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“Have you noticed that Batman’ more… upset than usual?” Kyle suddenly asks. And Wally has to admit, it’s true. Batman has been more grumpy today.
Kyle seems to read his mind as he continues, “I mean, he’s basically become a complete shadow, his cloak is covering his whole body!” He lowers his voice into a whisper as Batman himself walks by, not even sparing them a glance. Wally whispers back. “He’s also been moving slower, ya think he got hurt? Maybe he’s tryna hide it?” Kyle puts his hand up to his chin in thought. “It’s likely, maybe ask Superman?” “Led lined suit, Kyle.” Wally says in a deadpan. Kyle shrugs. “Alright, maybe talk to him? Have you turned in your report from your last solo mission yet?”
Wally nods and stands up. “Alright, I planned on giving it to him after today's meeting, but I guess now's as good a time as ever.” He runs off to his room and speeds back with his papers, right in front of Batman. The Dark Knight doesn’t even flinch. “Wally.” He says in a voice that sounds tired.
“Spooky.” Wally says in return, “I have yesterday’s solo report, I was wondering if you would look it over?” Batman sighs and nods, reaching out his hand to take the papers. At that moment a whole hoard of children come running out of the cape. Batman’s visible features pale at the sight.
The first one to run out is a child with black hair, blue eyes and has a surprisingly good build for his age– ’he looks suspiciously like Dick’ Wally thinks’–a blue T-shirt that says “HALEY’S CIRCUS” in bold colorful letters, right over a colorful circus tent, yellow sweatpants and red sneakers.
He is squealing as he runs off and climbs atop one of the couches.
Next comes a young boy about the same age as the first with red hair, blue eyes, a malnourished frame, and several scrapes and bruises. He is wearing a large red hoodie with several stains and tears, old worn shorts and black sneakers.
He runs down the hall, pushing the first one down for a moment as he breezes by.
Next comes a more well-groomed boy. He has black curtain hair with ice blue eyes that look even more icy against his pale skin and a thin frame–almost similar to the second ones. He is wearing an expensive looking red sweater over a white button up shirt, he is wearing clean jeans and red converse shoes.
He runs out and follows the second child down the hall.
After him comes a thin child–with a surprisingly good build for his age as well–in an outfit Barry’s only ever seen movie ninja’s wear. He has emerald green eyes and a permanent scowl.
He follows the first child.
After him comes a girl with jet black hair and dark brown eyes wearing a similar outfit to the one before her.
She runs into a corner and seemingly disappears.
After her comes a more shy boy, he has hazel eyes and a black afro. He is wearing a yellow t-shirt with a red jacket over it, dirt stained jeans, and red flash-themed sneakers.
He runs off after the red-head and the rich looking kid.
Next (Jeez, how many kids are there?) comes a blonde girl with blue eyes and several scrapes and bruises like the second kid did. She is wearing a tattered purple hoodie with the hood up–although it looks about ready to fall off–a red headband with horns on it, a black skirt, and yellow rain boots.
She runs after the afro kid.
It had all happened so fast Wally –the fastest man alive– could hardly keep up! Batman sighs tiredly and looks at the speedster. “Meeting. Now. Everyone here.” And then disappears.
Wally looks around and tries to find at least one of the kids, but they’ve all disappeared!
-
Clark looks at Bruce like he just grew a second head. He had accidentally let his
children
–who had
all
been reversed to the age of
eight
by a magic villain they had encountered–loose in the
Watchtower
! “None of the others were available!” Bruce defended. “Look, you can blame me all you want but these kids were still intelligent terrors at this age-” Billy raises a brow. “The only one you knew at this age was
Dick
. And by the looks of it, his parents are
still
alive.”
Bruce glares at him. “As I was saying,” He continues. “We need to find them before they send the Watchtower hurtling into orbit.”
Diana places a hand on his shoulder. “We will help you find your children, Bruce. Perhaps we can begin and you can search for the others to assist?” Bruce looks at her for a long moment before nodding. “Alright,” He says as he pulls his cowl back up. “I’ll go fetch Kate, Terry, and Cullin. They should be able to help.”
