I've been around for you

I've been up and down for you

But I just can't get any relief

I've swallowed my pride for you

I've lived and lied for you

But you still make me feel like a thief

You got me stealing your love away

'Cause you never give it

Peeling the years away

And we can't relive it

I make you laugh

And you make me cry

I believe it's time for me to fly

REO Speedwagon - "Time for Me to Fly"

Six years after leaving National City:

Mike Matthews' day job was stressful and noisy and, not infrequently, leaked into his nighttime, despite his ability to work efficiently and occasionally at super speed when not observed by others. So when he had time alone in the peace and quiet of his secluded garage apartment, he liked to veg in front of the television – at least during weeknights. He flipped on the television to watch a favorite sci-fi program – the one indulgence he seemed to be allowed during his busy week. But just as he got comfortable, his hand tucked behind his head on the couch, his show cut away and a news crawl immediately appeared on the screen.

A nationally recognized news anchor appeared on the screen, her face stricken and pale. Mike knew immediately something was horribly awry somewhere and straightened up, sitting at the edge of his seat.

"Breaking news from National City this evening. Reports are pouring in, confirming that…what appears to be alien spaceships have arrived on the outskirts of the city near the Port. We are hearing reports that these aliens are hostile – I repeat…they are hostile. Forces are gathering in the city to repel the aliens at this time, with Supergirl being at the forefront of this fight….."

The news report droned on but Mike heard none of it, his attention diverted by the buzzing of his cell phone on the coffee table. Sensing who was on the other end of the call, he answered it in a flash. "I'm watching," he announced, before the caller could even ask. "Am I ready for this? I don't see how I have a choice." Mike whisked out of the room and returned with a duffel bag, dropping it on the floor at his feet. "I'm already getting my things. Just going to lock up before I leave. See you there?" Mike hung up the phone and dropped it into his bag.

It took less than a handful of seconds to lock the deadbolts on his door, hoist the duffel over his shoulder and take to the sky like he'd never known anything else.

Dominators! He should have known. After Kara fought the Dominators years ago on Earth Prime, it seemed only a matter of time before they'd show up here on Earth-38. Arriving just in the nick of time to join the fight, as Supergirl, Superman and Martian Manhunter, along with a throng of heroes he'd never seen before, struggled to bring down a horde of berserkers, Valor wasted no time jumping into the fray. And 'fray' it was, to be sure. It appeared Supergirl and her team had invited others to their fight, including heroes he could only assume were her allies from another Earth. Mike caught sight of Guardian fending off a Dominator with his shield, as well as Alex using her powered exoskeleton to toss one of the aliens into the waiting blast of fire from a man he can only assume was Heatwave.

He hovered over the Dominator shuttle plying it with his heat vision until is sputtered and then exploded. Gathered Dominators stopped for a moment, realizing that their ride back to the mothership just bit the dust, which allowed Valor to invite himself to the party. Landing on the ground, he puts his weight behind a single punch that sent one careening back into the ship's fire.

"One down," he told himself.

"Behind you," someone shouted. An orange streak flashed before his eyes and the apparent Dominator behind him disappeared to…he didn't know where.

A second later, the orange flash materialized into a person beside him. "I'm Barry," the man in the blood red suit announced, an open grin on his masked face.

"Ah!" Mike immediately recognized the name as the speedster from Earth Prime who befriended Kara long before Mike's arrival on this planet. "Barry Allen…nice to meet you finally. I'm Mike…uh…Valor," he indicated his suit. "Is there a plan here?"

Barry tossed him a small bag. "Put one of these behind the ear of each Dominator you come across. Other than that, knock them around until the tech geniuses get their stuff set up. Then get clear when we get the signal."

"And the signal is…?"

"You have super hearing?" the speedster asked.

"Yes."

"Then keep your ears tuned to the comms. You'll hear the signal when it comes," he answered cryptically.

So they went to hand-to-hand, taking out the horde and trying to stay alive. Dominators were extremely strong, their strength rivaling that of Superman, Supergirl and Valor, so as they fought, it was best to avoid physical contact whatsoever. He concentrated on using his speed to place the tiny transmitters. At one point he looked around, but Supergirl was nowhere to be found.

An ally went down and Mike went after her, pulling her from the melee of attacking aliens. He dragged her from beneath the body of a Dominator and removed her from the fight. She looked up at him and smiled behind her red mask. "I'm Speedy and you can fly."

"Valor," he provided his codename for her. "And…yes I can."

"Cool."

"Are you okay?" he shouted over the noise.

