"X!" Kid Flash exclaimed in relief, having taken notice of him first before the others. Dick shuffled his feet awkwardly and felt his face slightly heat up. "Where'd you go? Did you find a way out?"

Dick shook his head, biting the inside of his lip to figure out how to convey what he had done. "Bai... mm... ba-th r-room."

"Oh, okay, well it's good you got that out of the way." Kid Flash said, which was totally unnecessary. This guy liked to talk a lot, Dick noticed. "But we should really leave sooner rather than later."

"How did you disappear like that?" The fish guy, Aqualad, asked. He was curious, but he also sounded more... in charge. Like Bossman.

Dick nervously edged away from the boys whose attention was now on him. His powers.... the only reason they would rescue him was for his powers... But it didn't matter, he needed to stick with them for now, they were his only chance of escape. But to answer the question...

Dick fizzed out of sight, reappearing in front of the containment unit he had lived in for the past 4 years. He pointed up at the 'X', then pointed at himself, then also gestured to the giant container full of his liquidized Xenothium. "Me." He said, gesturing to himself again with his mutilated hands. "I make it..." then raised his hands to show off the radiation burns, "th-they take it." He only received weird looks and his own face twisted with a frown, he wasn't really sure how to convey it anyway else.

"The... Xenothium. You make Xenothium and they're taking it and using it." Kid Flash attempted and Dick nodded, it then occurred to him that his accent might be hindering his English. He hadn't exactly had a lot of time to practice his English, didn't really have any motivation to. He liked Romanian better anyway, made him feel close to his parents even if they were gone.

The speedster's head then tilted, "But the Xenothium also gave you the ability to teleport?" Dick nodded his head again, but Kid Flash's next question was directed towards Aqualad. "Does normal Xenothium teleport?"

Dick's face twisted again, unsure of what the firehead was asking. Dick was the Xenothium, the red stuff comes from him. It's just a chemical infused into his DNA. But like any chemical it also reacts to other chemicals and elements, so maybe that's what Kid Flash was saying?

Dick just shrugged as an answer, not really sure where he was getting with that line of questioning. Besides, they needed to go before Bossman finds out they're escaping!

"Pleca?" (Leave?) Dick asked as he gestured to the door, taking a few steps towards it to further his point. But then he looked down at his gesturing hands and nearly slapped himself. He couldn't leave until these cuffs were off! It would be a very short escape if he were to keep these on.

"Sorry, my friend, but we do not know what you are saying." Aqualad's words fell on deaf ears, Dick wasn't paying attention as he was busy huffing through his nose in frustration with a scowl.

The Romanian boy disappeared again, this time appearing at the control pad to his containment unit. His eyes searched the pad but it was all in English, he had no idea if he was able to get his cuffs off this way. He could read some English, but again he was out of practice. As hard as he consentrated the english on the screen didn't make any more sense than it did before. This was harder than he thought!

His scowl deepened for a moment and slammed the cuffs into the pad, if only to get the cuffs off through violence. He heard someone shout from the group of boys, but he didn't pay them much attention. He was annoyed to find not even a dent in the cuffs, and the pad to the containment unit was barely affected by his banging. That wasn't satisfying, it should at least get crushed a little bit. He banged his arms against it three more times before he grunted at the pad in annoyance and stalked off.

The Romanian boy scanned the big room as he wandered, to see if there were any small tools he could jab in the cuffs. He felt the eyes of the other boy's watching him, out of the corner of his eye he could see their mouths moving but he wasn't looking to figure out what they were saying. English was sometimes easy to dismiss because it made all the torture easier to ignore, he retreated into his head a lot and he knew that was bad. He was paying for it now, words and sentences he should have been easily able to understand we're now forgin again, just like his ability to read English. Although a few words did make sense, stuff like 'language' and 'plan' and a word he was pretty sure was a name? Martian Man Hunter? Was it a person? It sounds like a machine or something, Man Hunter doesn't sound very friendly. Maybe there was an evil one sent by Bossman! They really needed to escape now!

Kid Flash started walking towards him, clearly saying something, but Dick avoided him. Dick really needed to focus on getting his cuffs off if they wanted to leave with him.

Dick's eyes fell on the crumpled metal walls to his containment unit, who had crushed the metal? Could they do it to his cuffs? It had to have been one of the boys, there were no tools laying around with the power to do that kind of damage and he had literally seen the hands do it himself. If his deduction skills were still intact it should be the Superboy who had the metal crushing ability.

