((Storyteller's note- This story takes place after the events in "Helpless," but before the events in "Introducing Young Justice 3.0"))

Lyle yawned slightly, just waking up. He glanced over at the chronometer... 0730? Grife, he had overslept by a good half hour; he would have to work on that.

"Computer- illumination." Obediantly, the lights in his room rose to allow him to see what he was doing. With another yawn, Invisible Kid climbed out of bed and meandered on torwards what passed for a bathroom in this sprocking century. "Grife, what I wouldn't give for a decent sonic shower... Computer, give me the reports of the day, audio version."

"Continued fighting in Iraq today as..."

Lyle went through his morning ritual only half listening to the computer. he glanced at himself in the mirror and grimaced; well, his hair was still growing at an incredibly slow pace, but fast enough that he needed to shave his "whiskers" as some in this time referred to them as, unless he wanted to keep a beard.

"...European Union resumes talks on a European constitution as..."

"Computer, pause reports. Locate the laser shaver."

"No devise by that name is known."

"Well, OK then, YOU tell me what I'm supposed to use to shave."

Obediently, the computer opened a drawer for him, revealing a can of shaving cream and a set of disposable razors. Picking one up, Lyle examined it curiously. "Ummm... what is this, exactly?"

"A razor."

"How does this help me get rid of my chin hairs?"

"It is used to shave."

"Really? How?" In responce, the computer generated for him a small hologram, demonstrating a man putting on shaving cream and shaving with the razor. After it was finished, the hologram dissolved. For a few moments, Lyle just stared at where it had been, then he spoke. "Let me get this straight. I smear this white goop on my face... what is it, by the way?"

"Shaving cream. Essentially a skin moisturizing compound."

"OK, I smear this stuff on my face and then scrape an extremely sharp blade all along my face, cutting the hair off?"

"Yes."

"Without cutting myself."

"Ideally, yes, that is the case."

"That's barbaric!! You're lying to me again. Or playing a trick on me, like when you told me what that roll of soft paper over there was for," he said, pointing a finger at the toilet paper. "There's no way they use something so uncivilized, ao unhygenic."

"Are you refering to the toilet paper, or the razor?"

"BOTH!!!"

"As you are well aware, Invisible Child, I am incapable of lying."

"I'm not so sure of that myself, but OK, we'll try it your way."

With that, Lyle smeared the peculiar "shaving cream" all over the affected parts of his face and began scraping it off with the razor, interrupting every few moments with an "ow." When he was finished, he had precisely 36 nicks and scratches. he counted. "There. See? No WAY this is the normal method."

"Perhaps if you were not so inexperienced at the method, the result would have been as desired."

"Oh, knock it off. And resume morning reports." Grumbling to himself in interlac, Invisible Kid washed off the blood, intending to repair the cuts after he was finished dressing, and resumed his morning routine. About ten minutes into it, however, just before he pulled his shirt on, he stopped, startled. "Computer, repeat that last report."

"STAR Labs reported an anonymous astreroid of unknown composition at the edge of their detection capabilities, apparently on a course out of the solar system. The unknown materials comprising the asteroid made it worth study in the eyes of their scientists, but the asteroid's course will not take it close enough to Earth to make an intercept feasible."

"Give me a telegraphic representation of the asteroid and all data acquired on it, and the material it's composed of." Invisible Kid looked at the data that appeared in his room for a moment before whooping in glee and leaping of the floor, his cut face forgotten. "YES!! YAHOO! It's valorium!! I never thought I'd find a supply of valorium on Earth at this time, but there it is."

"A clarificarion- the material is not on Earth."

"Aha, quite right, computer. Give me a display of the asteroid's course."

Lyle studied it for a while before grimacing. "Grife. There's no way I'd be able to get out there before it's well out of range, and its course is so eratic there'll likely be no way to find it again after it leaves the system. I'd need a threshold to get there fast enough, or a stargate, or an extremely long range teleporter..."

