Disclaimer: Wish I owned YJ, but I down. Screw CN for taking it off air.
Anyways, new chapter. Up later then intended, but I changed the viewpoints and I wanted to reread some of the comics to get the character right. And thanks for the reviews!
Third Trial
When the children were once again put to bed, a second, informal meeting of the Justice League was called together. Only members who were available or mentors attended. Thankfully, it meant for a smaller meeting at the Watchtower, between Batman, Superman (who Barry was positive had been bullied to stay by Black Canary and Batman), Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Aquaman, Zatara, Captain Marvel, Hawkwoman, and Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. Oh, and Barry himself.
During the time it took for everyone to gather, Barry had called his wife Iris, and explained the situation as best as he could. It took him three tries to speak in normal speed, but it had all worked out. Iris offered to explain the situation to Mary and Rudy, something which Barry was more than grateful for. The last thing he needed was to inform Mary and Rudy that his nephew had skewered his memories, age and body. Fact was, Wally was a five year old speedster with memories of being nine or ten, well, scratch that, Wally had a scrambled assortment of memories at the moment. How the hell do you explain that over the phone?
Not that Barry hadn't done the best damn job he could. He'd planned the entire thing out ten minutes prior. Which was a whole heck of a lot of time. He'd managed to recreate almost a hundred scenarios to how the phone-calls should go. He was lucky he'd managed to do as well as he did, in the little time he had. Speedsters definitely had an advantage there.
"Well, what now?" asked Green Arrow with impatience lacing his voice.
"We can't keep them here," said Black Canary with a sigh, "They're still children, and a prolonged exposure in space could damage their bodies. We have no clue what the effects could be."
"The Cave?" offered Hal, trying to encourage a positive outlook, though the bastard was having way too much fun watching them squirm.
"And who will care for them there?" asked Zatara, well, more demanded than asked.
"It's not even set up as a nursery," added Hawkwoman, the voice of reason to the situation.
Before any further pandemonium could break out among the arguing adults, the Batman stepped in, and in that firm, gravelly voice said, "Shut up."
Everyone went silent around Barry, and the speedster glanced over at Batman, and seeing Bruce's worry seep out for a moment before it was silenced by the Bats. He was tapping his foot impatiently, up and down, up and down, up, down, up, down, down, down, down. Over and over to try and keep sane. A hand came on his shoulder, and he saw Marvel glance to his leg, and he stopped, a little sheepish.
"So we have three main issues to cover for there whereabouts," came the Batman's logical manner, "First we need to establish a location for their stay. Second, we need to determine a set of guards for the children. And third, we need to acquire materials to care for children."
"Well, why not send them off to their parents?" asked Hawkwoman, and everyone glanced around.
"Artemis's mother is in a wheelchair," came Green Arrow's sigh, "Even if she is capable, a five year old is a lot of responsibility, and if her less than friendly relatives show up, Paula Crock's not going to be able to keep Artemis safe."
"And we've already discussed how this could be a part of a larger attack," explained J'onn, "Besides, M'gann has been staying at the cave, and I would not know where to keep her."
"Not to mention Superboy doesn't have a place to stay," said Black Canary, and Barry purposefully knew she had avoided mentioning that he did have a father, as Superman squirmed and looked away, earning a glare from Batman, "And not just anyone can handle a five-year-old Kryptonian."
"Mary and Rudolph aren't exactly young anymore," added Barry, "I mean, they'd love to take Wally, but I can't see them being able to keep up with a five-year-old speedster all day between their jobs."
"Then ship him off to daycare during the day," said Hal, which suddenly made everyone stare at him.
"A daycare," muttered Green Arrow, "That's actually pretty logical. Do we have a daycare for tiny tots, Bats?"
"There isn't one set up," said Batman. "But it has potential."
"But what about night-care?" asked Hawkwoman, "And who will run this daily care system?"
"Night-care we can send them back to their parents," said Black Canary, already plotting, "I'm sure Aqualad has a friend in Atlantis who can host him for the nights-
"I will see to it that he stays in the palace," interjected Aquaman.
