Waking up around midday, Lex found several missed calls from Drew on his temporary phone. Looking at the cheap thing also reminded him that he seriously needed to get a proper phone soon instead of continuing to use this placeholder trash.
After calling her back, he found out her lawyer wanted to meet him regarding the incident from a few nights ago. Lex of course agreed immediately and invited them over to the restaurant downstairs.
As he got ready, he checked a few things first and quickly noticed that the Bryan Fury Template had increased to sixty percent synchronization.
More importantly, he could now access Bryan’s gloves too.
Though honestly, that was probably because of the percentage increase itself.
Bryan’s fighting style mainly focused around punches and kicks, but the man was also highly proficient with firearms, so it made sense that Lex’s absolutely horrible attempt at using Ebony and Ivory yesterday still somehow contributed toward the synchronization increase.
Honestly, those guns were bullshit.
Movies had lied to him.
Dressing up in a sleek cream shirt and brown trousers, with the sleeves rolled neatly around his forearms, Lex looked at himself in the mirror for a moment before nodding approvingly.
The clothes fit perfectly.
Though honestly, with his current control over his body, almost everything fit perfectly now.
Taking out the watch he had bought yesterday, he strapped it around his wrist before heading toward the elevator.
Technically, with his current control over his body, he no longer even needed to shave or brush his teeth anymore. He could literally keep his body perfectly clean manually if he wanted.
Still, minty breath was minty breath.
As he entered the elevator, he found someone he recognized already standing there.
“Hello Maybell, how’s everything been?” Lex greeted casually.
The woman smiled politely at him. She worked as one of the managers for F.E.A.S.T. and after suddenly becoming rich, Lex had made sure to donate occasionally whenever he could. Especially after realizing FEAST actually seemed legitimate instead of being one of those fake charity organizations that spent eighty percent of donations on “administrative costs.”
After meeting May personally a few times, he had genuinely started respecting the organization.
“Good to meet you Mr. Everhart, things have been going well.” she replied warmly.
“So, business meeting?”
“Yes actually. We're looking into funding and training programs for young men and women, so I had a meeting here.” she explained politely.
Lex internally nodded.
Makes sense.
Currently, he was probably one of FEAST’s biggest donors, which honestly felt weird considering that just a few months ago he had been worried about rent.
“Well, call me if you run into any problems.” Lex replied casually as the elevator doors opened.
May headed toward the exit while Lex moved toward the restaurant.
One of the perks of living in the hotel was that a private booth in the restaurant was permanently reserved for him, so he simply entered and ordered breakfast while waiting.
Since Drew was coming, he also ordered her favorite: black coffee along with chocolate muffins.
For himself, he ordered a cappuccino and Fettuccine Alfredo.
At this point Lex had completely abandoned healthy eating.
What was unhealthy food going to do? Kill him?
His body didn’t even technically require food anymore and there were basically zero negative consequences from eating whatever he wanted.
A couple of months ago he had even tried snake meat at a restaurant specializing in weird exotic dishes. Though honestly, after trying it, he realized there were still plenty of normal foods he hadn't enjoyed enough yet before developing strange tastes.
Drew arrived several minutes later alongside a lawyer wearing sunglasses indoors.
Lex stared at the man for a moment.
Really?
This was the lawyer?
He had expected someone cooler and more intimidating, not some hippie trying too hard to look mysterious while wearing sunglasses indoors.
Then Lex noticed the cane.
Oh.
Wait.
The idiot was him.
“Lex, this is Mr. Murdock. Matt, Mr. Everhart.” Drew introduced the two.
“Hello Mr. Murdock, nice to meet you.” Lex greeted politely.
“Nice meeting you too Mr. Everhart.” Matt replied smoothly while immediately accepting the offered handshake.
Which honestly surprised Lex because he had instinctively started pulling his hand back midway after remembering the guy was blind.
“Good reflexes you’ve got there Mr. Murdock.” Lex commented casually while sitting down.
“It becomes a habit after a while.” Matt replied with a faint smile.
And just like that, two men who had been fighting side-by-side against supernatural ninja cultists only hours ago sat across from each other discussing legal testimony without recognizing one another.
The conversation quickly shifted toward the mind control case.
Apparently the police still refused to properly move forward with the situation due to lack of evidence, so Matt and Drew wanted to push things further legally and needed Lex as a witness.
Naturally, he agreed.
Honestly, if Purple Man got thrown into prison, the world objectively improved.
Though just as the conversation was ending, Lex suddenly remembered his identity problem.
More specifically, his “technically existing but also not really existing” paperwork problem.
Since Matt was a lawyer, this was probably the perfect chance to ask about it.
“Hmm…” Matt thought for a moment after hearing Lex’s explanation. “It should be possible, especially if you already have a driver’s license. I don't normally handle these kinds of cases, but honestly this isn’t particularly complicated. I could help you with it myself or suggest a firm if you'd prefer.”
Lex immediately accepted the offer.
Mostly because free lawyer.
Oh wait.
