X1 groaned, awoken by a dull pounding in his head that grew gradually sharper as things came into focus. He was lying face-down on a bare concrete floor, the cold of the stone seeping through the fabric of his suit. Quickly, he ran through a list in his head, testing himself before he got up. Body in good shape: Check. Mask still on: Check. Not tied up or chained to anything: Check. For once. Vaguely, Jason wondered who'd taught him that list.

Oh, that's right. He thought. Batman.

As soon as that word came into his head, 14 years worth of forgotten memories suddenly burst to the surface again, rushing through his mind, jostling to be the first one examined. Overwhelmed, he shook them aside. Sorting out his head could wait. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

Jason pushed himself up off the floor and quickly got to his feet. Looking around, he took a cursory glance at his surroundings. The 'cell' comprised of a small, square patch of concrete bordered by four walls of vertical red lasers, projected from some invisible source above. There were no lights in the room, but the lasers glowed very softly, dimly illuminating the contents of his cell but not brightly enough to see anything else. In the gloom surrounding him, Jason could just make out the geometric outlines of what must be other cells, arranged in a grid so that each directly bordered four more, the wall of one cell also making the wall of another. There appeared to be hunched figures in most, of not all, of them, and this seemed to be confirmed by the muttering and occasional shuffling in the darkness.

"1?"

Jason almost jumped out of his suit at the voice which whispered behind him. Spinning around, he moved to face his attacker, but in the soft red wash of light he saw only X2, sitting on the bare floor behind him, her knees drawn up against her chest. X1 lowered his fists.

"What's going on?" He murmured, moving quickly towards her, looking about as he did so. The oppressive quiet was putting him on edge.

"No idea." She whispered back as he sat beside her. "I only woke up a few minutes ago. Don't bother," she added as he tried to activate the infra-red imaging in his suit, "the power cores have been removed."

Jason nodded, storing the information. "Bats and the others?"

"No idea." Jason was shocked to hear her voice quavering slightly. He'd known her for two years, and in that time she'd never once shown open fear. As if reading his shock, she cleared her throat and sat up straighter. "I don't remember anything after the Martian got me. I guess they got caught too?"

"As far as I know."

"Jay." She murmured, turning to him and lowering her voice so only he could hear her, a little bit of the fear creeping back into her voice. "The guy in the next cell – it's him…"

Confused, Jason started to reply, when a wheedling voice from the cell behind him made him freeze where he sat, cold shivers of terror running over his spine.

"Now, is that any way to talk about a friend?" It said reproachfully.

"You're no friend of ours, clown." Taryn growled, swiftly masking her fear.

"Oh, Exy, I'm hurt. After all, the enemy of my enemy…" His voice became lower, changing in a word from light and jovial to quietly terrifying. And then his face loomed out of the darkness like a ghost from the grave, the alabaster features and grinning tombstone teeth stained blood-red by the glow.

The Leaguers watched stony-faced as Vice's robotic lackeys wheeled in a thin, black television screen about the size of a pool table and mounted on a surgical trolley.

"Gentlemen!" He cried when the screen had been positioned, back to the theatrical madman persona he'd projected when he first entered. "Please watch closely, and all will be revealed." Like a cheap magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, Vice produced a slim remote control from inside his hunting jacket and, with a flourish, activated the screen. At first, there was little to be made out but thinly interspersed red lines, but then Vice pressed another button on the control and the room on the display was thrown into harsh halogen light. Inside was every supervillain that had allegedly 'disappeared' over the past few weeks, giving Batman an unpleasant but not completely unanticipated shock. Quickly, he scanned the villains on view, and finally his eyes fell on two small figures dressed in black, looking disorientated but otherwise unharmed. His spirit rose momentarily, but then he realised who it was that inhabited the adjacent cell, and his heart plummeted. This was all internal, of course; outwardly, all he did to show his anxiety was narrow his eyes and clench his fists.

"What do you think of my collection?" Purred Vice.

"I think you're mad if you believe you can hole up those psychopaths together." Replied Superman, struggling to stand in his cell, leaning heavily against the wall.

"What do you plan to do?" Asked J'onn quietly.

"I plan to do the world a great favour. These creatures are the dregs of humanity, don't you agree? The very worst of the worst. Time and again you have struggled to stop their diabolical schemes, some have even been through rehabilitation," he said that word as if it were a disgusting curse, "but ultimately they regress, or escape, and the whole thing starts over again. Well, I intend to put an end to it."

Batman turned his full attention to Vice. He didn't like the way this was going.

"The only way to ensure that they do not try anything again is to terminate their existence. This is my ultimate intent. I, Locke Vice, will rid the world of crime and criminals, purge it of the pestilence that has marauded it for far too long.

"But I do not intend to do this alone. With your help, this will all be so much smoother. You, the rat-catchers, and I, the exterminator."

"You're insane!" Said Superman.

"Not so. I am merely taking your philosophy to its natural conclusion. We are on the same side, you and I."
"You're wrong." Said Batman quietly. "We fight for justice, not revenge."

"Sometimes they are the same thing."

"They are never the same thing! We don't have the right to decide who lives and who dies."

"Some of the people in that room have the potential for change." Piped up J'onn. "Given time, it is possible that they may be able to save themselves."

"Really?" Said Vice, raising an eyebrow and smiling slightly. "Then you won't mind if I…test that theory." Slowly, he raised the remote control and depressed a thin green button.

