"Red Tornado, what's going on? Are you there?" Rob asked into the small radio receiver in the headset.
"Yes, I am here." He responded in his perfectly monotone voice. Robin breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you in the D.E.O?"
"Yes. All the lights have just suddenly gone out. I fear for the worst in this case." John spoke as he looked through the window. The dark was everywhere on everything although; he could see D.E.O agents with guns at their sides in a frozen position. There was a baffled look on their faces as they stared at something farther off. Red Tornado focused his vision and tried to see exactly what they were starring at.
"Can you tell what's going on in there?" Robin asked as he practically hugged the microphone on the headset to his mouth. He listened carefully for John's reply.
"I would've already gone in there and we'd have the antidote about now." Bart's whinny cry came from somewhere behind him. "I'd be out of there in no time flat! You wouldn't even know I was gone!" He called again still rubbing his sore legs and flinching. The pain was still affecting him. Even the slightest motion caused him to yelp.
"Bart at the moment I can't argue with you." Robin growled slightly as he listened intently to what Red Tornado had to say. "The others...can you see them?"
John searched through the room when he saw them standing there. They seemed at a standstill with their mouths wide open. The four teenagers seemed to be looking at the same thing the guards were.
"I see them. They seem to be staring at the same object as the guards." John said slightly perplexed. What could be holding the fascination of these progeny?
"See if you can get a closer look. We need to know what's going on." Robin insisted and waited for the Red Tornado to reposition himself.
"OW!" Bart wailed from the other side of the room clutching his arm. "It hurts to move!"
"I think we came to that conclusion Bart. Just try not to move okay?" Robin responded to Bart's pitiful cry. Bart held his Impulse mask almost sadly in his hand.
"I was just trying to take this off." He moaned softly.
"Bart there is a lesson to be learned in this." Robin said, the disease still having an effect on his personality, "Don't move. The more you move, the more you're going to hurt. Hold on a minute. I'm getting something from Red Tornado." Robin held up his index finger telling Bart to wait (something Bart hated to do). "Oh my God..."
"What? What is it? What happened?" Bart leaped to his feet trying to ignore the tremendous pain.
"Red Tornado stop her now!" Robin cried into the headset.
"Her who?!" Bart questioned with a hint of pain in his voice.
Red Tornado came through the window. Glass shattered everywhere spilling small shards over the linoleum floor. At the same time a loud alarm went off signifying that the prisoners cell's were opened (these particular alarms were tripped as a default mechanism in case of an escape when the power may not have been functioning. I.e.: a power outage or a blackout. Sly D.E.O).
The guards snapped out of their confused daze and began to rush to stop the prisoners from escaping. Suddenly forgetting all about the manxome foe they had once guarded.
Young Justice, too, suddenly were out of there own trance and look to see Marina holding Lutwidge by his jacket in aversion.
Marina stared into Lutwidge's fearing eyes, "I'm not through with you yet, coward." She grabbed him harshly and threw him up into the dark air vents. "We're going to see if you're really lying Lutwidge."
"Marina hold on a-" But it was too late. Marina had already disappeared from their sight. D.E.O agents were shoulder to shoulder struggling to catch the "subject" and at the same time pushing the young heroes left and right.
"We won't get anywhere like this!" Superboy yelled finally deciding to take control of the situation. Knowing Robin wasn't there, he knew that it was up to him to be the leader. The girls and Red Tornado looked at him expecting a plan. This must be how Rob feels. Everyone relying on him…well here goes. "Let's spilt up. WonderGirl and Secret, you two go and help out the escaping prisoners. Arrowette, you and Red are going to find that antidote. I think that Lutwidge's lying and it's worth a shot. I'm going after Marina. Got it?" The team nodded and split up into different directions following the directions of their temporary leader.
"Listen here!" Lutwidge yelled trying to sound as demanding as he could as he and Marina moved through the air vents. "There is no antidote! You and your friend don't have any choice!"
"How dumb do you think I am?!" She turned back to him, her crystal eyes burning in anger. "You may have kept me as your prisoner for all these years but that doesn't mean I haven't learned anything. Your guards talk you know. And for some reason I don't think the D.E.O would make a deadly disease without some antidote!"
"Well then you haven't learned enough yet!" Lutwidge bellowed back at her regaining his military-like status, "Why do you think it's a 'biological warfare' weapon? Because there's no cure to it! It's meant to slowly kill the enemy...you!"
"If that's so then you're dying with us!" She snatched him in her arms and held him face to face with her. "Once the guards around my cell were talking about something. You know what? They were talking about the worst way to die. I think I'm going to try it out on you. You will die such a slow and painful death that you will wish you'd been eaten alive!" She loomed over him and prepared to kill him the slowest way she could think of at that moment.
Suddenly a large blow came beneath the both of them knocking them further in separate directions. Marina skidded down left of the blast while Lutwidge flew back toward the right. In pain, Lutwidge looked up to see what had saved his life. Superboy flew up and looked over at Marina, just beginning to get up from the force of SB's punch.
"Didn't mean to upset this touching moment but I think we need to lay off the killing for a bit." Superboy came close to her and tried to grab her but she simply slipped her delicate watery fingers through his grasp.
"You don't understand!" She screamed getting to her knees, "He's a murderer! He's a killer!"
"That doesn't mean you have to be!" Superboy stared her straight in the eyes looking deep within them to find some other feeling than hate. Her eyes could return nothing close to a human emotion. All he could see was something dark and foreboding within her soul.
"If you're not my friend, then you are my enemy!" Marina's eyes glowed with fire and suddenly a rushing sound was heard in the distance. It was like the sounds of a busy highway but faster. All at once, a huge wall of raging water formed behind Marina. She gave a small maniacal smile he'd seen on so many villains as the water swept through her and right toward him.
"Oh man…"
