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zombiesbecrazy · 5 years

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regular everyday heroes

Summary: Lois tucked her phone in her pocket and was digging through her bag to look for a granola bar, when something began to feel wrong under her feet. Nothing was actually shaking, just more of a tremble or a quiver.

AO3

Note: This absolutely doesn't qualify as whump, but it's what I wrote today from the prompt, so here we are. There is an upsetting lack of Lois Lane and Iris West being friends content in the world and it needed to be fixed. Yes, they live in different cities, but prior to the New 52 reboot, Iris interned at the Daily Planet straight out of university and Lois would have been already working there. I have decided that they are good friends and have been since before either of them met Clark or Barry and you can not change my mind on this matter :)

A text dropped down on Lois’ phone, interrupting her game of Lemmings.

“Flight was delayed but I’ll be there in 10. Did I miss anything?”

The atrium at Lexcorp was packed with reporters, waiting for Luthor to appear for his press conference about a new tech ‘defense’ system that they were working on, but there had been no sign of him showing up any time soon. No one else in the crowd looked particularly surprised either, everyone working on their phones, reading their books, chatting with their colleagues. It was generally understood that any Lexcorp press conference would be at least half an hour behind schedule, but no one wanted to show up late just in case it was the once that it started when it was supposed to .

“Nope. Luthor’s late. Again.”

“Typical.”

Lois grinned and went back to her game while casually thinking about ways that she could phrase her article to point out the tardiness of the announcement without sounding petty about it or distracting from the point of the announcement. Lex was never late when he was trying to destroy the world and she thought that it was a little bit rude of him to have such a double standard. He was just wasting all of the reporter’s times and gave Lois the nagging feeling that she wanted to kick him in the shins for it.

Not for any of the other crap he pulled. Just that one thing specifically because it really pissed her off.

Three levels later, and no start to the conference in sight, Lois tucked her phone in her pocket and was digging through her bag to look for a granola bar, when something began to feel wrong under her feet. Nothing was actually shaking, just more of a tremble or a quiver. It was small and sort of felt like what happened when she was standing next to Clark and he had to fly off in a hurry instead of just floating away. She glanced around the room quickly, but no one else seemed to have noticed that something was strange. Maybe she had imagined it?

“Please tell me you felt that too,” said a familiar voice just as a coffee from her favourite local shop was lowered down in front of her face. Lois grabbed and downed half it with gusto, wincing as it burned on the way down. Something in her gut was agreeing with the soles of her feet and told her that things were about to happen, and she was going to take her caffeine jolt where she could get it and as fast as possible..

“Sure did.”

Iris chuckled and took a slower, more reasonable sip of her own coffee. “I haven’t lived in Metropolis for a long time, but earthquakes didn’t become a common thing since I’ve been gone, did they?”

It had been years since Iris had moved to Central and they didn’t get to see each other as much as they liked, but Lois missed the days when she was still new to the Planet and Iris was an intern fresh out of university. The days before Clark Kent and Barry Allen had been in either of their lives and they were just two young women facing the world on their own. They could have easily been rivals, fighting tooth and claw for the same stories or opportunities, but instead they got along like sisters and Lois had been sad when Iris had eventually moved away and for a time they only saw each other when their assignments aligned, and that was typically around national disasters, so not the best place to catch up.

Until a Kryptonian and a metahuman reconnected them in a different way that neither of them had expected and it was just something else that they had in common.

“No they did not.” Lois pulled her hair up into a ponytail, getting ready for whatever chaos was about to start because running around with her hair in her face was annoying. “Assuming that it wasn’t a random earthquake, any guesses on what it is?”

“Well, based on that it seems to be coming from beneath us my educated guess is ‘monster’ but the real question is what type is it this time?”

“Luthor usually tries to avoid smashing up his own buildings so I assume he’s uninvolved.” Lois scanned the room and thought about what would possibly be bothering them here. It was a press conference, but it wasn’t expected that Luthor was going to say anything world altering, so it seemed more coincidental than targeted. “I’m betting multiverse breach.”

“You always go multiverse breach. Such a boring headline. I expected better from you, Lois.”

“I’m playing the odds. It happens way more often than it should.”

“Fine. I’m going ‘mad scientist who accidentally made himself into a monster’ then.”

“Good call. We haven’t had one of those in a while.” Lois tossed her coffee cup into a nearby bin; better to minimize the things in her hands or potential tripping hazards in case of a stampede people. “Usual wager?”

“Obviously.” The floor trembled again, and this time more people took notice and there was a murmur going through the crowd. Iris looked down and frowned. “I wish I hadn’t worn these shoes. They are terrible for apocalypses.”

“And you didn’t remember your purse flats?” Lois shook her head and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Rookie movie, West. You know better than that.”

“They didn’t fit in my carry on.” Iris scuffed her shoes, low heels but still heels, against the floor. “Whatever’s coming is almost here. I can feel it getti-”

Iris was cut off as the pavement just outside the doors exploded upwards, cement flying everywhere, and people started screaming and running around in a panic both inside and outside as a twenty foot tall metallic beast pulled itself out of the hole and went stomping off away from the building, some destination east of LexCorp in mind. Or programmed in. Whatever.

“Huh. Giant robot.” Lois watched as the robot ripped out a tree and threw it down 17th street. That was just unnecessary destruction of property. “We both lose. Guess we split the nachos this time.”

“God, I haven’t been to Santiago’s for lunch in so long. I’m going to be mad if that robot smashes it all up again.” said Iris as the robot stopped to punch a parked car repeatedly. She looked around the room calmly, watching the formerly professional journalists forget how to act in an emergency. “You want inside or outside?

“I’ll go out, you corral in and meet me out there.”

“Sounds fair.” Lois headed towards the door while Iris ran up to the podium and started speaking into the mic, her calm but firm news reporter voice filling the room. “Can I have everyone’s attention towards me and not at the giant robot outside, please? I’m aware that we are all reporters and the desire to get the scoop on this makes you want to go outside, but let’s all gather under the arch so that no one gets killed. You’ll be able to get pictures on your phones from there all while not being squished, and you can still get your headlines.”

Despite the initial panic, reports in Metropolis were fairly used to disastrous attacks on the city and now that someone had taken charge, Lois could hear them listening to Iris’ instructions as she pushed open the door. There weren’t a lot of people left on the patio, just a few who seemed frozen in terror, tourists by the looks of them, and a few that were injured from the flying debris that the monster had caused. Lois ushered the bystanders into the building towards Iris, helped a few of the injured to their feet to get them to safety and then ran to the last person who seemed to be pinned by one leg under a large slab of concrete. He was unconscious, but he had a strong pulse.

Lois was trying to figure out what she should do when Iris crouched down beside her. “Everyone is playing nice in the sandbox and live tweeting the robot stuff to keep them occupied. How’s it going with this guy?”

“He’s trapped and I think that we should push the rock of him but I’m afraid if we do there is a chance that he might bleed out. We don’t know what it’s like underneath there.”

“I’ve got a belt. We can use it as a tourniquet if we need to.” Iris unbuckled it, pulled from the one end and tossed it on the ground beside the man easily accessible if they needed to use it.

The robot was making screeching sounds down the street, and they could hear sirens getting closer, but it was going to be awhile before medical attention was sent out their way. Lois looked at the man and hoped that the lack of blood leaking out from under the rock was a good sign. “Help me flip it off him?” Iris nodded affirmatively and they both rearranged their positions to grip the rock securely. “Three, two, one.” They both pulled upwards, lifting with their legs, both women grunting and straining under the effort, but they were able to get the man freed, toppling the rock off of him, and fortunately the leg didn’t appear to be that badly injured, other than broken. They didn’t have anything handy to make a splint out of so couldn’t move him, so instead they both sat down beside him and Lois laid her jacket on top of him to try and keep him warm.

“Damn that was heavy. Good thing we lift,” said Lois, stretching out her legs and shaking out her arms a bit, trying to get some of the feeling back in them. That Crossfit membership really was paying for itself.

“My Fitbit is going to be so confused by that.” Iris dug around in her purse a bit and held a package out to Lois, over top of the unconscious man. “Gum?”

Lois popped a piece into her mouth and chewed for a bit while they watched the robot knock a fire hydrant over, causing water to shoot up into the air. “Who do you think is going to show up first once the robot’s been dismantled? Clark’s closer, but Barry’s faster.”

“You actually weigh in on that silly argument?” laughed Iris, shaking her head. “I try and stay out of that debate other than ‘yes, honey, of course I know you’re faster than Superman’.”

“I’m not going to lie just to make him feel better. He’s not the best at everything and we both know it. You should see him try and wash the windows. Streaks galore.”

“Clark will be here first. Barry doesn’t like to pop up on someone else’s turf uninvited.”

“Clark might not even show up since we're all fine. Either way, we’re good. We’ve got this part all under control.” Something caught Lois’ eye and she stood up and jogged down the steps. “Wait there.” She stopped at an abandoned coffee cart that was thankfully still right side up, poured two cups, tucked a $10 bill into the register and then returned to Iris and handed her a cup. “You got the last round.”

The robot tore down a traffic light, sparks visible in the distance when the power lines snapped.

“Mmm. Hazelnut.”

Sometimes the best way to catch up with an old friend was to sit back with some lukewarm coffee and watch giant robots destroy public property together.

It’s just what good friends do.

#whumptober2019 #no.20 #lois lane #iris west #there is no whump here #lois and iris are good friends and you can pry that headcanon from my cold dead hands

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sapphicscholar · 6 years

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A/N: Once more, thanks to @lurkz for helping me to parse through what is actually illegal in business and what would simply be of dubious morality (and therefore, I assume as a flaming liberal, totally common)

Chapter Text:

“Monday, 11am, the slot’s all booked for you, alright?” Dirk said, settling into the driver’s seat of his SUV. After a pause, he nodded his head emphatically. “I told you, it’s better to spread it out. The emails will leak tomorrow.” … “Fine, I’ll talk to you then.”

“Here’s the thing, Dirk,” Alex drawled, looking at him through the rearview mirror, “if you’re going to do something illegal, you probably shouldn’t talk about it in public.”

“This is illegal! You’re breaking and entering!” Dirk yelled, scrambling for the door, only to find the lock jammed shut. As he turned and reached for the glove compartment, Alex simply laughed.

“You should know it’s illegal to travel with a loaded gun in DC. Thank god I was here to take it apart for you. Otherwise you might have gotten yourself into some real trouble.”

“I—uh—yeah…”

Straight to business, Alex ignored his spluttering. “I now have you on tape talking about leaking the emails.”

“You have nothing in the way of proof about which emails or who’s actually responsible for getting them,” Dirk shot back, once more finding his footing and the kind of fake courage born of enough money and privilege to avoid most consequences.

“No,” Alex conceded. “But I also did some digging…” He looked back at her. “I do wonder what your shareholders would think if they found out that you’ve been embezzling funds from your own company… Maybe they’d be more interested in learning that you were the owner of Metro Ink—you remember that little promising paper you pitched to the CatCo board a few years back, right? Didn’t end up helping CatCo, but you got yourself a new house in the Hamptons.”

“No one could have known that the paper wouldn’t help CatCo!”

“But they should have known that you owned a large share of it.” Dirk was silent, his arms crossed and his lip curled up in anger. “You know what I think the public would be most interested in, though? Your nephew Greg’s affair. And damn, cheating on a pregnant wife…that’s a new low. People just love a good, juicy scandal—but you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“Don’t drag him into this.”

Alex scoffed at the belated attempt at being valiant. “You already did, and you know it.”

“What do you want? Money?”

“You’re not going to leak those emails. You’re not going to come forward with anything more about Cat or her campaign or anyone tied to it. You’re going to fade away into your pitiful little life and not bother us again. Got it?”

“Or what?”

Taking a deep breath, Alex leveled him with a glare. “I found all of that and more in three hours. Come for us again, and every resource the DEO has to offer will be directed at finding out every single thing you and Greg have ever done wrong. Whatever the media doesn’t pick up, I will personally deliver to the authorities with a pretty silver bow on top.”

“Cat better stop counting on my campaign contributions,” Dirk spat at Alex.

“Oh, she wouldn’t want money from someone like you anyway.” With a wink, Alex slid across the backseat, using a gloved hand to open the door.

“Where’s my gun? It’s my property!”

“I assume you’re exactly the kind of lowlife scum who would shoot me in the back the second I gave it to you. So I think I’ll just hold onto this. Consider it an insurance policy.”

---

“It’s handled.” Cat reread Alex’s message for a second, then a third time, confirming that it was really over, there would be no more leaks, no mass release of her emails. She felt herself exhale fully for what might have been the first time since the whole scandal began the day before.

“You okay?” Kara’s voice broke through her haze of tempered relaxation.

“Yes,” Cat breathed out. “Better than okay.”

“What happened?”

“The emails won’t leak tomorrow. No more news. Now it’s just dealing with what we have.” Sure, before any of this happened, dealing with what they had now would have seemed a burden too heavy, but now it felt so very manageable.

“Cat, that’s amazing! How—”

“We don’t ask.”

“Alex?”

“We don’t ask.”

“Right.” Kara fell silent and found the floor was suddenly particularly interesting.

“Kara,” Cat’s voice was soft, but there was also a note of warning in it that Kara couldn’t ignore.

“No, I know. What’s important is that you’re all set for your interview tomorrow.”

“I think we did enough practice questions to last a lifetime.” Even though her patience had worn thin around the one-hour mark, she had to admit that Maggie had done her research. It might have been overkill, but at least she was prepared.

“It’ll be good for our trip too.”

“Speaking of, it’s not even your first week, and you’re already staying at the office until”—Cat glanced down at her phone—“ten at night. Go home. Go enjoy whatever life you might still have.”

“You hired me as your campaign manager. That means I eat, breathe, and sleep this campaign—I knew that going into it.”

“You haven’t even officially started yet,” Cat countered.

“I’m not going to abandon you, Cat,” Kara shot back—the unspoken, “like you did to me,” hanging heavily in the air.

“Well, I suppose I should head out for the night.”

Kara cleared her throat and stood quickly. “Alex said you’re spending one more night at her house?”

“Apparently Vasquez has deemed it unsafe for me to deal with the handful of vultures still lurking outside my home.”

“What’d you think of Alex’s house?” Kara asked, figuring it was better to change the topic than to let Cat get riled up about a decision that was probably for the best.

“Decidedly uninteresting.” She looked up, her eyes glinting with mischief. “Unless you want to tell me where the hidden rooms are?”

“She’d kill me.”

“That means she has them.”

Laughing and shaking her head, Kara held the door open for Cat. “Come on, let’s get you back to her place so you have plenty of time to investigate before bed.”

“You laugh, but I was an excellent reporter.”

“You think I haven’t read your columns? Please, you won awards for them. Of course I had to see for myself.”

Ignoring the flutter of excitement at the idea that Kara had cared enough to look up her best articles, Cat strode through the doorway and out into the hallway. “Do I have to leave through Alex’s little dungeon again?”

“One last time. Vasquez is already here for you, though.”

“Fine,” Cat sighed, traipsing down the creaky stairs and through the basement once more.

---

The next morning, Kara was waiting for Cat in her office when she arrived.

“Isn’t some chipper for being in the office early on a Sunday morning?”

“Some of us didn’t go hunting around Alex’s house all night…”

Cat’s cheeks turned a very light shade of pink. “I was simply looking to see if she was home yet.”

“Behind padlocked closet doors?”

“As a matter of fact, yes, I think that’s exactly where I’d find her,” Cat drawled.

“What?”

“Oh god, you’re both useless,” Cat huffed, sinking into her chair and turning on her computer. “Now tell me, is that first room with all weapons just for show? Is it to keep people from going any further?”

“Why? Were you too scared to investigate more?” Kara teased.

“No,” Cat shot back, looking beyond indignant. “Alex simply arrived back home.”

Kara tried unsuccessfully to hide a soft laugh behind her hand. “Right… How are you feeling about the interview?”

“About as excited as I was for my last root canal.”

“Well, I sort of figured you might need something in the way of encouragement…” Kara trailed off, pulling something from her bag. “Here, I know we’re on image patrol for a while, but I thought you could use a boost of the old Cat Grant confidence before the interview starts.”

“Did you just call me old?” Cat asked, though she couldn’t quite hide the way her gaze softened at Kara’s holding out one of her favorite necklaces—a gold statement piece that went particularly well with the black suit she chose for the day.

