Abundans Cautela non Nocet (Aussie & Noxious)

[The Australian]

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you...
Miami, United States of America.
Present Day

David Pfeifer ran through the sparsely packed crowds of the block, racing to catch up with the man who had the item he needed. It was a rock that could make the owner of it control the minds of anyone who touched it. The rock bonded with the person who held it. David didn't want to kill the man, he had just been corrupted by power, but the needs of the many...

"Agent Pfeifer! Report!" A stern Polish voice came through his earpiece, snapping him back to reality, "We're tracking the target, he's moving into an dead-end alleyway twenty metres in front of you! Move it!"

"Yes, sir..." David groaned, pulling out the Pulse Gun, a weapon which had setting ranging for 1, which was a light stun, enough to knock a person down, to 5, which could a vapourise someone. He picked up to a sprint to the alleyway, where he found the man looking up at the walls, and turned to face David.

"No! Don't you understand?!? I won't give it up!" The man said, holding the rock in one hand and slipping his hand into his coat, with David raising his pistol, setting it to setting 2, and fired. The man dropped the rock, and he fell, slumped against the wall. David walked over and pulled a canister out of his backpack and put the rock into it, as a black SUV pulled up next to the alleyway. A stocky, bald man who was at least 6 feet tall walked out, smiling

"Good work, agent." The man said, with a thick Polish accent. The same man from the earpiece

"Thanks, Stanislav, now, I'd like to get back to the base, if you don't mind." David said, getting into the SUV with Stanislav taking the front seat. Stanislav turned as the driver pulled out and went on his way

"David, I know you don't like working with partners, but there's been a new agent assigned to the base, and we don't have anyone to s-" David cut him off,

"No! I will not work with someone else! They hamper me, and get in the way!"

"Listen, there's nothing else I can do. Her name is Gwen Burroughs, and she'll arrive at the same time we do." Stanislav said, turning back to the front. David slumped his head against the window, thinking about his new partner.

[Noxious]

Her first experiences with the ISPA had started to amass more questions than she had received answers too, but this did nothing to quell the small bursts of excitement over a new career, especially one that seemed appreciative of the time and effort she had put into her training. Starting this morning she had been escorted by two gentlemen, one of which seemed to exude professionalism to the degree that she had felt the need to fidget under what she could only place as judgmental looks and then a more jovial youth that seemed to talk incessantly of nothing. It was the latter man that walked shoulder to shoulder with her through the lobby now, still talking, while the more reserved of the two had excused himself. Once they arrived at the lobby the talker finally gave pause for breath and allowed her enough time to hand over an ID to the secretary.

“Gwen Burroughs. They should be expecting me.” The talker looked at the receptionist then back at Gwen and extended his hand.

“It was a pleasure to meet you Ms. Burroughs. I sure hope I get to see you around and good luck.” She shook his hand and returned the smile, hoping she didn’t appear as nervous as she felt. It wasn’t that she lacked pride in her resume and her specialized skill set, but it had been a long time since she had been evaluated at this level. She had heard rumors of the higher respected agencies, rumors that they didn’t just fire you if you were unacceptable, but that you could be blacklisted, and that was an underlying fear that wound quicker into her soul than any other. Helping people by catching the bad guys is all she knew, had known, for quite some time.

So it was with a stomach knotted with strings of self doubt, anticipation, excitement and dread that she accepted a manila file folder that the receptionist offered her and made her way to a seat. She ran her free hand over her suit coat, and then across her pencil skirt as she sat, hoping that the drive hadn’t chipped off the block of professionalism she had painstakingly worked to portray as she flipped open the folder. She attempted to read what appeared as basic new employee sheets, tax forms, employee manuals regarding vacation, ect. Ect. But chestnut eyes kept wandering about the lobby in search of more clues to what she was getting herself into.

[The Australian]

David stepped out of the SUV, which parked in the interior parking lot of the base. They pulled out all the stops, and spared no expense. There were all kinds of vehicles parked here, and most were agency issue. Most everyone who worked here, lived here. As they walked into the elevator and Stainslav directed it to the lobby, David handed the canister to a young agency worker, "Put it in the storage sections. Best not let it see the light of day." The man nodded as the doors opened and he rushed to the left, while David and Stanislav walked out into the lobby. He pointed to a woman,

"That's her, David." He said, smiling, "Go introduce yourself. You might even..."

"Don't even suggest it, Stanislav." David shot back as Stanislav walked where the young man with the canister had gone. David took a deep breath, straightened up his dark green shirt which went a bit over his khaki , which were tucked into his black boots. The woman he was approaching; she was striking. Her beauty, it almost made him forget that she was going to make his job hell. Almost.

"David Pfeifer, you can call me David, or Agent Pfeifer." He shook her hand, "I take it you're Gwen Burroughs. Your reputation, before your ego gets the better of you, does not precede you. You've been assigned to be my...partner...in the field."

[Noxious]

She had caught the man making his way towards her, her own evaluation of him commenced, quick and hopefully unnoticed, as she took him in head to foot. He appeared to be a man of action by the way he spoke and walked with a sense of purpose, one she momentarily thought was probably exceedingly ego driven. His age was hard to guess at, but he was definitely her superior-both in age and experience. His expression was one she had seen before, one she received almost routinely since she had joined the FBI; they appreciated her physically but always looked upon working with her in a much wearier facet. She attempted to close her expression off, another skill she had become accustomed to in her line of work. She didn’t appear hostile, nor did she emit any of the emotions tying up her stomach.

