Log:Family History
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| "Family History" (Spies, Lies, and Family Ties, Pt. 13) | |
|---|---|
| Emitter | Odin |
| Players | Stephanie, Tabitha |
| NPCs | James Bradley, "Ice Spy", Banshee |
| Place | Bradley Home, Kansas City |
| Time (IC) | August 31, 2012 - Afternoon |
| Time (OOC) | August 31, 2007 |
Multiple jumps mid-way across the country is alot easier with a passenger than attempting one long teleport. Tabitha did recon the women's bathroom via her new ability to see through electrical lines. She picked one that is on the Baggage Claim end near the car rental places. When it is empty, she makes the last jump with Stephanie, appearing from one of the electrical sockets in a flash of sparks. "Last stop." She says with a grin as her hair settles into place. She reaches over and leeches the residual static electricity from Stephanie so that her hair isn't standing up on end for the next few hours.
Stephanie shakes her head a bit, toting her portfolio on her back, "Well, that definitely is faster than a plane..." She smiles back at you, but looks a touch nervous, as she peeks out of the bathroom, "We should probably get a rather nondescript car. Like a blue Nissan Versa, or something."
Tabitha arches a brow "What's with you and the Blue?" She grins and then says "Nissan Versa? Bah...Nissan Maxima. Whats with you and the nondescript?"
Stephanie looks wryly at Tabby, "Well, if someone is watching him, I was thinking of avoiding too much flash... but I'll leave it to your discretion." She frowns, "Not sure I can really handle the drive, anyway."
Tabitha is heading out of the bathroom, her clothing fairly casual. Today she decided on a light blue silk blouse and jeans with a pair od respectable flats. Very much the non-descript high-school or college student. She does bear her backpack over her shoulder too. "Fine. Nissan Versa...why can't you drive? You know the area. I'll admit...I've pretty much avoided Kansas."
Stephanie chuckles, "I don't know anyone that comes here for a vacation..." She goes to the counter, "And fine, I'll drive." She gets in the queue, and after some boring paperwork, a few insurance forms (and probably Stephanie noting how economical a Versa is), she has the keys and is leading the way towards where the Versa is waiting.
And, yes, it is Blue.
Tabitha hopes it's at least a hatchback. She climbs into the car and smirks slightly "You have no sense of adventure, do you, sis? Has Ryan let you drive the Shelby yet?"
Stephanie grins, as it is a hatchback. She puts her portfolio in the back seat, and chuckles, "Yes, and he's a bit jealous I drive it better." She smiles a touch, then revs up the engine (such as it is) and drives off
Tabitha giggles "How are you two doing, anyway? Don't see much of you lately. Heavy classload or more work?"
Stephanie grins wryly, "Something like that... we're doing well, though." She shakes her head, "Lately though, this thing with Hayden seems to have just exploded into a nest of poisonous wasps or something." She navigates the car through habit, keeping perfectly within the speed limit and signaling three seconds prior to boot. But then, her mind is a bit distracted for the moment.
The Bradley Family Home. In the suburbs of Kansas City.
A quaint two-story building that is quite nondescript. It could almost be something from a Norman Rockwell painting with that white picket fence lining the property. The little bit of a drive from the airport wasn't all that bad, and now as the vehicle pulls up to the driveway of the family home it is about to come to an end. There's a car in the driveway, indicating that someone is home.
Tabitha nods "I'm really worried about him. Hayden that is." She takes in the house and the sheer cliché-ness of it and then she looks at Steph. Certain bits of her behavior now clicking into place. She calmly shakes her head a bit and says as she climbs out "Okay...I'll never badger you into going to a strip club. You'll probably get a nosebleed. Oh man."
Stephanie nods, stopping the engine, "Tabby... just be nice." She unbuckles her seat belt and gets out of the car, taking her portfolio with her, "I'm hoping there's something to be found here, and I just can't believe he'd actually condone what is currently going on."
Tabitha nods and sighs "Nice. Yeah...I can do nice." She really hopes her G.G.Pops isn't responsible for kidnapping a friend of hers. She's not so sure she can be nice if she learned that.
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway and doors being opened draws the person inside the house to the window. Curtains are moved aside so that the man within can look out. Puzzlement mingled with being pleasantly surprised, a hand drops the curtain back. A moment later the front door opens and a man who looks like he is in his fifties (though in reality he's closer to 100) stands there with a warm smile on his face. "Angel, what a surprise to see you!" Stephanie's great-grandfather offers as he opens his arms for a hug, "What are you doing here?" A pause as he looks at Tabitha, nodding to her in friendly greeting, "And you brought along a friend."
