This is a construction site. LuthorCorp has the crews on its payroll.
All around, a small city is being built. Many months after the greenlighting of the construction, it's still a work in progress. LuthorCorp has even gone the extra mile; they've recruited a handful of denizens from the Destroying, a pocket world, each of whom is on one of these construction crews. As one might expect, they're misfits where they come from. They need not worry about that, though; Lex Luthor, the man who runs the company from whom they get their paychecks, is very used to being a misfit...much though he often wishes, and even thinks, that he's just as normal as the average human.
At times, Luthor becomes so used to spouting pro-human propaganda to attack Superman, that half the time, he falls for his own tricks. On one hand, such is the way of the trickster. On the other, one would think that as smart as Luthor is, he'd figure this out at some point.
As for the construction workers from the Destroying, they resemble all sorts of freaks. One looks like a kingfisher...and flies like one. One looks like a Magellanic penguin; if he wasn't from the Destroying, one might assume he was a loan from the Cobblepot family of Gotham. One looks like a pika...and speaks telepathically, with an Ute accent. One looks like a Mongolian gerbil; he's had dealings with Mongul in the past. One looks like a ground pangolin. One looks like a blesmol (i.e. a mole-rat), and speaks telepathically, with an Amharic accent. One looks like a puffin...and flies like one. He's brought along a Boston terrier. One looks like a wombat. One looks like a bilby. One looks like a giant tortoise. One looks like a fennec. One looks like a badger. One looks like an aardvark. One looks like a prairie dog. One looks like an owl...and flies like one. One looks like a suslik. One looks like a yellow-bellied marmot...and, too, speaks telepathically with an Ute accent. One looks like a pocket gopher...with a telepathic Ute accent, as well...
A few of these construction workers are new gods. Some of them look human. Others have mutated appearances. Many of them are Apokoliptian. They're kept as far from the ex-Intergang humans here as practical.
Atom-Smasher is here, too. He's often a giant. But then, construction isn't known for its repetitive use of lightweight materials. Either way, he can move steel beams with ease...and that's not all. He wears a blue sock over his head, as always.
Leonard Greene is among the construction workers here. Once, he was a loan shark. He ran an auto upholstery shop as a front. One job too many later, he was ferreted out and apprehended by Human Target. Now, under the watchful eyes of the DEO, he does construction work for LuthorCorp.
Dr. Polaris is here. He's in cuffs. He's a metahuman who can control magnetism. He often uses this to levitate steel beams across the site. He doesn't do this very much, though; his cuff keeps him from doing as much of it as he'd like. But then, better that he doesn't, for he might escape if given a slight chance.
Crowbar's here. He's in cuffs. His crowbar is bewitched and can help him do magic. He's not too strong without it, though; magically or otherwise. The crowbar is made of promethium. Once, the crowbar was branded with the name of Dayton Industries. Now, due to a spell, the name has been changed to "Tandy."
Psimon's here. He's in cuffs. His head is large, and he has many psionic powers; mainly psychokinesis. He uses these powers to aid Atom-Smasher in the heavy lifting of the job. He can't do this too much, though; his cuffs won't allow it. He's also kept as far away from Shimmer as possible; they're partners-in-crime. They were both once members of the Furious Five, as well as members of the Secret Society of Supervillains. He sometimes helps his coworkers adapt to the constant repetitiveness of their jobs...by inducing them with boredom...or loathing, if they demand such a dose of said emotion.
Tiamat's here. She's in cuffs. She's a gargoyle; hence, she protects French Catholics for a living...or rather, she would, if only she was a more honorable gargoyle. She's red and has ram horns. She draws power from the Red, a pocket world that connects all animal life in the universe. This way, she's also a witch. Alas, if only her cuffs would allow her to do more magic. In the meantime, though, she uses what little power she's allowed to mimic draft animals.
