Starring:
Date: October 12, 2009
Summary:
Tensions are set aside for more urgent priorities as Peter and Elena teleport to Gene's lab in Evolution Software to clear it out of sensitive material.
"You Know Me, Still"
Gene Kensington's Lab, Evolution Software Headquarters, New York City
It is approaching one o'clock in the morning when Peter finally manages to drop off the samples in the lab and teleports himself and Elena to the Evosoft Headquarters in New York City. He would find the darkened room familiar, when he homes in on the space. The first thing he'll see is Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, looming at the both of them from the corner, a stoic and immobile sentinel in the dark. He would only be one of the few things that they would have to shunt out of there, though God only knows how much stuff they would have to take with them, or destroy.
Gene's lab is quiet, considering it is unoccupied. At such a late hour, there's no one but security personnel in the high-tech building… unless Jaden was working late, which Elena highly doubts. When the young woman moves to shed some light into the room, they'll see the amount of work they'll have to do: Gene has about four computers, all active still, flicking around and password protected. There is a large collection of tools, including mini blow-torches, on his workbench. Several random items can be seen, remote-controlled cars, light sabers from varying eras, and model helicopters. A large object can be seen at the very end of the room, a large tarp thrown over it to keep it from view. There are cabinets, though not much of them - indicating that the young genius doesn't really rely on much paper. Out of all the knick-knacks in the room, there is only one picture, situated on the desk.
Elena takes a quick inventory of the space, her expression tight with urgency and dark eyes roving over the space. "We'll need to grab the hard drives first," she tells him. "Paper files second if he's got them - he doesn't keep much, save for blueprints. I think he's got spare suitcases in the closets." She starts to move, towards the afforementioned space, opening it up and grabbing the cases from the interior. "We can't leave Arnie behind, and we can't leave…" She nods to the huge, tarp-covered thing at the back. "If your teleportation can't handle it, I might have to drive it out of here."
…drive?
—
As soon as they appear, the two move away from each other. It would have been easier if he'd stopped time while they worked, but from the flickering lights, he'd not managed such a feat. "I can handle the whole computer, though you should shut them down if you can," Peter starts, looking at Arnie for a moment that seems longer than it really is before he reaches out and touches him.
"If you just think we need the drives, you can get them out. I never was that great with computers." And he never spent enough time learning them, either. When he has finished speaking, he suddenly vanishes, along with the life sized Terminator. It only lasts a short time, then Peter is back in the room in a slightly different position then he'd been a second ago. "I'm taking everything to my second apartment for now. It should be able to handle…"
Suddenly he stops and looks back at the young woman who knows more about what is in this place than he does. "Did you say drive?"
—
"We do," Elena replies, striding over to the computers and looking for the red switch that'll shut them all down, and she starts unplugging all of them after she's opened and laid out the suitcases. Typical for the brunette, she buckles down when there's work to do, her eyes narrowed and focused on the task at hand. Though when Peter asks what he does, her eyes look up, a glint of something sharp and worrisome in the depths of those near-obsidian irises along with a darkling smile curling upwards on the corners of her lips.
"Yes," she says simply. "Drive."
Oh oh.
But she'll have to show him later.
She pulls the chords away, dragging the CPUs outwards and she starts dismantling them quickly. "You can start with the papers," she tells him. He can probably just make the packing easier with his telekinesis, if he still has it - there was a time where he had lost most of his powers after all, and she didn't know which ones he was able to regain. The hard drives are dismantled, tossed into the suitcases, straightening up once she's done and reaching out to pluck the picture off the desk. One would expect that it might be a photograph of Gene and his three closest friends, in a beach somewhere in Barcelona. But it isn't, the photograph is of a middle-aged couple holding a baby Gene in their arms looking at the lens of the camera.
A single finger traces over the frame, lashes lowering.
"When I left…" she begins. "Have you kept in touch with Gene at all?" It was a question that appears to have come off of left field, but she asks it regardless, wiping the traces of dust over the glass sheet protecting the picture from the elements.
—
Telekinesis would make things much faster, if Peter had thought of it himself. He's a little distracted at the moment. Instead he grabs a briefcase and lays it open, doing things the old fashioned way. Papers come out of cabinets in groups. Blueprints folded neatly. They will likely need to be reordered. Having something to do seems to have had a good influence on both of them. It gives them something to do instead of what they might have done before.
