Hawkgirl strolled down the hall, ready to go home. She passed the med bay and froze. She wasn't going home just yet. She rushed into the med bay and to Kathy Sutton's side. Seeing Kathy was still alive, Hawkgirl signalled the alarm.
After setting Kathy's unconscious form on an empty bed, Hawkgirl flew out of the med bay. She came across Green Lantern, who looked confused.
"Kendra! What's going on?"
Hawkgirl hovered beside her team mate. "I found Kathy unconscious on the floor, and Reddy nowhere to be found."
Green Lantern powered up his ring. "Then I guess we better get searching."
Flash and Aquaman heard the alarm, but there was little they could do to respond to it. They had their hands full.
Flash raced across the Kitchen, narrowly avoiding Darkseid's Omega Beams. Aquaman tried attacking from behind, but was met with disastrous results.
Faster than Aquaman would have thought possible for the dark god, Darkseid grabbed Aquaman's head and tossed him aside like a rag doll.
Flash raced towards Darkseid, taking the opportunity Aquaman gave. Darkseid refocused on the speedster. Just as Darkseid fired his Omega Beams, the Flash turned direction. Luckily, the Darkseid program's Omega Beams did not follow their target. They still had the same devastating effect, however. The beams struck the ground where the Flash had been. Darkseid was forced to move back as the power exploded right in front of him.
Flash stopped beside Aquaman to help his friend up. "We need a plan."
"Go for the console," Aquaman ordered. "I'll distract Darkseid."
Flash wasn't quite sold. "You sure you can take that kind of punishment?"
"Yes, now go!" Aquaman pushed Flash towards the console while simultaneously running towards Darkseid.
Flash was beside the console in an instant. He typed in the access code, but nothing happened. He typed the code in again, and received the same result.
Flash heard Aquaman cry out in pain. The Scarlet Speedster vented his frustrations and punched through the console, tearing out wires when he pulled his fist back.
The console sparked and Darkseid faded from existence. Flash appeared by Aquaman's side and helped him up.
"Y'okay?"
Aquaman groaned. "The beams hurt. A lot."
Flash grinned. "Let's go find out what's going on."
Red Tornado walked down the hall with a purpose. He was nearing the monitor room, and with it, his objective. So far, he had not been met with opposition.
Until now.
A golden lasso suddenly wrapped itself around his waist, pinning his arms to his side in the process.
"What's going on, John?"
Red Tornado looked over his shoulder. "I must complete my mission, Wonder Woman."
Diana was shocked by his voice. There was no humanity left in it. No emotion. No soul. It was all mechanical.
The air around Red Tornado picked up, until it was a full blown tornado. Wonder Woman was pulled in and then thrown out, making a dent in the wall as she impacted. The tornado died down and Red Tornado released himself from Wonder Woman's lasso.
The Amazon Princess leapt at Red Tornado, but he was ready. Raising his arm, Red Tornado sent forth a blast of concentrated wind. It struck Wonder Woman like a tank, sending her through the wall this time.
Red Tornado staggered as he was hit from behind. He turned around and was blasted again by the Martian Manhunter's martian vision.
"That is enough, Tornado."
Red Tornado focused all of his attention on the Martian. He kicked up a hurricane, which kept J'onn at bay.
"You will not stop me so easily." The Martian Manhunter turned intangible, making the winds useless.
He flew at Red Tornado. The wind-manipulating android fired blasts of wind, but they did nothing to stop the Martian Manhunter. He phased trough Red Tornado, hoping this would short the android.
It didn't.
J'onn turned solid, believing the fight to be finished. The Martian Manhunter was assaulted by all sides by vicious winds. He was pounded, and could not focus enough to turn intangible or use any of his other powers. He was driven to his knees, unable to resist the attack.
Seeing no point in continuing this fight, Red Tornado finished J'onn with a strong left cross. The Martian Manhunter slumped to the ground.
"This ends now!" Wonder Woman flew into Red Tornado, taking him through the wall and into the food court.
Batman, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern witnessed Diana and Reddy's explosive entrance into the food court. Wonder Woman had contacted them while Red Tornado had been busy with J'onn.
The Amazon Princess tossed Red Tornado into the floor before retreating. Green Lantern struck next, using his ring to create a construct sledgehammer. Red Tornado raised his arms and created strong winds to repel the hammer.
Green Lantern grunted, using all of his willpower to push the hammer down. "Did he get an upgrade or something?"
"Probably." Batman took a small device out of his utility belt. "I need to get in close. Keep him distracted."