“Not a chance. I’d like to live, thank you very much,” Kara teased, moving behind Cat and quickly doing the clasp of the necklace. She pretended not to notice the hitch in Cat’s breath or the way Cat went rigid at the feeling of Kara’s fingers against her neck. “Now that’s the Cat Grant who took California by storm.”

Swallowing harshly, Cat nodded stiffly. “Right.” A moment later she added, her voice significantly softer, “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

As if she’d planned to interrupt the perfect moment, Lois took her cue to stride through the door of Cat’s office, a smirk curling up the corners of her mouth as she found the woman seated at her throne. “Kitty.”

“Lesser Lane,” Cat shot back, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow and gesturing for Kara to leave the office.

Once Kara left, Lois settled in at the seat across from Cat, pulling a recorder and a notebook out from her purse. “I see the world finally got to know what you really think of me.”

“Mm, shall I sic the older Danvers on you and let her find everything you’ve ever said about me?”

“What? Think Kara couldn’t manage it?”

“Of course she could. The problem is that she wouldn’t.”

“They are quite the pair, aren’t they?”

“Only the best women working on my team.”

“Casually weaving in the gender issue. Well done,” Lois conceded, gracing Cat with a small smile.

“Would you expect anything less?”

“From you? Not a chance in hell.”

“As far as verbal sparring partners went you were always…adequate.”

Lois tipped her head back slightly and let out a loud laugh. “Want that to be my headline? Cat Grant on Female Staff: They’re Always Adequate.”

“Oh hush, you know I’m better than anyone else running.”

“Certainly better than Daddy Dearest.”

“Oh god, of course I’m better than any of the Republicans,” Cat scoffed, feeling grateful that she would only have to deal with one of the motley crew of contenders—likely General Lane, though Miranda Crane had been slowly climbing in the polls too.

“Well what about those Republicans?” The shift in Lois’ demeanor was stark as the teasing disappeared, replaced with serious looks and her best journalistic tone. “Do you still think that you’re the best person to face them in a general election when you come bearing the weight of this much baggage this early in the game?”

“I think no one would have come after me this early if I weren’t already the best candidate to beat a Republican challenger,” Cat answered smoothly, arching an eyebrow in challenge. “Obviously being hit with such a low attack this early in the race is not ideal, but I like to think of it as an opportunity—an opportunity to address critiques and to persevere in running a clean, issues-driven campaign even in the face of all this negativity.”

“Does this mean you have nothing to say about the other hopeful nominees?”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever been without something to say,” Cat chuckled, “but our records speak for themselves. Just look at the policies I put in place at CatCo or the legislation passed under my leadership in California; you’ll see that out of everyone in this race, I have done the most to advance the rights of women, minorities, and everyday Americans.”

“How do you balance what your record says against those quotes, the stories that were released?”

“If you’ve been following the news, you will have seen our responses. So much of what was leaked to the press is demonstrably untrue, and even more of it is ripped from context. Of course, there are moments in the past when I could have done better—and I like to think that I have grown as a person and a candidate since then. Think of the things we’ve said about one another over the years.” Lois’ mouth twisted into something that almost looked like a smile. Leave it to Cat to remind her on the record that she’d said just as much in return. “We started out together at The Daily Planet, thrown into the pit with men who didn’t think we should be there and spoke crudely in some vain attempt at scaring us off. But we don’t scary easy—no, we women have learned to fight for our places in newsrooms and boardrooms, in the streets and even in the White House. But sometimes that’s meant picking up those same bad habits to show we could take it,” Cat conceded.

“So how would your White House be any different?”

“It’s been a long time since I left that first newsroom. I’ve learned that there are better ways to act and to treat my staff. I’ve found that a workplace founded on mutual respect and, yes, high expectations,” Cat added with a small smile, “is one that encourages my team to do its best work. I’d bring that kind of attitude to Washington. I’d build on the progress President Marsdin has made in encouraging cooperation over competition. And I’d surround myself with people from a variety of backgrounds to stay informed about the concerns of all citizens, not just those of the privileged few who have historically held the ear of those in charge.”

Outside of the office, Kara beamed as she listened to Cat answer with practiced ease, staying positive and bringing her answers back to what she would do and all that she already had done—just like they’d practiced with Maggie the day before.

“What has you all smiley?” Lucy asked, pausing at Kara’s office, which she’d already started decorating, figuring she wouldn’t have much time before she left with Cat for Iowa the next morning. “That’s an ‘I spent last night getting laid’-level smile, if I’ve ever seen one.”

“Stop,” Kara hissed, her cheeks coloring slightly. “I did no such thing! I was here last night helping Cat prep for the interview.”

“Then what’s with the megawatt smile? Because it’s a Sunday, and we’re in the office, so it has to be something.”

“I’m just proud of Cat, that’s all.”

Lucy narrowed her eyes, filing that detail away for later. “Weirdo. Anyway, we’re doing brunch after Cat’s done with this interview. Wanna come with?”

Stuck between the lure of delicious breakfast foods and the desire to be there for Cat if she needed help getting ready for the trip, Kara finally answered, “Let me see how the interview goes. I might need to stick around here or help Cat get home if the reporters are still camped out at her place.”

“Damn, I need to find myself a woman as devoted to me as you are to Cat,” Lucy laughed, stopping only when she realized that Kara had turned a deep shade of red. “Oh my god, do you have a crush on Cat?” Lucy hissed, shutting the door to Kara’s office and throwing herself into a chair. “I mean, she’s hot—I’ll give you that. And now that it’s confirmed that she likes women too, it makes her that much more appealing.”

“Stop!”

“Aww, little Danvers is in lo-ove,” Lucy crowed in a sing-song tone, only to be silenced by a death glare. “C’mon, you know I’m only teasing. Pretty cool that she’s bi, though, huh? Did you suspect it?”

Kara flashed back to Cat’s breathy sighs, the way she had possessively looped her arms around Kara’s neck and pulled her in closer, how she had let herself be picked up and pushed up against a wall, tipping her head back and baring her neck to Kara’s heated kisses, until a crash from down the hallway had startled them apart. “I, uh, I don’t know, maybe.”

“Hmm…I always thought she could be. Though there’s always the wishful thinking thing too—really throws off my gaydar. Is she gay, or do I just desperately want her to be gay?” Lucy mused, shaking her head at herself. Forcing a laugh, Kara nodded along with Lucy. “Anyway, let me know when you figure out if the Queen will let you eat pancakes with us.”

“Yeah, yeah. I will.”

“I promise it’ll be fun. Plus, I need some more bodies there in case Alex and Maggie decide to go at it again.”

“Oh god, did something more happen?”

“No…or at least, not that I know of.”

“So then no,” Kara teased.

“If anyone could hide something from me, it might just be your sister.”

“I’m telling her you said that. It’ll make her happy.”

“I need her even happier if we’re going to survive this campaign. Set her up on a date or something instead—get some of that pent-up energy out.”

“Ew, Luce! She’s my sister!”

“Well take comfort in the fact that she clearly hasn’t gotten laid in ages if her temper’s anything to go by,” Lucy snorted, laughing at Kara’s spluttering.

Once Lucy left and Kara cleansed her head of any images she decidedly did not want to remember, she tuned back in to the interview next door, listening as Cat artfully redirected a pointed critique to a discussion of her policies. She sent an emoji-filled text to Maggie thanking her for all of her hard work the night before. When she heard the interview wrapping up, she sent James a reminder to have his camera ready for the shot of Cat and Lois looking as friendly as they could manage to be printed alongside the interview.

Once the pictures had been taken and Lois walked down to her car, Kara hurried back in to see Cat. “How’d it go?”

“It was me. Of course it went well.” But she couldn’t quite hide the small smile at the knowledge of just how well it went.

“I’m still glad to hear it.”

“As am I. Now it’s on to the next stage.”

“Do you need any help getting ready for the trip?”

“Since we’ve added a few days and new stops, I want to go over details about what to say to each group, how to maximize the positive publicity without seeming as though that’s the only reason I’m there.”

“The State Fair will be a big one for publicity even without us, so that should make it easier. And when we go out to some of the farms and factories, I’ll make sure James keeps it to just one or two cameramen and photographers.”

“Good,” Cat mused, drumming her nails against her desk.

“Do you want me to stick around and help you plan out stops for those extra days?”

Cat looked up suddenly, as though just realizing Kara was still in the room. “Surely you have a life—better places to be on weekends than with your boss.”

Kara just shrugged. “I don’t know how many times you’ll need me to say it, but I’m committed to this, Cat. You’re trusting me to run your campaign, and that means I’m going to make sure it’s the best it can be.”

“Well, at least let me order us some food, then. It’s the least I can do.”

“Okay!”

Cat bit back a smile; apparently Kara hadn’t lost her enthusiasm for food over the years. “You go order. Use my card to pay.”

“You sure you want to subsidize my eating habits?”

“Kara, the whole world now knows exactly how much I spend on shoes. I think we both know I can afford brunch.”

“Right.” Kara accepted the offered card and walked out into the hallway to call in an order, making sure to include a few “healthy” dishes that Cat would insist on, even if she’d steal a bite or two of the more sugary and fatty items Kara would pile high on her plate. Once she’d gotten their order in, she walked over to Lucy’s office.

“You free for the day?” Lucy asked.

“Actually I’m gonna be stuck here for a little bit helping to get ready for our trip.”

“Boo, you whore.”

“Don’t Mean Girls me!” Kara shot Lucy a look of mock indignation that couldn’t last as she broke out into a grin. “I expect text updates if Alex doesn’t stay in line.”

“Gonna tattle on her to Eliza?”

“I am the campaign manager.” Kara puffed out her chest slightly. “It’s now my job to make sure the team runs smoothly, and if that means keeping my sister in line, so be it.”

“I can’t wait to tell Alex you think you’re in charge of her,” Lucy cackled. “Have fun strategizing with your crush!” Her voice was low, but Kara still let out a squeak of protest. Lucy grabbed her coat and darted out of her office before Kara could say any more.

Determined to have a sit-down chat with Lucy about what could and could not be said around the office, Kara headed back to her desk to respond to emails until the food arrived. When it did, she nearly sprinted down to the door and left a generous tip for the speedy delivery.

Popping her head into the doorway of Cat’s office, Kara held the bag aloft. “Food’s here!”

“Perhaps we move our meeting down to the smaller conference room? Wouldn’t want another catastrophe…”

“It was one time,” Kara grumbled, dutifully toting the bag of takeout down to the conference room anyway. “Seven years ago!”

“It took almost as long to get the syrup smell out of my carpet,” Cat shot back.

“Okay, but at least maple syrup smells amazing.”

“No, Chanel No. 5 smells amazing. Syrup smells like the floor of a Denny’s.”

“Have you ever even been inside of a Denny’s?”

“Depends. Does it make me sound more like a relatable, everyday American if I say yes?”

Kara laughed loudly as she popped open the various containers and boxes. “I don’t think anyone would believe you went voluntarily. Or sober.”

“Does anyone go to a Denny’s sober? Or voluntarily, for that matter?”

“Wouldn’t know,” Kara shrugged. “I’ve always been a bigger fan of the all-you-can-eat pancake special at IHOP.”

“Well there’s that down-home charm I hired you for,” Cat teased, feeling almost human for the first time since Friday.

---

Within the hour, Lucy, Vasquez, Alex, and Maggie were settled in at a booth at The Diner, four mugs of steaming hot coffee settled in between menus on the table. Lucy had crammed in next to Alex, though Vasquez moved too slowly to get in the booth first, leaving Alex and Maggie facing one another. Figuring she had done enough to prevent carnage and deserved a relaxing meal, Lucy ordered a bloody mary with her eggs benedict and sat back while the rest of the table ordered.

“I need to start biking or something if I’m gonna keep eating like this,” Maggie groaned, looking around the restaurant at plates piled high with delicious food.

“Oh please, you got the tofu scramble. It’s like you went looking for the healthiest item here,” Alex scoffed.

“You got an omelet,” Maggie shot back.

“Duh, I’m not trying to throw up on my run later.”

“Where do you run?” Maggie asked, looking genuinely curious.

“The better question is: where doesn’t she run?” Vasquez chimed in between sips of coffee.

“Normally in Rock Creek Park,” Alex answered.

“Ah yes, she likes to go show the Cross Fit boys how it’s done.” Maggie tilted her head until Lucy elaborated: “They meet up at that old-school gym equipment down by my apartment and go all macho bro mode. One time one of them made the mistake of trying to tell Alex she was in the wrong form to do a pull-up and would hurt herself.”

Leaning in as if she were divulging a secret, Vasquez whispered, “So obviously she waited until he’d started at one of the other bars, then matched him until he collapsed.”

“And then did ten more for good measure,” Alex added, looking beyond pleased with herself.

“So wait, where is this workout equipment? The gyms down here are so expensive.” Even with the pretty generous salary she was making working for Cat, Maggie didn’t want to spend her savings on exorbitant gym costs when her rent was already startlingly high compared to what she’d paid out in Chicago and Nebraska.

“Just follow Alex on a run—she’ll lead you right to it,” Lucy teased.

To Maggie’s surprise, Alex just shrugged. “If you want help figuring it out the first time, I can show you.”

“Really?”

“Why not?”

Maggie could think of about a dozen reasons already. Instead she agreed, “Okay. Just tell me when.”

“It should be quiet with Cat and half the office out on travel this week. Tuesday morning work for you?”

“Sure.”

“And ya know, Luce, we’ll be right down the hill from your apartment…”

“So tempting,” Lucy drawled. “And yet, I think I’ll sleep in like a normal person.”

“Sometimes I see James there… It could be a slightly less terrible version of those office bonding activities we’re supposed to do.”

Lucy didn’t add that most mornings she woke up with another staff member in her bed and they did plenty of bonding on their own, thank you very much, though she did smirk at Vasquez from behind her coffee mug. “Hard pass.”

“Alright then, Sawyer, it’s just you and me. Hope you can keep up.”

Holding Alex’s gaze, Maggie arched an eyebrow. “It’s on.”

Pulling out her phone under the table, Lucy texted Vasquez: “Dude. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear this was flirting.”

A few seconds later, Vasquez coughed and choked on a mouthful of coffee. “Sorry,” she muttered. “Just gonna…run to the bathroom.”

After a moment, Lucy followed close behind. “I’m gonna go make sure she didn’t die.”

“So…” Alex trailed off, looking significantly more awkward than she had a few minutes ago.

“Think they’re hooking up?”

“What?”

“Or is that just a drunk thing?”

“What?” Alex repeated, blinking slowly.

“Oh shit, do people not know? Fuck, okay, act like I didn’t say anything! Maybe it was a one-time thing.”

“What? Lucy…and Vasquez?”

“Sorry, god, I don’t want to be the one spreading gossip this early. I’m sure it was just that once.”

Alex nodded slowly, trying to figure out how many things she’d apparently missed over the years. Ever since Cat had suggested she might be gay—not that she was, of course—Alex felt like suddenly everything around her was designed to bring it up. There was the fact that she apparently worked in the gayest office ever, but then smaller things started appearing too: the line of rainbow flags strung up outside of restaurants and bars all around Dupont and Logan Circle; the background character in one of her favorite shows had come out last week; some Facebook event for National Coming Out Day this week kept popping up on her timeline.

“Are you okay?” Maggie asked, growing increasingly concerned at the way Alex seemed to have completely checked out of the conversation.

“Oh, yeah, fine!” Her voice was higher pitched than she would have liked, but at least Maggie looked less concerned. “Sorry, I just—took me by surprise about Lucy.”

“What about me?” Lucy asked, throwing herself dramatically back into the booth and looking up at Alex.

“Uh, that you aren’t going on the trip,” Alex tried, wincing slightly at the stupid comment.

“Oh, nah. They can always call if they run into legal trouble. Sadly it’s just Vasquez we’re losing for this one.”

The words seemed to have all sorts of new connotations, and Alex forced herself to nod and smile. “I’m sure Kara will have plenty of fun games for you to play on the ride.”

Their food arrived then, giving Alex a bit of time not to worry about saying the right thing as she shoved eggs into her mouth and tried to ignore the vague sense of anxiety that had been nagging at her since Friday.

#supercat sanvers 2020 #sanvers #supercat #political au #supergirl #fanfic #ao3feed #slow burn #cat grant #kara danvers #lois lane #alex danvers #lucy lane #maggie sawyer #susan vasquez

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mrsluthordanvers · 7 years

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A Coffee a Day Relationship: Kara Danvers/Cat Grant Words: 3,799 Chapters: 4/? Summary: Kara is a third year at NCU studying biology with a quickly developing crush on Lois’ graduate professor Cat Grant. In an effort to see more of Cat, Kara starts bringing Lois coffee every class. An excuse Cat quickly sees through.

