Super: Origins (52 page)

A brief silence ensued, and Lex listened hopefully. Finally she heard, “I'll do my best. I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything.”

“Clara, actually I think he's already on his way here,” Lex clarified, trying not to wince.

Another stony silence followed, then Clara's voice came back on the line, her tone more forceful. “Anything else?”

“No. Thanks for your help!”

Lex looked at the remaining group and saw Casey trying not to laugh and Riss all too obviously buried in the computer screen in front of her. Joan, of course, gave nothing away behind her faceplate.

“To continue,” Lex went on, “I figured Serena and Roger could work together on creating the exit. We could have him cut down from the roof, and then Serena could transport what he cut out of the way before it fell to the next level. Once we had the holes cut, probably Casey, George, and Joan can stick a pole in the center and everyone could get out of the building that way. I wanted to ask you, Joan, to help get some fire fighters up to the roof so that they could go to each floor and help regulate getting people out. If the pole isn't set well, Casey and George could take turns holding it steady. Riss could support us by watching on the cameras to make sure all of the people are out and identifying the injured, and so could the psychic from the Alpha team. Serena could help by transporting anyone out who couldn't make it down the pole. What do you think?”

Joan made a thoughtful noise, but didn't volunteer anything more. Casey nodded with a big grin while Riss looked up, an eyebrow raised.

“I did get permission to hook into the security cameras, so I can run support for that,” she said with a dip of her head.

“What are you going to use for the pole?” asked Joan's processed voice.

Lex stopped for a moment. “I'm not sure. Does anyone have any ideas or know of anything long enough and smooth enough to work?”

She'd started to think about the problem when a voice behind them interrupted her train of thought.

“OK, I'm back. Sorry it took so long, but this guy was asleep when I got there and wouldn't hurry up even after I mentioned it was an emergency.”

Serena hooked her thumb over her shoulder towards a gangly looking man with wet, dark brown hair combed back on his head and a cheesy smile, dressed in a chocolate brown jumpsuit. He'd crossed his arms over his chest and looked at each woman in turn.

“Well, Serena, if you'd mentioned I'd be helping out a bunch of lovely ladies, I would have put everything else off,” he said, smiling wider.

Lex and Casey gave him surprised glances, but Riss just shot him a flat look before burying her attention in her computer screen. Joan's faceplate surveyed the man for a moment before turning away.

Finally Lex broke the silence. “Well, thanks for coming out.”

She briefed Serena and Roger on the plan while Casey appeared to study their surroundings, surveying everything in sight.

“So,” Lex finished, “we were just discussing what we could use as the center pole—”

“Lex,” Casey interrupted, “up there.” She pointed at the building in construction to the right of the one they stood in front of. As Lex looked up she saw a tower crane lit up by the nearby streetlights. The two of them stared up for a few seconds, and then glanced at each other. Lex's smile nearly split her face in half.

“You're a genius, Casey.”

Casey grinned in return while Lex looked back up at the building again, considering. “Joan,” Lex asked after a while, “do you have a function in your suit to measure distances by flying them?”

Joan appeared to consider the question for a moment, and then nodded. “I can do that. What did you have in mind?”

“Could you fly the height of the building we need to evacuate and then fly the length of the horizontal piece of the tower crane? We need to figure out if we can use one of those long struts as the pole.”

“But—” Joan began.

Lex held up a hand to stop her question. “Could you just do it? Meanwhile, I'll check with Clara to see if we can get permission.”

After looking at Lex for a few moments, Joan finally nodded. “OK, but I'm not going to do anything to the property here unless we have express permission.”

“All right, all right,” Lex said, putting both hands up. “I'll go talk with her while you're measuring.”

As Joan strode off towards the burning building, Lex turned to Roger. “Could you come with me? I need to talk to our team coordinator and explain why you're here.”

The two of them walked to the M Agency van and Lex ducked inside, motioning the man with her to follow. She found Clara inside, talking on her cell phone. Lex gestured to Roger as he came to stand behind her, resting her other hand on the overly padded plastic bench seat, and watched Clara's eyes widen.

