"Jonathan, wake up! We're almost there!"

Rubbing his eyes tiredly without caring much for his glasses that were already wonky, Jonathan had to take a brief moment to recollect just exactly where he was currently and why for that matter. The dazzling afternoon sun was penetrating through the dusty windows of the coach, along with the deep rumble that vibrated the entire vehicle. Ah, now he remembered: Washington D.C. — Independence Day, of course! It was all coming back to him.

"Seriously, what is it with you and bus rides? It's like you sit in one and you're out cold." Jonathan blankly looked over to the person that uncaringly woke him up, a quite pretty girl with shoulder length red hair, a dusting of light freckles on her face and striking blue eyes that was paired with the haughty grin on her face.

All that Jonathan could do was roll his eyes and reply with a yawn, "It's just… therapeutic, I don't know." He must've been out for a while. Going from Metropolis, then to Gotham and finally Washington D.C. wasn't exactly a trip around the block. "And it's not like I would've missed out stop — again. Don't look at me like that, Barbara."

"I'm not, I'm not mad! At least not at you; you're just lucky I didn't decide to ditch you here."

Rolling his eyes again, Jonathan muttered, "Whatever," and stared back out the window. It was no surprise that the streets started to show streams of people heading towards a general direction like moths to a flame — and Jonathan knew just why.

Independence Day: a day where Jonathan Kent could just do whatever he wanted. School out for the day, parents busy with their jobs and today? Well, it was going to be quite a day for sure. Of course, things could have went so much differently but he decided to enjoy it while he still could. Bringing along an exasperated Barbara Gordon, a friend who he knew from a mutual one, would also be one highlight of the day that he was looking forward to.

As the coach stopped near the crowds that only continued to grow in size, Barbara led the way out of the coach as she began, "So Jonathan, you gonna tell me where he is, or are you gonna avoid me like you did on the coach?"

"Uhh…" Jonathan hopped off just behind her before nearly falling flat on his face from stepping on a loose lace. Not that it would hurt at all but he wasn't in the mood to explain why his face wasn't smashed to pieces on the sidewalk. He bent down to tie his laces and said, "You know how Dick is: the kid is never on time for stuff like this. Have you tried calling him? He could be here already."

"Oh please," scoffed Barbara, looking over her shoulder. "He's got like five different phones — per day. It's like he's actively trying to avoid us!"

"You don't believe that — hey, let's try and get a good place before they're all taken!" Jonathan took off as Barbara trailed behind, yelling at him to slow down. True, it didn't really sit well with him that he wasn't being truthful to Barbara; partly because it wasn't his secret to tell and mostly because Barbara was scary good at weeding out secrets from people, people like Jonathan for example. Besides, it's not like he was lying when he said that Dick Grayson, the mutual friend, could've been here.

The two teens weaved and pushed through the tight crowds, meeting several unpleasant stares and words that Jonathan had to stop Barbara from making a scene. Once it became clear that they could get no closer, Jonathan and Barbara settled for what they could see and it wasn't much to be honest. Barbara was on her tiptoes and so was he — he hadn't exactly hit his growth spurt just yet, not even on cusp of turning fifteen.

"Look, I can see them over there!" exclaimed Jonathan as he squinted with focus. He ignored Barbara using his shoulder as useless leverage once his vision had suddenly shifted entirely: what was once moving dots along the entrance of the Hall of Justice became up close and personal like Jonathan had teleported right there. There they were all together, mentors and protégés being adored by the screaming fans and flashing cameras of the media capturing all of their sides. Now if he could just pick him out…

"Jonathan, I can't see anything!" moaned Barbara as she gave up. "Urgh, if Dick was here, we could've gotten better places, that jerk! I can't believe he stood me up!"

"But we both— "

"I meant us! Stood both of us up!" Barbara corrected herself with haste, not even daring to look Jonathan in the eye. Jonathan merely shrugged uncaringly and again focused his telescopic vision back onto the heroes at the entrance. Using this power was oddly strenuous on his eyes and sometimes went out of whack if he couldn't keep his head straight…

"Argh, whatever," he grumbled to himself before rubbing his eyes, lifting his glasses. "I can't see anything either. I really thought we could get a better viewing…"

With a huff, Barbara added, "Maybe you should've just let your mom know that you were coming. Didn't you say that she's up there reporting the sidekicks?"

"Yeah, but she wouldn't even let me go by myself. My dad is… also busy and since she can't see me over here, I thought we'd be in the clear."

"Your mom is a reporter — we do reporting at school, Jonathan. Surely, she would've babysat you today if you just asked."

"I did ask — she said no. And besides, it's still the Hall of Justice. Better than nothing, right? Hold on, lemme get some pics."

Although he wished for a better viewing, Jonathan wasn't near as disappointed as his friend, having seen the Hall of Justice up close on many occasion — only that it wasn't with masses of people and Barbara to accompany him either. He guessed being the son of arguably the greatest superhero alive did have its perks at times, but its downfalls were surely felt by him, that was for certain.

"Man, it would've been cool to be up there with them…" he mindlessly mumbled to himself.

"Whatchu say?"

"Huh? Uh, nothing — I just said it's pointless trying to see them up there. We might as well take what we can get. Shame Dick flaked on us again, huh?"

