Potential TW for this chapter: Panic Attack/Mentions of Panic Attacks

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B R U G E S
December 22, 20:05 CET

If you had told Reese a week ago that she would be coming back here less than forty-eight hours before her birthday, she probably would've thought you were crazy.

It wasn't like she hadn't had fun at Haly's Circus the first time around--it was where she had initially met her boyfriend, of course--but she and Dick hadn't even had the chance to exchange names before his parents were killed by Tony Zucco, and then everything went to hell.

But, here Reese was, almost five years later, dressed in a sparkly red-and-white unitard with her hair braided down her back, styled in such a way that the silver streak wasn't visible. Before she had entered the ring, Reese had had Roy, who was standing eight feet to her right, splash almost an entire bottle of body glitter over her, so once Jack Haly turned the lights to the tent on, she would literally be sparkling.

She and Dick were both wearing the golden arrowheads around their necks, and Silverbird couldn't help but wonder what everyone else thought about them. Even Wally, who hadn't actually come with them, was still a little bit confused about how exactly they worked, but then again, that could've just been the redhead still being a skeptic.

As Reese waited for the ringmaster to start the show, the brunette glanced around the shadowed center ring, shifting her foot against the dirt floor and noting the positions of the rest of her team. Like she had said, Roy was standing about two meters to her right, dressed in a similar red-and-white outfit, a more simple bow than the one Red Arrow usually used hanging at his side.

On the other side of the ring was Artemis, holding a bow like Roy's and dressed exactly like Reese, sans the body glitter. Behind Reese stood Conner, the genomorph shifting against the three large barrels that were next to him.

This mission was stupid.

Not the premise of it, Reese admired Dick for being able to come back to the circus after what had happened, wanting to make sure that whatever was going on didn't implicate the people who had raised him in any way, but Reese didn't understand why she had to be the one covered in glitter.

Feeling her nose tickle, the almost-thirteen-year-old choked back a sneeze and tilted her head upward, straining her eyes behind the lens-less domino masks she and the others were all wearing to catch a glimpse of the platforms seventy feet above her head, where Dick and M'gann were getting ready to do their trapeze act.

Reese knew that to keep their cover, they all needed to do a different act concerning their skills (hence her sparkly gymnastics routine that was going to start in about two minutes). It was also why Dick was up on the platform with M'gann.

She knew that the trapeze was her boyfriend's specialty and that he was good at it, but that didn't mean Reese wasn't still a bit bothered, and why wouldn't she be? The last time that the Boy Wonder--before he had been the Boy Wonder, obviously--had had anything to do with a professional trapeze act, almost his entire family had died.

Plus, this trapeze act, eerily like the final performance of the Flying Graysons, was also being performed without a net, and if that wasn't bound to bring up some hard memories, Reese didn't know what would.

"I can hear you worrying," Dick's voice sounded softly in the brunette's ear as Reese's vision split.

For a second, Reese felt a bit dizzy, because, from the side of her vision that was from the Boy Wonder's point-of-view, Silverbird was only just able to see herself, looking as small as an ant, from where Dick was standing almost one hundred feet above.

"I'm not worrying," Reese hissed quickly, and even though she couldn't see him, the brunette knew that Dick had just quirked an eyebrow, wholly in disbelief.

"Pretty bird," he said quietly. "I'll be fine. Promise,"

"For some reason," Reese retorted. "That doesn't make me feel better. I have a bad feeling about this, Boy Wonder. Just be careful," she added after a moment. "Please?"

"Always,"

Movement from the corner of Reese's eye cut off whatever Dick had been about to say next, and the brunette's vision turned back to normal as Jack Haly moved past the curtain leading into the performers' area of the circus tent, and slipped into the center of the ring.

Suddenly, flares on either side of the curtains burst into sparks, and for a couple of seconds, Reese was blinded before she saw Haly spread his arms out wide to gesture to the crowd.

Just as Jack started his introduction to the gathered crowd in the stands around the ring, Reese's vision split again, just long enough for her to hear Dick say: "Wow, Rhysalin, you look like a disco ball,"

Reese didn't know if that was a compliment or not.

"Dames en Heren!" Haly exclaimed, and as her brain translated Dutch, Reese was sincerely hoping no one saw her eyes turn silver from up in the stands. "Mesdames et Messieurs! Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Haly International Traveling Circus! Where the world at the center ring is your oyster,"

Then, Jack swung his arm out, and a spotlight traveled up the length of the pole to the trapeze platform up top. "And these," the ringmaster continued. "Are our latest pearls: The Daring Dangers! Dan Danger!"

Dick was the first one to be introduced, and as the spotlight landed on him, he grabbed the trapeze when it neared his hands and swung over the gap between the other two poles, executing a perfect mid-air somersault as M'gann came in from the opposite direction, the Martian too somersaulting before both of them grabbed onto the small trapeze bars, landing securely, and despite it all, Reese let out a breath.

"Dawn Danger..."

Down on the floor, Roy and Artemis both readied their bows with the trick arrows they were using for the "Daring Dangers" act and the two of them, plus Superboy were the next to be introduced. Conner was acting as the act's "strong man", and he tossed several open-ended barrels into the air as Roy and Artemis let go of their bowstrings, the trick arrows sending streams of sparks as Dick and M'gann slipped through the barrels with ease.

"Diane Danger! Dane Danger! Dean Danger! And...Devora Danger!"

Reese, obviously, was the final member of the Daring Dangers to get introduced by Jack Haly, and following her cue as Dick and M'gann leaped through Conner's barrels, Reese bounced off the balls of her feet as whoever was controlling the lights in the circus tent placed the spotlight directly on her, reflecting off the body glitter that Reese was wearing and sending small pinpricks of light throughout the entire tent.

The brunette flipped backward as everyone else did their own acts, and though she didn't get as high as where Dick and M'gann had gone through the barrels, she decided to improvise it, and Reese then twisted in midair, spinning around and sending even more reflections of the glitter around the tent.

She stuck a perfect landing a few meters behind where Conner was still standing with an extra barrel, and as Reese lifted her arms above her head and tried to catch her breath, she could hear the audience around her ooh-ing and aah-ing at the entire spectacle.

Even Dick looked a bit starstruck, in the fleeting glance Reese had of her boyfriend's face as he and M'gann swung by, because aside from when he had called her a disco ball just before their act started, Robin hadn't seen the entire extent of Roy's "body glitter art" before they had all entered the ring, and he hadn't seen it in action either.

"You'll never see another trapeze act like this one, folks!" Haly exclaimed again. "And all performed...without a net!"

At this point, Reese should've seen it coming. Once she landed after her own jump through the air, Reese had started to watch Dick and M'gann's trapeze act.

It had started great if the audience's reactions were any indication. But, as M'gann hung off the trapeze by her knees, ready to catch Dick when he flipped off his own trapeze, Reese's head buzzed, and her bad feeling from earlier suddenly upped tenfold.

'Conner!' she shouted across the mental link towards Superboy, and the genomorph sent her an odd look, just as the audience gasped, as Dick missed catching onto M'gann's hands by mere inches. 'Throw me!'

'What?' Roy and Conner burst out in unison, but Reese was already running towards Superboy as M'gaan gave a sharp cry of 'Robin!', abruptly realizing that no, she had not caught the Boy Wonder.

'Just do it!' she cried, and from where he was still plummeting from the trapeze, Dick piped up.

'Don't blow our cover!' he exclaimed, and this time, as he made a small cup with his hands and Reese vaulted off of it, Conner interjected.

'But saving your life's okay?'

Then, Superboy tossed up one of his barrels, and as it passed her, Reese twisted around in the air again and kicked the barrel like a soccer ball, adding onto its momentum and when Dick grabbed onto it, the barrel pushed him up high enough that he might be able to grab onto M'gann's hands again.

Emphasis on the word might because as Conner caught Reese again before she could hit the ground, she saw Dick's hands only just miss Miss Martian's, and her heart dropped to her feet again.

But, then Reese saw M'gann's eyes glow the slightest green, and then the Martian had grabbed onto Dick, and both of them swung up onto the opposite platform.

'What did I just say?' Dick had asked as M'gann used her powers to grab onto them, but the Martian just gave the equivalent of a telepathic shrug.

'No one but Reese could see me use telekinesis from below,' M'gann began to explain as she and Dick landed on the platform again and began to wave to the crowd in an attempt to pass off the fact that one of the Daring Dangers had almost died as part of the show. 'Besides, I've been using it all night. I'm not exactly the acrobat you are,'

'Yeah, well, neither am I right now,' the Boy Wonder admitted after a moment. 'I think I caught that twenty-four bug that's been going around the circus. But,' Dick added after another second. 'The show must go on,'

-----

Reese didn't know how Dick had found out about the thefts in Europe, but a couple of days before the Daring Dangers made their debut and "Dan Danger" had almost died, inside Mount Justice was where Silverbird found herself, standing next to Robin as the Boy Wonder gestured to the holo-screen in front of them, while Superboy, Artemis, and Miss Martian stood on the other side.

"Advanced weapons tech has been stolen from manufacturing plants across Europe," Robin was saying as he pointed to the small factory graphics on the map, showcasing that the different thefts had occurred in Italy, Spain, and France. "And each theft coincides with tour stops made by the Haly's Circus. Batman's sending us undercover to catch the thieves,"

Silverbird didn't need to be able to detect when someone was lying to know that Robin wasn't telling the truth. But, that wasn't because he wasn't a good liar, it was because Reese knew him too well to know that Dick wanted to prove that his childhood home, and the people who had raised him, weren't caught up in all of this.

There was no way Batman would let his protege, whose objectivity could be questioned on a mission like this, even think about accepting the task, simply because of Robin's past being a conflict of interest throughout the entire thing.

Well, it was a good thing that Reese wasn't Batman, then.

"This clown car have room for one more?" Both Robin and Silverbird turned around as Red Arrow walked up behind the two, and from where she was still standing next to him, Reese was able to hear her boyfriend's heartbeat spike.

"Uh...nope," the Boy Wonder said quickly. Quick enough that it made Silverbird quirk an eyebrow. Scratch what she had said earlier about Dick being a good liar. "We--We've got this covered,"

As it were, Roy just bent down so he was closer to Robin's ear. "You and Reese have got the mission covered," the redhead began slowly. "But, who's covering the three potential mole suspects you're bringing along?"

As much as she hated to think about the fact that one of her friends might be passing along confidential information to their enemies, Reese had to admit that her brother had a point.

And after the stunt Artemis had pulled in New Orleans, she wasn't taking any chances.

-----

"Put your hands together for the Daring Dangers!"

The Daring Dangers' act was finally over, with no other "situations" to speak of, and the six of them all now stood in the center ring, as Jack Haly urged the audience to applaud them.

Over the roar of the gathered roar of the gathered crowd's subsequent praise and from where she was standing beside Dick, Reese glanced worriedly over at her boyfriend, only to see a few beads of sweat running down the side of his head, and his heartbeat beating as fast as a jackrabbit's.

'You okay?' she asked softly over the mental link, and it took a few seconds before Dick answered.

'No,' he admitted after a moment.

'You scared me,' Reese continued, and Dick glanced over at her, his blue eyes half-lidded behind his mask, and it didn't take a superhero to see how exhausted he was.

