I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.
Passage
Cassius flipped over the massive, charging freak allowing him to crash into the wall of the sewer tunnel, cracking the stone. Killer Crock snarled angrily and turned, roaring and charging back the other way, leaping at him again, only for Cassius's left arm to snap up, slamming a goo fist into the side of his head, hurling him aside. As he began to stand, Cassandra and Robin both fired a taser cable into his back as Ravager wrapped an electrified bolo around his arms. Electricity screamed over his body for several seconds before he collapsed. A moment later, Batman appeared, livid.
"I specifically ordered all of you to let me handle him," Batman snarled.
"Yeah well if we had waited for you, Killer Crock would have gotten away," Robin said. "Where were you? What, did the Batmobile lose a wheel?"
Batman was silent for a moment before answering. "Two, actually."
All four stared at him in silence for a moment before Cassius and Rose began to laugh.
"Is that funny?" Batman asked.
"Kinda, yeah," Cassius said.
"What happened?" Robin asked.
"Not here," Batman said. "Cassius and I will drop off Killer Crock at Arkham then meet you at the Batcave."
The others nodded and Cassius encased Crock in his goo and walked him out of the sewer after Batman, then formed himself a pair of goo wings, taking off into the air, Batman speeding away in the Batmobile
Cassius walked into the Batcave after the Batmobile and raised an eyebrow, seeing a young boy, maybe twelve at most, covered in dirt, and surrounded by Cassandra, Rose, and Robin, all three still in costume and watching him suspiciously, but not restraining him.
"Who's the brat?" Cassius asked, aging himself to roughly Batman's age before stepping out of the shadows.
"That won't be necessary, Void," Batman said. "This is Jason Todd. He's the reason I was late when we were going after Killer Crock. He stole the wheels off of the Batmobile."
"So why is he here?" Cassius asked.
"Because when I went after him, he was able to keep me from catching him for fifteen minutes, while carrying them," Batman said.
"No shit?" Cassius asked, returning to his normal form. "Well, color me impressed. He's got skill."
"What are you?" Jason asked.
"Fucked if I know," Cassius snorted, walking over and extending his hand. "I'm Void. I'm sure you recognize Robin. That's Orphan, and she's Ravager."
Jason nodded, looking around worriedly. "Am I in trouble?"
"That's up to the big man," Cassius said, turning to look at Batman.
"Robin," Batman said, turning to him. "Go and get changed, then bring your uniform back down."
"Upgrades?" Robin asked.
"No," Batman said. "You're no longer Robin."
Robin's jaw dropped, and Cassius felt his own gut drop out of pure sympathy.
"What?" Robin asked. "Why? Because I took command and we took down Crock without you!? That's bullshit!"
"Robin!" Batman snapped. "That's not why. I wasn't finished. You're no longer Robin, because you no longer need to be. You're not ready to join the League, but you're close. You're ready to be your own hero, not a sidekick or protégé. You'll choose a new identity, design a new uniform, and then you'll choose your own path. And once you're ready, you'll be allowed into the League."
Robin stared at him for a moment before nodding. "And what about Robin?"
"Jason will take over as him," Batman said. "I'll train him, teach him to be a detective, and the Team will teach him to work as a member of a group."
The others nodded.
"Does that mean you're taking him in?" Cassius asked.
"That's right," Batman nodded. "Introduce yourselves."
Jason looked around at them all as they pulled their masks off, except Cassius, who retracted his as goo. His jaw dropped instantly, and he looked to Batman, who had also unmasked himself.
"Bruce Wayne!" Jason breathed. "Holy shit! You're..." His eyes realized as he remembered what Cassius had asked.
"Welcome to the family, Jason," Dick said.
"That is, if you want to join," Batman said.
"Of course!" Jason said. "Th...Thank you!"
Bruce nodded. "Alfred will show you around." He gestured to the butler who had just suddenly appeared without anyone but Batman and Cassandra having noticed, as usual.
Jason nodded and followed Alfred and the others turned toward Batman.
"How do you know he's clean?" Robin asked.
"Martian Manhunter already checked him for Cadmus programming, connections to the Shadows and the Light, and any reason to betray us. Then he erased any memory of having met him, or done anything but having waited for us to return. He's clean."
