Author's Note: All right I apologise for the wait, but I'm back with another chapter. Hope you guys like it. Enjoy.

Rift

Chapter 4

Reasons

"It's Professor Zoom, he's taken over the Rogues." Captain Cold reiterated through the Watchtower monitor. The Flash narrowed his eyes at the utterance of his nemesis' name.

"I'll be there in a flash." He said in a low serious voice

"Teleporter to Central City." he ordered racing downstairs to the teleportation pad where a civilian worker fired it up and beamed out leaving the YJ crew to wonder who this person was.

Moments later The Flash touched down in the middle of Central City Park and rushed towards Cold's location. This didn't bode well in the least for two reasons; one was that he was dealing with the most psychotic member of his rouges gallery. The second was that the Rogues never called on him for anything, except for when they themselves wanted to battle and/or kill him. And knew full well that he could be heading into a trap, but that was a risk he had to take and poured it on towards Cold's location which happened to be an abandoned police garage. The speedster threw open the double doors to find Captain Cold standing there in the open as he stepped in.

The building was a small warehouse containing several derelict police cruisers. The Flash calmly walked towards him leaving the sliding door open in case it was an ambush and surveyed his surroundings as he came towards Flash.

"This better be worth it Cold." Flash said getting straight to business. The Captain gave him a weary expression.

"Believe me…it's worth it." Cold said with puffs of frozen air escaping his lips as he spoke. The Flash finally made his way up to him and crossed his arms with a stern expression underneath his mask.

"Start talking, what's this about Zoom taking over the Rogues?" he asked firmly. The villain grimaced and looked away momentarily.

"Leonard." He said authoritatively. Cap sighed and answered.

"A while back we recruited him into the group. We knew he was the only one that could match your speed and well…things sort of degenerated from there. He said he had big plans in store for us, it wasn't until later we learned what those plans were. We never intended for this sort of thing to happen." He admitted.

"What's he planning?" Flash said narrowing his eyes at him.

"He said he's going to make people fear us again, turn us into real supervillains. He's turning them into terrorists." He answered. The speedster's eyes widened as a flash of anger swelled over him.

"And you let him waltz right in and take over?" he growled.

Back at the Watchtower Batman and the others filled Young Justice in on the mystery felon's story.

"Professor Zoom?" Wally asked.

"You heard of him?" Artemis asked.

"Not really, name doesn't ring any bells." He replied eating a candy bar he had stored in his gauntlet.

"So who is he then?" Robin asked.

The Dark Knight narrowed his eyes and pulled up a holographic image of a man resembling the Flash in yellow metallic armor, with red lightning bolts on his wrists and belt, red serrated boots with angle tips wrapped around his calves resembling wings in flight, a black collar shielding his neck, and a yellow helmet, with red lightning bolts covered his ears, with dark narrow lenses, and piercing red eyes. The symbol on his chest was an inverted Flash symbol, with a black circle and red lightning bolt facing the opposite direction as the man in question wore an evil smirk.

"Professor Zoom, real name Eobard Thawne, is the Flash's mortal enemy on this world and one of the most dangerous men on the planet. Professor Zoom is a schizophrenic sociopath claiming to be from the 25th Century and believes he is the Flash's greatest enemy. And is responsible for numerous travesties in the Flash's life." Batman said turning his attention over to Wally.

15 minutes earlier, the Flash had told Batman and Green Lantern about his alleged relation to Kid Flash. Debating this amongst themselves, Hawkman and Green Lantern ushered Wally downstairs to the lab for a DNA sample while the rest of their teammates were occupied. While Barry himself was hesitant he supplied them with a hair sample from his mask and went back upstairs where he learned of Zoom's involvement. The lab test only took a few minutes while Hal and Katar debated among themselves the legitimacy of Wally's claims, and in all honesty didn't know what to expect. Neither did Wally, at first he was certain that he was related to him, but the more he thought about it the less sense it made.

How could someone from a different universe be related to someone? Would a person's genes even behave in this fashion? And how exactly do multiversal versions of one person work? How do they exist? And how does science explain it? In retrospect he imagined that the String Theory he mentioned to Artemis in Fate's tower could explain some of it, since according to that everything in life was somehow connected. But it still doesn't explain how multiple versions of the same person could exist, at least not on the surface he thought. The test was finally completed as Hawkman and Green Lantern looked over the results. Wally raised his head when all he could see were the backs of the two heroes and strained to see the monitor himself while sitting on a cot. An awkward silence passed between the men as Lantern rubbed the back of his neck and the pair turned and faced Wally a second later. Hal cleared his throat while he and Katar broke the news.

