Chapter 12
Wally West could barely contain his glee. Sure, he couldn't hug his uncle but he could at least see his face.
"Uncle B! How are you doing this?" He asked. There, on the main screen of the Justice League's monitor womb was their world's entire Justice League. The team was met with smiles and relief. Ray's modified suit had been hooked up to the main consul and used to display the images.
"Wally! It's so good to see you! Your aunt and I have been worried out of our minds!" Barry's voice was slightly garbled but it was enough.
"Oh Uncle B, you gotta get us outta here! This place stinks!" Wally cried. Robin nodded in confirmation.
"We're working on it kid. Just give us a few more days and we should be able to snatch you back." Ted assured him.
"Um, is there another way to go through because I'm not exactly too keen to go through another portal anytime soon…" Roy stood back away from the screen.
"Roy! You made it through as well! We were so worried about you." Black Canary smiled genuinely at him and Roy had to hold back his desire to reach out and touch the screen. God he missed home.
"Roy's right. I'd rather not come out on the other side cut to ribbons." Robin agreed with him.
"Cut to ribbons? What happened? Tell us now." Superman commanded, the League members around him. So Robin recounted everything that had happened, including the information Roy had given them. The frown on Superman's face deepened as he listened.
"Perhaps that would explain the missing children." J'onn surmised.
"What? Missing children?" M'gann piped up. "That was in Roy's mind when he was in a coma. He said he can't remember what that meant though."
"And you cannot find a way to pull the memory?"
"When I extracted the other consciousness, it appears that bit of information vanished as well." She said apologetically. "I'm sorry I did not work better to preserve the memory."
"It's alright. You save Roy and that's what matters." Superman nodded to her. "Well now that that's out of the way, is everyone alright? Are they treating you okay?"
The team shot glances to the people standing in the room behind them.
"I cannot speak for everyone but the king here has been most hospitable." Aqualad bowed his head. "I am still quite anxious to return home."
"We are anxious to have you back." Aquaman agreed.
"J'onn has been nice." M'gann smiled. Artemis could only shrug.
"Same ole same ole." Roy said for her.
"I just want to get back." Robin had refused to address his less than hospitable living situation.
"I second that." Wally said.
Superman studied each of their faces for a sign of duress. When none was found, he glanced at his clone. "Ahem." He coughed. "Anything from you Superboy?" Black Canary fought the urge to smack him upside the head.
Superboy was quiet for a few moments, not quite sure how to address his particular situation. "I...I would like to stay here." He said quietly. There was a beat of silence before the room went into chaos.
"What! Why the heck would you want to stay here with them?" Wally swung around demanded angrily.
"You can't stay here! We're a team." M'gann rushed.
Through the webcam, Conner could see the havoc his words had caused in the other world. Black Canary had her finger in Superman's face and looked only seconds away from unleashing her canary cry.
Flash and Aquaman struggled to pull her back. Finally Green Lantern stood in front of the camera. He coughed awkwardly into his hand.
"Um. Well, that could have been handled better. So uh, Superboy? Any particular reason for feeling that way?" He asked kindly.
Conner only shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It's nice to be wanted." The uproar began again.
"We love you Conner! How could you think we don't want you?" M'gann threw her arms around his neck and pulled him tight into a hug. Throughout the entirety of the conversation, the alternate Justice League had kept to them. It really wasn't any of their business. But the moment Clark had seen the alternate version of himself almost completely dismiss his clone, anger had bubbled within him.
"If I may?" He placed a comforting hand on Conner's shoulder. M'gann looked up at him with tear streaked cheeks and gradually backed off. Clark took his place standing in front of the giant screen. "It was my suggestion that Superboy stay here with me for a while."
His admission was met with cries of outrage.
"He does not belong in your world." Batman reprimanded him.
"I'm well aware but he needs to be trained. I'm more than willing to work with him for the time being. He shows great potential." Clark fired back. He'd stood up to his world's Batman before. This one would be no different.
