Connecting

[Trevor Paige]

Trevor just simply watched Elsa. Even as she laughed at his sudden jump to a conclusion the confident smirk never wavered. He waited for her to finish before replying. "Elsa, you know damn well as much as I do there's no point in going half-assed when it comes to equipment. If you want to give the security team anything more than you can pick up at the local Wal-Mart you're going to have to resign yourself to the fact that you may just have to skirt the lines of legality." He paused just long enough to take a sip of his drink but he also didn't want to give Elsa a chance to interject before he'd said his piece. "As part of my 'education' my father sends me operation proposals to look over. You wouldn't believe what can be legal if you know the right people and throw enough money at the problem." Yes. The way Trevor was looking at Elsa made it abundantly clear, even if she wasn't skimming the surface of his mind, that he'd already put a plan into place.

Trevor then shrugged faintly. "As for the PR? Well, we keep our nose clean and continue to play the victim card and we should be able to keep public sentiment." He sighed a little, though, as it was never this simple when it came to things like this. "And, of course, as long as no rogue metas decide to blow up a national landmark." He frowned at the thought of a repeat attack like the one that brought about the announcement of SPECTRE. "That would be detrimental. But if you'd like, I can get you in touch with a guy from a PR firm to consult on the side. If he can keep the people from stoning my parents after an expose came out claiming they'd made billions of exploiting the wars in the Middle East, I'm sure he can help the Academy."

The last part was what brought about the most curiosity in Trevor. Up until Elsa began speaking of Roxana Strix, the curious girl who Trevor knew only from afar (but he'd heard far too many things for some of them to not be true) their discussions had mirrored that of two CEO's in the early stages of planning a merger. The two of them had come together to see what they could offer the other. But now talk of cryptic organizations with dubious intent and nebulous allegiances? Now that was something Trevor hadn't counted on going into tonight. "How do you suggest finding out more information?" He asked, although, as always, he was already beginning to form a plan. "I might be able to snoop around if I was on the inside." He offered vaguely.

[Elsa Bellefonte]

"Skirting the edges of legality is perfectly acceptable," replied Elsa. "And of course that's why I'm contacting you instead of working through other channels. I've already done some basic looking into various equipment sets, and I've been mostly disappointed," Elsa frowned, remembering how very poorly that had gone. She knew they'd have to do better: winter was coming and they'd barely survived the first snowfall.

PR, they could handle, and Elsa simply nodded along with Trevor. They had an excellent team and, if need be, they could use some of the mutants with powers more angled toward that. Elsa would use Ellen as a spokeswoman if it came to that. A pretty girl who'd been literally killed and brought back to life, not to mention one with a hypnotic personality and strong will? Elsa made a note to bring the idea up to Ellen, see how far it went.

The last part, that had Elsa's concern more then ever. "I don't even know the organization's name, as Roxana has kept her mind marvelously controlled in that respect. What I do know is that they are involved in security," she looked at Trevor and raised her brows. "Though I'm slightly concerned about attempting to plant a spy of sorts. They very nearly killed Roxana simply for being at the forefront of the defense of the school. She's an asset, Trevor, and, more importantly, she's our asset," and friend, though Elsa didn't think adding that would be too... beneficial right now.

[Trevor Paige]

Of course, this all fell right into Trevor's specialty. No, he couldn't provide any of the equipment, nor could he actually execute the plan he'd already developed. What he could do, however, was set the wheels in motion and collect a hefty finder's fee from those who could. "All PMC's skirt the lines of legality." He pointed out. "That's the point of their entire existence. How else could they be sent into combat zones to do things the government wishes to retain plausible deniability for? If We created a shadow company and entered into a private defense contract, we could certify the security team under federal standards and legally obtain, possess, and make use of whatever toys you wanted them to play with." Would it work? Of course it would work. Trevor had seen it happen many times. Was it legal? Only partially.

This shady organization was the bigger conundrum. Trevor knew precious little about things of this nature. He thought a moment, mulling over Elsa's words before looking back to her. "Then what do you suggest?" He asked curiously. He didn't know what sort of relationship Elsa had with Roxana, but if Elsa felt she was an asset to their cause, he would follow the elder girl's lead when it came to uncovering the true nature of the shadow agency. "Do you have an leads, or ideas regarding this matter?"

[Elsa Bellefonte]

Elsa listened, her eyes intent on Trevor as he spoke. It certainly did make sense, and they could very well throw the whole "the government uses the same equipment" thing up as a defense if it should come down to it. Seeing as the government had been the main aggressors last time, that would give the enough. "We have shadow companies already established... at least a dozen of them, come to think of it," what Elsa neglected to mention was that at least three of those had actually been created by their last accountant, a mutant probability calculator who'd managed to arrange all their finances over the course of half a year, not to mention setting up eerie documents tracing how mutant abilities worked.... all without much actual research or collaboration.

"So that should work fine," agreed Elsa, nodding and gesturing for them to move onto the next conundrum. Like Trevor, Elsa thought it to be quite interesting. As far as suggestions: "I'm still working out the details," admitted Elsa, sighing. "So far Roxana's been tight with even a name around me, though her training in defending her mind is surprisingly lax for someone. What i do know is that her organization is stationed in Europe, that they work often in bodyguard and security work," she gave Trevor a meaningful look at that, "and that they sent Roxana here with a list of 'targets' that she's supposed to be working to protect or nurture or something. It's all very suspicious and clandestine and, as I said: the last time we encountered a group like that it... didn't end well for us."