-I EDITED THIS TO BE LESS AWKWARD AND WEIRD. I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!-

"For god's sake, we know who has the kid!"

"There are legal complexities. It may surprise you to know that child protective services has no jurisdiction over clones."

"He's not legally a person, so he's considered property." Dinah growled. "And Luthor's manipulated the scenario so that we've been more abusive than he was."

"That's only one of our issues." Bats stated. "Superboy might not want to come with us."

"Why? Mind control?"

"You need to understand, children rely on their parental figures." He said seriously. "We saw it before with the shields, Luthor is willing to exploit that."

"Conner hates Luthor." Dinah defended— she wouldn't let the poor boy's name be slandered while he's gone.
She kicked Oliver under the table.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, why would the kid want to be with Luthor when Lex has been antagonizing his friends and airing his dirty laundry publicly."

"It's a manipulation tactic." Batman replied. "With Superboy feeling scared and uncomfortable in public, he is far more likely to run to Luthor for comfort."

"It's an unpopular point, but it needs to be said," Guy prefaced. "If Luthor isn't abusing him, is legally his owner, and the Superboy relies on him, isn't it better to let things play their course?"

"This is all hypothetical! We have no reason to believe he wants to stay with Luthor." Canary snapped. "Even if he had been brainwashed into following Luthor, It should be our job to free him! Isn't it our job to protect people —especially children?"

"Even if Superboy did want to stay, emotions disregarded, we don't want Lex Luthor to have a loyal Kryptonian weapon following him blindly." Bats replied firmly.

"To be fair," Clark started, speaking slowly as his place in the group dynamic was fragile already. "Green Lantern was right to point out that superboy must choose what he wants."

"Look, I agree that Conner should make his own choices, but there's a reason children aren't allowed to rent cars or get tattoos; Kids make bad choices sometimes! Choosing his elective classes and what he wants in his school lunch is fine, but that isn't the same as choosing to live with a war criminal!" Dinah exclaimed. She knew Clark was a founding member of the league but didn't want to hear his opinions on Conner's future.

"Okay, choices disregarded. Let's go get the kid —Luthor's body guards can't stop all of us!" Hal said. "There are sixteen of us! Twenty-one if you unground the kiddos."

"Or we can do it discrete: sneak in, steal the kid, come back, and let him cool off." Flash replied. "We are the justice league, most stuff about us is myth. We can say that there's been fighting behind the scenes and that we can't show receipts"

"No, We need to match Luthor's methods. We need to find a legal stratogy that will let us get Superboy back." Bats argued. "As powerful as the League is, it relies on public image. We can't save people who don't trust us."

"So we need to treat this like a divorced-parents custody battle." Hal asked

"Yes."

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"How's Dickie holding up?"

"Richard is fine."

"He isn't fine if you're calling him 'Richard'." Barry observed. "Ollie, how's herself?"

"I haven't seen her." The archer replied. "But he mom says she's been skipping school and generally not doing too hot."

"Mm. Art? How's Kald-" Barry realized the man had already left. "Who's watching M'gann right now? J'onn?"

"Red Tornado has been watching her. I offered for M'gann to stay with me, but she wished to stay to attend school and take care of the Wolf."

"Red? How's M'gann?" The speedster called.

Red tornado paused and faced them. "Ms. Martian has been resigned to the mountain for the past two days, but she's disclosed that they will attempt to attend school again tomorrow."

"Yeah, but how is she? Like mentally, emotionally?"

"Ms. Martian has not expressed an inclination to share that with me." The android replied.

"Has she been eating properly?" Dinah pried, having long been listening in on the conversation with some interest. "Has she been relaxing her powers? She has a habit of over-stretching them for too long." She asked. "She's been feeding Wolf right?"

"Ms. Martian has been feeding the Wolf with the lamb legs in the industrial freezer."

"Good... good... The kibble isn't substantial enough for him."

"Is this your punishment for being their den mothers?" Oliver asked, but the joke fell pitifully flat. "Anyways, I should probably touch base with Artemis' mom..."

"Why not touch base with Artemis?"

"She's, uh, she's ghosting me." He admitted. "I think her mom might have taken her phone."

"I'll call Paula tonight and ask if I can talk to her." Dinah told him.

Dinah missed the kids. Yes, they'd broken rules and put themselves in danger, and she still didn't forgive them for that, but they were kids, their prefrontal cortexes weren't developed enough to comprehend consequences; they learned everything from trial and error. And they'd had good intentions in breaking the rules, they wanted to help the league with a big problem.

Oliver said, in jest albeit, that she was going soft; That being the team's trainer and co-parent was making her more overprotective and obsessive. Dinah had shot back a good 'so you're okay with the idea of Artemis not eating, dropping out and harming herself?'

That shut him up.

She knew what the kids did was bad, and they needed to be disciplined. But they'd had good intentions, and their punishment was pretty harsh. It couldn't be good for their health, but she'd been grossly outvoted on that point.

