The team got back up to their feet, warily eyeing the invaders as they made no move to attack. Dick helped Zatanna off the floor before stepping in front of who looked to be the leader, a broad-shouldered man clad in a similar armor to his own but without the 'V' and in a distinct black and orange color scheme. A black helmet with menacing amber eyes stared back at him, and the clenching of his fist as he subtly scanned over the rest of the team did not go unnoticed.

"Who are you?" The mysterious invader chuckled.

"You're a detective, figure it out." Dick growled and tightly gripped his escrima sticks, and the man stepped back before unsheathing two sabers. "Call me Renegade, Nightwing. And meet my friends…let's call them the Dark Wonders. I know you Gothamites love your shady labels."

Kaldur drew his waterbearers, preparing to activate them as he stepped in front of a warrior decked out in armor resembling a modified version of his own father's battlesuit. "And I assume you wish to fight?"

Renegade shrugged. "Me? Not really, not yet at least. But some of my friends were anxious to meet you, and who am I to stop them?"

Before any more could be said on the matter, an invader sporting scarlet armor with a full faceplate and glowing white eyes rammed into the team's speedster, elbowing him in the gut as he dropped to the floor in pain. Artemis narrowed her eyes and aimed her bow at him, only for it to be kicked out of her hands by a warrior clad in a League uniform, wielding a katana. She drew her own sword and countered his slash while Wally got back up and charged after the speedster, bouncing around the plaza like a pair of pinballs. Conner was blitzed by a mecha warrior in black, and the Manta knockoff fired twin eye beams directly at Kaldur to force the Atlantean into a defensive position. M'gann levitated herself to avoid a flamethrower blast from a man in white and Raquel flew directly forward to push back a being with cybernetic enhancements littering his skin. Dick almost immediately began to clash with Renegade in close combat, leaving Zatanna and a mysterious, hooded figure to face down one another.

Strangely enough, the figure made no move to attack, but Zatanna wasn't fooled. She sensed a familiar energy emanating from him, and its foul scent told her all she needed to know.

The stench of Chaos Magic.

She entered her combat stance before blasting a jolt of golden lightning at the man, which he easily blocked with a crimson spell disc.

"Etativel!" Zatanna began to float up, but the being simply followed her into the sky and carefully watched her every move as she flung more and more spells at him. "Erif, erif, nordluac elbbub!" A burst of fire from her palms roared towards him, but before it could strike him he vanished into sparks of red energy, reappearing behind her and striking her in the back with a single bolt of red lightning. She yelped in pain before spinning around and pushing her hands out. "Lufrewop sdniw wolb!"

A mighty gust of air blew at him, only to be blocked by yet another spell shield which he fired a set of scarlet chains out of. She used her aerokinesis to redirect the chains in a circle around her, flinging them back at him before he blocked it with the disc of energy, dematerializing them and countering with a set of crimson blades. Her eyes widened before she put up a shield to protect herself from the constructs.

"Who are you, Chaos Lord?" The man cocked his head to the side but didn't answer, so she narrowed her eyes and tried once more to attack. "Hsart rotcapmoc!"

In a puff of smoke four metal walls appeared around the sorcerer. They began to close around him, but he released a powerful explosion of Chaos energy to disintegrate them immediately, retaliating with a bolt of lightning that Zatanna barely dodged before attempting to counter with her own.


The sound of metal clanging pierced through the town plaza as the assassin and Artemis found themselves in a saber lock with one another. She narrowed her eyes at him and grit her teeth, struggling to push him back. He, however, seemed completely composed, even chuckling at her struggles. "You can't seriously tell me you're the most dangerous one here, are you? Come on, Artemis, where's your legendary finesse? I was hoping for a challenge!"

Upon hearing her real name Artemis's eyes went wide, and the assassin used the opportunity to kick her in the knee, grab her arm, and yank her off balance, causing her to drop to the floor and only narrowly roll out of the way before he thrust his saber into her.

She stumbled back up to her feet and stared at him incredulously. "Who the fuck are you?! How do you know my name?"

