"OH, AND RIDDLER'S FAVORITE BREAD is sourdough."

I pressed the enter button on the tablet, which led me to a picture of the next criminal on the list, Lex Luthor.

"Just answer the question asked."

I looked up and narrowed my eyes at the man sitting at the big computer.

"Riddle me this, Batman," I mocked in a toothy voice, similar to that of Edward Nigma. "What's my favorite type of bread? Sourdough, white, or whole grain? Oh, what's that? You don't know? Shame. Guess I'm just gonna have to blow up this bank full of people now, sorry!"

I didn't receive a response, only the clacking of the keyboard.

I rolled my eyes, beginning the form for Lex. Currently, I sat in the Batcave, filling out all of the information I had on all of the most wanted criminals— punishment for my "girls night out" gone wrong.

Now you may be thinking: wow! This is such an easy punishment, considering you took your underaged teammates clubbing, almost got them killed, and nearly exposed the secret identity of your boss.

Now, let me inform you that... you'd be right. It is an easy punishment. Because at about five this morning he tried to get Blondie, M'gann, and I up for "mandatory training."

Which worked pretty well for the two of them, but I, on the other hand, kindly informed Bats (and by kindly informed, I mean I screamed bloody murder down the hall) that if he wanted me up, he was going to have to come into my room and drag me out by my cold, dead body.

I also think I may have told him to go fuck himself, but it was early in the morning, so don't quote me on that.

Now I sat here in the Batcave, under his watchful eye, giving him the dish on the Gotham underground. I get to sleep in, and he gets his neverending crave for knowledge fulfilled. Seems like a win-win to me.

After another few moments of silence and absolute boredom on my part, I spoke.

"Can I ask you a question?"

The clacking of keys paused.

"The next criminal here is Lex, which reminds me, what's Smallville's deal with Conner?"

Silence once again. I rolled my eyes— this was probably too much personal information for him to give out. I let out a sigh, before looking down at my tablet once more.

"Superman... is not a fan of being a father figure to Superboy."

"Well, that much is obvious," I said. "Every time they're in the same room Clark looks like he'd rather get hit by Kryptonite than have a conversation with him. But I just don't understand why? I mean, I get it's a little strange that Superboy is just some of his stolen DNA thrown into a test tube, but Kansas seems like the fatherly type— I figured he'd enjoy having a kid."

"Superman's personal life isn't your concern."

I dropped my tablet and swiveled in my chair to face him. "Oh, please. I saw your face when I told Smallville that Conner took his last name— you were totally enjoying his discomfort."

"My opinion on Superman's personal life isn't your concern either."

"C'mon, Rich Kid. Look at all the gossip I'm giving you right now!" I complained as I held up the tablet in my hand. "You've gotta tell me something."

The beep of an incoming video call suddenly filled the cave. I glanced up at the big computer to find the call from Squidkid.

I huffed, swiveling my chair back around. "This conversation isn't over."

Bruce accepted the call, and the face of Squidkid appeared on the screen.

"Aqualad," he greeted.

"Batman," Kaldur stood alone in the main room of the base with a somber look on his face. "I... have some news I believe it's time I shared with you."

I watched Bruce sit up straighter, his head momentarily turning to me. I was out of range from the computer camera so Squidkid had no idea I was there, and if this call was as serious as it seemed, I assumed Bruce was going to try and kick me out.

"Aqualad—"

"Batman, please," Kaldur interrupted. "It is my fault, and I take full responsibility as leader of this team for not telling you sooner."

A slight pause.

"I believe there may be a mole on the team."

My eyes widened and I dropped the tablet in my hand. Now, this was much more interesting than filling out dumb forms. I stood up and walked over next to Bruce so Kaldur could see me on the screen.

"Mole?" I repeated, giving him a curious look. "Like, the small animal? Or a snitch?"

Shock passed over Kaldur's face. "Blackout... I... was not aware you were there."

I put a hand on my hip. "Well now you are, so you'd better start talking, Squidkid."

He sighed. "It was during the Taipei mission with Red Arrow, Sportsmaster revealed the possibility of a mole. I was hesitant of telling anyone— even you, Batman— for a rumor could cause unwanted tension amongst the team. I did not want to raise any concern without further evidence, but I figured it would be best to, at the very least, keep you informed."

"You made a smart choice, Kaldur," Bruce said, before pulling up another screen that I assume showed on Squidkid's end as well. "I've already had suspicion of a mole on the team for a while."

