The crowd burst into cheers, and the noise rebounded through Metropolis Square. They quieted only when the words came again, "And I promise, not only to the people of this great city that I call home but also to the people of this whole country, that I will make a difference. That we will change the world together. Ladies and gentlemen. We stand on the precipice of a new era, of a horizon of new possibility of what mankind can do together. I know that can be scary. I know that there are many of you who fail at the thought of stepping out from underneath the shadow that has long stood above us. It is a large shadow. I grant you it is a seemingly righteous, beautiful shadow. For years we have been pleased to crouch underneath it's strength. But let me tell you ladies and gentlemen,"

"No," The man clarified before continuing "let me ask you, have we, the great nation of America, ever been content to crouch underneath a shadow? Have we ever let those with greater power tell us what to do and where to go? Have we ever been content to cower underneath an controllable foreign power. NO. No we have not. We are the greatest country in the world. The land of freedom and truth. And let me tell you the truth today folks. We do not live in a land of freedom. We live in a land of fear. Where the proud American bows his head and bends to the will of a single collection of unelected powers who refuse to subject themselves to our basic laws. Who refuse to answer to any man. Who refuse, I said who blatantly refuse, to show us their face or tell us their names. Does that seem like freedom to you, you who are gathered here today, you who represent this great nation?"

The crowd's voice rose to a roar. Thousands of words shouted at once but the meaning was clear. No.

"America has always been a nation of change. A nation of hope. A nation of the fearless. It has never been a nation who stood in the shadows. And I fear my friends, that the longer we stay in the shadows the harder it will be to ever leave them. So I am not here today to ask for your vote. I am not here to ask for your money. I am not even here to ask for your time. Ladies and gentlemen of this great nation, I am here to ask only that you find your courage. I ask you, in this hallowed spot, to remind yourselves of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism where we hand over ourselves to the greatest authority. Where we simply follow the status quo. Where we let slid everything that America stands for.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy, to rise from the dark and desolate valley of a powerful shadow and to stand in the sunlit path of the power of humanity, unblemished on the solid rock of brotherhood. In the past, I will admit that I have followed this path in the wrong way. I have let the darkest reaches of my soul spoil that bright sunlight, but no longer my friends. That is why I stand before you, asking to be your president, asking for you to let me lead you into the light in the right way. I intend to conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

To struggle on in the light of day, whatever the consequences. For America, this is a struggle we have beaten before. There was a man. A man you all know well, a man with a dream. Well, friends, I share that dream. A dream as relevant today as it was in 1963. Friends, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. All men. All equal. I have a dream that humanity will walk out from this powerful shadow and into an oasis of freedom and justice where no man has the power to take out another simply due to the contents of his genes. I have a dream that we will not chose our heroes by the size of their power but by the freedom in their hearts. I have a dream that America will choose her own path and once again stand on her own two feet as everything we love her to be: brave strong and free. That is my dream. That is my path.

Brothers and sisters here today," Luthor raised his hands to the screaming crowd, "will you make me walk alone?"

The screams trailed after Luthor as he finally left the stage and entered his lavish campaign trailer waiting out back, bodyguard walking just out of reach of his shadow.

"Well, those idiots took that even better than I expected," Luthor loosened his tie and dropped into the desk chair, "You may have missed your calling Alexander. Speechwriting must pay better than bodyguard."

The bodyguard took of his dark glasses, flicked black hair from his eyes, and stooped down to grab a beer and bottle of medicine from the cooler. Wiping the cool condensation on his pants he tossed the meds to Lex and said, "If I was simply a bodyguard, you may be right." The young man leaned against the wall, "People love that crap. Extended metaphors about overcoming obstacles," he rolled his eyes, "you can say anything if you say it right."

Luthor nodded, "Curse of the masses. No vision." He popped the cap off the bottle and dry swallowed two pills, "Have you heard from the family?"

Alexander nodded, "Mary is dealing with the island, Triton has finished removing the secondary targets. As expected both have contributed perfectly. Charlie, however, typically managed to get himself captured. Although the primary target was accomplished."

"You have an extraction plan," Luthor interjected.

Alexander shook his head, "We've decided to play an internal angle."

"That is not your decision to make," Luthor stood, "you should have consulted me immediately. This could wreck my plans."

