* Editor's note, I realize there has been a lot of focus on John Corben and for a story about Superman and Lex Luthor there roles are limited right now. Corben will be a side character for a while until he becomes Metallo which won't be for a while. I have a lot of story lines and I'm just trying to put this one on the side burner while I focus on more important ones, like Brainiac. Now here is a chapter dealing with an original character, HA.
The men who look down on the world
Chapter Seven
Dr. Neilla Marsh is asleep in her small apartment in the New Troy section of Metropolis when she is woken by a crashing sound. She turns on the lamp next to her bed and grabs for her glasses, "Wha?" Her eyes are blurry as they adjust to the sudden light and being woken suddenly. "What was that?" She mutters to herself not completely sure the noise she heard was in the waking world. She looks over at her clock, "Damn it." It's only two in the morning, she has only been asleep for two hours, she has had so little sleep lately. The skeleton crew still employed by Luthor for the Metallo project have been working their asses off to get the project done in time. They have an insane deadline and all their jobs are on the line. She will have to be back at work at six am and these fourteen hour days are cutting into her sleep.
Still she could have sworn she heard the sound of glass breaking outside her room.
She sets up on her bed and listens for noise. She is deciding if she wants to look or if she should just go back to sleep. She thought she heard some noise outside her bed room but can't be sure. She lives alone, has no pets so the place is very quite. She has neighbors but none of them would be awake at this hour. She puts on her bed robe and then opens her nightstand to take out her small pistol. When you live in the city even a relatively safe one like Metropolis it's smart to be protected.
Neilla slowly opens the door to her living room. Her apartment is one bedroom, a large living room and a small bathroom and kitchen. There is shared laundry on every floor which was an added bonus for her. Walking into the living room she sees nothing in the dark. There is no noise beside her own breath and heartbeat. "Your getting paranoid Nell nothing happened." Nell was her mother nickname for her. She has been over worked. That must me it.
The LWM's AI unit was the most important part of the project and she heads a team supervised by Dr. Vale. First they tried to purge the memory with hopes the AI unit would accept other pilots. That did not work so Lex Luthor brought in John Corben. That makes Dr. Marsh's job easier in a sense but much harder.
Neilla is starting to think that the problems are getting to her. That she keeps a cool head at the office but now she is losing it. She turns on the light in the living room and at first sees nothing. There is no evidence that someone was in here until she turns to the door. The small pane of glass near the door was broken, "Huh." She walks toward the front door and twists it, it's still locked, "Could it have been an accident?"
"It was no accident." A voice says from behind her, "Turn around slowly and drop your weapon."
Neilla turns around slowly, and sees two people dressed in black body armor, their faces covered with masks so she can't see the details. Even if she tried to shoot them she's not a great shot and clearly she won't intimidate them. She drops her gun and puts her hands up. "What do you want?"
"We want you Dr. Marsh." One of the men says. Both men are pointing stun guns at her. "Walk over to us slowly."
Neilla Marsh walks over to them slowly, her mind racing. She knows they are not rapists they are too heavily armed for that. Are they government agents? "Why do you want me?"
"Intergang requires your expertise Dr. Marsh." The man smiles and then fires the stunner at her, his partner follows.
As the two electrical charges hit her a thought inters her head, 'Intergang? The stolen Mark Five walkers.' She then falls to the ground and is out cold.
The two Intergang men walk over to her and the larger man picks her up, "Oh I got her."
The smaller man walks over to the door and opens it, "Remember be quiet. We don't want to wake her neighbors." The small man smiles, this job went flawlessly. This type of crime is so much better then what he use to doing. Working for Intergang has really changed his life.
The large man nods and lifts Neilla over his shoulder and then walks out. The small man closes the door and locks it behind them. It was a job well done. The two men leave the building though the back entrance, the same way they came, having shut off the fire alarm. The smaller man is a break in guy who thanks to the technology of Intergang can pull off jobs he could not dream of before. When they reach outside and the large man starts putting the black scientist into the van he pulls out his cell phone, "The mission was a success."
"Good. Hopefully we won't need any more scientists." The voice on the other end says, it's a voice everyone knows, the head of Intergang Bruno Mannheim, "We can't keep abducting scientists and taking one still working for Luthor is a big risk. It better pay off."
The small man turns off his phone, "Yeah it better or I know who will be punished." He will be the one who suffers if he is caught or if Neilla does not solve Intergang's current problem. He gets into the unmarked van at the drivers side and looks at his partner, "Is she secure."
"Yes," The large man says.
"Good." They then take off in the van to the Intergang hideout where the mark five Walker units are stored.