'I think I scared myself,' the fourteen-year-old said. 'Help me backstage, pretty bird,'

Reese looped one of her arms around Dick's waist without saying another word and led him out of the center ring, the other following them soon after.

As the six of them passed through the curtains that closed off the main tent from the performers' area, Reese's eyes, which had been glancing around, landed on Ray, the circus's resident roustabout, or the man who helped around the circus with construction or other odd jobs.

He was blond and muscled and kind of set Reese's fight-or-flight instincts willy-nilly, which was a bit weird for many reasons. When the Team had first arrived at the circus, Reese chalked the bad feeling up to her natural trust issues, or the fact that it was likely that someone in the circus was the one committing the thefts.

But, just before the Daring Dangers had gone on for their act, Reese's head had buzzed, and for several gut-wrenching seconds, she thought Ray had done something to Dick, but as it were, the roustabout had just been rubbing her boyfriend's head for good luck.

She still wasn't entirely why that would've set off the arrowhead's danger alarm, but whatever.

As the Daring Dangers walked past the roustabout, the circus's firebreather walked up to Ray, looking a bit frantic and lost.

"Ray," the dragon-costumed man asked. "Have you seen my other torch?"

The roustabout rustled around in the crate he was pawing through for a moment before he grabbed onto a stick-like thing and tossed it back to the fire-breather.

"Here," the blond man said as fire-breather caught it in one hand. "You dropped it outside the train,"

"Thanks," the firebreather said as he pushed through the curtain. "You're a lifesaver!"

Reese didn't hear what Ray said after that, because she and Dick had reached the area at the back of the tent where Haly had allowed the Dangers to use as their own space in between acts, and she was trying to make sure her boyfriend wasn't about to fall over and pass out.

"Devora," Dick said quietly, using Reese's Daring Danger alias just in case someone was listening in as Reese tilted his head around. "I'm fine. Really,"

"You almost died tonight, Dan," Reese retorted softly, ignoring the fact that Dick was staring at her as she turned to meet his eyes again. "Excuse me for being worried about you,"

"It's alright," Dick continued after a moment, giving Reese a small smile as his blue eyes gained back some of the mirth that usually glimmered within them. "I think it's cute,"

As she felt her face turn red, Reese looked over Dick's shoulder and saw Roy make a face, just before the redhead rammed his elbow into the Boy Wonder's shoulder blades.

Both birds turned in time to see Roy gesture across the area, over towards the curtains that led back into the big top, where Jack Haly was talking to a pair of twins, who had been the circus's acrobats before the Dangers came onto the scene.

"--was your act," Haly was saying, apparently in response to a complaint from the twins. "Until you missed that performance in Paris,"

"Carlo was sick," one of the twins cut in. "He's better now,"

"Plus," Carlo piped in, tilting his head. "Those Dangers are a sham. They say they're brothers and sisters. They don't even look alike!"

As much as she hated to admit that the acrobatic twins had a point, Reese knew they were right. The only Dangers that looked like each other were "Dan" and "Dean", and even then, there was still a notable size difference.

Jack Haly, on the other hand, wasn't interested in hearing his former performers squabble, and he brushed in between the twins with what barely looked like a second thought.

"Bah," the old ringmaster piped up. "You just don't like the competition," But, Haly had only gone a few yards when he was confronted by someone else, and judging from the black suit that the tall, white-haired man was wearing, Reese had a feeling he wasn't a part of the circus. If she had to wager a guess, the brunette would probably say he was some sort of government agent. "Oh, for crying out loud!" Haly exclaimed as he stopped in front of the man. "Not you again! We're in the middle of a show,"

"Then we'll talk after," the newcomer said gruffly, his arms crossed over his chest. "But we will talk. Another city last week, another tech firm robbed, another stop on your tour. If I prove you're responsible I will shut you down,"

That cheery interrogation did nothing to improve Haly's mood, and instead, the ringmaster scowled at whoever this mystery man in the dark suit was.

"I've got three minutes to gather props and get back to the center ring," Haly grunted before he brushed past the other man and out of the tent.

Mr. Dark-Suit, on the other hand, turned towards where the Daring Dangers were milling around and started to walk over, while Reese, Dick, and Roy quickly tried to pretend they hadn't been listening in.

Once he reached the group, the man reached into his inside jacket pocket and brought out a wallet, flipping it open to reveal a shiny badge.

"Faraday, Interpol," he introduced himself gruffly, and Reese mentally patted herself on the back for recognizing a government agent when she saw one. "New act?"

"Yeah," Dick said quickly as Reese tilted her head to study Faraday's badge more closely. "Just joined the tour,"

"Probably clears you," the agent--Faraday--continued, as he snapped his wallet shut and slipped it back into his coat. "But don't get too comfortable," he added after a moment, turning around again in preparation to leave. "Haly's going down for this,"

As Faraday walked away, Reese heard Dick's heartbeat spike again, this time from anger, not whatever sickness he had, so to calm him down, Reese just reached over and laced her fingers with his, and a few seconds later, her boyfriend's heart rate had gone back down to normal.

➳➳➳

That night, after the show was over, the six of them got dressed in their costumes and went into the city of Bruges, eventually stopping at the edge of a warehouse complex, that Reese assumed would be the next place to be hit by whoever these international tech thieves were.

The Team had also split up, with Silverbird and Robin on the roof of a building across the street, Artemis and Red Arrow on another, and then Miss Martian and Superboy on yet another.

The six of them had already been here for over an hour and considering stakeouts had never been Reese's specialty, her patience had run out almost twenty minutes ago.

So now, as she and the others waited for...something to happen, Silverbird had taken an arrow out of her quiver and was periodically scratching tally marks and other random pictures into the surface of the roof she and Robin were crouching on, and hoping that the mundane task would keep her mind from going nuts.

"What are you doing?" Dick kept his voice hushed so nobody would hear him, but considering even Conner was a good one hundred yards away from the couple, Reese was willing to bet he would be fine.

"I'm bored," she answered simply, before lifting her now-dulled arrow and pointing to the small design she had made in the shingles. "Look," Reese told her boyfriend. "I drew Batman,"

Robin leaned over so he would be able to see the drawing and let out a soft laugh before glancing over at his girlfriend.

"It's a pretty good likeness," he said. "But there's just one problem,"

"What?" Reese whisper-shouted as she pulled a pumice stone from a pocket of her jacket and began to sharpen her arrowhead again, leaning over so her head was beside Dick's and she'd be able to see whatever was wrong with her drawing. "What's wrong with it?"

Robin gave a small laugh before he pointed at the small outline of the top half of the Dark Knight. Essentially, Reese had drawn him from the bat-symbol up.

"You drew him smiling,"

Realizing that aside from the drawing's expression nothing was actually wrong with her artwork, Silverbird let out a scoffing laugh and gave her boyfriend a good-natured shove, though it was hard enough that he almost sprawled across the roof.

Both of their giggles needing to be kept quiet just in case the thieves showed up, Robin shoved Silverbird back, and this time they both went sprawling across the roof, with Dick's chin landing on Reese's solar plexus hard enough that the wind almost got knocked out of her.

Before the Boy Wonder could start to panic by realizing he may have just killed his girlfriend by falling on top of her, Silverbird sat up again, gave a small cough, and then everything was fine.

A few seconds later though, as the two birds both sat up again and tried to quiet their giggles so this entire mission wouldn't go bust, Artemis's voice came through the mental link.

'And here, in corner #1,' the blonde archer began sarcastically. 'Are two of the stealthiest members of the Team making the most noise,'

'Why are we even here?' Superboy piped up before Robin or Silverbird could respond to Artemis's joke. 'Isn't Interpol already on this?'

'Batman said we had to be,' Robin retorted, the lie at this point coming easily. 'Why? You had something better to do?'

Dick knew that Reese wouldn't believe him when he said that this whole mission came from Batman, but regardless, it was nice having her here, and not just because she was his girlfriend.

Haly's Circus had been where they'd met, almost five years ago now, and despite all the tragedy that had occurred that fateful night, some good had come out of it too. Dick hadn't known it then, but Jack's circus was where he'd met the love of his life.

'How do we know the thieves will hit here?' Artemis spoke up again from where she was crouching with Red Arrow on another corner of the roof and drawing Dick from his thoughts.

'There are more obvious targets,' Roy agreed, but Robin already had a response ready.

'And Faraday will have them covered,' the Boy Wonder began, wiping sweat from where it had begun to gather again on his forehead. 'But, I've analyzed the tech already stolen and the pattern suggests this is the place,'

'How are you feeling?' Reese asked quietly as she set her hands on Robin's shoulder and peeked around so he'd be able to see her. And as much as Dick didn't want her to worry, he knew that she'd know if he lied to her.

'Lousy, actually,' he admitted after a second, giving his girlfriend a soft smile. 'But, I'll manage,'

Just then, Superboy spoke up, with a status update that made everyone whip their heads around.

'Contact,' the genomorph began. 'Northeast quadrant,'

As she glanced towards where Conner had indicated, and thanks to her own night vision that wasn't the result of any sort of high-tech goggles, Silverbird was able to see a shadowy figure dressed in dark clothing approaching the fence encircled the entire warehouse compound.

And then, as if that wasn't suspicious enough, the intruder vaulted off the streetlight that was next to the fence and flipped over the barbed wire in an act that could've only been performed by someone with a background in gymnastics.

Or acrobatics.

'Well,' Superboy muttered dryly. 'Guess we know why Carlo missed a performance,'

'Could be Carlo...' Robin trailed off for a moment. 'Could be his brother. Keep an open mind, and move in,'

With that, Robin and Silverbird leaped off the roof they had been crouching on, landing just inside the warehouse compound's fence, joining Artemis, Red Arrow, and Miss Martian against one of the warehouse's outside walls.

'Where's Superboy?' Reese asked when she noticed the genomorph wasn't with them, but M'gann just shrugged.

A moment later though, Conner landed a few meters away from the rest of them, and the brunette couldn't help but notice how much quieter Superboy was getting at his landings.

In the commotion of the six of them all gathering in a single place, Robin had lost sight of where the intruder had gone, and he spoke up after a few more seconds.

'Did you see where our thief went?' he asked quietly, and while she hadn't, Silverbird pressed her hands against the cement ground and felt for the vibrations of their tech thief moving around.

The sounds in the brunette's immediate vicinity dulled, and the first vibrations she noticed were her own and the rest of the Team.

But, when Reese focused a bit more, pressing her fingertips harder into the ground, she was able to detect someone in a warehouse close by that was certainly not supposed to be there.

'The warehouse,' she spoke at the same time as Superboy, and as Reese opened her eyes again, she gave Conner an odd look. The last time she had checked, though the genomorph possessed infrared vision, it wasn't supposed to work through walls.

But, regardless, now the Team knew where their thief was, and a few minutes later, they were in the particular warehouse that Silverbird and Superboy had both indicated earlier, up in the rafters just in time to see the thief use a crowbar to crack open a nearby crate and slip a piece of tech out.

Figuring that it was high time to announce the Team's presence to whoever their thief was, Robin let out one of his signature cackling laughs, and the intruder spun around, obviously not realizing that the young heroes were even there.

