My TV remote smells like peppermint :P. Read on my lovelies.

"Report to the briefing area," was the first thing that the six teenagers in Mount Justice heard the day after 'she' was discovered. Wally was surprised that the team would get another mission so soon after the last one, but he used the mission as an excuse to feel a little better after 'she' had wrecked his usual happy-go-lucky mood. Robin was similarly surprised but he was also worried, what if this had to do with Cee? Megan was curious as to what the mission was, after all Batman had said 'briefing room' not 'training room' which was how the green-skinned girl differentiated between a mission and training. Kaldur was fully prepared for whatever this mission might be, he was really to prove the worth of the team after the odd events of last night. Artemis was quiet as they all walked towards the briefing/training room she was hung up on seeing Red Arrow again last night and his threat from before still rang in her ears, "do not hurt my friends." Conner was sulking, kryptonite was just another thing that Superman hadn't taught him about; Cadmus had imprinted the knowledge of the radioactive substance in his head but he wasn't prepared for it in the field.

When they entered the room the teens were met with the sight of Batman, Black Canary, and Red Tornado standing in front of the briefing screen which was currently blank, and that worried Robin even more. The teens arranged themselves so they were standing in a mostly straight line facing the blank screen in the middle of the room.

"Last night after the League dealt with the interruption to your mission, cameras hidden in Ra's al Ghul's base recorded a meeting between Ra's al Ghul and an unknown adversary. The League has agreed to have the six of you as part of the investigation because it is shown that one of you might know the adversary," Batman said in his usual monotone. The teens' faces were all shock riddled, except for Robin who simply raised an eyebrow at Batman's dramatics; he was as worried as the rest of the team was but he knew that if Batman was making a drama out of the situation then he was the one that knew the adversary. But with the amount of baddies Cee dragged with her the adversary could be Alex, Cee, Luke, or most likely Scarlet.

The screen changed to an antiquely-furnished study area with two chairs beside a large window; both of the chairs were occupied, the left by a man that looked to be in his young forties with facial hair and sideburns, Ra's al Ghul; the right chair held a girl that was maybe fourteen with hair the color of fresh blood and dark eyes, her red skin-tight pants were just a shade darker than her hair and she wore red strappy heels, the thing that made her stand out amongst the colors of the study most was the bright-sliver trench coat she had on her upper half. Both of the occupants had glasses, though Ra's glass looked to hold brandy while the girl had what looked to be red wine. After swallowing what couldn't have been more than a teaspoon of her drink the girl spoke.

"I take by the chipper mood that the negotiations went well," her lips had a single pearl of liquid on them.

"Yes," Ra's said, who had not looked chipper at all, one corner of his mouth barely moving up a centimeter, "your army would be at the same price, if not higher, if you would use them in negotiations."

"My army is a force used only for my personal battles or sadistic pleasure; they are not for financial gain. Besides, although the offer is appreciated, I have never had a real need for rapidly increasing assets," the girl replied a small smile on her lips, "now forgive me if this is propaganda but through the grapevine there's been a rumor spreading that the apprentices of the Justice League have made a team and started to become a hindrance."

"Not necessarily hindering, but inconveniencing, yes the sidekicks have been trying to meddle with our affairs."

The girl brought her left hand over her mouth as she giggled slightly, "do forgive the laughter but I don't think they like to be called sidekicks."

"You would know best Blood," Ra's said the corner of his mouth once again lowered, the girl however was smirking when her hand lowered, "you look proud."

"Well why wouldn't I be; Birdie is raising Cain and I can hope I at least contributed to his education in the subject."

"You seem to forget that he is raising this Cain at our expense."

"Oh I haven't forgotten, but Cain is Cain no matter who is causing it or who it affects, and it happens to be crucial to my life; so the fact that Birdie is raising such is highly pleasurable," the smirk was replaced with a sly smile that you find on a criminal that goes free with no remorse.

"Only you could think in such a manner," Ra's said before he sipped his brandy.

"I do hold high to that title. As much as you hold hig-" Blood was cut off by the ring of a cell phone. Blood dug her hand into the pocket of her silver coat and withdrew a red cell phone. She opened the slim piece of technology and pressed a button before she spoke a single commanding word, "Speak."

The other end of the conversation was inaudible, but judging from the way the smile dropped off Blood's face it wasn't good news. Her lips pulled away from her teeth as if Blood was growling, Ra's simply looked at Blood as if this was normal. After a span of thirty seconds of the conversation Blood's eyes flew wide and her hand clenched, shattering the wine glass and spilling the red liquid over the carpet and on herself. Blood's eyes now were a shade more florescent than her hair, and when she spoke it was with a anger that made you want to curl in the corner to escape her wrath, "When did this happen?"

A pause allowed for a response to be spoken before Blood spoke again, though this time her voice held less anger, "Eliminate any witness, inform all of Mine to come when I call within the next week, and make sure that Edmund is responsible. I expect all tasks finished within the hour Annabel, call then."

Ra's looked away from the stain on the floor to see Blood replace the phone in her pocket, "I take it that there has been disobedience?"

"Yes, it seems that the demonstration of John's disobedience had waned to the point that my army finds it conceivable to disobey my law. As such another demonstration is in order. I plan to rplace the rug."

