My stomach churned. Garfield. That sweet little kid we had met in Africa turned into this?
"Are you alright other Robin?" Star asked.
"I think I'm going to be sick," I closed my eyes.
"Probably a side effect for the dimension traveling," Cyborg hit a few keys on the large corner computer. "In all honesty you're not even breathing the same oxygen as normal."
I nodded numbly as star sat down next to me. "We should find him a bed to sleep in for the night," she announced, "our new friend is not well and needs his rest."
"Thanks," I smiled weakly.
"Yes," the other Robin agreed. "Find him a room. One with no large duct entrances or hackable outposts."
"Don't underestimate me," I smiled.
"I'll take him," Garfield offered.
Robin waved us off and I stood shakily. I heard him before we vanished around the corner.
"Just try to remember one thing Star," he growled. "That boy is not our friend." Then the doors shut behind us.
As we walked down the hallway Garfield looked at me interestedly. "So do you know me from your dimension?" He asked.
"Sort of," I looked over the young face trying to think of that sweet little eight year old. There were some familiar traits. He still had a slight skip in his step. His body type was still strong, if a bit thin, like me.
"In a sense," I shrugged.
"Can you tell me?" I saw the eager, confused look in his eyes and in that moment I saw the real Garfield in him.
"I met you when you were eight." I winced. "It was my fault. You got hurt. I thought we healed you but I guess I was wrong."
"That's sort of the same," Garfield shrugged. "I got hurt and my mom and put animal DNA in me so I would get better," he chuckled. "It sort of worked."
"Are you happy here then?" I asked.
"Sure!" He grinned. "The team is great. Don't mind Robin, um, the other one. He's not that grumpy all the time."
"What happened to him?"
The green boy shrugged. "He doesn't really tell anyone what happened. He left Batman and that's all I know."
I nodded. What would make him– me– so bitter?
"Here we are!" He gestured to the door and showed my inside a simple bedroom.
"Thanks Garfield," I smiled.
He snorted. "Call me Beast Boy," he smiled. "Or BB, whatever floats your boat."
"Thanks... BB."
The door shut behind me and I heard the click of the lock.
I couldn't sleep. I spent the first couple hours on my computer. The battery was quickly dying. I changed it to sleep mode and tried to go there myself. The room wasn't cold or uncomfortable but I couldn't think straight.
Maybe Cyborg was right. The air was different here, a bit harder to breathe.
Eventually a fell into a small stupor, not really a sleep but something else.
"Remind me why we have a camera on this kid who I'd locked in an unescapable room?" Cyborg groaned, rubbing his head.
"Because I don't trust him," Robin watched his strange dopple ganger.
"Why?" Cyborg watched the kid frantically pacing around the room checking and double checking his computer. "He's not even bigger than BB."
"You saw what he did." Robin glared. "I don't trust him. He could be lying."
"Unless you have a brother you never told us about he has has to much of your DNA to be anything else."
Robin said nothing.
"Look Rob," Cyborg sighed, standing up. "I know you see some crazy escaped fugitive or something. But what I see is a confused kid, burying it all under a mask, kind of like you."
"Cyborg–!"
He waved the kid off. "I'm going to bed."
"Wait!" He called after the half robot. He vanished. Robin turned back to the screen. Cyborg had a point. The tiny boy in the screen was just a kid and Robin watched him curl up and look around his new location. This other boy was terrified.
An hour after searching for Robin on the computers and satellites Wally's hear was again begging to race. They had wondered the surrounding cities trying to contact him through mind link and radio. Wally had run every last inch of Happy Harbor twice.
Wally had even tried calling Robin's call phone. And, once it had gone directly to voice mail, he tried the kitchen phone of Wayne manor.
"Wayne Manor, how may I help you?" a thick British accent spoke grandly.
"Hi agent A," Wally tried to keep the tremble out of his voice. "It's Wally. Is Dick home by any chance?"
"No sir," Alfred answered, puzzled. "I thought he was with you."
"Oh," Wally swallowed. "Prank call!" He hung up quickly, trembling.
On the other end Alfred Pennyworth knew something was wrong. But he pushed it away knowing Dick's friends were a strange bunch.
His heart leapt when he saw the bright red bio ship go into the mountain. He ran as fast as he could. It took only a few seconds for him to get from the far harbor to the mountain. There he would find Robin, blushing furiously and muttering calculations, determined to fix the zeta tubes.
But, when Wally shot in and saw a depressed M'gann walk out his stomach sank.
"We looked everywhere," Artemis comforted. "There's nothing else we can do."
"Have we tried radio?" the Martian asked.
"Several times," Kaldur rubbed his forehead. "We simply cannot locate him."
"And the satellites?" Wally asked. "How's that working?"
"Still searching for face recognition." Kaldur sighed. "I do not have a picture of him without his mask so I do not know how fast it will work."
"I have a picture of him without his mask," Wally admitted. "Give me five minutes on the satellites.
The team was too worried even to protest.
But the effort was futile. After plugging in a ridiculous picture of Dick eating ice cream, sprinkles on his nose the closest thing he found on the entire face of the planet was a kid in Europe on a trip with his mother and father. Only a 78% match.
Robin was gone.
"Maybe he was sent to another planet," Superboy offered, his eyes flicking to his nervous girlfriend. "We know the zeta tubes can do that."
Kaldur shook his head. "Robin, while having great experience repairing the earth zeta tubes it would take one of the original creators to take him to another planet."
Wally nodded, a small hope igniting. But it died just as quickly. "Then where is he?"
"I..." Kaldur paused. "I don't know."
five reviews this time please :) Chapters are going to come more regularly