Super-massive A/N: STOP! READ THIS! Before you start reading this story, you need to know how it's going to work. This story is going to take place within two universes, the pre-New 52 universe, and the New 52 universe. The chapters are going go back and forth between the universes, except for one chapter that is going to be out of order. Aside from this chapter, I am planning to put the whole story out at the same time, so the order will make sense when you read it.

Each chapter will have a title and each title will be repeated. For example, there will be two chapters titled "Superboy-Prime". Each chapter will be labeled 'Before' or 'After', indicating which universe it takes place in. So "Superboy-Prime (Before)" would take place in the pre-New 52 universe, and "Superboy-Prime (After)" would take place in the New 52 universe. (If you have no clue about what I mean by the two different universes, then you might want to look up "New 52" before you start reading this.)

There will be two different story lines going on, but I'm writing them in a way that causes them to line up. You are, of course, perfectly welcome to read only the "Before" story line or only the "After" story line. I just wanted to write both and thought that it wold be interesting to put them together this way.

As of right now I only have 40 words of the next first chapter written (yes, I counted) but I'm not happy with what I have and will probably delete all of it and start over. I have 15 chapters left to write, so this whole story won't be updated for a while. I just wanted to put this up to see if anyone is interested in reading this, though I would write the entire story regardless. I promise that I will work on this, probably often as I'm getting a little tired of writing Percy Jackson and the Olympians stuff (meaning that my writing is suffering for what I'm writing for The Children of Egypt).

Please tell me what you think, and any random theories you might have about this story. You might be able to jolt my brain into coming up with what to write faster.

Also, because DC characters and locations are complicated, if you can type something I wrote into this story into Google and come up with links that relate to DC, it's probably not mine. I will tell you that I make up a town, two superheroes,one supervillain, and some supporting characters, but everything else comes from DC creators, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and other people who are not me.

Thank you for taking your time to read this. Well, I hope you did, or you are going to be confused about what's going on.

-Cynder2013

Power Play

(Before)

It was late at night. The streets of San Francisco, California, were still busy, though not as busy as they would be during the day. Taxi drivers made their rounds, most of them only an hour or so away from calling it a night. A few personal vehicles, cars, motorcycles and such, traveled through the streets, their drivers wanting to make it home as soon as they could. In doorways, alleys, and bus stops the city's homeless slept as the warm summer weather made it safe enough to remain outside overnight. On one side of the city the tower containing S.T.A.R. Labs' metahuman research facility was lit up like a Christmas tree, on the other side of the city windows in Titan's Tower were also lit up, albeit fewer than S.T.A.R. Labs.

For both scientists and superheroes, work was never finished.

The sidewalks were almost empty, which meant that Trivia and Carpenter had to walk at a leisurely pace in order to not draw attention. "Here." Carpenter signed. He gestured to the alleyway that they were about to pass. "We can take a shortcut." he said out loud. The two of them stopped walking. Trivia looked around like she was trying to see what was around them. Really, she was checking to see if they were being followed or if there were police around. Not seeing either, she shrugged and then nodded.

They walked into the alley, and as soon as they were out of sight of the street Trivia ducked behind a dumpster and extracted the bag that she'd hidden there that morning. As she pulled the black tracksuit that it contained on over her shorts and T-shirt, Carpenter unearthed his own bag and checked its contents. They replaced the bags, sacks really, with the large purse or backpack that they had been carrying. Once they had both gotten dressed and pulled ski masks over their faces, Carpenter led Trivia to a door that was poorly hidden behind a sheet of plywood.

"OK Trivia, do your magic." Trivia nodded and reached into her pocket to pull out a set of lock picking tools. She studied the lock, picked out a tool, and went to work. Carpenter kept a lookout and ten seconds later Trivia was opening the door. She put the tools away.

Carpenter entered first. He had his tablet out and was rapidly hacking the building's security system. Trivia pulled the sheet of plywood back over the door as she closed it behind her. They had studied for this; they knew that the door they had entered by was not connected to an electronic system of any kind and they knew that there wouldn't be any security cameras for the next few meters.

Mechanics Bank's building did not have the best security, which was why Trivia and Carpenter had chosen it for their third hit. It also helped that the building's blueprints were available online.

"We have 45 minutes." Carpenter signed after he tucked his tablet under his arm.

"Left, right, left?" Trivia wanted to make sure. She didn't have as good of a memory as her brother. Carpenter nodded and the two of them trotted carefully through the hallways until they reached the area behind the bank's front desks. Trivia immediately headed for the locked boxes in the cupboards under the desks, popping them open and clearing them of cash. Carpenter kept a lookout, occasionally updating her on the time remaining before what security system there was kicked back in.

Carpenter tapped Trivia's shoulder to get her attention. "30 minutes." They'd agreed that they wanted to leave with time remaining to throw the police off their trail.

"Almost done." She dumped the contents of the last box into her bag and put it back in its cupboard. The two of them then hurried back through the back of the bank and out into the alley. Trivia put the sack of money into her purse and dumped her tracksuit on top. She carefully made sure that everything in the alley was placed the same as it had been when they arrive, and then looked at Carpenter, who was tapping away on his tablet. He was making select traffic cameras for miles around black out so that they would be able to leave the alley and get back to their 'hideout' without being spotted.

