15078/The Path of Progress: A Sublime Time

The Path of Progress: A Sublime Time
Date of Scene:	11 June 2023
Location:	Midtown Manhatten -- Office Complex
Synopsis:	Cable and his team assess the situation and decide that a fire-fight in downtown Manhatten is just to risky. A more subtle approach is called for this time...
Cast of Characters:	Cable, Monet St. Croix, Sally Pride

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Cable has posed:
After a prolonged search and a trip that pretty much took them around the globe - ending back in New York City of all places - Cable and his allies finally have a name for who is, presumably, behind all the mutant kidnappings. John Sublime.

It is an unlikely villain to be sure. Publicly the man is the CEO of a pharmaceutical corporation and an author. Though in this case it might be his writings that are more interesting then the power he has a titan of industry. His books tout the Transpieces Movement and the belief that humanity does not have to be a genetic dead-end despite the increasing presence of mutants in the world.

Getting to him presents a much different challenge as well. While the other facilities were all somewhat remotely located, such is most definitely not the case this time. Instead Sublime can be fond on the 40th floor of a New York City office building, one presumably filled with ordinary people going about their day to day jobs and not in any way involved with the kidnapping of innocent mutants from across the globe. It is also in the heart of the biggest city in the country, all of which means that the potential for collateral damage is rather significant.

While Calbe can be a little ruthless, he's not an uncaring monster. Which puts them in something of a bind this time.

Again, the effective base of operations for this mission is a small office rented solely because of the fact that it sits across the street - and two dozen floors lower - from their intended target, giving them at least some sort of perch to keep an eye on what is going on. Again, blueprints of their target are laid out on the table in front of the cybernetic warrior from the future and Cable stands - hands pressed to the table on either side of those outlines - a frown on his face. "I think we can count on the fact that these blueprints are not entirely accurate. I somehow doubt that a man like Sublime is without his defenses and they are probably more formidable, and more high-tech then anything encountered at the previous installations. Coupling that with the fact that he is more or less surrounded by non-combatants and it raises a number of difficulties for us," he says flatly.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would go to sigh, "THere are simpler wyas to get his attention and get access to him. He still has to keep up with appearances of his organization. So just tell him that you're an investor. Have that supercomputer you have get a few billion off the stock market, offer to invest it in his business. He'll go to spend time with you personally. If he doesn't make it a priority then his board of directors will throw a fit over it. He can only lord over them so much when immense amounts of wealth are involved that they can't redirect their way. Just throw out enough zeroes in the cheque and he'll have to drop everything else to give you every moment of his time and total access to his facilities." Seriously, why weren't they going into it wiht just money?

Oh, for the ways that rich people thought.. "I'm sure that even if you can't simply liquidate some things over and launder them through the stock market you can give up a reasonable enough fascimilie of it to convinece everyone that's not an auditor to play along with it and leave a significant enough data trail that it will all be completely legitimate." Because if they couldn't breka thier way in.. Well, then hopefully buying thier way in would be far, far simpler.

"And he has a truly horrendous name. Sublime is an artifiical sweetener, not the head of a large megacorporation."

Sally Pride has posed:
New York was technically Sally's home turf, but it wasn't very often that she ventured into the 'big business' parts of the city. Too many prying eyes, too few out of the way places to stay out of sight. And that's for one of the few Mutanimals that can convincingly disguise herself to look human at least in passing glances. A soft sigh slips between pursed lips, mostly at the fact that Cable is 100% accurate in his rundown. While Monet is postulating a few other options.

"Whatever we do," the lioness mutant finally mutters, "we can't just smash and grab our way through this one." She taps a claw tip against the blueprints of questionable accuracy. "Though I would bet to 'keep up appearances' it's only the floors he owns and operates on that are going to be defended beyond a basic security system. Or it would be too suspicious to the 'normies' working around him."

Cable has posed:
As a general rule Cable is very much a direct confrontation sort of guy. He is first and foremost a soldier, and wherever possible he prefers to approach problems from that particular mindset. In its own way it is the cleaner approach in his mind, though wars are so rarely clean.

