"I... I'm... I'm fine."
"Great." Stephanie said. "That's one less thug to handle."
Stephanie was about to leave the place, but Kon-El stopped her. "Wait. I..."
Stephanie raised her eyebrows on him.
"I... I'm a bit lost I... I need some help."
"What happened to you?"
"I... I can't remember."
Thankfully, Stephanie was the kind of person who were smart enough to make assumptions, and Kon-El was able to use those assumptions to hide his alien identity, including the assumption of his name. After going through all of this, the last thing he wanted was to lie to her, but he had no choice.
"So... what's your name?"
"I... I don't know."
"Really?"
"I... well... I think I can... I... Kon..."
"Conner?"
"I... yeah I think it is."
"So... Conner? You can't remember anything?"
"I... I don't."
"Wow. That's... can you remember anything about what happened to you... before I mean?"
"I... I can only remember war... peoples dying..."
"So you're a war veteran?"
"I... yes."
"Where?"
"I..."
"The Middle-East? Africa? Korea?"
"I... think it was the Middle-East."
"Okay, keep it there. I don't want to trigger bad memories."
"Okay..."
She was kind enough to not dwindle in the past. It was hard for him to construct a human past. The best way was to look as vulnerable in front of her as possible. He wanted to gain her sympathy, but there was something beyond all of that. Was it the way that her eyes kept on constant focus to him, or maybe was that every question was direct and specific? Could it remind him of someone that he used to know?
"I... was on my own war. I... lost a few friends too... really close ones."
"What war?"
"It's Gotham City. It's war in every second."
"Gotham... City?"
"Oh, you don't remember that as well."
That's when Stephanie brought him around. They were eating on a café one time and he was eating a whole lot more than normal (what Stephanie concluded as the cost of being homeless). She brought him into Gotham's most wonderful places. She brought him into the Wayne Tower, the Robinson Park, a lot of beautiful places in Gotham. It just showed that despite how tragic and terrible Gotham might be, it still had all the lights.
The best part was when she brought him into the orphanage, seeing humanity's youngest and brightest doing their activities. She said that she was helping, but there was a bigger reason why she did.
"When I was a teenager, I was reckless and stupid. I was just... an all-around bitch. I post nudes, go into Twitter to bully peoples around, being a total hypocrite, and I'm really bad. Lots of boys like the bad girls. So I get to hung up with the really bad ones. Then I got my eyes opened. I was pregnant with a baby. I don't know what to do with it. It's my kid and I have a better life ahead, so I had to bring her here."
"How old were you?"
"I was sixteen. I brought my baby here and I left Gotham. I want to... fix things with me. Then I came back here three years later to find out that she's happy now. Right now, I always visit her. I told her that I'm her adopted mother's friend, and we were close."
"What's her name?"
"Her name is... Cindy."
Beyond all of this Earth, there was a life. Peoples were fighting for something that they deemed to be necessary. Peoples were fighting for something that they thought was important. Stephanie had shown him the risks and rewards of going through a life where there was no war and there was no punishment. Well, there is war. It's just that the kind of war she was fighting for was different.
"You're quite interesting, you know that?"
"How?"
"I have a friend who went on to search your face in the database. Guess what? Literally no match. So if you ask me, I think you're some secret agent hired by the government who wants to disappear completely because someone is looking to interrogate you. So you find someone who wanted to erase your memory out of existence so that when they interrogate you, you would be telling the truth."
"That's... ridiculous."
"Nothing is ridiculous in Gotham. Either that or you're lying."
"Lying? I... I didn't-"
"I know you don't, because if I know you were lying, I know exactly what body part to break so that you'll end up begging me to stop."
Her face turned from a cheerful, happy and compassionate girl into a surprisingly threatening and intimidating look, especially the way she said it, it was almost like she had put this threat before. It caught him by surprise, and he honestly was a bit scared of it.
"I'm just kidding. What makes you think I can do that?"
Stephanie's rather cheerful face was constant throughout. Their journey ended up with Conner having to stay on her apartment because he didn't have anywhere else to live.
"You're letting me to stay there?"
"Yeah sure. The only downside is that I have only one bed, so someone's going to need to sleep in the couch."
"I'm good there."
"Well, I'm... not so sure about that."
A confused Conner got a lot more confused by the time Stephanie went up to his head and put her lips on his. That kiss was like being flipped over into a nearby galaxy. Her breath sucking him out was like being sucked into the vacuum of space. He honestly didn't know what the hell he did to deserve this sort of treatment, but if she wanted to, he went on with it.