He let out a taunting sigh. "It hurts when you don't have all the answers, doesn't it? Well, Artemis Crock, I know everything there is to know about you, because where I come from…let's just say you and I have a history."

"And where exactly do you come from?" The warrior lunged forward, and she barely managed to dodge his first swing before he spun around and slashed at her thigh, drawing blood and causing her to growl in pain.

"So many questions! Tell you what: make this fight worth my time and perhaps I'll tell you."

Artemis responded with a swing and a miss, followed by a kick, a slash to the stomach, and even a shot from her crossbow pistol, but the assassin managed to dodge all of it effortlessly before countering with a strike to her shoulder. She bit back the yelp of pain in favor of glaring at him through her mask and going in for another swing, meeting his own steel with a loud ring and the expulsion of golden sparks.


As the team's battles went on, they felt the ground beneath their feet literally shake from the impact of Superboy and his opponent's punches. Conner threw a left hook, but the warrior caught it and spun around to fling him into a building. He coughed and wheezed before getting back up to his feet.

"So you're strong. That's nice." The half-Kryptonian groaned and shook his head before cracking his knuckles and priming his shoulder. "I'm stronger."

A monotone voice echoed out of the suit's helmet, distorted by voice modulation. "Assumption incorrect. Talon superior. Superboy inferior."

"Wanna bet?" Conner lifted up a car and flung it at 'Talon', but he jumped out of the way and leapt forward, landing several powerful strikes to the hero's weak spots. Conner dropped in pain but pushed himself forward regardless, tackling Talon with his full bodyweight. Talon kicked him off and somersaulted backwards to land on his feet. Superboy didn't let up, however, opting instead to lunge forward and pummel Talon with his full force, landing several strong hits to his skull, ribs, and stomach before ending it with a powerful kick to the chest. The force of the kick sent his opponent flying into another car, but he simply stood up and shrugged off the pain, not so much as making a grunt of annoyance as his eyes began to glow green.

Conner raised an eyebrow and used his super senses to get a read on Talon's heart, if the being even possessed one. Sure enough, there was a rapid beating originating from the warrior's chest, but what surprised Conner was that the heartbeat was not the only thing he heard. Talon's body was a strange mix of beeps, buzzes, and vibrations, and he wasn't sure where it was all coming from. Was he a cyborg? Genetic manipulation? Perhaps it was just his tech? He couldn't say.

Talon's eyes flashed green once more before reverting to normal, and Superboy clenched his fists in anticipation. "Subject's combat patterns analyzed. Countermeasures ready."

The half-Kryptonian threw a punch to Talon's face, but it was immediately blocked and countered with a powerful jab to his temple. He stepped back and groaned before flinging another several punches, all of which were either blocked or dodged. Talon began to retaliate, striking Conner's shoulderblade, gut, knee, and even his neck when the clone left himself exposed. Pretty soon, the hero could barely stand up from the pain, and his aggressor used the opportunity to grab him by the shirt and toss him into the middle of the street, where he writhed on the floor for a minute as he struggled to recompose himself.

"Access: heat vision." Talon fired two beams of red energy out of his helmet lenses, striking the ground right in front of Conner to cause an explosion that tore up his shirt and sent him flying even further back. "Access: super speed." In the blink of an eye, he darted up to and bashed into Conner at breakneck velocity, launching the clone straight through a brick wall from the impact.

Superboy stumbled up to his feet, coughing up a bit of blood before gritting his teeth and leaping back into the fight with an angry roar. Talon darted out of the way with his speed to dodge the attack. "Access: pyrokinesis." Vibrant orange flames burst out of his hands, enveloping Conner as he pushed through them to get to Talon.

"Already did the burned to death thing. Not a fan." He grabbed Talon by the head and punched him with full strength, sending him reeling backwards before he caught himself. They both locked eyes and leapt at each other, colliding in midair with enough force to create a shockwave that shattered the glass storefronts around them.


Amongst the chaos of everyone duking it out in the town plaza, a high-speed brawl was being carefully interwoven throughout the battlezone as Wally and the speedster bounced around with one another in an attempt to trip the other up while they ran at impossible velocities.

