Hopefully this makes up for the really short chapter. I'm working on my action guys, so I'm sorry if it's not exactly satisfactory. This marks the beginning of a very fast paced next few chapters. I'm hoping the chapters will be longer from here on out.

After what felt like forever, Dick reached the heart of DC. The Hall of Justice was a mere five blocks away, and he was getting the jitters. The type someone gets when they're about to do something crazy, stupid, or both. Parking his R-cycle in a secure location, he kept to the shadows and made his way forward.

True to his fashion, it was dark outside. It must have been close to the wee hours of the morning, because despite the night, there was a reduction of civilians out and about. DC was dirty, but nowhere near the level of Gotham.

Luck was on his side; because of how late the hour was, most of the League would have retired to bed in their own home cities. Only a couple of League members would be in the Watch Tower, and if he was lucky, it wasn't Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, or Martian Manhunter. He'd rather not have any combinations of them either.

Getting into the Hall of Justice wasn't a problem. Despite the League's security, Robin had hacked on through. No, the problem was figuring out how to get up into the Watch Tower. Approaching the computer, Robin ran his hands along the numerous buttons.

This brought back memories of being naïve; of following blindly instead of carving out his own path. Now he'd been on his own for nearly an entire year. He'd proved to himself he could do it. He could manage on his own, but he wasn't ready for it. He wanted to be back with his team, with his friends. He wanted Batman.

Swallowing thickly, Robin focused back on the task at hand. Decoding the files and going through each encryption took nearly an hour. This was the Justice League, after all. While this wasn't on Bat computer standards, it was a close second.

He bypassed the recognizer and was surprised to be beamed up. It made his teeth vibrate and he had to take a moment to compose himself once he'd reached solid ground. Immediately he set to taking out the motion sensors, cameras, and emergency shut down systems. The only thing left to do was get to the control center and send his message.

Creeping down the halls was far more nerve racking than he remembered; before it had been just a simple bad guy he had to watch for, now he was the potential target for many of his idols, the mentors he'd come to appreciate and rely on.

The ache in his chest came back, similar to when he'd had Babs threatening to shoot him. None of them knew him, and while he could play the lost little kid card, he doubted they'd believe him. It took far too much work to get in, and there was no way he was leaving without sending some sort of signal to Batman and the League he knew.

"Yo, you wanna hit the cafeteria? I'm starving!"

"You're always starving."

"Aw, come on! I can't help it, my metabolism and all. I could use a friend to talk to while I'm replenishing myself."

"At three in the morning?"

Robin panicked. Where could he hide? Vent. It took a total of five seconds to crawl in and reattach the lid. He tried to calm his breathing and listened to the footsteps coming closer.

"Please, Superman?"

Not good. Not good at all. If Superman was here, he might as well be screwed. There was nothing he could do against him without the emergency kryptonite Batman always had stored. He was fast and small, sure, but it was going to be one grand escape if it ever came to that.

"Flash, why don't you go on ahead? I'll meet you there later."

"Dude, I'm the Flash," a bit of red was visible from inside of the vent, "I'm going to be done by the time you get there."

"Really? Huh, what's a man to do?" Superman was teasing him, as usual. At least he wasn't mean in this universe. That would have been worse.

Vaguely, Robin wondered if Superman was accepting of Superboy. It would explain the relaxed attitude and the whole… not pissed at the world thing. Maybe once he got back he could try twice as hard to convince Superman to own up to his son and teach him how to do things.

That is, unless that had already happened since he'd been gone. What else had happened while he was here? Kaldur would have been an adult now, and most likely quit Young Justice. M'gann and Superboy would still be in school. Last he'd seen them they were starting to make friends there. Wally would be… probably trying not to fail his classes and have to take summer school again. Artemis would still be in school as well.

He missed them. He missed joking with Wally and trying to get Connor to lighten up. He missed M'gann's awful cooking and pretending it was fabulous. He missed Kaldur's calming demeanor and occasional wise cracking.