That was until they were in the bed. They had quite a good night sleep. The day came very fast compared to the times where he was in Tamaran, but the last thing he wanted is to remember Tamaran, and to enjoy life for what it is right now.
The time showed 5:50 AM. Conner woke up from the bed and went into the bathroom to do some business. After he did so, he went into the sink. There was a mirror on the sink, a typical design choices even for the Kryptonians. He glanced at the mirror to see his face: Dark hair, straight 'emo' as Stephanie described it, and it somehow managed to gain her attraction.
"A little bit early to wake up."
Stephanie was on the door, leaning on its side with her arms crossed. She was only wearing both of her underwears for that time, and smiling at him with her dark blue eyes that was about as piercing as a Kryptonian knife.
"Yeah." Conner said. "I was uh... not so tired."
"Well, maybe we should do something when we're still awake." Stephanie said. "You want to go out?"
"What, this early?"
"Sure." Stephanie said. "There's a 24 hour fast food nearby. Let's get some breakfast."
##
A few minutes ago, Tim went towards Stephanie's new apartment just as Damian told. He put the doorbell on and on, but nobody replied. Damian provided most of her financial support, because she felt like she had to be everyone's mother including Damian. Not surprising considering Stephanie's bossy and demeaning behaviors that she had to be someone else's slave.
So instead he opted to visit Dick Grayson first, who retired and got himself a job in the police. At least he got himself an honest job this time, a job where he still needed to fight the good fight, or at least a job where he can still fight. He came in at a time where he should've come home for lunch, because most police officers did at this time.
Honestly, ringing that doorbell was about as difficult as when he had to deal with the bad guys when he wasn't being trained by Cassandra Cain, the mute ex-League of Assassins member and step-sister, one of the many things that he lost when dedicated his entire career on crime-fighting tight-wearing masquerade. It's not that he didn't regret it. Gotham was a better city to live in. It was the risk of the job, and he didn't blame himself for it, at least for the most part.
The doorbell rang. There was no one else to pick the door other than Dick Grayson himself, wearing his GCPD uniform. He cannot speak and describe the astonishment that came out of his face. The slightly long hair that Tim Drake always had was quite apparent there, and his recognizable face was easy enough to figure out.
"Oh my god." Dick said. "Oh my..."
"I'm sorry." Tim said. "I didn't... I didn't even know I'm-"
Dick stopped him to spew more bullcrap and just went straight into the hugging, or more accurately being magnetized by his above average body structure. Tim did nothing else but to reply back with another hug in a friendlier way, causing him to smile back.
"I missed you, bro." Dick said. "I missed you so much."
"Hey, I missed you too." Tim said. "I'm sorry that I didn't call. You're going to get overly excited."
"I still am." Dick said. "God knows how much I needed you here right now."
"Need me?"
Tim released the hug to see Dick's slightly older face, but there was someone else who was a lot more surprised than the Boy Wonder. His lover Barbara Gordon was just behind and had her hands covering her widely open mouth, trying to just not get shocked by any of this ridiculousness happening in front of her eyes.
"Oh my god." Barbara said, her tone got slightly higher. "Oh... my god."
"Hey, Babs." Tim said. "Wow. Nice to see you standing."
Barbara didn't stay in there for long and made her steps to hug her long lost friend. By the time she did, he could feel tears coming out of her. It was certainly tears of joy, but he could feel a lot of bitter coming out of her breath as well.
"Where have you been?" Barbara said. "Where the hell have you been?"
"I've been asleep." Tim said. "I'm sorry."
##
"A hacker managed to hack in through five banks in different cities: Gotham, Central, Star, Metropolis, and recently Brooklyn. The amount of money lost in total is exactly one billion dollars."
"Goddamn hackers." Barbara said. "Their tricks just got better."
Tim was observing the news at the TV, but there was something more interesting other than the news. It was a family picture. The picture consisted of Dick, Barbara, James Gordon, and Barbara carrying a mysterious girl who had Barbara's green eyes and Dick Grayson's dark hair.
"Oh my god." Tim said. "Is this..."
"Yup." Dick answered. "That's our daughter, Mary. She's two, and now she's sleeping upstairs. She needs her uncle, you know?"
Tim glanced back at Dick with that response. "You actually took my advice."
"Thanks for that." Dick said. "Really, I thought I couldn't be... normal again, you know? I thought I can't just... stay back and relax. I started the whole Bats thing and we masquerade it a lot. I thought I couldn't escape fighting, but here I am."
"Good for you, man." Tim said. "Not sure if I'm going to get that chance anytime soon."