The speedster eventually shoved Wally into a car, the impact of the hit severely denting the vehicle as the third Flash struggled to stand back up. "N-nice moves." He didn't respond, instead grabbing Wally by the shoulders and using his speed to viciously hurl him to the side, sending him tumbling on the floor before he caught himself. "Not much of a talker, then? That's a first, we're usually faster with our mouths than we are with our feet."

The crimson-clad warrior growled. "Will you please shut up?! God, how did I ever tolerate your blabbering?!" He sped towards Wally, but this time the redhead was prepared, bending over to trip him up before he could ram into him. The stranger was sent flying backwards, bouncing off the floor on his back before using his momentum to spin in midair and land on his feet. He sprinted back at his opponent to try and clock Wally in the jaw, but Flash darted out of the way and grabbed his wrist to flip him over, following up with an axe-kick downwards that was just barely avoided when the speedster rolled out of the way and kicked back up to his feet. Wally tried to send further attacks his way, but this time the speedster avoided them all and countered with menacing blows to the redhead's chest and jaw before kicking him back several yards to try and recompose himself. Wally wiped a bit of blood from his mouth.

"Touchy. So who are you, and how exactly do you know me?"

"You really can't recognize me?"

"I meet a lot of people, don't get offended by it." He scoffed.

"Can't say I'm too surprised. After all, the great Wally West only truly cares about one person, and that's himself." Wally clenched his fist and gritted his teeth before speeding over to meet the man in a deadlock. Cyan lightning flickered in his eyes and reverberated off his body as he stared his opponent down.

"How do you know my name?" He chuckled.

"You're gonna feel real stupid when you find out. Then again, stupid is kinda your MO." He broke off the deadlock and turned around to sprint away. "Catch me if you can, Kid."

Wally took off after him with a massive boom, leaving streaks of silver lightning in his wake.


Blades clashed and lasers flew as Kaldur attempted to best the Manta knockoff in close combat. The warrior was certainly more adept with a sword than his father was, that much Kaldur had already deduced.

"Where did you get that armor, pretender?" 'Manta' fired an optic blast to knock the Atlantean away, damaging his gold-plated armor and singeing his shoulder from the impact.

"I made it myself, traitor. And call me Stingray." He leapt forward, swinging his shortblade at Kaldur's side only for it to be blocked by a shield and countered with an upward hammer bash courtesy of his waterbearers. Stingray quickly recovered and used his rocket pack to launch himself forwards, and Kaldur reformatted his weapons back into blades.

"Your technique is impressive, " the Atlantean noted as he attempted to dodge and block a rage-driven flurry of attacks, "but you leave your right shoulder exposed. All one needs do, " he ducked under a slash aimed for his head and used his own swords to strike at Stingray's shoulder joint, forcing him to drop the blade before kicking him away with a mighty roundhouse to the gut, "is wait for the right opportunity."

Stingray shrugged off the hit and pulled out a collapsible staff, extending it out and spinning it around himself with impressive technique. "Thanks for the tip. Never was the best swordsman."

"And what makes you think this will fare any better?" Stingray leapt forward, his staff strike being blocked by Kaldur raising both waterbearers above his head to form an 'X'. The villain used this opening to knee him in the stomach and strike him in the groin with the lower half of his staff, following it up with a close range optic blast to the chest to send Kaldur flying backwards.

"This suit is designed specifically to do one thing: kill you." He fired out an array of shoulder-mounted rockets that the Atlantean barely managed to shield himself from using both of his waterbearers. "Courtesy of my own tech merged with a couple pieces I swiped off your dear old daddy. 'Course, none of that helps much with magic, " he chuckled, "so it's a good thing you're a sorcery school dropout."

Aquaman remained unphased from the villain's sneering insults and used his waterbearers to launch himself ahead before reformatting them into maces to carry on their duel.


Sometimes M'gann wondered where her weakness to fire came from, especially considering her own planet's geographical nature. Such a blatant handicap, a vulnerability abused by so many of her foes.

Including the one unloading a massive stream of flames at her right now.