A video began playing of security footage from what I'm guessing was the Taipei mission. Roy and Kaldur were in a fight with Sportsmaster and, the most irritating criminal ever in my opinion, Cheshire. (She constantly tries to play me at my own game— like, listen, sweetie, there's only room for one hot, sarcastic, tightly-costumed teenaged assassin here, and it's not you).

"Not bad, Lad," Sportsmaster said casually. "Better than your team did at Santa Prisca or Bialya."

Kaldur remained emotionless, but his voice gave away his concern. "How did you...?"

"Let's just say I have an inside source. Very inside," Sportsmaster replied before the fighting continued.

The video stopped.

"I assume you've come to deductions of your own on who the mole could potentially be," Bruce said. "But as of right now, I believe the most logical suspects would be Superboy, Artemis, and Blackout."

I froze.

Oh, I know he did not just say me. After I've saved his ass on numerous occasions? Is he forgetting about the time when I fell out of a three-story window for him?

"Uh, hello?" I narrowed my eyes. "Sorry to burst your bubbles, boys, but if I was the mole we wouldn't even be having this conversation, because none of you would ever know. My bets are on Artemis— Conner is too stupid to be able to pull it off, and she seems like the type to make a rookie mistake like that. Also, that's straight-up her family in the video!"

"Artemis' family ties do raise some suspicion," Kaldur explained. "But that does not automatically make her the mole. Just like your affiliation with the criminal world does not make you one either, Blackout."

"If anything, my affiliation with the criminal world should prove me innocent— all those years with Gotham's worst, and you think I'm gonna get caught as a mole? Or even worse, tell Sportsmaster, of all people? Please, Squidkid, it honestly hurts that you don't think I have more class than that."

"I am not accusing you— or anyone— as guilty. It is simply a precaution," Kaldur said.

I scoffed. "Yeah, and I'm sure the team is gonna be super happy about you keeping this 'precaution' from them."

Bruce turned to me with a scowl. "You will not mention this to anyone outside of Aqualad and I. That is an order."

"Oh, don't worry," I laughed. "I'm not gonna say a thing. Instead, I'm going to wait patiently until they find out— because trust me, they will— and then I'm gonna let them convince everyone to outcast him as leader of the team. Maybe then something might actually get done around here."

I spun around on my foot, sauntering out of the cave.

"I'm going to get some food," I called. "Don't wait up."

* * *

I walked into the massive, gleaming kitchen of Wayne Manor. The room was pretty much spotless besides a few bowls in the large sink and some candles on the counter. The usual September rain in Gotham pounded against the windows, but the small flames gave the room a warm glow.

I'm sure Bats won't have a problem with me taking a few things, right? It's not like he can't just buy them back, anyway.

I pulled off my mask and opened the fridge before sifting through the contents: leftovers, vegetables, even a small container of M'gann's cookies. I really can't escape those, can I?

My ears suddenly picked up on the creaking of floorboards from the front room. After that, it went silent. Too quiet to be Alfred, and too light to be Bruce— which only left Dick.

"Can I help you, Wonder Boy?" I finally said.

A chuckle from behind me. "I heard your night out was a disaster. Super heavy on the 'dis.'"

I rolled my eyes and turned around, closing the fridge since I didn't find anything I liked. Dick looked like he had just woken up, with tousled hair, red plaid pajama pants, and a black shirt.

"It went a little not according to plan," I answered as I moved on to the many cupboards of pantry food.

"A little?" He laughed. "Eleven unconscious men and thousands of dollars worth of collateral damage— I read the police report."

I pulled out a box of chocolate chip cookies and shrugged. Good enough.

"I don't need your bullshit, Grayson."

He laughed again, seeming to enjoy my misfortune. "I mean, really? What are the odds that you end up Downtown in the same place at the same time as Batman?"

I popped a cookie into my mouth. "Slim to none, considering we weren't in Downtown."

The mischievous look fell off of his face, confusion quickly replacing it. "That's not even possible, of course you were in Downtown."

"Uh, no, we weren't," I mumbled as I swallowed my cookie. "Parked the Bioship over the Diamond District and walked Burnley, then took a right on Tenth Street to The Bank. I thought you said you read the report?"

"I did, but I didn't bother looking at the location because I knew it was Downtown."

"What made you think that?"

"Bruce and Oliver have a mutual friend— another Gotham socialite, Johnny Marlowe," he explained. "He's getting married soon so he invited them to his bachelor party at Chez Noir, the upper-end nightclub in Downtown."

