"Good", Light replied curtly. He walked her and Alpha down to the garage downstairs. Alpha was a little tense, sensing Ai's apprehension but happy to be out of the glass cage for a while, unaware he was only exchanging one cage for another.

The van was parked with its rear against a cargo entrance so Alpha could climb in the back without being seen by anyone outside. Ai and mister Light walked outside.
"Hello Vadim, thanks for the speedy arrival. We'll have to talk more after this affair. Ai can explain what is going on as you head out to meet the others".
He opened the door for Ai to get in:"safe travels".

He headed back in.

Closing his pocket-watch Vadim subconsciously tightened his tie.  Looking up in the mirror he noted his short brown hair was slightly tousled.  His light blue eyes were covered by a pair of contacts if someone looked close enough and his face bore the appearance of a very slight stubble.  That said it seemed that it was all part of his proper appearance and when one was fortunate enough to consult Tanaka, Florian and Chen no matter what it might be it looked fantastic.  As Light and Ai approached he coughed a few times and removed a handkerchief to put to his mouth.  After a few moments he wiped his mouth and put the handkerchief away.

He turned when Light addressed him and he nodded, "It's one of my specialties and that's why I'm here." looking over to Ai for a moment before looking to Light he added, "I'm looking forward to it."  As Light walked away he held out a hand for Ai to take and help her into the van so she could get situated and he could start driving to where their destination would be.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:52, Wed 08 June 2016.

The van shifted as Alpha stepped in, the six foot creature bending to fully step inside. Once the back was closed, Ai headed towards the front, quiet as Mr. Light spoke to the transporter. The young teen gave a nod, accepting Vadim's hand as she got inside, taking her seat. "I'm Ai, I guess you could say I'm the medic. In the back is Al, my, um.. brother." She reasoned.

"the team was looking into the massacre of the previous team, looking into the office they used as headquarters." She explained as she pulled up the address for him on her tablet.

 "So, um.. your name is.. Vadim, yeah?"

Vadim looked to be in his mid-twenties give or take now that she was closer to him but still looked like he'd had it rough on his body at some point in time in his past, "It is." He put the van into gear and after looking at the address he started to head off to where she needed him to take her and then further remarked, "Massacred huh?  At their headquarters or elsewhere?"

As the vehicle smoothly transitioned lanes he added, "Do you prefer English or Japanese Ai?"

 Though she glanced over Vadim quickly as the van started to move, Ai tried her best not to stare. Her hands pressed firmly against her lap, she looked a little tense. As he asked, she turned her head to him, a bit surprised. "E-either is fine. My fa-" She stopped herself, hesitating for a moment. "My creator spoke a lot of Japanese to me when I was little, but everyone at Control speaks English." She admitted before her gaze moved back to her hands.

"So, you speak both, I'm guessing?"

He listened to her response and grinned when she stared a bit, "It is the States so it makes sense that Central would speak English after all..."

The more he spoke the more she could detect a slight accent in his speech, subtle but there as if his name didn't give a hint, but it was his roguish appearance that also stuck out.  For a  transportation specialist his was remarkably good looking, "Both and more but I was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  If you ever have the desire I know how it feels good to speak the mother tongue."

He spun the wheel casually and the van continued on it's way after another turn effortlessly, "First time out?  Or first time out with big brother back there?"

"Both,in a way."She admitted. "Ever since we were brought in, Control thought it best to keep him contained, since he's..one of them,a deviant." She reasoned softly. " Even though he was made by a Genegineer."

 Ai hesitated a bit once more."I've.. heard some say the same thing about me too."

 "Even so, given what the team has gone through, and the fact that the deviant they're dealing with is possibly still about, having back-up is ideal."

That made Vadim quirk an eyebrow, "Well you're okay in my book if you can patch me up when I nee..." his sentence cut short by a series of coughs that made him bring out the handkerchief again to put to his lips.

Patting his lips when the coughing subsided he licked them to re-wet them and put away the handkerchief in his inner pocket. "Pardon that.  Had something when I was younger on the streets that never quite went away.  Won't affect my work here though..." and he waved his hand at the obvious question, "...and no there is nothing you can do.  Part of my base pairs worn down by that incident that'll take a lot of invasive procedures and recuperation time or a long slow process that I've been doing...or so my docs have told me."

