The Daily Planet newsroom, three in the afternoon.
Sunlight slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows, laying a warm golden glow across the aisles between cubicles. Keyboards clattered, phones rang, and reporters shouted to one another, all the noise bubbling together like a pot on the boil.
Perry White stood in the doorway of the Editor-in-Chief's office with his fourth coffee of the day. His brow was knotted in its usual permanent frown as he surveyed the newsroom.
Clark Kent sat at a desk in the corner. His computer screen glowed, and the document on it was already packed with text.
His hands rested on the keyboard, fingertips hovering, his gaze fixed on the headline he had just typed—
"Winter Soldier: A World War II Hero Controlled by Hydra Should Not Bear the Blame for Its Crimes"
He took a deep breath and kept writing.
"...Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes fought and bled against fascism during World War II, saving the lives of countless Allied soldiers."
"After Hydra captured him, he was brainwashed, subjected to mind control, and brutally altered. None of the acts he committed while under its control were his own choice."
"We urge the public to remain rational and direct their anger at the true mastermind—Hydra—not at another victim it destroyed..."
Clark's fingers paused over the keyboard.
He pushed up his black-framed glasses and glanced unconsciously toward Lois Lane's desk.
As the Daily Planet's star reporter, Lois received the same treatment as the Editor-in-Chief: an office of her own.
But she also had a desk in the shared workspace.
She handled work that required coordinating with others at her desk and took anything needing peace and quiet into her office.
Right now, Lois was not at her desk. Her screen was dark, a little cactus stood alone beside the monitor,