Metropolis the RPG

[camerindrake]

Ollie

Ollie raised his eye brows and gave a small but definately amused smile.* He then said, " Just come to check up with some old friends." He then became deadly serious a side he hardly ever let Lois see and continued, "And to see if I can do something about finding a missing cousin of yours. I have the resources and the manpower to be of some help." He then walked to Lois' desk and became his billionnare playboy facade again and sat on the edge. He smiled and finished with, "What do you say."

 

[LuckyVic]

She glanced back at the screen, momentarily torn asunder.

"D'you know what e-mail service Ullrich had before she passed?" she wondered, in for a penny, in for a pound.

"Not her personal provider. But at work she used whatever service they use. " He told her and then reached into his pocket. "I also have this." he gave Jessi the business card that he had been given that had Dr. Ulrich's work number email address, and on the back of the card was her personal number.

 

[Varshanka]

April 11th, 2014 - Lois Lane

Standing up Lois slapped Oliver as hard as she could. Then she ran to the womens restroom and stood staring at the mirror, refusing to cry. She'd buried it. Buried it so deep she didn't even notice it was gone. Then Ollie came along and unburied it all over again. And then he slapped her in the face with it. She was certain Chloe was dead. Hell she'd attended the funeral - alone. Even Clark hadn't come. All her "friends" had been off someplace else.

She'd read the report. Massive coronary. Twenty-five and she'd had a heart attack. Bullshit. But she'd never proven Luthor had anything to do with it. She couldn't debunk the coroner's report. Chloe was dead. She saw the body herself. She'd opened the casket at the funeral, gazed at Chloe's face, and then watched as they buried her.

"She's dead.." Lois said, scowling at her reflection.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

Jessi accepted the business card from Clark, an extremely pensive look on her face.

"Lab 3 got pretty much laid to waste, huh?" Jessi mused. "I mean, God bless him, Superman was on scene, right? Saved on human casualties, otherwise Lois and Jimmy never would've made it into work this morning."

She tapped the business card on her chin.

"But the equipment and stuff was pretty much a loss, am I right?" she thought thought thought. "Including whatever on-site servers they might have had. So the e-mail's a lost cause."

Jessi blinked as a thought dawned on her, a miniature epiphany. "Unless?"

Quickly, she riffled through the files on her desk, and after a few false fumbles she found a Post-It note in Lois' handwriting and terrible spelling.

A request for files on this particular laboratory's financial arrangements. And a few quick keystrokes brought up the file that Jessi had cobbled together for Ms. Lane. Various contractors and subcontractors, little satellite companies.

One of these was a contract for third-party data storage at a facility called Cyberebrum, Inc. Picture files, experiment results, and e-mails, all thoroughly encrypted to protect anonymity and protect investors. Except, bless the luck, Cyberebrum, Inc. was one of a number of smaller companies under the umbrella of notorious NY-Com.

Hop, skip, jump.

Even without the benefit of The Flash's superspeed, Jessi's fingers flew over her keys.

The screen scrolled by, reams of data, and then, all of a sudden, the data streamlined itself down to Dr. Ulrich's e-mails.

'Damn, woman,' The Flash whispered. 'How long have I known you? I never knew you had this in you.'

"I can probably find her personal e-mail address," Jessi mused, grinning, flushed with triumph, "by going through her contacts list. Did you want me to try for her phone records now, or after lunch? And, um, did you have a date range you wanted to search through for the e-mails? I can probably Perl something together."

'See, now,' The Flash chuckled. 'Now you're just getting cocky.'

Not dissuaded, Jessi continued grinning, and glanced up at Clark.

She didn't even mind that she might get fired for this: she was getting to show off in front of this brilliant beautiful boy skills she didn't even know she had.

 

[LuckyVic]

'Damn, woman,' The Flash whispered. 'How long have I known you? I never knew you had this in you.'

"I can probably find her personal e-mail address," Jessi mused, grinning, flushed with triumph, "by going through her contacts list. Did you want me to try for her phone records now, or after lunch? And, um, did you have a date range you wanted to search through for the e-mails? I can probably Perl something together."

'See, now,' The Flash chuckled. 'Now you're just getting cocky.'

Not dissuaded, Jessi continued grinning, and glanced up at Clark.

She didn't even mind that she might get fired for this: she was getting to show off in front of this brilliant beautiful boy skills she didn't even know she had.

Clark blinked rapidly a few times as he tried to play catch up with what she she was doing. After a few moments he was sure he had caught everything she said, not sure he understood it all, but definately had heard it all. "Yeah yeah, if you can." he told her in regards to the personal emails. "Is there away you can send me copies of her emails?" he asked.

Clark couldn't help but think how much Jessi reminded him of Chole. Which meant they could probably be good friends. At least he hoped so. He had to remember to treat her better then he had CHole at times. Not take her for granted as much as he had her.