He probably shouldn’t be this stingy anymore considering he was rich now.
Matt however hadn’t offered simply because the paperwork sounded easy.
No.
Throughout the entire conversation, Matt had heard lie after lie.
Forgetting his SSN? Lie.
Most documents being with family members? Lie.
Trying to distance himself from family for a while? Also lie.
The man across from him lied almost reflexively whenever details became involved.
And yet strangely, none of the lies felt malicious.
Just… evasive.
Complicated.
Then there was Drew herself.
She lied too, though differently.
When exactly had the man drugged her?
She couldn’t remember.
How had the effects suddenly disappeared?
Another lie.
And yet despite the lies, the important parts remained true.
The loss of control.
The fear.
The violation.
The other woman had shown identical signs too.
Matt sat quietly for a moment behind his sunglasses.
Something about this entire situation was deeply fishy.
Meanwhile, after saying goodbye to Matt and Drew, Lex decided to finally get himself a property. While he still lacked several personal documents, the license should work for now.
Though before anything else, he needed a proper phone.
Getting himself a Galaxy Note 3 along with a few accessories, he then went ahead and called one of his contacts.
“Hey Randall, weren’t you telling me you had a building in New York for sale? The one with the penthouse and everything?” Lex asked over the phone.
Randall Rand was someone he had met during an exclusive party hosted by Justin Hammer. Though Lex himself disliked Justin’s arrogant and overly flashy personality, he had still attended the event simply because he had nothing better to do.
Randall was currently busy, though he did call his secretary and ask her to show Lex the building.
The building in question actually needed a lot of work.
Lex still bought it anyway.
Then immediately purchased another penthouse that didn’t require renovations.
Having unlimited wealth was just like that.
While he was at it, he also bought a villa just outside New York. That place could eventually become useful for his Merlin identity or whatever persona he ended up creating later since it had enough open space to safely test his powers.
Well…
The less dangerous powers at least.
The buying process would still take some time, so as night approached, Lex once again considered going out in search of another abandoned building.
Thankfully, he no longer had to rely on taxis anymore.
Or rather… not exactly.
Because technically the Dodge Viper was tied to Lex himself. Even last night he had used it after changing back into his real face.
This whole double identity thing was honestly starting to get out of hand.
Sure, he could just buy another car.
But then he’d need somewhere to park it, which also meant parking the original car nearby and somehow managing both identities separately.
Lex genuinely started wondering how people in movies made secret identities look so easy.
Eventually, he decided to postpone training for a few days until he obtained his own property. At least there he'd finally be able to summon an actual superheroine from another world.
Maybe she’d even teach him how to properly fight if he asked nicely.
Still, since he was already inside the car and had absolutely no intention of sleeping yet, he decided to simply drive around the city for a while.
Remembering last night, the battle, the adrenaline, the sheer thrill of it all… Lex found himself almost tempted to actively search for criminals to fight.
But then again, he wasn’t a superhero.
So what exactly was he?
Stopping the car by the roadside, Lex leaned back silently for a moment.
What exactly was he doing?
What was he supposed to do?
Did having superpowers automatically mean becoming a superhero?
He honestly didn’t think so.
And yet, he also knew things would never remain peaceful forever. Not in a world filled with superheroes and supervillains.
He wanted to enjoy his life.
But to truly enjoy life, the world itself needed to survive first.
Sure, when the sky falls, the tall people hold it up.
But fuck… he had become one of the tall people now.
So apparently that made it his problem too.
What was even the point of having powers if he never used them?
It wasn’t like anything could truly happen to him anyway.
And honestly?
The thrill from last night had been real.
Single-handedly crushing an entire creepy ninja cult with telekinesis had felt absurdly exhilarating.
Taking out the Compass of Peeking, Lex finally decided to properly test it for the first time. Until now he had mostly just carried it around while letting it passively record territory.
The holographic map of New York immediately expanded before him.
And Lex froze.
The city was absolutely filled with supernatural activity.
Dots covered the map everywhere.
Some moved.
Some remained stationary.
Some existed alone while others clustered together in groups.
Some glowed faintly while others pulsed with enough intensity to immediately stand out.
Thinking about it, a lot of these were probably mutants.
Though the dots themselves also had different colors, which likely represented different kinds of energy.
There were six colors in total.
Red.
Yellow.
Dark Blue.
Sky Blue.
Purple.
And Green.
Some dots even flickered between multiple colors at once.
The strongest concentrations seemed to be Green and Yellow while Sky Blue and Purple appeared comparatively weaker.
Zooming in on himself, Lex found his own marker.
Bright yellow.
Not far from his current location, he noticed five other signatures grouped together.
Two green.
One red.
One purple.
And another flickering rapidly between red and purple.
There was a very good chance they were currently fighting.
Curiosity immediately won.
Changing back into his Merlin face once again, Lex decided to head over directly. The Invisibility Cloak wasn't really necessary this time, which meant there was no need to suppress his heartbeat or breathing either.
He simply stepped out of the car and started walking toward the location shown by the compass.