"Coke. Just coke?" He said.
"Yes, just coke," she said. He sauntered up to the bar. Lew poured her drink without looking away from the book followed by an impressive display of a bottle having its cap removed in a single motion with one hand. He took a swig from his and handed her the drink.
"You're actually having a beer at 2:30 in the afternoon?" She said.
"I've been up since 5am yesterday, so technically it's still my Saturday night," he said, looking over the pool table. "Didn't even finish the game, mind if I take over?" Lena handed him a cue.
"You're not supposed to be here for another hour, Oddball never turns up on time," she said.
"If you told me you were sneaking in a date with Danvers I would have left you to it, as it stands Monarch is more of a wildcard" he said. Keeping up with his persona and name shenanigans was always a chore. He potted his first shot, the cue ball ricocheted back and slowed to a perfect position for his next attempt.
"It wasn't a date. She said she needed to talk to me, so I suggested meeting at The Cheshire. I mean I needed to be here anyway," she said.
"Uh-huh," he said with another flawless shot. He stood up straight, narrowly avoiding the low-hanging light over the table.
"So she just calls and you go out to meet her, then she just leaves on a whim…" Lena stopped him from moving to his next shot.
"I'm happy with where we're at right now," she said, she barely convinced herself with that line. He took her shoulders and looked right at her.
"You told her how you felt and now she's keeping you on the hook, I didn't think you'd stand for that sort of treatment," he said. Lena hesitated, before she said anything he shoved her out of the way to take his next shot. The push had absolutely nothing in it, but it caught her off-guard.
"It's not like that, I have my own doubts about moving forward," she said.
"Shouldn't you be telling her that," he said as his third shot clunked in.
"There's a lot of recent… complications," she said, unsure of how to explain the more specific problems with Kara.
"Is it the glasses thing?" He said, not looking up from the table. Lena's eyes narrowed, it was not hard to guess what he was implying. It was certainly like him to drop this sort of knowledge so casually, although usually he would wait for a drink to be in her mouth to do it. She knew better than to give the game away immediately.
"What's this about glasses?" She said.
"She takes them off from time to time," he said. Her expression immediately dropped to one of bemusement.
"We've done this enough times for you to know I hate it when you're coy," she said. He checked behind him to see it was still just the two of them. Lew was there not paying attention, though he would never say anything anyway.
"The fact she's flying about crime-fighting shouldn't get in the way of a relationship, surely you considered that before diving in," he said, raising an eyebrow.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said. The light blinked a few times at them. Unsure how else to respond, she folded her arms and watched him try to read her reaction. Behind her poker face was a guilty relief he had said it. Their meetings were business-like at first, but his knack for tangents and willingness to listen to her problems had made these meetings extremely cathartic. It was so easy to be relaxed with him, they practically met daily now. She told herself it was to keep apprised on the World Killers, but she knew it was really to provide a break from tip-toeing around Kara.
"Let's say, in theory, that's true. Which it isn't. Why would you think that?" She said.
"Now who's being coy?" He said. She stuck with an impatient look, it was often enough to break him. However, this time he was content just to look at her back. She could tell from his shifting expression he was putting something together in his head, it was always worrying when he did that.
"Wait… You didn't know until after…." He said, snorting slightly.
"Answer the question," she said with a slight bobble in her voice, it destroyed any authority she might have had. She turned red as he burst out laughing. It echoed around the bar and Lew tried to block it out by shifting over his stool.
She simmered as he calmed himself down, he looked back at her and nearly started off all over again. A well-timed glare shut him down and he went back to the table. She tried to stick with her impatient look despite knowing she was rumbled.
"I spoke to her as Supergirl. Not only were both her and Kara ridiculously protective of you, but more importantly she doesn't even hide her face… or voice… or change her attitude that much…" he said.
"You said glasses made a good disguise," she said, trying to salvage any kind of dignity from the situation.
"Not when you know the person that well and not when you know to look for it," he said. He started laughing again. "How did she even show you? Did she whip off her glasses and say "look it's me"?"
She could keep denying but she knew there was no point. That guilty side of her also embraced the fact she could finally talk about it with someone. She watched her insightful friend's smug grin and sighed.
"No… as Supergirl she changed clothes and tied her hair back… no glasses involved," she said, diving into her drink to avoid eye-contact. When she looked back at him his hand was over his mouth. "It's not funny." He slid his hand down.
"It's a little funny," he said.
"Shut up," she said. After an endless silence of Monarch mostly succeeding in not laughing, a question popped out.