Dick wasn't sure what this group's plan was, but they didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry. (They were, he just hadn't been noticing it. Even if Batman assured them Richard wouldn't blow up under any stress, the boy's state still weighed heavily on the trio of young heroes) But Dick was, he wanted to leave and he wanted to leave NOW. He was still unsure about Man Hunter thing but the emphasis of leaving was still very high even without a Man Hunter. He needed these cuffs gone.

The young experiment turned to them, a little out of breath from attempting to smash the pad and just overall annoyance. He lifted his cuffs, "...Am nevoie de ea pierdut." (I need it gone.) He said simply, but it was obvious they had no idea what he was saying. He wished his English would come back.

They all wore confused faces, until they all hardened.

Dick took a frightened step back, what was wrong? Were they going to hurt him because he didn't speak English? There was a handler like that once... Bossman got rid of him though when he saw the bruises. Of course he doesn't really take the suit off that often, so it had been awhile until the guy was forced to leave.

Then he heard the door burst open violently and he looked over his shoulder, only to find a hoard of those white creatures crashing in and looking bloodthirsty.

Dick felt his face drop and he promptly teleported behind the trio, adrenaline racing for a completely different reason now. Were these the Martian Man Hunters!? But Bossman never called them that, Martian Man Hunters must be something different. And more importantly... Bossman knew they were escaping! They were doomed!

Aqualad held two sort of sticks, but then his skin began to glow and all the water in the water bottles busted out and rushed around them like swimming in air. Despite his terror Dick was fascinated, his eyes widening in wonder as the water circled the group like fast rapids, creating a protective bubble that prohibited the white creatures from getting to them.

"Apă magie..." (Magic water...) Dick said quietly in awe, nearly reaching out to touch the charmed water.

Kid Flash looked back at him when he spoke and his face twisted weirdly. "Aqualad," he corrected, then shrugged and turned his attention back to the front, "but close enough."

The Romanian boy's wonder didn't last long as he jumped and squeaked in fright when one of the white creatures tried to bust through the water. When the young experiment jumped back he accidentally bumped into the big one- 'Superboy', he quickly retreated when the bigger boy's scowling face turned on him.

"Move." He growled and Dick disappeared from in front of him to behind him. Dick watched with wide eyes as the bulky boy lunged and punched a white creature that had half broken through. "I don't want to be here longer than I have to." He said angrily to the water boy in front.

Dick slightly relaxed as the angry teen's attention was diverted and the white creature was fought off, but that didn't stop him from being anxious. They may be escaping together, but Dick didn't think his parents would want him to stay somewhere he could get hurt.

"Then let's move." Aqualad said with a scowl of concentration. The group moved quickly but Dick grew more and more anxious the closer they got to the door.

Two of the boys were already across when Dick stopped just before the threshold.

"Aștepta! ...W-wait! Wait!" He said, the water wall was nearly on his back. He kept himself away from the doorway where he knew if he crossed he would be useless and they'd probably leave him behind to face the punishment of Bossman alone.

The boys did stop, the redhead twisting around in confusion, "What? What's wrong?"

Dick lifted his hands again, clicking the cuffs together before rubbing them on the wall, careful not to touch his hands to the dirt. (Nobody liked it when his hands got infected) "Am nevoie de ea departe de mine, tine minte?" (I need it away from me, remember?) He stressed.

"You need those off?" Kid Flash asked, Dick nodded quickly and gestured to the doorway.

"Nu pot traversa." (I can't cross)

"I'll get them off." Superboy grunted, taking a few powerful steps forward.

Dick flinched when he came close, ducking his head in the shadow of the large boy and hesitated to offer up his cuffed hands. He watched trepidatiously as the big hands wrapped around a single cuff, the metal groaned and Dick's anxiety spiked as he felt the metal shift oddly. The cuff snapped in half after a few seconds of groaning, the pieces falling to the floor with a clunk. Dick released a breath, but quickly sucked one back in when the hands went to his other cuff. That one snapped too and Superboy moved off just as quickly.

"Alright, come on." He grunted without further looking at the small experiment.

Dick blinked at his free arms, the grey suit underneath was darker than the rest of him, probably because it was closest to the radiation, but his arms were also extremely thin in the area.

"X, come on." He heard Kid Flash say.

