Power Swap: Conspiracies and Accusations (Open)

[Joshua Bernstein]

It had been almost a week since Sean had discovered that he no longer had telepathy, almost a week since Hammel and the town of Pilot Ridge had been thrown into disarray when the population had woken up with different powers than the ones they'd trained with or with no powers at all. Even the non-powered population hadn't been spared, with adults suddenly finding they had uncontrollable, crazy powers.

At least Josh had escaped, or so he thought. But while Sean had returned to work the very day after he'd woken up without his power (to Josh's dismay; he'd tried to convince his partner to stay home again) he was miserable, the loss of his telepathy crumbling his foundations. Watching his pain, unable to heal him, was very close to torture as far as the attorney was concerned, and he'd taken it upon himself to figure out what had happened since everyone else seemed more interested in breaking down themselves, or playing with their new powers rather than righting things.

And so he'd thought long and hard, until a thought occurred to him: What had changed about Hammel and Pilot Ridge recently? And the answer, of course, was the retirement of Claude Harris and the arrival of Operation Patriot, two occurrences that Sean had expressed dismay over many times.

Operation Patriot. They were, as far as he was aware, interested solely in tying Hammel closer to the Industrial Military Complex, not that what little he'd been able to dig up on them said any of that, but they appeared to be some type of military recruitment agency, which meant that they were akin to the draft in evil, because he couldn't fathom anyone entering the military by choice. And in any event, their organization name was comprised of two of the most sinister words in the English language: Operation and Patriot.

And when he realized that they were the only thing that had changed about town recently, it occurred to him that they surely had not only the financial means and government backing, but also the interest, in causing chaos in Pilot Ridge, so that they could establish themselves as heroes upon whom the meta community needed to rely...

Well, that was why he had marched downtown, cigarette clenched angrily between his teeth, sporting Sean's leather jacket (several sizes too big for him, as Sean was quite a bit larger and taller than he was) and a righteously indignant scowl.

It hadn't been difficult to find the headquarters of the new organization, and he burst through the doors, marching up to the front desk and slamming his hands down for emphasis.

"I know what you're doing here. I demand to speak to the person in charge."

[Nicholas Kells]

Nick was not having a very good morning. He’d been a little on edge ever since news of the meta-powers problem. He wouldn’t have minded so much if only metas had been affected, but the thought of normal humans suddenly having powers disturbed him greatly. Luckily, he had been unaffected. But he was still nervous about the situation. Maybe this disease (which was how he saw metas) was contagious. Or perhaps there was something in the water system at Pilot Ridge.

He was attempting to get the copier machine to work for him (and actually considering giving Victoria another compliment so that perchance she would offer to just do it for him) when a familiar face walked in. Nick had seen Josh a few times around the town. They had even struck up a conversation about country music once. Nick had been glad to learn that Josh had no powers, although the man seemed to believe in a peaceful co-existence. Still, Nick had hopes of persuading the man to see the light. After all, he seemed intelligent enough. If nothing else, at least Josh would be someone that Nick could spend an evening at a bar with and not have to worry about being assaulted by some sort of freaky mind mojo.

All hopes of that, vanished the moment Josh slammed his hands onto the front desk and starting yelling.

“If you know what we’re doing here, Nick said, putting down his papers and marching over to the desk. “Then you should already know who the person in charge is, without having to cause a scene.” Lunatic Nick thought to himself. I think this one’s spent a little too much time around their kind.

“Now why don’t you try repeating your request?” he suggested. “A little calmer this time.” And what’s with the jacket? He looks ridiculous.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I can cause a scene if I want to." Josh replied petulantly, plucking the cigarette from between his lips and pinching it out on the desk, an act he ordinarily would have considered obscenely rude, but in the current situation he didn't care. He wanted to prove to the government and it's lackies that they didn't scare him.

He was honestly a tiny bit disappointed to find that Nick was here; he'd had no idea the other man worked for Operation Patriot, had thought he was charming and friendly. And instead he was part of some sinister government-sanctioned meta-drafting group. He probably watched Fox News or went to Tea Party rallies, or some other radical right wing terrorist activity.

Not that Josh was ever judgmental about those he disagreed with politically.

"I know what you did." He accused, scowling in what he hoped was an intimidating manner. "And I demand that you reverse it. If you don't, I will sue you and your unconstitutional cohorts into 2020."