"I'm sure," Alexander raised an eyebrow, "that you're capable of a small alteration. I don't have the resources to extract him and he wasn't essential to your plans."

Luthor frowned, "I expect my employees to detail everything to me. Next time," Luthor tapped a small bulge in his chest pocket, "there will repercussions. Painful repercussions."

Alexander stared at him lazily, "Would you like me to continue my report." A pause, "sir?"

"Fine."

"Saul has nearly located the weakness. Narrowed it down to a small city in South Western Canada."

A quiver of Luthor's eyebrows betrayed his surprise, "Ariadne will fall into line?"

"Most definitely," Alexander smirked.

"Keep me well informed. Congratulate Saul when he comes through. Send him those cookies he likes or something."

"Oreos."

"When's my next appearance?" Luthor reached for his jacket, "Election's in less than a week."

Alexander didn't bother checking a schedule, "Tonight in Gotham."

"Has that matter been resolved?" Lex asked.

Alexander frowned, "Two more dead – Scarecrow and Freeze, odd but hardly relevant to our plans."

"I don't like loose ends boy," Lex said, "or changing variables. Someone is killing villains in Gotham. What if Batman reacts unexpectedly? We need consistency, known quantities. Not questions."

"It's rude to lurk in doorways," Batman threw the words over his shoulder without turning.

Wonder Woman rolled her eyes and entered the surveillance room, "there's irony in there somewhere."

"Why are you here Princess?" Batman said.

She took a seat beside him at the surveillance room console, spinning the chair slightly to get a better view of the screen, "In case they need back-up."

Batman snorted, "Unlikely. The boy is well contained."

"I didn't mean physical back-up," Diana said, "unless you intend to make sure everyone is emotionally sound?"

Batman said nothing.

"Of course," Diana continued, "You've only spent the last few days keeping them away from their son because they're 'impartial' and you 'need answers'."

"Of course they're impartial." Batman said, "If the boy would have given me answers then they wouldn't even be in there."

Diana shook her head and tapped her foot on the metal floor, "No-one is impartial on this one."

"Batman," John turned to wave at the camera, Shayera at his side, "we're ready."

Batman flicked a small green switch, "Remember, I need answers." On screen the cell door popped open with a metallic hiss. Switching cameras, Bruce zeroed in on the cell's captive. The young, genetically created son of Green Lantern and Hawkgirl.

With chains on his wrists and ankles and a heavy magnet securing his metal wings the boy was nearly sinking into the floor.

Shayera entered first, hands rubbing together. John directly behind her, twirling his ring.

Diana frowned at the screen, "Where's…" Batman reached under the desk and hefted Shayera's mace onto her lap.

"I'm not letting her in there with a weapon," he said.

The entrance of the heroes caused the boy to lift his head, eyes widening and dark eyebrows bouncing up. He caught himself, dropping into a neutral expression. The room was silent but for hissing pipes as the three simply stared at each other.

John started, "Hello Rex."

The boy twitched, "My name is Five."

"That's not a name," John crossed his arms and then uncrossed them, letting them hang loosely at his side, "that's a number. You're more than a number Rex."

"Both are arbitrary sounds that are assigned to us without our consent," the boy said, "I pick Five. What's it to you?"

Lantern frowned, "A number is impersonal, it denotes a lack of caring. I don't want," he took a deep breath and glanced at the silent Shayera, "our son, to feel uncared for."

The boy watched them, "Sorry. Was that your big reveal? The one that's supposed to make me crumble and get sympathetic because mommy and daddy are superheroes and so I'm just supposed to help them." He rolled his eyes, "please. I've known who my biological donors were for years. Besides, even if I hadn't, none of us were trained to fall for that kind of sentimental nonsense."

"It's not sent-" John began but Shayera cut him off.

"No. The kid's right. It is sentimental nonsense." Shayera flicked her wings, "He wants to be called Five, call him Five. Who cares. Call the kid Five. So he's our son. Big. Deal." John stared at her, ready to speak up when she elbowed him in the gut. "We don't know him, he doesn't know us. No special treatment. He's just another lab experiment gone wrong, one more bad guy who ended up in these cells." The boy flinched. Shayera pretended not to notice. Too calm "We've seen thousands like him and we'll see thousands more. The deal's the same. Get whatever information they can give and then send them packing. If he's not going to fall for the sentimental crap then we'll use a more direct method."

