Jason smirked as Roy asked him if he didn't wanna see how the other two would handle Harlequin. "No. I think I'd rather wait till I'd get to see them face off against the real deal." He let out, his smirk still painting his face. He nodded for behind them. "Lead the way." Jason said, looking around.

"So, how's things, you holding down the fort without my senior boy wonder?" Jason asked Roy, as the two were walking, the former batbrat trying to make conversation.

“Nightwing is around, he’s not on sabbatical or on an intergalactic mission like most of the original members.” Roy shrugged as he walked on, moving out of the simulation room.

“—but yeah, I’ve been told I should be ‘up’ to the task.”

"He's being Dick, is what you're saying, huh?" Jason said, chuckling.

"I see. Yeah. I would imagine you to be. Founding member, and all, and protogé to the second greatest human superhero, quite impressive" Jason said, obviously making a rather friendly jab.

Roy wasn’t sure how to reply of the insinuation of Oliver Queen’s greatness—he had always felt the Emerald Archer to be more self-obsessed than anything but maybe he had changed since he had met him? It was a thought that had been crossing his mind for several months now and he had even spoken with him not too long ago even if the moment was a bit brief.

“Yeah, but he’s not Batman.” He jabbed at the former Robin.

"Exactly. Though, even Bats is mostly just smoke and mirrors. It's us boy-wonders that do the heavy lifting." Jason joked. "Now, where will I get to call my home in this marvelous work of architecture?" He asked, Jason didn't actually care that much about his room. He was more interested in how the tower worked, how it was protected and what defensive capabilities the tower had, since the building certainly wasn't subtle.

“Whatever isn’t already claimed, I guess.” Roy shrugged, “I personally just end up crashing wherever, sometimes away from the Tower. It’s different with most of the founding members off doing other things.”

Roy paused, “I prefer the warehouse we used to operate out of. It was discreet and simple.”

"I see." Jason responded with, when they came to a room that looked empty, he opened up his bag, and got out a sharpie. As he opened the bag, the crimson helm stuck out. He opened the door to the room, and using his foot, he pushed the bag into the room. He then used the sharpie to draw the logo he used on his costume, to mark the room as his own. "Guess I never grew out of painting on the walls.." Jason said, turning back to Roy.

"Pssh, yeah. Tell me about it. This is a homing beacon for bad-guys all over the place. Might just as well put a bullseye on your frontdoor."

Roy shrugged, “Maybe that’s the point—when Me and Nightwing worked with Black Bat recently on a mission, I remember overhearing something she said.”

“Why would a practitioner of stealth dress his wards in bright colors against insane killers? To distract those same killers, to make it easier for him.…” Roy paused as he recalled the comment.

“I’m not sure if it’s true, but this big giant ‘T for Titans’ tower makes me wonder about if it is.”

"Yeah.. I've been told the same thing. Was the reason for the very colourful costumes as Robin. If bad guys were wondering about us wearing pixie-shoes, they weren't worried about shooting their guns." He said, shaking his head.

"I personally prefer to be the guy you don't see coming."

“Well, without your helmet you’d just blend in.” Roy smirked as he shuffled his hands in his pockets. “Working at night is what we were meant to do—we don’t have super-hearing and can break mach five without blinking, we have to be smarter than just punching something in broad daylight.”

Roy paused as he thought about his dark but still very apparently red costume. “Though, I suppose I’m holding on to the crimson shtick out of nostalgia or something. Wearing black would just make me seem like I’m following Malcom Merlyn’s motif.”

"Ha. Yeah, that' for sure. But then again. Where's the fun in not living a little dangerous?" Jason asked Roy, the newer titan smirkng. "You have sentimental value to it, I'd imagine." He said, taking Roy's father into account. " I guess mine's a remnant of the Robin costume." Scoffing as he talked.

"Now, what else is there to see? We have a gym, or is that in the simulation room?"

“If we’re missing anything it’s at the warehouse in Bludhaven, which still works as sort of a safehouse of sorts.” Roy said off-hand as he recounted the Tower’s facilities.

“Iron Fist can probably give you a more in-depth tour, but I mostly stick around the command center and the simulation room. I don’t hit the recreation room or garage generally… I don’t like distractions, but I never had time for them.” He commented with the last sentence showing some discontent for the other titans who wasted time playing video games or lazing about doing nothing. Roy had never thought much of recreation or past-times—he had lived by example, worked, traveled, and did his job as a vigilante. In a way it was likely very comparable to Batman in Jason’s view.

"Aha.. So Iron Fist next, then. Great." Jason began. "Well, I know the feeling. This isn't exactly a hobby. It's a full-time job. 24 hours seven days a week. Crime doesn't take time off, neither should we.. Well, at least that's what I've been taught by Bats. I found during my.. Err.. Sabatical, that unwinding is important. Take time to rest, and what not. But I guess Iron Fist is the guy to talk about meditation and finding inner peace about, huh? Dude's a little bit too zen." Jason said, as he chuckled.

"Think he's smoking pot?"

“I doubt it.” Roy chuckled as he shook his head, “Iron Fist isn’t that bad though, even for a Justice League-sponsored babysitter. Certainly better than the robot we had to deal with last year.”

“I’ll have to get back to you on the ‘take a breather’ thing. I mean your mentor has been doing this for thirteen years or something without looking back to admire to sunrise, right?—Not that I’m comparing myself to the illusive Batman or anything.”

"Yeah... Wasn't that kind of the point of the team? To be independant of the League?" He asked, letting out a light sigh.

"Even the ever so elusive Batman enjoys himself a single-malt scotch and a little time to relax. He just knows to not let his guard down when he is relaxing."

“At first it was to solve a problem when every ‘adult’ disappeared, but then yeah—sort of an independent group of former sidekicks and wards. But then the Justice League sent Red Tornado to supervise us and began building this thing.”

“I hate it.” Roy added as he noted the comment about Batman's indulgences.

"Scotch, or letting your guard down?"

“You proud of yourself for that joke?” Roy commented as he smirked, a little amused.

"A little bit. Can't be known as the angry robin for all my life, you know?.." Jason said. smirking.

“From what I heard, the new Robin is taking that title over anyway.” Roy chuckled.

"Don't even get me started. Jeez Louise. And they say I have anger issues." Jason retorted.

“I hear near-death experiences can be nice wake-up calls.” Roy responded with his smirk still apparent.

"It wasn't near-death." Jason said with a chuckle. " But let's save that for another time."

“Getting bored, already? Yeah, I get that; want to head back?” Roy nodded.

"Bored, with you and your wit? No way! But yeah. Can't let the rookies alone for too long." Jason said with a smirk.

“Let’s go then.”

LexCorp Tower
Metropolis, New York
1 minute 34 seconds to Impact

With the missiles now within visible range, the Associated Press had began scrambling for an exit, their screams filled the cold winter air. If one would look closely enough, one might even see Luthor begin to sweat. From the back of the crowd a single voice rang out above the panic and the terror, a voice that would bring almost instant relief to the terrified crowd.

“Look, it’s Superman!!”

As the red and blue blur zoomed past the exposed roof and stopped just short of the missiles, taking a mental assessment of the situation and deciding on the best course of action. As Superman rushed out to meet the oncoming missiles, he flew just under them trying to stop them with the palm of his hands. Slowly he began using his immense strength to slow the projectiles to a manageable speed. As Superman tried to push both missiles up and off their target, his right had slipped letting one missile resume its course. He could only hope that he could dispatch the left before the other got too far.

Before Superman cold even make the thought, a black and red blur could be seen on fast approach

Jason had accompanied Roy back to the simulation room. He leaned against the wall, looking at the others practicing. In all honesty, Jason wanted to go to the gym and exercise, he hadn't yet gotten the time to do that, ever since coming back. He let out a light sigh. “I'll be back in a few, Speedy. I need to get a bit of air.” Jason said, waving his friend off, walking away, back through the corridor he and Roy had walked, back to the room he had marked as his own. He got into his bag, and got out a lighter and a pack of red winston. He wasn't a smoker, certainly not anymore after almost a year of detox. But he missed the calming sensation of it.

