Super Twins

“ You feel powerless, ” Alex concluded, in innate, unembellished understanding. That, more than anything, was still a hurdle that she’d never been able to completely overcome: how it felt to stand in the shade of so much upheaval, so much terror and be utterly helpless to change the tide of her own will. How excruciating it was to be rendered so limited, even with an arsenal and an entire covert organisation of agents at her disposal.

How much worse it’d felt those years she’d still been in Jon’s shoes: a teenager, wrestling with what felt like an inordinate lack of purpose.

Thumbing at a loose fragment of splintered wood, where the sawdust - sifted balustrade she’d leaned on had begun to come away, Alex offered what fell a mile short of a benignant hint of a smile.

The twin’s bewilderment was amusing, but Damian had no intention of drawing it out any longer. With a smirk, his voice was full of self-importance. He hadn’t revealed him identity to anyone who wasn’t also a vigilante before. “Know him? I am the son of Batman. The true heir to the cowl, and I am destined to be his successor. I am to be the world’s greatest detective. Once I have surpassed my time as Robin, that is.”

Fraternals, right?

Mom, what is this? Whoa, you guys went through your mom’s things? You lied to us about how bad this is. Boys– These are end-of-life documents. Mom, this is your will. You wrote goodbye letters, Mom. I know. And I know how this looks. And I know that this is really scary. But this is all a normal thing you would do, just case things go bad. Things are already bad. We hear you getting sick. We see you losing your hair, not eating, not drinking, weak, but you never talk to us about anything. And when we try to get help from your mom about what is going on, you get mad at us? — Superman and Lois 3x07 “Forever and Always”

"Settle down, whippersnapper," Bucky said repressively to Jordan. "We're gonna look pretty hard at Lex Luthor, but we can't go tearing off after him without a lot more intel. We need more evidence before we decide to move against him. I mean, think -- what if it's not him? Then we've handed him a lot of information that we don't want him to have -- your connection to Superman, for one thing, and the fact that your dad is actually out of play, not just off-world for somethin'."

Privately, Bucky agreed with Jordan that Luthor seemed to be the primes suspect. But she was inclined to be cautious. Rescuing Clark and Lois was important, but so was keeping Jon and Jordan safe. She knew that Clark would never forgive her if his children's security was compromised during a rescue attempt. And, on a more pragmatic level, Clark loved his sons more than anyone else in the world. If Jon and Jordan were captured, whoever had taken Clark would have everything they needed to control Superman.

Jordan scowled, but his frustration was clearly not aimed at Bucky -- just the situation. He wanted whoever took his dad to pay, and soon. And he had the power to make it happen, if someone just pointed him in the right direction. "Then we find out more about this Nash person. He had to be talking to someone about this, right? Can we hack into his phone records?"

Just some kid. For the first handful of years of Kara’s life on earth, an uneasy stretch of time that’d eventually given way to an unbreakable foundation and an infinitely more steadfast bond between them, Alex was certain that nothing had resonated with her more.

“ You are still a huge part of the team, ” she supplied. Still, that was something easier believed with a few years’ hindsight.

“ And — you know, maybe you don’t have super strength or freeze breath, but you have so much more to offer than you think you do. I mean… when I was your age, I thought that I would neverget out of Midvale. Or be who I was supposed to be. And the only reason that I didn’t just completely lose myself was that one person that I care about believed in me when I thought that I was going nowhere. ”

"Everyone says that." Jon kicked at the ground a little, restless and frustrated. "But they're not the ones who keep almost dying. They're not the ones who had to watch someone beating the crap out of their dad, and couldn't even lift a finger to help."

Jordan could help. Natalie could help. Jon? Not a thing.

He smirked at his uncle Clark. “I think on this occasion, the correct bat-gadget would be a Kryptonian.” And if that didn’t give the game away, then Damian would find it difficult to merit the deductive skills of either twin. “But the couch will suffice. Thank you.” Remembering his manners, he did his best not to appear ungrateful, though he was already missing the comfort of his own bed.

“I have a cow at home.” He knows as the words leave his mouth that it’s not an expected thing to say. “If there are animals here, I am sure I can still be of some assistance.” There had to be something for him to do all summer surely. He conseeded his fathers point about being unable to avoid crimefighting if he were to stay in Gotham. But he would lose his mind to boredom if there truly was nothing to do.

"No no, we're not making you do work while you're recovering. Once your leg is better, maybe." Clark smiled before ducking back out of the room, leaving his rather stunned sons staring at Damian.