A/N: Ok, so I got a little sidetracked when I went to write this one. Stupid Criminal Minds… Oh well, here's chapter 2! Also, I forgot to mention at the end of the last chapter, I don't know that they have a phone or not, but I just had to put it there for the story. Let's just say it's there!
Also, I just want to thank everyone who reviewed. It hasn't even been 24 hours and I have 7 reviews… the most I've gotten for a story is I think about 8, so I am so grateful to all of you for the reviews! It's making me happy! ^_^
Chapter 2
Insanity is Contagious
"Things aren't as they seem?" Bruce asked as he paced back and forth through the Batcave. He had me go home after giving him the message and took me down to the Batcave with him after dinner, while Alfred entertained the guest.
"That's what he said," I told him. He had been repeating the phrase over and over, so it was getting really annoying.
"He said that he was going to be calling with one of these 'clues' everyday?"
I nodded, "he said that if I didn't give them to you, it would ruin 'the game'."
"And he said that he was working with Cadmus?"
I nodded again, "he burned 27 of their men alive."
"Doesn't surprise me at all," Bruce said, finally stopping his pacing. "I want you to take the call again tomorrow. Call me as soon as he hangs up and let me know what he says. We'll figure it out soon enough, but until then, all we can do is play along with it."
"What about the team?" I asked. "If he got involved with Cadmus, the team may end of being involved. Or at least Wally and Kaldur."
"We'll take care of that when the time comes, but don't worry about them for now."
I nodded yet again.
"Go and get some sleep," Bruce said. "Tomorrow is Saturday, which means that Miss Kimblee will be leaving tomorrow, so I can tell the League about this."
"Ok," I said and started up to the stairs.
"And Dick," Bruce called to me.
"Yeah?" I asked, turning to face him.
"You handled it well today," he smiled.
I also smiled, "thanks," I said, before walking up the stairs.
When I reached the mountain the next day, the whole team was waiting by the phone.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"What's going on?" Wally almost screamed. "The Joker calls you yesterday and gives you a riddle, so obviously we're waiting for the next call to come!"
"You don't have to crowd around, y'know… we'll answer it when it comes, but for now—"
The phone rang. The sound bounced off of the walls of the cave and everyone reached out to grab it as fast as they could, though Wally reached it first.
"Hello, Young Justice League here, how can we be of service today? Our work ranges from fighting super villains to getting cats out of trees— Yes, I'll put it on speaker."
"Hellooooo there Robbie!" the Joker's voice rang out. "I hope you had a grrrrreat night! Figure out what my clue means yet?"
No one said anything.
"Good!" the Joker continued. "You shouldn't be able to yet anyway. This is such a fun game, isn't it? I just wish that I could have seen Batman's face when he heard that I'm home free!"
"Just get to the point, Joker," I snapped. I was getting impatient.
"Oh, fine, you killjoy… well, anyway, tell Batman to look in the picture within the painting."
"That's it?" I asked.
"That's it. Now, my friends from Cadmus want to visit you sometime! You and your team, so how does next week sound, hmm? We'll all get together and sit down for some tea!"
"I'll pass," I said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a message to deliver."
"Oooooh be a poop then!" the Joker exclaimed before bursting into a fit of laughter and hanging up the phone.
"Get Batman online," I ordered and M'gann got right on it.
"Robin, what did you get?" Batman asked as he appeared on the screen.
"He said to look in the picture within the painting."
"That doesn't help us at all," Batman said.
"No duh," Wally said. "But what about the whole 'my friends from Cadmus want to visit you,' business?"
"What was that?" Batman asked.
"The Joker said that people from Cadmus wanted to come for a visit and have some tea. But Batman, he's a sociopath, he was bluffing," I said.
"He may have not been," Batman said. "I'm going to be staying at the mountain with you guys the next couple of days, just to be safe. I'll be over in a little while."
The screen went black and everyone turned to Wally.
"What did I do?" the speedster asked.
Batman arrived exactly 30 minutes later with two overnight bags for him and myself.
"We're spending the night," he explained to me. "I can't leave Superboy and Miss Martian here alone."
I sighed and picked up the bag he packed for me, taking it into one of the bedrooms. We all had assigned rooms incase we had to stay at the mountain overnight for some reason.
I changed into my civilian clothes minus the black jacket and settled down on the couch with my laptop.
"Hey Robbie, buddy, guess what!" Wally said, walking over to me.
"What?" I asked, not really paying attention to what the older boy was saying.
"I just called my mom and she said that I can come stay here. Well, I told her I was staying at Flash's house, but it's close enough, right?"
I groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long night.
"Wanna go get some pizza or something?" he asked.
"Maybe in a little while," I replied.
"Ok," he said and sat down next to me on the couch. "What are you looking at?"
"Stuff," I replied.
"What kind of stuff," he asked, trying to peek at the screen.
"Old, personal stuff."
"Oooooh what, like an ex-girlfriend's Facebook page or something?"
