[St. Petersburg
March 24, 15:00 EST]
It had been a little over a day since Wally was taken. They hadn't received any kind of ransom or a body, so he was definitely alive. Flash was positive that Zoom would flaunt it if he'd killed Wally. Plus, Zoom could have killed Wally right then and there on the water if that was his goal. No, he needed Wally for something, which was terrifying because Dick's mind had been running constantly since it happened – coming up with all kinds of horrible things Zoom could be doing to him.
Dick flexed his hands into fists anxiously as Conner steered the Super-Cycle in for a landing right on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Beside him, Zatanna was fidgeting just as much, though she seemed to be suffering more from nerves. Dick could feel in his gut that this Dr. Orloff had something to do with Wally, and he was going to get answers out of him. One way or another.
Conner parked behind a thick copse of snowy trees, and they all jumped out of the Super-Cycle. Zatanna hugged her white parka and cloak closer while Conner didn't seem to notice the cold at all. He directed the cycle to revert back to its sphere mode, and the vehicle folded up into a ball, "Stay here."
Dick ignored the icy cold and darted to the edge of the trees, looking up the long, snowy slope to the massive mansion that sat at the top of the hill. It looked very well-tended with a sculpted lawn that was easily a hundred acres and a long driveway that led to the one lone road to the city. Whoever lived here didn't want neighbors, and they didn't want the city.
"What's the plan?" Conner was crouched beside Dick in a second, eyeing the mansion angrily.
"Batman's intel said that this is where Orloff lives. The mansion and the property are under a fake name, so it's clear that Orloff doesn't want to be found. He's probably got security around, so we need to be ready for anything. Zee, I need you to make us invisible when we're approaching the mansion," Dick said in a low voice.
Zatanna came over as well, "Turning people invisible is…a little advanced for me. The best I can do is camouflage us like Miss Martian does."
"That's perfect," Dick waved off her worries. "We'll be approaching from the back and entering through the cellar which leads up to the kitchen. Once we're inside, Superboy is going to listen for Orloff. When we find him, we're taking him in for questioning. If we encounter any guards, we take them down. Understood?"
Zatanna nodded, and Conner flexed his muscles eagerly, "Got it."
"Do you hear anything from here?" Dick asked Conner.
The half-Kryptonian shook his head angrily, still glaring at the mansion like he was trying to see though it. He might have been, actually. Dick almost wished that Conner had more of those shields from Luthor if only so that they could know if Wally was in there or not. It was a stretch; the only thing linking Orloff to Wally was a single fiber, but Dick found it irresistible to imagine that his best friend was only a few meters away.
"Just keep listening for anything," Dick sighed. He adjusted the white and grey mask over his face and turned to Zatanna. "Let's move."
She nodded beneath her fur hood and closed her eyes, extending her arms out to Dick and Conner, "Etaerc a elbbub fo gnigalfuomac ruomalg!"
Immediately, Dick watched Zatanna's and Conner's bodies reflect the scenery behind them so that it sort of looked like they were invisible. Though every time they moved, the image would distort and give them away. It wasn't ideal, but it would definitely get them past the untrained eye if they were careful. He gave an exaggerated wave for the others to follow him so that they could see, and then he abandoned cover and made for the mansion without another word.
For the most part, the grounds surrounding the building were very open. The denser foliage was mostly concentrated around the mansion like a garden and around the perimeter of the land. There were only a few trees scattered in the middle of the slope, so Dick had to aim for them like he was playing some large scale version of connect the dots. He'd made it halfway to the mansion when Conner suddenly grabbed the scruff of his heavy winter cloak and yanked him back just as a whistling dark blur slammed into the tree he'd been crouching against.
The tree splintered apart at the point of impact and crashed to the ground with a loud crunch. The dark blur stilled to reveal a tall, lean man who looked to be in his mid-twenties dressed in a dark blue turtleneck and black cargo pants. He had short, tousled blond hair and angry blue eyes which were focused right on him. Dick glared right back at him and hurled a batarang at his face, not holding back anything. This man was a speedster, and he was lurking around the residence of one of their leads to finding Wally. Any idiot could put the pieces together – this was one of the three speedsters who had kidnapped Wally.
The blond man zipped to the side to avoid Dick's attack but only just barely escaped getting grazed by it. He became a blur again as he tried to run away, but Conner lunged forward and actually caught him, jerking him back violently and slamming him into the ground. He pulled his fist back for another strike, and a second blur sped by and knocked him off balance. Conner toppled over onto his back right as the blur skidded to a halt. A second blond man, this one taller and slightly heavier, straightened up a few yards away and charged back at them with a loud roar. Dick pulled a set of bolas from his utility belt, twirled them around, and expertly hurled them at the second speedster's legs. They connected with a loud clack but missed their target by a good foot.
That…was weird. Dick had watched the footage from Wally's goggles a million times. He'd memorized the movements of every speedster captured by the camera and had a rough estimate of their speeds neatly catalogued in his brain. But he'd miscalculated. He'd thrown the bolas with a much faster speedster in mind, but this one was too slow to intercept the aerial attack like he should have. Come to think of it, the first blond had been slower than expected too. Dick had attacked him purely out of rage, but his missile had almost hit. Even Wally would have been a mile away before that batarang had flown a few inches.
Conner didn't seem to be having such doubts. The second blond man hooked an arm around his neck in a chokehold and drove a knee into Conner's kidney. The half-Kryptonian simply reached back and grabbed the speedster's red shirt, lifting him over his head and throwing him right into his companion.
"Ekam a pmar!"
Dick spun around to see Zatanna holding her arms out defensively at a third speedster that was running full tilt at her. The snow in front of her rose suddenly into a steep, white ramp. The blur charged straight up it and went flying into the air from the momentum, landing several feet away in a heap. Dick stood motionless and watched the figure sit up, dazed. This one was a woman, very slender and petite in build with straight, black shoulder length hair. She, too, was slower than he remembered – hilariously slower.
What the…?
There were three speedsters here, of that there was no doubt. There were two men and one woman, just like the trio that had attacked Wally. However, where they had been lightning fast, ruthless, fighting machines, these three were the exact opposite. They were easily less than half of Wally's normal speed, second-rate combatants at best, and seemed to have no clue who they were fighting if one of them thought that punching Conner at normal human speed would have any effect at all.
Something was wrong.