Read under cut or on AO3

“Kara this is the third week you’ve brought Lois coffee.” Lucy held onto the coffee she had just poured forcing Kara to stand and talk to her. “What’s up? Is she making you do this? because I know my sister can be a lot-“

“-what? No!" Kara stood mouth hanging open. Lois hadn’t asked her to bring coffee, even she was surprised that Kara kept showing up with the life saving beverage in hand. "It's on my way, and Clark asked me to make an effort with her when they started dating…”

“I think he meant invite her to games night every once in awhile Kara, not personally fetching her coffee every time she has class.”

“It’s not every class!” Kara reached across the counter holding her hand out expectantly for the second coffee. “This one is just on my way!”

Lucy watched Kara shove the coffee into a tray, almost tipping them over in her force before exiting the cafe.

“I think something is up with Kara.” Lucy murmured to Maggie as she passed on her way to making a drink for the next person in line.

“Like?”

“I’m not sure…” Lucy looked out the window following Kara’s figure as she dodged through the traffic crossing the street.

“Have you mentioned it to Alex?”

“Not yet. I was hoping Kara would just tell me.”

“Well you know Kara, if it’s not Alex asking the questions she takes awhile to open up about things.”

“I thought we were in a good spot, she used to be able to tell me anything, we were together for over a year…”

“You are good, but you’re also with James now.”

Lucy nodded, deciding to let it go for the moment, taking the cup from Maggie and calling out the customer name written on the side.

As usual the lecture was still going as Kara slid into a seat at the back of class. She had been coming earlier and earlier each week, peeling off her jacket as she watched Cat pace the floor in her heels, and depending on the week, in her bare feet. She thought she was getting better at sneaking in without making much noise, but no matter how few students turned to look at her, Cat always noticed. She tried to return Cat’s stare that lit every inch of her skin on fire, holding her in place until she started to shift in her seat pressing her legs together as she crossed and uncrossed her legs. She swore Cat was doing it out of pure enjoyment, the moment she started to squirm Cat was continuing to wear her path into the cement floor.

The class emptied quickly after Cat barked about how they had failed her expectations on the last assignment and she was expecting more from them this time. Kara made her way through the stream of exiting students to the front of the class where Lois always sat, waiting patiently until the room had cleared before approaching her professor about this week’s concerns.

Cat watched Kara as Lois talked, ranting about something Cat had said in the lecture and how her grade from the last assignment did not reflect the work she had put in.

“Miss Lane.” Cat’s voice clipped the argument short as her gaze finally returned to the other reporter. “I suggest that if you want to get better grades you hand in better assignments.”

Lois’ mouth fell open in argument, quickly shutting as she turned on her heel to gather her items before leaving.

“It was nice to see you in my class again Kara.” Kara’s mouth went dry as Cat lifted her eyebrows over her glasses, turning her full attention towards her computer screen. “But if you keep insisting on coming under the pretence of delivering Lois her much needed coffee, maybe you could bring an extra.”

Kara didn’t bother nodding as she fell into step with Lois handing over her coffee.

“You don’t have to do that Kara." Lois’ voice softening as soon as they got out of Cat’s ear shot. “You don't have to bring me coffee either for that matter. Not, that I don’t appreciate it.” Lois hummed as she took a long draw from the cup.

“I know I don’t have to…but…I really don’t mind bringing her coffee.”

Lois raised an eyebrow at Kara as she took another swig of coffee.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Lois smiled behind her cup. “I didn’t say anything.”

Rolling her eyes Kara slumped her shoulders pulling up her bag as she pouted. “You didn’t need to.”

Chapter 4

It was a couple weeks before Kara walked into Lois’ class again carrying three coffees in a tray. She had been nervous about buying Cat’s, having no idea what her order was, and had assumed she would want something fancy, low fat and extra hot. Turned out extra hot was the only thing Kara had guessed correctly, right before she learned that Cat Grant was a latte junkie and every barista in the campus Starbucks including Maggie and Lucy had her order memorized.

“This is Cat Grant we are talking about. She’s in here practically everyday, multiple times a day. And she’s terrifying. Of course everyone knows her order.” Kara smiled relief flooding her body as she took the cup from Lucy. Thankful her friends didn’t quiz her on the additional coffee.

The tension in the class felt different today. Cat sat in the chair behind the desk with her laptop as she spoke, occasionally rubbing the bridge of her nose and her temples. Students seemed more on edge with this display then they did with Cat’s usual reign on their class. Kara wondered if this was because they just weren’t used to seeing their professor so out of character or if something had happened before she had slid into a seat in the back.

Lecture ended early, Cat dismissing the room with a wave of her hand. The room was hushed as they left, leaving Kara to weave to the front of the room silently placing the white disposable cup on the desk before taking a moment to place two pills from her bag on the lid before making her way back to Lois. It was only a moment before Cat lifted her head to inspect the coffee, pushing the pills around before popping them into her mouth, seeking Kara’s face as she chased them down with her latte.

Their eyes met over Lois’ shoulder as she whispered something to Kara before side stepping towards the door, Cat mouthing a silent thank you as Kara followed, her eyes lighting up as she flashed Cat a soft smile.

“Is she like that often?”

“Who?”

“Ms Grant.” Kara looked over her shoulder as the door fell close, getting in one last glimpse of Cat, her throat flexing as she drank. “Does she get headaches often?”

“Often enough.” Lois replied, scanning Kara’s face. “But I’m sure your advil will help.”

Kara blushed as she lifted her own cup to hide her face.

“Do you like Ms.Grant?” Lois’ eyes never left the road as she drove off campus towards Kara, Alex and Lucy’s apartment. It was Friday and a long weekend, so Alex had taken the liberty of inviting everyone over for a games night with food, drinking, and possibly a movie marathon.

“What??” Kara sputtered as she willed her face not to go beat red, not to think about Cat sitting with her feet up on the desk in the library, or how she put on two sets of glasses when she had gotten particularly frustrated at her article, or how her skirt rode up her legs every time she sat down with a new coffee. “Ms.Grant?…She’s your professor!”

“You know Kara, you wouldn’t be the first person to have a crush on a professor.” Lois parked the car in the underground parkade, taking a second before she turned towards Kara. “You don’t have to tell me if you do. But I want you to be careful Kara…that cat has claws. She wouldn’t be where she is if she didn’t.”

Lois left the car, leaving Kara to take a moment. She had meant it, Kara was a sunny, smart young woman, and Cat Grant was twice her age with a reputation for being ruthless. The last thing she wanted was for Kara to get hurt.

Kara sat in silence with what Lois had said. She had researched Cat Grant after that first week she and Alex had walked into her class, she knew Lois was right. But it had only increased Kara’s curiosity of the woman. Sighing, Kara climbed out of the car letting Lois throw an arm over her shoulders as they headed inside.

“Finally!” Alex’s head appeared over the top of the couch as soon as the door opened. “Lucy and Maggie are arguing over some paper for one of their criminal justice classes and James and Clark disappeared talking about photography, or journalism, or both, and left me to fend for myself with these two!”

“Like you weren’t getting in on the debate!” Lucy scoffed as Maggie pulled Alex’s arm back around her shoulders.

“She’s right, you were getting just as heated as the two of us! In fact… I think you’re the reason Winn volunteered to go get the food!”

Kara chuckled as she imagined Winn running out of the apartment at the first chance he saw.

“Where is Smallville? Out on the balcony?”

Alex nodded as Lois headed for the balcony in search of Clark, sliding the glass doors closed behind her the same time the front door opened again. This time to Winn attempting to balance bags of chinese food on top of three boxes of large pizzas.

“Some help would be nice!”

Everyone broke into movement, Kara stepping forward to take the bags of chinese as Alex hopped over the couch to take the pizzas, Lucy sticking her head outside to tell announce that food had arrived, Maggie digging out plates and utensils as the food got unpacked. Soon everyone was sitting around the coffee table, plates heaped with food balanced in their laps.

“No couples!” Winn shouted as soon as Taboo came into sight.

Everyone groaned quickly shouting out new names as they switched up teams. It was a fast game, Lucy and Kara coming in second, only one point behind James and Clark, Lois and Alex taking third and Maggie and Winn dead last.

The rest of night passed in a giant game of monopoly and drinking. Lucy and Lois neck in neck for first place, Kara and James and Clark going bankrupt first, Maggie, Winn and Alex occasionally taking sides with the sisters knowing they wouldn’t come out on top.

“Traitor!”

“Sorry Lucy, Lois scares me more then you.” Winn's grin faltering as Lucy glared at him, James holding her firmly in his lap so she didn’t jump over the table.

#supercat #supergirl #supercat fanfiction #supergirl fanfiction #nemo writes #double chapter post

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thekryptonianandthecitygirl · 7 years

Text

Arms crossed over her chest, she stares right at him, eyes not wavering.

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm not," he simply answers, his tone matching hers as he keeps writing whatever he's on, unphased. She barely holds back an annoyed sigh. Doesn't, really.

"I work better alone, Perry. You know that."

"You've never even tried to work with someone."

"That's because I don't need to." He snorts.

"Are your ankles okay?," he asks ironically, sparing her a brief, amused glance before getting back to his papers. She rolls her eyes.

"They're fine, thanks. And I don't need assistance."

"I know you don't, Lois - otherwise you'd already be at the door, because that attitude of yours is starting to get on my nerves," he reprimands, glaring as he finally puts down his pen and glasses to give her his full attention.

She simply glares back, and he sighs. "The guy is just a stringer, but everything he's send me so far is pretty solid, and I have yet to not publish it. He digged up the story, and he deserves to be the one to investigate it and bring it to light."

She frowns.

"If it's his story and he's so deserving, why are you sending me over there?"

"Because the scale of it is new for him. He's never had to investigate on something that big before. But," he quickly adds before the protest leaves her mouth. "I think he can handle it - he just needs a little help. You're the best around, I think you two could make a good team, and he's good enough that you can actually work with him without getting annoyed."

"Great. So now I'm a baby-sitter," and it's his time to roll his eyes. "Thanks, Perry, I really appreciate all the new experiences I get to live thanks to you."

"Well actually, Mrs Sassy, I think you are going to end up thanking me on this one."

Rising her eyebrows at him in challenge, she balances her weigh on one foot, unimpressed.

"Really? How so?" He smirks.

"The story involves Luthor Corps."

It takes everything she has, but Lois keeps a straight face. He knows he's won, though. Smartass.

"So, do you want to work on a story that can break the perfect image of one of the most famous and beloved billionaires in the country you've always suspected, or are you too busy pouting about having to share it?"

Deliberately choosing to ignore his satisfied smirk, she heads towards the door, not without making sure of sending another glare his way with a mumbled 'Fine'.

Right before she leaves his office, Lois turns back to him, frowning.

"What's his name, anyway?"

"Clark Kent."

She arrives in town early in the night - although the word 'town' is a bit of a stretch, given the size of it. Apparently, the guy decided not to enter the twenty-first century along with everyone else and doesn't have a cellphone, so all she has is the address and time he gave Perry a couple of days ago.

That, and a pretty odd request from the mysterious prodiguee.

Closing the door of her rental behind her, Lois tightens her jacket around herself and enters the old bar where they're supposed to meet. The place is pretty standard: rusty wooden stools, a pool table, dimmed lights, a few booths at the end of the room. A small scene where musician probably comes once in a while, with a dark and dusty velvet curtain behind it. The smell of whisky hangs in the air, and the two morons looking at her like she's some kind of meat are already getting on her nerves.

Ignoring them, she heads towards the bar, and the sixty something year-old man behind it.

"Hi. I'm looking for Joe Cooper, do you know him?"

"Yeah, that's him, over there," he responds, pointing towards a broad figure at the end of the room before going back to his clients. Muttering a quick 'Thanks', Lois adjusts her bag, and walks to her soon to be co- worker, stopping right behind him.

"So: can I call your Clark, or are you sticking with Joe?," she asks, just loud enough for only him to hear. He immediately turns and looks at her, surprise registering on his face.

The first thing that crosses her mind is 'Wow, is that guy tall'. She didn't notice it before, as he was crunched down above the table, but he is. Blue eyes (very blue), black curly hair, strong jaw covered with a three day beard that quite suits him.

Lips slightly quirking up, she extends her hand. "Lois Lane. I was told you had a story that was worth checking?" His shoulders immediately relax, and he shakes her hand.

"Right. Nice to meet you, Mrs Lane," he says, voice deep as he gives her a polite smile. It's a good smile, she decides.

Breaking contact, he gestures towards the bar. "And sorry about that, but Joe would be better around here, if you don't mind."

"Lying to your employer, huh? You sure know how to live on the wild side." His grin grows, amused this time, and, bending his head down for a second before looking back at her, he nods.

"I guess you could say that, yes." His expression then turns apologetic. "I'm sorry, but my shift only ends in fifteen minutes," he starts, visibly bothered by having to make her wait. She waves his apology away.

"It's fine – I'm early: it's my fault, anyway. Can I wait for you here?" she points to the table behind him. He moves aside.

"Of course," and he lets her settle on the bench. "Can I get you anything?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Okay. I'll be right back, then." And, with a small smile she answers, he gets back to work.

He's – okay, she thinks. So far. She knew Perry wouldn't have bothered with an asshole, anyway, but she had had more than a few sexist, machist, idiotic encounters in her line of work. She learnt to handle it pretty fast, whether it was mesuring dicks with them before setting things straight, or immediately announcing that she wasn't going to take any shit just because she had a vagina.

So far, it had always worked – or at least, had always gotten her what she wanted.

But he's not like that. She's pretty good at assessing character quickly, and that guy strikes her more as the polite, discreet, well-raised and good-manered gentleman type than the ego maniac, jerk one.

Good. At least she won't have to put up with anything she doesn't have the time for.

Getting her notebook and research out of her bag, Lois takes her eyes off him, and focuses back on the investigation.

She snaps back out of her thoughts and of the theories already building in her head and into the world when a beer is suddenly but carefully settled right in front of her. She looks up to see him take his white apron off before he sits opposite her.

"It's on the house. To make amends," he says simply, then continues at her questionning look. "Mr White told me you weren't exactly thrilled to work with a stringer, so consider this a peace offering." Her eyes roll almost from themselves, but he doesn't look mad.

"Let me guess: he told you I'd act like a jerk and treat you like a newbie."

"No. Well, not on those terms, anyway," and the corners of his lips go up in a discreet smirk. An amused one, she thinks.

"I just like to get a raise out of him," Lois shrugs as she reaches for her glass. "And he did take me off guards. I am a little skeptical about the team work thing, I'll give you that, but I'm not gonna be an ass – you can relax, Joe," she assures, a little smile he returns on her lips. "Besides, I read your stuff: it's not bad." Pursing his lips, he nods.

"I'll take that as a compliment," he says, the note of amusement so subtil in his voice you could almost miss it.

And with a sense of humor, apparently.

"You should. Thanks for the beer," she gestures, taking a sip.

After her three hours drive, it feels like heaven. "So, fill me in: what did you find?"

Expression turning serious, Clark Joe obliges, telling her all about the shaddy deals he noticed while working on the oil plateform near here (she mentally makes a note to find out what the hell he was doing working on an oil plateform, at some point), how he connected it to Luthor Corps, what proof he has or can get, who he can and has talked to. They talk for almost an hour and a half, Lois stopping him only to ask details or enlighten some points. They exchange points of views, ideas, throw theories back and forth.

He really is not bad, for someone who doesn't have much experience in deep investigations (his words). There's some things to correct, of course, and room for improvement, but she doesn't think she's going to have to carry him or anything – he's doing just fine.

(Then again, Perry probably wouldn't have sent her here, if he thought she would have had to. He knows better.)

"Did you start interviewing the witnesses? Employees?"

"I thought about it, but – I've never really done that before. I thought it was best to wait for you." Shaking her head slighty, Lois chuckles.

"At least you're honest about it."

"I never pretended to be a real journalist," and she knows he's not taking it the wrong way when she sees amusement in his eyes. Nice ones, really. "To be honest, I thought Mr White was going to give the story to another reporter all together." She archs an eyebrow.

"And you called him anyway? Not really the kind of right moves, if you want to build a reputation for yourself."

Finishing his own beer, Clark simply shrugs.

"The important thing is that the story gets out, not my name on it."

Well...aren't you an odd one. "So, how much time do you think we need?"

Shaking her head slightly, Lois hides her chuckle, and answers.

