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Not much time had passed since the new Batman’s arrival to the base of Young Justice, and yet Robin was having trouble accepting his existence as he and Starfire waited.

The Titans stood in a group with Arrowette, Impulse, Kai-Ro and Ace while Batman, Osiris and Nightstar stood in front of the computer screen with Cyborg’s head still displayed on it. Robin kept glancing back to look at Batman while he would notice but just narrow his eyes towards him before looking away.

Noticing this Arrowette nudged him and said “I know. The outfit looks so cool, right?”

Robin gave an abrupt “Huh?” before shaking it off and saying “It’s just…..weird. If he’s supposed to be the new Batman, why’s he so young?”

“Young?” Impulse asked.

Kai-Ro leaned over and explained “He means compared to the original Batman. Not the rest of us.”

Impulse nodded and gave an “Oh” before saying “Well, to be honest, we really don’t know a lot about the guy. He was just there and we gave him the offer and that’s all she wrote folks. To be honest he tends to creep me out sometimes. I mean half the time that suit looks like it’s his skin.”

Starfire looked over towards him as well, after petting Ace on the head, before commenting “Yet he does not seem to have the same air of respect as the Batman of our time. More of…?”

Before she could think of a word Robin answered with “Self-authority.”

“How’d you figure that?” Impulse asked.

Robin looked back towards Batman and said “Let’s just say I know what it’s like sometimes.”

The others looked questionable about this before Arrowette commented “I think the whole ‘mystery bad-boy’ thing makes him hot.”

Impulse looked at her with an unbelievable expression and asked “Seriously?”

Meanwhile the other group was talking among themselves as well, Batman commenting “Impulse shouldn’t have brought those two back. It was a rookie mistake. One that could cause a lot of damage in the long run.”

“How can you be so sure?” Nightstar asked. “Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.”

“I have to disagree.” Osiris said. “My powers grant me wisdom above most. And one thing I’ve learned from it is that there’s a certain balance to things. The effects of traveling through time can cause the balance to tip.”

Nightstar thought on this before asking “What about you, Cyborg? I mean if they came here from the past then you must already know what happens, right?”

The head of Cyborg gave an awkward look before explaining “It doesn’t exactly work like that, Nightstar. Not always. I mean if I did actually know about this, you think I would’ve been more prepared? Or that I would’ve let anyone else know?”

She sighed before Batman commented “Nigthstar, you know they have to.” She looked before he added “They can’t know the truth. Otherwise history could be altered.”

“I know.” She said before taking a deep sigh. “It’s just…”

He stopped her with “It’s for the best. Despite what you may want, you have to accept the facts. Even if they’re hard to swallow.”

She looked back and began with “Maybe if we just…”

He cut her off with “No. Not even the smallest hint. You and I know what how one little act can change everything. You really want to risk that again?”

Nightstar gave him an annoyed look, seeing as he was right about it, before crossing her arms and saying “I was going to say you sound a little intimidated.”

He gave her a cross look before Starfire, walking over with the others, asked “How much longer must we wait? I am anxious to return and aid our friends against the Echo automaton.”

“I’ve got the armor down in the labs being repaired.” Cyborg explained. “It the damage it took wasn’t too much but the repairing id the delicate part. One wrong move and the entire thing could blow or completely shut down.”

Robin then suggested “Why not just have Impulse return us to the past? He got there before by running.”

“Oh no!” he said, waving the suggestion off. “Really bad idea. I travel via the speed force. The energy that I get my powers from, see? The only reason I could make it is because I’m covered in the stuff when I’m running. I try to send you two back and you could end up being two old prunes. Or little Titan babies. Or worse. Uh-uh. Bad idea.”

“Besides, I think you’ve done enough for today.” Batman commented with his arms crossed. When Impulse asked what he meant he explained “Of all the things you could’ve done you thought about bringing them back here? To the future?”

“Hey! I was under pressure and just went with the first thing at the top of my head, okay?” Impulse tried defending himself.