He'd walk outside, and put the cigarette to his mouth, and light it up, thinking back to a couple years ago, when he was still Robin, one of the first times he had been alone, without Bruce or Dick watching his back.. More like babysitting..

It was a time when he met Ravager.. Rose. His memories coming back to him, as he inhaled the smoke, and exhaled with his nose.

It was nearly two in the morning on what was supposed to be a hot summer night, however the weather seemed to have flipped a switch on the reporters as there had been nearly seven inches of rainfall that night. Thunder clapped and lightning struck, illuminating the city of Gotham for just mere seconds at a time, exposing the shadows that went bump in the night. Crime never slept in the dark city, criminals ran the streets like rats, and on this particular stormy summer night, there had been a break-in to a small convenient store.

Adorned in nothing but a pair of black leather pants, mid-calf high combat boots, a simple white t-shirt and overly large black leather jacket, Rose Worth climbed into the broken window, half of her just wanting to get out of the warm but violent rain, the other half just wanting something to eat. She was drenched from head-to-toe from the pelting rain outside, her white t-shirt hugging onto her in ways it probably shouldn't.

"Not your best idea Rose." She grumbled, making sure that she still had her rebar strapped to her back that she used as a bo-staff whenever things got ugly, and in Roses case things almost always got ugly.

Jason Todd on his fourth year as Robin jumped around the rooftops of Gotham City. Partly to clear his head, as he had just had a argument with Bruce, and partly to practice his parkour in rainy weather. He made a flip over a rooftop, landing onto the next one, rolling backwards on his cape, coming back up to his feet, when he heard something. It was hard to make out in the heavy rain and downpour. But he heard the beeping of an alarm in a store just under him. He jumped to the next building, and then down onto the ground, using the rain to mask his movements.

He'd approach the girl who had just commited the robbery. Jason walked up to her, silently, just a couple of feet behind her. “Boo.” He said in a calm, but determined voice.

Rose didn't hesitate. With a bag of dorito chips grasped in one hand, her other hand shot to the rebar on her back, pulling it from it's looped hold on a belt that she had attached to her jacket and swung blindly behind her. She would have liked to think that she wasn't startled at all by the voice behind her, but in all honesty she was scared shitless.

Jason softly side-stepped the rebar coming for his masked face, dodging the rebar with just an inch to spare. He took another step to the side, as the girl finished her swing, he grabbed her by the wrist, and twirled, making the girl drop the rebar, without hurting her too much. " You use rebar, huh? Good choice. Now. What are you doing out in the middle of the night, in this piss-poor weather?" The Robin asked, his voice was calm, but yet it sounded like he had better things to do than to mess with her.

Rose let out a hiss of anger, feeling the rebar falling from her grip and clattering to the floor. "None of your business!" She said through clenched teeth, bending her knees down a bit low and jabbed her elbow back, catching his groin. She then took the oppertunity to jump forward, tucking and rolling out of his reach.

Jason widened his eyes as she elbowed his groin, breaking out of his grip. He winced in pain, his suit did protect his crotch and all, but it didn't neglect the pain completely. He shook his head. "Well. I'm making it my bussines. It's my job, being Robin and all." He said, reaching into his utility belt.

"Now, surrender peacefully. It'll save you a lot of pain, and me some time." He said, getting out the red-bat-shaped Hand-cuffs from his pocket.

Turning on her heel, still crouched down low, Rose narrowed her eyes at him, still clutching onto the bag of chips praying to God that none of them had broken.

"Careful birdy-boy, I consider that foreplay." She smirked, spotting the handcuffs.

" I see. So you're not gonna give up peacefully, then?" Jason said, letting out a light sigh.

Rose's lip twitched into a smile.

"Bite me."

"I might." Robin said, as he in the blink of an eye got out the grappling gun, shooing it and grabbing the snacks from Rose's hand, the bag landing at Jason's feet. " Really. Is it worth it, for a bag of chips? Come on. If you broke into the store, I'd expect you to at least raid the cash-registry." He taunted, putting the grappling gun away, he calmly got out a set of bollos from his belt, holding them in his hand, the rain would make it hard for the girl to see what it was he was holding.

Watching as the bag of chips was being torn from her hand, the scowl that came from her face was enough to make even someone like Bane slightly worried. She stood up tall once again, though still dwarfed by Jason's own height but that didn't stop her short-lived bravado.

"You gonna run, or are we back to tha handcuffs?"

"Quit teasing." She said, eying the new object in his hand. She knew she was outmatched, her only chance was to run; if that was even a chance at all. Thinking quickly, Rose rammed herself into a nearby shelf, causing it to topple over forward towards Jason and used that as a distraction, jumping back out the window from wince she came. The arm of her leather jacket snagged a bit ont he broken glass, tearing it like tissue and cutting into her skin, but she didn't stop, she kept on running praying to God that her boots wouldn't slip up in this rain.

Jason let out a grunt as the shelves came down towards him, he rolled to the side, seeing the girl sprint ahead of him, jumping out of the window. Not very gracious, but she had talent. And survival instinct. [i] Just like me.. Jason jumped after her through the window, grabbing the part of the jacket, and putting it into a pocket in the utility belt. She was a good ten feet ahead of him as he readied the bollos. The two metal balls soared through the air, as they found their way around Rose's ankles.

They caught around her feet with ease, immediately tripping her up causing her to fall face first into the wet pavement below. She had tried to stop her fall with her hands, but all that warranted was scrapes, cuts, and asphault embedded into the skin. With a groan, she rolled over onto her back and looked up as the rain continued to pelt down on her. Who the hell was she kidding, she couldn't do this. A cop was a lot easier to lose than this boy wonder, that was for damn sure.

Jason calmly walked towads her, whisteling a tune as he walked.
"You wanna surrender now?" Jason asked her, getting out the cuffs again.

It was hard to hear his voice over the thunder that clapped just overhead, nearly deafening her ears. She sat up though, looking at her ankles tied up in the bolos and ran her fingers through her wet blonde hair. Surrender...now that was a word she didn't know...but what choice did she have? She said nothing as she pulled in her legs towards her a bit and picked at the strings around her ankles before getting the bolos untangled. She stood up, and then tossed them back to him.

"Good game boy wonder."

Her snarky attitude was gone, her arrogence deminished.

Jason crossed his arms as she got off the bollos from her ankles. She tossed them in front of him, but he let them lay there, for now. He leaned down towards her, holding the hand-cuffs in his hand. He let out a light chuckle. " Fine." Jason said, putting away the cuffs. " I'll make you a deal. You either try to run, I'll give you a few seconds headstart. Or, you can surrender, and I'll help you, offer you food, shelter, and training. I used to be way worse than you are." Jason offered her his hand to help her up from the ground.

Rose blinked a few times, and it wasn't becacuse the rain droplets kept falling into them. Did she just hear him right?

"Are you even allowed to do that?" She asked, wondering just how this whole Batman/Robin duo worked out. She took his hand and hoisted herself up, noticing very quickly that her left leg was throbbing in pain. Looking from his masked eyes down to her leg, she noticed that the entire inner side of her left calf of her leather pants was torn to shreds from the fall on the asphault, and a flash of lighthing showed crimson running down her leg and over her boot. Running was not an option anymore, not even with the headstart. She chuckled lightly to herself as she looked back at Robin, a rather genuine smile across her pink lips.

"Somehow I think you already knew what my answer had to be." She smirked. She quickly took her hand out of his and wrapped it around the back of his neck, pulling herself up and into his lips in a quick, but deep kiss.

