[PLOT THREAD4.2] DR: Diplomatic Disarray

[Nina]

"Don't be naive Centerpoint, your allegiance was up for questioning the minute you decided to stay in the US. And don't be fooled by the US and our own government, claim we would never use enhanced persons in warfare. All of that is bullshit.

 

The other side is already preparing to use PMD's, as they are calling us now, on the battle field, and you can bet your perfectly formed arse, that our side is doing the same."

 

Sean sensed that maybe she had struck a nerve with Garrick from his sudden display of passion.

 

"Now the US is subtle and downright sneaky, they already have their hooks in you and I imagine it won't take much to reel you in down there. So now your govenment up here is trying to leverage you. I don't have to tell you that you and that girlfriend of yours are two of the most powerful Novas catalogued so far.

 

The powers that be tain't going to let that power go if'in they can help it."

 

[Asarasa]

"It would be best if they did learn to help it," Sean replied, sensual tones laden with Arctic frost. Blue-white stars of quantum fire bloom in her luminous lavender eyes. "And if they, or you, think you have hooks sunk in, you may come to regret it. Something about riding a tiger and the trouble with dismounting." Hands on her hips, the curve of her lips wasn't friendly. "I won't be forced or threatened, Garrick. PMDs or whatever else they may want to consider us, we're still people. Not mere 'resources'."

Garrick's grunt could have meant almost anything, though it sounded doubtful to her.

Whether due to deep-seeded subconscious desires, altered brain chemistry, psychological trauma from her tremendous chrysalis, or something else, Sean had adapted to being a woman nearly instantly. She didn't even considered herself transgendered, not really, and hadn't had the same experiences as the rest of the community. And she did have a perfectly formed arse. And perfectly formed legs, perfectly formed breasts, perfectly formed.... well, everything. It hadn't taken her much longer to take it for granted that almost without exception she was the most gorgeous and alluring in the room.

As for power... Objectively, she knew she had personal power beyond most. She never worried or feared for her safety, despite how provocative she could be. Despite having control over gravity to such an extent that she could threaten a city the size of Chicago, she hadn't really let herself dwell on the idea that she was actually among the highest tier, power-wise, of Novas. And so was her girlfriend.

Sean regarded Garrick with a hint of suspicion. He kept mentioning her girlfriend, but her being gay - or bisexual, in truth - seemed like such a minor thing. And with that outburst, she wondered if Garrick was trying to get a rise out of her, or provoke a particular reaction, so then he, or the government would have an excuse to enact certain measures or the like to gain or force her participation.

But it seemed like a genuine reaction, she had struck a nerve with him. Which begged further questions...

"You know, Garrick, if the Feds really want my help, you aren't coming across as the best person to persuade me. You are quick to lament the lack of patriotic duty among Canadian Novas, but don't seem to have that much yourself. And you are rather... cynical, or perhaps pragmatic is more accurate, about the government trying to leverage my help."

She wasn't as naïve as Garrick claimed. If they wouldn't be used to direct attack, at the very least the Canadian government would want its own Novas for defense. Canada did have its own special forces and intelligence agencies. Just, when members retired, they didn't tend to write memoirs or novels based around their experiences. Very little was known about JTF-2 compared, to say, the Navy Seals. She assumed they had already at least one Nova, beyond presumably Garrick himself, on the payroll.

"Considering you don't even seem to agree with your superiors about why they want me here, why are you, specifically, here? Why are you the one trying to convince me, such as you are, to be 'Auntie Sam' to tell native Novas that 'Canada needs them!'?"

[Nina]

"Hahaha, at least there's a brain hidden in that package. I'm nay here to recruit ye, I'm here to tell you what they want and to tell you what lengths they might go to to make sure yer on the right side.

 

But use that brain darlin, same thing is going to south o'the border. haha, they are just better at it."

 

He picks up the 'cone of silence', "Like I said I don't need you, the government will get what they want with or without you. They already have their hooks in me and they have plenty of line left fer the others.

 

Them's might be the ones needing you." He turned the device off. "That is the facts of the matter at hand Ms. Cassidy. Now I'll leave you to go home or maybe visit yer folks since yer in the country. Think about what I said. you can let Franks know when you come to a decision. Just don't let it percolate too long."

 

Spoiler

if sean doesnt stop him he will leave the office at this point

 

 

[Asarasa]

Sean arched a nonplussed brow at Garrick. It wasn't the first time she'd been called, or alluded to being, a bimbo or Barbie nova. She found it more amusing, maybe exasperating, than anything else. She was a overly sexualized, exaggeration of a woman. They didn't know her, not really. But no one had ever actually done it to her face.

