{*} I apoligize for such a delay. I'll explain in the author's note at the bottom and quick delaying this even more! :){*}
"Lost communication." Kaldur said in annoyance. They had been walking for nearly three hours, and were barely holding on. His limp had worsened and he feared that Wally would soon faint. He had used a lot of his energy and Aqualad could tell that he needed to eat soon. It was twenty more minutes before M'gann cried. Guys! I see a cabin up ahead!
Everyone was exhausted, but they picked up the pace in the direction M'gann headed. It looked like a some sort of park ranger cabin. There was a refrigerator, medical box, a few cots, and a computer but the internet was down. Kaldur had to sit on a cot his limp was so bad, Artemis sat next to him while M'gann got the medicine. Wally went straight for the refrigerator and grabbed the first thing he saw, which was a jar of pickles, and started eating while Superboy distributed some bottles of water.
"Do you think this place was abandoned?" Wally said threw a mouth full of pickles.
"Why would some one abandon a place yet leave it fully stocked?" Artemis answered with some reticule. "And you need that sprained ankle wrapped better."
"What? Nah, it's fine." He replied. Artemis gave him a look, he sighed, walked over, and sat down.
Everyone ate and got bandaged and soon felt better, although they were still tired. M'gann was getting distressed about the bioship. "She may need help." M'gann said.
"Agreed," Kaldur said he stood up using the metal crutch they found and he had a bandage wrapped around his head. "We will return to the bioship. The sooner we can get it healed the sooner we can contact Robin and Batman." They packed up some supplies for the way back before setting out.
It took them less time to reach the ship, but the sun was starting to set. M'gann whimpered as she landed beside the bioship, and gently woke her up. This time it didn't waver but shift slowly to it's flight shape. There were less cracks visible and the hole was a little smaller, but it was obvious that it would be awhile before it could fly. "M'gann, the communications?" Kaldur asked.
She sniffed a little, she could still feel the ship's pain, but answered. "Communications are still offline, maybe tomorrow?" She was uncertain, her ship had never handled this much damage before. Not even when they faced the Injustice League.
They agreed to set up a camp. Soon a fire was built, Superboy rolled a few logs over, and they started roasting hot dogs. "Well this isn't so bad." M'gann said trying to lighten the mood a little. "I mean, it reminds me of when we first met and went on that camping trip."
"Ya, it's not like we're missing a teammate, have multiple injuries, and no way to get help." Wally muttered under his breath. Artemis lightly elbowed him, noticing the look of disappointment on M'gann's face she said. "So...you guys went camping? That sounds cool when did you do that?"
M'gann's face lighted up and she started talking about the get-to-know-one-another- experience she, Superboy. Kaldur, Wally, and Robin had. She went on for a little while and the subject got changed every now and then, but soon they went to sleep with Superboy taking the first watch. In the morning they would decide what to do.
Shadow was getting tired of riding the subways almost non-stop. She preferred walking, even if it was during the day, the outside felt safer because there was lots of room and Shadow could rely on her senses easier. But in these subways! Everything echoes, and when your actually in it, it smells, it's loud, there's so many people crammed into a tiny space, and I have less room to move! What if I need to defend myself? All of this and more ran through her mind, however the Bird Wonder seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.
The sun was heading down towards the horizon when they were entering their eleventh seventh subway and Shadow got sick of it and finally complained.
"Okay, why must we go from subway to subway?" She said with her typical irritability.
"Because we need to get to the Hall of Justice and that's in Washington D.C., and everywhere we go I can't get any signals to communicate." He sounded a little agitated.
"And who are you trying to communicate again?" She asked, they had reached another entrance but Shadow was reluctant to go in.
Robin sighed. "My team and the Justice League. Now can we go in? The sooner we get there the faster we can work on getting you home."
"Fine," She said starting to walk down again. "Whatever you say Bird Wonder."
Robin muttered under his breath, "It's Boy Wonder."
So once again they went threw the process of Robin buying the tickets and climbing on the subway. Shadow went straight for the car that had less people and Robin went ahead and followed her. They were only on for five minutes when it screeched to a halt, and the lights shut off. Shadow groaned "Great, what now?" People were murmering and muttering to themselves as panic slowly started to move in like fog.
Robin didn't answer, but tried to figure out what their plan should be, usually when subway shut down things got bad. Shadow sensed him tense up, and quietly asked "Do you know what's happening?"