"Caught red-handed," the Boy Wonder piped up as the thief, still holding the newly stolen piece of tech, stared at them, and though they were wearing a ski mask, Reese could make a guess as to what their facial expression was. "Red-faced too, I'll bet,"

"Acrobatics won't get you out of this," Artemis muttered, and though Silverbird was standing away from the blonde and Red Arrow, all three of them had their bows out and were pointing at the thief.

Maybe it was the way Silverbird noticed the thief reach into their pocket too fast to be noticed by anyone else, or maybe it was the way the magical arrowhead around her neck buzzed with the force of a swarm of angry bees, but the next instant she had slammed into Robin and knocked him out of the way, just as the thief blew a massive stream of fire out of a torch, Superboy leaping in front of where the Boy Wonder had been standing a mere moment before.

As everyone dove for cover, trying to catch their breath, Reese jerked her head out from around the corner of the crate she and Dick had ducked behind, her arrow once again pointed towards the thief, only to notice the words plastered across the side of the wooden box.

There, stamped in big, black, and bolded letters, was LIVE AMMO, with a picture of three bullets above it. Why they were storing bullets in a warehouse at a technology firm, Silverbird wasn't sure, but regardless, bullets meant gunpowder, and gunpowder meant bad.

"Guys! We have to move!" she shouted out loud, but when everyone else just gave her confused looks, Reese made a wild gesture towards the crate with her free hand. "These crates have live ammo in them! We have to--"

Whatever she had been about to say was cut off when Robin dove at her, knocking both of them off of the pile of crates they had been perched on, just as the crate exploded, sending pieces of wood careening throughout the warehouse.

As she and Dick landed heavily on the floor of the warehouse, Reese felt the shock from the landing radiate up her shins, and she gritted her teeth against the pain.

She was also trying not to panic. It was one thing to be at the docks in Gotham and have a warehouse explode and catch on fire when you're right in front of it, it was quite another when you were standing in the warehouse when it blew up.

It was hot, so, so hot, and as the other crates of ammo began to explode in the chain reaction set off by that initial one, Silverbird was able to feel herself begin to lose it.

She couldn't breathe, or if she could she was hyperventilating, and as Superboy used some discarded sheets of metal as a makeshift shield when the warehouse itself exploded around them, Reese crouched down against the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees, wishing all the fire would just go away.

Artemis, who had hopped down beside the brunette when Conner made the shield of metal, noticed Reese's predicament, and regardless of the two's current feud or whatever it was they were in at the moment, the blonde wanted to help.

As Red Arrow tried to stop Superboy from going after the thief, and instead have the genomorph get M'gann out of the still-burning warehouse, Artemis crouched down in front of Reese and gently set her hand on the younger girl's knee, only for Silverbird to snap her head up.

Her dark brown eyes were wild, though they were periodically switching between brown, silver, and gold, as Reese muttered in a language that Artemis didn't recognize, but assumed was Bulgarian.

She had started to tremble too, shaking like a dead leaf about to be blown off a tree's branch by a cold winter wind.

"Arrow!" Artemis cried out, and Roy snapped his head over to the pair as Conner finally relented to taking his own girlfriend out of the warehouse. "What's happening to her?"

Red Arrow knelt next to Artemis in front of his little sister, only for his mask lenses to widen, and at his reaction, Artemis started to panic herself.

"It's a panic attack," the redhead said matter-of-factly, flicking his eyes around for a moment before looking back towards Silverbird. "The fire must have triggered it," He seemed to think for a moment before glancing at Artemis. "Get Robin out," he ordered. "I'll take care of Reese, but I don't think she's comfortable enough around you to be able to trust you right now,"

At this, Artemis felt her blood begin to boil, and she glared at Roy.

"Look," the blonde began sharply. "I know you think one of us is the mole, but--"

"This isn't about the mole, Artemis!" Red Arrow shot back, forceful enough that it made Artemis recoil. "Reese is having a panic attack, and as of right now, the only people who have been able to ever calm her down from one are me, Green Arrow, Robin, and Black Canary. So, you get the Boy Wonder out, and I'll get my sister. Now!" he continued. "Before this whole place goes up in smoke!"

Though she was still reeling, Artemis went over to where Robin had collapsed and looped one of his arms over her shoulders, slowly leading the slightly delirious protege out of the warehouse.

As soon as the blonde was out of earshot, Roy took Artemis's place kneeling in front of Silverbird, and after a few seconds, in which rafters from above started to break free from their holdings and fall to the ground, Red Arrow spoke.

"Reese?" he said softly, wanting to get both of them out of here quickly, but also knowing that he needed to do this carefully, lest he ended up making her panic attack worse. "Can you hear me?"

The brunette looked tiny, even smaller than she usually did, and when Reese finally looked up and met Roy's eyes behind her mask, tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Roy?" she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath, and Red Arrow gave a small smile.

"Yeah, Reese," he said quietly, still kneeling in front of her. "It's me. Is it okay if I hold your hand?"

Over the years, and from what Batman and Green Arrow had told him, Roy had learned that not everyone, especially Reese, wanted physical contact when suffering from a panic attack, so you always needed to ask. So, after Silverbird gave the smallest of nods, Red Arrow reached over and laced his fingers with hers.

A flaming piece of wood fell to the ground a few yards away, sending sparks into the air and making Reese flinch, but before she could begin to spiral again, Roy made sure she was looking at him.

"You're okay," he whispered. "I promise you are okay. We're going to get out of here, but I need you to breathe with me, okay? Can you do that?"

Roy knew that they were both running out of time to get out of the warehouse before it completely burned down, or before the Belgian authorities got there, but right now, helping his sister was the eighteen-year-old's main priority.

Reese gave another nod, and slowly, fully aware that the warehouse was quite literally falling around them, Red Arrow took a deep breath and made sure Silverbird took one too, though the brunette coughed as she did so.

"Where's Dick?" Reese managed to say through another cough, and though his eyes had begun to water from the smoke, Roy tightened his grip on the younger girl's hand.

"Outside," Red Arrow answered slowly, taking another deep breath in tandem with Silverbird and ignoring the way his throat scratched against the toxic and smoky air. "He's fine. We can go and see him, but we need to get out of here first. Do you think you can stand?"

Reese seemed a little more confident this time when she silently answered Roy's question, and he carefully helped her to her feet. Still keeping a firm grip on each other's hands, both archers started to make their way out of the warehouse, and in the distance, Red Arrow could hear emergency sirens.

But, just before they reached the door, a pile of flaming timber fell in front of the opening, and Reese jerked backward, giving a small whimper as she cowered behind Roy, out of the way of the nearest flames.

"Reese," Red Arrow continued, his voice betraying the barest hint of panic as he realized that this time, they really were running out of time. "Breathe. We can still get out of here, but we'll just need to go a different way,"

Blinking the smoke and tears out of his eyes as he looked around the burning warehouse, Roy's gaze landed on a shattered window that was several yards away. So, making sure that she was still slightly coherent, Red Arrow led his sister over to the shattered window and peered over the edge.

Superboy was the one who first noticed Red Arrow and Silverbird standing at the window, and he seemed to have calmed down after his angry outburst because he pointed towards where they were standing and gave a startled exclamation.

Scooping Reese up as if she were a baby, Roy jumped out of the window, just as one of the last piles of weapons crates fell over and blew up.

Reese started coughing almost as soon as she and Roy were clear of the warehouse, trying to both get clean air into her lungs after breathing in the smoke and to calm down even further from her panic attack.

Through her still tear-blurred vision, Silverbird saw the red-black-and-yellow splotch that she assumed was Robin skid to a stop in front of her and without a word, the brunette opened her arms, allowing the Boy Wonder to hug her with enough force that he completely lifted her off the ground.

Reese started to shake again as she buried her head in the crook of Dick's neck, and she was faintly aware of the others standing around the two of them.

This mission had turned ugly almost as soon as it had started, first with Dick falling off the trapeze earlier during their act, and now with the blown-up warehouse and Reese's panic attack.

The worst part was, they still weren't any closer to figuring out who was behind the thefts, and frankly, Silverbird wasn't exactly thrilled with what the thief might have planned next.

➳➳➳

By the next morning, as the six Daring Dangers hovered outside the circus tent, where Jack Haly was once again getting grilled by Agent Faraday, Devora Danger felt both physically and mentally exhausted.

After they had tried--and failed--to capture the thief at the warehouse, the Team had come back to the grounds of Haly's Circus where they had all then tried to get at least a few hours of sleep before they had to wake up in the morning.

Reese hadn't slept well at all, and she had woken up with a crick in her neck. Now, here she stood with her boyfriend, brother, and best friends, all of them listening from just outside the circus tent as Faraday confronted Haly about the previous night's theft.

"Another weapons plant is hit," Faraday began, and Reese realized that was probably why those crates last night had been filled with flammable ammo. "And once again, the circus is in town. I don't believe in coincidences,"

"I don't care what you believe," Haly shot back. "My people are not responsible. I did a bed check last night," the ringmaster continued, waving his arms around to demonstrate his point. "Every single member of my troupe was asleep in their beds!"

'Well, we sure weren't,' M'gann spoke up over the mental link, and Artemis quickly jumped in to support the Martian.

'And if he's lying about us...' Artemis trailed off, purposefully not finishing her thought, but the rest of them were able to catch her gist anyway.

But, Reese didn't think that Jack Haly was the mastermind behind the string of thefts. For one thing, he didn't really seem like the type. Plus, Dick had known him for years, and more often than not, the Boy Wonder was a pretty good judge of character.

Besides, Haly was also, like, really old. Reese doubted that he was the one who had vaulted off a streetlamp last night to break into the warehouse. Not that she was saying all old people were automatically frail.

Dinah's old trainer, Ted Grant, who used to be the Justice Society member Wildcat and had worked with Jay Garrick's Flash and Kent Nelson's Doctor Fate back in the day, was almost eighty years old at this point and had recently opened up his own boxing and hand-to-hand combat gym in Star City, offering free lessons to underprivileged kids.

But, the Wildcat Gym was beside the point. What was the point was that Reese didn't think Haly was behind the thefts that seemed to occur every time the circus stopped in a new city.

Now, all she had to do was prove it.

➳➳➳

After they "overheard" the conversation between Jack Haly and Agent Faraday, the Dangers head back to their train car, where they tried to at least get some semblance of an idea as to who their mystery thief might be.

'So two thieves, right? The fire-breather and one of the acrobats,' Artemis began once everyone was situated, and from where she sat beside Dick as the Boy Wonder pulled up his holo-computer, Reese sent the blonde a glance.

'I only sensed one person aside from us at that warehouse,' she explained, and Artemis quirked an eyebrow, looking a bit skeptical.

'You sensed it?' the other archer echoed, and though she had momentarily forgotten that the older girl didn't know about her seismic sense, Reese recovered quickly.

'I can sense the vibrations of people moving around,' she said quickly, not wanting to divert the conversation too much from figuring out who the thief, or thieves, in this case, might be. 'Vibrations are just sound waves moving through solid objects, right?' Reese continued, and Artemis gave a small nod. 'Sound waves are kind of my specialty. I don't know exactly how the seismic sense works, just that whenever someone else is around me, I can feel the way they walk, and then recognize it later since everyone walks differently,'

Artemis still looked a bit confused, but M'gann spoke up before the blonde could respond in any sort of way.

