A New Beginning

Chapter 17

Hi, sorry it's been so long since the last update. Here's a new chapter, sorry it's so short, I am working on chapter 18 now.

Hope you enjoy.

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Batman and Robin seemed very calm compared to the rest of the team, who were all yelling over each other, trying to get answers from the Bat. The two vigilantes just waited semi-patiently, indifferent masks firmly in place.

After twenty minutes, it became painfully clear that no one was going to stop on their own. The Dark Knight, who was beyond angry and incredibly worried at this point, decided to give them a....gentle nudge to clue them into the severity of the situation and how they were wasting time.

"I will kill every single one of you slowly and painfully if you don't shut the hell up right now."

The silence that followed the statement was deafening.

"We just wasted valuable time we could have spent looking for him. I knew you weren't geniuses, but I thought you at least had some intelligence." Batman growled.

"Hey!" Flash and Kid Flash yelled out in unison, only to receive the full brunt of the Bat Glare, making them shrink back.

Robin stepped forward, a little shocked at his mentor's outburst, but understanding nonetheless. The small movement managed to draw the attention to him. "He's worried. We all are, but we need to focus on finding Danny before anything bad happens." The bluntness was almost eye opening to the others, realizing with a crash of guilt, that they could have been looking by now instead of bickering. They all nodded.

"What should we do?" Superman asked. Batman, having calmed down slightly, thought for a second.

"Well he was taken by the Ghost Investigation Ward. However I don't know where they took him. It couldn't have been out of the country, which is good. We also don't know if he managed to escape. First thing we need to do is look out for Cadmus bases and GIW facilities."

"Why Cadmus?" Kid Flash asked, for once serious.

"Cadmus had funded the GIW after the government tried to close them down. They and Vlad Masters had been private benefactors before Masters had disappeared."

After discussing a plan, they all set to work.

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Their work so far had been useless.

It's been about two weeks and they've hit dead end after dead end, finding nothing useful to discover the whereabouts of the young Halfa. Each day, the team witnessed their darkest members as they became worried and snappish, uncharacteristically showing more emotion than most of the other heroes and junior heroes thought they were capable of.

"Well, at least now we know they aren't robots." Wally muttered to Artemis as they watched Dick pace back and forth, running his hands through his hair. He was muttering under his breath and they could tell he hadn't slept despite the dark glasses he wore.

Artemis elbowed Wally in the ribs causing him to yelp. She glared, "shut up Wally. We're all worried. Stop acting like this isn't a big deal."

Wally rubbed the forming bruise, "look, the little dude is scary smart. And powerful for his size. I'm sure he managed to get away."

Robin stopped pacing and snapped his attention to his friend. "He didn't escape last time."

No one spoke after that, and Robin continued pacing.

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Skulker watched the two interact. The boy was good. If it weren't for the fact that his face portrayed non emotion despite the way he sounded, the ghost would have been fooled. The girl was hugging him and sobbing, but the Halfa didn't reciprocate due to the fact his arms were trapped (even if he could, he didn't seem like he would.) He had decided that he would trust the Halfa and only step in if he was in any danger.

The hugging lasted for a good ten minutes and the mechanic was getting impatient but a sharp look from the small boy gave him the incentive to wait. Eventually, the boy pushed the girl away gently, clearly getting tired of the sobbing. The girl cupped his face and looked him over.

Skulker saw it a split second too late.

The hands that were holding the boy's face started glowing orange, and her eyes morphed into the same color.

Then came the scent of burning flesh.

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Again sorry for it being so incredibly short, but it's been such a long time since an update and it had a good ending. I'll try to get the next (hopefully longer) chapter up soon. Let me know what you think, thanks for reading.