So this is a brief reprieve for me from my work for me to dive into something a little more fun. This is not an official informational post and is more just some head canons on various locations and how I kind of imagine them to look. This is not canon and is more just my thoughts on the matter. Let me know if there are any places that you want to hear about in particular.
LexCorp Tower Metropolis: So I actually imagine LexCorp tower to be this big gleaming monolith of a building, ever so vaguely in the shape of a giant L. It might be a little too gaudy, but I imagine it to kind of look like the gold tower in Phnom, this massive structure that seems almost radiant in its wealth. It's huge and the windows are all reflective on one side. In addition I imagine that someone has the job of cleaning the building's exterior, and it's probably one of the scarier jobs to have as not only are you dealing with all the usual dangers of a high rise window cleaner, but there's an additional level of fear where the employer is constantly watching you. In addition to the tower itself, the premises of the tower include a large chunk of land, which I imagine vaguely resembles a college campus with decently green lawns, carefully cultivated trees and plants lining things and large square buildings dotting the area, including Lightyear Entertainment's Headquarters. I imagine that the entire plot of land is surrounded by a wall of some kind and manned with armed guards with the only entrances and exists being through these large gates which require security (primarily on the other side of the gate) to let you through. Like MIT's campus, I imagine that there are tunnels to connect the various buildings.
New Troy Borough: Broadly speaking I imagine the New Troy Borough to be the most photogenic for the whole "city of tomorrow" angle of Metropolis. It's got many gleaming gold and chrome buildings, though LexCorp tower dominates the skyline. The roads are broad and well maintained, street signs are clearly labelled and everything feels new. It does have a downtown area that's often lit up in neon lights, though the rest of the borough has more natural lighting.
Metropolis City Hall: Metropolis City Hall is a big white stone building made in the sort of Greek style that a lot of government buildings in the US have. I like to imagine that they have a very large flagpole in front of the building that flies both the US flag and the flag of Maryland. I also figure that it probably has a bunch of steps in front of it and that the interior is a primarily done in warm colors.
Madison High School: So I imagine Madison High School to be a rather nice looking high school with its own fields for both general use and specific sports and an aquatic sports center which contains a few pools. It's fairly well funded and the campus is easy to get around in. It's often brightly lit, I imagine that the entire building is loosely in the shape of a star, with the central point being the main library and the faculty offices and the "wings/points" each becoming a little more specialized for a general grouping of subjects. Madison High school is phenomenally well funded and is broadly recognized as a very good high school.
Lois Lane's Apartment: Lois Lane's apartment is located on Carter Avenue in the New Troy Borough of Metropolis and is near the center of the city. Lois can see the Daily Planet from her window and if she were to walk to the roof of her apartment building she could see both it and LexCorp tower. Lois's apartment trends towards slightly more modern decor with a slight splash of color. She has several bookshelves with a good number of books on a wide variety of subjects and a few knickknacks she's picked up over the years. Her apartment has a distinct kitchen area, a living room, a bedroom with its own closet, a bathroom, a small balcony, and a separate room that Lois uses as her "work room". Lois keeps her computer and her awards in the work room.
Diana Prince's Office: So Diana works out of Washington DC and she has a fairly nice office there. It's large (though not as large as Lex's) and fairly spacious. Diana doesn't have any windows but she does have good lighting for the office. She keeps a large polished black glass desk and has a fairly robust office chair. The office has numerous sofas and seats dotting it and while there is a purely perfunctory American flag in the corner of the room, the symbol of the DOMA is broadly and boldly emblazoned on one of the walls. Diana also keeps a sword and shield in her office and several dozen large filing cabinets. In addition Diana keeps lots of copies of congress session notes in the office and has a mug that Ace got her as well. The office has outlets for plugging things in as well as a counter, and is connected to a fairly utilitarian bathroom.
The Iceberg Lounge: The Iceberg Lounge is a large building that stands apart from most other things, incorporating various modernist elements, resulting in great craggy sheets of metal being loosely arranged in a manner that causes it to resemble an iceberg. The Lounge has a massive amount of lights and has its own parking structure off to the side, built in a very brutalist practical style. The inside of the Iceberg Lounge is lit up in blue and and white is boldly displayed throughout the entire establishment giving the whole thing a slightly stark look. Penguin motifs are tastefully incorporated throughout the building and it generally sticks to using smooth flowing lines over hard turns and breaks. There is a good amount of seating at several different heights and even a few booths located higher up that mimic private opera balconies. There is a large open stage for musical or performative acts though most of the time Oswald makes use of his regular classical music band. At the center of the main dining area is the most unique thing about the iceberg lounge, a large artificial iceberg in a tank of water, hemmed in by guard rails, which contains leopard seals. There are numerous hidden backrooms and areas off limits to the public, each of which serve a distinct purpose. The kitchen is large well let and constantly has people moving in and out of it. The more general meeting rooms are generally designed to look more luxurious and have some sort of hardwood decor and attempt to evoke the feeling of a more normal Gotham style manor. The loading and preparation areas are often cramped, difficult to navigate and filled with many, many items. Any illegal deals that occur in the Iceberg Lounge would be happening in these stark utilitarian backrooms
@King crimson I'd like to hear you describe Bruce Wayne's manor actually. Now that I think about it I've never seen a full on map, it's always from outside or in a single rich hallway(Talking cartoons).
Broadly speaking I thought it was not bad. It took a lot of swings and some of them were misses but some were hits. It contained some Bruce Timmisms (not his worst one thank god), but I enjoyed it more than I didn't even if it is fundamentally incompatible with most DC stuff and it kind of messes up the New Gods pretty badly.
@King crimson I'd like to hear you describe Bruce Wayne's manor actually. Now that I think about it I've never seen a full on map, it's always from outside or in a single rich hallway(Talking cartoons).
So I can give a description of this stuff. Just keep in mind that this is mostly just my own thoughts and isn't solid canon. Additionally, I'm doing this while taking a break from work, so I might miss something or not get it quite up to the standards I'd expect an informational post to be at.
So the first thing to remember when talking about Wayne Manor is that the grounds of the manor are actually really expansive. Wayne Manor is basically a large house on a big hill and Bruce Wayne owns not just the manor but also the entire hill and some of the land around it. The hill overlooks a section of water that connects to the ocean (that Bruce Wayne also owns) and on top of all of that there's a pretty extensive underground tunnel network beneath Wayne Manor.
The grounds of Wayne Manor are not the most well-maintained but they are decently in order. There's a single smooth winding road that leads up to a cul de sac of sorts where people park near Wayne Manor. The grass is generally healthy, if a touch untamed and there are numerous trees growing on the grounds. The entire thing has a slightly gothic look to it and it generally doesn't seem overly threatening but it is clearly somewhat mismanaged.
The grounds are surrounded by a large brick wall and a wrought iron gate that can be remotely opened and closed bars the single known entry point, though there is a secret entry point that is on Bruce's property but still on the grounds that's completely disguised and is unknown to people that Batman sometimes uses when driving the Batmobile. The manor grounds do have a fairly solid surveillance and security system which means that while the grounds are very big, it's actually fairly difficult to remain hidden on the premises.
On the grounds there is a fairly large dilapidated groundskeepers building and a defunct kennel and stable.
Wayne Manor is located in the Crest Hill borough of Gotham and is decently far away from the other mansions in this borough, though still within comfortable driving distance.
The house itself is absolutely massive, being four stories tall and vaguely resembling a massive castle in done in a gothic art deco style. The house even has it's own tower with a spire. It's made of a mix of wood and stone and while the exterior manages to look fairly cohesive, it's dark colors does make it look rather ominous at night.