“Look let’s not go around playing the blame game, alright?” Nightstar said to settle them down. “What’s done is done. All we can do is deal with it and fix it before things get any out of hand.”

Suddenly an alarm sounded and everyone looked towards Cyborg as he said “We’ve got trouble. The plaza’s getting been attacked by H.I.V.E. agents. Reports are counting at least 30 in total.”

“That many in one place?” Arrowette said with surprise. “They haven’t tried anything like that before. At least not for somewhere like the plaza.”

“Must be really desperate these days.” Impulse commented.

Osiris ball his fists before saying “It doesn’t matter. We have to engage them and bring as many down as we can!”

“Right.” Nightstar said before looking to everyone and saying “Alright team. You know the drill. Any bad guys we smash. And robots we smash harder. And any civilians we save.”

“Hang on.” Robin said. “What about us?” he indicated himself and Starfire.

“No way.” Batman said. “You two are staying put.”

Robin looked to him and said “Not happening. If there’s trouble, we’re helping. Doesn’t matter what time period it is or who the enemy may be.”

Batman tried to say more before Cyborg said “Don’t waste your breath, B-Man. One thing learned about working with the Titans is we don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Cyborg and Robin exchanged smirks to each other before Nightstar said “Alright then. You two will help with pair off with Kai-Ro and Arrowette. But no heroics.”

Robin gave a quick “Got it” before he and Nightstar at the same time said different battle cries of “Titans G-” and “To Acti-”

Both looked awkwardly at each other before Kai-Ro sighed and said “Let just go already!”

With that all of them, with the exception of Ace and of course Cyborg, ran off to confront the dangerous situation. Batman had hung back however in time to grab Nightstar by the arm to talk with her in private for a second.

“Remember what I said.” He told her, she only nodding with a stern look on her face.

With that he let her go, Nightstar running ahead, before he sighed at how everything was going. With that he brought himself back to reality and rushed off to catch up with the others, hoping things would go smoothly enough. But then again with the H.I.V.E. Five-Hundred nothing was ever smooth.

*********************

Inside the shopping plaza the H.I.V.E. Five-Hundred members were enjoying their wanton destruction as they began robbing the stores around them.

A majority of the agents terrorizing the place were actually robots. They were the giant clawed robotic minions similar to the I.N.S.T.G.A.T.O.R. types from Robin and Starfire’s time, only altered and designed with the yellow and black design of the H.I.V.E. academy, or rather organization. While they were the bulk the special unique members were the actual super-villains present, Mammoth among them.

He trampled his way through the opening into a shopping store and smashed his way towards the cash registers where he began unloading the money contents into a bag. As he did he was joined by another villain who made his way through the aisles.

He wore a dark green suit that was armored around the shoulders, chest and the helmet that covered his head. A yellow visor went over his eyes, as part of the helmet, but left his mouth exposed. When he would smile he would reveal the gap in his teeth in the middle of the top row. On the chest plate of the suit he wore the letter D was branded but in the same style as the H.I.V.E.’s H. This villain was known as Disruptor.

After walking far enough into the store and looking over everything, Disruptor shouted “Clearance sale! Everything must go!”

He then activated his powers which he changed by tucking his arms inward before releasing a sonic boom of energy from his body. It pushed everything nearby away from him in a violent explosion of power, everything being tossed around until it looked like a small crated had exploded around him.

Meanwhile in a clothing store, a duo of robots were emptying the registers while another villain was looking at herself in a mirror while holding up different dresses in front of her.

She was an Atlantean from the initial look at her. She wore a uniform of similar design to Aqualad’s, even with the scale-like design around the torso, only it was dark violet colored. There were gold pieces of armor on her legs and arms and even gold tiara that looked aquatic in design. She had long green hair while her skin however was paler and her eyes were a cold blue. This girl was known as Siren.

As she looked at a few more clothes she huffed and said “Why do the surface dwellers never have a proper idea of fashion? Even the lowest wrenches in Atlantis would find these clothes gaudy.”

