Prologue

Klarion the Witch Boy was bored and angry, which was never a good combination. It had been months since his last time on Earth and he still fumed over how the Justice brats had shut down the Light's attempt to take over the planet. It should have been wonderful. But instead of being served as a Lord of Earth and terrorizing people and razing cities to the ground and fun stuff like that, he was bored out of his mind.

"I hate them, Teekl. Really. I do," Klarion said, pouting. The large cat curled up next to him and purred. "No, that's not going to help this time. I need revenge. Revenge, or I can't even call myself a proper Lord of Chaos. What could I do to them? Hm... there was that boy who loves water so much. What was his name? We could seal him in a huge goldfish bowl and triple the sunlight. Fry him? No. He's too boring. He'd just die nobly or something stupid like that. What about that fast boy? We could slow him down! Tie weights to his ankles, watch him try to run! Yes, let's do that."

Klarion giggled at the mental image. "But that's not enough! I need to cause them pain." Teekl rubbed against him, arching his back. "Yes, yes, I remember him. That little one. People always love the little ones. And he's human, right? Batman's protégé. It really was all his fault anyway. No one else could have taken down Batman and Superman without him. And that laugh! I hate his laugh! I'll make him silent first off! And then what...what shall we do to him, Teekl?...What's that? A spell?"

Teekl looked deep into his master's eyes.

"You mean that old one? Oooooooo...I love it!"

Chapter 1

Robin breathed in and out deeply, settling into his meditation breathing. The night air was cold and quiet around him, broken occasionally by the sound of the animals calling out to the full moon...and by the sound of an impatient speedster pacing on the roof, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth and back and-

"Wally!" Robin said through the mindlink.

"What?"

"Pacing. Again."

"Oh. Sorry. It's just that nothing has happened for hours-"
"I know. Just try to remember that we want missions and this one is covert. Again. We can't mess this one up or it will be forever before Bats gives us another one."

Wally's eyes became focused again. "Right. Got it." Then his face morphed into a concerned look and Dick was already reaching into his utility belt's left back pocket before Wally could open his mouth again.

"Yes. Here. Eat." Robin handed him one of Alfred's energy bars.

Wally didn't bother asking how Robin knew that he was hungry; he just stuffed it into his mouth. After a few chews, his eyes rolled back in his head. "Ohmygodsoogooooood," he said. "How does Agent A pack so much awesomeness into something so small?"

"Years of practice. Now let me concentrate," Robin demanded.

Below them, the Baltimore zoo was wreathed in darkness, the animals quieted down except for the nocturnals. Robin and Wally were perched on the service building that overlooked the pens holding the tigers, snow leopards and moon bears. The Team was here trying to protect the snow leopards from harm.

Unfortunately, since the leopards had been a gift from the Prime Minister of Israel, there were some terrorists threatening to bomb the zoo as a result. Batman thought it was likely a hoax, but sent the Team in to watch and make sure that nothing went wrong. It still ticked Robin off though. What had the leopards ever done to anyone?

So far, their nighttime vigil had been completely quiet. No movement anywhere. No bombs of any type registering on the Batware radar connected to Robin's glove computer. Nothing was happening at all. If the threat was going to be carried through, it would have to be hours from now.

"Robin, report," came Aqualad's voice.

"All quiet here. Except Wally."

"Superboy?"

"Same. The stupid prairie dogs are doing stupid things, like they've been doing for the past six hours," the clone reported.

"They're so cute," M'gann chimed in.

"No bombs, no one sneaking in, no one doing anything," Superboy summed up.

"Don't sound so discouraged. It is good that nothing bad is happening to the leopards."

"And it's not going to happen," Artemis summed up, "not while I'm here."

"Agreed," Kaldur said calmly. "Does anyone need to take a break?"

Robin was listening to everyone's answers when suddenly the nighttime sky lit up with a red ball of flame.

"Down, Wally," Robin commanded and they both dropped flat on the roof. Robin was dumbfounded. How had he missed a bomb? But when he looked up again, he realized it wasn't an explosion...it was a stationary ball of flame, like a portal. And stepping through the center of the light was a tall, thin boy dressed in a black, slim-cut suit with bell sleeves and a skinny black tie. Robin didn't even need to see the wicked face or the horns curved on his head to know who it was interrupting their stakeout.

