The Next Generation

When they arrived back in the Batcave, things were pretty much going the same as yesterday. Some of the heroes were busy sitting around a table and discussing more possibilities, while eliminating certain possible suspects or explanations. Others still were taking the time to get some practice in with the Batcave's training systems, which were really rather extensive. J'onn was still performing his psychic scan of the planet, in the same spot as yesterday. And then, some others were just hanging around and getting to know each other, not having worked together before. It also seemed that there were a few more heroes than there had been the other day.

As Rose and Neal walked toward the central chamber, where most of the gathered heroes were located, Beast Boy suddenly approached them. He was focused on Neal, though, with a bit of worry in his eyes. "Neal!" he said, his tone sounding urgent. He calmed himself a second later, though, and let out a long breath. "I... I was just talking to Atlee. She was telling me about when she went to help you guys at the tower, and... is it true? Is... Is Terra one of the ones that came back?"

As they entered into the main chamber Neal observed how everyone was going out and spending their time. Well at least they hadn't missed much by enjoying themselves and taking some time to sleep in. Neal knew that it had done wonders for his moral after all. He crossed his arms and continued to walk in, until something unexpected occurred.

Neal turned his head quickly to see that Beast Boy had suddenly run up to him in some sort of panic. Neal gave him his attention immediately, especially considering that Beast Boy of all people very rarely panicked in situations like this. It was only when Beast Boy revealed what was on his mind that Neal released a small frown upon his face, thankfully the helmet hid that though. "Yes, Terra is back. She nearly crushed me to death yesterday actually," Neal said as he looked down at his legs that Raven had fixed. "If not for Atlee she would have crushed my entire body beneath earth and left me there"

"Oh, man..." Beast Boy muttered, feeling his knees go weak. He ended up squatting down and holding his hands on his head, just staring at the ground. "I don't... I don't believe it. Why, why does this keep happening? Every time I let her memory rest, something happens to screw it up again. First there were those Black Lanterns, now this... but I mean this isn't like those Black Lanterns, these are really them, aren't they? We ran tests and... they were real. But they're just... just, you know, controlled somehow. What if we could find a way to stop the control? I mean, they could be normal again right? They could be really back, all of them?"

Rose blinked a couple of times, leaning close to Neal. "Is... he alright?" she whispered.

Neal couldn't help but just stare as Beast Boy had the closest thing to a break-down that Neal had ever seen him have. It was a really sad sight to see, and Neal couldn't blame him for it. Beast Boy had been in love with Terra once, and the pain of her death was only magnified when Atlee came to the tower and reminded him of her, they even learned that Atlee was formed from the same DNA that came from Terra. It was a pain, and to go through it all again must have felt like tearing an arm open after it just healed.

"No, I don't think he is," Neal said plainly before taking a few steps forward and squatting down so that he was level with Beast Boy now. Neal just hoped that he wasn't going to do any damage with what he was about to say. "Beast Boy, I don't know if they can be saved. I'm sorry but I just don't know," Neal said honestly as he looked at his friend. "Right now though we can't think like that. We need to find the source of this and stop it. Maybe they'll stay alive........or maybe they'll go back, I don't know. But we can't let that stop us," he said seriously as he placed a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "They're being used for evil Beast Boy, for better or worse they would want us to stop them"

Beast Boy let out a little sigh and bowed his head lower, letting out what could only be described as a desperate whimper. "I just... don't know if I can go through that again. It was hard enough the last time it happened, when she was just a reanimated zombie, but now... I know we have to stop them, but we... we have to try and save them, too. If there's a way... we have to find a way. We can't let them... die again... I won't let it happen."

Rose breathed outward, folding her arms. She really hadn't seen anyone like this before, let alone Beast Boy, the ever obnoxious jokester of the Titans. It was almost hard to watch. After a few moments, she glanced back and forth. "Say, where's Raven?"

"Oh, Raven..." Beast Boy uttered, glancing back up at them. "She... I think she's mad at me. When I heard about Terra and I freaked... I think she thought I wanted Terra back, you know, in that way. But... but it's not... I mean, I don't. Yeah, a part of me will always love Terra, but I'm with Raven, and right now she's the one I love... in that way. I just... I just don't want to lose someone I care about again."

