Chapter 2: Team Building

Bart Allen opened his eyes to a bright light. His eyelids struggled against the hard light, after being knocked out for a few hours. He finally managed to pry his eyes open to see where he ways. He examined what looked like to be a cell. Plain white walls surrounded the speedster, except for a mechanical door. Bart looked down at his hands to see mechanical cuffs attached to them. The cuffs covered his whole hands and most of his forearms. He leaned back on the bed he was sitting on, trying to close his eyes again.

"This isn't good." He sighed.

Bart closed his eyes, trying to recall what had happened to him. He remembered that he came home to find strange people in his house. He was in his room when he received a call from someone he knew. His thoughts weren't flowing smoothly, as he had a hard time trying to remember. He thought harder, trying to remember what had happened. He recalled fighting a group of people and then getting hit in the head. He drew a blank from that point, as he felt a slight bump in his cell. He quickly opened his eyes and paid closer attention. It felt as though he was moving. We're moving. Which means someone's taking me somewhere, he thought to himself as he felt the whole cell moving, as if it were on wheels.

"Alright, how do I get myself out of here?"

He looked around the cell, looking for the best way to escape. There were no windows for him to climb out of, no methods to help him escape, and the only entrance or exit was from the mechanical door, which he couldn't open. If I can't open it then I'll make them open it, he thought. He got off the bed and went up to the door to examine it. After a brief second, Bart started to bang on it with his bulky hand cuffs.

"That ought to do it"

Bart heard the footsteps getting closer to his cell, the guards rushing toward to subdue the troublemaker. Bart readied himself to take on his captors. The door opened and Bart quickly analyzed the situation. He swiftly kicked the first guard in the jaw, following up by dashing into him, which rammed the guard to the wall. The other guard grabbed his baton and swiped vertically, which Bart dodged with a step back. Bart spun around and speed kicked the guard in the abdomen several times before he collapsed.

"Geez, you guys suck. Maybe you should rethink the whole prison guard thinnnnnngggggzzzzzzz…"

Bart felt the strength of 50,000 volts race through his body, as he failed to realize that a guard with a taser gun was standing behind him. The electricity went through his muscles, forcing him to shake. Bart clenched his teeth as the electricity surged through him. The electricity had made him vibrate, as the electricity enhanced his super speed. He felt that his hands were sliding through the hand cuffs, the vibration making his molecules vibrate at a subatomic level. It felt strange to him as he had never been able to achieve this before.

"What the hell?!" the guard said in amazement as he witnessed the young boy start slipping through beneath the floor.

Bart felt himself slipping, but couldn't concentrate as he was being shocked. His hands fully out of the hand cuffs and his body half way through the floor, he started to focus on the vibrations as he continued to slip through the floor. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes as he sped up the vibrations which helped him slip through little by little. As the guard released the cables to the stun gun, Bart managed to slip through all the way, hitting the hard pavement of the road as the truck that he was in sped past him. He laid on the ground for a few seconds and stared at the night time sky.

"What just happened?" He said to himself whilst regaining his strength.

Bart looked up at the stars, seeing constellations connect in intricate ways. He had always loved looking up at the stars as a kid and still enjoyed it. He didn't have much time to enjoy it this time as he heard the sudden screech of the tires as the truck had stopped. He turned his head and looked at the truck that had stopped a football field away. He got up quickly and looked around to observe where he was. He seemed to be in the middle of a desert somewhere. Bart quickly looked back to see guards rushing out of the giant vehicle, aiming guns at him. He ran along the road go as fast as a sports car. He looked back to see that the guards becoming smaller and smaller as he ran farther away from them. He let out a sigh of relief, as he had successfully escaped his first capture. All right, need to find a phone, he thought to himself.


After the brief call with Bart, Tim and Cassie changed into their street clothes to hide from the N.O.W.H.E.R.E operatives that were searching from them. Tim wore a dark grey hoodie with average jeans and some converses. Cassie had been wearing jeans with a button up shirt. They walked down the streets of San Francisco, heading towards Cassie's house to hide out until they could make up a plan to defeat the organization hunting them.

"So… are your parents home?" Tim asked Cassie awkwardly, as the break the silence of the night.

"Nope. My parents aren't…around much" she replied.

"Oh" he said.

"So what do you think happened to your friend?" she asked.

"I'm guessing N.O.W.H.E.R.E. found him."

"Oh… that sucks. Sorry."