One case filled and he closes it, walking back over to her to grab anything she's managed to pack up so far. "I haven't really, no," he admits quietly. "I— just didn't see him often. Most of my training came from elsewhere." The Company. They were experienced in training people with abilities and he had joined them. It's only natural that he would take advantage of that knowledge. Once again he vanishes for a moment to take what's ready.
When he returns he moves back to the cabinets to try and return to his gathering. Eyes stray from his work to the thing she talked about driving out. In the future where Gene supplied them with technology well beyond what anyone else had been able to make. One of those things had been the bike Elena had been using the first time he'd seen her in the future. Angel.
"Depending on the size, I could teleport it. It doesn't look that big." There's a hesitant sound to his voice. "How are you doing? Ability-wise?"
—
By the time he gets back from his teleporation, Elena's got a few more suitcases packed up and ready to go - she works quickly, there's no time to rearrange anything. Just grab what's important, stuff them in a suitcase, and sort it all out later. The young woman straightens up from where she's crouched, rolling her shoulders back. The picture is tucked away gently in one of the suitcase's pockets. Her dark hair has, at present, been gathered up while he had vanished, a pen stabbed through it to hold it in place.
When he says what he does, he can see her nod. "I asked because I wanted to know if you knew he was cured. From his tumor." Peter was one of the very few people who knew, outside of Gene's circle of friends. She turns her head to look at him, her expression serious. "When I saw him in DC before coming back, he looked healthier. There was a scar at the back of his head. I thought maybe Eric pulled through somehow… that he found a specialist. But when I asked him about it, he wouldn't say anything. He didn't want to talk about it, for some reason. I've been wanting to know who gave him his second chance. I thought maybe you helped him out."
A knuckle curls, rapping gently on Gene's desk, her jaw setting determinedly. "He just got his second wind and this happens," she mutters, pushing away and moving to grab what remains of the files from the cabinets. "It isn't fair."
An armful of folders and papers later, she returns to where he is, crouching next to Peter and dumping the papers into the suitcase near him. The query about her abilities causes her to lift her fingers on eye-level, flexing them and squinting, brows furrowing in concentration. She shakes her head, and glances at her watch. "Nothing…it's completely dead. Two hours and counting." She lifts her head to meet his eyes, and despite the grim possibility, she doesn't hesitate in the next few words. "You think they might've found a way to make this permanent? I doubt it.. if they did they could just crop-dust the entire planet and there wouldn't be any need to take people like us."
—
"I can't cure cancer, I've tried. The healing I have can only fix things caused by outside trauma," Peter explains quietly as he gets back to work. He's not quite as quick as she is, but he's getting things done still. He can just imagine them getting into the lab and finding it empty. Or almost empty.
Another case, another trip. He's never gone long. He's always back quickly. Even with all the teleporting he doesn't look completely worn out. Just the same levels of tired that he looked before. Always tired. But now he has even less time to rest. "I know Hiro was planning to help Gene somehow, but he's been missing almost the whole last year. I think he got lost in time again, cause I tried to find him with Molly's ability a few times. Not that I seem to be any good at it in most situations." He hasn't been able to find his brother for one thing. "But if they can knock out someone's powers, they actually could have taken him in."
"No, it isn't fair, but we'll get him back. Him and everyone else." Determination in his voice as he packs up the last of the papers. With them packed away he move back over for another quick trip to his second apartment, which he only still has cause the landlord has been missing in time and hasn't taken it back yet. There's also a lot of intense memories that aren't really his.
"I doubt it's permenant. They wouldn't need to round us up if it was," he adds on, frowning visibly at her even then. He's not sure he'd be handling things as well if their positions were reversed. He never did handle power loss well. "If it's as strong as the injections the Company has, it will likely last a full day. But keep checking every thirty minutes or so." He looks around, "What else do we need?"
—
When he returns after the third or fourth trip, Elena straightens up. "My backup plan was an army of Jaden's dittos to clear this place through…but the last thing I need is for the security cameras in the building to reveal to anyone else looking into this that the CEO of a major software corporation can replicate himself limitlessly." Or seemingly limitlessly…she never did figure out the extent of Jaden's powers. "Now that you've found out they're government… they can just issue search warrants for the security tapes of every major building they consider a threat." She takes a deep breath. "How did this happen, Peter? How did the bubble burst? When I was still around it was just… there was no government involvement, so how…?"
She falls quiet at that, and turns away, searching through the laboratory. "….R2 is missing," she says suddenly. "He could be in Gene's apartment. He's not crucial but… he's important to Gene. We can get him after we clear this place out. The last thing we really need to get out is…"
She pivots then, walking over to the very end of the room. Her hand falls on the tarp, and she jerks it to the side, revealing the SWIFT.