"Beast Boy....," Neal began as he heard the pain in his friend's voice. God why was this so hard? "In case you forgot, I know what it's like to lose someone. Believe me when I say I know how much it sucks," Neal said as he looked right at his friend. God why did this have to be so complicated? This kind of pain was probably just extra icing on the cake to whoever pulled this stunt. Neal was going to make sure that they felt immense pain. "They're already gone Beast Boy, whatever they are right now.......this isn't living," Neal said weakly as he knew how much it would hurt Beast Boy to hear that.

As Neal heard about what happened with Raven, he raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Oh boy, that's not good," Neal said before standing up and looking down at Beast Boy. He shook his head for a moment before offering Beast Boy his hand to make him stand up fully. "You need to go find and talk to her. If she's the one you love than you need to talk to her about how you feel, otherwise she's going to confuse it for something else. I know that she's an empath, but something she needs these things explained to her," Neal said honestly as he remembered about how they had fought in their past relationship.

"In terms of Terra, we'll all cross that bridge when we come to it.......but Raven is the one you're with now. I don't care what else is going on, she's the one that you need to make sure is okay, not Terra"

Beast Boy swallowed a hard lump in his throat, dropping down to the ground in a seated position. His legs just felt too much like jelly at the moment. Eventually, he let out a sigh and hung his head, arms resting on his knees. "You're right..." he said, quietly. "I... I need to go find Raven, talk to her. I... I don't want to lose her, too. Thanks, Neal." Slowly, he crawled back to his feet and started sauntering through the cave. He didn't have a good idea exactly where Raven had gone to be alone, but chances were he'd find her in some dark corner of the caverns.

"Well... that was an interesting start to the day," Rose said, watching the green skinned Titan wander off. "I was going to ask Raven if she could teleport me to San Francisco for a couple hours, so I could visit Joey, but I guess that's not going to happen. Maybe Peej will be willing to use that super speed of hers."

"Don't mention it. You'd do the same for me if our positions were reversed," Neal pointed out with a nod since Beast Boy couldn't see him smiling through his helmet. He was glad that he was able to help Beast Boy, since he really did have a unique problem. Hopefully he would be able to talk to Raven and help her understand what he was going through. It was a difficult problem, the emotions alone must have been eating up at Beast Boy on the inside.

Neal glanced over to Rose as she mentioned how she wanted Raven to teleport her to San Francisco. "Well, I guess asking Power girl might not be a bad idea. After what the two of you did last night I'm sure that she'd be willing to do your a favor," Neal said with a light laugh. "I should probably remain here, in case anything pops up ya know?"

Rose smirked. "After what I did to her last night, I'd be surprised if she didn't give me a medal. Have you ever heard a woman make that noise before? I sure haven't." She took another few looks around the main chamber of the Batcave, then started back towards the stairs, up to where Power Girl was still getting ready for the day. "Yeah, I'll catch you later. Let me know if there's any new developments." Then, she was gone, leaving Neal to go about his business around the Batcave... whatever he might choose to do.

"Definitely have not," Neal said with a smile as Rose pointed out how easy it would be to convince Power Girl to help Rose out. Neal had to admit, despite the fact that Rose wasn't a lesbian she could probably fool the best of them as far as Neal was concerned. "Take care while you're out and watch your back!" Neal called after her. He just didn't want her walking into a trap, but if Power Girl was there Neal was certain that the two of them would be alright.

Once she was gone Neal figured that it might be good to at least see where they currently were. J'onn was still.........doing his thing, but Neal wasn't sure what everyone else was up to. So Neal turned and began to make his way around the Batcave, trying to see if he could find what Green Arrow, Black Canary, or maybe Huntress was up to.

The ones that he was looking for were currently over in the training area of the Batcave, where a variety of systems were set up to test a person's agility, speed, reflexes, stamina, etc. Everything from obstacle courses to automated defense systems with lasers where in the works, though right now Huntress was making it look easy, managing to rack up the high score. The other two, Green Arrow and Black Canary, were in the middle of a friendly spar, though it looked like Canary was winning.