"Wait, she got changed in front of you after basically turning you down? That's…"
"It's not like that, she said, cutting off this particular line of enquiry before it could start. "She has the power to materialise and breakdown certain things, clothes included. It's instantaneous and doesn't show anything off," she said.
"Huh. What a bizarrely specific power," he said. She figured if he knew about Supergirl then the ring would not be much of a secret. She watched him clatter in his final ball, leaving only the black for the win. Her own ball blocked a direct shot so he walked around the table, checking lines off the wall.
"But back on topic. You, an actual genius, failed to work out who Supergirl was when more often than not, the answer was literally staring you in the face," he said. Lena passed the cue between her hands and looking at the floor.
"I guess I assumed she'd have told me something that big earlier," she said.
"Ah, trust issues," he said.
"Hmph" she said. It was non-committal. Despite the statement being obvious she was feeling too sheepish to be snarky.
"I take it there's more problems, otherwise you'd have just talked to her about it," he said. She was in it now, no use holding back.
"You know how Supergirl is flying about with the red uniform and that weird new ring?" She said.
"Yeah," he said as he lined up for his final shot.
"Well that ring is powered by her rage and taps into a dangerous side of her. It makes her extremely temperamental and going against that thing's will could seriously weaken her." She stopped to clear her throat, saying it out loud was harder than she thought. "It could even kill her."
He looked away from his shot and raised his bottle to her.
"So you have to balance your feelings with her whacked-out mind. Yeah that's a tough one," He took a sip.
"It's hard on me. Though it's harder on her. That's why I have to be there for her, no-one else can keep her grounded like I can," she said. It really was therapeutic to talk about, despite Monarch's unusual approach she was growing more grateful that he worked it out himself. The only person she would have trusted something this deep with was Kara, for obvious reasons she could not exactly discuss it with her.
"Well you're doing a good thing. Now we're talking about it, S.G. eluded to that ring being a bit weird when she talked to Prometheus, so I've actually done some asking around about it," he said, Lena perked up, happy to let yet another drop of knowledge he had kept to himself slide by.
"What have you found?" She said, hoping to get some sort of insight.
"Not a lot on red, apparently most people that encounter them don't live to tell the tale," he said.
"That's the opposite of reassuring," she said, her mood immediately dropped.
"Let me finish. There's other rings that work in a similar way, powered by different emotions. Those green guys that have shown up recently, their rings are Willpower. There's also blue, which is hope, violet is love, and yellow, which runs on creating fear in others. There's a couple of others but wasn't much to go on for them. Turns out the yellows are commanded by some guy named Sinestro. He's out to destroy the greens and bring what he thinks is proper order to the universe. Sounds like a tool if you ask me," he said.
"Do I want to know how you know this?" she said.
"Pretty simple actually, you ask aliens what they know about it and piece together from there. But I think the bit you'll really want to hear…" he looked at her as he shot his cue forward. "Is I think I've found someone who can explain the whole damn thing, red included. Might help you with Kara or at least give you some peace of mind," The cue ball hit the wall and tapped the black cleanly. He smiled at her as it rolled toward the pocket. It hit the edge and bounced lightly away. It was Lena's turn to smirk as she glanced at the black ball, then back to him. Monarch's face dropped as the ball sat there, passively mocking him.
"Damn it. Got too cocky," he said. Lena looked at the table, it was now nothing but open shots. If she played it right the game was hers for the taking. She took a deep breath, noticing it always had a mild and pleasant pine smell in The Cheshire. She grabbed the chalk from the top of the light, the quiet grinding putting her at ease. She was convinced it made no difference to her game but it was something that people seemed to do.
"Whilst it's certainly useful for me, aren't you supposed to be chasing World Killers?" She said, making her first pot with ease.
"Urgh, that's boring. How's that Nth metal treating you?" he said. Her mind wandered to her lab, she had no idea how he got hold of such things but the Nth metal he had gotten to her was a remarkable substance. She had a few projects on the go with it after some study. She snapped herself away from the tangent once she realised what he was trying to do. She stood tall pointing the cue at him as she spoke, her free hand carelessly waving around.
"No, you always distract me with some fable or alien science. Then we talk about my life, then end up getting drunk or going home without even addressing the whole point of meeting in the first place," she said.
"I thought the point of the meetings was to talk about your life, it's always Kara this and L-Corp that," he said. His delivery was deadpan and his face was hard to read. He was standing in shadow, taller than the dangling light. She was sure he was winding her up.
