Who: Petros Argyropoulos [AZRAEL] & Ben Harper [SONIC] Where: Training room and outside it. When: Post-training, today! What: Discussing APEX and speculating on what's to come. Warnings: None I can think of.
For every team, there was the sadistic day that came around once a week. On this auspicious occasion, said team would bust themselves all day in training then go on call at midnight and deal with the night people for eight hours. He'd complain more, but his irritation was currently ebbed by the shittiness that was APEX deciding to screw with people on a monthly basis. He'd prefer not to deal with them half asleep, but he was relatively sure if he was in a possibly-probably-might-die situation, adrenalin would take care of it. Plus the caffeine.
Since it was the dreaded Tuesday, he finished off training with a serious desire to caffeinate. His power was distancing so it wasn't that common for him to get up close and personal, but he had to move a lot to change his power wave centre and that took up a lot of energy. They'd been in with Green today. Good people, their occasionally whackjob Golf aside. Snapping back out of the post training, pre-coffee mind wander, he spotted Azrael (and he knew his name, he did, it’s just that you get so used to calling code names in field and they weren’t close or anything so he took to remembering people by code names half the time) and remembered a couple of weeks back that he’d finished their job with APEX agent. He’d meant to say something the week before, but he had still been going over his own performance and being self indulgent.
“Hey man,” Ben called, tone bright. “Awesome job on the Big Not-So-Friendly Giant. People’ve been wondering about Shade for ages.”
"Hey, thanks," Argo returned the greeting with a nod and a raised hand, safely gloved. For all he wished that he and Alisha had been able to get more out of the purple guy -- or rather, Jameson Todd Richardson, Jr. -- his mama had taught him better than to reject the compliment.
"Could say the same right back to you," he added. Though Alisha publicly claimed credit for cuffing the perp, Argo had read her report and understood Ben's part in it. "Nice job on the arrest."
"Alisha did the heavy hitting," Ben said, before breaking into smirk at his own pun. He was not going to be a total loser and laugh at his own joke, especially in front of a non-dork. Or what he figure was a non-dork. There was something to not judging someone for their appearances, but he had to admit that there was definitely a correlating Look to Argo that did not scream playing Mario Kart till 2am. Maybe Red Dead Redemption.
"Besides, the whole thing felt like a wild goose chase so getting something out of that is y'know," he made a vague flapping motion, which was apparently Ben-speak for 'pretty awesome, actually.' “With all the crazy going on, having solid answers to something is a start, right?” They didn’t even have solid answers about whether one of their operatives had been a traitor at this point, so he was damn thankful for small mercies.
"Solid-ish," Argo corrected (sorry, Mama Argyropoulos), sounding a bit testier than he intended. He couldn't fault Ben for being happy that they had a place to start, but Argo's competitive streak kept him from feeling satisfaction in it when he believed he could have done better. He dabbed at his temple with the microfiber rag he used in lieu of a cotton towel. Training, at least, was going alright.
"We have a confirmed member. He's cuckoo for crazy, but still an actual member?" Ben's shoulders dropped, but his attitude didn't so much deflate as level out to normal. There had been good information and it always sucked to see someone just not psyched about that. I mean, it was hard to be psyched with the whole 'evil apex infiltration' but this was a first step. A direction. "We got some info on how they function, we got an idea of where they're recruiting and we have a future lead on the actions of their destructo-squad. And that's just round one.” he sighed, and tried to restrain the urge to say a cliche about celebrating your wins. “Anything that helps us out there, it's a win, man. That's solid enough for me."
"Alright, I'll take it," Argo said, shrugging. If Ben was more optimistic than him, he wasn't going to press the issue. "One of the things that got me was Shade," he added, as a way of explaining himself. "Not that she and Zenith are fucking, but what it is she does. Seems weird that nobody in the organization even knows her power. Did Alisha ever tell you Montagne's -- Richardson's theory?"
Ben shook his head. She hadn’t. It wasn’t really like they had a Sharing and Caring kind of relationship, no matter how fond of each other the team could be. “I’m guessing they don’t have it up front and personal what they do,” he commented, which he had to admit was relatively helpful if you needed to find someone with a specific power. “But no one? I’m guessing Zenith knows, but that’s it? How can you possibly keep that a secret if you’re bringing people in left, right and centre?” Ben shrugged. “Doesn’t make a lick of sense to me, let alone enough to think up a reason.”
"You're damn right, it doesn't." Argo didn't think of it worthy or even useful to keep metahuman powers secret, though no doubt his own, personal experience colored his opinion. "Zenith seems like too much of a control freak to let her get away with not telling him. Richardson suggested maybe she's not even a meta at all, just a human hitching her wagon to what she thinks'll be the winning team. But if there's something you'd think Zenith wouldn't go for…"
A non-meta in APEX? "I don't buy it," Ben said, his forehead crinkling as he tried to figure out what kind of sense that made. "It's more likely to be an invisible ability, something that people can’t physically see happening."
Then an idea occurred to him. "What about a Jedi mind trick?" Ben mused. "This is not the meta you're looking for." That wasn't a bad thought, come to say it. What if she had legilimency? If she was basically playing Lord Voldemort with people's heads, couldn't he manipulate them? Would telepathy come under that? Psycho-something-that-probably-isn't-pathy? It was possible.
