3.03 – ARISE

Leona flew up into the air, basking in the sun, zipping around. She took in the rays - literally.  She flitted around for a while and when it drew close to 4 PM, she made her way towards Kirby’s police station.  She texted him.

Angel incoming!

When she reached the rooftop again, Kirby met her at that moment, having rushed upstairs.  He panted a bit as he waved. “Hi, Aurora! It’ll be a little bit, but you’re soon to meet Agent Carlisle of ARISE.  He’s a bit of a weird sort, but I guess you’d need to be to deal with super stuff across federal lines.”

Aurora blinked, “ARISE?” She said with an arched eyebrow. “I wonder why he wants to see me?”  She crossed her arms, thinking about it.  “What do you mean ‘weird’ exactly? Is he an alien or something?” She tilted her head.

“You’ll see what I mean when you meet him, don’t worry though. He seems earnest enough, just … weird.  How have you been doing?” Kirby chuckled.

“Oh…” he interrupted Aurora as she opened her mouth, “That reminds me … I keep getting calls asking for you … we’re going to set up a pre-screen so I don’t keep getting them, but you should think about giving an interview to some of them. Someone of your age, you probably want to talk either to LT or Val North.”

As always, Kirby was like her best friend in the police department plus a PR manager.

“I’ve definitely been thinking about talking more to Valerie.” Leona smiled. “I gave her the first information I released about myself publicly.  I toyed with the idea of talking more with her, but honestly … I’m not sure what else I can tell her that I haven’t already.” Leona chuckled.

“At least what wouldn’t compromise my secret identity or the privacy of others, anyhow.” She smiled wryly.  It’d be a heck of a headliner if people found out she was involved with Mistral.  Even so, she was tempted to leak it out, but she didn’t feel it was her choice to compromise her privacy, not to mention her reputation. It’d be easier and nicer if they were an open couple.

Kirby nodded.  “That’s up to you.  If you don’t have much to say, you could make it a social visitation.  She’d be annoyed to get nothing else solid, but too bad. Just remember, if a media personality decides they hate you, things can get pretty hot.”

“I know all about that kind of problem.” Leona nodded.  “Anyhow, I’m doing alright, otherwise.  I've been feeling more confident ever since I went to hero bootcamp.” She grinned.

“Well, these people usually are happy with puff pieces, or so I’d think,” Ben added in response.  “Anyway, you want to head downstairs? I’ll buy you a coffee or something.”

“You can afford that with your income?” Aurora laughed, teasing.

Kirby chuckled. “Right. I don’t have that fourth summer home yet.  Even so, I’ll treat you.”

Aurora looked at him, thoughtfully, smiling.  “Should I be discrete?”

“Why bother?” Kirby shrugged.  “This guy’s here to meet Aurora, and besides, we have a surprise for you.” He smiled. “Something that ought to make our lives a little easier here.”

Aurora raised an eyebrow. “Should I be nervous?” Her lips twisted as she folded her wings behind her and stepped into the doorway heading downstairs.  Saying that reminded her of something.  Mistral had mentioned something about a present too, and she hadn’t gotten it yet.  She wondered about both surprises as they walked down.

The super heroine moved along after Kirby and he signaled for them to pause when they reached a bank of vending machines.  Kirby reached into his pocket and passed her money for the machines.  She thought he meant a coffee in a cafe or a shop, but a vending machine was certainly right inside his budget.  “I figure you don’t have any place to keep a credit card in that costume of yours, right?” He grinned, which was a bit less common than his chuckles were.  “Come on back to my desk when you’re ready.”

Leona stood in front of the machines, thinking about what to get when she heard an unfamiliar voice behind her.  IT WAS A SETUP! Good old Kirby set her up!  “You must be Aurora … unless they’re hiring angels for the police force, that is.”  The voice was young, male, and somewhat suave if you went for that sort of thing.

Aurora hesitated a moment, and then deliberately ignored the person, thinking more about what drink she wanted.  The person watched her silently.  She finally chose Dr. Pepper.  There weren’t any coffees… though they probably would have a coffee station somewhere, not that it would be particularly tasty… well not as much as Goonie’s cafe had.

She opened her soda after she retrieved it from the dispenser bin and took a drink, finally looking at the guy.  “Hmmmm… I guess you’re Agent Carlisle.  Is it that time, already?  I thought I’d be shown into a room where you sat sourly behind a desk.”  She tilted her head thoughtfully and sipped again.  How was he weird, though?  Was it because he chose to make his appearance by a vending machine?  Well, maybe that was.  She assessed him visually.

Carlisle stood wearing a grey suit with a bright red tie.  He was young and his blonde hair was slicked back as though he was Grease crossed with Mafia.  He had a thin but genuine smile and his blue eyes were sharp and alert. He was surely assessing her as well.  At his waist a gun holster was belted under his jacket, but far more interesting than that, he had a wakizashi hanging from it.  That was a peculiar pairing to say the least.

