Fanfic / the superhero game

the superhero game (FFN Link) by Nyame is a Batman/DCU Fan Fic. It is the sequel to one day at a time (Nyame).

Summary:

After dying of cancer, involuntarily traveling back to 2010, and coming back from the dead for the nth time, Jason Todd is fully reunited with a past version of his family and ready and willing to move on with his life.

However, when an unexpected development throws the entire superhero world on its head, he must put those plans on hold. Directly affected by this seemingly miraculous event, Jason is forced to confront the one question that has plagued his mind ever since he arrived to the past:

Why was he sent back in time?

(Or, Jason plays the Superhero Game, where everything you love is always at stake and the only way to win is to say that you did and not break down from the lie.)

(Or, the action-packed sequel to one day at a time)

Warning: There are spoilers for one day at a time unmarked on this page.

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Tropes:

Main Story

• All Your Powers Combined: Donna has access to the abilities of all her alternate selves, including Dark Angel.
• Almighty Mom: Jason is a rare male example. Thanks to his experience as a parent and mentor to various superheroes in the previous timeline, he manages to cow both the de-aged JLA and JSA into behaving through some ear-twisting and sheer force of will.
• Alternate Universe: It's revealed that Jason and co. didn't Time Travel as initially thought, but were rather sent to an alternate universe – specifically, one cloned from the original universe by Vandal Savage, created purposefully so he could torture them.
• Arc Villain:
  • Klarion the Witch Boy for the first chapter, who's really more of an Anti-Villain and who Jason manages to neutralize without any real violence on either end.
  • Dark Angel for the Donna arc.
  • Parallax for the Green Lantern arc.
  • Technically Vandal Savage for the Rescue Era 2 arc, though the brainwashed Era 2 are unquestionably The Heavy.
  • The Talons for the Bludhaven arc, with Raptor and the Court of Owls as the Greater-Scope Villains.
  • Intergang for the Dakota City arc.
  • Larfleeze for the Warworld arc.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Each of the Era 2 Justice League have one. To wit:
    • Superboy/Superman-Prime for Kon-El. They ended up killing each other in the previous timeline.
    • Dark Angel, for Donna Troy.
    • Thaal Sinestro for Kyle Rayner.
    • Black Manta for Kaldur'ahm. Also doubles as an Archnemesis Dad.
    • Despero for M'gann. M'gann essentially died to ensure he would die permanently with her.
    • Eobard Thawne for Wallace. Wallace hates all Reverse-Flashes, but he easily hates Thawne the most.
  • Dick Grayson is revealed to have another arch-enemy in the form of Raptor, who was his mother's Stalker with a Crush, and is now Dick's Stalker without a Crush. He earns Dick's enmity in the present timeline by murdering Blockbuster and purposely triggering a Mob War that threatens to consume all of Bludhaven.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Kon only had two or three scenes in the previous story. Now, thanks to the Time Travel, he's a main character like Jason.
  • Similarly with Donna. Only had a couple of scenes in the previous story, but due to traveling back like Jason and Kon, is now a main character.
  • Kyle Rayner, Wallace West, Kaldur'ahm, and M'gann M'orzz were only mentioned in the first story. Here, not only do they show up in full, they're also time travelers as well.
• Berserk Button: When Dark Angel announces her plans to wipe out Jason's memories of Donna, Jason outright threatens to kill her.
• Big Bad: Vandal Savage.
• Bloody Horror: Blockbuster's death was not a clean one, nor were the deaths of his lieutenants. In fact, the crime scene is so disgusting that it left four of the five vigilantes who saw it vomiting. The one who didn't, Jason, who committed such bloody crimes himself during his time as the Red Hood, thought Blockbuster's murder was brutal even by his standards.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Infinity-Man. This was done by corrupting the Mother Boxes of the Forever Young People with a piece of the Anti-Life Equation through the use of a Father Box.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Barry Allen is strongly implied to be this to Wallace West and even other members of the Era 2 JL. Before he realized that Barry was (technically) still dead in the present timeline, Wallace planned on 'kicking his ass' the next time he saw him. Even after he calmed down, he still plans on punching Barry in the face if he does end up coming back like he did last time.
  • Haley's Circus becomes this to Dick, after he learns that it's actually a training ground for the Court of Owls' personal assassins, the Talons, that Mr. Haley allowed his parents to be murdered so he could sell Dick to be their latest Talon, and then sold his friend Raymond McCreary when Dick got adopted by Bruce.