Within the house there are many, many rooms. There's a sort of luxurious foyer of sorts that greets guests and throughout most of the floors is rich warm carpeting, occasionally mixed in with hardwood or cobblestone floors. The staircases within the manor all have wooden glossy guardrails and while electrical lighting has been instilled throughout the building, the lighting is designed in such a way as to invoke a candlelit castle (though nowhere near as dark).
On the first floor there is a "games room" which contains equipment for games like billiards, darts, racquet ball, croquet and more, there is a modern state of the art kitchen with a lot of marble paneling, a ballroom with wood flooring and numerous expensive glittering chandeliers, a dining hall that more resembles a king's hall than something the average American would eat in (complete with pictures of dead Wayne ancestors), and a living room with a large fire place, an old picture of Bruce Wayne with his parents that Bruce hasn't gotten rid of and a good number of expensive but comfy sofas.
On the second floor there is a large library filled with many, many books and a good number of souvenirs and trophies taken by various Waynes over the years. Within the library there is a very large window that overlooks the ground, and a secret entrance using a seemingly antique grandfather clock that opens up a passage that leads to the batcave. In addition to this Alfred's quarters are on this floor as well as one of the guest bed and bathrooms that are available to visitors.
On the third floor we have Bruce's living quarters (with it's own bathroom and closet), Dick's living quarters (with its own bathroom and closet), a state of the art gym and Bruce Wayne's private study. The study also has a secret access point to the batcave involving a hidden biometric scanner and in general is the most secure room in the entire building. A "dummy" security control room exists on this floor as there is an area in the Batcave with access to the same equipment that can override actions taken on this console. There's also a panic button in both the security room and the study that will quietly lock down the batcave.
The fourth floor is mostly unused but there is a small observatory with a telescope on this floor.
In addition to all of this we have the public basements. The public basements have a theater for screening movies, a large garage in which Bruce keeps a massive amount of expensive cars (both luxury and high performance), and a racquetball court. There is an elevator that connects all of the publicly available floors.
Off the floor plan is the batcave. The bat cave is a massive natural tunnel system that for a long time sat unused as nobody wanted to go through the effort of refurbishing it and the Waynes generally didn't see the point in connecting it to the manor. The entirety of the batcave is built out of stone and while the walkways have been enhanced and some guardrails have been introduced, a lot of the cavern was carved by rainwater over a long period of time meaning it's possible to experience a steep fall. Furthermore many of the lowest levels of the cave are submerged in water.
Bruce primarily makes use of the upper areas of the batcave where he keeps his costume, his gear, and the bat-computer. A few trophies are displayed on some of the higher levels as well. The lower levels of the batcave are mostly unexplored, (though Bruce has installed additional security systems) and the lower levels contain the secret exit and entrance Bruce can use to obfuscate his movements on and off of Wayne Manor. In addition to being used for the Batmobile, the Batwing and the Batboat all are stored on the lower levels for the most part.
There is a section of Wayne Manor that is completely submerged that connects to the greater tunnel system in Gotham. Humans cannot naturally access this space as you'd have to swim underwater for a massive length of time in pitch darkness but hypothetically someone could guide a drone from the general Gotham tunnels into Batcave if they were able to navigate this connecting tunnel.
Let me know if there's any follow up info about Wayne Manor you're curious about.
Officially the answer is "depends on what omake writers do". I'm not making a definitive statement one way or another and if someone wants to write an omake declaring the canonicity of that one way or another, you are free to do so.
I'm about 25% of the way through things and today is likely to be the day I get the most stuff done. IRL circumstances are going to continue to be busy but I'm confident that I'll get something up this weekend.
In a broader sense, I can say with near total certainty that there almost certainly will be a hiatus late next month as my two research papers and finals due date draw closer.
Edit: Bit of advice for anyone looking to enter law school, if you're balancing a job with multiple classes and research papers, clinic work, a leadership position on a student org and attempting to have a social life, you're going to have a rough go of it if you can't time manage.
So here's an end of day status report on how the update is going. I'm about 66% of the way finished with the update proper. It's looking like this will also be about 9k words from how things are going so far. That being said I'm actually really enjoying getting to work through these, even if every mini-event experienced some kind of rewrite.
Something that got altered and then significantly pared down and cut is that "From Gotham with Hate" was going to feature a significantly more complicated mystery to crack based around a standard deck of cards.
It would've involved 13 clubs for the club suit, 13 illegal pawn shops or fences for the diamonds suit (because that's were a criminal might try to get rid of a diamond), 13 criminals homes for the heart suit (because home is where the heart is), and 13 underground locations (because you use a spade to dig underground). I've kept the relevant parts of the puzzle (which aren't present here and are why you can't solve what I'm presenting so it's not a spoiler)but I tossed out all of this stuff because I thought it more interesting/revealing to have Mercy just sidestep the whole mystery and find things out without playing the big game of clues.
I'm looking forward to getting the update out soon and I thank you all for your patience.
Something that got altered and then significantly pared down and cut is that "From Gotham with Hate" was going to feature a significantly more complicated mystery to crack based around a standard deck of cards
It's always neat to get fan art and this is no exception. It looks like a lot of this was drawn by pencil and I appreciate the effort that goes into this.
I want to say that this is a very comic booky pose (the way the legs are posed and how Lex is turned towards the camera is very comic book-esque). I also want to take a moment to appreciate the way you drew ears fairly well and kept a good amount of detail. I also liked the attempted foreshortening.
It's always neat to get fan art and this is no exception. It looks like a lot of this was drawn by pencil and I appreciate the effort that goes into this.
I want to say that this is a very comic booky pose (the way the legs are posed and how Lex is turned towards the camera is very comic book-esque). I also want to take a moment to appreciate the way you drew ears fairly well and kept a good amount of detail. I also liked the attempted foreshortening.
Heads up folks, I'm going to be reviewing things briefly but the update should be dropping in 10-15 minutes. I likely will not be awake when the vote moratoriums end. As such I won't be telling people when they can and can't vote even though there is a 1 hour moratorium. Thank you for your understanding.
And so we get to the next round of the events. The winning votes are
[ ] [Topic] Write-in: Talk to Bruce Wayne about his personal opinion on VAA and if Wayne Enterprises intends to recruit their own superheroes.
[ ] [Topic] Talk to Bruce Wayne about possibly engaging in a more personal collaboration between the two of you and your adopted heirs.
[ ] [Topic] Talk to Bruce Wayne about the current state of Gotham
[ ] [Plan] Attempt to track down the unknown individual's location
[ ] [Command] Secretly take the Commander back to LexCorp to be placed in a secretive holding cell and take whatever remains of the Commander's costume and equipment for study.
[ ] [Choice] Go and aid everyone fighting Parasite
We've got an interesting set of things going on. I'll say that almost all of these events have changed from my initial plans with them. "A Metropolis Welcome" changed due to me wanting to hide Bruce's POV to make his responses a little more ambiguous (you don't get to see too much of what he thinks of Lex Luthor and his various propositions and topics of conversation), "From Gotham with Hate" changed because I wanted to work a little bit more within a standard US playing card deck size and then scrapped making it too overt, "What Makes a Hero" got the Supergirl POV to do a little more build up of Zod (in case you couldn't tell he's kind of a big deal), and Enchanted and Ensnared was given a slightly more comedic tone at points while still being a mystery that keeps some sense of stakes.
It's also a solid line up of stuff featuring many King crimson classics such as long stretches of dialogue and interaction between characters that I try to make feel like an engaging back and forth, predictable unpredictability, elaborate fight scenes with a lot of moving parts and choreography, and sarcastic quips and one liners. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you guys enjoy it as well.
