A/N: Oh man, I am SO sorry that this took so long! I got distracted on Saturday and ended up watching Batman Forever and then my sister would NOT let me have the computer yesterday when I was home, so I finally had to make myself stop watching Young Justice and partying to get this done…
Also, just so you aren't confused. The clones are going to be called by the superhero names, while the originals will be their real names, so the clones are Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad, while the originals are Wally, Kaldur and Dick, but since it is written in Dick's pov, it was be said as "I" and "My clone." Haha I was confused writing this, so I wanted to make sure you guys weren't…
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters. If I did, Robin would totally be 15 instead!
Chapter 5
Me, Myself and I
This was insane. Seriously, that was what I said when the imposter of me just stood there, looking at me, red eyes glowing. He looked almost exactly like me, besides the fact that he had glowing red eyes, a red cape and purple and black uniform. The "R" on his badge was pointier and also red and instead of having a retractable stick like I had, he had a giant scythe. The Aqualad and K.F. clones were the same, purple, red and black and Kaldur had much more dangerous looking swords than the original's. The Kid Flash clone didn't have much though, just some terrifying looking spikes on his gloves and boots.
"Now, boys, the rules are simple; kill them before they kill you. No switching opponents, or else I'll have to intervene using these," the Pigacorn said, pointing to rings on our necks that we hadn't noticed before. There was a glowing red light in the middle of the ring. "If any of you try to switch opponents, the fight will be over until tomorrow. The goal of this game is to get to the castle and get out of here, alive or dead."
"Any tips on how to reach the castle? Or where it is, maybe?" I asked, not letting my eyes leave the clones.
"Well it wouldn't be any fun if I told you, now would it?" the Pigacorn asked. "I'll be traveling with you though, but these guys will be hunting you down the whole time, trying to destroy you. If you get separated, I'll be able to clone myself and follow you. Now, any more questions?"
"What happens if we do switch opponents?" Kaldur asked. "How would you intervene?"
"Simple," the Pigacorn said. "My mind is telepathically connected to the rings around each of your necks."
"But what will it do—" Wally started to ask, but the Pigacorn interrupted the speedster, yelling out, "BEGIN!" as loud as he could.
I eyed the clones, waiting for one of them to make the first move. My clone was already attacking Wally with the scythe, but I saw Wally evade easily. The Kid Flash doppelganger started at Kaldur, so I pulled out a batarang and prepared to fight with the Aqualad Clone.
"Find some cover," Kaldur called to us. "We'll find somewhere to hide and make a plan there."
"Great plan, but how do we get these guys away from us?" Wally asked.
"Easy," I said. "Knock 'em down and run!" I threw the batarangs at Aqualad, switching to my retractable sticks as he was stunned and charging forward with them, swinging them until they came in contact and jabbed into his arms.
I knocked him down and chanced a quick glance at Wally, who was running circles around my clone and then finding random moments to kick out or punch the clone. Kaldur was fairing just as well against Kid Flash, who was also running circles. The clones obviously didn't know our tricks or how to take us down, because all Kaldur had to do was stick out a foot in the middle of Kid Flash's path and trip the speed clone, knocking him down.
I turned back to Aqualad when I saw Kaldur pull out his water-bearers. I took my sticks and swung them at Aqualad, hitting him in the arms several times after he got up and finally aiming at his legs. He turned and I aimed at his back, but it was a mistake, because he turned back around, using his own water-bearers in the form of a sword, bringing them down and snapping my sticks in half with one and hitting me square in the chest with the flat of the other.
I could feel the air flying past, wishing I would land, until I finally did. I slid across the ground and felt new scratches coming up all over my back. I heard my cape tear before I finally stopped, grabbing the ground with my hands and digging my fingers in.
"Rob!" Wally yelled. I saw my clone lying on the ground knocked out cold and Kaldur finishing up with Kid Flash. It figured that I would have to be against Aqualad throughout this whole thing.
"I'm ok," I said, getting up with an effort. "Don't intervene." I pulled out more batarangs and threw them at Aqualad, watching as they stuck into his arm. He raised it to his face as if to examine them and they blew up, knocking him down. I jumped forward, pulling out an ordinary batarang and slicing at him several times as he was stunned from the explosion and lying on the ground. His skin was thick, but I was able to slice through and knock him out finally.
"Let's go!" I yelled, sticking the batarang in my belt pocket and running away from the clones as fast as I could, with Kaldur'ahm and Wally close behind me. I could tell that Wally wanted to run faster than he ever had before, but he refrained and ran close beside me on my left, with Kaldur on my right.
"Over there," Kaldur said, pointing to a town a little ways up. "If we run fast enough, we should be able to make it and find somewhere to sit down."
We reached the town in about ten minutes, running as fast as we could, but what we found wasn't what we expected. It was completely empty, but there was a huge banner at the entrance that had the Joker and Harley on it. We paused when we reached the banner and read it.
"We're getting married," Wally read. "Ok, is this anything new, or should this be really nasty?"
"Both," I replied. "The Joker and Harley Quinn have had something going for a while, but was the banner necessary? I mean, there's no one here to see it."
"But there is," the Pigacorn said, running up to us and skidding to a stop, dragging up some dirt with him as his hooves dug through the ground. "The people of this town are invisible, but don't worry, they aren't violent. They won't hurt you unless you hurt them, so you're going to need these," he stood on his hind legs and jumped around awkwardly for a moment before several pairs of weird goggles appeared and fell to the ground in front of him.
"Whoa, now you can do magic?" Wally asked.