She tossed them away before looking towards more racks of clothes. However before she could try any on they were destroyed by a dark wave of energy shot by someone nearby. She looked and saw it came from another villain member of the H.I.V.E. known as Shimmer.

Shimmer appeared to be dressed in the same way a Goth girl would be; all of her clothing dark purple or black while her red hair was fashioned to where it all hung on one side of her face. She wore dark eye shadow and dark purple lipstick. Her nails were painted dark and the belt she wore had melt spikes on certain areas.

After blasting the clothing she commented to Siren “All this ‘pretty’ stuff is lame anyways.”
Siren looked to her and said “Hey! I was still looking!”

Shimmer only looked over her shoulder and said “Saved you the trouble, princess. Would take a lot more than dresses to make you look pretty.”

Siren growled before Goldilocks, who was riding on the shoulder of one of the H.I.V.E. bots, called over and said “Hey, drama queens, save it for after we get the job done.”

With that all of them went back to work, while outside more destruction was caused by the remaining H.I.V.E. bots and the last members of the squad.

Both members were dressed in the same armor as disruptor, only one was red with a white visor and the other was blue with a red one. The red suited villain, known as Neutron, had an H.I.V.E. styled N on his chest while Blizzard, the other villain, had a B.

Neutron fired heated blasts of nuclear energy, destroying a few stores and whatever was nearby, while Blizzard, of course, froze everything on the other side. The two were a destructive duo of nature using their powers to destructive extent.

Blizzard, looking over his work, said “Looks like this mall’s business has been put ‘on ice’.”

He laughed at this before Neutron looked back and said “Seriously, man?”

“Oh like you could come up with anything better.” Blizzard huffed before crossing his arms.

They both looked over when they heard the sound of another villain rummaging through the turned over food carts and stuffing his face of hot dogs and burgers. This was Woof, a hyena-humanoid creature that’s only article of clothing were a pair of dark pants and a high-tech collar around his neck.

As they watched the animal man eat Neutron commented “Hope he doesn’t eat any chocolate like last time.”

A moment later the entire H.I.V.E. team regrouped, robots and villains alike.

“Everyone get what they needed?” Mammoth asked, holding up his large bag of stolen money and goods. When the others showed their own, those who were actually stealing, he said “Good. Now we just-”

Suddenly the voice of Nightstar called out “Now you just have to put it all back and come along quietly.” When the villains looked towards her, standing with the rest of Young Justice and the two extra Titans, she said “Though if you want to do it the hard way, that’s your choice.”

Mammoth smirked and said “About time you twerps showed up. And look who we have here. If it ain’t the bird boy and the night light girl.”

“Mammoth.” Robin stated, remembering him. “You haven’t aged well. You’re still ugly as ever.”

“And you still got that smart mouth of yours.” Mammoth smirked before cracking his knuckles. Won’t be so smart when I knock that mouth, and your head, clean off!” he then ordered his team with “Get ‘em!”

With that both teams changed at each other and began to fight.

Robin leapt over, pulling out his staff, and brought it down towards Mammoth. Before he could reach him Woof, who’d been close enough, jumped into the air and tackled him to the ground. He pinned Robin down once they landed before snapping his jaws at him. Robin managed to use his staff to block the beast’s jaws from ripping into him.

Arrowette had fired a few of her arrows towards the villains, making them scatter easier, before using a few explosives towards the H.I.V.E. bots. She destroyed two before Shimmer fired her dark energy towards her. The archery girl rolled away and fired another arrow that Shimmer ducked away from. Before Arrowette could fire again a coil of hair wrapped around her legs before more tendrils coiled around her arms. She looked back to see it was Goldilocks, who removed her pink hood to reveal her long wild bunch of hair that moved like it was alive.

Shimmer smirked, seeing Awrrowette was dealt with, only for Starfire to shoot a starbolt her way. Shimmer jumped away before firing more energy towards the Tamaranian girl as she flew towards her while firing a volley of starbolts towards her. Star, now close enough, tried to punch Shimmer but the girl proved too quick yet again as she leapt back as Star landed.

