August 20 2018, Gotham City 11:19 PM

Two years of wearing the Tigress costume, and Artemis still found it unnatural.

As she jumped the rooftops of the lower east side of Gotham, she smirked as she thought about what would happen if she ran into Catwoman. Hopefully she wouldn't think that Artemis was stealing her thunder.

Not that she could get any thunder to begin with.

Tigress just could not get a name for herself. Nobody knew her, she no longer had the luxury of being recognized as Green Arrow's sidekick. It also didn't help that every city across the United States had more and more heroes popping up every day. Gotham alone had at least five or six, most of them working with Batman. Nightwing relocated to Bludhaven as part of his hiatus from the team, Robin was just as likely to be seen doing some work on his own in addition to swinging around with the Dark Knight, and Batgirl…

Artemis found herself tripping as she landed on the next roof, barely catching herself before landing face first.

She was in Metropolis when she heard what happened to Barbara. How she was crippled by the Joker with a bullet through the spine, how he stripped her broken, bleeding body and took pictures of it, how he tortured her father…

She shuddered. Once Artemis thought her father was the worst there could be, and boy how wrong she was. She couldn't decide which act was more monstrous- what happened to Barbara, or what happened to Jason…

"You ok?"

She turned to the voice behind her. Robin was perched on the side of the building.

"Yeah," Tigress confirmed. "Just distracted for a few seconds."

Tim Drake. Technically the Robins weren't supposed to reveal their identities to the Team, yet most members found them out anyway through one way or another. Artemis had to regrettably admit, she didn't really know Tim that well. Dick was the social butterfly, ready to be friends with anyone and everyone. Jason had a temper that could rival Conner's early months and a crude sense of humor. Tim was quiet, reserved. The one out of the three most like his mentor. A nice guy definitely, but more likely to hang around Nightwing and other Team members closer to his age, or by himself. Tigress never really interacted with him that much.

Now's a good time to change that.

"Another night out of the nest?" Tigress teased.

"Kaldur told me you would be tracking that shipment of the Reach soft drink here," Robin replied as he stood up and walked towards her.

Yep, definitely Batman Jr. the heroine thought. Straight to business.

"Well I did manage to track Luthor's goons to that warehouse at Gotham Harbor," she explained, pointing to a rather depilated looking building. "From the bug I placed on one, I heard they're supposed to be meeting men belonging to a Gotham crime boss, but they didn't specify who."

Robin turned on his holographic computer, standard issue to all of Batman's protégés.

"Traditional crime bosses have sort of gone out of style around here," Robin said as he typed. "The Falcones and Maronis hightailed out of here when the supervillains began surfacing. The only ones I can think of that still act like traditional mob bosses are…"

An image of a blond man with half of his face burned horribly with a suit to match appeared. Tigress felt the slight urge to gag.

"Two-Face, aka Harvey Dent,"

Next, the image of a stout man in a tuxedo with an umbrella, a pointed nose and a monocle showed up.

"Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot,"

Finally, Robin brought up one more image of a man dressed in a white suit with a black skull mask covering his entire head.

"And Black Mask, aka Roman Sionis," Robin finished. "Considering I just put Two-Face back in Arkham and Penguin's been in Blackgate, I'm gonna have to say the people you're tracking are meeting with Black Mask's men."

"Will he be there himself?" Tigress asked.

Robin pulled out his grapple gun and fired it at the next building.

"Let's find out."

Robin grappled and swung from building to building with Tigress following. They dropped down in front of the warehouse, knocking out a couple of guards before entering the complex. Sticking to the shadows, the two young heroes made their way through and atop crates to find a large group in the very center where the only source of light was.

As Tigress snuck up next to Robin, she realized she recognized one of the men.

"Sportsmaster," she whispered.

Robin turned to look at her. "Your father?"

Tigress nodded. "I guess he's working for Black Mask now."

They stopped talking as they listened to the proceedings below.

"You can understand my employer's hesitance to buy your product," Sportsmaster said, pacing around while inspecting a re-labeled Reach drink. "If word got out on what this really was, the entire Justice League would be up his ass in a heartbeat."

"Mr. Luthor said he had some ideas on how to distract the individual members of the League," one of Luthor's minions said. "Plus we were thinking you guys could retool that as maybe an injection or something. Without the bottle, it's just a street drug no one would get suspicious about."

Sportsmaster's expression was unreadable through his hockey mask, but Tigress could tell it was that of immense annoyance.

"Batman will be suspicious," he pointed out. "This is his turf and he's paranoid beyond reason. He'll catch on rather quickly if he decides to investigate…"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about the Batman if I were you."

