Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a regular day in Jupiter City. Kid Twilight was perched on the ledge of one of his favorite buildings, watching as cars drove by. Twilight Girl was sitting on the roof behind him, playing Uno with Kara Dox. Who, by the way, was not supposed to be there. Neither of them were even trying to be stealthy!

And to make matters worse, Kara wasn't even wearing a mask over her eyes! No mask, no scarf, no hood, no nothing! Any passersby could look up at them and see this loud, annoying, blue eyed girl with bright pink hair just casually hanging out with two of the city's protectors and easily match her up with that new girl who was hanging around the Observatory today!

But no, neither of them cared about secret identities anymore because Owen just had to open his big mouth about how no one ever saw what was right in front of them in comics! Orion was going to have words with Conners about that when they got back.

Kid Twilight had been going out on patrol by himself for so long now, the near-constant chattering of his 'teammates' was unnerving. Was this how Doc felt when he first started taking Kid on patrol? Orion hoped not. While he had been getting used to having Twilight Girl and Doc Twilight with him again, there usually wasn't so much… talking.

As the hours went by, Orion thought about his past patrols that week; Every night, from sunset to sunrise, Kid Twilight would make his rounds of the city. Ever since The Dark had been defeated and Doc had returned to his old self, everything was kind of… calm. No one had committed any crimes. And there had been no reported incidents. It was terrible.

If there wasn't so much as a pickpocket on the loose there was nothing for the Twilights to do. Orion was getting restless.

Though (thankfully-not-thankfully) there was one villain who had been causing trouble recently. The past week, Orion had been tailing a man who was going by the name Ayyappan. Orion had done some research on the Twilight-Computer, but all that he had found was that the man's chosen name meant 'ever youthful'. Whatever that had to do with him...

Just as he was about to tell the girls to at least quiet down, Kid Twilight saw something in the alley across the street shift. He paused, holding up his hand to Twilight Girl and Kara Dox, hoping that they could see his urgency for silence. Thankfully, they seemed to understand, and went quiet.

For about two seconds.

"What is it?" Kara whispered way too loudly from her spot on the roof.

"Shh!" Kid Twilight hissed, motioning towards the alleyway that now was emitting bright flashes of light, one after another. How the citizens didn't seem to notice this irregular behavior was beyond him, but either way, Kid Twilight shot his grapple across the street and swung over quietly to check it out.

As he swung down, he could hear Twilight Girl saying something about him being "rude". Anger sparked within him, but it was too late for him to react as he had already reached the alleyway.

●●●

Kara Dox had been hanging out with the Sandersons in Jupiter City today because Orion had seemed rather grumpier than usual recently and had been complaining about his "night job" all week. So, naturally, Kara decided to join him and see what all the fuss was about.

So far, the biggest thing that happened was when Kara had almost nosedived into a shark tank. And that had been earlier that afternoon when the three of them had gone to the Jupiter City Zoo!

In all honesty, Kara was beginning to think that Orion had just been exaggerating when he said that there were people giving him trouble all week. She started to think that maybe, just maybe, the guy was getting paranoid about there being no crime to stop and just made it up.

She and Bethany had gotten bored of just sitting on the roof of an apartment building in the middle of the night without even a jacket between the three of them. So the two girls had chosen to pull out a deck of Uno cards that Kara had brought along.

They were in the fifth round when Orion suddenly stiffened and held up his hand in a gesture for quiet. The girls paused their conversation to see what he was looking at.

Kara followed Kid Twilight's gaze as well as she could with that mask blocking his eyes, to see… an empty alleyway. She glanced over to Bethany, but it seemed that she didn't understand either.

"What is it?" Kara whispered from her spot next to Orion. Oops, that was a bit loud, but it's not as if anyone would be able to hear her from way up here.

"Shhh!" Was all the warning she got before Orion was swinging away from them and down to the alley.

Bethany looked at Kara, a dry look on her face saying "Rude much?" Kara laughed before the two turned back to the alley.

Also apparently in the two seconds that Kara had looked away from it, the alleyway had started emitting a strange, flashing light that almost hurt to look at.

That's… not normal here, is it? Kara wouldn't be surprised if it were, after all, Jupiter City was filled with unlikely scenarios that would never happen in the Non-fictional World. Of course, it was a comic book series, so none of the people who lived there were too weirded out by these things. Sadly though, it was different enough from Kara's own home-series that it was rather difficult to adjust to Orion's life of vigilantism.

