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There is a knock on the door!
Kaleb was home and en route to the door before the knock. When you heard all the squeaks and creeks on your floor, this was no surprise. There was a confused look until Kaleb saw that it was Billy and not who he thought which would explain the difference in perception he was picking up. He took a step backwards into the room "That explains the height differential. C'mon in Billy." Suit indoors on his own time? Kaleb, not Kellan. This time he threw the wizard a bone. "Kellan and your brother will be back in a bit. How you been, man?" And since he was up, coffee.
"The… height differential?" Billy seems rather confused. But he doesn't immediately come in, instead he steps out and to the side, where he has a dolly and an unadorned but functional looking wardrobe. He wheels it in, "I have a present for you." He grins, "I'd normally use telekinesis, but it would draw looks. Where do you want it? Ideally it should be somewhere common for all of you. You don't have to worry about civilians, the key is part of the spell." One could be forgiven for having no freaking idea what Billy is talking about.
Kaleb was a technical being, nt at all an empathic one so naturally he started to asnwer before he caught himself. "I thought you were someone else and the sound was bouncing all over and I'm still putting pic- ya know what I thought you were Maximus." He poured his coffee back into his cup, as black and bitter as his heart so he claims, and grinned. "You'll hate me for sayin this but we're moving next week. Yoooou are just in time, though I"ll be happy for you to magic the shit out of that move."
"Oh, moving is fine." Billy grins, "That's part of why I'm putting the spell on a wardrobe. I can probably help with the move though, yeah. Teleportation is my speciality. Why are you moving?" he wonders curiously, then decides to just put the wardrobe up against a random wall that seems appropriate, "I might have to re-cast the spell on the other-side, but its wardrobe-to-wardrobe: the spell doesn't open a portal, the spell casts a spell to open a portal." He pauses, "I know a Maximus. Uhh, dark haired, pale, blue eyes?"
Kaleb pointed up. "Couple floors up to a three room penthouse. Jay's stayin, which is good. Only right he should have his own room. But that'd be great. Think we cna load things into the wardrobe, just move the wardrobe and then unpack it? Cuts down carrying things back and forth to the freight elevator. Can powers that up too to cut time even." Says the man with no wnat to tote things like a mortal. He sipped his coffee and pointed to the made coffee and the kettle in an unspoken offering. On the point of clarification an eyebrow went up. "Yup. That'd be the very one. He's been working on building some things. Half expected this to be that. It is not."
"The wardrobe… well, you can store stuff in it, and move stuff, but if you pile everything into the center of the room I might just be able to teleport it all upstairs— after I get a look at the destination." explains Billy, then gesturing Kaleb over after he shakes his head at the coffee offer. "C'mere. Put your *non* dominant hand on the doorknob. Open the wardrobe with your dominant hand, and its just a wardrobe. Open the wardrobe with your *non* dominant wardrobe, and its a gateway to Narnia." This wardrobe has only the one door, unlike most that open to two. "And, otherwise, how have you been? I haven't heard from you guys in awhile."
Kaleb walked over and placed his right hand on the door. This was new, and structurally awesome. It wasn't often things really sparked the young architect's abundant curiosity. He whispered, "Woah… yeah okay Billy you got me officially a lil jealous. I mean that with every tailored fiber of my being. That's a pretty cool ability and super helpful." He squint to the door to his room and back admitting, "I might have a record problem. Not in the acquiring sense but the moving sense." He didn't know what a Narnia was but he was curious all the same.
What was he up to? He took a deep breath and tried to sum up, "Uhhhh got kidnapped, had my DNA swizzled and completely screwed with, lost my abilities for a while, then got wy too many back, broke up with Lorna, and found out Jay is much better at bowling than the Kellans and I combined becuase he grew up near Ohio." He paused and considered other things adding, "Oh, Vic… died and is okay…but I'm guessing you knew that one."
Kaleb blinked and looked to Billy. "How's you? Haven'tseen youand Teddy a bit. You guys doing alright?"
Billy blinks at Kaleb, looking alarmed, "Got *kidnapped*? Man, I've been so preoccupied getting Narnia set up and working on this spell it sounds like I missed a lot. Wow." He frowns, then shakes his head a bit. Billy takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, reaching a hand towards Kaleb but hovering over his hand, not actually taking his, "The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Thelionthewitchandthewardrobe. Thelionthewitchandthewardrobethelionthewitchandthewardrobethelionthewitchandthewardrobe." He gasps and stumbles back a moment later, though there's nothing obvious that has happened. Blinking a few times he nods Kaleb to the wardrobe, "Until I can bind the others to it, only your non-dominant hand will activate it. Go ahead." He pauses, then adds, "And oh, we're good. We've been working a lot, working out. Travelling. Well, if hopping to Germany for dinner before coming out counts as travelling." He grins at that.
Kaleb listened to the operating instructions and, when questioned, flinched. "Yeah. It was, um, not fun. They're blackmailing me presently having my DNA on file and witholding it from our parents. It's sort of a mess but I'm looking into leads to dig into their pockets to find out what they want and where this is going." He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Things I'm not good at so I've got someone who is versed at political back biting looking into it. But… working on being okay-ish again. Everything feels amped up to 15." His brow furrowed but he seemed to be handling it. "Turns out I'm not the only one who was taken. It's a…mutant thing as far as we can tell. There was this kid in the Congo. Maybe 9 years old? He was so scared. I'm going out again to see who else we cna get back. It's just… it's messed up Billy."