"... like someone who teleports, say, by traveling through another dimmension and thus has theoretically unlimited distance capabilities..."

~~~Thirty Seconds Later~~~

Lyle, hurridly pulling on his shirt and oblivious to the cuts on his face, was banging on Secret's door at about 7:45 AM and shouting excitedly "Secret!! Wake up!!"

With the sound of banging ferociously beating through the room, and Greta’s head, she opened her eyes groggily. Realising she was awake and why she tried to shake herself awake as she sat up and tried to focus.

It was the weekend, which was why she was at the Hawaiian base, The Secret Volcano Lair as she liked to call it, because in a privately amusing way it sounded like it was hers.

Walking to the door in her ‘Darbie’ PJ’s she’d been given at Christmas she opened the door to an almost manic Invisible….Guy. “Wha’? Is there an emergency? Are we under attack?”

"No, no attack. I need you to take me into outer space," Invisible Kid said with an edge of excitement to his voice.

And the funny thing was that he sounded completely serious.

For a second she looked at him like he was crazy, but it was like, he really expeceted her to jump at the chance. She'd never really thought about that actually, Could she port that far? well, space is pretty big so ....maybe?

"Hold up one second. What? Where? Why?" She tried to remain calm even though her head was reeling from the request. Maybe some facts would help be more specific.

"Sorry, sorry," he muttered, running a hand over his bloody chin without realizing how bad it still was. "I'm just excited. STAR Labs picked up an asteroid of a material unknown to them passing through the very edge of the solar system. They may not know what the material is, but I do- it is an extremely useful element, used in all kinds of 31st century technology. I can use it to help me get home! Unfortunately, it's too far to reach with conventional methods, and I don't have a ship at my disposal. There's no time to get one, either- the asteroid's course is eratic, so once it leaves the solar system tracking it will be impossible. Your shadow-porting is the only method I know of that will be fast enough to get me there. Will you please help me?" He looked pretty desperate.

Why should I help him? He’s not exactly been the nicest person to me now has he! Always acting like I’m a child, like I can’t do anything! Maybe I should act like he expects me too, just shut the door and go back to sleep…
But one look into Lyles face showed that he was being honest and open. He really did need her help right now.

Giving one almost despairing look at her bed and her Saturday morning lay-in + cartoons she sighed. “I will do whatever I can. How long do you need to get your equipment ready?” She was asking really only to know how much longer she had to sleep, once she was awake more she would understand exactly what she’d agreed to do.

In responce, Lyle pulled out what looked like a suit of seran wrap with an armband and a wrist control and slid it on- the whole process took about two seconds. "Ready," he replied. "Ummm... do you need a suit?"

"I don't think so, last time i was in space i was fine...But, just in case.." She closed the door for a second and removed her PJ's, then she misted up from the neck down, changing the outer layer of molecules into a hardwearing lightweight all-purpose suit, similar to ones she'd seen in Impulses space travel comics. Only difference was her’s had a light pink sheen to it.

Reopening the door, now solid, she smiled at Lyle. "Its called Partial Transmogrification, or at least that’s what i like to call it."
Pulling her hair back into a ponytail, she questioned his logic once more. “Are you sure about this? I mean, I hear its not exactly fun, travelling through the Abyss when you have no link to it. And afterwards…people…act different to me.” She looked away, remembering the looks on the original YJ teams faces.

"It's the only way," Lyle said firmly. "The aterial contained in this asteroid could be crucial to any attempt I make to return home. Without it, I may well be trapped here for the rest of my life."

"Besides, I've been trained to work in extremely hostile environments. How bad can this 'Abyss' thing be?" He's plainly pretty skeptikal and is not hiding very well the fact that he thinks Secret is exagerating.

Greta was torn, on the one side she wanted to help Lyle, he was stuck here, away from all his family and friends. She could relate, she knew what it was like to have no one and have the world seem new and scary.
But on the other side she wanted to throw the Invisible Idiot into The Abyss just so he would treat her with some respect, or at least stop looking down on her like she was a small child.

