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Kid Flash knew they were in the right place for a few reasons. The first, and pretty obvious one, was the Batmobile, which was parked at an angle surrounded by a few skid marks from the abrupt stop, showing Batman's eagerness to get inside. The next was that the door was wide open, and Kid Flash could just picture Batman running through in hopes of finding Dick inside. The last clue was a room off to the side, were Kid Flash came to a sudden, jerky stop at the sight of Batman laying unmoving on the ground.

"Batman!" Kid Flash shouted in shock. Flash zipped passed him and over to the unconscious man, immediately checking Batman's pulse.

"Is he okay?" Kid Flash asked, making an appearance right next to his uncle.

"I don't know, but he doesn't seem to be in shock, so that's good. There isn't any sign of injury, although he's still unresponsive," Flash trailed off, showing his confusion.

There didn't seem to be any reason for Batman to be unconscious, and there were no signs of a struggle, there weren't even any signs that someone else had been in the building! Maybe he inhaled something, and if that was the case, it could be poisonous.

"Kid, can you call Penny-One and let him know we're on our way?" Flash finally spoke. Kid Flash gave a nod in agreement, and so Flash continued, "I'm going to look around the rest of the building."

Kid Flash didn't question what Flash was going to look for as he took Batman's communicator that he was handed. As Flash ran off, Kid Flash started speaking into the communicator, "Kid Flash to the Batcave."

There was that static they had heard earlier when trying to reach Batman.

"Penny-One, can you hear me?" he tried again, only to be met with the same results. Even though the communicator looked fine, he figured it was possible that it was damaged and that was why it didn't seem to be working. He thought he would test his idea by using his own communicator to try to contact someone, but was greeted with the same static that Batman's gave off.

All thought was cut off by the sound of his uncle yelling at him and running back into the room. "Bomb! Get out, now!" he shouted urgently as he picked up Batman, giving Kid Flash a push forward.

They ran out of the building, and it wasn't long before Kid Flash heard the explosion going off in the background. He turned his head and saw the flames dancing across the building, the smoke dark and thick as it rose above the fire below. He looked towards Flash for some clarification on what just happened, and he took the hint and started to explain.

"I heard the beeping when I was looking around," Flash started. "The bomb was remote start, too, so whoever triggered it knew we were there, and I was worried that it would alert them if I started messing with it, in turn having it go off instantly. I figured it was safer to just get the two of you out."

"No kidding," Kid Flash breathed. "Do you think they had cameras watching everything?"

"I didn't see any, but I'm willing to bet there probably were a few, and maybe even motion detectors or a silent alarm," Flash replied.

Kid Flash nodded subconsciously to show that he was paying attention as they continued to run towards the cave, and then Batman's communicator went off. "Hello?" Kid Flash spoke into it, surprised that it was working, even if it still had a bit of static in the background, he could still easily hear what was happening on the other end.

"Kid Flash?" came Alfred's surprised voice. "May I ask how you came across Batman's communicator?"

"I'll explain when we get to the cave with Batman," Kid Flash promised. "You might want to prep the med bay, by the way."

"What happened?" Alfred pressed. "His vitals check out okay, but a while ago I wasn't getting any signal from him at all."

"That's one of the reasons we came by." Kid Flash said, cave now in sight. "Mind opening the cave?"

"Of course, Sir," Alfred nodded, and soon the two of them were standing next to him, cowls pushed down, with Bruce lying on one of the beds.

Seeing that Alfred had the situation under control, Barry turned to Wally and asked, "I thought you called Alfred when we were still in the building?"

"I tried to, but all that came through was static, just like when we tried to reach Batman before." Wally explained.

"Something must have been blocking the signal around the hideout, and I'm willing to bet it was the same thing that managed to make sure the footage wasn't tracked to its filming location," Barry said. "Alfred, when did his vitals go off line and then come back on?"

"Well, it just showed that he had gone offline, which isn't unusual for him to do when he believes someone could hack into the radio feed. I believe this occurred around eleven o' clock," Alfred recalled, taking a blood sample from Bruce and running it through a machine as he continued, "and it came back on around eleven thirty. I checked his tracker to find that he was going at a very rapid speed without the use of the Batmobile, so I was already concerned when I tried to reach him."

