John

Well, that was fucking insane. Superman got his parents back, from what Dick told me when I called him. Raven teleported everyone over once they got word that Superman had returned.

Of course… no one had been too pleased to break the news to him about what happened between me and Diana. In fact, everyone was too damn scared.

So… Dick sent him to me. Sorry prick.

You see… there's no point in trying to hide that Wonder Woman was the cause for this. Doesn't change the fact that it rattles people, especially the people who were hurt by the 'battle' and our subsequent divebomb.

Doesn't change the fact that seven people died.

We have a new kid in the militia, a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Kieth Boman. Kid has this teleporting ability, and it's… oddly specific.

Namely in the aspect that he can only teleport to object locations. Even Alex is genuinely confused as to how the fuck that works, but it does.

Now, the object can be just about anything you can imagine, even a single brick within a brick building. It just can't be a living creature.

Now, that's a rather easy fix, and it's surprisingly useful. Namely in the aspect of hauling away the assholes we fight into a very special cell that can't be busted by me, Doomsday, Superman, Shazam- hell, fucking anyone on this planet is gonna struggle to bust out.

All It takes is for him to memorize what the object looks like, and he will always teleport to the closest unoccupied space. Hence, I just had to loan him my knife for a few days.

Don't use the damn thing too much, but I carry it with me anyway. It was Papaw's once.

But I digress.

Anyway, Kieth brought Peter, and the two of them picked her up and took her back to Area 51. Though, Peter was giving me a wary gaze the whole time.

Anyway, I stayed back, decided I'd help out. Despite playing a part in this, people were still surprisingly grateful for my offer to help. I suppose it just surprises me how easy people accept me, when you consider my… history.

I got a lot of blood on my hands, and everyone knows it.

But nonetheless, kids were following me around, while I was tending to any wounded when it was within my ability.

But then one of the kids screamed and started hugging my leg.

Superman had come straight to me after Dick had tried to explain some things. I'll give him credit for that. Issue is a lot of people are scared of Superman right now, especially a bunch of traumatized civilians following the aftermath of a superhero death match in the city.

So when I turn around and see his sorry ass floating down, a stern look on his face, I make my own irritation known.

"Make it quick and get the fuck outta here. You're scaring people." I immediately turn back and finish bandaging a deep gash on a woman's leg, before picking her up into my arms and turning towards the nearest ambulance.

The woman whimpers in my arms, sending frightful glances towards Supes over my shoulder, but otherwise stays quiet.

"They have no reason to fear me." Supes responds, landing next to me and following close behind, ignoring the people around him for the time being who did just that.

"Oh, really?" I ask with a sarcastic tone and a fake smile without ever looking at him. "I don't know, Wonder Woman going ballistic tends to give people a reality check."

"Dick did say something happened between you two." Superman says, coming to a stop next to me as I gently lay the woman down on a stretcher, offering a friendly smile and a wave to her as the EMTs hauled her away, before immediately turning to him with an unamused expression.

"Mirror Master is not getting arrested for this." I told him bluntly, and Superman reacted about as well as I'd expected.

"What?!" He shouts, his hands immediately coming to his sides in fury as his face twists into a very displeased expression. "Are you kidding me?!"

"Look, it was government sponsored. I know it, Bruce knows it, Diana fucking knew it, and something tells me you do to." I answer, crossing my arms as I remain unflinching. "He's not going down when he thought he was doing some good."

"Good?!" Superman asks in disbelief, and I start to get a little pissed when his eyes begin to glow red. "It was a kidnapping! Of course it isn't good!"

"He's a fucking nimrod, ya dumbass!" I snap, jerking my hand off in whatever direction I assume World's End to be. "Do you wanna arrest Mirror Master?! Or do wanna find the fucker who's actually responsible?!"

The whimpering of children break's through my agitated haze, and I take a quick glance towards them before giving Supes the nastiest glare I can muster.

"Come on." I growl, moving past him without a second thought. Once I hear his footsteps behind me, only then do I speak up as I lead us away from the frightened civilians. "Let me explain this one time. We are all responsible for our own actions. Diana made the decision to hit me hard enough to send me through a few buildings."

"That happens all the time in our work." Superman sounds almost regretful, but the way he says it as something he's come to regret as normal actually does piss me off. Big time.