As he coughed, she tensed, about to suggest help with it before he cut her off. Her gaze moved back to her hands. "Oh..I..sorry. I.. wish I could help." She said softly.

"Don't worry, I intend to be available to patch you or anyone else up. I know I'm probably a bit, erm.. shorter than you'd expect for a field technician, but I won't fail you." She said, though her eyes never quite moved from her hands. The way she sat, head somewhat bowed as her eyes remained downward seemed almost fearful, and yet aside from slight nervousness, Ai didn't look scared. It was almost as if this were the default sitting position she was used to.

Vadim's eyebrows scrunched down for a moment as he looked over to her with an amused smile, "How tall you are has nothing to do with how able you are in the field and in some ways it will make you superior to other more standard height agents.  You can go into areas to help that others would have to use complex Data coding to get to...all cause they are my height instead of yours..."

He nodded his head, "Perhaps you can help in the long run by looking at some of the damage and suggesting additional therapy routines, but we can always touch on that later."


---
OOC: We can get there as fast or slow as you like Storyteller, I'm just taking the time to meet Ai :)

In the back Alpha stirred. Having no tv to watch and no windows to look out of Ai felt a mix of anticipation and boredom from the creature that was bonded to her.

(i'll let you know when you're there, i want to give the others a chance to act in the aftermath of the explosion and this is a nice way to introduce your character :))
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:57, Fri 10 June 2016.

 As Vadim spoke about her height having nothing to do with her ability, she smiled softly. Ai figured he didn't quite get what she had meant when she had said that, but his kindness was appreciated all the same. Growing up among other clones among the Progenitors, she had learned how certain words were used in exchange for others in order to avoid "complications." Such as when one of her superiors had told her that she couldn't access certain parts of the lab, orwork on certain projects because she was "too short," instead of what he actually meant to say was "too young." Of course, that really wasn't entirely accurate either. There were clones technically only a few years old or even a few months old that appearance-wise looked far older than herself, and they were allowed to access such things. Her superiors only used it as a reason because none of them really wanted to say "having a child working in a lab alongside young and middle-aged adults is an insult to the others, since none of them consider themselves babysitters."

 She gave a nod, already thinking of possibilities. "One of the cadavers that I examined had an implant that gathered information. Maybe I could alter it and we could.. use it to better monitor your problem, so we can plan a faster treatment method." She offered.

 owever, just as she spoke, she tensed, fingers tapping slightly, as if suddenly she were anxious. "He's.. getting anxious. My superiors have demanded he be kept.. well, they call it pacified. It mostly is just to keep him distracted,trance-like. I..I don't really like it, makes me worried that when he's out like this, the lack of mental stimulation will be stressful." She explained. "They do it because they're afraid,I think. When the agents found us,I remember I was scared,I didn't know at the time who they were. I hid by Al's room, the glass one, and when one of the men came in, wearing a full suit and grabbed me, and... Al broke the glass, and the glass.. flew at him. Al struggled the whole time, he didn't understand, neither of us did. The agents were afraid of him. Then they brought us in, and the lab techs tried to.. Al knew what they were doing, and he made them stop. He's been pacified ever since.I think the only reason they let me take care of him is because they want to pretend he doesn't exist..like they do to me too sometimes."

She then looked up and smiled softly. "It's ok though. I'll.. I'll tell him we'll be there soon. I'm.. I'm sure he's just really excited. We're both real agents now, it's..it's scary, but exciting." She reasonedas she tried to remain calm,and relaxed, trying her best to soothe the creature's worries.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:56, Fri 10 June 2016.

Vadim nodded his head in regards to the implant, "If I'm going to be assigned more permanently to this unit, certainly.  If everyone is going to be in the field regularly in some fashion having something like that in everyone would be advantageous not only for health reasons but also on an operational level to remotely track them should extractions or reinforcements are needed on a moments notice without breaking potential cover."

Glancing at her pad he then listened to some of the background not only on the passenger in the back, Alpha, but also her own.  So she was created by a talented scientist, a genengineer, but who they were affiliated with was now the question and how far on the edge they were.  If Control had determined that even as a deviant that Alpha could be kept he wasn't that far off the baseline and that made him wonder even further.  Regardless he added, "Perhaps some VR implants should be requisitioned.  If they want him...pacified...why not give him a means to stay stimulated in a completely controlled environment?  The world may be faux but even if he knows that it's all in his head he can be kept in top mental condition in there while physically his body can be kept in top condition out here for needs like this."