Twilight Girl had pulled out her grapple from her belt while Kara had let her thoughts run, and was now waiting for Kara to take her hand. Apparently Kara was not to be trusted with a grapple of her own, not since that incident with Kiel… But that was Kiel's fault! It's not as if Kara had wanted to end up tangled and tied to the gargoyles at the top of the tallest skyscraper in the city!

Anyway, Kara took Bethany's hand and latched onto her back tightly. Within seconds, the two of them were flying through the air all the way down to the alleyway that Orion had disappeared to.

●●●

Landing silently on a dumpster, Orion scanned the alleyway for any potential threats. There was nothing.

The Alley was a dead end. It was dark, dank, and dirty. The only lights came from the nearby street light and the strobe lights on the probably-death-ray in the middle of the space. Before Kid Twilight could make any more observations, Twilight Girl and Kara had landed heavily on the dumpster next to him.

Seeing that there was no one there, Kara jumped down from the dumpster, doing a flip that would have impressed Orion on another occasion, but instead he glared at the time traveler. She had landed heavily and loudly. Anyone else who might have been in the alley would have definitely heard it.

Orion slipped to the ground silently, glaring at his companions and motioning for them to stay back. Slowly, Kid Twilight moved closer to the machine in the middle of the alley.

●●●

Kara and Bethany landed next to Kid Grumpypants on top of a dumpster in the alley. There didn't seem to be anyone else there, but before Kara could make any proper observations, her foot slipped on some gross… sludge on the dumpster lid.

As she fell, Kara turned in the air and landed on her feet heavily. Landing, she held her arms up like a gymnast after a performance.

Orion glared at her.

Whatever. He can be a butt if he wants to, but Kara won't let that stop her from having a good time.

Before she could say anything, Orion hoped down from his own perch and moved closer to the big machine in the middle of the alleyway. Bethany slid off of the dumpster, landing by Kara.

As the girls followed their way too serious companion, he motioned yet again for silence. Or to stay back. Either way, one look at Bethany, and Kara knew that neither of them were going to listen to either request for long.

●●●

As Orion neared the odd machine, its lights grew brighter, and flashed faster. Surprised, he stepped back, causing the lights to dim and slow down.

Huh. That's… odd.

Orion tried moving towards it again, and the lights got brighter and faster. He stepped back, and the lights became dimmer and slower. Kid Twilight moved in a circle, slowly figuring out the contraption's radius.

Just as he was about to tell the girls to keep their distance, as none of them could possibly know what the thing did, Kara popped out from behind him, pushing both of them forwards and into the light field.

"Watch out!!"

●●●

Kara watched as Orion moved closer to the mystery machine. This was so unfair. How come he got to do all the fun (dangerous) stuff first? Why couldn't Kara ever figure out whatever was wrong without anyone holding her back (keeping her alive)?

Before Kara could voice her annoyance, the machine started flashing brighter and faster. It happened so suddenly that all three of them took a step back in surprise. When Orion stepped back, the lights went back to normal. Kid Twilight stepped forward again, making the lights flash quicker. He stepped back and the lights slowed their pace.

Orion started to circle the machine, making the light go faster and brighter every time he stepped into a certain area. Honestly, it looked pretty stupid. He walked in a sideways circle facing the giant strobe light, marking in the dirt the closest he could be to the contraption without setting it off.

… What was that?

On the machine, just out of Orion's line of sight from the angle it was at, was a tiny… water gun? No, they were in a comic book series. That meant that the water gun was probably supposed to be a death ray. Wow, that sounded kinda dark, huh? Kara was starting to sound like Orion!

Back to the point; There was a laser gun pointing at Orion, and he didn't see it!

Kara didn't like the idea of Orion dying today. Kara liked Orion! He was annoying, sure, but he's still her friend! Not sure what else to do, Kara lounged forward, onto Orion, pushing both of them to the ground just inside the circle of light that Orion just marked.

"Watch out!!"

●●●

"Kara what the heck?!" Orion was not happy, to say the least. Kara had just shoved him to the ground for no reason at all! "Why would you do that?? We don't even know what this thing does, let alone if it's dangerous, and you just think it'll be fun to push us both into its energy field?!?"

Kara opened her mouth to reply, but before she could say anything a computer monitor popped out from the light machine.