He pulled a weighted net from his belt and threw it over one of the prone men on the ground, trapping him in place, "Restrain them, but don't hurt them!"
Conner looked at him like he was crazy but managed to reign in his temper enough to comply. He wrestled the second blond into a complex hold that Black Canary had taught them back in February and pressed his face into the snow.
Zatanna pointed at the female, who was just shaking off the fall, "Egnahc sehtolc otni sgnidnib!"
The woman's thick blue coat ripped itself into wide strips and wound around her arms and legs, sending her to the ground again with a cry.
Dick frowned at the three speedsters in confusion. He crossed his arms over his chest and relaxed his stance – something he never did in the middle of a battle. Zatanna released the camouflaging spell, and Dick could see that Conner had calmed down enough from his rage to know that something was up.
Zatanna tentatively drew back the hood on her cloak and put one hand on her hip, "Is it just me, or was that really easy?"
Dick looked down at the squirming and struggling speedsters with narrowed eyes. These weren't the same three that had taken down Wally, Max, and Jay. They weren't skilled enough – or fast enough – to reach the kinds of speeds that Dick had seen in the footage of the attack. So, who were they? Decoys?
One of the blond speedsters shouted something at them from the net he was tangled in, but it was in Russian. Dick gave Zatanna a pointed look and nodded towards the three captives wordlessly.
"I can translate," she offered quickly. "Tel su dnatsrednu dna kaeps Naissur."
Dick waited a moment for the spell to take effect and then addressed the speedster who had spoken, "What did you say?"
"You are here to kill Dr. Orloff, yes?" he growled in fury, craning his neck in Conner's arms to see them better.
Dick's eyebrows turned downwards. So, they were expecting assassins. "That depends; we haven't decided yet. Right now, things aren't looking too good for him, but we're willing to sit down and have a friendly chat with him first."
"We will never tell you where he is!" the female speedster spat.
"The mansion?" Zatanna guessed, jerking her thumb up the hill with a shrug.
The shorter man laughed defiantly at her, "He is long away by now. We are a distraction so that he can escape!"
Dick exchanged a look with Zatanna and Conner. He opened his mouth to respond when he was interrupted by Conner looking up at the mansion sharply. The three disabled speedsters grew abruptly horrified – like they were afraid. Dick turned as well in time to see a distant, hunched over figure making its way down the hill towards them. He pulled out a batarang and held it at the ready, but as the figure drew nearer, Dick could see that it was an old man with a cane slowly and carefully crunching through the snow.
The biggest speedster put up a desperate struggle to escape, his dark eyes wide in fear, "No! Dr. Orloff, run!"
"We will be fine!" The dark-haired woman cried from where she lay on the ground. "Please go!"
Zatanna frowned and leaned in to whisper in Dick's ear, "They don't seem very evil…"
He had to agree with her. His instincts were telling him that these three weren't exactly dangerous, but he kept his guard up. He wasn't willing to chance being wrong when it might compromise them finding something that could help locate Wally.
The old man ignored the three speedsters' cries for him to flee and hobbled right up to Dick. He was wearing a light coat with the hood pulled back to expose his face. He was older, for sure, and bald with a long, grizzled beard and wrinkled eyes, but it was definitely the same man from the security clearance mug shot that Bruce had supplied them with.
"Dr. Orloff!" The biggest one yelled again in a last ditch effort to free himself. "Why are you not running?! They are here to kill you!"
"No, they aren't," Orloff spoke in a raspy, wheezing voice. "They are young heroes from America. Take a close look at them."
The three speedsters paused in their frantic struggles to scrutinize Dick, Conner, and Zatanna. The woman frowned in confusion, "I don't recognize their costumes. Are you sure?"
Orloff nodded, coming to a stop right beside the netted speedster and standing with both hands gripping the top of his cane. He made no moves to help any of them, "They are made to blend with the snow, I am sure. This one is The Robin from Gotham City."
Recognition suddenly bloomed in their eyes, and they all strained to get a closer look. Orloff pointed the end of his cane at Conner's chest, "And, you know that symbol."
"You're Superman?" the shorter blond asked in sudden awe. He wriggled in the net to get a better look.
"Uh…no," Conner said uncomfortably. He eased up a little on his hold and gave the speedster beneath him some room to breathe. "I'm Superboy. Superman's…sort of a mentor."
They all broke into wide smiles despite the fact that the object of their admiration had just given them a thrashing not five minutes ago. That was when Dick fully dropped his guard. They were fanboying over Conner. Who the heck were these guys?
"Why have you come to visit us?" the female asked. "And how did you find us?"
"Bebeck," Orloff scolded sharply. "These are our comrades from America that you have wrongly attacked. Ask for their forgiveness and tend to any injuries you have caused."
All three perked up in shame and started asking all at once if they were alright and if they needed any medical assistance. Dick just stood there, arms hanging at his sides in numb disbelief.
What…?
"Dr. Orloff, can you cut me loose?" the blond trapped in the net asked mutedly.
"No. That is up to the young heroes. They should trust us enough to free you themselves," Orloff said in stubborn exasperation. "It's your own faults for being so foolhardy. I know that I raised you better."
Conner and Zatanna both looked to Dick for his orders, and he made a snap decision.
"Set them loose," Dick flicked out a batarang and sliced a long gash into the net. Conner released his captive, and Zatanna reversed her spell. "We should be fine. I don't think these three are fighters."
"We are not the fighting type," the largest one admitted once he had gotten to his feet. He circled Conner curiously, admiring the uncomfortable teen closely. "But we are not usually beaten so easily."
"It's not your fault," Conner said awkwardly. "We're used to sparring with someone who's a lot faster than you. Uh, no offense…"
"That's actually why we're here," Dick addressed Orloff directly. "Our teammate was taken by three speedsters wearing white and blue, and during our investigation, your name came up along with Dr. Krulik and the Puleski Institute."
The effect was instantaneous. Orloff and the speedsters all grew grim and turned a few shades paler. Orloff clutched his cane tightly and gestured to his home, "Let's speak inside. I will answer any questions you have."
Dick nodded and allowed the speedsters to lead them up the hill to the mansion. He gave a silent hand signal to Conner and Zatanna to stay on the speedsters just in case. They all entered the ornately decorated mansion together, and Orloff brought them to a sitting room with a roaring fire. Dick and Zatanna both shed their heavy cloaks and pulled back their hoods. With only his domino mask covering his face, the speedsters seemed to recognize Dick more easily.
