Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or anything else that is obviously not mine. :P

Chapter 25

"It was a dark night and the wind was howling through the streets and over the rooftops. Light, misty rain danced through the air and tickled faces as it went. Two figures, barely silhouettes hidden in the mist, were watching a building across the way, waiting to see if a gang would make their move."

"What's a silhouette?"

"It's like a shadow, basically an outline of a person."

"Oh. Okay. Can you just say shadow then?"

"Sure. The two figures were waiting, waiting, waiting, always waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, one, the larger shadow, shifted slightly. He had spotted some movement down below. The younger shadow followed his gaze and spotted three men, all dressed in warm, dark clothing, one with a beanie, one with a hood, and one with nothing on his head."

"Beanie?"

"A tight fitting hat. Good for cold weather. Tends to make your hair stand up when you take it off, though. They were looking around to be sure no one had followed them before entering the warehouse."

"Why is it always a warehouse? And how do you know they were looking to make sure no one followed them? They could have been checking for cats."

"Shhh. Listen to the story. So, they entered the warehouse?"

"They entered the warehouse and the shadows held a brief, silent conversation with each other. The smaller one was to keep an eye out for backup or people trying to leave. The larger shadow would follow them in and catch them in their crime. The smaller shadow watched as the larger shadow-"

"Just call them Batman and Robin. We all know that's who you're talking about."

"It's for the atmosphere!"

"And you told me to be quiet!"

"Seriously? Continue the story."

"The smaller shadow-"

"Robin."

"Fine. Robin watched as Batman flew over to the-"

"See! I knew he was a vampire! He flew! Vampires fly!"

"Damian, do you want a bedtime story or not?"

"Umm. Yes, story."

"Then stop interrupting!"

"Okay."

"Robin watched as Batman flew over to the warehouse and crept up to the skylight. Why the warehouse had a skylight nobody truly understands, but it allowed him to see the goons in side. He carefully opened the skylight and slipped inside to the catwalk. Robin turned his attention back to the street outside.

"The street was empty except for the goons car. The wind was blowing hard enough and the walls were thick enough that Robin could not hear anything going on inside the warehouse. He double checked his comm was working and scanned the surrounding alleyways. Five minutes passed. Ten. Twenty."

*Knock Knock Knock*

"Oh, what now?!" Dick turned to glare at the door, where he assumed the knocking was coming from.

"I got it." Alex said, getting up from the chair he'd been sitting in while listening to the story. He went to the door, and knocked twice to indicate that they were awake and up. The door opened, revealing two bluemen.

"We're here for 169 and 214."

"Isn't it a bit late?" Dick asked from his spot on the bed next to Damian..

"Up. Now."

Dick grumbled and rolled off. He turned around and picked up his brother. Damian snuggled into a comfortable position with his toy. "Later, Alex." Dick said, following the bluemen out.

Sigmore Friedman first saw the job opening when a google ad popped up on the screen on his email, a bright picture you see out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't given it any mind, focusing on planning and paying for the funeral of his pregnant wife Penny who had been killed in a car accident on the freeway the day before on her way to work. Neither driver had even been drunk. The car in front of his wife and to the right had not seen her in their blind spot and she had not braked fast enough. No one was to blame, yet the other driver's family was demanding payment for hospital bills. Payment his limited insurance wouldn't fully cover when combined with Penny's funeral costs, which the other driver should be covering.

The ad came up again a week later. Sigmore had returned from the funeral to an empty apartment. Both he and Penny had no real family to turn to. Sigmore had grown up in foster homes around the state of Massachusetts, while Penny had lost her parents and younger brother to another car accident three years ago. There was supposedly an Uncle of Sigmore's somewhere, but he had never reached out to Sigmore. Sigmore thought he might be in jail. It was in a dull state of mind he had flicked on his computer and started clicking through emails. He glanced at the ad, but it didn't hold any real value to him. Those science experiments were normally hoaxes anyways.

