A.N. Kawaii, so many kind reviews! / Merci! Vous êtes très sympa~ !

Disclaimer: Really? I already said it (four times -.-), don't make me say it again…

Chapter Five: The Boy on the Rooftop

Robin had a headache. Strange. He never had headaches.

He opened his eyes to blessed darkness. It was usually dark when he woke, just because of how early he got up (except when patrol went long enough that he was allowed to sleep in—but that almost never happened—or on the weekends), and the small sense of normalcy it provided was welcomed.

It was as he was sliding out of bed that he remembered that the room he had been given had no windows. Which didn't really have to mean anything, but it made him pause. Something felt…off. He considered it for a few seconds, then reached a decision and conjured up a mental picture of the room's layout. He walked to the bathroom with his eyes shut.

His memory was, as usual, impeccable; there was a clock hanging on the wall next to the mirror. It was nine-thirty in the morning.

Robin blinked, and looked again. It still said nine-thirty. No. Nine thirty-one. It took him a moment, but then it clicked. The headache, the extra sleep—he'd been drugged. But why?

He turned all the lights on and searched the room for cameras. He found four, but none of them seemed to have been used in quite some time. He deactivated them anyway. Next he searched himself, looking for odd bruises (especially in the crooks of his elbows), cuts, or anything else suspicious.

He found nothing.

Next; his belongings, such as they were. Really he only had the backpack.

And jackpot. It'd been searched. Very carefully; he almost couldn't tell it'd been touched at all. But he knew he wasn't wrong.

So. Somebody infiltrated the tower—no, that didn't make sense. From what he'd seen, it wouldn't be impossible, but it'd be pretty darn hard. And, at least as far as he knew, nobody in this universe knew who he was; thus, there wasn't anybody who would want to break in, and especially not just to search his backpack. No, it was much more likely that this was the work of one of the Avengers themselves.

Robin realized that he'd underestimated them. It wouldn't happen again.

He didn't know any of them well enough to try to guess who had done it with any real accuracy. But that didn't matter much. Ultimately, the real questions were; how much did they find, what conclusion did they reach, and who, if anyone, did they tell?

—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE— BREAKLINE—

"What do you mean, am I sure? Of course I am! I'm telling you, he's—no—hold on a second," Pepper's forehead creased in annoyance. "Look, I can double check for you, but—okay, fine. Fine! J.A.R.V.I.S., put this call on hold please, and connect me to Tony Stark."

"Phone call on hold. Connecting you now."

A beep, then;

"Pepper? Everything okay? We were about to start the meeting,"

"Tony, is Bruce there?"

A pause. She waited impatiently.

"Um. Yeah. He's right next to me. Pepper—"

"Perfect, thanks," she interrupted him before he could finish. "Sorry to bother you. Talk to you later. J.A.R.V.I.S., end call."

"Call to: Tony Stark. Ended."

"Thank you. Put the police back on."

Static. Then, muffled; "Ms. Potts?"

"Yes. I'm back. The hulk is currently accounted for. Whatever or whoever you're having difficulty with, it isn't him." She didn't wait to hear his response. "J.A.R.V.I.S., disconnect."

"Disconnected. Is there anything else you require at this time?"

Pepper sighed, but nodded. "Is the kid up yet?"

"Sensory data indicates a positive answer."

"Perfect." She'd checked on him earlier, and had been disappointed to find him still asleep. "Tell him that there should be clothes in the dresser, if he hasn't already found them, and then send him to the kitchen when he's ready."

"Affirmative. Which one?"

"Third floor."

"He is on his way now."

Pepper raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised. "Well, that was fast."

—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE— BREAKLINE—

"What was that all about?" Clint wanted to know. Tony looked at him; clean-shaven and clean, Hawkeye was the picture of alertness. If Tony didn't know better, he would never have thought that this same man had been wasted on medication less than twelve hours previously.

"Nothing important," Tony told him. The truth was that he really had no idea, but there was no way he was ever going to admit that.

