Orchestration

Annabeth's eyes rapidly flit from left to right and back again.

Her eyebrows furrow.

She repeats the motion, a little slower than she usually allows herself, but the words remain the same.

Unfortunately, due to our division's handling of extremely sensitive technologies and confidential information, Wayne Technologies of Wayne Enterprises is not accepting interns pursuing a bachelor's degree, or lower, at this time.

Exceptions for individuals over the age of 25 will be made on a case-by-case basis. Please consult our hiring office for more information on this policy.

Full-time jobs at Wayne Technologies are available for those currently holding, at the least, a bachelor's degree. Prior work experience is recommended, but not required, as WE promotes a holistic resume evaluation. If you'd like to learn more about our full-time positions, click here.

Additionally, WE offers internships for degree and non-degree holders under any one of our other various divisions listed here.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but rest assured, Wayne Technologies values hardworking and innovative minds and we'd love to have you on board at the completion of your undergraduate experience. Good luck and we hope to see you soon!

Annabeth's pencil snaps under the pressure of her grip, wood splintering across her ruffled notebook. Her resume, furiously marked up with annotations, underlined and crossed out words, and margin notes taunts her from beside her laptop.

How could she have missed this?

How could she have spent days pouring over Wayne Technologies' business history, their values, their leaders and their employees, their industry contributions, every available detail just so that she could be fully prepared for an interview, only to find out now that she would never even be allowed to submit an application.

She glares at the screen, at the offending words, until the brightness starts to seep through to the back of her brain.

Percy's hand settles gently on her shoulder, and she remembers to breathe, blinking away her building headache. It's only until Percy starts rubbing into a particularly tense knot with his thumb that she allows herself to slump in her chair.

"What's wrong?" he asks, sliding his other hand down to loop loosely around her neck.

Annabeth tilts her head to press her cheek into his wrist. Only Percy could get away with something like this.

"Wayne's not taking tech interns," she mutters, scowling, "Over some privacy concerns. He's the only one in the world. No other self-respecting company would want to miss out on young blood, especially with how fast the tech world is evolving."

Annabeth rights her head to read the website one last time, just to be sure. The words don't change. She reaches up and snatches the translation glasses off, gently tossing them onto her now-useless, uniquely-tailored-for-Wayne-recruiters resume. The letters before her flip from Greek back to English.

Percy leans forward and rests his chin in her curls.

"His loss, wise girl," he grumbles.

"I know that," Annabeth lashes out, "But it's mine too."

Percy removes his hands from her collarbone, and when Annabeth swivels her chair around to face him, he is sitting on the arm rest of their couch, waiting for her to explain. Annabeth kicks her feet out to place them between his.

"I love architecture," she begins, taking a deep breath.

"You do," Percy agrees, with a knowing smile and Annabeth shoots him a look for interrupting.

"But having free reign over Olympus has kind of spoiled me," she confesses.

In front of anyone else, Annabeth might have to force those words from her lips, but with Percy, it's always too easy.

"I need work experience before I graduate, but I wouldn't survive as an intern for an architect firm."

"They wouldn't survive you," Percy corrects, nudging her feet with his, "I can totally see it. Them giving you blueprints to study and you giving them back with all their mistakes circled in red. Or," he laughs, "Them begging you to just straight up finish their designs for them."

Annabeth snorts but doesn't disagree.

Knowing her current skill level, she would rather dress up for a tea party with all three Furies than be reduced to just making powerpoint presentations for clients or writing up reports on zoning laws. And no top architecture firm would hire her full-time with only two years of college under her belt, no matter how impressive her mortal-safe portfolio was.

"That's why I want to get into tech," Annabeth explains, "It'll give me something to do while I wait to graduate, and it'll improve my job prospects later. I don't want to wait until I get my degree to get into the field. Tech moves fast. I can't get left behind."

Percy tilts his head, contemplating.

"Does it have to be Wayne's company?" he questions.

