Summary:
December 29, 2014 Mystique goes digging at Queen Consolidated and gets the cold shoulder.
Queen Consolidated
41st Floor, Room 15
Characters
NPCs
Mood Music:
It began with the sound of an engine's turbine, and the angle drew back to reveal a Queen 625 wide-body commercial airliner take off as a soothing voice states, "to navigate this demanding Speed Force world, we can all use a helping hand." The video transitions to a view of Metropolis at night, but it quickly becomes day. When the sun rises, the camera pans towards it, fading into the view of America's heartland.
"One company cares for every man, woman, and child, on our planet." As the video shifts, it shows two children playing with a butterfly, which flies up and the camera follows it to the man who was speaking, "Queen Consolidated". The man kneels with the kids, and the butterfly moves across the screen, filling the frame for a quick transition to some people wearing Queen Consolidated uniforms who are working on a mobile phone tower.
The monologue continues, "… accelerating global communications, Queen connects you." The image shifts to a laboratory, where a researcher collects some pills and another uses a microscope, "innovating advanced medicines, Queen sustains you." And then it shows some missiles heading towards a school, but they hit an invisible shield, which then focuses on a device with Queen Consolidated logo on it, "modernising defence technologies, Queen shields you…"
The video just seems to go on and on, and it is at that point that Oliver Queen, who had been at the back of the room, spoke, "guys, guys, guys, do we always have to show that kind of crap to the new people?" Walking towards the front of the laboratory, where there are several new employees, some interns, and probably a few observers, Oliver addresses the crowd as he tries to turn off the video on the wall, but he has some trouble with it, and ends up just putting it on 'mute' by turning the volume down to zero.
"As some of you may know, I am Oliver Queen, and since I own the building, I think we can skip this part of the orientation. Any questions?"
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One Jane Reyes, new marketing mid-level employee sits through the video. She is leaning back almost seeming to nap through it. She does seem to hear Oliver break into the video, first looking with mock alarm and then laughing when he shuts it all down "No question, just gratitude sir?" she flashes a stunning smile as she gathers up her purse and tucks her smart phone away. She looks around to see if anyone else has questions, right now she is trying to bide her time to make her way to a secure system in the building.
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Walking down the other way wearing a visitors badge is… an X-Man. No really. Bobby Drake, member of X-Red, the public face of the X-Men is here collaborating on a project with QC. Well DaCosta International is. Not the X-Men per se. What project? Wouldn't you like to know.
"Mister Queen?"
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Oliver flashes those pearly whites to the mid-level employee, one Jane Reyes by the name tag. He lets the smile linger a little as he contemplates the possibility of an office romance. Human Resources probably wouldn't have too much of a problem with that. He's been a good boy this month, he hasn't even dated a single employee. Well, there was Rebecca, but she doesn't really count, since technically, she'd handed in her two weeks' notice before he even met her. Got some plush new job at Van Dyne Industries.
He was about to try and make his move, since there were no other questions, but then Bobby Drake had to get in the way. The X-Men were like that. No wonder mutants had such a bad name. Turning towards the guy from DaCosta International, he took his eyes off the young woman, "yes, what can I do for you Mister… um, I'm terribly sorry, what was your name again?" he pretends not to remember the name. Just because Green Arrow knows about the public face of the X-Men doesn't mean that Oliver Queen is that informed.
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Jane pivots and looks to Bobby and then her eyes widen and she covers it over "Oh gosh… aren't you one of those mutants… the X-Rads… X-Reds… Reds… X… something… X-People…. what is the right term, for you people?" yup, you people, so many layers of you people meaning too not just the Team Name.
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"X-Red, yes. Bobby Drake." The ice nerd offers a hand out to Oliver and then to Jane. "Your lab boys are done pitching and I was just on my way out when I saw you and figured you might like the proposal they'd generated. I'll have to take my copy back to Berto." That'd be Roberto DaCosta, aka Sunspot, simultaneously a powerful mutant and the CEO of an international corporate concern.
"And yes, cool mutant. Quite literally. That's me." He grins.
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Okay, Oliver's interest in Jane just went down the toilet. Great legs or not, he had zero interest in dating a bigot. But he hides his feelings well. He mostly looks apologetic to Bobby, hoping that none of the other new employees, interns, or observers had heard that. But they seem to be continuing with the orientation, leaving the three of them to talk in relative peace. It's a good thing that Ms. Reyes wasn't an actual employee. The others probably already hate her for catching Oliver Queen's eye.
