Chapter 28
A/N: Hey everyone! Happy New Year and welcome back! Glad to see y'all're still here enjoying the story. Remember, I just own the story, none of the characters are mine sadly.
/comms/
Telepathy/Flashbacks
Mt. Justice, November 5, 19:43EDT
"I think we had a productive session today," Canary said stretching as her protégé laid sprawled out on the floor, breathing heavily from their spar.
Mike nodded in agreement, staring up at the ceiling. "Yeah. Thanks," he panted, rolling his shoulder, sighing in relief as it popped, "I needed that."
"After our talk earlier today, I'm not surprised," the heroine smiled, offering a hand. "Still, I'm impressed with how much progress you've made."
Reaching out, the teen accepted the support, using it to help get his feet back under him. "I still haven't beat you."
The woman chuckled, "You'll get there one day. Still," she set a hand on his shoulder, "you've come a long way. And I don't just mean with training."
Mike turned to his mentor, raising a brow at her skeptically. "I think Halloween begs to differ."
"Setbacks are normal," Canary replied. "We all have good days and bad days. Halloween just so happened to be a bad day. But," she gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze, "I'm proud that you were willing to talk about it, especially to your friends. I know it's hard for you to open up to others."
Michael glanced away, biting the inside of his cheek. One part wanted to make a wry remark about how it probably wouldn't happen again—and if he had his way, his friends would never see him like that ever again. However, another part of him didn't want her to be disappointed in him. Especially since she was so happy he appeared to be making progress. Mike didn't feel like he was making any progress. But, it did seem like more people were making comments about him seeming happier lately; so maybe he was actually getting somewhere.
He would just have to take her word for it.
"Now," the woman relinquished his shoulder, playfully ruffling his hair, "I think I've kept you long enough. The others should be back by now. Go have fun with your friends."
Rolling his eyes, Mike smiled as he gave his mentor a small wave before he jogged off towards the hangar.
However, he didn't expect to have something tackle him from behind the moment he walked in. "Hey, Rem!" Robin greeted, the boy already hanging off his back with a grin.
"Can't you greet people like a normal person?"
"Nope!"
The older boy sighed, crossing his arms as he waited with the others for M'gann and Conner to return with the Bioship.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for the red and black ship to fly into the cave, ramp descending to let Conner lumber down with a huge crate on his back as the Martian girl levitated two more boxes.
"Did you get everything?"
"Everything on your list Batman," M'gann reassured. "Plus groceries."
Naturally, Wally was the first beside the boxes filled with food as she set them down. "Cookie fixins?"
"Snickerdoodles."
"Babe, you rock my world."
"Stop thinking with your stomach and help put stuff up," Mike scolded, swatting the speedster on the back of the head.
"What he said," Robin agreed, sticking his tongue out at the redhead.
"Dudes!"
"And you're one to talk," Mike chastised, glancing over his shoulder to his rather talkative backpack as he picked up one of the boxes of groceries.
"I'm moral support."
"Keep telling yourself that." Walking towards the elevator, he stepped besides the button looking back at his surprise passenger. "Well, moral support, are you gonna hit the button for me?"
The Boy Wonder grinned cheekily, "Don't have to."
Mike opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but received the answer in the form of the elevator door opening to reveal Artemis and Zatanna. Both of whom looked perplexed by the situation before them. "Uh…"
"Don't ask," Mike muttered. "Hi Zatanna, welcome back."
The magician smiled slightly, giving him a shy nod, "Thanks." Looking over his shoulder, the girl raised a brow, "I see you have a hitchhiker there."
It took Robin less than a second to scramble off of Mike's back, the younger boy's face bright red. "Uh, I was just messing with him," the Boy Wonder answered quickly, "So, Ze, since your back does that mean you're joining the Team?"
Zatanna crossed her arms, looking past them towards the small group of adult heroes. After a moment, the girl sighed, sounding exasperated, "I don't know. Zatara's so overprotective. I mean, just getting him to let me visit takes a full day's wheedling. I just wish he'd give me some space."
As if the universe heard her request, all the adults disappeared from the room at once.
"Careful what you wish for."
