The Right Thing (Alexander)

[POIROT]

It was still early when Elyse left the New Order headquarters ; the sun had risen about an hour ago and it was just cool enough that it would make for a pleasant jog before the day got hot later on. Dressed in a tank top, shorts and sneakers, she ran down the street, headed towards Central Park. Since moving to New York Elyse had found it a great place for her morning run. Nice and quiet this time of day, without a lot of people around. Going through the entrance Elyse started down one of the paths, keeping a steady pace so she could go on for awhile. As she ran, she felt the tension leaving her as she always did, the buildup of whatever thoughts and emotions that had kept her on edge from the previous day. Usually about halfway through the park was good enough for her, but after about three miles Elyse was considering going for broke and running the rest of the way.

By the end of the run Elyse was exhausted, and felt like she was going to drop. It was really getting to be time to go back to headquarters and take a shower and change for the day, but if she didn’t sit down for a few minutes she knew she wouldn’t make it back in one piece. Finding herself by the duck pond, Elyse decided to have a seat and relax. There were benches available, but she ignored those and instead chose to sit on the grass. It was nice and cool and, taking her socks and shoes off, Elyse wiggled her toes in the softness. Near the edge of the pond a couple of ducks swam peacefully. It was serene and lovely and Elyse wished she could enjoy it. She just couldn’t get the images out of her mind though.

Ever since the agents had first talked to her, since she moved to New York to join the New Order, Elyse had thought she was doing the right thing. She was protecting humans and everyday mutants that just wanted to live a normal life. She was starting to have doubts though. The agents that recruited her had been polite, and used persuasion, but those weren’t the tactics that she was seeing used since she came up here. Agents were dragging men, women, children into custody, being forced to accept the conditions laid upon them by the NO. People who had never done anything wrong in their lives. Like the little boy yesterday that was brought in yesterday. She hadn’t know the agents who did it, but she had been able to hear the screams, and at the end of the day an ambulance had come to take the child away. Yeah, she’d heard and seen police brutality while she was on the Boston police force, but it was usually creeps who’d done worse thing than had been done to them, and while she hadn’t approved of it, she had understood the desire. This was just torture though, and to a child. Elyse couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

Elyse drew her knees up and wrapped two arms around them, then rested her chin on them. Feeling the need to withdraw tighter though, she extended two more arms and wrapped those around her knees as well. Extending the last two, she began picking up rocks and throwing them into the water, scaring the ducks away. She was supposed to be doing what was right; stopping mutant criminals and terrorists, but what had that boy done? What had a lot of people that they were bringing in done? Sometimes it seemed like they were grabbing every mutant off the street they could find. It wasn’t supposed to be like that.

Picking up an especially large rock, Elyse threw it into the water in frustration, listening to the resounding splash. She didn’t know what to do. She didn't know what to believe anymore.

[ALEXANDER THORSON]

Alexander Thorson, the hammer wielding, outspoken social reformist was cruising through the air at a casual, relaxing pace. Aye, the finest thing about his hammer was the gift of flight, to soar over the lands from the mountains of Sweden to the Deserts of Egypt. In this case he was just sailing over New York however, before easing downwards. The one who claimed Godhood, to be the Son of Thor in fact, it was a claim many.....many did not believe.

Regardless, this youth of twenty two (or so he claimed the Midgard part of his life) landed in the park, indeed it was a fine morning for it. He tucked the hammer to his waist, to the large power belt he wore, the entire......exotic attire and now the hammer as hidden as possible under a comfortable trench coat. Of course, for someone as powerfully built as the Thorson, when even his muscles could be seen through the coat, what hope would his hammer have to be avoid been seen.

Alexander spent but a few minutes walking the part, greeting the morning until something caught his sight. It was a woman, misery worn across her face as surely as he wore his coat. Truth be told t'was her extra arms that caught his attention first. Tilting his head to one side, the youth made his way over, slowly and carefully, so as to not scare her with a rapid approach. "I apologize if my intrusion is unwanted, but I could not help but notice you appear to be...rather upset. Might I offer some assistance, in any manner?" he asked, his tone both genuine and caring.

[POIROT]

Elyse didn’t quite hear him at first, or at least it didn’t quite register that he was talking to her. When she realized someone was talking to her, she looked over to what she could only describe as a beautiful young man. Very well built, he looked like if he flexed he could bust out of the trench coat he was wearing. The trench coat itself was a bit unusual, as it wasn’t really cold enough for one and she didn’t usually see too many people wandering around Central Park at this time of day wearing one. There was also an odd bulge to the side, a little too far to the side for the clichéd “is that a banana in your pocket” joke though.

Usually Elyse would be wary of someone approaching her while alone in the park like this, especially since she was tired from having gone for such a long run, but the tone of the man’s voice was very gentle and she found herself not feeling on guard with him. She didn’t really move, but just looked up at him, wrapping her last set of arms around her legs. She pondered his question for a moment.