"Not long, really. You've done most of the work, so I'd say four or five days, just so we can re-check some things, maybe talk to a couple more people, then edit." She smirks. "You should get back to being a dedicated waiter in no time, don't worry. "

He doesn't miss a bit.

"Wonderful: I wouldn't want to compromise my rise to the top. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to it now, if I don't want to get fired." Lois frowns at that.

"Didn't you say your shift was over?"

"I took an extra one," he explains, helping her gather all the documents she had laid down. "I have a passion for fine jewellery I need to finance," he deadpans, glancing up at her, and Lois holds back her chuckle.

"Right. I could tell you were the type – I bet pearls look great on you."

The next day, she comes back to meet him for breakfast. He manages to get several breaks along the day, and they make considerable progress, putting the puzzle together piece by piece. It's even more satisfying knowing that this could finally help show Luthor's other (and true) side to the world.

She never trusted him – never bought his whole perfect, progressist, nice, smooth guy act. Way too suspicious for her taste.

Working in duo is not that bad - or at least, working with him isn't. It sure is different, but bouncing of ideas and leads off of each other is an interesting way of approaching a job she usually handles exclusively alone. A stimulating one, even. It certainly seems to help reach the goal, and the fact that the process is not unpleasant is a plus, she supposes.

As it turns out, her suspisions were right. Clark Kent slash Joe Cooper has his way with words, and gets the hold of things pretty quickly, managing to follow easily once she's shown him the path. But he's also very perceptive, very smart. Hell, probably even smarter than her.

("You read a lot, don't you?" she asks him at one point after he's raised her suspisions and curiosity yet again, her eyes on his endearing focused scowl while he re-reads an official Lex Corps report. Frowning, he looks up, a bit confused.

"Uhm - yeah, I guess. It was kind of an escape thing as a kid, so," he admits. Sensing a sensitive spot she doesn't want to push, Lois nods. Then, smiles.

"I bet your favorite book was from Spinoza or something." He smiles back.

"Platon, actually," and she rolls her eyes.

"Of course it was.")

He's clever, intuitive, yet...maybe not shy, exactly, but – reserved. That's definitely the word for it, now that she thinks about it. Watching him, and particularly watching him interact with others, even in that short of a time, the reporter in her can't help but motice how discreet he is, self-effacing. It looks like he's been here for at least a month, if not more, yet he doesn't seem to have bond with anyone, or given any detail about his lie and identity all together.

She doesn't mind. As far as she's concerned, as long as they're not screwing something or somedy over, everybody has the right to have their own private thing going, reason or no reason.

Still, Lois thinks that his particular story would be one she wouldn't mind hearing.

"Three days in, and I still didn't get one complaining call or whiny text. Does that guy drug you or something?"

Letting her motel room door shut behind her, she rolls her eyes.

"That's very funny, Perry. Have you been taking comedy classes from Lombard or something?" Kicking off her shoes, she listens as he snorts on the other side of the line.

"I'll take that as a no. So, how is the article coming along?"

Things run their course. They dig in, he learns, the investigation progresses. They work in their usual booth, once in her motel because she can only take so many drunk men yelling at the damn football game.

(He doesn't say anything, but she can see his eyes linger on the TV as they go out of the bar. Men and their sport.)

The next day, it's well past nine when they finally end their round of interviews. She's pretty satisfied with the results and, for a rookie, Clark's done very well yet again, but she's exhausted and God – starving.

Throwing her bag at the end of the bench, Lois lets herself ungraciously fall on it with a growl. He smiles.

"Worn out yet? I thought you were supposed to be unstoppable." The mocking irony in his tone makes her send a glare she doesn't really mean.

"Ahah. Don't pretend you're not glad you don't have a shift right now, witty boy."

"Not even going to try," he concedes. "We made good progress though, right?"

"Definitely." Her lips quirk up. "You're not as helpless as you could have been, Kent," she teases him. She likes doing that, she finds. Again, that makes him smile, then nod in fake gratitude.

"Thank you – that really means a lot. Same to you." Her chuckle is cut short as soon as she smells the french fries approaching their table.

"Here," the girl – Chrissy, she's learnt – says politely as she put the sacred little basket of greesy goodness in front of them. Lois isn't even sorry for the way she immediately leaps on the damn thing. "Your orders should be ready soon."

"Thanks," Clark politely smiles, sending her an amused look before focusing back on his co-worker as she talks again.

"So: how is the investigation going?"

"Well, thanks. Joe here still has a lot to learn," Lois emphasizes, keeping a straight face as she feels his amused gaze on her. "But he's alright," she shrugs non-chalently, stealing another fry.

"I'm sure. Are you going to be done soon?," and even if she looks at her, too, Lois can't help but notice how her eyes linger on Clark – and the small, smitten smile that doesn't leave her face while she does.

"I'm not sure. Lois?"

Trying to hide her amusement, she shrugs again.

"A couple of days, maybe three? We'll see, but it shouldn't take that long."

"Oh, okay. Well, I should get back to it," the young woman motions behind her. "Enjoy." And, with a last smile towards Clark, she heads back to the bar.

Taking a sip of his beer, he focuses back on her, then frowns.

"What?"

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend, Clark Joe."

"I don't," and she raises an eyebrow at him as she throws another fry in her mouth. "Chrissy and I are just friends."

"Right."

"We are. It was just - " He stammers a little, getting embarassed. She finds it surprisingly cute. "It wasn't a big thing. And it's over now."

"Look at you, all blushing," she grins, not able to hold back her chuckle when he tries to glare at her. "Okay, I'll stop. But just so you know, it doesn't look like her crush is going anywhere."

"Lois - "

Taking pity on him, she holds up her hands in surrender, a small smirk still floating on her face.

"Fine. Entertain me with something else, then." Relaxing, he shakes his head at her, half amused, half exasperated.

It's not a bad look on him, either.

"With what?"

"Well, first, the obvious question: what is a guy like you doing serving beer instead of taking a proper reporter gig?" He smirks, looks at her. Kind of a - mysterious look, for lack of a better term.

(How ironic, for a journalist – for her. Then again, there's something about him since the beginning, something she can't quite put her finger on.)

"What does 'a guy like me' mean?"

"Fishing for compliment? Really?"

"I'm just trying to understand what you're saying."

"You're just trying to avoid the question."

Giving in, he sighs, and even though she can tell he's not mad, he's careful.

"There's a lot of – unanswered questions about my past. I need to find the answers before I can consider the proper gigs and the proper life."

A part of her wants to dig in, but, feeling a touchy subject, Lois decides to let it go. Which is a first, really – usually, touchy subjects make her pen itch.

"Alright, mystery boy. Tell me where you come from, then. Unless that's classified information too?"

There's a small smile that makes her think something's getting past her before he answers – again. It takes all that she has for Lois to ignore her instincts.

"I grew up in Smallville – it's in Kansas. And now I'll let you get that clever comment you're dying to make off your chest."

"I'm hurt, Smallville," she feigns, proud of herself when he rolls his eyes at the surname. "I would never. Although you do have to introduce me to all your cows and chickens, one of those days."

"No cows, I'm afraid. Lots of corn, though – and a dog."

"Now I'm just jealous."

"I'm sure. What about you? Where did you get that subtil sense mockery from?"

"Oh, all over – Kansas excepted, I'm afraid," she winces in fake apology. He relaxes back on his seat, sighing.

"I can't believe I didn't realize how big a mistake telling you that was."

"Poor thing. Don't worry though! there's plenty to make fun of in my up-bringing, too. Army brat," she explains, pointing at herself with her thumb. "And I bet I've lived in places far more isolated than corn specialist Smallville."

Chuckling, Clark smiles. "Entertain me, then."

Thirty-five hours later, they're done.

A last coma here, a word change there, and here it is: Lois Lane and Clark Kent's collaboration article. His first major publication, her first by-line.

The first of many articles exposing Luthor's questionnable activities to the world, she hopes.

"Do you think it will make a difference?"

"I doubt it," she admits, not wanting to lie to him. His disappointed, hurt puppy expression makes her smile. "But it's a start. Luthor is a powerful man: it will take something huge to make him fall from his pedestral. But our story is a first step – if anything, it will at least install doubt in people's mind."

She shrugs. "Or it could be a total disaster," she deadpans, making him laugh. "Come on, the next round is on me."

His eyes eyes light up, amused and teasing.

"So I take it you thought I did a good job, then?"

Containing her own grin, she gives him a fake unimpressed look, and makes a face.

"Decent."

He smiles.

They spent the next hour and a half sitting in their booth, the first beer quickly turning into a second, a third.

By the time they get up, Lois is way more dizzy than she should.

"You can wipe that smirk out of your face, Smallville," she hisses at they exit the bar, trying her best to glare at him.

He raises his hands, playing innocent.

"I didn't say anything." The amusement in his eyes, however, says a lot. She grunts.

"Whatever."

"Sober as you may be," he starts, the insolent bastard, "can I walk you to your motel?" She crosses her arms at him.

"I'm perfectly capable of walking by myself, Kent."

"Maybe I just want to walk with you," he smiles a smile she can't help but returning. Rolling her eyes for good mesure, Lois hooks her arm to the one's he's offering to her.

She tells herself that the warm feeling settling in her stomach as they start their journey back to her motel is purely alcohol-induced.

"So."

"What's the next move for you, Clark Joe? Are you planning on staying here for long?" He shrugs against her.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it yet."

"Is there more to take out of this place?," and Lois feels his eyes move to her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said you needed to find answers, right?" He nods. "Do you think you can find them here?"

She swears his shoulders shift a little at that, his blue eyes fixed on the road ahead of them. He shakes his head slightly.

"I don't think so. I didn't really think I'd find them here in the first place," he chuckles, even though there isn't much humor in it.

In the early night, she can see him swallow down, and hears the slight sadness in his voice. "I don't even know where to look, to be honest."

In the seven days that she'd known him, it's the first time Lois hears him like that. She knows he's not doing it on purpose, that he's not even fishing for compassion, but there's hurt in his voice, desperation. It's raw, and yet, quieted down – like him.

Like he's been carrying a burden for long, so long, and has always made sure to keep it his own, to keep his pain hidden and to himself.

She aches for him. A simple sentence, and yet she's just -

It takes her a moment to get her voice back, which is suprising, a small part of her notes. Lois Lane doesn't really react like that. She's not immune of the horrors she sometimes witness in her job, of course, but she doesn't usually get like that for people she just met, people in general – not so suddenly, not so deeply.

"I'm sorry," she eventually manages, her hand momentarily tightening around his arm. "Maybe I could help: looking for answers is my job."

His eyes meet hers, and this time, his smile is genuine. Grateful. He looks at her for a few seconds, and she thinks she sees something else in there, too.

"I think this is something I have to do on my own. I'm not sure anyone can help me – although if there was, you'd definitely be my first choice," he adds with fake seriousness, teasing.

Lois smirks back. "Well, I should certainly hope so, Smallville. I mean -"

But that night, Lois doesn't get to finish her sentence.

Everything goes fast – so fast.

A flash of light. Tires scrunching. They both turn around, but it's too late. Their smiles froze. After its missed turn, the huge truck coming in front of them tries to get the control back. It does. Its truckload still goes free.

As she watches the huge pieces of wood coming at them, Lois feels herself pulled back and towards the ground. But the ground is covered in ice and they slip, and her head hits something.

The last thing she sees is the tree trunks crashing down on them, and Clark's entire body shielding her as she understands that they're going to die.

After that, everything goes black.

Her head hurts.

That's first thing Lois' aware of as she slowly regains consciousness. She vaguely registers that it's raining, that she's warm, most probaly in her motel room bed. She tries opening her eyes, but it takes more effort than it should.

After a couple of tries, she finally succeeds. With a growl, she painfully sits up, and, as she leans on her right arm, yelps in pain – and that's when it all comes back to her. The bar, the walk, the truck.

Clark.

"Clark." Suddenly wide awake, she frantically looks around her room for him, but he's nowhere to be found. She's alone.

Dropping on her back, Lois lets the enormity of it all dawn on her. He's – Hell, she doesn't even know what he is. What she does know, however, is that the man saved her life.

She can't remember much, but she remembers enough to know he's perfectly fine. At least six tree-trunks have fallen on his back - and given that she's still alive and in one piece, probably broke and bounced off his back – and he was unarmed, the vague memory of him carrying her, whispering that she was going to be okay, inked in her brain.

Wow.

A thousand theories immediately start running in her head. Scientific experiment? Struck of lightening, maybe? Simple very strong body structure? But no, this couldn't be it: no matter how much time spent at the gym, no man would have ever survive that. Plus, Clark clearly isn't the type to go the gym seven hours a - Lois suddenly freezes.

Unless he's not a man – unless he's not human.

As crazy as it may seems, the thought makes sense. She's willing to bet than no Guinness book has ever recorded such a strong amount of strengh on this planet, so the most logical explanation is that he comes from another one, and just happened to live here, on Earth. Sure, he looks exactly like a human-being, but Lois' never believed in the small green alien cliché.

She's never believed in aliens, period – until today.

But that's what he must be. Clark Joe Kent – an alien. Holy freaking hell.

His words come back to her. 'There's a lot of unanswered questions about my past', he had said. 'I need to find the answers.'

"I bet you do, Smallville," she whispers to herself. He wasn't from Smallville, though, she mentally corrects herself. He'd lie about that. Which would be understandable, really.

Yet, she's not sure he did. He certainly didn't seem to be lying, talking to her about his town, about his farm, about his parents. Were they aliens, too? But something wasn't right.

Not only he didn't appear to be lying, Lois believes with all she had that he was sincere, the previous night. He needed answers, he'd said. 'I don't even know where to look, to be honest. I'm not sure anyone can help me.' The people that raised him weren't like him, then.

He was alone.

Lois is surprised to find herself feeling more compassion than curiosity at that realization.

He is, though, which would explain a lot: somehow, he had ended up in a farm in the middle of Kansas, was raised by regular Earth people, grew up wondering about his origins, and was now living to find the truth. Hence, the not so normal life, the lack of proper jobs.

He was probably too busy and desperate to find out where he came from for that – and probably didn't want to stay too long in the same place, at the risk of accidently revealing himself at some point. By helping people, she thinks.

Like he helped her.

Only hesitating for a second, Lois gets up from her bed, grabs her jacket, and heads towards the door.

As soon as she walks in, she knows something wrong.

As she crosses the treshold, Lois immediately scans the room for any sign of him, but the music suddenly stops, and her attention is instantly drawn to the far corner of the bar, where all eyes are directed.

"Or I'm gonna have to ask you to leave," she hears Clark's deep voice.

Making her way into the small crowd gathered, she sees his familiar broad figure, his back to her, as the man in front him responds.

"I think I'll probably just leave when I'm good and ready." And with that, he throws his beer in Clark's face. Laughter rises among the men.

Her blood runs cold.

Clark doesn't immediately reacts, his head still down, and there's a second of silence again before he looks up. Lois can't see his face, but as she starts to move to untie his apron and teach the son of a bitch a lesson, he speaks again.

"Oh, there he is," he says, proud of himself, before pushing him.

Except Clark doesn't move.

The movement was hard, violent, but he doesn't move, and instead, it's the man that almost goes flying, stumbling as a glass he knocked over breaks behind him. Everything stops.

The room goes silent once more, Chrissy freezes, the asshole's face is nothing but shock. Lois herself stops in her track, the tension holding everyone. After what feels like an eternity, Clark starts to move, and her heartbeat starts skyrocketing with fear and anticipation when the young waitress has the good sense to stop him.

"It's not worth it, sweetie."

He pauses, looks at her, looks at the man. Eventually, he takes his apron off, and turns away.

Lois releases a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. But the truck driver doesn't leave him be, feeling courageous again now that he's seen that Clark won't do anything to him.

"Hey asshole, don't forget your tips," he hisses, throwing an empty beer can at Clark's back, making his pack of idiots chuckle.

Clark stops, and just before he leaves, she sees his face, all frustration, tiredness at a humiliation that seem too familiar to him, and her chest tightens.

He's been gone for a good handful of seconds when Lois finally draws her eyes away from the door he's just exited by. The helplessness and ache she feels morphs into anger again as the jokes and chuckles at his expanse start rising.

Snickers, mockeries, brags coming for the filth that is now laughing out loud. Those are the last straw.

As she turns back to go and talk to Chrissy, Lois hears his muffled moans of pains, mixed with a few colourful names he kindly (but not too loudly, she notes) adresses to her.

She smiles.

It takes her half an hour to reach his place.

