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One of the things Borax appreciated about his direct manager--his captain--was that she respected his schedule and did not rush to make things happen at that exact moment. When he received the meeting request, he had been in the middle of one of those meetings she had been considering, an off-hours but agreed to meeting with a client that was newly interested in his bank's services. It was an easy enough song and dance, but one that worked considerably better if he was not suddenly in a different location.

Spooking the clients was not a way to get proper agreements from clients, after all.

He was aware after his client meeting ended that he now needed to get himself to said meeting. As a lieutenant, he didn't have a method to the most convenient means of transportation and therefore didn't actually have any ability to get to the meeting on his own at all. At least, that was what it seemed like at the surface.

Exploring the team had given him access to those little nooks and crannies that taught him where it could bend and it could break. It told him who would easily answer him and who would resist. It told him who it would be easy to convince that he needed to do something at any time out of a strange obligation for something Borax had been able to tell Fulgurite barely wanted any part of.

Borax had been correct, anyway, because of course he was, and Fulgurite with some reluctance arrived to Borax's shark-eating smirk and grabbed his arm, bringing him down to Negaspace. After a roll of the eyes and some assorted grumbling Borax didn't care about, Fulgurite left him there, and Borax made it to Jadarite's office at an hour sharp.

Never early, never late.

Once he arrived, he knocked on her door thrice evenly, and waited.

Luckily for Jadarite, Borax was fairly good at reading the room--the office, in this case. One of the keys to making himself well-liked in a work environment was making sure not to violate those little unwritten rules, and it often required picking up little expression changes, little shifts, little vocalizations, and body language. He saw the way Jadarite was sitting, body straight, arms crossed and on the desk, the immediate stiff nod and the suggestion to come inside.

So while they did have a very personal relationship, Borax wasted no time putting it aside. This wasn't a moment for a kiss as a greeting, or a smooth suggestion that her office looked like an excellent place for--

"Thank you," Borax nodded in turn, closing the door to the office behind him and finding the nearest chair on the other side of her desk that he could sit in. It would give him the ability to look over whatever she wished to show him, and kept him from towering over his superior, not a look he was going to project in a business environment.

That progression was important to him, as to how she would see him during that.

"Lepidolite's projects?"

A general-sovereign's projects required his brain to be picked?

Now that was what he wanted to hear.

"Shoot. I'll help with whatever I can."

When he was originally recruited, one of the most fascinating things he had learned about this underground organization was just how many pies they truly had their hands in. It spoke to an aspect he admired of those who had managed to get themselves into the upper echelons of society. So much of what they consumed in society, seemingly belonging to more organizations than he could count, could be traced up the chain to stock buys, company buyouts, company mergers, CEO transfers -- all to belong to just a few organizations.

Behind that, Borax was willing to bet was the Negaverse.

He let Jadarite take advantage of the height differential while they sat to tower over him. He leaned in, then, watching her as much as he read over the article she pulled up on her tablet. To see how they had subtly taken it over was genius, and it brought some excitement to think that they could just do just a thing--

He nodded to healthcare, and then to education. Perhaps he should have known that a school called Romano's that promoted a military education had a Negaverse root, considering what it enforced from even a young age, but as a civilian without that Negaverse context, he had no way of knowing.

Healthcare. Education...

Finance.

Borax's glance from the tablet to Jadarite was slow, measured, almost as much as the slow uptick in his smile was. Finance. She thought of him directly. She thought of him to assist with the next mission of infiltrating every corner of Destiny City's society. They would make it impossible for the White Moon to fight back by draining them of any useful resources.

And then, with the remnants-- "Banks control a lot of society. And in a capitalistic world, getting our hands on the transfer of money for the benefit of ourselves and the disadvantage of others will help our position. We could help fund more of our other projects if we could get our hands on the transfer of money, help some of the ideas of our own, and perhaps work to make deals to drain things or buy out things we're suspicious of."

Chores, research, tasks, anything of import-- Borax wasn't necessarily a brown-noser, but right now, if it was given to him, he would do it happily. Faustite's database assignment had been met with gusto and was leading him to the next arc of this assignment: find them some White Moon moles that may help them figure out what was going on over there. Get them Quartz's moles back. See if he couldn't find some useful recruits.

But oh, was this something that absolutely brought him excitement.

"Very," Borax's laugh was warm. Confident. Easy. "People's souls can be bought with the right amount of money. It often is. Offer a man a million dollars and he might just follow your gesture leading him into a fire."

The fact that she was coming to him for this, though, before even consulting the higher-ups, had him so readily enthralled that he was ready to give whatever was needed. This was what he had been working for over the past four months. This was the big break he was seeking. Having his name as a resource for what the Negaverse would soon be offering to help their agents and senshi could only mean good things for him.

He wanted it.

"If you're looking for something easy to overtake before ramping up to a more national bank, I suggest a regional bank or a credit union. Credit unions do come with a less capitalistic-friendly vibe but may be easier to establish or at least are more common, so we may blend. A regional bank already has all the structure and often offers products like loans and credit cards, but doesn't necessarily come with the need to manage the whole thing nationwide."

He leaned forward. "As for services, the default should be checking and savings accounts. We can build from there to create debit, secured credit lines, and even credit cards. For our agents, we build this for low APR and no overdraft fees. No foreign transaction fees. No fees. We collect fees from non-Negaverse applicants. If there's already a loan apparatus, keep it. Expand it for our benefit. I can think of some ways to."

Borax reached into his pocket--actually his subspace pocket--and pulled out his phone. "I know a few up-and-rising banks which could be good candidates."

There would always be another time, and with that shark-toothed smile she returned to him, Borax would make certain of that.

He nodded at the direction to take his time, tucking the phone back away in his subspace pocket as she spoke. Research the top three, come up with reasons, and figure out which ones would be the best candidates for a somewhat hostile takeover. Easy enough. He'd tap into his business acumen and also perhaps observe some things about these places. What was the company culture? Did employees want to be there? Did people want to bank there? Destiny City was a large city and likely had plenty of regional banks and credit unions he could sink his teeth into, and he had no fear of that.

Had he noticed? He had done the research as appropriate. Romano's seemed to have been opened right around the time of the ascendence of the General-King Lepidolite, so he was uncertain if that had taken over anything directly. Destiny City Memorial, though, seemed to have been an entire Negaverse takeover of--

Oh.

That shark-toothed grin somehow got even sharper as he lifted a hand to his chest.

This.

This is what he wanted.

"Jadarite, my captain," he didn't quite stop the rumble in his voice, not with the energy that coarsed through his body, "you needn't ask me even once."

The answer was absolutely, of course.

This had been going even better than he would have imagined at the beginning, even at the middle. A leadership position. An arguable CEO position.

Borax always got what he wanted, and he would continue to do so.

The breakdown of business came easily to him, too, and Borax's straighter back and intensive curiosity lessened to a widened, relaxed position and something a bit more lackadaisical. He could see it in how her form relaxed, too; their power differential was over, and it was back to the friendship of a sorts that had resulted in his recruitment.

And it came with an offer for drinks.

Borax took her hand.

"Always."