"Well, well, well…" The screen lit up with some of the worst quality video Orion has seen in a very long time. "If it isn't Doc Twi- wait- only Kid?! And Twilight Girl… And a new one. Who are you supposed to be? Pink Sunset?"

Orion looked closer at the fuzzy screen as the masculine voice continued to be confused with who Kara was. The screen had become clearer as the man continued to talk, showing more than just fuzzy colors blended together, and revealing a figure dressed in a bright yellow T-shirt and light blue overalls. Behind him was a huge shelf against the back wall, filled to the brim with toys. Dolls, teddy bears, robots, action figures, you name it, he had it all.

Honestly, the guy didn't look dangerous at all, but Orion had heard about the large amounts of trouble the villain had caused, even if he wasn't quite sure what this guy, Ayyappan, had done himself.

The guy's voice was annoying. It sounded like he was trying to imitate The Clown, but couldn't seem to get the pitch quite right… Even so, Kid Twilight knew that somehow, some way, Ayyappan had risen high enough in Jupiter City's rogues ranks for the Twilights to notice something was off. And this man, no matter how harmless his childish getup and scenery seemed, he was, like all new villains, to be considered dangerous until proven otherwise.

Apparently, his companions didn't know that unspoken rule.

●●●

Orion was being a butt. That's it. That's all Kara was going to say.

She had just pushed him out of the way of a raygun! But did he thank her? No! Instead, he questioned her reaction and only looked at the 'what if this is dangerous?!' side of things!

For someone who goes out every night to fight bad guys, Orion was boring!

Before Kara could defend herself and her decisions, the machine whirled to life- flashing more lights, and then a computer monitor popped out from some hidden panel.

"Well, well, well…" Some annoying voice came from an invisible speaker. Kara couldn't even look at the screen as it began to focus on the man in front of the camera, the terrible focus and shaking camera were way too much. "If it isn't Doc Twi- wait- only Kid?! And Twilight Girl… And a new one. Who are you supposed to be? Pink Sunset?"

Ooh! That sounded kinda cool- maybe that could be her hero name if this were to become a regular thing! But if it was to be a regular thing, then Kara would need a costume! What would it be? Hmm… Well, if her hero name was 'Pink Sunset' then maybe her new outfit would be a bright colored uniform, with dark colored gloves and mask?

By the way- who the heck was this guy anyway? He sounded weird, looked like one of those movie scenes where some adult was trying to convince kids that they were also a kid, but clearly wasn't, and he probably smelled bad too!

Orion was being quiet, probably just listening to the guy's rant about how much he wanted to rule the world or something? Kara wasn't listening.

Tuning back in, Kara realized that the guy was still talking.

" … And so everyone will rue the day they called me a crybaby!..."

What.

What had Kara forced her way into?

"Excuse me!" Bethany called out, successfully interrupting the man.

Kara did her best not to jump out of her skin. She had honestly forgotten that Bethany was standing right behind her, just outside of the circle of light that Orion and Kara were currently standing in.

"So, while it wasn't nice for those kids to call you that and all, from what I'm hearing, you were 4. Most healthy individuals would have moved on by now." Twilight Girl continued. "Also, how the heck are you supposed to get revenge for that with a huge machine like that?"

The evil dude smiled evilly, as evil dudes do.

"Why! Twilight Girl, I am so glad you asked!" He said, reaching offscreen. "I will begin my revenge just… like… THIS!"

That was the last thing Kara Dox heard before the world went white.

Chapter Text

Bethany was not having a good evening. Not only was it late, on a school night, and very cold, but apparently some comic-book wakko that Kid Twilight had been after the past week or so had decided to make an appearance.

The last thing she had heard before the strobe lights on the machine had gone full-blast was Apa-whats-his-name telling them how he would take over Jupiter City…

Then, once her eyes finally readjusted to the dark of the alleyway, Bethany realized that she couldn't see Kara or Orion.

...At least… not the Kara and Orion she should have seen.

Sitting on the dirty concrete, a tiny Orion sat, pooled in a pile of his costume. The sleeves of his uniform spilled several inches past his hands. The blue streak that Bethany had come to associate with her brother was gone. The child's bright green eyes stared up at her, the mask that had covered them having fallen off his tiny face.

That's how they stayed, staring at each other for the next few seconds, until a cry came from the pile of colorful clothing behind Baby Twilight.

