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Post by Agent Erik Pettersson on Dec 17, 2009 19:55:59 GMT -5
The cafeteria of Yeager Air Force Base is quickly becoming popular among the pizza delivery business based on the town nearby, as SWORD agents prefer the Italian dish to whatever the cafeteria prepares that is defined as 'food'.
December 6th 2025, 1230 hours
Pettersson sets down his tray of fish sticks and french fries on the table, sitting across from the twins.
"Hi again. It looks like all of Mercury has fallen asleep today, nothing even remotely interesting has hit our radar yet", he laments and starts to open a ketchup packet.
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Post by Anei and Hokori on Dec 17, 2009 20:09:51 GMT -5
"Apparently, Sir," remarked the older twin between mouthfuls of her 'salad', "I suppose even criminals have their slow days. I'm sorry it's interfering with your proposed Trial."
"What was it about our record and performance that most bothered you, Sir? If you don't mind my asking that is," added Arella, favoring a 'meat' sandwich herself. By the standard of VEIL, the Air Force food was decent enough for her needs, and she was suddenly much more interested in what had prompted the older Agent's concerns.
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Post by Agent Erik Pettersson on Dec 17, 2009 20:26:18 GMT -5
Pettersson kept struggling with the packet, then set it down in frustration.
"Oh, I don't mind at all, it's a fair question.
It's not really your record or performance as such", he explained. "You must realize that you worked for VEIL for several years. Most of those years are a blank sheet for us. The FBI is different, wildly different. Most of us are just average Joes. Your situation is rather exceptional. The fact that you have been working for SWORD all this time without a lengthy agent training program is, if anything, testament to your capabilities.
However, we still work for the Federal government, in the open, and we must obey the laws of the land and the guidelines put forth by the Director. We must work together, with each other, and with some very... interesting people.
Besides, typically people of your type of ability work in foreign or military intelligence, that sort of thing. Thus I give you a counter-question:
Why are you working in the FBI? There is no right or wrong answer, don't worry." He smiled. "Unless the answer is 'to kill lots of people' I suppose", he then blurted.
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Post by Anei and Hokori on Dec 17, 2009 20:54:55 GMT -5
There is a pregnant pause for thought before Rachel puts down her fork and answers matter of factly, "VEIL killed our parents when we were five. Trained us for ten years into their perfect Black Ops weapons and took almost everything that made us really human away from us. The FBI captured us at our training facility after the Mercury Bay Incident, and despite the fact we killed or maimed eight men before being subdued..."
Arella picked up the story, smiling, "You saved us. Spent a lot of time, money, and effort making us human again. We owe the FBI, SWORD, for that. Besides... The Serve and Protect American Interests mantra VEIL drove into our skulls? You actually live it, and we want to be a part of that. Where we want to be with our talents long as you'll have us."
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Post by Agent Erik Pettersson on Dec 17, 2009 22:54:28 GMT -5
Pettersson nods. "I understand if this is a delicate matter for you, and I don't want to drag it up any more than this, but I have to pose another question. What if in the course of our duty we find people who are almost certainly the people responsible for the deaths of your parents? How would you react?"
He blinks for a prolonged moment. "What if they can lead us to Cordite, but want immunity from prosecution in return?"
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Post by Anei and Hokori on Dec 17, 2009 23:27:59 GMT -5
Rachel's eyes become cold green mirrors on her face, giving nothing away, "Sir, we will serve how, when, and where instructed to the best of our skills. It would be a lie to say I wouldn't be... conflicted about being assigned to protect the kind of person you mentioned, but We... I would do my best to keep it professional."
Arella gives her sister's hand a quick squeeze, having recovered during her sibling's terse answer, "The same here... The most likely suspect in the killing itself would just be a Field Agent, someone almost as brainwashed as we were. As for their probable commander, most of the ones we know about are dead or imprisoned already. A one in a thousand chance of coming up."