Seemingly designed by a kid who watched too much cartoons as a child, the S.W.I.F.T. is based off of a trike systems. Two long and narrow performance tires in the back give the ride the needed push and handling in order to get up toward the high speeds it gets to. The engine is in the back, to appear box like in the back, rising up in total to about three feet. On the left and the right corners, there seem to be some mounts, but there is nothing put on there mysteriously enough. The back is boxy, but it soon gets some curves as it moves downward having a canopy of tinted black glass which has the same basic shape of a airplane canopy. It narrows like a triangle toward the front wheel, which is almost like a regular motorcycle wheel, but a little wider and thinner, again for traction on the ground.
"It can go three hundred miles per hour, three-fifty if Gene really wanted," she says, a loving hand sweeping over the handlebars. "Maximum carrying capacity of five-hundred pounds. From what I remember, it was originally designed for urban warfare, for maneuvers on the narrow strips in Middle Eastern cities. Not much, on armor, but a completed design would've used the mounts for weapons and advanced surveillance equipment." She looks up at Peter. "Obviously this can't stay in here."
—
"I think I'm a little better than the back up plan, at least. Especially if it keeps Jaden off the radar." Peter has no illusions that he's not already on it. The chances that he's avoided detection are pretty small, with how much he's done, and all the things he's involved himself in. Especially not if, as him and Benjamin suspect is the case, someone who once belonged to the Company has taken information to the government. It's the only possible explaination for these things, which… "As far as I'm aware nothing major should have happened to bring us to their attention, but— if someone in the Company got disgruntled with everything that's changed in the last year… they could have easily given enough information to rally the government against us."
The last of the more portable information has been taken away, leaving the S.W.I.F.T. and R2, one of which isn't actually there. The one that is there, gets a long look from him as it's revealed, and he can't help but stare and try to figure out… "The government having their hands on Gene worries me. That's— I'm pretty sure that's what happened to him in the future, the one I'd seen." Two years ago. A future that would have happened by now, if they hadn't changed things. Gene had lost limbs for what he'd done for the government. "If they figure out what he's capable of…" They might have a lot worse technology to throw at them all soon. Getting Gene out is a priority for many reasons…
"That may be a little too big for me to teleport. I've actually been working on getting a motorcycle, one that's small enough for me to teleport with." A crotchrocket, as the mechanic woman he spoke to had called them. "But I think this might be a bit— are you serious? Three hundred miles per hour?" He might be able to run faster than that, but it's still… "I'll give teleporting it a try, and if that doesn't work, you'll have to drive it out. I'll follow you on foot, just in case." And he can follow her on foot, but he has no idea where they would take it to. "Any idea where we can drop it off?"
—
"You are." Elena has no qualms admitting it, tilting her head towards the paramedic and leaning against the bike, her arms crossing over her chest as she looks it over. "Well, the Company's made a few enemies in the last few decades," she replies, her tone neutral as she says it - but now wasn't the time to dredge up old arguments, she is only stating a fact, after all. She pushes off the souped-up bike, taking a few steps away and sliding her hands in her pockets. "So Ben was serious about the leak. I guess we can assume that everyone the Company has kept information on has been compromised. Maybe priority warnings ought to be issued to them, if they haven't already. If your agents are running, where are you running, Peter? Then again it's not much of an issue with you… you can still be wherever you need to be."
She looks at the SWIFT, listening to what Peter says. "That's not going to happen," she says firmly. "His ability is subtle. The world is full of young geniuses. I'm hoping what he says plus the fact that he's the grandson of Congressman Kensington would be enough to let him go. He knows better than to tell them he has an ability." Or so she hopes, her fingers clenching tightly against her side. She turns away from him abruptly then, to move back to the computers, to put them back exactly as they've found it, only there are no harddrives.. but they won't figure that out until they break them open.
She looks over at Peter. "I don't know. I don't want to drive it to Jaden's place. I might have to…" There's a quiet pause. "When we planned this, Gene, Charlotte, and I retrofitted some kind of… room, in the middle of nowhere, in this series of caves or something, with stone doors. I can drive it and stash it there and lock it up. It'll only be temporary, until I can call someone to help me move it and keep it safe."
