. "That's playing God..no, we're not superior to baseline humans, but we're still the next step. To remove our powers would be…" and she shudders once more. "Unnatural."

Brooks shakes his head, "We are the ones playing god, you and me, with our powers we are gods on earth, and the human race is not ready for that"

"No. We never played god. The Company played god by turning me..turning you..into weapons.." she says matter of factly as she chews on her bottom lip, the ground around them rumbling a bit. She takes a deep breath, trying to find her center again and soon the rumbling stops. "They only got their comeuppance when this whole war started, but now…what was once the most progressive country in the world is a land of apartheid.." she says sounding quite disappointed.

Brooks nods, "And that is why we are not ready for this, because no matter what someone will use these powers to enslave thier fellow man, to weaponize evolution, to torture, kill, and maim. Someone will assume they are better then someone else, because they can throw fire, or fly. It's one thing to discriminate on issues that don't actually change the balance of power, like eye color or hair color…but when I can rip every bone out of your body and use whats left as a weapon to slaughter your families, suddenly those differeneces are important."

"And so you'd rather take away our own natural gifts as an equalizing force.." Claudine shakes her head at that as she rolls her eyes and stands on up, spreading her arms apart, motioning towards the tunnels, the caverns. "If I didnt have my powers there would be no way this could have been made. Many more humans would be captured or worse. What do you say to that? What about people like me who dont believe that they are any better than anyone else.."

The Agent says, "If powers weren't here, you wouldn't have a need to become a hero, none of this would have been nesscary, you would still be in college, and happy."

"Would I have been? I had always dreamed of doing something more and my abilities give me that option. You may be right..we could be gods walking on earth, but that means we have the power to impact everything, for good..or for bad. I'd rather spend my life shunned by those I'm trying to protect with the ability to make a real difference than to be just the college girl I once was.." Claudine says firmly and resolutely.

Brooks frowns,, "I liked the college girl you once were, cheerful and happy, perky, I liked that girl a lot""

"Well she's dead." Claudine says full of vitriol and seemingly unresolved anger as she takes a deep breath and looks up towards the walls of the little cavern, sighing a little while wrinkling her nose. "She started dying when her younger sister was killed, and that continued with each life she had to take as she was forced to become a weapon."

Brooks nods, "I don't want any more innocent girls like that to have to die, because of these…. gifts, the losses are not worth the gains. Evolution is not destiny, Evolution is something that is tried, and either excells or dies out, if it excells, then what ever came before is wiped out by the superior model, I'm not ready for the human race to die out.

Claudine turns back around to face him, sighing softly as she shakes herhead once more. "The human race isnt going to die out. Evolved or not, we are all still human. We bleed when we're cut. We cry when we're sad. Asides from our powers, there is no real fundamental difference between us. IT's just like comparing someone who is exceptionally athletic versus someone who cant throw a ball. They're both still human. One is just better at one thing than the other."

You say, "Up until all the ones who can throw balls begin throwing balls at the heads of the ones who can't crushing skulls by the millions, at that point its a choice between the non ball throwers outlawing balls, or dieing."

"Not everyone who throws balls well crush skulls.." and then she throws her arms up in an exasperated fashion. "And that analogy is completely stupid! Not all of us want to see humanity destroyed. Only idiots like Petrelli. I knew I should've killed him when I had the chance.." She did have an opportunity all those years ago, when she was holding him in a large hand of earth. "If I would've known what he'd do then I would've crushed him then..just like the bug that he is now."

Brooks says, "And if I could time travel I would have to decide if putting a bullet in the head of a 3 year old named Adolph Hitler would be worth it?"

"Yes? No? Maybe? Someone would've just filled his place I guess.." she says with a soft sigh, running her fingers through her hair once more. "You should go back up and check on your men..before they think I killed you or something."

Brooks nods, "Unless someone took away the cause of the war, it still would have happened. And it possibly would have happened worse, what if instead of Hitler someone stepped in who was acctually compentent, and they took over the world? Thats why even having the ability to change the past is out of the question.

"No. That's definitely playing god.." Claudine says, sighing a little as she eases down onto the bed and lays down on it once more. "I always thought I would use my powers for the benefit of mankind..now..I dont know whose benefit I'm doing it for."

Brooks nods, "God hasn't stepped in to fix any of this, if he doesn't like what I am doing, he'll stop me, otherwise, it's just as possible this answer is God's plan for finding away out of this, in a decade or two this could be a foot note in history, in a hundred years, by learning from this, we might be ready for these abilities.

"Assuming you dont end up wiping the potential for these abilities from the genome.." is Claudine's curt reply. She sighs and eases on up, motioning towards one of the tunnels. "Keep on following it up. Put your hands on the wall and just go straight. It will lead to the surface.." she says matter of factly. "I have some things I need to take care of.."

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