She gave him a nod both gracious and wry as she held out a hand, palm upward. Her dark raspberry longcoat flew from the back of her chair to her hand. "You have given me more to think on than I had expected, but Mister Franks will get his answer tomorrow."

Garrick nodded then turned towards the door as the intensely attractive, voluptuous superwoman slipped on her coat. He had just reached for the doorknob, when a sleek, long-fingered hand rested gently on his wrist. He looked over to meet meet uncanny lavender eyes that hinted at way more than her innate sensuality and sprightliness suggested, if one made the effort to look.

"I've never been to the Martimes, Garrick," she said. "Perhaps, someday, you'll do me the favour and take me fishing on the ocean?"

"Yah don't strike me as one fer fishin', Ms. Cassidy," Garrick replied with a doubtful look.

Sean smirked winsomely. She gave the 'cone of silence' a pointed glance. "You don't know me as well as you like to think. Now, I'm all for new experiences. But I was thinking about the hooks and fishing lines you mentioned that have you tangled up, that you have tangled up, rather. I can be a good listener, and perhaps another pair of hands can help untangle them some, eh?" 

[Nina]

Garrick looked into those eyes, measured what he saw, "Aye, i'll consider on it. Pr'haps if the weather turns, I'll give ya a call.

 

After all fishin is good for the soul."

 

He opens the door and walks out. Sean can see Franks sitting sullen faced in the waiting area, when Garrick walks by him without acknowledging the bureaucrat, Frames glares at the Nova's retreating back.

 

[Asarasa]

Sean regarded Garrick's retreating back with pursed lips, then watched at Franks watching Garrick. Things were not as pat and friendly as they would want people to believe. She stepped out into the halfway, the click of her heels on the smooth floor making Frank start. He turned his glare from Garrick to Sean, but it wilted instantly into a smile of professional courtesy in the face of her impossible beauty.

"Miss Cassidy-" he said, standing up and unconsciously straightening his tie, but he cut-off at the simple raising of a graceful hand.

"Mister Franks, I'll need a day to ponder my response, if that's possible?" It was phrased as a question, but sensual tones or not, it was clearly a statement.

"Of course. That is more than reasonable and not a problem," Dabney replied with a quick nod, doing his best not to let his eyes linger.

"Excellent. Tomorrow at... ten, say?" Another jerking nod. "I'll see you in your office tomorrow, then. Have a good day, Mister Franks."

With smile she strode past him, pulling her phone from her purse, tapping the screen a few times before holding it to her ear. Dabney couldn't do anything but watch, the sway of hip and breasts, the flowing of glistening rose-gold hair, then length of glorious, stockinged legs. He blinked, realizing too late she was gone with the flash of dawn-coloured light of a closing portal.

~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~

As Sean considered what Franks and the Government wanted, what Garrick said, and what she intended to do, she decided to take a tour of places she had lived. The were all in Ottawa, well, until she'd moved to Chicago. She put on a pair of sunglasses, though it wasn't necessary, Clark Kenting herself. No less ravishing, no less sexual, sensual, she cloaked herself with quantum-infused self-effacement. She wasn't ignored, but people didn't seem to notice her potent presence unless she turned her attention on them.

Her first home, it wasn't in a particularly nice part of the city. She'd only lived there until she was three, maybe four. She only had vague memories of living there, a few more of visiting the area after she'd moved. It hadn't changed much. A second floor walk-up apartment. Even with new siding, the house, the entire street still looked run-down. She warped to the second place she'd lived, but it took a touch of extra effort to make the portal form.

When she stepped through, she understood why. She remembered the park across the street more than the apartment itself. The park was still there, but the playground was different. No longer old grey wood with polished metal slide that had almost burned under the summer sun, and stuck to sweaty skin if your weren't careful, it was now all plastic and primary colours. The old swings were still there. She sat on one, idly swinging with the push of a single foot as she looked across the street.

The three storey apartment building where she'd lived, they'd lived on the top floor, was gone, replaced by row houses all up and down the street. Well maintained, though the carports they all had dated them. All she really remembered was the long hallway to her bedroom she'd run down, despite protests from her parents and the neighbors the floor below. She'd just started school when they moved here. It was only a few blocks away, but she'd gotten lost, once, when the boy her mother paid to walk her home hadn't shown up and she'd thought she'd known the way. She hadn't, not quite, but fortunately, her Kindergarten teacher had been driving past and got her home.

They had moved when her mother had gotten pregnant with her sister. She wasn't quite six yet, and they had ended up living there for over fifteen years. It was subsidized, low-income house. Walking down the cracked sidewalk, she was surprised. The area looked the same, yet, seemed... brighter, cleaner. She'd been happy here, though it hadn't been a good neighborhood. She'd had friends who had been burgled, but she'd never been, and had never felt unsafe here.

