A/N With much craziness comes much craziness. Therefore I did not update. Very sorry.

Disclaimer: I can't even update my fanfics regularly. What makes you think I could write, design, animate, voice, direct, and produce a TV show?

"I need to speak with Aqualad. The rest of you, hit the showers and head home."

Robin tensed as Batman's order met his ears. Artemis, Megan, Wally, and Conner flashed him sympathetic glances as they left, unintentionally tracking mud through the room. Kaldur stayed by his side, until the Dark Knight added, "Just Aqualad."

Kaldur looked confused for a moment before inhaling softly, turning on his heel, and leaving.

"Way to help a guy out, Kal," Robin thought to himself. Aloud, he said, "Sorry you had to intervene. I know the Team performed poorly—"

"The Team performed adequately. The problem was you. You're their leader, and your head wasn't in the game."

Robin's mind flashed back to his thoughts in the moments before battle, wincing inwardly. He couldn't tell Batman what was really going on. "I guess, I mean, I suppose my thoughts were simply elsewhere. Thinking about home."

"You can split your time between here and Atlantis, but not your mind. Either you're here one hundred percent or you need to walk away." The Dark Knight turned away, and if Robin hadn't known him so well, he would not have known that an inaudible sigh passed his lips. "Take some time off. Visit home. Do what you need to do, but make a decision, Dikel. And make it soon."

"Thanks. I mean, thank you."

With a whir of the zeta-tube, Batman left.

Kaldur appeared from where he had been hiding around a corner, at which Robin was slightly surprised, as even Batman apparently hadn't known he was there. Robin sure hadn't.

"I take it that you are not thinking about Atlantis."

"Eh, no."

"Then what?"

"I really, really, really miss my home life." Robin was careful to choose his words in such a way that would give no indication of his and Batman's real identities. "Out of costume, Batman is technically my dad. I miss that side of him, the one that's not Batman, but his secret identity. You know? I miss my home, and also hacking, but mostly my home."

"I understand," Kaldur admitted. "Just as you miss your home, I miss mine. Unfortunately, my new physique will not permit me to survive in the underwater environment. I can no longer even visit discreetly."

"Hey, Kaldur." Robin reached up to put a hand on his teammate's shoulder. "Hey, I understand, too, okay? Just stay traught. We'll get out of this, soon. Now that we know Klarion has something to do with it, we finally have a lead, and we can go from there."

"I know." Kaldur nodded at the younger boy with a smile. "And by the way, you do not have to keep Batman's identity secret. I have been living in the manor for more than a month now. I did attempt to keep it hidden from myself at first, but it was not hard to put two and two together once I saw him out of costume."

Robin grinned. "Whoops. Don't tell the others?"

"I would not dare... Dick."

"Ha, ha."

There was a pause before Robin sighed. "In the meantime, though, I guess I kind of have to go to Atlantis, huh? Batman's orders."

Kaldur paled slightly. "Whatever you do, do not destroy the city, I beg you."

"Relax, Kal! I haven't destroyed Wayne Tower or Wayne Manor yet, have I? No! I won't destroy Atlantis."

"Note that you have not destroyed Wayne Tower or Wayne Manor YET."

"Seriously? You're acting really chalant. Calm down!"

"I am Aqualad. I am always calm."

"Correction! I am Aqualad; I am always calm."

"Left, no, right, no, left! Augh!"

Artemis frantically mashed the controller with super-speed, mentally cursing her opponent. To her right, Wally calmly and methodically pressed a series of buttons, initiating a series of strikes and punches from his character. On his face was a smirk frighteningly similar to one that Robin might give.

"WHY ARE YOU SO HARD TO HIT?!"

"I keep dodging," was Wally's answer. "You don't play video games a lot, do you?"

"No time to. Assassin-in-training, remember?"

"Yeah, but, like, once in a while wouldn't be bad for you." Wally motioned with his chin to the screen. "So you picked Girl Flash?"

Artemis scowled, still mashing. "You got a problem with that?" she asked. She stopped smashing long enough to flip her wet bangs from her face, and then frantically resumed.

"No. I just think it's weird that Girl Flash is a character, even though Girl Flash technically doesn't exist."

"Yeah, well, technically, you're about to die."

"Artemis? That's not my life bar. That's yours."

"Hrmph." Artemis gave another mash of buttons, snorting when she kicked air instead of face. "Real combat is so much easier."

"And way more realistic," Wally added. "Since Girl Flash is Kid Flash, Girl Flash has all the capabilities of Kid Flash. And Kid Flash could take down Robin any day."

"You mean Sparrow."

"You know what I mean. Stop using super-speed. You'll break the controller."

"Ugh! Why can't I use the advanced attack?!"

"X-X-A. It's a series of buttons."

"Which one's X?"

"Top button on the right side of the controller. Whoop, too late."

The screen blinked Artemis's defeat as the former archer scowled again. "Why are you playing this game with me instead of Robin again?"

"We tried." Wally flipped through new characters, eventually selecting Red Tornado. "As it turns out, the webbed fingers aren't flexible enough to let him move his thumbs quickly."

"But he can type."

"His thumbs stay on the spacebar. They don't have to move around as much. Also, he has a habit of yelling Romani whenever he makes a bad move, and RT was just freaking out about that."

Artemis tried to picture the android hero having a panic attack, but frowned at the inability. "Robin learned to speak Romani?"

