7602/Sentinels: Emma's Mission

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Sentinels: Emma's Mission
Date of Scene: 23 May 2019
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Emma attempts to reach Trask ... and it is slightly dangerous.
Cast of Characters: Bastion, Emma Frost
Tinyplot: Sentinels


Bastion has posed:
An opportunity comes up that is hard to ignore: Bolivar Trask is out of the hospital, and is at one of his facilities, one of the areas where Sentinels are being stored. All of this information was plucked from a large variety of minds, as very few people knew all of that information as a whole. But when pieced together, it makes sense as a whole.

The storage facility is being used as a meeting place: several government officials will be there, as well as another buyer or two, to look at the Sentinels recently produced, and decide if they are buying, and how many. Trask enjoys going to those meetings, arranging some of the sales himself.

The buyers are treated to a luxurious meal in a comfortable room next to the storage facility; they laugh and discuss their interests. The government representative is more quiet, less chatty, and frowns often.

Emma Frost has posed:
    The Benz is parked in the visitor parking alongside the other, fancy, high dollar vehicles and out of the white car steps Emma Frost, wearing a pair of golden bracelets and a single silver one, used to disguise her mutation from the swarm of killer robots that are known to be in this facility. The white queen does a quick scan of her attire, making sure the lines are smoothed and that wrinkles are cleaned out before stepping towards her goal.

    A figurative lions den. The blond woman steps with heels clacking against the floor as she flashes a badge to allow herself access to get to the sales meeting. Not close enough yet, but she sits down not long after the first few members of the potential buyers show up, but before the government man arrives. This is an interested crowd, buying personal weapons like this. Emma knows better than to fratenize at this moment, being the only woman she doesn't need to speak, only listen, and probe mentally.

Bastion has posed:
A few of the buyers are related to hate groups. They have cover, of course, but that's what they're here for. The government guy is legitimate, and he's gotten under a lot of fire over the units they already have bought. He wants to see if the new models are better, and is skeptical over that they will be. He also is having trouble at home, and is trying not to check messages from his wife about their sick daughter.

The warehouse is a big pit of unknown. Either it's empty of human minds, or there's a nullification field in there. It's worse than a lion's den: it's a den of darkness and blindness.

Occasionally the ground shakes with movement of sentinels, heavy, massive footsteps, and the chatter will pause, and then loudly resume, with some excitement.

Emma Frost has posed:
    The swelling in Emma's chest as she catches her breath at the feeling of the machine so close, causes her heart to beat faster and faster but as she looks around, the telepath smirks coyly, as if that was a thrilling event for her. Like the passing of a t-rex just outside of her ford. Exhilarating. She covers her mouth with her hand to hide her smirk as she looks to the other buyers, a child like glee sparkling in her eye. She has to sell her purpose here without speaking.

    She is trying to breach that field with her mind as best as she can, but it feels too empty for there to be anything but robots around... This may back fire... Maybe she should just buy a machine and get the hell out of here.

Bastion has posed:
"Here to buy, or just to see them up close?" asks the man to her left, as she looks so pretty, smirking like that. He's not a bad looking man, but he's older: probably late fifties, with sandy hair and smile. If one didn't look into his head and see that he'd like to buy a lot of them to feel more powerful, he'd be a nice enough guy. "Jeff Welks, of R&J Welks," he says, offering his hand for her to shake. Welks is a banker; it's in his head. "I was at another one of these, it's something else to see. They don't do much, don't worry." He then leans in, "Last time, there was a mutant they brought in. They all sensed it right away. Pretty amazing, to detect that. I'd like that security on my facilities, ever since that big robbery. We can't take another PR nightmare of losing money like that."