Chrissy's indications are clear enough, but it's so secluded, so far into the forest – for a city girl like her, anyway – that at some point, she thinks she's lost.

What a delightful last twenty-four hour it would have made: almost getting crushed, an alien discovery, and getting to starve and freeze to death in the freaking woods.

But she doesn't, and, after a short walk, a few curses and a barely avoided fall, Lois finds herself in front of a small wooden cabin. Hidden among the trees, the place is nothing extravagant, quite simple. Nice, though, she thinks. Charming, peaceful.

How adequate, she thinks.

His home is nothing extravagant, indeed, but as she makes her way around it to reach its front, Lois understands why Clark probably chose it.

The lake reflects the orange colored sky as the sun slowly sets, the dark trees bordering it offering a perfect contrast. It's so quiet, she's sure she could hear a leaf fall.

It's breathtaking.

Even seated, Clark imposing figure betray his physical power, but somehow, he looks perfectly in place, in the middle of that painting worthy landscape.

"You know, I never took you for the type of guy who just saves a girl from being squashed and leaves," she starts when she's reached him.

He doesn't turn to look at her, but Lois sits down anyway, settling down next to him and mirroring his position, legs hanging off the deck.

"Nice job on picking the house, by the way - very trendy. A little too big for my taste, though," and she's relieved when she hears him chuckle a little. "The lake view is pretty nice, though. My hotel room's window gives on an alley wherre drunk gentlemen like to come and relieved themselves from all the beer you serve them, so I admit I'm a bit jealous on this one."

"Sorry about that."

He finally looks at her, and Lois turns her head to meet his gaze. He's smiling, but it doesn't reach his eyes - inside them, there's nothing but sadness, hurt. She hates that sight more than she expected to.

She smiles back gently. "All forgiven, Smallville. Although if you're taking suggestions, I think buying the next round would be a nice way to make amends," she deadpans, earning herself an amused look.

"Deal." They look at each other for a few seconds, before his eyes turn more serious again. Concerned, guilty, she thinks. "Are you all right?" She snorts.

Even in a situation like this, the man thinks of her first. Unexpected, from what she's seen and experienced so far from human kind – coming from Clark, she supposes it's not really that surprising. She did smell the perfect, selfless good guy type pretty quickly, after all.

"I feel like I should be asking you this." He frowns. "I went to the bar looking for you – I saw what happened."

He drops her gaze for a second, swallows.

"That was nothing," he tries to shrug it off. Shaking his head slightly, he looks back at her, and smiles a smile that she knows is not quite true. "I'm used to it, anyway," and even it was supposed to have the opposite effect, his words make her heart break a little more. "How are you feeling?"

Shaking her head in disbelief, Lois answers. "I'm all right. No pain, except for the bruise on my arm and the pounding in my head this morning that reminded me a little too much of my hangover days in college," she jokes. "But apart from that, I'm fine."

She looks at him, waits for him to look back. "Thank you." This time, his smile is sincere.

"You're welcome." Chuckling, Lois snorts.

"I can't believe I managed to get hurt in Canada. War zones in Afghanistan and Irak, I'm fine – almost empty fisher town in the world's most friendly country, and I barely avoid getting crushed," she rolls her eyes. "Thank God Perry won't know: I'll never hear the end of it."

He laughs at that, a genuine, big laugh, and she can't help her own smile. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just – well, first, that wasn't exactly the reaction I was expecting from you," and she archs an amused eyebrow at that. "I was getting ready for the hundred questions a minute, to be honest."

"Oh, it's coming, Smallville - don't worry." She shrugs nonchalantly. "I just thought I'll wait a little and get you by surprise: more interesting answers that way," she says seriously, before they both chuckle. "What's second?"

"Most people usually run in the other direction, when they find out. Or go for the looks and the whispered comments whenever I'm around, which is much better," he adds with irony. The corner of his lips strech up as his eyes meet hers.

"Well, I'm not most people," she smirks. The small smile and intense, yet soft gaze he gives her at that wakes something deep down in her, straight down to her insides.

"No, you're not."

Lois suddenly feels the intensity level rise up – and the temperature, for some reason.

"And anyway," she adds in a poor attempt to pretend to ignore the warmth in her entire body and her betraying heart skipping a beat. "You saved my life, so the least I can do is act like a decent human being – it's only fair."

"You'd be surprised," he starts, eyebrows raised. "I once caught an old lady before she fell to the floor, but she saw me coming to her at a speed, well, a little too high to be considered normal."

His eyes light up with amusement. "She hit me with her unbrella and yelled at me to go back to Satan."

It's awful. It really is, but all of the sudden, the image of an helpful Clark confused as he's assaulted by a lady half his size comes to her mind, and that, the ridiculous things she was shouting, and the ridiculous situation itself added to Clark's face right now is just too much – and they both burst out laughing.

It takes them more than a few seconds to finally manage to calm down.

"God," she whispers, wiping the tears that had escaped her away. "People are crazy."

"In their defense, it's not everyday you see a man going faster than a train or coming out of flames unarmed," he argues. Lois is surprised to find that his understanding shocks her more than the fact than he's apparently able to walk through fire.

"You're always taking it, aren't you?" He frowns.

"What's that?"

"Their defense."

His smile falls a little at that.

"I was angry for a long time, actually. Not just at people – at the situation, at myself. At God." He thinks, shrugs. "But at some point, I had to decide what kind of man I wanted to be," he finally says, eyes and head far away. Years away, if she had to guess. "And beating up people just to get even wasn't that. It wouldn't help much, anyway."

After a moment, he comes back to reality. "People are not ready," he smiles, looking back at her. "Maybe they'll never be – I accept that."

Shaking her head, she huffs.

"Well, I don't. The fact that you are who you are doesn't give anybody the right to treat you like that – shouldn't mean you have to go through things like what you've just been through with that jerk at the bar," she adds, her blood boiling again.

Her hold tightens on the wood underneath them. "That's bullshit."

"Thank you." She looks back at him, surprised. After a moment, she understands what he means, and somehow, it calms her down.

"For what?" she says instead of the litany of curse words she was about to drop. "Not being afraid of you because of a few special habilities?" She snorts, both to dedramatize the situation and to make him smile. "Please, Smallville – I've been around, you know."

"Among other things, yes," he teases.

"Yeah, well, that's my point: you shouldn't have to thank me. Or to hide."

"I'm not from here."

She doesn't miss a beat.

"So?"

She holds his gaze, not willing to give him any reason to doubt her words, not willing to accept the way he's decided to seems to see himself. She means it – and what, if he's from another world? She'll concede she was shocked when she first realized, and her head is still kind of reeling at the fact that aliens do exist, and she can understand that that alone is, well, mind blowing.

But he's also just a man, in the end – a good one, at that. In just a couple of days, she's come to realize just how much, not mentionning funny, and kind, and smart. Hell, if she wasn't careful, she bet she could fall for the guy – probably already was, a small betraying inside voice whispers.

He gives her a small smile, then, his face unreadable before they both fall into silence. Eyes fixed on the other side of the lake, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

"Is that the reason for the no settling and no proper reporter gigs?" she asks after a while. "You're afraid that someone might found out?"

He thinks for a beat before answering.

"Maybe on some level, yes," he admits. "But I'm also looking for answers. Where I come from, why I'm here. Why I'm alone."

"You really don't know any of that,?" she blurts out before she can stop herself. He smiles sadly.

"No. My adopted parents found me in a field near their house – in a spaceship," he adds, amused at the look on her face. "Very sci-fi, I know."

"Tell me about it," she whistles. Then frowns. "I'm surprised the Governement didn't show up at their footstep the following day."

"They were as well, actually. For days, my mother was afraid they would come to get me – but they never did."

They leap into silence once more. Lois doesn't really know for how long, too deep into her own reflections. Over those people, that are so good, they took care and protected a small child despite the fact that it could have brought them troubles in more ways than one. Over him, so humble, so human, despite a life and situation that most, including herself, wouldn't be able to handle so gracefully, if at all.

Over how heavy a burden it must have been, for a small child to bear.

Given what he's told her and what she picked up, it doesn't seem like the people that knew were as understanding and kind as his parents.

"It must have been pretty lonely," she says after a while, her voice quiet. "Growing up, I mean." He chuckles, not much humor in it.

"Still is."

And here she is again: aching for him, somehow. Swallowing down as best as she can, Lois turns to look at him, but before she can think of anything to say, he continues, eyes still fixed ahead. "It could have been worse, I guess. My parents were great, so it helped a lot, but – I just didn't feel like I fitted in. I didn't. Hence all the reading," he smirks knowingly at her. She smiles back.

"So Plato and Aristotle were Clark Kent's best friends, huh?" She can picture him, sitting under a tree, reading to try to understand what it meant to be human.

"And don't forget Hank – my dog," he adds with a falsly serious nod, and she plays along.

"Right."

He stares back at the water before his voice rises again.

"I always had to hold back. It was more difficult when I was a kid, but sometimes - " He hesitates, almost ashamed of himself, she thinks. "Sometimes, it's like I'm fifteen again. If it wasn't for Chrissy, I'm not sure I would have stopped myself in time, at the bar," he admits through gritted teeth. Confesses, she realizes.

"I know you wouldn't have hurt him," she says confidently, not wavering for a second when his suprised eyes meet her own. "Even if the son of a bitch deserved it." She tries to keep the smirk out of her face as she shrugs. "Which is why I did."

As his expression goes from shock to amusement, Lois laughs with him.

That night, as he walks her back to her motel, they pass the bar – the bar, and the trucks parked not far from it.

Noticing his gaze, she smirks.

"Do it."

Startled, he turns back towards her, frowning. "You're thinking about destroying that douche's truck – and I really think you should." He hesitates briefly, but eventually, her encouraging smile makes his own grow. "Come on, Kent: show me what you got."

He does.

"So."

Hands in his pockets, he purses his lips, a faint smile on his face. "So."

"There's no way to make you change your mind, huh?" She thinks his smile turns a little fond. There's something else there as well, something she can't quite identify.

"I have to find out where I'm from, Lois – who I am."

"Well, you're Clark Kent, and you have what it takes to be decent journalist. A job, that, might I point out, comes with a lot of perks: this could actually help you in your research."

"Really?," he asks, amused. "How so?"

Lois just shrugs, sure of herself.

"Clearance, means to investigate what you want, helpful sources around the world – you name it. And it's the greatest job in the world, so." She breaks pretense of snobiness when he chuckles.

Her face turns more serious, then. "You can have a normal life, settle down." She sees the slight distress behind his blue eyes at that, and a part of her feels like it's what's he's always wanted, yet had always been deprieved of.

"You don't have to hide, Clark," she says, sincere. "You don't have to be alone."

Once she's sure he's heard her, she shrugs again. "And Metropolis is a pretty good place to live," she adds with a perkier tone, wanting to make that sad look from his face. She pats herself on the back when it works.

"Nice restaurants, great bars, always buzzing. Plus, it could use something other than douches."

"So I'm in the nice guys category, then?", he jokes, bragging.

"Decent," she smirks. "Don't let it go to your head, farmboy."

They laugh, and looking at his ridiculously blue eyes, Lois realizes that she's probably going to miss them. Miss him, in fact.

How about that.

She clears her throat just to make sure her stupid voice doesn't betray her before speaking again.

"Anyway: for what it's worth, I really do think that it's possible. And, most importantly, that you deserve it."

He seems to hesitate for a while, his almost hopeful gaze staring at her. But, after a moment, he drops his head, shaking his head only slightly, as if to convince himself, before looking back at her with a faint smile.

"I can't, Lois – I have to know."

"And you can look and have a life," she insists softly.

As they look at each other, she knows she didn't convince him, though. Sighing, she gives him a small smile, accepting her defeat. "Alright, Smallville," she concedes, holding up her hands in surrender. "Your choice."

There's nothing more to be said, and so they just stand here, face to face. Lois wants to kiss him, and is much too aware that she probably won't have another chance to.

So, she does.

His lips are softer than she imagined, just like the skin under her fingertips, despite the light stubble on his square jaw. She doesn't immediately open her eyes afterwards, but when she does, her face inches away from his, his are still closed.

She smiles when he looks down at her.

"Thank you for saving me, Superman."

A couple of days after their article is released, she receives an email.

"Looks like it wasn't a total disaster, after all. It was a pleasure to work with you, Miss Lane."

Perched up behind her Daily Planet desk, Lois smiles.

"Nice working with you too, Joe."

Days pass, turn into weeks. She keeps investigating, the bad guys keep getting their faces shown to the world.

She thinks about him, sometimes. Often. More than she's supposed to, probably.

It could have worked, she thinks. It's foolish to even think about it (she had only spent one week with the guy, for God's sake) and on paper, it shouldn't have. Not because of the whole alien thing – that, she couldn't care less about. It was on everything else that they weren't compatible, or at least, shouldn't be.

he was an optimictic when she was a cynical, believed in humanity when she lost faith in it a long time ago. He was quiet and reflexive, she was loud and impulsive. He was dangerously close to their human definition of perfect, and she wasoh so far from it.

And yet – yet, she believes it could have worked. She wanted it to.

Too bad destiny had other plans for them.

"Come on, Lois. When are you gonna throw me a bone?"

Leaning towards her, he smirks, apparently pretty proud of himself. "Courtside seats to the game tonight. What do you say?"

Shaking her head slightly, she barely holds back a roll of her eyes.

"I say you should go back to trolling the intern pool," she smiles defiantly, raising her eyebrows. "You'll probably have more luck, " and of course, that's the moment Jenny chooses to show up.

Her smile turns half apologetic, half amused as she hands the youg woman her article. "Sorry."

Steve simply shrugs, and turns his attention to Jenny, waving his tickets.

"Courtside?"

"Don't," Lois advices with a smile, chuckling as she gets back to her computer when Jenny snorts.

"Lombard, Lane, I want you to meet our new stringer, I want you to show him the ropes. Lois, I'm sure you'll recognize your partner."

She's not going to lie: when she turns around, her freaking heart stops.

"This is Clark Kent," Perry finishes for Lombard's sake. "Good luck, kid," he says with an encouraging pat to his shoulder, then leaves.

Leaving her shocked, speechless, questionning what's she's seeing, and probably gaping.

He's shaved, wearing a tie and a plaid dress shirt she'll probably tease him when she regain the abilily, and has the dorkiest pair of glasses perched up on his nose, but there's no mistaken – standing right in front of them, Clark Joe himself.

His short exchange with Steve gives her time to get her self-control back - or at least, enough to get up, control her smile as best as she can, and get her voice back.

The stupid thing in her chest, however, is still going wild.

"I thought cold fisher towns were more your style, Kent," she manages, painfully aware of Lombard's presence next to them. She takes comfort in the fact that Clark seems to be having as much trouble as her containing his grin.

"I thought a change of scenery would be nice," he simply answers, his deep voice almost sending shivers to her spine.

Come on, Lane. "I was told that Metropolis was a pretty good place to live," he smirks, insolent.

"Smart choice, farmboy. Well, in that case." Extending her arm, Lois fights to keep as straight a face as she can. "Welcome to the Planet."

She almost breaks at the slight shock on his face, his eyes widening for a second at her carefully chosen greeting as he takes her hand. After a couple of seconds, he smiles back, amused.

"Glad to be here, Lois."

EPILOGUE

#clois #pre - man of steel au #clois fics #fics #mine

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millie-ionaire05 · 7 years

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love The way You lie

Pairing: Min Yoongi x Reader

Genre: Angst, Smut, Mature (18+)

Series warnings: Mention of mental hospital, therapy sessions, mentions of past trauma, mentions of death/loss, mention of other mental hospital patients, mentions of verbal abuse, mentions of grand theft auto, public sex (technically it’s in the office, but still in public?), gagged, oral (reader receiving), slight overstimulation, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it), creampie, I DO NOT GLORIFY THESE WARNINGS/TRIGGERS; THIS IS A FICTIONAL STORY, AND DOES NOT RELATE TO ANY OF THE MEMBERS.

Status: Discontinued, Last part published February 16, 2017

word count: 3,054

Synopsis: Consumed with guilt over your death, Yoongi’s trial wound him in a mental hospital, surrounded by bright white walls. The judge has ordered he receive therapy, but the therapist is….different. She brings up all of his memories, forcing his mind to relive every painful moment of your existence, and it only worsens as she digs too deep. But she has a secret of her own, and Yoongi’s determined to figure it out.

01 | 02 | 03 | 04 |

Yoongi had not been as eager this time for his session, just the mere thought of going made him want to lay down and curl in a ball. Even if the darker walls of JangMi’s office provided a more secure feeling for him, he didn’t think it would provide him any consolations when he would still be interrogated by her.