It might have been overkill since they didn't really have very far to go, but they had just robbed a bank. Personally, Trivia was fine with overkill and Carpenter didn't mind since it only took him about ten minutes. When he finished they looked at each other sadly and headed out into the night.

Blocks away several dozen screens in a windowless room went black. The man watching them, who had been in the process of nodding off, let out a shout and shot his hand forwards to grab the phone. Quickly, he dialed the number that he'd been calling a lot in the past month.

"Mr. Neway, it's happened again!" the man exclaimed when the phone on the other end was answered.

Mr. Neway sighed and rested his forehead in his free hand. "Call the police, Carl." he ordered. "Maybe this time they'll actually catch the thief."

David An looked over his shoulder at his little sister. "Everything is taken care of. You can stop shadowing me." He stopped at a computer station, poured a cup of coffee from the pot on his cart, added a splash of milk, and handed it to the man at the station.

"Thanks David."

"You're welcome." He went back to pushing the S.T.A.R. Labs drinks cart. As part of his job as a S.T.A.R. Labs intern he went around to all the food-allowed work stations on Level 4 three times a day and delivered drinks to the workers. After five weeks at S.T.A.R. Labs San Francisco he had learned everyone's drink preferences so it was easy for him to keep talking to his sister while he worked.

Note: That would actually be difficult for most people because it involved looking over his shoulder in short intervals to catch the hand signs that she was using.

"What?" Delilah asked. "Are you embarrassed to have your mute sister coming with you to work now? With all the time we've spent planning you should be used to having me around." She kept her face impassive as her brother twitched and nearly poured coffee on his hand. Honestly, they'd been practicing their interrogation forms for weeks and that was the best he could do? At least he'd managed to stay expressionless.

"Delilah." he hissed after he placed the coffee on Walter Scott's desk. She looked at him innocently.

"Were you just indulging me all this time? Just letting me talk about wanting to get into med school after I finish at UTSC? Is it because we don't have enough money? You know the court stuff is still getting finished and I could get a job if you weren't so overprotective." She was only two years younger than him but her bother acted like such a dad sometimes. A real dad who cared about his kids and always wanted to keep them safe, not a father who left his family after his wife was disabled in a car crash and got a divorce after his daughter found out that he had a teenage daughter with another woman.

David sighed. He poured hot water over a chamomile teabag. "Delilah, mom and I are both glad that you're planning for your future, but we barely managed to pay for your first year and my third year. It's only going to get more expensive so…"

"Don't count chickens." Delilah finished with a frown. "I know, it's just, with everything that's going on I…" She ducked her head and her hand signs flashed quickly as she finished her sentence. "I wanted something to look forwards to."

With that confession out David and Delilah finished the drinks run in silence. Delilah actually abandoned her bother halfway through to have a chat with Beth Wilder, a researcher who was currently packing up her station in preparation for her transfer to S.T.A.R. Labs Metropolis. David couldn't actually see what Delilah was saying, but judging from the noises of assentation from Mrs. Wilder they were talking about how annoying the men in their lives were.

It was an open secret that Beth Wilder and her husband hated each other as much as they loved each other, though it was sometimes difficult to tell which was what.

After he put the cart away, David found his sister and asked her if she would check on their mother. She rolled her eyes.

"You know she doesn't like us checking in on her every five minutes. She's just at the library, what's the worst that could happen?"

"The Teen Titans are here for a reason." David reminded her. Delilah picked up her bag and shut down the computer that she had been using.

"I'll go." she told him. "But don't think I don't know that you just want me gone so you can lurk around the project on Level 7." That was very true. Delilah wasn't allowed access to the upper levels of the building (anything higher than Level 6 was completely closed to anyone who didn't have an employee card), and the project that was happening on Level 7 absolutely fascinated David, though he refused to tell Delilah what it was.

Darn S.T.A.R. Labs policy.

A breeze blew her braid over her shoulder as Delilah left S.T.A.R. Labs. As she sifted it back into place a flash of light from her ring finger caught her eye. She looked with surprise at the sliver ring with a row of three light blue gemstones that was on her finger. She vaguely remembered finding it in her bag and, intending to turn it over to the police, putting it on so that she wouldn't lose it. Didn't she give it to the police? She was sure she had, but there it was, still on her finger. Was she really that scatterbrained? Not normally.

Delilah shook her head at herself and walked towards the bus stop. When the bus arrived she asked the driver where the nearest police station was and got off the bus at the stop closest to it. After taking a few steps in the direction of the station she looked down at her hand and blinked in surprise when she saw that the ring was gone. She had been holding a pole on the bus with that hand, and she realized that she hadn't seen the ring then either. It hadn't fallen off; it fit too well for that.

'I guess I did give to the police.' she thought, as she turned around to walk the half block to the public library. 'My eyes must be playing tricks on me.'

But, as she walked, she couldn't help glancing down at her hand, sure that she would see silver and blue glinting at her. It still felt like that the ring was on her finger, even though it was totally invisible.

Money, Money, Money- ABBA