- Location
- United States
[X] [LL] Mercy Graves
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Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest
- Thread starter King crimson
- Start date
- Superhero
The issue with just rotating her out is that if we feel like the bar is so high that our only viable option right now is Mercy then it is going to be a long while before we have anyone capable of taking her place
The issues with all of that is that Mercy is only slightly better at the relevant stats than Wells is and definitely not good enough to be able to pull of something amazing that he couldn't
The things that make Mercy great are her loyalty, co-op scores and traits none of which will have any real benefit sending her away
The former is something we could easily get from Talia or using Wells and the latter is something Ra's will literally never give us
Except we have no reason to believe that Mercy will uncover anything that Wells wouldn't
No offence but that seems pretty petty, I made one comment expressing my frustration after several presenting a genuine argument, which the Mercy voters still haven't really done as far as I can tell, and that single post was enough to make you vote for something you don't agree with just to annoy me
The issue with either of those is that we don't really have a way to do them, Wells doesn't like us for his own psychological reasons and adamantly refuses any therapy and Helena has a pretty rock solid moral code that largely aligns with our own
And again, I've yet to see a solid argument why it has to be Mercy we send
I would also like to point out that the argument that we can just swap Mercy out later also works for Wells and he will be far easier to find a suitable replacement for than her
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So the vote's going to be closed at 10 today. Right now as of the last tally the vote is a tie. If it remains a tie by the time the vote closes then I'll be flipping a coin as a tiebreaker.
I will have something else up for you guys today that's not a mainline update but I still think you all will enjoy it.
I will have something else up for you guys today that's not a mainline update but I still think you all will enjoy it.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So the fun thing I have up for you guys ballooned in size. I'm about 4K words in and I'm only about a third of the way through it. As such it'll likely be landing very late at night if I don't cut it down to size. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
The vote is now closed
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I believe wildwill broke the tie in favor of Edward Wells but I haven't definitively checked quite yet.
- Pronouns
- Reader
Which mercy voters haven't really done in your opinion. Just because you fail to find something of worth in an argument doesn't mean it's not there. Frankly the original sell point on wells seemed to be that he was less usefull to us in general and was someone we could afford to throw away or get rid of if sending him backfired. Treating the entire vote as a case of which employee is least costly to send rather than deciding on which employee could be trusted with the responsibility of making this move profitable for us, in my opinion, was a foolish move which will cost us since the manner in which we decided on wells will be reflected in king crimsons portrayal, and I think neither Ra nor Well's himself will take to kindly in the position being decided based on wells greater expendibility in comparison to mercy. I look forward to replacing him once this rapidly backfires.
Kir the Wizard
The Sun King
- Location
- Ukraine
Darn it, I'm late for the vote again...
Some things to think about:
1) This whole charade was a weird point Ra's inserted into the deal to force LexCorp to let Talia get closer. LexCorp never even asked for an inner spy in the League of Shadows. Frankly, given the DC, Lex could come and bomb Nanda Parbat to the ground any turn if he wanted. Might as well sigh and not send anyone. Frame it as trusting him enough without a position like this.
2) There is already a likely League plant inside LexCorp: Dr. Moon (his true stats are still classified, and in the comics at least he had connections with the League of Assassins). It would have been a priceless moment for Lex to come and send the Demon's agent back home to "work for LexCorp". When countries do that with "diplomats" IRL tensions get high.
Just imagine, instead of Ra's either cackling at getting Mercy as a hostage, or being annoyed at the disrespect of having some random soldier LexCorp picked up like yesterday, he'd just see Lex smilingly saying that his ambassador to the League is Dr. Moon. "Damnation... How much does he know!?"
Some things to think about:
1) This whole charade was a weird point Ra's inserted into the deal to force LexCorp to let Talia get closer. LexCorp never even asked for an inner spy in the League of Shadows. Frankly, given the DC, Lex could come and bomb Nanda Parbat to the ground any turn if he wanted. Might as well sigh and not send anyone. Frame it as trusting him enough without a position like this.
2) There is already a likely League plant inside LexCorp: Dr. Moon (his true stats are still classified, and in the comics at least he had connections with the League of Assassins). It would have been a priceless moment for Lex to come and send the Demon's agent back home to "work for LexCorp". When countries do that with "diplomats" IRL tensions get high.
Just imagine, instead of Ra's either cackling at getting Mercy as a hostage, or being annoyed at the disrespect of having some random soldier LexCorp picked up like yesterday, he'd just see Lex smilingly saying that his ambassador to the League is Dr. Moon. "Damnation... How much does he know!?"
- Location
- Existence
Darn it, I'm late for the vote again...
Some things to think about:
1) This whole charade was a weird point Ra's inserted into the deal to force LexCorp to let Talia get closer. LexCorp never even asked for an inner spy in the League of Shadows. Frankly, given the DC, Lex could come and bomb Nanda Parbat to the ground any turn if he wanted. Might as well sigh and not send anyone. Frame it as trusting him enough without a position like this.
2) There is already a likely League plant inside LexCorp: Dr. Moon (his true stats are still classified, and in the comics at least he had connections with the League of Assassins). It would have been a priceless moment for Lex to come and send the Demon's agent back home to "work for LexCorp". When countries do that with "diplomats" IRL tensions get high.
Just imagine, instead of Ra's either cackling at getting Mercy as a hostage, or being annoyed at the disrespect of having some random soldier LexCorp picked up like yesterday, he'd just see Lex smilingly saying that his ambassador to the League is Dr. Moon. "Damnation... How much does he know!?"
I wouldn't call Dr. Moon a plant when he spends 90% of his time in his
Totally not Evil Artic Base™
Kir the Wizard
The Sun King
- Location
- Ukraine
He still has access to information, communication and intel on LexCorp's various research projects, human experimentation, plus a number of other things to hide. He's not Mercy-level knowledgeable, obv., but there are different purposes for different agents.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I do want to point out that the base DC pointedly is for launching an attack and doesn't account for hero unit resistance. The fight wouldn't be nearly as one sided as it appears especially considering Ra's likely has contingencies, people working out of other locations and Lazarus pits to revive anyone that's really important. Even if you could literally raze Nanda Parbat to the ground and kill every last person there, you'd still potentially need to deal with a long protracted drawn out war because Ra's al Ghul is one of the few opponents who can come back after being killed.
The biggest problem with fighting the League of Shadows is that it's inordinately difficult to stop them for good because they're not locked to a set location and if you don't get everything all at once they can bring back enemies you've already defeated.
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Lord Ultimus
Beautiful...
- Location
- Undisclosed Warehouse
Yep, we're going with Wells.
- Location
- Existence
@King crimson it's been a bit since it's been brought up and honestly I don't think the exact specifications of the Bone Growth have been explained.
So I'm wondering, where is the Bone Growth Formula at right now in terms of being a "Super Soldier Serum"?. How much does it enhance the user and long term affects based on our current progress with it?
So I'm wondering, where is the Bone Growth Formula at right now in terms of being a "Super Soldier Serum"?. How much does it enhance the user and long term affects based on our current progress with it?
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I see this question and I will get to it in time. I do request that you be a bit patient as I want to finish what I was working on yesterday and this question is one that requires a decent amount of fact checking on my part if it is what I think it is. I will get around to answering this I'm just delaying for a bit. Thank you for your patience and understanding and sorry that I'm holding off on answering this for a bit (I should answer this by the end of the day).
- Location
- Existence
That's alright take your time with it. It is in some ways an important question since it's a project in the quest that doesn't have a set "Numbers till completion" so knowing where it is at would be good to know.
(Non-Canon) Tales of the Luthor Sisters: Three Vacations
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So uh this ballooned massively out of control. Like this was initially supposed to be a single story broken up into three parts and instead got turned into an anthology of stories from three different perspectives all loosely set in the same alternate timeline. I had a lot of fun writing this and I enjoyed coming up with this alternate timeline. The three stories aren't in any set chronological order and you can take them as occurring in any order you want. Stories set in this timeline/elseworld were meant to be a possible reward for the creative writing contest but I liked this enough to want to try and write a bit of myself. Hopefully it encourages people to try their own hand at tales of what could have been.
For people curious what the point of divergence is in this hypothetical timeline the main difference is that the Falcones get surprisingly lucky when they attempt to kill Jim Gordon and they succeed in wiping out the entire Gordon family save for Barbara at around the time when Lex first comes to Gotham to celebrate Bruce Wayne's return. Seeing a chance for PR in-universe (and out-of-universe the thread decides to grab Barbara cause they know her capabilities) Lex adopts Barbara Gordon as Barbara Luthor and then begins teaching her to be his heir. Things happen broadly the same and the thread finds and adopts Cassandra in broadly the same way as happened in quest. With 2/3rds of the Batgirl's already in their position as Luthors the thread then decides to go wild to complete the set and ends up acquiring Stephanie as the youngest Luthor daughter. If people want to explore this timeline/elseworld I encourage you to do so as I think it's a lot of fun and I very much enjoy the sisters' characters. There were a lot of ideas I couldn't work into here in time and a lot of relationship dynamics I thought would be fun to explore that don't get explored.
I tried to pointedly make it so that none of the Luthor sisters are particularly good people. They all picked up issues from Lex's parenting and they all have aspects of Lex Luthor in themselves (Stephanie picked up his manipulative behaviors and fondness for social engineering and schemes, Cassandra picked up a generalized misanthropy and distrust of others while Barbara picked up an unhealthy need to live up to some sort of superiority complex and to be untouchably better than others. All three of them picked up arrogance, megalomania and self-aggrandizement as well from Lex). They're great characters and a ton of fun but I wanted to intersperse the more slice of life style stories here with constant hints that this is technically a dark timeline if you look at it from a traditional DC comics universe lens. That being said it was a lot of fun trying to give them their own unique voice (I'm particularly proud of making sure that Cassandra in this omake doesn't read exactly like Cassandra in the main quest even if they are very similar).
I hope you all enjoy this fun omake I wrote. I didn't intend for it to get to 12K words but here is is regardless.
Tales of the Luthor Sisters: Three Vacations
Stephanie Luthor (At the Water Park)
Stephanie didn't always get her sisters all that well. Maybe it was because she was the baby of the bunch but for some reason or another she didn't feel the constant pressing need to be serious all the time like her sisters did. She got that they weren't exactly normal, Luthors were superior to the average person and Father wouldn't let any of his children be mediocre, but she didn't really get this need to be serious and adult-like all the time. It just seemed like such a pain to try and work against your age all the time especially when it wasn't something that would be coming back again.
And besides being a child was awesome. Stephanie wouldn't give up her waffles and light-up sneakers and ability to hug people whenever you felt like it. All of that stuff was awesome and amazing and fun and growing up meant you had to either give it up or get really good at hiding it so that it couldn't be used against you as a weakness. Yeah Cass and Barb were both teens so they probably couldn't get away with as much as Steph could but giving up everything just to be taken seriously just seemed boring and unfun. So Steph made it her mission to make sure her sisters didn't forget that they weren't adults so they could have some fun.
Today Stephanie was going to try to convince them to go to either go to a water park. Cass and Barb probably wouldn't agree to go to a waterpark if it was open to the public, they were all weirdly serious about reputation like that which was dumb, but that was a problem that money could solve. And because of how great Father was Stephanie and her sisters could easily buy out a waterpark for a day and it wouldn't even put a dent in their finances. Seriously they were rich enough that Stephanie could have her own pony and even Stephanie could tell that a pony like Cephy, short for Bucephalus, was way too expensive for non-rich people which was their loss. Operation Water-Park-A-Palooza was in effect and the material costs were negligible. The plan would succeed.
Of course before Stephanie could begin her operation she had to get ready for the day. Stephanie got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth, Stephanie made sure to to put on her make-up. Looking good was important when you were important and so Stephanie knew that it was a matter of course that she always had to look her best. She finished applying her cosmetics and put up her hair in a ponytail, since ponytails were both good looking and practical, and began to get ready for the day. She changed out of her silk pajamas and got to work selecting an outfit that was suitable for the day. She promptly selected a purple collared short-sleeved blouse and a cute black pleated skirt. Some pretty cuff bracelets, a nice necklace and of course some fun light-up sneakers completed the look. Once all of that was done Stephanie went over her room to make sure that nothing was too out of place, and on deeming it good enough she decided to head out to breakfast.
The distinctive clicking of heels told Stephanie that her oldest sister was up and about already and that meant that Cass was also likely up. It meant that they likely wouldn't have to wait long before breakfast started. Stephanie promptly spotted her biggest sister and ran up to give her a hug.
"Good morning, big sis!" Stephanie cheerfully exclaimed. She knew that her big sister would never stoop to running up and hugging someone, even in the privacy of their own home, but she liked it anyways. And besides this way Barbara got to pretend to be an elegant grown-up while Stephanie still got all the hugs she wanted. It was win-win and Barb wasn't going to complain about it anyways.
"Morning Steph" Barbara replied, amusement dripping from her voice as she embraced her little sister. Stephanie enjoyed the hug as it was proof that her sister loved her and Stephanie knew that nothing was more important than family.
Barbara had dressed professionally as she always did. A black blazer paired with a clean white lapel necked blouse and a pencil skirt emphasized her big sister's striking figure. A gold necklace and little L-shaped earrings made it clear that Barbara was the LexCorp heiress and were elegantly framed by her vibrant red hair while her glasses only made her bright green eyes look more enticing. Sometimes Stephanie felt a little jealous of how her sister looked. They were all adopted and Stephanie knew that they were all really pretty, they were Luthors after all, but Barbara was the only one of the sisters to share a hair and eye color with Father. Of course all that jealousy was promptly buried due to how amazing her big sister was and the knowledge that they were family no matter what. Plus her oldest sister might be effortlessly elegant and glamorous as well as a super-mega-genius but she was so concerned with being the Luthor heiress that she often forgot about having fun. She wouldn't even eat ice cream because of some dumb grown-up concern.
"You seem awfully excited today" Stephanie's big sister lightly teased, smiling all the while "Should I be worried about some grand scheme coming from you today?"
Stephanie felt reassured in the correctness of what she was doing. Her sisters needed to learn how to have fun. She was sure Father would agree with her.
"I do have plans" Stephanie easily admitted "But you don't need to worry about them because I'm going to run them by Father first"
"Good" Barbara chuckled "I'd hate to have to deal with another harebrained scheme like that time you came up with a whole scheme to humiliate Dick Grayson for refusing to dance with me"
Stephanie felt indignant about that comment.
"Those plans were not stupid, if Dick Grayson is dumb enough to publicly snub you then he deserved to be humiliated" Stephanie pouted "And besides Cass agreed with me that he deserved it".
"Heard my name" Stephanie's other sister said curtly but not rudely "What am I being accused of?"
"The fact that you encouraged our dear baby sister to try and disproportionately humiliate a boy just because he refused to dance with me" The eldest Luthor sister replied.