"But it doesn't happen to normal people all the time!" I mock, twisting around with a furious snarl on my face. "Motherfucker, that was the start of the fight! Our job is to save lives! NOT PUT THEM IN DANGER!"

"You dare-"

Few men can claim the honor of being one who has bitch-slapped Superman and gotten away with it.

I am one of those men.

I back hand the fuck out of him, and he jerks to the side from the impact. He recovers quickly, but he looks at me in complete shock.

"You wanna have this talk? We'll have it when you're more level headed." It feels like I'm talking to a fucking kid, and that feeling comes out in the tone of my voice as I point an aggressive finger at him. "You just lost your wife and kid- HEY!"

That exclamation is accompanied by another loud smack, but he ignores it this time.

I will forever remain unsure as to why Supes- no… as to why Clark didn't just fly off, but nonetheless, when the smack does nothing, I got him on his stomach in a chokehold in a second.

My brain doesn't work as fast as his. But when you fight people with speed abilities all the time, and you have my kind of strength… well, I may a speedster, but I sure shit can react like one.

When my arms wrap around his neck and head, they lock in like a vice, and Clark sits under me trying to claw me off.

A quick headbutt to the back of the head gets him to calm down.

"Neither of us know who's stronger, but Superman wouldn't have given me the chance to get him in a chokehold." I point at as I hear Clark easily huffing and puffing as despite the chokehold. Still, it keeps him down, which is good. "You have pissed me off, and you're pissed at me. Despite that, Bruce sent me to help you. So you believe me when I say I give this advice as a trusted comrade and a worried friend: Go home."

"I don't have a home anymore!" Clark snaps, but I ain't buying that shit.

"You need to calm down. Like I was saying. You just lost your entire city, and wife and child." I remind him, and it only makes him struggle more. I stay quiet, letting him thrash in my grip… until he finally gives up with a defeated sigh. "Your parents just got kidnapped, they're scared and worried whether they will show it or not. You need them more than you need to save lives right now."

"If I don't act, people will die." Superman replies, sounding like he absolutely believes that.

"But you can't save everyone. Metropolis was terrible, nobody's arguing that." I decide to take a chance, and I release him from the chokehold and hop to my feet before offering him a hand up.

He looks at me in surprise for a moment, before sighing and accepting the help.

"Look, I'll tell it to you like I would anyone else. You need to grieve. You aren't doing that. Instead you're bottling it up, and lashing out at the world." I'll be honest, I hadn't realized it was this bad when Bruce told me.

"But what happens when some madman-"

"That's why I exist." I interrupt, raising a hand to halt any further words as I give him a sympathetic expression. "Look, me and you don't actually know each other personally. But we know enough about each other to know where our limits are. One thing me and you have always had in common is that we will kill if we deem it necessary."

"Then you understand-"

"Clark, shut up, and just listen. You may be older than me, but you'd be surprised at how much I know." Being raised by your grandparents can impart a few life lessons pretty early. An old soul, they call it. "I understand why you killed Joker, yes. Anyone in your position would do the same. But you need to listen to me when I say that you are not thinking straight, no matter how much you think otherwise."

"What happened in Metropolis can't happen again." Clark says, sounding absolutely firm in his belief in that. Something I do agree with.

"Something I agree with." I assure, finally cracking a small grin, though the amusement doesn't last long. "But you need to listen to me. You're no help right now. You need to leave it to the rest of us."

"I don't know." Clark admits, bringing a hand up and rubbing his neck. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Clark, worst case scenario, Alex pumps me up on some platinum Kryptonite." Just having a damn shard pocketed is enough to give even me the powers of a Kryptonian. "Or, hell, Peter. Either way, we have people and ways to fill your shoes if we need to. But the only thing you need to do is go home to your parents, grieve, and recover."

Clark stares at me for a moment… before that familiar amused and reassuring Superman smile takes over his face as a genuine chuckle escapes him.

"Everyone's right. You do give advice." He jokes, and I finally find it in me to joke with him.

"Yeah, well, I never thought I'd be advising my hero." I joke back, and he lets a laugh escape him at that.

