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Description

In the year 2017, Jor-El of Ilnolmed, alias: John Kent, has been Superman, champion of Earth, for about 16 years. By this time, his three children have come of age and moved out. Clark and Kara, John’s son and niece, are out of high school and attending New York University. The siblings’ older brother Connor is still working as the hero Steel; he and fellow hero Nightwing are considering splitting their team of heroes into “The Titans” for their members older than 17 and “The Teen Titans” for the younger members. Clark and Kara’s former friend Zatanna, who they haven’t spoken to since they learned she conspired with others to kill Connor, became the field leader of her magic hero team, The Shadowpact. As for John Kent himself, he’s gained a well-paying, full-time position with none-other than The New York Times as an agricultural specialist. John’s coworkers include, but are not limited to, field reporter Ella Lane, professional photographer James Olsen Sr., sports reporter Steve Lombard, and technology expert (and black sheep of the group) Tim Starling. John is the only one at the NYT offices willing to get along with Starling, even though he constantly comes across, to everyone else, as a paranoid conspiracy theorist cross with certain entities in the electronic entertainment industry.

We cut to the darkened offices of Toyman Studios, a game studio in the heart of Manhattan. Head artistic director Winslow Schott was there, pouring all of his energy into their latest mobile title, which was a month away from release and no-one was expecting to be a success in any capacity. Already a societal outcast, even among his coworkers at the studio, all Schott wants is his game to be a success and to impress his boss and shareholder Darci Mason, whom he pines for. Finally, the e-mail he’s been waiting for just came in, one from The Calculator…
More than a month after that scene, we return to the New York Times, where Editor-In-Chief Perry White wants his best people on the latest story. Its an annual charity ball for global agricultural advancement, and this year the host is none other than Bruce Wayne, President and CEO of Kane International. Ella Lane and John Kent traveled to the airport to meet with Bruce Wayne and his girlfriend Barbara Gordon. In truth, John and Bruce have been friends for a long time; Bruce’s secret identity is The Batman, a powerful vigilante who works with Superman in their hero team, The Justice League.
That night, John and Ella were interviewing Bruce in his limousine with Barbara when a masked assailant with an assault rifle held the car hostage for money. Ella and Barbara panicked (the latter pretending to be, at least, knowing full well that Bruce and John are superheroes) as the thug forced John, Bruce, and their chauffeur out of the car. Secretly, John used his heat vision, on a low power setting, to slightly melt and disable the gun. When the thug realized his gun didn’t work, it was too late for him to run as Bruce punched his lights out. This was done with enough force that the thug’s smartphone flew out of his pocket and into an alley. The police showed up and arrested the thug, but John noticed that Tim Starling had come from the alley to spirit away the phone.
Later, in Tim’s office at NYT, he hacked into the goon’s phone and found that it contained Toyman Studios’ latest game release as one of the only apps on it, along with records of hundreds upon hundreds of dollars he spent on microtransactions for the game. John confronted Tim about pilfering the phone, and Tim claims that he’s onto something BIG with Toyman Studios and their latest releases. He thinks there’s something more going on, as their games, along with microtransactions, loot boxes, DLC, “ultimate” editions, and merchandising for them, had never made that much of a profit before. Not to mention violent acts and crimes erupting among customers of the games, all of whom were trying to extort money from their victims. John though he was being a bit ridiculous and saw the game for himself. John then recognized that something WAS wrong with the game, and threw it against the wall in panic. As Superman, he had developed psychological shielding, with the help of Zatanna (again, before she turned traitor), for all of the current JL members and the Titans. John admitted that Tim was right, and there is some kind of psychological, subliminal weapon being broadcast from the apps and games made by Toyman Studios. John then realized there was a barely-visible laser pointer locked onto Tim’s head, and he pushed Tim out of the way of gunfire. John escaped with Tim out of the sniper’s view and the sniper, none other than the assassin Deadshot, escaped as soon as he saw The Batman out of the corner of his eye.
Once Tim Starling was safe, John changed into his Superman persona and met with Batman, telling him everything he learned. They traveled to Toyman Studios’ office building and entered Winslow Schott’s office. Batman hacked Schott’s computer and discovered the e-mail from the Calculator, which contains a new version of The Checkmate Procedure, the subliminal conditioning program that the defunct government agency CADMUS used to create sleeper agents. Checkmate was also the bedrock of ANTI_LIFE, the weapon that CADMUS and the Cult of Algol almost used to conquer Earth. The heroes surmised that this reworked Checkmate was being used to make people addicted to paying money towards their games and products. A bomb went off in Schott’s office, destroying his pertinent information and flooding the area with krypton gas to weaken Superman, but they learned where the server farms containing the new Checkmate procedure were located, and, thankfully, the only way Schott can broadcast Checkmate is through that.
At the server farm, Schott was talking to Darci about all of the success behind his latest games, even gleefully admitting to “basically hypnotizing” their customers, as Darci put it. Schott also admitted that he did this all for Darci, and asked for her to be his. Disgusted, Darci began walking away until Deadshot, hired by Schott, holds her up at gunpoint. Batman and Superman arrive. Superman rescues Darci while Batman confronts Schott and Deadshot. Schott defends himself after Deadshot’s defeat, using a weaponized paddle-ball toy, but to no avail. With both villains defeated, The Oracle (Barbara Gordon’s heroic hacker identity) uploaded an “antidote program” to the servers after removing Checkmate, curing the people currently exposed to the programming. Winslow Schott and Deadshot were promptly arrested, and Tim Starling’s story on Schott’s crimes went nation-wide. Those who were forced to be addicted to the games and merchandising via Checkmate were eventually rehabilitated and compensated for their losses.
...