"Maybe Bats just lied to you?" I threw another cookie in my mouth.

He shook his head. "Doubtful. I saw the invitation with my own eyes. Plus, Oliver's been dying for just about ever to go clubbing with Bruce— he begged him for weeks to go, and even then, Bruce only said yes to get him to shut up."

"Well, then how the hell did they just randomly show up at the same place I was when they were supposed to be across town?"

"I..." he trailed off in thought for a moment. "I don't know. But we can find out."

He pulled out a cell phone from his pant pocket and started dialing a number.

I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion. "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I don't like not knowing anything," he muttered as his phone starting dialing someone, and he put it on speaker.

A male voice came over the device. "Hello?"

"Mr. Marlowe!" Dick greeted happily. "It's Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's son?"

"Dick! Of course, I know who you are. How can I help you?"

"Well, first, I never got to congratulate you on the engagement. Second, I had a question I was hoping you could help me with."

"Thank you," the man laughed. "Stacy and I are really excited. What's up?"

"I was wondering what happened with your bachelor party? I thought it was supposed to be at Chez Noir?"

A long sigh came over the phone. "I guess you saw it on the news, huh? It was a bummer it got cut short— scary situation with guys firing guns and all, but I'm just happy everyone's safe. Guess it makes for a pretty funny story though, right?"

"Yeah, I was worried about everyone when I heard," Dick lied smoothly. "But why did it get moved to The Bank?"

"Oh, Bruce told me to move it there."

My eyes widened, Dick's expression mirroring mine as we looked at each other.

"I'm surprised he didn't tell you," the man said.

Dick gave me a look that said, well that makes two of us. "Uh, did he say why you should move it?"

"He called me a few hours before it started and told me the ambiance at The Bank was going to be better. Said he'd pay the late cancelation fee at Chez Noir too, so how could I say no? I didn't invite a lot of other people, and no one else cared where it was as long as there were drinks."

"Obviously I don't blame Bruce for what happened," he added quickly, not wanting to offend Dick. "He was just trying to do something nice, and it's not like he knew there was going to be a fight."

"And after that, nothing else weird happened?"

"Not really... why are you asking me all this?"

"Oh, you know the news doesn't give away a lot," Dick lied easily again. "Bruce has been really busy with work so I couldn't bother him to ask questions, and I just wanted to find out what happened. Thanks for the information though, Mr. Marlowe. Tell Stacy I say hi, too."

"Yeah, of course, anytime Dick. Have a good one."

He pressed the end call button and looked up at me with a blank face.

I rose an eyebrow. "Are you also starting to get the feeling that something isn't adding up here?"

"Definitely," he confirmed. "But why would Bruce decide to move the bachelor party there? Because he knew you were going? Or because he knew the thugs were showing up?"

"Actually, come to think of it, I don't know how those guys knew I was there," I said. "It's not like I was in uniform and the only people who knew I was going were Meg, Blondie, Kid, and... you."

A pause.

"Did you rat me out?" I accused, holding the cookie box out threateningly.

He put his hands up in defense. "No! Honest, I didn't. Wally and I played video games at the Base the rest of the night, you can check the security footage. Plus, you owe me for not telling, remember?"

He gave me a smirk as the memory of the unspoken deal we made played in my head.

I glared at him, slapping his arm with the box. "We'll figure that out later. Anyway, I guess the bouncer, Freddie, knew I was there too since he let me in. And I would make him a suspect, but he was friends with me and Cat for a long time— we used to steal treats and drop them off for his kids. So I doubt it was him."

Dick looked down at his phone and laid it flat on the island counter. A hologram popped up, illuminating the room in dim blue light.

"I'm looking for any footage of Bruce making a call before the party," he mumbled as he skimmed through security tapes. "Wait, he wasn't even home before the party. He was... at the Base?"

"He was what?" I repeated. "So... he made a call from the Base to change the entire bachelor party... to be able to bust me for going underaged clubbing? That seems a little extreme, even for him."

"Well, let's check the footage," he said, pressing things on the hologram screen. An error message suddenly popped up.

"Ugh," he hit the countertop with his hand. "Base connection is down."

"Why?"

"I don't know, maybe a routine system restart? But Tornado only runs those once a month, and it's not scheduled for today."

He pressed another button and a phone icon appeared.

"Robin to Miss Martian, come in."

Silence.

"M'gann," he said sharper. "Come in."

"Try Conner," I suggested.

"I'm trying everyone, nothing's working," he said as he shut off the hologram in frustration. He looked up at me again.