She flew to the side to dodge the orange sparks before they could hit her and hurled a large rock back at the attacker to stop him. He used his rocket pack to fly out of the way of the rock and fired back a gust of flames, only narrowly missing when M'gann phased behind a wall for cover. She phased back in front of him and narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?" When she got no response she tried reading his mind, only to rejected from even entering it.

It was like his mind had a brick wall surrounding it and she couldn't get through, likely thanks to the helmet. She gasped before narrowly dodging another burst of fire and used her telekinesis to try and crush him with two flats of stone. He disengaged his jetpack to drop beneath the slabs before they could collide with one another, reactivating it before he hit the ground to fly back at her and knock her out of the sky with an incendiary missile.

"Ungh!" M'gann struggled to stand back up to her feet, the heat of the flames affecting her capabilities. She weakly used her telepathy to throw yet another rock at him, only for him to leap over it with a boost from his jetpack. He landed on his feet and fired a bola to ensnare her with, and when she tried to phase out of it she was zapped. "Gah!"

"You won't be able to phase through that, demon." His voice, like the others, was distorted, and yet something about it sounded familiar to M'gann.

"Who are you?" He menacingly approached her while she struggled against the bonds, brandishing a dagger.

"Just a hunter. Here to rid the world of your scourge."

"Guys, I could use some help here!" M'gann struggled against the nonmoving bindings, but fortunately for her, help was on the way.

"I got you, Megalicious!" Wally blazed through the battle, knocking the man away from M'gann and forcing him to drop his knife before sprinting away, very narrowly dodging his own opponent's advances on him. M'gann used the opportunity to levitate his knife towards her, cutting her bindings loose and getting back up to continue the fight.

"Thanks, Wally." She mentally flung the dagger at the white-clad warrior, but he rolled out of the way at the last second and retaliated with more incendiary rockets, all of which she forcefully detonated in midair using her telekinesis. She levitated herself back up, carrying two large rocks with her to continue the battle.


In contrast to some of the others, Raquel was the one to make the first move on her opponent, dragging him into the air and grinding him against several storefronts on her flight, though he was quick to fight back as he unleashed a devastating kinetic blast that sent her flying through a window. She brushed off the glass from her pants and hurled a kinetic sphere back at him to knock him away before activating her ionic aura and flying through the shattered glass.

Her opponent seemed to be more machine than man from the looks of things, with all sorts of wires and specialized gadgets protruding from various parts of his body. The boot jets were likely the least impressive feat he could pull off with all that stuff he pumped into himself. She wondered how any sane human could even think of doing that to themselves.

No offense, Vic.

The cyborg, for lack of a better term, flew back up to her, his faceplate slightly damaged from the battle. A small device extended out of his wrist, and he aimed it directly at her as it began to pulsate a faint cyan. Raquel almost scoffed.

"Whaddya expect that to be able to d-"

She regretted ever speaking when a massive sonic blast practically indented an outline of her in the building behind them. When she finally recovered from the hit, she retaliated by setting up a force bubble around herself and ramming into him like a bowling ball. He went flying back but used the sonic blaster to push her away before stabilizing himself, landing them both in a stalemate as they stared each other off in the high skies.

The cyborg discarded a damaged piece of equipment and attached a new modification onto his left armplate. "Nice hit. Though it would be more effective if you overclocked your belt's capacitor by 3 knots and forewent the regulator. Would've caused some real damage." Raquel narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, her magenta hue brightening as she began to run low on patience.

"I'll try it out next time you're in town. Now start explaining things. Who are you and why're you here?" He shrugged.

"Who I am doesn't matter. As for why I'm here; ", he locked on his new gadget and clenched his fist as it began to charge up a bright green, "I'm here to save your world."

He extended his fist and fired out a blinding green laser, and she just barely managed to put up her forcefield in time to absorb the blow. The force from the impact knocked her off balance, and she struggled to regain control in the air.

"That's a Tamaranean starbolt emitter. Innovative bastards. Swiped it off one myself; he was a fighter. And this, " his shoulderplate lifted open as a larger cannon extended out of it and began to draw in red energy, "this is an Apokoliptian shock cannon."