• Cain and Abel: Ivan and Adam Evans, aka Ebon and Rubberband Man. The former is willing to kill the latter if it means launching his budding supervillain career.
• Call-Back: Jason's exploding helmet returns, and while he doesn't get to use it, Dick (much like his original timeline counterpart) is not happy to learn about it.
• Cardboard Prison: Arkham Asylum might be The Alcatraz in the future, but it is very much this now, much to Jason's consternation.
• Caught Monologuing: Oh, yes. As all of those from Era 2 are viciously pragmatic, they barely let villains get a word out before brutally attacking them before they can retaliate.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Crowne Family. First mentioned in the first story as one of the First Families that went extinct, their role is expanded here. They're revealed to be Dick Grayson's ancestors and the Founding Family of the Court of Owls.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • Jason and Donna are a downplayed example. They met when Jason was a preteen and Donna was a teenager, but didn't start a romance until they were both well into middle-age.
  • Queen Atlanna and Cerdian. They grew up with each other all their lives, and eventually married after Atlanna started seeking an Atlantean husband.
• Combat Pragmatist: Every member of Era 2. They fight dirty, they have no issues asking their comrades to intervene in their fights (especially when one is a telepath that can forcibly put their enemies to sleep), and they have no issues being as brutal as possible to get the job done. They believe in this so much that it doesn't just terrify villains, but heroes as well.
• Comically Small Bribe: Jason convinces Klarion to turn everyone back to normal by offering him a bag of Alfred's chocolate chip cookies. To be fair, they were really good cookies.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • After Kyle travels back, the following battle with Parallax is incredibly lopsided in his favor.
  • All the fights with the Era 2 Justice League after Savage forcibly transforms them into their prime bodies fall into this. In particular, the massive hero/villain battle, which eventually devolves into a Mook Horror Show for the villains.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight:
  • Cassie died in Donna's arms during the Olympian/Titan war, an event that deeply affected Donna.
  • Donna herself died in the arms of Terry McGinnis in the previous timeline.
• The Dreaded:
  • Jason quickly establishes himself as this to the de-aged JLA and JSA the moment Young Justice bring him in to deal with them.
  • Kyle Rayner. Even the Neo-Trinity are apprehensive of him after he travels back, even though they've known, been friends with, and worked with Kyle for decades. Everyone quickly understands why after he, roughly a minute after returning, proceeds to curb-stomp Parallax via the rapid creation of several giant constructs, including one of Godzilla. And then he gets brainwashed by Savage and returns as the White Lantern, which promptly scares the shit out of everyone.
  • Larfleeze, so much so that the reason why the Green Lantern Corps left the Vega System alone and under the rule of the tyrannical Citadel was to avoid provoking him.
• Driving Question:
  • Why are heroes from the future being sent back in time?
  • What is the Superhero Game?
• Due to the Dead:
  • Cassie Sandsmark, upon her death in the previous timeline, was cremated per the Ancient Greek custom on Themyscira, complete with two coins on her eyes for good measure. Kon attended it, one of the few times a man was allowed on Paradise Island.
  • After Bart's death, a statue of him was erected next to the other Flashes in front of the Flash Museum.
• Ear Ache: Jason twists the ear of a teenage Aquaman for talking back at him and to scare the JLA and JSA into listening to him.
• Elephant in the Living Room: Flashpoint. While the darker parts about the future are freely parted, the entire Era 2 JL is extremely reluctant to talk directly about Flashpoint to anyone, even each other. By default Wallace has to explain it since it mainly involves the Flash Family (making him the most knowledgeable on the subject), but thus far he's flat-out refused. While his teammates/friends aren't happy about it and are trying to convince him to at least tell his family so that way they can put in safeguards to prevent Flashpoint or something like it from happening again, not a single one of them blames him for his hesitation.
• Evil Power Vacuum:
  • Discussed. As Tim explains to Cass, a Nebulous Evil Organization is based on power structures, so when people at the top are eliminated, those on the bottom start stabbing each other in the back in hopes of filling in the empty space. Jason only managed to avoid that in the last story with the League of Assassins after he killed Ra's al Ghul by temporarily 'filling' the space himself and basically strong-arming everyone below him into disbanding the organization.