When Neal approached, Green Arrow looked over at him and gave a wave. "Hey, kid, you want a whack at this?" he asked, motioning to the training course. "I bet Huntress fifty bucks she couldn't hold the top score for more than an hour. It's been forty five minutes so far. Help a guy out?"

As Neal approached, he looked over at Green Arrow who waved to him. At first Neal was surprised, as he hadn't worked with Green Arrow that much in the past, with the exception of that whole time travel incident. Of course, when Green Arrow revealed why he had greeted Neal it suddenly became a lot more understandable. "Fifteen minutes left huh? Well, no harm in seeing if I can try to help you out," Neal said as he looked at the course that Huntress was moving through.

"Any special rules or can I just take a try at it?"

"Yeah, one rule," Green Arrow stated, watching the automated sentry drones pop up and fire laser beams at Huntress, who actually did an impressive job at dodging them. "Don't screw up, or it'll probably hurt like hell."

Speaking of hurting like hell, while Green Arrow was foolishly paying attention to Neal in the middle of a spar, Black Canary lunged forward and nailed him square in the jaw with a flying kick. He rolled on the ground a few times before finally standing back up and stumbling to regain his footing.

"It's alright, I'm okay," he assured, waving his arms.

---

"Thanks again for doing this for me," Rose said, as she and Power Girl walked into the hospital, both dressed in civilian closed. "I haven't been by as much as I should the past few days, so I really want to spend some time with him. And who knows? Maybe today will be the day he wakes up."

Power Girl smiled and put an arm around her shoulders. "I hope it is," she said, giving her a reassuring nod. "And no worries about me doing you a favor, my pleasure. I know how important this is to you, and if it were me in that position, I'd certainly appreciate the help, too. Besides, after last night, I'm in a very good mood."

Rose laughed quietly. "Yeah, well, it was pretty fun. First time mixing it up with another woman, but I enjoyed it."

"Yeah, maybe we can do it again some time just the two of us, hmm?" Power Girl added, nudging her with her elbow and smirking. She was mostly joking, of course.

"Thanks for the offer," Rose said, raising her hand and shaking her head, "but the only one I go solo with is the one I'm committed to. No offense, but you are only there to make things more exciting for us. Very, very exciting."

"Hey, relax, I know," Power Girl responded, giving her fellow woman a pat on the back. "Just teasing."

Rose pushed the door open to Joey's hallway and started heading for the his room, number 304. "But we'll still schedule you in every week, don't you worry. Saturdays good for you?"

"Saturdays are perfect," she assured.

Rose had a pleasant smile on her face when she walked into Joey's room, in light of her conversation. However, that smile suddenly disappeared when she noticed something was wrong. "Wh... what is this?"

Joey's bed, the entire room... it was empty.

Neal watched as Huntress dodged the lasers that were coming in at her. Neal wasn't sure if he'd do it as gracefully as she would, hell he wasn't even sure if he could beat her. Still, now was a good time to test Neal's ability. After all, how many other times could Neal go through a training program that Batman himself invented? "Don't screw up, got it!" Neal said as he got ready to enter the obstacle course. He would wait for Huntress to finish before moving in himself.

---

It was a long fifteen minutes, and an extremely trying time too. Neal had to use every bit of his strength, speed, stamina, and reflex in order to make it through the course. He had no idea how the scoring worked or if he was even doing well. He dodged when he could, other times bringing up his soul-self in order to block an incoming attack. Since these were machines illusions wouldn't work on them, so Neal could only use his own physical prowess along with his soul-self.

Finally Neal crossed the end of the finishing line, signaling the the course was over. He was breathing heavily, and sweat was coming thick from his forehead. He removed his helmet and wiped away at the sweat forming at his brow. "How'd I do?"

"Well, let's see," Green Arrow said, looking towards the large screen hanging from the cave ceiling. it was tallying up Neal's score as they spoke, the numbers steadily climbing. Eventually, they stopped and Neal's name was inserted in the proper place, right on top. "Would you look at that, beat her by three points."