"Something bad," Was the reply. "We need to get out of here." It was hard to hear from the commotion other people made. Robin headed for the exit, lightly touching Shadow on the arm so she would know he was moving. "This way."
He headed for the back of the subway, they weren't to far off but had to weave in and out among the people who were starting to freak out. Finally Robin opened the back door to the inky darkness of the tunnel.
"Ah, this is nice." Shadow said quietly stepping out. Her eyes started to have a white glow as the dark energy formed around her.
"I thought you said that only works at night?" Robin said with a smirk, as he brought out his blue square.
"I said it works at night or in the absence of light. Do you see any light," She noticed his blue square. "Besides that."
"This didn't happen by accident. Someone caused the subway to go down. I've managed to trace the signal to a location in... a warehouse in Lincoln, Nebraska"
"That's...great, but why are you telling me this?" Shadow asked leaning over his shoulder.
"I have the coordinates let's go." He said as he ran down the tunnel.
What? Is this kid serious? She thought as she watched him pull something from his belt, shoot it to the ceiling and fly off. I guess he is. She gave a disgruntled sigh as she followed him using her energy.
Apparently they were really close, seeing as they were already in the city. The got out from the subway tunnel (much to Shadow's disappointment.) and from there Robin climbed the nearest building and jumped to the next roof. He realized she wasn't following her and looked back. "Come on! We're going to lose it!"
Shadow was on the edge looking down, the jump was only ten feet but it seemed like twenty.
"You're insane!" She shouted looking across to glare at him. He jogged back to the edge of his building and said. "Just back up, get a running start, and leap."
"Nee-yet," She said crossing her arms.
"Look if you fall I'll catch you, okay?"
She was considering this. "We're wasting time! Just trust me!" He said frustrated.
Shadow took deep breaths as she backed away. Okay I can do this. Just run and jump, not like the sun is out and if I miss I'll plummet down into the pavement. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, and got ready to run. Run and jump...just run and jump. She started chanting it as she ran towards the ledge, and leaped. She was only in the air for a few seconds before her feet landed on the other edge of the building.
Shadow let out a whoosh of breath, and Robin smiled at her success. She went to step down when her foot slipped, she started falling down, mouth agape in fear and shock and her arms were wind milling wildly. In a flash Robin grabbed both of her wrists pulled her up. She staggered past him and landed on her knees breathing heavily.
"You alright?" Robin asked coming to kneel beside her.
"Ya, I'm fine...why wouldn't I be." She said as she slowly got up. "It's not like I almost fell to my death or anything."
"You wouldn't have fallen to your death."
She gave him a look.
"I would not let that happen, besides" he said as he started towards the other end. "Now we're even."
They went from building to building. Shadow started getting the hang of it and was soon jumping with ease. They reached the warehouse, it was in a run down part of the city around some abandoned buildings. The sun was just touching the horizon, and darkness was slowly descending.
Robin pulled out some binoculars and looked around. "Doesn't seem like anyone is guarding it. Let's get a look inside."
Shadow blew a piece of hair out of her face as Robin used his grappel gun to get closer. Shadow looked at the sun Come on, get lower! Before following. He landed on the building next to it. The warehouse reminded her of the place where she came through the portal. Robin peered threw his binoculars again, than jumped on the roof and ran to this thing sticking out of it.
It was rectangular but curved at the top. Robin gently grabbed the covering and ,as quietly as he could, pulled it off. It still gave a small twang!
"What's that?" Shadow whispered coming up.
"Air duct, this will lead us inside." Shadow raised an eyebrow as he started going in when he stopped and looked her over.
"You...might not be small enough. Wait here while I go in and I'll give you the go if I think you can fit." And with that he eased himself down. Shadow listened as Robin crawled into the main area.
"Okay, I think you can squeeze in." The words traveled through and up to Shadow.
She sighed. I really don't want to go in there! She hesitated at the entrance. How did he do it again? Right, he kind of went in sideways...like this? She fumbled for a moment then got stuck, legs crammed into the small square shaped space, one arm inside the other one out. Deer-mo!
She struggled for a moment before finally jostling one leg all the way threw. However this caused her to tumble forwards, crashing at the bottom. TtttWWaaaAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaannn ggg! The noise rang out, Robin flinched and ground his teeth, but the sound soon faded.
He turned to Shadow who was trying to quietly straighten herself out. "Quiet! Do want to alert everyone we're here!" He hissed at her.
"We'll I'm sorry," She started retorting as she finally made it laying on her stomach, arms in front, legs leaning up against the back. "That I don't share your spy skills or your smallness!"