"Stephanie's working part time on a restaurant, so... maybe she's still busy." Barbara said. "She's home at six, though. Go check her out then."
"Will do." Tim said. "Do you know that Alfred is sick?"
"Yeah, we do." Dick said. "We visit him once in a while. The most exciting part is when I bring Mary there."
"How did he react to it?"
"He was... really happy." Dick said. "It's like when you got your most wanted toy on Christmas. It's insane."
"Wow. I'm really happy for all of you." Tim said. "You all got a normal life. Not sure about me, though."
"Where have you been anyway?" Barbara said.
"You know, I thought that's going to be the first question I answered." Tim said. "I've been in coma. It turns out that Waller saved me."
"Waller? Amanda Waller?" Dick said. "Why?"
"She said that I saved her daughter, which... okay I did."
"Just to show you that even when she's being kind, she's still a bitch." Barbara said. "Seriously, not even a text?"
"She's probably busy, but yeah you're right. She's a bitch." Tim said. "Anyway, I'm going to need a place to stay, if you don't mind."
"Of course we don't." Dick said.
"You're always welcome here." Barbara said. "Well, maybe if you don't mind babysitting Mary."
"Babe, let's not-"
"Don't worry. It's fine." Tim said. "I wanted to see her too."
Dick glanced at Dick for reassurance. Barbara shrugged it off. "Well, suit yourself."
##
STAR Labs in Star City was one of the most technologically advanced research and development companies in the entire world. They have contributed into creating a safe, environmentally friendly reactor that they have submitted to Central City as a gift. Their latest accomplishment was to develop a cure that destroys HIV cells, which was patented and founded in 2022. However, they went on to some failures as well, and there was no one else to point it out worse than Amanda Waller.
He was extremely afraid of picking up that call. It was like being yelled at by a bunch of angry religious fanatics. Dr. Silas Stone was doing something revolutionary for this time, but not when he was being interrupted.
"Evening, Mrs. Waller." Silas said.
"I'm waiting for results, Dr. Stone." Waller said. "Is the battle armor ready?"
"It is impossible for us to develop an armor that is capable to withstand a force from a sample that you sent to us." Silas said. "I have the best peoples in the business: Dr. Ray Palmer from Palmer Tech has contributed heavily on this project, and even he couldn't find out how to harness its potential."
"We need that armor right now." Waller said. "As times passes by, the aliens are growing stronger and stronger, and the last thing we want is to stand down."
"I understand the threat." Silas said. "But I'm not sure if you have made any progress on finding this alien."
"We're working on it." Waller said. "I do not want this to be your other failure, Mr. Stone and especially a damaging one like yesterday. As long as you are working on the armor, we might be able to work for the alien. I will give you one more week, but the armor should be ready."
"I understand." Silas said. "I will do it, but give me-"
Waller closed the phone off. She was not the type of person who would like to wait for not even a second.
Silas came back into his lab examining the armor, or more specifically the cybernetic body that was originally made for his son Victor. Dr. Karen Beecher, his assistant and Victor's girlfriend, was observing the cybernetic body. Right beside her is Dr. Ray Palmer, who was a lot busier than she was.
"Any progress?" Silas said.
"I couldn't find Victor." Karen said.
"How hard is it for you to find a half-man half-robot?!" Silas shouted. "My son is out there. I know it. We should've been able to find him."
"He deleted all kinds of trackers that we put on his cybernetic body." Karen said. "Victor might not be a scientist, but he's very smart, ridiculously smart. If we just know where to find him, we might have a little bit of an idea in how to develop the suit."
"He already knew how to develop the suit." Palmer said. "He just doesn't want to give it to Waller."
"What?" Karen said. "Is that true?"
Silas sighed. "Yes. The armor is complete. I'm confident enough to not need a testing to figure that one out. I don't want Waller to get a hand of this. If this kind of armor is going to fall on her, we don't know the kind of power that she can use."
"Dr. Stone," Karen said. "You've seen the footage of this 'alien' ransacking that entire lab with his bare hands."
"It's just pure fabrication so that I can develop this armor." Silas said. "You know Waller. You know how sinister she might be."
"Waller couldn't be lying by now." Palmer said. "If Waller was lying, I would've known about it, but the meteor that fell into Briston to Gotham last night was not exactly terrestrial materials."
"Aliens are not real." Silas said. "It is just a fabrication so that we can work this one out."
"What if it is?" Karen asked. "If that kind of power gets loose, peoples are going to pay the price."
Silas sighed. "What are you suggesting, then?"
"We make the armors or the weapons necessary." Karen said. "We just need to give it to the right peoples."
"And who might that be?"