Just a precursor before you read this chapter- I'm well aware that this isn;t my best work, but remember that these are some of my earlier chapters that I wrote at least a year or so ago when I was thirteen- the writing gets better as the story progresses. I'm trying to re-upload all the chapters that god deleted when I tried to do something on here while half asleep. That's, in total, 92 chapters- good things come to those who wait! :)
"I managed to check the blood samples... there's a drop on blood cells." Flash said. They'd spent over three hours struggling to think about a cause...
"A drop?" Superman asked, looking shocked. "But if it were a virus or bacteria, there'd be an increase in cells, right?"
"Which means it probably isn't a virus." Flash confirmed, looking grim. "The downside to this is that they're lacking platelets, meaning if they bleed, it probably won't clot..."
"Meaning they're losing against this thing, whatever it is." Batman said, feeling dread well up in him.
"Yes. I hate to say it, but whatever is causing this isn't showing up in their bodies. No viruses or bacteria, but the fevers and dehydration very well could kill them if we don't find the cause and stop it." Flash sighed. "Meaning, if we don't stop this soon, they'll die."
"But what is causing it!?" Superman punched the wall, frustrated. "No virus, no bacteria, what is it!?"
"Kal, calm down..." Wonder Woman said, using his Kryptonian name. The man of steel rarely got frustrated, but now he definitely was...
"Don't tell me to calm down, Diana! Children are dying! What did they do to deserve this!?"
"Wait!" Batman stood, suddenly having an idea. "That's it. Poison."
"They didn't get into anything, though..." Oliver said, looking confused.
"No. But maybe something got into them." Batman was already running scans on his wrist computer...
"You mean someone intentionally poisoned them?" Hal asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying." Batman said, nodding. "The scans will take an hour to complete, but then we might be able to figure out what the substance was..."
"When I find out who, they'll regret it..." Superman said, glancing down at the children who were all struggling against their rising temperatures and illness.
"What about Mezzo?" Diana asked, and everyone looked up. "You mean that old medical android we powered down years ago?" Batman asked.
Hal nodded. "Theoretically, it could be remotely hacked..."
Batman swore under his breath, heading to the back room. Were he in charge, he'd have had the droid disassembled long ago... He pulled it out of storage, checking the use log. Nothing. He checked the deleted history, accessing into the system files, and it was there... Ten hours prior, the droid had been up into the East Wing, where the children had been found...It'd now been six hours the children were sick, and Batman strode into the room.
"East Wing. Now." he ordered. Everyone nodded they left Flash on duty with the children, heading to the room where they'd been found...
"We have record of the droid being controlled to enter here ten hours prior. Whatever it was that infected them made contact with them here." Batman said simply. "We figure out what it is, now."
They searched the room for ten minutes, then fifteen... "I feel the effects of it already." Batman said. Hal nodded. "Feeling kinda dizzy..." he admitted.
"Radiation..." Superman gasped.
"What?" Diana asked, looking equally as shocked.
"Kryptonians run on sun and radiation. I feel significantly stronger now... whatever it is is emitting high radiation... I can hear it."
"Hear what?" Hawkman asked, holding his head.
"A high frequency, too high to be heard by humans. The higher the frequency of a radio wave, the more radiation emitted..." The man of steel pulled up a floor board to reveal several hundred radio transmitters, the size of a fingernail, all emitting the high frequency wave...
"We need to know how long they were playing here for." Superman ordered, as he started to crush each tiny transmitter. Batman nodded. "I'll check the cameras and inform Flash." all the humans bailed out of the room, away from the radiation, until Superman finished destroying the transmitters...
Batman stared. "They were exposed for an hour and a half." he said calmly. "All of them. The reasons we didn't feel the effects was because the radiation reaching out from their to the whole base was minimal, thanks to the thick walls... but the kids felt the effects sooner since they're smaller."
Flash nodded. "So we treat the radiation sickness as best we can. Superman estimates they were exposed to around 4 gyus each, if it'd gone any higher, it might've killed them." he explained. "It'll help that the source is destroyed now..."
"B-batman!" they heard the hoarse cry and found Dick, vomiting into a bed pan. He looked haggard, exhausted, and were all deteriorating fast.
"Bruce- p-please, help..." he begged, and Batman recovered himself, hurrying forward to soothe the boy through the vomiting fit.
"It's alright, Dick. You have radiation sickness, but you'll be fine..." inside, though, he was feeling worse than ever as he watched his son vomit, gasping and struggling, in so much pain he could barely breathe.