Robin nodded. "I'll go change. And I've already got a name and a costume design."
Batman nodded and they all headed up to the mansion.
Cassius watched as Jason took down the thugs rapidly and, none of them taking more than a few blows, and none of them lasting longer than a few seconds. Cassius frowned. There were a lot of them, but they were barely more than a common mugger. And yet, they all wore clown masks and makeup, and all wielded knives. They had to be a gang, but they didn't seem very dangerous.
"Void, report," Batman said over their communicators. "How's he doing?"
"Good," Cassius responded. "We're fighting a gang, they seem like smalltime thugs that like dressing up as clowns."
"Clowns?" Batman asked.
"Yeah," Cassius nodded. "A dozen or two of them."
"Get out of there, now!" Batman snarled. "The Clowns are led by Joker!"
"Shit!" Cassius hissed, then sent a strand of goo down to Jason, yanking him up to the roof. "Time to go!"
Jason followed without question as Cassius retracted his goo.
Cassius ducked under Sportsmaster's foot, standing and jumping, spinning backward and slamming a kick into his chest, hurling him away. As he did, Rose and Dick, now officially named Nightwing and wearing an all-black set of formfitting armor like Cassius always formed but with a blue bird silhouette across his chest, were trying to fend Deathstroke off as Cassandra fight lady Shiva, and Jason fought Cheshire. Cassius didn't understand how the mission had gone so far sideways. The mission had been easy. Investigate reports of the man Cassius had found at Ice Fortress five being sighted in a small town in the countryside of Ireland. However, when they'd gotten there, it had been Sportsmaster and Cheshire waiting. And then about a minute into the ensuing fight, Deathstroke and Lady Shive had arrived. Dick had called for reinforcements, but the rest of the Team were all out on a mission of their own, facing other known members of the League of Shadows. It was obviously a trap for him, Cassandra, and Rose, but he couldn't figure out why the exact timing. Why, of all days, they felt the need to ambush them on the need to try and take Cassandra and Rose back by force on the day the Team had chosen to be Cassius's new birthday, a date they'd agreed on nearly six months ago.
"You seem distracted!" Sportsmaster said, drilling a fist into Cassius's face, only for his arm to pass through his head to mid-forearm.
"One good trap deserves another," Cassius said, his mouth being the only part of his face not turned into a hole.
Then, he drilled a dozen right fists into Sportsmaster's torso at once, crumpling his armor and sending him bouncing away, finally unconscious. He turned and quickly glanced around at the other fights. Dick and Rose needed the most help, for obvious reasons. Cassandra was holding her own using her blunt wakizashi, as Rose was using her own blunted swords, and Jason was doing fairly well against Cheshire.
"Bring it on, Cassius," Deathstroke invited, jumping and slamming a kick into both of his opponents heads, hurling them away before pointing his sword at Cassius. "It's been a while since I taught you a lesson."
"You can't teach me anything if I don't forget what I learned," Cassius growled, shifting into his goo form and forming himself a pair of goo wakizashi.
He shot forward, slashing at Deathstroke rapidly. Deathstroke's eye narrowed inside his mask as he deflected Cassius's blades again and again. Finally, he spun as Cassius slashed from above and his own sword split Cassius in half just above the waist. Cassius's upper body spun instantly, slashing at Deathstroke, who leapt backward, the blade carving a gash across the front of his mask but failing to cut through. Deathstroke stood, smirking, as Cassius's halves reconnected.
"You've learned some new tricks," Deathstroke said.
"Several," Cassius said, just as a second Cassius burst out of the ground behind Deathstroke.
The clone slashed both blades down across his back, failing to get through his armor, but sending him staggering forward just before the first Cassius drilled a fist into his face, sending him bouncing and flipping backward into Lady Shiva, both bouncing away from Cassandra before crashing down in a heap. A moment later, an explosion went off behind Cheshire and she flew away from Jason as well, flipping and landing on her feet, then retreating from Jason and Ravager until she was standing beside Deathstroke and Lady Shiva, Sportsmaster joining her a moment later.