"Oh, me, I don't understand any of that mumbo jumbo. I pay people for that. In fact, how come I'm not paying you?" See, he has no problem with mutants, none at all. He just offered one a job, and in full view of someone who was a bigot. "I wish I had powers like that. It'd be super to fly through the air, or shoot lightning bolts out of my butt. The best I can hope for is my Xbox."
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Jane drifts back, then excuses herself from the room, looking a bit of a mix of sheepish, worried, and chastised by the interaction. If nothing else she is very convincing. She starts to head away from orientation, planning go start her trip deeper into Queen Consolidated. She hesitates, then smiles, and turns a corner, and is not Jane Reyes any longer, but Bobby Drake, complete with visitor badge, as he now steps by the front desk, "Hi, I'm Mr. Drake, I forgot my phone in my meeting with…" patting his pockets "man it was all in my phone… could you check which of the labs we were in, this place is a maze and I need to go get it so I can show the pitch to Mr. Queen."
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"Because Roberto's paying me, but I do appreciate the offer. And hey, maybe one of these days." People keep trying. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I was just going to drop things off for the guys in your applied physics lab since they're hard at work and I was going to be walking around anyway. Nice place you've got here by the way."
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The guard at the front desk gives 'Mr. Drake' a friendly smile, scanning the visitor badge, and looking up the information. "All right, looks like your meeting was with Dr. Randall Livingstone, 41st floor, Room 15. If you take the elevator to the left, make a right hand turn when you step out, followed by another left, and then it'll be on your left hand side. Was there anything else I could do for you today? He seems cheerful enough.
Meanwhile, back in orientation, Oliver talks with the read Bobby Drake. "Tomorrow's one of these days," having a public mutant hero around would be a big boon to the public relations, especially after the fiasco yesterday. "You know, that reminds me. Working for Roberto DaCosta, did he play a practical joke on anyone yesterday, or is it just the Spanish speaking countries that think April Fool's is on December 28th?" Oh, he sounds bitter, amused, but bitter. "And if you've got time, why don't we go back up there together? Maybe you could show me how some of this stuff works?"
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Well this may end up being quite awkward. The Not-Bobby smiles a friendly smile and thanks the nice guard, "Thanks… right… 41st… for some reason I thought 42nd… meaning of life you know… " pauses "From the movie… anyhow thanks you saved me getting really lost." he turns and heads to the elevator bank and heads on up to the 42nd Floor. He figures anywhere with research labs should have a good computer to plunder.
Not-Bobby steps out on the 41st Floor and starts to look for a good target while wandering towards the lab, because if all else fails a scientist sort will know.
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Bobby, the real one that is, nods and turns headed back toward the elevator. "Sure, be happy to. The things your boys have cooked up are pretty amazing. A couple of the refrigeration applications could use some… tlc…" And if there's anything Bobby knows about it's how to keep things cold. "Come on. Better to show rather than tell mmm?"
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The security guard doesn't stop 'Mr. Drake', but he does wonder about him for a moment. That was an unusually nervous response. Nine times out of ten when he gives directions and gets a response, it's to write out the directions. The other time, it's for directions to the rest room. It's very rare for someone to nervously make chit chat with a security guard. Could be nothing, but the guard does notify his superiors.
Oliver follows after Bobby, "sounds like fun." The elevator plays fairly ordinary elevator music, but unbeknownst to the passengers, they're appearing on a surveillance video somewhere else in the building. Curiously enough, so is 'Mr. Drake'. Queen Consolidated has some pretty advanced facial recognition software. Too bad the police don't have it, or the government. But then, they don't pay nearly as well.
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Not-Bobby wasn't expecting advanced recognition technologies, I mean really the CEO seems pretty flaky after all. He heads back to the Lab and looks around, when someone seems to recognize him, "I think I forgot my phone… " and glances around. Right, a computer. He wanders over that way and then pauses, and glances back, "hey, is that it over on that lab bench?" and he reaches pulling a data spike out of a pocket and inserts it into the back of one of the lab computers, and sets it free.
Oh Hydra technologies, the data spike is aggressive but very good. It latches onto the Queen Consolidated network from this research computer and just starts to just siphon the data. Special R&D is exactly what Mystique is here for, wanting to find out if Queen special projects is somehow connected to those prototype collars.
