Summary:Six AIM agents and two armored trucks may hold some answers, though all may not be as it seems… Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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« Backdated Scene: 5/24/2020 »
The Proving Grounds, beneath the RESCUE main campus.
Six AIM personnel have been separated, two still receiving medical attention due to the serums they had injected back in the Lincoln Tunnel. Nearby the pair of LAPVs remain parked atop of flatbed trucks, their wireless signals effectively cut off from the world outside. For the half dozen unfortunate souls down here this reinforced space is all that matters.
Of course Domino had her own ideas in mind for how to proceed. She had picked out the perfect waterfront slum for the occasion! No one would have heard the screams, convenient body disposal at the bay, plenty of space to set up some gear and mood lighting… But no. This is ..okay… This is more of a friendly 'getting to know you' kind of interrogation before SHIELD gets to roll in and make these goons disappear.
Still, it's not as easy to be threatening without a blade in hand.
The one female of the AIM team, complete with golden shoulder length curls, had been singled out by the albino. Possibly because she seems to know this one by her name.
"Hello, Omelette."
The blonde agent's green eyes snap open, surprised before quickly going fierce. "How do you know that name?!"
With arms settling onto hips Neena returns the stare and says one word in response, "Hypersight."
'Omelette' looks puzzled at first. A few seconds later realization dawns upon her, the stare renewed. "How the -hell- do you know about that? That's -highly- classified."
"Not anymore" Neena replies before turning away from Omelette to look around at the others. "Once upon a time Charlie O'Mele, also known as 'Omelette,' was involved with something called Hypersight. It was an AIM project intending to link the mind of a prodigy with a supercomputer in order to predict future outcomes. With their design such an integration would have been fatal to the subject. Not that they ever had a chance to try it before I blew it to pieces."
Again Omelette manages to put the pieces together. "You! You're —"
"Milo Thurman's widow," Domino confirms while looking back to the other woman. "That was my husband I had to kill before he could be plugged into your machine."
*
A room away Posse leans back in her chair while sipping from a steaming thermos, fully armored watching the proceedings on screens projected across the blank white wall of the meeting room. Despite the pretenses she might put up REACT is a crisis response team, the campus has nothing that could be called interrogation rooms. But after moving around some furniture and adding a couple drones, one was jury-rigged in a pinch. And while the presence of live AIM personnel on-site earned more than a couple guards as insurance, Neena has the adjacent room to herself, as much as she wants it.
Somewhat less spartan, the viewing room's rows of tables and chairs have been spruced up by muffins, fruit, a slow-cooker of stew, and enough other food and drinks to service a decent breakfast. There's also a smaller projection of the gurkhas and RESCUE's perimeter sensors, lifted from the command center - just in case.
*
Having slept in his uniform, and body armor, Martin is looking it today. Sure he's here, but he's tired in appearance and is working through another cup of coffee. He's lost count on how many it's been now. The man is at least eating, working slowly through some stew, just not yet fully recovered from the day before. Someone worked hard last night! Not far away from Posse, he sits just watching. There just in case something bad happens. Which means he decides to say nothing, even if he's surprised by the idea Domino had a husband.
*
To be frank, no one is intimidated by Dr. Veronica Kelsey unless their paycheck depends on her good graces, so she too has been staying out of the interrogation rooms. With having FINALLY succeeded in getting Martin to take a break, Roni is checking on the two AIM troopers in the Wellspring, reviewing their scans and current condition. That doesn't mean that her tablet doesn't have a process running catching streams of the sensor views of the interrogation and the meeting room; only that those things are muted for now … mostly.
*
Hank was really really not convinced he'll be very intimidating as Pinky McFuzzymon. So—what is a big (pink) lug to do? The solution is not a perfect one, but it will do for now, his costume is once more in FULL coverage mode, only the amber visor allowing a glimpse of fur, but the colored lens sufficient to mask the pink. The rest of the suit is matte black.
Entering the room, he slides Domino a tablet, with a meaningful look, and then *looms* ominously behind her. In hand is a meter length of rebar that he amuses himself with by tying it into a knot - and then /straightening it/. He doesn't actually SAY anything yet, just plays with his bit of rebar, which might all in all be fairly intimidating considering his massive bulk and odd proportions.