"Then can we begin?" Nick Fury was not in a good mood today, Tony noticed. But then, was he ever? "Yesterday afternoon at three twenty-three precisely, our sensors detected a huge power surge centered around, and seemingly emanating from, downtown New York."

"What kind of power?" This from Black Widow. Her face was typically blank of anything except professional concern, but Tony thought he detected a twinge of urgency in the way she almost imperceptively leaned forward.

"That's just it. We aren't sure."

Tony almost choked. Did Fury—Nick Fury—just admit to not knowing something?

"Get that look off your face, Stark." Fury snapped at him.

"Touchy, touchy…" Tony muttered, but obeyed.

"The closest approximation is what we have so far observed of Morgan le Fay's…magic…but tainted with something else we've never encountered."

"What were the aftereffects? Were there any?" How Hawkeye managed to look so serious while dressed in pink and purple, Tony had no idea.

"Yes. Odd things, here and there, spread out over the next several hours. As far as we can tell, it was observable mainly in small ways—a car changing color for an hour, then changing back. Some people become suddenly sick. Several comatose patients woke up for the first time in years. Other people fell asleep, though they all woke up again within an hour or two at the most. Electronics were also affected; your tower was. We—"

Tony's head shot up so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "I knew it!" He hadn't, but it explained a lot; the odd, sudden 'glitch' in his systems that day, the lack of any discernible cause… "Told J.A.R.V.I.S. I didn't make a mistake," he said, mostly to himself. And then, again; "I knew it."

"Yes…" Director Fury looked less than please at his outburst. "The power was not, as far as we can tell, malevolent, though its catalyst and purpose are still unknown. The side-effects seem to have been random and scattered; no clues there. However—"

"Sir!" A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent burst into the room. Fury was less than pleased to have been interrupted twice in as many minutes, but he let it pass.

"What is it?"

"A second power surge has been detected. Exactly like the one from yesterday!"

With an oath, Director Fury was on his feet. The Avengers, taking their cue from him, also stood. Tony cast a quick, cautious glance at Dr. Banner, but he didn't appear angry, only puzzled.

"Just now?" Fury demanded sharply.

"N-no sir." Interesting, Tony thought. He didn't think he'd heard a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent stutter before. It was good to know that they were human. "It was about ten minutes ago now—"

Fury looked ready to strangle someone. "Why wasn't I informed immediately?"

"The computers—we had some technical difficulties, which we believe were caused by the event in question—and we had to be sure. You said this meeting was important—"

"And to notify me if there were any new developments," Fury growled. They were all in the hallway now, moving quickly towards the command center.

"Is there a problem? You said that the power was not malevolent. Or did I mishear?"

"No, Thor, you did not. But I also said that we weren't sure."

"Sir!" A second agent brushed past Captain America.

"What now?" Fury didn't stop, and the agent had to jog to keep up.

"There are reports coming in of a possible meta; he appears to be a teenager, though the pictures are grainy, with strength like the hulk."

"But not green-skinned?" Bruce blurted. The agent barely glanced at him and didn't answer.

"Not green-skinned?" Fury repeated.

"No, sir. Black-haired, caucasian."

They strode into the command center, and Fury immediately started barking orders. In the rush of noise of people, Tony couldn't hear all of what was being said, but he heard enough to gather that reports were still coming in, the last known location of the super-powered kid was the football stadium (which was now being searched). It sounded like the boy had just appeared, falling from the sky several minutes after the power spiked and the helicarrier started glitching. Super-kid* had walked away after that and mingled with people a few streets over. He would have gotten away, but a description of him was obtained and played on every news channel and he was spotted within seconds. Since then, he'd been on the run, occasionally moving cars or leaping a bridge to escape his pursuers. That was how he had been driven into the stadium, and he hadn't been seen since.

Tony listened carefully to all of this, but one thing in particular stood out to him.

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me this guy just fell? From the sky?"

"Yes. Don't make me say it again." Fury grunted.

"Wait—but—" Fury had already walked off. Tony turned to Bruce instead and finished his thought in a hushed whisper. "Teleportation?"