The water touched his back and Dick was surprised into teleporting forward. He was next to the yellow lightning guy when the water dispersed and the white creatures poured out of the small doorway.

"Run!" Superboy yelled, waving his hand to the other teens as he lowered his stance and balled his fists. It looked like he was about to fight them all back himself. The thought made Dick sad, Superboy wouldn't last against that many creatures but the thought was nice.

"Kid, run forward and make sure the path is clear." Aqualad said, looking a bit tired and his weird sticks turned into glowing water swords.

The firehead nodded and dashed forward impossibly fast. Dick blinked in surprise, for a second he thought the kid had teleported, but it hadn't been the same. He was obviously running, the shoes, the suit, the trail of electricity snapping in his wake. The whole yellow-and-red-lightning-theme made more sense now.

Which gave Dick an idea.

He took one look at the hoard of white creatures and his fleeing companions, he then narrowed his eyes on the hundreds of thermoses generating electricity from his Xenothium.

Without a second thought, he disappeared from the group and reappeared father up near the exit, hunkering down next to a thermos-thing and pulling it up from the massive system. His hands protested touching or grabbing anything with new strikes of pain that went all the way down his arms and he almost dropped everything a few times, but his face was set in hard concentration and he didn't slow down.

He fumbled as he yanked off the extra wires and containers, twisting and pressing certain points that unlocked the smaller container holding the refined Xenothium inside. He knew how these things worked because they had experimented on him with it, they had practically built it for him. He knew the ins and outs of every crevice of these wretched devices.

He tilted the contraption as his frail gross red fingers held onto the Xenothium tube. The rest of the contraption slid off and crashed to the ground carelessly as Dick held the vial of Xenothium triumphantly with both hands. (It would have slipped out of his grip if he attempted only one hand. His basic motor skills really were severely impaired.)

"Where is X?" He heard Aqualad pant, hanging onto the massive doorway as he paused to turn around. "X!" He shouted when he spotted the small experiment.

Superboy growled as he twisted around and ran at the distracted raven haired boy. He grabbed at the suit near the base of his neck, yanking him along. Dick yelped and hugged onto the Xenothium test tube as he was dragged along. He quickly disappeared from the larger boy's grip and landed with a slight stumble next to the water boy.

"You must listen to us X." Aqualad said slowly and seriously, "We cannot help you if you keep disappearing."

Dick was only half paying attention, he was busy watching Superboy run closer and then past him. He was judging distances and time, the white creatures weren't far behind the 'extraordinary adolescent male', but it was now or never. His eyes flicked up to the annoyed water boy and flashed him a grin, he promptly dissolved into the air and appeared a few yards in front of the rampaging white creatures.

He gave the beasts a cheeky wave and smashed the Xenothium onto the ground, teleporting quickly out of the way.

Still smiling as he appeared next to the dark skinned teen, he shouted. "S-ar putea să vrei să alergi acum!"(You might want to run now!)

The small experiment bolted down the hallway as quickly as he could, looking over his shoulder to find Aqualad behind him. Dick started counting down in his head, and in three... two... one...

The ground rumbled and he felt a blast of hot air on his back, he didn't have to turn around to know the damage of the explosion. The white creatures shouldn't be bothering them anymore.

Aqualad was now running beside him and Dick gave him an attempt of a thumbs up. Then the ground continued to rumble and Dick tripped over a weird rock. He barely caught himself when the ground seemed to lurch again and the ground came up to meet his face much quicker than he could pick himself up. After unceremoniously landing on his face, Dick scrambled to his feet, adrenaline numbing the pain as he looked back and realized his mistake.

He had detonated a small tube of Xenothium in a giant room with thousands of other test tubes full of Xenothium. The chain reaction was going to be... disastrous.

The force of the explosions were quickly catching up to the stalled Romanian boy, his eyes wide as he saw a wall of just fire roar ever closer. Aqualad had stopped next to him, shouting something Dick couldn't make out. The water guy stepped forward again, water blades raised to form a giant hydrated circle. He was yelling at Dick again, something about running. The frozen acrobat just blinked out of his stupor when a hand yanked at the back of his suit again, dragging him away from the fire about to engulf them.

Dick finally found his feet and got his body working again, running alongside Superboy with Aqualad behind them. Dick's chest pumped sporadically as he ran, he had not run this much in so long, he was getting tired too fast! The heat was unsettlingly familiar, the fire felt like it was licking at his back and feet. Sweat dripped into his eyes and he grimaced as he attempted to keep himself upright and going.

