Disclaimer: I'd sooner own this dog next to me than own DC comic's characters. I only wish one of them were sitting on my cellphone. *grumbles at dog*

Well, I think it's time we get some action in here, shouldn't we? Remember when I was begging for a scenario earlier? Well the votes are in! This has it and it's not very detailed because I didn't care to explain it. not good at creating crises. XP

A little comfort cuddling at first, so remember Zee's mental state at the end of last chapter. This is directly after. Dick's a hugger, but hugs don't necessarily mean love. This is probably the only thing close to romance you'll see here. Enjoy!

Without Me

Ch. 16 – Small Fries

Slowly Dick guided Zatanna back to the common room, back to the couches where cuddling like that wouldn't feel so awkward. For a moment he let go of her with one arm and started the movie up again. Neither of them were really watching for a while, focused more on what was happening in reality. But slowly their attention was diverted from thoughts of doom to Jack and flesh eating mermaids.

For some reason the movie seemed longer than the last time Dick had seen it. Much longer. Not that he minded having Zatanna to cuddle with that long, but he wanted a good excuse for turning on the news besides being worried. He had purposely avoided watching the news ever since he arrived in this world. He didn't want to know what possible events he could influence were going on in his world, or this one. But just this once he had to know what was going on. What was the Justice League fighting now?

Thinking of questions he had, one returned to his mind. "Hey, why are you here pretending its MLK day when it was last week?"

"Hm? Oh." Zatanna blearily raised herself out of his arms, gathering her wits again. "Because last week I faked going to school to avoid Dad's agent. He's a moron."

"Hm. Cute." The movie was winding down at last. Dick leaned forward and grabbed the remote again, ready to change the screen at a moment's notice. "Too bad I can't use that excuse back home. There's no way out of anything Batman plans."

"Why not?"

"He's known as the world's greatest detective for a reason. I lie to him about school and I'm in major trouble. Rule one with tricking Batman: never tell a lie he can look into and prove otherwise." Finally the credits started to roll and he stopped the disk, changed displays and typed in the most reliable news station he knew back home. Hopefully it was still good.

"Any other rules?"

"Keep it simple, have proof to back it up, and if you get caught, beg for forgiveness and have a good reason for lying on hand. He'll listen. Here we are." Dick turned up the volume, hoping to figure out what the League was fighting this time. The anchor woman was familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. The field correspondents in Central and Metropolis were easy to remember, and the one in DC Bruce dated off and on: Iris West-Allen, Lois Lane, and Vicki Vale. Man did those three get around.

From what he could tell, the Ice Crew were starting another ice age, beginning in DC and branching out. Killer Frost was in the Capitol Building, having taken the president's family hostage to stop the commander and chief from ordering the military in. In Central, Flash was going head to head with Captain Cold's henchmen (where they came from, no one could tell), but they were all armed with Freeze's technology. Freeze himself was in Metropolis, with about fifty or so animated snow creations. Icicle Sr. was enjoying Paris, having turned the Eiffel Tower into a brittle ice sculpture; half a dozen superstrength villains were around the base of it, demanding millions for the structure to stay intact. His son was in Star, sabotaging Queen Industries as he set something else up.

Judging from the video feed, and Robin's experience, each were setting up ice producing bombs. They were Freeze's technology, hands down. The vengeance seeking, cryo-man may not be in Gotham, but his genius certainly was making its effect on the world.

Nearly every Leaguer was called into these cities, either fighting off henchmen or saving civilians. There were several unknown heroes running about too, doing what they could to help people. It was clear what had to be done: take out those bombs, take down the ice villains, thaw each city and civilian safely. Oh yeah, and save the president's family. It was a large order, but not impossible. Not for the League.

"There really is nothing we can do," Zatanna muttered in defeat.

Dick nodded, rubbing his eyes. Nothing. They didn't have the resources, experience nor abilities to help in this situation. He changed channels, hoping to find something else to keep them distracted. He really wanted to know right then where Batman was. It may not be his Batman, but he still wondered. It'd been three days without seeing hide nor hair of his mentor's doppelganger. Sure he'd gone weeks alone before, but Bruce always called. From what he could tell from the news, Batman had dropped off the face of the planet. No one was talking about Gotham. Vikki was in DC.

'Might not be a bad idea to start hacking again,' he thought, but stopped on the local news channel. While the rest of the globe was focused on the League and their troubles, Happy Harbor was having a minor crisis of its own. A very unnatural tornado had returned, causing a wave of destruction on the east end. The color from the eye of it was familiar.

"Mister Twister?"

"What?" Zee jerked towards him, completely confused.

Dick didn't answer immediately. Instead he rushed to clear the table in front of him, a determined look upon his face. He tapped parts of it a few times, baffling the girl next to him until a holopad and screen appeared right above it. She gasped, but Dick didn't hear it. He was too busy hacking into the Justice League systems to confirm what he saw.

"Mister Twister. One of T.O. Morrow's androids. Or he was in my world." It didn't take long for him to enter the cave's system (it was Batman's after all, and he knew his old codes like the back of his hand), and even less time afterwards to use it the way he wanted to. Quickly he blew up the image on the TV and adjusted the picture to make it clearer.