He sat on his bed, staring at nowhere in particular, wondering if there was a way to avoid the session. He had not made an effort to even think about questions to ask her, and after what had happened the previous week, he assumed she wouldn’t let him have that reign again.

His body almost sags with defeat when the knock on his door sounds, and he takes his time from rising off of the bed, dragging his feet. He made no attempt to look around the corridors they walked along; made no effort to increase the pace of his steps, and no one said anything. He wondered if he could avoid the session by pretending to be sick, but he knew they would just make him put a face mask and move on with it.

The figure stops in front of the door, moving over slightly and gesturing for Yoongi to enter through, but Yoongi just stares.

Just two more sessions, he chants. Just two more sessions.

Yoongi reaches out, grabbing the surprisingly frigid door knob, the cold seeping into his bones and draining his already depleted energy. He twists the knob and pushes the door open, letting it swing until he hears it bang against the wall.

Yoongi knew he had startled JangMi, because a small squeak of surprise had come from inside the room, the sound making his heart quicken for some strange reason. Some part of him knew he should apologize, but why should he bother? By the end of the session he would be an emotional mess, and he just wanted to hurry up and skip to that part so he could just curl back up in his bed.

“Yoongi?” JangMi calls from the room, and Yoongi finally takes a step forward, peeking his head in to find her standing at her desk, eyes wide.

Yoongi’s heart starts to bang against his chest, begging to be freed from its confines, screaming so loud that his mind can’t hear its thoughts. His eyes widen on their own, roaming over her body a million times before he starts to feel dizzy.

Her eyes direct themselves to the figure standing just behind Yoongi. “You may leave now,” she says, before gesturing for Yoongi to come in, her figure coming around the desk, walking around him to close the door.

Yoongi can barely take a step towards the couch he had sat in many times before, his bones rigid and his body shaking. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It had to be a trick. He was being tortured. He was probably locked up somewhere in the building, being strapped down and poked by needles so he could be in hell. Or maybe he was finally getting his heaven.

“Yoongi?” she says, coming around his body to face him, her eyes wide with worry.

Not her eyes. Your eyes. Big and round and shining with life that he had only imagined about a million times in his head. It couldn’t be real. The blue contacts he had seen the past three times were gone, showing your true eye color. Your hair stripped of whatever dye had been in it. His hand reaches up slowly, unsure if his fingers would pass through your figure, and if he really was crazy for seeing ghosts.

It's so insane cause when it's going good, it's going great

Sure enough his fingers touch your skin, a breath leaving his mouth, shaky and rattled.

“This can't be real,” he mumbles, his hands encompassing your face, and he watches the way you lean into his touch, enjoying the warmth of his skin as his thumbs brush over your cheeks.

“Yoongi. Do you recognize me?” you ask, looking deep into his eyes.

You always had a way to look into his soul, to know his answer before he even knew his answer, and he could tell by the look in your eye that you knew what he’d say. His thumb runs over your bottom lip, pulling at the supple flesh, and he watches your eyes close, a shaky breath leaving your own lips.

“How?” is all he says, incapable of forming any other words, a deep hunger starting to form inside of him as he lets himself absorb your presence.

You sigh, stepping back from his touch and turning away, making him frown. Immediately he steps forwards, his hands trying to find a way, any way, to touch you, to make sure you weren’t going to disappear from his sight. His hand touches the base of your back, just to keep the contact, but he stays silent as he waits for your answer.

“After the car hit me, I died. I was dead for a solid eight minutes before they brought me back. From what the police had told me, they had to rip you away from my body so the ambulance could take me to the hospital. When they wouldn't let you see me, you tried to take one of the cop cars...,” you stop, your body starting to shake, and Yoongi could only assume you were trying to hold in your tears, the memory flashing across his eyes quickly before fear settled in and he made himself focus only on you.

“I spent the last two years finishing my degree so i could find you. So i could come here, and help you get out,” you finish, your trembling body leaning against the desk for support.

I'm Superman with the wind at his back, she's Lois Lane

You turn around to face him, and his hand catches your waist, his fingers digging into your skin so he could pull you to him. His lips crash to your own, a moan immediately leaving his lips as he pushes you back against the desk.

His hands swipe against whatever lies on it, everything clattering to the floor before his palms slide under your thighs, lifting you so he could set you on the desk. His hands roughly grab your ass, bringing you to the edge so you can feel his hard member rub against your clothed core, a gruff moan leaving his lips.

His teeth bite onto your bottom lip, pulling until you whimper, his hips grinding against you until you whine, your nails running against his back. He growls, his palms roughly groping your chest, attempting to pull at your flesh with all of the clothes in the way.

He abruptly pulls away, his eyes blown out, filled with lust that it could make you drown. You whine again, about to get off the desk so you could touch him, but you stop, your eyes narrowing when his hands go straight to the hideous white scrubs he had to wear. He pulls the pants down, your mouth dropping open when you see he’s not even wearing underwear, his dick springing free.

He was completely hard, his pale hand gripping himself and pumping once, bringing precum to the tip. He knew you were mesmerized, you had once mentioned wanting to watch him jerk off, because you loved the way his hands looked, and you loved the way his dick looked. He strokes himself once more, blowing air through his teeth.

“Get undressed,” he commands, and your body still answers in the same way.

But when it's bad it's awful, I feel so ashamed

You rip off your blouse, letting the buttons fly, but you couldn’t care less. You maneuver yourself so you can shove your tight-as-hell pencil skirt down your legs, letting it drop to the floor. You were about to reach back to unclip your bra when Yoongi lifts his hand.

You stop, staring into his eyes, waiting for his cue. Yoongi’s heart was pounding, his mind racing as it attempted to process the information you gave him, while also processing what was going on right in front of his eyes. It was hard for him to keep up. And if this really wasn’t a dream, did he actually want to fuck you fast, after he thought he’s lost you? Did he want to fuck you so hard that it would leave you screaming, begging him for more so he knew you’d never leave? He needed to back track, take in where you both were, because you couldn’t get caught.

“Get up,” he growls, his mind reeling as you do what he says.

He turns you around, unclipping your bra for you and you let it fall away, his hands moving to your underwear, pulling it down your legs. You whimper when his fingers graze your clit, and he was sure you were already soaked for him, and that thought made his mouth water.

Reaching for your now broken blouse, Yoongi rips the fabric even more, making it into a long, thick strip. He brings his arms around your body, taking the fabric and gagging you so you couldn’t make sound.

“Wha-,” you try before he completely ties it behind your head, your body turning so you could look at him with wide eyes.

“We can’t get caught baby girl. Not when i have you in my hands for only an hour,” he says in a rush, his hands shaking with excitement at the prospect of getting caught banging you in the place he had been locked in, in the place he’d had no hope in but here you were, proving him wrong like you always did.

He makes you face him, lifting you once more so you sat on the cold desk, and he places his hand on your chest, commanding you to lay back. You stare with wide eyes as you lay back, your hands grabbing onto his own, it being only freedom you had because you knew he would have his way with you.

Yoongi drops to his knees on the floor, his hands moving away to instantly spread your thighs apart, and you feel his breath travel up your legs, occasional wet kisses being placed to compensate for getting you worked up. It was a sweet gesture he was sure you were remembering, one that was quickly carrying into something more desperate as he abruptly places his open mouth on your clit. You cry out into the gag, your hips bucking up into his face, but his fingers tighten against your legs, holding you down.

He doesn’t waste any time sucking, licking, dipping his tongue into your wet entrance to then do it all over again, and he knew you were loving it. Your hands immediately sought for his hair, pulling the strands and making him groan into your clit, adding to the pleasure. He could feel your thighs quake, and he immediately moves one of his hands, his fingers playing with the wetness at your entrance. You whimper into the gag, obviously telling him to keep going, and he does, but only with one finger. Oh, but he knew you could get off to his finger, knew that if he curled it, stroked that spot you had as he sucked ferociously at your clit that you would come.

Your thighs trembled beneath his free hand, and he lets his fingers knead your soft skin, coaxing you to the edge because he wanted to taste you on his tongue so badly. He could practically cum himself just because he was getting you off. He stops the torture by sticking another finger inside of you, stretching you slowly before curling his fingers and shoving them in and out as fast as he could go.

His eyes rise in time to see you throw your head back in pleasure, your hands moving the the edges of the desk so you could grip them for dear life as you rapidly approached your climax. Yoongi groans into your clit over and over again, loving the way you tasted, and wanting to intensify the pleasure you were experiencing.

He sucks desperately at your clit when he feels you tense, your lungs sucking in one huge breath as he drives you over the peak. You cry out into the gag, your walls clenching and unclenching around his fingers as your legs quiver from the intensity of your orgasm.

Yoongi doesn’t stop sucking up your juices until your fingers are painfully pulling at his hair, attempting to signal to him that you couldn’t take it anymore. Taking your sign, he pulls back, his mouth shiny and moist before he wipes it with the back of his hand.

Weakly leaning up on your elbows, you watch as he gets up from the floor, his erection looking so painful that he could see in your eyes that you wanted to suck him off. Oh, he wanted you to. Wanted to watch the way your mouth swallowed his cock, expertly taking him all the way in so that you could hear him moan. He loved how loud he could be when he was with you, but not with the environment you both were in.

Shaking his head, he grabs the desk chair, rolling it into the middle of the room before sitting on it. Your eyes stare curiously, meeting his own right when his eyebrow lifts. He bites his bottom lip to hold his chuckle as he watches you scramble up from the desk, rushing towards him so you can straddle his hips.

“Can I feel you ride me baby?” He begs, eyes blown out like an explosion of galaxies, his cheeks flush from eating you out.

You respond by lifting slightly, your hand going in between your bodies, gripping his member to guide him to your entrance. The moment your fingers grab him, he sucks in a breath, eyes closing when his tip touches your wetness, sliding inside of you to caress your walls as if two puzzle pieces were being put together.

His hands fly to your hips, fingers digging in your skin to prevent you from moving so he didn't blow his load. He was so close already, his mind racing with the foreseeable pleasure he was going to get from you. He was sure he only had roughly twenty minutes left with you, and he wanted to make it last.

Taking another deep breath, Yoongi’s grip on your hips tightens further, his veins popping out as he moves his arms, forcing your body to grind against his member. His teeth trap his bottom lip, his breath coming roughly from his nose as his cheeks deepen its shade of pink.

Your hands rise, gripping the back of his head, your fingers forcefully pulling the strands of his hair in what Yoongi could only assume as pleasure. He knew he was hitting your spot, the way your voice rose increasingly into the gag, your thighs tensing once again, your eyes rolled back in pleasure.

Yoongi stands abruptly, your eyes popping open in surprise at his movement. Yoongi hooks his arms under your knees, his fingers finding their place at your hips again, and your hands move to grip the back of his neck in support.

Yoongi looks down, seeing his cock buried deep inside of you, taking a deep breath once again before moving your body away from his. His member slides out to the tip, ramming back in before repeating that action.

Glancing up, he watches your head lul back, your nails jabbing into his skin and breaking his concentration to not cum. He shivers, hesitating for a second before taking a few steps forward and slamming your back against the office wall, your hands falling to his tensed biceps in an attempt to stay held up as he continued fucking you. His pace never wavered, groans starting to fall from his lips as he realized he couldn't prevent himself from cumming anymore.

“Fuck. Baby, I'm gonna cum,” he groans, burying his face into the crevice of your neck.

He feels your walls tighten, pulling his face back to see your eyes open, your shining, blown out pupils meeting his own. You give a small nod, the only permission he needs to lose himself inside of you. He continues fucking you until sensitivity kicks in, his cock half hard as he pulls out and gets you settled on your feet.

I snapped

Who's that dude?

"I don't even know his name."

Feeling courageous, Yoongi let's his hand slide down to your entrance, cupping it with his fingers. Your eyebrows draw together in what he assumes is confusion, but he merely smirks.

Leaning forward, he brings his lips to your ear before saying, “Keep me inside you today, and maybe I'll reward you.”

Drawing back, Yoongi relishes the way your mouth opens slightly, your cheeks becoming flushed as he pulls his hand away and he watches the way your thighs clench together. He chuckles, reaching for his clothes on the floor before sliding them on.

He notices how you continue to clench your thighs even while you attempt to put your clothes back on and gather yourself.

Once gathered, you both stare at each other in silence, eyes taking in each other's form as if you had just met for the first time. In a way, it kind of was. Yoongi’s loss of you had knocked his angered, jealous conscious to the depths beyond reach, and he had spent the last two years reliving everything he had done to you. He had been living in hell until now, and he felt as if he didn't deserve you back.

Yoongi watches your body jump, the sound of the alarm ringing through the room for only a moment before you rush to turn it off. He watches the way you adjust yourself, taking a spare shirt from a drawer and throwing it on just as a knock on the office door sounded.

“Until next time, Yoongi,” you say, grabbing the desk chair and putting it back in its place before taking a seat as he turns and walks out the door.

A/N: I know some of the lyrics don’t really make sense in this part, but bear with me, i was not originally going to have this part like this, and i am just getting settled moving in to my new place. Hope you guys still enjoyed it though. Love you all~!

66 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 5 years

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A Guide to DC Animated Movies

http://bit.ly/2PXWTbq

It's going to be awhile before we get another Justice League movie, but the DC animated movie universe is worth checking out.

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The Lists

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Jim Dandy

DC Entertainment

May 11, 2019

Animation

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DC Universe

In 2007, DC’s animation department announced that they were creating a line of direct-to-video, feature-length movies free from many of the constraints of regular television. It was a controversial move, mostly because the most recent forays into animation from DC had been really well received by fans - Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans had just ended, and fans were eager for more series set in the DC Animated Universe, not stand alone adaptations of comic stories.

Despite the initial trepidation, most of them have been a success. They do follow some general rules, though: for early entries, the Star Trek movie rule applies, where every other one is good. This pattern stops holding true around Gods & Monsters - after that, they're mostly at least adequate, but the bad ones are giant turds.

Also, the quality of the movie is almost always in proportion to the quality of the comic it was based off of. And the more original the story, the better the movie. Let’s take a look at what are now officially known as DC Universe Original Movies...

Superman: Doomsday (2007)

The first feature in this new initiative was based on 1992’s hottest college fund investment, The Death of Superman. The story is perhaps looked back on too harshly as emblematic of ‘90s comic excess, and maybe because of that, this movie wasn’t well received.

Superman: Doomsday made significant changes to the storyline, compressing two years of stories into one 75-minute feature. It also combined all four replacement Supermen into one clone, and tweaks the relationship between Lois and Superman to add a bit of drama.

read more: The Best Batman Beyond Episodes

Superman: Doomsday set the tone for a lot of what was to come, structurally. The action sequences were well done, something that will remain a constant throughout these movies. It suffered because of some iffy voice acting (Adam Baldwin wasn’t great as Superman, and Anne Heche was similarly middling as Lois) and also because it was like, 50 issues of comics boiled down into an hour’s worth of movie. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it was very middle of the road. Fortunately they got it right later on.

Watch Superman: Doomsday on Amazon.

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)

Darwyn Cooke’s retro-Justice League origin story is one of the most highly regarded DC books of the last 20 years, and that strong foundation served the movie adaptation well. That the story works in either medium is a minor miracle. Justice League: The New Frontier mixes a noir story (Slam Bradley, J’onn J’onzz, Batman, King Faraday, and the GCPD investigating a cult) with the bright, shiny superheroics of the Flash, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman, and all comes together well at the end.

read more - The Essential Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series

It’s all wrapped up in an art style designed to mimic Cooke’s Bruce Timm-meets-50s-art-deco-print-ads style, and the animators do a great job of matching it (something they won’t do nearly as well with later movies). The voice cast is superb, too, with Kyle MacLachlan as Superman, Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, Jeremy Sisto as Batman, and Neil Patrick Harris as Flash all being inspired choices, and David Boreanaz’ Hal Jordan is the best Hal ever, for at least another couple of these movies.

DC has started packaging the comics with their movie counterparts recently, and if there is ever the opportunity to grab both versions of The New Frontier, you should jump on that.

Watch Justice League: The New Frontier on Amazon.

Batman: Gotham Knight (2008)

Remember The Animatrix? And remember how people used to try and talk themselves into digging it? And then remember how it was actually just not very good, but we were so starved for Matrix stories that we’d take anything? I do, and I guess this is a little bit confessional.

read more: The Essential Episodes of Justice League Unlimited

Gotham Knight was just like that: an anime-style anthology of stories written by some big names, and it was closely tied not to the comics, but to the Batman movies of the time. These six stories were supposedly set between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. They were a disaster.