Oh, and claws occasionally extend from his fingertips, first an inch, then withdrawn, then two, then finally fully extended to 3 inches.
Does he intend to do anything with claws or rebar? Nope! But Omelette doesn't know that!
*
Io sits in a rather awkward looking position with her feet and legs crunched up under herself in the room with Posse, listening to the 'interview', but presently she is also busy doing a myriad of other things - one such thing she is doing is a dark web search for the information and names given out in the initial part of the interview. Another thing she is doing is filling her face with a cream-cheese icing cinnamon roll, while yet another computer she's running is data-crunching information on the captured vehicles, and yet another computer seems to be playing some kind of fantasy-based MMO.
Goliath, her robotic watchdog, is sitting and 'idling', near Io's chair. Io takes another bite of cinnamon roll, while humming Sublime's 'What I Got'.
*
Neena takes the offered tablet without a word, looking at the screen then dipping her head once before setting it aside. Hank's inclusion in the scene certainly gains some attention from Omelette, and yet…she's not cowering and whimpering.
In fact, she's starting to sneer. "He was your -husband?- You screwed up years of R and D because you had -feelings- for the subject?"
In a flash the albino lunges forward, getting as close to the AIM agent as possible. If the anklet is scanning her for any changes to the hellcat it'd be getting close to the tipping point. There's glaring, showing of fangs, and there's..beeping?
Something is beeping from within one of the nearby LAPVs.
Both O'Mele and Thurman stop and turn to the truck before looking back at each other.
Dom shows confusion.
O'Mele looks like she just woke up on Christmas morning.
"Oh my god -oh my god- it's you - you're it - YOU'RE Anomaly Twelve-Seventeen!"
The good news is that the hellcat is subsiding, though Neena's left putting together some pieces of her own. The surveillance and capture gear in the trucks, the regular convoy runs around the Mutant Town and Disaster Zone territory…
"Twelve-Seventeen? What -else- were you looking for?"
Somewhere back there O'Mele has gone utterly quiet. Like she's looking right past the two imposing figures. It isn't until Neena snaps her fingers in front of O'Mele's face that she comes back around. "Hi. Remember me? Asking questions?"
Again O'Mele looks past the albino for a moment before declaring "You're not getting another word out of me." Just look at her Defiant Face!
Dom glances over a shoulder back to where the flatbed-parked LAPVs are then looks to Hank. "See if she'll change her mind, would you?"
Meanwhile Io's uncovering some data which Dom would prooobably much prefer remain buried. Milo Thurman, not identified as a mutant himself but a definite mathematical genius. He fell off of the grid several years ago after a protection order went out. With enough digging..sure enough, both Milo and Neena can be seen in various points across the globe. Always on the move.
As for Charlie, just a smart girl in the right place at the right time to join up with the illustrious forces of the Advanced Idea Mechanics.
Meanwhile the albino already seems to be taking a break? Walking away from Charlie and toward the LAPVs, though she quietly comms in to Posse "Do you see anything suspicious around the left truck?"
*
Posse glances away from the video feed to eye the doctor among them, with her naturally tight gaze betraying almost nothing about her own condition. The cyborg's night was comparatively easy.
"You look ate up, Martin. Still with us?" she asks light-heartedly before turning her attention back. "Spot's been keepin more secrets, shoulda taken that bet… Io, can you find intel on any of this?"
And then there's motion in the video feed of one of the gurkhas. Posse's attention rivets onto the projected image for a moment before she hastily swipes through virtual menus to access the room feed directly. "What the… kitten? Security bravo, secure the unknown by truck 1. Be cautious and friendly, move it away from the vehicle. Re-scan both vehicles from rubber to roof with drones, and keep the fields tight. Scan the unknown too - check for bombs… and an owner chip."
"This just got interesting," Posse concludes grimly before switching her focus back to the interrogation and keying the separate radio band for Domino's ear-piece. "A lucky black cat that evaded our sweeps," she replies tersely.
