As a reminder, the Zatara in this story is Giovanni Grayson, Nightwing and Zatanna's son.
Chapter 2: Sudden Arrivals
Nightwing stood in front of the hollo-gram of Wally. His best friend was gone for good. He heard someone walk over to him. Nightwing didn't look but whoever it was kissed his cheek.
"Hey Dick," said Zatanna.
Nightwing looked at the Magician. She blushed, put her hands on her ex-boyfriend's shoulders and walked in between him and the hollo-gram.
"Zatanna? What are you doing?" Nightwing asked.
"I still have feelings for you," she said, quickly.
She lent up and kissed him. Nightwing was shocked but wrapped his arms around her waist. Zatanna wrapped her arms around his neck. Their eyes slid shut. Nightwing pulled away.
"Zatanna... I feel the same way," he said "but..."
"No buts, Dickie-bird," she said and they kissed again.
"Do my eyes deceive me? Are Nightwing and Zatanna... back together?" said Tigress's very satisfied voice, her smirk dropped when she saw the Wally hollo-gram "Henry probably won't remember his father and Benjy will never know him,"
Wally and Artemis had rushed into marriage when they were 18 and Artemis got pregnant. Zatanna let go of Nightwing and hugged her best friend.
"They may not know today or tomorrow but one day they'll know they're father died saving the planet," said the Magician.
Tigress smiled at her best friend and walked off. Zatanna wrapped her arms back around Nightwing's neck and he wrapped his arms around her.
"You know I'm going on a leave-of-absence," Nightwing said.
"What are you going to do while you're away?" Zatanna asked.
Nightwing kissed her neck.
"I'm sure I'll think of something," he said into her neck.
Zatanna playfully slapped his arm.
"Naughty boy," she said, smiling.
"Zatanna... answer me this... why now?" said Nightwing "We broke-up 3 years ago, what made you realize now?"
"I don't know," said Zatanna "Realizing I still like you... it was like someone had told me, ages ago... that probably sounds crazy,"
Nightwing kissed her neck again.
"Not at all, Zee, not at all," he said into her neck.
…1 MONTH LATER…
"It is good to have you back, my friend," said Aqualad.
"It's good to be back," said Nightwing "Has anything changed in the past month?"
"Not really," said the Atlantean "Construction on the Team's own orbiting headquarters is on the way,"
"That's good. The Team still grieving?" Nightwing said.
"Aren't you?" Aqualad said.
"Yes, I am," said Nightwing.
They started walking to the airlock that led to the under-constitution Team HQ. Rocket walked past, she and Aqualad smiled and blushed at each other.
"You're still into her, aren't you?" Nightwing stated.
"What? No... she- she's engaged," Aqualad stuttered.
"Not anymore," said Nightwing "Didn't you hear? Rocket broke it off,"
"She did? Why?" asked the Atlantean.
"I don't know," said the Bat.
There was silence as they typed in their designations to get to the construction-site.
"I hear you and Zatanna are back together," said Aqualad.
"Yep, so are Conner and M'gann... apparently," said Nightwing.
They stepped onto the platform and they moved along the airlock to the unfinished Team HQ.
Robin the Boy Wonder was leaning against the wall, by the airlock, talking to his dear girlfriend, Cassie AKA Wonder Girl.
"Quick question... what's your first name?" Cassie asked.
"Nice try, Cassie, but nope. The ID is still top secret," said Robin.
"Uhg! How do you date a guy you don't know?" Cassie said.
"Ask Zatanna. Her and Nightwing are back together and my mentor is way more secretive than me," said Robin.
"Yeah but Zatanna only spent 3 months not knowing the guy she was dating before he told her," said Cassie.
The young couple laughed together but stopped quickly when Nightwing and Aqualad walked past.
They walked into the loading bay, it was nearing completion. Virgil was using his electrokinesis (electrokinesis: the ability to use electricity to move metal objects) to move a metal panel up against the wall to re-enforce it. Superman used his heat-vision to weld it in place.
"Nice work, Static," the Boy Scout said.
"Thanks, Supes," said Virgal.
"Hey Virgil!" said Robin.
"Hi Robin, hey Cassie," Virgil said, he waved and an electrical current shot from his hand and hit the wall "Oopse, my bad. I'm still getting the hang off my powers,"
"Understandable," said Robin.
