"What's this?" Hal fingered a hand sewn odd shaped piece of fabric in the lab.
"Marvel's been working on these," Barry picked up a matching piece.
"I didn't know Big Red could sew," frowned the pilot as he scrutinized the item and slipped it over his hand.
"Hello Barry," he said in a squeaky voice, waving it like a hand puppet.
Barry slipped the other fabric thingy over his hand. "Hey Dude," he replied in a gravelly voice waving his hand puppet.
Marvel's pet mouse scampered into the room. Was its name Sylvia? Hal couldn't quite remember.
"SQUEAK!" Marvel's pet mouse stopped at their feet and glared at them.
Barry's puppet came to life and lifted him off the ground, leaving him hovering helplessly in mid air.
SQUEAK!" It said again.
To Hal's horror, he felt the puppet on his hand jerk up heaving his entire body up.
"Yiiiiikes!"
The puppet did an about turn and flipped his ass against the ceiling.
He'd left his ring in his jacket and his jacket in his room, so now, he was at the puppet's mercy.
"Eek eek squeak," sang the mouse.
The puppets flew around in circles with the men attached to them at dizzying speeds.
"Squeaak chrp eek," she went as the puppets slammed the men against each other.
The little critter seemed to have the time of her life as she continued her song.
-------
"Clark, how are you feeling?" Earnest blue eyes gazed at him with concern. His baby brother had come to visit him in the medical bay.
"Much better," grinned Clark as he ruffled Billy's hair.
"I brought you some tea and pastries," beamed the boy.
The yummy fragrance made his mouth water.
"I've got good news and bad news for you," said Billy as he handed a steaming hot cup of tea to Clark. "Which do you want to hear first?"
Clark eyed the boy suspiciously. His angelic little bro could be quite a Gremlin at times.
"What?" Pouted Billy. "Don't trust your baby bro?"
"Let's start with the bad news," said Clark as he raised his cup to his lips.
"Batman, Oracle and Mr Terrific are still unable to find the source of the puppeteer's signals or who the culprit is so we still can't go back to Earth," little Billy snuggled up on Clark's lap.
"And the good news?" Clark wrapped his arms around his baby bro.
Tilting his head up to look his big bro in the eye.
"Vent crawling gets info you can't find otherwise. If my plan works, we should be home free pretty soon." The child gave Clark a big shit-eating grin.
"Billy, you haven't been back on earth vent crawling, have you?" Clark ran his hands through his hair, flustered.
"If Captain Marvel falls under the puppeteer's control again, there's no stopping him. There's no kryptonite or any weakness that can be used against him.
"Oh, chill, Clark," Billy's brilliant blue eyes twinkled. "There's you. I mean, what are brothers for, right?" He nudged his big brother.
"If that happens, speed blitz punch me with everything you've got to make sure you knock me out, then fly out of Earth's atmosphere at light speed," grinned itty bitty little Billy.
"I'd rather not," frowned Clark as he looked as his wide eyed, innocent baby brother.
"Next time, punch me out cold. Break my jaw if you must, then get out immediately, and zeta me out before I recover," said the tiny child, his lips pressed in grim determination.
"There had better not be a next time," chided Clark as he tickled his baby bro's ribs.
"Anyway, I haven't been back to Earth. I got friends there to gather info for me.
I need Krypto's help though. Seems the signals have no effect on animals," smirked the child.
Clark dug into his pockets and pulled out a whistle. "Use this," he handed it to the boy.
Taking a bite of the chocolate croissant, Clark closed his eyes savouring the amazing flavour. "Where did you get this?"
"From Alfred?"
"How?"
"Through Bruce."
Clark stopped mid bite.
"Have you been running around the Watchtower as Billy?"
"Yep," Billy gave him a shit-eating grin.
"The League's ok with a kid stowing away here?"
"Not at first. Diana thought I was a Gremlin."
"She's not completely wrong," snorted Clark.
"Hey, not my fault," pouted the boy.
"Anyway, she had her lasso around me and her sword at my throat."
Clark froze. " Diana threatened a child with her sword?"
"Actually, you can't blame Diana," shrugged Billy.
"She's new to our world and has been watching documentaries to learn about life outside Themyscira.
Barry switched the Watchtower documentaries with movies." Billy picked a cookie from the plate and bit into it.
"And?" Clark leaned forward.
"They don't have fiction in her home. Only truth and nothing but the truth. Seems the movie Barry slotted in was Gremlins," Billy took another bite of his cookie.
"It was dark. She thought I was a Gremlin about to take over the Watchtower or something, so the sword and lasso," he shuddered.
"Anyway, Bruce popped up and claimed I'm his son, his new Robin in training and got me out." Billy frowned.
Clark almost choked on his croissant.