"Ah" Cassandra replied unashamedly "Steph you did good. Grayson deserved it for snubbing our sister"
Stephanie beamed at the praise her sister gave her. She promptly went over to hug her instead while Barbara muttered something fondly about Cass being incorrigible.
Cassandra had also dressed to impress with formal pants, a pitch black long sleeved suit with rolled up cuffs and a white and black pinstriped collared shirt with an acid green tie that matched with the lenses of her designer sunglasses. Her shoes were stiff and formal and Cass didn't bother wearing any jewelry or accessories at all. She still wore makeup and her short raven black hair was clearly styled but Stephanie's second oldest sister clearly preferred function over form when it came to clothing. Stephanie still thought she was amazingly pretty anyway even if her style was so boring and serious at times.
"As much as I'd love to keep chatting about why you were wrong to get involved with any potential romantic endeavors I pursue" Barbara began before Stephanie cheerfully interrupted her.
"I'm not sorry!" Stephanie interjected.
"Be that as it may we still ought to get to breakfast" Barbara continued on regardless "Father would be less than pleased if we were late"
That promptly shut down the conversation and easily convinced them they ought to table the discussion for now. Stephanie knew that Father knew best and as such he had both rules and guidelines for them to follow. Whilst being late to mealtimes wasn't breaking a rule, and thus they could do it, being punctual and efficient with their time was a guideline of his and part of being a good girl and a good Luthor was following Father's guidelines. Stephanie and her sisters naturally made sure that they followed all of his rules and guidelines so that they could be the perfect Luthor heiresses. For all that Stephanie thought that her older sisters took things to seriously she still understood the importance of living up to Father's expectations.
The three sisters promptly made their way to the dining room in which the Luthor family regularly ate together where Father promptly joined them. After saying good morning to one another the food was delivered in for each of them, fresh bratwurst and scrambled quail eggs for Cassandra, a freshly prepared gourmet salad and ceviche for Barbara, muesli for Father and a big stack of gourmet waffles with all the syrup and a fruit salad for Stephanie. There was freshly squeezed orange juice, fresh spring water, boring milk and chocolate milk. Auntie Mercy wasn't eating with them today since she had to supervise something important early in the day so there wasn't any coffee on the table today. The food was promptly checked for poison, which was important because no self-respecting Luthor could let themselves get assassinated that way, and so they could promptly dig in.
They ate properly and demurely because manners were important and it made the good tasting food last longer than just nomming it up outright and Father began to ask them about their plans for the near future.
"I should be able to get my third degree soon Father" Barbara confidently informed Father. "I'm aware that it's virtually unprecedented and that I could easily receive a vast number of honorary degrees but I believe that earning these degrees will look more impressive and the fact that I could do so while running Delphi at the same time will only further demonstrate my capabilities"
Stephanie didn't get why Barbara felt the need to get as many degrees as Father had as quickly as he had while running her own company at the same time. Then again Stephanie wasn't nearly as smart as her oldest sister so what did she know.
"That's wonderful to hear dear" Father replied causing Barbara to preen under his praise "I expect great things from you and Delphi has already contributed wonderfully to improving our L-Phone designs so I'm certain you'll rise to this challenge as well"
Stephanie was certain of that as well but that was because she never doubted her brilliant big sister for even a moment. They were Luthors and that meant that they were better than everyone else.
"I'll be overseeing the integration of the new exo-suits" Cassandra eagerly informed Father "Depending on how things go I'll be meeting with Eiling to discuss contracts"
"Excellent work Cassandra" Father praised "I'm proud to see you excelling in this business"
"Thank you Father, I'll ensure your pride isn't misplaced" Cassandra happily stated "I won't slack off on my studies either"
Father nodded in approval of Cassandra's determination before turning to address Stephanie.
"And what are your plans for today Stephanie?" Father asked kindly. This was Stephanie's moment to begin Operation Water-Park-A-Palooza.
"I do have a request for you, Father before I can definitively state what my plans are for today" Stephanie smoothly answered not giving away any nervousness or tension just as one of Father's daughters ought to act "But regardless of the outcome of my request I'll most likely be focusing on my studies and perhaps practicing the piano if I've got spare time"
That much was true. Stephanie didn't like most of her studies but they were important and she wouldn't slack off on them no matter what happened. Plus unlike her sisters she's the only one who kept up playing the piano. Hopefully by reminding Father of what a dutiful daughter she was he'd have no issues granting her request.
"I'd like to hear of this request" Father commanded not unkindly and so Stephanie prepared her pitch.
"As you know me and my sisters have been excelling in our chosen fields. I would like to go to a waterpark to have a day of fun with just the family as a way to relax and celebrate our success" Stephanie began "I understand though that keeping a waterpark secure is a logistical nightmare so I would like to request the money to buy control of a waterpark for one day"
"How long would you want to spend at this waterpark?" Father questioned, beginning probing for what exactly Stephanie was asking for. Stephanie wasn't worried though, she was good at negotiation.
"The whole day if possible. Naturally I understand that your commitment to LexCorp might prevent you from spending the day with us but I would appreciate the ability to spend as much time as possible with you Father even if it's not always feasible" Stephanie calmly replied without hesitation "Regardless me and my sisters ought to be able to spend a solid ten to twelve hours at the waterpark. Whilst we are Luthors and naturally excel at what we do, the fact remains that we ought to be able to enjoy ourselves as children while we still can."
Father appeared to deliberate over the idea before he came to a conclusion.
"Depending on how you do on your studies today I'll allow this excursion" Father answered "though I will have Dr. Isley and Ms. Kane supervising"
Stephanie was satisfied with this. Notably Father hadn't noticed that neither of Stephanie's sisters had been aware of this plan. He could figure it out if he wanted to put in the effort but he wouldn't bother. With him defaulting to assuming that Cassandra and Barbara had already agreed to Stephanie's plan her big sisters would be roped into things before they could deny the excursion due to wanting to be serious all the time.
"Thank you Father!" Stephanie beamed. Breakfast finished up and Stephanie and her family began to head out to their different destinations for the day. Stephanie was satisfied with her plan having come together. It wasn't a complicated on but that didn't make it any less of a success.
Steph was going to put 110% into her work for the day so that she could get her sisters to have fun at the waterpark with her. She had to deal with a whole bunch of stuffy old people teaching her stuff but even if Stephanie was dumb for a Luthor she was still smart enough to pick up what she was being taught. Latin and Algebra and World History and Basic Organic Chemistry were all boring to her not difficult. She was already well past the material any normal child her age would be at and she was already hexalingual, knowing English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Elvish so she could easily handle a little more if she just got her brain-meats to cooperate and focus. Naturally Stephanie succeeded in her endeavor.
Stephanie however wasn't done for the day. She decided to pop into the gym when she knew her big sister Cass would be using it so that she could smooth over any ruffled feathers with her. Stephanie didn't really like exercise, not like Cass did, but she could do it and she was in shape and semi-combat ready. Plus it would let her bond with her sister.
She walked into the gym reserved for the Luthor family alone where she spotted Cassandra doing those really impressive seeming clap pushups. Cass's friend Jinx was standing nearby doing some weird ballet leg over the head flexibility stretches. On spotting Stephanie enter Jinx promptly gave a little wave.
"Hi Jinx!" Stephanie cheerfully enthused, announcing her presence to her sister as well "I like the choker is that new?"
Hopefully she'd get Jinx somewhat on side ahead of time in order to hopefully keep Cass as unannoyed as possible.
"It's not new but I'm glad you like it squirt" Jinx calmly responded "Your sister isn't too happy with you right now so you might want to skedaddle for a bit"
"Why is she unhappy with me?" Stephanie asked, despite knowing the answer full well. Hopefully she could prompt Cass into talking with her and from there reparations would be managed.
"Maybe it's because my time is valuable and you managed to rope me into a trip to a waterpark when I could be doing something more important?" Stephanie's older sister replied bluntly "I don't like wasting my time"
"Well then I suppose the good news is that it's not a waste of time" Stephanie passionately replied "We're family and the time we spend together is important. I'm here because I want to spend time with you and have fun"
Cassandra stopped doing push ups and jumped to her feet.
"So I'm supposed to go along with your dumb schemes just because it'll mean we spend time together and have fun?" Cassandra questioned heatedly.
"No you're supposed to accept that I'm doing that partly for me and in exchange I'll go and do all the exercise stuff you enjoy doing with you today even though I don't like it" Stephanie replied back unphased.
"You do realize I'm going to run you through the wringer?" Cass fired back "Is this supposed to be some kind of deal where we both do something we don't want to in exchange for getting something we want?"
"Family is compromise and I'm more than happy to do something you like but I don't if it means you'll go to the waterpark with me tomorrow and you won't hate me for wanting to have a fun day with my sister" Stephanie answered "You can ask Jinx but there are worse things to do then having fun for a day and not working"
"The little squirt's right Cass" Jinx evenly interjected "Plus I can handle some of the stuff on our end without you for a day. Go and relax for a bit"
Cassandra seemed to accede to this.
"Fine" she stated grumpily, but not so grumpily that she hadn't already resigned herself to going along with Stephanie's plan. "You can leave now Jinx, you've got the next hour off. I've got a new exercise partner"
Jinx let out a lazy salute as a cat-like grin grew upon her face.
"You got it boss" the teenage witch jovially stated and promptly left, leaving Stephanie to Cass's tender mercies.
After a brutal opening of push-ups, sit-ups and sprints, Cass decided to put Stephanie through the wringer with gymnastics exercises. So many backflips and handsprings and twists and rolls and Cass always wanted it done faster and more cleanly and with better form. Stephanie's big sister naturally preformed all the exercises first before Stephanie did but she was way better than Stephanie was ever going to be at this kind of stuff. Then deciding that Stephanie hadn't suffered enough Cass decided to break out the pommel horse which sucked, unlike a real horse and which Stephanie considered to be some kind of torture device made for sick and twisted individuals. She still completed all of the exercises because that was what Cass wanted and it would get her to agree to go to the waterpark. Her entire body felt horrendously sore afterwards but it was worth it because now Cass was no longer mad at her.
Stephanie returned to more lessons throughout the day and she managed to remain focused throughout it all. She grabbed lunch and chatted with a few people before going to practice playing piano. Snowy popped into the room and Steph got a bit distracted playing with him, which totally wasn't a mark against her. She then decided to grab dinner with Barbara today. On the weekends the whole family would eat dinner today but because people were working they'd likely be eating separately. Since starting up Delphi, Barbara had taken to eating more dinner's by herself in her office on the weekdays so Stephanie was going to check in with her to see how she was feeling and settle any ruffled feathers.
Barbara's AI, Oracle, greeted Stephanie and let her in once she realized that Stephanie was bringing dinner to her big sister.
"Hi big sis!" Stephanie cheerfully shouted as she spotted her sister jotting down information on some kind of worksheet "I brought you filet mignon, roasted asparagus and rabbit food for dinner so I hope you don't mind if I eat with you today."
Barbara didn't bother to look up from her work but she still replied immediately.
"Thank you Stephanie you can put it on my desk. Feel free to grab a chair and join me" She said. Stephanie promptly complied with the order and did as Barbara asked. Her oldest sister slowly finished her last problem and then began to dig into her food.
"You know you shouldn't knock salad" Barbara stated "It tastes good and it's nutritious which is part of a balanced lifestyle"
"You can enjoy your rabbit food I'm going to enjoy my delicious macaroni and cheese" Stephanie smugly responded "It's part of my happy lifestyle"
Barbara chuckled a bit as she continued to eat.
"I'm not mad at you" Barbara suddenly commented. The proclamation caught Stephanie a bit off guard.
"Good because you have nothing to be mad about" Stephanie asserted "I only have everyone's best interests in mind with my schemes and the sooner you all accept that the sooner we'll all be living in a better world"
"I'm still annoyed that you sprung this on me without any warning" Barbara rejoined "And your schemes aren't exactly prone to working out without things backfiring or an excess of collateral damage but I get where you're coming from and I'm actually fine with this one, just next time tell me in advance"
Well Stephanie hadn't expected that response but she wasn't going to check a horse given as a present for tonsillitis. That would just be gross and there was no point to endlessly questioning family. Outsider's absolutely but family could be trusted.
"Alright I'll let you know in advance next time" Stephanie conceded. She and her big sister continued to eat dinner for a bit enjoying each others company.
Stephanie eventually left to go and continue her tutoring which she completed to the best of her abilities. At 7:30 PM sharp Stephanie headed back up to the Luthor family residential floor.
"You did well today Stephanie" Father informed her "You have earned your trip to the waterpark. I won't be able to attend for long but you and your sister's can have the day off"
Stephanie profusely thanked her father and raced off to bed. She prepared to go to sleep because tomorrow was going to be a big day of fun and excitement and Stephanie was excited that everything had come together. It was going to be great!
The next day came and Stephanie woke up extra early to make sure that she would be on time for the trip to the waterpark. Father had paid off one of the most positively reviewed waterparks in the country to let his employees run it for a day and to keep it privately reserved for Stephanie and her sister's use. Stephanie was practically vibrating with excitement as she picked out a swimsuit to wear for the day.
Stephanie arrived promptly and immediately to breakfast grinning from ear to ear. Her sisters arrived a little later than her and then they all had breakfast before they headed off to the waterpark. Father informed them that he'd arrive at the tail end of the day but that otherwise they'd be on their own for the most part. Stephanie profusely thanked him for this opportunity and eventually they headed down to get ready to go.
Barbara made sure to double check that they'd all brought enough sunscreen and towels and that they were aware of the security arrangements Father had set up and Stephanie just wanted to go, go, go. Others could take care of that, that's why Pamela and Katherine were supervising. Barbara using the vacation as an excuse to be boring and responsible was annoying but Stephanie let it slide for now. They were going to a waterpark!
The three sisters all piled into Barbara's armored luxury car. Stephanie knew that the car was super mega-advanced although it wasn't the coolest car possible because it didn't have a tv and video games for people in the back to play. Plus she didn't actually know what the car could do since she wasn't allowed to sit up front or press any of the buttons there. Barbara sat in the front of the car in the drivers seat while Cassandra joined Stephanie in the back even though Cass could sit in the front sometimes.
"Someone's got to keep an eye on the munchkin to make sure she doesn't get bored" Cassandra had joked when Barbara had asked her about the seating arrangement. Stephanie resented that she was not part of any lollipop guild and was as firmly anti-union as the rest of her family. After all if there were no guilds and unions then Stephanie could buy all of the lollipops for herself. Still she didn't let this get to her too much.
Stephanie promptly began babbling about all of the things she wanted to do at the waterpark. Barbara began to drive there as her car was flanked and surrounded by a veritable fleet of cars in their protection detail. They eventually made their way over to the waterpark were they'd been given free parking and they promptly met up with the pretty redheads that were nominally but not really their chaperones.
