A/N: I think this update is a week early, I'm not very good at keeping track of that sort of thing, but it was done, so here you are.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys it.

Doing the Right Thing

By: Sarah Shima

Chapter 2: Where Are We?

"You're right," Robin said, standing shakily. He reflected back on the emotional control he learned from Batman, and distanced himself from the scene. It was just another crime to investigate, it could not be personal. "The bodies are already decomposing. There's no way we were out that long."

"Which begs the question: Where are we?" Slade asked.

Robin did not have an answer for him.

"Well… we're still in Jump City. But… this is not the Jump City we were in ten minutes ago," Robin responded uncertainly as he pulled himself to his feet. He surveyed the scene with an eerie detachment; a detachment Slade noted as he watched Robin. He then turned to Slade. "That machine that went off… do you have any idea what it does?"

Slade regarded Robin silently for a moment. He had a good idea of what the machine was capable of, indeed it was one of the reasons he was in the lab at all today.

But would he tell Robin?

No.

Slade noticed Robin narrowing his eyes at him, and so he shook his head. "Do you?"

"Would I have asked if I did?" Robin responded. He pushed past Slade and wandered out onto the road again. "We need to find some people, and try and figure this out."

"How do you believe you'll be received by any people you meet?" Slade questioned. "Something tells me strangers won't be too welcome in a place that's been nearly destroyed."

"Well… do you have a better idea?" Robin asked.

"Good luck," Slade said with a smirk.

"Don't wander off," Robin warned, suspicious of the man. Keeping an eye on Slade, he started further into town.

He had walked a few steps when he spotted a shadow moving between the plumes of smoke. Robin instantly darted out after the source of the shadow. Rounding a corner of destruction, he spotted a young man in ragged clothes, his face marred with burns, leaning against a smoldering post. He grinned at Robin, and then stuck a cigarette in his mouth. "Got a light?" he asked. Robin just stared. "No? Okay then." He knelt down before a small fire, and leaned toward it, cigarette between his lips. The end lit, and so he stood and turned his attention to Robin again.

"Nice clothes. What're you, a 'hero' or somethin'?" he asked. Robin did not respond. "I'd be careful if I was you, in these parts wearin' somethin' like that could get you killed."

"What happened here?" Robin asked.

"Whole damn place got obliterated," the man answered, his eyes taking on a deadened look for a moment. "Shoulda seen it comin'. Few days before, a group of guys came in with a real tall girl, they was stayin' in the hotel on Fourth Street. Then, one night we see 'em walking out, and they left town – all of 'em except the girl. We saw the girl later, she was flyin' or something. We saw her in the sky, then it got real bright, and next thing you know, everything's half destroyed or on fire."

"How did you survive?" Robin asked, horrified.

"Dumb luck I guess, we all dove into the river when we saw the light comin'. The water around us turned to vapor, but we survived. We've been livin' in the places still standin' ever since."

"What about the police, the government, or the Red Cross, haven't they been here?" Robin questioned. Surely such an event would prompt relief services to arrive.

"They cut us off, nobody gets in or out, and nuthin' gets in or out. Not even food. If that explosion had hit the Wal-Mart Supercenter, we'd all be cannibals by now."

"What about the Titans? Have the Titans been around to help?" Robin demanded, wondering if any of his friends were even still alive, if they even existed wherever the Hell he was.

"The who? Titans? There were Titans once, but that was a long, long time ago. There ain't no Titans here. And as for the other 'superheroes,' they don't come 'round here, not since what happened in Gotham," the man said.

"What happened in…?" he began, but was cut off by the man's petrified stare.

"Shh!" he ordered. "She's comin'," he whispered, leaning towards Robin.

"Who?" Robin asked as the man backed against the post.

"The girl who blasted this place to Hell. The guys, they never came back for her. And now she just wanders around. We all think she might be dying, but we don't know. She don' let no one come near her or talk to her."

Robin listened carefully as the man stopped speaking. All he could hear was the man's hoarse breathing, and the sound of weary footsteps coming closer and closer. Her shadow formed on the ground before them, and then the girl stepped in view.

Her spine bent forward, she was stooped over and listless. Her clothes – skintight black pants and halter top – were in tatters, her boots caked in dirt. Grimy red hair hung in front of her face. Her arms were wrapped around herself, and Robin could see that her skin was covered in hideous boils. She looked familiar to Robin, so he took a step forward. At the sound of his boots scraping in the dirt, the girl turned to look at him. What he saw made him freeze in shock.