Instead he had four trainees at home, probably still pissed at him for just leaving them alone. He really hoped they stayed put. Then again, it was better to finish this up and get back as soon as he could. While he was in thought, Superman and Flash had passed him by. He was thankful Superman's hearing was currently being distracted by Flash's jabbering to hear him within the vent.

Crawling out, he made his way down the hallways as carefully as before, trying to find the control room. He counted at least six members of the Justice League still hanging around in the halls or other rooms. He'd almost gotten caught by Wonder Woman, and that was two of the original seven on duty in the Tower. Things were quickly spiraling into trouble.

Finally, after a while of crawling through vents, he'd managed to find the control room. Luckily for him, whoever it was that was on duty had taken a bathroom or coffee break. He thanked whoever was listening and immediately set to work.

There was a special code Batman had designed for the Watch Tower back in his universe. If anything, this code would direct the signal to the correct dimension. Otherwise he might as well call it quits and resign himself to live here until this universe collapsed.

Deciding not to think about it, he called home.

"Watch Tower, this is Robin. I repeat, this is Robin. Come in, Watch Tower."

He waited, hoping for a response. One never came. Trying again, he repeated his message. Nothing.

"I don't know if you can hear me, but I guess if you get this message later or something, I should at least inform you of my situation." Robin swallowed thickly. "I've been transported to another dimension. Somehow I bounced through time while here and I ended up changing things here."

He paused for a moment to try and hold back the emotions beginning to surface in his voice.

"I need help. I can't do this on my own anymore! Batman, I'm sorry! I—"

"What the—the door isn't opening!" That was Green Lantern.

"I gotta go. I think Superman is trying to break open the door. Please, if you can, come get me. Robin out."

Sure enough, the creaking of the door being pried open coerced Robin to quickly abandon his post and crawl back into the vent he'd crawled out of in the first place. He wasn't quite fast enough, and the door gave in before he could put the plate back onto the vent opening.

"Hey!"

Not good. Not good. He barely slipped away from Superman's fingers grasping at his cape. He was suddenly aware that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going and ended up lost in the vents. Pulling up his computer screen, he was disappointed to find most of the systems back online. A bit of mischief and desperation peeking through, he sent the League mainframe a nasty Robin virus to slow them down. As long as they couldn't see where he was in the vents, he'd be fine for the most part.

Then again…

Robin was about to make his escape through a vent, but was startled when Superman's face suddenly came into view and hit his head on the ceiling of the vent. Slithering back just in the nick of time, Superman's arm once again missed him.

"It's a kid!" Superman called to who he assumed was Wonder Woman and Hawk Girl based on the feminine voices echoing into the vents.

He really underestimated Superman's super hearing. It was difficult to turn around, but he'd managed, and came up with an idea. If Superman had super hearing, he'd have to distract it, just as Flash had unintentionally done for him earlier.

He set off every alarm he could, sirens blaring throughout the entire Tower. Sure, the rest of the League was now on alert, but at least it would lock some of them into different rooms or hallways while he tried to find a way out.

He crawled out through one vent and did his best to remember which way was the exit. He was lucky to succeed, but not without Wonder Woman catching sight of him using the transporter back to the Hall of Justice.

He instantly took off for the streets. She'd have a terrible time finding him once he took cover in the dark—

Oh no.

The sun was peeking over the horizon. Perhaps they'd have an easier time finding him after all. Sure enough, Diana's cry from behind him prompted him to make quick work of the short distance to his R-cycle. Lucky for him, he'd lost Wonder Woman.

"Hey, kid, stop!"

Of course that only meant someone else had found him. Flash was instantly in front of him, hands on his hip and Robin could tell he was quirking an eyebrow from underneath his cowl.

