DISCONTINUED - Secret Twins

A note

October 10

Mount Justice

"Pineapple juice." Captain Marvel handed Wally a glass with a little umbrella, a straw and a few ice-cubes in it. Wally took it from him and took a sip. "Just what the doctor ordered."

"How's the arm doing Wally?" Captain M asked.

Wally signed and leaned back in his chair. "Heh, nothing wrong nachos can't cure." He hinted.

"Nachos? Ow! I'll get you some!" And with that Captain Marvel flew away.

Meanwhile Robin was getting his ass kicked by Artemis in training. It's not like he couldn't beat her, he could, really, he is Batman's protégé after all. It's just that his thoughts aren't where they are supposed to be. It's pretty hard to concentrate on training while all you can think about is your thought-to-be-dead-but-may-be-working-with-or-being-tortured-by-a-lunatic-for-almost-a-year-and-nobody-knows-if-she's-still-alive twin sister.

Speaking of which, it's been TEN DAYS and they STILL didn't have one damn lead on the whereabouts of Danni and the Joker. Hell, there hasn't been a sighting of either of them the past 10 days. Nowhere. He and Bruce are both getting more and more irritated that the Joker has been able to hide these past days, not even the Batcomputer could find any sings of Joker activity!

Not only did the lack of activity irritate him, but also the fact that the Joker knows who they are and that he has Danni, if she is indeed still alive. There is always the ever so slight chance that he killed her after she told him their identities. But that would be very unlikely, even if she told him every single thing she knew, she could still be used to torment them. He knows she means a lot to the both Batman and Robin, she's Richard Grayson aka Robin's twin sister.

That thought made his wander to Bruce, or more precisely Batman this morning in the Batcave right after he woke up.

Dick had woken up from another dreamless sleep, the thought of his sister keeping him too busy to get a good night's rest. He got out of his bed and went straight towards the Batcave.

That has become a new habit lately. Getting up from either a nightmare or a dreamless sleep, going to the Batcave. Then either doing some scans to see if there were any signs of his sister or Joker activity, or finding Bruce already doing that or trying to find a place where they might be. Then staying there until either Bruce or Alfred sends him back to his room to get ready for school, training at Mount Justice or just to get into something else then his pj's.

Going down the stairs to the Batcave he saw Bruce in his Batman attire, with his cowl down, sitting at the Batcomputer, staring irritated at a map of Gotham and the surrounding areas, as if all the answers would just flop out of it if you keep glaring at it long enough. The map is covert in red circles and crossed out places.

Every place the Joker has used as a hideout before were immediately checked by the dynamic duo, but they came up empty handed. Every place that fits the Joker's usual hideout description was checked too, and again leaving them at a dead end too. Then there were the places where you wouldn't think of immediately when you thought of the Joker, the places that would be convenient for him to use to hide somebody that shouldn't be heard, but once again, nothing.

