I do not own Batman/Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz, Scott Free, or Big Barda. DC does. Please enjoy for free.

Batcave: Late Autumn Afternoon: Eleven Years After Waynes Deaths

Lucius stared through the microscope. "Your metabolism is incredible John. Your cells just eat up sugar. I'm a little jealous."

The Martian gave the human scientist a sad smile. "Trust me, there are things I envy about your life."

Lucius turned his head and gave him an apologetic smile.

Bruce walked up to them pinning the Martian with a narrow-eyed gaze. "How close are you to being as strong mentally and physically as you can possibly get?"

The Martian's smile brightened. "Thanks to Lucius, Alfred, and you, very close."

Bruce scanned him. The shade of his skin had grown lighter, which seemed to indicate health for him. His Martian form also seemed to have added even more muscle mass. Still … "Show me."

The Martian turned toward two training dummies. He lifted both hands. The training devices floated up yards apart and then zoomed toward and collided with each other as John also brought his hands together. Their widest parts being their fake gelatinous torsos, those smacked together and wiggled both before and after John set them back down on the floor inches from each other.

Bruce nodded. His voice though had the slightest of wavers "You might, with your powers, be able to handle walking through a Boom Tube by yourself. But I don't know if we can send rations with you to give you back the energy you'll lose doing so."

Lucius cleared his throat. Bruce turned to him, raising his eyebrows. The man bent down and came up slowly with a metal box. As he struggled to lift it, though it was just a little bigger than a lunch box, John lifted his hand. The man found it lighter. Lucius' eyes widened at first. Then, he turned toward the Martian, saw the lifted hand, and nodded in gratitude. "Thanks."

Bruce interrupted, "What is that Lucius?"

The man set it down on an empty spot on the table, more than a foot away from the microscope, with a clang. "Not taking into account the immense levels of pressure inside a Boom Tub: a waste of titanium. Taking that into account, trans-galactic luggage."

He hoisted the lid up and over, revealing a hollow space squeezed by walls about a quarter the thickness of the box itself all the way around. Lucius shrugged. "Like I said."

Bruce nodded. "Fill it up with what you think will help him regain his energy the fastest and best once he reaches Mars."

Bruce then walked over to the training dummies that had stopped wiggling. John turned a grin on Lucius who gave a sardonic smile back. "You 'do' know there are other sweets here on planet earth besides Oreos."

"None that I'll miss so much once I leave this planet forever ..." A sadness came into the Martian's voice near the end of his statement.

Lucius opened his mouth to ask about it, but then the air pressure changed inside the cave. The Boom Tube Tunnel filled with light. John formed a bubble around himself and the two humans as a whirlwind seemed to follow. Then things became calm again. A voice filled the cavern. "Ladies and gentlemen, I found a guy and think I have coordinates to a cave far below the surface of Mars."

Scott walked toward them grinning. Barda was at his side scowling. As they approached the silent trio, the masked alien stopped, shrugged and asked, "What no applause?"

Lucius grinned up at their tall visitors. "You can call me impressed."

Scott grinned back down at him. "Good to know." Then he pointed at the grinning human's face. "You're a good audience."

The Martian then found his voice. "I think I am … overwhelmed … I may … finally … go back … perhaps … find my niece." He shut his mouth and his throat got tight. But if I do "not" find her or find her dead, I will have no one else … on a planet, that may no longer support me.

Bruce tilted his head toward the Boom Tube. "That needs to cool off. I've actually taken some time this week, along with the ladies of Ainsley Manor, to do some cooking. Alfred's picked up some of those dishes from Ainsley manor and is finishing them in the kitchen. If you'll join us, we can all eat together before sending John home."

The Martian raised his head, "J'onn."

"What?"

Bruce, Lucius, and the other two extraterrestrials turned to the red-eyed green alien staring back at them seriously. The Martian swallowed and replied. "This …" He looked around, "Is a cavern of life, and you" he looked to the two humans again "have let me live and work here. You have shared your food willingly, knowing what I am. When a Martian male moves to a new cave with a new community one of the first things he does to gain their trust and become part of that community is share his real name, but I have only … somewhat … done that."

As the humans still stared in confusion, Barda raised an eyebrow and repeated the two smoothed-together-syllables perfectly at the end of her question, "Your real Martian name is 'J'onn'?"

"Yes."

Lucius' mouth fell open. "No …"

Bruce squinted at him. "You changed your real name that little in the waiting room stuffed with humanity all those years ago?"

"I was depressed, dehydrated, overheated, and tired of coming up with fake human names. My 'full' name as you might put it is J'onn J'onzz."

Lucius snapped his mouth shut enough to try it. "J'onn J'ones?"

The green alien stared back at him more seriously. "More of a 'z' than 's' sound at the end."

Lucius only found his voice enough to say, "You're kidding."

Bruce added, "Sometimes what we expect to be completely different … 'alien' is actually much like something of our own."

Wayne Manor Dining Room: Late Autumn Afternoon: Eleven Years After Waynes Deaths

Alfred carried out a tray and paused briefly before serving. One might think the exceedingly tall couple sitting in large chairs borrowed from other rooms, gobbling up his beef wellington and Leslie's cherry crumble, would be the most exotic beings nearby. They were literal traveling performers traveling from other worlds. He was used to Bruce's height and broad muscled shoulders, but this couple took it to another level. The lady was the tallest there. Lucius and Bruce were far more usual and normal, even regulars at the table, but then there was 'J'onn J'onzz as he had finally admitted to being. Green, red glowing eyes, and munching appreciatively on dinner rolls, french butter, and Oreos. The butler inwardly sighed. He had surrendered to having packages of the snack food just sitting on the table alongside the best china dishes since it was the Martian's last few hours here on earth.

