Timelined the day after Choking the Snake
<Shaw> Sebastian Shaw was a fairly paranoid man. He didn't rise as far in life as he had by letting things take him unawares. So, he felt not the slightest bit strange as he sat on his leather sofa and calibrated the small scanning instrument.
<Hope> Letting herself into Shaw's apartment, Hope tossed her bag down by the door and made her way into the living room. Oh good, he was awake. And showered?! "Hey." She plopped down on the couch beside him, glancing at the instrument.
<Shaw> Glancing up at her, he raised an eyebrow, then went back to what he was doing. "I'm going to have to reprogram the locks."
<Hope> "You know that won't work. What are you working on?" She asked, interested.
<Shaw> "Well, I meant because I've been compromised, but yes, I suppose if I thought it would keep you out that would be another benefit." He paused and smiled, all teeth. "It's an RF detector, of sorts."
<Hope> "Compromised? Did you have an intern leak all your secrets? You have to pay them better, man."
<Shaw> His lips twitched again. "I know who took Jessica, and she's likely watching us right now."
<Hope> "Wait, what?!" Hope immediately glanced around the apartment for a hidden camera. "Who what, explain?"
<Shaw> Echoing her glance around the apartment, Sebastian grimaced and rested the scanner on his knee. "A woman named Ophelia Sarkissian, who goes by the rather obvious moniker of Viper has her, and very possibly those supposedly dead students from the school."
<Hope> "Wait, supposedly dead? I'm pretty sure burning in a plane crash is a sticking death..." Hope moved around the apartment, looking for anything odd or out of place... besides the obvious glitter left over from Paige's ransack.
<Shaw> "I'm pretty sure it was a set-up," he sniffed, going back to work on the scanner.
<Hope> "Crafty... I mean, it makes more sense than a direct kidnapping. How did you discover they may be alive then?" Hope poked a glittery picture frame, making a face as her finger came back with glitter on the tip.
<Shaw> "She admitted she took Jessica, but acted innocent on the other charge. The woman is a liar." He got up, flipping on the scanner, and started for the farthest corner of the apartment, near the balcony door. "I've known her for some time, and known she was dangerous, but this..."
<Hope> "Why would she take her though?" Hope was so baffled by that.
<Shaw> "I'm not sure, but she knew her parents. She said Jessica is with family now, however I know she has no living family." He left out the part that still haunted him - that she was staying of her own choice. That she wanted to be there.
<Hope> "Well... maybe it's an uncle or cousin or something," Hope shrugged. "I didn't think I had family either."
<Shaw> "Yes, but you didn't have me and my rather highly paid staff searching for your family, either." He shot her a look, then turned his attention back to the scanner as it beeped along the wall.
<Hope> "No, I hacked into the FBI database and found them myself." She shot him a look back.
<Shaw> "Not everyone can be a Stark, dear," he said mildly, then made a satisfied sound when the scanner keened loudly. "Ah, well... here we are."
<Hope> Hope jumped at the sound, turning to face him. "What did you find? And can I blow it up yet?"
<Shaw> Even Sebastian had to pull over a chair to pinpoint the location near the top of the wall in the decorative molding. It was tiny. Impressive. He gestured her over.
<Hope> She moved over to him, wishing she had some magnifying glasses to look at the tiny device with. "You'd have never noticed that.... Nobody would have ever noticed that."
<Shaw> "I believe that's the idea." He handed her the scanner and fished a knife from his pocket to pick it from the wall. "What abilities aside from mine can you access right now?"
<Hope> "A few different ones, not anyone I recognize... what do you need?" Hope held onto the scanner and watched him work.
<Shaw> "Well, if there were any that would provide a more satisfying way of disabling this without crushing it..." He had it free now and jumped down, opening his fist to show her the small camera on his palm.
<Hope> "I think I got something." Hope cracked her fingers a bit and got down on eyelevel with the camera, waving into it. "Bye bye creepy camera!" She touched it gently and forced it to cease working.
<Shaw> Bringing it up to eye level, he looked it over, eyes then sliding over to Hope. With a shrug, he flipped it to her and took back the scanner. "See what Tony's boys makes of that, if you like."
<Hope> Hope shrugged, pocketing it. "Don't you have a staff to do that too?"
<Shaw> "I'll keep the rest," he said, flashing teeth at her again as he resumed scanning, making his way to the living room. "I'm going to ruin that witch for this."
<Hope> "Sounds like a plan to me." Hope pulled out the camera and looked it over. "Crazy... why would she be so interested in one person..."
<Shaw> "I believe you've pinpointed the core reason at first brush. Viper is, for lack of a better word, a terrorist, on a scale of which your team has yet to encounter." He stopped at another wail of the scanner to retrieve his chair and repeat his removal.
<Hope> "Ok... but why Jess?" I mean she was pretty enough, but there were more powerful mutants.
