Summary: Ep 8 of YJ S1. Dick is barely in it, so this is mostly just fluff with him and Bruce. Super short cuz again, he's barely in it. Just in case you forgot, this is the ep where Kaldur goes to Atlantis to meet up with Tula and Garth, so p much everyone except Kal has minimal screen time this ep.

Disclaimer: I don't own DC

Sooooo not feeling the aster right now. The team was scattered around a warehouse, bits of mud all over the place. They had tracked Clayface down to a Gotham warehouse and were tasked by Batman to go deal with him since he had other matters to attend to. Other matters. Since when is WayneTech something he takes seriously? Aqualad led them into the fight, as usual, but Dick could tell he wasn't as sure of himself as he usually is. That proved to be true, as Kaldur made the wrong move and his strategy had led to every member of the team being incapacitated by Clayface. Dick, normally, would have little issue dealing with Clayface, but unfortunately, he had suffered a pretty big chest injury the previous night on patrol with Bruce, and so his reaction time was slower than normal. Harley REALLY doesn't pull her swings with that hammer. Now, he and Kaldur struggled to stand up and fight, as the rest of their team were barely able to move thanks to Clayface pinning them down with stray mudballs. C'mon bird brain...get up and fight. It's just Clayface. You've gone toe-to-toe with the Joker, a mind-controlled Superman, and Deathstroke...this should be no issue! So why does everything hurt so much? Before anyone could make a move, Bruce burst through the ceiling glass, landing on his feet and pulling out his taser. In less than 5 seconds, Clayface was on the floor, nothing more than a pile of mud, and Bruce had already activated his containment vessel, trapping the creature. See...that's how it's done. Bruce turned around and glared at Dick, who bowed his head in shame. Batman then turned to Kaldur, his glare withstanding.

"I need to talk with Aqualad. The rest of you, hit the showers and go home."

"Home? I am home." The others made their way to the showers as Dick stayed behind. Lecture time. Lucky me.

"Just Aqualad." Dick paused before walking to the showers, confused. Soooooo is he not mad at me? Or is he just delaying my suffering? Cuz I gotta say, the silent treatment is somehow worse than the Batglare and the yelling. After Dick showered, he Zeta'd to the Batcave, knowing that Bruce was still talking with Kaldur. Truth be told, Dick felt guilty for the team's misperformance. Kal may have given the wrong call, but Dick shouldn't have let the team follow it, especially since they were dealing with one of HIS villains. Dick worked his frustrations out on a punching bag before moving to a set of trapeze rings, beginning his practice.

Batman arrived about 30 minutes later, having finished his talk with Kaldur. He got to work on the Batcomputer, researching some files on the latest Clock King heist, when he noticed Dick wasn't here. Right on cue, Alfred walked in, greeting Bruce.

"I thought you might be inclined to know that Master Dick has been in the training room on his own for a little over half an hour now, sir. He has not spoken a word and has not left the room since his arrival. What exactly happened with your team today?"

Bruce sighed. "They messed up, Alfred. Kaldur gave the team the wrong order, and they nearly died at the hands of Clayface. Dick messed up, too. Aqualad may have given the order, but Dick should have known better. I've trained him better than that."

"Master Bruce, everyone makes mistakes. Might I remind you that Master Dick is a mere boy, a boy who has been handed an extraordinary amount of pressure and has not cracked. He may have performed less than optimally per your standards, but he is busy training and judging himself rather harshly for it." Bruce looked back to the screen, pulling up the camera feed on the gym to find Dick in an intense trapeze session. He sighed before turning to Alfred.

"Have him meet me outside by the basketball court." Alfred nodded before turning to fetch Dick.

Dick had flipped off the set of rings, but his distraction led to him mis-timing his landing, and he stumbled to a wall. He angrily punched it, leaving a small dent, before walking over to the bench to drink water. The doors opened, and Dick turned to see Alfred.

