*Kid Flash/Wally West*
I was so not in the mood for going to Mount Justice. I knew, though, that if I didn't go Rob would worry that I found it uncomfortable to be around him. Although that was slightly true, I didn't want him to have to worry.
I zeta beamed myself to the Mission Room, surprised to see Batman with Zatanna, Kaldur, M'Gann, and Conner in a semicircle around him. They were all geared up and ready to go on a mission. So where was Rob and… Artemis. What could they possibly be doing?
The Team and Batman looked over at me. "Hey Wally!" M'Gann said.
"What's up, beautiful?" I asked before looking at Batman expectedly.
"They're going out on a recon mission," Batman said, gesturing to the 4 crowded around him. They looked surprised that Batman had clearly excluded me out of that.
"Is he going with Robin and Artemis?" Zatanna asked confused.
"Yes," Batman said. "Do you understand your assignment?" My friends looked at each other before nodding their heads and heading towards where M'Gann kept her Bioship, leaving me and Batman alone. Fun.
"Where's Artemis and Robin?" I asked. They both lived in Gotham, were they doing a mission there together? Why would I be going with them?
"Wally," Batman said leading me towards the zeta tube. "We need to talk."
Batman 02
Kid Flash B03
*xoOox*
*Robin/Dick Grayson*
After a while, the silence between Artemis and I had gotten awkward. It was driving me crazy. What's worse is that my fingers were itching to take out my utility belt and bust my way out of here. Instead I had decided to wait until Artemis had fallen asleep and activate my tracker. It was hidden deep in my utility belt and there wasn't really much I could do to discreetly activate it. Once she was asleep I was free to turn it on, telling Batman where I was.
It was getting a little colder in the room and I realized night was coming. Artemis had this droopy look on her face and she looked ready to pass out any minute. She brought her knees up to her chest and rested her arms across it, digging her face into her arms. Her deep breathing told me she was on the brink of passing out. I watched her expectedly, waiting for it to happen.
Suddenly the click and beep from the locks on the steel door had her wide awake, her head having jolted up and whipped to look at the door. God damn it.
A pale boy with white-blonde hair entered through the threshold, his eyes trained on Artemis. It was Icicle Junior. Cameron. Her old friend.
He closed the door behind him, a click and beep sounded meaning someone was on the other side of the door, waiting for him.
He walked over to the fuse box, opened it, and flipped a few switches. The low hum slowly died down. "Cam?" Artemis asked.
Cam didn't say anything as he brought out a ring of keys and unlocked the cell door. Artemis's mouth was opened slightly, wanting to say something but, obviously, nothing was coming out.
Cam walked into the cell and looked at Artemis, his back to me. I couldn't see his face but I could see Artemis's. She was staring at him, a mixture of sadness and shock on her face. Cameron opened up his arms and she moved her face to look at them.
Seconds later, Artemis was in Cameron's arms, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. He rub her back soothingly, murmuring low, comforting sounds. Um… did I just miss something?
Cameron finally turned around so that his back was to the wall and he was sitting down, Artemis still in his arms. He looked at her sadly as he played with her ponytail and rubbed circles into her back. I sat there, awkwardly, not sure how to react to the situation. It reminded me, though, of when I was in a similar situation.
It was the anniversary of my parent's death. I thought I would be able to handle it that time. Obviously, though, I couldn't. Wally and I had gone to visit their graves. We had just laid down the flowers against their tombstones when I began to cry. Wally hadn't noticed at first, still looking at the graves. When he finally did notice, he quickly wrapped his arms around me and shoved me against his chest. I cried for what felt like forever into his chest, happy for the comfort. When I finally stopped, I slipped on sunglasses, said goodbye to their graves, and Wally and I left and on the way home, Wally was talking like the idiot he was, making me feel better. We never talked about that incident.
Again… why am I thinking about Wally?
