13702/Whodunnit

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Whodunnit
Date of Scene: 05 August 2021
Location: Metropolis
Synopsis: Lex doesn't take kindly to people who try to kill him.
Cast of Characters: Lex Luthor, Jericho




Lex Luthor has posed:
Lots of movies have the hostage in some hidden bunker. Or in a plane. Just.. somewhere isolated. This is not an isolated place.

When the man got into the humvee, a soundproofed hood was placed over his head. There was no choice in the matter. It was that or be tranqed. A half hour later, he was taken up some stairs and placed in a chair, tied down, and let to sit for a few minutes before the hood was removed. Now he sits in a shuddered, closed off apartment, bound by rope to a chair, with an LCD TV in front of him a webcam on top of it. Two masked mercenaries stand to either side of him.

A few moments later, and the television turns on; along with a red dot from the webcam. "Hello." Comes a modulated voice, "Are you well enough to speak?"

Jericho has posed:
    Abner doesn't seem fazed by any of this. When the screen comes on and a voice comes through, just kind of arches a brow up a little. "I don't remember anyone roughing me up, do you? Supergirl saved me from that localized Juggernaut-quake, remember?" He shrugs. "Nice of you to ask, I guess."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I'm not making assumptions of your condition, but I'm glad to hear it." The voice informs him. "What exactly were you hoping to accomplish at that event? If you were doing an assassination attempt, there were far better opportunities."

Jericho has posed:
    Abner laughs. "Nah, it was just target practice, the GM hornets were just the icing on the cake." he says sarcastically. "Everyone hates the -normal- ones, wanted to see the pandemonium that might happen if I let out the giant ones. It was a good time, wasn't it?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I see. You're one of those sort of people." The voice continues, "Let me explain the situation here. You are isolated, surrounded, and in a room designed to be dumped and gassed if you do anything I don't like. Killing you would be easy. I could also let you live and have you blacklisted with anyone who might employ you ever again."

The screen pops online. A white background with black printed words of 'L1'. "I am L1. I represent a coalition of interests across the planet. If you give me an honest answer, you could be looking at more career opportunities... or resources. Being a smartass... will not help you here."

Jericho has posed:
    The would-be assassin stares at the screen, his face unreadable for a moment. Then he starts ...giggling? Almost like the Joker does when he's done something particularly amusing to Batman, and not at all like the dry laugh he'd given just a moment ago.

    "Hehehehee....L1....you're talking like I don't already know I'm a dead man! And as if I'd -ever- work for anyone -else- even if I could!"

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I'm capable of quite a few things. Why, what do you want?" The voice inquires.

Jericho has posed:
    "Well geez I dunno you could let me out of here. Or let me at least take a look at who I'm talking to?" Abner replies, his demeanor suddenly going back to normal. Or at least, what it was just now before the giggle fit. "I told you, I'm not gonna work for you and you're not gonna get anything out of me, so you might as well either kill me or let me go." he says, shrugging.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"There is a third option." The voice notes, "I put you in a dark hole and turn your life into a monotonous hell until you're ready to be a reasonable."

The two mercenaries sudden bring their fingers to their ears... then both nods, "Understood."

"You seem to under the impression you have a choice in the matter. You don't."

Jericho has posed:
    The man laughs again, although it's not the same Joker-ish one from earlier, but more in line with the 'normal' smartass demeanor.

    "Okay, okay you win 'L1' what do you want from me? I already told you what you wanted to know...basically. I figured you're smart enough to figure out what that was yourself but you want me to say it straight then fine. I was trying to assassinate Lex Luthor. Since that's generally what sniper rifles are good for. Assassinating people."

    "If I just wanted to bust open some monster cage I coulda thrown a rock at it." he adds on an exasperated sounding note.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"You like playing games. That's fine. I have no problems with that... in principle, but not when I want information." The voice sighs just a bit, "You don't play games with /me/, not if you want to continue living. Why did you want to assassinate Luthor?"

Jericho has posed:
    "Didn't I tell you I'm already a dead man?" Abner repeats, a brow going up again. He shrugs.

    "Hell if I know. He's rich, important. Maybe someone wants his money or wants something of his. I'm sure there's more than one someone out there who has a grudge against 'im, too. Maybe it's all of the above. Honestly, his bodyguard was supposed to do the job, but she failed and I was backup. Maybe someone paid her off. Or maybe she just hates her job."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Who hired you?" The voice asks, a tone of seriousness behind the masking now.

