Hey, guys. M3 here. Sorry for the long wait, and don’t forget to review after reading! Also, thanks to Churnok for his commentary, and the beta-ing help on this chapter. :)

Chapter Seven

As the Founders appeared back in the Watchtower, Flash crossed his arms and heaved an enormous sigh. “Man, I can’t believe this,” he muttered under his breath. “Ollie is going to be so ticked when he hears about this. That kid is going around telling people that Dinah and I are his parents! On live TV!”

Diana patted her teammate on the shoulder. “I’m sure that things are going to work out just fine, Wally,” she assured him soothingly. “How bad can things get? There are only two kids, Inertia and that Jinx girl. And neither of them has been causing that much trouble, if you stop to think about it.”

“There could be more of them,” Batman spoke up darkly, causing all the other heroes to turn and look at him. “Who knows how many of these ‘kids’ there are, and who is creating them. There could be one for each and every member of the League.”

Wally’s eyes became very wide. “What if there are more of mine? What if whoever’s doing this made me have a kid with every woman in the whole League?” he cried hopelessly, cringing as he imagined them all coming after him.

“It’s not like you’re actually doing any of this,” Shayera pointed out sensibly, folding her arms over her chest. “Someone out there is the one who’s up to no good.”

“Yeah, Wally. It’s not like this is some elaborate prank of yours,” GL agreed. There was a small pause, then he added suspiciously, “It’s not, is it?”

“No! Of course not!” the Scarlet Speedster yelped, scowling as his supposed friend. “You think I just hired a few actors who just happen to have powers just like the people whose kids they’re pretending to be, and set them loose on the planet to wreck havoc?” he blurted out indignantly.

“Well…it certainly seems like something you’re capable of,” Diana admitted with a small shrug. “You and Green Arrow are always doing things to everyone here, especially in April.”

“April Fool’s Day,” Superman explained to her.

“I still don’t quite understand how this day became a holiday. What’s the whole point of playing jokes on one another all day?” Diana inquired curiously.

“You should try it, Diana. You’d be surprised,” Flash told her.

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” was Shayera’s wise bit of advice.

Batman calmly cleared his throat, effectively shutting up the idle chatter with a cold BatGlare. “We need to try to figure out who is doing all this. If the mastermind behind it starts using these kids for evil…” He let his voice trail of menacingly, leaving the others to make their own conclusions. He’d found with experience that it always worked better that way.

“I doubt that the Inertia kid would do anything,” Wally spoke up, after several moments had passed. “Sure, he’s a little rough around the edges, but I don’t think he would deliberately hurt someone. He’s kind of, you know, a vigilante.”

“You just say that ‘cause he’s your son,” Shayera taunted him, smirking at the expression on the crimson-clad speedster’s face.

“No…” Wally answered with exasperation, rolling his eyes heavenward. It took him several seconds before he realized the rest of what the winged warrior had said. “And he’s not my son!” He glanced around warily, making sure that Oliver hadn’t been anywhere close by, with the potential of overhearing the conversation.

“So you say.” Shayera arched a brow at him, still smirking widely.

“Besides, remember that Jinx girl?” Lantern interrupted, emerald eyes gleaming. “She attacked that temple and killed all those monks. And we still don’t really know what she was doing there.”

“If there are more of these children, they could prove to be dangerous,” J’onn finally spoke up. “We should be very careful if we discover more of them. And it might be in our best interest if you can capture them and bring them aboard the Watchtower.”

“Right, J’onn,” Clark agreed, nodding once. “But they could pop up at any second, in any place. Who knows when we’ll find another one of them?”

“I can’t believe this.” Lois Lane strode into the Metropolis bank, high heels clicking loudly on the concrete as she mounted the sweeping steps. “We shouldn’t have to pay to get into Mercy Grave’s press conference. We’re reporters, for God’s sake! We should have the right to get the news to the people without withdrawing from our bank accounts.” Scowling, she pushed open the glass doors and continued inside. She didn’t notice the fact that she almost took Jimmy out with one of the doors, causing him to stagger into the stone gargoyle statue beside his position.

