Olivia tugged on the comfortable confines of her coat as the car slowed to a stop, a young agent opened the door for her much to the blatant roll of her eyes. She slipped into the open sight of the sun blaring down on Michigan, she’d been busy dousing fires after a very intriguing mess made by a group of rowdy mutants down in Texas for a week. Thankfully the pause of free time following her strict hold on the situation gave her more than enough time for a quick road trip, perhaps she’s stay for a while after all. Olivia turned to glance at the agent who drove her, she had an almost mocking grin set on her lips, “Take the night off, I’m gonna be a while”, there was an authoritative sway in her graceful steps as she entered the lab.
Recognition drove her through the building with a lack of useless questions pestering her approach. Olivia knew the doctor driving this lab well enough, she could recognize the striking woman from a mile away. Olivia moved silently to the doctor’s side with a stiff, professional smile lingering on her features. “Dr. Meridian”, her words drifted in the cold air as she hung her long coat over the backrest of a desk chair.
“I hope I’m not interrupting your work”, she turned to face Emma with a more relaxed posture and released the stiff pressure hanging over her shoulders. “From what I’ve heard we’ve lost a few prisoners? I thought I’d cut out the middleman and come see what the hell’s happening here for myself”, Olivia didn’t intend to sound so rude albeit she felt the honesty in her tone.
While GADEM found success in most endeavors she’s been noticing an almost persistent resistance in their efforts to control the mutant menace. “If you’re not too busy I’d appreciate a thorough update on our efforts at this lab”, she turned to look at a guard shuffling nervously at the door with a strict glare dancing in her gaze. “Get out. No one comes in until I say so”, Olivia ran a hand through the tied locks of hair flowing effortlessly over her shoulder and faced Emma with curious intent. She preferred privacy for the time being, perhaps it would set her stressed mind at ease without the curiosity of GADEM agents meddling in the matter at hand.
Dr. Meridian jumped a little at the sound of Olivia's voice. She hadn't meant to get so caught up in her work, but that was impossible. She had been tricked by the lulling effects of one of her patients. A mutant that allowed himself to project subconscious desires. With a thought, he could make you wish you were sailing from a 10 story building. He could only plant the idea and see if it festered and grew into something kinetic.
He couldn't force you to do anything for those of you who were strong willed. Olivia's voice had broken the spell.temp Emma was sitting there quietly looking out the window and wishing to touch the sky... She saw birds out against the crazen blue paradise and she wanted to fly like the birds. She passed it off as nothing more than a foolish thought. He was subtle in his implementation of idea. But the thought quietly grew inside you until finally you were standing on the window ledge with your hair whipping around your face.
A breathe held tightly in your lungs as you took a step and chased your dreams. Chased them all the way to your death, but that wasn't his problem. He was restrained. Strapped to the bed in front of her. She snapped out of her delusions and began to stammer. "Uh... er um... Miss Chase. I'm sorry. I really wasn't expecting a visit." Emma's eye was black from where her face smacked a rough corner. The mutant Andromeda tossed her across the room like a rag doll. She hit the wall with a crushing impact. She reached up and rubbed at her sore neck. She supposed it could be worse. A sore neck and a black eyes could be alot worse. She could be dead. "Yes. Of course. The attack happened just an hour ago."
She still didn't know how to explain it. One moment everything was fine. The next total chaos. She avoided eye contact with miss Chase. For one thing they didn't have the same goals. This woman was vile to her. Scary and vile. She ran G.A.D.E.M. In a way that made her Emma's enemy. Emma didn't join this facility because she had a hatred for mutants. Her sister was a mutant. She was.....That was before her parents experiements forced her to commit suicide. She was just looking for truths. Answers. She wanted to help mutants.
G.A.D.E.M. just had the best resources. "I was just with a patient. Meet, temptation." Her words were dry and doctorly. She saw that Olivia wasn't instantly familiar with the mutant. "He is called temptation because he can plant ideas in your head and lead you to do things you otherwise wouldn't. Don't worry he's heavily sedated. He can't influence us right now." She assured the boss... Though what she didn't notice was that he had convinced the nurse guy before to half ass his procedure.
With an innocent thought he caused him to rush through the set up of Temptation's chemical restraints because probing his mind he saw the young man was anxious to get home to a sick child. The temptation wasn't so hard to manipulate. He forgot to connect a cuplink in the plastic tube that administered the drug. At most Temptation was getting a much much weaker dose than he should be getting to nullify his powers. It wasn't full blast, but it was enough. Dr. Emma placed a hand on Olivia's shoulder and led her to the other side of the room.
"I have more patients to check on, but i can give you the tour as I go and show you what tests have been run on the ones in captivity. She flashed a sympathetic smile back to the mutant strapped to the bed. She hated testing on them, but if testing on the few that were going to be tested on anyways could help the larger masses of mutants ...... Well, lets just say it was a justification her tortured soul was struggling with at the moment.
Olivia looked at the black touch of a bruise to the brilliant doctor’s face, obviously the paid a price for the escape and by the looks of it the busted skin looked like it stung a hell of a lot. There was a sense of worry for Emma but Olivia was driven by her desire to succeed, her intent need to be one step ahead of the mutants and the anger at losing captives were easily overriding the empathy for someone who got hurt at their hands. “Then I’m certain the events are still fresh in your memory. Please do share, how the hell did they get out in the first place?”, her tone was heavy laden with authority and anger, the last thing they needed was a retaliation at the lab and GADEM by the very prisoners lost to the chaos.
A new, stiff calmness overtook the tense stress lining her shoulders and shooting into a thudding headache behind her pale eyes. Her eyes shook their focus from the doctor as she stepped next to the seemingly sedated mutant, he had a cute trick but Olivia saw the true danger in someone who could subtly work their way through a person’s subconscious. Albeit, she trusted the doctor’s work and allowed her gaze to slip back to Emma’s gaze.
“Cute trick”, she muttered softly glaring down for just a second, “dangerous though. I want more security around prisoners out of their cells at all times. No one else gets out”, the venom to her tone wasn’t truly by choice, her unique hate for the evolved mutants were driven by the loss of her family. The true reality of her everlasting grief and inability to come to terms with her daughter’s passing was enough to fuel an eternal hatred rooted in every decision she made for the favor of the organization she devoted her life to.
Olivia didn’t argue Emma’s lead to another section of the room, she nodded at the doctor’s suggestion. A tour would benefit her but she didn’t intend to hold Emma from her important work, she’d rather shadow the duties performed by the brilliant mind facing her.
“Show me everything”, a soft, almost kind smile followed her word as she glanced at the doctor with a respectful nod. “Which mutants escaped? Should we fear any retaliation?”, Olivia rubbed her cold palms together for a second and glanced at the doctor. Olivia gestured for the guard peeking through the glass paneled doors, he stepped through the threshold with a stiff glance and a glint of nervousness. “I want increased security in and around the compound, especially around captives not behind bars. Make it happen”, he nodded respectfully before scurrying off to fulfill his duties.
Olivia set one palm calmly over her hip and looked to Emma with a reassuring smile, “So, Dr. Meridian, where do we start?”, she glanced around the polished room and shrugged her shoulders waiting to follow Emma’s lead.