  • This becomes a problem in the Bludhaven arc after Raptor has the Talons under his command literally and figuratively gut Blockbuster's entire organization, including Blockbuster himself. While all the major movers and shakers are gone, that still leaves the swathes of gangs and grunts beneath them who no longer have anyone in any position of authority to keep them in line, effectively dooming Bludhaven to a massive, chaotic Mob War. As it turns out, this was deliberate — Raptor felt Dick was too good for Bludhaven and thought wiping the city out would be doing Dick a favor.
• Eye Scream: Jason stabs out one of Dark Angel's eyes with an All-Blade before she's reabsorbed by Donna.
• Family of Choice: After Ebon tries to kill 'Adam' (really M'gann in disguise) for the sake of his Villain Cred, Adam disowns him and declares the Hawkins his real family.
• Fantastic Racism: While the Atlanteans learned to be less xenophobic, they were deeply unhappy about the fact that their child queen was only one-fourth Atlantean. That was one of the reasons why Mera had Atlanna seek a full-blooded Atlantean husband — luckily, her Childhood Friend Cerdian fit the bill.
• First-Episode Twist: The first chapter starts with the Young Justice: Sins of Youth event and ends with revealing that Kon-El has just been sent back in time like Jason.
• Food as Bribe: In the very first chapter, Jason has to deal with Klarion the Witch Boy, who's de-aged the adult heroes and aged up the teenage heroes. Jason ends up giving him one of Alfred's chocolate chip cookies and promising him the rest of the bag he'd brought if Klarion restores everyone, which works.
• Fountain of Youth: The first chapter takes place during Sins of Youth, where the JLA have been de-aged to teenagers and the JSA to children.
• Future Badass: Many of the younger heroes, who became temporaries of the Era 2 Council in the previous timeline. It's because of this trope that the Council starts suspecting Savage is deliberately targeting young heroes, since he holds a grudge against all of Era 2, not just them.
• Godzilla Threshold: A brainwashed Kyle's arrival to the battlefield as the White Lantern immediately prompts Jason to hand off both his highly-advanced future weapons to his two younger siblings while he summons the Balance to fight off the ensuing army of constructs. He later all but orders Hal Jordan, who had just been freed from his possession by Parallax, to take up Kyle's old Green Lantern ring and join the fight, because he is the only person left on the entire island that can hope to fight Kyle one-on-one and survive long enough to give M'gann an opening.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Era 2 Council of the Justice League are all friendly people, who can and have risked their lives or died to protect others, and love their families dearly. They are all Superior Successors to Era 1 in terms of combat prowess. They are also all more than willing to break the Thou Shalt Not Kill rule or stick an enemy into an And I Must Scream situation if they think it's necessary or believe their enemy is Beyond Redemption and can't be imprisoned normally (which isn't too often, but still).
• Heinz Hybrid: Queen Atlanna II, the daughter of Arthur Curry and Mera, is one-fourth human, one-fourth Atlantean, and one-half Xebelian. This is briefly Played for Drama, as the xenophobic Atlanteans hate the fact that their queen is more Xebelian than Atlantean, which necessitated Atlanna taking a full-blooded Atlantean husband.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Much like Jason in the first story, Kon has a breakdown when he realizes he's been sent back in time.
  • Both Donna and the Titans are horrified by Donna's time travel, though Donna recovers quicker due to instinctively recognizing Jason and Kon.
  • Humorously, Bruce's mind shuts down when he completely fails to intimidate Donna after learning she's in a relationship with Jason.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Klarion. Jason sympathizes, but still has him turn everyone back to normal.
• I Have Your Wife: Subverted. It seems like Savage is holding Kara hostage to prevent the heroes from coming after him, but as Jason rightly points out, with the amount of power currently at his disposal he could kill all of them any time he wants, even Kyle. Savage agrees, throws Kara at him and then teleports away, leaving a threatening message in his wake.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jason doesn't want to get in-between Roy and Donna because he knew how much Donna loved Roy before he died and because their relationship is the best chance Lian has of having a mother that "isn't that bitch Cheshire". Of course, Donna coming back renders it all a moot point.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The rest of the Young Justice team learns about Jason's time travel in the second chapter after Kon is revealed to have traveled back as well.
  • After Donna comes back, the Titans, the rest of the JLA, and the JSA are brought into things. Then, when the rest of Era 2 arrives, it ceases to be a secret entirely.
  • Adam Evans/Rubberband Man and his girlfriend Sharon finally learns Virgil is Static and Richie is Gear.
• Last of His Kind:
  • After Cassie's death, Kon became the last surviving member of the "Core Four" of the original Young Justice. The interlude touching on his friendship with Jason made it fully clear that he was bitterly aware of this.
