Author's Notes

To JP-Rider, Rouge and Frost got their just desserts and have now been humiliated in front of Arkham (thanks to your strong writing of that scene).

To OMAC001, "recruitment" isn't the best word to describe that – you'll learn more in a few chapters, when the plot is fully revealed.

To The Reviewer, Raven's demonic heritage makes her an easy target for prejudice (and to be singled out), especially by villains. Rose certainly has a twisted sense of humor.

To ShepardisaBOSS, remember that in the comics, before Cassandra was a member of the Bat-family, she was an assassin (bred to be the perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul). Her father isn't the one pulling the strings – if you remember the end of the chapter, he was talking to someone far more powerful than him. And, as you'll soon find out, she is just one of the killers – there are several more.

Okay, sorry about the very long wait, but I had school work that had to come first and I wanted to work on some of my other stories. Still, we are getting pretty close to the end of the story – including this chapter, there are eight more to go. In addition, I have been immersing myself in the DC Animated Universe, so I get the characters much better now and has offered me some new ideas and directions to take the story in, much like I had done with The Poison of the Raven's revamping.

Now, let's continue the story.

Now that the Titans knew that Cadmus was involved in the string of killings, they now had to link it to everything else, including Raven's imprisonment.

Conversing with the Justice League, Nightwing began, "How do we link Cadmus to Raven?"

Superman explained, "Right now, the only link I could think of would be if the Joker or Harley worked for Cadmus. And, having the misfortune of meeting the two over a decade earlier in Metropolis, I am certain that there's no way either of them would be in any sane frame of mind to enlist."

"Cadmus has been supposedly defunct for years, well as a civilian research facility at least. A decade ago, the government forcibly seized it and commandeered it for military research. Their biggest plan was the ARGUS project, a global defense initiative. Following the cancellation of the Argus project on account of the discovery Brainiac had compromised it through Luthor's technology, Cadmus went bankrupt and the government declined to supply funding."

Batman added, "Or so we think. I've set up the Watchtower computers to scan for any Cadmus facilities. As a security precaution, they were kept off the books and fitted with tracking jammers that prevent most from locating its employees and bases."

"You can get past the jammers?"

"I've set the computers to look for the jammers, but to avoid setting them off, they have to be five hundred miles away from our computers, so it will beep once we are five hundred miles away from a Cadmus site. And considering how we are in orbit, it may take a while. And then, there's the matter of where in the world we find it."

"Understood, Bruce. We won't hold our breath. Our focus is on the girl. She's good. Too good."

Superman then noted, "I took a look at Cadmus's records, the ones that could be easily accessed, and there was one company that had invested considerable resources into Cadmus. LexCorp."

"But Lex Luthor is dead, well he hasn't been on Earth for north of two years after he got bound to the Source Wall with Darkseid."

"Mercy Graves isn't. She's still alive and well, and in charge of LexCorp now. She could provide you with something, but I wouldn't count on it. And as for the rest of the Cadmus files, you'd need to get to the source as I'd bet that there are thousands of other files, documents, and plans we don't know about. ARGUS was the only public one."

"At least we have a chance with her. I'll take Cyborg to Metropolis and meet with her."

"Do that. And remain discreet - Mercy Graves is a very prominent businesswoman, but her dealings with us are top-secret. If you are seen visiting her, whoever is behind this will get suspicious, and her life will be in jeopardy."

"Got it." With that, Nightwing terminated the feed as Cyborg walked up to Nightwing and asked, "So, what's our next step?"

The response was, "Get the holo-rings ready. We need to meet someone in Metropolis for information about Cadmus. Tell Gar and Star to keep looking for any trace on the girl, maybe traffic cams can have her picture, and now we know what to look for."

In Belle Reve, things have changed for a certain empath.

After giving Rouge and Frost the verbal beatdown, the inmates who used to pick on Raven seems to start admiring her. When Raven goes out for lunch, recess, and doing her job she is greeted differently than her usual routines. No one glares at her or try to beat her anymore, and not just because she belongs to Ravager, but the fact that she stood up to her tormentors.

It seems that there's this prison law or tradition that when you go from being the prison bitch to the toughest prisoner around, that's how you earned respect. Raven has earned the respect from her fellow inmates from some villains letting her cut in line like Killer Croc and Giganta(who Raven learns that she's a good talker once you get to know her). It was like she's some dark mistress being respected by the local village of Sweden.

