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Connor looked out of the corner of his eye to check on his little brother's posture. He gently cleared his throat and tapped one fist against the cool tile floor. Jonathan quickly switched his own fist to an open palm, changing the bow from a Kon-El's to his proper Jon-El. Satisfied, Connor refocused on the room before them.
"Connor, Kon-El of the Sun Kingdom." The voice echoed off the tiles and windows lining the large, empty room. He raised his head slightly, peeking at the base of the triad dias resting a few paces ahead. "Jonathan, Jon-El of the Sun Kingdom." There was a heavy pause as his brother presumably acknowledged the introduction. "We in the League of Justices have need of your assistance."
Sunbeams slanted through the windows, and Connor drew the energy into himself as he replied, "We are here to serve. How may we assist in this day?"
Finally, he looked up at the dias full-on. The ruling triad looked back at him from their thrones. To the far left, his father played the role of Kal-El all dressed in shimmering golds. "Kon-El, your guidance is needed," his father said from his seat, "Do you vow to uphold your duties in this quest?"
A resounding clang announced his fist hitting the crest engraved into his chest plate. "I solemnly swear to uphold the duties of Kon-El."
To the far right, a figure dressed entirely in misty black robes intoned, "Traveling merchants from the Domain of Themyscira report a town missing from the road without trace or notice."
From the center of the three figures, the first voice issued from a woman armored in heavy plate. "My Hunters have been unable to follow paths that should lead to the town in question, and cartographers from the Gargoylan Republic of Despots have been cast unconscious with every attempt to view it from afar."
Connor nearly groaned when his little brother interrupted out of turn. "Oh! You need my immunity, don't you." The Bat let out a grunt his latest Robin said meant humor, and Auntie Diana side eyed the figure with a subdued grin of her own.
Father let his shoulders relax a touch from their stiff, straight position and smiled slightly at his youngest son. "Yes, Jonathan. We need you to use your blessing as Jon-El to pierce through whatever holds the Wonder's town hostage, but you're not old enough yet for a solo mission, so your brother will go with you as Kon-El to guard and guide."
"The flight will be long," Diana, Wonder of Themyscira, said, "We require your assistance post haste. May the sun warm your scales."
Jonathan calls back, "May the wind lift your wings," before he's finished standing, already turned toward the grand entry and the landing platform a few corridors away. Connor's own attempt to complete the blessing was interrupted by Jonathan, already bouncing by the exit. "Come on, brother! Let' go!" Connor flushed as his father chuckled, waving them off and away.
The two brothers raced down corridors, scales bursting through as they greeted the open air. Three steps later, two dragons took flight. Jonathan's bright yellow scales had yet to gain their metallic finish like Connor's, but they drank in the sunlight all the same. Connor set a pace his little brother constantly challenged, but he was glad for his foresight by the time he touched down again that evening.
Gentle as it was, the landing woke the smaller form resting on Connor's shoulders. "Are we there yet?" Connor replied to the sleepy question with a huff and lowered himself for a safer dismount. "Aw. It's so late already. I thought," Jonathan let out a yawn big enough to see his little fangs, "there'd be enough sun to transform again when we arrived."
Connor peered back through the surrounding trees in the direction he could hear panicked outcry. By his estimate, the survey and knights' camp was two hills over, and the town they were all looking for was just over the next one. That was a decently sized area of effect.
Rustling in the underbrush nearby caused Connor to throw a protective wing over his brother and drag him closer to center mass. There was a bit of flailing claws and wings, but Connor gave a short warning growl that stilled his little brother. Just in time, too, as a figure practically stumbled into the small clearing.
He was willowy in a way, limbs too long for his body. Connor squinted at the boy's hair, glad to still be in dragon form. What might have appeared simply frizzy or fluffy to his human eye practically floated in his enhanced sight. The figure finished righting himself, and impossibly blue eyes widened at the sight of him.
There was silence for a moment, broken suddenly by a whisper. "A dragon." Neither moved. One was too wary of the stranger, the other too in awe. "Oh, Ancients, a real dragon," he breathed before suddenly shaking himself and straightening. "You have to leave," he urged quietly, darting a glance around the trees, "This place has been claimed by the Pariah King of the Dark Fae, and he does not take kindly to intruders."