Everyone turned to the right northeast corner, with Robin and Tigress edging a little closer to see beyond the crates. From atop the pile ahead, a new figure walked out from the darkness. It was a man in a grey body suit and a dark leather jacket, his head encased in a bright red helmet with two white eyes that looked like were in an endless glare. Resting in his right hand was what appeared to be a modified Ak-47.

"Especially since I'm the one with the assault rifle intending to kill every-"

He pulled the slide.

"Last-"

He aimed.

"One of you."

He opened fire.

Both Black Mask's and Luthor's men began dropping like flies, with Sportsmaster flipping backwards away from the hail fire and onto the crates. He drew a javelin and ran towards the machine gun armed vigilante while what remained of the goons drew guns of their own and began to fire back.

Robin and Tigress took this as their cue to join in.

"You go after Sportsmaster and take care of any goons that get in your way," Robin said. "I'll go after the biker guy."

Tigress nodded in agreement. She jumped to the ground, several of the henchmen noticing as she did so and turning in accordance to fire. She promptly responded by disarming the closest ones and laying the beat down to anyone approaching her.

Robin, meanwhile jumped from crate to crate until he reached the one the gunman was atop of, kicking him down in the process. The helmeted man landed on the floor behind the crates and scrambled to his gun, when an electrified birdarang hit the weapon and destroyed it, sending the man flying back.

When Robin jumped down after him, the man merely chuckled as he got back up.

"I was wondering when I'd run into you," he said. "I wanted to meet you sometime while I was in Gotham. You or the Bat."

"Who are you?" Robin asked.

The man popped his neck. "Let's just say I've been away for a while on a… journey of self-discovery. Now I'm back, refreshed and rebranded. Call me Red Hood."

Red Hood. That name seemed familiar to Tim…

Suddenly, Red Hood drew a knife. "Do me a favor and don't disappoint me."

Robin smirked and drew his electric bo staff. "I don't intend to."

Red Hood charged at the Boy Wonder and slashed at him with the knife several times, all of which Robin deflected with his staff. The boy activated the electric current in his staff and swung towards the Red Hood's left side, hoping he wouldn't get the knife around in time to block. Red Hood merely surprised Robin by catching the staff without suffering so much as a sting.

"Insulated gloves," Red Hood commented.

He then proceeded to jam the opposite side of the staff into Robin's stomach, yank the rest of the staff from his hands and then hit him again with more force, sending the Boy Wonder into a crate.

"Come on," Red Hood complained. "I heard you could actually hold your own without Batman having to save your ass. Or maybe he just needs someone to draw the fire with all that red."

Red Hood chucked away the staff. "Course I'm one to talk."

Ribs aching, Robin stood back up. He then threw a couple of smoke pellets to the ground, disappearing once it cleared.

"Oh no," Red Hood said sarcastically. "He's gone. I hope he doesn't do a drop kick from behind me…"

Just when Robin was about to do just that, Red Hood proceeded to grab his leg and spin him around, once again launching him into some crates.

The Boy Wonder coughed and groaned as his foe walked towards him and kneeled in front of him.

"So why'd the old man pick you?" he asked. "You obviously did something to impress him. I wonder-"

A growl from behind stopped Red Hood's musings, leading him to turn and grab the javelin flying towards him.

"Whoa Casey Jones," Red Hood quipped.

Sportsmaster merely pulled out a hunting knife as he jumped down and slashed at the dodging Hood. He then flipped the knife around in a reverse grip.

"Let's see if your blood's as red as that helmet," Sportsmaster growled.

Red Hood responded by pulling a pistol.

"I'll show you mine if you show yours," he retorted.

Both men however were disarmed by three shurikens. In a flash, Sportsmaster found himself side rushed by Tigress. As those two fought, Robin took this opportunity to throw a bolas around Red Hood's entire lower body, knocking him to the ground struggling.

Slowly, painfully, the Boy Wonder stood. His ribs were still screaming, but he was willing to ignore that to help Artemis. Ignoring the agony, Robin picked up his staff, recharged it and rushed Sportsmaster from behind. As Robin landed an electrifying blow to the mercenary, Tigress took that opportunity to deliver a round house kick to the face, knocking off his mask and sending him staggering.

Spitting out a glob of blood, Sportsmaster laughed.

"You sure know how to pick your boyfriends baby girl," he said. "And here I thought you were still hung up on that joke Kid Flash."

As soon as Wally's code name was mentioned in that disparaging tone, Tigress growled and unsheathed the sword on her back, sprinting towards her father with a savage ferocity that made Robin realize this was a real intent to kill.

"Tigress!" he shouted.

But before Tigress could land a blow, Sportsmaster threw his own smoke pellets, leaving her nothing to cleave but a cloud of leftover smoke.

Breathing heavily, Tigress' eyes widened as she realized what she was about to do.

"Oh my God," she breathed. "Tim, I could've-I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok," Robin assured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We all lose control sometimes."

