[Dominic Weaver]

Surge The best part of “believe” is the “lie”. + Will Chase

Dominic felt an emotion he rarely felt. It had become more common in recent times, the pressures of his new job were a lot higher than his last, and while he thrived on them, it didn't change the fact that he held the lives of thousands in his hands. Perhaps not directly, but a lot of the positive attitude and views towards metas was currently thanks to the Hero program and the various campaigns he was running. Still, a misstep on his part could lead to active discrimination against thousands of people, so a little nervousness was perhaps forgivable. He had just arrived for his meeting with Dr Joyce Williams, the woman in charge of the MNRU. She was currently amongst the small group that the government regard as experts on metahumans. This was to say she understood a fraction more about them than the general population. Just how much could they be expected to learn in the short space of time since the Event? It didn't help that virtually no metahumans displayed the same power. There were similarities sure, but there were always differences somewhere. It had made it nearly impossible to categorise metahumans, and the closest they had right now was to simply categorise them roughly based on the effect of their abilities, rather than the abilities themselves. Will was to have made his own way here. He was a PI and so Dominic trusted that he could make his own way into the building without being accosted. All he needed to do was get close enough to the doctor's office to be able to skim the thoughts from the top level of her mind. Dom was met in the reception by a smartly dressed assistant, a man a year or two younger with glasses and sharp features. He followed him up two floors to the room that evidently served as Dr Williams' office. She was in there, and folded a file as he entered, rising and crossing the room to shake his hand. They greeted each other with smiles, though hers seemed a fraction more practised and less genuine than Dominic's. "Mr Weaver, a pleasure to meet you, I have admired your work. How can I help?"

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[Will Chase]

Will hated crowded spaces, now more than ever before. The new developments in his power, the way it had changed, meant that sufficiently large groups could be actually painful; he could tolerate it, as he had when he'd gone to see Ash, but it was still something he'd much rather avoid. Unfortunately, the matter at hand was far too important for a little discomfort. Will's range was fairly expansive, which meant that he wouldn't have to get particularly close to where Dom's meeting was taking place in order to 'listen in', as it were. That wouldn't be much help, however, if he couldn't work out which mind to focus on. His awareness did not have an arbitrary cut-off point, people got fainter and fainter with distance - at 5 metres Will could hear every thought a person had, but at 30 metres it was difficult to hear even the loudest of minds without focussing - at 50 metres people were little more than vague blobs in his awareness. All this meant two things - Will had to be in the building when Dom met Williams, and he had to be no further away than perhaps two floors. Luckily Joyce Williams must've preferred being closer to the ground, because Will's research had told him that she had her office on the third floor - very convenient because it meant that he didn't need to go up in the building, just to get past the reception without being noticed. Unluckily, that was easier said than done. The building that headquartered the MNRU had no openable windows on the ground floor, a sensible precaution but one that made Will's job significantly harder; he couldn't just get in from the side or rear where no one could see him, he had to go through the front door. *** In the end it was actually far less difficult than it could've been. Will had paid someone on the street outside rather more than he would've liked to go in and cause a scene, and it had paid off beautifully. With everyone staring at the shrieking woman at the reception desk, there was no one to see him as he slipped through a side door and started striding down the corridor like he belonged. He was primarily tracking Dom's mind, which was definitely much, much easier than it would've been to try and find the meeting without any form of reference. When Dom stopped, Will stopped (albeit two floors lower); Will took a glance around, double checking that he was on his own, then stepped into an empty room and started scanning. There you are Ms Williams. An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded Will Chase 436 Words

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[Dominic Weaver]

Surge The best part of “believe” is the “lie”. + Will Chase

Joyce Williams' handshake was firm, solid, and entirely trustworthy. Dominic didn't trust it. No one with honest intentions had a handshake you couldn't trust. Hence why Dominic had a handshake so solid you could moor a barge to it. He glanced briefly about the office as if he was expecting to see a white cat perched somewhere, or perhaps a secret passageway left carelessly open. The room did not fail to disappoint. There was nothing of any real interest, a few diagrams on the wall, filing cabinets and a shelf of what looked like medical texts. It didn't even look particularly homely. It was hard to believe that someone actually worked here; it looked more like a temporary office than one that someone had made their own. He sat in the seat she gestured to, waiting until she had taken her own seat before he began to speak. "As I'm sure you are aware I am not just responsible for the publicity of Heroes, but I also have some influence in the views humans hold towards metahumans. No doubt you have seen some of the campaigns run by my company and by the Hero Program on behalf of the government." He shrugged, "I'm a metahuman myself, and I know just how much work you are doing here to assist those who cannot control their powers, or who are struggling with the transition." Leaning forward, Dominic's tone became serious. "I'm sure you know just how shaky public confidence is right now, particularly in states like New York. I'm a PR man, I can spin things, but I'm not Christ, I can't make people believe in something that may or may not exist. I simply don't know enough about metahumans and what they can do. If anyone in the country knows, it's you." The concern on his face grew a little here, there may well have been an ulterior motive for his presence here, but everything he was saying was true. "Is there anything new that you know about metahuman abilities that might put people's minds at ease?"