The assembled League watches as their friend walks to the Zeta Tubes and disappears.
Kyle speaks up first, “So, who here knew Bats had kids?” Only The Big Three, Billy, Oliver, Dinah, and Wally raise their hands. “It’s Bruce Wayne .” Ollie says with a laugh. “Who doesn’t know how many kids he has?” “The public knows near nothing at all about most, there is a chance people don’t know the existence of most, like Harper or Terrance.” Diana states.
Clark clears his throat. “Alright, since Cassandra is the most quiet, J’onn and I will look for her,” J’onn walks up next to him and Clark nods to him. “Billy, you can de-transform and look for Jason, and Diana, you too because you’re Jason’s favorite and will likely have a better time than others.” Billy shorts and nods while Diana beams and nods. “Dinah, Shayera, you two are the best equipped to find Damian, but remember, do not hurt him.” The two women nod. “Okay, Oliver and Kyle, you two look for stephanie. Oliver because you are her favorite and Kyle because you’ll likely do better with her.”
The two look at eachother and nod, “Go team Green Bean!” Oliver says. Kyle rolls his eyes. “We are not calling it that.”
Clark continues. “Wally, you find Duke. You’re his favorite and you’re both fast.” Wally nods and crosses his arms, pulling up his cowl. “Tim shouldn’t be that hard to catch at this age, so Eel and Guy, you two will look for him.” Eel looks at Guy and looks back to Clark with a grimace. “Okay, lastly is Dick, in all honesty none of them should be that hard to catch at their age, but Stephanie, Damian, Cass, Jason, and Dick are trained–mostly. So how about Ray and Arthur, you two will find Dick. Everyone got it?” Everyone nods.
Clark gives them each a photo of the person they are looking for–Bruce had given them to him beforehand, who knew Batman could be as sentimental as to take pictures, even if these are the ages he never got to see them as–before splitting up.
– CASSANDRA CAIN–
Clark knew it’d be hard, but he didn’t think it’d be this hard to find her–even with x-ray vision! With his super hearing all he can hear is Wally’s rapid footsteps on the ground as he mutters incoherent swears, Arthur’s low calming voice as he calls for Dick, Billy screeching while Diana shouts in Greek, Oliver whisper-shouting about how a little girl could be so demonic, and Eel ann Guy bickering. Either the other’s are quiet or they’ve been led into a lead-lined room.
It seems most of the other’s had at least seen their target, while Clark and J’onn have seen damn near nothing !
That is, until they see something scurry through the air ducts. He turns to J’onn who nods and shifts into a mouse, flying up into the air ducts.
-
It’s been only four minutes when Clark gets a message from J’onn via telepathy link. “Clark, stay where you are.” Of course, Clark does the opposite.He finds J’onn and finds him inside of one of Batman’s meta ability testing rooms. He can see a small fire around J’onn–not enough to kill him, luckily, just enough for him to not be able to escape. But before Clark can do anything he feels the familiar burn of Kryptonite.
He quickly spins around in time to see Cass and Jason !
Cass is holding up Kryptonite as if it were a cross and he were a demon while Jason lights a cigarette. ‘So that's how they started the fire… Why is Jay smoking, though? And how do they know our weaknesses?’
Before he can think more, Cass is gone and the world goes black.
–JASON TODD
MOMENTS BEFORE–
Billy screeches as he sprints away. They had easily found Jason, but now he was running from a Jason who has a lighter and hairspray . Basically a homemade flamethrower. And sadly, Billy has no idea where Diana went, she had shouted something in Greek and ran off the second Jason lit a cigarette–Billy was too focused on the fact that the eight-year-old had a cigarette to listen to what she said.
While he’s running he gets tripped up by someone. He looks up and sees… A demon ?! Wait no, it’s just Stephanie. Wait, Stephanie ?!
