Reinforcement

Annabeth is a New York city girl through and through, but she has to give credit to Metropolis for its sinfully pleasant summer weather. She doesn't often get the luxury of taking the time to simply enjoy her surroundings, so recently she's been making the effort to wake up just a little earlier. The Annabeth that gets to slow down and savor the morning breeze before the city heats up again thanks her for it.

Still a few blocks away from the office, she pauses at a local convenience stand, sliding the man behind the counter a few bills before plucking a copy of the Daily Planet out of a bin. Annabeth moves her glasses from her hair onto her nose bridge and the front-page headline reads clear.

SUPERMAN MOPS UP LUTHOR'S FAILED SCIENCE PROJECT

Annabeth hardly bothers to read the rest; the title alone sets the tone for the article. Instead, she skims down the columns and past an especially unfortunate picture of Luthor's face, scrunched in mid-panic, until she finds what she's looking for in tiny, bolded letters.

By Clark Kent

Annabeth smiles in amusement, rolls up the newspaper, tucks it into her backpack, and resumes her commute to work

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Twelve-thirty is the time of day that the break room traffic reaches its peak, Annabeth has come to notice. Taking advantage of the brief window of opportunity where everyone piles in to grab their lunches, Annabeth uses the crowd as cover from the camera to slip her copy of the Daily Planet behind the microwave. After making sure it peeks out just enough, she returns to her desk and pops open her tupperware.

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Annabeth had known from the early stages of development that her plan would involve Superman, that the alien hero would provide her both the cover and leeway to manipulate Luthor as she pleased without any lasting consequences. Getting Superman to participate unknowingly would have required careful maneuvering had Annabeth not made a major discovery that simplified everything.

She had begun her research with the Daily Planet, the first and most popular information source for all things Superman, combing through all the articles and videos she could find, starting from the very earliest issues. The first few pieces had proved unfruitful, written by different authors, and containing no interviews or first-person accounts, just regurgitated speculation on Superman's origins, powers, and earliest criminal takedowns.

In the next few issues, every article on the hero seemed to be written by a woman named Lois Lane and was much more personal than any of the previous ones. Lane's third article was the first to ever feature a direct quote from Superman himself. And, as Annabeth continued to read, Lane's tone slowly transformed into something a tad softer, fonder even. Annabeth could've dismissed it as the result of one too many one-on-one interviews or hero worship, but then, she found something interesting.

Lane began to shrug off the Superman liaison responsibility to a new reporter, Clark Kent, not long after he joined the Daily Planet. In fact, his first article on the hero thwarting a killer gorilla attack made the front page mere weeks after his first day at work. From then on, it seemed that Kent became the Daily Planet's go-to Superman writer, with Lane making only the occasional appearance on hero topics.

And if Annabeth had thought Lane's articles were personal, Kent's were on a whole new level. While he lacked the same tone, his descriptions of Superman's adventures were so heavily detailed that either Kent had made them up for the sake of the story, or he had a front-row seat to every single one of the hero's stunts. Annabeth had to admit that some reporters really were that story hungry, but even so, it had seemed implausible.

Curious about his motivations, Annabeth had then pulled up Kent's profile on the Daily Planet website which included a brief personal introduction and a high-definition picture. Annabeth had briefly glanced at the image before reading, but halfway through the paragraph had paused and looked back at it.

Annabeth has spent upwards of a decade perfecting her ability to see through disguises. The teacher who asked her to stay behind and discuss her paper, the young girl who skinned her knee and asked for help, the librarian who insisted on personally leading her to a book. Mortal or monster? One wrong judgment could cost her her life, so Annabeth had gotten pretty good at picking up on the details.

And sure, Kent could slump his shoulders to knock off an inch or two, wear an ill-fitting suit and a pair of tacky black-rimmed glasses, and not look the camera directly in the eye, but none of that could fool Annabeth.

In the end, Clark Kent is Superman himself and Annabeth wonders how she could have ever thought otherwise.

(In hindsight, finding out Kent and Lane are married explains so much.)

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Annabeth waits patiently by the front desk, resisting the urge to tap her feet. Lana had messaged her earlier that she had left something important for her with the receptionist, but the man seems to have misplaced it. The elevator pings faintly, and a group of employees Annabeth recognizes from her floor brush by on their way out, their whispered snippets of conversation just loud enough for her to hear.