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[Will Chase]

Of all the minds Will had ever experienced - not many, it has to be said, but still a damn sight more than anyone else he'd ever met - Joyce Williams' was by far the most terrifying. Of everyone he'd ever met, her mind came the closest to what he'd always thought the Doctor's would've felt like. It was a steel trap, not a thought out of place; this was a woman with total control over her own head, and she'd turned it into a filing cabinet - a place for everything, and everything in its place. Her meeting with Dom was at the forefront of her mind, but by sliding ever so slightly deeper into her head Will could see the gears turning. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, hands pressed to the side of his head as he strained. It would've been easier if he was closer, if he was in the same room as her Will could've had every secret in that head in 5 minutes - the strict organisation could only help in that regard; most people's minds were a mess of competing thoughts, desires and memories, but Ms Williams had compartmentalised her head. As it was he could only catch vague glimpses of what lay beneath the surface, which meant the strict order actually hindered his efforts. She kept her mind on the here and now, not on whatever experiments she was conducting. Then Dom spoke to her, something about his job and how he was hoping she'd have information to help him (Will hadn't bothered planning anything out with Dom, the other man was much better at that kind of thing anyway - he just needed to get her thinking), and her whole mind lit up. It was like flicking a switch, and Will smiled victoriously. Now that she was thinking about her work, those glimpses into what lay beneath offered far more useful information than mere comprehension of her psyche. The first person he'd encountered, the one who'd set him on this path, she must've been low on the totem pole. What he could see of Joyce Williams' work was far less comic-book evil than had been implied, the woman must've been projecting her own fantasies onto what was actually happening. That didn't make the MNRU's work any less reprehensible however. There was no torture, at least not of the traditional kind. No sci-fi esque machinery or maniacal laughter. No. Just good old-fashioned disregard for ethics and morals. Pushing people as far as they could go, then pushing further. Testing how abilities responded to the application of pain. It was all very... mechanical. All happening in the aim of science, of research and discovery. There was nothing personal to it. The head of the MNRU, a highly regarded public servant, just so happened to be a sociopath. Imagine that. An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded Will Chase 479 Words

♛

[Dominic Weaver]

Surge The best part of “believe” is the “lie”. + Will Chase

Doctor Williams had been anything but cagey, in fact, she had been entirely up front about her work, or at least as far as Dominic could tell. Of course there were some things she couldn't tell him. Heroes abilities were a closely guarded secret and Dominic only knew the details of those Heroes he worked with directly, although he had guessed those of a few more. Naturally there was a section of the MNRU dedicated to replicating the Doctor's work, with little success. Dominic would be surprised if there weren't similar projects in every country on the planet. Metahumans were still a tiny fraction of the population, yet they wielded abilities that many normal humans would envy. The ability to manufacture abilities would be near priceless, not to mention dangerous. That part of the MNRU was understandably confidential as a result, although Dominic hoped that it was allowing Will to glean whatever answers he was looking for. She explained about some of the patients they had treated, leaving out names of course, and not for the first or last time, Dominic wondered just how badly they had failed when they confronted the Doctor beneath Los Angeles. Some of the people coming to the MNRU seemed to be in a pitiful state, with abilities they could neither control nor understand. Some of them were capable of near uncontrollable destruction by accident; could he really blame normal humanity for being afraid when it came to that kind of power? In all, Dominic learned very little from Dr Williams, he'd already had an inkling of some of the challenges new metahumans would face, having specific examples of that didn't really change anything. She was clearly well informed, or as well informed as you could be when talking about a brand new branch of science, and she didn't seem to be particular deceptive or even like she was hiding something untoward. Of course the fact that she was mandated by law to hide certain things probably made it easier to confuse the two. Dominic stood after they had been talking for nearly an hour; he'd actually gained something from this meeting beyond whatever Will managed to learn. He hoped he wouldn't have to discard that information on principle, after all, much of it could go to convincing people that metahumans were not as dangerous as they believed. People with abilities deserved to live their lives just as normally as anyone else. He held out a hand, shaking hers, "Thank you for your help doctor, this has been extremely informative, and I think it should help a lot when constructing new campaigns." She smiled, then gestured to her assistant, who had re-entered only a moment ago. "Michael will show you out." It only took a few minutes to leave the building, and once he had done so Dominic called Will. "Well?"