"M-make it stop- please..." Dick pleaded.
Batman nodded calmly, injecting the boy with as much painkiller as he dared. "Trust me, Dick, you'll feel better soon." He promised, brushing the matter, sweat covered mop of raven hair from the boy's eyes. Dick simply closed his eyes and drifted off...
As soon as he did, Scarlet sat up and retched, puking into her own bed pan, and Batman rushed to soothe his other child and stopped dead. She wasn't just vomiting, she was vomiting blood.
"T-tati... what's wrong... w-with me?" she pleaded, looking scared as tears cascaded down her face, mixing with the blood.
Batman didn't dare tell her the truth. "Just sick, Scarlet. Trust me, it will stop soon..." she was so exhausted she didn't notice the needle slipping under her skin, injecting her with a bit more painkiller. Still, he didn't dare give her too much of anything while she was in such a bad way...
"T-tati- l-let me die. Please. I-I saw mamica, she's so pretty..." her eyes fluttered closed as she spoke, and Bruce stared. He knew they were all in pain, but for Scarlet to be vomiting blood and on death's door? No, he'd never let her go. He knew John and Mary would never want him to just let her slip away like this.
"Keep fighting for me, please." Batman pleaded, feeling wetness trailing down his cowl but not caring as he sat down between his two children's beds, taking each small hand in his own and preparing for a long vigil.
"U-uncle Barry!" Wally cried, frantic.
"Wally..." Barry raced over to his nephew, and Wally curled up into a ball, sobbing. "It hurts, Uncle Barry, it hurts... I want my mom!"
"I know, kid, but she could get sick too if you were near her..." Barry said, trying to explain the situation to his nephew without telling him how bad everything really was.
"I... I want my mom..." Wally sobbed, not caring how babyish it sounded coming from the mouth of a ten year old. His stomach HURT, and he wanted his mother to hold him and stroke his hair and soothe him like she always did... He cried himself to sleep quietly and quickly, with the help of the sedative Barry injected into him. He leaned his own forehead against his nephew's sweaty, warm one.
"Hang on for me Wally, just hang on..." he said, feeling tearful himself. He tucked the blankets around the boy more snugly, hoping soon the symptoms would lessen...
"Mmmmmm..." Roy woke up feeling incredibly sick, and barely had time to dart forward before the contents of his stomach spilled out into the bedpan that was sitting beside his bed.
He heaved, feeling a cold sweat trickle down his back... the last thing he remembered was Ollie's face...
"Hey Roy..." Roy didn't bother to turn, he was too busy feeling his stomach clench and unclench painfully as he retched... He felt the warm hand rubbing soothing circles on his back and relaxed, leaning into the warm embrace slightly.
"O-ollie..." he managed to choke out between retches. "D-dad..." he managed, finally, between coughing up bile. "W-what happened?"
Oliver's eyes lit up slightly, but he made sure not to let it show. Roy had never before called him Dad, and he only wished the first time wasn't under such circumstances.
"Radiation sickness, buddy. We took care of it..."
Roy nodded, clutching his stomach and feeling the intense pain of muscles that had just recently rebelled against themselves in expelling everything they possibly could... He could handle pain, but he allowed a low moan to escape him.
Oliver's face creased with worry.
"D-dad..." Roy stuttered, and Oliver quickly held the bed pan under his son's chin and allowed the boy to dry heave, every now and then a small amount of bile escaping his mouth and dribbling into the pan.
"Shh, Roy, shh..." Ollie soothed the boy who he'd always thought of as his son, rubbing soothing circles on the boy's back as his stomach continued to rebel. Finally, Roy finished vomiting, and just sat there, struggling to catch his breath and wincing as he clutched his painful stomach...
"H-how are the others? Mmmmm..." Roy groaned as his stomach muscles clenched again.
"You'll all be fine." Oliver lied. Because they might not be fine, but Roy didn't need to know that. It already hurt him to see his boy in so much pain...
He reached out to stroke Roy's hair and the boys leaned into his touch, eyes closed, taking slow, measured breaths.
"O-ollie... it hurts..." Roy whimpered as a stabbing pain his him stomach and he gasped, suddenly feeling dizzy...
"I know, Roy, I know..." Oliver opened his arms and Roy leaned against him, moaning again as he leaned against his father's strong chest, shuddering and breaking out in a cold sweat...
