Chapter 11: That Fateful Day


'The devil's in the details. If you don't watch the details, he wins.' - Lionel Luthor, Season 3, Episode 21: "Forsaken".


May 6th 2010. 12:47 PM UTC-6 (10:47 PM Local Time). Star Scraper Penthouse, Star City, California, USA.

Oliver dropped his keys on the counter, walking straight in the living room. He put his mail on the coffee table and turned on the TV before setting it mute. He fell, sighing, on the sofa, a copy of the Daily Planet in his hands.

His Star City penthouse was big and quiet as he sat here by his lonesome. He hadn't been here in almost a year and it reminded him that just as much time had passed since his and Chloe's relationship evolved, he never took her to his hometown, not even for a weekend. Likewise, she never met Dayton Miles, nor did they officially come out as a couple despite the speculation from the tabloids.

The fact that doing these things never crossed his mind before didn't sit well with him. Chloe Sullivan was the light of his life, he had never been more sure of anything in his life, so why did it feel like he was only half-involved in this relationship?

His eyes flickered to the TV set. Thoughts of his love life flew out of his head as a picture of Lex Luthor was shown on air. It brought his mind back as to the reason of his presence in California.

Today was the day.

The United States Presidential Elections of 2010. People were voting outside and tomorrow, early in the morning, they would know who would be their president for the next five years. Oliver himself, just came back from the voting office and would be in contact with his friends in a couple of hours when they were done with their duty.

The identity of the man they wished to see in the White House was no secret between themselves. Martin Hill was their uncontested favorite. The Democrat candidate was the only one able to stop Lex from reaching the all-encompassing powers.

Yet, every survey poll declared Lex Luthor winner by no less than a ten points margin. Considering that six months ago, everybody believed him beaten by a large mile, this was a feat no one saw coming. Oliver the first of them. How did that happen?

As he started to read Lois's article on the matter, he realized thanks to her spot-on analysis that they shouldn't have been surprised at all.

USA 2010, or the greatest manipulation achieved inhistory of man.

The two-party political system of our country has been criticized since the days of Abraham Lincoln. Georges Washington, himself, had pronounced a speech at his divestiture, warning us about the dangers of solely relying on two political parties. Every five years the refrain comes again and hundreds of thousands complain about the domination of the Democrat and Republican Parties over the American presidency.

This common occurrence has been accepted as a fact but never dealt with. No matter what, it always came back... until now. This is the year 2010 and as a citizen, I am amazed by the lack of reminiscence of my fellow men and women about this subject.

Where has all the criticism gone? What has happened to the protesters? Where is the freedom of speech today?

Can we be so short-sighted? So light-minded? If so, let me refresh your memory:

August 27th, 2009: Lex Luthor, Forbes Magazine's 6th world fortune, declares his intention to run for the White House just minutes after coming back to civilization from a months-long period of absence and uncertainty about his life.

September 2nd, 2009: The Democrat Party's primary election declare Martin Hill winner and as such, the Party's candidate. He enlists George Moss as his adjoint.

September 3rd, 2009: It is announced that there will not be a primary election for the Republican Party as Lex Luthor, a complete stranger on national political scale, is nominated as the party's candidate. He designs the Republican Al Revson as his vice-man.

October 14th, 2009: The first presidential debate is held at the University of Denver, Colorado. Martin Hill is considered a clear winner ahead of the minor parties' candidates. Lex Luthor features a very clear last.

October 15th, 2009: The polls' estimations credit 76% to Hill and less than 4% to Luthor. General public wonders how such an unprepared man could be picked up by the Republicans.

October 16th, 2009: The second Iran-Iraq War in Middle East see the American embassies in both countries attacked and breached. Fifteen people die, all Americans. The same day, A new gruesome murder is discovered by the police to have taken place in Nebraska. It is attributed to the notorious vigilante Green Arrow and counted as his twelfth.

October 22nd, 2009: The second presidential debate is held at the Centre College in Kentucky. Lex Luthor makes a surprising come back by attracting the people's attention on the insecurity of the country, making him a strong second in the results as Hill's economical logic still keep him in the lead.

November 5th, 2009: Reports of a goverment-sponsored facility in Delaware being ransacked by apparent supernatural being(s) raise concern and questions as to the existence of 'abnormal' and dangerous people among us. This month also marks the 30th hit on Green Arrow's list.