It wasn't adding up, it was like they knew when they would search certain, very promising, buildings, and then just up and leave. Sometimes it was like they just missed them, but there wasn't anything that would point to a listening or tracking devise, Batman even did a VERY thorough search of the mansion, Batcave, Batmobile and their suits. Dick walked up to Bruce and looked at the map for a while before speaking. "Found anything yet?" His voice was cracking a bit because he cried himself to sleep yesterday... again.Bruce, being the Batman, noticed this but chose to let it go, already used to this new routine. Without even looking away from the screen he gave a small "No." and went back to fully concentrate on finding Danni and the Joker. Or at this point glaring at the computer screen, to stubborn to give up on finding them and putting the Joker behind bars again, after unleashing the wrath of both DaddyBats and a seriously pissed off, protective Robin. No-one did anything against one of them without getting the attention of the other. Call it superstition, but both Dick and Danni believed that it was more than a twin connection that made them able to tell when there was something wrong with the other by just looking at one another. Dick nodded and went to the computer next to him to do some research himself.A few hours later Alfred came down to tell Dick to get ready for training at the Mountain, seeing as both Bruce and Dick were too busy to notice what time it was."Good work everyone. In fact, it's been a very productive week." Black Canary said, ending the training. Artemis stepped a little closer to where M'gann and Kaldur were standing and looked directly at a certain speedster. "Yeah, for everyone except Kid Malingerer." Wally stopped drinking and looked irritated by her comment. "Hey! Arm broken in combat with the Injustice League here." He said, waving with his casted arm to prove his point.Black Canary smiled, shaking her head fondly just as the Zeta tubes started to activate. "I've really enjoyed being your um...den mother this week."Everybody turned to the Zeta tubes when they heard it announce somebody's arrival though Kaldur pulled Robin aside for a little talk."What is it Kaldur?" Robin said monotonous. This made Kaldur worry a little more. For the past year, Robin has been losing his child-like behavior and started to act more and more like Batman. Broody, emotionless, doesn't smile or laugh often (though he does do that creepy chuckle that unnerves everybody, seeing as that is the only time they hear something that sounds like laughing coming from him. And even then, it's only to distract the bad guys) He even stopped butchering the English language several months before the team was initiated. Though some say it's because he's Batman's protégé, others say he's maturing although a little to soon, Kaldur believes that it has another meaning to it. He knew Robin, though a lot less than both Roy and Wally, enough to notice that there was something not quite right.What Kal didn't know was that there are others who have noticed the change in behavior in the little bird as well. For example, both Wally and Roy noticed it after a few weeks; less and less genuine smiles and laughs, less competitive in videogames (though he still wins every time (nobody defeats either Batman or Robin in something like videogames)), less compelled to hang out with the boys who he sees as his older brothers, that sort of stuff. Though neither knows why and when they asked the little boy, who they saw as a little brother too, all they got as an answer is an emotion deprived "I'm fine, guys. Nothing to worry about.""I do not wish to intrude, my friend, but you seem like there is something troubling you." Kal stated. Robin continued to stare at him emotionlessly. Somewhere Robin could faintly here the computer announce Zatara's arrival. "I'm fine." He said before looking towards the tube, hoping to end the conversation there."Recognized Zatara 1 1."Out of the Zeta tube came Zatara. He walked forward before bringing up a holo-screen and typing in some codes."Access granted, Zatanna Zatara A03. Authorization Zatara 1 1"Though Kaldur was having none of it. He placed a hand on Robin's shoulder before speaking again. "My friend, there is clearly something that is bothering you. If there is any way that we can help, please tell us."Robin continued to watch the Zeta tube zeta another person to the Cave. He wondered why Zatara chose to bring his daughter to the Cave now.Out of the tube came a girl, dressed in what looked like a school uniform. If Robin hadn't known who she was or how Zatanna looked, he would be having a little trouble standing upright right now. Her basic appearance looked quite similar to Danni's; black hair, blue eyes, in pretty good condition. Hell they were almost the same height! But he knew it wasn't her.Zatara turned to his daughter to introduce her to the present people. "Zatanna, this is the Team." Turning to the team, he said "Team, my daughter, Zatanna." Zatanna looked a little nervous as she fully entered the Cave.Robin, seeing his chance to get away from Kal, ran up to her at the same time as M'gann went to introduce them."Hey, I'm-""Robin!" he cut her off trying to act a bit more alive than a few minutes