"I've had worse," she pluckily replied, rubbing at an injured shoulder. She came off as much more petite than she actually was, and she wore an outfit made of thick red leather. Whipping an arrow out of her quiver attached to her back, Speedy notched it into her bow. "Thanks for the assist, but there's no rest for the wicked," she said with a roguish smile, before diving back into the fight.

Valor flew up for an overhead view, taking out a few Dominators with his heat vision and by diving down upon them with his super speed and a punch combination. It went on and on, a seemingly endless supply of attacking Dominators, until finally the signal was given and Mike soared above the crowd to watch as high pitched whine pass over the city in a giant wave, taking out all of the remaining Dominators. The creatures grabbed for their "ears" and screeched in pain before crumpling to the ground, dead.

When it was over, he dropped like a stone, slamming feet first into the pavement, his knees bending to absorb the impact, his royal blue cape fluttering dramatically around him. Clark was the first to approach him, their matching grins telling the tale of a long-held friendship.

"Clark," he greeted, joyfully. Clark's impossibly strong arms wrapped him in a welcome embrace, his hands slapping Mike powerfully on the back. Mike returned the embrace with equal back-slapping fervor, as men do.

"What kept you?" Clark joked.

"Can't believe you started the party without me?" Mike shook his head.

"Well, if you hadn't decided you needed to make a dramatic and well-timed entrance…."

"I'm on the other side of the country," Mike reminded his friend and mentor. "Philadelphia isn't exactly a stone's throw. Besides, it looks like you had everything handled."

"Come and meet the rest," Clark grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the milling crowd. He took them through each of their names, assuming that the others had already experienced their introductions. He had already met Barry and Speedy, but there was also Vibe, Black Canary, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, Jesse Quick, as well as the team of time travelers that included Heatwave, Vixen, White Canary and Firestorm.

He looked for her. Surreptitiously, unwillingly, his eyes darting away from each face, hoping to find hers somewhere in the crowd, but to no avail. He felt his heart sink, though he hadn't been wholly unaware of the hope he'd been carrying within. Even through the supersonic flight to National City, he hadn't really taken the time to truly consider seeing her again. He'd been more concerned about an alien attack and what it might mean. Or maybe he hadn't wanted to examine the possibility too closely.

"She's with J'onn and Bruce," Clark told him.

"I wasn't—"

"You were," Clark insisted firmly. Mike's shoulders slumped with defeat, finally admitting to himself that his heart had been searching for her in the crowd. "It's okay," Clark said, his hand grasping Mike's shoulders in comfort. "She's returned to the DEO. They managed to capture a Dominator and they wanted to secure it before interrogating it. Kara's there to keep Bruce from killing it."

"I see."

"Do you want to join them?" Clark asked, expecting his friend to jump at the chance to see Kara again.

"No," Mike replied, shaking his head and taking a step back. "Probably not a good idea."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Clark exclaimed. "You're going to come all this way and not even see her? After six years?"

"Just a coward, I guess," he shrugged, a kernel of truth hiding beneath the sarcasm.

"She doesn't think that about you, Mike."

"Doesn't matter anyway," Mike said, placing his hands on his hips. "It's been six years. Maybe it's best if we just…forget."

'Then why haven't you done that already?" Clark needled him. "You think I haven't noticed that there hasn't been anyone in your life?"

'There has—"

"Anyone real, I meant. Sure, there have been dates here and there, but no one you've considered committing to long-term."

"You know as well as I do, it's not that easy. Not every woman is like Lois," Mike pointed out. He hadn't seen Lois in over nine months, not since Samuel was born, and though they emailed on a weekly basis he still missed her. She was the big sister he'd never had.

"You'll never find your Lois if you don't try," Clark argued.

"How do you-?"

"I know you," Clark cut him off. "I know you – maybe even better than you know yourself. Maybe you're not looking because you know you've already found her."

"C'mon, Clark," Mike begged, studying the tips of his blue boots.

"I know it's hard," Clark placed a hand on Mike's shoulder. "The first step is the hardest."

Mike considered Clark's position a moment before shaking his head. "I can't," he decided. "I just…can't. I'm sorry if that disappoints you."

"You could never disappoint me," Clark promised, a sad smile on his face. "If you're not ready, you're not ready. I'll tell her."

"Damn it, Clark!"

"She asks about you," Clark confessed. "When you were training, I made a promise to you that I wouldn't talk about what we were doing or how you were progressing. And I've kept that promise, even though it made her angry. But those days are gone and all she wants is to know how you are."

"Really?" Mike asked. Why would she possibly want to know about his life? He left after coming to the realization that she would never feel about him the way he felt about her. He wanted to respect and honor that, so he removed himself from her sphere in hopes of easing her awkward discomfort. "Why?"