Lime's here. She's in cuffs. She uses her metahuman powers to ease the hardships of her job. She can't use them too much, though; her cuffs won't allow it. But she can protect herself from falling debris by rendering herself intangible. She can cast an illusion of the project when it's completed and use that as a guide to figure out where to put what next. She can work all day, and then some. She can levitate. If her coworkers are foolish, she can induce them with apprehension, and make them more cautious, and potentially more respecting of the work they're doing. If they're afraid of doing their jobs, she can induce them with trust, and help them relax while working. Mostly, though, she helps mix the lime. That's almost what she's named after, after all...
Tao Jones is here. She's in cuffs. She can generate force fields. As a builder, she can use these either as a brace, or to protect her coworkers from tumbling hazards. By most of her coworkers, though, she's seldom expected to do this. There's a reason she's in that cuff, after all. Lucky for Waller, she wasn't at Belle Reve when Jon tore it up. Otherwise, she'd surely be back in China by now. It might be harder for her than some, though, since she was neither born nor raised in the PRC.
Shimmer's here. She's in cuffs. She's kept as far from Psimon as possible; they're ex-partners-in-crime. Mammoth is her brother. Once, they were both members of the Furious Five. In a way, they still are. Up until recently, they were both on the Secret Society of Supervillains. Since then, though, the Society has downsized. Plus, she and Psimon were both arrested and chucked into Belle Reve.
She's a metahuman, whose power is matter transmutation. This way, she can turn rubble into useful construction materials. She doesn't do this very much, though. And she can't do it as much as she'd like; her cuff keeps her from doing so. Most times she does do it, she does so against her will. But then, if it was for her will, she'd surely escape and go on the run, surely leaving havoc in her wake. She's still a long way from rehab. She might get her head blown off before she gets there.
Peacemaker's here. He's on probation. His helmets do more than aid him, as he works. Alas, he's not allowed his full helmet arsenal. At least he's got someone more reliable to make them, now. His father, Auggie, was a racist terrorist. Plus, he tried to kill his son once...and might've succeeded in killing Peacemaker's younger brother when they were kids. Peacemaker enjoys thinking that, of course. But then, that's probably why Dr. Thompkins visits him a lot. Dr. Lance and Dr. Drake do, too.
Mirror Master's here. (Scudder, not McCulloch.) He's on probation, too. He's finally putting some of his mirror gadgetry to good use. Central City and the Flash are both very happy because of it.
Black Spider's here. He's on probation. His gear makes the perfect climbing gear. He's like a human crane. Alas, he's not allowed his full inventory...as part of the latest deal he's made with his captors.
Manchester Black's here. She's on probation. She's psychokinetic. Hence, her power is very handy; she can lift and move steel beams, and heavy debris in general, almost as well as Atom-Smasher can.
Yo-Yo's here. He's on probation. He's a metahuman who's elastic. As a construction worker, this power comes in handy. Alas, his probation cuff keeps him from tapping into his powers' full potential. Frankly, he's just glad to not be sharing a cell with King Shark.
Steve Dayton's here. He's on probation. His company, Dayton Industries, is financing much of this project...although LuthorCorp has its controlling interest. His payroll includes Peacemaker's helmet arsenal.
Dr. Rodriguez is here. She's on probation. You can seldom tell it's her, though, for she's a metamorph. She becomes what she must to help do the work. If her power was self-replication, she could replace the entire crew on a whim. She's wanted to, in fact. As a doctor, humanity can sometimes be too human for her.
Heatstroke is here. She's on probation. She's pyrokinetic. She was once a Master of Disaster...although her career with them didn't last. She uses what little power she's allowed as a welding device. She also seems to enjoy incenerating any trash that her coworkers leave in their wake. Many of them do, including her fellow probationary coworkers.
Mercy Graves approaches. In orange and a high-tech ankle cuff, Jon Kent walks next to her.
Ms. Graves is Lex Luthor's amazon-esque bodyguard.
Before the two of them, a levitating crow's nest sits. It's registered as a LuthorCorp gadget...although rumor has it that Dayton Industries is suing them for the patent. This is not a good decade for Dayton Industries, though...seeing as their CEO is still doing time in Belle Reve...coming out here to work one day at a time, just to shorten his sentence... He sure misses being a psionic metahuman...as well as Elasti-Woman's husband...and not to mention Beast Boy's adoptive father... He need not brood too much, though; Beast Boy, these days, has more than well-established himself as a Titan.