"WE is the best," Annabeth insists, "I have to work there."

She isn't just spouting rankings from popular business magazines. She's done her research. Not only has the technology branch of Wayne Enterprises dipped into consumer electronics and high-tech solutions for the general public, but they've also invested millions of dollars into research and development in nanotech, biotech, superalloys, and so much more, all while promoting security, privacy, and advancement for the benefit of the people.

The people behind the company are just as impressive. There's Bruce Wayne, founder and ex-CEO, who at first glance acts exactly like the ditzy playboy billionaire that everyone believes him to be. Annabeth's deeper investigations reveal him to be much more philanthropic and strategic with his business decisions than people realize.

Then, there is his adopted son, Timothy Drake-Wayne, head of WayneTech R&D and majority shareholder. He's a year younger than her, but apparently some sort of Looking into the projects Drake-Wayne spearheaded, Annabeth can't help but admire his ambition.

And lastly, Lucius Fox, current CEO of Wayne Enterprises as a whole. Originally having been hired in WE's financial division . Where WE had started off as a wealthy, but small and somewhat struggling company based out of Gotham, Fox has forged it into multinational corporate giant in just little over a decade.

"What's your other option?" Percy asks, because of course he knows she has one.

Annabeth's mouth twists into an ugly grimace.

"LexCorp," she practically spits out.

Percy purses his lips, trying not to laugh at her passionate rage.

"That bad?" he asks sympathetically.

"It's a good company," Annabeth hesitates, trying to recover from her initial gut reaction, but fails, "I just hate it."

Percy's lips break free, and he snorts into his hands. Annabeth digs her toe into his calf to get him to shut up.

"Stop, stop, okay," he relents, half pleading and half laughing, "What's the deal with them?"

Annabeth doesn't really know where to start. The company itself is impressive, she can admit that much. It had started off as a simpler aerospace engineering firm and has grown to become one of Wayne Enterprises' biggest rivals by numerous corporation acquisitions and well-timed real estate decisions. All under the leadership of one Lex Luthor.

Never mind, she does know. Lex Luthor. He is the problem. Comparatively speaking, she doesn't know as much about Luthor as she knows about Wayne. While Wayne has carefully constructed a misleading, yet not entirely untruthful persona for the media to eat up, Luthor keeps any real details about his personal life under lock and key. There is hardly anything of value about the man that she could find online.

It's up to the company to speak for him, which Annabeth figures is his plan anyways because the LexCorp itself shines. It promotes innovation, philanthropy, and all the other great value pillars that people raved about, but none of that is personally backed by Luthor. She barely knows anything about the company's structure either; even its board of directors remains a secret to outsiders.

"It's Lex Luthor," she tells Percy, "Something about him puts me on edge."

"It's 'cause he's bald," her boyfriend replies instantly, green eyes glinting with humor.

Annabeth lets out a burst of laughter, finally fully relaxing and leaning back in the chair. Gods, she loves him.

"Yeah, seaweed brain, I'm sure that's it."

LINEBREAK

In the end, Annabeth admits defeat.

For now, at least.

She skims her newly constructed resume, humming, double and triple checking that everything is perfectly worded and perfectly aligned.

She's swapped out some of the verbs that imply creativity and collaboration for some that hint at ambition and aggression. The change is slight, something that would only register subconsciously in the minds of recruiters but given the company's history with buying out other business, she makes sure to tailor her tone to reflect their values.

It's perfect, she decides. Well, perfect enough.

Sliding the tips of her fingers over the mousepad, Annabeth uploads both her resume and her portfolio to the application and, without hesitation, clicks 'submit'.

LINEBREAK

The email arrives at a somewhat inconvenient time. She and Percy have just gotten back to the dorm they share from a long night of studying at the library. Her next final, for Environmental Systems: Sites and Sustainability is in seventy minutes, and she still has to shower to look somewhat presentable for the section of her test that consists of demonstrating her end-of-semester model to the board of professors. If Percy insists that she looks beautiful even after hours of blearily reading and rewriting notes in a stuffy building, well, he's just being biased. (He's not.)