"Too much like telepathy." Argo shook his head. "But if telepaths existed, they'd be the best of all of us at hiding, yeah?" Not like him. Back when Petros's powers first appeared, he couldn't have hidden if he'd tried. Still couldn't.
“If they can mess with your mind, how would you know if you saw a telepath?” Ben made a screwed up face, because this was a ridiculous line of thought that would simply give them both headaches. “Was Zenith muggleborn? Maybe she’s a relation, on the off chance she is just a regular human being. Unless her power is ‘normal human being’ mimicry. I just don’t think she’d be non-meta.” It’s not as they were going to solve this standing here and musing on it. “I don’t know, maybe it’s different for you to think about, since you have to take,” he waved his hands over him, “-- Precautions because your power. It’s more dangerous and in your face. I get people not realising I’m doing anything. Hiding is easier than you’d imagine even if she’s not a telepath. People could assume I just have noise cancellation or something.”
Argo let out a bark of laughter. "Ha! Yeah, there's no mistaking what it is I do." He considered what Ben had said for a moment. It'd be different for him if he had any measure of real control over his power, but after years of trying, Argo had long accepted that his power was what it was and couldn't be stifled. He quickly dismissed any pangs of jealousy he might have felt for metahumans who could hide. "Sounds like you've thought about this a lot. You never -- tried that, did you?"
“Hide?” If he was honest, Ben had considered it but that girl, the singing one, she had illustrated why he’d ultimately come down on the idea of hiding meaning possible bad, bad things and it would be better to come somewhere it would be safer. Both for him and everyone else. “Not on purpose? It’s a ‘family business’ thing for you, right? I just didn’t know what was happening at first so it took me a few months to realise it was me and not glitchy electronics or people being weird. If it was happening to me, and I didn’t know exactly what it was or what I could do, I guess it stands to some kind of reason that someone could hide.” There was one major difference though. He was around a non-meta populace. If Shade was keeping it quiet among metas, that would be more impressive. “Though it would be harder if everyone was trying to figure out what you do. Maybe that’s why they have cells, so no one person knows too much.”
"It's not so much 'family business' as 'what are the chances only one in eight kids is gonna be a meta.'" Petros shrugged. Maybe it made the realization of what was happening to him that much quicker, but his powers hadn't left much room for confusion. "No one person except Zenith," he pointed out. The master planner. "But they're real big on secrecy anyway. Most of them would rather die than risk getting captured and giving up information." Or at least, given his arrest track record, it made him feel better to think that APEX was like that.
“There has to a structure though,” Ben reasoned. Though APEX was probably not a lot like juggling siblings, you generally set someone up who knows what they’re doing with those who didn’t. “We go through training and they can fight a good game. There has to be some kind of training regime or something. That’s gonna be the biggest place. And they’d have to keep them motivated during that time because they can’t all die hard fans.” Unless that was some kind of power thing as well. Not everyone had a jelly backbone, but maybe something to enhance the belief. This was getting really frustrating. They really needed more intelligence for this. “So since Zenith was an operative, he can’t be all that scary so he needs something. Best guess: Shade is the something. But middle management have to be reporting to someone...”
Ben rolled his shoulders to try and release some tension. “Every possible answer gives more questions. Kind of makes you wish we had someone in there so we weren’t shooting blind, even if the idea of Stonewall sounds a little far fetched.”
"Doesn't sound so far-fetched to me," Argo said, shrugging one shoulder. Though he was friends with Alisha and Tim, who had mentored Paul Williams through OTP, he identified more with Alisha's cold paranoia than Tim's persistent denial (even as he knew he might personally fall more along the lines of denial if Evelyn Farron ever went rogue). "The kind of guy no one would suspect makes the best double-agent, and they don't act like they're shooting blind." He sighed. "The one hiccup is that he was Facility-born."
“People are usually the last you suspect for a reason,” Ben pointed out, because if they weren’t suspected, it was because they probably weren’t. But he hadn’t known the guy well, he’d known his roommates better, but what would he say if say Max was brought up on rogue charges? Could he honestly say it wouldn’t ever be true? “You’re not suggesting he was recruited here, are you? I kind of figured it for a clandestine bathroom break outside or something.”
"Who knows. It's as likely as anything else," Petros said. It went back to the beginning of their conversation; the more they found out, the more dissatisfied he was with how much left they didn't know. "But APEX would be rude enough to use the next urinal over, yeah?"
Ben snorted. “I swear, this crap is enough to give you a headache.” And if he was going to deaden his brain cells, it would be on alcohol. Or watching his roommates idiotic choice in tv shows. “I think I’m going to go drink my weight in caffeinated beverages.” He took a step back towards the door. “Wish us happy, non-casualty hunting. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
"Hey, man, don't let me keep you." Argo took a step back and gestured vaguely in the direction of the Brewed Awakening (or the elevators, anyway). As much as he wanted his own team to be the one that got lucky, he wouldn't complain if Orange returned from patrol with prisoners in tow. Much. "Knockout'll be insufferable if she gets another arrest, but sure. Here's hoping you get to fight APEX and no one dies."
Putting up his hands, Ben gave an exaggerated grimace: he wasn’t wrong. He really wasn’t in a hurry to end up in a possibly about to die situation or needing to check the doorways being big enough for Alisha’s head if she brought someone else in. “When you put it like that, I’ll hope they’ll wait for you guys. Popcorn giffing it sounds less stressful.”