With the help of a heavily encrypted signal that bounced across the world through hundreds of connecting satellites and over countless firewalls and safe guards, Robin and Batman stared each other down.

"I saw the reports coming in from Jump City, I saw the green ectoplasmic bindings the one your media calls Blue used to encase Jinx, and I saw the press conference that you had after they beat you. Robin, I know you are not so stupid to be fooled by such a weak disguise. Why haven't you reported to us when you saw the Amity Convicts." The hard posture and narrowed eyes that Batman boasted made it painfully clear that what he just voiced was very much a statement and not a question.

Robin returned Batman's glare with a hard look of his own, "My team and I don't have enough evidence to prove that the Amity Convicts are in fact Blue, Black and Purple. We agreed that contacting the Justice League over what could be a false alarm was unnecessary." Robin forced himself to calmly reply as he idly tapped his fingers on his computer desk.

"You had enough evidence to warrant the purchase of ghost hunting weapons." Batman interjected his usually stoic face pulled back into a sharply edge scowl.

Robin eyes narrowed dangerously, and the composed monotone of his voice briefly took on a completely raw personal air, "You were spying on me?"

Batman either ignoring or uncaring of the angry accusation in Robin's voice pressed on, "You bought enough ghost hunting equipment to weaponize a small army. Did you really think that I would ignore such purchases? Purchases that were made over one of my encoded networks and that were not cleared afterwards."

'A very amateurish mistake'. Unconsciously Robin's teeth roughly grated over Batman's implications, and his brow furrowed over the truth to his former mentor's words. He had been too caught up in the emotion of going after the convicts and didn't check to make sure that he properly covered his tracks. Like Batman implied it was a very an amateurish mistake. "The point still stands." Robin interjected, trying to gain the ground he lost with his oversight, "We do not know for certan if Blue, Black and Purple are the Amity Convicts. We cannot attack and charge them unless we have solid proof of their guilt."

Batman held the silence between them as he scrutinized Robin's words and while holding Robin's glare, he reached out to his keyboard and with a few soft clicks sent an encrypted file to Robin's screen. Instantly the file opened up and revealed its tightly guarded secrets to the Titan's leader.

"Does this make them guilty enough for you?" Batman said his normally rough voice turning into a harsh baritone.

Robin's eyes widened at what Batman had opened up for him, "This is…"

"The government plans to release this information in the next two weeks." Batman said leaning forward, and forcing Robin to listen to him as his form took up the entirety of Robin's screen, "Do you honestly believe that you and your team can deal with The Convicts and the crimes they carry with them? Taking into account that what is written here is a very small sample of a much larger file."

"This," Robin turned away from the file and closed it with a few keystrokes. He stared up at Batman, his determination strong and unbending in the face of Batman's scrutiny. Even as his now heavily sweating hands caused his gloves to stick uncomfortably to his skin, "this changes nothing. We cannot attack them without solid proof. Our job is to defend the citizens from harm, not to take the law into our own hands and become prosecutors."

Batman held Robin's gaze, and for what was far from the first time, Robin could swear that he felt the Dark Knight pick apart his very soul for an ounce of insincerity. This feeling. The feeling that someone was looking into your past and judging you for everything that you did. He had seen countless criminals fall under it and was only able to withstand it because of the years he spent with Batman.

That didn't make the gaze any less torturous.

After an almost painful time later Batman nodded to himself as if agreeing with what he saw and spoke, "I would suspect not." Batman said leaning back into his chair effectively cutting the imposing pressure that his presence boasted in half. "Robin, the future has great complications for all of us. Complications that will only get worse if something is not done about Danny, Sam and Tucker." Robin twitched at how unflinchingly Batman spoke the Convicts true names. He knew that Batman never used a super's true name unless a situation was incredibly serious.