*
Considering how most of this goes right over his head, Martin keeps his thoughts to himself. This looks messed up enough already, so he's not adding to it. Does stop eating though, silently putting the spoon he holds down, just in case he needs to scramble to help in some manner. (Not that he'll help torture the woman. Sorry!) "I'm good." Martin assures Posse. "I did sleep." See, he's been good! Now, the doctor did submit a tiny report about the condition of the two in the Wellspring. He had to literally regrow many of their organs. They will survive, but whatever they good was truly nasty. This is why he's so run down right now.
*
"Dunno, she looks kind of fragile, perhaps I should prepare a chemical agent…she has a much higher chance of surviving that." Hank's voice? Devoid of anything even faintly resembling compassion or empathy, it is — dispassionate, clinical, detached — as if Omelette weren't a person, just a thing. A task. In short - he's acting much like an AIM scientist might.
Hank is also shuddering inside at the need to play the role.
He bends the rebar into a pretty bow, and settles it over Omelette's head to rest like a necktie - made of steel.
He takes up the tablet then, and hooks it into the security feeds on the LAPVs as he texts Io. «Miss Niven, do you have any insight as to what is beeping?» Hank is running his own scans of course, but Io is able to directly interface with machines, she has an extreme advantage in such things!
He's also making note of every word being spoken, he'll be doing his own research later. Poor Domino! Secrets? What secrets?
*
"Already ahead of you," Io says, between humming lyrics of the song on her mind, presently. "Looking for the supercomputer itself, as well as those codewords. Haven't found much so far." Because, well, in Io's mind (luckily for Domino's preferences) pictures of her dead husband aren't relevant to the data they're looking for - and won't get her any closer to finding a new friend in a souped up Supercomputer.
She takes another mouthful of cinnamon roll, and looks at Martin, holding up the few remnants left, telling him pointedly, "s'ood. a'sum." Or, 'it's good, have some' in the language of 'I talk with my mouth full'.
Then she's being asked to looked into the beeping, and after swallowing she mutters something about 'slave drivers', and looks at Goliath, "Go see," she commands him. The sleek and hardy robotic dog sounds his acknowledgement in genuine canine fashion and then is trouncing off as fast as he can to go check out the noise even while Io herself is extending yet another facet of her mind to see if said noise is connected to any sort of network she can tap into and inquire about while the other searches, data crunches, and MMO game playing still continue.
Io pauses, to lick some icing off her fingertips. "Damn. Best. Cinnamon roll. Ever."
*
Logistically speaking, there has to be a door *somewhere* in the impromptu interrogation room. It's probably in the relative shadows, probably heavy, probably not quiet.
That door opens now, revealing a large, shimmering form with something dark and bulky in front of it; the form and the - cart? - enter, the door closing heavily behind them, and the cart is rolled closer to where Agent Omelette is sitting at Domino's tender mercies. The shimmering form is Hisako's exo-armor; Hisako herself has a serious, focused look on her face, clad as she is in a dark, fairly featureless jumpsuit, and brings the cart to a halt a few feet from O'Mele.
"Need to let the prisoners keep their strength up," Hisako explains to Domino. "Does she need help eating?"
*
Becoming aware of what is unfolding on the comms, Veronica finishes with the patients and rolls back out of their rooms, checking in with the guards stationed there before she starts rolling down the halls of the Wellspring towards the elevators. "Posse, I recommend mobilizing a pair of the mini-humblebees and sending them along with Goliath, just as additional sensor platforms, until I finish his upgrades." Hey, robo-pooch deserves backup!
"For the record, I've finished checking on the patients. They are stable, for now. I've tweaked the subroutines monitoring their vitals, hopefully that will tighten up the alerts sufficiently. I also added myself as well as Martin to the alert list. I'm on my way back down to the Proving Grounds. Anyone need anything?" Veronica communicates.
*
"A black…" Neena starts to radio back before hesitating mid-step as she sees it for herself. Then she glances back to where Charlie and Hank are in the room and starts to smile. Back to comms, "I'm on pet rescue. Rest is yours."
