Robin's screams echoed throughout the room as the electric currents poured into his chest and spread to all parts of his body. If he could move, he'd be thrashing like crazy at the moment, but all he was able to do was scream. He'd never felt anything so painful before, and him being Robin, that was really saying something. It felt like his heart was being ripped out!

He tried to say something through his screams, but didn't know if any words made it through all of the 'aaahhhs'.

"Hang in there Robin, just a bit longer." A slightly muffled voice came from outside the glass. Robin forced his eyes open, albeit just a little bit, to see what the guy was doing. He sounded close.

Vladimir was standing in front of the pod, his hands on the glass as he stared into Robin's eyes. Once he noticed they were open a bit, he focused his gaze and created a psychic link with the boy.

Robin's eyes quickly shut, that voice from before running through his mind again. His head whipped to the side then to the other as he tried to fight it. His ears started ringing again, unfortunately for him, he couldn't move to do anything about it.

"Wha… what are y-you… what are… y—doing…?" Robin breathed out, just now noticing the fact that his body wasn't being electrocuted anymore.

"Look at me." Came Vlad's voice through the glass.

"No!" Robin half-screamed, surprised that he still had his voice after all of his hollering only seconds earlier. The man sighed and closed his eyes. The ringing in Robin's ears increased and he let out a groan as a headache started to form. Keeping his eyes shut tight, he tried kicking his legs out, but the restrains kept them locked in place.

Let me in. His voice rang through the link.

No!

I said, let me in…

And I said NO!

Don't make yourself more trouble than your worth, boy. The voice hissed.

I won't give in!

Will you now?

No… Robin's concentration was starting to waver.

That's it…

Get out!

Just let me take control…

I… said… get… out…!

You're slipping.

Stop…

Batman might have trained you to resist, but you can't hold on forever.

The voice giggled

You're only human.

I'm not.

Suddenly, Vladimir screamed and clutched his head, falling backwards onto the floor. He kept one hand on his head as he used the other to help lift himself up. He stumbled over to the console, relinquishing his link with Robin as soon as the blast occurred.

He growled, "I hate Martians!"

With an outstretched hand, he leaned himself against the desk, and typed in a code, the pod coming to life again. Two arms with IV tubes came out from the sides and positioned their two needles at Robin's neck. The unconscious boy hung still now, his head bowed and neck fully exposed. With more typing, the needles moved towards the skin, all four injecting themselves into the main arteries. A whirring sound came from the pod and blood started to stream through the tubes.

Vladimir watched on a monitor as a percentage steadily increased, changing from 2% to 5% in mere seconds. He smiled before grunting, clutching his head with both hands now. His grin faded into a frown, then a growl let loose from his lips. His eyes opened to show red glowing fiercely from the pupils.

His voice rang throughout the cave system, reaching his thralls as he gave his orders. Robin's friends had somehow found his lair…

"A persistent bunch you are." He said to himself. He looked up at Robin's pod, his stern expression remaining as he glared at the Boy Wonder.

"But not persistent enough." He hissed, slowing down the pace at which blood was being drained from the Boy Wonder. With that, he left the console and walked back towards the door, holding his head as he took a couple deep breathes. That mental blast from the Martian had weakened him, and he needed time to recuperate. Once he regained his strength, he could continue the process… after the children have been dealt with.

Unknown
8 miles under; 24:24 EST
Monday

The Team approached the abandoned mine shaft, each one glaring into its depths before they glanced over at M'gann who held Robin's portable tracking device.

"This is the place." She confirmed as she glanced up from it to her teammates.

"Right, no telepathic link this time. Since our foe possesses psychic powers, the link may have well been what initially got us caught in the first place." Aqualad announced, looking away from the mine and at his teammates.

"How are we going to communicate then, I'm pretty sure our coms are off the list too." Kid Flash commented.

"We don't." Kaldur simply replied. All of them shared a sudden look of either surprise, worry, or confusion.

"What, we're going in there acting like Batman and Robin?" Kid stated with a hint of doubt.

"Um, no offence, Aqualad," Zatanna pipped up, "but we're not exactly at that level of communication."

"It's not about communication, it's about trust." Aqualad began. "I've known you guys for over a year now, Zatanna nearly half. We've been through much together, and although we do use the link, we've always stuck to the plan and performed our part in the fight. Even back at the site, we lost communication with each other, but still pulled through. As long as we stick to the plan and trust one another that we each will do our parts, we have nothing to worry about."

Kaldur continued after a short pause. "That's how Batman and Robin can communicate without speaking. They trust each other to an end none of us can see. And right now, Robin needs that from us."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Superboy said.

"Yeah, let's get in there and kick some butt!" Kid Flash added with a mischievous smile, slapping a fist into his open hand. Zatanna smirked right alongside him.

"Good," Artemis added, taking out her bow, "I finally get to show that pale low life what I'm made of."

"Then let's move out." Aqualad commanded as they all split into their intended groups and entered the cave.

Kid Flash dashed off with Artemis on his heels, heading down one tunnel, while Zatanna and Superboy took another. M'gann and Aqualad stood in front of a fork, Aqualad choosing to take the one of the left. As they trotted down the dirt tunnel, Miss Martian hovering, Aqualad spoke up.

"Miss Martian, if you sense anything, notify me immediately." M'gann didn't answer, her eyes falling down towards the ground as she slowed down and suddenly stopped.

"Miss Martian?" Aqualad questioned with worry as he too stopped and walked back to her. M'gann was no longer hovering above the ground.

"Aqualad, I—"

"What is it?" The Atlantean stood in front of the Martian.

"When we got here, the enemy… his mind, it's so powerful here." She stated as a hand lightly touched her temple. "I read his mind," she said before her eyes grew and her head launched up. "Not that he knows, his thoughts were projected, I just picked up on it. But—"

She sighed, looking at Aqualad with concern. "I know what he wants to do with Robin. He… wants to turn him into a vampire."