“I apologize, I've got to go. I'll call you back later,” Clara said, quickly hanging up her phone.

“Clara,” Lex began, “Roger's arrived. Serena went and picked him up.”

“I see,” Clara replied, her expression tight-lipped. “I'm still working on getting permission for him to be here.”

“I'm sorry about that. Hopefully it won't be an issue and we can finish what we need to borrow him for and get him back before anyone can decide against it.”

“Maybe,” Clara said warily, “but I'm guessing this isn't the only reason you're here or you would have simply told me by communicator. What else?”

Lex nodded in reply. “We came up with an idea about how to quickly evacuate the building. The bad news is that we'll need permission to take one of the struts off the tower crane next door.”

Lex quickly detailed the plan for Clara, and felt surprised to see the other woman nod in agreement at the beginning, but her face had darkened again by the time Lex finished explaining.

“It's probably going to take me a while to get permission to do that, if I can at all,” Clara said, clearly annoyed. “I'll need to call the crane company, get permission from our organization—”

“Clara, we need to move fast on this. When I talked to the firefighters and the engineer here, all of them were worried that the building could start crumbling at any time. Is there any way you could just get permission to pay damages so that we can move forward with this right away?”

Clara glared at Lex momentarily, then her expression softened. “All right, I'll check on that. Is there anything else?”

She studied Lex with a sour look as Lex shook her head in the negative and headed out of the van, Roger following.

“Well, that went well,” he said. Lex could almost hear the smirk in his voice. She sighed.

“Just get ready. If the next bit goes according to plan, you'll be up soon.”

As the two of them came back to where the group had previously been standing, Lex looked for Casey and Serena. Serena stood under a streetlight looking bored, with Casey nearby, still staring up at the crane next door. Lex moved to join them and the two other women turned to look at her.

“So,” Lex asked, “how do you think we'll be able to get it down?”

Casey looked back up at the building. “I don't know exactly.”

Lex turned to Serena. “Do you think you could get us up there to take a look?”

Serena grinned, and then took something out of one of her jumpsuit pockets. “Sure. Let me see if I can find a safe place for us to land.”

She studied the building with a pair of binoculars, stepping out into the empty street to get a better viewing angle at one point, then finally nodded and put them away. “OK, ladies,” she said, stepping between Casey and Lex and grabbing each of their arms, “here's a higher view of the world.”

They now all stood over the building in construction, on the ballast for the tower crane. At least fifteen stories up from what Lex could guess as she bit back a sudden feeling of vertigo, instead looking at the crane.

“Well,” Casey said, raising her voice against the sound of wind at that height. “I guess we could just toss the pole to the road below.” Even with the competing noise, her tone sounded doubtful.

Lex cringed, imagining the response that idea would get from Clara as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear from where it had blown into her eyes. “Do you think there's any other way?”

Looking over at Casey, she saw the blonde shrug her shoulder, gazing down into the street, then back at the tower crane. “Maybe, if Joan could fly it down,” Casey replied, shaking her head.

“Joan,” Lex said into her communicator, “what do you think?”

“I could definitely maneuver it so that it falls in the middle of the street and guide it to some degree on the way down, but I would guess the full weight of the pole would be more than my suit is rated for.” After a pause, Joan added, “Did you get permission?”

“Still working on it,” Lex answered wryly. “Stay tuned.”

“Serena,” Lex asked next, turning to the other woman, “do you think Roger can do his thing to separate one strut on the tower crane?”

The redhead cocked her head to one side, considering. “Mostly I've seen him shoot things before, not do fine work like this, so I don't know. I also don't know how he is with heights. Let's see.”

Lex watched as Serena disappeared with a grin, then reappeared a minute or two later with Roger. His eyes widened as he stepped back from the edge, Lex noted, and she internally cringed.
Maybe he does have a problem with heights
, she thought.

Lex put out a hand to steady Roger. “I don't know if Serena filled you in, but one of the things we want your help with is separating the outer strut of the tower crane. Also, before we put it in place, it needs to be smooth, but you can do that part on the ground. Do you think you can do all of that?”

