A/N: Hey guys! I'm really sorry this took so long, but you know, school :P I've got midterms this week, so it may be a couple weeks til the next chapter too, but at least that gives you more time to guess who the laser girl is ;) You don't have much time left, so good luck! And thank you everyone who reviewed and/or guessed laser girl's identity! If I haven't responded to your review yet, I promise I will get around to that soon :D Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
1:21 AM
"So, kiddies," the laser girl smiled venomously, "Who wants to die first?"
"We need to get out of here," M'gann told the others urgently, "Now."
"This way!" Rocket yelled, racing towards the wall Kaldur had just disappeared into.
"Rocket, wait! It's too late to save Aqualad!" Zatanna called out to her friend only to realize that Artemis was actually following her, "Artemis?"
"Where are you two going? That's a solid brick wall!" Superboy yelled over his shoulder as he eyed the unstable structure they were running at, "Well, maybe not solid, but close enough!"
"Nevermind, just hurry up and follow!" the archer barked back before following Raquel straight into the wall of bricks.
"Well, it's not like we have a lot of other options," M'gann decided, and grabbing her boyfriend's hand, she followed Zatanna over to the wall.
"There's a trap door," Zatanna noted in surprise as she quickly walked into the shadows and emerged on the other side of the building, closely followed by Miss Martian and Superboy. Her eyebrows furrowed as she turned around to study their escape route. "I'm a magician, and even I don't get how that worked."
"Nevermind, we don't have time for that!" Superboy told her as he pushed her lightly forward and started to run, "It won't be long 'til they follow us through that thing! Let's move!" The others didn't need to be told twice, and they quickly followed the clone's lead.
"I told Kaldur that there were secret passages in these walls!" Raquel noted bitterly, and her face fell, "We have to find him."
"Right now, we just need to get away!" Superboy reiterated his earlier statement. As much as he wanted to find Aqualad, they didn't have the time to worry about it.
"And whatever we do, we can't get separated again!" Artemis demanded, her breath short as they ran through the empty streets, "There's no way we'll survive if that hap—AAAHHHHH!"
The Team skidded to a halt and swung around to see the archer being dragged up the side of the building by a giant thick vine.
"Not a second time!" Conner yelled and quickly grabbed a hold of the weed before it could slither away. But he overestimated his strength again, and he was dragged up the concrete wall along with the archer. "Go on!" he yelled back at the team before they disappeared from view, "We'll be fine!"
"I—OW!—really hope you've actually—OUCH!—got a plan!" Artemis yelled to her fellow victim as the vine bashed them into everything in its path as it slithered across the rooftops.
"Not really," he yelled back, adjusting himself carefully so as not to fall off, "Can you see—OW! Ugh, I hate being human! Can you see where this thing is sprouting from?"
"Well, it's kinda hard to see when I'm being slammed into every freaking trash heap up here, but I don't think it's anywhere close by."
"Then we're just going to have to get off this ride a little early!" With one arm still wrapped tightly around the vine, he shoved his hand into his pocket and tried to find the small item he was looking for.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Artemis screamed, turning her body around in the vine's grasp as much as possible and grabbing hold of Superboy, "Are you stupid! You're going to fall if you—wait, is that a lighter?" She watched as he attempted to light the device, although he was obviously having some difficulty with the speed the vine was moving at. "Why the hell do you have a lighter!"
"Canary's survival training, remember?" he grunted as the flame finally flickered to life, "Fire is a source of light and warmth, so it's the first thing we're supposed to pack. And I figured Robin wouldn't consider it a weapon." Moving quickly before the wind extinguished it, he pressed the flame against the plant wrapped around Artemis, and gave a silent prayer that this would actually work. Luckily, it did, and the flame started to lap at the oversized vegetable and quickly burned halfway through the bulky weed. That was about as long as Superboy could stand to wait, and the two heroes quickly ripped through the rest of the vine, which in turn reeled back in apparent pain and tossed the teens onto the rooftop below before slithering away.
"Owwww," Artemis groaned as she pushed herself up off the concrete, "Not our best landing, but I gotta say I'm impressed, Conner. You really took Dinah's advice to heart."
"Glad I did," he grunted in agreement, accepting her helping hand and standing back up as well, "I'm not sure how much more abuse either of us could have taken."
"Think we can still catch up with the others?" she asked as she turned back to face the way they'd come, "It doesn't look like we went too far…"
Before Conner could reply, their attention was grabbed by a sudden bellow erupting from the other direction. The buildings began to rumble in pattern beneath their feet. "Oh great," Conner grumbled through gritted teeth.
"What now?" Artemis yelled out in exasperation, tossing her arms in the air as if she was addressing God.
The shaking continued in time, and another roar rang out over the horizon, only this one was even louder.
"Does that rumbling… sound a bit like footsteps to you?" the archer asked warily, already taking a few steps back.
"Yeah," he replied darkly, "And from the sound of it, I think it's safe to guess that it's getting closer." Another thunderous cry pierced the air, and at this point, the two heroes could make out a chunky silhouette of something as it bounded across the buildings, headed straight for them. "We should run," Conner decided quickly, but just as they turned to make a run for it, a monstrous shadow passed over them and the creature landed in front of them with a pounding crash. The concrete shattered beneath its feet, and for a terrifying moment, they thought the building was going to collapse under the grey-skinned giant's weight. Beady eyes darted from Superboy to Artemis, and suddenly the monster's face became construed with rage. He let out another roar, but this time, the heroes could make words out of his cries.
"BLONDIE! GRUNDY FINALLY FOUND BLONDIE! NOW, BLONDIE, TIME TO DIEEEEEEEE!"
Artemis's face went pale. "Oh, this is so not good."
