"Icon here," both girls heard him say. "What is it?"

"Aqualad really needs your help!" Racquel cried before Icon barely finished his sentence. "He and his guards were attacked by Black Manta! We cannot reach him or Aquaman! He needs backup!"

"The League is already stretched thin with everyone searching for your missing Team members," Icon answered. "But I'll try to call reinforcements. I'll try to get some other emergency message to Aquaman somehow. Icon out." The comm went silent.

"Come on, Kaldur, you can make it," Zatanna prayed for their friend. "You're strong, and clever. You can pull through, I'm sure of it."

"If underwater communication hadn't been cut off right now, I would've yelled my head off at him if he didn't make it," Raquel grumbled, crossing her arms, which soon turned to worry. "He's just gotta be alright. I mean, the Justice League has trained us to be in the worse of situations, from fighting Amazo with all the powers of the Justice League, to the League themselves being controlled by the Light or some source again, or having to fight the Injustice League without our weapons."

"That does remind me of one mission that Artemis told me," Zatanna said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Remember when the entire Team first encountered Scarecrow's fear gas?"

"Uh, duh," Raquel said, shuddering. "It has been really hard to forget that story."

Batman had sent the Team to to one of their really rare missions to Gotham City. Usually the Dynamic Duo took care of things themselves, but the Mad Hatter had recently broken out of Arkham Asylum, along with Scarecrow and he needed some reinforcements. So he sent Robin and the Team to help him, though somewhat reluctantly. Then he went after the Mad Hatter by himself, while the Team pursued Scarecrow.

"He should be right here," Robin said, opening a door to an old warehouse. "Warehouse 9, by Gotham Harbor. He should be around here somewhere."

"Miss Martian, mind link up," Aqualad had ordered at once.

"Link established," she'd replied. "Superboy, do you see anything?"

Superboy leveled an intense stare at his surroundings, and they instantly knew that he was using his infrared heat vision, along with Kid flash.

"Nothing," Kid flash said. "I'm not picking up any heat signatures."

"Same here," Superboy agreed. Just then his eyes narrowed. "Wait..."

"What is it?" Artemis asked. "Do you see Scarecrow?"

"I'm not sure...but I definitely see something up there." Superboy pointed at the balcony above them.

"Wait, I'm getting something up there too!" Kid flash gave them a grin. "Am I good at pointing out our surroundings or what?" The Team just playfully rolled their eyes, while Artemis let out a disbelieving scoff.

"Team, move quietly. We do not want to alert him that we're here." Aqualad pulled out his water bearers. "Robin, does he have any-Robin?"

There was an echo of his cackle, and suddenly Robin swooped on the floor above them on his grapple hook and kicked the hiding figure onto the first floor. With a grunt, the figure landed in a tangled heap in front of the Team.

"Scarecrow!" Aqualad exclaimed.

"Urgh...how did you..." Scarecrow groaned, his hands rubbing the part on his chest where Robin had kicked him.

"I may only have about half of Superman's powers," Superboy stepped up. "But I still do have his super senses. No matter how quiet or how much you blend into the background, I can hear your heartbeat and breathing, along with your heat signatures, whether you're hiding behind something or not."

"You might as well give up." Artemis held up her bow. "You're completely outnumbered, and I don't see any of your henchmen here to protect you. You're trapped."

"Am I?" Scarecrow hissed, as he pulled a button from his pocket.

"What is th-" Aqualad started, right before Scarecrow pressed the it. Instantly, all the barrels and crates in the warehouse exploded, each filled with gas.

"Agh-*cough*-what" KF coughed.

"Scarecrow's fear gas!" Robin yelled. "Whatever you do, don't breathe it in!" But it was too late.

Superboy had started screaming, and throwing wildly uncoordinated punches at imaginary monsters and enemies everywhere all around him, attacking and smashing everything that he could get his hands on. Miss Martian started sobbing, curled up in a ball in midair, and every once in a while, she'd scream and all the objects in the warehouse would go shooting towards the ceiling at once. Aqualad was kneeling on the ground, his eyes dazed and yet like a wild, insane beast, muttering in his native Atlantean tongue. Kid flash was yelling in his fear-induced state, and he was sprawled on the floor, vibrating so fast and hard that his body was practically a blur, everything that was touching him, including the floor, started to smoke and burn and wear away from the friction. Artemis was also shrieking at the top of her lungs, her fingernails curved into claws as she wildly tried to ward and fight off an imaginary threat that no one else could see, hear, or feel. But not finding anything solid to claw on, she began to claw at her own skin.