Finally, an assistant returns to the group. "Mr. Trask will see you now, briefly, on the sale floor. Please follow me," she says, cheerful. She's hiding it, but she's afraid. She hates the big Sentinel shows like this.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma shakes Welks' hand and smiles politely as she was raised to do. "Emma Frost of Frost International." The blonde says with a courteous smile to the gentleman and she shakes her head softly. "I'm here to see if investing is worth my time and effort. Buying isn't really what I'm after." Emma smirks again, flashing those icy blues she has honed over the years. Then with a glance towards the assistant, Emma turns towards the woman and starts to follow towards the meeting place but continues to talk with Welks on the way. "That kind of PR is a nightmare, it's a shame that people don't understand it's not your fault someone else did something bad. You're the victim in all this, why should that hurt your bottom line. It's a travesty the ignorance in this world."

Bastion has posed:
"/Exactly/," Welks says, offering his arm to her to accept. It isn't his intention, but he is giving her a very good entrance into the situation, being a previous buyer himself: he won't be looked at too hard. If she accepts it, he'll walk along with her, and seems open to questions. "If there are new models I'll consider it, but the big ones are just too much of a liability. I don't need friends or supporters of the Avengers seeing them and turning away, either," he sighs.

They are led into the showroom floor. There are eight Sentinels directly along the side in a wall of metal, and six smaller, human-sized ones on the right. In the center, is Mr. Trask, his assistants, and a few other businessmen that work for Trask.

The room is a well of nullification: perhaps one sentinel's signal might be fine with Emma's device, but this many? Two of them turn their heads to look at the arrivals, and clearly begin to scan them.

"Just stay still, it doesn't hurt," recommends Welks, slowing, patient about the scan process.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma takes the man's arm, not too bothered by taking up arms and using a mutant hater as a means to an ends. She holds onto his arm gently and walks with Welks. "Looks like you're going to get your wish." Emma says with a motion of her head towards the smaller bots but then she pauses as they are scanned and she frowns inwardly, hoping against hope that Kitty wasn't lying about the anti-detection equipment, but then she's also not able to read anyone's mind any more... This is bad.

    Emma is thinking about how to weather this storm. Can she wait it out and survive she's at least learning that Trask has access to and is using nullifiers, but it's unclear if it's the robots or the facility. Likely both. But now she has to play it by ear and act like a buyer herself. In some fashion.

Bastion has posed:
The scans stop, and there's some pause, and they begin to scan them a second time. Welks suddenly looks skeptically at Emma, distrustfully at first, as if she suddenly might contain the plague. However, the sentinels seem to decide she is acceptable, and continue to scan the rest of the party.

Welks gives her an embarrassed smile: he's apologetic for thinking she might be one of THOSE, and continues to escort. He does lead towards the smaller ones, since he wants to see those. "I heard the smaller ones aren't as good as the large ones, though," he asides to her quietly under his breath. "Maybe if the quality were there. Why they're so far behind Stark is pretty disturbing," he complains.

Mr. Trask, short as he is, isn't so short because he's in a wheelchair at the moment; it masks some of that. He waits, pleased, on his little mobile throne, watching them come in. "I appreciate all of you for coming. DO take a look," he invites, overly pompous.

Emma Frost has posed:
    "Maybe it's because the smaller ones can't carry the same ... fire power as the larger models." Emma says towards her escort though she breathes a soft sigh towards Welks as the scan finishes. "You really scared me there for a moment." Frost says below her breath before she looks past Welks' shoulder towards Trask and the blonde can't help but feel a sense of falseness about the man.

    Trask is such a danger to so many people around the world and yet here he is, a small and frail seeming thing. Emma starts to understand how a man like this could be so vile and corrupted by hatred. She turns to Welks and whispers. "Is the show about to start? I'm kind of excited to see what they can do."

Bastion has posed:
"I don't think this is a show today," Welks answers her. He shrugs: he doesn't know.

"Show them the footage now," Trask decides, pointing at his assistant. He isn't a showman, this is the best they get to expect. "I know most of you have seen them before. Give commands if you like: within reason," Trask grins.

Welks walks towards the smaller ones, inspecting them visually, while a few screens on the back wall show projected materials that someone prepared. That someone is fairly talented, the sampling of shots of Sentinels flying and protecting are decent, but they're also sort of staged feeling.

