Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League Unlimited.

Complicated Simplicity

Chapter Two: Perspective

Dreamslayer walked down the dank corridor with his arms behind his back, trying to avoid any puddles while trying to make it look like he wasn't. It was difficult, being the Lord of the Dimension of Terrors.

"All right. If you join me, I will give you more…" he groaned in displeasure. "…money than you can possibly dream of."

Captain Cold, looking thoroughly unimpressed, just sighed from his bunk. "And how," he asked, idly flicking a piece of dirt from his costume, "would you go about doing that?"

"Well… I would… steal it."

He rubbed his eyes beneath his blue spectacles. "From where?"

"From… a place… where one would usually get money."

Mirror Master groaned from his cell next door to Colds'. He was leaning against the thick metal cell door with his arms crossed, stood at such an angle that he could see through the small opening that was usually closed shut.

"Does he have any idea what he's doing?"

"Doesn't look like it," Captain Boomerang muttered more to himself than anyone else, lying on his bunk with his legs crossed and his hands behind his head.

"Well," the Top added from his cell down the corridor, all the while pacing the small room, "I think he's made a tip-top suggestion."

That elicited a groan from everyone except Dreamslayer.

"Could you please stop with the top puns for one moment?" Mirror Master said irritably, glaring down the corridor in hopes of spotting the elitist supervillain.

"Make me, Scudder. As far as I'm concerned, joining up with Dreamslayer here could very well put me on top of the world."

Another united groan echoed throughout the Pipeline. Captain Boomerang ejected himself from his bunk and walked over to the small opening in his door.

"Hey, hey. You," he said, snapping his fingers and pointing at Dreamslayer to get his attention.

The Lord of the Dimension of Terrors, happy to actually be spoken to, proudly walked over to Boomerang.

"Yes?"

"Make 'im stop with all the bloody top jokes and I'm in."

"I'll agree with that," Weather Wizard yelled from his cell, who up to this point had been silent.

"Very well," Dreamslayer declared, and with a slightly childlike skip in his step, walked over to the Tops' cell. "You! Stop it!"

The Top just looked at him.

"No."

Dreamslayer stared at him for a moment.

He shrugged.

"Well, I tried."

He resumed pacing up and down the corridor with his hands behind his back.

Captain Boomerang stared at him incredulously for a moment. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's it?"

The flame-headed villain turned to face him. "What?"

"You just ask him to stop, and when he doesn't, you give up?"

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

"I don't bloody know, do I? Use your magical crap."

"Well, I can't very well attack one of my own future henchmen, can I? He's the only one who has agreed with me so far!"

"Actually," the Top interjected, "I'm growing ever more regretful about my earlier decision. At no point did I agree to be a 'henchman'."

"What!"

"I was looking for an equal partnership. I am not interested in being under the employ of anyone, much less some incompetent sideshow magician."

A collection of sniggers, snorts and chuckles echoed from several of the jail cells. Dreamslayer shook with anger.

"Silence!"

He threw out his arms and let out a blinding white flash. All of the Rogues reached for their eyes, trying to protect them from the intense light. Yells of protest and anger came at Dreamslayer.

"What the f-"

"-completely uncalled for-"

"-son of a b-"

"-kill you and your family-"

"-your ass for this!"

Dreamslayer waited for them to calm down before raising a hand. "Now. Are you all done?"

They all yelled their disgust and protest yet again, and Dreamslayer waited, yet again. The noise subsided.

"Done now?"

Silence. Dreamslayer smiled.

"Good. Now, I may not be particularly well versed in what the life forms of this dimension are interested in, but thanks to a colleague of mine, I believe I may be beginning to learn."

Mirror Master and Captain Cold eyed him suspiciously.

"What colleague?" they asked simultaneously, both equally wary.

"Oh, I believe you may like her."

Captain Boomerangs' ears perked up. "'Her', you say?"

Dreamslayer nodded. "Oh, indeed. In fact, I believe you may be so fond of her, you won't have any objection to joining me. I-"

He suddenly stopped and whipped his head around, as though he had heard something. Boomerang and the others looked in the same direction.

