It was sort of a quiet ride. The suits weren't the talkative types, or they were, but Garrett had nothing to feed them. Best to just wait and find out for himself what questions were to be asked. He could figure out what at least half of them were on his own. They hadn't cuffed or collared him, which was odd, but reasonable. They probably knew bullets went through Garrett just like they did anyone else. Not like it mattered, since one of these suits was not like the others, one of these suits was not like the same. Garrett couldn't do anything with his gifts if he wanted to.

The tint was heavy, but not so heavy that he couldn't see that they were pulling up to a ferry. Leaving Manhattan? Didn't seem like there were all that many options. Maybe it was a crossover or something. The window scenery was just about all there was to enjoy on this ride. There was a brief moment where he thought he might be shot, as he was left alone with the man who must have been nerfing his abilities. It seemed the others were on phones and talking among themselves, various head nods and glances pointed in Garrett's direction. The ferry puttered along until they arrived at a very quiet place.

Just because he couldn't hear outside the vehicle, the island spoke volumes of silence. Rows and rows of small markers in the ground, with occasional Gothic monuments here and there. The vehicle moved on at a snail's pace, as if Garrett were being given a tour. Hopefully that meant he would see it again. He still hadn't put the idea out of his mind that of one of these little markers could soon be over his cooling corpse. A dilapidated abandoned town came into view next. It was eerie. The buildings themselves appeared to be so ancient they might just topple over, though Garrett swore he could see lights and movement from their innards. Finally, they stopped. Everyone exited except for the special escort. The others walked into the two story building before him. The engine was still running.

Thank goodness that they didn't trust her to ask the questions. Talking too much pulled at the stitches. They were just healed enough to start itching properly. Between her itchy grumpiness and a recent doosey of a wipe, Noel was left without any reference on current events. She just had to rely on what had tasted true from others and that wasn't enough to navigate the mine field of an interrogation.

But of course they wanted her there to taste the new kid's words. Make sure he was made of the right stuff and had the right (or at least had enough) motivation. Brass wanted someone with a good quiet incapacitation tactic. What he did to the city was a pretty nifty indicator that his power were more than what they'd tagged him for. That or he'd found something they might want.

In any case, the ferry was mooring and RUPERT had questions.

Noel sat backwards in her metal chair at the side of the room. She wasn't even invited to the table, but at least they'd given her back her gun... after she had relearned what it was for.

The new kid was ushered into the small space. He was younger than Noel had expected. The man at the table shook his hand, introduced himself and offered the kid a seat and some water from a plastic pitcher.

The first questions were easy. Name? Where do you live? Where do you work? How old are you? What is your mutation? They were questions that RUPERT knew at least parts of and could double check the validity of his answers. He could find a bit of comfort in familiarity before they got into things that were a bit hairy. It would also help Noel establish a baseline. The interrogator at the table had some papers to shuffle around to help this look a bit more official.

No RUPERT paid much mind to the hazel eyed memorymancer with the permanent smirk.

Indeed, the interior of the building looked much different from the exterior. It didn't even look like the same building, as if he had just walked into another dimension rather than inside a building. The suits brought him to what looked exactly like an interrogation room. The scene became darker as he continued, as Garrett's anxiety grew.There were only three of them now in the small space, the man before him offering his hand. Garrett took it, the man's neural map spreading like a disease over his body for the moment. He passed on the water. Taking the seat offered at the table, he noticed a brunette woman sitting near him. She had a nasty wound on her face. He wondered if it hurt.

They moved directly to the questions, wasting little time. In a way, he respected that. However, no one had ever said he was arrested or much of anything. Just 'Sit there' or 'Walk this way', accompanied by head gestures and pointing fingers. It was ominous, to say the least. He tried to peer and squint at the papers being shuffled before him, but they were being manipulated by a bureaucratic master. Garrett felt a little jealous. " Garrett Theodore Wills. I live in two places, my primary residence being at Apt B above the Iris Clinic. I also have a room at the Xavier Secondary School. Since I work at both the Clinic and the Mansion's Infirmary, I find myself in one place or the other. I am twenty two years old. My gift is that of neural manipulation. Once I touch someone, I see a map of their nervous system. Should I stay in contact with a person for an extended amount of time, I can do all sorts of things to them. Increase or decrease sensation, from pain to pleasure. Though honestly, I have more experience with the former. I can also incapacitate and paralyze a subject by removing their motor control." His eyes flickered between the two, gauging their reactions. He noticed the man looked at him with suspicion and maybe a twinkling of fear? once he realized that contact was the catalyst.