"We need to get to Happy Harbor now. Something isn't right."

* * *

"We had a zeta tube to the Base from Gotham and I didn't know about it?"

Dick shrugged as we approached the alleyway where the supposed zeta tube was. Right as we rounded the corner, the outline of a ponytail caught my eye in the dim light.

"Is that Artemis?" I whispered. "What's she doing in Gotham?"

"She had her first day of school today," Dick answered.

"What?"

I didn't receive a response as we crept up on the archer, who seemingly didn't notice we were there.

"Artemis?" Dick announced, startling her.

She jumped, turning around to face us. Her eyes widened. "Robin! Blackout! I, uh..."

"How random that you're in Gotham City!Instead of Star City where your Uncle, Green Arrow, lives?" Dick taunted.

"I'm... uh, here to see my cousin. She was in the state spelling bee. Here. In Gotham... City."

Lie.

"C-O-O-L," Dick spelled out with a grin on his face. "Did she W-I-N?"

She looked at him with irritation, her hand on her hip. "N-O."

He snickered. "D-R-A-G."

"Yeah," she huffed. "Whatever. Let's just go to the Cave."

Dick bent down at his waist, gesturing his arm to the call box. "Ladies first."

She glared at him. "Your town. You go."

Dick spared me a glance before shrugging and stepping into the beaten up box. A bright light suddenly blinded us momentarily.

"Recognize, Robin B-01," the computerized voice rang out.

"Well?" I said, nodding my head towards the doors. "Age before beauty."

She scoffed, throwing the doors open and going inside. Another bright light.

"Recognize, Artemis B-07."

I was a little cautious to step into the box, but I did it anyway. It was small and in bad condition, with most of the glass panels shattered and the little wooden bench broken.

The bright light appeared again.

"Recognize, Blackout B-08."

Aw, how sweet. Bats actually created a little code for me and everything? I feel kind of honored.

My vision started to switch from blinding light to a haze of red smoke. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Was this supposed to happen?

I looked up to the ceiling and saw the cave walls, which indicated I was in fact in the Base. It was extremely hot, which made my skin break out in a sweat under the fabric of my suit. I coughed, desperately trying to expel the smoke from my lungs.

"Blackout!"

I didn't have time to process the voice before I was roughly tackled to the ground by a figure. A streak of heat flashed above us, hotter than the already boiling room. My shoulder slammed into the floor and I groaned, rolling over to find Dick.

"This is a routine system restart?" I coughed.

He grabbed me by my arm and tugged me behind him before firing two Birdarangs into the cloud of smoke. A ball of fire came out of it directly at us and we jumped out of the way. Artemis suddenly appeared next to us, firing arrows into the smoke.

"Who are we fighting?!" Artemis yelled as she appeared next to me.

The entire room was dark, our bodies illuminated in a violent red glow from the supposed flames that I couldn't see.

"Don't know!" Dick replied. "But we're sitting ducks by these tubes— head for the exit!"

I nodded, making a break for the hallway to the left, both of them hot on my heels. To my right, I noticed another fireball heading directly for us, and couldn't help the shout that left my mouth as I ducked. The fireball soared over us, my back scorching from the flame getting so close.

Adrenaline soared through my veins as I turned to say something to them, when suddenly the sound of rushing water filled my ears. I spun back around to find a flood of water coming towards us, and my eyes widened.

"Or... not," Dick commented.

I barely took two steps before a wall of water crushed into my back. We all yelled as we were taken away by the strong current and then roughly slammed into a wall. I coughed again, this time sputtering water from my mouth.

Everyone was back on their feet in the main room, and we started to run down the hall again. This time, my gun was in my hand and I fired behind me as we sprinted into the base. My boots sloshed through the excess water on the floor as I noticed another sting of heat on my back. I glanced back briefly to find a giant tornado of fire following us.

"You know, I'm starting to get really tired of this place!" I shouted at them as we ran into the weight room and the door slammed behind us. We were roughly thrown to the floor from the blast of fire, but were up and running as fast as we went down.

"Robin to Team," Dick yelled, his hand on his comm. "Come in!"

Nothing.

"Aqualad!" he said again as we ran into the showers and began turning them on in an attempt to stop the blazing inferno behind us.

"Robin to Batcave. Override R-G-4," Dick shouted. "Cave calling Justice League: H-O-J-slash-Watchtower; B-0-1. Priority: Ray."

The water seemed to keep the tornado at bay, but there was no answer on the comms.

