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"Hendrick's and a splash of tonic."

Ion returned the bottle of scotch and took down the bottle of Hendrick’s. Any near wall sized cabinet of purely top shelf alcohol was going to have Hendrick’s. Even if Ion found it a tad overrated. The Patron of gin. He wasn’t a huge gin drinker, maybe he just didn’t get it.

He set the glass of gin and tonic down in front of Lori and took one of the chairs that had been shifted away from Lori. Sitting across from someone created an adversarial atmosphere, put people on the defensive. Ion sat next to her, a cooperative positioning. Like they were at an incredibly upscale bar.

”I can’t bring the suit myself. I have all the evidence I need, but I have no standing. You have standing.” Ion sipped his scotch, ” You cannot succeed in a suit without what I have on them. Their legal team may be neutered, but you cannot show injury-in-fact without it.”

Too have standing a party must be able to show injury-in-fact, causation, and redressability. That there an injury or an invasion of a legally protected interest that was is both concrete and particularized, and actual or imminent. There must be a causal link between the injury and the conduct complained of that is traceable and not the result of an independent action of a third party. And that it must be likely that if the court sides favorably it will redress the injury.

Faust Pharmaceuticals was taken by criminal means, by Jaager Worldwide’s direct involvement, and value for the company, its holdings, and earning potential for the years it was outside of Lori’s control could redress the injury.

”I need your cooperation to be able to do this, and keep what you were doing in the basement quiet. I see no reason why we cannot have an outcome where we both walk away richer and without parading around what you were doing in pursuit of a cure. You don’t earn enough to have a building like this, dress this nicely, and stock a liquor cabinet like that defending those who have nothing to hide.”

The assistant from before entered the room and slid a folder in front of Ion. He rested his hand on top of it. ”Thank you, Rachel.” Ion said to the assistant and she turned to leave. Being polite keeps the help happy. When they’re happy they perform better. ”Here is how we move in front of the line of creditors.”

Ion slid over the folder. It didn’t contain everything, a few pieces were held back in case Lori decided to duck and run. What was there was a full accounting of what Panu did and why to wrest Faust Pharmaceuticals away from Lori. It was stitched together from emails, memos, transcripts of recordings. The digital paper trail a massive corporation leaves on everything. Even their illicit dealings, no matter how hard they work against it.

As they approached his car, a blue Edison, Ion turned off his generation but kept sending his power to Lori. He had never stepped into his car with a corona or electrical breakdown occurring, but the sensitive electronics likely wouldn’t agree with it. After Ion released Lori to go to the other side of the car he released the last of his generated power into the ground. He had been using his power for several minutes by that point and it was as if he had released a small bolt of lightning from his hand. It was powerful enough that if sustained could cut through an eighth of an inch of steel. Due to short duration, it only left a black mark on the ground.

Ion likely hadn’t even have bothered. As soon as Lori was in the car her magnetic field did a number on it. The screen died and the roof dented in. Ion only wondered how bad it would be if Edison’s didn’t have aluminum supports in the doors and roof styled after what the Apollo capsules had. It was fine, he told himself. With the money he would get from this case he could buy a new one a couple times over.

"So long as you're buying the drinks."

Ion’s eyes drifted from the dent to Lori, she hadn’t objected. He had succeeded in what he had considered the harder part of the pre-trial game. Getting his foot in the door on an in person cold call.

”Of course.” What corporate law firm in New York City didn't have a stocked liquor cabinet to wine and dine clients with? And the bigger the clientele the bigger and higher dollar the cabinet became. Normally those same cabinets would be reserved for those larger clients, but Ion didn’t see harm in using it to seal the deal on a one time client who would bring in a high value per hour spent.

He pulled out of the parking space. I it wasn’t for the squealing of the tires as they turned the vehicle would have glided silently. And then off they went, out of the garage and into New York City traffic. Driving the car in NYC was a blessing and a curse. With the car’s autopilot it could almost drive itself through the gridlock. Yet, it was a car with nearly unmatched factory acceleration. It could go zero to sixty in under three seconds. There was little to no chance of using that in his day-to-day. Never having to stop at a gas station was also phenomenal and in a pinch Ion could charge the batteries himself.

Arriving at his firm’s building, Ion parked in another parking garage before stepping out and offering his arm to Lori and turning on his power again.. He could see about someone on staff repairing or going out to retrieve a pair of shoes for Lori while they worked through what Ion had on Jaager Worldwide.