About a mile away from Superboy and Artemis…
"What's wrong, girlies? Don'tcha wanna play fo' a bit?" Harley Quinn slammed her mallet down, once again unsuccessful in squashing one of the young heroes beneath its weight.
"They're not much fun, are they Harles?" the blonde noted in a bored tone as she tauntingly fired another beam just behind M'gann's foot, "I wish Ivy hadn't dragged off that boy. All I came this way for was to finish him off."
"Don't you dare touch him!" Miss Martian yelled back at her pursuer, her anger getting the better of her.
"Oh yeah?" she challenged with an icy smirk, "What are you gonna do about it, greenie?"
"BLONDIEEEEEE!"
The sudden roar from off in the distance startled both heroines and villainesses, and all five sets of eyes turned towards the direction of the cry.
Harley's eyes widened. "Hey, what's the zombie doin' in G-Town?"
"Oh boy," the heroes heard the laser girl mutter, "That's not good."
Elsewhere in Gotham…
"Soda?"
Robin looked back from his seat on the ledge to see Batgirl holding two cans, one of which held out towards him. "Don't mind if I do," he replied with a smile, accepting the offered soda.
Barbara retook her place next to him and pushed back the metal tab on her soda can to open it. Robin did the same, and eagerly took a long swig on the drink.
"Hey, Dick… maybe you should just tell them."
The unexpected statement made Robin do a complete spit-take, spraying his soda out into the night sky. "W—what?" he spluttered, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and averting his eyes away from her knowing gaze, "You know I can't do that. Batman told me—"
"Oh, and you always do what Batman tells you to? You might be able to convince everyone else that even you are too afraid to disobey Big B, but I know better. I know you better. So I know you're just using that as an excuse." She leaned forward, forcing her old friend to look her in the eye. "Will you at least tell me why you don't want them to know anything about you so badly? I mean, you told Wally, and after meeting Dick Grayson so many times over your years as wards, I'm pretty sure Roy's figured it out too. And if Roy knows, even Kaldur probably has some idea. So, why bother with all this secrecy, Dickie?"
The Boy Wonder opened his mouth to argue his point, but he couldn't think of anything to get him out of this and instead just sighed. "I… I don't know, Barbara," he admitted, shoulders slumped forward under the weight of her accusation. He knew she was right; Batgirl was always right.
"Is it just that you don't trust them enough yet?"
"No!" he countered a little too quickly as his head whipped back around to face her, "I mean, I really do trust them, I just…" Another sigh escaped his lips as he slouched forward once more, kicking his feet back and forth idly. "I don't want Zatanna to misunderstand the relationship between you and me," he mumbled, looking away, "She's already going through a hard time right now and—"
"And that only explains why you don't want Zatanna to meet me, not why you don't want them to get to know you."
Robin groaned in defeat. She'd caught his bluff again, and he was quickly running out of them. "I guess…" he started again, searching for the right words to explain a feeling he didn't even completely understand. He looked up at his partner, his sapphire eyes locking with hers. "I guess I just like it the way it is."
"What do you mean?" she inquired, clearly puzzled.
"I guess… I mean that I don't like telling people who I am 'cause it just kinda spoils the mystery."
Barbara gave him a look through narrowed eyes. "Seriously, Dick? All this for such an immature reason? Wow, that's a level of childishness that even Wally has never reached."
"Let me finish explaining before you start judging, hothead," he scolded her with a playful slap on her arm, "What I meant was that I don't really trust myself in choosing who to let in on my little secret."
"Um. What?"
Robin groaned and scratched his head. "I mean, you do this too, it's just that we do it subconsciously. I think it's a Batclan thing, now that I think about it…"
"Richard, what are you talking about?"
"I'm getting there. Geez, patience is a virtue, Batsy," he teased her before continuing, "It's like… we can choose to tell people who we think know us best, but in that case, why not just wait 'til the ones who actually know us best show themselves?"
Barbara studied his words carefully, her intense gaze never straying from his own, until the pieces clicked together and he saw the realization light up in her eyes. "…oh."
A small smirk worked its way onto his features. Leaving Batgirl at a loss for words was no small feat. "Yeah," he nodded with a laugh, "I see you get it now. The people who truly know us for who we are, both as superheroes and as civilians, always seem to figure our secrets out themselves. Why do you think everyone on that list of people who may know who I am already is only made up of our oldest allies? It's 'cause they've had more time to put the pieces together and to really get to know all the different sides of me."
"It didn't take me very long to put the pieces together," she reminded him with a soft smile.
"Heheh, of course not. If you didn't have a natural sense of curiosity and detectiving, Batman would never have taken you on as his protégé. Plus," he placed his hand over hers and gave it an affectionate squeeze, "That's why you're my best friend: you know me better than anyone else."
"And don't you ever forget it," she responded with a warm smile, squeezing his hand just as tenderly, "No matter what happens or who you're dating, you'll always be my bird."
Their rare moment of peace was broken by a sudden blast of wind. "Sorry to break up this happy little care-fest," Wally cut in as he halted to a stop and pointed a finger at the holoscreen, "But we've got a problem. A really big problem."
The Bat-kids followed Wally's finger to the window on the screen he was talking about, and Robin's jaw dropped. "Is that Solomon Grundy?" he asked his partner disbelievingly, "He doesn't normally hang around in Gotham. How did you manage to get him to take part in this little game?"
"Umm, I didn't," Batgirl admitted, still staring at the screen in shock, "You are definitely right, Wally. This is a big problem."
A/N: That's all for now :) Like I said before, I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to update the next chapter, but I've already started working on it, so hopefully not too long! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review! Reviews make me happy :D