It's early afternoon when the clear door slides smoothly out of the way at his approach, admitting him to the basement level of Batten Manor, and he walks through without pausing. He's already tried talking sense to the man - he has it on good authority, namely Diana's, that his boss hasn't slept more than a handful of hours over the past three days, burying himself in his work and, of all things, making himself an open and available target.

He's trying to distract himself, to move on like nothing's happened. Kyle's seen it before, but not from the Playboy - this is a first.

When he'd called this time, he'd had a hint of that older zeal, and it makes him consider that maybe this is just what the boss needs. Everyone has their ways of coping, and he has no doubt that Ed will land on his feet.

Turning into the office section of the basement, he sees the younger man standing next to what looks like a rotating hologram of a fancily cut tile, hexagonal, concave on one side, rounded on the other, the edges tapered to a fine edge. The overall effect resembles a decorative shallow bowl, and as he approaches his boss looks up at him. "Hey, Pont. yer just in time. See dis?" He can hear the excitement in Ed's voice, and he almost can't help but be excited himself. Batten only gets this way with something he's really enthusiastic about.

He nods, walking around it. "Looks like a variation on the floor tiles we put out." Looking closer at the data readouts next to it, he looks over at his boss, his eyebrows edging upward. "Is this readout right?"

His boss gives him a shrug. "S'only a computer model, but de design's sound. De line's almos' done configurin' now, once it's done Ah'm gon' put on a test of it."

Kyle nods, watching the rotating structure, his hand coming up to stroke at the thin goatee on his chin. "If this works, it'll drop...well, a lot off the armor weight, at least for the Hammer suit...and it'll still keep it's structural strength. Of course, you won't have the weight of the other suits to counter the heavier blows, but even if you get hit with a wrecking ball and smashed into a wall, I think this should work." Turning towards the seat across the desk from his boss, he walks over and sits, gesturing at the rotating sculpture. "What inspired this?"

His boss shrugs back at him. "De whole o'de 'gettin' shot wit' a crossbow' t'ing might've done it. Dat's de fifth er sixth time dat's happened, and Ah'll tell ya, de close calls keep gettin' closer. Dis design answers de problem of weight an' at de same time'll stop a piercing point as well as a blunt impact, and gives me de p'rtection of de Hammer suit wit' de speed o'deployment Ah have wit' de Predator suit...plus, wit' dis config'ration ya c'n cut out de framework de ot'er suits have t'rely on t'help hold 'em up."

He listens to all of this, his grin growing wider as his boss speaks. "Impressive, boss. How long after the first tests are run can we start making suits out of this" I mean, I don't know about Leo - I think he likes the bulk his gives him - but I wouldn't mind making mine a bit lighter."

His boss chuckles, standing to stretch before he moves over to the hologram, tapping the image with his finger. Immediately it zooms out to show hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions more, arranged in layers, and as the image zooms out further the details give way to the whole, showing the Hammer suit standing there, rotating slowly. "Ah figger 'bout a half hour t'put out a square foot, couple millimeters thick...say 'bout five t'six hours fer a whole suit t'be done."

Surprised, he stares at Ed. "You're...gonna try this out tonight?"

And as Ed laughs, he feels that sinking feeling of dread. "You're trying to kill me, aren't you, boss?"

"Nah, Pont, y'know better dan dat. Bes' way t'test sometin' new is t'put it under the conditions s'meant t'be used for."

Kyle mouths the words along with his boss as he rolls his eyes, having heard it many times before. This is going to end up being an interesting night.

He's sitting in his office at the Rhy'din branch when the triple-chime sounds. Putting aside the reports he's reading from, he looks at the multi-touch surface and sees the ID display of the incoming call, from his boss.

Whom he's beginning to wonder about, right along with Leo. He knows Batten, knows him and his level of stupid (as he thinks of it) stunts. Walking around with a target on his back in public, like he's waiting to get shot at...it's a bit outside his character.

Of course, this is a first for Ed, he knows. Despite being a powerful corporate player in technological fields and the undisputed leader in nanotech, no one has ever tried outright murder as a way of getting the boss out of the way - usually it's corporate power games, industrial espionage, and attempts at defacing the company's reputation.

Ed (with Kyle's help) has, in the past, simply done just what he's doing now - walking around like nothing is happening, nothing at all. Not a care in the world.

Granted, Kyle knows it's an act. He's one of the privileged few that's seen under the Playboy mask the man wears, and what?s under there, at times, chills even the operations chief's blood from time to time.

Reaching out, he taps the area displaying Batten's name. "Yeah, boss."

The drawling Cajun voice rolls out of the hidden speakers back at him. "Hey, Pont. Ya busy at de mom'nt?"

He looks down at the papers on his desk. Reading through fiscal and production reports is perhaps only a shade more entertaining than, say, a double root canal. He knows that question from his boss - whatever it is isn't an emergency, but will surely be more fascinating than reading reports. "Nothing I can't put on hold for a minute or three. Whatcha got?"

There's a chuckle from the speaker. "C'mon over an' Ah'll show ya."

With that the intercom clicks off, leaving Kyle sitting there rolling his eyes before he gets up from the chair. Sometimes he wishes his boss would be the type that prefers explaining to showing, but after a little over six years' working for him, it doesn't seem that particular trend is going to change anytime soon.

