Capital

- - - October 13th - - -

"He called it the G-goblin's dream", Conner finished their joint report.

It was Wednesday evening, the team had stopped by at the cave after school. Everyone had gathered in the common room, snacking on Mary's oven-warm pear and ginger cookies, to finally hear his and Megan's recount of their visit at Cadmus.

"I am sure that we can free them", Megan added. "I wasn't strong enough this time. But with another anchor, and more preparation, I should be able to break the conviction that controls them, like my uncle did for Conner."

"When the genomorphs are freed, they can simply show us the other secrets hidden at the underground lab", Conner explained. "All we have to do is keep any of the humans from leaving the facility before Megan is done." He met Aqualad's eyes. "That's our mission. Dubbilex has warned as against moving too soon, but he will give us a call within the next few weeks. By then, we must be ready."

He hated to wait even longer, but his new-found brother had been firm. Their visit last weekend had stirred up too much excitement, their mission had to wait until whoever ran Cadmus had lowered their guards again.

"And then what?", Wally inquired.

"What do you mean?", Megan asked back.

"Look, of course I'm all for freeing them. I'm just asking, are we sure they're gonna be on our side? That is a full army we are talking about, probably about a hundred trolls alone. Are we sure they're not gonna try to take revenge on people for enslaving them, or something like that? If this was a book or a TV series, that would be practically guaranteed…"

"We're not in a TV series", Conner protested.

"Even if they're not hostile, what do we do with them?" Artemis asked. "I mean, what if they want to leave the compound?"

"Why not?" His eyes narrowed.

"People would freak out! I mean, it is the capital city..."

"They would shut Cadmus down for good", Robin threw in. "So the genomorphs would loose their home and their jobs, right?"

"How would we feed them? What do they even eat?", Wally wondered.

"They probably could find employment, if we can get people to trust them", Robin suggested. "Those trolls are strong and dexterous. Maybe construction works? Dwarfs will be easy, they are skilled manual workers. And the elves might be hired as security guards or suchlike…"

Conner shook his head impatiently. "They wouldn't…"

"They'd need some really good PR, if we don't want people driving them out of the country right away", Artemis cut in. "Especially with the G-gnomes' mind-control powers. That's kind of creepy, right?"

"Well, people would not fear them, as long as they still had such a shut-down command installed..."

"Enough!", Conner burst out. "They are people, too!"

Everyone fell silent. Robin, Wally and Artemis looked baffled, as if they did not even understand why he was so upset. Kaldur and Mary kept silent.

Helplessly, he turned towards Megan. She was better with words than him.

Taking his hand, his girlfriend addressed the others. "It's unsettling for us to hear you talk about the genomorphs as if they were a bunch of stray animals that you have to take care of. You make so many assumptions, yet you have not even met them properly! Don't ask 'What do we do with them?', that question is flawed! I mean, it's nice that you want to help them, but don't be so…"

"Patronizing?", Mary offered. "Presumptuous?"

The others dropped their eyes.

"What do they want?", Kaldur spoke up for the first time.

"They wish to stay together", Conner replied. He had talked much with Dubbilex over the past few days. "Of course they want to leave the compound, nobody would want to live in a basement forever. But they won't mind leaving the country, too, if they are not welcome here. They have the skills and knowledge to build a new research facility, under their own management, in any nation willing to give them a chance. What they need are funds, a start-up capital. Without that, they'll never be fully independent."

Of course Dubbilex had only been able to phrase these plans for 'future' genomorphs, still not quite capable of accepting that his own generation could be freed as well.

"How would they get that kind of money?", Artemis asked.

Conner smiled. "Patents."

"They cannot possible apply for patent rights without being legal citizens", Wally protested. "And even if they could, the process usually takes years."

"True. But we are selling a formula directly to a company in Europe, and let them hassle with the legal processes", he explained.

"What kind of formula?", Aqualad inquired, a concerned look on his face.

"A hair growth tincture!", Megan burst out, beaming widely.

The others simply stared.

Then Wally exploded into laughter. One by one, Artemis, Mary and Robin started giggling as well.

Only Kaldur kept staring at her and Conner, completely flabbergasted. "The genomorphs are buying their freedom with a hair growth tincture", he slowly repeated.

"It seems like an easy place to start", Megan explained. "There must be hundreds of medical applications for their research, too, but selling that kind of patent rights would have far more controversial ethical ramifications."

"Dubbilex has been in contact with a cosmetics company in France for over two months now", Conner added. "They are absolutely thrilled, and willing to pay us millions of dollars for one single formula. Apparently, there is a lot of money to be made with hair products."

"There is!", his girlfriend confirmed. "Martian Manhunter is getting advertisements every week, for all kinds of expensive anti-baldness creams and ointments. No one seems to understand that as a shapeshifter, he could grow hair out easily if he ever wanted to…"

That sent Artemis, Wally, Robin and Mary into another fit of giggles.
"Hair growth products", Aqualad repeated again, still shaking his head.