Meanwhile Charlie's looking rather grumpy at having a rebar bow placed right on her head. "Oh please. I've dealt with a dozen juiced up colleagues. You think that's going to intimidate me?"
Back behind cover, Io's not going to have any immediate luck finding details on this 'Hypersight' creation. If it ever existed it must be buried deep. Perhaps literally, given what Neena had said! As for the beeping, nothing is being transmitted. It's more akin to a FitBit telling the wearer to get off of their rump. A shift of energy in the room set it off, but the only thing to have change at that moment had been Domino, herself… It would help explain all of the scanners that the LAPVs are rigged up with, there's far more powerful tech in there.
As for that darned cat? Initial estimates would suggest a 0.2 percent chance that something of the feline's size could maybe have POSSIBLY avoided detection due to interference with another system built into the LAPVs undercarriage… Kind of where that beeping had just sounded from, in fact.
With Hisako's arrival and question, Dom calls back "She hasn't earned it yet. Give it five more minutes and I bet that'll change." Then more quietly over by the truck, "Well hello there! May I borrow you?"
O'Mele, of course, has her own opinion regarding food. "Well it's about time —"
The albino steps around Hank's left, now complete with a nearly all black feline draped across the back of her shoulders. A quarter sized disc of white fur around its vivid orange left eye.
Neena's smiling.
The cat's purring.
Charlie is freaking..the hell..OUT.
"G-get it away oh jeezus Get It Away From Me!"
"Hey look!" Domino practically beams to the others. "Seems like Omelette here's a little superstitious! How about that. Now," she leans closer and causes Omelette to recoil in horror from the adorable kitty. "Let's talk anomalies."
*
Posse's ghostly brow furrows at the symmetrical pair of lucky cats that appear on the wall once Domino returns front and center. Things are getting weird and weird means unexpected, and unexpected means dangerous. Flitting her gaze across the other screens and then to an additional overlay projected in her helmet, the chief of security double-checks all the preparations she's put in place for this encounter, then abruptly stands up to stack her breakfast dishes in a pile by the door. They've got actual tableware, not paper plates. Having an over-eager robotics expert on the payroll has its perks - dishwashing robots are one of them.
*
There's a smile to Io for the suggestion to eat some rolls and Martin nods. He so totally will when things calm down a bit. Unlike her he can't multitask that well, so merely returns to waiting and watching. Just in case. "Did she admit to anyone this is why she wanted us to take those trucks?" Not that Domino would have told Martin. Why would she have? The red-head is well out of the loop in many regards. "I admit that's none of my business." Not like his company and resources and people were used for any of this.
*
Hank is so not enjoying this interrogation, especially when it turns out that Domino has history with one of the detainees. In fact, thinking back to the night of the raid, she seemed to /expect/ Miss O'Mele. Which means she did in fact plan the op with, in part, the intent to capture this woman. Granted, there's actual and very real intel about the AIM raid on RESCUE's campus before, but…this was not even on the radar and even with Domino's luck it seems unlikely in light of all that that 'Omelette' wasn't a primary goal for her.
Still, the other Intel is valid. She just was double-dipping, only instead of a second contract, it was a hidden agenda. Again, nothing terminal there, just — interesting. She's so very private. Actually, surprising she was willing to do things where others could see at all.
Hating himself, Hank murmurs. "Well, if you don't like the necklace perhaps I should fetch Chibi-Spot here a leash and tie it off to the bow?"
*
While Goliath attempts to find that source of beeping, Io frowns, shaking her head in negation to Posse, "Whatever it is, it's not connected anywhere. We'll see what Goliath turns up." As nothing has exploded yet, she's not too worried about it, and instead goes back to her deep dark net fishing expedition. "Haven't found anything on the project yet, still. MIght not be anything -to- find, but we'll see. Few tricks I can still try, but they're longshots."
She looks over to Martin, shrugging, "Hey, they're paying me to be here, so, whatever, right?" She gives the computer a mental command to print off the pictures of Domino and her husband on her own private photo printer so she can give them to Domino at a later time, in case Domino wants them, figuing it'd be a good gesture of this 'friendship' thing people are always harping her ass about.