But he is nothing if not adaptable as well. One doesn't survive as long as he did, in a future as brutal as the one he comes from without being willing and able to change plans - and approaches on the fly. Straightening up from where he stands in front of the table, his gaze flickers between the other two present, giving a little nod towards Sally. "It seems likely. Certainly that almost has to be the case with the more visible, more violent defenses. He could have installed mutation dampeners throughout the building I suppose, but I would have to imagine that would be both quite the commitment of money and power to maintain. My readings do suggest unusual energy usage for a building of that size and configuration, but not that it is powering floor to floor power dampeners," he concedes.

That Monet's approach would involve money is not really a surprise. But that doesn't make it a bad idea either. Still, Cable smiles thinly. "I do not usually do much undercover work that doesn't involve passing myself off as a high priced mercenary," he notes drily. "But you're approach may have the advantage of getting us to our target without having to plow through dozens of layers of security," he agrees. "Still, teleportation has the potential to do the same," he points out.

There's no doubt which one of those choices he's likely to be more comfortable with, but even now they need more information as much as they need Sublime dead. There's nothing to say he is the end of it, that there is not another layer above him, or that his plans won't continue even if they pop into his office and blow him to pieces. Not to mention that no one tends to bat too much of an eye when mercenaries and criminals get taken out. Doing the same to such a visible public figure is much more likely to have serious consequences.

"So, do we infiltrate this time? I think we can all agree that whatever route we choose we don't want to risk a whole lot of innocent people."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would shrug, "Finding Sublime one on one is the issue. If he's not on-site then this is for nothing. If the office building is simply a frontage for his business, there's the potential that there's not anything useful there beyond archival records. A corporate office doesn't need to have anything particularly priority on hand. If there's no huge power generators there, it's also possible that the place is merely for PR. Too public, too high profile a location, too hard to sneak things in and out of. Have a skyscraper becaue it's what's expected for any large megacorporation that's respectable. But there's no reason to immediately expect that there's anything there that he cant cut loose without any major loss to his ongoing schemes. He would however have full network and computer access there.." She would ponder.

"Would your teleporter be able to get us square into where the archive access is if youd on't have a full layouto fthe buliding or we would necessarily know where they are? We don't have particularly extensive intelligence of the facility, and teh layout may or may not be accurate. With us not necessarily having hte timeline for a fully planned out infiltration.>" She would muse.

Sally Pride has posed:
"The issue with teleporting is making sure we don't end up smack in the middle of something more dangerous than sneaking in." Seems Sally was thinking the same thing Monet put in more detailed words. "Though even if he isn't present there is still an oppritunity to dig up more info." Unless it is all a front as suggested. Though even a false front would have information networks and archives. "He may have important information stored here, just on the sheer audacity it would be for anyone to try and break in... of course, we're hardly your typical burglars, either." Another sigh. "Really, the main issue is time. Doesn't matter how we get in, we're going to have to move quick so whoever is up the totem pole here doesn't have the time to get out of dodge when they realize they have unwanted company."

Cable has posed:
"My tech is pretty good. I don't doubt it can get us in. The issue is with the trustworthiness of these public records," Cable says quietly, tapping a metallic finger against the blueprints laid out in front of them all. "I would be... surprised if they truly match the layout of the office now," he admits quietly, a small frown curving over his features. "The lack of first hand intel is definitely a problem on that front. If we teleport in we could waste a significant amount of time trying to reach our objective. And the longer we're inside, the more likely it is that a fight that endangers a lot of innocents will start."

Stepping away from the table, he instead paces over to the window, tucking hands behind his back as he stares out at the office tower on the opposite side of the street, gaze instinctively travelling up to the 40th floor and their presumed target. "Neither of you are wrong though. Information could be every bit as valuable as actually getting to Sublime himself," he conceeds.