Tigress stopped panting momentarily to flash Robin a smirk. "Careful. Don't want Cassie to hear what my dad said and get the wrong idea."

Robin quickly removed his hand and blushed slightly.

"Uh… right, heh heh," Robin chuckled nervously. "At least we caught that Red Hood guy though. Maybe we can question him to see if he knows…"

But when he looked over to where the Red Hood was supposed to be tied up, nothing was there except for the severed bolas and a sticky note. Robin walked over and picked up the sticky note, reading the scribble out loud.

"Give Bats and Nightwing my regards ;)"

"Does he know Batman personally?" Tigress asked.

Robin stared blankly at the note.

"Maybe," he replied. "I intend on figuring that out."

Robin smiled as he turned to Tigress. "You know, I don't think you've seen the Batcave yet."

August 21 2018, Bludhaven 6:30 AM

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Thirty minutes of sleep.

Dick intended on getting at least three hours after the long patrol of the previous night, but the aches and bruises wouldn't let him. Not just the physical kind, but the emotional kind as well, brought upon by knowing what the next day would be.

Sitting up on the side of the bed, Dick turned off the alarm clock and rubbed his eyes. While doing so, he noticed his Nightwing uniform on the floor in front of his feet. As he picked it up and stood up from the bed, he walked toward his closet with the intent of putting the costume back in its secret compartment. On the way, he lingered in front of his calendar.

Four years exactly. Four years to the day he lost a brother. Four years since all of them, Bruce, Barbara, Alfred and himself suffered a death in the family.

Memories of that night in Ethiopia flashed before Dick's eyes. Memories of the Bioship being shot down by Harley Quinn, memories of him and Barbara frantically commandeering a jeep to catch up with Bruce while M'gann flew behind them, memories of the warehouse exploding…

Memories of Batman cradling Robin's broken body amidst the smoking rubble.

Jason Todd. The second Robin.

Who could possibly have known that the eleven year old boy Batman and Robin caught stealing tires from the Batmobile would meet such a brutal end. He remembered how M'gann had tears gushing down her cheeks in group sessions with Black Canary. She related how each time she tried to call out to him, there were bouts of excruciating pain that she felt herself and just when it seemed like a clear image could be seen, the Joker lowered the crowbar again and again until M'gann just lost the connection.

Tears of his own started rushing to Dick's eyes. Rubbing them away, he continued to put up his costume and then grabbed his cell phone off the dresser. He dialed a number and waited for a response.

"Hey Amy, it's Dick. I'm taking a personal day, is that alright?"

He chuckled. "I'm sure Redhorne will be happy with one day of me not being there. …Okay, I'll take up an extra shift when I get back, I'm going back to Gotham to visit Bruce. …Okay, see you."

He hung up the phone and put on a pair of jeans and a white v-neck before going to the kitchen to start fixing coffee.

As he poured a cup and sat in his recliner, he put the cup on the coffee table and picked up a picture frame. He gave a sad smile; it was a picture of him, Barbara and Jason taken by Artemis on the boy's first day of school. He then remembered that it was just a day later when Jason went out with Bruce on his first patrol as Robin…

He made a new Robin costume himself and gave it to Jason personally. He had a talk beforehand with Bruce about which direction he wanted his crime fighting life to go, and to his surprise, Bruce ended up being very supportive. So it was that night that Dick was down in the cave drawing potential designs for a new identity when Bruce came around from the corner in the Batsuit minus the cowl.

"Jason," he called. "The Riddler left another riddle at the Gotham Zoo and I'd like to get there before CSI does. Maybe we can get a hint as to whether he has hostages or is planning a robbery."

Dick chuckled. "Must be looking at himself in the mirror."

"Riddler or Jason?"

Dick chuckled again. "Both probably since Riddler is hopelessly narcissistic, but I was mostly talking about Jason. It is his first night in the costume after all."

"Yes," Alfred contributed as he entered the cave. "Master Dick did the same when he first put on the costume as well. I had to bribe him with the promise of hot cocoa when you two returned for him to hurry up."

Bruce smiled. "You might have to bribe Jason too."

"No need."

Jason jumped down from a cave outcropping, sporting the modified Robin suit. The color scheme was more or less the same, but the sleeves were long as opposed to short, and the cape was also slightly longer and had a yellow clasp around the collar. He kept his bangs parted as opposed to Dick having kept his messy, and his mask made his face look more pointed. People would notice that this was a different Robin if they paid close enough attention but Dick planned on staying out of the limelight for a while and hoped that would be enough for people to not make a connection. After all, people would find it odd that soon after Bruce Wayne took in another ward a third boy started prowling the rooftops in the occasional company of the Dynamic Duo.

