Fizz2.0

The Watchtower

"We need to address this. Make a statement to the media."

It was Batman that spoke.

The others were around the central table. Superman hovered a few feet away. The tension was palpable. The memories of Dallas were still fresh in everyone's memory.

"Say we had a disagreement on tactics, but we're still united in our purpose,' Clark suggested. He'd been going back and forth with what he was going to say all week. An apology was what they wanted, but maybe it was pride but he didn't want to give them one. He didn't think he owed them one. He knew the simplest thing would be to apologize and smooth everything over. He just couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew he couldn't put this meeting off any longer, so he came, but the words just didn't want to pass his lips.

"Are we?" It was Barry that spoke. "We didn't seem to be very united in Dallas."

"You turned on us,' Hal added.

"Only after you tried to restrain me,' Clark replied.

"You seemed out of control, Superman,' Arthur offered.

"I was having a bad week."

"And that's your excuse?" Batman asked.

"Yes."

"That gets us nowhere,' Hal said in frustration. "We're supposed to be teammates here. We shouldn't have to look over our shoulder wondering if one of us is going to turn on the others."

"I didn't turn on anyone until you turned on me,' Clark pointed out. "I've been hunted, trapped, restrained, tortured and experimented on. Have any of you? It happened once and I promised myself it wouldn't happen again. I admit, I went off on those robots and let my anger overtake me."

"But then you turned on us, your teammates,' Hal said.

"You attacked me first, remember? Diana's lasso and then your chains, I reacted. I regret it came to that."

"Perhaps we did overreact,' Arthur suggested.

"Some of us,' Batman added.

"What about the cause of your anger?' Diana spoke up for the first time.

"That's private, but it won't effect anything again,' Clark replied.

"How can we be sure of that? You're hardly a fountain of information,' Hal observed. "Most times you say nothing and just hover in the background."

"You'll just have to trust me,' Clark suggested. "Just as I have to trust all of you. Being teammates, that seems like something we should have. If I've been part of the reason why we don't, I'll try and correct it."

"That's easy to say,' Barry replied. "But trust is earned. Most of us don't know anything about you. Oh, I'm sure Batman does and probably Victor, but that leaves the rest of us in the dark here."

"He does have a point, Superman,' Arthur added. "You speak of trust, yet you hide who you are from us. Most of us have been open about who we are. Just you and Batman have not."

"If we're going to be a team and trust each other, we should be able to trust each other with anything,' Hal stated. "I've seen who Batman is, but you're still a mystery, Superman.

"You know who Batman is?" Barry asked. "How come you didn't tell me? I thought we were friends?"

"Not the time, Barry,' Hal grumbled.

"I have a secret identity to protect those around me,' Clark explained. "Arthur, you and Diana don't need one. Diana's friendly with the government through Steve Trevor. They've come to accept and trust her. Hal, you're a Lantern, so trust is implied. Barry, your identity isn't known, but the police trust you in your town. Victor isn't able to have a secret identity yet. As for Batman, he has his own reasons. Mine are simple. I'm still seen as a threat by the government and the military. I thought of giving up my secret identity and just being Superman all the time, but I learned that's not the way. I keep it secret to protect those that know me. I owe them that much so they don't become targets for being my friend."

"Okay, but what about calling me a toad,' Hal asked.

It was Diana that spoke up.

"The lasso compelled him to speak the truth, which I believe you asked for,' She explained.

"So you're saying what he said was the truth, you think I'm a toad?"

"I wouldn't have characterized it that way,' Diana replied. "But I do grow weary of you hitting on me."

"Why doesn't that make me feel better?"

"Can we stick to the issue, please?" Arthur scolded.

Victor was he youngest member and he hadn't spoken until now. he voiced what many were thinking.

"You could have killed us all in Dallas,' Victor said. "I think that's what has everyone worried."

The others looked at him, surprised by his statement.

"I don't kill, friend or foe,' Clark replied. "Even as angry as I was, I knew I would have to hurt you, maybe beyond repair to stop you. I wouldn't and won't do that. "

"That's an easy promise to make,' Batman replied. "It's a bit harder to keep."

"I keep it for the same reason you do, Batman,' Clark stated. "We're different in most things, but not that."

A moment of silence fell over the room. The issues weren't going to be resolved at one meeting and the longer this went on the worse it would get.

"Then I think we're finished here,' Batman suggested. "Arthur, you and Diana can issue a statement to the press if you like. A difference in tactics, but all is well."

As the members started to get up, Barry couldn't help by ask a question.

"So we just put him kicking our ass behind us?"

"He didn't kick my ass,' Hal objected.

"Yeah, he did, Hal,' Barry replied.

