CHAPTER 7

Robin crouched next to the unconscious figure, who's hidden name tag read "Zeron". It was probably a codename, but at least now they had something to call him, other than "him", or "that guy", or "the man". Batgirl was scouting the area, and Superboy was in the process of scanning for heat signatures in the area.

Upon finishing, Superboy asked, "What've we got?"

"It looks like that strength you mentioned, and that draining was all in his stick," Robin said. "Aside from that, I can't really tell all that much. I found some I.D. cards, but they all either have no name, or say 'Zeron'." Robin pulled up the computer on his glove, and started to scan Zeron for anything else of interest.

Finding nothing of importance, Robin turned his attention back to the I.D. cards. There were 5 of them. One appeared to be a driver's license, probably fake, one was a bronze card, with some other language writing on it, the third card was a name tag, which would slide into a special plastic case that clip onto the outside of a uniform. "Zeron" was printed across one side, and the other side was blank. The forth card was silver, and it was blank. The last card was a credit card of some sort. The writing looked alien, which, with all the other cards, led Robin to believe that this man wasn't human.

"It looks like this particular man is some sort of alien," Robin said, continuing his analysis.

"Any idea where from?" Batgirl said walking back over, and crouching beside Zeron next to Robin.

"I'm not sure where he's from originally, but it looks like this operation is deeper than we thought. I'm assuming that this island is actually housing a whole civilization of aliens, based on all these cards. It seems that in their time on earth, they learned a thing or two about human economics, and liked some of the ideas.

"Ok," Superboy said a little annoyed. "How does this help us to rescue our friends?"

"The more you know about your enemy, the better you can fight them," Batgirl said.

"Precisely," Robin said. "Now I am going to try to get a message to Batman, would you two work on tying this guy up?"

"Fine," Superboy said. "But be quick about it. The longer we wait, the more these aliens can do to our team before we find them.

Robin walked to the drop off point along the waterline, dodging at least three patrols along the way. Pulling out his flashlight and mirror, Robin quickly signaled the league's operative on the next island over, so he could relate their progress to the league. Then Robin proceeded to sneak back to Superboy and Batgirl. By the time he got back, Batgirl had left to scout out the enemy base of operations, and Superboy was dejectedly sitting by a tree. As Robin walked closer, Superboy said, "Your going to leave me behind too, aren't you?"

"Stealth isn't really your forte, but I do have a plan," Robin said. Once Batgirl got back Robin explained his plan. "Batgirl and I will sneak in first," he said, "to see how we can get Superboy in. If we don't see any way in, we'll come back here and talk to you. If we aren't back in 15 minutes, come in after us," Robin said.

"Fine," Superboy said.

Robin and Batgirl looked at each other, then she took off running in the direction of the base. Robin followed. The two ran, dodging trees, until they finally slowed near the clearing. "There seems to be two possible entrances," Batgirl said as Robin caught up. "An air intake duct, and the main entrance. The air duct is already open, suggesting that someone has used it already," she said.

"Ok," Robin said, "We'll take the air duct. Any clues we can find about what happened to the team will be helpful."

Robin went first, and Batgirl followed. They quickly made their way through the air ducts, following signs left by the team as they entered. These could be displaced dust, or a slight bowing of the duct in some areas. It only took a minute to find their way through the ducts to where the team got in. Robin and Batgirl dropped to the ground seconds after Robin hacked the security feed from the cameras. They were in a long corridor, which went on for a distance in either direction.

"Which way?" Batgirl asked.

"We'll go right first," Robin said. "We don't want to split up, after all, there is a reason the team needs help."

"Got it" Batgirl said.

They ran off, Robin in the lead again. As they reached the corner, they slowed, and Robin peered around the corner. He didn't see anyone, so he motioned for Batgirl to move around with him. As she moved, Robin switched jobs with her. She now took the lead, and he watched their backs. Looking back ahead, Robin saw that they had entered another long hallway. He and Batgirl locked eyes for a second, then took off running for the other end of the hallway. It took less than a minute for them to reach the other end, and again, Robin peered around the corner.

This hallway was a bit different. It was half the size of the other ones, and in the center of the hall there were two sets of doors, both facing opposite directions. There were four guards total, one on each side of the doors. This hallway was also wider. It could fit multiple lanes of traffic if it had to, the other hallways could only fit, maybe one lane. Robin surveyed the situation, and pulled back around the corner, to give Batgirl a chance to have a look. After she was finished, Robin started strategizing with her.

"We could knock them out with batarangs," Robin said quietly. "But that might alert the people in charge that we are here."

"We could hit them with a sleeping gas," Batgirl suggested.

"Yeah, that could work," Robin said as they both reached into their utility belts to pull out their sleeping gas canisters. They also each pulled out a gas mask.