Brown hair slid forward with the loll of her head. This kid had a long list. He'd been prepared. That or he'd done it before. I seemed a memorized and practiced answer, but at least it tasted as clean as freshly washed sheets. Nothing really exciting was happening here. Noel was just observing unless something slapped her in the mouth. So far all he'd done was recite.

Aaaand say enough to make the high inquisitor wish he hadn't shaken hands with the guy. Hehe.

"We already know your power is behind the city wide blackout. Your power, your location everything confirms your verbal admission. There's one inconsistency that has us scratching our heads and we'll need to clear this up before we can go any further."

He glanced at Noel and she nodded just slightly. She was paying attention. "What cranked up the power?"

So far, it had seemed that everything was very legitimate. Garrett found this disturbing, since he had fully expected to be waterboarded by now. His eyes moved back and forth between the two before him. He still was unsure of the lady's position. She must have been the one in charge, making the thing in front of Garrett her puppet. He couldn't see her hands clearly, so he imagined a set of marionette sticks moving its mouth and giving it gestures. Always good to keep a positive outlook in an interrogation room. Never let them see you sweat.

"We already know your power is behind the city wide blackout. Your power, your location everything confirms your verbal admission. There's one inconsistency that has us scratching our heads and we'll need to clear this up before we can go any further." Garrett's face turned up slowly, as if every time puppet face spoke, the corners of his mouth were cranked up one notch."What cranked up the power?" Of course they would ask that question, but they didn't know the answer. This was very interesting to Garrett, considering that after speaking to Tyranny Jones, he assumed they knew everything about him, down to the last time he pinched a loaf in a public toilet.

His fingers drummed over the surface of the table. He couldn't afford to hesitate. " I wondered why you didn't ask me that first. Well, it was due to me coming in contact with a booster mutant. A girl, who, when you touch her skin, increases your own mutation's potency by ...well, an assload. I made sure that she was taken care of. She's in good hands. Before I start saying anything else about it, I'd like some information from you. I assume you are with RUPERT. If that's the case, are you trying to recruit me or just sweep me under the rug?" Hopefully, it was the former. If Tyranny wasn't around to dampen his abilities, he'd make quite a scene before he was put down.

The kid could wonder all he wanted. They never spilled the beans on Noel's abilities unless it was necessary. Once people knew they were under truth scrutiny they tended to find creative ways of lying.

It was hard to swallow that there was a booster out there loose on the streets but peaches and cream flavoring helped her trust it.

"What do you mean by 'you made sure that she was taken care of'?" The interviewer turned to Noel after his question and again she nodded. He whistled. "Dang. We're going to be busy this summer."

>"I assume you are with RUPERT. If that's the case, are you trying to recruit me or just sweep me under the rug?"

"A little of both." Noel plopped her hands on the back of her turned around chair and sat her chin on top of her fingers. What? Honestly was the best policy and all this beating around the bush business drove her a little bit crazy.

"We are RUPERT. Care to share how you learned about us?" Not that they were a secret society founded by the knight templar or something. Just that part of their clean up routine was to wipe out witnesses.

Everything still seemed fairly kosher. There was none of the cop posturing he had expected in response to his demeanor, so Garrett tried to ease back in his seat. Figuring out how not to sell Effie down the river was of more importance. "What do you mean by 'you made sure that she was taken care of'?" He was definitely hesitating. After some consideration, he decided that mostly honesty was best. " I had my friend and partner Sebastian Csendes take her somewhere safe. Do you think I'm happy with killing hundreds of people? I was on my way to the police to turn myself in when you brought me in. I have no idea where he took her. I don't care either. I won't have her experimented on, causing another world of genocide like when Haywire was around."

His blood pressure was rising. Mr. Cool and Collected was going on vacation soon. " If you really care about humans and mutants, you'll shut down Faust Pharmaceuticals before they start mass producing whatever they are researching. They took her blood. The booster mutant's. What are you going to do about that?" He could feel his palms getting moist, his breathing increasing. He was stressed out. As if being responsible for a citywide catastrophe wasn't enough.

"Sebastian Csendes the uh-" He flipped through papers until he found the right one. "-the immigrant with the wife and kid. All of which are mutants?" Interrogator Bob seemed perfectly happy to chase the rabbits that Garrett had provided.

Iiiiiiinteresting. The guy calmly spoke of deaths caused by himself (though he was socially contentious enough to be unhappy about it), he calmly handed over the name of a "friend and partner," but when it came to booster mutant... he fidgeted. He more than fidgeted, he accused and diverted suspicion. He tippy-toed around a name.