  • M'gann M'orzz became the Last Martian after the death of her uncle J'onn, and later became the last-surviving member of the original Era 2 Council. It's strongly implied that her depression over this is what drove her to death during her final duel with Despero.
  • Diana was the last living founder of the Justice League. Her retirement to become Queen of Themyscira signaled the beginning of Era 2.
  • Dick is revealed to be the last-living direct descendant of the extinct Crowne Family, one of the First Families of Gotham. That entitles him to what remains of their estate, and technically makes him a societal equal to Bruce and Damian.
• Legacy Character:
  • The story finally confirms that Donna was the second Wonder Woman. In turn, after her death, she was succeeded by Penelope Todd-Wayne, Jason's daughter with Artemis. Penelope was also the third Wonder Girl and (briefly) the second Troia.
  • Matthew "Matty" McGinnis, after outgrowing Robin, succeeded his uncle Tim as the second Red Robin and his uncles Dick and Damian, and his aunt Cass as the protector of Bludhaven.
  • Wallace West was succeeded by Iris "Irey" West II, the daughter of Wally West and Linda Park.
  • Kaldur'ahm is confirmed to be the third Aquaman, and was eventually succeeded as Aqualad and Aquaman by a Prince Arthur — who is strongly implied to be the son of Queen Atlanna II and King Cerdian, and thus the grandson of Arthur Curry and Garth.
  • Damian Kent, the composite clone of Clark and Zod, and the husband of Jason's daughter Helena, eventually started sharing the mantle of Superman with Jon Kent, the implication that he'll succeed Jon when he finally decides to retire.
  • Raquel Ervin, aka Rocket, succeeded her mentor Augustus Freeman IV/Arnus of Terminus as the superhero Icon and the protector of Dakota City.
• Logical Weakness: M'gann might be the most powerful telepath in the world, but not even she can read a dead mind. According to her, no telepath can.
• The Lost Lenore: Alex DeWitt, for Kyle. Parallax manages to convince Kyle to come with him by taking her living counterpart hostage.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • When a brainwashed White Lantern Kyle Rayner shows up, pretty much everyone in the vicinity loses their goddamn minds.
  • It happens again when Kyle forms a white construct of Arceus, which promptly uses Judgment.
  • All the heroes in the Dakota City arc, after Bruno Mannheim summons a brainwashed Infinity-Man to fight them and cover his escape.
• Mob War: The Bludhaven arc ends with one on the horizon for Bludhaven after Raptor has the Talons under his control kill Blockbuster and all his major lieutenants. Predictably, no one entertains the idea of Dick handling it on his own, because everyone knows that he can't. It also ends up being the final push Dick needs to make the decision to quit the BPD.
• Mook Horror Show: After the Era 2 JL enter the fray, the entire battle turns into this for most of the villains.
• The Mourning After:
  • According to Jason, Kon-El's wife Hiyori was never able to move on after his death.
  • It's confirmed Jason's general lack of interest in romance in the first story was due to being still in love with Donna. It didn't help that the only other possible love interest was more-or-less out of his reach.
  • As for Donna herself, while she was able to move on from her First Love Roy, she was never able to move on from Jason, considering him to be the love of her life. She spent the next ten years mourning him, training his biological daughter to be her sidekick and eventual successor, and eventually giving her life to save his adoptive son.
  • It's heavily implied that the reason M'gann is wholly uninterested in romance is because of her unrequited feelings for Kon, which lingered after his death.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Hal Jordan, after Savage breaks Parallax's possession over him.
• My Greatest Failure: It gradually becomes clear that much like Jason in the previous story, the rest of the Era 2 Justice League have their own fair share of regrets in the previous timeline.
  • Kon suffers some serious Survivor's Guilt over being the last living member of the "Core Four" of Young Justice — especially in regards to his best friend Tim, who died saving him. It's also clear that he's not happy about the fact that he didn't get to watch his son grow up.
  • Donna regrets not being a good mother to her son and not being able to save him from Dark Angel. She also deeply laments her extended self-imposed exile, as all it did was leave her alone and unable to help her friends when they needed her. It also caused her other great failure: her estrangement with Cassie, who tried to convince her to return halfway in, and her inability to reconcile with Cassie before her death.
  • Kyle, as always, has the death of his first girlfriend Alex DeWitt and his mother. It's also implied he has more, stemming from his grudge against Sinestro.
  • Kaldur has the death of his parents and especially King Arthur at the hands of his biological father, Black Manta. It's confirmed that this is the reason he was so devoted to Arthur's daughter, Atlanna.