“Thanks.” She said, finally, a faint smile crossing her face. “I wish you could. I guess I’m just….questioning things. Ever wonder if you’re in the right place, if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing; if you’re doing the right thing?”

[ALEXANDER THORSON]

What was his task on Earth? Bring Social Reform and a better way of living to the entire planet? "As it would happen, I understand rather well...I have undertaken a collosusal task." A task of the Gods...one might say. "I had no clue where to begin...and today I do not know if I chose the right place to start." It was true, the world at large needed him, he had chosen to make his beginning in Europe, even if many would say the United States would have been a better medium for large scale media attention.

"But as for doing the right thing...." at this point he lowered himself, bending at the knees so as to be closer to eye to eye level. "Aye...I'm sure it is why I am here. For I can feel it in my heart, I have no regret to it...it gives me great purpose, and satisfaction when I see my efforts touch a human being."

[POIROT]

Must be nice Was Elyse’s first thought when she heard the young man speak. He sounded confident, as if he honestly believed in what he was saying. Such confidence in oneself and one’s actions sounded very nice indeed, and something she missed having. Elyse used to have such confidence too. Her father had taught her all her life to believe in justice and the importance of protecting others; she had gone into law enforcement with the knowledge that it was the right thing to do, the best path for her to take. Now she was in a position where she didn’t know if she was still on that path, if what she was doing was right.

She gave a faint nod when he talked about touching others. “That’s good to have such an attitude. My dad used to say that if you’ve helped one person then it was worth having gotten up that day. I guess it just hasn’t felt like it has been worth getting up lately.” Removing one hand from her legs, she looked down at the grass and picked at a blade of it.

[ALEXANDER THORSON]

"Your Father sounds like a very wise man." offered the young man. Wise like his own father, Thor....not Trevor Golmen. "Might I ask what has troubled you so? What lead you from your fathers such wise words?" he asked, tilting his head to one side once again. "Albeit, my father once said, when discussing a very close friend, one who it like a second father to me, that can a Man...or mayhap in your case a woman, truly step into themselves as a person without straying from their fathers teaching? Mayhap....but where would the fun in that be?" He certainly knew that while he was sent here for a very certain task....it did not mean he didn't take the chance to entertain himself and experience everything Midgard had to offer when given the finest of choices to do so.

[POIROT]

Elyse wondered what she should tell him. What would he say, if she told him who she worked for? That she was an agent for the New Order. That kind expression, would it turn to disgust? She knew the New Order has a bad reputation, but she had overlooked it because she had thought she was needed, that it was the best way to protect humans against those who were so much more powerful than them. And that she would be helping other mutants live a normal life. She was beginning to understand just why the NO had such a reputation though, and wondered what it said about her that she was a member.

“He is. He’s the best.” Elyse said. “But I didn’t realize until just recently that I had gone away from what he’d always told me. I thought I was still doing what I was supposed to be doing, but it’s not what I thought.” She didn’t understand why she was talking to him like this; she didn’t normally open up to people so easily, but there was something about the young man that made her just want to unburden herself to him, that he would understand.

Sitting up, she unwrapped her arms from around her legs, figuring she should just get this part over with. “My name’s Elyse.” She said, offering one of her hands. “I work for the New Order.” Now to see what his reaction was; would that kindness and understanding go away?

[ALEXANDER THORSON]

Alexander nodded as she spoke, she held her father in very high regard, as did he. It was a good trait, for he seemed wise, even if perhaps that only grain of wisdom was his only one....but her face suggested he was much wiser. Much wiser indeed. A moment later she arose, offering a hand to shake. She was a member of the New Order? Now her position was all the clearer. Regardless, he took the accepted hand and shooke. "I am Alexander Thorson, and I have been sent from Asgard to help the people protect themselves against people like Jackson Craft." Her boss.

"Such a thing would make us enemies, but I take from you that...you no longer believe in your station within the Order, if your fathers words brought you to realize this, he would be one that would have my ear at any table."

[POIROT]

Elyse was surprised but pleased when Alexander shook her hand, glad that he wasn’t taking an instant disgust of her. The name Asgard sounded a little familiar, but she couldn’t place where she had heard it before, so figured it was someplace she had heard of in geography class years ago but forgotten. Wherever it was, it sounded like he was part of some kind of resistance, whether it was part of the actual group Resistance or some other. This made her even more surprised that he hadn’t reacted negatively when she introduced herself. The fact that he was working against the New Order, and had gone as far to flat out say that they should be enemies should at least be suggesting to her that she should be thinking about bringing him in, or at least trying to; but for one thing she wasn’t armed and he looked strong enough to wipe the floor with her. That and the fact that she was still tired from running six miles. But Elyse wasn’t considering doing that, not really. Alexander was listening to her, not judging the minute he heard that dreaded name. And he sounded like he truly wanted to help people, like she had always wanted to. There was no way she could try to interfere with that.

