Paul had been careful not to come to the Sanctuary for several weeks after his meeting with a police detective that asked to many questions. But even after that time and his very few visit before that, Lisa had still recognized him the moment he came through the front door. "Maybe its a mutation having to do with memory or something like that." Paul mused as he headed down from the Foyer, simply exploring the facility that he was only just beginning to think of as a second home, "Maybe she never forgets a face or anything she reads. Hyper learning maybe?" It was an interesting possibility and one he had never heard mentioned by anyone else. From what little scuttle but he had gathered, it seemed that her ability, if she even had one, was a complete mystery but her loyalty was beyond question.

Randomly choosing a door he had never gone through before, Paul found himself in what had to be the Rec room. Couches, chairs, TV, pool tables, and all manner of entertainment were spread through the room. There were couple of individuals over watching the boob tube and a few more scattered around reading and doing other things but what interested Paul the most was the pool tables. He had once been very proficient at the game but after coming to America he had distanced himself from the old skill set while inventing his new personas. Maybe it was time to see about picking up some of the old skills.

While rolling of the sleeves of his long sleeve blue dress shirt, Paul walked over to the cues and chose one of the sticks that seemed to best fit his grip. Then after racking up, Paul positioned himself at the end of the table with the familiar feeling of the cue in his hands. "Break." He murmured to himself before launching the cue ball into the other balls and sending them ricocheting around the table. Yeah... he still remembered some of his skill.

The first step to getting herself back on her feet was getting a job. Noel wasn't sure what she was good at. So far she had boxed stuff up pretty well for the Coach, but a trained money could do that. She wanted to start earning a living again.

Whenever she went to apply people handed her pages and pages of markings that made her head hurt. Most of the time she ended up putting the pen down and walking away. What did they want her to do? She wasn't about to draw pictures for them and it hadn't yet hit her that the markings were communicative.

Eventually she started asking for an interview instead of all that paper nonsense. That got her turned away more often than not, but when she did sit down with someone she got one overwhelming response.

She couldn't read. That's what they called her problem— sometimes in a voice full of pity, sometimes disdain. Noel had usually heard the spasming of her eyes called memory loss, but apparently in the job world it was called illiteracy.

That seemed to be a big downside to her job hunt. She could go door to door and no one had work for someone like her. Her ability really was a curse.

"Well is there anybody who would hire someone like me?"

"The best you can hope for is blue collar, babe. Meat packing or canning. Most of that is no where near here." The man with the fingerless gloves on the park bench was turning out to be the most helpful person she had met all week. "Unless you want to go for drug trials, giving blood or plasma or a mutie wants you. Seriously, though. You can get by on the streets if you wanted. A face like yours would get all kinds of charity."

She dismissed that idea out of hand immediately and latched on, instead to the one word she hadn't understood. "What's a mutie?"

---

And so, Noel came to visit the Sanctuary for the second time. She had no papers and no threats prepared ahead of time, only the information given to her by a park bench hobo. She put her interview game face on, a smile and some confidence. She made sure to give the secretary good eye contact. The secretary was the key to getting in to the people who mattered so she wanted to stay on her good side.

"Hi, can I talk to the mutie in charge?"

Lisa looked nonplussed. Noel tried again.

"I'd really like to talk to a mutie or a genetic defect would work too. Do you have anybody around here like that?"

The intercom to the common room buzzed as Lisa pressed it.

/Paging all genetic defects. There's a young woman in the lobby who would like to know if there are any muties here./ The receptionist smiled as if she hadn't just announced to the Sanctuary that there was a politically incorrect woman waiting on the couch for whatever fate the violent bunch deemed an adequate retort. Lisa motioned Noel toward the cushy couch to wait.

"I need to practice more." Paul muttered somewhat regretfully as he missed yet another shot. Sure, he had sunk balls and even managed to put together a few shots that were pretty impressive looking but then he was missing what should have been some of the easy money makers. He was not up to his old standards but it still felt good to be doing something familiar from his old life.

"Paging all genetic defects." Lisa's voice suddenly rang out over the intercom, "There's a young woman in the lobby who would like to know if there are any muties here."

Raising an eyebrow, Paul paused and stared up at the speaker that had now fallen silent. Genetic defects? Muties? Did Lisa really get away with using those sorts of terms?