'Even if there were two thieves at the warehouse last night,' the Martian began. 'They'd have to be wearing identical clothes,'

'Maybe not just two,' Robin piped up suddenly, gesturing with his free hand to his holo-screen, where he pulled up two separate security feeds, one showing the thief bending the bars of a window as if it were a stick of warm butter, and then the other showing the thief walking along a telephone wire. 'Here's the Madrid security footage. And now Paris,'

An itch started to tickle the back of Reese's head, one that told her she knew what was going on, but just couldn't put her finger on it.

'So the strong man and the clown too,' Roy added from his spot near the train car's window, arms crossed over his chest. 'If the entire circus is involved, Haly himself may be the mastermind,'

'I doubt that,' Reese said immediately, at the same time that Dick said: 'You don't know that.' Reese wasn't entirely open to discussing why she knew that Jack Haly wasn't a criminal, just that she was sure he wasn't.

The others, on the other hand, weren't entirely convinced.

'It would explain his lies,' M'gann posed, but instead, Dick lurched up from his seat, looking uncharacteristically angry.

"I told you to keep an open mind!" the Boy Wonder shouted aloud before he stormed out of the train car entirely.

Reese gave a quiet sigh as her boyfriend slammed the door behind him. She knew why Dick had reacted the way he did, Jack Haly had helped raise him after all. It had to be hard on him for everyone else to say that they thought he was the one behind all of this.

'Like you've never lied before?' Reese said after a moment, looking towards M'gann. To her shock though, the Martian's eyes widened, and her face, colored Caucasian so it'd be better for blending in, turned pale.

The brunette quirked an eyebrow at her friend's odd reaction, but Artemis cut in before Reese could say anything about it.

'Maybe you're behind this,' When Reese looked up at the blonde, Artemis was staring at her with a probing look on her face, and Reese almost laughed.

'You think I'm the thief?' she gave a scoffing laugh over the mental link before crossing her arms and sending Artemis a probing stare of her own. 'Artemis, I was with you guys at the warehouse. How could I possibly be the thief?'

'Not you,' the older girl continued. 'Your boyfriend. For all we know, you could be sending Dick information about everything we do,'

For several seconds, all Reese was able to do was blink, and from the corner of her eye, the brunette even saw Roy looking a little surprised at Artemis's "deduction".

'Yeah,' Reese agreed sarcastically. 'I'm sure the foster son of Bruce Wayne is so evil. That's rich, Artemis, coming from you,'

This time, Artemis was the one who turned pale, and though Reese was aware she was being a little bit mean, she was too exhausted by this mission to care.

Standing up, and ignoring the fact that, in Artemis's eyes, this may make her look guilty, Reese walked out of the small room they were all in, deciding she'd rather go and find Dick, the "international tech thief", than stay here and have Artemis accuse her of something she'd never, ever do.

➳➳➳

Dick, meanwhile, had left the Haly's Circus train entirely, and had pulled on his coat to protect against the falling snow as he walked along outside the length of the train, passing by the various poster of the acts that Jack Haly had sown over the years.

The poster for his family was faded with age, and though the colors were a bit muted, you were still able to see the picture of the Flying Graysons diving through the air, frozen in time forever on the poster.

He was so distracted, the thoughts in his head a mix of memories of his family before the accident and his friends thinking that Jack Haly was the mastermind behind all of this, that Dick didn't notice his comlink go off right away.

When he did notice the ringtone-like buzzing in his right ear, Dick tapped the small communication device, answering whatever call it was.

"Uh, yeah?" he asked, wondering both who was calling him and what they wanted, only for Wally's voice to come through the other end.

"Dude," the speedster began. "Where are you?"

"Confidential mission," Dick said quickly, scrambling to remember the cover story he had come up with for this particular mission. "From Batman,"

"Wow, you know what I'm doing?" Wally asked, not waiting for his friend to answer before continuing. "Making a baloney sandwich, kind of like you just did. I talked to Tornado," the redhead explained, and Dick sighed, realizing that his jig was up. "You guys are not on a mission. Not an official one anyway,"

"A friend," the Boy Wonder started to explain after a moment, beginning to walk the length of the train again. "Jack Haly,"

"The circus guy?" Wally asked. "From your old Flying Grayson days?"

"Yeah," Dick answered, nodding even though Wally wasn't able to see him. "He's implicated in this global crime spree. Someone in the show is dirty but I gotta prove old Jack's clean or he might lose the circus,"

That was why Robin had originally put together this mission. Not for the stolen tech, but for protecting a member of his family. Jack Haly had been sort of a surrogate grandfather to the youngest Grayson before Dick had met Alfred, and when Dick was a kid, the two had always been close.

"Then why not bring me along?" Wally asked, sounding understandably shocked. "I know your backstory. I know what that circus means to you. It's where you grew up. It's where you met Reese. It's where you...lost your..."

"I left you behind because you know my backstory," Dick cut off the end of Wally's sentence, not wanting the speedster to remind him of everything he had lost. "I didn't want one of my best pals questioning my objectivity,"

"Dude," Wally spoke up after a moment, sounding both comforting and sympathetic. "That's what a best pal's for. And if you want to talk about objectivity," KF continued before Dick could say anything. "Why'd you bring your girlfriend?"

Wally had been a little miffed a couple of weeks ago, having to find out that two of his best friends were dating from Artemis rather than either of them, but he'd gotten over it pretty quickly and had instead turned to teasing, asking Dick if he'd "consider" making Wally the best man at his and Reese's wedding.

As if Dick would pick anybody else.

As it were, and because Dick had been trained by Batman, he did what the Bats did best. He dodged the question.

"What about you, KF?" he asked after another moment. "You think of asking out Artemis yet?"

For several seconds, Wally was dead silent, before a crackling noise came through Dick's comlink, and the Boy Wonder figured his friend was trying to recreate static, but Dick recognized the sound of crinkling tinfoil when he heard it.

"Whoops...I think we're losing connection..." Wally said in between his makeshift static. "Sorrygottagobye!" With that, there was another click, signifying to Dick that Kid Flash had just hung up on him.

Dick gave a small laugh at his friend's antics before the sound of crunching snow from behind him made the Boy Wonder turn around in time to see Reese walking up to him.

"Hey," he said quietly, noticing with a jolt how tired his girlfriend looked.

It had been months since Reese's last panic attack, long before she, Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad had made their impromptu trip to Cadmus, so last night had undoubtedly jarred her, for more reasons than one. It had jarred Dick too when Artemis had brought him outside the burning warehouse and Robin had realized that Silverbird and Red Arrow weren't with them.

"How are you doing?" the brunette asked quietly as she paused next to where Dick was standing, and the Boy Wonder gave a small shrug.

Truthfully, he didn't know how he was doing. It was a lot, coming back to your childhood home to find out that someone who had helped raise you might be an international criminal. It was a lot when you fall off of a trapeze eighty feet up in the air.

Dick didn't know what would've happened if Reese hadn't reacted as fast as she did, kicking the barrel up towards him so Dick could grab M'gann's hand. Actually, no. That was a lie. He did know what would've happened had Reese not literally saved his life, but frankly, Dick didn't want to think about that.

"I should be asking how you're doing, pretty bird," the Boy Wonder spoke up after a moment. "Last night was...a lot. You look exhausted,"

Reese sighed from where she stood beside him, and for a moment, Dick didn't think she would answer him, but after a moment, she did.

"This mission isn't about me," she said. "It's about you,"

Dick went to argue, even going so far as to open his mouth to spout out something about how Reese was just as important as he was, maybe even more so, but his girlfriend continued before he could say anything.

"We can worry about me later," Reese told him, and Dick could see she was ready to stop talking about this particular subject. "Okay?"

Dick was more than a little bit reluctant, but he gave a small nod in agreement nonetheless, and then he and Reese started to walk along the train again, the thick snow getting packed beneath their feet.

"You don't actually think Haly's the mastermind behind this, do you?" he asked softly after a couple of seconds in which they were both silent, and Reese gave a small smile as she gently laced her fingers with his.

"No," she answered, and even though he wasn't as skilled at detecting lies as Reese was, Dick could tell she was being honest. "I don't. And we'll find out who it really is," Reese continued after a moment. "But, actually, Artemis thinks that it's you,"

His face must've made an odd expression because Reese gave a small laugh, and Dick welcomed the sound for the few seconds that he was able to hear it before Reese explained why exactly Artemis thought that Dick was the thief.

"Not you as in Robin," the brunette explained, and Dick gave a small nod, even though he was still a bit confused as to how his blonde teammate had come to that particular conclusion.

"Me as in Dick Grayson," he realized, and Reese nodded again.

"I guess she's still a bit mad that I'm not dating Robin," she admitted, and this time, Dick was the one who chuckled, his mood improving from earlier every second that Reese was next to him.

"Yeah, the Boy Wonder must be real heartbroken over that," he managed to get out between giggles, and Reese rammed her elbow into his ribs, making Dick wince, but he could see that she was struggling not to laugh too.

"Shut up," Reese said through her smile, but right now, Dick was finally starting to feel like his normal self, the sickness he'd been suffering from over the past thirty-six hours finally dissipating.

"No, really," he continued. "I saw Robin swinging over Gotham before we left, singing about how his heart was shattered and never meant to be fixed, or something mushy like that,"

The next thing Dick knew, Reese had tackled him into a nearby snowdrift, and the white powder billowed around the two of them like a cloud.

"Tell me you didn't actually do that," Reese said from where she hovered above him, and as Dick squirmed, trying to get the snow out of the hood of his jacket, he laughed.

"Of course I didn't," he said simply. "My heart's not completely shattered,"

Dick leaned up to kiss her, but at the last second Reese pulled away, and Dick glanced at her, wondering what the problem was, only for her index finger to be pressed against his lips, stopping the young protege from moving any closer.

"Ah," she said simply, tilting her head in such a way that her hair, which Dick noticed that Reese had taken out of its braid at some point, fell over one shoulder, the silver streak showing prominently against the other curly dark strands. "You forget, Boy Wonder. You're supposed to be playing my brother,"

Dick groaned in response and flopped back down into the snowdrift he and Reese were still laying on top of, sending another puff of white powder up into the air as Reese started to laugh in response.

"In hindsight," he muttered, rubbing his hands over his eyes. "Having us all play siblings who look nothing alike was a bad idea. It was bound to make someone suspicious,"

"Like Carlo," Reese said as she rolled off of Dick and flopped down beside him in the snow. "But, the Daring Dangers could all be adopted,"

"That's a lot of kids," Dick said in response as he turned his head to glance at his girlfriend, giving her a small pout. "Just one kiss?" he asked. "Please?"

"What if someone sees?" Reese asked. "That is not something I want to have to explain,"

"Pssh," Dick scoffed, lifting one hand and waving it in the air. "Everyone else is inside because of the snow. And, hey, if Artemis is the one who comes looking, we'll just say I'm the one who kissed you,"

"You are the one kissing me, Dick," Reese retorted, tilting her head again, and Dick's grin widened.

"See?" he exclaimed, becoming almost giddy. "Then we wouldn't be lying. And--"

Reese pecked his cheek before Dick could continue, then popped up from her spot in the snow and started to walk back towards the Daring Dangers train compartment.