"So, I guess the question is do we risk the teleporter on the basis that time is something of an issue and hope for the best? Or do we takea little longer and go the infiltration route to gain a first hand look at things from the inside," he muses, finally turning back to the other two. "I dislike the thought that any delay might mean more mutants harvested," he admits. "But if things go wrong, if a bunch of innocent civilians get hurt in a fight we could be doing a pretty big number on the view of mutants everywhere. That could be a bigger disaster," he admits.

"And, I suppose that for a change my appearance might actually serve us well," Cable says thoughtfully. "The Transpeciests are all about improving themselves over base humanity. This," he says, gesturing to his metal arm, "And this," he says gesturing towards his eye, "Could make it look much more like I sympathize with their cause. If the promise of money alone isn't enough of a lure, the chance to get their hands on advanced technology could tip the scales," he admits thoughtfully.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride holds one arm across her body to rest the opposite elbow in her palm, and rub fingers against her chin. "It wouldn't be the first time I've been mistaken for a human that got made more catlike rather than a lion made to be human-like. You may have a point though, using our not quite human appearances to an advantage rather than trying to hide them." Her tail gives a thoughtful flick back and forth. "It would depend on how much of the building population is 'in' on the matter."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would nod at Cable, "It would be a.. Throw of the dice. Without knowing the exact odds. Sometimes one must take a gamble.. But only after maximizing whatever advantages can be gained. I hate having to waste more time when lives are at risk.. But failure means we have to fight our way in and out. Even if we do manage some success we'll still have to fight our way out. And if there's warning of a breach the first thing is to lock down all information files." That's the way the game is played. Monet expects everyone to be paranoid and be willing to consider everything else expendable. The reason why there's a public skyscraper is for ego, vanity.. And human shields.

"I concur. We need to approach him.." As Cable would transform over she would grimace and nod. "The long game it is." They have to dilly dally while lives are lost and more must suffer. But if they act rashly then more are guaranteed to. And one only gambles when all else has failed and true desperation has set in. They're not that bad. YEt.

"Good. A maniac will want technology just as much as anything else. Make surew hatever samples or demonstrations you give have /very/ elaborate kill codes put into them. Make a show of it even. Theatrics. That means if he watns them he has to come to see you personally and hear your pitch, he can't foist it off on some subordinate. Or it's impressive enough that he's not oging to show it off ot some lesser lieutenant. he has to come evaluate it for himself and see how to best play you for his own benefit. It has to catch his personal attention to invest his time. Or we have to work our way up the ladder through the rest of the maniacs that are with him."

Cable has posed:
"I think, in this case, we can count of the fact that most of those working for the Corporation are at least aware of the Movement even if they are not all necessarily out and out sympathizers," Cable muses thouoghtfully. "The fact that he has published his beliefs, that he occasionally hits the road to talk about and promote them, that he is pretty much the leader -- or at least the public face -- of the movement should provide us plenty of cover there," he says thoughtfully.

Once more his gaze swings about his colleagues before giving a small nod. "So I think we're decided then. We take a little more time but make sure we're in a better position to end this the right way rather then risk letting Sublime and any info he has slip through our fingers entirely," he says firmly, apparently fully bought in to this course of action, even if it is a little less explodey then he customarily likes.

"I'll start to arrange the necessary funds for our cover and start putting together a few cybernetic mock-ups that we can use as the technological lure in all of this," Cable adds. His arm and eye might look like they're cybernetic enhancements, and they certainly function as such. The truth though... that's a lot more complicated.

"I'll need a day or two to complete the preparations. That can't really be helped unfortunately," he admits. "But once everything is in place we should be able to walk right in through the front door for a change. Without blowing it to hell first," he adds with a tight smile.

Which admittedly feels a little wrong. Oh well.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride nods. "I know we want this problem to be dealt with, but taking a little extra time to make sure we have less loose ends to snag on will be better in the long run. We can'd do much to stop the mutant harvesting if we get ourselves wrecked in the process of just getting in.... And eventually cause plenty of hell even without blowing it up."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would take a breath,"Yes, it has to be done right. Not everything can be accomplished by going in guns blazing." Unless it's Assistant Editor's Month. In which case they all have to be done that way.