Once it became apparent that she was, in fact, his destination she hurriedly pushed all the papers back into the folder and snapped it closed. It was discarded on the chair next to her as she made her move to stand and offer her hand to the brusque man standing in front of her. She was about to offer her name when he supplied it for her. Her expression had remained businesslike, but as he went on to tell her that he had not heard of her she allowed a coy smile to curl the edges of her lips. And it was only his last comment ”…partner…in the field” that received a moment of pause and an arch of a well shaped brow.

“David Pfeifer. My reputation, as it were, wouldn’t have benefited me much in my last line of work. I take no offense in being an anonymous and have found it has treated me well in the past. In regards to being your partner, I can assure you that I am quick to learn and intend to make the most out of our partnership.” If his previous comment had seemed to give hesitancy to the proclamation of partnership and then to clarify the nature of the partnership; her tone would have seemed juxtaposed with a flirting undertone. It was not one that actually intended to achieve results but rather in a simple prodding of his personality, something she figured she should feel out if they were to be partners.

“Would you like me to tell you about my qualifications David Pfeifer?”

[The Australian]

"You should be quick to learn, it's one of the reasons you're here." He hid his curiosity well. She seemed completely content with being assigned to the ISPA. Others have come in here with wonder and awe, not being able to stop asking questions. David was almost disappointed that he couldn't knock her down a peg or two, "Do not talk with that tone of voice. I intend to keep this relationship purely business. I'd hate to get close to you, only for you to get killed on the field. And before you ask, there have been many agents who have been...unfortunate enough to be killed, or worse."

He slipped in a small grin as she asked about her qualifications, "I'm familiar with your qualifications, Miss Burroughs." He remarked, "Do you have any questions regarding your assignment, or can we get down to business?"

[Noxious]

Her expression held a more businesslike semblance once again, but there was still an annoyingly pleased curl to her lip. It was probably more indicative of her nervous state of mind than any amusement she was drawing from her future partner, but when he asked her to watch her tone she did what she could to stifle it.

“Have you lost many partners Agent Pfeifer?” Her tone was neutral, though she was a little worried about his answer. While he had stated he didn’t know of her reputation all she had heard of him where some mumbled whispers between the two men that had come to pick her up, as well as something of a patronizing smile from a superior who had informed her he would be her partner.

She let her last question linger a moment before following his next train of thought. She thought it imprudent to ask such a personal question and require an answer so soon after their meeting. If he was looking for some sort of flinch or cringe at the thought of death he would receive none from the woman standing before him. Sure, when it really came down to it the thought of dying may be fearful, but in a chat such as this it was difficult for her to overcome the subconcious lack of ties to the living world. It brought her no anxiety or sorrow; it was simple an inevitable.

“I have plenty of questions. As you may or may not be aware I was not given much background on this unit. I understand the need to move forward instead of forcing you to tell me every last detail, so maybe you can fill me in while we work? But I do feel the need to know, what is it exactly that ISPA covers? What will be expected as field agents to cover?”

[The Australian]

David's eyes widened, remembering all of his past partners. Sometimes, when he stared up at the ceiling at night and all was quiet, he could still hear their last cries of life. Their screams for help. Snapping back into reality in what seemed like an eternity, he evaded the question, opting to respond to her last statement instead, "It's understandable on why we didn't inform you about the inner workings. You weren't officially part of the organisation yet, you were simply someone in the back of one of our cars. Regardless, need-to-know rarely applies here. Everyone here is trusted with information, classified or otherwise. They know the consequences of a leak," He paused for a moment, to hint on what said consequences were, "The ISPA covers many things. International security, the paranormal, crimes that simply can't be explained, anomalies."

He waited for a moment, seeing what kind of reaction she'd have.

[Noxious]

She noticed his hesitation for a moment and watched as his eyes grew. She was a little taken with being impressed at finally getting a pure human reaction from the first of the ISPA agents, enough so that it almost made her forget the question which elicited such a response. Almost, but her eyes grew slightly with his. She allowed the new subject, it was a little overwhelming to talk about lost loves/partners/co-workers on the first day.

Her head bobbed as he spoke, not in agreement, but simply showing she was absorbing the information. It would be nice to have someone tell her what was going on, finally, and the lack of need-to-know was huge bonus. She had always felt that all of the facets of an organization keeping their own specific secrets deterred her quality of work. Her head stopped it’s movement as he said “the paranormal” and she even let out a clipped laugh. His expression didn’t appear to be one that was making a joke, no, he seemed to be waiting for her reaction though. She forced a serious expression and attempted to clear her throat and mask the laugh.

“Paranormal sir?”

[The Australian]

"You don't know what paranormal means, Miss Burroughs?" David laughed, partly because she showed such amusement to the topic, and because of his own joke. Brushing it off, he smiled, "Well, to get to the point, we deal with all kinds of things. Paranormal is just another day at the office for us. Frankly, there are little things that will surprise me nowadays. You'll get used to the things that you'll come across in your tenure here."

[Noxious]

Her face tightened a moment with his immediate reply. Of course she knew what it meant! And she was about 90 percent sure she didn’t need to tell him as much; which was confirmed as he continued talking, this time with a smile. Earlier she would have appreciated the friendly gesture but now her brows seemed to crease in confusion.

“I was told that the subject matter would be a little out of the FBI realm. It would be a little more helpful if you could be a bit more…specific?” She obviously wasn’t catching on to the broad scope of her duties. “Paranormal as in we attempt to talk to ghosts to see who killed them? I’m sorry, I do not intend to sound daft, but I’m just a little confused.”