Jason let out a scoff as she asked him if he was allowed to do that. "It's the perk of being a rebellious sidekick. I don't have to give a damn."
Jason noticed the wound on her leg, as well. He helped her back up on his feet, and was taken of guard by the kiss, not that it bothered him, Jason did put his hand on the back of her head and kissed back, he let go and let out a chuckle.

"You kiss everyone who stops you from commiting crimes?"

Despite the rain and lack of light in the area, a small twinkle came from her eye as they seperated.

"Only the ones that wear tight red outfits."[/i]

Jason had a slight smile on his face as he finishd the cigarette. Feeling the nicotine rushing through his body. Once it was just the stump of the cigarette left, he dropped it to the ground and stepped on it, putting it out and squashing it against the pavement underneath his foot. He would poceede to head back into the tower, to meet and great everyone else of his teammates.

Megaville, CT

“You’re not Superman?!”

The surprised but annoyed voice of Atomic Skull stammered as a burst of pink-red energy slammed into him—the force within the energy being that of Blossom Utonium. The teenager’s eyes were narrowed as she used her forearms to push the Superman villain back and into an open field outside of the city Megaville. Blossom wasn’t sure how insane this guy was as she had never tangled with him before, but she would not let him vaporize innocent people or cause a nuclear scenario. Where was Captain Atom or Superman when they were needed?

“You know this is Megaville, not Metropolis—right?”

“What?! I guess I took a wrong tur—OOF!” Atomic Skull’s voice was cut off as Blossom ran full force into him with a powerful punch.

“I might not be Kryptonian, but I hit just as hard, skull-face.”

“So, you do.” Skull took his hand to straighten himself as Blossom charged him again which resulted in his other hand releasing a surge of green energy. Blossom’s eyes widened as she stopped mid-air and dodged—a split second from it hitting her. She wasn’t sure if radioactive energy had an effect on her or she was just as resistant as the Kryptonian superheroes.

“Crap!” The red-haired girl cursed as she kept her distance for the time being.

“That’s right! You better stay back, girl!”

“Skull, you do not know who you are threatening.” She retorted as she narrowed her eyes until bright energy escaped from it that Skull would find similar to heat vision and honestly it surprised him from a girl who was not Supergirl that he had never heard of and was toting very similar things. The energy caught him off guard but he still unleashed his own green radioactive energy from his hands to attempt to counteract it and that’s when it became a battle of strength. Skull was the first to give and was sent flying back some more.

“Lab. How do I contain this idiot?” Blossom asked over her com-link.

Dexter’s voice came in seconds later, “I believe Superman resorts to punching him.”

“Superman punches everything!”

“Indeed, but let’s see—I’m detecting a radioactive form of energy, so any freezing you do will be melted away by the heat of his energy. I am noticing high psionic readings, so if you can reflect one his bolts back at him, the feedback to his cerebellum may be sufficient to render him unconscious.”

“So I get to play baseball with radioactive energy… that sounds safe.”

“You could simply go for the Kryptonian approach and use a precise strike to—”

“—hit him in the head?”

“I was going to say ‘disable his functions’, but yes.”

“Fine, okay.”

Blossom sighed as Skull began to get back up, “You know I can hear you!”

“I don’t care, skull,” Blossom said as she channeled the same energy she shot out of her eyes in her palms. “It’s bedtime.”

“But it’s barely after lunc—OOF!”

S A M A R
The Visaya Islands, Philippines

The rain had intensified for a few moments, then was suddenly quiet, leaving only a still night air cooled by the mist rising from off the muddy rivers that had become of the streets. Maria had dozed off to sleep, the nearness of her tugging at Christopher's consciousness as he could sense her mind drift to somewhere, where dreams were made. At long last, the young Hellspawn surrendered to the hope that he might find this sanctuary of the mind for himsself, and closed his eyes. And in that moment, Christopher dreamed of tomorrow...

...and tomorrow never came.

The child's eyes snapped open in the moment between the flash of lightning and the clap of thunder, not for the sudden flash but rather a feeling that had just begun. Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me.

The rain hit the house with the full force of a sudden gale, ripping up loose boards in the porch as a terrible howl pierced the air. The chain and tarp hammock came apart in an instant, hovering in the defiance of all Newton's laws before winking out of existence. Within the house, Christopher materialized from out of the air in a plume of Hellfire, the red cape billowing about his small form, which was now fully armored in the black and white colors of Al Simmons. Depositing Maria safely into the arms of her family, the boy again faded into the air.

Phasing through the roof of the house, Christopher shot upward into the air for an aerial view of what was happening, which is when he realized... the earlier quiet had been nothing more than the eye of the storm. A typhoon had come to Samar, tearing through houses pushing water up into the homes of those which would not yield to it. And he could sense the pending death. A dozen at least. A hundred?

The young Hellspawn was overcome by a sense of the utter futility of one hero's actions in the face of nature's wrath, and yet... he could not save them all, but he could save someone.

Plunging back into the town, the young Hellspawn ghosted across the muddy river that now rushed like a flood through the main street, chasing behind the sense of impeding death until he saw a house ripped apart to its very timbers, shuddering under the weight of its own roof. A Filipino man was trying to fight against the wind and rain to free his family from out of the home. A loud crack heralded the release of the roof's support beam, as the half-ton beam came down to crush the man and his family. Instead, the beam struck the young Hellspawn's cape, driven into the ground behind him like a stake and extended forward to create a brace. What remained of the home's foundation cracked underneath the weight of Christopher and the collapsing structure, the young Hellspawn struggling for his footing as he tried to maintain the stability of the structure, as his cape expanded to shelter the man and his family huddled at the boy's side.

They were calling to someone. As Chris looked up, he realized an elderly matriarch was kneeling before an icon of the VIrgin Mother and praying. Grimacing, feeling the timbers about to give, the boy fought to maintain his control over the symbiote even as he stretched himself further still -- sending tendril-like chains to ensnare the old woman, forcibly dragging her away from her candlelight vigil and into the sanctuary of his damned suit.

As soon as the old woman had landed at his feet, the child snapped the cape shut around them all, teleporting across town to appear from out of the ceiling of Maria's house, depositing those within into the already crowded interior. The roof had sprung several leaks, and water was coming in from underneath the doors. "We can't stay here," the young Hellspawn realized aloud, looking at the faces of the assembled people he had gathered inside the home. "Is there somewhere else we can go?" the boy inquired.

Except Christopher didn't speak Tagalog.

The roof collapsed under the weight of water and the pressure pushing against it. Christopher tried to look up as a deluge rushed over him, as the house literally came down around him and on top of him.

Darkness there, and nothing more.

As the door slams shut, my eye twitches, cringing. I have been tortured by men who knew the craft, fought men, broken bones, but by far the scariest thing I have ever seen is an upset teenage girl. Walking from the training room, I stop at her door, rapping my knuckles against it. "Rose! Listen, I know you're upset, you probably think I'm upset with you, but I'm not. I was scared, Rose…You don't know what the serum does to you…I nearly died from it. I just don't want that for you." No response comes from behind the titanium door, layered with wood for the illusion of normality. I run a hand across my face, sighing. Rose has been upset like this before. When this happens, the best I can do is leave her be.

Walking back to the training room, I close the false wall, and face the armor. Its orange-and-black countenance stares back at me through its one eyehole. My target may be in hiding, but he is not my only open contract, or my only target. When I took my current assignment, I agreed to kill seven men. Five are currently in their graves. Tonight, the sixth dies. A small time mobster from Metropolis, his name is Bobby Gazzo. When he joined my objective's organization, Bobby rose through the ranks, eventually becoming sixth in line for succession. After the last five assassinations, he's become second in command , holing himself up in a compound five miles outside of Gotham. Gazzo himself isn't very bright, but his employer is. That fact alone is enough to decide to do this now, instead of bringing Rose along.