Robin sat up straighter as Batman continued his debriefing, "Be vigilant. Watch for any activity and not just from the Convicts. I have a feeling that whatever the government is trying to hide from us is much bigger than either of us knows. The only people who may know what exactly is going on is Danny, Sam and Tucker themselves. Speak with them. If you must, force them to listen to reason. Convince them to give themselves up to the League and so that we can help them."

"You want me to tell the Convicts that we know who they are, and that they should peacefully surrender to the Justice League?" Robin asked dropping all pretence and speaking frankly to Batman's seemingly insane request.

"Yes." Batman stated, his continence slowly getting darker with each word he spoke, "Do not get us wrong Robin. There has never been an instance were the members of the Justice League would want to become Bogeyman to a group of teens. However, if by the time this report becomes public they are not in some sort of custody we will deal with them ourselves. We will not entertain the idea of having criminals this dangerous operating unchecked around the American populace, even if we have to break some of our more aesthetic rules to get them."

Robin forced himself to hold and return his former mentor's glare with one of his own as Batman's newest implication sunk it. "I understand. As long as you understand the Jump City is our city and its criminals are ours and only ours to deal with."

Batman's eyes darkened. His voice was very much a threating deep growl, "You have no idea what you are dealing with."

"I know exactly what I am dealing with." Robin said, the tight grip that he had on his computer desk caused him to lean out up and out of his chair. His patience was wearing down with each belittling word Batman had to say about his competence.

"Robin you're being foolish." Batman said his pervious pleasant air, if it could even be called that, was now completely gone. "You know that even if only a fraction of what I just showed you is true. They would still outrank you team's current strength a hundred times over. Do the right thing and let us deal with this before things get out of hand. Do not let your emotions control you."

"Right, I try should try to follow your oh so prefect example. Like how you call for the League's help to deal with the Joker when you know your emotions are controlling you." Robin viscously snapped back causing both his and Batman's eyes to open in shock. However, while his own eyes turned apologetic Batman's took on a harder edge.

Batman voice became cold and Robin found himself trying not to shiver from Batman's sharp words, "If you really believe in the strength of your team. Deal with the Convicts on yourself, but know this. The very second that I see that you cannot apprehend them we will come to Jump, and we will take them into custody. With or without your compliance." With a harsh click the screen displaying Batman's form winked out of existence and Robin was once again alone.

"That is going to come back and bite me hard isn't?" Robin muttered to himself before sighing and maximizing the files that Batman had opened for him before things fell apart as they always seemed to do whenever they spoke too long to each other. At least their relationship with each other was better than it was a few years ago.

It was Starfire that tried to get them to reconcile when she hear of the... less than favorable way he had left Batman's mentorship. It taken months but she finally got them to agree to a meeting with each other.

Well, it was more that she got fed up, lock them together in titanium vault and demanded that they, 'Work on the making of the friendship!'

The vault was cold, the situation and how they got in it was stupid, and all in all it was technically illegal since it was the textbook definition of a kidnapping...

But it worked.

Somewhat.

Instead of silently glaring at each other they could now have a complete conversation for an upwards of two hours. However, after the two hour mark either he or Batman ruined it by saying something out of bounds, stupid or just plain cruel. Counting this one he ruined eight conversations to Batman's ten.

Robin sighed and turned his attention back to the files on his desktop. Even if the meeting ended on a sour note what Batman had given him was incredibly helpful. Too bad with each headline and article he read the blood freely rushed from his face.

Horrible. Plain and simple, it was just horrible.

As an avid believer that by fighting someone you can understand everything about them he knew that the Amity Convicts were not like this. That all of the things that these papers and reports said they did could not be true. And therein lay the biggest problem. Although everything that was written in these reports wasn't and could never be true a lot of it was.

If some random person said that the Amity Convicts killed a family of four to cover their tracks no one would believe them. Of course no one would such a thing was too farfetched and easy to disprove. All a person would have to do was look at the Convict's family and town that fought so hard to keep them from danger to see that the Convicts could never be that bad.