They sat there for a while, Artemis's silent tears slowly going down her face and Cameron's comforting murmurs to her. When her tears finally stopped and she seemed to have fallen asleep, he kissed the top of her head and laid her down gently. She curled into herself and slightly shivered. He took the keys out of his pocket and left the cell.
After quickly locking the cell and turning the electricity back on, Cameron walked over to the steel door and raised his hand to knock on the steel door.
"Hey Cam," I said, standing up from my spot.
He looked at me, surprised I had talked, and lowered his hand from the door. I could see he was about to say some sort of smartass remark but I cut him off. "She okay?" I asked, nodding at the sleeping Artemis.
He sighed. "Long story. Which is none of your business." He glared at me and then banged loudly on the door. I heard the click and beep of the door unlocking and Cameron walked out. The second the door shut, I reached under my shirt, into my utility belt, and activated the tracker.
*xoOox*
*Kid Flash/Wally West*
I had been sitting in the Bat Cave for an hour doing nothing! Batman had told me that both Artemis and Robin, who was Dick Grayson at the time, had gone missing and, based on the fact that Robin had yet to contact Batman, Batman was assuming they had been abducted while sneaking off campus. Batman had then proceeded to tell the Team that Robin and Artemis were working on a mission together in Gotham.
And then he sat me down in a chair and had me do nothing! Batman left to go do god knows what and I was stuck here, dealing with the knowledge that Dick and Artemis had been taken and I couldn't do anything about it.
Alfred had come down with plates of food several times and I kept stuffing my face. My sped up metabolism mixed up with my anxiety made me seek comfort in food. Of course what I wanted was to hug Robin until he popped but he was a little busy being ABDUCTED for me to be able to do that.
"Wally," came a sudden, harsh voice from right behind me.
"GAHHH!" I screamed, jumping up from the chair and flinging my arms around me wildly before I realized that I knew that voice. It was Batman. Stupid creature of the night.
"Dick was on the phone when he was sneaking off of campus," Batman said, slipping off his cowl and walking over to the computer. He typed in some things and the next thing I knew, I was invading into Dick's private life. Yay me.
"Dick are you coming?" it was a female's voice. "What's taking so long?"
Dick laughed. "Calm down Babs. I'm hopping over the fence now." Babs? Who in the heck was Babs? And why was Dick sneaking off school campus to see her?
"Hurry up!" Bab's said before she sneezed.
"Ew, you're not going to get me sick are you?" He wasn't putting up his Dick Grayson personality. He was being himself with this girl. I was not liking it.
"Shut up and get over here! I-"
"Ouch!" Dick's voice cut her off as well as the sound of the phone dropping. A couple of seconds later, Dick said "Yeah, I'm going to have to call you back" and the call ended.
"What happened?" I asked, trying to be less concerned about Dick's lady friend and more about Dick. I mean seriously, first Artemis and now this Babs chick. I picked the wrong guy to get a crush on.
"I'm guessing that's when Dick and Artemis ran into each other. After that is when they were abducted." Batman said, typing more into his computer.
"Hmm," I mumbled, staring at the computer screen and pretending to understand what it meant.
"The problem is that there are three different reasons that Artemis and Dick would be taken. Artemis's identity was compromised and someone took her, Robin's identity was compromised and someone took him, or Dick was taken for ransom. In all three scenarios the other was taken as well simply because the kidnappers didn't want to leave behind any witnesses." I felt chills running down my spine.
"Okay, but how are we supposed to find them?" I asked, trying to get Batman to hurry to the point.
Before Batman could say anything an alarm went off from one of the side computers. Batman quickly jumped up from his seat and ran over to it, typing into its respective keyboard. I saw a map on the screen, a blinking light pinpointing a location.
"Robin?" I asked, begging that I was right.
"Robin."
*xoOox*
*Robin/Dick Grayson*
10 minutes after I had activated the tracker, Artemis stirred awake. She looked dazed at first but when she remembered where she was and saw me looking at her, her face got red. She was embarrassed. Embarrassed that I had seen her cry. She was like me, not wanting anyone to see her weakness.
