Chapter 8: Kids' Stuff
Ben Tennyson had fought plenty of villains in his own universe. He'd faced down warlords, thieves, even extra-dimensional gods. Compared to those things, it made the battle he was currently fighting seem like a walk in the park. He, transformed into Fourarms, along with Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman and Green Lantern, were fighting several supervillains inside of a Federal gold reserve.
The villains weren't all that tough. In fact, any one of the heroes facing them probably could have taken them down by themselves. As it was, it wasn't too long before only one villain was left standing; he was called Copperhead, a man who was dressed like a snake, complete with venomous fangs. In all honesty, Ben thought the man looked rather silly.
"I won't go down so easily!" he hissed as he leaped towards Green Lantern. Lantern calmly created a brick wall with his ring, which his opponent promptly knocked himself out against.
"Sure you will." Green Lantern responded. As the other fallen villains were brought together, he bound them together with some willpower-generated rope. "Guess that's a wrap."
The other four heroes gave him a funny look.
"Sorry; been hanging out with Flash too much."
Fourarms grinned. Finally, it wasn't him making bad jokes. He opened his mouth to tease the guy, but he was interrupted by the appearance of a wave of purple and gold energy. Before anyone could react, the wave covered them, and then they disappeared.
...
Another Dimension
The five heroes opened their eyes to find that they weren't in Kansas anymore. They were floating on a chunk of rock, surrounded by a white sky, crisscrossed by jagged red and black lines. Fourarms could see dozens of other rocks in the distance, each one with people on them.
"It was Judgment Day!" Copperhead raved, "And we got sent to the bad place! The bad place!"
Any further freak outs were halted when Cheetah, another villain who was very cat-like in appearance, slapped him. "Snap out of it Copperhead!"
"This place is weird," commented Fourarms, "it kinda reminds me of the Null Void."
"What's the Null Void?" asked Wonder Woman.
"Prison dimension in my universe," the red alien responded, "used to hold the most dangerous bad guys of my universe. I've had to send a lot of my villains there before." Fourarms looked around. "At least there aren't any flying squid-things around."
"So, we're in another dimension?"
Fourarms shrugged. "Looks like."
"Oh, is that all?" Copperhead stammered, still freaked out by the sight of everything.
"Have you noticed something odd about all this?" interrupted Batman.
"Aside from the obvious?" snorted Fourarms.
"There are only adults here." Batman said, as if Fourarms hadn't spoken.
Wonder Woman looked around. "He's right; there aren't any children here."
"That's because a child is responsible."
The heroes turned to see a woman in purple and gold robes floating towards them. Fourarms couldn't see her face, or any of her true features; she was completely covered, while her face was concealed by a golden face mask. The other heroes went into fighting stances.
"Morgaine Le Fey." Growled Batman, "I should have known."
"Calm yourselves; I mean you no harm. My own son, Mordred, is responsible for this treachery, banishing all adults to this shadow-realm." She looked out to the distance. "And after I spent millennia feeding him, bathing him, preparing him to be king. Where did I go wrong?"
"See, this is why you shouldn't teach your kid magic if you're evil." Said Fourarms while rolling his eyes, "It always comes back to bite you later."
"You'd think they'd learn." Muttered Green Lantern.
"You're a sorceress," Wonder Woman said to Le Fey, "can't you just undo his spell?"
Morgaine shook her head. "No, he has the Amulet of First Magic; he's too powerful." She paused, then looked at the heroes. "But if we all work together…"
Batman finished her sentence. "You want us to defeat your own son?"
Even though her face was hidden, Le Fey seemed smug. "So don't trust me. Let him rule the world and all your children. Here we will stay. Forever."
"Well, how can we get to the real world?" asked Fourarms, "I don't see an exit anywhere."
"You won't need one," explained Le Fey, "the spell only banishes adults."
The heroes didn't take long to figure out the sorceress's meaning.
"I don't like where this is going." Said Green Lantern darkly.
"It's the only way." Responded Le Fey.