"I appreciate your sympathy." Clark says, his smile turned a bit less joyful and a bit more sad, and I can't help but to frown when he says that. "I'll… I'll go home, sort things out. But I want you to do one thing for me."

I raise an eyebrow, before shrugging my shoulders. "Alright. What?"

"Lead the Justice League."

"Sur-... say again?"

"Say again?"

"I'm dead serious."

Yeah, I'm not surprised that even Bruce is stunned by Clark's request.

I'll admit, I'm still not too sure about it, but he managed to convince me to accept. I figured I'd call and tell Bruce everything that happened while he was busy tracking down whoever did it before I left the Watchtower.

He was even quieter than usual when I told him about everything with Diana.

But he was with me up until I told him about Clark's request.

"It makes sense to an extent, and he's not wrong. Much of the metahuman population cite you as an inspiration." Bruce pointed out, and a frustrated sigh escaped me.

"That don't change the fact that I'm a government agent working with an outfit that's barely tolerated right now and not actually legal in the slightest." I point out as I rub the side of my head with a sigh. "I mean, for chrisakes, how do you really think that's gonna look on the Justice League? The Goliath of Carnage as it's leader?"

"You still underestimate how idolized you actually are." Bruce replied. That's something everybody seems to tell me, but for that to be the case, there's an awful lot of people who ain't ever said anything like that.

"That's besides the point."

"Look, I trust your judgment, and I swore to let the legal system do its job. But you'll have me there to guide you if you feel you need it."

"Thanks." I do manage to at least mean it. I'm genuinely thankful Bruce is willing to help me out with this clusterfuck of a mess. Hell, it's gonna be a bitch and a half telling Alex about it. Let alone that I accepted.

Who knows though, maybe I'll get lucky. If I could get Peter and Rachel up on the Watchtower while Clark's finally taking time to himself, it'd make handling things go a whole lot smoother with someone who could bridge the whole leadership gap.

But first and foremost… I wanna go the fuck home.

I feel like I do more good in the militia than I would in a team like the League or any of those other types out there. But if there's one massive drawback to the militia?

I've been doing fucking paperwork since I was eighteen. At least when I'm helping out the others, I ain't gotta do a fuckton of legal work unless somebody dies.

Hell, I wish Jason had been around when I was in Gotham. That'd have made things a whole lot more- wait a second.

"Hey, when's the last time you talked to Jason?" I can't help but to ask now that thought is in my mind. "Been wondering how he's doing. Last time I talked to him, we were in Atlantis."

"What were you doing in Atlantis?" Well, that somewhat answers my question already, but nonetheless, I appease Batman's curiosity.

"Remember the sudden water level drop off Gotham coast?"

"Yeah."

"Tibe."

"Geostorm?"

I can't help but to roll my eyes when Bruce says that. The name barely even makes any sense in the first place considering Tibe's powers.

Why do all we metahumans have to have some kind of weird name? Hell, Pete's called the Metalmaker, and Rachel got stuck with the oh so uncreative name of Flamethrower.

Hey though, still managed to light up Bane like a turkey.

"Yes, 'Geostorm'," The annoyance in my voice is palpable as I force the word out, because Bruce knows I hate these goddamn names. "Why can't you just label metahumans with our fucking names?"

"Real names overlap too much. Better subsections than full folders."

"Sure." I don't buy that for a second, but maybe that's just me. I can pick out a single tool I use among a myriad of others that look exactly the same without any organization whatsoever, and Maddie's told me that it can drive her up the wall with how messy I leave things sometimes.

Of course, I always make it up to her.

"Meet me on the Watchtower tomorrow, and we can go ahead and notify a select few of the change first."

"Dick, Barry, Vic, Sheyera, and Hal." I answer almost immediately. "Outside of Dick because I trust him, the rest of them are founding members. They need to know before anyone else."

"Something tells me you have another reason for wanting Dick to know."

He's not wrong.

"Have you noticed that Kori's been missing since Metropolis?"

The silence told me all that I need to know. Bruce hadn't actually noticed that.

"I'd assumed she was helping with relief efforts in Jump City."

"I don't think so. Garfield died there too, and both Raven and Dick looked like shit earlier today. They need time to mourn too."

Bruce was quiet for a moment, but when he did speak, I was satisfied with what I heard.

