"Everybody listen up." Hank says as he comes out of the office one morning in mid February. "I just got a call, they government called in the Justice League. We got a Green Lantern coming out tomorrow to take us home." The others cheer. "So clean up the station, pack up the food that we won't eat before we leave, and do our laundry. And yes Chet, we're taking the cats with us." He says as Chet starts to open his mouth as Momma cat looks over at him from where she's laying with her babies. "Marco got carriers for them the last time he got pet food and other supplies." The cat had came in one day and they'd babied her ever since.

"Why now Cap?" A good question, they'd been there for nearly four months after the aliens had left.

"The mayor called begging for them to be sent home since there's more firefighters in LA county than there are here. They need them here. And they got family here too. So LA county contacted the Justice League and asked for a transfer of personnel since there was a desperate need. We're off for two weeks when we get home," He looks at the calendar and says a date. The others nod. "We might be moving around with so many damaged stations instead of going to our new stations." The others nod again.

Chet snorts. "I wonder if they only requested help now is because we've been getting double-time ever since the aliens invaded since we are the only fire station."

"Probably." Mike chuckles. "They give us a time?"

"Noon."

The next day a bubble arrives at the station and discharges the crew that had gone to LA who gratefully look around. Their vehicles had been left at the station and the others had been starting them every day or so to keep the batteries charged. Green Lantern John Stewart grins as they take off and gathers everybody and everything around the LA crew, the six of them enjoying the long flight because they are going home. The bubble lands and crying women and children hug their husbands and fathers as the others whimper at the damage to the station they'd worked at for so long. Chet, Marco, and Johnny start filling back seats and trunks, the others releasing their families and filling cars before they head to their homes.

Johnny Gage sighs as he walks into his house, dropping his bags at the door and falling into a bar stool at the kitchen counter. The door across the kitchen opens and the wife of his ranch foreman smiles as she walks in. "Good afternoon Mr. Gage, welcome home."

"Good afternoon Elsa, it is so damn good to be home. I never expected to be gone nearly five months." a resounding yowl has Johnny looking down and patting his lap. "Yes, I'm home munchkin. I see you didn't lose too much weight with Elsa taking care of you." Elsa chuckles as the cat jumps onto a bar stool, walks across Johnny's lap, and settles on the island counter to wash his face.

The next day brings Chet and Marco to the ranch to pick up their pets that had been boarded there, the dogs jumping on them and the cats deigning to greet them. "Everything okay at your homes?"

"Yeah, thank god we had housekeeping services come out every other week to make sure we didn't drown in dust when we got home." Chet sighs. "We gotta stop and get groceries and then veg for a few days."

A couple days later Johnny looks up from his desk as Roy leans in his home office. "I need to bum some stuff off you, the shelves are empty." Johnny leads him out to a barn, opening a trap door disclosing a set of stairs. He turns on the light, revealing rows of shelving units filled with supplies. Everybody buys extra supplies, they're all firefighters and know if there's an earthquake or other natural disaster. . .or alien overlords, things are going to be in short supply for a long time. Johnny's the only one who has the room to stock up on supplies like they want. Johnny writes everything down as Roy fills a bag and they talk a few minutes before he heads off.

Billy sighs when he drives past the empty fire station on his way to get kerosene and other supplies, he's glad they are home after living out of the station for so long but this means nobody is in the area 24/7. With the streetlights still out, the neighborhood vanishes as soon as the sun starts to go down.

"Did the fire station get home?" Courtney asks when Marvel arrives at Headquarters for a meeting a couple weeks later.

"Yes, the city council played it up as a humanitarian gesture, there were more firefighters in LA county than there were here so they were needed back home. . .especially by their families. Cynics say if that was the case, they would have requested them after the aliens left, not nearly four months later." Everybody in earshot snort and nod. "There's also the fact that at paying them double-time. . ."

"Their budget was bleeding from the throat, they didn't have the money for the streetlights and they couldn't just do away with the police and fire without causing a major fuss." Pat sighs.

"Yes, rumor has it they also want to break up the crew and put them in separate stations but there's not enough stations that aren't damaged and there's not enough other firemen to build crews. They can't just give them on the job training and two of them manned the rescue squad."

"National Guard or military?"

"They have been looking into it but everybody is in such dire straits somebody is going to have to bite the bullet. Fire academies are frantically trying to fill slots but with so much need for employees, there's just not enough applicants. Even if they waive the fees until after they are hired. . .there's just not the applicants. Those who have finished their training are already working."