Stephanie hugs her great-granddad tight, "Hey pops... I had to come out and see you." She closes her eyes for a bit, relaxing in the hug as she then looks at him, smiling, "Oh, and this is my roommate, Tabitha. She traveled out with me."
Tabitha just drops right into college-girl mode and offers the man a winning smile from her days before the camera. She waits for the hugging to stop before offering Stephs 'pops' a handshake. "Pleasure to meet you, sir. Figured it was labor day weekend and Steph wanted some family time. My dad's in Japan doing something or another so Steph invited me along."
"Well, I'm not going to complain that you came out here to pay me a visit," James says, "Your uncle Harry and Aunt Andrea are in town, but they just left to go get some stuff for the cookout tomorrow. Are you girls planning on staying for that?" The elderly man turns to take Tabitha's extended hand, giving her a firm handshake. "A pleasure to meet you Tabitha. Why don't you girls come in? We can go sit out on the back porch. There's some sweet tea and lemonade in the fridge."
Stephanie smiles, "Well, we can..." She shrugs a little, "But well, we had some business that's come up, that I wanted to talk to you about." She pauses, looking a little uncomfortable for a moment, as she doesn't seem really eager to broach this subject. "It's... about Eagle Eye."
Tabitha will let Steph answer that question. She just keeps a shadow of that smile on her face. She might get to meet More of Steph's family...cool! So far her Pops seems reasonable, even kinda cute. She idly wonders if she's got any cousins or something her age. When Eagle Eye is mentioned, she pays strict attention to her Senses and watches for any telltales in the older man.
Right to the point. Stephanie's grandfather doesn't bother masking surprise, which is quickly replaced by a curious expression as he gestures the two girls into the house. That warm, fuzzy grand-dad vibe is still there, but underneath is a note of seriousness. The inside of the place is just as cliché and homey as one would expect from the outside. It's like the quintessential American home. "Eagle Eye. I would ask if you're referring to some new video game that's come out on the market, but I can tell that's not what you mean. Go take your friend out to the back porch, Angel, I'll get us some drinks and we can talk about this."
Stephanie nods, "Okay, come on Tabby." She takes Tabitha's hand and leads her back. Along the way you can see a lot of photographs, mostly of Stephanie's great-grandmother, as well as all the kids, grandkids (and in Steph's case) great-grandkid. She glances around, smiling a little bit as she seemed somewhat reassured by the fact her pops didn't turn into Poppops at the revelation. "Porch is out this way, pops and I would normally play catch a lot out back." Which explains the tom boyishness, really.
Tabitha just arches a brow slightly and follows them through the house. She drops most of the facade of 'ditz' she was attempting and lets a little of her more normal self through. She smiles a little and says "Never got much of that from my Dad. When he was around he was making sure I was gonna be proper lady. Wasn't really allowed to play with boys much as a kid."
Carrying a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and three glasses, James steps out onto the back porch. There are worry-lines creasing his face as he nudges the screen door open with his hip to step outside and join them. The door closes behind him with the creak of springs and the slap of wood into the frame. "Alright, now, here we go," the man says, setting the tray down on the little table amidst a set of wooden chairs. He pours the glasses, making himself busy for a moment, "Your Aunt Andrea made it just this morning."
James hands a glass to Tabitha first, then extends one to his great-granddaughter. He holds onto it for a moment as the glass is held between their two hands, a worried look. Then he takes his own glass and slides into a seat, a heavy sigh that tells his age for just a heartbeat. "What's this about Eagle Eye? I haven't heard anything of it in thirty-two years. I thought they'd scrapped it."
Stephanie sighs, "Well, I don't know if you've been following the press back East, but... well, I've gotten pretty heavily involved in things there." She looks at James, eyes wide a bit, "And I think something might have happened to a friend of mine, because of something relating to Eagle Eye, and something called 'Sad Bird'." She bites her lip a bit, "And well, I just want to do what I can to get him back." Which means she's having quite possibly the most uncomfortable conversation of her life... at least, until she tells James that she's moved in with a guy that she really REALLY likes. But one disastrous conversation at a time.
Tabitha accepts the drink with a grin at the older man. She sits back in the chair to listen and watch. She does extend her senses as far as they can go which is pretty decently far. She's not as well briefed as Steph is in this so she mostly listens -but- she's also checking the house and environs to see if anyone -else- is listening.
