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Disclaimer: I still sadly do not own Young Justice; all rights go to their respective owners. I only own the Rangers and the plot
"How do we know it's from her?" Artemis asked
Everyone was gathered in their training room in their penthouse discussing their options.
"It was written in elvish and it was written with the Ranger Symbol." Zatanna said
"Is it possible it was written by someone else?" Robin asked
"Well yes… it is possible for it to written by any one who is or once was a Ranger, like Abaddon or someone else." Agni said
"Who else were a Ranger and left?" Roy asked
"Well there was one other person who…left." Richie said looking nervously at Agni
Agni was looking at the ground sourly.
"Read the riddle again will ya?" Wally said
Richie cleared his voice
"Down the street and to the left
You will find something that's not the best
Follow it when it goes home
And go and stand next to the gnome
Under it you will find a clue
And if you deserve it, it will reward you
Follow the tracks
Onto other tracks
Then follow those tracks
To more tracks
If you wait in till midnight
Another sign will appear
And it will lead you to somewhere
And from there you will need to disappear
If you are able to find me
Then you must be an ally
If you are a enemy
Then you are walking into a trap."
"What does 'you will find something that's not the best Follow it when it goes home' mean?" Wally asked
"We'll have to find out. Me and Agni will go follow the clues. We'll call you if we find anything." Robin said motioning to Agni to follow him. Agni waved to everyone and followed Robin out. They walked down to where they found the Symbol and looked around.
"What's down this street?" Agni asked as they turned to walk down it
"A park I think." Robin said
They walked into the park and sat down on a bench
"What's the next part of the riddle?" Robin asked
"You will find something that's not the best. Follow it when it goes home." Agni read off of a piece of parchment.
"What is that supposed to mean." Robin asked
"We need to find something that's not the best, whatever that may be, and follow it home, however that may be."
Robin nodded and looked around "I'm going to check the other side of the park. Don't wander off to far, okay?"
"Sure I won't leave the park. I'll tell you if I find something." Agni said
"I won't be long." Robin said trotting off down the path
Agni looked around and stood up. He walked down to a pond and looked out over it. He watched the humans walk around and do their business.
"What would they do if they knew the impeding doom that is almost upon them?" he asked himself
He walked around the park watching everyone around him searching for the meaning of the clue. He was about to call Robin back when he heard him through his intercom.
"Agni, I think I found what we are looking for."
"Where are you?" Agni asked
"At the far side of the park, near the entrance."
Agni jogged over to the entrance and saw Robin leaning against the tree in front of the hotdog stand. As he came up Robin pointed at the hotdog stand.
Agni looked at it and back to him. "So what?" he asked
"Look at its name." Robin said
Agni glanced at it again. It said on it 'Worlds Best Hotdogs' Agni looked back at Robin and shook his head "Something that's not the best." He said
A grin crept across Robin face. "Then we will have to see if their really the best, won't we."
Agni grinned back "Yes, I think you may be right. We must try these um…" he glanced back at the stand "Hotdogs and see if they are as good as it says."
They began to walk towards it. Before they reached the stand Agni held Robin back
"What's a hotdog?" he asked
Robin looked at him stunned "You don't eat hotdogs in your dimension."
"I have never heard the name before. What's it made out of?"
A look of uncertainty crossed Robins face "It made out of… well… meat… and other stuff."
Agni nodded his head in acknowledgment "Sausages, that's what it sounds like to me."
"Exacly! It's sausages." Robin said
"I'll take a hotdog with mustard and ketchup" Robin said
Agni looked at Robin then the guy then the menu. He shrugged in design "I'll take what he said." Agni said handing him a 10 dollar bill.
Robin opened his mouth to protest against him paying but closed it when Agni glared at him.
"That was extremely close to the batglare" he said shuddering
"You pick up a few things when you live with Master Bruce for a hundred years." Agni said taking his hotdog from the vendor.
