17.
"Green Lantern, do you read me?" J'onn's voice blared out over Green Lanterns communicator. Green Lantern, or John Stewart to his friends, was flying over Jump City, making sure none of the felons tried to make a quick escape. To his surprise and mild disappointment, none had. They were all staying in the main downtown area, causing chaos and destruction. With the Titans and the Justice League down there, he knew it wouldn't last.
"Green Lantern here. Go ahead J'onn."
"I am having the ground teams drive the inmates towards the centre of town, I need you to secure them all once they get there."
Green Lantern smiled at that. Clean up crew, perfect...
"Understood, I'm on my way."
18.
"Right, J'onn. Good planning my man!"
"Ummm...Thanks, Flash." Flash quickly...very, very quickly dispensed with a nearby rioter, and told Cyborg and Zatanna of the plan.
"Guys, J'onn is getting everyone to drive these creeps towards the middle of town. Green Lantern will take them from there."
"Take them...where?" Cyborg asked.
"Apparently they got the prison back in working order. It was some electrical disturbance that knocked out the Mag locks on the doors. Localized, and no longer functioning."
"Hmmmm...that sounds wrong..." Another wave of inmates rounded the corner and came towards them.
"Worry about that later. Now, we got fighting to do!" Flash ran off so fast that the wind he kicked up blew Zatanna's hair completely out of shape. Her hand shot up to her magicians hat to keep it from flying away.
"Why does he always have to do that..." she muttered.
19.
Raven created a wave, which knocked the entire group of people she and Batman had to deal with towards where they had to push them. It was not the first thing she'd done to impress Batman that night, and to be fair to her, he was starting to get a little bored with the lack of work she was throwing his way. Still, enough of the inmates were filtering through to keep his fists pumping, at least most of the time.
"Keep going, we need to get them all to the middle of town!" Batman yelled. He was enjoying his time with the young girl, there was something about her that he really liked. Perhaps her fashion sense.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Another wave and another batch of the escapees sent toward their final destination.
Yes, he was liking this, but she had to work on her vocabulary.
20.
The plan, such as it was, was working. All the groups of super heroes were driving their respective groups of inmates towards the towns centre. Robin could see the droving packs of orange jumpsuits slowly converging at the city's main intersection.
"Keep going, kid, we still got work to do!" Green Arrow yelled, swinging his bow like a club and driving back four escapees. He shot an arrow at one trying to escape, and pinned his pant leg to the ground.
"Don't worry GA, I got this." Robin said with an unusual calm. He lobbed a few metallic balls into the road in front of the inmates, and they all exploded, driving the whole group back. Green Arrow laid out another, and pulled another arrow from his quiver. It had a larger tip than a normal arrow, and was not pointed, but round.
"I hate these trick arrows..." he muttered, before nocking the arrow and firing at the feet of the rioters. It exploded, and back they were driven. He loaded another arrow and fired it at another prisoner who thought he might try running for it. It burst on contact, and covered him in a sticky yellow goo. Robin looked at Green Arrow, confused.
"Glue arrow." He said simply, then turned and ran back into the fray. Robin could see that this fight might be coming to an end soon, the riot was about to be contained.
21.
Superman and Beast Boy (in the shape of a very large Wooly Mammoth) both plowed the inmates into the larger group that was forming. Black Canary was rounding up any of the stragglers the two of them missed. There weren't many, but she was, after all, only human, and when two of them came at her, she lost track of things and missed the third one coming up behind her. Just as he was about to bring his fist down on the back of her head, an arrow pierced through his right thigh, and he backed off, screaming in pain. Black Canary wasted no time in turning and decking him, then looking up to see where the arrow had come from. Green Arrow responded by tipping his cap, then returning to the fight. Black Canary smiled a little, and turned back to collecting the runners.
Superman flew out of the sky, he was doing the same as Black Canary, trying to find the ones that were missed. He picked them up, two at a time and dropped them into the middle of town, at the now huge crowd. Along with Wonder Woman and Super Girl, they soon had everyone they could see rounded up. It was time for Green Lantern to do his thing.