"We have to do it," Superman sighed. Sometimes doing the right thing could make a hero miserable.
"Excellent," hissed Le Fey, "Milugu sagaroth, raboth tanaabu, kathuta!"
With a flash of green light from the sorceress's hands, the heroes vanished.
…
Funseyland Amusement Park
With a glee that only a sadistic child could have, Mordred came to the amusement park, now full of only children, and turned it into a dark, twisted palace for himself and his "subjects". This was what he'd always wanted; a kingdom, a mass of followers, and no mother telling him what to do. With but a glare, the other children followed Mordred without a backward glance. If they had, they might have noticed the shadows behind them; shadows that led to five ten-year-old heroes.
"This better be temporary," said Batman, while looking down at his much younger self.
"You sound weird," said Superman, "Whoa, so do I!"
"I kind of like this," said a smiling Wonder Woman, as she noticed that she was a good few inches taller than her teammates.
"I don't," said a new voice. The others turned to see the ten-year-old Ben Tennyson. While the other heroes had remained in their costumes, albeit kid-sized ones, Ben had completely changed. Gone were his green jacket, jeans and even his Ultimatrix. Instead, he wore a white t-shirt with a black stripe going down the middle, brow cargo pants, and a black and white device on his wrist.
"Ben?" asked Superman, "What happened?"
"Stupid magic must've made us how we were when we were ten years old, not just de-aged us," explained Ben as he crossed his arms and scowled, "which means that I don't have the Ultimatrix, I have the original Omnitrix. No Ultimate forms, shorter time spent as an alien, and a REALLY long recharge time. Great, I'm not gonna be much help here, guys."
While Wonder Woman placed a comforting hand on Ben's shoulder, Batman turned to Green Lantern, who was squinting.
"What's the matter?" asked the mini-Dark Knight.
"I wore glasses as a kid," explained Lantern, "guess I need 'em again." When he spoke, his ring created a set of square, thick-rimmed glasses. "Wow! I didn't even try to make these!"
"I hope not," said Batman, as Superman tried not to laugh. Even Ben cracked a smile. Green Lantern focused until his dorky glasses became a much cooler mask.
"Nice," complimented Superman.
"Would you stop messing around?" asked Wonder Woman as she slapped the Kryptonian upside the head, "We gotta find Mordred!"
"Bet the little punk's in there," said Batman, pointing to the castle.
"Yeah, you're probably right," agreed Ben, "the kid grew up in medieval times, right? He'd like to stay in a castle." Activating the Omnitrix, he cycled through his aliens, noting that he had significantly fewer than before.
Oh well, he thought, I'll make do with what I've got. He made his choice and slammed down the dial.
"HEATBLAST!" The fiery alien looked down. "Well, at least it gave me the alien that I wanted. That's a plus."
"Come on!" said Batman, as he ran towards the castle. Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Heatblast flew over and past him, all with grins on their faces. "It's not a race!" whined Batman.
They crossed the drawbridge over the moat; then, Superman drew back his fist and knocked the door open. There, they saw a young boy with blonde hair and purple clothes sitting on a throne; obviously Mordred, surrounded by children. The immortal child stared at them in shock, then burst out laughing.
"The Justice Babies! Ha!"
Batman's eyes narrowed. "What are you laughing at, precious?"
The laughter ceased. "So, Mother sent you, huh? She shouldn't send a boy to do a man's job!" grasping the amulet around his neck, he sent a wave of purple energy at the action figures held in a boy's arms. The toys grew in size, until they were twenty feet tall.
The heroes stood in shock for a moment, then leaped into action. Superman attacked a red one with a spiked mace, but was slammed into the ground. A beige enemy with a hammer prepared to finish him off, but was distracted when Green Lantern blasted him with a beam of energy. Faced with this new enemy, the robotic-looking foe gave chase.
Batman attempted to attack Mordred directly, but was intercepted by a thin, purple Cyclops with large claws. He jumped over his monstrous opponent and launched a grappler at Mordred, who ducked. Instead of him, the grappler hit his throne.