At the charity ball, at the tail-end of the night’s events, Bruce Wayne, in front of all of his guests, got on bent knee before Barbara, produced a ring from his coat, and asked for her hand in marriage. Barbara gleefully said “yes”.
Notes:
* Before you ask: NO, Tim Starling is NOT based on Youtuber Jim Sterling, or anyone like him.
* John Kent will eventually reveal his identity of Superman to Ella Lane, and that her ex-husband, General Samuel Lane, is partially responsible for the death of John’s wife Martha (most of the responsibility for that still falls on Lionel Luthor’s shoulders).
** Ella’s daughter Lois Lane is also attending the same college as Clark and Kara
* James Olsen Sr. is the father of Jimmy Olsen, Clark’s friend and college roommate.
* It was the Calculator who also told Schott about Superman’s weakness, in case he ever interfered.

Description

In the year 2017, Jor-El of Ilnolmed, alias: John Kent, has been Superman, champion of Earth, for about 16 years. By this time, his three children have come of age and moved out. Clark and Kara, John’s son and niece, are out of high school and attending New York University. The siblings’ older brother Connor is still working as the hero Steel; he and fellow hero Nightwing are considering splitting their team of heroes into “The Titans” for their members older than 17 and “The Teen Titans” for the younger members. Clark and Kara’s former friend Zatanna, who they haven’t spoken to since they learned she conspired with others to kill Connor, became the field leader of her magic hero team, The Shadowpact. As for John Kent himself, he’s gained a well-paying, full-time position with none-other than The New York Times as an agricultural specialist. John’s coworkers include, but are not limited to, field reporter Ella Lane, professional photographer James Olsen Sr., sports reporter Steve Lombard, and technology expert (and black sheep of the group) Tim Starling. John is the only one at the NYT offices willing to get along with Starling, even though he constantly comes across, to everyone else, as a paranoid conspiracy theorist cross with certain entities in the electronic entertainment industry.