"Did you see—"

"The science project part—"

A man laughs and is promptly elbowed and hushed by another.

Annabeth turns back to the receptionist who has abandoned his quest of rifling through the small file cabinet and is pointedly avoiding her gaze as he shuffles around his desk belongings. The elevator pings again.

This time, harsh, heavy footsteps echo across the floor as Luthor storms out, nearly colliding with the exit turnstiles on the way. Annabeth smothers a snort at the sight of a stack of beige papers clenched in his left fist before he disappears through the glass doors, bodyguards trailing behind him.

She turns around again, just in time to see the receptionist triumphantly pull an envelope out from under his keyboard and hand it to her with a sheepish smile.

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In the comfort of her home, Annabeth props her feet up on a nearby chair and carefully breaks apart the wax seal. A thick piece of lavender cardstock slides out, the contents of which are no surprise. It's been on her calendar for weeks.

The envelope contains her physical invitation and entrance pass to LexCorp's charity gala, a party to fundraise for Luthor Hospital's new state-of-the-art children's wing. If she disregards the fact that Luthor could simply provide all the money needed by dipping into his personal accounts, the gala is actually a very important event, both for Luthor and for her.

Annabeth fidgets with the corners of the invitation for a few minutes, thinking, before casting a drachma into the light of the setting sun.

"I need you to make me something."

"No 'hi', 'hello,' 'how're you doing, Leo?' Just straight to business, huh?" Leo Valdez mutters, turning around to face the iris message, but his smile betrays his words.

Annabeth's apology comes in the form of giving him something new to build.

The son of Hephaestus raises his brows.

"I doubt you'd need me for that," he points out.

"I need it discreet, practically invisible, and made without any godly materials," she clarifies.

"Invisible and mortal safe?" Leo rubs his chin, "Now that's tricky. Can I ask what it's for?"

"No."

Then Annabeth shoots him a vicious grin.

"But if you really want to know, turn on the news in two months."

Leo blinks.

"That's...suspicious and vaguely threatening," he says, hesitant at first, "I'll have it delivered by Thursday."

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One hour before she's scheduled to meet Lana at the entrance, Annabeth slips on her blue-grey dress, and pins her curls up and away from her face. She tucks her invitation, bronze knife, sewing tin, and other essentials into her purse and mentally goes over her plan once more, before deeming herself ready for battle.

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Barely thirty minutes into the party, Annabeth is already itching to leave. She's been hovering by Lana's side the entire time, being occasionally introduced to the other woman's conversation partners. Annabeth reminds herself to relax. She has work to do and it's not Lana's fault that all the people at the gala are dreadfully boring.

Her relief arrives when she notices her manager tense imperceptibly.

"Lana," a deep voice calls out.

Lana gives the man and another woman beside him a slightly strained smile.

"Annabeth, I'd like to introduce you to Clark Kent and Lois Lane, from the Daily Planet," Lana says, "And this is my new intern, Annabeth Chase."

Annabeth isn't sure why the woman is using her as a social crutch, but perks up anyways, smiling good-naturedly at the pair of newcomers.

Kent towers a few inches above her, and several more over Lana, wearing a slightly rumpled black suit that Annabeth has no doubt is on purpose. He adjusts the frames of his glasses which dim the bright blue of his eyes. Lane, on the other hand, is slightly shorter than Annabeth, with sleek dark hair and a look in her pale eyes that seems to say, Try me.

"Oh, yes, I think I saw you at the demonstration!" Annabeth pretends to remember, "That was really scary, I'm glad Superman was somehow there to save the day."

She has no good reason to include the second half of her statement, other than the amusement of seeing Clark Kent squirm uncomfortably.

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Chase. You're in good hands, I've known Lana since we were children," Kent explains, in a polite, almost hesitant voice that clashes with his alter ego.

"Yeah, it's a shame that she works for Luthor," Lane speaks, for the first time.

The implication of that statement registers the second it hits Annabeth's ears and she mentally winces. Lana's childhood crush is Superman, and now she works for his nemesis. What a ridiculously small world.