"She cares about you, Mike," Clark replied. "Maybe your leaving made her realize just how much…."

"No," Mike shook his head. "She was very clear. She did not have those kinds of feelings for me."

"We have a saying here on Earth about absence making the heart grow fonder."

"I don't want 'fond'," Mike answered, sadly. "I never did."

Clark tilted his head to one side for a second and listened to something outside of the human range of hearing. Mike attempted to tune in, but without knowing where to focus, Clark could be listening to a football game on a television set three miles away for all he knew.

"Apparently defending the Earth against alien invaders makes the humans hungry. Big Belly Burger?"

"Nah," he answered, nonchalantly. "I'm not—"

"You don't need to rush back," Clark said, ramping up a pitch to convince him to stay, that Mike already knew was going to succeed. Mike rarely denied Clark anything. Logically, he knew that Clark was simply playing for time, in an effort to get Mike to stick around for a while longer. Time he would use to try to convince him to see Kara, or worse, orchestrate an 'accidental' meeting. But he'd rarely been able to withstand a full on Clark Kent Mid-western charm offensive. "Stay for one meal. Meet the rest of the gang. Get to know them for five minutes. I know they have a lot of questions about you." Clark chuckled, indicating that Mike was going to be in for an intense but friendly interrogation, before adding, "You just flew three thousand miles across country at hypersonic speeds and then fought a cadre of Dominators. You need to eat. I insist. I'll even pay." Clark used his mentor voice, which made staying for dinner non-negotiable, but then lightened the conversational tone by grinning, "And I'm sure Bruce would love to see you."

"Great," Mike sighed, his voice notably lacking in enthusiasm. He had a complicated relationship with Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. The Dark Knight. They were allies and, with Philadelphia being closer to Gotham than Metropolis, had proved over time that they would always have each other's back when in a tight spot.

But Bruce wasn't his friend, so much as he was Clark's and it was a dynamic not unlike befriending the best friend of one's older sibling. While anyone who gave Mike a hard time would feel Clark's wrath, Bruce was given carte blanche in this arena and took a nearly sadistic pleasure in running roughshod over Mike at every opportunity.

"Clark, please tell me you haven't told Bruce about what happened with me and Kara six years ago," Mike's stormy grey eyes begged. Between the three of them, Kara hadn't been a forbidden subject, after all, she was Clark's beloved cousin. But Mike had always steered clear of divulging the specifics of the night that drove him away from National City. Away from her. Instead, Mike had always chosen to speak of Kara's positive qualities whenever the subject came up in Bruce's presence. To that day, Clark and Lois were the only ones that knew the full extent of Mike's heartbreak.

Clark's grimace was all the answer that Mike needed to his query, but he compounded the already sinking feeling in Mike's gut by adding, "How could I predict that a situation like this would bring us all together?"

"How could you not? This," Mike indicated the field of battle, strewn with Dominator corpses, "was bound to happen sooner or later."

Clark looked around and nodded. "Point taken."

"All you did was give him ammunition."

"You know he's just baiting you. You should try standing up to him."

"You know I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because he's just baiting me."

After a moment a wide grin spread across Clark's face, and he sighed in a somewhat melodramatic fashion, a hand over his heart. "The student has become the master. I couldn't be more proud. I'll tell him he can knock it off now."

Mike did a double-take, his eyes widening to a nearly impossible size. "Are you kidding me?" he asked, stupefied. "This is all been some sort of an elaborate test?"

Clark's laugh was hardy and unrepentant, his eyes sparkling with mirth. "In the beginning it was just supposed to be a joke, but then it just became a kind of tradition. We wanted to see what it would take to break you…but we never could."

"Good to know I make an excellent verbal punching bag."

"Hey," Clark defended. "It wasn't without purpose. You've seen how it can be, people wanting to tear you down even though all you want to do is help them. Sometimes it's hard not to lash out, not to get angry—sometimes it's hard not to say, 'I quit. These people can save themselves.' Bruce and I just wanted to thicken your skin a bit, especially in light of the reason you came to me in the first place."

"My skin wasn't the problem," Mike pointed out. "It was my heart."

"Well, you know what I think. You've made your heart so bulletproof nothing's getting through, and that's no way to live. You need something to remind you of why you keeping fighting."

"I have something," Mike reminded his friend. "I have twenty-four somethings, which is why I need to get back to Philly sooner rather than later."

"Let's get changed and we can meet the others at Big Belly. It's just a few blocks down." Clark threw an arm over Mike's shoulder and led him from the field of battle, leaving the agents of the DEO to clean up the mess.

TBC