A Future Sooner than Tomorrow

Tomorrow's Worries

Wonder Woman hides behind an oak cabinet whilst Martian Manhunter ducks into the hollow inside of a desk.

Stomping fills the room.

"Where could they have gone?"

"Check anywhere large enough to fit a person. All units, the backsides of bookcases, turn this place upside down if you have to!"

"What's the point of a full search? I thought this building didn't matter anymore," one of the younger sounding guards whine.

Wonder Woman turns her head to the direction of the conversation, curiosity piqued.

"There are certain individuals that shouldn't be here. Ones Luthor will want to know about."

"Like who? If the police find out, the boss will just pay them off. It wouldn't be the first time..." one of them grumbles.

"That's confidential."

"Doesn't matter anyway. Mark my words, it was probably just some bored teenagers."

"What teenagers would break in anywhere knowing full well that this is Superman's turf?"

"Lots of people are moving to Metropolis nowadays. Got some from Fawcett, Jump City and that lot - they might not realise Superman deals with petty crime."

"Besides, Superman isn't even here right now. And we all know how lax Superman has been about anything involving Luthor or LexCorp recently."

There's the scrape of wood against wood as objects get moved out of the way by the guards.

Wonder Woman peaks over the cabinet and, seeing that the guards have all turned away from the door, gestures to Martian Manhunter. He nods.

Both make a break for the door.

___________________________________________

"I think we've found everything we can, B."

Batman nods reluctantly. Looking through all the pictures that had been taken with his bat camera, he feels like what they've found is insufficient. Looking past his usual distain for Lex Luthor's schemes (Superman, from what Batman has gathered, is a wholly undeserving target), he can acknowledge that the man had managed to clean the building of anything incriminating for the most part. "Unfortunately, I think you're right, Nightwing. This building is unusually lacking the proof Luthor's crime scenes are typically littered with."

"Yeah. Luthor really upped his game a couple of years ago, back when Red Hood was still Robin. Superman really struggled at that time," Nightwing stows away his own camera (second pocket to the right, the same one Batman puts his own in).

"How so?" Batman follows along, closing the door behind them. Nightwing brings out the new gadget he had used for opening the door (it's in the first pocket on the right, where lock picks are usually put) and attaches it to the keypad.

"It's when Luthor started making more active grabs for power in Metropolis. That paired with Luthor's newfound skill of properly desposing of evidence was dangerous at the time..." Three light clicks and some metallic noises and the door is once again locked.

"There would still be whistle blowers. It wouldn't be as good as concrete evidence but it would be enough to cast suspicion if there were repeated accounts," Batman and Nightwing's steps fall in tandem as they walk back to where the grate was.

"Money keeps a lot of things quiet if you know how to use it," Nightwing kneels down and lifts the grate to the side.

"Not everything. Not everyone."