She watched him closely, noting how his eyes widened again and how he straightened upon looking at the women surrounding him. He looked back at Lex, not quite meeting her eyes, and replied, “Sure, I can do that. No problem.”

Serena snorted. “Don't bullshit the lady, Roger. Can you
really
do it, or are you just bragging?”

He looked back at her, annoyed with a touch of nervousness, as if used to Serena seeing through him. “Yes I can do it,” he asserted, his voice insistent. “I'm just bad with heights.”

“How about if we have someone with you every step of the way, someone who could get you out of danger if anything happened?” Lex asked, continuing to study his reactions.

Roger nodded, the movement more steady. “Yeah, that should work.”

Lex returned his nod, and then looked over at Casey. “I figure you and George could split up, each holding on to one side of the pole as Roger separates it. Joan can back Roger up until he's done. When it's free, the two of you give it a good push out, and then Joan can guide it down to the street. Serena can stand by to get you three down once that's done. What do you think?”

“Sure, as long as we can get George to cooperate,” Casey responded with a grimace.

“I'll think of something,” Lex agreed, shaking her head. Then, turning to Serena, she asked, “Can you take me back down? I'm going to have to talk George into working on this.”

The redhead nodded with a raised eyebrow, stepping forward. After Lex blinked, the two of them stood on the small lawn in front of the building, and then Serena vanished. Lex coughed as she breathed in, realizing that the smoke hung much more heavily by the ground than up above.

After a few minutes’ conversation with the Alpha team civilian coordinator, and some talk with George in which Lex was somehow able to couch the upcoming events as a competition with Casey, Lex stood on the grass in front of the burning apartment building again, along with George, waiting for Serena.

Suddenly, her communicator crackled, and then she heard Clara speak up. “Lex,” the woman said in a clipped, somewhat tired voice, “I've gotten permission to go ahead with everything you've requested so far. Please be aware, however, that your plan will be assessed after this mission, and if it's determined that a better course of action existed, one that wouldn't have been as expensive, your pay will be docked for the next two months.”

“OK,” Lex agreed without pause. “That sounds fair. By the way, we'll probably need to drop the crane section in the street. If we do that, Joan should be able to guide it so that it doesn't hit any cars.”

She waited a moment, hearing nothing but silence on her communicator, then spoke again. “Clara? Are you there?”

“Yes, I'm here Lex,” Clara replied, her tone even more annoyed. “Just go ahead and do it.”

Serena grabbed Lex's hand as soon as she appeared, and Lex watched as her friend put a few reluctant fingers on George's back, then suddenly the three of them stood on the crane ballast with a nervous Roger, and Casey and Joan.

Lex turned to Joan. “I take it you heard that.”

She nodded in return, and Lex briefly re-explained the plan before they started, then fished another communicator out of one of her pockets to hand to George. As the other four began their tasks, Lex turned to Serena.

“Could you take me over to where the fire fighters are?” she asked. “I need to talk to them about what we're planning.”

Serena nodded as she grabbed Lex's hand, and then the two of them appeared on the side of the plaza with the firefighting equipment. Lex took her communicator off for a moment as she touched Serena's wrist before her friend left again.

“Can you get back up there and keep an eye on Roger?” Lex said, giving Serena a serious look. “He looks pretty nervous, so please keep an extra eye on him in case he makes a mistake. We absolutely need him and you for the next step, so can you keep the both of you safe?”

Smiling and saluting, Serena answered before disappearing. “Don't worry Lex, we'll be fine.”

It took Lex some time to explain to the fire fighters what role she wanted them to take, but they seemed eager once she'd explained everything. The engineer didn't seem as happy at hearing Lex's plan, but after a bit of convincing, he agreed to provide her with measurements for the planned hole. At that moment, however, Lex heard some cheers in her headset followed by a terse comment from Joan a few seconds later. “I can't hold it; I'm letting go.”

“All right,” Lex replied, and then braced herself.