…but show the video and reports of the people that they unmistakably did severely injure? Show the general public the broken arms and legs of the government agents that dared to fight them. Show the hundreds of thousands in civilian property damage, and the millions that the government lost with each encounter. Show the fear that the ghosts in and outside of the Ghost Zone had for each of the Convicts, and not just the ever powerful ghost boy. Show the people how many if not all of the ghosts that do live outside of Amity Park avoid the Convicts because of the one they fearfully call King.

When you show the people all of that and the almost never-ending line of charges that the courts are still working through. Well, the idea that Amity Convicts would kill a family in cold blood to cover their tracks no longer seem so farfetched.

He needed to talk to the Convicts before this information became public, because once it did he knew how quickly this would spiral out of control.

The only thing that Robin could hope for is that the Convicts would show their faces before the Justice League was force to raise their hand to protect America.

And that they had the mind to stay out of trouble.


Danny forced the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach down as looked over the bright moonlit clearing.

The clearing itself was incredibly beautiful considering how cold the fall had been till that point. Thick ankle-high dark-green grass carpeted the ground, and was only broken by the small bundles of blue-white flowers that dotted the landscape. The clearing was untouched by the husle and busle of Jump City and was free from any sort of big city litter. Pale moon light shone through the sparsely clouded night sky and illuminated everything it touched with its pale light.

Any other day, at any other time he, Sam and Tucker would be goofing off in the clearing playing among the leaves, and running around the trees. Enjoying what probably was the warmest day that fall and the warmest day that they would have until spring the next year. Instead they were waiting tensely from the appointed time to come.

The time that the strange masked man told them to wait for.

Today had started out on such a good note too…

.-.-.

"Tucker stop cheating!"

"Dude I'm not cheating, and I am pretty sure it's impossible for someone to cheat while playing Pool."

"Sam!"

"What?" Sam shouted looking up from her bean bag chair at Danny who was at that time fuming at a very bored looking Tucker.

"Tell him to stop cheating or at least be our referee." Danny said his annoyance causing him to unknowingly float off of the floor. Something that they all notice to be happening more and more as he didn't need to have a chokehold over his powers, "I know he's cheating. There is no way that I am this bad at pool."

Tucker lower his pool stick to the ground and leaned against it channeling the very embodiment of arrogance, "Dude you're bad at pool accept it and move on." He then sighed as if he was taking to a small child, "If you keep on practising one day you will be as good as me, but today is not that day." Tucker's grin took on a very smug air, "In what, one? Two? Three hundred years you'll be as good as me."

Pool stick and basic rules of gravity forgotten, Danny planted his hands on the pool table and leaned into Tucker's face. His legs nothing but an wispy enteral trail behind him and his angry twitching face a stark opposite to the incredibly smug look plastered on Tucker's. "I'm going to make you eat those words."

"Danny, as one of your closest friend I am going tell you why that's impossible." Tucker said calmly chalking his pool cue.

"Tucker I don't believe in the impossible." Danny said his eye twitching at the nonchalant air Tucker was admitting, "I'm a half ghost talking to techno geek about pool in an souped-up abandon warehouse, surrounded by the almost brand new things thrown out by a rich family. I live and breath the impossible."

"Danny I'm beating you eight games to zero."

"I can still make a comeback!"

Sam held the bridge of her nose as Danny and Tucker fought. She knew that she shouldn't be complaining about the noise seeing that there was much bigger things to be worried about. Well, at least there should be a lot more things for her to worry about.

However, for the first time in a long time things were good.

There were ridiculously stocked with food and water. They had a warm place to sleep and warm clothes to sleep with. They had entertainment to keep their moral high. For Poe's sake! They had a satellite TV that was probably never going to run out, as it was being paid by people who didn't care where there money went. For the first time in what seemed like forever life was good.

This worried her.

She didn't want to be the one to complain or look a gift horse in the mouth, but nothing ever went this good for them. Even when they were still in Amity Park things never went this good.

