Everyone was silent (even Imp) as Rob started to steer toward the outer areas of the DEO. It was an odd silence. None of the members knew how to feel about what had recently happened. Not even Robin himself understood what he had done or why he had done it. His emotions were all mixed up inside. The thought of his friend in the hospital already had his mind a little preoccupied, but now the image of his behavior was fixated in his head. How could he let his emotions get the better of him? Why did he let that happen? Robin couldn't comprehend. He wanted to apologize to Superboy, but for some reason, he just couldn't. The trip continued in utter reticence until, out of nowhere, Cissie spoke up.


"Rob, what made you go off like that back at the cave?" It was a pretty bold move for Arrowette considering the way he had reacted to Superboy. But, something was eating away inside of Cissie. The way Rob had acted was really wrong. She'd known Rob to be a levelheaded, calm, cool leader. Someone the rest of the group, and herself, looked up to. For him to suddenly lash out like that was completely out of his character.


The anticipation began to grow as the rest of the group awaited his response. They didn't know what he was going to say or do. The young heroes waited curiously. Robin sighed deeply and thought for a minute.


Impulse was getting impatient with how long it was taking his friend to answer. He, himself, was curious why Robin reacted that way for about 5 seconds. As most of us know, his attention span isn't very long. Now that this had sparked up in the long silence, he was slightly interested. But if Rob kept taking so long, he was going to get real bored, real fast.


"He probably got tired of Superboy's bull and slugged him one." Bart offered.


"I should've smacked you first." Tim murmured. He was shocked at the words that had come out of his mouth. "Sorry." He whispered silently with shame. No one had heard his rude remark so there was no need to apologize for it, but Robin still felt bad.


"If I'm not going to get another beat down by Rob," Superboy crossed his arms; "I'd like to know what's going on here." He had remained silent for the majority of the trip for he was still hurt, mostly emotionally. But, The Kid refused to show that the strike from Robin hurt his feelings. That just wasn't him.


WonderGirl felt it was, in some way, her responsibility to answer his question, "It turns out there's been some kind of break out at the DEO and we need to check it out. Rob said he had heard rumors and went over there earlier." Before WonderGirl could finish explaining, Secret cut in.


"He said he'd seen DEO agents scattered around the building searching for the escapees. Robin overheard them say something about being in the middle of an experiment when it escaped." Secret shuddered remembering some of her years in the DEO. Although she tried not to think about it, some of the blurred memories filtered into her head. Secret suddenly fell silent as the memories plagued her mind.


"Like Secret was saying," Robin began, noticing the far away look that had suddenly grazed Secret's face, "It turns out that there were two escapees. One of which was in the middle of an experiment. The test being performed on the escapee consisted of dangerous chemicals that could have poisonous affects that could possibly be hurting or killing the subject." The rest of the group gasped in horror. Such horrible things were being done to innocent people? It was unthinkable! Robin continued, "The infected escapee broke out around 3 hours ago. Fortunately, the DEO has made sure that the subject had been kept captive in a nearby forest."


"So…what exactly is our mission?" Superboy inquired dumbly.


"We are going to go save the escapees and cure the infected one!" Secret answered quickly. She hated to think of what other horrible things the DEO would do to the poor subjects if they were recaptured. Secret was determined to find someway to let these tortured souls be free.