-.-
20:13EDT
Mike's fingers flew across the holographic keyboard as he watched lines of code fly in front of him. To say he was stressed was an understatement at the present moment. He was half-listening to the conversations going on behind him, but he still heard enough to understand that the adults just hadn't disappeared from the Cave. It seemed like everyone above the age of eighteen had vanished all over the he world.
Which wasn't good considering he and Henry were still working on phasing out the old animatronics his father had created. The same ones that were programmed to attack unaccompanied children.
That meant he had to find a way to remotely hack into the older models. It wasn't impossible, over the years the animatronics had been modified to connect to wifi to download songs kids wanted and that sort of thing. Furthermore, he and Henry had both gone through the code line-by-line to make sure any such violent programming was removed. Still, it didn't hurt to be safe rather than sorry.
A worry that proved to be valid as logs revealed that someone had reinstated the erased coding. And this time, his father had installed firewalls to protect it.
The little purple bunny that popped up to laugh at him each time it blocked his progress was really starting to get annoying.
Still, as he worked on breaking down the firewall, Mike couldn't help but wonder as to why his father still seemed to be using this method. The man was far too paranoid to leave such a loose end, not without a proper reason. Taking a breath to calm himself, he got back to work. As much as he wanted to theorize as to the methods of William's madness, he needed to stay on task and delete the code. Or he would need to instill a full emergency shut down.
It was an effective method, but the problem was that it would turn off the newer models too. The models that Henry had programmed to be quite protective of kids. The same ones he had already cleared and authorized to perform rescue ops in other cities. A company-wide shutdown would end those operations until they could be individually manually rebooted.
"Why won't you die already?" Mike hissed, aggressively hitting several buttons as the laughing pain-in-the-ass once again popped up.
There had to be a weakness in this thing. The old models were now becoming obsolete. So, while his father may have gone through the trouble of reinstating and protecting the program, that didn't mean he made it as secure as he thought. Why go through all the trouble to make something impenetrable when its housing was going to be broken down and melted into spare parts?
No, William Afton wouldn't have wasted time on something like that. Especially if he believed that they still thought the systems were clean.
He had to have slipped up somewhere.
-.-
Earlier: Mt. Justice, November 5, 19:43EDT
"I think we had a productive session today," Canary said stretching as her protégé laid sprawled out on the floor, breathing heavily from their spar.
Mike made a small noise of agreement, still lying where he had fallen. "Yeah. Thanks," he panted between breaths, "I needed that."
"After our talk earlier today, I'm not surprised," the heroine smiled, stepping over and offering a hand to help him up. "Still, I'm impressed with how much progress you've made."
"I still haven't beat you," he groaned, reaching up to take her hand.
Dinah chuckled, pulling the teen to his feet. "You'll get there one day. Still," she set a hand on his shoulder, "you've come a long way. And I don't just mean with training."
Mike turned to his mentor, giving her a disbelieving look. "I think Halloween begs to differ."
The heroine bit back a grimace at the mention of last weekend's incident. Honestly, she was amazed he handled himself as well as he had. No doubt seeing someone who was proud of murdering their own sibling would've been traumatizing for the teen—who still blamed himself for the accidents that had killed his siblings. Make no mistake, they were making progress. Her apprentice had opened up so much more in recent weeks and she was proud to see him finally breaking free of his father's chains.
She just wished Michael wasn't so hard on himself all the time.
"Setbacks are normal," Canary reassured. "We all have good days and bad days. Halloween just so happened to be a bad day. But," she gave his shoulder another gentle squeeze, "I'm proud that you were willing to talk about it, especially to your friends. I know it's hard for you to open up to others."
Mike glanced away, jaw shifting as he no doubt chewed on the inside of his cheek. Already she could see the self-doubt conflicting with his desire to appease others and maintain a perfect image.
Before her protégé's thoughts could continue to spiral, Dinah reached out and gently ruffled his hair. "Now, I think I've kept you long enough. The others should be back by now. Go have fun with your friends."
Her words clearly had the desired effect as a tilted smile crossed the boy's face as he gave her a wave before quickly darting off. And to think, just a few months ago he would have scoffed at the idea of having friends.
Shaking her head in fond exasperation, she followed her apprentice at a slower pace, making it to the hangar as the Bioship landed.