Aqualad's eyes widened.

Kid dashed down the dark tunnel, his goggles helping him see through the darkness. His direction was only one way, as there seemed to be no other passages; strange for an old, abandoned mineshaft. He was starting to think its caves weren't even made for miners.

He gasped softly as he suddenly found himself out in the open of a decent size nook. Quickly, he slid to a halt and examined his surroundings. Crates piled up next to a mine cart were the only objects to greet his presence within the dark cave. His eyes followed the tracks the cart was on, leading him down the large corridor ahead of him.

Suddenly, he was hit from behind. The attack sent him flying into defense mode as he whipped around to counteract the…

Artemis stood behind him, a very unpleasant look on her face, as he glared at the speedster. With her hands on her hips, she didn't bother moving from Kid Flash's reaction.

"Artemis?"

"It would be nice for you to slow down a bit, Kid Idiot." She complained.

"What, can't keep up?" Kid teased.

"Every time you run ahead, we get caught." She argued.

"There's nothing to get caught on down here besides some tree roots." The speedster joked, but Artemis could see through the façade.

"Is that really why you ran off?" she questioned, her anger subsiding. Wally sighed.

"Alright fine. I just want to find Rob."

"Aqualad and Miss Martian are respon—" Kid interrupted her.

"I couldn't help him last time, I was…" he grunted from awkwardness of the conversation. And with Artemis, of all people.

"Too slow?" she finished for him. Kid looked up at her. "You're not the only one hurting. Superboy got his butt kicked, Miss Martian got knocked unconscious, and I helped the enemy find Robin." She reminded him, angry at the last bit.

"That wasn't your fault." Kid comforted. Artemis glanced away.

"I know, but the same goes for you too." She replied back, looking the speedster in the eye. Wally smiled warmly at her, before quickly fixing himself.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with Artemis?" he joked, backing up a bit to add character. She walked up to him and punched his arm before heading down the corridor.

"Oh, shut up. Come on, we've got a rescue mission to do." He dashed up beside her before slowly down to her pace.

"Hey, quick question." Wally asked. "How comes you can see down here?"

"It's not as dark as you think, Baywatch." She replied with a slight chuckle.

Kid stopped in his tracks with wide eyes before removing his goggles and looking around. The environment was dimmed, but a light from down the corridor and a couple up the tunnel gave enough for them to see where they were walking.

The speedster's head lobbed backwards as he groaned loudly at his stupidity.

Zatanna and Superboy casually made their way down the tunnel, their mission as clear as it was for Kid Flash and Artemis. Superboy kept an ear out for any hostiles, but found that the place seemed empty, though it was a tunnel. His radius didn't pick anything up, and it had him on edge. Zatanna picked up on it and decided to act.

"Hey, don't worry about what happened before." Her voice rang out into the silence, seemingly louder than it actually was.

"Huh?" the Kryptonian inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Your fight with the vampire." She explained further.

"You mean fights." The clone responded with evident anger in his tone. "I'm Superboy, I'm supposed to be Superman's clone! A replica of him! I couldn't even take out a vampire!" he complained, making sure to keep his voice low enough as to not give away their presence.

"Clone does not mean replica."

"It sure is a synonym." He mumbled back.

"Superboy, you're half Kryptonian. Do you even know who Kryptonians are, what they're like? Their culture? For all we know, they could be evil people who just want to destroy other planets." She tried to reason with him.

Superboy gave her a look, clearly her choice of words was not helping him.

She sighed and tried again, "My father… always used to tell me that the more power you possess—"

"The more responsibility you have." He finished for her. "I've heard it before."

"No," she corrected, "He told me, the more power you have, the harder it is. With magic, you have to gain the spell's energy from within yourself. With powerful spells, you have to focus more, you have to make sure you don't over exhaust yourself, and you certainly can't mispronunciation any words or else it all comes tumbling down like a house of cards." Superboy looked up at her from where his eyes were glued to the ground.

"I'm sure Superman has his own troubles, just because he's Superman doesn't mean he's a super man." She finished.

"So… what you're saying is… I'm not weak." Superboy summarized it all. Zatanna glanced around a bit, realizing that's all she needed to say.

"Yes. We all went up against him and got sore butts." Then it dawned on her. "Actually…"

"What is it?"

"That's it! That's why we couldn't defeat him! We were only one at a time. We didn't all attack together." She concluded.

"Just think about it. All the times we went up against him, it was always one on one. If both of us go up against him, I bet he'll be experiencing more of a challenge than our last meeting." Zatanna explained.

Superboy sighed out a chuckle, "Looks like Robin rubbed off on you."

Zatanna's smile wavered, "Are you calling me dumb?" Superboy's eyes grew and he quickly looked over at her.

"No, I just meant—"

"Haha, I'm kidding." She informed him, her smile coming back tenfold.

"Oh," Superboy replied, a bit embarrassed. "A-and thanks."

"No problem." She accepted happily. They continued their walk in silence until Superboy spoke up.

"So what about you?" he asked all of a sudden.

"Hmm?"

"You must be feeling something from all of this." At that, Zatanna removed her eyes from Superboy's and glanced down at the ground.

"I just want Robin back." She answered sadly before continuing. "Why just him? You heard what he said, this vampire was looking into Aqualad and Kid Flash's profiles too."

"Maybe he just needed one of them?" The question was getting him nowhere as Zatanna didn't reply and didn't look up.

"Look, it doesn't matter right now. What matters is that we're down a friend, and we need to get him back before that vampire decided to do anything he'll regret." Conner stated with a good fist in palm. Zatanna glanced up at him and smiled.

"Thank you."

"No problem."