Kevin Conroy is the greatest Batman of my lifetime, and I don’t think you’ll find anyone who will argue that point too strenuously. But the decision to keep him voicing Batman in these stories contributed to the tonal disaster that they were: his voice in anime characters fighting Deadshot and Killer Croc in a universe that was supposed to be “more realistic” just made me confused and a little nosebleedy and possibly a touch stupider from trying to reconcile it all. Skip it.

Watch Batman: Gotham Knight on Amazon

Wonder Woman (2009)

Written by Gail Simone (who had a solid run writing Diana just prior to this) and based loosely on George Perez’s “Gods and Monsters” story from just after the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths, this movie is widely considered one of the best Wonder Woman stories in any medium of the last 15 years. This movie is great.

It takes Perez’s story - Ares has a grudge against Hippolyta and her people, and uses his son Deimos and a convoluted international nuclear strike to try and destroy them, only to have Diana and Steve Trevor stop him - and streamlines it. Keri Russell is a great Diana, and even though subsequent casting decisions add a little dissonance with Rosario Dawson as Artemis and Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, the movie works just as well if you pretend that Artemis later takes over as Wonder Woman for a little while and Fillion is still playing Hal Jordan, only in disguise.

read more: The Strange History of The Legend of Zelda Animated Series

And if you’ve never read Perez’s original story before, it really is one of the best Wonder Woman comics ever, and it is regularly packaged with this DVD. This is a good excuse to pick it up.

Watch Wonder Woman on Amazon

Green Lantern: First Flight (2009)

First Flight, despite the name, is less Hal Jordan’s origin story and more yellow lantern Sinestro’s. Green Lantern is maybe the one character who has fared the best in these films, because his powers look the best in animated form. First Flight is a fun, longer exposure to that world.

read more - The Essential Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series

There is a...lot...of killing in it, but that bothers me less when it’s Green Lantern than it does when it’s Batman doing the murdering. I think part of what smoothed it over for me is some more great voice casting: Victor Garber (half of television’s Firestorm) is great as Sinestro; Michael Madsen’s Kilowog is only second to Dennis Haysbert’s; and Chris Meloni was great as Hal.

Watch Green Lantern: First Flight on Amazon.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)

I’ve come around on this since I first saw it. It’s still ridiculous: this is a story about Superman and Batman teaming up to fight off a President Lex Luthor-led team of heroes and bounty-thirsty villains while they get into a composite Superman/Batman robot to punch a kryptonite meteor back into space, and that hasn’t changed or become any less silly since 2009.

read more: The Weirdest Classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episodes Ever

But I didn’t realize at the time how great the animators did of capturing Ed McGuinness’ art style, or how much McGuinness’ art looked like old cartoons to begin with. Everybody looks like if Rob Liefeld was trained to draw in a Hanna Barbera studio in the ‘40s: absurdly overmuscled, but kinetic and bubbly and fun instead of scratchy and angular.

Narratively, this movie is still unnecessarily complex and pretty stupid, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch, one of the few clear improvements on the comic source material in this series.

Watch Superman/Batman: Public Enemies on Amazon.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010)

I’m a bit of a Grant Morrison fanboy, so I was excited for this movie, which purports to be an adaptation of JLA: Earth 2. It is not. I mean, it has some of the trappings of Morrison and Frank Quitely’s original story, but the plot is pretty dramatically different, at least in how it works out.

Earth 2 is the world of the Crime Syndicate of America, where Ultraman and Johnny Quick and Power Ring and Superwoman are the evil rulers of the world, and Lex Luthor and the Jester are fighting to save the world. Earth 2 Luthor escapes to Earth Prime to get the Justice League’s help.

read more - The Quirky Brilliance of Transformers: The Movie

In the comics, he’s being manipulated into accidentally causing the destruction of both Earths by Earth 2’s Brainiac, who wants to capture the energy given off by the explosion for comic book science of some sort. In the movie, Owlman has allowed the discovery of alternate worlds to turn him into some sort of Nihilist John Calvin, and plans to destroy the multiverse because why not.

So there’s a big superhero fight, and here’s where my problem comes in: the League uses Johnny Quick’s speed and vibrational frequency to open a portal to an uninhabited Earth, so they can deposit Owlman and his ennui bomb there and let Owlman defuse it and live alone and unable to hurt anyone again. Batman specifically uses Quick and not Flash to open this portal because doing so kills Quick. So Batman pulls the “I won’t kill you but I don’t have to save you” stuff that lets him skate on a technicality in Batman Begins only here he does it to Owlman, and in doing so, he straight up causes the death of Earth 2 Flash. That’s a dealbreaker for me.

Watch Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths on Amazon.

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)

Bruce Greenwood is a great Batman. Under The Red Hood is another story that was better as a movie than it was as a comic, in part because of the voice casting (Greenwood as Bats, Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing), and in part because the action sequences were fantastic. The comic was the story of Jason Todd, post resurrection, rejoining Gotham’s crimefighting community as DC’s Punisher, rounding up a bunch of mob types and eventually the Joker to get his revenge.

read more: How the Avengers Cartoon Influenced the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Thirteen Days is an amazing movie, so Greenwood could have spent his next 10 movies drooling and laughing at the audience and I still would love him, but here (and in Young Justice), he’s a great, understated Batman. The fights are really top notch, though, and they're the absolute biggest draw to this movie: acrobatic, with great flow and excellent choreography.

Watch Batman: Under the Red Hood on Amazon.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)

I first watched this right after I saw Crisis on Two Earths, so I was a little harder on it initially than I needed to be. Then again, even without my initial reservation, this is not very good.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is an adaptation of Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner’s second arc of the Superman/Batman comic, this one gave us Supergirl’s emergence on Earth, Darkseid’s attempt at making her into a Female Fury, and cheekbones so high every guy looked like a starving, effeminate Punisher symbol.

read more - The Enduring Appeal of Batman: The Animated Series

My problem with it stems from Batman commiting murder again - he frees Kara from Darkseid’s clutches by (ugh I hate that I’m going to type this) turning on Apokalips’ self destruct sequence with some spores or something. He tells Darkseid he’ll shut the destruct sequence off if Darkseid lets Kara go. This is the rough equivalent of Batman holding a gun on someone’s spouse and saying “I won’t shoot if you stop doing crime.” It’s patently ridiculous, and grossly out of character for Batman, and you know what? I’m still mad about it.

Watch Superman/Batman: Apocalypse on Amazon.

Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam (2010)

This wasn’t so much a movie as it was a lost Justice League Unlimited episode that works Black Adam into the world, and then a collection of a few other shorts that had been released on DVDs. The Superman/Shazam/Black Adam story is fun and entertaining, and the other stories on here are pretty good.

read more: The Amazing Music of the 1960s Spider-Man Animated Series

One is a fluffy, insubstantial Jonah Hex story; one has Neal McDonough playing Green Arrow, which is probably going to be difficult to reconcile for Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow fans, another has Gary Cole as ‘70s detective Jimmy Corrigan, who becomes The Spectre. These are all fun enough to watch if you find them in a bargain bin somewhere, but I don’t think I’d spend full price on one.

Watch Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam on Amazon.

All-Star Superman (2011)

All-Star Superman is tough. The original comic, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, is probably my favorite comic of all time, so on the one hand I was excited to see it adapted, but on the other I was furious to see it adapted.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About the Harley Quinn Animated Series

My rule for moving stories between mediums is that there has to be a compelling point to make the switch - that it would look amazing in action, or that it would bring the story to more people, or something. There wasn’t really any point to doing All-Star Superman, though. It was so peculiarly comics that I think it lost something when it became animation. It was competently done, and had I not had any knowledge of the comic, I probably would have been happy with it, even if it was a little forgettable. But I really think the comic is a vastly better use of your time and money.

Watch All Star Superman on Amazon.

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)

Like Gotham Knight, this is an anthology. But unlike Gotham Knight, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights is actually good. The movie has a unified framing sequence involving Krona destroying Oa, but most of its time is spent on a collection of stories that are either fundamental to the Lantern mythology or all-time classics.

Alan Moore might not do great in the movies, but in animated form (well, here, at least...there's another attempt down below that we'll get to), his work is treated very well. Emerald Knights has two of his stories – “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize,” about the planet that’s also a Lantern, and “Abin Sur,” the story of Hal Jordan’s predecessor’s last mission (which led to the formation of the Red Lanterns). Both of them retain the spirit of his work, and fill out a casual viewer’s understanding of the GL mythos.

read more: The Essential Episodes of Tales From the Cryptkeeper

Kilowog gets a spotlight, and it’s as fun as you’d expect (note: Kilowog is awesome). Laira gets into a fistfight with her Dad and sets up her eventual trip to Ysmault, and there is a story of how the Lanterns eventually came to use creative constructs in their regular duties.

This is good for long time GL fans, and it’s good for people who are just getting to know the character and want more about his world.

Watch Green Lantern: Emerald Knights on Amazon.

Batman: Year One (2011)

Only once has a casting decision completely overwhelmed everything else about one of these projects, and it was here. This is a compressed adaptation of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s classic story. As a result, they miss some parts and pay too little attention to others because the run time is barely over an hour.

But that’s not important.

Casting Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon is so unbelievably perfect that I can’t believe there isn’t some kind of internet petition demanding that this happen in perpetuity. It’s like JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson: it doesn’t matter how many times the story gets rebooted or how many different studios are in charge of the movies or how many different eras the story covers, there is now and will always be only one correct casting for Gordon, and that’s Cranston.

read more: 10 Hilarious Ways the Original Voltron Censored Death A brief note about the combo packs: I believe they used the latest printing of Batman: Year One in the combo release with the DVD, and because of that, you should buy the two separately here. There were real problems with the coloring in the new edition, so make sure you get an older version of the comic.

Watch Batman: Year One on Amazon.

Justice League: Doom (2012)

I’m sure it wouldn't be so well regarded were it not for this, but Justice League: Doom reunites most of the old DCAU voice cast (Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg, Michael Rosenbaum, and Carl Lumbly as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Martian Manhunter), so I will always love it.

It helps that it’s based (very loosely) on “Tower of Babel,” Mark Waid and Howard Porter’s story from JLA. In it, Vandal Savage uses the Xavier Protoco…I mean countermeasures designed to take out the Justice League – Batman’s parents’ bodies are stolen; Wonder Woman gets all hopped up on nanites that make her think everyone is Cheetah (and thus needs a good punching), Superman gets…uh…shot with a kryptonite bullet… You know, killing some of these dudes isn’t rocket science.

read more: The Scariest Episodes of The Real Ghostbusters

Anyway, it turns out all these countermeasures were designed by Batman, but stolen by Vandal Savage and the Secret Society of Super Villains, and everybody gets saved by Cyborg. The fights were good, while the writing was clever and changed enough from the comics that it showed Dwayne McDuffie’s wonderful grasp of the characters.

Watch Justice League: Doom on Amazon.

Superman vs. The Elite (2012)

Action Comics #775 (“What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?”) is a really good comic. It was a direct response to The Authority’s “if superheroes were real, they’d all be murderous assholes” attitude, and it had some really sweet Doug Mahnke art. As a restatement of Superman’s core principles, it was incredibly effective, but also fairly complex philosophically...at least for a Superman comic.

read more: Why is Vehicle Voltron Forgotten?

So that’s why Superman vs. The Elite is utterly puzzling.

It’s fundamentally the same story. Superman battles “The Elite,” a group of morally grey anti-heroes who reflect the dark, shitty world of today. They start killing all the villains, and Superman tries to stop them, so they fight, and Superman wins by showing them he can kill them whenever he wants, but he refuses to because he wants them to be better than that. But the whole thing is done in this ridiculous cartoony art style, like if someone wanted to hand draw a more violent Super Hero Squad Show, and it undercuts any complexity or nuance that the script might have been trying to get across.

Watch Superman vs. The Elite on Amazon.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2013)

Warner Brothers released this adaptation of Frank Miller’s genre-changing, character-breaking work in two parts, but they’re one movie and you’re fooling yourself if you treat them differently. The first part takes the mutant story, and the second has the showdowns with the Joker and Superman.

read more: Extreme Ghostbusters is Better Than You Remember

In my head, when I envision Batman, it’s always Miller’s. I like a Batman that’s massive and hulking, who carries himself in the most intimidating way possible and terrifies people just by being in the same room as them. This movie was one of the more successful ones at adapting the art style as well as the story, and the fight in the mudpit between Batman and the mutant leader is one of my favorite moments from any film in this series.

Watch Batman: The Dark Knight Returns on Amazon.

Superman Unbound (2013)

Superman Unbound was based loosely on Geoff Johns’ and Gary Frank’s story of Superman meeting Brainiac from just before the New 52 reboot, and it's certainly better than this movie. In it, Superman is helping Supergirl adjust to life on Earth and dealing with a secret relationship with Lois when a robot drone hits just outside of Arizona. It’s a scout for Brainiac, and it means the villain is coming to destroy the planet and capture a city.

The biggest crime of the movie is that it wastes John Noble as Brainiac. Also, there's a faint whiff of anti-intellectualism. And the anti-museum-ness of it. And how Superman beats Brainiac by exposing a latent mental illness.

read more: The Craziest Episodes of the Beetlejuice Animated Series

It feels hurried, like they had a little more exposition that would have made all this feel less mean-spirited and on-the-nose, but it got cut for time. Noble doesn’t really get much to do besides gently sneer at Superman, a gross waste of the man who should have won every Emmy imaginable for his work as the various Walter Bishops on Fringe. Yes, even Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.

Watch Superman Unbound on Amazon.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)

It might be controversial, but I think I liked the movie version better than I did the comic mega-crossover that started the New 52. The Flashpoint Paradox is a what-if story where Barry Allen successfully goes back in time to stop his mother’s murder, and wakes up in a horrible world where his mother is alive, but Themyscira and Atlantis are about to destroy the world; Batman is Thomas Wayne instead of Bruce (and he murders), while Cyborg is the leader of the Justice League, trying to stop the Amazon/Atlantis war.

It really works. In the comics, it was large to the point of unwieldy, and tough for someone not already neck deep in DC lore to get passionately invested in, because we’d seen it before, and that robbed it of anything resembling real stakes.

On screen, though, it’s much more interesting and effective, and a lot of excess is cut away by the short run time. Michael B. Jordan is a good Cyborg, and Kevin McKidd as Thomas Wayne did a good job of fitting into the continuum of Batmans.

Watch Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox on Amazon.

Justice League: War (2014)

I have a confession to make: remember how I said that the quality of the movies is usually directly related to the quality of the comic they’re based on? Well, I HATED the first arc of New 52 Justice League. Anakin burbling rage crawling out of a lava pit doesn’t even begin to describe how angry the comic made me.

So...it was tough to watch Justice League: War. Everyone in it is a monosyllabic jackass except Wonder Woman, who just talks like a naive 5 year old who’s just leaving the house for the first time. Yes I know that’s the point of this Wonder Woman, but she sounds like an idiot and that’s not what she’s supposed to be.

I’m baffled, after we’ve had so many good individual Darkseids that they would choose to do that awful composite voice for him, and by the time I turned the movie off in disgust, the movie was also well on its way to turning Billy Batson into a smarmy little dipshit.

Watch Justice League: War on Amazon.

Son of Batman (2014)

I don’t get why Deathstroke had to be shoved into this. He shows up exactly once in Grant Morrison’s entire run, and that’s as much out of obligation (Deathstroke is a good Robin villain, but not a good anyone else villain, so having him show up for five minutes to fight Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian was nice), so it’s not like the source material screamed for his inclusion.

But Warner Bros. just keep pushing him into other media trying to make him seem cool. Look, he worked okay in Arrow and he was one of the best parts of Teen Titans, but there is no reason to shoehorn him into the League of Shadows.

Son of Batman movie is okay, but Deathstroke was a symptom of its bigger problem. It tries too hard.

Watch Son of Batman on Amazon.

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

Assault on Arkham is an original story set in the world of the Batman: Arkham games.

Nothing about Assault on Arkham is Earth-moving. It isn't even a terribly clever look at any of the characters (Deadshot, the Riddler, King Shark, Harley, Joker, Captain Boomerang, or Batman). It’s just a brief-ish action flick that’s a lot of fun and worth your time.

Watch Batman: Assault on Arkham on Amazon.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)

Thankfully, the direct sequel to Justice League: War turned off almost all of the qualities that I hated, and kept up a solid action base. It even managed to make some of the douchery fun (very likely attributable to the switch from Justin Kirk back to Nathan Fillion for Hal Jordan's voice).

