He sat next to her and provided the booze, the papers, and the reasoning. He needed her. Well, their whole firm would profit probably, but besides Rachel and William (oh and the front deskretary they breezed past on the way in), Lori hadn't seen another person. She didn't really care to either, now that she knew what this particular man could do. She'd have to do some kind of research later when she could care. Cases won. Tactics.

Her perusal of the papers was cursory per page, but she did flip through each one. She'd lived it and had very much been involved in trying to stem the bleeding. At first, she'd kept a lid on some of those punches. It'd been a bad few months that only got worse. This was that all over again on paper and it didn't take more than a few paragraphs to ascertain which black hat tactic was on each one.

"From one of the company's drowned rats." She didn't recognize a common thread to the names at a skim, she didn't know each and every employee. It'd been a large enough company with many, many cogs. These papers were obviously from someone who'd been forced to abandon the sinking ship that had been Faust Pharmaceuticals. Someone who'd been on the inside, in the trenches just like she'd been.

Lori shut the folder. It wasn't everything, but apparently it was enough. And he was right, there wasn't a shred of evidence on what went on in the basement. Fat lot of help that had done for her anyway.

The folder got skimmed across the table to land just a little bit past Faraday. Lori scooped up her drink and crooked her finger at his chair. She'd expected it to come to her, but there was a big enough difference in their weight that when she encouraged her chair to attract his, it was Lori's chair that scooted in. Fine. So long as they were eye to eye she would try to ignore the symbolism.

"So what does this mean?" She sipped her drink and was reminded of why gin was so low on her favorites list. She drained it and set the glass aside so that she could go, instead, for Faraday's drink. She'd found that with steady eye contact and a few pertinent questions, easing a drink out of someone's hands or a wallet out of their pocket, was easy. Some habits, no matter how old, were hard to quash. "You need my name to move forward. I get that. Court dates? Places to sign my name and let you steal my voice?"

Ion sipped at his scotch as Lori skimmed through the documents. She likely would be familiar enough with the events from her own perspective that she didn’t need a detailed read to ascertain veracity and see what was and wasn’t there.

"From one of the company's drowned rats."

”A philhellenist rat. Called himself Gaius Cassius, Jaager must be his Julius.”

When Lori was done looking over the documents she closed the folder and set it on its merry way past Ion. He didn’t need it at the moment so he let it sail past and stay wherever it came to rest. Drink in hand, Lori crooked her finger as if to beckon Ion closer. Her own chair rolled closer to his. It was the kind of thing that would have given an impression of command in the situation, had his chair moved instead of hers.

They sat eye to eye and Lori asked what it meant. It was a very open question, Ion let her finish her drink and she continued. She was asking for what he needed from her. Ion took a drink to gather his thoughts before speaking.

”Yes. I need your name, your signature, and you present at court saying all the right things. There will be no shortage of documents requiring your signature, beginning with your signature on documents signifying me as your lawyer in this case. This is not some misdemeanor case that can be handled with you in absentia, judges and juries tend to not view a claim from a plaintiff who isn’t present as less valid. I’m not going to parade you in front of cameras, this isn’t a case that need be won in the court of public opinion.” Ion reached out and placed his hand on top of his own glass that Lori was holding without breaking his attention to what he was saying. ”And what you say at court will need to be crafted and rehearsed. The truth is what you make it, what we have is the truth, but so is what you were doing in the basement and likely many other things that could be used to try and derail the case. Staying on message will be key when you are on the stand which will be unavoidable in this case.”

Ion pressed the glass down to the table to slide it back to himself. ”Would you like another drink?”

For someone who needed a lot from her, she sure felt that this was all far too out of her hands. She was irritated, too, when he slid his hand between his drink and her face. She'd wanted that. More than anything else, she'd wanted to take it from him. It just wasn't the same coming from her own glass.

Lori tried not to pout about it as the drink was removed from her hands and recovered into his own. William ****ing Faraday. Ah well. She supposed that it was better to have an attorney... lawyerman who was sharp.

"If you can keep a the closet shut on those skeletons and help me make sure the door hits Jaager on his way out, I'll say, sign, or spit on whatever you want me to." It was good that this wasn't going to be about public opinion. She'd played that game and it was a tricky one that never quite felt like victory. The more people they had to convince, the more likely someone was going to find a hole in their story or a thread that lead down to the basement. If it was just a judge and jury? No sweat. One room was more difficult than one person, but it was far easier than the whole of the pharmaceutical or political world.

"I don't want this to go trial, but if it comes to that, I can." She could swear on a bible and say whatever she needed to without losing a wink of sleep. "I know a thing or two about branding and messaging. You won't get pushback from me on that."

