Sveta kept her eyes on Jude, wondering if this whole thing was real.

>>"It's not exactly showy... Just be still. I think you'll feel it."

She did. Having lived with the constant coffee buzz for decades at this point, there was a stark difference the moment her powers disappeared. It wasn't the same as being in an adapted aura. Not even close. Instead of the sudden blind spot one walked into, this felt like her powers were... being sucked out of her somehow. She stared at Jude and watched him focus in whatever he was doing. And then, they were sitting there, with no coffee buzz, double or single.

"Well." Sveta noted, sitting back "Aren't you a few years late with that stunt."

It was unfair to say that, really. Their powers made life difficult, but they were never the reason they broke up in the end. Sveta sighed.

"Sorry. How long can you keep this up?... Am I boosting your canceling powers? Is that even a thing?..."

Her words were a slap in the face followed by a bucket of ice water. He very nearly let her power go on accident, and then considered it on purpose. But, no... this was better for all concerned. Whatever tentative hope he'd had for civility was shut down, his face shuttered. This was business. Just business.

"I can last thirty minutes or so. I'm trying to build up my stamina so I appreciate the chance for applicative practice." He opened his folio again. "I don't think you could boost anything right now. For physical mutations, it seems to revert them toward a more human appearance. That's not always the case for adapteds, but I haven't exactly gotten a lot of testing. It seems more like, while I can hold it, you're not a mutant at all." He'd just let that sit out there.

And since this was business, he picked up his pen. Page one was as good as any place to start.

"Mob activity looks to be up in the neighborhood. I know the build has been secure, but since you are directly involved in the personal element of the building, can you tell me if anyone has had a run-in face to face?" They would then be on higher alert when those people left in case of any incidents.

Sveta mentally kicked herself for her comment. It was not Jude's fault how his powers developed. She was not a good mood in general, and his presence didn't help, but it looked like they would have to work together for now.

Jude opened his folder, and they turned to business. Wonderful.

>>"I can last thirty minutes or so. I'm trying to build up my stamina so I appreciate the chance for applicative practice. I don't think you could boost anything right now. For physical mutations, it seems to revert them toward a more human appearance. That's not always the case for adapteds, but I haven't exactly gotten a lot of testing. It seems more like, while I can hold it, you're not a mutant at all."

She wondered how many people knew about this option. It was great for a head of security, for sure, but if the wrong people found out about the adapted-alternative, Jude was going to be the next hot ticket after her own powers. Go figure.

>>"Mob activity looks to be up in the neighborhood. I know the build has been secure, but since you are directly involved in the personal element of the building, can you tell me if anyone has had a run-in face to face?"

"It's not mob activity. It's a turf war" she clarified with a sigh. It was, actually, one of the things she wanted to discuss. "Turns out we are in some kind of a border territory. One side is Lorenzo Bagati with the Colombian ties, and the other is the Russians. Go figure." she smirked. L had done good work with the research, but it didn't make this any less ironic. "The latter showed up to our mutant clinic fundraiser. I... persuaded them to retreat." It had been quite the fight out in the alleyway. Thank god for Akshay and his big words.

Mob activity, potato. Turf war, pohtatoh. A building in a border territory was a rather troublesome place to be. Unlike people, a building could not be relocated. Still, he took notes. No doubt, someone already had all this somewhere, but he did not.

"Do you have a preference for which territory this building eventually sits in?" Considering her heritage and the contact mentioned, maybe the Colombians were the ones to cut a deal with. A muscle jumped at his jawline. He wasn't struggling just yet, but holding her power did take control, a constant wrangling probably not unlike the aforementioned turf war. Sveta's power wanted to be in one place, he wanted it to be in another. For now, he was winning.

"Unless... you want to hold it yourself?"

Sveta was not sure how much Jude knew about the mafia thing. People didn't see her beating up the goons in the back alley; if anything, eye witnesses probably thought she'd snuck out for a quickie with poor Akshay. But then again, you didn't get to run a security company without knowing things other people didn't.

>>"Do you have a preference for which territory this building eventually sits in?"

"I am going to pretend you did not just ask me that." she deadpanned, leveling a glare at Jude. She understood that at many points in her life she had skirted dangerously close to being a Russian stereotype, but she was not about to go full mafia.

>>"Unless... you want to hold it yourself?"