Tow robots nearby were ready to attack Starfire while her back was turned but were stopped when a shadow above caught their attention. They looked up only to see the Batman fly down and throw two explosive batarangs at them. They both were destroyed but three others closed in around him, Batman activating a cloaking device to become invisible just as they fired. The robots looked around confused before Batman, still cloaked, began hitting them and making them fire towards each other in the confusion.

Osiris had flown through a few more H.I.V.E. bots, destroying them, before turning back towards Mammoth. The older villain saw as the young magic wielder eyed him out before both charged towards each other. Osiris through a punch which Mammoth caught before the same thing happened with Mammoth when he tried. The two struggled before Osiris planted his feet into the ground and spun Mammoth round, letting him go and sending him flying into a nearby bench.

“You’re powers are nothing matched against the strength of a god!” Osiris boasted.

Mammoth got to his feet before saying “Big talk from a little man.”

Osiris, angered by that insult, said “How dare you!” before flying towards him.

Mammoth only smirked as he waited before Osiris was blown out of the sky by a blast from Neutron, who he did not see. After Osiris landed the villain flew over towards him, laughing as he hovered in front before Osiris recovered. Angered by him he flew after, the two now engaged in a dog fight above the plaza.

Impulse was running circles around Blizzard who kept trying to hit him with his ice blasts. Impulse kept zipping from one spot to the other, each time giving goofy faces or taunting gestures, before Blizzard would fire towards him. It wasn’t until Impulse had managed to come closer to him that Blizzard had turned completely around, only to see Nightstar standing behind him with a smirk on her face.

“Too slow.” She said before landing a punch hard enough to send him on his back.

Impulse zipped next to her and gave a thumbs up before Nightstar looked over to see Robin still dealing with Woof. She gasped before readied to head over to help, only for both she and Impulse to be stopped by a sonic scream. It was Siren, standing a few feet away from them as she continued screaming. Both dropped to their knees and covered their ears before Siren finally stopped, seeing they were both weak for a moment. She then concentrated as she pulled a number of water pipes from underneath the plaza up, revealing her ability to control water like Aqualad.

With enough water built up she sent a large flow of it towards the two downed heroes, only for it to be blocked by a green construct of a dam. She looked confused before Kai-Ro floated down in front of his friends, revealing he had created the dam with his lantern powers.

“I try to be as nice as possible.” Kai-Ro said as he dropped his construct. “But your voice is a grading as your looks, Siren.”

She snarled as she said “Let’s see you talk like that when you’re drowning in the seas, shrimp!”

She used her powers to summon more water that Kai-Ro avoided being hit with by creating a bubble around him. As the two fought Nightstar and Impulse got to their feet, only for he to be hit by Disruptor by one of his smaller sonic blasts and Nightstar turning to see Blizzard, now recovered, charge himself for another barrage of cold blasts.

Starfire continued her fight with Shimmer, eventually managing to land a blast near her feet and knock her on her back. As Shimmer tried to get back to her feet she saw Star standing over her, one hand charged with a starbolt at the ready.

“Please surrender.” She said. “You may be of the future but you are defeated as easily as the villains of the past.”

“Oh yeah?” Mammoth said behid her back, making Star turn only to be stuck by him with a metal pipe that sent her flying and landing into a pile of rubble. “Not so easy to beat now, huh?” he mocked before dropping the pipe.

During his struggled with Woof Robin finally managed to kick the mutant off of him, sending him overhead and landing on his back with a doggish whimper. Before Robin could back to his feet however Mammoth stomped his foot down on him and kept the boy wonder pinned as he stood over him.

“This is too good.” He said. “I may not have been there for the first time, but this time I get to finish the Boy Wonder myself!”

Robin looked worried but couldn’t help but wonder what he’d meant when he said that. Before Mammoth could do anything however he was stopped when something punched him in the nose. He held it in pain and backed up, taking his foot off Robin, before Batman unlocked himself.

Robin, now on his feet, said “Thanks.” To him.