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark couldn't believe the sheer number of emails that were on her business email account. If her personal one was this active he would need help. It wasn't because he couldn't do it along, but if he tried looking at everything at superspeed he'd probably melt the keyboard. "This looks like a lot of information. Say why don't you print everything out, and we'll meet for lunch and start looking some of this over." he suggested.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

Jessi mulled this over.

"People already give The Planet all sorts of Hell for its carbon footprint," she muttered. "(I mean, we're a paper. Wherever we go, trees perish in our wake.) And there's a lot of e-mails here; that's a lot to print out. I'll see what I can do to narrow it down a little. Chances are she's e-mailed stuff to herself at home from work and vice-versa, I don't know anyone who doesn't do that, which means her personal addy's going to be in her mailbox's address book. Once I figure that out by crossreffing IPs and personal references, I'll search through both inboxes. Not sure what I'm looking for? But I'll bet any references to 'X-33' will not go amiss. Also, intentionally vague terms like 'the job' and 'the package' and 'notify me when it's done?' It's heist-movie dialogue, seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how often people gravitate to that stuff because of pop-culture immersion. It's kinda techno-Pavlovian."

She chuckled faintly.

("Art imitates Life, after all," Jessi mused, "and then Life imitates Art, and so on and so forth. So maybe it's less Pavlov than Baudrillard?")

(The Flash seemed speechless. Which didn't happen often.)

"For instance," Jessi murmured, "Bart gets a kick out of using the term 'rendezvous.' And I can't blame him."

'Also,' The Flash noted, ending her silent streak just before she broke a record, '"drop point." And "stat."'

Jessi regarded the screen with a scrunch of dark-cherry eyebrows behind her Buddy Holly spectacles.

"So, um, yeah," she murmured. "I'll do what I can to narrow this down, and I'll print up stuff I think might be pertinent. And then when Bart gets back with those big-head burgers, we can, uh, rendezvous for lunch?"

 

[camerindrake]

Ollie

Ollie sat there holding his cheek, rubbing it as Lois stormed off to the bathroom. He ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek feeling he inprint of his teeth. The woman could hit harder with an open palm slap than most thugs he fought could do with a punch, Ollie thought as he spit blood into the trashcan. He hit a nerve, he didn't know why other than Lois might have not have got over the loss of her cousin. Three years, He thought to himself. How many years has it been since he lost his parents. To him it was still a tender subject. Maybe if he let her know more about what chloe had been involved in with. It might give her a clue that there could be a chance of smoke and mirrors.

Ollie then looked up to the flatscreen television hanging from the ceiling which was tuned to C-SPAN. The coverage of the US Senate session was on the hourly break. The news broadcaster was talking about the issues of the day as the camera scanned over the empty Senate floor. "Senator Kennedy , Democrat from Massachusetts, has brought a bill before the senate that would force what he called powered beings to registor with the United States government and a new organization that he wants to put into place. He is calling this organization the Department of Metahuman Affairs. named after the gene discovered by Emil Hamilton before he passed early in the last decade. However this bill has come under great scrutinay by Martha Kent, Senator from Kansas. Her reasoning that would only put the Powered beings who obay the laws of this country at risk. The criminal element would simply ignore this law as they do all others. And considering how easily that computer systems can be hacked it would only put these powered beings and their families at risk. Senator Kennedy in his rebuttle spoke upon it would keep probable risks to the nations defence in check. Senator Kent spoke against Kennedy about one of the lobbiest of this bill being a known criminal. Though no names were stated it was obvious who she was referring to."

Ollie bearly whispered of a movement long lost to history, "McCarthyism." He then shook his head. He knew the Sociaty were not going to sit this one out. Hawkman would throw his mace knocking Kennedy's teeth out and tell him where to stuff it. not to mention the others from the Sociaty who had short fuses. Ollie could see it now the whole JSA standing up placing their signet rings on the table and giving Kennedy the one fingered salute. Jay Garrett could run up and give Kennedy a pain in his backside and stretched underpants before good ole Ted would even know what happened.

Ollie pulled out his PALM and started up the web browser and sent an email to Victor to check the emergancy fund the League had in place while he waited. He wanted to know everything that happened three years ago. He had a suspicion he need to confirm before he would let what happened to rest.

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent; April 11th, 2014

"I'll do what I can to narrow this down, and I'll print up stuff I think might be pertinent. And then when Bart gets back with those big-head burgers, we can, uh, rendezvous for lunch?"

"Just let me know when your ready. I'll be at my desk." he told her and then left the very small office.

As he walked into the bullpen area he couldn't help but look over at one of the tv's. On it was the familiar voice of his mother Martha kent. She was talking about a new bill that had been introduced. One that would require any meta-human to register with the government. She was talking about how this would set a bad precident on invasion of privacy if such a thing were allowed to pass, and even though her college meant well she was going to fight this to the very end. Hearing this actually made Clark wonder if revealing himself to the world had been such a good idea now. He also finally understood why his mother had called him so early that morning after. All he wanted to do was help others, and this bill if passed would make that difficult. He hoped his mother could gather enough support to keep it at bay.