"What? Oh come on!" Huntress shouted, staring up at the screen. "That's got to be trick, you messed with the computer or something!"

Green Arrow just stuck his hand out, while rubbing his beard with the other. "Not a chance, Helena. Now, fork it over."

Huntress grumbled angrily to herself, before finally reaching into her utility belt and pulling out a fifty dollar bill, then stuffing it into Green Arrow's hand. "There, happy?" She marched off in a huff, glancing back at Neal with frustration. "You cost me fifty bucks, kid!"

---

"Uh... I'm sure there's some sort of explanation," Power Girl said, looking around the room. No doubt about it, the place was empty. But then where was the patient?

"Something's wrong," Rose said, running back out into the hallway. He couldn't have gotten better in the past few days and released, they would have called her about it. So then what had happened to him? Where was he?! "Nurse! Nurse!"

A nearby nurse looked up from her clipboard to see the frantic Rose running towards her."Can I help you, Miss?"

"The patient in 304, my brother," she said, pointing back at the room. "Where is he? What happened to him?"

The nurse looked legitimately confused. "What do you mean? He was in there this morning when I checked up on him."

"Well he's not there now!" Rose shot back, dragging the nurse back to the room. She pulled the door open and shoved her inside. "See?"

"I... oh my," the nurse uttered, looking around the empty room. "Where did... I don't... Doctor!" She suddenly hurried off, looking for one of the doctors to see what had happened.

Rose started pacing back and forth panicking. her hands were tugging at her hair. "I don't believe this, not again, I can't lose my brother again. They took him, they must have taken him. Who else could it be? Those bastards found Joey and they took him, they probably hurt him!"

Neal glanced over at the screen as the score was being tallied. It was a suspenseful moment, but Neal had to admit that he was a little surprised to see that his name appeared right about Huntress. He had beaten her by a mere three points, but Neal had to admit that he felt a bit of pride in his chest when he saw it.

As Huntress paid Green Arrow, Neal was still looking at the scoreboard and smiling to himself. As Huntress called out to him, Neal just gave a small shrug. "I just played the game, I didn't tally my own score," Neal said simply. "Good job though, very impressive," he said in regards to what she had been able to do. As soon as she was gone though, Neal glanced over towards Green Arrow and Black Canary.

"Any chance I could join you two?"

"So long as you mean sparring," Black Canary said, folding her arms across her chest and giving him an amused look. She wasn't the only one who'd heard about the little party he and his girlfriend, Rose, had had with Power Girl the other night. In fact, it had been the talk of the cave that morning among the more lighthearted members. "Then yes, you're welcome to join us."

"I better warn you, though," Green Arrow said, still trying to get his jaw to stop slicking when he opened it too far. "She's got a mean roundhouse. Watch out for it."

Black Canary lifted her brow. "Just because you can't dodge it most of the time doesn't mean others aren't more capable."

Green Arrow narrowed his eyes, grumbling under his breath. Girlfriends, they really knew how to push your buttons.

"Of course that's what I mean," Neal said as he cast a simple glance at Black Canary's direction. He had heard that these two were pretty good in hand to hand combat, if Neal was lucky he might just be able to pick something up from them to add to his own skill set. Plus, it'd be nice to train against people that Neal hadn't worked that much with before, it would allow him to see how his own skill compared to his.

"Duly noted all the same," Neal said in regards to Green Arrow's comments about Canary's roundhouse. He formed first with his hands and waited. It was a three way fight, so there was no telling what could happen here. Neal would wait for someone to make the first move and counter.

Before the fight could commence, however, J'onn suddenly opened his eyes. "I've found it."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at him. Red Robin practically sprinted out of the Batcomputer's chair. "You found it? You mean there's a telepathic link connecting them?"

"Yes," J'onn replied. "They are being controlled telepathically, but not by a person. Rather... it is a device. I am not sure what, though, I've never sensed anything like it before, and since ab object does not have thoughts, I cannot gain anymore information than that."