"Comm is down," he said frustratedly. "Locked. At least the water is helping."

The walls around us suddenly started to groan and creak. Tiles popped off onto the floor as the shower heads burst open, quickly beginning to fill the room with water.

Dick had panic all over his face. "Or... not."

We started to float up towards the ceiling and I groaned. Room filling up with water, and a fire tornado waiting at the exit. Perfect.

Dick swam over and placed a few explosives on the far wall. He ushered us away as beeping filled my ears underwater. Suddenly the wall burst open and we rushed to the floor with the current. I sputtered, coughing water from my lungs for a second time.

I pushed my soaked hair away from my forehead as I looked at Dick, who was already sprinting down the hall. I ran after him, trying my best not to slip. We arrived in the kitchen.

"We need to get lost!" Dick ordered.

I took a second to catch my breath, glaring at him. "Who died and made you leader, Batman 2.0?"

He narrowed his eyes, sounding equally as tired. "Sorry to disappoint, but unless you see Batman around here, I'm all we've got."

"The air vents!" Artemis suddenly exclaimed.

We both looked towards her and followed her gaze to the vent over the stovetop.

"Good," Dick said. "Go!"

I followed Artemis as she ripped off the vent cover, and pushed herself up into the hole. I turned around to see if Dick was following me and saw him near a wall at a control panel.

"Hey Bird Brain," I called. "We've gotta go!"

"Downloading Cave blueprints," he explained. "Could come in..."

He was interrupted by loud, metallic footsteps coming down the hall.

Dick turned around abruptly, fear clearly displayed on his features. "Go, go!"

We jumped into the vents and followed Artemis. We were crawling through the tunnels, and my left hand stung on the metal surface. I flipped it over briefly to find a nasty burn on my palm. I grunted wiping it on my leg before continuing.

"Go left," Dick whispered from behind us, his voice echoing in the chamber.

We turned left and not a second too soon as a blast of fire came down the tunnel we were previously on. A flash of fear welled in my chest and I turned back to make sure Dick was okay.

"You good?" I asked through a shaky breath.

"Too close," he answered. "Take the first right, there should be a vent cover right in front of you."

Artemis popped the cover, and we all jumped onto a catwalk in what looked liked the boiler room. We followed Dick down to the floor, and he seemed to be in search of something.

"I know there should be another access tunnel around here somewhere..."

The sound of metallic footsteps filled the room once again.

I'd be lying if I didn't say my heart skipped a beat. I looked to the left and saw a vent behind some machinery. "There!"

We all rushed to it, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Dick place some explosives on the wall. The footsteps sounded almost right behind us as we jumped into the dark tunnel, and the sound of an explosion went off behind us.

Me and Artemis started crawling through the damp tunnel but Dick stopped us.

"Hold on," he said, prying a control panel off of the tunnel wall. He attached a cord from his watch to it. "Locking out Cave's motion and heat sensors to prevent the enemy from tracking us."

"And I ask again," Artemis said, voice panic-stricken and shaky. "Who is the enemy?"

Dick smirked. "Let's find out. Downloading Cave security footage."

All three of us looked at the small holoscreen from earlier in the Base that day. Just some video of Conner working on his bike, Wally flirting with M'gann, and Squidkid so obviously interrogating them about school to see if the stress could cause them to be a mole. Suddenly they looked up, and a massive wave of water crashed over the camera. All angles quickly shut off.

"Explosion took out the cameras," Dick mumbled. "That's it. All four are dead."

Artemis turned to him with wide eyes.

"The cameras!" Dick rephrased. "I-I meant the cameras! I'm sure the others are fine. Just give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar."

As he worked, Artemis fell against the wall of the tunnel, and I followed in suit.

"Yeah," she muttered. "They're fine. They're all fine. They've got superpowers, they can handle anything."

I turned to her with a confused face. "What the hell does having superpowers have anything to do with it?"

Before she could answer, Dick started crawling again and we followed him. He opened a panel, and we dropped down into a... library?

"This place really does have everything, huh?" I mused as we followed him throughout the room.

"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases," Dick explained, not taking his eyes off of the holoscreen on his watch.

Artemis rolled her eyes from next to me. "Seriously? Cliché much?"

I snickered and she flashed me a smirk.

Dick turned back and gave us a small smile. "You should see the Batcave."

The doors of the library suddenly burst open and we quickly took cover behind one of the many shelves. My finger hovered over the trigger of my gun as I held it close to my chest. I heard metallic footsteps creeping closer to us.