He was so distracted by it that he didn't notice who was around him as he sat down at his desk. He was just lost in thought. First the X-33 conspiracy and now this. But he remembered some of the advice Jor-El had given him. Not to interefere, just be an example to the better parts of their nature. To lead by example, it was a hard thing to live up to, but he was going to try after all this was his home as well.

 

[Varshanka]

April 11th, 2014 - Lois Lane

Walking out of the restroom Lois walked over to Oliver. Grabbing his PALM pilot she pushed it away from his face. "I'm sorry about hitting you. But please don't mention.. her.. again. Next time I might aim lower. With my knee." Looking up she let his eyes touch hers, and she made sure he knew she was telling the truth. She'd loved him with her heart and soul once. But mention her cousin again, and pay.

Tag: Oliver

 

[LuckyVic]

Perry White / Clark Kent April 11th, 2014

A door slammed and out came Perry White. "Lane... Kent. Change of plans. Lex Luthor just announced that he's going to have a press conference at his little demonstration today. Not only is this the first time he'll be allowing reporters to see one of his weapon system tests, but this old reporter's gut tells him he's going to announce something big. I want the two of you there. Lane take Olsen with you, you two work well together anyway." Perry said and then looked to Clark and stopped as he realized that all his photographers were on assignment. "Kent find yourself someone that can double as a photographer for you."

Clark thought about it and he could only think of one person.

"So what the hell are you two waiting for. The shindig starts in two hours at Luthor's labs!" Perry yelled.

Clark snapped to attention and grabbed his mini-recorder and made his way to the elevator. He had to go down to archives to ask Jessi if she wanted to join him. Knowing Lois she'd grab Jimmy and be there first, she was like a bull dog when it came to a new story. If he was going to compete he needed to be a bit more agressive.

A few minutes later he was at archives he knocked on the door as he entered. "Hey Jessi, the CHief wants me to go to this event at Luthor Labs, and there aren't any free photoghrapers, so was wondering if you'd like to tag along with me?" he asked her.

 

[Varshanka]

Lois Lane - April 11th, 2014

Lois looked from oliver to Perry and back again. Sometimes she could kill Mr. White. Especially at times like this. Turning she walked away from Oliver. Grabbing her cell she flipped it open and speed dialed James Olsen. "Wake up, get out of whatever Hospital your thinking of being lazy in and grab the camera." Pausing she listed to him for a moment. "I don't care if your naked with a 3 inch woody. Get moving. I'll meet you int he parking lot in 15 minutes. Later than that and I'll make sure you don't sell a photo on the Planet. Much less in the Daily Planet."

Looking up she spotted Clark on the phone and figured he'd found someone. "Damn Clark, for a speed typer you sure are slow as molasses.."

 

[camerindrake]

Ollie

All Ollie could say before being interupted by Perry White was, "I am just seeking the truth about what happened to her. Though if it hurts to much I won't ask anymore of you about it."* His face was the seriousness he let very few see.

He watched her leave, wishing that he hadn't made the choice he made those years ago when He canceled their trip. Making the choice of not letting Lois know about Green Arrow. Leaving her, truthfully, at his doorstep.

He then whistled towards Lois and waited for her to turn arround. He then said, "Be careful arround Luthor. Promise me, okay."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

"Just let me know when your ready. I'll be at my desk." he told her and then left the very small office.

"Right," Jessi murmured, as he walked out, though even as Clark Kent departed her presence she was rising to her feet, abandoning her desk. As a courtesy, she gave The Flash a long moment to ogle Clark's backside before she took her glasses off.

(Soundtrack: Jimmy Eat World. "Get It Faster." From Bleed American.)

'Heh, thanks,' The Flash chuckled. 'Though you can't pretend you didn't enjoy that, too.'

"I will pretend no such thing," Jessi chuckled. "But I'll daydream later. Right now I need your help with something. A couple of things."

'What's up, amiga?' The Flash chirped, instantly curious. She could feel Jessi's newfound deviousness whirring away, and it was a beautiful thing.

"First I need to program a search using regular expressions," she explained, quickly, "to hunt through Ulrich's business e-mails for references to X-33 and such. I'll tell you what to type at the speed of thought, you'll type it at the speed of you."

'Can do,' The Flash nodded. 'Feel bad for the keyboard, though.'

"Keyboard's easy to replace," Jessi dismissed, as she picked up the lightning-emblazoned backpack that held their uniform. "I bet this one's ten bucks at the Wal-Mart in Midvale."

'Okay,' The Flash agreed, readily, psyched that Jessi had taken to heart their conversation about thinking outside of boxes. 'And then what?'

"Well," Jessi murmured, extricating the Queen Industries max-capacity USB flash drive from the side pocket of the backpack and gazing it for a moment. (This had been a gift from Bart along with the uniform, though she realised he'd probably gotten in trouble for giving away such choice tech.) "I know how much you hate sitting around for code to compile. So, once programming's done, let's go do something exciting."

'NICE!' The Flash exulted, imaginary fists in the air.