Near the levitaing crow's nest, a vehicle containing the nest's controls sits. The panels are very intricate. They almost look like they'd take the whiz of Mr. Terrific, Toyman, Atom, Batwing, Nightwing, Red Robin, and/or Dr. Mid-Nite to crack.
As Ms. Graves and Jon approach, the gate into the vehicle vanishes. Ms. Graves steps aside and lets Jon mount it. The vehicle is Cat-treaded...although it's also gravitokinetic...rather like the levi-nest it controls.
Before Jon, Ms. Graves takes a while to figure out how to mount the levitating nest. A rail runs around it. The gate is high-tech, too. And as a virtual amazon, she's not the kind of bitch who reaches for the instruction manual first. But then, if someone truly is a bitch, then odds are they can't even spell "instruction manual..." In English or Themysciran...
Jon takes a seat, and watches. He loves what he sees. Whoever knew that Luthor's amazon bodyguard was such a klutz? Apparently, the US Army relieved her of recruit training a few weeks early, just for having an ass that size, and that easy on a man's eyes...or a lesbian's, in fact...
Jon smiles, takes up a pair of binoculars, and watches Ms. Graves's ass, as she repeatedly tries and fails to get into the levitating nest... Many of the ex-inmates at Belle Reve have been told that the female badonkadonk doesn't get much bigger than that of the ones that can be sighted, both by birdwatchers and just simple oglers, in the bayous of Louisiana. Alas, the nearest bayou boardwalk is way too far away from the best windows in Belle Reve for anyone there to be reminded of this...let alone smuggle a pair of binoculars into the prison, just to have a hobby to do whenever the prison yards become too manly. Frankly, though, Jon thinks that Ms. Graves could afford to wear a bikini more often...maybe one that's black, and has a golden US Army star on both buttocks of the butt-piece...
Jon must confess her ass is rather magnificat... But then, why wouldn't it be? There are rumors going around, after all, that Ms. Graves is either half-amazon, or all-amazon... The same rumors speculate that she was once banished from Themyscira for being their queen's crush. Others speculate that she's wanted in Coryana for being Safiyah Sohail's crush...
One by one, construction workers everywhere turn around, and study Jon and Ms. Graves. Before long, the entire site has fallen silent. Not even Tiamat imitates an animal sound.
Moments pass, before Ms. Graves senses she's being watched...from behind. For a bodyguard, she sure has bad intuition.
"Kent?" She hasn't even bothered to turn around. "You have microscopic vision. Why can't you just use that?!"
"You're mistaken. I don't have powers. I need these glasses."
"O, and I just supposed to believe that a herd of wild swine laid ruins to Belle Reve?! You DO remember that you're in that orange and that ankle cuff for a reason?!"
"That's absolutely radical. All I did was bring drugs to school. I also...might've looked up a few cheerleaders' skirts... But since when is that a crime?"
All around, the construction workers laugh. Good thing neither Harley Quinn nor Joker's Daughter are around to co-depend this...
At last, Jon sets down the glasses. He hops out of the vehicle, and helps Ms. Graves get into the nest. They both get into quite a few awkward positions, while doing so. Boy, would Jon kill to have his nose in her boobs... Too bad she's probably a lesbian. O, the number of BJs she could give Lex Luthor...if only Luthor wasn't all-work-and-no-love...
Once again, Jon sits. Now that Ms. Graves has found her proper setting in the nest, she guides Jon through the vehicle's controls. There are quite a few. She takes no small amount of time to explain them to Jon.
Behind the vehicle, a shadowy rat creeps around. It has a strange gait...and wears a dress... It ain't a barmaid's dress. It might be a table dancer's, though...
At last, Ms. Graves has summed the control of the crow's nest up for Jon. So, as Jon's first test, she commands Jon to send her up.
Using the right controls, Jon does so. True as it should, the crow's nest levitates on its own all over the pinnacles of the construction site. Indeed, this will be very ego-inflating for Ms. Graves...too humble, though she is, to ever supplant Lex Luthor.
