Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice
Chapter 4
"Did you get any sleep last night?" Kid flash looked as if he hadn't slept in years. He yawned loudly.
"Tried to. It really wasn't dark enough for me in there." Robin replied. He shrugged lightly.
"Of course, the son of the Bat needs total cave darkness to get some shut eye. I kept waking up and hoping we were back home. Wish totally not granted." Kid Flash stretched his arms above his head and let out a another yawn. "We should go wake up the others."
"We're already awake." Artemis already had her quiver strapped tightly to her back and her bow in hand. M'gann, Kaldur, and Superboy also stood behind her.
"We're supposed to meet Clark for breakfast in the mess hall. Then we'll go into negotiations again." Robin stretched lithely and slowly led the team towards their destination.
"When did the League start accepting children?" a blonde with white stars decorating her blue outfit said sardonically.
"I don't know but batman must be severely lowering his standards." Another woman chided.
"I'll show them standards." Artemis's clenched her bow tightly.
"No. We will not start a fight if it is not necessary. Please calm yourself." Aqualad warned her.
"Let's just find Superman and get out of here. That's all I'm worried about." Kid Flash yawned again.
The team could feel the staring of the individual heroes.
"There you are. I was coming to wake you soon." They spotted Superman sitting in the far corner.
"Hello." Aqualad greeted courteously.
"Good morning. I hope you all slept well." Clark smiled brightly. "Kara was supposed to sit with us but well, she didn't want to be apart from her friends." He shrugged.
"It's cool. We don't like to be apart from each other for very long either." Robin empathized. He had been hoping to catch a glimpse of Bruce but no such luck.
"We haven't made any discoveries. Dr. Fate is still trying to figure everything out. Apparently, there are a lot of ways to go about dimensional travel that I wasn't aware of. Don't worry though, we will find the right way to get you back home soon enough." Clark said.
"No, from what you just said, we aren't getting out of here anytime soon. Ugh, I just want to get back home!" Wally wanted to slam his head against the table.
"Is there anywhere we can train? Batman will kill me if I don't keep up my regimes while I'm here. It could also get our minds off our current situation." Robin tapped his lower lip thoughtfully and started at Clark through his mask.
"And what about school? I have a report due on Monday. And cheerleading practice! The girls will be so angry with me for missing it! We have a big game coming up and I'm not going to be ready! What am I going to do?" M'gann gasped.
"Hey now. Calm down. We have an excellent library if you're that concerned about getting your paper done. We do have some training centers but they're mostly used by League personnel. I suppose you could use one of them though. I can't help you with cheerleading thought. That's one thing I know nothing about." Superman looked thoughtful. "Batman can block one off and you can use it to train. It shouldn't cause that much disruption. What would you like for breakfast?"
Artemis slapped her hand over Kid Flash's mouth before he could speak. He glared at her through his goggles.
"That's one question you don't want to ask unless you have a lot time to waste. He's hungry all the time." She said. The others just nodded their agreement.
"What! They blocked off the training room! You've got to be kidding me!"
"We've go company." Wally was sweating. He hated sparring with Robin. Super-speed or not, the Boy Wonder was almost always a formidable threat.
"Ignore them. They'll get tired and go away eventually." Aqualad said without looking up.
"They aren't leaving; they're waiting for one of us to come out so they can see who's in here." M'gann informed them. "Should we let them know it's us?"
"Only if you're in the mood to get yelled at and frankly, I'm not. Then again, could be nice to kick someone's butt. May help us blow off some of that steam that's been building up for the last 24 hours." Artemis leaned back against one of the metal walls and glanced at her nails.
"Have I mentioned how much I really hate this place?" Superboy growled as he tried to fend off another one of Aqualad's attacks. "I liked it better when it was Canary who trained us."
"In case you haven't noticed, she's in that group of people that you know, hates us. I don't think she's going to be eager to train us any time soon. She doesn't even want to look at us right now." Artemis snapped at him. She rubbed her temples and sqeezed her eyes shut stressedly. God, why was she suddenly so miserable? It wasn't like she really cared what Ollie thought about her. To think about all the times she'd complained about Roy and his bad attitude, she couldn't help but think he'd be one of the only ones agreeing with her. In many ways, he was just as hot headed as she was.