After putting the masks on, Robin opened his canister, and rolled it out a ways into the hallway. Batgirl did the same. The guards were talking, so they didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. They each only noticed the gas when it started affecting them, but by then it was already too late.

Robin and Batgirl crept out to their canisters of sleeping gas, and shut them. Then they proceeded to handcuff the unconscious guards.

"Take the left side door" Robin said to Batgirl, as he dragged the guards bodies in front of the other door (Which opened out) effectively blocking anyone who tried to come from that direction. Batgirl hacked into the door mainframe, and disabled any security measures that the door might have by the time Robin got back from the other side of the hall. Batgirl hit a few more buttons, and the door opened up, revealing a huge room, with a red carpet leading from the door to the other side of the room. The room was at least twice the length of the hallway they had taken, but the walls were surprisingly close. They only had about two feet on either side of the carpet. At the far side of the room, there was a bright light, accompanied by the echo, or dampened screams.

Robin turned to look at Batgirl, who met his gaze. Something was happening at the other end of the hall, and Robin guessed that it had something to do with the rest of the team. Unfortunately, the hall and the light made it difficult to see anything. Robin motioned towards the light with his hand, and he and Batgirl crept towards the light. There was no furniture in the way, or anything they could hide behind, so if anyone looked there way, they would be seen. Their hope was that the people in the light wouldn't hear them, and thus have no reason to turn their heads to look.

The door behind them started to close, so Robin placed a batarang inbetween the doors at the top, the bottom, and the bottom, effectively preventing the door from locking. It also meant that no noise was made as the lock, or the door clicked into place. Robin looked back, and Batgirl had already crept closer to the light. Robin followed, sticking close to the wall, crouched down, stepping only as fast as he could without making any noise. The light intensified, and the dampened screaming increased in volume. A shaking could be felt even from where Robin was crouched. Something was going on up there, and it couldn't be good.

…

Superboy felt the ground shake before he heard the muffled screams from within the building. If it weren't for his super hearing, he probably wouldn't have noticed it, but he did. He checked his watch for what seemed like the millionth time. He still had a good five minutes to wait. Superboy finally let himself think back to what had happened so far. It still was a little unclear as to how the mission went south so fast, but if he could figure something out, he could prove all the others wrong. He could prove that he really wasn't just brawn. As he though about it more, the more uncomfortable he became. Somehow, they had been prepared for every move they made. He still wasn't sure how, but he intended to do his best to come up with something.

Thinking back on his fight with the wolves, and the man Zeron, Superboy searched for any detail he might have missed. He closed his eyes, and mentally brought back the images from the fight. The wolves, Zeron, and now that he was looking at it from a different perspective, he saw something he had missed the first time. The wolves came from the trees. Each wolf was a tree that transformed into a wolf when Zeron did something with his stick. Superboy opened his eyes as something clicked in his head.

A huge mistake on his part, and he couldn't believe he had missed this. He looked over to where Zatanna and Rocket were last, and, like he had suspected, they were gone. And just like that, Superboy was no longer safe in the woods, a ways away from the enemy building. Instead he was with an enemy commander, who could potentially transform every single one of the trees surrounding him into deadly creatures. Superboy looked around, scanning for any sign of movement, on edge. This was not good at all.

…

Robin and Batgirl crept closer to the light, trying to get a glimpse of what it actually held. Creeping closer, Robin turned to Batgirl, and quietly said "I doubt the actual information we need is in here, but it seems important. Splitting up is a terrible idea, but if we want to check this out, and get the information Batman wanted, we'll have to."

" Yeah," Batgirl said. " I'll fall back and guard the door, so I can try to hack the system and get the information we need. You check this out. If you need me, just signal, and I'll be on the way."

"Sounds good," Robin whispered. Sneaking back towards the light, Robin was very careful to be absolutely silent. The only advantage he would have, if there was someone in the light, would be surprise. He would have to be very careful to keep that advantage. Suddenly, the light dimmed, and the screaming stopped. As the light dimmed more, Robin was finally able to see what was going on. In the center of the room, there was a Stonehenge like pattern of circular tubes, each one extending about 10 feet off the ground. They made a large circle around a big machine that was in the center. Creeping closer, Robin saw that some of his friends were in the tanks.

Aqualad, KF, Miss Martian, Zatanna, and Rocket were each in a tank, and the rest were empty. They were all floating in some clear liquid, plugged in to the tank, which was presumably providing air. From each of the tubes ran cables connecting it to the central machine. Robin ran towards the tubes, and barely managed to stop, and dive behind one of the tubes as he heard footsteps. Looking back, he saw a few men in suits identical to Zeron's, and one in a white lab coat.

