"Cheshire."

"Fuck off." She  lit up, legs kicking over the ledge of the parking garage roof. "Shove and arrow and run home."

"I'm not here to arrest you."

"You wouldn't anyways." She held up the little paper roll, offering. Roy took a huff and coughed violently. "Lightweight." She scoffed. "Why are you here?"

"We need to go get Artemis. and all the others, they're in trouble."

"What about your mommy and daddy?"

"Fuck the justice league." He replied. "They won't let me join the rescue party." He admitted. "Because I'm not 'on the league'. Bullshit."

"So what do you suggest?" Jade asked, stubbing out the glowing butt on the cement next to her. "I'm not jailed conditionally; they let me free because I told them about criminal Linkdin, but only if I fuck off to nowhere so they can't be responsible for arresting me."

"What's criminal Linkdin?"

"They don't tell you anything, do they?"

"Now baby," She pet his hair. "Be a good little boy and stand on up here, will you?" The redhead nodded, too shy to remove his finger from his mouth. "Good boy, picking up so quickly." She started the treadmill on low. "Now, show mother how fast you can run, number four."

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes Mother." He struggled to get the words over his clumsy lips, his inarticulate toddler limbs stumbling him forwards at a leisurely 10mph.

She slid a finger over a gleaming, eye-shaped brooch. "Good baby. Let's hope your friends have also eaten their snack..."

"So where do we start?"

"For someone who isn't a sidekick, you sure need to be told what to do a lot." Jade commented. 

"So? Don't tell me you know what to do."

"As a matter of fact, I do." She smirked. "See, while you've dealt with baby Alice for only a week or two, I was there since the start. I know as well as anyone how difficult it is to move one toddler from place to place. Let alone six of them."

"What's your point?"

"My point is, if I was going to turn half a dozen kids into toddlers, I'd want to lure them close to my home base before doing it, so I wouldn't have to carry them all back there."

"So, wherever they were when they were shrunk, the base must be within running distance"

"Exactly." She stood up. "So, my sidekick, where were they?"

"I'm not sure... but I know how to fine out." He smirked briefly, then forced the smile away. "Hey, I'm no one's sidekick! Especially yours!"

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen." He said proudly.

"Well I'm nineteen." She said. "So I'm in charge here. Now, how do you plan to find them?"

"Now you have to be a brave little boy for me, okay?" The boy didn't reply, watching as the clip was attached to his finger, several patches hooked up to his chest.  "Now, the silly little numbers on the machine will tell us how much you can channel..." She and the doctors stepped back for safety. "And if not, how much you can take."

And with that, the doctor started the machine, and everything in the room was taken by a thick fuzz as 2.7 kilowatts of electricity began pumping through the child's bones. The charcoal black tattoos that snaked down his arm's began began to light and glow like fluorescents, casting teal floods across the cot as the dial slowly moved up to 8kw. 

"Mother..." The boy muttered, delirious as if he was high from the power. "It's too much." 

"He can take more." She said. "Move up to twelve kilowatts." 

"It's simple, Ms. Martian-- Arty's friend-- has this biological, living, ship-thing. and I've heard time after time that it has memory!"

"So, you know know how to fly this flying saucer from mars?"

"No..." He replied. "But it feeds off mind and emotion, it would probably pick up on what we need."

"That's a big maybe." Jade replied coldly.

"Well what do you suggest? I'm your only hero contact!" 

"I suggest..." She said, grunting as she kicked her legs back onto the roof and stood. "That you meet me out here if you manage to figure out that UFO or whatever."

"I don't want to."

She flashed the brooch and offered the child another cookie. "Come now, don't you want to make mother happy?"

"I do." She said, pensively nibbling the cookie. "I don't like doin' it."

"Come on, for mother?" She wheedled. "Just make yourself look like the way you really look, and then we'll play some fun little games."