During lunch hour she is greeted by other inmates even some that wants to sit beside her. The group around the empath consist of Giganta, Golden Glider, Trickster, Pied Piper, Merlyn, Croc, Captain Boomerang, Cheetah, and Duela Dent. They would occasionally chat with Raven and one of them wants her to join in their annual rap battles because of her use of verbal beatdowns. They would ask how can she come up with such words to strike at Rouge and Frost and this is how she answers.

"When you live in a tower with a brooding boy wonder, alien princess who makes weird food, a half robot who's obsessive with technology and meet, and an annoying changeling under the same roof, you know someone has to point out their flaws."

The villains laugh at that statement. Wondering how she didn't snap when living under the same roof with Batman's former sidekick and the other weirdos.

However, Raven doesn't feel too comfortable around her inmates. Not just that she doesn't like the inmates who used to beat her, but she's an introvert kind of person. She's not used to being around this many people.

Luckily for Raven, Ravager jumps in, literally, as she bangs her foot on the table. Everyone pays attention to the silver haired one-eyed mercenary as she spoke.

"Alright, you can give her some space. I will take her from there." Ravager said as she pulls Raven up and throws the empath over the shoulder like she's a sack of potatoes. She jumps high which surprises the villains by that amount of jump she did.

"Whoa, I didn't know she can fly!" Killer Croc said baffled.

"She's not flying, she jumps good." Duela said looking where Ravager took Raven.

Ravager steps down on another table as she steps down on the seat to the floor. She puts down Raven to sit on her seat as the empath was shaken from being carried up in the air.

"Since when did you jump so good?" Raven asked her lover.

"I did some parkour in my life. Sometimes when I'm in paint duty and when I can't get into high places, I jump up and paint the higher walls and roofs." Ravager replied as she brings out two bowls of oatmeal and bread from under the table.

"That explains a lot on the roof of the left wing." Raven said as she is handed some bread as she takes a bite out of it. To Raven, things can be pretty good for her. Only a few more years until she's out with a higher note.

But what will become of Ravager once she leaves?

Strolling into LexCorp headquarters in Metropolis, Nightwing and Cyborg (both in disguise) prepared for their meeting with Mercy Graves, the CEO of LexCorp.

While sitting in the lobby, the male secretary at the desk then said, "Miss Graves will see you now." With that, Nightwing and Cyborg walked into Mercy's office (formerly Lex's office). The former chauffeur and bodyguard commented from her seat at the CEO's desk, "So, what can I do for you gentlemen? And let's do this without your pitiful disguises."

Turning off their holo-rings, Nightwing asked, "How did you...?"

Mercy explained, "It's amazing all of the connections Lex Luthor had mustered in the time he was in charge. So, why did you want to meet me?"

Nightwing began, "Cadmus. LexCorp was a huge backer of the government-operated Cadmus until it was disbanded."

"Ah yes. Brainiac. He attempted to collect all the data from the Earth and then destroy it, much like he did with countless other planets. Superman stopped him, but he got inside of LexCorp and decided that sabotaging ARGUS was the best method for revenge and for reconstituting his body. That really hurt Lex's reputation and he tried to reclaim his investment, but sadly, Cadmus doesn't offer refunds."

"Well, Cadmus hasn't finished business yet. It's active again and it has taken a lot of lives."

"Imposs...shit!"

"Did you realize anything?"

"We didn't just send money to Cadmus, we also helped develop key technologies for them."

Cyborg asked, "Like what?"

"The jammers that keep their installations off the radar. They are LexCorp property. The design was merely a prototype, but they must have worked out all of the damned kinks."

"Is there any way around the jammers?"

"Fortunately, Cyborg, since the design is ours, we can locate the jammers. Why are you looking for Cadmus anyway?"

Nightwing responded, "As I said earlier, it's active and it has started actively killing metahumans like us. And we think it may be connected to Raven's imprisonment."

"Give me a few hours to get the locations of the jammers. Lex Luthor may have had some less-than-ethical dealings, but one thing was true - he did actively oppose Raven's incarceration."

"Why?" Nightwing was baffled. Why would the shadiest businessman in the country try to support the release of one of his biggest threats?