Pamela and Katherine were loyal and they'd follow Lex's orders but they also knew that Barbara was responsible and believed in her and they were clearly distracted by each other every so often. Stephanie didn't mind it at all. So long as she and her sisters got to have fun then that was all that mattered.
The three of them promptly changed out of the clothes they had worn over their swimsuits and Stephanie got to laugh about Cassie's dumb water-shoes. Of course this in turn resulted in Cassandra eventually pushing Stephanie into a pool and then leaping in after her. Barbara eventually joined them and got dragged into the three way splash fight. They all had a blast and then Stephanie promptly declared that they had to go on all of the waterslides together and that anyone who didn't was clearly a big chicken. Her sisters indulged her and they all had fun together.
There was so much to do and Stephanie was just happy she and her sisters could be kids for a bit and have fun. They had a delicious lunch and Father joined them briefly for dinner and all in all the plan had been a success. As the three of them toweled off Barbara and Cassandra had even admitted that Stephanie's plan was brilliant and a lot of fun.
That was all the encouragement Stephanie needed to begin planning the next scheme to let her sisters stop thinking about being heiresses all the time and instead just be kids for a bit.
Cassandra Luthor (Natural History Museum)
Cassandra Luthor thought of herself as a simple girl all things considered. She was infinitely more straightforward than either her younger or her older sister and she didn't even compare to her Father. She was brutally straightforward and pursued things with that in mind. She could lie and manipulate with the best of them, she was a Luthor after all, but she was far inferior to the rest of her family and she could never fool or manipulate them.
Of course that didn't make her any less dangerous than the rest of them, save perhaps Father. Barbara was the beautiful shining peerless face for LexCorp and the brilliant mind that would drive their progress ever onwards in the future. Stephanie was the charismatic clever and canny schemer who made friends out of anyone and would serve LexCorp by turning people to serve it. Cassandra in turn was the unflinching vicious iron fist. She was the jackboot to be brought down upon all of their enemies. Everyone who dared to threaten here wonderful perfect family would face destruction at her hands.
Naturally such a role meant that Cassandra would always be the least visible sibling to the public. Cassandra didn't mind. She adored her siblings as the absolute treasures they were and they in turn loved her. There was no one more important in any of the Luthor sister's lives than their sisters and if the price Cassandra paid for ensuring her sister's were safe was that she got a little less limelight than the rest of them, then Cassandra didn't really mind. Cassandra was content remaining in Barbara and Stephanie's shadows.
Of course that didn't mean that Cassandra had no desires of her own. Sometimes she wanted to do things herself. So when Father donated a vast sum of money to the Metropolis Museum of Natural History Cassandra had dragged her sister's to the event and even taken a bit of the spotlight herself.
Cassandra loved animals. They were better than people in a lot of ways. Not her sisters who she wouldn't trade for the world or her Father who was unmatched in his brilliance but most of the average common boring people could be replaced with animals and the world would be better off for it. Some people like Jinx were tolerable and Cassandra could even appreciate them but she preferred dealing with animals like Snowy and Janus over people most of the time. She could lead and command, as a proper Luthor should but that didn't make her like people any more.
Cassandra took care of all the animals at LexCorp. Janus, Snowy, the sharks in Barbara's shark tank, Bucephalus, some of the lab rabbits and occasionally Apophis, the albino reticulated python Jinx kept as a pet and familiar. Cassandra wasn't responsible for the LexCorp menagerie but she gladly took care of them and worked with the animals when she had the time to spare. So the event at the Metropolis Museum of Natural History was rather unexpected.
The day began like any other. Cassandra got up at the break of dawn and practiced a few forms of tai chi alone in her room. She then inspected the weapons in her room, made sure they were still in proper condition and then promptly returned them to their display stands. She'd then go to the bathroom and get ready for the rest of the day. She'd change out of her silk pajamas into more appropriate clothes, check her phone for any important news or instructions and then head down to breakfast with her Father and sisters.
Today Cassandra decided to wear comfortable laceless slippers that she could freely kick and run in, well tailored black pants and an emerald green short-sleeved button up shirt with a purple bowtie. She then paired the whole ensemble with a double breasted militaresque black coat in which she could hide plenty of knives for the worst case scenario and Cassandra had a fashionable look that was also functional enough for her tastes. She might not be the Luthor most in the spotlight but that didn't mean she didn't have to look good as a matter of principle. Cassandra put on her makeup and then headed out to breakfast.
She was enthusiastically greeted by her adorable little sister Stephanie, who promptly ran up and hugged her while wishing her a good morning. Stephanie had decided to wear her bright blonde hair in a French braid today which likely meant that Barbara had helped her get ready. Her younger sister was wearing a purple and gold sweater dress of some kind and was wearing her stupid and childish light-up shoes, this time a purple and white monstrosity who set off a strobe of flashing lights every time she took a step.
Cassandra enjoyed talking to Stephanie for a bit before Barbara joined them in the hallway. Cassandra held the deepest admiration and respect for her older sister. The only person she thought even could be better than Barbara was Father and he was better than everyone else in the whole universe. Barbara was a shining star utterly unmatched in everything she did. She was brilliant and beautiful and witty and she deserved the world. Cassandra knew she wasn't nearly as smart as her older sister and so she'd moved into the role of becoming Barbara's right hand, the brawn to her brains so to speak. Stephanie would one day fill out the trio as the beauty but much like how Cassandra was far smarter than the average person and far better appearing than the majority of them so to was Barbara far above the average in appearance and that beauty belied the fact that she could be just as deadly in a fight.
Cassandra had trained with her older sister and though she knew she was better in combat, it didn't make Barbara any less impressive. Her older sister was a champion fencer and markswoman, an excellent acrobat and fairly well versed in Systema and Krav Maga. Her ridiculous clinging to always wearing heels likely meant she wouldn't ever be fighting at maximum capacity but Barbara could move and fight far better than the average man on the street. It was nothing to what Cassandra was capable of but then no one was as good as Cassandra at fighting.
Barbara wore a stylish white coat with black faux fur over a sleek black dress with black leggings and long white heeled boots. She wasn't wearing her earrings but instead she wore a necklace with the LexCorp logo dangling from it.
The three sisters promptly headed to breakfast where Stephanie once again ate what was essentially sacrilege against a balanced diet while every one else ate sensibly. Dinner tonight was almost certainly going to involve some kind of bisque or chowder as Father was in the mood for it and so Cassandra pointedly made sure not to eat any fish for breakfast.
It was during the breakfast conversation that Father brought up that he'd made a sizeable donation to the Metropolis Museum of Natural History and informed them that he'd been invited to attend the museum's new unveiling of its exhibits. Father informed them that he would be unable to make it and so Cassandra opened her mouth to make a suggestion.
"I understand why you cannot show up" Cassandra nervously began "But there's nothing stopping us from attending this event in your stead. Barbara and Stephanie can handle the crowds and the publicity while I ensure things go smoothly and that nothing catches them off guard"
"Lois Lane will likely be in attendance" Father warned "She has standards so she won't try to smear your name directly but she'll be more than happy to try and weasel information out of you on what my donation was really for"
"Well that's solved easily enough" Barbara openly chimed in causing Cassandra to grow ever so slightly alarmed even though she did her best to suppress any signs of it showing. "Cassandra has an interest in zoology and animals. Naturally the reason why you donated as well as the reason why we are in attendance is because of Cassandra"
Cassandra didn't like that story but it worked and she did want to go to the museum if only so that she could do her duty and learn about animals at the same time. Father and Barbara hashed out the details whilst Stephanie blissfully at her waffles, utterly uncaring over the details as they were already handled. Cassandra paid attention but she also didn't concern herself too much with it either.
And so eventually the plan was set in stone and arranged. Cassandra and her sisters arrived at the museum flanked by bodyguards. Mercy was able to find the time to personally come and serve as the girls escort and so Cassandra felt a lot more reassured by things. It was only once they got to the event that Cassandra started to feel uneasy.
She didn't feel unsafe, she was to certain of her abilities and her sisters abilities for that to be the case. Barbara was constantly talking and getting the movers and shakers to be wrapped around her finger while Stephanie mingled with people seemingly at random but showed a friendly pleasant face for LexCorp while drawing attention away from Barbara. Last Cassandra heard Stephanie was rambling to someone about whether or not rhinos counted as unicorns. Cassandra meanwhile hung back and took in the exhibits, avoiding conversation when she could and replying straightforwardly and dryly when she couldn't. Stephanie and Barbara could handle the limelight.
Time passed and eventually Cassandra found Barbara introducing her to a somewhat familiar woman in a purple suit accompanied by a bookish looking unkempt man in a blue suit. It was time for Cassandra to play her part.
"Miss Lane" Cassandra's older sister dryly stated "Since you don't seem to believe me when I tell you that my father has no real interest in this museum besides indulging one of my younger sister's hobbies I hope speaking to her will at least convince you that not every other word out of my mouth is a lie"
Lois Lane's body language read fairly easily to Cassandra. The woman was determined and suspicious and she was convinced that Father was planning something with the investment. He was but Lois had no clue and as such she was trying to fish information out of Barbara. Lois didn't trust Barbara as far as she could throw her but she wasn't going to give up without even trying.
No the oddity in the room was the man standing next to her. The man in the blue suit read absolutely bizarrely to Cassandra. He was constantly holding something back, hyper alert of everything around him to a degree no normal person should be although it seemed coincidental and his body language was controlled and deliberately feigned as weaker and uncontrolled at the same time. Everything she got from him was muddled and garbled and absolutely odd. Cassandra's body-reading wasn't perfect, sufficient control over body language could fool it but the man in the blue suit seemed to be unconsciously scrambling things in a way she had never seen before.
"I don't believe every other word out of your mouth is a lie only your claims of the perfect benevolence of one of the largest parts of the military-industrial complex that you're predisposed to lie to defend" Lois Lane shot back at Barbara causing Barbara to smile viciously and vindictively.
"Let's not be rude now" Barbara said tauntingly "Cassandra dear why don't you introduce yourself to this lovely harridan"
Cassandra stepped forward into Lois' immediate vicinity. It would be so easy to end her with a single strike now. Cassandra wouldn't act on it now as it would validate the other woman but there was a sort of satisfaction in knowing you could kill the person who you would be verbally sparring with.
"Hello" Cassandra began "My name is Cassandra Luthor. I know we haven't met before but I've heard plenty about you Miss Lane"
Cassandra proffered her hand for a handshake which Lois gingerly accepted, uneasy around getting what she still viewed as an innocent child involved in things.
"Don't believe everything you hear kid, you'll find that people like to bury the ugly truth with pretty lies often enough" Lois fired back, clearly trying to snipe at Barbara who was watching her cautiously.
"I'll keep that in mind, though I suppose I also ought to not believe everything I read in the paper either as sometimes people with agendas twist facts to suit their narrative" Cassandra responded causing Lois' eyes to narrow while Barbara chuckled at Cassandra's response "Who's your friend?"
"Clark Kent, another writer for the Daily Planet and the occasional partner of Lois Lane" The man in the blue suit said as he too shook Cassandra's hand. He seemed oddly confident for a man whose body language ready to show that he was unconfident.
"Pleasure to meet you" Cassandra said "Why all the suspicion over my father's donation?"
"Because billionaires don't do things out of the goodness of their heart" Lois answered "and when your father donates enough money to a museum he's never shown any interest in before that they can build a whole new wing well it tends to make people suspicious"
Well Lois' hunch wasn't wrong but she had no proof and so it was up to Cassandra to throw her off the scent.
"He didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart" Cassandra falsely admitted surprising both Barbara and Lois with her admission "He did it because I asked him to as a bribe for better performance in my studies"
Lois had disbelief all over her body language but she still intended to push this angle. Clark Kent was still unreadable to her and it frustrated Cassandra oh so very much.
"You're telling me he did this as a reward for you getting a good report card?" Lois inquired somewhat brazenly.
"He wanted results so he bribed me. I like animals so getting to go to the natural history museum to learn about them was a sufficient reward" Cassandra replied "I'm sorry if my standards for bribery are too high for you to comprehend"
Barbara appeared to have relaxed at this and so as Cassandra continued to wander through the museum she left her with Lois and Clark. The two of them did their best to try and get something out of her but she was content to answer as laconically and frustratingly as possible. Amusingly at one point she heard Lois whisper to Clark that she thought Cassandra had a crush on him because of how she kept staring at him. Lois was dead wrong but it was funny to see what people who thought they were smarter than they actually were could convince themselves to think was true.
As the event wound down though Cassandra was confronted with a dilemma. Before her in the museum stood a beautiful complete skeleton of Panthera Zdanskyi. Cassandra knew that she wanted it. As such she called over the museum director and began haggling in full view of Lois and Clark. She eventually managed to talk the director into letting her have it for practically nothing thanks to her father's generous donations to the museum. Lois was in stunned disbelief from Cassandra's stunt.
"You're telling me this entire donation that Lex Luthor got involved in was just so that you could go window shopping for prehistoric skeletons?" Lois said in near disbelief
"I did tell you this event was my reward" Cassandra dryly replied.
Funnily enough Lois did buy this lie and ended up leaving. Frustrated that her night had been completely wasted. Clark followed her soon after and Cassandra didn't like that she still couldn't read him at all.
Cassandra then made her way over to where Mercy was watching over her youngest sister. She then began to inform Mercy of what had happened.
"Good news is I convinced Lois Lane that Father's donation was an elaborate scheme to let me acquire a fossil of my choice" Cassandra informed Mercy "The bad news is I have purchased a complete Panthera Zdanskyi skeleton and now need help transporting it back home."
Mercy let annoyance radiate from her body language as she moved to chastise Cassandra.
"Clearly I was watching the wrong sister tonight" Mercy sarcastically answered. Cassandra offered her an entirely insincere apology. They both knew it was insincere but Cassandra liked to think the gesture at least meant something.
With the main threat out of the way Cassandra joined back up with her sisters and proceeded to enjoy the rest of her time at the museum. It had been fun all things considered.
Cassandra was a simple person all things considered. She liked animals and enjoyed both working with and learning about them. She enjoyed removing threats to her family and would bluntly and expediently take whichever path was best for that. She wasn't nearly as good at lying and manipulating as her sisters but she could still outmatch the average person. And last but not least Cassandra didn't like people all that much. So any day in which Cassandra got to defeat an enemy, demonstrate her skills, protect her sisters, avoid people she didn't like and learn about animals was a good day in her books. The fact that she got an incredible beautiful complete fossilized skeleton of a living piece of history was merely icing on top of an already spectacular cake. Cassandra was straightforward and though her sister's would tease her for this incident for a few weeks after it had happened Cassandra wouldn't have had it any other way. It was a nice change of pace and a fun vacation where the necessary work still got done.