He shrugged and opened his arms, gesturing grandly, seemingly preened over being inspected in detail.  “What can I say, I’d rather be earlier than late.  I noticed you from across the room, of course.  I’m impressed, honestly.  You’re much more impressive indeed in person than in the terrible cell phone videos and pictures going about on the net.” He clinically looked at her choice of drink.

“You know, it might be better to drink just plain water than any of that stuff.”  Aurora’s eyes rolled. Oh jeez… another Goonie… except this one was a strutting princeling?  Well.. maybe not that, but he might be weird just for his choice of clothing and weaponry.

After a moment of silence, he smirked.  “Ah, but where are my manners,” he said flatly.  “Agent Chester Carlisle of ARISE. You can call me Chet.”

Aurora smiled politely, flattered although she was very wary of him.  He was without a doubt a dangerous man.  A very garish, garish, flamboyant and dangerous man.  Aurora supposed        that any agent of a government agency should be, though.

She racked her brain for a response and chuckled. “One is pleased to impress.” She grinned slightly and took another sip of that cloying unhealthy beverage she was enjoying.  “So what did you want? To get an impression of me, Chet?” She wondered if this was a courtesy meeting like a few of her rooftop meetings with Midnight Avenger had been.  Or if it was more.

“Actually, there’s a specific thing I wanted to talk to you about.  The Xevolve incident you were involved with.  Not just that, I wanted to give you a heads-up, shall we say.  Hmmmm…” He considered a moment. “Why don’t we adjourn to a more private place, say the Detective’s desk.  Since that’s in keeping with what you were expecting.” He laughed.  “Shame about the funding here.  Probably is in the Mayor’s pocket,” he said with a hint of bitter cynicism.

“What funding?” Aurora looked at the run down hallway and walked alongside Carlisle as he started, clasping his hands behind him.  It wasn’t impossible to feature the Mayor being involved with petty theft or embezzlement.  This was San Isidro, after all.

Carlisle spoke, “I guess you don’t watch much news. I don’t blame you, no, I wouldn’t either if I didn’t have to.  Code: Blue funding wasn’t passed through the city legislature.  Apparently, there was a grant for funding for special police forces, but the funding is missing.

They approached Kirby’s desk and he waved for her to follow him past, seeming to have changed his mind midway.  She raised another eyebrow as she took another sip of her drink.  He led her this time to interrogation room #5.  Kirby was at his desk, and as they passed, Kirby waved his fingers at him.   The three came to a stop in the room.  Once they were inside, Carlisle locked the door and took a seat at the table.

Kirby was the one who broke the silence and Aurora enjoyed her drink.  “OK, so what’s all this about?” His voice was mildly put out.

Agent Carlisle stood and walked around the table a few times and came to a stop opposite the door.

Aurora tilted her head.  What was with all the drama?  She watched him, but essayed asking a question of her own, “ So, Code: Blue was going to be introduced here?  Like you said, that IS a shame if it didn’t fall through.  Hopefully Detective Kirby was considered for the position of official liaison here.” She smiled.  “But I suppose it’s a moot point if it was stolen, that is.”

Kirby spoke, “Yeah, I got the news about it last week, actually.  It was in the Sunday edition of the Register-Post.  To add insult to injury, that … my counterpart in Seaside is getting a full Code: Blue upgrade.  Anyway, I’m sure that’s not what all this is all about.”

Finally triggered by something they said, Carlisle spoke, “Yes, I wanted to keep you in the loop about the Xevolve situation in your city.”

Ben’s brow wrinkled. “Something about the kids, then? The ones from the camp?”

Carlisle nodded. “Well, something like that, yes.  It’s more to do with their associates.”

Aurora blinked. “Associates? What, the children’s parents? The camp counselors that were arrested on the site?”

The eccentric man smiled faintly. “Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, you see.  After looking at the Midnight Avenger’s reports, we’re considering keeping the kids… yes… every last one in quarantine for about four months.”

Aurora thought about it and sighed. “Considering the threat they pose, it might be the safest course of action, but did you think about what they would think about being separated from their parents?  They’re all volatile, ready to go off the moment something goes wrong.  Something like if an atomic bomb was connected to a hormonal kid in the city… and the moment someone made the wrong step and the kid had a meltdown, say goodbye to this city.  Quarantine is a pretty word that promises safety, but they’d be liable to resent it and the authorities.  You don’t want that.  You’re putting huge chips on their shoulders they’ll take it out on anyone they see as a source of their misery.  It’s wiser to organize a watch and respond to threats rather than antagonize them.  That is unless you want to rent Disney World for four months and give them a wonderful vacation.  Although, if something happened there, the government would have to fix it, right?”