"Ha!" He taunted.
Batman only smirked as he pulled the line towards him, knocking the throne on top of Mordred. The smirk vanished, however, when the throne exploded, revealing a very angry Mordred. He sent a blast of purple energy at Batman, who dodged, letting the magic strike the monster behind him instead. The creature vanished, with only a few purple sparks remaining.
Heatblast flew over the head of his opponent, a green, armored brute with a large axe. Keeping sure to stay out of its range, Heatblast kept up a constant stream of fire. Eventually, the entire beast was glowing red. Drops of melted metal fell to the ground. Heatblast stood in front of it, an arrogant smile on his face. The creature raised its half-melted axe to strike back, when the alien hero merely pointed his forefinger at it, with his thumb straight up.
"Bang."
A single ball of fire struck the creature in the chest; it was just enough to cause the thing to collapse into a melted puddle. With a laugh, Heatblast flew off to help the others.
Green Lantern had a little problem. Not with his opponent, he was doing an admirable job of staying out of the range of its hammer; no, the issue was that he couldn't figure out what to use to destroy it.
"I'll make a laser cannon!" he cried out, "No, no, a missile launcher! Oh, I know!"
"Just pick something!" yelled out Batman.
Focusing, Lantern created a giant green boxing glove, and smashed the thing into pieces.
Meanwhile, Superman had dispatched his enemy with a blast of heat-vision, but Wonder Woman was having a bit of a problem. Her opponent, a fiendish thing with a large spear, had pinned her to a pillar, where she was left unable to counterattack. Fortunately, Batman jumped onto its head, stabbing with a batarang. Sadly, the attack did nothing more than annoy the creature. It reached up and grabbed Batman by the cape, who still tried to attack it.
Seeing her friend in trouble, Wonder Woman flew forward and smashed her fist into the thing as hard as she could. Cracks spread across its body, then it shattered. Batman fell to the ground, but was caught by the Amazon Princess.
"You okay, tough guy?"
"Let go, I'm fine!" Batman struggled out of her arms, then sulked off. Wonder Woman watched him go with a small pout.
Finished with their battles, the heroes gathered together again in front of Mordred.
"That's not fair!" he cried out.
"Get 'im!" Batman yelled, while the others charged ahead.
Mordred raised a hand, and all of the heroes save for Heatblast were encased in ice. The fire-alien was instead covered in stone.
"Playtime is over," gloated the sorcerer as he grasped the amulet, "you'll share the fate of all my enemies: execution."
The floor opened up, and the heroes fell into a dungeon below. When they struck the ground, the ice and stone that held them disappeared. Superman tried to fly back up, but Mordred created a web of magical energy that not only blocked the Man of Steel, but also sent him crashing back to the floor. Heatblast raised his hands, ready to charbroil the little creep, when the Omnitrix symbol on his chest began to flash red.
"Oh, come on," he groaned, "we're back to this shtick again!?" In a flash of red light, he transformed back into Ben. "Aw man."
With typical bad timing, one of the gates in the dungeon opened, revealing a pair of glowing, red eyes. From the shadows stepped a very small, yellow monster with fangs and fan-shaped ears. He wore a red suit, with a purple cape. He might have been intimidating if he was taller than the heroes, or even close to their size; however, he only came up to Ben's knees.
"What'd he do to the demon?" asked Green Lantern.
"Etrigan?" asked Batman. In response, the mini-demon blew of stream of hellfire in their direction. Wonder Woman pulled Batman away, while Ben took cover behind a shield created by Green Lantern.
Before the League-aligned demon could overwhelm the shield, Superman flew forward and grabbed the little monster.
"No!" yelled Batman, "Don't hurt him!" Obviously, Mordred had enslaved their demonic friend. Etrigan opened his mouth and chomped down of Superman's arm. Since Etrigan was a magical being, the fangs pierced his normally indestructible skin.
"Ow! Tell him that!" shaking his arm, Superman launched the demon across the dungeon. Etrigan, in turn, blew a ball of fire into Superman's face.