—
"We haven't sent out warnings. I don't even know who all we had information on… there are Company groups all over the country. It's hard to tell what's been compromised, if anything has been," Peter says, frowning for a long moment as he looks at the bike. It's bigger than the 'crotch rockets' that he'd been asking about. It's worth trying to teleport, though, if it'll save them having to take it out to the street and put into caves that they'd set up. "I hope that Gene's able to avoid it, but they'll probably hold him even if they have no proof of an ability. They have proof that people who were with him did." And he could lead them back to the ones who did, if they're not on record.
"I'm probably going into hiding soon as well, at least for a while. I was hiding from the Company once— so I got kind of an idea of what I need to do, as well as a few places they still don't know about. And if Charlotte has locations… I'll probably take her up on that." Though there's a questionable look on his face, as if he's not sure whether he should trust the teleporter or not.
Reaching out, he lays his hands down on the bike and closes his eyes, trying to reach out to a place he knows of. There's a slowing down of… everything. A clock ticks slower, but he doesn't teleport, the bike doesn't move. To Elena's eyes, he suddenly moves in a blur, as if blinking super fast, each twist of his head goes too quickly, and then his hands pull back and he's back to normal speed. "I don't think I can teleport it. You'll have to take it out of here. I should be able to get R2, though. What's Gene's address?" To see if he still lives where he remembers, mostly. "I can go take care of that while you get it ready to move."
—
It was a possibility that she didn't want to acknowledge out loud - the fact that the Government could use Gene as leverage for herself and Charlotte. "If there's no other alternative in getting him out - after Company attempts, after his own endeavors, I'll turn myself in," Elena replies. "Assuming they think he's human and if they use him as leverage. They can't have him, Peter. No matter what. His brain's too dangerous for anyone to have a free reign over but himself." She finishes the set-up of the other computers, taking several steps back and eyeing the desk, to see whether she managed to put things back the way it was found, and then she looks over at the paramedic again.
She glances over at Peter, the uncertain look on his face. "She's an amateur, Peter," she tells him. "She isn't as seasoned as this as you are, or anyone else in your close-knit circle in the past couple of years. If anything, you're going to have to look out for her, and not the other way around. My two cents. It's because of her that Gene got captured in the first place." Burned once, Elena's about to make the same mistake again, resolved from now on in putting her foot down whenever the teleporter was involved with something. Peter will have to do the same thing.
She watches everything slow, including her movements, the blinking of her eyes - when it's discovered that Peter can't teleport it, she nods, retrieving the keys for the SWIFT in where Gene keeps it, moving towards the bike. "I'll see you outside. Be careful, Peter. He has a girlfriend…or something, living with him. Be quiet. In and out, if you can."
She quietly rattles off Gene's address, after that.
—
As soon as she mentions turning herself in, Peter's face changes. It darkens, for one, but there's a physical change that comes over him as well. There's a hint of shadows that weren't there a moment ago, like cuts or dents. It fades quickly out of sight. Unless she was looking directly at him for that moment, it's difficult to see, and gone when she gives a double take. "It does sound like Charlotte was sloppy— I honestly think you should have gone to someone else before going to her— but that's something I could say to Gene. He put all of you at risk. Especially since I had told you about what was going on."
All of them were at risk, especially with someone who wasn't as good at taking care of others as she could be at taking care of herself. What would he have done if Elena had gotten captured? What… "I don't want you to turn yourself in. There's other alternatives. We'll find a way to get him out that— that doesn't involve that." He shouldn't feel so protective of her still, but… he grits his teeth.
"Shouldn't I warn the person living with him? If they go to his apartment they might take… her as well…" That's enough to make him hesitate until he gets some advice, even if he nods. Actually not the same place he knew, but he's pretty sure he can figure it out. It could just take a little longer… then again, he has super speed. And time stop. And phasing. And— he should be able to handle it.
—
"There was no way he knew this could happen, and there had been a plan, until Charlotte botched it," Elena tells Peter seriously, looking over at him…. and at that trick of the light. She squints, her brows furrowing together, but whatever anomaly she has seen on his face vanishes and she dismisses it as a side-effect of the negation mist she had been hit with. "I was called, and I answered - after everything Gene's done for me, I wasn't about to tell him 'no' in the one time he asks for me specifically to help him out. Especially when he wanted me there to protect them. Or at least I assume so. We were going after one person, someone dangerous. There's no way we could've known about this, that they were so close."