"I thought you didn't believe in magic," Kaldur said.
"You don't believe in magic, Wally?" I asked,
"We'll explain when we get out of here," Kaldur said. The Atlantean bent over and picked up the goggles, handing each of us a pair.
"With these, you'll be able to see the townspeople," the Pigacorn said, adding an odd snort at the end.
Wally backed away slowly, but stopped when he bumped something. He turned around and screamed.
Kaldur and I both looked behind us to see what he was screaming about, expecting another weird animal, but instead, it was hundreds of people filing out of the village, all starting to crowd around us.
The people seemed normal enough until they got close to us, then we saw that they're faces were contorted into huge grins and they're eyes were almost completely closed, as if they were forced to smile all day.
"Hello," an older woman said, walking up to us and taking Kaldur's hand in her own. They seemed human enough, so we relaxed a little, but still kept our guard up.
"Hello, ma'am," Kaldur said. "We are searching for a place to stay for tonight."
"Yes, I know," the woman said kindly. "No one stays outside after dark anymore, with those spies of Mister J around."
"The Joker?" I asked.
The woman turned to me," Yes, some call him that, but whatever you call him, he's bad news!"
"How long has he been here?" Kaldur asked.
"Oh, he showed up about a week ago, saying that he needed our land for some evil plot he had. He started cutting down trees and collapsing out caves and mines, saying that they could shield people that he needed for a game."
"He's been planning this then," I muttered. "The clues weren't just sudden, they were all planned out, which means that we've been targets for much longer than we thought."
"Excuse me, miss, is there any way out of this world?" Wally asked.
The woman looked at Wally as if he were insane, so Kaldur decided to specify for her, "We're from a different world and the Joker took us here against our will. Do you know if there could be any way back to our world?"
The woman nodded and seemed to think for a moment before answering, "Well, there is one way… a painting that has been passed down for generations."
"What's it a painting of?" Wally asked.
"Some odd town called 'Gotham City' in another world. Have you heard of it?"
I nodded, "That's where I'm from." Kaldur and Wally looked at me like I had just spilled some huge secret. "What? It's kind of obvious that I live there, seeing as how Batman and I do patrol there every night!"
"Oh yeah…" Wally said, before turning back to the woman.
"Ma'am—" Kaldur started, but was cut off by the woman.
"Please, call me Ann."
"Ok, Ann, would it be possible for us to stay here tonight?"
"Ooh, of course!" Ann said, instantly shooing the crowd out of our way and leading us to a small house. "Here I was just standing around chatting and it's getting dark out!"
"I thought it was night," I said as I glanced at the black moon in the white sky.
"Oh, well it is, but it's not dark yet. It's dark during the day and light at night!"
I stood for a moment, trying to comprehend what Ann had said. I hated having a brain that had to figure out everything, but I figured it out quickly; it was just slightly confusing and I was beginning to feel whelmed.
As we continued to walk through the town, I realized that my head I hurting, but I put it aside. It was probably a side effect of that slide, so I knew it would pass.
"Here we are," she said, opening the door and walking inside. "I know it's not much, but it's one of the oldest houses my people created!"
"It's nice," Kaldur said.
"And small," Wally added, but Kaldur and I both hit him on the head. "I-I mean quaint!"
"We'll be out of here by the night," Kaldur said.
"Stay as long as you would like," Ann said, leading us into a bedroom that held a single king size bed. "I'm sorry that the room isn't much, but I don't have guests very often."
The three of us stared in aw at the bed. I had a full size bed back at the manor and so id Bruce, but I had never seen a king size bed before in my life and it was huge!
"Have a good day," Ann said before leaving the room and closing the door behind us.
"I so call the bed!" Wally cried, running over and plopping down on it.
"We'll share the bed," Kaldur said. "It's big enough."
I sat down and rubbed my temple, willing the headache to go away.
"Are you ok, Rob?" Wally asked, sitting down next to me. "You took a really major spill earlier."
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Just a headache, that's all."
"Or a concussion!" Wally exclaimed, reaching his hand up to the back of my head.
"Wally, what're you—" I paused when I saw the blood red on his glove. I pulled off my glove and reached the back of my head, feeling for more blood and sure enough, there it was, very slowly oozing out of a huge gash.
"I'll get some bandages," Kaldur said, leaving the room and coming back a minute later with Ann following behind him, holding a roll of bandages in one hand.
"Do you need any help?" she asked, handing the roll to Kaldur.
"No thank you, we should be just fine," Kaldur said.
"What about that cape of yours?" she asked, pointing to my cape. I glanced down and saw the giant hole in the shoulder of it. "I could fix it for you if you'd like, so you won't have to travel in a torn cloak."
I shrugged and took it off before Kaldur could start wrapping the fabric around my head, "Have at it."
Ann smiled even larger and left the room, closing the door and humming softly to herself.
"Are you feeling any other pain, Robin?" Kaldur asked.
"Really, I'm fine."
"Ok," Kaldur said, finishing wrapping my head and putting the roll on a side table. "We should get some sleep now, so that we'll be prepared for tomorrow. We'll make a plan before we go."
Kid Flash and I both nodded and we all got into the bed. I thought it was be awkward at first, but it ended up not being too bad. The bed was big enough, so we all had a good amount of space.
I started thinking about Bruce and how worried he must have been, until I finally drifted off to sleep.
…To be continued…
Ok, again, I'm sorry that this took so long, but I ended up actually being gone all day on Sunday… Haha I really need to get better about getting stuff done if I'm gonna go to school in the fall, because at this point, I may not do so hot…