Revelations [Rewritten Version of 'The Big Secret']

Chapter 13

"Hey, there's no rush," Wally said as he stood beside the younger boy, his arms ready to catch him if he falls.

"You're hungry and so am I," Dick pointed out as he continued to hobble down the stairs. "Plus you don't have to be so worried, I was shot in the shoulder, not in the leg."

"Doesn't mean that you have enough energy to walk down three flights of stairs and won't cause pain to your shoulder," Wally retorted.

As the two of them reached the bottom of the staircase, they walked into the dining room, seeing that the team was waiting for them before starting lunch.

"Hey," Dick greeted them with a smile and sat down at his usual spot with the speedster sitting down beside him.

"Hi," Megan replied with a small smile, her face scrunched up in worry. "Are you sure it's alright for you to be walking down for lunch? You seem to be in pain/"

Wally threw his hands up in exasperation and pointed to the Martian while looking at his boyfriend. "See?!"

Dick just rolled his eyes at his boyfriend and smiled at the worried Martian. "I'm fine Miss Martian, just a little tired."

Wally groaned loudly and slumped even further in his chair. And that was when Alfred decided to enter the dining room.

"Lunch will be served shortly, it seems we will expecting a guest," the butler informed them.

The teens started questioning who their guest will be when the doorbell rang and the butler went to answer the door, leaving the teens alone for a few minutes.

"Guest? Who are we expecting?" Wally asked Dick who only shrugged in response.

"No clue, can't be Babs, she's at school right now," Dick answered.

"Well, who else can it be?" Artemis asked. Her question was left unanswered when a young ebony boy ran in with Alfred trailing after him.

"Dick!" the kid yelled, throwing himself on the thirteen-year-old.

"Tim!" Dick yelled in delight at his visitor. He quickly returned the hug and brought the younger so that he was sitting on his older's lap. "What ya doing here, buddy? Don't you have school?"

Tim looked at the older with a smile on his face and shook his head frantically. "Nope! A pipe burst in the bathroom so there are no classes today!"

"Wow! Good for you, buddy!" Dick replied, smiling brightly at the younger.

"Can I stay here for the day?" Tim asked, sounding hopeful.

"Of course! You can stay as long as you want," Dick said, ruffling the hair of the seven-year-old.

It was half an hour later with Tim curled up on Dick's lap, the both of them watching some television when a loud crash upstairs caught them off guard.

"What was that?" Tim asked, suddenly wide-awake.

"Stay here," Dick said and left Tim on the sofa, knowing that Alfred would come and bring Tim to somewhere safe if ever. The thirteen-year-old ran towards the stairs, ignoring the pain in his shoulder.

"Kid Flash?!" Dick yelled as he ran up the stairs and into the long hallways of the Manor.

Next thing he knew, a door was knocked open and Wally, in his Kid Flash costume was thrown into the hallway.

"Dick! Get out of here!" Kid Flash yelled as he was getting up. "It's the mercenary!"

Kid Flash ran back in as the rest of the team came.

"Superboy! Get Richard and Tim out of here!" Aqualad ordered, grabbing his water-bearers from their holster.

Superboy didn't waste a moment and scooped Dick up, carrying the thirteen-year-old princess style.

"Hey!" Dick yelped.

Superboy didn't waste a second and started going down back to the living room. Just as Superboy was about to turn away from the hallway, Dick looked over the Kryptonian's shoulder and saw the rest of the team enter the room the redhead speedster disappeared to.

All of a sudden another masked vigilante crashed into one of the windows of the manor behind the Kryptonian and acrobat. The masked man turned to look at the thirteen-year-old and leaped into action, drawing out his gun and started shooting.

Superboy started running faster and leaped off the edge of the staircase. Alfred and Tim seemed to have already evacuated.

"Turn right!" Dick yelled at the clone.

The super looked at the younger in his arms but followed nonetheless.

"There's a secret exit leading to the forest in the library," Dick said. When Superboy reached the library, he set the younger down and started to barricade the door.

"There's a secret door here somewhere," Dick said as he started to pull some books from the shelf and returned them when nothing happened. "Help me look for the book on this shelf."

Superboy nodded and started helping the boy. "Why can't I just rip off the shelf?"

Dick ignored the urge to roll his eyes as he started to look at any book that looked out of place. "If you rip off the shelf and the attackers come in here, they'll see how we escaped."

"This seems..." Dick murmured. He pulled out a red leather book and the shelf clicked open. "Here!"

The thirteen-year-old ran in followed by Superboy ran into the hallway, closing the shelf shut. The two of them started to walk through the dark hallways in silence.

"Do you have any idea if the rest of the team is okay?" Dick asked breaking the silence.

"Uh, yeah, just wait," Superboy said.

The two of them continued to walk through the damp hallways while Superboy tried to contact the team. The hallway suddenly split into three, with the two of them going down the rightmost hallway.

"The two attackers seem to have been taken down but Aqualad says that they need to search the whole manor if there may be others hiding about," Superboy said. "No one seems to be hurt."

Dick sighed in relief as they came across the end of the hallway. A ladder leading up to the surface with a manhole covering the top.

"I'll go first," Superboy said as he pushed Dick a bit away. The super jumped with all his strength to remove the old cover.

Once the Kryptonian landed on the ground, he didn't even have a second before the sound of a gun cocking was heard. He turned to see a woman aiming the gun at his head, both Alfred and Tim at her back.

"Don't move."