Chapter 2

2 Weeks Earlier

Gotham City

2:47 AM

2 weeks Earlier

"…Open your eyes, Bruce."

Bruce awakened to the sound of Black Canary's voice gently flowing into his ears. It took him a couple of minutes before recalling the accident; the machine, Joker… Robin! "Where's Dick?" he asked, bolting upright, but immediately regretting it as a wave of dizziness rushed over him.

"We're not sure," now it was Flash, examining the broken machine that was sparking occasionally.

"Joker?" he asked, hoping that the psychopath had been found so he could introduce his fists to the pale man.

"Haven't seen him anywhere either," Black Canary replied, helping Batman up.

"How did you find me?"

"We had a mission and you weren't answering our calls, so we used the tracker in your communicator," Flash explained, looking very closet at the machine. "What is this thing anyway?"

"I'm not sure, but Joker threw Robin into it."

"What happened after that?" Dinah asked, following Bruce to the pile of metal.

"I…" Bruce paused, unsure of what to say. "I threw Joker in. I don't know what came over me, Dinah. Dick was in so much pain, it was all I could do, but it just made things worse. It blew up after that. All Joker said was 'it's too late,' before there was that flash…"

Dinah put a hand on Bruce's shoulder, "Don't worry Bruce; we'll find Dick."

"I think I may know what this thing is!" Barry said, looking closer at the machine.

"What?" Bruce asked, rushing over to Barry's side to see what the speedster was looking at.

"It's some kind of portal. Like, a dimension jumper thing. I'm not sure why Joker would be jumping dimensions, but I think I can rebuild it and figure out."

"How long would it take you?" Bruce asked.

Flash thought about it for a second before replying, "If I can have Wally's help, then 2 weeks."

"Do it. The team will be fine without Kid Flash for a couple of weeks."

"I'll let the team know, but first we need to get you home," Dinah said.

"I need to find Dick."

"Bruce, it's almost 3 in the morning. Dick will be fine for now; he can take care of himself. We can start working on this tomorrow, but right now you need some sleep."

"I can't leave him out there alone, Dinah," Bruce said, his voice getting dangerously low.

"You will be of no use to him if you push yourself too far before we can even get the machine going."

"And what if it's not a portal? What then, Dinah? Dick could be out there with the Joker right now. I'm not going to leave him there for 2 weeks, all alone!"

"We'll be looking, but I know he'll survive for one night. First thing in the morning, we'll start searching," Dinah said, sending Bruce a glare that could rival his own.

The man sighed in defeat, "Fine, but if we find them, I wash to be the one who takes Joker down."

"Never said you couldn't," Dinah said.

"I'm gonna get going," Barry said, heading for the door. "I'll bring Wally over bright and early tomorrow and we'll get started on this."

Bruce nodded and headed to the Batmobile, not bothering to say anything to Dinah or Barry. He would wait until the morning, but as soon as he reached the Batcave, he turned on the GPS scanners and brought a pager to his room, saying a slight goodnight to Alfred on his way.

HEROES_EVOS_ALIENS

Monson, MA

3:04 AM

Joker leaned against the small Welcome to Monson sign and held his purple cell phone into the air. "Stupid…" he glanced at the sign behind him. "Monson? What kind of a name is that? No matter… what kind of town doesn't have cell reception?" He took and few steps and jumped as 5 bars appeared in the corner of the screen. He began dialing in the numbers when a missal flew towards him.

The clown jumped back, watching as the sign exploded, blowing chunks of metal around.

"Batsy, that was uncalled for, even for you!" Joker said, waving a finger at the approaching shadow. He ran out of the way again when another bomb went flying. "Is this about Bird Boy? He's just some kid, isn't he? Unless… is the Boy Blunder your son? It would make sense though…"

"Shut up," a voice ordered, and the man immediately threw a hand over his mouth, moving it along his lips as if it were a zipper. The man came out of the shadows and towered over Joker, holding a massive bazooka in one hand. His muscles were well defined and he had a mask covering his face. "Prepare to die, EVO."

Joker looked at the man as if he were insane. "EVO?" he asked, contemplating the term before doubling over in laughter. "That's priceless! EVO sounds like EVIL! As in, E-V-I-L!"

"I said, shut up!" the bazooka was now being raised to Joker's head.

"Wait, mind telling me what an EVO is?" Joker asked, wiping tears from his eyes.

"What are you, stupid?" the man asked.

"Fine, fine, don't tell me, but whatever it is, I'm not one of them."

The man looked skeptical, so Joker got in a position as if pledging allegiance to a flag. "Scouts honor." The larger man lowered his gun and sighed.

"Got a name?" he asked.

"The Joker."

The man smiled behind his mask, "Hunter Cain. I found another like you earlier; pale, clown like guy. His name is Zombozo, you know him?"

Joker spit out laughter, "Zombozo?" he screamed. "What kind of a name is that?"

"What kind of name is the Joker?"

Joker stared at Hunter in disbelief, "Like the playing cards! Joker!"

"Named yourself after a playing card… what's the problem with Zombozo?" A new voice asked, and Joker saw a small man with large red hair hanging by his feet off of a tree branch.

"Zombozo!" Joker said, clapping his hands together. "Nice to meet you, here, shake my hand," the green haired clown reached a hand out, suppressing a giggle as the smaller man reached down from his upside-down position to shake the mans hand. They both jumped back in shock as electricity coursed through the other, but immediately burst into laughter.

"Joker, you fiend, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!" Zombozo exclaimed, leaning back on his heals.