<Shaw> "She's fixated on her, though I'm not certain why. Her father ran from something for years and attempted to protect her identity until his death." He handed that camera off to Hope to disable as well.
<Shaw> "I wish I knew how long these have been here," he muttered, almost to himself. Of course, there was no record of a security breach, which meant someone was having a very bad day at the office after his call. This afternoon, he would oversee the upgrade.
<Hope> "Strange... Poor Jess." Hope disabled the camera, feeling bad for her.
<Shaw> Sebastian caught Hope's eyes and gave her a long, assessing look, then swallowed and looked away. "Yes." He moved into the gym, which seemed to be clear, however it reminded him he'd need to replace the punching bag this afternoon as well.
<Hope> "So when you find them... you'll let me know right?" Hope kept up with him, looking around for any cameras.
<Shaw> "Of course," he said distractedly. The kitchen, of course, had a bug, as Jessica had spent so much time there. "I've notified the staff at the school of my suspicions about their students, after I contacted my own team."
<Hope> "Not that it will do much good, but thanks." Hope ran her hand through her hair before disabling that camera as well. How creepy! "So um... I want to scan my own place now."
<Shaw> He glanced at her over his shoulder on his way into his bedroom. "If you would like, certainly," he said, somewhat surprised.
<Hope> Hope stopped at the door frame, not willing to go in that place. "Yeah... kind of paranoid now."
<Shaw> "After what happened to Tony, it might be prudent to be paranoid. There are certainly strange things afoot." It still amused him that she wouldn't come into his bedroom, and of course, there were two cameras there. "You won't catch anything in here, you realize."
<Hope> "No... I think Viper caught all kinds of things though," she pointed out, shuddering and glad she wasn't on that surveillance team.
<Shaw> "Indeed." Sebastian sighed and pocketed the cameras, and the one in the master bath. He didn't look at Jessica's belongings.
<Hope> "Just... be smart... don't do anything stupid. Like going after her alone."
<Shaw> Stopping at the bedroom door, he fixed her with another searching look before brushing past. "I will get her back."
<Hope> "I know you will, I just advise being more intelligent than I was." She followed him back through the house.
<Shaw> Intelligence had nothing to do with what he felt right now, so he didn't answer. Instead, he went to his work room door and the false wall slid smoothly aside. He rested his hand on the touchpad and waited for the biometrics to do their job. The door clicked open and he turned to Hope with a slight smirk.
<Hope> "So you'll help me build one of these right?" Hope asked, already in awe and following him.
<Shaw> "If you like," he chuckled, checking with the scanner again, just in case. If Viper had gotten in here, he had larger problems than his love life.
<Hope> "Uh yeah... because that's badass."
<Shaw> "Of course it is. Obviously you expected rather less, which is disappointing." Sebastian was pleased the scan came up negative and set the equipment aside. He rummaged in one of the neatly organized shelf bins.
<Hope> Hope took a seat for herself, taking in the room. "Yeah... I need one of these." She glanced over to him, wondering what he was looking for.
<Shaw> He found what he was looking for and dropped the cameras onto a work bench, briefly running a small item over them to neutralize them.
<Hope> Hope moved her chair to the other side of his bench to watch him work, trying to stay quiet.
<Shaw> She got a momentary side-eye, and the corner of his mouth quirked up, but he kept at it, then tossed the device to her. "It produces a small, yet powerful, electro-magnetic pulse. Disables most electronics instantly."
<Hope> "So it's what you use when you don't have a techie around. I like it." Hope grinned at him. "Can I put it on my Christmas list?"
<Shaw> That earned her a soft laugh for her enthusiasm. Pulling over a magnifying light, he hooked a rolling stool with his foot and got a closer look at one of the cameras. "I may need to flood the apartment and just replace the electronics to err on the side of caution."
<Hope> "Probably a good idea. I can help you with that if you want. I could use a good side project to get me away from coding." She glanced around and blinked a couple of times when she noticed the robot being built. It made her robotic arm look sad.
<Shaw> "Thank you," he said, genuinely surprised. "I'm going to suggest to Xavier that they check for similar surveillance devices as well." Sebastian sat back and rubbed his eyes with a sigh.
<Hope> "It'll take forever to search that mansion.... but we should." Hope moved to examine the robot, unable to stop herself from doing otherwise.
<Shaw> "Indeed. That could be another side project, yes?" Finally, he noticed what she was doing and swiveled the stool to watch her. "I'm too tired to give you the standard threat that you never saw that, my dear."
<Hope> Hope waved him off a bit. "Yeah yeah. You've been holding back on me." She turned to look at him again. "Mine could look so much better."
<Shaw> "Yours is good for a first effort," he said, getting up to join her and rubbing his chin speculatively. "I should be working on this, point of fact, to ensure it's delivered to my client in time."
<Hope> "Clearly you need your best student here to help you."
<Shaw> "Perhaps," he smiled. "It's a portion of a government contract. A rather large portion, in fact."