"Time to call it," Sportsmaster said. "See you another time kiddos."
Then, a yellow portal appeared behind them, Sportsmaster hurling his unconscious companions through as Cheshire picked up their swords. Then, the two conscious enemies walked through and disappeared. Cassius sighed, sitting down hard and taking a deep breath. A few moments later, Cassandra and Rose sat beside him, wrapping their arms around him as Nightwing called Kaldur, letting him know that they had managed to beat the Shadows that had attacked them. Kaldur reported the same and said they were coming to pick them up.
Cassius smiled almost imperceptibly as he surveyed the Team. They'd sent the junior members on a small mission. Nothing major, at least by Team standards. Icicle Sr., Icicle Jr., and Killer Frost. They'd done well. Granted, there had only been a handful of grunts and the three ice villains, one of which happened to also be a grunt, against a now vastly expanded Team roster. In addition to the originals, the Team now included Tempest and Aquagirl, real names Garth and Tula, Aqualad's childhood friends from Atlantis, Batgirl, real name Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham City's police commissioner as well as Dick's off-and-on girlfriend alongside Zatanna, Bumblebee, real name Karen Beecher, Lagoon Boy, real name La'gaan, who looked like a green and black Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Beast Boy, real name Garfield Logan, the young son of Megan's childhood hero and actress, from whom she derived her human appearance and who she had given her blood to in order to save him, resulting in him developing the power to shapeshift into animals. The team worked almost perfectly together most of the time, most of the people on the team were power houses, and Cassius had at some point become the unofficial combat trainer of the team, alongside Cassandra. It wasn't technically a leadership position, but in any fight they got into, his word was law. Even the original members did what he told them to during a fight. He loved it.
"What do you think?" Nightwing asked, walking over. "Are they ready?"
"For what, the League?" Cassius snorted. "Hell no. They're kids. I doubt half of them will even want to join the League after a couple years of this shit. But for almost every situation we run into, yeah. They're ready. As long as it's not the Shadows in force or Nemesis, they'll be fine."
"Nemesis?" Nightwing asked.
"Well we couldn't just call him 'the guy from Ice Fortress five' forever, could we?" Cassius asked. "He claimed to be my nemesis in my life before, so I gave him an appropriate name."
Nightwing nodded. "Still no new memories?"
"Nothing," Cassius sighed. "It's been...what, three years since he attacked me on that fortress?"
"Right about, yeah," Nightwing said.
Cassius shook his head. "I don't think I'll remember anything else. Ever. But that's fine. I have what I need. I know how to be human, I know how to be a hero, and I'm learning to use my powers well enough to protect them." He glanced across the room, finding Cassandra and Rose without even having to try, a small smile tugging at his lips instantly.
"Careful you don't start sounding like you're proving the girls right," Nightwing smirked.
Cassius groaned. "Don't remind me. Christ. It's been three years and they still won't let it drop."
Nightwing chuckled. "That's because we see what you refuse to accept. Come on. It's time for you to abuse the children."
Cassius grinned instantly. "Oh, I love our child abuse sessions."
Nightwing shook his head as they walked toward the sparring ring together.
Cassius watched as Nightwing walked the newest Batman Incorporated member through martial arts. Tim Drake was Cassandra's age and had apparently met Dick Grayson with his family at the circus they worked at the same day they died. Then, he had seen Dick, as Robin, fighting and realized who he was by his acrobatics. And finally, fate, or maybe dumb luck, had brought him and Dick together again. During an attack by the Clowns, which had been becoming more and more frequent, and more and more organized the last couple of years, Nightwing had found Tim struggling to defend his parents from several clowns. Dick had intervened to save them, but by the time the fight had ended, a laughing gas bomb had gone off in the house, killing Tim's parents. As Tim had already known the secret anyway, Dick brought him back to mansion and spent an entire day arguing with Batman, alongside Alfred and Tim himself, to allow Tim to join. So now, they were training him. He didn't have a name yet, and Batman was refusing to let him choose one until his training was finished, but he was getting there.
"Void, Orphan, Ravager, you have a mission with the Team," Batman said.
"Right," Cassius nodded, the three of them heading to the Zeta Tube and heading to the Cave.
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