"Wally and Artemis sitting in a tree. K-I-S" Robin sang before Megan grabbed him and placed her hand over the young hero's mouth. She waited for a few seconds, and then slowly moved her hand away.

"What was that for?" Robin asked. Right when Megan was going to state the obvious, he cut her off and continued. "-S-I-N-G!" He exclaimed quickly; smirking and giggling away.

"You little-" Wally started, and then stopped to sigh.

Robin pointed at the two and giggled again before dashing out of the room. He was followed by a blushing, but irritated Wally. The rest of the team listened to them bicker down the hallway until they could no longer hear them.

"Sorry! I tried stopping him." Megan protested to Artemis who was still standing across from her. "It's hard to remember sometimes, but he is only thirteen."

"Yeah, I guess." Artemis shrugged while rolling her eyes.

Wally and Robin came rushing back into the room. Surprisingly, Wally was out of breath. Robin stood next to him with a mischievous smirk on his face. Before anyone could crack a joke, the alarm went off. The team headed quickly to see what Batman had in store for them.

"... and your job is to find whatever weapons are inside. You need to analyze then destroy them. The factory contains a high amount of chemicals, so remain cautious. There are three floors, not including a basement." Batman stated while pacing back and forth in front of the computer screens. He appeared to be either nervous or irritated. "This should only take a few hours. You should be back before nightfall."

The team nodded in response, and watched Batman walk over to the nearest zeta beam.

Aqualad turned to face his team members one at a time. Artemis was standing next to Kid Flash, then Robin, who looked quite content, and then to Megan who was smiling at Superboy.

"For the first part of the mission, I think it's best we split up into 3 teams. It would get the job done a lot quicker." Aqualad stated as he crossed his arms against his chest. "Robin and I will take the first floor, Megan and Superboy look throughout the second, and Kid Flash and Artemis search the third. The building contains a basement, but I feel better if we all go together to search down there." Aqualad finished as Robin walked up to stand next to him.

"So.. what exactly are we looking for?" Superboy asked without a clue.

Nobody really knew the answer to that. Batman never stated what specific kinds of weapons they were going to encounter.

"Anything that looks like it could be used as a weapon I suppose." Aqualad answered, as he and Robin ran towards the zeta beams.

The team obeyed, although wary and confused.

When the team arrived, they glanced up at the factory. It wasn't very tall and only had few windows. It looked as if it was abandoned a hundred years before. Vines grew up the walls with unknown purple buds sticking out everywhere. Robin knew they looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Megan camouflaged herself and went inside the building through an open window on the third floor to make sure that the coast was clear. A few minutes later, she returned and nodded her head.

"It's like, so weird. There aren't signs of life anywhere inside." Megan noted as she carelessly pushed the front door wide open. "The place appears larger on the inside too."

"This seems too easy." Artemis agreed, narrowing her dark eyes.

As soon as the team entered the building, their jaws dropped. The walls were a dark blue, with a few cracks in the paint here and there. The air was damp and smelt somewhat fruity. The ceilings were located way farther above the team than what seemed normal. A few lights flickered a bit, but kept the place lit enough to where you could see to walk. There were rows upon rows of stacked boxes making the place appear to be a giant maze. Writing appeared on some of the boxes, but most were unmarked. A set of stairs were on the very left of the team, along with a single dim light above them. Green vines with purple buds covered the walls in a few spots.

"You weren't kidding Miss Martian!" Robin took in his open, vast surroundings.

"Whoa, this place is huge!" Kid Flash commented while walking up next to Robin. "Forget a few hours; it might take a few days!"

"This doesn't seem right." Superboy crossed his arms against the big red "S" on his black shirt.

"Well you guys heard Aqualad. Go with your partner up to your floor." Robin interrupted as he and Aqualad ran off to begin searching.

"Fine. Let's hurry up and get this over with." Superboy stated as he and Megan quickly ran up a flight of stairs to the second floor.

Kid Flash and Artemis were the only ones left still standing there. Artemis didn't seem like she wanted to budge, while Kid Flash was ready to be up and running. Literally.

"Uh, something wrong?" Wally asked suspiciously.