Jericho has posed:
    "Hired me? No one -hired- me. Don't you understand? This life...the life of a killer. A thief. A saboteur. It's who I am, and all I've ever known." Abner replies. "I don't have family, I don't have friends, and I don't even have employers. I am simply...a weapon." Well at least he's dropped the smartass attitude.

    Suddenly, a pained expression comes across his face, and a cold sweat drips down the side of his head. "...p-please...I've told you all I know...just kill me..." he begs, his voice barely above a whisper.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Do it." the voice orders of the two mercenaries in the room. One of the two takes out a tranq pistol and fires a dart into Abner's neck.

When the man is out, L1 sighs, "Take him to the penthouse. The medical suite is being prepared."

Jericho has posed:
    The tranq works as expected, knocking Jacob out quickly. Although any medical examination that Lex may or his people may do wouldn't reveal anything suspicious--there doesn't appear to be anything physically wrong with him, although his brain patterns are a bit strange.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Normally, it would take a couple days to get Victor to LexCorp Tower... but luckily, the Light has a system in place for rapid transit, and a consultation for an anomoly is only a few hours.

Those few hours later, and Lex is reading over a report on his tablet, watching the man as he is kept sedated, and adding Doctor Doom's information.

Up in the penthouse, a full underworld medical station has the small medical staff cleared out by Luthor, whom steps back into the elevator to head downstairs before the man wakes up strapped to the example table, that same setup in front of him.

Jericho has posed:
    The consultation reveals that it's true that there is nothing physically wrong with the man--however, his brainwaves are definitely strange, almost like that of two beings merged onto one frequency. So, the Doc is led to believe that Abner is being influenced by someone else, yes--but not externally. No, whoever this is, they're -inside- of him. How much of the previous interaction was Abner himself or whoever this other entity was, can't be fully certain without knowing Abner that well. Unfortunately, the man doesn't seem to have any records...

Lex Luthor has posed:
Once back in his warsuit down in the basement of the complex, Lex turns back on the television while the man is sleeping, "Put the tracker in him in case he's released. Then leave us."

After that, it's a matter of waiting for him to wake up.

Jericho has posed:
    Finally, the tranquilizer wears off and Abner wakes up, finding himself strapped to a table this time, and in a different room. But that screen is once again there. He rolls his eyes, seeming to have adopted the sassy attitude again. "You gonna tell me what else you want or what...?" he mutters, still a little bit groggy from the drugs.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I want to know why you think you're a dead man." The voice continues, as if nothing happened.

Jericho has posed:
    "Because I've been compromised..." Abner murmurs. "I'm nothing but a liability now..."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"What do you offer in the first place?" The voice asks.

Jericho has posed:
    "..." Abner begins to break into a cold sweat again, struggling weakly against the restraints. "I-I don't know what you're talking a-about...please, just kill me...I just want this to end...I've failed, and there is nothing else left but to die alone..."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I don't have time for this. I'm a reasonable man, but you're obviously insane and I have no use for insane agents." L1 mutters almost. "Put him out."

Once he's tranqed yet AGAIN, the voice continues, "Put him in another apartment a few blocks away and let him go." L1 orders of the two bodyguards with him, "Once he's dropped off, the contract will be done. Payment will go to the usual accounts."

The bait is set, time to see who takes the hook.

Jericho has posed:
    The mercs undoubtedly obey Luthor's commands, taking Abner to another apartment and letting him walk. Once they've gone, he exits the apartment, making his way down the stairs, into the atrium, and onto the street.

    For several minutes, he walks along the crowded streets, then enters a pawn shop where a young man in a grey button-up shirt is haggling over a .22 caliber Beretta and some LR ammo with the store's owner. The goods are laid out on the counter for the customer to inspect, and the owner begins to demonstrate loading rounds into an extra magazine, pushing a couple of cartridges into the spring-loaded mechanism. Abner walks up to them and stands there for a moment, staring at shopkeeper. Suddenly, the owner picks up the gun, shoves the partly-loaded magazine into it and fires right at Abner's head, the bullet sailing through his forehead and clean out the back. Blood splatters, and Jacob Abner falls to the floor, dead.

    Seems he'd been quite serious about being a dead man.

Lex Luthor has posed:
As Abner is dropped off, Lex is already on the rooftop above, watching with his sensors as the man goes for the pawn shop... and gets shot. "Another case of being too stupid to ask for help." How the body is disposed of will need to be examined... a call is placed to Mercy, "I'm sending you coordinates. A body is about to be dealt with there. If possible, retrieve the body when it's dumped. If the body is directly incinerated, inform me but do not interfere."

