Players:
Summary: Meeting Kai at a neutral location, Jill asks for his help against the Church of Humanity. Therein follows a discussion of how to deal with them without becoming like them.
Date: October 19, 2012
Log Title: At What Price
Rating: PG
Forest Hills High School
Darkness is falling over Forest Hills High School in Queens, the sky a brilliant burnt orange and pink in the last fleeting moments of daylight. On the roof high above sits a girl, legs dangling over the edge and toying with her phone. Jill did not find it nearly as hard to get onto the school's grounds as she did the last time she was hear. Flying tends to negate a lot of security measures. Though she didn't give him much in the way of warning time, she still hopes Kai got her text message and will be able to make it. Finding ways to pass the time is beginning to have a different tone in her mind, given that she could be technically capable of living forever.
Jill's vampire hearing will probably pick up the sound of footsteps on the rooftop behind her, having got the text Kai has ditched to separate handlers to make this meeting without being followed. Dressed in grey jeans, a dark blue hoodie and a black peaked beanie he walks towards the girl on the roof, "Of all the places you could've chosen, you chose here?"
Jill turns slightly in her roof's edge seat, red eyes standing out like burning coals against the rapidly darkening backdrop of the city. She shrugs apologetically, standing to greet Kai properly. She seems embarrassed, clasping her phone against her stomach with both hands. "I just… didn't know where else," she offers sheepishly, brushing off the seat of her jeans. She has on a dark grey knitted sweater with a hood dangling down across her shoulders. "Sorry…"
Kai pretty much polar opposite ice-blue eyes regard the vampire girl for a moment before walking over and sitting down next to her, "Don't worry about it, this place just sort of feels like a ghost of a place, you know?", he looks over at the sunset, "So Jill, what has you contacting me after all this time?"
"I know, I just didn't wanna… go anywhere too close to home, or with too many people right now," Jill needlessly explains further. She squats down, hugging her knees up to her chin. "Well first of all, I'm sorry I haven't called you in a while. I was off doing, like… studying. Self-discovery, that kinda thing. A couple of months out in this tiny little shack in the mountains with this martial arts master kinda guy." She pauses, licks her lips. "It's a long story, but when I got back, all this stuff… this stuff happened and I feel like I'm responsible. Y'know, 'cause I wasn't there."
Kai nods, "I understand, I've had to do a lot of learning about who I am as well, you figure out who the new Jill is?", he smiles, "Martial Arts master? wonder if you'd be able to keep up with me now?". He looks away from the sun to look at Jill, "Ok, but what does the stuff that’s happened have to do with me?, I figured you wanted something?"
"Well I didn't really do it just to learn martial arts, it was just this guy who wasn't freaked out by supernatural stuff and just had a *ton* of patience. Most of the time." Jill's face gets a vague grimace on it, but she soldiers on bravely. "Well, I did just wanna talk to you 'cause it's been a while but I do kinda want something, yeah, but I didn't want it to *just* be that 'cause it seems kind of rude to call somebody up after a few months and suddenly ask for a favor but…" Her train of protest loses steam quickly. "But that's kinda why I called you, yeah," she admits with a downcast look.
Kai chuckles, "Jill it's fine if you want something from me, I like being asked to do things, it gives me something to focus on, SHIELD has me training but I don't think they trust me enough to do much". He frowns looking away for a moment, "what’s the situation?"
The vampire girl takes a deep breath, chewing on her lower lip as she shuffles her thoughts in order. "You know… the whole anti-mutant thing going on right now?" she asks leadingly. This moves into a brief rundown of the Church of Humanity, their repeated attacks and assaults on mutants, how the police seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it, and finally leading into the kidnapping of several students. Jill becomes increasingly upset as the story unfolds, squeezing her upraised legs against her torso. "So… so I'm working with some people to do our own detective work and stuff. People I know with… with various talents." Her eyes turn slowly to Kai's, wordlessly pleading. "And I thought about you. You're really smart and, don't take this the wrong way, but really… sneaky too."
Kai listens as Jill explains the situation and about the church of humanity, "What you're saying is that you need a spy", he sighs, "SHIELD's official stance is that we are not to get involved and I'm in the custody of SHIELD and I have to follow their orders". He crosses his legs, "Then again, one of the things I learnt when HYDRA sent me to New York is that I'm not always one to follow the rules".
