Disclaimer: Young Justice and all related characters and story plots belong to DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and the network on which it airs, Cartoon Network. I am making no profit from this story whatsoever.

Author's Note: I promised you all that I'd update within a couple of days, and now I deliver! And I gotta say, I'm completely whelmed by the response! Thank you so much for taking the time to review, guys! You are all so awesome!

Chapter 4 is about half done right now, I have a completed outline for Chapter 5, and I've just started sketching out Chapter 6. Unfortunately, April is the worst time of year for me. My schedule keeps me pretty busy. I'm going to keep doing the best I can to update on a regular basis (hence why I'm making sure to outline chapters ahead of time). For now, here are the next two chapters to entertain you all.

The answer to the riddle lies at the end of this chapter. Read on and see if you were right!

Discovery

MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2:02 EDT

Robin was more than grateful when the bio-ship arrived at Mount Justice. He was exhausted, having spent the last couple of nights patrolling the streets of Gotham while getting used to his new class schedule at Gotham City Academy during the daytime. He had attended the prestigious school the previous year as a seventh grader, and fortunately all ready knew the layout of the building. His classes, on the other hand, were something else entirely. He was taking all Accelerated classes again (which was pretty much just a fancy term for Honors level courses), and quite a few of his teachers were under the impression that all their students wanted to spend every moment of their free time doing homework. He knew it was just their way of weeding out the students who deserved to be there from those who just couldn't hack it, but that meant Robin would have to suffer through an entire first quarter of excessive homework assignments and class projects before things finally started settling down. And that included the first three days of school.

So, needless to say, he was looking forward to getting home, taking a shower, and going directly to bed. He ignored his needs for the time being, though. There would be plenty of time to let his composure slip when he was safely hidden away in the interior of the Batmobile and enjoying the trip back to Connecticut. For now, he was making his way into the main hall alongside his team, showing no sign of fatigue.

And, like the rest of his team, skidded to an abrupt stop as soon as they entered the room, staring in shock at their visitors.

They had expected Red Tornado and Black Canary. As their caretaker and combat trainer respectively, they considered it a priority to be around for the debriefing after the missions, provided that there was nothing else going on at the time. This especially worked well for Black Canary in that she heard Batman's critics herself and was able to adjust the team's training regime to accommodate the lacking skills.

But they never expected to see Superman.

The Man of Steel was staring at them now, looking awkward. Robin suspected that he had come to speak with Black Canary and Red Tornado, but hadn't expected the teens to return so soon. Behind him, he could practically feel the tension that had to be coming from Superboy as he stared at the older Kryptonian.

Fortunately, Red Tornado intervened before anything could happen. "You're much earlier than we anticipated. I take it you were successful," he said.

"Yes. The target did intend to take out the apartment building, but we stopped them just in time," replied Kaldur as they walked over to join the others.

"Good job," congratulated Black Canary. "Batman will be here to debrief you shortly. He's been held up by League business elsewhere."

Yeah, right, Robin thought sarcastically to himself. Batman wasn't doing anything for the Justice League at the moment. Rather, Bruce Wayne was hosting a Wayne Foundations charity event to raise money for the Gotham City Cancer Treatment Center. His ward, Dick Grayson, was also supposed to be in attendance, but then the mission had come up, and Bruce had agreed that Robin needed to help the team more than Dick needed to be at the charity event.

"So, Superman, what brings you here, huh?" asked Wally, a note of extreme curiosity in his voice.

Superman stared at the speedster for a moment, as though he'd been hoping this wouldn't come up. Finally, he answered in a short, clipped tone, "League business. Which I should be getting back to." With a final glance in Superboy's direction, he started heading towards the exit.

A strange emotion flashed through Superboy's eyes as his shoulders slumped slightly. Robin recognized the signs for what they were: disappointment. Superboy had probably been hoping Superman had finally decided to accept him, but that was obviously not the case.

There was only one thing to do.

"Hey, Superman! What's the hurry? Why don't you stick around a while? At least until Batman gets here," suggested Robin, taking a few steps towards the departing hero of Metropolis.

Superman stalled, just as he knew he would, and turned to face Robin. "I'm… not sure that's a good idea," he said hesitantly, stealing another glance in his clone's direction.