"I'll have him spend a few days at the mansion. Alfred can take better care of him than I can."

Okay, satisfied may be a bit of an overstatement, but that's the best I can expect out of the stubborn jackass that is the Caped Crusader.

A beeping coming from the communicator in my pocket signal's our conversation's end, as that mean's Dick's fixing to teleport me.

"I think Dick heard me." I joke with a small chuckle. "I gotta get off of here, Bruce. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye."

With that, I end the call and slip my phone into my pocket, and that's about when the teleporter goes off and I experience the familiar otherworldly sensation that is instant teleportation.

Yup, still fucks with me.

I stumble in place on the sidewalk in front of my home for a second to regain my bearings, before shaking my head with a sigh as I fish my keys out of my pocket.

It's a wonder the damn things didn't get lost during the fight with Diana.

I habitually sink the key into the door, assuming it's locked, but I'm pleasantly surprised to find that's not the case.

I slip the keys back into my pocket and open up door, tossing the Justice League communicator onto the table.

Don't need anyone teleporting me on accident. Made that mistake once and I ended up going from a battle in Tijuana to a liplock with the back of Eobard Thawne's head.

"Maddie?" I call out through the house as I take a quick look down the hall.

"In the bathroom!" Maddie calls back, and I can hear Amara humming a tune in her bedroom, so I let a shrug escape me.

Everything is normal. For now.

I turn back and make my way to the kitchen, shrugging off my flannel and tossing it on the back of the couch first, and open up the fridge door, peering inside.

Gatorade, Pepsi, Mountain Dew… I snag a milk jug full of that Country Time Lemonade and twist the cap off, tossing it on the counter before swiping a glass from the cabinet and pouring me a cup.

I'm closing the fridge and mid drink when I hear the bathroom toilet flush, before I hear the door open Maddie's footsteps come down the hall.

"Quick day?" She asked as she stepped out into the living room, dressed in one of my shirts and a pair of shorts.

"Not quick enough. Did you see the news?" I ask as I sit down on the couch, turning to look at at her as I set my glass on the counter.

Maddie shakes her head in response as she moves around the couch, taking a seat next to me and curling her feet up onto the sofa as she props her head up on back of the couch.

"What happened?" She asks, her voice gentle and insistent.

"Diana knocked me through a couple buildings, killed seven people in the process." I answer with a small sigh. "Now she's locked up at Area 51, and I somehow got shanghaid into leading the Justice League."

"Really?" Maddie's surprise is cleanly visible across her face, and I don't blame her one bit. Hell, I still ain't quite processed it, and I agreed to it.

"Yeah. Clark managed to convince me after a little scuffle."

"Another fight didn't break out, did it?" Maddie asks, her brow furrowing in concern. "I know you don't like fighting in the city."

"Nah, it didn't reach that point, managed to talk him into actually taking some time off." I reply, a small smile gracing my face as a chuckle escapes me. "Never thought I'd be advising Superman any time soon."

"Well, that's good at least." Maddie agreed as she let her gaze wander off for a moment, before turning back to me once more. "Are you sure you're alright?"

I let a small chuckle escape me at her concern, before leaning over and offering her a reassuring kiss.

"My day always gets better with you here."

Maddie giggles in amusement as I pull away. "We've been married for six years and you're still so cheesy."

"That cheesiness makes you blush, which makes me happy." I joke with a small chuckle, earning me a lighthearted punch in the shoulder for that crack.

"I'll remember that." Maddie comments with a playful smile, before resituating herself so that she's leaning on my shoulder.

I smile at the gesture, before relaxing into it as I snag the remote off the counter and flip on the TV.

I switch through the channels for a bit, waiting for something to catch either Maddie's eye or my own, and she eventually stops it on the Princess Bride.

"We'll need to get dinner started soon." Maddie points out, glancing towards the clock hanging on the wall behind the TV.

"I'll probably save the paperwork for Diana's arrest till I head to the base tomorrow." I tell her as I take a quick sip of my lemonade. "You got anything in mind?"

"Amara's been asking for some cheese conies lately."

"We got everything for it?"

Maddie's brow furrows in thought, trying to remember lest she has to drag herself away from her comfy spot on my shoulder, before nodding her head.