Both men were openly gaping at her, mouths wide in identical shocked expressions.

Shayera wasn't near done. "You're seeing what you want to see John. What you always see. Someone who needs saving. Someone you can redeem. A softie surrounded by tough edges. You thought that was me and now you're making the mistake of thinking that Five here is the same. We're tough through and through. Raised to be soldiers. Trained from the start. Taken away from our families and given new ones – fellow comrades in arms. Trained to kill or be killed. A soldier from the get-go. There's nothing human left inside of us. Five knowns. They took it all away. They made you theirs not your own."

"They did not-" Five spluttered.

She turned back to the boy, "Didn't they Five? They went in there and scooped up everything good and nice and sentimental and turned it into hate and rage and then taught you to control it. To see it their way. You control it. They control you. Always tough. Always tow the party line. Always follow orders. Just another soldier."

Five strained against his restraints, letting them cut into his wrists and releasing the metallic scent of blood. He growled"I am not just another solider. You have no idea who I am."

"Neither do they," Shayera spoke over him, " But they don't care that they don't know. They like that they don't know. You're just Five. Couldn't even come out right. Slap on a pair of metal wings to fix him up and send him on his way. The broken science experiment. Number five. Couldn't even make the top three. Not powerful enough? Blood of an alien. Half-formed wings. Enhanced strength and you nearly get outranked by a skinny powerless girl. Just Five. Nothing higher."

Five frowned. "Four can hardly think straight. Three is a moron. I should have been Three." He shouted, " And I'm stronger than Six ever was. One was just biased. Six is so smart he always said. Six is one of us, not you. Six has spunk." He spat, "Six never followed orders. She did her own thing and never followed the plan."

Shayera dropped to her knees, getting right in Five's face, "Oh yeah? Because I've met Six. Calls herself Kayla right? And she's certainly outranking you. No powers? At least she's got personality. One is right. Spunk matters. Spunk is personality. And you've got none of it. Six gave herself a name. Kayla got herself a family. Kayla let people help her. Kayla decided her own path. Five let's himself be told what to do. Five follows orders like a mindless puppy. Five throws up walls and is too well conditioned to consider letting people help him. Five doesn't dare imagine a world where people could care about him, where he has a mother who understand exactly what it's like to grow up a soldier and have your family taken away. Five can't comprehend a world in which a Father could trust him. Five can't even consider a world where he has a name. A name used by people who care about him. Five doesn't believe in love. Five is just a number."

Shayera's voice dropped low, "I'll call you Five if you want me to, but you can't stop me from seeing Rex in there."

The boy said nothing. Chains kept his limbs firmly on the floor but he let his head hang after them, chin to chest. Shayera reached out, hesitating for the first time, and softly brushed a tear off his cheek with the pad of her thumb.

"He didn't tell me much," the boy said at last, "but I'll try."

The sky was dark over Gotham as even the moon hid behind fast moving clouds. To Diana, the city always smelled of too much mud and too much garbage but tonight, with the high winds whipping the scents away from even her nose, the darkness of the city seemed quiet and waiting.

"I don't know if I could do it," Diana swung her legs over the edge of the building to sit on the ledge, fiddling with the rough rock of the building as she gazed over the rooftops of the city.

Batman kept his eyes on the target below them, a burned out hotel where Poison Ivy was supposed to be staying. At least, that's what their target was supposed to think, "Shayera is a trained interrogator Princess, she gets results." He said.

Diana frowned, "But the look on Rex's face. She broke him. She could have been gentler. Kinder."

"We don't have that kind of time. Five's confirmation that Luther is involved is invaluable. It gives us a firm direction to search for who's ultimately giving the orders, we didn't have the time to spare" Batman said looking down at his equipment to triple check that every wire and snap of the plan was still in place, "It also gives us the brief break I need to track down the murderous vigilante running through my city." His words ended with a growl.

Diana thought she understood. Bruce had given his life to defending this city and had made it his mission, his one rule, to never kill its villains. To have someone running free, breaking that rule, it violated his city, his rules. Still, Diana couldn't quite shake the Steward 'family'.

"Does it have to be all about us?" Diana paused, watching the tails of her hair spin in the wind where they jumped between tickling her arm and caressing Bruce's shoulder, "what about what he needs?"

"She did what needed to be done," Batman finally looked up at her, "What if you had a daughter or son? Would you sacrifice thousands of lives to save them?"

