DISCLAIMER: I am vengeance. I am the night. I am not the owner of Young Justice!

Chapter 45: Unlocked

Robin was not having a good day. His situation hadn't changed, and he'd finally had to force himself to stop thinking about the possibility of the biggest supervillain team-up of all time. Tala was still reading her book, looking as bored as before, if not more so. If his internal clock was correct, they were going to try to move him again in less than half an hour.

'Try' being the operative word, of course.

A part of Robin was pretty sure that based on what he'd seen, these guys weren't going to give him any openings and his chance of escape was near zero. The rest of him told that part to shut up.

Tala put her book down and began to rub her forehead. Robin would have made a sarcastic remark about headaches, but he was still gagged.

Suddenly, Tala winced and then cried out in pain.

"What is- Kcolnu!" Tala's question was cut off by her own voice, shouting a very-magicky-sounding word.

Sure enough, the locks on his shackles and his shock collar clicked open for no apparent reason. Not that he was complaining.

"How? No!" stuttered Tala, a red aura forming around her. "I destroyed you! You're dead, you're dead, you're dead!"

Robin leaped to his feet and ripped off his gag, not sure what he should do. Tala didn't react to him, seemingly busy dealing with an invisible foe.

"Wait... Another? Very well, children" growled Tala, her aura growing stronger as her hands tightened into fists and pressing one to her forehead. "I'll destroy you bo-"

Her scream was interrupted by Robin's boot slamming into her temple.

"Sorry, Z" he whispered as the girl collapsed. "Couldn't take the chance. Don't worry. I'll get us out of here and back to the League. If Fate can't help you, no one can."

Zatanna didn't answer, but seeing as she was unconscious and possessed by an interdimensional being and all, Robin didn't blame her. Robin shrugged and removed the girl's jacket. He then collected the handcuffs that had kept his feet chained to the pipe and snapped them around her wrists before tying her feet together with the coat. Finally, he took the gag and tied it over her mouth. He couldn't risk her waking up evil and taking him out in a single word. He was sure Zatanna wouldn't mind, once she got cured.

IF she gets cured said the same, annoying little part of him that had claimed he'd never escape.

Shut up thought Robin, grabbing the remote for his inhibitor collar, which he tucked into his pocket. You never knew when an electroshock device will come in handy...

With that out of the way, he checked Zatanna's pocket, finding a key that looked just right for the door. Inserting it into the lock, he opened the door in a rapid motion, ready to ambush anyone waiting outside. Seeing that the coast was clear, he re-entered the room and carefully picked up Zatanna, adjusting her so she lay folded over his shoulder. Heavy, of course, but nothing he hadn't trained for.

He looked at the creepy totally-evil-magic book Tala had been reading. He briefly considering bringing it, but its large leather binding looked too heavy, and he already had his hands full.

Time to go he thought.

And with that, the Boy Wonder and his unconscious, demon-possessed not-girlfriend stepped into the hall.

I'm baaaaack!

So, NaNoWriMo didn't go as great as I planned. I got 7000 words in my story and then started working on other projects, which are not yet ready for publication. So is the life of a writer.

Regardless, I should now be able to get some work done here. Whoop!

According to Leradomi, who I have no reason to doubt, the actual show has been delayed until January due to legal issues with some characters created by Dwayne McDuffie. According to Wikipedia, Dwayne McDuffie created Static, so that might be a problem. I, however, am technically stealing all of these characters anyways, and so this shouldn't slow me down in the least.

Man, who knew that unlimited creative freedom felt so good?

: Si, no se siente bien. Pero, por qué hablas en Español? La historia es en Inglés.

HOW TO BE AN AWESOME AUTHOR/EVIL MASTERMIND:

Step 3: Get Some Characters

One of the most important things in a story (if not the most important) are the characters. Concepts intrigue people, plots and mysteries puzzle them, and action and suspense keeps the reader on the edge of the seat, but characters are what people feel. The reader empathizes with the characters, and (hopefully) starts to care about them. For many works of fiction, the characters are what truly entertain the audience. After all, we're all human (well, most of us), and humans love to interact with other humans. Characters are the ones who experience the story, and through them, so do we.

There are two general ways to go about creating a story. Create a plot and then some characters to go through it, or make up some characters and see what plot they create. (There are other, more specific ways, such as imagining a scene and building from there, but once again, I'll discuss that later.) I'll admit I tend to do the former, but I'm a lot more plot-oriented than many writers. For fanfiction, since you presumably have the characters already created, you'll probably want to do that one as well, though the inverse is not impossible, if, for example, you're writing about, say, American wizards in a Harry Potter fic and need to make Original Characters. For comic book fanfics especially, since characters like Batman have been around for almost 70 years, making new characters is much harder and less fun than re-interpreting old ones.

In the inverse, however, you'll want Fanfic OCs to be made by the first method. People read fanfics to read about the canon characters. If your OC doesn't have a purpose in the story, they should be cut. Good OCs develop out of the story, not the other way round. (Again, there are exceptions, but they are much more difficult.) The best example in this story would be Noah Kuttler/the Calculator. Obviously, he hasn't appeared in the actual series, and I pretty much made up his personality from scratch. However, he's not just there for a cameo. He serves an important purpose. (You probably don't know what that purpose is just yet, but it's there...)

In general, you will use some combination of the two methods, usually in a back-and-forth. Characters personalities change the plot which requires changes in characters etc, etc, etc. Do whatever feels right to you.

TEN WORD OR LESS SUMMARY: The plot has to happen to someone. Who?