Young Justice: New Worlds

Chapter 11: Backtrack

TIM

As soon as they sank through another portal, I turned to Nightwing. "Did you track them?" He nodded. "Duh."

Everyone crowded around as he commed up a screen. Then the unthinkable happened. The screen froze, then displayed those hated words. Buffering.

We all gasped, partly annoyed but also shocked. The Watchtower never loaded, never had so much a glitch. (Unless me or another bat ward hacked in.) Everyone stood there impatiently while we watched this tiny blue circle go around and around for eternity. Impulse tapped his foot at sonic speed until Blue wacked him upside the head to stop. Beast Boy practiced morphing his hand into different features. POOF. A bird's wing. POOF. A dinosaur's claw. POOF. POOF. POOF. I looked away, it was too disconcerting.

Finally, the screen was done. At first it displayed a map of Earth, but then flickered. Soon, all we saw was static. "Not compatible?" Blue muttered to himself. We all looked at him. Nightwing put a hand to his chin, thinking, as words flashed across the screen: Not in this world.

"What does that even mean?" Cassie wondered aloud. "I guess it means the place Adalae dropped us in was in another dimension," I told her.

Nightwing turned to me. "She took you there? Spill." So I started explaining in detail what had happened at the mall.

Bart jumped in from time to time, adding useless details like Cassie's purse, and how I uselessly threw a birdarang at Adalae before she dumped us into a black hole. (Nightwing narrowed his eyes at the last one, but didn't chew me out. Yet.)

Batgirl and Nightwing exchanged detective looks before Dick began his lecturing thing.

"Well, we know that Adalae has some kind of vortex power. She can change the direction of moving things and transport with it. Plus the interesting garbage-disposal type with the black hole. Obviously, the alien female shapes shifts. Though the green-eyed kid hasn't done anything weird, it's not safe to assume he doesn't have abilities either."

Batgirl continued for him. "But we still don't know Wally's story, so we're going to send a team to investigate."

"Any volunteers?" She looked around uncertainly, sure enough, not a lot of people wanted to disturb the feisty couple. "They need alone time," Lagoon Boy muttered.

"I'll go," Bart said, raising his arm. Conner and M'gann lifted their arms together. Nightwing nodded. "I think Aqualad and I will come to, then."

Kaldur smiled.

"And just like that, we're a team on a mission."