"I should go." Barry relented after a few seconds of silence. "Iris wants me home for dinner tonight.

"Is Wally with you guys?" She asked quickly.

"Only on weekends to give his parents a break."

"Okay just, be sure he's eating enough. He sometimes goes on subconscious hunger-strike after a really bad mission..."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he eats."

"I can get some weight gain supplements. He'll probably be losing weight from stress." Canary worried.

"Uh, thanks, I'll let you know..." Barry forced a smile and left.

Dinah thought about who else she could check on. Kaldur was in deep and under a lot of pressure, literally, it would be unsafe for her to try to find him in Posidonis. Dick was practically in solitary at the manor (definitely not good for the poor boy). And Conner was—

Oh.

She could check on M'gann. Maybe help her charge sphere, or do her homework...

"Oliver!" She waved her hand in his face. "You should invite Artemis over. If she's going through it... have her over for the weekend and just check in."

Oliver was clearly on board but needed to keep up the façade of holding the girl responsible. "I mean. Maybe for a night, or the weekend if her mom says yes. Like, a week at most, but only if Paula is okay with it. You wanna set up a guest room for her?!"

"I wish I could, but I need to check on Megs. I'll call Paula for you though."

"Thank you." He said, relieved. "Let me know what she says so I can let Roy know We'll have company!"

Dinah smiled tiredly. "Okay, calm down, we don't know if she can yet."

"I know, just— call her now before she goes to bed."

"It's only four-thirty."

"I know, but still..."

She sighed, smiling faintly. "Okay." See if you can get Bats to let Robin out of his cell for ten minutes a day."

"...still less scary than Paula Nguyen." He shot back, overwhelmed with eagerness to check in on his sidekick.

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Beyond the room he'd awoken in, there was a tiled closet with a shower head, and a larger room with a bed. unlike the small, red-lit room he started in, the other rooms were bathed in harsh white light, which cast vertical shadows in perfect, clean-cut silhouettes. 

"Make yourself at home." His capture reassured as Conner was dropped on the bed, clutching a sheet-like towel around himself, still wet from the shower room. 

"Why are you doing this?" Conner asked, some strength and emotion returning to his voice, which he hadn't used since the episode with the devices on his head. "Let me go!"

"If you want to leave, you can, only after we've assured that you're healthy and mentally sound enough to make your own decisions..." Luthor sighed theatrically. "But I would hate to have my son taken away."

Conner did not have the patience for this. "Let me go!" We ordered. "Now!"

Luthor shook his head again, disapprovingly. "We can't, you're a child, my child, what kind of person would I be if I let you run off alone, with no where to live, no family, not even sure if you're able to make that decision for yourself?"

A furious chill scribbled up Conner's spine. "Stop." He ordered.

"Just 'stop'? You need to speak clearly son; I understand that words are hard for you, but normally, a good, well-behaved, boy would use a complete sentence." Luther stared him down, looking satisfied as he began to shake with anger. "Would you like to try that?"

"NOW!" Conner shouted, lunging at the man, feeling his strength return as force surged in his fist. 

"No." Luthor said, hardly bothered. Conner's fist stopped, inches away, craving the contact they should have made. "What did I say about language and respecting your father?" Conner didn't reply, he couldn't. Lex opened his palm, reveling a small black device. instantly, the teen's muscles slackened, and he crumpled to the floor in front of the bed. "Mercy, change the lights" 

A sickly green filled the room, casting colours askew, stunning the kryptonians eyes momentarily.  Conner felt something wriggle in his stomach, his skin crawled, he scrambled around for the fallen towel and pulled it about his shoulders for any possible warmth. Finally, his voice returned. "how?"

"Does it all; marvelous little device, isn't it?" Luthor asked. "You and your little martian friend can erase alleged 'trigger phrases' all you want, but no one knows your biology better than I." He boasted.  "Now, I don't suppose you need another timeout, you've already got the lights on... so I think we'll make do with an 'I'm sorry, father'." He watched Conner expectantly.

This time, Conner was left with a dry empty throat, mouth, and brain. Suddenly, the illness brewing in his stomach surged, his muscles tensed, his heart in double time. Sweat began forming, and the boy tried hard to swallow down the discomfort.

Conner tried to form a sentence on his own.

He shook his head hard, eyes closed, trying to shake off the headache digging in behind his eyes. "I'm sorry, father." He grunted, feeling his insides sting as hard as his cheeks.

"Good boy." His father replied. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you get a good education this time: proper manners, speaking and conversations, social situations. Everything you'll need to know now."

"What do you want, Luthor." He muttered, trying to sound scary again.

"Hmm?" Luthor asked. "I'm sorry, I don't know who you're addressing. "I think you mean 'what do you want, Father?'. And I don't want anything from you, I just want to give you a good life."