"What?"

The flame that burnt in place of Dreamslayers' head seemed to darken, if that were possible.

"The Justice League…" he growled, almost imperceptibly.

However, it was loud enough for Captain Cold to hear.

"The Justice League?"

Weather Wizard, now actually interested in what was going on, stepped up to his door. "Who is it?"

"Is Flash with them?" Mirror Master asked, although he didn't really care that much. He just wanted Dreamslayer to either free them or leave. It occurred to him that they could have all simply played along with Dreamslayer until he had freed them, but seeing as how there were too many unknown factors, such as just how powerful Dreamslayer was, and just how incapacitated the security force had been by their would be leader. He didn't want to be on his way to freedom only to get a bullet in the back of the head.

"I don't know…" Dreamslayer said quietly, although it seemed he wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. He turned to the door. "Volcana!"

The metal door swung open and clanged against the wall. Trying to walk with as much sway in her hips as she could, Volcana walked over to Dreamslayer. She tried not to show her distaste as she felt the eyes of all the men in the room on her.

Captain Boomerang whistled appreciatively.

"Yes?" she asked Dreamslayer, using her 'husky and steamy' voice.

"The Justice League is here. Or at least, three of them are. So, I'll take care of the League…" he looked around the room before leaning in closer to her. "…while you take of them."

And without much further ado, Dreamslayer walked out of the corridor with all the gusto of a king.

Volcana looked around the room. "Hello, boys. I hear you're not coming with us…" She smiled voraciously. "That's a real shame."

Captain Boomerang grinned. "Oi! Cold! Put your tongue back in your mouth! You're a married man!"

"Shut up, Boomer."

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Green Arrow looked up irritably as he heard more water drip down from one of the overhead pipes onto his hat. He reached up and wiped off the small puddle that was gathering there, and found to his dismay that it was some sort of slimy, gooey substance. With a grimace, he wiped it off on his leg. The lighting had become considerably better once they had entered the second corridor, which, while allowing them to put away the flares, had its' (rather disgusting) drawbacks.

"Are we there yet?"

Flash, who was leading the group (since he had been here the most out of all of them), looked around the room, trying to identify something familiar.

"If you keep up that attitude, I'll just turn us around and no-one will get to go on vacation."

He stopped at a door on their left and opened it. It was the boiler room. After a quick check for any air vents or other methods of accessing the rest of the building, he closed the door with an annoyed grunt.

"Now you see why I've complained about this place."

"You mean as in complaining to the authorities?"

The Scarlet Speedster nodded. "I've been talking to the Mayor about it ever since I first heard what was going on."

"And how was that?"

"Linda told me."

"Ah."

They walked down the corridor in silence for a moment.

"And you really think it's such a bad thing?"

Flash turned to face him. "What?"

"The way they treat the Rogues," Arrow said, being sure to use the special nickname that not only the Flash, but the entire world had given the supervillains that resided in Central City.

The speedster looked at him incredulously. "Of course it's a bad thing."

"But after everything they've done, all the people they've killed…"

"What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know," he muttered, crossing his arms. "Just seems like they deserve it, to me."

Flash just stared at him, completely aghast. "They're still people, Arrow."

"People who place no value on human life. With criminals like that, you've got to come down on them hard, or they'll go on thinking they can just get away with it over and over again."

"It's not that simple. A lot of these people are messed up-"

"And that gives them an excuse to go around killing people?"

"No, but because they're messed up, the harder you come down on a lot of them, the harder they'll bite back."

"So you think we should give them leeway because they might take offence at being punished?"

"Oh, so treating them like animals is the way to go, huh? They deserve to be denied basic human rights? I suppose you think it's okay that the guards are on orders to shoot to kill if the Rogues try to escape?"

Green Arrow gave pause at that. He took a breath. "I think it's fair for the position they're in."

"What?"

"They don't have superpowers. These guys can kill people by the dozens without much effort. Under the circumstances-"

"Circumstances, huh? I guess you're gonna tell me it's okay for us to kill our enemies too."

