Gotham City
Wayne Manor; 3:06 EST
Thursday

Rhythmic echoes sounded down the hall from the gym as Dick swung his gloved hands into the punching bag. He had just woken up from his cat nap, sure that it was, in fact, a cat nap and not time zipping by him again as he slept.

He punched the red bag with his right hand, then followed through with his left, before finishing his imaginary target off with a kick. His breathes were heavy from the work out; boxer gloves taken off his hands so they could rest on his knees.

With a final, deep breath, he waltzed over to the bench, sat down and took three whole gulps of water out of his water bottle. He picked up his wrist watch he had laying on the bench and checked the time. The thing was going to be his best friend until they figured out how to stop whatever was going on.

3:08 am it read. He had been punching that bag for at least an hour.

Batman was out on patrol, or hunting someone down, since Dick had checked the Batcave when he woke up. Alfred was somewhere in the manor cleaning, more than likely still in the west wing since he heard the vacuum over there.

He still had plenty of time to himself to do whatever he wanted, but what he wanted to do most of all was beat up some Gotham bad guys. This was the second night Bruce had left without him and frankly he couldn't put up with it any longer. So, he took a shower and then ventured down to the Batcave. He changed into his Robin uniform—minus the mask—but didn't bother going anywhere because, according to the monitor, Batman was coming back really soon. He just liked the feeling of his Kevlar on. He didn't get to wear it all of yesterday.

The Batmobile appeared from the tunnel and shrieked to a halt, the top half opening up. Batman jumped out, and the lid closed. Upon approaching the computer, he sensed someone was sitting in his chair, but didn't need to see who it was to know.

"Dick?" he said as he removed his cowl. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep anymore." Dick replied. Granted, Bruce figured the boy's sleep pattern would get messed up a bit since he technically missed about fifteen hours of yesterday.

Dick moved a bit in the chair, his hand going to his abdomen with a slight twitch in the facial features.

"What's wrong?" Bruce inquired.

"My stomach just hurts." Dick answered.

"Have you eaten at all since breakfast?" Dick shook his head no.

"Come on," Bruce swiveled the chair around and motioned his hand towards the cave's exit. Dick sighed. If he had to go back upstairs, that meant he had to remove his uniform. And he had just put it on.

He resisted the urge to growl. He couldn't be Robin, his stomach hurt, he lost fifteen hours the other day, couldn't sleep, was spastic about the time, and worst of all, Barbara thought he loved Artemis!

The day was not whelming, not whelming at all.

Gotham City
Gotham Academy; 10:24 EST
Thursday

The bell rang, telling the students to hurry to class before a tardy was distributed. It was study hall for Dick, the class he had right before lunch. So far, no time anomalies happened, but that didn't keep the young acrobat from checking his watch every so often. He reminded himself of that white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

The last bit of students hurried into the class room before the teacher, Mr. Gurder, closed the door. Dick leaned over and grabbed a book out of his bag, relaxed far down in his seat. As he opened it up to his bookmark, he heard giggling behind him. Upon twisting his head around, he saw Bette and a couple of her dumb friends looking at him with smiles. When Bette's eyes met his, she blushed and looked away.

Dick looked off to the front of the class, sighing mentally and slouching further in his desk.

It's true… he whined in his head. I should have never invited her to my birthday party.

He looked down at his book, hoping to pass the time with a good story and get this whole embarrassing crush out of his head. Not a sentence in, the bell rang. Dick whipped his head up, confusion written all over his face. The students were filing out of the room.

Dick quickly looked at his watch, seeing how it was 11:40 am. It happened again.

Dick sat down at their lunch table with Barbara sitting down across from him. She was studying him like a newly found mammal. When Dick glanced up from his food, he took a step back.

"What?" he asked.

"Where were you the other day, you just disappeared." She stated, sounding genuinely concerned, and looking as if she was on the verge of tears. "I tried calling the manor, but Alfred said you didn't come home after school. I thought you got kidnapped!" she exclaimed.

Whatever was happening, he wanted to know just as much as she did. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell her anything, Batman's orders. Honestly, he could trust Barbara, and so could Bruce. But it wasn't about trust, it was about safety for both them and the people they told.