He felt rage burn in his belly and his eyes heating up.
Shutting his eyelids, he took a deep breath and counted to ten.
"So now, the Justice League thinks I'm the new Robin," continued Billy, oblivious to Clark's reaction.
"I've got a Robin-sized room beside Bruce's and he's been playing daddy and tried training me to be Robin."
"You went along with it?"
"It's either that or he'd sic Diana on me," Billy rolled his eyes.
"I'll have a word with Bruce," Clark muttered to himself, choking back his anger.
"That man never gives up," Clark snarled.
"If he did, he wouldn't be Batman, would he?" Billy tilted his head thoughtfully.
"You know, you could stay as Captain Marvel all the time, then you'd be fine," Clark ruffled his baby brother's hair.
"Don't wanna," pouted Billy.
"I mean how can you stand treading on egg shells all the time, having to be so careful you don't accidentally break something or hurt someone with your strength?
Also, absolute invulnerability sucks in daily life. I can't feel anything as Cap the way I do as Billy.
Besides, I like being Billy," the stubborn boy crossed his arms and pouted so adorably.
"Anyway, I'm Cap half the time. Need my power to create inventions for my ground team to track the culprit and find the signal's origin," Billy snuggled up to Clark like a kitten.
"I just wanna be a kid while I can."
-------
It was fun chatting with Clark. After all that craziness, Billy needed a break.
It's back to work now as Cap.
Sighing, Marvel opened the door to the lab, to the chaos waiting for him.
Hal and Barry had picked the lock again.
Why was he not surprised?
"Help?" Hal whispered weakly with his hand stuck to the ceiling.
"What is this? Why can't I vibrate out of it?" Barry sounded frustrated trying to free himself from the puppet that held him against the wall.
"Voice activated Marvellium anti gravity armour designed specially for Sylvia and Joey," Marvel sighed. "Nothing penetrates Marvellium."
Both men were covered with fresh bruises.
Sylvia scurried up and perched herself on Marvel's shoulder.
"Aren't you going to let us down?" Asked Hal.
Looking up at the clowns, Marvel let out another sigh. "Maybe later. You're safer up there."
A little brown mouse scampered into the room, climbed up Marvel's enormous shoulder and sat beside Sylvia.
Looking down on his shoulder at his little associates, his mouth twitched in a slight smile. "Hi Joey!"
(Translated from Mouse Speak)
"Those smelly disgusting humans wore our armour on their filthy hands," complained Sylvia. "We're not wearing them until you get the smell off."
"But Sylvia. I'm a human too. I made them with my own hands," Marvel showed her his open palms. She sniffed at them.
"You're clean. You wash yourself. Those men are hygienically challenged. They are worse than rats," she turned her nose up.
"I'll wash them. Have some refreshments while you wait."
Marvel pulled out a tiny table,a tiny teapot, two tiny cushions, plates and teacups from his drawer and set out a spread with tea and sugar cubes for his guests.
The mice sat on the cushions, sipped tea and nibbled sugar cubes while Cap saw to the clowns.
(People speak)
"Ok guys, what were you doing with my stuff?" He hovered up between Hal and Barry.
"Hey Cap. We were curious. That's all," Barry smiled awkwardly.
"I'll release you with a word of warning. You do not want to antagonize Sylvia." Cap knew it was pointless but he did his part in warning them.
"Squeak!" Said Marvel.
Both "puppets" dropped to the ground. Carefully, he removed them from their hands.
"Thanks Cap," Barry ran off on a blur.
Hal was pissed. "Now you little rodent," he lunged at Sylvia, toppling their table, spilling tea and sugar everywhere.
"Eeek!" Screamed Sylvia as she scurried into Hal's sweat pants, under his clothes, all over his body and leapt out of his collar holding her nose.
Hal turned red literally and tried scratching his skin off, "what did you do?"
"She just dumped her stockpile of itching powder on you. The best in the market too," said Captain as he cleaned up the mess.
"You need immediate medical treatment or the effect becomes permanent," Marvel opened the door and watched Hal flee.
In a blur of red, Captain Marvel washed, dried and repaired the armour.
(Translated from Mouse Speak)
"Good riddance!" Huffed Sylvia.
"Did I miss anything?" Asked Joey.
"Not much. Just me teaching those smelly brutes a lesson," Sylvia gave Joey a shit-eating grin.
Marvel stifled his laughter. "Ok guys, where were we?"
"Oh yeah. We found out who the puppeteers are," grinned Joey, proudly displaying his perfectly formed incisors.
"Puppeteers?" Marvel confirmed.
"Yes. Three of them. We believe that the AI developed by Star Labs, the AI developed Cadmus and Amanda Waller's personal AI have gained sentience.
We found evidence of these three collaborating to overthrow human reign...