I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.
Home Invasion
Cassius bounced across the floor, growling irritably and pushing himself back to his feet. Then, he carefully moved to strike again. To say that Batman was good at fighting was the same as saying that there were a lot of skilled fighters in the League of Shadows. Understatement of the century. However, he'd been trained by several of those skilled fighters, so he was able to hold his own decently against Batman. He didn't win, or even come close, but he did manage to not get absolutely slaughtered like when Robin sparred with Batman. But still, that was nothing compared to Cassandra. Her ability to read his body language gave her a huge edge, and thanks to the training she herself went through, she was even better than Cassius. At least, when he didn't use his powers. With powers, his edge was just a tad sharper than hers.
Batman called his and Cassius's match after several rounds, Cassius having won none of them. Then, Cassandra's started. It was brutal, but compared to what Cassandra was subjected to by everyone besides Cassius, it was pretty par for the course. And she did well. Out of their five rounds, she won two. Once they were finished, Batman sent them up to the house to get cleaned up. Once they had, they all had breakfast, then headed back down to the cave to see their new uniforms. Or, at least, the other two's.
Rose's was made out of a combination of Kevlar and depleted promethium that Cassius had pulled a lot of strings to get his hands on, was mostly flat black, had knee-high orange greaves, orange vambraces with three small bladed fins on the outside of each like Batman's, an orange utility belt, a high collar, and a smooth, flat black cowl attached to the back that covered her upper face, though it only had an eyehole on the left side, with the lense having a tiny microcomputer in it to give her infrared, thermal, and telescopic vision, and the back of the cowl had a pair of ties to tighten it and help hold it on, the cloths falling behind her to the middle of her back, along with he hair. Hanging from her utility belt were a pair of scabbards containing the two longswords Cassius had taken from Deathstroke's house with the "Y" shaped hilts. Batman had swapped the blades with sturdier, blunt blades that could be used for a weapon without dismembering someone. The last addition to her armor were the orange holsters strapped to her thighs with a pair of black Walther PPQs which she kept loaded with rubber bullets, and another holster on her back with her own personal pistol, a modified Colt M1911 with a compensator, slide rail extension, and extended magazine, in it positioned for her right hand to grab if she needed to use lethal force, meaning if her father showed up.
Cassandra's suit was also made from a combination of Kevlar and depleted promethium, was also mostly black, and had three bent yellow lines like insect legs, or maybe ribs, reaching toward her front from the sides, yellow splints down the outsides of her arms, pauldrons ringed in yellow a yellow circle in the middle, then half a second circle attached to it from the bottom of the pauldrons, a yellow utility belt, a pair of black grieves with yellow highlights around the plates, and a cloth full-face mask with the back attached to the back of her suit's collar, which was extremely stretchy and breathable, allowing her to wear it comfortably, see through it, and still conceal her entire face. She had small, sharp, retractable, claws in the ends of her gloves fingers, a wakizashi across the back of her waist with the hilt on the right side, one which Cassius had swapped the blade for a must more sturdy blunt one so she wouldn't have to worry about killing anyone with it, and she had an emergency blade above it that consisted of a katana-style hilt with a channel in the back where several blade segments were concealed and would fold out into a sharp, sturdy katana blade forged from titanium, making it must more sturdy than necessary, but Cassius had felt better knowing it wouldn't break if she needed it when he was designing it for Batman to have created and delivered through Wayne Enterprises. She also had had several dozen batarangs somehow, magically concealed in her utility belt, hers being rounded into a crescent with three pints along the back, a small rounded notch between them, giving them a wing shape. She was amazing with them, too. She almost never missed.
Cassius himself had decided on his formfitting armor with the lower face mask as his hero costume, since he was most used to forming that anyway, and it fit the rest of the Bat Clan's look. He formed into it as Cassandra and Rose both walked into the room in theirs, both with their masks on.
"You look good," he smiled.
"Thanks," Rose smiled.
"So do you," Cassandra signed.
"Alright you three," Robin said, walking over. "Time to choose your new names, then we're heading to the Cave to reintroduce you three to the Team and make sure you three know how to use teamwork."
"They're better at it than me," Cassius said.
"Only because we were trying to protect you," Cassandra signed, Cassius smiling behind his mask.
"We still have to test it," Robin said. "Alright. Cassius, you sticking with Void?"
"Of course," Cassius smirked. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Besides, any time I fuck up the Shadows' plans, I want them to know it was me."
"Speaking of, the League raided all of the locations you gave them," Robin said. "They're about to be very angry with you."
"I'll be ready," Cassius said. "I'll be having Cassandra teach me to fight."
Cassandra laughed into her hand, Rose snorting in amusement.
Robin simply shook his head. "Alright then. Rose, what about you?"
"I'll stick with my Shadows alias, too," Rose said. "Ravager. My father's going to be mad when he hears I'm working against the Shadows with the name he wanted his successor to have."
"You two are crazy," Robin said. "What about you, Cassandra?"
"Orphan," Cassandra signed.
"Orphan?" Robin frowned. "Wasn't that..."