"Yeah, I kind of need a spy," admits Jill in a whisper. "But I don't want you to get in trouble or anything. It's just, y'know… the normal way I'd handle this, by callin' the police or whatever, it just… it's not working and we kinda need to go outside the usual… system… thing." The girl wrings her hands, visibly nervous about the whole operation. And yet she's still here, still asking. "I wouldn't ask if it wasn't SUPER important, y'know?"
Kai nods at Jill, "Well that’s handy then 'cause that's exactly my skillset, what's the plan?, needing a spy can mean a lot of different things". "We talking surveillance? gathering information? And who else are you bringing in on this? you mentioned others".
"Well… we don't even know where they are, or where their leader guy is. Reverend Something. So, like, any information would be better than what we have now." The blonde vampire looks relieved and yet even *more* worried at Kai's agreement. She relaxes the tight grip and lets one leg dangle over the side of the school building, apparently not as afraid of heights as she once was. "Well, there's Nigel, another student from the school. We're kind of… we're not getting a lot of people involved, 'cause the bad guys have these dart guns that make mutant powers not work. But Nigel's immune to it, and so am I 'cause I'm not a mutant anymore. And I have another friend who's kind of… like a magician. Sorceress would be a better word. It's a really, really weird group."
Kai nods, "I'm not a mutant either so I should be good too, even if I lose my cryokinesis I'm still not baseline", he shrugs, "Also I think the ice is becoming more of a part of me too". He hmms, "If you can get me the name of this Reverend I can look into finding out more about him and try to find out where his activities could be based, I would consider infiltrating the group but I'm not sure if it would work under the circumstances".
"I really wouldn't want you to do that, either. You gotta understand, these are some serious people. They have, like, guns from the future or something, and can, like, teleport people. It's WAY messed up." Jill looks down at her phone, scrolling through some notes. "Reverend Stryker's his name," she reads. "And they're not just like a militant wingnut group, they've got some power in the media, maybe even in the government. This is super serious stuff. You gotta understand. It could be dangerous."
"Jill, I get serious. Grew up in an evil terrorist base remember?", Kai stands up and steps off the roof to stand on a shelf of ice in front of Jill, "Advanced doesn't mean from the future, you'd be surprised if you saw some of the tech that exists that the public doesn't know about". "Also I wasn't considering the safety, you can't infiltrate because you have no pulse, dead giveaway, neither can your mutant, possibly the sorceress and I would but my humanity is more easily called into question right now".
"I.. I kinda knew that about you, yeah." Jill squirms uncomfortably for a moment. "I'm *not* asking you to infiltrate them, that's way too dangerous. But, like, you know how to find people, right? You found me, after all. Like a data trail or a homing device or something from CSI, I dunno." Hesitantly at first, she steps out into the open air with Kai, nothing beneath her sneakers. Just floating there with him. "Listen, they took people I care about and even if-" Her voice chokes up but she tries to continue, voice thick. "Even if they're… dead, we have to know. *I* have to know. And put a stop it."
"I'm happy to do what you need to find your friends but I do have one question, what are the X-Men doing?", Kai would've figured that as it's their students that are missing that the X-Men would be doing enough that Jill wouldn't have to.
Jill edges back onto the roof, apparently not willing to test her defiance of gravity any longer than strictly necessary. She brushes back strands of blonde hair from her face and tucks them behind an ear. "I don't know. I honestly don't. Miss Frost, the headmistress, is all tied up in this stupid legal battle, and we're just all supposed to keep going to class and doing our daily stuff while all THIS is going on and-" Working herself up into a fit, Jill sucks in her lower lip and bites down on it. "And this is exactly what Nick must have gone through when I got kidnapped. And when I disappeared to go learn how to balance on wooden posts and shit." She turns away, drawing the back of one hand across her eyes. "And I hate it."
Kai is now uncomfortable, he's still not great with people, and he's starting to panic, "Please don't do that, you're going to cry and I don't like it", he starts pacing on the small self of ice he's formed, finding it hard to focus back on what they were discussing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Jill waves her hands like a baby bird first trying to fly. A sniff, a few deep breaths. "Sorry," she says yet again, now more in control but obviously still emotional. "It's all just really… really upsetting, y'know? That this kinda stuff can happen and nobody's doing anything about it! And I'm just- I don't know what to do. What am I supposed to do?"