Jessi checked one last time that no-one was coming back into the office, and then whispered: "Gobabygo."

...krakooooom...

Seconds later, The Flash was chucking the slaggy keyboard into an open-top dumpster three blocks South. Back at base, that Perl was compiling. "Wish we'd thought of 'you talk I type' when you had to do term papers; woulda saved us oodles of time. Though I guess those ten-dollar keyboards coulda added up."

'Okay,' Jessi instructed The Flash. 'Cyberebrum.'

"Onnit," The Flash agreed, and wheeled about and sprinted off.

Jessi had managed to access Cyberebrum's files through NY-Com's shoddy firewall, but it was easier to do such things "on location," so to speak. Pick and choose, hunt and peck.

The Flash sliced easily past Cyberebrum's front desk, a beleaguered receptionist on the phone getting her ear talked off. Security personnel were equally oblivious, though this wasn't their fault: The Flash moved faster than the speed of sight, and was very careful to modulate her internal vibrations so as to minimise the windstorm effect that would have knocked the lot of them onto their asses.

The servers were down in the basement and, Thank The Universe, there was an access terminal.

'Here's what you do,' Jessi coached as The Flash jacked in the jump drive.

They riffled not just through e-mails but through data files, through the experimental stuff. They were gentler on this keyboard so as to minimise the impact of their passing, but the Page Up and Page Down keys got quite a workout.

Quickly, The Flash loaded everything that Jessi thought looked remotely applicable onto the drive, detached, and ran back the way they'd come.

Ulrich's address.

Personal e-mails, if they were stored on Ulrich's home computer, would be less easily accessible from the web. If, however, she had a service like AOL or Yahoo... well, these companies would be less easily hacked than NY-Com, that was almost guaranteed.

The place was taped off, Metro PD, pending her murder investigation, and while there was a black-and-white patrol car parked out front, there was no-one actually in the place right yet. The Flash shimmied through the tape and found, easily, Ulrich's desktop computer squirreled away in a neatly-furnished office.

Again the jump drive jacked in, again the rapid-fire scrolling. Ulrich had had an AOL e-mail account, but thankfully the good doctor had programmed her browser to remember the password to that account, so that was easily bypassed.

Boom. Boom. Boom. The jump drive loaded, Jessi suggested The Flash track down any cordless phone handsets, which The Flash did in an instant: she only found one.

Caller ID history. The Flash scrolled through it at high speed, jotting things down with the little notepad and pen she kept in the little compartment in the calf area of the right boot. (You had to be ready, The Flash firmly believed, in case some cute boy or girl wanted to provide you with their phone number. It was only polite. And now here the late lamented Ulrich was, providing them with lots of numbers.)

The Flash scribbled this down furiously, getting plenty of numbers which they could then crossref with Ulrich's online phone records and discover which, if any, could be the number of the sabotage mastermind.

"We done here?" The Flash wondered easily.

'I'd say so,' Jessi pondered, but then The Flash glanced out a window and Jessi caught sight of a phone booth across the street. 'Huh.'

"Yeah," The Flash mused. "I didn't think they even made phone booths anymore."

'Get the number from that booth,' Jessi requested briskly. 'Maybe Ulrich didn't make or take the calls from her house for purposes of plausible deniability. I wanna be able to call up that booth's records just in case.'

The Flash was there in less than a billionth of a heartbeat, jotting, and then she was off again, blurring away before the bored-looking officer in his squad car could see her.

(There was a quick stop in the Home Entertainment department of the Wal-Mart in Midvale. Turned out Jessi had been right about The Planet's keyboards being cheap.)

The world swoooshed by, a blur of colours and surfaces, and The Flash powered to a halt in Jessi's office.

Jessi's Perl was still compiling, and The Flash quickly plugged in the jump drive to load the data onto her workstation and hooked up the keyboard.

They had been gone less than five minutes.

The Flash took a moment to grin her ass off victoriously as the data flowed...

...but then the doorknob started to turn, and the world went into impossible slow-motion as The Flash turned around in fright...

...long, sloooow mooing, Clark Kent was saying something, he hadn't opened the door all the way yet, Jessi was screaming: 'GO GO GO CHANGE CLOTHES!'

"Heeeeeeeyyyy Jessssssiiiiii..."

The Flash whinnied softly, practically diving into the backpack to retrieve Jessi's outfit. It only took a half-moment to switch outfits, to pull The Flash's hair out of its ponytail, but that moment took forever, and as The Flash was about to button up the front of Jessi's blouse they spotted the jumpdrive still sticking out from the USB port on the front of Jessi's workstation.

Hurriedly, desperately, mewing, The Flash yanked this out, threw it into the backpack, kicked the backpack out of sight under the desk BUT THEY WERE OUT OF TIME AND THE GIRL WAS STILL A GOLDEN-EYED BLONDE...

Lightning dispersed in a miniature sizzle and when Clark Kent, still talking, now at normal speed, swung the door open, he would find Jessi standing there, red-faced, breathing hard, a little bit sweaty, and her blouse unbuttoned to reveal the white a-shirt underneath.

