yes, I am still alive. Just busy with jobs and Ultra Sun. X3 I beat up Rainbow Rocket and caught the cover Pokemon with REGULAR POKEBALLS! XD still getting a kick out of that. Almost as fun as defeating dragons with ice cream! *diez laughing* anywho, RL messing with writing but doesn't mean I forgot anything. Still working on Bro Blood arc before posting Terra. anywho... moving on!

Thank Agent ERA for the inspiration for this fic! Pre-Dami and tons of fun Referencing one of the later pre-52 small events, but totally fun. Hope you like it!

Dick – 14 Jason – 11 Cass – 9 Timmy - 7

Uncle?

Bruce watched his phone screen in dread. This… this was not good. He glanced over his shoulder at his kids picking out a movie for the night, making sure they were properly distracted, before making his way to the pantry entrance to the cave. Once he was certain they couldn't see or hear him, and none of them tailed his exit, he ran down the steps while bringing the best option he had on speed dial.

"Allen, what's your status?"

"Nice to hear from you too, Bruce." The retort was without malice or urgency so he was probably just getting off work. He hadn't seen the news yet. "What's up?"

"Get to Metropolis and find Kent. Bring him to the cave."

"Why can't you -" Barry Allen stopped, likely sensing his stress. "What happened?"

Bruce made it to the landing and turned to the medical section. "New criminal running on Kryptonite. He fell off the radar but he was not winning his fight. News caught enough footage to make it a headline."

"Did he lose his com?"

"He… took it out this morning." Foolish Kent threw a fit when Bruce suggested adjusting his wardrobe to eliminate his weaknesses. wasn't like he would be losing the design, just change the materials. But for some reason, the reporter took it as an insult to his mother. When Bruce tried to rectify this idea, Clark Kent removed the earpiece and refused to take his calls. He was going to give the man a few days to cool off and try again, but this changed things.

"Figures. I'll be there in a flash."

The line cut off but Bruce finished the conversation anyway. "I'll be ready for you."

He tossed his phone onto one of the medical beds and opened a special cabinet just in case Superman was ever injured. Hopefully, he'd just need a rinse off and a new leaded set of clothes. Either way, B was prepared, and the Man of Steel needed to get away from that android criminal.

"Where's Dad?"

Dick looked up from the stove where he was helping Alfred with the popcorn, finally realizing they were short one adult. Timmy and Jason were 'helping' with the shakes while Cass was on standby for the next part with the popcorn. If she wasn't waiting so boredly, she probably wouldn't have noticed and mentioned it. The two looked around the room, eventually looking to Alfred for answers. He was too busy making sure the shakes didn't end up all over the kitchen as the two chefs argued over flavors.

"Dunno..."

"Don't burn it!"

"Okay! Okay!" Dick returned to the stove, shaking the popping kernels to make sure nothing went wrong. They were nearly done and then it'd be Cass' turn, flavoring them. "I'll look around after I'm done here, kay?"

Cass nodded and both of them waited impatiently for the last kernel to pop.

Took another ten minutes before Dick could escape the burners and take a look at Alfred's personal security feed in the kitchen. The butler had his own little computer screen set up to watch the entire house and grounds in one corner, making certain the family were where they said they'd be. There was some privacy of course, mostly for bathrooms and bedrooms, but if anyone snuck out, he'd know.

So unless Bruce was in a bedroom or bathroom, he was in the cave, cuz he was nowhere to be seen on screen. The teen frowned. It was family movie night. Unless there was a crisis with the League or in Gotham, the cave was off limits. Course Bruce did sneak down there every couple months trying to get another project done, so it was possible nothing as the matter.

How likely…

"I'll be back in a few." He quickly made his way past the two still fighting over what flavor the shakes should be – chocolate or strawberry, either were fine to Dick – and gained a quick nod from Alfred before slipping into the pantry and down a set of dark stairs, grabbing an apple along the way. Munching on it, Dick set his eyes on where he would see the computer in a few seconds. Maybe he'd sneak up on the guy as punishment for ditching movie night. He was pretty sure Bruce saw right through him, but he wanted to try anyway.