"LexCorp actually does some good work, Lois," Lana says, eyes hardening.

"Then why don't we ever hear about it?" Lane retorts.

Annabeth watches Kent shuffle awkwardly, not knowing how to interfere.

Lane isn't being mean on purpose. Annabeth guesses that she just can't reel in her reporter instincts that say getting a rise out of your subject is the surefire way to get them to divulge some juicy information. Annabeth has to respect the dedication.

Without warning, Lex Luthor, the man himself, inserts himself into their group and breaks the previous tension by causing everyone to tense up because of him. He reaches out and vigorously shakes Kent's hand with much more force than necessary.

"Nice to see you again, Kent," he says, but looks to the side and winks, "You too, Lois."

Lane's face folds into outright disgust, while Kent clenches his jaw but does nothing else. Annabeth, once again, goes ignored.

"Nice article," Luthor continues, finally looking at Kent, "Even if much of it was puffed up personal opinion."

A flash of something positively murderous finds itself across Luthor's face before it's gone in an instant. But Annabeth sees it, and she knows Kent sees it, and a terrible thought dawns on her.

Lex Luthor knows Clark Kent is Superman.

It takes every single muscle in her body to force Annabeth's face to remain pleasant and neutral, but she must, especially in the presence of both Superman and Luthor, stay calm, so she takes that mind-blowing piece of information, stuffs it into a tiny box and continues participating in the conversation.

"I'm sorry you felt that way, Mr. Luthor," Kent replies professionally, even as Lane continues to glare at the man from beside him.

Lana taps Annabeth discreetly and advises her to grab some food before they take it away in preparation for the speeches. Annabeth gratefully accepts the out and leaves to wait in the line.

As she grabs a plate and slowly shuffles forward Annabeth's mind whirls. Lex Luthor knows that Clark Kent is Superman. And if he knows, why hasn't he used that information? As far as she knows, Superman has no weakness, but hypothetically, Clark Kent has many more. Compared to an indestructible alien superhero, Kent is nothing but a man, a reporter barely known outside of Metropolis so why...

Annabeth pauses.

Oh.

That's exactly why.

Luthor won't touch Kent, because Kent is so far beneath Luthor's wealth and power and intellect that any fight between the two is simply not worth it to him. If Luthor is going to prove himself to be the best, to be a god, he needs to beat a god. Not some random reporter. So obviously he doesn't go after Kent, he goes after Superman, because to Luthor, that'sthe battle that matters, the battle that feeds his ego, that's...

Annabeth pauses again.

That's something she can use.

But first, before she can let her mind run with this newfound realization, she has something she needs to do.

Annabeth steps out of the food line, dropping her plate off with a nearby waiter.

When LexCorp was building the planes for Jada Airlines, Luthor bribed the safety analysis company for the reports to come back clean to greenlight production. Annabeth knows this for a fact, but the reason how she knows this is that she used Daedalus's computer to illegally access the financials of the safety company's directors. Unfortunately, this evidence won't hold up. For one, the safety company could outright deny it and a warrant would be dismissed for lack of probable cause. And second, Luthor is tricky. She needs evidence he can't weasel his way out of. She needs something more concrete.

Glancing around her for witnesses, Annabeth slips into the coat room and searches the racks for the jacket she had seen Luthor wear earlier. In a sea of nearly identical suits, Annabeth thanks Luthor's desire to be the best because it makes finding his coat infinitely easier.

She reaches into her purse and snaps open the sewing tin, pulling out a thin wire pre-threaded through the eye of a sharp metal needle. Annabeth grabs the lapel, holds it open, and carefully weaves Leo's creation into the inside lining of Luthor's jacket. She goes slowly, making sure to follow the existing stitches precisely.

Finally, after a few painstakingly long minutes, she tucks the last inch inside the fabric and smooths everything down. She finishes hiding the needle away in her purse just as someone lunges out from behind another rack and brings a metal baton down on her wrist, audibly snapping it. He wraps an arm around her collarbone to keep her in place and fumbles through his pockets for something.

Annabeth doesn't scream. She can't scream.

She can't take the chance that it catches Superman's attention and ruins weeks of meticulously planned acts, so she refuses to make a sound. She's heard rumors that the man has his super hearing calibrated specifically for danger and shows up to save the day at the sound of a crying kitten. She has to pretend that nothing is wrong.