"There," she said simply, grinning, as Dick sat up, a little shocked. "That's your one kiss,"

"Oh come on, Rhysalin!" he exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and tripping over them slightly as he ran after his girlfriend. "You know that wasn't what I meant!"

"Wasn't it?" Reese asked innocently, glancing over her shoulder as Dick reached her. "I could've sworn--"

This time, Dick was the one who kissed Reese, and this time, it was a real kiss, one that made Silverbird loop her hands around the back of Robin's neck as the Boy Wonder cupped her face.

Once the two of them finally separated, Dick lightly brushed his nose against Reese's, a cold wind suddenly blowing through the air and making his skin tingle. Though, that also could've been the adrenaline.

"That," he murmured. " Was what I meant when I said I wanted to kiss you,"

"I have to admit," Reese added. "That kiss was better than the one I gave you,"

"You want to do it again?" Dick asked, and Reese leaned back just far enough that she'd be able to see her boyfriend's face, quirking an eyebrow.

"This will be your third," she told him, but Dick's grin only widened.

"Sue me," he told her, before kissing her again, ignoring the cold wind and the snow that had started to blow around again, focusing only on Reese and the feel of her lips against his.

What Dick didn't notice though, what Reese didn't notice, was the figure standing in the shadowy gap between two of the train cars, who ducked out of sight before the two could see them.

➳➳➳

The circus's show that night went off without a hitch, and before Reese knew it, she was over with M'gann and Conner--Dawn and Dean Danger--helping the two load up some of the supplies into the nearby train car that Haly was using to store the props.

Even more of the performers had gotten sick like Dick had the day before, and now the fire-breather and strong-man were out of commission too.

Reese had turned her back to M'gann to hand Conner a canvas sack so he could toss it into the train when suddenly, her foot shifted against the ground, and through the snow, she felt the vibrations of someone she not so much recognized as to who they were specifically, but what they had done.

The thief was here. The one who had set the warehouse on fire last night was here.

Her head shot up so suddenly, Conner sent her a worried glance from where he had just grabbed another crate a few feet away. But, Reese ignored him, glancing around at the gathered and able-working circus performers, trying to find out who could be the thief the Team was looking for.

Reese started to walk away from Conner, trying to differentiate between all the different vibrations of people moving around so she'd be able to pinpoint the exact one that belonged to their mystery thief.

She was so distracted with trying to figure out who was walking where that Reese didn't notice Ray the roustabout--who was standing completely still--until she slammed right into him.

The tall blond man was at least twice her size, in both height and width, and he was made of solid muscle, so when Reese ran into him, the brunette sort of ricocheted off of the man, stumbling backward and almost falling to the ground.

She would've fallen to the ground too, but as Reese saw Ray reach out a hand to grab her, Dick was suddenly behind her, though he had been several yards away beside Roy a few moments earlier, hooking his arms underneath her shoulders and helping her stand back up.

Ray retracted his hand almost as quickly as he had extended it, and Reese rubbed her forehead from where it had rammed into the roustabout's stomach.

"You okay, Devora?" Dick asked quietly once Reese was steady on her feet, his hands now on her upper arms as he looked her over to make sure she was okay.

"I'm fine," Reese managed to say after a moment, giving Dick a small smile. "Thanks, Dan,"

"Your sister should watch where she's going," Ray spoke gruffly, and both birds turned to look at him. "There's a lot of places she could get hurt,"

The roustabout's voice sounded genuine enough, but Reese couldn't help but think there was...something else there as a sort of undertone, she just wasn't sure what it was.

"Yeah," Dick said quickly, and Reese felt his hands tighten the smallest bit on her arms. "We'll be more careful. Thanks, Ray,"

The roustabout gave a small smile, which to Reese looked more than a little bit creepy before he walked over to where M'gann and Conner were still loading more supplies into the train.

"What was that about?" Dick asked as soon as Ray was out of earshot, spinning his girlfriend around so he'd be able to look her in the eye.

"The thief," Reese burst out after a moment, keeping her voice hushed just in case anybody else was close enough to listen in. "They were here. And I was this close to finding them," she held her index finger and thumb close enough together that they were almost touching. "I just...I couldn't recognize who they were,"

"Hey," Dick said quietly, tilting Reese's head towards his. "Don't beat yourself up over this, pretty bird. We'll catch them. Besides, we still have until Geneva, and I doubt the thief is going to try and rob something while on the train,"

The circus was heading to Switzerland for the next chunk of performances, and Geneva was about five hours away when traveling by train.

Reese was still pretty miffed that she hadn't been able to recognize the thief before she ran into Ray, but she had to admit that Dick's logic was fairly sound, so in response, she gave a small nod, and her boyfriend smiled, before he grabbed Reese's hand and led her over to where Roy was leaning against a stack of boxes and crates, arms crossed over his chest and looking a bit grouchy.

But, then again, that was basically his facial expression all the time.

She and Dick hadn't been standing over there for very long when Jack Haly walked up, grabbing onto the nearby handle of the train car and hoisting himself up, cupping his free hand around his mouth.

"All aboard!" the ringmaster shouted gruffly. "Everyone! Now!"

As Haly disappeared into the train, Roy tilted his head down so he was closer to Dick and Reese.

"Someone's in a hurry," the redhead muttered under his breath.

And though she figured that her brother was still considering Jack Haly a suspect, Reese had a feeling that the ringmaster's foul mood was geared more towards the fact that people suspected him, rather than him being a criminal at all.

But, regardless, the three of them boarded the train and headed to the car that was designated to the Daring Dangers.

To say Reese was shocked though when she realized that M'gann was sick now too--tucked in bed with a blanket pulled up to her chin--would be an understatement.

Up until now, the brunette hadn't been aware that Martians could get sick. At least, not from something on Earth.

Dick, on the other hand, was almost completely back to normal, and he felt undeniably guilty about potentially getting M'gann sick.

"You look better," Reese had said a few minutes earlier as the train rumbled along the tracks, gently nudging Dick with her elbow, and the Boy Wonder glanced at her.

"I feel better," he reiterated, before glancing over at the bedridden Miss Martian. "I'm sorry M--Dawn," Because they were all speaking out loud, Dick corrected himself by using M'gann's alias at the last moment. "I hope you didn't catch it from me,"

"I feel so silly," M'gann spoke up wearily, Conner sitting worriedly on the bed beside her. "Who knew a Martian could be vulnerable to a human virus?"

"Uh...H.G. Wells?" Dick asked rhetorically, and Reese had to hide a giggle behind her hand before her boyfriend looked towards the Martian and genomorph again. "Look, when did you first feel sick?"

"Just before boarding the train," M'gann managed to say. "It came on suddenly..."

"Same with me the other night," Dick added, as the dots suddenly began to connect inside Reese's head. "I remember Ray rubbed my head for good luck right before we went on,"

"Ugh, I'm such an idiot!" Reese gave her exclamation so suddenly everyone turned to look at her with varying degrees of shock. "I knew something was off about him! My necklace," the brunette explained, glancing towards Dick in time to see her boyfriend's eyes widen as the realization reached him too. "It made my head buzz just before you and M'gann started your trapeze act; just after Ray touched you. At the time, I figured it was just me worrying, but now..."

"Now you think it might've meant danger," Dick murmured, and Reese shrugged.

"I don't know," she admitted after a moment. "Maybe? I mean, have they ever steered us wrong before?"

Dick shook his head solemnly before he snapped his head up again. "It happened to me too!" he gasped out, pointing his finger at Reese. "You ran into Ray when you were trying to figure out who the thief was by sensing everyone's vibrations. You fell, and he went to grab you, but--"

"But you caught me before he could touch me," Reese finished Dick's thought, and the Boy Wonder gave a sharp nod.

Just then, Reese both heard and felt footsteps coming towards the Daring Dangers' door, and now, because she knew who they were looking for, she was able to recognize the footsteps as Ray's.

Reese whipped around before anyone else could say anything and jetted out into the train car's hallway, only to skid to a stop inches from hitting the opposite wall of the corridor when she saw Jack Haly rolling a two-wheeled cart down the carpeted corridor instead.

For a couple of seconds, all Reese could do was blink, as Dick ran into her from behind, having followed his girlfriend in a mild panic at her abrupt exit from their compartment. She had been sure that it was Ray who was walking past the compartment, not Haly.

"Dan, Devora!" the ringmaster exclaimed at the two young people in front of him. "You both look...refreshed,"

"Uh, thanks," Dick said quickly, sending Reese a glance, mentally asking her if everything was okay. Reese was still wondering how she had mixed up Ray's footsteps with Haly's. "Hey, Jack," Dick continued after a moment. "How long has Ray worked for you?"

Jack glanced downward for a second before looking back up towards the two undercover Dangers. "Picked him up at the start of the European tour," the ringmaster began. "Poor lad's down with the same flu as the rest of them,"

That statement, Jack Haly's last one, was what made Reese pause from where she was still leaning against the wall next to the window. Haly was lying. She didn't know exactly why, but whatever it was, Ray definitely wasn't sick.

But, before she could say anything about it, Artemis entered the hallway along with Conner, Roy, and M'gann.

"We'll check on him for you," the blonde began simply. "It's the least we can do,"

"If you insist," Haly told them simply.

The five of them went to walk in the opposite direction of the ringmaster, but as M'gann went to leave the compartment, Dick pulled her back.

"You should stay in bed," he told her, but M'gann just sent the Boy Wonder a small smile.

"As a friend once said," she retorted calmly. "I'll manage,"

With that, Reese, Dick, and M'gann started to follow Conner, Roy, and Artemis towards Ray's room. But, once she was out of sight of Haly, and on a whim, Reese allowed Dick and M'gann to go ahead of her before whipping around and pressing her hand to the floor of the train car.

It was a bit difficult at first, differentiating between the vibrations that were from the train rumbling over the tracks, and the ones made by people when they moved, but finally, Reese managed to find Jack's "signature", so to speak.

Only, it wasn't his.

She'd been right. It had been Ray the roustabout in front of the Dangers' compartment, not Jack Haly. If anything, the roustabout had been disguised as the ringmaster instead, which meant...

Beginning to run, Reese caught up to the others just as they reached Ray's room, and she grabbed Dick's arm, tugging her boyfriend back just before he entered the room.

"Robin, wait," she said quickly, as the others perused the storage room that Ray was using as his home-away-from-home. "It wasn't Jack,"

"What?" Dick hissed, turning around as Roy knelt in front of a long thin crate stamped on the side with 'ELEPHANT FOOD'. As long as the Team had been undercover at Haly's, even though it had only been for a few days, Reese couldn't remember ever seeing an elephant on the grounds or train once. "What are you talking about?"

"Haly," she said again. "In front of our compartment. The one who said that Ray was sick? It wasn't him. It was Ray masquerading as Jack Haly,"

Dick's eyes widened in response to Reese's statement, but before he could say anything, Roy, who was still staring at the food crate with a confused look on his face, gestured towards it with one hand.

"Does this circus have an elephant I don't know about?" the redhead asked, and as Dick turned away from Reese for a moment to look at Roy, the brunette was able to see the metaphorical dots beginning to connect inside her boyfriend's head.

"Not on foreign tours," Dick explained, and both he and Reese walked further into the room as Red Arrow opened the crate.

