[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/445351464320106498/870668188650733618/SB4.png[/img][/center][indent][sub][color=white][b]SEASON ONE[/b][/color][color=e20025] Sensation & Wonder[/color][/sub][sup][right][b][color=white]SUPERBOY #6[/color][/b] [url=https://youtu.be/lUMT9OIaVvE][color=e20025]Pull My Strings[/color][/url][/right][/sup][/indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][indent][color=white][sub][b]The Daily Planet [color=e20025]♦[/color] Metropolis[/b][/sub][/color][/indent]
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Tana Moon brought Superboy to what she described as her 'office.' It was a supply closet. Cramped to all hell with boxes, shelving and a printer that would've been old a decade ago. The lights in the ceiling hung too low and burned too bright. Toward the back of the room was Moon's whole setup: her laptop set on a stack of copy paper cases, an office chair that couldn't spin anymore, and an empty cork board. He wasn't going to ask about the board, or the accompanying shoe box full of thumbtacks, red yarn and newspaper clippings. 

[color=B477B7]"Can the judgement, cape. Not everybody's a millionaire."[/color] Tana called over her shoulder, dropping into the chair and booting up the computer. The back of it was covered in all sorts of stickers: ELLIS 2020, Metropolis U, a vaguely homoerotic sticker of Spider-Man and Nightwing. 

[color=lightblue]"I didn't say anything."[/color] He did a 360 around the room in search of a seat of his own. There weren't an abundance of options.

[color=B477B7]"This is my nerve center. My retreat. The place where it happens."[/color] He raised a skeptical brow and she caved immediately. [color=B477B7]"Alright, so its the only place with a little privacy around here. I'll start combing through the archive, see what I can find on your baddie."[/color]

[color=lightblue]"What am I s'posed to do?"[/color]

[color=B477B7]"See those reports on top of the printer? Those go to the desks with the matching name plates. What? Don't look at me like that. I'm supposed to be [i]working[/i], not helping you. This'll take me fifteen minutes, tops."[/color]

He spent the next five minutes zipping across the office, delivering reports, changing ink cartridges and writing emails. Even spell-checked her criminology paper on that serial killer from New York, the Punisher. That was him going slow, too. The next fifteen minutes was him agonizing over how to pass the time. He stopped a bike thief in Centennial Park. Went to grab a pizza from that place on Bleecker street, but they weren’t open yet. Get a frozen one from the supermarket instead. Ate the pizza. Did a lap around the bay to work off the calories. Went too fast, pizza came back up. Took a shower and headed back to the Planet.

[color=lightblue]"How ‘bout now? You got anything?"[/color]

[color=B477B7]"You think anything changed since the last eighty four times you asked me?! Well, it has. Sit down, I finally got something."[/color]

The first public appearance of Knockout actually predated Superman. She tangled with one of those old school, JSA-era capes way back in the day; nobody knew her name yet so the connection was hard to make, but there weren't too many seven foot tall redheads that could bench press a train car running around. She'd appear sporadically over the coming decades, and not always in the States. The name Knockout wouldn't be tied to her until her first clash with the Man of Steel.

[color=lightblue]"How'd you even find all this? This is incredible."[/color]

[color=B477B7]"I have a friend, Mickey Cannon; he's a real technophile. Had him run a bot through the archive, lookin' for any mention of Knockout or a few keywords that'd identify her. We're actually part of this online group called the Newsboys-"[/color]

[color=lightblue]"-yeah no that’s great, can you keep readin'?"[/color]

She disappeared from the public eye after her capture and subsequent sentencing. Most people assumed she was still in Belle Reve, and the prison’s records would’ve backed that up- the only discrepancy was a raid in South America, where a group of costumed villains attempted to assassinate a head of state. One of those villains matched Knockout’s description to a T. That wasn’t the craziest part of this story, though- the craziest part was who stopped them.