<Hope> "Well. What can I do?" Hope glanced over at him.
<Shaw> "It needs to be an autonomous AI capable of split-second decision-making and independent operation." He leaned in to take its chin between his thumb and forefinger to look into its dim eyes. "Jessica said it was creepy."
<Hope> "Yeeeeah that's all fine and great until it goes back in time and kills Sarah Conner." Hope inspected the robot more closely.
<Shaw> That made him laugh. "I've never told you I planned to change the company name to Skynet?"
<Hope> "I could totally see it." Hope nudged him playfully. "But no, you've never told me."
<Shaw> "It's shocking, I know, but I'm capable of a joke from time to time." He gave her an equally playful leer. "Oh, harder."
<Hope> "Ew. Ew, ew, ew," Hope shuddered, horrified by that joke.
<Shaw> Sebastian grinned, more than happy for the momentary distraction.
<Hope> "I should start a douchebag jar for comments like that. Like in that show."
<Shaw> He bumped her shoulder and reached over to flick the robot on. Though it was still mostly a skeleton, the oversized creation whirred to life and focused its gaze on the two mutants.
<Hope> Hope grinned at the robot and examined it once it was on. "That's pretty badass."
<Shaw> "Of course," he smirked. The robot looked from one to the other as they spoke. "It's still learning language... I'm afraid subtleties are still lost on it as well. It will require, well, let's call it socialization."
<Hope> "How does one socialize a robot?" Hope asked, curious.
<Shaw> "Well, it's rather like the socialization of a child, or a pet," he said, picking up his tablet and powering it up. He punched in a code on the touch screen and the robot looked at Hope again. "Tell it hello."
<Hope> "Uhhh hi?" She felt ridiculous.
<Shaw> The mechanical creature clicked and jerked slightly. "Good afternoon, Hope," it said in a monotone, hollow voice.
<Shaw> Sebastian shrugged one shoulder at it after giving it a critical glance, then handed her the tablet and turned to look for something.
<Hope> Now Hope had a new toy! She grinned and looked over the tablet, seeing if she could make the robot dance.
<Shaw> Ignoring Hope and her toy, he checked another shelf and then muttered an apology and left the room. It must be in the bedroom.
<Shaw> After a moment, he stuck his head back in the door. "Don't break anything, Stark."
<Hope> "Only going to bust a move!" She danced with the robot, pleased with herself.
<Shaw> Once he found what he was looking for, in the top of the closet in a dusty box, he started back to the workroom. He paused when he heard a crash, squeezing his eyes closed.
<Hope> "He did it!" Hope called out, blaming it on the robot.
<Shaw> "Of course he did," he said, coming into the room. After making sure the robot could see him, he pulled the old revolver from the back waistband of his trousers and leveled it at Hope.
<Shaw> Its eyes flared up, recognizing the threat, and it raised a hand. The blast hit Sebastian in the center of his chest, making him stagger back into the door frame with a wince.
<Hope> Hope let out a shout of surprise, ducking down as the gun and subsequent blast were fired. "What the everloving hell!?"
<Shaw> As he hadn't dropped the gun, the robot fired again. This time, he lost his balance and fell over backwards with a surprised curse.
<Hope> "What. The. Hell!?"
<Shaw> "Yes, hell?" He looked up at her, all innocence.
<Hope> "You should warn a person. And be glad the robot kicked your ass instead of me."
<Shaw> "Well, it's not loaded," he said, rolling to the side and scooping up the gun. "And that was rather the idea - to test the reaction of my creation."
<Hope> "Why do you even have a gun? You have armed guards. Who are useless as I screamed and nobody came in here. Should fire someone." She half teased as she got to her feet.
<Shaw> "It was my father's." Sebastian sat up and smirked at her. "Do you think they're unaccustomed to hearing screaming coming from my apartment?"
<Hope> "They damn well should be when I'm here. Because ew. And I have security too." She brushed herself off as she smirked back at him, unable to help herself.
<Shaw> Her disgust made him grin and he jumped smoothly to his feet, tucking the gun back into his belt and offering her a hand. The robot made an unsettled electronic burbling sound but remained still.
<Hope> Hope gave him a fist bump and glanced back at the robot. "Is he going to keep attacking you? Now that you're a threat? Because that could be awesome."
<Shaw> "...it may." He gave it a wary look. "Obviously, I'm still working out the kinks."
<Hope> "So you tested it and it may keep attacking you? This could be fun." Hope glanced over at the robot again, more wary after that revelation.
<Shaw> "Well, you do have its control pad." He looked for the tablet.
<Hope> "So I could use it to kick your ass," she smirked, handing it over to him.
<Shaw> "Thank you, my dear," he said, taking the pad and powering down the robot. Once it was safe, Sebastian returned the smirk and gave her hair a flick.
<Hope> She wrinkled her nose at him. "Anymore surprises I should be on the lookout for?"
<Shaw> Sebastian just smiled at her.