Nemesis Event: A Metropolis Welcome Part 2 Lex Luthor
"I was wondering if you'd given any thought to the VAA" You began "with the state that Gotham's in, I can imagine that it might be rather tempting for Wayne Enterprises to sponsor someone like the Batman and get to work cleaning up the city"
It was admittedly a multipronged approach but there was perhaps something to be said about weaving in a lot of the relevant subjects early. Would Bruce Wayne respond to the comment about the VAA? The angle regarding Wayne Enterprises sponsoring Batman? Or perhaps it would be the angle about the state of Gotham city? It might be telling to see how exactly Bruce Wayne might go about responding to something like this. Which route would he take when multiple were presented to him all at once?
"I'm not exactly sure Wayne Enterprises would be interested in hiring Batman, the man's got a reputation for being a mysterious violent lunatic, he's not nearly as friendly as the folks you have up here in Metropolis" Bruce Wayne jokingly responded "If you're ever able to send Ultraviolet up to Gotham I'd appreciate it, there's a hero with public appeal"
How droll, he retreated into the playboy persona. Still it was worth noting that he'd avoided answering all of your questions. Perhaps you'd have to press him a little more on the matter.
"I'll happily admit that LexCorp's sponsored heroes are the greatest in the world" You only semi-jokingly boast "But that doesn't mean there's no room for competition. Surely you've considered finding and outfitting someone to be the defender of Gotham?"
In your ideal world there'd be no room for competition and LexCorp would dominate everything but competition in an industry like superheroics is something you could tolerate for now, especially while you remained on top and couldn't expand to meet the demands of every market.
"It has never occurred to me to do so" Bruce slowly responded "The VAA seems well intentioned enough to me but in Gotham at least, I think the focus should be less on the spectacle of superheroics and more on ensuring that there's sufficient infrastructure to ensure that people don't turn to crime in the first place. For all that I'm grateful to Batman for stopping the Joker, I can't help but feel like the Joker would be so much more manageable if there were better programs for rehabilitation and getting people out of bad places to ensure that he wouldn't have nearly as many people willing to work with him."
It's an interesting enough speech. You'd argue that in the face of threats like Brainiac or even something like the mysterious Mister Atom robot in Fawcett City, better funding for public institutions wouldn't do much but you supposed you could see how one would conclude that Gotham wasn't truly in need of a better hero so much as it was systemic overhaul. You'd gotten a solid impression of Bruce's likelihood to hire a superhero. The telltale scratching of Cassandra's pen indicated that you'd get the truth one way or another. You hadn't caught any out and out lies but with Cassandra in the room, nothing would slip by you.
You briefly pondered the viability of continuing to push for Bruce Wayne's thoughts on the VAA but ultimately decided to drop it. You'd gotten a solid enough impression of his opinions as of now.
Before you could shift gears however, Bruce Wayne ended up preempting you.
"You know I've heard rumors that you regularly meet with the head of the DOMA and that you've done plenty of consulting work for the US government on metahumans" Bruce Wayne calmly stated whilst taking another swig of alcohol "Just how much input did you have on the VAA?"
You're not sure if Bruce Wayne is suspicious or perceptive or what's going on. Luckily you don't need to hide too much on this matter. You can be open and honest in this regard as it would cost you nothing to admit to Bruce Wayne.
"I did meet and speak with Director Prince about the bill but for the most part I let her take the lead on the VAA. I mostly greased the wheels and provided funding so that she could get the good work done" You calmly admit "I requested a few clauses to make it easier for people with the resources to fund a superhero and hold them accountable for their actions but the bill is very much Director Prince's brainchild"
Something flashes in Bruce's eye in response to your comments.
"But you'd already had Superman here in Metropolis, why pay for so many heroes in Metropolis when you've already got Superman doing it for free?" Bruce seemingly lightly questions as he tries to shift the topic to the alien "Is there something wrong with him? Some great dark secret the people of Metropolis doesn't know?"
Well the alien is ... irritating... but you can compose yourself well enough that Bruce Wayne shouldn't be too tipped off to your true feelings on the matter.
"While I'm no doubt sure that Superman has some skeletons in his closet he'd rather we not find, for the most part he's fine, if a bit too prone to rushing into things and engaging in battles with collateral damage" You reply hiding the depths of your hatred towards the arrogant lummox "I'd simply rather not trust my fate, and the fate of this city to someone I know so little about, especially when I have the resources to ensure that someone I trust does a better job."
"Superman does seem a little bit too good to be true" Bruce Wayne conceded "I was kind of hoping to get some kind of inside scoop on the guy, see if he's really all he's made out to be, and I can understand wanting to do things yourself."
"Don't get your hopes up" You drily replied. "Superman doesn't meet with us regular humans unless we can sell his story to the paper"
It's slightly satisfying to get to badmouth Superman but you do need to keep it all under control. Bruce seems at least somewhat receptive to hearing your thoughts on the subject matter even if you've been heavily filtering them to ensure your opinion would remain palatable.
"I was curious about possibly setting up some sort of possible collaboration between ourselves and our heirs" You stated, shifting the conversation away from Superman for a bit "Naturally the companies wouldn't need to get involved but I think working together and setting an example for our children on how they can collaborate with one another instead of constantly engaging in competition might be worthwhile"
"What sort of project are you thinking about?" Bruce Wayne responded "I'm not opposed to setting up billionaires baseball league but something tells me you had something more specific in mind"
You ponder for a moment before you come to a conclusion on how best to answer Bruce's query.
"I'd prefer something a little more substantial than a baseball league, it ought to be something at least somewhat productive" You replied "I'd be in favor of something like working together to design a Mars rover or assisting in the rebuilding of Gotham and Metropolis or running a joint investigation on the effectiveness of aid money to foreign countries. Something with a concrete benefit not just to the child but also to society as a whole"
You hope that the strategy of playing to a more socially conscious role might get Bruce more on board with the idea. The man seems to want to paint himself as a great philanthropist so you tried to play to that.
"And what sort of collaboration would you be interested in?" Bruce said, turning to face Cassandra specifically. Your daughter took a second to think before responding in a clear and even tone.
"I'd like to cure Tasmanian devil face cancer"
The answer appears to have caused Bruce Wayne to hesitate a bit, prompting Cassandra to elaborate on the subject matter.
"I like Tasmanian devils but they're subject to cancer strains that are threatening their population. I'd like to fix it if possible" Cassandra calmly elaborated.
It took you a second to piece together what sort of game Cassandra was playing at. Cassandra was attempting to act more childish to get Bruce Wayne to underestimate her while at the same time hiding a more malicious reason for engaging in such a project. While you had no doubt that Cassandra would prefer Tasmanian devils not to go extinct, the fact that she wanted Bruce Wayne, the man in control of the foremost medical company in the world to agree to working with you on a project to cure cancer indicated that she was interested in stealing medical techniques for LexCorp's use. Sure Tasmanian devils were a not humans but they were mammals and they were safe enough that Bruce Wayne would likely hesitate to accuse a thirteen year old girl wanting to save her favorite animal of attempting to engage in corporate espionage. It was a decent strategy for now.
"I'll consider it" Bruce Wayne evenly answered back "I'd like to hear Dick's thoughts on the matter before I commit to anything one way or the other"
Well there was no sense in cajoling him for more information on that front.
"I am curious as to something though Lex" Bruce Wayne stated, once more shifting the conversation onto a different tack. "I was wondering if you would be willing to give me a sense of what the situation in Alexandria is like. It's not every day that someone buys a whole city"
You're not quite sure why Bruce Wayne is approaching this topic but you can answer it regardless.