*
Hisako quirks an eyebrow at Domino saying the blonde prisoner 'hasn't earned' food yet … but rather than arguing, she leaves the cart - well out of O'Mele's reach. but close enough that it can be wheeled closer without too much effort when she *does* earn her meal. And then Armor heads over to the truck, as requested. She's already sizing up the vehicles … and possibly trying not to think too much about Hank's "villain act," now that she's within earshot of it. Just play-acting, or maybe work-acting - not unlike what she's trying to do.
"Fairly sturdy," Armor states as she looks over the LAPVs. "What do you need me to do, turn them over to look for interesting modifications? Or just start pulling them apart in search of things?" She sounds utterly casual about it … which doesn't take a great deal of pretending on her part; she has a pretty good sense of what she can do, and no matter how armored the personnel vehicles are, they probably can't stand up to her getting serious.
*
Veronica is keeping a fierce grip on herself to keep from lecturing Neena over an open channel, but it's not easy. She so wants to give the woman a talking-to for AGAIN playing her. The circuits of the convoy's route now make sense: they were circling the city, trying to get a bead on Neena. And she knew it, and kept that from everyone risking their lives.
It is, honestly, quite possibly the last straw. But only time will tell if that is so.
"Io, the sensors on those hunks are picking up Neena. I need to know what those sensors are looking for, what they are picking up, and I need to be absolutely certain those signals are not getting out beyond the faraday cages that truck is sitting inside." Roni offers, as she comes rolling out of the elevator and turns towards the loading bay, already summoning the Augmenta casket just in case.
*
The beeping from the truck hadn't lasted for long. As soon as Neena 'stepped back' from the hellcat it had fallen silent, though locating it will be easier now that it's already made its presence known.
Several nerves have been struck with Charlie. She can't even look anywhere near the unexpected feline is perched! "Just -stay away- and I'll talk! Last December — Anomaly Twelves — Sixteen was a negative hit, just a..a blip on the radar, there then gone. Eighteen led to some kind of -book,- I don't know! Ah — Fifteen was out of state, some privately funded underground lab, we took the facility over the next day."
Mention of 'some kind of book' may help to answer the eternal question of 'can an albino go pale?' Neena's expression looks grim for a moment before she presses "What happened to Mallovoy?"
"Mallov..he..the last owner? Left the country. Italy, or..I didn't stop to ask, okay?!" Then without skipping a beat to Hank's threat she blurts out "NO! Get it away, please!"
To Dom's credit she does take a step further away from Omelette. She wants compliance, not brokenness. "And that's what brought you six out to this side of town, these anomalies?"
"Initially — yes" Charlie confirms. "Then other anomalies, signals outside of the range started popping up in the Disaster Zone. Around the..the beginning of March..weird blips popping up all over the area."
"Nova hounds" Neena quietly suggests through comms.
"We've been trying to map them out but we never abandoned searching for Seventeen — YOU. Your signal kept popping in and out, no discernible patterns. How..how did you do that? Look, we're just here to track, document, and capture where possible! There's been a lot of activity in the area, did you think we wouldn't notice??"
"And I'm sure you'll all be happy to get the rest of us up to speed on all of your findings," Neena suggests for all involved to hear.
Hisako is given a nod, O'Mele's earned some actual food. Hank, who she can just -sense- hasn't been enjoying the act, gets a hand to his shoulder before Dom motions to the door. They can get out of here now.
Once out of the room she thumbs back to the cat still resting on her shoulders and asks "Do I need to get this cleared with security?"
*
Posse doesn't split her focus enough to look at Martin as she answers flatly, "No, and it /is/ my business. Martin, if you've got any skills from a past life you'd like to refresh, tuck in on my 4 - this deserves unconventional thinking. Io, reverse engineering that beeper is more important than the internet sweep now. Be advised our sweep wasn't perfect if it missed a cat. Only help if you're comfortable it could blow up in your face. Ya'll are dismissed," the cyborg says, and just like that she slips through the sliding doorway and into the hall. "<Posse to TOC, as soon as those vehicles are double-swept put first priority on drone extraction and reverse-engineering of the beeper that just punched through our jamming cage. Alert Dr. Ho and get her involved.>"
The Chief of Security's green eyes are staring down Domino's blue almost before the albino and Hank are out of the room. "Yes. And that's the least important thing you need to do right now."