Dr. Orloff took a seat by the fire, and the speedsters sat by him protectively. He gestured for Dick, Conner, and Zatanna to join him as well, but they remained standing. "I know who the speedsters are who took your friend. I am responsible for creating their powers."
Dick saw Conner tense up out of the corner of his eye.
"But, they are not with us for many years now," the taller blond said angrily, implying that he didn't want anyone to think they had anything to do with each other.
"Please," Orloff held out a hand to quiet him and looked back at Dick. "Believe me, we intend no harm to you. I have seen on the American news that you are allies of the hero Flash. We consider ourselves friends of the Flash, though we have never met. As you know, I am Dr. Pytor Orloff. These are my children."
"Cassiopeia, Anatole, and Bebeck," he gestured to the biggest blond first, then the blue-eyed, slightly shorter blond, and then finally to the black-haired woman.
"Robin, Superboy, and Zatanna. Nice to meet you." Dick said in a flat tone, arms crossed over his chest and a grim frown set on his face. He wasn't in the mood to waste time. "Tell us who the speedsters are and what you meant by you 'created' them."
"If my name and Krulik's came up in your search, then the three you are looking for are named Gregor Gregorovich, Boleslaw Uminski, and Christina Alexandrova. They are also my children in a sense," Orloff said with a heavy sense of regret.
Dick nodded silently. Two males, one female. It matched up so far. "What else?"
Orloff sighed deeply and frowned down at the oriental carpet spread over the floor as if he was trying to recall a very old memory, "Many years ago, Krulik and I were inspired by the first Flash to create a formula to recreate his speed. We received funding from our government and began working on completing our own serum. Eight years later, we were able to begin testing on animals with varying degrees of success. We altered the serum, fixed the problems with it, and spent the next four years monitoring the results, followed by more testing. Eventually, Krulik became unhappy with just animals. He wanted to start human trials, but I did not feel we were ready. The government agreed with me and would not authorize it, so Krulik tested the serum on himself to prove it was ready. It worked."
"After that, the government supplied us with volunteers – which I later discovered meant stolen children. We administered the serum and began testing the limits of the superspeed. During one test…the friction from the air burned Krulik alive after he almost broke the sound barrier. After that, I restricted the children from using their speed until a solution could be found. I partnered with S.T.A.R. Labs to create suits that would protect them from the friction. They already had a prototype material that I was able to modify to withstand the elements," Orloff sat forward in his seat and clasped his hands together. "The suits worked. They allowed the children to safely run at their fastest speeds but opened them up to new dangers. The government started deploying them on secret missions – using them for the military. That was not what I had signed up for. I wanted to pursue the benefits that such speed could bring to our society – accelerating the healing process, adapting the formula to increase crop growth, harnessing the energy for fuel. I never wanted the serum to be used for military applications."
"What kind of missions were they being sent on?" Zatanna asked quietly.
"Ones that my conscience could not abide," Orloff looked at her gravely. "I was not initially informed of the missions and did not find out until some of my children told me what they were being forced to do. Christina, Gregor, and Boleslaw liked the missions. They were fiercely loyal to the government above anything and had grown up to be ruthless. Anatole, Bebeck, and Cassiopeia here preferred my peaceful experiments. They were the ones who informed me about what was happening. I didn't want the government using my children as weapons, so I arranged to help them escape and hid them. I destroyed all traces of the serum and my research so that no one else could ever be used again. Christina, Boleslaw, and Gregor pretended to go along with my plan but betrayed us at the last second."
"They told the soldiers we were going to run and when it would happen. We almost didn't make it out," Anatole said angrily. "That was four years ago. We haven't seen our brothers and sister since then. We have been hiding from the government under fake names all over the country."
"But, we are tired of hiding," Bebeck crossed her arms over her chest.
Cassiopeia put a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked right at Dick and the rest of beta squad. "My brother and sister have wanted to immigrate to America for some time now, but I am not wanting to leave Russia. They are thinking about starting a courier service."
Dick nodded, taking a moment to process everything. Orloff and his three children were speaking the truth. They didn't want to be associated with the three speedsters that had taken Wally and had been more than willing to help. "Do you have any way of tracking them?"
"I never did," Orloff shook his head. "The soldiers stationed at the institute had implanted trackers in all of their arms that I had to remove myself before we ran, but since Christina, Gregor, and Boleslaw stayed, they may have been implanted again."
"Why would the government kidnap an American hero?" Bebeck questioned.
"I don't think your government has control of your brothers and sister anymore," Dick tapped a few keys on his gauntlet computer and pulled up a glowing holographic image of the two male speedsters and Professor Zoom. "They were working with this supercriminal."
Orloff looked overcome with grief as he eyed the hologram. He reached out like he was trying to touch the images of the two speedsters suited in blue and white, "Gregor and Boleslaw…"
Bebeck, Anatole, and Cassiopeia didn't look like they shared his regret. They all glared at their two brothers balefully.
"Where is Christina?" Anatole gestured to the video.
"We recovered a woman's voice from our friend's goggles, but we have no video of her," Dick rewound the footage and paused it when a single finger slipped over the lens. "She's the one holding the camera."
"It is Christina," Cassiopeia said with gruff certainty. "Gregor and Boleslaw would not have gone anywhere without her. We were raised in teams. They were codenamed Blue Trinity. We were Red Trinity. We do not leave our brothers and sisters."
"That's why their betrayal is so unforgiveable," Bebeck clenched her fists and looked away from the hologram to stare into the crackling fire.
"It was one thing to do the government's dirty work, but working for a criminal like Professor Zoom makes them just as bad," Cassiopeia agreed.
"We need to know everything you can tell us about them," Conner stepped forward. He also seemed to have come to the conclusion that these four were allies. "We're a team too, and we have to find our brother."
"Whatever you need," Anatole said without hesitation.
"Tell us about their powers and weaknesses," Dick asked, turning on a recording device in his glove. The League might need it later. "Anything we can use against them."
Orloff didn't speak. He just sat there silently, looking upset, so Cassiopeia told them everything instead, "They'll have had much more combat training than we have, and they're a little stronger, but not much faster than we are. If you took us down so easily, you shouldn't-"
"Wait," Zatanna cocked her head to the side in confusion, holding up one hand. "They're faster than Flash. The uh – new one, not the old one – but you guys are a lot slower than his partner."
