Major Pain in the Ass

[Ashlie Minamida]

After giving the military a some time to get settled and start their work, Ashlie goes to check up on them in the workshop. Not that she has to, the workshop has plenty of cameras for her to keep an eye on things, but she wants to talk to the Major and it doesn't hurt to make an appearance 'in person'. Especially since Tereza apparently dragged in an alien she wants to make sure the situation is under control.

[Major Briggs]

The Major was looking over some charts and readouts -- on paper, possibly just to annoy ASHLIE -- dealing with some of the results from initial testing on Will.

The other scientists were hooking up some monitors and other equipment essentially to the university's CAT scanner, as they went to get some more in-depth data.

"Ah, headmistress, nice of you to drop by," the Major said, drinking some coffee.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Major." she nods. "How are things coming along?"

[Major Briggs]

"Slowly, but surely. We've taken a lot of baseline readings, and are comparing them to the information we took on the subject back home. Would you like to see?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Please." she says. "Did you find the results of my mass-spectrometer and radio-dating?"

[Major Briggs]

"Yes, thank you. It saved us a bit of time."

They had done a pretty thorough basic checkup to begin with, gauging reaction times and reactions to pressure and stress. They had also apparently taken some samples and run it through some pretty through tests, with some chemical breakdowns and readouts there, all showing rather massive changes from 'baseline' normal.

"I tell you, it's like riding a bike. So much of my time goes to admin, that it's nice to do some actual science for a change.

Of course, it would be going faster if the subject was here all the time, but I understand that he has duties elsewhere?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"His duties are mostly that he is a person, living his life. But yes, he is also part of our response team."

[Major Briggs]

"Well, that's why we sent it out here, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. Just means you'll get to enjoy our company for that much longer. We have a couple ideas we want to try, hoping to use it's unique morphogenic signature to essentially 'regenerate' clean matter. Then we could take the old, contaminated matter away. We're not sure that will work, but it's the leading theory we have so far.

We're also hoping to test it's telepathic abilities now, to see if the compound itself is working. Might as well take advantage of this opportunity.

But that's not what you're really interested in, I'm sure," he said, opening up a briefcase. "You want to know about where the compound came from."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I care about his quality of life. And I don't think you want me to care about your psychotropic substance research. I am interested in his origin. The potential for dimensional data alone..."

[Major Briggs]

"I was referring to the telepathic compounds that it's been injected with. You wanted to know about the theft of the chemicals from our base in Nevada. I was able to pull a few strings, and I have some data on that for you."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Ah, of course. I appreciate it. Not that I don't think your people did a bad job investigating it, but we have uncovered some things that might provide some context. It's something I need to talk to you about anyway."

[Major Briggs]

"Then let's talk. I have the security footage, and you might be able to match it up with your suspects. It's no one in our database; no known agents."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I'll take a look. We have a suspect in custody, namely the person who did this to Will in the first place." she says and brings up a picture of Finn on one of the screens.

[Major Briggs]

The Major nodded. "That's certainly not the man on the tape, at the very least."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Is it possible the culprit was a shapeshifter?"

[Major Briggs]

"Almost anything is possible -- it would explain how they were able to pass multiple security checkpoints, as well.

An X-gene being expressed would likely have set off sensors, but there are other methods of shapeshifting out there."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"We apprehended one that Will claims is an alien." she says, observing the Major's reaction carefully to see if this surprises him in any way.

[Major Briggs]

It did! Mildly, at least. "Is it still here?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"It is, though it seems to have decided that it's done talking to us and has turned into, well, furniture."

[Major Briggs]

"...Well, I have some experience in that arena, if you would like me to attempt to get some information."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You do? Interrogating aliens?"

[Major Briggs]

"Dealing with a shapeshifter sticking as furniture and not talking to people."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"A fair point. If you want to try, be my guest. It just seems like this one has a vested interest in keeping us in the dark. If our suspicions are correct then they are the ones behind the recent surge of mutant terrorist attacks across the globe."

[Major Briggs]

"Then it's rather imperative we find out where their base of operations is and shut it down, isn't it? Especially if you believe they're responsible for stealing the compounds.

What do you suppose they would want with telepathic inducers and telepathic blockers?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Enable them to blend in and fool telepaths would be my guess, but who knows exactly. I agree that we need to find where they're operating from and we have a couple of leads, but we also know that they have several facilities used to condition mutants. In Russia. I obviously have some leeway in intervening in these matters, but these appear to be sanctioned if not openly acknowledged by Russia."

[Major Briggs]

"Yes, our 'friends' in Russia are exceptionally willing to condone plenty of 'helpful' research.

There's obviously very little we can do officially to discourage them. And, officially, I would have to discourage you from interfering in the acts of another sovereign nation.

Officially."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Of course. The thought would never cross my mind. I'll send the image of your thief to some of the students who have encountered them. It might not amount to much, considering their abilities but if it was them then we need to do our best to stay on top of this."

[Major Briggs]

The Major nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. I'm not sure what other assistance we could give you..."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"If I can think of something I suppose I'll let you know. In the meantime it probably wouldn't hurt to pass the information about these things up the chain."

[Major Briggs]

"I'm sure I'll happen to forget about you invading a foreign country. It's so hard when you're transferring all this information onto paper, isn't it?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I'm glad we have an understanding about this." Ashlie nods.