Nearly dropping his camera, Jimmy managed to straighten himself out, hurrying after the raven-haired Lois. He was just in time to catch the tail end of her tirade, “…don’t you have any money?”

“Huh?” Jimmy asked breathlessly, brushing himself off as he stood behind her.

“I said, why don’t you carry a few hundreds around with you, in case of emergencies like this?” Lois demanded, impatiently tapping her foot against the perfectly polished tile floor as she waited in line. “We’re going to be late, Olsen, and it’s going to be your fault.”

“What?” Jimmy squeaked out. “Why should I be the one who carries around money? I’m just the photographer!” He waved around his beat-up camera for good measure, as though he was worried that Lois wouldn’t believe him.

Lois gestured sharply through the air. “Sure, whatever. But my point is, Lex Luthor was a rapacious, self-absorbed bastard, and apparently that rubbed off on Mercy. Why else would she be charging us to listen to her talk about her ex-boss?”

Jimmy blinked at her. “Uh…riiight. You’re not going to write that in the article, are you?”

Just as Lois opened her mouth to respond, more than likely with an angry retort, the front doors unexpectedly exploded with a ball of orange and green fire. Both Lois and Jimmy were knocked off their feet, along with almost everyone else milling throughout the bank. The latter landed on top of Lois, and quickly pushed his way off of her as they both climbed back to their feet.

“What the…” He stared as Volcana, Evil Star, and Atomic Skull strolled into the building, Skull casually flinging a ball of flames at the guards who had been drawing their weapons. All of them were effectively knocked out cold, leaving the bank basically undefended.

“Okay, everybody! We’re gonna take the money now, and nobody’s gonna stop us, you hear?” Atomic Skull shouted loudly, turning to stare around at the terrified citizens of Metropolis. Under his menacing emerald glare, they all dropped to the floor and covered their heads with their arms, one by one. The super villain exchanged a confused look with his cohorts, and Volcana rolled her eyes, as though pretending not to be associated with either of them.

Lois, leaning against a potted plant and trying her best to remain inconspicuous (despite her brilliant red ensemble), shot Jimmy a Look. Maybe coming here hadn’t been such a hardship, after all. It looked like she was going to get a much better story than what Perry had actually assigned her.

“Superman.”

The Man of Steel turned towards where Mr. Terrific was leaning over the railing of the control area, looking slightly worried. He was still trying to talk with the other Founders about the pair of ‘kids’ that had been running around, and didn’t entirely appreciate being interrupted. “What is it, Terrific?” he called back, trying to plaster a Boy Scout smile in place, instead of a Batman-like frown.

“He looks like Bats when he’s all scowly like that,” Wally muttered in a stage whisper to Shayera, who ruffled her wings as though silently appreciating the joke.

“A silent alarm has been sounded from the bank in Metropolis. It seems that Evil Star, Volcana, and Atomic Skull are attempting to rob it. There are several hostages, and the police are already on the scene outside the building.”

John cocked a brow. “We’re going to have to forget the kids for right now. Shayera, let’s go with Clark and give him a hand. We’ll use my ring.”

The winged warrior nodded. “I could use a break from all this, actually. And beating up a few common criminals with super powers sounds like the perfect hobby.”

“Diana and I will examine the evidence that we’ve gathered at the sightings so far,” Gotham’s protector proclaimed.

“I will monitor the planet below for anything abnormal, and notify all of you if anything changes,” J’onn added.

“And I’ll…I’ll just go see if Ralph wants to play Smash ‘em, Break ‘em Robots,” Wally added, turning to go as though he had somewhere important to be, like the rest of them. And I’ll play another round of Avoid the Angry Boyfriend, he decided mentally.

The three criminals started for the bank vault, not paying much attention to any of the shaking people planted on the floor. Lois nudged Jimmy, then gestured with her head that he follow them and get some pictures for the article she was already planning on writing. She waited until he had crept around the potted plant and in the general direction of the vault, then turned her attention to the problem at hand: the hostages. She had to try to get them out; it was what Superman would do.