"Faster than the second Flash?" Orloff looked up suddenly, interested enough to ignore his grief. "That is impossible. I worked my hardest on the speed serum, and I was only able to achieve the speed of sound. It is true that Blue Trinity is faster and stronger, but they cannot match the Flash's speed. We ran endless tests, and the serum simply cannot replicate that kind of velocity."
Wordlessly, Dick pulled up the footage of the attack and let it run completely through to just before Zoom said Wally's name. His identity was already in enough jeopardy. Dick wasn't about to have anyone else find out who Wally really was.
Red Trinity stared at the holograph in open mouthed horror while Orloff looked on furiously, "They have been experimented on. That is not my serum working by itself."
"Can you tell what else is making them faster?" Dick asked.
"Not without a blood sample," Orloff said grimly.
"If we're able to recover one, we'll bring it to you," Dick said quickly, ignoring the questioning looks Conner and Zatanna were giving him. They did have blood samples, but he wasn't about to let Orloff and Red Trinity know that just yet. As helpful and sincere as they seemed, he wasn't going to make that call for the League. They had enough people analyzing the samples already.
"They shouldn't be moving that fast," Orloff watched the footage once more. "That's what killed Krulik. His body wasn't properly adapted to the serum, and he burned alive when he pushed too fast. The suits prevent that, but even they fail at certain speeds. A big enough tear would leave the speedster wearing it vulnerable to friction burns. You see, after Krulik died, I did everything I could to solve it, but there was no solution. I theorized that all of the speedsters who have received their powers in some sort of accident generate a protective aura when they run that shields them from friction damage and particles in the air from tearing holes into them. Something protects them that doesn't protect my children. That is the only weakness that I know of – breach their suits, and they are limited to running slower than the speed of sound."
Dick nodded quickly, powering down his gauntlet hologram, "That's really helpful, thank you. Is there anything else you can tell us?"
"You know all that we do now," Cassiopeia came forward and held out a hand to Conner. "We are sorry that we attacked you. Dr. Orloff has risked all for us, and he is like our father. We are very protective of him."
Conner stared at him a little uncomfortably at first but shook the offered arm with a small smile, "This more than makes up for it, trust me. We're good."
Anatole and Bebeck followed their brother's lead and apologized for acting before they knew the full situation. Dick couldn't blame them. If someone had been creeping up on the Batcave or Mt. Justice under an invisibility spell and unannounced, he would've reacted the exact same way.
For a moment, Zatanna looked like she was ready to flat out reject them. Her face was drawn tight in a frown, and her eyes were fixed on the trio almost suspiciously, "Orloff said you all were 'stolen' as children. If that's true, then why didn't you go back to your families? Why stay with him?"
Dick suddenly understood. She hadn't been distrustful; she'd been confused. Of course it would bother her that Red Trinity had been separated from their parents when she so recently had her father taken away.
"Dr. Orloff was not the one who took us," Bebeck defended him immediately. "He wanted to help track down our families once we were free, but we could not go back to them with our government always looking for us."
"Dr. Orloff has treated us like family and risked everything to keep us safe," Anatole agreed with a fond smile at the quiet geneticist. "We chose to stay with him."
Dick felt himself smile a little once Zatanna's worry seemed to clear. He turned to address Orloff again, "Thank you for your help. The Justice League won't forget this. And you have my word that no one else will know your location."
Orloff just stood up from his chair and made his way over to beta squad, "I have no right to ask this, but if you come across Blue Trinity…please don't hurt them."
Dick wanted to refuse the request. Blue Trinity had torn Jay Garrick and Max Crandall apart without mercy. They didn't deserve any leniency in return, especially not after hurting Wally. That was unforgiveable. But Orloff was asking as a father pleading for his lost children, whom he still cared deeply for.
"No promises," he said finally. "We'll do what we have to in order to save our friend, but we will try and find out if Blue Trinity is being mind controlled or coerced first. If they are, we'll save them too, but…it really doesn't look that way."
Orloff looked unhappy at that, but he nodded his understanding.
"Superboy, call Sphere. We need to report back ASAP," Dick directed him. Conner nodded and left the house without question. Zatanna remained by Dick's side while he lingered in the room's doorway. He looked Orloff right in the eyes and said one last thing before following Conner out. "We'll contact you once this is all settled, and if you ever decide that you want to leave Russia, the Justice League will personally bring you over and set you up with new lives. Just give us a call."
Then, he tossed a one-way, encrypted communicator to Cassiopeia.
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[The Watchtower
March 24, 19:00 EST]
Roy fired an arrow directly at Wonder Woman. It flew just under her elbow and struck the Manhunter holding her in a headlock dead in the chest. The arrowhead sank all the way in, and Roy detonated it by pushing a button on the grip of his bow. The explosion blew the Manhunter's back open and tore its head and shoulders off. Wonder Woman grabbed the arm still wrapped around her neck and used it to bodily throw the splintered android into another one firing energy blasts at Hawkwoman.
She tossed Roy a grateful nod for the assist and rose up into the air to better see their situation, bringing up her arms to deflect several energy blasts with her gauntlets. Roy dropped to one knee and spun around to duck beneath a Manhunter that took a swipe at him with its baton. He nocked a trick arrow and fired it up directly through the Manhunter's chin into its head. Roy flicked a second button by his ring finger, and the arrow dissolved into a fog of nanotech robots that quickly consumed the Manhunter in seconds. He dove to the side in a roll to dodge a volley of energy blasts and got to his feet running.
They were going on day two of Wally being missing.
Roy leapt over a fallen Manhunter that was still fizzling after a powerful hit from Shayera's mace. Wonder Woman gave a great cry of rage and thrust her sword into the core of another Manhunter, extending her leg out to kick its arm harmlessly aside.
Their leads were running out, and the only things Dick and his teammates had come back with were names and a way to defeat enemies that they had no way to find.
Roy heard Hawkwoman smash her mace into another Manhunter with a loud metal clang. He sprinted to one end of the room to get some distance, feeling the vibrations through the floor of another Manhunter chasing him. Roy aimed behind him with a glance and fired an arrow into the floor. The tip exploded in a burst of polyurethane foam, snaring the Manhunter's legs and sending it crashing to the floor face first.