“Ok then.” Either way, they were going. Space trip!! She took the co-ordinates from him and pulled him into her room for a small moment. “By the way, Its called Smoke Jumping.” She added with a smirk like her brothers before she exploded into mist, engulfing him. The mists then imploded till there was no trace of either of them.

It took a half a dozen jumps to travel the distance, ending with Secret and Invisible Kid hovering over the asteroid.

Well, Secret was hovering. Lyle was curled up in the fetal position with his eyes squeezed shut, weeping softly and muttering untelligibly under his breath in interlac. He makes no sign of moving from that position.

From where they were the stars around them looked much closer, looking around herself, Greta couldn't help but marvel at the sight. From here the Earth was so small, like a tiny star. She reached out her hand do catch it in her hand, but she'd almost swallowed the Earth once before...although Lyle didn't know that......Lyle....hmmm...

Looking around till she finally saw him on the floor, worrying that she'd lost him in the confines of space. "Lyle..." she placed a hand against his arm. "Are...you alright?" She would have offered to take him back to Earth but he was so adimant to come here, plus she needed a time out from all that porting.

It was the human contact that finally brought Lyle around. First he stopped muttering and crying, and opened one of his eyes ever so slightly to peek around. Without getting out of the fetal position or opening the other eye, he asked in a slightly quivering voice, "Is... is it over?"

"It?...Oh.." Greta's face fell when she realised thet Lyle meant the Smoke Jumping. He would treat her diffrently now too. always giving her calculating looks like she was about to leap up and kill everyone. Not that she wasn't used to it.

"Yes, Its over." Her voice sounded dead and downcast, even though he'd asked to be taked here this way. She tried to help him into a sitting position before stepping back, giving him space. ".....I'm sorry...But i only did what you asked of me..."

Lyle accepted her help to unwind from the fetal position to a sitting position (all relative, since they were floating in space) and, for a few moments, just took deep, calming breaths. Finally, he was calmed down enough to stand up 9again, relative) and look at her directly.

It was true; he was looking at her differently. For a few seconds, he had an expression of the utmost respect on his face as he asked, "You really do that all the time? Grife, that takes guts."

Of course, the change lasted only for a few seconds before he was back to his normal, condescending I'm-talking-to-a-little-kid look. Well, to be honest, the look wasn't quite as bad as before, tempered by his newfound respect for her abilities, but in contrast to the open respect he had just shown, it SEEMED a whole lot worse. "Well, don't appologize, Secret; you were only doing what I asked, and my fault for not listening to your warning and being prepared. You did good, kid," he said with a condescending smile that he didn't even realize was there.

The way Lyle reacted was a complete shock to Greta, she expected a while of freak-outs and fearful looks but instead he was looking at her...the way Will, Marx, Cassie, Duo and Tim looked at her sometimes. Was it...Respect? That was new.

“It’s nothing really, I’m just…used to it.” It sounded creepy to be honest, to say that darkness and despair felt normal to her, but it was true, it was, well, normal for her.

While she was contemplating the fact that this might make her abnormal in the real world Lye turned back to normal. The look returned back to his normal face, the one that seemed to say ‘I’m far better than you without trying.’ And he called her Kid. She was certainly not a child.

“Lyle? Why do you always do that?” Greta asked, her blue eyes round and questioning. “Always treat me like I’m a child?”

Lyle blinked, stopping in mid turn (no mean feat in zero gravity). He had been about to start scanning the asteroid when Greta spoke. Surprised, he turned back to her.

"What do you mean?" he asked with an utter lack of comprehension on his face.

“Like…Just then!” She decided on an example. “I got you into space in under 30 minutes and you said ‘You did good, kid’ like I just managed to answer a math question!”

“And then there’s the way you’re always looking at me, not like I’m dangerous like everyone else because that doesn’t enter into your head for a second that a little girl like me could be a danger to anyone!! You have no idea what I’ve done!!” The way Lyle had been acting towards her had finally been too much..
“And you never ask me my opinion and you always under value what I can do! You don’t even know what I can do!! You don’t know anything about me!!…Do you even know how old I am?”