"I still don't know what to do when people are feeling things, I don't enjoy it", Kai may be very clever and HYDRA may have taught him enough to blend into society, it's this lack of social skill that shows where their mistakes were, "You… you… have to stop. Focus on the mission, no feeling".
The young vampire wipes her nose, but not on the sleeve of her sweater. Because that would be gross. "Sorry. Right. Focus on… stuff. Sorry." Jill makes a few attempts to restart the conversation, clearing her throat. "Okay, so, like… We need to, um, find out where they're taking people, find out where this leader reverend guy is and what his deal is, and, um, I guess like why they're doing it. It all just popped outta nowhere, but something like this, something this big, doesn't just start overnight. There's gotta be, like, a paper trail, I guess."
Kai nods, back in business mode has him much calmer, "We could do some detective work and look for paper trails, or we could find one of these 'Purifiers' and make him lead us to a trail so to speak", there has to be some sort of system where big groups like these share information.
Jill fidgets, unsure of what to do with her hands. "Yeah, maybe, somethin' like that. I mean, I've read every Sherlock Holmes story ever written, but it's not really the same. I don't even know where to start, y'know? Do we like grab somebody off the street and be all 'good cop, bad cop' on them or something?"
Kai chuckles darkly, "Needing a good cop implies you're going to get the information out of them willingly", he looks at Jill, "These groups have been around a lot recently trying to stir up further trouble to form more support for the mutant registration act, shouldn't be to difficult to grab someone".
This is clearly leading into a moral grey area that Jill is a bit uncomfortable with. She avoids eye contact. "I don't… I don't know, Kai. Like, interrogation? Sure, but… I mean, forcing somebody… wouldn't that involve like torture?"
Kai notices Jill's change in attitude, he reaches out to put a hand on her shoulder, "Jill, I know you don't want to hear it but that's exactly what these kind of people will be doing to your friends, these are in no way innocents". He sighs, "I think this is the best way to do this but if you can't face it we can find something else".
The vampire girl exhales a breath at the touch but doesn't shy away from it. "But just because they're doing it doesn't mean it's okay for us to do it too. It makes us as bad as them. Worse, even, because they've dragged us down to their level. Y'see what I mean?" She fixes sad eyes on Kai. It's apparent that the decision is not a light one, nor is it an easy one. "Then, like, if they kill someone, do we do *that* too?"
Kai sits down again next to Jill, "This is just how I was taught to get information, this kind of thing is never solved without anyone getting hurt but I won't do anything like that without your say-so", he's impressed at Jill's morality with the life of blood she now lives in.
Jill laces her fingers and squeezes her hands between her knees fretfully. She kicks her feet as they dangle over the building's edge, heels bumping on the brick wall of the school. "Look, I know this isn't just a straight up black-and-white thing. I'm not even sayin' that I think there won't be people gettin' hurt. If we find my friends, these people aren't just going to let us take them." She exhales again and looks down toward the ground. "I won't lie. Just thinkin' about it all makes me really mad, and scared, and I want to punish the people who did it."
"Jill, wanting to fight for your friends and punish those who have harmed them doesn't make you a bad person, I know bad and you're not it", Kai looks back at the sky, "The world is very much grey, all you can do is work towards what you think is right".
Leaning over, Jill pats Kai gently on his back. "That's nice of you to say. I mean I'll still worry about it, but thank you." She follows his gaze up to the night sky, light pollution from the city tinting it slightly pink around the fewer, brighter stars that are visible. "It's just, like… how did it come to this? What are we supposed to do? I don't know," she admits to both questions. "That's why I need you."
Kai nods, "Well SHIELD or not I'm in, I'll do what I can", he smiles at the vampire girl, "If you try not to cry in front of me, I'll try to stay out of XIII mode", he holds out a hand to shake on the alliance, "You'll find your friends".
"Thanks, Kai. I promise I'll try to keep it in check." Jill smiles broadly, elongated canine teeth glinting white. She takes the offered hand and shakes. "And yeah, I know we will." And she desperately, passionately hopes that it won't be too late.