"Canary," Batman greeted as she joined the other adults.
Nodding in greeting, she crossed her arms and turned to look at the group of teens, smiling as she caught Robin jumping onto Michael's back. "Not like you to show up for shopping trips," she spoke in a silent question.
"I had some things I needed the kids to pick up."
Now fully looking at him, Dinah raised a brow. "And, you couldn't do that because…?"
"Stop thinking with your stomach and help put stuff up," Mike snapped, unwittingly saving Bruce from answering as he smacked Wally on the back of the head.
"What he said," Robin agreed, grinning from where he clung to Mike.
"Dudes!"
The sight made her smile slightly. It was good to see the boys getting along so well. Initially she'd been rather reluctant to let Robin join on the case, however, after both teens had threatened to go behind their backs again the adults had yielded. And while they hadn't made any significant progress on finding the madman who dared call himself a parent, Dinah was pleased to notice that it seemed to forge a strong friendship between the two teenagers. It was something both needed. A way to vent to someone in the event neither felt comfortable talking to an adult.
The photos she'd managed to snap of the Boy Wonder clinging to her apprentice were just an added bonus.
"I'm glad you brought Zatanna, old friend," Batman said, stepping up beside Zatara, making a point of avoiding Canary's question. "Does this mean you'll allow her to join the team?"
If she were anyone else, she might've smacked Bruce for his lack of tact. It was no secret that Zatara was fiercely protective of his daughter, especially given what happened to her mother. The man had already been reluctant to let her come the last couple times—both of which nearly ended in disaster. Frankly she was more surprised that he was letting Zatanna near the Team again after all that.
"I do not know," Zatara replied. "Zatanna's so…" he trialed off with a tired sigh, "My only child. I wish I could get used to the idea that she's, uh, growing up."
Dinah put a hand on the magician's shoulder sympathetically. It was a conundrum every parent she'd met went through. She'd seen it from families she worked with in her day job to her friends in the League. Ollie had been practically tracking Roy's every move when he started to become more independent, terrified that he'd do something stupid and would be in trouble with no backup. For the first few weeks out of the hospital, Henry had almost been babying Mike out of worry he'd hurt himself again—which was almost warranted as the first thing Mike did when he had finally been left alone was go to the place he had almost died in. Hell, she'd even noticed Bruce seeming to be resisting the idea of Robin spreading his wings.
"I'm sure our parents felt the same way," she reassured, ignoring Bruce's glare. If he said anything she would quickly throw it back on him and remind him of Alfred—the man who had been there since he was a baby and had helped raise him all the way through his no doubt super angsty teen years. "Give it time. She may not understand now, but I'm sure she will one day. Just don't be too hard on her, give her a little space."
Before Zatara could reply, a loud crash filled the room as every single member of the team vanished into thin air.
-.-
Gotham, 21:07EDT
Henry paced his living room, running a hand through his hair as he listened to the news. He had gotten a call from his ex a few minutes ago saying that their son had vanished. That they had searched everywhere and couldn't find him. Henry couldn't help but think of the first worst-case scenario. The last time one of his children had disappeared like this…the last time had been when Charlie…
The man shivered, still able to see the small body lying in a halo of scarlet.
No, he couldn't think about that right now. Sammy was fine. He was going to be fine. He had to be fine.
Taking a shaky breath, Henry pulled out his phone, once again dialing his son's number. Deep down, he knew it was a futile effort, but some part of him could only hope that his boy had simply just decided to sneak out and party.
"Sorry, but the number you're trying to reach is—"
Hanging up before he could hear the blasted message again, he put in a new number and tried calling that. Its owner hadn't been picking up either, but Henry knew that the signal at the Cave could be spotty at times. So hopefully that was all there was to it.
"Sorry, but the number you're trying to reach—"
Henry hung up, his heart twisting painfully. He'd gotten the same message the last time he tried too.
Taking a deep breath, the blonde tried to calm himself. Michael was fine. He was safe with his friends under the League's protection in a secure top-secret facility. His youngest was going to be fine.
Glancing to the doorway, his gaze landed on Efrem. The man stood tall as usual, watching the news with an intense gaze as he cleaned a glass. Henry wished he could be half as calm as the other man was. Right now, it felt like his anxiety was going to make his heart pound out of his chest.