"Sorry to worry you," Wally apologized.

"No harm done," Alfred smiled comfortingly. "Now, I believe you said you would explain what happened?"

.oOo.

"Report," Q looked up to see the six screens with the blurred white pictures that she knew to be the members of the Light. She normally didn't feel nervous when she spoke with them, but then again, normally things went as planned.

"Where do you want me to begin? With the boy or the Batman?" she asked calmly.

"The Batman, if you would," L-1 said. "Perhaps you could enlighten us as to why you felt the need to blow up one of our buildings?"

"Well, I had hoped Robin would be meeting some of my personnel there tonight so that we could move on to the next step by morning, but instead Batman found the building." Q started, but was quickly interrupted by one of the council members.

"How could he have possibly done that?" L-6 interjected angrily. "She must have done something wrong, the device that was planted around the building should've blocked all signals outside of the network until late afternoon tomorrow."

"Yes, it should have," L-2 agreed, "but somehow the signal was tracked despite our precautions. What I would like to know is was it working when you spoke with the detective?"

"Batman? Yes, the signal was still blocked when I spoke with him," she assured, making it clear that no one else picked up on their conversation.

She explained what they had talked about, and how the Flash and his sidekick had shown up not too much later and had gotten Batman out before the bomb detonated. By the end of her explanation, they seemed alright with her decision to destroy the first base, and decided that she made good use of the unplanned confrontation.

"It would appear the great Batman needed help from the Justice League," L-4 pondered.

"Will that be a problem?" Q asked.

"Not at the moment, but if we don't handle this soon, we might have the Justice League investigating in Gotham, and we can't have them interfering." L-1 answered, and Q nodded in agreement, after all, Batman and Robin caused her enough headache on their own. "You'll also need to find a new place for Robin to meet you, and soon."

"I already have a few places in mind," Q said, and she did, all she needed to do now was get the message to Robin. "I'll have him brought to my lab, and then he'll trade places with Grayson."

"Using Robin as ransom for Wayne's son was good thinking on your part; it had the reaction we were hoping for," L-3 mentioned. "Deciding to take Grayson instead of Wayne was good thinking on your part."

"Taking Wayne would've been too easy. Besides, it's much more fun this way." She replied. "Besides, after everything Wayne put me through, taking Grayson gave him a taste of the suffering he put me through."

"It has some poetic justice to it: he took away your career, so you took away his son." L-2 thought aloud.

"Speaking of the child," L-2 spoke up. "Perhaps you would could explain what happened with him and the missing supplies form the shipment tonight?"

They all looked at her expectantly, and so Q gathered her thoughts and began to explain, "Jason Todd was handling the delivery, but was running behind, so we didn't have the inhibitor collars or all of the new security equipment when Grayson first arrived. Because of that, we had to put Grayson in one of the other holding rooms, and we had a guard outside the door as an extra precaution, even though he was still under the effects of the sedative.

"Anyway, Todd ran into some trouble and lost some of the shipment. He was tossed around a bit and ended up at the free clinic and Thompkins patched him up. But he did make use of the time by grabbing the sedatives and medical supplies he usually sells to us. Todd finally arrived with the delivery, and soon after that we found out Grayson had escaped. I still don't know how he got out of those restraints."

"Wasn't the boy an acrobat before Wayne took him in?" L-3 put in during the short pause.

"Yes, he was in a traveling circus with his family, and then after the incident that resulted in their deaths, Wayne took him in," L-2 explained. "He probably picked up some stuff from the escape artist there."

Embarrassment washed over Q; how could she forget something like that? She had known that he had been in a circus, but she hadn't really thought about it that much, or that he could've had some training from an escape artist. Even though the restraints had worked fine earlier, she now assumed it was due to the fact that he had been given several sedatives throughout the day, not to mention he had been working off the effects of the pain inducer.

"That makes sense," L-1 agreed, "although, I hadn't thought about that until now. Q, you may continue."

And she did. Q explained how they had taken control of the situation, and it actually proved useful as they were able to show the security footage to the Batman, which helped in showing him how serious they were about this.

"And you say you still have all of the footage?" L-4 checked, and with a nod from Q, L-4 continued. "Good. You should make another video, and then send it to the news station to broadcast."

