13367/Mall Madness Aftermath

Mall Madness Aftermath
Date of Scene:	24 May 2021
Location:	LexMall - LexCorp Tower
Synopsis:	The Titans retun to LexMall to help with Cleanup efforts.
Cast of Characters:	Lex Luthor, Supergirl, Red Robin, Captain Boomerang

---

Lex Luthor has posed:
An attack on LexCorp Tower itself. Lex insists on weekly drills for Tower staff in case of this eventuality, but it doesn't happen often. Nonetheless, the property damage was covered in insurance claims, and today, LexMall is closed to the public as work crews handle matters. Team Luthor is out in force, ordered personally by Lex to come out in the dozens in case the hooded man is still around.

Even without the masses inside, the work crews make the place as busy as if it were open.

Already directing events in the direct center of the mall is Lex, as usual flanked by powered armored Mercy and Hope; authorizing the use of the big toys was the only way they could compromise on coming back down here. There are muffled conversations with various supervisors as Lex seems to be doing a little remodeling while they're at it.

Supergirl has posed:
What a day...What had started out as an exciting shopping blowout sale, had ended in complete and utter disaster. Fortunately it was still early when the chaos broke out, and the damage had been minimized to the main floor of the mall.

Even the crowds were a bit thinner than it might have been later in the afternoon. It was small comfort though to Supergirl, who felt like maybe they could have done more to stop the damage.

Naturally the mall would be closed to the public, but she had somehow slipped in, or maybe her mere presence as a more prominent superhero had gained some attention and more allowance than would be given just any civlilian. Her team had, afterall, been there to help save the day.

It's easy to spot Lex, flanked as always by his two personal guards and she strides towards him, waving to get his attention. "Mr Luthor, can we have a word?" she calls to him as she steps towards him.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"You know, you're as bad as your cousin about ignoring the laws that annoy you." Lex replies, a bit testily, to Supergirl. His green eyes take her in with the usual confidence and arrogance, and he draws himself up to his full height and brings his hands behind his back formally as he addresses her. "You're here, so I assume I won't get a choice in the matter, will I?"

A brow quirks at her. Dry amusement, or resignment? It's hard to tell. Lex has always been a master of body language, and this is no exception.

Mercy and Hope? Their expression went carefully neutral as Supergirl came in, and so far, have only come up to each side of Supergirl...as if waiting for her to make the first move. "What can I do for you, 'Supergirl'?"

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl hasn't made an actual effort to going around, telling the world she is Superman's cousin. But there is obviously some connection between them. why else would they both share the 'S' shield among other things?

Of course, Lex is smart and tends to know more about people than your average human. He deserves at least some credit for that, even if people are often telling her that he cant be trusted. But where's the proof?

She smiles and nods to him, hands clasped behind her back, eager to help. Supergirl is maybe a bit younger and more naieve than her older baby cousin. Yeah, it's a conundrum, isn't it? If there is sarcasm to be had, it went way over her head.

"Mr. Luthor, I just wanted to express my sympathy at what happened to your mall after those kids trashed it. I'm sorry we werent able to stop those kids sooner." She peers towards Mercy and Hope, offering them little more than a sweet, disarming smile. No strings attached. No sarcasm there. She's a pretty straight forward person at that.

"If at all possible, I would really like to help you rebuild. I'm sure my abilities could help speed things up?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
His hands unclasp from behind his back and his arms cross in a 'considering' gesture, as Lex watches Supergirl. "You don't have some superheroing to do elsewhere?" He shakes his head, then gestures with his right hand around the structure. "No harm in letting you get involved. The speedier this is, the faster we get back running." And the faster I get my profits again, is left unsaid.

"If anything, it's my fault for not arranging more security with a near black friday crowd. We haven't had an attack here for some time."