The outside of the building was a little dated architecturally speaking, but that was much of the North-East in a nutshell. The interior was more modern; lots of glass, everything in in black, white, and dark brown, and a fair helping of metal. Ion led Lori through the lobby and to a meeting room. A long black table dominated the room, nice leather chairs lined it. On the far wall a pair of doors could be seen set into the wall that could be opened to reveal a fully stocked liquor cabinet.

Ion gestured for Lori to have a seat and turned to a legal assistant who had followed him to the room, ”I need the Jaager case file off my desk. And Miss Faust will need some new shoes.” The legal assistant nodded before she turned and left.

Then Ion went and opened the doors revealing the liquor. ”What’s your poison?” He asked as he pulled out a bottle of 43 year old scotch and poured himself a glass. Ion was a believer in the Ballmer peak and as such was in no way opposed to drinking while working.

She had to think about it. A perfectly normal reaction in the situation. Not what Ion wanted to hear. Thinking about it gave Lori the chance to err on the side of caution for the sake of her son instead of taking a fight to Jaager Worldwide.And her wording, “...if I need to call.” Lori was already considering not moving forward with the suit. That or she thought she could use another attorney.

That wouldn’t happen.

She needed the documents Ion had to show damage thus giving her standing. Without his help she had nothing. Likewise without her he had nothing.

Lori turned and went. Ion had used his best arguments, so while he could continue to present his case it would be retreading where he had already been or going in directions he knew wouldn’t work. Further argument could only push the woman off the fence.

She made it a few steps before one of her heels threw in the towel.

From what Ion had learned about her Lori, breaking a heel would be more catastrophic for her than other women. Other women could remove their shoes and walk. If Ion’s assumptions about Lori, based on the description he had read, were true she would be grounded and lose power.

This gave Ion a unique opportunity to endear himself to her. That or, as was far more likely, have her see him as more useful to her. As Rahm Emanuel said, "never waste a crisis."

Stepping up to Lori one last time he said, ”Allow me to help you.” His body erupted in Saint Elmo’s fire. He reached out and put his hand on her arm as electricity began to arc off his body. People near them jumped back not wanting to be shocked. Ion released his power into Lori.

And Lori was still insisting on letting her opportunity go. Though, she had provided a reason for why. She didn’t want someone looking into her business. Her business being quite interesting. She ran Faust Pharmaceuticals while it had engaged in less than savory experimentation. Good to not let someone dig too deep and see that, especially when there was a kid involved. Ion’s investigators had dug up that Lori had a kid, Rhys or Roger as people called him, who lived at the mansion. Everything being drudged up could endanger what she had.

First, address the roadblock, ”I get it, you don’t want what you were up to at Faust Pharmaceuticals to come to light. You have a reason to keep it under wraps. I’m not here to help drag the awful thing you were party to into public view. I know what went on, and in so knowing can keep it buried.” Then drill down on the motivation, ”This is your one chance to get retribution. Kick them while they are down and ensure they can never get back up.” Finally, a little assurance, ”What happened in the part of Faust Pharmaceuticals is not germane to the issue of its acquisition by Jaager. If they even attempt to bring it up it can be easily shut down. And it isn’t like they will run a PR campaign against you, they hardly have the money to pay their attorneys to keep up their debt shell game.”

The hardest thing in the world at that moment was for Ion to not roll his eyes back and sigh. He held a poker face as Slither likely cost himself whatever chance Ion had bought for him to leave that day. While it was not a deposition, and Slither was therefore not under oath, this conversation could be introduced as evidence to paint Slither as a liar. Which he was, and a bad one at that.

Slither had said he’d known Ion for fifteen years. Which would make Ion fourteen and Slither ten. That could be believable, were Ion not a Texan who only came to the East coast for law school.

”Bet you both never thought you’d be in this situation on the playground, right?” The detective had turned to Ion.

Ion had only two choices. Dig and hope he hit China or let Slither eat it this time. The first option meant Ion would have to lie and hope Slither could keep up. Which wouldn’t happen. The second meant there was no way Slither would leave jail short of posting bail. An acceptable loss. Sacrificing Slither at that moment would not cost Ion a win at trial, which was his end game. Allowing Slither to fail when he reached too far might also teach him to think before he speaks, or not speak at all. And calling him on that lie might build credibility for Ion in that he isn’t just making something up for everything Slither says.