"I'm pleased to hear that, it's nearly three decades old and I don't think that a blood stain will come out easily," Ra's said a smirk tugging on his lips.

"Perhaps I'll be able to see Birdie and his new team soon, I'll tell them you send your regards," Blood said as she stood to leave.

"Not necessary, I will be crossing paths with the sidekicks soon."

"Hm, very well then; Ra's al Ghul," she said inclining her head to him.

"Blood Ruby," Ra's said returning the gesture.

"Adara we're leaving," Blood said to the corner of the screen.

"Yes, Miss Ruby," an eight year old Arabian girl said as she appeared on screen.

"Oh, Ra's one last thing," Blood said stopping on her way to the door. She turned her head so that she was smiling directly at the camera, "you might want to upgrade security."

The last image that appeared was Blood throwing something into the camera lens so that all the reel showed was static.

The entire team was looking at Robing and giving very accurate impressions of fish. Black Canary, Batman, and Red Tornado were half-glaring at the brunette torn between being mad and surprised, or at least Black Canary was, Batman and was just mad, and Red Tornado well…

"Care to explain?" Black Canary asked.

"It's a long explanation," Robin replied, "and Blood's complicated."

"Try," Batman commanded.

"Her real name is Scarlet Wilde, and even though she looks like she's fourteen she's been alive for more than seven centuries. She was in Gotham about a year ago which is when we met," Robin thought it would be best to leave out the part where he already had heard about Scarlet from Cee before their encounter, "Scarlet's boss won't let her kill me and she's incredibly odd with how she commits crime, usually. Asking her to stop usually suffices to actually get her to stop, but she has a disappearing act that she can pull and after a fight, she'll literally disappear into thin air."

"You didn't mention this before because?" Batman glared.

"It didn't come up and she wasn't planning to return to Gotham so I didn't think it mattered."

"Cave," Batman said heading for the Zeeta beam transporter with Robin following behind him a second later.

After the Dynamic Duo had left the deeply confused group, Wally spoke, "what just happened?"

*At the Batcave*

"Dick, why didn't you mention this earlier?" Bruce Wayne, for the BatCowl was now off, asked the second that the pair was safe in the confines of the Batcave.

"Because it was smarter not to," Dick said removing the domino mask over his stormy gray eyes.

"Dick," Bruce growled at Dick's attempt to doge the question.

"Fine, the reason I didn't tell you is because Scarlet knows who we are. When we met she was in one of the abandoned factories in the east side of Gotham. She landed right in front of me, literally out of thin air, and said "I've heard a lot about you Mr. Grayson. My name is Scarlet Wilde but while I wear this I hope that you'll call me Blood Ruby, and I'll return the courtesy and call you Robin, or an equivalent, while you wear the mask, fair? Mr. Wayne certainly hasn't hesitated to educate you in the ways of the street, do you mind if I test that education?" and then she started fighting me, in hand-to-hand only; she purposefully has never tried to hurt me. She gave me her cell number and address after the fight, which didn't turn out well. She could have beaten me to a pulp, but the second she saw I was at the end of my strength she stopped fighting me and gave me her info, she even helped me back to the cave. After I asked Scarlet explained that she couldn't kill me because her employer wouldn't let her, and since she could kill me she might as well try to improve my fighting skills."

Bruce looked stunned, and then after he got over looking stunned he was angry. The BatGlare was even worse without the cowl. A few more moments of Dick trying not to wince under the BatGlare pasted before the glare softened and looked like concern, "Why haven't you stopped her? Or rather is she dangerous enough that she should be stopped?"

"She's more than just dangerous; she has a bad reputation of running streets with blood for all the seven centuries that Scarlet's been alive. And I have tried to stop her, but with her Cheshire Cat disappearing act she can't be kept in a cell and handcuffs have no effect either."

"That could be a problem."

"Yes it could, but she doesn't usually meddle in affairs if they aren't directly linked to her," Dick said hoping this conversation would end soon so he could go think, because it was getting harder and harder to focus on not accidently mentioning Cee.

"Good. I'm going to check if the Justice League has anything on her."

"OK I'm going to head up to my room," Dick replied happy that this had finally ended, at least until Scarlet actually came into play.

"Dick, one last thing: don't keep something like this from me; it's important that any information about other metas be joint knowledge, alright?" Bruce was giving one of his rare kind smiles, and that only made Dick feel worse.

"Sure Bruce," if only he knew about the things I'm keeping from him, Dick thought as he slipped up the stairs towards his bedroom, if only.

Yay! Chapter 10, and the plot thickens, wahahaaaaa. Now if anyone else feels the need to help pacify my worry that I'm more insane than I thought, did anyone else jump up and down for a full five minutes after they heard new episodes were coming out on the 16th? (The YJ one I'd already seen but Batman the Brave and the Bold and GeneratorRex were awesome!) Also anyone else seriously deprived of one black-haired bird? I was thinking over the episodes and he wasn't in two of the ten episodes that are currently out; this is inexcusable, luckily Cartoon Network thwarted my wrath by showing that the Joker is going to be in some of the new YJ episodes and I can't wait to see what he does to our 'sidekicks.' 8D

Oh Alice doesn't get to be in this chapter because she stuck her nose in the last chapter.

Review button, right there

V