3830/Connecting the Pins

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Connecting the Pins
Date of Scene: 15 October 2020
Location: Penthouse - Kord Co
Synopsis: Spider-Man visits Ted at the office and compares notes on the Kingpin.
Cast of Characters: Ted Kord, Peter Parker




Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord comes out of the elevator and looks around. No Booster, no servers, no party this time. He sighs and pulls his shirts and cowl off. "A quiet morning for a change. Wow... I spent a couple hours chasing those mooks who got away."

He places his gun and gunbelt in his desk, makes himself a bowl of cereal and turns on the monitor. "Korri... net search keywords: Kingpin, crime, grand theft auto, protection." The VI gets to it showing various results in an inset screen as the news plays.

He frowns, nothing much there.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is working on getting to ESU so he can get a few study hours in before his Advanced Biology class. But while he is swinging along, he is still multi-tasking. Checking his emails, updating some of the entries in the Spider-Comm database, and returning texts to friends and family - to be exact, Aunt May, wondering if he's going to be late again so she can just put his dinner in the fridge for him to heat up later.

<Sure, Aunt May,> he sent, from Spider-Comm to his actual SMS account and then off to Aunt May, so she doesn't worry...

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord slaps his forehead. "I don't need to trawl the net. I know heroes!" He quickly types an email for Spder-Comm.

Subject: Kingpin. Hey all, I just busted a chop shop in Little Asia. Collared a bunch of them and plenty of video (see attached file) and fingerprints to nail the rest. One of the choppers yelled something about them being under the protection of someone calling themselves the Kingpin! Weird monicker and I thought I'd share it. My initial web research is fruitless. Can anyone help a beetle out? ~TedBHH

Ted gets himself a coffee and decides to take the morning air by the pool. The way he's meeting superheroes lately he half expects Superman to come by about his request to rejoin the Justice League.

Dream on Ted.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey sees the email icon pop up with the Beetle symbol. They all have a symbol, it's easier to visually keep the messages straight.
He reads the email, then slows his swing and re-orients to aim his progress towards the KordCo building instead of ESU.

<Spidey here. I'll be on the roof in 10.>
A pause, then: <...We need to talk.>

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord mmms at the terseness of the reply. Hrmmms. Goes to make more coffee and eggs.

"I wonder what I'm making him late for now?" As an after thought he shuts down the cameras and reschedules his 8:00. The do not disturb memo had a blue skull on it.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man calls up all the info he can, as well as the names and faces of the ones from the meeting he interrupted. Reading it over again doesn't make it look any better.

The guy in the suit (the KordCo suit is still under development, not quite ready for live testing) lands on the roof of the KordCo building, slowing to a stop as he faces the roof access elevator, standing in front of the helipad.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord sticks his head out the patio door, peering into the morning light. "Well come on in. Recorders are off. You can relax a bit. I made some breakfast if you want it, nothing fancy, eggs and toast. There was bacon but it didn't make it. Sorry." He goes back inside. the younger generation really has to learn to make time for the simple things.

Peter Parker has posed:
The guy in the costume comes in, but when he speaks, Ted can tell the difference immediately.

Peter Parker has a signature cadence, but it is careful, introspective, subdued. Someone who sounds like the first one through the back door if a guy with a gun came in through the front door.

The person following Ted in sounds like Peter, but it is calm, confident, relaxed but ready to "hold forth" should the situation require it.

Peter Parker is the guy who works for him. The guy here is SPIDER-MAN.

"I'll manage, Ted. But I felt I should get this information to you as soon as possible, and give it to you face-to-face." A pause, then a wry, "Face-to-mask, anyway."

Okay, he hasn't lost a sense of humor, but where Peter sounds like the guy on open-mike night, Spider-Man sounds like the confident comedian with the 50-city national tour.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord notes the change in demeanor. Did he do that? Hard to remember. He rubs the scar on his scalp that Doomsday gave him.

