The door opened with a smooth swoosh.
"Well, that was easy." KF stated.
"Too easy...this isn't right." Robin replied suspicious, rubbing unconscious circles over his upper arm. He had a bad feeling.
Nonetheless Dick decided that standing around wouldn't get them anywhere. After all they had a job to do. So the Boy Wonder followed his friends carefully into the barley illuminated laboratory.
The light bulb flickered dangerous in the silent. It was giving all it has left to the young heroes, but slowly losing the fight against the dark shadows, cast by long shelves near the walls.
Rows of long tables, stood on a white flagged floor in the middle of the room. Each was equipped with a bunch of glass wear, microscopes, pipette, chemicals and all the other stuff to do evil in a more scientific way...and there were the hostages, hidden in each corner. Bingo!
Of course there were hostages. At some point there were always hostages involved. Innocent people, who must be saved at all cost. Robin knew that very well. Every now and then he was one of them. Clearly being the adopted son of a billionaire had its downs sometimes, but all in all no biggie for him.
Jokers recent prisoners were still dressed in their lab coats, some already strained in red, others still white.
They were nicely tied up and gagged with wrapping paper and he even went so far to put a matching ribbon on top of each head. The weird mix between feeling the joy of opening a present and dry blood gave Dicks the creeps. And by the look of it Wally and Conner too.
"Rob, should we spli-"
KF turned around.
"Rob?"
The protegé of Batman had already disappeared, probably looking for something to hack into.
"Man, I hate it when he does that!" The speedster complained for the nth time.
Jeez, why was the acrobat always acting like a little brat, Wally wondered.
"Guess it means 'yes'." Superboy shrugged and moved in the direction of the hostages.
"What ever." Answered the red-head a little snippy, while taking of to the lab-tables.
He smiled at the happily bubbling substances in the neatly organized test tubes. Chemistry was just his thing. Wally's glance wandered over the stuff build up before him.
He hardly noticed the rhythm of Robins hands dancing over the keyboard of the main computer let alone the suddenly end of it.
"Guys..." Robins quiet voice came over.
The speedster ignored his friend. Instead he let his fingers wander over the edge of the table now and then picking the one or the other thing up, trying to figure out the purpose of behind all those.
"Guys!" Yet again the little bird echoed from the distance.
"Just a minute Rob... I just wanna check something" KF said absently, pushing concerns of the younger boy off. He was way to fascinated with all the chemicals to listen properly.
In the meantime Superboy had freed the unconscious hostage one after another. It was a slow process and the clone of superman was a little disappointed about the lack of action.
"We have to get out of here!" He heard Robin shout from the other side of the room. The Boy Wonders heartbeat was unusual fast.
"I am almost finished." He called out to calm his friend a little bit, while he reached for the rob of the last hostage.
As soon as Conner removed the gag between the older mans mouth, his eyes snapped open.
"It's a trap" He breathed out, seized with panic.
It was than when Superboy noticed a laugh filled with madness coming from the heart of the building. The Joker? It was closely followed by a second strange noise.
RATARARARARARARARARARARA
Next to him a little wind-up monkey showed suddenly up, but instead of the usual cymbal he held two bottle of chemicals in his tiny handy.
Robins eyes open wide in shock as he realized what was about to happen.
"Why does it always have to be monkeys." Superboy wondered as he watched the chemicals being smashed together.
"Robin are you there?" Kaldur remembered the Dark Knight calling out through the come-link.
"Answer me!"
The sound of Batman's voice made him shrink, never before ha he heard concern in it. But it was nothing compared to what he felt while listening to the static that followed.
"Batman." He instantly recognized Robins breathless voice and for a moment he allows himself to relax.
"I am on my way." The Dark Night replied brusquely.
"NO!" Dick almost screamed.
Bruce waited patiently for his of his young portage to continue. He knew something was wrong.
"It's a trap!" Robins voice nearly cracked. "Joker experimented with a toxin. He created a deadly virus. It's looks like it passed on through air. You can't come in here!"
"Who else is there?"
"Me, Superboy KF and the three Prof's."
"Stay put. Nobody is allowed to leave the room."
"Understood."
And after a second thought Bruce added.
"... don't worry. It's gonna be fine."
.
.
.
The League was contacted. The building evacuated. And the first person was already dead.
That was four days ago and nothing, absolutely nothing was fine.