"Wally can surely spend the nights at home or with you Flash. M'gann can stay over with J'onn for the nights up here. That leaves Superboy and Artemis, and even Artemis's situation is easy. Ollie and I can have Artemis stay with us and take her to see her mom during the evenings," said Black Canary decisively.
"Er- what?" asked Green Arrow, his jaw agape. Obviously he hadn't planned to adopt another kid.
"What about Superboy?" asked Captain Marvel, "He could stay with me! I've always wanted a little brother!"
"No," came Batman's voice, his eyes boring into Superman, as were most heroes, "As well as you could care for the kid, Billy, your uncle wouldn't be able to keep up with a Kryptonian."
"I can't take him," argued Superman, glaring at the Bats, "Clark Kent doesn't have a clone."
"But surely you can watch him for a few nights," said Canary, jumping in as the Bats looked ready to retort, "Clark Kent lives alone after all."
"No way," said Superman, as all eyes narrowed on him, "There are others! He's not my-
"We'll deal with Superboy when the time comes," said Batman firmly, ending the conversation. "Bigger questions at the moment. If we do start this daycare, who will run it?"
"Could we convince a few heroes out of retirement to babysit?" asked J'onn logically.
"What about teenage sitters? Not many heroes can be convinced out of retirement," said Barry, as he thought of Jay. While the old speedster wouldn't mind joining up, he couldn't see Jay as being able to handle seven five-year-olds over a course of how long this would take on a day-to-day basis.
"Where would we find these sitters?" asked Canary to Barry, and he sighed.
"Summer vacation hasn't started. Retired sitters could be best," said Batman, as though he was thinking of a logical solution already.
"Roy! He's not retired, but this would be a great opportunity for him to reconnect!" said Green Arrow excitedly, and Barry inwardly sighed at the other man's attempts to rekindle his relationship with the wayward son. But it could work. Or fail spectacularly like Green Arrow's many phone-calls at the start of Speedy's angry outburst.
"But we should have a few retired heroes on hand as well for other days," suggested Hawkwoman.
"I can ask the old Flash," said Barry finally.
"I could try to persuade Wildcat," offered Black Canary with a pensive look, "But he's not really the type to be good with small kids."
"Let's keep him as a back-up back-up," offered Superman, finally adding to the conversation instead of pretending the issue didn't involve him, "What about the old Green Lantern? The one that's not in the corps?"
"Alan Scott? I could try and find him," offered Hal.
"Not to be a buzz kill or anything," began Green Arrow, having seen the growing flaw in this plan, "But aren't the old-timers awkward around kids? I mean, seriously, Wildcat and five-year-olds? I think the teenagers will do just fine. Besides, we can have the League in and out of the cave to monitor the situation."
"I'm with Arrow on this one," added Barry quickly, "I mean, the old Flash is a great guy, but I mean, he has a life outside of being a hero. And these kids are going to be a handful with their powers, and memory issues."
"The memories will sort themselves out as the children's bodies begin to function more normally," interjected Zatarra, "But I too am uncomfortable leaving the children with the elderly. Zatanna as a child was mischievous in her magic, and the type to question everything."
"Perhaps we should revisit this idea of teenage caretakers," began Aquaman, "I have not heard of such a program. What is the purpose of youth caring for youth? Where are the nursemaids and parents?"
"The teenagers would just handle the whole care part, the protection part would be up to the League," informed Batman, not really giving any sort of explanation on how babysitters worked. Unable to answer a damn question properly. Just like the Bats.
"Babysitters are teenagers who act as stand-in for parents and older siblings," explained Barry gently, "It's not a bad idea, but if Roy's the only one-
"Maybe not," offered Batman, still keeping his thoughts to himself.
"I could ask for help from some of the students in Atlantis," suggested Aquaman, seeming to warm to the idea, "I know two of Kaldur'ahm is friends would be most delighted."
"What about food? How are we going to get these kids fed if the teens are in charge of cooking? They could be awful cooks!" asked Barry, already thinking of Wally's hyper-metabolism.
"Hold up- We're jumping way ahead," said Hal firmly, "We still need to figure out the whole in-between stuff. Teen sitters is a good plan, or a bad plan depending on the arguments. But none of that matters when it comes down to the fact that the Cave isn't a nursery. It'll take at least a few days to get it nursery-like, tops a week. Not to mention we need to sort out who's actually looking after them. The League of Shadows had a reason for this."