The deactivated Manhunters that Hal and his Lanterns found had all self-destructed after one colossal screw up triggered a failsafe built into all of them. So, their progress there had been completely erased, and Flash was no closer to identifying the substances he'd found in Gregorovich's and Uminski's blood samples. Batman was attempting to hack some more and find out which officers may have had access to the trackers implanted in Blue Trinity – if they were even still there.
Roy darted forward and snatched up the fallen energy baton. He slammed one foot down onto the Manhunter's shoulders, keeping it down, and shoved the barrel of the baton against its back. He relentlessly fired blast after blast into the armor plating until it started to melt and reveal the core inside. He forced the baton down further and kept firing the weapon until he heard the core shatter, and the Manhunter went limp. Leaving the baton sticking straight up out of its back, Roy abandoned the android and started firing arrows into the air at the Manhunters flying around.
Roy wanted his little brother found now.
He nocked three explosive arrows at once and fired them all at a Manhunter that Wonder Woman had just thrown into the ground. It detonated with a deafening boom, bursting into flames and billowing clouds of smoke. Sweat poured down into Roy's eyes, and he ignored it, gritting his teeth and readying another arrow as he turned in a circle looking for a new target. There were no more Manhunters left standing. Wonder Woman and Hawkwoman had both landed and were staring at him with their weapons hanging at their sides. Shayera looked vaguely annoyed, and Wonder Woman seemed alarmed at the extreme violence Roy had just displayed on an already downed foe.
"What?" he asked harshly, chest heaving for air. He dragged his arm across his forehead and collapsed his bow, clipping it to his hip.
"There's no honor in kill stealing," Shayera pulled off her mask and pointed it at the smoldering Manhunter that Roy had just reduced to scrap metal. "Wonder Woman was about to finish that last one off before you decided to drop all that Star City rage on it."
"They're robots," Roy said gruffly, not in the mood to indulge the Thanagarian's little contest. He stalked past them both, shrugging off the concerned hand Wonder Woman tried to rest on his shoulder. "You can't kill a robot."
"They still count for the score," Shayera insisted, bringing her mace up to rest on her shoulder with a thud.
"They aren't even real," Roy growled. He bent down to retrieve the tip of his nanotech arrow and pressed the button that recalled the minuscule robots. "They're Lantern constructs; they don't count for anything."
"Hey now," John Stewart crossed his arms over his chest. He dismissed the glowing green Manhunter wreckage, and the only thing left was the smoke from the explosions. "Kilowog and I put a lot of detail into those constructs. I thought they were pretty real."
"I saw top notch melting, and those noises sounded like metal to me. We got the weight right and everything," Kilowog snorted unhappily. "Maybe we should make some more for him to fight until he sees how real they are."
"I don't have time for this," Roy sighed angrily. He glared up at the eight and a half foot tall Bolovaxian, undaunted. "Are we through with this training session or not?"
Kilowog powered his ring down and fell from where he'd been hovering. He landed with a loud thud, bending his knees to absorb the impact. He loomed over Roy impressively, but Roy was far too stubborn to react with anything but a scowl. "Training's over when I say it is, poozer. You should be grateful we have time to train before the Manhunters attack. Most don't know how to fight them in time for it to matter."
"Well, I already know how to fight," Roy rolled his eyes in frustration. "And, you've been teaching us how to take out Manhunters for a week. So, if you're done, I've got more important things to do."
"Like looking for Wally?" Wonder Woman asked disapprovingly. That made Roy's blood boil. Why the hell shouldn't he be looking for Wally?
"Yes," he ground out, daring her to tell him he couldn't.
"Just be careful," she shifted her weight to her other foot and placed one hand on her hip. "I see Flash getting worse by the day. I don't want you to end up the same way."
Roy cocked an eyebrow at her. He considered himself to be on Barry Allen's side whenever he heard Leaguers whisper that Flash was pushing himself to dangerous limits looking for his nephew. Most of them just didn't understand how close they were. Roy remembered the first time he'd met Wally and Barry together. They'd run out to Star City to help Ollie and Hal out of a supervillain death trap they'd stupidly run right into – and dragged Roy along with. When Barry and Wally arrived, the way they acted around each other just felt like they were father and son. Now, he knew that Barry probably was the closest thing Wally ever had to a real father. And apparently Barry felt the same way about Wally being his son because he really was doing anything it took to get him back.
A few hours ago, he'd heard news reports that the Flash had grabbed a Central City villain named Doctor Alchemy right out of his cell in Iron Heights Penitentiary without any word or explanation. And he still hadn't brought him back yet. Barry had ditched his locator beacon and wasn't responding to any of the Watchtower's attempts to contact him.
It really was a massive problem – the Justice League could not afford to have one of its founding members breaking into prisons and freeing inmates. Although, Roy very much doubted that Doctor Alchemy was 'free' at the moment. He sort of got the feeling that the villain would rather be in Iron Heights instead of with the Flash right now. Superman and Martian Manhunter were currently trying to find Barry and minimize the impending fallout with the press.
Roy knew that the situation was really bad, but if Barry had done something this stupid, it had to be for a damn good reason. It had to do with finding Wally; Roy was sure of it, and so he hoped that they didn't find Barry until he'd gotten whatever he needed.
Turning on his heel and stalking out of the Watchtower training room, Roy decided not to answer Wonder Woman. He sure as hell wasn't waiting to be dismissed by some Green Lantern drill sergeant either. They were only half right, anyways. Roy wanted nothing more than to be able to go out and look for Wally, but that wasn't what he was setting out to do right now. He had other responsibilities. Star City had gone unpatrolled for several days, and Roy had heard that the looting was getting a little out of hand after the public was made aware of the possible Manhunter attack. He'd also heard that Merlyn was back in town, which was just…perfect… and he needed to check on his other little brother before he did anything else. Dick was bound to be handling this badly, and Roy was on his way to see him right now.
Roy was able to leave the Watchtower unimpeded. He used the zeta tubes to teleport straight to Mt. Justice where he expected to find the Team rallying after returning from their mission.
