The zeta had barely finished announcing the departure of the speedsters to Gotham when a hissing voice echoed through the Watchtower.
"Yeah, you probably shouldn't have done that. But I'm sure they'll come out in mostly one piece. Maybe not alive but probably one piece. Shame. They didn't seem too bad. For heroes."
Everyone was immediately on their feet and in fighting stances. Wonder Woman demanded to know who was there and the voice announced itself as Pythia the Coded Serpent, Oracle of Gotham and Advisor to the Colony. For a moment, every screen around them flicked to an image of a python with dark green feathers in the place of scales and looming shadow-like bat wings stretching out from it. Its empty white eyes stared them down, then it was gone and when they tried to speak to the voice, it didn't answer. They tried to contact the speedsters and Tigress, but their calls wouldn't go through. Zatanna tried to dispel whatever magic the serpent had used, but couldn't. Without any idea where the speedsters had gone, all the older heroes could do was sit and wait.
Meanwhile, Young Justice and Supergirl immediately sent messages to Tim, Stephanie, and Bette, asking them to let them know if they saw Wally and Bart and got thumbs up emojis in response.
The three did not text them when Wally and Bart arrived at the manor.
Instead, they stayed hidden in the cave with Barbara and watched Dick tell them Tim was out before giving them both a dumbfounded expression when they asked him about Batman.
"Bat-who?"
He waved off all their questions, saying Batman was just a myth and he wouldn't have told Wally if he'd known the stories would spook him like that. All the same, the spooky stories had been banned from the manor for the time being since Cass had started to have nightmares lately. They kept trying to get him to talk, but he soon received a text and had to leave to pick up Carrie from a friend's house.
When the speedsters got back to the Watchtower no worse for wear without even seeing a bat, they all thought Pythia was just bluffing.
Then they found a small, bat-shaped listening device on Kid Flash's boot. No one could explain how it had gotten there. No one, not even Dick, had gotten close to him while he was in Gotham.
Then again, few people notice Cass when she doesn't want them to.
Over the course of the following week, the same kind of bugs were found by all the heroes who'd been at the meeting, and some who weren't. And it wasn't always when they were suited up. Lois Lane, Superman's wife, found one in the pocket of a pair of his lazy jeans, Troia found one stuck to her work camera, and one of the Green Lanterns stormed into the Watchtower, cursing out Superman and Wonder Woman for ticking off demons after he'd found one on his ring. The only relief they could find was that none of the bugs were turned on, but it was a small relief.
The message was clear: The Colony knew exactly who they were and could get to them without them ever knowing they were there.
The only ones who didn't receive bugs were Flash - who was happy to say, "I told you so!" to anyone who brought it up - and Tigress - who left any time someone brought up the Colony. The one and only time someone tried to stop her, she flipped them over her shoulder then said, "I wouldn't pick a fight with Joker so I'm sure as hell not messing with the only thing that can take him down. Leave. Batman. Be."
Safe to say, by the end of the week everyone was jumping at shadows.
Which meant the call they received was a bit overkill.
Wonder Woman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Girl, and Nightwing were debriefing after a joint mission between the League and Young Justice when all the screens in the room filled with static and the lights dimmed halfway. The largest screen then lit up with the image of a figure. Most of him couldn't be seen, the dark patches of hair, mask, and suit blending into the shadows that surrounded him, but this only made his pale face and the bright blue streak on his chest and arms stand out more. Black lips split into a sharp smile as the creature realized he had their attention.
He greeted them each in turn, reaching Nightwing last and referring to him as "Copycat."
"Nightwing?" Superman said, stepping towards the screen.
"In the flesh. Or as close to it as I come. Well, sort of. Got a little help from Pythia."
If the group had looked at some of the other screens, they might have noticed the shapes of serpents moving through the static. Unfortunately, no one dared look away from the man so Barbara's hard work went unnoticed.
"What do you want?"