Diana looked up, his eyes were intense and staring down at her, "Could you?"

"No."

Diana twitched, "You'd burn the whole world to save your daughter?"

"That's not the same thing," Bruce said, "but I know that if you asked me to kill any of my children, whatever the reason, I wouldn't be able to do it."

She couldn't respond. Batman, while certainly not as hardhearted as he tried to appear, was tactical. He ruled himself with logic. Until he didn't. So what did that make her? She watched his eyes search her face, those fierce eyes sweeping across her and looking at her soul, "but," he paused, eyes flashing, "you would."

"I would." She agreed softly, "it is the Amazon way. My child would know that. It would not stop the pain of my actions, it would likely destroy me but if forced to make the choice I would save thousands over one. Even if it broke my heart."

Bruce went for the hug before she realized that he was moving. She found herself crushed against his chest with an intensity that would have pinned any other woman. His nose had found its way to somewhere between her neck and her ear, providing a small spot of cold to contrast the warmth of his mass.

She wiggled her arms free and returned the embrace, pausing to appreciate the smell of him. Finally she said, "I'm fairly sure someone, somewhere owes someone money as a bet was won and lost."

He pulled back, "Sorry."

Diana almost gaped, the man, the Batman, looked sheepish.

"Forget about it," then she added too lightly, "that's what friends are for right?"

Batman moved away, perching on the ledge of the building and once more stared downward, "Of course."

His posture was hunched, pulling his shoulders towards his core and letting his arms rest inward, and nearly hugging his chest. Diana paused, biting her lip as she took in his posture. Her hand crept down her side before jerking back as it brushed against the lasso on her hip. A constant reminder that not even Wonder Woman could lie to herself.

She flexed the stinging hand and said, "Although, I think we may be well beyond typical friends."

Bruce's head swung around to stare at her.

"While I can't say what you typically do with your friends, I don't traditionally attend stakeouts, raise their daughters, or go on over 30 dates with them." Diana swallowed, "I'm not sure friend is the right word." The lasso tingled against her hip.

"33 and a half dates," the words jumped from Bruce's mouth.

Diana raised an eyebrow, "A half?"

"The one Poison Ivy interrupted."

"I didn't realize you'd been counting so closely," Diana said.

"I'm not." Bruce said, rising to his feet.

Diana shrugged, "Don't you think it's a little late for denials?"

"I've spent years in denial," with two strides, he was right in front of her, "it's where I'm most comfortable."

His breath ghosted across her face as she said, "Rich kid with issues huh?"

"Dating within the team already leads to disaster," Bruce said but didn't move away.

"33 and a half dates later…" Diana let herself trail off, holding his eyes even with the cowl in the way.

He tensed, "those weren't real dates."

"Don't kid yourself," Diana said, "and don't you dare lie to me. Because I've done more than enough lying to myself that it's all just a cover and it would be just the same if you were any other 'friend'. I need to know where I stand. Where we stand. Not whatever this thing is that we don't talk about. Because let's be honest Batman, we're not friends."

"No," he whispered, "we're not."

Kayla fumbled with her keys, jiggling the lock as she let herself into the apartment and bobbing her head to the music coming through the earphones. The door swung open and she danced her way into the living room, dropping her backpack on the table and scooping up her laptop.

Scowling at the screen, she typed a quick message before closing the lid and flinging herself down on the couch.

"Crap," she swore as something sharp dug into her butt. Squirming slightly, she reached behind her to pull a utility belt from the cushion. Her brow furrowed, wondering momentarily if she'd stashed this in couch for emergency purposes but forgotten.

She shook her head, the belt was far to big for her hips. This was a Batman belt, maybe Nightwing.

Kayla's eyes drifted upward, freezing when the reached the entrance to the hallway. Red boots. Black boots. A cowl on the floor. An edge of a black cape peeking at her.

She whipped the earphones from her ears, barely wincing at the pain. A thump, a giggle, and a moan had her clapping her hands back over her ears, eyes wide. She stuffed the earphones back in, scrambling to gather her laptop and backpack.

Kayla sprinted out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. There are some things a girl never ever ever wants to be aware of, never mind pay witness to.

Happy Valentines Day :)

questions comments and concerns always welcome. Thanks for your continuing support. Stay Stupendous. Aria