Instead, Annabeth swallows the blood in her mouth from biting down in pain. Setting her jaw tightly in place, she shoots her head straight up, ramming her skull into her attacker's chin before he can report an intruder into his radio. Her uninjured hand jerks out immediately to clamp around his mouth, silencing the man's groan.

It's horrifically painful, but Annabeth snaps the fingers on her broken wrist. The air around them thickens, something tangible brushing past her ear to wrap around the back of the man's head.

She feels his mouth stop struggling behind her grip.

"You never saw me," she whispers, condensing the mist tightly around his face, "You tripped and hit your chin on the counter."

Annabeth doesn't let the mist dissipate until the man's eyes are successfully clouded over. When she does release him, she scrambles past the rows of coats, cradling her wrist and shoving the door open with her shoulder. Behind her, the man stands, blinking in confusion as he rubs the bruise under his jaw.

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With all the guests busy finding their seats for the speech, the bathroom is empty when Annabeth bursts into it. She tears the ziplock bag from her purse open with her teeth and shoves ambrosia down her throat all while blinking back unwanted tears.

It takes a second for the godly food to take effect, but once it does, she feels the bone and muscle stitch back together. After a few minutes, she's able to roll out her wrist and feel only faint soreness. Wetting a napkin, she dabs away the blood at the corner of her mouth.

Her hair is a mess, she notices in the mirror. Her usual curls are frizzy at the top of her head, and she has to pull out her elastic to redo the bun.

Annabeth doesn't expect anyone to walk into the bathroom, much less a reporter who is likely missing prime quotes, but someone does, walking up next to her. There's an entire sink between their bodies, so Annabeth simply continues to rework her updo.

"You're Miss Chase, right? Luthor's intern?"

The woman pulls out a tube of lipstick, dabbing it gently at her mouth. Annabeth pries apart a bobby pin and flicks one of her curls back, pinning it against the side of her head.

The woman continues without waiting for a response, "I'm Lois Lane, but just Lois is fine. I'm a reporter from the Daily Planet. We met earlier, with my colleague, Clark Kent."

Annabeth has to stop herself from snorting. What was up with Superman and women with first and last names starting with 'L'?

"Anyways, Lana was talking a bit about you after you left. It's a really great achievement. I didn't think Luthor let his interns come to events like these."

"Thank you, the experience so far has definitely been...interesting," Annabeth huffs out a small laugh.

"I wish you luck, Miss Chase. I'd say LexCorp isn't usually like this, but then I'd be lying," Lois grins sharply, splitting her newly refreshed red lips.

"We'll see," Annabeth hums, but doesn't say more.

Lois tilts her head, interested and definitely on the verge of asking another question, but Annabeth straightens her back and snaps her purse closed.

"It was nice properly meeting you, Lois," Annabeth says, running her newly healed hand over the top of her head as a last-minute check, "And, I'm Lana's intern, not Mr. Luthor's."

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As soon as she's released from the torture that is Luthor's shallow fundraising speech for the children, Annabeth goes straight home and opens up her laptop. All it takes is her plugging in a set of headphones and dancing her fingers over a few keys before Luthor's voice filters in through the bug Annabeth had left in his jacket.

He's on the phone, and although she can only hear one side of the conversation, it's plenty incriminating.

Annabeth smiles.

Got you.

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The following Thursday is the scheduled board meeting that everyone has been dreading. Everyone but Annabeth, who manages to keep that feeling under wraps.

Attendance goes by faster than last time, with everyone eager to address and, hopefully, quickly move on from the multiple elephants in the room. Bauer, the director of the board, wastes no time in bringing them up.

"Mr. Luthor," he all but demands, "Could you shed any light on our current situation?"

"Upon investigation, the Sky Sentry was sabotaged by one of our engineers. Since then, he has been fired and dealt with and we will be taking measures to ensure nothing of the sort will happen again. To address your second concern, one of the planes underwent a freak mechanical failure, the cause of which we are still in the process of determining. We have a safety team dissecting the aircraft as we speak."

It does not escape Annabeth how even now, Luthor takes no responsibility for either incident. A few of the other board members also seem to notice, but Bauer continues before anyone can bring it up.