Aurora went on with a last line, crossing her arms. “I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll probably have to subdue them since pre-treating them for their condition doesn’t seem to be an option, or else that would have been done long since.”

Carlisle stared at her for a long moment and he beamed.  Kirby nodded to Aurora as Carlisle spoke, “I’m glad to see that you agree with my opinion in that we can’t simply quarantine these children.  The Xevolve situation should start to seriously ramp up over the next few months, either through dangerous mutations or by working its way out of their systems entirely.  I’m going to report to my superiors that the local enforcement and metahumans agree that we should leave these kids more-or-less alone.”

He resumed his walking, this time in a pattern across the room.  The two looked at him as though he was insane with how OC his movements seemed to be.  His lips twisted. “It’s a kata, my friends,” he mentioned quietly, having anticipated the question. “Helps me think, you see?  Anyway, surveillance is a problem in that we want to keep it covert, but 24-7 manpower for what is essentially a stand-and-watch operation without any productivity would never get approved.  SO I am going to set up - quietly - a temporary local office here for ARISE … and meet with the principals of the various schools to give them a contact number. Now,” he looked directly at Kirby speaking onwards, “Detective, this is where you come in.”

“Oh, I’m suddenly involved in this conversation?” Kirby spoke wryly and looked back at Chet while he continued stepping and moved his arms in a deliberate manner. “Sure you don’t want to finish your kata first?”

“Don’t be silly,” Chet said, continuing to move, “it’s mediation in action, I can multitask, I’ll have you know.  Technically this is entirely within my jurisdiction,” he said. “The Agency for Registration and Investigation of Special Events, AKA ARISE has full rights to any metahuman issue inside the borders of the United States … but I don’t want to be like many of my colleagues.” He stopped, bowing straight ahead, and then turned back to Kirby with hands clasped before him.  “I want to develop good relationships with local authorities such as you, my good man.  That’s why I cleared up the jurisdictional issues with the camp in the first place.”

“That was you, huh?” Kirby turned towards Aurora. “As you might know, Junker isn’t exactly in San Isidro or Seaside City limits … we raided under semi-false pretenses because of local kids being involved, technically we needed to involve federal officials, who they granted us federal powers by proxy until they could send agents.”

Chet spoke again, “I was contacted and talked to my friends in the FBI, who then conferred the powers by proxy to Detective Kirby here and his associates. I’ve been keeping an eye on events for the last few months while working another metahuman case.  Anyway, now that I have authorization and resources to set up a local office, Detective, I would like the blessing of the police department to set up surveillance equipment on the affected kids … covertly, of course.”

Kirby’s lips twisted. “Why talk to me, though? You should be talking to the Captain … or the Chief … I’m just a Detective.”

Carlisle laughed humorously. “My dear man, you are the de facto Code: Blue officer for San Isidro.  None other.  Even without funding, you are basically the one they’re going to dump metahuman issues on, Detective.  I’m coming to you because I want your personal approval from a metahuman point of view, so if I need to speak to the police administration, I can say that you approve of my plan and I wanted to move quickly with it, you see?” He smiled and nodded thoughtfully.

“So… I’m a scapegoat, then. Thanks.” Kirby replied, bitterly.

Carlisle took over again, “No, that’s not it at all. As I said, this is entirely my jurisdiction. I can do this whether the local police like it or not, as long as I have cause, which I do.  However, if I went to the San Isidro Chief, he’d call you and ask what you want to do, and likely you’d shrug.” He shrugged comically. “Then you’d say you have no idea and just agree. This way I cut out all the bureaucracy.”

Kirby sighed and shook his head. “Sheesh, well you’re not wrong,” he said. “I’m onboard so long as it doesn’t disrupt anything. So does this mean we’re going to have latex-suited commandos jogging through our streets?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have the pull to get a permanent STARS group installed locally, so we’ll have to depend on normal response times which can be fifteen-plus minutes …” Carlisle trailed off, musing.

Kirby spoke, filling in the blanks, “Which is why we need an actual Code: Blue division here in town. Well, that’s fine.” Kirby shrugged. “No different than usual.”

Chet nodded and resumed. “Hopefully we’ll have a little more warning and I can send out a call to cut down response time.” He turned to Aurora with a grin. “Now Aurora, I’d like to add your number to my phone. Can I assume you have an SOS card? If you give me your number, I’ll be able to contact you and vice-versa. I’d be happy to work with you on metahuman matters, both in an advisory and a direct capacity.” He finally offered his hand to Aurora to shake.

Aurora hesitated, considering the matter. It all seemed like things the city was much in need of, and the deal a decent one for the moment.  She took his hand and firmly shook it.