"I'd say it was still his rivalry with the Joker. He knows what that clown is capable of and that Raven, despite her faults, wouldn't willingly succumb. He would go to jail for his own crimes, but he would never for crimes he did not commit willingly."

Then, a man then came into the room and handed Mercy a file. He said, "Here's the file you wanted."

Mercy replied, "Thanks, Mr. McGinnis." As Mr. McGinnis left the room, Mercy handed the file to Nightwing, who opened it up to see a small tablet. The LexCorp CEO continued, "Once I get the locations, they'll be uploaded to the tablet. And once you get to a Cadmus facility, you will need it to get through the security. And trust me, you will need it. Cadmus is very secure."

"Thanks, Mercy."

With that, Nightwing and Cyborg left the office, reactivating the holo-rings before walking out of her office. They exited the LexCorp building and got back in their borrowed civilian car - the Justice League teleporters had several civilian cars nearby so Leaguers could travel more or less inconspicuously.

Getting to the zeta tube, the teleporter recognized them as, "Nightwing B01, Cyborg B02." Getting in, they proceeded to return to the zeta tube teleporter in Jump City - the League had set up a system of zeta tubes across the globe, from Jump, Gotham, and Metropolis to the Hague, Paris, London and Beijing. If they needed to get somewhere in a hurry, they definitely could.

Returning to Jump, the duo got into the T-Car and drove back to Titans Tower with the tablet which should have the Cadmus locations shortly courtesy of Mercy Graves.

After getting back to the Tower, Starfire immediately encased Nightwing with another one of her bone-breaking hugs. "Oh Love Nightwing, you are back! How was your visit to Polis of Metro?"

Nightwing breathed out, "Star...you're crushing...me." Starfire then let go to release Nightwing and the former Boy Wonder explained, "Mercy's going to send us the locations of the LexCorp jammers and then we can use the League's computers to determine which ones are Cadmus facilities."

Plugging a wire into the tablet, Cyborg connected it to the Titans mainframe so they could support the Justice League's search for the LexCorp jammers, and hopefully they'd be able to use the results to locate a Cadmus facility.

By the time it was time for supper, they finally got a beep from their search for a Cadmus facility. Going over to the computer, Cyborg quickly pulled up the location for the closest Cadmus facility.

Animal Man asked, "So, you find a lab?"

Cyborg explained, "Yes. The League corresponded this LexCorp jammer to Cadmus. There's a Cadmus laboratory less than six miles outside of the city."

Nightwing ordered, "Okay, then. Tomorrow, we infiltrate the facility and see what we can get from there."

In Metropolis, home of the Man of Steel, it was night time as the skyline looks beautiful in higher view. On top of the Daily Planet where a table is placed as Lois Lane, wearing a short black dress waits for her dinner date. It was then she heard a whoosh sound as she turns her head to see her date. "I was worried you might show up." Lois said in her usual witty tone.

"Sorry, just prevented a turf war down at the Suicide Slums." Superman replied as he lands on roof top of the building as he walks with champagne and picnic basket. "Good thing I saved some of the food."

"You're always come prepared, Smallville." Lois said knowing about Superman's secret identity.

"Don't I always." Superman said with a sigh as he and Lois prepare their dinner date. Lois noticed her boyfriend's concern expression as she decides to speak up.

"Kal, you okay?" Lois asked him.

"Sorry, Lois." he apologized. "I just have some stuff in my mind."

"Really? What's gotten you all worried?"

"Palmer, Hall, O'Brien. We've lost our friends over the years and Cadmus has something to do with this string of killings. Who knows who's next to die, either Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, or even me."

"Clark, you can prevent Cadmus from doing all the killings."

"But how when they're right under my nose?"

Lois walks up to him as she cups his cheek. "I promise you, Clark. Cadmus had been shut down before, they will be shut down again."

"I hope you're right, Lois." Superman then embrace Lois with a kiss on the lips.

The next day, the Titans began their infiltration of the Cadmus facility in hopes of locating key evidence regarding their involvment in the slayings of both superheroes and villains. If their hunch paid off (which they were expecting it to), then they would never hear the end of it from the Question, the League's conspiracy theorist and general crackpot.