"Come on!" Superboy grunted as he kept pace with the tiring boy, even as Aqualad surged past them. Dick felt the bigger boy's hand behind his back, he wasn't sure why it was there and only knew that it was there and he didn't want it.

Aqualad turned a corner ahead and Dick stumbled on a rock, then Superboy's hand was around his torso and pulled him aside, flinging him away from the fire that shot through the hallway they had just been running through. The arm around his body disappeared when his back hit the wall, precious breath being driven from his aching lungs.

The fire was still too close, Dick fell forwards on his hands and knees, gasping in the oxygen the fire hadn't already swallowed up. Dick looked up warily, arms shaking as his hands stung with the contact with the ground. Aqualad was shielding them with his water, the hiss was unmistakable. Superboy stood next to him, both of them keeping their focus on the fire that threatened to suffocate them.

Dick picked his head up more when he heard something else through the flames, it sounded like a voice. Dread coiled in Dick's stomach, that was Kid Flash's voice, was he dying?! Did the fire get to him?! Was he calling out for help but Aqualad was too busy protecting Dick to help?!

A sudden fierce desire lashed through Dick, they were all supposed to get out together!

His attempt to take a deep breath to call for the other kid made his throat catch and Dick started coughing. His lungs sized up and his body started trembling with his overexertion. He was so stupid, he wanted them to be free, instead he might have just killed them all.

"Coming in hot!"

Dick perked as Kid Flash's red and yellow figure burst through the flames, appearing to have leaped over somehow. The firehead (almost literally, his hair was smoking) stumbled into a roll, sliding in right next to Dick and awkwardly landing on his back.

Dick's coughing subsided long enough for him to inch forward and poke his arm.

"Ow," the speedster groaned to the universe, then he lifted his head to acknowledge the poking boy. "Hi. So uh, I don't remember big firey explosions being part of the plan." He grimaced as he sat up while Dick copied the movement and coughed into a marred hand.

Superboy gave an unreadable look to their smallest member, "X decided to blow up the giant room of explosives."

Kid Flash looked to the small ebony haired boy, eyebrows raised in what could have been respect or something like annoyance. "I can see it got out of hand."

"You think?" Superboy growled, turning back towards the struggling Atlantean holding up their only defense.

That's when they noticed he wasn't so much holding back the fire as it was keeping the flames from spreading. The explosions must have stopped then, but now everything is on fire.

"So considering we're not bacon and the earth isn't splitting open 2012 style, the explosions couldn't have been that bad. But we still need to get topside and Aqualad can't hold out forever, gills and fire don't mix. Any ideas how to get out of this?" Kid Flash spoke, looking to Superboy and even X.

Dick blinked back blankly. Kid Flash either took that as him not understanding or he just got an idea because he turned to Superboy. "Hey I know you don't have Superman's full arsenal but I know he has some kind of ice breath, do you think you can cool things down a bit or something? Even just... blow the fire away?"

Superboy looked immediately uncomfortable, the angry facade dropping for a moment to let the lost little boy that was inside out. Dick was surprised, but also felt sympathetic, although he had no idea who this Superman was, clearly the older possibly better version of Superboy? Like... one had MAN in it and the other had BOY, and unfortunately boys aren't considered as capable as men.

Same thing happens in the circus, men did men jobs and boys did boy jobs. But that's not to say boys were useless or weren't important. Everyone had to pull their weight in the circus, no one is ever idle and everyone has something to contribute. Even the older people who can't do any lifting help by making food for the heavy lifters to eat! Anyone and everyone have something to contribute. There were obviously no 'men' here, no adults in charge to know what to do and when to do it. But that didn't matter much, look how far they got without any grown-ups! Granted they might be in a pickle right now but they weren't just going to sit here and wait for someone else to fix everything. Bossman would be busy putting out the fire, all his white monsters were gone, the cave's integrity might be failing a little bit because of the explosions but no one was going to be able to put them back in their pods! That was freedom! And they did that by themselves! Boys can do anything!

Aqualad was using his water to divert the flames, Kid Flash had used his speed to run ahead to make sure the coast was clear, Superboy made sure Dick was still with them, and Dick himself had gotten rid of the evil white creatures! They were like a circus already!

Superboy was still fumbling with his answer, "Well... I uh— I..."