Anyways, Annabeth returns to her room and before stepping into her bathroom, flips open her laptop by habit to refresh her email.

The words LexCorp Recruiting: Re: Your Application appear in a highlighted rectangle, and maybe Annabeth is being arrogant, or maybe she just knows what she's capable of, but she already knows what the email's contents will say.

It's inconvenient, not because it contains a rejection that will distract her from her exam, but because LexCorp's offer for an initial interview will tempt her to start prepping her responses when she should be reciting waste management and environmental impact statistics instead.

"I got an interview," she calls out, as Percy passes her door on his way to their small kitchen.

"Obviously," he calls back, fondly, and disappears out of frame.

A moment later, however, he returns to give her a brief hug and congratulations.

After he leaves to get ready for his own final, Annabeth skims the rest of the email. There's a lot of sentences that say next to nothing of value, and some that hash out the details of the meeting, but a few words near the bottom catch her eye.

Following your behavioral interview, if we deem you suitable for our program, a technical interview will be scheduled where you will be asked to demonstrate proficiency in your programming language of choice.

Annabeth frowns.

The website hadn't specified that the internship was a computer science one. Perhaps coding is just a method they use to gauge problem solving skills, but if not, that's something she'll have to bring up to the recruiter. She knows two programming languages, at an intermediate level, so she doesn't think it'll be an issue, but she wants a more project management role, one that'll test her leadership as well as problem solving skills.

Shrugging, she closes out the browser, grabs her towel and glides into the shower.

LINEBREAK

She aces her final, because of course she does. Even if her professors at New Rome University hadn't known her as Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena, Hero of Olympus, One of the Seven, and Official Architect of Olympus—which, at this point, is impossible—her work speaks for itself. An hour of ooh-ing and aah-ing goes by before Annabeth is finally allowed to leave the showroom and collapse in her bed. Percy joins her a half hour later, resting the total weight of his body on her back, but she doesn't mind the pressure as long as he pulls the cover over the both of them. She sleeps most of the day away, warm and secure, only leaving the nest when Percy's stomach growls with hunger.

"How'd it go?" Annabeth asks, as she watches her boyfriend shovel some pasta down his throat.

"'S pre'y goo'," he nods, swallowing, "I think I got B. There were some concepts I didn't really remember but I finished answering everything I knew."

"I forget how much the extra time helps," he adds, as an afterthought, and Annabeth nods understandingly.

Where it might've been hard to get approved for extra time at mortal education institutions, it was beyond common at NRU, and anyone with ADHD was practically guaranteed it.

"Yours?" Percy questions.

Annabeth gives him a small smile around her fork.

"They called my model revolutionary," she smirks.

Percy laughs delightedly at her pride.

"By the way, when's the interview?" he asks, tilting his head, "Want me to drop you off?"

"Two days, in Metropolis," Annabeth frowns, "You have an exam then."

She's lucky that her presentation today was the last of her finals, so she can focus her energy on packing up to move out. She'd originally been planning to move back to New York to stay with Percy for the summer, but if everything goes according to plan, she'll have to start looking for housing in Metropolis. Percy mirrors her expression, having come to the same conclusion.

"That's not too far from home," he settles, "I'll just have to visit you all the time."

Annabeth smiles as he reaches forward and twists her fingers into his.

"Every weekend," she agrees.

LINEBREAK

Annabeth steps forward and tilts her chin up to look at the dizzying height of LexCorp's main headquarters. Then, pushing on one of the many glass doors, lets herself into the building. She strides towards the front desk with purpose, tucking her shoulder blades back.

"My name is Annabeth Chase," she introduces herself politely but firmly to the receptionist at the front desk, "I'm here for my internship interview."

She glances at the small clock on the wall beside the man. She's exactly fifteen minutes early.