Green Lantern tried to put the demon in a cage, but he simply crawled out of it. He slammed into Green Lantern, knocking him out. Then Ben slid forward, feet first, catching Etrigan in the back and sending him flying. Before the demon could retaliate, Batman flung his cape over Etrigan's face.
"Etrigan, cut it out!"
The demon did no such thing, grabbing the cape and throwing Batman over his head and onto his back. As he stood over the fallen hero, Wonder Woman approached.
"Etrigan, you stop right there! I mean it!" the demon turned to her, confusion on his face. "You naughty monster! Bad, bad Etrigan!"
Tears welled up in Etrigan's eyes, and he began to cry.
Wonder Woman picked him up, and rocked him in her arms. "Hey, little guy; it's okay." She was practically cooing. "I won't hurt you." The little demon purred, happy with the attention.
Batman rolled over. "You've gotta be kidding."
"Anyone besides me finding this way too freaky?" asked Ben.
"He's just a baby." Wonder Woman patted Etrigan's back until he burped a small ball of fire. "That's all he needed."
Green Lantern sniffed the air, then his face scrunched up in disgust. "Aw, man, that ain't all he needs."
Batman backed up. "Now that is a job for Superman."
Green Lantern nodded. "I'm gonna punch a way out of here."
Wonder Woman handed Etrigan to Superman. "I'll help."
Superman looked at Ben, his face pleading.
"Uh, I'm gonna go supervise." Then Ben ran off.
"Traitors," muttered Superman, as he held the very smelly demon as far away as his arms could stretch.
…
It took a while for them to escape, which gave Ben some time to think. Being a ten-year-old again reminded him of the adventures he'd had on that fateful summer. Even though it had been a few weeks since he'd recovered from the incident with Mongol, it still hurt to think about how he'd never see his loved ones again. It just hadn't been fair; he had done so much good for people, the world, even the entire universe. Why did they die?
Ben quickly cut off that line of thought; it was in the past, and he needed to move on.
After a few hours of digging, the heroes made their way to the courtyard just outside the castle. It was chaos; children were running around making a mess, fighting with each other, and just doing the things that children do when adults aren't around. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern flew to the center of it all, while Ben hid in a nearby alley, along with Baby Etrigan. He couldn't stay as an alien for very long, and he didn't want his secret identity revealed, even if he was unrecognizable. Regardless, now that the Omnitrix had recharged, he was ready to go hero if the others needed him.
"You two, knock it off!" Superman ordered a couple kids fighting with wooden swords.
"What're you gonna do? You're just a kid." Both boys jumped back as lasers sliced the ground in front of them.
"I'm the kid with laser beams coming out his eyes." Superman retorted with a glare, causing the two to run away in fright.
Still, the chaos continued, as kids still ran around yelling their heads off.
Wonder Woman's eye twitched, before yelling out, "THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The other children froze. Then a small girl said, "You can't tell us what to do! You're not our mom!"
Wonder Woman glared at her. "No, but I promise you, we will find all your moms." She turned her glare to all of the children. "And I'm gonna tell!"
Good thing she mellows out when she get older, Ben thought. Etrigan gurgled in his arms, as if agreeing with him.
"Go outside and wait for your parents." For a moment, the children didn't react to Wonder Woman's words. "Now!"
Ben approached the other heroes as the children left. He saw Wonder Woman walk up to Batman, place a hand on her hip and wink. The eyes of Batman, Green Lantern, and Ben all widened; Superman's didn't, because he apparently didn't notice.
"Your girlfriend sure is bossy," commented Lantern.
"Shut up," Batman retorted, then walked off.
"Do those two have a history?" asked Ben.
"Oh, totally; Bats just won't admit it. It's kinda sad."
The heroes snuck back into the castle without incident; apparently, Mordred thought they were dead, and thus didn't feel the need for guards. The group saw that he was asleep; to make things better, he had a set of headphones covering his ears.
"We can take him," whispered Wonder Woman.