We cut to the darkened offices of Toyman Studios, a game studio in the heart of Manhattan. Head artistic director Winslow Schott was there, pouring all of his energy into their latest mobile title, which was a month away from release and no-one was expecting to be a success in any capacity. Already a societal outcast, even among his coworkers at the studio, all Schott wants is his game to be a success and to impress his boss and shareholder Darci Mason, whom he pines for. Finally, the e-mail he’s been waiting for just came in, one from The Calculator…
More than a month after that scene, we return to the New York Times, where Editor-In-Chief Perry White wants his best people on the latest story. Its an annual charity ball for global agricultural advancement, and this year the host is none other than Bruce Wayne, President and CEO of Kane International. Ella Lane and John Kent traveled to the airport to meet with Bruce Wayne and his girlfriend Barbara Gordon. In truth, John and Bruce have been friends for a long time; Bruce’s secret identity is The Batman, a powerful vigilante who works with Superman in their hero team, The Justice League.
That night, John and Ella were interviewing Bruce in his limousine with Barbara when a masked assailant with an assault rifle held the car hostage for money. Ella and Barbara panicked (the latter pretending to be, at least, knowing full well that Bruce and John are superheroes) as the thug forced John, Bruce, and their chauffeur out of the car. Secretly, John used his heat vision, on a low power setting, to slightly melt and disable the gun. When the thug realized his gun didn’t work, it was too late for him to run as Bruce punched his lights out. This was done with enough force that the thug’s smartphone flew out of his pocket and into an alley. The police showed up and arrested the thug, but John noticed that Tim Starling had come from the alley to spirit away the phone.
Later, in Tim’s office at NYT, he hacked into the goon’s phone and found that it contained Toyman Studios’ latest game release as one of the only apps on it, along with records of hundreds upon hundreds of dollars he spent on microtransactions for the game. John confronted Tim about pilfering the phone, and Tim claims that he’s onto something BIG with Toyman Studios and their latest releases. He thinks there’s something more going on, as their games, along with microtransactions, loot boxes, DLC, “ultimate” editions, and merchandising for them, had never made that much of a profit before. Not to mention violent acts and crimes erupting among customers of the games, all of whom were trying to extort money from their victims. John though he was being a bit ridiculous and saw the game for himself. John then recognized that something WAS wrong with the game, and threw it against the wall in panic. As Superman, he had developed psychological shielding, with the help of Zatanna (again, before she turned traitor), for all of the current JL members and the Titans. John admitted that Tim was right, and there is some kind of psychological, subliminal weapon being broadcast from the apps and games made by Toyman Studios. John then realized there was a barely-visible laser pointer locked onto Tim’s head, and he pushed Tim out of the way of gunfire. John escaped with Tim out of the sniper’s view and the sniper, none other than the assassin Deadshot, escaped as soon as he saw The Batman out of the corner of his eye.
Once Tim Starling was safe, John changed into his Superman persona and met with Batman, telling him everything he learned. They traveled to Toyman Studios’ office building and entered Winslow Schott’s office. Batman hacked Schott’s computer and discovered the e-mail from the Calculator, which contains a new version of The Checkmate Procedure, the subliminal conditioning program that the defunct government agency CADMUS used to create sleeper agents. Checkmate was also the bedrock of ANTI_LIFE, the weapon that CADMUS and the Cult of Algol almost used to conquer Earth. The heroes surmised that this reworked Checkmate was being used to make people addicted to paying money towards their games and products. A bomb went off in Schott’s office, destroying his pertinent information and flooding the area with krypton gas to weaken Superman, but they learned where the server farms containing the new Checkmate procedure were located, and, thankfully, the only way Schott can broadcast Checkmate is through that.
At the server farm, Schott was talking to Darci about all of the success behind his latest games, even gleefully admitting to “basically hypnotizing” their customers, as Darci put it. Schott also admitted that he did this all for Darci, and asked for her to be his. Disgusted, Darci began walking away until Deadshot, hired by Schott, holds her up at gunpoint. Batman and Superman arrive. Superman rescues Darci while Batman confronts Schott and Deadshot. Schott defends himself after Deadshot’s defeat, using a weaponized paddle-ball toy, but to no avail. With both villains defeated, The Oracle (Barbara Gordon’s heroic hacker identity) uploaded an “antidote program” to the servers after removing Checkmate, curing the people currently exposed to the programming. Winslow Schott and Deadshot were promptly arrested, and Tim Starling’s story on Schott’s crimes went nation-wide. Those who were forced to be addicted to the games and merchandising via Checkmate were eventually rehabilitated and compensated for their losses.
...

At the charity ball, at the tail-end of the night’s events, Bruce Wayne, in front of all of his guests, got on bent knee before Barbara, produced a ring from his coat, and asked for her hand in marriage. Barbara gleefully said “yes”.
Notes:
* Before you ask: NO, Tim Starling is NOT based on Youtuber Jim Sterling, or anyone like him.
* John Kent will eventually reveal his identity of Superman to Ella Lane, and that her ex-husband, General Samuel Lane, is partially responsible for the death of John’s wife Martha (most of the responsibility for that still falls on Lionel Luthor’s shoulders).
** Ella’s daughter Lois Lane is also attending the same college as Clark and Kara
* James Olsen Sr. is the father of Jimmy Olsen, Clark’s friend and college roommate.
* It was the Calculator who also told Schott about Superman’s weakness, in case he ever interfered.