"How'd you…"

"We fought him not long after M'gann joined up. An android in a suit of armor. At least back home that's what this was." Dick thought over everything he knew about the crazy scientist and tried to figure out if what's in this machine was human or not. He had an assistant, and the android was a copy of him. So having a human in the armor wasn't too farfetched.

"No," Zee started, "how did you get access to the League's computers?"

"Oh." He stopped for a moment, realizing he just was caught doing something everyone else didn't want him to do. He didn't look at her when he explained, trying not to sound guilty or smug as he ran some long ranges scans on the machine. "Hacked in while they were having one of their meetings and set up an easy access code for myself later, in case it was necessary. Have to time it right if you don't want Batman knowing."

The computer beeped as Zatanna shook her head in disbelief. Dick looked off to the side where the beeping light triggered. Another local emergency? The League tried to know what was happening in the harbor, just in case the mountain was under attack or someone figured out where they were. How come the League was in the mountain again?

The scans came back positive on biomass in the Mister Twister suit, making the boy frown. He brought up the window detailing the other emergency and read it quickly. A top secret science lab linked with the military on the south side was broken into. Just barely. Only one confirmed supervillain: Sportsmaster.

Dick gripped his head. Two emergencies, both local. He could hack the Zeta-tubes within two minutes and be out in the field in no time. He knew where the bikes were held and he was certain Zatanna could adapt them to fit them with a few words. He knew he could take down Sportsmaster even. The guy was mostly talk and pretty decent with his weapons, but not as good as other killers Robin's met. The team took down Mister Twister before, so he'd have a hand up on that one. These were small fries, people he could handle easily enough.

But he promised to be a good little boy and stay home. He gritted his teeth. He really wanted to go out there, help where he could, stop the bad guys. These were local events, small things in the grand scale. The League was busy. They couldn't come. He could do this, but he said he wouldn't. This was going to kill him.

"What's wrong?"

Dick looked over to Zatanna, not realizing his silent expression could give her the wrong impression about the alert. He gave her a pained smile, trying to calm her. It wasn't something bad about her dad after all. "Two local events, nothing the League will look into until way later. They're just too busy for them. And we're stuck here, sitting on our hands."

Zee looked over him for a moment, saying nothing. She leaned over his shoulder and started reading what he found on the computer. He couldn't take sitting anymore and stood up to pace. Too much anxiety, too much energy, he had to do something!

"You want to go out," she nodded in understanding now, her eyes not leaving the screen.

"I hate staying home!" Dick ran his hands through his hair over and over again, torn between his instincts as a hero and his promise to be good and stay in the mountain with Zatanna. "I promised them I would, but I also swore to uphold justice no matter what! How can I just…"

He couldn't complete it. He couldn't turn a blind eye when he knew he could do something. He had to do something! If it were an ordinary break in or a normal twister, then he'd just notify the proper authorities. But this was Mister Twister and Sportsmaster. Small fries or no, they were better than the police. And judging by the lab's sensors, Sportsmaster wasn't alone.

Zatanna's face became stony for a moment, then she stood and looked at Robin. "So, wanna go on a date?"

Dick jerked his head around to her. "What?"

"I'm asking if you want to go out with me and have some fun." Her sneaky smile grew on her face. The same smile she had when she told his team to kidnap her.

He took a deep breath. "We told them we'd stay and be good."

"No, you told them we'd be here when they got back." She gave him a knowing smile. Dick thought about it for only a second, then matched her grin.

Screw being good and obedient. He was Robin. He already hacked League systems. He and his friends did the exact same thing last July. They were heroes. It was time to act like them. "I need my gear. Think you can—"

"Sserd su rof elttab!"

In an instant Robin was in full uniform, including his belt, boots and gloves he hadn't seen since his first day there. Only one thing missing.

He looked over to Zatanna, already in costume and smirking. "You forgot my mask."

"Aw, but I like your baby blues!" He gave her an are-you-serious look and she relented. "Fine! Ksam oot."

Now prepared, Robin grinned impishly as he swept out of the room. "Thanks. Now, we're going to need transportation. Mind modifying one of the spare bikes while I hack the systems to let us out of the mountain? We'll Zeta-beam close as we can to the site, then we're on the road."

She nodded as she followed him out of the room to the hangar. It was time for the child-heroes to debut in this world at last, and Robin was again going to be the first to fly.

A/N: And here we have Robin and Zee doing something! YAY! Action's on the way!

Robin really is trying to be a good boy so the League will trust him and help him go home, but let's face it. Dick's a mischievous circus boy and the most heroic person in the DC universe. If he knows of a crisis, he'll do everything he can to get out there. That's what we love about him.

Oh yeah, this is the scenario I came up with after everyone gave me ideas. Flash getting kidnapped was another option. Someone said turfwar and another said natural disaster. I think I kinda combined everything. Note all the Belle Reve people? this can only happen in this world because the breakout succeeded. No one's talking about Gotham here, but when I get back to 'Where's Robin?' I'll have that scenario taken care of. Curse Arkham's revolving door! *evil laugh*

I know sportsmaster isn't a small fry in YJ, but he is in the DC universe. I should rework the action scenes before posting them *looks away* Really hate writing them. Rather do heart-to-hearts. *sigh* here goes nothing.