"Like me?"

"Exactly like you, give or take fifteen years." Batman beat his fingertips to the keyboard aggressively. "Remember a few months back, the fire at CADMUS labs?"

"How could I forget?" Clark replied, shuddering. A hidden lab beneath the main building, manufactured literal biological weapons, Genomorphs, psychic creatures designed as slaves and weapons. It had been horrible, aisles and aisles of those wretched, cloned creatures, all growing in icily lit cylindrical pods.

"You'll remember how the 52nd level was completely destroyed..."

"Where that project was."

"Project Kr."  Batman pulled up an elemental table, zooming in on Krypton. "Look familiar?"

"...no."

"Superman--Clark--" Bruce looked up at him, and he didn't need to say it, but he did: "I think you've been cloned."

The teens had finally found a place to settle for the evening: a rarely-used underground parking lot uptown. They'd settled behind a pillar and were now trying to make Wally look as different as possible, which in this context meant wearing Artemis' dad cap, switching shirts with Robin, and wearing Kaldur's jacket.

Morale was low, Artemis and Conner had stepped out for a smoke and M'gann had confided in their leader that they were almost out of cash. Dick hadn't left Wally's side since he'd returned, and was currently trying to keep the redhead talking to help him relax.

"Hey." Artemis returned, reeking of tobacco, she sat with the other two humans. She glanced at Wally and pulled him into an awkward side-hug. "You did good."

Wally was surprised to receive anything from the edgy, competitive Artemis. "Really?"

"I just said so, don't be thirsty." She teased, knocking his shoulder playfully.

"You're such an asshole." He scoffed, turning to Robin. "She's such an asshole."

"I'm glad you're feeling better." Dick said, rubbing his friend's arm. "Now, who's doing dinner tonight?"

Barry was as much of a wreck as he was, they sat across from each other in the lounge. Barry's head was in his hands. Clark stared at the ceiling tiles.

"You know what's funny?" The blonde man stiffed. "It was easier to assume he  was... that he wasn't coming back than it is knowing he's been out there the whole time. Avoiding me, surviving god knows how on his own..."

Clark didn't tell him to be quiet, but admittedly he wasn't in much of a place to offer sympathy. They'd violated him, a single drop of blood on the battle field meticulously gathered and studied, forced to life and pumped with hormones until it could walk on its own, speak on its own... and it knew what it was, it wore his family crest. 

somewhere, not far from his own home, lived a stranger, a monster, which wore his face and lied. He felt sick. 

"Ex-- Excuse me." Clark stood, hurrying from the room.

Barry watched him leave, and nearly released the floodgates entirely. A tear shot down his face, then another, another, his shoulders rocked sickly. Wally had been willingly avoiding them, refusing to come home, oblivious of the wreck the West-Alans would be left in, the pain, the fear, the... Wally was alive. He was actually alive. The boy he'd given up on a half-year ago, actually alive out there, maybe not safe and sound, but well enough to have been shoplifting groceries...

He let out a sob, though whether it was relieved or devastated, he wasn't sure. 

M'gann made Kaldur sleep that night, offering to stay up and keep watch in his stead. M'gann felt good to do something for him, after all he'd let her into the group, he made her feel safe on earth. 

M'gann had been fascinated with earth since she was a toddler, that was when the first Martian-Human contact was the biggest thing in the world. When they were a little older, they started receiving earth transmissions, that's when they found Hello Megan. That changed everything. Then, when she was a teen, one of their sisters was attacked; she was jumped by a few red Martians on her way home one day. After that, none of the siblings were allowed to leave the house unless disguised as Greens. That's when M'gann realized she couldn't stay on that planet.

When she found Manhunter's ship, well, it was just the easiest way to her new life. 

Of course, there were problems, she had been discovered upon arriving on earth. They'd barely escaped that, and when they found the team, Artemis wasn't there yet, she found friends. She disguised themself as a human-- as Megan-- in public, but when possible she let herself out. The others weren't scared of her anymore.

They just hoped, after all that, that the Justice League wouldn't come and take it all away.

Bruce had asked for a breakthrough, and he'd received it-- or rather-- he'd received about fifty all at once. 

These were not the acts of a calculating mafia using children as operatives, this was children playing at superheroes and trying to make things better-- by endangering themselves severely: he doubted they understood that stealing a shipment of  drugs from a cartel could result in retaliation. They were kids! kid's who'd been living out of an abandoned house, at least, until the league had raided it. Their first priority was to find these children and get them into protection. Not to mention they needed to assess the... unhuman members for their threat level. 

"I think you'll find it's two am already." Alfred's voice came from somewhere nearby. "Do you remember our agreement about this week?"

Bruce sighed, he had foolishly agreed to try a curfew this week, he hadn't realized the week would be so eventful. "I can't Alfred, those kids need me."

"I'm sure what those children need is nine hours of undisturbed sleep." Alfred replied. "Please at least grant them one last night of freedom before you corner and arrest them."

They couldn't see the sunrise from the parking garage, but M'gann assumed it must have risen, because it was nine. The teens had slept in later than usual, exhausted by the previous day's adventure, and weren't up until nearly ten. 

M'gann barely made it to ten herself before passing out into a deep slumber. A few of the others draped their jackets over her like a blanket as they got up and got ready for the day. They'd have to lay low for a bit, but they'd survived before, and they'd survive again.