For their infiltration, Nightwing would pose as a Cadmus employee, smuggling in Animal Man (who was presently in the form of a fly). Once they got through security, Nightwing would send Animal Man to the central hub to download all of the key information regarding Cadmus and then they would get out. Cyborg would provide mission control, watching the cameras to see if they are in danger and to help Animal Man break through the computer security if needed. In addition, Starfire would go in and provide a distraction if the Titans truly needed it.

The stakes were incredibly high - if their theory was correct and they wound up getting captured, then they were in extreme danger. Everything had to go down without a single hitch - this had to be a perfect infiltration, and considering that the probability they end up getting murdered was growing every minute, this had to be done as soon as humanly possible. This was an utterly impossible mission, but this had to be done. The League was too tied up elsewhere to investigate the facility, so it was all on them to get this done.

Walking up to the facility, Nightwing, now in disguise as Cadmus technician Estevan Gray (they had researched him and detained him for child pornography charges so they could take his identity), kept Animal Man concealed in a pouch along with a USB drive (disguised as a pen). Following them was Starfire, who was in disguise as Cadmus research assistant Michelle Delinda (who the Titans busted for possession of ketamine and marijuana, enabling them to take her identity). Nobody at Cadmus knew about their arrests, so they shouldn't suspect that Gray and Delinda were actually Nightwing and Starfire.

Pulling out his identification card, Nightwing showed it to the desk attendant and he was let through, only to encounter an X-ray machine. Through a covert earpiece, Cyborg said, "Okay, this is going to make extraction more difficult. I'll work on a way, but be careful for now. Very careful. They can see Gar if you go through there."

Realizing that the pouch wasn't invisible to the X-ray, Nightwing walked over to a nearby fern and let Animal Man out. The changeling then landed on the fern, making sure to tail Nightwing and then once he had passed through the X-ray, return to the pouch. Being a fly on the wall had its advantages, but it was also quite dangerous as the guards were quite apt to smush bugs.

Passing through the X-ray, Nightwing stood as they checked him for anything. After a minute, the operating technician said, "You're clear, Mister Gray."

Walking out of the X-ray machine, Nightwing headed towards Gray's office as Animal Man flew back into Nightwing's pouch, seemingly undetected by the guards. Starfire then headed in, proceeding to do the same X-ray as Nightwing previously had.

Entering Gray's office, Nightwing closed the door as Animal Man flew out and returned to human form. Pulling the USB out of his pouch, Nightwing explained, "Okay, from here it's about two hundred yards from here to the central hub. Once you get there, make sure to download all files. Cyborg will walk you through it. Be careful as there's a large chance they will converge on there once they realize you are there, so get all of the information as soon as possible and then get out. Understood?"

The changeling nodded and turned into a lizard, with Nightwing then attaching the pen on a strap to his back. With that, the green lizard leaped onto the wall and climbed up towards the vent. Cyborg then spoke through Nightwing's earpiece, "Okay, I'm suppressing all noise from your office, so now it's time to open the vent and get Gar inside. You'll have three minutes."

Nightwing pulled out another pen, revealing a screwdriver that was carefully hidden from Cadmus's X-ray machines. Quickly unscrewing all four screws on the panel, Nightwing removed the vent panel to allow Animal Man inside the vent. Once he safely got into the air conditioning unit, Nightwing reattached the panel to its proper place on the wall, making sure to hide the screwdriver back inside of the pen.

Now, it was all on Animal Man. Quickly crawling through the vents, he knew his time was extremely limited so he had to get there fast. However, the issue he soon realized he would have to contend with would be getting into the main hub as they didn't have anybody inside to unscrew it, and judging by the size of the space in between the blades of the vent, his current form was too big to get through. As he got closer to his destination, he needed an animal strong enough to carry the USB drive but small enough to get through the vent cover.

Fortunately, he had an idea. Unstrapping the velcro strap around his back, Animal Man placed the USB on the vent cover, as fortunately, the pen did have a clip. Then, changing into a fly, he flew out of the vent and then right onto the wall. Then, changing into a hummingbird, Animal Man grabbed the USB and flew down to the computer terminal below.

Shifting back to human form, Animal Man removed the USB from the pen. He then said, "Okay Cy, I'm in. What do I do now?"

"Okay, there should be a USB port on the hard drive. Do you see it?" Quickly spotting the hard drive, Animal Man replied, "Yeah."

