Chapter 17

A/N: hey everyone welcome back! So, I know the last chapter was a little confusing, and it was supposed to be, so don't worry, things will tie back to the main plot…eventually. Anyways, I just own my OCs and nothing else is mine.

/comms/

Telepathy

Mt. Justice, September 22, 18:43EDT

Skylar strode down the hall, pulling her fiery hair back into a ponytail. Frankly she wasn't sure why they were all at the cave today. From the sounds of things, they didn't have any training scheduled, and she doubted it was a mission as usually they didn't take this long to start.

"What is it you wish to speak to me about?" she heard Red Tornado's robotic voice question from around the corner.

The redhead raised an eyebrow, she didn't request to speak with him, which meant…someone else did. Gritting her teeth, the girl started to turn back to wait in the living room until the conversation was over, but a small part of her made her hesitate on going back.

After all, if it was anything private and/or personal, they would've gone to Black Canary; who knew how to close a door in a soundproof room to keep the conversation private. Not have it out in the middle of the freaking training room with the Zeta Tubes where anyone could hear. Plus, Canary was the understanding one, not the machine. Which meant…that this conversation was team-related. So, it would come back to them all eventually. What would be the harm if she found out just a little sooner than the others, after all, the conversation was in the hall anyone could stumble upon it?

"I have reason to suspect there's a mole on the team," Kaldur's voice replied.

Skylar nearly facepalmed. Dumbass was really having a conversation like this in the freaking open?

Shaking her head, she leaned closer to the corner, this was important, she couldn't miss anything. If there was a traitor on the team, suspects needed to be ruled out as soon as possible. Especially if they were working for the former masters of her and her friends; she would not let herself or them be dragged back under their subjugation again.

"Why"

"Sportsmaster gave me the information on my mission to assist Red Arrow in Taipei, he gave details that suggest that there could be a potential traitor on the inside."

Well, that wasn't specific. And really? Suggest there could be a potential traitor? There either was or there wasn't, it was simple. Any other conjecture could be used to sow doubt between allies, seriously it was one of the first things she—and not doubt Onyx and Amber—had been taught back in the lab while they'd been training. It was literally Supervillain 101.

"And have you told no one else of this mole?"

"I cannot be certain there is one," Kaldur replied and Skylar rolled her eyes. At least he was doubting the words of Sportsmaster, he was doing something right. "I must investigate quietly, and avoid tipping my hand. But I wonder, should I tell Batman?"

Yes, absolutely tell the person who could figure this shit out in less than a day!

"Generally, the Batman expects the Team to figure out its own issues, but the decision is yours," Tornado answered. "I will return after monitor duty on the Watchtower."

"I thought you were exempt from monitor duty?"

"I am covering for Green Arrow. He has an interpersonal event with Black Canary, a hot date."

"Recognized: Red Tornado—16."

Peering around the corner, Skylar looked out towards Kaldur, watching as he retreated towards the hangar where everyone else was hanging out. No doubt about to interrogate them.

Small wisps of smoke came from between her teeth as she hissed. Honestly, just when she was starting to think they were getting beyond such stupid mistakes. If Kaldur really did suspect a mole, did he not know the dangers of having the meeting with Red out in the open like that. He was lucky it had only been her to stumble across them.

"Recognized: Nightmare—B08."

The Zeta Tube activated and she perked up as Onyx arrived, stretching his arms and grimacing as if he were sore. Considering her own training regiment with her parents, it wasn't hard to work out that he probably had just as harsh of one under the Amazons. But that didn't mean she wasn't happy to see a friendly face.

"Onyx!" she exclaimed greeting him with a hug.

He gave a soft grunt of surprise, his tail slowly wagging as he realized it was just her. "Oh, hey Sky. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much," she smirked crossing her arms, "just overheard some interesting information our dear team leader has decided to keep from us."

Onyx sighed, putting his hands on his hips as he shook his head. "Oh, dear, snooping again?"

"Oh please, you were worse than I was," she said. "Wanna hear it?"

He raised a brow, crossing his own arms as his tail flicked back and forth. "It's nothing personal is it?"

"Onyx, I wouldn't listen in if it was personal, nor would I say anything," Sky reassured. "This is serious, really serious."