"I merely saw a situation in which I could step in and do things better. Alexandria's a thriving city and in a few years it'll be transformed into an idyllic productive city" You replied "In a lot of ways it's easier to improve when you don't have maniacs there like in Metropolis or Gotham"
Bruce lightly grimaces at this statement.
"People like the Joker do tend to have that effect" Bruce ultimately stated "I'm happy to hear that you could finance things so effectively while Metropolis is still recovering"
You're not sure if he's subtly attempting to insult you but you figured it's better to play it safe for and use this as an excuse to push for more information from Bruce Wayne.
"I find it rather fulfilling. Repairing Metropolis is an order more complicated with denizens like our local costumed alien and the supervillains he fights but it's still commencing at a stable pace" You answered before asking your own question "How goes the situation in Gotham?"
Bruce Wayne tenses for a moment before responding.
"It's still rather messy, though it is getting better. People are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the mayor but so far things are remaining calm and under control. Hearing that the Joker would be out of town has emboldened some people but for now it seems like Gotham is solidly recovering."
Bruce Wayne has given you some idea of the state of Gotham as he sees it and you have no doubt that Cassandra will have more notes as time goes on. You haven't gotten much concrete out of Bruce Wayne and likewise you've given him nothing he can leverage. Now you just need to determine if you want to keep probing for information or if you want to end the conversation and instead let the next step of your observations come to pass.
Talking to Wayne subvote
You've continued to converse with Bruce Wayne and while you've gotten information on his opinion of the VAA and on Wayne Enterprises likelihood to sponsor a superhero, brought up the potential of a collaboration between the two of you and your heirs, and some of his thoughts on the current state of Gotham, Bruce has notably been somewhat roundabout in his conversation with you, not providing too many concrete details for you to rely upon. Additionally Bruce Wayne has probed for your thoughts on Superman and for what you are doing with Alexandria. He will almost certainly ask at least one more question before the conversation comes to a close. As such it is up to you if you want to discuss more topics before wrapping up the conversation. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Note that write-ins are required for any option that involves continuing to talk to Bruce. Note that the more topics you attempt to talk to Bruce Wayne about, the more likely it is for Bruce Wayne to figure out something about yourself. All write-ins remain subject to QM approval. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Talk] Continue talking to Bruce Wayne (please write-in the topic you want to talk about)
[ ] [Talk] Attempt to wrap up the conversation with Bruce Wayne
Nemesis Event: From Gotham with Hate Part 2 Mercy Graves
Mercy knew she had a tricky job ahead of herself. Mercy liked to consider herself something of an expert on the matter, she'd picked up more than enough whilst working with Lex over the years that she could probably make a killing as a security consultant if she ever lost her mind and decided to quite working for LexCorp for some godforsaken reason. Because of this Mercy was well aware that the most fallible part of any security system was always the human element.
The unknown individual seeking cash for Superman's corpse was a potential problem and Mercy was not in the habit of letting potential threats go unchecked. She and Lex suspected that the unknown individual was the Joker, but it wasn't concrete enough that Mercy wasn't going to prepare for more extreme scenarios. She had read up on the relevant tactics and begun employing them to ensure the Joker could not get access to the building. It was dull dry work but it was necessary work.
The complications came in once Mercy got the call that Lex wanted the unknown individual found and tracked down if possible. Quite frankly Mercy was the most qualified to handle a job this sensitive so she took over the job. Mercy knew that Lex was counting on her to get the job done efficiently and effectively. That meant no leaks and no sloppy unnecessary acts. Everything would proceed quickly and effectively.
Mercy was by no means an expert tracker but she knew a thing or two about finding someone who wanted to hide. Moreover, Mercy was familiar with Metropolis, especially its seedier side. She knew exactly which rocks she could kick over to get the vermin scurrying for cover. And it was because of this that Mercy was getting ready to go to Rockers dressed for a night on the town. Mercy still kept a gun on her and some armor underneath her dress, but she wanted to at least somewhat blend in. The outfit diverged from her usual fare and had no clear ties to LexCorp. It wouldn't fool anyone who knew her, but it was a solid enough disguise that Mercy could slip in an out of the bar and interact with criminal elements without anyone connecting it to her actual identity.
The overall strategy was simple. Whoever the unknown individual was, they'd left breadcrumbs by discussing things and the criminal elements of the city would no doubt talk. By canvassing the place, Mercy could find some leads. And so Mercy with a few plainclothes armed escorts she trusted, both to shoot people on command and to keep quiet, moved in and began searching for whatever information she could find.
It took the whole night and Mercy had to ply people with too many drinks, but eventually she got enough information to make things clear. Apparently the Metropolis criminal underworld had all of their communication with the unknown individual was occurring through some blond woman going by the name of "Mac Sennet". Nobody knew who she was but she spoke with a heavy Jersey accent and the few people who attempted to follow her turned up later as corpses. She drove a red convertible with a missing license plate and seemed to go to various criminal establishments at random.
Mercy then decided to wait and see what was going on. She passed on her findings to Lex and she got confirmation that "Mac Sennet" was almost certainly an alias, as "Mack Sennet" was apparently a man once known in Hollywood as the "king of comedy". Mercy didn't know who the blonde actually was but it was increasingly certain that the unknown individual they were dealing with was the Joker.
From there Mercy's plan was simple. Tapping into LexCorp's resources to find a red convertible without a license plate took a while but she succeeded and once she had that, Mercy managed to remotely tail the blonde woman by using some of LexCorp's spy drones. Slowly but surely a pattern emerged. Mercy wasn't sure what the overall pattern was, but she had managed to identify enough to determine that there were two locations just outside of Metropolis city limits that the blonde woman would stay in overnight, an old abandoned farmhouse and a now defunct industrial plant from nearly a century ago. Wherever the Joker was hiding, he was almost certainly in one of those two places. Now all that was left was pass along the information to Lex and then act on things as appropriate.
It wasn't an easy job but Mercy got it done, quickly, efficiently and effectively, with almost everyone entirely unaware of just how much she'd put together for Lex.
Pick a Card subvote
Mercy has managed to determine that the unknown individual seeking to kill Superman for a price is almost certainly the Joker. In addition, by covertly trailing the unknown individual's primary point of contact, a blonde woman going by the alias "Mac Sennet", Mercy has managed to narrow down the unknown individual's potential location to two separate places on the outskirts of Metropolis. As such you ought to make a decision as to what move to make with this newfound information. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Write-ins are available for this subvote but as always all write-ins are subject to QM approval. While assigning hero units is not necessary, it is strongly encouraged that you do so if you do not want QM to make potentially suboptimal decisions on your behalf. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Card] Have Mercy lead an attack on the old abandoned farmhouse with an attempt to kill the Joker
[ ] [Card] Have Mercy and Arthur Villain observe the defunct industrial plant and attempt to abduct "Mac Serret"
[ ] [Card] Have Arthur Villain attempt to arrange a meeting with the Joker at the old abandoned farmhouse
[ ] [Card] Have Mary Louise Dahl attempt to arrange an in person meeting with the Joker at the industrial plant
[ ] [Card] Contact the police personally and provide them with the information you have obtained
[ ] [Card] Have Arthur Villain covertly "leak" some information to Lois Lane in order to potentially move her into the Joker's line of fire
[ ] [Card] Have Mercy covertly drop off a briefcase with money and instructions on what you want done to Superman at the defunct industrial plant
[ ] [Card] Write-in
Nemesis Event: What Makes a Hero Part 2 Parasite
Parasite was pissed as hell. He was tired of dealing with these irritating pests who kept on bothering him during what should have been his greatest meal ever. Parasite had almost been able to drain two kryptonians of their powers. Weeks of planning and stalking the blonde meal on legs, draining people quietly to build up enough charge for a dine and dash, all of it wasted because three irrelevant bitches wouldn't get out of his way! Ultraviolet was a big name and all but she was no Superman and he didn't even know who the green fire chick or the spooky goth jailbait were. He had Superman's powers, they should be on their knees begging him not to take his cut from them, not harassing him and pissing him the hell off. Who did they even think they were?