"In any case, LexCorp has taken a major financial hit and as a result, I think the decision is unanimous that we will not be going through Mr. Heyeck's remodeling plan, yes?"

A chorus of yeses and nods circle the table, and Heyeck looks disappointed, but not at all surprised.

"We do, however," Bauer continues, "Have much to do to make up the loss."

Lana clears her throat.

"I have proposals for a few lower stake projects in development. As they are not high profile, they will not be enough to fully recover our losses, but since these projects contribute to bettering quality of life, they will bring us back in the media's good graces," she reports, passing a few folders around for viewing.

Annabeth opens one to find the mockups of the hearing aids she saw in the labs.

"Lana has been doing a good job at handling media fallout so far," Flores, another board member contemplates, rifling through another project, "I motion that we go through with her plan."

"I second that motion," Tran replies.

When the votes among the seven members are tallied up, the result is 4 to 3 in favor of Lana's plan with, as Annabeth expected, Bauer being the swaying vote. She glances over to Luthor, his mouth downturned in a sour and angry frown, but it goes largely ignored by the rest of the room.

After another twenty minutes of other housekeeping decisions, the board meeting breaks. Luthor, as always, is the first to leave. Except this time, it feels less like a threatening exit and more like a march of defeat, even if Annabeth is the only one to discern the difference.

Annabeth waits as Lana stays behind to walk through the rest of her projects to the few directors who had deemed it an interesting topic.

"These are great ideas, Ms. Lang," Tran sighs, "It's a shame we aren't able to provide them with more thorough funding. I'd imagine they would incite an exceptionally well public reception if we weren't using them as a makeshift band-aid."

"Thank you," Lana smiles wryly, "Either way, I'm happy for any opportunity to make them accessible, even if that's in the wake of exploding aircraft."

Bauer chuckles, something Annabeth guesses is rare from the man given everyone's reaction to it.

"And the second plane?" he asks, "I'd assume Jada Airlines does not want it but is it intact?"

"The team is inspecting that one as well, in case any similar oversight puts it at risk," Lana explains.

"The safety report was sparkling clean, it's hard to imagine what could have gone wrong," Annabeth frowns, snatching the opportunity she's been waiting for, "But if the same team is conducting the investigation, I imagine they will develop an equally thorough account of any mechanical failures."

Bauer stills, as Flores and Tran send him equally alarmed looks.

Annabeth sucks in her breath and bites her lip to keep herself from smiling.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know I wasn't supposed to see that safety report, but I promise I didn't show anybody, and I gave it back as soon as I finished reading it. Am I in trouble?"

Lana places her hand comfortingly on Annabeth's shoulder, assuring her that it's no big deal, and guides her to the elevator, but not before turning back at the board members with a look that promised further discussion.

The ride down to ground level is silent, Lana typing furiously away at her phone, giving Annabeth time to think.

With her invisibility cap, sneaking into the hangar for access to the plane was child's play. And she hadn't even had to worry about leaving incriminating evidence behind because to admit it was an act of sabotage in a report meant admitting that the plane wasn't built to standard in the first place. Something, she knows, Luthor would never admit to.

With the board having already taken her bait, Annabeth wonders how long before they look into the safety company themselves. Glancing at Lana, whose phone screen already has the report pulled up, Annabeth feels satisfaction creep up her spine. Not long at all, it seems.

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um hello

so sorry

please enjoy & let me know what you thought

things are ramping up! I didn't want Annabeth to just magically know things, so I hope I explained her thought process well enough that it makes sense. anyways, this isn't abandoned and neither are my other stories, I just got lots of school stuff to get done so I will actually graduate on time lmao. thank you to everyone who commented on my last chapter and just in general !! y'all are so sweet

EDIT: some fun tidbits of information

if anyone has watched penthouse, the scene where Annabeth is listening to Luthor via her planted bug is directly inspired from shim su-ryeon and her little flowery garden spy nook lmaooo

also i know showing pictures of outfits for your characters instead of describing them is a little outdated, but i saw this dress a while ago and totally wrote Annabeth's gala scenes with it in mind. writing about it in detail didn't really fit the tone/flow of the chapter so here it is!