Right, Kara! C'mon Bethany- focus!

Moving quickly, Twilight Girl uncovered Baby Kara's head that had been hidden under a bright orange T-shirt. The girl's short hair was no less pink than it had been a few minutes ago, and her bright blue eyes stared up at Bethany. Kara was clearly scared, and likely uncomfortable in this cold alleyway.

Bethany picked Kara up, hushing her, and moved to do the same with Orion. It was all that she could think to do at the moment, how had this even happened?!

…

Right. Comic Book Land. Of course.

Bethany still didn't know what to do, so she did the only thing she could think of in her panicked state.

●●●

Owen was having a perfectly good evening. His teachers hadn't given him too much homework this week, he and Kiel had talked Charm out of her lab and into a movie night scheduled for that Friday. Which was tomorrow! Not only all that, but no one had almost died all week!

He had finished his homework a few hours ago, and had been re-reading one of his books from his ever-growing collection when Owen finally glanced over to his clock and saw the time. 11:56pm. Sighing, Owen quickly found a stopping point in the story, and placed a bookmark between the pages. Standing up from where he had been laying on his floor, Owen put the book away and changed into his pajamas. Flipping off the light, he made his way over to the bed, got under the covers and closed his eyes.

RINGGG RINGGG RINGGG RINGGG RI-

Owen, still half asleep, declined the call. Not bothering to check and see who was calling.

RINGGG RINGGG RINGGG RIN-

Owen declined the call and rolled over in his bed.

RINGGG RINGGG RIN-

"WHAT?!" He finally answered harshly into the phone.

"Owen, it's Bethany. I've got a situation over here." Bethany's slightly frantic and hushed voice came through, immediately waking Owen up further.

"...What kind of situation?"

"Orion and Kara are children."

"Bethany, I hate to break this to you, but we're all children."

"No! I mean they're like- babies! They got hit by some kind of raygun, and now I'm in Jupiter City, in the middle of the night, with two toddlers! What do I do?!?"

"... Have you called your dad?"

There was silence from Bethany's side of the line.

"Bethany, you need to call your dad! I don't know what to do, and can't exactly help from here. Call your dad, tell him what happened, and then you can tell me about it in the morning! Ok?"

"... Ok."

●●●

After hanging up, Bethany immediately dialed Her dad's number and waited for him to pick up. She was currently sitting on the ground, Kara and Orion cuddled in her lap, blanketed with both her and Orion's capes.

Thankfully, the de-ageing effect had only turned the two into toddlers, maybe 2 years old at the very least. Kara's T-shirt draped across her shoulders like a dress, and Orion's Kid Twilight uniform was like a onesie that was 6 sizes too big. Depending on how long this would last, they would have to get clothes that would fit her two de-aged friends. Bethany was so going to take pictures and torment Orion once he's back to normal!

Before Bethany could continue that amazing thought, however, Doc Twilight finally picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Dad!"

"Hey Twilight Girl- Is something wrong?"

Oh, right. They were supposed to be on patrol right now. As superheroes. With designated radios and codenames.

"Oh, uh- Kid, Pink and I ran into a bit of trouble-" Nothing happened totally Orion and Kara definitely didn't turn into kids and I absolutely didn't panic and call my best friend for help before you. "-Don't worry though! No one's hurt! But I don't know how to respond to de-aging rays. Can I have some help?"

A beat of silence, then-

"Where are you?"

●●●

Doc Twilight was on patrol around Jupiter City, it was a quiet night, only a couple of petty thieves were out tonight. He had actually been about to check in with Kid Twilight when Twilight Girl contacted him just after midnight.

"Hello?" This was probably just Bethany checking in before he got to. That had happened before.

"Hey Dad!"

Bethany's voice came through Christian's radio. She had only said two words, but from what he had heard so far, Doc Twilight could tell that this wasn't a normal check-in. Twilight Girl's voice was slightly frantic, and a little shaky.

"Hey Twilight Girl- is something wrong?"

"Oh, uh- Kid, Pink and I ran into a bit of trouble-" No. Please don't let his kids be hurt- Christian was so stupid! Why did he let the kids split up from him tonight?! This was all his fault! He should've been there- he should've- "Don't worry though! No one's hurt!" Oh thank God- "But I don't know how to respond to de-ageing rays. Can I have some help?"

What??

What does that even mean??

Huh??

…

"Where are you?"