When he grates out the words through his clenched teeth, she seems to pick up on it. Her relatively neutral expression softens, a touch. "Not exactly the way I'd like to spend my first week back in New York, Peter," she replies - despite everything else, she has it in her, still, to make a quip. "If it's going to be a plan, it's going to be last-ditch. I'm not suicidal, and I've only got one life. I can't come back the way you and Claire can… if I can get away with not being a martyr, I'd do it. So… do your best to get him back. I'll help, whatever you need. Just…I can't have.."
Nadia.
She walks back over to the bike, slipping the keys in the ignition. "I'll leave that to you," she tells him. "He didn't tell me much about her - just that she was living with him. I don't know if she's Evolved or not."
—
"Getting R2 may take longer than I expected," Peter says, as he notices her slipping the keys into the ignition and already getting ready to go. Even if he stops time or uses super speed, he's not entirely sure he can make it in and out and back before she's taken off, which means he won't know exactly how to find her. His teleportation isn't as easy as Charlotte, and she could… "Do you have any idea where you're going with it? So I can… meet up with you after I'm…" Done getting R2. Warning Gene's roommate may have to wait. He can hope that the government won't just take her as leverage, either, but…
"We'll get him back. We'll get all of them back, I promise." It's one of many promises he's made over the years, but he's always tried to keep them, even when they're impossible to keep. "And we'll stop this from happening any more." So many people they know that could be targets. Many more than he would have ever feared the Company going after.
This is exactly what he joined the Company to stop. Stop one thing only to have something bigger show up…
"Be careful, Elena." He didn't want her to spend her first week back like this, either. Even if he'd been so… pissy with her the first time they saw each other.
—
"I know. You'll warn her. That's why I said I'll leave it up to you." Because that's what he would do. Because she knows him. Elena turns her head towards him, kicking off the support and letting the thin tires settle over on the floor. She grasps the handlebars, closing her eyes - clearly, to test her powers again… only to come up with nothing. It was worrisome, how potent the formula is. She shakes her head once, looking up. One would surmise that she should have trouble looking at him in the face, in the eye, but she had never been a coward, absorbing the handsome features that only reminded her of past mistakes on her part.
At his promise, her expression grows solemn. "I know," she tells him. "Faith in you aside, but also because it has to happen. Failure here isn't an option. Not to add on the pressure I'm sure you have already placed on yourself, but you'll have help, whether you like it or not. I just wish I knew who burst the bubble in the first place." So she could give him or her a visit they weren't going to forget in a million years.
"I will. You too." She shakes her head. "I know how to get there, but I can't give you an address. So… I'll wait for you. Not here, but…" She chews on her bottom lip. Some place they both know….
"Do you remember the diner? The one we went to after the quarantine in Mount Sinai? There's an alley in the back, people won't know to check there."
—
"You still know me too well," Peter says, even if there's something rather quiet in his voice when he says that. Even when they're not together, and haven't been for a while, she still knows him better than most people. As soon as she mentioned the roommate, she must have known he would want to warn her, and she would know that would be his choice, whether she said he could or not.
"I know I'll have help. You and everyone else," he adds, but there's that tone, for some reason he can't help but think he should be able to carry most of the weight. If not all of it. "I wish I knew too." He'd probably try to make sure it never happened, but— that isn't going to be the case, here. There's a long pause as she mentions the location, and then he nods.
"I remember. I'll meet you there as soon as I get R2 somewhere safe and talk to his roomate." And then his eyes slide shut and… he's gone again, to get close to Gene's place, so he can cover the rest of the route on foot.
—
She doesn't look at him when he calls her on it, dark eyes falling on the handlebars on the SWIFT, on the guise of whipping off the helmet hanging on the bars and cradling it against her hip. "There are some things a woman never forgets, Peter," is Elena's only reply to that, and while the rejoinder is soft, it is, as always, truthful. She has never lied to him once, and that was a proclivity that seems to hold despite their rocky reunion. She knew how much he hated being lied to, remembers it still.
She watches him vanish, and then she slides the helmet back on, keeping the visor up. Lifting her gloved fingers yet again, she wiggles them slightly, to try and call up a tingle that doesn't quite register… but it's there, faint. It was coming back, slowly but surely. Realization that whatever the mist was isn't permanent after all causes her to exhale in quiet relief.
Back to work. She pivots, wheeling the bike out to the double doors of the lab. She'd need to drop Jaden a message, to make sure the security cameras had been wiped, or somehow 'lost'. The irony of sending Skywalker to rescue R2 and bring him to a safe place isn't wholly lost on her. If it wasn't so tense, she'd have the room to be amused.
Later, however. The night was long, and it was not over.