JLA Watchtower (Archive)

Luthor turns around in his chair. "I'm going to...pretend that didn't happen. I'm going to excuse the fact that there's now a crater in my office. I'm going to even excuse the fact that you barged onto private property to make demands and inflammatory remarks."

He stands now, glaring at the Girl of Steel. "But what I will NOT do, is have someone demand my time without an appointment. OUT! OUT, you!" Pointing towards the door, he's growing more furious by the second. "You will GO to that lobby. You will write your name down in the appointment book. And you. will. WAIT until you are called and seen. OUT!"

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"I... You!... I..." Kara is all prepared to rush over to Lex and grab him, forcing him against the wall and making him talk, but... she can read emotions quite well. This isn't the Lex she'd known from years ago. Something about him was different. "I'm sorry. I'll wait. And I'll fix your wall."

She heads out to the waiting room, and sees the stunned secretary. "Could I have an appointment with Mr Luthor, please?"

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By the time she re-enters, Luthor is barking on the phone to maintenance. "Its a ten by eight foot contusion in my wall...does it look like I CARE what light is out downstairs?" He slams the phone down, glaring. "Simpletons..."

Lex finally gives a cocked eyebrow, leaning back in his chair. "How may I help you? Oh, I apologize for the gust...or the chill in the room, but...someone put a crater in my wall."

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There is a knock on the door, followed by Grace stepping into the room.

"Mr. Luth... holy shit."

Not every day you come to visit your boss and find a new superhero and a hole in the wall.

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"Language, Miss Choi. And manners. Manners are important." Lex stands, gesturing for Grace to take her place by him.

"This, Grace...is obviously someone's idea of a cruel joke. Joke, this is Grace Choi. Grace is the spearhead of the highest profile fighting force in the world today, backed fully by Lexcorp.

Grace...is a hero. She is also more than willing to extract your truepurpose here, if its the least bit malicious. And then you will be dealt with. And I assure you, you do not want that."

Luthor takes his seat after grandstanding, narrowing his eyes at a sparrow that flies into his office. "So...how may I help you?"

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Grace takes a moment to assess the other visitor in the office.

Skinny blond girl. She could probably break her in half without trying too hard.

But she was obviously the cause of the giant hole in the wall. And the giant "S" on her costume is similar to Supes'...

Maybe not quite as easy as she thought. Grace shifts and makes sure that she's standing with a clear shot at the girl.

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Unsure how to act, she just walks calmly to the chair opposite Luthor and rests her hands on the back of it. She knows some manners, and not sitting until being told she could seemed to be an important Earth-rule. She looked at the miserable man in front of her. "You look much older than I remember..." She looks around the office, and then at the gangly girl behind her. She doesn't recognise her at all. Wasn't Metallo Luthor's bodyguard at some point?

"I'm not sure how I got here, Lex... Mr Luthor. But when I arrived, it was above Metropolis. I tried finding my cou- Superman. I ended up fighting some woman in the suburbs who had an army of monsters with her, because she said he'd been expelled to another dimension. As you and he have always been enemies, I wondered what you might know about that..." She can be polite. She breathes out, and all of Luthor's paperwork flies off of his desk. "Sorry. I'm just confused, and I need to find Superman."

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Grace bats away a few papers attempting to mold themselves to her face. Luthor obviously wants her there as the muscle, and Grace is willing to fill that role.

Hopefully they'd have time to talk about what she actually came to discuss...

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"First things first. Superman does not exist here. Not in my company. Not in my building. Not in this office." Luthor gives her an up and down look. "That is the last time this name shall be spoken today. As far as being enemies, look around you." He waves to the area around them.

"I built this. And I will rebuild it. Just like I, and those like Grace are doing as we speak. The person you're looking for, well...he's a destroyer. Metropolis lost a fourth of its urban development, forty-five million dollars in reconstruction costs, and two thousand, four hundred and fifteen of its citizens. Due to a mistake that I made and am paying for every day.

But I am rebuilding. Your Kryptonian, my dear girl. Is not here. He will not be here. Because this is not a place for him. Its one for hope." He gives an involuntary glance at a framed photo on his desk. "But enough about me, and my stance...who are you?"