"I was there,' Victor said, putting his hand on Hal's shoulder. "That was the definition of an ass kicking, Hal."

Barry turned to Victor and smiled.

"You saw it too, huh?"

"Hard not to,' Victor replied.

"I was just heading for something to drink, want to join me?"

"Sure."

Hal stood with his mouth open in shock as Barry and Victor walked away together towards the mess hall.

"Hey!" Hal finally called and then went after them.

"With that, meeting adjourned,' Arthur added.

Stop. Rewind.

Clark moved over and sat down at the table with the others. The last to join them was Batman. Arthur as the nominal leader of the group began.

"We need to talk about what happened in Dallas and what it means."

Clark decided just to plunge again and get on with the apologies.

"I regret my part in this and want to apologize,' he offered. "I let personal issues effect how I work with this team and again I'm sorry for that. It won't happen again."

Stop. Rewind.

Scenarios like these had been playing out in Clark's mind all week. He seemed to go back and forth on how to handle it. As he entered the main conference room and saw the others waiting, he was still wrestling with what would be the best way. Apologizing would be the simplest, but that was just pasting wallpaper over a hole. The hole was still there you just couldn't see it. Defiance was another way to go about it. Offer then no apology and accuse them of turning on him first. While this might sooth his pride it wouldn't solve anything either.

Instead of standing in the background, this time he took a chair at the table. The others followed his lead. He quickly looked at each of them as he decided what he was going to do. These were good people, heroes. The reason they were all part of this was a noble one. It was worth saving, but it meant something's needed to change.

Clark realized he was going to have to be a part of that. He would have to do something he'd been reluctant to do up to this point. He was going to have to take the lead. Apologies might have their place later, but right now he realized they all needed to do what they hadn't in Dallas. They needed to talk to each other.

Arthur as the nominal leader started the meeting.

"Thank you for coming,' he said. "I believe we all know why we're here. What happened in Dallas needs to be addressed."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Yes it does,' Clark replied. "I told you once I was happy with how you were running things and if I had any issues I would tell you. I think what happened brought some issues to the surface. I played a part in them and will take responsibility for them. I won't ask you or Diana to make a statement; I'll do it myself."

The others were obviously surprised by this.

"That's fine, but what will you say?" Hal asked.

"I'll say like all groups we had a disagreement,' Clark offered. "Hopefully, I'll also be able to say we've worked it out."

"How do you propose we do that?" Batman asked.

"By what I think we all should have done in Dallas, talking,' Clark explained. "I'm here to explain my actions to all of you, but I hope you will all reconsider how you responded."

"Go ahead,' Arthur offered.

"I was having a shitty week and a bad day,' Clark began. "Having powers doesn't change that. It carried over when you called me. I saw those robots and just vented all the anger that had been building up. I was pissed and they happened to be in the way."

"You lost it, Superman,' Hal said. "You were out of control."

"No." Clark replied with a shake of his head. "As Diana asked before it started, they weren't alive. That meant I didn't have to worry about how I dealt with them. Even if I hadn't been there, you would have had to destroy them to stop them. I might have been a little more spectacular and violent about how I did it, but I never lost sight of who was the targets and who wasn't. No civilians were ever in harm's way."

"Yet you lashed out at us,' Barry commented.

"As I said, I was really pissed,' Clark replied. "When Diana's lasso wrapped around me and then Hal's chains, it just fueled my anger. I've been hunted, captured, chained and tortured before, and that all came rushing back to me."

"Still you could have talk to us,' Arthur said. "Explained this then."

"You could have too,' Clark replied.

"He has a point,' Batman said. "We're supposed to be teammates, yet we reacted rather than think it through first. I tried to say it was a bad idea, but once it started I went along with it."

"Why were you so angry, Kal?" Diana asked.

"Things in my personal life haven't exactly been very good lately,' He offered. "I'm not a hero all the time."

The others seemed to consider this for a moment.

"We might have overreacted,' Hal reluctantly said.

"I think we all overreacted," Arthur added. "I also think this speaks to something deeper. While we have been working as a team, we still don't completely trust each other. Some of us have been more open about our identities, but each of us holds back information from the others."

"That's to be expected,' Batman offered. "This is part of what we do, but not the main part. Each of us has a life separate from this one. Trust takes time."

"It does, but as Arthur said, some of us have been more open than others,' Hal replied. "I hear your words, but what do I really know about you or Superman for that matter. He says all the right things when he speaks at all, but mostly he stays in the background. You seem to like the shadows, Batman, but it's the same thing. I don't know him that well, so when I saw him in Dallas, he seemed to be out of control. I reacted, just like I think everyone else did. In hindsight that was probably a bad idea, but it showed just how little we really know about him."