This story combined a couple of arcs of Geoff Johns’ New 52 Aquaman - the first arc that introduces Arthur as a serious player in the DCU, and the “Throne of Atlantis” crossover with Justice League. Sam Witwer as Ocean Master was a lot more fun than I figured he’d be, even if I do usually enjoy him because I loved him as Starkiller in The Force Unleashed.

Arthur Curry discovers his origin as a half-Atlantean heir to the throne and with the help of the Justice League and his Civil War general-esque mutton chop sideburns, he manages to stop a war between Atlantis and the surface world. I wouldn’t put this in the top five, but it was enjoyable enough.

Watch Justice League: Throne of Atlantis on Amazon.

Batman vs. Robin (2015)

The Court of Owls has been a good addition to the Bat universe in the comics, but in their first animated appearance, they fall a little flat. Damian is being willful and sneaking out to do crimefighting, and Batman wants him to slow it down a little. They run into Talon, and the Court tries to bring Bruce into the fold, but he declines (with punches) and everybody fights. It’s a little more complex than that, but not by much.

As with the rest of the latest batch of new movies, the fights in Batman vs. Robin are great. Hell, I think Talon even moved like Mugen from Samurai Champloo in his fight with Nightwing.

But the big problem here was the writing - it was a weird combination of on the nose and clumsy that took me out of the movie. Like at the end, when Talon is leading his army into Wayne Manor to fight Batman, and he’s already found out that Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same, but he walks into a room saying “End of the line, Bruce. Or should I say...Batman!” and it’s supposed to be this big dramatic moment, but he’s dressed as Batman, so it’s not really surprising that he’s deduced that Batman stands in front of him.

Or when the Court is first mentioned, it’s in a flashback conversation between Bruce and his father, after his father recites the Gotham-specific Court of Owls nursery rhyme. Bruce asks his father “Is it real?” and the conversation goes (rough paraphrasing)

“Is there a secret cabal of billionaires controlling Gotham and sending their Talon out to kill anyone who disagrees with them?”

“Yeah.”

“Well principles of mediocre storytelling dictate that that’s exactly what’s going to happen, Bruce. We didn’t even bother shading it a little.”

Watch Batman vs. Robin on Amazon.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

As time has gone on, DC Universe Original Movies have drifted from comic adaptations to encompass projects like this one, an entirely original story that fulfills all the promise of the feature-length animated movies. Gods and Monsters feels like a classic Elseworlds story, a world where small changes mean wholesale differences in the “modern day” world. In it, Superman is the child of Not Jor-El and Lara, but Lara and General Zod, found and raised by undocumented immigrants on their way into the USA. Wonder Woman is Highfather’s granddaughter. Batman is Kirk Langstrom gone full vampire.

Like the best Elseworlds stories, there is plenty of fanservice (every DCU super-scientist except Professor Milo gets some face time), but it also wisely avoids the What If trap - there’s no mention of Diana or Bruce Wayne. Just a story about a violent, cynical Justice League coming to terms with a darker world. It’s really great.

Watch Justice League: Gods and Monsters on Amazon.

Batman: Bad Blood (2016)

Bad Blood is technically an original story, but it might as well be Batman, Inc.: The Movie. Batman seemingly dies saving Batwoman from The Heretic (!) and his gang of z-lister backup. Oh, and we find out that Talia has a plot to hypnotize the most powerful people in the world into obeying her. Dick as Batman, Damian, Batwoman, and Luke Fox in the Batwing costume all have to save the day.

Dick Grayson is my third favorite Robin, but Dick and Damian are my favorite Batman & Robin pair, and as soon as I realized that that’s what this movie would be, I got excited. It’s a direct sequel to the last two Batman movies (Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin), but it’s vastly superior in every way. The opening fight sequence might be the best out of all these movies, and even a full day after watching it for the first time, I’m still ASTOUNDED that they put The Heretic in there and didn’t make it silly or pointless.

Watch Batman: Bad Blood on Amazon.

Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)

This movie came at what seemed to be a weird transition time for DC Universe Original Movies. DC was pushing hard for everything to be Justice League related, hence the shoehorned in title and adult team. The story ended up being a very loose adaptation of the classic Teen Titans storyline, "The Terror of Trigon," where Raven's father, the lord of Hell, Trigon, attempts to take over Earth by controlling members of the League.

The end product is fairly middling. It suffers a bit from the weird continuity of the animated movies - it's also a loose sequel to the previous handful of in-continuity DC animated movies. It's also hurt by something endemic to the Teen Titans features on this list: the story was already done better by the mid-aughts Teen Titans animated series. However, the fight scenes continue to improve over the prior movies, and that's enough to make this entertaining and watchable, even if the movie isn't really anything to write home about.

Watch Justice League vs. Teen Titans on Amazon

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

Piping hot garbage.

Oh, you want more? Ok. Don't adapt Alan Moore stories.

[Editor's note: Jim...]

Okay fine. The original comic this movie was based on was roughly 60 pages long, enough content to fill probably 45 minutes without long, uncomfortable silences to pad the length. The story follows the Joker as he shoots Barbara Gordon in the spine, then kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, strips him naked, and makes him ride through a funhouse full of pictures of her naked and bleeding out. So rather than pad it, they put a half hour of prologue on the story where they turn Batgirl into a whining narcissist with a weird hot/cold sexual relationship with Batman and a Gay Best Friend (tm). This Batman/Batgirl relationship is probably the worst thing that Timm et al have foisted on Batman continuity - it came up in Batman Beyond, and it was super weird there, too.

Ultimately, the Joker is unsuccessful in his attempts to torture Commissioner Gordon into insanity. Maybe he should have just shown him this movie. The subpar animation alone probably would have worked.

Watch Batman: The Killing Joke on Amazon

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016)

Your reaction to this movie is going to depend entirely on how much you worship the 1960s Batman TV series. If you've never experienced it, whether you care to at some point in the future or not, you should skip this. If you liked it, if you enjoyed watching it in reruns when you got home from school, but you've felt almost no need to revisit it in more than a decade, you'll probably get a kick out of parts of this. If you adore it and put Adam West's version of the character higher than Kevin Conroy's, this movie is aimed squarely at you and the only question is how sensitive you are to pandering.

I'm being a little negative, because I fall squarely in the second group. This animated movie brings Adam West back as Batman; Burt Ward as Robin; and Julie Newmar as Catwoman; and its animating premise is "what would an episode of the old TV show look like if it was an hour long and unrestrained by being a live action tv show?" They crank the nostalgia up to 10, with the Pows and the Thwacks and the other violence-averting title cards, but they also sneak in a cloud-light but still entertaining story about Batman turning bad and duplicating himself over and over until he takes over all of Gotham. There are some genuinely inspired bits - the fact that evil Batman lifts whole lines from Dark Knight Returns is pretty funny - and great voice work from Ward and West (replacement Police Chief Batman deadpanning "Begorrah" was also hilarious), but this movie is mostly really uneven.

The animation tries really hard to replicate the TV show, and it gets a little jinky in parts, and Julie Newmar's Catwoman voice...it's not there anymore. If you loved the old show, there's probably enough here to be worth your while. If not, you should skip it.

Watch Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders on Amazon

Justice League Dark (2017)

Matt Ryan is a gem. TV's John Constantine has managed to successfully inhabit the role, from his own show on NBC, through guest spots on Arrow, a regular role on Legends of Tomorrow, and now in an animated story about DC's magical heroes banding together to save the world. Dr. Destiny the sneakily good and criminally underused villain, is causing regular people to hallucinate that they are surrounded by demons, making them commit horrible crimes against their fellow man. Constantine, Zatanna, Batman, and Deadman gather a team of mystical heroes, band together, and eventually defeat the bad guy.

This movie is a lot of fun. Ryan's voice and screenwriter Ernie Altbeck's script do a great job of capturing scumbag Constantine. The story ends up featuring Etrigan heavily, and that's always a good thing. Justice League Dark ended up being one of the best recent entries into the DC animated movie universe.

Buy Justice League Dark on Amazon

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)

Despite facing the same structural weaknesses as Justice League vs. Teen Titans, The Judas Contract overcomes almost all of them thanks to much stronger writing.

The Judas Contract was one of the first movies announced for this slate, but for a variety of reasons took the better part of a decade to come out. That's usually the kiss of death for a movie, but the strength of the source material is such that the various shifts that went into it - Damian as Robin, Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle - ended up making the movie stronger. Terra, a geomorph, joins the Teen Titans as they adjust to life as a superhero team. Turns out she's a plant, put in place by Deathstroke the Terminator to rip the team apart from the inside.

The voice work is stellar. Christina Ricci makes Terra vulnerable, badass, and creepy all at the same time, and Miguel Ferrer does great work as Deathstroke in one of his final roles. And much like Justice League vs. Teen Titans, the fight scenes are exemplary, especially the ones involving Nightwing. The Judas Contract easily ranks in the top 5 of these animated movies.

Buy Teen Titans: The Judas Contract on Amazon

Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)

Believe it or not, this was not the first time I've ever said "Oh cool, the Floronic Man" out loud. I was kidding both times I said it, and it seems Bruce Timm and I are on the same page here.

Timm wrote this movie, and considers it a part of the DC Animated Universe proper - Kevin Conroy and Loren Lester are back in their New Batman Adventures roles of Batman and Nightwing, while Melissa Rauch from Big Bang Theory takes over as Harley. And what we ultimately get is a straight up comedy.

It was a little jarring at first - Harley doing the nasty with Nightwing, the casual vulgarity, the superheroine-themed Hooters style restaurant. But I'll be damnd if these folks aren't talented as hell. The writing is spot on, the action is as good as it always is, and the delivery, especially from Rauch, is outstanding. There's one fart sequence in the Batmobile that is maybe the funniest thing that's been in the Timmverse. It's offbeat, but Batman and Harley Quinn is worth watching if you're a DCAU fan.

Watch Batman and Harley Quinn on Amazon

Batman vs. Two-Face (2017)

The latest and presumably final Batman '66 animated movie is much like the first. It's clever and fun, like a really good episode of the television show. But the fact that this is Adam West's final appearance as Batman also makes it a little melancholy.

The movie shows us the '66 version of Two-Face's origin, then jumps ahead to what seems to be his last caper. It borrows heavily from the Two-Face story in Dark Knight Returns, only if you added in King Tut and Bookworm. William Shatner does outstanding work bouncing between Harvey Dent and Two-Face, playing Dent as timid and adding a growly gurgle to Two-Face's voice. The writers add in a few inspired jokes to keep the story moving briskly. And the memorial to West is touching. This is worth watching for that connection to history, and because it's well made and entertaining.

Watch Batman vs. Two-Face on Amazon

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

Here’s the problem with adapting iconic stories like Gotham by Gaslight: you have to capture what made the comic iconic in the first place, and I can tell you that the premise wasn’t it. “Steampunk Batman vs. Jack the Ripper” made up enough fanfiction to occupy 1/6th of all the storage capacity of Web 1.0. So strike one against the animated adaptation is that the animation style wasn’t Mike Mignola. It actually looked more like Ed McGuiness - normally not a problem, but it didn’t work here.

read more - Batman: Gotham by Gaslight Review

Secondly, I haven’t had a reaction to a DC movie reveal like this since Man of Steel. When Clark snapped Zod’s neck, the person I saw the movie with had to shush me because I was saying “NOPE” too loudly in the theater. The person I saw this with had the same reaction when we found out who Jack was. I won’t spoil anything, but you should make an effort to skip this one if you can.

Watch Batman: Gotham by Gaslight on Amazon

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay

What a pleasant surprise Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is. This isn’t the first time the Squad has been put into animated form - their Arkham games franchise version showed up in an earlier flick (Assault on Arkham) and they’ve been in the Justice League animated series and will turn up in Young Justice shortly - but this is the version that had the most fidelity to the classic comics that launched the team.

read more - Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is Better Than the DCEU Movie

The John Ostrander/Kim Yale/Luke McDonnell run on Suicide Squad is one of the best runs of any superhero comic of all time. They packed the cast with obscure villains and killed them almost at will, but the ones they kept there had real tension and strongly developed characters. We get all of that in this movie. It’s twisty, fun, violent and full of bad people and good ones doing bad things. Three big names (at least for Suicide Squad fans) die in the first 15 minutes just to show how badass somebody is. Hell to Pay is a ton of fun.

Watch Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay on Amazon

Batman: Ninja

Do not touch anything that might possibly be considered a mind altering substance before viewing Batman: Ninja. You won’t come back. Here’s an example of why:

The climax of the film sees Deathstroke, Gorilla Grodd, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Two Face’s castles merge to form one super mech castle under the control of Joker and Harley Quinn, creating ultra mecha Lord Joker. Grodd, mad at the Joker for taking over his castle, gives Batman and Robin control of his army of monkeys, who merge to form one giant gestalt samurai monkey to fight Mecha Lord Joker. When that’s not enough to win, the Bat Clan ninja call out an army of bats, who wrap the super monkey in their flapping wings and form the Bat God (who is actually just Jiro Kuwata’s Batman from Batmanga).

If you even have a strong beer before watching that, you’re not going to process it. But you should totally watch it. It’s every bit as bonkers as it sounds. And it’s gorgeous to look at. DC tried something very different with Batman: Ninja, and succeeded.

Watch Batman: Ninja on Amazon

The Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen

Other movies in this continuity have functioned as sequels, but The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen aren’t really sequential films. They’re two halves of the same movie. That feels unfair, because both structurally function as independent movies, but it’s so hard to treat them separately because it’s impossible to imagine one without the other. Even with their close ties, they’re both very entertaining.

The success of Death/Reign isn’t in their skill at adapting the classic Superman stories to animation. It’s actually in their skill in adapting the classic Superman stories to the DCAU continuity. The comics they’re based on are underrated classics. The books are written off as ‘90s gimmicks because on their face they are - killing off a beloved character with a polybagged splash-page-only issue is only missing “clone” and “variant covers” to hit Speculator Bingo. But underneath those tropes was a genuine, moving, emotionally honest story with some timelessly great art, and a reexamination of Superman’s relevance in a world that seemed to be moving on.

You don’t necessarily get that depth out of animated Death/Reign, but you do get a sense of Superman’s value in the world that these DCAU movies have created - a Justice League full of heavy hitters fighting not to let Clark down, a Steel and Superboy fighting to live up to the legacy they’ve inherited and a Hank Henshaw with some legitimate complaints. It’s also a lot of fun to see what they’ve tweaked to fit the continuity, and what they cribbed from other sources (there’s a LOT of Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey in Reign of the Supermen) to fill out the tale. Both of these movies are worth your time.

Watch Reign of the Supermen on Amazon

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five is essentially a three episode arc of the Timm/Dini Justice League series set in an indeterminate continuity. Make of that what you will, but as someone who almost constantly rewatches that show, I don't understand how you could be anything but delighted by that prospect.

One of the best things about that concept is the bait and switch the creators pulled with the movie. It's billed as the big return of George Newbern, Susan Eisenberg and Kevin Conroy to their pitoval Justice League characters, but they're fairly incidental to the story. This movie is Star Boy and Jessica Cruz's show, with supporting roles for Mister Terrific and Miss Martian. Batman gets to be intimidating for a minute and Wonder Woman gets a couple of scenes to kick a scientific mole's worth of ass (that's the number of asses in 12 grams of Carbon-12, or roughly 6.022x10^23 asses), but Thom Kallor and Jessica Cruz steal the show.

The story starts in the far future with classic Legion of Superheroes villains the Fatal Five (Mano, Tharok, the Persuader, Validus, and the Emerald Empress) beating the hell out of the Legion and eventually stealing their time bubble. Star Boy changes their trajectory and ends up in the past, where his mental health problems are exacerbated and he ends up in Arkham for a bit. Tharok, Manos and the Persuader eventually escape and target Jessica to help them break Validus and the Emerald Empress out of a special prison, and she and Star Boy are the key Leaguers leading the fight back.

The language is a little coarser, the team lineup a little odder, and the action a lot cooler (Mr. Terrific is extra badass in this movie and Wonder Woman fighting the Persuader in mid-air is my favorite fight out of this entire series of movies), but this felt just like the old show. If you liked that, or are a Legion fan and wish there was more of them in media, or if you want to see interesting representations of mental health in media, this movie will work well for you.

Extra credit for bucking the company style guide on the title and sticking with the much more sensical "vs."

Watch Justice League vs. the Fatal Five on Amazon

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