"What's her name?" Noel sat up. They weren't especially interested in the booster besides getting her out of public access, but since Garrett so obviously had a personal vested interest in what the memorymancer guessed to be a girl... "Booster girl."

Her chair scooted noisily over to the table and Noel sat down like a respectable person. Now that it was getting interesting she couldn't feign disinterest. "It's great and all about the pharmaceutical company taking blood, but that's not something we can look into right now, here in this room." It also wasn't something they would be putting him on if they ever did find something worth chasing. The higherups never seemed to enjoy a personal vendetta. And oh boy was this one personal.

"Didn't you work for King Pharmaceuticals at one point? Faust Pharmaceuticals is on the same lot, right?"

The memorymancer got handed a paper about the Csendeses and another on King Pharmacueticals. Apparently KP had been torn down in a spectacular display of mutant discord. Her name was on the cleanup crew which was neither surprising nor suspicious considering the fact that she had absolutely no recollection of the event. The company's new CEO had swept things under the rug rather neatly with believable stories of drugs. Heck. It might have even been partially true with Haywire.

Also... "Who ever said we cared about mutants?" All of this was one big diversion from the 'who spilled beans' question anyway. If he would tell them what he knew of RUPERT they could get into correcting misconceptions. If his misconceptions ran too deep, they might try a wipe before hiring. Either way he was still a prime candidate. They just had to get through all this history first.

"Sebastian Csendes the uh--the immigrant with the wife and kid. All of which are mutants." Seriously? Garrett was having a difficult time processing what these people were up to. A kind of static began to buzz in his ears and involuntary goosebumps began to ripple over his arms. Then the silent partner decided to chime in with her questions. She wanted Effie's name. Pure and simple. " What is this crap? Surely you don't think I'm some garden variety reject or I'd probably be in a ditch face down right now. anyone here ever heard of Tyranny Jones? You must've or she is impersonating one of your field agents. She seemed to know everything about me and everything in my history. So, please, drop this fake ass dog and pony show. Please? You already know everything about me. How would Tyranny know that? Just good guessing on her part? Did you guys get your investigation certificates out of a cereal box? Sheesh!" He tilted back in his chair. He wanted to get up, but knew that would be seen as a hostile maneuver. Damn it. He was feeling hostile.

" Her name is Effie. I didn't exactly get a chance to get her family history and permanent address while my nervous system was going through its own Big Bang." His fingers started to itsy bitsy spider across the table at the papers. He really didn't believe there was anything on them. maybe they could quit playing make believe soon because it was becoming sickeningly dull."It's great and all about the pharmaceutical company taking blood, but that's not something we can look into right now, here in this room." Tag team partners clapping each other on the back while the ref wasn't looking. "Didn't you work for King Pharmaceuticals at one point? Faust Pharmaceuticals is on the same lot, right?" Garrett's eyes opened wide with frustration as the itsy bitsy flattened itself and then morphed into oomy boomy fist which slammed down on the table.

" Urrgghh. You know damned well that I was not only on the board at KP but in the Order as well. I was probably going to take it over had I not shot the former leader. Did you know that too? Or is this another new revelation for the turnip truck brigade? Why don't you ask me some real questions that we might both get something out of?" His eyes shot like daggers to chicky in the back. " Had I taken the Order over, you very well would have cared about mutants. You already have a leg up with Lori in charge. She only cares about herself and not the furtherance of a species. Can I have something a little stiffer than water?" Agitated was the embryo of the thing Garrett was feeling.

Well, he'd cracked. Neither questioner seemed in the least bit amused by his attempted spidering or belligerent attitude. In fact, if he couldn't sit still and behave when he was on the short end of the stick, he wasn't going to make it here. And neither was Tyranny if she was going to spew all their secrets all over New York's finest selection of mutants.

It was so SO tempting to put her foot on Garrett's chair and kick. He and his ego deserved to get dumped onto the cold concrete. But that would be petty and insulting. Garrett was currently occupying that whole department. She couldn't add much more to it without things escalating.

He either held a great fear of this place or he needed to take a bullet between the eyes.

">"Had I taken the Order over, you very well would have cared about mutants. You already have a leg up with Lori in charge. She only cares about herself and not the furtherance of a species."

They had only needed to know whose hole to plug. No doubt Tyranny Jones was getting a knock on her door right now.

"From what I hear, she might be trying to propagate the species with just about anyone who will have her." Mutter muttered the memorymancer.

"As much as I'm enjoying the threats and insults, right now you're not behaving as a man repentant." Going to turn himself in was he? Reeeeally? With that attitude?