Reese was beginning to get a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and that feeling intensified when she saw the contents of the crate.

"It's empty," Roy murmured, but Reese saw something coating the sides of the box and gently pushed in between Dick and her brother, crouching down in front of the crate and running her finger over the dark-colored dust on the inside.

She sniffed it, and instantly Reese smelled the scent of burnt wood and charred gunpowder.

"It's ash," she observed simply, turning around to show the others the dark pad of her index finger, and Dick's eyes widened again.

"From the warehouse fire in Bruges!" he exclaimed, and then, everyone's attention was brought over to where Artemis had been digging underneath Ray's bed.

"Uh, guys?" the blonde archer asked, holding out a mass of peach-colored plastic with yellow tufts on top, and it only took Reese a moment to realize it was a full face mask. "I found Ray,"

"Split up!" Dick cried out, knowing the Team had to find Ray before it was too late. "Search the whole train!"

➳➳➳

Dick and Reese went back the way they came, back towards the Dangers' train compartment, since "Jack"--who they both knew was now Ray in disguise--had been heading in that particular direction when the Team ran into him earlier.

As the couple passed door after door after door, none of which holding anything worthy of significance, Reese stopped, so suddenly that Dick looked over his shoulder to see what was wrong.

"What is it?" he asked quickly.

The Boy Wonder kept his voice hushed, even though they were the only two in the corridor, but Reese just waved a hand in response, signaling him to keep quiet as she leaned her ear against one of the doors they had just passed, almost certain she had heard something coming from one of the compartments.

She listened for a couple of seconds, but Reese heard nothing else. So, she moved backward, pressing her ear against another door, but again, she wasn't able to hear anything.

But, when Reese touched her ear to the third door, about halfway down the train car's hallway, she heard a low groan, and when she glanced back over her shoulder at Dick, Reese knew that the noise had been loud enough for him to hear it too.

When Reese tried the door's handle though, it was locked tight, and there was no so sort of keyhole on the outside for her to be able to pick it.

So, the two young birds decided to go low-tech, and Dick kicked the door open.

Inside, Reese was sure both she and Dick were equal parts surprised to see a bound-and-gagged Jack Haly struggling against the opposite wall. When Reese shifted her foot, she was confirmed by recognizing the captive man as the real ringmaster, and not the roustabout masquerading as him.

Once she was sure that Haly wasn't about to leap up and attack them, Reese rushed forward, quickly untying the white cloth that had been covering Jack Haly's mouth.

"Who did this to you?" she asked quickly, knowing that she and Dick were running out of time, but also knowing they had to get potentially vital information from the ringmaster as well. And vital, it was.

"Ray! Ray the roustabout!" Haly shouted once he was free from his gag, and Dick and Reese exchanged a glance as the ringmaster continued. "Right after the train left Bruges!"

Dick and Reese then leaped up and ran out of the small office where Jack Haly had been trapped. Reese could hear the ringmaster shouting after them, but as much as she would like to free him, at the moment she and Dick were really running out of time.

As the two of them ran down the hallway, Reese tried--mentally--to reach out to M'gann, but she didn't get an answer, and judging from the look on Dick's face, neither did he.

So, again, having to go low-tech meant Reese tapped her comlink, patching both her and Robin through to Miss Martian, and catching the young alien off-guard.

"Dawn," Reese whispered, still using M'gann's alias just in case someone else happened to be listening in. "Come in,"

"Uhh..." was the first thing that Reese heard when M'gann answered. "Devora?"

"Dan and I tried to reach you," Reese continued. "The--The other way," It wasn't exactly as if Reese could say 'your telepathy' out loud without someone getting weirded out, so 'the other way' would have to do.

"Ngh," M'gann groaned after a moment on the other side of the commlink. "I think the flu's knocked out my 'other way',"

"Well, that clinches it," Dick piped up suddenly, glancing towards Reese, and it took the brunette a moment to realize that he had been listening in as the Boy Wonder tapped his comlink, patching both of them through to the others. "Dane, Dean, Diane; come in. We're chasing someone who's stolen Dawn's 'act'. Her whole shtick, if you catch my drift,"

With that, Dick shouldered the door to the train car open, an ago,d he and Reese carefully hopped from the car they'd been in over to the next one, but before she leaped across the small gap between the two cars, Reese brushed her hair out of her face, the brown strands whipping in front of her eyes from the wind that came from the train traveling at over 80 miles per hour.

Just as Reese yanked the door shut on the next train car, both her and Dick's comlink's buzzed, Conner's voice coming through a second or two later.

"I got him," Reese managed to overhear over the sound of splintering wood, and she couldn't help but wonder what exactly the genomorph was up to. "But he's on to me. Exiting the dining car now," Reese realized that she and Dick actually weren't too far from Superboy's position, but a moment later Conner spoke up again. "He's gone topside!"

Now running even faster, Dick yanked open another train car door before scrambling up the ladder onto the roof of the car, Reese following after him, and both of them climbed onto the top of the train car in time to hear Superboy say: "That won't work on me, clown,"

"That's no clown," the Boy Wonder exclaimed, as the 'clown' glared at the two birds over his shoulder. "He's the Parasite! The guy who once stole Superman's powers,"

"As if you kids are who you claim to be," Parasite sneered, still disguised as the Haly's Circus clown. "Please,"

With that, Parasite tilted his head back, and using the skills he had acquired from M'gann, the same time he had gotten the Martian sick, Parasite morphed his face from the clown makeup into his own, the veiny, dark purple skin making Reese shudder.

"Stay out of his reach!" Dick exclaimed as Conner went to move towards Parasite again. "That's no flu going around. The weakness comes when he makes physical contact and feeds off the powers and abilities of others,"

"I have been a bit of a glutton today," Parasite agreed after a moment, turning his head slowly to look at Robin. "Chowed down on the skills of nearly every loser in this troupe. I figured I could use some of your girlfriend's gymnastics skills. Pity, Dan, that you showed up at the train in Bruges when you did. But, then I went to the next best thing, and oh my. The pièce de résistance was Dawn Danger, or whatever her real name is,"

M'gann climbed onto the train car beside Reese just as Parasite was continuing his monologue, and though there was no way that Miss Martian was completely back to normal after her own encounter with Parasite back in Bruges, Reese could see that her friend was feeling better, which was a good thing.

"Since Devora Danger's gymnastics were out of the question," Parasite was saying as M'gann stood to her feet beside Dick and Reese. "Figured I'd munch on Dawn's trapeze skills instead. Imagine my surprise when she tasted like Martian Manhunter. She made a lovely appetizer," Parasite continued, and Reese suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "But guess who I want for my entree!"

Suddenly, Parasite, still using M'gann's telekinesis, yanked Conner forward from where the genomorph had been standing at the opposite end of the train car with Roy and Artemis.

As soon as Superboy was within physical reach, Parasite locked one of his massive hands around Conner's neck, humming in appreciation as Reese saw her friend's body shudder for a moment before he went limp.

"Now that," Parasite exclaimed after a few seconds where he 'fed'. "Is the full-bodied Kryptonian flavor I love,"

"Everyone, stay whelmed!" Dick cried out, holding up a hand as he realized that they were now up against a villain who had the combined powers of a Kryptonian and a Martian, plus whatever skills from the normal circus performers that Parasite was still holding onto. "Subdue, but keep your distance!"

Roy and Artemis both drew arrows, but to Reese's shock, Parasite just glanced at them from where he was still holding Conner by his neck, before shooting twin beams of red light out of his eyes, disintegrating Red Arrow's and Artemis's bows without a second thought.

He may have taken Conner's powers from him, but from what she had learned in Cadmus with Dick, Wally, and Kaldur, Superboy had never possessed heat vision in the slightest.

"You know," the purple-skinned villain spoke up after a moment as he dropped Conner frankly unceremoniously. "I seldom say this, but I'm sated. Hate to eat and run!"

With that, Parasite levitated into the air, taking the crate he had been holding when Conner first confronted him with.

Realizing that the Team was running out of time to catch the villain before he got away, Reese leaped straight up into the air, managing to pull herself up onto Parasite's metal crate before launching at the villain himself.

But, if Reese were to say that things went to plan after that, she'd be lying.

As it were, once he saw the brunette getting closer to him, Parasite took his arm and swatted Reese back as if she were a fly.

Silverbird flew backward with the force of Conner's super strength, her back slamming into the top of the train car hard enough that, for a moment, Reese saw stars, before she rolled off.

M'gann was so shocked at Reese falling off of the train--which was still traveling over 100 miles per hour, by the way--that she didn't even see Robin move.

But, one second the Boy Wonder was standing next to her, eyes wide as he saw Reese jump onto Parasite's crate, and the next, as Reese tumbled off the train car, Robin had slid onto his knees at the edge, lurching over so fast he almost fell off the car himself and managed to lock his hand around Reese's wrist a mere moment before she fell out of his reach.

At this point, the train was traveling over a bridge a good two hundred feet above a large river, and Reese, who had been a bit dazed from her back slamming into the train car after Parasite had swatted her back, snapped her eyes open just as she felt her body jolt from Dick grabbing onto her wrist, but as she went to look down, Dick shouted at her.

"Hey!" he cried out, blue eyes wide and panicked as he struggled to keep his grip on Reese's hand. "Look at me!" Reese turned her head up, knowing that she would probably end up losing her mind if she looked down.

"Don't let go," she managed to say over the rushing wind that came from the speeding train, and Dick shook his head.

"I won't, pretty bird," Dick said, but Reese knew that both she and Dick could feel the Boy Wonder losing his grip on her wrist, and Reese wasn't able to bring her other arm up high enough to grab it. "I promise I won't let you go,"

But, again Dick's hand had started to slip even more, and at this point, Robin was gritting his teeth, pulling as hard as he could against the force of gravity to try and save his girlfriend from falling to her death in the frozen-solid river below.

He had already lost his parents to a high fall, Dick wasn't about to lose Reese to one too.

Just then, just as Dick was fully losing his grip on Reese's hand, Roy was by his side, grabbing onto his little sister's forearm and helping Dick pull her onto the train car, and Dick pulled Reese back hard enough that they both fell onto their backs on the top of the train car, Reese's chin falling against the Boy Wonder's chest.

At the moment, Dick wasn't sure who was more scared over what had just happened, him or Reese, but as they both sat up, Dick could see that his hands were shaking.

Reese's entire body was shaking, and her breaths were coming out shaky as Dick wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and held her close.

M'gann was over by Conner, making sure that he was okay after his own run-in with Parasite, and as much as Dick knew that Miss Martian was still pretty weak, still struggling from Parasite's "sickness", he couldn't help but think that would've been helpful to have her telekinesis levitate Reese back onto the train before Dick's girlfriend almost died.

But, whatever, he wasn't bitter...much.

"Are you alright?" Reese managed to hear M'gann ask Conner the question as Dick helped her sit up, and she looked over to where the Martian and genomorph were standing at the other end of the train car.

"I'm fine!" Superboy exclaimed, and Reese was a bit surprised at the slight temper that was in Conner's voice because the clone had been getting so good at reining in his anger. "I'm fine,"

"You're drained," Robin snapped as he gently pulled Reese to her feet before the two of them, plus Roy and Artemis, walked over to Superboy and Miss Martian. "Parasite took more power than you even have. Heat vision?"