And like that, the meeting continued. Each passing minute had Barry looking at every situation with ten angles. Each angle would be torn to pieces by a logical or convoluted argument thrown in later. And Barry could safely say by the end of the meeting, he wasn't too sure if he still had a real explanation for Iris or not.
Hal wasn't sure how he'd been roped into this. One minute he was laughing at Ollie and Barry, the next Batman was ordering him about. Course he'd argued that it wasn't his responsibility, but Ollie and Barry had sided with the Bats. So now he was using his ring to carry children's clothing in one green shopping bag made of the aura like projection, and in another similar bag, food. Apparently he was drafted because the mentors would have their hands full. Bullshit. He was drafted because he'd been laughing too much at them. He knew. Bats knew. Ollie and Barry knew. And nothing could be done about it.
So here he was, with the rest of the Justice League kiddie monitors outside the door to the sick bay. As the meeting wrapped up, the monitors alerted Bats to the kids waking up. Not that J'onn and Superman were far behind, already hearing, or in J'onn's case, sensing their cries. Standing outside, it was the most surreal thing to see. All the kids were bawling loudly, except for Superboy, who looked extremely confused and distraught as he huddled himself in the blanket, rocking back and forth, with his hands over his ears. Probably the sensitive hearing kicking in. Artemis was crying, then wiping her eyes, and then crying again. M'gann, curiously enough seemed to stop crying. Her bed was by the one-way glass, but she pressed her hand to it anyways, and J'onn in turn pressed his hand to the glass, apparently already soothing her. Hal noticed immediately that as M'gann stopped crying, the other children seemed to start to calm down too.
Black Canary was quick to enter, followed by Zatara, Batman and Flash, who seemed to be having a competition to get through the door. Zatara won narrowly as he used magic to expand the doorway and enter comfortably, with the Flash zooming past. Batman had disappeared and reappeared by Robin's bedside before Hal could even blink. He turned to see Ollie awkwardly following Dinah to Artemis, as J'onn floated through the wall to M'gann's side, still silent and quiet as they spoke. The only kid without anyone was Superboy, and judging from his sad, lonely puppy-dog expression, the kid definitely noticed.
The person who should have been by his side was frozen beside Hal. He turned to see Superman struggling to do anything. If it wasn't for the kid's lonely attempt to distract himself with his toes, Hal would have just nudged the guy and moved inside. Unfortunately, the pitiful site was tugging on Hal's heartstrings, even if he'd refuse to admit it later on.
"Don't get me wrong or anything," began Hal awkwardly, "But the kid looks like he could use a friend."
Superman snapped out of whatever dazed moment he was in, and stared at Hal with a scared expression.
"Kids don't bite- much," stabbed Hal again, "Besides, you're invulnerable, he can't hurt you."
"Right," muttered the big blue Kryptonian, before he nervously stumbled into the room and over to the bed.
Hal stayed outside for a minute, giving everyone some privacy. He noticed Dinah, after having taken Artemis into her arms and explained the situation, was about to move to Connor, but stopped as the Kryptonian approached. A satisfied look was in her eyes as she held the blonde girl on her hip. The kid was enjoying the moment, as she leaned into Dinah and wrapped her arms around the woman's neck. Ollie hovered beside her, and she was staring at him with curiosity, while Ollie moved around her in fear. He snorted at that. Trust Ollie to be nervous of a kid.
Over with Superman, the kid, Superboy, seemed to recognize him, and stared in wide-eyed awe. Superman stood over the bedside, with Dinah practically glaring daggers into his back. Despite being unable to hear the actual conversation, he saw the kid point to the 'S' shield, and Superman nodding, before sitting nervously by the kid, who immediately scrambled to sit in the same manner, legs hanging of the edge of the bed, facing the man.