Barbara Luthor (Gotham Gala)
Barbara Luthor hated Gotham. She absolutely despised Gotham with every fiber of her being. It might seem odd to anyone who knew of her family history. After all before she had been adopted into the Luthor family and given purpose and meaning in life Barbara had lived in Gotham. The secret lay in the difference between Barbara and her sisters.
Unlike Cassandra and Stephanie, Barbara clearly remembered the time before she was adopted. She remembered being Barbara Gordon who'd thought that the world would work out and turn out fine so long as good men and women fought for a better tomorrow. She remembered having her whole family die at the hands of the mob.
Barbara Luthor was better than Barbara Gordon in every way that mattered. She was smarter, she was stronger and she understood the world infinitely better than she had before her rebirth. Barbara was eternally grateful to her father for seeing something of value in her and reforging her into his heir. Barbara adored and idolized Lex Luthor. He was the model of what a modern person ought to aspire to be. As his daughter Barbara could do no less than strive to match him and his achievements. She was a Luthor now and that meant being exceptional.
And so she'd left behind the stinking fetid pile of garbage calling itself a city and reinvented herself in Metropolis. She took to her lessons swimmingly and excelled in being the LexCorp Heiress. She earned degrees from prestigious universities in a variety of fields, not enough to match her new father but enough to get close. She started up and ran her own successfully company Delphi, albeit with a small loan of a few million dollars from her father, and now Oracle would be installed on every L-Phone across the country giving Barbara's AI access to unmatched information. She handled media appearances and public attention with aplomb and succeeded under the spotlight proving as a worthy heiress. Her reputation and appearance were all carefully managed and regulated so as to maximize her public adoration. She served as a paragon of LexCorp values and was an excellent role model to her adorable younger sisters in every way that mattered.
Barbara adored her new family. They were the single most precious thing she had as Barbara Luthor and nothing would ever prevent her from making them happy. However as the eldest child and the Luthor heiress set to inherit the majority of leadership in LexCorp Barbara had to be the best out of all of them. Cassie could be awkward and slightly anti-social and be more fond of animals than people because Barbara was the perfect heiress. Little Stephanie could be cheerful and perky and ever so slightly distractible because Barbara was the perfect heiress and made sure to give her the breathing room she need to be happy. Barbara would give her family the world if she could and if that meant being the flawless, unmatched, incredible heiress her father wanted and deserved then Barbara would do her best to live up to the challenge and make it look effortless all the while. Of course part of being the perfect heiress was letting nobody know just how deeply she hated Gotham.
As such when father had decided to host a charity ball for the people of Gotham following yet another unmitigated disaster in that rotting carcass of a city, Barbara naturally was forced to attend and pretend that she didn't want to burn down the whole stinking city to the ground. She was forced to attend and play nice. Her sisters wouldn't have any problems with the evenings events but Barbara would be in a foul mood and forced to hide it for the entire night. At the very least father had the decency to host in Metropolis as opposed to Gotham.
Barbara enjoyed breakfast with her family and then got to work at Delphi. Their continued work in AI integration continued to prove successful and her prototypes had passed their tests with flying colors. Model S successfully managed to emulate a kindergartener so successfully that a teacher couldn't figure out that there wasn't a real person on the over end of the screen. Pluto had proven to be capable of making correct stock market purchases inhumanly quickly and hadn't encountered too many issues. If he proved to be successful then Barbara would be able to elevate her family to even greater riches as the entire stock market effectively became theirs to control through AI proxies. And Oracle, her pride and joy, had proven to be growing ever more advanced and was capable of slaving all the devices that she was installed in if Barbara wished to make use of all of that computing power. All of that power and control was hers to make use of. As such with all of her work going swimmingly Barbara worked on engineering a program of hers off the books. The malicious self-replicating AI she'd named Conqueror Worm couldn't target LexCorp systems but anything else was fair game and the AI was essentially an ever adapting computer virus that would grind every device it was in to a halt. It wasn't something that Barbara ever felt she'd unleash but there was a sense of pride in knowing that she could send humanity back to the dark ages if she so pleased.
However the evening began to draw closer and Barbara knew that she needed to prepare for the event of the day. She left her work completed and headed off to meet her sisters to get ready. Cass was in the middle of teaching Stephanie how to swordfight as a reward for their youngest sister now being able to kill rabbits without hesitation. She'd soon be moving on to the final rite of passage when dealing with ending a human life but Barbara was confident that her youngest sister would rise to meet the task. She and Cassandra had done so which meant Stephanie could as well. She was a Luthor just like them. Still it was amusing to watch her two sisters go at it.
"My name is Indigo Monteyoma" Stephanie dramatically exclaimed as she lunged at Cassandra with her sword outstretched "You killed my father, prepare to die!"
Cass effortlessly parried the blade with her own and took a step back to accommodate her younger sisters eager advance. Barbara knew that Cassandra could have easily ended the fight there but as her youngest sister hadn't technically broken form, Cassandra likely decided to indulge her so that she could learn at her own pace.
"Not the quote Stephanie" Cassandra quietly rejoined causing Stephanie's eyes to light up.
"My name is Iroquois Montezuma" Stephanie began only to be soundly parried by Cassandra and forced to step back.
"Still not the quote" Cass dryly replied.
"My name is Indonesia Montecarlo" Stephanie attempted once more only to be immediately and brutally countered and the match brought to a close.
"You're not even trying" Cassandra stated "Also Barbara is here"
Barbara waved to her sisters in order to catch their attention.
"As much as I enjoy watching the two of you butcher movie quotes while waving around swords we have a gala to attend tonight and as the host's daughters we need to look out best" Barbara promptly informed her sisters. Stephanie groused a bit as Cassandra dutifully put away the swords and the protective gear into it's proper location.
"Do we really have to do the whole spa day thing?" Stephanie pouted to which Barbara indulgently grinned.
"I refuse to look anything but my best and as my sister and a Luthor you ought to do so as well" Barbara chided her sister "Public appearances matter"
Stephanie ended up complying and Cassandra promptly followed as well. Barbara then lead her sisters through what was essentially a spa treatment, getting their hair and nails done properly before they moved on to the clothes selection. Barbara more or less knew what sort of look their father would be going for so she tailored the rest of their outfits around that color palette. For Cassandra she picked out a custom tailored three piece suit black suit with green highlights, a LexCorp logo lapel pin, an expensive silver watch and dress shoes. Cassandra would wear a dress and heels if they had to but Barbara figured that for an event like this it would be best to have Cassandra stick to fashion she was more comfortable with and she still looked good in. Her tomboyish little sister would likely appreciate the more subdued appearance. Stephanie on the other hand got a dress with a black top and a flowing green lower part as well as light heels and a bracelet with the LexCorp logo clearly visible on it. Stephanie would complain about being forced to wear "lady stilts" but her youngest sister needed the practice and she'd look good in it regardless. For herself Barbara selected a shimmering green and black sequined dress that left her shoulders tastefully exposed as well as heels, earrings and a necklace with the LexCorp logo on it. The point was to show unity at this event.
After a lot of fussing and primping and helping her sisters make sure they looked as good as they could, Barbara deemed here sisters ready to attend and lead them to greet their father. He congratulated the three of them on their preparations and informed them of their roles and restrictions for the evening. Barbara was to play hostess and occasionally join him in high level talks regarding the future of LexCorp. She was allowed to leave his side and she could dance freely but what time she wasn't spending assisting in the expansion of LexCorp's network ought to be pushed towards furthering her own social connections and reputation. Cassandra was to hang back and mostly observe, using her body reading skills to locate and identify people of interest. She would be allowed to talk as she pleased but was encouraged to stick by either himself, one of her sisters or Mercy. Stephanie meanwhile was to primarily engage with any children attending and she was expected to dance with some people though not commit to any one person in particular. None of them were to drink and they were to work together as a unit to make sure that everything ran smoothly and effectively.
Barbara and her sisters immediately affirmed that they understood their roles and would carry them out to perfection. The Luthor sisters were practically experts at this kind of thing.
Barbara enjoyed the evening for the most part. She luxuriated in the knowledge of the importance and power of her family and the knowledge that this would only strengthen their image. While she hated Gotham with a passion this event was a chance to visibly demonstrate Metropolis' clear superiority. Her family's city was far greater than anything that pile of scum and garbage could ever be. She greeted dozens of millionaires and billionaires and officials and such all while keeping an eye on things going on with her siblings. She spotted Stephanie stringing along the little Lydecker girl and her hanger-ons which earned her approval. Cassandra and her lackey Jinx were engaging with Oswald Cobblepot over weaponry of all things, you could always trust Cass to talk about war and combat and while Barbara found Cobblepot to be an obsequious little rat, he was one of their father's more notable contacts in Gotham. Lex Luthor himself, their father, was currently engaged talking to Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle while throngs of media and hangers on surrounded them. It was then that Barbara spotted her conversational partners for the evening.
She confidently sauntered over to where she saw Dick Grayson and Holly Robinson standing and chatting, apart from the majority of the crowd.
"Interesting night isn't it?" Barbara seductively purred, making the rather bland and pointless statement seem a lot deeper and more insightful than it actually was. She doubted that either of them would see much importance in her words but it was important to always appear to be one of the smartest most knowledgeable people in the room at any given time.
Barbara actually rather liked Richard Grayson. He was handsome and witty and he wasn't constantly falling over himself to impress her. Her younger sisters had taken great offense to the fact that Richard Grayson hadn't fallen for her instantly but Barbara preferred it that way. He was from Gotham which was a major knock against him and Barbara would ultimately marry whoever her father felt would be the best match arranged for the company but for now Richard Grayson was fun to play with because he could resist her and fight back against her.
Holly Robinson was also entertaining. The girl was clearly out of her depth and disdained the wealthy but as the adopted daughter of a wealthy woman herself she couldn't quite articulate her dislike without appearing a hypocrite. It was fun to wind her up in deniable ways and play with her food. Barbara was infinitely better than her in every way that mattered and she supposed it was a bit childish to bully your lessers but Robinson was so aggressive that it felt satisfying to run circles around her socially.
"What do you want Luthor?" Holly Robinson sneered in annoyance. Barbara's smile didn't visibly grow but she felt her enjoyment grow as she was given an opening to begin playing with them for a bit.
"We're all on first name basis here, please call me Barbara. If you keep throwing around the name Luthor one of my sisters will think you're talking to her instead" Barbara slyly remarked "They're much less fond of you than I am"
"I wouldn't mind talking to them but I think they've got some kind of grudge against me" Richard said in response hoping to defuse a potential explosion from Robinson "you know why that is?"
"For all my sister's precociousness and maturity they are children at the end of the day" Barbara smoothly replied "As such they tend to take it a little personally when I get snubbed for a dance even when they really shouldn't"
Richard appeared to mull over this information for a brief moment before he came to the decision that he thought would lead to the least likely chance of a fight breaking out.
"Well then I hope they don't mind if I try to make it up to you now?" He offered even as Robinson rolled her eyes.
"Oh they'll mind" Barbara jovially stated "But at this point taking back the offer would be even worse then going through with it"
Barbara was pleased that this sort of entrapment had worked. Either way Richard tried to play it she'd come out on top and he'd look worse off. Undermining him in these little ways was incredibly petty but it was fun and it was technically forming a working contract. Richard appeared to suck it up and agree to the dance even as Robinson muttered something about not being surprised that a Luthor would go for entrapment.
The waltz with Grayson was enjoyable enough even if it was clear that he was cautious around here. That only meant he was intelligent if he recognized the fact that she was powerful and dangerous and that offending her would effectively end him. They were in her city now and while Barbara didn't exactly rule Metropolis herself, she was the daughter of the man who did.
"So what are your thoughts on Superman?" Richard asked, most likely attempting to make her uncomfortable or throw her off balance so that he could win the verbal sparring contest. "Your family always has such interesting opinions on the subject matter"
Barbara allowed herself to visibly scowl. It was important to make her distaste, distrust and dislike of Superman as visibly clear as possible. After all it wasn't enough to hate Superman but if she could signal that she hated him then those who believed in her and followed her would likely hate him by proxy.
"I despise how a moronic flying brick can be hailed as a hero while the real people who do all the work are overlooked and painted as the villain" Barbara smoothly replied "I personally think that the world would be better off without loose cannons like him running around. LexCorp has been running its own programs and sponsoring its own superheroes who can effectively replace him by being more effective and ethical than an unstoppable renegade who answers to no authority but his own"
Barbara smiled once again as she shifted her tone to be a bit more light-hearted.
"I'm sure I can pull up an article I wrote on my opinions of LexCorp's superhero initiatives if you want to go more in depth" Barbara said
"No need for any of that" Richard responded smoothly "I was just curious to see how much you believe in the LexCorp company line"
Barbara laughed at that blatant lie.
"I help to write the LexCorp company line my views won't differ from it all that much" She openly admitted the half-truth. She helped write the LexCorp company line and she generally agreed with it save at those points where it differed from her families actually held beliefs and values. It would be more accurate to say that Barbara's beliefs lined up with the Luthor family line.
"And your sisters are also just as doggedly adherent to the company line?" Richard asked rhetorically clearly not intending for Barbara to answer and yet she'd give him one anyways.
"Absolutely" Barbara answered "We disagree on a few things but family out to be able to work together and agree with one another."
"I suppose" Richard responded "I always figured that family was less blind adherence to one another and more working through each others flaws"
Barbara couldn't help but grasp the opportunity to insult him in this moment.
"I suppose that's true if your family is deeply flawed" Barbara mockingly conceded. Before Richard could get out another response Cassandra promptly interrupted the two of them.
"Grayson" Cassandra angrily hissed "You bothering my sister?"
The protective instinct was a bit stupid and unnecessary but Barbara wouldn't begrudge her adorable little sister from trying to protect her. Barbara could handle herself and was firmly in control of things now but it amused her to let Cassandra tear into Grayson for a little bit.
"No we were just having a conversation about family" Barbara openly announced to her little sister "Grayson just found it strange that we all agree with each other and can live together harmoniously without correcting what we see as wrong with each other"
"That's sad" Cassandra bluntly replied cutting off Richard before he could reply "I'm sorry that your family doesn't love and trust the people in it"
"Thank you for your condolences it means a lot from someone who clearly knows what it's like to be distrusted and unloved" Grayson fired back cheerfully as a way to dig at Cassandra. The blow didn't land but that didn't mean Cassandra wouldn't double down in response. Little Cassie was so endlessly aggressive when dealing with what she thought were enemies.
"I have my sisters and that's more than you ever will" Cassandra stated authoritatively. Stephanie suddenly scampered over and intentionally bumped into Richard, spilling a glass of water all over the front of his shirt.
"Oh I'm so sorry Dickie" Stephanie saccharinely lied "I couldn't see you there, I try to ignore people speaking blatant falsehoods and sometimes it just leads to these unfortunate accidents"
Richard Grayson grimaced over this while Barbara internally tittered over how quickly her sisters had prepared this little stunt. Clearly this was going to be the highlight of their evening. She maintained that she didn't need their help handling Grayson but she figured feeding them a win and messing with Richard was good enough entertainment for the night.