"I have the genetic potential for it," Conner retorted, and Reese narrowed her eyes. "Must've been enough for him,"

Reese was positive that that wasn't how Parasite's powers worked, but she wasn't sure why Conner would lie about it. But, then again, it seemed like everyone had been lying lately, so who was she to judge?

➳➳➳

Once they were all safely back in the Daring Dangers' train car, the Team changed into their various costumes/uniforms, and from where she sat beside Robin, Reese couldn't help but notice just how dejected everyone looked.

It was a valid reaction, considering that Parasite had gotten away, Reese had almost died, and now one of their most powerful members was out of commission too.

"What do we do now?" M'gann asked quietly from where she sat on the other side of the compartment, and before Reese could say anything, Artemis spoke up, her tone more than a little bit grumpy.

"Too bad we don't have anything that could tell us where Parasite was going next," the blonde said quietly, and Reese snapped her head up as she remembered what she had done just before Parasite had knocked her off the train.

In all the commotion of her dangling two hundred feet up in the air off of a speeding circus train, the brunette had forgotten about it.

"What if we did?" she asked, and everyone turned to look at her, varying degrees of confusion marring their faces.

Silverbird then reached up into the small shelf above the couch where she was currently sitting, which held all of the things she had deemed important enough to bring along on the mission.

"What is that?" Red Arrow asked once he saw what Reese was holding, and Silverbird glanced over at him.

"I picked Parasite's pocket earlier before he knocked me off the train," Reese explained. "I found a flash drive,"

From where she was sitting on Robin's other side, Artemis poked her head around Dick's shoulder to send Reese a look.

"How'd you pull that one off?" the blonde asked, and Silverbird glanced down at the floor, shifting in her seat as she avoided the other archer's gaze.

"It's an...old habit," she answered quietly, before abruptly changing the subject and handing the small blue drive over to Robin. "Anyway, I was thinking that if Parasite had it, it'd probably be important to his plans,"

Dick grinned as he took the flash drive from Reese, and the brunette had a feeling that if the two of them had been working this case alone, he would've kissed her.

As it were, he didn't, but Silverbird felt the Boy Wonder nudge her foot with his own as he plugged the drive into his glove.

It took a few seconds for Robin to hack into the drive's encryption, but a moment later, as Reese peered over his shoulder, Dick began to explain what exactly Parasite had been doing with it.

"It looks like Parasite's working for Intergang," Robin began to explain as he quickly skimmed the files showing up on his holo-screen. "Everything he's stolen, they're all pieces of something,"

"Pieces of...what?" Silverbird asked, not really sure if she actually wanted to hear the answer, but Dick took a few more seconds to look over the files again before he spoke.

"It looks like a weapon..." Robin mused quietly before his mask lenses widened almost to the point where they were full circles. "One that generates...black holes?"

"Oh, come on," Red Arrow scoffed, crossing his arms over his again as Reese gulped. "To do that you'd need a particle accelerator,"

"Like the large Boson collider in Geneva?" Robin retorted, and this time, Silverbird's eyes were the ones who widened.

"That's the circus's next stop," she said, and Red Arrow spoke up again from behind the other two birds.

"And now that Parasite can fly he's got a big headstart on us," Reese knew that Roy wasn't trying to be rude, or at least, she was pretty sure that Roy wasn't trying to be rude, but Silverbird kicked his shin in retaliation anyway.

"Sorry," M'gann muttered as Red Arrow rubbed his leg, sending Reese a glare as the brunette turned to her friend.

"What happened wasn't your fault," she told the Martian honestly, before glancing at Robin. "But, Robin, this weapon could wipe out an entire city. What's our plan?"

"Easy," Dick answered as he stood up. "We get to Geneva, find Parasite, and then stop him from destroying the entire European continent. Easy-peasy,"

"You know I'm not usually one to argue with your plans, Boy Wonder," Silverbird said quietly, quirking an eyebrow. "But, I'm pretty sure it won't be that 'easy-peasy',"

"You're right," Robin agreed, making Reese raise her eyebrows again. "It probably won't be, but regardless, we're running out of time, so we need to hurry,"

"You, Silverbird, and I," Red Arrow cut in as he pulled down his extra bow and quiver from the shelf. "Need to hurry. Without powers, the others would just hold us back,"

"Hey," Artemis snapped, and Silverbird turned to see the blonde holding up a crossbow. "You're not the only one with a backup bow,"

Suddenly, there was a loud thud, loud enough that Reese jumped, and she whipped around to see Conner pull his hand out of the dent he'd just put in the train car compartment's wall.

"And my powers are back!" Superboy exclaimed, and Silverbird knew that she wasn't the only one shocked by the genomorph's fast recovery. Not even M'gann was fully back to normal yet, and Parasite had sucked out her powers long before he'd run into Conner.

"How?" Robin asked, sounding more than a little bit confused, and frankly, Reese was feeling the same way, as she glanced over at M'gann to see that the Martian was still looking a bit less green than usual.

"I guess Kryptonians recover faster than humans or Martians," the genomorph explained, rubbing his arm, and as he did so, Silverbird's eyes snapped to Conner's hand. 

It wasn't that big of a movement, something not many normal people would notice unless they were looking for it, but Reese knew a tell when she saw one, only that didn't make a lot of sense. 

I mean, this was Conner for crying out loud. Yeah, he was a bit angry at times, but he had never really been one to hide things from the others. 

Or, at least, Reese thought he hadn't.

As it were, when Superboy noticed the brunette staring at him with her eyes narrowed the way she did with Wally when the speedster made her angry, Conner suddenly dropped his hand and snapped his gaze away, lending even more credibility to the notion that he was lying.

Before Silverbird was able to confront the genomorph about it--though, really, Reese wasn't sure that she wanted to--M'gann stood up from where she was sitting on the bench and put her hands on her hips.

"Don't even think," Miss Martian began as Red Arrow's face turned grouchy again. "About leaving me behind,"

G E N E V A

December 24, 00:37 CET

By the time the Team reached Switzerland, it was dreadfully obvious that Parasite had reached Geneva long before they had.

Silverbird crouched down in front of the fallen security guards outside the building where the Boson collider was housed and pressed her fingertips to the side of his neck.

"Is he..." Artemis trailed off, but Reese knew what she meant to say, and the brunette glanced over her shoulder at the older girl, shaking her head.

"He's alive," she said simply and saw both Artemis and M'gann let out separate sighs of relief as Robin paused next to her.

"Either way," the Boy Wonder began as Silverbird stood up again. "This is Parasite's trail of destruction. We follow it, we're sure to find him,"

The doors to the building had been busted down, likely due to the super-strength that Parasite had acquired from Conner, so it was fairly easy for the six of them to get inside.

Easier still to find Parasite. All the sextet of young heroes needed to do was follow the trail of unconscious or groaning security guards and scientists into the room where the Boson collider was kept, using Dick's holo-glove as a camera to peer around the corner into the room where Parasite had only just managed to turn the collider on.

"We need to take him down," Robin whispered. "Or at least lure him away so we can safely disengage the--"

Dick was suddenly cut off as Conner let out an angry roar, running around the corner and into the room with Parasite before anyone else could stop him.

"Seconds?" Parasite muttered sarcastically as Superboy punched the door to the room open with one hit. "No, I couldn't,"

Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, Parasite once again used the telekinesis he had gotten from miss Martian to yank Conner forward. 

But, just before he was grabbed, Superboy landed a solid punch to Parasite's face, knocking the villain back for a moment before Parasite retaliated with an uppercut that made Conner fly back across the room.

This was when Superboy, now unconscious, was bought forward telekinetically by Parasite, giving the bad guy a second dose of his almost unstoppable powers. 

At this point, Red Arrow had almost lost his temper, which wasn't anything new, but Roy had drawn an arrow and looked as if he were about ready to run into the room and take on Parasite himself, now that Conner was down...again.

"What is he doing?" the redhead burst out, but before he could run in, M'gann grabbed onto Roy's shoulder, stopping the archer in his tracks.

"Wait," the Martian said quickly, and Red Arrow whipped his head around to send her a look, but before he could say anything, M'gann spoke again, turning towards where Robin and SIlverbird were still crouching close to the floor, watching as Parasite basically beat Conner to a pulp. "Parasite takes superpowers and abilities from others, right?"

"Yeah..." Robin said slowly, he and Reese exchanging a glance as they both simultaneously wondered where M'gann was going with this particular train of thought. "Why? What are you thinking?"

"Well, what if he's sort of like A.M.A.Z.O?" Reese quirked an eyebrow behind her mask at M'gann's idea. "If he takes away superpowers, he has to have gotten weaknesses too,"

"Got any kryptonite in that utility belt of yours?" Artemis asked, glancing towards Robin, but Dick just looked down at his feet, not willing to admit that he did actually have a chunk of kryptonite in his belt.

"I have a better idea," Silverbird murmured, glancing up to look at the others. "We know Parasite got a Kryptonian's superpowers, that one's pretty obvious. But, he also attacked a Martian,"

"So?" Artemis retorted, her tone turning snappish. "What's your point?"

"Well," Reese began slowly, taking a deep breath before she looked up and met M'gann's gaze. "What's a Martian's greatest weakness?"

The eyes of Miss Martian widened as she realized what Silverbird was getting at, and the alien took a deep breath before she spoke. 

"Fire," she sighed quietly, and Reese gave a small nod before she turned to look at her brother.

"What do you think?" she asked Roy, and Red Arrow narrowed his eyes, but before he could say anything, Parasite, now obviously knowing that he had been tailed from the circus train, called out to them from deeper in the room.

"Alright, Dangers, come on out," the purple-colored villain shouted. "Only a couple of minutes before this baby's done warming up and eats Geneva,"

"It's a big risk to take on a theory," Roy said finally, ignoring Parasite's shouts as he turned towards Robin, who looked to be thinking hard about Silverbird and Miss Martian's plan for a moment before he looked up.

"Do it," Dick said shortly. "Go,"

In theory, the plan was fairly simple. Artemis, Red Arrow, and Miss Martian would distract Parasite long enough for Robin and Silverbird to somehow figure out a way to disable the Boson collider before it fully activated, taking all of them with it when the black hole was fully formed.

Of course, all of this was in theory, i.e. the optimal outcome inside Reese's head. Silverbird knew that it was likely that this wouldn't all go perfectly, she was used to it by now, but she was just hoping that they all made it out alive by the time this mission was over. 

What a way to spend the first forty-five minutes of her birthday.

As M'gann walked out into the room so she was in full view of Parasite when the villain turned his back to the control panel in front of the collider, Robin and Silverbird slipped around the corner into the room and crept along the wall towards the panel, wholly relying on Miss Martian occupying Parasite's attention long enough for the two birds to get to the control panel without getting caught.

"What do you have against Geneva anyway?" M'gann was asking when Reese spared a second-long glance at the Martian over her shoulder.