Lyle was pretty shocked; all this came out of nowhere to him. About a dozen possible responces popped into his head but, in his surprise at the moment, he uttered what was probably the worst possible answer.

"Twelve?"

"Twelve. You think, that I, am twelve." Greta looked at him in disbelief. “I was twelve before I died! It was a whole life time ago…Two whole life times ago!! I’m fifteen, almost sixteen!!”

“If I was twelve you honestly think that Robin and I would be goi…EWW!!” Greta childishly closed her eyes and shook her head, seemingly trying to rid herself of the image.

"Going... wait, what? Died?" Lyle looked completely confused by what she was talking about; obviously, she was right- he knew nothing about her. He had never even bothered to read her personell file.

"Yes I died!!" The past wasn't really something that she liked to talk about. "But who hasn't these days? Even Superman died one time!" She said, trying to get out of a lengthy explanation as they continued towards the giant rock.

"I was about 13 or 14, this was about threeish years ago. you age diffrently when your dead." She'd wondered about the math herself too.

"Oh," Lyle said abashedly. He still look extremely confused, but was slowly getting over it.

"So... you want me to look at you like you're dangerous? Why would I do that? However old you are and whether or not you've died, you still seem like a sweet lit... *ahem*" Lyle cleared his throat, trying to cover the fact that he had been about to say "sweet little kid," but failing miserably. After his blatant cover attempt, he managd to say "that is, you seem like a nice enough person. Why would anyone think you're dangerous? The whole... Abyss thing?" Lyle shuddered ever so slightly at the memory, but his expression of confusion (that still managed to seem condescending) was unaffected.

Greta sighed. She wasn't exactly the biggest fan of giving people details of her life. But hopefully, if she told Lyle a secret or two, he could relay it on to the rest of the new Young Justice Team. Tell it once, it gets retold time and time again, something like that??

She took a deep breath. "Will...Or Billy as he liked to be called then, my brother, pledged himself to evil. Yes, before you ask, that’s the same Harm you know. Anyway, he threw his stereo in the bath. Next thing I know I’m this ghostlike freak and people run screaming from me. Which is nice." She said sarcastically. The way she was explaining was almost flippant, perhaps if she didn’t think about it like it was serious them maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much?

“Its hard to remember everything that happened after I first came back but someone called the D.E.O, You know who they are right? Guess you read a file on all the things they want you to know. I hate them.” It was said with more conviction than should be heard from a fifteen year old. “The Department of Extra-normal Operations, you know what they do? They run a high profile program for gifted children, parents are quite welcome to drop by at anytime, and the children are free to leave if they wish. Its all about everyone learning how to use their powers and what causes them. Everyone wins.”
Greta surveyed the stars again; their beauty was amazing from this proximity.

“Then there’s the stuff they don’t put in their reports, the second program. They lock up children who have no one who will miss them and experiment on them. It’s all about isolation, experimentation and how much the child’s power can take before they can’t take anymore. Eventually I got used to it, I think I was there about a year, a year and a half, something like that. I didn’t remember anything from my old life so it was like I’d always been there, in that little white room. I got to know my basic powers through them, simple shape transformation, I could stay solid for a few minutes back then, when my mist form was my constant shape. It didn’t occur to me to change into a knockout gas or something and escape because I wasn’t told I could do it. Eventually I discovered my ‘airtight holding cell’ wasn’t as tight as you might think.” The two space suited teen heroes finally reached the rock.

“I found out that there was a whole world out there, saw the thousands of others being held there who voiced their hate loudly, calling to me for help. I couldn’t even help myself. Every time I’d go on one of my night time walkabouts I’d always return to my ‘safe’ little room, away from the things in the other rooms who wanted something from me.*Sigh* Eventually I should have known I’d be found out. One day I wasn’t picked up to be tested on. That night I was taken through the facility, it was so quiet, no one pleaded for my help because they knew where I was going. I was being taken to The Wabe.”

"The Wabe?" he asked, curiously, showing no reaction to the story yet.