"A friend of yours?" I asked, nodding toward the door where Cameron had disappeared through earlier.
"Yeah…" she mumbled groggily.
"He kissed you," I said. She widened her eyes at me. "On your head. Thought you'd like to know."
She sighed. "He likes me but it just won't work out."
"Why?" I pressed.
"I just don't like him like that," she said uncomfortably.
"But if you don't open up and try, you'll never know." I said, feeling a flicker of guilt in my chest. Wally I thought.
She stayed silent, not looking at me. She may very well just not like Cameron or she could be scared of what would happen if the two of them dated. There was no doubt that they were close as kids when Artemis was still running around with Sportsmaster.
"So what exactly is supposed to happen here?" I asked, changing the subject.
Artemis sighed. "Well Dad will probably want to give me more tests, get me back to feeling the thrill of being a villain." I was surprised she was telling me this but after everything I had seen simply by being abducted by her father, there wouldn't be much that Dick Grayson could use against the Justice League.
"He said he was moving to a new location… are you going to be okay?" I asked. I know Batman would be here before Sportsmaster would be able to do that but no harm in asking.
"Yeah. Sportsmaster won't let anyone hurt me if he's trying to get me to join his side again. I'm just worried about Robin." She sighed. "If he's really changed sides, I don't know how the rest of the Justice League is going to take it."
"Yeah," I said, feeling completely disgusted. Me. CLONED! And used to replace me. I was completely pissed.
The more I thought about it, though, the weirder the whole thing sounded. If I was cloned, why had he practically ignored me? Why hadn't Sportsmaster or Icicle Jr. said anything to me? They couldn't want to keep my secret. So what was it? Was he not really my clone? Well then how come he looked and sounded exactly like me?
*xoOox*
*Kid Flash/Wally West*
After getting changed into my costume, Batman and I had headed over to where the tracker said Rob was. We ended up in an abandoned self-storage unit. It was in an outside, cheap, self-storage facility on the outskirts of Gotham. Classy.
I quickly sped around the whole self-storage facility and found nothing. I zipped back over to Batman.
"Kid Flash," he said. "Head over-" he suddenly stopped and raised his head, looking down past all the closed storage units.
I followed his eyes and watched in amazement as Robin sauntered up to us, donning his superhero costume.
"Rob!" I screamed, running over to him.
He gave me a half-smile. "Hey KF! Sorry I was late. I was a little preoccupied."
"Uh… duh!" I said before offering him a high five which he returned with a smirk.
"Robin," Batman said, bringing away our attention. "Shouldn't you be studying for your Psychology test?" I made a confused face at him. Robin didn't take psychology and if he did he wouldn't need to study. He was ROB for goodness sakes.
Robin scoffed. "No. That class is a joke. And I got back early from Bialya, thought I could help." My eyes widened in realization. Oh. This wasn't Robin. Using my super speed, I quickly sweep kicked him. He fell over and hit his head. Rob would've avoided that.
"Ow KF! What was-" Batman quickly walked over to him and handcuffed him to one of the doors to the self-storage unit.
"What are you doing?" the imposter yelled, pulling at the handcuffs.
"Robin is with Superman," Batman said. He gripped onto the boy's shirt and pulled him up. "You are not Robin." Batman then brought up his hand and ripped the mask off of him.
Underneath was a boy who was similar to Robin. Every aspect of his face looked exactly like Rob except the part covered by his mask. His eye shape was all wrong and the color was green. A light, disgusting looking green. I was surprised I didn't strangle him for thinking he could pretend to be Robin.
"We thought you'd send Robin with the rest of your kiddie justice league to Bialya." The boy said. In Rob's voice. That was really starting to tick me off. So… the boy had surgery to get his face to look like Rob's as best as the scientists could but what about his voice? How'd they get his voice to sound so similar to Rob's?