"Never liked the food," Parasite answered simply, before rubbing his hands together. "But the menu keeps improving,"

"I'm just the appetizer, remember?" M'gann told Parasite as he yanked her forward telekinetically, ducking at the last moment before he could punch her, landing on her back and using her foot to sweep Parasite's legs out from under him. "Here's the main course,"

Parasite landed hard on his back, but by the time he had gotten to his knees, Red Arrow had already released his bowstring, sending the arrow flying towards the villain, and when the end of it hit Parasite's chest, red gooey foam erupted out of it, encasing Parasite in a shell-like trap that he was none too pleased about.

"Foam?" Parasite sneered once he had realized what had happened, and he glared at Red Arrow with the force of a thousand pissed-off Batmans. "You think foam can hold me?" Just then, Parasite's eyes glowed green, and Roy was yanked off the balcony he had been hidden on by an invisible force, held high above the floor. "Or stop me from crushing you with a thought? Combined Martian and Kryptonian powers here,"

Parasite managed to break one arm free out of Red Arrow's hardened foam just as Robin and Silverbird skidded to a stop in front of the Boson collider's control panel, and Dick, ever the one to make the bad guys want to kill him, piped up with: "But, do any of those powers free you before I sabotage your death-thingy?"

For several seconds, all Reese did was stare at her boyfriend and blink, wondering how it was that Robin had survived to fourteen years old without any villains killing him, simply because he had annoyed them to the point of death.

"Death-thingy?" she hissed out finally, Robin's eyes flicking up momentarily to glance at her before he looked back down at the control panel, fingers flying frantically across the keys as he tried to stop the creation of Parasite's black hole before it was too late. "Boy Wonder, you know I love you, but you really need to get some new material,"

"Don't worry, lovebirds," Parasite sneered, and both Robin and Silverbird whipped their heads around in time to see Parasite break his other arm free. "This one does,"

Dick and Reese dove to the side a split-second before their heads would've been taken off by Parasite's heat vision, and as she hit the ground, Silverbird rolled onto her back, nocking an arrow and shooting it towards Parasite purely on reflex.

And because that had been part of the plan.

The arrowhead lodged into Parasite's should a moment later, as he was still trying to kill the two youngest members of the Team with the heat vision, and Robin hunched over Silverbrid a moment before the flammable gas from her arrow ignited, reacting with the superheated eye-beams to make the area around Parasite explode.

"So clever," Parasite sneered in the center of his flaming prison as Dick and Reese sat up, Red Arrow falling to the ground with a loud thud now that he was free from Parasite's telekinetic grip. "Trick me into igniting flammable gas. But, you forgot...doofus's double dose of invulnerability...fire...can't touch me..."

"Unless you make a meal of my powers," M'gann spoke up as the heat started to make Parasite lose his coherence. "And get my weaknesses as a side-dish,"

Parasite's eyes widened as he realized what had happened, and he stood to his full height, likely wanting to fly away and escape before he was fully overtaken by the flames' effects on Martian physiology, but it was too late.

M'gann walked up to him again as the purple-skinned villain fell to his stomach on the ground, knocked out cold. Or hot, in this case.

"Poor baby," the Martian crooned. "Something you ate?"

With Parasite preoccupied with being unconscious, Robin stood up, walking over to the control panel again and hitting a few more keys, finally succeeding in shutting the Boson collider down, and saving Geneva from getting sucked up into the sky.

As she walked up next to him, Reese heard Dick sigh in relief, and she quickly kissed her boyfriend's cheek out of sight of the others, receiving a smile from the Boy Wonder just as Agent Faraday walked in with a few more Interpol agents.

"We'll take it from here," Faraday said simply, his voice still as gruff as it had ever been. 

One of the other agents used a fire extinguisher to douse the remaining flames, before leaning over Parasite's still-unconscious body and snapping an inhibitor collar around his neck, the three orange lights blinking on a moment later.

"Thanks, for the tip by the way," Faraday continued, glancing towards Robin and Silverbird. "Definitely helps to prep the inhibitor collar in advance,"

"Glad to be of service," Robin said in response, tightening his grip on Reese's hand as the brunette glanced over to where Artemis was standing by Red Arrow, the blonde holding a hand out to Roy in a gesture to help him stand.

For a moment, Reese wasn't sure if her brother would accept it since it still seemed as if he were hell-bent on either Artemis, Conner, or M'gann being the mole, but that wasn't the case.

As Roy let Artemis pull him to his feet, the blonde gave a small laugh.

"Wow," she began sarcastically. "He deigns to touch the hand of a suspected traitor,"

"Mind: open," Red Arrow explained once he was steady, glancing at Superboy and Miss Martian for a moment before he turned back to Artemis. "I guess I never really saw you three in the thick of it before. Superboy's a hothead, but I know I'm not one to talk. You could each have betrayed us here. You didn't. I'm sorry I doubted any of you," Roy added finally, surprising Reese for a moment. He never really had been one for apologies. "There is no mole,"

➳➳➳

The next morning, Dick, dressed once more in his Dan Danger costume, stood in Jack Haly's office on the circus train, explaining why he and his "siblings" wouldn't be continuing on the tour.

"So," the old ringmaster began. "The show will go on, and I have a feeling I have you, Dangers, to thank,"

"Don't know what you mean," Dick shrugged, trying to play off being nonchalant, but it wasn't working very well.

"No," Jack Haly chuckled after a moment. "Of course not. But, I'm guessing you'll be leaving now,"

Dick reached forward and shook the ringmaster's hand before he gave a small nod and started his own 'explanation'.

"Time to move on," he said quietly before Jack proceeded to give Dick one of the most shocking expositions of his entire life, more so than the time he had found out that Bruce Wayne was Batman.

"Well, Dick," Haly began, prompting the Boy Wonder's eyes to grow as big as saucers, trying to figure out how Jack knew. "I'll miss you,"

"It's Dan!" Dick exclaimed, still reeling from that particular shocker. "Dan Danger,"

"Son," Jack continued softly, setting a hand on Dick's shoulder. "You've grown. But, some things never change. Like the sight of a Grayson on the trapeze. You can't fake that, can't hide it. So," he added after a moment. "Do an old ringmaster one last favor?"

Later, as Dick was going to leave Jack's office, he suddenly thought of something and turned to look over his shoulder at the ringmaster.

"Jack?" he asked quietly, and Haly tilted his head in response. "After Geneva, where's the circus heading next?"

➳➳➳

It wasn't until that night that Dick finally found Reese by herself, and he found her after the circus's show, sitting on top of one of the train cars staring up at the starry night sky.

The others were off packing up their stuff to head back to the States, but Dick had wanted to bounce his idea off of Reese before it was time to leave. He just hoped she thought it was a good one.

"Hey," the brunette said quietly when she noticed him, and Dick sat down next to her, letting his legs dangle over the side of the train car, ever so often brushing against Reese's.

"Hey," he retorted, reaching into the pocket of his jacket and bringing out a velvet-covered box that was about the size of a package of post-it notes and handing it to Reese.

She took it, but Dick her eyebrows furrow together as she did so, and he knew that his girlfriend wasn't entirely sure what it was.

"Come on, pretty bird," he said softly, nudging Reese with his arm as she turned the box over in her hands. "You didn't actually think that I'd forget your birthday, did you?"

Reese just shrugged. "With everything that had been going on," she began. "I didn't want to remind you,"

"Well, then it's a good thing we caught Parasite when we did," Dick said, leaning back on his hands. "Because now I am able to give you your birthday present without both of us having to worry about Europe potentially getting sucked into a black hole,"

"What is it?" Reese asked, gently shaking the small box, and Dick nudged her again as he noticed small snowflakes starting to fall around them.

"Open it and find out," he whispered, and this time Reese sent him a smile before she opened the box, revealing what had taken Dick almost a year to get all the components for, and had cost him about half a million dollars, but Reese didn't need to know that last part.

The bracelet was a simple titanium chain, meaning it wasn't going to be tarnishing anytime soon, and a gorgeous dark blue sapphire sat inlaid in the center of it, half a dozen blue tanzanite--one of the birthstones of December--gems around it.

"Oh, Dick," Reese whispered as she lifted the bracelet out of the box and held it up to look at it better. "It's gorgeous,"

"That's not even the best part," Dick said quietly, not even entirely sure why he and Reese were talking so quietly, it wasn't like anybody else was around, but he didn't think too much on it. "Look at the back,"

Reese turned the bracelet over in her hand and looked at the back of the titanium setting that was holding the sapphire, reading what Dick had had carved in the back.

It was only four words, but it was four words that Dick knew would mean a lot to Reese, which was why he had also spent a good four months in contact with an engraver in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in order to get the translation right.

To say this particular gift had taken a lot of work would be an understatement.

моята любов,
моят живот

"My love, my life," Reese translated it just under her breath, but Dick heard her all the same, and he gently took the bracelet from her and clasped it around his girlfriend's right wrist, moving it so the sapphire lay just beneath the back of her hand.

"If Thanksgiving hadn't gone the way it did," Dick said quietly after a few more moments where they were both silent. "If we hadn't gotten together a month ago, I would've told you how I felt today,"

"I love it," Reese whispered, turning her head so she was gazing at Dick. "I love you, Richard Grayson,"

"I love you too, Rhyslain Queen," Dick leaned forward and kissed her, the snow blowing all around them.

It had only been a few moments before there was a loud boom, and both Dick and Reese jumped. But, when the two lovebirds looked up, it was to see fireworks erupting in the sky above the circus tent, a homage to the finale of the show.

"Best birthday ever," Reese whispered, leaning her head against Dick's shoulder as the fireworks continued, and Dick lightly ran his fingers along her arm, until he got to her hand, intertwining his own fingers with hers.

"Well," he began. "It's not over yet. I talked to Jack earlier. He said that the circus was stopping for a few days in Sofia. I figured, if you wanted to, the two of us could go,"

"Really?" Reese asked, eyes wide, and Dick knew that, as proud as Reese was of her Bulgarian heritage, she had never actually been there.

He nodded. "Of course. I won't be able to understand much, since I can't actually speak Bulgarian, but--"

"I'll teach you," Reese cut Dick off before he could finish, and when he glanced over at her, her face was practically giddy. "It'll take a while because it's an entirely different alphabet from English, but I can teach you Bulgarian if you want,"

For a few seconds, all Dick did was blink, before he smiled, and kissed Reese again, feeling her nose turning cold from the snow that was still falling around them.

"I'd like that," he whispered, noticing the tiny snowflakes that had been caught in Reese's eyelashes, the white specks setting off the darkness of her irises. 

"Thanks, Dick," Reese whispered, and the Boy Wonder smiled again.

"Anytime, pretty bird."

-----

Not me listening to Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney--

Ironically, three years ago, when I first created Reese's character (she was actually a love interest for Kaldur at the time) I made another OC who was her nemesis, and coincidentally he was the son of Parasite. Looking back, I really wasn't good at fleshing out characters when I was 14, so it was awful. Anyways, Luke (the other OC) has powers that are actually pretty interesting, and they will also show up in the five-year gap, but be wielded by a different person who has more of a personality. I'm not going to say what powers they are right now, because *spoilers*, but the events that contain them are what push Dick to turn from Robin to Nightwing, so that's fun.

Ted Grant will also show up in a chapter during the five-year gap, and it is kind of based on the JLU episodes "Cat & the Canary" (ironic) and "Grudge Match". Those are two of my favorite JLU episodes of all time, so I'm excited for that.

Next Up: Usual Suspects

~Matia~