Something had to be up, but as much as she wanted to be ready for it she didn't want to jinx it.

"Sam!"

She looked up to see Danny upside down face inches from hers. His wide blue eyes filled with a certain soft concern as he raised a hand to gently touch her forehead.

"Sam, are you okay? I've been calling you for a couple of minutes now." Danny said brushing away her loose hair as he tried to get a reading on her temperature.

"More like whining loudly at you for a couple of seconds, but I digress." Tucker said standing beside them the concern on his face contradicting his playful words, "You're not coming down with something, are you?"

Sam gently pushed away Danny's hand, "No, no I am fine. I'm just thinking about how quiet it has been."

"Well yeah isn't that a good thing?" Tucker asked, "I'm just saying after everything that happened a little peace and quiet isn't all that bad."

"I know, but I can't help but worry that something bad is going to happen." Sam replied finally voicing the concerns she had for the past couple of days.

"Sam you're letting the bad things that happened to us overwrite the good." Danny said righting himself so that he was sitting beside Sam. Hesitantly he place his arm around her, "Try to enjoy what we have now I mean it isn't every day that we get to take it easy, and between all of us you have been working the hardest. You know, keeping us from dying from eating random plants and stuff. Shouldn't you have sometime to relax?"

Sam smiled at him and decided that right than and there she wanted to temporarily suspend their non-relationship pact. She leaned into his touch and allowed herself to blush as Danny instantly responded by pulling her nearer into his embrace, "You're right I should try to enjoy what down time we do have. Even if it's just for a little while."

"Yes you should and I know the best way to do that." Tucker happily said as he launching himself into the empty plush couch, "A few hours of mind numbing TV!" Tucker grabbed the remote and turned the TV on with a soft click only to reveal a static filled screen. Tucker's smile fell as he began rapidly clicking through channels to find that they all bore the same static-like appearance as the first. "No, no, no! This cannot be happening!" Tucker bemoan, "The TV's broken!"

"That's impossible," Danny said, and to Sam's disappointment, got up to take the remote from Tucker's hand, "The Bellsighers probably got wise to us using their satellite and turned it off to save money."

"I know the Bellsighers. The idea of saving money is completely foreign to them." Sam said as she put her book down and got up to inspect the TV's antennae. "Maybe there is something wrong with the satellite itself. Like it got hit with an asteroid or something?"

Before either Danny or Tucker could respond the static crackle from the TV disappeared and was replaced an cool unnerving monotone.

"Hello Blue, Black and Purple."

Faced with being directly and very suddenly addressed by what she thought was a broken TV Sam did the first thing that came to mind and screamed, "Gah!"

Just as she jumped away from the TV the static began shifting violently revealing a dull metallic skull mask that was divide straight down the middle. The left side was purest of blacks that had no definition on it smooth surface. The right side however, was a dull metallic orange that revealed one piercing eye and nothing more. They were frozen in place as that lone eye stared them down, then a deep monotone voice rolled out from behind the mask.

"Now don't get too scared, I do not know exactly where you are. This blackout and broadcast is reaching Television sets all across Jump. You see, you three have gained my attention. Than again, how could you not? You are powerful, and with your power you try oh so hard to be good to do good. I have seen you fight, and how you fight to protect those in this city. Yet with everything that you do you are still seen as criminals." The masked figure leaned closer to the camera his eye taking up more of the screen. "To put it simply I want to help you, all three of you. From what I know it has been entirely too long since you had help. Actual help mind you. The kind of help that your government or heroes cannot give you. The kind of help that both you and they know they cannot give you."

The camera shifted once again showing a vivid and clear picture of a large clearing in a forest. The deep voice of the masked man spoke over the picture, "Just outside the city there is a forest, but you know that already. Be in this clearing by ten o'clock tonight and I will answer any questions you may have. Do not be mistaken I only want to prove to you that I can help you. Of course you are free to leave whenever you want." The camera cut away from the forest and back to the masked man, "However, be warned that not everyone will give you such luxuries. Until then."