"And yet you aren't pissed," Barbara seethed a little with crossed arms, clearly struggling with the lack of space. "This is why we don't let him do whatever he wants like join the school paper — the kids priorities are… what even are his priorities?!"

Jonathan grinned a little bit and put away his camera while saying, "You know, there's no point worrying about Dick when he's been doing it all the time, plus we do a fine job anyway. Now let's get outta here before my mom sees us. I'll get put on lockdown in my room if she does."

"Seriously, your mom is Lois Lane and you aren't a bit daring like she is," jabbed Barbara as the two moved away towards the back of the crowd with more ease.

"What?! I can be daring… it's just that it's not… reasonable to do all that stuff. Do you even know how many times my mom nearly died for her stories?"

"Maybe two hundred and twenty times, Jonathan?"

"Two hundred and — oh, you read her book."

Barbara shrugged — they finally managed to leave the event — and added, "You gotta learn from the best to make it. Besides, it's not like anything awesome was gonna happen unless we like had an exclusive or knew them personally. God I wish…"

All that Jonathan could say was a simple "yep" whilst it got easier and easier to leave. Under the guise of writing a piece on his school newspaper, what he really wanted was to be as close as he could to the other teen heroes that were his age. So near felt so far away that he could barely even go on patrol with his father let alone be blooded into fighting crime. Granted that his control over his powers was not absolute; he felt small and too close to normal. Too too close.

Having most of the afternoon being free before the crowds of people would surely swarm the bus stations, the pair gathered anything interesting that they could find in D.C. to make up what was a disappointment of a trip. Barbara insisted that they should try and see if they could sniff out anything shady to which Jonathan rejected quickly — what a way to get on the news and potentially get in trouble with his folks. No, the two just settled for boring residents and ice cream vendors instead.

The trip back home felt faster, oddly enough. Routing through Gotham and soon after to Metropolis, Barbara was the first one to get off the bus as the sky was beginning to shift into blends of enticing orange and purples.

"Sorry about dragging you here for nothing," Jonathan apologised as Barbara stood up. "I know that Dick couldn't make it but don't blame it too much on him. I'm sure that he wanted to come."

Barbara just sighed and brushed her hair behind her ears, replying with, "Eh, I'll still blame him anyway but hanging out today was cool, even if you can be a bit boring sometimes."

"I— oh…"

"I'm kidding, jeez! Well, maybe a little bit. You've gotta be more out there, you know? Like—"

"Like my mom?" Jonathan cut in, deadpan in the face.

"No, not like your mom, I was definitely not going to compare you to your mom. All I'm saying is that… stop hiding, okay?" Seeing Barbara genuine with her words and face felt weird as well as unexpected but didn't go unappreciated. Jonathan opened his mouth to thank her but was cut off yet again as she blurted out, "Oh crap, my dad's calling me! Alright, see you at school, Jon — tell Dick that he's an asshole for not showing up, byeeee!"

"Uh… bye," Jonathan let out quietly as he watched Barbara speed out of the bus and away into the brightly lit streets of Gotham — the ones that he could see anyway. Something was yanking at his brain that he maybe should've told her to be careful in such a place but she was Gotham-bred, born and raised. If he knew anything about people like that was that they were tough. Insanely tough.

The bus started up soon enough and was set to the sister city of Gotham, taking a while as the moonlight illuminated the inside of the bus. Jonathan nervously pushed his glasses up his nose, forcing the idea of what he was to face coming home this late out of his head. Hopefully his mom was working late at the Daily Planet after her trip to D.C. or maybe his dad would be there so that she wouldn't chew him out as much. Ah, who was he kidding — he was so screwed. But seeing the other heroes in person instead of behind a screen was worth it to him, even if it meant getting a grounding comparable to a sentence at Belle Reve.

Hurrying home through the streets that were still busy at the time, Jonathan was less than eager to face his parents but staying out even more would be much worse. He soon made it to their apartment complex and frantically searched for his keys, finding them in his back pocket. He then rushed inside and made his way up by the staircase, neglecting the elevator instead — it was too slow for him anyway. Finally, Jonathan got to his door at the second highest level of a four floor complex and carefully opened the door.

'Lights are out, great. I made here before them. Now I need to get something in my—'

"Super-hearing not working for you?"

Jon's heart froze and was quite possibly dead. His hand stuck on the fridge handle, Jonathan leaned back robotically and confirmed the fears that he had tried to bury all day long. A woman in a formal grey suit who was taller than him stood there arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed and borderline touching the tip of her nose. Shimmering long brown hair and gray blue eyes that were just like Jonathan's pierced back into his own with masked fury.

Next to his mother was his father in his work clothes, tall with hair shorter than Jonathan's but the same jet-black colour, along with glasses that were thinner than his son's. Eyes that were vivid but still blue stared back at Jonathan but was not filled with anger like his wife but with disappointment as he too had his arms crossed (less stiff compared to Jonathan's mother though). This was not going to be good.

…

"Uhh, h-hey, Mom and Dad," stammered Jonathan to break what was the most deafening silence. "You're home… early? Or late? I never knew when you guys finished work and all—"

A single "hush" from his mother was all that it took for him to stop his babbling as it became apparent that there was no talking his way out of it. Not like he never saw it coming. Before he was hit by the surely hour-long lecture, he wondered how Barbara's dad was taking her tardiness. Surely it couldn't be worse than from Superman and Lois Lane… right? Right?