There's a frown, and Billy shakes his head, "Well, if you need anything, let me know. I have… contacts." He says this in a vague sort of way, "Beyond just what I can bring to the table, which is unconventional. But I uhh." How to explain this. "…know some people in a international agency who protects…. the world. Well, the western bloc. There's resources available to them that aren't available to just anyone. If someone is out kidnapping mutants, they might be concerned. Or we can handle it in-house with the Plan. Up to you, really." He gestures Kaleb to the door, and when he opens it… Beyond is a large, empty space of what looks like a warehouse with all the windows painted black. He steps through. "Welcome to Narnia. The home base of the Contingency Plan. Right now it just has workout equipment and mats for those interested, but we just got it started."
Kaleb laid his off hand on the wardrobe and followed Billy into the- oh hey now! Kaleb's flinty demeanor gave way to unnbridled curiosity, "Woah. Is this in New York or one of those other…plane things?" He'd been doing reading or paying attention at least. He walked up next to Billy looking around. "This iiiiis wicked neat." He had to give him that much. "I'll work on compiling what I can. I'm not so arrogant as to turn away help freeing our people. But if you tell them to keep an ear out it'd be helpful."
"Its in Brooklyn, but the wardrobes are so we can come and go in secret— and come quickly. There's enough room that we're going to put some partitions up, separate rooms for various needs…. any suggestion by the way, on what we need? Let me know. Or just buy it and bring it over." Billy grins, seeming… smug. "When the wardrobe is closed, the portal doesn't even exist. So it should be secure, but I'll take measures, and see about getting one of my parents to set wards." He nods more seriously then, "Is there a certain modus opperandi they use to kidnap? Any particular type of place? Wait… do they seem military at all?"
Kaleb wrinkled his nose a bit. Okay, Kaleb was surprisingly not racist, but he was classy as hell. Brooklyn was not what he'd hoped to hear but objectively offered, "Well we for certain won't be sought after here. Good work, Billy." Hell he almost have him a past on the back for that one if initiating contact ever occurred to him. "The people that took Warren were corporate funded lab. The people that took Lorna and I? high funded private enterprise from what I picked up. hard to tell, but the person that grabbed me worked for my father. they sent her onto someone that had too much cash in pocket for 'a' mutant. I have someone investigating that. The Congo? guerilla militia. Iceland? dunno and Germany looks like a government hold out. this shit is wiiiiide spread."
The wrinkled nose makes Billy grin, and he explains, "It was on purpose in an industrial area— there's a lot of warehouses around here, a lot of traffic. We'll both blend in a bit and stand out that someone might think we're a mob cover and not want to do anything to bother us. Officially, we're a pinball company." He blinks a moment, "So these weren't all one … establishment? I met someone who was…recruited by a military outfit that might be off the books, and am looking into it. So it sounded like maybe there was something in common, but now I"m not so sure."
Kaleb actually broke his abbrasive demeanor with a moment of pure satisfaction "Awwwww yes!" He conspired a look to Billy actually happy about this. "I can waste a day on some pinball. We need to make sure we have one. Two! We need to. For…reasons." He didn't explain those reasons, but they were clearly very important…to him. There was a pause and he paced slowly through the area. "MAximus said to follow the money? All of these groups needed to be funded by something or someone. In layman's terms, we might be looking at the varied symptoms of one disease. I wouldn't be certain to write them off based on their apparent dissimilarity. I think if it were me? I'd be banking on that. Besides, I was held hostage in my captor's house and… he shared a bit. Chiefly someone same to fund an acquisition. They flooded me full of stuff but I don't know if they're searching for a way to shut us down or juice us up. I'm hoping my trip to East Berlin will yeild some new information. Either way it's a puzzle that won't be solved in one night. On the upshot? Nice to know Vic and Jay are hard as hell to kill which… honestly makes me feel a little better. Not something to squander but definiately something we learned to keep in mind."
"Some downtime fun-things are absolutely on the list." Billy nods his head quickly with a grin, laughing softly after a moment at the look on Kaleb's face, "I'll add pinball machines to the list. Basically, Teddy and I weren't really comfortable keep having meetings where we *live*, not because we don't want company from time to time but because we might want to be *alone* from time to time, so if everyone does team-stuff shows up? Problem. So, Narnia is our solution." He nods, "Follow the money is good advice, and on that— if you can get a name or *something* I might be able to get SHIELD resources to help look into it. They have whole … like, detective-accountant … people." Forensic Accountants. Only he doesn't know that word. He nods, "Good to know they're resiliant. I'm… not. But I'm pretty sure I can heal if someone's still alive." Pause, "But— if you need transpo to Berlin, let me know."
Kaleb eyed Billy looking… impressed but not surprised at his contacts list. "That's …actually super useful. I'll start compiling and… yeah." The pinball acquisition got a widening grin. This one points withthe haunty Miller. "You're alright. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise, Billy? Send em my way. I'll explain it." Oh yes because a sonic explaining anything had 'summer fun' written all over it. "Hey I respect your privacy. I think it's agood idea. On the upshot being able to create a sound dampening barrier? Hella useful. I'm gonna take a cruise around and see what we have and compile an opiniona andget you a list of building upgrades we can look into." Because the architect doth always build.