Three weeks after that, to sum up a month of bad luck, Sigmore's lab exploded while he was on his midday break. The chemistry experiment that exploded had not been his experiment, which had focused on a new interstellar communication system that they hoped would help suborbital flights become a reality. However, with nowhere to continue testing, and all the testing materials and most of the data destroyed, the lab officials had let go of all the scientists, for at least the time being.

It was with those disasters fresh on his mind and the pressing need for a new job that Sigmore came across the ad for a third time. All his savings had been decimated by the funeral costs and paying the other driver's exorbitant hospital bills. The last paycheck from his last job barely covered rent for that month. He was debating the need to sell his motorbike and use the money from that to cover groceries. He knew he had to find something fast and demand at least some money up front if he didn't want that to happen. The bike was not worth a lot, but it would cover the necessities.

The ad kept popping up as he searched for jobs and applied to them. He ignored it at first, but as the rejections kept rolling in and his beloved bike was sold to some teen, he decided to at least see what it was trying to tell him. The job, at first glance, seemed like a good deal. The research was in communications, his specialty, and the possibility of parallel universes, an area that greatly interested him. Looking a little deeper only showed good pay and the promise of a fresh start. He had applied immediately, thinking it couldn't hurt. If it didn't pay out, he could keep looking for other jobs in the meantime.

Two weeks later, Sigmore was on a plane to Europe after having sold everything he couldn't fit into one large suitcase and a backpack, donating what couldn't be sold, and tossing what couldn't be donated. He spent a week in Germany with some higher ups, being shown around the countryside while reading through classified documents on the experiment he was to participate in. Turned out, they wanted him to be the first one to travel between dimensions and test a communication system that would hopefully work a bit like a cell phone to ease exchange of information between the two dimensions.

He should have known it was all too good to be true. At least he'd had his suspicions. Something seemed wrong with all the blackout and inconsistencies on the pages, but that was forgivable with the apparent delicate nature of the project, according to his guide. Keeping with the secretive nature, after the week in Germany, he had been driven to an undisclosed location blindfolded. When they took it off, he was in a small hospital like room.

"This will be your room for now. We need to do some quick tests to make sure you're healthy enough for this job. Please hold still." They took his blood pressure, temperature, height, and weight, before taking a small bit of blood. Clue two that something was wrong, if the fact he signed up through a google ad didn't count as a clue. Sigmore didn't realize a communications project required him to be in peak condition. His old project certainly didn't, but then they were right next to a Chemistry lab room. Health was obviously not taken too deeply into account. The tests probably had something to do with the portal. He sighed and decided to take a nap, hoping answers were more forthcoming later.

When Sigmore woke up a few hours later, he saw a large backpack next to a set of clothing with a note lying on top of it. The note said that he should put the clothes on, they were his uniform, and to put anything he found valuable and wanted to hold onto in the backpack and bring it with him. Nervously, he changed and packed his photo album, journal, some old letters and a few knickknacks in the bag and filled the rest of the space with clothing he liked. Uncannily, right after Sigmore finished and focused on lacing his boots up, the people who had escorted him through Germany and to this location entered dressed in identical blue, nurse outfits.

They led him through the halls to a new destination, and that's when he realized the catch to his "fresh start".

"No." Sigmore said as he locked eyes with a young teenager, maybe even a preteen, hooked up to some metal thing that reminded him of the movie The Incredibles for some odd reason. "No. You never said there were kids involved with this."

"Need I remind you, Mr. Friedman, that you signed a contract stating that you understood the risks involved in this particular experiment." Doctor Mordred said.

"I signed a contract saying I understood the risks to me. Nowhere in that thing did it say the experiment involved kids!"

"Relax, Mr. Friedman. He's not even a kid. He's thirteen."

"Fourteen," the teen spoke up.

"I'm four!" A high voice piped in from the corner.

"Fo-." Sigmore spun to glare at the doctor. "That's a kid!"

