Shadow wasn't sure what to think. So they are not as hostile as I originally thought... she looked over at the small boy she was walking beside. His skin was red and bruised,his costume was ripped. And there were lots of scratches everywhere. She felt bad for the burns. But hey, at the time they were attaching me so it was self-defense. Still, she felt bad.

They were headed towards the city in the distance, when Shadow heard a familiar sound.

"Do you hear that?" Robin asked. Picking up the pace a little.

"Da, it sounds like a road."

Threw the trees they could see the swift blurry movement of vehicles and the closer they got they could make out the gray pavement of a street. Shadow and Robin stopped right behind darkness of the trees that separated them from the road.

"Alright this is convenient." Shadow said. "So we just follow this road in a direction and see where it takes us."

"Or," Robin started watching the cars. "We could hitchhike."

Shadow squinted her eyes a little at the unfamiliar word. "We could what?"

"You know hitchhike." Robin said turning to look at her, she lightly glared at him. "Or...maybe you don't know." He turned back towards the road before explaining "Hitchhiking is when you signal to the other cars that you need a ride in the direction that they're going. So, sound like a plan.?" He looked at her again to see her reaction.

Her answer was short and blunt. "No."

"But-"

"Nee-yet."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "Why not?"

Why not? Is this kid serious? "Because I'm not going to just jump in some random person's car and trust them to take me where I need to go. Who knows what that person does, or if he decides to take us into the woods for whatever disgusting reason came up in his mind. We both have two working legs we can walk."

"But we have no idea where we are, and I saw you fight, with both of our training I'm sure we could defend ourselves if somebody tried to kidnap us. I really need to contact my team."

"Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure you blew a giant hole in our ship! And it could of crashed some where and they might need help!" Robin was getting annoyed at her stubbornness and irritability.

I don't remember doing that. "When did that happen? And what ship? Is that why we were falling?"

"We put you on our ship to take you back to our headquarters. On the way you seemed to be having some bad dream and blew a hole in the ship. That's how we got into this ordeal."

Her only response was "And you wonder why I don't trust people."

Robin's face was set in a grimace of frustration, he was hurt, tired, hungry, and worried about his team. So he tried to compromise. "How about if we ask someone driving a truck for directions, than maybe we can stay in the back end of it, and if they try to pull off into the woods we can just jump off."

Shadow contemplated this for a moment than said. "Fine."

Robin let out a silent sigh of relief while he watched the road for a truck to come by, and muttered under his breath "I hope the others are having better luck than I am."

They waited for about 10-15 minutes before they saw an old red truck in the distance. "Okay, here's our chance." Robin said, emerging from the woods. Shadow followed behind him. "So...how are we supposed to 'hitchhike' on him." She said.

"We just wave our arms like this." Robin replied moving his arms up and down.

"That looks stupid." She said.

"Well you could always walk instead." Robin said coming out closer to the road.

Shadow sighed. "I never said I wouldn't do it, I'm just saying that it looks stupid." She followed him to the side of the road. The truck was coming closer and Robin was waving his arms and jumping up and down.

Shadow paused, a small smile had formed on her lips. Robin looked over and saw that she was laughing and got mad. "Are you going to help me or not!"

"What's the matter? Having a hard time flying?" Shadow taunted as she walked up beside him and waved her arms up and down.

Robin scowled, he would have said something but the truck was slowing down, and stopped a few feet in front of them. The man leaned out the window as Shadow and Robin came up to him. He was balding and fat, and was wearing a white T-shirt with a leather vest. "What are you kids doing out here?" Than said more quietly "Could that be the real Boy Wonder?"

Robin walked up to him to talk while Shadow stayed back a little eying him warily. "Sorry to bother you sir, but where exactly are we?"

"Uuhhm, Antelope Island by Utah, I was heading back towards Clearfield. Do you kids need a ride?"

"Yes, that would be great." Robin said.

"Well, I think I've enough room in the cab for you two,"

"That won't be necessary," Robin said, he glanced back towards Shadow who waiting for him to finish. "We'll ride in the back."

The guy seemed surprised. "The back, back. As in the bed?"

"Yes."

"It's really windy riding back there-"

"We realize this, and we will still take it." Robin replied.

The man got back into the car while Robin and Shadow climbed into the back, they were soon speeding down the long highway. Robin's cape fluttered all around him and Shadow's hair was being whipped in every direction. Robin had to shout to be heard over the wind "I hope your happy!"

Shadow gave a small smile. Yes, I am.

They were on the back of the truck for fifteen minutes, before they came to another road. However this one crossed what looked like an ocean or a very big lake to Shadow. They could make out Utah in the distance. The road was in the middle of what looked like a giant sandy strip. Dotted here and there with bushes. Twenty minutes later they were in a city.

The man pulled over at a gas station, and that's when they jumped out, hair wind blown and tangled. "Well, this is Syracuse." He said as he started working the pump. "Are you going to go with me all the way, or get off here?"