And he deepened his scowl, because that somehow didn't sound as threatening as he had hoped.

[Nicholas Kells]

“I suppose it’s within your rights,” Nick offered, frowning down at the mark the cigarette had left on the desk. “But I’m sure you’re well aware that you run the risk of not being taken seriously.” And looking like a total imbecile. He considered escorting Josh off the premises, but he wasn’t up for making a scene himself.

Sadly, his first impressions of Josh (something close to approval) was quickly dissolving. Josh was being so childish that Nick had to resist the urge to reach out and shake him. Grow up man. You’ll never accomplish anything pouting and yelling like a toddler.

“What we did?” Nick asked, his eyebrows rising slightly. “Unconstitutional? I would think a man who strives for meta…” he struggled to get the next word out of his throat. “…acceptance would see more eye-to-eye with an organization such as this. You should really do your homework.” He shook his head in a disapproving manner, starting to wonder why he ever believed this man was friend-quality, or even normal. Still, at least he wants to give up plenty of time to prepare to defend ourselves in court. He smiled slightly to himself and folded his arms across his chest.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Yes, what you and your cronies here at this....this....this scam, pretending to give meta's equality while in reality giving them so little choice you may as well be drafting them, I know what you did."

Frankly, he didn't care whether Nick was impressed or not so long as he changed everyone back. Sean was absolutely frightening (in a depressing sort of way) without his telepathy.

He didn't know how exactly they had gone about this, but he didn't think that would help his cause any, and so he scowled in what was meant to be an intimidating manner. "You think you can get away with this, but you can't. Did you think nobody would notice when the meta population's powers went out of control? Did you think it would be a small thing to force them to rely on your organization so they'd think you were their savior and do whatever you wanted? Well, guess what, putting genetic-altering drugs in the water doesn't only affect the metas, you've affected the privileged, as well. You must be so proud of yourself. But you will find a way to fix things, you or one of your compatriots. Whoever came up with this, they did it, they can fix it."

It was perhaps to be noted that Josh had never done very well in science during his school years, and when he'd lived with Sean he'd relied on the budding medical student for help.

"My partner is depressed. Clinically. And it's all. Your. Fault."

[Nicholas Kells]

Cronies? Nick thought to himself, trying harder to suppress his smirk. Are we in a 1950's gangster film? He allowed Josh to continue his rant, waiting for the other man to take a breath so that he could bring to light the gaping holes in his argument.

And no, Nick was no impressed with Josh. Not at all. And he didn't really care that Josh was having a rough time with all the craziness that was occurring in the area lately. Nick had his own problems to worry about. Right now, Josh was nothing more than an annoyance. One he needed to dispose of. Preferably quickly.

"You think we did this?" Nick said, allowing his anger to slip though his normally calm demeanor. "Exactly what would we be accomplishing by causing more chaos for us to get under control? Perhaps you have confused this establishment with some of your more lazy and haphazard thought processes."

Nick paused for a moment, taking a deep breath to regain his professional composure. "Not that the how really matters all that much at the present time. I assure you, we are working as much as anyone on finding a quick solution." He gave Josh a stern look. "So, if you'll excuse me, I'll get back to work." He had a feeling that Josh was not done with his temper tantrum just yet. But he could hope.

"Also, seeing as I've never met your partner," Nick added. "I seriously doubt that I am the direct result of his illness." Though if he spends much time with you, I'm sure I can think of a reason to be depressed.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh supposed it was only to be expected that Nick would deny the accusations against him and his government agency. They weren't exactly flattering, after all, and just because he supported contaminating the water didn't mean he was stupid enough to admit that.

"Of course I think your organization did this." Josh scowled, displeased at the insult to his thought processes. He liked to think he was intelligent, certainly more intelligent than someone who came from the military. Only the very desperate and stupid went into the military.

He could feel his anger building, directed at the man in front of him for his lack of concern for Sean, for his disregard for the turmoil other people were facing, with his denial of the fact that his organization was the front for this anti-meta crusade.

"Ow." He clasped a hand to his head. His head was throbbing now; he could already tell this headache was going to last all night long. This was his punishment for getting so worked up, apparently. Ugh.

"I guess you can't even deny that, can you?"