X1 was staring at the Joker, hot, sick anger bubbling through every fibre of his being. When he had come face to face with his would-be killer, seen his grotesque features looming out of the dark, his first reaction had been terror. The fear had turned him rigid, his mind seeming to freeze in place. For a few long, terrible seconds he had been rooted to the spot, unable to move or even think.

And then, suddenly, Bruce's face appeared in his head. He wore the expression that Jason had last seen on his face, in the final few seconds before his 'death'. The horror, the shock, and the overwhelming pain were scrawled across his face as if they'd been painted there in marker pen, and seeing him like that – so vulnerable, so scared – jolted Jason back to reality. The fear turned to anger, the anger to rage, and then he was filled with a hatred so intense it felt as if his veins were on fire. His entire life had almost been completely destroyed by this…thing. He was damned if he was wasn't going to return the favour in full.

His vision turned red in way that had nothing to do with filters in his helmet. The other inmates had gasped when the laser bars suddenly retracted, dissipating in the cold white air, but Jason hardly noticed. Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to rip Joker apart with his bare hands, tear him in the way he'd torn down Jason's life.

Joker, jumping up and brushing himself off in his relative freedom, looked over and saw X1 standing opposite, his hands balled and shaking. Curiously, he raised an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem here?" He asked, sounding mildly annoyed. Jason started forwards, but suddenly X2 grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

"Bad plan, Jay." She muttered. Jason didn't even look at her, and yanked his hand back angrily, but she grabbed hold of the front of his cape and span him around to face her.

"Seriously. Bad. Plan."

"Get off!"

"Get a grip! We're in a room full of people on his side."

"I don't care! If you knew what that – that freak did to me…"
"I do know. Believe me. I know." That snapped Jason out of it. For the first time he turned his attention to her.

"You…you know?"

"Yeah. And unless you want the rest of the room to know too, I suggest you stop yelling and calm the hell down."

Jason was still breathing hard, but he could feel the anger draining out of him as his brain kicked in. Gradually, he realised that most of the supervillains in the room were staring at them, and forced himself to stop shaking with the adrenaline still rushing around his system. Showing weakness in front of these people probably wasn't a smart idea.

Ignoring the large part of him that still wanted to flay the Joker alive, he turned his back on the clown and took X2 over to one side, leaning casually against the wall, glaring at everyone else. Eventually, they lost interest in the two thieves, and started to talk among themselves.

"How long have you known?" Muttered Jason quietly.

"I wasn't sure. Not until you and Bats had that fight."

"And you didn't say anything because…?"

"Because…" She trailed off and looked away.

"What?" He demanded. She sighed angrily and stared back at him.

"Can we please talk this over when we're not surrounded by people who'd torture and eventually kill us if they realised what we're talking about? Let's just focus on getting out of here for now."

Jason thought about arguing, but the small part of him thinking logically realised that she was right.

"Fine. Any ideas?" He glanced over to the far wall, where Bizarro and Blockbuster were attempting to punch their way through, seemingly ignorant of the way their fists kept rebounding off some sort of crackling energy field.

"There's a shaft in the –" Taryn broke off and cleared her throat, then carried on, "—in the ceiling."

Jason looked up and saw the grill that she was talking about, set above the dead centre of the room, about 10 feet off the ground.

"There's – there's some along the bottom of the wall, too." Jason coughed, his throat suddenly feeling very dry.

"They're too small…" X2 stopped again and coughed hard, leaning against the wall. "Is it getting hard to breathe in here?" She said suddenly.

As if on cue, a volley of choking and retching noises started up from the assembled villains, almost everyone in the room doubling over.

"Gas!" Shouted Star Sapphire, covering her mouth and nose.

"It's coming from the floor vents!"

"Someone block them up!"

"YOU block them! I'm getting out of here!"
"Oh, great. HOW, exactly?"

The bickering grew, until someone spotted Mirror Master kneeling on the floor, quietly pulling a concealed mirror from inside the heel of his boot.

"Hey! He's getting out!"

"Not without me!"

"GIVE ME THE MIRROR!"

Suddenly the room was filled with brawling supervillains, fighting over the mirror, crushing up against the walls, trying to get out. Bizarro was punching the wall with greater and greater force. X2 watched with mounting concern as the energy field absorbed the blows, slowly turning from transparent to pulsating, poisonous blue.

"Stop!" She yelled, running forwards.

"2! Wait!" Shouted Jason.

"Bizarro! Stop! Don't be stupid!" Cried Taryn, trying to push the leviathan back.

"BIZARRO…AM…STUPID!" He screamed back, and drew back his fist to punch the wall again.

"Don't!"

"Taryn! MOVE!" Jason dove in and grabbed her, pulling her away seconds before the punch landed. The energy field bent inwards, and for a second it seemed like it would break, but then it sprang back and released a pulse of energy that knocked everyone off their feet into the thin green blanket of mist that covered the floor. Gagging, Jason pulled Taryn to her feet as all around them the villains staggered around or lay on the floor, motionless. Unfortunately, Bizarro was not one of these. Through a semi-sentient haze, he locked eyes on Red X. He remembered X2 standing in front of him, and the sudden stinging blow that had driven him back. Somewhere in his mixed-up mind he made a connection, and growled.

"Oh, crud." Muttered Jason as Bizarro towered above them both, murder in his misshapen expression.