> ”Would you like another drink?”

"I shouldn't, but I do. Same as you this time, if you will." Pleases and thank yous were for people who cared for them. Faraday was a big business boy and she was sure his feelings wouldn't get hurt for the lack of them.

Lori’s condition for doing what Ion wanted was something he could without a doubt ensure. Keeping the closet shut would be simple in the courtroom, and not much more difficult outside of the courtroom. Outside the courtroom things would be handled more electrically. ”I can keep the door shut. Controlling what witnesses say is a specialty of mine.” It was amazing what a little witness intimidation could accomplish when you had the resources to find what they were most afraid of.

And Lori did not want to go to trial, but wasn’t opposed if necessary. Good. This case would need to go to trial if there was any chance to make the money Ion saw at the end of it. The absolute best resolution he saw with a settlement was Lori was handed Faust Pharmaceuticals and received attorney fees. Which given the shorter duration would be much less going into Ion’s pocket. ”They will make settlement offers, the best offers will come once we begin a trial. It will be up to you to balance what you could win against less time in the courtroom and lesser damages.”

Ion rose to pour Lori another drink, this time from the bottle of 43 year old scotch.

”It is good you understand branding, we will have to sell you to the Jury.” He said as he poured. ”Faust Pharmaceuticals return is something we can easily get back through compensatory damages. What we need is the jury to hammer Jaager in punitive damages and for that you have to be one-hundred percent the victim.” Ion handed Lori her drink and returned to his seat. ”Jaager was the aggressor in a hostile takeover of Faust Pharmaceuticals and it was done purely for greed on his part at the cost of the good Faust Pharmaceuticals could have done… Messages like that are what we need to present to the jury, and they will have to be tailored for who ends up on the jury.”

> "Controlling what witnesses say is a specialty of mine.”

Lori clucked her tongue in disapproval. "You'll catch more flies with honey, Mr. Faraday." Considering the hand Lori had in similar tactics, she really didn't have a leg to stand on, but she did prefer to take the soft approach first and hammer them where it hurt second. "Perhaps I can show you the next time you need a witness to say what you need." The proper inflections and the proper hesitation between words made that sound like a promise between the two of them before she steered it around to help with witnesses. Truth be told, Faraday wasn't an unpleasant looking man. He was just unpleasant.

> ”It is good you understand branding, we will have to sell you to the Jury.”

"We have one big advantage. Being a small woman means people will right off the bat assume I'm the victim. Helps that I've been a victim to plenty; I know how to be hurt, how to look hurt, how to sound hurt. And as you've seen, my power can help the victim complex along." She had her legs crossed for now, bare foot bobbing at a leisurely pace. There was power in being powerless so long as there were others involved. Without an audience, a victim was just a victim. She'd had to learn that before her powers ever kicked in.

"The world's not fair. Most people don't get the perspective to see the advantage in that." She had a better drink in her hand and that felt like a moment to toast even if Faraday had just taken his seat.

It was true you could catch more flies with honey, but not all flies. Some needed additional motivation to overcome feelings of altruism and duty. ”There is certainly a time and place for that approach. Next time you can show me how it is done.” Lori was good. Ion had caught himself leaning into her words be she diverted her comment to being about a witness.

Lori wasn’t too proud to play the victim. This was good. Some people were, especially in the corporate world. When you were pretty and small it did wonders to play the victim, especially if you can stack a jury with men.

"The world's not fair. Most people don't get the perspective to see the advantage in that." Lori toasted, Ion raised his glass. What she said was quite true.

”The next step is to file a summons and complaint. They are being drafted now, once they are done all you have to do is sign and then I will take care of the filing. This gives Jaager thirty days to respond. What we do next will depend on the answer.” Ion explained before sipping at his scotch. ”While we wait… I’m curious. Like me you have a power involving electricity. I was able to make a few guesses from what I read about it. You being like a battery and manipulating magnetic fields. I would love to hear more about it.”

A summons and then a complaint. "And we'll get a motion to quash or defer or something, I'm sure. This could take a while." She'd be surprised if they just rolled over and took it. Would that be nice, though...? "Supposedly Jaager is sick. Maybe we'll get lucky and they just want to settle and be done."

Lori cradled her cup. Scotch wasn't something that should just be knocked back. It was to be savored. Like this moment in time when she met someone as unscrupulous as she was and who shared, to some degree, her mutant abilities. Faraday being an attorney, a virtual stranger, and a mutant meant she shouldn't be trusting him. He had a similar power. She didn't know the ins and outs of his. He might have wanted access to her for the suit or for her abilities or both. But she'd never met another electricity immune mutant. All the other electrical generators she'd easily muscled around. This one... well, she hadn't really tried just yet.