Wally blinked. "Uh... yeah. Let's just go with, yeah."

At that moment, however, Robin himself entered the room. Wally saw him out of the corner of his eye and waved. "Hey, Rob," he greeted. "What's new?"

"How about the fact that you're playing video games with Artemis?" Robin quizzed, leaning his elbows on the back of the couch that his two friends occupied. "A little unexpected, but okay."

Artemis selected Wally's last character, Sparrow, as her avatar, which, she reasoned, had been the one Wally used to beat her last time, so Sparrow was a good choice, right? "I'm bored, and I needed to talk to him."

"Speedster stuff?"

"Sort of." Artemis shrugged. The screen meanwhile flashed the word "GO" at her, so she instantly hit the advanced attack moves. "X-X-A..."

"You can't use a super move until you gain more points from using regular moves," Robin sighed. "Give me that." Swiftly, he snatched the controller from Artemis's hands, simultaneously pressing pause.

"HEY!" Wally made a grab, but Robin dodged as the redhead missed his tackle and sprawled to the floor. "Ow. I thought you don't like to play video games with those thumbs?"

"I'm not playing." Robin handed the remote back to Artemis. Artemis hit play, forcing Wally to throw his arms over the back of the couch and play from behind her.

"I was winning that, you know! Wait! WHY IS SHE GLOWING BLUE? YOU HACKED THE GAME AND GAVE HER A POWER-UP?!"

"Duh, yeah. You were kicking the poor girl's butt."

"WHY ARE YOU EVEN MY FRIEND?!"

"Come on, Wally." Robin flipped over the back of the couch, landing comfortably in Wally's seat with a contented sigh. "She's not even a challenge, at least not in video games."

"SHE'S PLAYING AS YOU!"

"Technically, she's playing as Kaldur," Robin pointed out. "Anyway. I have a problem, and I was wondering if you guys had any ideas to help me out."

Artemis flipped her hair out of her face again, cocking her head at the game, which she was now winning. Epically. "Shoot."

"Shooting jokes are dumb coming from an archer," Wally huffed.

"You're just mad because you're getting beat by a button-smasher."

"Anyway. I have to go to Atlantis."

Silence followed, broken only by the sound of Red Tornado landing a solid blow on Sparrow and Sparrow's stumbling footsteps.

"Weren't you just IN Atlantis before the Fourth of July?" Artemis quizzed.

"Batman says."

"Since when do you do what Batman says?" Wally snorted.

"Since I am no longer Robin, but Aqualad," Robin replied. "Your charge meters are full."

Wally hit his X-X-A a half-second sooner than Artemis, smirking madly when Red Tornado sent his super-move spinning and whirling toward Sparrow.

"O-kay. So go to Atlantis."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Because I can't speak Atlantean, I don't know anything about Atlantean customs, the magic is way over my head, and Kaldur's probably going to fail my math class. THAT is 'why not'."

"Yeah, well, I don't speak Vietnamese. You don't see me trying to get out of going to Artemis's house every night to avoid her mom."

"Nor do I WANT to learn to speak the West language," Artemis added. "By the way, who is Jay Garrick and why are we celebrating his birthday?"

"That's a story for after we've solved this problem," Wally sighed. This time, Wally was the one defeated, and Sparrow did a victory dance on-screen that made his jaw drop.

"Kaldur would never do that. I don't think there's even such a thing as an Atlantean dance, and if there is, that is not it."

"Have you ever even been to Atlantis?" Robin quizzed.

"Are we talking 'been there', as in, I saw that place for a second, or, 'been there', as in, I purposefully travelled there to visit?" Wally asked in reply, absently tossing his controller into Artemis's lap. "I accidentally took the zeta to Atlantis once instead of Central City, but I swam right back through."

Artemis threw the controller back and conked Wally's head. "How do ACCIDENTALLY travel through a teleporter?"

Wally scowled at the offending remote, picking it up again and laying on the table in front of him. "You'd be surprised. So technically, I have been to Atlantis, but I couldn't stay long or I'd drown."

"Anyway," Robin repeated—again, in hopes that maybe this time his friends wouldn't get off-subject—"should I actually go to Atlantis or just pretend or something?"

"Uh huh, because Batman would NEVER figure out that you faked visiting Atlantis," Artemis scoffed. "Your best bet is to just go. Talk fancy, spend a day or so, check it out, and just hang around."

"Ditto," Wally decided. "That's what I've been doing at Artemis's mom's house, and what she's been doing at mine. Just go with the flow. Ha, ha, see what I did there?"

Artemis cuffed him. "Anyway. Did you talk to Kaldur about it?"

"Yeah, he agrees that it's probably for the best that I go. Turns out he also knows my secret identity now, but that's not important. At least, not right now."

"Alright, then." Wally shrugged, tucking his hands behind his head. "The vote's unanimous."

"He didn't ask Conner and M'gann."

"Conner and M'gann aren't Atlantean. Wait, why are you even asking the two of us? You know what, forget it."

Robin just rolled his eyes. "Okay, thanks for the advice. See ya." And just like that, his Bat roots kicked in sure and true—he evaporated into the air without a second thought.

"Speaking of advice," Artemis added, "who is Jay Garrick and why is he so important that we celebrate his birthday?"

A/N Next chap is going to be pretty long, I think. So it should make up for this one's shortness and the long wait. You know the drill; Acty out.