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Event - Dogged

Dogged

The message goes out to everyone on ADI's network. It seems to be something captured live. It's Pam Ruan, head of HR who holds a prosthetic finger up to her lips before whispering, "Everyone's pushing for transparency right now, right? Figuring out where threats are coming from and sharing. I think that should come at all levels. Let's see what Nia's talking about with Mr. Zyrian Steel, hmm?"

The camera flips around as Pam clearly creeps closer to an office door. There are muffled voices, and Pam sets the phone face up before using one hand to shove the thing under the door. The video shows a sliding picture of the office's bland ceiling for a moment before coming to a stop. The voices become much clearer.

"-down in Wolf Trap," a masculine voice is saying. Presumably, Zyrian Steel. "There's just no need for that."

"Zyrian, this ain't a negotiation." Nia Lehrer's voice is familiar to most people working at ADI at this point. They've likely heard her speak in some pre-recorded training videos at the bare minimum. Nia's tone is no nonsense and clearly on the edge of snapping in frustration. "You're not hiring us. I'm sending my people down to Wolf Trap next month. We've got evidence of those signalhead things being on the march, one down that way, your kick off for New Horizons in the park, and evidence out of there about the Lullaby Girl from some of my people."

There is silence.

"You remember her? Ava? Or Amber, it seems like. She's the one you gave us those Lucidio masks to help train our people against. Frankly, I'd be surprised if you don't remember her, Mr. S." Another drawn out pause. "You ain't been straight with me for a long time. You ain't been straight with ADI since Tawnya was Warden. You tell me you need us in Buffalo, payback for helping in Wolf Pen and Cortana and the mobile med units, and not only do half the staff come back with crab claws and whiskers, but I find out you're using us for business politics." There's venom in her tone. "Or were you just going to stay quiet about Etcher's enterprises competing with your own software companies? ADI is not your personal attack dog. You are our client. And I thought my friend. But I'm about 30 seconds away from firing you from both."

Further silence, then a heavy sigh. "And I was going to offer to send you and your staff on such a nice retreat." There's the sound of a chair being pushed back. "Warden, I think you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. You are the dogs. I am the master. I hold your leash. Or have you forgotten just how much technology I've donated to ADI over the years, how many of your systems run on things I built? We've had a mutually beneficial relationship up until now- Well… you and I have. Tawnya got to be a problem before the end, too. But I made sure that was taken care of."

"You self-aggrandizing son of a-"

"You're a much more practical woman than she ever was, even with those shiny ideals you hold so dear. You'll compromise for the greater good, to protect what's yours. Such a good Warden, looking out for her charges."

"What are you talking about? And get your hands the hell off my desk."

"Haven't you ever wondered about the title? Warden. Odd name for a leader of any organization, even one like yours. But maybe not so odd when you consider your more eldritch masters." A scoff. "The Hunt always does pick out the most oblivious avatars, doesn't it? What does a Warden do?" A beat. "She controls the monsters, Nia. Sniffs them out and contains them. And she goes after the poachers coming after her prey. Tell me, have you ever noticed how you're always picking up on threats far afield with uncanny precision. It's been getting stronger, hasn't it? Tawnya was the same way. As was her predecessor, I imagine."

"That's not- I wouldn't ever…"

"Wouldn't you, though? Every time you sent your own dogs after a threat, reveled in it, you were being such a good Warden, instilling terror in the hearts of your enemies, ADI's enemies. So many cults know who and what you are and they fear it. Fear the Warden of ADI, famed avatar of the Hunt. Even now, I know you've compromised yourself. Have you considered what that's done to you? You let that Visionary kid stay alive. I rather think that might have been the start of your slide, hmm? Making exceptions, just this once.

"Now," he continues, voice growing louder and footsteps starting toward the phone, "I realize this is a lot to take in, to think about. Why don't you do that self-reflection while I attend to other matters? You are doing good work, puppy. I need a dependable pet to take care of all those nasty pests who keep trying rituals. But no need to worry about the New Horizons launch, really. I'll just-" Zyrian pauses and everyone will have a view of a middle-aged caucasian man with dark, slightly graying hair and a beard. He's wearing khakis and a Hawaiian shirt, and he's looking down at Pam's phone.

"Well… fuck." He stomps a heeled shoe on it and the transmission ends abruptly.

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"If she practices even a little of what she preaches, we will not be working for an Avatar for long," Yelena says, though the look of faintly disgusted skepticism on her face makes it abundantly clear just how likely she thinks Nia will be to stick to her principles. Sentencing other people to death for the cause is easy.

She's seen nothing at all that suggests the Warden would be willing to lay down her own life.

"But the rot won't begin and end with her."

"A lot of us have rot." Winter has rot. He's got at least two entities with claws in him, now. "That doesn't mean we can't fight it."

He's still waffling over whether they should just track her down and shoot her, or give her a chance. Winter is... normally of the mind to just shoot avatars, but-- "She didn't know," he says after a pause. "Like I didn't know."

Yelena shakes her head, motion quick and sharp. "There is a difference between having one of the Entities get its hooks in you, and actively serving one," she says. "This is an entire organization of monster hunters. They've served her for years. There's no way none of them realized there was a problem, or heard concerns from someone lower down the food chain who thought something was off. At best, they ignored them because they were getting what they wanted. At worst, they actively helped cover things up."

After all, hadn't some of them realized something was off, even coming from another world entirely, without much in the way of access to ADI's upper echelons.

"She says she didn't know. If I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt, I will say it's more likely that she made herself willfully blind."

Winter is pretty good at reading emotional tone. It's less training and more survival mechanism, though. He thought Nia had sounded genuinely surprised and dismayed.