"I have a well of power inside of me. It's like a fist closed up tight and when I relax that grip even a little..." Lori didn't glow in a nice even corona, she let her control slip and little bolts of electricity jumped from point to point. It happened in her mouth and other places where bones were closest to the skin. She could afford a little overflow spill considering the power fill he'd gifted her, but since she wasn't yet overfull she wouldn't sustain the show for long. "So usually I keep the electricity on lockdown and play with the magnetic field that comes with holding so much power in my body. The more power, the bigger the field. You can see now why I fly at a minimum of power." And why her phone was one huge shielded block, among other things.

"You?"

Lori’s attempt to throw around legal terms was cute. Neither things she said were applicable to the situation. ”Then is Discovery. We draft a Bill of Particulars and a series of Demands to serve. This is the slowest part of the case. With Jaager collapsing this would likely take longer, but I already have most of what we would need. My time will likely be spent complying with their Demand for Discovery than them ours.” In fact, Ion had so much on Jaager, he could likely win the case without a Demand for Discovery if he didn’t need it to introduce evidence.

”Of course they want to settle. The issue is if they will offer enough. There is the chance they’ll settle on our terms to keep Jaager out of prison. We’ll have to see.”

Ion sipped at his scotch while Lori detailed her power. It was interesting how it was so different, yet still electrical in nature. She could release it in little arcs of electricity from her skin, similar to him, but his was involuntary and due to his inability to hold power. More interesting was how she could use magnetic fields as a result of hers. Ion idly wondered how devastating she could be if he was to provide her with an ever increasing supply of power. ”How much power can you hold? Do you have a limit?” Ion asked.

Lori asked him simply, “You?”

”As I said before, I’m a generator.” A corona formed around Ion as he turned on his power. ”I generate power but cannot hold it. If I don’t use it, it bleeds out as a corona.” The corona moved to electrical breakdown and arcs of electricity shot from his skin to other things near him. ”I can generate it much faster than I can release it.” Ion held his hand over the table and electricity arced from his hand to the table. It was more visually intense than what arced off him randomly. More power flowed through the sustained arc. ”The longer I use my power the more I can release. I can go from being a stun gun to a plasma cutter in a matter of minutes.” Ion stopped the arc from his hand to the table but continued to generate power. There was hardly a mark, unlike the black mark on the concrete near where his car was parked.

She didn't have to know it. That was what this man's paycheck was for. That would never sit right with Lori, though. Putting everything in someone else's hands... hell, putting anything in anyone else's hands, was more than she was comfortable with. Too many people were complete and utter let downs.

Lori had to remind herself that she would not have time to make herself an expert in the law. That this took schooling and chutzpah, the latter of which was her only foothold in the whole ordeal.

Trust was a delicate and stupid thing. She would wait for the paperwork.

That they got to talk power in the meantime was just a fun little bonus.

Lori leaned forward when his corona kicked on again. It was pretty and she might've been the only one in the world to truly appreciate it for all it was. It sounded like he would be the perfect person to keep close, making more than he could handle, unable to store it. Those were two places where she could help. He sort of skipped over what he could do with it, though, beyond stun guns and plasma cutters. It took real self control not to reach out and try to nab the bolt he released at the end of his show. Such a waste.

"It sounds like we might be a complement. Let me know if you're in the market to plasma cut something." She teased, but in all seriousness her mind was rolling through the options. Fancy cocktail party? No point in scarring the little people with a corona. She'd sip that down for him.

"Is your power tied to your emotion at all?"

”You’ll be the first person I call.” Ion said with a small chuckle. It was something he could do that she could definitely help with. The odds of him needing to plasma cut something were exceedingly low though. Ion was a man of some refinement who wasn’t about to do something so menial if he could avoid it.

Where she could be useful was more along the lines of being a power sink. Somewhere he could deposit excess energy. If he needed to use his power at a higher amperage but not put on a lightshow she would be invaluable. You never know when ending a pacemaker in a dinner party could help your case.

"Is your power tied to your emotion at all?"

She was likely asking because hers did. ”Not really. I often feel a thrill as I use my power, but the amount of charge I have doesn’t seem to affect me much. Perhaps this is due to me bleeding my charge constantly.” Not to mention that he has never explored the effect it would have on him to charge himself to full and keep it there. It might be worth exploring.

Ion lowered his power generation to bring the corona back. Maintenance likely would want words of he singed something with his power. While he didn’t care what they thought, it was not worth the hassle. ”As I understand it yours is tied very closely to your emotions though.”