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl shrugs. "Did a patrol or two, things are pretty quiet. Besides there are plenty of other heroes out there...Although I do have to say, your quote in the news report was a bit..Harsh, don't you think? Those kids, I think they were being mind controlled by that guy in the black hoodie. Either that or they didn't seem to have full control of their powers. I dont think it's fair to put them in the same class as terrorists.."

Still, as she speaks, Supergirl is already moving around, lifting a collapsed chunk of concrete pillar, straightening it upright. Grabbing pieces of tossed benches and rebending any twisted legs into shape, replacing those as well."

She nods again, "Your security team did an excellent job in getting the civilians out. At least it was just the main floor?"

Red Robin has posed:
Red Robin has come in to check out what happened here the previous night. He tries to keep track of things involving younger heroes. He made his way in via training from one stealthiest men ever. Which means as Kara moves one of the bits of debrie, she finds Red Robin standing in the shadows behind it "Find anything interesting?" He asks as she sees him.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Team Luthor was assigned to civilian crowd control when it became clear that we didn't know the extent of what we were dealing with. The decision was made to let her exhaust herself while we got all the potential casualties out of the way in case the situation escalated more." Lex almost formally states for her, "it was excellent training and gear that did that. For now, I will reserve judgment on what was going on with the children, but I stand by what I said about the man in the hood. Indirectly or not, those children were used as terrorist pawns."

Then, he shrugs, "Call me harsh if you like, this is a harsh reality that you, your cousin, and your like have forced upon us. We make due with what we have."

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl nods to Lex and hmms, pausing briefly in her work. "I can understand your frustration, Mr. Luthor..It must be infuriating to see a bunch of seemingly out of control kids just march in and trash your property like that. And you're right. The black hoodie guy, whoever he was, whatever he was up to, he clearly was intending on causing mass destruction."

She smiles, "Don't worry, we'll get him..And I have complete faith in Ms. Jackson. I'm certain that she will be able to get those mutant kids the help they need."

Supergirl pauses in her cleanup, glancing over at Red Robin. He's pretty stealthy when he wants to be, but the super hearing makes it almost impossible to sneak up on her. "Hey, glad you could make it..I'm not sure about Luthor, but I haven't found anything about the Black hood yet. Maybe you could check out the Mutie Cutie store? That's where he was seen spending the most amount of time, stalking those kids.."

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake hmms and nods his head a bit to this. He looks over to Luthor, and asks "Can we get a full copy of the video footage?" He makes sure to ask to try to get as detailed as he can." He will walk over towards the store in question, looking about a moment. After just a bit of searching he will squat down and ask "Is smoking allowed in your mall Mr. Luthor?

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Captain Boomerang's costume does not look like Robin's, or Supergirl's, or even Plastic Man's. He is not immediately identifiable as a hero. He doesn't wear bright colors, or spandex, or a cape. The closest he gets is a somewhat colourful scarf, but it's just a blue scarf with a little white boomerang pattern on it.

He was currently at one of the entrances, trying to explain that he is here to help, Supergirl is already in there, he didn't know about Robin, but was having trouble getting past security. He could just run past them, but, he was trying to do things on the up and up. So far, the guards hadn't even bothered to radio it up the chain of command as to them, he seemed like just some random guy playing at being a hero.

Lex Luthor has posed:
There's a moment of pause as Lex just... stares... at Red Robin. A perfect example of how the 'heroes' of this age just do whatever they like. If it were anyone else, there would likely be some intimidation involved.

Instead, Lex suddenly gives a practiced smile back, "If I don't, you're just going to find a way to take it anyway..." The remark is given with a resigned amusement as he walks towards one of the hallways... only to stop briefly as he listens into his earbud, "Who?" A pause. Near the entry, Captain Boomerang can hear muffled talking in the helmets of one of the Team Luthor guards, "Sure, why not, at least he's /asking/."

No, Lex isn't bitter at all. At. All.

Into the hallway he disappears, with Mercy and Hope in tow, heading for the security office.

