If You Could Turn Back Time

Ch 17

"Salt," Dick growled, recognizing the man who he'd fought as a teen.

The man had the nerve to take a bow. "So you've heard of me," he said. "Good. That saves me the trouble of trying to introduce myself."

Clark and Bruce stood, followed shortly by the other present leaguers. Everyone besides Dick who was simply squeezing his eyes shut to try and block out some of the stimuli that was making his head feel like it was going to split open.

"Surrender," Bruce said loudly. "You're outnumbered and outclassed."

"Ah, one would thing that, but one thing you didn't account for was my ability to... what would you say? Level the playing field," Salt said with a psychotic smile. He raised his arms in the air and began a strange sort of chant. A giant golden orb immediately started forming between his hands and began to expand, filling the entire room.

The leaguers began to panic as they felt Salt's magic wash over them, but it was already too late for them to do anything to stop it.

When the blinding golden light disappeared Dick looked around. He was surrounded by babies... Salt had turned the JLA into babies.

Salt looked over at Dick, a mixture of surprise and curiosity on his face. "My magic has touched you before," he said, absentmindedly removing his top hat and running his fingers through his hair.

Dick rose to his feet slowly, leaning heavily against the table. "Turn them back," he demanded in a hushed voice.

Salt simply continued as if he hadn't heard what Dick had said. "You must be that little boy I changed a few years ago..." Salt mused. "Yes... that spell won't work on you anymore... good thing I have so many more to try out."

A blue light shot from Salt's fingers and struck Dick in the chest, almost seeming to be absorbed into his skin.

Dick stared at the magic connecting him and salt, but he couldn't bring himself to move away. He watched as the last bits of blue disappeared before immediately noticing how much the room seemed to be swirling around him.

—

Dick woke up to a voice calling his name. His brow furrowed as he took in his surroundings. Why was he on the floor?

"Nightwing," the voice said again, sounding like the strangest combination of a deep manly voice and a baby's gurgle.

Dick slowly sat up, confused at first by his surroundings, and the throbbing of his head. That was when he noticed a baby in a bright golden helmet... Dr. Fate...

"Nightwing, you must take the helmet. Together we can find a way to reverse this spell," Fate said, crawling closer.

Dick stood and looked down at the baby. "The last time Salt did something like this you could never figure out how to fix it," he said, trying not to give away anything that would tip Fate off as to his actual identity. "Besides," he continued. "I know how you work. You possess the person wearing the helmet and never let them free. I don't want to be your little puppet for the rest of my life."

Fate sighed. "I give you my word... you won't be trapped," he said.

"You still have control over... that baby... why do you even need me?" Dick asked.

"This body is not strong enough for the magic required... I can sense that there was something else done to you by that wizard. He gave you the key to changing all these heroes back to their normal selves."

Dick looked around at the room full of babies, his eyes stopping on a baby Bruce who was gurgling and laughing as he watched a baby Superman float through the air with his suit dragging behind him. "Fine," he said with a sigh. "I'll do it."