He wanted to say something else but swallowed it, knowing they had to see what was happening. Shadow tried to mimic his movements, but it was hard when she could only see his back and the very top of his head. He stopped, she thought she could see a fan straight ahead and two accesses left and right.
He finally chose left and kept going. They went along further, and once had to go down again. This time Shadow was more graceful and almost as quiet as Robin when she landed. They went farther, when he stopped and held up his hand. "Do you hear that?"
Shadow paused and listened. She could hear people talking. Robin crawled forward some more before pausing in front of a vent cover. He moved and twisted a little so Shadow could see. What was down there blew her mind.
There were a several large T.V.s glowing a light blue but nothing else, in their light were tables most of them filled with tools, paper, and charts. The thing that shocked her the most though was the huge monkey wearing a red hat and holding a giant gun. It was standing next to a black robot with a brain on top that was inside a jar. You could see the ray of a starting sunset threw the tinted window, but other than that and the T.V.s, darkness shrouded the place.
"What the crap is that?" She barely whispered.
"The brain and his pet gorilla Monsieur Mallah." Robin answered he brought out this little wire looking thing and silently poked it threw the opening in the vent cover. Shadow gave him a puzzled expression and after he brought it in he motioned that he had taken some pictures.
She mouthed WHAT DO WE DO NOW? He thought for a moment before mouthing LEAVE. I DON'T WANT TO RISK GETTING CAUGHT. Shadow nodded and turned to leave when something caught her eye and she stopped. Robin nudged her from behind, and gave her a what-are-you-doing-look that she couldn't see, but she just stared before turning back and wording.
WHERES THE GORILLA?
He gave her a What? Expression, so she mouthed again. WHERE IS THE GO-
Wham! WAAAAAAAAHHHH WAAAAHHHHH! The huge beast had slammed against the vent, screaming. Shadow had flung back blades slicing out, one accidentally cut Robin but he didn't notice as the thing ripped open the cover and reached in, grabbing for Robin.
He slid threw the small gap under the ape's arm and the vent, grappling down towards the ground. Instinct and adrenaline robbed Shadow as she crab-walked backwards frantically. The giant hand reaching for her, it screamed again and gave a violent lunge, tearing the vent and painfully grasping her ankle. He started to yank her out, she swiped again and again in panic at his arm, but he only screamed louder in pain and used both hands to drag her out and fling her towards the floor. She tried to land on her feet and roll like Wolverine had shown them, but wound up being slammed horizontal, her hands hardly stopping her head from bouncing against the concrete.
She felt herself being lifted up and carried by a pair of huge hands before blacking out.
When Robin had used his grappler to land on the floor he was greeted by the disgusting sight of the Brain.
"What are you up to now Brain?" He quipped. "Trying to build a more attractive robot body for yourself?"
"I am not sure how you got here." The Brain started. "But I am sure you will soon regret the decision."
Robin swiftly let two birdarangs loose, only to have them be deflected by some shield that popped up around the Brain. "Still playing with the same toys, Boy Wonder?" The Brain mocked. "Here let me show the new toys I've made for you to try." With that a horde of robots unveiled themselves from the darkness, surrounding Robin.
He pulled out several more birdarangs preparing for battle. A monitor near the Brain flashed, he turned towards it than back before interrupting. "However, it appears I have more important matters to attend to so bonsoir Robin." With that the robots released a light brown fog, Robin leaped, and landed on one of the heads sticking a birdarang in it. He did that working his way back wards, when he felt a presence behind him and back flipped over Mallah's incoming backhand.
He saw Mallah drop Shadow from where she was on his shoulder before taking off after him. He dodged, jumped, and parried when he could, but was soon caught from behind by one of the robots. It in-tangled it's arms painfully around his before letting loose the fog knocking him unconscious.
"Hey...hey!" Were the whispered words. "Robin..." He stirred a little at his name. "Robin! The Bird Wonder!" The whisper was louder and Robin slowly started to open his groggy, eyes. What...what happened. Oh ya! His eyes snapped open and he was fully awake. The Brain and Monsieur Mallah!
He realized that they were strapped to a table. He looked over and saw Shadow staring back at him. "Your awake." She calmly whispered. He craned his neck and saw the Brain and Mallah working on some computers. The Brain was hooked up to a bunch of wires. He wasn't out long, he could tell because the sun was still setting.