"If you clowns are done here, I have some EVOs to hunt," Cain said, hoisting his bazooka onto his shoulder.

"Wai-wai-wai-wai-wait, Candy Cain, why such a rush?" Joker cried, running in front of the much larger man and holding a hand out to stop him. "You complete us, big fella!"

"I don't complete anything. I have a mission to complete."

"Well, what made you such a boring old fart?" Joker asked, adding a pout to the end.

"It's personal."

"Well, I got thrown into a bucket of acid, can't get worse than that! What about you, Zombo?"

"Wow," Zombozo started. "I got nothing that big…"

"Your turn, Cainy, go ahead! Spill your heart out!"

"No thanks."

"Well, at least tell us why these EVOs are so important then! Maybe we'll even help you! Well, I will, I mean, I've got nothing better to do," Joker said.

"You wanna help?" Hunter asked, "Stay out of my way."

"Let us blow something up!" Zombozo said, flipping down from his branch. "EVOs, cities, people, whatever!"

Joker giggled gleefully, "Wouldn't that be a sight!"

Hunter turned to them, "Fine, but there are some rules."

Joker pouted again, "Who follows rrrrrrules?" Hunter glared at him. "Then again, rules are great!"

Zombozo nodded his agreement and Hunter continued. "First of all, you follow my lead. If I say we fall back, then we fall back. Second, if you clowns get out of hand, I'm out. And third? If you see a kid named Rex… he's mine."

Joker and Zombozo quickly nodded, sporting large smiles as they followed after the larger man. Joker began sadistically laughing as they walked, continuing down the road as the laughter echoed behind them as a trail of disaster was created. Heavy on the 'dis'.

HEROES_EVOS_ALIENS

Central City

5:32 PM

Present time

Bruce walked into the lab with his cape flowing out behind him. Barry and Wally stood beside the machine, examining the finished project. It looked similar to the one Joker had made but less scrappy and more organized.

"All done," Barry said, making his way towards Batman. "All we have to do is go and get Robin now."

"You two aren't coming," Bruce said matter-of-factly.

"Uh, dude, we just worked our butts off building this thing for you, and he's my friend. I think we have a right to go," Wally said, jabbing a finger to Bruce's face.

"You're not coming. End of discussion."

"But-" Wally started, but was immediately cut off.

"You need to be here to turn it back on when we come back," Bruce said, stepping past the speedsters.

"Let it go, Wally," Barry said, following after Bruce. "Bats, this communicator is practically made to connect through dimensions, so once you have Robin, radio us and we'll open it back up."

"Understood. It shouldn't take long."

"We'll be here," Barry said, holding out a hand to Bruce, who took it in turn and shook it. "Bring him back and be safe."

"You too," Bruce said, releasing the grip and turning towards the machine, which Barry moved to turn on.

Batman's cape flew behind him as the machine whirred to life, releasing massive wind bursts. A blue light appeared in the center of the donut shaped machine, constantly growing bigger and bigger until it was a few inches taller than Bruce was, cowl and all. He stepped in, feeling a slight tickle as the light electricity crackled at him, not as powerful with the expert building by Barry and Wally.

Barry watched with worry as the dark man stepped through, praying to any god he knew of that it would work. His eyes widened as he saw the yellow and red flash run up to the opening. "Wally, get away from there!"

"I'm going after him," Wally said, not looking at his uncle. "It's too late to stop me."

"Wally, don't be stupid! Batman will get him, you need to stay here!"

Wally considered this for a minute before turning to Barry, tears evident in his eyes, "What if he fails? What then? I can't lose my best friend, Uncle Barry!" Without saying anything more, the young speedster ran through the portal, making it through just before it shut.

Barry slammed his hand into the wall, creating a small crater. "Mary and Rudolf are gonna kill me…" he groaned, reaching over to a nearby table and grabbing a cell phone.

Nyack, NY

5:35 PM

1 Week Later

Bruce awoke to the sunset in the small village of Nyack. His head was pounding and he noticed the passerby's staring at him as if he were some sort of freak. But then again, he was wearing a bat suit.

He pulled himself off of the ground and made his way into a dark corner, ignoring the small children pointing fingers at him and whispering to their parents. The attention of the children changed though, to the other costumed person. The young redhead known as Wally West, or otherwise Kid Flash, as his yellow costume and red boots shown vibrantly.

Bruce ran into the street and pulled the boy to his feet, dragging him into the alleyway and nearly slamming him against a wall.

"I told you not to come," he growled, and Wally glared at him.

"You're not the boss of me."

"An order is an order. While you are on the Young Justice team, I am in charge of you, and you listen when I tell you to do something."

"Or nothing," Wally added sarcastically. "Like, sit back and wait while my best friend is missing in some alternate dimension!"

Bruce turned away from him, "We need to blend in; people are looking at us."

"Well yeah, you have bat ears and a cape."

"And you're bright yellow, or are you stupid and color blind?"

"Ok, ok, we find new clothes, then what? I mean, we don't really know where Di-Robin is!"

Bruce wheeled around on his heals and glared at Wally, "What did you just call him?"

"Uuuuuh Robin?" Wally offered, backing up against the wall. This was going to be a long and hard partnership.

…To be continued...

Sorry about the double update, guys. I wrote this on TextEdit and after saving it, added things to make it work for DeviantArt and those things got saved, because apparently TextEdit saves automatically! I fixed it though, so no worries!

Also, I wanna say thank you, sooooo much for all of the amazing reviews! I love you all and I will hopefully have the next chapter up in a week or so, maybe less :)