 She nodded. "I'll get to work on it after this. Even if you don't end up with this amalgam, it could be a very useful augmentation for anyone in the field."

 The talk of pacifying seemed to cause Ai to shrug. She clearly didn't like the notion of it in any capacity.

 "While great in theory, the problem is that on the field, he needs to be focused. Remote pacifying would be more risky, and I honestly don't think he needs to be pacified at all. Control only requires it because Alpha is considered a "dangerous deviant with unknown potential created by a questionable scientist," and because no one can communicate with him like I can." She explained before she hesitated, giving a shrug. "I.. I think it it's because we were made the same, at the same time."

Vadim shrugged his shoulders, "All I was suggesting was a way to pacify Control because they aren't in the field.  They have the best interests of everyone in mind but tend to frame things like Scotty used to on the old Star Trek show that was on in the 60's.  He knew  exactly how long or hard it was going to be to do or fix something and then tripled it.  So Control knows the acceptable risk and lowers the bar 66% so that when agents inevitably go over the line it's still within acceptable parameters to those with more accurate data.  Can't tell you how many times my Syndicate superiors have done that when it comes to Currency."

He brought his hand to his lips again and coughed into it as if second guessing Control had caused whatever was wrong with him to flare up again.  Swallowing a few times he shook his head, "Family...is important."

 Though she listened, Ai gave a weak nod. "I know why Control made the choice. It is for the safety of others. It's just.. difficult." She admitted.

 "Do you have a family?" She asked.

"I...did.  A long time ago." he looked over at Ai to get a rough gauge at how old she appeared to be before coming to a conclusion.

"I must have been about six or seven when...well when I no longer had them influencing me and I was on my own."

 Ai was certainly young, clearly not a very old teen, probably somewhere in the 13-15 age range. She listened to him speak, and he noticed her lips tighten slightly before she gave a nod. "I was five when the agents came." She explained. "They never quite told me what happened, to my.. father. I never saw him again. I.. I imagine he got sent in for re-evaluation, but... I don't know if he was transferred elsewhere, or.. something else."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:27, Sun 12 June 2016.

"You still have your brother though, even if Control has decided he needs to be diminished to stay alive and with you." remarked Vadim though his tone spoke of a strange aspect of hope for Ai rather than bitterness over not having one of his own.

He bridged away from family though and back to Ai as he continues, "So you've always, more or less, been under Control's purview and haven't been to the outside world much?"

 She gave a light nod at his assessment. "Yep. I.. I really want to keep it that way."

 As he moved on from the subject of families, she didn't seem particularly bothered, it seemed a bit of a sore subject for them both. "Well, before then, I mostly remember being at home. I mean, I have an apartment now, Control provides it. I haven't really had much of a need to go anywhere else, so I really haven't."

"Control provides." intoned Vadim with a little bit of an upturn of the corner of his lips in amusement.

"Though as much as I appreciate their attention to our needs once I've spent enough time here in LA I will need to acquire remote housing so that I can tend to wants as well as grow the local Currency and advance the Value."

Traffic was getting jammed as the van neared the disaster site, being rerouted away or simply getting jammed by traffic lights failing. It was starting to get difficult finding a way around.

"It's time for Control to provide..." remarked Vadim with a small chuckle.  Bringing one hand off the wheel he tapped his temple twice and narrowed his eyes to attenuate the sensors in his contacts and activate it's remote connection to the Eye in the Sky.  There may be re-routes and power fluctuations but they would feed that data to him to give him a slightly better route for them to slip on past the traffic jam and use the pathways available to themselves.

Vadim ignored the traffic lights, drove past a traffic controller who tried to wave him back and drove the leftlane, swerving to avoid oncoming cars, at one time driving over the pavement for a bit, past an ambulance that made use of the path Vadim provided to follow. traffic thinned out and fewwer people were met on the pavement. Without incident the van came upon the urban battlezone. Rubble and dust, smoke and fire. The remains of a concrete tower lay scattered across the street and a haze of dust and smoke covered the scene. The ambulance came to a halt behind the van.

Ai recognized Richard speaking with some bystanders on the edge of the disaster zone.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:23, Mon 13 June 2016.

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