If he had taken the Order they wouldn't be having this conversation. Somehow Noel was wishing he'd chosen that path.

>"Can I have something a little stiffer than water?"

The memorymancer fantasized briefly about picking up her chair and breaking it over Garrett's head. "Lets get something straight here. RUPERT is not god, does not know all and doesn't give a crap when you pick your nose or wipe your hiney. We do care, however, when you kiss girls that boost your power or when one of ours plays kiss and tell."

It was tempting to divert into the whole 'did you have to kill people?' and 'why don't you sound especially sorry about it?' avenue, but that would not get them what they wanted. The one true benefit to habitual memory loss was a clear mind and unfailing focus.

"We're perpetually on a knife edge of existence. Not to mention understaffed, underpaid, and constantly on the chopping block because what we do is only ever sometimes coloring inside the lines of the law." Garrett's familiarity with creative brush strokes probably helped land him in that chair. "Legislation can't keep up with the needs of the people. This is a whole new kind of peacekeeping and someone thought you might be up for some of it.

"Maybe they thought all that experience in mutant politics would give you some kind of insight, but from where I'm sitting you're just lost, rattled and covering. You want to be a macho jerk? Fine. We'll get you over to water boarding. Gee Dub authorized some pretty elegant interrogation techniques while in term.

"You want purpose? You want to add to society for once? Then shut up and sit down. They want to give you a slap on the wrist for killing old people before indoctrinating you." Really, they should have been indicting him.

As far as recruiters, RUPERT had better. Noel was only there because they'd expected to have to weed the truth out of a lot of lies. No one expected begrudging belligerent cooperation.

So now the woman began to speak. And speak, she did. Garrett listened closely to her as she explained things to him."Lets get something straight here. RUPERT is not god, does not know all and doesn't give a crap when you pick your nose or wipe your hiney. We do care, however, when you kiss girls that boost your power or when one of ours plays kiss and tell." garrett lifted his hand slightly as a sign of weak protest. " Skin to skin. I didn't kiss her. I merely touched the back of her neck for two seconds." Just the facts.


He listened to her rant, no more interruptions. He thought of a prison full of mutant haters and where he could easily be at this very moment, rather than whining like a brat. The truth was that no one really cared about what happened to him. They saw potential uses in him and he was squandering the invitation, however coarse it might have been. Maybe he should have taken the Order from Lori when he had the chance. None of that really mattered anymore, though. This was going to be his second chance at life. It was up to him to see it through, wherever it ended up leading.

Garrett's shoulders slumped and all four feet of the chair regained contact with the floor. " Alright, I'm listening. Of course I choose to aid society." Mutant society, anyway. no one had fingered him yet with telepathy, so if he wanted to be biased toward his own people, great. If they didn't care about some of his issues, they could just not care about any of him and leave him to his own devices. That was where he shined anyway.

Noel opened her mouth to tell him off. What right did he have to continue to... "Wait. What?"

Her fellow elbowed her to shut up. Ah. Right. Her yapper had flapped open long enough. He was honest enough. Trainable enough.

Bad words. They were going to keep him.

The high inquisitor gave Garrett the run down. He was to be kept under surveillance during a trial period. If Garrett wanted to avoid jail time, he would be submitting to some rigorous training to get him up to code. No gun. No badge. Not without earning it.

And things were back to being boring. Noel didn't entirely trust Garrett's words. People didn't just do a 360 without reason... but he apparently had reason. His words had tasted true enough and that was the whole reason she was enduring this whole mess.

It was best not to take a personal interest in any of this. She had the inkling that Garrett was a messy sort of person inside.

The brunette finally was silent. It was like a nice moment of peace one experienced in the deep throes of meditation. Garrett listened to the terms as they were given, a non face applied to the front of his head. Badge. Gun. Interesting. Rigorous training sounded nice, especially if it wasn't on his own dime. Folding his hands and sitting up straight, Garrett's gaze chilled down to a nice cool shower of expression over the two faces before him.

"Well, my schedule is pretty free. I do some work at the Infirmary, but that can be postponed with a phone call to the DocProf, their resident healer. Same with the Iris Clinic too. I just drive the van, really. I do have some classes toward my Paramedic certifcation to do next week, but this week is free for any kind of rigorous training. When shall we start? Also, do either of you have any more questions you need answered? I'd rather cover everything right away than have to come back for these little sitdowns all the time." A smirk sliced the side of Garrett's face, much like the angry scar on the brunette's cheek. He didn't want them thinking he had gone soft. He was just showing that he was open to things.