Parasite snarled as he let loose a torrent of heat vision trying to fry Ultraviolet. The superheroine merely rolled out of the way and readied some spiked construct to smash into his face. Parasite surged forward, Superman's speed enabling him to move so fast speeding bullets were practically slow-mo in comparison. But before he could get too close something snagged his foot and slowed him down. Parasite's eyes flicked down just long enough to recognize that he'd been caught by some kind of black grasping hand, likely generated by the goth teen, before Ultraviolet's construct smashed into his face.
Parasite howled in rage throwing out a haymaker that shattered the construct before attempting to shoulder-check Ultraviolet, who merely flew around him and created a piston like construct to repeatedly pound him in the stomach until he lay in the dirt. Dark tendrils crept out of the ground and attempted to pin him in place.
Parasite was not going back into a box! he'd gotten too close to be defeated here and now. Parasite roared as he tore through the dark tendrils and unleashed a torrent of freeze breath, locking Ultraviolet into place encased in ice. Parasite would deal with her later. For now he had a teenaged brat to drain and then kill.
Parasite flew forwards, savoring the terror in the teenage girl's eyes as he closed in. He was going to take his time wringing her dry of everything she was good for. His hand was right about to close around her throat. Parasite leered in anticipation, ready to take what was rightfully his. And then nothing happened.
The teen had turned intangible or something and now was sinking below ground. Parasite was pissed. First he couldn't drain Ultraviolet for some reason, now this next pain in his ass couldn't be touched? What the hell was going on here? Parasite wasn't on board with this at all. He'd had Superman in his grasp and they kept delaying him from getting anymore.
Before Parasite could figure out what move to make in response, everything was suddenly engulfed in glowing green fire. The blaze hurt, but with Superman's durability, Parasite could tank it well enough for now. Parasite fired a blast of heat vision towards where the fire was coming from, causing the stream to cut off as the green fire lady flew to dodge his blast.
"You don't get it do you, I have all of Superman's powers, a little fire isn't going to hurt me!" Parasite lied. The fire did hurt. It wasn't debilitating by any means but getting roasted wasn't any fun either. He had Superman's powers, he should be invincible, why the hell was he being denied the prize he had earned?
"Oh the fire wasn't meant to hurt you too much" the green flaming woman mocked, causing Parasite to decide he wanted to murder her slowly "I just wanted to make sure..."
Parasite was done listening, he rushed forwards towards the green woman. He was going to crush her skull! Shatter her bones! Unmake her to the point where she'd regret ever mocking him! Nobody made fun of Rudy anymore or they'd suffer!
Before he could make it all the way, a powerful blow struck him in the head and knocked him to the ground. Parasite was then scrapped along the ground before he managed to break loose and spot what had happened. The fire attack had apparently been meant to unfreeze Ultraviolet. Parasite was increasingly done with this shit. Every time he slowed one of them down another road block got in his way.
"How rude" The green flaming woman glibly commented "I thought he'd be able to do some back and forth banter and not just scream like an angry child"
Parasite immediately cut loose with blasts of heat vision as he rushed towards the green flaming woman, dodging past various constructs Ultraviolet created to try and slow him down.
"I'll butcher you!" Parasite shouted as he tried to crush the woman with a powerful overhand strike. The woman immediately started to dodge his attacks, cowering before his might. Parasite smiled. This was how things should be. Then the bitch opened her mouth.
"Ooh touchy" the woman joked "Is it because you look like a human-raisin?"
Parasite screamed and cut loose.
Everything in front of him was blasted into a crater. Ultraviolet moved to stop him but after a quick exchange of blows, Parasite managed to catch her slipping and backhanded her. She was an annoying pain in the ass and she'd hit him far too much for his own liking but Parasite was slowly but surely killing everyone who'd stood in his way. He was running out of juice but once he was done killing all of them, he'd just stock up some more energy and hunt down the kryptonians and pick up where he'd left off.
"I have all the powers of Superman" Parasite taunted "I'd recommend a less painful way of committing suicide than pissing me off"
"We get it you're the big bad super strong guy who has Superman's powers" A dry sardonic voice responded. Parasite whirled around to spot the goth looking teen in the hotpants leotard and cloak. Behind her a black almost cylindrical object rose out of the ground. As the object unfurled like a flower beginning to bloom Parasite spotted the green flaming woman coming out of it. Things weren't supposed to go this way!
"You've been yapping about how great Superman's powers are all this time, can't you learn a new tune?" The teenage girl stated with a sort of bored contempt "Are you really so pathetic that the only bragging you can do is about someone else's powers? It's kind of sad"
Things weren't supposed to go this way! This was meant to be Parasite's moment of triumph!
Parasite lunged forwards but was once more engulfed in fire, this time of the normal variety, but unlike before it burned like nothing Parasite had ever felt before. It hurt like nothing Parasite had ever felt before. The flames lapped at every inch of his skin, lighting nerve endings on fire. Parasite was meant to be invincible.
Parasite stopped thinking and let loose a torrent of heat vision, the red beams wildly carving through the air. He was supposed to be invincible with Superman's powers why did the fire hurt so much?
Parasite spotted a flying woman in a black dress that seemed vaguely familiar. Before he could get too close though something bright and violet slammed into him. Then as he got up he was bombarded with telekinetically launched debris. Then as he recovered green fire. He managed to avoid the seemingly normal fire but then Ultraviolet hit him with cymbal constructs and caused his ears to start ringing as he attempted to orient himself.
There was no time to think, no time to plan, just a constant bombardment of pain as he wildly lashed out and tried to make it end. Sharp objects lodged into his back, superheated flames covered his body, constructs pummeled him constantly and the pain never ended. The ground folded itself around him and smashed into him as molten dirt burned his eyes. Ultraviolet snarled as she avoided his strike and hit him in the jaw with some kind of power gauntlet construct, sending him stumbling into the ground.
Parasite drained Superman! He was supposed to have been invincible. None of the trash arrayed before him should have even stood a chance and yet as the powers slowly faded and the constant attacks didn't let up, Parasite fell.
Superman
Clark wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation. In that split second before Parasite had attacked, Superman had made the decision to take the blow for his cousin. Kara remained suspicious. As far as Clark knew he was supposed to be the last kryptonian. Kara's presence was concerning, especially when paired with her blatant bigotry towards certain aliens and her tendency towards violence. Her seeming cooperation with LexCorp and the fact that she was equipped with some fairly high tech armor only furthered his suspicions. And yet when the chips fell he'd saved her and in return she'd tried to save him.
Kara had pulled him away from Parasite. Superman would've liked to contribute to the battle against Parasite but drained as he was, he was more likely to be a liability than an asset. Luckily Parasite's stolen powers would fade over time and Superman would return to full strength. Even if things went wrong in the fight, Parasite could be stopped if Clark could just hide for long enough. It wasn't a great plan and he felt awful for sticking to it but it was the best he could do.