"I think this will be good. Thank you." Robin said as he turned to leave.

"No problem!" The guy called back.

"So now what?" Shadow asked looking around. Cars zoomed by on the highway and there was a shopping mall not to far off. She didn't get an answer and turned to see Robin messing with what looked to be a blue floating computer screen over his left arm. She walked and peered over his shoulder. I see a bunch of blue squares and what I'm guessing is English. She thought as he typed on a keyboard.

He gave an aggravated sigh, "Communications are down everywhere. I can't even reach any Justice League frequency's because it says 'no satellite signal is being received'."

"So I'm guessing that's bad." She said as he closed whatever it was over his arm.

"Yes that's bad!" Robin replied whirling around to face Shadow. "There's no way to contact my team, the Justice League, Batman! I can't even get on the internet!"

"I repeat, so now what?" Shadow was looking at the shopping center, it was just a street over. She could spot a few food courts from there signs. I'm hungry. Man, shopping centers can be so easy to- No! I promised.

"I don't know." Robin said, mouth turned in concern.

"Do you have any money?" Shadow asked looking at him.

He looked at her than started opening one of the many pockets in his belt. It was the first time Shadow got a good look at it. Wow, that's a lot of pockets and things crammed into a belt. I wonder what he keeps in there. Than she remembered the red boomerangs. It's probably a bunch of stuff like that.

He pulled out several bills, Shadow reached and grabbed them.

"Hey!" He said in surprise, but she was already headed towards the road counting them. I may not know English, but I do know numbers! Ever since Sunshine helped me... The thought of her saddened Shadow, but she quickly shook it off. Can't think about her right now, got to focus.

"What are you doing?" Robin ran to catch up to her, she was on the side of the road waiting for a chance to cross.

"I'm going to get food. You must be hungry too." She started to run across and Robin followed.

"Ya, but we need a plan here."

"I do have a plan, eat." They crossed the street and she stepped on to the curb and headed for the mall.

"And after that?" Robin said keeping stride with her.

"After that? I thought we could discuss that while we're eating." They were now in the parking lot and Shadow started maneuvering the quickest route to the building.

Robin was mad, but hungry so he went along. They were soon in the busy shopping mall. Shadow walked a ways until the familiar smell of Burrito Bell hit her nose. "Tasty and cheap." She said as she got in line.

Ever since they had walked in, people have been pointing at Robin and whispering. Shadow didn't catch everything, but it was mostly the same questions. "Is that Robin?" "What's the Boy Wonder doing hear?" "Is he on a mission?" "Are we in trouble?" "Maybe it's just a kid dressed as him, he's seems to be following that teenage girl."

It was no different at Burrito Bell, she figured he had to be uncomfortable, but his face was unreadable. They ordered and went and sat by a window. "Do you have any spare clothes in that high-tech belt of yours?" Shadow asked. He looks ridiculous walking around in that, and I don't want any unnecessary attention. At least his skin is looking less red...

"No." He said then took a bite of his burrito. Shadow , a little reluctantly, handed him back his change.

"So why do you call your self Robin?" She asked staring out the window.

He gave her a cold gaze before saying. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious..."

"It's just my name. Why do you call yourself 'Shadow'?"

She answered coolly. "I like the dark. I don't do to well in sunlight. People also called you 'the Boy Wonder' what does that mean?"

"It's just a nickname, like Batman has also been called the Dark Night or the Caped Crusader and since I'm his side- protege, they sometimes call me Boy Wonder." He saw her smirk at that so quickly said. "But you can just call me Robin."

She sipped her drink in thought before saying. "Hm, Robin. Isn't that a bird? Robin?"

He was glaring now, "Yes," and about to try and change the subject when she went on.

"So why not Mocking jay, or Lark or Blue bird. Ooh I know Sparrow. Sparrow is a good one-"

"Why do you care?" Robin said as he set his drink down heavily. "It doesn't matter what my name is, does it?"

"I'm just wondering why you chose Robin. It's not very intimidating. I think Owl would be a better one, or Crow. Crows are nice."

"My name is Robin because I like it better, and I think it suits me. Now can we change the subject, like maybe how are we going to find my team?" Aggravation was intertwined with every word in the sentence.

Shadow grabbed her drink as she looked out the window. "Whatever you say, and your right. Robin does suit you better." A small smile played triumphantly on her lips. Robin wasn't sure how to take that last comment, but he tried to shrug it off as he thought about other ways of locating his team.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence. Traces of irritability could still be seen on Robin's face, but Shadow had gone into deep thought. Robin finished and was watching her for a moment before asking, "Are you done?" She snapped out of it. "Da, so what's next?"

"I guess work our way towards the Hall of Justice." He said gathering up his mess.

"Whatever you say Sparrow." Shadow replied with a small smile.

"It's not Sparrow it's Robin." He said threw gritted teeth. "And are you going to clean up your mess?"

"Why, they usually take care of. Do you want a refill?"

