AUTHOR'S NOTE: I MADE SOME MAJOR CHANGES TO THE FIRST CHAPTER, GO BACK AND READ IT.
Through the fog of the Dreaming, Jay could hear the voices of things that never have been or never will be. Swimming to the surface of his consciousness, Jay awoke on the couch in the hotel. A blue light filled most of the room but didn't quite reach the farthest edges. Sitting up, Jay saw that at some point during the night, Carter must have switched on the TV. Jay looked at the clock in between the beds, telling him it was nine in the morning.
Jay closed his eyes once more, but they shot open when he heard the sound of a fire engine.
Jay grabbed his helmet and zipped over to Carter's bed, shaking him awake.
"Carter, get up!" Jay said.
Carter opened his eyes and quickly focused them on Jay.
Without a word, Carter got out of bed and fastened his harness, slipped on his mask, and tucked his mace into his belt.
"What about Alan?" Carter asked.
"He's still sleeping the sleep of the just, let him be," Jay said.
Carter and Jay jumped out the window. While Jay raced around the city looking for the emergency, Carter took to the sky and was able to find it just as fast as Jay. The burning tenement would be hard to miss from Carter's angle, but something was wrong, more wrong than a burning building already was.
The fire was blue.
Carter changed his trajectory and soared down to the burning building, where firefighters were battling the flames.
The gust of wind a moment later signified that Jay had arrived.
As Jay and Carter were surveying the situation, a man shouted, "My daughter is in there!"
Jay dashed over the man and asked, "Where is she?"
"Third floor, apartment three-seven-four," the man said.
While Jay was speaking to the man, the entrance to the building began to cave in. Carter splayed his wings and rushed over to the door, holding it up.
"Flash! Go!" Carter shouted to Jay.
Jay nodded and ran inside.
The heat was unbearable. Almost as intense as Heat Wave's, but Jay soldiered on: A little girl's life was at stake. Jay tore up the stairs at a breakneck pace and made it to the third floor in record time. Running down the hall, Jay scanned each door for the plaque reading three-seven-four. When he found it, Jay kicked in the door. The room was filled with smoke and an eerie blue glow.
Jay scanned the room and found a bundle of clothes lying low to the floor.
Jay approached and kneeled only to find the little girl.
She looked up at him, and Jay gave her a reassuring smile and nod while extending his hand.
The little girl took his hand, and Jay asked, "What's your name, kid?"
"Mura," she responded.
"Well, Mura, I need you to be brave," Jay said, "Can you do that?"
Mura nodded and Jay smiled, putting his helmet on her head, asking, "Hold onto that for me, will you?"
Mura nodded again, mirroring Jay's smile as best she could.
"Good," Jay said before hoisting the girl up on his back and saying, "Hold on tight."
Once Mura's grip was tight enough, Jay took off, running back down the stairs and made it back through the doorway Carter was holding up.
Setting Mura down, Jay retrieved his helmet from her head and ruffled her hair before taking another lap around the building, making sure no one else was trapped inside.
When Jay finished, he nodded to Carter, who ceased supporting the entrance to the building.
"This fire wasn't an accident," Jay said, the chemist in Jay showing while Jay was swatting the soot off his clothes, "Blue flames. Someone either has the power to make a fire that hot, or some sort of chemical was mixed with the flames."
"Excuse me! Excuse me!" a voice called in the direction of Jay and Carter.
Turning to the source of the voice, Jay and Carter watched as a police officer approached them.
"Can we help you, son?" Jay asked.
"You are American heroes?" the police officer asked.
"We are," Carter replied.
"You did not register with the Hero Public Safety Commission. Come with me, please,"
"Register?" Jay muttered.
"Hero Public Safety Commission?" Carter mumbled.
"What about the people here?" Jay asked.
"More pro-heroes will be here shortly. You must register," the police officer told them.
At the mention of "pro-heroes," Jay looked at Carter and arched an eyebrow. Carter looked back and shrugged.
The officer motioned for Carter and Jay to follow, and Jay asked "How did you know we're from America and that we're, uh, unregistered?"
"Yesterday's report on the crime you helped stop mentioned that you spoke some English, were white, and dressed like most American heroes, looking like you threw your costumes together yourselves," the officer explained.
"We did put our outfits together ourselves," Carter said.
"Really?" the officer asked before mumbling, but not so quietly Carter's enhanced senses couldn't pick it up, "And they call America the Home of Heroes."
Carter rolled his eyes.
As they followed the officer, Jay and Carter began to convene in English.
"I'm not liking the sound of this Hero Public Safety Commission. If I had to guess, it's some sort of organization that keeps heroes on a leash. I'm not too keen on that. The officer saying our costumes looked homemade as opposed to something else makes me think that some sort of contractor makes costumes. It's too early to make assumptions, but it seems like superheroes here are a bit different from home," Carter said.
"Agreed, but we'd best get concrete confirmation before making judgment," Jay reasoned.
Carter grunted in agreement, and the two of them followed the officer in silence until the officer leading them stopped and pointed them into a building.
"Here is the Hero Public Safety Commission's Musutafu office, please register and enjoy your time in Japan," the officer told them before walking off.
Carter waited until the officer was out of sight before saying, "We can't exactly go into a government building, claim we need to register from America, and then have no possible way to register."
"Nope," Jay agreed.
"Let's get back to the room, figure something out from there," Carter suggested.
Jay started running back the way they came as Carter spread his wings and lifted off.
As Jay was running down the street, he was able to look at various pedestrians, who seemed to be moving in slow motion. He was slightly surprised by the appearances of some people. Some were animalistic in appearance or had skin all colors of the spectrum.
