January 23rd, Mount Justice
"This chemical plant outside of Boston was shut down over eight months ago, but toxicity reports from the nearby coastal areas indicate that someone had begun making use of it again. Danger to local populations aside, scans taken of the building have also revealed heightened energy levels of an unknown source. Your mission is to get in, find out what's going on, and send the information back to the League, preferably without engaging."
"Understood, Batman."
"We have a zeta tube terminal twenty minutes out from the site that you will be taking; the League will also be on standby until you report in. Depending on what the Team finds, we may or may not be coming in ourselves to clear out the target."
The eight teenagers had departed from Mount Justice a little over two hours ago, long enough to have arrived at the plant, infiltrated it, and left with the necessary information.
Needless to say, the Leaguers waiting for their report were getting a little... antsy.
"If it's taken them this long, then something had to have gone wrong." Superman stated, glancing every few seconds over the Dark Knight's shoulder at the holo-screen where he was working. Getting tired of the invasion of his space, Batman took a moment to turn his head and glare at the Kryptonian. Said alien raised in hands, palms out, and took a quick half-step back.
"Sorry. It's just... Well, Aqualad's usually more responsible when it he's asked to send back an update in a timely manner." For a brief moment, he'd been about to say something more along the lines of I've only been on speaking terms with Conner for a few weeks now, dang it, I want to make sure he's ALRIGHT. But Superman couldn't quite bring himself to say it aloud yet.
A look from Black Canary conveyed that she both knew exactly what was running through his mind, and was of the same opinion when it came to the Team's safety.
"As long as we're all here, then, let's take the zeta tube and head for the plant." The woman suggested, earning more than a few nods of agreement from the other Leaguers present. Icon, Wonder Woman, Flash and a few more voiced that the idea of swinging by at least would be good, while Aquaman, Green Arrow, and the Hawks argued that the kids could handle themselves, and would just be annoyed by the League coming to check up on them.
Batman was just about to speak up and point out that there was no reason for the Team to know they'd been looked in upon, when an alarm from his screen beeped. The heroes in the room fell silent as he opened the beacon alert, those close enough to see the message paling when they recognized the signal as originating from Robin's equipment.
The Dark Knight's stern yet worry-tinged expression when he turned to face them was enough to remove all arguments against going to find the Team's current status.
-CC-
"What in the gods' names happened?" Wonder Woman asked aloud, horrified by the sight before them. The Leaguers had just come from the zeta tube in the nearby city, those who could fly supporting the handful who could not, and finally arrived at the site of the Hobson Chemical Plant.
The former site, anyway.
Half of the building had been reduced to a field of rubble stretching out several hundred yards, twisted pieces of metal supports sticking up from the jumbled concrete. The rest of it remained barely standing, the roof sagging down on cracked and unsteady walls. Inside, signs of old equipment could be seen amidst the wreckage, along with newer structures that seemed to have nothing to do with chemical manufacture.
"Spread out and start searching." Batman ordered, the first to recover from his shock. "J'onn, see if you can locate any of the Team in this mess."
Nodding, the martian reached out his telepathic senses, straining to reach into every corner of the rubble-strewn area. There were definitely signs of life, but pinpointing their exact locations was difficult in the extreme.
Then, there was a return touch, one that was so alike to his niece's that J'onn opened himself to it before registering that there was something... off.
Initial waves of relief turned to confusion as the mind met his, and details were exchanged between the two. Both were certainly martian, and each was able to supply memories of fighting crime on Earth. But the people in those memories, even shared ones of the exact same events, were very, very different.
*Y-you aren't Aunt J'ann!* The other mind cried when this became apparent. *Who a-are you?*
*I am J'onn J'onzz. And you are not my niece, M'gann M'orzz.*
The confusion spiked.
"No... No, m-my name's Mar'gann M'orzz.*
Flying low over the concrete chaos, Superman kept his x-ray vision sweeping over the rubble. Unfortunately, it seemed that whoever had built the plant had used a fair amount of lead in the construction, so his search was less than fruitful. He was, however, unable to miss the movement as a particularly large and relatively intact section of the former wall was shifted upwards. Superman landed and lent his strength to tossing aside the piece of concrete aside.