"It's understandable" Richard responded seemingly politely "I'm more than familiar with Luthor's not seeing the little people in their way. Your eldest sisters a stunning example of that kind of behavior"
Well that was rude but Richard clearly didn't see the fact that trying to bait Stephanie like he might Barbara was a mistake. Barbara was the perfect flawless heiress but her sisters could act out a lot more thanks to that.
Stephanie promptly drove her heel into Richard's foot with as much force as she could muster, causing Richard to let out a strangled yelp of pain
"Oops" Stephanie insincerely stated "I didn't see the little person who got in my way"
Barbara knew that she had to publicly disapprove of such behavior even if she didn't really mind it all that much.
"Now, now little sister you know you can't take out your anger on a guest just because he's being rude" Barbara lightly chided.
"You should have broken his legs were there were no witnesses" Cassandra only semi-jokingly responded, just enough so that she had deniability "more permanent consequences with less witnesses"
"Cass" Barbara admonished with false care "You shouldn't say something like that in public"
Barbara made it a point to very pointedly not mention that Cassandra wasn't exactly wrong. If she ever got tired of Richard Grayson and she figured she could get away with it, Barbara would have made certain their were no witnesses and that her solution was permanent and final.
"I'm sorry Richard" Barbara stated "As I said earlier my sisters can act a little childishly when you push their buttons. It might be best if you leave for now so that you don't cause them to act up any more"
"I think next time I'll take my chances not dancing with you" Richard said as he walked away but Cassandra felt the need to get the last word in.
"The problem's not your dancing" Cassandra stated "It's that every time you open your mouth you annoy and aggravate"
Richard Grayson promptly mimed zipping his lips and silently limped away. Barbara meanwhile did her best to admonish her sisters for acting out even if her heart wasn't really in it to any meaningful degree. Besides Stephanie's proclamation that she'd found an incredible new use for lady-stilts was too adorable to stay angry at especially when Barbara had deliberately pushed things along those lines somewhat.
"I'll never understand why you enjoy talking to Dickie boy" Stephanie chimed in as the admonishing wound down "He's so shifty and sneaky and disrespectful and always trying to find some angle to get at you"
"He's like Lois Lane if she were a trained martial artists" Cassandra chorused "His body language radiates that he's dangerous".
Barbara smiled as she admitted why she liked playing with Richard so much.
"It's fun talking to him because I'm untouchable to him and we both know it" Barbara openly admitted "He so desperately wants to win against me and yet I have all the cards. I can spin him in circles for days on end and no matter how things play out I always win. And it's precisely because he's intelligent and dangerous that it's so much fun to prove how much better I am than him"
"You're always better than him" Stephanie childishly rejoined "You're a Luthor. That's all the proof you need to know that you're better than he'll ever be"
It was adorable and to some extent true but Barbara was aware that she had not always been a Luthor and that instead their father had chosen to make her one. She was only a Luthor thanks to the wisdom and judgement of Lex Luthor and sometimes it was fun to prove that his faith in her hadn't been misplaced.
Barbara didn't bother sharing these thoughts with her sisters and instead just spent the rest of the evening entertaining her sisters and meeting and charming various inordinately rich worthless Gothamites who left the party practically wrapped around her finger. Barbara hated Gotham and so she'd pull everything of value from that city and reinvest it into Metropolis and LexCorp. She didn't need a fool like Richard Grayson who was so committed to that dying city that someday he'd die in it. No she had all she needed right here in Metropolis.
And so Barbara enjoyed the rest of her evening having fun being the perfect Luthor heiress. She was her father's daughter after all, by choice if not genetics, and this little event had been a win for the Luthors.
For people curious what the point of divergence is in this hypothetical timeline the main difference is that the Falcones get surprisingly lucky when they attempt to kill Jim Gordon and they succeed in wiping out the entire Gordon family save for Barbara at around the time when Lex first comes to Gotham to celebrate Bruce Wayne's return. Seeing a chance for PR in-universe (and out-of-universe the thread decides to grab Barbara cause they know her capabilities) Lex adopts Barbara Gordon as Barbara Luthor and then begins teaching her to be his heir. Things happen broadly the same and the thread finds and adopts Cassandra in broadly the same way as happened in quest. With 2/3rds of the Batgirl's already in their position as Luthors the thread then decides to go wild to complete the set and ends up acquiring Stephanie as the youngest Luthor daughter. If people want to explore this timeline/elseworld I encourage you to do so as I think it's a lot of fun and I very much enjoy the sisters' characters. There were a lot of ideas I couldn't work into here in time and a lot of relationship dynamics I thought would be fun to explore that don't get explored.
I tried to pointedly make it so that none of the Luthor sisters are particularly good people. They all picked up issues from Lex's parenting and they all have aspects of Lex Luthor in themselves (Stephanie picked up his manipulative behaviors and fondness for social engineering and schemes, Cassandra picked up a generalized misanthropy and distrust of others while Barbara picked up an unhealthy need to live up to some sort of superiority complex and to be untouchably better than others. All three of them picked up arrogance, megalomania and self-aggrandizement as well from Lex). They're great characters and a ton of fun but I wanted to intersperse the more slice of life style stories here with constant hints that this is technically a dark timeline if you look at it from a traditional DC comics universe lens. That being said it was a lot of fun trying to give them their own unique voice (I'm particularly proud of making sure that Cassandra in this omake doesn't read exactly like Cassandra in the main quest even if they are very similar).
I hope you all enjoy this fun omake I wrote. I didn't intend for it to get to 12K words but here is is regardless.
Tales of the Luthor Sisters: Three Vacations
Stephanie Luthor (At the Water Park)
Stephanie didn't always get her sisters all that well. Maybe it was because she was the baby of the bunch but for some reason or another she didn't feel the constant pressing need to be serious all the time like her sisters did. She got that they weren't exactly normal, Luthors were superior to the average person and Father wouldn't let any of his children be mediocre, but she didn't really get this need to be serious and adult-like all the time. It just seemed like such a pain to try and work against your age all the time especially when it wasn't something that would be coming back again.
And besides being a child was awesome. Stephanie wouldn't give up her waffles and light-up sneakers and ability to hug people whenever you felt like it. All of that stuff was awesome and amazing and fun and growing up meant you had to either give it up or get really good at hiding it so that it couldn't be used against you as a weakness. Yeah Cass and Barb were both teens so they probably couldn't get away with as much as Steph could but giving up everything just to be taken seriously just seemed boring and unfun. So Steph made it her mission to make sure her sisters didn't forget that they weren't adults so they could have some fun.
Today Stephanie was going to try to convince them to go to either go to a water park. Cass and Barb probably wouldn't agree to go to a waterpark if it was open to the public, they were all weirdly serious about reputation like that which was dumb, but that was a problem that money could solve. And because of how great Father was Stephanie and her sisters could easily buy out a waterpark for a day and it wouldn't even put a dent in their finances. Seriously they were rich enough that Stephanie could have her own pony and even Stephanie could tell that a pony like Cephy, short for Bucephalus, was way too expensive for non-rich people which was their loss. Operation Water-Park-A-Palooza was in effect and the material costs were negligible. The plan would succeed.
Of course before Stephanie could begin her operation she had to get ready for the day. Stephanie got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After brushing her teeth, Stephanie made sure to to put on her make-up. Looking good was important when you were important and so Stephanie knew that it was a matter of course that she always had to look her best. She finished applying her cosmetics and put up her hair in a ponytail, since ponytails were both good looking and practical, and began to get ready for the day. She changed out of her silk pajamas and got to work selecting an outfit that was suitable for the day. She promptly selected a purple collared short-sleeved blouse and a cute black pleated skirt. Some pretty cuff bracelets, a nice necklace and of course some fun light-up sneakers completed the look. Once all of that was done Stephanie went over her room to make sure that nothing was too out of place, and on deeming it good enough she decided to head out to breakfast.
The distinctive clicking of heels told Stephanie that her oldest sister was up and about already and that meant that Cass was also likely up. It meant that they likely wouldn't have to wait long before breakfast started. Stephanie promptly spotted her biggest sister and ran up to give her a hug.
"Good morning, big sis!" Stephanie cheerfully exclaimed. She knew that her big sister would never stoop to running up and hugging someone, even in the privacy of their own home, but she liked it anyways. And besides this way Barbara got to pretend to be an elegant grown-up while Stephanie still got all the hugs she wanted. It was win-win and Barb wasn't going to complain about it anyways.
"Morning Steph" Barbara replied, amusement dripping from her voice as she embraced her little sister. Stephanie enjoyed the hug as it was proof that her sister loved her and Stephanie knew that nothing was more important than family.
Barbara had dressed professionally as she always did. A black blazer paired with a clean white lapel necked blouse and a pencil skirt emphasized her big sister's striking figure. A gold necklace and little L-shaped earrings made it clear that Barbara was the LexCorp heiress and were elegantly framed by her vibrant red hair while her glasses only made her bright green eyes look more enticing. Sometimes Stephanie felt a little jealous of how her sister looked. They were all adopted and Stephanie knew that they were all really pretty, they were Luthors after all, but Barbara was the only one of the sisters to share a hair and eye color with Father. Of course all that jealousy was promptly buried due to how amazing her big sister was and the knowledge that they were family no matter what. Plus her oldest sister might be effortlessly elegant and glamorous as well as a super-mega-genius but she was so concerned with being the Luthor heiress that she often forgot about having fun. She wouldn't even eat ice cream because of some dumb grown-up concern.
"You seem awfully excited today" Stephanie's big sister lightly teased, smiling all the while "Should I be worried about some grand scheme coming from you today?"
Stephanie felt reassured in the correctness of what she was doing. Her sisters needed to learn how to have fun. She was sure Father would agree with her.
"I do have plans" Stephanie easily admitted "But you don't need to worry about them because I'm going to run them by Father first"
"Good" Barbara chuckled "I'd hate to have to deal with another harebrained scheme like that time you came up with a whole scheme to humiliate Dick Grayson for refusing to dance with me"
Stephanie felt indignant about that comment.
"Those plans were not stupid, if Dick Grayson is dumb enough to publicly snub you then he deserved to be humiliated" Stephanie pouted "And besides Cass agreed with me that he deserved it".
"Heard my name" Stephanie's other sister said curtly but not rudely "What am I being accused of?"
"The fact that you encouraged our dear baby sister to try and disproportionately humiliate a boy just because he refused to dance with me" The eldest Luthor sister replied.
"Ah" Cassandra replied unashamedly "Steph you did good. Grayson deserved it for snubbing our sister"
Stephanie beamed at the praise her sister gave her. She promptly went over to hug her instead while Barbara muttered something fondly about Cass being incorrigible.
Cassandra had also dressed to impress with formal pants, a pitch black long sleeved suit with rolled up cuffs and a white and black pinstriped collared shirt with an acid green tie that matched with the lenses of her designer sunglasses. Her shoes were stiff and formal and Cass didn't bother wearing any jewelry or accessories at all. She still wore makeup and her short raven black hair was clearly styled but Stephanie's second oldest sister clearly preferred function over form when it came to clothing. Stephanie still thought she was amazingly pretty anyway even if her style was so boring and serious at times.
"As much as I'd love to keep chatting about why you were wrong to get involved with any potential romantic endeavors I pursue" Barbara began before Stephanie cheerfully interrupted her.
"I'm not sorry!" Stephanie interjected.
"Be that as it may we still ought to get to breakfast" Barbara continued on regardless "Father would be less than pleased if we were late"
That promptly shut down the conversation and easily convinced them they ought to table the discussion for now. Stephanie knew that Father knew best and as such he had both rules and guidelines for them to follow. Whilst being late to mealtimes wasn't breaking a rule, and thus they could do it, being punctual and efficient with their time was a guideline of his and part of being a good girl and a good Luthor was following Father's guidelines. Stephanie and her sisters naturally made sure that they followed all of his rules and guidelines so that they could be the perfect Luthor heiresses. For all that Stephanie thought that her older sisters took things to seriously she still understood the importance of living up to Father's expectations.
The three sisters promptly made their way to the dining room in which the Luthor family regularly ate together where Father promptly joined them. After saying good morning to one another the food was delivered in for each of them, fresh bratwurst and scrambled quail eggs for Cassandra, a freshly prepared gourmet salad and ceviche for Barbara, muesli for Father and a big stack of gourmet waffles with all the syrup and a fruit salad for Stephanie. There was freshly squeezed orange juice, fresh spring water, boring milk and chocolate milk. Auntie Mercy wasn't eating with them today since she had to supervise something important early in the day so there wasn't any coffee on the table today. The food was promptly checked for poison, which was important because no self-respecting Luthor could let themselves get assassinated that way, and so they could promptly dig in.
They ate properly and demurely because manners were important and it made the good tasting food last longer than just nomming it up outright and Father began to ask them about their plans for the near future.
"I should be able to get my third degree soon Father" Barbara confidently informed Father. "I'm aware that it's virtually unprecedented and that I could easily receive a vast number of honorary degrees but I believe that earning these degrees will look more impressive and the fact that I could do so while running Delphi at the same time will only further demonstrate my capabilities"
Stephanie didn't get why Barbara felt the need to get as many degrees as Father had as quickly as he had while running her own company at the same time. Then again Stephanie wasn't nearly as smart as her oldest sister so what did she know.
"That's wonderful to hear dear" Father replied causing Barbara to preen under his praise "I expect great things from you and Delphi has already contributed wonderfully to improving our L-Phone designs so I'm certain you'll rise to this challenge as well"
Stephanie was certain of that as well but that was because she never doubted her brilliant big sister for even a moment. They were Luthors and that meant that they were better than everyone else.
"I'll be overseeing the integration of the new exo-suits" Cassandra eagerly informed Father "Depending on how things go I'll be meeting with Eiling to discuss contracts"
"Excellent work Cassandra" Father praised "I'm proud to see you excelling in this business"
"Thank you Father, I'll ensure your pride isn't misplaced" Cassandra happily stated "I won't slack off on my studies either"
Father nodded in approval of Cassandra's determination before turning to address Stephanie.
"And what are your plans for today Stephanie?" Father asked kindly. This was Stephanie's moment to begin Operation Water-Park-A-Palooza.
"I do have a request for you, Father before I can definitively state what my plans are for today" Stephanie smoothly answered not giving away any nervousness or tension just as one of Father's daughters ought to act "But regardless of the outcome of my request I'll most likely be focusing on my studies and perhaps practicing the piano if I've got spare time"
That much was true. Stephanie didn't like most of her studies but they were important and she wouldn't slack off on them no matter what happened. Plus unlike her sisters she's the only one who kept up playing the piano. Hopefully by reminding Father of what a dutiful daughter she was he'd have no issues granting her request.