"I'll make a giant lawnmower and chew 'em up!" said Green Lantern. The other heroes stared at him for a moment.
"I say we get that amulet away from him, then we can take him down." Said Batman. "Ben, can you turn into Ghostfreak and take it away? Once we do that, we should be able to stop him." Batman looked at Green Lantern. "But no mowers."
"Why?" asked Lantern.
"Because it's stupid." Responded Superman.
Meanwhile, Ben was cycling through his aliens, until he found Ghostfreak. He slammed the dial down, but the alien he turned into was definitely not Ghostfreak. It seemed to be made of green vines. Instead of legs and feet, it had a mass of tentacle-like vines, seedpods on its back, and a single black eye.
"WILDVINE!" the voice of the alien was soft and raspy. Wildvine looked down. "Oh, come on, stupid watch! See, this is why I traded up for the Ultimatrix!"
"Is this going to be a problem?" asked Batman.
"No, it's cool; I can work with Wildvine."
"All right, while Wildvine is doing his thing, the rest of us split up, two on one side, two on the other."
"I'll go with Clark." Said Wonder Woman. Then a sly look came over her face. "Unless you want me to go with you, Bruce?"
"Whatever." was Batman's response.
"I'm cool to go with Diana," said Superman.
"I changed my mind," said Wonder Woman, "I'll go with Bruce, and John can go with Clark." She grabbed his arm and dragged him off.
"What's with them?" asked Superman.
"Seriously, dude?" asked Wildvine, rolling his eye. "You remember when I called you dense about the Lois thing?" Superman nodded. "Okay, I'm extending that to other people's relationships, too." He then slid towards Mordred.
Superman turned towards Green Lantern, who only rolled his own eyes and snickered, then flew off.
"What am I missing?" asked Superman to no one in particular.
As the senior Leaguers got into position, Wildvine slithered towards the target. Once he was close enough, he stretched out a vine and gingerly wrapped it around the amulet. Unfortunately, the other Leaguers were unable to warn him as a little girl approached him.
"What are you doing?"
Startled, Wildvine dropped the amulet on Mordred's chest, waking him up.
"Get the amulet!" cried Batman.
Before he could fully awaken, Wildvine stretched another vine out and wrapped it around Mordred's face. Then he flipped the young sorcerer on his back, while the other Leaguers jumped on him.
"We can take him!" yelled Batman, "He's just a little kid!"
That was the wrong thing to say, as Mordred's eyes began to glow, and his body began to grow. In a few seconds, he was bigger than Humongosaur.
"Man, I hate magic!" complained Green Lantern, as he and the others were thrown off.
"Now who's little?" boasted Mordred. He brought a giant foot down at Wildvine, who had been trying to get the girl to safety.
Seeing the danger, he grabbed one of the seedpods from his back and hurled it at Mordred, where it exploded like a grenade. Knocked off-balance, he collapsed. The shockwave from the impact hurled Wildvine, Batman and the girl into the air. Batman was caught by Green Lantern, riding a willpower-generated surfboard, the girl was caught by Superman, and Wonder Woman caught Wildvine.
As they flew off, Mordred fired a blast of magic from his eyes; this blast hit two stone dragons that came to life from his magic. The dragons spread their wings, took off and gave chase.
…
"You're kind of heavy," commented Wonder Woman as she carried Wildvine.
"You have super-strength," said Wildvine, "what counts as heavy to you?"
Before Wonder Woman could respond, the Omnitrix symbol began to blink red, and then Wildvine turned back into Ben.
"Oh, come on!" he yelled, "That wasn't even five minutes!" Was this watch trying to get him killed?
"Well, at least you're not heavy," said Wonder Woman, trying to lighten the mood.
"Again, super-strength; I shouldn't be heavy unless I'm Way Big or something."
Before the conversation could continue, one of the stone dragons flew behind Wonder Woman and grabbed her by the shoulders. In her surprise, she accidentally dropped Ben. Since the Omnitrix was still recharging, Ben was helpless as he fell towards the ground.
