2013.07.28 - Adaptable Business

Sinestro contacted Justin's offices to make an appointment as soon as he and Hal were done taking a bite out of space crime; the had done all it could to analyze the ruined Adaptoid remnants from the New Hudson Dam, and so it was time to bring in the expert(s). Since the incident at the Dam, he's done his best to settle into life away from home, which has mostly meant patrolling Earth - and the rest of the space sector around it - most hours of the day in search of wrongs to right and disasters to avert.

After a little more than a week of that, the persistent fears of what might be transpiring back home grew too great to ignore, so on the eve of his meeting with Justin, he flew off-world to do a quick check-up around Sector 1412, much to the subdued delight of his people. A day later, with bare minutes to spare, he's darting through the clouds above Staten Island with a bubble full of robot parts trailing behind him, a green comet seemingly on a collision course with Hammer Industries--until, a few hundred feet above the building, a fluffy green crash pad appears in mid-air to stop him.

After taking a moment to compose himself and smooth his moustache out, Sinestro elects to hover the rest of the way down to the high-rise, until he's floating close enough to Justin Hammer's window to knock.

Already it's been an unusual Friday for Justin, who's sitting at his desk, working on his computer. The surprise visit from a member of the Legion of Superheroes that morning had got him thinking again about the frost giant attack, and he once again launched himself into the projects he had going for the Asgardians. This of course meant pushing off some other projects, but so far nothing had fallen behind schedule. At least not so far he couldn't catch up by working a weekend or two. Glancing at the clock on the computer screen he notes the time is coming up for the meeting with the Green Lantern known as Sinestro. He returns to the spreadsheet he's working on, waiting for a call from his secretary or the receptionist downstairs to tell him that the Lantern has arrived.

The knock, however, was completely unexpected.

Hammer jumps at the noise, turning around in his chair to peer outside. His first thought is that a bird may have hit the window- it has happened in the past, but the sight of the magenta-colored alien catches him completely off guard. He stares for a moment before swiveling his chair fully toward the window and standing up. "Uh, hey there... The door is twenty stories down, the windows up here don't open," he says loud enough that he hopes he can be heard through the glass. Do these types ever show up for meetings /normally/?

Sinestro's already withdrawing his hand to fold both arms over his chest and wait for the window to open when Justin turns to deliver the bad news. Afterwards, he squints, he purses his lips, and waits for a moment, as if expecting the executive to flip some top-secret window access switch and let him in anyway.

And then, once it's clear that that isn't happening, he heaves a lenghty sigh and flies through the window like a ray of green sunlight.

"That won't be necessary," he says once his body has lost its airy translucence and his feet can settle on the ground. The sphere full of robot parts floats around to hover between them, and then he gives it a gentle tap to send it drifting listlessly towards Justin. "We're both busy men; I hope I haven't kept you waiting for long."

Hammer starts to inform his guest once again that the window doesn't open when something completely unexpected happens. He simply goes /through/ it. As if Sinestro showing up at the office window wasn't odd enough, that really took the cake. Justin stumbles backwards, catching himself on his desk as the alien comes through the large plate glass window and re-solidifies. There's a hint of the last part of a mumbled expletive on the CEO's lips as he straightens up in an attempt to recover. "Heh, well, I have to say that's the first time I've ever had someone come through the window of my office. Had someone go /out/ though it once..." he trails off, the memories of the hostage crisis not something he likes to think about. "Nice trick, though. Good to see you again, uh, Mister Sinestro?" he's not sure the exact title to use with the Lantern. "And no, I was just finishing up some work. Got plenty here to keep my busy." Hammer's eyes shift to the mechanical bits floating in the bubble, his curiosity peaked. He doesn't ask about them, however, waiting for Sinestro to explain. His meeting request had been pretty vague, so Justin didn't know what to expect.

"Green Lantern," he evenly corrects, extending a hand to the CEO. They may both be busy men, but there's always time for proper greetings; it's only civil.

The parts look as though they were blown up, then buried at the bottom of a lake, then dug up again to be dragged into Justin's office; there are dents, scrapes, scorch marks, melted wiring, and caked mud. Bits of seaweed are stuck between some of nooks and crannies of the more intact pieces, too. Still, despite the damage, it's reasonably possible to tell that whatever this thing was, it was probably humanoid, given a bit of time spent looking into the bubble; there are enough partially intact bodyparts to confirm that.

"Terrorists tried to destroy a dam not so far from here; some of them were machines with the power to duplicate extranormal abilities." He glances towards the parts briefly, then squares his eyes on Justin again. "Who built them -- how they built them -- I would like to know, so that they can be dealt with; is this something that your company could help me with?"

Justin takes the Lantern's hand. "Green Lantern it is," he replies as he shakes the alien's hand. "You can just call me Justin, though. Like to keep things informal, ya know?"

As the focus returns to the parts, Hammer listens intently. He studies the remnants, brows furrowing, though an edge of a grin starts to show through. It's high tech- possibly Stark level or higher, and a Green Lantern is pretty much giving it to him. He looks up, offering one of his best used car salesman smiles to Sinestro. "I think I can do that for you," he offers with a wave of his hand. "Of course, in return for this I would like to have rights to the research that may be uncovered. That way I can look into the best possible way to combat this type of threat in the future. After all, I am a defense contractor." Or replicate it and sell it to the government. Fight fire with fire, right?