There's a low shout from the hallway, "Just don't do it around the crews and I'm fine with it. Don't do it during business hours."

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl blinks at Robin. "Oh..Did you find something?" the part about smoking has her attention. But back to the matter at hand..A lot of the store front windows got smashed, although most of them only suffered minor cracks rather than being shattered to pieces, thank goodness.

It's a good thing she's been practicing on using her heat vision for fine details such as the cracks, as she melts and sodders them into place, smoothing out the cracks and making them good as new. Next, it's time to do the same for any cracks in the cement columns, ensuring they are solid and not about to degrade, sealing any cracks in a similar way.

As Boomer arrives, she glances over her shoulder, smiles and waves to him.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake pulls out a baggie, and picks up a black, and silver lighter. "Not something you would expect to find just laying around." He offers holding it up to show it to the others. "I'll run a few tests on it, see if I can find out anything from it." He looks over and at the new arrival, he does a pretty good batman impression with the scowl.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Captain Boomerang was about ready to follow the example of Supergirl and Robin, but instead, he asked, and was granted permission to proceed. So after being let in, he would walk, at a normal speed, into the mall, careful of any work crews, cleaning up, at first trying to get a lay of the land, where people are, and most importantly, what he can do to help. He wasn't as strong as Supergirl, but he had speed, and that could be used to great effect in cleaning up. When he sees Supergirl, he would return the smile, and the wave. Moving over towards Robin, who oddly gave him a scowl. Captain Boomerang didn't want to interrupt, so simply nodded and continued to listen.

Supergirl has posed:
Sometimes it's good to be super, even though at other times it can make her feel awkward. Now that the cracked windows have been fixed and the broken benches have been repaired, Supergirl surveys the dust and rubble left behind after the summoned dragon had burnt a few things before Mon-El stopped the dragon..And sighs.

"What a shame, so much rubble.." she inhales a lot of the garbage deeply but not too deeply that she swallows it, and exhales it gently into a large garbage bag. Well, that makes it a bit easier and quicker. Kind of like a walking talking vacuum cleaner. Okay, no jokes, please.

She glances towards Boomer, handing him a garbage bag. "Here, I guess your super speed bursts could come in handy, cut down the cleanup efforts. How you been?" she offers him a warm smile before glancing over at Robin. "Hmmm, a fancy lighter? You think it could be Black Hoodie's? I know he was spending a lot of time in there, I think that place was more popular with the younger crowd too. Anymore clues?"

OF course there would be the video cameras. Supergirl waits patiently for Lex to return.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake looks over, and says "Well, it does seem out of place, I will have to give the video date a through going through, but I am hoping to find something there. He looks around the place, and says "Wondering if it might be something with mutant hating or such with this being the main start.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Boomer thought of a great many jokes as he saw Supergirl do her walking talking vacuum cleaner bit, and right now, he was most thankful that she wasn't a telepath, at least as far as he knew she wasn't; because if she heard even half of them, she would never speak to him again. He would take the offered garbage bag, "Much better in the last oh, 5 minutes or so," he got her about 5 minutes ago, "maybe it's the flickering lights, the rubble, the dust, or you know, could be the company." He winked at her. Listening to Robin, he nodded his head, having little to offer right now. "Any idea on a motive for all this yet?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
Coming out of the back hallway, USB drive visible in his right hand, Lex responds. "The only thing I've seen so far is chaos. No demands, no ransom. Just a petty shoplifting to catch guards attention and then escalating from there." He stops in front of Red Robin, offering it. "If there's a plan involved, it'll probably be about mutants, if he holds to controlling others like this."

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl hmms, glancing over at Robin. "Not sure, everything happened so fast. I mean..It's just as Mr. Luthor says, a petty shoplifting incident by two minors that quickly spiralled out of control. I dont think there was any hate involved, unless those kids had a bad experience before hand which is always possible.."