"I think so. We still have another unopened pack of buns left from the barbecue last week, and I just went grocery shopping three days ago." She answered, and I nod my head.

"Alright, give me and bit to unwind and go get dressed and I'll get started."

"No." Maddie brings a hand up to my chest, causing me to meet her gaze as she offers me a playful smile. "You had a harder day than me, so you relax. I'll get started on dinner."

A small chuckle escapes me as I raise an eyebrow.

"Maddie, I don't get tired."

"I don't care. Relax."

I roll my eyes, but nonetheless give in to her wishes. "Alright, you got dinner." I say, raising my hands in fake surrender as I offer her a playful smile, before it softens. "I love you."

Maddie simply smiles as she leans up closer. "I love you too."

I happily accept the kiss she offers, before my eyes linger as she stands to her feet and makes her way into the kitchen to get started on dinner.

"Rachel called, by the way." Maddie calls to me from the kitchen as she begins retrieving the ingredients needed for the upcoming cheese conies. "This morning, around eleven. Ryker starts pre-school tomorrow."

"That's good to hear." I say with a small chuckle. "I've been waiting for her to finally go through with it. She's worse than you were."

"I was scared!" Maddie immediately goes to defend herself, shooting me a feigned look of indignation. "I didn't want her to get hurt…"

"Woman, I broke one plastic fork trying to feed her and you wouldn't let me even hold her for a month." I counter, relishing in the way Maddie rolls her eyes.

She's so cute when she's in a playful mood.

"It's still better than you when she came home saying she'd had a boyfriend."

"She'd better not be having a boyfriend till she's in middle school at the least." I retort, raising an eyebrow. Maddie always brings that up like it's not a valid concern. "Boys that young can get up to some devious things."

"I suppose you'd know." Maddie teases, causing me to chuckle in response.

We fall into a comfortable silence after that. Per her wishes, Maddie makes supper while I watch TV, and at some point I get up to go change into my night clothes.

After I'm done changing and step out of the bedroom in a fresh pair of shorts, I go to head back to the living room, maybe help Maddie with dinner if she ain't already done. Cheese conies ain't as complex as one might think.

But I pause when I hear the sound of giggling, and I get the sudden urge to begin sneaking down the hall towards Amara's door with the grin of a mischievous schoolboy on my face.

"Boo!" I jump into the doorway and throw my hands up, and I can't help but to laugh at the way Amara jumps from her desk like she'd just gotten caught with her hand in a cookie jar.

"Daaad!" Amara moans, crossing her arms in annoyance as she pouts at me. Though, the thorough tomato face she's currently sporting tells me she's more embarrassed than anything.

"Sorry, kiddo." I apologize with a small chuckle as I step into the room and take a look down at the desk. "What are you working on?"

I pause in surprise, however, when I see the work for myself.

It's a drawing, and a damn good one at that. It's a picture of me, Peter, and Rachel standing in combat stances, and Amara's managed to get every single little detail, down to the small scar on my eyebrow and Rachel's phoenix tattoo on her neck.

Despite knowing the very obvious answer, I'm still surprised enough that I ask anyway. "Did you draw this?"

"Yep!" Amara answered, looking proud of the drawing as she scooted closer towards the desk. "It's not finished yet, I still have to draw a background and color it, but it's my latest project! Is it good?"

"Good's an understatement, this is fucking amazing." I say as I pick the paper up off the disk, catching Amara's absolutely beaming smile in the corner of my eye as I examine the drawing closer.

Holy shit, she's even got the two buttons down to the same spot at the bottom of my shirt.

This isn't just a surprisingly detailed child's drawing either. As a father, I'm honestly ashamed to admit I'm struggling to comprehend that my daughter had drawn this.

You didn't know who made it, you would be forgiven for thinking it's a professional artist's sketch. It almost looks like we posed for this.

"You said this is one is your latest?" I ask, setting the page back down as I turn my gaze back to her.

My daughter's smile will never not be infectious, even with the missing front tooth, and she nods her head eagerly. "Yep! Wanna see more?"

"Fuck yeah!" I answer with a genuinely excited smile on my face. "Pull them out, I wanna see what a finished product looks like!"

Mara giggles even as she leans down and reaches into a space at the side of her desk, pulling out a large black binder and setting it atop the drawing she'd been working on.