"No way," Wally said aloud.

"Robin, do you have a visual on the disturbance?"

"I do."

"It's that weirdo Klarion," Wally exclaimed. "What is he doing here?"

The Witch Boy was now floating in the air while folded in the lotus position, eyes closed.

"Weirdo," Wally muttered.

"On our way," Artemis snapped.

Robin tapped his JLA communicator. "Robin to Batman. Problem here."

"Batman to Robin," the man replied after only a second's pause. "Report."

"Klarion the Witch Boy has just opened a portal here. Advise."

Klarion's eyes snapped open. "Did you really just make a call to Batman?"

Robin nodded as he glared at Klarion, still trying to listen to Batman's answer. "Keep him talking. I'll be there in fifteen. Flash should be there-"

Then a shrieking filled Robin's ear along with a sharp pain that grew intolerable. It was the communicator. Robin fell to his knees as he tried to dig it out quick enough, but the damage was done. The tech piece came out bloody and Robin could hear nothing but a ringing out of that ear.

"You are so annoying!" Klarion yelled at him, his face contorted into rage.

"Rob?" Wally said, pulling Robin to his feet. "You okay?"

"Robin?" M'gann floated the others onto the roof. "What happened?"

"I happened, stupid girl! Klarion, the Lord of Chaos happened. And he had the gall to call his mentor!"

"Yeah, and Batman said not to worry, that you shouldn't be too difficult to contain," Robin goaded him. "Or detain."
"Or fart-tain," Wally added, quickly reading Robin's purpose of annoying the boy. "Know what that means?"

"Of course I know what that means," Klarion sneered. "But back to the bird. You're the reason I'm here. We almost had it made; The Light's plan was going to work and we would have been the Lords of Earth."

"Klarion, why are you here?" Kaldur asked, trying to pull his attention from their youngest teammate.

"Revenge, you idiot, which you would understand if you had been listening! As I was saying, I was going to be a Lord of Earth. We had Batman and Superman under our control. Do you understand how major that is?" The boy rose higher in the air and stretched himself out, now standing on a disc of red fire. "All they had to do was take you down-the little piddly Junior Justice League. And they were close-so close. Until they took you on, Boy Wonder."

"And me," Superboy growled. "He couldn't have done it without me."

Klarion laughed. "Yes, but you, I like. So rude, so uncontrollable, so primal. Not too far from a Lord of Chaos at all!"

"Screw you," Superboy snapped, "and come a little closer. I'd love to see if a Lord of Chaos can be beat to a pulp."

"Superboy," Kaldur said in a low voice.

Klarion cackled. "They have you on a tight leash, clone." The Witch Boy strode forward so that he was closer to Robin. "But you. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted... I hate you. I hate your little laugh; I hate your smirk; I hate everything about you and of course, it was you that foiled our plan." His angry eyes bored into Robin's own and his words filtered in through what felt like a haze of cotton in Robin's mind. His ear was still on fire. But hate radiated from Klarion and Robin could read that just fine.

"Dude. Newsflash, wacko weirdo," Wally said, pushing Robin behind him. "We foil everyone's plans all the time-"

"Go away," Klarion hissed and suddenly, Wally was gone.

"What did you do?" Artemis yelled, and an arrow went flying toward Klarion, who batted it away easily.

"This," Klarion said, snapped his fingers, and then Artemis was gone, too.

Kaldur gave M'gann a nod, "Can you use your psychic blast on him?"

"Now?"

"Yes. I believe his Lord of Chaos powers to be beyond a match for our own unless we-"

"Do you all need a time out? Stop mind-talking! This is ridiculous!" Klarion raised his hands and the roof of the building softened and began sucking the team downward.

Robin gasped and tried without success to lift his boots out of the roof, which had turned to quicksand. Then he smartened up and shot a grapple line to a large tree nearby. It hooked and Robin triggered the recoil, expecting it to pull him out.

"No!" The line broke when Klarion sent a small red beam of fire to cut it.

