Two Cities Bridged(Clark, Pheobe)

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Victor was standing off to the side of the crowd that had gathered for the bridge opening. This was the same bridge that was destroyed by the Joker quite sometime ago. The same bridged the cities of Gotham and Metropolis. The Gazette and the Daily Planet were both doing a joint article on it. The Gazette had once again hired Victor to take pictures of the ceremony.

And once again Victor was early. He was waiting for the man that the Daily Planet was sending. Some guy named Clark Kent. Victor thought the name sounded familiar but he wasn't sure why.

'Why are you always early?' Lupin asked him.

'I don't know.' Victor replied looking at his camera making sure everything was in good shape with it. 'Its just me.' He added.

To most people it would just look like he was standing off to the side whistling a tune messing with his camera. There was no sign that he was having a conversation with a mental wolf.

He looked up and took a sniff in the air. Just to make sure there weren't any smells that pointed out someone with hostile intent. He smiled and went back to his camera when he didn't smell anything.

He looked through the pictures on the camera smiling at the memories he was having as he looked at them. He then turned it off and removed the memory card in it. Replacing it with a fresh one.

He looked back up as he put the memory card in its case and into his jacket pocket. It was easy to see he wasn't a speaker at the ceremony. He was wearing a button up shirt tucked into a pair of slightly loose blue jeans with a belt, shoes that he clearly wore often, and a thin jacket to keep the windchill away. All topped off with his ever present glasses.

'When will this Kent guy get here?' Lupin asked.

'He's not late until the thing starts ok.' Victor replied looking around to see if there was anyone else there that he knew.

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Clark had decided to ride the bus to Gotham. After all why risk annoying Batman just to get to a ceremony quickly? He had looked at his pen and wrote down a few notes about what he knew was going to happen during the bus ride. He partly regretted the fact that the ride took so long. He didn't want to keep his partner waiting too long.

The bus finally reached its destination and Clark quickly got off. He started to work his way through the crowd. He smiled to see how many people had come to see it. It was about time they fixed this bridge.

He stopped and saw a man that looked out of place. Wearing clothes that clearly made him look unprofessional he also noticed that he had grey hair despite looking young. 'Poor guy he must have a stressful life.' He thought. Then he wondered if maybe he was carrying a weapon of some kind. He looked the man over quickly using his X-Ray vision. He saw that all the man was carrying was a camera and a spare memory card.

Clark straightened up his suit and glasses and walked up to the man. He thought about what he was going to say as he walked to him. After all this man isn't standing in the middle of the crowd and he has a camera. This must be Mr. Grant.

He finally reached the man and smiled extending a hand to shake, "I'm Clark Kent." He said. "You must be Mr. Grant?" He asked in a kind manner. He hoped that this man would be easy to work with, he also noticed that this man seemed somewhat annoyed by something. Regardless of well the man was at working with others he was pleased to see that he apparently had someone to talk to before he had got here. Clark kept his smile and awaited a reply

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Phoebe is still quite some distance away when she sees that a crowd is gathering. Though she could probably get ahold of a newspaper if she really wanted to, keeping up to date on current events in the city just isn't that important to her. At least, not enough to steal something for it, and any time she happens on money it's used for food.

So she hasn't the slightest idea why so many people have gathered around at first, until she catches a man checking his watch. She quickly checks his mind to see if he's thinking about any specifics on the event taking place, though he simply notes that the ceremony will start in about five minutes without thinking about what the ceremony is about. This is why reading people's minds without being able to probe them at all is annoying. She tries a few more people at random, but their minds are elsewhere entirely - lots of people tend to just let their mind wander when they're waiting, or they're talking to the person next to them about something else.

But regardless of the reason for the crowd, she's quick to merge with it. There's a strong chance that she'll find a way to get some food or money here no matter what the crowd is here for, and she's been on the streets long enough to know that you don't pass something like that up.

Watching the gathering crowd from the vantage of a nearby high rise, a lone man smiles to himself as he fingers the remote in his hand. It's almost time...

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Victor looked up at the man, he smiled slightly at the temptation to tell the man he was looking for someone else. Just to see what he would do, but he decided against it. "Yes I am. Its nice to finally meet you> He said shaking his hand. "I take it your going to be taking notes?" He asked jokingly.

Victor looked at his watch and secretly took a sniff in order to get this man's scent. It was a habit he had formed. He looked back up at Clark and said. "Well your just in time. Lets go ahead and get ready."

