Log:Reset, Scene 1

Crosstime Apocalypse 2013/12/10 	 Regan Crosstime_Apocalypse#Wayne|Wayne Porter Crosstime_Apocalypse#Guy|Guy

1

Champions Mush - Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 9:04 PM

Steel's Gym

''Inside the door is a spacious reception area. Directly opposite the entrance is a wide full length window of thick armor glass providing a gallery view into the workout area. To the east is a desk where gym staff check membership cards, schedule sessions and give out information. Next to the desk are vending machines selling snacks and chilled drinks and a jukebox. The west side of the reception area has a pair of old fashioned pinball machines and a holographic Hogan's Alley combat shooting game. Some framed Photographs, a Plaque, and the Gym Rules are hung on a wall beside the gallery window. ''

''The central area of the reception has a half dozen tables and chairs for members who are waiting for their booked session or discussing the outcome. A short flight of stairs leads down to the massive stainless steel door of the workout room as well as doors to the restrooms and changing rooms that are equipped with showers for freshening up after an exhausting practice. An arched opening provides access to the more conventional areas of the Gym, a weight training facility, the exercise room, and a heated swimming pool. ''

A man walks into the gym. He is thin without being fit, has the pale skin of an artist, touseled hair, a pencil behind one ear snd is dressed in a green t-shirt with a lighter green circle on the chest, blue jeans, and kicks. He pauses at the door and looks about, a bit lost.

Regan stands at her traditional post at the counter examining some sort of numerical readout of abstruse nature, perhaps it's energy consumption, perhaps it's performance parameters for clients, perhaps it's her lottery number selection algorithm, perhaps it's just not worth asking. As the doors part to admit a newcomer she looks up from the display to greet the newcomer in a polished English accent. "Good evening and welcome to Steel's Gym, I am the manager, Regan, how can I help you?"

Wayne says, "Hi. My name is Wayne. I understand you have some kind of freebies for people with superpowers?"

Regan nods. "We offer free use of the facility to anyone who dedicates some of their time to protecting the city and its inhabitants. We have specialized equipment and techniques for assessing and developing meta-human ability."

Wayne nods pleased. "Cool. And exactly how dedicated can somebody be? I mean, is lightly dedicated good enough?"

Regan smiles and nods once more. "If you're willing to help out as best you can when the city faces imminent destruction that's good enough. I will even throw in a free communicator pin." She folds her hands on the counter before her. "So what powers do you have?"

Wayne brushes his nails back and forth on his shirt and says with obvious pride, "I have just one - the most awesome power in the city. I reset reality."

Regan nods yet again, falling silent for a moment before finally admitting "I think I'm going to need you to explain that in a little more detail. It sounds awesome, I'm just having trouble with the specifics."

Wayne says, "The country gets hit with a zombie apocalypse. Reset, and it never happened. Plague of cockroaches? Reset and start over. I die in a freak auto accident? Automatic reset."

"Okay, so you don't need to do anything to avert the mega-disaster, it just automatically doesn't happen?" Regan asks. "How much time can reverse. Say something it happens and it isn't until months later we realize how bad it is, can you reverse the whole way?"

Wayne nods. "More or less."

Regan blinks. "So if there is a zombie apocalypse tomorrow and you have no idea what caused it or what started it you can just reset and it will never unfold?" Regan clarifies. "How far does the reset go when you die?"

Wayne shrugs, "Those resets leave me a little confused."

Regan's lips purse. "That is a pretty awesome power set you have the capacity to make everyone else redundant." She nods. "How many people have you told about this?"

Wayne says, "It doesn't matter. Since the last reset: one. You. That's the problem with the resets, they are all or nothing. If I reset, you forget we had this conversation."

Regan nods. "You should tell no one else, I mean that in its most literal sense. No one, at all, ever." Her head tilts. "If you have any doubts about whether or not you can trust me you should rewind and erase this meeting from existence. If you decide not to do that you should take this." She unlocks a drawer on her side of the counter to produce a small red pin with a button on the end. "This is an emergency beacon. If you are ever in a situation where you need help use this and I will respond in force as quickly as I am able."

Wayne smiles slowly as he looks at the pin and then Regan's face. "So, I guess that means I get the free stuff?"

Speaking of beacons for emergencies, the door opens to allow one Porter and one cup of coffee to enter. The former is holding, and sipping from, the latter.

Regan reaches under the counter once more to fetch out two Steel Gym T-shirts and a water bottle, placing them on the counter. "Sure, you can have the free stuff. " As the entrance opens she looks to the newcomer. "Porter, this is Wayne, Wayne likes free stuff. Wayne this is Porter, he manipulates probability, you probably hear about him saving the hospital on the news."

"Told you you can always fall back on PR rep if gym manager doesn't work out for you," Porter points out to Regan with a smirk. He salutes Wayne with his cup. "Nothing wrong with free stuff."

Wayne folds one of the shirts, origami style, into a passable set of pecs, stuffs it under his green shirt, pulls the second shirt over the green one to smooth out the look then struts over to a lady working out on a Nautilus machine.

"Hi, I'm Wayne," he says to the young woman, "I have super powers, but Regan made me promise not to tell anybody what they are, because they are so awesome." He pretends to take a drink from his new water bottle. "Wanna make out?" Wayne didn't take the beacon.