"Hi Nightwing, where'd you go? Ya disappeared for a month," said Virgil.
"Went on a leave-of-absence," said Nightwing.
A green bird flew in and shape-shifted into Garfield.
"Hi!" he said "I was just with Batgirl, reloading lost files from Mount Justice, and we found a time-locked file. What's that all about?"
"That's been there for 4 maybe 5 years, Gar," said Nightwing "No one's been able to open it,"
"It's probably something to do with the missing 72 hours," said Aqualad.
"72 hours! What happened?" Garfield asked.
"We have no idea. It's still a mystery," said Nightwing.
Garfield shrugged, shape-shifted into a bird and flew out. Virgil shrugged. He used his electrokinesis to bring a manhole cover to him, gave it a charge and flew out of the room.
Garfield and Virgil both landed in the new training room / monitor room. Batgirl was typing on a hollo-keyboard.
"What's the story with the missing 72 hours?" Virgil asked.
"About 5 years ago the original 8 members of the Team and the entireJustice League blacked out. When they woke up it was 3 days later and they had no memory of what happened. And there was a time-locked file but no one could crack it," said Batgirl.
"Not even the Bats?" said Garfield.
"Not even the Bats," said Batgirl "Back then there was only Batman and Robin,"
"Oh... I wonder what happened to them," said Virgil.
"I don't know," said Garfield "Hey... is the game room set up?"
"Yeah? There isn't any power being routed in there though, why?" Virgil asked.
"C'mon... let's go kill some time. You can charge it for us," said Garfield.
Virgil let the shape-shifter lead him away.
Virgil sent a charge to the lights and he and Garfield started playing fuse ball.
"Just to be fair," said Garfield "You ain't allowed to use your electrokinesis to move all the players at once,"
"Okay, okay," said Virgil "Now let's play!"
Zatanna walked around the corner and bumped into Nightwing.
"OOF!" they said.
"Oh, hi Nightwing," the Magician said to her boyfriend.
"Hey Zee," the Bat said.
They stood in silence... but a second later Nightwing's hands were on Zatanna's hips and her arms were wrapped around his neck, their lips pressed together. They pushed each other away and breathed heavily.
"We agreed to be professional when in the uniform," said Zatanna.
"Your just as much to blame for that as me," said Nightwing, smiling at her.
Zatanna laughed and the couple let go of each other.
"Team! Get to the Watchtower briefing room! Explain later!" Batman said over the speakers.
Nightwing and Zatanna ran into the Watchtower briefing room. A glowing, yellow, vortex had opened up.
"What the heck is that?" Nightwing said.
"And why does it look familiar?" said Zatanna.
"Guys..." said Miss Martian "I can sense human, Kryptonian, Atlantean and Martian minds behind it,"
"What? There are people in there?" said Bart.
"No way," said Robin.
There was a sudden shudder and a large bang from the vortex. A woman was blown out of it! She hit the wall and landed on her hands and knees. A man ran out of it and was at her side.
"Dark Eagle? Are you okay?" he asked.
"F-fine, Sp-Speed Arrow," the woman said, leaning against the man.
A teenaged girl suddenly back-flipped out of the vortex and ran to the adults.
"Dark Eagle?" she said "Speed Arrow, is she okay?"
"I'm fine, R-robin," the woman 'Dark Eagle' said.
Suddenly a teenaged boy with a pre-teen girl clinging to his back ran out of the vortex. The vortex beat like a heart before it closed up. Bart dropped his soda can.
"No way," he said "Nah ah... Dark Eagle, Speed Arrow, Kid Flash, Robin and Archeress? No way!"
"You know them?" said Cassie.
"Dark Eagle, the 4th Robin, first Bat to have super-powers. Speed Arrow, a speedster and archer in one. Kid Flash, the fastest Kid Flash so far, faster than me, protégé of Speed Arrow. Robin, the 5th one, protégé of Dark Eagle. Archeress, protégé of Speed Arrow!" said Bart "They're super-heroes from the future!"
Dark Eagle (Mary Grayson-West) and Speed Arrow (Will West) are 24. Kid Flash (Jared Buttowski) is 15. Robin (Lauren Bennett) is 13. Archeress (Izzy West) is 10.
…
I hope that clears some things up. And Zatara #2 (Giovanni Grayson) is barely going to be in this story. PLEASE REVIEW!