JADE (young justice/robin)

11. take care of me

There was a pressing on my chest, the realization that I wasn't breathing right settling in as water spewed from my mouth. I turned over, coughing and gasping for air. We were in the gym, Artemis standing above me with her bow drawn back, facing the door.

Birdie was sat next to me, pressing the comm in his ear. "Robin to team, come in. Aqualad?"

The door burst in flame, and suddenly I was being picked up by Birdie and Artemis who dragged me forward. They set me down when we arrived in the showers, racing to turn on all the faucets. "Robin to Batcave! Override R-G-4. Cave calling Justice League HOJ/Watchtower. B 0-1 Priority Red. Comm is down, blocked. At least the water's helping."

I could hear a rumbling in the wall behind me. The water pressure building up so strongly until the heads and knobs on all the showers began spewing water. The entire room was filling up, until Birdie detonated a bomb making an opening that tossed us into the next hallway. I was slung over their shoulders again, as they ran us into the kitchen.

"We need to get lost."

"The air vent."

"Good, go."

Artemis leapt onto the counter and pried the vent cover off, while Birdie played around with the home computer. All I could do was lean on the counter, squeezing my eyes shut tightly to try to overcome some of my disorientation.

"What are you—"

"Downloading cave blueprints," he said. "Could come in—" but the sound of footsteps began to close in. "Go, go!" he whispered.

Artemis jumped into the vent, while Birdie ushered me forward quickly. He leapt in first, holding his hands out to pull me up. We tried to crawl quietly, Birdie navigating us through tons of tiny tunnels, but the streams of fire and water began to close in.

We slid down into the boiler room, not having any real idea as to where to go. Our pursuer was right on our tail, setting the boiler room on fire until the pipes were bursting. Thermometers on the heaters began to crack, and balls of flame were soaring right over our heads. I bumped the side of the goggles, trying to get the computer screen to snap back to normal, but the crack was keeping everything from being legible.

We escaped into another vent, Birdie stopping us to connect his computer to the wall. I took a minute to catch my breath, leaning against the cool steel of the tunnel. My head felt like it was on fire and the illegible computer screen inside my goggles wasn't helping. I grew drowsy, as my breath began to slow, their conversation fading out in my ears.

"Jade."

My eyes opened slowly to find Birdie holding my face, waking me up. "Jade?" His voice was a little garbled though. It sounded like we were all underwater again.

"Is she okay?" Artemis's distorted voice asked.

"I think she has a concussion."

My head fell forward limply in his hands. Maybe he was right.

"Help me get her to the library."

I felt myself being dragged through the vent, until they lowered me down into the library, carrying the majority of my weight.

"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases."

"Seriously? Cliché much?"

"You should see the Batcave."

I have.

They tucked me behind one of the bookcases when they heard a door open. They stood with weapons ready, while my hands rummaged through my utility belt. I searched for the syringe, holding it right in front of my face to see the color. Could be purple, which is right. Also could be blue, which is horribly wrong.