Batman thrust the imposter down and made his way out of the self-storage facility. With a final glare at imposter Rob, I followed him.
"Why are we walking away?"
Batman was silent. We reached the outside of the facility and he glared at his surroundings. I was surprised none of it just burst into flame.
He seemed to find what he was looking for and made his way towards the cement wall that "protected" the facility.
"The boy came from this way," Batman said. "His tracks end here." Batman pointed to the ground where I saw the clear outline of a shoe print. Yet another thing the real Rob wouldn't have made the mistake of doing. Seriously, who trained that kid?
Batman dug through the dirt until his hand hit something hard. Then, taking out one of those scary batarangs, he backed up a little and then threw it. A couple of beeps later, we had a nice little explosion. An explosion that revealed a steep staircase going deep into the ground.
With a wave of his cape, Batman disappeared down the staircase with me directly on his heels.
*xoOox*
*Artemis Crock*
There was an explosion and soon Grayson and I were on our feet. We heard people shouting outside the door and the sound of a fight going on. Had the Justice League found us?
Then an explosion blew the steel door and I saw Wally in his Kid Flash costume standing in its threshold. His eyes widened when he saw us and he quickly ran up and grabbed the bars with his right hand.
"Kid! Don't!" Grayson yelled, but it was too late. I watched horrified as Wally was painfully electrocuted. I was frozen in fear, not sure what to do. Thankfully, Batman came up right behind him and pushed him quickly away. Wally landed on the floor, screaming in pain and his hand smoking.
"The panel!" I yelled, pointing at the fuse box. Batman saw it and quickly ran over to it, flipping its switches. When the low hum died, I kicked at the cell door and it burst open.
I quickly went to Wally, who hadn't moved. He blinked up and smiled. "Found you." He whispered. Thing was, it wasn't me he was looking at. It was Grayson who looked as confused as I felt.
"Let's go!" Batman's voice commanded and Grayson and I supported Kid Flash out of the room. We made our way up a staircase, passing by several knocked out guards. When we reached the top of the staircase and onto ground, we were breathing heavily. Wow… what a quick rescue. Too quick…
Batman began to speak into his comm-link, asking for someone to pick us up. Grayson and I laid Wally on the dirt and he moaned in pain. Then he looked from the building we were next to (some sort of storage place) to Batman.
"What about jerk face?" Kid Flash asked him. Batman shook his head, not answering the question. I wanted to ask who "jerk face" was but Wally's hand needed tending to. Recruiting Grayson, we used medical supplies that Batman pulled from his utility belt to help the burns.
"Ahh! Artemis!" he yelled as I applied a cream onto his palm. "Oh shut it Kid," as I rubbed it in as softly as I could. His other hand was gripped onto Grayson's, who was frowning at their intertwined hands. Normally, this would be really weird for me but Wally had told me once how gripping onto things helped him deal with pain. That, mixed with his unnatural need for closeness, probably explained why he had naturally grabbed onto Grayson's hand. Grayson, on the other hand, was probably wondering why in the world Kid Flash was holding his hand. The thought made me smile.
After I had finished tending to and wrapping up Wally's burn, Wally sat up and slipped his hand out of Grayson's. Grayson then looked up at Batman and Wally and I followed his lead.
"What happened?" Batman asked. I explained to him about how my father had me kidnapped to try and get me to join him and Grayson had been there so they just grabbed him too and how they planned to wipe his memory and hold him for ransom.
"I really hate when that happens," Grayson grumbled and I had to suppress a laugh.
Batman then brought his attention to Grayson before looking back at me. "What does he know?"
I sighed. "Nothing more than that I'm a hero and that my dad's Sportsmaster." I was really wondering what we were going to do about that.
"Oh I won't tell," Grayson piped up. We all looked over at him. He shrugged. "Seriously. Getting kidnapped again will not look good for Bruce, me, or Gotham Academy. As long as you keep quiet about how I was kidnapped, I won't tell a soul."
