"What do you mean we let them go?" Ethan Worthington's face was red with rage.
"I broke my fucking back to get this people were they are, and now you want me to let them go?"
"They're too many, you have to let them go." A dark voice spoke back to Ethan.
The pier was abandoned at this time of the night, which means Ethan and his partner, Kurt, were free to speak and plan out with whoever was taking charge.
"So how many are we keeping? Three? Two?" Kurt spoke up, as he threw his cigarrete to the floor.
"Just one. Pick whichever you like." The voice responded calmly.
"I don't think you understand, you asshole. These people are supposed to be 'dead'. That is what everybody thinks. How are they going to appear out of nowhere?" Ethan said.
"Leave that to me." The voice boomed back.
"How should we trust you? We haven't even seen your face. What tells us you won't give us away?" Ethan said menacingly.
The voice fell silent for a moment, then footspets were heard approaching them.
A tall, dark figure emerged from the shadows, revealing the all to familiar mask that Slade wore.
"You have no other choice but to trust me." Slade spoke to the pair.
Ethan and Kurt stared at the armored man in silence, stepping back a few inches in awe.
"But… but what are we supposed to do now? The codes were taken away from us." Ethan hesitated in speaking.
"I got everything I needed from that last encounter with the Titans." Slade said. "You just do what I say and you'll get your pay."
"Fine. We will." Ethan said.
Before leaving, Kurt turned around to see a pair of glowing red eyes beside Slade's. He shivered and pushed Ethan to walk faster and leave the pier.
"I knew those two would screw something up." The voice behind the red glowing eyes spoke, revealing Red-X standing beside him with his arms crossed.
"They just have one more thing to do before I send them away. After that I'll just have to worry about the Titans." Slade said before walking back into the shadows, Red-X following suit.
The morning came along, and both of the teams woke up well rested and ready to deal with whatever the day brought.
The big TV screen on the middle of the room was turned on with the daily news. Off course, the only one who was watching was Robin, and his older self. The rest of the heroes helped themselves to breakfast quietly.
That was until, the breaking news alarm sounded and caught everybody's attention.
"This just in! A group of people wake up from their commas, all of them stating how they were being kept hostage by a madman. They are both being treated psychologically to try and find the reason for this traumatic experience and coincidence among all of them. More one this news in mid day Jump City News."
The heroes were all speechless for a few moments. The only noise that was heard was the faucet dripping slowly and the TV anchors that kept informing the news.
"They fucking didn't" Cyborg said in a low voice.
"They fucking did man." Beast boy answered.
"Artemis, M'gann, get ready, were going to the hospital." The young titan leader spoke up, and the duo scrambled to the restrooms to get ready.
"Cyborg get in touch with anybody you can in the media, we don't want any personal facts about these people leaked." Robin said while grabbing his leather coat and dark sunglasses. The older Robin just looked at him while he took charge. He felt a bit of pride in the situation.
"The rest of you guys stay put, I have a feeling we have a heavy day ahead of us." He said.
M'gann dressed in civilian clothes and with her skin tinted Caucasian walked across the halls of the hospital, looking for one of the hostages. Far ahead, she could see a bunch of reporters being shooed away by hospital staff. She picked up her pace until she got there.
A nurse put herself in the way.
"Sorry, nobody but hospital staff goes through after this point."
M'gann looked around to make sure nobody was looking, then her eyes began to glow blue as she looked straight into the nurses eye. She moved away from where she was, letting M'gann pass.
"You may go in." She said, in a trance.
M'gann quickly went into the room, closing and locking the door behind her.
The man laying in the bed got startled and brought his head up immediately.
"You're not my nurse." He said, confused, scanning the martian from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. "I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, y'know."
The man was tall and blonde. She couldn't see much under the covers but it was obvious he was pretty athletic, since his arms were pretty big, and his feet almost didn't fit the bed.
"You're James, right?" She asked.
"Who's asking?" He said, now suspicious. "Are you a reporter?"
"No, I know what happened with you and the rest of the people you were with." M'gann came closer to him.
"So you do believe when I say I was being kept hostage? You don't think this is a post-traumatic stress disorder crap?" He asked.
"Yes, I do." She quickly glanced to the window on the bedroom's door. "But I still need to know some things about what happened."
"I'll tell ya everything you need to know if you promise that psycho son of a bitch is going to die in jail." James sat up in his bed, rage was heard in his voice. "Scratch that, death is too good for him. Just make sure he suffers."
"That's the idea." M'gann said.
"I don't even know where to start." James said. "I was taken from my home on Elm Street in the middle of the night. Two guys just came in, tied me up and locked me in a van. I put up quite a fight, but they used some kind of drug that made all of my limbs useless."
M'gann listened with close attention.
"For how long were you in the van?" She asked.
"I don't know. My eyes were covered with black clothes, and there were no windows, so it may have been 2 hours, or 18." James said, looking at the ceiling, trying to remember. "I don't know where we were being kept either. When I got there I just got thrown into a jail cell with two other guys."