A quarter after five in the morning, Lois Lane had been on her way to work to get a head start on some of her personal projects when the police radio in her car brought up information about a potentual story. She keeps the radio on at all time but it has to be a juicy piece of information to catch her attention. This was one. She took a right on Kirby Ave moving away from the daily planet building and toward the Spruce Heights apartment complex. She takes out her phone and dials the number to the one camera man who lives in that complex, "Jimmy?"
The groggy intern answered on the ninth ring hoping who ever was calling him this early would give up. When the person did not give up he figured it was Lois before he even heard her voice. "Huh Lois?" Jimmy then clears his throat. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Jimmy, there was a kidnapping at your apartment complex. I thought you would be awake."
The word kidnapping woke Mr. Olson up, "It's a large building Ms. Lane. Who was it?"
"Dr. Neilla Marsh, Apartment seven thirteen C."
Jimmy repeats the words, "That's the pent house floor and on the other side of the building. No wonder I heard nothing." Jimmy has a small loft on the second floor, the cheap student discount housing the complex offers.
Lois speeds a red light as she takes a turn down Spruce Street near the apartment complex. She cuts off a man who honks loudly at her and curses, Lois yells back, "Hey I'm a reporter I'm in a hurry." Lois then turns her attention back to Jimmy, "I'm almost there." She pulls into parking lot of the building and drives to the back where she sees the cops, "Police are at the south entrance, that's where I will be."
"I will be there in ten minutes." Jimmy says and hangs up.
Lois finds a parking spot and gets out of the car. She walks over to the entrance as fast as her legs could take her without it being considered running. She gets stopped by a couple officers who are watching the door, "You can't go any closer Miss." A large officer with a gray handle bar mustache says. He raises his hand to stop her. "If you live in the apartment complex it's wise to use another entrance. Otherwise it's best to just leave."
Lois pulls out her badge, "Lois Lane, Daily Planet."
The police officer does not budge, he is about to speak when a female officer in a skin tight blue and white suit with the letters SCU printed on it walks up. "Back up men." Lt. Sawyer tells them. The two men move aside to let Maggie pass. "Lois Lane." The head of Metropolis special crimes task force says muttering. "How did I know something like this would interest you? We are still investigating what is going on here. Last thing we need is a meddling reporter like you sticking her nose where it does not belong."
"Tell me what you know. I know this is the fifth kidnapping of a scientist related to the LWM project in two weeks, each scientist of higher position in the project then the last. Marsh was the first one still working for Luthor Corp."
"It's Lex Corp now." Maggie Sawyer corrects.
Lois does not care, to her it will always be Luthor Corp. "I think it's related to the walker theft, so do you." Sawyer does not answer. Lois notices that Jimmy has joined up with her and nods. "Can we see the scene?"
"No press." Lt. Sawyer says. She has moved Lois and Jimmy out of the way of the door, "They will get the standard report, same one I am going to give you right now." Maggie shakes her head and takes a deep breath, "We estimate the break in occurred around two thirty in the morning. The cameras on that wing of the seventh floor were shut off between two fifteen and three am. By the time they were turned back on Dr. Marsh was gone. The window next to her door was broken and that's how the intruder's entered. There were two of them. Neilla tried to fight them off because her gun was found on the floor, she has a license to carry." Maggie is trying to be as though as possible because this is Lois Lane, she can pick up information you don't tell her.
"She did not fire her gun, ether she could not or decided it was pointless. She was knocked out and carried by one of the men as the other locks up behind them. It is possible that the same people behind the theft of the Mark Five walkers from a Lex Corp facility are responsible for the kidnapping of Dr. Marsh but that can't be confirmed ether way." Maggie then stands there and lets Lois look in her eyes. "That is all."
Lois mentally notes the whole thing, while keeping at eye on Maggie and her expression. She tries to catch any information that the lieutenant is not telling her and can't find any. Maggie is telling her everything. Lois nods, "Thank you." She then looks at Jimmy, "Sorry for waking you up to early for nothing." Lois and Jimmy head to Lois's car.
"It's no problem Ms. Lane." Jimmy's enthusiasm is back, "I probably would be up by now anyway." Which is a lie Jimmy would have slept in for another hour.
"Come then, I will give you a ride if you want. Are you hungry?" Lois knows that was a dumb question, of course he is. Jimmy was happy to take a ride to work and to have someone buy him the donuts for once.
Lois and Jimmy arrived at the Daily Planet building at six, and for once it was the day time janitor and not the night time one who let Lois in. He is a balding forty something Hispanic man named Miguel, "Miss Lane coming to work late." He says with a smirk.
"Yeah well I thought I had a big story." She stops to chat with the Janitor for a second while Jimmy walks away to start getting things ready for the chief. Lois wishes she could sneak away herself.
"No luck?" Miguel is just being nice. He wants to end the conversation as well and is impatiently tapping on the floor with his right foot.