  • M'gann has both her Uncle J'onn's death and her subsequent descent into insanity, which included delivering a Pay Evil unto Evil Fate Worse than Death on Despero in revenge and going on a stint of well-intentioned extremism that saw her lobotomize several villainous telepaths to steal their powers. The former in particular hit hard, as it led to Despero escaping as a mad Physical God years later, forcing M'gann to take him down in a Taking You with Me gambit.
  • Wallace, so far, is the only member of the group that hasn't had one revealed yet. But judging by how much he hates Reverse-Flashes and the confirmed fate of Bart Allen, it's likely that his is somehow connected to that.
• No Badass to His Valet:
  • Much like Jason, Kon isn't scared of Bruce, mostly because he used to be Superman and has been working with members of Bruce's family for decades.
  • Donna similarly No-Sells Bruce's Shovel Talk because she's watched Jason do the same for all his children. Bruce is left in Stunned Silence.
  • Eventually, Bruce catches on to it when he completely fails to intimidate any of the Era 2 JL, and wonders if he's beginning to lose his touch.
• Noodle Incident:
  • There was an incident with a flying monkey and vegetable soup in the previous timeline. Apparently, it resulted in radiation that the Era 2 Justice League had to call in Captain Atom to deal with.
  Kon: (haunted) So many apricots...
  • The specifics of the scheme that got Vandal Savage exiled to the Phantom Zone haven't been revealed, but they were enough to leave the entire superhero community disturbed.
  Multiple People: I didn't even know the human body could twist so many ways.
  • When he is snapped out of his mind control from Savage, Wallace mentions a "Bamboo Incident" that was used to convince him that M'gann wasn't a fake. Whatever happened was so bad that both Kaldur and Jason wince when they hear the phrase come out of Wallace's mouth.
  Wallace: Seriously, the Bamboo Incident?
  M'gann: It's your own fault for not believing me.
  Wallace: You know I still have nightmares about the pandas! So. Many. Pandas...
  • It's mentioned that Lex Luthor frequently uses the technological products his company offers to spy on people for the sake of his schemes. Two such products, LexCorp laptop models 450 and 900, are mentioned, with the former evidently used to try and discover Superman's secret identity, and the latter used to collect blackmail.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Jason. The first story showed him to be extremely competent and skilled, on the same level as Dick and just below Bruce, and only surpassing both when transformed into his prime. As this story shows, that basically means nothing to top tier threats like Dark Angel and Parallax, who slapped him around every time he engaged them in direct combat. He seems to be aware of this, which is why he largely plays support roles in battles against super-powered foes like Zod and his brainwashed teammates.
• Official Couple: Jason/Donna is finally confirmed to be this, with the two getting back together after Donna travels back in time like Jason did.
• Oh, Crap!: Kyle, after learning that Larfleeze has murdered Mongul and taken over Warworld.
• Out of Focus: Unlike the first story, which focuses exclusively on the Bat-Family, this story covers the entire DCU to varying degrees as main character status is now shared between all seven members of the Era 2 Justice League council. As a result, many characters (including main characters) can go several chapters or even arcs without appearing, including Jason, the primary protagonist.
• Overnight Age-Up: During Sins of Youth, Young Justice and Stargirl were aged up to adulthood. Notably, while that made them more mature, they were still completely ineffective in corralling the JLA and JSA due to general lack of experience handling children. They had to bring in Jason to keep the kids under control.
• Patchwork Fic: Much like the previous story, this fic borrows from a number of different continuities which are pieced together to create its own thing. It's a mix of pre- and post-Flashpoint, with some Gotham thrown in, along with some of the Young Justice cartoon and the DCAU.
• Peggy Sue: This time, with Kon-El and later Donna Troy along for the ride. Later on, the rest of the Era 2 Justice League council (Kyle Rayner, Wallace West, Kaldur'ahm, and M'gann M'orzz) join in on the fun.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Intergang are the main villains of the Dakota City arc, antagonizing Static, Gear, Rocket, and Icon (along with Kaldur, M'gann, and Wallace), despite nominally being Superman enemies.
• Secret Legacy: Dick Grayson is the Gray Son of Gotham, the prophesied Talon that the Court has been waiting for years to be born, and the last direct male heir of the Crowne Family, the extinct First Family and the original founders of the Court of Owls.
• Seen It All:
  • Jason gives off this vibe a lot during the first chapter.