"Miss M, can you change the roof back?" Robin asked.

"I'll try," she said and spread her hands out wide. Her eyes glowed and for a moment, it seemed to help.

"Fine." Klarion said, sounding bored. "You go away, too."

M'gann disappeared.

"Why are you all so annoying? I thought the bird was the worst one!"

"Where are you sending them?" Robin yelled.

"It doesn't matter," Klarion shot back, then added, "and shut up!"

Robin tried to reply but his mouth wouldn't open. As in, literally wouldn't open. His gloved hands went to his mouth as he tried not to panic. There was a seal over his mouth, a soft, gooey one that smelled like-

"It's just really sticky icing that tastes great which I really shouldn't have wasted on you because I really. do. hate. you. Now, where was I?"

Kaldur reached over to Robin and sprayed his mouth with a gentle jet of water, but was unable to get the gooey stuff to move even the slightest bit. Then the leader faced Klarion and pulled out his Water-Bearers. "The Justice League will be here soon. You should surrender now before they arrive and see what you have done to their protégés." Kaldur said in a tight voice.

"Silence!" And with a wave of his hand, Kaldur was silenced, too.

But his powers were in no way hampered, and he slashed water whips at Klarion, who levitated out of the way and sent two red bolts of fire back at Kaldur. Kaldur tried to block them, but they burned through the water and struck him on each shoulder. The Atlantean fell to his knees, dropping his Water-Bearers.

"Kaldur!" Robin jumped to assist him, but found himself stopped short, a burning rope of red fire lashed around him.

"Stop moving so much," Klarion snapped.

"I am sorry, Robin." Kaldur was trembling, the fire wreaking havoc on his water-dependent body. "I am of no help like this."

Klarion looked pleased as he hovered back down near the roof. "Ah, at last, peace and quiet. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, how stupidly stupid it was that you foiled the Light's plan."

As Klarion continued, Robin found his attention pulled away by the burning of the red ropes binding him. They were getting hotter and hotter, though his suit was still protecting him. But he wasn't sure how much more it could take. Surely Klarion wasn't going to burn him to death?

Then Robin heard another sound growing over the crackle of the flames, a familiar sound. Beside him, Kaldur nodded encouragingly. He had heard it as well: the sound of an approaching speedster. Robin's hopes leapt. Klarion was still droning on; he hadn't noticed anything.

"I literally had to excuse myself before it all went down, like a...wait. What is that?" Klarion interrupted himself. "Oh, that's right, you irritating little boy, you called the League. Well, we can't have them interfering."

Robin looked out from the rooftop and saw the Flash turning in the entrance to the zoo. It was impossible to see him for a few moments and then he was racing up the long path beside the Wetlands lake. In seconds, he had turned the corner and was taking the path beside the Grizzly Bear Habitat.

Then Klarion waved his hand, there was a red flash of light and the Flash ran straight into an invisible wall. The hero flopped back, boneless as a rag doll. Robin and Kaldur attempted to voice their outrage, but couldn't get even a sound out.

"Stupid speedster," Klarion spat. "It may get crowded here. Why don't we continue this little party over at my place? A little place you should probably just think of... as hell."

Kaldur was already looking up by the time Robin heard the Batjet approaching. But it was too late. Klarion had just opened a portal to another dimension.

"Teekl, where are you?" the Witch Boy called.

A loud MEOW sounded and then an enormous orange striped cat vaulted onto the roof.
"Did you have a good meal?"

The cat meowed and licked blood off its lips.

"It's time to go." Teekl shrunk as he jumped up and curled onto Klarion's shoulders. WIth a wave to Batman, Klarion lifted the remaining two teammates up in the air and pulled them behind him.

Batman sent out a Batnet, trying to catch the Witch Boy, but it simply disintegrated. Then Klarion put the team members in between him and Batjet, curtailing any other weaponry.

"Wave bye-bye to your mentor, stupid bird," Klarion said, and Robin's face burned with impotent anger. As they were pulled into the dimensional portal, Robin caught a glimpse of Batman's tightly controlled expression. I will find you, he was saying.

Then, with a wink of light around them, the Batjet was gone and they were in another dimension.