Dick nudged Kid Flash's arm for his attention. "You fast? Yeah?" Dick spoke quickly to save Superboy, unsure of what blowing on the fire had to do with putting it out. Fire needs oxygen, blowing on it would just make it bigger. When Dick had Kid Flash's attention he held out a palm and made his other hand appear on top, he pointed out two fingers and made a little walking motion with the fingers.

At least that was the plan, his fingers... did not do that. Dick internally scowled at his own hands ineptitude.

Kid Flash looked confused by his gestures but nodded all the same, "uh yeah."

Dick shifted in his seat, his legs were starting to numb. He made the 'walking' fingers 'run' in a circle (essentially he looked like he was mixing a bowl), faster and faster until he splayed out his hand flat. He looked up at Kid Flash, looking for a spark of recognition or understanding.

"You want him to run in circles?" Superboy asked, taking a glance back at the flames engulfing the hallway and Aqualad who was steadily growing tired.

Dick nodded vigorously as Kid Flash started with a, "Ohhh! Fires need oxygen right, if I run fast enough in a circle it'll create a vortex that'll suck all the air away like a vacuum. Flash does this all the time."

Dick grinned, "Flash time!" He mimicked.

Kid Flash then raised his hands to his head and pulled down some yellow-orange glasses, except they sealed around his eyes. Goggles! Right! Swimmers used those! Like Cathy the daredevil diver! What was Kid Flash doing with goggles? Was he planning to swim in the fire? Dick thought they just agreed KF would be running around the flames!

"There's not too much room in these tunnels but I think I can make it work, I'll be back in a Flash!" The firehead quipped with a smirk and a two-fingered salute. Dick's face contorted in confusion but then he was looking at air because Kid Flash had gone.

Dick wobbled to his feet, trying to see through the flames but everything, including Kid Flash, was red, orange and yellow. Kid Flash has a terrible suit, or maybe a really good one if he could camouflage that well in fire. Was Kid Flash fire-proof? Dick almost giggled, Kid Flash's habitat could not be fire, he didn't know too much about fire for it to be his habitat, but it was a funny image in his head. Fireheads with speed, leaving trails of fire instead of electricity, always moving and fluttering like a crackling bonfire.

Warm like the circus.

In between cities and shows when they stopped at night they'd make a big bonfire and all the acts who could would play music. They'd all dance and sing and it was wonderful. Mami and Tati danced the best, though the tightrope lady was pretty good too, she was up on her TOES! Dick's marred hands clutched to his chest, suddenly overwhelmed with the pain in his soul. He almost forgot he was in the middle of a breakout, and a giant fire.

His train of thought got derailed when a big whOOSH blew past and made him stumble. Superboy's hand on his shoulder kept him from falling but the contact was so sudden he instantly teleported away. With such a sudden teleport and his previous train of thought had been 'sad' he didn't exactly have a destination in mind other than away and safe.

He found himself back in his bathroom, apparently the explosion didn't get over here but when he peaked out the door he saw lots of confusing things. The lab had certainly felt the explosion Dick caused earlier, there was dirt everywhere and stuff had fallen. Even the big scary machine with its needles was lying broken on the ground. He felt rather proud of that.

The door was open however, and Dick saw... glowing green people... flying... pointing a fist at a big green dome that was filled with what he recognized as fire. The explosion. They were... containing his explosion... Who were they?

Dick felt his heart seize, unsure what this meant and afraid to find out. Bossman has more special people helping him put out the fire! Were these the Martian Man Hunters? Dick needed to leave NOW! So he promptly teleported back to Superboy and Aqualad, appearing a few feet away from the other boys.

"X." Superboy grunted, it might have been in annoyance or he could have just been starting a conversation but both of their attentions got dragged to the tunnel where the wind was picking up.

And by picking up Dick meant literally, he was getting pulled into the air. He yelped as he tried to stay connected to the ground, crouching and making himself small so the air wouldn't catch on his flailing limbs. Falling 101, aerodynamics. Tati told him that big word once, but Dick just liked to call it falling with style. (Though he was sure he heard a different voice say those words... but Dick remebered them anyway without any real memory.) It was an art, at least thats what Mami said about it, he didn't quite understand the expression though. Art was painting and colors.

Then Superboy's hand was on him again, grabbing his wrist and dragging him closer to him and Aqualad who were braced against the wall. He was put flush against Superboy's chest, somehow there was no air here and the pulling sensation had stopped though it was clearly continuing around him. It gave Dick a good view of why this was happening.