As suddenly as it came the static and stoic unemotional mask blinked off of the screen to display a children's show.

"Well, that happened." Tucker said hands shaking as he turned off the TV, "What do you guys think?"

"Trap, obviously a trap." Sam said wearily looking at the flat screen worried that the masked man will somehow come back.

"I couldn't say it better myself." Danny said a contemplative look on his face, "I know fruitloops and that guy had a very loopy air around him."

"So that's three votes out of three for not going." Tucker said tossing the remote back on the couch.

"Whoa wait. I said that this was a trap." Danny said, "I didn't say that we shouldn't go."

"You want to meet up with that fruitloop?" Sam loudly exclaimed, "Danny what are you thinking? Shouldn't we be avoiding the people who want to requite us, especially if they want to give us unimaginable power? Has a situation like that every worked out for us?"

"No it has not, and that's why we should go. I rather know what kind of enemy we are up against now then find out later." Danny said making his case, "Think about it shouldn't we deal with this problem now than wait until it gets too big to contain?"

"Dude I get where you're coming from, but isn't waltzing up to a trap a little reckless even for us?" Tucker pointed out.

"We're not going to run up and hug the man." Danny exasperated before his voice took on a unnaturally solemn air, "I don't know why, but there is something telling me that it would be a bad idea to ignore this guy."

"Well he is pretty shady." Sam said glancing at the TV, "He didn't even give us his name."

"You don't you know who he is," Danny asked trying to break up the tension he created by playful teasing her, "Miss 'I should really research up on my villains?'"

Sam glared at Danny causing him to quickly float away from immediate striking distance. Annoyed, She crossed her arms and huffed angrily, barely covering up the uncertainty in her voice, "I know my villains Danny. It's my job to make sure that we don't end up siding with someone we really shouldn't be around, remember? I know all the villains that frequent Jump and the areas around here. Heck, I even studied the enemies that the major Justice League members have." Sam said her apprehension breaking through, "I have never seen or heard about this guy. That's impossible unless he is some no name upstart or," She shifted worriedly on her feet, "this guy is so dangerous that they tried to hide his actions from the public."

Tucker looked between the pensive looks on Danny and Sam's faces, "So what are the chances of a no name taking over Jump City's grid?"

"The same chances of the very same no name knowing who we really are?" Danny said causing her and Tucker to look at him in shock and no small amount of dread, "I didn't notice it until now, but the way that he was talking to us, didn't it seem a little too familiar. Like they way he said that he knew how much we try to help citizens and how the government couldn't help us. Blue, Black and Purple are not being hunted by the government. The Amity Convicts are."

Sam felt paled drastically as she thought how sure the man spoke about them. "We need to leave. Now. Guys help me pack." She said making her way towards their bed rooms.

"Wait." Danny said reaching out and stopping her, "We shouldn't pack up and run because some guy with a satellite spooked us. Maybe I'm a little jumpy or too used to things going belly up for us. For all we know nothing is going on and he really only wants to talk."

"Or he could know who we are and want's to turn us into his minions." Tucker interjected.

"Well yeah, but do you guys really want to run away from Jump and the only protection we have against the Justice League, who I should remind you are still after us, on a bad feeling?"

Sam and Tucker shared a look before turning back to Danny, "Ok," Tucker said hesitantly, "We'll go check out what this guy has to say, but the moment he says anything that even hints at us joining some cause we're grabbing what we have and running."

"Deal, I just want to stay there long enough to know if he's an actually threat. If he becomes loopy we leave no hesitation." Danny said, "What time is it?"

"It's nine o'clock." Tucker said quickly glancing at his watch.

"Then we don't have much time to get ready." Sam said as she slipped out of Danny hold to change into her gear. Before she left she looked back at Danny, "Danny I really hope that you're wrong about this."

"Yeah, me too."

.-.-.

Danny sighed roughly as he adjusted his balaclava again.