"Artemis. Blackout. Robin," a male robotic filled the room.

Maybe it was that Red Tornado guy here to help us? I've never met him before, but I'd seen pictures, and the voice definitely sounded artificial.

Artemis' face perked up, apparently confirming my suspicions. "It's Red Tornado!"

She darted out from behind the shelf, but Dick quickly ran after her.

"No!"

My eyes widened and I followed him. We all ran into a cluster as I turned my head to find a tall, red robot with weird yellow designs on his chest.

"Yes on the Red, no on the Tornado," Dick commented before he shoved us under a table. We quickly crawled out right before it was smashed by the robot.

Another red figure, this time a female with the same yellow designs on her chest, cut off our path. Fire started to well in her hands.

Okay, mega not good.

I grabbed both of them and tugged them behind another shelf just as a burst of flames shot out from her fingers.

"So we have Red Tornado, and Red Tornado with some ribs removed?" I commented as we climbed up to the top of the bookshelf, and began jumping on them in an attempt to get to the other side of the room.

Then the sprinklers went off, soaking my vision again. I wiped at my mask, barely able to make the jumps from shelf to shelf without slipping.

We dropped to the ground, finally at the last shelf. I heard the sound of things slamming into each other, and looked out to see the other shelves collapsing on each other like dominos.

"Uh, if you're gonna do something, now would be a good time," I warned.

Dick finally pulled down on a book and the shelf opened. Footsteps rang in my ears again and we jumped into the tunnel, right before the last shelf collapsed on us.

"I'm starting to get really tired of all of these tunnels," I said irritatedly.

"Did you know Tornado had... siblings?" Artemis yelled.

"No..." Dick trailed off as we came to a fork in the tunnel.

"So now what?" Artemis demanded. "Red Tornado is one of the powerhouses of the League. How are we supposed to take down two of him?"

"They do seem a little user unfriendly," Dick commented in a teasing voice.

"Don't joke!" Artemis snapped, punching him in the shoulder.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm starving."

She turned to me with wild eyes. "Can you not think about food right now? You're as bad a Wally!"

She was cut off by the sound of the male robot's voice over the Base speakers.

"Attention, Robin. Attention, Artemis. Attention, Blackout," he announced. "You have exactly ten minutes to surrender or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."

We turned to each other and I gave them a worried look. Dick seemed mildly concerned, and Artemis was on the verge of passing out.

"Okay, it's official," Dick said. "I'm so not feeling the aster."

* * *

Water filled my nose and I coughed as I desperately swam to the surface, gasping for air. I was freezing, tired, my hand burned, and swimming in heels? Definitely awful.

We broke free from underwater and pushed ourselves into, you guessed it, another air vent. This is quickly beginning to become my least favorite mode of travel.

Let me fill you in on the last four minutes. Another wave, more tunnels, avoiding the Red siblings, blah blah blah. We made it back to the main room and saw Wally and Conner being threatened to be drowned, and Kaldur and M'gann trapped in a cage of fire. More avoiding the Red siblings and here we are back in another vent.

"Six minutes," the robot announced over the speakers.

I laid back on the wall of the tunnel, utterly exhausted.

Artemis turned to Dick. "What do we do now?"

"We save them," he replied almost too calmly, and I knew even he— with all of his sidekick experience— was starting to freak out. "That's how it works."

"Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, but those robots already took out our four super-powered friends," Artemis snapped.

"Again, what's your deal with that?" I asked, pushing wet hair from my face. "I can beat all of you perfectly fine, and guess what? No powers."

"Easy for you to say," she sneered. "You're the girl who took on Batman and won."

There was silence for a moment as I rolled my eyes. Is that really my reputation around here?

"You seem distraught," Dick noted.

"Distraught?!" She repeated sharply. "M'gann is dying, we have no powers, and I'm down to my last arrow. Of course I'm distraught!"

Dick's face finally broke and he lost his cool. "Well get traught, or get dead!"

"How can you be so calm?" she asked as we began to follow him down the vent tunnel.

"Practice," he answered. "Been doing this since I was nine."

"What good is that now? What chance do we have against unrelenting machines?"

Dick stopped. "Oh, duh! They're machines! And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range."

"Great!" Artemis smiled sarcastically. "Except you better have an EMP emitter in your utility belt, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."

"I'm fresh out." Dick smiled. "But I'm betting we can make one. What do you say, KF? Doable?"

The cheery voice of Wally West came over the comm, I'm assuming by the Birdarang Dick managed to stick by his face when we were back in the main room.

