Alaska, Port of Dutch Harbor, four years ago...

The White Portuguese came to an unnaturally gentle stop in the harbor. Davidson dropped the anchors, and grabbed the radio handset.

"This is Captain Davidson of the White Portuguese calling emergency services and port authority, requesting immediate assistance. We've been escorted to this location under..." Davidson trailed off as he tried to articulate everything that had happened succinctly as possible. "External power." He said finally. "We're dead in the water, but I don't think we're going to sink any further."

He heard the external bridge door open, and the two... Super-boys, for lack of a better word, entered. They were very young, even younger than Davidson had thought on first glance, but despite their statures and youthful appearances, they carried every bit of gravitas in their suits as Superman had in life. One was slightly taller than the other, and had slightly darker hair, but lighter eyes than the shorter one. The shorter one was the first to speak up.

"It looks like our welds are holding." He said. "I wouldn't rely on them for a trans-pacific voyage, but you should be able to get it to the nearest dry-dock. Do you have a crew list we can access to verify everyone's here?"

"And a cargo manifest." The taller one added. "Just in case something important, or dangerous washed overboard.

Davidson nodded, and pulled the list up on a computer screen. The boys scrolled through the list like lightning, and exchanged a glance.

"Someone missing?" Davidson asked.

"No." The shorter one replied. "Everyone's accounted for. It's your cargo. 'Assorted green rocks, radioactive.'" He read. "You're carrying Kryptonite?"

Davidson nodded, sheepishly. "For Lexcorp. Luthor cleared it personally. Insisted we get the stuff to him as quickly as possible. I tried to tell him it wasn't worth it, but he threatened to pull my bonus if I didn't get us underway... And he knows I needed that for my kids..."

The taller one pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Of course this is a Lexcorp thing..." He said as something broke the water and landed with two softer sounds and one louder metallic sound on the deck outside.

Captain Davidson shrugged apologetically. "Look, thanks a million, boys. I don't know what we'd have done if you hadn't come along. What do they call you?"

The boys exchanged a look.

The taller one laughed. "We didn't think that far ahead!"

"I know what they're called." Aquaman said as he walked through the door to enter the bridge. "Their dad used to call them his 'Superboys.'"

Present day, 1938 Sullivan Lane, Penthouse, New Troy, Metropolis. Kent Residence. A World Far Away...

Lois and Clark reclined in their enormous bed. Clark had one arm draped across Lois, while she snuggled close to his chest.

"And all of the heroes work for that company?" Lois questioned as she rubbed a gentle circle around the symbol of the House of El.

"Most of the ones I met seemed to." Clark replied. "Reminded me of Lexcorp. They had their 'V' logo on everything they owned. They even made movies about their 'heroes'" He said derisively. "Where they play themselves."

Lois chuckled. "Like when Turner tried to get Clark Kent to play Superman?"

Clark laughed. "Yeah, if I actually accepted the job. That Homelander guy seemed like he spent more time with the press than he did saving people. You know he actually tried to threaten me to get me to stop?"

Lois raised her head from his chest in disbelief. "You're kidding me." She responded in disbelief.

Clark shook his head, and raised himself up in the bed. "Not even. He tracked me down to my makeshift base in the North Pole and flashed his heat-vision at me."

Lois laughed a short, biting laugh. "And what'd you do?"

Clark just shrugged. "I turned mine up a little higher."

Clark's belt buckle buzzed.

Lois sat up like a bolt of lightning. "Is that a Justice League signal?"

Clark tapped his ear, then smirked, and shook his head.

"No." He said as he slid out of the bed. "It's Bruce. I asked to meet with him."

"About what?"

"About rebuilding the Phantom Zone generator." He said as he strode towards the balcony. He glanced back over his shoulder at Lois. "And about modifying a Mother Box so I can go back there with the whole League."

"Are you sure it's safe?" Lois asked as she slid out of the bed to join him by the balcony door, with nary a scrap of fabric covering her body. "I mean... It took you a lot of work to get back here. We already lost you once..."

Clark gently rested a hand against her bare shoulder.

"I'm sure. Bruce and I will take every precaution, and once the work is done, we'll build a backup system just in case. If Butcher and his people couldn't finish off Homelander, it's my responsibility to put him away... Or kill him if I can't. I don't know if what happened was permanent, or if it is, if Butcher would even be able to use it fully."

Lois draped both of her arms around her husband's shoulders, and gazed deeply into his eyes.

She pulled herself up to his mouth by his shoulders and planted a kiss squarely on his lips, then descended back to the floor.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked demurely. "Go save another planet."

Superman raised an eyebrow. "Are you keeping score?"

Lois pulled his head down to her and nuzzled his nose with her own.

"Someone has to." She whispered with a giggle.

Lois released her husband, he opened the door, and flew away towards the neighboring Gotham City.

