the robin & the canary; young justice

o19: Misplaced

"We've set up a refugee center at the high school gym," the speedster explained. "Any luck with--"

"No," Robin answered, sounding a bit frustrated at the lack of headway he had made in trying to contact their mentors. "Can't reach the Batcave, the Hall of Justice, or the Watch--" he was cut off as Reese suddenly dug her elbow into his ribs.

As much as she liked Zatanna, Reese knew that the League's satellite headquarters was still supposed to be a secret, even from some of their allies. 

She herself had learned about it a few months after she had met Roy and Dick in Star City, three years ago, at the point in time where she and Robin were getting to know each other better, and he hadn't wanted to lie about anything.

"The point is," Reese added, glancing over her shoulder at the young magician, but it didn't seem as if Zatanna had noticed the Boy Wonder's potential slip-up. "We can't reach any adult hero. Even Red Arrow, but he turned eighteen already, so that was a dead-end anyway,"

"Looks like we're on our own," Wally said after a moment, and Reese gave a small nod, even though KF couldn't see her. "Kid Flash out,"

A few seconds after Reese and Dick had ended their call with Wally, Zatanna spoke up from her spot across the center circle, making both birds turn to look at her, the magician pulling up several holo-screens showcasing the homepages for some social media sites.

"Traditional media's offline," the other girl began. "But kids all over the world are posting the same thing: every adult, eighteen or older, has disappeared. The sorcery necessary to pull this off?" Zatanna added, glancing at Dick and Reese, eyes wide. "Scary big,"

"And we need you to find its source," Robin explained, as Reese shifted her arms, in which she was holding Zira, the baby gorilla sound asleep as Zatanna's eyes widened even more.

"How am I--" she began, before Reese cut her off, not unkindly.

"Robin pulled this footage," she began, nodding her head as Dick pulled up the cave's security feed from a month ago, from just before the Team defeated the Injustice League. "It's Zatara helping us locate Wotan and the Injustice League after their crazy mutated plants attacked the world,"

The security feed replayed the moment that Zatanna's dad said the spell and the subsequent arrow that had appeared on the holo-map.

"But..." Zatanna began, suddenly self-conscious. "The words? That's only part of it. The rest takes training and--Reese, Robin, I'm just not on Zatara's level,"

Dick and Reese glanced at each other before the brunette turned back to the older girl.

"Look," she said softly. "I know what it's like, having to live up to someone else's grandeur. Trust me, I do. But, Zee, you're our only hope. And like Robin says--"

"Try to stay whelmed," Dick piped up, giving the magician a smile. "We'll find your dad, Batman, Green Arrow, and all of them. That's what we do,"

A few minutes later, Kaldur walked in, after presumably trying to reach Atlantis, but judging from the downtrodden look on his face, he hadn't had any luck.

There were millions of kids across the country who were suddenly without parents or parental figures, and the Team had no idea on how to help them. Conner, M'gann, Wally, and Artemis were trying, but that was just in Happy Harbor, one town in the teeny-tiny state of Rhode Island.

What about the other forty-nine states in the country? What about the other hundred countries in the world? How were eight pre-teen heroes supposed to protect all of them?