"What you need is rest, buddy. Just focus on rest..." Oliver said, holding his son close to him. Roy nuzzled into him, relaxing even more despite his pain... "You're warm..." he murmured, before he slipped off to sleep.
Despite the feverish heat coming off the boy, Roy was still shivering, and Oliver grabbed the blankets and wrapped them around his son until his shivering lessened considerably. "That's it, Roy, just rest..." Oliver soothed him, hoping soon it would stop...
"They're still fighting." Diana said, looking at the three downcast, desperate mentors. "Bring me the android." Batman ordered. He started tracking the signal of where the robot had been controlled from.
"I found out where the signal came from." he said, showing it to Superman, who looked incredibly angry. "What kind of sick person would do this to children?"
"I don't think the children were the intended targets. We were." Batman said calmly. "The children just got in the way and were hurt first, since they're smaller..."
"But who would do this?" Wonder Woman asked. "They'd have to know about the watchtower..."
"Peter Fletcher." Superman said suddenly. "The scientist we brought up here once. He started making weapons of mass destruction and we broke off with him, but he never forgave us..."
Batman nodded. "A likely suspect. I swear, if any of them din't make it, I'll..."
"No. I take care of this." Superman growled in a Batman like fashion that made everyone stare.
"He hurt innocent children, whether he meant to or not, and he's going to deal with the consequences." he stalled out of the room, leaving everyone to ponder what the man of steel had just said.
Superman was beyond angry. He was PISSED OFF. He'd seen children he loved like his niece and nephews vomiting blood and crying, asking to die… He descended through the atmosphere, towards the coordinates Batman had given him. It was a cabin in the Yukon, and he touched down, not even feeling the chill of the snow around him…. His blood was literally boiling with rage….
He peered in the window to see Fletcher, a short twenty eight year old genius with black hair and deep brown eyes, sitting at a beat up armchair, no doubt designing more weapons as he worked on his laptop. He was wanted by the US, Canadian, and Mexican government for selling weapons to their mobs, and it had been rumored he'd even hooked up with the Red Claw terrorist group (from batman the animated series, Google red claw). For a time. He didn't care about the people he hurt- only sold to who paid the most. After the justice League had exposed him and tried to hunt him, down, he'd developed a deep hatred for them….
He kicked in the door, and it slammed into the opposite wall of the cabin with a thud. Fletcher looked up, surprised, before smiling. "Ah, Superman. Tell me- did the Justice League loose anyone yet?"
"You've gone too far, Fletcher." He said, so angry….
Fletcher's smile widened. "Why? What happened? Did Batman die? I always hated him…."
Superman took a menacing step forwards and Fletcher grinned. "Awww. Is the boy scout going to take me to prison?"
"Who said anything about prison, Fletcher? You hurt innocent children- I just saw a six year old begging to die thanks to you. You don't deserve prison." He took another step forward and Fletcher's eyes widened.
Of course, Superman wasn't planning on killing him- he never killed. But that didn't mean that heads wouldn't roll for this….
Fletcher stood, still clutching his computer and backing up. "Now Superman… I… I didn't mean to get the sidekicks…."
"But you did. And now you'll pay for it." Superman took another step forwards and Fletcher another back, tripping on the rug and falling backwards, managing to squirm backwards until his back was against the wall.
"Superman… I… you wouldn't really kill me…." Fletcher laughed nervously, fear showing in his eyes.
"Try me." Superman lunged forward, seizing the man buy the collar and dragging him outside. He pushed off the ground with tremendous force before flying into the air. Fletcher yelled as Superman flew low over the trees, so low the tips of the man's toes almost hit the branches…. He pulled straight up, until the air started to thin, before dropping Fletcher. The force of everything would've impaled him on the branches, but at the last second, Superman caught him and headed out over the ocean, dropping him again….
Fletcher screamed and thrashed, but Superman caught him right before he hit the water, trailing his toes in the icy spray until he finally passed out from fear.
He dropped Fletcher off at the Metropolis Police station- they'd no doubt identify him and take care of things- before flying back to the Watchtower.
"It's finished." He announced, entering the room.
Batman grinned. "She's stable." He announced, and Scarlet looked up warily from where she was nestled into Batman's arms.
"W-where'd you go, Uncle Clark?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.
"I just had to beat someone up." Superman said, and Dick gaped. "You can do that?" he asked, looking shocked. He'd known that being a superhero meant you were special, but he'd had no idea that you were allowed to do that.
Everyone laughed at the pure awe on the boy's face
Superman smiled. "Yes. Sometimes I can."