A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting)
A monster was walking amongst men at the hotel.
Normally monsters didn't wear tailored suits, but this one had to do to his size. Only a couple of inches short of seven feet and heavily muscled, strong Hispanic features, and an aura of self-confidence, Hernandez didn't look like a monster. Despite his large size, he carried himself with a grace that many smaller men would be envious of. His black hair was pulled into a short ponytail, and a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes.
The sunglasses were necessary for Hernandez to walk about in the light of day, as his solid orange eyes could give away his mutancy.
His mutant ability was to change into a large, extraordinarily large and powerful wingless dragon. He could also shift into a halfway form, partially dragon and partially human. With this ability, he could have become great, battling threats that would destroy normal men. He also was greatly intelligent, and could have become a diplomat or philanthropist, using his mind to attempt to acchieve peace.
Instead, he had used his intelligence to upsurp his father's drug cartel, and had used that mind and his powers to carve out an empire of crime. He relished the thought of what his actions did to the human race, enjoying the efforts he forced the world to take to combat his business. His living was made on the death, suffering, addictions, and pain of others.
Yet what made this man deadly was the simple fact that he fully bought into the philosophy of mutant superiority. The only exception to this philosophy was the simple fact that Hernandez was willing to use humans that proved their worth. However, he had only found one.
Hernandez was slightly curious about Thom. Thom had apparently lived far beyond the normal human lifespan, but had to take out an ad to find his daughter. Hernandez was wondering about how a person could live so long yet not have a more substantive powerbase. I suppose that after several lifetimes the allure of power could have faded. Either that, or the man simply obtanes enough funds from his work to support his lifestyle. Hernandez mused to himself.
He saw his assasin Richard Draven sitting in the lobby as he walked to the front desk. Hernandez wasn't armed, but he was willing to bet any amount of money on the fact that Richard was. Richard got a little paranoid about Hernandez taking risks, and liked to do his best to watch his employer's back. While Richard had not thought that Thom would pose a risk to his employer, not all of Hernandez enemies used powers to kill, and while in his human form, Hernandez was as vulnerable as another human.
Instead of stopping at the front desk, Hernandez procedded to the elevators as if he owned the whole place. It helped some that he was wearing a light brown suit of obvious high quality, but his size alone gained him a few stares from the others in the lobby. Upon stepping in the elevator, he hit the proper floor number and proceeded to the room he had been instructed to go to. He stood outside the door for a second, then politely knocked twice. His deep voice rolled out a simple question in the quiet "Thom Barron. I am here for our appointment."
As the door opened, Hernandez quickly tok in Thom's apperance, making sure that it was indeed the same man that Richard had met earlier. The description matches. Good. Hernandez had no desire to waste his time by showing up at the wrong room. Hernandez took off his sunglasses as he walked through the opened door, letting his orange eyes adjust to the light. Hernandez walked over to the offered seat, and settled himself to discuss Thom's strange ad in the paper.
"Mr. Barron, my name is Francis Hernandez. You met one of my employee's earlier. You made a fairly good impression on him, and he does not impress very easily." This was probably the understatement of the year. The main reason that Thom had managed to impress Richard was that Thom had acted like a professional during their brief meeting. Having such knowledge of professionalism was good, since professionals in illegal occupations tended to stick to their word.
"I noticed your rather strange ad in the newspapers, and also heard about your uniquie abilities. Normally, I wouldn't bother with such problems, but I have a philanthropic streak when it comes to fellow mutants." This was true also. Hernandez had attempted to take steps to eliminate the selling of drugs in mutant heavy neighborhoods. A few of those that associated with Hernandez had started to violate this command, and Hernandez was planning on administrating some punishments on those who had violated his command.
"If you would be willing to tell me a little more about your lost child, perhaps I can be of some assistance in finding her."Edited by: Hank at: 4/25/06 8:22 pm
Re: A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting)
A knock came to his door twice and Thom rose form one of the pale leather sofas and made his way to the door. Before he even opened it, he knew who it was, having no other appointments for the day and not having ordered for room service. Hernandez was a giant of a man and Thom almost wondered if he would fit properly through the more petit friendly doorway but the man seemed to make his way in just fine. As the man removed his sunglasses, Thom saw the orange eyes and could understand well enough why the man had been wearing them. The eyes would have drawn un necessary attention and would have complicated things.