"I want Haven to hold it." she clarified "The building, and preferable the neighborhood. There are mutants and humans living peacefully on these blocks who should not be paying protection money to any kind of mob."

“You realize- It’s considerably…” Jude sighed and took a mental step back. “Have you thought through the implications of that request? It would be much, much easier to make peace with a side. Choose the lesser evil, pay the racket, backstab them when they grow complacent if you like, but introducing Haven as a third party smack in the middle of a turf war… well, puts you smack in the middle. You make Haven a target when it really doesn’t have to be.”

A tendon strained tight in Jude's neck as he ground his teeth. Mental figures for doubling guards, which exits might need additional attention… protection was so much harder than offensive objective. However, he wasn’t about to plan a door-to-door visit of any known mob location.

>>"You realize- It’s considerably…”

Sveta tilted her head. She suspected Jude, as head of security, would not really jump at the idea of tearing a chunk out of two mob territories. It was a hard thing to do even for those who were willing to play dirty. And Haven was trying to not do that. Being good guys sometimes was annoyingly inefficient.

>>“Have you thought through the implications of that request? It would be much, much easier to make peace with a side. Choose the lesser evil, pay the racket, backstab them when they grow complacent if you like, but introducing Haven as a third party smack in the middle of a turf war… well, puts you smack in the middle. You make Haven a target when it really doesn’t have to be.”

"I am aware" she nodded "But what happens when the information leaks? When people find out Haven is paying the mafia, they are not gonna care that it is the lesser of tow evil mafias. And yes, I am figuring myself into that. Our PR is good, but it is not good enough to spin me being in bed with the mob." she sighed "The one thing Haven has going for it, in contrast with vigilantes, is that we are legit. I need to keep it that way."

The best part about running a black-ops type of corporation was the lack of any and all social niceties. Annnnd that's why Jude was in the position he was: in a room full of the ends-justify-the-means people, Jude was a veritable charismatic god by comparison. He did the people side of the business, as far as that needed to be done. Like now in this type of face-to-face meeting.

However, as far as Jude was concerned, they hadn't been hired to protect a reputation. If he was, he would have urged Sveta to chose better phrasing than "in bed with the mafia." Not that THAT was any of his business anymore...

"I see your point and I understand that it's your job to advocate for your side of this partnership. It's mine to advocate for Blackforest Tactical and hopefully find a middle ground we can both agree to. From BlacTac's point of view, we signed on to protect a property and its people while on premises, not start or end a war." And of course, there was always the business side of things. It made him feel slimy to upsell to Sveta of all people, but this was a bigger deal than just adding an extra guy in the parking entrance.

"I think you know we do more than just security, though. And being in the position I am, I know you have resources as well if you're willing to apply them. I'm not sure if a joint effort would help or hurt, honestly. I need to stress that something on this level is not covered in our base agreement." So. What did Sveta want to do about that?

Devon might have been awol, but Sveta was not about to overhaul all of Haven's principles in his absence. She knew people might not expect much from her, having moved through the ranks with precious few people knowing what her real role (or power) was, but for once in her life, she really was trying to do things by the book. It was a b**** to do, but she was not ready to give up yet.

>>"I see your point and I understand that it's your job to advocate for your side of this partnership. It's mine to advocate for Blackforest Tactical and hopefully find a middle ground we can both agree to. From BlacTac's point of view, we signed on to protect a property and its people while on premises, not start or end a war."

There it went. Jude was not a friend here, he was also running his own organization. This was business between Haven and BlacTac, whatever their personal feelings might be.

>>"I think you know we do more than just security, though. And being in the position I am, I know you have resources as well if you're willing to apply them. I'm not sure if a joint effort would help or hurt, honestly. I need to stress that something on this level is not covered in our base agreement."

"So... I need to upgrade to the premium anti-mafia subscription, or what?" Sveta smirked. "Honestly, I'm not trying to start on end a war. I would be alright with a truce, honestly. But for that, we need to be accepted as a force to be reckoned with. And I'm not sure shinier guns would be enough for that." she sighed, sitting back "I'm not saying I have answers. But I also don't think BlacTac would enjoy having a reputation for one of their clients having to pay the mob for protection. Sounds like we'd lose you either way."

They should clearly start selling a premium anti-mafia package. She tried to rib him about BlacTac's reputation, but they paid for that with blood. A little mumbling rumor from the mob was going to cost them zero in business.

