-CW: As with previous parts, there will be some dehumanization towards our boy. Just warning incase you also struggle with that.-

"What the hell am I supposed to do with the clone?" Luthor leaned back in his chair. "I can use him against the league all I want, but he can't do anything for us."

"You do have peers who showed considerable interest in renting the superboy."

"I'll be a lot more desperate before I start renting out my Magnum Opus ." He huffed, sitting behind his desk. "...Well, what ought to have been my Magnum. If they want that sort of gratification they can make their own fucking Clone!" He let out a long breath. "It's on national TV tonight, have someone get it ready. I don't want to see it now."

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There was a collar around its throat. There was a collar on its appendage: Ankle. It traced the collar. It traced down the chain. It traced until it found a peg which connected chain to wall. 

And the pain! oh, the pain! it jammed through the deep muscle in spikes and yet its skin was left cool and numb; covered in bumps. Everything the creature could hear was deaf, only exceeding was it's heavy, muffled breathing. The world reappeared as its eyes opened. The world wasn't gone, it just couldn't see before.

Its tongue was fuzzy and dry and foul; it swallowed hard to no avail. Something smelt sour, like iron. The same thing in its mouth? No, it was of somewhere else.  In the darkness, there lay a large black misshapen thing below it. The thing was sticky, flat, tacky. Its clumsy appendages pressed over the shape, drawing up to it's eyes. Smelt sour. It stuck its appendages in its mouth and drew back, spitting. Sour. Metallic. Angry. 

It let out thunderous groans of revulsion. Spitting. Trying to smear the taste from its tongue, but only succeeding in pressing more sour in.

There was a sound and it reared it's heavy skull to find the source.

The wall had opened up and to figures--two people entered, towering over where it lay on the floor. "This one needs to look photo ready." One person said. "You wash it and I'll dress it?"

"No, I'll dress it." The other person said, jamming something long and scuffed into it's ankle collar. The collar released, and it was pulled upward onto its hind appendages. The creature staggered, joints buckling, weight pulling it back towards the ground. "Damn, it's heavy. Lend a hand."

"No way, that's disgusting! I don't want all that on my clothes

"You're gonna get it anyways if you're bathing it."

"Fuck you."

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"Dick"  Wally looked around cautiously, but he had no reason to fear, at this hour Batman would be out on the city, ideally not monitoring Dick's bedroom window or looking for fast-moving camouflaged airships.

"Wally, let's just break the window or something." Artemis hissed through his mind. They had been able to find five discarded Comms in the back of the ship, but those were from their face-down with Clayface and were sadly waterlogged with sewage. 

"No, this place is fortified to all hell. If we break the window they'll be onto us in seconds." The redhead adjusted his grip on the cold stone ledge, pulling his weight onto his elbows to tap the glass. "Dick?" He whispered again. "Can you hear me? Wake up!"

"Are you sure you can hold on?" M'gann asked. "Hold on, I'm giving you a harness." 

He shuddered, feeling a warm tendril link itself around his chest and pull taught. "Thanks." He said, running his thumb over the smooth, skin-like belt. As uncomfortable as M'gann and the bioship could make him, it was better than a two-story drop into the impeccably-groomed hydrangeas. 
He tapped his knuckles against the icy glass again. "Dickie, you there? Dick! Di--"

There was a creak and the window shot up,  with a deafening rattle. In a millisecond, his elbows slipped out from under him. 

"WALLY!" Artemis screamed. out loud, subtlety be damned.

Wally didn't care if the harness was secure, he wouldn't risk it. He couldn't risk it. The speedster's hand shot up, fingers gripping the ledge. He kicked against the bricks, scarping his knees slightly. 

"Dick! Dick!" He scrambled up onto the sill again. "...Dick?" Wally raised his eyes to find a stern face with a disapproving brow. 

Alfred took a long look at Wally, at the ship, and at Artemis who was half-dangling out of the ship to watch. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"Alfred don't-- Wally!" A small pyjamaed figure squeezed under Alfred's arm. "Wally! Guys!"

Alfred held him tightly. "What are you doing crawling around so high up."

