Vladivostok, Vltava

September 20, 2019

7:47 PM

Garfield's head throbbed, his body shook and his vision was blurry. It felt as if he'd been hit by a Mack truck. He tried to stand back up to his feet, placing his hand on a stone wall as he wobbled to his feet.

He looked around the dark cavern. The dungeon, he thought. The Light put him in a dungeon. It was lit dimly with candles and torches that lined the walls. His cell would be completely dark if it weren't for a young girl, whose body was emitting light like a candle.

Gar slowly approached the girl who stared at him in awe. She was much shorter than he was, five foot one Gar thought. Maybe shorter. She had short black hair no longer than her chin, and dark, near black, brown eyes.

Her skin was olive toned and covered in acne and freckles. Her expression was clearly of admiration of the Beast Boy. She held back a fangirly smile and shriek behind her stiff expression.

"Hey," Garfield said quietly and softly, "What's your name?"

"Isobella Chen," The girl answered, trying to not get too loud and alert the Terror Twins.

Gar nodded, he remembered that a girl named Lillian Chen was murdered in the Bloodbath by Brother Blood only weeks earlier. By her description and photo, Iobella was nearly identical to her.

"You can call me Bella!" Isobella spurt after a few moments of silence from Beast Boy. He nodded again, Bella was quite zealous he thought.

"How long have I been out?" Beast Boy asked, looking over his shoulder to see Tommy and Tuppence were not paying attention to this cell.

"Almost a week I think," Bella said, her light dimming, "You woke a couple times for a few seconds and screamed Queen Perdita's name like twenty times."

Garfield paid no notice to that last remark. He remembered being worried about her. Terrified. He needed to know if Perdita was even still alive, but he had an inhibitor collar around his neck.

He turned to Bella with a curious eye, she wore no collar and was actually using her metahuman ability of light manipulation to illuminate the cell.

"Why did they not put a collar on you Bella?" Gar asked.

"All I can do is be a lightbulb," Bella said, "I know I might be able to do more, Lilly could, but that doesn't really matter because these jerks don't see me as a threat."

"Well, light generates heat," Garfield said running up to her and grabbed her hand, "If you can get bright and hot enough I think you can melt through my collar."

Bella pulled her hand away nervously. Her hand glew yellow like the sun. Her skin was as warm as a candescent lightbulb. There was no way she could get hot enough to melt through steel.

"I could hurt you," She protested.

"Don't worry," Gar said with a reassuring smirk, "I've had third degree burns in the past, nothing new."

On the other side of the long corridor Nate woke with a pounding sensation in his head. Blood trickled down his forehead, he hadn't the slightest clue where the cut was or where it came from.

He felt an unusual metal ring around his neck. Dammit, he thought. He grabbed it in both hands and tried to pry it off. When that failed he tried to vibrate his molecules through it.

He knew his speed was shut off, but he still tried. He paid so much attention to trying to break free, he didn't realize his cowl was off of his face and he was exposed to his captors.

Junior stood outside the cell watching the boy struggle. He cackled to himself and eyed Nathaniel. Slowing his eyes at the boy's legs. What wouldn't he give to break those things.

Freeze the Kid Flash poser in ice from the knees down and shatter his lower legs like glass. He mused about the thought of it for a while then decided to mess around with the boy.

He took out the collar's remote and pressed the blue button. Volts of electricity coursed through the collar and then through Nate's body sending the boy crashing to his knees. All the while Junior laughed like an idiot.

Red Hood watched Junior, disgusted at his infatuation with torturing a fifteen year old boy. Jason rolled his eyes, he tapped a pen on the desk and then looked at the computer screen, he saw footage from every camera in the caverns.

He was bored, his primary tasks were already completed. He was now any other lakey of the Light. He didn't know why but he hated himself for it.

All he felt when looking at Junior, the Twins or Devastation was hate. But when he saw Beast Boy and Nate in KF's suit he had an odd sensation of calm. One he couldn't explain.

He watched Nate be shocked like cattle on one end of a prod. He couldn't stop looking, but not paying attention. He didn't see Nate, he saw something else.

It was like a fog came over Jason's mind. But the fog cleared somewhat, he saw himself and a tall red haired man as Robin and Kid Flash respectively, he saw them in a warehouse.

He saw Robin and Kid Flash with collar's round their necks, volts of electricity being sent through their bodies. With a shadowed figure before them. A figure that wore a navy robe, carried a sword at his hip and a revolver on the other hip.

When he saw that figure the center of his forehead felt a sharp, piercing pain. A pain that went through his whole head from front to back.

Jason's eyes shot open and he gasped. He looked around, he was back in the caverns. Junior glared at him blankly. One eyebrow raised at the young man.

"You good?" Junior asked, Jason's eyes didn't waver to look at Junior. He stared at Nate. The young teen grabbed hold of the cell bars and yelled at Junior asking if that was all the ice villain had.

"I'm good," Jason's words came from his lips slowly, as if he wondered what context he meant that sentence in. Again, he just didn't know.

"Better be," Devastation's voice roared as the titan of a woman came down the stairs with Grid.

Jason and Junior stood up to her, waiting for their leader to spout some bullshit orders to them once more.

"Vertigo's got you two working in his 'throne' room," Grid spat, "Our shift is over."

Junior groaned. He slugged passed devastation and Grid mumbling something about smelling fish and motor oil as he moved passed. Devastation glared at him, seemed as if she'd rip his head off.