Underneath was a teenage girl.
Her shoulder length hair, had it not been covered with grey dust, would surely be as dark as his own. Light blue eyes stared up at Superman in shock, the strong jaw hanging slightly slack. What really got him, though, were the scuffed combat boots, ripped cargo pants and the torn black T-shirt that had his S symbol on it.
Superboy's symbol. But this was definitely not Conner.
"Guess they weren't kidding about that alternate reality stuff." The girl muttered, still staring at him. Superman couldn't bring himself to respond, even when J'onn's warning rang through his and the other Leaguer's mind that something had gone terribly wrong with the Team.
What on Earth were they going to do now?
Batman heard the martian's warning, but it didn't slow him from moving silently through the remnants of the chemical plant. He was checking every crevice and shadow for a sign of Robin, hoping that the boy had moved himself to a secure hiding place when he'd sent the emergency beacon.
"...so not asterous... VERY heavy on the dis..." Muttered words from up ahead had Batman moving a little bit quicker. Reaching what was left of a stairway, he ducked under a diagonal beam to reach a shallow cave formed from the wreckage.
The pair of teens underneath had his breath catching in his throat.
Dressed in a more relaxed version of the long gone Zatara's magician suit, the dark haired boy was unconscious, lying propped up against the wall. Busy wrapping a length of gauze around his bloodied leg was a girl dressed in Robin's uniform. Her raven locks were in a mess, half of them no longer secured by the ponytail band she wore. There were scrapes and tears dotting her outfit, some with blood stains of their own, though she seemed to be ignoring them.
Briefly, the teen's hands stilled as she shot a quick glance over her shoulder, before returning to her task.
"So... I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you aren't Batwoman." Startled by the blunt statement, it took him a moment to answer.
"No. I'm Batman."
"Okay, then, Bat... Man, either you're a good guy and you'll give me a hand here, or you're a bad guy that I'm going to have to take down in a minute." Never once did her tone waver, but he could see the slightly greater tremble in the girl's hands as she tried to tie off the knot on the bandage.
Without a word, he stepped forward and took the gauze from her grasp, neatly securing it and tearing off the excess.
"Thanks." She said, still in the same position. Then, cautiously, the girl raised her head to look him in the face.
Dark bangs barely came down to the top of her mask, which had been ripped nearly in half along the line formed by a thin gash extending across the top of her nose. One of the teen's eyes was visible, and Batman would've sworn it was the exact same shade of deep blue as his own partner's... As Dick's.
"I'm Robyn. And this is Zetenni. Have you seen any of our-"
"The other Justice Leaguers are looking for the rest of your Team as we speak." He assured her. "You might want to replace your mask with the spare in your furthest right belt pouch before we join them, though."
She blinked at him, before letting out a long, slow exhale. "That is so not whelming."
"No," Batman agreed. "My Robin would call it concerting."
That got another blink and a small grin out of her.
As Robyn pulled out her spare mask and swapped it for the damaged one on her face, Batman carefully lifted the still unconscious Zetenni into his arms. When they were both ready, the Bird and the Bat left the sheltered spot and began walking towards the edge of the destruction.
"What happened here?" Robyn sighed at the question she'd known would be coming.
"It's a long story." She said honestly. "But the short version is, I think we've been tossed into another dimension. Or exchanged, I guess, if you've got a Team who was investigating this place tonight."
"We did. I received an emergency signal about half an hour ago, from what I assumed was my partner's gauntlet."
"Well, it was probably mine, since that's what I did when I first woke up. Zee was the only other one I could find, so I unburied and dragged him into that spot to wrap up his leg." Batman nodded at her words, and though he burned to figure out what had happened to his Robin, he knew it would be better to wait until all of the League and these altered Team members were all together.
A nearby explosion promised that would be easier said than done.