The other members agreed, and Q asked, "What do you want me to say?"

"Tell them they now have a time-limit: Saturday at sundown," L-3 suggested.

"And what do you want me to do with Grayson if Robin doesn't show up then?" Q asked, recalling that they hadn't really said what they would do with the boy one way or the other.

"Ooh, ooh!" L-7 chanted, getting excited. "Don't we still owe Joker for that whole Injustice League thing?"

"Yes," L-6 confirmed. "But we're still working on getting him out of Arkham, so I don't think he'll be asking for his favor until then, so we don't need to worry about it at the moment."

"Why do you mention it?" L-2 asked, but Q was already catching on to what L-7 was thinking.

"Well, if you want to get rid of Wayne's brat," L-7 started again, that same excited tone returning, "why don't we just let the Joker have him?"

.oOo.

Bruce suddenly became aware of voices around him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying, or who was speaking for that matter. He felt foggy, and couldn't remember what had happened. And to add to his confusion, he felt an oxygen mask over his face and heard the sound of a heart monitor. He wasn't too alarmed by this when he recognized the familiar noise and feel of the Batcave. Bruce quietly pushed himself into a sitting position, looking around to find Alfred and two speedsters looking down over something—his communicator—in concentration.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, as he pulled the oxygen mask away from his face and began walking over to the small group.

"Master Bruce, how are you feeling?" Alfred asked.

"I'm fine," Bruce answered almost automatically, and he did feel fine, just confused. "Now, could someone tell me what happened?"

Bruce saw the three of them look at each other quickly before Barry spoke up, "What's the last thing you remember?"

Bruce could remember what had happened, but the key details were missing, almost like he was just recalling what someone had told him had happened, and he hadn't actually experienced it himself. Images flashed through his mind, but none of them were vivid enough that he could gather something valuable from them, and he wasn't able to put them to a certain time frame.

"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked.

"Just let me think for a minute," the man in question replied in frustration, something Alfred picked up on all too easily.

"Sir, perhaps you would like to sit back down? I could fetch some tea, and we could fill each other in on the missing details." Alfred suggested calmly. "After all, it seems that one of the purposes of the drug that you inhaled was to disorient you, and I don't believe it has fully worn off yet, which is probably why you are having a difficult time trying to remember what happened."

"Inhaled?" Bruce repeated, but as they were about to explain, he spoke up, "Wait, I think I remember that. Something came from the air vents, and then everything went dark. Then there was a sound. It was loud, almost like a blast."

Why couldn't he remember what had caused the sound? He should be able to remember a detail as simple as that!

"As we brought you out, a bomb went off, that might explain it," Barry suggested, and at Bruce's questioning look, he continued. "It was set to explode by remote, and we suspect that someone knew we were there, and that's why it was counting down when we got there, maybe even when you first got there. We think they might've had cameras or motion detectors; something that they could use to alert them if someone was there."

Could that have been the sound he had heard? The sound of an explosion didn't sound right, but it was close.

Bruce shook his head, "No, I don't think that's what I heard." If he could just here it again, wait!

Bruce quickly turned on his heel and went over to where he knew his utility belt would be. He could hear them asking what he was doing, but he didn't stop until he got to his destination. He was about to grab the belt and look for the recording device, but then he spotted a stained blazer, the same one Dick wears as part of his school uniform. Bruce absentmindedly found the hidden pocket, finding Dick's Robin utility belt, just as he had before . . .

Seeing the article of clothing made his fragments of memories so real, and he felt a rush of adrenaline go through him. Things seemed so much clearer now, and he was finally able to recognize the cause of the blast: a gunshot.

"The sound, it was a gunshot, and when it went off there was a scream that sounded like Dick's." Bruce explained, trying to stay calm, but panic was obvious in his eyes as he faced the others.

"Are you sure?" Barry asked, hoped. "There wasn't even a sign that anyone other than you had been there, let alone that someone was shot."

"I know," Bruce was getting annoyed, "that's because no one was there. I spoke with Q—the person responsible for all of this this—through a video connection and was also shown security footage of Dick."

"What kind of footage?" Barry questioned, slightly hesitant.