*
Martin shifts, uncomfortable. There's a lot of emotions being shouted right now. A lot of people realizing how they've been used. Including himself. There's a frown to Io about the just working here, but right now he thinks maybe it's a good stance for him. "Okay." Given to Posse, "Call me if you need me. I won't be far." Yep, time for him to be dismissed. Not because he doesn't want to help, but because he'd get in the way more than he'd help. The doctor gathers his things and quietly takes himself away. Just down the hall a ways, where he can wait and let personal things be personal.
*
No, in fact Hank has NOT been enjoying this act, he didn't stint on the effort, but man he hates it. Lots. The impassioned plea to keep the cat away, yeah, that hit him pretty hard. He moves then to take the rebar necktie off of Miss O'Mele, carefully as can be. With Domino's grip to his shoulder Hank nods once, curtly and just steps out — though, he's very method, on the way out he straightens the rebar one final time.
Once outside the room he takes that rebar and crushes it into a sphere, not unlike a shot-put.
Muttering darkly he heads out, initially for his lab though he redirects on the way. Over the comms he sends. «I'm betting they're tracking the tattoo. You all got one, yes, Domino?» Hank heads for the Foundry, tossing the former rebar into a scrap pile. He too is very much wanting to have some less than kind words over the comms but restrains the urge, it is up to Roni and Toni, he's not a partner, the call has to be theirs.
And then he goes to the gymnasium and burns off a little rage beating on one of the heavy bags—it is important to note that he is not using super bags; this way he has to keep control of himself, it will get the rage out faster.
*
No playing with the trucks, then. Armor inclines her head to Domino in reply to the prompt to go ahead and let their 'prisoner' eat, and wheels the cart closer, setting out some silverweare and uncovering the dishes.
It is not, in fact, dry bread and water. There's a sandwich (ham and cheese on rye, with lettuce and tomato and some mustard), a plate of salad, a bowl of applesauce, some additional fruit and cheese, and a bottle of water.
And Hisako stands nearby, letting herself 'stand down' and de-armoring. She probably looks a lot less intimidating that way. "So … your convoy - with biochemically augmented guards in each vehicle - was just driving around the city, trying to pick up on where my friend happened to be?" the Japanese woman inquires, with a tone of making polite conversation while O'Mele eats.
*
Io waves a dismissive hand at Veronica, "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she half-grumbles, "Io hack this, Io hack that, Io investigate this…" However, despite her wods Io doesn't really look that put out. The blue-haired skinny tech girl shifts from her position slightly but doesn't yet untuck her feet. Leaving the several laptops and computers to continue their data crunching and researching while she does a mental scan to track the source and code that the sensors on the hunks are looking for, while also trying to ascertain the range as well and if, indeed, the faraday cages are working as intended.
*
"Karl!" Veronica shouts, now that she is down here on the Proving Grounds in person. She is leaving Posse to handle things as she sees fit, but there are two things she is seeing to right now. "Please secure Ms. Thurman, and her furry guest, immediately. We will need another tracker for the guest. And a plate of tuna and saucer of milk."
Roni is angry. Not evil.
"Probably also a flea dip and a bath."
OK. Maybe she is a little evil?
"I believe the storage closet around the corner on corridor B should be open. I will have the drones clear it out, and then you can install them there to await food, bath, and directed conversation." Roni finishes as she rolls towards the meeting room.
*
Neena's barely outside of the room when Posse is -right there- staring her down, prompting the albino to abruptly stop..and look completely surprised. "What..? Hang on, what's that supposed to mean?"
Then Hank is on the comms mentioning the tattoo..and again she looks completely blank. "Alright. Seriously. What the hell is going on with you guys?"