After the meal ended, Alfred ate a little himself in the kitchen at his insistence not Master Bruce's. He always returned to his role in the household as servant more firmly when true guests were involved. Alien performers they'd only seen more recently over the last few weeks counted as such to him. He grinned upon hearing his beef wellington compared to one the male performer had eaten at Queen Victoria's table. Then he paused upon realizing how long ago that would have been. He shook his head a bit, finished his own meal, and rose carrying his dishes toward quite a mound of others in the sink.

Several minutes later, at least, the door opened. He turned expecting Master Bruce. He opened his mouth ready to tell him to leave the dishes to him and go out with his guests again. The words froze in his throat at the sight of the green Martian. The red eyes looked into him as the door shut behind him. "Would you like some assistance?"

"Did Master Bruce request this of you, even during your last hours here?"

The alien smiled softly at him. "No, but I'd like to 'earn my keep' especially the food you just served me."

Alfred snorted a bit. "You mostly ate the cheapest and easiest dish 'to prepare' there."

"Still."

The butler shut his mouth and turned away. Then he gave a jerk of a head nod. "If you really want."

The alien approached. Once at the sink, he glanced around. Then he picked up and began rinsing soapy, but otherwise clean dishes and setting them on a drying towel on the counter to the sink's right. Thus he gave the butler with his upper arms in the sudsy water with dishes that had to be scrubbed, on his left, several inches of space. Alfred sighed. "Honestly, it seemed to me the way Master Bruce has been treating you, this time around, that you have been a guest not a live-in servant like last time."

"I am a guest who likes to be useful … like you."

"No. I 'am' on the pay-roll. I 'help' because I 'am' the help." The man then sighed. "I know I used to give you a hard time eating so much here, but honestly … you 'did' always do your best to earn your keep … or as much as you could while appearing human. I'm … sorry I was so hard on you back then ... ole chap."

"You had a child to protect. He is like your own." The Martian set another rinsed dish on the dry towel.

"Worse …"

J'onn turned his head from the dish he still held looking into the butler's face. Alfred, his own face wrinkled in pain and worry continued, "He's my dead mistress' and master's child. They left him to me. I still work 'for them' in a way ... looking after their house, their legacy, their child. I am not as free as if any of it were my own, and I am doubly, triply responsible. And Dr. Thompkins … if I ever stepped too far out of line with the way I raised Bruce, in her mind, I'd always get an earful for it."

The alien grinned. "I can imagine ..."

"So … I was rather hard on you. My training in deceit and recognizing it in others from my war days let me see you were hiding something. But it was nothing I feared, it seems, rather something much stranger. I've learned to except the strange working for Master Bruce lately, though."

"I never wanted the valuables around here, or the money they would bring. Nor your place as Bruce's godfather. I did want to appreciate the home and place here he offered me while I could. But I knew then, it wouldn't last forever."

"Well then … Thank you for not being the freeloader, thief, or kidnapper I feared all those years ago. And being a hard-working and polite guest, for the most part, under very trying circumstances."

The Martian smiled as he took a sudsy tray and rinsed it. "I am honored, Mr. Pennyworth. But is that all?"

Alfred turned narrow eyes on him. "What do you mean?"

"I am a mind-reader."

Alfred narrowed his eyes at the mind reader. "You didn't …"

J'onn turned his gaze to meet the human's. "He 'never' preferred me to you."

Alfred turned his face away while closing his eyes and remaining silent. The Martian continued. "He wanted to spend time with me to keep his eyes on me. Much like you, except you were afraid I'd steal something, including him, and he feared I would disappear even without knowing fully what I was back then."

"He smiled and laughed more … around you."

The Martian looked away and shrugged gently. "I … may have used my mind tricks on him a bit."

The butler turned wide eyes and a pale face on him. The Martian hastily added, "No more than I would have done for one of my daughters, when they were sad. Just a gentle nudge toward noticing the pleasing things in his environment, which was easy in the manor's beautiful gardens in summer. And … he never thought of me … even connected me … with his father."

Alfred sighed and this time turned his face in the complete opposite direction of the Martian no longer bothering to do the dishes. "You … are far more like Thomas Wayne in mannerisms than me. And it seems you had been a father before. I'm sorry about your family by the way. You, it seems were also a soldier, yet you didn't carry such stiff stoic ways home with you. I ... knew how to teach him to keep a stiff upper lip, but I never had his Thomas Wayne's soft heart."

"I was a warrior, not quite the same as a soldier. We Martian's were terribly disorganized in our fighting style at first. It wasn't the hunting we were used to. And we weren't all used to hunting together. We only found the best way to work together half-way through our war. In many ways, I wish we'd had you to teach us."

"You always begin fighting the new war like you did the last one, and then updating with the times part-way through." Alfred paused and exhaled. "I 'am' sorry I took certain fear I brought home from that out on you." He then turned a glare on the alien. "Though meddling with my young-master's mind ... even to make him feel better!"

"If it helps … I cannot do that anymore. He catches me and blocks me out unless we then start a conversation."

Alfred raised an eyebrow. "You still try?"

"I hate to see him sad."

Alfred turned his gaze back on the dishes, picked up a plate, and began to wipe it down. "So do I."

The Martian replied while rinsing a spoon. "I know." The two then worked together side by side in easy silence.

What do you think now?

This may be the last chapter I post before Christmas. It seems like a sort of wrapping up and warm hug that feels in spirit with the season. I will post a few other things, but hope to return to this story soon after Christmas.

God bless

ScribeofHeroes