"We have a situation."
Batman's voice chimed beside him. His fingers tapped along the hard-light keyboard, the screen depicting clouds of red and yellow, with boxes of texts he couldn't make heads or tails of.
"What is it, Bruce?"
His glare would have melted steel into a puddle. For a normal human, he could be quite scary sometimes. "I've detected massive surges of energy occurring within the Antarctic," The screen switched to a bird's eye view, to the southernmost continent and site of the South Pole." Whatever it is, it's ripping apart the continent."
Superman uncrossed his arms and stepped closer toward the screen, eyes narrowed. It was nothing more than an inhospitable land of ice and snow, but... there. Fast. A blur, but it was enough. It would have been invisible to even the camera's focus, but he could see.
"There are people fighting down there," Bruce snapped his head up, his eyes a narrow laser focus of unconquerable intelligence and determination personified.
"You're going," Bruce stated, then returned to the screen. "I've already alerted the rest of the Justice League. Go, stop them if you can."
Superman nodded and took off.
When Superman left the Watchtower, he could feel the Sun beyond earth. And even in the cold of space, the light warmed his skin, his cells, and bone and heart, empowering him. He felt good, and the Sun welcomed him like a friend.
Then, he turned his head toward the pair below and blasted off.
Superman arrived to find a last blasted into molten slag, lava spewing up as a volcano was born in a land of ice and death. It was a dreadful sight, to witness something so devastating to something so pure as the Antarctic.
"This is bad, Bruce." Superman looked about, as he radioed in. "Whatever, or whoever is doing is, doesn't seem to care what they're doing to the environment around them."
"Find out what you can." Was Batman's short response.
It took him a millisecond to react, as he leaned left and dodged a high-speed projectile. It... was a body. A child's body. Superman's eyes widened, as he leaned forward to fly, to rescue him.
But... Superman stopped, as he froze in shock. The body righted itself in the air, floating with arms akimbo. It was a boy, about eight, maybe, and grinning.
And then, the boy was off like lightning, as fast as he was. And there, another boy about the same age, perhaps older. They were fighting, grinning, as they slammed each other through mountains and through the very bedrock of the planet.
"Stop!" Superman intervened between them, just as he detected massive amounts of golden energy forming in the palms of their hands. "Stop this fighting! Are you kids trying to kill each other?!"
Who were these kids? Where did they come from? How hasn't he or any of the Justice League figured out their identity until now? So many questions and no answers.
"Hey! What's the big idea!" The other boy, with the strangely colored hair, yelled out. "If you want to fight, you better wait for your turn!"
The other, smaller boy, squeaked out. "Yeah! Erm... Yeah!"
They were just kids. They reminded him of himself when he was a child, just testing his powers. Superman's lips thinned. Violence isn't the answer with children, but maybe... A ridiculous, but a brilliant idea occurred to him.
"If you kids stop this fighting, I'll buy the both of you ice cream!"
The older boy glared back at the man, then switched his gaze to the younger boy. "Don't listen to him Goten! He's trying to trick you!"
"Yay! Ice cream, ice cream!" And Superman had a tiny child clinging to his waist with a grip to rival Wonder Woman. "You promise?"
The other boy's scowl deepened, crossing his arms with a sigh.
Superman returned the boy's grin. "I promise, but only if you tell me your names and where you've come from?"
The boy nodded vigorously, still grinning at the thought of ice cream.
And already, he could hear the thrum of the engines as the Justice League arrived. Superman sighed in relief.
---
"These are the kids responsible for causing widespread devastation that nearly cracked a continent in half?" The Flash blankly replied, jaws hanging open in disbelief. He threw his hands up in the air. "What the hell?!"
Cyborg looked through the small windows appearing before him in hard-light. "Their bio-signs are biologically alien, and not at all human. And whatever energy they're using is neither magic or tech, so it's something else I can't detect."
Green Lantern, John Stewart, consulted his ring. The black man blinked. Then blinked again. "Nothing. The ring doesn't recognize them as any kind of alien they've encountered before. That's... impossible."
"They are warriors, and they've been trained well." Wonder Woman crossed her arms, as she watched the two children through the seethrough one-way mirror. The kids were inhaling an incredible amount of food, enough to even match the Flash for a short time. But it was their warrior spirit she was focused on. "I shall ask them questions, now."
