Atremis groaned as she opened her eyes, a hand moving to sooth her aching temple. She leaned forward on the bed, the familiar sights and sounds of the Bio ship told her that she was safe and hopefully were her teammates. She glanced over, seeing Aqualad helping Kid Flash up onto his feet. Her eyes grew at the sight of him, he had a bruise on the side of his face and he was clinging onto Aqualad as he attempted to stand.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice lower than usual. She glanced around the ship, M'gann was sitting on another bed; a hand placed on her forehead as Superboy stood next to her. Despite all the beating he took, he looked alright. Aqualad was helping Kid Flash stand up, the speedster looking as if he just got run over by a truck. Close enough…

But there was no sign of Zatanna… or Robin.

Aqualad looked up at the sound of her voice, "You're awake." He said relieved. Artemis dropped her head into her right hand, feeling dizzy. "How do you feel?"

"Okay… I guess." She replied. She looked at Wally again. "What happened to you?" she asked, trying to hide that concern that sure seep through if she wasn't careful.

"I just got thrown into a semi-moving van." He said so nonchalantly.

"Are you able to stand?" Aqualad asked, one hand on his shoulder while the other was wrapped around his torso.

"Yeah, my back's soar, but… it-it's fine." Kid replied, resisting a groan as he straightened up a bit.

M'gann sighed, "I can't sense anything. I'm sorry." She said so softly, dropping her hand from her head.

"It's alright, he's probably still unconscious." Aqualad answered.

"You did your best, M'gann." Superboy comforted her as he moved closer.

."We'll find him." Aqualad said sincerely, taking a couple steps forward. "We just need…" Aqualad was at a loss for words. He tried tracking Robin, but couldn't get a more direct signal other than Heritage. He suggested using M'gann's mind link, to see if Robin was awake and hopefully within her reach, but that lead them nowhere currently. He had attempted to find the vans again, but it appeared they had a good head by the time he arrived in the Bio ship.

"Can we somehow hack into the traffic footage?" Wally spoke up.

"I believe Heritage doesn't have traffic cameras." Kaldur informed him gravely.

"Than satellite footage!" Wally was losing his patience.

"And who here knows how to do that?" Superboy replied rather bluntly.

"We have to do something! We can't just flying around Heritage hoping Rob will wake up just so M'gann could find him!" Wally began venting.

"M'gann is doing her best!" Conner argued.

"That's not what I mean!"

"Enough!" Aqualad's voice rose higher than the others'. "We are a team, and right not, we're not acting like it." He paused for a bit, gathering his words. "Arguing isn't going to help us find Robin, and I agree;" he directed towards Wally. "Flying above the town isn't getting us anywhere, but right now, it's the only plan we've got."

"Where's Zatanna?" Artemis questioned. Wally glanced behind him while Aqualad stated her being up front. Artemis slid off the bed, Wally taking a few easy steps towards her.

"Be careful, your—"

"I'm okay." Artemis interrupted him, not out of despite, but because it was true. She walked past them and out into the cockpit where Zatanna was found curled up in the pilot seat. In her hands was Robin's utility belt, her thumbs moving over the metal clasp as she looked deep in thought—or sorrow.

"Zatanna?" Artemis said, walking over to her.

"We had him. And then we lost him." She said softly.

Aqualad and the others's conversation could be heard behind the two as they talked amongst each other.

"I still don't understand why he just took Robin and not us." Wally spoke up. "We were searched too.

"I fear the only people who can answer that question would either be the vampire himself or Robin." Aqualad replied to him.

"He packed a serious punch. You… you don't think he was… part Kryptonian… do you?" Superboy questioned, feeling slightly ashamed from the beating he took.

"My best guess is as good as yours." Kid answered.

"Right now, all we know is that Cadmus is involved." Kaldur added.

Artemis and Zatanna just sat there in silence, listening to the conversation going on behind them. Zatanna continued to stare blankly at the utility belt.

"So…" Wally's tone dropped significantly; "How are we supposed to find him?"

Something clicked inside Zatanna's head as her eyes grew. She stood up and gazed at the golden belt in her hands. Artemis looked at her with curiosity.

"His utility belt!" she yelled, rushing past Artemis and running over to the others. "Could we find him using this!?" she suggested excitedly, holding Robin's belt out to them.

"Hey, yeah!" Wally stated, zipping over to Zatanna's side and taking the belt. "Why didn't I think of that?" he inquired.