She has a cat-like grin on her face and her hoodie has been removed, now the sleeves are tied around her neck in a makeshift cape, leaving her in a black shirt with several bruises and even burns on display.
Billy opens his mouth to say something but wheezes as something hits his back hard and knocks the air out of him. Yeah, Jason just gave him the ‘elbow drop’.
While Billy is trying to regain his breath the demon children are giggling and high-fiving each-other. Oh he hopes the others are having better luck… Oh, Zeus, where is Diana…
Suddenly he hears a splash of water and the discontent shouts of a child. Looking up he sees the soaking wet Jason Todd being held like a kitten by Diana.
“Diana!” Billy exclaims. She smiles at him and Billy stands up. “Wait, where’s Stephanie?” Diana has a quizzical look. “The girl? I had no idea she was over here.” Billy panics. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck !” Before he can say anything more a strange gas fills the room, Diana faints and Jason squirms away and runs off. Billy tries to check on his fallen sister but the world has gone lop-sided, his head is light and before he knows it the world has gone black.
–DICK GRAYSON
SAME TIME–
Ray has been complaining the entire time as Arthur tries to call for the missing child. He knows Nightwing, and he now knows Nightwing is Richard Grayson, so they must at least be similar –even at this age.
“I just can’t
believe
Bruce wouldn’t tell us something so important!” “He had a reason, Ray.” Arthur says in a calm voice. “He probably wanted to protect his family, or he didn’t want his children causing chaos in the Watchtower. I
have
met Robin, Nightwing, and Red Robin, the latter two are friends of Kaldur’s.”
Ray opens his mouth to respond but gets cut off when a small body slams into the back of his head with a small ‘whoop’.
Ray tumbles forward, landing flat on his face. Sitting triumphantly on the back of his head is a tiny Richard Grayson.
Tiny Richard makes a sound of triumph and Ray groans. “‘S what ya get, old man!” The child exclaims before hopping off.
“What’d I do ?” Ray asks as he slowly gets up, rubbing his hand on his sore head.
“Nothin’.” He responds. “I jus’ wanted ta jump on ya.”
Ray grumbles as he fully stands up. “You’re a real jerk, kid.” The child only sticks his tongue out at him. “And yer an ineffective hero!” Ray looks offended. “I am not ! Arthur! I’m not ineffective, am I?”
Arthur puts his hands up. “I’m not getting involved, Ray.” Ray huffs and looks back at the kid. “Well, kid. Yo-“ Before the shrinking hero can say anything else he’s on the floor.
Arthur’s jaw drops open, ‘This child just kicked the Atom in the chin and knocked him unconscious! Where the hell did he hit him to get that kind of-‘ His thoughts are interrupted when a small figure in black clothing drops from the ceiling, he notices they look familiar and realizes that it’s Damian !
He steps forward but before he knows it he’s gone, and the world begins to tumble out.
— TIM DRAKE
SAME TIME—
Eel groans and plugs his ears in an attempt to block out Guy’s annoying complaints about Batman not telling them about his kids.
Eel is about ready to smack him or something when they turn a corner and find a small Timothy Drake sitting on a couch in the lounge, reading a book.
Eel smiles, thankful that Guy has finally shut the fuck up, and walks up to him. When he is right in front of him the kid puts the book down and looks up at him with large curious eyes—despite how adorable they look the ice blue somehow sends a shiver down his spine as if they were actually freezing him.
He clears his throat and tries to put on a polite smile–this should not be as hard as it is, even Luke isn’t this hard to talk to! “Heya, kiddo?” He cringes that he’d phrased a question. “... What’cha readin’?”
Tim holds up his book, seemingly to show him what it says, before hitting Eel in the face with it–surprisingly hard for a kid so small–and running off. Well, fuck . He looks at the book and… He was reading the fucking dictionary. Why is he not surprised?
“Why didn’t you at least try to catch him?” Eel exclaims. “I wanted ta see if he could outrun the great “Plastic Man''.” Guy does air quotes around his name.