"What now?" Shadow asked. Robin looked to see what was holding them down. It appeared to be some sort of rubber materiel. Even if I cut this we still have the Brain, Mallah, and the robots to deal with...ugh, if only we could send out a stress signal or something, but as far as I know communications are still down.
"You have no idea what to do...do you?" Shadow more or less stated. He just looked over at her then back to them, grimaced, and then shrugged. She gave a small smile, and started to mouth don't worry but there was a Whooosh sound of air being released and the tables rose so that they were almost vertical looking at the Brain and his gorilla.
"Well what do to with the Batman's little side kick?" The Brain taunted "It seems like you have a something that belongs to me." When he said that he turned to Shadow. She glanced around as if to make sure it was really her he was talking about. "Looks like our experiment worked, did it not Monsieur Mallah?" Mallah only grunted in acknowledgment.. "Your probably wondering why we did it and full of questions but sad-"
Shadow interrupted him. "Ya, I kind of am full of questions so if you could just help me out here, that would be great." She said it with a smile, but before he could respond she continued. "Question number one, what's a side kick. I mean I know lots of kicks but I get the feeling your not talking about kicking people especially when you have no legs. Question two," Robin was giving her a what-do-you-think-your-doing look, but she continued. She's insane! She's going to get us killed! "How come your a brain is in a jar? That is a brain right? Because I'm still not great with knowing my body parts but I'm pretty sure that's a-"
"Enough of this!" The Brain shouted clearly mad. "I am not in the mood for your child games! I will extract his DNA and experiment on you and thankfully that will be that last I'll ever have to here of you!"
"You sound mad." She said with mock sincerity and wearing a devious smile.
"Of course I'm mad! My plan was nearly defeated again by mere children but not this time. This time I will-"
"Of course there is a very good reason your mad." She continued not looking at him but at the lowering sunset, her face almost set in boredom. Robin looked out the window too before realizing her plan. Her powers only work in the absence of light! Brilliant!
If the Brain had skin he would be red with anger. "And what! Would that reason, be?"
"Because I'm stalling..." She said it plainly, as if making a small comment about the weather.
"Stalling-?"
"Ya, stalling. Very effective at times. Makes me so mad when Sunshine and Chamele do it though, but...you don't know who they are so that doesn't matter what does matter though-"
"STALLING FOR WHAT!" He screamed. Robin watched as the last few rays of sunlight disappeared. Shadow turned back towards the Brain grinning as if she knew a terrible secret. "For the night." She said quietly before releasing her blades and cutting the rubber like paper.
Mallah roared and charged for her but she easily shoved away and then the brain. She cut the binds holding her ankles than cut Robin out. The Brain activated the robots and they started coming towards them. "Get down!" Shadow shouted, Robin fell to one knee. She took a deep breath in, focusing her energy into her blades and brought them close to her before spinning and releasing them.
There was a pause, then all the robots fell, every one of them sliced in half. "Mallah! Activate the fail safe and get us out of here!" The Brain screamed from where he lay on the floor. In a swift movement Mallah punched a button on the computer before scooping up the Brain and hitting a button on him. The lights flashed off than on and they were gone. Only a little smoke remained.
Robin ran to the computers and found a self-destruct sequence. "Great." Robin muttered as he started to frantically type on the keyboard.
"What? What's with the numbers going down?" Shadow said as she watched the giant red numbers count down from three minutes. Robin couldn't end the explosion, but he could reduce it. He hacked in and set it on it's lowest setting before turning to Shadow who was still wondering what was about to happen.
"Quick, run!" He shouted sprinting towards a door.
"Why what's going on?" She said as he yanked it open and they went outside.
"Can you make a shield around us as you did before?" He said quickly looking at her.
She soon had them encased in a black sphere, and nonchalantly stated "It's going to blow up, isn't it?" A half-second later there was a huge explosion. BOOM! The sphere rocked from the wave, but Shadow held it. After a minute of stillness and once their ears stopped ringing she opened it up.
{*}
So the reason why this update took a long time was because my computer crashed. :( Luckily though all my data was saved! Also thank you so much for reveiwing my story for those that have, it really means alot to me. Last thing, I've posted a very short intro that starts Shadow, Sunshine, and CHamele's days of being X-men. Soplease read that and tell me if I should continue it! I have a feeling that at least some of you are curious about them living down there, especially Shadow cause she's a pill to live with! Sorry for the long author's note and long delay, but I hope this chapter made up for it! Rate and Review, till next time!