"My father's," she signed, Cassius almost able to feel her face falling, despite her mask.
He pulled her into a hug and she snipped softly, holding him tightly, though she didn't cry. Not this time, at least. She had cried for him before. Several times. In the past couple weeks they'd been there, she'd relived both of her kills multiple times as nightmares, and it had gotten so bad that Cassius had begun sleeping with her so that he could wake her from her nightmares and calm her afterward without having to walk from his room to hers each time.
"Okay," Robin nodded, turning to the control panel beside the Zeta tube, typing on it for a moment. "Let's go then."
The four of them stepped into the tube, and the computer chimed in instantly. "Recognize Robin, B-Zero-One, Void, B-Zero-Five, Ravager, B-Zero-Nine, Orphan, B-One-Zero."
Cassius smiled as the Zeta tube activated and they were transported to the Cave, finding the rest of the team waiting. All of them rushed forward to welcome them back, all of them happily greeting the Team in return.
"It's so good to see you again!" Megan smiled. "How was the training?"
"Harsh," Cassius said. "Very harsh. Though, he doesn't intentionally break joints just to see hoe many times they can heal in a fight, so I've done worse."
"He also doesn't shoot us," Rose added, both Cassius and Cassandra nodding.
"And on that happy note," Kid Flash said. "We have cake!"
Both girls lit up, Cassandra's smile visible even through her mask, though she looked to Cassius for permission.
"What are you looking at me for?" Cassius grinned. "You want cake, dig in."
Both yanked their hoods off, Rose exposing the black eyepatch she now wore, since her eye had finished healing finally, though obviously remained blind. They ran to the kitchen, Kid Flash speeding ahead of them to be able to serve them, but as Cassius moved to follow, Aqualad and Robin caught his shoulders, the three waiting as Artemis, Superboy, and Megan left for the kitchen.
"Two things," Robin said.
"Firstly, Sportsmaster insinuated that there was a mole on the team," Aqualad said keeping his voice barely above a whisper, so that even Superboy wouldn't hear. "We are not sure if he meant you, or someone else. This was during my last mission when you were rescuing Cassandra and Rose."
Cassius nodded, neglecting to say who the mole was, which was the only bit of information he hadn't included on the Shadows, and had gone to great lengths to ensure the League wouldn't find out when he gave them the rest of the information.
"The other thing is a condition for you being allowed to have cake," Robin said, grinning as the mood lightened again.
"And that would be?" Cassius asked.
"No more aliases," Robin said. "We're all friends, so you should call us by our names. Except me. Batman's rules."
"You're such a Dick," Cassius smirked, Robin rolling his eyes. "Fine. I'll pay the tole. And I'll keep an ear to the ground."
Aqualad nodded and the three of them went to join the others. After about two hours of celebrating and socializing, everyone headed to bed, Cassius, Cassandra, and Rose all staying in the Cave, as Batman had given them a few days leave from training to relax while he handled Justice League business. The next day, the three of them spent some time sparring, nothing to the level of Batman, but enough to keep themselves from getting sore and stiff before having to try and fight him again. They also spent a huge portion of the day with Cassius helping Cassandra with learning English and learning to read and write, and a clone teaching Rose American sign language. Finally, they left the Cave's living room where they'd been studying and heaved to the front door where the rest of the present members of the Team were standing around Connor's motorcycle while Wally worked on it. Of the Team, Robin and Artemis were still not present, Robin being at school and Artemis being wherever she was.
"Torque wrench," Wally said.
"Probably not the best idea to let the team's comedy relief fix the motorcycle," Cassius said.
"Very funny," Wally said. "I'm almost done."
"I have been meaning to ask," Kaldur said. "Any problem juggling school work with your responsibilities here?"
"No," Connor said.
"Juggling's just one of my many talents," Wally said. "Socket wrench."
"What talents are those?" Cassius asked as Megan floated the next tool over to him. "Besides making a fool of yourself?"
"Cheerleading practice has presented a challenge," Megan said. "Oh, but my first loyalty is always to the team. This team, not the Bumblebees."
"Artemis starts school today," Kaldur said. "Do you think she will have trouble maintaining her loyalties?"
Cassius raised an eyebrow. He knew what Kaldur was doing, but his tone was starting to give him away.
"Nah, she'll manage alright," Wally smiled, standing, then caught himself, eyes widening slightly. "I mean, how much more hostile and annoying can she-"
An explosion ripped through the Cave from behind them, Cassius's entire body erupting into agony as his goo burned. He shouted in pain as he bounced and rolled to a stop before struggling to push himself up, his body shaking like a dry leaf in the wind. The others all stood quickly, Rose and Cassandra sprinting to him.
"Cassandra, help the others fight whoever it is," Cassius said, only to hear water behind him. He turned to look just as three massive pillars of water shot into the air and curved forward before crashing down, one on Wally, another on Superboy, and the third on the three of them. He flipped and spun through the water, his burns cooling slowly and beginning to regenerate, only for the water to drop him just in time for another explosion to hit him, this time robbing him of consciousness.
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