"Of course it is," Orion snorted derisively. "Your usual method of 'dealing' with wrongdoers is a sign of weakness on your part. If I were protector of this city, I would-"

"Yeah, I think I know a little something about your idea of due process," Flash said, dismissing him with a wave of his hand.

The New God came forward with fists clenched, and Arrow stepped in. "Look. We're not judge, jury, and executioner, I agree with that. But there are times when it's… necessary to take things into our own hands."

Flash threw his hands into the air. "I don't believe this! You're actually condoning murder!"

Arrow grit his teeth. "No… I said that sometimes it's necessary."

"And when is that?" Flash titled his head. "When is it right for us to take another human life?"

The archer took a deep breath. "I just think you're being naïve about this, is all."

"Well, someone's gotta be around here."

He turned and continued on his way.

A little surprised, Arrow looked over at Orion, who merely shrugged. The archer shook his head at the New God and moved on, following Flash down the corridor.

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Linda shifted uncomfortably on the floor of the cell. Thin office skirts may look smart and sexy, but built for lasting comfort? No.

Marla had since decided to take a nap, which had amused Hunter Zolomon greatly. He probably just liked the fact that there was someone who wasn't fazed by any of this 'supervillain taking hostages' thing and wasn't crazy.

Although, Linda had her doubts that this flaming head character could really be considered a supervillain. After all, if Hunter Zolomon, a supervillain profiler couldn't remember his name, how super could he be?

A groan from across the room brought her out of her reverie, and she looked over to see Warden Wolfe gradually regaining consciousness. Judging from the rather dark and bloody bruise on his head, Linda guessed that he would most likely have one hell of a headache at the moment. Surprising her, he came up into a sitting position as though he had just been taking a nap.

His eyes registered slight confusion as he took in his surroundings, but he became calm again once he settled his gaze on Linda and Hunter.

"What's going on?"

Linda cocked an eyebrow. "Don't you know?"

The warden shook his head. "The last thing I remember is being in my office when Volcana burst in."

"Volcana?" Hunter asked, confused.

Wolfe nodded. "And then…" He reached up and tenderly touched the bleeding bruise on his right temple. A pained hiss came through clenched teeth as his hand instinctively sprang away. Wolfe looked at the blood on his hand and rubbed his fingers together, his gaze gradually drifting off into the distance.

Hunter and Linda exchanged a look.

"…Wolfe? Are you all right?" Zolomon asked cautiously.

Ignoring the enquiry, Wolfe looked around the room. "Where are we?"

"We don't know. We were knocked unconscious before we were brought here."

He made a disinterested 'mmm' noise before resting back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. "And who exactly is behind all this? I can't believe Volcana would come here by herself."

Linda shrugged. "We didn't even know Volcana was here until you said so."

His piercing gaze once again came to rest on her. "You didn't see Volcana? Then who did you see?"

"We don't know his name."

"Did you see what he looked like?"

"Uh… flaming head, dressed like Dracula…"

"Dreamslayer."

Hunter snapped his fingers. "That's it. Dreamslayer. I knew I recognised him."

Wolfe turned his attention to the profiler. "I'm surprised you didn't know, Zolomon. I thought that was your job."

"And I thought it was yours to prevent this kind of thing."

Linda's eyebrows shot up in mild surprise. It seemed there was some history between the two that she was unaware of. Actually, it irked her that she had missed such a thing in her research. It now occurred to her that this was probably the third reason that Hunter had agreed to come with her, if not the only one.

The warden looked over the two, taking in the sight of the awakening Marla in the corner before returning his attention completely to them. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Linda fished around in her jacket pocket for her ID badge, which she had since taken off while they were in captivity. She showed it Wolfe.

"Linda Park, Channel Four News."

Wolfe groaned and rubbed his aching forehead. "The reporter…"

She smiled sweetly. "You didn't forget I was coming, did you?"