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Bobby is just minutes behind Mystique with Oliver in tow. Is that enough time for the spike to get the info she's after? Good question. What he does know is that when he pushes his way into the lab he gets some shocked, odd stares… and then he sees just why. "HEY!"
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Oliver Queen does seem pretty flaky, doesn't he? But it's just an act. Oh, he's serious when he says he has pretty much no idea what goes on day to day at Queen Consolidated. He misses board meetings. He forgets about announcements. The company is left to run on its own, for the most part. But he can afford to let that happen because he's surrounded himself with professionals. And they do good work. They also have a guardian angel of sorts, one who is all too happy to give them goodies like advanced facial recognition software, when friends of his come across, or help devise them.
The data spike is inserted without trouble, and 'Mr. Drake' is probably going to get a lot of data, but security are on their way to his location, and should be there soon. Security would also be sent to the elevator, or just halt it, except that Oliver Queen is in it with Bobby Drake. No sense in locking him down with a potential hostage.
So the real Bobby Drake and Oliver Queen manage to get to the 41st floor, room 15, but they are in for a shock, with Bobby probably the more shocked of the two. Seeing as there were a number of witnesses in the room, Oliver Queen pretended to be shocked, asking, "twins?" It was fortunate that Bobby was the first one in the lab, so Oliver could lock the door behind them, and this lab had the capacity to be hermetically sealed. But just what was he locking in here with him?
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Right, Not-Bobby stares at Bobby and Oliver and adopts an expression of shock "What is going on here." he looks to the confused scientists and then to Mr. Queen "Mr. Queen… I don't know what you are pulling… ooh… is this some kind of R&D project, some sort of chameleon mask… I did hear they are working on it over at S.H.I.E.L.D. but this is amazing Mr. Queen…" giving the data spike more time. Mystique isn't worried about a door.
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Bobby's mind goes to several places but one of them isn't 'neat R and D project.' The temperature in the room drops precipitously as ice begins to form around Bobby's hands and rime begins to settle on… er… everything. He's considering adding some arctic reinforcement to that hermetic sealing. "Step away from the computer. Slowly. And I won't ice you where you stand. Only warning." He's not sure why someone would impersonate him and access QC computers but given his investigation into a Brotherhood plot to blow up a dam… none of the conclusions he's reaching are good.
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The civilians in the room look from one Bobby to the other, most of them confused. Oliver seems to be as well. But he's noticed the data spike, and he's pretty sure that the real Bobby wouldn't be using one. Unfortunately, nobody else seems to have picked up on that little titbit of information. Holding up his hands, "you've got me. I don't know anything about this?" By now, a security team have managed to get to the outside of the room, though they're locked out right now. Sometimes, Oliver, you can be too good.
The icing forming around the real Bobby is another positive clue to which one of them really is the Iceman. Oliver Queen walks towards the edge of the room, hoping that he won't get hurt or taken hostage. He can handle himself, but he would hate to give away his identity, or even hint at it. Then, as he gets closer to the computer, he says, "hey, what's that thing sticking out of the computer?" One of the scientists in the room says, "that's got to be some kind of data spike!"
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Well this is going to probably lead Iceman to the wrong conclusions, though Mystique has no idea. Not-Bobby sighs, "Drake, you don't even have a clue what you are meddling with." And the mutant is already into motion, moving faster than human to snag a Scientist and in a twist of a hand a very sharp knife is held to the guy's neck "Now. Step away from the computer, Mr. Queen. Bobby open the door and step aside. No one wants this to get messier than it already has."
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Hostage taking… Bobby is really a rather peaceful soul. He's not a soldier, or a hero of great experience. He is, however, a young man whose most traumatic experience was watching his best friend - a young woman - get taken hostage and nearly victimized in front of him. It's what lead to the onset of his powers. So while there are definitely ways to get Bobby to just back down because it's not worth endangering people… that's… not one of them.
"Who doesn't know what they're dealing with again?" Bobby's hand lashes out, ice coating the blade and making it useless as a cutting implement at the same time as a javelin forms in his other hand. And they laughed at him for taking track and field.