"Do you know where this thing is?" Zatanna asked, leaning forward against the table in front of her. "If we have a location, we can head there and stop it at the source."

J'onn nodded. "I do know where it is... but it's on the move."

Green Arrow narrowed his eyes. "On the move? Well where's it going?"

"You're not going to like it," J'onn responded. At that moment, the entire cave shook, as an explosion ripped through the mansion above them. "It's moving here."

Tim just stared. "And I thought I was the detective."

Neal suddenly turned his head as those few words from J'onn were enough for him to completely give up the spar that was about to take place. Did Neal hear him correctly? He had found it? He smiled, now it was about time that they take the world back and stop whatever it was that was controlling everyone. Neal grew more curious though as J'onn spoke. "A device? But doesn't someone have to be controlling that? Devices don't just activate on their own, not at this level," Neal said.

Of course, no one would probably have time to answer his questions considering what J'onn said next. As the explosion ripped through the mansion above, Neal couldn't help but feel a bit of nervousness. It was coming here? Why would it come here of all places? Did it not know that they were here? Of course, Neal was more worried that it knew and didn't care. Neal couldn't help but worry that the thing had brought along some friends.

"Anyone wanna come up with a plan? Attack? Retreat? Anything?"

"Well, the most logical thing to do would be to defend ourselves," Zatanna said, pointing out the obvious. "We could just wait here and activate the cavern's defenses, but against an assault of this magnitude, I doubt even Batman's technology could stop them for long."

Green Arrow folded his arms. "I say, we go out there and meet them head on."

"Are you insane?" Huntress asked, glaring at him. "Do you have any idea how much firepower they have out there? I mean just Superman is bad enough, but Captain Marvel and the old Wonder Woman, too?"

"It's not as hopeless as you think," Red Robin said, already starting to think of a plan. "We're not exactly a bunch of slouches ourselves. We also know what we're up against this time around, mostly. We're not being taken by surprise by what we thought were our friends."

"That," Green Arrow continued, "and J'onn said the device controlling them was coming here as well. No matter who's using it, if we can find the device and destroy it, then no more brainwashed heroes back from the dead. Right?"

J'onn stared blankly forward, thinking. "Yes... in theory. Or they'll go out of control altogether and attack anything that moves."

Black Canary frowned. "That... would be bad."

"Well, it's worth a shot," Zatanna said. "We could run away, or try to end this whole nightmare right now. Let's see who we have on hand, are we missing anyone?"

Neal listened to the plans that were being formed, it was an interesting combination between attack and defend. Green Arrow wanted to run out and take them head on, something that Neal probably wouldn't throw his vote in for. He knew that they were all talented, but fighting against members of the Justice League didn't seem like a wise idea. Much like Huntress said, Superman alone would be hard enough to deal with.

Neal listened as J'onn and Red Robin suggested that there still might be a chance. They weren't going to get caught off guard this time and they weren't going to hold back, they knew that they needed to fight for their lives this time around. Along with that, they were also aware that the device behind all of this was around and operating. If they could find it, perhaps they could end all of this before it got too out of hand. Well, they were a bit late for that actually.

"I guess we don't have much choice than, we'll need to find that thing and destroy it while we can," Neal said before looking around the room at Zatanna's request. "Ravager and Power Girl are gone, and unless we call them I doubt they'll be back anytime soon," he added. Rose wanted to visit Joey, and she'd probably take some time to make sure that got done. "I also don't see where Beast Boy and Raven are"

"We're right here," Beast Boy said, suddenly appearing out of one of the side tunnels. Raven was at his side, though she said nothing. "I heard the explosions... they're here, aren't they?"

"Yes, it would seem so," Atlee said, letting out a small breath. "We're about to go out and fight. And, you know, try not to get killed."

"Zatanna, you'll have to do a lot of damage," Red Robin said. He was looking up at the computer screen, showing the security feed from outside. There were plenty of resurrected heroes that had gathered, and he was now trying to come up with strategies against them. "You're probably the strongest person we have right now, and your magic is especially effective against Superman. See if you can take him out of the equation early, then focus on Kid Flash. We don't have anyone else with the speed to match him, so slowing him down should be top priority, or he could do a lot of damage."