Eel rolls his eyes and gets up. “Welp, let's look for him then, before Bats kills us!”
-
Guy curses as he loses the kid again ! It’s been the third time and he can’t even get the kid to stop long enough to talk to him !
“Hey, Kid! Come back! Wait! ‘M not gonna hurt you! Ughhhh…” He groans as the kid slips into a storage closet, and isn’t there when Guy looks.
“Guy!” He turns to see Plas appearing next to him. “I think I found where he’s going.” Guy nods and follows him.
After a minute Guy realizes that they’re heading into the meta testing rooms. “Plas, do ya actually know whe-” He stops as they step into the room, seeing the child standing in the center like a fucking movie villain.
The door slams shut behind them and the lights go out, before they come back on and he’s gone .
“Holy shit I think this kid is an actual horror movie antagonist.” Suddenly, the room begins to get very cold. Wait, he shouldn’t be able to… He looks down and realizes his Lantern suit is gone.
“Where the hell is my ring??” He exclaims. As he looks around. Suddenly, a small voice comes over the speaker. “Sorry, Mr. Gardner. But for this plan I’d prefer to not have to get peanut butter and potentially kill you.” Then the speaker cuts out.
“How the hell does that little shi-” A green gas begins to fill the room, a gas he recognizes as something Arrow has used before. He looks to Plas. “Hey, o’Bri-” He cuts himself off when he sees that he’s completely frozen. Right… Plas’ weakness is extreme temperatures.
He sighs as he accepts his fate and succumbs to the black.
–DAMIAN WAYNE–
“Damian!” Dinah calls out for what feels like the hundredth time. So far they’ve not seen hide nor hair of the kid and she’s starting to think he’s not even here anymore.
“Child!” Shayera calls out. “We will not hurt you, just come out and we can do this easily!”
Suddenly a shadow appears at the end of the hall, it’s Damian! Dinah runs up to him. “Kid! Shit, you can’t run off from your dad!” She reaches a hand out to him, he eyes it suspiciously before hesitantly taking it. “Good, now- aaaAAAAAAA -” She didn’t know what she expected, maybe for the kid to follow her, but nope, he just threw her over his shoulder . How?? He’s like eight!
She groans as she peels herself off the ground, looking up at the sound of metal against metal. Holy shit where did this kid get a KATANA?! Damian is currently swinging at Shayera with a fucking katana, Shayera, luckily, is only blocking, not attacking back–who knew what Batman’d do if he knew any of them attacked his kids.
She is about to re-engage when Shayera falls to the ground, unconscious. How ??? She’d been watching the whole time, what had caused it?? Then she sees it, Richard fucking Grayson . He is holding one of Oliver’s arrows, the one that contains knock-out gas.
He smiles at her. “Sorry about this, miss Laurel.” He says politely. “Not really.” He says quickly. Dinah is confused for a moment before a child– ’Duke” she thinks when she sees him–falls out of the vent above her, feet first, landing on top of her, effectively knocking her out.
–Stephanie Brown
Same Time–
Oliver groans as he dodges another brick. Where the hell was this kid getting so many bricks, and why was her arm so good???
He looks over to Kyle who’s focused on trying to get close to her, but when he does Cassandra throws a knife at him from God only knows where, she keeps moving around!
He reaches for his last knock-out gas arrow–One had disappeared earlier when they saw the Jason kid run by them, Billy in tow–and freezes when he realizes it’s gone. He turns to look and sees Dick fucking Grayson climbing inti a vent.
He’s so preoccupied he doesn’t even notice Kyle shout at him, or when Cassandra materializes in front of him and kicks him in the back of the head, sending him into full black.
-
‘Shit shit SHIT!’ he thinks, because they got Ollie!
He sees a flash or purple and reacts just fast enough to block an attack from Stephanie, who just tried to kick him in the groin. “Hey!” He shouts. “That’s playing dirty!”
She gives him an impish grin. “Sorry, Ben ten-” Did she just compare him to a cartoon character? “-but where ‘m from, I’m playing
nice.