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[Will Chase]

Getting out hadn't been any more difficult than getting in had been. In fact it had been a little easier, at least on his wallet - paying off the person had been necessary for a smooth entrance but they'd charged more than Will was comfortable playing, especially considering his general lack of employment over the last year; he wasn't quite broke, but he was close enough to make every dollar count. The thing was that, in an office building at least, they normally didn't mind who left the building, generally assuming that they would've needed to go through reception to get in in the first place. Will only needed to open the door and stroll out, leaving no one any the wiser. *** Dom's call came a few minutes later, by which point Will had travelled a few hundred metres at a brisk walk, hoping to put as much distance between himself and the MNRU HQ as possible. He picked up on the third tone, pressing the phone to his cheek and speaking in a hushed voice - not quite a whisper, but quiet enough that you'd need to be right next to him to overhear. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that it's not nearly as bad as I feared; it's not the kind of stuff you'd see in a comic book, not like I worried - whoever it was that I got the first glimpse off must've been low down and exaggerating how bad it was based on their own imagination." Will paused to glare at a passerby who was getting a little too close, looking a little too interested. Whatever they saw in his face, it left them disquieted and nervous enough to hurry on, leaving him behind. He was probably being paranoid, but could you really blame him? He was living in a world of superheroes after all. "The bad news? Even if it's not as bad as it could've been, it's still shady as all hell. From the surface it seems okay, they're doing research on metahumans after all so of course part of that would be testing their abilities and how they function and respond to certain stimuli. But Dom, there's no morals, no ethical limits in what they're doing. There's no torture, at least not the classic kind, but there's no kindness there. Testing how powers respond to the application of pain, pushing people to their limits and trying to push them beyond." Will knew he was venting, but he couldn't bring himself to stop. "The woman is a machine Dom. You know what I can do, I've seen thousands of minds in the past year and some have been pretty damn scary, but there's never been anything quite like Joyce Williams. The closest comparison I can come to is the Doctor, what her mind might've felt like, but the Doctor's detachment at least had some basis. To Williams, the people she's running those tests on aren't human, they're just subjects. There's no difference between a rat and one of the metas in her lab, not in her eyes." An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded Will Chase 527 Words

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[Dominic Weaver]

Surge The best part of “believe” is the “lie”. + Will Chase

Whatever Will had discovered had clearly been distressing. Dominic could tell that much just from his tone. It might not have quite been the all-out human experimentation he was sure they had both been imagining, but clearly it was more than should be happening in a medical institute. Clearly there were a number of people in the MNRU that were involved, but most of them wouldn't know the full story. Dominic wondered just how deep the rot went. Was everyone working for the organisation engaged in these questionable activities? Or was it just a hard core of less ethical scientists? It would have to be part of any investigation that began of course, but Dominic still had no idea how to begin such an investigation. He believed in Will's power entirely, but it was not admissible as evidence in a court of law. They could try, but the likelihood was they would be laughed out of the room, and then the illicit activities of the MNRU would be even harder to reveal. If he simply went to his superiors with what he had found out, most of them would dismiss it as paranoia. Some of them might be involved. The MNRU was heavily government funded; surely there were people in the government who wanted information on metahumans no matter the cost. Dominic was walking to his car as he spoke, he dropped the phone onto the dash as he started it up, and the cars Bluetooth link automatically connected so that he could continue the call. Dominic had never really pushed his limits, the limits of his powers. He had absorbed the entire charge of a car battery, and he had never been harmed the few times he had tried to tap into the city's power grid. Whether he could actually contain that kind of power was another matter. The thought that a group was actively trying to push metahumans to their limits and beyond was worrying. They'd never worked out just how much Alice could hold, and she'd absorbed everything from bullets to the blows of super strength metahumans since the Event. She was one of the most powerful metahumans he knew. What happened when they pushed an equally powerful meta too far and they lost control? "I'm in the car, tell me where you are and I'll come and pick you up."

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