The red brick of the houses were the same, but gravel driveways had been paved. Old windows replaced by new. More than a few front yards had had picket fences - she recalled jumping them - most of the time - when playing tag or hide-and-seek, but all the picket fences were gone. So were several of the trees, though the crab apple tree at the end of the block was still there. She smiled wistfully at the boys playing street hockey, at the shout of 'Car!' and the metallic scraping of the nets as they dragged them aside.

She must've let the subtlety of her presence slip because the boys were staring at her in wide-eyed awe, the car and their game forgotten. She chuckled, flashed them a devastating grin, then waved them back to their game of ball hockey. 

"Game on!" She called out before slipping through another portal...

... and stepping onto the porch of her parents' home. She'd lived him for another twelve years before putting a down payment on the first house of her own. She'd had thought she'd been living there for decades longer, but life had taken a very different turn. No regrets yet. She knocked once on the front door, then stepped inside, knowing it would be unlocked, giving the door that little extra force, knowing how it stuck sometimes.

"Heya, mom! Dad!"

Sean had lunch with her parents, tomato soup and grilled cheese. She had a much greater sense of smell and taste now, but her mother's homecooking would always be delicious to her. It was different now, of course. Before, she'd seen her parents several times a week. Her former house wasn't even a ten minute drive away. Since becoming a woman and moving to Chicago, she hadn't seen them in months, though she talked to them at least once a week.

Her father still didn't seem to know what to think about his oldest child and only son transforming in a Nova and a woman who looked half her real age at most, and an entirely too attractive one at that. He tried to pretend nothing had changed, but with only awkward success. She helped him assemble a shelving unit while her mom made lunch. Gravitokinesis made assembling the piece of IKEA furniture a trivial exercise, she didn't even need any tools.

Her mom took her new daughter with more aplomb than her husband, just wanting to know if she was happy. And if she'd met anyone... Sean talked about Brigit, but didn't mention the other women and men she'd slept with. They didn't really need to know she was having so much fun as she was now that she was, perhaps, somewhat of a slut. She might have missed it before, but Sean caught a hint of disappointment in her mother when she found out her growing relationship was with another woman, and that it meant she still was unlikely to have a grandchild.

She got her oldest friends and former gaming group together for dinner and a night of boardgames. It wasn't as awkward as the first time she'd gone back home after her chrysalis, but it was still different. Then, the conflict between who they remembered and who they saw had been drastic, and they hadn't known how to react. Now, they understood the former man and current woman were the same person, but it was still a very different dynamic. She was a Nova. They were not. In just six months, she'd risen well pass middle class, financially. 

And she was very, flagrantly, female. They were still men. Two of them single. Three of them married. One of them gay. One of them she'd slept with. They all tried to pretend it didn't make it difference. But it did. They tried to tease her, she impishly teased them to much greater effect. Different, but friends still, though it would take time to work out a new equilibrium. Living in another city, living an entirely new life, seemed to help them deal with the new her.

She couldn't make promises, but she would do her best to get together with them for a gaming night each month. She had a new life, new friends, but that didn't mean she didn't value what she'd had before the boobs, the looks, and the super powers.

Those connections were important.

~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~+~~

Dabney Franks was pacing in his office, waiting for the page that Centerpoint had entered the building. 9:59am. Despite knowing what she could do, as the time ticked to 10:00am, he still gave a start when the portal spiraled opened and the tall, unmistakable hourglass figure of Sean Cassidy stepped through and reclaimed the seat in front of his desk. She had a donut and cup of coffee from a boutique café in her hands.

She took an indulgent bite of the cream filled donut, them a sip of fragrant coffee as Franks settled in behind his desk.

"Good morning, Miss Cassidy, have you made a decision?" Franks asked, doing his best to keep his voice steady and sure.

"I have." Sean let the silence stretch. Took her time finishing her donut, savouring another sip of coffee. It was a nice blend, with undertones of cacao and berry. "I'll help." The slow curve to one side of her enticing lips didn't but Franks at ease. "And I'm very sure the Canadian Government will do its utmost to show how much they value the service of its very rare and unique citizens."

Having thought it over, Sean agreed with Garrick that regardless of morality and intentions, those hooks would be sunk in. If she could help her fellow novas get the best deal for them and their families in trade for the hooks, she would, as well as do her best to make sure they had a way to get free of those hooks with a minimum of tearing. She'd have to talk with Karen about those deals and what to look for, and what they relent on and where to stand firm.

The important part of Persons of Mass Destruction was Person.

[Nina]

Spoiler

we will close this here... results and consequences will be revealed in the Manifest Destiny story.

 

this thread is locked