I don the armor, holstering weapons as I go along. The guns on my hips, the sword on my back. As I always do, I save the mask for last, staring into its one eye again. In many ways, the mask is my true face. It is my rage, my ability, my soul incarnate. Donning the mask, I lock the false wall, and take the private elevator to the garage hidden two buildings over. The motorcycle sits, blazing orange fading into midnight black. Beside it is the car I use when I bring Rose along. Tonight, however, I straddle the motorcycle, kick starting it to life and racing into the murky night beset by the never ending lights of the city.

As the door slams shut, my eye twitches, cringing. I have been tortured by men who knew the craft, fought men, broken bones, but by far the scariest thing I have ever seen is an upset teenage girl. Walking from the training room, I stop at her door, rapping my knuckles against it. "Rose! Listen, I know you're upset, you probably think I'm upset with you, but I'm not. I was scared, Rose…You don't know what the serum does to you…I nearly died from it. I just don't want that for you." No response comes from behind the titanium door, layered with wood for the illusion of normality. I run a hand across my face, sighing. Rose has been upset like this before. When this happens, the best I can do is leave her be.

Walking back to the training room, I close the false wall, and face the armor. Its orange-and-black countenance stares back at me through its one eyehole. My target may be in hiding, but he is not my only open contract, or my only target. When I took my current assignment, I agreed to kill seven men. Five are currently in their graves. Tonight, the sixth dies. A small time mobster from Metropolis, his name is Bobby Gazzo. When he joined my objective's organization, Bobby rose through the ranks, eventually becoming sixth in line for succession. After the last five assassinations, he's become second in command , holing himself up in a compound five miles outside of Gotham. Gazzo himself isn't very bright, but his employer is. That fact alone is enough to decide to do this now, instead of bringing Rose along.

I don the armor, holstering weapons as I go along. The guns on my hips, the sword on my back. As I always do, I save the mask for last, staring into its one eye again. In many ways, the mask is my true face. It is my rage, my ability, my soul incarnate. Donning the mask, I lock the false wall, and take the private elevator to the garage hidden two buildings over. The motorcycle sits, blazing orange fading into midnight black. Beside it is the car I use when I bring Rose along. Tonight, however, I straddle the motorcycle, kick starting it to life and racing into the murky night beset by the never ending lights of the city.

Grounded. GROUNDED! How the hell was Rose going to explain this one to the Titans? Well...she wasn't. No phone meant no communication with them, which meant who knows how long until she would be able to go back out on missions with them again, let alone just talk and be a teenager for God's sake. Lying on her back on her queen-sized bed, Rose continued to toss up one of her daggers into the air, seeing just how close she could get it to the ceiling without sticking before it would fall back down to where she would catch it again. The ceiling above her bore the scars of this particular activity over the last year or so, though none of them particularly fresh as she seemed to have gotten the exact idea of how high to toss it long ago.

There was suddenly a knock at her door and Rose froze, not wanting to make a sound. She listened to her father's concerns, to his plea of reasoning behind his punishment. She said nothing though, as not even knowing what to say. She held her breath as the other side of the door then went quiet, and then she heard his heavy footsteps walking back down the hallway. Tossing the knife up once more, she rolled over onto her stomach, letting the blade fall back down on it's own and stuck into the solid oak floor next to her bedside without Rose even so much as flinching. A low groan came from her throat as she noticed an empty packet of cigarettes half-poking out from underneath her bed. This detoxing thing was going to suck...

"God dammit Jason..."

With somewhat of a tired stretch, Rose rolled over on the bed onto her side, her bare skin coming into immediate contact with Jason Todd and from the sound of it, he was still sleeping. Hoisting herself up onto her elbow a bit, she leaned over and kissed the hollow of his neck before slipping out of the bed, tossing on Jason's blue t-shirt he was wearing from the night before. Now wearing nothing else but his shirt, she quietly slipped out of Jason's apartment bedroom and went out into the kitchen to find something to eat.

As the apartment was strikingly new, food was scarce forcing Rose to think creatively and actually look. Opening up one of the cabinets, she found it to be a mess inside with with what seemed like a little bit of everything just shoved in there in a hurry to get things unpacked. Rummaging through the 'junk cabinet', Rose happened upon one of Jason's packs of cigarettes. She and Jason had known one another for nearly three months now, so she was quite used to his smoking habits.The thought never crossed her mind though as to what smoking would actually be like. Digging through the cabinet again, Rose found a lighter and pulled out one of the cigarettes from the packet and held it in her teeth the way she saw Jason do it and lit it up and took a mistakenly large inhale of the smoke. Now in a rage of coughing as well as nausea eating at her empty stomach, she was sure that she was going to just fall down and die right then and right there.

The boy wonder had been awake for almost half an hour. But he enjoyed laying in bed, knowing that Rose was just next to him. He noticed her waking up, he had a soft smile on his lips as she kissed his neck, and she got out of bed. Jason remained in bed for a few minutes, until he heard Rose coughing, getting slightly worried, Jason got out of bed, put on his jeans and then walked into the kitchen, only to find Rose trying to smoke a cigarette.

He shook his head, and leaned down to her. "It's not good for you." Jason assured her, his voice was soft. "But the trick is to inhale smoothly, be relaxed, else your body will reject it. Take short breaths, it's overwhelming in the start." Jason told her, getting a cigarette from out of the pack himself, gently taking the lighter from the girl, and lighting his own.

He opened the window, and leaned against it, breathing the smoke into the morning air of the autumn of Gotham.

Still coughing a bit and waving her hand in front of her nose to 'shoo' the smoke away, Rose frowned at Jason.

"So yesterday was 'how to disarm a man with a gun' and this morning is smoking 101. You know, it's a good thing I was able to teach you a thing or two last night, else this entire thing would be completely one sided."

Still, she heeded his words and tried once more, taking in much slower and shorter breaths. It went in a lot smoother this time, and after the fourth or so drag she decided to get a little more brave and try to hold the smoke in her lungs like any other regular smoker would, but again wasn't able to hold the burning feeling and started up her coughing fit once more.

"This sucks, how do you even enjoy this?" She asked flatly, holding the cigarette between her two fingers with her one arm crossed over her stomach as the nausea began to set in again.

"I can't remember. I started when I was nine." Jason responded equally flatly. "Though, I guess food would help. Kinda like alcohol. I swear I should have either bread or mac n' cheese." Jason said, inhaling more of the cigarette in his hand, looking around the room. " If nothing else, we can order pizza."

"Drinking I can handle, but this..." She shook her head but continued to smoke it anyway. If ever there was a challenge that met Rose, she was always determined to not only meet it, but smash it into the ground.

"Pizza for breakfast? My my Jason, what would Batman say?" She teased, jumping up on to the counter so that she was sitting.

"Peperoni or anchovies. I think." Jason retorted, his face completely serious for a few seconds, till it cracked up into a slight smile. Finishing his cigarette, he tossed the stump out the window. "I'll get on that. Let me just go fetch a shirt, since someone stole mine.." The dark haired boy said, walking back towards his bedroom.

"Rumor has it you have a thing for thieves." Rose called after him, a playful smirk on her lips. "Just make sure to bring back a bag of Doritos, if you know what's good for you."

"Think you can order Doritos on a pizza? It's a million dollar idea." He said from the bedroom.

"If you can order something as nasty as baby fish things on your pizza, I don't see why the hell not." Rose shrugged, and again attempted the cigarette. She was getting better, adopting her own type of 'flow' that she found suited her better. It wouldn't exactly look right if she went around smoking like a man.

Rose had to have gone through an entire pack on her own that day.

The revving up of her father's motorcycle brought her back quickly to reality. Slipping off of her bed she went to her window, pulling open the silk drapes to see the tail-lights of her father's motorcycle disappearing into the darkness. Obviously, he had a job to do tonight. Taking advantage of the situation, Rose went back downstairs to get her pants that had her phone in it, but the pocket was empty.