"It was a bust. Now I don't want to keep a busy man like you away from your work." Lois says knowing he wants to leave as much as she does. Miguel laughs as he walks away sweeping the floor of the office while Lois walks over to her desk and sits down. She turns on her computer and while waiting for it to reboot takes out a note pad and calendar from her bag. She looks at her notes, "Iron Works at eleven AM." She says to herself out loud, that is the only appointment she has for today. It is an important one. John Henry Irons one of the key developers of the Walker program, as well as Luthor's scape goat after the incident at the convention.
Dr. Irons is an important source of information o Lois. He was once her inside man at Luthor Corp but those days are not over. Everything Lois knows about the LWM incident and the walker theft she learned from Dr. Irons. She is disappointed that he's fired from Lex Corp as he was a good source of insider information.
Lois had asked Dr. Irons for information on the Mark Five Walkers. Mainly for a copy of the blue prints. When John Irons called her last night he told her that he finally got her a copy. Also that he had other information, maybe something that connects the kidnappings and the theft of the walkers together. Lois tried to pry it out of him last night but he insisted that it was something he had to show her. On the computer Lois opens up a word file that consists mainly of theories and speculation.
'The theft of mark five Walkers, who is behind it? Intergang? Most likely. International terrorists? Possible. Lex Luthor? I would not put anything past him.' Lois crosses out the third one, no one would take that seriously.
'Where are the walkers? Why have they not surfaced? There has to be a reason. They were stolen for a reason yet they have yet to surface in the criminal underground.' She knows Intergang would not steal advanced technology and then sit on it. If they could use or sell them right away they would. That is a strike against Intergang in her mind. 'If they were going to be sold in the black market there would be rumors.' None of Lois's sources in the criminal world have heard any peep about a black market auction for the powerful war machines, something which should be big news. 'Yet there is nothing.'
Now Lois has her ideas while she was unable to get information on the mark five models she had a talk with the head mechanic for Metropolis Police Department's SCU. He maintains the police department's three mark four Walker units. According to SCU mechanic Fulton Grimes the mark four Walkers are high bred machines that use electricity and gas to be more efficient then the earlier models. The Mark three was suppose to be a high bred but the electrical power units were not perfected at that time. He told her the Mark fives use a new power source but did not have the details. She hopes John Henry Irons will fill her in further.
'Could the reason the stolen walkers have not resurfaced yet be due to the power source? Perhaps whoever stole the walkers does not have access to it. That raises another question though. What is it exactly that powers the walkers?'
Lois spends much of the morning typing, when the chief walks in he looks at her computer like he does everyday, "You got a lead on the kidnapping Lois?"
"Not yet chief. Dr. Neilla Marsh and the other kidnapped scientists were all members of the Walker construction team. I believe it is connected to the theft. John Henry Irons believes so too."
Perry White plots down in a chair next to Lois, the reporter that chair belongs to has not came in yet, "You might be on to something. So you're seeing Dr. Irons today?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, that makes this easier." He hands Lois a stack of papers, "I want a piece done on Iron Works, I want to know what John Henry Irons and his new company is all about. Who is investing his work? I'm wondering if he plans on competing with Lex Luthor. Could be interesting."
Lois shrugs, he was wondering this too but she knows that what Irons is working is private. She tried to get information about it out of him with no luck and has since stopped trying. She has a good thing going with Dr. Irons as a source of information and does not want to plug that source in by digging too deep. Still. "I will see what I can do sir."
"Good." he looks over at Jimmy who is cleaning up his desk. The chief has a distressed look on his face suddenly. "Hey take Jimmy with you when you go. You made a great choice using him for the convention." Perry is trying to end the conversation as he sees a picture in his room fall, "I'm thinking of making you two a team."
Lois looks down, she likes Jimmy and yeah he did a good job but working with him exclusively? That would drive her nuts. She looks up and sees that Perry White has left her and has ran into his office and is yelling at Jimmy, "Guess I have no choice."
"You helped enough Jimmy now leave." The chief yells from his office pushing Jimmy out.
"I said I was sorry sir." Jimmy tries to stay in Perry's office holding a broom and dustpan. "At least let me clean up the glass."
Perry snatches the objects out of Jimmy's hand. "No Jimmy I got it. Go buy me a coffee."
Walking out of the office Jimmy shrugs off his feelings of inadequacy and starts walking around the office asking if anyone else wants something to drink. The kid sure did bounce back quickly which makes Lois smile. Jimmy stops in front of her desk, "I'm making a coffee run, need a refill?"
Lois nods, "Hey so you're my photographer now."
His smile brightens, "I know it's great Ms. Lane, I won't blow it."
Lois smiles back at him and nods. She knows he will try his best and he has proven himself as a photographer but he still has a lot to learn. "Just don't get over confident."
Jimmy shakes his head in agreement, "Understood, now that coffee? Black right?"
"Yes." Lois says annoyed, by this point she wants Jimmy to leave. The young photographer gets the hint and leaves. Lois looks up and glances into Perry's office where the chief has just finished sweeping up the glass from the broken picture. She has seen Jimmy's clumsy antics in the past and was surprised by how good he is with a camera. He seems like a different person when he's taking pictures. Photographs are his passion. being a gofer for the staff of a newspaper clearly is not.
The time leading up to Lois's appointment with Dr. Iron's moves slowly. She goes over Perry's questions for the interview, she already knows some of the answers. She does not want to lose Dr. Iron's trust. She will show him the list of questions and tell him she will answer them herself. For example Lois already knows the answer to the first question.
How were you able to get Iron Works up and running so soon after you were fired from Lex Corp?
Lois knows that John Henry Irons actually planned on leaving Luthor Corp for years and start his own company and even had Lionel Luthor funding his move to his own company. He only stayed with Luthor Corp for two reasons. Out of respect for Lionel Luthor and to help his friend and mentor Emmett Vale. Dr. Irons was not fond of how Lex ran the company and would have left years ago but Iron Works was not ready. Even now it had to go public before John Irons was completely ready.
That leads to other questions, one that Lois can't answer on her own.
What is Iron Work's goals? Are you planning on competing with Lex Corp?
Lois knows that John Henry Irons along with Emmett Vale is one of America's fore most experts is robotics and cybernetics. That Dr. Irons was working on cybernetic replacement limbs when he went to work for Luthor corp and that Lex convinced him to put that research on hold. Lois hopes the cybernetic limbs are part of John's research.
The time for her to leave for the meeting comes by slowly, at ten thirty Jimmy walks by her desk with his camera over his shoulder. He grabs the papers, "Lois we better get going. You have that meeting with John Henry Irons right?"
Lois nods and gets up, "You're right." She leads the way down to her car which is parked in the building's basement parking lot. When she and Jimmy are in the car and buckled up she takes off, "I should let you know that Dr. Iron's office in a bad part of town."
Jimmy nods his head already seeing the generally clean city of Metropolis get dirtier with each street Lois takes. The city is starting to look more like Gotham. Jimmy has never been this far in Metropolis underbelly before.
"While the place looks bad many of the people are still good Jimmy." Lois says.
"I hear you ms. Lane."
Lois parks next to a rusted old station wagon from the 1980's near an old rundown apartment complex. When she gets out she looks up at the third story window, an old woman opens her blinds and sticks her head out, "Lois!" She says with a cheery voice. The old woman was dark skin and gray hair, her face has a kind smile, "I think Johnny is in his work shop." The old woman turns away for a second, "Paco are John and Natasha the lad?"
"Is she one of the good ones?" Jimmy says quietly.
"That's Bess Irons she's one of the best."
Bess sticks her head back out the window, "John and Natasha are in John's Lab, that's the basement apartment. They call it Iron Works, silly name."
Jimmy follows Lois into the building while looking around, he is surprised, while they drove though a dangerous area of Metropolis to get here these couple blocks of Duffy street seem perfectly safe. There are kids playing in the streets and parents watching perfectly happy, and the place is clean, it lacks the gang activity and tagging Jimmy saw on the way here, "Strange." He mutters.
"Yes it is." Lois speaks up, "You can thank the Irons family for this, John's father and grandfather were cops. Good men. His brother was a cop as well and a volunteer fireman. They helped keep their neighborhood clean when the city around them started going down hill. John does his part as does Bess and her second husband, they own this building. They rent it out cheaply to people they can trust, run a neighborhood watch and do everything they can to keep the place safe for kids."
"I see but why don't they just leave?" Jimmy asks.
"Many can't and more don't want to. This is their home, they want to make it better not give up on it. That's the cowards way out." Lois leads the way to the basement and stops by a door with a cheap aluminum sign with the words 'Iron Works.' "John Henry Irons is no coward, no one in his family is." She knocks at the door.
"Coming, just give us a second." A young female voice yells out. There is commotion and two voices, one male one female. They are speaking in low voices and Lois and Jimmy cannot pick up what they are saying. After a half minute a young woman opens the door, she is around sixteen years old, and is dark skinned but not as dark as John. She is tall for a female but is dwarfed by her uncle. She has work goggles over her face and is wearing a dirty smock over her jean shorts and white shirt. "Hi Lois." She offers her hand.
"Natasha nice to see you again, it's been too long." Lois shakes her hand and then hugs her. She then introduces her to Jimmy. "Natasha Iron's this is Jimmy Olson, he's an intern and photographer for the planet.
Natasha looks at Jimmy with an untrusting eye but her smile does not fade, "Hi." She shakes his hand. Natasha then lets them into the room, "Welcome to Iron Works."
The large basement room has lots of unfinished pieces of machinery, stuff that looks like half made robots, or incomplete weapons, a few flawed replacement limbs here or there. There is a large device of some sort that is up on a table and is covered by a tarp, John Henry irons is standing over the tarp and below him is a blow torch and wires. What ever is under there is something he and Natasha were working on. "Oh is it eleven already?" Dr. Irons says when he sees Lois standing in front of him. He smiles, "I must have lost track of time."
"That's fine John." Lois tells him.
John Irons shakes Lois's hand after he moves down the tarp. He then looks at Jimmy, frowns when he sees the camera. "I thought we had a deal miss Lane? I will only talk with you and no photos. Even though I'm no longer working for Luthor it still can't be known I'm your informant."
"Don't worry John I don't plan on relieving my source. I will always respect your confidentiality. Jimmy Olson is not here for that reason. Perry wants to do a story on Iron Works. He thinks it's good publicity for you."
Dr. Irons shakes his head, "Perry is a good man and I know he has the best intentions but I don't plan on reviling Iron Work's goals. Most of my projects are too early to discuss, and I am still trying to get funding for the artificial limbs. Luthor has made is hard for me to get a medical company to trust me." He shakes his head, "Luthor had me blacklisted from the entire engineering community. Which leads to a larger problem Lois. The Daily Planet is part of the Luthor empire. So this will be the last time I help you. No offense Lois but now your part of the enemy."
This was not a surprise. Sure Kent Luthor talked about how nothing will change with him owning the Daily Planet and for the most part nothing has changed, however he's still a Luthor. The name means change, the name means fear. People are going to be less willing to help you out when the name Luthor is leaning over them. A lot of Lois's trusted sources have been getting worried and many stopped helping Lois all together. "Kent is not like Lex." Lois starts, it was automatic. She does not know Kent and here she is defending the man.
John Iron's sighs, "I like Kent Luthor, everyone who knows him likes him. However that does not change who he is, who his father was, who his brother is. Like I said I'm sorry. Anyway I will give you an interview and let your photographer take one picture."
Jimmy was talking to Natasha, "So are you and your uncle the only employees?"
"Yeah though I'm not paid." She says.
"Intern?"
"You could say that but I don't get school credits ether."
John laughs, "Don't let Natasha's attitude fool you. She is here because she wants to be. She forced my hand in letting her join Iron Works. At first I hated it but now her help is invaluable."
Natasha Irons smiles, "Thanks uncle."
"But your still a pain in the butt that makes my work take much longer then it should."
Jimmy looks around the lab, "Hey why don't you two stand in front of that." He points to the covered thing on the work bench, "And I will take your picture for the paper."
"No." John raises his voice a little, "That's not a good spot." What ever is there John is protective of it. "How about the Iron Works sign?"
Jimmy nods, "Okay that's fine." He waits for John and Natasha to get into the picture and then he snaps it. "Thank you."
John looks at Lois, "You know what Miss Lane why don't we have Jimmy here talk to Natasha up stairs. She knows everything I know."
"Yeah that's fine. Well Jimmy looks like you're a reporter today. We can share the credit."
"Thank you Lois." Jimmy is very happy about this development. Natasha however looks less then pleased.
"Go on Nat, tell your Grandma these two will be here for a while. I'm sure she already started baking knowing her."
Natasha sighs, "Fine, come on lets go." Natasha leads Jimmy out of the basement and Lois and John are left alone.
John walks over to his office, "Come on Lois, the blue prints for the Mark five walkers as are in here."
Lois stops in front of John's work bench and peeks under the tarp. She sees a glance of a shinny gray shell almost human in design. "Hum," Lois's natural curiosity makes her lean forward to take a closer look and John Irons grabs her by the shoulder.
John pulls her away, "Miss Lane I am entitled to my privacy. Please do not look at that."
"What do you have under there anyway? You're not making weapons are you?"
"I am out of the weapon business Lois. Nothing I make will be used to kill again. What I have there is for protection not war." He leads Lois into his office and then closes the door, "Please drop it."
While Lois would like nothing more then to keep digging into his secrets she respects John as a friend, "Consider it dropped." She looks at John's desk, there the blue prints for the Luthor Weaponry Walker is rolled out. "Interesting." She picks up the blue print and looks it over.
"You have seen walker blue prints before right?"
"Yes the mark one though four blue prints are available at the city archives. As for the mark Five? Can't say I have."
"It's mostly the same. As you know they attempted to use alternative fuel sources with the mark three but they, or should I way we had trouble getting it to function properly."
Lois nods, "Yes from what you, Officer Grimes and my other tech sources have told me. Which leads me to believe that who ever stole the walkers does not have access to the mark five's power source. That tells me that the Mark Five unit's back up source is not electric like with the three and four."
"Right. Now Lois remember what I told you about the development for the Mark Three. Our plan was to make electrical energy the main power source not the back up but we couldn't. The Mark Three's were rushed. I have a theory that who ever leaked the information wanted the mark three units to be taken." John has told Lois this before. He still has sources in Lex Corp.
"I remember John."
"The mark four walkers are pretty much our plan for the mark three only fully realized. That is what the SCU and other special police task forces use. They use less gas but are still quite frankly gas eating monstrosities. That was fixed with the mark five. They are powered by newly developed radioactive power sources. What do you know of the Utron power packs?"
"The Uranium based batteries developed by STAR Labs that safely store the energy, and could in theory power up a third of Metropolis for a month at the cost it takes to fill my car twice? Just that."
"Right well Lex sees that as the future. He wanted those power packs to power his Walkers. You might not know this Lois, Lex Corp has developed their own power packs, two types. The regular Utron batteries and one using a safer radioactive power source that has a higher output. The K material."
Lois knew of the K material, kryptonite, which was discovered by Nathaniel Tourp but from her understanding that material was in too limited quantities to be useful. "Wait Lex Corp has enough kryptonite for that?"
John nods solely, "Yes they do. They have five kryptonite power batteries, two are in active use and three are in reserve. You can't release that information." There is fear in John's eyes as he says that. His voice warns Lois that this information got out his life and the lives of everyone he knows would be in danger.
"Anyway the mark five units main power source is a Uranium power battery located here." He points to a part of the blue print, near the back.
"I see."
"Now the stored units would not have Utron power packs installed. Their legs and basic functions can be powered by gasoline and those mark fives were being shipped out the next morning so the legs were fueled. That's why the thieves was able to just walk out with them."
"So Intergang has useless weapons? That's good." As far as Lois is concerned no one else but Intergang could be responsible.
"No it's not." He shakes his head, "They are useless, Intergang can't use them or sell them with out the power pack. If they sold them on the black market who ever bought them would have to some how get the power source. However this is not good because it means Intergang will have to steal the packs. They won't accept such a loss, not when they can turn it into a win. Breaking into a storage facility filled with radioactive compounds is never a good thing."
Lois nods. As an investigative journalist she took notes in her head and already though of the next possible step. She has some ideas what Intergang will do next. Her right hand flies into the air and she points up, "Ah hah" She smiles at john "Well I know they have to rob ether STAR labs or Lex Corp. Now I would put my money on STAR Labs. I don't see Bruno Mannheim risking a second strike on Lex Corp. He is not that stupid. That answers one Question, why are they kidnapping scientists and engineers?"
John moves his eyes to the blue print again and taps it with his fingers. "Intergang does not have the Blue Prints. They don't know what the main power source is and even if they do they don't know how to install it safely. So they are kidnapping people who understand the walkers to get them to work. Luckily the scientists they have kidnapped so far are not very important. If they went after myself, or Dr. Vale, Dr. De'veirs, or Dr. Neilla Marsh well that would be a problem." When he said the last name Lois's face fills with dread. John senses how she feels, "Ah Oh what did I say?"
Lois groans she was hoping Dr. Marsh was not important, not that important anyway. "You have not watched the news I take it?"
"What happened?"
"Neilla Marsh was kidnapped from her home this morning, by Intergang."
John looks down and frowns, "Her big job for the walker project and the LWM was the machines power source. She worked under Professor Tourp to get the radioactive power batteries properly designed for the machines. She use to work for STAR labs, she was part of the team that developed the With her Intergang knows everything they need."
Neilla Marsh woke up in strange place, she was in a comfortable bed and her surroundings looked more like a five star hotel then a prison yet it felt wrong. She should not be here. Her head is buzzing and her memory is fuzzy. She does not know what time it is or where she is. "Wha?" She looks around, there is clothing in her size on the chair next to the bed. "Where am I?" She says to herself as she stretches and gets out of bed slowly. She remembers going to sleep that night at around midnight after working on some calculations for the Metallo suit. Lex Luthor has been working the LWM team on a tight schedule lately to complete the adjustments to the weapon.
"What happened last night?"
As her memory of last night is trying to catch up to her she walks over to the clothes. On the chair is a nice blue shirt and a dark jean skirt, her size and of good taste, something she would wear. Who ever set this out for her knows her. There is a note attached to the shirt. She shivers in fear, "I was abducted? Was I raped?" Yet while that fear is there she does not feel like she was violated, she does not hurt down there. No she is wearing the same clothes she went to sleep in and they are undisturbed. No it is something worse then that. A fragment of her memory from last night returns to her in an instant.
"Intergang requires your expertise."
It was then that everything from the night before returned to her. "They stole the mark five walkers." That's the only reason Intergang would have for kidnapping scientists and engineers. They must have been after her for a while, they must have been watching her. "Well they have good taste." She mutters as she takes one more look at her room, for a prison cell it sure is nice, she even has her own bathroom and kitchen area. Finally Neilla picks up the note, it is written by a refined, intelligent hand.
'Dr. Neilla Marsh I apologize for what my men had to do to bring you here. If there was another way to recruit you I would have done so. Such underhanded means are beneath a man of my stature. (Neilla knows that Bruno Mannheim thinks of himself as a gentleman criminal even though he is a big brute with a short temper.) I want to insure you that you are not a prisoner here, you are my valued guest. I would like to meet with you for breakfast after you shower and get dressed, there I will discuss business. It is in your best interest to work with us for you would not like things to get ugly.'
Neilla laughs, this is the sort of these she sees in a bad crime novel not real life. "Not a prisoner huh? Yeah right." Still it's not like she has much of a choice. She knows that if she does not at least see what Mannheim wants that she is as good as dead. She picks up the clothes and walks into the bathroom closing the door behind her.
Fifteen minutes later she walks out of the bathroom cleaned up and dressed. The shirt and skirt are modest and professional and that makes her happy. She is glad Mannheim did not follow the cliche of giving his high ranking prisoner a fancy dress for their first meeting. She has cleaned up nicely, she did not apply make up despite there being a whole cabinet full in the bath room. She is a hansom woman as it is. Neilla walks over to the door and walks out, she was surprised that the door was not locked. What did not surprise her was that here were guards on the other side, "Not a prisoner huh?" She mutters to herself.
The guards do not seem to hear it or they just shrug it off. They are not masked like the ones that broke into her house but they look like your average gangster types. One is an older man with cold blue eyes and graying blond hair. He is a tall man with a slight beer gut, "Ah-ha Dr. Marsh." He says with a thick Italian accent, "It is about time you have woke. Mr. Mannheim has been waiting for you for two hours now. He is getting impatient."
The other man nods in agreement. he is larger then the first guard but shorter, with fiery red hair that looks to be unnatural and dark brown eyes that look almost black. He speaks with an intimidating low voice with a slight southern accent, "Ugly's patience only goes too far. He won't wait for ever."
Neilla tries to respond when the men grab her, "No we don't have time." The Italian man says walking fast. He forces Neilla to with him, "You have to meet with Mr. Mannheim now."
"Hey wait." She is shocked, she is almost running so that she does not trip and fall. This man is in a hurry and there is fear in his voice. She looks at the short man who is not saying a word. He is walking behind Neilla and the Italian. Neilla forces herself to maintain balance she does not want to be dragged, she has her dignity. She is in what looks like a five star hotel, yet all the people she sees are goons in expensive suits, they are a bunch of cliches right out of a gangster movie. This place has to be one of Intergang's headquarters. Neilla is lead down the hallway though a beautifully decorated corridor and she is lead to large double doors. The Italian man opens the doors and then walks leading Neilla behind him.
The dining room is just as extravagant as the rest of the building. The room seems to be half the size of a football field with doors leading from where she came and another pair on the far side leading to the kitchen. The walls are clean and there is silver and gold etchings over them, and crystal chandeliers hang overhead. There is a heavy looking masterfully crafted large table in the middle of the room, the table is long enough to cover three fourths of the room and there are enough chairs at the table for about seventy five people. The table is set for breakfast, there is a bunch of fruit on the table, eggs made in a verity of different ways from sunny side up to scrambled, there are different types of meats all set up. There are waffles, pancakes, french toast and everything that could make anyone's mouth's water.
While there are about twenty people in the room only two people are sitting and eating, the other eighteen are all people like the Italian and the Southerner who lead Neilla here, goons. There is a large man in a nicely tailored green suit siting at the far end of the table. Even before Neilla sees his face she is intimidated by him. There is a presence to him. He looks up at her, the first thing she sees is the deep nasty scar that goes from just below his eye to right side of his lip. He smiles at her with clean white teeth, "Ah Dr. Marsh I am so glad you could make it. I hope you are not hurt."
"No I'm fine." She says. The Italian man walks her close to Bruno Mannheim and takes out a chair for her, he then pushes her down.
"Be gentle with her, Dr. Marsh is a valued guest." Bruno says looking at them with cold eyes. He then watches as she sits, there is a plate of food that was set for her, "You are very valued Dr. Marsh and I am so glad you could make it."
Neilla does not answer him, he is trying to make her feel wanted but she is a prisoner here. She knows that she is only alive as long as she has a purpose. She looks at her food, while she does not want to eat out of spite her stomach starts to growl, she is very hungry. However she can't show Bruno and his guest that. Neilla starts eating slowly.
Siting at the table with Bruno is a tall woman with red hair in a tight green dress, her eyes match the color of the dress. She is silent and lets Bruno do all the talking but she has an air of authority to her, like she might be higher up then Bruno.
Bruno does takes a bite of a blueberry pancake that is dripping with syrup and then smiles at Neilla, "You know why you were brought here Dr. Marsh. You know that Intergang requires your expertise. We have required some equipment that you are familiar with. My highly skilled engineers can't figure out how to make them work."
Neilla swallows her food, why else would she be brought here, "The mark five walkers. You guys stole them."
"They came into our possession." He says with a nod.
"And you require my help?"
"Yes." Bruno says quietly, "Given my profession it's not like I could just ask for your help you see." For a large brute Bruno knows to be a gentleman, it is how he came to power. "We have attempted to get the walkers working on our own but that power source, it's a problem. You see it would be bad for business if we leak radiation in Metropolis. Now while my men could get the walkers working eventually you see in my profession, much like yours, time is money."
"I see. So you choose me. I should feel special."
"You should. It's not like your important to Lex Luthor." Bruno says cocky tone. "To him your just a scientist, I mean he fired so many like you in these last months. One screw up and your done. That's cold."
Neilla laughs, the heartless gangster is calling Lex Luthor cold. "You would not do that?"
"No Dr. Marsh, Intergang is a family, we respect our family. I see you as an important part of the family. I am offering you a job."
"An offer?" Neilla knows there is no offer.
"Indeed. I want you to lead the team to get the Walkers operational. We have a couple power packs that we acquired though my sources at STAR labs. I would like you to get them properly installed and teach my tech team how to do it. I would like you to lead Intergang's tech team. We can offer you more then Luthor can."
"Can you now?" Neilla looks over at the red head, all that woman is doing is watching her and Bruno. She seems to be taking notes of their conversation in her head. "Who is that?"
"I am not important." The woman says in a soft feminine voice.
"That is Whisper. You will understand her role soon enough. So Dr. Marsh what do you say?"
Neilla wipes her face off with a napkin, "Like I have a choice?"
"Everyone has a choice." Bruno tells her. "What would the world be like if you did not have a choice? I think it would be a dull place." Bruno stands, "You could walk away and no harm will come to you unless you are close by when those machines malfunction. Could you trust my men to install the power source correctly on their own? What if they install the power packs wrong? Things could get ugly. Could you have that on your conscience Dr. Marsh?" Bruno walks over to Whisper and offers her a hand.
As Bruno helps Whisper up and kisses her in the hand Neilla shakes her head. Who is this guy trying to fool? She knows enough about Bruno Mannheim to know he is a cruel and brutal sociopath, he pretends to he refined and a gentleman but once he does not get his way way he uses force. He has clearly told her that she has no choice but has not said those exact words. "Fine."
Whisper well whispers into Bruno's ears and the man smiles, it is a creepy smile, "Ah yes there is that." he looks at Neilla, "That is great Dr. Marsh."
"May I say something." Whisper asks kindly.
"Oh course my dear."
Whisper moves over to Neilla in a graceful manner, "That was a smart move my dear. You see we know about you. Bruno did not want you to know this, he's too nice but do you know what would have happened if you refused? What will happen if you are non complaint later?" The woman's sweet voice has a bitter taste to it like a poorly disguised poison.
"What?" She is glad she ate because suddenly Neilla's appetite is gone.
"Oh your mother and father in Florida, your brother in Central City with his wife and kids. Lets just say that their welfare depends on you." Whisper's eyes seem to shimmer as she walks, her iris seems to become slit like a snakes. Neilla sees her tongue for a second and if she did not know better she would think it looked like a snakes. "Their health depends on your compliance."
"I..." Neilla gulps, "I will work for you to the best of my abilities." She stands up and almost falls to the ground but Whisper grabs her and pulls her to her feet. Neilla moves away from the strange woman.
"Good." Whisper says as she walks gracefully toward Bruno.
Bruno shakes his head, "Sorry about that Dr. Marsh, that is not how I would have done things. Whisper likes to intimidate and get to the point. Now would you like to see the lab? I would like the team to fill you in so that we can be ready for the next phase of the plan. You see the Walkers are still useless to Intergang and we can't have that."
Neilla Marsh realizes she has no choice, her family's lives depend on her cooperation. She knows that while she may never leave this place alive at least the one's she love will live so long as she does what Intergang wants. "Fine show me to the lab."