"Robin the Boy Wonder, ready for action!" Jason said excitedly. "Riddler's got nothing on me, when I get to him he's gonna get his a-"

"Language, Master Jason," Alfred cut off.

"…Butt handed to him," Jason finished. "Kinda lessens the impact when replacing the words."

"Robin doesn't curse," Dick said as he scribbled out a design he didn't like and flipped the page in his sketchbook.

Jason smirked. "What do you expect me to say then? 'Holy Plushy Pandas Batman', or "Gee Golly Gosh Diddly'?"

Dick laughed. "No, you can still banter. That's kind of required. But keep it PG, or at least TVPG."

"Ass is just another word for donkey."

"Master Jason!"

"…And PG if used in that context."

Bruce chuckled. Once he put up the cowl however, Batman woke in his stead. "Remember, stay within my line of sight the whole time. Don't run off, stay above the men with the guns, and don't engage the Riddler unless I give the ok."

Robin followed Batman to the Batmobile. "Do you usually get your guys in one night?"

"Riddler's become more predictable lately," Batman said. "I expect to deliver him back to Arkham before midnight."

Dick smiled as the two got into the car and drove out of the cave. Feeling he was getting nowhere in his designs, he instead opted to follow Alfred back upstairs to call Barbara.

A jingle could be heard from Dick's computer. Speak of the devil.

Dick went over to the computer and turned on the video chat before sitting. A video image of Barbara in a hospital bed took up the screen.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey," Dick replied, sad smile still on his face.

Another casualty of the Joker's rampage. As if murdering Jason wasn't enough, he had to subject Barbara and her father to this nightmare as well. Dick wasn't there when it happened and it's been eating at him for the past two months. If he was in Gotham, he could have stopped this from happening. Barbara would still be able to fight as Batgirl. Jim wouldn't have been humiliated and only barely escape with his sanity intact. And Bruce…

Dick heard from Montoya that this was the closest Batman ever came to killing the Joker. When the police arrived at the derelict amusement park, they found both Joker and Batman laughing maniacally. And right when the police rushed to take Joker to custody, that's when Batman stopped laughing and started to strangle him. Bullock had to be the one to pull him off and get him to calm while the Joker was carted off still laughing.

Maybe Bullock should have just let Bruce kill him.

"Hanging in there?" Dick asked.

"Well, I discovered the wonders of Netflix," Barbara joked. "And to gain back the brain cells I lost binge watching Breaking Bad, I also began honing my computer skills by making undetectable software programs I'm sure Bruce and Tim would find useful."

Dick chuckled. "Just like you to always keep yourself busy Babs."

Barbara shrugged. "I guess I didn't lose my workaholic tendencies with my ability to walk."

"I'm sure we can have Wayne Enterprises develop something to-"

"Bruce said the same thing," Barbara cut off. "The doctors disagree. They say that even with today's medicine the bullet caused too much damage to the spine for physical therapy to be an option, and any attempt at surgery would only make things worse."

"What about cybernetics?" Dick listed. "Serums, anything?"

"Nothing that has been tested," Barbara said.

Dick's eyes lowered. Barbara placed her hand on the screen.

"Dick, I've already come to terms with this. If something comes along, then something comes along, but until then I'm going to make the best of this."

Dick sighed. "You're right, there's plenty you can still do both for Bruce and the Team besides field work. It's just…"

Dick placed his hand on the screen as well, right where Barbara had hers.

"I hate feeling so helpless," Dick said. "Ever since Jason I've been more and more worried about losing people I care about. Now that Wally's gone I…I couldn't bear losing anyone else. Especially you."

Barbara gave a small smile. "We can get through this. I know we can."

Her smile faded. "Speaking of Jason, you know what today is right?"

"Yeah."

Dick lowered his hand from the screen. "I'm coming back to Gotham for a visit. I'll stop by the graveyard first and then I'll come visit you."

"Ok. How long will you be in town?"

Dick's thoughts turned to the costume he had just hidden away.

"Not more than the day," he said. "But I might bring my favorite suit just to be safe. That is, if Bruce doesn't tell me to bring it first."

Artemis had trouble taking her attention from the giant T-Rex model.

"You know, I was expecting the Batcave to be a little more barren," she commented.

Tim, his domino mask and costume top removed, was typing away at the Batcomputer, wincing occasionally at the pain still apparent in his bandaged wrapped abdominal area. "Bruce can be bad as Gar when it comes to collecting things."

And Wally before him, Artemis thought sadly.

Artemis walked around and examined more of the trophies, from the giant penny to the large ten pins, to even what looked like one of the swords used by Deathstroke.

