"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Katie. Shall we get down to business?"
Dawn continues looking at Ren for a moment longer, her eyes assessing Ren's build. She nods to Purge, then closes the distance between Ren.
"You must have many questions. I've prepared something so we don't have to stand here all night. Please, if we might," she says and walks past Ren, heading into the tunnel system running through the stadium. Ren follows, noticing Purge walking close behind him.
She leads Ren down into some kind of a small office near the locker rooms, pushes the door open and then heads straight inside. Ren pause at the doorway, looking over the office and the tunnels before deciding what to do. Purge stops behind him and leans against the rough wall, a sigh escaping the modulator strapped to his shimmering mask. The office is small but not cramped. The walls are decorated with paint and not much more. A corkboard hangs upon the wall next to a flimsy-looking desk and has various sports posters pinned to it. Small office chairs are placed on either side of the desk, and the wall on the door side is lined with green cabinets.
"Come, sit," she says, pulling the chairs out from beneath the desk and making herself comfortable on one of them. Ren notice that she reaches down and pulls out a plastic bag that squeaks as it's placed on the desk.
"I got us some Chinese," she says with a smile as she reaches into the bag and pulls out styrofoam containers. "Um, no offence. Not like I got Chinese food because of…you know…wow, that sounded more racist than I thought it would. I'm sorry. Please, sit, before I make more of an ass of myself."
The styrofoam containers are opened, filling the office with the aroma of freshly-cooked Chinese food. It's distracting, but Ren sits down and try to get back to what he came here for.
"What do you have planned? Why contact me?"
"I need your help. And that of other powered folks who disagree with the government policy being outlined right now. We're going to expose Reissman for what he really is, and to do that, we'll be assaulting his home and monument of new glory: the Star of Pacifica," Katie says seriously, looking up at Ren and dropping her chopsticks for a moment.
"How?" Ren ask, receiving a teasing smile from the woman across the table.
"We need evidence. His computer will have it all, and a confession of guilt would be even better. I intend no harm to him, just very simple humiliation. We need to shift public opinion, and there's no better way to do that than for someone to become a scapegoat and be outed as a driving force behind corruption. We need you in particular, because Reissman will have help from his own private militia, trained to take down people with powers, and he'll probably have Aura ready to pounce at the chance to defeat us and carry us all to prison for registration."
"I thought New Dawn was a cult." Ren ask.
"It was. When I wasn't leading it. You see, I gathered some people around me and they came to regard me with great respect. They thought I would change the world. I can't deny that I believed it as well, right up until I was captured and stuck in an underground concrete box. The thing is, thanks to my powers, I don't have to change the world. The world is already changing; I just have to make sure my powers aren't used to take it over during that change."
"How would they do that?" Ren ask. Katie drops her chopsticks for a moment and looks at him.
"They did tests on me. Same kind of tests they intend to do on every other powered person out there. That's what the whole detainment thing is really about. And the registry, for that matter. Reissman is manipulating the system to gain easy access to research specimens," she says, grimacing. "They had another project. I was Project Dawn, the source of their information. Project Mammoth was the result of having that information. Ferris Bernard was the subject. He was a scrawny researcher when they started on him, and now he's a hulking powerhouse who can tear down buildings with his bare hands."
"You didn't answer me about New Dawn. What is it?"
"It was a cult, as you said. Corrupted from my purpose of helping those that were cold and lonely, and used by those few I had trusted to create some kind of territorial gang. When I got out of my little prison, I changed things. I culled the bad elements and reorganized the entire thing. We're supposed to be a force of good, not have blood-smeared walls and firefights with the police," Katie says, shaking her head.
"What are you going to do now, then?" Ren continue, prodding at the real question.
"Right now, we want to oppose Reissman, the government, and anyone else who would lock powered folks in a concentration camp and prod them with needles. I'm trying to change public opinion, but it's hard, so I will have to make grander gestures. For example, Purge will lead an assault upon the concentration camp they're establishing to free some core figures. Nightreaver and Crimson Caracal are in there, and they would be of great help," she explains, her volume rising as she gets more excited, then stops. She takes a few breaths and offers a smile.
Sighing, Ren relaxes into the uncomfortable chair, picks up the chopsticks, and starts poking at the food placed in front of him. He can feel the woman looking at him as he picks up a small piece of chicken and places it in his mouth. Looking up, he see her beaming happily on the other side of the desk.
"Now this is a proper date. Eat up while I get this thing open," she says as she reaches down and lifts a cheap-looking bottle of wine from somewhere beneath the desk. Before Ren can agree or disagree with her chosen beverage, she's already pouring the stuff into two plastic cups that also come from beneath the desk.
The whole date thing seems very sudden, as she just threw the term at him, and he continue to eat, observing her as she drinks up the first cup of wine and takes a refill. With a slight smile, Ren takes his cup and start drinking as well. After a few cups, the two of them begin to quaintly chatter. Katie is especially curious about the vigilantism that Ren has been involved in so far, asking about specific incidents that have reached public awareness. She also fills Ren in on some more specifics about what had happened in that underground facility he saw, and what has been happening since then.
Ren notice some time later that the bottle is almost empty and the food is already completely gone. However, him and Katie continue to have a pleasant conversation. A knock at the office door breaks the moment, and Purge walks to the doorway, nodding towards the hallway and looking at Katie's late-night dinner companion as expectantly as the mask allows.
"I apologize. It's time we were on our way. The key you picked up is for an apartment near the Star of Pacifica. The office building two blocks south, has apartments on the second floor from the top. The room number is on the key. I trust you'll find the place. I need your help, and I need you to be an ace in the hole for us. We get inside the Star of Pacifica, obtain the information, and you enter when things start going wrong and we're already tied down. Nobody should expect you to be there," Katie says as she gets up and walks with Ren to the door of the office. "I'm trusting you on this. After it's done, I'll make sure you're properly rewarded, if that's what you want out of this. For now, I have other arrangements to make."
She pauses, then walks over to Ren, leans in, and kisses his cheek.
"Oh, and thanks for the great date. I had fun."
After leaving the stadium, Ren manage to find the place Katie had been talking about, a tiny little place close to the Star of Pacifica with a view of the penthouse. The next day, he wake to the sound of heavy trucks outside. Leaning out the window, he see column after column of military vehicles rolling into Pacifica. Later that day, he hear that the Governor has called in the National Guard's aid in gathering powered individuals and organizing their movement to registration centres.
Ren sigh and glance over at a phone in the apartment. He have a few choices that he can try.
The next couple of days go by uneventfully. Ren keeps a vigil over the Star of Pacifica, prepares himself and his equipment, but get little to no rest as a result. His nerves make his dreams go crazy. Instead, he chose to lull his mind with television. After the first day, he already miss the freedom of the internet. The late-night talk shows are the only thing that stand out from the droll inanity of commercials, television dramas, and cooking shows.
"I tell you, these superheroes roaming our streets need Hollywood treatment. Look at this picture we found of the one they call Nightreaver! Look at it." The host gets pulled into a split screen with a picture of Nightreaver. "Doesn't this guy look like he should be in some weird fetish strip club? Look at all that black, dear lord. I think we should definitely talk about this trainwreck with our first guest, who just happens to be a fashionista extraordinaire…"
With a groan, Ren turned the television off and roll over, trying to get some sleep.