Any trace of amusement left his face once she said those words, golden eyes hardening as he grabbed her shoulders. Onyx glanced around now on high alert as he grabbed her arm and quickly moved to one of the rooms further away from the training room, closing the doors behind them. "What happened?"

"Kaldur thinks there's an imposter among us," she stated.

"A traitor?"

She nodded, "He didn't say who they were working for. Only that he got the possible intel from Sportsmaster."

"The assassin," he remembered holding his chin in contemplation. "Assassins typically work for someone as well, so he might be the hired middleman."

"Or he could've been hired to sow dissent among us," she said.

"That too," he agreed tail lashing. "Do we have any suspects so far?"

"Other than ourselves, Amber, and Kaldur—who brought up the issue, no," she replied. "Anyone can be bought for the right price."

"Or blackmailed," Onyx growled. "So we can't trust anyone."

"Maybe Red Arrow," she remembered.

"Red Arrow?"

Sky nodded, "Kaldur mentioned he was with him when he got the info."

"Makes sense, and he's not on the team either, which would make it harder to get info on our missions and weaknesses if there is a traitor." The older boy paced the room slightly, seeming to contemplate their next course of action. "Have you told Amber yet?"

"No, but given how she'd trying to work with her brother," she pointed out and Onyx scowled.

"Right, she might be compromised."

"Should we tell Batman, or at least our parents?" she suggested. "I think it might be best, given they could investigate more than we could."

Onyx nodded, "If there is a traitor, the League needs to know. And I doubt Red will tell them, given how he is on interfering already."

"Yeah, he didn't really make the best impression on that first day," she grimaced. "Robin had the heartless machine thing right."

/Remix! Nightmare!/ Kaldur's voice rang out in their comms, causing the pair to jump. /We have intruders in—/ there was a grunt, followed by static.

"Comm's dead," Nightmare hissed. Looking around the room, he locked on a small vent cover and quickly used his claws to pry it open.

"What're you doing?" Remix asked.

"Don't you think it's odd that just after Kaldur suggested the idea of a traitor we're under attack?" he asked.

"You think the traitor was listening," she realized.

"For it to happen this soon, they were. And no doubt they've already cut off our communications to the outside world," he replied. "We need to make ourselves scare, see who we're up against. Think you can squeeze in?"

Looking at the vent Skylar hissed through her teeth, "It'll be a tight fit, but I can."

"It won't be tight for too long, the wider vents are just to the right, about ten feet down," he said helping her in.

"You really memorized the vents?" she asked slowly starting to shimmy down the vent as Onyx helped pushed her so he could climb in.

"Yeah, force of habit I guess," she heard him chuckle as there was a clunk of metal. He was probably reattaching the vent cover. "Back in the lab, I used to pull off escape attempts."

"Who didn't?" she smirked sliding into the larger vent passage.

"True," he replied, sliding up beside her. "But, Master, he trained me for the assassination stuff. Taught me how to memorize every escape and attack angle…" he glanced away, "it was, the only good thing I learned from him."

Skylar pulled her knees up. "Yeah, fighting is one of the few things they taught me. My expertise was mostly supposed to be pyrotechnics and ariel combat."

"But despite what they taught us, it was still hell," Onyx whispered curling his tail around his ankles. "I wouldn't give anything to be back there."

"They torture you too?" she whispered as her green eyes met his gold.

"Yeah," he replied pulling a small panel from the wall and grabbing his phone to plug it in. "Deactivating the motion and heat sensors to prevent tracking."

"Smart."

He looked up at her, a soft smile forming on his face, "Hey, we aren't going to go back there, I promise."

"I was going to say the same to you," she returned feeling a little more hopeful. "Now come on, with my wings it's going to take us a while to reach wherever they're holding our teammates."

"Think they got captured?"

"Considering we haven't heard from them yet, yes."

-.-

19:02EDT

"Recognized: Robin—B01, Artemis—B10."

Hearing that, the pair looked at each other and started crawling through the vents faster trying to find an exit so they could help their non-captured teammates. Their suspicions about the others being captured earlier had been confirmed when they saw them all held in the training room. Amber, Conner and Wally were held in some sort of metal that had been bent around them to prevent moving and Kaldur and M'gann had been held in some sort of fire cage.