"Black Canary is doing an adequate job of training him for now." Batman glared at the man's sharp tone.
"With all due respect, don't you think Superman should be training Superboy?" Superman challenged. "If your Black Canary is anything like ours, she's an excellent fighter a highly qualified trainer for a human superhero. Conner isn't human."
"Superman will train him." Black Canary assured him through the screen. "I'll make sure of that."
"But it would be forced. That wouldn't be good for either of them-"
"Do I really need to point out that Superboy is more than capable of thinking for himself?" Roy snapped. "If he wants to stay, that's his choice. No one's forcing him."
M'gann hiccupped. "We just don't want to lose you." She cried.
"No one is losing anyone! C'mon Clark, think for a second! Your apartment is barely big enough to fit you let alone a growing teenage boy! And don't think you can commute all the way from the Fortress. He can't stay." Barry countered.
"I agree with Red Arrow. It's Conner's decision and it looks like he's picked here. We'll make it work." Clark shot Barry a glare before turning back to the screen.
"I have to say no." Black Canary snapped. "He has to learn to adapt to new situations, not run away from them. If Superman won't step up, as stated, I will." She said adamantly.
"No. Clark and Superboy are right." Robin said quietly. "As long as our Superman refuses to step up, Conner can't prosper. We need to put our own wants aside and look at what he needs. He needs a mentor." Black Canary's eyes softened.
"Let's not discuss this now. We have bigger things to deal with. We're working on getting you back home and finding the missing children. We also need to handle the Society of Light." Batman halted the conversation. "No one else has appeared in your dimension?"
"No, not that we would recognize." Robin answered earnestly.
"Keep on the lookout. If yours and the children's kidnappings are in fact related, it's possible they ended up on that dimension." Robin could only nod. He didn't want to talk to Batman, he wanted to talk to Bruce.
"Can you possibly tap into my wrist consul?" He asked tentatively.
"We tried that at first. Unless we hook Atom-"
"Never mind. It's alright." Robin wanted yank his hair out. So close!
"I think we've caused enough stress for the day. Don't you?" Clark took in each distraught face. "We'll look into your missing children for now and then reconvene tomorrow." Clark stepped towards the consul. "Agreed?"
Batman's mouth pressed into a hard line. He nodded curtly and stepped away from the screen. The team watched the monitor went dark.
M'gann sniffled softly and sighed. "I wish I could make us some cookies."
"Again with the cookies? Ugh! You have to know how bad I'm craving right now!" Wally exclaimed. He felt the weight of rejection being lifted off his shoulders. His uncle did miss him. He was wanted no matter what this worlds Flash wanna-be thought of him.
"Way to start World War Three, Supey. I thought Canary was gonna yank you through the screen." Robin laughed halfheartedly. Superboy frowned at his words.
"I didn't want any conflict. I thought they'd be happy." Superboy said.
"It's not his fault. I take full responsibility for their reaction and he can't help it if Black Canary is so passionate. I would imagine it's tough to lose such a great student." Clark sighed deeply. "I wish the League and I could stay with you longer up here but we really need to look for those kids. Hopefully we'll be back by tonight so we can take you guys back to your living quarters-"
"We can help." Robin cut him off.
"No. You will stay here until your mentors can retrieve you. Flash is correct in his saying the boy cannot remain in our dimension. We've already disrupted the balance enough." Batman growled.
"This is our fight as well." Aqualad reminded him. "The children are from our dimension and that makes them our problem."
"It doesn't work that way short stuff. We're the Justice League. We'll handle this." Flash assured them.
"Okay, I've had it! I'm officially done with this crap! You do not get to boss us around! You don't want to deal with us? Fine! We'll take Atom Man and go our own way! But we won't be belittled and treated like crap! I don't know about them but I've gotten enough of that my whole life and swore I would never take it from anyone else." Artemis snarled at him.
"I think Superboy said it best when we first made our made our team. Either get on board, or get out of the way." Robin took his place next to her. The Justice League attempted to stare down the young children but found they wouldn't waver. Finally, Superman sighed and put his hands up in surrender.