What her eyes ended up resting on though, was a cylindrical display case. Inside of it was a Robin costume that she recognized as Jason's. She only heard second hand accounts of his death from M'gann, how the explosion left the costume tattered. It must have been re-tailored because the suit looked like it was never used, covering a clear dummy with the effect of the mask looking like it was floating above the suit. Right below was an epitaph on a gold plate:

A Good Soldier

Tim looked over from the Batcomputer. "Dick, Barbara and Alfred really cared about him. Bruce too even if he doesn't show it. I never met him. What was he like?"

Artemis smiled and walked back towards the computer. "Honestly? Your exact opposite. Outspoken, temperamental, crude. I remember one time when he tried to sneak into a slumber party for most of the girls on the Team, and even got away with Zatanna's leggings. Another time, he broke the TV at Mt. Justice when he saw Lex Luthor getting off a crime scot-free."

Artemis sighed. "But he was still a good friend and a good teammate. When he followed orders at least. I could relate to him because he knew what it was like to grow up on the streets, in a harsh environment. Maybe if he was able to get help at an earlier age, he wouldn't have been so angry."

Tim glanced down. He then turned back to the Batcomputer and continued typing.

"Ok, so I searched the computer's database and dozens of matches came up for 'Red Hood'."

The screen was filled up with several pictures of different iterations of the Red Hood over Gotham's history.

"According to Batman's notes," Tim said as he typed. "The Red Hood gang normally picked up some poor sap and had them wear the costume so they had someone to pin their crimes on. Judging that our current Hood managed to kill several of Black Mask and Luthor's men and steal the shipment of the Reach drink all by himself, I'd say this isn't the case for him."

"Who was the last Red Hood?" Artemis asked. "That might give us a clue about the new one."

"Let's see…"

Tim typed a little more and three pictures popped up; one of a Red Hood in a tuxedo, a cape and a red domed helmet; one of a newspaper clipping with the headline Axis Chemicals Break In Foiled…

And one of the Joker.

"Now I remember," Tim snapped his fingers. "Bruce told me that when he went to stop the break-in at Axis during his first year as Batman, the Red Hood stumbled from the railing into a vat of chemicals. That's how the Joker was born."

Artemis felt uneasy looking at the clown, the villain who caused destruction and death every chance he got. The man who murdered one friend and crippled another. "You think he might know something about the new Hood?"

"Who knows," Tim sighed. "Even if he did, he's the one enemy Batman won't let me go anywhere near. He said from now on it was just him and the Joker."

"Sounds like he's being protective of you."

"Yeah, I guess," Tim said, slightly dejected.

"Recognized: Batman, 02."

Tim quickly typed and the pictures disappeared, turning the chair around to see his mentor coming up from the teleporter to behind him and Artemis.

"The word reconnaissance doesn't mean much to you, does it?" Batman said dryly as he eyed Tim's bandages.

"We were just looking up something related to that mission," Tim said. "Someone came and interrupted the exchange Artemis and I were supposed to spy on."

Batman nodded. He didn't seem to pay Artemis much mind. Normally he wouldn't be very… how Dick would say, "turbed" to discover one of the members of the Bat Family bringing someone into the cave, but Tim had to guess since Batman and Green Arrow were the ones to introduce Artemis to the hero business in the first place, then he was okay with her knowing his identity.

"On the subject of missions, Aqualad wants you two to report back to the Watchtower for debriefing," Batman said.

Tim got out of the chair and put his domino mask back on, along with his tunic and cape. Artemis did the same with her own mask.

"On it," Robin said.

"Visit the sickbay too, your ribcage might need a second look over to make sure it's nothing serious."

Tim smiled. "Yes sir."

As the two young heroes teleported to the Watchtower, Batman sat down at the computer and pulled back up what Tim was looking at. Frowning, he placed a hand to the communicator in his ear and waited for the other end to pick up.

"Nightwing, you're still coming back today right?"

He turned the chair and stared at the encased Robin uniform, listening to what his first protégé was saying.

"When you're done, come straight to the cave," he continued. "Robin just went to the Watchtower and I need help investigating something."

Batman scrolled through the computer.

"It looks like someone's using the Red Hood identity again, and they might be an obstacle for the Team."

August 21 2018, Markovia 11:45 AM

"Superboy, can you hear me? I'm in position. Operation is a go."

Conner nodded. "Loud and clear. Blue Beatle?"

"Check, patrolling the surrounding area. Beast Boy?"

Conner turned to his shoulder to see a small green canary winking at him.

"He's with me," Conner said telepathically. "Both of us are ready to go."

The Kryptonian clone fidgeted with the black and red tie of his civilian suit. Clark gave him a couple that he grew out of but Conner never liked wearing them, not even with the perks of M'gann practically drooling whenever he did. He preferred his simpler clothes, which is what he would normally wear for the more covert missions.

Granted, the Team's missions mostly were covert, so he actually could wear his Superboy attire. But for cases like this, he preferred regular street clothes, not tuxes and suits.

