Super Friends

Diana and Clark rode the elevator up to Bruce's penthouse.  They nervously glanced at one another, each giving the other the "oh boy" look.
The last time they'd been invited here, they were attacked by Luthor's hitmen and Bruce had flipped out on them.  This time, they didn't know what horrors to expect.
"What's you guys' problem?" Bart rudely said, abruptly breaking the silence.
The elder two teens turned to him, and he suddenly felt as though he were being given "the eyebrow" by two older siblings at once.

The elevator bell dinged, and the doors slid open.  Clark, Diana, and Bart stepped into the penthouse in awkward unison.  Bart was dazzled by the luxury of the room, but he was smart enough—and shy enough—to keep himself quiet.

Alfred appeared from around the corner, wearing a wide smile as he greeted the guests.  "Welcome, Master Kent, Miss Prince, Master Allen.  Master Bruce and Miss Lane are in the—"  Lois and Bruce walked in from the next room.  "Ah, well here they are," Alfred finished.
Lois's face spread into a wide smile, and she happily ran over to meet her friends.  She jumped up to give Clark a tight hug, which surprised just about everyone.  Clark gave Bruce an awkward look over Lois's shoulder, but Bruce merely responded with a small grin and a shrug.

After making their greetings, the teens gathered in the living room, which had recently been made bulletproof, soundproof, and completely one-way mirrored.  As the rest of the group sat down, Bruce stood in front of the bright window, his hands in his pockets.  Facing the group, he stood silently for a moment.  "The last time that most of you were here, I... overreacted.  But you've proven yourselves to be trustworthy, and I want to offer my sincere apologies."
Bart halfway squinted his left eye at Bruce.
He's talking like we're business partners or something.
Clark made eye contact with Diana for a moment, then smiled, stood up, and walked over to Bruce with his right hand extended.  "Apology accepted."
Bruce shook Clark's hand. "And... thank you—" he leaned around Clark's shoulder to look at Bart "—both of you, for what you did at the school."
Bart gave Bruce a quick upward nod. "Hey, no sweat."
"We were just glad we could help," Clark said.

Bruce moved to sit down in one of the black leather seats, and motioned for Clark to do the same. The chairs were arranged in a loose circle, allowing Clark, Diana, Bruce, Lois, and Bart to easily see each other.  Alfred stood back by the side of the room, ready and waiting to answer any request.

Bruce began speaking to the group. "I called you all here because there are some things that we need to get out."
"Like what?" Diana asked.
"Like what exactly you can all do," Bruce said seriously, shifting his gaze between Clark, Diana, and Bart.
Clark decided to be open with Bruce.  "Alright."
Bruce leaned forward a little.  "From what I've seen, you're fast, strong, bulletproof, and can apparently defy gravity."
Clark nodded.  "That's it, as far as I know."
Bruce's left eyebrow lifted. "As far as you know?"
Clark broke eye contact, unsure of exactly how to respond.  "Well... I might have more abilities; I'm not sure.  It's a long story."
Bruce wanted to roll his eyes.  "Alright, then; who else knows about your abilities?"
Of this, Clark was certain. "Besides the people in this room, only my adoptive parents and a friend of mine back home in Smallville," Clark responded.
"Smallville?" Bart asked.
"Yeah, in Kansas."
"Oh, hey! I know that place! I ran through there once on one of my cross-country trips."
Diana was astounded.  "You ran across the country?"
Clark leaned over to her a little. "It's not as hard as it sounds," he said very matter-of-factly.
Lois's brain would have normally been doing backflips at this point, but she was in a kind of starstruck daze that kept her perceptions of reality readily malleable.  She mentally rolled over and accepted the truth of whatever the three super-teens felt like saying.

Bruce turned to Diana.  "What about you?"
Diana casually shrugged. "The same as Clark, except for the speed.  And I think he's stronger than I am..." She caught herself staring at Clark's arm muscles, which were somewhat visible through his shirt sleeves, and quickly shifted her gaze back to the center of the room.  "Oh, and I can sense truthfulness in others."
Bart looked a little worried.  "Wait, so... like... you can tell if someone's lying?"
"Yes," Diana politely responded.
Bart shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Bruce then turned to Bart with a suspicious eye.  "And what can you do?"
Bart shrugged.  "I dunno... I can run real fast, I guess."
"That it?" Bruce said, almost flippantly.
Bart slunk down in his chair a bit.  "...yeah? I think?"
Bruce looked over at Diana, and she responded with a gentle nod: Bart was telling the truth.