"Good. Plug the USB into the USB port." Plugging in the USB into the port, Animal Man then saw a login screen pop up onto the monitor. "I've shut down the security feed around the terminal, so nobody will know you're here for the moment. In the username, type in, all lower-case, C-R-A-W-L-E-Y-F. The password, again all lowercase, is A-U-T-U-M-N-9-0-1. Repeat it back."

"Username crawleyf, password autumn901." Typing the username and password, Animal Man was granted entry into the computer terminal. "We have to move fast, in a few minutes they'll realize you are here. Pull up a list of all documents."

Animal Man clicked on the folder that said ALL-DOCUMENTS and opened it. "Okay, now enter the search parameters. Apply all results to multiple keywords, no overlaps." Doing so, Animal Man ensured none of the results would overlap and they would find all possible results to their keyword search.

"Here are the keywords - Metahuman, Argus, Titans, Targets, and Employees." Typing each of the five keywords into the search parameters, Animal Man watched as the computer pulled up all results for the keywords. About a minute later, it had around 8,000 files matching to at least one of the keywords. "Geez, they've got a lot of files."

"Okay, now download them all to the USB drive." Clicking on the toolbar, Animal Man clicked on DOWNLOAD-ALL-RESULTS and then selected the USB drive to be the recipient of the files. Within one minute, the files were all downloaded onto the USB. "Now, disconnect the USB and get the hell out of there. Guards will be there in a few minutes."

Disconnecting the USB from the terminal, Animal Man placed the USB back into the pen and turned into a hawk, taking the pen and sending it into the vent. As he heard guards rapidly converging on the door, he shifted into a fly and zipped into the vent, making sure to leave no trace of his presence in the room.

Strapping the pen back around his back, Animal Man raced back towards Nightwing. Unfortunately, he saw that upon arriving, Nightwing was not in the office. Now, it was time for Plan B - get to Starfire. Racing around the corner, he went right to a straight-shot towards the office where Starfire was currently present.

Knocking on the vent cover, Animal Man tried to alert Starfire that he was there and needed to get out quickly. Suddenly, she finally turned around and then Animal Man unstrapped the pen from his back, sending it out through the cover and falling towards the ground. Starfire quickly caught the pen and placed it on her desk. With the pen no longer an issue, Animal Man turned into a fly and then flew out of the vent before changing into a hummingbird and gently landing on the ground before shifting back to human form.

A guard outside quickly heard Animal Man's arrival and as the guard opened the door, Animal Man morphed into a mouse and hid underneath Starfire's desk. The guard, upon coming in, asked "Is there a problem?"

Starfire, in disguise as Michelle Delinda, answered, "Nope."

"Okay then." The guard walked out, leaving Animal Man and Starfire alone. They were now mostly clear, now they just had to get out and upload the files to the Justice League.

Later at the tower, the Titans are now at the ops room after successfully uploading the data from Cadmus. Nightwing stood as he waits for the USB cord to upload the data to the Justice League using encryption so no one will see what they're uploading. Sending this information to the League to learn what Cadmus is planning will might be a good pay off.

"How much longer until it's complete?" Animal Man asked.

"About fifty percent." Cyborg answered looking at the upload bar.

"Make that sixty." Nightwing states looking at his mentor in the small screen.

"We can't help but thank you enough for getting this data." Batman thanked the Titans. "You Titans have proved again to do what the League are unable to."

"Fret not, Man of Bats, the League of Justice have always done good for this planet as well as we do." Starfire states respectfully.

"It's just like how our old motto goes: when there's trouble, you know who to call." Animal Man said brushing his locks.

"Alright, y'all. It's almost done uploading." Cyborg said as the bar goes eighty-six percent.

"The encryption of the data is being decrypted at the League's computer." Batman told them as the Titans wait in anticipation for the data to upload. The bar finally hit hundred percent as it opens up the Cadmus files.

"Alright Titans, let's crack open this case." Nightwing said as the Titans reads the files on the computer. Once they read the contents, they were left speechless.

The one who was immediately shocked was Nightwing. "Oh my God!"

On board the Watchtower, Batman had just gone over all of the data the Titans had retrieved from the Cadmus facility, and it distressed him greatly. Sitting down at a bench, the Caped Crusader stared blankly in space trying to process everything he had just learned from the Titans.