He looked up at the Gothic cathedral looming over him, listened as the bells tolled to alert the guests that the wedding was starting.

"So Gar, crash any weddings before this one?" Conner asked the canary airily.

"No, but I saw that Wedding Crashers movie," Gar chuckled.

Superboy raised an eyebrow. "Does Megan know you're watching inappropriate movies?"

"Aw come on, most kids my age have seen dozens of R rated movies by now!"

Gar the canary narrowed his eyes. "And you're one to talk, you're only eight years old."

Superboy gave an amused smirk. "Only technically."

His smirk disappeared and was replaced with a look of worry. "Seriously though man, are you all right for this? It's ok if you're not, Queen Bee-"

"Is getting her just desserts," Gar cut off, suddenly serious. "She'll face justice and be locked away for good."

A man was guiding a flock of green peacocks towards the entrance to the church. Beast Boy hopped from Conner's shoulder and transformed to blend in.

"She won't hurt anyone anymore," he said quietly to himself.

As Beast Boy went in with the rest of the peacocks, Superboy mentally went over the plan to himself once more.

First, get Psimon out of the way by luring him away from Queen Bee's side and injecting him with one of Artemis' darts, then quietly shipping him to Stryker's Island.

Then, have M'gann impersonate Psimon and standby to watch over the wedding between King Markov and Queen Bee.

Then, when the priest asks if anyone has an objection, the king's son Brion will reveal the inhumane experiments Queen Bee extorted Markovian scientists to work on using Reach technology and also reveal that he himself was an unwilling test subject.

Finally, after forcing her into a corner, M'gann and Gar will reveal themselves and will take Queen Bee into custody on behalf of the Justice League and reveal the warrant signed by members of the UN.

Superboy heard the bells toll once more and sighed in anticipation.

"Straightforward enough," he muttered as he straightened his tie one more time, walking into the church.

Jaime was patrolling the parking lot, also sporting a suit but grey with a blue tie. He watched as crowds shuffled into the cathedral, many Markovian and Bialyan. Though he also recognized a few infamous paparazzi from back home that frequently made a habit of stalking members of the League. A couple of college aged girls eyed him with interest, causing him to turn uncomfortably.

"Those Earth females seem to be attracted to you," Jaime heard the Scarab say.

Jaime turned more so people wouldn't hear or see him talk back.

"I'm not really looking for romance right now," he replied.

"Our agreement is inclusive of me being more 'helpful'. Notifying you of potential mates falls under those parameters."

The mention of the word mate made Jaime even more uncomfortable. "You can be helpful by letting me concentrate ese."

As Jaime continued to observe the area, the Scarab continued to mentally talk.

"So this is the ritual humans call a wedding? How come no one has been eliminated yet? That's what happens in these pre-mating ceremonies, right?"

Jaime sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have let Bart talk me into watching Game of Thrones."

It was then he spotted three people, two men and a woman, go behind some bushes. They weren't dressed for the wedding and looked around as if checking for tails.

Suspicion aroused, Jaime followed the trio discretely. Hiding behind a thick oak tree, the Blue Beetle listened in.

"Why are we just standing around?" a male voice complained.

"The boss told us to, end of story," the woman answered. "He said he had things covered but that we're to serve as backup in case any heroes show up."

"Who even is this Red Hood guy?" the other man asked. "And why does he care about some royal wedding?"

The woman chuckled. "Something tells me you'll see soon enough."

Jaime thought to himself. He was told to expect Bialyan soldiers or any of the Light's agents that somehow caught wind of their plan. These guys seem like a third party, but what did they intend on doing?

Jaime let his Blue Beetle armor envelop him and walked out from the tree to face the trio. Only one way to find out.

"Ok compadres," Blue Beetle said as he got into a fighting stance. "How about you make it easy for me and tell me where I can find this boss of yours."

The trio turned to face the hero. Each of them were clad in black and wore carved wooden masks to hide their appearances. The woman, whom Jaime assumed was the leader, wore a fox mask, the bulkier guy on the left had a shark mask and the smaller, gangly guy on the right had a mask modeled after a vulture. Or buzzard. Same thing right?

"Yeah, how about no," the fox woman offered.

Without any warning, the woman extended her arm and launched a wave of earth at Blue Beetle, who barely dodged it as he flew up into the air.

"Metas huh?" Jaime mused.

His cannon materialized around his arm. "And I thought I would miss out on the fun."

"You can still set the cannon to the highest setting for an instant termi-"

Blue Beetle glared and the Scarab sensed his irritation.

"…Stun setting engaged."

Jaime sighed and fired repeated blasts at the fox woman, who sent up numerous boulders in turn. The Beetle flied around dodging them with continued firing.