And while they hadn't been able to see the intruders, they could at least deduce some things about them. They were strong and fire-based, which was an advantage for Skylar since she was also fire-based. However, they still didn't know what they looked like or what other abilities they had. Heck for all they knew there could have been more than one.

"The air vent!" Artemis exclaimed.

"Sky, move," Onyx said crawling on top of her.

"At least buy me dinner first."

"Ha ha, Sky." Crawling over her, Onyx smirked, playfully whacking her with his tail. He popped out of the tunnel, looking to see Artemis and Robin coming towards them. "Hey guys, welcome to the shit show."

Grabbing Artemis's arm, he pulled her up and started crawling back to make room for Robin as a large column of flame cut through the vent passage they were just in. "Too close," the Boy Wonder panted.

"How long have you guys been in here?" Artemis asked.

"Long enough," Sky replied. "We've been trying to figure out what's going on. All we got was Kaldur warning us that there was an intruder in the cave before all comms went dead."

"I managed to turn off the motion and heat sensors," Onyx chimed in. "And we know the others are captive in the main area."

"Yeah, we saw that too," Artemis confirmed.

"And we also know there's two intruders, not one. One fire-based, the other water-based," Robin added. "Make a right. There should be a vent cover right in front of you."

"Alright," Sky said making a turn and pulling on the cover. "This won't be difficult or anything." Shoving herself headfirst they all grimaced as there was a clang and a flurry of feathers flew up. "Ow."

"You ok Sky?" Onyx asked peering down to see her glowing eyes peering up at him.

The vent below began to glow red as her wings and hair began to glow. "Just get down here."

Well, she was ok for the most part. Looking at his tail, Onyx glowered as he realized his own situation. He couldn't go down feet-first otherwise he'd land on or he'd injure his tail. Sighing, he dove down headfirst and grunted as he landed in a heap at the bottom of the vent.

"You ok?" Sky asked.

"No."

Thumping came from above and their eyes went wide and Sky grabbed his arm, helping him scramble out of the way as Artemis and Robin came down. "Alright, now we go to the end of the tunnel, there'll be a vent cover."

"Another vent cover?" Skylar groaned starting to crawl down. "If we fall down another shaft I'm pushing you first." She pushed the cover out, causing it to land to the ground in a clatter as she jumped out, quickly spreading her wings and flying in the air. The others followed her, landing on the platform. Robin made a motion with his hand, running down the stairs meeting Sky at the bottom as she landed. The group raced past the heaters and other various boilers and pipes as the vent they were just in exploded open to reveal a flaming feminine figure.

Hiding behind a boiler, the group of teens peered out to see the unknown woman seeming to look around for them before raising the flames higher. "That's not good," Robin muttered.

"What?"

He pointed drawing all of their attention to one of the monitors which was flashing as it entered the red zone. "Really, I thought that was a fantastic sign," Remix remarked moving out from their hiding spot and she flew towards the flaming woman. Colliding with her, Remix bared her fangs and hurled her across the room. "I've got her, you guys go!"

Albeit reluctantly, the others raced past her to the next vent point and Skylar cracked her knuckles as the flaming being approached. Stepping into the light, her brows shot up as she saw a Red Tornado like machine. "So the Traitor was Red Tornado. That was unexpected." Baring her fangs, she let her eyes and wings begin to glow like flame. "And I bet you'll melt before you can even dream of reaching my max."

-.-

"You think Sky will be ok?" Artemis asked as they crawled through the other access tunnel.

"Trust me, she'll be fine," Onyx reassured. "She can take whoever we're up against."

"And once again, I ask: Who are we up against?!"

"But we can find out," Robin smirked coming to a stop. Pulling on the vent wall, he unveiled a small panel and connected to glove to it to start typing. Pulling up a feed, he showed footage of the hangar where M'gann, Conner, Amber and Wally stood working on Superboy's bike.

"May I ask: has anyone been having difficulties balancing things between here and school?" Kaldur asked walking into the room.

Onyx almost facepalmed. If Kaldur was trying to be discreet in finding the mole; he sucked.

"Well balancing school and cheer practice has been difficult," M'gann spoke. "But my loyalty will always be to the team—this team, not the Bumblebees."