He had no idea that he'd just used his new psionic blast powers, and he was squinting because his head hurt so badly, and he didn't see Nick to realize something was wrong.

[Nicholas Kells]

Nick was about to continued to point out the irrationalities of Operation Patriot throwing the entire town into chaos when his head started to throb. As the pain increased, he brought both his hands up to his temples. For a moment it felt like his eyes were going to shoot from their sockets. He stumbled a little, before catching himself. As he did, he looked at Josh realizing that the other man was also in pain.

“What the-?...Are you-?” he started to ask, wondering if something was going on in the building to cause the pain and concerned for the other man’s safety. Until it occurred to him that the building wasn’t the problem. Josh was.

“You…”he said, the anger showing in his voice. He had to literally bite his tongue to keep from finishing. But after all, this was his workplace. He had to keep things professional. He had to try to keep his personal feelings towards metas to himself. But the pain in his head wasn’t helping much. “What did you do to me?” he asked, taking a step closer to Josh. This is why they can’t be trusted. He looks like a complete idiot. And yet he can still cause so much damage. Sub-human freaks. He was attempting to control his breathing, but between the pain in his head and the anger building up inside he wasn’t doing a very good job. Totally ignoring the other man’s question, he waited for a response to his.

[Joshua Bernstein]

The anger in the other man's tone and expression was obvious even to someone as terminally oblivious as Josh, and he took a step backward without conscious thought. Perhaps pissing off a military organization (which was what he assumed Operation Patriot was) wasn't the best of ideas; they did have government backing, and it would do his cause absolutely no good if Nick decided to make him disappear.

The question that emerged from the other man's lips, however, was wholly unexpected, and all Josh's own anger evaporated, replaced by wide-eyed befuddlement.

"What did I do to you?" He repeated blankly. "I didn't even touch you! I asked you some questions about your organization, but I hardly think that counts as doing something to you, unless you're feeling guilt knowing that your actions were immoral."

His head still hurt, but the idea that Nick felt guilty cheered him up tremendously, and so, rubbing at his temple, he added, "If you just turn people's powers back to how they were we won't even have to mess with a lawsuit, which would be expensive and time consuming for all of us. "

[Nicholas Kells]

The pain in Nick's head was fading a little and being replaced with anger, and a little fear. He was a little pleased that Josh was backing away from him, but that move was far from solving the issue at hand. Or making things even between the two men. If this imbecile knows what's good for him, Nick thought to himself, scowling. He'll apologize and leave. He really wanted nothing more than to make Josh disappear from his life, preferably forever.

"Don't fake innocence with me," Nick said, taking another step towards Josh. "I know what you are." He clenched his fist to keep from throwing the other man towards the door. "It's the ones like you that created the need for this organization." He shoved his finger into Josh's face. "So you have no right to come in here with your moronic ideas of how things should work in the world."

"Guilt? Immoral?" Nick took another step towards Josh, completely crowding the other man's personal space. "My conscious is clear."

Nick's head still wasn't completely clear and his anger wasn't really helping the throbbing between his ears. "If you people would just stop running around spreading chaos, they we would have less of a mess to clean up," he growled.

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Fake innocence?" Josh echoed in confusion. He wished the throbbing in his head would dissipate so he could concentrate on what Nick was saying, so that he could refute his accusations. The next comment, however, caused resentment and bitterness and anger to boil. He'd heard those words before, and they always meant different things.

I know what you are.

The what was variable. Gay, .Jewish, Liberal. Sometimes people thought socialist or communist, though he was neither. He wasn't sure which one Nick intended; the context allowed for multiple readings.

Probably he didn't mean that he knew Josh was gay, as there was no reason he could think of that Operation Patriot was at all involved with homosexuality.

He could still mean he knew Josh was Jewish, because the Jews ran everything ever according to some theories, though he didn't think he'd kept this fact a secret from Nick when they'd been on friendlier terms. And while he didn't really believe that liberals ran around wreaking chaos if his assessment that Nick was a conservative (this assessment was based entirely on his career choice) were true then that was probably what Nick though they did -- and if he were going to be fair (of course he wasn't) he thought the same thing about conservatives.

"Oh, you know what I am." He repeated, folding his arms across his chest and defiantly holding his ground. Or as defiantly as he could since he'd already ceded some ground when the other man had first stormed over to confront him.