"This is all very cryptic. If this was an old black and white movie you'd be shot in a phone booth after giving me an enigmatic warning, Spidey. He sits down and does help himself to the eggs, suddenly very hungry. Between bites of toast he asks, "Does this have to do with that gold phoenix they had on the wall with bloody talons? C'mon, you're acting like I just left a flaming bag of crap on the doorstep of the Latverian Embassy!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man shakes his head. "It's not you, Ted. It's the situation. It's pretty serious, and I'll lay out why very shortly."

He takes a deep breath, then begins.
"Right now, no one knows who this Kingpin is. He seems to take secrecy to an extreme. He insulates himself through multiple levels - his org chart might look like an MLM's. No name, no face. But he is influential."

He brings up a picture of three people, Asian, Italian, and Middle Eastern. "He brought these people together for some deal. A lot of crates. Contents unknown. The last guy..." He points to the Middle Eastern man. "He nearly pulled a gun over a disagreement. The others cautioned him about what the Kingpin would think."

Another breath. "I called the cops, webbed up the crook vehicles. The cops arrive...and start loading the crates into THEIR vehicles, each according to the different buyer. And the buyers went with them. So...this Kingpin has cops on his payroll, and has had them long enough for them to jump right in as the situation needed."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord swallows loudly and takes a cup of coffee. He regards Spider-Man for a moment.

"So what are you saying, here? I'm in over my head? You're concerned with me? Or urgent as in we have to do something about this? I hope it's the latter. I'm a billionaire. We're very hard to make disappear. Add to that I have a building full of security personnel, systems and drones and when they get through all this, they have to deal with me. A lot of people underestimate me because I was the joker of the JLI. It's really just my way of dealing with the adrenaline and the danger. A lot of people, including me, thought maybe Doomsday had broken something in me. Well the last week of so... it got fixed. A lot of people forgot me. That's fine. I'm not in this for glory. All these people who dismiss me are making a big mistake.

"This Kingpin is a big deal, for sure. Owning the cops, on that scale... Peter, we do this to deal with such people. When the system doesn't work, and that's a lot of the time, we step in. I hope you aren't asking me to step aside now."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man shook his head. "No. Far from it. Personally, I'm encouraged by your reaction, Ted. It does mean a lot. But I'm also not going to sugar-coat it for you. This is a very dangerous person to deal with. He's a criminal mastermind in the truest sense of the word, and we need to get all the info we can on his organization. And we need to figure out ways to hurt his operations in ways he can't compensate for. We have to be steadfast...but we also have to be CLEVER. And I know you are definitely NOT running short in the Clever Supply."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord taps his chin. "The men who got away said they'd make Kingpin pay for this bust, what they paid him or in blood. We could get after them. I have video of their faces, their emblem on the wall. It's a start. They probably have gang affiliations. Maybe the ones who got lose can be run through a facial recognition program? I don't have the connections for that. Hacking the FBI database... well it'd take some doing. Do you have any spider-people who know the Little Asia set up?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man hmmed. "I could try to find one, but she's keeping her distance for health reasons. I do know some people in Chinatown, though. Look, you should already have read/write access to the Spider-Comm database. Look up the entries using the search term 'Kingpin.' I have a chart of what I know about the setup I saw, with names and faces." He pauses. "Minus one. The Middle Eastern fellow was found dead in the East River two days after the meeting I interrupted. He has a low tolerance for failure."

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord taps his chin. "I'm going to see what else I can learn about this Kingpin, from my colleagues in the Justice League. If I ask about it the right way... maybe the Batman will get involved. Big maybe. But I can ask Princess Diana. I just met her but she is concerned about this city and its people. We exchanged cards. I'll compile a new database and set Korri to find new items pertaining to the Kingpin. I'm glad you told me about the cops. I'm sorry you had to see that. Anyway... gdt to classes and come by for lunch sometime. I'll tell you how the web shells worked. I snared a demon something with them.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man smiles under the mask. "Shouldn't be hard to ask her. Look under 'Honorary Spiders' in the Spider-Comm contact list. She's a member." One eye-lens winks. "I figured she was busy with League stuff, but try her through Spider-Comm and see if she responds."

And with that, he heads back up to the roof and fires a webline to do a half-gainer off the roof and swing away.