"Fine. Fine. Artemis is right. They know this business as well, we shouldn't be treating them like this. Think about it Batman, they have the experience. They've been fighting these guys. We'll need the input."
"No."
"I thought we already said we weren't leaving this up to you. We're doing this our way." Kid Flash snapped.
"And if we say different?" Hawk Girl challenged.
"We'd like to see you try." Artemis shot back. She and Roy snatched their bows into a firing position.
"No! No fighting!" Superman shouted. "That isn't going to get us anywhere! They're on board. If anyone doesn't like it, they'll just have to deal with it."
"Because you've done that so well in the past." Wally retorted.
"He's right. This whole 'ignoring our existence' thing is getting kid of old. When are you going to realize that in our world, our mentors trust us to get the job done? We've proven that we can keep up with you in a fight. So either you're just that stupid, or you're scared." Robin challenged.
Hawk Girl, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman all scoffed at the boys words.
"What, you aren't afraid that a bunch of kids are going to show you up? Sure seems like it." Kid Flash added on. Barry wanted to shake the kid with all his might but refrained.
"I've tried being hospitable with you-"
"Treating me as if I don't exist isn't exactly what I would call hospitable."
"You know, I seem to be having that issue as well." Robin chimed in. "I should have let Ivy have you."
Batman's eyes narrowed at his words. "I would have gotten out of it. With our without your help."
"Would you? Looked pretty helpless to me, you know, being paralyzed and all." The thirteen year old fired back. "And you still haven't said thank-you."
Roy snorted. "Please, when have you ever known a superhero to say thanks to one of us? We could stop an alien invasion and we'd still get a reprimand for stepping out of line." He chided.
"But at least the team had been working to earn a decent amount of respect from the League. On their worst days, we still don't get treated like this." Robin reminded him.
"True."
"Okay, I'm no expert on the situation here but I think we should disband for a while. I don't think any of your mentors would be too happy with me if I were to let this continue. And the last thing I need is Batman and Flash on my ass. So why don't we go our separate ways for the night?" Atom had finally managed to disentangle himself from the mess of wires long enough to intervene.
You could cut the tension in the room with an ice pick, it was so thick. Ray could only wait for the moment when it came to blows.
"Atom is right. We just need to calm down, emotions are running high right now." Black Canary stepped in. She gestured for Roy and Artemis to put down their weapons. "You're going to pull your stitches if you stretch your bow like that. Let's go back to Ollie's. I can see how worn out you are."
"I don't need a babysitter." Roy glared.
"Good because I wasn't offering. Let's just get you and Artemis back. I suggest the rest of you get back as well." she gently removed Roy's bow from his hands. "Let's go."
Roy finally sighed and followed her lead. Artemis huffed irately and took off after them. Aqualad inclined his head and stood by Aquaman's side. M'gann by J'onn's.
"Fine. Come on and keep up." Batman barked at his would be sidekick. Robin bristled but said nothing and dutifully followed Bruce.
"Might as well. Iris will kill me if she thinks I just left you up here. C'mon." Barry waved his arm.
"Glad to know you care." Wally snarked sarcastically. He raced to the zeta beam transporter and saw the last bit of Robin's retreating form.
YJ
"This is my fault." Superboy said despondently after everyone else had left.
"No, you can't control the reactions of others. Like I said, my offer still stands." Superman assured him. "You deserve to be trained by a fellow Kryptonian and if that means it has to be me, then it'll be me."
"And I'm glad about that. I just don't want him to hate me even more."
"This isn't about him. He's not what matters. You matter." Superboy blinked rapidly. This was not something he'd experienced before. Was this what it was like to have a father? Was this why Robin was so attached to Batman and Wally to Flash? Was it this need to feel wanted?
"Thank you." He said. Superman put an arm around his shoulders and grinned.
"Your team is strong. You guys will get through this. I know it."