Chapter Seven
Close call, very close call. Those twips had almost successfully taken her in. Inque knew that precautions had to be taken so she would never have to deal with such complications. Honestly, she had been completely surprised of the fact that the boys had been able to locate her. Her knowledge of the boy's skills was not in tip top condition and they lacked the certain detail she desired. Lack of information was definitely not one of the things that she enjoyed so with a smile she decided to extend her knowledge of the two misplaced teenagers.
The air around the escaping villainess made goose bumps arise on her ink like flesh. Inque noted her surroundings and smiled in pure delight as she found that she wasn't too far from home…her smiled vanished when she thought of what was awaiting her: an empty building with no company besides the hum of the heaters and the many objects she had taken.
Her feet landed softly on a filthy roof, opting not to continue on her way she chose to locate the moon. All alone up there in the terrifying black emptiness of space, the depressing thoughts continued to plague the young saboteur. Maybe it was time Inque made some friends, that couldn't hurt right?
This life style was a lonely one, peering towards the direction her base was in, Inque made an impulsive decision and took off in the opposite direction.
"So Bruce," Robin began, "What stopped you from being Batman?"
Breathing in a fresh breath of air, Bruce responded simply, "Heart problems. Plus, I'm old."
Cracking a smile from the older Bruce's humor, Dick took the time to check on Wally. The redheaded teen sat there tapping his foot, it was one of those rare moments that the other teen was in deep thought. Returning his gaze to the city, Robin smiled.
Meanwhile, a certain speedster was beginning to feel slightly homesick. This place was fantastic and not everyone got a chance to glimpse future technology and developments. Definitely something Artemis would never get to do. Like really, this is probably something Wally will never get to do again. But besides the great adventure this was, Wally missed his Uncle and the rest of his family, along with the team… not that he'd ever, ever; ever admit it but including the female archer on the team.
And not that Wally meant any offence to this future, but it sincerely sucked. Most of his family had been killed, the music here was terrible, and some of the fashion nowadays. Seriously, all the music was a bunch of electronic beats and guitar riffs and they call that music? Safe to say, The Flash's young partner was not looking forward to the future.
"Are we heading back to the cave or are we going to pursue Inque?" the Boy Wonder asked suddenly
"Cave, we should recuperate and then track Inque," answered Bruce
Robin turned his head slightly to the side; this older version of Bruce was different. Changes were a part of getting older but he never figured that Bruce might change. Instead of questioning Bruce, Robin said, "All right."
"Sleep would be good," piped up Wally that was the first sentence he had spoken in ten minutes, "What time is it?"
Robin's eyes found the clock on the dashboard, "Eleven-thirty two."
"Ah, no wonder why I'm so tired," Wally opened up the compartment on his wrist, discarded the wrapper of the energy bar, and stuck it in his mouth, "Much better."
After those words came out of the redhead's mouth, the Batmobile came to a halt and jerked the passengers forward slightly. The darkly lit Batcave greeted them home as everyone found their way out of the car.
A bat flew down from the ceiling and set a course straight towards the unaware speedsters, Wally flinched and squawked in surprise, noticing the looks on both of members of the batclan, Wally blushed and looked down, "Stupid bat…" he muttered, "Alright, well I'm off. Night!" And with that the fastest boy alive was gone which left the dynamic duo behind.
Semi-wobbling, Bruce set off for the computer a large yawn escaped him and he quickly tried to cover it up.
"Want me to upload the data?" Dick asked uncertainly
Bruce huffed and looked at the younger boy before him, "I'm fine."
"How many times have I heard that before when it wasn't true?" Dick half-smiled, "You look pretty beat, I'm not all that tired right now."
"Fine," Bruce said shortly, before leaving he added, "Good night Dick."
"Night old man," Dick responded smugly, he waited until he heard the click of the clock door closing behind Bruce. He then set off towards the computer and cracked his knuckles. Sitting down, Dick typed in the necessary information to get in. Quickly, Dick added the data from the tracker to the computer and set up a file with information about Inque. After accomplishing that task, he dug for more information.
He searched and finally found what he was looking for, the Justice League roster and contact information. Looking for someone he could contact, Dick's face lit up as he recognized many names. He pressed the essential buttons for contact and smiled in complete satisfaction as he watched the message send.
What one would consider a normal day, Connor Kent considered an absolute drag, and that's exactly how his day had started out. Lying in his bed, he started to convince himself to swing his legs over the mattress and begin the day. And after a couple minutes of having a one sided staring contest with the ceiling, that's exactly what he did. After his usual morning workout, Connor relaxed his muscles under a hot stream of water and almost missed the sound of his phone echoing throughout the apartment. However, because of his superhuman characteristics he was able to dry himself off and answer the landline with time to spare.