"Now that's more like it!" Scarecrow cackled. "Tell Batman that he shouldn't send children to do his dirty work! It might give them nightmares!" But then his eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute. Where's that wretched Boy Wonder?"

"Right here!" he heard Robin cackled back, a way less creepier, crueler, and sinister version of Scarecrow's cackle. A birdarang came flying out of the thick smog of the fear gas and burst into a grapple of ropes, instantly tying up the villain.

"What-" the villain started, and Robin leapt out from the shadows, and planted an uppercut on his chin. Scarecrow's eyes rolled back into his hand, and he fell unconscious on the floor right next to Robin's feet.

"Okay, you guys!" Robin yelled at his team. "Scarecrow's down! There's no need to act whelmed anymore!"

The Team immediately stopped going insane, and stood up on their feet, looking perfectly calm. All the objects that Miss Martian had been levitating crashed back down to earth.

"So how was our acting skills?" Wally asked excitedly. "Maybe we should quit the hero gig and try Hollywood! We could meet some really hot babes over there!"

"Oh, grow up," Artemis scowled, elbowing him, earning a pained grunt in response.

"Are you okay?" M'gaan asked her. "I mean, I did see you clawing at yourself, and-"

"I'm fine. Totally fine." Artemis assured, showing her friends her arms, shoulders, and parts of her face she'd been scratching on. "Fortunately, I managed to make the clawing-at-myself act look realistic. I can't believe we actually manage to fool Scarecrow with our acting."

"Yeah," Superboy said. "I guess our mentors training us to face against Scarecrow's fear gas paid off eventually."

"Well, I'm just glad that's over," Robin said. "They exposed us to that stuff so many times that even I've lost count. They've probably made us go through at least dozens of scenarios when someone has fear gas as a weapon. Compared to the first time I've been exposed to the gas to now, the first time was like being in Candyland in heaven."

Their comm suddenly beeped. "Aqualad here," Kaldur answered, putting a finger by his ear.

"Batman calling Team," they heard his deep voice say. "The Mad Hatter and his insane Wonderland territory threat has been neutralized. What about Scarecrow?"

"He has been taken down and apprehended. We're ready to drop him off at Arkham Asylum."

"Good," he said. "We'll rendezvous at Commissioner Gordon's police station. Batman out." The comm fell silent.

A faint whimper of pain came from Scarecrow as he slowly started to gain consciousness. "But how...how did my gas did not..." he groaned.

"Please," Superboy scoffed. "Our mentors made us get over our fears and how to survive in situations with fear gas like yours for months. This Team has also been through worse than just having me see hallucinations of myself taking down my friends and going over to Lex Luthor's side. Your fear gas to us now, is merely like a bad dream to us all."

"Yep!" Kid flash said cheerfully. "You're going to have invent something better then fear gas next time." A dark shadow suddenly loomed out of the darkness, and he stifled a scream. Not real, not real, he chanted to himself.

"Come on," said Kaldur. "Let's send this villain back to where he came from."

Superboy hoisted Scarecrow over his back and the Team headed over to the bioship.

"Hey, Supey, you almost forget!" KF reminded him.

"What? Oh, right." Superboy punched Scarecrow, and the villain was knocked out once more, and then blindfolded as they entered the bioship.

Robin choked back a yelp of terror. "Concentrate, Robin," he muttered to himself. "You can pull through this. Batman's trained you how to."

Ten minutes later, the bioship reached their destination.

"We've reached the commissioner's station," Miss Martian announced as she opened the hatch, and then let out a scream of terror. She then took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"M'gaan, are you okay?" Connor asked worriedly. Sitting in the bioship while listening to his friends' heartbeats beating much faster than average had unsettled him, while also still under the influence of Scarecrow's fear gas. He bit back a gasp of fright while seeing and hearing his hallucinations, and being able to feel them.

"Just like a certain little brother said," M'gaan nodded in Robin's direction and smiled affectionately, which Robin returned. "I can pull through this."

Batman approached them as soon as they all stepped out of the bioship. "How'd the mission go?"