ago, though Wally, knowing Robin very well, knew it was an act and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Robin semi-awkwardly cleared his throat and continued. "I mean, I'm Robin." He said pointing to himself. He turned around and decided to introduce the rest of them as well, pointing to each of them as he introduced them. "Um, she's Megan. Um, and that's Wally, Artemis, Kaldur and Conner." "Welcome to the Cave." Kaldur greeted, giving up on trying getting Robin to tell him what was wrong, knowing he wasn't going to get more out of him than he already had, which was pretty much nothing. "Um, thanks.""So, y-y-you-you a-are-are you joining the Team?" Robin asked, finding it easier to act like a guy meeting his crush then to continue his 'talk' with Kaldur.Zatara stepped forward before Zatanna had a chance to answer. "L-let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is strictly a visit. Though I am sorry that we missed the training. It's something from what Zatanna could benefit."As the adults continued to talk, M'gann opened up a mind link. 'Did the rest of you get the impression that we are still on probation with Zatara?''Not just Zatara. I mean, why is Marvel still hanging around?' Superboy thought.'Because we like having him around.' Wally answered.'You like having him around because he waits on you hand and foot.' Artemis countered.'And your point is?' Wally ever so intelligently asked, raising both his eyebrows.'It almost makes one nostalgic for Red Tornado's tenure as our supervisor.' Kal thought.'Yeah, at least he trusted us.' Robin agreed, though even in his thoughts he was monotonous and emotionless.Using the word trust and referring to RT made Conner a little mad. 'If you ignore the fact we shouldn't have trusted him! He was a traitor. That machine nearly got M'g- all of us killed.' He mentally growled.Before anyone could think something else, Zatanna, who the Team forgot was present, made her presence known again. She walked into the rough circle the Team had formed and asked "Are you guys having a psychic conversation? 'Cause I can't decide if that's cool, or really rude." Under the question gaze of Canary, Conner signed and answered her unspoken question. "Alright, fine. We were talking about Tornado. It's been weeks since his attack and the League hasn't told us anything.""The League is searching for Tornado, as well as the other androids that invaded the Cave and their creator T. O. Morrow. Batman's made tracking them down our highest priority.""But you've found none of the above." Robin countered a little more than agitated but at the same time a little grateful towards Batman. Of course he made tracking down Tornado and the rest the League's highest priority, that way he has more time to search for Danni and the Joker."Not yet, but Tornado's Justice League. The Team is not to pursue us." BC said calmly.Deciding to change the subject and remove some tension in the air, Zatara made a proposition that the Team knew how to manipulate. Or at least Robin knew how to manipulate. "Why don't you all take Zatanna for a, ah, a uh, tour... of... the Cave?" Zatara looked around to see where his daughter was. The Team, noticing that she wasn't where she was just a few seconds ago looked around as well.Zatanna was lying against Wolf's side, who was still in his spot next to Wally's chair. When Wolf noticed everybody staring, he yawned and ran toward Captain Marvel who just came back with Wally's nachos."You're giving a tour? Cool." He exclaimed. Robin quickly put his plan into action and told Conner to distract Marvel with walking Wolf, where they're going, they don't need a 'big' brother watching.Conner smiled and did as he was told. "Actually, I was hoping you'd take Wolf outside. He needs the exercise. We'll join you in a few."Captain Marvel, gullible as always, smiled and nodded happily. "Sure, sure. I can do that. Come on, Wolf!" He shouted the last part over his shoulder as he already started running outside."Wally made a long face when he saw his food run away. "W-w-what- my nachos!" The Team started to leave, Conner, noticing that Wally wasn't going to move any time soon, grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him along.October 10Somewhere in the Ghost ZoneDanni was randomly flying around with a holo-map in her hand. Ever since the Joker had his little 'talk' with Dick, she has been BORED. The Joker told her to find something to do and stay off the grid, like a 'good lil' doll'. 'Like I haven't been doing that ever since we started working together.' She thought. But it was an important part of the plan, get the Dynamic Duo so fed up with finding no clue, then, making them think they finally found something, using their feeling of superiority against them, and ambush them when they least expect it. Though the plan sounds like something they wouldn't fall for, the chances of it working are pretty high. You just got to time it right.But staying at one place wasn't part of the plan. The Joker wanted to stay in one place, confident that they wouldn't find him until he wanted them to. But Danni, knowing how her brother became when he figured out something was wrong with her, told him to constantly change location. That way, it seems as if they were searching in the