Truthfully? He was starting to regret this decision, or at least the way that they were doing this. It wasn't bad enough that their plan to observe how dangerous this challenger was already shaky at best, but their escape plan was worst.

Or as Sam had said their plan was 'the equivalent of building a shoddy sand hut directly on Japan's major falt-line and hoping it will last.'

However, it wasn't like they had a better choice to take, other than staying home covering their ears and loudly screaming. Then stupidly hoping that whatever they ignored wouldn't attack them at a later time. He for one wasn't going to be caught off guard again.

"Tuck, what's the time?" Danny whispered scoping out the moon lit clearing.

"It's nine fifty-nine. You guys ready for this?" Tucker whispered back as he pulled his hood further down.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Sam said lifting the clasps on her ecto-gun holders.

"Alright then," Danny said stepping into the clearing, "let's see what this guy wants."

Danny led the way into the clearing with Sam and Tucker trailing at a safe distance behind him. Close enough to help but far enough not to get in his or each others way if a fight erupted. They continue until they stood in the middle of the clearing, the thick grass rolling like a sea around their silent footsteps.

"Well here goes nothing." Danny whispered under his breath before he yelled into the night sky, "We came like you asked, show yourself!" His voice echoed throughout the surrounding woods send small woodland creatures running in fear. As his echoing voice died out they stood in still, and waited for some sort of acknowledgement from the man who invited them. Tense seconds past yet nothing happened.

"Um, did he hear you?" Tucker asked.

"How could he not?" Sam said pawing at her ears in agitation, "My ears are still ringing from that. Maybe he stood us up?"

"I never thought I would be stood up by a guy twice my age." Tucker said dryly as Sam's implication ran its natural course through his head, "Honestly I don't know how to feel. Why would he call us out here if he wasn't going to show?"

"How should I know? I don't understand fruitloop." Danny said turning back to them, "What a complete waste of time, we should…" Danny trailed off as he became suddenly aware of a very faint very familiar buzz.

"Get down!" He shouted throwing himself to the ground as an almost blinding light passed over them.

Sam was the first one to recover pushing herself onto her knees and staring into the darkness of the forest, "Was that an eco-blast?"

"Did the Guys in White catch up?" Tucker said his hand instantly reaching for his hand-held, "How the hell did they find us?"

Danny shook the last spots out of his eyes. The spots that the very large, very blue ecto-blast made possible. "It wasn't the Guys in White. Their tech doesn't look like that."

"Then who is shooting at us?" Tucker said getting up in an awkward half-crouch, "Who randomly tries to blast people?"

"Tucker, Danny and Sam you know that wasn't random."

Danny felt his already cold blood freeze quickly he scrambled to get to his feet and positioned himself to block any attacks that could be aimed at the Sam and Tucker as they recovered. Seeing all five members of the Titan's glaring at him he forced himself to portray ignorance even as Cyborg raised his cannon, his eco-cannon at them.

"Tucker, Danny and Sam? I think you might be mistaken." Danny said in a strained voice as he held his stance, "We are Blue, Black, and Purple."

"Drop the act Phantom. We know who you are." Robin said his eyes narrowing in annoyance, staff crackling with barely withheld electricity. "I going to ask this once and only once surrender, or face the consequences."

"Listen we don't want any trouble, and other than what happened at the garbage dump weeks ago we haven't done anything that would warrant an arrest." Sam said speaking for Danny who at that point could only gape like a fish as his plan came crashing down.

"How about fraternizing with a terrorist?" Raven supplied the anger in her voice briefly coming into play.

"What!" Tucker yelped before striding past Danny and pointing an angry finger at Raven. At this point he knew that their disguises were very much compromised and that keeping up the charade would get them nowhere. "Look we have done many bad things in the last few months. A lot if not all of them incredibly illegal. We, however are not terrorists, and have never worked with them."