"The little one is not a part of this, merely… leverage. I suggest you do as we say."

The teen cursed. "You said you wouldn't hurt him!"

"Quiet! Mr. Friedman. Stand in front of the other circle." Sigmore just held his glare. "Mr. Friedman…"

"Just do it." The teen interjected. "Please. Don't draw it out. It will be worse if you do." He sounded resigned. How long had they had this kid? The boy caught Sigmore's eyes again. "Please, Mr. Friedman."

Sigmore surrendered, and went to stand in front of the second circle, his escorts standing near him to keep him from any sudden moves. He glanced back at the kid.

"Sigmore." He introduced.

"Richard."

"Shut up." The doctor said.

Then, the machine started up. Sigmore could see how much pain the kid was in, although he was doing a good job of suppressing it. The two blue-dressed men who'd escorted him to the room shoved him forward, and all he could see was a swirl of colors until a new, different environment sharpened into being. He was falling.

Something was poking his shoulder. Dick could vaguely feel it through the haze over his mind. Probably Damian. Dami thought it was a good wake up call, but then he also thought that he was descended from a vampire and a supermodel, so his opinions were open to question. Strangely though, Dick couldn't really remember going to sleep.

Okay. Focus. Three steps to remembrance when waking up somewhere unknown. First, test your senses. Second, logic what may have happened. Third, If you don't remember following that logic, then think of the last thing you can remember and work from there.

Start with feeling. Okay, the poking. Felt like Dami, maybe, but don't dismiss it. Dick's wrists and ankles stung, like he'd been poked by a million needles and electrocuted. That's pretty normal. There was something heavy lying across his body. He was probably strapped down. Also normal. What else… It felt like there was something on his face and in his mouth.

Switching to taste to figure that one out, it tasted metallic and rubbery. The air around it and coming out of it tasted a bit dry. Oxygen! Dick was on a rebreather and it was giving him oxygen! So, something must have happened that inhibited his ability to breathe. That combined with the stingy feeling and the ringing in his ears meant that he'd probably gone through another trial. Well, no need to remember that and the sooner he "woke up", the sooner he could go back to his room or to class or whatever.

Dick forced his eyes open. It took a couple tries and lots of blinking before he could get them to stay open. Just as he was starting to somewhat focus on the ceiling, the poking stopped and a blurred shape came into view. He blinked some more, and the shape sharpened into Damian, who was staring at him with a vaguely concerned expression. Dami's mouth moved, but Dick's ears were still ringing. A blueman pushed the kid aside and started checking Dick over, shining a flashlight in his eyes and such. Dick felt Damian crawl up next to him, and snuggle in, hugging Dick's arm. Damian resisted any attempts for the bluemen to pull him away, judging by the tugging Dick could feel on his arm. Dick would have smiled, but the rebreather was in the way.

Maybe he should just settle in, like Dami had. It didn't feel like he'd be going anywhere anytime soon. With that in mind, Dick closed his eyes and drifted back into dreamland.

"Aaaaaaaaaannnddd we lost him. Again."

"Well, he seems to be only sleeping this time. He must be absolutely exhausted. It was about their bedtime. Plus, his vitals are stable. He probably doesn't even need the rebreather."

"Yeah, but you heard the boss. We need to keep it in until noon, minimum, just in case. It's thanks to him that the experiment was successful. Mr. Friedman's biostats were reading bright and clear that he's in good condition on the last check. If he can get the comm system up, we might even be able to cut down on Phase I in the future."

"Hey. The little one's still awake."

"Oh shit. Go to sleep, kid. You can stay with your brother."

"What makes you think they're brothers?"

"They look alike, and you've seen the way they act. If they're not brothers, I don't know what they are."

"Oh look, he's out."

"Good. He's got quite the glare for a four year old."

"Yeah, quite."

Hi.

So, how about that blizzard?

Review, follow, favorite, please. Thanks. :)