Chapter Twenty-Five

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING BUT NESSIE AND HALLUCINATION. THAT'S IT.

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Today was a rare Saturday where I didn't have anything to do. It was evening, and I really didn't want to go to the mall or whatever normal girls do. So I was stuck as Selena's apartment, staring at my phone and wondering if I should text Dick. He was probably busy, I kept telling myself, and I didn't want to bother him. Sighing, I went into the living room and sank into the worn couch, clicking on the TV. The news was all that was on, so I settled on that. Out of nowhere, I heard this strange...chanting, of some kind. Then the news anchor vanished from the screen, and the TV went fuzzy. Raising an eyebrow, I tried switching channels, but each one was static and nothing else.

"Selena?" I called. "The TV's not working." There was no reply. "Selena?" She was last in the kitchen, so I went in there to see where she was. Nobody was in the room. "Hello?!" I heard screaming and crying coming from outside, and I quickly ran to the fire escape and looked down. All I saw were kids, no adults anywhere. Running back inside, I picked up my phone and dialed Dick's number. I chewed on my nails while it was dialing, praying that he would pick up. Sure enough, I heard a familiar voice on the other end.

"Nessie! You okay?" he asked.

"Um, no. What the hell is going on?!"

"I'm not sure yet. Just try to round up as many kids as you can, especially the younger ones. They're probably freaking out the most," he replied.

"O-okay," I nervously stammered. What was going on?

"Look, I have to go. Just...keep traught."

"Traught?"

"Opposite of distraught. Bye." I heard a click on the other end, and then silence. Maybe kids would listen to me more if I wasn't Vanessa. Time for Catgirl to emerge.

~-~-~-~

"Hello? Anybody need help?" I shouted. I had been roaming around the nearly deserted streets of the bad side of Gotham for about thirty minutes, but all of the kids had long ran away from here in fear. Straining my ears for the slightest noise, I finally heard a weak yell. I followed the sound to a narrow alleyway, and I didn't believe my eyes for a moment. Jason Todd was laying down on the ground, his leg bent at an odd angle and surrounded by blood. Gasping, I ran over to him and put his limp body in my arms.

"Jason? Jason, are you okay?!" I asked over and over. He was breathing, thank God, but was unconscious. As if he could sense I was there, his green eyes fluttered open and grew wide as he saw me.

"Who are you? Get away from me!" He struggled against my grasp, and was soon yelling and screaming in pain at his leg.

"Relax, Jason. It's Vanessa."

"Yeah right."

"I'll prove it to you," I pulled off my mask to reveal my face, and he soon broke into a smile, but cried out in agony as he moved his leg. I quickly put my mask back on. "What happened to you?"

"Not quite sure. One minute I was fighting off a group of street thugs, and then the biggest of them blocked my kick with his knee. Snapped my shin in two. As soon as I fell to the ground, all of them disappeared. That was when I passed out from the pain of my leg, and then you showed up," he explained. I could see the bone sticking out of his leg, and my first instinct was to call 911, just like they taught you when you were young. Pulling out my cell phone, I put in the three numbers and was met with the sound of an incomplete call. Of course. There was no operators around, because there were no adults.

"Look, all of the adults on the planet just disappeared. No one knows why. Which means that the hospitals will be of no use to your leg," I told Jason. My mind was scrambling for a solution, because I sure didn't know how to take care of a broken leg. Then it hit me: the Team. I'll go to Mount Justice. "C'mon." I helped Jason up, being mindful of his leg.

"Where are we going?"

"To some friends of mine."

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As soon as I walked into the mountain, I saw the whole Team, including a boy about Jason's age. All eyes were on Jason and I, and all but Robin broke into a defensive stance.

"What are you doing here?" Aqualad questioned.

"A boy...a friend of mine. He's broken his leg, badly. I didn't know where else to go, and he'll bleed out if we don't do something. He keeps falling unconscious," I hurriedly stated. Jason was currently unconscious as I talked. Robin immediately ran over and took Jason from me.

"Who is she is what we should be asking," the girl dressed as a magician stated.

"Name's Catgirl. You know, apprentice of Catwoman?" My statement was met with glares from everyone except Robin, again.

"We can trust her," Robin announced, smiling at me. I immediately smiled back. "Zatanna, do you think you could heal the boy's leg?"

"His name's Jason," I added, looking at the magician-girl. She looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, like she was unsure of herself.

"I-I guess I could try. I might make it worse, though," she stated. "Riaper s'nosaj gel!" All of a sudden, smoke surrounded Jason's leg, and when it cleared, Jason's leg was as good as new. However, he was still passed out, and Robin traveled to another room, probably to lay him down.

"Thanks. You just saved his life," I told Zatanna. She managed a smile, then it turned into a frown.

"You're not supposed to be here. This is a place for heroes, not villains," she stated. She did have a point. But was I really a villain anymore? Lately, I had been thinking about not being Catwoman's sidekick anymore. I just didn't feel like I was meant to be bad anymore. But then I would have no home again, and I would have to drop out of the Academy, and be back to living on the streets. Maybe even the orphanage.

"Look, I didn't choose to help Catwoman. I did it in order to survive," I spat back.

"Do your parents know that you're a sidekick of a villain?" Kid Flash questioned.

"I have no parents," I stated. Everyone's eyes grew wide when I said that, and so did mine. I revealed too much, and something snapped in me. Running in the direction where Robin went, a plan began forming in my mind. There were no adults on the Earth right now, so I could escape to anywhere without getting caught. I would take Jason with me, and everything would be fine. No more school, no more identities. Hearing noises, I followed them to a living room. The living room that I saw when Scarecrow made the video of me. Jason was awake, and Robin was sitting right next to him. They seemed to be talking, but stopped when they saw me.

"Catgirl! I didn't know that you knew Robin! Isn't he awesome?" Jason said all in one breath. Robin smiled at me, but I didn't smile back. "Someday, I want to be just like him."

"What's wrong?" Robin asked me, his smile vanishing.

"Jason, we have to go." I walked over to him, but Robin got up and got in between us.

"He's going to stay here. Tell me what's wrong, Catgirl."

"No, he has to go. We have to go." Robin just looked at me, not moving. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe, and I felt lightheaded. Sprinting out of the room, I ran past the Team and through the Zeta beam. Soon, I was back in Gotham, and I collapsed to the ground.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." Numbers filled my head, counting down. With dread, I recognized the voice.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" I screamed, and the most intense pain I had ever felt filled my skull.

"Ready or not, here I come," Hallucination said, and the streets of Gotham faded to black.

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Dun dun DUUUN! I present you with a cliffhanger. *laughs evilly*

This is the only part of the story that has elements of an actual Young Justice episode (Misplaced), so I did not come up with the whole adults-disappearing-off-the-face-of-the-Earth thing. That was the creators of the show.

So if you don't already know, last week I was in Peter Pan: The Musical at my school, and that basically consumed any free time that I had. But that's over, and I got the chapter done, even if it took more than a week. Sorry about the wait!!

I don't even know if you all even read my A/N, so I guess I'll go now... :)

BTW, thank you for all the support! It means the world to me!

~~The Bat has left the room~~