"Crime in the Metropolis shipping district has gone up six hundred percent in the last seven days. Six major fires, fourteen deaths, and twenty-three major thefts have been reported. Local Police seem to be completely baffled by this increase in violence, but Detective Dan Turpin had this to say..."
The news report switched over to a recording of Turpin and his partner, Maggie Sawyer, as they entered police headquarters. Dan, as always, was frustrated and annoyed.
"Yeah, I'll tell ya what's goin' on! It's the criminal underworld! Now that they're hearin' about us finally gettin' dirt on their 'leader,' they're freakin' out!"
"Leader? Who's their Leader?" the reporter asked.
Dan stared the camera in its face. "LIONEL. [BLEEP]. LUTHOR."
Maggie quickly ran over to Dan, gently shoving him back towards the building. "The MSCU has no official comment on this matter, or on Lionel Luthor," she calmly told the reporter.
Bruce stood in front of the massive TV in his living room, watching the report.
The elevator dinged, and Diana walked in with Bart. Bart's face and clothes were smudged with black smoke-markings. He looked exhausted.
"Hey, buddy," Bart jokingly greeted, forcing a half-smile. "What's up?"
"I called you so we could talk about what's going on," Bruce said.
"Cool," Bart said. "I could use a break."
Bart and Diana sat down on the couch. Bart slumped back and shut his eyes.
"Where's Clark?" Bruce asked.
"I don't know," Diana replied. "I thought he was—"
The elevator door opened again, and Clark stepped through, looking almost as dirty as Bart.
Bruce looked back and forth between the two super-powered boys. "What the hell have you two been doing?"
"What's it look like?" Bart asked sarcastically, his eyes still closed.
"They've been literally running in circles for the past week," Diana said. "I'm not as fast as they are, so I can't get to all the crimes as they're happening." She put her hand caringly on Bart's knee. "I think they've carried people out of—what, three fires in the past two days?"
"Four," Bart said, lifting up four fingers.
"Sorry I'm late," Clark said. "I heard another siren as I was on my way over, and I went back to help."
Clark was breathing a little harder than usual, and his eyes were drooping a bit.
"Clark, are you... tired?" Bruce said incredulously.
Clark shrugged. "I haven't really slept much lately. Things keep happening at night, and I don't want to be asleep when someone needs help."
"So do you think it's true?" Diana asked Bruce. "What Turpin was saying about Luthor?"
"You heard that while you were in the elevator?" Bruce asked in return.
"Yeah."
Bruce mentally reminded himself never to say anything he didn't want overheard near Diana.
"I don't know. Probably. Lucius told me that Lois brought him evidence that Lionel's been spying on the tech at the air base."
Clark and Diana nodded.
Bruce's jaw clenched. "Why was I not told about this? It's MY family's company."
Clark and Diana looked at each other in surprise, then looked back at Bruce, somewhat embarrassed.
"Sorry, Bruce," Clark said. "I thought you knew."
"No," Bruce said coldly. "Why did she go behind my back like that?!"
"Oh, gee, I dunno... because you dumped her?"
The group looked back at Bart, who still appeared to be half-asleep.
"Bruce, Lois still cares about you," Diana said gently. "Lionel's already tried to kill you—as well as all of us—"
"Not me," Bart said, half-raising his hand. "I totally wasn't there."
"All of us except Bart," Diana corrected. "It's not like Lois is gonna just drop everything she's been working for. And it's not like you needed to know."
"It was probably our job to tell you," Clark said. "Sorry about that."
Bruce shook his head. "Whatever. Forget about it."
After a short silence, Diana spoke up.
"So what should we do now? When is the chaos going to stop?"
"It'll probably stop once the investigation with Luthor ends," Bruce replied. "If Lionel's proven to be a criminal, the police can get complete access to everything he owns. From there, they should be able to find all the evidence they need to find and take down each and every one of the people under Lionel's command."
"Hang on," Clark said. "Explain this to me. How exactly is his 'empire' set up?"
"Like a pyramid," Bruce replied. "Or, more accurately, like an actual empire. Lionel's at the top, and there's about a dozen men that take orders from him. Each one of those men runs a slice of the criminal world in Metropolis."
"How do you know all this, anyway?" Diana asked.
"It's not that hard to find out. It's like any huge crime organization: everyone with their ear to the ground knows who's running things, but no one's got the evidence. Until now, apparently."
Clark sighed. "Well, until that evidence pays off, I guess we'll just have to keep on working."
As if to punctuate Clark's statement, a loud boom hit the tower, and the floor shook. Everyone looked out the window to see a huge swath of fire over one of the buildings along the harbor.
"That's the Queen Industries fuel warehouse," Bruce said, taken aback at what he was seeing.
Clark stood up, and his voice fell a little deeper.
"Let's go."
At his words, Diana and Bart sprung up from their seats and ran with him to the door.
Bruce watched them go. They didn't need an extra minute to decide what they were supposed to do; they just went out and started saving lives. Bruce smirked as he realized that he had really cool friends.