Suddenly, Jaime felt the wind pick up. He started to lose control of his flight pattern. He looked down to see that the man with the vulture mask was manipulating the wind to bring him back down.

With a crash into the dirt, the man succeeded.

Blue Beetle propped himself up, but something flashed at the corner of his eye. He rolled off to the side to dodge of what looked like a spear of water.

Jaime quickly jumped to his feet and once again faced the elemental trio. Each of them prepared their respective element while Blue Beetle charged up his cannons.

"What, no fire?" he called out. "Let me fix that!"

Superboy heard the commotion start as soon as Blue opened his mouth.

However, he kept his eyes on the altar, where the king and Queen Bee were exchanging vows. She looked stunning, in an extravagant gown with gold and black trimmings, her black hair tied up in a gold tiara to help expose the dark, smooth skin of her back; perfect to keep the attention of the crowd with a little help of pheromone manipulation.

Fortunately M'gann provided a mental shield to protect the pheromones of both the three males of the squad and of Brion, who was currently standing with the other groomsmen. He shared many traits with his father; chestnut brown hair, a chiseled chin, blue eyes. Brion however, had the obvious advantage of youthful fitness and looked determined as opposed to his father's current plumpness and state of euphoric trance. The prince had an inhibitor collar in a hand behind his back, planning to attach it around Queen Bee's neck once given the signal.

M'gann was lurking in the shadows through a cracked open door off to the side, still disguised as Psimon.

Beast Boy was with the rest of the peacocks, looking ready for action.

The plan was proceeding well. At least, until Conner heard the fight break out.

"Blue, what's going on?" Conner communicated telepathically.

"Three metas showed up," Blue Beetle grunted. Conner heard a crash that shook enough around the building for the guests to momentarily look towards the doors in concern. Queen Bee flashed a dark look as the priest droned on, as if she suspected something. However, her influence over the audience was strong enough to draw their attention back, so she in turn turned back to the priest, dark look still with her.

"I think someone else is here," Blue Beetle communicated. "I think Queen Bee might be in danger. The lethal kind."

Conner glared. "We need her alive. We can't have an assassination happen now. Is it just those three?"

"They mentioned something about a boss having things covered. Red Hood, they called him."

Conner stood up and discreetly made his way to the oak doors. "I'll use my thermal vision to scan the buildings across the street-"

But Conner never got the chance. A new sound caught his attention from far in front of him. The sound of a trigger being pulled.

Bam!

Crash!

The shattering of stained glass and the sound of a bullet piercing skin filled the air. Conner whipped his head around to see Queen Bee crumple to the ground, blood gushing from the back of her head. The crowd, now released from the trance, started the inevitable mass panic. People screamed and ran around to get away from the danger, while Conner searched around for his comrades. Brion was watching in shock as his father cradled Queen Bee's corpse, Beast Boy transformed back to his normal form jaw dropped and silent, and right then Conner heard M'gann's voice in his mind.

"Superboy, what happened?"

Conner rushed out the doors and immediately started scanning the buildings before him.

"Someone killed Queen Bee," Conner thought.

"I can see that! Is the assassin still out there?"

"Trying to find that out…"

Conner stopped at a derelict apartment building, where he could see a man running down the stairs from a floor just above the stained glass window across from it.

"Perpetrator spotted, I'm in pursuit!" Conner thought as he ran off to the building.

Superboy ran along the sidewalk as he kept his thermal vision on the sniper. He stopped at an alleyway where the killer jumped from a window, bounced off the fire escape, and landed directly in front of the Kryptonian clone.

"Red Hood, I take it?" Conner said.

He couldn't tell the man's expression beneath the scarlet helmet, but he had to guess a deadpan look judging from the response.

"What gave it away?"

Superboy swung a fist, but Red Hood only barely dodged it. The latter then flipped back, shooting at the clone repeatedly with two pistols. The bullets merely bounced off Superboy's chest.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" Conner smirked.

"No," Red Hood admitted as he dropped empty magazines and placed in new ones. "That is though."

Superboy whipped around to see a chunk of concrete heading his way. He jumped out of the way, but more and more slabs were being thrown at him by a woman with a fox mask. Conner eventually ran out of luck and was hit, thrown back into the brick wall at the end of the alley.

Unfazed yet irritated, he looked past Red Hood to see the fox masked woman now fighting M'gann, Blue Beetle firing sonic waves at a man with a Vulture mask and Beast Boy transforming into a giant squid to combat a man with a shark mask (who was currently shooting a stream of water at the former).

"Wrap it up boys and girl, we're done here!" Red Hood called out to his comrades.

The masked trio ceased their attacks and quickly made their way to their boss. Red Hood reached into a jacket pocket and pulled out a device that Conner recognized as a Father Box. He pressed a few buttons on it and a boom tube opened up behind him. Gar transformed into a cheetah and tried to catch the four, but they were gone through the portal, with it closing right as Beast Boy reached it. He flew through where the boom tube once was and slammed into Conner.