The awkwardness seemed to intensify as they headed towards Cassie's home. It was hard for Tim to talk to her, as he found her quite intimidating. She, on the other hand, found Tim quite mysterious and therefore didn't want to pry out information. They walked the rest of the way silently as the night enwrapped them in a peaceful eloquence that they did not want to interrupt. A few moments later, they arrived at the house of Wonder Girl. Tim observed the two story house.

It seemed pretty normal to him. He really had nothing to base it on, as in the past he would spend his time in luxury suites, gothic mansions, or empty rooms. It had been a long time since he had been in a normal house like Cassie's. Tim entered the house and observed his surroundings, as he had always done. Everything seemed normal to him except for the fact that there were no family pictures up around the house. He did not want to question this fact, as he didn't want to upset his host in anyway while staying at her house.

"Welcome to my humble abode." She smirked.

"It's nice."

"Thanks I guess."

They walked through the hallway and into the living room. He saw a couch, a coffee table with magazines cluttering it, and a widescreen TV sitting across the room.

"I don't really have an extra room, so I guess you can take the couch." She offered.

"Yeah that'll be fine."

"I'll bring some blankets and pillows for you." She said.

"Thanks"

She walked upstairs to grab the blankets out of the closet. She turned her head toward a room with the door slightly opened. She walked towards the door and closed it shut, not completely trusting her house guest. She went into the other room to change into her sleeping attire as it was getting late. Then, she walked downstairs and to see her guest sitting on the couch, reading a magazine. "How can anyone read this crap" she heard him whispered to himself as he obviously didn't realize she could hear him. She set the blankets on the chair next to the couch and sat down with him.

"Want to watch some TV?" she asked.

"Uhh… sure." He replied.

She turned on the TV and started to flip through the channels. Tim got the feeling she wasn't really there to watch TV. As he thought this, he looked at Cassie. She had changed into a tank top and sleeping shorts. He especially noticed her hair, which was now flowing. He thought it had looked quite nice. He cleared his throat and looked back at the TV.

"So what do I call you?" she asked, still looking at the TV screen.

"What, Red Robin isn't good enough for you?" he said in a joking manner.

"You expect me to call you Red Robin all the time?"

"It's Tim." He sighed. He was being cautious in revealing himself to her. He didn't like to reveal himself and when he did, it was only for an important reason. He figured that if he was to gain her trust for her to work with him, he would have to reveal information about himself, no matter how much he disliked it. She stopped flipping through the channels and turned toward him.

"So Tim… I didn't really thank you for saving me at the mall today…"

"You don't have to."

"Yeah I do actually. I was being an asshole. I didn't mean to put civilians' lives at danger and I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just that I was mad at those stupid people that attacked me. They…" she trailed off as if she had hurt feelings.

"What?" he asked.

"The first time they tried to capture me I fought them. They tried to sedate me or something but I just kept fighting. I managed to fend them off. The rest of them left after I fought a couple of the guys. One of them left a note saying that they would come after me again and also… go after my mom."

"Cassie, we won't let that happen. We'll take these guys out before they get to her."

"What if they have her already? She's not even here most of the time. She travels a lot. What if they took her…"

"They won't. They're going after you, not her. You're the priority to them. Trust me. She'll be fine." He said as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. "Hold on a second." He told her.

"Hello?"

"Dude you would not believe what happened!" Bart exclaimed.

"Bart? What happened to you?" Tim asked.

"Oh you know, just escaping from custody of these weird ass mercenary guys! It was awesome man. You should have seen it. I like hit this dude and then this one guy tazed me and then I…"

"Yeah I get it. What happened at the beginning Bart?"

"Oh, when you called earlier these guys with blue masks broke into my house. I took out two of the guys and then I got hit in the head. The next thing I know I'm in a cell on the back of this huge truck taking me out in the middle of the desert. Oh that reminds me, I'm in a desert. Just to let you know."

"How long has it been since you escaped?" Tim asked.

"I got into this old desert town like a couple of minutes ago. I escaped like maybe 20 minutes ago. I don't know man. I don't keep track of time."

"Alright, Bart I need you to listen to me. Run to the nearest city and stay low for the night. They're probably tracking you down as we speak. Once we hang up run. Alright? In the morning head towards San Francisco. And when you get a chance look up Sandsmark in a phonebook."

"You're not going to tell me where you are?"

"No, I don't want to risk getting compromised."

"Fine, I'll see you tomorrow." Bart said as they both hung up the phone.

Tim turned towards Cassie again and saw her flipping through the channels. He glared at the TV as she landed on the news channel. Before she changed it he saw the headline report about the abduction of a teen in New York City.

"So I'm guessing that was your friend?" she asked.

"Wait go back to the last channel."