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"Oh…" is all the scientist gets out before he finds a very sharp knife directed at his throat. "P-p-p-p-please," he stammers after a moment, and one of the other scientists says, "for god's sake, he's a haemophiliac!" Whether it's true or some kind of stupid ploy on the part of the scientists, the hostage has turned white, and taken on a cold sweat in Mystique's hands.
Mr. Queen, on the opposite side of the room, takes a few steps away from the computer. He wasn't even that close to begin with. He's just observant. He tries to rationalise with 'Mr. Drake', "if it's money, I'm sure we can work something out. Just name your terms." He does sound unusually calm in this situation. Isn't he supposed to be the flaky CEO? A crisis can have a funny affect on some people. It looks good on Oliver Queen.
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Not-Bobby looks sourly at the iced over edge of the dagger, not knowing Bobby's buttons "Damn x-brats. Bobby Drake I know exactly what I am dealing with and I could gut this man with my mind." He smacks the dagger on a lab table clearing the strange alloy blade and flips it and it is gone once more though. "Now… I can be very reasonable. I just want my data spike and you get this poor Haemophiliac scientist in one piece, sans mind bullets. No one gets hurt. You all get a story. Hell Bobby Drake does there look to be a crowd in needing of control here?" to perhaps toss him off his game "How About it Mr. Queen… Tell your guest to behave and we all walk away nice and easy." not ignoring anyone and he palms something behind the scientist switching grips.
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"Chill out huh?" Bobby breaks into a grin. "Well you know, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt." He bends over and sets the ice javelin down. It's a de-escalating gesture at least. Give Mister Queen a chance to talk.
"Of course, if someone were to get hurt… that might take all the bets off the table." Okay, so de-escalating to a point.
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While he isn't keen on the idea of giving up whatever data was on the spike, Oliver Queen still values innocent life above such things. So he does what he thinks a CEO might do in this situation, "fine, fine," he says angrily, sounding stressed from the situation. He begins moving towards the computer to collect the spike, as he interprets he was told.
He's only going to get one shot at this, but he'll try and quickly yank the spike out of the computer, bending it on its way out, hoping to break it or at least do some damage to the damn thing, and ideally, not electrocute himself in the process. Now, holding up the spike, he'll toss it towards Mystique, hoping that she'll let go of her hostage, and if Bobby is smart, maybe he'll do something once the hostage is out of the way.
At least with Bobby here, if the scientist does start to bleed, Bobby could probably get his blood to clot by freezing it, damming it at the skin and keeping the poor guy from bleeding out.
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Not Bobby's eyes narrow at the way Mr. Queen pulls it out, but well he is tossing it to him and it looks like a grenade, a small sphere. "Thanks trade," and he tosses what he palmed to Mr. Queen as he snatches the spike out of the air. He figures Bobby might try something, and well even if it is iced, should be fine.
Have to love Hydra-tech. The same sort of short range EMP that went off in the Brookhaven Labs goes off in the room, compact yet quite powerful. It will be an interesting analysis for Queen R&D.
The room is plunged into darkness and if your phones aren't hardened… well very annoying. The Hostage is propelled with better than human strength and finesse at Bobby even as Mystique steps into motion moving fast for the door, ready for sheets of ice and not needing to see with the body adoptions done in the dark.
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Bobby can see in total darkness as well. One of the things about being connected to cold is a keen eye for temperature differences. Also known as thermal vision. He steps out of the way of the body he can quite easily see coming and ices off the front of the poor scientist so that a layer of rime can break his fall. Er, hopefully. He's never tried that one before. Something he has tried is this. Making specific things very cold. In this case, the handle of the door Mystique is going for. Cold metal gets brittle. Any force won't turn that lock. It'll snap the handle right off.
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If the scientists are lucky, they'll have kept their mobiles in their lockers, or have some kind of advanced protective case. These guys are research and development guys, so there's a chance, but it's a slim one. Oliver Queen will be just fine. Though who knows about Bobby Drake.
When the power goes out, the room loses its light, the video cameras turn off, and the doors release. Oliver Queen moves quickly, heading for the false Drake. He tries to take down the imposter in one fell swoop, going for the legs, in a move that would probably work, if Mystique weren't inhumanly limber. Most bones can't bend the way hers can. It's a risk. Whoever, or whatever the imposter was, might suspect that Oliver Queen is a better fighter than he plays on. Bobby might figure it out too. But it's a risk he's willing to take.
