They dropped down to another vent tunnel. "Hold on." Dick warned as he paused next to an access panel. Using his favorite weapon, he pried open the covering and connected his wrist computer to it. "Blocking out cave's heat and motion sens-huh." Dick fell quiet as the system didn't directly respond to his inputs.

Furiously, he typed away at the hologram to find out what was causing the issues. Data seemed to glitch out for a few seconds before it showed three signatures. Before either of them could even comment on it, it glitched again. The third signature was gone, and so were the response issues with the system. Writing it off as a concern for later, Dick continued to block out the cave from tracking them. Hopefully with that it'll make it harder for their attackers to find them too. "There, that should do it."

Artemis gave a puzzled yet somewhat annoyed look at her hacker friend. "Who even are they?"

Dick smirked at her as he started typing again. "Why don't we find out? Pulling up security footage now."

What they saw wasn't what either of them was expecting. While their friends were in view, none of the cameras got a glimpse of the attackers before they were all taken out.

"That's it. All four of them are dead. The cameras, I meant the cameras!" He quickly added when he saw the look of horror on the archer's face. "I-I'm sure the others are okay." Despite the stutter, he did his best to sound confident. More for her sake than his. "Just...give me a sec to find the fastest route to the hangar." The logical part of his head was focusing on the mission as hard as he humanly could. The other, more emotional side of him, was slipping down the same rabbit hole Artemis was going. He couldn't imagine how he would deal with any of what happened recently if he now also had to grieve the loss of his best friend. Was the universe really so cruel to give him his brother back, only to take his best friend away in the same week?

Artemis fell backwards and curled up into a ball, knees pulled tightly to her chest in self-comfort. "Yeah, they're fine." She said sarcastically with a hint of fear laced between the words. "They all got superpowers, they can handle anything." Her head fell onto her knees as she waited for Robin to say anything. Too bad for her that he was too far gone in his own head to have heard her talk.

After a few minutes, Dick finally disconnected and started leading the archer to the vent that leads directly to the library. Skillfully he pushed the cover off and carefully lowered it to avoid making sound. A quick check made it seem like the coast was clear, so the two teens jumped out and ran down the stairs to the lower level

"There's a secret passage behind one of these bookcases."

"Ugh, seriously? Cliché much?" Artemis commented in disbelief.

Dick chuckled at the remark and the fond memories that flooded his brain of all the times he got lost in the maze known as the Batcave tunnels. "You should see the Batcave." Maybe one day he could convince Batman that letting his teammates in isn't that bad of an idea. Wally came over often enough, and Kaldur definitely deserved that privilege as well with how long they've known each other already. What are the odds any of them would really betray them when push comes to shove?

With Robin in lead, the two walked past several bookcases until they were a solid end into the room. Behind them, the door suddenly slid open, warning them somebody had entered the room. Grabbing Artemis by the arm, he pulled them both behind cover in case it was their attacker. Dick's heart was racing. He was sure he turned off the sensors, how would the enemy have found them already? The air felt odd as metallic footsteps grew closer and closer to the hidden pair. Like an echo to each step, Dick could faintly hear an angry growl. Something in him told him it wasn't directed at him.

But if not at him, then who?

The shadow of a man started to show on the floor past their hiding spot. They had definitely been found now. As quietly as they could, they pulled out their weapons just in case they would need to make a break for it. As the shadow grew, the sound of a familiar voice filled the room.

"Artemis, Robin."

Immediately the hairs on Dick's arms flew up. The growling echoes intensified when the voice of Red Tornado said his name. Something was wrong but he had no idea what. Before he could say anything to Artemis, the girl already ran past him and into the path of their new arrival.

As she rounded the corner, she came face to face with a red humanoid robot. Much like the real Red Tornado, this one also had yellow markings over its body. Artemis froze in shock when who she thought was their fellow hero made a grab for her. Had it not been for Robin body slamming her out of the way, she would have gotten caught. "Yes on the red, no on the tornado!"

They barrel rolled under a table and started running. They didn't get far as another red android, a female figure this time, appeared in their path. This android started shooting fire at them as they yet again had to change course. These two were definitely the ones that had been hunting them this whole time. Trying to get to higher ground, Robin took the lead and jumped on top of the book cases to cover more ground in a faster way.