”That was a lie, Detective.” Ion turned to Slither, ”Francis. I can’t help you if you are just going to lie to the detective.” Returning his attention to the detective, ”I met Francis a few years back while he was losing a drinking contest. Yes, Francis, you were losing. You were just too drunk to realize it. Anyway, he seemed like the type to get drunk and wind up in a fight, which I was wrong about, but I told him I would take him on as a client pro bono.” New York State Bar Association requiring so much pro bono work. ”True to my word, when I heard he had been arrested I came. It may only be an oral contract, but there was a witness to it and I am a man of my word.”

Slither sat in his chair, stunned by the fact Ion had so immediately rebuked his story.

Ion just had to hope Slither had any sense in his head and would go with what Ion said. If he didn’t he would have to produce a witness to the oral contract. Not difficult, just another thing to do and it might put the brakes on Ion bailing out Slither in the meantime.

Jaager Worldwide was a sinking ship. The wolves were at the doors demanding money and had his firm not terminated relations when the money stopped flowing, the firm Ion worked for might have been bleeding out to try and save them. Luckily for Ion, his firm could recognize a lost cause.

Luckily for Ion he was free to act against Jaager Worldwide.

Ion sat in his office one day when a shifty individual who gave a clearly fake name was let into his office. Calling himself Gaius Cassius was a little on the nose for a traitor, but some people fancied themselves wittier than they were when they happened to have a little bit of historical knowledge.

”Have a seat.” Ion motioned for Gaius to take a seat. ”How can I help you?”

Gaius lay a folder on the table. “What I have here is damning evidence against Jaager Worldwide. It could be used as the final nail in the coffin.”

”Jaager is a sinking ship. They have no money and all their support has evaporated. Why would I want to hammer the final nail.”

“Jaager still has assets. Subsidiaries, properties, less liquid assets that can be milked. The courts are still deciding what to do with them. This could rip away one of them, and potentially lead to criminal charges against those at the top.”

Ion sighed and waved for Gaius to pass over the folder. He did and ion opened the folder. He doubted this man could have anything so nasty it would accomplish what he promised.

It could.

Gaius had handed Ion internal documents detailing the takeover of Faust Pharmaceuticals. It was deceptive, manipulative, completely criminal. Ion was impressed. If the documents were correct than Jaager had used a masterstroke to wrest FP from the previous owner, Lori Faust.

Ion eyed Gaius. ”What do you get out of this?”

“I get to know I hurt them. I want to fiddle as Jaager burns to the ground.”

”How did you get these documents?”

“When you work IT for a company that goes under… People don’t notice you.”

”Why bring this to me?”

“I’ve been put in positions.. Been forced to do things I can’t believe I did. Mostly covering tracks, under threat. Now that they are going down I want to hurt them as bad as I can. This is the best way. Why you? Your firm is good. You represented Jaager and kept them up against the greatest of legal assaults, but you still recognized a sinking ship. You see dollar signs, this has dollar signs all over. You’ll act in your best interest, which aligns with my interests.

The next hour was spent with Ion going over the documents with Gaius. When finally Gaius left Ion set to work. He needed to find Lori. Lori was the only person who could use this information. Sure it could be used in a criminal investigation, but that didn’t benefit Ion. No, he needed Lori to use it to bring a suit against the collapsing Jaager. Jaager still had FP as an asset, Ion could see it returned to her or that the money from its sale went to her. And as her attorney, a fat share to him. She had standing, he needed to find her to bring the lawsuit.

It was a good thing then that he worked for a firm with private investigators on speed dial.

It took a week, but finally he had what he needed. Lori Faust had a few haunts which included the mansion. Lately though she had been keeping the road hot between New York City and D.C. Metaphorically speaking. She flew often enough. It turned out Lori was also a mutant who dealt in electricity like him, though according to his investigators she was like a battery, with a charge that could be high or low. It seemed to affect her mood as well as her power.

She would be flying back from D.C. and Ion would meet her at the airport. Her charge would likely be low, if she proves unreceptive Ion could change her mood.

Ion arrived at the airport as Lori’s flight was scheduled to land. He didn’t carry a sign or anything so plebeian. He entered the airport and waited where arrivals would pass him. He did receive a few looks from people as they passed, he was the only person waiting that was wearing as fancy of a suit as he was. Finally he caught sight of Lori. Ion cut through the crowd and approached her.

”Good afternoon, Miss Faust. My name is William Faraday, I’m an attorney. I have information regarding Jaager Worldwide you need to hear.”


((Tag: Raine))

Awesome character, Jorge! Very nice squishy hooman.