Striding importantly away from the cover of the potted tree, her heels once again clicking loudly, she immediately drew the attention of the retreating villains. They all turned to look at her as she approached, planting both hands on her slender hips as she stared accusingly at them. “I know you want the money, but you don’t have to keep them here,” she said angrily.

Evil Star and Atomic Skull once again turned to stare at each other, and Volcana sneered. “Who the hell are you talking about, Lane?” Her eyes flared with red-orange fire as she sneered at the petite reporter.

“I’m talking about your hostages,” Lois snapped, trying her best to look threatening, and really succeeding. “Just let them all go, and you can have me as your hostage.” So I can also get the inside scoop on all of you, she added silently.

Evil Star glanced towards all the people huddled on the shining floor, and his brow furrowed behind his star-shaped mask. “Oh. Haven’t they already left? I would have thought that they’d all run outside or something,” he said with a small shrug.

“Idiots,” Volcana muttered, shaking her head with annoyance and disappearing around the corner as she headed for the vault. She left behind the faint smell of smoke, and a singed place on the floor where she’d been standing previously.

“Well, then.” Atomic Skull faced the supposed hostages, waving his hands almost comically. “Go on and get out of here, all of you. You’re not really any good lying all over the floor, now are you?” He threw back his head and laughed, as though he was trying to mimic someone truly evil. His attempt didn’t really succeed.

“Besides, if the League shows up, how are we going to fight them with you all blocking the floor?” Evil Star added sensibly. “So go on, I guess. If you all really want to.”

Without hesitating any longer, the people scrambled to their feet and rushed out of the building. All of them screamed at the top of their lungs as they went, startling the police who had surrounded the building.

Lois stared incredulously after the retreating stampede, then turned back towards the patiently-waiting criminals. Maybe these guys weren’t the bad ones that the League and police were always insisting that they were. They had let all the people go free, after all. She reached into her purse and whipped out her notepad and pen. “So…who wants to be quoted for my article?” she asked sunnily, flashing a sweet smile.

Jimmy tried to channel his inner Batman, creeping cautiously up to the bank vault. He found the absurdly heavy-duty door already melted into a puddle of steaming liquid, and his dark eyes widened with surprise. The sight of the melted door was actually pretty impressive. And the wads of money floating around the destroyed vault were pretty awe-inspiring, too. So were the enormous piles of gold and silver coins surrounding the gorgeous redhead with flames sizzling from her hands.

Positioning his camera and switching the flash off, Jimmy raised his camera. He figured that he didn’t really need the flash on to capture pictures of the scene, since Volcana was pretty much her own flashbulb at the moment. Besides, he didn’t really want to get caught. The last time he’d met up with the fiery villainess, she’d melted all the film in his camera. He didn’t really want that to happen again.

Moving a little closer, the freckled photographer leaned around the corner of the vault and pressed the correct button as he zoomed in on Volcana’s back. “This one’s for the personal collection…” he mumbled absently, biting down on his bottom lip as he tried to get the perfect angle for the shot.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Volcana moved with surprising speed towards him, suddenly looming up in the viewfinder. Jimmy went ahead and took the shot, as the new view was much more satisfactory, then lowered the camera and slowly straightened up.

“Um…hi?”

“Who the hell are you?” Both of Volcana’s hands sizzled with fire, and Jimmy swallowed nervously, backing away a couple of steps.

“I’m Jimmy Olsen, from the Daily Planet,” he told her pompously. “And we’ve met before, you and I. It was a really long time ago; like, several years,” he couldn’t help adding.

Volcana lowered her flaming hands. “I don’t remember meeting you…” she said suspiciously.

“Oh, we met, alright. At a yacht club party. I took pictures of you, then you melted all the film in my camera. Uh…remember? Ringing any bells for you yet?”

Volcana looked musing, pursing her very red lips. “Hmmm…I seem to remember something like that. I think I was trying to steal some stuff.” She thought for a few more seconds. And you were the little twerp talking about personal collections!”

“Yep, that was me. I guess I’m very memorable,” Jimmy said happily.

“Let me give you a little something, for old time’s sake.” Volcana leaned forward, reaching towards Jimmy’s arm with one manicured hand. At the last second, she grabbed the camera instead, briefly lighting it up with a small ball of fire. A puff of smoke exploded from it, then she handed it back to the dismayed photographer. Sneering at him, she turned back to her work of robbing the vault.