"Well?" he asked staring back at them. The men reacted awkwardly before Hal replied.

"Sorry but there is no match." He said.

"Well of course, I could have told you guys that. Barry is married to my Aunt Iris back on my world; we're related through marriage. Guess I should have told you guys that earlier." Kid Flash noted. Hawkman narrowed his eyes and stepped forward pointing his finger at the kid.

"And how do we know your who you claim to be?" the Thanagarian asked.

"How do I know your really Katar Hol underneath that mask?" retorted Kid. Hawkman steeled his gaze at the boy.

"Touché. You obviously know who we are." He replied.

"Because I interact with your counterparts back home. Aqualad said that some of us might not be active heroes yet due to this Earth's timeline. If I'm not then who is?" he asked in a low serious voice.

Back in Central City the Flash probed Captain Cold for answers.

"What is he planning?" he asked in a low voice.

"Zoom's going to challenge you to a death match at the Central City Arch holding its visitors hostage. While your distracted fighting him…Heat Wave is…" he trailed off. The Flash snarled grabbing his sleeveless shirt and looked him in the eye drawing back his fist.

"Talk!" he yelled.

"Heat Wave is going to blow up the hospital while your fighting Zoom. He wants to kill as many people as possible…just to see you fail." He relented breathlessly. Flash looked back at him in horror and angrily punched him out.

The Watchtower received the alert moments later from Barry as he raced towards the arch.

"Guys it's me, Professor Zoom is going to blow up the hospital while holding people hostage at the Arch. Heat Wave is the triggerman. My guess is the other Rogues are at the arch with Zoom." Flash said.

"We're on it. Anything else?" Batman said over Barry's comlink.

"Yeah send GL and Superman to the Arch I'll need some added muscle against Professor Zoom, maybe Hawkman as well. " Flash told him.

At the Watchtower, League members rushed for the teleportation pad remanding Young Justice to once again stay in the Watchtower. Seeing that the team would likely follow them and endanger the mission, Aquaman ordered for the teleporter to be shut down once they left angering them even further.

"Your going to have us stay out of every mission?" scolded Robin.

"Until we figure out what to do with you, yes." The King of the Seas replied.

"Stay up here, that's an order." He added and raced for the teleporter joining the last of the compatriots and vanished.

"He's kidding right?" Kid Flash said coming back into ops as the team turned to him.

"So what'd you find out?" Robin asked.

"No match, even though I'm only related to Barry through marriage." He replied.

"What else did you find out?" Robin reiterated. Wally shrugged and stopped infront of them.

"Hardly anything, Barry's not even married yet on this world. I asked about Iris and they were just…quiet. And wouldn't answer any further questions about either of them. I did manage to get a list of which of our counterparts might be active though. At least they were honest regarding that." Kid Flash told them.

"Good work." Aqualad nodded in approval.

"Yeah, let's hear it." Robin told him as Kid nodded back.

"Rob your defiantly active in this world. But you're an adult and your counterpart's codename escapes me for the moment. Sorry bro, I'll remember it in a second." Kid told him.

"I'm an adult? Robin said inquisitively.

"Score." He added as Wally turned his attention over to Kaldur.

"Aqualad you're active as well, and have been for some time. You're also paired with an…Aquagirl, as co-sidekicks I guess." Wally said with Kaldur giving him a puzzled expression.

"Did they say who she is?" he asked hopeful that it might be Tula. Kid awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and replied.

"It's some Hispanic girl Kaldur…sorry." He said.

"Oh. That is…all right." Aqualad said shielding his emotions once more. By now the team knew about his attraction to Tula in their native dimension and silently cursed at himself returning to the task at hand.

"Unfortunately the League doesn't seem to have any info on Superboy, Miss Martian or Artemis. Green Lantern and Hawkman didn't even recognize them and no word on Manhunter either. Think I may have opened a can of worms mentioning Superboy's name." Kid Flash told them.

"Well that's more than we knew ten minutes ago. Good work." Robin said as he went to the League computer plugging an extension line from his glove top computer into theirs as the holographic disk came up and started typing.

"Let's see what else the League knows." He stated as his hacker icons emerged on his holo-computer.