"C'mon guys. It could be worse. We could be back in that holding cell with absolutely nothing to do. Besides, just think about how our mentors must be missing us. Maybe this will finally teach them that the really do need us."
In Another Universe
"How many times do I have to tell you? I don't know where they are! They haven't come by here!" Roy Harper shouted at his ex-mentor. "All Robin said was that they were going to check out something that happened with Cadmus. He asked me if I wanted to go in and help. I said no. That's all I know and I haven't seen any of them since!"
"OK! Calm down Roy! We were just making sure that you're not covering for them with some kind of prank." Ollie tried to soothe him.
"Who would be stupid enough to pull a prank on the Justice League? And you actually think I'd be stupid enough to help them cover it up! I mean honestly! If Robin, Kid Flash, and the others are missing, something serious has happened. You aren't even looking for them!" To say Red Arrow was outraged would be an understatement. He was livid that League thought the mysterious disappearance of the Young Justice team was a prank, a silly joke.
"We are looking for them, Roy. Right now, we're just covering all the bases. I guess there's a part of Batman that hopes this really is all a prank and nothing terrible has happened to the kids. We're still trying to be optimistic." Green Arrow tried to explain.
"Then how about you go optimistically look for them. Or are you too lazy to get off your ass and do that too?"
"Roy, come on that's uncalled for-"
"Get lost Ollie. I mean it. I really don't want to see your face right now." Oliver Queen furrowed his brow. What happened? Where had the once semi-respectful 15 year old gone? Who was the angry young man who had replaced him? Ollie could barely stand it.
"If that's what you want." He said solemnly.
"They aren't with Roy. He doesn't know anything that we don't already know." Ollie had returned to Mt. Justice.
"You're sure? He wasn't hiding anything?" Wonder Woman questioned.
"No, I really don't think he knows anything. Roy's just as confused as we are." Ollie crossed his arms. I had been a full day since the team had vanished. They'd been sent in to investigate Cadmus again when suddenly, everything went dead silent. No fight, no nothing. They'd just disappeared into thin air.
"I believe him. Even if this was a prank, they never would have let it go this far. Kid Flash knows better." Flash said.
"So does my niece. Something is clearly amiss." J'onn had joined them.
"I say we go back to Cadmus and look around ourselves. We can try to piece together what happened and then go from there." Superman declared. Part of him was dreading the entire situation. Lois had been on him the try to forge a connection with his clone but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Now he was scared he might never get the chance.
"We need to have a little bit of faith. They've been trained by the best. They know how to take care of themselves. They aren't just any normal children." Black Canary reminded her worried colleagues. Inside, she was in turmoil. How could this have happened? They had been under her watch; she had allowed it to happen.
"Black Canary's right. We have to stay positive. I don't know about you but I'm going to keep telling myself that they're fine until something proves to me that they're not." Green Lantern shrugged. To be honest, he wasn't worried. He'd seen Robin and Kid Flash in action. They were like mini clones of their mentors and they could handle the action. He hadn't seen the others but he figured they had to be just as good in order to stay on the team.
"So we're agreed. Flash, you, Lantern, and J'onn head to the Cadmus laboratories to see if there's anything suspicious or anything that points to where the team might have vanished to." Superman instructed. "Batman will stay here and try to reestablish radio contact with the team. Right now, our top priority is making sure that they make it back here safely."
Red Arrow had decided to search on his own since discovering the team was missing. The League may decide to drag its feet but he sure wasn't going to. He was going to find his friends and make sure they got back home safely.
Sneaking into Cadmus had been the easy part. The place was still being rebuilt after the Team's last run in with them. There were many unoccupied labs for Roy to sneak into. He stuck to the shadows as he prowled around the building searching for clues.
"Damn." He swore under his breath. He'd found the room where a battle had clearly taken place. Artemis's arrows were deeply imbedded in the walls and in the floors. There were scorch mark from Aqualad's lightning and skid marks from Kid Flash's shoes. Also, there appeared to be a Superboy sized hole in the wall.
"Well no I know you were definitely here. Still doesn't explain where you are now though." Roy huffed.
He cautiously stepped through the wreckage, turning over concrete slabs to make sure no bodies were hidden. "No clues for me Rob? C'mon, I know you're better than this. I know you are." He whispered. Robin wouldn't just let his team disappear. He would have left a clue, a red herring or something.
There was nothing left.