The Amazonian hadn't bothered to consult the others before she walked into the room where the pair of children were being kept.
Superman nodded, and when he glanced at Bruce, the man stayed in the shadows. Batman silently watched the kids. He didn't think the Dark Knight moved at all since they brought Goten and Trunks to the Watchtower. It was the only safe place to house the kids, and instead of below with a heavy population. The amount of damage these two could do was devastating.
He turned back to Wonder Woman, and she smiled gently as she sat down on the table with them. The amount of food they've been inhaling was... impressive, to say the least.
"Hello, kids," Wonder Woman held out her hand. "My name is Wonder Woman. What's yours?"
The younger one grabbed her hand in a gentle grip, grinning. Foodstuff stained the edges of his mouth and left cheek. "I'm Goten! And this is Trunks. And you're pretty!"
Trunks grunted, then ignored them to return to his foo.
"Why thank you, Trunks." Wonder Woman's charm was working like... well, a charm. She was getting them to open up, and she didn't need her lasso for this. "Why were you fighting so hard? You both could have gotten hurt."
Goten blinked innocently. "Fighting? We weren't fighting. We were training!"
Flash snorted. "If that's training, I don't want to know if they throw a tantrum."
"Training?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Yeah! Daddy said to go with Trunks and train. But mommy would get mad if we train near the house. Her garden always blows up, though. So that's probably why. Oh, and mom's scary!" Goten shuddered.
Superman blinked. What. What? What did the boy say?
Wonder Woman was very good at hiding her feelings. "Wow! Your mom must be really tough!"
"Yeah!" Goten threw his hands up in the air with a grin. "Even Daddy is scared of her and her frying pan, but daddy is the strongest fighter in the universe!"
The only one to keep their cool was Batman, and his sped up for but only a few seconds, before it retained back to its normal rhythm. He was keeping his cool. The rest of the Justice League could only shake their heads in disbelief, or as simple children's tales. But Superman knew better. The amount of power the children were throwing around was dangerous. And the children were trained, according to Wonder Woman. That says something.
Besides, not for a second did Superman think the boy was lying. He didn't even think Goten was capable of it. Also, he was keeping track of their heart rate. It was normal, if excited.
"Pfft, please Goten," Trunks glared back. "My father is way stronger than your dad. No way he would lose."
"Nuh Uh! My daddy's the strongest!"
"Uh huh!"
And the children bickered, as children wont to do.
"Now, children, is it possible that we could meet with your parents?" Wonder Woman leaned forward, quite interested.
"Hmph. As if you can. I don't recognize any of this place, and I doubt we're in the same world anymore. Something's changed when we flew over." Trunks crossed his arms in consternation.
"Huh?!" Tears formed in the corner of his eyes. Goten's pout was a devastating weapon. It seemed Wonder Woman soothed the boy with a hug. The boy sobbed in the nape of her neck, his arms wrapped tightly around her.
"There, there, now. It's alright." Wonder Woman hummed, rubbing the boy's back.
"Stop crying, Goten. Our dads will find us soon. It shouldn't take another three months. Probably."
Goten whipped his head back to the other boy. "Really?"
"Yeah," Trunks shrugged. "Worst-case scenario, they'll use Shenron to get us back."
Once things settled down, the atmosphere seemed to soften much more comfortably.
"We need to keep them somewhere safe," Batman stepped forward. "They can't stay here."
"Teen Titans."
"That's dangerous. They're dangerous," Batman cut back. Meaning, he didn't want the two mass of destruction anywhere near around the other kids, especially his son.
"We can't keep a couple of kids locked up," Green Lantern countered. "Goten and Trunks needs be with other kids and making friends with them would be a healthy way for them to interact. Keeping them isolated would only make them angry, and I saw the land they were fighting on. I don't want that happening around here."
Flash shrugged. "He's right. And Starfire is there to supervise."
"Now that we've settled this matter, I'd like to discuss more of their parents, who are, apparently, strong enough to have these kids grounded." Cyborg took it to the heart of the matter. "And more importantly, are arriving for Earth to find their children. If they're enemies..."
An ominous silence was the only answer.