"It was a success. Despite being under the influence of the fear gas, we've all managed to pull through just like how you taught us." Kaldur handed the still unconscious Scarecrow to two policemen standing nearby, who shoved him into the backseat of their car, handcuffed him, and drove away.

Robin ran to Batman and threw his arms around him. "Bruce," he murmured into his adoptive father's chest, letting the his warmth and woody scent wash all over him, despite his Team being there.

Batman knelt down to his level and tugged him closer to his chest. "It's good to see you, putin pasare (Little bird)" he muttered, resting his chin atop the messy raven hair.

They stayed like that for a several seconds, until Batman's eyes narrowed, noticing how fast Robin was breathing, and it wasn't because he was tired from a long run.

"Robin.." he warned.

Robin looked confused. "What?"

"Robin!" he growled, as he pulled out the antidote from his belt and plunged it into his arm. "You were supposed to take the antidote yourself! Didn't you bring it along with you?"

Robin searched his belt. "Oh, wait, I do have the antidote," he said, looking sheepish, and feeling a lot calmer as his head cleared and the terrible hallucinations vanished.

"Wait, we all have them," he and Bruce heard Wally say as the Team searched their pockets. Kid flash also looked sheepish. "Whoops."

"Why didn't any of you take the antidote when you took down Scarecrow?" Batman asked angrily. "The League and I have trained you to be calm and collected whenever you breathed in Scarecrow's fear gas when you were fighting him, not when you all were heading back towards the police station! Do you have any idea how dangerous it was to fly the bioship when you all were experiencing hallucinations?"

"...We, um, forgot to take them?" Wally asked.

"We didn't get hurt when we were flying the bioship! Honest!" M'gaan exclaimed. "You and the League have trained us so well in this situation that we can go for an entire day under the fear gas influence without freaking out or getting scared, even seeing those horrible hallucinations!"

"And just so you know," Connor grunted. "The effects of Scarecrow's gas gets worse the longer it's on someone without getting the antidote, or experiencing it again each time."

"Robin, how many times have you been exposed to that stuff?" Kaldur asked.

"Come to think about it, I don't know." Robin tapped his chin in deep thought. "I've been exposed to the gas so many times that I've just simply lost count."

"And does the hallucinations get worse every time you breathe in the fear gas over the years?" Artemis asked. "I've noticed that the effects get stronger and worse, not better."

"Yep," Robin nodded. "But it doesn't bother me anymore."

"Ugh," Raquel said, shuddering again. "I can still remember Artemis telling us that story like it was yesterday."

"Me too," said Zatanna. "It's a good thing that our mentors trained us to stay calm through Scarecrow's fear gas too, just like them. The first time I breathed it in, it was absolutely terrifying. Ugh!" She shivered. "The Leaguers have been training me in situations like that for six months, and I still have nightmares about the first encounter."

"Which is exactly why the Team has not been telling the Teen Titans anything about their past missions," Raquel pointed out. "If they found out, they'll probably try to stop the League members from training us, from being under to the influence of fear gas, to simulations like back in early October, when the Justice League dies and we're the only ones left. And if the Doom Patrol finds out, oh my god, we've already seen how reluctant they were to let the Teen Titans fight against the Brain, and some of our members are younger than them. They'll probably try to remove us from the League's care, because apparently," she rolled her eyes, "We're 'too young' to handle anything big, and too inexperienced. Just so they know, the Team has existed way before Beastboy had joined the Team, and have been through worse than them. Maybe WE could them the Doom Patrol a thing or two, along with the Teen Titans, not the other way around like they always though of kid heroes."

"True," Zatanna sighed. "While sifting through the Teen Titans's memory, they treated the Titans no more than sidekicks, similar to how the League treated their partners back during the Fourth of July."

"Hang on!" Raquel suddenly exclaimed as her comm beeped. "I think this one is coming from Kaldur!"

"Really?" Zatanna was closer by Raquel's side in an instant. "How did he manage to reach to us? I thought underwater communication was down!"

"I don't know, but either way, I am so glad!" Raquel accepted the call quickly. "Kaldur what is it?"

"Rocket, it's Black Manta-he has-" There came a surprised gasp, and then the gasp became choked, which sounded like he was being strangled, and then the comm went completely silent once more.