"Who-what are they?!" The archer asked as now the sprinkles had been set off by the fire blazing through the room at them. Robin only half heard her as he saw that bright green smudge again, jumping down a particular bookshelf. As he got close enough to see what it was, the smudge was gone. But, just like last time, it had guided him to where the hidden passage would be.

Artemis stayed standing on the bookshelf to try and slow the enemies' approach. The male android used the water from the sprinklers to create a shield to block the arrow. Oddly familiar to how Kaldur would have done. The female android punished the bookshelf nearest to it. As it fell, the ones it hit went down too, causing a domino effect. Ducking for cover, Artemis jumped down to where Robin was. Before her feet could even hit the ground, he already grabbed her hand and pulled her down into the passageway. The door closed right behind her as a couple books made it down with them.

They jumped down the slope and kept running as fast as they could. "Did you know Tornado had siblings?" The blonde asked, still shocked by how easily she had fallen for the cheap trick. "No." Robin, too, was upset but more for his own reasons. Weird things were happening and he couldn't quite place his finger on what it was that was going on. But at least whatever was causing those things seemed to be on their side.

As they got to a crossroads of hallways, Robin was about to lead the way down another direction before Artemis grabbed his arm. "So now what?" Dick stood up straight to face her, prompting the distraught girl to let go. "Red Tornado is one of the powerhouses of the League. How are we supposed to take down two of them?" Still trying to lighten the mood as he had done for many years, Dick kept trying to make small jokes to lighten the ever building tension. "They did seem pretty user unfriendly." Apparently his efforts went in vain as the archer glared at him. "Don't joke. They-"

"Attention Robin. Attention Artemis." Red Tornado's voice sounded over the speaker system. "You have exactly 10 minutes to surrender. Or the lives of your teammates will be extinguished."

The two looked at each other as silence once again filled the halls. They were running out of time and had no way to contact the outside world. Just how would they be able to do this on their own?

Or

Maybe not?

If they could manage to get into the hangar, they could see the state of their teammates themselves and try to get a link of communication set up. At least it wouldn't just be the two of them thinking of a solution then.

Robin shared a confident knowing look with Artemis. With a shared nod, they started running down the halls again. The continuous countdown reminders did nothing to curb their renewed vigor. Once they successfully travailed the passages back past the kitchen, it seemed like it would be a breeze. "We can access the hangar from here." Dick informed her.

An echoed warning growl traveled down the hall as the pair could feel the tremors of a sudden rush of water headed straight for them again. "Or not." Because of course this couldn't have gone as smoothly as they thought without enemy interference.

"Would you please stop saying that!"

Try as they might, they couldn't outrun the rush of water as they were soon swept up for the so manieth time that evening. Not wanting to risk it, Dick detached his emergency rebreather from his cape clasp and took in a deep breath before passing it to Artemis.

As they were looking around to where they could go, the male android swam up to them and pulled Artemis back. From the shock and recoil, she lost the rebreather and most of the arrows that were left in her quiver.

She tried her best to fight it off with her hands but it did nothing to his hard outer shell. Behind her, Robin grabbed one of the floating arrows and jammed it into the android's eye. Stunning it enough to release the girl, now it was Robin's turn to grab a hold of her as he left some explosive batarangs behind and grappled towards the furthest wall.

They used the explosions as a cover to swim as fast as they could until they breached the surface in the hangar. Desperately trying to catch their breath, they had to give again to doge a sudden attack of fire. The pair swam up to where Superboy and Kid Flash were stuck in a molten mess of motorcycles.

"You guys okay?"

"Forget us, help M'gann!" Connor almost growled at them. Following his gaze, the two looked up to see both Kaldur and M'gann locked in a cage of fire. Both drenched in sweat, they didn't seem to be doing great. "Aqualad," Artemis called out to her leader, "Is she..." She couldn't finish the sentence just in case it would be true. Up on the platform, their leader had the Martian's head supported on his lap. "She is unconscious. I fear she-we cannot survive much longer."

As if she waited for him to finish his sentence, the female android started up with the attacks again. Quickly, the pair had to dive down again to avoid the attacks. Visibility inside the water was horrendous as the onslaught of fire did little to clear up the murky sea water. They were at a disadvantage even more as from above the android could see them a lot easier than they could see the attacks coming at them.