With that out of the way, Lex settles in to keep monitoring the situation. Does he need to assign a surveillance unit on the owner, or is there an agenda already?

Jericho has posed:
    Interestingly enough, the body is actually not disposed of at all. The customer in the grey shirt stands there, looking shocked and horrified at this sudden new development. That is, until he gets out his phone and quickly dials 911. Strangely, the shopkeeper who just shot Abner doesn't try to stop him, or even run away. He just stands there, looking just as freaked out as everyone else. Then he looks at the gun in his hand. He drops it, horrified.
    "What the...?! What just happened?!"
    "...you shot that guy, man. It was literally seconds ago."
    "Oh, god..."

    And -then- he runs. He probably should have turned himself in, but not everyone has good common sense. Or any, for that matter. He's rushing out the back door of the shop, even as the sound of sirens is approaching.

    Now, from Lex's vantage point, assuming he has chosen a good and high up rooftop, he'll be able to catch sight of someone seeming to appear out of nowhere in an alleyway near one of the side doors into the shop. If he has any equipment in that suit that lets him take a closer look, he'll be able to tell that it's the Wilson kid again, the same one he saw earlier when his mercs picked Abner up from the downed police convoy.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Lex stares at the zoomed in image on his warsuit, and just frowns a bit. "Physical control?" A dozen scenarios of limitations run through Lex's mind... but he settles on following Wilson from afar for now. The kid is ruining lives in his city... why?

Jericho has posed:
    The police have arrived on the scene now, and are investigating the pawn shop. But Lex's attention seems to be directed elsewhere as he follows Wilson out of the alley and back onto the street. For all anyone else knows he's just another kid going about his life in Metropolis. He walks, waits at a stop, gets on a bus, all that normal stuff. Lex wouldn't have any trouble following him, and nothing odd or suspicious seems to happen.

    That is, until he arrives in front of an office building in one of the business districts. It has a lighted sign on the front that reads "Hudson Financial". This late, there are not too many lights on, but there are a few scattered throughout its four stories. It's here that Wilson seems to hesitate, as if he actually really doesn't -want- go in. As if he truly dreaded whatever was inside. But it was just an office, right?

Lex Luthor has posed:
Flying over to the building itself, Lex does a close up, detailed scan of the building and those in it. Thermals, ground penetrating radar, etc.

With the way the kid is reacting, there's a good chance this is a front for some sort of cell.

Jericho has posed:
    There aren't very many people inside, less than a dozen. But the radar scans would definitely show that there are three sub-levels. Sure, most buildings had some kind of basement, but three seemed to be a bit of an overkill. Furthermore, despite the fact that he can easily see the 4 above-ground floors are mostly filled with office cubicles, break rooms, and conference rooms, whatever's underground is shielded somehow--beyond showing they exist, his scans don't return any further data.

    While Lex is scanning the building, the front doors open and a middle-aged looking woman steps out--she is tall and moderately lanky, with dark red hair tied back in a loose bun and rectangular-rimmed glasses. She's wearing business casual clothing that consists of a beige-colored blouse and brown jacket with a darker brown pencil skirt.

    She walks over to Wilson and pats him on the shoulder. "Hey," she says, sort of gesturing with her head toward the door. Though she doesn't really sound menacing or anything. "C'mon, I know it's been a rough day."
    Wilson doesn't move.
    The woman sighs. "All right, you can take a break, okay? Here." She hands him a bag, and if Lex scans it, it seems to contain a phone, keys, wallet, and such. Another pat on the back is given. "Go home, rest up."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Mercy, change of plans. The body is no longer relevant. Get to my location and track this Wilson kid. Picture sent." Lex sends as a follow up. "Hope, you're with me. Come to the building and wait for me."

While he waits for the two to do their respective orders, Lex keeps focus on the woman. Everything points to the kid being a pawn.

Lex wants the middle man or the employer.

Jericho has posed:
    Wilson nods and takes the backpack, then walks over to the parking lot around the side of the building where he gets into a car.

    The woman, whom public records would show is one Stacy Thornton, VP of Hudson Financial, turns around and goes back into the building, swiping her badge in front of a reader that beeps before the doors click and she opens them to head back inside. Once there, she gets into an elevator and goes into those mysterious sublevels where he can't see where she is or what she's doing...

Lex Luthor has posed:
As the elevator disappears into that deadzone, Lex adds in, "And bring a squad of Team Luthor. I want this building surrounded."

Lex steps off the building then, landing with a soft thud with thrusters breaking his fall as he heads for the entrance of the building in the warsuit, in plain view.