She clicked back a channel and they both watched the news report. The report was showing a battle between a kid with electrical based powers and a group of agents. The agents subdued the boy and cuffed him with what seemed to be high tech hand bracers.

"These guys are serious." She remarked.

"Yeah looks that way."

"You know it's going to take more than me and you to take these guys out."

"Yeah. I know."

"So, what's the plan then?" she asked.

"We meet up with Bart tomorrow. After that we'll see how it goes."

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"Me too." He replied under his breath.

They continued to watch TV as the night slipped away. Both really weren't watching TV, but instead thinking about the situation they were in. Tim was going over in his head multiple ways that he could attempt to take down the organization, but none had seemed possible. He looked over at Cassie every once in a while, noticing her nodding off while watching the TV. Tim looked up at the clock and saw that it was two in the morning. Although he was used to the late hours and lack of sleep he was concerned for her.

"You should probably go to sleep. You look tired." He said.

"I guess after this show"

"Alright well is it alright if I get some water?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." She said, almost half asleep.

Tim had gotten up to get some water. When he had returned he saw that Cassie had fallen asleep on the couch. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. He then took a blanket from the chair and lightly placed it over her. He didn't want to interrupt her, so he sat in the chair for a while. Tim thoughts filled with how he would settle the N.O.W.H.E.R.E problem. He stayed up for a few hours thinking to himself, not only about the plan but other things that occupied his mind. He gave a glance at Cassie and saw that she was peacefully sleeping. He then looked upwards toward the ceiling, calming his nerves and relaxing his mind. His eyelids grew heavier and his body became numb. Tim silently drifted into sleep.


Both Tim and Cassie woke up startled by a loud banging on the door. Tim went to the door and peered through the peephole. He saw a teenager with light brown hair, a yellow shirt, and worn out shoes franticly knocking at the door.

"Yo, open up! Tim! Come on!" He yelled out.

"Bart, can you at least be somewhat quiet?" Tim asked while opening the door.

"Sorry man, but I'm kind of in some trouble. I think those guys followed me here. We should probably go. Hey, who's the girl?"

"That's Cassie Sandsmark. Wonder Girl. Cassie this is Bart."

The speedster sped past Tim and directly to Cassie, stopping quickly while holding out his hand, as to greet her with a handshake.

"Also known as Kid Flash." He said as to try and impress her.

"Uh…hi." She said in a mild manner.

"You said they followed you here. How?" Tim asked.

"I don't know. I just saw a couple of them on my way here from the city."

"Alright, we're leaving. Now."

"Where are we going?" Cassie asked.

"I think I know a place." Tim replied.


Tim led the group to an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the city. Tim walked up to a support beam and pressed his palm up against it. It activated a switch that led to a door opening on the ground.

"What is this place?" Bart asked.

"A safe house. A friend of mine has places like these in every major city. He's kind of anal about this kind of stuff."

They ventured down into an underground bunker, where they saw computer systems, an armory, a batmobile, and a batcycle.

"So, Tim, what's the plan? We going to charge into battle against these guys are what?" Bart asked.

"No. We need to find out why they are capturing these teens. They are specifically targeting people with powers. I want to know why."

"I thought we were taking out these guys." Cassie interjected.

"We are. But I need to find a way to do that. Before I found you, I was hacking into their system and I saw a list of names. These were their targets. I didn't have time to download it, so I just saw the first name on the list, which was yours."

"So we need hack in again and get that list. We get to the targets before they do. Then we confront them and take them down."

"It's not that simple Cassie. I can't just hack in again. They'll find us again and we're back to starting over at square one."

"So how do we get the list without giving away where we are?" Bart asked.

Tim sat in the computer chair silently. He had a focused look on his face, as he was planning what to do. He realized that the list was trivial in the grand scheme of things. That if they were to actually find out where this N.O.W.H.E.R.E organization was, they can take them down. He needed a way to find this organization. After a few moments of silence, a plan finally clicked into Tim.

"The list isn't the problem. It's the solution. Bart you said that they captured you and you escaped right. I'm guessing they were taking you to their facility. If we…if I get captured, I'm assuming they would take me to their facility. I'll be able to rescue the people already there, while gaining information on them. Two birds, one stone."

"So you want us to turn ourselves in? That's crazy!" Bart exclaimed.

"We don't have a lot of options here."

"I agree with Bart. That's a stupid idea. They're probably going to kill you."

"I'm hoping they won't. The plan is for me to get captured, go in, hack everything they got, let the kids go, and hopefully make it out."

"What about us?" Cassie asked.

"You're going to break me out."