Now, Cass!” He spins around just in time to see Cassandra throw a
brick
at him, hitting him square in the face. He shouts in pain and falls to the ground when Stephanie sweeps his legs out from beneath him.
Suddenly, he feels his power slip away and he’s suddenly in his normal clothes, just before feeling a small prick in his arm and his whole body going limp, he sees the demon girls high-five just as his vision fades.
–Duke Thomas
Same time as Cark’s–
Wally is running around the tower, occasionally passing another group but so far he’s only seen Stephanie, but ran off when she threw a brick at him. She literally had a pile of them, like, the dump in Wreck-It-Ralph kind of pile.
He’s walking into the kitchen to refuel when he sees it–a familiar young man with hazel eyes and a black afro–his feet swinging as he sits on the counter, happily eating away at the cookies Clark had brought today. He waves at Wally when he sees him, smiling wide despite the few crumbs that fall from his round chipmunk-like cheeks. “Hiya, Mr Flash! Ya look different, ya know. Last I checked your suit didn’ show off your hair, or was that shade of red, or–you get it, your suits different.”
Wally sighs and shaked his head. “Alright, Duke-” The kid's eyes widen with excitement when he says his name, whispering to himself
‘Flash knows my name! THE Flash knows MY NAME!’
and Wally can’t help but chuckle. “-sorry, kiddo, but you can’t eat ‘nymore cookies, they’re Supes’ cookies.” Duke pouts. “Awww…” He says as he puts the lip back on the cookies and jumps down from the counter. He walks up to Wally and looks him right in the eyes, his chubby child face screaming innocence–it’s almost suspicious.
Duke lifts up his arms, signal ing for Wally to carry him, and he does. But when he does Duke puts a hand on each of Wally’s cheeks and looks him dead in the eyes once more–before headbutting him. Wally shouts and accidentally drops him, holy hell that kid hits hard…
He looks down at the kid, only to see him missing! He panics and looks around, trying to ignore the pain in his head. Suddenly, he feels a sharp prick and looks down, only to see the kid holding a syringe to his right calf. “Sorry ‘bout this, Mr. Flash. But it’s necessary.”
That’s all he hears before his vision goes out.
–ALL THE DEMONS–
Clark wakes up, groaning as he feels a headache from the kryptonite… Kryptonite.
He opens his eyes and finds himself tied up with several other members of the Justice League–who are all awake. They’re in a lead-lined room and his own restraints are kryptonite.
The door slides open and in walks baby Dick Grayson, his arms behind his back like a supervillain. Right next to him is Timothy Drake, a similar look to him–although it’s more ‘I’m the real mastermind here’ rather than Dick’s ‘I’m in charge’. Directly on Tim’s heels like a bodyguard comes Damian, he has a threatening posture and his expression screams ‘fuck around and find out’–it would be cute if this kid wasn’t the devil incarnate. After him comes Jason Todd, flanked by Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas. Jason has a cigarette hanging from his mouth, a smug expression on his face, his hands are in his pockets and he has a care-free posture–althoughto someone like Clark it’s clear he’s tense and ready for a fight. Clark wrinkles his nose at the sight of Jason’s habit, children should not have cigarettes. Cassandra also has a bodyguard type look, although her expression is carefully blank. Duke on the other hand has a clipboard, looking at it as if he were a scientist looking at experiment notes. Right behind them is Stephanie Brown, looking more like a classic movie villain than the first two, her hands are behind her back and she’s slightly hunched forward, a cat-like grin on her face as she watches the League.
They all line up in a V shape, Dick at the front, Tim on his left, Stephanie on his right, Jason on Tim’s left, Duke on Stephanie’s right, Damian on Jason’s left, and Cass on Duke’s right. Cass and Damian both have their hands on the hilt of their swords and they look ready to attack.
“They really thought this through, didn’t they?” Wally whispers and Kyle nods. “This whole thing was clearly planned, jeez, these kids are somehow more dramatic than their dad –and they don’t even know him as ‘dad’ yet!” Suddenly, there is a blade at Kyle’s throat and Damian has somehow moved in front of him. “Silence.” He hisses.
