[IC] All in your head(Omerta/Freedomliveson)

[freedomliveson]

Clark adjusted his glasses once more as he read an article yet again on the turf war that was enveloping Gotham City. At this rate, all he could was snort out a brief laugh as he leaned back in the beige leather chair that occupied his office. It was a wonder that gangs could thrive at all in Gotham with Bruce AND Dick on the prowl, let alone Tim beginning to fly solo on his own adventures. Of course, he knew that the generic criminal mind was bent in a singular, monotonous direction and would never stray the course. How else could one explain the crime in Metropolis? He and Kara could topple an entire planet if they needed to, yet the criminals emerged out of the woodwork every other day to try and claim their supposed "stake" of the city. It was a frustrating endeavor, but one he would never give up on...not after she made him promise.

It was cancer. Of all the things in the world that she could've gotten herself tangled up in, it was cancer. Brain cancer, in fact. It was a morbid shock to hear the oncologist say how "rare it was for such a healthy woman to develop a terminal stage of cancer so quickly". He couldn't save her from this, no matter what he did. From the time she was diagnosed, it only took one month for the tumor to take her life, but not before she could tell him something that would resonate with him for the rest of his life. She was laying in the hospital bed, muscles limp and tired when all of a sudden she grabbed his hand, squeezed it as tight as she could and looked deep into his being with her piercing hazel eyes and told him:
"Don't you ever give up on this city, Clark. Please. For me." He assured her he wouldn't, but she made him promise. That singular oath bound him to forever protecting a city that might never purge itself of crime. But while he was still breathing, he could try and make Metropolis a place where others could carve out a place for themselves without living in fear.

A smirk played across his lips as he turned off the monitor, rising before walking out of the office and into the living room, noting that the island in the kitchen to his right had a bag filled with tacos with a post-it note that simply read:

Eat up, couz! Love, Kara

Complying with the directive of the note, Clark walked to the island and was about to delve into the bag when his ears picked up a faint tremor. The tremor increased in magnitude, then shouting...crackling...

"Let's go! Empty the money into the sacks!"

He shook his head, laying his glasses on the counter as he walked out of his apartment calmly, locking it behind him. He ascended to the roof through the fire escape, suit and tie shedding off of his body to reveal the trademark red and blue uniform that represented everything he stood for. He careened through the air, following the source of the tremor and swooped downward towards the Federal Reserve of Metropolis, two goons with machine guns outside the entrance. Superman landed a few feet in front of them and instructed them:
"Either you can put the guns down and turn yourselves in or I throw you through the nearest wall. Your choice." The goons looked at each other before unloading their clips on the man of steel, the hero sighing as he grabbed one of the henchmen and slammed him into the ground. The other henchmen took off.
"Figures." He looked down at the now unconscious goon.
"You need to pick better friends."

[puddingpunter]

A pink tongue slipped between clenched teeth to wet parched lips. Auspice, as she was commonly referred to, had been keeping up with all news on the 'Superman' for a little over a fortnight now and was currently eagerly awaiting the arrival of the man of the hour -from a rooftop just two buildings away. Of course, she'd also been doing her research. A police scanner laid on the ground beside her, static occasionally interfering with the messages various officers within the city were spewing into their devices.

The girl had come with minimal 'supplies' for her mission. Since she was new to the city and had absolutely no digital footprints left to trace her with, save for whatever the labs typed up, she felt it unnecessary to disguise her identity and settled on casual attire. No mask either. Just a pair of cargo pants, a leather flight jacket, and boots -"civvies" as they were called. For her finishing touch, Auspice tied her hair back into a high ponytail.

At last, he arrived. When a blur of red and blue entered her sight, Auspice removed all traces of her having been there and quickly made her way to ground level using the building's fire escape. Superman being, well, basically the Übermensch he was, had obviously already solved the issue by the time Auspice crossed reached the bank. Time for the play to start. Harrumphing rather loudly to catch Superman's attention, the red headed girl began her to execute her plan. "Hey show off!" she barked, being careful to approach the infamous hero from the side rather than directly behind. "Nice job. But next time, could you please give the rest of us a chance?" While her question was meant to be teasing, her tone probably implied a more serious and sarcastic attitude than she had intended. Hoping to seem a little more natural, being that the 'social norm' wasn't exactly her forte, Auspice raised an eyebrow as she looked up at Superman.

[freedomliveson]

“The rest of us?” Superman furrowed a brow, turning to face the red haired young woman. She was dressed as a civilian, but she didn’t seem put off by the fact that a robbery was still in progress and that she was essentially trying to stall the Man of Steel from stopping the act itself. Who was this girl? He was tempted to brush her off completely, but the way she stood, the way her eyes bored into his skull…something was off. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was drastically off.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you want to have a conversation, let’s do so after I’ve cleaned up the mess these goons decided to create.” As if on cue, the rest of the robbery squadron emerged from the banks double doors, sacks of cash in their hands, their ski masks practically oozing with delight at their supposed haul. It took them a moment to realize that there was an intimidating presence looming over them in a red and blue uniform.

“I suppose I couldn’t ask you to just drop the money and wait to get arrested, right?” The robbers quickly withdrew their submachine guns, Superman responding by grabbing two of them by their collars and throwing them against each other before embedding them in the outer wall of the bank. After a deep inhale, Superman released a sub zero exhale, effectively coating the robbers in ice, fixing them to the wall.
“Now for the others…” Unless the young woman had decided to jump in, he would easily dispatch the others.