The interest of Jay's scientific side was peaked, and he couldn't help but wonder what had caused these mutations to become so commonplace.
Alan awoke to the gust of wind and electrical crackling Jay left in his wake.
"What were you up to?" Alan asked groggily.
"Fire downtown," Jay said casually.
"You save everyone?" Alan asked.
"Yep," Jay said.
"Nothing interesting happen?" Alan inquired, only slightly looking over as Carter flew through the window.
"Actually, yeah. The fire was blue and someone mentioned something called the Hero Public Safety Commission," Carter said.
"Hero Public Safety Commission?" Alan asked, sitting up.
"Also said something that made me think superhero costumes are commercially made," Carter added.
"One moment," Jay said, briefly disappearing from the room before returning, "Alright so in this world about eighty percent of the population possesses a superpower called a Quirk. Superhero is an actual profession regulated by the government and if you don't go to a school to earn a hero license you cannot legally use your powers."
Alan and Carter took a few moments to process the troubling idea of government-regulated superheroics.
"You just go to the library?" Alan asked, trying not to think about the troubling information he had received.
"Yep," Jay confirmed.
"So since we aren't native to this world, we never got licenses, so we can't legally use our powers." Carter said.
"Can't exactly get our licenses now, we're a little old for high school," Jay joked.
"So what're we gonna do? Not help people because it's not permitted?" Alan asked sarcastically.
The trio of veterans each knew they were thinking of the same thing. Back in the 1950s, the JSA was persecuted by the American Government under suspicion of being communists. They were given an ultimatum. Reveal their secret identities or never put the tights back on. The JSA was not too keen on giving up their greatest secrets, so they went into temporary retirement. It was only the second age of heroes that inspired them to put the costumes back on and show the new crowd how it should be done. Not that the new generation necessarily needed guidance, but it was nice being part of something again. The JSA briefly reformed until the tragic deaths of Rex Tyler, the first Hourman, Charles McNider, the first Doctor Mid-Nite, Al Pratt, the first Atom, and the disappearance of Carter, at the hands of a time-traveling deviant named Extant during the Zero Hour Crisis. They only reformed for good a few months ago to stop the Dark Lord, Mordru, from stealing the power of the new Doctor Fate and bringing ruin to the universe, and Carter reincarnated once more.
"But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that being a superhero is basically a popularity contest," Jay said with disgust.
"How do you mean?" Alan asked.
"Twice a year in most countries there are these things called the Hero Billboard Charts, basically ranking how much of a celebrity each hero is. Lots of heroes get into the business looking for a payday or some sort of recognition. Not because they have the means to actually help," Jay said dourly.
"So we're in a world full of what Booster Gold used to be?" Carter asked.
"Seems so," Jay sighed.
As a brief silence hung in the air between the trio, Jay began to feel the familiar pain of hunger in his gut, and a harsh reality hit him.
"Alan? Carter? We don't have any income. How will we eat?"
Alan thought for a few moments, hand gracing his chin before placing his hands on Carter and Jay's shoulders.
"What're you doing?" Jay asked.
"Experimenting," Alan replied.
"Aren't I supposed to be the scientist?" Jay quipped.
Alan's hands began to burn green, which spread to Carter and Jay's body, coating them in the Green Flame.
The feeling of warmth that flooded through them was the same as whenever Alan would save them from a nasty fall, but instead of just licking at their skin, it filled the inside of their bodies too. Their fatigue and hunger dissolved and Jay and Carter were as good as new.
"Let me guess, the Green Flame can keep you sustained so you thought it would sustain us too?" Carter asked.
"Yep," Alan smirked.
"What now? Carter asked.
"I suppose we could try to find some minimum wage job to work, see if we can't get some money despite our status as nonexistent," Jay shrugged.
"I don't see how you could. You don't have any other clothes, and I doubt any convenience store will hire a hero. I'll go find some clothes." Alan said as the energies of the Starheart dispersed his Sentinel outfit and normal work clothes took its place.
Jay sat down on the bed, where he felt something pressing against him. Reaching into his back pocket, Jay fished out his wallet, which had a few dozen dollars in cash inside.
` "Alan, Carter, do you have your wallets?" Jay asked.
"Yeah, why?" Alan asked.
"No, why?" Carter asked.
"Alan, give me your wallet," Jay requested, taking Alan's wallet before exiting and returning the room between eye blinks, now with long coats in his arms.
"What'd you do?" Carter asked as Jay handed Alan back his wallet and a coat to Carter.
"Well, first I stopped at the nearest airport and exchanged our American dollars for Yen. Then I ran to a clothing store and bought some coats for us to hide our outfits under while leaving some money on the counter," Jay explained.
"Good thinking," Carter grunted, pressing down on the medallion on his chest, which caused his wings to retract into his harness before slipping on the coat.
Carter then walked over to the window and lifted it up.
"We should probably set a time to be back by," Alan said.
Looking over at the digital clock between the two beds, Carter said, "It's eleven-thirty now. We should meet back here at six o'clock. Sound good?"
"Sounds good," Alan and Jay agreed.
The veteran heroes parted ways outside the hotel, looking in different parts of the city for jobs.
Walking throughout the city, Jay realized he had never truly visited Japan. He had been to Japan countless times during races throughout the world with Barry and his service in World War II, he even learned the language during the war, but never in his ninety-three years had he visited the country for the sake of it.
As Jay was taking in the city, he felt the ground beneath him begin to rumble, and as he turned to look, he was knocked off the overpass along with several others by multiple gusts of wind created by something large.
Looking down, Jay saw the asphalt below quickly approaching.