"Damn..."

Well what was she expecting? Slade was usually very thorough about these kinds of things. Then an idea came to her, her father had his own computer system in his office, if she could just get to that computer, she could send out a message to Jason. She didn't have much of a chance to talk to him when he came to the Tower, not that she was really ready to talk to him right then anyway.

Breaking into her father's office wasn't the hard part, it was over-riding the security code to access the main computer. Opening up a program, Rose typed in Jason's cel phone number and sent him a quick SMS.

Grounded. Daddy's out. We need to talk.

With the confirmation of the SMS being sent, Rose erased everything she could think of that might lead back to this and then left her father's office, making sure to lock it once more when she left.

Jason hadn't returned to the simulation room after his smoke-break. He had hit the gym, after changing into jogging pants, tank-top and removed his shoes. He had done acrobatic exercise, push-ups, sit-ups, and trained his martial arts on one of the many rather harshly beaten dummys. Letting out a roar, he punched one last time on the dummy, his fist colliding with it, sending the dummy swinging backwards. Jason panted slightly, sweat running down his face. He looked at the digital stop-watch he had in his pocket. The watch displaying both time, and how many hits the former boy-wonder had delivered. “Shit. Not fast enough.” Jason cursed. He sipped from the water-bottle he carried with him, as he groaned again. Taking a few steps towards the exit of the gym, towards the shower-room. He turned around, spinning on his heel, towards the boxing-sack. Kicking the sack so hard it tore off it's hinghes, the sack sliding on the floor as Jason left the gym.

He showered, and came back to his room, to find a message on his phone. “Nine Minutes ago. Rose.”

He read it, but didn't bother to respond. He put on his costume from his bag. The protective gear seeming baggy on his body, till he pressed a button, and the costume fit nicely on his well-toned body. He put on a pair of black leather pants over the tight suit, as well as his brown leather jacket. The red domino mask was on his face, the boy fixing his hair for a second. He grabbed his utility belt and strapped it around his waist, holding the pants in place. He grabbed the red helmet as he walked out of his room and towards the outside of the tower, passing Iron Fist on the way.

“Heading out. Boy-Wonder business. I'll be back.. Later. You owe me a real tour of this place.. And a sparring match!” Jason informed his senior before he'd headout and take his motorcycle towards his and Rose's usual hang-out.

The Road to Owlman, pt. 2

Canada. He had walked from Gotham to the Canadian border. His feet ached, and he hadn't slept for several hours, but it was only the first step in his new plan, his new Purpose. Though the border was watched by Canadian Mounties and US Border Patrol, Thomas had spent a lifetime learning the art of infiltration, of going places he wasn't allowed. Their numbers were many, and their security tight, but unlike the Titans Tower, this time he had lain in wait for hours, scoping the site for vulnerable points of ingress. As he waited, he thought over his failure, and thought about his impulsive rush into hostile territory. But that was the past, and couldn't be changed. He accepted this, and moved forward.

Around midnight, or perhaps an hour later, Thomas finally saw his opening; the guards were changing shift, leaving the border unprotected for 12 minutes. Slipping past the empty guard stations, and the border itself, Thomas threw one last look at his home country before disappearing into the Canadian wilderness.

Three hours later, he walked into a small Ontario town, one whispered by the Court. It was home to one of the deadliest assassins money could buy:David Cain. A former member of the League of Assassins, he'd left when the League took a direction he didn't want to. As he stepped inside the small house, it felt empty to him. Stepping into the living room, he thought he was completely alone when a dull thud was heard, followed by a blade pressed to his throat.

"I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but if Rā's sent you, I ain't interested." Cain snarled. He pressed the tip deep into Thomas' collarbone. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to incentivize talking. Fortunately, this intruder didn't need incentive; he had been expecting such a hostile welcome.

"My name is Thomas Wayne. I want revenge on the Court of Owls. I want you to train me."

The blade stayed near his neck for a moment while Cain pondered the boy's request. Training the boy would certainly be an opportunity; though from the state of his clothes, money wouldn't be forthcoming. At the moment, though, it didn't matter. He was set for a few months after his last job and with the way his daughter had turned out….

David released the dagger and sheathed it at his hip. Walking the boy to the couch, he seated himself across in a chair. "Tell me everything." Thomas nodded, and cleared his throat. "I was 'born' to The Court of Owls…"

Iron Fist was actually escorting Taskmaster out of the building since he had decided to re-schedule the would-be Titan's audition, telling him that given the chaos today had had so far it might be best to try another day. At least, that's what he was telling himself and Taskmaster, rather than that the sheer dread of having someone around who could effortlessly steal the martial arts secrets K'un-lun had entrusted every Iron Fist with for generations was influencing his actions.

Iron Fist nodded to Jason as the former boy-wonder passed him by. "It's always a pleasure to spar with someone trained by Batman." At least that was the truth. The Dark Knight's martial arts abilities were highly renowned even in the Seven Heavenly Cities, and Danny generally considered crossing paths with Batman or his proteges to be a treat. He hadn't happened to encounter Jason in any of his dealings with Bruce or the Bat-family though, so the prospect of an unknown trained by the Caped Crusader brightened his day considerably. As he finished escorting Taskmaster off the premises, he ran through the list of things that still needed to be done today. He would have to talk to Rose once she got back from the 'family business' of hers. He wanted details about the attack after all, plus her training needed attending to and most worryingly she often seemed to return from these family visits with more bruises and injuries than was in any way reassuring. He also needed to check on how the simulated training was going since the addition of Harley Quinn would mix things up at the least. On top of all of that it was [i[still[/i] his duty to try and meditate and study the Book of the Iron Fist, his own training being an unending road as well.

Still lost in thought, Danny stopped long enough to notice that Amy was still in the Rec Room alone. While he admired her passionate dedication to her hobbies, he knew she certainly shouldn't be left in there all by herself all day, especially not if she was going to be part of a team someday. With that in mind he knocked on the Rec Room's door for the second time that day.

He tried his best to sound casual without overplaying it, but he had a feeling his encounter with Taskmaster was still throwing him off.

"Amy, I was thinking about the talk we had earlier and I thought you might benefit from some solo training, I can help you figure your magic out, maybe teach you how to pull off some cool combos, you might even level up!"

His masters had certainly been right when they said that to be a teacher is to try and perfectly fill a cup from a waterfall without the water overflowing, or at least he thought this feeling of being bombarded by a waterfall of tasks was what they meant.

Titans Tower Island
Off the Coast of Gotham, New Jersey
Minutes Prior

After dealing with the kid calling himself Talon, Connor sat and hovered several hundred feet above the Tower, it wasn’t as calming as the miles he sat prior, but the weightlessness of his flight was a nice change to the hum-drum of walking. At times, Connor almost reveled in his Kryptonian abilities. He was able to hear the goings on of every individual in Gotham, Metropolis and the surrounding cities and even further if he pushed himself. As he was listening in on a family romping in the park in Gotham several miles away, a noise seemed to blare in his ear.

Deciding to focus in on the noise, Connor tapped into another of his Kryptonian powers and zoom his sights on the noise which brought his sights to Metropolis and LexCorp Tower in particular. The sight of what he assumed was the press at yet another grand Luthor unveiling were screaming and running around in panic with Luthor screaming at some sort of scientist. Connor quickly figured out why when he saw two missiles coming barreling towards the Tower.

Without a second thought Connor took off with unparallel speed towards Metropolis. In the back of his mind he couldn’t help but think that he must look like a villainous looking Superman in his black and red suit. He arrived in Metropolis just in time to see his mentor stop on of the missiles as the other just slipped out of his grip and without a second thought Connor swooped and put himself between the missile and the group of people that it would destroy.