"Because it's polite." He said as he started picking up her trash. He threw it away including his drink while Shadow filled her's up.

They walked out of Burrito Bell. "So how far can you fly?" Robin asked.

Shadow looked puzzled. "Why?"

"Because I want to know if you could fly us to Washington D.C. I know it's a long ways off but-"

"Doesn't matter if it was the next building, I couldn't."

"And why not?" Robin said a little aggravated that she was purposefully not going to fly them over there.

"Because you know when I said that I don't do well in sunlight?"

"Ya," Robin was wondering where this was going.

"Well it's because one I hate it, and two my powers only work in the absence of the sun. So the less sunlight the more power."

Robin thought about this for a second. "But I thought your powers were magic or some type of physic energy?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, truth is I don't really know much on how they work, only that when I'm in the sun I can't...well, get it to come I guess."

Robin was going to say something when the lights went crazy. The cash registers were going haywire and the escalators whirred up and down.

"Is this normal for you?" Shadow had to shout to be heard over the clanking cash registers and the sound of the escalators.

"No!" He yelled back looking around, people had annoyed expressions on their faces. Some guy in a suit walked by muttering "Not this again." This is freaky. Shadow thought as she tried to head for the exit, but it was quickly over.

She cocked her eyebrow at Robin. He seemed to be thinking for a second than opened the floating blue square over his left arm. He cried excitingly "Everything's back on! We must have been experiencing a type of blackout earlier."

"And blackouts are bad, right?" Shadow asked. But Robin ignored her as he made his towards the exit working on his blue square. "Hey?" Shadow said as she caught up with him. "What are you doing?"

Robin continued to ignore her as he swiftly made his way out the door, down the street, and near a subway station entrance, all the while typing on his floating keyboard. "Where are you going?" Shadow asked as she kept up with him. He was leaning against the railway, static now appeared on the screen.

"Robin to Aqualad...Robin to Aqualad do you copy?"

A voice started coming in on the other side, but it kept going in and out and Shadow could only make out a few words now and then. "Aqu-...in...wh-...location?..."

"Syracuse, Utah, I repeat Syracuse, Utah." Robin said.

"Do...opy? We...suff...multiple...inj... Ro-"

"Syracuse, Utah. The Shadow is with me...do you copy? The Shadow isn't a threat, do you copy?" Robin was sounding a little frantic as he tried to make sure he was being heard correctly. The Shadow? She thought. What's with putting a the in front of my name about? There was a pause then. "Be...full...pinpoint...loca...com...soo-" There was just static from then on , Robin gave up and shut it down.

He leaned up against the railing and sighed heavily. "The blackout must still be going on, I couldn't locate where they are." He said mostly to himself. Than with a sudden outburst. "Trained by the best hacker in the world, and I can't even find my friends!" He angrily kicked the pole causing it to ring and people across the street looked over.

Shadow wasn't sure what to do. Crap, comforting was more of Sunshine's thing. She always seemed to know what to say. Shadow thought back to the days of when it was just herself, Sunshine, and Chamele. All the times Chamele would get so scared not even Sunshine could calm her and even then Shadow would only have to sing a lullaby...I don't think this kid wants a lullaby.

She walked up to him. "Hey," She said kind of quietly. He ignored her and headed down for the subway. "Hey!" She said loudly. He turned around to face her "What?"

She wasn't sure what to say "Its-it's going to be alright."

He stared at her, "Heh, it's going to be alright, seriously? I can't find my team, they've suffered multiple injuries, I can't contact anyone, and..." he sighed and said "and I have no idea why you would care, let's just go." He went and practically ran down the stairs. Well that could of gone a lot better. Maybe next time I should tell him 'everything happens for a reason'. Shadow thought bitterly as she followed him down to the subway.

One was almost done boarding, but Robin just sat on the bench with two tickets. I should probably say thanks, but what if he doesn't want to talk? She could hear Sunshine's voice "Shadow! You need to at least try! He's obviously upset about his team, the least you could do is be polite. He is trying to help you after all!" Shadow rolled her eyes. Crap! She isn't even here yet I'm still being nagged to take her advice!

She walked over and sat on the other end of the bench. He wouldn't look at her. "Thanks...for the ticket." She tried. He mumbled something that sounded like "No problem."

She took a deep breath staring at the floor. Man, I don't like doing this! "And thanks for everything your doing to help me..." He looked over, slightly shocked because he didn't take her for the type to say something like that. "It's just...what I do." He replied kind of awkwardly.

"Well...what your doing is...good so...thank you." She said and tried to think of a way to quickly change the subject. But another subway came up and they got on.

They rode in a slightly awkward silence.

{*} You like? You like? I have never been to Utak or Antelope Island, so I'm sorry if I've gotten anything incorrect. Please review and I'll try to update very soon. I have way more of the story ritten than what I have published, it's just is the publishing part that I need to work on so please be patient and bear with me and my inconsistancy and laziness!