"But I already tried tracking him down, all I could was Heritage." Kaldur informed.

M'gann stood up, "Hello Megan! We used the ship's radar! I'm sure Robin has his own tracking devices that may help better pinpoint his location, right?"

"More right than you know, beautiful." Wally agreed, receiving an unnoticed, roll of the eyes from Artemis. "Batman works under a specific frequency, that's how he and Rob can get away with hacks and secret research and whatnot."

"How do you know that?" Artemis questioned.

"I am best friends with Robin. It has its perks." He replied, both joking and being serious. He sat down and laid the belt out, taking a deep breath before shifting through some of the compartments.

"Okay, um… here we go." He muttered as he pulled something out. "Batarangs…" he listed off the items he found. "Birdarangs… marbles of doom… marbles of death… how the heck does he fit all of this stuff in here!" He said as he pulled out Robin's re-breather and smoke pellets.

"He has to have a pocket dimension in here, his belts only yay big!"

"Wally!" Artemis complained, seeing how her teammate was getting sidetracked.

"Yeah, I… can't find any tracker." Wally concluded.

"But, you didn't even look through it all." Conner stated.

"I looked through the pockets that I knew had things in it that weren't going to kill me when I touched them." The speedster defended.

"Perhaps the tracker is hidden." Kaldur suggested.

"It wouldn't be the first time. Wait a minute…" Wally started as he looked down at an indent in the clip. "Hello, what's this?" he said as he unfastened the object and brought it up.

"Huh, I didn't know his clip was a remote! Dude, that's nifty!"

"Could we use it to trace his signal?" M'gann asked.

"I don't know…" Wally answered.

"Well then, click a button!" Artemis retorted.

"Okay, I'm the first person that would go and push all the buttons, but I know from experience not to do that with Robin's stuff."

"Kid, we won't know unless we try." Kaldur reasoned with him. He knew it was probably dangerous, but that were out of options at the moment.

Wally sighed, more out of fear of what may be happening to his best friend at the moment than what would happen if he did something wrong, and pushed a button on the device. It sparked to life, sending a bit of jolts through Wally's finger and up his arm. The speedster screamed from the sudden pain and accidentally through the device up into the air.

"I told you!" He complained as he held is hand. Before the device could crash onto the floor, M'gann caught it with her telekinesis and Superboy walked over and grabbed it.

"Hey, it's blinking Robin's symbol."

"We found him?" Zatanna asked, not wanting any more than a simple yes. Kaldur took a look at the device, the symbol shrinking down to a small dot on the screen as a map of Heritage rendered through.

"Yes." He stated firmly, rushing into action as M'gann followed behind him. "Get these coordinates into the ship's mainframe." He stated before everyone took a seat. M'gann began uploading the data, a larger, and clearer picture coming up on the screen in front of all of them. The location shocked all of them, except Conner.

"He's eighty miles underground?" M'gann stated what they were all thinking.

Unknown
8 miles under; 1:02 EST
Monday

Robin moaned as he began to come to, blinking his eyes a couple times as his vision adjusted.

What happened… he thought groggily. First thing he did was look around. He was strapped down by his wrists and ankles in a pod, outside the glass looking similar to Dr. Desmond's lab back when they found Superboy.

Cadmus signature much? He joked with himself, glancing up at his wrists. He tried moving his hands before, but when he looked, he knew why. They were covered entirely with high density polyerthan foam.

Escape is now dwindling down to… a very low percentage. He said to himself. Ugh, why does my head hurt? As he thought this, he closed one eye and tilted his head to the side. He thought back, racking his filing cabinets for any recent memories. He remembered fighting the vampire dude, after Superboy had a good run with him. He remembered Artemis, she had fallen under his influence. Then his eyes got big.

So did I… Aw man! Batman's gonna kill me if he finds out. He then looked up at his predicament. Strike that, he's gonna kill me no matter what.

One of the doors off in the distance slid open, and Robin's training kicked in at full strength. The pale man, the vampire, walked in, this time wearing a doctor's white overcoat.

"You're awake, good." He said as he approached a console centered in the rather wide, but small room. "I wanted you to be conscious before performing the first stage." He pressed a couple buttons on the pad and glanced up at Robin.

Robin heard something hiss off to his left and moved his head to see. A small syringe came out and inserted itself into his arm.