"Worldwide reports are all the same. Every child under the age of eighteen has disappeared. Parents are desperate for answers from secular and religious leaders, from the heroes of the Justice League, and from scientists at facilities like STAR Labs."
Muting the TV, Henry fought the urge to pester the living hell out of the League. To demand answers from them. Despite the fact he knew that they would have solved the problem by now if they knew what was going on.
No. Calling the League wouldn't do him any good. From the sounds of it, they were spread pretty thin to deal with riots and demands for answers from others as it was. Adding to the chaos wouldn't help anyone. The sooner they were left alone, the sooner they could put things back to normal.
So that meant he just had to sit there and wait. Hoping that someone managed to figure out this mess.
Still, the news report had both confirmed his fears and had left him feeling conflicted. On one hand, it meant William wasn't exacting some sick twisted revenge on him by going after his loved ones. On the other, it meant something far, far more sinister was at work.
He wasn't sure which option he would have preferred.
-.-
Mt. Justice, November 6, 00:15EDT
The Cave was silent as Dinah stood with Bruce and Zatara at the monitors. Zatara had managed to locate the source of what had caused the children to disappear, now all they had to do was come up with a plan. A plan that was limited in options as there were currently only four Leaguers available, the rest busy handling the chaos of no doubt terrified parents. She probably would have been out doing damage control as well had she not come to the Cave for a session with her protégé.
"Recognized: Captain Marvel—15."
Brows rising, Canary turned with the others to see the red and gold clad hero fly in. Bruce had mentioned that no one had been able to reach their comrade. It was likely he'd been managing the chaos in Fawcett City and simply forgot to check in. Still, it was good that he was here now. They needed as much help as they could get. Especially considering that they had no clue as to who was behind this or what their motives were.
"Alright guys, I'm here to…" Captain paused as he landed, blinking at them in almost what she would describe as shock. Without warning, the man shot forwards and picked them up in a bone-crushing hug. "You're back! Is it over? Where's the Team?"
"Haven't you heard?!" Zatara snapped. "Every child in the world has—"
"Zatara, wait," Batman interjected, placing a hand on the magician's shoulder before looking to Marvel. "Captain, where have you been?"
The immature hero's eyes widened, "On a world without grownups. Holy moly, there are two worlds!"
"Two dimensions," the Dark Knight corrected. "One for adults—"
"And one for kids."
"And you can travel between them?" Dinah spoke.
Cap nodded, "I think I can—I-I know I can! SHAZAM!"
-.-
Kid Dimension: Mt. Justice, Noevember 6, 00:20EDT
Mike crossed his arms as he listened to the plan the others were developing to fight the mystery mage. So far, he could tell none of the others were entirely happy; but unfortunately, all they had to go off of was a location and the fact that it was done by some stupidly powerful magic.
Essentially, they were flying blind.
However, any further debate on what to do was silenced as a clap of thunder reverberated around them, prompting Mike and Conner to cover their ears from the painful volume as a flash of lightning momentarily blinded everyone. Working to reorient themselves, the group of teens turned around, weapons drawn to face the intruder.
Instead, they found a grinning eight-year-old boy. "It works!"
Lowering their weapons, they all tossed glances at each other before converging around the child. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"
The boy, unperturbed by Kaldur's interrogation, merely grinned up at them. "Quick! Read my mind!"
All eyes turned to M'gann. After a few seconds, the redhead gasped, "He's…Captain Marvel."
Mike looked at the Martian girl, looked at the kid, then turned back to M'gann. "Fanboy?
She shook her head, "No. He's actually Captain Marvel."
"Yeah," Wally scoffed, "and I'm Speedy Gonzalez. Look, just because he believes he's Cap—"
"Gee Wally," the boy spoke, causing all heads to snap in his direction at the mention of the speedster's secret ID, "do I really have to get you nachos and pineapple juice to get on your good side?"
"…Oh my God…There's a fucking eight-year-old in the League."
"Mike!"
"Language!"
"I'm ten!"
"We can argue semantics later," Aqualad interjected. "Cap, considering that you are here, it stands to reason that you have arrived from a world where there are only adults?"