Over with the Bats, Robin was virtually nowhere to be seen, but Batman had his cape wrapped around him, like he was holding something. His head was bowed down, and it was impossible to tell, but Hal had a sneaking suspicion Robin was talking to the Bats from inside there. Zatara was listening to Zatanna babble as she made wide gestures with her arms, Zatara holding her from the front so they were speaking face to face, and he seemed to radiate happiness as he held the girl. Over with the Flashes, Barry was sitting on the hospital bed, with Wally sitting across from him, and he didn't have to be an idiot to know that they had gone into speedster talk, though if Wally knew, he didn't know.
Finally, Hal entered the room, and managed to hear the snippets of conversation as he moved to the Martian group first. Easiest ones, since M'gann simply morphed her body to resemble clothing. All he had to do was hand them a packet of oreos, a juice box, and a sandwich, and he was done. The Martians were floating above the bed, sitting cross-legged as they spoke. Sensing his approach, J'onn turned to nod to him, getting the little alien girl's attention.
"M'gann, this is my friend and fellow member of the Justice League. He is a Green Lantern on Earth," said J'onn, as the girl cocked her head. "Forgive M'gann for not addressing you, she is still unused to the idea of vocals on Earth. Her memory is quite scrambled, and she does not quite remember much about Earth customs just yet. And as most children at such a young age, she is more comfortable telepathically conveying her desires."
"No problem kid," he said, smiling warmly at the little girl, as J'onn continued, "She asks of me what a friend on Earth is like, so I conveyed the thought."
To his intense surprise, as J'onn finished that sentence, the little girl bounded at him, hugging him across the waist, and he suddenly felt warm and happy, and then he realized it was radiating from the kid, who was beaming up at him. J'onn mentally said something or the other to her, and she backed off, still beaming like a crazy kid up at him.
"What exactly did you tell her about friendship?" asked Hal, still taken aback at the warm reception.
"I merely conveyed the idea as expressed on Earth, and the feelings associated. M'gann is still a child, and thus her emotions get the better of her," explained J'onn, "It's why the other children must have been as upset as they were. Her own feelings of grief and fear affected those around her. As her happiness affects you."
"Strong kid," said Hal, as he pet her head, and she smiled up at him. She was cute, with those big orange eyes, and her orange hair, now done in pig-tails. Her outfit had morphed into a blue dress, flowery. Something his niece had worn once maybe.
"Indeed," said the Manhunter with a nod, "But a bit distracting. M'gann, focus your feelings towards myself, not Hal."
"Ah, anyways, lunch-time," said Hal, snapping out of the fuzzy warmth as M'gann turned her attention back to J'onn, moving closer to him. He dug out the oreos, a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, and an apple flavoured juice box and handed them to the kid, who looked intrigued. J'onn helped her open the sandwich from it's wrapper, and she took a bite. He saw the older alien's attention on the oreos, and sighing, he fished out a second pack for him.
"Thank you," said the Martian, smiling at him, before returning to his silent conversation with M'gann.
Hal moved to the next bed, still a bit thrown by that experience, and suddenly wished he'd gone backwards. Now he was stuck with the next pair of aliens, who were considerably more awkward. The two Kryptonians were staring at each other, apparently conversation wasn't an option. Superman turned to him, relief entering his eyes.
"Green Lantern!" he said happily, "Superboy, this is Green Lantern, Lantern this is Superboy."
"Hey kid," he said, as the boy looked over him curiously, head cocked to the side. Another quite one. Great. "Er, I got some clothes and food for you. Here."
He plucked out the clothes first. Superboy's package was a pair of jeans for the five-year-old, and a little black shirt with the 'S' shield, just like his costume. The boy stared in awe at the shirt, apparently pleased, before turning to Superman curiously.
"Mine?" he asked softly, pointing to the S on the shirt, and then to Superman's, "Like yours?"
"Yours, like mine," nodded the alien, relieved the kid was responding. "Do you need help putting it on?"
"I can," replied the kid, easily ripping the hospital gown away. He wasn't ashamed about nudity, that's for sure, though the torn gown covered his legs and nether parts. With a much gentler touch, he pulled the shirt on, however, he was struggling to find the arm holes. To Hal's surprise, Superman helped him pull the shirt on, before taking the underwear in Superboy's package, and helping the kid step into it. The same occurred with the pants.
"There you go," said Superman gently, "Want to eat?"