Lip trembling, the child's humanoid shape melted away, revealing a contorted, white, veiny creature with a wide set of jaws. "Well, you're quite the little monster, aren't you?" Mother nodded to the researcher, who jotted it down. "Now, here's our game: I show you some pictures, and you try and turn into the faces." The creature that was the child nodded, and she flipped the first card.

"Red."  Roy said as casually as he could. "Which way is the hanger bay?" Silently, the android pointed down the hall. "...Thanks. I-- I guess you're wondering why I'm looking for the hanger, huh?"

"That wasn't something I was curious about." Red Tornado replied.

"Right. Right. Uh, thanks." He sprinted down the hall. The hanger bay was practically empty, say for a motorcycle, a large robotic sphere plugged into an average wall socket, and a large red shape sat in the middle. That was it. Roy approached the shape in apprehension, eventually laying his hand against it. The texture was strange, not silicone, not skin, not water... just, alien. Not sure how to proceed, Roy whispered aloud. "I don't know how this works, but your mistress, the kids, they're seriously fucked. Like, they're in danger. Can you just let me know where they went on their last mission?  We need to save them."

He waited, watching the ship for any change.

"It doesn't line up." The doctor said. "He should have been a few years older."

"Who cares?" She hissed. "They want him anyways, don' t they? Let me do what I need to." She turned to the boy, a sugary smile taking over. "Now, sweetheart." She reached out to cup his cheek, and the toddler leant into it. "Mother's going to take care of you, but we need to do some simple little tests, like a game!" She smiled. "Now, this is a funny little pod that would normally stop people from hearing and seeing. We're just going to pop you inside, and see how much you can hear." 

The doctor placed several small tabs on his head, ushering the child into the sensory deprivation tank.

As the lid of the pod closed, the doctor took out a little green chip of crystal, sliding it into the roof of the pod. Next, they opened a monitor of brain patterns, checking the visual, sensual, and auditory response centers. "Let's see how much he can hear."

"Or at least how much he can take."

The shape changed, like when you tighten or slacked your elbows and see the tendons shifting, morphing itself into a familiar winged ship. "Thank you." Roy whispered as a porthole opened, and a gangplank of sorts shot out to his feet. Cautiously, Roy climbed in.

The Ship was well lit for him, and on the screens, a log was pulled up. Coordinates. Roy put a cautious hand on the captains chair, and then slid himself into it. "I'm not sure how this works, so please go easy on me. Now, is there a user's manual or something?" 

"Are you trying to ransom back to me my own damn daughter?"

"Please, Mr. Crock." Another voice said, also slightly muffled by the door. "We commandeered her as an asset. We're selling an asset; whether that's to you, or to someone else, we'll see."

"Why you--"

"Business if business, you know that, Lawrence."

"I don't give a shit, tell whoever bought her that it's off. I'm taking her."

"We'll gladly let you, but then what? If anyone gives a tip off, you'll be charged with kidnapping your own daughter. How are you going to reraise her from infancy?"

"Well turn her back!"

"And you can take back a hero who stands against everything you do." The first voice said. "Or, you could get the right hand girl you wanted her to be. Leave her with us for just a few months, and we'll retrain her, recondition her, and send her back to you as a teenage killing machine." A beat. "So?"

Artemis cowered away from the door, crawling into the middle of the nursery. She knew her fathers voice, but not the other.

All the others were gone, and it was just her and Dick in the cold, padded room. She picked up Robin and scootched into the corner of the room, holding the baby against herself. She wasn't completely sure what she was hearing, or why it caused her tummy to ache and twist like it did, but she knew it wasn't good. Whatever was happening, she wanted to protect her friend.

-EDIT 01/05/23:  I am going to be indefinitely retiring this book. I thank everyone for their support, but due to life circumstances I have to chose some books to discontinue. I also am unsure of how to continue, rereading the book I am no longer content with the writing. 

For other, better, deaged content, check out my "More YJ Oneshots" book-