  • As does Kon when he travels back and starts settling into the new situation, judging by his reaction to Bruce.
  • Donna manages to adjust to the idea of being in the past while in mid-battle with Dark Angel.
  • It becomes very clear that the entire Era 2 Justice League is this. They take being sent back in time/transported to another universe after their deaths in relative stride and are only mildly annoyed about the situation.
• Ship Sinking:
  • Kon acknowledges that Donna coming back as well essentially kills her potential romantic relationship with Roy.
  • Kon's own canonical Ship Tease with Cassie immediately dies after he's sent back, as Cassie is physically and mentally a teenage girl, while he's mentally an adult man who, before he died, had been Happily Married with a baby son.
• Ship Tease:
  • The sequel takes the original Jason/Donna ship tease from the first story and runs full force with it. Not only does Kon ship Jason/Donna, but Jason himself is barely capable of hiding his strong feelings for her during the situation with Dark Angel. Dark Angel herself notes that Jason still loves Donna upon viewing Jason's memories of their relationship. Eventually, after Donna comes back, they get back together and become the Official Couple.
  • M'gann is confirmed to have feelings for Kon (like in the cartoon), but they weren't strong enough for her to stand in the way of his relationship with Hiyori. It's also strongly implied that Kon was unaware of them when he died.
• Shout-Out: Kyle Rayner, by virtue of his fighting style, is a walking Shout-Out. Thus far, he's used constructs from Godzilla, RWBY, Fate/stay night, and Pokémon to just name a few.
• Stage Mom: Like her canon counterpart, Bonnie King (the mother of Young Justice's Arrowette) is this, with a disgusted Jason dropping the trope name to describe her. Then she proves it when she objects to Cissie attending a superhero training camp simply because it's in the middle of nowhere, rather than someplace where she can show off her skills and be recognized for it. She even demands to know "Where's the money, the marketing, the brand?", and accuses them of having her train in private as "another way of giving my daughter the shaft". Everyone present thinks that she really means "giving me the shaft", and are just as disgusted as Jason with her behavior.
• Starter Villain: The story starts with Jason easily kicking the Riddler's ass.
• Superior Successor: In terms of how good they are at fighting, the Era 2 Council of the Justice League is even more dangerous than their predecessors. As a list...
  • Jason has been a vigilante for even longer than Bruce or Dick at this point, has been returned to his almost-prime body, and has a lot of technology and experience that the two of them lacked, as well as the All-Blades and the Balance.
  • Kon is slightly less vulnerable to Kryptonite than Clark, and has telekinetic powers even greater than those of M'gann.
  • Donna has her powers from multiple lives — among them, photonic blasts and size-changing, and skill equal to or exceeding Diana's.
  • Kyle Rayner... is the White Lantern. Enough said.
  • Kaldur'ahm was able to take on Garth, Mera, and Arthur all at once when he was brainwashed, and was easily holding his own the entire fight.
  • M'gann was able to fight Despero and either equal him in a fight or win. Her telepathy is outright stated to be the strongest in the world; the moment J'onn convinced her of his identity, allowing her to access it again, she was able to shatter Savage's control of her within seconds.
  • Wallace, while possessing the same abilities as the other Flashes, has both Super-Speed abilities and a Combat Pragmatist attitude that means most of his enemies won't even realize he's there before they're unconscious.
• 10-Minute Retirement: After the Bang Baby Cure was unleashed across Dakota City, Adam Evans took the opportunity to officially retire from superheroism to focus on his music career and on his relationship with Sharon Hawkins. The return of his powers, learning his girlfriend's little brother is Static, and his villainous older brother's own return, causes him to come out of retirement so he can both take down Ebon and protect Virgil.
• Ten Minutes in the Closet: Kon locks Jason and Donna in a room to force them to finally talk about their relationship in the previous timeline. It works.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • After they're broken free from Savage's brainwashing, every member of the Era 2 Justice League very quickly realizes that the fact Kyle Rayner is missing is not a good thing. Considering he's the World's Strongest Man, this is a very justified attitude.
  • Everyone's reaction to finding Blockbuster's mangled corpse nailed to the wall of the drug warehouse they were about to bust.
• Trust Password: Jason manages to stop Kon's ranting and convince him of the time travel by mentioning the name of Kon's wife Hiyori Tanaka.
• Twitchy Eye: Jason is described as having one of these the longer he spends dealing with the de-aged JLA and JSA.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Jason, Kon, and Donna, who Word of God dubs a "Neo-Trinity".