"No."
"Justin Bieber's twitter?"
"Not even close. Justin Bieber is fairly new, y'know."
"Oh yeah, something old… the Backstreet Boy's song lyrics?"
I closed the computer and stood up.
"Like I said; old, personal stuff."
I walked into my bedroom and sat down, reading the article I had found on Wikipedia about the long forgotten Flying Graysons; my family before the Batman.
I would occasionally look up the criminal records from the case, or just search them on Google to see if anyone still remembered them after so long. 4 years ago they were killed.
There was a knock at the door and the Batman walked in.
"What do you want?" I asked. I was annoyed that I had to stay at the mountain, because there was barely any privacy there, with everyone who lived there. At the manor it was just Bruce, Alfred and I.
"You should get to bed," the dark knight said, pointing to the clock on my laptop. I looked and saw that it read 12:00. "It's getting late and we have to be ready for anything tomorrow."
"Ok," I said. I didn't really want to go to bed, but I knew I had to, since Bruce was telling me to. Once he said to do something, there was no other option but to do it.
He turned and started walking out the door, but then stopped. "You know, if you want to talk to me about anything, you can. I remember high school well and it wasn't a walk in the park."
"Ok, thanks," I said. I didn't care about high school. I saw Artemis in the halls, but couldn't say "hi" to her. If I could, she would be my only friend, but I couldn't risk my identity.
"Really, if you want to talk about anything at all."
"Ok, I will," I said. "Good night."
"Good night," he said.
I changed into my pajamas and got into bed. It seemed like I blinked and the sun was out. There were windows in the bedrooms, so I could see the sun shining outside.
I sat up and yawned, stretching my arms above my head, like I did every morning. But what I didn't do every morning was wake up to a ginger standing in my door way.
"Wally?" I screamed, falling face-flat into my pillow so that he couldn't see my face. I never slept with my mask or sunglasses on and I definitely never expected to wake up to someone standing in my room!
"Whoa, whoa, sorry man," he said, quickly looking away. He didn't want to face the wrath of Batman and have to tell him that he figured out who I was. "I just wanted to see if you wanted to go get some pizza or something! I mean, you kind of locked yourself in your room last night so we kind of never got out, but pizza is really good for breakfast and I know of this really good place and… Batman isn't gonna kill me for this, is he?"
I sighed, "No, Wally, he's not going to kill you."
He let out a sigh of relief, "whew! I was really worried there, I mean, because I really thought that if I found out who you were, I'd like, be condemned to hell or something but—how about some pizza? I'll pay to make up for this!"
"Ok, ok, pizza sounds good, now can you please leave so that I can get up?"
"Oh yeah, sorry!"
I heard the door closed and glanced around the room to ensure that there were no other surprise visitors hanging around. Once I was sure that there was no one hiding in the closet, I got up and got dressed, putting one my black skinny jeans and green sweatshirt, followed by the black jacket and traditional Chucks.
I slid on my black sunglasses and went out into the main room where Wally was waiting and sliding on a jacket.
"I just let Bruce know that we're leaving, so he said to be back within 2 hours. He doesn't have to know about the whole 'no mask no sunglasses' thing, does he?"
"No, he doesn't. In fact, how about we don't tell him at all?" I asked
"Sounds good," Wally said.
We reached the street and Wally led the few blocks to the pizza place.
"I come here at least once a week!" the older boy said excitedly as we sat down at a table.
It was a nice place with red and white checkerboard curtains and tablecloths. The tables were all mostly round, except for three in the middle of the restaurant and the four booths that sat against the walls. It was a pretty big building, which was nice, and they had waiters and waitresses.
"Hey Wally!" one of the waiters said as he walked over to the table.
"Hey Joe!"
"Who's your friend?"
"Uhh…" Wally started, obviously unsure of what to say.
"Rob," I said. "Nice to meet you."
"Well Wally, you want to usual?" Joe asked.
Wally nodded enthusiastically, "try something a little easy for Rob. He's never been here before and doesn't really know the ways of our food here. He's from Gotham."
"Are you now?" Joe asked. "My sister lives over in Gotham. Her name is Quinn. Do ya know her?"
"I don't know," I said. "There's a lot of people in Gotham."
Joe shrugged, "well, I'll be right back out with your orders.
I almost puked when I saw what Wally had ordered, but I stayed strong through breakfast. We got back to the mountain just in time for the next call from the Joker.
"He just called," M'gann said as we rushed over to the phone, which was now on speaker.
"Oh, are you there Robbie?" the Joker's voice asked. "Well good, because I have a special message today! Ding dong!"
And before anyone could react, dozens of clowns and men in bullet proof vests came running in through the doors.
…to be continued…
A/N: Ok, I know this was a really mean spot to leave it, but I couldn't help myself… I'll hopefully update tomorrow night. Frisbee might be cancelled before of rain and snow, so if it is, then I'll have the next chapter up then ^_^