Tabitha puts down the drink casually and feels a little uncomfortable being the third wheel here so she says "Hey, Steph, I'm gonna go for a walk. Planes always get me kinda...restless for a bit after and if we're gonna stay, I don't wanna be up all night pacing." She offers 'Pops' a smile and waits to make sure thats okay with them.
The man leans forward in his chair, listening to Stephanie. He takes a sip of his lemonade, nodding. "I keep up as I always do," James says, smiling slightly at her, "I have to say, some of what I've been reading makes an old man proud." He looks at the two girls, "I'm assuming that since your roommate is here with you, she's well informed?" He nods to Tabitha as she gets up. The old man clears his throat, leaning back in the rocker, "I'm sorry to hear that something might have happened to a friend of yours. I'll tell you what I know about Eagle Eye. It was a project some geneticist came up with. A few of us were called in to consult with a man named Richard Henry, General. He'd heard about this geneticist, thought funding her research might be a good idea... wanted the opinion of a few people and I was one of them."
Stephanie nods, "Okay, Tabby..." She glances back to Pops, and smiles a little, "Tabby's like a sister, I don't have any secrets from her." She then continues, "Doctor Mary Jane Todd? She died ten years ago in a car accident... and her son allegedly committed suicide at West Point, though the body disappeared." She glances at Pops, "But what did he want to know, Pops?"
Tabitha wanders off to the left of the house. Hands in her back pockets as she just meanders until she's out of sight and range of the guy with the Parabolic Mic in the woods. Damn spies. Always being spied upon by other spies. Once she's out of sight/range, she slips into the woods and tries to bring into play all those sneaky skills various former Special Forces operatives know. Most of them she learned by secretly watching them and then practicing them later.
"Yes, that was her name," James says, nodding, recalling it now. "She had this theory about people with genetic gifts. Before Crucible. And General Henry wanted to give her some grant money so that she could follow up on this research of hers. My name was on the list, Jason Wright's name was on the list, and we were called in for consult. Eagle Eye was just a watch dog program, keeping an eye on potentials." James frowns a bit at the news that the Doctor and her son are both dead. "I'm really not sure where you're coming from on this Angel, I haven't even thought about the project in three decades. Mostly it was just asking our opinion on this list the Doctor had come up with, who we felt might be beneficial if they were to be recruited by the Army. We narrowed it down to eight to look at. Two of them were West Point cadets at the time. I signed off on a piece of paper and that was that."
Once she's out of sight, she immediately darts into the woods. Once concealed among the timber, she brings forth some skills that she is pretty sure the girls nor even Odin know about. She's learned from some of the best fighters and killers on the planet and here she proves that some of those skills aren't rusty after all. It takes several minutes but soon she can see the big guy with the surveillance gear. She learned her lesson after the Steamroller incident and has her force field up. It's a slightly weaker field but one that doesn't glow with electrical power either. She readies herself to hopefully incapacitate this guy.
Stephanie nods slightly, and pulls out some notes from her portfolio, "I've got a few names here, pops..." She sounds a bit more businesslike, "Well, these might be familiar... I highlighted the names." Her eyes flicker over towards James, "I just want to see if these names match up with what you remember signing off on." Sure enough, she's got a copy of the document, as well as the report of the helicopter crash.
"Our signing kept our families names off the list," James says, "two of the 'consultants', which is what we were more or less, actually chose to put their families on the list. That was their decision. As I said, we narrowed it down to eight." He takes the documents from his great-granddaughter, noting her business like approach now and adopts his own degree of formality. A finger rubs along the bridge of his nose as he scans the page... and then the newsp article. Surprise causes a widening of his eyes and he looks at Stephanie, "I should have been following up on this. These names from the crash? Those are the very people we discussed in 1980. Kyle Faison." James taps the paper, "His grandfather was in the Air Force, had a knack for fixing machines. You'd think all he had to do was touch one with his pinky finger and what was broken was fixed. Kyle was just born earlier that year and Joseph put him on the list... and I guess they eventually recruited him, as well as the others. Angel, what does this have to do with your friend? And how can I help you?"
Tabitha is a ghost as far as this guy is concerned or he's -really- focused on what's being said on the porch. Tabitha thinks of -several- moves that could take this guy down and put him down HARD and possibly permanently but she rejects each one just as quickly. She decides that perhaps a Stun Gun might be more effective so she reaches out from her -crouched- position behind the guy and grabs a hunk of left butt cheek. Not quite as tight and hard as Ryan's but it sure does flex alot when she dumps 249,999 volts into the meaty buttock at reasonably low amperage. She doesn't want to kill the dude, just knock him out. The guy can't even yelp at this point as he drops his equipment on the leafy detritus and is forced to hug the tree or fall down among the equipment. Tabby frowns and thinks . o O (Damn, he's tougher than I thought, cute too! Why is it the bad guys have to be so damn Hot!?)