The boy looked around, and then back at Superman before asking, "Like food? Or like tubes? I remember eating both."
"No tube food kid, just sandwiches, juice box and oreos," said Hal, fishing out the same sandwiches, juice and oreo packets he'd done with M'gann. The kid struggled with the wrapper. The unfortunate sandwich got torn in half at his attempts, before Superman took it off for the kid, who stared up in awe at the man as though he had just saved Metropolis. Again.
"How's the memory?" asked Hal, as the boy ate.
"He remembers vague things, but he's not too talkative. The most I know is he remembers the Cave and Cadmus, but what exactly, no clue, but I guess I'm working on it," said Superman, looking frazzled.
"I remember shtuff," said the boy, tearing away from the sandwich, which was almost over. Poor kid must have been starving.
"Like what?" asked Hal, and the boy now stared at him.
"The G-gnomes and Wally and Robin and M'gann and Artemis and Aqualad and Zatanna and the moon!" said the boy quickly, looking at the two older men.
"That's great," said Hal as he continued, "What do you remember about them?"
"It's fuzzy. Like the TV but that makes no pictures until someone presses a button," said the boy seriously, and Hal nodded as though he understood the analogy.
"Do you know who this guy is?" he asked, pointing to Superman.
"I already established that," said Superman with a glare at the Lantern, as Superboy simply said, "Superman."
The boy was now stabbing the juice-box with the straw, and in another series of misfortunes, he stabbed the straw straight through the box, exploding juice all over himself. The boy stared in wonder at the box, and the juice splashed all over him and the blanket. Superman looked dismayed as the boy stared at Hal, and asked, "Can I do that again?"
"Er, no kiddo, the point is to drink the juice," said Hal, fetching out another juice box, another shirt and jeans set for the kid and this time putting the straw in the box for the boy. "Have fun cleaning him up Superman."
The dismayed older man took the extra clothes, which Hal was relieved were packed, and set them aside as he went to the medicine cabinet, hidden in the wall and requiring the fingerprint of a League member to open, and grabbed some wet wipes to wipe the boy down as he sipped the juice at a much slower rate than he had the sandwich.
Moving on, the next group on his list was the unfortunate Bat family. Batman turned to glare at him as he came over. Robin was still barricaded behind his cape. Talk about a pleasant guy. Hal grinned and said, "Food and clothing for the kid."
"Pass it over," growled Batman, to which Hal did so, handing a miniature Robin costume. The costume was obviously store-bought, as the cape was fully yellow and the belt was made of cheap plastic.
"You're welcome," said Hal, rolling his eyes as Batman collected the items without even moving the cape so he couldn't see the kid. And with that, he was dismissed over to Zatara and Zatanna.
"Zatanna, you remember Green Lantern?" asked Zatara, looking over his daughter, who stared at the man.
"Yes daddy," she said, now staring at him with a curious, bright blue set of eyes.
"Just bringing over the food and clothing," said Hal, handing a miniature, girly version of Zatara's magician costume over to the kid, and the food.
"It's like yours daddy!" said Zatanna excitedly, showing her father the clothes.
"Yes it is," said Zatara, warmth in his eyes. "Let's get you dressed."
Taking that as an initiative to walk over to Ollie, Hal left the father and daughter to pull the bedside curtains and enjoy the together. Green Arrow now was talking to Artemis, while Black Canary kept her eyes on Superman and Superboy, but Artemis in her arms.
"How's the whole parental aspect to the mentoring thing going?" asked Hal, as he handed over a green version of the Green Arrow costume. Artemis having just debuted wasn't popular enough yet to have her own costume. Lucky enough, the Green Arrow costume was tailored for girls.
"It's going great," said Ollie, glaring at him, before smiling down at Artemis and saying, "Artemis, this is Green Lantern, you remember him, right?"
"Yeah, dad used to say the Lanterns are like night-lights, y'know? Cause they're useless and only make babies feel safe," said the little girl bluntly, "But he's your friend, right?"
"Night-lights," chortled Ollie, as Dinah turned to Hal and said, "He's okay with Superboy, right?"
"Er, seems fine. Kid doesn't really talk much that makes sense, but Superman isn't running away yet," said Hal, as he glared over at Ollie. "Anyways, Artemis, right?"