They went to sit down on a bench and took a bite out of their food. Robin continued chewing but Agni almost spat it out.
"What the hell is in this?" he demanded
"A hotdog, I already told you that."
"I know now why she said not the best or even close." Agni said dropping it into the trash can.
"Then I think we need to follow him home." Robin said.
Agni nodded "Then I guess we have some time waiting to be done." He said taking a seat in plain view
"So we just wait and follow him."
"Got any better ideas?" Agni said
Robin shook his head and took a seat next to him. A little while later he dozed off and Agni kept watch. A few hours later, after dark, the vendor packed up his stall and began to push it down the street. Agni shook Robin awake
"Dick, Dick wake up" he called
Dick instantly opened his eyes and popped up. Agni put a finger to his lips to silence him and jerked his head in the direction of the departing vendor. They followed the vendor down the street keeping a distance. They followed him for a few miles in till they reached a distant neighborhood. They watched him enter his house and they stood outside hidden in the shadows.
"What next?" Robin whispered
Agni took out the parchment and read from it. "We need to find a gnome…" he looked up at Robin in doubt "I thought there were only humans in this dimension."
"I think she meant that." Robin said pointing at a garden gnome across the street.
They walked up to it and tilted it over. Agni bent down and picked up a note that had more runes on it.
"More directions." Agni said
"What do they say?"
"It says to walk down the street and take right and stop at a 'fire hydrant' which I have no idea what that is."
"I do let's go."
They followed the directions that lead them to fire hydrant in the edge of the city.
"We need to find some sort of tracks." Agni said
"There are dog tacks over here." Robin said
"Then let's follow them."
They set off again down a street through an alley and they found the tracks stopped reaching train tracks.
"Now I understand what she meant follow the tracks onto other tracks." Robin said laughing "A smart set of wordplay
"Not really usually she does much better." Agni said glaring down the tracks "Well let's go."
Agni ran down the tracks with Robin in hot pursuit. A few miles later they tired and stopped to rest.
"We should have brought some kind of transportation." Robin said panting
"I could summon horses." Agni said trying to catch his breath
"Then what are you waiting for?"
Agni took out his whistle and blew into it. Two horses formed out of the air and stood in front of them. They hopped on and rode off down the tracks. An hour later they reached a place where they broke off into two.
"Which one do we follow?" Robin asked
"Neither, we follow those." Agni said pointing to a set of horse tracks
"Are you sure those aren't from us?"
"Yes those are from a pony. Arty doesn't ride anything else."
They walked down them and a few minutes later the reach a deserted plane with a wall running through it.
"Now we wait in till midnight." Agni said settling against the wall
"Should I call the Team in?"
"Nah, we'll call them when we actually find something. For all we know we're on a random goose chase."
Robin nodded and plopped himself down next to him. "So uh… how's everything going?" he asked
Agni smiled and twirled his hat around on his finger. "Everything's going fine. What is it you want to know?"
"Why do you think I want to know something?"
"I've been living with Richie for almost a hundred years I know you want to know something."
Robin grinned nervously "I just wanted to know… if… there is anything between you and Zatanna."
Agni smirked "I knew you were going to ask that." He sighed slightly "No… not really. We went on a few dates but not much."
Robin nodded "I uh wanted to know if a… you could give me advice on a…"
"Anna?" Agni said still smirking
"Yeah…" Robin said looking nervously at the ground.
"Well. What is it you wan to know?
"Well what is it she likes and um stuff like that"
"Well she likes you for starters."
"What?" Robin exclaimed
Agni nodded his head "Yeah she does."
"How do you know?"
Agni rolled his eyes "How many times must I tell you how old I am?"
"True, true."
"She wants to go out with you."
"She does?"
"Yep, you should ask her out."
"To where?"
"Try the market or a mall."
"Are you serious?"
Agni nodded his head and they fell silent for a few minutes. "What time is it?" he asked
"Almost twelve." Robin said
"Call the team, tell them to come as quick as they can."
