(I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, those who reviewed, those who followed, and made this story their favorite. I want to thank Ulysses for catching my mistake. I didn't think that this would happen to me but I forgot about poor little Canada. So to put my mind at ease, I am going to treat Canada the way Russia treats him. I am going to be concerned for the poor thing but I'll continue to sit on Canada until it's show time! Hope you enjoy the rest of the story.)

Chapter 3: Not Your Usual Morning

"Jones, you better have a good reason for calling me so late," said his boss as he tried not to fall asleep.

"Well, I wanted to know if it was okay to bring in two guests to work because I can't leave them at home," said Alfred.

"Sure, whatever... Remember, Bruce is going to take you guys when he gets into town. He'll meet you in the parking lot, go talk to you for awhile, and he'll make you leave when Lois gets there."

"Understood...See you tomorrow... goodnight, boss."

"Night, Jones."

~~~~~Next Morning~~~~~

"Guys, get up!" shouted Alfred as he pushed Peter off the bed he was sleeping on.

After Peter was awake and had taken a bath, Alfred quickly took a shower. When he was done, he drew a cold bath and went looking for the girl.

The teenager was sleeping in his room because he had to watch her all night and she only seemed comfortable with sleeping in his bed. He ended up watching her the entire time so he was dead beat tired.

Because he was so tired, he couldn't figure out where his room was. He walked through the giant hallway looking for his room. With every passing minute, he shouted louder and louder about getting lost in his own home. Fortunately, she was woken up by the noise and opened the door.

"America, what are you doing? You are acting like a child," she said as she rubbed her eyes.

"Oh, you speak! For a minute, I thought that you were like Canada! Do ya have a name?" asked Alfred.

"I didn't know you could think. Yes, I am Atlantis but call me Alessa," she said.

"Hey, that hurts! Despite that rude comment, you seem to be really polite."

"I am considered royalty to my people as my existence is known to them. It would be un-ladylike of me to behave like a rotten child."

"So you're a stick in the mid."

"I was trained to fight as soon as my people discovered me. I'm not like you or Peter. I have powers... just like my gifted people. If I don't keep myself composed, I can accidentally inflict harm to anyone that is even remotely close to water. I can even hurt people with the water in their bodies. I never want to hurt anyone ever again..."

"Cool! So you're like a blood bender from that show with the people who can bend water, earth, fire, and air... what's it called?..."

"I don't know what you are talking about.."

"Nevermind... wait, you said 'hurt ever again'. What do ya mean?"

"When I was smaller than Peter, I sank my people and accidentally killed many. Can we please not speak of this ever again?"

"Sure... sorry..."

Alessa didn't flinch at the cold water. Alfred closed the door and left her to get bathed as he went to go make breakfast. Peter was waiting for both of them in the large kitchen as he looked for something to eat that wasn't excessively fatty like most of Alfred's favorite foods.

"Watcha lookin for?" asked Alfred as Peter gave up.

"Decent food... something that you know nothing about, fatty!" shouted Peter.

"Hey, that's cruel!" shouted Alfred as he pulled out frozen pancakes from his freezer.

Peter looked on as he put several frozen pancakes into his microwave before heating them up. Peter glanced around and watched as Alessa walked into the room with her hair up in a ponytail that was dripping water down her right shoulder. She sat quietly beside Peter and waited for the food to be served.

"Here you go! Pancakes for everyone! Now hurry up 'cause if we're late we'll get dirty looks from my coworkers," said Alfred as he poured a ridiculously large amount of syrup over his pancakes.

They did what he said and soon they were out the door. They weren't necessarily running the whole way there but they certainly weren't taking a stroll. All of a sudden, a car stopped next to them and they all smiled to see it was Clark.

"Need a ride to work?" he asked nicely.

"Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" exclaimed Alfred as he shoves the kids into the backseat and got into the front.

"No problem. Did you ask if you could have guests?"

"Yeah, he said as long as I keep them away from Lois."

"Oh by the way, Arthur wanted me to ask how you are, Alessa. You don't have any scars, burns, or bruises, do you?"

"Oh I'm fine. I did not see any harm that has been afflicted onto me. It is kind of Arthur to care for me," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well after losing his arm to save his only child, he spends his time with his family while I keep everything running the way it should. I hardly ever see him so it is nice to know that he still worries for my safety."

