Zanne, Scott - Monday Morning

[x-sway.livejournal.com]

Scott sizes up the new recruit, Zanne attempts to treat it as a traditional job interview.


To be honest, Zanne was rather taken aback at the...headquarters. She'd expected a anonymous concrete building of dubious government origin, or perhaps a crumbling brick warehouse. Certainly not a well-appointed mansion located in a residential area. Hiding in plain sight? She sipped politely at her cup of coffee, and nodded to the figure in the doorway. "This is lovely."

"The coffee, or the house?" Scott asked, coming in and sitting down. They were having this initial conversation in one of the sitting rooms; whatever Charles's opinion, he wasn't throwing Suzanne into the Danger Room, or even the Situation Room. Not yet. Not anything until he got to know her a little better.

"Both," she replied, gently setting the delicate bone china cup down onto its saucer. It didn't rattle, much to her relief. This was the oddest job interview she'd ever had."I would love the opportunity to tour the grounds at some point. Have you always been centered here?"

"This is where we started," Scott said simply, slouching just a little in the chair. "If you stay, you should have plenty of time to explore the grounds. Talk nicely to Cain and he might even give you a tour." He eyed her for a long moment, running over what Charles had told him about this woman, her situation and her powers. "So. Given that we're vigilantes by some definitions ourselves, I'm not about to start throwing stones. But I have to wonder how you'd find working with a team, after all this time on your own."

A fair question, and one she'd been contemplating her self. "While it's true that I don't have a great deal of experience working with a team when it comes to fighting crime and preserving the public peace, in my day job, I am a member of an elite team in its own right, guiding the financial decisions of a multinational corporation. It is not work you can do alone, in your own isolated bubble, and you must be able to work not only with the members of your own team to achieve success but with others outside of your immediate sphere. I feel the basic skills I utilize there to work as a team will translate across to this job. That said," she smiled slightly, "I know that there will still be a steep learning curve as I learn how to work with all of you and your individual abilities."

Well, she was... confident. Scott reminded himself that it wasn't a bad thing, per se. "I have to wonder how many times you have to rely on your fellow financial consultants in situations involving violence," he said.

"I'm not claiming it will be a perfect translation, Mr. Summers, like all things it will require hard work and dedication." Zanne liked to think of herself as a realist. This was going to be wildly different than anything she'd done before, but she was not stranger to hard work. It could be done. "But surely it must speak to your organization's faith in my abilities, including my ability to adapt to a new situation, that I'm even being considered at all."

Scott folded his arms across his chest, knowing that the gesture came across as vaguely confrontational. It was deliberate, though; he wanted to see how she reacted. "So describe to me how you've been
operating, on your own. Tell me about a standard night."

Zanne suppressed a small frown as her interviewer shifted into a position that clearly read as being unimpressed. Careful, don't be too smartmouthed. Don't give him a reason to dislike you. "On a standard night," she said slowly, weighing her words, "I don't do much more than watch the hours roll by. They are, thankfully, not very interesting."

"Evenings that conform less to the standard to vary," she continued. "Most often I find myself involved in stopping or preventing some level of street crime. When I am alerted to something happening, I try to judge the scene before involving myself in it. What is happening? Would I best be served contacting the police before becoming involved so that they arrive sooner rather than later? Do I need to use my powers to stop the scene or will merely adding another's presence be enough to make the perpetrator flee? Is there a weapon involved?" There were many variables to consider, and they must be reviewed quickly. Time mattered. "In most cases, simply throwing a freeze over the scene, binding the criminals so they cannot get away, and tipping off the police is enough. Sometimes there is a fight. Sometimes I must chase them. Sometimes I have to let them go while I tend to someone they have victimized. I usually stay in the vicinity of a halted crime to ensure that they are picked up by authorities."

"Mmm." The monosyllabic response could have meant a number of things. "I'm assuming you usually manage the more simple solution when you've got the element of surprise. We have that sometimes. Not regularly. Very often we're going into situations that are already in the process of blowing up."

"I understand that," she said with a curt nod of her head, "I have not had to be in that situation often, but I am not entirely unexperienced, either. It has been to my benefit that my...work...has been largely unacknowledged in my city." It was a situation that was slowly changing, much to Zanne's irritation. She hadn't been tagged with an imbecilic nickname by the press or turned up on the police radar yet, but the organized crime element seemed more aware. Stationing more lookouts, moving them further away from the main players. Moving in faster is something seemed even the slightest awry. Her jaw still ached occasionally from the last go-round with some of the Rourke boys. "But I can handle myself in a fight, powers or no, advanced warning or no. It is my understanding, however, that your organization works on more of a global scale. I'm very interested in hearing how this makes a difference on situations both here and abroad."

Scott didn't smile. It was tempting, though. He'd been waiting to see if she'd turn things around on him. Teammates who were not overtly mouthy and/or convinced that they knew best were a very nice thing, but he didn't want them to be too passive, either. "Well, we can often count on help from the local authorities here. In certain countries aboard, as well. Outside the US that's the exception, not the rule, however." Now, let's see where her mind goes with that...

"So, I'm understanding that our presence outside the country is sometimes, if not frequently, unsanctioned by that region's authorities?" Zanne resisted the urge to frown. It wasn't wholly unexpected, but the complications... "What happens if said leaders take umbrage to our activities?"

"We don't get caught," Scott said bluntly, but then relented. "To be honest, in most cases we have at least passive permission, if not help. Our... reputation precedes us. We've worked with enough different governments and agencies that there's almost always someone who can vouch for us if need be. Call it building up good will."

"I see," she took another sip of her coffee while she processed Scott's words. "It's good to have friends in high places," she finally said, hiding an amused grin with her cup.

"Have things ever gone badly, with your solo operations?" Scott asked, switching tacks.

"Sometimes," she admitted with a nod. "Bad guy gets away with a purse. Cops let some scumbag go because they're not exactly snowy white themselves," her voice lowered slightly and she drew her fingers through the hair at her temple. "Kid working the street gets shot because you miss the guy with the gun in the alley. The local gangs decide they're tired of having their plots foiled and manage to get the drop on you. It happens. It's not fun. Sometimes it's heartbreaking. If I could, I tried to fix things. If I couldn't," she shrugged, "you learn to move on."

"Good attitude." It wasn't quite a compliment, but almost. "Things occasionally go very badly around here. Too much wallowing... well, I used to do that, before I learned better. It's refreshing to think my newest team member may already have that lesson under her belt."

'Newest team member.' The tension in Zanne's shoulders immediately released at the words, and she savored them. "I always was something of an overachiever," she replied.

"Well, good - you can overachieve your way through the usual process of training so that I can put you to use sooner rather than later," Scott said with a perfectly straight face. "They may saddle you with an awkward name, at first - it's a new tradition, but a vigorous one."

Teammates with a fondness for foolish nicknames? What was this, grade school? "They can try," she said with a hint of challenge in her voice, wondering what Scott's nickname had been, given his unyielding expression. 'Botox', perhaps?

"Consider it lesson number one in learning how to function in the group." If there was a hint of challenge in Zanne's voice, the careful blandness of Scott's voice took that challenge and multipled it by a factor of ten or so. "I'll actually be interested to see just how it goes."

Interested, indeed. "Of course," Her smile was designed to disarm. "My utmost priority is to mesh well with the team."

"I love your choice of words," Scott murmured, amused, and then rose. "So. Shall we introduce you to some of the others, then?"

"Let's." Zanne grabbed hold of her purse and steeled her spine. "I cannot wait to meet them."