Both heroes groaned.

"You ok?" Conner asked.

Beast Boy transformed back into his human/monkey form. He had a dark look upon him.

"Not really," he muttered.

Conner mentally kicked himself. Gar was denied the closure he needed. The woman who killed his mother was killed herself before she could face trial. Of course he wasn't ok.

Gar got off of Conner, who proceeded to stand up. Blue Beetle and M'gann walked down the alleyway and joined the other two.

"That went well," Jaime said. "Now what?"

"That Red Hood didn't have a sniper rifle on him," M'gann noted. "Maybe he left it behind."

"The fourth story apartment in front of the church," Conner said. "Let's search it and find the rifle or anything else he might have left behind.

Beast Boy and Blue nodded, then went off to the apartment. M'gann stayed behind and accompanied Conner.

"Could you read his mind?" Conner asked.

"No, something was blocking it," M'gann confirmed. "I bet he has some anti-telepathy hardware in that helmet or something."

"No surprise there," Conner sighed. "What I'd like to know is where he got the Father Box."

"You think he's a spy for The Light?" M'gann asked. "That they thought Queen Bee was a loose end?"

"If they did, they would have killed her years ago."

As they walked around the corner, Conner cleared his throat.

"So it's been four years now, right? Since we lost Jason, that is."

M'gann averted her eyes.

"I know that's when this whole thing started," Conner continued. "You using your powers to… you know."

He scratched the back of his head. "I know you might still think that people like The Joker deserve a fate like that and, yeah, he deserves a special place in hell for everything he did. But people like him are still, well, people. And…"

He sighed. "All I'm saying is, if you need to talk… I'm here."

M'gann just silently went ahead of him and entered the building. Superboy followed until they both reached a busted down doorway on the fourth floor and entered.

The single room apartment was abandoned for quite some time. The pine green wallpaper was faded and peeling, the floorboards creaked with each step, pizza boxes and other snack wrappers littered the place…

Perfect place to snipe someone.

Blue Beetle was inspecting the sniper rifle left perched on the window sill while Beast Boy was inspecting the rest of the vicinity.

"A Walther WA 2000," Blue Beetle said as he studied the gun. "51 mm rounds, modified to shoot the bullet faster than The Flash. No fingerprints, no DNA sample, no explosives rigged. Safe to bag as a souvenir Gar."

Blue looked around. "Gar?"

"Look at this," Gar called.

He was in front of a laptop in a corner of the room. The rest of the squad crowded behind to look over his shoulder. The screen showed a YouTube profile on the Recent Uploads page. Gar clicked on the video displayed, and it began showing Red Hood in this very room, preparing the rifle.

"Citizens of the world," the video Red Hood began. "For years, we've put up with the increase in crime and depravity. We've allowed these super criminals to surface alongside the quote-unquote heroes, and redefine the suffering the everyday scum inflicts on an innocent person."

He placed the gun on the window sill before turning his attention back to the camera.

"And what is your Justice League doing about it? Putting them in cardboard cutouts of prisons like Arkham and Belle Reeve so they can escape and give your so called heroes something to do. Why should we, the people, put up with the whims of these self-appointed protectors? Why should we have to put up with madmen in war machines vaporizing our cities, serial killers hunting your children, human traffickers selling your wives and daughters and lovers into sexual slavery?"

Red Hood raised his fist. "No more! Starting today, we will take back what is ours from every last criminal on this planet. We show that we will not let supervillains, or rapists, or any other filth ruin our lives by taking theirs! Starting today, justice, real justice, will be definitive and final! Starting today, tyrants will fall and the fat bureaucrats ruining democracy will be cut down to size!"

Red Hood lowered his fist.

"And to Vandal Savage and his secret society," he growled. "By the time next year rolls around, every last one of you will become a banquet for maggots. And that is a promise."

Red Hood put a hand behind the camera.

"I am the Red Hood," he said. "And I will be the one to deliver this world from evil."

He shut the camera off and the video ended right there. All of the young heroes in the room looked on with shock.

That wasn't a simple terrorist threat. That was a declaration of war.

A/N: Annnnnddd…. Done! Whew, hopefully that would have been as long as a full episode. And so Season 3 begins, with one main plotline on the roll. For those who might worry that this incarnation of Red Hood is a crazy zealot, don't worry. I intend to make his character as gray as possible. Also, since this show is known for having Loads and Loads of Characters, don't be surprised if some get more prominence than the others. But don't worry, I'll try to give many as much limelight as possible. Plus, I plan on introducing some characters from the comics and even reference events from there too. See if you can spot them ;)

Review and let me know what you think!