"Hello?"
"Conner? Hey! I'm so glad you picked up!"
"Hello Megan," Conner smiled at the use of her old catch phrase, "What's going on?"
"You'll never guess what just happened. I was with my Uncle J'onn and suddenly I received a message," the Martian spoke excitedly into the phone.
"Yeah?" Conner interrupted
"And guess who it was from?" Her voice carried out the excitement she felt and the excitement was beginning to rub off on Conner.
"Who?"
"Well at first when I got the message, it said it was from the Batcave. So I thought that Batman was leaving me a message." She had been talking so fast that she lost her breath, she regained it and continued, "But when I opened it up and carefully read through the message it said it was from Robin!"
Conner stood still in his apartment, at first shock was his main emotion, but that quickly wore off and he grinned in pure joy.
"Hello? Conner?"
"What'd Robin say? Did he say if Kid Flash was with him? Is he okay? Where'd they go? Do you know? What's going on?"
Megan smiled, "He says that during the mission they disappeared they accidently were transported through time, that's all he says. Oh and he says that they would like to meet us! Wouldn't that be fantastic?"
Conner looked at the ground, "Yeah… but what should we tell them about," he lowered his voice, "Artemis?"
"Well," Megan paused, "We'll just tell them to watch over her carefully."
"All right, so when and where are we supposed to meet up with them?"
"I think he wants us to visit them in Gotham, Robin didn't say exactly when so I guess whenever," Megan stopped, then started again, "Should I respond back?"
"Yeah, ask him exactly when and where."
Megan paused, then smiled, "Okay, I'll come over when I finish."
"Ok, bye," Conner hung up the phone and sighed at the messy apartment. Quickly, the clone threw away the empty containers of food, placed his clothes back where they belonged, and vacuumed. Done.
An hour later, Miss Martian sat on next to Conner on his couch, uneasiness evident on her delicate features. Although her and Conner's…romantic issues... had been placed aside and dealt with in a mature way many years ago, she still found herself oddly uncomfortable in his presence. He, on the other hand, bore no ill will towards Megan and found it relaxing to be around the Martian.
"Robin said we would meet tomorrow morning in Gotham," she smiled
"All right, where?" Conner questioned
"Wayne Manor..."
Conner looked at her in slight shock, "Really?"
"Yes, that's what he said."
Conner shook off the shock and smiled, "So what do you wanna do untill then?"
Time seemed to drag on and on as a young teenager watched the minutes click by slowly. Every minute would seem longer than the preceding one, however, having the art of patience instilled in the boy by Batman for many years, once again proved as a useful ability. Glancing yet again at the clock, Robin sighed. An hour had slowly crept by while waiting for a reply, losing hope and the battle to stay awake, Robin reached towards the 'shut down' button. In the nick of time, a loud beep alerted The Boy Wonder of a reply.
A loud thumping could be heard from Robin's chest and he hurriedly moved the mouse and pressed the 'open' button. The corners of his lips turned upwards as he skimmed the reply, a sickening crack could be heard after Robin cracked his knuckles and typed a reply.
Tomorrow, Kid Flash and he would have the opportunity to take a glance at their friends in an older state. Miss M didn't exactly clarify on who all were exactly coming but Robin had a pretty good idea that Superboy and Aqualad would join in on the 'reunion'-thing. "I wonder if they got rid of the 'boy' and 'lad' at the end of their names," Dick laughed, "Two Superman's. Ridiculous."
Somehow, in all of Robin's excitement he failed to hear the agile steps of an older man, "Actually Superman retired."
Attempting to cover the fact that he had been caught and the fact he failed to hear the older Batman, Robin spun around in the chair slowly. He came face-to-face with the older man and he smiled sheepishly, he nervously laughed, "Hey Bruce…thought you went to bed.."
Not responding, Bruce pointed a shaky finger towards the entrance of the Batcave. "Bed."
"Yes sir," Robin mumbled, he slid off the chair and trudged towards the steps.
A/N: So sorry for the late update! :'( Goodness, you all are wonderful! I love all the feedback; I've received more reviews on this story than on my already 16 chapter story. So, you all rock! Aside from that, my test went well and I thank all of you for the support! Anyways, this chapter was…difficult to write. It's seems that I have fallen victim to writers block…
Well, there are so many clever ways I can ask you all to review but I can't think of one. Soooo, review and I'll slap the people responsible for no new Young Justice episodes until JUNE. Hey! Thought of one (:
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