Jimmy kicked the wall, scowling at his camera as he opened it, burning both of his palms. As expected, the film was completely melted, ruined. “Wonderful. Lois is going to kill me.”

“So…” Lois consulted her notes, “…Evil Star. What do you plan to do with the money you’re going to steal today?” she questioned politely. She’d already learned the life histories of both he and Atomic Skull, and this inquiry seemed like the logical one to make next.

Before either of the criminals could answer, a blur of red and blue exploded through the ceiling above. Superman landed on the floor in a heroic pose, cape fluttering around him, along with Shayera, Green Lantern, and lots of debris from the imploded ceiling. Lois barely managed to avoid being crushed, and Evil Star deflected several chunks of concrete into the opposite wall.

“Lois?” Superman gawked at the beautiful reporter, as though surprised to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“What a surprise,” Shayera muttered sarcastically to GL, rolling her eyes. Wherever trouble and Superman were, so was Lois. It was common knowledge by now. Apparently to everyone except Blue Boy himself.

“You could have just used the door, you know,” Atomic Skull spoke up, waving his flaming hand to clear the dust floating around his face. “We left it open and everything.” He pointed out the shattered front doors to the newly-arrived Leaguers.

“He’s right,” Lois said with a smirk, looking slightly amused with the situation.

“What the hell are you doing? Smoke them, already!” Volcana shouted as she exploded around the corner from the bank vault. Her hands were already glowing like hot coals as she sprang towards Shayera. Evil Star and Atomic Skull shrugged, then leapt randomly at the two remaining heroes, each picking one to battle it out with.

Lois stepped back from the fight as Jimmy ran around the corner to join her. “Jimmy. Get anything good?”

“Um…not exactly. Volcana caught me, and I had to fight for my life. I barely managed to escape alive.” He showed her the convincing burns on his palms, which were in actuality from his hot camera after Volcana had melted the film. “Unfortunately…my film wasn’t as lucky as I was.” He importantly showed off the destroyed camera film.

Lois didn’t look convinced. “We need to talk to Perry about getting you a few spare rolls of film,” she decided, crossing her arms and observing the grappling heroes and villains.

“Hey, Kurt. Check that out.” A girl who looked to be around eighteen or nineteen and with a startling resemblance to Shayera Hol paused on the sidewalk, ignoring the stares she was getting from those passing her. With her skintight costume of green, black, and red, she was actually pretty noticeable. Most of the men passing her were staring at her low slung pants, under which a green G-string was just visible.

Her companion, who was wearing a black semi-replica of Superman’s costume and carrying a stolen iPod, turned to look where she pointed with her metal club. His attention was momentarily drawn to all the police cars gathered outside the Metropolis bank, then he turned to face her. “Firehawk, Grandpa says you’re supposed to call me by my codename,” he hissed, glancing around guiltily, as though afraid someone had overheard.

“Sure, right. Pyro.” Firehawk stopped to roll her green eyes so much that they almost fell back in her head, then gestured towards the bank again. “Anyway, as I was saying, it looks like someone is robbing the bank. And if so, then that means that some of the League might be there, too.” She raised an eyebrow meaningfully.

“So?”

“The Big Guy himself might be there…” Firehawk planted one hand on her hip, the motion highly resembling something that the former Hawkgirl unconsciously did all the time.

“Really?” Kurt asked eagerly, face brightening at the thought. “Well, then. What are we waiting for? Let’s head over there and get past the cops.”

“And while we’re at it, let’s pick up some cash for Gramps,” the redhead added in a businesslike tone. “He mentioned that he needed some more lab equipment, and now would be the perfect time to obtain him some…funding.”

