Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, RI

May 7, 2011

Batman stood in front of the team as he brought up a video on the holographic screen as he spoke, "There has been a new villain popping up around town called Red X. He's been seen with Black Spider, and they have recently been showing up in Gotham. We have Intel that they are trying to attempt to steal the new Wayne Corp. Tech. Normally, Robin and I would handle the case such as this, but my presence is required somewhere else. Robin will be leading this mission since he knows the cut the best. I want you guys to take down Black Spider and Red X And bring them back to Belle Reve. Whatever you do- do not go near Arkham Asylum."

"What's in Arkham?" Asked Conner raising an eyebrow at Batman.

"Gotham's most insane criminals," answered Robin, shudder at just the thought of who was locked up there. Batman gave a small nod, agreeing with his sidekick.

Batman turned back to face the screen to turn it off before exiting Mount Justice through the zeta-tubes. The team turned and face Robin awaiting his orders. Robin moved to where his mentor was previously standing, pulling up the holographic computer.

"This is Wayne Towers," pointed out Robin as a picture of a building showed up. Robin pressed a button and the picture changed into a blueprint of the tower. "Black Spider and Red X are assumed to be trying to steal this- Xenothium, an energy source. There are two entrances into this building. We'll have Artemis and Kid Flash protecting the perimeter of the building while Superboy and Kaldur'ahm will protect one entrance, and M'gann and I will cover the other. Make sure that everyone stays on the mind link. Okay, let's head out."

The team arrived in Gotham City in the bio-ship, and Robin immediately led them into the building while Artemis and Kid Flash stayed behind to provide as lookouts. Artemis took up her guard at the top of the building while Kid Flash covered the ground level. The other four teammates continued into the room that Red X and Black Spider were expected to break into.

The room had to entry ways both parallel to each other. The room had a single altar which the energy source was placed on top of. The energy source was smaller than what they had seen on screen back at Mount Justice during the debriefing. Superboy and Aqualad guarded the outside of one entrance while Robin and Miss Martian guarded the other entrance from the inside.

We've haven't gotten any sign of them, Artemis's voice chimed in in everyone's head due to the mind link.

All clear, responded Superboy.

It wasn't until later into the night when a movement outside the building caught Artemis's attention. Artemis brought her bow up and drew an arrow from her quiver, taking aim at the moving object. When Artemis was about to let go of the string of her bow, a red sticky substance came flying at her causing her to be knocked back into the wall of the building.

"What the hell," muttered Artemis as she pushed herself off of the wall before another red object came flying at her, catching her wrist that was holding the bow to be pinned up against the wall. Artemis turned her head to look at her wrist which had a red X that kept her stuck to the wall.

Guys, they're here. Stay alert.

From the bottom of the building, Kid Flash halted in his steps and looked up at the top to see Artemis's silhouette.

You okay?

Sort of. Kinda in a sticky situation here, responded Artemis before aiming her thoughts at the team. Watch out for red X's.

"Come on out, you scaredy cats," spoked Artemis into the air as she freed her wrist from the wall. Artemis then slowly inched forward with her bow in front, of her ready to shoot. "Afraid that I'll take you down?"

A whirring sound came from the side causing Artemis to whip around facing the noise, only to have red webs tangle around her. From the shadows, Black Spider stepped out.

"You seem a little tied up to be trying to take me down, archer," spoke Black Spider smugly. He walked over to where Artemis was and shot out webs around her mouth, silencing her before he pushed her down onto the ground. Although Artemis couldn't speak, she was still connected to the rest of the team via mind link.

I found Black Spider.

Where? asked Kid Flash Immediately.

Stay where you are, Kid, and don't let Red X get by, ordered Artemis. Black Spider glanced over at the girl whose eyes looked like they were focused on something else.

"What are you looking at?" asked Black Spider, distracting Artemis from talking to the rest of the team. Unable to speak, Artemis glared at the assassin. Black Spider kneeled down beside Artemis. "Oh, you guys are sneaky. Mind link, I'm guessing?"

Artemis narrowing her glare at the assassin only confirmed his assumption. Black Spider reached out and grabbed a fist full of the archer's hair, pulling her head off of the ground which caused Artemis to wince. Although Artemis couldn't make out his face due to Black Spider's mask covering it, she was absolutely certain that he was smiling underneath it.

Artemis closed her eyes in anticipation for her head to be bashed against the cement, but it never came. She carefully reopened them, only to find a blur of yellow knocking Black Spider to the ground. The blur quickly came to focus, revealing Kid Flash standing above an unconscious Black Spider which she was sure he had punched.

Kid Flash speed over to the blonde and removed the spiderwebs that were covering her mouth. As soon as the spiderwebs were gone, Artemis immediately began to yell at the speedster.

"What the hell! I told you to continue guarding the bottom of the building!"

Kid Flash winced at the blonde's volume, already regretting removing the spider webs from her mouth. "I wasn't going to let him beat you up."

"I get hurt all the time from missions! This shouldn't matter! What you did is allowed Red X a way into the tower. Black Spider over there was the distraction."

"Shit."

"Yeah. Now, untie me before Red X cause any more damage." As Kid Flash untied Artemis from the spiderwebs, Artemis quickly informed the rest of the team through the mind link that Red X might have gotten through.

Red X had come prepared. She had a small bag of kryptonite powder in her utility belt which would help her take out the clone and the Atlantean guarding the door. Red X was currently crawling through the air vents and as she got closer to being directly above the entrance, she began to slow down her breaths to try and not make as much noise. By the time Superboy caught the sound of another heartbeat and looked up into the air vents, Red X had already pulled out the bag of kryptonite and blew it down to where the clone was located.