"Recognize: Red Arrow – 21"
Roy stepped out into the cave, feeling an intense, nagging sense of wrongness that he was here instead of spending every free second looking for Wally. He took a second to collect himself, covering his face with one hand and taking a steadying breath. If he was honest with himself, Roy knew that he wasn't going to be the one to find Wally. He could kick in every door in Star City, search the streets twelve times over, and interrogate any living creature he came across, and it still wouldn't get him anywhere. Flash was already doing exactly that and coming up empty. Roy would just be wasting time that way. He was much more useful handling everything else so that the other heroes like Green Lantern and Batman could give their full attention to finding Wally – which was why he'd spent the last few days picking up patrol shifts in Gotham, Metropolis, Central and Coast Cities.
"Has there been any news from the Justice League?" Kaldur's calm voice asked from somewhere on Roy's left.
He dropped his arm and looked over at his friend grimly, "Nothing new since a few hours ago. The Flash is still AWOL, the Manhunters that the Green Lanterns confiscated are completely destroyed, and the Lantern teams hunting down all the Manhunter bases reached a dead end in South America, Italy, and China. They're tearing apart everything looking for more leads, but so far they haven't found any more deactivated Manhunters and only twelve factories."
Kaldur was standing alone in the mission briefing room. Above him, every scrap of information they'd uncovered about Professor Zoom and Blue Trinity was displayed on the computer's holo screens. The quiet Atlantean crossed his arms and turned back to the screen, "I have been going over everything since we returned."
Roy went over to stand beside one of his oldest friends, scanning the open windows for any new information, "Find anything yet?"
"….No," Kaldur said after a moment. He looked sideways at Roy then, and his eyes were pale with anger. "I do not like being useless."
"Trust me, I know the feeling," Roy clapped Kaldur on the back once. "Where are the others?"
Kaldur sighed and hunched over the console, leaning heavily on his hands, "Superboy was in the hangar with Miss Martian the last time I saw them. I believe Artemis is in her room. She stormed away the second we landed in the bio-ship. Zatanna could be anywhere. She attempted to console Robin after they learned that the Manhunters the Green Lanterns found had been destroyed, but he was in no frame of mind to listen to her."
"Where is he?" Roy rocked back on his heels, fearing the worst.
Kaldur pulled up a video of Dick in the cave's gym. He nodded towards the live feed in concern, "He has been there for hours."
"Great…" Roy sighed. He gave Kaldur another nudge and headed off to the gym. "I've got him. I came by to check on him real quick, and then I'm off to Star for the night if you need me."
"I will call," Kaldur said after him. "Good luck."
Roy raised one arm in farewell, not looking back. He found Dick in the gym just like the cameras had implied. The boy wonder was on the rings, twenty feet off the ground, and holding himself upside down in a rigid vertical pose. Roy looked at the sweat pouring off his youngest brother and noticed his arms shaking with effort. Dick released the pose, swinging his legs down and using the momentum to flip over. He released the rings as he somersaulted in the air and caught them again on the way down. Dick extended his legs straight out in front of him in a ninety degree angle and looked ahead to see Roy watching him from the doorway.
He was still in his white and grey polar stealth suit, minus the cape and the hood. He had to be roasting in it. Roy motioned for Dick to come down, and he moved towards the nearest bench where his brother had carelessly tossed his gear.
Dick dropped his legs again, swinging his whole body backwards. He let his arms fall out to the side and swung forwards in a dive, releasing the rings and dismounting in a back flip. Roy sighed and snatched a water bottle from the cooler against the wall, already knowing what was about to happen without having to look. Dick landed on his hands with the intent to spring up onto his feet gracefully, but his arms gave out on him, and he tumbled clumsily across the mat with a grunt of pain. He rolled onto his back and just lay there, sprawled out and glaring up at the ceiling with his arms bonelessly thrown out wide.
Roy tossed the bottle of water at him, "That was stupid."
It hit him in the shoulder and bounced away. Dick directed his glare at Roy for a split second and then turned away, refusing to move an inch.
Roy walked over and retrieved the water bottle, settling down cross legged on the mat beside the young hero. He unscrewed the cap and tilted the bottle side to side to get his attention, "Are you going to drink this or do I have to pour it on your face to get you to hydrate?"
Dick tossed another glare his way and continued to lie on his back, jaw locked shut and breathing heavily out of his nose. Roy set the bottle down and leaned forward on his knees, "You've been in here too long. You need a break."
"I'm resting right now, aren't I?" Dick snapped at him suddenly.
Roy ground his teeth together and restrained himself from yelling at his brother, "I get that you're frustrated, and you feel like you should be doing something productive instead of just waiting around for something to happen."
"That's an understatement," Dick said bitterly. "Batman put us on standby until we get another lead."
Roy grabbed Dick's hand and forced him to take the water bottle, "So, you decided to kill yourself with an Olympic level rings routine instead?"
"I don't know what else to do!" Dick sat up suddenly, flinging the water aside in anger. "It's about to be two days, and we're no closer to finding Wally! I can't just stand by and do nothing while some lunatic has him, but I have nothing else to go on! I feel like I'm losing my mind!"
"And you think he's doing any better?" Roy said levelly, pulling Dick out of his rant and shutting him up. He stared right into his brother's tormented blue eyes and jabbed him in the chest with one finger. "You need to keep it together. We're going to find Wally, and when the call comes in for us to go get him, we need to be ready – not feeling sorry for ourselves that we're so helpless."
Roy felt like a huge hypocrite saying those words, but they made a lot of sense when they weren't being directed at him.
"I'm not ten anymore. I know you have no idea if that's true or not," Dick called him out with a half scowl.
"Do you want to go around believing that we're never going to see him again?"
Roy felt his heart constrict as he watched Dick's expression crumple in shock. His wide blue eyes started to fill with startled tears, and Roy really felt like a prick for catching him off guard like that. He reached out and hooked an arm around Dick's shoulders, pulling him in close. "I'm sorry. I didn't come here to be mean."
Dick didn't say anything. He just leaned against Roy and stared miserably at the floor mat, refusing to let even a single tear fall.
"I know you miss him. I do too. And I know you're scared for him," Roy squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "Especially with how much you like him."
Dick tensed up, and his eyes darted all over Roy's face in alarm.
"I'm not stupid," Roy cocked an eyebrow at his surprise. "And I'm not blind. I saw how you were looking at him that night at Barry and Iris' house."
Dick didn't deny it. He looked down at his hands with his eyebrows drawn together.
"I really didn't want to deal with this until the whole Manhunter thing was over," Roy dragged a hand through his cropped hair. "Have you decided what you're going to do yet?"