The projectile slammed hard into the “S” shaped symbol on his chest nearly knocking the wind out of the super-teen causing him to loosen his grip and allowing him and the missile to slam into the podium shattering it into a thousand pieces. Fearing that the missile would explode Connor used a combination of his Kryptonian strength and his genetically given telekinesis to force the missiles trajectory up and away from the crowd, holding it in place as the rocket ran out of fuel and he set it down gently.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Connor stood up and cast a glance at Superman, giving him a half-assed salute.

As soon as the message had been sent, Rose went back to her pile of clothes on the couch and slipped them back on, making sure her leather jacket sleeves were pulled down tight to hide the quickly appearing bruises and cut from her fathers sword. At first Rose tried the front door, and was unsurprised to find it locked from the outside. Slade always thought out everything.

"Fine, we'll do this the fun way." She said running back up the stairs into her room. she grabbed the knife from out of the floor and stuck it inside a small sheath she had attached inside of her boot. She then threw open her bedroom window and climbed out, sticking as close to the building wall as she could. It was a long way down, eight stories to be exact, but Rose instead started to climb up, using whatever she could as footholds as she climbed up the remaining two stories until she reached the flattened building rooftop.

"Jason you had better have some smokes on you..."

Jason sat on the edge of the building, facing where Rose came crawling up. His right leg was crossed over his left one, and his arms were crossed over his chest. The red helmet concealing his identity. Jason let out a scoff from inside the helmet, going into his pocket, and throwing his pack of cigarettes to Rose.

"What, daddy take your smokes?" Jason asked her.

Rose caught the pack, immediately ripping it open and took out a double wide. God damn did Jason know her well. She rose an eyebrow towards him though as she tried to figure out just what the hell he was wearing. When Jason had stopped by a few days ago, he had been wearing just his usual street-clothes. It hadn't occurred to Rose that Jason would need a new look now that there was another Robin running around.

"No I was already out before he got pissed off." Rose held out her hand for a lighter.

A metallic chuckle escaped Jason, his voice being a bit distorted through the helmet.

" He took your lighter, too? Thought you'd burn down the house? You'd never do that would you?" Jason teased her, he got up, as he began walking towards her, taking the cigarette from her fingers and gently positioning it in between her lips, as he'd hold up his gauntlet-covered finger, and a thing flame would erupt from his index finger, lighting the cigarette for Rose. The flame died down as Jason took a step backwards.

"Thermite to light a smoke might be overkill.." Jason joked.

"So what the hell Jason? Biker fetish much?" Rose asked, unable to keep quite about his new outfit anymore.

"Don't pretend you don't like it."

Rose's eyed narrowed slightly as he lit the cigarette for her. As soon as it was lit she put her hands on his chest and pushed him back away from her a bit.

"Don't be cute. I'm still mad at you." she turned from him slightly, crossing her arms across her chest after pocketing the new pack of smokes.

Jason shook his head, as he nodded, and pushed a button on his gauntlet, vaporization fumes escaping the helm, as it released pressure, and Jason took it off his face, holding it in his hand.

"What was it you needed to talk about?" He asked her, sitting back down to the edge of the rooftop.

"Most of it was because I needed a new pack." Rose said looking back over at Jason with a somewhat thoughtful expression. Finally, she moved to sit down next to him, inhaling the smoke in deep Long breaths and exhaling it out of her nose.

"You never mentioned you would be going back to the tower. You really think that you can just pick up where you left off?" She said with a slight amount of agitation coming from her voice.

Jason let out a light sigh.

" I didn't realize I had to ask permisson to do my job, Rose." Jason said, his voice getting agetated as well. "I don't expect to pick things back up where they were. But I didn't leave. It wasn't my choice to be gone for all of this past year."

Rose stood back up, unable to sit still any longer. "You DIED Jason. You cant just...be normal after something like that." She said, ignoring the fact that she was saying the incredibly obvious.

"Hell you're not Jason anymore! I don't even know you!"

Jason shrugged and shook is head, looking up at Rose.

" I didn't just die, Rose. I was burned alive. Charred to the bones." A shiver ran down Jason's spine as Rose shouted at him. Jason stood up, his expression clearly rather annoyed.

" Yeah. Because you're the authority on all things Jason Todd, huh?!"

Rose narrowed her eyes, taking Jason's words like salt to a wound.

"Fuck you Jason." She said blatantly. No longer in the mood for her cigarette, she walked away from him and approached the stairwell that led to the top floor of the building, grinding the tip of the cigerette into the concrete side walls and stuck the remaining bit behind her ear.

"Been there. Done that." Jason said, under his breath, sitting back down on the ledge, digging back into his jacket, getting out a smoke for himself. Women.. He decided against lighting it up, as he got up, and followed rose to the stairs. "Okay, Rose. You must've wanted something else than to just yell at me. That could've waited." Jason told her bluntly, leaning against the wall.

Rose kept her back to him, arms folded across her chest tightly and remained silent for what seemed like five whole minutes. Finally, with arms still folded she turned once again to face him, her face looking a little softer than it had been before.

"I accepted your death long ago Jason. It took me a long time, but I eventually got over it and moved on with my life. I'm not going to go through that again. You're dead to me."

Jason first shook his head in a understanding manner. "Fine."

Rose subtly bit her bottom lip and averted her eyes from him, walking again back to the ledge of the building and just looked down at the street below. The lights of the city illuminated the darkened street revealing something that Rose noticed slightly out of place. Three different black SUV's were starting to park along-side of the building with nearly five men coming out of each of them. It was too far down to tell exactly, but Rose could have bet that they had guns. Blinking a few times, Rose forced herself to put together a plan, a plan that didn't involve Jason getting involved.

"Leave. Now." She said moving back over to him, continuing their conversation.

Jason watched as she leaned over the railing, to look down at the ground. If he wasn't in a bad mood, he would've probably checked her out. He just shook his head and waited for her to continue their conversation.

"So the three vehicles that just pulled up to the building have nothing to do with your dad being an assassin and sword for hire? I guess the bruises and cuts are also completely irrelevant. Right?" Jason asked her, his voice cold and harsh, like he was done with trying to act sweet, he wanted answers right now.

Rose's eyes snapped open wide, she shouldn't have been surprised, but she was. What she did next she didn't even know she was capable of as her hand drew back and firmly slapped Jason across the face, hard enough to leave a red mark and to make her own hand sting.

"I SAID LEAVE!" Tears were starting to stream to the corner of her eyes, but she didn't care. All that mattered right now was to get Jason out of here, out of harms way. She knew they were coming for her dad, but all they would find in the apartment was her, and she was ready to kill to defend the ones she loved.

Jason turned his head as she slapped him, he barely flinched when Rose shouted at him, but as she'd begin to walk away, he grabbed her by the wrist.

" I might've died, Rose. But that doesn't mean that I don't care anymore. Tell me what's going on." Jason asked her.

Rose turned to face him again and just shook her head no.

"I can't. Please, just go." She wrenched her wrist free from him and walked back to the side of the building that she climbed up and began her climb down, making herself fall a few feet at a time until she was back in her room. She closed and locked her bedroom window, drawing the silk curtains so that even if he did follow, he'd be out of luck.
Jason decided against following her. He put his helm back on.

Part of him wanted to follow, to make sure she was okay. But at the same time, he knew she could handle herself. He had after all made sure of that. He'd make his way back to the Tower. There were more dummies in need of getting beaten up.

Shaking her head and with a long sigh, Rose then started walking to her door, grabbing a sword she kept next to her door. If she had done this in time, she would have the element of-

"Surprise!"

Rose felt a cold hand reach from behind her, grabbing her wrist while another hand with a dampened cloth covered her mouth. Unvoluntarily inhaling the fumes, Rose's conscious slipped into darkness.

Water.

He remembered water. Cold water. His body shivering uncontrollably as he fought to try and lift himself out...