Victor moved over to a nearby bench and stood on it in order to get a better view for his pictures. He took another sniff and noticed a strange smell. It was a smell he normally got when he smelled when something bad was about to happen. He didn't know what it was and so started taking pictures as the ceremony got underway. Though Victor kept his senses ready in order to keep ready for what ever his smell meant.

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Clark nodded to the man in greeting. "Its nice to meet you." He said. "And yes I'll be taking notes." He said with a slight grin. He noticed that the man sniffed as he looked at his watch. He simply assumed that it was because of sinuses or something like that. he didn't push the subject."I'm an expert at it." He joked.

He watched the man go off to a bench and then slowly walked as close as he could to the speaker's podium.

He looked around and straightened his glasses and looked around to see what was going on. He noticed a man standing in the tree. He smiled thinking that the man simply wanted a better view. 'Maybe r. Grant should do the same.' He thought. He got his notebook and pen ready. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. So he kept aware.

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Now the best case scenario as far as Phoebe is concerned is if whoever organized this event is providing free refreshments, but that's doubtful for a crowd of this size. More likely several food vendors will be on hand - a certain percentage of any large group is bound to be hungry, after all. She's had some success simply staring wistfully at food until someone notices and realizes that a girl wearing rags, as that's what her clothing amounts to anymore, wouldn't be able to buy one and has pity on her. She really is that cute, after all, and she uses it.

However, she's only partway through the crowd when a sudden noise grabs the attention of the entire crowd. No, it's not someone stepping up to a microphone - in fact it's far worse than that. Laying disguised among the equipment monitoring the tension of the main steel cables supporting the bridge is a bomb. And with no warning, it explodes. It's a sound that Phoebe recognizes instantly, though she can't immediately see what's happening because she's quite short and most of the crowd isn't. She spots a parked car nearby and quickly scrambles on top of it - nobody seems to mind that though, because they're too busy either trying to see themselves or to understand what they're seeing if they are.

It wasn't a very big bomb, though Phoebe can't see if anyone got hurt. And at first, that seems to be all there is too it, but a loud popping sound from the damaged cable indicates that not all is well. While the bridge is designed to stay up even if quite a few strands of the steel cable are damaged, more than that have been. The popping sound is the sound of the strands beginning to fail, and it's coming more quickly. After only a few moments, the people who can see it best start to panic - the whole bridge is in imminent danger of collapse.

However, from her vantage point, Phoebe is one of them. She frowns, seeing the problem. She takes a deep breath before using her power to wrap tightly around the whole cable above where it's breaking. They never properly tested just how strong she is, but she's never had the experience of her power failing to give her more strength when she asked for it. Still, the bridge has got to be... Well, very, very, very heavy. She pulls on the cable, keeping it tight, making sure to increase the strength of it gradually lest she overdo it. The popping sound slows and then stops, and when it does she figures that she's got a good hold on it. Or at least the bridge isn't about to fall down anymore.

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Victor was getting the camera lens focused on the podium in order to be ready to take pictures as soon as the ceremony officially got underway. He smiled abit as her heard Lupin make a comment and then he heard a loud noise. To everyone else it was loud, but to Victor it sounded like it was happening right next to him. He ducked quickly and looked for the source of the noise. He saw it quickly due to the fact he was standing on a bench.

He saw the cables on the bridge starting to give way. But he couldn't hear it, at the moment his ears were ringing. He instinctively looked towards the tree where he saw the man and then looked at the bridge. He saw the police waving the crowd away so he decided to go look for the man in the tree.

He started to walk over to the tree but found himself having trouble getting there. Not because of the crowd. No he was nimble enough to move through a crowd, even a panicking one. It was the sheer amount of ringing in his ears it was messing with his balance.

He finally made it to the tree and started to sniff for the man who was in the tree.

'Do you think Wulfen should handle this?' He heard Lupin ask.

He was somewhat startled when he heard Lupin. Then he remembered that Lupin's voice originated in his mind. So he heard her as well as the ringing in his ears.

'No this is going to be me.' He replied and started sniffing for the man while shaking his head to get rid of the ringing.

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Clark heard the explosion and instantly kicked into action. He didn't care that he was in Gotham, a bridge was about to collapse and Superman had to help. He looked around and moved out of the crowd and found a nearby phone booth and smiled. He paused long enough to think. 'Its interesting that these things are still around.'