Dick chewed at the inside of his cheek for a long minute and then nodded slowly. He looked up at Roy and opened his mouth to speak when a shrill beeping alarm went off at the base of Roy's skull. He jumped in surprise and groped at the back of his neck. What the hell?!
His fingers brushed against something thin and metallic fixed to the collar of his uniform. Roy brought both hands up and worked at the device to get it loose. Dick got to his knees to help him and had it free in seconds, handing it off to him hesitantly. Roy snatched the thin, beeping gadget and stared at it in bewilderment, turning it over in his fingers and seeing a faintly blinking green light and a small antennae poking out of one corner.
"Jesus," Dick breathed suddenly, still looking behind Roy. "How the hell did you get those claw marks?"
Roy's head snapped up instantly and his fist closed around the device, heartbeat going into overdrive.
Cheshire.
"I have to go," he scrambled to his feet and was bolting for the door before Dick had time to react. He reached back and hastily removed the tablet from the bottom of his quiver as he ran. She'd planted a tracer on him! That was why she'd had her arms around his neck so much last night. Roy pulled up his own tracking software and fumbled to select Cheshire's name.
"Roy!" he heard Dick shouting behind him. Roy looked over his shoulder and saw Dick running after him. He turned down a branching off hallway and sprinted for the nearest zeta tubes. "What's going on?! What happened?"
The small map on the screen rolled across the country to California. The blinking dot was in Star City. Cheshire had contacted him and obviously wanted him to come to her since she was so far away. Roy checked the time on the tablet. 7:39 at night. It had been a little over one day. Did she really have something for him already?
"Stay here," Roy muttered distractedly, narrowing down Cheshire's coordinates for a landmark or an address.
"No way!" Dick caught up to him and grabbed for his arm. "Something big just happened; I can tell. I'm going with you!"
"Dick!" Roy shrugged him off impatiently, still trying to pinpoint the coordinates. Something was seriously wrong about the area of Star City that the tracker was identifying. Too many of the street names sounded very familiar. Too familiar – like he rode down those streets almost every time he went on patrol familiar. "You can't come with me. It's too dangerous."
"If it's dangerous, then you need backup," Dick argued, still keeping pace with him.
"No," Roy shot a glare at him. "This is important. I can't have you getting in the way!"
More like he couldn't have Dick finding out that he was meeting Cheshire. It was harsh, but he needed to get Dick angry enough to drop it.
"This is about Cheshire, isn't it?" Dick panted breathlessly, his extreme workout from before taking its toll on his muscles.
Roy stopped dead in his tracks, whipping around to stare at Dick in wide-eyed disbelief. The blood in his veins froze to ice, and his entire body went stiff in shock.
Dick stumbled to a halt and looked back at him first in surprise at the sudden stop and then in knowing at Roy's slack-jawed expression. He placed both hands on his hips and allowed a small smirk to cross his face, "I'm not blind, Roy."
Roy blinked a few times to shake off the surprise. Dick knew about Cheshire. Shit. If he knew, then who else did too?
The tablet beeped twice to let him know it had completed the trace. Roy glanced down at the screen numbly. Cheshire was at the corner of North Ogallah St. and Moira Queen Ave. Oh crap. That was the location of Oliver's secret weapons arsenal. She'd had that tracer on him for an entire day. She would have been able to see wherever he went, and he'd definitely used the zeta tube in there today. It must have looked pretty suspicious when his location jumped from that address to another halfway across the country in a matter of seconds. Cheshire was waiting for him there.
"Roy!" Dick tried to get his attention when he didn't respond.
"Yes! Okay? Yes." Roy replaced the tablet in his quiver and grabbed Dick's arm to make him back off. He glanced both ways down the hallway and lowered his voice in case Superboy was near enough to overhear them. "I'm going to meet Cheshire. I got desperate and enlisted her to help find Wally. I don't know how you found out about her, but you cannot come with me. She's helping me look for Professor Zoom, but I do not trust her enough to put you in the same room with her. And if I bring you along, she might decide not to tell me what she found. She's too volatile to try and predict anything she'll do."
Surprisingly, Dick dropped it and stepped back, "Okay, I got it. I won't come with. Hurry up and go!"
Roy eyed him suspiciously for a second, "I mean it; don't follow me."
"You think I'd risk screwing up a lead to finding Wally?" Dick actually pushed Roy down the hallway. "Go. I'll cover for you."
Roy didn't have time to wonder whether or not Dick would actually stay behind or if he was just pretending. He ran flat out the rest of the way to the zeta tubes in the mission room, ducking into one before Kaldur had time to question his haste.
"Recognize: Red Arrow – 21"
The bright light blinded him for a second, and Roy felt the jolt of the zeta transport sending him all the way across the country. When he arrived in Oliver's secret hideaway in Star City, the first thing he noticed was a tightly woven net of bombs strung up across the entrance of the tube. Roy took a step back instinctively and had his bow in hand a second later. He squinted past the black wire of the net and spotted Cheshire perched on a workbench in the middle of the brightly lit room, her mask lying innocently on the table beside her and Roy's old Speedy uniform hat resting snugly atop her head.
"What is this?" Roy gestured to the net of bombs cautiously.
"Well, I didn't know who might be coming through," Cheshire shrugged with an impish smile, holding up a detonator and turning it off. "You can't fault a girl for being careful."
Roy brushed the net aside and stalked forwards into the room. He slung his bow over his shoulder and crossed his arms unhappily, "You were going to blow up my former mentor then?"
"Only if he showed up," she tossed her hair over her shoulder and chuckled airily. When Roy's scowl only deepened, Cheshire hopped down from the table and removed the old hat with a sigh. "Relax, Red. I would have given him time to run away."
"That's nice," he replied sarcastically. "Except Green Arrow wouldn't have run, so he'd have gotten blown up."
"You know him better than I do," Cheshire waved one arm at him in a lazy shrug. She sauntered around the table and examined the walls lined with arrows and knives. She turned her back to Roy and replaced the hat she'd taken from the case holding the Speedy costume. "What is this place, anyway? Surely it's not Green Arrow's hideout. I always imagined a superhero's hideout would be more…homey?"
"It's a secret arsenal," Roy said impatiently. "Or it was secret."