She shrugs as she continues to pick up garbage. And yes, it's a good thing that she cant hear Boomer's thoughts. Although she smiles at him, chuckles even. "Always happy to help light up your day, even if it's just garbage picking."

As for a motive, Supergirl sighs, "Hmm, well, let's see..That hoodie guy we suspect was..Influencing them somehow, judging by how he was focused intently on Elsa, the older telekinetic. But as soon as that dog knocked him over, Elsa was more open to Andrea Jackson's pleas to stand down. And then when he vanished and appeared near the younger girl Anna, it was the same thing. She suddenly became paranoid herself. Soo..What does that mean..He was trying to influence them..? Maybe make it looks like mutants are dangerous? Or..Could he have some other motive..Control, perhaps?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake lookd over to the others, and says "Just from my first assumptions I would think Black hood, has the ability to control mutants. He maybe a mutant himself. I would guess he was hanging out in the cutie shop figuring there was more chance of them having mutants come in than other place. " He looks about the place "Actually this may have been more a test of his abilities than anything else."

Captain Boomerang has posed:
While Supergirl and Robin were talking in real time, Captain Boomerang made a habit of picking up rubbish in real time. He wanted to hear what they had to say, so wasn't going into short bursts of super speed to clean up for now. "Sounds like he was a telepath himself, or empath, since he may have influenced them more than anything, heightening their fears. Is that empath, or is there a different term for that. It's so hard to keep up." As Robin dropped that bombshell, "a test. Now that's a scary thought." He looked at the damage, "all this, could have just been a test."

Lex Luthor has posed:
As the three converse, Lex is already back in his 'command center' in the middle, supervisors rushing up to him immediately about details. Details that likely bore Supergirl if she listens in.

He seems content to let the 'heroes' talk things out for now while he listens.

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl hmms and nods to both Robin and Boomer. "All good points, and I guess any of those are possible. A test? control? Of his abilities or the kids? I guess this early in the game it's hard to tell, but I suspect there may be more attacks in the future."

Which is kind of frustrating. Supergirl would like to be there before Blackhood can s trike again. "Soo..I guess it all leads back to this black hood guy and whatever you can find on him. I suppose you'll have to study the videos too. I'm also thinking I should check in with Andrea, see if those two kids could tell her more about what happened."

She continues to pick up rubble, filling a couple of garbage bags and adding them to the dumpster. Looks like they've already done a lot of work and saved the clean up crew a lot of time in repairs. "So, anything else we're missing? Robin, do you want to continue searching for clues? Or shall we call it a day?"

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake says, "I'll give it a a look over for a while longer if Mr Luthor does not mind but you can call it here. Looking for little things can take some time, and not often a group sport."

Captain Boomerang has posed:
With the investigation largely on hold for now, Boomer gave Supergirl a sly smile, "I think we can do a little bit more," and then he spoke in a faster, more energetic manner, "last one done has to buy the pizza," and he would go about trying to clean the remaining rubble, possibly interfering with Robin's efforts, but he was going for the bigger pieces, the ones that would be cleared away, using his short bursts of super speed. He was probably faster than Supergirl, but he needed to take brief rests, while she could do it continuously.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"If you find anything, inform me." Lex states simply. A rather implied permission there, as he returns to his hushed conversation.

Supergirl has posed:
Supergirl is also careful not to disturb Robin's investigation, focusing more on the larger pieces of rubble like piles of dust and debris, leaving nooks and crannies and especially points of interest like the Mutie Cutie store, and center of the main floor to Tim to investigate for more clues.

When Boomer makes that challenge, she grins and nods. "Sure, you're on! But there's no way you're gonna beat me, you know?" and she gets to work, moving more quickly now in her haste to finish cleaning up first.

Red Robin has posed:
Tim Drake will look over at Boomer, and does glower at him again. He looks over to Supergirl, "Remind me to teach a forensics 101 class at titan tower sometime soon." He sighs and tries to do the best he can with the heightened breeze from the speedster.