Wally and I exchanged a look with each other before looking at Batman, who glared down at the boy. Poor kid! He was a stereotypical Gotham Academy kid. Quiet, innocent, and addicted to nothing more than his studies. He didn't deserve a Batglare.
"Besides. What do I have to gain from telling anyone? And who do I have to tell?" Grayson continued.
"Barbara," I said, suddenly remembering who this kid was. He hung out with Barbara Gordon who I was paired with for a Spanish project. She was a grade lower than me but she was still pretty cool. And she was pretty much his only friend. People even called them a couple.
Wally looked over at Grayson, waiting for a reply. "I won't tell her." He said this with a shrug.
I didn't know what to do. We couldn't make him forget anything and threatening was out of the question (the boy was a billionaire). The only thing left was to trust that he'd keep this a secret.
John Stewart suddenly came down from the sky, his ring making a platform for himself. Within seconds of his landing, Flash sped up and stood next to Batman, munching on a bag of chips. He froze when he saw Kid Flash on the ground.
"Whoa, what happened?" he asked, lowering himself and grabbing onto Wally's hand, looking at his covered hand.
"This is to be kept quiet," Batman said with a glare. Flash and John both nodded their heads. Batman then looked at John. "Take Artemis and Kid Flash back to Mount Justice."
"What about-" I started but felt the question die in my throat as Batman glared at me quickly before looking at Flash and pointing at Grayson. "Get him home before Bruce Wayne. He wants to keep it a secret from him."
"Will do!" Flash said before grabbing a surprised Grayson, swinging him onto his back, and speeding off with him.
Wally and I were suddenly lifted up and I looked down to see John Stewart had made a platform for us. He took us away, heading to Happy Harbor. I looked behind me and saw Batman watch us go. I wanted so badly to tell John to turn us around so I could tell Batman about Robin. How Robin was a traitor. I didn't want to believe it but I saw him with my own eyes, standing next to my father.
That would have to wait, though. I kept my eyes trained on Batman, standing in the middle of a dirt field alone. My last thought as I lost sight of him was how the hell he was supposed to get home.
*xoOox*
*Robin/Dick Grayson*
Flash brought me to the Bat Cave. The second he put me down, he got awfully close to my face. "Did Artemis find out about anything?"
I shook my head. "No."
"Good," He sighed, pushing his cowl down. "Geez, you and Bats obsession with your secret identity really tires the rest of us out."
I wanted to ask him what he talking about but that wasn't the biggest problem at the moment. "There's a clone of me." I said quickly.
"What?!" Flash said with extreme exaggeration.
"Well not a clone. He looks a LOT like me, though. He sounds like me too." I explained.
"And how is that not a clone?" Flash asked, not catching on. Speedsters.
"No one there treated me like Robin, not even the… look-alike. They treated me like Dick Grayson. If they had cloned me, they would've known my identity." I explained.
Flash nodded his head, taking it in. "Alright, Bats and I will look into it. In the meantime, get dressed, wash the gel out of your hair, and get to Mount Justice. I hear that's where Artemis and Kid Flash are headed." I laughed before heading over to the entrance to Wayne Manor where I could get a change of clothes.
Minutes later I was announced in the Mission Room of the Cave.
Robin B01
I head straight for the infirmary, eager to see Wally.
I found him laid down in one of the beds, completely passed out. I smiled at him and walked next to him looking at his face. His cowl was pulled down but the outline of dirt on his cheeks and around his eyes showed where his cowl would be. I chuckled, wiping away at some of the dirt. He murmured in his sleep.
"Robin!" I heard Artemis screaming from behind me. I turned around to see her run into the infirmary, grab onto my shirt and thrust me up against the wall. "You traitor!"
Wally quickly sat up in the bed. "Artemis! No!"
I needed to explain things. Now. "Artemis. Listen to me-"
"No! I saw you. I saw you with Sportsmaster! You're working with him now!" She snarled at me. The rest of the Team ran into the infirmary, looks of surprise on their faces.