"Master Bruce wishes to see you." Oh, so NOW he'll rip me apart. Great… Alfred led Dick outside, where he caught a basketball. "What's this?!" So... is he gonna lecture me with a basketball? Some kinda weird metaphor?

"Training. Hand-eye coordination." Dick caught Bruce's smile and returned it.

"One-on-one?"

"If you think you can handle it. Besides, you know anyone who would be willing to join in?" Fair point. No offense, Al.

"I'll have you know, Master Bruce, that back in the day I was tearing it up, as the kids might say. You and poor Master Dick here wouldn't be able to handle these ankles of steel." Bruce and Dick both laughed at this before Dick moved forward to play. Alfred smiled at the father-son bonding before walking inside to the kitchen.

The game lasted almost 45 minutes, and neither of them mentioned the screw-up from the mission. Bruce eventually had to leave to get some work done, but he made sure Dick wasn't still annoyed about earlier before he left. Dick went inside, cleaned up, and plopped down to play videogames. About an hour later, Bruce called him to the cave.

"What's up? We don't normally patrol this late." Dick was usually in bed long before this time, but Bruce was feeling generous, and Dick was not at all tired.

"Suit up. You've got a mission."

"Really? It's past midnight."

"I know, but Kaldur has just checked back in from the break I gave him and this can't wait. I've already had Barry call in Wally and Oliver call in Artemis. We need to do this now." Dick nodded before suiting up. They Zeta'd to the cave, and Dick walked up to Wally, who yawned.

"Bro, what did you do to piss Bats off, and why is he making us all wake up in the middle of the night?"

"Hey, hey, hey, don't blame this on me. He said we got a mission." After everyone settled down, Bruce pulled up the holo-computer and started to speak.

"The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Biyalyan Desert. Spectral analysis confirms elements that are not of Earthly origin. Find out what happened at that sight. Bialya is a rogue nation ruled by Queen Bee, an evil dictator who has the metahuman power to release pheromones that can enthrall most men and some women. You shouldn't run into her on this mission, but keep on guard just in case. Furthermore, Bialya is not a member of the League's U.N. Charter. This is a recon mission above all else. Expect heavy resistance, but do NOT blow your cover." Ha! He CLEARLY hasn't been paying attention! Recon ain't exactly in SB or KF's vocabulary.

The team made their way to Bialya in the Bioship. The cover of night masked their entry, and they were quick to unload the mini-server Dick had brought. DEFINITELY gonna need this to connect to any networks nearby. M'gann set up the mind link.

-Okay fearless leader, what's our first step?-

-Ooh, I can scout up ahead with my camouflage!-

-Good idea, but keep a low profile. Camo does not mean invisible-

-Got it, Aqualad- M'gann disappeared and flew away while Dick continued to work on the server. KF and Artemis kept a close watch out and Superboy and Aqualad patrolled the nearby area.

-Uh, dude. Any luck?-

-Definitely picking up some weird signals here, but I need more time to hone in on it-

-Artemis, Kid. Patrol the southern front. We do not want to be caught off guard- KF and Artemis ran off to follow Kaldur's orders, leaving Dick alone with the portable server.

-Huh, weird. These readings almost remind me of a boom- - Before Dick could finish, the entire team got a massive psychic feedback pulse from the mind link. Dick felt an intense jolt of pain in his mind as he screamed out. He stumbled away, trying to get out of the range of the psychic link in order to stop the pain. However, after almost 5 minutes of mindless running, Dick finally collapsed in the Bialyan desert, his memories from the past 6 months having left him and his team being just as helpless as he was now.

Okay, sorry this one was shorter than usual, but like I said, not much happened this episode. I would have skipped this chapter since nothing too big happened with Dick, but it was short and I thought I might as well write it to have a tiny bit of fluff and to set up the next chapter, which is ep 9 of S1. Review and leave suggestions for future chapters please. Next chapter up soon.