"Geez, how'd you even get into the Tower in the first place? No one's supposed to know about that. Hey, is that a… no way! Dude, you're totally trying to be a—"

"Wally?" Robin examined him further. Barry didn't have freckles that peeked out from the edges of the cowl on his face. Barry didn't, but Wally did. Not only that, Barry never said dude and totally. It just wasn't him. This was definitely Wally.

"What? How do you know my name? I mean, err, what are you talking about kid?"

Yup, this amount of fail in keeping major secrets was completely Wally. An intersection full of early risers on their way to work sparked an idea.

"Oh no! Hurry, the car's about to—" Robin covered his eyes with his gloved hands.

Wally fell for it hook, line, and sinker. He turned his head, analyzing the intersection and trying to see what exactly Robin was talking about. A well placed kick to the groin and another to the head sent Wally skidding across the sidewalk.

"Sorry, Wally!" He called, laughing. "Maybe next time!"

Suddenly it had switched from run and keep yourself safe to playing tag with the Justice League. Life had never felt so good, running and playing instead of being oh so very serious at home and trying to keep from crumbling under the pressure Gotham was putting on him.

"You've been a naughty boy!" Wonder Woman grabbed hold on his cape and threw him onto the side of an office building. Her mistake.

It took him a moment to figure out which was way up before he was scrambling into the halls and hiding from the enraged dark haired beauty. Just when he'd lost her, he went to exit from the nice hold she'd created in the windows she'd thrown him though and was once again spooked by the face of Superman. No, not Superman. It was Superboy.

"Come on!" Kon grabbed a hold of his hand and jumped—no, flew. He was flying!

"Whoa! So you can fly!" Dick couldn't help the giggles bubbling up from him. He'd flown once on Superman's back when they had to go get Batman, who had of course gotten himself in a bit of pickle regarding Lex Luthor. That had been one of his fondest memories of Clark.

"Of course I can fly!" Kon lifted him higher before dropping onto the roof of one of the sky scrapers.

"So what's your deal? Saving me I mean?" Robin looked at him suspiciously.

"You're Tim's brother. What are you even doing here?" Kon crossed his arms and frowned. "Aren't you supposed to be in Gotham?"

"I had to send a message." Robin turned to face the sunrise. "When were you planning on telling him?"

"Tell him what?"

"Tell him you're Superboy." Robin turned back to him, only to be alerted by his communicator beeping. "What?"

"Dad's been grabbed some clown! Where are you? You're supposed to be protecting him!"

"What?" Dick felt his heart drop into his stomach. "What happened?"

"Dad was taken two hours ago by some guys in clown suits. Barbara's trying to get info from the Commissioner. Where are you?"

"I'm coming home right now! Just… just don't move or say anything to anyone until I get there, okay?"

Dick was on the verge of hyperventilating. Bruce, the one person he was supposed to protect above anyone else had been taken by the Joker. He'd failed in such a simple task. It was because he'd selfishly gone and sent that message. If he'd gone any other night, he might've…

"What's going on? Is Tim okay?" Kon took a shaky step forward.

"Dick, you need to get here now! Alfred and Grandpa think they're coming after us next."

"On my way, just get everyone to the Batcave and don't move from there! Okay? Make sure Babs gets there too. If she's already gone, don't go after her. Okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Tim's voice was shaky. He was scared; for good reason. If the Joker was after you things were about to get frightening. It wasn't something you recovered easily from.

Dick didn't have time to take a deep breath before the plunge anymore. It was do or die and he was going to face the Joker alone.

"Hey!" Kon yelled, grabbing onto Robin's shoulders and shaking them roughly. "What's going on?"

"It's Bruce." Robin answered. "We need to get to Gotham, now. The others are probably next if we don't hurry."

"Get on!" Kon bent down and motioned for dick to climb onto him for a sort of piggyback ride. "I'll take us there in fifteen minutes."

Robin nodded and Kon made sure he had a good grip on Robin before taking off. They could only hope nothing happened in the next fifteen minutes.