My advice to all readers: If you read a chapter (from any story, not just mine) and liked it, leave a review. I always do my best follow this advice.
And don't worry if you feel you don't have anything profound to say. Just tell the writer about one thing you really liked about the chapter.
Also, a note: In order to simplify the distinction between duplicate heroes, I will occasionally prefix their names with TT or YJ. Thus The Titans Robin would be TT-Robin, and the Young Justice Kid Flash would be YJ-Kid Flash. If it's obvious which is which I will omit the prefix.
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"And how do we get home?" Aqualad added.
The infirmary fell silent as no one knew the answer. The Atlantean first made eye contact with his team members. Megan and Wally looked lost in thought as they wracked their brains, searching for a scientific explanation to what had happened. Connor sported an expression that was a mix of annoyance and impatience. Artemis looked nervous, her body language betrayed that she didn't really trust the self proclaimed Teen Titans, while Robin couldn't take his eyes off of his older double.
Kaldur'ahm then studied the Titans, starting with Robin. Beside the immediately visible difference in costume colors and hairstyle, he immediately discerned the difference in demeanor in the older Boy Wonder. He lacked the cocky, smart aleck nature of his younger twin and in some ways reminded Kaldur of himself: serious and no nonsense. He then noticed that the Tamaranian had her arm hooked into Robin's arm. She was a mystery to him. He had never heard of Tamaranians before and there was no superhero in their reality named Starfire (A/N: With my luck the missing Titans will have cameos in future episodes of YJ!). Kaldur had noticed earlier how the orange girl had been able to parry Connor's punch, which was no small feat; he could only wonder what other powers the girl had. Then there was the bionic Titan, who bore a striking resemblance to the lad in Metropolis. And there was the green changeling, who reminded him of Wally and while he couldn't place it the purple costume the small teenager wore looked somewhat familiar. The changeling was standing next to the strange, enigmatic gray girl with the violet hair. While she was not touching the green boy, Kaldur noticed something about their body language as they stood side by side, which hinted at something that wasn't visible from the surface.
But what unnerved him the most was the second Kid Flash. He was unable to tell the two apart.
"Shouldn't we first find out where your home is?" Raven asked.
Kaldur nodded.
"You are quite correct Miss Raven."
"Just call me Raven." She replied in her gravely monotone, her face expressionless.
Kid Flash leaned towards Artemis and whispered in her ear.
"Is it me, or is she like the creepiest girl in the world?"
"Not half as creepy as you are." She whispered back.
Aqualad paused as he deliberated his next words.
"Robin, perhaps we should enlist the help of your mentors to solve this problem."
"Mentors?" Cyborg asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Where is your supervisor?" Artemis asked. "Who trains you and dispatches you on missions?"
"Uh, we do. And we don't have anyone to boss us around." Beast Boy replied before realizing where the question came from. He then giggled.
"Dudes, you mean you have a babysitter back at home? That totally blows!"
Raven elbowed the green Titan and gave him a glare that lowered the room's temperature by at least 20 degrees, which curiously didn't seem to have much of an effect on him.
"Please forgive Beast Boy's rudeness. Sometimes I think he was raised in a barn, which isn't surprising as he prefers animals over people." Raven droned.
The changeling pretended to pull a dagger out of his side while Raven pretended to not notice. Kaldur on the other hand was unable to conceal his surprise.
"You are serious? You operate without supervision? Robin, what about Batman?"
Robin stiffened as he replied.
"Batman and I parted ways just before I came to Jump City. The Teen Titans aren't sidekicks Aqualad …"
"And neither are we!" Connor bellowed.
"Yeah right, that's why when Batman says jump, we say 'how high?'." Kid Flash replied.
TT-Robin sensed the tension building in the air, and quickly moved to diffuse it by redirecting the conversation.
"Aqualad, when you were unconscious I called for our Aqualad to come, since I recognized that you're an Atlantean. He should be able to get you in touch with Aquaman…"
"And through him the Justice League … that should be helpful Robin, thank you."
Kaldur was interrupted by a sing song chime that came out of Cyborg's arm. The tin man tapped on his forearm and a panel popped up, which he studied for a moment.
"The Titans East T-Ship should be here in 20 minutes. But I have good news! The pizzas I ordered just arrived."
"Did he say pizza?" YJ-Wally exclaimed as Artemis huffed and rolled her eyes.
"This way, ya'll. I ordered extras cuz I figured you guys would be hungry when you woke up."
Cyborg led the group out of the infirmary to the common room.
"Titans East?" Megan asked.
"Yeah, they're a sister team based in Steele City." Beast Boy replied.