"We, uh..." Wally's sleeve slipped, making him squeak and fumble for security.

"We're going to kidnap our friend back from an evil guy." Artemis said.

"Well you could have rung the doorbell." Alfred chided. "Unless, of course, you were trying to recruit master Dick in secret."

"Alfred, PLEASE!" Dick wrestled for the window. "This is important."

"We don't want the league to know." M'gann said, passing through the bioship's open window. "They'll try to stop us, and we need to get him back!"

"They haven't done, like, ANYTHING, Al!" Dick insisted. "It's all bureaucracy, no action! We're the only ones who actually want him!"

Alfred paused for a long time, the world within the grounds of the manor froze, subject to his will. "I can't stop you from wanting to revolt." He conceded, in the same air as if his son was about to go into the city in a bat suit to try and fight crime. "I can't stop you from trying, but perhaps we can form some guidelines."

"Are you going to tell the league?"

"I don't think I'll need to tell your guardians unless I feel you are truly in danger." The old man remarked. "If you swear to contact me every two hours, on the hour, I will tell Master Bruce I slept through this abduction."

"THANK YOU ALFRED!" Dick gave him a quick, tight hug and leapt to crawl out the widow.

"I said guidelines." Alfred said. "Richard, go put on your costume and a jacket. I'll prepare some snacks and supplies for your friends."

"Alfred, Now?!"

"to keep your secret, I require that you take care of yourselves."

"Fine!"

"And no more crawling around on the second story of buildings," He told Wally.  "you could fall and get hurt."

"Yessir."

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"The way I see it, there's only one legal defense we have against Luthor." Bruce explained, stirring his cup tentatively. 

"And what's that?" Diana asked, none of them bothered costuming for a late-night meeting in her apartment. What with the rapidly expanding Justice league, it wasn't often they had founders meetings, but for such a personal case, it only seemed appropriate. 

"Lex has built his entire case on the the baring that he is Superboy--" He paused for a few seconds. "that he is Conner's only parent who cares to make a claim." He slurped the coffee and set it down with a snap. "Superman needs to make a claim as well."

"Bruce..."

"I know." He sighed. "But this might be our only legal defense. With me and Ollie we financially outweigh him, but Lex has public opinion at the moment. We need to have a side worth fighting in court; Super-- Conner was kidnapped and has been under Luthor's coercion, Lex has a history of trying to harm the league, socially and literally, we could argue that he's being threatened to cooperate."

"You've seen him, at the Gala, did he seem like he was being threatened?"

Bruce stirred his coffee again, even though there was no milk or sugar to be mixed in. "He seemed possessed. I suspect Cadmus' ownership of the other Gynomorphs might have something to do with it. He didn't even recognize Dick"

"So, mind control?" The amazon traced her fingers over the lasso. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"Mhm." Bruce muttered. "Lex also seems to have him on drugs, and an inhibitor collar. Say what you will about how we've been treating superboy, but we have never forced power loss on him."

"I think we're building a case here..." Diana said. "We just need someone with legal ownership over the boy to stand up and claim him."

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Dick pulled his jacket tight, blocking out Wolf's wet, curious, nose from poking him. "Where's Kaldur?

"That's where we're going now." M'gann replied. "But, uh, you guys will have to stay in the ship. the pressure is really heavy down there."

"You've been?"

"Yeah, He took me and Conner once." They replied. "He didn't want to make you feel left out because of the pressure."

"Nice of him..." Wally said, feeling left out despite himself. "So we pick up Kal and then what?"

"Then, we make a real plan." The martian replied. "I don't know, I've never done this."

"Well Robin is second in command, what do you say we do?"

"I don't know." He admitted. "I've only run stuff like this under Bats' approval. We can't go to a league safehouse to plan, they'd find us. We can't use our tech cause they'll trace us. I don't really know." Dick leaned into Wally's shoulder. "I'm not even done my first year of high school, guys... I only really know how to work within restrictions..."

"That's okay." Artemis squeezed Wolf's neck in a loose hug. "Kal will know what to do."

Next time see the team search for Kaldur, and Superman make a fatal decision. Same Bat-time, Same Bat-channel!