While he waited Clark got to talking with Kara, getting to know who she was a little better. She was clearly hiding something but she had a good heart. It became clear that she wasn't working for LexCorp and she seemed to heed his warning that LexCorp was potentially dangerous to get involved with. Still his cousin seemed to be a little too eager for more information on LexCorp. As such Superman deflected and merely gave her easily accessed information that any person with a library card could figure out. He pointedly didn't tell her about the fact that LexCorp tower was one of the only places in Metropolis he was almost entirely cut off from with his senses, or of the company's likely involvement with shady government actions like the Volcana situation, or of LexCorp's weather manipulating machines. Instead he kept it to easily confirmable facts and not anything he'd observed or researched. LexCorp was suspicious but so was his cousin.
Kara meanwhile talked a bit about herself and how she wanted to reconnect and how she liked getting to be a hero. Interestingly Kara let slip that apparently his father, Jor-El was responsible for having committed some kind of terrible crime and that she "understood the need to make up for the failings of a parent". Maybe Kal-El was a little naive, but that sounded wrong. Everything he'd gotten on Jor-El painted a very different picture and so it was concerning to hear something so at odds with everything he'd known about the subject matter.
Superman let Kara explain herself and try to justify her actions, stating that she was stressed and panicked and all her life she'd wanted to live up to what people wanted of her and to be good. It was a touch concerning that apparently people expected Kara to indiscriminately murder Durlans. Clark felt a lot more sympathy for Kara but he didn't fully trust her. He'd be happy to show her a thing or two about earth and give her a crash course in superheroing so that someone like Parasite couldn't ambush her again and so that she could potentially do more good, but Kara would be kept away from anything personal or from anything too hidden. Clark might not be the biggest believer in government secrets but even he could understand the sense in taking it slow with a potentially hostile alien.
For now Clark had a bit of a working relationship with his cousin and while not all the bridges had been repaired, they weren't burned either.
Supergirl
Kara Zor-El liked being Supergirl. It felt good to be a hero in people's eyes and not be looked at with suspicion and disdain for being the daughter of a terrorist. Humans were petty and primitive and weak but they were people just like any kryptonian. It felt good to be liked. Admittedly Kara was somewhat piggybacking off of her cousin's image but being "Supergirl" was nice.
Getting to repair he relationship with Kal-El had been nice. He still didn't trust her, which hurt, but at the very least she knew he didn't hate her and was going to try and talk to her about things and teach her about Earth. Kara had been terrified that Kal-El would hate her forever for what she had done previously. Kara didn't want that. He was family and maybe the only person in the world who could understand what it was like living with the shame of having one of the worst criminals in all of Krypton's history as a father. He should have understood the need to make up for the failures of your ancestors and be what people were counting on you to be. Instead every attempt Kara had in attempting to explain this got him to look at her strangely.
Kal-El also had some weird hang-ups about LexCorp. Kara had found those powered individuals from the organization to be pleasant enough and she rather liked that one Starfire girl. It was nice to meet a fellow alien on Earth. Sure it was a little awkward passing on information about them to General Zod but it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong. Kal-El meanwhile seemed to have a very strict view of operational security and stated that digging into LexCorp and trying to find out more about them would lead to potential complications with the local government. The company was a global power and it would not take kindly to someone snooping around without permission.
Kara supposed she couldn't look into LexCorp all that much then. She'd pass along what information she had to General Zod but she didn't want to anger the locals or cause them to become hostile. It would be easier if she could complete her scouting mission as peacefully and harmlessly as possible.
Kara liked being Supergirl. She'd had so many doubts about what would be asked of her and what her duty demanded of her. Learning from Kal and acting as a superheroine would let her get the info General Zod was asking for while also keeping her on good terms and not arousing too much suspicion or hostility. Yes, being Supergirl sounded like the right move to make.
Ursa Hu-Ul
Dru-Zod was a patient visionary. Her partner was the man who saved the Kryptonian race from annihilation and would reclaim the might and prestige of their previous empire. He was a leader that the people needed and that would see their glorious destiny achieved. Ursa believed in him and knew that his greatness would see them all triumph. She knew him better than anyone else and she'd see his visions through.
Her partner was pensive, mulling things over. The daughter of Zor-El had sent another transmission to them and Zod was troubled by it. As such it fell to her to help him come to a decision and to help assuage his doubts. As such Ursa asked what was on his mind so that she could better understand his dilemma
"Kara Zor-El has begun to go native" her partner stated "She's come to crave the adulation and respect of these lesser beings. Combined with her growing empathy for them and we'll be unable to rely on her for what is to come"
"Then why not simply destroy her?" Ursa asked rhetorically "She's one girl and whatever powers she has under the yellow sun, we'll all gain them."
Dru-Zod shook his head.
"It's not a viable strategy" he explained "Somehow Jor-El's son has arrived on this planet and become one of its defenders. In addition there are a fair number of individuals with esoteric abilities that could cause us complications. This planet managed to fight off Brainiac, it would be foolish to charge in without having a foothold already established and assume we can win simply because we're superior"
"What about the Worldkillers?" Ursa questioned "I doubt this backwater could handle them"
"The Worldkillers would provide us with a victory" Dru-Zod responded calmly "but it would be short lived as the very planet we are on would be rendered into dust. Our dreams of empire would be turned to ash by the very fires we'd have unleashed"
Ursa silently sat and let her partner contemplate things.
"The house of El continues to vex me, even with Jor-El gone" Dru-Zod muttered.
"I could always solve the problem" Ursa stated "I'm more than happy to make myself known and deal with the traitor"
Zod waved the offer away.
"You're too valuable to be risked on anything but the most necessary gambles" Dru-Zod stated, causing Ursa to feel a sense of pride. Her partner was generally stoic so little statements like this were practically tantamount to full on confessions of his love for her. Ursa linked arms with Zod as she moved him towards the dining chamber as he continued to ponder his issue.
Eventually her partner's eyes lit up as he came up with a solution.
"Kara Zor-El has begun to expend her usefulness and is increasingly likely to become a liability" He explained "What we need is a foothold and a way to get her back in line so she can be removed if she has truly gone native"
Ursa smiled and cut another slice of her dinner as Dru-Zod continued to explain their next steps.
"Once we've presented ourselves to this backwater, we'll recall Zor-El's daughter and ask her to invite Jor-El's son along. From there we cut off their access to their abilities and dispose of them" He elaborated "An with no one able to match our capabilities, we'll remove all threats piecemeal before then claiming rightful ownership of the planet"
"Do you have a specific maneuver in mind?" Ursa calmly questioned, not to challenge his vision but rather to see what her next steps would be.
"The fine details will need to be refined" her partner, the man who would remake the Kryptonian Empire anew, admitted "But Kara Zor-El is no longer necessary, she can play in the dirt as some champion to humans. Her services as a scout are no longer required. Instead we'll be making our own moves soon enough"
Ursa smiled as she and her partner continued to have a pleasant dinner with talk of their future conquest.
Parasite defeated and Ultraviolet gets primary credit for doing so
Superman and Supergirl agree to start working together and Superman agrees to start mentoring Supergirl in being a superhero
Superman is now more suspicious of Supergirl and her intentions
Supergirl is less likely to work with LexCorp due to not wanting to anger the people of Earth by compromising operational security
Supergirl is less likely to pass on information to General Zod about LexCorp
Parasite has earned enmity towards Raven, Fire and Ultraviolet, if this occurs two more times then he will become their nemesis
General Zod has begun to write off Kara as compromised and is planning to dispose of her soon
General Zod will begin acting soon
Nemesis Event: Enchanted and Ensnared Part 1
Eve Eden
Eve had not quite known what to expect from this situation. Getting called out to observe an erratic Superman was not high up on her expectations of what she might be doing as Nightshade but it still fell well within the general categories of things she expected Lex Luthor to ask of her. She hadn't been expecting to be the only responsible adult on the job.
