A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your patience and support for the past couple weeks. I had a great trip, but it's great to be home, and I've finally found the time to write some more for you :) I know it's a bit shorter than usual, but the next chapter should be longer, so please bare with me. So, I hope you enjoy, and I hope to get the next chapter out soon, as I've already started on it!

"Why! Just why!" Artemis hissed at her fellow teammates. The gang had them totally surrounded, the sounds of cocking guns reverberating off the filth-coated walls. "What on earth were you thinking! You should've listened to me!"

"Forgive us, Artemis, you are right. We should have heard you out before entering."

"OH, YA THINK?"

"Hey kiddies," the leader called out to them, "I'd tell ya to have your little tiff elsewhere, but unfortunately, we can't let ya's leave. So just zip it."

"What, you wanna go, buddy?" Raquel challenged back, already rolling up her sleeves and getting ready to charge at the gang leader.

Kaldur grabbed her arm before she could storm off into trouble. "Rocket, wait," he ordered firmly, but then dropped his voice to a hushed whisper, "He is just trying to rile you up. Please do not give him the satisfaction."

"Oh, come on, Kal!" Raquel whined back, although she dropped her own volume to match his, "Just let me sock that sleazy grin off his face!"

"Wait," he hissed again, "Let me try to get us out of this first. And if that does not work—"

"—then I can hit 'im where it hurts?"

"Yes, then. But not yet."

"Hey! What'd I just say, fish head?" the irked gang leader bellowed, cocking the pistol in his hand, "Just shut yer yap, already!"

"Please listen to me," the Atlantian raised his hands up in surrender, "We are not here to cause you any grief. We are simply looking for someone. If you let us leave now, we can avoid all meaningless conflict and struggle. So—"

"Ha! Riiiiiight. Of course it was just an accident that six super brats stumbled upon our humble abode, eh?"

"Yes, that is precisely what happened," Kaldur stated simply without even batting an eye.

The man rolled his eyes. "Come on now, do you take me for an idiot or sometin'?" he replied with a casual twirl of his pistol, "I've been around dis joint longer than you brats have been alive, and I've learned a thing or two from dealin' wit' those Bats! You supers can never just leave things be, always gotta stick yer nose into everyone else's business!"

Kaldur shook his head. "Not this time. We are not from around here. As far as we know, you have done nothing wrong, and thus we have no reason to turn you over to the police."

The gang leader's eyes narrowed as he listened to Kaldur's plea, but his gun remained pointed at the Atlantean's chest. Aqualad took this as a good sign, and continued his attempt, "We do not know who you are, nor where we are, so even if we wanted to report you, we would have no way of finding or identifying you."

"Come on, boss, don't listen to this wanna-be-hero!" yelled an action-hungry follower from behind a machine gun, "Just shoot 'im already and shut 'im up for good!"

"You shut the hell up!" The leader swung his pistol around on his lacky, glaring him down before turning back to Aqualad. "Go on, fish head. Tell me why it'd be better to let ya all go instead of killin' ya."

"We do not know this city, so we would be unable to turn you in. And if we really wanted to hand you over to the police, we would have attacked you already, rather than try to talk this out." Mumbling could be heard throughout the mob of thugs at this comment. Kaldur waited for the commotion to die back down before continuing, "However, if you kill us, you will have to face the wrath of the League. And that of a very good friend of ours, who happens to know these streets very, very well. And I do not think that is something you want to deal with, considering that you've dealt with the 'Bats' before."

Eyebrow twitching slightly, the gang leader finally lowered his pistol to his side. "So, we let ya's go, and you all keep yer mouths shut?"

"Yes, that is correct," Kaldur said with a nod, then held out his hand to the scruffy man. "Do we have a deal?"

The thug eyed the outstretched hand suspiciously. "How do I know I can trust ya? How can I be sure that everythin' you just told me is da truth?"

"I am an Atlantian," Kaldur responded matter-of-factly, "And an Atlantian never goes back on his word."

The man's eyes flicked from the young hero's face back to the offered hand before swapping his pistol from his right hand to his left and reaching forward to accept the handshake.

Whooooosh.

"Wooahh!" A couple of thugs suddenly toppled to the ground near the back of the building, causing every head to turn back in surprise.

The leader's eyebrow twitched again. "What are you bozos—"

"Wait, boss," one other man cut him off, "What's that noise?"

A hand gripped Kaldur's shoulder from behind. "Aqualad," came Artemis's harsh whisper. Between her biting nails and her venomous tone, he knew that she was thinking the same thing as him.

Beep.

"Boss, did you hear it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard it Freddie, now shut up."

Beep…beep…beep.

"Boss… what is that?"

"It's nothing! Probably just yer watch, now if you don't mind, I'll—"

Whoooooosh.

"WHAAA!" Another three goons face-planted into the cold cement.

"Would you idiots quit trippin' ov'r yerselves, already!"

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.

"Boss, the beeping is getting faster!"

"I KNOW, SHUT UP!"

"Kaldur," Superboy spoke up, "That noise isn't just getting faster. It's also coming from two different points in the building. They're—"

"Bombs," Kaldur finished for him, eyes still locked on the men arguing in front of them.

"And I'll give you three guessing as to who could place and engage two bombs in less than five seconds without anyone seeing him," Artemis growled, eyes flashing with anger, "If we get out of this alive, remind me to maim my boyfriend, 'kay?"

Whoooooosh. Whooooooooosh.

Beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep-beep. Beep-beep-beep-beep.

"Superboy, how many bombs did he set?"

"Three, four, five… maybe more. I—I can't really tell without my super-hearing…"

The gang leader swung back around towards the teenage heroes, his face growing red with rage. "You! You tricked me! You were just stalling for—"

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. The bombs reached the climax of their beeping symphony and exploded, taking the support beams of the building out with them. The walls began to shake, debris falling from the ceiling.

Kaldur spun around to face his teammates. "We need to get out of here before it collapses!"

"What about them!" Zatanna yelled back over the rumbling noise, pointing in the direction of the mob of thugs.

But when the team turned back to go help the gang, they were met with nothing but crumbling walls.

"Where'd they go?" M'gann asked before diving to the side to avoid a falling chunk of cement.

"Wally must have pulled them out already," Kaldur yelled back in reply as he helped her back on her feet.

"How could he do that?" Artemis asked disbelievingly, "Even with his speed, he couldn't have pulled them all out that fast, and I highly doubt that they would just willingly let him drag them away… one… one by… by one…"

Suddenly, the archer swooned, and Conner had to catch her before she hit the ground. But the Boy of Steel didn't look too good either, and he was soon on his knees as well.

"Con-Conner…" his girlfriend called out and tried to help him up, only to pass out next to him.

Zatanna was the next to crumple to her knees. "K-Kaldur," she said weakly, forcing her eyes to remain open, "Bombs… not…. not bombs. Fake." She pointed to the corner of the room, where Aqualad saw a buffeting cloud of smoke pouring out of a tiny machine. "Fake," she repeated, her eyes fluttering shut, "Robin's… sleep gas… explosion… just… a hallucina…tion…"

Kaldur forced his mind to focus and realized that he too had fallen to the ground, Raquel collapsed in his lap. He slapped her face lightly, trying to awaken her, but to no avail. He felt his own limbs grow heavier, as if an enormous weight had been dropped onto his shoulders. Collapsing to the ground beside his teammates, the last thing he remembered seeing was a shadow suddenly appear in front of him and a gloved hand grab him by the shoulders before pulling him off into the darkness…

A/N: So there you go! Thank you for taking your time to read, and be sure to leave a review!