Batman only nodded before running forward and jump kicking Mammoth while he was still stumbling in pain. He managed to his him right in the chest before picking up Robin’s staff and flying over his head. He waited until Mammoth stumbled back far enough before he tripped over the staff and landed on his back, Batman now standing over him as he groaned in pain.

“I’d call this whole robbery a stupid plan on your part, Mammoth.” Batman began. “But we both known Garguax is the real brains. So what’s he hope to gain from this?” When Mammoth didn’t answer he grabbed him by the collar and interrogated “What’s his game?”

Mammoth suddenly began to laugh before saying “If you haven’t figured it out then you’re as dumb as you dress, bat-freak. You think the boss would have us waist our time doing small time robbery, when he’s after something more important?”

“What are you talking about?” Batman interrogated again.

Mammoth chuckled before saying “Isn’t it obvious?”

Suddenly both Batman and Robin realized what he meant before the latter said “The armor!”

***********************

On Titans Island, inside the Tower, Ace was resting near the computer systems while Cyborg’s inner conscious still worked all of the systems and defenses of Young Justice’s base.

Among the many tasks he performed were the reports coming in about the team’s dealing with the H.I.V.E. agents. Everything was mixed as of this point, all news reports saying how Young Justice was fighting their best while police communication was mainly involving crowd control to keep everyone safe. A few moments later, however, Cyborg realized that the security footage of the island was starting to glitch.

His face popped back on the main screen as he said “Something’s wrong with the security feeds.” Ace actually woke and perked up when he said this before Cyborg, talking to both Ace and himself, said “Might be a small glitch. Best to try and…” Suddenly Ace, looking towards the doorway to the tower, started growling. “What is it boy?” he asked.

Suddenly a high pitched jamming signal rang through Cyborg’s ears, meaning his internal systems and the like. He screamed as his face glitched on the screen and everything sparked. A moment later the door exploded open and Ace looked to see as three figures stepped into the control room. Cyborg, fighting against the signal/virus that was disrupting him, recognized all of them.

One was his old foe Gizmo, now sporting a white beard and looking as old as Mammoth did. His green jumpsuit looked baggier and his high-tech backpack appeared advanced and yet seemed to have been upgraded with a number of patch-work upgrades. He used the spider-legs the backpack sprouted to walk around and his goggles were always over his eyes, acting as seeing glasses.

The second was another old foe, See-More. He still sported the Cyclops-eye head gear that was iconic to his person, only it looked bulkier and had four eyes to look from each side of his head. He had more eye blasters on the palms of his gloved hands and even on the boots he wore. There was a chest piece to the new armor he wore that had eyes on both the front and back. He too looked older, but the only thing anyone could see was his mouth and chin.

The final villain was Kyd Wykkd, or rather just Wykkd nowadays. Aside from looking older, though not as wrinkled as the others, he looked almost the same as he did thirty years ago; just older in body of course.

Cyborg, seeing all of them, gave a weak “Y-You three!”

“Been a long time, eh, crud muncher?” Gizmo taunted.

Cyborg gave a small laugh and said “30 years. Still….can’t think of any better….insults.”

“We’ll be doing the laughing here, computer dork.” See-More said with a laugh.

Ace growled and barked before running towards them. The three panicked before ducking out of the way, Ace landing behind them. He turned and leapt again, only for See-More to fire a bubble around the dog that trapped him. Ace bit and clawed but was immobilized.

See-More turned and said “Wykkd. Get the armor.”

The silent member nodded before leaning forward. He created a portal on the floor in front of him and slipped through it, disappearing into lower levels of the Tower before finding the labs where the Warp armor was, standing amid a number of mechanical arms on a stand while being repaired. He grabbed it and returned to the control room.

Seeing this Cyborg said “Just because….you have the armor….doesn’t mean you won. It’s not…repaired yet.”

“Not a problem for us.” See-Moresaid. “Especially since you did half the work. Thanks for that, by the way.”

Cyborg still struggled and said “We’ll…..stop you! Just like always!”

“Maybe.” Gizmo smirked. “But we can slow you skleazballs down long enough.”

