Emancipation

chapter twenty three

Here we gooooooo! Y'all ready for this? I'm not.

Btw, this will DEFINITELY stray from how the episode went.

:D

Mount Justice

December 31, 07:16 EDT

The team made their way to the mission room where Batman and Red Tornado were waiting, all eyes on Wanda. She hung her head in shame. "Batman, I-"

"We'll talk about your situation later, Scarlet Witch. Right now the League has more pressing matters to attend to." Batman pulled up images of Red Arrow. "The mole's identity has been discovered. Red Arrow."

"What?! Roy? That can't be!"

"Batman, we've all known Roy for years. He cannot be the mole." Kaldur dismissed the idea.

"Unfortunately the Roy Harper we have all known for the last three years has been another Project Cadmus clone." Red Tornado explained.

"We learned that the real Speedy was abducted and replaced immediately after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick. The clone was preprogrammed with a drive to join the Justice League, which is why he was so angry to any delays in his mission, and why he refused to join the team. This Roy Harper had no idea he was a clone or a traitor and his subconscious programming drove him to become League worthy." Batman continued. "So he struck out on his own as Red Arrow. When he was finally admitted, his secondary programming kicked in, and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage. Fortunately, I had already deduced Red Arrow was a clone. We were prepared."

"Savage was subdued. But Red Arrow escaped. He is now a fugitive, armed and dangerous."

Wanda narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Something didn't feel right about this.

"What happened to the real Roy?"

"We don't know. We have to face the possibility that the real Roy Harper is dead."

"The clone Roy, the team will find him." Kaldur stated.

"Negative. Red Arrow is a member of the Justice League now. Leave him to us." Batman listened to the comms for a moment. "I'm needed at the Watchtower. Tornado, stay with the kids."

Clone or no clone, Red Arrow was one of us. We will go after him.

Red Tornado made a move towards Kaldur before shutting down. The team looked at him curiously.

"What...what just happened?" Pietro asked, tapping the Justice Leaguer.

"All systems are off line. A total shut down." Robin responded, his holo-gauntlet lit up.

"Guys, I'm sensing a low level mystic force at play here. I don't know if caused his shut down but now that I think about it, I was getting the same buzz off Batman." Zatanna looked at Tornado.

"So I wasn't just being paranoid." Wanda mumbled.

"Batman...he called us kids. He never does that."

"Look." Wally pulled something from Tornado's hand. "One of those biotech chips we confiscated from Cheshire."

"Something is not right...Robin, Kid, Rocket, Zatanna. See if you can get Tornado back online. The rest of you are with me to find Ro-Red Arrow." Kaldur dictated, everyone splitting up to go about their duties.

The majority of the team got into the bioship, flying in tense silence from Happy Harbor to D.C.

"Computer logs indicate Red Arrow zeta'd from the Watchtower to the Hall. But he could be anywhere by now." Artemis sighed.