A/N: In case anyone is curious, I use the DC Wikipage to get ideas for villains. Lynai Lumos is loosely based on Lady Luma and Luma Lynai. Oh and unexpected night off means new chapter posted!
Ever since she found the asteroid particles in her Uncle Bruce's basement lab, she no longer needs much sleep. And using a few tricks that she learned from an over-caffeinated hacker that she dated in college, it didn't take her long to figure out the best way to ruin Kara Danvers. Lynai smiles smugly as she watches the news break on-line before clicking through a few channels, almost every news show is reporting on the story. Excited and almost giddy that her plan is working perfectly, she grabs her messenger bag and decides it's time to head out.
Heading over to the window of her apartment, Lynai climbs out onto the fire escape and up to the top of it, where she can make the jump to the roof. If she leaves now, she will have just enough time to go by CATCO Towers and see how the Queen of all Media is reacting this morning's news.
Kara smiles broadly and stretches as the sun floods her senses, for a moment it reminds her of her bedroom in Midvale, smiling at the memory she begins to stretch and then remembers where she is. Her eyes pop open and she glances around the room before using her x-ray vision to find Cat in the apartment.
"You're already working?" Kara mumbles through a yawn as she stands in the doorway in her pajamas. It takes her a minute to realize that Cat obviously came into her home office right from her bed, her robe hastily wrapped around her, falling off one shoulder revealing a thin strap of silk.
Cat must have noticed Kara noticing her mostly bare shoulder, because she adjusts the robe before responding.
"Breaking news has ruined more than one night's sleep," she quips nodding at the tv. Not allowing herself to dwell on the sight of Kara in her ridiculously cute pajamas.
Kara laughs lightly and smiles at her as she enters the room, wondering what the breaking story is. Her smile fades as she sees her own name on the screen. She turns to look at Cat, who simply unmutes the tv.
"It would seem that there is another disgruntled employee at CATCO Worldwide Media, as CATCO magazine reporter, Kara Danvers sent out a press release of sorts attaching her personal blog which contains a number of stories that have not been published through the magazine," the anchor then begins to read directly from the press release.
Kara gasps in shock. "A press release? I've been sleeping, how could I have sent that?" She exclaims in confusion.
Cat continues watching the news report. It's on a loop and she can almost quote it verbatim by now, but she wants Kara to hear the whole thing, so she remains silent.
"I-I didn't ... that wasn't me, I've been here," Kara stammers immediately pointing at the screen. A moment later they show the email word for word. "Oh come on, that press release is terrible. I write better than that in my sleep," she exclaims again turning to look at Cat. "Not that I did, because I don't write things in my sleep," she rambles before pleading with the other woman. "Cat please say something, you know that I couldn't have done this last night because I don't even have my computer here?"
"It doesn't matter what I know, it's not as if it would help either of us for me to intervene at this point. Kara, this is quite serious. Snapper has already called me to discuss it. Blogging is a terminable offense," Cat retorts unemotionally, she is certain that Kara didn't do this, but it won't matter until they can figure who did do it.
"He's going to fire me? But, but I-I didn't do this ... and I don't even have a website," Kara stammers in frustration.
"Really? Because there is one registered in your name and paid for with your credit card," Cat informs her, pushing a printed document across the desk for her to look over.
"Oh," Kara says looking at the document. "Wait, Winn told me to secure that domain name when I was starting out as a reporter, but there's no website," she points out.
Cat clicks on another tab and pulls up the website, then turns the computer back around for her to see.
"That isn't...I didn't set that up," Kara protests as she looks at the poorly designed website. "I've been hacked. I need to call Winn. He can figure this out."
"Someone has certainly gone to a lot of trouble to make it look like you've taken to blogging all of your rejected stories," Cat remarks as she scrolls through the list of articles on the site.
"Um, not all of those were rejected ... this one wasn't even submitted to Snapper," Kara exclaims angrily. "A-and this one, I just wrote yesterday. Cat, someone has hacked into my CATCO files and posted all of these overnight," she points to the posting date.
Cat sighs. She knew that the whole thing was bogus, but it has to be treated seriously, now that it's public. "Kara, I believe you," she admits softening her tone. "And I've called Tom, he's working with IT to investigate this," Cat promises.
"Okay," Kara says looking lost and defeated.
"Although, until we get this sorted out, you can't go into the office," Cat adds thoughtfully.
"But how can I protect you if I'm not at CATCO?" Kara blurts out.
"Someone has certainly gone to a lot of trouble to make it look like you've taken to blogging all of your rejected stories," Cat remarks as she scrolls through the list of articles on the site.
"Um, not all of those were rejected ... this one wasn't even submitted to Snapper," Kara exclaims angrily. "A-and this one, I just wrote yesterday. Cat, someone has hacked into my CATCO files and posted all of these overnight," she points to the posting date.
Cat sighs. She knew that the whole thing was bogus, but it has to be treated seriously, now that it's public. "Kara, I believe you," she admits softening her tone. "And I've called Tom, he's working with IT to investigate this," Cat promises.
