WELCOME

[Selina Kyle]

Selina Kyle picked up a copy of the Daily Planet from a rack and entered the elevator. Though the picture was blurry, taken from a security camera as she had leapt out of a window, the cover picture of her heist the night before was nice. Granted they had called her "Catgirl" which annoyed her, but still the word about her exploits was slowly growing and now she was about to recieve a very large payout for the job. Ironically she was meeting the man who had hired her at the offices of the very same newspaper that had gotten her name so wrong.

Not that Lex Luthor was expecting her. Oh he seemed to think that he was going to be able to deal with her through middle men, keeping his hands clean as she had begun stealing some very expensive items from him. However after some digging around and tracing back one of her other payments she had finally discovered that the man behind the money was the balding billionaire Luthor. That made this delivery so much more special, rather than meeting his courier later that night she was going to show up with the prize right at his office and maybe they could start dealing with each other face to face. The picture of course, blurry as it was, did not give away her identity and the stolen item was stashed in a lead lined box so it was not going to be discovered. Why anyone wanted a chunk of green glowing meteor rock was beyond her, but apparently not only did the Metropolis Natural History Museum think it was worth a top of the line security system guarding it, Lex Luthor thought it was worth a top of the line thief to steal it.

Without permission she entered his office and set the box down on the table, grinning she sat herself down in a chair, "So tell me what's with the green rock? Are you the mysterious Green Arrow and this is where you get your powers?"

[Lex Luthor]

Lex was in his office. Lately, the abundance of green meteor rocks had become scarce and finding the once-common mineral was now next to impossible. When a large chunk of it had appeared in the Metropolis Natural History Museum, Lex thought that now would be the opportune moment to acquire some of the much-needed green meteor rock that seemed to be the only weakness Clark's people possessed. The strange Superman did not oppose the wealthy billionaire but Lex did not believe it would be harmful to have a weapon that could stop the unstoppable if the situation ever came to present. He had hired somebody to take the meteor rock from the museum but he was not familiar with her face. The burglar he paid to do his bidding was met with by one of his subordinates who was also supposed to collect the package so that the criminal could not be connected to the corporate titan. This plan, however, backfired when she discovered who had actually hired her and entered his office by some means unknown to the Luthor. "Who are you? How did you get in here?" He asked, surprised that anybody could get passed his security without being noticed on camera. His office had been secure and very private; it was well-protected by very competent individuals, so when Selina had broke through, Lex was shocked.

She sat herself down in a chair and handed the box to Lex on his table. When she pushed it over towards him, he seemed to let down his guard for a moment. The box had already been opened, revealing some of its contents. The dimensions of the box was just smaller than the monitor of his computer, suggesting that what it carried was just as large. The burglar made a comment about the meteor rock, suggesting that the billionaire businessman was in fact Green Arrow in disguise, but Lex could only brush that comment off of his mind with a mere chuckle. "If I was Green Arrow, I most certainly would not be disclosing that secret to you," he remarked, placing the meteor rock from inside the box onto his expensive table. "So you're Selina Kyle, the thief who was the only one talented enough to take from the high-security museum this meteor rock," Lex began, examining the female specimen. "I have worked with many people of similar talents to yourself before, but I must say that your natural ability to get in and out of tight places unnoticed is uncanny. Some might even say it's inhuman," the billionaire added, taking a closer look at the feline felon. Nothing seemed to be unusual about Selina Kyle, but looks always were deceiving and Lex had learned not to believe in appearances anymore.

[Selina Kyle]

"Oh yes I forgot to mention that I'm bullet proof and own an invisible jet," Selina said rolling her eyes. She began to pace around Lex Luthor's office looking for things to steal. There was little of interest that she could actually palm and slip into a pocket and so she decided against taking anything of the ellusive billionaire's. Turning back to him she shook her head, "No I'm one hundred percent all American, right down to my Haynes. I'm just very good at what I do."

The question was what was Luthor's game. The rock that she had stolen had been a scientific curiosity at best and there seemed to be no way for Luthor to recoup the cost of having it stolen for him. It was a pretty crystal, but it was so unique that he would never be able to display it or even sell it as individual jewels if he were to break it up for jewelery. So he had simply paid a great deal of money for an alien rock that he would only be able to keep hidden in a private collection and never show anyone for fear of having the police arrest him and take it away. She thought about quizzing Luthor about its value, but decided against it. Whatever he was going to do with it she would not be able to and so it was far better that she just keep her mouth shut and accept the money he was offering.

