"What are you talking about?" Batman got up from his seat and asked in a sharp tone. He just heard a version of himself was evil and that too a combination of another person from the native multiverse.

"I will explain to you when I reach the multiverse. We need more people in this conversation and help will be required." John said as he didn't want to repeat to others what he was going to say. He would have to say the same thing to others too. He didn't have enough patience, nor the time to do that. The others too didn’t push it. If they wanted to know more they could ask the others about their journey while they were returning. John was in no mood to talk much in the meeting.

"Alright. Come to the Ring. We are waiting for you." Clark had an anxious face just like others. Actually John didn't want to attend this meeting and go straight to the Ring to speak but he knew that the people were anxious to know what had happened.

"Oblivion, you there?" John shouted after coming out of the command center. After a second of silence, a dark figure wrapped in a cloak levitated near him and looked at him with hollow eyes. Oblivion didn't reply and just looked at him with no expression whatsoever.

"Tell the others to come to the Ring. We have a major problem."

Oblivion continued looking at John, probably trying to figure out if John was serious or not. Calling all the abstract beings was a huge matter and the last time it didn't go well for one of them. Now John had asked for calling all of them and that too in the presence of multiversal heroes.

It was not that the beings would commit some sort of crime if they do it, but it feels very weird to them. They are Gods and these heroes are mortals at the end. It didn't fit right. But Oblivion also knew that he couldn't say no to John.

OAA had spoken long ago about it. At the end, Oblivion nodded his head and vanished away from his place. He would have to inform his colleagues about it.

John after this short encounter, took the Harvester and flew away to his home and Emma joined this journey as she wanted to be with John.

"You look stressed." Emma asked as she sat near him while holding his hand.

"I lost for the first time in my life. Won the battle but lost in strategy." John replied in a gloomy tone. He was still not over the fact that he lost in such a helpless way. He didn't expect that someone would one up him from the start. It should never have been a possibility. Emma was silent when she heard his words.

After a moment she finally said

"You have been dreaming of so many things from a very young age. Haven't you?" John nodded his head.

"John, this isn't a fantasy world. Your dreams, your powers have helped you for such a long time. But this, right here, is the real test. You will have to step above your dreams. Sometimes your powers won' solve each and every problem. Sometimes you just need to be yourself to save others instead of just using your powers. Besides, you just lost in a simple strategy. It's not like we lost the war."

John didn't know how to answer this. He knew that Emma was right. His courage, arrogance and his confidence mostly came from the fact that he had read each and every comic out there for both marvel and DC. Over the past one year many things have changed and evolved.

The story of their multiverse had evolved in a direction which he has no idea about. And right now he was still holding on to the beliefs that his comics would save him. It was not comics at this point. This was the point of life and death of himself and the multiverse.

John hugged Emma for a minute before accepting his mistake and apologising. He really needed to be out of the mentality that the comics were gospels. The appearance of the Wall had already changed the fact and he needed to accept it and make their own plans.

"It's good that you understand." Emma said as she gave a sweet smile and sighed in relief a bit after seeing that John had accepted the fact that his dreams might not help him here anymore and he needed to make his own path over the course of time.

John didn't speak more words and at the end slept away on the lap of Emma. Exhaustion and mental stress finally caught up to him and he slid away to his own dreams. His real dreams. Over the course of years he had stopped dreaming. maybe it was a curse of his lie to others. But today on his lap he finally dreamt for the first time he had arrived on Earth.