In the vehicle, there's a shortwave radio with a mike. Jon and Ms. Graves will be able to communicate with one another. More importantly, though, she'll be able to give Jon new orders, whenever they become needed.
It's midday. Across the site, the chuckwagons open their windows. Construction workers from everywhere swarm around them, and order hot meals.
Lime brings such a meal to Jon. Jon thanks her, takes it, and chows down. She smiles, flaps her hair, and leaves. Jon bets she's never done that for Green Arrow.
Green Arrow would probably love it, though, if Lime ever put the lime in the coconut, and drank it all up. Green Arrow is no doctor, but he probably would've done the same thing that Harry Nilsson's doctor did, when put to the test: drink a second dose of the same thing, and then call him in the morning...if she survived the second dose, that is. Alas, if only Green Arrow had more enemies who were just as dumb. But then, even if they were, the odds are slim that they'd fall for that trick. Let's face it; the baby-boomers once danced to that song.
Jon's meal is neither lime-based or coconut-based. It's a dish that a lot of chefs in the German States have been working at for decades. It's a sort of Wurst stew in which the broth is beer-based. The stew also contains brown sugar, a few grains, and the perfect blend of German seasonings. "Bierwurst stew" is what its hipsters call it. This is a bit of a deviation; despite the common concept that Bierwurst is a sort of sausage that's made from beer, it's actually a sort of sausage that's eaten with a side of beer. Not to worry; the amount of beer in one serving isn't enough to get its eater drunk. The broth might make an ideal substitute for silage, though...
As Jon eats, Ms. Graves haunts him on the radio. She tells him to move her around. (On the levitating nest, that is to say.) So, Jon sighs, puts down his meal, and reaches for the control required to...
He has another visitor. She stands atop the controls. She's a dachshund. She's in an outfit that would look slutty...if it wasn't on a dog. She's got a stick-like device in her mouth; it smokes at both ends. On the exhale, both ends blow more smoke. It seems to be some sort of double-venting cigarette...
Jon hesitates. He thinks quite a few crazy thoughts, about the enigma that stands before him... It isn't the Riddler...unless he's just moved to the German States, and passed a citizenship exam... But then, for him, that wouldn't be recommendable. Red, black, and gold, after all, are not his colors. Black for the question marks on his costume, maybe, but...
He's startled, as a telepathic voice enters his mind. It's feminine, and German-accented. "Don't you dare, naughty Herr," she tells him. "I'm taken!"
Jon looks around, confused. "Who said that?"
"O, don't be so overwhelmed. You were looking at me, only a moment ago."
Jon goes back to what he was looking at "only a moment ago," as the voice just said. All he sees is a pile of spare parts for the vehicle.
"So," Jon asks, "you're some sort of gadget that's embedded within these..."
"Let me give you a clue, Jungen-Who-Would-Be-An-Übermensch. What's the strangest thing you've seen atop the control panel all day? I'd hate to think that you'd forget...considering a lot of the crude thoughts you thought about me, at first sight!" She scoffs. "At least my beau was decent enough to not insult me!"
Jon lays eyes on the dachshund again...and soon realizes that he's listening to the doxie's thoughts...and that the doxie is telepathic.
"Okay, fine," the doxie admits, "he did insult me when he first saw me. He said I was too small to fit between his legs, and that I would look good breaded and served with beer. I could spend all day telling many crude 'weenie dog' jokes I've heard in my time... But as you've probably guessed, I am not here for that."
Ms. Graves's voice re-enters the radio. She re-orders Jon to transport her.
"State your business," Jon tells her, "and take your leave. The rules of my detainment are very strict; I can't have visitors while outside of prison."
He hears Ms. Graves again. She hears Jon's voice and asks who he's talking to.
"I bring a message from my beau," the doxie continues. "He says he had so much fun playing top with you at the secondary school in Smallville, that he's also going to do the same thing to your brother Jordan, your father Clark, your stepfather John Henry, your stepsister Natalie, and your mother Lois. And if there's enough time, he'll also consider doing it to your aunt Lucy...right before he impregnates her with a baby, names him Tiny Tim, and chucks him in a bathtub, just to see if he can swim..."
"Your beau' sounds like a very rude doxie. If I were you, I would consider getting divorced...assuming, of course, that you're Lutheran doxies. Even so, it's hard to tell; I've been told that most Germans these days are either irreligious or as good as. But then, if you're Bavarian, there's a bigger chance that you're just as Catholic as your southern Austrian neighbors..."
"My beau is not a doxie," the doxie responds. "He's a great lion of a dog...despite not being an actual lion. In fact, he eats male lions as if they were hunks of-hunks of burning Wienerschnitzel. And on top of that, he was once the right-hand dog of a Baron!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't flatter yourself. I've played football both with and against a lot of hunky men, and if there was truly such a male dog in your world who could eat that much weight in pork, then they might as well be an imp from the Fifth Dimension, because they sure as hell aren't..." Jon hesitates and studies her. "Wait... Did you say that your beau used to sit at the right side of...a Baron?!"
Once again, Ms. Graves tries to message Jon on the radio. She...seems a bit more concerned than before.
The doxie arches her brows. "Bet your ass, cray morass. Now, tell me... The Hund Blitzkrieg is taking orders, so... When he turns your relatives into human tops, and when he finally gets to your mother Lois...would you rather he just bite your mother on the ass, like he did you, or perhaps, something more radical...like butchering her ass, turning them into pork dumplings, and making Polish stew out of them?"
That does it. Jon closes his eyes and reopens them. When he does, his eyes are laser-red. "ZOOM TEUFEL," Jon says, in kryptonian "thunder-speech."
All over the construction site, workers everywhere whirl. Some of the cooks in the chuckwagons wash dishes; they drop a few things, when they hear the thunder of Jon's exclamation. One such cook cuts himself with a knife and swears. Across the site, a few workers drop a few tools. Atom-Smasher drops a steel beam...and nearly pancakes one of the new goddesses while doing so.
The doxie narrows her eyes. She's daring Jon, it's plain to see...
Here, Jon goes berserk. Mindlessly, he starts hitting all of the controls, trying to take a punch at the doxie. Alas, she's fast. Strange, how a simple doxie and out-maneuver a half-kryptonian's efforts to harm her...
This...also requires Jon to manipulate the controls in dangerous ways. More specifically, it puts Ms. Graves on ice. Because of him, the levitating nest takes off without her. She screams, as the levitating nest zips all over the area aloft from the site. She has trouble staying in the nest. She has trouble staying sane, in fact...
Below, Jon remains oblivious to the danger he inadvertently puts Ms. Graves in. As of now, his mind is only on one thing; turning that doxie into ground pork. Alas, if only she'd sit still long enough for him to grab both ends of her sausage, and wring it until the very last drop of her pork gravy has been wrung...
Aloft, everywhere, all over the site, the levi-nest flies... Ms. Graves gets no better at hanging on...or expecting where the levi-nest is going to take her next...if it causes her to deface the side of one of the many under-construction towers all around her...
Below, the puffin from the Destroying helps build a trench. The Boston terrier lies on a mat near it.
On the mat, the Boston terrier looks up, at the flying levi-nest. Using his neck as a swivel, his head moves, as his gaze follows the levi-nest all over the place...
Aloft, Ms. Graves shouts for aid. She even demands that the construction crew murder Jon. Alas, her demands are never met. If Ms. Graves didn't know any better, she'd say she was the only one at this site who wasn't enjoying this experience...
Below, in the vehicle, Jon keeps it up, trying to get his Hands of Steel on that bitchy doxie. She's fast. Too fast... Jon has no idea how Zoom Teufel stays married to her...if they're married... She doesn't look like she has a wedding collar... Not that Jon would know what that looks like...in the German States, or otherwise...
Aloft, at one point, the levi-nest flies right into Atom-Smasher's chest. It almost hits him in the chest as hard as he can punch. They don't call him the Atom-Smasher for nothing, after all.
An awkward moment passes. Ms. Graves looks up...and into the giant's towering eyes.
