Things were a mess, but she was happy with some focus and purpose.

The biggest pain was finding a way to insulate her natural tendency to ruin any and all forms of communication. Because when you were rebuilding a building full of secrets communication (and the containment thereof) was vital. It was also important when it came time to deal with the press. How was she to put on a good face for the business when audio recorders got static and microphones only got feedback?

The answer came in the form of an electro-static discharge wick. Or rather, a lot of them. Metal pyramids placed along her skin could draw away any electric discharge sending the sparks jumping in line down the string of leaning pyramids.

Aligning the points away from her hands meant that the charge (and accompanying magnetic radiation) went away from her hands as well. Planting more wicks around her neck that drew the charge down from her head and face. It meant she could hold a phone to her ear and hear the person on the other end. She could talk into a microphone. And she had to find some kind of business punk outfit for it to make any kind of sense. To Lori's dismay, actively used ESD wicks placed under cloth were guaranteed fire starters.

In a way it was two steps forward, two steps back.

Her intimidation factor was up, but her credibility seemed to visually be in the toilet. It was tempting to just go all out ridiculous punk, but for a press conference... maybe it was best to play it a little safe.

The fabric was red and lush in a way that spoke of money and power. It wasn't tomato red or the red of blood, but something with a lot of depth. Like a garnet spun out into thread and then woven into cloth. The cut was an obvious custom tailor job. It accented the curves she held in aces and the skirt stopped just before it got to be impolite.

The punk pyramids looked like metal taffy, each one pulled and angled away from the places that could not afford an errant amount of electricity or magnetic radiation. They lined her shoulders like military regiments and the backs of her forearms like an ice climber, and ringed her neck in a choker.

She wore her glasses for what good it would do her and had her hair pulled back in a modest french twist. The makeup she wore was just enough to hint that there was indeed no makeup on this face. Hopefully it was all in the attitude rather than the distracting arcs of electricity.

The camera bulbs flashed in a dizzying array of light. Someone had graciously placed a box behind the podium for her to stand on. Lori's money was on Lisa.

"Ladies and gentleman of the press, this is an announcement on behalf of King Pharmaceuticals. Please save all questions until the end of the prepared statement."

She tapped her papers together as everyone settled down. "As of this moment King Pharmaceuticals is no more. The building and company will be rebuilt and restructured under the name Faust Pharmaceuticals." Lori pressed on despite the fresh flashes of bulbs and hands that went up. If she stopped to answer questions now, they'd never get to the end of this pretty little tale.

"As you all know there was recently an altercation that resulted in the essential demolition of the King Pharmaceutical's 15 story research building as well as the deaths of several of New York's finest. It is with distress that I release to you the exact details of how and why this came to pass."

"In pursuit of a mutant gene suppressant, a drug was found that had the opposite of the desire effect. Not only did the drug give an uncontrolled boost to a mutant's power, but it was found to be highly addictive."

"As soon as KP found out, the substance and all documentation regarding its manufacturing process was destroyed. The danger is passed. The drug is no more. The makers and distributors have been jailed and fired as was appropriate to their actions." Or run off and beat within an inch of their lives. Firing a few people here and there as scapegoats did wonders to draw the eyes of the media. Not that she wouldn't love to pin the traitor badge on Seizure, but the man had done her a grand favor shooting Syn out of the picture.

"Naturally, those who had been addicted to the substance came knocking on KP's door when their supply suddenly ran dry. When they found they could no longer get their fix, a fight ensued. Several officers and security people lost their lives in defense of normalcy, and we grieve their loss."

"Faust Pharmaceuticals hopes those mutants so addicted seek help immediately."

"I would like to take this time to announce that Faust Pharmaceuticals will be continuing the research on an x-gene vaccine for the prevention of the manifestation of an active x-gene. Any questions?"

Everyone was out of their seats with one or more hands in the air.

She was sort of a flashy these days. It was hard not to be when you had to wear pyramids up your arms and around your neck just to answer business calls. The dancing jumps of electricity did nothing to encourage the focus of the construction men across the meeting table.

Lori snapped her finger over the blueprint covered table and the two men jumped.

"You were saying that the building's below ground levels remain untouched?"

It was clear that the supposed spokesman was having a hard time respecting Lori as a woman in power. He also seemed fascinated by the visibility of that power. Too fascinated.

"Charles." Lori slid her small hand over his work hardened one with a smile that had nothing to do with tenderness or comfort. She was getting pretty good at finding people's auditory center. And while it wasn't the same as sifting through and getting exactly what she wanted, hearing someone's surface thoughts was enough to get answers as well as a good read for the person. Good eye contact never hurt either. "Focus. I need to know about the King Pharmaceuticals building. What is it going to set me back to get it in working order again?"

Lori was sure that little girl across the table was going to kill him. Why else would she put on the electric show she was? She was a tiny thing, but she was betting those white teeth were filed down to look human. She never should have put in her lot with mutants. She was going to learn something they didn't want him to learn and then they were going to f**k him up just like the last contractor. No. She was keeping her nose clean. She needed the money bad. This could still be okay.

A squeeze of his hand and Lori moved back in her chair. The thinking persisted. She needed to figure out how to turn this crap off. Even when words were spilling out of his mouth, the tumble of thoughts persisted. It was difficult to focus on just one conversation. Lori ended up getting a tumble of mixed ideas.

What she found in the lower levels of the building had been untouched. Glass fronted cells for animal testing. At least that was her guess. The security was still up so no one had gotten in to them.

She kept getting snippets of the streams of thought confused. Which was out loud and which was internal? She had no idea.

The wiring was shot, the 6th through 13th floors were mostly gone, and she was wondering if electricity was her power or if those were battery operated just for effect.

Lori closed her eyes and touched her fingers to her head. It didn't hurt. It was just a big jumble of thread. Strings of thought interwoven with no pattern. It was like a crow's nest.

"Uhh, Miss?"

She opened her eyes slowly and stood from her chair equally slow. Standing didn't make too much difference in her height. Lori looked very carefully at the blueprints. She needed to focus here. If she leaned forward just a little more, she was sure she cold see straight down her top. Blue eyes flicked to Charles as she leaned a little more forward in order to point out the area she was meant to indicate.

"I want most of the entrances and exits to the lower levels sealed. I want the main entrance to be by a keyed level of the maintenance elevator only. The other exit, I want to lead out to the parking garage. Are you listening?"

His colleague was, but she knew Charles was distracted by the jumping electricity that had started whirling madly because she was being distracted by it too. He scrambled to get his pencil and the distraction lessened as he focused on the same things Lori was. He made the appropriate marks and they went point by point over structure, building materials, and other various mind numbing minutia.

In the end, Faust Pharmaceuticals wasn't going to be all that different from its predecessor, King Pharmaceuticals. 15 stories seemed just about the right height. It would have sections for research, development, trials, testing, storage, fully outfitted labs, security, and some black box areas for some of their more nefarious needs. It would be made of a more diverse material set making it's resonant frequency that much harder to hit and her own power set a bit less hold there. The security and safety wiring at least would be shielded. Anything else was much less tragic a loss.

The building would take exactly one year to have every bell and whistle she wanted in it. Pharmaceutical lab work could resume in 6 months assuming Lori got her permits and inspections right the first time. With Lisa on her side, that was an acceptable assumption. Until then she would get to go through the employee files and figure out who was worthy of her next project. They could brainstorm while the building was going back up.

It was such a shame that what took so little time to take down, took so much time to put back up.