Jason rolled his eyes and went back to the desk and grabbed his mask. He was about to put it on when he caught Perdita staring at him out of the corner of his eye. She looked at him like she couldn't believe her eyes.

Either that Jason Todd, someone she met through Wally West was still alive, or that he'd be standing with Onslaught. Not that Jason knew that, the name Wally West seemed to have been cleared from his mind, as was the last time he was in Vlativa.

Four Years Ago…

"Don't worry princess!" Jason shouted jumping down from the palace chandelier. He landed in front of a twelve year old Perdita, squatted down an escrima stick in each hand, and a wide smile on his face.

Perdita groaned. She didn't like this Robin. Not as much as the last one. The only reason why he was even here was because Vertigo hired off Deadshot to assassinate her. So Robin and Kid Flash were dispatched to respond should Floyd Lawton was to actually show up.

He did.

Lawton stood several feet in front of the boy wonder, a Remington R4 assault rifle in his hands, the bump stock rammed into his shoulder as he started to fire at Robin.

Jason leaped into the air, but not before grabbing the young queen by the arm. He took her to the window where Wally waited to extract her. The hand off was a success and Wally put Perditia on his back piggyback style and ran off into the woods. To where M'gann and the bioship waited.

Now this was when Jason could have some fun. He spun his batons in between his fingers then extended his arms in front of his chest, the two escrima sticks extended and combined into a bo staff.

Deadshot had already wasted a mag trying to get Jason already. So he threw the rifle onto the red carpet below. He pulled two short, curved swords from his boots and smirked under his mask.

"Alright kid," He sneered, "You aren't getting in the way of this paycheck."

Jason shook his head in disagreeance and spun his staff around his body. He moved forward spinning his body like a dancer while also spinning his weapon. He reached Lawton and their weapons clashed with a loud bang.

"Oh I will," Jason cackled, "Just like last time!"

Present Day…

Jason awoke from his day dream with a hand on his head and heavy breathing in his chest. He looked around, realizing he was already in the throne room. He must've gotten there while he was dreaming about memories that were too fuzzy and didn't seem like him at all.

He stared at a large wall spanning mirror and took his mask off, both the mouth cover and domino mask. He gazed at his reflection. He walked closer to it.

He stared into his own crystal blue eyes, blue like the ocean. He saw his black hair, brown at the roots, with one streak of white in the front that went to the left side of his centre parted hairstyle.

He had a scar on his forehead, it was circular. In the same area where many headaches originated for him. He reached to the back of his head and felt a second scar, if there was any way to tell he'd see that the scars could make a straight path through his head.

He also knew of a scar on his chest and one on his back that was where a sword must've been ran through him.

"Red Hood!" Vertigo shouted, increasingly angry, Jason jumped clear out of his skin with wide eyes.

"Yes my king," Jason spurted out quickly.

"Stop being so vain," Vertigo ordered, "The mirror isn't for you"

"Yes my liege," Jason sighed, bowing slightly. He turned away from the mirror to stand at the left hand side of the throne. But before he did, he took one last look. One last look at the man who was Jason Todd.

Below in the caverns Garfield finally got Isobella to try and burn through the collar. She couldn't.

"Beast Boy I am sorry," She cried after only three attempts.

"We have to try again." Gar ordered.

"I'll end up burning you." She pleaded .

"It'll be worth it." Garfield said. "Now try again, but get brighter, get hotter."

Isobella took in a deep breath. She wrapped her hands around the collar around Beast Boy's neck and sighed. She took one look into his eyes. He was giving her a reassuring smile. She smirked then her face went stone cold.

First her hands glew with bright yellow light, that turned blue, then started to change to white. As the cell got brighter it got hotter.

Sweat beaded on Gar's forehead and he shut his eyes. He could feel smoldering metal on his neck. He smiled, then started to scream. He yelled telling Bella to stop. She let go of the collar quickly.

The inhibitor chip inside had been destroyed. The room went completely dark and Gar's screaming stopped completely. Bella's heart skipped a beat, did she kill Beast Boy.

She raised her right palm and shined a dim light and saw the side of a green brown bear. She could hardly keep her laughter contained. Neither could Garfield. They both looked down at the floor at two halves of the inhibitor collar, one melted and singed, the other in near perfect condition for being broken.

Garfield transformed back into his humanoid form and gave her a thumbs up. He had a large red burn on the right side of his neck and jaw.

"Oh my god!" Bella said.

"It's all good, now stand back, way back." Garfield ordered. Bella did as told and ran to the very back of the cell.

She shone her light at Garfield and watched as his body start to transform. Into a form he never used. He grew in size, height width and volume. He grew a large scaly tail and two muscular hind leg that he now stood on, with three claws on both feet.

His arms shrunk, dwarfed by the rest of his scaly body. His five fingers became three sharp claws. His nose and lower face grew into a large snout and his teeth sharpened into large knives inside his mouth. His eyes went black and his green skin became scales.

Isobella watched in awe then shrieked and grinned from ear to ear when she heard Gar make the loudest, most animalistic and monstrous roar she'd ever heard. The kind she only heard in her favorite movie. Jurassic Park.

Gar then rammed the top of his head into the cell door. Knocking the wall down. As it crumbled he morphed back into human form and put his hands on his hips. A wide toothed smile on his face.

"Hell yeah," He shouted, "Let's fucking go!"