The silence that had been in the room slowly turned to whispering which grew into murmuring which was swiftly moving toward full blown angers as several of the more dangerous looking people stood up and began to move toward the door. If this were some sort of trap set by the police department then it was very possible that they were about to blow it and Paul couldn't let that happen. This was Lori's baby and he couldn't let it go down while she was apparently away.

"I'll handle this." Paul offered as he set his pool cue down on the table and then jogged for the door, "The rest of you don't need to dirty your hands with this sort of situation."

Everyone turned their attention to the gray haired man tat the didn't know very well. For a few moments they were silent as though trying to decide whether Paul could be trusted. Finally, a few nodded and turned back to head for their chairs while Paul moved out into the hallway and walked out toward the foyer. Maybe word of his meeting with Lori had spread through the building or maybe they just didn't want to bother with someone that used words like 'genetic defect' and 'mutie'. Whatever the reason, Paul had gotten his wish. It was now his to handle.

"Morning Lisa" Paul greeted as he walked out of the hall. It was clear who Lisa must have been talking about since there was only one young woman sitting there, unless of course the person that had used such provocative terms had decided to run before anyone came out. "Hello." He offered with a tight smile as he walked over toward the brown haired woman with the odd looking scar on the side of her mouth, "I'm Paul. Can I help you?"

Nervous, Noel ran over the facts in her head again.

Her name was Noel Z. Gage. The coach had given her permission to use his last name if she wanted, but when she had introduced herself as Noel McMillan at her first interview, with the sleeves of her button up shirt rolled up against the heat wave, they had called her out for lying. Apparently her name was tattooed on her own arm.

That meant that she could read once, before the schism, but didn't really help her now.

Noel loosened her tie a bit to help her breathe. These clothes were from the closet, another concession from the coach. Women's clothing was of no use to him, he'd said. The most dressy clothes she could find were these: a white dress shirt, diagonally striped burgundy and gold tie, gray vest that had once belonged to a suit set and black slacks. She felt like a waiter. Someone had asked her if her tie meant that she was a Grippendor or something like that.

Apparently there were a lot of things she still didn't know.

A gray-haired gentleman came to meet her and the brunette offered her hand along with a firm grip. She smiled broadly enough that her scar tugged it into an uneven but genuine expression. "Hi, I'm Noel Gage and I was told that someone like me might possibly find work around here?" Her voice was a confident alto. Noel had her facts straight. She could be confident in this at least.

The young woman was confident though something about her clothes was a touch off. Not being particularly fashion minded Paul couldn't quite put his finger on it but something just didn't seem quite right. It was almost like someone had taken the clothes off of one doll and put them on a different doll. They fit but yet didn't quite work for some unknown reason.

"Eager." Was the first thought that jumped into his mind as the young woman extended her hand and shook his with a rather firm grip. Her smile was pleasant and, "Clueless." was the second thought that came into his head. Somehow she didn't realize that the terms she had used while speaking with Lisa were offensive. It was as though she was one of those babes in toy land or something.

"Well Miss Gage, I suppose that depends on what sort of work you might be looking for and exactly what qualifications might be." Paul responded cautiously. As far as he knew he didn't have the authority for any sort of hiring but something about her was piquing his curiosity. "And what made you come here looking for work?"

Waving her back toward the couch, Paul seated himself comfortably on the opposite end of the furniture with one leg of his gray slacks crossed over the other. He didn't have an office of his own, at least not that he knew about, and for now it was probably better to carry on the conversation in front of Lisa. That way she could report back to Lori and see herself that Paul wasn't trying to take any authority or power away from the boss. As if he could even if he wanted to.

Lisa largely ignored the duo, or at least that was what it seemed since she was heard to be typing furiously on her keyboard.

What kind of work did she want? "Any. Anything I can do that's worth getting paid for." She nodded once and then immediately started backpedaling. "Uh- within reason and common decency, that is." Yes. That would keep her out of trouble, she hoped. "If I have qualifications, I'm not sure what they are, but everybody is good at something. I can do... things."

Her confidence wavered with his next question. Usually when she went to apply for a job she knew ahead of time what she was applying for. Noel recovered quickly, though. "I know weapons. I can taste lies. And I can erase memories." She thought that might cover it. "I was told that this was where muties went..." By a hobo. He could have been messing with her. Sarcasm kind of messed with her lie-dar sometimes.

