Owner	Pose
Michael Erickson	It's been some time since the expatriate Shi'ar has been in the Triskelion; Michael has kept his distance, though work is work, and he comes to request a meeting with his assigned handler for the purposes of Serious Business in the hallowed halls of...the canteen.     He sits at one of the tables with a briefcase and a plain gray suit, anonymous if well-tailored, and a large salad sitting in front of him. Salmon salad, delicious. Not, of course, the chicken. He sits in his flat way when left to his own devices, wheels turning away behind sharp blue eyes as his expression remains a granite mask. Waiting for Jessica to arrive.
Jessica Drew	"I'll be right back," Agent Drew says, as she pauses behind his chair on her way to the cafeteria line. She takes a step, then turns back to scrutinize his plate. "Oh, that looks good. What? No chicken salad?" she asks, projecting complete innocence. Her mouth twitches as she struggles to keep a straight face then she walks away, high heels clicking. Today she is wearing a well-cut business suit, all black, a straight skirt falling to just above her knees, a fitted jacket over a white on white striped silk blouse. A few minutes later, Jessica returns with her tray burdened with a few more dishes than a modest salmon salad. Spider metabolism is demanding and it requires regular feeding. Taking the seat across from him, she arranges her dishes - a large arugula, walnut and goat cheese salad, steamed salmon with real hollandaise sauce and a baked potato. After everything is to her liking, "How is it going, Michael?"
Michael Erickson	Similarly he has a monstrous appetite, but alas, sometimes one must eat light. Her innocent question gets an equally innocent fluttering of lashes, and the words, "They were out of monkey's brains, also," he fires back, aiming to spear a chunk of fish. "So how are you? And it's going...all right, really. I've been spending time at the Xavier house, helping up there with the kids. Spending time in orbit, too, carving up discarded chunks of warship hulls, satellites, that sort of thing. You know, keep them from being too big that they won't burn up in atmosphere." And, one assumes, to limit the amount of salvage that can be done by non-SHIELD sources. "You know. Keeping busy."
Jessica Drew	"Mmmmm, monkey brains. We have to ask if we can get them on the menu though vegan and vegetarian meals have been trending here. You know, healthy agents make for a healthy agency," she says spearing a large forkful of salad. "Meetings today. Hence the monkey suit. I have to submit weekly reports concerning your activities so I'd appreciate a little more granular detail, please." She chews another bite of salad, "Do you enjoy working in zero gravity?"
Michael Erickson	"Meetings today," he affirms with a chuckle. "I thought I shouldn't darken the halls without reason, you know? So that I don't end up getting into trouble." Michael waggles his brows, making a joke about something that otherwise bugged him in days past. Trying to move forward. "And it's not really /zero/ gravity. The suit has a number of flight systems, like gravity engines and such. Anyway. It has come to my attention that, despite these efforts, certain devices that I myself recognize as Shi'ar devices have surfaced in some of the Middle Eastern black markets. Weapons, mostly. Not intact, as far as I can tell, but there." He looks up at her from his salad. "Can you imagine who it is that's been purchasing them when they can?"
Jessica Drew	"You like to tantalize, Mr. Erickson. Are all Shi'ar such teases?" Fork poised over the salmon, she lowers her head to look up at him from under her lush eyelashes. "Gravity engines and such," Jess shakes her head forlornly and attacks the salmon with gusto. After a few bites, she answers his last question, "It was not rhetorical, was it. Why Tannhauser, of course. I went for the almost worst scenario. I'm surprised that HYDRA doesn't pop them for not handing the tech to them."
Michael Erickson	"I only know what they are," he says with a chuckle. "Not how they work. Something like a device that pushes against -- ah! Antigravity. Antigravity is how you'd put it." He takes a bite of his salmon then, chewing thoughtfully. Lady's got a point. "Assuming that Tannhauser isn't an arm of the organization," he says. "Wittingly or not. I mean why wouldn't they be an affiliate?"
Jessica Drew	"So we have some work to do, don't we? Figuring out who pulls Tanahauser's strings. I think that HYDRA saw that they were a good thing and bought them out, the way any giant tech company buys the little creatives. I wonder if they replaced the top executives with their own or if they bought into the HYDRA doctrine?" She busily lavishes the potato with butter then pauses, "The tech people would love you so much more if you had more of the science down behind your antigravity suit. Or if they could get their hands on it."
Michael Erickson	"I'm sure they would," he replies, tucking a fist under his chin and watching as she butters her potato. "I don't think that's a good idea, though. The suit doesn't like people poking at it - it's sentient, you know, as I said. I think that it would not..." Michael trails off. "It's just a bad idea."