He was only going to make the one attempt, as he expected the doors to open, the light to pour, and hopefully to see a the security team standing in the hallway. But that doesn't happen. Not after the real Bobby froze the handle and kept them in the dark. As the scientists cry out, worried about what's going on, Oliver Queen will actually fight with the false Bobby, trying to bring him down hard. But can you ever really bring down someone like Mystique?
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In Motion she pauses a moment when Oliver tries to take her down, the blow would easily break bones and disable but she twists with it. Mystique is like trying to hit that ancient akido master made of bamboo reeds moving with the winds. She is both surprised the CEO knew the move he just tried to pull, and he is probably surprised to be airborne towards that poor haemophiliac scientist. Hopefully he catches himself.
Mystique is still in motion though, she kicks the ice javelin up into her hand as she passes Bobby and cracks him with it right upside the head. The indignity of being thwacked with your own Ice Javelin… right. Then KICK to the door with the brittle metal and it flies up and the metamorph bursts into a very confused bunch of guards. Or rather, Oliver Queen dives into their midst "In there… oh god… you have to save them… the ice one attacked everyone…" and is pushing through rapidly.
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Owwwwwwwww. Bobby's woozy just long enough to not stop Mystique from getting out of the lab. He is not, however, down enough to not chase her which he does by… ice ramping after her. Okay yes, shapeshiftery skulduggery may be in play but… er… how many people are actually, physically going to try to stop him? The biggest trick will be keeping track of who to chase. Fortunately Bobby does have just the thing for that. Mystique's been in a room full of very, very, cold people and things. So she looks different than the other corporate ladder climbers around here thermally. And as she runs… well, she'll heat up and look different then too.
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She is good, very good. Oliver Queen expected him to be a decent fighter. You generally don't get into this line of work if you can't handle yourself. But he never expected that. It's not every day that he gets schooled, but schooled he was. He almost hit the haemophiliac scientist, but he managed to catch himself on the edge of a table.
The rent-a-cops are pretty good, and they knew that there was someone impersonating Bobby Drake. They didn't know that the imposter could change identities at whim, so they take the false Oliver at face value.
When the real Bobby ices on by, they try to stop him, "hey, stop right… there…" but it's pretty obvious that they are outmatched when a freaking sheet of ice emerges out of thin air and a guy just slides down it. Some one of them chase after him, running alongside the sheet of ice, but they slip and fall. Their shoes weren't meant for that kind of slipperiness.
While Oliver and the scientists emerge to find a couple of very confused guards, "but, you, were, just, what?" Oliver tries to reassure them by saying, "today's security password is Congo, I got Alison Blaire to sing at the company Christmas party, and I have a private elevator in the West side of the building." Hopefully that'll be enough to prove it's him.
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Should probably be sufficient.
When Bobby rounds the corner on his ice slide Oliver is in one of the elevators and is watching the doors close. Then Mystique is there, because man she loves to taunt X-Men and she blows him a kiss as the doors close.
Of course she isn't taking the elevator, she immediately pops the access hatch and disappears up into the elevator bank, and HVAC system with her toys. She figures he will ice the whole thing or such at this rate after all.
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Bobby growls in frustration. Whomever this is he/she/it is very good. He's not waiting for the elevator though. He needs a window or some other way to the outside of the building. Which is not going to be easy up here. "Mister Queen I'm going to step outside." He calls back, hoping Oliver can hear him, then runs into the first open office with a window he sees and pops it. That's already taken too long, but at least now he's outside, circling on ramps of ice. "Okay… where are you, you damnably clever little…" It's probably for the best that he trails off here. Hopefully Oliver can find out where she's going. And handle her if she's still inside.
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Oliver Queen would love to help, but he's got to deal with security, scientists, and it takes him a while to get back up towards his own office, where he can go into his panic room, look at the video footage while changing into his gear. He has a secret exit, but it's pretty clear to him that he's not going to be able to pick up Mystique's trail, whoever she was.
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Bobby saw the real Mystique briefly when she blew him a kiss. That will probably sink in. Maybe one of the older members when he describes it will be helpful.
But no gone like a ghost, and unsurprising. Hard to say if she can recover it from the data spike, but someone like Felicity will be able to determine she looted the R&D files.
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The ice nerd sighs after a few minutes. No. He/she/it has gotten away. Only thing to do is find an open window and make his way back in…
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