She flips it open, and my eyes go wide in surprise.

The first one is a picture perfect recreation of Maddie, and I have to take a second look and spot the pencil marks in the colors to realize that this indeed is a drawing.

"Goddamn Amara, I didn't know you could draw this good!" My hands swipe the binder up off the desk without a thought, but Amara doesn't seem to be annoyed at having her project folder stolen for the moment.

"You really think they're good?" The smile on her face is eager, excited, and as infectious and ever I find myself struggling to stop smiling myself.

"Anyone would! Here, come on." I nod for her to follow, and walk out of the room as she hops up out of her chair and follows after me, looking proud the entire time.

"Maddie!" I say, a little louder than I meant to, judging by the way she ever so slightly jumps in surprise, and she looks at me in confusion as I march up to her with a big black binder in my hand. "Here, take a look at this." I say, offering the binder for her to take.

She loses interest in the hot dogs she's boiling at the moment as she takes the binder from my hands, and she looks absolutely puzzled when she sees the drawing.

"I don't remember taking this photo."

"Look again." I say, raising my finger and pointed out the colors. "You can see the pencil marks in the colors from where she drew them in."

"She drew- Amara drew this?!" Maddie's face is absolutely blown away with disbelief, looking down at the drawing in a wide eyed stupor. "This is so good!"

"It's not the only one, I bet every damn page in this thing is another one just like it!" I say, pride in my voice as I tell her.

At my words, Maddie brings a hand up and quickly flips through them, and I can see too that my hunch was correct. Every picture has a photorealistic quality I've never seen before, and I'm just blown away by what I'm seeing.

"Are they good!"

"Sweetheart, these are beautiful! Where did you learn to draw like this?" Maddie asked, turning to Amara with an awestruck smile on her face. I'm pretty sure she feels a helluva lot more pride than I do right now, and that says something.

"Practice!" Amara answered, as if it were the most simple thing in the world. "Daddy said that drawing can lead to making new cartoons, and I wanna make cartoons!"

What the- I was talking about fricking Tom and Jerry! That happened when she was four!

"Well, you definitely got a career ahead of you." I say as I look back to the pictures. "Do you care if Daddy takes a couple of these to work? Aunt Rachel would love these."

I'll admit that I don't often take things my daughter has made to work. I'm a CIA agent who's a part of a government sanctioned militia made up of superhumans. Only time I'd get for small talk is usually on the jet rides, and there's no way anything I take of Amara's is going anywhere except right back here.

But I think I can bare to break a few rules, because I am really excited to show these off to anyone and everyone I can. Amara's always made me proud, but I never could've guessed she was this gifted.

"Sure! You can keep some if you want." Amara offered, and I immediately open my mouth to refuse.

But Maddie beats me to it.

"No, these are yours." Maddie says as she hands the binder back to the child. "You decide what you want to do with them."

Amara takes the binder as a look of thought seems to cross her face, before she flips it back open and snaps open the rings with surprisingly swift hands.

Most kids her age would be scared of breaking the damn things.

"You can have this one, Daddy." Amara says, taking the picture of Maddie out and offering it to me.

My first instinct is to refuse, because like Maddie said, these are hers… but then I see the absolutely scathing look Maddie shoots me, and I give in with a chuckle and a small smile.

"Thanks, Mara." I say as I take the drawing from her hands.

The drawing right under the one she just handed me is a drawing of myself, similar to the one I now hold in my hands.

"And you can have this one, Mommy." She says, offering my portrait to Maddie.

Maddie's smile is as sweet as sugar, and she takes the photo without complaint and immediately hangs hers up on the fridge with a magnet. When she turns to me and holds out her hand, I offer no objections as I hand her mine and allow her to do the same.

"I wanna get those framed at some point."

"Maybe next time we're out shopping if we have time." I suggest with a small smile as I wrap a hand around her shoulder and stare at the pictures with her.

I feel Amara slip herself under my free arm a few moments later, and I gladly hug her to my side with a smile.

"Only one we're missing is you." I can't help but to comment with a small chuckle as I look down at her. "Ever thought of doing a self portrait?"

"Maybe for my next project?" Amara suggests, and I just rub her shoulder with a happy grin on my face.

"Works for me."