"Yeah, not many people can devote six months to full-time training. Not unless they have very understanding families who will support them. Just like the police academy and med school." Nods from the others.

The governor of the state kicks in the door during a council meeting. He glares at all the members of the city council. "Replace.The.Damn.Streetlights.NOW!" he says through clenched teeth. "Before somebody is killed in a traffic accident because there's not enough lighting. I don't care about your damn budget." He says at the first opening mouth. "Businesses won't reopen at night without the lights operational. Do it and do it now or be arrested for creating a public nuisance."

"Fucking idiots, six fucking months blubbering that businesses had to reopen first. What, were they going to fucking use tax revenue to replace the lights? That's what the damn slush funds are for. Other areas had just as much damage but they're not dragging their feet." He says as his driver heads to the airport. Billy drives around the city taking the poles as city workers start dismantling them, driving to the recycling center and selling them directly to the government guy handling recyclables. The money is put in the lockbox when he gets home and he sighs when light starts coming through the windows after the sun goes down. Maybe things will finally start feeling like normal now.

"Six months?" Rick asks in disgust. "It took the city council over six months to replace the damn street lights?" That must have been some damn long nights in the tunnel. Just the couple of days they were there while waiting for the all clear had seemed like an eternity.

Marvel snorts. "If the governor hadn't put his foot down the broken poles would still be sitting there. The city council was. . .ohhhh, we'll replace them. . .eventually. Once the money from your taxes start coming in. Needless to say, there's more than a few federal buildings that were never fixed . . .including a couple schools. The schools feel that they shouldn't have to pass millages to fix the damages."

"No, no they shouldn't have to." Superman says as he comes up behind them. "We have the final list of building we're going to be deconstructing to help communities."

"Are we clearing out buildings that have been vacant for years?" There's more than a few in the area he'd been looking at to buy in the future if needed.

"No, we're only cleaning out buildings that were severely damaged by the aliens. Communities will have to clear up their own condemned buildings."

"Not that they would." Rick snorts. "How are you holding out?"

"I'm using more kerosene since it has been such a cold winter. Even with the walls up to make it a smaller area to heat."

"Yeah, thanks to the aliens this has been a cold, long winter." Rick's voice trails off. At least they're alive, so many people had vanished while the aliens had been there. And they had never been found. Marvel is busy the next couple of days helping to deconstruct buildings, putting anything salvageable on trucks that head off.

It finally begins warming up and Billy starts moving the walls, stoves, and heaters back to the other platform. He looks around in satisfaction, things are finally getting back to normal.

Billy comes back to the tunnel to find piles of supplies from the buildings that had been torn down in the buildings. A note is on the door. "Thought you'd be able to use some of this in the buildings." he reads in Jay's handwriting. Unloading his bags of groceries. . .store shelves are finally beginning to restock he looks around in satisfaction.

"Wha?" Billy asks, finding another package a couple weeks later. Opening the box he finds battery powered hand tools that can be charged with a larger generator, one that can be charged with the solar panel that's set up to be moved inside and outside as needed. Thankfully the best spot for it isn't one that can be seen from the street so nobody will come steal it and everything else.

"Jay?" He asks a few weeks after that in mid summer when he finds a truck on the grounds.

"This is a group that works with the Justice League, they're seeing what it takes to rewire and replumb the buildings. Now, have you thought about putting up a hand pump out here for the garden?"

"It would freeze unless we were able to put something around it." One of the workers nods. "Back in the old days they had pumphouses to keep food cold during the summer and keep the pump from freezing in the winter before electricity was common."

"Insulation?"

"You'd want a shelter of some kind around it. Back in the Little House days they'd have a covered well with a pail instead of a pump. It was deep enough the water didn't freeze with the cover. My grandparents had a hand pump, they had it next to the house protected by a lean-to."

"Billy?" Jay asks, seeing the boxes and bags of screws and other hardware in the building.

"From the buildings that were torn down. Most of it is paint-covered and I worked on them for the scrap metal dealer over the winter when I have the stove going. I have a pot I can't use for cooking that I put the hardware and baking soda in. On a low boil for fifteen minutes and a wire brush usually cleans it up. The scrap metal dealer sells it to crafters or the resale stores like habitat for humanity or the larger recyclers. He also picks up stocks of painted hardware for cheap, passes it along to me to clean, and resells it. Even with buying it and paying me he still makes a profit. He's hurting, a lot of the street people who supplied him with recycling were lost to the aliens."

"Is your recycling trips back to normal?"

"Now that the city council got told off by the governor and was made to replace all the destroyed street lights rather than wait for the businesses to reopen at night before replacing the lights."