The receptionist blinks up at her, and Annabeth keeps her face neutral despite wanting to raise her eyebrows. Then, he fumbles behind his desk and produces a clipboard.

"You can sign in here," he instructs.

Annabeth takes the board from him, and scans it, her wire-frame glasses translating the words into Greek for her.

"May I have a pen?" she asks blandly, not looking up.

"What? Oh."

She hears him scramble for a second before a blue pen slides into her view. She plucks it from his fingers and, in English, neatly prints her name, phone number, and reason for visit in the next empty row. She places the pen on top of the clipboard and holds it back to him.

He double checks it and asks for her ID. After he's verified that Annabeth is who she says she is and is supposed to be here, he gives her a guest badge and points her in the direction of the elevator.

Annabeth thanks him and tucks the manilla folder she's brought containing paper copies of her resume and portfolio under her elbow before following his instructions.

She already doesn't like the building. The distance from the receptionist desk to the elevators is too large to make sense for visitors. Everything is sleek and grey and minimalistic, which Annabeth might have appreciated in small amounts, but here, the aesthetic dampens the mood. Nothing is interesting enough to catch her eye, as if LexCorp refuses to allow anything to distract its employees. The ceilings are high but entirely empty and the walls are the same dull color as the flooring. Annabeth's short heels clack against it as she crosses the lobby and flashes her badge at the turnstiles.

Once she's on the third floor, she turns right, as the receptionist had instructed, and counts the plaques beside the doors until she reaches room 342. She takes a quick look down at her attire. Black slacks, ironed to perfection, and a long sleeve light blue blouse. Simple, professional, and covering anything of interest on her body, such as the hardened muscles and numerous battle scars she's acquired over the years.

She's precisely five minutes early when she pushes open the door and takes her seat.

Early on, the questions are traditional. Tell us about yourself. What are you studying? What industry experience do you have? Why LexCorp? What's a time you were faced with hardship and how did you overcome it? What's your greatest strength? What's your greatest weakness?

Annabeth rattles off her practiced, yet not too polished answers with relative ease. She boasts an impressive vocabulary, careful not to use words that sound big but say nothing, and twenty minutes in she has the entire board of recruiters—three severe looking adults—hanging on to her every sentence.

"What do you plan to contribute to LexCorp?" the middle one asks, after scribbling a few words from her last answer onto a pad of paper.

Annabeth doesn't even have to think. She's had this answer ready, just like all the others, no matter that it's not actually a truthful one.

"Evolution," she announces, taking the time to look each of them in the eyes, "At any cost."

Annabeth is pleased as the one on the left actually shivers slightly under her gaze and confidence. They're all lucky that she doesn't actually support the sentiment. Annabeth has always been a good liar, when she needs to be, at least.

The one in the middle nods slowly, and Annabeth will bet anything that what they're writing down in their notes is word for word what she has just said.

Maybe Annabeth is being arrogant, or maybe she just knows what she's capable of, but she knows the spot is hers before she even leaves the room.

LINEBREAK

Three days later, Percy is lounging on the sofa in her new temporary living space that overlooks Heroes Park when the company sends her the email to confirm what she's already deduced. He digs his spoon into the tub of blueberry ice cream but Annabeth leans down and snags the bite with her mouth.

"Got the internship," she informs him, before he can pout.

Percy takes advantage of her proximity and kisses her. Annabeth doesn't know if he wants to taste her or the ice cream, but she's not complaining.

"And if you hadn't?" Percy asks, after pulling away, referring to the fact that she had signed the lease to the Metropolis apartment place days ago.

"Don't be ridiculous, that would have never happened," she grins, taking the spot next to him on the couch and draping her legs over his thighs.

Percy pulls her the rest of the way onto his lap, setting the ice cream down, and wraps his hand around the back of her neck to drag her back in.

Later, when Percy's head is awkwardly lolling on her shoulder, Annabeth scrolls through the employee contract that was included in the email as an attachment.