A few moments later he's walking into his boss' cavernous office. Walking over to the desk, he takes a seat in one of the ergonomic chairs across from Batten and takes a seat. "So, what?s up?"

Ed's sitting there, reading over what looks like a letter, judging by the tri-fold creases. Without looking up, he asks, "'Member dat ind'pendent film dey were makin' a few years back in N'O'leans" Can't 'member de name of it fer de life o'me, had somet'in' t'do wit' hur'cane survivors or somet'in like dat."

Kyle chuckles, nodding. He remembers - the proposal had come across his desk first from a scrawny, freckled and bespectacled redhead college kid. "Yeah, 'Shelter From the Storm' or something like that. Why?"

His boss snaps his fingers as he looks up from the letter, looking over at him. "Dat's it. An'way, Ah's wonderin'. Do we still have de legal papers fer de production comp'ny we started fer dat?"

He blinks at his boss. It's an odd question, coming from the man that had just nodded to the original starting of it and hadn't seem very interested in it at the time. "Yeah, of course. BatSheet Productions. What's this all about, Ed?"

By way of response his boss hands the letter over to him. Leaning over the desk, he snags it, turning it in his hands to read the text. The logo at the top says it's from 21twelve studios, the desk of one Lelah Rivka. As he reads, unconsciously he starts to murmur to himself, bits and pieces of the letter before his eyes.

"To whom it may concern...recently held a casting call...'A Murder of Crowes'...would like to approach you for assistance in producing..." He finishes reading the letter, which is signed with a flourish in a very feminine hand. Looking up at his boss with a half-grin, he arches an eyebrow. "Have you met this girl"

His boss' response is typical, a rogueish half-grin as he nods. "Yeah, coupla times."

Kyle purses his lips slightly, arching an eyebrow. "She good looking?"

He already knows what the answer's going to be as he watches his boss chuckle. "Well, yeah, but dat's not why Ah'm t'inkin' o'doin' dis."

He just gives his boss an 'oh, really look, and Batten chuckles. "All right, all right...not de whole reason."

Kyle shakes his head, setting the letter back on the desk and rolling his eyes, though he can't help the half-grin and chuckle escaping him. "Yeah, yeah. It's at least a third of the reason." Chuckling softly, he heads for the door, talking as he goes. "I'll call Legal, have them get something drafted up for you, boss."

He hears Batten chuckling behind him as the door is closing behind him. "T'anks, Pont."

Batten Industries Corporate Offices

"Come on in, Pont, have yerself a seat."

He'd walked into the CEO's office, not knowing if he'd find Ed there or not. It was hard to tell most days - Ed had a way of getting in and out of the corporate office building without being seen or heard by anyone that he still hadn't figured out. The only thing Kyle could figure was that Ed used the 'secret' entrance built in behind a wall panel and made sure Diana would keep everyone in the dark whenever he used it.

That, or the man was using his new cloaking system to his advantage.

He walked over to the desk and took up the indicated chair, settling into it comfortably as he tossed a folder on to Ed's desk. "Your proposal for the call boxes looks good, boss. I put a few tweaks on it - made them wireless rather than wired, and toughened up the structural design a bit." He gestured to the folder. "It's all in there. The only problem we'll have is WestEnd."

He watched as Ed leaned forward and snagged the folder, opening it and leafing through the pages one at a time, motioning for the COO to continue. "Ah'm list'nin'."

Kyle nodded and pointed at the folder. "The report is near the end of the file there. There's a number of reasons, but the two big ones are the gang problem and WestEnd's unique nature."

He watched as Ed flipped through the file and reached the pages where the report on WestEnd were, watching his expression carefully. As always, Ed had a hell of a poker face on him. Finally, the man spoke as he flipped the file closed and set it on his desk. "Well, dere's solutions fer de gang problem, o'course...but Ah'll be sure to bring dis to de next GAC meetin' an' run it by dem t'see what deir input is on dat. But dis...'dead zone' effect...dat's interestin'."

Kyle nodded his agreement. "Yeah, I agree...and it brings me to my next suggestion for you. Being that there's a whole area of knowledge we don't cover here at B.I., I thought we should form another division...one for Magical Research and Development."

He watched the boss as he said this, again carefully, but the man's only response was a thoughtful nod, and perhaps the barest twist of his lips up into a smile. "Ah've been t'inkin' 'bout de same t'ing, here an' dere...and Ah t'ink yer right. It'd be foolish t'ignore a whole area of knowledge when dis whole town has so much t'offer on de subject."

Kyle nodded, feeling a grin spread across his lips. "My thoughts exactly, sir. Of course, we need to start by looking into who would be most qualified to run such a thing, maybe get some advice from the local experts."

Ed grinned back at him and nodded again. "Ah'll let ya handle dat, Pont. Pers'nally, Ah'd start wit' de heads of de Ravensheart Academy an' de Institute of Arcane Principle. Ah don' t'ink we could hire dem, but dey might be able t'point us in de right direction."

Kyle nodded again, chuckling. He saw that coming a mile away, but it suited him just fine - Ed might be the brains behind a lot of the products, but it was him that had the business sense. "I can take care of that, boss. Anything else?"

Ed shook his head. "Nah. T'anks fer dis, Pont." He gestured to the folder on his desk. "Lemme know when ya get all de stuff fer de new division t'get'er, mon ami."

Kyle nodded as he got to his feet. "Will do, boss."