As the computer came into view, the teen stopped, confused. Not a single screen was on and there wasn't anyone in the chair. "Weird… Bruce? You in here?"

There wasn't a response. "Bruce?"

Still nothing. 'Maybe he's having trouble on the can?' Shrugging to himself, Dick turned to go back upstairs. A jarring crash echoed through the cave, jerking the lad around. "What the…"

He strained his ears for more sounds, quietly reaching the bottom of the stairs. Under the squeaks of bats and the constant running water, he could hear, just barely, the voices of a few men. They seemed to be coming from the medical area of the cave. Alfred set it up years ago for Batman's care, but it hadn't been very often since his retirement.

Yet as he got closer, he could hear voices more clearly and could tell the lights were on. Including a greenish one.

"What's going on?"

Dick jumped and spun around to see his brothers tailing behind him. "What are you doing here?"

"You were taking too long and Alfred took over the shakes." Jason put his hands behind his head as casually as he could, pretending he wasn't upset about it. If Timmy hadn't insisted on helping, he was sure he could have made the chocolate shakes all by himself. "So we tailed you."

"So what's going on?" Timmy asked again, pointing to the med bay. "Why's the light on in there? Did someone get hurt?"

"Must have," Dick concluded, looking back to the room. The strange green light was still going.

"Bet it's Hal," Jason murmured. He strode towards the place without a thought. "He's pretty careless sometimes and forgets he's not Superman."

"Yeah, but -" There was just something off about that green light. And usually Hal went to normal hospitals when he got hurt. He could explain it away as a training accident or reckless driving pretty easily; his day job was a great cover.

Before Dick could voice his doubts, Jason threw open a curtain to see what was going on. And stopped, staring at the table.

"Jason!" Their dad's bark could be heard on the moon. "What are you doing here?!"

"Ah..."

Dick and Timmy came up beside him just before Bruce could get in front of him. All three saw a few sights they never wanted to see.

Their dad in medical scrubs and thick gloves covered in blood. Barry Allen rapidly moving his hands over ordinary items sticking out of an unconscious body. Superman… on the table… with several shards of concrete and steel coming out of his skin. The green light was kryptonite.

"I think this one is ready to go!" Uncle Barry was so focused on his work he didn't see the intruders.

"One second." Bruce loomed over the three of them, his bloodied gloves in the air instead of grabbing the curtain. "Close the curtain and go back upstairs. Watch your movie without me."

"Do… Do you need Alfred?" Dick struggled to keep his mind moving, registering what they were doing slowly. They were trying to save Superman. They couldn't under most circumstances, but with kryptonite radiation, they would be able to remove things easier.

Bruce hesitated a moment before nodding. "If you can spare him. Now get out of here."

Jason quickly snapped the curtain closed, unable to do much of anything else. Timmy was shaking like crazy, tears starting to go down his face. Dick did the only thing he could think of and pick him up before yanking Jason away by his collar. "Come on. The Mask is waiting."

"But… but… but..." Who knew the tough street rat was capable of freaking out like this?

"There's nothing more we can do." The teen tried to control his voice as he struggled to get them out of there and back to where things made sense. "We'd only get in the way. If we want Superman to live, we have to let them work."

"But… Dad's not a doctor."

"No," he admitted, "he's not."

Alfred called Lesslie and went downstairs.

Lesslie arrived thirty minutes later and ran to the cave.

Cass put on the movie and distributed the treats, but they were barely touched or viewed.

Dick held onto Timmy the entire night while Jason buried himself into a pillow, staring at the screen or wall, yet not seeing anything.

None of them made it to their beds.