"Which needed the streetlights before they could reopen at night. Idiots." Jay sighs.

"Yes, we're just lucky nobody was killed thanks to the lack of streetlights."

"Your schoolwork?"

"I'm keeping on top of it. With the streetlights out I took it to the station to work on during the day when I wasn't busy. I'm still behind but not as much as I was."

"Congratulations Billy, unless you've seriously failed these last tests you just finished the seventh grade." His teacher says. "Let me grade these and next time you come you can bring back your old textbooks and pick up the ones for the next grade as well as your first packet of assignments."

After eating dinner he goes out to collect the recycling. He'd picked up more streets in the area and is sorting everything out in one of the other buildings before going to bed. He can sleep in tomorrow morning since it's the weekend. He knows Pietr is worried he doesn't sleep enough but between a full-time job during the day and picking up recycling at night, being a superhero, and working on schoolwork something has to give.

The next day there's a summons to JSA headquarters. Dr. Cross greets him when he lands.

"How is everything?"

"I took my final tests yesterday, if I didn't totally tank them I'll be starting the eighth grade next week. When I go back in I'll take my old textbooks back and pick up next year's."

"Does your school offer graduation?"

"Yes, though most of the students opt for their GEDS."

"I'd rather you graduate, it looks better on college applications."

"I can barely keep up with my schoolwork and work a full-time job, there's no way I could attend even a community college." Marvel holds up a hand. "Yes, there are online classes. . ." Pietr nods. "Mr. Morris offers tuition reimbursement to his employees. But. . ." Marvel's eyes grow dark. "The life of the wizard's champion is often short. The life of a homeless kid on the streets is just as short. Even now they're cutting back on programs to help since they don't see the need for it."

"Of course, then when they realize they did need it they whine about their precious budgets." Rick snorts.

The other two men nod as they head to the meeting room.

"Are you still taking in the recycling more often?"

"Yes, the need is still great. It's good money especially since I picked up more streets."

Pietr shakes his head. "It's got to be done. The demand is still high." Pietr nods.

Billy sighs as he settles in a chair at the place to pay your taxes, getting up when it's his turn and handing over the receipts and payments, getting them stamped paid and putting them in his receipts. He'll take them to a semi-legit tax person and have them added to his taxes when it's time to get them done. Yeah, it's not technically on the up and up but all the other heroes do it for identities they use, so do the villains. He's just the only one who pays it in person instead of electronically.

Billy grins as he walks into the school with his bags of books. The woman behind the desk marks them off on the list in his folder and brings him to another room, checking the new list and filling the bags then handing him three envelopes of assignments.

"Billy, do you have room for more books? The books are going to be changing and we're getting rid of a lot of these books."

"Not right now, but if you box them up and put them out back I can pick them up later tonight."

"Thank you." She says in relief. "Oh, and you can keep those books too, they're part of the ones that are being switched out."

That night Billy picks up fifteen boxes of books as he picks up recycling, shaking his head as he sees all the books they had to get rid of. He knows to keep their funding they have to change out textbooks more often then public schools, in fact some of the textbooks have the names of public schools around the area in them. He puts them in a building for now and sorts out the recycling to take in the next day since the dropoff will be closed the 4th.

The scrap metal dealer sighs in relief as he lets the truck in the yard, they sort out the recycling and he hands him the money and a little extra before Billy drives off. The money goes in the lockbox and he settles at his desk to start reading his new assignments. The next day he heads to WHIZ where they're having a cookout in the parking lot and he eats his full at everybody's urging. Walking out at the end of the day he grabs a bag of extra food and is handed more. Shaking his head he walks back to the subway tunnel and gets everything put away, eating a chicken sandwich as he lights a candle. The next day he drives off to cut wood with the Amish, putting his on the other platform when he gets back.

What a difference nearly a year makes Billy thinks the next morning as he gets a shower at the station. A good half the police and fire stations in the area had to be torn down and the firefighters had moved to one of the other fire stations instead of the one a few blocks from the tunnel. He can understand the reasoning, they need to be in a central location to help as many people as possible. He walks past buildings that are still damaged since all the contractors are busy with more important repairs. They're still working on getting local hospitals repaired.

The tunnel is essentially the same but he's got more supplies including camp chairs, cots, and dishes. While not all of the JSA members know his real identity, some do. He's finished the seventh grade and was now in the eighth grade. But for the good, there's bad too. A good many schools had to be torn down because of damages and every grade had lost at least some of their students. There was a long waiting list for police cars, fire trucks, rescue vehicles, and ambulances.