Was he right? Did she no longer believe in her position in her group? It was beginning to seem that way.

“I’m not sure what I believe anymore.” Elyse said. “My father is a police officer; he taught me to believe in justice and order. I thought I was working for that when I joined the New Order. I don’t think they’re one hundred percent wrong though. There are mutants in the world that human law enforcement and governments just can’t deal with and someone has to be able to police them. But I don’t believe in vigilantism; costumed heroes running around haphazardly saving people. There has to be some kind of order. I’m just finding that what I thought I was doing and what the New Order really does aren’t always the same thing. And I’m not sure what to do or think about it.”

[ALEXANDER THORSON]

"The mutant community has long been known to police itself....the New Order however is wicked incarnate....they're abuses outnumber they're honest efforts a hundred to one at most generous to them, I would not consider my task on this world complete unless they have been brought low." he replied, he was honest if nothing else. "If you believe in Justice and Order....then mayhap you should reconsider your employ. What does your father think of Jackson Craft and his army?" the New Order was nothing more then the result of anti-mutant people achieving political power and enforcing their corrupt will.

"There is however.....always a choice." he offered, a lesson he had learned well in his youth, from both his Immortal and Mortal parents in fact. "From all that you have seen.....if you could walk back upon the road of time and met thineself of a younger year....what would you tell the Elyse Pike before she entered Craft's embrace?" he was interested in this one, she was raised on Justice and morals by a wise father, she had fallen astray, but did she have the character to achieve self awareness and redemption? The Thorson thought so.....he hoped so.

[POIROT]

Yes, she supposed the mutant community did police itself in a way, but it still smacked of vigilantism to her. If the human and mutant communities were going to live together though then they needed to work together, and law enforcement was an important example of that, at least to Elyse, anyway. Some mutants didn’t seem to think of the law as applying to them, and humans seemed to think of mutants as running around lawlessly.

Alexander asked about her father and Elyse thought for a moment. Before she discovered she was a mutant, she and her family had been accepting of the ones they knew on an individual but a little wary of them as a whole, mainly because of negative images in the media and from crimes both she and her father had seen while on the job. They hadn’t really paid much attention to Craft and his efforts to recruit mutants, they’d heard the rumors about it being a group of mutant haters but hadn’t looked too closely. Then Elyse herself had been approached by the New Order.

“He was worried at first, when I told him they had sought me out.” She said quietly, looking at the lake, where the ducks were slowly returning. “I told him it would be okay though, that I would be ultimately helping both humans and mutants. And he believed me.” More fool the both of them were then.

Alexander’s last question though, that was the hard one. It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, almost like being drafted. What it was turning into though, made her think that maybe draft dodgers weren’t completely wrong.

“I think I would tell her to say no, that it would be a mistake.” Elyse said. “I should have run. This isn’t law and order, this is control. I don’t want to know what my father would say now.”

[ALEXANDER THORSON]

"Then mayhap it is time to reconsider your career path." he replied, it was such a positive thing to see that a person could like this Elyse could see that the road to evil is paved with good intentions, but tis not a road that was is forced to walk all the way into! He gave the woman a moment to ponder what she had realized, and what he had suggested, before speaking up again.

"Would you care to join me for a coffee? Perhaps we can talk over the forked road you find yourself at?" it was a nice day, an early coffee would get every in better spirits, and give her plenty of time to think over everything. Alexander knew his own Father had, on occasion acted in a manner that had later proved to bring about the opposite of his intention, but tis what would takes from an action, what they learn in mistake! As a noble warrior who aided him in learning the sword once said...mistakes are an important part of the learning process, for one who does not make mistakes makes very little of anything!

[POIROT]

Elyse looked at him a moment, realizing what he was saying. Leave the New Order? It was a scary thought. She who had let herself be turned into a hunter, would immediately be prey. She would be chased down by the people she had been working with. These people knew everything about her, and one or two she could almost call friends. After listening to Jackson Craft talk about the Resistance, she knew there would be no mercy for her either. If the New Order’s enemies were hated, how much more so would a traitor, a runaway be? She would be captured or killed, she was sure of it. And if she did escape, where would she go? How would she live? Elyse could never go home again, the New Order knew where her family lived and would find her there if she tried to hide in Boston.

The other option was to remain as she was, continue to work in the New Order, and Elyse wasn’t sure she could do that. She was turning into something she didn’t like. On the few times she had spoken to her family since moving here, she had been very vague about what she had been doing, because she knew how it would awful it would sound to them. She didn’t know how much longer she could do that, as she was used to talking to her parents about most of the things going on in her life. Maybe Alexander could recommend a way to break free that won’t get her killed though.

Elyse nodded. “A cup of coffee sounds very nice. It’s a relief to be able to talk to someone about this.” She wasn’t sure what it was about this man that made him so easy to talk to, but she was definitely glad he had run across her here at the pond.