"I—" Dick paused for a split second. "I don't know, I remember going to the bathroom and then… I guess I passed out or something."

"You passed out?" she repeated with more seriousness than Dick had. He hated lying to her.

"The doctor said it was just a concussion, nothing to worry about." He reasoned.

"How did you get a concussion?"

"I hit my head a few days back while working out. It happens, Barbara."

"It only happens because you're so reckless." She retorted, forking her food a bit, but not touching it. Suddenly, Bette was beside their table, earning the attention of both Barbara and Dick.

"Hey, Barbara." She greeted, "I was just wondering if you had done that Cultural Diversity homework. I was busy all day yesterday with my father and was wondering if you could—"

Barbara shook her head yes, but out of knowing what the girl wanted. Dick looked down at his food, avoiding any eye contact with Bette or her friends at their table across the café.

"I would but, I don't have it on me and my backpack's in my locker." She replied with an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"Oh no, that's quite—" Bette was about to say before Dick chimed in, even though he really didn't want to.

"I have mine on me. If you… want to borrow it." He said, already pulling the paper out of his bag and handing it to Bette. She smiled and thanked him, and Dick knew she was trying to hide a blush. When she grabbed the paper, her hand touched Dick's and the blush burst forward on her cheeks. She quickly said bye to both of them and returned to her lunch table. Barbara followed her with a huge smile on her face.

"Wow, that girl is a mess!" she stated before looking over at Dick who was now paying more attention to his food than ever before. "She really does have a crush on you."

"Yeah, and she's going to stalk me." Dick mumbled before taking a bite from his mashed potatoes.

"She's not going to stalk you." Barbara commented tiredly.

"Yes she is."

"No she's not, Dick."

"Do you know what happened to Dillan, her last boyfriend?"

"What?" she asked, figuring to hear him out, but just for a bit.

"He was in the locker room changing when she "accidentally" stumbled in claiming to have been placed in the boy's gym class instead of the girl's."

Babs' fingers were on her temples now, "Yeah, the schedule got messed up big time, but it was only a rumor of a whisper of a conjecture that that happened." She argued with him.

"And he just so happens to break up with her the very next day." Dick defended his information.

"You're so paranoid."

"Blame Bruce." Dick stated, returning to his meal before it was time to go. He was kind of happy that the whole Bette ordeal distracted Barbara from her worry about his disappearance the other day. He promised one day he'd tell her everything he could, but today was not that day.

Happy Harbor
Mount Justice; 15:32 EST
Thursday

Recognized. Robin B01

After the zeta tubes rematerialized the Boy Wonder into the cave, he began his trek over to the lounge. Dick was dressed in his civvies, his tight jeans with a black jacket over a green hoodie, all the while sporting his dark sunglasses.

Upon reaching the lounge, he was greeted with M'gann, Superboy, and Zatanna, all watching a movie. All of them had their backs to him, his presence unnoticed. At least to those without telepathic abilities.

M'gann turned around after sensing his presence and jumped up with glee.

"Robin!" she greeted, alerting the others as well. Floating over the sofa, she landed beside him and hugged him. Robin was definitely feeling the aster, but was somewhat confused from the affection. He hugged her back, and smiled awkwardly, glancing over at Zatanna in doing so.

"Uh, thanks. Hehe, what's with the hugs all of a sudden?" he asked, right after getting a hug from Zatanna. His first thought was that it was a girl thing, because Conner didn't look like he was getting off the couch any time soon.

"We got a call yesterday from Batman. He came looking for you. Is everything alright?" the Martian inquired while holding her hands together out in front of her.

"Yeah, what happened?" Conner chimed in with one arm slugged over the sofa's back.

"THAT, well, um," Rob started ruffling the back of his hair. "I… can't… really tell you. The whole civvies ordeal, ID thing, Batman's orders… that kind of stuff." He explained.

"But everything's alright, right?" Zatanna asked for reassurance.

"Yeah," he replied with a smile.

Hopefully he thought. M'gann looked at him with sadness, hearing its projection.

Recognized. Kid Flash B03

The computer announced the arrival of everybody's favorite speedster right before announcing their resident archer.

Recognized. Artemis B06

In a few seconds, a blurry figure appeared in the lounge. Wally gazed at the others with a pleading face.

