Disclaimer: Unless I suddenly became DC comics, I own nothing. And, I'm pretty sure I am still me.

Superhero

Simon Curtis

Mount Justice, Happy Harbor

May 30th, 17:23 EDT

Recognize: Robin B-0-9, Nightwing B-0-1

Wally's head looks away from the TV at the sound of the unfamiliar name paired with Dick's Zeta number. Around him, his team looks up with confusion matching his own as he stands and runs towards the beam. He stops just around the corner so he can do a little spying.

"Don't let them bait you into saying anything. If you actually want to talk, fine." Robin says. "Oh, and no talking to yourself."

"I told you Jay, I wasn't talking." Dick responds.

"You were talking. Well, more like muttering, but you were talking." Robin counters. "And don't call me by my name here."

"Way to make me sound insane Robin. Co- Superboy can hear us and I know for a fact that Wally is around that corner listening to us. Miss Martian has probably linked them up so they can all hear us."

Wally walks around the corner calmly, settling against the wall to watch the two bats. "Oh, face it Mr. Whelmed." Jason begins, smiling behind his glasses. Dick still remains without his own signature pair of shades. "You never have been sane. You just became a bat so you could hide it under all that training." By this time the rest of the team is coming around the corner, listening rabidly.

"Oh, of course!" Robin replies, all smiles, charm, and sarcasm. "I would have to be absolutely psychotic to be able to deal with you and Bats. I don't know how Agent A does it. Unless you're calling him insane as well?" This Dick is completely different from the one Wally and Roy saw two days before. Wally has to admit, his friend is a brilliant actor.

Robin's lips tug themselves down into something that is not quite a scowl, and Dick's smile widens. Before either of them can say something else, Superboy speaks. "You're a hero again?"

Dicks smile fades for a second when he looks at Conner. It bounces back onto his face so quickly that Wally has to second guess if he saw the change at all. "Yep." Dick answers the question with a little enthusiasm. "Nightwing, the one and only. Gonna find a city of my own once I'm old enough to move out."

"What city?" Artemis scoffs. "No offense, Grayson, but you would get bored in any city other than Gotham. It's the worst there is."

Wally hears himself speak more than he actually remembers saying anything. "Well, there is Blüdhaven. It's worse than Gotham." It's directed to Artemis, but out of the corner of his eye he see's Robin place his head in his hands and Dick's eyes focus on the wall. "Bro, don't even think about going there.

Dick doesn't look at him. Instead, his eyes shift to M'gann, who is watching his with a look of confusion. "Dick..."

"Well, there is Blüdhaven. It's worse than Gotham." Wally is quick to Artemis, of course. That was to be expected. For some reason, Dick wasn't expecting the voice in his head to retaliate.

Of course he wants you to go to Blüdhaven. He knows you wouldn't survive it. The first boy wonder shifts his gaze so he is looking at the wall in an attempt to not react. And none of them are arguing about it. They all want you gone. You're still dead to them. Faintly he can hear Wally saying something to his, but the voice continues. The mind reader is in your head.

Oh, so you're helping me now? He thinks back feebly as his eyes travel to Miss Martian, who is watching him with wide eyes. You're reading my mind. He accuses. "Dick..." She begins, confirming what the voice told him. Now only if he knew how the voice could tell when he couldn't. "What's going on?"

Noticing the accusing eyes of Superboy, and the confused eyes of everyone else, focused on him, he responds to her innocently. "Nothings wrong. Why?" Don't say anything about it. He thinks to her, hoping she will keep his secret even though she didn't trust him.

"Just that you are in pain. Are your injuries still not healed?" 'I won't tell them, if you will talk to me about it later.'

"They're a little sore, but after training yesterday I figured that I would be sore anyways. Nothing to be worried about." He contemplates her deal. Either he doesn't tell her about it and she tells everyone, or they talk about his voices-from-hell in his mind and he doesn't have to go through this alone. He smiles slightly as he thinks back to her. I'm here for the night. We can talk later.

She smiles at him before following her boyfriend, who left the room with smile and a grunt.

"Okay, what was that all about?" Artemis speaks up. "I mean, I'm no mind reader, but Megan isn't that great of a liar, and she knows something that you aren't telling us."

Not sure what he was going to say, Dick starts talking. "Really, it's nothing. My mental block is weaker than it would normally be, and I guess she noticed that."

Artemis narrows her eyes, studying him like he was a problem that she hasn't figured out the answer to yet. Before she could open her mouth to speak again, Zatanna asks a question of her own. "If there were something wrong, you would tell us, right? I mean, we're a team. We have to look out for one another, and we can't do that unless we know-"

"Report to the gym in five minutes. Training is mandatory for all current and old team members in the mountain at this time." Red Tornadoes voice cuts through their conversation. Almost at once Zatanna, Wally, Kaldur, and Artemis look at Dick, who in turn begins to walk towards the training room with Robin. Kaldur quickly averts his gaze, while the girls and Wally keep watching Dick as they all begin to follow the brothers.