It isn't until the call for Karl is put out from Roni herself that the albino realizes that something considerable and unforseen has happened here. "Okay, -whoa,- let's back this up a little" she protests with palms up and eyes wide. "Not necessary, honest! Look at me, not resisting here. Let's talk this through, okay? Come on, don't throw me into a -closet!-"
Back in the room O'Mele is starting to settle down now that the furry guest has been removed from sight and mind. In short order she goes straight for the sandwich and takes a huge bite out of it, making conversation a mite more tricky.
"Whah..? Oh — noh -heuh,- noh."
She quickly chews through the bite and swallows it away. "We were tracking the signals. Had we of known they were attached to a -person- it might have changed our methods. We were ready to write off Twelve-Seventeen as a lost cause several times but it just kept coming back to taunt us."
"The more recent ones are what kept us around. They exhibit pack-like behavior, often moving and grouping together. We're still trying to capture one for study. But what about your …friend..? What happened to her, how is she connected with the first three reports, how is she doing that?"
If Omelette can get some answers in return then she's all ears! Something's shifted her back into scientist mode.
Io might be in for a bit of a headache. The basic principle of the scanner object isn't all that different from a WiFi hotspot locator, simple and basic and totally harmless. It's when trying to figure out -what- it's looking for that things start to get really strange. This also may explain how it had gone unnoticed before by RESCUE's first wave of scans. Whatever level it's searching for, it's not something which is readily known.
*
"Just stay put for the moment Spot. Just like the last two times, you know the drill," Posse instructs blandly before spotting Hank's already departing form and frowning subtly. Stepping past the albino's shoulder and then around her back, Neena's wrists are pulled behind her and zip-cuffed with surprising deftness, almost without breaking stride. The stoic cyborg reappears by the albino's opposite shoulder and lightly guides her forward with a hand, letting Karl take up a position on the other side. "We'll move ya somewhere secure, then once everyone's had their little civvie R&R we'll scan your new friend and make sure she's safe. In the meantime you can start explainin from anywhere you want to begin from." There's no venom in Posse's words but also not the smallest flake of humor. Dull, flat, and dry as desert sand, it's hard to find any vestige of the relationship they were enjoying not fifteen minutes earlier.
*
Down the hallway, Martin really can only see people leaving from where he leans against a wall with his arms folded. Mindful of comms, he says nothing and waits to see if he's needed.
*
Once he has beat on the bag for a bit, he private comms Hisako. «Sorry I was not reacting to you, it was not 'in character' for the thuggish lout I was portraying, Hisako-Chan.» She could likely hear the sounds of him working on the bag, surely a familiar sound but in Hank's case usually a sign he's a bit miffed about something, possibly even peeved.
The fact of the matter is that Hank's rather put out by Domino's having played everyone again. No, not Domino, Miss Thurman. Until and unless she has a REALLY good explanation.
Back to Hisako. «You did well in there, definitely a 'good cop' vibe to counterbalance Domino's bad cop and my worse cop.» She can actually hear a snort of amusement. «I got to play the heavy, how often does -that- happen?»
Though she might not remember it, Hank /did/ have some scans of the tattoo - he'd commented to Domino that the ink was rather exotic but nothing ever came from that conversation, now Hank is wondering if he was wrong to let that drop. Having not even worked up a sweat, he lopes back to his lab, and pulls up the data files from his archives. To Io he texts. «Io, if you're near the trucks - and don't mind - could you see if the detection rig is looking for something like a passive radioactive signature?» He squirts a model of the wave structure and frequency once he finds it. «Please advise.»
*
Hisako gives O'Mele a somewhat skeptical look at the claim that if they'd known the 'signals' were coming from a person, they might've been looking differently or something. She's not really a fan of AIM's methods - and she does not want to think about how they'd go looking for Domino, or what they'd do in the attempt to capture her, if they *had* known.
But hey, she's being cooperative now. That warrants some measure of reward, and since she's asking for information … she turns away for a moment - not taking her eyes fully off of O'Mele, just dividing her attention to confer.