It's much too wordy, and her glasses have been on too long and are starting to press against the sides of her skull, but she pushes through. She would never sign something without reading every page.

She's just finished up the confidentiality and privacy, employee classification, and compensation and benefits sections—which is...much more generous than she was originally expecting—when she reaches the termination clause.

It starts off with the usual: a required advance notice for self-dismissal, consequences of security violations and/or breaches of contract, etc. But then there's the last part.

In the event the employee knowingly or unknowingly takes part in aiding or abetting Superman, resident hero of Metropolis, an immediate, unconditional, and irreversible termination of employment will be issued. Under no circumstances will the individual be able to regain their previous employment at LexCorp or any of its subsidiaries. Any company assets gained by the individual during time of employment will be seized and reclaimed by LexCorp.

"What the fuck," Annabeth actually hisses out loud, jostling Percy in his sleep.

His head shoots up and scans the exits of their apartment, hand reaching into his pocket. He only relaxes once he realizes Annabeth hasn't moved from her place.

"What's wrong?"

"Luthor can fire you if you help Superman," Annabeth summarizes.

"Uh..." Percy starts, looking confused, "That can't be allowed. That's not allowed. Right?"

"It's in the employee contract," she narrows her eyes, "So technically, it is. But it's definitely unethical."

"Why the Hades would Luthor want to stop you from helping a superhero?" Percy asks, his voice taking on a more worried tone.

"I don't know," Annabeth admits.

She scrolls down, realizing that it's the second to last page and she's read through the whole thirty-three-page document.

"But I plan to find out," she vows, and enters her signature.

LINEBREAK

On a beautifully sunny day at the end of May, Annabeth begins her first official day at LexCorp.

Her mood plummets instantly as she steps into the building with her brand-new intern's badge. She has mixed feelings about this internship. She knows it'll be good for her and her career. She'll learn a lot, both from industry leaders and the hands-on experience. She'll form connections with project managers, shadow cutting-edge research, and immerse herself in the corporate environment of a tech-giant.

But as the elevator doors open up to the sixteenth floor and her tour guide takes her around to meet the higher ups she'll be reporting to, Annabeth knows she is going to hate it here. The air feels slimy. Employees type monotonously into their keyboards, faces blank. More than a couple of men in suits stare at her as she walks by.

She's completely covered up, for gods' sake—not on their account, of course, but to avoid questions about her scars—and Annabeth really wants to just whip out her knife. Not to maim, just to threaten...and maybe slice their Achilles tendons, rendering them unable to walk.

She touches the small of her back, to reassure herself the weapon is there, but ignores the urge and continues in the tour guide's footsteps.

Annabeth shakes hands and exchanges pleasantries with more people than she can count, although she commits every name and face to memory. After they've covered the entire floor, the tour guide leads her back to the elevator.

"Now for the exciting part," the woman reveals, pressing the 'up' button, "He personally read the notes on your interview and asked me to bring you up to see him."

"He?" Annabeth questions, but she has an inkling.

"Mr. Luthor," the woman confirms, "He doesn't come down here much, at all, really, but he's given us permission to meet him in his office."

Once they're inside the lift, Annabeth watches as the woman gingerly selects the highest numbered button.

"What is he like?" Annabeth asks carefully, but makes her words come out curious and innocent.

"Mr. Luthor is...brilliant," her tour guide reveals, eyes flicking up to the camera in the corner of the ceiling.

She doesn't say any more.

Interesting.

"I can't wait to meet him," Annabeth replies, strategically enthusiastic.

She's telling the truth, but not for the reason she leads the other woman to believe. Annabeth wonders, not for the first time, if the man is watching her from the cameras.

LINEBREAK

The tour guide gestures Annabeth to the tinted glass doors and Annabeth hesitates as she places her fingers on the handle.

"I don't have the clearance to go inside," the woman explains, shifting her feet, "I'll be waiting for you out here."

Annabeth knows she shouldn't be making assumptions before she actually meets the man, but she already knows she's going to hate him.

