Not As It Seems

struggle

Jason was bandaging his latest self-inflicted punishment when the door to his room opened and in walked Deathstroke. Jason immediately stopped what he was doing and bowed. Deathstroke chuckled.

"Relax, Red. I am not here to punish you further." Jason dared to look up, one eye of his mask shattered. He noticed the new mask in Deathstroke's hand. Deathstroke smirked under his mask. "I brought you this, since you destroyed your current one."

"Thank you, master." Jason took the mask from Deathstroke's outstretched hand. He took off his current mask and slid on the new one.

"Also, I have decided to give you another chance." Jason raised a brow but didn't say a word. "We now know that Batman has a cure for Control, so we are no longer trying to bring Nightwing onto our side. Now, I want you to kill him, him and his entire team of pesky brats."

Jason grinned, nodding at Deathstroke's words. "With pleasure."

- - -

Dick arrived back at Mount Justice, dragging himself to the medbay with a mind in turmoil. He arrived to see his team sitting around talking with Bart. They paused when they saw Dick standing in the doorway. Tim helped Dick back to his cot, where Dick let out a long drawn out sigh.

"Where did you go?" Artemis asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Dick looked up at M'gann. "I need you to establish a mind link."

Mind link up. What's going on?

I need you to show the team the last two hours of my memories.

Why?

Just do it.

Are you sure?

Positive. There is something I need you guys to see and you won't believe me if you don't see it for yourself.

Right before M'gann could comb through Dick's memory, the zeta tube went off with an announcement.

Recognize: Guest

The team was instantly on alert. Usually that announcement came with a Leaguer too. They all got up and made their way to the mission room, even Bart and Dick.

They stopped in their tracks when they noticed Red standing by the wall, leaning against it with his arms casually crossed. He lifted his head when he heard the team, sending them a little wave. "Hey, losers. Ready for a rematch?"

"You won't be able to take us all at once again." Tim snarled.

Bart, go alert the Justice League.

Bart stumbled off to the side, pulling up his communicator as Red pulled out a suspiciously familiar holo-glove. He pressed some buttons before a loud groan was heard and metal grates fell down to block the exits. He slid his sword out, letting out a mechanical chuckle. "Who's ready to tussle?"

Wally dove at Red, surprised when the assassin didn't move. Wally's eyes widened when he remembered what happened last time, but he was too late. A shock went through his body and he was down.

Cassie was next, charging at him with her fist pulled back to punch. Red grabbed her arm and flung her onto the ground, punching her in the throat before hitting her with another nerve strike. Red picked her up and tossed her at the oncoming Tim. Tim grabbed Cassie and they both fell to the ground in a heap.

Artemis fired an arrow at the assassin, one he caught with one hand. "Gotta be quicker than that, Artemis."

Artemis growled, leaping at Red. He dodged her kick, backing up into Conner who grabbed his arms. Red chuckled, kicking Conner in the shin. Conner grunted but didn't let go, until he felt a wooziness flood his body.

"Don't...don't tell me you had a shard of kryptonite in your heel?"

Red shrugged, stepping away from Conner. "Guilty."

Jaime fired a blast at Red, one that barely missed taking his head off. "That was a warning shot. Stand down before we make you."

Red nodded, raising his hands in surrender. "You got me."

Jaime went closer to restrain Red, only to cry out in shock when an electrical impulse went through his body. He looked down to see a smattering of tiny little pellets sticking to his body, sending more electricity through him.

M'gann, shut him down.

M'gann nodded, focusing on shutting Red down. She gasped when she found she couldn't. "There are two people in his mind, one is too far away for me to reach telepathically."

"Well, shut down at least one of them! That is bound to do some damage."

The team watched as Red, who was engaged in a fight with Artemis, faltered, allowing the archer to hit him in the head, knocking his mask a little loose.

Red jumped back, shaking his head and holding it in his hands. He looked up at the team, fury evident in his body language. "You think the Martian can take me down? Fools."

His voice scrambler was knocked off line by the hit to his head, startling the team when they could hear his actual voice.

Red's eyes widened when he noticed this too, before he narrowed them at Dick. "We could've taken this team out together, Dickhead. But then you had to go and have Batman 'cure' you. Never the less, I shall do it myself."

How does he know your name?

Long story, I'll explain once we subdue him.

Red adjusted his mask before reaching into his belt, pulling out what looked like a grenade. He snickered, pulling the pin and tossing it into the middle of the group. The grenade like object began to spray a gas, one the team realized was knock out gas a second too late. They fell to the ground, trying their hardest not to breathe in, but ultimately failing.

The last thing the team as a whole saw was Red lifting the grates at the exit, wandering further into the mountain and leaving them there to fade into the darkness.

I know this is super short compared to the last update, but I felt like leaving it off here was a good idea.