"Have you guys heard anything from—" he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Robin next to Zatanna and M'gann. "Rob! You're alive!" He zipped over and punched him in the arm. "Dude, what happened yesterday? Bats came in and—"

"He can't talk about it, secret ID stuff." Conner interrupted from his position on the couch.

"Uh huh." Wally replied with narrowed eyes, hands on his hips. "Well that sucks. Let's go out for ice cream! Me and Robin only. See ya!" Kid said before waving good bye, grabbing Robin's hand and dashing out of the room leaving the others in the dust of confusion.

Kid slowed to a normal run, at least as fast as Robin could run, as they made their way down the hall. On their way, they met Artemis.

"Hey, blonde." Kid greeted, neither of them stopping to say anything else. Artemis stood in the hall, awkwardly.

"Hi...?" she said as they ran away.

Happy Harbor
Billy's Ice Cream Parlor; 15:49 EST
Thursday

Dick and Wally were sitting alone on one of the wooden, octagon-shaped tables outside of the ice cream shop. Each of them had ice cream, Wally, a chocolate ice cream cone piled high, while Dick just had a small bowl of strawberry with chocolate syrup.

"So, what happened yesterday?" Wally began. The reason why they were out here was to get far enough away from Conner so that he wouldn't hear anything Dick couldn't tell. And he wanted to hear everything.

"Something weird is going on. Time is messing up around me!" Dick began to explain. Wally was licking his ice cream when he stopped mid-lick and gave Dick a weird look.

"Huh?"

"Yesterday, I was in class. It was eight in the morning when all of the sudden, time skips, and its one thirty in the afternoon." Dick continued. "Then it happens again and the next thing I know its midnight!"

"So that's why Batman came to the cave asking if we had heard from you." Wally concluded. Then his eyes widened. "Dude, Bruce must have been freaking out!"

Dick still had no idea how his friend didn't connect the two. It was obvious, wasn't it? He guessed the billionaire playboy act actually worked on some people. But Dick wasn't going to tell him; that was his job to figure out.

"Both he and Alfred. But the thing is, it happened again, today. Study hall. The bell rings, I sit down, seconds later, it rings again and the class is over!" Dick shrugged before laying his hands down on the table.

"That's one awesome study hall!" Wally exclaimed happily, feeling that Dick was lucky.

"We have no idea how to predict when it'll happen again." As Dick said this, he glanced down at his watch.

"Well… Batman's on the case, right. He'll figure it out." Wally reassured his best friend.

"Yeah, but we don't know how much time we have before—"

Dick opened his eyes. Everything was dark. And he was laying down. On a bed.

He sat up, eyes wider than dinner plates as he glanced around. He was in his room laying in his bed with his school uniform on.

"What?" he said out loud to no one but himself. Quickly, he glanced at his alarm clock. 2:00 am.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no! Not again!" he said, jumping out of bed and dashing out the door. He ran down the hall screaming for Alfred and Bruce. Once he got to the main lobby, he stopped and listened. A sound echoed off in the distance. It sounded like a vacuum… in the west wing.

Dick looked down at himself, he was wearing his school uniform… and Alfred was vacuuming in the west wing… and it was two in the morning… just like last night…

He shook his head and ran over to the study. Pulling a book out of the bookcase, the whole thing opened up to a secret stairway. He ran down and glanced around.

"Bruce?!" he called, seeing the cave empty and the Batmobile gone. He decided to test something, and waited in the chair at the computer for an hour. Just as he thought, the Batmobile pulled in and Batman jumped out. Dick didn't turn the chair around as he heard his mentor approach.

"Dick?" Batman said as he removed his cowl. "What are you doing up?"

Dick swiveled the chair around and looked at him. "I… couldn't… sleep anymore." He replied, getting a major sense of déjà vu. His stomach started hurting again and he moved his hand to massage it. Bruce noticed something off.

"What's wrong?" Bruce inquired.

Dick looked down at the floor, his eyes wide. "My… stomach just hurts."

"Have you eaten at all since—"

"Since breakfast?" Dick jumped in. "No."

Bruce motioned his hand towards the cave's exit. "Come on."

Dick stared forward as the sense of déjà vu only strengthened.

You've gotta be kidding me… he groaned mentally.