She opens the door.

Everything inside the penthouse office screams expensive. It's not quite as minimalistic as the lobby and other floors, but Annabeth figures Luthor wouldn't be caught dead in the same environment as his employees. There are quite a few art pieces and sculptures, of incredible quality, but they're skillfully hideous. All dark metal, sharp lines, and harsh colors.

Annabeth only lets her eyes linger on her surroundings for a moment, before walking forward and towards the large marble slab at the end of the room. Lex Luthor is waiting for her, silently, and says nothing as she approaches until she is standing a few feet from his desk.

"Miss Annabeth Chase."

His words observe more than greet her. Annabeth looks into his eyes, steel grey against pale green, and refuses to cower under his intense stare.

"Mr. Luthor."

She mirrors his tone but purposefully blurs her eyes a fraction, hiding their sharpness. If her initial profile of the man is accurate, she can't allow him to know her true potential.

The tension in the air is absolutely palpable, and Annabeth finally forces herself to submit, breaking the eye-contact. When she looks back at him, Luthor looks tad less hostile.

"Welcome to LexCorp," he finally says, "I trust your experience here so far has been satisfactory."

It's not a question, but Annabeth answers it automatically.

"Yes, Mr. Luthor," she says dutifully, "I've met with all the managers in the project oversight department. They have all been extremely welcoming. Thank you for allowing me to alter the initial classification of my internship."

Luthor gives her a cold smile and Annabeth has to, again, force down the urge to unsheathe her knife.

"Excellent. I am looking forward to seeing what someone of your caliber is able to accomplish at my company," Luthor tells her, folding his hands.

It's not a compliment. It's a warning. Produce results or else.

Annabeth nods firmly.

"I am eager to start, sir," she asserts, "I have meetings set up with Mr. Valence and Ms. Berler to discuss the current state of their respective projects and I have drafted a list of possible points of inefficiency to improve upon."

If Luthor is at all satisfied by her level of preparation, he does not show it. He does, however, give her a very small nod of acknowledgement. When he says nothing more, Annabeth knows their time is up.

"I will leave you to your work, then, Mr. Luthor," she says, dismissing herself before he does, "Perhaps in the coming weeks, I can schedule a time to share my progress with you, if your calendar permits."

Annabeth doesn't wait for his agreement, because she knows he will most likely not give it. Instead, she turns on her heel and walks back the way she came, keeping her head straight and shoulders back. She can feel Luthor's eyes on her, and although she knows her knife is completely concealed by her clothing and the mist, a very small trickle of fear goes down her spine.

Once she closes the door to the office behind her, her tour guide looks at her in surprise. Annabeth guesses that she's probably never seen someone remain so poised after a meeting with Lex Luthor.

Annabeth gives her a practiced sheepish smile.

"Can you point me in the direction of a bathroom?"

LINEBREAK

They end up having to descend seven floors to get to a women's restroom, something that Annabeth has very strong negative feelings about.

"I'll just be a few minutes," she tells the other woman and darts inside.

Thankfully, it's empty.

Annabeth doesn't actually have to use the bathroom; she just needs a minute to herself in a place where Luthor can't see her. She glances along the seams of the ceiling to be sure.

Annabeth stares at herself in the mirror. Striking grey eyes stare back.

Lex Luthor had ended up being exactly who she had predicted him to be and if Annabeth didn't hate him so much, she would feel proud of herself for reading him so well.

Luthor is not a good person. That much is obvious, from the cold intellect, the arrogance, and the look in his eye that tells Annabeth exactly why he had allowed her to come aboard.

Evolution at any cost, she had said at her interview.

It had been a risk at the time, a calculated one based off multiple business analyses of LexCorp's corporate strategy. Though, she didn't expect Luthor to personally embody it as much as he did. And it wasn't just his potentially skewed business ethics; there had been something else when Annabeth had looked into his eyes. Something devoid of empathy. She had originally wanted to ask about the Superman clause in her contract but after stepping into his office, she did not dare to bring it up.

