"I love torturing butlers. They're so tolerant," Shayera said, brushing another coat of paint onto her fingernails. It was the third color she'd requested he bring her. This time, he'd brought a bagful of different shades and set them with forced gentleness onto the bed next to her, walking out of the room stiffly.
She waved her hands to dry the paint. "I haven't had girl time like this in forever. We should so do this more often."
Diana sat on the bed across from her. The two of them wore oversized nightshirts as pajamas- holes had been cut in Shayera's to accommodate her wings- and were sharing a bedroom. "We never had these 'sleepovers' on Themyscira," she said, digging through the color choices. "I think I'll tell my mother about them." She selected a color- a deep red- and unscrewed the lid.
"I'll help with that, if you want." Shayera jumped from one bed to the other, using her wings to help her land lightly. She scooted over next to her friend. "So… you gonna tell me about you and Bruce?"
"What about us?" Diana asked, brushing the first coat of polish on her left thumbnail.
"Oh, I don't know, just looks like you like him, is all." Shayera grinned, poking her friend in the ribs playfully.
"Is questioning and torture part of the whole 'sleepover' experience?"
Shayera laughed. "It's called 'girl talk', and yes, it's part of the whole package. As is having snacks…" she said, reaching for the tray Alfred had left a while back. "So. You and Bruce."
***
"Not ready? I'll show you not ready!" A gigantic green pillow flew in Clark's direction. John held his right wrist in his left hand, powering the soft projectile with his ring. Clark ducked out of the way, holding his pillow tightly. John's pillow headed straight for the Martian, who was sitting on his bed, reading yet another book.
J'onn phased through the pillow. "Seriously? Can't I have some quiet here? Or at least could you three take it elsewhere?" He tried to return to his book, but was pummeled by Wally's pillow rapidly.
"Not a chance- you're sleeping in this room with us, and so you're stuck with us! Besides, it's fun to have a pillow fight! Don't you ever have fun? I betcha you don't. I bet you never relax enough to have fun. I could show you the best way to have fun- it's a pillow fight! Look here, you just grab the pillow and hit someone with it!" He demonstrated eagerly.
J'onn waited for a moment, watching for the perfect time, then reached out and snatched the pillow out of Wally's hands. He retaliated with a vengeance, sending Wally across the room. "I'm working on research. Keep your pillow fight in that half of the room," he said, pointing.
"You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would ya?" John quipped. His ring glowed softly as he stared at Clark. From the ring, a large pillow once again grew. Clark gripped his pillow tightly and swung it at John's head. The green pillow blocked the white one, and the battle of the bedroom had begun.
The two of them flew from one side of the room to the other, bashing each other with their pillows. John's became alternately hard or soft, while Clark simply put power into the blows. John flew through the air to land next to Wally.
"That wasn't fair."
"Actually, it was," J'onn said from his spot on the bed. "Your back was turned, and he hit you. Nowhere in the rules is there anything that prevents blows from behind. At least, not in the rules that you're thinking of."
Wally ran over to grab two more pillows. He ran up the wall and landed on Clark's back, and began hitting him over and over. "John! Gimme a hand over here! Quick!"
A giant ring-pillow flew into Clark's face.
***
Alfred Pennyworth winced as yet another loud thump issued from the upstairs bedroom. Loud bangs, crashes, and yells had punctuated his evening. He groaned, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. He understood why Master Bruce had brought the Justice League here; after all, there was no other logical place to bring them. Still, he'd never expected that the world's greatest heroes could be such … trouble.
Take Diana, for instance. The child-princess was constantly demanding something- and insisted on being in charge of everything. She claimed to be caring for Etrigan… most of the time, though, that job- as with everything else- fell on Alfred, the faithful butler.
Wally… now there was the boy he'd blame when the Wayne Family Fortune ran out. The fastest child alive would probably eat them out of the Manor. Not to mention his high-speed, non-stop chatter. Not even peanut butter slowed him down for long.
Alfred sighed as he replaced a pile of books in the library. Who had been reading Mark Twain?
***
On the other side of Wayne Manor, Bruce stepped into his bedroom and closed the door behind him tightly. The conversation with his friends replayed in his mind.
"What about on your end? Any luck with Etrigan?"
"I'm afraid not. He's been transformed into a baby. If he could speak, putting together thoughts and such, I might have had better luck. As it is, he thinks like a baby right now, because he is one. Even if his memory is intact, I can't find out how to unlock it just yet."
"So we're stuck."
"Until one of us can figure out a way to reverse this."
He rubbed his eyes and sighed, pulling back the covers of his huge, king-size bed. He felt like he was letting his friends down. He was the one who usually discovered the answers whatever puzzle faced them- in fact, although Clark had once said otherwise, Bruce was nearly always right. The fact that he couldn't figure this out bothered him no end.
He climbed into bed and lay there, staring at nothing in particular. What had he not searched? What angle had he not considered? He knew he could research Shayera's mace in more detail, but that would only take him so far. It seemed highly unlikely that they'd be able to reverse the spell with one Thanagarian electrical mace.
After tossing and turning for over an hour, he sat up. There was nothing for it- he couldn't sleep.
As a child, he could never sleep without… No. Out of the question. He wouldn't. He couldn't. He would puzzle out Morgan's spell. That would occupy him.
Morgan's son, Mordred, had used the Amulet of First Magic, and had become more powerful than his mother. The problem was that Etrigan had bitten, and subsequently destroyed, the amulet when they defeated Mordred. Bruce hadn't found any trace of the Amulet back at the theme park- and he'd looked.
He couldn't sleep. It was in the closet… in a box on the floor… no one would know he had it… he'd probably be able to sleep once he got it… No! He had to be strong- he wasn't a kid anymore, just an adult in a kid's body!
Maybe tomorrow, he'd go back to the theme park with some gadgets and search more thoroughly for traces of the Amulet. Perhaps he'd be able to find some shard, and recover a bit of the lost magic.
Against his wishes, Bruce found himself opening the closet doors. There it was- the box he'd never been able to throw away. In large, childish scrawl, it read:
BRUCES STUF ONLY
NO PEEPL ALOWD
THAT MEENS YOU ALFRED
I WILL NO IF YOU TUCH IT
He smiled as he opened the box. Right under the lid was a thread, attached to both the lid and the box. A foolproof test to see it anyone had opened his box. The thread was unbroken. Apparently his warning had been heeded.
Inside were treasures he hadn't seen in years. School art projects he'd never been able to force himself to part from. A magic kit- it had a little foam bunny trick where the rabbits seemed to multiply; he hadn't gotten the implied joke as a ten-year-old. Ticket stubs from a concert Alfred had taken him to. And there it was, in the back, buried beneath a handwritten book entitled "I Like Bats" – yes, there it was. He picked it up and closed the box, pushing the treasure chest of childhood memories back behind the rows of clothing.
Bruce fell asleep, tightly holding his stuffed green-and-blue spotted puppy.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Again, thanks to my sister for her brilliance in coming up with random lines. "I love torturing butlers" was hers, inspiring this whole chapter.
Please PM me your ideas for more adventures of the Justice Little League- I'm open to new concepts, as I'd like this story to continue as long as possible, and am open to ideas.
Thanks!