The cannon blasted a wave of scarlet electricity at her, breaking right through her force bubble and electrocuting her with devastating voltage. A direct hit from a starbolt then sent her tumbling helplessly towards the floor beneath them. She gasped before putting up another bubble just in time to cushion her fall.

Raquel stumbled back to her feet and launched a force bubble at the mystery man, but to her surprise, it went straight through him. He let out another taunting chuckle to lift up his right arm, unveiling a small, watch-like device strapped to his wrist.

"Appalaxian phase shifter. Pretty useful when you wanna move through things." She groaned in frustration, wiping the dust off her suit and floating back up to meet him in the air.

"You've just got everything, don't you?"

"Pretty much. You see, unlike you, I've learned to tap into my full potential. I don't hold myself back with petty rules or doubts like you or your friends."

Rocket narrowed her eyes, and her kinetic aura pulsated a bright violet as blue energy collected around her fists. "You wanna see what I can do when I stop holding myself back?" He smirked.

"By all means, show me."


Dick's polymer escrima sticks met Renegade's metal sabers with a loud clang, sending faint vibrations through both of their weapons into their insulated gauntlets. They moved fast with one another, striking and blocking in perfect harmony as if it were a scripted action scene. Judging from how this was going, he didn't think either one would get the upper hand anytime soon.

They were perfectly matched.

Dick tried to switch it up by going for a swing at Renegade's head, which he bent backwards to dodge. Nightwing immediately followed up with a hook kick, which Ren avoided by somersaulting backwards to put some distance between them. He sheathed his sabers and pulled out a pistol, forcing Dick to hastily and frantically flip and twirl himself to safety, expertly avoiding the bullets in midair. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to dodge one, which hit him directly in his shoulder.

"Gah!" Grayson threw a stick at Renegade to knock the pistol out of his hand. The mercenary just laughed.

"Your armor…it's so fragile. You can't tell me that piece of tin's kept you alive for so long, has it?"

He gritted his teeth. "The only thing that's kept me alive is me."

"Well, you've certainly done a pathetic job at that."

Dick swung his remaining stick at him, engaging him in another weapon lock. "Yeah, that's why I've got my friends to lean on."

His shoulder began to sting from the pain of the bullet, but he tried to fight through it. Unfortunately, Renegade proved too strong for him and managed to disarm him with his blade before kicking him down to the floor.

"And what makes you think you deserve them? After all you've done, all you've put them through. What gives you the right?" Dick struggled to stand back up, but Renegade kept him pinned down to the floor with the weight of his foot. The mercenary lifted up his blade, but just before he could bring it down he felt himself get blasted backwards.

Dick rolled onto his belly and looked up to see M'gann telekinetically pinning Ren to a wall. "Thanks, Miss M. Wait, behind you!"

"I got him!" Before M'gann's own opponent could get a chance to stab her he was encased in a force bubble courtesy of Rocket. "Someone got mine?"

"On it." Conner leapt up and caught the cyborg by surprise with a bear hug, slamming them both down into the floor and keeping him there. Unfortunately, he managed to activate his phase shifter to get out of Conner's grasp, but his diversion gave Zatanna the chance she needed to zap him with a bolt of mystical electricity that negated his shifter's power. He growled in pain and dropped down to the floor before Wally blitzed him with a punch. The speedster immediately took off once more, unable to stop for even a second to catch his breath.

"Could use some help with this guy!"

"I got him, Baywatch." Artemis kicked the assassin in the gut to create some room before spinning around and firing a foam arrow at the ground. Wally got the cue and led the speedster directly into it before Artemis detonated the arrow, encasing him in the sticky substance. He repaid the favor by knocking the assassin away from her before he could strike her in the back.

"Backstabber. Not cool, dude."

"Thanks, babe."

"New strategy: don't take them on one at a time. They've got no coordination; we can use that!"

"Uh, guys?" Raquel began struggling to maintain the bubble surrounding M'gann's opponent, small drops of sweat beginning to roll down her forehead. "My belt's gonna give out unless I give it a recharge. Tanna, think you could give me a boost?"