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Kara stands calmly and takes all of the information in, her hands clenching tighter and tighter on the back of the chair as her cousin is described as a destroyer. But she lets go, and looks at Luthor squarely. "Where I am from, or where I was from, I was known as Supergirl. I'm coming to realise that this must be some one of the many infinite parallel earths, because the Superman of my world is a caretaker and hero, and somehow... Somehow I've ended up on a place that's truly backwards."

She bites her lip as she wonders what to say next. "There's a Lex Luthor in my world as well, but he's... far less giving. The last thing I remember was being horribly hurt in a battle-" she points with her finger, into the sky, "-up there." She shifts uncomfortably. "You're older than my Lex Luthor. This Metropolis is more advanced than my Metropolis. I saw cars I've not seen before. Someone was riding on a weird device," she makes a motion with her hands, of them being on a handle bar, "where there were two wheels on a platform, and a long handlebar out the front. Like this-" she makes an impression of being on a segway.

"Anyway, you probably don't want to hear all this. I'm very confused, as you can imagine. You were just the first person I thought of..." She mumbles listlessly for a while, and then brings her hand down sharply. "Got it! Do you have a Justice League on this Earth?"

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"As far as a Justice League. There is. Grace could likely fill you in on what they do, and have done recently. I believe your hero is with them. Because he is most certainly not here."

Luthor drums his fingertips on the edge of his desk. "Another world...another...me? "

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"I would like to see more of this world, before I make any judgements on anyone... But Superman in my world is not a killer. He would never kill. He's the most responsible person I know..." She turns to Grace, and is about to ask her about the Justice League, but turns back to Lex. "I'm sorry I broke into your office. I hope you can understand my reasoning. I'll make it better though." Using her superspeed and strength she quickly collects the rubble, packs it together, and uses her heat vision and cold breath to seal it into the wall. "You may need a painter, and some plaster, but..." She shrugs. "I'm sorry."

She stands back from being directly between Lex and Grace. "I need to know from both of you, what I can do to help," she gestures with her head at outside, "with what's going on, or what's happened out there. I've got abilities. I can... help. I can do it quickly and save a lot of people a lot of work. I'm supposed to be a hero."

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She's got one hand over her mouth, covering up her grin. The girl, she's cute, and determined to be good.

Grace makes a mental note to never introduce her to the Top.

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"If you want to help. Help. But do not do for the crews, or the people. Heroes help others help themselves."

He nods back. "And you'll begin, by working with Grace and the Infinite Initiative. She will direct you as to what to do next. Miss Choi, you have something to add?"

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Kara nods. She doesn't fully trust Lex, no matter what. She's had too many bad experiences with the younger, more maniacal version. "I'll help out, and I'll help your team out, but I can't commit myself to working with them for a long period of time. I have to find out about this Metropolis. This Earth. I'll help fix the mess out there though. You have my word."

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Wait, did she just hear him correctly?

The smile is gone and she's giving Luthor a horrified look.

"You want me..." she points at herself, "to babysit her?" The finger then points at the blonde.

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"No Grace. I want her to learn from you. I want you to help her. Obviously she is someone of ability. And just as I helped give you a focus, you can do the same for her. Is there a problem with that?" He turns his attention to her.

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"No sir, not a problem at all." Grace snaps off a salute and then steps out from behind Luthor.

She takes a long look at the other woman.

Blond hair. Skinny. Short. Has the strength to bust through walls and then to fix them again with heat vision and cold breath. Can fly.

"I'll find a place for her. Far away from the guys."

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She smiles, genuinely, at Grace. "I'll try not to let you down. But like I said, I'm going to help you clean this city up, or at least the immediate destruction that I've seen, and then I've got to find my own way." She reaches out to shake Grace by the hand. "Who else is in your team? I might recognise some names."

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Her hand is taken in a firm grip.

A little too firm for a moment, and then she backs off, smiling grimly.

"The Top, Catman, Killer Moth... who with a name like that should be less of a wuss..." Grace refrains from mentioning Miracleman.

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"I can't say I recognise those names... Unless... Is Catman a particularly grim and embittered hero?" Her first thoughts are of Batman. Although Catman was certainly around at the time she was present on Earth, he was never a villain that she came into contact with. "I'm just hoping there will be at least one thing familiar about this world."

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Grim and embittered? Grace shrugs.

"I suppose you could call him that. Though he runs more towards manic than grim, these days..."