They started speaking in a language that Robin actually did understand, and it started to bring back some unwanted memories, including that dream, NO, he wouldn't let himself think about that. Your fears really were powerful, and if you let yourself dwell on them to long, it could drive you mad.

Pushing all of these thoughts aside, Robin automatically translated their words to English in his head.

"Test subject 1, 2 3, and 4 responded well, but subject 5 has had a setback. It seems that subject 5's scope of energy exceeds that of our stabilization levels. The residual side effects of this failure may last up to 48 hours. Slightly altering the properties used, we can set up for the next test run, and we will begin the next test soon. The strain on the other test subjects seems minimal, allowing them to be used in many more experiments before termination."

At this, Robin ducked around the tube he was hiding behind, and attacked. Before they realized they were under attack, the first two of the soldiers were out cold, each from a forceful kick to the back of the head. Throwing a batarang, Robin knocked the man in the white lab coat, who he assumed was a scientist, away from the controls of the machine he was reaching for. Robin had to finish quickly, and prevent either of his opponents from raising the alarm. If the alarm was raised, their chances of escape would be lowered drastically, especially given the condition his friends were in. Robin jumped into a flying kick, colliding with the third guard, but he showed no reaction. Robin flipped backwards, landing on his feet in front of the last guard.

Robin saw the scientist reaching for the controls again, but he still had the soldier between him and the scientist. Robin ran forward, jumping up, and dodging the now very active, and startlingly quick soldier, who pulled a baton like the one Zeron had used out of nowhere. Robin dodged back, and barely got a batarang around the soldier, knocking the scientist's hand away from the controls. Robin jumped forward, twisting in mid-air, and using his hands to propel himself off of the guards shoulders, to land behind him. Turning quickly, Robin kicked the scientist in the face, and threw two punches before he was tackled to the floor by the soldier. The scientist climbed to his feet, dazed, but conscious. Robin found himself on the floor, while the soldier pulled a card out of his pocket. He slapped his baton on his wrist, and it morphed to form a watch-like device that extended from his wrist to the top of his knuckles. It wrapped around the palm of his hand as well. The man placed the card on the back of his hand, and the contraption glowed, before the card disappeared. The man charged, and jumped. As he came down, Robin rolled to the side, the soldier's fist narrowly missed his head, but the impact still sent him rolling a few feet. Robin quickly sprang to his feet, and threw a batarang at the contraption on the man's wrist. The batarang clanged off, and skittered into the wall. Climbing to his feet, Robin saw the man charge.

For the first time so far, Robin actually had a problem with the brace Alfred had him wearing for his wrist. It didn't give him the full range of motion that he needed to successfully catch, a punch like the one staring him in the face. Robin dodged the first, and second punches, but the third one connected, and it felt like he was being hit by a freight train. Robin flew across the room, and crashed into one of the tubes, which cracked upon impact.

Robin fell to the ground, out of air, and very glad that Bruce had installed the new padding into his suit. It had been designed to protect him from a hit or two from Bane, and he was more glad than ever that he hadn't turned it down.

Robin looked up as the soldier pressed a few buttons on the contraption on his wrist. The card re-appeared, and he quickly traded it out for a new one. That card glowed, then disappeared, just like last time. Pointing his hand at Robin, the contraption twitched, then sprang to life, shooting ice. Robin dove out of the way, and looked back at the frozen tube. He quickly threw his cape in the way, and the cold hit him. When the stream finally stopped, Robin backed up a few steps, then hit his cape. The remaining ice particles fell to the ground. Again, Robin was very glad for the equipment in his suit. The cape had an auto heating, factor, for fighting with Mr. Freeze.

The soldier pressed a few more buttons, and Robin pulled out two of his special batarangs. Throwing them at the soldiers feet, the expanded into wads of foam that immediately hardened, sticking the soldiers feet to the ground. Then, Robin threw on of his explosive Robinrangs, and when it his the man's arm, it exploded. Batgirl jumped out from behind him, and connected a solid kick to the man's head. This time, the soldier reacted to being hit, and collapsed. Robin;s wrist-computer beeped, and he started at it in terrible realization. His 15 minutes were up. Seconds later, an alarm started ringing throughout the entire facility. Looking at Batgirl, then at the unconscious soldier, Robin quickly kicked the scientist, who thought he was doing a convincing job of being unconscious, in the head.

Robin had realized that his initial run down of Zeron had been very wrong. He was now starting to realize the significance of what he had just experienced. If all of the soldiers had these special batons, and cards, then escape had just become a very unlikely option. Robin stared at the machine in front of him, dreading the daunting task that was ahead. Batgirl placed her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. Robin looked at her in thanks, and she met his gaze. Mentally strengthened, Robin turned back to the machine, and went to work trying to free his friends.