"He was ready to declare war or something for you. For a second, I thought he was going to hurt someone. He was happy to hear that I found you."

"Excuse me but how do you know Arthur?"

"Oh, this guy's Superman! You know that guy that flew us out of the building- WHOA!" shouted Alfred as Clark swerved the car into the parking lot violently.

"WHO TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT? NOBODY KNOWS ABOUT THAT!" shouted Clark through gritted teeth and with glowing red eyes.

"What are you doing, Kent? We are supposed to make sure they stay unharmed; we do not threaten them," said the man standing in the parking spot next to Clark's driver side.

Clark seemed to snap out of it when he heard the voice. He flinched when he saw the man in his side view mirror. He turned towards the man with a guilty look plastered on his face.

"Sorry, Bruce... you know how I worry about the kind of people that figure it out... don't want anyone getting hurt because of me," said Clark as he got out of the car with the rest of them.

"I know but they can be trusted. Hello Peter, Alessa, and Alfred...it's been awhile, hasn't it?"

"You're in on this too?" asked Clark in disbelief.

"I'm related to Alfred. As a child, I have been taken care of by each rep who is coming to this meeting. All of them I've met while I was missing for the seven years that followed the death of my parents. I'll explain later but right now let's just go inside."

"Fine... you do know that Prussia is no longer a country, right?"

As they walked to the building, Bruce took something out and hit Clark with it which made him stumble. He was fine when they finally got to the elevator. The whole way up Clark was glaring at Bruce who seemed oblivious to it.

They stepped out of the elevator and they could have sworn that the world had stopped. Everyone just stared at them as they walked to Clark's and Alfred's desks. Three people rushed towards them with chairs for the other three and that made Bruce smirk.

"Tell me, Alfred, how is Metropolis treating you?" he asked smoothly even though he knew everyone was listening in on them.

"It's awesome! It's a lot safer than Gotham but to be honest, I kinda miss running for my life and trying to take pics of the elusive Batman. Think the family's gonna come visit me?" he asked.

"If they don't, then I can always trick them into doing that."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Sure! What are cousins for, huh? I'm sure Maddie would come if you would stop pretending that she's not even there."

"Dude, remember that time I took you to one of my meetings. You know, the one with Arthur complaining about something was off."

"Yeah, Arthur counted every single one of us and Francis told him that he was being paranoid. He almost bought it until Peter opened his big mouth and got spotted by Arthur. Remember that, Peter?"

"Yeah," muttered Peter as he blushed. "I thought that since Maddie and I kinda looked alike that I could just dress like her, take a pair of Alfred's glasses, sit at the table, and blend in."

"That was hilarious! I can't believe that Ivan did that! Poor Maddie!" said Bruce as he continued his facade of the goofy easy-going playboy.

"What do you mean? I didn't see her there," said Alfred.

"Ivan was sitting on her! She kept telling him to get off but you know that when Maddie talks or even shouts that you can't hear a word she says. I almost didn't see her until the end of the meeting when Ivan got up and complained about the lumpy seat. I looked over and saw Maddie shivering."

"No way! I can't believe that I missed that!"

"Bruce, is that you?" asked a woman that seemed to be standing behind him.

Bruce immediately stopped laughing which made everyone freeze at the sudden change of the atmosphere. He sighed and stood up with his back to her. Eventually, he turned around to face the woman that he knew all to well.

"Yes, do you need something Lois?" asked Bruce as he tried not to sound cold.

"What are you doing here? It's not every day that you come visit the Daily Planet," she says.

"I came to visit my cousin, Alfred, whom I haven't seen in a very long time. From what I heard from Clark, you were giving him a hard time. To be honest, I'm sick of the way you act when you're around."

"I-"

"Save it... you were the one to say goodbye, after all..."

Bruce turned around, grabbed Clark and Alfred by their arms, gestured toward the children to follow, and hauled them away to the elevator. He stopped halfway to the elevator before he turned back to say something to the man standing at the opposite side of the room.

"I'm taking these two for the week! They'll be covering the event that I'm setting up!" shouted Bruce as he turned back to the direction of the elevator.

"Have fun!" shouted the boss as everyone stared at the retreating figures.

As they left, everyone seemed to go back to what they were doing before. No one even took a second glance at their boss as he went back to his office with a giant smirk on his face.

"Clark, you're in for a week full of headaches," he says as he leans back.