"Who were they?" M'gann asked.
"You see, its funny cause one of them is one of my friends brother, and the other one was just some dude." James said.
"Is you friends name Craig, by coincidence?" M'gann said, trying to tie the knots.
James looked a her quizzically. "Yeah… that's him alright. How do you know?"
"I just do." M'gann said, deciding it was better if he didn't know why Craig was being looked for. "Is his brother in the hospital too?"
"Yeah, he supposedly woke up from a 'comma' today too, and told everybody the same thing I'm telling them, but they just think we are being crazy." James said.
"Wait, so its just you two?" M'gann asked.
"As far as I know. I haven't heard about the other guy." James said. "Maybe he is still being kept away."
"Maybe you're right." M'gann said standing up, deep into her thoughts.
"Wait, so you're just going to leave and not tell me what's going on?" James said when she stood up. "Is Craig okay? Is Francis ok? Are they gonna let me go?"
"Calm down, Craig is okay. For now, at least." M'gann said, hesitating. "You will find out what is going on, but for know, you need to rest. Everything you just told me is going to make things run smoothly." She looked out of the room window and with a swift hand movement shut the blinds so nobody could see who was inside.
James eyes went wide as saucers.
"Listen, the media is going crazy right now with everything that has happened with both of you. You can´t tell them anything. No personal info, no nothing, or else you might be in danger. Understand?" M´gann spoke in a whisper, transmitting calm to the man.
With his eyes still wide, he just nodded softly.
"Aight, aight. I´ll stay cool and quiet." He said, sinking a little into the bed.
M'gann quickly blinked and her eyes started glowing, catching him in a type of trance that made him lay down and close his eyes in slumber.
She opened the door silently and left the room, looking for Robin to tell him what she had found out about the hostage situation. She brought out a provisional phone put of her pocket and dialed. When the other line picked up, she spoke.
"Robin, there's still one hostage being kept." She reported through the psychic link.
"I will tell you one more time, and that´s it." A young short man sat up in his hospital bed, annoyed. "I am not fucking crazy. I was being kept hostage for God knows how much time, and I was not in a comma."
"Mr. Ashton… I mean, Manson, we understand your distress." A nurse tried to calm him down.
"Baby, no you don´t" He spat back to the nurse, still annoyed.
"I think it would be better if you rest Edgar. Your stress levels are really high." The Doctor on duty looked at his patient.
"You betcha I´m stressed. This hospital is full of incompetent little fucks!" Edgar threw his hands in the air in rage.
The doctor and nurse started for the door, as Edgar kept spitting curse words and rage in a loud voice.
Right after they closed the door behind him, Artemis entered in nurse attire and shut it back closed, with double lock.
"And who the fuck are you?!" Edgar kept screaming in annoyance.
A nerve popped. "Ok, first of all watch the language you annoying little smurf. Second, I´m just here to help you out, so just shut up and listen to what I have to say, okay?" Artemis rised her eyebrows at him waiting for an answer.
Edgar calmed down and shut his mouth. "Yes m'am." He said silently.
The trio went back to the hotel suite at around mid-day. The girls plopped down on the sofas and Robin took off his glasses and soon as he came in.
"How´d it go?" Robin asked his younger self.
"Well, everybody thinks they´re crazy, so…" Robin said taking off his leather jacket.
"Apparently, Kurt and Ethan decided to let them go, for some reason, and this is the best they could do. They both know what they went through is real but nobody else does."
"So, who are they?" Raven asked.
"One of Craig´s friends, called James, and Craig´s brother, Edgar." Robin answered.
"So there´s still one hostage to find." The older Robin stated. "You guys narrowed down the search really well guys, congratulations." He patted his younger self on the back, offering a small smile.
"You are literally congratulating yourself man." Wally commented. "Talk about being egocentric."
"Guys listen." The older Robin spoke up to both teams. "I know it´s been a crazy week and you´re still waiting for that portal to get fixed, but I do feel like we need your help. We´ve had very bad injuries and strong battles but, I am really thankful for your help."
Superboy spoke up. "You don´t have to thank us Robin. Once a team, always a team."
"Thanks Conner." He started talking again after thinking for a moment. "I just don´t want any of you to get hurt in any way. If there is any moment if which you want out, I´ll completely understand." Robin added.
The visitor team look at each other for some seconds, before the younger Robin spoke up. "You know what? You can count on all of us. We are not leaving until this is cleared up." He stood up and offered a fist bump to his older self, smirking.
"Booyah" Cyborg said in a low voice.
The small little circle of happiness didn´t last very long, for an alarm stated beeping from Cyborg´s arm, detecting attack.
"Do they EVER rest?!" Wally commented when he heard the alarm go off.
"It seems not. Robin, It´s Ethan and Kurt."
"Drop a pin and we will all be there." Robin said. "Gear up guys."