"Ooh, I like that," Cheshire spun around suddenly and rolled her shoulders, fixing him with a minx-like grin. "Arsenal. You should change your name to that."
Roy ignored her, "How did you get in here?"
Cheshire seemed unfazed by his rebuff. She tousled her own hair, stretching her arms above her head and flexing her clawed fingers, "I picked the lock."
Roy leaned to the side and saw that the entrance to the room was still intact. He fixed Cheshire with a suspicious frown, "That 'lock' is a high-security retina scanner."
"Do you want to know what I found, or not?" she bent backwards casually, extending one leg into the air and cart wheeling back upright like this was just any other day at the park.
"Yes," he said immediately, the urgency from before suddenly slamming back into him.
Cheshire stood upright and stared at him silently with an unreadable expression for several long moments before reaching behind her back and pulling a bundle of rolled up files from the sash at her waist. She tossed them unceremoniously onto the workbench and shifted her weight to one foot, sticking her hip out to the side and folding her arms over her stomach.
Roy snatched up the roll and snapped the band holding it together. He spread the files out onto the table and let his eyes rove over the pictures and folders hungrily.
"Professor Zoom has disappeared from the face of the Earth," Cheshire spoke almost as if she was bored. "No one's seen him in over a year."
Roy looked up at her from the papers in alarm.
"But they've spoken to him," she smiled, turning away again and inspecting a particularly nasty trick arrow hanging from the wall. "I kept hitting dead ends everywhere I looked, so I took a little trip to Central City and Keystone and started poking around. Did you know that the bright and cheerful twin cities have an impressive black market called the 'Network'?"
The Network? Roy had never heard Wally, or Flash, or anyone else in the Justice League mention Central City having anything like a black market. "No. What is it?"
"A rather high-end smuggling operation that moves contraband in and out from all over the world," Cheshire moved on from the trick arrow and picked up one of Oliver's spare bows. She mimed drawing an arrow and pulled back the string, closing one eye to take aim. "Think supermarket for supervillains. It's fairly new – I'd say only a few years old. And it's run by a real shady character that goes by the alias Blacksmith."
Roy looked down at the pictures. They were all of the same woman: middle-aged, long indigo hair, coal black eyes, and a cruel, snake-like expression.
"Her real name is Amunet Black," Cheshire told him loftily. "Word is that she stole some elixir from her ex-husband, and now she's a self-made metahuman."
"Blacksmith…" Roy tested the name out to see how it sounded. He'd definitely never heard of her before. "What do she and the Network have to do with Zoom?"
Cheshire leaned over the table and brushed the pictures of Blacksmith aside. She found the paper she was searching for and slid it to Roy, "The Network is all abuzz with a new drug about to be released on the market. It's called Velocity. Three guesses as to who made it…"
"Professor Zoom," Roy said bitterly. He scanned over the paper which held information about the pricing and quantities available for Velocity and a list of suppliers and dealers that would be carrying it when it was released.
Cheshire nodded, confirming his guess with a laugh, "Velocity sounds like a real killer."
"Why?" he asked, still looking over the papers, trying to see if he recognized any of the names. "What does it do?"
"It gives you a high, just like any drug," she took Roy's arm and gently ghosted a finger over the veins in the crook of his elbow. "But this one gives you superspeed."
"What…?" Roy looked up at her incredulously.
"The powers are only temporary," Cheshire released his arm. "And they come with side effects. Bloodshot eyes, extreme addiction, exhaustion, rapid aging, and so far it kills everyone who takes it. Professor Zoom's still working out the kinks and burning through test subjects to perfect it. It sounds like it's years away from hitting the streets, but the estimated release date has been moved up instead."
Roy looked down at the date on the papers and then back at Cheshire, following her progress around the room as she dragged her claws lightly along the various surfaces, "That doesn't make any sense."
"It does if Zoom is expecting to perfect Velocity by the end of the month. Now, what could possibly have changed to make him think that was possible?" Cheshire tapped her lips thoughtfully with one clawed finger and tossed Roy an unimpressed look over her shoulder. "Maybe he's recently acquired something that he needed to finish it?"
The way she spoke that last sentence gave Roy pause. Cheshire let the words trail off suggestively like she knew exactly what that mysterious something was. Roy narrowed his eyes at her, trying to figure out what she meant when suddenly it hit him like a bus.
"Kid Flash…" he gasped soundlessly, his entire body filling with dread. "This is what Zoom needed him for. His drug doesn't work right, so he kidnapped Kid Flash and is going to use him to fix it…"
Cheshire nodded slowly but didn't look like she was happy that he'd figured it out. She approached the workbench carefully and stood across from him silently, letting him process it all in his head. Roy couldn't believe it. This was the link that they'd been missing the whole time. Cheshire had found it in one day and brought back every shred of information she could gather.
"Cheshire…" Roy breathed, staring at the papers in awe. He was at a complete loss as to how he should react. This was exactly what he needed. He could find Wally with this information.
"Jade."
Roy's head snapped up in surprise, "What?"
"My name," she clarified with a deadly serious stare. "It's Jade."
"Jade…" he repeated dumbly, unsure of whether she was about to stab him or smile at him.
He decided that he didn't want to wait to find out. Roy reached over the table and threaded his fingers into Jade's thick black hair. He pulled her closer and pressed their mouths together firmly, mumbling about twenty desperate 'thank you's against her lips.
When Roy pulled back to look into her eyes, he found Jade smiling back seductively, "If that's the thanks I get, you can call me for a favor anytime, Red."
Roy made a split second decision, and it was a stupid one. He reached up to his own face and peeled off the domino mask covering his eyes, "Roy."
Jade's pretty eyes widened in delight, and a grin big enough to rival her Cheshire mask spread across her face, "You weren't lying. You are more fun."
Roy kissed Jade one more time and hastily scooped up the files scattered over the top of the workbench, "I need to get these to the Justice League!"
He ran to the zeta tube and began punching in the access code to the Watchtower. He paused suddenly and turned back to fix Jade with a suspicious look. She'd put her Cheshire mask back on and was watching him with both hands on her hips and a fond tilt of her head. Roy pointed at her sternly and gestured to the room full of weapons, "Don't…steal anything…"
Jade took the bright yellow hat from Roy's Speedy costume again and tucked it into her sash.
Roy couldn't resist the smile that crept over him. He felt his chest swell with affection, and he activated the zeta beam.