• Underestimating Badassery: Exploited by Badass Normal heroes in cities, excluding Gotham. While no one bats an eye at the likes of Lex Luthor or Circe breaking out the big guns and henchmen to deal with Superman and Wonder Woman, the same can't be said for villains like Blockbuster dealing with heroes like Nightwing. While everyone knows Nightwing is uber-competent, villains who've never actually tangled with him see him as Batman's non-meta sidekick leading a child's gang. Thus Blockbuster can't hire meta assistance to deal with him because he'd have to admit he needed their help and said help would likely see Nightwing as not worth their time without embarrassing amounts of money involved. Which allows Nightwing to break down Blockbuster's hold on Bludhaven pretty much unopposed. Until Raptor and the Talons show up.
• The Unmasking: Jason convinces Tim to tell his team his Secret Identity. The reason for this is twofold: first, Jason already revealed his own identity to them in the first chapter to convince Kon of the Time Travel, so once they have time to process it later they'll probably figure it out on their own; and second, the newly-time traveled Kon already knows Tim's real identity, so it really isn't fair to keep it from the rest of the team. Tim concedes to Jason's reasoning, and at Kon's encouragement, reveals his identity as Tim Drake-Wayne to Young Justice. They take it relatively well.
• Villain Cred: Discussed in regards to meta/genius heroes and villains and normal heroes and villains. Lex Luthor is seen as an appropriate response to Superman but not to Nightwing despite both being dangerous to any plan he might make. It's why Blockbuster doesn't just hire out to deal with Nightwing.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: It quickly becomes clear that all of the Era 2 Justice League Council were this with each other. They have no issues ribbing on each other at every conceivable opportunity, even when they're held captive by an immortal caveman with a massive bone to pick with them.
• Walking Spoiler: Kon and Donna become this for the first story.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When discussing what to do with Doctor Light, Kaldur suggests letting him be recruited by Waller, which would get rid of Light permanently while keeping the heroes' hands clean. While the Era 1 heroes are horrified by the suggestion, the Era 2 heroes aren't with Jason only turning it down because Light has already tried to join the Suicide Squad only to be rejected.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Jason suffers this in the earlier chapters to show off how much higher the stakes are. In particular, the battles against Dark Angel and Parallax saw him thrown around until his newly-time traveled teammates saved his ass.
  • The aforementioned Parallax gets his ass kicked by Green Lantern Kyle, foreshadowing how dangerous a brainwashed White Lantern Kyle would be several chapters later.
  • The Era 2 Justice League, once returned to their prime bodies, effectively wreck everything and everyone in their path with almost minimal effort. The only person to give them pause is one of their own, and even then it's their strongest member.
  • The very minute Kyle shows up, it takes everyone's efforts just to survive. Jason orders anyone who is too tired or injured to fight at 100% off the battlefield so they don't get killed and supplement Kyle with their souls for the Orange Light of Avarice. When fighting him, nobody even brings up the possibility of beating and subduing Kyle, instead hinging victory on giving M'gann an opening to enter his mind and break the mind control.
  • Madelyn Spaulding once used her psychic powers to take over the minds of every person in her high school, and defeated Ebon in one-on-one combat. M'gann absolutely crushes her with contemptuous ease.
  M'gann: (scoff) Baby psionic. (after defeating Madelyn) You're a hundred years too early to challenge the likes of me, child.
• Worldbuilding: Even more so than the previous story. Whereas the previous story focused its worldbuilding on Gotham, this story focuses on the superhero world as a whole, with the Era 2 JL at the center of it all.
• World's Strongest Man: Kyle Rayner. Jason outright calls him the strongest member of the Era 2 JL and the "Greatest of All Lanterns".
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: The Bludhaven arc sees Jason take Tim, Cass, and Cissie the titular city so they can learn from Dick what it means for a Badass Normal vigilante to handle their own city. It ends with them finding a Bloody Horror crime scene that leaves four of them vomiting, and then sees them chased down by a bunch of undead super-assassins. Fittingly, the chapter is titled "The Worst Field Trip Ever".
  Cissie: Okay, no offense [Jason], but this is the worst field trip I've ever been on.
  Jason: Arrowette was right. This really was the worst field trip ever.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played with. While Jason does threaten Klarion with the All-Blades, he never actually attacks him with them, and after Klarion starts crying over how he only wanted friends, Jason ends up dispersing them and comforting the witch boy instead.