complete wrong place, while they were actually close. The biggest problem though, was convincing the Joker to lay low long enough to agitate them even more. It's common knowledge, for someone who lived with the playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne long enough, to know what irritated the man. Not being able to find a clue or criminal was one of those things, not being able to protect the ones he cared for is a different story... mostly. He was very protective of his loved ones, though the people he thinks he failed get under his skin a lot. But the problem with those people is that when you use them against him or just mention them, you get the wrath of a pissed off Batman who isn't afraid to go 'till the very edge of the line. So for the sake of your own wellbeing (and that of every criminal on the streets for about a week), you do not mention them in the presence of the B-man.So going back to explaining, using her duplicates that she has following them, she knows when they are going to check a certain place. Danni makes sure that they are gone before they even get into the area. That means that she has some planning to do, but it isn't much. Before she teamed up with the Joker, before the explosion, before the first month after their parents' death, she stayed at the Manor quit often, refusing to leave her only living family member and the ones she actually started to see as family. Resulting in being trained too. Though she wasn't allowed to stay out as long as Robin did, she did get to go out at night being the secret partner of the Dynamic Duo. Not even Commissioner Gordon knew about her. The League though, they knew. They knew she was real, they knew she worked with Batman and Robin, they knew she was Robin's twin sister, they knew how much they meant to the twins, they knew that they were viewed as a second family by both of them (if calling every Leaguer (except Batman of course) aunt or uncle was anything to go by), a few even knew her secret ID.She met every Leaguer and sidekick together with her brother. Becoming real good friends with the 2 red headed sidekicks, dare she even say siblings? Yeah, back in those days, she considered Roy (aka Speedy) and Wally (aka Kid Flash) her older brothers. Though neither of them was more important to her then Dick, it was impossible to come between these twins. And in return the older boys saw her as their little sister too.But those problems were taken care of when she first joined forces with the Joker. She erased everybody's memories of her existence. The Leagues, Roy's, Wally's even Bruce, Dick and Alfred's memories of her helping the heroes of Gotham and meeting everybody.Though the Joker didn't know about that little thing either.That makes us come to where we are now. In the Ghost Zone. With a map. Randomly floating around. Trying to relieve her of her boredom. Trying to figure out that that note means.This morning, Danni woke up with a little note hanging on her bedroom door. Dearest Danielle Grayson, You do not know who I am.But I know who you are.There are things that need to be discussed.Come to the Ghost Zone at 4:30 PM. (16:30)You will know where to go when the time is ripe.And always remember,all is as it should be. ~CWSo, she was bored. Decided to go and explore and map out the GZ for a while, while the Joker was hopefully not ruining the plan. Whoever this 'CW' is, is pretty creepy. How did (let's assume it's a he, it usually is) 'he' get into their hideout, in her room with her being in there? But seeing as 'he' wanted to meet in the Ghost Zone, 'he' must be a ghost. There has never been a human in the Zone for as much as she knows.She flew over to one of the many gear-looking things and placed herself on it. She looked at the clock in her holo-computer and saw that she still has 45 minutes 'till she has to meet with 'CW'. Deciding to not waste time looking into the nothingness of the Zone or counting how many gears were floating around, she checked all the security cams she placed on the hideouts.After an agonizing 40 minutes of trying (and mostly failing) to watch the tapes and cursing the bad connection with the human world, she noticed the time and began wondering where she had to be in 5 minutes.The note said that she'd knew where to go when 'the time is ripe', whatever that's supposed to mean.At the same time as her alarm went off that she had set so she wouldn't forget about meeting 'CW', there began a mysterious tower-like building to appear. Right in the middle of the gears.Assuming that that's creepy cryptic guys, what... lair?, she went over to it and knocked on the door. Though before her hand could make contact with the door, it opened on its own. Danni walked inside the small looking building, only to take a double take.The inside of this tower thing in huge! How all of this ever fits in such a small building, she will probably never know.Walking further inside, she saw a blue ghost with a purple hooded coat, a ridiculous amount of watches, a clock in his ribcage and a scepter-ish thing, which has a stopwatch on the top, in his hands. The ghost, who she thought was 'CW', was looking in a green swirling portal thingy. Though she was too far away to see what he was watching in the portal, as the view changed when she