"The Mark XS is new today. Not as intimidating as the large models, but they are idea for solutions for indoors or lower impact security and scanning. Just think, you can scan all of your employees!" says an assistant, after noticing that trask has started to cough and have physical trouble.

Emma Frost has posed:
    "Why not find a way to integrate the scanning tech with something more common place than robots? We have metal detectors in most buildings, couldn't you piggy back off those and wouldn't that be vastly cheaper than these machines?" Emma asks with a glance towards Trask as she stays near Welks, using him as a sort of shield for the day.

Bastion has posed:
"Good question, Ms. Frost," Trask says, coughing, but waving off the person trying to stop him. He looks right at her. "You could buy a medicine for JUST your watery eyes, couldn't you. But it's so much better to get the medicine, the powerful stuff, that can defeat ALL of your symptoms, isn't it? And that's my approach here. Investments, smart investments, for the problems of the future that are coming. And you'll be protected from those things: instead of just having something for your eyes, you'll get to keep breathing, too, when an attack happens. And it will happen."

Some of the others murmer agreement, the fear ripe in the room. "My company would not have lost any of it's money, had we had some of the smaller ones," Welks admits. Others start to discuss how many units they want.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Great, a debate, and a hoaky sales pitch, Emma sees through it but she is trying to play ball with this a-hole. "Sorry J. I have more questions." Emma then breaks away from Welks and steps towards the big man of the hour. "I see you're an all or nothing kind of man." Emma states casually as she gets closer to Trask. "Tell me, what can these newer models do that the larger ones can't? We're all in a level of risk assessment here. Tell me the pros and cons without the spiel." Emma asks, standing near but not quite over Trask.

Bastion has posed:
"Most importantly, they are less expensive," Trask answers, like a proper bottom-line businessman. That's what he cares about, and it shows: PROFIT. Both for him, and -- "Gives the best value for the dollar. They are miniature systems the larger models use, and are more cost effective. Their weapons are not as potent, but who cares: if they catch a threat and subdue its powers, the weapons are more than enough. By the way: those interested in the larger models, we have improved threat reducers on them, now. Larger range to nullify powers. We're very proud."

Emma Frost has posed:
    "Fair enough." Emma says, crossing her arms beneath her chest and looking at Trask with a sidelong glance before looking back at Welks and the robots and then back to Trask once more, "What kind of warranty and or guarantees do you offer?" Frost asks, curious still about how they might handle a faulty machine or some flaw that might arrise. See how likely they are to malfunction. A warranty is usually a good indicator for that sort of thing.

Bastion has posed:
"Give her the brochure, I won't repeat it again today," Trask says, crabby. He's in some pain, and he's proud of his sale here, but there's a limit. He's a moody man, it seems. An assistant starts to pass out the new brochures to the group. "Mr. Sparrs here can answer more questions if you have them," Trask says, deciding to leave, it seems.

One of the other buyers suddenly calls towards him, though, a bit aggressively: "How is it a mutant got to you and shot you, with all of this?"

That gets Trask to turn back. "Treating just a watery eye," Trask answers darkly, and continues to leave.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma looks to Welks and walks towards the banker she's becoming fast friends with. "You've been to a few of these things. What can you tell me about the whole thing. Like distribution rights and shipping costs? Price per model? Things like that?" Emma asks softly, not wanting to miss the response from Trask to the loud and abrupt question.

Bastion has posed:
Welks doesn't want to miss it either, he holds up a hand to Emma a little bit in a 'just a moment' motion of wrist. He observes all of that, and gives her a 'wow' expression with his eyes. Then he pauses, trying to take in her questions. "Trask does a good amount of banking with us, yes. I think that is why I was targeted for theft," he continues. "I do know some of those answers, but others are privileged information. I'll go over what I can say, if you'd like dinner, perhaps after this meeting concludes?" he asks, not shy about the flirt there.