Paul sat silently as Noel gave her answers to his questions. As she did he continued to make an assessment of her. The ability to taste lies was an interesting one as was the power to erase memories. Skills with weapons could possibly be an asset depending on what Lori might want her to do but that was up to her, not Paul. Over all the young woman appeared to be physically fit with confidence to spare and that would go a long way.

"We don't often use the terms 'genetic defect' or the slang term 'muties'." Paul observed casually, "In fact some of the residents can be down right touchy about that sort of language."

If anything that was the under statement of the year but she would probably realize that some time down the road. Something still was touching a nerve as being off about this young woman. Even with her confidence and her listed skills there almost seemed to be an innocence about her but how was that even possible? Was it even possible for someone skilled with weapons to retain their innocence?

"Weapons is a pretty general term. What types do you specifically mean? I know older weapons like the Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver and the M1 Garand." He was looking for more details about what her proficiencies might be while trying to decide what should be done next. Should he ask Lisa to call Lori? Or should he ask if there was an open office somewhere? Should he schedule an appointment for Noel to come back at a later time? At least asking a few more questions bought him a little more time to decide.

Impolite? The surprise only registered briefly on her face. Noel would need to remember that.

"Guns, 9 millimeter pistols specifically. Like Baby Eagles, Berettas, Brownings, or the Taurus line?" She could have listed a few other things, tear gas and the grenade-like bean bag launchers included, but the idea seemed… bizarre. Here she was on a sunlit afternoon propped on a comfortable couch, discussing weapons with a stranger who… had he introduced himself? Noel couldn't remember and the conversation had likely progressed beyond the point where she might politely ask. "Mostly close range stuff because my abilities are close range."

Her bravado was all but spent at this point. Trying to remember these things was like looking through mud. She tried to keep the smile on her face. Smiling helped keep her relaxed which would keep the eye wiggles to a minimum.

"I've hunted mu-" She tried again, more politely this time. "I've hunted people before in order to track them. Adapteds and mutants, but only the most violent and dangerous ones." She wanted to qualify that, not because it made it more impressive, but because she didn't want it to sound like she hunted little old ladies who levitated tea cups.

"That wasn't the kind of work I was hoping for, but that's really my only qualifications."

Lori chose that moment to slam through the garage door. Lisa stood to check out the noise, but the Order leader was already jogging in through the hall.

"Agent Gage." The blonde's voice was breathy. She had rushed over, but was trying not to let it show. "To what do we owe the pleasure?" Blue eyes flicked over to Paul and amusement twitched at her lips.

Agent? The word clearly caught the girl off guard. It bounced around in Noel's mind. She could imagine hearing it from a hundred different lips in a hundred different settings. Agent was a word that once belonged to her. "I'm afraid that I'm not a Federal Agent any more, ma'am." Noel looked at Lori and the blonde looked pointedly at a spot on the wall. Lisa huffed about the Order leader's proximity to her computer.

"Maybe we should continue this in my office?" Lori asked the wall, but the words were for the two on the couches.

The brunette was confused by the newcomer's actions, but took the suggested change in locations as a good sign. Noel stood and went like a good little girl and after introducing herself to the woman and shaking her hand, went where Lori directed.

The blonde, acutely aware that even with her heels she was the shortest among the group, caught Paul's elbow before he followed Noel into her office.

"Give us just a moment? We'll be right in." Lori smiled and shut the door. When she turned around to face Paul, all her smiling was done. "It's nice to see you, but what is she doing here?"

The young woman was experienced with current weaponry and from the spread it sounded like she either grew up in a gun shop or had some sort of government training. Most people knew one, perhaps two pistols. For her to list four different lines was very telling. And then, out of nowhere the little lady dropped a bomb of epic proportions.

"I've hunted mu-" And with that cut off statement Paul suddenly knew what he was dealing with. This lady had worked for some sort of government agency that felt the need to police mutants in general. An agency that felt that normal human laws fit and could be applied to mutant kind. It was the foolishness that seemed to permeate the minds of those in government. while it was true that mutants did need laws just as human did those laws out of necessity needed to be different. There had to be exceptions and allowances because of the abilities that were wielded and the prejudices that were faced.

Thankfully, before Paul had to think up any sort of response, Lori appeared in the room. Glancing over toward Lisa, Paul raised an eyebrow and gave the woman a slightly admiring smile. She was good. He hadn't even realized that she was sending out a signal to attract Lori's attention but somehow she had pulled it off. Smooth... very smooth.

