Log:Interlude with Howl

2009/01/09 	 Howl Yolanda Jennifer 1

Past Time's Coffee Shop
The smell of fresh coffee is the first thing that assails you. The next is the very old style. It seems the owner has gone for the Edwardian style from early last century. Lots of imitation wood panelling and prints of old English countryside. There are many partitions between the tables, affording some privacy and the sound seems hushed in the room, this has been achieved mainly through very good design, which muffles sounds. At the counter service is quite quick and cheery, conveying a welcoming and friendly attitude. The menu boasts the fact that for a little extra real coffee is served along with light hot and cold meals and snacks. All in all a pleasant place to pass a bit of time.

Yolanda shakes her head. "You're right. We need to find a way to protect them."

Yolanda sits at the table by the window with Howl. They chat, and the tone of the conversation seems serious.

Howl nods slowly. "Wumbles may be a demon, but it's impossible to know."

Jennifer enters, a sheathed sword in her hand, a BIG grin on her face. She waves to Howl and Yolanda and goes to place an order before returning to the table where her friends are seated, "Hi. Mind if I join you?"

Yolanda looks up. "Please do, Jennifer." She breathes a sigh and rubs her forehead with her fingertips. "We've got a situation."

Jennifer slides into a seat. "Sure. But Alex's idea ought to work. Count on Tim Lee to use what he has stupidly. He's never disappointed so far."

Howl mock bows to Jennifer. "Lady Markham."

Yolanda says, "Who's Tim Lee...? We've been talking about Angela Winehouse. Did you read about her in the news."

Jennifer looks over to Howl curiously, "Since when did you get so formal?" she asks with a smile. Then to Yolanda, "The girl with the dead parrot? That's real? I figured it was hoax story."

Howl shrugs at Jennifer. "The sword." He pauses. "What, Polly Pooper, a hoax?"

Yolanda nods. "This is going to sound far-flung... The giant parrot was the girl's imaginary friend, we think, killed by another child's imaginary friend."

"Though I have /not/ ruled out that Wumbles is a pooka." Howl interjects.

Jennifer grins and bows to Howl. "Ah, the sword. I used to carry a English style sword that Timmy had built for me. It disassembled so I could conceal it in my jacket. This one comes with no user servicable parts."

Yolanda nods. "They may be demons... really, we have no idea what they are yet."

Jennifer says, "So... not so imaginary then? The poor poor kid. She must be feeling gutted. Uh, any connection to Imaginary Girl? There's something weird about her. I can remember her being around but I ran a data search on her at a black ops agency. There's nothing in the files before that bus accident in Chinatown."

Howl shrugs at Jennifer. "The kids wanted to see her." He replies. "That's about it."

Yolanda says, "Imaginary Girl..."

Yolanda says, "There's definitely something unique about her background, but I want to be absolutely sure before I start spreading rumors and guesswork."

Yolanda smiles. "Instead of spreading rumors."

Howl nods. "There's definitely something odd. She doesn't know why she's called Imaginary Girl."

Jennifer says, "What I've seen of her, she seems okay."

Yolanda says, "The night of the bus accident, there was a global psionic even, a sort of worldwide suggestion. I've never felt anything like it before."

"I suppose only psychics were in the know." Howl muses.

Yolanda says, "Also, Kismet and I were able to see the imaginary friends. Imaginary Girl was able to see them as well."

Howl nods. "There's definitely something psychic here but it goes beyond that."

Jennifer sighs, "I'll tell you what I suggest. I handle Tim Lee's thirty imported metas and you pair sort out the imaginary friends. Magic and psionics, I'm not trained for that."

"Deal." Howl replies. "Though, seriously? Thirty hired meta thugs? Call in the army."

Yolanda smiles. "Somehow Mr. Wumbles sound small by comparison."

Jennifer says, "About thirty. Chinese ex-pats on the run from the new government over there. Howl, the army has better things to do than get killed by metas. Not to mention the harm that would do to general relations between us and them. Ran into one of them last night with Silver Spider, Alex, Lightray. He gave me a workout. Threw a ocean going fishing boat at us."

Howl rubs the bridge of his noise. "Oy. I really want to reach out to these metas and...I don't know, make 'em well adjusted people. And I read their descs that you put out. A good assault rifle would handle most of them if you really want to get serious."

Jennifer nods, "The problem is some of them are the worse type of opposition you can run into. They believe in their cause. Criminals, you show them the downside and they'll think it over and be sensible most of the time. True patriots though, they're committed. I've met a couple of them who would be perfectly good people in other circumstances."

Howl arches a brow. "Who is Lee to inspire that kind of devotion?"

Jennifer chuckles, "There's no devotion there. Tim Lee is a medium grade Triad fraction leader who wants to be bigger. He's fighting a war with Pride's fraction. Tim arranged an escape route for the metas from China and they're paying back that debt. Doesn't mean they feel any loyalty to him. It's a marriage of convenience, no more than that."

