I wanted to give a little shout out to Reina Greyson and thank her(? Girl, I think) for the reviews. She's pretty much the one that kept me writing these chapters. Thank you!

. . .

Sneaking around the garage was easier than expected. Only a few guards patrolled the area, and those were easily avoided.

Finding the lab was also simple. There was a door marked "Employees Only" that lead to a staircase going down. Shadow was becoming tense. Either something really bad was about to happen, or they were very, very good at their jobs.

"Look," said Miss Martian, sounding infinitely sad. "Look at what they're doing to them."

The team went over to her, and there was a collective gasp. Cages were lined along the walls of a long room, over half containing creatures varying from unconscious, normal men to mutants like the ones fighting above.

"I found what they've been using." said Aqualad from where he stood at a lab table. A white light shone down on it to illuminate colorful test-tubes. There was a small box filled with vials of the same type of liquid, and the box was marked SMM.

"What does that stand for?" Artemis asked.

"Strength and Molecular Modification." Kid Flash answered, completely serious. "I've heard rumors about it, but I thought it was just a story for drug dealers to snag customers."

Shadow approached the cage of a half-formed monster, eyes stinging. She knew what it was like. Being stuffed into a cage, injected with multiple, nameless chemicals, constantly afraid that one test might go wrong, as had been the fate of so many other subjects. The thing within the cage looked at her, eyes larger than normal and a look of starvation in its face. The madness hadn't taken effect yet. In his case, it wasn't a good thing. Every second of the transformation was felt, every day knowing that, at some point, he would be a monster, just like the others before him. He wanted to be free.

And for Shadow, all he had to do was look at her. Gritting her teeth, she began opening cages, one by one, fast as she could.

"Darcy, what are you doing?" Aqualad called, sounding shocked. "Information onl-"

"Megan, calm down the bigger ones with your mind." she commanded, voice wavering. "Do it!" she barked when the Martian didn't move. "Robin, pick the locks of the more secured cages. Superboy, you work with Megan. Maybe you can get the more difficult ones to submit."

She was blinking away tears now. She thought her group had been the only ones. In light of this discovery, she had to wonder how many more operations like this were going on at that second. Then Robin's hand was on her shoulder. "Darcy... maybe we shouldn't do this just yet." he said quietly.

She whirled around. "Then when? Should we wait for the League to come and take care of them?" she asked, voice cracking as she spoke. He nodded, but she shook her head. "No. No, we're so not doing that. Do you know what they'll do when they get here? I'm telling you right now, they're definitely not setting these guys free. They'll sit and discuss it for a month, wondering what they should do about it, and by then it'll be way to late for most of the test subjects. Do you see these numbers?" she asked, pointing to the digits stamped on each cage. "That's an estimated lifespan. We're getting them out now."

Robin backed up a step, knowing she was dead serious and willing to do anything to get the creatures out. He didn't understand. It's not like she knew these men personally, and they were all mindless at this point anyway. And how would they get the mutants out of the garage? And after that, where would they put them?

But he nodded anyway. "Fine. I'll help." he said, twisting the lock-pick from his glove.

Her eyes closed with relief, and she softly whispered, "Thank you."

Aqualad sighed. "I suppose if we're going to do this, we have to do it fast. Artemis, Wally, try and keep the... men all in one spot. We'll figure out where to go from there."

Everyone was in their places, either calming down fully transformed mutants or freeing and corralling others. Shadow had managed to open all of the cages with Robin's help, and there were about thirty-six mutants in all. Not as many as she'd originally thought, but still too many to break out covertly. "Guys," she said regretfully. "This is gonna be loud."

"I know." said Aqualad, hand on her shoulder. "But... It is the right thing to do. Even if it goes against orders."

"Psh, like orders have ever stopped us before." Kid Flash said, helping on half-formed creature to stand up. "This is just another day at the office. Well, maybe, like, a special occasion or something. But still, the office."

"Robin, can you maybe take the files or something?" Shadow asked. "We could use them to see how to reverse these effects."

"I can't carry them, but I'll try to scan them." he offered.