"I mean, it's not that hard," Amber said.

"Juggling things is one of my many talents," Wally spoke up. "Socket Wrench."

"And what of Artemis? She starts school today," Kaldur reminded. "How do you think she'll fare?"

By his side, Artemis scowled. Onyx didn't blame her, it was blatantly obvious she was picking up on Kaldur's distrust. But considering she and Robin weren't here when Kaldur had his conversation with Tornado, it meant neither of them could overhear the conversation. So, either they already pre-planned the raid—which given the timing was unlikely; meaning that it was likely neither of them was the mole. Which left Superboy, M'gann, and Wally as the likely suspects.

"What happened?" Artemis asked drawing his attention back to the camera feed.

"Something took out the camera, looking for another angle," Robin replied. Pulling up another feed, they could see Amber blasting at something before a tide of water cut the camera. Cursing under his breath, Robin moved to another stream where they could see Aqualad summoning his own water and Kid Flash running off as Sphere was hurled at him before flames consumed the camera. Moving to the last feed they could see a shadow for a moment before that camera too was cut off with a wave of water. "That's it, all four are dead—the cameras!" Robin corrected himself as he saw the look on Artemis's face, "I meant the cameras. I'm sure the others are ok."

"Hopefully," Onyx said. "Whoever we're fighting is pretty powerful as to have brought down our team."

"I'll find the fastest way to the hangar," Robin said. After a minute, he pulled his glove away and motioned for them to follow. Crawling down the maze of vents, they made their way towards a panel that Robin kicked open. There was a dull clang as the piece hit the floor, allowing the trio to climb out and land silently in the library. "There's a secret access panel behind one of these bookcases," Robin whispered as they darted through the narrow isles.

"Seriously, cliché much?" Artemis muttered.

"You guys should see the Batcave," Robin scoffed.

A door hissed open, and they all stopped, pressing themselves against one of the shelves facing away from the door. Onyx put his hand on his hip, pulling is lasso out of its latch and wrapping one end around his wrist. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Robin holding a batarang on the opposite aisle and Artemis was notching a bow behind him.

"Artemis, Nightmare, Robin."

Almost instantly, the archer's stance relaxed as a grin came to her face. "It's Red Tornado," she said starting to come out. An unfamiliar android stood in front of her.

"Yes on the Red, no on the Tornado," Onyx said coming out and catching the android's arm on his rope. Kicking it in the knee, Nightmare turned on his heel and hurled the android into the wall, causing cracks to spread out. Running to the library entrance, they stopped as they same flames and another android slid on the ground in front of the door, looking partially melted before it lunged into the unknown again.

"What are they?!" Artemis exclaimed as they ran back through the shelves towards the back.

"Androids," Nightmare replied as he and Robin started to pull books from their shelves as they tried to find the one hiding the passage.

"Did you know Tornado had siblings?!" Artemis asked firing an arrow at the android marching on them.

"No!" Robin exclaimed grabbing Artemis and dragging he through the now open passage as bookshelves began to fall towards them.

"So what now? Red Tornado is one of the main powerhouses of the League, how are we supposed to take on two of him?!" Artemis exclaimed.

"They do seem pretty user unfriendly," Robin quipped.

"Don't joke!"

"Well, I don't know about you, but the one I saw Remix fighting didn't look too good," Onyx pointed out.

Artemis perked up, "Right, Remix was lava resistant in the Tower of Fate. So…she's able to withstand heat and she's strong."

"Not to mention she can dish out heat too," Robin smirked. "I mean…" he trailed off, "the other one was starting to melt. Which means, while the other one is preoccupied we only have to deal with one."

"And now we know it's a machine," Nightmare grinned raising his fist allowing lightning to spark across is hands, "I bet it isn't lightning resistant."

"And even if it is, one well time electro-magnetic pulse should deactivate them," Robin grinned. "Artemis and I will try to reach the others in the hangar. KF will know how to construct one if we need it. You think you can handle not Red Tornado?"

"This is the water one," Nightmare grinned, showing off his fangs, "where Remix is at home with fire, I'm at home in water. Shouldn't be too hard."

"Attention Robin. Attention Nightmare. Attention Artemis. Attention Remix. You have exactly ten minutes to surrender or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."