November 10th, 2009: The Third presidential debate at the Yale University, show Lex Luthor's rise in public opinion as far as national security matters. Economists start to consider his plans as possible. This ends in a draw between Hill and Luthor.

-November 12th, 2009: Change of dimension. An anonymous call to the authorities place claims of irregularity in Martin Hill's campaign accounts, notably involvement of blood money.

November 13th, 2009: The Daily Planet's Cat Grant publishes an article accusing Hill of having molested his neighbor's daughter when he was still a teenager, she claims evidence and testimony from the victim herself.

November 14th, 2009: The same reporter reveals to the public that Lex Luthor's right hand, Tess Mercer, whose disappearance raise suspicion, had in fact been kidnapped by the Green Arrow who demands that Luthor give up his hopes of being president or she dies.

November 15th, 2009: Martin Hill is cleared by the authorities of all accusation and Lex Luthor communicates that he refuses to give into the Green Arrow's demands and is working hand in hand with the FBI to take him down and save Mercer.

November 20th, 2009: The fourth and last presidential debate take place at Gotham's Parliament during which Lex Luthor famously declares 'I am a wanted man, I refuse to be a victim too.' in reference to the Green Arrow, Martin Hill is speechless.

December 17th, 2009: Luthor's meeting in Florida brings together half a million people.

December 20th, 2009: Martin Hill is victim of a serious liver infection. Papers report claims of a possible history of alcoholism. These are refuted and deemed 'offending' by Hill's deputy, George Moss.

December 31st, 2009: Luthor make one last communication coup for the year. He opens up his Mansion in Smallville to everyone, welcoming them himself to the New Year's Eve party held at his home. This night is a success for him.

End of the year 2009. There were still five months to go and already, the game was played as it seemed. Over the course of the final run, Martin Hill was rarely seen in public and rumors about his health being in jeopardy spread once again. This time, Moss himself states through clenched teeth that there is indeed a problem with the candidate's liver.

Hill would not be seen until St Patrick's Day in March. Despite his best efforts, it was clear to everyone that the Democrat was physically diminished and questions about his future were asked. Both Hill and Moss denied that they would trade places. Was this going to be the mistake that would cost them the White House?

As one suffered, the other rejoiced. There was not a day that went by without being able to see Lex Luthor's face on TV, posters, tracts or even hear his voice on the radio. His communication skills soared at the perfect time for him. He was everywhere.

Was this a coincidence?

Most people would shrug at this question. This is because they didn't know the hidden face of Republican Candidate Lex Luthor. How many people know about the side-business this man was doing? His involvement in several different cases in which manslaughter and unethical experiments were conducted?

Strangely enough, in a shady career of about eight years, Luthor had never once been worried by the authorities. Rare were the people daring to ask the right questions and if someone was brave enough to do so, they would be intimidated or threatened into silence.

As an investigative reporter, I am aware of the lack of proof corroborating the facts shown in this article. The reason for that is that there is simply no proof at all. It gets destroyed the moment anything even remotely connected to him shows up.

People died over this. No one forgot about the macabre discovery at Cadmus Labs last year. The FBI had claimed the case and closed it after a month, telling us the murderer committed suicide among the bodies in the building.

This song was repeated again and again over time. There have been allegations of Luthorcorp being involved in stealing dead bodies from Metropolis General Hospital's morgue. No investigation was started either on local or federal level.

The death of Lionel Luthor created quite a news frenzy two years ago. Lex was reported to have been on the same floor as his father at the time of his demisebut the police ruled it a suicide and Luthor junior was free to walk.

No record figures at the Belle Reeve Asylum of Smallville concerning Lex Luthor. Yet, several people affirm having witnessed him being present for a long stay in 2003.

This is quite disturbing in itself. This paper would surely be buried shortly after its releasebut its goal is not to dirty the carefully crafted public image of the man who could succeed to outgoing president Charles Daigh.

I am urging you, do not take anyone's words at face-value. Watch him, watch him closely, keep records and analyse them. The truth can only be attained if we look hard and past the facts fed to us by a powerful PR machine.

The election is due in a week and our country's fate could be sealed if we chose the wrong person. Are the Americans willing to keep their freedom? I surely hope they will.

Will it be enough? This is the question.

- Lana Lang.

The article was a week old. Due to Lex's control of the Daily Planet, Lois had to resort to posting it in a concurrent newspaper under a pen name. She took up Lana's identity as a subtle blow to the man and also as a message that she wasn't forgotten despite her disappearance.

The Daily Planet's copy of the article in Oliver's hands was one of the very few the newspaper had printed as part of their pre-publication process.

In the end, Lois's efforts met a dead end. The Metropolis Star had been pressured by a 'mysterious' partner and dropped her paper. Every other newspaper in the city and the state did the same. Oliver had been able to use his influence to strike up a deal with the Star City Gazette.

They agreed to print the paper despite the lack of evidence. It all seemed to go well finally until he got a phone call five days ago from the editor in chief expressing his apologies as Lois Lane's article had been discussed and eventually refused.

Oliver had been stunned.

Knowing that Lex had enough influence over the medias in Kansas wasn't such a stretch but this was a Californian paper giving up. Evidently, Lex had been having more leverage over Oliver's home turf than anyone had expected.

He was gaining a national reputation and ties started to form. It was one of the worst things that could happen. Lex could develop a strong network over the country which could help him in his illegal activities. He was on the verge of becoming a national criminal. Perhaps, the most dangerous one in the history of the USA.

This battle for a simple news article illustrated the atmosphere in the country that had settled ever since the beginning of the year. One hadn't seen any piece of advertising or slogan saying bad things about Lex Luthor.

Martin Hill was basically non-existent, the TV news channels reported 24/7 cases of murders, and crimes in general attributed to several vigilantes, Green Arrow being front and foremost. Even as Oliver himself was riding the bench because of his injury, Echevarria travelled the entire country, targeting multiple important people.

By April, he made it into the top 5 of FBI's most wanted. It was as if every day, a new murder was discovered. These times were hard on everyone in the team and Oliver the first. His earlier shock soon turned into numbness as they watched Green Arrow make it to the top of the list.

He was now Public Enemy Number One.

Everybody knew about the green-leather wearing hitman, everybody told horror stories about him, there were even rumors of him being the head of a worldwide Mafia organization which crimes constituted in drug-smuggling and human and organs trafficking.

Oliver and the team had made a point of voting against Lex todaybut there were no illusions. The results had been decided long before the vote took place.

He jumped when his cellphone rung on the coffee table. Oliver sighed, ran a hand over his face and took the call. "Hi," he said, exhaustion seeping through his words.

"Hey," came her soft voice. "We just came back, our duty's done and the boys are already putting on their gears. It's going to be a long night."

"That it will be, Sidekick." Oliver said. "Even for me."

Another night he would hate as his friends went out to patrol while he stayed on the sidelines. Nine months after his run-in with Echevarria, Oliver's vision still had not improved any further. Emil recently told him that he shouldn't hope for any further changes. Oliver would need strong glasses for the rest of his life.

"Don't give up yet, it's not over yet."

"Lex wants his power and what Lex Luthor wants, he gets." Oliver snorted. "I know you want to keep our spirits up but-"

"Ollie..."

"Listen," he interrupted. "Tonight, Lex will be president. I know it, you know it. Everybody does. We've never been able to do anything because he always was ten steps ahead of us. Every damn time."

"We can still get him." she replied, her stubborn streak showing itself. "The team will be stationed close to the poll offices and I will keep a good eye on them too. Imagine if he stuffs the ballots? We can catch him for fraud." Oliver sighed. "What? You know it can still happen."

"I don't think he'll do it. He doesn't even need to fraud, he controls the population."

"We all know how cocky Lex can get." she said. "I know it, I've known my fair share of billionaires in my life and this is a trait they all had."

He chuckled. "All right, you may have a point there..." he conceded.

There was a moment of silence on the other line and he could imagine her soft smile on her face. "Have a little faith." she finally said.

"In you? Always. The rest of the world? Not so much..."

"That's something, I can work with." she quipped. There was a rustle on the other end of the line. "I gotta go, the boys are ready. Call you later?"

"Yeah." he nodded. "Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too." she replied and he could hear the smile in her voice before she hung up.

They said it more often lately. It seemed like with everything turningsour outside, they needed to remind each other of what they had so they could preserve themselves and keep going. They needed each other and Oliver had no plans of letting her go, ever.


May 6th 2010. 08:59 PM UTC-6. Metropolis's streets, Kansas, USA.