Rachel exhales and relaxes a hair, nodding, "We had our angry phase, Sir. Kept a close eye on every name and every date of the VEIL Investigation they made public. Got over it. Mostly. But we can handle it as well as the next person."
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Post by Agent Erik Pettersson on Dec 18, 2009 0:21:09 GMT -5
"Very good, very good. Professionalism is the answer... mind you, we would take you off the case as soon as something like this would appear, it is standard operating procedure, but we might not have a choice. This reminds me of a story I heard and keep telling my students back at Quantico." He has a sip of water and goes on.
"I talked to a city bureau chief once who had been using a teep profiler for assistance on a string of cases. Cold cases, difficult murders, sexual crimes that they had no witnesses on to corrobrate. Dug into the suspects heads, surreptitiously of course for the legal reasons, but enough to get some clues to get proper evidence.
He'd had the TP at the department for a few weeks when one of his agents noticed a strange trend. Their suspects were dropping like flies. First there were two, then three, then seven. They all seemed to die of natural causes, but the cause was always the same, cerebral hemorrhage. You can probably see where this is going.
The agent never confessed and we could never get any evidence against them, but they were reassigned to the financial crimes unit. We're not supposed to be machines. I can see how someone like him, who could peek into terrible minds, would want to make them end, to dish out some vigilante justice when the system fails. The line between justice and vengeance is sometimes extremely thin. We need to dance on it and hope we don't become monsters ourselves in the process."
He sighs and pokes his fries with a fork. "This is no way to spend a lunch hour. I'm sorry if I ruined it for you."
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Post by Anei and Hokori on Dec 18, 2009 1:13:35 GMT -5
"Not a problem, Sir," responds the younger twin carefully, "It takes the edge off waiting, knowing what we're going to be judged on. The profiler in question sounds like an interesting example of what the outside does to metahumans. My sister and I never had a choice thinking about our role in society growing up, but after a lot of argument we've concluded that we don't know what we'd be doing if VEIL hadn't grabbed us. Just one big black box dropping on us at five and lifting at fifteen, covering the time when most of the life choices for people like us are supposedly made."
Rachel smiles wryly at her sibling, waiting to swallow her salad before adding, "You haven't had an argument until you've fought with a person who can predict what you will say to them based on knowing that you can predict what they will say based on that first prediction and so on and so forth out about a half dozen cycles until the probabilities get too fuzzy to be worth examining."
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Post by Agent Erik Pettersson on Dec 20, 2009 21:07:31 GMT -5
Pettersson looks a bit surprised. "I never imagined you two even having an argument with each other, being precognitive twins and all. I find that powers such as yours would be very useful when dealing with Mrs. Pettersson", he says and smiles wryly. "The 'outside' you say? I always felt that having people like us be a part of the community was better than being locked away in a facility. Helps us get used to each other better. Though I can't really speak from experience because it's so easy for me to conceal my talent."
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Post by Anei and Hokori on Dec 20, 2009 21:27:20 GMT -5
"We generally don't, but even I have my limits when it comes to Arella," Rachel quips, "And she towards me. Sisters and all that."
"I'm not disagreeing with you, Sir," Arella adds after swallowing a bit of her sandwich, "If we had escaped the fall of VEIL and gotten loose without your help, we might have ended up as dangerous as our 'little brother' Cordite in a smaller more personal way, tools for some crime lord or the other. But we didn't. And here we are, productive citizens on the verge of proving we belong here at SWORD if all goes well enough."
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Post by Agent Erik Pettersson on Dec 20, 2009 21:35:03 GMT -5
"Don't get me wrong, I do think you belong in SWORD, and everyone from me to the Director are happy that you are willing to work here. It's just that do you belong here now, or do you belong here later", Pettersson points out. Kids want to have everything right now these days, he thought.
"We don't exactly have metahuman agents crawling out of the woodwork or they wouldn't have one of their instructors out here on a special task force doing fieldwork", he adds with a hint of bitterness.
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