"But what do you know about these meta-humans?" she asked, using the word that she'd heard on the television for these people with unique powers and abilities, "I was caught by one a few weeks ago, a blonde that was much too fast and much too strong. It was hardly sporting."

That situation had required a fairly speedy escape from the police once the blonde had departed, and was hardly a shinning moment in Selina's career as a theif.

[Lex Luthor]

Once he had been delivered what he ordered, Lex placed the large meteor rock fragment on his table for a moment to examine it before storing it away in his safe where somebody such as Selina could not get to it no matter how sneaky they had been. She seemed to be playful; her remark about being bullet-proof was more than enough to suggest that she did not take her occupation seriously. Furthermore, as their conversation continued, Selina wandered around the room and examined all of the priceless artifacts and expensive items on display with her careful eye. This action made Lex believe that the burglar was interested in anything that seemed to hold any sort of monetary value, making it easier to persuade her to work for him on future occasions. Selina guaranteed him that nothing about her was superhuman and that she was only very good at what she did: stealing. Once Lex opened his safe, the billionaire walked into the storage room and looked around. The room contained many priceless artifacts and other expensive pieces of equipment, as well as items otherwise far too valuable to leave out in the open setting. "So, since you came all the way up to my office, you must want something out of me. What is it?" Lex asked, certain that the small-time thief wanted something in return.

Lex placed the meteor rock away in the storage room and closed the titanium-reinforced door behind him as he stepped back out into his office where Selina had been roaming. "Is it money you want? I paid you the amount that was promised. If you're looking for something more, you won't be getting it from me without another favour and unfortunately, this was all that I needed," he said, wanting to make sure that Selina was aware that Lex was not easily persuaded or convinced into paying more than what he needed to pay in order to get the job done. He returned to his table and seated himself behind his computer monitor, folding his hands on top of each other. "So what can I do for you, Ms. Kyle?" Lex had experienced encounters with people like Selina before; petty robbers that only wanted money. It was easy to pay them off because they did not care for anything fancy or elaborate; money was all they needed to drive them to work. He did not need anything else from this cat burglar either unless she had something to propose to him, but there was the chance that money was not what she was after. Lex, however, was not wrong very often about these kinds of experiences. Still, he waited to see just what Selina had left to say in case there was something else she had not been telling him.

[Selina Kyle]

"So what can I do for you, Ms. Kyle?"

Luthor was direct, and blunt. She liked that. Verbal cat and mouse games were fine after hours but business was business and there was no way that she was going play games with business. The blonde woman at the museum had distrubed her, how was she meant to plan heists if random people had the ability to see through solid objects and unfathomable speed and strenght? Going up against the Batman was one thing since he was, as far as she could tell, a motal man. Granted he was smart and quick, but that just made the chase so much more fun. There was nothing fun about getting to the game over screen before she had even had a chance to insert her quarters and start playing. Luthor, she figured, might hold the key. Not only had he suspected that she herself had abilities, a sign that he had met others with them, but the fact that he was buying this rock was a sign that he was not quite who his Wikipedia page said that he was. Not quite simply a billionaire and newspaper publisher. Bill Gates did not buy things off the black market and certianly did not hire people like her to steal them.

"I can steal more money than I could ever spend," Selina said, waving her hand to dismiss his notion that she was trying to squeeze more money out of him. Granted everyone could always use more money, but the principal was that she stole for excitement and the money she recieved from her work only went to finance her next job. If all she had wanted was enough money for a fancy apartment and a fast car, she would have stopped a long time ago, "What I want is to stop having magic blonde women arrest me. Seeing through things and being able to out race me are not natural and it upsets the game. Batman, have you hard of him? He's fun, he's a good sport because he plays by all the rules. He doesn't fly, he doesn't suddenly move hundreds of yards in the blink of an eye. He bleeds."

Turning towards Luthor she approached him and then placing her hands on his desk she leaned forward. She knew what taking that position would do, giving Luthor a glimpse down her shirt for one, and she wanted to make sure that she had his attention. There was something about that rock that intersted him, and he clearly was at least vaguely interested in meta-humans. Could the two be connected? She saw little other value in what she had stolen, and it was not as if he would ever be able to display it in any kind of collection.

"So tell me Mr. Luthor, is there anything I can do to make sure the game stays fair?" she asked.

