FudoTwin17: Hey, guys. Sorry it's been so long. I had some things I had to deal with, but I'm back. I won't be consistent with any stories, sadly, but I am here, and I am still working to finish these guys. Hopefully, you can forgive me for that. I don't own Young Justice.

Chapter 9

Dick Grayson lay in his bed, sound asleep. The early morning twittering of the birds had just begun despite the stars and the moon still shining in the sky. The manor was silent, a rarity for the house, but outside a couple leaves rustled.

Dick didn't stir at all.

His window slowly slid up. Almost silently, a figure crept in. She was a tall woman with black hair pulled up into a long pony tail. Blue eyes peered coldly out of thick lashes, but the lower half of her face was hidden by purple kevlar. A tight purple leotard stretched down from it, molded to her body. Almost a black lace material was hooked to it, forming gloves and tall socks, but the material was hard to the touch.

She slipped inside, wandering through the room. She stopped at his desk, moving his papers around to different spots. She went through his drawers and pulled out old pictures, scattering them on the floor. She paused at one of him and a red-headed boy with a huge smile. A sad look came into her eye, and she tucked it into her suit.

The woman went through his closet, moving things out of place, and she found his backpack. Pulling out a pen and a notebook, she wrote on the first page straight over the preexisting notes. Then she set it back inside.

She walked to the bed and climbed up. Dick made a quiet, sleepy noise. She hushed him and pulled out a thick marker. Slowly, she raked up his shirt in the back so she could see his shoulder blades. With a messy hand, she drew on the skin and watched the wet ink drip. She wiped it away, smearing some of the ink and waited for it to dry. Then she pulled his shirt back down.

She stood there for a moment as the first rays of light began to peek out from behind the horizon. Dick made a grumbling sound, and the woman risked running a hand through his hair. Her eyes were wet. "I'm so sorry." She pulls her hand away, the number one burnt into her palm.

There was the sound of footsteps down the hall. A knock resounded on the door. "Master Richard?"

Dick blinked himself awake.

He was the only one in the room. A cool breeze came through the open window.

. . .

The whole day, Dick felt oddly out of sorts. His things were in different places than he thought he put them, but he tried to ignore it. He'd deprived himself of so much sleep that he figured it made sense he messed a few things up, but that didn't make it any less annoying when he almost didn't find his history essay on the American Revolution in time for school.

He figured it was time to invest in a binder.

Regardless, that was the day as Dick. As he pushed his sunglasses onto his nose and entered the zeta beam, he pushed himself to remember he was Robin. A smirk came onto his face as he walked in, and he headed into the main living area, settling on the couch.

Before he could even open up his research to continue to work his case, a wind pushed the hair out of his face and almost knocked the glasses off his face. Kid Flash looked at him with an almost manic look on his face.

"Dude! You won't believe what I found." Wally said.

"Hello to you, too." Robin gave him a curious smile. Before he could blink, Wally had his questionable HP on his lap. There was a picture of a small girl. She couldn't be older than nine with vibrant paint dripping around her eyes like a mask. She wore an equally extreme suit with a shinny gold cape.

"Look at this." Wally said, buzzing with something between excitement and righteous fury. "I found what I think to be ground zero."

"The first one?" Dick asked, surprised. He pulled the laptop into his hand, skimming down the page as Wally's speech began to get faster and faster.

"Yeah. Get this. The year is 1994 in the little town of Whitehorse, Canada. They've accepted their heroine, though she's young. They call her Ink Blot, and the people love her. She's not just a hero, she's a member of their society. She attends events, appears in schools to head assemblies and special classes, stuff like that. She deals really well with crime, and none of the crime she deals with is particularly dangerous." Wally's fingers tapped away, agitated. "Then comes August first."

Robin looked up. "This article doesn't say anything about her disappearing."

"That's because it's silenced." Wally whispers. "There's a bomb threat. No one's worried, but then the school blows up."

"What?" Robin gaped.

"I know." Wally breathed. "It should be everywhere, but no one pays it any mind. The town speaks up, the government squashes them down, but no one in the government itself knows anything. None of them have anything to do with silencing the town. Meanwhile, the town has another issue. Ink Blot is missing. She's gone. There's not a trace of her anywhere. The town cries out again, but no one will listen. They reach out to other heroes with no luck. They even get shut down by the League when it's created.."

"There's no record of that." Robin said, leaning in. "I searched through the records and old recordings. There's nothing related to any young or old hero disappearances."

"It's crazy." Wally agreed. "And that's not all. A year and a half later, this girl appears." Wally clicked on a different tab, and a grainy photo appears. It's of a slightly older girl in a skintight leotard covering half her face, but there on her palm is a solid one. "This is a screen-grab of a security cam at Star industries. She appears, steals the equivalent of a laser-pointer, and she creates this colorful portal and jumps into it. That's Ink Blot's power. This is Ink Blot."

"Wally, this is amazing." Robin whispered. "You found the first one."

"Yeah. I am pretty amazing, aren't I?" Wally gave him a playful grin. "But more importantly, these people have been trying to get justice for practically twenty or thirty years. We finally have answers for them."

Tears prickled at Robin's eyes, something heavy and sick lifting off his heart. He took a deep breath. "Yeah. We're going to save them."

Before they could do anything else, Black Canary appeared in the doorway. "Suit up, boys. You've got a mission."