"Dick had an escape attempt," Bruce said, and was a little proud that Dick made it so far considering the state he was in, "and they weren't too happy about it."

"And what did Q have to say?" Alfred asked, sensing the tension and knowing that it wasn't a good time to discuss the footage in detail.

"Q wasn't pleased that I showed up instead of Robin," Bruce started. "I didn't get very much information, but from what I can recall of the footage, Dick was put in a room separate from the rest of the base, and if they have a security system along with the other tech we've seen, I'm guessing this place is bigger than the first base. I did get a recording of the conversation, so I'm going to see what I can do to get a voice recognition."

"What do you need us to do?" Barry asked.

"I need to look into this Q person and then come up with a plan to get Dick out safely." Bruce explained. "Alone."

"But we can help!" Wally yelled in frustration, surprising Bruce as he had been quietly watching the argument up until now.

"I'll handle it," Bruce knew they were capable, but at the moment they would only slow him down.

"Going in as Batman didn't really get us anywhere last time," Wally pointed out sharply. "Not to mention the fact that they want Robin, and I really doubt you can fool anyone as Robin."

"Wally." Barry warned, putting a hand on his nephew's shoulder, but Wally just shrugged it off.

"And you think you can?" Bruce replied, giving the red head a glare, but the kid didn't even react, he just kept going.

"Yeah, maybe, if that's what it takes. Dick isn't going to be able to get out of there, and even with his Robin gear it would be difficult." Wally rationalized.

"So what makes you so certain you could get out of there once Dick is out?" Bruce questioned, voice serious. He hadn't even thought of finding someone to pretend to be Robin, even if it was only a distraction. Martian Manhunter was off world, and Miss Martian's shapeshifting abilities wouldn't be able to do this yet, but he did have something from Wayne Tech that might just work.

"If Dick is safe, that's all that matters." Wally argued, and Bruce could tell he was serious, but also knew there was no way he would send anyone into that sort of situation without preparations, even if it was for Dick.

"I'm not going to send you out there as some sacrifice." Bruce stated.

"I didn't say I was singing up as one either," Wally pointed out. "Besides, I could figure it out when the time comes."

"Nothing good can come from that," Bruce said in an annoyed voice. They couldn't just run into something without a plan in place, hadn't they learned that lesson enough times already? He knew he had given that lecture more times than he would prefer. "If you want to help, we'll need to come up with a strategy."

Most of the anger left the teen's eyes as he asked, "What did you have in mind?"


What did you think? Love it hate it? What do you think of Wally covering as Robin? And what about the knew knowledge about Q? Any thoughts about her trying to join the Light? Let me know, and thanks so much for reading this :)

Special thanks to:

steelec1, Halatia Artemis Louise Potter, Unanomous, chessie517, Mal Loup, alexisbelt, pearlynlsw, Kisaka, siblingloveF2, codeblue2102, meladi1, soarin'high, elec1, superdupertrooper, siblingloveF2, TheShyShadow, codeblue2102, Mickey's Girl (guest), Savy160, mortalathena, Butterfly Crown, JustWhelmed, IndiaMoore, Pottergirl3333, Nalash Polal Falayt, The Shadow Keeper, PenguinLover28 (guest), heroes-will-avenge, Guest (guest), Sieg7 (guest), and guest (guest) for the follows, favorites, and reviews!

Replies:

Mickey's Girl: I'm so glad you like it! Poor Flashes, but I hope you liked how it turned out for them. Yes, Q is an OC, and I liked that part too, so I'm glad it was worth keeping in. Hope you liked this chapter, and I'll try to update soon :)

PenguinLover28: Thanks! I'm glad you liked how I did Wally. That's really nice of you to say, and sorry not sorry about the cliffhanger.

Guest: When I first got the idea to include them more, I was a little worried, so it's nice to hear that you like it :)

Sieg7: Thank you so much for your nice review! Yeah, I apologize about the not so frequent updates, but I promise I won't give up on this story! I'm not sure how many more chapters, but I think we're about halfway through, if not more than. But you never know, I might get another idea, making the story longer. Thanks again :)

guest: Thank you, hope you enjoyed the update!

Thanks again, until next time

-TheImaginativeFox