Chapter One

"Robin." Robin's head shot up at the voice in his ear.

"What is it, Oracle?" He turned momentarily away from the arms transaction going down on the street below him.

"Something's come up with a certain person on our watch list." Robin pressed his earpiece with a finger.

"Who? And What happened?" he asked nervously.

"It's St Allen." Robin held his breath briefly.

It took a moment for the name to click. Allen Smitheson. "What has he done now?" Oracle sighed.

"He was spotted in Iraq fifteen minutes ago. He came in through a military transport."

"What was he doing there?"

"No idea yet."

"Does Batman know?"

"Of course." Robin fell silent for a moment.

"Alright, thanks Oracle. I'll talk to him when I get off patrol." He turned his attention back to the arms dealers and swooped down.

Bruce was working on something on the Batcomputer, Batsuit slung carelessly over the back of the chair, and seemingly didn't notice Robin as he entered the cave. Of course, Robin knew better. He cleared his throat and could almost swear he saw Bruce's ears twitch."Um, Bruce..." Bruce turned in the revolving chair.

"Robin." Bruce acknowledged and turned back to the large computer screen.

"Bruce," Robin began again. "I was thinking... maybe I could take this case?" By the carefully impassive look on Bruce's face, Robin knew he knew exactly what he was talking about. They were quiet for a long time. "Bruce...?"

Bruce turned in his chair again to face his ward. "I've been investigating Drake St Allen's movements in Iraq. It seems he hasn't been in contact with Ra's al Ghul." Robin neared his mentor to peer at the glowing screen.

"So Ra's al Ghul isn't his employer?" Bruce nodded in confirmation.

"I've sent a message to Red Tornado. You and the rest of Young Justice will go and check the situation out." He sighed tiredly. "With The Joker still roaming the streets after Drake's last stunt..." Robin knew the look. As long as The Joker was still on the streets, Batman would also be there.

"Okay... I'll be on my way to Happy Harbor in a few minutes." Robin pulled his mask off and unclasped his cape from his suit as Alfred walked in with a change of clothes.

"And Tim..." Tim paused and looked at his guardian patiently. "... Drake didn't go to Iraq alone. Be careful." Tim nodded seriously.

"I will."

"So, what's our target like?" Supergirl asked as they sat, comfortably reclined in the super-cycle. Robin blinked, pausing for a moment to contemplate on what to tell them.

"Well... he's a non-metahuman teen... about our age, I'm not sure exactly how old he is. He's a mercenary." Superboy snorted and crossed his arms.

"The Bats sent us all the way to Iraq, in the middle of nowhere, to take down a human kid? Dude, I could do that on my own and be back to base in, what, five minutes?" Robin rolled his eyes, fully aware that none of the others could see it.

"He's most-likely just the tip of the iceberg. Batman is more interested in his employer." It didn't mean Robin was. He pulled over and stopped just out of sight of the airport in which Drake was spotted. "Our target was spotted at the airport about three hours ago, he couldn't have gotten too far." He showed the rest of his team a picture of Drake. "That's him. Everybody spread out and contact the others if you find something. Don't, by any means, confront him, he might not be alone."

He could see Superboy roll his eyes and Impulse seemed to quickly forget his warnings. Within a few seconds, they were out of sight of each other.

"Hey, Drake!" A large, burly man called out. Drake, who was watching a group of Iraqi excavators, blinked up at him. "We've got something on our radar, coming our way, it's coming real fast." Drake nodded his appreciation.

"Thanks Sam." He called out, he stopped the excavators with a few shouts. "Get out of here, Sam. There's a transport for you in Baghdad, waiting to take you to the States. You can take care of business from there. Tell our employer that we've found what he was looking for and that it's just waiting to be picked up." Sam nodded and careened off in one of the many military jeeps.

The excavators were split up and sped off in separate directions as decoys. Drake stayed on the scene with the last jeep to see who was coming after them. Not many people could track him down this quickly, Interpol included.

But Interpol was the least of his worries because he caught sight of a black speck flying toward him in the distance. He clambered into the back of his jeep and trained his binoculars in that direction. "Fuck me, it's a person!" he breathed. Superboy dived toward him determinedly.

He was still a long way off when suddenly he veered downwards and crashed headfirst into the sandy ground. Drake jumped into the front seat of his jeep and drove up closer. The flying person wasn't moving much, just shaking and groaning. Drake blinked. He expected him to be dead. He hopped off his vehicle and approached him cautiously. Anybody who can fly and live after a fall like that definitely wasn't normal.

Drake trained his gun at the body and turned him over. "The Hell...?" It was just a kid! Granted, it was quite a large teen, but a teen nontheless. He nudged the strange teen with a booted toe. "Hey, you okay?" The other glared at him.

"The Hell I would be!" he spat out venomously, Drake just tilted his head to the side perplexedly. "Get rid of the Kryptonite and I'll show you how 'okay' I am!"

Drake blinked. "Oh, yes. My employer, he mentioned the name... Kryptonite, wasn't it?" he mused aloud. "Last I checked, it wasn't toxic to humans." He raised an eyebrow.

"That's because Superboy isn't human." Drake blinked blankly as Impulse sped to the scene with Robin tagging along, Supergirl appeared a moment later.

"Wow, Robin, I had no idea that Batman had such a long reach." Robin stared him down.

"There's alot you have no idea about, Allen." Drake shook his head with a slight smile.

"Drake, please. Or, St Allen, if you will." He continued to have his gun pointed at Superboy. "And, please elaborate... who, or, what is he?"

"His name is Superboy." Robin told him. Drake blinked and looked at Superboy.

"Super... boy? That's his name? Wow, sucks to be you, huh?" Robin rolled his eyes.

"You've also had a run in with a relative of his, Superman." Drake furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought.

"Superboy... and Superman?" He inclined his head again. "And let me guess, next there's going to be a flying Supergirl and Superwoman?" he joked. Robin pointed at Supergirl.

"Unfortunately, there's no Superwoman... but there is a Wonder Woman." Drake burst out into laughter.

"Wow! You guys are freaks!" Robin would've thought Drake would be more concerned with how they fly. Drake pointed at Impulse. "He runs fast, who's he?"

"Hi,I'mImpulse,nicetomeetyou!" Impulse spazzed. Drake blinked, taken aback at the speed and enthusiasm of the sentence.

"Okay... Robin," he pointed at the owner of the title. "Superboy," The finger moved downwards. "Supergirl, and Impulse." And then he started counting on his fingers. "Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Nightwing, and Red Hood." He looked like he had commited the names to memory. "Anybody else I should know about?"

"Red Tornado." Robin told him. "Because you'll meet him soon." he told him firmly. "Drop the gun."

Drake seemed to think about it for a moment. "This Red Tornado, is he interesting?" Robin shrugged his shoulders. "If you come back with us, I can guarantee that Batman will be interested to meet you." Drake frowned a little.

"You strike a hard bargain." Then he threw his gun down. "Say, will Nightwing and Red Hood tag along? I want to talk to Oracle, too." All the other teens save Robin gaped, shocked.

"Well... someone who wants to willingly meet with the Bats, that's a first." Supergirl murmured.