Categories: Fluff/Team/Daddybats
A/N: This chapter was pretty much inspired by the photo.
***
12:00 am. 24 hours.
It happened over night. What ever "it" was anyway. The Justice League are still not entirely sure how it occurred.
7:00 am. 17 hours.
The Dark Knight awaited the team, but they didn't come. Not one of them. A bad thought seeped into his mind. There had to be something wrong. That, or Robin devised the whole thing as revenge for what happened last night... no, he thought, it couldn't be that.
He stormed into his ward's bedroom. The first thing he expected to see was the little bird still fast asleep. That was exactly what he found. However, the little bird was indeed little.
Under the the large blanket lay a small boy. Sound asleep was a much younger Dick Grayson.
"Dickie?" Batman spoke.
The boy shifted and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. His mouth widened and let out a yawn. He lifted his frame up and stared at the tall man.
"Tati?" The toddler asked.
That was definitely his son. Whenever Dick was tired or afraid, he called him Tati. He staggered back in surprise. He stuttered his words out. He told him to stay put whilst he went to investigate the other bedrooms.
It was just as expected. The other rooms weren't filled with sleeping teenagers. They were filled with toddlers. He hesitated at the last door. He gulped. As he was about to enter, there was a sneeze. It was quiet, but it was definitely there. He rushed in. Connor Kent was there. Perfectly fine but just like the others, he looked a little different.
***
7:15 am. 16 hours, 45 minutes.
He pulled them out of bed one by one. None of their clothes fitted them. He dressed them in one of their t-shirts which drowned them and a pair of shorts.
After a lot of bribing, the Dark Knight finally managed to get all the kids in the front room. He then called for back up.
***
8:00 am. 16 hours.
The Flash and Black Canary were the only ones available. The heroes didn't know what to do.
Sat along the couch were the Young Justice team. M'gann and Artemis were curled up next to each other, fast asleep. Kaldur was hoping to find treasure in his nose whilst Connor and Wally were fighting over the TV remote. They weren't interested in watching anything, they just wanted to play with it. Lastly, Dick was sat on the end quietly sucking his thumb.
They watched them like hawks. None of them knew what to do.
"What is going on?" Flash spoke, breaking the silence.
"I think I know," Batman replied, "the team were on a mission,"
"They were fighting the Joker right?" Black Canary said. "Didn't they say they lost consciousness for a few minutes?"
The Flash nodded. "Yeah! That must be it!"
The adults continued to talk. Meanwhile, a certain little bird watched their every move. His nose started to quiver and his eyes began to water. Then his bottom lip pouted out. He pulled out his thumb and burst into tears.
All attention was drawn to him. The Dark Knight pulled down his cowl and raced towards the toddler. He wasn't a hero anymore. He was a father.
Bruce picked up the Baby Wonder.
"Shh," he lightly bounced him. His monotone voice had gone.
"Tati!" Dick cried, resting his head on Bruce's shoulder.
Bruce surprised himself as he calmed him down. Parenting wasn't his strong point.
"How old are they?" Canary asked.
"They can't be any older than 4 right?" The Flash replied.
Then something hit Bruce. He stared at 5 kids and observed them. They were calm and surprisingly well behaved.
"Why don't they want their parents?" He asked.
The Flash spoke. "Dickie just called out for you right?"
"I didn't know him when he was this age." Bruce pointed out.
"Gimme it Connor!" Wally whined.
They looked at the arguing boys.
"He knows him." Canary said. "They must remember being older."
The speedster went over to resolve Wally's and Connor's argument.
"If they had their memories, wouldn't they be acting like teenagers?" She sighed.
"I don't know." Bruce shook his head.
"Uncle Barry it's mine!" His nephew cried.
"You need to share!" He told him, snatching the remote.
Canary pondered. "I hope this isn't permanent."
***
2:23 pm. 9 hours, 37 minutes.
The heroes had changed out of their suits. They thought being in casual clothes would make it better for the kids.
The only thing keeping them going crazy was the thought that it would be over soon. The team would eventually be able to go the toilet by themselves and wouldn't need to be constantly watched. How long would that be though? A day? A week? ... 10 years?
They had finally got them to settle down in front of the TV with a warm cup of milk. They watched them from the kitchen.
"How can they be their 4 year old self and know who we are!" Barry was ready to pull his hair out.
"Calm down Barry," Dinah said.
"I'm hungry," a small voice interrupted them.
They all looked down. It was Richard, grasping Bruce's trouser leg.
"Look at Dickie, he's speaking English. He didn't start learning English until he was 6." Bruce smiled.
Dinah got Dick a cookie.
Before she handed him it, she asked him a few questions. "Hey Richard, where's your mommy and daddy?"
Bruce gave her the batglare.
"Hmm," he stared at the cookie. "They're in heaven."
"Who's the Joker?"
"A bad guy." He answered.
Dinah gave him the cookie. "What did you do yesterday?"
He bit into it and replied with his mouthful. "Fight Joker."
He scuttled away happily. Leaving the adults with more questions.
"He remembers. They all do. They just have the maturatity of a 4 year old. They can't take anything seriously." She concluded.
Barry moaned, "That means they can't go potty by themselves?!"
She laughed, "Yes."
***
4:00 pm. 8 hours.