Wonder Woman knew she didn't have long; Ben was going to die if she didn't something! She threw her magic lasso around the dragon's jaws, then used her own super-strength to hurl the dragon towards the ground. With the dragon's fall adding momentum to her already impressively fast flight, she was able to catch up to, and overtake, Ben's fall. She caught him by the arm while they watched the dragon shatter on the ground below.
"I keep falling from high places like this, it's really gonna mess with my health one day." Ben said it as casually as he could, but Wonder Woman could feel him trembling. He had been terrified. She tightened her grip around his hand as sign of support, which he thanked her for in the form of a smile.
The two made it back to the castle, where Superman and the little girl were waiting. They turned to see Green Lantern and Batman closely followed by the giant Mordred. They all made their way into the castle, before closing the doors and barricading them shut.
"Come out of my castle!" came Mordred's booming voice. "Your king commands it!" The sound of giant fists banging could be heard.
The heroes huddled together, trying to figure out what to do.
"I got a plan," said an enthusiastic Green Lantern, "I'll make some giant handcuffs and…"
"Forget it." Interrupted Batman, "We've gotta focus on…" seeing Lantern's crestfallen face, he reconsidered. "Never mind what I just said, we'll take care of everything else; Lantern, you go crazy."
At Batman's instruction, Superman punched a hole in the wall, where the others flew out. While Lantern got ready, everyone else hid behind some rocks, where Ben had stashed Etrigan. After a quick discussion, Ben had to ask.
"Will this work?"
"Hopefully," said Batman, "as long as the Omnitrix doesn't mess up again."
Ben looked down, a little nervous. His confidence had been shaken more than he'd admit after the last couple of screw-ups. Wonder Woman saw it and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry," she said comfortingly, "I know you'll do it."
Ben gave a small smile in return.
…
Mordred burst through the doors to his castle, but found that no one was there.
"Hey, junior!"
Mordred turned to hear the voice calling him out, and found a giant green battlesuit, almost as large as he was now, poised to fight him. Piloting the mech was Green Lantern.
"How 'bout pickin' on someone your own size?"
A sadistic smile came to Mordred's face as he cracked his knuckles. "You're so dead."
Gritting his teeth, Lantern created missile launchers on his mech's shoulders, firing a volley at the would-be king. Mordred didn't even move. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Mordred was unharmed, but he was changed. He was wearing a suit of plate armor and holding a massive poleax. Smiling, the young villain charged. Lantern tried slowing him down by shooting him with the cannon on his creation's arm, but to no avail. The axe went right through the stomach of the mech, knocking it to the ground and pinning the Lantern there.
As the construct vanished, Mordred asked, "Did you really think you could beat me in that piece of junk?"
Lantern shrugged, smiling. "Wasn't really trying."
Mordred felt a tug around his neck, and saw Superman trying to pull off his amulet. "Treachery!" he yelled.
As Superman finally yanked off the amulet, he was grabbed by Mordred. Unable to get away, Superman tossed it to Batman. However, the Dark Knight was unable to get very far, as Mordred's other hand caught him. He quickly threw it to Wonder Woman, who made a beeline to a cluster of rocks. Mordred sent a blast of magic from his eyes, pulling the Amazon towards him.
At the last second, she threw the amulet to the rocks, where three green tentacles caught it. The owner of the appendages climbed over the rocks. It was a small, green woodchuck-like creature. The tentacles emerged from its mouth. The symbol of the Omnitrix was displayed on his chest.
Mordred burst out laughing. "What in the world is that ugly thing?"
In response, the creature pulled his tentacles back into his mouth, taking the amulet with them. With a loud gulp, the mystical object was swallowed whole, causing Mordred to gape in shock.
"This guy's name is Upchuck." the alien said, a smug smirk on his face, "Three guesses what his other power is besides eating stuff."
Before Mordred could react, Upchuck opened his mouth, releasing a massive blast of green energy at Mordred. The blast was so powerful that it knocked Upchuck off his feet and into a tree, before he fell onto his back. For a moment, he saw three of everything but, with Wonder Woman's assistance, he was able to stand up. All of the other heroes, even baby Etrigan, were smiling at him.