The spirit's head tilted to the side, slipping past his shoulder in a way that made his neck look broken. "Wasn't that obvious?" He chirped. Then his head was straight up and he wasn't smiling. "I'm here to warn you. Stay out of Gotham. If anyone wanted you here, they would have asked. And the little magic kid doesn't count. As any Gothamite would tell you: Gotham problems are Gotham's problem. Get lost, Metropolis."
Flash couldn't help but snort, having heard those last three words more times than he could count from both his partners. He regretted it instantly when he felt the spirit turn his attention to him, though he couldn't tell you how he knew when all he could see where his eyes should have been was void.
The demon's lips pulled up into a smile again, but this one was less fangs and more mischief. "You should take my words seriously. I had planned to leave my Flamebird alone until it was time for us to be together again. But if you keep it up, I might just need to steal my fire away now."
"Flamebird?" Superman asked.
"My love," the spirit answered, though he kept his attention on Flash. "I recently found my fire in Blüdhaven. Such a beauty, as I'm sure you can all attest. After all, Flamebird is one of you."
Before anyone could respond, he was gone. As the screens and lights returned to normal, they turned to each other. Flash was pale as he started wringing his hands. Nightwing barely started to ask what was wrong before Flash started fretting about how Tigress must have been the one the spirit meant. They lived in Blüdhaven together and no one else in the League was recorded as living there. Her blonde hair and orange suit and fiery attitude must have made the spirit think she was Flamebird. They had to do something!
They called Tigress up and showed her a recording of the video Wonder Girl had smartly taken. She glared at all of them as the video progressed and when Flash worried over her she rolled her eyes. She was from Gotham. She knew the Colony. If they came for her, they came for her. Worrying wasn't going to do anything to stop people that managed to slip past their defenses time and again. The only concession she agreed to was asking Dick if he'd be alright staying at the manor for a few nights so they could have some personal time.
It wasn't unusual. They each had stayed elsewhere on a few occasions since they'd moved in together. Sometimes they just needed time as a pair instead of a trio. As such, Dick agreed easily.
Despite her calm attitude, something about the video bothered Artemis. As they went home and readied for bed, it replayed over and over in her head. She didn't recognize his voice, but something about the way he talked nagged at her. The quirk of his smile tugged at her brain. The way he'd focused on Wally then immediately started in on Flamebird after the speedster had snorted seemed strange too. The way he was teasing Wally, taunting him, it didn't feel malevolent. More like he was screwing with him.
Artemis shot up in bed. "Goddamit Dick, you little troll!"
Wally woke up at her scream and jumped to his feet, looking around for trouble. When he didn't see anything, he turned to her, only to see her pulling on sweatpants. He asked what was going on and she told him they needed to see Dick immediately. He tried to argue, but she just made him put on some clothes before dragging him out of the apartment. Once in the car, he complained about how he shouldn't be getting punished when Dick was the one in trouble then nodded off until they reached the manor.
Artemis was already at the door by the time he climbed out of the car so he didn't hear what she said to Jason when he let them in.
"So which demon spirit are you?"
He does notice when Jason grabs them both and hauls them around the mansion, through a secret door, and down into some giant cave.
He doesn't know why it's happening, but he is awake enough to register that it is happening.
They both end up tied to chairs with a serious Jason, a cheerful Cass, and an annoyed Tim standing over them.
"So what do we do with them?" Tim asked and Jason pulled out a gun.
Suddenly Wally was wide awake. "Woah, okay, what is happening? Where are we and why is Jason going to shoot us?"
"He's not," Cass said, which wasn't very reassuring considering she was speaking over Jason's, "You know too much."
"Who knows too much?" Cullen asked, strolling in. He looked over the two captives and shrugged. "Come on, Cass. Time to go home. Leave the others to their games."
Cass pouted, but followed her older brother out after giving Artemis and Wally a friendly wave.
"So what do we do with them?" Tim repeated.
Artemis proceeded to curse them both out now that there were no children in the vicinity before demanding to see Dick.
