Deja Vu

Chapter 11

Somehow, it's even more terrifying than it was before.

The blue light spirals up into the sky, ripping through the clouds and splitting out in huge arrays of lightning. Meanwhile, the street around it seems to be pulsing with energy and wind whips around the area, fluttering papers around in the air on the abandoned street. In the center of the chaos sits the machine- a small metal cylinder.

Dick's breath hisses in to constricted lungs as he clutches his side, zooming back in on the present. They have to move. Have they stopped moving?

"Dang," Jason breathes. Oh. They have stopped.

"Imbecile! Unhand me! What is it? I demand—"

Suddenly there's a thump of feet hitting the ground and Dick turns to see blue reflected in Damian's wide eyes. The toddler takes a deep breath, then turns to Dick with an ardent expression, jaw set. "What is our strategy?"

Dick blinks, looking down at the sparking device in his hand. The gauntlet's straps cascade from his palm, screen facing upwards with its own glow. The countdown is still going fast. Much too fast.

With quick movements, he begins to strap it onto his left wrist. "Future Tim said we needed to synchronize. We've got to get back in contact."

"You know how to work the thing?" Jason asks skeptically, gesturing with his gun as the ground begins to rumble anew.

Dick pulls the final strap in place and moves his arm forward to really look at the screen. The ticking clock has flashed to the top left corner. Statistics and screens are up behind it, graphs fluctuating with the blue light, numbers spinning across the screen- there's the ETA on that ambulance Tim was talking about, and Dick doesn't even want to try to guess what all that code is... Dick gulps. "...ish?"

"Ish," Jason parrots, voice flat.

"Enough," Dick shoots back defensively, turning his attention back to the daunting screen. "And anyway... it was Future Tim who established the connection last time..."

"Well we don't have time to wait for him!" Jason exclaims incredulously.

"Just give me a minute," Dick says, eyes flashing across the screen. "I've got this, just got to... there!" With a sudden epiphany, he zooms in on a section of the screen that isn't covered by screens and taps an icon that looks promising. A new window pulls up flashing the words seeking signal. ...hopefully this is still connected across the timestream and Tim picks up fast because if not Dick has no hope of connecting it himself.

Damian's head appears by Dick's hand and Dick realizes the kid is straining on his tiptoes to see the screen. "It appears to be operational."

Jason scoffs, rolling his eyes. "Way to go, Dickiebird, you got the approval of a four year old. Where's Red?"

Dick's eyes snap back to the screen as static shoots across it. And then a video feed of Red Robin comes into focus, in a small window laid over the other screens and beside the timer.

"Wing, Hood," Tim says, relief bleeding through his voice. Blue light plays behind his camera as well, shooting wild and chaotic shadows across the frame. "Thank goodness you're back; time's about up. You've got the demon, right?"

An answering growl from Damian sends Tim's gaze downward. His eyes blow wide. "Oh my gosh, he's tiny."

"I am NOT—"

"Whoa guys," Dick cuts in quickly, pulling the screen up and away from his brother's reach. "Bigger problems right now. Tim, what do we do?"