Robin put his finger into his ear and spoke into his intercom. "Wally should be here in a minute, everyone else is going to be here in a second."
"How?"
There was a loud crack and a bright flash of light and everyone was standing in front them
"Like that." Robin said shielding his eye from the light.
"So what's up?" Wally said speeding up to them.
"We need to wait here in till midnight, and then some kind of sign is supposed to appear." Agni said
"How long in till then?" Roy asked
"Four minutes and approximately 47 seconds." Richie said.
"How can you tell?" Robin asked
Richie pointed at the moon
"You can tell by the second?" M'gann
"Just about."
"What kind of signs do you think are going to show?"
"Probly some of dat damn hocus pocus." Connie said
"What do we do after these signs appear?" Conner asked
"It says it will take us somewhere where we will need to disappear." Agni said reading the parchment
"What does she mean by we will need to disappear?" Kaldur asked
Agni shrugged "We'll find out soon enough."
They waited a few minutes looking around for some kind of sign.
Then Anna gasped
Everyone turned to her and she was pointing to the wall.
But there was nothing there… for the Team.
"Um there's nothing there Anna." Robin said staring at the wall
"That's brilliant" said Agni
"I don't see nothing wants dere?" Connie yelled trying to see what there were pointing at.
"I don't see anything." Conner said
Agni turned to Richie "You see it?" he asked him
"Yup, pretty smart isn't it?"
"What is it?" Roy asked
"Elf runes it genius!" exclaimed Anna
"Elf runes? What's that?" Robin asked
"It's a certain type of magical runes that can only be seen by the eye of an elf." Agni said "She wrote them without being able to see them and she must have enchanted then to only be shown to us at midnight."
"Well let's go we can follow them if you can see them." Zatanna said
They followed Richie and Anna who led the way. Agni mysteriously disappeared and no one noticed, everyone assumed he was behind them, when he unexpectedly was in front of them.
"Stop!" he ordered in a harsh whisper
Everyone halted and looked at him
"What is it Agni?" Kaldur asked
"We're running into a trap." He said simply
"How do you know?" Wally said
"I scouted ahead." Agni said
"How did you out run us?" Roy asked
"Elves are very nimble and agile, and dark elves are creatures of the night. He could easily out run any of us during the day but at night he could do it with his eyes closed, quite literally." Anna said
"What kind of trap?" Robin asked
"There are a few score of trolls waiting for us… well only half off them remain."
"You mean you took out have a squad of trolls with none of your weapons?" Wally exclaimed
Agni scowled at him "How many times do I have to tell you humans that I am never unarmed?" he said
Artemis smirked "For him at least another thousand times."
"What should we do?" Conner said
"We go in, we take them down and we find Arty." Said Artemis with the air of dismissal
"So much like her." Richie said under her breath.
Agni concentrated and conjured a map of the area. "There are some here and here." He said pointing at the map, "Artemis, Roy and Conner go in from here and drive them down the hill. Richie, Robin and Me will take them at the bottom of hill. Anna, M'gann and Zatanna will drive them through here to where I and the two immature kids will be and no competitions this time on who kills the most trolls got it?"
"But he won last time! Common Agni one last time? Please?"
"No." said Agni "Wally, I want you, Connie and Kaldur to make sure none of them get away under any circumstances. Ready everyone?"
Everyone ran to their positions and waited for Agni signal. They saw a red arrow go up into the air and come down in a shower of sparks. Roy and Artemis pulled the strings back and shot several arrows while Conner leaped forward throwing them into each other herding them down the slope into the designated area. When trolls got there, there was a sudden explosion as Agni dropped several fire-ball arrows onto them from above where he was levitating. He gave a thumb up to Richie and Robin and they threw several grenade and batarangs at the few trolls that were still standing. Then they turned and ran into the other groups that were running from Zatanna, M'gann and Anna. Richie tossed some grenades at Agni who caught them gently and lobbed them at the incoming trolls. When everything died down they went in search Kaldur and the others. They found them a little distance away with a goblin pinned down with Connie holding a large hammer over him.
