Meanwhile, back on Earth, a small apartment stood in a bustling city.
The apartment building had been around for years, and the sun had faded the red bricks of its exterior walls. But Metropolis had not completely fallen during Earth's Submergence, so its buildings remained relatively intact.
The Superman Family had also kept order during the unrest that followed, preventing any large-scale destruction. There was the occasional murder born of a grudge, but the culprit was always caught quickly.
Living conditions here were undoubtedly better than in Gotham's apartment buildings. The stairwell was just as dusty and foul-smelling, but at least there was no graffiti on the walls, and no suspicious characters dressed like Wasteland bandits lurked nearby.
Outside the residential complex, a woman in glasses, a blazer, and a pencil skirt was crossing the street. She looked worried, though her voice remained steady on the phone.
"No, Mom, the job interview went badly. Companies in Metropolis would rather believe Superman than my former boss." The woman flipped off a driver who was leaning on the horn, then strode across the crosswalk. "I'm a marked woman now. People in black suits sit in a car parked right outside my apartment, making no effort to hide it."
She sighed and glanced back at the vehicle slowly following her.
Just as she had said, two men sat inside. They wore black suits and sunglasses, and their expressionless faces tracked her every move.
They looked like FBI agents, but there was something darker about them, something that reeked of blood. They did not even bother to conceal themselves.
She pushed open the apartment building's front door and headed upstairs. When a certain department had brought her in for questioning, she had said she knew nothing. But who would believe Lex Luthor's chief secretary