Something is very wrong with Lex Luthor, she concludes, gripping the sink before her, And I am going to find out what it is.

LINEBREAK

It takes her about a week.

The days pass quickly. The hours at work are long and busy and full of meetings, but the days themselves pass quickly. At least, Annabeth's mind stays engaged. She never finds herself bored. There's always something to do, people to talk to, meetings to attend.

The organization of her internship is messy, she's well aware. Normally they would have handed her off to one of the more specialized teams where she would have spent a few weeks learning their technologies and methods before being able to contribute productively.

But, in just the first few hours, she had shown her supervisors that she was not only capable, but eager, to dip her toes into every project her clearance allowed her access to. And in another few hours she had proven that she was more than able to manage the resulting workload.

Her newfound ability to flit between teams, floors, and offices is what ultimately had led to the discovery.

The man is a supervillain.

The revelation, despite only taking a week, had formed slowly.

He doesn't don a mask, or a costume—unless horrifically expensive suits counted—he doesn't have a cheesy name, he doesn't spend his nights rampaging the city causing havoc or committing acts of terrorism. But none of that matters. Annabeth knows world domination when she sees it and she knows that it is on the forefront of Lex Luthor's mind.

All the conversation she's had in the last week, where she'd casually slipped Luthor's name into the discussion, has helped her notice it. Everyone in the building is afraid of him, and not in the regular 'don't let your boss catch you slacking off' kind of way. People flinch at the mention of him, hesitate to say his name in irrational fear of summoning the man, and work vigorously to avoid being laid off for not being productive enough.

And the worst part is, none of them even realize it.

They know that they're wary of him, but they all chalk it up to being awed by his intellect, and don't realize just how much they genuinely fear him.

Before the second giant war, before Tartarus, and before Arachne, Annabeth might have felt the same way. Right now, though, she just really, really hates Luthor.

But the real kicker, the thing that makes Annabeth take the leap from megalomaniac to full-blown supervillain, is Luthor's deep-seated hatred and, dare she say, jealousy, towards Metropolis's hero, Superman.

She had followed the thread of curiosity originating from her contract's termination clause only to discover that even the mere mention of the hero was taboo in the office. No one had wanted to talk about it, but Annabeth had managed to wheedle it gracefully out of them, and this is the conclusion she had reached:

Lex Luthor hates Superman because of his desperate need for control over, well, everything. And how was he to control a virtually indestructible alien with powers beyond imagination.

(Not Annabeth's, or any demigods' imagination, but for mortals in general.)

If she were to say the words out loud, "Lex Luthor is a supervillain", she would probably be laughed at. Even after giving her lengthy explanation, she would probably still be laughed at. But Annabeth trusts her gut, she wouldn't be a very good demigod if she didn't, so she trusts it implicitly. And every time she encounters Luthor, it screams DANGER from deep inside her stomach. Maybe Percy has rubbed off on her too much, or maybe it's just who she is, but Annabeth feels compelled to do something about it.

As she swivels in her chair at her desk, and thoughtfully chews the sandwich Percy had left for her in the fridge that morning before returning to New York, Annabeth's brain whirls, Athena intellect kicking into overdrive.

The screen before her displays a progress report Ms. Berler had emailed to her earlier and she scrolls through it mindlessly, but she's not reading it.

Instead, an idea starts to take shape in her mind, nine very simple steps, a plan worthy of Athena. And maybe Annabeth is being arrogant, or maybe she just knows what she's capable of, but she already knows how this will play out.

Annabeth smiles and gets to work.

AN:

this is going to be so much fun for me

the updates on this might be a little slow at first because i'm prioritizing my other PJO/DC story but it's all planned out and it's gonna be awesome

comment and let me know what you guys think of it so far! i would love your feedback!

PS: there will be times when i pull corporate/business details out of my ass but it'll at least sound believable so pls don't rip into it too much :)