As if the guardian smudge had heard his pleas, Robin saw it again in the water. He tried to swim towards it, making sure Artemis was hot on his tail as he went. The smudge moved to the side and on a whim, dick did too. Not a second later, a sizzling ball of fire passed next to him in a trail of bubbles. Taking that as enough of a sign, Dick kept following it. With its help, the both made it to the side of the platform steps and out of view of the female android.

Or at least, so they thought.

As they ran up the stairs, the male robot caught up with them. Running further up the steps was also not an option as they were closed in by the female. They tried to attack but it was not doing anything. Artemis used her second to last arrow to shoot at the female but all that did was cause an explosion of smoke. Which the android blatantly ignored. Robin's attacks simply ricochet off of the male. One of his batarangs almost hit Wally as it embedded itself into the molten metal next to the ginger's head.

Both androids used beams of their elemental attacks on the two. Jumping out of the way at the last second, they made their escape once again as the two androids were stuck in their own predicament. The two teens swam down into a cavern. A gate was covering yet another hidden passage that they slipped into. Quickly running out of breath, they swam up the passage tunnels until they finally got to a ladder that lead out of the water. Breaching the surface once more, they heaved themselves up into the connected tunnel as they gasped for air.

"Six minutes." The monotone voice called out their timer again.

"What do we do now?"

Determined and angry all the same, Dick stared down the panicking girl. "We save them. That's how it works." Because that was just it, isn't it. They're heroes. No matter who, it's their job to save those in need. It wouldn't be his first time rescuing supers or having to fight against the odds but he'd rather die than just give up without putting on the fight of his life. Literally.

Artemis however, did not seem to see it that way. "Maybe that's how it's supposed to work. But those robots already took out our four superpowered friends!" Robin knew an emotional reaction wouldn't do them any good at this point. It had been trained out of him long ago to let nerves or fear get to him in such situations. Training his friend clearly didn't have. Keeping his voice calm, he stuck to his usual routine as his own way to cling to sanity. "You seem distraught." He said softly with a smile on his face to try and counter Artemis' increasing panic.

Again, it didn't particularly seem to go the way he planned. "Distraught?! M'gann is dying, we have no powers and I'm down to my last arrow. OF COURSE I'M DISTRAUGHT!"

"Well get traught or get dead!" He hadn't really meant to lose his temper. Perhaps it was the weight of everything being on his shoulders but her voicing the same points he was fearing this whole time was not helping him either. If they lose their heads now, they might as well give up.

Taking a deep breath, Robin kept crawling. In part to get moving but also to separate himself from the situation and that thought process. Somewhat taking the hint, Artemis started to follow him again. "How can you be so calm?" He barely spared her a side glance as he kept making his way forward. "Practice. Been doing this since I was nine."

Not one to give up pushing, Artemis continued. "What good is that now? What chance do we have against unrelenting machines!" And if that wasn't a lightbulb moment then he didn't know what was. "Oh, duh! They're machines. And one electromagnetic pulse will shut down any machine within range."

"Great," She retorted sarcastically, "except you better have an emp in that utility belt of yours, because I know I don't have one in my quiver."

Even with her pessimism, Dick couldn't stop the genuine smile from crawling up his face. This was exactly what they needed to get the upper hand and get help. "I'm fresh out, but I'm betting we could make one." Robin brought a hand up to his ear and tapped his comm. "What do you say, KF? Sounds doable?" From the batarang Dick had thrown earlier, they could finally talk with their second resident genius and concoct their mad scientist plans. "Totally doable," Wally's voice sounded in his ear.

"Five minutes." The voice called out over the speakers.

"You know, if we had more time." Wally added solemnly.

A/N To avoid the same critism I got last time, I'll be wrting out the actual episodes from the show. There would be minor changes to still make it seem as something new and a bit less predicable. Now for those who haven't watched them or for those that don't quite remember them, they can also follow along with the story and it still make sense with the missing pieces. The parts I orignally planned to leave out might feel like filler now but I truely did my best to give proper reasons for them to be included in the way that they are. I hope this helps with the story looking more cohesive and being easier to understand.