Iosif gave an awkward nod. People who don’t drink water out of their hands are weird.
Gideon didn’t have nearly enough muscle to seriously match the raw power these bulky brutes possessed while on venom, and while he knew they couldn’t force his joints backwards, he wasn’t exactly considering letting them hogtie him and dump him in a river.
Weighing his options, he waited until the thug marched practically marched overtop of him before snapping forward, hoping to barely move faster than the massive, swinging arms which threatened to flatten him with a straight right to the jaw.
By the time Geosh arrived, it was evident he was just a minute too late. The Luthor van had obviously changed schedule, and nearly hit him as it emerged from a side road and took off down the street. Or maybe the brilliant pile of garbage had somehow tipped them off.
But the truth seemed to be a bit more mysterious. As it raced past him, Geosh could clearly see someone shut the back door. They were in a hurry, and if he was paying attention they were in such a hurry something had flung out the back as they passed. It now lay in the street, practically begging him to come pick it up.
Geosh wanted to chase after the bus, but he knew catching it would be difficult at this point. “Maybe I could catch the bus at the capital building, but that might be kinda open, and who knows if I could learn anything there. Eh… can’t hurt to take a lo- what’s this? Is it what got dropped out of the back?” Geosh thought as he noticed the item laying in the street.
It was a small metal case, with a handle and everything. There were two combination locks and the edges were badly stuffed with copper wiring. Lexcorp logos all over the container. If the contents weren’t valuable, the box itself surely was solely due to being Lexcorp property.
There was a loud honk as an oncoming vehicle moved into the opposite lane to get around him. If the Luthor van was in fact heading to the capitol, it’d be extremely suspicious to walk there with that package.
Geosh look around for some place to hide the case. Not seeing any Geosh decided to keep the case and find out what was in it. “I need somewhere private too open this. Better find an alley or abandoned building.” And thinking thus, Geosh set out in search of one of these, or something of the like.
The alley immediately nearby was for the hotel, and it had the luxury of several security cameras. There was a phone booth on the corner, but it was all glass, and hardly discreet.
However, there was an alley on the other side of the street which seemed particularly empty, neglected, and unobserved. In fact, the only thing ruining this perfect spot was the manhole beginning to move.
Geosh was about to enter the alleyway when he saw the manhole start to move. As he quickly hid, Geosh cursed to himself “Dang! I hope to get a look before I bring this to the blady-thing, whatever his name was.”
The numbered locks would be easy to crack, as they were cheaply put together. But if he attempted to open the case, he could feel the copper wires draw taught. Something was wired in there, possibly to explode.
The manhole cover moved enough to get out of the way, and Switchblade began painfully worming his head to the surface.
Geosh tucked the case behind a trash bin as he watched, then he stepped into switchblade’s view. Geosh made sure he was at least at a ten foot distance. “The bus didn’t stop, I think someone tipped them off. And I sure didn’t, so I believe that only leaves you. Unless you got some other explanation for it.” Geosh stated, prepared to expand the armor and his spear at a moment’s notice.
“Yes, cool.” Switchblade murmured back, scanning the street while revealing only as little of his head as possible. “Wait. Didn’t stop? It’s gone!?”
He extended his head fully out of the manhole to reveal he had a horrific scowl. “This was an insanely simple mission. All you had to do was sabotage their vehicle and retrieve anything of value. Now we won’t get another shot until election week, and by then Luthor won’t have it anymore!”
He rubbed his sharp pseudo-palm against his forehead in clear irritation. “Was there anything, at all, you might have gotten from them? ANYTHING that could give us a clue? Or did I seriously put up ten quid for a bum deal?”
The more Geosh heard, the more he was sure not telling switchblade about the case was the right decision. “As I said they didn’t stop, if I was looking for that I could’ve done something. Anyways, I don’t believe there’s anything here, but if I find anything I’ll let you know. Don’t get your hopes up though. Geosh said in an even tone.
“No, you’re done.” Switchblade snarled. “You had one competent chance, and you blew it. You can forget about getting your payment and don’t you dare follow that campaign bus.”
He pointed a threatening, highly-reflective finger as he sank ominously back down the manhole. “I have other operatives and I will get to the bottom of this.” The sound of tinkling metal died away.
At this point Geosh was sure that the case held something important. “What could you be hiding that the dirty old tin can wants so much?” Geosh mumbled, as he retrieved the case and grabbed an old newspaper from the bin to sorta hide the case. Actually, it didn’t really, but at least it hid the Lexcorp logos for the most part. Hopefully the case wouldn’t raise any eyebrows now.
Geosh decided to head for an abandoned building that he would sometimes sleep in, and hope that there wasn’t someone else using it. There ho would investigate the contents of the case.
OOC: I’m not sure if you’re going to try and transfer this over to obsidian at some point, but are we trying to keep this separate from the other happenings for now?
I’m going to pursue it until it either comes to a head or Obsidian decides to take over, or I start taking it in a really stupid direction and he has enough of it.
IC:
As he made his way away from the hotel, two eyes reemerged from the manhole with a suspicious glare.
Thankfully the abandoned building in question was only being occupied by a pair of likely homeless lowlifes, likely making a drug deal of some sort, who took off at the sound of Geosh. It was entirely empty save some crates from decades before which were still in the process of rotting away.
Adelaide paused to contemplate getting on stage. Why can’t they simply just hire people? People were just too lazy nowadays to get connections. “Do they expect us to be philantopists? I mean, I wouldn’t mind helping if I got paid or something…”
IC: Geosh went up to the second floor of the building and sat in the corner near a busted out window. “Now let’s see what locks we’ll be picking today.” He said as he looked at the case. He noticed the wires and realized he would need to be careful in case it was rigged. After expanding his armor, Geosh took a few minutes to get through the numbered locks, and turned the case so it faced away from him. He began to slowly open the case.
For a moment there was uninterrupted silence. Then, a message began to play.
“-Luthor, I doubt we can actually meet on such-”
There was a metallic sound, but it was difficult to tell if it was coming from the recording or from outside. Regardless, it seriously interfered with the recording audio.
“-Of course, your client can’t attempt-”
“-ut he’s going to campaign for President, or didn’t y-”
“-pect your delivery on time, Mr. Key-”
“-oroughly expect that. Have a wo-”
“-ful afternoon.”
If Geosh dared to turn it around, he would find it was stuffed with packing foam, with something in between the layers.
Geosh did turn the case around, he was pretty sure it would’ve already exploded if it was going to, but he still kept the armor up just in case. He noticed the object between the layers of foam and reached for it.
Geosh had been on edge with the case, ready for the unexpected, so he reacted immediately. Geosh stood up, materialized the spear and shield, stabbed at the head of switchblade, and kicked at the case to send it spinning across the floor, all within less than a second.
The spear immediately shot down Switchblade’s gaping jaw, but no matter how sharp the point, there was no cutting that metal.
“Insect!” Switchblade growled, his speech seemingly unimpeded by the spear in his mouth while his mass swarmed towards both Geosh and the now less-than-close box. “Did you really think you would betray me and get away with it?!”