"No, Artemis. That's not-"
"Don't lie to me! First you kidnap me and now you're going to lie to my face? You traitor!" I saw fury burning in her eyes. I had a feeling that if this kept on going, she'd knock off my sunglasses. What a joy that would be to explain.
Conner ran up behind her and grabbed onto her shoulders, pulling her back. She was no match for his strength and she was pulled back. I was no longer lifted off the ground now but she still had a firm grip on my shirt.
"Artemis! That wasn't Robin you saw!" Wally said, now standing up and trying to pry her fingers from my shirt.
"I know what I saw, Wally!" she screamed. I brought my hands down and tried to help Wally in prying her hands off me.
"No! It was a fake. Batman and I found him and took his mask off. It wasn't him! It wasn't Rob!" Wally yelled desperately. Artemis suddenly loosened her grip on my shirt and looked at Wally.
"A fake?" she asked. "Like a clone?" You didn't have to be a genius to know she was thinking about Roy. We all were.
Wally shook his head. "No. It was some desperate kid who had his face reconstructed to look like Rob. His eyes were all wrong though."
"What about his voice?" Artemis asked, her own voice a lot quieter now. She was beginning to look guilty. "He sounded just like Rob."
"I don't know and I don't think Batman does either." Wally said calmly. She looked down, guilt clouding her face. "Don't look like that." Wally said wrapping his arms around her, which bothered me slightly more than it should. "I gave the dude a high-five. That's way worse!"
She laughed and hugged him back before looking at me. "Sorry Robin. I just…"
I placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay," I said. She smiled weakly at me.
"Wait," Conner said from behind Artemis. "If you weren't with Artemis and Wally. Where were you?" All eyes were on me, waiting for an answer.
"I was in Gotham. I kind of… got grounded." I pretended to look embarrassed.
"Grounded?" Zatanna asked.
I nodded my head. "Yeah. I asked Batman not to tell anyone but… I got grounded for being stupid and breaking one of the computers in the Bat Cave."
"Batman grounds you?" M'Gann asked, interested.
"No. This was the first time. It really was because of my carelessness. I sort of deserved getting grounded." I said, still pretending to be embarrassed.
It was quiet in the room for a couple of seconds before Wally burst out laughing. "Dude! I can totally imagine you sitting in the middle of your bed, twiddling your thumbs because you're grounded. Oh my gosh! Boy Wonder. Grounded! That's hilarious!" Soon the whole Team was laughing. I glared over at Wally but couldn't help but smile either.
"So do you want to explain this whole 'kidnapped' thing?" Zatanna said, looking over at Artemis questioningly.
The room got quiet and now all eyes were on Artemis, who blushed. "Just my dad being stupid and wanting me to quit being a hero. It wasn't anything, really. Batman and Wally busted me out before anything really happened." My thoughts flashed back to her crying in Cameron's arms. I still wanted to know what that was about.
"Promise?" M'Gann asked, worried.
Artemis laughed. "Totally! I can handle my dad."
The Team then began to trickle into a lighter, more comfortable conversation and I found myself slipping away. I had come here to see Wally and I had. No real point in staying any longer. Besides, I was "grounded."
I was almost to the zeta tube when I heard Wally shouting my name. "Rob! Rob wait up!" He zipped up to me with his super speed. I turned to face him completely and I could see his face turning pink.
"I'm… I'm glad you're okay."
I smiled at him, glad I was okay too. "How's your hand?" I asked. He lifted up the bandaged hand and grinned.
"The burns should only stay there no longer than 24 hours. After that, I'm perfect." He smiled, obviously bragging about his accelerated healing.
"So do you think you could come play videogames tomorrow?" I asked him. "I'd ask you to come today but you know I'm grounded."
He laughed before nodding his head. "Yeah. I'll be over around 6. See you then?"
I nodded my head before leaving through the zeta tube.