More shuffling, and Connor tightened his grip on his hidden brother as another figure much more gracefully emerged from the trees. "Fenton, what are you doing? It's an animal. Just shoo it away!" This one looked disturbingly similar to the last, if not somehow more uncanny. He made no sound as he moved, his eyes much too large for his face, but otherwise an exact match to this Fenton. Connor could feel his mind ticking over the pieces of a puzzle he hadn't known he'd started.
"Phantom!" Fenton hissed, "This is a dragon here, not some drake of animal intelligence. Can't you see the way the scales reflect the moonlight?" Phantom did turn an assessing eye toward Connor's scales. Jonathan, the little weasel, chose that moment to wriggle his bright yellow snout into view. The near twins stiffened in unison, and Connor could feel his chest rumble in preparation to growl.
"Wonder Diana sent us to find out where her town went," Jonathan blithely announced, and Connor felt the weight of the rising tension coil behind his wings. He promptly dragged his brother back into the cover of his wings and grumbled at him.
"Shut up and let me do my job." His voice still sounded mildly foreign to him, even after so long away from the kidnapper who'd raised him. Whispered conversation brought his full attention back to the twins before him.
"We can't just ask for help!"
"Of course we can! If the Wonder knows what's going on, she might send assistance!"
"At what cost? Think, Phantom! Nothing is ever given for free."
"Of course not! That's what the taxes are for! I know I explained taxes to you, right?"
"Yes, yes, but the Wonder is a Justice. Why should she care about our town?"
Connor thought it was about time to interrupt the two. "Wonder Diana cares because this looks much like an invasion by a foreign power," he said, trying not to enjoy the way the two jumped.
"We can help!" Jonathan called out, a bit muffled by Connor's admitted smothering.
"No," he immediately denied, "You are far too young for that yet. Our quest is to scout right now, remember?" Fenton shifted his weight in the following silence, crunching a leaf beneath his bare foot.
"Do you give your word to bring assistance?" Phantom asked, eyes cold and ancient and burrowing under Connor's scales. He hurried to muzzle his brother temporarily as he mentally worded his answer.
"I give my word as Kon-El to assist as I am able after the completion of my current quest." Interestingly, Fenton's eyes widened greatly at that, almost to a size that matched Phantom's.
"Kon-El?" Fenton whispered, trembling hands coming up to cover this mouth, "The Wonder sent a Kon-El to check on us?"
Phantom sighed and pinched the skin between his brows. "Is this related to—?"
"Of course it's related to Vlad's Sun phase!" Fenton exclaimed, hands thrown wide as he gestured at Connor, and Jonathan as soon as his snout poked out again. "Look, I know you endured Vlad's governments phase, and we both suffered through Plasmius's rants about the Republic's ironworks. Surely you remember what it means to have the word of a Kon-El!"
Jonathan wriggled and wriggled until Connor was forced to either squish the smaller dragon entirely or release him. The yellow scales scampered forward until they almost bowled over the two figures. "You're changelings, right?" Jonathan insisted, "This is fae magic, right? I bet it's fae magic. It feels different. The fae have all those hospitality laws and rules about being rude. Does this Pariah of the Dark know he's intruding on Auntie Diana's lands? Ma says it's rude to intrude, and Pa says it's wrong to steal, so I bet it's really rude to intrude where you're not invited and then steal an entire town without permission!"
Connor scruffed his little brother and pulled him away from the progressively more overwhelmed changeling pair. "I can see the manners lessons haven't yet stuck," he rumbled in apology-adjacent. He'd already given his word to come assist. It wouldn't do well to acknowledge any debts for bad behavior. "My current quest is to protect this one while we find out what's happened to make this town inaccessible to the Wonder in charge of its protection. I can assist you once this quest is complete."
The locals held a silent conversation between eyebrows and shoulders. When they finally spoke, it was eerily in sync.
"Let us explain the situation in Amity."