Zatanna nodded. "Understood."

"J'onn, you're our other heavy hitter," Tim continued. "Take your pick, Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman, either one is going to need someone of comparable strength to take down."

"I will engage Wonder Woman," J'onn replied. "She is the more dangerous one."

"Alright, Dr Fate," Red Robin said, turning to them. "I'm putting you on Captain Marvel. With Power Girl not here, someone is going to have to take him on, and your sorcery is probably the only thing left we have that can hurt him."

"I will do my best," Dr. Fate responded. "Though the magic of Shazam is strong, as well."

Somewhere above them, another explosion went off. The resurrected heroes were really tearing about the mansion now, trying to get at the Batcave. Red Robin had to really hurry up with the planning. "Terra, you take... Terra. Probably the easiest match up to determine."

"I can do that," Atlee said.

"I'll help," Beast Boy said quickly. "I... I need to do this."

Red Robin gave him a hard look. "Alright... Atlee and Beast Boy on Terra. That leaves... Fire, Ice, Batgirl, Kid Devil, and Wonder Girl. Raven, think you can handle Wonder Girl?"

Raven nodded. "Cassie has always been filled with strong emotions... manipulating them should be simple. And she is susceptible to my soul-self."

"Fade, that new weapon of yours functions on heat, right?" Red Robin asked, looking over at him. "If that's the case, I want you on Ice. Should be able to cut right through her abilities. Green Arrow, Huntress, Black Canary, I want you three teaming up on Fire and Kid Devil. You still have those extinguisher arrows, right?"

"Of course I do," Green Arrow responded, holding up a few blue tipped trick arrows. "For just such an occasion."

"Alright... and I'll take Batgirl," Tim said, giving a nod. He knew that Cassandra Cain could probably mess him up real bad in a straight fight, so he'd have to rely on his gadgets if he wanted a chance against her. "Now that everything's settled, let's get the hell out of this cave and join the battlefield."

Neal listened to the plan unfolding, waiting to hear what it was that the team wanted him to do. When Red Robin finally got to him, Neal pulled out the handle of the sword. "Yeah, it can get pretty damn hot. I guess there's no better time than now to field test it," he said before putting it back into his pouch on his right side. So he was going to be taking on ice, he'd have to try to win the battle quickly. He wasn't familiar with her abilities, and he would want to win before she completely froze him, otherwise all of Neal's powers would be useless at that point. He kept that in mind before they said that they were heading out to the battlefield.

Neal began to walk, but he couldn't help but look at Beast Boy. "We're all depending on each other Beast Boy, we need you to win this fight just as much as I need to win mine," Neal said before putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You can do it though, you're strong," he said before moving away. He didn't need to hear Beast Boy confirmed it, Neal just needed him to know the truth.

"Yeah... I know," Beast Boy said with a nod, as he started following the others out the back entrance of the Batcave. They couldn't really go out the front entrance, or else they'd end up in the path of destruction. They had to go around and try to gt a jump on their enemies.

When everyone was in position, Zatanna led the attack. "Namrepus pots!" she shouted, raising one of her hands. Superman instantly froze up and fell to the ground, bound by magic and unable to move. That was the go ahead for the others to go ahead and take on their targets. As long as she kept the spell in place, he wouldn't be a problem. Now, she had to take care of Kid Flash. "Dik Hsalf, wols nw-ngh!" She didn't get the rest of her words out in time, as Kid Flash appeared in front of her and delivered about fifty punches to her gut, throwing her back on the ground and rolling around in pain.

Green Arrow shot one of his arrows forward, which exploded with an electrical field of electricity that Kid Flash ended up running straight through, tripping the speedster up. "There's your shot, Z!" he called out, then going to join up with the others.

""Dik Hsalf, wols nwod!" Zatanna commanded, causing Kid Flash to come to a grinding halt. He tried to keep running, but he was moving at a snail's pace now. With him effectively out of the picture, Zatanna went back to holding her stomach and vomiting up mouthfuls of blood.