"Totally doable!"

"Five minutes."

"Ya know," Kid sounded worried. "If you had more time. But for right now, get to the X-ray machine in the med lab."

Dick nodded, beginning to crawl again.

"I'm gonna go scope out below the main room," I said. "See if there's another option in case this backfires."

"Okay, that's good," Dick replied. "Artemis, you go with her. I can handle the emitter on my own."

Artemis nodded and followed me down the other end of the tunnel.

"So that's really my rep around here?" I asked. "I'm the girl who beat Batman?"

Artemis scoffed. "Don't let it get to your head. That's just at least what Green Arrow calls you."

I chuckled. "Queen's a funny guy, I'll give him that. Like's to stick it to Bats as much as I do."

"So you really know who he is?" she asked. "Batman, I mean."

I paused, noticing a substantial crack in the vent wall, which gave us a perfect view of the main room. I cringed at the water rising dangerously close to Wally and Conner's noses.

"Yeah, I do," I muttered, watching the scene in front of us.

Hopefully Dick and Wally knew what they were doing, or else this was going to end very very badly.

"Is he someone interesting?"

I turned to her briefly as the corner of my lip turned up. "I guess you could say that. You know him, too."

"I do?" She looked at me with wide eyes.

"Don't ever tell anyone I told you that. I don't think he'll be too— holy shit. Look!"

She followed my gaze to the opposite side of the cave near the generator, where Dick was creeping up, holding what looked like a metal canister. At the same time, Wally started yelling at the robots, in what I'm assuming was an attempt to distract them. As he continued, Dick came over our comms.

"The circuit's incomplete," he muttered. "I need something conductible. A piece of metal or—"

"Robin, look out!" Artemis suddenly screeched from beside me.

A wave crashed over the platform he was on, and I didn't have time to see anything else before I was instinctively pulling Artemis away. A blast of fire blasted the previous vent we sat in, and suddenly my hand felt another vent cover. I pushed it open and we both tumbled down onto the floor of a room.

"My arrow!" Artemis cried, and I pushed myself off of the ground to find her last arrow cracked in half, the lower part on fire.

I took in our surroundings and realized we were in some room with a bunch of empty shelves, save for a few weird objects.

"No, no, no, no," Artemis almost sobbed. "No, no, no."

She suddenly grabbed my shoulders. "If we surrender, we die with the others. But if we find a way out... out of the cave... out of the mountain... we can get help! We can call in the League!"

I gave her a crazy look before slapping her across the face.

"Get yourself together!" I snapped. "You look like a psychopath."

"Three minutes."

She held her head in her hands and groaned as I roughly pulled her off the floor.

"Listen, I don't like any of you, so I could care less what happens to you all. But, I happen to really like myself, and right now you're my last hope."

"How am I the last hope?" she asked brokenly.

I sighed, lowering my voice. "Robin said we need something conducive to complete the circuit. Your last arrow's trash. I have knives, but I don't have time to make it over to the generator, and I don't trust myself to be able to make that shot at this distance. So we need to find something metal that you can fire over there."

She let out a breath and nodded her head. "Right. Metal. Got it."

"Two minutes."

I looked around the room when one of the objects on the shelves caught my eye. I walked closer and nearly shouted in happiness.

An arrow.

"Look!" I turned around, holding it up, but Artemis didn't replicate my excitement.

Her face looked pale and ghostly. She gave me a look of uncertainty.

"Blackout... I... I can't do this. I'm sorry."

I paused, letting silence fill the room. Frustration filled my body as I watched her slouch over and cross her arms.

"You're not useless, Artemis."

She looked up at me.

"I'm not saying you're as great as me or anything, but you seem pretty good at what you do. And maybe that's because I don't know a ton about archery, but even still, not having powers doesn't make you powerless."

I walked over and placed the arrow in her hands. "Do we have to work a little harder than the rest of the team? Yes. Do we have to be more cautious because there's more at stake when we get hurt? Yes. But that makes it a hell of a lot more impressive when we pull off the impossible."

"I'm going to cause a distraction, the rest is up to you. So wipe your tears and get your game face on, Blondie." I spun around on my heel. "Don't blow this."

As I walked down the hall to my probable inevitable doom, I felt a little nervous.

"One minute."

I paused at the door.

No, shut up, Brielle. You're not nervous. You're the girl who beat Batman. You're Blackout.

You've got this.

I took a breath before I burst onto the platform with M'gann and Kaldur on it. The two red robots turned to me. The entire room was dark and filled with smoke.