Once the clone was down, Red X gracefully leaped down from the vents where she was immediately met by a stream of water. Getting her balance before another stream of water hits her, Red X quickly threw a couple X-shaped shurikens at the Atlantean which as soon as the shurikens got close enough, electrocuted the teen. Kaldur'ahm fell down to the ground in pain from the shock, electricity still running through his body.

Red X took a step around the fallen Atlantean's body and step inside the room. She was prepared to be immediately attacked by Robin and Miss Martian when she stepped inside. However, when she walked inside of the room, Robin and Miss Martian was nowhere to be seen.

Red X was on high alert for any signs of them as she got closer to the Xenothium. When she got to the power source, Red X stared at it curiously. Right away, she knew that something was wrong with it. What was located in the box wasn't Xenothium, but something that looked very similar to it.

"It's not here," came a voice from behind Red X who immediately turned around throwing an X-shaped shuriken at the voice. The shuriken took M'gann by surprise, knocking her out.

"That was a dirty move," came another voice from the other side of the room. Red X turned back around to see Robin pulling out his birdarangs. "Two can play at that game."

Three birdarangs went flying through the air, aimed at Red X who skillfully dodged each one that was aimed at her. When Red X spoke, the mask automatically deepened her voice and added a more metallic sound to it.

"A little too slow."

Robin narrowed his eyes behind his mask as he moved his hand towards his utility belt. He grabbed a flash grenade from his belt and threw them a few feet ahead of him, immediately lighting up the room. Red X wasn't prepared for the sudden amount of light and was blinded for a bit which was enough time for Robin to land a couple of hits on her.

By the time Red X's eyes finally adjusted, she saw a fist coming straight towards her. She couldn't move out of the way nor block the punch fast enough, and Robin's fist made contact with the edge of her mask. The force of the punch was enough to cause Red X's head to turn and her mask to fall off her face. Red X was glad that Black Spider had convinced her to wear a domino mask underneath the skull mask in case of accidents like these.

Robin was shocked when the mask fell to the ground.Red X, however, swiftly reached down to her belt to grab one of the electrocuting shurikens and thrust it towards Robin, hitting him directly in the chest. Robin let out a small yelp as the electric current ran through his body and he stumbled back in response. As he stumbled back, Red X brought her front leg up in a sidekick, knocking Robin to the ground.

"Can't take a hit, birdie?" asked Red X as she tilted her body towards the Boy Wonder with a smirk on her face. Red X straighten her body and walked over to where the Xenothium was supposed to be. She looked over the storage unit and found a button hidden on the side. Her fingers carefully pressed the button causing an opening to appear on the side. Carefully sticking her handing into the opening, Red X pulled out a tube of Xenothium.

"Jackpot," muttered Red X as she took a couple more tubes out placing them inside a bag she had brought. Once she got what she needed, she quickly exited the building. As soon as she was safely outside, she began to look for Black Spider who was nowhere to be seen.

"Spider," spoke Red X into their comlink. "Where are you?"

When Black Spider didn't respond back, Red X knew that something was not right. Turning around to face the tower, Red X began to look over areas where Black Spider said he would be. When her eyes landed at the top of the tower where she saw the outline of a black lump, Red X knew that that was Black Spider.

Making sure that she had the Xenothium strapped tightly in a bag, Red X pressed a button on her belt which transported her from the bottom of the tower to the top. When her body finally materialized at the top, she immediately ran over to where she saw Black Spider's body. She placed each of her hands under Black Spider's armpit and began to drag him across the roof. When Red X was almost halfway across the roof with Black Spider's body, something flew right into Red X causing her to lose her grip Black Spider as she fell to the ground.

Looking up from the ground, Red X saw a boy in a yellow and red suit and blonde archer who had her bow and arrow aimed at her. Red X slowly inched one of her hands closer to her belt in hope of transporting herself off of the tower. However, when her fingers met her waist, her belt was no longer there. Red X quickly glanced down at her waist just to make sure she wasn't imagining things, and when she looked back up, she saw that the boy had her belt in his hands.

"Looking for this?"

● ► ● ► ●

Red X and Black Spider was taken to Belle Reve Penitentiary and were both in separate cells. As soon as she got to Belle Reve, they had replaced her uniform with an orange jumpsuit and her mask was forcibly removed. She was now sitting in her cell with Batman standing in front of her.

"You're a good kid, Faith," spoke Batman as Faith rolled her eyes at his words. "If you join the team, I can get you out of here. You don't have to work for the League of Shadows."

Faith didn't respond to Batman except to uncross her legs only to cross them again. Batman's eyes narrow behind his cowl as he leaned in so that only Faith could hear the next words he spoke. "I can make it where you can see Dick again."

Faith froze when she heard those words. It was all Faith had ever wanted, and the possibility of it becoming real was standing right in front of her. All she would have to do is to agree to join Batman.

Faith uncrossed her legs again, her hands grabbing the edge of the metal bed she was sitting on as she leaned in towards Batman. "They won't let me go that easy."

"I won't let them hurt you, Faith."

Somehow, Faith knew that that was a promise Batman would keep.

● ► ● ► ●

word count: 2298

A/N: I honestly have no clue where I'm going with this story, so just bear with me. Sadly, this story is quickly coming to an end and will hopefully be done before the end of this year. Be on the look out for more updates within the next week.