He walked towards the computer and produced a jamming device that he attached to the console. Cyborg screamed more before everything shut down. With their prize in hand the three villains walked off, Ace barking at them as they did since he was still trapped and helpless to do anything.

************************

As Arrowette struggled in the coils of Goldilocks she managed to reach back and find a buzz saw arrow from her quiver. She turned it on and used it to cut all the tendrils of hair on her, Goldilocks growled as Arrowette recovered and pointed her bow with another arrow at her.
“Bad hair day?” she joked as she smirked at Goldilocks.

Before she could fire one of the remaining robots came from behind, making her fire point blank. The arrow exploded, making Arrowete stumble back before looking to see Goldilocks had run off to safety. When she was out of reach and out of site from the heroes and villains Goldilocks received a message via her communicator in her backpack.

She pulled it out and answered, the voice of Garguax saying “We have the armor. Order for retreat.”

With that she appeared from her hiding spot close to Disruptor. He was trying to fire at Impulse who kept zipping by and smacking him in the head each time he was close enough. Goldilocks whistled to catch his attention before giving a signal.

He nodded before charging up and saying “Brace yourselves! This is going to get messy!”

Impulse stopped when he heard this before all of the H.I.V.E. villains looked as well. They all braced themselves while the heroes looked confused. Disruptor unleashed a heavy sonic boom attack that sent all the heroes, both close and far from him, flying back from the sudden shock. Even Kai-Ro, who created a shield around him, was knocked back by the pressure of the blast. While most of Young Justice was injured Robin had taken a bad hit to the head when he fell against a beam in the plaza, knocking him out.

Up above Osiris, who’d managed to knock Neutron away from him, had heard the blast before looking down and seeing his teammates in danger. He flew down but instead of helping any of them he landed in front of Disruptor.

“You will pay for such an insolent act!” he threatened.

Disruptor laughed before saying “Well bring it on, woos.”

Osiris growled and stepped forward but was stopped when Siren began screaming at him. He covered his ears from the sonic scream, giving Neutron enough time to zip down and fire a beam of energy at him. He stumbled back only to be struck by Mammoth, who hit him hard enough he wound up hitting another beam in the plaza that crumbled over him.

Just as this happened Starfire, who’d been out during her fight with Shimmer and Mammoth, picked herself up and out of the rubble. She groaned for a moment before looking over the downed Young Justice, Robin among them, and gasping before looking towards the H.I.V.E. villains who regrouped.

“Alright. Let’s move it out!” Mammoth commanded, all of them turning to leave.

Starfire’s eyes glared green as she yelled “None of you shall go anywhere!”

Some turned to see as she flew forward, her hands primed with energy, before Shimmer clapped her hands together. This sent a wave of energy towards Star, which she was unable to avoid, that hit her. She screamed in pain before falling to the ground, Nightstar managing to pick herself up in time to see this. She gasped as Star tried to get up, only for Neutron to stand in front of her.

Mammoth huffed and said “Not as good as you were, huh, night light?” before Neutron fired at her.

She screamed again as she was hit in the chest, falling back to the ground. Nightstar flew towards her while the H.I.V.E. villains all ran off, all getting away in time before anyone else could recover.

Nightstar picked Starfire up and said “No! No please no!” She shook her a little and said “C’mon. Please. Please……mother.”

Starfire groaned a little, her eyes opening and Nightstar perking a little, before she mumbled “Muh….mother?”

Nightstar looked surprised, realize she had indeed said it, before Starfire groaned in pain. Nightstar looked around, seeing as the others started to pick themselves up, but stopped when she realized Batman had been close enough to have heard what was said.

He gave a disapproving look before turning to see as Robin woke up. He rubbed his head before seeing Starfire and running towards her. He switched places with Nightstar, holding Star’s head in his arms.

“It’s going to be okay, Starfire.” He said as she groaned a little more. “We’ll get you help.”

She only mumbled “….Robin….” before passing out.

Nightstar looked at the two before looking back to Young Justice, all of the members looking worried, angry or simply defeated. Things had now taken as worse a turn as ever.