Robin knew why Clark was looking for a way to get out of there. Bruce had told him all about that little conversation they had while the team was dealing with Dr. Ivo and his android. His adopted father had said that Clark was still having trouble dealing with the knowledge that someone had stolen his DNA for the purposes of making a clone. Both guardian and ward understood where the Man of Steel was coming from, they just didn't approve.

Batman had told Superboy after that same mission that Kryptonians had hard heads. But Robin knew one of the few things that could make the Boy Scout crumble… and it had nothing to do with Kryptonite.

"Come on, Clark, please?" Robin said softly, putting on a slight pout. If he could have taken off his mask, he would've thrown in the puppy-dog eyes that even Batman couldn't resist, but for right now, he'd have to make do and hope the tone and pout would be enough.

And sure enough, Superman caved. Heaving a heavy sigh, he crossed over to the Boy Wonder and gave him a genuine smile. He ruffled the boy's raven hair as he passed him by to go rejoin Black Canary. Robin laughed, both at the older man's antics and at the knowledge that Superman had just once again walked into the only trap he fell for every single time.

And everyone in the room had seen it happen. Black Canary, who was well aware of Robin's ability, merely shook her head with a knowing smile on her face. Superboy was clearly stunned, but trying hard not to let it show. Megan and Artemis, who had never been witness to their youngest teammate's charm before, stared at the Boy Wonder, clearly impressed. Kaldur was grinning as well, while Wally fumed and muttered, "How the heck does he DO that?" Red Tornado, of course, was unable to show emotion on his mechanical face, and even if he could, he wouldn't have called either one of them out.

"So, the mission was a success?" asked Superman, obviously trying to get everyone's minds off the fact that he had just let a thirteen-year old in tights one-up him.

"Yeah. Waiting for them to arrive was the annoying part, what with Wally constantly complaining in all of our heads like a five-year old," said Artemis, earning a loud "Hey!" from said redhead.

"We also got the name of the man who hired them," said Megan. "Simon Dirks."

"Simon Dirks?" Black Canary considered the name. "I've never heard of him."

"He could be a new criminal. Unless Batman knows him," said Superman.

"Not that I'm aware of. But if he does, then his name might be in the Batcomputer's criminal files," Robin told them.

"Think you can hack into it from here?" asked Superboy.

"With both hands tied behind my back," bragged Robin confidently. And, really, that had been a really stupid question.

"Hold on. I don't think Batman would appreciate you viewing the contents of his computer database without his permission," said Superman sternly.

"It doesn't hurt to let them try, Superman. For all we know, Batman hasn't heard of this Simon Dirks," said Red Tornado reasonably.

Taking this as a sign to proceed, Robin went over to the computer and hooked up the Cave's systems to his wrist computer. It took him less than a minute to access the Batcomputer and even less than that to get into the criminal profiles.

"Okay, let's see. Simon Dirks…" He carefully typed the name into the search bar and hit enter. The computer came up with a match almost instantly. "There!"

Robin could feel his team and the three members of the Justice League gather around him to look at the record that the Batcomputer had just provided them.

"'Alias: Sid the Squid, Killa Coburn Punky Lesh, Billy Marin…'" Kaldur read aloud.

"And it looks like Simon Dirks is just another one of those aliases," noted the Boy Wonder. "If it was his real name, we'd have a picture and a full profile."

"So we have no idea who he really is?" demanded Superboy.

"Only one way to find out," said Robin, and he typed in the code that would take them directly to Dirks' criminal record.

But there was no way to prepare him for what he was about to see.

The information was displayed before them all on the computer screen. Name, known aliases, age, height, weight, hair and eye color, known identification markings, and all ten fingerprints.

There was also the picture, the picture of a man Robin knew all too well, for it was a face that still haunted every dark corner of his nightmares.

He suddenly felt an intense wave of terror flow all over his body. His heart had started racing the moment the computer came up with a positive identification. He could feel his breath catch in his chest, making it harder and harder to breath. His body was trembling. The entire room seemed to be spinning wildly out of control, except for the man's face.

"Oh, my God…" Clark's voice sounded distant, breathless even. But beyond that, the voices of his friends slowly began to fade around him.

This couldn't be real. He had to be dreaming. Any minute now, he'd wake up in his bed, screaming, and Bruce would sweep him into his arms and hold him until the images went away again.

But this wasn't a dream. It was really happening. It was –

"Tony Zucco…"

Congratulations to TheNightwingFan, Batman, SerinaAce, pulchra fibula, and robindjtsd11dp for figuring out the riddle!