Out of... what? He couldn't remember. He had fallen and he couldn't get up. His leg hurt. It was bleeding. He could see something white sticking out of it and knew that was his own bone. And there was water. So much water. Rushing in. It had been up to his chest when he'd started to panic. Screaming. Shouting. Crying. Praying. Expecting God to be there. Expecting some angel to come. Hoping for someone. And someone never came.

Hypothermia had set in, as his head went under the water, but even as his limbs had stopped working his mind had still been conscious. Still been aware. He was watching air bubbles go to up the surface of the water, his body dragged down as he felt a burning sensation bursting in his chest.

That was the day, he died.

---

S A M A R
The Visaya Islands, Philippines

The young boy awoke, finding himself partially submerged and entombed in debris. Fingers of light pierced through the remains of the house, which had collapsed on top of him. The symbiote had formed a V-like brace of spikes around his head and neck, sheltering him from being crushed. His arms and legs were pinned underneath the water. Just like it had been when he'd died. With a scream, the Hellspawn burst from out of the wreckage, the cape lifting up the debris as an explosion of hellfire sent it into a million pieces. Pushing himself up, the dripping form of the young soldier of Hell stood and surveyed what remained of Maria's town.

The ocean was no longer restrained to a beachhead, instead the tide pushed water through what had been the city streets. Cars floated in rivers of mud, bodies, and trash collected along the way. Nothing was standing. No houses. No businesses. It was as if the finger of God Almighty had come down and wiped the town off the map of existence.

And Christopher, for all of his power, for all the good he had tried to do, hadn't saved anyone. He couldn't save anyone.

His foot connected with a body underneath the water in what had been the family's living room. Reaching down, Chris lifted Maria's body from out of the wreckage. She had grabbed onto him as the house had collapsed. And had been crushed under his weight when he'd been pinned under the wreckage. Gently, the Hellspawn let her go, the body slipping back under the water.

Because Maria wasn't there anymore.

He saw her. Standing around what remained of the town. As confused as the members of her family at what had happened to them. Now, as he rose from out of the wreckage, they looked to their anghel for answers to questions none of them wanted to ask.

No one who was dead wanted to know they were dead. It was the hardest thing to come to terms with. He knew that. He'd experienced it firsthand. And everyday since.

So he didn't give them answers. He showed them, instead, the way home.

_____Ricochet
Training Room Simulation: Castle of The Nightingales, Titans Tower
10:41 PM, January 1 2016

Ricochet watched keenly as Harley drew her second pistol, only to be tackled by Scorpion as though he were a rabid dog. He saw Scorpion throw one good punch before Harley retaliated by kicking him off of her and throwing him to the side. Once he was off, Ricochet watched in utter shock at how fast Harley leapt to her feet and began smashing the toe of her boots into Tim's armored ribs.

Snapping himself out of the surprise, Johnny leapt in through the windowsill and landed on his hands and knees. Like a gorilla, after hinging on his hands he swung his knees forward and landed on his feet, pursuing Harley as she went away from Tim and towards her own hammer.

Ricochet began to tumble forward, tucking his head into his lap as he rolled along the tiles that made up the floor.

He was a mere five feet away when Harley picked up her oversized mallet and slung it over her shoulder.

As soon as she'd firmly grasped it, she pivoted around and saw Ricochet pouncing towards her.

As a natural reaction, she threw her left leg forward, and put all her might into dropping the mallet over him.

Just as quick she'd done that, Johnny put his hand up, grabbing it midair, and used it as a point where he straightened out his legs into her makeup covered face.

Naturally, she dropped the hammer, as well as Johnny. The disc adorned hero grunted as he felt his body smack the beautiful bamboo. But Harley Quinn was even more shook up, she was gurgling as she leaned against the corner of the room.

LexCorp Tower
Metropolis, New York

Connor had hardly put the missile down when the entire associated press had gathered around him giving a mixture of praise and congratulations. As he looked around the crowd as he caught a glance of Clark, giving a silent nod in his direction. As he turned back to the rest of the crowd he found that Luthor had made his way through the crowd to stand before the Kryptonian teen. Begrudgingly Luthor offered up a pre-thought up speech in his head for just such an occasion.

"Well thank you Superboy, without you we would not have made it out alive." Luthor held his hand to shake hands with Connor, if only to save face in front of the press. Connor shot the billionaire a look that was a mixture of contempt and sarcasm.

"Well Lexy, if you hadn't shot missiles at the press conference then there wouldn't be a need for me, now would there?"

Luthor's eyes narrowed at the teen's response, thinking of a thousand different things to say to him. With every camera aimed at him, however, he simply turned and walked away. With their source of noteworthy news taking his leave the full might of the Metropolis press descended upon and surrounded Luthor bombarding him with questions. As Connor began his flight home to the tower he caught the last bits of the conversation Luthor had with his personal body guard Mercy.

[I]"....down to Section 6 and get those scientists on the NOWHERE project to lo...."

S.H.I.E.L.D HELICARRIER
Somewhere in the sky

The sound of bullets bouncing off metal echoed through the long corridor of S.H.I.E.L.D's incredibly huge flying base. A base that was now under the attack from the forces of HYDRA. HYDRA was well known for many terrorist attacks against America and their grudge against S.H.I.E.L.D. An overwhelming force pressed the attack against the agency and in return S.H.I.E.L.D was unable to contact the Avengers for help. Luckily for them the second greatest heroes next to the Avengers had been mobilized after their brief monthly report to Nick Fury.

"Captain America. Control Room is being overrun." Nick Fury's voice came over the small earpiece within Bucky's ear.

"Don't worry, Sir. Me and Scott are on our way." Bucky placed his finger on the ear piece, pressing a button to that synched up with the other Young Avengers' earpiece, "Hulkling, and Wiccan, help Maria on the deck. A clean sweep. Ben and Dani, handle the engines. If those fail, we all die." The communication ended as soon as the issues were ordered and Bucky took a step back placing his back against the young Mister Scott Pilgrim's back. HYDRA forces had ambushed the two teens, surrounding them with their blades and guns at the ready.

"To the control room, Scott. Let's be hasty. Don't need Fury to be.....furious." A small chuckle escaped Captain America's breath before using his shield to reflect incoming machine gun fire away from himself. The pun was utterly terrible but knowing Scott's humor, he'd probably laugh at the puns of a teen with humor from the 40s. Mind refocusing on the task at hand, Bucky threw a powerful right hook that knocked one of the HYDRA soldiers flat on their back whilst proceeding to administer a quick tumble backwards into a flip that ended with the soles of Bucky's feet colliding with the chest of two different soldiers. A bullet whizzed by Captain's face, his eyes easily perceiving the distance and timing of the next few bullets. His body twist and turned with reflexive ease, dodging the bullets that could presumably bring him harm.

One quick arm movement sent the shield that had once belong to Captain America, bouncing from wall to wall. It looked as though there was no true direction to it before it crushed the nose of a soldier, destroyed the knee cap of another, and then smashing the elbow of another. The shield returned to Bucky's arm like a boomerang.

"I figured this would be more...fun."

Dani had been in her personal cell, cross-legged on her bunk, with the dark text that had been the origin point of all her troubles when her earpiece crackled, and a tinny voice shouted about a HYDRA attack on the SHIELD Helicarrier. She'd panicked slightly before turning and craning her neck upwards to look through the porthole-style window she'd explicitly requested to be installed, and seeing - with a little more angling of her head - that the sun was still high in the sky. Somewhere inside her, near her lower left ribs it felt like, Zarathos chuckled, a bubbly, malicious forced laugh. It wasn't time. Not yet. She still had some hours before hiding became truly necessary. Though that fact didn't stop her from wrenching the book off her legs - something she'd done many times, though the tome never seemed the worse for wear - and nearly scrambling into the corner of her cell, assuming a different cross-legged stance with her hands frantically running through her sheared hair, calming herself and preparing to do her best to ignore the sounds of fighting that were soon to echo through the corridors of the Helicarrier, and hoping that the fields - both energy and magical - that secured her cell would hold the HYDRA soldiers out sufficiently. Eyes squeezed shut, she opened one to peek at the two buttons and a switch on the wall of her cell - how she opened the fields from the inside. Fury had insisted that simple heat-detection tech was enough to prevent her opening it as Ghost Rider, should she change inside her cell for whatever terrible reason, but Doctor Strange had simply said 'hmmm' and then placed protective wards over them as well, preventing the demonic energies of Zarathos to touch them. Dani relied on the latter rather than the former.