"Agent Gage." Lori apparently recognized the woman although the title of 'Agent' wasn't surprising. Miss Gage had given him enough information for him to put at least that much together. And then, out of nowhere, yet another bomb was dropped. "I'm afraid that I'm not a Federal Agent any more, ma'am."

The invitation to go to the office was a good one and as they stood, Paul was expecting the ladies to go to the office while he returned to the rec room. He had a solo pool game to finish and his mind was already beginning to move back in that direction when Lori caught his elbow, keeping him from either going down the hall or entering the office. After a polite comment, she closed the door and then turned to focus on Paul without a smile anywhere in sight.

For the moment, Paul stayed serious as he leaned up against the wall of the hallway and gave a quick overview. "Miss Gage, or Agent Gage as you called her is here looking for some sort of employment. From her last comment to you her job at the government must have been terminated. Her skills with weapons and her mutation have their advantages but her past is obviously dubious for your organization. But in talking with her, something seems off. I didn't have long enough to actually piece anything together, it's just a feeling I'm getting. Basically she's coming across as to innocent... or maybe she's just damaged."

Now that the report was given, it was time to be friendly. Allowing himself a brief moment to appreciate how nice the blond was looking at the moment, Paul gave her a quick smile. "And just so you know, you're looking very nice today and it's good to see you too. But, if you don't mind my asking, how do you know her?"

Lori rocked back on her heels. The girl was no longer an agent. "That sucks." She whispered the words to herself and her eyes flicked back and forth as if reading off an invisible written record. It was taking her a moment to process all this. RUPERT was either gone or had figured out that Lori had her fingers in their pie, either way somehow she'd caught the excess.

"And she came here?" That was most bamboozling of all. "It could be a trap, but she doesn't tell lies... Unless that was a lie." Whoa. This was getting a little crazy. Lori might need paper to weigh all this out visually.

The Order leader nodded absently to Paul about his assessment of Noel. "She's been here before." Lori explained. "Never on an official capacity, though. She came to complain about the insurance money was required. She's a mutant so she shouldn't have had to pay. Only, nobody ever seemed to remember that." She arched an eyebrow at Paul.

"I could use her." She bit her lip and decided. Yes. It would be worth the risk to have this power at their disposal if for no other reason, but it wasn't something she could handle herself at the moment. Not with so many other balls in the air. "I've used her before. She doesn't ask questions, just follows orders from higher ups. Once I figured that out, we had her running her official butt all over town for us. She's the reason I have half the intelligence I have on mutation nullifiers in New York. She can't discern lies from paperwork. It might be why she was let go... maybe why she came here..." Lisa had been right to call Lori in for this.

And Paul's comment about her attire brought Lori out of the deep, dark secret hole in her head. She looked nice? Lori glanced down at her suit. Money could make anything look nice. Even a guttersnipe like her.

"I'm uhh... at my day job." That was a jarring thought. She had to go back eventually. "Can you handle this?" Lori motioned with her eyes to the closed door where Noel waited. This could be a sort of test for him. If he couldn't handle one girl, no matter how needy, how could he manage much else? This was also a mark of trust from Lori. She could stay for a while, but this would either take no time or end up as a sort of "handler" position, which Lori definitely couldn't add to her plate.

"She has a few of my secrets stashed up there. If she tries blackmail... stop her." Lori inclined her eyebrow again and let him interpret how final the look in her eye was on his own.

((OOC: lets skip Noel this time, shall we?))

Lori seemed to be sorting out options in her head so Paul chose to simply remain silent and listen as she worked through everything. Agent Noel Gage was not an unknown quantity and in fact Lori seemed rather familiar with her. She knew about her power, her former employer, and even her personality. Apparently the intelligence side of the Sanctuary was better than he had realized. Lori had contacts in the government and had been gathering information on that new breed Paul had heard about, the one that could nullify a mutants ability. "That would be disastrous for me." He had to admit to himself, "Wonder how long an exposure it would take for me to be all dead instead of just part way?"

Day job? Had Lori really just said that she had some sort of day job? Running the Sanctuary, patrolling the area, and killing hoodlums that invaded wasn't enough for her? She needed a boyfriend... badly.