Bruce considered. "Well, it's not like he fell off the helicarrier, so I'd say it was a definite possibility."

Clint, who had been listening in silence to their conversation, stepped forward. "But if that's how he got up there, we still need to figure out exactly how it worked, seeing as not even you can teleport, Stark—"

"Yet!" Tony's protest was ignored.

"—and we need to find out why."

"Without more information," Bruce said after some thought, "We really have no way to know."

"Perhaps he is from one of the other realms. Asgard, for example, possesses magical beings with great power."

"Can people on Asgard teleport, then?" Tony was curious.

"Loki can."

"Perfect," Clint said lowly. "Just perfect."

None of them were pleased by this new revelation, but they didn't have time to dwell on it. Fury was moving back towards them, and he didn't look happy.

"Get ready. You're going in."

—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE—BREAKLINE— BREAKLINE—

"So you see, it was what we call a steady malfunction," Zatara explained. "The spell was knocked off-kilter, and it stuck like that. It's clear that it was always meant to affect the entire team, and I believe that in that regard it succeeded. However, the timing—when it came into full effect—was randomized, and it's looking like it's different for each one of you. Robin first; then Superboy, hours after. Also, their ultimate destinations were different, if I'm seeing this right—it is likely they were both sent to the same dimension, the same world, even, but almost certainly they are in different states, or even different countries.*"

"Which will make retrieval difficult," Black Canary commented. "But not impossible."

"Yes. And now we have a way to find them." He turned to what was left of the Young Justice team with a small smile. "You."

"Whoa, hey, hold up there." Kid Flash made a 'time out' signal with his hands. "What do you mean…us?"

"You were all hit with the spell. I could not recognize it before because I was not looking; but when I felt Superboy's departure, I felt the magic flare in all of you, as well. You will all follow, in your own time."

"You're kidding." Artemis looked like she didn't know whether to be happy or horrified. She settled for 'disturbed'.

"Zatara." Batman was inscrutable, as always. "The plan.

"No, Artemis, I am not. And…yes. The plan. I have already tagged you all with my magic. Where you go, I will be able to follow. I will stay with you all until someone else is pulled through. Then I shall know for certain if I have done it right, and I—along with some other members of the Justice League who have already volunteered their services—" everyone carefully avoided looking at Batman. "will go after you, find everyone, and bring you back. We may have to go more than once as the rest of you are pulled in, but there is no reason why any of you should be in that world for more than a few minutes."

"This is a relief," Aqualad said, and meant it. "However, we still need to discover what the original plan was, and who was involved, correct?"

"Correct." Batman's voice was actually a shade darker than usual. The reason for this became clear with his next sentence; "Other members of the League are already investigating. But right now, that is not your concern. You will all help us find the other dimension by staying here. Understood?"

They wanted to argue. If Robin had been there, he almost certainly would have. But they were not Robin, and none of them dared speak up while Batman was glaring at them like that.

"Understood."

*Sorry, couldn't resist X3

*Clearly Zatara is only partially right…that is because he is still in the preliminary stages of figuring this whole mess out. In my headcanon, spells that go wrong are highly unpredictable, and it's difficult to find out as much as Zatara did. This is why Zatara is on the Justice League; he is awesome. However, he does not know everything…

A.N. HAPPY NEW YEAR, PEOPLE! I wanted to give y'all a chapter at midnight, but I got sick and actually ended up falling asleep at barely ten o'clock. . But, I do seem to be better now, so yay for that. :)

Dang, this chapter was hard. So many characters to keep track of…I'm not sure I managed it very well. Please, please, please tell me if you find anyone out of character. And I'm not happy with the length…but I wanted to get something up today. Oh, and, I'm thinking of bringing Roy in. Opinions? And is it just me, or are my chapter titles completely lame? XP Connor's name wasn't in here once. EDIT: I have changed the title from A Boy Named Conner (took me long enough, yes?), so hopefully the new title fits a bit more. Or…you know…at all.

Thank you for reading. And thank you all for the feedback you've already given. I feel very supported and encouraged. :)