"Slade is of the terrorist and you are wanting to work with him." Starfire said her eyes glowing a dangerous bright green. "You came to his meeting and are in the planning of working for him. You must be stopped!"

"Wait, wait!" Danny said putting his hands up to stop the Titan's advance, "First off, we are not planning on working for anyone. We like being a small independent team thank you very much. Secondly, who the heck is Slade?" Danny asked looking between the Titans.

Robin blinked at the sincerity in Danny's voice. "Slade. The guy who told you to come to this clearing. The guy who has been terrorizing Jump City for years. You know that Slade?"

In response both Danny and Tucker looked at Sam who shrugged, "I don't know any villains named Slade." She then turned to Robin who at this point had lowered his weapon a introspective look on his face as he saw their clear confusion, "Does he go by a different name?"

"Deathstroke. I also go by Deathstroke, but that is neither here nor there."

The Titan's snapped to high alert their postures and eyes aimed at a spot almost directly behind Danny, Tucker and Sam. Seeing that they were arguably in the worst possible position imaginable, Danny grabbed Tucker and Sam and flew them out of both the Titan's and Slade's path.

"Now is that anyway to act?" Slade questioned as he watched how quickly Danny had grabbed his friends. "After I decided to reach out and aid you in your time of need."

"They don't need your help." Robin said as he stared down Slade, "The last thing that they need is the kind of help that you give."

"Is that so? Well then Robin if you think my idea of help is so bad what would you do to help them?" Slade asked sincerely interested in what Robin had to say.

Robin's eyes narrowed, "To start, I would make sure that you could never get near them."

A deep resounding chuckle came from Slade putting them all further on edge, "Lock them away in a cage that only you have access to? It seems, Robin, that you are becoming more like me every day."

"I am nothing like you." Robin said his grip on his bo-staff tightening to the point that his hands began to blister.

"Not to interrupt, whatever is going on here, but I would like to state that we are going with neither of you." Danny interjected, instantly gaining the attention of both Robin and Slade. "Yeah, I think we overstayed our visit. Don't you guys agree?"

"Totally." Tucker replied, "I don't now about you but there is only so much beach babes a guy can be around until they lose their magic. I don't want them to lose their magic."

"The California sun was starting to get to me." Sam said while whacking Tucker over the head.

Beastboy looked to the heavily armed goth, "It's fall."

"What better time to go, you know before the sun comes back." Sam evenly reasoned.

Danny smiled widely placing his arms around Sam and Tucker's shoulders, "Now that everything is settled if you would just excuse us..."

Robin's eyes widened as he saw Danny start to float pulling Sam and Tucker along with him, "Wait, you can't go yet!"

"I must agree with my former charge." Slade voiced smoothly, "It would be a bad idea for you to leave just yet."

"Oh really and why would that be?" Danny asked as he slowly got farther away from the ground.

"It seems that the after months of searching the Guys in White found out that the Amity Convicts based their newest home in Jump City." Slade effortlessly supplied. "By now the city should be surround by their swarms. It would be most unwise to leave."

Danny paled and froze mid-float still carrying an equally pale Tucker and Sam with him.

Stunned frozen Danny could only gawk at how easily Slade told them that he condemned them to death, "You told them that we where here?"

"Do not make me out as a tattle-tale. I merely suggested that it would be in their best interests to scope out the city." Slade said as he closely watched their reactions.

"You said that we could leave at anytime!" Tucker shouted in raw shock causing his voice to hitch.

"I said that you could leave, and honestly you still can." Slade said his deep monotone baring not even the smallest trace of regret, "You just have to get away from a government backed multi-state collaboration, whose sole purpose is to tear you apart, and then piece what little there if left together afterwards. Honestly I would be more than impressed if you made it out. They seemed so eager to take you down seeing that they started to set up since this afternoon."

"That's impossible." Cyborg interrupted in disbelief, "My sensors on the outside of the city would have went haywire if there was movement that big anywhere near us."