Jessica Drew	Gaze leveled on the man across from her, Jess considers his words, reading more into what is unsaid than said. A faint frown pulls her eyebrows together as she asks with concern, "What can you tell me about it...Michael?" She puts her knife down and waves a hand, "I don't mean technically. I mean about what it's like to use it. I mean, if you can." She returns to buttering her potato.
Michael Erickson	He makes a face. "Well..." Michael takes a deep breath. "Well, I don't /wear/ it. You saw them, they vanish - well, they transpose position, you know. When it's here, I'm...somewhere else." There's a long pause. "It's a tree. In the void. An empty place out there, somewhere in the dark." As he speaks, his voice grows softer, his face emptying out. Haunted.     "And from it hang these crystals. Hundreds of them, seems like, but I can never quite tell. Some of them are empty, some of them aren't. The living pilots of the Raptors, that's where they go. And some of them...well." A shiver rolls through him, and he looks away. "That's where some of them have died."
Jessica Drew	Jessica stops eating. Hands on either side of her plate she watches his face transform as he seems to leave this world. Gently, she says at last, "It must be a lonely sacrifice and death, Michael. I forget that you don't wear it because you seem to be in it. Not that I had a lot of time to study what was going on when I saw you embody it that one time. I suppose its natural to think you're like Iron Man. Or the Red Sentinel. Thank you for that." Slowly, she returns to her food, "So what about Tannhauser?"
Michael Erickson	"Better that I deal with it now and live for a good cause than to die early as I was going to." He shakes his head. "Anyway, it's fine. I don't intend to die in one of those Throne-rotten jewels. I've got the upper hand as it is." He's about to say more, but she's changed the subject, and he nods.     "Right. Um, Tannhauser. So they're buying things. I'm looking in on a deal that's going to be going down in the next few days out in Hoboken - my agent there will be getting a full recording on the exchange, get details on personnel, everyone involved. It could be just mundane tech, if advanced. Either way I'll make sure that you get the details so we can go and bust 'em."
Jessica Drew	"Okay." Jess puts her knife down, resigning herself to not having potato calories today. She likes her baked potatoes hot. "What didn't you say? When I hear, "It's fine." I think, no, it is indeed not fine." One finger taps impatiently, she doesn't relent. "You have an agent in their midst?"
Michael Erickson	"I have an agent doing recon." He gives her a faint smile. "Don't worry, they have no knowledge of my SHIELD connections. And to answer your question, well." He draws a deep breath. "...look, Jessica. What I tell you here, it's got to be between you and I. Can you do that?"
Jessica Drew	Shaking her head, Jessica expends a sigh. "I hope, I can. I will. I promise."
Michael Erickson	Her assertion makes him smile, albeit with some trepidation. "It's just that...I always thought that the hosts of the Raptors were the pilots. But they aren't. The Raptors themselves, the...intelligences that animate them. They're the eternal things. The hosts are just meat that they need. And I..."     Michael pauses, pursing his lips. "I killed the host. When I took the suit. That's not something they thought could happen. I took the host's role and took over. The mind of the armor, it's been damaged, weakened. And my will is more than strong enough to take command - but not all of its functions. Eventually, I will grow more and more powerful as I'm able to wrest those functions away. But in the meantime...the other Raptors, I think. One day. They'll try and get me. Take the armor back."
Jessica Drew	Silence. Jessica guards a neutral expression though inwardly she is shocked. Shock and pity pass below the surface. She gives him calm. "You have gotten yourself into a fine mess. Inadvertently, but I can understand how the other Raptors might feel. I'm surprised they didn't take you down when you were most vulnerable. Who could help you if they come after you, do you think?"
Michael Erickson	"Friends," he replies, "If I've got them. And no, Jessica. The Raptors aren't nice -- they're driven to further the ends of the Empire. They're known as horrors across many worlds. They'll kill whatever they need to in order to open the path to further Imperial expansion. That I've done...this..." Michael shakes his head. "It terrifies and enrages them both. But they need the lesson. I need to stand against them if they come. Hopefully I'll have allies by then that will do the standing with me."
Michael Erickson	"Not likely." He smiles faintly. "If they come here, I'll leave. I can do that, now. Anywhere in the galaxy." That said, he falls silent, lets her go on. Back to his thoughts, then, hurrah.
Jessica Drew	"Friends." Jessica's eyes unfocus as she considers the odds then snap back to Michael. "You seem to be good at making friends. Not bad at making enemies, too, from what I see." After a glance at her watch, "I have a meeting coming up in an hour."