Zatanna was panting as she narrowly avoided her own opponent's magical strikes. "Normally I'd be able to, but I don't think I've got it in me to do much more right now. Magic boy's giving me a hell of a run." Dick clenched his bleeding shoulder tightly, overlooking the rest of his team while they all struggled to stay turbed.

"Everyone group up! We're outmatched here, we need an escape route!"

"We can take them!"

"No. Nightwing is correct. We have exhausted ourselves too much! M'gann, is the Bioship in proximity?"

"Yeah, I called her over to help with the evacuation. She's parked at the edge of town."

"Zatanna, can you teleport us onto the ship?"

Zatanna gritted her teeth as her eyes began to flicker a faint yellow, struggling to keep up the shield that was protecting her from a torrent of Chaos lightning. "I-I think so. M'gann, can you bring it a little closer to us?"

"Copy that, Bioship is closing in."

As if on cue, the team's beloved vehicle decloaked herself and began firing at their opponents, raining bright green lasers down onto the battlefield to offer the heroes a chance to gather their equipment and regroup. "Tropelet su otno eht pihs!"

With a puff of white smoke the heroes vanished off the battlefield, and the Dark Wonders watched as their ship turned around and rocketed away. The speedster struggled against his foam bindings, finally managing to vibrate himself through them.

"No!" Before he could run off, Renegade raised a hand to stop him.

"Leave them. You'll get another chance, Falcon. But for now we can't afford to keep chasing them. We have more important things to do. Teleport us back to our base!"

The Lord of Chaos nodded solemnly before raising his hands and opening a blood-red portal for them all to walk through. The assassin and Stingray sheathed their weapons, the cyborg began tinkering with his damaged components, and the speedster gritted his teeth and clenched his fist before reluctantly following his teammates through the vortex.


Wally pressed an ice pack up against a cut on Artemis's thigh, holding it in place while she tended to one on her shoulder. To their side, Zatanna was rather carefully nursing Dick's gunshot wound, using a mix of her magicks and the skills she'd picked up over the years from her League teammates to apply stitches once the bleeding cooled down and the bullet was removed. He bit back a groan as the final stitch was applied, and she smirked softly.

"You okay, tough guy?" He leaned in to peck her on the lips as she used ice pack to calm the wound down.

"Thanks." He looked around the room to see his different teammates all nursing one another back to health and felt his heart get a bit heavier. These were his friends, the team he had been chosen to co-lead, and here they were, exhausted and hurt from a battle they barely managed to escape from. Their mentors didn't train them to fail, and his certainly didn't train him to be so negligent.

He should've been more in sync with the needs of his team. Had he been, then maybe they would have won the fight.

Zatanna must have noticed his concern, because she leaned in to kiss his cheek and softly part a bit of hair out of the way of his forehead. He hummed as she pressed her spare palm to the blue 'V' on his chest, bringing his own hand to keep it there. "You know it wasn't your fault we were sloppy out there."

"I shoulda been more attentive. We were stupid to take them one on one, and that's on me." The magician breathed out a quiet laugh.

"You're pretty hard on yourself. Here I thought that was my job." He smiled and draped an arm around her waist.

"You're usually better at it than me." She threw her hand around his neck with a grin.

"I do my best. And you make it so easy sometimes." Their lips met in a soft embrace, broken off all too quickly when Kaldur stood up from his seat and tossed away the damp cloth he was soothing his scathed shoulder with.

"That performance was less than stellar, on all our parts. Our new friends seem rather formidable, and what bothers me more is what they know about us."

"Like how the hell did those guys know our real names? They talked as if we'd known them for years, but I don't think any of us have ever seen these lunatics before." Wally rubbed his chin.

"Their speedster seemed to really hate me."

"Well, that's not exactly uncommon." Dick and Zatanna bit back smirks at Artemis's remark, and Wally rolled his eyes and threw an arm around her shoulder.

"No, but like…he really hated me. Like I'd killed his dog or something." M'gann rubbed the back of her neck.