It was odd being the oldest person on the mission and yet simultaneously being the newest to how LexCorp handled these kinds of things. It was a bit of an adjustment. For the most part Eve was following protocol and trying to keep an eye on her younger charges. They likely could handle themselves but Eve wasn't going to let either of them get hurt on her watch.
Now though came the boring part of the job. Nightshade created a portal of shadow to pop on through and took Siobhan and Jinx with her, arriving on the outskirts of downtown Metropolis. Already Eve could see crowds of people pointing their L-Phones at the sky as Superman seemed to be flying in circles, every so often shooting into the sky or swooping back down to the ground. The Metropolis Police were trying to keep people back away from the area which Superman might get close to. They needed to get moving and get in closer if they wanted anything relevant.
Eve took Jinx with her and opened up another shadow portal to try and get closer to Superman. Slowly but surely she teleported closer and closer and closer, trying to find an ideal angle from which to observe Superman. Unfortunately none of them were any good for getting any relevant information through observation. Ultimately it was Jinx who came up with the next step of the plan.
Jinx wanted Eve to open up a portal to the top of a nearby building so that they could watch Superman from there. It was risky, if either of them fell from the top of the building, they were goners and with Superman's behavior, Eve couldn't say that a collision with a building was completely out of the question. Unfortunately Jinx had already made up her mind to take the risk and while Eve could deny her, the girl would immediately complain to Lex's daughter and thus Lex would be annoyed. As such Eve caved, but only if Jinx agreed to constantly hold Eve's hand and remain in a shadow so that they could get out if things went wrong.
The two of them moved through a portal to the top of a nearby building where they then stayed hidden behind a rooftop air conditioning unit that was acting as their cover. Jinx complained about needing to hold Eve's hand and called her all sorts of names but Eve tolerated it and eventually they got a high speed camera set up and ready to record Superman's actions. They likely wouldn't get too much audio but they could attempt to watch in real time to try and figure out what Superman was doing.
Siobhan McDougal
Siobhan didn't like crowds. Downside of getting famous via being a superhero, people recognized your face and thought they deserved something of yours. Worst part was that if she did get recognized, Siobhan couldn't just tell people to buzz off. No she had to keep everything family friendly enough that there wouldn't be any chance of backlash against LexCorp.
As such when she'd been brought in to spy on Superman, she'd assumed that she needed to blend in and hide. She could fly if she needed to but with so many people watching Superman in the sky during the middle of the day, that plan wasn't exactly viable. As such Siobhan got her disguise ready to go.
She tied her distinctive white heir up and hid it all under a beanie you could buy at any bodega for tourists in Metropolis. From there layers upon layers of coats and hoodies and snow pants hid Siobhan's body and with a scarf wrapped around her mouth and nose, she wasn't really all that recognizable. A backpack over her shoulder and Siobhan was any other overly bundled up college student. Hopefully the disguise would work well enough.
Siobhan slowly trudged down the streets towards the crowd of people. Siobhan attempted to make her way as close as she can, weaving past people all the while. Eventually she pulled out her phone and got a few texts from Jinx complaining about Nightshade and informing her that they'd gotten set up. Siobhan briefly texted Jinx back some encouragement to deal with Nightshade's nonsense and then went to her own attempts to get closer to spy.
Siobhan shoved in deeper and deeper, eventually making it to a location just short of the police cordon. Once there she spotted a young guy with a high powered camera taking pictures of Superman. While the act of taking pictures wasn't all that strange, his muttering and the quality of the camera was a little weird. Siobhan made up her mind on what to do next, she wasn't getting any closer to Superman so she was going to pursue this lead.
"Hey" Siobhan said in what she hoped was an American accent as she prayed that her scarf would muffle her voice enough to make it hard to identify her "You know what's going on with Supes?"
The young guy turned to face her and Siobhan could make out a rather earnest seeming freckled face. She still wasn't sure if this guy was a teenager or a college student but he had a very noticeable baby face.
"Not too much" the guy said "I just know that this all started shortly after people began hallucinating at the Daily Planet"
Well that was something. Siobhan proceeded to try and think of a way to build on this information when the guy seemed to take her silence as doubt.
"My name's Jimmy Olsen, I work for the Daily Planet" the guy stated, causing Siobhan to internally start screaming as she prayed her disguise would hold. "I already tried to tell the police that but they didn't listen to me"
Siobhan wasn't sure if the information was accurate but she was sure that it was better than nothing. She just needed to have her disguise hold. Desperately Siobhan tried to think of a sufficiently American name for her new cover identity.
"Didn't mean to challenge you or anything, I totally was just trying to process what you'd said" Siobhan stated in her hopefully correct accent "My name's Jane Harrison, I'm a local college student even if I'm a little new to Metropolis"
Jimmy Olsen didn't seem to be too thrown off by her accent so Siobhan decided to push her luck a bit since the disguise seemed to be holding.
"What happened at the Daily Planet?" Siobhan asked, hoping Jimmy would give more information. And as luck would have it Jimmy was eager to talk about it.
"It was real weird, I went to the bathroom and suddenly I come back and one of our regular reporters starts screaming uncontrollably about spiders, another starts acting as though armed guards have entered the room and one person started shrieking as they were convinced the floor had given way and they were falling" Jimmy explained "Superman shows up shortly afterwards and starts evacuating people. Everyone stops hallucinating and everything seems fine. Ten minutes later Superman's flying around seemingly randomly and no one can figure out why."
"You have any ideas on what caused this?" Siobhan asked, hoping to get a little more information. Jimmy shook his head.
"Too many. Ms. Lane went to investigate while I keep an eye on things here" Jimmy Olsen replied. "If you stick around though I'm sure she'll be happy to share the inside scoop once she's got the facts"
Abort! Abort! Abort!
Talking to Jimmy Olsen was fine, he was an easy enough guy to pump for information, but Siobhan wasn't taking her chances with an investigative reporter like Lois Lane. That sounded like an excellent way to screw things up and get Lex real pissed real fast.
"Sorry, I've got to run to class soon" Siobhan lied "I appreciate you filling me in on things"
"It's no big deal" Jimmy responded, seemingly not catching on to Siobhan's desire to leave immediately "If you want to grab a coffee sometime I'd be happy to catch you up on all the latest news"
Jimmy then promptly handed her a business card. Siobhan immediately felt a little squeamish. Was this his way of trying to ask her on a date? Because of so, eww, he was not her type at all. The very idea of dating him was kind of gross and Siobhan had no intention of getting wrapped up in that if she could avoid it.
"I'll keep it in mind" Siobhan bit out, trying to suppress any of how gross she found the whole situation to be from her voice.
"No problem" Jimmy easily responded "I hope it's not too personal but before you run off, you mind telling me where you're from? You mentioned you're new to Metropolis and I don't think I've heard your accent before."
Shit this was not good. Siobhan did her best to not visibly panic. Had she not been consistent with the maybe American accent? Was something wrong with it? She'd stopped paying as much attention once Jimmy attempted to invite her on a date and so now she was trying to figure out what kind of accent she'd done up until now. God damnit talking to Jimmy Olsen might've been a mistake.
"I used to live in California" Siobhan honestly stated. Jimmy didn't seem to buy it which caused Siobhan to panic a little bit "But I've been all over the place and my accent probably has bits and pieces from multiple countries"
"Cool" Jimmy responded. Siobhan couldn't figure out what he knew but she needed to leave now. As such she cut him off from saying anything else.
"Thankyou,nicetalkingtoyou,Ireallygottoruntoclasses,sorrybye!" Siobhan spewed before she immediately took off and ran away from Jimmy. Once she'd gotten a considerable distance away Siobhan opened her phone and texted Jinx what she'd just learned. The situation was changing and now they had to figure out what they wanted to do.