It didn't last long. The quiet. There was a moment of stillness as the entire staff paused to mentally prepare, and then they mobilized. A klaxon sounded somewhere and Dani winced at the sound and the associations it brought, and then the pounding of footsteps and shouts of orders came through, muffled behind layers of metal and machinery, indistinct yells failing to take form as words. An dull boom rocked the ship as, presumably, the HYDRA agents breached the Helicarrier, and Dani held her breath. Oh man, she did not want to be here. She jumped as her earpiece crackled again and she stood up quickly, smacking her knee on the corner of her bunk as she did so, and scrambled to pick it up and put it on as a voice came through issuing orders. Cap's voice - or at least the Cap of her team. Bucky.

"Hulkling, and Wiccan, help Maria on the deck. A clean sweep. Ben and Dani, handle the engines. If those fail, we all die."

No pressure then. Dani approached the field that replaced the fourth wall of her cell and angled herself to look down both ends of the corridor. Empty, and any sounds of stamping soldier boots were a fair way off. Safe, then. Ish. Not that it mattered so much for her survival - she found that even without Zarathos completely taking over, it still made sure she was plenty tough to kill - but surviving didn't matter if she was captured and held, she wouldn't be able to help the team. And she didn't want to think about what would happen if HYDRA held her after sundown. Best not to think about it. Instead, she stepped away from the field and toward the buttons, flipping the switch and waiting for a light above it to turn green before pressing and holding both down buttons. The light blinked for a few seconds, and then turned amber, necessitating another flip of the switch before it went red and the field came down. Runic marks that lined the frame of the field emitter glimmered for a split second before dulling again. The protective wards dissipated as well, and Dani took one cool breath and a body-wide shudder before stepping out and turning right toward the main access shafts of the ship. She reached the engine room before Ben did, and hoped HYDRA agents wouldn't do the same.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier



“Come on Wiccan hurry it up!”

“I’m trying Ms. Hill I’m trying!”

Wiccan was curled up tight behind a large metal crate that rang constantly from bullets hitting it. Maria Hill, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s director of operations, was also behind the crate but unlike Wiccan was periodically exposing herself and firing back with a high powered pistol. Hulkling though was right in the thick of things, dodging fire and having his skin thick enough to deflect any bullets that did connect. Still though even with his strength the numbers were clearly against him as it looked like he was constantly getting dogpiled by a large number of them. “Wiccan do what the lady says!” He called out to his boyfriend as he grunted in frustration. Another large group of HYDRA soldiers going flying off of him.

Wiccan calmed his nerves, sitting cross legged as he kept his head down. Trying to blot out the noises happening all around. Calmly he started chanting “Iwishtheirgunsmalfunction” over and over. A soft blue glow from his hands as he pressed them together. Finally there was sweet satisfaction when even amongst the billowing winds blowing against his ears. He heard a symphony of clicks when Hydra realized their guns had all jammed and broke at the same time.

They couldn’t’ get much time to react though. As on top of a now grinning Hulkling, Hill and Wiccan leaped into the fray. The three of them cracking skulls and making life miserable for any HYDRA agents foolish enough to be near them. Finally the large group had been slammed, beaten, bruised, and generally smashed by the three as Hulkling and Wiccan gave one another a look. “Took you long enough.” Hulkling teased. “Well I had to make it dramatic didn’t I?” Wiccan and Hulkling started to come closer before suddenly Maria Hill stood between them. “As much as I don’t mind the romances. We still have problems.”



"Hulkling, and Wiccan, help Maria on the deck. A clean sweep. Ben and Dani, handle the engines. If those fail, we all die."

Ben Tennyson sighed to himself, great, get stuck with the hot chick that has a demon inside her.

He had already had been in one of the main areas, where HYDRA were keeping some of the staff on board the helicarrier hostage. Sure enough they probably didn’t seem ready for a giant red four armed alien to come in and turn them into creamed HYDRA. Still that was some time ago, and now that a few minutes had passed Ben ran through the corridor. Trying to multitask by going to his omnitrix. Dialing through the various alien forms inside. “Wish I knew how to organize this thing…” Ben muttered to himself before finally coming across the right one for the job. “Lets go Brainstorm!” Ben proclaimed right outside of the engine room. His hand slammed down on the Omnitrix, with a sudden blast of green energy encasing Ben. As Ben finally came into the engine room. He suddenly had green skin, a trio of yellow dots on his head, and blond hair. “Alright Ms. Ketch I hope you have your Engineering cap on…” Ben told Dani in a weirdly wise voice, considering who it was coming from. It was something that came with suddenly having a 12th level intelligence. Quickly Ben came up to one of the big engines in the room. That was rumbling and shaking a bit as smoke came out of it. Ben’s fingers began to telescope away from his hand as they sunk into the engine to where he knew the electronic chips for it were. So that he could find out direct from the source what the problems were. “Main fuselage is broken, and two of the pistons are malfunctioning.” Ben stated before his head telescoped over to another part of the engine, pointing to a pair of valves. “Redirect these to this area over here.” Ben stated pointing where they go. “It won’t fix the problem but it should buy us enough time to do so.”

The motorcycle comes to a stop as I reach my destination: a compound five miles from Gotham. I stash the bike in a nearby bush and set up the sniper rifle, monitoring the patrol patterns. Two snipers on the roof, five roaming the grounds. Not difficult, but the pattern is reminiscent of a man I used to work with. Disconcerting, since that particular man is dead.

One patroller walks too close; his mistake. I leap out from my sniper's nest and clasp a hand over his mouth, plunging a combat knife into his throat. His muffled screams don't escape his throat and he lands dead in a ditch, hidden from sight. Readjusting myself behind the sniper rifle, I take aim, and with two quick bursts, kill the snipers on the roof. The patrolmen scatter, unable to find the source of death.

To my far right, I see my next target, running to the forest. A bullet to the back of his skull stops him in his tracks, blood spattering the ground. Retracting the bolt, I eject the spent shell, and engage the next round. The next victim falls, and I repeat the process, Three more die by this process, and soon, I walk to the front door. The walls are twelve inch titanium steel, and the door is reinforced steel. I rip the door off of its hinges and startle those inside.

Five men guard Bobby Gazzo. Two stand up, but I shoot them in the head with my handgun. Tossing the gun aside, I unsheathe my sword as the last two rush me. A diagonal slice bisects one of them, and tears open the stomach of the other. The final guard stands in front of Gazzo, not entirely confident in his abilities. Unfortunately for him, I am. The blade tears through his throat, nearly decapitating him, and going through Gazzo's forehead. As I sheathe the blade, The TV nearby crackles to life, showing a man draped in shadow. "Well done, Mr. Wilson, Well done." Immediately I'm on my guard. He knows my name. "Gazzo was a...drag on the organization. Regardless, I have your daughter." The camera' cuts to my daughter, tied to a chair. She's just awakening from a drug induced stupor. "Daddy?" she calls out. Just as those words leave her, the ShadowMan returns. "So you see, If you do my dirty work, Rose lives. You don't, She dies." beneath my mask, my teeth grind. "I'll KILL you for this"

Whatever happens, I promise myself, I WILL bring my daughter home.