Pyro shrugged. “Sure. Why not. Now let’s go.” He couldn’t wait to see if his dad was there, inside the bank. Thaddeus and Jinx had been lucky enough to see both of their parents, and the rest of them hadn’t been nearly as lucky. Maybe he would get a chance today. Their grandfather didn’t really need to know anything about it…

The Man of Steel flew through the air after being on the receiving end of an energy-powered blast from Evil Star, crashing through the tellers’ counter and landed hard in the resulting debris. Lois raced over to him and left Jimmy behind, wobbling only slightly on her heels. She crouched down beside him, tugging at the Boy Scout’s arm as she tried to get him back to his feet. “Superman!” she said breathlessly. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Lois.” Superman struggled to his feet, but Evil Star didn’t seem to notice. He’d flown over to give Atomic Skull a hand with GL, apparently forgetting about his previous opponent. “I was wondering about something. Why were you getting along so well with them, when we first got here? You looked like you were having a proper conversation.” His brow furrowed deeply with confusion. “And why didn’t you call me when they got here?”

“I was interviewing them for an article,” Lois said, folding her arms primly. “And besides, it’s not like you have an official number for me to call or anything. At least, not one that you’ve shared with me, anyway.”

“Now, Lois. Don’t be that way–” Clark began uncertainly, not exactly sure how to deal with his girlfriend when she looked so angry at him, and had apparently been chatting up a pair of super villains.

“What way?” she asked dangerously.

“Well, uh…”

“We could use a little help over here, Superman!” came Shayera’s shout from across the room, as she struggled to break from Volcana’s fiery hold on her.

Before Superman could come to the aid of her and Lantern, a cry came up from across the room, “Mom! Stop killing her, already! If you do, Firehawk’ll never let me live it down!” Everybody froze, especially Volcana and Shayera, and turned slowly towards the voice.

Lantern’s eyes became very big as he backed away from the equally surprised Atomic Skull. He stared back and forth between Shayera and the redhead who had entered with the other kid. He’d assumed there would be more ‘kids’ of theirs to be discovered, but he’d never expected that one would belong to Shayera!

“And just who are you two?” Lois asked quickly, sliding out her pen and paper. She’d been a star reporter for quite some time, and she knew an award-winning story when she saw one. Perry would probably be thrilled with the stories she had discovered today, whenever she and Jimmy got back to the Planet. This was going to be loads better than listening to Mercy Graves prattling on about Lex Luthor. She could sense it.

“Oh. We’re, uh…” Pyro glanced questioningly at his companion. “Well, we’re not really supposed to say…”

“I’m Firehawk, and he’s Pyro. I’m the daughter of Shayera Hol and Atomic Skull, and he’s the son of the Boy Scout and Volcana,” she announced nonchalantly.

Pyro cringed at her sudden bluntness, pretending not to know her.

“What?” Lois and Evil Star burst out in unison, turning to stare at Superman and Volcana, respectively.

Clark cleared his throat, tearing his incredulous gaze from the strangely-familiar symbol on Pyro’s chest. “And…and why should we believe either of you?”

Firehawk tensed, taking a deep breath, and a pair of gray, feathered wings burst out of her back. She turned in a full circle as the heroes and villains gaped in shock at her. “Cool, right? Grandpa gave me retractable wings, which are perfect for a quick getaway.” She grinned.

“That’s…she’s…Yom Shigureth,” Shayera managed to choke out.

“But I didn’t ever…we didn’t…” Atomic Skull looked puzzled, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. He definitely didn’t remember having a kid with Hawkgirl.

“Um…so they…you’re really Superman’s kid?” Lois demanded, planting one hand on her hip and holding her notepad and pen in the other.

“Yeah. You doubting us?” Firehawk stipulated aggressively.

“Firehawk–” Pyro began nervously. Then he visibly winced and touched the device in his left year. “Uh, hey Grandpa. What’s up? Oh, nothing. Just finished robbing the bank, and now I’m standing here chatting up Mom and Dad…”

“Sure, whatever,” Firehawk said, as though adding something to the one-sided conversation that the others could actually hear. She waved towards the gathered Leaguers and ex-Injustice Gang members. “See you guys sometime later. We’re off.” She touched something on her wrist, as Pyro did the same, then both vanished.

There were several moments of silence, then Volcana summed the whole situation up in just three words: “What the hell?”

Please review after reading, and the wait for the next chapter (hopefully) won’t be as long! =D