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delphicgreen.livejournal.com

Oracle has been monitoring the situation in Metropolis curiously. Supergirl is .... Well, to be fair, Oracle isn't entirely certain what /this/ Supergirl /is/ other than present here and now. There is a notification sent to all of the parties who should know due to familial ties and a few others who are on the 'need to know' list.

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"Mr. Luthor, I did actually come to talk to you about something." Grace is testing the newly repaired wall, pushing on it slightly and grimacing as it creaks slightly.

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"Miss Ch...Grace." Lex begins as he scrolls through some programmers' code. "I certainly hope you're not trying to weaken my already shattered and hastily patched wall before it gets a chance to be fortified.

If so...stop. Now how may I help you?"

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Grace resists the urge to poke further and steps away from the wall.

"It's been a couple of weeks since the big fight went down. And I just wanted to come and, um."

She's in a unusual situation -- not used to working with a team, or dealing very well with authority.

"You've been scarce around headquarters. Guess I just wanna make sure we're all still kopacetic."

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Luthor leans back in his chair, running a finger along his desk.

"Grace...I lost something irreplaceable in the issue with Miracleman. I took a situation that I did not understand fully, and a metahuman who was not completely investigated. I did a base background check on him, and rudimentary tests as to his strength."

"I...took a flyer with him. A powerhouse like that is a once in a generation find. He was my Superman. And I did not...comprehend what he was...is. And, it cost me everything."

His motions stop just as abruptly as his speech. "I will not allow it again. There are...things in motion now. Which will truly test who we are, and what we will do as people."

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She's silent for a moment, turned away from him and looking out the window across a partially ruined landscape.

"I'm sorry for what happened to your daughter. And for everything else -- felt like we shoulda been able to do more."

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"We should have. All of us. Lexcorp could have. Infinity Inc. could have. But we didn't. We...failed."

Luthor rubs his eye sockets, before speaking again. "At the hospital. I met...a man. What I thought was a man at least.

He was...talking to Superman, about...a boy. He could save that boy. He did save him. Just...sent him away for a while. A family, somewhere else.

I asked it to do the same for my baby, and he refused. He did not. He chose to let his child live.

And mine die. We all could have done more. But we did not. I won't ever let us not do enough again."

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A simple question.

"What do you want us to do?"

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He retorts immediately. "Be better than the League. The JSA, all of them. I put you and your teammates together for a reason. Because each of you is ruthless enough to make the hard calls. And your newest members?

Lets just say, you'll be interested in our new directive."

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The door to his office opens suddenly, admitting a woman with her head focused on the slim leathbound book in her hand. She's dressed in a crisp Loro Piana dress (http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/store/catalog/productImagesPopup.jhtml?selected=mg&item=prod33690001&pageProductId=prod33690001&yB=mg_prod33690001) and her Jimmy Choo's (http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/store/catalog/productImagesPopup.jhtml?selected=mg&item=prod11900019&pageProductId=prod11900019&yB=mg_prod11900019) make little noise on the plush carpet. She doesn't seem to see the visitors, or the hole in the wall as she enters.

"Mr. Luthor, you've got a conference call in fifteen minutes..."

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Luthor doesn't even bother looking up at the news. "Lovely. Another tap dance for the board."

He then turns back to Grace. "Work with this girl. Find out what she can, and cannot do. The opportunities she brings are limitless."

He reaches over, taking a pull of coffee from a mug, and coughs it back in. "Kitty! Cold Java!"

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"Sorry, Mr. Luthor." She swishes over and smoothly slides the mug from his hand. "I'll bring you a refill -- just need you to sign this," he gets one form laid out in front of him, "and then this," a second form gets set next to the first.

Mug in one hand, planner in the other, Miss Kitty Kowalski waits with an expectant expression.

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He grunts, firing off two signatures before stopping and looking above to the sounds of...chirping?

"...pigeons?"

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"Perhaps I should contact Facilities for the building, let them know about the pigeon... problem?" The two forms are removed and replaced with a fresh mug of coffee.

"Though they do make for an interesting addition, sir. Bringing a little nature inside?" Kitty's tapping her pen against her lips, obviously contemplating the possibilities.

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"You're telling me that you didn't already?" He tilts his head in disappointment. "Kitty, what again do I pay you for?"

He tips back the mug, almost burning his lips on the liquid before fanning himself. "DO I pay you? And no. This is a business, not an atrium."

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