"Like what's the organization that captured us when we arrived?" Superboy added behind Dick's shoulder. The Boy Wonder glanced back at him briefly and continued hacking.

Combing through the League's extensive database didn't yield him any results.

"Too vague." He sighed.

"Maybe it's an acronym?" suggested Conner, and Robin tried again.

This time the search yielded a result and brought up a short nondescript file only a few paragraphs long under the name N.O.W.H.E.R.E.

"National Organization for the Whereabouts of Human Engineered Research and Evaluation. What is assumed to be a highly classified government organization that specializes in the study and detainment of those with superpowers." Robin said reading the summary.

"There's not much else regarding it a few tidbits of information here and there. Seems as though the League has had a few run-ins with them in the past. And were established around the same time superheroes started appearing on this Earth, probably as a defensive measure by the government." Robin summarized while flipping through several holographic images regarding its history.

"So the League's pretty much in the dark about what they do…just like Cadmus." Superboy muttered as Robin and the others looked back at him. The Boy Wonder's frown deepened.

"Looks that way." he admitted.

Unbeknownst to Robin and the others by accessing NOWHERE's file in the League computer alerted the organization to their activity. Having placed a bug within the system by one of their undercover operatives, the enigmatic agency was able to spy on the League whenever someone accessed their file while their mysterious leader and his men looked on from their command center.

"Looks like somebody got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Access the intruder's device." The blonde bespectacled man ordered. The two men at the council obliged him and brought up the hacker's program and diagnostics.

"Let's see what we can learn on this lot." He said. The tech ciphers accessed the foreign program but Robin's gauntlet quickly alerted him to the intrusion with a tiny rapid fire chirp. The Boy Wonder's eyes widened as the screen flashed red.

"What's going on?" Aqualad asked.

"I'm being hacked!" he said and tore out the cord connecting him to the League's computer but did little to help it.

"Is it their systems?" Kaldur asked.

"It's not the League's, someone else is hijacking my gauntlet!" he said looking back at them as the screen continued to flash. To which Conner instinctively crushed the device on Robin's wrist. The Teen Wonder winced as a small wisp of smoke flew up.

"Thanks a lot." He replied sardonically.

"Your welcome." Superboy answered sarcastically.

"Did we get anything?" the leader asked his hackers.

"No sir, whoever accessed that file has a security system tighter than Fort Knox." One of the scientists replied. The mysterious leader twisted his lips into a scowl. Back at the Watchtower Robin berated Superboy's rash action.

"You didn't have to do that you know!" he said annoyed.

"You were compromised and I took care of It." he said.

"Yeah for a brief second, my gauntlet has a security system five layers deep." He replied.

"And yet all they needed was a few seconds. Did they steal anything?" Aqualad calmly advised. His teammate settled and replied evenly.

"No. Although getting into my gauntlet in the first place is no easy task. And I have a good idea who's behind it." Robin said.

"N.O.W.H.E.R.E." Aqualad said.

"Right, whoever these guys are is using their A-Game. And if their anything like Cadmus or the Light then we have to be ready for them." Robin stated.

Back at NOWHERE's underground base their leader sized up the competition they now faced with the growing number of superheroes showing images of the various League members including the likes of Batman, Superman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Aquaman, Firestorm, Robin, Aqualad, the Hispanic Aquagirl, The Flash, Red Tornado, Elongated Man and numerous others yet to be identified. Along with the younger generation of superheroes yet to be captured that included a young man dressed in black and red with a gold chest belt, domino mask and black and red wing styled cape, a young woman his age wearing a red sparkling tube top and pants with a hood wielding a glowing red lasso, a boy in a red and gold unitard that resembled Kid Flash, along with a younger man in a green and black suit projecting energy constructs from his ring, a girl with long dark hair and spider legs sprouting from her back, a boy in a red and purple outfit with a bandana style mask using lavender force fields and numbers others.

The director of NOWHERE looked on at the images with bitter contempt adding to the new addition Young Justice made to the ever-growing superhero populace.

"We have to do something about this. There's far too many of them for us to control." He growled to himself.

Author's Note: All right I admit this chapter wasn't much and I apologize for that. I realize that this probably seems like mostly filler and I guess it kind of is. I'm sorry guys, they cant all be gems. Hope you guys liked this chapter nonetheless and I look forward to your imput.

Please review,

The Green Gallant.