"Alright, listen up, Dumb and Dumber," I called. "I've beaten Batman before. There's no way in hell I'm losing to some overgrown toasters with red paint. So you want a fight?"

I had one hand on a grenade and the other on my grappling gun, forming a plan in my head.

"Let's fight."

The grenade left my hand as it blew up in the male robot's face, forcing him to take a step back. I jumped away from a blast of fire and rolled behind the male, tying the base of my grappling gun to his legs, and then firing it at the female. His feet were pulled out from under him as I evaded another blast of fire.

I didn't have time to do much else before a flash of blonde hair jumped on top of the female. I couldn't help but grin as Artemis used the robot as a jumping board, did a flip off of it, and fired her arrow.

I was suddenly grabbed by the male robot and pulled up to his face. His eyes were hollow and dead, his mouth in a permanent straight line.

"Get the hell away from me, Easy Bake Oven," I spat, kicking my leg over his head which made him drop me to the floor.

He suddenly rose his fist and my heart stopped for a minute. I was beyond tired, winded, and ready to give up. There was no way I could—

Then everything went silent, and I looked around to find everything completely still.

The robot in front of me fell to the floor.

I stood up, ignoring the pain in my body, and turned to find Kaldur and M'gann without a cage of fire around them, and no more water in the cave, meaning Wally and Conner were safe. I looked to Artemis, who stared back at me like she couldn't believe what had just happened.

I grinned, laughing in relief. The EMP worked. She made the shot.

"Not bad, Blondie. Not bad at all."

She laughed, before looking past me. "Kaldur, is M'gann okay?"

"She breathes." The Atlantean looked up with a smile. "How is Robin?"

I looked to the side to see Dick laying unconsciously on the floor. I ran over and knelt at his side.

"Dick?" I whispered softly, pushing his torso.

His eyes suddenly popped open, and water sputtered from his mouth.

"He's breathing too!" I announced.

After a few moments, he locked eyes with me and gave me a weak smile. He let out a small chuckle.

"Way to get traught."

* * *

I sat on the floor next to Dick, who was absentmindedly playing with his watch. We were currently been sitting around and waiting for the EMP pulse to wear off so we could free Wally and Conner from their weird water bond things.

Artemis was busy bantering with Wally, as per usual.

"Will you quit playing with that thing and cut us free already?" Wally said sarcastically.

She put a hand on her hip. "It's not working genius. EMP shuts down all machines, remember?"

"All machines present at the time," a new voice noted.

We turned to suddenly find another robot, but neither of the two we had just fought. Red Tornado, I assumed.

"What has occurred?" he asked, his cape flying behind him as he approached us.

"We had a little visit from your family," Dick complained, standing up and crossing his arms.

"Yeah," Artemis added. "Your extremely nasty family."

The robot was silent for a moment. "I was not aware I had relations."

I scoffed. "Yeah, that's what they all say. Stay away from that thing, people. He'll probably turn on us, too."

"Where have you been?" Conner demanded from his trapped state.

"Monitor duty on the Watchtower," Tornado explained as he flew over to the other robots. "When it became clear that Cave communications were down I attempted to investigate, but your Zeta Tubes were also nonfunctional. I transported to Providence and proceeded here."

Then that big, weird sphere thing whirred past me and towards Conner.

"Hey, boy," he greeted, patting it.

The laser machine in Artemis' hands finally whirred to life.

"About time!" Artemis said as she began cutting Wally out of the trap.

Wait... if all of those machines are now functional... doesn't that also mean...?

"The pulse has worn off!" Dick and Wally said in unison, coming to the same realization as me.

I glance over towards Red Tornado, who was bent down, inspecting the deactivated robots. Suddenly his eyes went red.

"What the f—"

I didn't have time to finish before he stood up and rose his hands, and all of the air suddenly began rushing out of the room. Artemis dropped the laser, clutching her throat. It wasn't long before I couldn't breathe either. 

I fell to my knees, desperately trying to conserve my oxygen but to no avail. Dick hit the ground next to me.

"I told you he..." I choked out.

"...would turn against us..."

Then my world tilted sideways, and everything went black.

* * *

Hi everyone! Yikes, that was a looong chapter. (That's what you all get for telling me you like long chapters haha). Question for everyone: do you read/write Wattpad on your phone or your computer? I'm just curious to see what everyone else does, because I read and write on my phone, but I only write on my computer. I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and thanks for 150k!

xo Alexa