"So," said Upchuck, "did I get him?"
"Nice try," came Mordred's voice. The heroes turned to see him getting to his feet, his armor smoking, but otherwise, he was unharmed. "I've already absorbed too much of the amulet's power."
With a blink, the six heroes were pulled into the air and held upside-down. Mordred held out a hand, where purple energy gathered and formed a spiked sword.
"Now," he said as he brandished the sword at the heroes, "I'll take care of my kingly duties myself." But as he began to move towards them, he was stopped when the little girl from before got in his way.
"What?" Mordred asked.
"I'm scared," the girl whimpered, "I want my mommy."
"You don't need a mommy," said Mordred, "you're better off without one; trust me."
The girl just started to cry.
"Stop it," demanded Mordred, though it looked like he was being affected as well, "Stop it!"
"Some king," said Superman sarcastically.
"I'm not impressed," said Wonder Woman.
"What'd you expect?" asked Batman, "He's a boy, doing a man's job."
"You don't know what it's like," said Mordred, approaching the floating heroes, "being stuck as a kid."
"Since you got all that power, you could've been a man any time you wanted." Batman smirked, "I'll bet you're too chicken to grow up."
"Yep," agreed Green Lantern, "big chicken, that's what you are."
"Face it, you little wuss," said Upchuck, "you like being a little momma's boy."
"I'll show you," Mordred yelled, "I'll show you all!" in a flash of purple light, the boy disappeared. In his place stood a tall, muscular man in his twenties.
"I'm older than you now." He said in a superior tone.
"You sure are." Agreed Batman, the smirk not leaving his face.
Mordred realized his mistake as his body began to become transparent. In a few seconds, he disappeared entirely. With him gone, the magic suspending the heroes in the air wore off; they landed on their feet and approached the spot that Mordred had occupied.
…
Shadow-Realm
Mordred looked around at the prison he'd created for adults; the prison he'd been tricked into sending himself.
"They cheated!" he pouted, "After I fix this, they're toast!" he tried to summon his magic, but nothing happened. "What's wrong with me? Where's my power?"
"You've used it all." came a voice from behind him. He turned to see his mother, Morgaine Le Fey. "Don't you realize what you've done?"
"What?" Mordred demanded, panic crawling across his face. "WHAT!?"
…
Earth
Across the world, Mordred's spell wore off, and adults were returned to the children that missed them. Any warping of reality that Mordred had caused was reversed, and the world began to return to normal.
At the amusement park, the six heroes of the Justice League were approached by Le Fey. She stared at them for a moment, no doubt contemplating killing them right there.
"A bargain is a bargain." With a wave of green energy, the Leaguers were returned to their right ages. Upchuck was transformed back into an eighteen-year-old Ben Tennyson, complete with his trademark jacket and his Ultimatrix. Wonder Woman, who had been holding the baby Etrigan, looked down to see a fully-adult version of the demon.
"Mommy." He said. Wonder Woman quickly dropped him on the ground.
Before anyone could see his identity, Ben quickly transformed into Diamondhead, as Le Fey turned to leave via a magic portal.
"Wait," said Batman, "what happened to Mordred?"
"My spell granted him eternal youth," explained Le Fey, "but now that he's broken it, all he has is eternal life." Without a backward glance, she strode through the portal, which then disappeared.
Diamondhead glanced at Etrigan. "So, we're never talking about the whole diaper thing, or the mommy thing, right?"
If looks could kill, then the glare that Etrigan gave would've murdered Diamondhead several times over.
Batman looked out at the rejoicing families that were still being reunited. His eyes narrowed.
"Circumstances aside," said Wonder Woman as she approached him, "it was actually enjoyable to be a kid again."
Batman didn't even look at her. "I haven't been a kid since I was eight years old." He walked off without another word. Understanding his meaning, the other Leaguers solemnly followed.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone