AN: Woah, so sorry for the long unexplained hiatus. That probably won't be happening again. Anyway, enjoy what is hopefully a now uninterrupted story.


8:00 am - Metropolis

It was so hot. Who in their right mind had given permission to make it this hot in the middle of October? And to add insult to injury who had decided it would be alright for the air conditioner in the reporters room on the fifth floor to go bust? So disgusted by the total lack of either chill air or competence and without any ice themed super villains within her immediate vicinity to barter with, these were the thoughts that consumed ace reporter Lois Lanes mind as she trudged off to a close by, and well conditioned, coffee shop to wait out the time it would take for the repairman to fix the ancient ac unit that had once given cold, if not sometimes a bit smelly, air. With nothing but her laptop and half finished manuscript she calmly waited in line to purchase some cool drink that preferably tasted of pumpkin spice.

Whilst angrily typing away Lois contemplated why the Daily Planet didn't just spring for a new ac all together. Even though Perry had a stick up his ass when it came to anything monetary, even he had to know that the cost of repairing their roaring monstrosity was now reaching into the triple digits. At this point, it really would have just been more cost effective to replace the thing. Gulping down the rest of her drink Lois decided to bring her wonderful point up to Perry, though usually she would just use Kent to relay these kind of messages the guy was off in lil' old Kansas doing who knows what, and since she'd just hit a wall of writers block with the Terror Twin article... Well there's no time like the present to harass your boss.

That's the thought she kept holding onto as she trudged all the way back through that ungodly heat pounding down on the city from an unfairly innocent looking morning sun. She was blasted with cold air upon entering the Daily Planet lobby, but she didn't let herself be fooled. She knew that as soon as the elevator let her out onto the fifth floor she'd be choking on the smells of stale sweat and despair. Oh well, she should at least get to the elevator before becoming so gloomy about what awaited for her after she got off of it.

Only she couldn't.

Standing between her and the elevator were two men. One was most obviously the repairman that had been called to fix the broken air conditioner, his homely outfit complete with overalls and a rusty blue toolbox. The other was Marks, the security guard spoken about in naught but hushed whispers. The man who had almost cost them an interview with a foreign diplomat by quite literally kicking him out of the building for looking suspicious. The single most high strung man Lois had ever met who was currently accosting this poor, unassuming repairman.

"Marks!" Lois called as she approached. "What are you doing?"

Marks' eyes seemed to light up at the sight of her.

"Miss Lane-" He started.

"Nuh-uh, don't 'Miss Lane' me. What are you doing?"

"I was just telling this man the DP policy." Marks replied. "If he doesn't have the proper I.D. then he can't go any farther than the lobby."

"Marks we've been over this before. No one just carries their birth certificate around with them."

The other frowned. "I wasn't-"

"Eh."

"But Miss Lane-"

"Eh." Lois gave an irritated sigh. "Look, you know what management will do if they find out you've been harassing another person."

By the way he cringed, she knew she'd made her point.

"C'mon." She waved the repairman to follow her. "We're both going to the same place anyway, might as well go together."

"Thank you kindly, miss." The repairman said before flashing one of the whitest smiles Lois had ever seen. "I was having the darndest time with that man. He was treating me like a criminal."

"He means well." The doors dinged shut behind them.

"Well it's to be expected. I'm probably a little rusty when it comes to dealing with new people." He admitted.

"You should fix that." Lois warned. "The world is big. Full of new people."

"Yeah." He agreed, his smile just a tad more strained then it had been previous. "He said something like that too."


Grimly observing the charred wreckage of their once state of the art computer system, Aqualad sighed.

"Alright, we are going to have to narrow down where the gangs will attack next without the computers."

Leaning back in her chair Artemis almost laughed.

"How?" She asked.

"We need to use what we already know about their movements thus far to predict their movements in the future." Aqualad looked to Scout. "Who is the leader of the other gang?"

Scout looked back confused. "Gang? What the hell are you talking abo- oh! Right, um... no one really."

"HOW CAN A GANG NOT HAVE A LEADER?" Kid Flash asked. "HOW CAN THEY OPERATE?"

Scout shrugged. "We all just, you know, do our own thing. Sometimes we got a plan but mostly it's a free for all."

"SOMEONE HAS TO BE CALLING THE SHOTS." Kid Flash insisted.

Artemis perked up. "What about that guy who attacked Robin? That, uh, spy person?"

To everyone's surprise Scout actually began to laugh. A series of large snorting giggles, as though Artemis had just told some hilarious joke only he was privy to.

"The Spy?" He repeated, his words slurred by laughter. "You got to be kidding! Guy's nothing but a dime-a-dozen, back stabbing dirt bag. Besides, I'm pretty sure he hates most of his team. He wouldn't want to talk to 'em much less lead 'em."

"So he's not the kind of man to have a plan?" Aqualad asked.

Opening his mouth to deliver what would have undoubtedly been a witty retort, Scout stopped when he felt the heavy fabric of Pyro's glove poked him.

"What?"

"Mmrrhrrmmrr Shmmihr."

The other fell silent, whether contemplating these words or deciphering them, no one could tell. But it seemed to sober him up.

"Fine." He said. "So let's pretend that Spy's able to get over his own prickish ass and lead the BLU's, how does that help us?"

"You appear to know him well." Aqualad said. "So tell us, if he were in charge, what would he do?"


With slight amusement Lois watched as the repairman fiddled with the air conditioner. She had expected him to have some trouble with it considering the thing was probably from the 60s, but he looked right at home kneeling front of the thing taking wrench and screwdriver to it at an unusually slow pace.

"You know ma'am, you can go back to whatever it was you'd meant to be doing. I'm fine by myself." He said wiping a smudge of oil onto his blue shirt sleeve.

"No it's fine. I was just going to head back here, actually." She assured him, her voice echoing slightly in the empty room. "Watching you is more fun then what I was going to be doing. Besides, if I stay I can always lend you a hand."

"Much obliged ma'am, but... I'm ... almost..." He groaned throwing all his weight against the unmoving wrench.

Lois squinted. "I... don't think that's the right kind of wrench. You need a box-end, don't you?"

She reached down into his toolbox to get him one causing him to jump.

"Wait!"

But it was too late. Having already brushed aside tools and miscellaneous metal items Lois saw what had been so carefully hidden. A shotgun.

Letting out a strangled gasp Lois stumbled back onto her feet. Quickly she sprinted from the out reached hand that tried to grab her. Cursing his own carelessness under his breath the Engineer ran after her, snatching up the shotgun on his way past.

Lois sprinted past the empty desks of those who like her had fled to cooler climates. She needed to warn everyone. She needed to get to security. To make sure no one got hurt because she had gotten some gun toting maniac past security. But first she needed to get to the door.

The bullet got to her before she could.