"...the Chief wants me to go to this event at Luthor Labs, and there aren't any free photographers, so was wondering if you'd like to tag along with me?" he asked her.

"Uh," Jessi panted, "sure. I did a little stringing for my college paper. I wasn't great at it... but... um... sure."

'Say something!' The Flash encouraged her. 'Say something flirty in case he's wondering what The Hell you're doing with your shirt open! Say, uh, "I thought it was hot in here but it turns out it was just you."'

Jessi stood there for a second, blinking. "I, um. I, um."

With a wince, a nervous little chuckle, she screwed up her face and cleared her throat: "My code's compiling."

The Flash about died laughing.

 

[LuckyVic]

Lightning dispersed in a miniature sizzle and when Clark Kent, still talking, now at normal speed, swung the door open, he would find Jessi standing there, red-faced, breathing hard, a little bit sweaty, and her blouse unbuttoned to reveal the white a-shirt underneath.

"...the Chief wants me to go to this event at Luthor Labs, and there aren't any free photographers, so was wondering if you'd like to tag along with me?" he asked her.

"Uh," Jessi panted, "sure. I did a little stringing for my college paper. I wasn't great at it... but... um... sure."

'Say something!' The Flash encouraged her. 'Say something flirty in case he's wondering what The Hell you're doing with your shirt open! Say, uh, "I thought it was hot in here but it turns out it was just you."'

Jessi stood there for a second, blinking. "I, um. I, um."

With a wince, a nervous little chuckle, she screwed up her face and cleared her throat: "My code's compiling."

The Flash about died laughing.

Clark nodded as he noticed her flushed state and her shirt unbuttoned. He wondered if maybe it was to hot down here, after all they were near the boiler room. He remembered Chloe having complained about it being to hot in their sometimes. He bowed his head "Are you okay? Is the boiler broken again or something?" he asked her. After all he might be imprevious to the temperature extremes of this planet, but he knew that most people on Earth weren't.

Speaking of normal people a sudden thought just entered Clark's mind. "If Bart has superspeed, does Jessi?" he wondered. Could it be that she was off running somewhere and just gotten back. Or was he just letting his imagination run wild with him.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

"Are you okay? Is the boiler broken again or something?" he asked her.

Turning away from Clark to button up the front of her blouse, Jessi laughed a little brokenly.

"It's a little chilly for April, sure," she mumbled, "but I think they've only got the boiler on standby at the moment."

She fumbled with the buttons and shook her head in frustration, envying The Flash's nimble movements.

Smoothing herself down a little, she glanced over her shoulder at Clark.

"No," Jessi shrugged. "Push-ups, jogging in place, a few curls, a little yoga. Gotta make use of the time, right? I had a jump-rope down here but I think one of the maintenance guys threw it out."

She glanced down at herself, put a hand on her tummy, made a rueful face.

"Might as well use the time to keep in shape," she pointed out. "If I just slacked off down here between people remembering I'm alive, I'd balloon."

The Flash was still laughing, a little, but even she had to pause and chuckle, a little bit impressed. 'Nice recovery. And by the way, your figure is spectacular, and you have my metabolism and athleticism to thank for that. So, you're welcome.'

Jessi grunted, and The Flash guffawed.

The brunette straightened, though, tucking her blouse into her slacks.

"So, uh," she murmured, "do I just check a Nikon out from the desk, or what? I'm afraid my cat gnawed through my Kodak's charger-dock cable a few months back, so I'm a little camera-challenged at the moment."

'Little orange bastard,' The Flash sighed.

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent: April 11th, 2014

'Strange girl.' Clark thought. "Yeah I think they should have some extra digital cameras there." He told her as he turned around to leave the small office, while holding the door for Jessi. "Last I saw Lois she was yelling at Jimmy to meet her downstairs in 15 minutes. We're now a few minutes behind her, which means we'll be playing catch up when we get there." he told her as waited.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

'Strange girl.' Clark thought. "Yeah I think they should have some extra digital cameras there." He told her as he turned around to leave the small office, while holding the door for Jessi. "Last I saw Lois she was yelling at Jimmy to meet her downstairs in 15 minutes. We're now a few minutes behind her, which means we'll be playing catch up when we get there." he told her as waited.

"They weren't kidding about you guys, huh?" Jessi murmured, eyebrow arched, as she popped her glasses back on. "You and Ms. Lane? Everything's a competition. (Mr. Troupe told me about this; I thought it was just an exaggeration.)"

'Take the backpack,' The Flash instructed. 'Can't really explain it? My spider-senses are kinda ticklish about this.'

Jessi would have protested, but she could only have done so out loud, and she didn't want Clark to think she was schizophrenic. Which... in a sense, she was, but it wasn't an unhealthy schizophrenia and that would take waaaaay too long to explain to the nice people at Summerholt.