Jason's response was to aim the gun between her eyes and pull the trigger.
Once she had a faceful of glitter, he said he'd go get Dick. He ignored her cursing as he swaggered back the way they'd come.
"Should have called the idiot and made him come to us," she growled and Tim agreed. She shook her head to try to get rid of some of the glitter, to no avail.
"No, seriously, what is happening?"
"Your death."
Wally shrieked and vibrated straight through his bonds. He spun around and found himself face to face with a giggling Carrie. Except that the voice coming from her was not her voice.
He looked at the others to see Tim was amused and Artemis was done. It was at that point that he took in the cave. His eyes widened. "Oh."
Jason and Dick arrived, the latter looking sheepish. Artemis immediately tore into him.
"In my defense, you guys didn't exactly tell me about your secret lives either."
"You ALREADY KNEW!"
"Yeah, but you didn't tell me. And hey, at least I told you I was a vampire."
Both took a second to think about that as they realized they probably should have connected the large family filled with creatures of darkness to the creatures of darkness running around protecting Gotham.
"You still didn't need to be a dick about it." Dick opened his mouth at Artemis's words. "Oh shut up, you know what I meant!"
As it hit Wally just how much the family had been messing with the League, he smirked. "You know what would really freak the League out?"
"No," Artemis said as the siblings perked up.
Young Justice were all hanging out in the Watchtower's canteen, waiting for Kid Flash so they could have a team meeting, when Tigress came in to ask Troia and Aquaman if they'd seen Flash. Apparently, he'd left early that morning to check on their partner before monitor duty then disappeared. The last anyone had heard from him was when he'd asked Captain Marvel to fill in for him shortly after he'd left Tigress. She had called their partner, but apparently Flash had never shown up.
That was when Kid Flash raced in, looking terrified.
Flash had called him in the early morning and left a voicemail, but he had only just seen the message because his phone had died. When he'd charged it enough to turn on, he'd listened to the message and…
"Hey, kid. Wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch after I get off duty today. I'm getting to the manor now so I can ask Dick and Tim if they want to come too. Call me wh-Oh shi-What are you do-"
"Hello, my flame."
Troia and Aquaman immediately sent a call out to everyone connected to the Batman case. No one was pleased to realize Nightwing thought Flamebird was Flash, not Tigress like they'd assumed. When the group checked, they found that the call came ten minutes before the one to Captain Marvel and came from the edge of Wayne Manor's property line.
Hearing this, the team all spammed Tim with texts checking to see if he was okay.
The bird, having grown tired of all their smothering, sent them a picture of himself flipping them off with a caption saying he wasn't a child and could take care of himself. He was from Gotham, not Metropolis. He then turned his phone off so he wouldn't have to see their demeaning fretting.
If he hadn't, he would have seen the group panicking over a shadow behind him that they were convinced was one of the Colony. Without the others noticing, the five snuck away to Gotham. Tim was less than pleased when he opened the door.
"Since when do you open the door for yourself?" Jinny asked.
"Since Alfred's in England and Bruce and Selina are on their honeymoon. Why are you guys here?" Cassie showed him the picture and he slapped his forehead. "I knew you guys were getting paranoid, but this is ridiculous. That is my jacket."
They refused to believe him so he offered to bring them up to his room to prove it. They made it halfway there before the sounds of thumps had him turning around to see them all unconscious on the floor, Jason and Cass standing over them.
"Seriously, Jason? Stop kidnapping everyone! You're ruining the bit!"
"You and Dickie are the ones who decided to drag your friends into what was supposed to be a family thing."
"I told them I was fine! They're the ones who just showed up for no reason!"
"You're just mad Artemis isn't here too," Dick said as he and Wally walked up.
"Shut up, Dickhead. She'd kick all our asses if we dragged her into this and you know it. Now help me get them to the cave."
"Definitely pouting," Dick whispered to Wally and Jason slugged him.