"You shouldn't be so confident in your work. It only feeds your ego makes you arrogant." Slade said in distain, "The G.I.W found a way to be completely invisible to most tracers and made sure to come to the city with all their best equipment. Night vision, electromagnetic field detectors, Infrared vision, Electronic Voice Phenomena tracers," Slade said ignoring the Titan's to look directly at Danny, Sam and Tucker who were still floating a few feet off the ground, "basically everything one needs to systematically and ruthless track any ghost or human for months on end."

"You, you set us up!" Sam's murderous roar was greatly lessen by the panic in her eyes.

"Well, yes I did." Slade replied his tone completely unapologetic.

"That is so low." Beast Boy growled out, "Do you really think that we will let that happen?"

"Well that isn't exactly up to you is it? You see right here and now I am the only one who can help them." Slade stated, "Unless, you think that you can hold off the G.I.W, Justice League, oh don't look so shocked you're not the only one who follows their movements Sam, and of course myself. You could fight and ultimately fail or" Slade said holding out his hand and opening it to reveal three black and yellow communicators engraved with a sharply drawn 'S' insignia on it, "you can join me and live another day."

Silently Danny, Sam, and Tucker looked at each other their silent fear filled eyes voicing their arguments as both Slade and the Titan's waited for their response. Then with a deep unsteady sigh Danny broke his gaze away from his long time friends, what was left of his family, that he swore to protect no matter what it may cost them and turned to Slade's waiting form.

He glared at the masked man who held their freedom and that had turned their little slice of heave into a twisted kind of hell, then spoke, "After much deliberation we agreed on the path we should take." He slowly breathe out to composing himself as he address Slade and his solution to their problem, "Slade we will never join you or follow whatever crazy, soggy, five day old fruitloop plans that you have for us." Danny said setting Tucker and Sam on the ground beside the Titan's, "It would be better for us to give ourselves up to the Justice League or Titans then join you. With that being said. Robin. What was that thing you're always telling us whenever we meet?"

Robin smiled widely at them as Danny's suggestion suck in. It was good to know that his judge of character was still accurate. No matter how rough the Convicts were. His grin nearly splitting his face, Robin said with all joy that he got from ruining Slade's plots, "You three are under arrest."

"Oh for shame! You have finally bested us!" Danny said as he Tucker and Sam dramatically trusted their wrists out to be handcuffed. "Take us away, preferably to your tower or directly to the League themselves we're not really that picky in this situation, seriously, for we have been captured!"

Robin smirked as he addressed Slade, "You heard them Slade. Once again you lost."

Slade shrugged and calmly clasped his hands behind his back, "It wasn't like I didn't expect this to happen, what with the hero complex that you three have. You know you make this much more difficult then it needs to be." He said looking past Robin to stare Danny, Sam and Tucker down, "However, there is one thing you must learn if you are to be my new appetencies." He pulled both arms away from his back to reveal identical push detonators, "I always get what I want."

Before any of them could react Slade activated the detonators and the ground they stood on went up in thick dark green smoke. It bellowed out of the canisters that where hidden in the ground long before any of them had arrived to the clearing and flowed into their lungs. Danny tried to pull Sam and Tucker away from the smoke but fell with them when the first mouth full of tainted air settled in his chest. Quickly after them the Titan's fell as the noxious gas leaked through the clearing. After agonizing ages of coughing only one person from either team was still conscious.

Robin, forcing himself to stay awake as everyone around him was still on the ground choked out, "How?"

"Honestly Robin, I sent out a city wide broadcast onto every screen including directly into your own tower expressing my interest in Danny, Sam, and Tucker over there." Slade said as he pointed their unconscious forms. "How did you not see that this was a trap? I always have plans in motion. It doesn't matter that they do not wish to join me now, because sooner or later they will. And you and your little team Robin will have a direct hand in making that future come to be."

"Damn you Slade..." Unable to stay awake any longer Robin dropped to the ground. Leaving Slade one step closer to his goal.