Sinestro did his homework before coming(inasmuch as letting his ring give him an overview of Hammer during re-entry counts as homework, anyway), so Justin's request isn't an entirely unexpected one. More importantly, he doesn't exactly care who gets the research rights to the thing as long as nobody uses the tech to blow anything up. After releasing Justin's hand, he makes a dismissive gesture and replies, "Of course; as long as I have access to what I need of it, when I need it. I understand that you have a business to run, Mr. Hammer." Beat; the corners of his mouth curl down, slightly.

"Justin," he then self-corrects.

"Oh, absolutely, absolutely," Hammer replies, still smiling broadly. "I can give you all the data you need." Again his focus goes from Sinestro to the parts. just looking at them like this it's hard to deduct much. But after they're cleaned and dicected, they should reveal a lot more information. For a moment he just studies the parts, falling silent, then he looks back up to the Lantern. "I'm assuming that this is a fairly urgent project?" Justin asks, arching a brow and losing some of the 'little kid in a candy store' look. "And do you already have any data collected? Function, any images of the unit before it was damaged?"

"There were four other machines, and six other individuals there to stop their--plot; each machine changed shape to resemble one of us, and seemed to have facsimiles of our various abilities." Beat. "Poor ones." There's a hint of pride in that addendum.

"They were more focused on fighting us than destroying the dam," he continues, balling his left fist in front of himself and summoning green sparks just above it. "which would lead me to believe that whomever built them either has some more troubling plan to come, or is a wasteful idiot." As he speaks, the energies swirling over his ring coalesce together, then stretch until, finally, there is a black USB drive hovering between he and Justin. Aside from the persistent green glow from just beneath its surface, it doesn't look like a run-of-the-mill Lantern construct.

"Either way: yes, this is, indeed, an 'urgent project'." With a flick of his fingers, he sends the drive curving around the sphere to travel towards Justin; he's assuming that the CEO will catch it. "There is footage of this one in combat with me, and a few glimpses of the others; none of them seemed able to handle the powers they were duplicating."

Justin listens intently, though his eyes grow wide as the Lantern materializes the USB drive. "Wow, now /that/ has got to come in handy!" he says with a chuckle before falling quiet again to keep listening. He nods as Sinestro speaks, and when the USB drive comes his way, he catches it as predicted. He's seen footage of what the Lanterns can do, but he had no idea that they could create constructs that continue to exist. "I can guarantee you that I will get right on this," Hammer insures with a bit of a cocky air to go with the grin he's still wearing. "Lemme tell ya, this is a project I'm looking forward to diving into. And I feel honored that you would come to me with this, I mean, this is some very serious stuff, very cutting edge. I won't let you down, and I know that you already know that."

The Lantern takes Justin's enthusiasm in with the same dispassionate and slightly impatient expression he's worn since arriving. On Earth. It's nothing against the planet, exactly, just as his stoicism now is no slight against Justin's abilities as a salesman; it's just that there's practically always somewhere else that the alien would rather be than wherever he is presently, these days. Once Justin has said his piece, Sinestro gives him a firm nod and replies, "I don't know that, Mr. Hammer--not yet; I do, however, take you at your word. I would not have brought this to you if I thought you and your company were incapable of handling it." Gesturing towards the drive, he adds, "One warning, though: that device won't last for more than a few hours, at most; you will want to process it soon, I trust."

Hammer gives a bit of a chuckle, though there isn't any humor in it. It's just an involuntary reaction. He looks to the drive in his right hand, nodding. "Of course, I'll get this downloaded right away," he comments before looking back up to Sinestro. The guy is like a rock, personality wise, but he just dropped a huge piece of tech in Justin's lap, so he's not going to complain. "Also, how will I get in contact with you during the project? So that I can make sure you receive updates as it progresses?" He's going to have to start keeping a special Rolodex just on how to contact each one of these different hero-types. Many of them lack simple things, like cell phones.

Fortunately--


 * ( "555-1412," )| chirps the ring on Sinestro's left hand. An Oan power ring isn't exactly a cell-phone, but it can certainly fake it well enough. It only took a few run-ins with native law enforcement officers to convince him that contriving a way to contact and be contacted by the locals might be valuable.

Folding his arms, Sinestro adds, "As long as I'm on world, you'll be able to reach me; you may want to try again later if I'm not, though." Intra-galactic voicemail is, apparently, not within the ring's capabilities. "I'm looking forward to your findings, whatever they may be; as poor a reflection as it may have been, this--thing was still capable of duplicating my ring, instantaneously. I would be very interested in knowing how, on Earth, that was possible."

/This just keeps getting better and better,/ Hammer thinks to himself, being very careful now to curb his enthusiasm. If he goes off on another one of his little spiels and seems a bit too interested, the shiny new toy may get taken away. And that just wouldn't be any fun. Justin nods, committing the number to memory. He'll be able to jot it down later. "I'll be in touch A.S.A.P with whatever I find." Another salesman's smile. "If it was possible on Earth, I'll be able to figure it out. Even if it wasn't I still like to think I've got a fighting chance."

"Good," Sinestro says, nodding again. His feet lift about a foot off the ground and he hovers towards the window he came in through. "I doubt that this is the last time I'll end up with strange technology in my custody; it would be very good to know that I have someone capable to call on, the next time."

"Hey, any time you want to come calling while bearing gifts, I'm all for it," Justin returns with a chuckle and a grin. He takes an instinctive step back when Sinestro starts to float off. He sticks his hands in his pants pockets as he watches the alien depart in the same bizarre way that he arrived. There's a bit of envy, and maybe that's one reason why he really does dislike the specials and the supers, but that won't stop him from doing business with them.