((Collab Post between Mass City and Letter Bee))
Heinz was using his ability to be in multiple places at once; an ability that was mostly used to tackle paperwork and bureaucracy, to both introduce Omega and Silas, to sign and review more documents, and, finally, to see the President, teleporting to the sole unwarded spot in the White House. After a search, both mundane and magical, by the Secret Service, Heinz was now heading to see Michelle Addison.
President Addison was busy with her speech at the upcoming UN summit in Oslo. She was in the Oval Office and she heard the knock on the door. The president buzzed them through.
"You wished to see me, Ms. President?" Heinz said as he opened the door.
"Yes, how is the E3 situation coming along?" Heinz could tell the president's gaze was wandering.
"Oh, it's already finished. My Agents apprehended the culprit, one Akira Kariya, defeated several Mafia Hitmen, and even saved several civilian lives. Oh, and we repaired most of the damage done to the building as well. A full report will be sent to you in the morning," Heinz finished.
"Good. At least that got done in good time." The President walked to a door off her office to her more private office. Heinz heard a sink turn on. "Any ideas on damage?"
"My nephew..." Heinz said feeling renewed guilt while talking about him, "My nephew, Ascot, as well as one of the Game Developers, Ken Saddler, managed to shield many of the civilians early on; the number of civilian deaths can be said to be...seven. Condolences and compensation have already been sent to the afflicted."
"I'll have to write some letters," the sink turned off. The President came out into the Oval Office. Heinz saw that she was wearing lipstick. "Death like that is sad. At least it is not frozen solid. We were lucky. You were lucky Heinz. The media will wonder why seven died. Hell, they will wonder why anyone died!" The President waved her arms in the air. The signals she was sending Heinz were not what he may have been hoping for at first.
"It was a large gathering," the man spoke, "hundreds, or maybe a thousand, people were in the building, and the casualties could have been worse without the actions of my people. In my - probably heartless - estimation, seven out of one thousand is acceptable, at least as regards public opinion." It also helped that ArcU had a time-stop handy.
"Yes and I guess that time stop will leave no long term effects on the people in the center? I mean no chance of a motion sickness of some form?" The President walked up towards Heinz. She looked like she was activating her ablities in a minor way.
"Well, there's a sense of vertigo, but with most people, it'll leave them in a few seconds to a few hours," answered the Agency Head. "ArcU - not that they haven't eliminated any material evidence that it's them - are very good at their hardware."
"So what do we do, not go after them?" The President huffed. She was getting very close to Heinz.
"I didn't say that; Akira Kariya's turned state witness, and he's testifying against ArcanaUnlimited in exchange for a reduced sentence. His testimony would be enough to boot ArcU off Troy forever; perhaps enough to stop most US business with the corp for good," the man said, knowing that his hope of getting out alive was to tell the truth. "However, most of ArcU's business is in the Congo and Africa, as well as India and...the SAC, so the shock can be mitigiated. Nevertheless, ArcU would find it hard to do operations on both American Continents, especially if we get Brazil to join in the ban."
President Addison seemed to be letting her powers flow free, her ice-based powers made the room temperature drop twenty degrees in a few seconds, a useful ablity in a political argument in the oval office. "I saw a report that stated if ArcU wanted to the governments of SAC would fall like that!" she snapped her fingers. "They have a mix of people that use them to advance their careers and others who are against the ArcU but know any movement against them means ruin for their nations." The commander-in- chief placed her frigid hand on Heinz's shoulder.
The man knew that he shouldn't shudder, and he didn't. He continued:
"How are our allies in the Philippines? Are they still holding up against ArcU and SAC's economic and political pressure?"
The President sighed, a small cloud of frozen mist came out of her mouth. President Addison walked over to the massive Resolute Desk and leaned against it. Heinz saw the president's appearance changing as her blonde hair became snow white. "Holding on, for now...." Heinz could see her hands turning blue. "We can never go after the head of the ArcU! We only get little fish, never a boss!" The President turned around and Heinz saw her skin was now blue, a side effect of her powers. She did not do this too often in front of senators and other politicians. "I hope we can stop panic with the ArcU attacks." she sighed.
"ArcU isn't our only problem; during the E3 incident...the Mafia Hitmen were protected by another party, a female Mage with control over mist. We speculate that she's a Matter Magi, and a very powerful one at that," Heinz said.
"Great! Just peachy." She paced. "We cannot do anything about it now." The President walked towards Heinz and grabbed his hand taking him to the private office. "Now tell me the truth on one thing. Will you tell me one thing?"
"What is it?" responded the Agency Head, now curious.
"Do I look good blue?" she smirked.
In response, Heinz put a quick Spell of Resilience on his lips, and kissed her.
The President returned the kiss on his lips too and then broke it apart after a minute. "Was that fun?" The President smiled at her former boyfriend. "Let's hope the media does not find out."
"Let's really hope they don't," Heinz said as he turned to leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow." the President smiled. She walked to the desk in her private office. "You can go now." President Addison wanted to watch him leave. She opened the cigar box on the desk, pulled out a cigar, and lit.