Little Bird's Vengeance Chapter 28 Nice, Safe Research…

Dr Jane Foster waited at the door of her New Mexico lab as an unfamiliar aircraft landed neatly. It sat still for a moment, before the back dropped open and a young man descended.

"Dr Foster?" he asked politely, seeing her. "Or…Miss Lewis?"

"Jane Foster," she said, holding her hand out for him to shake. "Call me Jane."

"Thank you for inviting me to your lab," he said. "Call me Red."

"Red?" Jane asked. He had black hair, black sunglasses, black jeans and leather jacket. There was a patch of red on each glove, but…

"That's me," he replied with a smile. "Your work on Einstein Rosen bridges and interdimensional travel is without peer."

"Thank you," Jane said, noticing he hadn't answered her query, but dropping it. "Would you like to come inside?"

"Yes, thank you," Red answered, following her in.

"Red, this is Darcy Lewis; Darcy, Red," Jane said briefly, introducing their visitor to Darcy, who was working at the table.

"Hey," Darcy said shortly, not looking up from her papers.

"A pleasure, Miss Lewis," Red said.

"So, I believe you have a proposition?" Jane asked, sitting down and gesturing to the seat opposite.

"Yes, I do," Red started, sitting down, steepling his fingers and looking across at her curiously. "I have a…specimen that's come from another dimension. I'm interested in how it got here and how it could be sent back."

"An…interesting proposition," Jane murmured. "Do you have any proof of your specimen's extradimensional origins?"

"I have the results of a number of submolecular examinations in comparison to those of this dimension," Red said, pulling a ring binder from a satchel over his shoulder. "For example, the speed of electron rotation in the pi bond is some 2.6 rotations faster, while specimens from Asguard are 0.5 slower. Similarly, the quantal distance is slightly wider-"

"Give me that," Jane demanded, eager to see the results for herself. She flipped through page after page of readouts and analyses until something made her stop. "These results are from a humanoid lifeform."

"They are, yes," Red agreed.

"Your specimen is a person?" she exclaimed, slightly horrified at the implications.

"Indeed."

Jane fought to keep her voice even. "Are you keeping this person captive?"

Red had the gall to smile, smile, at her outrage. "I assure you, Dr Foster, they are not."

"Is it you?" Darcy asked, speaking up at last, head tilted curiously.

Red ducked his head slightly sheepishly. "Yup, it's me," he admitted. "How about it, Jane? Care to help me get home?"

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Jane asked.

"Well, you seem to trust the print outs," Red pointed out. "You saw the results. I'm perfectly willing to let you replicate the experiments on me."

"What kind of facilities do you have?" Jane asked.

"Best research labs in the world," Red answered. "It's not specialized in quite the same way, but I think we can correct that. I also have the services of a genius engineer, and a nuclear physicist, and I'm a fair scientist myself, but you're the expert."

"Flatterer," Jane accused.

"It's not flattery if it's true," he retorted.

"Wait," Darcy interrupted. "A genius engineer and a nuclear physicist?"

"Yes."

"Best research labs in the world?"

"That's what I'm told."

"And you call yourself Red?"

"It's a contraction, but yes."

"You're Red Robin, and you're an Avenger."

Red looked at her speculatively. "Political Science is fun, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah, especially the bits about covering things up and why." Darcy gave a speculative little smile, more than a little enjoying the back-and-forth.

"You're about three quarters right. I'm not an Avenger. I'm just working with them until I get home."

Jane stared at him. "Did Thor send you?"

"He mentioned you, yes, but it was Dr Banner who recommended you," Red answered. "Thor mostly just said you were displeased with him."

"Well, he's honourable at least," Jane sighed. She liked the kid, and so did Darcy, so what harm could there be in working with him? Especially was with the Avengers. Thor might be a misogynistic pig, but meeting the others would be an experience. Who knew? Maybe Captain America could give her some hints about Erskine's Vita-Rays… "Okay. Your project sounds fascinating and I can't fault you for wanting to go home. Can I come see the labs before we decide what needs fixing up?"

"That shouldn't be a problem," Red said.

"Can I come?" Darcy asked, bouncing up from her seat.

"Don't see why not," Red shrugged, look to Jane for conformation.

"Room for three in your aircraft?" Jane asked wryly.