“Damian.” Dick calls, sounding a villainous leader. Damian huffs and returns to his original place, although he is glaring at Kyle.
Dick opens his mouth to speak but suddenly a teen in full a black Bat-suit with very pointy ears, a red bat-symbol–Clark quickly recognizes him as Terrance McGinnis–runs in and looks at the scene with a slack jaw. “Guys!” He shouts. “I found them!”
Suddenly a woman in a similar outfit–except she has a helmet that show-cases long red hair, a black cape with a red inside, and heeled boots–runs in and begins laughing hysterically–Kathrine Kane.
Next comes in a teenage boy with shaggy black hair and dark brown eyes, he is wearing a gray sweatshirt and dark blue jeans along with what looks like custom painted converse–they are black with purple laces and blue soles with a ‘V’ symbol similar to Nightwin’s on the heels–comes in after with his phone out–a phone case themed similarly, Clark now recognizes the theme to be after his older sister Harper’s vigilante persona Bluebird–recording the whole thing–Cullen Row.
Soon after him comes Batman , Zatanna at his right, looking like she’s trying not to laugh.
The kids all look down at their feet, seemingly ashamed. Batman huffs. “Release the league, Duke.” He says softly. Duke kicks his foot but pulls out a device and presses the button, releasing the super team of their restraints.
“I can’t believe America’s mightiest heroes got bested by eight-year olds !” Kate exclaims through teary eyes. Wally crosses his arms like a grumpy child. “They’re stronger an’ smarter than they look…” He grumbles. Batman chuckles, which shocks most of the leaguers. “They’re my children, Wally.” He states simply. “They’ve always been like this, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to gaslight me into taking them in.”
As he’s talking Zatanna has lined up the kids from oldest to youngest–Cass in front of Jason which Clark is sure he’s gonna complain about when he’s back to normal.
Zatanna casts a spell and before they know it the Wayne children are back to normal.
At the front stands a strapping young man with long wavy black hair, a spiky domino, and a black kevlar suit that perfectly fits his body, a blue V shaped bird on his chest that expands out to stripes on his arms–one everyone recognizes as the guardian of Blüdhaven, Nightwing.
Next to him is a girl in a black and gold hooded suit with a mask covering the bottom half of her petite face–Clark, Diana, Billy, and Wally recognize her as Orphan, the weapon made hero of Gotham.
Next is a beefy young man with a red helmet–which he removed the second he was turned back–black hair with a white streak through it, a black domino mask over his eyes and a scratchy beard. He is wearing a black shirt with a red bat on it, a leather jacket, black pants with several guns hanging from them, and steel-toed boots–one everyone recognizes as the Gotham crime lord, the Red Hood.
Next is a girl in full purple with bright blue eyes and blonde hair wearing a mask covering her bottom face–very few recognize this one as Spoiler.
Next is a pale, tired looking teen with messy black hair lazily tied into a ponytail. He is wearing a red shirt with black pants and boots with a black and gold circle with golden straps coming from it, and a pointy domino–everyone recognizes this one as Red Robin.
Next is a young man in an electric yellow suit with a Bat symbol on it–this one is recognized by all as the Signal.
And last is a young boy in a red tunic, black pants, green combat boots with red laces, black sleeves, green gloves, a black cloak with a yellow inner side, a green spiked domino, and a permanent scowl–this is recognized by most as Robin, Batman’s main partner.
“What the fuck happened?” Hood asks. “Why’re we in the Watchtower?” Nightwing asks.
“You were turned into children–age eight, to be exact– and since no one could watch you and Zatanna was too busy to turn you back I had to bring you here . But Wally let you out and you kidnapped the present Justice League.” Wally looks like he’s about to say something but instead receives a bat-glare. “Let's go.” He growls out before pivoting and walking out, the others following like ducklings. Only Duke has the decency to look apologetic.