[puddingpunter]

Time is precious in situations such as these and although Auspice knew that all nearby innocents were almost guaranteed absolute safety thanks to Superman's presence, she didn't think it wise to argue with the man of steel. Speaking of which -time to get moving. Staying put where she stood as Superman went ahead continuing his efforts to halt the robbery, Auspice reached into her right-hand pocket and pulled out a small container. It looked just like an Altoids' tin and would easily be passed as concealing nothing more than harmless gum, but it's contents were much more useful than simple breath mints. At least they were to Auspice, she never dared test her theory out but could assume they'd do absolutely nothing if a mediocre human chose to try it. Quickly removing a single tablet from the canister before returning it to its rightful place, she popped the pill into her mouth and under her tongue. Within seconds a near-exact replica of Superboy overtook her body, the new look consuming her figure in its entirety. All but her conspicuous gold eyes had been replaced.

Clear the mind, control the body. Deep breath in and a slow breath out. The pawns were in place, and she was now in her element. Objective: vault. With Superman having effectively incapacitated the perpetrators within the immediate area, Auspice ran ahead and made her way to the building's repository, a sure target for any and all people looking to make a quick buck around here. As expected the vault door was wide open with one suspect on watch while another two were still collecting whatever they could from the cache. Without warning, the man closest to her opened fire. Her new 'body' provided adequate protection against the rain of bullets. So, with little to worry about, Auspice charged forward and destroyed her assailant's weapon followed by adding a few jabs at his pressure points. She had to be careful since her aim was not to kill him. Nevertheless she succeeded in subduing the man and he was soon unconscious on the floor. She used the same tactics on the remaining robbers and they proved to be of little challenge. Turning around, Auspice used infrared vision to search for any possible remaining robbers, much to the dismay of her eyes. This was her body now, yes, but when it came to actually copying powers she found the task very straining.

[freedomliveson]

Clark saw a flash of...well, SOMETHING, fly past him into the bank. He could pick up the sounds of fighting from the interior, prompting him to glide into the darkened financial institution and examine the chaos that the robbers had instigated. The main level didn't look too broken in except for some scuffs on the waxed floor, but when he approached the stairs down towards the vault, shouts of agony echoing towards him. Upon reaching the vault, there was...

Super...boy?

He couldn't tell what version of Superboy this was, seeing as there had been several iterations, most of which were based on his own genetics. A couple of clones, an evil twin sent from another dimension, a GOOD, alternative version of him from another dimension and the list went on. Yet, the latest version of Superboy had proven to be the most effective, but he hadn't thought Kon had returned from his adventures on the other side of the globe...if this really was Kon. Clark narrowed his eyes, examining the exterior closely to find that the eyes were different. Instead of the almost charcoal black irises Kon had, this version had golden eyes, very similar to that of the odd, red-haired woman who had stood outside the bank just moments ago.

What on earth was going on?

"Alright, you helped. Great. Now explain who on earth you are and how you're able to mimic Superboy's powers before I throw you into space." The threat was probably unnecessary, but the oddness of the situation prompted a bit more hostility than he normally would have injected.

[puddingpunter]

Who bestowed upon you the right to decide which creatures on this planet may thrive or otherwise perish? Your artificial and banal status as a 'hero'? Or rather, when translated into modern society's vernacular: who died and left you in charge? The question lingered heavily in her mind but Auspice knew from firsthand experience that few would tolerate being morally confronted. Even less could appreciate such deep candid talk that touched over anything more meaningful than daily frivolities. Pressing her lips together tightly as she pondered her response, Auspice kept her back to Superman and took her time to think of a proper response. The only ones she could conjure on the spot that wouldn't further aggravate the 'god among men' all completely ignored his threat. That was unfortunate. She was looking forward to see how he'd do. "Actually, it is not just Superboy I am limited to." She deliberately skipped revealing her alias. The wolf in sheep's clothing finally turned around to face Superman, her voice gently toning higher in pitch -from Superboy's voice back to her own- as she reverted back to her normal state. She would have to keep the tablets in the tin concealed from him or it would provoke inquiries she wasn't sure she'd be able to answer without raising suspicion.

"But if you must know, my abilities revolve around mimicry. I am a sort of copycat. Physical contact or Deoxyribonucleic Acid is required, to be more precise, although the former is much easier for me to work with. That being said, the carelessness most supers feel when it comes to cleaning up after themselves is very convenient for me. Many of you are literally scattered everywhere in microscopic fragments. For a limited time, obviously, before nature takes its course." The tablet she had consumed earlier contained the chemical makeup used in Lex Luthor's labs to create Kon-El, not his actual DNA since the minimal amounts cultivated before his escape were currently being kept frozen in a location unbeknownst even to her. She also carried some that would assist in transforming her into over a dozen different species of the animal kingdom, and Roy Harper since he too had once been in Cadmus' possession before eventually freeing himself. Although she personally found him to be useless for any purpose but camouflage.

Auspice decided to boldly try her luck and outstretched her hand to him, palm up, but didn't dare to step closer for the concern of making herself appear in any way threatening. "Do you wish for another demonstration?" Whether or not Superman decided to accept what entirely up to him. She wouldn't want to force him, even if such a thing was possible for someone as weak as herself. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd be able to terminate her within seconds if he felt so inclined. Auspice went silent again and patiently waited for his decision. Meanwhile, Auspice couldn't help but wonder what was going on through his head now. Was he curious? Wary? Repulsed?