A Blast From The Future (Young Justice Next Generation fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

August 30, 2040. 10:57
Gotham City

Traveling through space was nothing like the "Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Whimey," stuff the Doctor talked about.

For one thing, there wasn't a T.A.R.D.I.S.

Zat squeezed his eyes as he and his friends flew through the time portal. It appeared tubelike from within, and  very, very long.

Everyone was screaming as they flew through the portal. Last time, it felt like they were falling. But now, going back to the future, it felt like flying. Or, falling up.

Zat barely had time to pray that they would land somewhere soft, when they did.

He opened his eyes when the screaming stopped.

They were back in the library. Everyone back in the seat they'd been sitting in hours earlier, when Zat first cast the spell. There was Mar'i, on his right, still holding up the book turned to the page of the spell. Iris sat on his left, next to her sisters, wearing a bewildered expression.

"Remind me to never travel through time again." James said, rubbing the back of his head. He suddenly put a hand on his mouth and leaned forward, almost like he was about to throw up.

"Ew!" Angelica and Wendy screamed. James ran off to the bathroom and Diana blushed red in embarrassment for him.

"So is that it? Are we back?" Marie asked, running over to the window with Clark.

Stars were faint against Gotham's night lights, but you could tell it was night. Obviously they weren't back at the exact spot in time where they'd left. Hopefully they weren't years off or anything.

Clark pointed to the display at the theatre across the street. "August 30, 2024." He told the others. "Were back."

A sigh of relief ran through the room, almost like someone had let the air out of a huge balloon.

Then Sandy caught sight of the huge clock on the wall.

"Eleven o'clock! Man, mom is gonna kill us!" She lamented to Garth, who was suddenly looking pale.

Zat wasn't looking so fresh either. "If you're that worried, think what my mom's gonna do to me!" He tried to keep his voice from raising. They were still in a library, after all.

"Hey, we'll be there to back you up. All of you!" Iris said kindly. First looking at Zat, and then around the circle of tables until her eyes rested back on Zat. She reached out a hand to place it on his shoulder comfortingly, but a spark of red electricity shot out from his shoulder and shocked her hand.

"Wasn't me!" Garth protested immediately, raising his hands in surrender.

"Zat, what was that?" Mar'i asked suspiciously.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Zat insisted. "Just a little nerve-racked from the trip, that's all!" He brushed off his arms, and struggled to keep any more of his magic from going wacko. He didn't want to reveal his crush on Iris just yet.

"There you are, I was wondering who was disturbing my peaceful evening."

James was walking back to the group from the direction of the bathrooms, and everyone stared at him strangely, wondering where the accusation and the strangely deep voice were coming from. James raised his hands as if to say "Wasn't me!"

"Everyone's been looking for you everywhere!" The voice growled again. This time, Mar'i recognized it.

"Damian!" She squealed, flying to the top of a nearby  bookshelf and picking up the gargoyle who appeared to be leeching there. When she returned to the team, she was not holding a gargoyle, but a teenage boy about her age with a spiky haircut and a uniform similar to Cardinal's

"Codenames on the field, Nightstar." Damian Wayne growled.

"You fail at imitating your dad, you know that?" Sandy asked, walking over and rubbing the spikes on the fifth Robin's head.

Robin growled. "Don't patronize me, or I'll break your face." He muttered. James and Iris quickly hid their sisters behind their backs.

Mar'i finally set Robin down on the floor, and as he dusted himself off as he surveyed the ragtag team.

"You know, your parents are all going to kill you for bringing your uniforms."

There was an agreed murmuring and shuffling of feet.

"Where have you been anyway?" The question was directed at everyone, but Robin focused on Nightstar.

"Later, Rob." Aquagirl put a hand on his shoulder and spun him around so he faced her. "Call Agent A, we'll tell you everything in the limo."

August 30, 2011. 11:17
Mount Justice

"What...just...happened?"

Slowly, everyone stood up, looking around the mission room of the cave. What was going on? Why we're they all on the floor?

Flash had been the one to speak up, but everyone looked to Batman for an answer.

"The Watchtower detected an unknown energy impulse coming from the mission room of Mount Justice," he informed the team.

"Yeah, we got it too!" Robin exclaimed, holding up his glove computer for everyone to see.

"So where is it?" Superman asked.

Everyone looked around the room for anything strange or out of order, but x-ray vision nor infrared vision could spot any anomalies. And neither could Batman.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Robin said after a minute, typing away at his computer. "How is it that the energy reading is picked up at one pm, but we're all here ten hours later!?"

"Are you serious!?" Artemis and Kid Flash joined Zatanna at Robin's side to make sure he read the time right, and Miss Martian and Superboy ran to the garage to see what time of day it was, to make sure this wasn't some belated April Fools Day joke from Plastic Man.

Batman confirmed  it with the computer. Like back in January, they had lost ten more hours.

"What did we do?" Martian Manhunter sat down on a bench on the side of the room.

"Nothing." Everyone looked at Doctor Fate, who just now spoke up.

"I erased your memories."

"What!?" Everyone yelled at the same time.

"Why?" Flash asked.

"Give them back!" Kid Flash insisted.

Fate stood up taller, looking directly at the younger team. "The fact that you forget for now is vital to the stability of the timestream. When the time is right, you will remember."

With a simple wave of his hand, he conjured up a glowing golden ankh symbol and disappeared.

Everyone looked at each other, wondering what he possibly could have meant.

And that's when Aqualad and Dragonfire realized that they were holding hands.