Kid Flash eyed her up and down, noticing that her eyes had been glued to the floor as if she was hiding something. He absolutely hated when she did that.

"I just have a bad feeling about this mission." Artemis quietly answered while she slowly walked towards the stairs. Before she could put her foot on the first step, Wally ran towards her and picked her up bride style. She gasped in surprise, but allowed him to do it.

"Sorry, you walk too slowly for me." Kid Flash joked as Artemis rolled her eyes.

In a matter of seconds, they were already at the third floor of the building. He sat her down and gazed around another giant, dark room. There was a long black counter against the wall with a line of test tubes full of mysterious bright liquids. A few brown bar stools were pulled up to the counter. Artemis sat down on one to examine the test tubes. Walking forwards and passing the counter, Kid Flash spotted an odd object a few feet away from them.

"It sort of looks like a telescope." Wally said as he studied the object. He kneeled down a little to look through the scope.

It was about four feet tall, light gray in color, and had many different sized knobs all down the side of it. The eyepiece at the top was big enough for two pairs of eyes to look through. Although there was a clear slide at the base, nothing could be seen on it. When he didn't hear Artemis for a while, he straightened up and turned around to see she was no longer in the room.

"Artemis?" Kid Flash called out worriedly. Since he didn't receive a response, he repeated himself louder this time. "Artemis!"

Something didn't quite feel right. His gut was telling him to run, but all he could do was stand in fear when he heard a loud, dark laugh. He turned quickly to face the direction in which the laugh came from. A quick purple and green blur was seen before all was black.

Kid Flash's body fell with a thud to the old, dirty floor.

…

"Superboy, come look at this!" Megan called out from across the room.

In front of her stood what looked like a huge coffin. It was leathery and a dark brown, and had some type of writing on it in foreign language.

"Creepy." Superboy commented when he saw it up close. He leaned over to look at the sides and bottom for something he could read or understand, but was unsuccessful. "What kind of factory is this anyway?"

"Batman did not say." She replied, and left his side to look for something else to inspect.

Superboy opened one of the marked boxes slowly only to find it empty. Two more were empty as well, along with one that was unmarked. He looked up to see if Megan had been seeing what he had. She was nowhere in sight.

"Megan, where are you?" He called out, hoping to receive an answer.

Superboy looked in all four directions, along with up towards the ceiling to see if his friend was levitating above.

"Meg-!" Superboy started, but was interrupted by a crowbar to the face.

…

"We have not found anything. Should we contact the others to see what they have found?" Aqualad asked Robin as they walked towards the door they first entered.

"It's been about thirty minutes, I'm sure one of them has found something." Robin stated as he and Aqualad ran up to the second floor. "They should've contacted us by now."

"You get Megan and Superboy; I'll go get KF and Artemis." Robin said as he turned around and ran up to the third floor.

"Superboy! Megan! Can you hear me?" Aqualad called out into the air.

He figured they couldn't hear him just yet, so he just kept walking. He passed something that resembled a coffin, which sent a shiver down his spine. Turning the corner, he spotted more cryptic boxes.

Aqualad was going to try to open one of the boxes to inspect the contents, when a dark shadow caught his eye. He quickly turned around, only to see nothing there. Not convinced that it really was nothing, he walked to where he first saw the shadow. He kept walking, keeping alert until he came to a corner. He waited nearly a whole minute before slowly turning the corner; but did not expect to see what he saw next.

"No, it cannot be!" Aqualad gasped just as the dark shadow hit him.

…

"Something isn't right." Robin thought to himself.

He hadn't heard anything from any of his teammates, including Aqualad who was just with him. Then he remembered that Megan had linked them altogether as soon as they had arrived here.

"Can anyone hear me?" Robin asked telepathically then out loud.

He suddenly stopped walking and stood still. He could hear something that was fairly close, laughing. Unfortunately, this wasn't just anyone's laugh. This laugh had caused Robin so much pain and suffering in the past. This laugh would echo inside his head for days. This laugh drove him insane every time he even thought about it. He hated this laugh with a burning passion. Right away he knew who it belonged to.

The Joker.