"Looky wha I found!" Connie cried excitedly "Can I kill 'im?"
Agni shook his head and conjured a quick pair of chairs he took a seat in one and motion for the goblin to sit in the other. "So where were you headed to hmm?" he asked the terrified goblin
"No wheres I was just goings for a shot walks, yes that was all I does." it squeaked
Agni tilted his head and eyed his "Since you're just going for a walk I guess there is no reason not to let that dwarf over there play with you is there?"
Connie took a small hammer off his belt. "Know what this is? I call it da nut craker… wanna know why?" he said swinging it nimbly from side to side.
"Okays I tells what you wants just no let 'im at me." It screamed
Agni nodded his head with mock worry "You better hurry I'm not sure I'll be able to hold him back." He said
"I was running to go tell master Abaddon dat you was coming?"
"Really now where is Abaddon?"
"'n a large cabin about 2 miles away from here."
"With who else, hmmm?"
"A little Halfling girl, with short bow and sling and nasty laugh."
"Okay that's bad." Richie said.
Agni stood up and the chairs disappeared dropping the goblin onto the floor "Well listen now I'm going to let you go but you see, these two over here are learning to be arcane archers, so their dying to practice on something. So you better run fast."
The goblin turned and ran for it without another word. Agni counted to three and gestured to Artemis and Roy
"First one to his the goblin with an arcane arrow gets something."
"What kind of something?" said Roy shooting arrows as fast as he could. They would start out fine but fade out after a few seconds, same with Artemis.
After a few shots Roy finally hit it with an arcane arrow taking it down.
He smirk at Artemis and turned to Agni "What do I get?" he asked
"Not sure, I'll think about it later." Agni said
He walked off and everyone followed him.
They walked silently in the dark only whispering to each other. When they reach the cabin they hid behind some bushes and boulders and watched the house
"Abaddon is in there with two other people including Arty" Agni whispered
Agni peeked over the edge and tried to look in through the windows. "It's a familiar aura someone that we already know." He said
"Well let's go in and say hi." Wally said getting up and preparing to rush
"Are ye sure rushin is a good idea?" Connie said "Even I think it may be better to draw the damn idiot out."
Agni stood up and stood in front of the door. "Leave Abaddon to me just get Arty out of here." He said
"Last time he took you out remember?" Zatanna said "With a backhand."
"He won't have the advantage this time." Agni said he took of his shirt and dropped it to the ground and rubbed a hand down his armor.
He surrounded the house with bright heatless flames, his farie fire, and called out "Abaddon I know you're in there so don't waste my time and get out here with who ever else you have in there!"
The team stood next to him or fanned out around the house.
The door opened and Abaddon came out laughing holding up Arty with his demon arm.
"Crazy loon." Muttered Connie
Abaddon bowed "So if it isn't Agni and his pitiful human friends. I see you fell for the little game I set up for you."
"My cursed greeting Abaddon the half-demon, are you ready to be finally beaten?"
Abaddon laughed and dropped Arty to the ground showing she was bound and gagged.
"You are still so full of yourself aren't you Agni? Still thinking everything is about you isn't it?"
Agni slowly pulled his sword from his Bag of holding "Is that jealousy I hear Abaddon? Are you still jealous that I became more than you ever could accomplish?"
"Ha! I am more powerful than you by a thousand times. I am a half-demon I wield power that you cannot comprehend!"
At what price Abaddon, At what price?"
Abaddon sneered and beckoned at someone from inside to come out
"Look what brought I bet you haven't seen in a while and miss."
A cloaked figure walked out and stepped into the middle of the fiery ring. She took of her cloak and dropped it onto the ground.
It was Iivdril
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