"Forgive me if I had other things on my mind, Ms Park. Believe it or not, I have more important things to worry about than another peppy reporter looking for her 'big break'."

She moved forward as though to launch at him, but Hunter put a calming hand on her shoulder before she could take any action.

"Tactful as ever, I see," Hunter deadpanned.

Wolfe glared at him. "Tactful? I work with some of the worst scum in the world, and you're talking to me about tactful?"

"And you think that excuses the way you treat them?"

"Yes."

Hunter opened his mouth to reply, but, at a loss for words, simply shook his head and looked away.

"Huh. Would you look at that…"

All three occupants of the cell looked over at Marla, who was looking into the camera eyepiece.

"What is it?" Linda asked, crawling over to take a look.

"I was just looking over the footage of what we've done so far today and at the end, there's… well, take a look for yourself."

Curious, Linda took the camera from her long-time companion and looked into the eyepiece. There, in front of the camera, stood Dreamslayer, looking as though he were talking to the camera, all the while gesturing wildly in every direction his body would allow.

"Is he…?"

Marla nodded. "Looks like it. Monologueing."

Linda smiled and shook her head, impressed. "Wow. There hasn't been a villain who did that since…"

"The Penguin," Hunter and Wolfe said at the same time. They promptly shot glares at one another.

"By the way," Marla asked, looking around the room, "have any of you thought of a way out yet?"

No-one replied.

"Just checking." Marla sighed, getting comfortable in the corner of the room for another nap. "Wake me up when you do, okay?"

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"There's a door," Flash said, pointing straight ahead of them. Arrow looked over his fellows' shoulder, and there was indeed a door at the end of the corridor. The speedster opened it and stepped through, gesturing for his companions to follow a few seconds after.

"Well…" the speedster said, looking around. "I'm pretty sure this wasn't here the last time I came."

They were in a small cube-shaped room, with doors on each wall. There was barely enough room for all of them to stand in it.

"Which one?" Orion asked.

Flash shrugged. "Dunno."

"Somehow I don't think this is usually here," Arrow commented.

"A door each, then?"

He nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Without another word, Orion opened the door on the right and went in. Flash and Arrow exchanged a nod before they took the door straight ahead and on the left, respectively.

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Orion stepped through and heard the door close behind him. He had entered a room exactly like the one he had just left. A growl on his lips, he turned around to go back and opened the door. Behind the door was a solid brick wall. The growl now a full grown New Gods curse, Orion brought back his fist and slammed it through the wall. He stepped through the newly created hole.

Except it wasn't the room he had been in just a few seconds before with Green Arrow and Flash. It was exactly the same shape, except it was simply four walls. No doors, nothing.

The New God cracked his knuckles and smirked. "If you think trickery is going to stop me, let me assure you… you are in for a rude shock," he announced to his enemy, wherever he or she may have been.

He swung his fist forward and got to work.

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Flash stepped through the door and entered another corridor just like before, except this time, he could see the door at the end. He raced towards it, and frowned as he realised he wasn't getting any closer to it. A quick check left and right at the blurred walls confirmed that he was moving, and yet… the door was no closer.

He skid to a halt and looked back. He had travelled away from the other door, at least. After another quick glance back down the corridor, Flash shot back to the door from whence he came.

Now that door was getting no closer. Flash stopped and groaned.

Frickin' magic.

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Green Arrow, meanwhile, was confronted with much the same problem as Orion. All four doors, exactly the same. Except they all seemed to be locked.

Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.

He prepared his bow and arrow and picked a door. He kicked it down and yelped in alarm as he almost fell into black nothingness.

Although I do have that problem with heights…

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(A/N: In the comics, the Rogues are a bit more serious than presented here, but I actually like the slightly 'The Tick'-ish approach to the villains that 'Flash and Substance' had. I mean, Weather Wizard (Gorilla Grodd aside) is pretty much the only Flash rogue they did seriously in the DCAU, and look how boring he turned out to be. I'll be introducing one of the more serious (and nasty) Rogues later in the story, anyway.

And besides, the Top actually does make that many top puns.

Review!)