My life outside the Mythical World

Bloodlines

Dick's POV

"Decryption completed...Translation completed." The computer announced.

Nightwing stood in front of the Cave's main holo-screen, watching as the Krolotean words were being translated into English, or as close as they could get to English.

Two sets of footsteps sounded from behind him, one lighter than the other, Nightwing immediately knew that one belonged to Robin. The other one was also easy to determine, the swishing of something furry indicated that set of footsteps belonged to Beast Boy.

He was right on both.

"Is that the Krolotean intel?" Tim asked as soon as he saw what he was working on.

"What Krolotean intel?" Beast Boy asked, confused.

Nightwing's focus did not leave his work as he adjusted a couple of images on the holo-screen. "The data files M'gann and J'onn recovered on Malina Island before it was destroyed." He answered.

"Ah, noted."

"Apparently, the Kroloteans were snatching humans to use as guinea pigs..." He continued on, analyzing the file as he spoke."They were hoping to find something...Something inside us."

"What is it?" Tim urged on.

"There's no English word for it...The nearest translation is Meta-Gene." That got him confused even more. Apparently, Tim didn't get it either.

"What's a Meta-Gene?" the Boy Wonder asked.

Garfield didn't seem as concerned about this as the two Bats are. He nudged Tim with his elbow. "Never meta Gene I didn't like." He joked. Tim looked unamused at this and looked like he wanted to argue back when suddenly the security system came to life.

"Warning. Unknown energy impulse detected."

The room flashed red as the wind began picking up in the enclosed space. Dick's hands went instinctively to his Escrima Sticks strapped to his thigh. Even though he didn't know where the threat might be, Nightwing stepped back a little and shielded the two younger ones behind him.

Then, out of nowhere, a gigantic machine materialized in midair and dropped down straight in front of the trio. Smoke and electric sparks popped around the weird machine, and it slowly began to open.

"Stand ready," He told the other two and heard the unmistakable sound of weapons being drawn from behind. Nightwing tightened his hold on his own weapons as a figure dressed in red and white suddenly leaped out from the machine.

"Ta-da!" The boy from the machine cried happily.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert." The room continued to flash the warning.

"Computer, lockdown Cave," Dick commanded.

"Well, I think we found our unknown energy impulse." Beast Boy said, a little nervous at the sudden appearance of the stranger.

The boy didn't seem to mind the comment, in fact, he seemed rather interested with just a single word in that entire sentence."Impulse? That's so crash! Catchy. Dramatic. One word." He took a step forward and suddenly appeared right up against Dick's face. "Like Nightwing. And Robin. And Beast Boy, except that's two words - Blue Beetle's two words. Hey, is he here too?"

Nightwing blinked. The kid has superspeed. But before he could register the entire situation, Impulse was already five steps ahead of him.

"Never mind. Impulse can find that out for himself. Ha-ha-ha." The joyish laughter rang down the hallway as Impluse was gone within a second.