Jessi paused, ducked under the desk and grabbed the pack, zipping it up and throwing it on her shoulder. The thing was a little heavier than it should have been for its size... when Bart had given it to her, he'd told her it had a thin layer of lead fibre woven between its layers of fabric, 'because Some People, naming no names, dunno when to stop bein' all paranoid and snooptastic.'

Jessi hadn't really ever understood what lead had to do with all that. But, then, her brother had always been a little crazy. Even before... before.

Hurrying past Clark through the door-- 'So polite,' The Flash suggested. 'Means he wants you.' --and, ignoring that pesky hormonal inner voice, she grinned back at him.

"I would hate to be the one to turn you into the losing side," she commented. "Let's get a move on."

 

[LuckyVic]

Thirty minutes later Clark and Jessi had met up with Lois and Jimmy at Luthor Labs. All the reporters had been ushered into the main hall for the presentation. The Daily Planet reporters were sitting next to each other when the large curtain moved and revealed the larger screen. They would soon be treated to a video presntation of an exoskeleton that seemed to be out of science fiction. But not to Clark, Kryptonians had developed similar weapons in their past. He couldn't believe that technology had advanced so far so quickly.

The video show the suit taking on modern military weapons (tanks, helicoptors, etc.) and defeated them all easily. It was armed with a plasma cannon in what looked like it's right arm, and what was a crewd arm for the left. He saw it take direct hit from deplated uranium shells fired on it from the Bradley tanks and only shrugged them off. The Press secretary said it had to do with a new patented alloy that the suit was made out of. The nearly 20 foot tall suit was operated from within by a single operator from within. When the press secretary finished her presentation she introduced none other then Lex Luthor. Clark shifted in his chair, seeing Lex again made him feel uncomfortable.

Lex was wearing one of his normal tailor made black suits. He had on a silk white shirt and tie. "I'd like to decribe the new Lexosuit not as an instrument of war, but one to end wars." he said "But I'm a realist, as long as evil exists in the world wepons such as these will be needed. The price of freedom after all is eternal vigilence."

Clark nearly choked as he heard Lex talk about his vision of the suit and how it will save the lives of American soldiers.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

Jessi watched carefully, and snapped shots of what she thought were suitably soundbite-appropriate poses. She wasn't sure if the pictures of the Lexosuit video would come out properly, as she had to guess a little bit regarding exposure, resolution, and (hah hah) the timing on the flash. (She'd had to read the instruction manual in the car, and it seemed like half the thing was written in Japanese, and she hadn't read Japanese since freshman year of college.)

Lex Luthor did not seem to her to be a trustworthy person. He made her skin crawl a little bit, especially given how cavalierly he discussed the collateral damage and the loss of life in war.

Bart, regarding his line of work, had always been a bit fast and loose with names. He called it "Dragnetting," as he was changing the names to protect the innocent. By implication, this meant Jessi. She didn't know Oliver Queen as Oliver Queen, she knew him as "O.J.," though evidently the man had some high-up connection to Queen Industries because that's where all the gear came from. Victor Stone had been referred to as "Soundwave," and A.C. as "Lighthouse." Occasionally, Bart had name-dropped another individual, to whom he simply referred, somewhat roguishly, somewhat reverently, as "The Big Guns," though he did cede the credit for this nickname to the aforementioned "Soundwave."

She knew they were waging war against a businessman. And that his tactics were most unholy.

She knew this man would have hacked her apart cell by cell to find out the secret of hers and Bart's speed. All to make easier the process of American soldiers killing other countries' soldiers.

And while she did not know that this was Lex Luthor, she felt that Lex owed a certain kinship to this mysterious businessman, she felt that they were similar in philosophy.

They both were trying to turn war into a video game.

It made her sick.

The Flash, meanwhile, kept fidgeting. Jessi could feel her, crackling in the background, pent up, even more than her usual complaints at having to "sit in back."

'Spider-sense,' The Flash kept mumbling. 'Spider-sense.'

Jessi wondered if maybe The Flash's hyperspeed senses weren't as dormant during her downtimes as they thought, that maybe she was picking something up that normal human senses couldn't detect. Jessi kept wishing she could pull away and ask the girl, but she felt rooted to the spot, and took a little comfort from the presence of the backpack at her feet.

Suffice it to say, both Jessi and The Flash wanted this to be over soon.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Bart

After a nice little reminisce and a hefty dose of caffeine with Bibbo, Bart returned to The Daily Planet.

...only to find, to his astonishment and disappointment, that Jessi and Clark had already left.

Shrugging absently, he eyed the six burgers he'd bought, each individually packaged in those little carry-out cases and wrapped in foil. (No staples, though, thank God, he'd checked.)

Does it count as leftovers if they leave the table before the meal starts? he wondered to himself, scratching his chin. Dollars to dust-bunnies says it does. An' here and I already called dibs on the leftovers.

He ate his own two while he waited, but he decided to err on the side of Boy Scout-ery and leave the other four promised burgers both for his sister and his onetime team-mate. It only took him a few seconds to finish scarfing, because he decided to take his time for once...

