Zillah lies inside the slender chamber. Her midnight features shrouded by the fogged translucency of the glass'd enclosure. There is a shuffling of footsteps as a rotund figure waddles up to the quietly hissing contraption. Professor Chang smirks greasily and raises a spongy hand. He strokes his fingers across the smooth surface… …

"… ….snkkheheheheheheheheheh… . …"

He turns around with a swivel. He strolls down the long, dark corridor of the underground facility.

Alone with his echoes and hyperventilating chuckles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Booker is an old man. But he doesn't look it. Except for when he hunches over or tries to pick up heavy objects, he is seemingly as young and fit as a well-tuned fiddle. There is a betraying streak or two of gray amidst his dark head of hair, but nothing too betraying. He fills in the blanks with glares and growls and other bits and pieces of a notoriously ruthless façade.

Presently, he sits at a bench full of instruments before a stretched window of clean, transparent glass. Smoke billows up and down from the other side with every pull of a switch or turn of a nob. A muffled, screaming voice of a young man can be heard warbling forth from the chamber beyond. And at the highest pitch of each scream, Booker pauses in his instrumentations to jot down a note or two on a computer program.

His back is facing Professor Chang as the villain in question walks into the facility laboratory with a hissing of his tubes and lungs. Then a slimy-lipped:

"Enjoying your new prize, I see? Eheheheheheh," Chang snickers.

"Do not bother me," Booker mutters. "I am….busy."

"I can see that.. …," Chang waddles up to the window and glances through. "Any busier, and the subject might die."

"I never.. ….NEVER kill my subjects," Booker murmurs.

Chang's lips curve. "Is that so?"

"… … … ….not the subjects still useful to me."

"Heheheheh.. … ….Well, this one sample had better be alive at the end of your….," Chang salutes like a Medieval Arab merchant. "'Services'."

"The child is the one performing the service, not I," Booker lisps as he glares beyond the glass at his subject. He pulls a switch. Yet again, a scream emanates its muffled chant through the corridor. "Always, it is the children who perform. I am just here to make sure—for your boss as well as mine—that the children who perform the best stay in school. I may not be able to make H.I.V.E. a legion of soldiers. But a mercenary of super-soldiers should be sufficient in handling the world."

"I would certainly hope that you pump out much better samples than the ones left to—let's say—rust at the Soggy-Bottom. Eheheh…"

Booker pauses in mid-switch. He glares aside at Chang, not so much as moving his body. "If any of the youngsters were captured by the Titans, then I had intended them to."

"Heheheh… …Oh? Is that so?"

"A true student's testing goes far beyond the boundaries of the laboratory. Even you would know that," Booker resumes his scream-inducing instrumentations. Light from beyond the window flickers across his face. "After all, that is how my exceptional Flaar made it past the trials."

"Oh, so you put so much faith in your alien boy's strength?"

"Why should I not?"

"Could it simply be fate?"

"Fate is what leads us astray," Booker murmurs. "Our boss has told us from time and time again that fate is the one question with no answer. At least.. … …no answer—until we are done cracking the Xenothium key to the Spectrum."

Chang snorts. He folds his arms and leans forward. "Do you really think that boy inside the suit has the answers this 'Neo H.I.V.E.' is looking for?"

"That depends…… …," Booker lisps. "Not just on my expertise.. …" He slowly turns a nob and glares forward. ".. … …but if we both actually manage to get that blasted suit of mystery open.. …. …"

The two evil men glare forward.

Beyond the glass.. …

Strapped to electrified wires on the wall.. …

The black figure of Red X twitches and convulses.. ….

Hanging… …Hyperventilating.. … ..Struggling for breath.

And with every pulse of energy shot through him by the laboratory instruments.. …

The rogue tilts his pale mask back and howls with a staticy voice.

On and on into the glaring flood lights.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So.. ….Here're my two cents," Bard gestures as the three of us trudge uphill through the forest. "Let's head back to our bikes and continue on the road so we can circle around the escape party. Then we just might be able to drop the bomb on them, so to figuratively speak.. …"

"For once.. …I'm starting to hear you out, cowboy," Robin mutters and hops a boulder.

Bard leans against a bent tree trunk and glances suspiciously. "You still haven't told us just how in the blue fudge you're figurin' out where Fraust and her friends are."

"And I don't need to."

"Heh…that so?"

"Team leader's prerogative."

"You cling to your prerogative like rubber bands to Willie Nelson's hair."

"I swear… …you signed in on the 'Titans' roster thinking it was the Blue Collar Comedy Tour." Robin glances back with an eyebrow raised over his mask. "Are you really with us today, Bard?"

"Nah, I'm just Peter Pan's shadow after too many Orange Soda. I slew Michael Jackson and hopped the fence at Neverland to join you on a country hike."

"… … …." Robin blinks.

Bard smirks and gestures: "Heeeeere's your sign."

Robin shakes his head with a slight smirk. He marches on ahead. "Noir! I'm glad at least you're one with the decent common sense to follow orders."

"…. … … …."

"… … …Noir?"

I snap out of it. I stop staring at the forested hillsides and glance over at our leader ahead of us. I cock my head aside at attention.

"Thought we lost you there, kid."

I take a deep breath.

Please… …

I know you're leader, but.. ….

Stop calling me kid.

"Awwww—Don't pay him attention none, Robin. He's just fascinated with squirrels," Bard winks at me. "Ain't that right, kid?"

I stick my tongue out.

You too.

"Hehehe—Hey! Wait up! I thought I was the expert ranger here!"

"In your dreams, Roy Rogers. I was navigating my way through the urban forests of Gotham before you could even swing a lasso."

"Heh, Hella bunch of pine cones and mosquitoes they had up there in the big city, huh, bird boy?"

"You know what I mean—"

"Heeeeere's your si—"

"Okay, QUIT IT!"

I linger behind the two Titans. I slow my steps a bit. I glance to the sides. I stare into the branches. The shadows. The leaves and scattered sunlight.

"…. … … …"

I sigh, shake it off, and blur my steps to follow my two friends.

I'm paranoid.

I should think of happier things.

Like Terra and the pageant.

Or Cyborg's and Beast Boy's laughter.

Or… …Fei…. …

I wonder if she would enjoy a walk in the country like this?

I smile to myself and pass on.

Unaware… …

Unaware of a ripple of light above me.

In the shape of a human being.

Perched on a tree limb.

… ….

… … …..

A flicker of light.

And the figure blips in and out of the visual spectrum before leaping away.. …

Into nothingness, with the slightest swish of a silver cape.

Then….

….

….

….