Bruce moved his attention back to Bart.  "I know he's an alien"—he pointed to Clark—"and she says she's an Amazon"—he pointed to Diana—"but what are you?"
Bart was feeling more and more squeamish under Bruce's interrogative gaze.  "Uh... I'm just a guy.  Not an alien or an Amazon or anything.  Wait—WHO'S an alien and an Amazon?!?"
Clark and Diana looked at each other.  Diana almost giggled. "Whoops... I guess we forgot to mention that. Sorry."
Bart was somewhere between starstruck and bewildered.  His eyes were wide and he looked like he might faint out of shock.
Bruce was getting annoyed.  "If you're a normal human being, how can you move that fast?"
Bart nearly gulped.  He was clearly worried about something.  "Well... uh... I was just out for a walk outside one day, and this lightning bolt came down right on top of me, and BAM! I could move like lightning."
Diana frowned at Bart's explanation.  Bruce didn't buy it for a second.  "I don't buy it," he said.  Diana interjected, however. "It's not unheard of, actually.  There are many tales of real heroes who were granted special power through events such as he describes."
Lois noticed that whenever Diana spoke of things relating to her Amazon heritage or the ancient world, she spoke very differently, as though she slipped into a different persona.  Apparently, she thought, no one on Themyscira uses contractions.

Bruce once again felt like rolling his eyes.
Do ANY of these people make sense?!
"Alright; fine, then."
He straightened up a bit, and did his best to put on a personable face.
"I thought it'd be a good idea to get all that out in the open."

For the rest of the afternoon, the teens enjoyed themselves.
Lois and Diana—being the only girls in the group—went off in a corner by themselves to giggle alone and talk in whispers—until they realized that Clark could hear them from across the room.
Clark and Bart hung out on the couch and watched football on the massive flat-panel TV that sat above the penthouse's fireplace.  They were quickly developing a big brother/little brother relationship, despite only having just met each other last week.
Bruce sat alone on a barstool at the kitchen counter, busy typing on his laptop.  Clark invited him over to sit with them—twice—but Bruce assured him that he "had some work to take care of," and that they should "just ignore him."

Later that evening, as their get-together came to a close, Clark was the first to leave.  He knew better than to overstay his welcome, and he was careful to be gracious and friendly as he left.
Bart moved to leave soon afterward—he didn't want to be stuck alone with Bruce and the chattering girls—but he was stopped by Diana, who gently pulled him aside.
Keeping her voice low, but staring him straight in the eyes, she asked, point-blank: "Why did you lie about where you got your powers?"
Bart's shoulders slumped down, and he sighed heavily.  "It's... it's complicated.  I really can't talk about it?"
"Why not?" She said firmly, not letting him slip away.
"Because!" he said, accidentally raising his voice a bit.  After quickly looking back over his shoulder to make sure that Bruce and Lois didn't notice, he turned back to Diana. "...It'll mess everything up."
Diana sensed the truth in Bart's words this time, and slowly leaned back, letting her concern for him show on her face.
Bart took a step backwards from her, then shamefully walked to the elevator and left.

Lois kissed Bruce goodbye, and left as well.  Diana began to walk towards the door, but stopped when Bruce called to her.  "Diana. Would you stay for a minute?"
Curious and puzzled, she nodded and walked over to him.  Once the elevator carried the others away, Bruce took a deep, quiet breath, let his head hang down a bit, shut his eyes, and prepared to explain himself.
"Nine years ago, my parents were murdered by a street thug in Gotham city with a gun."
Diana's eyes went wide with surprise, but then quickly softened with sympathy for him.  "Oh, Bruce, I'm sorry; I didn't know."
Bruce stiffly shrugged.  "It's not something that I tell a lot of people."
"Yeah..." Diana said, still feeling bad for him.
Bruce continued.  "I've often thought that... perhaps, if I—or my father—had been prepared, my parents would both be alive."
Diana recognized what Bruce was feeling: survivor's guilt, something that was quite common among Amazon warriors.  "Bruce, you can't make yourself think of the past that way; it's—"
"I'm not thinking of the past," he interrupted.  "I'm thinking of the present."
Diana paused for a moment.  "What do you mean?"
Bruce took a few seconds to gather his humility before speaking.  "Last week, when Lois and I were taken captive... Lois was almost killed, exactly the same way that my mother was."
"That must have been horrifying... what happened?"
"Clark happened."
Diana smirked a little.  "That sounds like him."
Bruce was not amused at Diana's obvious admiration for Clark.  "I need to be able to protect myself."
"Bruce, there's nothing wrong with relying on a friend—"
Bruce interrupted her, his eyes burning with an anger that shone through his seemingly controlled demeanor.  "I will NOT be left helpless.  Not ever again."
Diana's heart swelled with compassion for him, but she was still not quite understanding what he was getting at.  "So what does that have to do with me?"
"You were able to take down Deadshot, despite the thirty-seven bullets he fired at you, but you didn't mention enhanced hand-eye coordination as one of your powers. You didn't defeat him with your powers; you beat him with combat training."
Diana was starting to see where he was going with this. "Yes... that's true, to an extent. Amazons aren't much more coordinated than humans, we're just trained from childhood as warriors. Why do you ask?"

Bruce stared into Diana's eyes with a steel-forged resolve.
"Teach me."