"Whatever. I'm asking now. What progress have you made with the Krypton cult?" she said. Aggressively shooting at another ball to emphasise her point. The satisfying clack echoed slightly as it angled the ball nicely in a middle pocket.
"Can't we just skip to the getting drunk thing?" He said.
"It's the afternoon and if I don't give Kara something soon she'll start investigating herself or exploding, maybe both," she said. He sighed.
"Fine. But promise me you won't let her anywhere near this. It's for her own good."
"I'm not forcing anything, it's not like I could stop her anyway. Hell she might even be able to help you," she said.
"No, she's too close to all this. Besides she brings those DEO hacks with her and they'll wreck everything," he said. The fact he still was out of the loop regarding Kara's dissociation with them was something she held onto, a useful reminder that he was not actually all-knowing. His hatred for the DEO was usually quite entertaining but this was one of the few times he came across totally serious.
"I'll do my best but no promises," she said. There was no way she was going to pick a side between him and Kara unless she absolutely had too.
"It'll do I guess," he said, promptly changing his tone. She watched him in her periphery as she lined up her next shot. He took another swig of beer. Whilst he did not seem totally satisfied, she reckoned he did his best to keep these talks of theirs going as well. He always perked up when he brought up some obscure knowledge or provided some old vague story that related to whatever problem she might have mentioned about Kara. It did not escape her notice that there were no recent personal stories. He would claim to be hiding different parts of his life, she simply thought he lived a lonely life and these meetings were just as cathartic for him. According to him, she was one of the few people that even knew he used more than one name.
"Krypton cult, I've been on the fringes for an age. They've been around a long time and used to keep themselves. They think anything associated with Krypton is holy and worthy of awe. I knew the leader, he was a bloke named Thomas Coville, he was a moron," he said.
"Was?" Lena said as her shot potted her final ball. Nothing but the black was left.
"Died from being a moron. When the Daxamites invaded, him and a few followers saw it as their sacred duty to Krypton to fight off armed aliens with nothing but faith. Funnily enough they didn't last long," he said.
"Your tact always impresses me," Lena said. Monarch ignored her little aside.
"Whilst he was a moron, he at least knew that hurting innocents and meddling with alien tech was a no-no. A lesson he didn't teach their new leader," he said.
"Makes sense, Reign didn't emerge until after the Daxamite invasion. You think they hoarded artefacts and this new leader activated or summoned her somehow?" She said.
"That's my thinking, the idiot probably did it by accident. Problem is I'm not close enough yet to get anything concrete. I'm doing what I can to avoid their weird-arse initiation rituals. Unfortunately, that avoiding has made progress is slow," he said.
"How close are you? Who knows what else they could unleash," she said.
"Well another dead moron that clued me in in the first place seemed adamant the World Killers were the worst of it. Sent to cleanse the Earth or whatever. I'm closing in on it, I just need more time with their members," he said.
"You better work fast, or it could be game over for all of us," she said as she shot at the black. He clapped slowly as the ball dropped into the pocket.
"Points for dramatic flair," he said. They put the cues down and moved to a booth.
"So is getting drunk still on the table?" he said.
"Sorry, I've got a meeting later. It's also still the afternoon," she said.
"Does everyone work on Sundays?" He said.
"Don't you?" She said. Now she could see him a bit more clearly there were massive bags under his eyes and his stubble was slightly more unruly than usual. His casual demeanour was more of a tired one.
"I don't adhere to business hours, or any hours. In fact I like to think time follows me," he said.
"I've noticed," she said rolling her eyes. "It isn't that sort of meeting anyway. I've got talks with another Super and a former World Killer," she said.
"I still want to talk to her by the way," he said.
"It's better if you wait a bit longer," she said. Inflicting Monarch on Sam at this stage would be a recipe for disaster, she could barely manage Sam on her own let alone keeping him in line.
"Besides, have you looked at yourself? You need to get some sleep," she said. He groaned.
"Can't we stay a little longer?" He said. She checked her watch and looked over at a disinterested Lew.
"Alright, I'll stay until I finish my coke. And I guess I wouldn't want to go without getting in some gloating about finally beating you at pool." She took a long sip. The cold coke tasted all the sweeter as she let out a satisfied "ah."
"I started with more balls on the table, if anything it only counts as half," he said. She ignored him as she put her hands behind her head and leant back, sliding down the leather. She let the bubbles of victory tingle on her tongue as Monarch protested further.