[color=lightblue]"I know that guy!"[/color] Superboy all but leapt out of his tights to point to the screen. It was a low-quality picture snapped with a flip phone, but he’d recognize that golden armor and the blue suit anywhere. [color=lightblue]"That's Guardian! He's- he's retired now, but James Harper- he's head of security at our main facility- he used to be a superhero. I...have no idea why he'd be in South America, though. He was a local guy. A real 'show up to a minor league baseball game' type."[/color]

[color=B477B7]"So Cadmus has gone after Knockout before?"[/color]

[color=lightblue]"No way,"[/color] he scoffed, [color=B477B7]"Jim only started working at the lab a couple of months after I was born-"[/color]

[color=B477B7]“-That...timeline works perfectly-“[/color]

[color=lightblue]"After [i]Superboy[/i] was born."[/color] He laughed a little too hard. [color=lightblue]"Y’know, my- my rebirth as a hero kind of thing. That was, uh, just twelve or thirteen months ago. No, Harper must've been there for his own reasons."[/color] Try as he might, he didn't sound too convinced by his own theory. None of this made any sense. 

Moon stared up at him, practically boring a hole into his skull. [color=B477B7]"Do you know where Guardian got his powers? That fancy suit of armor? I mean, I'm no expert, but something like that would’ve cost a fortune. Way more money than a...what'd you call him- a 'minor league baseball' type of hero- ought to have."
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[color=lightblue]"So, what? You're suggestin' Jim and everybody at Cadmus has been lyin' to me? That they made him Guardian just like they made me, but weren't ever public about it?"[/color] Superboy faked a scoff. 

[color=B477B7]"If you trust your company so much then why are you in my supply closet instead of asking your boss yourself?"[/color] Tana stood from her seat, taking a step up to him. There was barely enough room for one of them to stand in here, let alone two. Superboy didn’t respond to her. He couldn't meet her gaze. Tana took that as assurance she'd hit the nail on the head and pressed on, [color=B477B7]"Look, you obviously care about this woman or you wouldn't be here. And I'm going to be honest with you, s-boy, things don't look too good for her. Cadmus wanted her badly enough to send you after her in public. They tried the same thing two years ago when they sent Guardian after a U.S-backed death squad in Southern America."[/color]

[color=lightblue]"It sounds crazy. Batshit, if I’m bein' honest."[/color]

[color=B477B7]"And yet..."[/color] she shrugged.

[color=lightblue]"...what should I do about it?"[/color]

[color=B477B7]"The superhero's asking [i]me[/i] that?"[/color]

He turned away, running his hands through his hair. His chest hurt. Ribs, too. Mind was racing quicker than he could keep up with it- a million difference possibilities, none of them good. Too big a question, too many potential answers, and no way to contextualize which ones were worth his time. [color=lightblue]"Maybe it ain't obvious yet but this is the first time I've done this on my own,"[/color] he sighed, frustrated. [color=lightblue]"Always had a support structure, marching orders. All I ever had to do was hit what they pointed at. This, though? This is way over my paygrade."[/color]

Moon grabbed a notebook off a nearby shelf. Had to try three pens before one would write, but then she started to [i]write[/i]. Furious, quick as hell, and barely legible to anyone that wasn't her. It might've impressed Superboy if that look in her eye didn't make him squirm with discomfort. She had a plan, alright. And he could tell he wasn't going to like it in the least.

[color=B477B7]"Unless you're willing to come out as a source we can't go traditional with this. If somebody leaks the story online, though, you bet every major paper in the country will be tripping over each other to cover those allegations. I can make a few calls to friends of mine and get this trending everywhere. Cadmus can't hide then."[/color]

His jaw all but hit the floor. [color=lightblue]"Are you out of your gourd, Tana? Do you have even the slightest idea what'd happen to you if you got in the middle of this? You could get hurt. Bad."[/color]

[color=B477B7]"I'll cover my tracks. We can't just let these guys get away with this, and I'd bet everything its only the tip of the iceberg."[/color] Her own jaw was set, never wavering.

[color=lightblue]"You don't understand."[/color] He shook his head furiously. [color=lightblue]"Listen, Paul Westfield is- is a good man, okay? Complicated, intense, but the- the superhero stuff is the real deal. I wouldn't [i]be[/i] here without him. I owe him everything."[/color]

[color=B477B7]"That corporate ghoul wouldn't know good if it slapped him in the face. There's an angle. There always is with those rich guys."[/color]

[color=lightblue]"I didn't take you for the cynical type."[/color] He narrows his eyes.

She narrowed hers back. [color=B477B7]"And I didn't take you for a coward."[/color]

Superboy started for the door. [color=lightblue]"Maybe you were right earlier. Maybe I shouldn't have come here and maybe- maybe I should just ask the man myself."[/color]

[color=B477B7]"You're making a mistake!"[/color] She yelled after him, but he was already gone.
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