Oliver Queen walked into the Zeta Tube. He had been at work all day and didn't get Bruce's message until after he'd finished. He didn't know what to expect because of how vague he was.
He was about to enter the living room. His hand hovered over the door handle as he listened to the voices on the other side.
"I need a new one!" M'gann cried. She had just spilt juice all over her shirt.
"Change colour again!" Dick cheered. He had perked up. Maybe he just wasn't a morning person.
"No! Not until I get a new one!" She shouted.
He got involved. "Get her a new shirt! She won't change colour without it!"
After cleaning the chocolate off Wally's face, Dinah picked up M'gann and got her changed.
"It's not a magic trick Bob." Kaldur was sat on the floor, minding his own business. Like always, he was the mature one.
"Shud'up Kal! It's cool! Right Tati?" Robin glanced up at his dad.
Bruce was sat next to his son reading the newspaper, chuckling to himself that the kids couldn't pronounce "R".
"Tati!" He repeated.
"Huh?" Bruce's eyes left his paper. "Ah right, yes. Very cool."
Dick stuck his tongue out at Kaldur. His logic was if an adult agrees, it must be right.
Artemis was running around, trying to catch Barry. She was failing miserably.
"No fair," she said, stumbling over Kaldur. "I have littler legs!"
"Yeah that's why it's unfair," the speedster chuckled.
4:06 pm. 7 hours, 54 minutes.
Oliver backed away from the door slowly and carefully. They seemed to be managing. He promised himself he'd check back tomorrow, assuming things would be sorted by then.
***
7:30 pm. 4 hours, 30 minutes.
They all managed to settle on the couch. Dick was sat on Bruce, Artemis was sat on Dinah and Wally was sat on Barry. Connor and M'gann were sat on the ends. Kaldur remained on the floor, but now he had a pillow and blanket.
They had decided on watching on Frozen.
"I don't wanna!" Wally sulked.
Barry whispered to Dinah and Bruce. "That's not what he said when he went to the movies to see it."
The three of them chuckled.
***
9:12 pm. 3 hours, 48 minutes.
102 minutes later, the movie had finished.
Dinah wiped her eyes and sniffed.
"Are you crying?" Bruce whispered. He was glad it was over. He didn't know how much more singing he could take.
"No!" She shouted.
Barry was half asleep but his head bolted up and he pointed down. "Shh!"
He put his head back and fell back asleep.
Bruce and Dinah followed the speedster's finger. All of them were asleep. Cuddled up beside Bruce was Connor. He was drooling on his blazer. He wasn't the problem though.
"Do we sleep here too?" She gestured to Artemis and Dick.
They didn't want to risk waking them up.
"I've woken him up from a nap before. Bad idea." Bruce recalled.
She nodded and rested her head. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and drifted into unconscious
***
12:00 am. 0 hours.
***
The morning sun rose above the mountain. It was a new day.
Dick's eyes fluttered open. His eyes met the black TV screen. He wasn't in his bedroom, but he distinctively remembered falling asleep in his bed. He shot up, confused and dazed. He looked down at the oddly uncomfortable couch.
"What the!?" He shouted, realising he was lying on Bruce and Connor.
He panicked and rolled off onto the floor.
"Ow!" a voice yelled from beneath him.
He had fallen on Kaldur. Dick scrambled off him.
"What is going on?" Kaldur asked, glancing at the couch full of heroes.
Dick realised he wasn't hiding his eyes and neither was Bruce.
Kaldur mumbled to himself about what he was wearing. Dick took this as an opportunity. He grabbed his mentor's wrist and pulled him up. He was still half asleep, but Dick dragged him into his bedroom.
Connor was the next to wake. Bruce had been keeping him upright all night, so when his head hit the pillow he woke immediately. The others woke up one by one after that.
***
Batman and came out of the bedroom. Robin concealed his identity with his signiture sunglasses whilst Batman was fully suited up. He didn't question why the Boy Wonder had a spare.
The others were awake, confused and aching. They had not slept well. Just like Robin, Wally and Artemis practically threw themselves off the couch.
"Why were we all sleeping on the couch?" Artemis asked. Her voice was high pitched and she was blushing.
Batman spoke in his monotone voice. "You were all turned into toddlers last night."
The adults proceeded to explain everything that happened yesterday.
Every one of them interrupted at some point, asking questions.
"We were turned into 4 year olds." M'gann said after they'd finished telling the story. It still hadn't sunk in. She felt like saying it aloud would make it more believable, but it didn't.
Dinah nodded.
"Awesome!" Wally laughed.
Artemis punched him. "Of course you'd find this funny Baywatch!"
"So you don't remember anything about yesterday?" Dinah asked.
They shook their heads in sync.
She sighed. "Okay. There won't be any training today or missions. Your bodies have gone through a lot of change. You can all go home."
***
Alfred found the matter hilarious.
"You were running after toddlers all day?"
Bruce nodded.
"They remembered being teenagers?"
He nodded again. "If the Joker perfects this, he could make it so they don't have their memories. They wouldn't trust us and it'd make them more vulnerable."
"Or worse," Alfred folded his arms, "make it permanent."
The playboy and his butler glanced into the front room. Dick Grayson was happily sat in front of the TV, playing on his Playstation.
This thing was dangerous.