Howl shrugs. "They're idiots. Once they're here they don't owe him squat. They're metas. What's he going to do, deport them?"

Jennifer says, "My guess, they're stangers in a strange land. This country has to be as alien to them as anything they could imagine. So Tim Lee can offer a roof over their heads and food on the table. All they have to do is a couple of favours while working on schemes to overthrow the new Chinese government."

"Dumb. Dumb. Dumb." Howl replies. "Look, you're not going to beat thirty metas, Jen. Not the way the game works."

Jennifer grins, "Yes I am. Not all at once. Not by knocking all of them down. But this is a challenge I have to beat. Because if I don't there's going to be blood in the streets of the city, and blood in China. If I can't stop this, with a lot of help from my friends, what good am I? You're right. In a stand up fight I'll get my butt handed to me. But if we can trim them down one or two at a time, break the sensible ones away from Tim Lee and get them integrated into the US or reconciled with China... That's a goal worth fighting for."

Howl nods. "I agree. But if you can't peel them off? This doesn't end without blood."

Jennifer says, "If we cannot peel them off? It's going to get bloody. Pride can pull in a lot of favours himself. We could have a full scale meta-war in Chinatown. The new Chinaese government is only going to wait so long before sending its metas to the city to deal with what is, after all, a serious threat to its stability."

Howl arches a brow. "Wouldn't that be an act of war?"

Jennifer nods, "Yes. Governments are like people in at least one way. They stop worrying about consequences when immediate survival is on the line. I've met with a couple of the new government types over in China. They want these runaways. They want them bad.

Howl sighs. "Then you might as well step back, Jen. Protect the city but let this go. Keep the blood off your hands."

Jennifer nods, "I wish I could. I've told both Tim Lee's and Pride's people if they want to go out of the city to a wide open field and fight this out between themselves I'll buy popcorn and watch from a distance. But it's not going to work that way. Pride burns out a resturant paying protection to Tim Lee. Tim does the same to a Mum and Pop shop that pays Pride's goons protection. The opposing forces are going to clash in the streets. Pride's using goons with ACRO weaponry at the moment. I'm expecting to see metas and-or battlesuits real soon. It's the collatral damage potential that scares me.

Howl nods slowly. "This is me talking here. You know I loathe this. Call in the big guns. This requires more than the usual hero/villain ballet."

Jennifer grins, "Howl, you might not have realized it but - we are the big guns. There's the Patriots hero team in Washington and Starguard Alpha out in space somewhere. But apart from those two groups Colonial Bay City has the largest number of capable metas in the country. The FBI isn't set up to handle this. There's another organization who has the responsibility but they aren't big enough to deal with it. There's the army but do you really want to see combat troops on the city streets? That leaves, guess who?"

Howl shrugs. "I'd rather the army do this than threaten the lives and integrity of our metas. Metas are...people abilities, not necessarily training. I do not want *high school students* who have become heroes by virtue of putting on capes to make the kind of choices they will have to make if this deteriorates into a meta-war. We'll lose a generation. They might survive but they'll be gone. We know what war is, Jen. They don't."

Jennifer says, "But..." She sighs, "It's a heck of a trade off, Howl. Yeah. You're right. The city's metas can handle it with less blood on the streets than the army can. But afterwards they'll be like me. Filled with memories that burn you out from the inside. If Tim Lee stays stupid and sends out the metas in ones and twos it's just another day at the office. If it gets heading towards a metawar, yeah, call in the army."

"I don't suspect that Tim Lee will stay stupid." Howl replies. "He has enough power to take over this city tomorrow if he really presses his advantage. Something is holding him back, perhaps he fears that this escalates beyond a meta response."

Jennifer says, "Howl, you need to write something on HeroNet. You've convinced me, as usual. But if Tim Lee does do a take over you know every boy and girl with a cape in their closet will take to the streets. Instant meta-war. You have to write up the reasons for not doing that. Why they should wait and bide their time. And it's going to be a darn hard sale. As evidenced by how long it took you to make me see reason."

Howl sighs, moving to stand. "If it looks like we're headed that way, I'll speak up. But we're not there quite yet. This is still in your hands, Jen. I don't mean to sell you short, you may still avert it."

Jennifer looks up as Howl stands. "I'm still changing. Do you know the best thing about only having to sleep once a week? You only get nightmares once every seven days."

Howl chuckles lightly, reaching for a cigarette. "You should embrace nightmares." He replies. "They teach us what we're really afraid of. And when you know that?" He looks up, into her eyes. "Then we have nothing left to fear."

Jennifer smiles, "Will there ever come a day when I'm talking to you and it doesn't feel like a particularly dumb student talking to her mentor?" She gets up and offers the obviously departing Howl a warm hug.

"I'll run out of bullshit one day." Howl replies, returning the hug. "But I don't think it'll be soon." Then he turns to go.

Jennifer nods and watches her friend and mentor go, reflecting on how much.. how very much... she owes him.