A gesture was made towrds one of the sofas as Thom made sure that the door was properly closed then he too made his way to a seat, placing himself across from the other man in a business like but semi-casual posture. He was curious about what the man had to say, what this meeting would be about. "Mr. Barron, my name is Francis Hernandez. You met one of my employee's earlier. You made a fairly good impression on him, and he does not impress very easily." Thom gave a small smile at that, pleased but not becoming overconfident over the comment.
"I noticed your rather strange ad in the newspapers, and also heard about your uniquie abilities. Normally, I wouldn't bother with such problems, but I have a philanthropic streak when it comes to fellow mutants... If you would be willing to tell me a little more about your lost child, perhaps I can be of some assistance in finding her." He sat up a little straighter, the topic of his lost daughter being one that was a sensitive one for him.
Thom was a man who cherished family, he even still sent money to the desendents of his siblings even though they had no clue about him or about where the money was coming from. He kept track of them too, looking them up time to time to make sure they were alright and that they were happy and were getting along in life alright... So of course a child of his own loins held importance. She was the only one he knew of having. He wanted to meet her, to appologize to her for not having been there, to explain to her who he was. Thom wanted to take care of her, make sure she was alright and happy. His level of care for her was what caused him to feel a knot form in his stomach at the request to know more about her that Hernandez had given. He knew vertually nothing about his own daughter. It was terrible.
His eyes acquired a sad look to them, the smile he had been giving turning slightly bitter as he thought of Samantha and the last time he had seen her. She hadn't told him anything except for a name so he couldn't relay much of the information. "Yes, I have been placing adds in every city I have been visiting since I have found out about my daughter. I do not have much I can tell about her at all, not having been told much myself by the devil of a woman who gave birth to her..." Thom began, trying to keep himself in check so not to show too much of the anger he had for the woman.
"There is a three hundred thousand dollar reward, as you have read in the ad... But I am willing to also add a good amount of life to that since you are already aware of what I am capable of. I have to admit, I am near desperate to find her and that contributed to the price but another thing that caused the reward to be as steep as it is is the fact that there is not much to go by at all when it comes to trying to find her. Almost all of the information I have, I placed in the add. She is nineteen, her name is Lorili A Luminari. That hell-hound of a woman who gave birth to her was Samantha Luminari... But the woman will give no information. She is less inclined to say anything since I have declined my services to her and since she knows that I would be searching for my daughter. I would have drained every second out of her but I didn't want any of her within me." Thom stated.
Re: A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting) "Yes, I have been placing adds in every city I have been visiting since I have found out about my daughter. I do not have much I can tell about her at all, not having been told much myself by the devil of a woman who gave birth to her..." An emotional outburst. Interesting. Hernandez thought to himself. It was obvious that Thom actually cared about this child. It was something that Hernandez had no experience with, considering that his parents had hated him and tried to break him.
"There is a three hundred thousand dollar reward, as you have read in the ad... But I am willing to also add a good amount of life to that since you are already aware of what I am capable of. I have to admit, I am near desperate to find her and that contributed to the price but another thing that caused the reward to be as steep as it is is the fact that there is not much to go by at all when it comes to trying to find her. Almost all of the information I have, I placed in the add." Hernandez had been wondering about the rather steep reward. The monetary amount wasn't a concern of his, but the additional life could be useful. He didn't need it at the moment, but it couldn't hurt to have some for use in the future.
"She is nineteen, her name is Lorili A Luminari. That hell-hound of a woman who gave birth to her was Samantha Luminari... But the woman will give no information. She is less inclined to say anything since I have declined my services to her and since she knows that I would be searching for my daughter. I would have drained every second out of her but I didn't want any of her within me." Hernandez smiled at this. Good. An actuall person to question. He had no doubt that he could get the woman to talk, and without using such draining techniquies as Thom had. Hell, Richard had been trained by the U.S. government in "interrogation", which was a nice, quaint phrase to describe torture.
Even if that failed, Hernandez could always just shift in front of her, and see how well her courage held out when faced with a monster from legend.
"I would advise holding off any payment until you see results. Do you have an address for this Samantha Luminari?" A dark smile spread across Hernandez face at the thought of harming a woman who would use her own flesh and blood as blackmail material. "My employee Richard might need to visit her. He has a thing about people who use family to blackmail others. And there is a strange thing about him. When he first shows up, nobody wants to talk but after a good ten or fifteen minutes, they can't stop telling him everything."