"I can handle it as long as you give me an idea of what sort of job you want to give her. I haven't been here long enough to know exactly how things work or even what my place is." Paul spoke calmly, returning his focus to business instead of the personal life of the woman that was slowly becoming his boss, "Also do we have some sort of armory and range on site to evaluate her weapons proficiency? Even though she says she's good, I have a hard time believing it until I see it. Like I said, something is off with her."

"... stop her."

The final statement was open to interpretation but Paul had a fairly good idea what she meant. There were really only three effective ways to stop a blackmailer. One was to get the information away from them, the second was to get dirt on them, and the third was to simply eliminate them. While the first two were less messy they were much more complicated. The third option was by far the easiest and if it came down to it Paul could make the choice. "I'll deal with whatever happens. Any other instructions?"

"Just make something up." Lori fumbled around for an example of a job that Paul might offer the girl. "Something with not a lot of responsibility like laundry or kitchen work or… no, not kitchen work. Maybe security here or at the pharmaceutical company."

Security wasn't a lot of responsibility at the Sanctuary because anything worth stealing was not worth the retribution. The security at Faust Pharmaceutical company was considerably more sophisticated, but since it had been rebuilt under her supervision, it had not been the target of a large scale attack or infiltration attempt.

"Take her to the training room. It won't be real guns, but it should suffice. Lisa can show you how to make it work." The Sanctuary had the equivalent of the Mansion's Danger Room, only where the Danger Room had a cool name a all shiny new parts, the Sanctuary's training facilities looked like they had been cobbled together from spare parts as a direct imitation of the Mansion gizmo. As far as Lori knew, it worked just as well as the Mansion one. She never went in for fear of breaking the thing.

Mental note: visit the Mansion Danger Room for a friendly training session and see if it breaks.

Any further instructions? She grinned. He was already taking orders even without an official position. How invaluable he could be to her, she didn't even want to dare to hope.

"Yeah. Be careful of her eyes. As I understand it, that's the source of her mojo."

They were talking just outside the door. Noel strained to listen from her cool metal chair. That was the most obvious thing about this office. Metal chairs and a metal floor. The desk looked like standard office equipment from the early 80's. There were quite a few papers on the desk, the most interesting one being a large poster of a woman in some kind of bikini.

Even just a quick glance at the desk started a slow budding headache between her eyes so she didn't look. But, there wasn't anything else to look at. This was possibly the most boring office she had ever sat in. No baby pictures, not a mirror or a painting. Just... walls. Inevitably, Noel's eyes were drawn right back to the bone bikini babe that was draped on top of everything else.

Was that good or bad that they didn't come in right away?

Noel folded her hands under her thighs just to put something between the cold metal and herself and wondered about the green bow on the model. Didn't that seem out of place for a bikini photo shoot?

If Miss Noel Gage had been honest about her skill set then the very idea of putting her to work in the laundry or kitchen was laughable. Neither of them were a good fit at all but security had definite possibilities. Then of course was the question of whether security at the Sanctuary or the pharmaceutical company would work better. At the Sanctuary she would be bumping into other mutants and if she kept using terms like 'genetic defects' and 'muties' then it would just lead to problems. Working at the pharmaceutical company might be a better fit for someone with her skills and apparently psychological issues.

"Security job, assess her skills in the training room, and avoid the eyes." Paul repeated with a nod, "I think I can handle that."

Turning, Paul moved over to the door, placing his hand on the knob before pausing and looking back over at the blond. "Oh, and Lori? Sometime down the road we need to have a talk about exactly what role I'm supposed to take on in this little organization of yours." Flashing a quick grin he opened the door and stepped into the office without waiting for a reply.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Miss Gage. As you probably already know Ms. Faust is the boss so all hiring decisions have to go through her." Paul offered as he walked over to the desk with a confident stride and sat down. For a moment he glanced around, taking in the room that was as foreign to him as it was to Noel before looking back down at the desk. Raising an eyebrow at the bikini picture, he shook his head ever so slightly and opened a drawer to hide away the item that did not fit in a professional workspace. "There's no accounting for taste."

"So tell me Miss Gage," Paul continued as he brought his gaze back up to the other woman and smiled, focusing on the bridge of her nose instead of the eyes that could apparently wipe his memory, "What led to your leaving Government services? Was it by your own choosing or were you terminated for some reason?" It didn't really matter since the decision on her hiring had already been made but Paul was curious. Something about this woman caused Lori some concern and he wanted to figure out what it was.