«I figured it was just an act,» she reassures Hank. «No hard feelings. At least not towards you.» She's not sure whether she needs to haev hard feelings towards anyone else, but that's beside the point. «Dr. Kelsey, is it okay for me to tell her something about the Hounds? Nothing that'd put AIM on their trail, if she ever gets the chance to tell her bosses …»
She turns her attention back to O'Mele while awaiting the reply. "Not sure how much it's okay to tell you, but if you're talking about what *I* think you're talking about, they're … a known problem. One more problem that we're trying to solve." She frowns, rolling her shoulders a bit. "Be happy you haven't run into them yet."
*
Io winces, but she doesn't say anything, merely shakes her head briefly as if that were all the answer she could give at present. What she /does/ do, however, though, is send a command to the scanning object to 'power down', so it can be studied later and so whatever it's attempting to find and communicate isn't done - at least, without RESCUE's consent.
*
"I will be in to see you in an hour, Ms. Thurman. I am sorry, but I have a few other things to deal with in the meantime." Not the least of which is calming down so that she doesn't just explode right off the bat. Roni is very wound up right now, and she nows it. And she knows that is Not Good (tm).
"Karl, Ava, can one of you please get together an idea of what Ms. Thurman needs to eat and drink? We'll bring that in along with the guest's own. Ava, I think Karl can watch the door once you're done ensconcing them there. Henry, I am going to need a few supplies from the Wellspring … and, if you would not mind, a second pair of hands while we try to deal with an actual feline. I'm not a vet, and neither are you, so we're going to have to read up first."
That said, Veronica rolls into the meeting room, takes a water for herself, and starts re-watching the feeds from the interrogation.
*
"Gettin' real tired of this…" Neena grumbles while The Drill is once again performed. Still, Posse's just doing her job. This time without throwing Whitey to the floor! That's progress, right? She's feeling confused and put out but isn't resisting any.
The stowaway shouldercat gives the cyborg a curious look before thunking its head against Dom's ear, nuzzling away. "Just like old times" she gently sighs before giving Ava another peculiar look.
"And here I was hoping that you might start filling in some blanks. Did I accidentally take Roni's lunch from the fridge? Does this have anything to do with Hank? Honest, I have no idea what the hell is going on here, Av. I thought I was -helping- you all. And..cat," she adds with a careful but nonetheless helpless shrug. "That's also new. Ugh, you smell like diesel exhaust" she softly adds.
Roni's promise of an audience in an hour helps, as does her ability to keep a level tone. "Yeah… Copy."
When Hisako mentions a 'known problem' O'Mele's attention is all on the mutant. "You have!" she exclaims with half curiosity and half ..joy? "What are they, where have they been hiding? Underground, right? It has to be underground, hiding where we can't get clear resolution, not enough space for the scanners…" While the scientific mind is rapidly running forward with any new scrap of information she can earn she's also making short work of the food situated upon the tray. They must not have a lot of time to snack while doing their jobs!
At Io's thought command the scanner simply turns off. She's likely the only person on campus to know that the device is now sleeping good and proper, too.
*
"I really *can't* tell you much," Hisako says - and to her credit, it seems like part of her *does* want to tell O'Mele more. "But with the run-ins we've had with those beasts, I think even your super-roids and a whole team wouldn't be enough of an advantage to take one down, let alone a pack. Even if you manage to get back to AIM, *you want to leave this alone* or you'll just add to the body count."
Part of her hates to shut O'Mele down that hard, but it's for safety's sake. A couple of times over, really: she doesn't want AIM to lose more people, good or evil or just getting paid, trying to capture a Nova Hound. She doesn't want them to *succeed* at capturing any of them either, alive *or* dead, for fear of what more they might do - how much worse AIM might manage to make them.
And the potential fallout of a full-on war between the Hounds' makers and AIM just doesn't bear thinking about.
Hisako's similarly loathe to leave O'Mele unattended with the utensils or dishes; unless somebody pulled a fast one with the plastics, the flatware isn't going to self-destruct after a certain span of time, and even a spoon can be made dangerous if you're desperate and determined enough. So once O'Mele is done eating, Hisako makes sure all dishes and utensils are accounted for, and departs with the cart.
*