"I'd like to hear of this request" Father commanded not unkindly and so Stephanie prepared her pitch.
"As you know me and my sisters have been excelling in our chosen fields. I would like to go to a waterpark to have a day of fun with just the family as a way to relax and celebrate our success" Stephanie began "I understand though that keeping a waterpark secure is a logistical nightmare so I would like to request the money to buy control of a waterpark for one day"
"How long would you want to spend at this waterpark?" Father questioned, beginning probing for what exactly Stephanie was asking for. Stephanie wasn't worried though, she was good at negotiation.
"The whole day if possible. Naturally I understand that your commitment to LexCorp might prevent you from spending the day with us but I would appreciate the ability to spend as much time as possible with you Father even if it's not always feasible" Stephanie calmly replied without hesitation "Regardless me and my sisters ought to be able to spend a solid ten to twelve hours at the waterpark. Whilst we are Luthors and naturally excel at what we do, the fact remains that we ought to be able to enjoy ourselves as children while we still can."
Father appeared to deliberate over the idea before he came to a conclusion.
"Depending on how you do on your studies today I'll allow this excursion" Father answered "though I will have Dr. Isley and Ms. Kane supervising"
Stephanie was satisfied with this. Notably Father hadn't noticed that neither of Stephanie's sisters had been aware of this plan. He could figure it out if he wanted to put in the effort but he wouldn't bother. With him defaulting to assuming that Cassandra and Barbara had already agreed to Stephanie's plan her big sisters would be roped into things before they could deny the excursion due to wanting to be serious all the time.
"Thank you Father!" Stephanie beamed. Breakfast finished up and Stephanie and her family began to head out to their different destinations for the day. Stephanie was satisfied with her plan having come together. It wasn't a complicated on but that didn't make it any less of a success.
Steph was going to put 110% into her work for the day so that she could get her sisters to have fun at the waterpark with her. She had to deal with a whole bunch of stuffy old people teaching her stuff but even if Stephanie was dumb for a Luthor she was still smart enough to pick up what she was being taught. Latin and Algebra and World History and Basic Organic Chemistry were all boring to her not difficult. She was already well past the material any normal child her age would be at and she was already hexalingual, knowing English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Elvish so she could easily handle a little more if she just got her brain-meats to cooperate and focus. Naturally Stephanie succeeded in her endeavor.
Stephanie however wasn't done for the day. She decided to pop into the gym when she knew her big sister Cass would be using it so that she could smooth over any ruffled feathers with her. Stephanie didn't really like exercise, not like Cass did, but she could do it and she was in shape and semi-combat ready. Plus it would let her bond with her sister.
She walked into the gym reserved for the Luthor family alone where she spotted Cassandra doing those really impressive seeming clap pushups. Cass's friend Jinx was standing nearby doing some weird ballet leg over the head flexibility stretches. On spotting Stephanie enter Jinx promptly gave a little wave.
"Hi Jinx!" Stephanie cheerfully enthused, announcing her presence to her sister as well "I like the choker is that new?"
Hopefully she'd get Jinx somewhat on side ahead of time in order to hopefully keep Cass as unannoyed as possible.
"It's not new but I'm glad you like it squirt" Jinx calmly responded "Your sister isn't too happy with you right now so you might want to skedaddle for a bit"
"Why is she unhappy with me?" Stephanie asked, despite knowing the answer full well. Hopefully she could prompt Cass into talking with her and from there reparations would be managed.
"Maybe it's because my time is valuable and you managed to rope me into a trip to a waterpark when I could be doing something more important?" Stephanie's older sister replied bluntly "I don't like wasting my time"
"Well then I suppose the good news is that it's not a waste of time" Stephanie passionately replied "We're family and the time we spend together is important. I'm here because I want to spend time with you and have fun"
Cassandra stopped doing push ups and jumped to her feet.
"So I'm supposed to go along with your dumb schemes just because it'll mean we spend time together and have fun?" Cassandra questioned heatedly.
"No you're supposed to accept that I'm doing that partly for me and in exchange I'll go and do all the exercise stuff you enjoy doing with you today even though I don't like it" Stephanie replied back unphased.
"You do realize I'm going to run you through the wringer?" Cass fired back "Is this supposed to be some kind of deal where we both do something we don't want to in exchange for getting something we want?"
"Family is compromise and I'm more than happy to do something you like but I don't if it means you'll go to the waterpark with me tomorrow and you won't hate me for wanting to have a fun day with my sister" Stephanie answered "You can ask Jinx but there are worse things to do then having fun for a day and not working"
"The little squirt's right Cass" Jinx evenly interjected "Plus I can handle some of the stuff on our end without you for a day. Go and relax for a bit"
Cassandra seemed to accede to this.
"Fine" she stated grumpily, but not so grumpily that she hadn't already resigned herself to going along with Stephanie's plan. "You can leave now Jinx, you've got the next hour off. I've got a new exercise partner"
Jinx let out a lazy salute as a cat-like grin grew upon her face.
"You got it boss" the teenage witch jovially stated and promptly left, leaving Stephanie to Cass's tender mercies.
After a brutal opening of push-ups, sit-ups and sprints, Cass decided to put Stephanie through the wringer with gymnastics exercises. So many backflips and handsprings and twists and rolls and Cass always wanted it done faster and more cleanly and with better form. Stephanie's big sister naturally preformed all the exercises first before Stephanie did but she was way better than Stephanie was ever going to be at this kind of stuff. Then deciding that Stephanie hadn't suffered enough Cass decided to break out the pommel horse which sucked, unlike a real horse and which Stephanie considered to be some kind of torture device made for sick and twisted individuals. She still completed all of the exercises because that was what Cass wanted and it would get her to agree to go to the waterpark. Her entire body felt horrendously sore afterwards but it was worth it because now Cass was no longer mad at her.
Stephanie returned to more lessons throughout the day and she managed to remain focused throughout it all. She grabbed lunch and chatted with a few people before going to practice playing piano. Snowy popped into the room and Steph got a bit distracted playing with him, which totally wasn't a mark against her. She then decided to grab dinner with Barbara today. On the weekends the whole family would eat dinner today but because people were working they'd likely be eating separately. Since starting up Delphi, Barbara had taken to eating more dinner's by herself in her office on the weekdays so Stephanie was going to check in with her to see how she was feeling and settle any ruffled feathers.
Barbara's AI, Oracle, greeted Stephanie and let her in once she realized that Stephanie was bringing dinner to her big sister.
"Hi big sis!" Stephanie cheerfully shouted as she spotted her sister jotting down information on some kind of worksheet "I brought you filet mignon, roasted asparagus and rabbit food for dinner so I hope you don't mind if I eat with you today."
Barbara didn't bother to look up from her work but she still replied immediately.
"Thank you Stephanie you can put it on my desk. Feel free to grab a chair and join me" She said. Stephanie promptly complied with the order and did as Barbara asked. Her oldest sister slowly finished her last problem and then began to dig into her food.
"You know you shouldn't knock salad" Barbara stated "It tastes good and it's nutritious which is part of a balanced lifestyle"
"You can enjoy your rabbit food I'm going to enjoy my delicious macaroni and cheese" Stephanie smugly responded "It's part of my happy lifestyle"
Barbara chuckled a bit as she continued to eat.
"I'm not mad at you" Barbara suddenly commented. The proclamation caught Stephanie a bit off guard.
"Good because you have nothing to be mad about" Stephanie asserted "I only have everyone's best interests in mind with my schemes and the sooner you all accept that the sooner we'll all be living in a better world"
"I'm still annoyed that you sprung this on me without any warning" Barbara rejoined "And your schemes aren't exactly prone to working out without things backfiring or an excess of collateral damage but I get where you're coming from and I'm actually fine with this one, just next time tell me in advance"
Well Stephanie hadn't expected that response but she wasn't going to check a horse given as a present for tonsillitis. That would just be gross and there was no point to endlessly questioning family. Outsider's absolutely but family could be trusted.
"Alright I'll let you know in advance next time" Stephanie conceded. She and her big sister continued to eat dinner for a bit enjoying each others company.
Stephanie eventually left to go and continue her tutoring which she completed to the best of her abilities. At 7:30 PM sharp Stephanie headed back up to the Luthor family residential floor.
"You did well today Stephanie" Father informed her "You have earned your trip to the waterpark. I won't be able to attend for long but you and your sister's can have the day off"
Stephanie profusely thanked her father and raced off to bed. She prepared to go to sleep because tomorrow was going to be a big day of fun and excitement and Stephanie was excited that everything had come together. It was going to be great!
The next day came and Stephanie woke up extra early to make sure that she would be on time for the trip to the waterpark. Father had paid off one of the most positively reviewed waterparks in the country to let his employees run it for a day and to keep it privately reserved for Stephanie and her sister's use. Stephanie was practically vibrating with excitement as she picked out a swimsuit to wear for the day.
Stephanie arrived promptly and immediately to breakfast grinning from ear to ear. Her sisters arrived a little later than her and then they all had breakfast before they headed off to the waterpark. Father informed them that he'd arrive at the tail end of the day but that otherwise they'd be on their own for the most part. Stephanie profusely thanked him for this opportunity and eventually they headed down to get ready to go.
Barbara made sure to double check that they'd all brought enough sunscreen and towels and that they were aware of the security arrangements Father had set up and Stephanie just wanted to go, go, go. Others could take care of that, that's why Pamela and Katherine were supervising. Barbara using the vacation as an excuse to be boring and responsible was annoying but Stephanie let it slide for now. They were going to a waterpark!
The three sisters all piled into Barbara's armored luxury car. Stephanie knew that the car was super mega-advanced although it wasn't the coolest car possible because it didn't have a tv and video games for people in the back to play. Plus she didn't actually know what the car could do since she wasn't allowed to sit up front or press any of the buttons there. Barbara sat in the front of the car in the drivers seat while Cassandra joined Stephanie in the back even though Cass could sit in the front sometimes.
"Someone's got to keep an eye on the munchkin to make sure she doesn't get bored" Cassandra had joked when Barbara had asked her about the seating arrangement. Stephanie resented that she was not part of any lollipop guild and was as firmly anti-union as the rest of her family. After all if there were no guilds and unions then Stephanie could buy all of the lollipops for herself. Still she didn't let this get to her too much.
Stephanie promptly began babbling about all of the things she wanted to do at the waterpark. Barbara began to drive there as her car was flanked and surrounded by a veritable fleet of cars in their protection detail. They eventually made their way over to the waterpark were they'd been given free parking and they promptly met up with the pretty redheads that were nominally but not really their chaperones.
Pamela and Katherine were loyal and they'd follow Lex's orders but they also knew that Barbara was responsible and believed in her and they were clearly distracted by each other every so often. Stephanie didn't mind it at all. So long as she and her sisters got to have fun then that was all that mattered.
The three of them promptly changed out of the clothes they had worn over their swimsuits and Stephanie got to laugh about Cassie's dumb water-shoes. Of course this in turn resulted in Cassandra eventually pushing Stephanie into a pool and then leaping in after her. Barbara eventually joined them and got dragged into the three way splash fight. They all had a blast and then Stephanie promptly declared that they had to go on all of the waterslides together and that anyone who didn't was clearly a big chicken. Her sisters indulged her and they all had fun together.
There was so much to do and Stephanie was just happy she and her sisters could be kids for a bit and have fun. They had a delicious lunch and Father joined them briefly for dinner and all in all the plan had been a success. As the three of them toweled off Barbara and Cassandra had even admitted that Stephanie's plan was brilliant and a lot of fun.
That was all the encouragement Stephanie needed to begin planning the next scheme to let her sisters stop thinking about being heiresses all the time and instead just be kids for a bit.
Cassandra Luthor (Natural History Museum)
Cassandra Luthor thought of herself as a simple girl all things considered. She was infinitely more straightforward than either her younger or her older sister and she didn't even compare to her Father. She was brutally straightforward and pursued things with that in mind. She could lie and manipulate with the best of them, she was a Luthor after all, but she was far inferior to the rest of her family and she could never fool or manipulate them.
Of course that didn't make her any less dangerous than the rest of them, save perhaps Father. Barbara was the beautiful shining peerless face for LexCorp and the brilliant mind that would drive their progress ever onwards in the future. Stephanie was the charismatic clever and canny schemer who made friends out of anyone and would serve LexCorp by turning people to serve it. Cassandra in turn was the unflinching vicious iron fist. She was the jackboot to be brought down upon all of their enemies. Everyone who dared to threaten here wonderful perfect family would face destruction at her hands.
Naturally such a role meant that Cassandra would always be the least visible sibling to the public. Cassandra didn't mind. She adored her siblings as the absolute treasures they were and they in turn loved her. There was no one more important in any of the Luthor sister's lives than their sisters and if the price Cassandra paid for ensuring her sister's were safe was that she got a little less limelight than the rest of them, then Cassandra didn't really mind. Cassandra was content remaining in Barbara and Stephanie's shadows.
Of course that didn't mean that Cassandra had no desires of her own. Sometimes she wanted to do things herself. So when Father donated a vast sum of money to the Metropolis Museum of Natural History Cassandra had dragged her sister's to the event and even taken a bit of the spotlight herself.
Cassandra loved animals. They were better than people in a lot of ways. Not her sisters who she wouldn't trade for the world or her Father who was unmatched in his brilliance but most of the average common boring people could be replaced with animals and the world would be better off for it. Some people like Jinx were tolerable and Cassandra could even appreciate them but she preferred dealing with animals like Snowy and Janus over people most of the time. She could lead and command, as a proper Luthor should but that didn't make her like people any more.
Cassandra took care of all the animals at LexCorp. Janus, Snowy, the sharks in Barbara's shark tank, Bucephalus, some of the lab rabbits and occasionally Apophis, the albino reticulated python Jinx kept as a pet and familiar. Cassandra wasn't responsible for the LexCorp menagerie but she gladly took care of them and worked with the animals when she had the time to spare. So the event at the Metropolis Museum of Natural History was rather unexpected.
The day began like any other. Cassandra got up at the break of dawn and practiced a few forms of tai chi alone in her room. She then inspected the weapons in her room, made sure they were still in proper condition and then promptly returned them to their display stands. She'd then go to the bathroom and get ready for the rest of the day. She'd change out of her silk pajamas into more appropriate clothes, check her phone for any important news or instructions and then head down to breakfast with her Father and sisters.
Today Cassandra decided to wear comfortable laceless slippers that she could freely kick and run in, well tailored black pants and an emerald green short-sleeved button up shirt with a purple bowtie. She then paired the whole ensemble with a double breasted militaresque black coat in which she could hide plenty of knives for the worst case scenario and Cassandra had a fashionable look that was also functional enough for her tastes. She might not be the Luthor most in the spotlight but that didn't mean she didn't have to look good as a matter of principle. Cassandra put on her makeup and then headed out to breakfast.