The cave shook as they heard a blast further down the hall with flames shooting by. "I'LL EXTINGUISH YOU!"

"Nine minutes and forty-five seconds."

"We can reach the hangar through this way," Robin motioned.

"So now we have a time limit, as if this couldn't get any worse," Artemis grumbled.

A roar started coming towards them and they all stopped as all eyes went wide as a torrent of water came around the corner and slammed into them. "You were saying?" Nightmare grumbled grabbing his friends as they struggled to orient themselves in the now underwater hallway.

Robin pulled out a pair or rebreathers from his belt putting on in his mouth and handing it to Artemis. The Boy Wonder turned, looking at him and making a motion with his hands.

While Onyx wasn't too sure what the hand signals meant exactly, he got the idea. Turning his neck, he showed his gills. Movement came from the corner of his eye and Nightmare pushed Artemis out of the way as a red and yellow hand tried to grab her ankle. Handing her off to Robin as he pulled out a grapple, Onyx grabbed an arrow and stabbed it into the android's eye and he slammed into it.

Baring his fangs, Nightmare circled the android, trying to anticipate its next move. He couldn't use a lightning attack in water, not without risking electrocuting others. But…if he could get him out of the water, then it would be fair play.

Smirking, Nightmare kicked away from the android and swam towards the hangar. Turns out, part of the hangar was also underwater, and that water level was rising.

"LOOK OUT!" he heard Wally yell and he looked up to see bright orange light flashing over the surface as Robin and Artemis ducked under water and swam towards the others as they were tied up in the bent metal.

"Y'all ok?" Nightmare asked popping out beside them causing them the jump slightly.

"Forget us! Help M'gann!" Conner snapped.

Looking up on the higher platform, they could see a cage of fire, undoubtedly with Kaldur and M'gann inside it. "Aqualad! Is she…?" Artemis trailed off spotting the unmoving form leaning against the Atlantean.

"She is unconscious. I fear she—we cannot last much longer."

"We're working on it!" Remix snapped throwing the flaming half-molten android into a wall.

"Wait! Where's the water guy?" Artemis exclaimed.

"On his way, I need to get him on dry land," Onyx replied. "Unless you all wanna be electrocuted?"

"DUCK!" Amber warned causing the three to duck under water as a rouge fireball flew in their direction. Nightmare let Robin and Artemis take the lead as they started to swim towards the stairs as he spotted the water droid finally making his way towards them the arrow still sticking out of its eye.

Flashing his scales, he drew the android's attention to him. It shot towards him and Nightmare dodged out of the way, grabbing the android's ankle, the metal bending under his grip. Digging his claws in, nightmare crawled up the robot as it tried to shake him off and he grabbed it in a headlock. The android's back slammed into the metal restraining KF as he tried to dislodge him causing Nightmare to hiss through his teeth as its elbow hit his gut. Baring his fangs through the pain, he grabbed the arrow sticking out of its eye and took the opportunity to stab it into the other eye, blinding the machine.

Or, hopefully blinding it.

Letting go, he slid back underwater and turned to watch the android. It was swimming, but it didn't seem to know where it was as it kept bumping into the metal objects and the walls. So it couldn't see now. Good. Swimming towards it, he grabbed the robot and pulled out his lasso. Dropping the loop around the android's neck he began swimming towards the stairs.

"Nightmare!" Artemis called as she spotted him stepping out of the water, pulling on his lasso.

"I'm fine," he called. "Now move!" Turning on his heel, he yanked on the lasso as hard as he could. The rope sailed over him and the android flew out of the water, going through the air and slamming into the wall, creaking a small crater upon impact before it fell to the ground. Sprinting out of the water, Nightmare's arms began to spark as he ran towards the rising robot. Punching it in the face, the android sparked and smoked as electricity shot over it as it flew through the air. Landing on the ground, smoke came from it as a few remaining sparks came off it and the water began to lower back to its regular level. "That's one down."

Nearby, the fire cage fizzed out of existence and Remix entered the room, hurling the molten frame of what they assumed was the android back in, "And that's two. Is everyone ok?"

"We have been better," Kaldur replied.

"Dang, where were you guys earlier?" Wally called.