Needless to say, the fires were out. Kid Flash was running along the walls, speeding around and leaving trails of his yellow suit and sparks of his speed. Dick's face stretched in awe, fascinated by the magic science happening in front of him. The lightning was pretty and it was so different from his own. Kid Flash was using it expertly, at least Dick thought so. Dick's electricity didn't make him fast, it just made him zappy, clearly their powers had different uses even if they were similar.

Then there was a final blast of air that made Dick squeeze his eyes shut, though he absolutely relished the feeling that was so similar to flying on the trapeze. The gust of air was accompanied by the sound of dirt being struck and dug up. Dick opened his eyes to see Kid Flash panting at the end of a long drag mark, his yellow boots unrecognizable under all the dark dirt they were coated in. Oh yeah, the lights were out and so was the fire, but there was still a red light shining down on them through the smoke the fire had made while it had been alive. The emergency lights, Dick remembered, that happened once during one of his escape attempts.

"Good thing..." The firehead huffed between breaths with his hands on his knees, "I brought snacks this time." After panting a few moments more he straightened and reached for his arm, opening a little compartment where he fished something out and started eating.

Dick then looked down, finding Superboy's hand still on his chest holding him in place. That was weird, he didn't like it because it made him aware of the absence of the itchy feeling across his skin. He didn't understand why the itchy feeling was suddenly gone and as much as he liked the warm feeling of another person so close he'd rather not get into the position he had with Bossman. So he disappeared and reappeared next to Kid Flash, peaking over his arm to see what was so delicious that was inside it.

His goggles were pushed down around his neck this time and he bent a little to accommodate Dick's curiosity. "See, I'm fast but that means I burn a lot of calories really fast, so I need to eat a lot. These are for emergencies when I use a lot of speed at once and need to refuel." He pointed to his snacks embedded into his arm.

"Asterous!" Dick grinned. That was a good idea for Kid Flash, he had a plan for when things go wrong and it works!

"We still have no idea what you're saying dude."

Dick ignored the comment, technically the word he said WAS English and it made Dick laugh. Kid Flash didn't even recognize his own language!

His laughter tapered off as Aqualad came over with Superboy. Those two were serious people, Kid Flash was fun!

"Good work Kid Flash, now we need to find the elevator." Aqualad said, sounding tired but still in-charge-mode.

Kid put a hand on his hip as he jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, other hand holding half a protein bar and he spoke around his full mouth. "It's bac- thata way, -ough I'm not sure i-'s workin' a' tha moment."

"Didn't matter before." Superboy growled as he stomped in the direction Kid Flash had pointed at. Dick sidestepped the large boy, confusion washing over him not for the first time. Superboy was so weird, he was angry a lot but he obviously cares. He wouldn't have kept Dick from flying away if he didn't care.

Wait... what did he mean by before?

Dick was distracted by Kid Flash who had since finished his snack and leaped forward to help the tired water dude. "Here, I gotcha Aqualad." He put Aqualad's arm over his shoulder, putting one of his own arms around his back as the water dude thanked him. They shuffled more than walked, but he could tell they were trying to go fast. They wanted to get out of here just as much as Dick and Superboy.

But something wasn't right here.

Dick narrowed his eyes and locked his jaw, which made his bottom lip jut out with suspicion. But the others didn't seem bothered by Superboy's weird comment and they really did need to get out of here. He would hold off on his suspicion until it really mattered, although a small part of him screamed at him about nice traps. Boiled frogs, Mami had once taught him. A frog would stay away from boiling water, but if the water was cold the frog would jump in and it would slowly get hotter until it boiled to death. The frog thought it was safe, but it wasn't.

Dick did not want to be the boiled frog. That's how he stayed safe from Bossman, even if Bossman had won most of the time. Dick was sill a frog in hot water, but he wasn't boiled yet and Dick was finally able to jump out of the hot water. He had to take this chance. He knew at least, if he was jumping back into another hot pool, it wouldn't start out hot and he would know to jump out much sooner.

But he couldn't do much about that until he was out of the first hot pool, which meant escaping with the weird teens. And with nothing else to do except follow, he skipped around Aqualad and Kid Flash, occasionally teleporting to places of interest along their path like some weird goopy stuff he poked at with a rock. Everything was very burnt, even the ground left behind footprints of ash and other stuff that fire made that made things black.

