Three Days of The Gecko (IC) (Closed)

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman pondered for a second, his thought processes not even interrupted by the faint hum of How cool is this place? For once, his easily distracted mind was actually thinking, although for the first thirty seconds it was closer to Oh no, what if I guess wrong? Pressure... pressure... pressure... dammit! than a solution. Then, inspiration struck.

"Food," he said slowly. "That's the common link. The sisters went missing, without a cell phone or keys, and cotton candy was found on the scene. Officer Robinson's scent crossed paths with fake Tim Burton at a spot with a half-eaten hotdog, and a coke mixer, fitting with the alcohol connection, and fitting with the use of Cola as a transmission medium. Fake Tim Burton contaminated a drinks vending stall. The latter got foiled, but the first two instances... completely AWOL, no cell phones, noone found them."

He sped up as he gained confidence in his idea. "The two sisters, clean records. The officer, exemplary record, so their link to these crimes is really out of character, regardless of me not having met them, and I'm awesome, so I'd probably draw similar conclusions from meeting them. It's not in character. Conundrum's really smart, Fear-Master's using the toxins of his predecessor... perhaps the formula got modified to alter behaviour in some way other than screaming bloody terror."

"So, I suppose my theory is that all these people are being controlled, and the Cola thing was an attempt to do that on a massive scale. Officer Robinson got used to do it in the stadium, being on security detail and having a maintenance uniform meant he could go anywhere in the stadium, and unnoticed too if he wanted. He probably helped get fake Tim Burton in. The purpose of the drugged Cola is somehow linked to the broadcast, cos they made that message probably not knowing that I foiled them. Hell, they didn't know I was alive." Geckoman stopped, thoughtful.

"The sisters, I got two theories. One is that it was a lure to get you distracted, but Conundrum couldn't help leaving the note. Like you said, he can't help it. The other is, it was an experiment. Fear toxin scaring him already, then a scary film goes on and pushes him right over. The sisters were the agents used to kill him as part of the experiment, cue the two supervillains and their toughs showing to inspect their work."

He finally stopped talking, took a breath, and flashed a grin. "So, how many holes does my elaborate deducation contain?"

[N/A]

The Raven struggled to remain deadpan, but in the face of Geckoman's tirade, her jaw fell open slightly. "Well, you certainly have a talent for thinking 'outside the box.' That's a valuable trait for a superhero."

She pushed off from her computer and began to slowly pace in a circle around Geckoman. Her massive cape fell around her to the floor, obscuring most of her body and her movements. "Most of what you've offered me are theories. I honestly don't know if most of them are true or not. Because you don't have all the facts yet. You're putting the cart before the horse."

"You have three different kidnapping victims from two different crime scenes. You have enough eyewitness accounts, physical evidence of similar modus operandi and signatures, and televised confessions to reasonably assume the same perpetrator at both scenes. With that information in mind, what is the first question you should be asking?"

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman's face fell. Awww... my theory sucks. That sucks. Sucks. "Um..." he pondered, staring off into the distance. Ok, logical things... logical things. Three kidnapping victims, two are sisters, the third's a cop... what's that gotta do with it? Twins, cop, not exactly related, apparently don't know each oth- Wait.

"What have the two sisters and the cop have to do with each other?"

[N/A]

[bg=#000000]"Very good. You're learning."[/bg]

The Raven sat down at her computer, shifting her chair to an angle that made room for Geckoman to stand next to her, and tapped a button on the keyboard. The central monitor flared to life, showing a command line from an operating system Geckoman didn't recognize.

"CROSS-REFERENCE: Adams, Kate, Katherine, Betty, Elizabeth, Robinson, Jeremiah, Jerry_"

The Raven hit the "Enter" key, and a graphic of an hourglass appeared, slowly filling up. "SEARCHING ALL LOCAL DATABASES...FOUND"

The screen filled up with text. It was a list of witnesses from a murder trial that had taken place one year before this very night. One year, to the day. Both Adams sisters were on that witness list. So was Officer Robinson. In fact, he was the arresting officer on the scene. The defendant already had a list of prior convictions that went on for pages and pages - grand theft, armed robbery, breaking and entering, electronic theft, fraud, extortion, willful destruction of property...but no violent crimes, until this one. The scene of the crime was the Bayview Mall. The victim was a high-school dropout with a history of petty crime. And the defendant was one "Andre Keston"...better known as the criminal mastermind Conundrum.

The Raven keyed in a few more commands, and a complete list of every court official, jury member, and witness appeared on the screen. The presiding judge was one "Kelley Jones." And his name was the only one on the list which didn't have a red, blinking tag next to it, which read "MISSING."

[Ecalsneerg]

"They imprisoned Conundrum for murder, so he's getting his revenge," gasped Geckoman. Then, his eyes narrowed. "We need to get to the judge's house, and fast. The witnesses have already been missing a couple of days, but we can still save the judge." He went to sprint towards the Pitchoo, but stopped short and skidded on the floor.

"Wait. Do you have directions?"

[N/A]

[bg=#000000]"The Freedom City government has Judge Jones' home address on file. Thus, so do I."[/bg] The Raven scrolled through a couple screens worth of data on her computer, then set up a remote data transfer with her PDA and leapt up to race after Geckoman to his airship. [bg=#000000]"He owns a condominium apartment in Parkside. 19 Englehart Street, #39."[/bg] She practically dove through The Pitchoo's hatch, hitting the button on her remote control without looking at it or taking it off her utility belt. [bg=#000000]"You drive."[/bg] The roof entrance slid and grinded open. [bg=#000000]"We'll wait to contact the police until we've secured the scene ourselves, and have had a chance to examine the evidence before they contaminate it. We don't need a bunch of riot cops stomping all over the place, and we definitely don't need any of them getting themselves killed."[/bg]

[Ecalsneerg]

"Ok, strap yourself in," said Geckoman, pressing buttons on the control panel as he ascended out of the Rookery. The GPS came up as a small holographic projection from the dashboard. "This is going to be fast." And with that he diverted all power to the engines in one flick of a button.

The Pitchoo accelerated, going from single-digit to tens of miles per hour, then hundreds... and it kept going. "Aaaaaaannnnd... STOP!" The engines swiftly, but not immediately, cut the power, leaving them hovering near their destination. "Hmmm... it always jerks down from 500 to 400. Not sure why."