"Yep!" the kid nodded. "I can travel between them. Batman wants to coordinate a plan."
-.-
Roanoke Island, 01:04EDT
Mike crouched as he moved through the brush surrounding the clearing. His gaze was focused on the devil-haired brat he remembered from when they went to Dr. Fate's base or whatever it was. From what he remembered Mr. Nelson saying, this kid was basically chaos incarnate. So it made sense they found him standing there in the middle of a pentagram in a clearing. Dude seemed like the only villain they'd met with enough juice to pull this off.
Around the perimeter, he could hear some of the others moving. Taking their positions in preparation for their attack.
No doubt the adults were doing the same on their side.
Reaching into belt, he pulled out a couple of his explosives and waited for the signal.
The Chaos Lord stiffened, body whipping around as a red shield appeared in front of him, deflecting Artemis's and Robin's attacks with a smug smirk. "Please," Klarion scoffed, "is that the best you got?"
Seizing his chance, Mike burst out of the brush behind the Witch Boy, throwing his own explosives at his exposed back.
With almost inhuman grace, Klarion bent backwards, letting the explosives fly over him. They hit the ground just in front of his teammates, blasting the pair back as the Witch Boy whirled around, facing him with a maniacal grin. "Well, well, you must be the Old Fart's brat? Did he really think I'd take it easy on you just because you have his favor?!"
Seeing sparks coming off their opponent's fingertips, Mike leapt to the side as lightning arced over where he had been moments ago. However, he was not the only one to try to take opportunity of the Witch Boy's distractions. On three sides of him, Kaldur, Kid, and Superboy charged, weapons and fists drawn. Though they didn't get fer before they slammed into an invisible barrier, red light rippling out from the impact to reveal a dome surrounding him and the pentagram.
"Kaerb hguorht sih dleihs!" Zatanna's voice rang out, and the others turned towards the dome in hopes to see it dissolve.
Instead, Klarion scoffed, "Baby magic." Raising his hand, the Chaos Lord looked down his nose at Zatanna as he began speaking words in an unfamiliar language. A wicked grin crossed his face as he sent her flying with the flick of his finger.
It was only then did he whirl around, flames spewing from his mouth. Those attacking the shield, especially those weak to fire were forced to pull back or be scorched.
While Klarion was distracted, Wally skid to a stop besides Artemis, helping her back to her feet. "Hey, I just remembered, when Fate possessed my body, he hurt Klarion by attacking the cat."
Following his gesture, the blonde's brows furrowed as she spotted a tabby sitting just outside the Witch Boy's shield. Smirking, Artemis notched an arrow, "Good. I'm not a big cat person anyways."
However, when she fired the arrow, Klarion raised a hand and it turned into a ball of yarn. Klarion chuckled, watching as his familiar playfully bat at the ball. "Show them what a familiar to a Lord of Chaos can do Tiekel!"
Before their eyes, the small tabby grew three times in size and was replaced by a saber-tooth tiger. Thankfully, Wolf was all too happy to immediately ambush and bite on the feral feline.
Inside the shield, Klarion growled as he saw the Crystal glow. The Witch Boy scoffed, "So, you teamed up with the grown ups. Teamwork's so overrated." Channeling the energy, the lightning came out from the gem and slammed into the group of pests.
Fortunately, the blasts covered the crack of another flash of lightning. Racing through the woods, a small form ran into M'gann. Opening his mouth, Billy's eyes widened as the Martian girl covered his mouth with her hand. "I've linked you up telepathically with the rest of the team."
"Cool—er, the gem! The one in the center of the pentagram! Destroy it and we win!"
"That's all I needed to hear," Zatanna said. "Distract him!"
"For what?!" Mike exclaimed, ducking another lightning bolt and throwing another explosive at the villian. Glancing back, the boy's eyes widened as he spotted her kneeling down to pick up a golden helmet. "ZATANNA!"
Drawn by his shout, the others turned, their faces quickly taking on a mix of horrified and worried expressions. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"STOP!"
She ignored their pleas and put on the helmet. In a flash of golden light, their friend was replaced by the familiar form of Nabu. "Klarion. This ends now."
"Billy tell Zatara!"
"Right!" he said. "SHAZAM!"