But then, in a rare moment of thoughtfulness, as he washed the BBQ sauce off of his face and fingers in the bathroom down the hall, he realised that Kent had his own desk, and that maybe he'd absconded with Jessi to the bullpen.

Bart pressed the button for the elevator and waited, two, three, four seconds for it to arrive.

Holy God, he wondered, what The Hell am I doing? How does she live like this, seventy percent of the time? How does anyone live like this 100% of the slow-ass ticking clock? (How did I ever do it?)

Five seconds.

Screw this noise.

In a blur of red and gold, he took the stairs.

On the sixth second, the lift doors opened, but Bart was already standing at Kent's desk.

Not here, either, he grunted dismally. If you guys insist on being no shows, I am going to seriously reconsider letting you opt for doggy-bags on that feast I brought downstairs.

But then he glanced up at the video screen, and blinked, startled, his breath catching in his throat.

There he was. Lex Luthor, still without his ponytail. The Six-Billion-Dollar Scuzzbag.

He was bragging about his big and bad mechwarrior doo-dad, but all Bart could remember, rooted to the spot, pissed as Hell, was all them murderous volts of electricity coursing through him.

Some "Man of The People" Luthor'd turned out to be. How many other superamigos had gotten chucked into Luthor's custom-built Torquemada chambers?

Bart's fists clenched so hard at his sides that his knuckles popped.

And for once, for just this once, he didn't move, and he opened not his mouth.

 

[Varshanka]

Diana

Moving through the crowd Diana watched her target. His voice carried well, but there were certain people that didn't believe a word he said. And it was her duty to make sure he didn't violate national security.

Slowly she mingled, unnoticed as she moved. It had taken a while for her to learn the skill, blend and mibngle. Be unseen, while seeing everything. Then she saw the reporters from the Planet. Lois "Nancy Drew" Lane and Clark Kent. She hadn't seen him in a very long time. She wasn't even sure he'd rescognize her. Probably not. Hair color was different, she'd grown a couple inches, and let the hair grow a lot longer.

Hell, even her bust line had grown out a bit since she'd met him. She still didn't know why he'd changed his name. But she'd recognized him from his profile.

Moving up behind him she tapped the camera girls shoulder and flashed a badge, A squeek later and shake of her thumb had the young lady moving away, minus a camera as Diana snagged it. Coughing softly she waited for him to turn around. "Kal?" She asked. She already knew it was him, but she just had to phrase it like a question. it was after all the polite thing to do.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

Jessi had a shot lined up of Lex lined up with an American flag behind him, the spin doctors would gobble that up, but then a firm firm finger tapped on her shoulder and she almost dropped the Nikon with a squeak, whipping her head around, eyes way wide...

She was beautiful.

She was impossible.

Broken out of her recursion by the sudden change of variables, The Flash whistled softly, and Jessi felt her own mouth go dry.

Jessi would have dropped the camera then for sure if the brunette-- waving some authoritarian ID or other --hadn't commandeered it out of her very hands and dismissed her with a thumb stabbing the air.

For a moment, for all of a picosecond, both Jessi and The Flash thought that that badge was meant for them, that they'd been spied doing legally-questionable things and were meant for a spot in the bowels of Iron Heights back "home" in Keystone. But then the dark-haired woman sent her away, as evidently-- like any sane woman --she had eyes only for Clark Kent.

Scooping up her backpack and beating a retreat, Jessi momentarily felt a flare of jealousy. What confused her was that she wasn't sure which one of these two she felt more jealousy for.

'Swinging both ways, Jess?' The Flash commented bemusedly. 'I thought that was my shtick, not yours.'

"She was," Jessi breathed softly, oh so softly, "she's so lovely I don't think there's a mortal on the planet that wouldn't want to be with her. Even if they had to swing a different way in order to do it. (I don't even care that she took that camera. And that was a nice damn camera.)"

'Bitch with a badge,' The Flash grunted.

"Like Diane Lane in 'Judge Dredd,'" Jessi suggested. "Which? Only good aspect of that movie."

'Amen,' The Flash declared reverently.

"So," Jessi murmured, shouldering her backpack more comfortably while moving away from the crowd so people wouldn't overhear her whispering (ostensibly) to herself. "What was with the mantra routine?"

The Flash hesitated. Which was itself unusual.

'I dunno,' she mumbled. 'It was like something was stuck in between the halves of our brain and it was sticking me in a weird way. Like I'd noticed something subconsciously, and it was trying to work its way out. Except my thoughts go so quick, helter-skelter, instead of taking days to work out, like normal subconsciousnesses might... it was trying to take minutes.'

Jessi leaned with her shoulder against a wall.

"No idea what it could be?" Jessi frowned.

'I think it was in that phone booth,' The Flash mused. 'In among the little stickers and the graffiti, I saw a number scritched on the wall below the phone. But it was an international exchange? I just don't know what country...' and she rattled off a string of numbers.

Jessi furrowed her brow with concentration. "Don't ask me how I know this? I've looked up a lot of international numbers for folks the last few weeks, folks who couldn't be bothered to do this themselves? I think that's the prefix for calling Qurac."