Through the blue sock on his head, Rothstein acts flirtatious. "Hi," he barely gets a chance to say...
Alas, Jon gets back at it, and causes the levi-nest to fly away from Atom-Smasher's chest, continuing to put Ms. Graves in more and more peril.
Below, Jon keeps moving the controls, trying to swat that lewd, insolent doxie like a fly. Every now and then, he tries to shoot her with his heat-vision. It almost feels as if Jon isn't the first half-kryptonian she's ever boxed with...
At last, Dr. Polaris gets exasperated...from expecting Ms. Graves to fall from the levi-nest, only to keep getting disappointed. So, using what limited power he's allowed, he uses his magnokinetic powers to freeze the levi-nest in the air...
This, in turn, causes Ms. Graves to fly right out of the nest. She starts flying across the site, screaming as she goes...
Back at the vehicle, the doxie finally bores of this. Using telekinesis, she levitates into the air, just above Jon. Jon's eyes are still laser-red...
"This has been fun," she says telepathically. "But my beau awaits me. He loves it whenever I cook rum cake and do circus tricks for him."
"Don't think you've won, doxie," Jon sneers. "One day, I'm going to find you...and your big hunk of a shepherd pimp, too." Jon is so deep into his own sentiments, he doesn't notice an approaching scream from right behind him. "And when I do, I swear I'll go so many rounds with him, that by the time his boobs retract to their normal sizes, he'll..."
Ms. Graves, still in flight, broadsides Jon from behind, and flies away with him.
Above, the doxie only scoffs. "Male dogs," she mutters telepathically. "You'd think they'd play for bigger stakes, than what this...Superboy-in-gestation seems to be..." With that, she levitates away, leaving everyone left at the construction site to snicker at Ms. Graves's misfortune.
Across an autumnal desert, Ms. Graves and Jon still fly. They're embraced...albeit not over-willingly.
By now, though, Jon's nose is in Ms. Graves's boobs. Ms. Graves is just so overwhelmed by what's going on, she hasn't heeded this...
At last, they land on the ground...and start building a furrow, as they slide. They throw up massive dust clouds, too, as this happens...
The side of a mesa breaks their slide. Ms. Grave's upper back is against it.
Moments pass. Both are still too overwhelmed to acknowledge their current situation. Hence, Jon gets to keep his nose buried in Ms. Graves's chest for that much longer.
Soon, though, her eyes lower...and darken. His eyes roll around...and raise. They gawk.
Hastily, he pulls his nose out of her boobs. He places his hands on either side of her head.
"Ms. Graves," he half-shouts. "Are you alright?!'
A prolonged moment passes. During it, they could convince anyone who'd be watching that they were statues...
With one fist, alas, Ms. Graves places it against Jon's chest and pushes him up and away from herself. Next, she takes her other hand, and slaps him. She makes a lot of noise, while doing so.
Jon flies out of the trench, and lands on his back. He broods over how much Ms. Graves's slap hurt.
"Good god," he mutters. "What does Lex Luthor put in his own semen, whenever you give him a BJ? Don't tell me the man has kryptonite cum, too?!"
Ms. Graves stands, dusts herself off, sighs, and points at Jon several times. "Out of respect for who your father is, and what he could do to me if I made this any more personal than it already is... I'm going to pretend like you didn't just say that." She puts her peaked cap back on. "You weren't supposed to leave the site's perimeter. Hence, the alarm in your cuff is surely going off, as we speak."
Sure enough, a red light on Jon's cuff blinks constantly...
"So? I don't suppose you'll vouch for me, and tell me that I'm out here by accident?"
Ms. Graves studies Jon...and raises her brows.
Jon sighs. "Fine. Extend my sentence away."
As the strike fighters approach, Ms. Graves climbs out of the trench. She marches out into the open, as a pair of strike fighters dive, and close in on her. Missiles at a time, they rain down all around her. Ms. Graves stands in the middle of it all, waving her arms, and telling them not to kill either of them.
From a distance, Jon watches and scoffs. "Fuck," he mutters. "Someone conscript that bitch into the Suicide Squad, already... Or Burning World's suicide bombers, in fact..."