Young Justice: Last Hope

Chapter 26: The test part 1

When Shadow arrives at the mountain she is instantly questioned by Batgirl "Where's Nightwing?" "At work, they needed his help with a case", however her phone goes of a few seconds later "Hello?" she asks so her boyfriend's boss asks "Have you seen Richard?" "We left home at the same time, he should be there" Shadow says and she frowns "We haven't seen him yet, if he doesn't show up soon we'll have to get help from our towns heroes" "You sound like you can already use their help" Shadow says and the male sighs "We'll call again when he arrived", he ends the call and Shadow sighs "Okay he's not at work" she says. At that moment Artemis runs in "Has anyone seen Wally? He left this morning to buy groceries, but hasn't come back yet" she says, but sadly everyone shakes their head "Let's go Arty, Bludhaven will have to do with us two until we find out more, you guys, contact me if anything happens or when you have news" Shadow says before leaving again. At the police station roof the two heroes meet up with the chief of the department "Please don't ask where Nightwing is, he's somewhere helping Batman" Shadow says and she asks "So any clues?" "This, we found his stuff nearby and we found hair that don't belong to him, but we can't identify it" the chief says handing it to Shadow who nods "We'll stay in touch, call if you have more clues". Back at the mountain Shadow starts testing it and she sighs "Ugh I need the Batcave" she says and Barbara walks over "Don't you have your own hideout by now?" she asks, but Shadow says "Not allowing anyone in there besides me and Nightwing". She gets a match and her frown returns "Superman" she says and the two run towards the main room "Alfred, are Tim and Jason at school?" Barbara asks, but Alfred says "They were taken by someone before they could arrive" "Where is Batman?" Amber asks, only to get an 'I'm not sure'.

"We know who kidnapped my boyfriend, but why" Shadow says as she tries calling the watchtower only to get static, so Cassie says "Well we can survive a day without the guys" "It's not that, Superman kidnapped Nightwing, so this is either a test or the League really did turn against us" Shadow says and she starts pacing "Robin and Red Hood didn't make it to school either, Batgirl go check for any clues with the police department, Cassie go with her, Bumblebee and M'gann, look for leads on Wally" she says and the group leaves "We are going to locate the others" Shadow says and she checks all the rooms "Signs of struggle in Beast Boy's room, same with Lagoon boy's room" Artemis says and she sighs "Time to call the League" she adds "No, this has to be a test, to see how well we do without the guys and Batman is probably the one behind it, we'll play his game" Shadow says and she adds "But we need to find out as much as possible while doing so".

Everyone returns, but with no leads and Shadow explains what possibly could be happening "So we continue our day as normal, collecting clues from the female League members as we go" Artemis says, so Cassie decides they do whatever they normally do until she suddenly has books balancing on her head "Signed and all" Artemis says and she adds "I spend 2 hours waiting to get them signed" "Awesome!" Cassie says and she puts them in her bag, Shadow is busy typing away on her phone and Batgirl is reading a book she borrowed from Shadow.

That is, until Black Canary walks in and she enters the living area "So, you girls ready for training?" she says and Shadow asks "How do you know there are only girls here?" "Cause I happen to know Batman is testing you" Black Canary sighs and she sweatdrops "He just wasn't expecting you to continue as if nothing happened" "Well I have a book to finish, so nope, not ready for training" Shadow says with a shrug, she stops typing however when Cassie looks at her with big eyes "Oh boy, here it comes" Batgirl says and Cassie asks "Did you write those books? They're awesome and I really wanted to have them, but I couldn't, so I asked Artemis to get them for me, but it's so awesome that my own teammemner writes them" "Calm down, yes I wrote them, can't even walk normally to a zeta tube at the moment" Shadow says and she adds "And Arty really did wait two hours". "Next time I'll just visit you in my free time" Artemis says and she turns to their sparring teacher "We'll come training, if you help us find our boyfriends, or future boyfriend in Cassie's case" she says, but Black Canary says "I can't do that, Bats will kill me" "Then we have better things to do" Shadow says earning a sweatdrop "Fine fine, but no promises" Black Canary says. That evening Amber is writing when Dinah enters the room "Your clue" she says and Shadow glances at it "I am so putting Batman in the hospital because of this" she says taking the note and she sends a copy to M'gann "It's in Happy Harbor, M'gann is the closest out of us" Amber explains "Plus I have a guest over, I can't leave" she adds earning a confused look until Artemis walks in drying her hair "Already send M'gann" Amber says earning a nod. The next morning M'gann flies over and drops a note on the couch "The watchtower, it's a dead end" she says, but Shadow says "And you forget I have friends who can help us", so she calls the future Batman and gets the zeta tube codes for the watchtower after explaining "And off we go" she says putting her laptop away, at the watchtower Wonder Woman is surprised to see they got there "And I will only ask once, where is Batman, along with Superman, Flash and Martian Manhunter?" she says earning a sweatdrop from Green Arrow "You're going to beat one of us up if we don't tell you aren't you?" he asks and Cassie says "She won't, I will". So after that they end up in the Gotham sewers "Gross" M'gann says and Shadow says "Stop complaining and go to stealth mode".

With the guys, Wally is one of the first to wake up and he groans sitting up, noticing his hands and feet are tied up "I told you not to hit them too hard" a voice says and Wally notices his best friend, Tim, Jason, Connor and the rest of the guys "Well sorry, if I hadn't they would have caused a commotion", Wally recognizes the voice as Superman and his eyes widen as he looks at his best friend "Dick wake up" he hisses lightly hitting his friend with his foot until he earns a groan "What happened? Feel like Superman hit me on the back of my head" he says and Wally says "That did happen, you have bandage around your head", they can't talk much more when a door is punched open, so he could guess it wasn't Amber "You really think that they're here do you?" Batman asks and the ropes are cut off "Relax it's me" M'gann whisper. "I know that since Green Arrow valued his life enough and no it wasn't me who would beat him up" Shadow says crossing her arms and she asks "I just wanna know why. I don't take it lightly if you kidnap my boyfriend" "Wanted to test you guys, you did pretty great" Batman says and M'gann opens the door "Shadow, instead of worrying about how to kill them help me out" she says and Artemis shoots a smoke arrow, by the time the smoke is lifted the girls are gone, but Shadow left several explosive batarangs. Back at the mountain Black Canary is waiting for them in the infirmary "We need to get them back somehow" Shadow says "Well we could simply not show up for a week, maybe longer" Batgirl says as Nightwing walks over, still having bandage around his head "Small concussion" he says hugging Shadow "Let's do that" she mumbles hugging back and smiles "Besides, I need to take care of someone at home, feel free to stay over with Connor M'gann" she says and they leave since Nightwing needs his rest.

So the entire League, besides the ones who helped with the test was confused as to why no one showed up at the mountain for a month.