"John, you're up!" Superman said into his communicator, and Green Lantern, who had been hovering over the main crowd of people, pointed his ring straight down, and created a bubble around the whole of the prison inmate population. The bubble was green, but see through, like the glass of a wine bottle. The inmates clawed at it, punched it, trying in vain to break its hold on them.
Just like that, the fight was over, and the hero's had won.
Robin found himself standing near a familiar face, though what was covering had changed.
"Speedy!" He shouted, the boy he shouted at turned slowly, readjusting his sunglasses.
"Hey, Robin. Actually, it's Arsenal now." He went to Robin, and shook his hand.
"Arsenal...what do you mean?"
"You know, making a name for myself and all that. Tired of living under someone's shadow." Arsenal pulled his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose and stared at something over Robin's shoulder. Robin turned, and saw Green Arrow, talking to Black Canary. "I just had to be my own man, instead of someone else's." Arsenal said, returning his glasses to their proper spot, and adjusting his jacket.
"You should try it some time," he concluded. Robin smiled a little, and seemed to consider the idea.
"Maybe some day, I will." He said.
"Yo Robin, get over here!" It was Cyborg, he was with the rest of the Titans. Robin turned back to Arsenal and again offered his hand. Arsenal took it, and shook it vigorously.
"See ya, Robin."
"Later, Arsenal."
The Titans gathered together. All of them were wearing smiles, even Raven.
"Wooo yah!" Cyborg yelled, "That was great!" They all were saying similar things, again, even Raven (though far less jubilantly). Only Robin stayed silent, seemingly distracted by something. He stared at the prisoners behind Green Lanterns bubble, and puzzled over something. Starfire flew over and layed her hand on his shoulder.
"What is it, Robin?" He looked at her, and smiled, a little. He was at a loss at how to act towards her, but only for a moment. He could see in her eyes how she felt, he always could. He wrapped one hand around her hip before he answered. Also, before he answered, his smile faded.
"Look at them," he said, and moved his hand from her hip to her chin, moving her face so her gaze fell on the prisoners, "see anyone missing?" Starfire, who was a little distracted, being so close to Robin again, tried to concentrate on what Robin was seeing. She wasn't sure how he could possibly pick one face out of a crowd so big, but after a moment, began to see what he was talking about. The big guns, the alpha males, the truly dangerous inmates, all of them were not among the collected prisoners. Atlas, Brother Blood, Control Freak, Dr. Light, Killer Moth, Overload, and others, she could see none of them. By the look on her face, Robin could tell that she'd figured it out.
"We need to tell the rest of them." They moved off towards the rest of the Titans, but before they got there, a voice came booming out of the darkness.
"That was most impressive, I must commend all of you." It was coming from the roof of one of the buildings, a three storey apartment building 50 yards from where they'd assembled the prisoners. Without even looking, everyone, the Titans and the Justice League knew exactly who it was. It was Slade.
"Deathstroke," Robin heard Green Arrow say. Deathstroke? He turned to ask about it, but Slade continued before Robin could say anything.
"It seems you've missed a few of your former friends." They all melted out of the darkness behind Slade. They were all up there. Out of the bad people in Jump City, they were the worst.
"Plasmus, please, get rid of that dome, would you?" Plasmus, who stood directly to Slade's left, fired a stream of red ooze towards Green Lantern.
"Awwww...crap."
He had no choice but to disengage the shield around the inmates, and raise another in front of him, to protect him from the wave of red slime.
The riot started, all over again.
"Come on Titans, the party is just beginning." Slade spoke loud, but calmly, in the same monotone that he always used. It drove Robin absolutely nuts.
All of the villains – of which, Robin could recognize Overload, Cinderblock, Control Freak, Dr. Light, and several others – jumped off of the building and started running off in different directions.
"You'd better go kid," Green Arrow said, straining against the deluge of human beings that had sprung his way, "The Justice League have got these guys sussed!" He threw a punch and sent a prisoner flying. Fair enough Robin thought. Slade and his cronies were the bigger risk anyway.
"Titans, GO!"