Yelena seems not to agree. "You want to take her out," he guesses.

"Yes," Yelena says, then grimaces slightly and admits, "but that doesn't mean it's the right call. It's ADI's tactics, but even before we knew Nia was an Avatar, ADI's tactics were flawed."

"It's my tactic, too," Winter shrugs. "Usually." He's got a pretty good record of taking out Avatars. Which isn't saying he's taken out a lot, unless you count two as being a lot. But it's still more than most people.

He heaves a sigh, tugs at his loose long hair. "I don't know what to do. This isn't the kind of decision I'm. Any good at."

"Garner and I killed one of the fire clowns too," she reminds him, one corner of her mouth turning up slighlty. "I still think that was necessary. I am not saying we should start sparing them all. But if we are going to stay with the organization - and that is a very big if, for me - we need to look more closely at all of their tactics, all of the ways they make decisions."

She's quiet for a moment before admitting, "This isn't my best skillset, either. But I do know however big a threat she is, Steel is probably worse."

"What would we do if we don't stay with ADI?" Winter asks, looking uncomfortable with the idea. He can't remember ever being outside of an organization. HYDRA, ADI, the snippets he has of the war and SSR... not much else, and never without a direction.

"Probably a lot of the same thing," Yelena admits, because as much as she'd never wanted to be involved with supernatural crises that might cause the end of the world, or at least the death of a sizeable portion of it, she can't imagine just putting everything down and walking away now. Not knowing what's out there.

She can't imagine him walking away, either.

"But smaller. On our terms. It's harder to hide corruption from ten people than from a hundred."

"Won't have the resources," Winter warns. "The full team of analysts to find targets. Or the backup." And he's not even sure they'd have ten people. Five, maybe. Him, her, Steve, Kate, Cortana. Maybe Rue, he likes Rue well enough. That's six. He might be able to talk around a couple guys from security. Still hardly enough for a full squad, and not all of them are field ready.

"I didn't have a full team of analysts and a corporation's resources after the Red Room fell," Yelena says, giving him a small, wry smile. "I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard, but we could do it. It's better than staying under the thumb of an avatar, or of the people who either helped her fall or didn't notice she was doing it."

"I. Yeah," he has to agree, because working for an avatar is one thing he will never do, but there's something in him that cringes from the idea of not having a support team, too. "What was it like," he asks after a pause. "Going it alone. After the Red Room."

"Exhilerating," Yelena says. "And terrifying. We knew how to navigate the world - we had to, if we were going to carry out our missions. But that's not the same as being a part of it. As having to investigate and evaluate things on our own. Not just strategies, but consequences, how to use our resources, how much collateral damage to risk. It isn't easy, going your own way, but it is much better than the alternative."

And while she may know, deep down, that staying with ADI under Nia isn't the same thing as staying with the Red Room would have been, it feels all too similar - all too much like willingly surrendering her life to someone who will see her as nothing more than a tool to be used to inflict pain.

Frankly, Winter isn't finding anything to be exhilarated about. Just terrified. He admits after a moment, "I don't remember ever. Not having something. ADI. HYDRA. A little bit of the war." Even his snatches of dancing are gone, thanks Dogtown. The only things he has that aren't when he was fighting for someone else are slivers of Steve-- and even then, he thinks he might've been fighting for Steve.

She's quiet for a long moment before admitting, "All I had before I left was the Red Room. Even my childhood was a mission. It's hard starting from that. Even with a goal, it is hard. But it isn't impossible, and you won't have to do it alone."

That Yelena will be with him is a big help. She knows things. She has skills he doesn't have. "Steve and Kate, too," he says, half a question. He can't imagine Steve will want to work for an entity-- he hopes. He hopes. There hasn't been another incident like the one in the gym, so maybe they're okay. And Kate... he doesn't know if they can keep her safe. But he can't leave her here, either, if she doesn't want to be here.

"We need to finally buy that safehouse," he realizes. They can't live in ADI housing if they leave it.

"Yes," she says. "I've been looking at old properties. If we don't mind putting in the work to fix some things, we should be able to get something big enough for the four of us. If we stay that close."

"There are a lot of things I know how to fix," Winter allows. "There are some things I don't know how to fix, though. Internet confuses me. I've never done plumbing before that I know of." But he could do construction. Basic wiring for power.

"I can deal with the internet. I think we'll have to find something with intact plumbing, though. I can do minor things, but nothing major."

She pauses for a moment, then allows, "I can get us the money if we need to hire a professional. But it would be easiest to avoid that cost for now."

"Yeah, saving will probably be better, just in case. I have. A lot saved," he adds. "I don't buy much. But I don't know if it's a lot by someone else's standards." It seems like an absolute fortune to him, but what little understanding of finances he has is based in the 1930s. Not that he realizes this.

"It wouldn't be, given our salary," Yelena says, a little bit rueful - her own understanding of finances is both more modern, and more thorough. "But between us, it should be enough to be getting started with."

He hesitates a beat, then asks, "We will need to get actual jobs. Won't we." He has no idea what he could actually do. Are there actual security companies that would hire someone like him? Does he even want to do the same kind of work he's doing now? He doesn't know.

"It would help, probably." Yelena's nose wrinkles slightly. Working for ADI is the closest she's come to having a normal job in her life - and it's not very close, all things considered.

"But there are other ways to make money."

"Something I can do?" he asks, because he's not sneaky and smart like she is. Well, okay, he's sneaky, but in the way that he can hide in the darkness and approach someone unawares to kill them.

He's not sure that's a good kind of sneaky for living like an actual person.

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Event - Dogged

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