It made him sad, he crouched down next to a wall of dirt, carefully poking at the abused ground. One time one of the circus's train carts was burnt down. It was an accident, Mami and Tati said so, luckily no one was hurt but it's always sad. They live in those train carts, lots of memories and fun things get stored in the wood. Tati explained it to him once, wood used to be a tree, a tree that used to be alive with its own memory. Then people chop it down and use it to make things, it would be sad for the tree but not unless you give the tree happy memories to keep hold of. Trees remember things, like elephants, they're happy when they're full of things to remember. Like drawings, photographs, even houses and definitely the train cart that was made of wood. There was a lot of memories in those train carts, years and years of different circus acts living in it, providing safety and transportation. Good memories. But fire leeches it all away and not even the tree is left afterwards. That is sad.

This dirt is sad, it's all black and hot and dry. Dick wanted to scoop some up, he wanted to fix it, it shouldn't be sad dirt. Good happy dirt gives good happy trees and grass and other plants that help things. If the dirt is bad then everything else goes bad. This dirt needs water.

"X!"

Dick's head whipped around, seeing Kid Flash had stopped right before a corner with Aqualad in one arm. The firehead waved him over, even pointing with his head. "You gotta keep up dude, I promise there's dirt this way too."

Dick stood up from his crouch, giving another glance to the dirt. Then he perked and teleported in front of the duo, looking to Aqualad mostly. "I have water... please?" He cupped his hands in front of him, almost forgetting to add a please like Mami taught him to. (He stopped saying please with Bossman once he knew his pleas would never get answered. He sometimes wondered if Mami would be sad at him because he was supposed to be nice to everyone, even bullies.)

Kid Flash and Aqualad blinked, probably because that was the most comprehensible English statement he's said so far. Dick did know simple phrases like that, he actually knew a lot of English words, he just preferred Romanian. He liked it with Bossman because he could respond to him all the time with mean words and Bossman wouldn't know. But then Dick would feel bad afterwards for using mean words, Mami and Tati said to never use mean words even to bad people. Bossman was a bad people for sure, but these teens were not bad people, they were escaping experiments like him!

"Alright," Aqualad sighed, it was a tired sigh but it was also happy because he was smiling a little. Mami and Tati used to do that too when he asked to play with them after a long day of hard work. "Now would be a good time for a drink if you are thirsty, though I cannot guarantee the quality of this water X."

Dick nodded, smiling to himself as he found his body shuffling in place. He was happy, this was fun and interesting even if they were still somewhat stuck in Bossman's cave. Bossman could not get to them and Dick was going to help the dirt not be sad!

Aqualad brought out one of his weird stick things and his arms glowed blue again. Then some water trickled out of the weird stick and Dick hurried to catch it, flinching when it's coolness touched his crispy hands. He squeezed his hands together tighter, not wanting to waste a single drop.

"Mulțumesc," (thank you) Dick thanked him reverently, trying a little bow even with his precious water.

"Wait— X, what are you—?" Words were being said behind him but he was busy focusing on his water as he walked over to the dirt wall. He carefully crouched down and lifted his wrists while he lowered the tips of his fingers, angling it like a water spout. The water splashed down to the ground, the looser grains collapsing under its weight and darkening. He smiled down at the dirt, it would be good dirt now, but it needed sun too.

He frowned at that, where was he supposed to find sun underground? Dick needed sun too, he hadn't seen the sun in awhile, or the moon, or stars or clouds. Or grass, or trees, or elephants and tigers... or Pop Haley or the tightrope walkers who liked to share the sky with the Flying Graysons... the grounded Graysons. The Graysons who would never see the sky again...

Dick sniffed, his view of the burnt ground suddenly blurry. He swiped his arm across his face and stood up, curling his arms close as he walked at the same slow pace as Kid Flash and the tired Aqualad.

Aww bean is saaaad!!! We'll fix that right up next chapter, well kinda, the smol team will try and will somewhat succeed. They aren't really the best at communicating at the moment lol.

IM HAVING FUN WITH THIS ANYONE ELSE HAVING A GRAND TIME?

Also note this chapter is 1,000 words (almost exactly) more than all the others and it all came from editing. I can't tell if I'm surprised I've lasted two chapters staying consistent or sad I could only last two chapters staying consistent.

Final word count, 6606