She was enthusiastically greeted by her adorable little sister Stephanie, who promptly ran up and hugged her while wishing her a good morning. Stephanie had decided to wear her bright blonde hair in a French braid today which likely meant that Barbara had helped her get ready. Her younger sister was wearing a purple and gold sweater dress of some kind and was wearing her stupid and childish light-up shoes, this time a purple and white monstrosity who set off a strobe of flashing lights every time she took a step.
Cassandra enjoyed talking to Stephanie for a bit before Barbara joined them in the hallway. Cassandra held the deepest admiration and respect for her older sister. The only person she thought even could be better than Barbara was Father and he was better than everyone else in the whole universe. Barbara was a shining star utterly unmatched in everything she did. She was brilliant and beautiful and witty and she deserved the world. Cassandra knew she wasn't nearly as smart as her older sister and so she'd moved into the role of becoming Barbara's right hand, the brawn to her brains so to speak. Stephanie would one day fill out the trio as the beauty but much like how Cassandra was far smarter than the average person and far better appearing than the majority of them so to was Barbara far above the average in appearance and that beauty belied the fact that she could be just as deadly in a fight.
Cassandra had trained with her older sister and though she knew she was better in combat, it didn't make Barbara any less impressive. Her older sister was a champion fencer and markswoman, an excellent acrobat and fairly well versed in Systema and Krav Maga. Her ridiculous clinging to always wearing heels likely meant she wouldn't ever be fighting at maximum capacity but Barbara could move and fight far better than the average man on the street. It was nothing to what Cassandra was capable of but then no one was as good as Cassandra at fighting.
Barbara wore a stylish white coat with black faux fur over a sleek black dress with black leggings and long white heeled boots. She wasn't wearing her earrings but instead she wore a necklace with the LexCorp logo dangling from it.
The three sisters promptly headed to breakfast where Stephanie once again ate what was essentially sacrilege against a balanced diet while every one else ate sensibly. Dinner tonight was almost certainly going to involve some kind of bisque or chowder as Father was in the mood for it and so Cassandra pointedly made sure not to eat any fish for breakfast.
It was during the breakfast conversation that Father brought up that he'd made a sizeable donation to the Metropolis Museum of Natural History and informed them that he'd been invited to attend the museum's new unveiling of its exhibits. Father informed them that he would be unable to make it and so Cassandra opened her mouth to make a suggestion.
"I understand why you cannot show up" Cassandra nervously began "But there's nothing stopping us from attending this event in your stead. Barbara and Stephanie can handle the crowds and the publicity while I ensure things go smoothly and that nothing catches them off guard"
"Lois Lane will likely be in attendance" Father warned "She has standards so she won't try to smear your name directly but she'll be more than happy to try and weasel information out of you on what my donation was really for"
"Well that's solved easily enough" Barbara openly chimed in causing Cassandra to grow ever so slightly alarmed even though she did her best to suppress any signs of it showing. "Cassandra has an interest in zoology and animals. Naturally the reason why you donated as well as the reason why we are in attendance is because of Cassandra"
Cassandra didn't like that story but it worked and she did want to go to the museum if only so that she could do her duty and learn about animals at the same time. Father and Barbara hashed out the details whilst Stephanie blissfully at her waffles, utterly uncaring over the details as they were already handled. Cassandra paid attention but she also didn't concern herself too much with it either.
And so eventually the plan was set in stone and arranged. Cassandra and her sisters arrived at the museum flanked by bodyguards. Mercy was able to find the time to personally come and serve as the girls escort and so Cassandra felt a lot more reassured by things. It was only once they got to the event that Cassandra started to feel uneasy.
She didn't feel unsafe, she was to certain of her abilities and her sisters abilities for that to be the case. Barbara was constantly talking and getting the movers and shakers to be wrapped around her finger while Stephanie mingled with people seemingly at random but showed a friendly pleasant face for LexCorp while drawing attention away from Barbara. Last Cassandra heard Stephanie was rambling to someone about whether or not rhinos counted as unicorns. Cassandra meanwhile hung back and took in the exhibits, avoiding conversation when she could and replying straightforwardly and dryly when she couldn't. Stephanie and Barbara could handle the limelight.
Time passed and eventually Cassandra found Barbara introducing her to a somewhat familiar woman in a purple suit accompanied by a bookish looking unkempt man in a blue suit. It was time for Cassandra to play her part.
"Miss Lane" Cassandra's older sister dryly stated "Since you don't seem to believe me when I tell you that my father has no real interest in this museum besides indulging one of my younger sister's hobbies I hope speaking to her will at least convince you that not every other word out of my mouth is a lie"
Lois Lane's body language read fairly easily to Cassandra. The woman was determined and suspicious and she was convinced that Father was planning something with the investment. He was but Lois had no clue and as such she was trying to fish information out of Barbara. Lois didn't trust Barbara as far as she could throw her but she wasn't going to give up without even trying.
No the oddity in the room was the man standing next to her. The man in the blue suit read absolutely bizarrely to Cassandra. He was constantly holding something back, hyper alert of everything around him to a degree no normal person should be although it seemed coincidental and his body language was controlled and deliberately feigned as weaker and uncontrolled at the same time. Everything she got from him was muddled and garbled and absolutely odd. Cassandra's body-reading wasn't perfect, sufficient control over body language could fool it but the man in the blue suit seemed to be unconsciously scrambling things in a way she had never seen before.
"I don't believe every other word out of your mouth is a lie only your claims of the perfect benevolence of one of the largest parts of the military-industrial complex that you're predisposed to lie to defend" Lois Lane shot back at Barbara causing Barbara to smile viciously and vindictively.
"Let's not be rude now" Barbara said tauntingly "Cassandra dear why don't you introduce yourself to this lovely harridan"
Cassandra stepped forward into Lois' immediate vicinity. It would be so easy to end her with a single strike now. Cassandra wouldn't act on it now as it would validate the other woman but there was a sort of satisfaction in knowing you could kill the person who you would be verbally sparring with.
"Hello" Cassandra began "My name is Cassandra Luthor. I know we haven't met before but I've heard plenty about you Miss Lane"
Cassandra proffered her hand for a handshake which Lois gingerly accepted, uneasy around getting what she still viewed as an innocent child involved in things.
"Don't believe everything you hear kid, you'll find that people like to bury the ugly truth with pretty lies often enough" Lois fired back, clearly trying to snipe at Barbara who was watching her cautiously.
"I'll keep that in mind, though I suppose I also ought to not believe everything I read in the paper either as sometimes people with agendas twist facts to suit their narrative" Cassandra responded causing Lois' eyes to narrow while Barbara chuckled at Cassandra's response "Who's your friend?"
"Clark Kent, another writer for the Daily Planet and the occasional partner of Lois Lane" The man in the blue suit said as he too shook Cassandra's hand. He seemed oddly confident for a man whose body language ready to show that he was unconfident.
"Pleasure to meet you" Cassandra said "Why all the suspicion over my father's donation?"
"Because billionaires don't do things out of the goodness of their heart" Lois answered "and when your father donates enough money to a museum he's never shown any interest in before that they can build a whole new wing well it tends to make people suspicious"
Well Lois' hunch wasn't wrong but she had no proof and so it was up to Cassandra to throw her off the scent.
"He didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart" Cassandra falsely admitted surprising both Barbara and Lois with her admission "He did it because I asked him to as a bribe for better performance in my studies"
Lois had disbelief all over her body language but she still intended to push this angle. Clark Kent was still unreadable to her and it frustrated Cassandra oh so very much.
"You're telling me he did this as a reward for you getting a good report card?" Lois inquired somewhat brazenly.
"He wanted results so he bribed me. I like animals so getting to go to the natural history museum to learn about them was a sufficient reward" Cassandra replied "I'm sorry if my standards for bribery are too high for you to comprehend"
Barbara appeared to have relaxed at this and so as Cassandra continued to wander through the museum she left her with Lois and Clark. The two of them did their best to try and get something out of her but she was content to answer as laconically and frustratingly as possible. Amusingly at one point she heard Lois whisper to Clark that she thought Cassandra had a crush on him because of how she kept staring at him. Lois was dead wrong but it was funny to see what people who thought they were smarter than they actually were could convince themselves to think was true.
As the event wound down though Cassandra was confronted with a dilemma. Before her in the museum stood a beautiful complete skeleton of Panthera Zdanskyi. Cassandra knew that she wanted it. As such she called over the museum director and began haggling in full view of Lois and Clark. She eventually managed to talk the director into letting her have it for practically nothing thanks to her father's generous donations to the museum. Lois was in stunned disbelief from Cassandra's stunt.
"You're telling me this entire donation that Lex Luthor got involved in was just so that you could go window shopping for prehistoric skeletons?" Lois said in near disbelief
"I did tell you this event was my reward" Cassandra dryly replied.
Funnily enough Lois did buy this lie and ended up leaving. Frustrated that her night had been completely wasted. Clark followed her soon after and Cassandra didn't like that she still couldn't read him at all.
Cassandra then made her way over to where Mercy was watching over her youngest sister. She then began to inform Mercy of what had happened.
"Good news is I convinced Lois Lane that Father's donation was an elaborate scheme to let me acquire a fossil of my choice" Cassandra informed Mercy "The bad news is I have purchased a complete Panthera Zdanskyi skeleton and now need help transporting it back home."
Mercy let annoyance radiate from her body language as she moved to chastise Cassandra.
"Clearly I was watching the wrong sister tonight" Mercy sarcastically answered. Cassandra offered her an entirely insincere apology. They both knew it was insincere but Cassandra liked to think the gesture at least meant something.
With the main threat out of the way Cassandra joined back up with her sisters and proceeded to enjoy the rest of her time at the museum. It had been fun all things considered.
Cassandra was a simple person all things considered. She liked animals and enjoyed both working with and learning about them. She enjoyed removing threats to her family and would bluntly and expediently take whichever path was best for that. She wasn't nearly as good at lying and manipulating as her sisters but she could still outmatch the average person. And last but not least Cassandra didn't like people all that much. So any day in which Cassandra got to defeat an enemy, demonstrate her skills, protect her sisters, avoid people she didn't like and learn about animals was a good day in her books. The fact that she got an incredible beautiful complete fossilized skeleton of a living piece of history was merely icing on top of an already spectacular cake. Cassandra was straightforward and though her sister's would tease her for this incident for a few weeks after it had happened Cassandra wouldn't have had it any other way. It was a nice change of pace and a fun vacation where the necessary work still got done.
Barbara Luthor (Gotham Gala)
Barbara Luthor hated Gotham. She absolutely despised Gotham with every fiber of her being. It might seem odd to anyone who knew of her family history. After all before she had been adopted into the Luthor family and given purpose and meaning in life Barbara had lived in Gotham. The secret lay in the difference between Barbara and her sisters.
Unlike Cassandra and Stephanie, Barbara clearly remembered the time before she was adopted. She remembered being Barbara Gordon who'd thought that the world would work out and turn out fine so long as good men and women fought for a better tomorrow. She remembered having her whole family die at the hands of the mob.
Barbara Luthor was better than Barbara Gordon in every way that mattered. She was smarter, she was stronger and she understood the world infinitely better than she had before her rebirth. Barbara was eternally grateful to her father for seeing something of value in her and reforging her into his heir. Barbara adored and idolized Lex Luthor. He was the model of what a modern person ought to aspire to be. As his daughter Barbara could do no less than strive to match him and his achievements. She was a Luthor now and that meant being exceptional.
And so she'd left behind the stinking fetid pile of garbage calling itself a city and reinvented herself in Metropolis. She took to her lessons swimmingly and excelled in being the LexCorp Heiress. She earned degrees from prestigious universities in a variety of fields, not enough to match her new father but enough to get close. She started up and ran her own successfully company Delphi, albeit with a small loan of a few million dollars from her father, and now Oracle would be installed on every L-Phone across the country giving Barbara's AI access to unmatched information. She handled media appearances and public attention with aplomb and succeeded under the spotlight proving as a worthy heiress. Her reputation and appearance were all carefully managed and regulated so as to maximize her public adoration. She served as a paragon of LexCorp values and was an excellent role model to her adorable younger sisters in every way that mattered.
Barbara adored her new family. They were the single most precious thing she had as Barbara Luthor and nothing would ever prevent her from making them happy. However as the eldest child and the Luthor heiress set to inherit the majority of leadership in LexCorp Barbara had to be the best out of all of them. Cassie could be awkward and slightly anti-social and be more fond of animals than people because Barbara was the perfect heiress. Little Stephanie could be cheerful and perky and ever so slightly distractible because Barbara was the perfect heiress and made sure to give her the breathing room she need to be happy. Barbara would give her family the world if she could and if that meant being the flawless, unmatched, incredible heiress her father wanted and deserved then Barbara would do her best to live up to the challenge and make it look effortless all the while. Of course part of being the perfect heiress was letting nobody know just how deeply she hated Gotham.
As such when father had decided to host a charity ball for the people of Gotham following yet another unmitigated disaster in that rotting carcass of a city, Barbara naturally was forced to attend and pretend that she didn't want to burn down the whole stinking city to the ground. She was forced to attend and play nice. Her sisters wouldn't have any problems with the evenings events but Barbara would be in a foul mood and forced to hide it for the entire night. At the very least father had the decency to host in Metropolis as opposed to Gotham.
Barbara enjoyed breakfast with her family and then got to work at Delphi. Their continued work in AI integration continued to prove successful and her prototypes had passed their tests with flying colors. Model S successfully managed to emulate a kindergartener so successfully that a teacher couldn't figure out that there wasn't a real person on the over end of the screen. Pluto had proven to be capable of making correct stock market purchases inhumanly quickly and hadn't encountered too many issues. If he proved to be successful then Barbara would be able to elevate her family to even greater riches as the entire stock market effectively became theirs to control through AI proxies. And Oracle, her pride and joy, had proven to be growing ever more advanced and was capable of slaving all the devices that she was installed in if Barbara wished to make use of all of that computing power. All of that power and control was hers to make use of. As such with all of her work going swimmingly Barbara worked on engineering a program of hers off the books. The malicious self-replicating AI she'd named Conqueror Worm couldn't target LexCorp systems but anything else was fair game and the AI was essentially an ever adapting computer virus that would grind every device it was in to a halt. It wasn't something that Barbara ever felt she'd unleash but there was a sense of pride in knowing that she could send humanity back to the dark ages if she so pleased.
However the evening began to draw closer and Barbara knew that she needed to prepare for the event of the day. She left her work completed and headed off to meet her sisters to get ready. Cass was in the middle of teaching Stephanie how to swordfight as a reward for their youngest sister now being able to kill rabbits without hesitation. She'd soon be moving on to the final rite of passage when dealing with ending a human life but Barbara was confident that her youngest sister would rise to meet the task. She and Cassandra had done so which meant Stephanie could as well. She was a Luthor just like them. Still it was amusing to watch her two sisters go at it.