"Some around this table are more comfortable letting people in than others,' Batman said. 'We each have our strengths and weaknesses, but we work as a team when it counts."

"I think the larger point is remembering why we are here,' Arthur said. "We agreed to come together to battle those threats that we couldn't handle alone. On that I believe we have been remarkably successful. From the beginning I think we all saw this as a part-time thing, but five years has taught us there will always be a need for a group like this. Perhaps the flaw is in the structure, not the individuals."

"So what do we do about it?" Victor asked.

"I think we need to trust one another and take if on faith that trust is shared,' Diana suggested. "Faith is believing in things you cannot prove or see. I trust all of you and I have faith that all of you trust me."

"Faith doesn't come easily to some of us, Princess,' Batman remarked.

"Yes and it can be lost just as easily,' she replied. "I have some experience with that. I'm just suggesting that what brought us together hasn't changed for any of us. We fight for a safer and better world. If we can't all have faith in that, then perhaps this group shouldn't continue."

Berlin

He smelled of mint and tobacco. His eyes were pale gray and seemed to twinkle as he spoke to her. He had an easy smile that only added to his handsome features. He was perfect, exactly what Karen was looking for. They had met earlier in the day, her first in Berlin.

All the clubs in Rome hadn't been able to pull her out of her mood. She knew what Helena was trying to do, but this time it wasn't working. Karen pretended it was for Helena's sake, but doubted she'd fooled her best friend. Thinking a change of scenario might help; Karen had booked a flight to Berlin. Helena was reluctant to part ways, but it was the nature of their friendship. She knew Karen wasn't ready to talk about it and until she was she would just have to wait. They said their goodbyes at the airport and promised to meet up again in a month.

While she wasn't ready to talk about it to anyone else, Karen couldn't avoid thinking about it. Doubts and regrets still lingered from her brief encounter with Clark. The video of his confrontation with the Justice League only intensified these feelings. She wanted to forget him, yet seeing the video made her want to go to him. She was attracted to him, yet wanted to push him away at the same time. It was all jumbled up in her mind and just added to her confusion.

Clark represented everything she had been trying to avoid since she arrived. He was an attachment of the worst kind and potentially the hardest kind to give up. She would give up all attachments to this world sooner or later. Karen knew Helena's feelings on this, but didn't share them. She knew it was possible to get back home, but it was so frustratingly difficult to make it all work. She wouldn't give up, though, that wasn't an option.

Karen just wanted to forget Clark. It had been a one-time thing and it was over. This all sounded good, but she couldn't seem to convince herself. Her issues were different than Helena's. Karen's father had died on Krypton saving her life. Superman in her world was her 40-year-old cousin, and while he and his wife had played surrogate father and mother to her, she never saw them that way. Much like the Supergirl on this world, Karen had grown up on Krypton. She had been a teenager when it was destroyed.

Helena saw this world's Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle as mirror images of her parents back home. When Karen looked at Clark, that wasn't what she saw. They weren't related or cousins, they weren't even from the same universe. He was a Kryptonian man the same age as she was. The attraction felt natural. If their roles had been reversed and he'd arrived in her universe, Karen could admit things would have probably went a lot different between them.

But they weren't in her universe and that was the problem. It was just better to forget him and move on. She'd done enough damage to his life already, best to leave him alone. So when Karl, she thought his name was Karl, had approached her earlier it seemed like the perfect opportunity. He was good looking, funny and charming, just the sort of man she was always attracted to. If she was going to move on, he seemed perfect for that task.

They finished their drinks and headed outside. It was raining, so they huddled together under an umbrella. As they walked closer together, Karl whispered compliments into her ear. Karen smiled at all of them, but the smile didn't seem to reach her eyes. It was after midnight and the rain transformed everything into a rather bleak, gray landscape. Her mood suddenly seemed to fit in with these surroundings.

As they reached a small apartment complex, Karl turned and kissed Karen. She was willing and it was a nice kiss. She could picture in her mind where this was all going. In a few moments they would smile at each other and then head up to his apartment. They would pull each other's clothes off and spend the night together. In the morning they would talk about the night before and then she would leave. She wouldn't see Karl again. No attachments.

As the kiss continued though, Karen's mind drifted back to another kiss. That one was filled with all the emotions this one lacked. Suddenly the prospect of spending the night with Karl depressed Karen to the point that tears welling up in her eyes. He was probably a nice guy and experienced lover. The sex would be good, but it wouldn't be great. All the time it was happening, she would be thinking of someone else. Slowly she stepped away from Karl, the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this to you,' she whispered. "You're a nice guy and don't deserve this. I better go."

Karl started to object, but Karen had already started to jog away from him. He followed, but she lost him after a block or two. Her tears continued as she walked aimlessly in the rain.