Regan lifts one hand to rub at her right eye as though there were grit in it. Taking a deep breath she moves from behind the counter toward where Wayne is displaying his breath-taking social skills. Smiling to the young woman she says. "Please forgive my companion, he was dropped as an infant." Hooking a hand under Wayne's arm she expertly steers him back toward the counter.

Wayne says, "Hey! I thought I had a chance here." Then his indignation changes to a sly smile and he gives Regan a wink, "Or was I hitting on the wrong girl ... err, woman."

Porter just blinks, several times, at Wayne's ...process. He smirks when Regan guides him back to the counter. "Um... I'm not Don Juan the expert... but I'm pretty sure that's not the best plan. Unless you're trying to collect bruises."

Regan smiles to Wayne. "I am the manager of this facility and it is therefore my responsibility to protect my clientele from unwonted sexual harassment and molestation. You seem to have grown up with the expectation that whatever you do it can have no negative consequences." Her shoulders lift in a small shrug. " You don't seem to have any idea how dangerous you are, or how much danger you are in."

Wayne scoffs, then frowns, "Danger? How could I be in danger?"

Regan's lips purse. "Suppose I am a villain, suppose I have a plan to do something that has say a five percent possibility of succeeding. Suppose I know about you and your powers. I know about you. I send in someone to seduce you, that shouldn't be too hard, and convince you to reply an idyllic day of passion on a picture perfect beach in the Caribbean. Sounds like something you would enjoy, and their agent shouldn't have a lot of trouble convincing you to repeat it, ten times, twenty times. Each time the villain gets to try his plan again and again. Once it works he phones the agent who whacks you in a neural inhibitor and keeps you as a statue so you don't undo the plan."

Regan says, "If it turns out your powers don't work as advertised and the day doesn't get replayed, you get to be tortured and then killed."

Porter's brows go up. "Huh?" He looks between Regan and Wayne. "What are you talking about?" He's a bit lost. Maybe alot lost.

Wayne shakes his head. "It doesn't quite work that way. If I reset, the villain would have to re-find out about me. I can't just redo the good days. I don't get to pick and choose like that."

Regan moves back behind the counter. "The more people know about how your powers do work the more they can learn to use them to their advantage. I don't want you kidnapped and tortures or enslaved, I don't want you mind controlled or mental illusioned or telepathised. There are a great many bad guys out there who if they get wind of what you can do, will see you as a tool they can manipulate or wield. You see it as a terrific way to score, I see it as a terrific way for you to end up hurt, and not in the touchy feely emotional sense of the word." She looks to Porter. "You'll have to forgive me being obscure, I don't think Wayne's power is safe to talk about."

Wayne mutters, his lower lip sticking out petulantly. "Well, *I* think it's cool."

At that point, a tan redhead, thin and fit, sticks her head in the door. "Hey butt-head," she yells. "C'mon. I found us an apartment."

"Ok..." Porter thinks it must be bad if Regan will announce his to everyone when she introduces him, but avoids talking about Wayne's. Really bad. "So..." Porter looks around the room and sips down more heated caffeine, "How are things going?" That's the best attempt to change topics that he could come up on short notice. And it seems he didn't have to. He looks to the redhead at the door and back to Wayne, curious.

Regan holds up her hands. "I'm not saying it isn't cool, it is fantastic, literally awesome, By comparison my powers are absolutely nothing. You are the single most powerful individual I've ever met and you have my full respect. Just please be careful." She pushes the red pin toward Wayne. "And take the pin."

Regan looks to the redhead. "Is she talking to me? Because I don't think I've had the pleasure..."

The young woman strides into the gym when Wayne doesn't immediately jump up. Her hair is straight with bangs and a short bob, longer in the front than the back. Her chest is boyish, but she has womanly hips under her tight straight-legged jeans. On her feet are "kung-fu slippers". The snatches the red pin off the counter, jams it into Wayne's chest and grabs his ear before he can even register the pain of the poke. "C'mon, I don't have all day."

Regan watches in silence as the reunion scene unfolds her expression neutral. "If you're in trouble, use the pin." She repeats to Wayne as he is dragged away. She then turns her attention to Porter. "I'm well thank you, how are you?"

"Or the pain," Porter finishes Regan's last sentence in a quiet mumble as Wayne is yanked away by his ear.

Regan watches the duo depart and shakes her head. "Yes, if you thought your powers were a burden spare a thought, there are one or two out there that really take the cake. So, how's life treating you?"

Porter follows the pair out with his eyes, then turns back to Regan. "I guess so... good to know I'm not the worse with pickup lines, either..." He smirks, followed by a smile. "It's treating me pretty good. Surprisingly good. I should probably be worried... but I'm not, not really. How about you?"

Regan's shoulders lift. "Well enough, perhaps overly sensitive and jumping at shadows where Wayne is concerned but some things really worry me."

"If it's bad enough that you don't want to talk about it," Porter purses his lips, "it must be pretty bad. Sorry about that." It's not his fault (for a change), but it still sounds like it sucks. "If it helps, I think I've finally got a better handle on things. Won't be breaking your room and giving you a reason to kick me out. Not anytime soon. I hope."