"Are you comfortable?" the man asked, watching the boy's face with malicious eyes. "The first stage is often times the most painful." Robin just glared at him, the syringe taken out of his arm as soon as it got some blood.

The vampire looked down at the screen on the console, pressing a few buttons before placing his hands behind him and pacing up to his captive.

"Forgive me, it's been so long since I've communed with someone other than my own thralls." He started. "My name is Vladimir, a successful product of your favorite Cadmus Labs." He sneered at the last bit.

"Cadmus created you?" Robin prodded. If he was going to get some answers as to why he was here, he'd better just play along and asked some questions. Making it seem as if he was interested in this guys' life might make him talk more.

"Mutated, yes; created, no. I wouldn't want to bore you with a long story, so I'll shorten it up for you. They betrayed me and turned me into this. A vampire-like being. They weren't entirely successful in their original means, however." He stopped in front of Robin's pod and opened his mouth. It was a normal set of teeth, no fangs.

"A means of feeding were never given to me, and so I have to trot around hospitals to receive the blood I thirst."

"Why not just get it from the townsfolk?" Robin questioned, if he was right about this guy wanting to keep a low profile, then he might be in trouble.

"I like to keep a low profile." The man answered with pride.

Crap…

"I can't have the town thinking there's a rampaging murder on the loose, it'd attract too much unwanted attention. But I see my presence is getting noticed." He stated while gesturing to Robin.

"Tell me, did the Batman send you?" he asked gazing up at Robin.

"Why am I the only one here? Where's my friends?" he quickly changed the subject. Vladimir smiled.

"Probably running around town looking for you. You're the only one I need. The only one worthy really." Robin narrowed his eyes at him.

"You see my dear boy, you and I are a lot alike." He began to walk back towards the console, "I was the most experienced in my team when I worked for Cadmus; I was also the youngest. The others didn't appreciate my work, thought I was chasing childish dreams. Of course that all changed when I presented the possibility to transform a human into a vampire, powers and all. The only thing that went wrong was that they used me as their test subject!" He hissed out, placing his hands on the console and typing in a few commands. Robin's blood type, race, age, and other statistics popped up on the screen.

"So they turned you into a blood thirsty vampire and took away what would have been your primary way of feeding so that you wouldn't go on a rampage and kill everyone out of hatred." Robin finished quickly. "I'm guessing they kept you locked up, most likely frozen in stasis, so that they could try to control you and make you a…"

"…Weapon of destruction. See, we thinking alike." Vlad responded with glee.

"No, I've dealt with Cadmus before; plus, I'm just that good." Robin corrected with a gloat.

"Agreed." The man gave him a grin, "Which is why I've chosen you to join my family." Robin mentally kicked himself for being right so many times.

"You see, I'm lonely Robin. I'm all by myself, was then and still am. My thralls mean nothing to me, none of them have what I have."

"So why didn't you turn them into what you are?" he questioned, trying to figure out how Vladimir thought.

"I only have the means to do the process one more time. I needed a young subject who was strong, smart, and has the power to tick off any of those Justice Leaguers should they come to interfere with my plans." He glanced down at the console and pressed a button.

"Congratulations, Robin…" An arm moved out from the side of the pod and positioned its needle towards Robin's neck. Robin looked at it, seeing how its glass was filled with some unknown yellow liquid.

"I chose you." Vladimir finished just as the needle injected its contents into his blood stream. Its effects spread rapidly throughout his body as he quickly grew cold and numb. His eyes widened as he gasped out.

"A special formula of mine," Vlad stated as he approached Robin's pod. "I won't bore you with the details, so let's just say it's a blood thinner." He grinned through the glass, placing his hands on it as he watched the process begin. Two more arms came out and injected something into both sides of Robin's hips. He couldn't move, much less make any noise from the pain. All he could do was look at the pale man in front of him.

"The first part's the most painful." He said, more caring now. Another arm came out, positioned at his chest as its needles sparked with electricity.

"But you're strong, Robin."

The needle imbedded itself into his chest, sending bolts of electricity throughout his body. A blood curdling scream broke from his lips as his body experienced shock waves stronger than any before.

"You will make for an excellent son."

Sorry I didn't upload the chapter yesterday like I said I would. Didn't get to work on it on Monday like I had planned. I'd like to thank everyone who is reading my story, as well as following and favoriting it. If i'm able to work on the next chapter today, than chapter 6 will be uploaded tomorrow morning.

Thanks again for all the reads!