"Okay," Kara says looking lost and defeated.
"Although, until we get this sorted out, you can't go into the office," Cat adds thoughtfully.
"But how can I protect you if I'm not at CATCO?" Kara blurts out.
Winn's phone blew up at dawn with messages from Alex and J'onn, by the time Kara called he had been able to take the website down and was now on the phone with his old supervisor at CATCO trying to talk him through tracing the hack.
"Danvers had VPN access and it was done through the VPN connection," the man informs Winn.
"I realize that, but she isn't the only person at CATCO with VPN access. Anyone could hacked her email from the VPN network, which is why I devised that firewall for Ms Grant after her email was hacked internally. And why I suggested that it be implemented system wide," Winn reminds him.
"Why are you so invested in this Schott? Did you finally get Danvers to go out with you?"
"Uh, she's my friend and I want to clear her name. She didn't do this," Winn explains.
"Well, it's too late for that. Even if we can prove that she didn't do this, her career is ruined. I've already been instructed to deactivate her system access. She no longer works at CATCO."
Usually Ms Teschmacher is relieved when Ms Grant decides to work from her home office, but today is the exception. First thing this morning, Snapper sent out an internal memo informing everyone that discussing Kara Danvers with outside media would be grounds for immediate dismissal, which only increased the number of media calls that were already pouring in for Ms Grant. Everytime she hangs up the phone, it rings again and she has to repeat the same message to the next caller.
"Looks like you could use some help," a familiar voice says setting down a cup of coffee in front of the harried assistant.
"Oh my gosh, thank you," Eve says picking up the cup and taking a long sip. "The phones just won't stop ringing and now Ms Grant just emailed me to set up a press conference this afternoon."
"A press conference?" The short-haired brunette inquires lightly.
"You didn't hear that from me," Eve replies quickly realizing that she shouldn't have said anything to the intern.
"Will it be here?" Lynai asks nodding towards Cat's office.
"I really can't say," Eve says apologetically, before answering another call.
"Cat Grant's office," she says sternly into the receiver. Then adds, "Yes, I can confirm that Ms Danvers was previously Ms Grant's assistant. But no Ms Grant is not accepting interview requests at this time."
"So is it true that Danvers was fired for blogging?" The girl asks when Eve hangs up the phone again.
"I'm sorry, I can't discuss this with anyone. Ms Grant is very strict about that kind of thing," Eve says taking a sip of the coffee.
"Really? Gosh, everyone is talking about it, I can't believe that she would expect you not to," Lynai explains.
"Thank you for the coffee, but I have a million things to do if this phone ever stops ringing," Eve replies before answering another call.
Lynai excuses herself and heads back over to the elevator. She hasn't been able to get anyone to confirm that Danvers is fired, it's rather unsatisfying, she thinks as she presses the button on the elevator to return to her cubicle. As the elevator descends, she suddenly hears her name being spoken by a voice that she doesn't recognize. Quickly, she punches a button to stop the elevator at the floor before hers. She exits when the doors open and moves to the stairwell. Silently thanking her uncle for the enhanced hearing that came with the super strength. It only takes her a moment to focus and find the voice that she heard moments ago.
"Why don't you both wait in my office, while we locate Ms Lumos," the director of Social Media suggests politely. She can't believe that security escorted the detectives to her office without calling ahead to warn her.
"Sheila, we need to locate Lynai Lumos right away," the security guard whispers to her.
"Well, she's in the building...somewhere," Sheila whispers back.
In the office, Maggie and Collins exchange concerned looks. She knew that she should have alerted Tom last night, but Collins told her to wait since they had her under surveillance.
"I'll call Clarkson, you call and see if the DEO Can track her," Collins says through tight lips. He hates to ask outside agencies for help, but they both know that the DEO can probably track Lumos more easily than NCPD, if their ability to track aliens is any indication.
Maggie tries to hide her smirk as she pulls her phone out of her pocket to call Alex.
"Danvers," Alex answers on the first ring.
"Sawyer," Maggie says letting Alex know that this call isn't social. "Any chance that you can track Lumos? She slipped past the surveillance team this morning. We're at CATCO now, she isn't at her desk and no one's sure where she went" she explains quickly.
"Let me see where Winn's at with that. He's been swamped with trying to figure out who hacked Kara and got her fired from CATCO for blogging," Alex replies.
"I saw that on the news and it's all people are talking about here," Maggie remarks.
"Winn can you scan CATCO for unusual biometric markers? We need to find Lumos," Alex explains as she leans on his desk.
"I won't be able to confirm that it's her, since we don't have her biometric signature yet," Winn reminds her.
"Well, it's all we can do right now," Alex points out.
"Uh, looks like there is someone in the stairwell closest to the main elevator," Winn says a moment later. "Right about the 21st floor," he adds.
"Check the stairwell on the 21st floor," Alex directs the detective.
Ending the call, Maggie grabs Collins sleeve, "Come on, she's in the stairwell," she says moving quickly out the door.
"Stairs?" She asks the first person she sees and as they point down the hall, Maggie radios ahead to the other officers covering the back alley.