"Then tell me what I'm supposed to be, because last I checked I was a lot of things. However, thank you for informing me that you've built this organization specifically to combat an entire group of your fellow human beings. That's helpful, knowing the government is willing to ignore it's own laws in order to spread discrimination and oppression."

[Nicholas Kells]

The throbbing in Nick's head was only fueling his anger towards this pitiful excuse of a man standing in front of him. He could almost actually see the wheels attempting to turn in Josh's head as he tried to keep up with the conversation. And it's people like this, Nick thought to himself. That are the reason I will never be out of a job.

"Yes,"Nick answered invading Josh's space even further. Enough so that his chest actually brushed up against Josh's. "You and your kind, "he said, almost spitting the words. "With your total lack of morals and the brains of a goldfish. And yet for some reason fate has given you, worthless scum that you are, the power to destroy the world."

"Don't play all innocent with me," Nick said, unable to contain himself anymore he lashed out, shoving hard towards Josh's stomach and then crossing what he hoped was the other man's jaw with his right fist.

Glaring at the other man, Nick continued, "We're not combating out fellow humans. We're protecting them from animals. Like you." He swung his elbow towards the man's face. "So don't give me any of this holier-than-thou crap. I'm done playing nice."

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh stumbled back in surprise as Nick shoved him, too shocked to properly react. This was all too familiar to the words two women had spoken to him before, last year, when he'd only wanted to be friendly and ask directions out of the woods.

In this case, of course, he'd been far less than friendly toward Nick, but the reactions, and the physical violence were similar.

Except that Nick couldn't possibly hate him for being baseline, because he was, as well.

The only thing that made sense to him was, given the comments on lack of morals and power to destroy the world, was that Nick was antisemitic.

He winced as a fist met his jaw, both at the pain and the cracking noise and the memory of his jaw being dislocated only a year before.

"Your facts are wrong," He grunted in pain, staggering in an attempt not to fall over. "The Jews don't own the bank or control the media. I would get more done if that were the case."

[Nicholas Kells]

If Nick's head hadn't been throbbing so terribly, he may have laughed at Josh's reaction to his violence. Instead, he shook his head disapprovingly. "Have you no backbone?" he asked as the man stumbled around. He suppressed the urge to slap the other man in an attempt to knock some sense into him. As much as Nick hated metas, he still had some morals in how he dealt with them. There was no uses fighting if Josh wasn't going to reciprocate.

"All words and nothing to back it up with?" Nick taunted, hoping to spark some action in Josh. "You're as pathetic as the rest of them!"

"Jews?" Now it was Nick's turn to be shocked. Taking a step back, he wondered if he had knocked something loose in Josh's brain. Surely he hadn't hit him that hard...yet. "What are you going on about? I don't care if you're a Jew. I even care that you're some sort of peace and love hippy type." Finding his anger again, he shoved Josh once more towards the door. "What bothers me is that you're a diseased animal and you won't even admit it. You, all along with all the other mutant freaks, should be locked away on an island somewhere in the arctic circle where you can't hurt any of us!"

"If you were in control," Nick continued, starting to shout. "The whole world would be nothing but mindless violence against the innocent. And I'd be the first in line to throw you down off your thrown into a fiery pit."

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I don't back up my words with violence." Josh retorted, his words slurred in pain. He absolutely would back up his threat to see Operation Patriot in court, but he wasn't about to get into a fist fight with the other man.

Fortunately, Nick wasn't Reese and Lala, and he didn't continue to beat Josh, but instead resumed shoving him. Shoving wasn't optimal, but it was a far remove from being kicked in the ribs.

The other man's rant didn't make much sense, particularly when....

"Mutant freaks?" There were so many warring emotions at that statement, and he wasn't sure where to begin. "Mutant is an offensive term, you know." He decided upon at last, because he was flabbergasted that anyone would dare to use it. "Meta-humans and Baseline humans are all humans. Having meta-abilities doesn't make one somehow prone to....to violence or supremacy."

He winced as he said that. None of his friends were supremacists, but he was so thankful he hadn't reported the incident with Reese and Lala, because that would only further fuel the hate-filled rhetoric of people like Nick.

"And your hatefulness has so poisoned you that you assume anyone who calls you out on it is a member of the demographic you despise." He hissed as his back hit the door. "Which should prove to you that perhaps your biases need to be examined and dismissed."