"You guys ready to make some noise?" Artemis asked, stringing her bow.

Superboy looked around, an expression of hatred on his face. "I want Demerest."

"No." Shadow said quietly, face hardening behind her mask. "This one's mine."

Her tone was so intense that no one argued.

"Um... Miss?"

She whirled around to see a man with a heavily muscled torso and left arm looking at her. "We want to help."

She smiled a little, patting him on the shoulder. "I wouldn't let you pass up that chance."

He smiled back with a sort of vicious gratitude. "We'll do our best."

"Are we all ready?" Aqualad asked. When no one said otherwise, he lead them up the stairs and into the main garage. "Here we go."

. . .

Once more, she was caught in a fight she couldn't get out of. Again, she stepped back invisibly to survey the situation. There was a man sneaking up on Aqualad, so she hurriedly ran up and slammed the guy's head against some metal stairs. As she fought off the next guy, she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

Anger was not the word. Nor was furious, hatred, insane, or deranged. There was nothing to describe what Shadow felt as she watched the man who'd caged and killed human beings try to walk out the door with a suitcase full of money. Instead of jumping right on him, as she'd done with Thief, she planned to make Demerest's next few moments a hellish nightmare.

Silent as the night, she scaled a ladder and hung down so she was right above where he would pass. "Boo." she whispered, jumping down quietly. He stopped, eyes wide. Feeling every vile and evil thing she knew rise up within her, she whispered in his ear. "Don't think I'm just going to let you walk away from this."

"Who are you?" he asked, voice shaking.

The voices and sounds of the others melted away. All the world contained at that moment was Demerest and Shadow. To be honest, this wasn't so much "save the world" as a personal vendetta. And, to be even more honest, she didn't really care. What did motives matter when the end result was something good anyway?

Instead of speaking to him directly, she whispered into his mind to scare him further. 'What you've done has not gone unnoticed. We are many, and we are coming. What you did is unforgivable, and you will be punished.'

His face was now white with fear. She gave a grim smirk of satisfaction, when suddenly she became visible again. She hadn't done it. But it was beyond her control now.

Suddenly, Demerest's eyes widened, familiarity in his expression. "Y – you! I know you! I – The scar – the lab-"

The lab? Could he...?

Slamming him up against the ladder, she looked him in the eye. "What do you know?" she snapped.

"N – not much. J – just that you were our most successful subject. I wasn't directly involved-"

"Then tell me who was." she hissed, patience wearing thin.

"I – I don't think I-"

"Let me put it this way, Dr. Evil," she said, putting her mouth close to his ear as she whispered, a trick to insure cooperation she'd learned from her mentor. "You tell me what I want to know, and you'll live." She wouldn't have ever actually killed him, but he didn't know that.

"O – okay! Th – there's a file in my lab. I – I can get it."

"What's it called?"

"P – Project Fifteen. I swear, I can get it right now-"

"Hm. Too late, buddy. It's already mine. But thanks for telling me what to look for." she said.

Just then, she heard the others calling for her. They must have finished the fight. But she needed one more moment before coming out. "Listen to me, and listen closely," she whispered urgently. "You are going to jail. Maybe worse than that. And I can tell you right now, the League will not be happy with your testing. And, if I'm lucky, I'll get her to take you to a prison of her choice. Whatever happens next, you won't be making another dime. So send the message to all of your friends; I'm still here, I'm still angry, and I'm not going away."

Before he could even nod his head to show he'd heard, she'd handcuffed him to the ladder and walked away. "I'm here." she called to the others.

"Good." said Aqualad, looking relieved that he'd found me. "We haven't seen Demerest-"

"It's okay, I got him." she said, dusting off her hands. "He's handcuffed to the ladder over there."

"Oh. All right. We've just contacted the League, and they're on their way."

"What are we doing with these guys?" she asked, gesturing to the mutants.

"We'll know when the League gets here."

. . .

Holy crap! Sorry for the incredibly long delay, guys! I've been working on a different story for a while, and I had to put this on hold. Thanks for all you who favorited, and let's have another shout-out to Reina Grayson for reviewing, yeah? *claps enthusiastically*