The Lords of Order and Chaos flew into the air, clashing overhead. An opportunity none of the others sought to waste as they began chipping away at the shield surrounding the crystal.
"HA! THERE SEE!" Klarion screeched from above, "WITH THE WORLDS DIVIDED THE HELMET'S SPLIT IN TWO! YOU'RE NOT ALL HERE NABU! AND YOU'RE LOSING HOLD ON THAT WEAK, SO TO BE DEAD GIRL! She gave herself up for nothing."
"No Witch Boy," Fate said raising a hand a light began to gather on it. "Fate decrees her sacrifice will not be in vain!" Firing the blast down, combined with the efforts of the team, the barrier gave way and Klarion was trapped in one of Fate's spells.
"Now Kid!"
KF raced out, snatching the gem from its spot and tossing it up in the air towards Fate. Catching it in their hand, Fate began reciting a spell and everything burst in light. When it cleared, all the adults were present, standing over the crumpled forms of several other evil sorcerers.
From his chains, Klarion sighed, "Well, guess they don't make evil immortal sorcerers like they used to." Snapping his fingers, the golden light imprisoning him dissolves, allowing him to stand up and wipe his pants. "Oh well, fun while it lasted. Tiekel!" The cat turned, giving a final growl to Wolf as it trotted away, shrinking as it hopped back into its master's arms. "Nice to meet you brat," Klarion said, waving to Mike, "Don't know why the Old Bastard likes you, but what can you expect of some like him. See you later Armadillos," he grinned hopping into a portal, "unless I see you first!"
At his ominous words, the portal closed with a pop, leaving them staring at where the Lord of Chaos had been. All heads quickly turned to Fate. "…Is there any reason why you didn't try to stop him?"
"To what end?"
"You just let a madman go free," Canary replied, putting her hands on her hips. "You claim to be all about order, yet you let someone who brings chaos walk free."
"Exactly. Klarion is chaos incarnate. He cannot be contained."
"Bullshit," Mike snapped. "You're bound to a helmet, do the same to him! He can't do anything if he's "
"Lords of Order cannot force their will upon Lords of Chaos."
"Then what's the use of order?!" Mike threw his hands in the air, "Kill the cat then! You said he's bound to this plane by his cat right? Kill the cat, problem solved!"
Behind his helmet, the others swore they saw Nabu's eyes narrow. However, before an argument could break out, Zatara stepped forwards, removing his hat, looking solemn. "Fate…Great Nabu, please, release my daughter."
With bated breath, all heads looked up to Dr. Fate.
"No."
"What?!"
"Witnessing the havoc wrought in these hours, the world needs Dr. Fate. And the girl's natural affinity for the mystic arts makes her the perfect host."
"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
"SHE HAS HER OWN LIFE!"
"KENT WOULD NEVER ALLOW YOU!" Wally shouted.
"Kent Nelson objected strenuously, so I released his spirit into the afterlife. He is gone."
"Listen dipshit!" Mike snarled, glaring up at the Sorcerer, "I don't know how things work where you come from, nor do I fucking care, but here crap like that makes you just as bad as Klarion!"
"And just because you are favored by Consequences does not mean I will let you stand there and insult me."
"No!" Zatara called, stepping forwards in front of the group of angry teens. "Please Nabu, do not take their words to heart. They only worry for their friend. But please, I must ask, take me instead. My skills are already at their peak, my body is physically stronger, better able to withstand the strain of your power."
"All true. But if I remove the helmet, what guarantee have I that you will don it?"
"My word. Uban, I evig uoy ym drow."
With a nod, Fate landed and Zatanna removed the helmet. "Dad!"
"Zatanna!" he smiled hugging his daughter one last time. "Remember, I love you." Kissing her forehead, he took the helmet from her hands. "Take care of my girl."
"You have my word," Batman replied.
Zatara lifted the helmet and Zatanna's eyes widened. "NO! PLEASE! THIS WAS MY FAULT! DAD DON'T! DAD!"
There was a flash, and Zatara became Dr. Fate. Turning away from the young magician, he levitated the group of mystic criminals in the air. "Leave this to Fate." Flying away, with a golden light, they were gone.
And the team could only stare as their friend collapsed to the ground with a cry of utter despair.