'D'you think Ulrich was calling a Quraci number?' The Flash scrunched her thoughts up, she wasn't generally good at thinking things through in a quasi-linear manner. 'I mean, it could be somebody in the neighbourhood was getting some really really long-distance relationship action.'

Jessi nodded. "It's probably nothing. But we should tell Clark anyway?"

'Yeah,' The Flash agreed, jovially, 'soon as he's done with Judge Hershey.'

"Mmn," Jessi acknowledged, "soon's he's done."

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent: April 11th, 2014

Moving up behind him she tapped the camera girls shoulder and flashed a badge, A squeek later and shake of her thumb had the young lady moving away, minus a camera as Diana snagged it. Coughing softly she waited for him to turn around. "Kal?" She asked. She already knew it was him, but she just had to phrase it like a question. it was after all the polite thing to do.

Clark did turn around when he heard the comotion next to him. When he saw Diana it took him a few moments to realize who she was, since it had been so long since he had seen her last. It was during those 3 months he spent in Metropolis and went by the name Kal, using a portion of his birth name. He remebered how back then he thought Jor-El's plan for him was to conquer, but it wasn't. He wanted his son to survive, but also to be the best possible example of a long dead race.

Clark smiled. "Hello Diana, but the name isn't Kal. It's actually Clark Kent." he told her and showed her his press pass. "That person you knew... wasn't the real me. I was going through some things back then and wanted to hide from my real self." he tried to explain as succinctly as he could without giving to much of his secret away. Although he was well aware that she did see some glimpses of moments where he seemed more then human.

 

[Lunaramblings]

The Blue Beetle

Ted Kord is a simple man. Well, mostly. At a work bench in Kord Industries' Omniversal Research and Developement building Ted Kord is enjoying the triumph of putting the finishing touches on a new set of armor. With any luck, armor like this will one day save the lives of American soldiers. In the background the TV is on. And they are discussing Luthor's new toy.

"Flippin wanker he is..." Ted comments to himself. "Warmongering bastard. Just what this world needs, Killing Machines. as if we don't manage a fine job ourselves."

A speaker crackles beside Ted. A police band radio.

"All units, Metropolis Trust is being robbed. Suspects armed with automatic weapons."

"No rest for the wicked then..."

Ted leaps of his stool, grabbing a strange looking blue key. He charges through his office, into a room he built for this purpose. Taking an elevator to a long dismantled sub-level Ted starts to change. He removes the suit jacket, sneakers, jeans and tee, revealing a blue body suit. As the elevator opens he walks into an open loft, where sits a machine unlike any other ever seen on Earth. The Bug. The hatch opens and Ted dons a suit, similar to the one he had just finished in his private lab. Then mans the cock pit of the device. Their is only a slight hum as the device lifts off the ground, like that of a bug's wings.

In a few moments The Bug lands atop a high rise office building across the street from Metropolis Trust. Ted, now dressed in an armored suit, and a belt of gadgets stands at the edge of the building. Quickly, he does a bit of math, gets a running start and dives off the edge of the building.

God I hope this works..."Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" during his fall The Blue Beetle pulls a grappling gun from his belt, fires at Metropolis Trust and swings, just over the head of several very shocked policemen, crashing through the glass window. The Blue Beetle tumbles across the floor, landing crouched just feet from the culprits.

"Sorry boys. Didn't mean to bug ya."

"What the hell are you spose ta be man? This aint Halloween. Whatever you is, yous gonna be dead now." The thug brings his shotgun to bear on The Beetle, point blank range, he fires. The Beetle is sent tumbling across the floor. Where he lies in a heap. "Get back ta work. Cops are here. We need to get out now!"

The Blue Beetle smiles as he stands. "Oh, I think you boys will be getting out of 'ere all right. And straight to jail."

The Beetle fires a burst of gas from his wrist, then springs forward driving hard with both knees into the gunmans chest. The men begin to choke and gag as the cloud of gas surround them. Their vision nearly useless the thieves stumble blindly out of the cloud, looking in vain for their attacker.

"Oh, to be a fly on the wall..." The Blue Beetle dives off the ceiling, where he had climbed while they were blinded. Driving a knee and a fist solidly into the chest and face respectively of each of the two thugs. left standing. Sending them crashing to the ground. "Sleep tight boys. Don't let them bed bugs bite! Next time you will think twice about robbing a bank with The Blue Beetle around!"

The Blue Beetle charges out of the window he smashed, firing several more bursts of gas as he does. Obscured he charges into the alley beside the bank and quickly climbs the walls. Once to the top he takes out a small remote, and enters a code. In a moment The Bug is flying toward him. He fires a grappling hook and catches a small arm on the bottom of The Bug, whipping away he presses the reel of the grapple, the motor whines as he is pulled upward to a hatch on the bottom of The Bug. He climbs in and takes off his helmet.

"That was a rush... better than sex even." Ted Kord ponders his situation for a moment, "Well, maybe not better than SEX, but it was damn good!"