The blood, the sweat, the tears...

[chesspolitik]

Anatoly paced anxiously outside of his hut, trying to determine what to do. Lex was gone, and the chaotic scene inside their hut pointed to an actual culprit rather than the island. The chessboard had been knocked over, the pieces strewn everywhere and a mysterious shirt left in the corner - all signs of a struggle.

He couldn't search for Lex alone, that much was obvious, but who on earth could he turn to? He couldn't bring himself to trust the IPD in the best of times, let alone during something like this, when near half the population were acting unlike themselves. Who could say that the members of the IPD were not affected as well? Perhaps they were even responsible for this. He'd not be surprised, at this point.

The "superhero" contingent was not even an option. Anatoly could not understand why people would voluntarily choose to dress themselves in ridiculous costumes and go about spying on people. They might say it was "for the good of the Island" but he had heard that sentiment before and put very little faith in their good intentions.

Cassie seemed the lone exception, but he could hardly ask her to help, could he?

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[chesspolitik]

"Cassie!" Anatoly still wasn't completely sure if it was right to ask her for help, but she was there and he trusted her.

"Lex is missing," he answered quietly, his worry and fear visible in his voice and face. "The hut is a mess, everything's been knocked off - I think someone's taken him."

[thethirdwonder.livejournal.com]

Cassie didn't even consider who it was who was missing. After the look on Anatoly's face, she couldn't have denied him her help, Wonder Girl or not, Luthor or not. Alls that mattered was helping him. If anything, it kept her mind off other things.

Of course, first thing was first. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him, hard. "I'll help you find him, I promise." She said firmly, wanting to calm him down a little so they could think straight.

[chesspolitik]

Anatoly hugged her tightly, grateful for both her presence. He was all too aware of how much she disliked Lex and her willingness to help meant more than he could possibly say.

"Thank you," he murmured into her hair. He took a deep breath and let go of her. "Thank you."

[thethirdwonder.livejournal.com]

"You care for him. That's all that matters." Cassie said before she let him go. It didn't matter who it was, she was ultimately doing this for Anatoly.

Then she looked past him towards the door of the hut, letting her Wonder Girl instincts come to the front of her mind. "May I?" She asked, nodding towards the door. She wasn't trained by the World's Greatest Detective like Tim, but she was good enough when it came to looking for clues.

[chesspolitik]

Anatoly nodded, biting his lip anxiously. He stepped out of her way and gestured towards the door. "I didn't touch or move anything. Everything's the way it was when I walked in."

"I don't - I've tried to think who might - but I don't know."

[thethirdwonder.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Cassie had a few good ideas of who might. With people acting weird, there were a lot of people who might suddenly try to take matters into their own hands where a super villain was concerned, even if he was pre-evil. Not that she was going to mention that to Anatoly, he was worried enough as it was.

Giving him one more brief hug, she then moved into the hut to look around. He'd been right, it did look like someone was taken out of here by force. Careful to step around the chess pieces on the floor, she kept looking as she asked, "Is anything else missing? Is any of this not yours or Luthor's?"

[chesspolitik]

"The shirt," Anatoly said from the doorway, fidgeting with his sleeve in his anxiety. "Over by the corner. It's not his or mine."

He didn't think of what he would do if something had happened to Lex and they couldn't find him in time. They would, they had to. There was no other acceptable outcome.

[thethirdwonder.livejournal.com]

Carefully making her way over, Cassie picked up the shirt and examined it. It was just a cotton t-shit, nothing special, and more unfortunate, no real clues. As she turned it over in her hands, she glanced up at Anatoly as she asked, "Do you have any suspects? Has Luthor had any odd encounters with people lately?" She had a hunch the weird behavior of late might be behind this, perhaps someone who wasn't acting like themselves who wanted another go at Luthor?

[chesspolitik]

It was on the tip of Anatoly's tongue to ask who hadn't been acting odd lately, but that would hardly help the situation. He rubbed his eyes and thought back.

"There was Clark and Kon at the club," he said slowly, unable to repress a slight shudder. "They were not themselves. Lex said he had an argument with Clark. Kon... I don't know."

[thethirdwonder.livejournal.com]

When Anatoly said Kon's name, Cassie couldn't hide her wince of hurt. As if Dinah and Bart weren't enough... She turned to look at him, for the moment forgetting she was supposed to be helping him find Luthor. She just...had to know if this was going to hurt more then it already did. "Kon...he...he didn't do anything to Luther did he? or You?"

She was very much a hurting sixteen year old girl in that moment, rather then a young superhero.

[chesspolitik]

At that, Anatoly immediately went over to Cassie and wrapped his arms around her. Lex hadn't told him what Kon had done, but he gathered it was unpleasant enough. And him - well. This was stressful enough without her knowing the sort of things Kon had said.

"He was just rude," he answered, holding her tightly. "That was all. What did he say to you?"

[thethirdwonder.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't so much what he said..." Cassie said quietly, holding on to him tightly. "It's more what he did. With people who weren't affected and none of them had any thought about me. I'm finding that apparently I don't matter to a lot of people." She was vague but it was still so raw from yesterday that it was hard for her to talk about.

Finally, she pulled away and turned away before quickly rubbing her eyes in hopes Anatoly wouldn't notice as she went on as if nothing had happened. "So, finding Luthor. This isn't much to go on, but I'll ask around. I'm sure someone has to have seen something." It wasn't like Luthor was hard to miss afterall."