Stephanie looks at her great-granddad, "Pops, this is Major, well, General now, General Mallory's son, Hayden. He's a friend of mine... he's actually a big part of the reason I've been as successful as I have been." She smiles a little, "Tabby too, actually. We call ourselves the 'Guardians'." Her businesslike attitude drops, as she just can't keep it that long, not with her dad. "But I suspect two of them in there, Amanda Flexon, and possibly this Rafael Spahr, took him to blackmail his father."
That didn't work so good but it's definitely gonna attract attention from the Porch. Tabitha is mostly interested in the equipment but the guy's a bonus if she can take him down. This time she envelops her right fist in crackling electricity and pitches it at the guy. She really needs to work on her fastball. It breaks to the left instead and out through an opening in the brush to blow a crater the size of a motorcycle in the back lawn. No way they can miss that and Steph would recognize one of Surge's blasts. Though she'd also recognize the fact that it's -only- a motorcycle-sized crater. It coulda been -alot- bigger. The guy flinches from the blast and his eyes widen as he realizes what she could have done to him.
"The only ones I know anything about are Mallory and Spahr," James says, "The rest of them were kids. Infants or toddlers when Eagle Eye started following them." The man gets up, setting his drink back on the tray. As he moves from the rocker, the chair rolls back and forth on the porch. "What I /can/ do for you is try to get you a little more information on them, hmm?" His eyes soften and a proud sparkle is there. He reaches over to pat Stephanie's cheek, smiling, "The 'Guardians', hmm? Sounds like a good fit for my little Angel."
And then there's that motercycle-sized crater appearing on his lawn and James Bradley's jaw drops. He's moving to the steps of the porch to push open the screen door, "...the hell?"
The guy, who also happens to be dressed in camoflage pushes off away from the tree and raises both hands in Tabitha's direction. He saw the hole she left in the ground, and that could've been him. Golden-brown eyes narrow and his hands appear to form ice-crystals on their palms as a blast of icy-cold air is sent at the young woman. His ass is still stinging from the shock she gave him, but he thinks she needs to cool down! "Compromised," he shouts into his collar, "I repeat, compromised. Abort. Request evac."
Stephanie shouts, "Pops, stay down!" She bolts around to see the guy in question, her shield coming out of her portfolio. Twirling around, she lobs the shield at his head, stunning him as she shouts, "No lemonade for YOU!" Catching the shield on the return, she looks at James, "I think you might need to come visit for a few days, Pops."
James ducks as his granddaughter acts and looks up at her with a surprised nod, "I should call Andrea and Harry to tell them the cookout is off."
The ice-spy staggers on his feet as that shield strikes him and he finds himself steadying on a tree, yet again as he tries to shake through the effects of it.
There is a *POP* sound and the rotten egg smell of sulphur as a woman appears just beside the staggering man. Auburn hair, roughly 5'6" in height and blue eyes, she assesses the situation and doesn't like their odds.
Stephanie blinks, "Specialist O'Shay? Well, isn't this a surprise..." She charges in, her shield leading as she shouts, "You don't mess with my family. EVER!" The surprised redhead blinks and ducks, only to have the leading shield cracking into the tree with an audibly sharp noise, bark splintering as the force of the shot could have likely given the redhead a concussion. If she were lucky!
Tabitha shakes off the bitter cold and frost. She really wasn't expecting that. Especially -through- her field! She brings her hands together with a clapping noise and then when she pulls them apart, there's a building ball of electricity being magnetically contained. She growls lowly and says "Frosty wants to play rough, eh? Fine. How about you see what a tree in a storm feels like!" She releases the blast of electricity and it impacts Ice-Spy so hard that the current frys entire sections of his camo clothing black and blasts the bark off a body-sized section of that tree he's leaning against!
"Fuck!" O'Shay yelps as she latches her arms onto a tree to get out of the way. She watches in shock as her ice-weilding companion jerks with electricity and drops to the ground in an unconcious, and smoking, heap. She gapes at the cracked tree and at the two women who her companion was up against. And by proxy whom /she/ is now up against. "Stupid fucking asshole," she growls at the man as she drops to the ground and grabs hold of his leg. There is another *POP* sound, accompanied by sulphurous odors and a little green mist, and the two vanish from sight.
