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Act IV

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"I shall leave you to discuss this amongst yourselves, but please hurry. There isn't much time to waste." Alfred announced, leaving the dining hall.

"Okay, so what are we thinking, guys?" Tommy asked the others.

"Well, I'm thinking we've gotta go save our parents." Mattie announced.

"Wait a minute," Lisa started. "How do we know this isn't just some trick Alfred's playing on us or something? I mean, I'm sure my mom would have told me if something had happened to Dad."

"Alfred would never joke about something like this!" Mattie argued.

"How can you be so sure?" Lisa asked.

"Because I've known him since the day I was born and I'm telling you, he wouldn't do that!" the older girl snapped.

"Let's take a vote," Michael stated, calmly, after a moment of silence. "Everyone who thinks we should save them, raise your hands." Slowly, everyone's (except the two babies) hands went up. "Guess that's settled, then."

A few minutes later, Alfred came back into the room.

"We're going to help." Tommy announced.

"I'm delighted to hear that." The old man replied. "Master Michael, Miss Lisa, your mothers are outside that door. They'd like to have a word with you, I believe."

Michael and Lisa got up and went into the hall way.

"Michael," Lois exclaimed, hugging her son. "Alfred told us what you're going to do and we think that it's the right thing."

"But be careful." Linda said, kissing the top of her daughter's head. "We've both already lost our husbands."

"Ah, don't worry, Mom." Lisa replied, kissing her mom's cheek and heading back into the dining room.

"We'll be fine." Michael said, reassuringly. He hugged his mother back briefly before pulling back. Smiling one last time, he turned around and went back to join the others.

"That's Superman's son, alright." Linda commented, patting Lois on the back gently. "A chip off the old block."

"That's what I'm afraid of..."

-

"First thing's first." Alfred started as the kids quieted down. "I need to explain everything. If you had come into contact with other children for long enough, your parents feared you would figure out that not every child has the amazing strength and powers you posses or that most parents don't get called away on mysterious 'business meetings'. So they took no chances. Your entire lives, you ten have been, for the most part, kept away from other children. You've known each other and that's it."

"What do you mean?" Derek asked. "What can we do that other kids can't?"

"Pretty much anything that Mrs. Kent, Mrs. West, or myself cannot do." Alfred said, smiling. "Super strength, heat vision, flying, atomic blasts, healing quickly, super speed..." He trailed off. Then, glancing at the Stewart children, he added, "...the fact that you three have wings..."

The room filled with the shocked whispers of the kids as they tried to process what the elderly butler was telling them.

"What do you mean by 'super strength'?"

"Most people can't fly?"

"I always thought some people had wings and some didn't. I didn't realize it was weird..."

"This is going to take a little longer than I'd hoped..." Alfred muttered to himself.

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Act V

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After gently explaining that they were too young to come (and promising some ice cream), Alfred had sent Kyle, Carrie, Andrea, and Joey into the playroom.

"I've taken the liberty of making you costumes that correspond with your powers." Alfred announced, leading the older six children to through the hall. He stopped in front of an old clock.

"Why did you stop?" Tommy asked.

Smiling, Alfred opened the secret entrance to the Batcave.

"Oh my..." Mattie mutter, her eyes as wide as bowling balls. "How did we never notice that...?"

"Simple." Her butler answered. "You weren't looking for it." He started down the staircase, the kids following behind closely. "This, children, is the Batcave, Batman's base of operations for over 30 years." They stayed silent, in awe. "If you'll come this way, I'll show you to your costumes." He said once they had reached the bottom of the stairs.

They moved into the center of the cave and halted in front of the costume cases. In place of the usual Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl outfits were six new ones of various colors and shapes.

"The first one is yours, Master Thomas." Alfred announced, gesturing to a black and blue costume with an eye mask (like Batman's body armor with Robin's face mask). "It's in the conventional style of the house." He added fondly.

"The next is yours, Miss Martha." He said, pointing to a looser white outfit with a gold waist band and circlet. "It's based on your mother's traditional Greek robes; adjusted for crime fighting, of course."

"Master Michael, yours is there." Alfred stated, motioning toward a smaller version of what Superman wears except with red gloves and a longer cape. "Yours is, most obviously, based on your father's uniform."

"Master Derek, here is yours." The butler said as he pointed to a red, white, and blue body suit and face mask. The only thing it wouldn't cover would be his mouth and chin area. "Your mother's colors in the style of your father."

