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Kel was too wound up to sleep, and so went for a walk as he often did to unwind and relax.  His path took him into the city, and by habit he wandered into the poorer areas, where he often did his late night crime fighting.

He's not sure how, but he eventually came to sit in a pew at the Church of St. Michael.  It was an old monolithic stone cathedral, but it seemed to offer some peace and quiet to his troubled thoughts.

"You look like a man who could use a cup of coffee."  A voice said.  Kel noticed the speaker was a priest, and older man with grey hair and deep set eyes.  "I'm father Malone."  He extends a hand in friendship.

Kel had been walking for whoever knew how long, the past night had been too weird.  The fight, the mental prison, being arrested and released, it didn't sit right.  He wasn't exactly sure how he had ended up in a church, Kel didn't remember much of going to church, he knew he had been baptised, and he had vague memories of other times, maybe even a communion and a confirmation but those seemed a lifetime ago, whenever he had last been in a church in some ways it had been too long, in others as he looked around the massive cathedral and the pictures of imposing saints staring down upon him he realized it hadn't been long enough.  When the priest appeared Kel was surprised, and he took the hand, beginning to stand, "Thank you father, a cup of coffee does sound like a good idea, it's been a long night.  My name's Kel."

Father Malone takes Kel back into his office and gets them some coffee, then opens the back door and steps out into the early morning and takes a seat on a bench in the garden.  "Rough night too by the looks of you."  He looks out into the garden for a moment, "I think I'll plant tomatos again next spring.  I love fresh tomatos on my salad."

Kel joins him on the bench, taking a slow sip of the warm coffee.  He nods at the mention of a rough night, "Very rough, and confusing."  He then looks out on the Church's garden and smiles, "Yea...there's nothing like fresh vegetables."  When he says the last statement he wonders to himself, did I really just say that?

"So."  Father Malone begins, "Anything you want to talk about?"

He takes a deep breath and another sip of coffee, "Do you remember when you were my age and you were wondering what you wanted to do with your life?"  He asks the question, and then without truly waiting for a yes or a no he continues, "I guess it's not really about that as much as it is when you get shaken, and start wondering whether or not that what you think you want to do, is what you actually want to do?  I guess, do you know what it's like to have your faith shaken..."  He shakes his head, still hoping he's conveyed into words the confusion he and conflict welling inside of him.

"Sounds like you had a very rough night."  Malone begins.  "I've been shaken, and I think I follow where you're coming from.  What shook you, was it something personal or something external.  I mean, did you realize that the thing you wanted to do has some distasteful element you hadn't thought of or did it reveal something about yourself that shook you uop?"

Kel thinks for a moment, the dream world, the witches, the girls, he shook he head before taking another sip of coffee, "It was both actually.  For the first time yesterday, I guess I saw the other side of what I want to do and somethings about myself that I'm not sure if I want to admit are there."

"Well, we never want to admit those things are there lad.  Everyone has a dark side, the side they lean towards when they're pushed to the edge by forces or people that are beyond there control.  That dark side becomes attractive in times like that because it can conceal us, and when it does we feel a freedom to act in ways we never would.  The real test of character is weather or not you can stand there on the edge, look into the darkness and take out only what you need to do what's right."

Kel nodded and then said, "But what if it's not the darkness I'm worried about father.  I saw something, or felt something I guess, I'm not really sure what you'd call it.  But it was some kind of happiness but at the cost of ignoring what's wrong in the world, of just passing everything by.  Is it right to pursue my own happiness by ignoring the evil of others?"  Then he thinks about life outside of the dream prison, and his own mind within it that something else boiling beneath the surface the desire for something more and he sighs and says, "On the other hand, is it wrong to want to bring people to justice to make myself feel better?  Does doing a selfless act for selfish reasons make me a bad person?"

"Someone once said there are no truly selfless acts.  Everyone gets something out of doing something selfless.  Is it wrong to give money to charity just for the tax deduction?  The charity still gets the money and can still do good with it.  Wrong is a slippery slope to try and debate."

"Oh..." Kel says, his hope for a solid answer dashed away he sighed.  He thought for a moment, on all that had happened in the past few days and said, "I guess there aren't really simple answers in this line of work, are there?"

"There aren't simple answers in most lines of work.  You just set a course and trust to your faith to get you where you need to go."

Kel nodded, faith, eh?, he then stood slowly and said, "Thank you father, I won't forget this."  He then walked back out through the church, slowly, observing the place in its silence as he left wondering where he'd wander to next.

Kel finds himself eventually wandering up the long road towards the Wayne Mansion, and knocking on the door.

Even though it's early, Jack answers the door.  He's been working out, and invites Kel in.  "I've got some OJ and I was about to have eggs if you want some."

Kel smiles and says, "Yea sure, if you can spare it."  As he walks in to the kitchen of the Wayne Mansion he says, "Did you hear about everything that happened last night? After I left I mean...well after I left the cop's custody I mean."  He shakes his head as he thinks about everything he's done in the past 24 hours.

Jack goes about making the tweo of them breakfast.  "I heard some stuff.  Not too many details, but I heard that some teenage super heroes saved a bunch of people at the hospital and stopped some crazy chicks from going crazier."

As Kel pours two tall glasses of orange juice, "Yea, I guess you could say that's what happened.  Because well it is.  These girls we've been trying to, well I don't really know what we were trying to do.  I guess originally we were trying to capture them, then everyone got sentimental I guess and we just tried to stop them from causing harm.  That kind of blew up in our faces, and then they were unconscious."  He shakes his head, "But I don't know why, but turns out if you do magic, and you're unconscious, you're not really unconscious or something because they did some more hoobajoob or whatever the hell it was, and then well.  We were in this dream prison, I don't really know what to call it.  It was odd, so pleasant and simple, yet I don't know, so terrible at the same time." He shook his head, "When we woke up we weren't that pleasant, and I don't really know what we did to them but stopped them and turned them over to the police but I have no clue what really happened."  Kel sighed as he took a sip of the cool orange juice and then finally asked, "Have you ever wondered if a normal life is worth it?  I guess I kind of got a taste of it, and I figure if I ignored everything going on it'd be possible but still..."

"Worth it?  It's the thing we all end up wishing for and some of us, a very lucky few even manage to find.  Even if it's only for a little while."  Jacks serves up breakfast and sits down, "Don't knock normal, you do this for any length of time and you'll be dreamng about it plenty."

He nodded, in a way it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear but at the same time he needed to hear it.  He then asked, "Have you ever lived a normal life after becoming a super-soldier?"

Jack stopped shoveling food into his mouth for a minute and looked over at Kel.  "This is as normal as it usually gets."  Then he went back to eating.

Kel nodded, unsure if that was the answer he had been searching for.  And as he thought about it as he ate he wasn't quite sure if even the dream prison had been normal, it still hadn't felt right.  He took a gulp of juice after another few bites of eggs, "Ya know, after today I think I've decided, there's no way of getting around it so I'm gonna try my hardest to be some kind of hero."  He wasn't true why he said it aloud like that, but it felt right.

"Well,"  Jack began, "I wish you the best with that."

"Thanks Jack, that means a lot."  He finishes off the plate and then rises to leave, "I think I should probably head home...I've been gone all night."

"Take it easy."  Jack says as Kel leaves.

Kel meanders home, finally making it there after a long walk and several rides upon the El.