"And which heroes are they?" Artemis asked.
"The Titans East are friends Bumblebee, Mas y Menos, Aqualad and Speedy."
The six YJs stopped dead in their tracks and stared at each other.
"Did you say Speedy?" YJ-Robin asked.
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If there was one thing the two groups of superheroes had in common was their love for pizza and soda pop. The Italian pies quickly disappeared as the ravenous teens wolfed down the cheesy wedges. It wasn't until towards the end of the meal that Artemis noticed that Starfire was slathering her pizza … with mustard. The archer turned to Raven, ready to ask her what the Tamaranian was doing, but the empath beat her to the punch.
"You don't want to know." Raven warned her in a voice devoid of all emotion, which made the blond girl's skin crawl and causing her to reconsider Kid Flash's assessment of the gray Titan.
Once lunch was over the two groups began to engage in some small talk and the non common members introduced themselves to each other. The YJ males were naturally drawn to Starfire and openly expressed their disappointment when they confirmed that Robin was her boyfriend. Artemis and Megan sat next to Raven, who was sipping on a cup of herbal tea, and the female Martian committed her first faux pas.
"Raven, is Beast Boy your boyfriend?"
The grey sorceress spewed her tea before turning to glare at the green alien.
"Do. Not. Even. Joke. About. That." Was her only reply. Megan noticed that Artemis, who was standing behind Raven, smirked at Raven's denial.
After a few minutes both groups began to relax and even began to banter a bit, until the sliding doors opened, revealing three figures. The first they recognized: Speedy. The other two were a dark haired Atlantean male and a pink haired girl.
Kaldur smiled as he recognized the Atlantean and stood up to greet him.
"Garth! It's so good to see a familiar face!"
Much to Kaldur's surprise Garth froze, as if he had been shot with a stun gun. The two Atlanteans locked eyes. Kaldur approached his friend, who now had a look of horror and disbelief plastered on his face. Garth stepped back, keeping his distance from Kaldur.
"Garth, my friend, what's wrong?"
"Who are you?" Garth stammered.
Kaldur gestured with his hands, trying to reassure his friend.
"Garth, it's me, Kaldur'ahm."
Garth shook his head.
"No, it's impossible!"
"Garth, what are you talking about?"
Garth's expression soured.
"I don't know who you are or what your game is, but you're not Kaldur'ahm!"
"Of course I am! Why are you saying this?" he replied in exasperation.
"Because Kaldur'ahm, my best friend, is dead."
TT-Robin approached Garth and wrapping an arm over his shoulder he led him away. Whispers were heard as Robin explained to the Atlantean he knew as Aqualad about who the strangers were. Garth looked over his shoulder more than once at Kaldur, the disbelief still evident on his face. Finally after a few minutes his expression softened and he addressed the other Aqualad.
"Forgive me for my rudeness."
"It is understandable. Tell me, what happened to my counterpart?"
Garth ran his fingers through his hair and sighed before answering.
"It was Trident, he ambushed you, just days after the King announced you to be Aqualad. Your death was cruel and painful. The king then named me Aqualad and I met the Titans just a few days later. We defeated Trident together."
"I am sorry to hear of this, both for what happened to my counterpart and for the pain you endured later."
Garth nodded, wiping away a single tear.
"I would like to visit Atlantis and speak with Aquaman. I wish to contact the Justice League."
"Yes, Robin explained your situation to me…"
"We don't need the Justice League's help. I'll bet that if I examine your ship we can figure out which dimension y'all came from." Cyborg interrupted.
"And once we know that then either The Herald or I can open a portal to get you home." Raven added.
Kaldur smiled gratefully.
"Your offer of assistance is appreciated. However, I would still like to contact Aquaman."
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The sound of dripping water echoed throughout the cavern, its repetitive sound resonated like a metronome. In the middle of the cave a dark, caped figure brooded over a console that was connected to a large screen which displayed a mathematical model of the jump gate and the worm hole it was connected to. Another figure, dressed in blue with a red cape silently glided in and landed next to the console's operator.
"Any luck finding out where they ended up?" Superman asked.
Batman frowned.
"The only thing we know is that they turned around in the wormhole. The ionization on the ship's shields momentarily fractured the wormhole."
"Which means?"
Batman tapped a few keys on the console and a plethora of vectors exiting the jump portal appeared, so many that they appeared to be almost infinite in number.
"Each of these vectors leads to a parallel universe, the one they ended up in is determined by the exact moment they exited the wormhole…"
"… so we have no idea where they ended up?" Superman completed the sentence.
Batman shutdown the display and turned to face his Kryptonian friend.