Bruce found them all in a daze the following morning in the movie room, exhausted from the procedure. The actual medics were taking a short nap in the old servants quarters while the speedster raided their kitchen, fueling up for the rest of the day. Their patient on the other hand…

"How'd it go?"

He should have known they weren't really asleep. Even from exhaustion. At Dick's words, everyone stirred and looked up at him. Bruce took a long breath before sitting on the arm of his usual chair. "Uncle Clark's resting in the medical bay right now. Yesterday afternoon, he was fighting a new criminal in Metropolis, one made of metal and had a large piece of kryptonite at its core. Weakened, Superman was not impenetrable and thrown through several buildings. Resulting in multiple fractures, abrasions and… penetrations."

"Huh?"

"Broken bones, bruising, and stuff going through his body," Dick translated for Jason.

"Oh."

Bruce nodded and continued. "The moment I learned of the fight, I sent Uncle Barry out to find him and regroup. I had hoped he wouldn't be in such bad shape, but I was prepared on the chance he was. Wonder Woman took down the criminal last night and will give me a report in a few hours. We managed to remove all the items and set his bones in place, but we do not have any spare Kryptonian blood to help in the healing process.

"We've done all we can," he concluded. "Now it's only a matter of time. There's only so much we can do with our knowledge of Kryptonian physiology."

"So… Uncle Clark is okay?" Timmy finally spoke for the first time since seeing the Man of Steel so badly beaten.

"We hope so." Jason and Dick exchanged looks, knowing that wasn't a 'yes' or a 'no'. Hopefully, it'd be enough to calm the baby genius down. He did not handle death well. "In any case, he's staying here, under sun lamps, until he is stable and well enough to tell us how to help him. He mentioned a healing machine once in his Fortress of Solitude or something. He really needs to share more information about his people to us. It would have helped last night."

"But he's out of the woods," Jason interjected, "right?"

Slowly their father nodded. "As far as we can tell, yes. He should pull through in a few days."

Sighs of relief escaped all of their lips, draining the tension from the room. So long as there was a Superman, they could breathe easy.

But they also needed to laugh. "So… are you going to be a surgeon now?"

Bruce snorted. "Not if I have anything to say about it. Everyone get to bed. Four hours minimum and I'll let you see him."

The group nodded and slowly left their seats. It was a long night, and like with real bats, it was finally time to sleep.

By noon Lesslie deemed Mr. Kent stable enough to be placed in a normal bed. Bruce and Diana managed to get him in one of the guest rooms before any of the children managed to stir into consciousness. Every window was uncovered and the sun warmed him into wakefulness mere seconds before small hands opened his door. Clark turned his head slowly towards the sound and groggily smiled at his visitor. "Hey there Timmy. What's going on?"

Bashfully, the kid hid most of himself behind the door. "Sorry to wake you Uncle Clark. I was just checking if you… were still..."

"No… no I was already waking up." Still groggy, he looked up at the canopy above him. Weird stuff. This definitely wasn't his apartment. "Where am I? What am I – Owww..."

The dull aching in his body grew with each second. Okay, it wasn't the sun pleasantly waking him up. It was his body's metabolism finally overcoming the painkillers used during his procedure that woke him up. Now he felt pain, and everywhere. That didn't happen very often. "Owww..."

"Are you okay?!" Freaking out, the boy ran to his bedside and then backed away. "Dad said you might be in a lot of pain but to not touch you because that'd make it worse and to ask you if there was a kryptonian painkiller out there because they didn't want to continue using kryptonite to make human medicine work on you because that'd give you really bad poisoning that we couldn't cure and you really need to tell us how to make you better or you'll never fly again and we don't want that because we really love you Uncle Clark and the world needs Superman and your parents would be sad and the League would die and -"

"I'm fine," Clark interjected quickly, trying to suppress his pain. Great Scott it hurt! "I'm perfectly fine. You mind getting your dad, Timmy? I think he should know I'm alive."

