stands_for_hope | Firebrand, Superman, Lois Lane, and the Avengers in... Unfortunately Lex Luthor Is An Asshole

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Firebrand, Superman, Lois Lane, and the Avengers in... Unfortunately Lex Luthor Is An Asshole

That morning, there wasn't a paper that didn't have a variation of one headline:

Captain America Comes Out in Support of Superman

The quotes were all different, though: 'He's here to help, same as me.' 'I've never met a kinder, more civic-minded man.' 'I've fought beside him and I'd do it again; there's very few people I'd trust to have my back like Superman.'

The Planet was the only one who had a full interview to go along with the statement that had been distributed to the various publications, an exclusive as written by Lois Lane who was starting to get known as the woman to go to if you needed to talk to a harder-to-find superhero. Lois didn't mind that one bit, honestly, though Cat Graham had started to ask her if she knew any of their numbers to get herself a date.

Later, on another day, Clark might wonder if that had been as much of a catalyst as anything. Because that was the day that Lex Luthor decided to make his play.

The massive spider mecha seemed to appear out of nowhere, towering over parts of the downtown area that had only just begun to be rebuilt. The streets were suddenly filled with rolling war machines, filled to the brim with alien soldiers speaking a language that was unfamiliar and strange to anyone who might hear it. Strange flying ships made their way from the outskirts of the city inward, terrifying the people as they scattered them from the streets. And all of them, each and every one of them, wore red, blue, and gold... and sported the s-like curve as an emblem.

The invasion had begun.

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"I've met Dr. Banner," Clark said with a blushing little smile.

"I don't know if he'll remember me, but we did meet. It was down in South America, while I was traveling. It didn't end... well."

Steve's eyes went wide.

"You mean--"

"Suffice to say, the Amazon basin was not the only massive green thing I got to tangle with."

"I was always told that if I found him on a mission, to just walk away," Jim said, looking from Clark to Steve to the others in the room. "There's no way I could match him."

"True," Steve and Clark said at exactly the same time. Then the two of them shared a quiet smile.

"But he's also a lovely man when you get to talk to him," Steve pointed out.

"Not a bad doctor either," Clark noted with obvious admiration.

"I'll take your word for it."

"Oh, he's awesome," Tony said easily. "I can science with him for hours."

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Is that what the kids call it these days?"

Sam actually snorted from his spot on the couch. Thor, hearing a word that was often bandied about in his apartment with Jane (and occasionally a visit or two from Darcy) looked up.

"My lady Jane often sciences with Stark and Banner for many happy hours."

Steve actually facepalmed.

Thor's earnestness was all it took for Jim to find himself laughing harder than he had since he'd become his own person again. He very nearly choked on his food he was laughing so hard, slipping sideways on his chair.

Steve leaned in and patted him firmly on the back to make sure his food went down, even though there was a wetness to his eyes that said that he was just as close to laughing himself silly as Jim was.

Clark just snorted as Lois leaned up to kiss Thor's cheek.

"You are adorable and need to never ever change."

Thor looked pleased at that.

"God, that was..." He heaved a breath. "That was perfect." The laughter still hadn't quite ended. It was just trickling down.

Both Clint and Stark tucked their phones away, Clint looking innocent, Stark looking like the cat that ate the canary.

Clark floated down into the kitchen to toss his first container and went to grab another one and a beer. He looked sideways at both Clint and Stark but didn't seem inclined to do much of anything about it.

"Chinese food good, everybody?" Clark asked, because he had to make sure that his guests were happy.

Steve was the one who answered first, waving the whole thing off.

"You've been an incredibly gracious host, all of ya," and he included Lois and Jim with a nod, "and the food is just fine. When it's not chokin' some of us."

"More my fault than the food's," Jim assured. "If I hadn't been laughing, I wouldn't'a half choked." He was smiling, though, as he spoke. It looked like the earlier fight had put him in a state where he could actually socialise - surprising even him.

Clint nodded. "Food's great. Nat's gonna be sad she missed it."

"Where is she, if you don't mind me asking?" and Clark lifted a hand almost immediately to stave off any defensiveness.

"If you can't tell me, that's all right, but I figured I'd ask."

Steve looked over at Clint.

"Last I heard, she was still handling some of the DC fallout but I haven't asked for a definite location."

"I can't tell you exactly," Clint said with a nod toward Clark and Steve. "I can tell you she's gone slightly underground. She had more enemies than the rest of us, generally, and once she exposed everything, she had to avoid... becoming a target. More than usual. But we talk every day, I know where she is, and she's fine. A little sore at having to keep her head down," he allowed, "but fine."

"Well, please let her know that if she needs anything, she's welcome to ask. I don't have much to offer compared to the rest of you, but I've got friends in a lot of places and I don't mind asking them to help a friend. And," he glanced between Jim and Steve and to the rest of them, "even if we haven't met, I would guess she's a friend."

"She'd like to meet you," Clint said with a nod. "So yeah, count her as a friend - or at least a friendly acquaintance. Nat's not the easiest person to get along with some of the time. It's just how she is."

Tony nodded slowly. "She is easily more awesome than ... well, most of us in this room, myself included."

Clint smiled proudly.

"Given what I saw of her response to the Congressional Committee, I'm going to have to agree," Lois said with a little smirk. "I think I was pretty sure she did commercials in Japan right after that."

"Or that her hair's insured for a million dollars?" Clark offered with a little smile. Sam gave a bit of a laugh at that, but he nodded along. Sounded about right.

"I miss doing missions with her," Steve offered, not quite sad but definitely fond.

"That sounds like somebody was carrying a little torch," Jim teased, a foot snaking out to scoot Steve's chair.

Tony said nothing but his eyebrows climbed his forehead.

Steve looked back, rolling his eyes just a little.

"Nat is my friend, a very good friend as a matter of fact. Trust me. Nothing like that. The one time we kissed was to avoid a HYDRA agent.

"Neither of us much enjoyed it."

Clint gave him a look. A look that he intentionally drew out - uncomfortably so, he hoped.

And then it broke into a slow headshake. "Either you're lying or you've got standards higher than your reputation. 'Cause I know Nat liked it."

Jim smirked and kicked Steve's chair again.

He nudged Jim back and gave Clint a very skeptical look.

"She asked me if it was my first kiss in seventy years. Not in a good way."

Clark floated a little in withheld laughter.

"Obviously we've gotta find you somebody to practice with," Jim teased, half-leering. "Bet Lois knows some people that'd be happy to give you a chance."

"Oh God in heaven, no. Nat was trying to get me a date for a year and I'll tell you what I told her: I'm fine."

He looked over at Jim.

"And I'm gonna remind you of your success rate on finding me a date, in case you don't remember. It was abysmal."

"Remember how few dames' friends got a second date with me after they treated you bad?" Jim returned. "I just hope you know better than to jam popcorn in some girl's face now and expect somethin' good to come of it."

"What was I supposed to do? She didn't want to talk to me and I can't get out two words when--"

He looked around at everyone, watching the discussion between the two of them.

"When did this become about my love life"

Lois coughed out "or lack thereof" which earned her a look from Steve.

"and why?"

"It started about the time when you got a little moony over Nat," Clint offered. "And why is because it's an easy topic. You are kind of a big blonde target, sorry to say."

But then, after a pause, he said, "...Now I want an egg roll," and headed for the kitchen.

"The target's on the shield," he said with just a bit of a sigh, "and there's nothing odd about a man happening to think that his friend is a damn fine lady aside from being interested in her that way."

Clark offered a little smile and nodded.

"Well said."

"Thank you."

Sam rolled his eyes, hard, and turned back to the TV.

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