An undisclosed location, on a world far away...

Billy marveled at the heap of metal that used to be a table. It'd crumpled like cardboard at his touch. He examined the hand he'd used to destroy the object... There wasn't a scratch, not even a bruise. He'd always been a tough son of a bitch, at least, as far as anyone who asked would be told, but he had his limits... Limits he'd cursed whenever they'd gotten in his way... When his father beat him, when Lenny died, when Becca vanished... Whenever he'd come face to face with a person bigger, stronger or more powerful than him, or a Supe who could kill him with a thought. So he'd used his wits to fight smarter. Always smarter.

Billy had a flash of his fist colliding with Homelander's face, and the horrific bruise he'd left behind... With the same hand he'd just crumpled steel with.

If I hit him hard enough to put him out... There's a chance I could him him hard enough he'd never wake up... He thought giddily. Bloody hell, I feel like I could walk right up to Vought and rip the entire company apart... And not even Homelander could stop me!

"Butcher!" Mother's Milk's shout broke through Butcher's reverie at his newfound abilities.

Butcher let his hand drop to his side as he turned to Marvin. "Easy on the volume, I heard you the first time."

Marvin rolled his eyes. "Sure you did." He muttered. "What the hell are we doing? Puttin' all this shit aside for the time bein', we need a game plan."

Butcher hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah, got a point." He turned to face the others. "Frenchie, how much money did Superman leave us with?"

The Frenchman clutched the laptop to his chest tightly, and glanced at it and Butcher nervously, as of he was afraid more deadly beams would escape Butcher's eyes.

"Millions." He whispered.

Everyone's eyebrows shot up, and jaws dropped to the floor.

"M-millions?" Hughie stammered. "How- how many millions?"

Frenchie sat the laptop onto a cushion as if it were made of glass.

"A... Few dozen, give or take." He said softly.

"How many dozen?" Hughie asked.

"...About a dozen."

"Superman handed us over a hundred million in untraceable cryptocurrency?" Marvin asked, shocked.

Frenchie nodded, and opened the laptop to show the others the digital wallet Superman left behind.

Butcher whistled. "Heart o' fuckin' gold, that man."

"So what do we do with it?" Hughie asked. "Hell, what do we do?"

Butcher stared at the laptop screen for a long moment, poring over everything Homelander had told him...

"Alright..." He said finally, answering the expectant looks of the others. "This ain't gonna change what we're gonna do, just how we're gonna do it, eh?" He said with a chuckle and a grin. "Starlight... Annie, all you have to do is go about your business as usual. Pretend things went swimmingly if they ask, got it?"

Annie picked the remains of her costume off the floor. "What do I say about this?" She asked, indicating the scorch marks that bisected the monokini.

"Tell them it happened during the fight." Hughie said. "It'll give you an excuse to use the old suit."

Butcher nodded as a toothy grin crossed his face. "And Homelander can't say otherwise, he doesn't remember shit."

"So we're just going to pretend everything's normal now?" Annie asked. "You just shot lasers out of your eyes!"

"We can't go givin' the new game away too early." Butcher said as he crossed his arms, and rubbed his bearded chin with one hand. He pinched the hairs briefly, shook his head, and continued. "Hughie and I need to figure out what we can do. No use goin' off half-cocked... And if the rest of you lot get something out of this, we need to know before it bites us."

Marvin glanced around the room at the others, then himself, then sighed. "Butcher," He said under his breath. "You remember what we said, right?"

Butcher shot a sidelong glance at MM. "Yeah, I remember. Can't do nothin' about it now."

"So what's the big idea, then?" MM demanded. "We said that nobody should have this kind of power, and now every single one of us could be just as big of a problem as one of the Supes!"

"Weren't you on Superman's side when I brought that up?" Butcher demanded. "What changed?"

"That's completely different, and you know it!" Marvin exclaimed. "None of us are Superman, least of all you! Now I gotta go to sleep every night now and hope whatever I wake up as doesn't melt Monique, or irradiate Janine, or burn the house down!"

Butcher squared his jaw, and took an uncomfortable swallow. "You're right." He said hoarsely. "You're absolutely right. Closest we got to his mentality might be 'er." He said, gesturing to Annie. "Doesn't matter. Now we're 'ere. Whatever power we wind up with, we have a responsibility to use it right... Or maybe just figure out how not to hurt anyone with it."

"So what, we put on costumes, make up a name and go be a life-sized action figure?" Marvin asked rhetorically.

Butcher shook his head. "We don't have to be the new Seven or Payback. It's better if we're not. But we can't just do nothing."

Marvin sighed, and rubbed his neck. "Guess it's my turn to throw my hands up, 'cus you're right, too. I ain't gotta like it... But I can't see shit I can do about it, and that's the fuckin' problem."

"Maybe meditation?" Hughie asked jokingly.