[Lex Luthor]

Lex and Selina sat down to talk with each other, or rather, Lex sat down and Selina ambled about the room in search for something valuable to take from his possession. The billionaire, however, did not mind and was not bothered by her behaviour. She described to him a girl that possessed superhuman powers; the ability to see through solid objects, vast superhuman speed and strength, as well as the power to overcome gravity. These powers sounded all too familiar with the exception of flying: Clark Kent. He was not aware that he could see through solid objects but was certain that he could move at superhuman speeds and lift objects several hundred times his own weight. "Tell me, what did this girl look like?" Lex wondered, seemingly showing interest in the conversation now more than he did earlier when Selina wandered into his office. Selina gathered his complete and undivided attention when she leaned towards him with both of her hands on his desk, giving him a full view down her shirt for just a quick second "Impressive," he said, referring to her chest. He eyed her and then returned to normal conversation; Lex was a professional businessman and could not be so easily turned away from his business. The more and more Selina described this super-powered character, the more Lex started to think about Clark and anybody who could have powers similar to his.

The only other person in mind was his cousin, Kara. She claimed to be from another part of the United States of America, but Lex was not so easily fooled. With a giant chunk of meteor rock on his table, he was more than capable of fighting either super-powered alien by himself, but with Selina lending herself to the billionaire businessman, Luthor thought it would be smarter to use his available resources to the best of his abilities rather than doing the dirty work all by himself. "I'll tell you what. You go back to wherever it is you came from and when I need your services, I will call for you," Lex suggested since he needed time to fashion a meteor rock ring out of the abundance he had been handed earlier by the cat burglar. There was more than one fashion in which the meteor rock could be used; he could have fashioned it into a ring to wear, changed it into a serum which could temporarily endow ordinary human beings with superhuman powers, or turn it into ammunition for a conventional firearm that would usually be incapable of harming somebody like Clark or Kara Kent. "I will give you a call soon, but hang tight for now," he guaranteed the mischievous feline fury. Lex planned on having Selina take on Kara but luring out the Kryptonian warrior was the part he had not thought about yet.

[Selina Kyle]

Selina nodded. It was more than she had expected to get from Lex Luthor. The unspoken information, that he had some knowledge of these meta-humans with abilities far beyond even the finely trained and practiced Batman, was as valuble as anything that had been said. Heading towards the door she stopped and turned, "It was a blonde. Young and hot."

The Catwoman studied him for a moment, wondering if he had some knowledge of this particular meta-human. Maybe, or maybe it was simply that he had met one once and was wondering if it was the same one. Deciding that she had probably over-stayed her welcome, Luthor might have been trying to stall her while building security or the police came to pick her up, she left him with that knowledge and opened the door exiting into the hustle and bustle of the Daily Planet's newsroom. Moving quickly she was out on the street in under a minute, melting into the crowd as she headed back to the hotel that she had booked for the evening before returning to Gotham in the morning.

// Exit Selina //

[Lex Luthor]

When Selina described the superhuman being to Lex, he immediately thought of Kara. She did not tell Lex very much about what the superhuman being could do. It was only mentioned that this super-powered woman could move hundreds of yards in mere seconds, defy gravity, and see through solid objects. These powers sounded shockingly familiar to the billionaire; they reminded him of Clark the farm boy whom he had matured with during his younger years, but since it was a girl being described, only his cousin, Kara, came to mind. "You should be on your way," Lex insisted, politely asking Selina to leave his office. He could not make the order when she was present in his meeting room but once she departed from the business setting, the wealthy billionaire put the chunk of meteor rock back down on his table and made an order for the rare mineral to be refined and transformed into a usable serum to increase a human being's abilities. Once the order was made, Lex waited for his workers to come and collect the meteor rock fragment and take it away to the laboratory where it would be worked on. "Have it finished in two days," Luthor asked the scientist. He was in a rush to see how things would unfold for him and his new accomplice, Selina Kyle. "Deliver it to this address when you are finished."

The meteor rock was moved to the laboratory where it was refined and turned into a serum which could be injected into a human subject. It granted its user superhuman strength, increased durability, and modified speed and agility. The strength the serum granted its user would allow the human subject to lift up to one metric ton with relative ease; this was equal to about the weight of a small car. In addition to making its human subject super-strong, the formula also raised reaction time and reflexes, as well as granting increased speed and agility. Although it would not allow a human being to run faster than a speeding bullet, a noticeable increase in running speed was a definite effect. Furthermore, the durability of human epidermis was also prominent. Although high-caliber weapons could puncture and penetrate the skin, bullets and other sharp objects were rendered powerless against somebody under the effects of the meteor rock serum. Unfortunately, the serum only lasted for a period of time that was determined to be somewhere around one hour. Once its effects wore off, the human subject would lose all additional powers and return to normal. Lex ordered enough serum for one trial to be delivered to Selina Kyle with the above mentioned in a set of instructions, warning her of all the dangers and effects of the serum.

[FINISH]