Special Interlude: When Terry Met Dana

• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Due to Terry's origin change, he's Childhood Friends with Max in this timeline, who herself is a Fox.
  • Also as a result of this change, neither Terry nor Max attended Hamilton Hill High, and thus did not meet Dana or any of their other canonical classmates until the events of this story.
  • Max herself is a member of the Bat-Family from the onset instead of being a random interloper who stumbled upon Terry's secret like in canon. In fact, she flat-out knew Terry's own family longer than Terry himself has due to growing up with them.
• Aloof Older Brother: Dana's older brother Doug is implied to be this; Dana can't help but be just a tinge jealous of Terry's close relationship with Matty for that reason.
• Call-Back: Wayne Hall, the venue used for Jason's return gala in one day at a time, makes its return here as the venue for the Winter Gala that takes place in this story. It's mentioned the last time Wayne Hall was used as a venue was during Helena's sweet sixteen about a decade or so ago.
• Cast Full of Rich People: Justified. It's revealed that Hamilton Hill High is a public school that minor families send their children to when they can't get into places like Gotham Academy or Brentwood. It's the best public school in Gotham, and the goal is to get into an Ivy League or other high-ranking college to further the family's status on the social ladder. Thus, nearly every student at Dana's school is from a wealthy family, including all of Dana's friends and Dana herself. With the only other major characters being Waynes and Foxes and the latter half of the interlude taking place at a Wayne Gala, there's no place for anyone middle class or poor to appear.
• Cool Big Bro: Terry, who adores his little brother Matty and is willing to take him on a not-date with Dana. He later admits to Dana that this is because Matty is the only blood family he has left, and thus he can't help but be protective of him as a result.
• A Day in the Limelight: The entire story takes place in the first timeline from the perspective of Dana Tan, depicting the early events of Terry and hers relationship. Jason is The Ghost for most of the story and doesn't appear until the very end.
• Famed In-Story:
  • The Waynes are the oldest, richest, and most powerful family in Gotham. The second half the interlude sees Dana and her friends becoming increasingly starry-eyed at the number of Waynes they meet, before finding out they were all checking Dana out to see if she was a suitable girlfriend for Terry.
  • The Foxes are this as well, oft-regarded as the most powerful minor family in the city, if not one of the major families themselves.
• Jerk Jock: Nelson Nash, Dana's initial love interest, who only dated her to make his ex-girlfriend Blade jealous.
• Laugh Themselves Sick: Max, after the Waynes arrive at the Gala and start embarrassing Terry in front of Dana.
• Meet Cute: For Terry McGinnis and Dana Tan, who meet for the first time on a public bus after Terry accidentally trips over Dana's legs while trying to sit next to her.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Terry and Max, who are Childhood Friends that have no romantic inclinations towards one another. At one point, one of them refers to their relationship as that of "cousins".
• Related in the Adaptation: Max is revealed to be a Fox — specifically, the daughter of Tamara "Tam" Fox, who once dated Tim. This also makes her the granddaughter of Lucius Fox, and the niece of Luke Fox and Barbara Gordon.
• Secretly Wealthy: Terry and Max spend most of the story hiding their statuses as a Wayne and Fox respectively because they feared being judged by Dana and her friends by their wealth and names instead of their characters. When Dana learns everything, she doesn't hold it against them.
• Shipper on Deck: All of the Waynes and Max take a liking to Dana after seeing her sweet, genuine nature, and support her relationship with Terry.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title is an obvious reference to When Harry Met Sally....
  • Max's father is named Orenthal Cornelius Gibson.
• Social Climber: With the exception of Terry and Max's families, all the families of the other teen characters (including Dana's) are this to varying extents due to being from newly established minor lineages. It's strongly implied that the real reason all of them were invited to the Waynes' Annual Winter Gala was because of their connection to Dana, and thus, Terry and Max, whether they realized it or not.
• Stood Up: After Terry fails to meet her during the first half of the gala, Dana fears this happened. Then Helena directs Max to her, who reveals that he's just busy with something. It's strongly implied that Jason and him were dealing with something as Batman and Robin, which was why Jason hadn't shown up at the beginning of the gala either.
• Uptown Girl: Played with. Due to Terry being deliberately cagey with his status as a Wayne, Dana spends the majority of the story assuming that they're in this kind of relationship, with her being the one from 'uptown'. After she (and her family and peers) learn the truth, she quickly realizes it's the other away around.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Terry and Max. Max is clearly enjoying watching Terry suffer under the antics of his family.

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