"This is Canary. Everything's clear in the South."

"Copy, Canary." Chloereplied."Keepwatch."

Her comm sizzled again in her ear. "Feels like we're wasting our time." AC said. "All I see is citizens lining up and waiting to vote. Nothing else will happen."

"Yeah well, what did you expect? Armed guys pointing guns at people if they don't vote for Lex?" Cyborg replied. "Be realistic."

"I am realistic!"

"Really? I always pegged you for the idealist profile." Dinah quipped.

"My man!" Victor exclaimed. "Sorry, My woman!"

"Yeah, that's better." Dinah said dryly.

Chloe smiled a little. Hearing her companions joke and tease each other made this night more bearable. It felt like just a usual patrol where she would guide them throughthe street inhope to stop criminals instead of watching over vote offices.

Like Oliver said, the issue of this night was almost certain but she still held onto that little hope that Lex would overstep his mark and do something stupid because he was so full of himself and thought he was invincible. Her heart was beating fast in her chest as she pulled up feed after feed of live video from the security cameras of the poll offices.

"Every time, just every time!" AC complained. "Can't I have just one night off the jokes? Guys? Seriously."

"Aww someone's pissed."

"No one asked for your opinion, Impulse!" AC grumbled.

"Picking on the youngest one? Not nice, dude!" They could all hear him pouting over the comms.

"Come on you're not a kid anymore," Vic said. "That's just easy!"

"Judging by the number of girls he flirts with, including me, I would tend to agree with you, Cyborg." Chloe chimed in, amused.

"Been checking my record, mamacita?" Bart boasted.

"I just call it as I see it." she grinned.

"Except that I haven't seen him much around women lately." Dinah piped in.

"You know more than I do." AC chuckled.

"They see things like that, it's just a creepy thing that women can do and men can't." Vic explained.

"Who else bets that our Impulse has found someone?" Chloe gossiped, welcoming the distraction.

"What?! You betting on me, now?" Bart said. "How did this turn on me, the first time?"

"Are you saying that we're wrong?" Dinah challenged.

"I'm not going to answer that."

AC whistled. "There definitely is something there!"

Vic chuckled. "Come on, tell us! You know we won't stop until you come clean!"

"Uh... so there might be this girl..."

"I knew it!" Chloe exclaimed. "That explains why you're happier than usual, which is a lot to say!"

"Hey, I didn't mean it like that! We're not-"

The line cut for a moment. "Come on, Impulse, we wanna know more!" AC pressed on, eager to get more information out of his friend in order to tease him about it later.

"Like I said, we won't stop till we know it all!" Vic joined him.

Chloe frowned when she noticed Bart's dot moving away from his spot. "Impulse, do you read me?"

Silence.

"What's up, Tower?" Cyborg asked.

"I don't know, we lost radio contact with him and he looks like he's moving." she said. "At human speed."

Her words sobered up her teammates. Bart never walked on patrols, he always zoomed around because it was the only time in the day when he could do it without a second thought.

"Ping him up again, maybe he's just coming back home because his radio's gone." Dinah suggested.

"I'm trying," she selected Bart's canal. "Impulse?... Impulse do you read me?... If your mike is off and you can still hear me then turn to Madison Street to show me a sign."

The dot kept moving up north towards the industrial area. It blinked for another thirty seconds before it suddenly vanished from her screen.

"Impulse!"

She winced when the radio link blared through her ears. "Fuck, what's wrong with the comms?" AC complained. They were on the main canal.

"Do you want to get your friend back in one piece?" A distorted voice asked from Bart's comm.

Chloe froze. "Who's that?" Cyborg barked.

"Impulse will live if and only if you will do what I ask of you."

"Who are you?" Chloe asked.

"There is a poll office in the south-east neighborhood. I believe this is you, Miss Lance who are in charge of watching it." the voice continued. "I need you to jump down your roof and assault the people in the line."

"What? No way!" she replied.

"You can go to hell, buddy!" AC raged.

"Do you refuse to do as I ask?"

"Guys.." Chloe whispered over the comms. She didn't feel it at all.

"No fucking way." Dinah replied.

"Very well." the voice replied. It went silent for an instant before a deafening explosion filled their comms. Chloe threw her headset away, hissing in pain. As she recovered, she could hear screams of pain erupting from the radio.

Bart had been shot.