Observation subvote
Jinx and Eve have set up a secret viewing spot from which to observe Superman as he continues to act in an aberrant manner. Meanwhile Siobhan has uncovered some potential clues as to what's going on in her own attempts to observe Superman. As such it is up to you to decide what should be done next regarding this situation. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Write-ins are available for this subvote and as always all write-ins are subject to QM approval. As always there is a one hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Observe] Have Siobhan join Eve and Jinx on the rooftop and continue spying
[ ] [Observe] Have Jinx and Siobhan attempt to track down Lois Lane
[ ] [Observe] Have Eve go to the police and present them with Jimmy Olsen's information with LexCorp backing
[ ] [Observe] Have Jinx leave the rooftop and use her magic to cause bad things to happen to Jimmy
[ ] [Observe] Attempt to locate the source of the hallucinations
[ ] [Observe] Attempt to locate the Daily Planet staff members who had started hallucinating earlier
[ ] [Observe] Have Jinx attempt to unleash her magic to cause something bad to happen to Superman
[ ] [Observe] Write-in
Also for my favorite joke that I will now proceed to explain because it amuses me too much to let it fly over people's heads, the "American name" Siobhan comes up with herself is an absolutely awful alias. Jane is apparently an equivalent to Siobhan (I don't know I don't get name etymology all that well) and "Jane Harrison" is actually the name of one of the first ladies of the United States. It's like a less exaggerated version of if a guy called "Odysseus" trying to come up with a stereotypically "American" name and said his name was "Ulysses Grant".
I'm not sure about anything else to ask Bruce, but I'm willing to hear peoples suggestions.
How do we want to handle Superman and Enchantradora?
It's amusing that superman needs Supergirl to pass on Zod's propaganda to wonder whether their is gaps in his knowledge of Jor-el is maybe missing critical details, given the whole "not the last Kryptonian" part of Kara showing up at all. Ironically, while generally a good person, Jor-el would fall short of Kal-el's morality standards.
Kal-El also had some weird hang-ups about LexCorp. Cassandra had found those powered individuals from the organization to be pleasant enough and she rather liked that one Starfire girl.
I'm not quite sure I see where this is coming from. When he was young he kind of bought into some Kryptonian exceptionalism/supremacist stuff like Zod did (though Jor-El grew out of it), and he didn't perfectly handle the situation with Non prior to him getting lobotomized, but there's not a whole lot of things that Jor-El did that you can really say "yeah he'd definitely fall short of Superman's moral standards". There are certainly things that would disappoint him but I don't think Jor-El's a clear cut example of someone falling short of someone's morality standards.
Zor-El (Jor-El's brother and Supergirl's dad) actually has a much more likely chance to fall short of Superman's ethical standards.
Edit: If you want to try and make an argument equating Jor-El's cooperation with the ruling council of Krypton (which was immoral and messed up) to Lex Luthor's cooperation with the US governments immoral actions, that sort of lines up, but it still doesn't quite work as Jor-El ultimately went against the ruling council and did his own thing for what he thought was the good of the people.
Edit #2: If we're talking about Superman's biological family falling short of his ethical standards, I do think most of his biological family would fall short of said standards. The one he'd probably have the most issues with is Lor-Van (his grandfather on his mothers side) who's not evil per se, but definitely complicit in a lot of really heinous stuff and in letting Brainiac get away with terrible acts.
Nothing that doesn't come off as trying to get corporate secrets. Anything involving tech, the metagene, or medical products would likely cause Bruce to end the discussion or ask similar questions back at Lex.
Lex could end the conversation by asking Bruce what he'd like to see in Metropolis or what he thinks about heroes from other cities (Flash, Blue Beetle, etc.).
[ ] [Talk] Attempt to wrap up the conversation with Bruce Wayne
Unless we want to bring Supergirl suspicious behavior to his attention? Less problems for us if Batman starts investigating potential upcoming Kriptonian invasion too, now that Kara unfortunately intends to stay clear of LexCorp.
Good point. Also we don't have any heavy hitters available, so sending Mercy to kill Joker seems ill advised.
[ ] [Card] Contact the police personally and provide them with the information you have obtained. Inform them that LexCorp would not have any heavy hitters available at the moment and suggest contacting Superman for assistance. Have them covertly drop off a briefcase with money at the defunct industrial plant and use it as trap for Joker.
I am thinking either Joker is dealt with or Superman cooperation with police is so bad that operation fails and Superman can be blamed for it.
Also I'll need to think on Enchanted event some more. Causing something bad to happen to Supeman seems tempting, but what would be reasoning here and how can we explain it to Eve?
@King crimson Can causing something bad to happen to Supeman be done without Eve noticing it or while making it look as if Jinx tried to do something else? Also is Card event write-in valid?
Edit:
[ ] [Observe] Have Eve and Siobhan follow Superman and continue spying. Have Jinx leave the rooftop and secretly use her magic to cause bad things to happen to Superman.
I'm thinking talking about that we are worried that more hostile aliens keep preparing at any exponential rate especially since they connected around Superman in different ways.
[ ] [Card] Contact the police personally and provide them with the information you have obtained. Inform them that LexCorp would not have any heavy hitters available at the moment and suggest contacting Superman for assistance. Have them covertly drop off a briefcase with money at the defunct industrial plant and use it as trap for Joker.
So this is a viable plan but it comes with a massive caveat. The police likely will not covertly drop a briefcase with money at the defunct industrial plant. If they were able to get that close undetected, they'd almost certainly attempt to make an arrest. As such as this is currently written the last section will almost certainly immediately fail.
Therefore if you want to use this write-in I think it's fair to let you know that it's liable to almost immediately go off the rails due to circumstances Lex could predict. You can still do it if you so choose.
If you wish to keep the briefcase drop off, I'd recommend using a hero unit to do so and then informing the police officers of it. Reformatting the vote as something like "Attempt to covertly drop off a briefcase with money at the defunct industrial plant to use it as a trap for the Joker. Upon doing so, contact the police personally and provide them with the information you have obtained. Inform them that LexCorp would not have any heavy hitters available at the moment and suggest contact Superman for assistance." would work better to achieve a similar result since portions of the plan aren't almost immediately guaranteed to fail and be derailed and what you're looking to do will be broadly achieved.
@King crimson Can causing something bad to happen to Supeman be done without Eve noticing it or while making it look as if Jinx tried to do something else?
Yes it's possible. The simple explanation is to simply have Jinx pretend that she was trying to help and then her magic got out of control and did something else (she was trying to cause bad luck to happen to the person behind Superman's actions but lost the ability to direct things and accidentally caused the bad luck to happen to Superman). It's dependent on Jinx's acting skills but in this case Eve's lower intrigue stat when not using her trait is actually helpful in fooling her. Such a plan could see a bit of a loss of coop score between Jinx and Eve but it would fulfill what you are looking for.
Admittedly, this is mostly solving the whole "do it while looking like Jinx tried to do something else" angle. As for trying to keep it secret, all you have to do is separate Jinx and Eve and let Jinx operate on her own. That would result in Eve at most being suspicious of the circumstances but she wouldn't know anything or be able to prove things one way or another (and this is a worst case scenario short of Superman attacking Jinx).
[ ] [Observe] Have Eve and Siobhan follow Superman and continue spying. Have Jinx leave the rooftop and secretly use her magic to cause bad things to happen to Superman.
Edit:
[ ] [Observe] Have Eve and Siobhan follow Superman and continue spying. Have Jinx leave the rooftop and secretly use her magic to cause bad things to happen to Superman.