Dick is hyper aware of the multiple sets of eyes on him. They are trying to figure out why a traitor is training with them. He nearly growls out of annoyance at the word traitor, although he agrees with the idea behind the statement. He still can't figure out what he did wrong for the team to hate him like this. Instead of mulling it over right now, Dick reminds himself that Miss Martian is a psychic. Quickly he changes his train of thought. "So, why is training in the gym and not out here by the Zeta Beams where it used to be?"

"Supes and I kind of broke it." Wally sheepishly responds, his hand subconsciously reaching up and scratching the back of his neck. "We were talking and you were brought up. This was right before you were pronounced dead. He went on a rage. I got pissed and wouldn't stop either."

"Not even Megan could get them to stop." Artemis joined in the story telling. "Canary had to use her canary call. It would have been amusing if it hadn't been such bad circumstances."

"Sounds like it." Dick responds with a smile. He follows Robin through the door to the gym, glancing around. Nothing has been changed much, although Dick's acrobatic equipment was moved to the back of the room. Conner and Megan are already there, standing next to each other in front of Batman and Black Canary. The rest of the team and Dick lineup next to them.

"We're going to start with some sparring. Conner and Wally. Kaldur and Robin. Artemis and Zatanna. Megan with Batman. Richard will be with me. You have five minutes until I switch your groups." Quickly everybody moves with their partner to a separate spot and got ready to fight. "No powers. Begin."

Without waiting for Dick to attack her, she moves behind him. Dick jumps up and flips over her head, narrowly avoiding being hit. Due to Dick being with Batman for so long, and him being the first sidekick, he and Black Canary have sparred many times. That plays to both his advantage and his disadvantage. He knows her strengths and weaknesses, but she also knows the same about him. Normally they are pretty even without Canary's powers, but add in the fact that Dick is injured still and that he is out of practice, and it is pretty obvious he is not going to win. He still tries to win, despite his odds, and manages to last the majority of five minutes before he finds himself on his back, the words 'fail' echoing underneath him. Slightly confused at the silence around him other than labored breathing, he looks around as Black Canary help to his feet and finds that they were to last duo fighting.

"Good work, Dick." He looks back to the smiling face of Black Canary and nods once. She ruffles his hair quickly before turning to the team. "Artemis, Conner, Kaldur, Megan, and Richard. Move to the person on your right."

Fifty minutes later, they are done with sparring. Dick lost only to the two leaguers in the room, which shouldn't have been as much of a surprise to the team as it had been. After each of the members had lost they accepted it with a smile, except for Conner who had just glared at Dick.

Black Canary calls them all back from their drink break. "Alright, now that we are done with that, we are going to-"

"Hello?' Batman interrupts. Canary looks over at him, annoyed, only to find him with his finger by his ear. After a moment he nods. "Understood. We are headed there now." His finger clicks off the com-link in his ear as he heads out the door. Without needing to be told, Robin follows him out. Dick stares at the door after them until he feel eyes on him. He looks back to the team to find all of their eyes on him.

"Dude, you're not going with them?" Wally asks, breaking the silence before anybody else can.

"It was a call for Gotham heroes. I'm not a hero anymore." Dick responds, not even bothering to hide how much that thought bothered him. Black Canary studies him, and Dick can practically see her mind trying to figure out what is exactly wrong with him.

"Dick, you are still a hero, even if you're not one for Gotham." M'gann argues, sadness flowing through her words.

Dick attempts to smile at her, although he is sure he fails the attempt. "If you don't mind, BC, I'm going to skip out on the rest of training. Don't really believe I can focus at the moment."

The leaguer focuses back onto the conversation, although her gaze doesn't leave Dick's face. "Actually, I believe that's enough for one day. We can pick up where we left off tomorrow." Dick watches her look away from him to look at each member of the team. As soon as he is sure her focus is completely off of him, he slides into the shadows and out of the room silently. Now it would be great if he could figure out where to go.

You're room is not being used by anyone. Nobody cleaned it out. M'gann's voices rings throughout his head. He thinks back a quick thanks before running to his old room.

He gets there quickly, punching in the code to slide the door open. As he steps inside, laughter starts ringing inside his brain like nothing Dick has ever heard before. It is both deep and high pitched, and full of psychotic happiness that causes him to clutch at his head. The laughter goes on for nearly twenty seconds before a now-familiar voice cuts through. Nice friend you've got there. Trying to send you back to Gotham. He doesn't even want to deal with you.

Walking to his bed, he notices quickly that his computer is still here, plugged in, and turned on. He grabs it as the voices continue. At least that Martian has the decency to lie to you about being a hero. Just face it; they all feel the way Superboy does. They just don't want to express it.