Tim was halfway back to New York before he flew into trouble. 'What is with these guys?' he thought as half a dozen people in armoured suits (or drones; they were too far away to tell) flew at his Quinjet, repulsor type beams firing as he strove to keep the vehicle in the air and course erratic. He pulled one of his communicators out, turned it on and jammed it under his ear to return both hands to the controls. "Titans," he called, waiting for the brief moment necessary to hear three acknowledgements. "Kid Flash, can you fly a Chinook helicopter? You've got ten seconds to learn. I want you to take control of the Quinjet once you get here. Superboy, Wonder Girl; when he finishes, fly direct to…Virginia, you'll have to find me. I've got bogies on my tail, need help getting them off ASAP." He dropped the comm back into his belt and called his passengers. "Either of you play flight simulators?"

"Once or twice," Darcy admitted.

"Can you make sense of these controls?"

"I…think so?"

"Backup pilot will be along in a minute," Tim said, getting up and sitting her down. "Keep it in the air. Don't worry about it being smooth; you'll be harder to hit."

"Right," Darcy squeaked.

"Don't worry, I'll distract them," Tim said, shucking his leather jacket and jeans to leave just his suit, hitting the button to spool out his wings and swapping sunglasses for his mask. He opened the large door at the back, pulled out his grapple, and fired it at the nearest flyer. 'Hope I can keep 'em busy until the others come without anyone getting killed,' he thought gloomily.

Cassie was more than a little worried when the call came through. Either Rob refused to learn that some things were beyond him, or more likely, refused to allow himself the luxury of giving up when he was in over his head. Diana and Donna had said the same thing about Batman and Nightwing. It was something they'd all had to adjust to simply to give as many people as possible the best chance of survival – including near-suicidal Bats.

That meant it didn't surprise her in the slightest to see Rob grappling with his bogies in mid-air, despite having next to no flight ability like they were using. As they approached normal visual range, he took a blast to the side that knocked him off his perch and sent him plummeting, grapple falling from his fingers.

Cassie cursed and dived. Why couldn't he just stay on the jet where he was safe? She caught him around the waist, snared the grapple and headed back up, landing on the jet's ramp as it finished its erratic wobbling and moved into more sophisticated manoeuvres courtesy of Kid Flash, whom Superboy had just delivered to his destination.

"Fairly sure…drones," Rob gasped. "Supes…check?"

"Yeah," Superboy confirmed, eyes glowing. He grabbed the nearest and tore it in two while his heat vision bore holes through another.

Cassie zipped outside and flicked her lasso, letting the electric thrum of lightening run down it to the drone caught inside the loop. She slammed it into the next, shorting them both out and letting them drop as Superboy finished the last two. Then she turned back to the Quinjet.

"Superboy, check him," she ordered, dropping back into the aircraft.

"I'm fine," Rob protested, straightening up. Cassie shot him a withering glare. Superboy's eyes glowed as he joined her.

"Cracked ribs, whiplash, some sprains, side's a mess…Rob, how are you still awake?"

"Helicarrier over the Atlantic," Rob mumbled. "Find it. Guide Kid Flash. It's safest."

"Go," Cassie told her boyfriend, who nodded curtly and vanished. "You can go to sleep now, Rob."

"I'm fine," the teen Bat said distractedly, fixing his gaze out the window. "Oh, and Wonder Girl? This is Dr Jane Foster, this world's foremost authority on interdimensional travel."

"Nice to meet you," Cassie said, noting the poor woman's freaked out expression. "What's Rob told you about us?"

"Well, we figured he's not from this world, he wants to go home, he gave us a bunch of test readouts," the other girl answered. "Not really anything else."

Cassie sighed and glared sideways at Rob. "All four of us are from the same other world. He's Red Robin; knowing him he didn't give his full name. I'm Wonder Girl, Kid Flash is flying. And that's Superboy who's just come back. We're superheroes, have been for some time, and work together quite a bit. Rob's a masochist who doesn't know when to pass out."

"Fine," Rob muttered. "Passing out right now." He stiffened and relaxed.

"So what's your name, miss?" Cassie asked the other girl.

"Uh Darcy…Lewis," she answered. "What was all that about?"

"I'm…not sure," Cassie admitted. "We three have only been here a few hours. Rob would know, and he directed us to SHIELD…"

"You know SHIELD?" Jane asked.

"Not much. Global defence agency?"

"They support a lot of our research," Jane explained.

There was a hum from outside. Cassie looked out the still open entrance. "Cavalry's arrived," she said, as two Quinjets followed by two armoured suits zoomed into view.

AN: So here is the next chapter. This is the second version to be published, because the first version wasn't very good.

Also updating this week, Flashback 14, which required much less work.

Anyway, next week will be another LBV update, and the continuation of the Batgirl arc in Flashback. And, hopefully, some updated/edited chapters.

See you then.

Katara