"St… Starfire!" he gasped.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Robin! We have returned from the mall of shopping!" Starfire's voice rang out through the emptiness of Titan's Tower. "Robin! Where are you? I would like to show you the wondrous things I have purchased!"

Raven walked into the room behind her, a bundle of shopping bags in her hands. She dropped the bags in the corner and looked around the empty Main Room.

"Robin!" Starfire shouted again.

Raven closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them again. "He's not here Starfire," she said knowingly.

"How can that be?" Starfire questioned. "Where has he gone?"

Raven walked over to the computer console and typed into the touchpad. "Looks like he responded to a call about an hour ago at Jump City Labs. His locator signal is coming from there," Raven answered, monotone.

"Then let us assist!" Starfire shouted, already on her way out.

Raven paused before following. She was concerned. Robin's locator signal was stationary. If he was moving at all then the signal would follow. That could not be good. She saw Star's disappearing form and sighed to herself. "No sense to worry her… yet."

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

When Starfire and Raven reached the lab nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The door was hanging open, a sure sign that Robin had rushed in without closing it behind him. As they entered, they saw the smashed remains of dozens of Slade-bots scattered around the halls. They continued on until they reached the room that the Slade-bot parts led to.

It was in ruins.

Metallic shrapnel lay everywhere, and in the center of the lab was a gaping hole. Whatever had exploded saw fit to take the center of the floor out too. Starfire began carefully moving shrapnel and calling out for Robin, while Raven traced his locator signal. She sifted through a pile of debris and found his communicator lying among the rubble.

"Robin! Where are you!" Starfire asked in near-hysterics. "Robin!"

Starfire continued to search through the debris for Robin, while Raven descended to the lower levels on the off chance that he had fallen when the center of the floor was destroyed.

There was no sign of Robin anywhere.

Raven heard a shout and immediately levitated back up to the main level. She saw Starfire standing in the midst of the destruction, while a score of scientists gasped and lamented from the doorway. Clearly they had just returned from their lunch break to find their workplace destroyed.

"What happened here?" a middle-aged man asked, stepping forward.

"Who are you?" Raven asked.

"Dr. Stoneworth, I run this facility. What happened here?" he repeated the question firmly, asserting his authority.

"We don't know. We found it like this," Raven answered. "What do you think happened?" she asked, hoping they could shed some light on the explosion.

"Oh no…" a woman with graying hair gasped as she pushed through the crowds. "Not that… how… how could it have gone off?"

"What?" Raven asked.

"Was anyone in the building when that machine went off?" the woman asked Raven urgently.

"We think our teammate may have been here," Raven responded. "We don't know where he is now. Why? What does that thing do?"

"It's a… I won't bother you with technical terms, but it's still experimental. We've been working with matter transference and temporal anomalies… We were hoping to develop a system of transportation… But we still have no idea what it's capable of, and if it was activated… I'm not sure what it may have done."

"Are you telling us our teammate could be dead?" Raven deadpanned, while Starfire whimpered behind her.

"No, it may be much worse than that."

"What?" Raven asked, her eyes hard and cold.

The woman nervously ran her hands through her hair, her jacket pulled tight across her plump form. "Your teammate could have… I mean… if it actually works… then he might have been transported… somewhere…"

"Where?"

"I… I don't know… anywhere. It was still experimental, when activated, it may have sent him to a different time, a different dimension even."

"Hogwash," Dr. Stoneworth responded from behind her. "Apparently Dr. Kleinmann has been watching too many science fiction movies. The device never would have been able to do that. Your friend just isn't here, that's all."

"Somehow, I'm inclined to believe Dr. Kleinmann," Raven said, glaring at the stuffy man. She turned her attention back to the nervous woman. "Tell me everything about this machine."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With Robin occupied, Slade had some time to wander about on his own. Time to figure out what sort of mess he had gotten himself into. The machine clearly caused their current state, and Slade knew exactly what it was, and what it did.

And they were in a world of trouble.

They could be in a different time; in a different dimension… he had no way of knowing.

A/N: That was short, I know. How horrible I am to all of you.

There's more shocking events to come, and much more mystery.

So how was that for the second chapter?

Let me know what you thought.

-Sarah Shima