[center][img] https://i.imgur.com/XuRF8zf.png?1 [/img][/center]
[sub][hr][/sub][COLOR=82ca9d][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=82ca9d][I]United States Skies
[/I] - [I]Lex Luthor’s Private Jet[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]Issue #2.02:[/b] [COLOR=82ca9d][I]Keeping Ahead of the Game[/I][/COLOR][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][sub][hr][/sub]

[indent]Lex Luthor found himself in a good mood after his most recent visit to Washington D.C.  Lex Luthor had made it one of his key objectives to get in the good graces of some key senators that had championed the D.M.A. so he could help, add some helpful parts to metahuman legislation.  As usual it was too easy to nudge congressmen in the right direction.  The promise of a fundraiser here, the procurement of some hard to find item there, almost all government officials had their price and Lex Luthor had the means to get anything they desired.

While it was very easy to get them into his debt the one thing that was most important was to let them believe it was either their idea or that they were helping him somehow.  It was somewhat amusing to think that a few of them were deluded enough to believe they were becoming invaluable assets to Lex, what could a paltry congressman possible give a man who had one of the largest corporations in the entire world, a man with ties in all sections of the world in some form or another.  A deluded man or woman, were the easiest to control, it was those with a moral compass he had to worry about, thankfully they never seemed to last very long in politics.

Looking out the window at the planet below Lex Luthor smiled contentedly, aside from a few hiccups, mostly on the Metropolis front, everything seemed to be falling in place.  The foundation was in place but like all things political, it was still going to take a while.  In the meantime he would be able to relax a little and concentrate on more local matters.

“Here you go Mr. Luthor, enjoy!”  A bright young stewardess came up to the multi-billionaire and handed him a crystal glass with a bubbly clear liquid.  She was a pretty young thing with curly blonde hair, decked out in a white and red accented uniform made to accentuate her womanly figure.  She was quite lucky to be hired my Lex Luthor, she was certainly pretty enough, especially after his staff dolled her up, but that’s all she was, a pretty face to impress those who had the good fortune to ride with the one and only Lex Luthor.

[color=f9ad81]“Thank you my dear.”[/color]  Lex Luthor gladly took the glass and took a small sip.  The refreshing taste of seltzer water with a hint of apple tickled his tongue.  The carbonation made sure that the drink was exciting to the mouth and the apple flavoring gave it that hint of sweetness to ensure the water was a delight to drink rather than just a boring refreshment.

Lex Luthor noticed that the stewardess seemed to have a question on her mind by the way she was still hovering around.

[color=f9ad81]“You look like you want to say something?”[/color]

“Oh, sorry it’s just…well I somewhat assumed you would be having a fancy glass of champagne or wine, but here you are, one of the richest men in the world and you’re just having a glass of seltzer water.”  She had hesitated for a good moment before asking her question, no doubt afraid she was out of line.

Lex Luthor laughed and put the glass to the side.  It was sometimes fun to explain the simplest of things to people.  He had to admit, he was a little surprised at her question.

[color=f9ad81]“As you know, I could obviously have any drink in the world, the most exotic of flavors and the highest quality drink.  Yes I could be enjoying such a delicacy but alcohol is for socializing.  Alcohol is amazing for loosening the tongue and getting people in a pleasant mood but casually partaking of such a drink could prove detrimental to my work.  I need my mind at its best so a simple, flavored seltzer is just the thing to brighten my mood and tantalize the senses.  I do more than enough sampling at social events so I try my best to keep my private alcohol consumption to an absolute minimum.  After all, I wouldn’t want to be known as some heavy drinker or a party animal like some billionaires I could mention.  I have an image to uphold as a member of the world’s highest society so I must be moderate in all things.”[/color]

Lex Luthor enjoyed watching the girl try to keep up with his explanation, did she understand what he was saying or was she merely pretending to do so to appear brighter than she was.  He was about to continue conversation when he noticed Mercy and come from the aircraft’s back room with a laptop in hand.  Her face was emotionless, which meant she was none too happy with how Lex Luthor was conversing with one of the hired help.

[color=f9ad81]“You will have to excuse us my dear, it appears my utmost attention is needed.”[/color]

The pretty stewardess fluttered her eyes for a moment in confusion before she looked behind and noticed the imposing figure of Mercy Graves behind her.  Flustered she quickly made sure she had everything she needed and retreated out of sight.  Mercy quickly took a seat opposite of Lex and plopped the laptop on the table, but instead of opening it like a normal laptop she opened it up completely so it was flat on the table and instantly a holographic display of the laptop’s screen jumped up in front of them.

Graphs and numbers jumped up in front of Lex, his countenance quickly turned a little sour as he noticed what was wrong, a sharp drop in revenue in Metropolis.  The losses were already in the millions of dollars in the illegitimate enterprise category.  The legitimate sector was still fine for the most part but if enough loses accumulated in the underground, it would eventually spill over into regular LexCorp dealings.

“Sorry Lex, I wish I had better news but Supergirl has really dealt a blow to our underground networks.  Our Intergang connections in particular have had a hard time getting any profitable work done, several high profile operations have already been thwarted by her, but of course I made sure that nothing could be traced back to LexCorp.”  Mercy cracked her knuckles for emphasis on what kind of lengths she went to ensure nothing escaped her notice.

Lex Luthor nodded, happy to have such a resourceful subordinate, but of course the growing pain in his side was just getting worse, there had to be a way to move Supergirl out of the picture.  The problem was Supergirl seemed literally untouchable, an absolute ludicrous amount of speed, power, senses, nigh invulnerability, and even flight made the superhero incredibly difficult to escape from once she had her sights on a target.  She couldn’t be killed, yet, hardly anything could outrace her, hiding from her eyes was incredibly hard, and that left very few options to thwart her efforts.  The best way to ensure an operation’s success was to distract her with something else but that was expensive and inefficient.  The other option was to make sure an operation was completely stealthy but that took a lot of time and effort to pull off so it slowed everything down.

It was a tough puzzle to figure out but every puzzle had a solution, he just needed to find the right tool for the job.  Something he had seen earlier suddenly came to his mind.

[color=f9ad81]“By the way Mercy, I’ve heard of a new operation in town that has been almost effortlessly making heists throughout the city at even the most heavily guarded of facilities.  What information do we have on them?”[/color]

Mercy was surprised by the change in topic but she quickly switched the screen over to bring up the new crew in town.  “They appear to be a dark web group for hire, what is most surprising is how easily they can complete their objective with very little prep time.  From the reports, it appears they have the ability to instantly incapacitate an entire area’s staff which then allows them to easily raid a facility as the only obstacle left is the security systems in place.  Since there are no people to react to the intruders they have little trouble bypassing security and securing their target.”

A brief video showed the inside of an office where in an instant, the entire staff dropped to the group as if dead, but the gentle rise and fall of their chests revealed they were just sleeping.  It was completely unnatural and was obviously not chemically induced.  Lex Luthor smiled as a plan formed in his head, but it needed testing.[color=f9ad81]

“Mercy, I’ll need you to organize a raid on LexCorp labs.”[/color]

“Our own lab Lex?”

[color=f9ad81]“Indeed, but we’ll need to make sure Supergirl knows about it.  Maybe there is a way to take down Supergirl after all.”[/color][/indent]