He shakes his head against the accusation, refusing to believe it. Richard 'Dick' John Grayson will not give in to anyone, even if that person is in his mind. He struggles to open the computer, surprised to find that his hands are shaking. Stop denying it! I am in your brain! I wouldn't say it if you didn't believe it. Don't you get it? I am you, not someone you can ignore.

Dick stops trying to pay attention to his computer and he lets it slide off his lap onto the bed. Faintly he can here the pounding of footsteps running towards his room. They are going to try to save you so that you can be used as their puppet again. Do the only thing you can do. Go to Harley. Get your answers you so desperately want. There not going to help you any.

He tries to shake his head to the voice again. Dick knows he isn't their puppet. Yet… haven't they just done everything that is convenient to them since he got back? Not once can Dick think of a time where anyone did something just for him. He can hear someone hitting the other side of his door, but the first boy wonder closes his eyes and drifts to sleep.

The only reason M'gann knows Dick left the training room before anyone else can tell is because she is keeping track of his mind to see if that strange voice from before returns. She tells him that his room is unoccupied so that he can have somewhere to go where most team members cannot enter without permission. She smiles at the thanks she receives when Black Canary notices the bird's absence. "Where's Richard?"

"He is going to his room. He's not feeling too well." Megan tells her, although it is only half of the truth. Canary doesn't seem to realize that the Martian is being only slightly honest as she nods and heads out of the room and towards the Zeta Beams.

"Megan, what's wrong with Dick?" Artemis turns towards her teammate as soon as the leaguer is out of the room. "And none of the 'mental barriers are low' or 'his wounds are sore' crap. What did you find out earlier that we don't already know?"

"N- Nothing!" M'gann stutters. She has always found it difficult to lie to her team, even when it was about her true Martian form. "I didn't notice anything."

"M'gann," Kaldur joins in the conversation, placing a hand on the aliens shoulder, "he is our teammate. We need to know if there is anything at all you are not telling us."

Megan looks around at her teammates, all of who are looking at her now. Wally is nodding at her, trying to encourage her to speak, but she gave her word to Dick! She can't break her promise to the boy she see's as a little brother.

But if it is truly to help him…

She opens her mouth to tell them about the deep voice taunting Dick earlier, but she is stopped by a sudden laughter in her head. It takes her nearly a second to realize her mind is still linked to Dick's and this laughter is in his mind and not her own. She curls herself into a ball, floating a little above ground, for a few seconds when she feels Conner's arms surrounding her.

"Megan! What's wrong?" His worried voice breaks through the laughter enough to allow her to pull her mind from Dick's. She shakes her head, trying to hold back tears before speaking.

"Rob- Rich- Dick! It's Dick! There's this laughter, and, and I… I-" She breaks off, swallowing her tears again.

"I don't hear anything. Are you sure?"

"It's in his mind. There's a voice talking now. It's what I heard earlier. It's trying to turn him against everyone. Oh gosh, it's telling him such horrible things."

She looks up at the shocked faces of her team before she jumps up and flies out the door. Wally is quick to pass her, speeding to his best friends' room. The rest of the team is right behind her. They are in his hallway in a matter of seconds, finding Wally desperately punching codes in, trying to gain access. Wally gives up with the codes and proceeds to punch and knock on the door. Conner pushes Wally out of the way and begins to punch through the door. Three punches later, the door flies in and reveals the closing eyes of Dick Grayson.

Wally runs in and checks for a pulse, and his sigh of relief allow the rest of the team to relax. "There is absolutely no way he would just pass out with us trying to get in like that." The speedster says quickly, trying to see if anything is physically wrong with his best friend. "And he's a light sleeper anyways. There's something wrong here."

Kaldur nods. "Indeed. We should-"

"What is going on?" Black Canary interrupts, running into the room. "I heard you guys breaking down the door."

The team looks at each other before Kaldur speaks again. "Something is wrong with Dick. He…" He looks to M'gann to explain. The Martian nods before continuing where her leader left off. "He has a voice in his brain. It's not his, but it's talking to him. Telling him things about the team and… other stuff."

The leaguer nods once. "Tell me everything you know about this voice and tell me what it said. Then we will contact Batman."

Gotham City

May 30th, 19:06 EDT

Batman hardly acknowledges the Commissioner as he leaves the premises, having tied up the bank robbers with little trouble. He joins Robin on the roof of a nearby building, since the boy had had no interest in sticking around after the fighting was over. His partner nods at him once before grabbing his grappling hook.

Before he could nod back, his communicator alerts him of an incoming transmission. He scowls to himself before he accepts it. "Yes?"

The voice of Black Canary isn't what makes his heart rate increase. It's what she says. "You need to get back to the mountain. Something is wrong with Dick."

I would like to say that I am editing past chapters. I have mainly done grammar and stuff so far, but I have plans that I need to incorporate into earlier chapters. I don't know how much will be changed. I may get rid of a few things that I am not crazy about, I might not change much of anything, or I could add a ton of details. I will keep you guys posted about what I change.