"No, it wouldn't do for you to have to double pay... you're right." Jude tapped his chin for a moment. "You talked about wanting Haven to be able to stand on its own and able to defend itself. You want to be respected? You don't bring in someone else to enforce for you outside of these walls. I was thinking more like training. Leveraging the strengths you guys have in PR, you can call a meeting with the mob and lay down watever law you want. Get some of your members trained up for enforcement of the rules you lay down. You're not going to get out of this with totally clean hands, but that sounds more doable than a double hostile takeover."

Sveta did not like threatening people, but she was willing to make exceptions for the mafia. Also, for negotiations with Jude. Granted, losing Haven business was not a major threat to anything but their reputation. But still.

>>"No, it wouldn't do for you to have to double pay... you're right."

At least he was trying to work with her here. She appreciated that.

>>"You talked about wanting Haven to be able to stand on its own and able to defend itself. You want to be respected? You don't bring in someone else to enforce for you outside of these walls."

Alright so... was he trying to lose business?

"I'm not buying BlacTac."

>>"I was thinking more like training. Leveraging the strengths you guys have in PR, you can call a meeting with the mob and lay down watever law you want. Get some of your members trained up for enforcement of the rules you lay down. You're not going to get out of this with totally clean hands, but that sounds more doable than a double hostile takeover."

Right.

Sveta considered the idea. It wasn't like she had not already been laying down some law. Low key. In a mask.

"Well... I've got enough juice to put on a show." she admitted. Him holding her power hostage at the moment was beside the point. "This would be easier if Devon came back... no one wanted to mess with the weather guy. I doubt Karen from Finance would have the same effect." she smirked "Get my own team huh?"

He actually laughed when she deadpanned about buying BlacTac.

"We're not for sale last I checked, sorry. We don't have the manpower to extend our contract outside the grounds of the building at our current employee count. I could hire more if that's what you want, but then you're in our pocket forever. You want to stand on your own and I want to help that happen." Maybe that was bad for business, but he just didn't care. They made enough that BlacTac didn't always have be a slave to the money.

She did seem at least a little worried about the business, which was absolutely not her business.

"Look, the facility still needs to be secured. We're not going anywhere unless you want us to. And you don't have the personnel. Yet." But the contract had always stipulated that if Haven was able to take on that responsibility, they'd give BlacTac a few months notice before cutting them loose.

> "I've got enough juice to put on a show."

That she did. And it was none of his business when she exercised that privilege. "Showiness helps. I wouldn't count on Tempest any time soon, but at least you know you're reliable."

> "Get my own team huh?"

"You could stand to recruit a few more combat types." And Jude was weirdly qualified to help with a team, considering his X-training. If she wanted to, that was.

This was a business negotiation, and Sveta was sure they were not done discussing the hard facts yet, but at least she could tell Jude was not in this for the money. Or to screw her over somehow. It had been a surprise that he showed up, but they were both doing their best to deal with it.

>>"Look, the facility still needs to be secured. We're not going anywhere unless you want us to. And you don't have the personnel. Yet. Showiness helps. I wouldn't count on Tempest any time soon, but at least you know you're reliable."

Svtea sighed again. Having Tempest back would have solved a lot of problems right off the bat. But alas, he was still gone, and she needed to find a replacement for the power he had been wielding, literally and figuratively. At least this was the start of some sort of a plan.

>>"You could stand to recruit a few more combat types."

"Alright" she nodded "That's a start. We'll need a new kind of arrangement. I'll need your help with recruitment and training. Discreetly. And I'll probably want you in that meeting."

She agreed and that left Jude blinking for a full 6 seconds. Then he swore.

"Did I just join Haven?"

Jude stared. Blinked. Swore.

>>"Did I just join Haven?"

Sveta laughed.

"If I say yes, do I get to keep you?" she grinned "BlacTac needs new policies if stealing your people is this easy. Starting to get what happened to Noel and Hunter..."

However he had gotten to that conclusion, she was greatly amused by it. She let him marinate a few seconds longer.

"No, Jude, this is not a cult. You can join if you want to join, god knows you'd be useful. But when I said you, I meant BlacTac. We'll need a new kind of contract. Unless your standard stuff already includes training private security for mafia intimidation."