"We got stuck in another room when the Cave went on lockdown, took us a bit to get out," Skylar replied. "You try getting through tiny vents with wings."

"Oh."

"Well, we are glad you are all well," Amber smiled. "But, can you get us out?"

"Yeah, I think there's a metal cutter in medbay?" Artemis said.

"Probably storage," Robin corrected I'll go get it.

"So…evil Red Tornados," Remix said, putting her hands on her hips, "this is different."

"Think Red Tornado knows about them?"

"Considering they aren't in any of the League villain files, probably not," Amber remarked. "But where is Red Tornado? Should he not be here?"

"He had monitor duty on the Watchtower," Kaldur replied as Artemis helped him up.

"I thought he was exempt from that?" Kid frowned.

"Perhaps he was covering for someone?" Amber suggested.

"Green Arrow," Kaldur supplied.

"Hey Rob! Cut us out please!" Wally called as Robin entered the room with a gun-looking device.

"It's gonna take a minute to power up."

"Night," Remix whispered stepping beside him, "doesn't it seem odd that as soon as Red left these guys attacked?"

Looking at her, his brows furrowed as he processed what she said before his brows rose, "You think…?" he trailed off glancing to the others.

Skylar nodded, "It's too convenient. As soon as there's a conversation with him about a potential…covert op, we're under attack."

"So his cover was blown," Onyx muttered. "Remember that one guy we fought…Twister? He tried to reprogram Red when M'gann was disguised as him."

"And Red said to consider the matter closed," she remembered. "So…that might've not been the first-time bad guys tried to—or have reprogramed him by using a fight as cover."

"How long does that thing take to power up?!" Wally whined. "I have to pee!"

"Hold it!" Artemis snapped shaking the device as she tried to get it to power up faster.

"I doubt shaking it will make it work faster," a familiar robotic voice spoke, causing them all to jump and turn towards the hall leading to the hangar exit. "What has occurred?"

"We had a visit from your family," Robin spoke up.

"You're extremely nasty family," Artemis added.

"I was not aware I had relations."

"Well," Remix smirked picking the melted one up. Getting what she was doing, Onyx picked up the other one and they both hurled them off the upper platform to the ground. "There they are! Congrats! A brother and sister!"

"Where have you been?" Conner demanded.

"Monitor duty on the Watchtower," Red Tornado confirmed. "When it became clear Cave communications were down, I attempted to investigate, but your Zeta Tubes were also offline. So I teleported to providence and proceeded here."

"Well it took you long enough to get here," Remix muttered. "Did you take a cab?"

"No," Red Tornado replied. Approaching and kneeling beside fallen androids. A split second later, he stood up and flew up into the air. Two red cyclones formed around his arms, pulling the air from the room.

Onyx collapsed to his knees, grabbing his throat, gasping for air as it left his lungs. Looking up, he could see M'gann and Kaldur had passed out already.

"Can't breathe," Artemis wheezed before she collapsed.

"No shit," Skylar muttered glaring up at Tornado as Robin, Superboy, and KF passed out. "I'm going to kill you."

The winged girl collapsed beside him and Nightmare glared up at the android as black began to creep into his vision, "Traitor."

-.-

"Onyx."

p class="MsoNormal""Onyx."

"Onyx, sweetie, wake up."

A weak groan escaped his lips as he slowly sat up, his head throbbing. A hand rubbing his back, and he slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times to focus on the blurred figure kneeling beside him. "Hey," his mother smiled gently taking his arm and helping him up.

"Ow," he muttered holding his head. Looking around the room, he grimaced as his head continued to throb, but pushed past it to take in the situation. Batman was talking with Robin, Green Arrow was helping Artemis to her feet, Captain Atom and Flash were trying to cut the others from the metal prisons, Superman was talking to Amber, Manhunter was helping Canary rehydrate M'gann and Kaldur, and Skylar was sitting nearby holding her head as her parents knelt by her.

"What happened here?" Wonder Woman asked.

"What happened?!" Artemis snapped. "The Reds happened! Red Tornado and his…siblings!"

"Speaking of which," Skylar growled rising to her feet unsteadily as her father tried to get her to sit back down. "Where the fuck is that traitor?! I'm going to make him a paperweight!"

"Gone," Robin answered. "All three of them, gone."