Kaldur had woken up only a few hours after falling asleep. The reason? He had to rush to the bathroom to throw up his dinner. He hadn't realized he was getting sick, but now that he was he wanted to smack himself for not noticing the signs. His lack of appetite, his tiredness, and how no matter how hard he tried, he was always too hot.
He wasn't sure if there would be a mission today or not, but he knew that he had to at least try to make it to the base. He could fake that he was fine, he had done it before, but he had never been this sick. He hadn't even been able to get up from the bathroom floor since he'd stop throwing up.
It was while still hugging the toilet that he head Aquaman enter the house.
"Kaldur'ahm, are you here? I know it is early, but…" He stood in front of the bathroom door and knocked. "Kaldur'ahm? Are you in there?"
"Yes, My King…" Kaldur's eyes bulged as he felt another wave of nausea hit him. He began to dry heave over the toilet for a few moments before falling over, breathless. "Is there something you needed me for?"
"Oh, I was afraid this was the case. We must get you to the base; the others are waiting for us." Aquaman opened the door and looked down at his protégé. He hooked his arms under Kaldur's legs and back and lifted him up. "It seems we have an epidemic on our hand."
In just a few hours, every member of the young justice was gathered in Mount Justice, nearly every young hero exhibiting some form of illness. Batman was discussing with the other adults on what could have possibly caused the entire team, save the alien ones, to become ill to such varying degrees.
Wally was freezing, piled under a mountain of blankets, and was unable to stop sneezing, while on the other hand, Kaldur felt as though he were burning alive and was unable to keep down even a small sip of water. Artemis lied prone, unable to move from how sore her entire body felt and how tired she seemed. Zatanna, prone like Artemis, couldn't move a micrometer with a wave of lightheadedness washing over her and making her dizzy. Robin, the last one to be brought in, had hidden his symptoms pretty well up until his body decided everything inside his body needed to be outside his body as fast as possible. Alfred was still cleaning the brown stains from the bathroom even now.
"It could have been their last mission. Whoever you sent them against could have engineered some sort of disease that's effecting them differently because they have slightly different physiological make-ups. Though, that doesn't explain why M'Gann and Konner weren't affect while Kaldur was, or why Wally hasn't already burned the illness off." Black Canary offered. She was fairly stumped on what was going on, and the fact that Batman hadn't already figured something, anything, out was starting to get to her.
"That could be the answer we're looking for though. Individualized illnesses designed to effect each person's own genetic make-up. It would explain why no one else has been effected and why they are all having different reactions. Whoever created the illnesses must have had access to their DNA though, so it must have been someone they've encountered more than once with access to a high tech laboratory. They couldn't have gotten a viable sample from Miss Martian because she can shift her genetic make-up easily, and Konner's DNA is nearly impossible to extract, so they could only target the rest of the team. I'll do some research on their previous targets, and anyone else that fits these requirements." Batman explained before walking off to find the nearest set of computers.
"He must have been sitting on that idea for a while." Green Arrow quipped.
"Explains why he was so quiet. We're going to need to find someone to take care of them. I know we all want to help them, but we have a responsibility to the people of this planet, and I don't trust Konner and M'Gann to know what to do." Superman sighed, obviously put off by the idea of leaving the children alone in their state.
"We don't really have a lot of people lying around to just throw on babysitting duty, Supes. I mean, maybe Red Arrow would agree to it, but that's a long sh…" Flash explained, interrupted by Black Canary.
"Oh, he'll do it alright. Just leave that to me. You guys go on ahead and say your goodbyes to the kids, he'll be here before you leave." Canary smirked. The men looked at one another before shrugging, all but Superman going to check on their wards.
The team lied strewn across the rec room, a cartoon playing on the large television that was obviously picked by Wally for everyone to watch. Wally and Robin had taken up the main couch, both buried under at least ten blankets, while Kaldur, Artemis, and Zatanna lied sprawled in their own little areas on the floor. M'Gann and Konner were in the kitchenette cooking soup for their teammates, hoping to be of some help.
"Um, hey guys, how you feeling?" Flash asked, answered by a series of groans and a single pillow he didn't even bother to dodge since it only managed to make it a couple of feet before falling harmlessly to the ground in front of him. "I'll take that as a bad then."
"We've got to head out, but Batman is researching to find out what is causing this and who, if anyone, did this. Canary's getting you guys someone to help take care of you; he should be here before we leave apparently." Green Arrow explained to the sickly bunch.
"I'm sure we could handle this on our own…" M'Gann began, right as the pot of soup she was cooking began to bubble over and burn. "But help would be much appreciated."
Right as the words left her mouth, Roy Harper burst into the room with a wild look in his eyes, messy hair, and haphazardly pulled on clothing crying out, "Where is he?!"
"He's halfway under the coffee table with a big bucket." Robin called, lifting a hand from his bundle to point at Kaldur.
Roy rushed over to his friend's side and immediately began to fuss over him like a worried mother over her sick child. Canary came sauntering into the room moments later to gather the few men that came to check on the kids. This was going to be a long day.