Re: A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting)"I would advise holding off any payment until you see results. Do you have an address for this Samantha Luminari? My employee Richard might need to visit her. He has a thing about people who use family to blackmail others. And there is a strange thing about him. When he first shows up, nobody wants to talk but after a good ten or fifteen minutes, they can't stop telling him everything."
Thom leaned back to a more comfortable position as he glanced over at the side-table to see if there was a pen and paper there.To his luck, there was. Reaching over and acquiring both, he quickly bu neatly wrote the address of the place that was the lair of Samantha Luminari. "It will not be hard to miss, the building sticks out as being the largest in the area and on top of that, it is on the crest of a hill." Thom explained as he finished writing the address.
Standing, he moved so he could place the paper on the arm of the chair that his guest sat in instead of just handing it to him in case he shared the same caution that Richard had displayed in their encounter.
Re: A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting)"It will not be hard to miss, the building sticks out as being the largest in the area and on top of that, it is on the crest of a hill."
Hernandez noticed that Thom did not directly hand over the note. Hernandez appreciated the sentiment, but he had no fear of all of his life being sucked out of him. Hernandez was there to help Thom find his daughter, and it was doubtful that Thom would seek to kill someone who was trying to help him.
Hernandez chuckled slightly at Thom's attempt at manners. "You don't have to worry about not touching me. I am not as paranoid as Richard." Part of Hernandez lack of concern had to do witht he fact that he had been able to either physically overpower or outsmart almost every threat that had come his way. Even in his human form, few without powers would care to fight with him.
"I doubt that you will attempt to use your abilities on me. You seem to smart to try to harm someone who is offering aid." Hernandez extended his right hand to Thom for the energy drainer to shake, showing at least some trust and respect. The trust was based mainly upon Hernandez being familiar with various criminal elements, and having an uncanny sense of who could be trusted and who needed a tighter leash placed on them. It was also based on the fact that it would be detrimental to Thom if he used his powers on Hernandez. After all, Thom already knew that he had at least one assassin on the payroll. Who was to say that Hernandez wouldn't have more with contengencies in case of his death?
Another reason why Hernandez wasn't afraid of Thom attacking had to do with the problems of removing a near seven foot tall, three hundred pound corpse. Without help, it would be dificult to say the least.
In any case, Thom seemed to be the type who provided a specific service for his money, without branching out very much into other fields. It seemed similar to some chemists and scientists that Hernandez had employed in the past to create new drugs or new devices.
"Besides, it is customary to seal such deals with a handshake, and in such matters I am something of a traditionalist."
Re: A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting)
At the chuckle that came from his guest, Thom was brought to look him in the eyes to try to figure out what may have been so amusing to the man."You don't have to worry about not touching me. I am not as paranoid as Richard." Hernandez stated. So that was it; Thom's avoidance of contact.
"I doubt that you will attempt to use your abilities on me. You seem to smart to try to harm someone who is offering aid.-- Besides, it is customary to seal such deals with a handshake, and in such matters I am something of a traditionalist." The man stated.
Thom took the hand that was extended and shook it then after, gave a small nod. "It may be customary but I have come across plenty of people who still perfer to skip formalities when it comes to actual contact." He replied with a slight grin. It had been a while since someone had willingly shook his hand while knowing about his powers of life absorbption. It was a nice change even if he didn't know the man.
Re: A Meeting of Minds (Thom and Hernandez meeting)
OOC: AAHHHH! I forgot that this one was still open Man am I an idiot sometimes.
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"It may be customary but I have come across plenty of people who still perfer to skip formalities when it comes to actual contact."
Hernandez actually chuckled a little at that comment. It was little wonder that few individuals would have willing contact with a man who could kill by his touch. Hernandez was slightly envious of Thom's ability, but supposed that the greater versatility of his own powers probably compensated admirably. "Don't worry to much about the details of this little mission." Hernandez rumbled out. "Keeping my word is one of those little formalities that people can rely upon. I will get some people searching for your daughter as soon as possible, but it could take some time to find her, especially if she dosen't want to be found."
Hernandez felt that if Thom was willing to give both life and money for his daughter, that the least he could do was give Thom an honest apprasial of the time this could take.
Man am I an idiot sometimes.
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