A moment later, he heard a fellow Leaguer coming towards him. Turning around, he saw the Princess of Themiscyra, Wonder Woman, coming near him. She asked, "Bruce, is there an issue?"

Batman replied, "Diana, sit." Wonder Woman complied, taking a seat next to one of her fellow League founders. Then, he continued, "You know about my contingency plans, right?" That was not much of a secret around the Watchtower - he had detailed files about every single member of the League in the event they went rogue, necessitating him to incapacitate them.

"Yes. You have a strategy for every single member, including myself. What's this about?"

"It's what the Titans found from the Cadmus installation. Apparently, they have the same idea, but on a much more dangerous scale. I designed my countermeasures to be non-lethal and have primarily non-lasting damage, enough so any dangerous Leaguer could be taken down and then imprisoned to ensure they no longer stood a threat. Them, on the other hand, all of them are designed to kill. And it looks like these plans have been around for several years, even before the Justice Lords arrived in our dimension and tried to take over."

When the Justice Lords, the extremist equivalents of the Justice League, discovered this Earth, they attempted to bring their style of "justice", and arose mass speculation as to if the League would become the Lords. Only on part of the investigative prowess of Question and Batman did they manage to assuage the fears of the public, but even that took a very long time.

"What did the Titans send?"

"One of the files they sent include specs for a kryptonite rifle, high-caliber and extremely accurate, and they've actually developed several prototypes. It could kill Superman with a few shots. They also have weaponized Scarecrow's fear gas to use against the Lanterns, so he would be unable to use his ring and be defenseless against hidden toxins within the gas that would cause him to asphyxiate."

"Is that all?"

"Presumably not. They've developed a paralytic agent for Zatanna that would render her unable to move, speak, or breathe - she would suffocate in seconds. For you, they have a nanite poison that would force you into constant fighting which would lead to a massive cardiac arrest, and they also have a magnesium-fueled flamethrower for J'onn, and a bomb that would cause Flash to get sucked into the Speed Force, or blown up. Cadmus is capable of killing and or crippling every single member of the Justice League. They've already shown it with Atom, Plastic Man, Hawkman, Black Lightning, and Steel, and I am willing to believe that they also have designed the measures necessary to kill our rogues as well."

"And what about you and Green Arrow, and the other non-powered League members?"

"We're only human. Armor-piercing bullets would kill us easily. But still, they could kill us all and not even flinch. They murdered five members of the Justice League. Five! And for what ends?"

Struggling with the pain, Batman stood up from the seat and put his gloved hand on the window before sighing. Soon after, the Flash arrived in the room. He began, "Bruce, Diana, we've finished decrypting the remaining folders from the information, and we've got a major problem."

"How bad is it, Barry?"

The Flash answered Wonder Woman's question with, "They have a Kryptonian. And from what it looks like, her DNA sample is relatively close to that of Supes'."

"A clone. A female clone."

"Yes, and one Cadmus can control at will. We don't have any specific samples of the clone's DNA, but from what little we can see, she has approximately twelve percent of the same DNA as Superman. They call her Galatea and she is being generated to act as a high-profile assassin, taking out higher-powered Leaguers."

"And not just them, Barry. The villains as well. Every single costumed individual that is currently on Earth has a walking target on their backs, and Cadmus is developing enough weaponry to take them all out. We need to find out the endgame and soon."

Diana asked, "Is Galatea presently active?"

"Fortunately, no. But, if they needed to, she could be quickly mobilized and set on any target. And unfortunately for us, kryptonite isn't going to be as effective a weapon against her as it would against Superman. She's been bred to resist small-level amounts of kryptonite, almost as if she has a built-in lead suit."

"Do you think that this has anything to do with Raven's imprisonment?"

"The only question is what connects Raven to Cadmus."

As Wonder Woman left the room, Batman asked the Flash, "Can you tell how long Galatea has been alive?"

"From what I can tell, about a year and a half. Damn. That means..."

"We've got one incredibly awkward conversation with Clark ahead."

Okay, in the scene at LexCorp, the man who gives Mercy the "file" is Warren McGinnis, the eventual father of Terry McGinnis, the second Batman.

The next three chapters are going to be wham after wham after wham, as all the revelations of the plot become present. You wan't to miss any of them. Some may be apparent while others you'd never see coming.