"The guy in white didn't seem too fond of me either. And his suit…anti-phase bindings, flamethrowers, and some kinda helmet that blocks telepathy. Everything you'd need to fight a Martian."

"The one called Stingray seemed to hold something against me as well. And his suit shared many similarities with my father's Atlantean hunter armor." Dick stepped up to the central holotable.

"We're missing a lot of pieces here, but one thing's clear. Those guys can kick our asses one on one."

"Yeah."

"Tell me about it."

"But we also learned one other thing: they've got close to no chemistry with each other. When we started working together, they fell like bowling pins. I think that's the strategy we should go for next time." Before Dick could continue, the holocomputer chimed in a call from Batman, and he sighed before accepting it.

"Team, I know you're still recovering from our new visitors, but I've just got an SOS from Mission Creek, California. There's been a minor earthquake and people could use some help getting out of the impact zone. With all other teams either on away missions or working on a way to stop these bizarre phenomena, I need you to provide search and rescue." Kaldur nodded.

"We will get right on that, Batman. Over and out." Once he hung up, Kaldur turned to M'gann. "I know you are still recovering, but-"

"But my powerset makes me the best candidate for a search and rescue op." With a fair bit of effort and support from her husband, M'gann got up to her feet and smiled. "Don't worry, I can do it."

"You sure?" M'gann quickly pecked Conner on the lips and winked at him.

"I got this. I'll use the signal watch you gave me if I need backup." He stepped back with a smile, and Raquel strapped on her belt and began to power it up.

"I'll go, too. My force bubbles could come in handy, and my belt's basically at max power now. Plus, Megan could use some backup." The two women high-fived, and Dick nodded to them.

"Alright. The rest of us will stay and keep monitoring for any sign of the Dark Wonders. Use the Zeta beams to get there and contact us if you need backup. Good luck." He watched them run off to the Zeta, but was surprised to find his girlfriend stepping away as well. "Zee?"

"I sensed a bit of Chaos Magic radiating off one of those guys. I'm gonna see if the Tower of Fate has anything we could use, maybe find a way to track him or even get an upper hand."

"Be careful." She quickly walked back to give Dick a peck on the lips.

"Don't worry, it's just a library hunt. I'll be fine." She sent Artemis a nod and flashed the former Boy Wonder one last smile. "Tropelet ot Rewot fo Etaf!"

In a puff of white smoke she was gone, leaving only five heroes standing around in the briefing room. Aquaman looked out the window of the Premiere Building and down to the streets below, taking note of several teams of Outsiders helping their people out of danger. The sight of the heroes defending their people, ensuring their families were safe, weighed down on his already heavy heart. Conner read his silence perfectly and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You wanna protect Atlantis." The eldest of the team nodded.

"I do not wish to desert you, but I-"

Dick raised a hand to silence his pleas. "You should go. We've got things covered here, and your people need you right now. We'll call you when it's time."

Kaldur nodded gratefully. "Thank you, my friends. I'll report in as soon as the chaos is quelled in Poseidonis and will remain on standby if you need me." He marched off to the Zeta, leaving Wally to chuckle.

"Well, there goes half our crew."

"They'll be back soon enough. In the meantime, we stay ready in case we get another assignment." Conner ran a hand through his chestnut hair and sighed quietly.

"There goes Fiji." Artemis threw an arm around his shoulders, and Wally clapped his back softly.

"We'll get outta this soon enough, and you and M'gann will get your time alone in paradise, no interruptions. I promise." He chuckled.

"Honestly, I'm just happy we finally tied the knot. We both knew it would be hectic, but so long as we're together it makes the whole thing worth it." The speedster and archer locked eyes briefly and shared a loving smile.

"Yeah, we know what you mean."

The subtle implication of their upcoming wedding brought a smile to the clone's face. "Have you guys picked a date yet?"

Wally bit his inner cheek while Artemis responded. "We're thinking November. There's this church in Keystone that'll have us, and most of the details for the service are basically already planned. Shouldn't be too hard to finish everything else." This forced a laugh out of the half-Kryptonian.

"That's what I said a couple months ago, then look what happened."