He then got in and quickly donned his iconic uniform. He then got out and shot into the air like a rocket and flew at breakneck speed towards the bridge. He then hovered in the air long enough to see a police line had formed, he also saw a grey haired man staggering towards a tree. The same tree he had seen the man in before. He also noticed a a little girl ontop of a car.

Superman then flew below the bridge and quickly found a point where he could balance it. He took notice of the fact that it hadn't fallen yet. He didn't stop to ponder why. He took the weight of the bridge on his shoulders and started to lift it.

Once he got it to a safe height he started to look for a way to hold it in place long enough to use his heat vision to meld the cables back together.

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Phoebe spots Superman the moment he flies into view. She's surprised to see him here - she actually knows quite a bit about him since the FBI had thought it was possible that he would try to intervene while they were in Gotham, and if he had then Phoebe may have had to help. But instead the powerful man had stayed out of Gotham, so it strikes her as odd that he'd suddenly be here now.

But when he moves to steady the bridge, Phoebe stops wondering why and refocuses her attention on holding onto the cable. By lifting the bridge, he's giving her a little slack and she uses it to tighten her pull on the cable - he'd probably feel the weight of the bridge becoming lighter as she does so. At the same time she tentatively decides to read his mind - what the FBI had told her about him leaves her very worried about any sort of contact with him, but she knows that she can only hold the bridge up and hasn't the slightest idea how to fix it.

Fortunately, as she starts to read his mind, he's also thinking about the problem and, more specifically, it's a problem for him for the opposite reason. So she swallows her nerves and decides that she needs to 'talk' to him. Please don't freak out! she starts, as some people do that when she suddenly talks to them, and the man is kind of holding a bridge right now so she doesn't want to startle him too badly. I can keep the bridge up, but I can't make things melt, she adds quickly, hoping that information will make him accept the situation more easily - she may be a random voice popping into his head, but she's a helpful one.

Concentrating on the bridge, she's not paying any attention to her surroundings. She doesn't really have to as it's been a long-time habit of hers to place an additional shield around herself in these situations, just in case. So she fails to note the frightened crowd, the police's attempts to restore order, the man yelling at her to get off his car, and the gray-haired guy near a tree who would look very familiar if she actually saw him.

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To a passerby Victor probably looked rather strange. Stumbling around a tree like a man who just had a bomb go off beside him grabbing at his ears as if he was blocking out a loud noise. And sniffing like a blood hound looking for an escaped convict.

He blinked his eyes tightly a few times then noticed a girl standing on a car. He couldn't help but feel he had seen her before. But he figured he would come back and try to see who she was later. Right now he was after the man in the tree.

He sniffed around some more and found a scent. He looked to see where the scent trail went. He groaned when he saw it went into the crowd. He followed the scent trail. He started to stumble throw the crowd holding his camera tightly in his hands. He didn't want to loose it. Then he felt someone bump into him hard and he dropped his camera. It broke into pieces when it hit the ground. "Damn it!" He snapped. Normally he wouldn't have reacted that way. But his ears ringing caused him to be abit more irritable then usual.

"You crazy son of a-" He started to say as he whirled around to see the man who hit him. He stopped when he saw it was the man in the tree. He grabbed the man by the shirt collar and shouted for someone to help catch him. They started to struggle trying to overpower one another. Victor was starting to win but he was having trouble as his ears were still ringing. Not as bad before, but they still were. He was still overpowering the man. "Will someone get over hear and help!?" He shouted to no one in particular.

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Superman was starting to worry because he couldn't find an area that he could set the bridge down without harming anyone. He looked at water below and then he heard a voice in his head. 'Well your not J'onn' He commented as he felt the weight leave his shoulders. 'Alright hold it for awhile longer I'll fix the cables.'

He quickly raced out from under the bridge and shot up to the broken cables. He looked at the ones that were broken and grabbed the ones that were broken in half and held them together and then used his heat vision to meld them back together. Then he finished melding them together and then moved over to the ones that were weakening.

He melded them together. Then he backed away from the bridge and looked it over.

'Alright, whoever you are. Release it slightly, lets see if it is safe.' He thought, hoping that whoever the other mind was.

He looked around and saw a struggle in the crowd. He wanted to go end the fight but he didn't want to leave the bridge if it wasn't stable. He noticed that Victor was involved in the fight. He wanted to see what was going on. He heard Victor shouting and hoped that he was not involved in the bombing. He instead looked back at the bridge below him and waited to see if it was safe.

