Robin's Egg

A mysterious Eggscape

Toxic gas slowly filled the room, but the two boys ignored it. Instead, they stared in shock at the creature in front of the entrance doors, wondering how it had gotten inside in the first place. A small neon green bulldog puppy with black ears barked cheerily to them. Its small tail was wagging a mile a minute. Robin's eyes widened at the absurdity of it all. The past few moments have been nothing but a whirlwind of confusion so why not add a glowing dog on top of it all?

"Um... is that a dog? How did a dog get in here? There wasn't another heartbeat when I checked earlier." Superboy asked, pushing back the slight panic at their dire situation to focus on the little creature before them. Robin had absolutely no idea. He knelt down while pocketing the letter and beckoned the pup over. It bounded over happily. There was a black collar with a silver tag on the dog's neck, and when Damian flipped it over, he found a name.

"Cujo?"

The dog responded immediately. It ran around in several small circles barking excitedly. The gas appeared to have no effect on it. Not that they were going to test that theory. Robin offered his hand to sniff before petting the excited puppy with gusto. The pup especially zeroed in on his utility belt. Sniffing all the pockets and even licking the one Danny's core was in. Robin wished that he could take his gloves off, but the gas was almost on top of them. "Well, isn't he a happy thing?" Superboy chuckled behind his gas mask. "Now, we should probably figure out how to get out of here. The human hostage may be gone, but a puppy dying with us doesn't sit well with me either. Also, I think you are right about the gas... I feel my powers weakening from the little bit I breathed before."

Robin's eyes narrowed at the news. Pulling the little dog close to his knees with one hand and using the other to cover his mouth with his cape, he took to looking around the room again. "It appears like the best exit is through the ceiling. Could you make a BIG hole-" Damian didn't get a chance to finish.

Cujo wiggled out of Robin's hand with an excited yip and dashed in front of them. The cute yips morphed into a terrifying bark as the little pup shape-shifted into a massive bulldog that stood taller than Superman. Robin gave a startled cry when Cujo bit his cape and started carrying the boy by it, above the gas, toward the front doors. Superboy only had half a second to think and quickly grabbed his friend's foot. Carefully pulling himself up so that he could hold onto Robin's shoulders. Both boys were carried above the gas towards the doors at a fast pace, and the dog showed no signs of stopping. They braced for impact.

It never came.

A swirling blue portal formed in front of them, and they were pulled through right before they smashed into the building. Freezing temperatures had the boys shivering in their suits as they were carried from a dusty bar into fluffy snow. The portal closed behind them, and the vigilantes were now in a completely different plane of existence.

"Uh... where are we...?" Jon asked. The freezing winds caused him to shiver harder, but he refused to let go of Damian. No matter how hard he wiggled in frustration, trying to get the dog to release his cape. It wasn't working out that well. "Did Cujo take us to the Antarctic or something?"

Robin flailed futilely for a few moments before giving up. The dog was only going to let him go when IT decided to. "I don't think the Antarctic has a swirling green sky." Damian pointed out as he scanned the sky above.

It was a vivid green that was almost too bright. Somehow it glowed even though there was no other frame of reference for it to do so. Instead of clouds, a vast array of purple doors and islands dotted the skyline, making Robin feel like he had fallen into wonderland.

"Um... Damian..."

"Before you ask, I am just as lost as you are." Robin deadpanned as he continued to watch the sky. He activated his coms to try and contact the others, only to switch it off as fast as possible. The interference was even worse than it had been in the dive bar. Robin groaned. His head was starting to hurt from all the weird unexplainable things happening at once. Being raised by assassins and Batman did make his life more extraordinary than most, but this was beginning to be too much. What else was going to happen within the next few minutes?