first noticed the guy."Welcome Danielle, or do you prefer I call you Danni?" The guy asked, but something tells her that he is going to continue calling her her full name no matter what she says."Danielle's fine." She said a little out of it. Still looking around in amazement. The amount of clocks here was ridiculous. Bet the 'C' in 'CW' stands for 'Clock'. She opened her mouth to ask how he knew her but he cut her off before she could even make a sound."I am Clockwork,-" cue mental cheering for getting the first part of his name right "master of time. As you may already have noticed, I am a ghost. I control and watch over the timelines from all dimensions and all its inhabitants." He said. Danni wondered what this has to do with her and what the 'things they have to discuss' are. But once again Clockwork answered before she even spoke."I asked you to come here because you are not who you think you are and the time is nearing that you knew."'Whatta? Why does he say that I am not who I think I am? I know who I am. I'm Danielle 'Danni' Janice Grayson, daughter of Mary and John Grayson. Twin sister of Richard 'Dick' John Grayson. Turned into a ghostgirl a year ago. Living and working together with the Joker to get revenge for abandoning me on Bruce Wayne and Dick. See? I know who I am. What are you talking about?' She thought. Or at least, she thought she thought. She blushed when she figured out that she said that out loud."You are let to believe that you are who you think you are. But that is not who you are. You are who you soon will be. But that time is not now. It's the future."'Can this guy only be cryptic or is that just to annoy people? Anyway, living with the self-appointed Clown prince, why not Clown king I'll never know, has made it easy to do one thing in particular. How to spot a lunatic. And this guy, he fits the bill with ease. There is no way that he controls time as he claims he does. It's all in his head. So now, slowly back away and try not to trigger any violent reactions.'Danni began to slowly back away towards the still open door. 'Just a few feet... Almost there... Wow the 'master of time' hasn't tried to stop me yet.'"Time out."Suddenly everything froze and Danni was sure that she didn't do anything. Clockwork floated over to where she was standing still. He put a weird medallion thing around her neck that made her able to talk, but not move. "There is still one thing that needs to be discussed. Your memory power."'OK, so this guy went from creepy to cryptic to crazy to complete lunatic to flat out psychotic stalker. The kinds of people that I attract...'"I don't know what you're talking about." She said playing it dumb."We both know that you do, Danielle. The power that you used to wipe away your existence or complete memories of you out of people's memories. Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Roy Harper, Wallece West, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson. Do I need to continue?""OK, fine. I wiped their memories. So what? Not like they need the ones I took." "You were lucky that you did not accidentally remove important memories. You will have to learn how to control this dangerous power so that there are no side effects.""Wait, what side effects? I don't remember there being side effects." 'Oh no. What if they're comatose now? Or permanent brain damage? Or-wait why does their health concern me? They left me! I don't care about them!'"Nothing too bad, they all experienced hangover-like symptoms and some fainted resulting in two cases of a concussion. Though that healed quickly and left no permanent damage. But the consequences could have been a lot worse. That is why you need to train this power, to make sure those that there are minimal side effects and for your own protection as well.""My protection?""To uses your power, you had to be in a 4 feet radius of that person. He or she could have reacted violently, putting your health at risk. Also, the action on itself can backfire. If there are too many emotions involved, an inexperienced and untrained person can get the same reactions as well as permanent memory loss."That made Danni unsteady on her legs with her jaw laying somewhere on the ground and her eyes as big as the moon. She had no idea just how lucky she was that nothing bad happened to her. Clockwork's words kept repeating itself in her head. Then it clicked."Are you proposing to train me?" She asked shell shocked.Clockwork smiled gently at her and nodded. "Yes, I am. If not I, then who? And if anything did go wrong, who better to solve the problems then the master of time himself?" he even chuckled at the end.Danni smiled at him, ready to start. But first things first."So, master, can you un-freeze me so we can begin training?""No.""What?" 'Can this day get any more confusing?'"Now is not the time. You have somewhere else to be. Or better yet, sometime else."The next moments happen so fast. Clockwork levitated Danni off of the ground and toward the swirling green portal. She tried to fight against it, but her body was still frozen."When all is over, come back here to start your training."The last thing she remembered was being pushed into the time-portal thing by Clockwork and his last words."You will soon understand, for all is as it should be."