"That's correct. We can't help them, if they're going to get back, they'll have to do it on their own."
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The downtown park in Jump City remained closed to the public as the local authorities assessed the damage caused by the alien space ship crash. There was a trench that it dug when it crashed that was almost half a mile long. Fortunately the only structure that had been destroyed by the crash was the building where the park maintenance equipment was kept, which was fortunately unoccupied at the time due to it being the weekend.
Police and firefighters milled around the crash site, looking for any debris that might have been left behind after the Titans had taken the ship's wreckage back to the tower. It was now twilight and the police did not see the lone figure who crossed the ubiquitous yellow tape and who began to search through the demolished remains of the brick maintenance building. With the stealth of a cat he moved through the rubble, silently sifting through the detritus as if knowing what he was looking for.
He heard a police officer approach and crouched down, hiding between the rubble. A flash light beam shined past his hiding spot.
"What is it Derek?" Another officer called out.
Policeman with the flashlight gave the area a final scan before startling a large raccoon, which took off and ran into the safety of some bushes.
"Nothing, it's just a stupid raccoon." He replied before walking away.
Once the officers retreated the mysterious man resumed his search and he was soon rewarded. The glimmering piece of the spaceship, no larger than a pencil, shimmered with an unnatural glow in the moonlight. The man picked up his prize with a pair of tweezers and dropped it into a lead lined bag. As he turned to leave the moon briefly illuminated his face, which except for single eye was hidden entirely behind a metal mask.
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Kaldur smiled gratefully.
"Your offer of assistance is appreciated. However, I would still like to contact Aquaman."
TT-Robin nodded.
"I understand. We'll still do our best to help get you guys back home where you belong."
Kaldur then turned his attention to Speedy and the pink haired girl who had cat like irises in her eyes.
"Something tells me that you guys already know me." Speedy volunteered.
"We do. You quit the team and I replaced you." Artemis interjected.
Speedy eyed the strangers. He thought the green girl was kind of cute and winked at her. That was when the boy with the Superman T-Shirt drew close to her and gave the archer a "hands off" look. He then noticed the redundant Robin and Wally before refocusing on the female archer.
"I can't say I ever met you before, but I like your choice of weapon."
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An hour had passed since the two Aqualads had departed for Atlantis and the mood had settled down in the common room. Most of the men, except for Connor, had gathered around the GameStation and were engaged in lively game of the latest version of Mega Monkeys, while the females had commandeered the kitchen table. The topic of course, was boys. Starfire and Jinx were peppered by Megan will all kinds of questions about their boyfriends, some personal enough to make the two girls blush. (Hello! Megan!)
Raven and Artemis were positively bored out of their skulls and after a few minutes the archeress nodded to Raven, gesturing the sorceress to follow her. Raven arced an eyebrow, wondering what the blond was up to, but quickly decided that whatever it was it couldn't be worse than listening to Starfire gush about 'boyfriend Robin'. At least Jinx had some dignity and didn't prattle like a teeny-bopper about her beau.
Artemis led Raven into the kitchen, and once she was confident they were out of earshot addressed the gray Titan.
"What are they like?" She asked.
"Who?" Raven replied.
Artemis rolled her eyes.
"Wally and Jinx! Who else?"
Raven shrugged her shoulders while she began to brew some more herbal tea.
"What is there to say? They seem to get along fairly well. Would you like some tea?"
"No thanks. Are you serious? She actually likes him?"
Raven poured herself a mug from the teapot and blew across it before taking a sip. She sighed contentedly before taking a second sip.
"While Wally can at times be immature he does have a few redeeming qualities. Jinx used to be a villain and he won her over. She's been an honorary Titan ever since."
Artemis shook her head.
"I don't get it. Why is her Wally so suave and why is my Wally a jerk?"
"Your Wally?" Raven deadpanned. "To be honest, they don't seem all that different to me."
Artemis frowned at Raven, angry that she had unintentionally tipped her hand.
"Don't tell anyone. If you do, I'll tell everyone about Beast Boy."
Raven took another sip of her tea.
"No one will believe you."
"Ah! So now you're not denying it!"
"There's nothing to deny." Raven deadpanned.
"Oh, I've seen you watch him. You think you're hiding it, but it's as plain as that chakra stone on your face."
Raven remained unperturbed.
"If you wish to wallow in your delusion, by all means, be my guest. If it gives you comfort to project your …"
"Bullsh …"
Artemis's expletive was bleeped out by the Tower's alarms. Raven put her mug down on the counter and said a single word.
"Trouble."
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And that's chapter 2!