"Well, I already did my time in an extradimensional prison, so I think I'm past that stage." All three of them laughed, but it finally became apparent to Wally that their fourth comrade had remained mostly silent, analyzing every square inch of the holomap carefully with utmost seriousness. "What about you, Dick? You can't tell me the son of Batman doesn't have a plan." Dick was snapped out of his all-business trance and flashed a small smile to his best friend.

"If I told you what it was it wouldn't be as much of a surprise, would it?" Artemis rolled her eyes.

"And Birdy loves his surprises, doesn't he?" He blushed at the use of the pet name Zatanna had christened him with mere months ago.

"Come on, Dick! Tell us!" He tried to bite back the growing smirk and turned back to the holomap.

"You guys do realize what Zatanna would do to me if I told y'all my plan before her, right? Excuse me for not wanting to stand by the altar as a frog."

"Oh, come on. She can't actually do that, right? It's just a joke." Wally gulped awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, don't test her on that, Supey. Believe me, I know from experience."

Their friendly banter came to a screeching halt when the holocomputer chimed in another distress call, and Nightwing furrowed his brow before answering.

"We read you, Batman."

"Oh, I'm not Batman." Everybody perked up at the familiar yet menacing voice on the line, and Dick's relaxed expression immediately tensed up as his hands dropped to his sides and he clenched his fist.

"Renegade." Wally locked eyes with Dick, who was already hard at work trying to trace the message.

"How'd you get this frequency?"

"I get my hands on a lot of things I shouldn't, Artemis. For instance…"

The computer opened two side by side images, and Conner practically blew a gasket. M'gann was unconscious on the floor in a rather dark warehouse, and Raquel was tied to a chair with her eyes shut and her belt stripped of her in a similarly enshadowed facility.

"Where are they?!" Wally and Artemis both did their best to hold a certifiably enraged Superboy back, all the while Renegade chuckled through the line. Nightwing eyed the tracer program, his heart speeding up with anticipation as it neared 75% completion.

"If I told you that, it wouldn't be much of a mystery now would it?"

87%.

Dick remained stoic throughout the whole ordeal, trying his best to act like how he knew Kaldur would have acted. Showing fear would only play into the enemy's hands, and showing emotion would blind his judgment. He couldn't afford either of those things when two of his own were in distress.

"We'll stop you. It's what we do."

95%.

A sinister yet familiar cackle emanated from the other end of the call, and he could practically hear the taunting smirk he was sure was on Renegade's face. "If you can't even keep track of your own friends, how the hell do you expect to stop me and my team?"

The algorithm completed its function, but Dick felt his heart drop at the result shown on his screen.

Trace unsuccessful.


M'gann groaned as her amber orange eyes fluttered open to adjust to the dark, cold environment she found herself in. "Who…what…" Her skull pounded from inside her forehead like it was a drum. "Where am I?"

"Hello? Anyone? I-is anyone here?" She tried to reach out telepathically once she stood up to her feet, but to no avail. "M-must be some sort of psychic shielding. Either that or I really am alone."

"Not quite, demon." She gasped and whipped around to see the very same white-clad warrior she fought mere hours ago, slowly approaching her with his fists clenched and his flamethrowers hissing out an orange smoke. "But pretty soon you're gonna wish you were."

The Martian entered a defensive stance, stretching her telekinetic grasp around the room to look for things to use against her attacker. "Who are you and why'd you bring me here? And why do you keep calling me 'demon'? What did I ever do to you?"

The man stepped out of the shadows and into the light, disengaging his flamethrowers. "That's a lot of questions. But for now, " he unlocked his skull-shaped helmet and slowly began to lift it off his head, "let's start at the beginning, M'gann."

M'gann's eyes widened to the size of golf balls. His face was rather heavily scarred on one side and his black hair was slightly burnt off, but his voice, his eyes were unmistakable to her.

She could hardly believe herself. It made no sense, and yet…there was no way it could be anyone else.

"Oh my god, i-is that really you?!"


I'm gonna try to update this story at least once a week, but these chapters are much longer than I'm used to so apologies if there's a bit of a delay in between postings. I greatly appreciate the interest and support, though.