"Okay! I'll go get him!" And like a shot, the boy was gone. The alien let out a long breath, trying to collect his thoughts when another heartbeat ended up in the doorway. In fact, three heartbeats.

"Liar." He looked over to see Cass glaring at him shrewdly. "You're not fine."

"He looks like he was hit by a truck," Dick stated.

"More like a train," Jason critiqued.

Clark let out a long sigh. He couldn't argue. It felt like he was hit by a train, if he was at half power that is. Oh how it hurt. How did this happen again? "Good morning to you too."

"It's two in the afternoon." Cass' frankness was almost identical to her father's. Gone were the days of total muteness but her sentences remained direct. "Dad, Lesslie, Alfred, and Uncle Barry worked on you all night."

"You were a real mess when we first saw you." Dick and Jason led the way to his bedside, sitting on the edge of it or on a nearby chair so he didn't have to talk loud. "Can't say you're much prettier now, but at least you don't have a steel rod going through your shoulder."

"You're lucky your vitals weren't badly damaged," Dick chipped in. "Or we think they weren't. Could it kill you to give Bruce all the info you've got on Kryptonian anatomy and medicine? Fixing you up would be a lot less painful."

Clark hated to point it out, but, "You guys make a game out of theoretically taking down the League at the dinner table."

"Which would help if we ran into Zod," the teen retorted. "If we can take down you, we can take down Zod. Now," he stared down the Man of Steel in a way he hadn't seen from anyone but the Dark Knight, "what can we do to make you heal faster? None of us want to see you broken like this again."

"And tell us about this 'Metallo' guy." Jason's glare nearly matched his brother's. His sister joined them against the bedpost. "We'll add him to our game."

"Metallo..." For a moment Clark struggled to remember who that was, then nearly jerked out of bed in alarm. The aches and stiffness of his body prevented that though.

"Aunt Diana took him down," Dick informed him, calming him slightly. "But we don't know everything. Tell us what you know and we'll help you get out of here sooner."

Clark stopped for a moment, watching these kids trying to interrogate him for his sake. He let out a long breath. Even if Bruce Wayne retired to be a family man, Batman was still the guy raising them.

Bruce lingered in the hallway, listening to the questions and answers with great interest. They got all the information he needed within twenty minutes and helped him develop a plan of action quite easily. Before the blue boy scout could exhaust himself with talking, Bruce managed to send a text to Diana, informing her of something to pick up from Superman's fortress before flying back and getting more details on their latest enemy. He'd have to look further into Metallo as soon as he had the chance. Then develop a few strategies to take him down, and any like him, in the future. There was quite a bit of work to be done.

"Dad?" Timmy looked up to him, tugging on his jacket. "Why aren't you going inside?"

"Too many cooks spoil the broth."

"Huh?"

Bruce chuckled softly before putting away his phone. "Your siblings are doing a great job getting the information I wanted, and me being in there right now would only make it harder. I'll wait until they're satisfied and he has a chance to rest some more. Then I'll ask some follow up questions. Better for everyone."

"Oh."

His dad smiled and rubbed his head. "Sorry I was so scary last night. I didn't have any time to be kind."

"That's okay. You were still being kind to Uncle Clark." Timmy smiled softly. "You saved his life, Dad. You're a real hero."

"Glad I haven't lost my touch." That made his boy laugh. At least he wasn't horribly scarred by this. That was all a father, or even his 'uncle', could want.

A/N: Wasn't entirely sure how to end this so I did the best I could. The prompt was pretty much 'how would the kids react to Superman being near death?' And this is how. Shock, despair, and wouldn't recover until dad says he's going to be alright. They'd also lecture him to get more info to prevent this from happening again. Gotta love the batkids.

Superman has a permanent room in the manor after this. Just saying.

Now for RL-ish, I have a youtube channel! please watch it and help me get motivated to make more vids. almost done with a Justice League review too. It's slow and disorganized right now, but I'm not really that dedicated at the moment. ah well. Anywho, until next time!