2013.08.29 - Nate Versus Nate

Things are so blasted screwed up lately. Why not further complicate matters? Domino's remembering things that seem both familiar and foreign at once, things that had always existed and yet, for a time, never existed at all. It's made her realize a few things that she hadn't noticed before, such as her inherent distrust of mind readers.
And that she may have been unnecessarily hard on Nate Grey before.
She can't remember if a promise had been made to track down the other mutant if a certain individual came back around or not, but at this point? It almost seems like the right thing to do. Heck, for all she knows having another encounter with the guy will help her sort out some of the mess that is her own thoughts. Possible gain, zero loss, minimal effort. What the hell.
The most difficult part is tracking down Nate (the other Nate) in order to have this talk. Fortunately, the woman is with her own means. That, and the Nates do tend to stand out. Seeing this one again is more of an eerie sight now, like noticing something that she had always missed before and only now realizes just how out of place it really is.
(You mean that elephant wasn't part of the room all along?)
Catching up to the man, she tries to grab his attention with just one word. "Nate." So foreign, and yet..so familiar.
Nate is not easy to track, he hasn't much of a schedule, his job at Halo is a fake and his visits to Xavier's irregular and unpredictable. It takes a bit of luck to find him, but luck is Domino's field of expertise. And there he is, just leaving Halo Tower and by walking instead of flying. He notices Domino a couple seconds before she addresses him, easy to notice because he tenses visibly and changes pace. He is not good at feigning indifference, and Domino is not his favorite mercenary mutant lady.
He grunts, glancing back at the woman. "How did you find me?" That is annoying: People finding him, because there are some people he doesn't want to find him (even less than Domino).
"Right place, right time," Dom replies with a dismissive shrug. "That's not the important part here." (Not now that I can see how you react whenever you're around me, big guy.)
"Ten minutes. Give me that and I'm gone, you can do whatever you want from there." Not that she's going to give him a chance to reject her 'offer.' She didn't wander all the way out here just to be given a 'no,' nuts to that!
Rather than cut straight to the matter which she knows will interest him the most, she goes straight to the matter which interests her the most. Unfinished business, as it were. "What is it about me that bothers you so much?"
Nate gives an humourless smirks at her answer. "Oh sure, we have time..." he looks around for a place out of the way that is not back into Halo. But really, this is the Financial District, crowds everywhere. "What bothers me? Stuff that happened back home, before I crossed over into this nicer world," so it is actually not her fault. That he can't blame her is annoying for him too. "I am actually from a parallel Earth, but I think you knew that."
That..doesn't answer Dom's question quite so much. 'Because of a thing.' Alternate reality or not. "What, did I gun down someone important to you?" she bluntly asks without any indication of having an apology to offer for what another version of her might have done. (I'm sure she had a good reason for whatever she did.)
It is followed through with a weary sigh, however. "Look. I'm not trying to be besties with you, here. If things are going to be awkward then they're going to be awkward, I'm used to it. But, there's been a game-changer. A while back we had a talk about someone that looked a helluva lot like you. Back then, you had questions. Now I've got some of my own."
Here she pauses, both to force her thoughts of the moment back into place and to brace herself for something that she needs to hear for herself: "Cable's back."
"Yeah. She did that. And then I destroyed her mind." So there. Reminiscing, he almost misses Domino's last comment. "Wait, what?" He was starting to think that guy was a myth. "So you found him... or he contacted you, uh?" Because Nate couldn't find anything about him on his own and had stopped looking. "Why now? Let me see into your mind."
Blink. "Definitely not besties," Domino replies in monotone.
At least she gets through with the other subject. "He contacted me. ..Then he found me." Which was slightly embarrassing, all told. Guy managed to get the jump on her. She doesn't like when that happens.
When Nate mentions taking a look around inside of her mind her pace falters, dropping back a full step as her hands come up, part in protest and part in defense. "Let's..save the peeking under the hood part of this discussion," she says with some clear hesitation. "You're not going to find whatever it is you're looking for in there." That, and she really doesn't want someone else figuring out what she's feeling about Cable these days.
"Besides. I can get you something better." Enter visual aid A: Her phone. "How'd you like a chance to have a sit-down with him?"
In retrospective, it was a stupid request. Even his close friends are reluctant to let him peek into their memories. Nate sighs and nods, "yes, I think I have to, but I am going to be away from New York for a while." Secret mission to Genosha and all that. Still, he does have a cell phone. Which he almost never uses. But Halo gives service anywhere, they say. "I will find time, though. What did you have in mind?" No peeking.
What did she have in mind? Dom keeps her pokerface intact when she explains "I thought I'd offer you the chance to get your answers, direct from the source."
What she doesn't say is that she isn't planning on cluing Cable in beforehand. Why be the fly on the wall when she can be sitting between the two with a cold drink in hand? She's going to find her answers.
And make Cable suffer some more.
Perhaps not as quickly as she would like, however. If Grey's going to be out of town then there's nothing more she can do about it. All she has is a carrot which she can continue to dangle over his head, and by gods that's exactly what she's going to do. She doesn't even have Cable's number, there's nothing to pull from her own memory. Only the memory of her phone.
What are the odds?
"Let me know when you want to take the next step."
"Oh, as soon as you can arrange it," Nate picks her phone and types a number. "This line is secure. Well, as secure as somewhat advance tech can make it." He gives the device back. "There could be people listening, but they are my friends and I trust them." Which is not to say Dom would trust them if she has something against AIs, like Spartan and Void. "I can get back to New York pretty fast, but give me at least an hour."
Dom's a little put off when her phone is taken away. Fortunately it's only to add a number, not pull a number out of it. When it's handed back she inclines her head slightly in understanding, keeping the grin away from her face as it threatens to come out of hiding.
(Hook, line, sinker.)
"It'll be sooner than you think," she vaguely replies. "We'll be in touch."
Nate stares at Domino, eyes narrowing in distrust. Too much glee in her thoughts not to sense it even though he is following the rules and not reading her thoughts. "You are having some fun out of this, aren't you? What is up with you and Cable? Does he even know about me?"
All of those questions can be conveniently answered in one go: "I'm not sure."
Is Domino having some fun out of this? It may seem like it to her at the moment, but is this really what she wants to do? It's an immediate and perhaps slightly irrational response to her current anger towards the man.
What's up with her and Cable? That may well depend solely upon her decision, one which she's not sure how to make. It's also not the sort of decision that she wants to make, having practically had it forced upon her out of nowhere.
Does Cable know about Nate? Hell if she knows! Being an observer to their upcoming sit-down should answer that last question for both of them.
True to her own nature however, she doesn't go into detail. Her life, her business. But, as vague as her next response is, it is, in fact, completely accurate.
"These days, all I want are some answers of my own." (So I'm going to go and get them.)
"Yeah, I can understand that," replies the young man. "Very well, we will do this your way. I will be waiting your message." So he is actually going to have to carry his cell on him for a while, for a change. "Right, we will be in touch."
Category:Log