"Yeah," said the little girl, glancing up at him, "Hi."
"Hi Artemis," he replied, "Just so you know, the Green Lantern Corps is way more awesome than night-lights. It takes a special kind of person to work the ring."
Wrong thing to say. The kid turned bright red, and looked really sad as she huddled into Dinah and said, "Sorry," in a small voice. She turned to Dinah and continued with, "I messed it up didn't I?"
"Hey, nobody messed up," said Ollie, as Dinah added, "He's not mad sweetie."
"Er- what?" asked Hal, a bit taken aback.
Ollie gave him a sharp look, before taking Hal a bit aside as Dinah said, "I'll get her changed, give me a minute?"
"She's got issues," said Ollie bluntly, "Apparently her memories really distorted, and while she feels older, her body's natural childish tendencies are taking over. Plus her insecurities from the past and now are sort of wired together, so she's already tense around heroes, and even more afraid that we're going to send her back to her dad and the League of Shadows and train her or something. She's pretty much the most comfortable with Dinah because she remembers training with her and the occasional patrols together, combined with the fact that Dinah seems to know how to deal with this situation, well, she's good with it."
"And you?" asked Hal, as Ollie grimaced.
"I'm learning," said the archer reluctantly.
"Well, good luck," said Hal, "I'll leave you to it."
With that, the Green Lantern moved over to his final group of the day, the Flash family. The speedsters were so engrossed in their conversation, that he had to toss the food down in between the two, leaving five sandwiches, three juice boxes, and two packs of oreos for Kid Flash. He stopped talking, and cried out, "Food!"
Within seconds the wrapper was off the first sandwich and he was scarfing it down, moving like a little yellow blur as the second sandwich moved into his hand, taking the place off the first. Barry laughed at the kid, before turning to Hal and saying, "Hey."
"He's still in Flash worship phase then?" asked Hal, "Come to think of it, was he ever not in that phase?"
"He's having a bit of trouble differentiating between the Flash and Uncle Barry," said Flash, grimacing a bit, "I mean, he knows we're the same, but his memories are distorted to the point where he remembers instances with Barry, and instances with the Flash, but he can't seem to link them together as the same person. He knows he's Kid Flash though."
"That- How does that even work?" asked Hal, amazed.
"Well, he's talking to me about events that happened when we were doing the hero thing, but then when he mentions us going home for dinner or something, he'll talk about his Uncle Barry, and he calls me Flash. I asked him if he knew me, and he said yeah, and told me I was Uncle Barry, but he still differentiates it," said Flash, shrugging it off.
The kid was now downing a juice box, his other hand diving into a bag of oreos, despite two sandwiches still unwrapped. Apparently he was taking a break.
"So, to your house now?" said Hal with a nod.
"Yeah, to the house," said Flash, accepting the costume from Hal for Kid Flash.
"Can't say I envy you, telling Iris this," said Hal with a chuckle.
"Maybe she'll be too distracted with Wally to freak out," offered Flash with a shrug, "Besides, she knows the basics of the situation already."
"True, but by the time you get home, it's going to be four in the morning," said Hal with a shrug.
"She probably didn't sleep," moaned Flash, as Kid Flash turned to him and said, "We're notgoingtomyhouse?"
"You're staying over with Iris and me Kid," explained Flash, "Until we can age you back up."
"Okaythatsocoolcanwegeticecreamandstuff?" asked Kid Flash, still in hyperspeed.
"Slow down Kid," said Flash, laughing at the boy's excitement, "You're talking too fast again."
"Oh," said the kid, blushing, "Sorry Flash. Sorry GL."
"It's no problem Kid," said Green Lantern with a grin, ruffling the kid's hair, "I'm going to head on out anyways, this is more your angle then mine. Have fun you two."
"See you!" said the two Flashes in unison, before returning to their usual behavior as Hal left the sick bay, relieved to be out of that situation. He tossed a head back to see the group, and couldn't help feeling a little happy for all of them. He wasn't really jealous, the whole parenting this wasn't his forte and nor did he want any part in it, but the group seemed so content. It was great for them, even if they didn't quite see it yet.