Hawkgirl energized her mace. "No problem."
Red Tornado increased the strength of his winds, knocking the hammer back. He got up, ready to face his team mates.
"Don't like hammers? Fine. How bout some plasma then?" Green Lantern fired blast after blast from his ring.
Red Tornado took off, avoiding Green Lantern's energy blasts. Lantern grinned. The android was doing just what they wanted him to.
Wonder Woman bashed Red Tornado's head from behind. Hawkgirl swooped in next, using her mace to beat Reddy to the ground, where Green Lantern encased the android in a construct.
Red's eyes glowed. All around the food court, tables and chairs lifted off of the ground as the food court became a full-out twister. The three heroes were swept off their feet and tossed around the room. Red Tornado, now free of Lantern's construct, counted the heroes. One, two, three. Where was Batman?
The Dark Knight crept up behind Red Tornado. Being in the eye of the storm, Batman had not been picked up by the winds like the others.
Batman placed a small, bat shaped device on Red Tornado's back. The Air Elemental whipped around. His eyes widened as the electrical surge coursed through him, shutting his systems down.
As Red Tornado dropped, so did his winds. The three heroes, along with the tables and chairs, fell back to the ground. All three grunted as they hit the floor.
"You couldn't have done that any sooner?" Green Lantern complained as he rubbed his sore backside.
Batman ignored him, helping Wonder Woman up.
"What's wrong with him? Why would he attack us?" Wonder Woman looked down at her fallen friend, sympathy in her eyes.
"A virus, I assume." Batman took out a hand held computer device that was linked to the Watchtower's mainframe.
He scanned Red Tornado's body, searching for any signs of a virus.
"So?" Hawkgirl pushed, always the impatient one.
"No virus," Batman confirmed, "but his programming has been altered."
"Meaning?" The Martian Manhunter rejoined his team mates.
"His free will was taken from him. He was given a specific mission and forced to carry it out."
"Can you return his free will?"
"I think so, Diana. Meanwhile, where's Aquaman and the Flash?"
"And Superman and Siphon?" Hawkgirl questioned.
"Superman went home and Jamie left with Kara."
The four heroes turned to look in the direction of the new voice. Flash entered the food court with Aquaman, each one sporting cuts and bruises.
"What happened?"
"The Kitchen went nuts. It turned our training session into a survival session. It forced us to fight Darkseid, and I had to shut it down by punching a hole through it." Flash explained it all so quickly the others had a hard time keeping up.
"What happened to Red Tornado?" Aquaman asked.
"He went haywire and attacked, almost like the Kitchen. Someone changed his programming," Hawkgirl explained.
"Which means it's not a coincidence the Kitchen attacked you," Batman deduced. "Whoever did this to Red Tornado also hacked into our systems."
"I don't know about the Kitchen, but I'm pretty sure Amazo did this to Red Tornado. He was doing something to him before I impaled Amazo," Aquaman revealed.
"That makes sense," Wonder Woman reasoned. "It explains his attack on Centennial Park. To draw John out."
"Someone's pulling our strings," Green Lantern surmised.
"Yes, and I intend to find out who." Batman continued his scans on Red Tornado.
John Smith awoke. He felt like he'd been dreaming for a very long time. He'd dreamt that he had attacked his wife and team mates, and all for some objective he could no longer recall, even with his memory banks.
He propped himself up, looking around. He saw Kathy laying on the bed next to him and he sprung up.
"Kathy!" He caressed her face softly. "What happened?"
"You did."
John turned to see Batman approaching.
"You don't remember?"
"I do, but I believed it to be a dream." John grabbed his wife's hand gently.
"Do you remember what your 'mission' was?" Batman put his hand on his friends shoulder.
"No. It is all… blurry."
"Understandable." Batman withdrew his hand. "She's fine. She was awake earlier, and was very worried about you. She really cares for you."
John looked at his friend. "And there is one who cares for you as well, Batman, you just won't let her in."
Batman didn't say a word. He just turned and left John with his wife.
The teleporter activated. Two forms stepped out of the blue light. Jamie Porteman and Kara Kent, otherwise known as Siphon and Supergirl. The League was all gathered, waiting for them. The only one missing was Superman, who was off duty.
"Hey guys," Kara greeted," what's up?"
"Where were you?" Batman folded his arms across his chest.
"We just went out for a bit. Why, Batman, is that a problem?"
The Martian Manhunter answered for Batman.
"Yes, Jamie, it is, considering you are not Jamie and Kara."