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Phoebe breathes a quiet sigh of relief as Superman is so quick to accept both her help and the way she's talking to him. But some things, like keeping the bridge up, are more important than questioning why someone you've never met is helping you do that. Keeping her attention focused on keeping the bridge firmly in place, she watches as he fixes the damaged cables - at least as much as he's able to do with that heat vision of his.

Okay, she replies when he's finished, and very carefully eases off the strength of her power, ready to grab for it again the moment it looks like it might not hold. However, aside from some minor creaking as the bridge's weight resettles, it seems like the span is stable. "Yes!" she says out loud once she's completely let go, too pleased with that result to keep that inside. In all likelihood a lot of people would have gotten hurt if it gave way. It seems to be holding, she adds more 'professionally'. Of course the bridge isn't meant to have melted cables and it's probably not as stable as it was designed to be, but then again these things are meant to stay standing so it'll probably be okay until proper repairs can be done.

In the meantime, the man objecting to where she's standing gets angry enough at her apparently ignoring him to make a grab for her leg. Only his hand hits something invisible yet very solid before he can touch her. Phoebe fails to notice this entirely. Instead her attention shifts to the crowd, quickly glancing around to see if there's anything else she needs to help with. The panicking people can be handled by the police and other authorities. In fact, the appearance of Superman and the fact that the bridge no longer seems to be in imminent danger of falling down seems to have helped with the crowd.

But just as she's thinking that she might try sneaking away now before anyone questions her, she notices that a fight has broken out. But that's not nearly as interesting as the fact that she recognizes one of the guys. "Victor?" she asks herself quietly. And he'd seemed like such a nice guy too. Was she wrong about him? She's been wrong about people recently... Then again, it could just be that whatever is going on is important. Maybe she should at least check?

She quickly hops off the car, much to the relief of its owner, and quickly runs through the crowd toward the fight. Of course, that'll take her a lot longer than it will take Superman. She really should get more used to flying sometime...

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Victor didn't notice what was going on around him. He was focused on stopping this man. He ducked under a punch and blocked another. At the moment he was simply trying to tire the man out.

He wasn't trying to stop the man due to the camera, it was because he had realized that this man was somehow involved with the bomb. The camera was simply a coincidence. Also if he started to get too much attention because of this he could use the broken camera as a smoke screen to get people to give the credit to someone else.

His ears were still ringing somewhat. But they weren't as bad as before. He heard something. Something that sounded like. "Vic-" He looked to see what it was and was rewarded with a solid blow to the back of his head. He hit the ground hard and was stunned for a few seconds. When he recovered he rolled onto his back... And saw the man trying to stomp on him. He quickly rolled to the right and jumped up to his feet. He then put his hands up and got ready to defend himself. He had come to the conclusion that he was on his own for this fight.

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Superman smiled when it was clear the bridge wasn't going to be falling anytime soon. He looked back to the crowd and used his X-Ray vision to see if the two combatants were armed. He couldn't make out anything that looked like a weapon. 'Good. Glad I could help.' He mentally replied to whoever owned the voice. 'Now as for the crowd.'

He thought he would sit the fight out and see what happened. But if it got to rough he wouldn't hesitate to step in.

He watched the fight unfold and when he saw the man try to stomp on Victor's face he decided the fight had gone on long enough. Also he noticed that the crowd was becoming somewhat uneasy due to the fight.

He zipped to where the fight was taking place and grabbed the two men by the shirt collar and lifted them three feet off the ground. It was easy for him to do, after all he could fly, and he had superhuman strength. "Now if you two agree to stop fighting I'll put you down gently." He said sternly.

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Weaving through the crowd is a lot easier for her than it would be for a lot of people. She may be a bit grown-up for her age in a lot of ways, but physically she's still small and it's easier for her to squeeze through the crowd. By the time she makes it over to where the fight is, Superman is there. She lingers back with the crowd, stopping just when she comes close enough to the front of it that she can see, not wanting to call attention to herself but also wanting to see why Victor's fighting. It may have been just a couple months ago, but given how much has changed it seems like an eternity.

She has to smile to herself when she sees how Superman responds - if it had been her, that's exactly how she would have stopped it. Well, she would have used her telekinesis to pick them up instead of her arms, but that's pretty much the same - it's just that her strength is outside of her body, not in it. She's silent as she watches what's happening along with everyone else, though there's a nagging part of her mind telling her that she really ought to sneak away before anyone gets suspicious of her.