"My name is Indigo Monteyoma" Stephanie dramatically exclaimed as she lunged at Cassandra with her sword outstretched "You killed my father, prepare to die!"
Cass effortlessly parried the blade with her own and took a step back to accommodate her younger sisters eager advance. Barbara knew that Cassandra could have easily ended the fight there but as her youngest sister hadn't technically broken form, Cassandra likely decided to indulge her so that she could learn at her own pace.
"Not the quote Stephanie" Cassandra quietly rejoined causing Stephanie's eyes to light up.
"My name is Iroquois Montezuma" Stephanie began only to be soundly parried by Cassandra and forced to step back.
"Still not the quote" Cass dryly replied.
"My name is Indonesia Montecarlo" Stephanie attempted once more only to be immediately and brutally countered and the match brought to a close.
"You're not even trying" Cassandra stated "Also Barbara is here"
Barbara waved to her sisters in order to catch their attention.
"As much as I enjoy watching the two of you butcher movie quotes while waving around swords we have a gala to attend tonight and as the host's daughters we need to look out best" Barbara promptly informed her sisters. Stephanie groused a bit as Cassandra dutifully put away the swords and the protective gear into it's proper location.
"Do we really have to do the whole spa day thing?" Stephanie pouted to which Barbara indulgently grinned.
"I refuse to look anything but my best and as my sister and a Luthor you ought to do so as well" Barbara chided her sister "Public appearances matter"
Stephanie ended up complying and Cassandra promptly followed as well. Barbara then lead her sisters through what was essentially a spa treatment, getting their hair and nails done properly before they moved on to the clothes selection. Barbara more or less knew what sort of look their father would be going for so she tailored the rest of their outfits around that color palette. For Cassandra she picked out a custom tailored three piece suit black suit with green highlights, a LexCorp logo lapel pin, an expensive silver watch and dress shoes. Cassandra would wear a dress and heels if they had to but Barbara figured that for an event like this it would be best to have Cassandra stick to fashion she was more comfortable with and she still looked good in. Her tomboyish little sister would likely appreciate the more subdued appearance. Stephanie on the other hand got a dress with a black top and a flowing green lower part as well as light heels and a bracelet with the LexCorp logo clearly visible on it. Stephanie would complain about being forced to wear "lady stilts" but her youngest sister needed the practice and she'd look good in it regardless. For herself Barbara selected a shimmering green and black sequined dress that left her shoulders tastefully exposed as well as heels, earrings and a necklace with the LexCorp logo on it. The point was to show unity at this event.
After a lot of fussing and primping and helping her sisters make sure they looked as good as they could, Barbara deemed here sisters ready to attend and lead them to greet their father. He congratulated the three of them on their preparations and informed them of their roles and restrictions for the evening. Barbara was to play hostess and occasionally join him in high level talks regarding the future of LexCorp. She was allowed to leave his side and she could dance freely but what time she wasn't spending assisting in the expansion of LexCorp's network ought to be pushed towards furthering her own social connections and reputation. Cassandra was to hang back and mostly observe, using her body reading skills to locate and identify people of interest. She would be allowed to talk as she pleased but was encouraged to stick by either himself, one of her sisters or Mercy. Stephanie meanwhile was to primarily engage with any children attending and she was expected to dance with some people though not commit to any one person in particular. None of them were to drink and they were to work together as a unit to make sure that everything ran smoothly and effectively.
Barbara and her sisters immediately affirmed that they understood their roles and would carry them out to perfection. The Luthor sisters were practically experts at this kind of thing.
Barbara enjoyed the evening for the most part. She luxuriated in the knowledge of the importance and power of her family and the knowledge that this would only strengthen their image. While she hated Gotham with a passion this event was a chance to visibly demonstrate Metropolis' clear superiority. Her family's city was far greater than anything that pile of scum and garbage could ever be. She greeted dozens of millionaires and billionaires and officials and such all while keeping an eye on things going on with her siblings. She spotted Stephanie stringing along the little Lydecker girl and her hanger-ons which earned her approval. Cassandra and her lackey Jinx were engaging with Oswald Cobblepot over weaponry of all things, you could always trust Cass to talk about war and combat and while Barbara found Cobblepot to be an obsequious little rat, he was one of their father's more notable contacts in Gotham. Lex Luthor himself, their father, was currently engaged talking to Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle while throngs of media and hangers on surrounded them. It was then that Barbara spotted her conversational partners for the evening.
She confidently sauntered over to where she saw Dick Grayson and Holly Robinson standing and chatting, apart from the majority of the crowd.
"Interesting night isn't it?" Barbara seductively purred, making the rather bland and pointless statement seem a lot deeper and more insightful than it actually was. She doubted that either of them would see much importance in her words but it was important to always appear to be one of the smartest most knowledgeable people in the room at any given time.
Barbara actually rather liked Richard Grayson. He was handsome and witty and he wasn't constantly falling over himself to impress her. Her younger sisters had taken great offense to the fact that Richard Grayson hadn't fallen for her instantly but Barbara preferred it that way. He was from Gotham which was a major knock against him and Barbara would ultimately marry whoever her father felt would be the best match arranged for the company but for now Richard Grayson was fun to play with because he could resist her and fight back against her.
Holly Robinson was also entertaining. The girl was clearly out of her depth and disdained the wealthy but as the adopted daughter of a wealthy woman herself she couldn't quite articulate her dislike without appearing a hypocrite. It was fun to wind her up in deniable ways and play with her food. Barbara was infinitely better than her in every way that mattered and she supposed it was a bit childish to bully your lessers but Robinson was so aggressive that it felt satisfying to run circles around her socially.
"What do you want Luthor?" Holly Robinson sneered in annoyance. Barbara's smile didn't visibly grow but she felt her enjoyment grow as she was given an opening to begin playing with them for a bit.
"We're all on first name basis here, please call me Barbara. If you keep throwing around the name Luthor one of my sisters will think you're talking to her instead" Barbara slyly remarked "They're much less fond of you than I am"
"I wouldn't mind talking to them but I think they've got some kind of grudge against me" Richard said in response hoping to defuse a potential explosion from Robinson "you know why that is?"
"For all my sister's precociousness and maturity they are children at the end of the day" Barbara smoothly replied "As such they tend to take it a little personally when I get snubbed for a dance even when they really shouldn't"
Richard appeared to mull over this information for a brief moment before he came to the decision that he thought would lead to the least likely chance of a fight breaking out.
"Well then I hope they don't mind if I try to make it up to you now?" He offered even as Robinson rolled her eyes.
"Oh they'll mind" Barbara jovially stated "But at this point taking back the offer would be even worse then going through with it"
Barbara was pleased that this sort of entrapment had worked. Either way Richard tried to play it she'd come out on top and he'd look worse off. Undermining him in these little ways was incredibly petty but it was fun and it was technically forming a working contract. Richard appeared to suck it up and agree to the dance even as Robinson muttered something about not being surprised that a Luthor would go for entrapment.
The waltz with Grayson was enjoyable enough even if it was clear that he was cautious around here. That only meant he was intelligent if he recognized the fact that she was powerful and dangerous and that offending her would effectively end him. They were in her city now and while Barbara didn't exactly rule Metropolis herself, she was the daughter of the man who did.
"So what are your thoughts on Superman?" Richard asked, most likely attempting to make her uncomfortable or throw her off balance so that he could win the verbal sparring contest. "Your family always has such interesting opinions on the subject matter"
Barbara allowed herself to visibly scowl. It was important to make her distaste, distrust and dislike of Superman as visibly clear as possible. After all it wasn't enough to hate Superman but if she could signal that she hated him then those who believed in her and followed her would likely hate him by proxy.
"I despise how a moronic flying brick can be hailed as a hero while the real people who do all the work are overlooked and painted as the villain" Barbara smoothly replied "I personally think that the world would be better off without loose cannons like him running around. LexCorp has been running its own programs and sponsoring its own superheroes who can effectively replace him by being more effective and ethical than an unstoppable renegade who answers to no authority but his own"
Barbara smiled once again as she shifted her tone to be a bit more light-hearted.
"I'm sure I can pull up an article I wrote on my opinions of LexCorp's superhero initiatives if you want to go more in depth" Barbara said
"No need for any of that" Richard responded smoothly "I was just curious to see how much you believe in the LexCorp company line"
Barbara laughed at that blatant lie.
"I help to write the LexCorp company line my views won't differ from it all that much" She openly admitted the half-truth. She helped write the LexCorp company line and she generally agreed with it save at those points where it differed from her families actually held beliefs and values. It would be more accurate to say that Barbara's beliefs lined up with the Luthor family line.
"And your sisters are also just as doggedly adherent to the company line?" Richard asked rhetorically clearly not intending for Barbara to answer and yet she'd give him one anyways.
"Absolutely" Barbara answered "We disagree on a few things but family out to be able to work together and agree with one another."
"I suppose" Richard responded "I always figured that family was less blind adherence to one another and more working through each others flaws"
Barbara couldn't help but grasp the opportunity to insult him in this moment.
"I suppose that's true if your family is deeply flawed" Barbara mockingly conceded. Before Richard could get out another response Cassandra promptly interrupted the two of them.
"Grayson" Cassandra angrily hissed "You bothering my sister?"
The protective instinct was a bit stupid and unnecessary but Barbara wouldn't begrudge her adorable little sister from trying to protect her. Barbara could handle herself and was firmly in control of things now but it amused her to let Cassandra tear into Grayson for a little bit.
"No we were just having a conversation about family" Barbara openly announced to her little sister "Grayson just found it strange that we all agree with each other and can live together harmoniously without correcting what we see as wrong with each other"
"That's sad" Cassandra bluntly replied cutting off Richard before he could reply "I'm sorry that your family doesn't love and trust the people in it"
"Thank you for your condolences it means a lot from someone who clearly knows what it's like to be distrusted and unloved" Grayson fired back cheerfully as a way to dig at Cassandra. The blow didn't land but that didn't mean Cassandra wouldn't double down in response. Little Cassie was so endlessly aggressive when dealing with what she thought were enemies.
"I have my sisters and that's more than you ever will" Cassandra stated authoritatively. Stephanie suddenly scampered over and intentionally bumped into Richard, spilling a glass of water all over the front of his shirt.
"Oh I'm so sorry Dickie" Stephanie saccharinely lied "I couldn't see you there, I try to ignore people speaking blatant falsehoods and sometimes it just leads to these unfortunate accidents"
Richard Grayson grimaced over this while Barbara internally tittered over how quickly her sisters had prepared this little stunt. Clearly this was going to be the highlight of their evening. She maintained that she didn't need their help handling Grayson but she figured feeding them a win and messing with Richard was good enough entertainment for the night.
"It's understandable" Richard responded seemingly politely "I'm more than familiar with Luthor's not seeing the little people in their way. Your eldest sisters a stunning example of that kind of behavior"
Well that was rude but Richard clearly didn't see the fact that trying to bait Stephanie like he might Barbara was a mistake. Barbara was the perfect flawless heiress but her sisters could act out a lot more thanks to that.
Stephanie promptly drove her heel into Richard's foot with as much force as she could muster, causing Richard to let out a strangled yelp of pain
"Oops" Stephanie insincerely stated "I didn't see the little person who got in my way"
Barbara knew that she had to publicly disapprove of such behavior even if she didn't really mind it all that much.
"Now, now little sister you know you can't take out your anger on a guest just because he's being rude" Barbara lightly chided.
"You should have broken his legs were there were no witnesses" Cassandra only semi-jokingly responded, just enough so that she had deniability "more permanent consequences with less witnesses"
"Cass" Barbara admonished with false care "You shouldn't say something like that in public"
Barbara made it a point to very pointedly not mention that Cassandra wasn't exactly wrong. If she ever got tired of Richard Grayson and she figured she could get away with it, Barbara would have made certain their were no witnesses and that her solution was permanent and final.
"I'm sorry Richard" Barbara stated "As I said earlier my sisters can act a little childishly when you push their buttons. It might be best if you leave for now so that you don't cause them to act up any more"
"I think next time I'll take my chances not dancing with you" Richard said as he walked away but Cassandra felt the need to get the last word in.
"The problem's not your dancing" Cassandra stated "It's that every time you open your mouth you annoy and aggravate"
Richard Grayson promptly mimed zipping his lips and silently limped away. Barbara meanwhile did her best to admonish her sisters for acting out even if her heart wasn't really in it to any meaningful degree. Besides Stephanie's proclamation that she'd found an incredible new use for lady-stilts was too adorable to stay angry at especially when Barbara had deliberately pushed things along those lines somewhat.
"I'll never understand why you enjoy talking to Dickie boy" Stephanie chimed in as the admonishing wound down "He's so shifty and sneaky and disrespectful and always trying to find some angle to get at you"
"He's like Lois Lane if she were a trained martial artists" Cassandra chorused "His body language radiates that he's dangerous".
Barbara smiled as she admitted why she liked playing with Richard so much.
"It's fun talking to him because I'm untouchable to him and we both know it" Barbara openly admitted "He so desperately wants to win against me and yet I have all the cards. I can spin him in circles for days on end and no matter how things play out I always win. And it's precisely because he's intelligent and dangerous that it's so much fun to prove how much better I am than him"
"You're always better than him" Stephanie childishly rejoined "You're a Luthor. That's all the proof you need to know that you're better than he'll ever be"
It was adorable and to some extent true but Barbara was aware that she had not always been a Luthor and that instead their father had chosen to make her one. She was only a Luthor thanks to the wisdom and judgement of Lex Luthor and sometimes it was fun to prove that his faith in her hadn't been misplaced.
Barbara didn't bother sharing these thoughts with her sisters and instead just spent the rest of the evening entertaining her sisters and meeting and charming various inordinately rich worthless Gothamites who left the party practically wrapped around her finger. Barbara hated Gotham and so she'd pull everything of value from that city and reinvest it into Metropolis and LexCorp. She didn't need a fool like Richard Grayson who was so committed to that dying city that someday he'd die in it. No she had all she needed right here in Metropolis.
And so Barbara enjoyed the rest of her evening having fun being the perfect Luthor heiress. She was her father's daughter after all, by choice if not genetics, and this little event had been a win for the Luthors.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Alternate-universal Lorelei would be so proud of this iteration of Babs. And the girls in general.
Also, she agrees Gotham is shithole.
1940!Mildred: "I had fun."
1940!Lorelei: "You enjoy gunfights. Seriously, you'd think they'd have cooled down after Prohibition ended!"
Also, she agrees Gotham is shithole.
1940!Mildred: "I had fun."
1940!Lorelei: "You enjoy gunfights. Seriously, you'd think they'd have cooled down after Prohibition ended!"
Lord Ultimus
Beautiful...
- Location
- Undisclosed Warehouse
Speaking of, should we start thinking about desensitizing our Cass to death?
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I love his and I kinda wish it was canon