"Miss Lisa, you're next." He gestured toward a red uniform with long boots, no legs, and longer sleeves. It had a white lightning bolt diagonally across it and a small white eye mask. "Loosely based on your father's."

"Miss Ara." Alfred said, tapping the glass of the last uniform. It was a full body green suit with yellow sleeves, leggings, belt, boots, and gloves that went up to her neck and a small face mask. It had holes for her wings in the back.

"I guess we should pick names, too, then, huh?" Michael wondered aloud, looking at his costume.

"That sounds like a good idea." Mattie agreed.

"Oh, me first!" Derek said. "Plasma Boy." The other kids giggled.

"Now us," Mattie started after talking to her brother. "Marvel Gal..."

"And Marvel Boy." Tommy finished.

"Falcon." Ara stated.

"Umm... Blaze." Lisa decided.

"And, in the spirit of most Metropolis heroes, I'll be Superboy." Michael added. "The old one is retired, right?"

Alfred nodded. "Now for the hard part..."

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Act VI

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"Step through here, children." Alfred commanded, motioning to the molecule transporter located in the corner of the Batcave. They had all changed into their new uniforms and were ready to go.

Reluctantly, the kids did as they were told and were surprised to find themselves in a spaceship orbiting the Earth seconds later. After a moment, the old man followed after.

"Welcome to the Watch Tower." He announced, seeing them looking around in awe.

"We're in the Watch Tower?!" Derek exclaimed. "Neat!"

"Follow me closely. This is a large place. I'd hate for one of you to get lost." Alfred directed.

They obediently followed him until they reached a door where they stopped. He had it opened within moments and they all stepped inside.

"And this," he gestured all around him, "is the training room. We're going to need to get started right away, so I need you to pay close attention." He typed something onto the computer and a long and complicated obstacle course came out. "When you were younger, you were all taught either some form of martial arts or gymnastics. While this seems like a trivial matter to most, it will be the foundation for all of the work we do here in the next day."

"You mean we're going to have to learn all of this in one day?" Derek asked.

"I'm afraid so," Alfred answered. "I know none of you have been in this situation before, but when dealing with super villains, it's best to take the least amount of time as possible." He smiled sadly. "Now, you're all going to have to run this obstacle course-"

"Easy." Lisa commented.

"...in under 30 seconds." He finished.

All six jaws dropped.

"What? That's impossible!" Lisa argued.

Alfred smiled. "Your father can run it in 8." He stated. "Now, Master Michael, would you do the honors of going first?"

Michael gulped. "I guess..."

He went over to the start line and got into a ready position.

Alfred pushed the start button, the light turned green, and Michael took off. He jumped over the hurdles, crawled through the tunnels, ran around the cones, went through the tires, climbed over the wall, swung down the zip line, and finished the course.

"3:36. Not bad." The butler stated. "But not quite up to par. Let's try this again, shall we?" He looked around. "Master Thomas?"

"Okay..." Tommy stepped up and got ready. After the button was pushed, he, too, jumped over the hurdles, crawled through the tunnels, ran around the cones, went through the tires, climbed over the wall, swung down the zip line, and finished the course.

"3:33. About the same." Alfred announced. He looked around at the remaining four. Then, his eyes set on one of them and he smiled. "Miss Martha, you next."

Mattie looked at him skeptically and came up to the start line. She stayed standing and looked out unto the course. Alfred hesitated as he went to push the start button, wanting to see what she would do.

"Wait, Alfred." She requested, never taking her eyes off the obstacles ahead of her. She crossed her arms and squinted her eyes. After a moment, she smiled and nodded. "I'm ready."

The second Alfred started the timer, she took off. Mattie jumped over the hurdles in one leap, flew through the tunnels, ran around the cones, flew through the tires, flew over the wall, swung down the zip line, and finished the course.

"1:48. Very good, Miss Martha." Alfred said, smiling proudly.

"I thought you said we had to run it?" Tommy whined, upset that his sister had figured something out that he hadn't.

"One must analyze a situation carefully before taking action; a lesson learned only from experience, I'm sorry to say." The adult answered. "Miss Martha looked at her position, picked the fasted means of completing the course, and carried her plan out. All of your special abilities are different. If you want to finish it in the set time, you'll all have to figure out the best way to go about it using your powers." He explained. "Now, Master Michael, would you like to try it again...?"