"All down?" I asked the military man I had dubbed commander. 

He jumped down from his seat atop the Bradley and nodded, "The skies should be clear and the ground…our choppers are performing a sweep." 

Turning to the sight of multiple small military choppers shining spotlights through the forest I gave him a hum of acknowledgment. 

He smiled at that, perhaps happy with his work or perhaps happy at putting down the demons and to be fair I was too, they basically saved me, so I said, "Thank you. We were trapped in the carnival…good thing I heard your sirens." 

"Aye," he approved, "Your leader filled me in. "Say, aren't you a little too young for this gig?" 

I laughed at that, "I am just a trainee. I got dragged into the fight because I had no other option." 

He placed his hand on my head and tousled my hair—jackass—and kneed in front of me, "How was it?" 

My mind clocked through the events, I could give him many answers. It was good, it was hard, we barely escaped with our lives, maybe a speech even, but the one that would win me the most would be one beginning with a lie, "...A failure. I saw a morphing mother eat her child. We failed on every level possible." 

He froze for a second and so did everyone else who heard it, there was pin-drop silence, for that moment I had everyone's attention, my time to bid for more control in the Titans, I drew my lips into a hard line, "We failed in saving lives, we failed in stopping them, we failed at keep them pinned, we barely escaped with our lives. We failed though and through," I took a deep breath for dramatic effect and finished, "Damn it."

It was funny, my words had taken the wind out of everyone's sail, only a few of them did not react. The most generic military white guy one would ever see, the commander was one of them. He put one hand on my shoulder and smiled a bitter smile, "You can't win everything. Let it go and try harder next time. A valuable lesson I learned much later in life than one should." 

I shrugged, "I did let it go. Still, it's not a good feeling to lose lives," it is a null feeling. Sure it was not their fault that they were there when Raven's extended family decided to visit. It was not the kid's fault that mom decided to chow down on him. 

If it was anyone's fault it was probably mine, well not fault but guilt by inaction or Raven's who was of the same fault. Not that I felt any of that guilt. Raven though, kept her face low, her eyes never turning to me, with one look I could tell she was feeling the guilt flood her lungs, slowly reeling away her air. 

Whatever, none of it was my problem, I shifted off the spotlight I had drawn to myself and walked off to the sight of a streak of green light gliding through the night sky towards us but Starfire was not alone. 

The Foragers had moved closed, their eyes provided me with sight, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Batman(carried by Wonder Woman), and Lantern were with her. 

And it took them less than a minute to clear the distance. One could tell their experience—other than Cyborg and StarFire—with just one look. 

Batman let go of Wonder Woman's arms fifty feet in the air, landing in front of us using his cape as a parachute, then Wonder Woman landed with her back to him, scanning the rear with her eyes. Cyborg and Stafire landed next to us.

Batman, did not waste any time and moved to Robin and asked, "Situation report." That completely bypassed Starfire, assuming he had not asked Starfire prior. 

Robin did not hesitate before answering with shorthands, "Carnival attacked by demons, we were there, we lost and had to pull back to save our lives, unfortunately, we could not save civilians," Batman's mood  soured but he only showed a frown for it, he gave a side glance to me and Raven before turning to Cyborg, "Open a tube to the Watchtower, Titans are coming with us." 

It was much more a dictat than anything else but are you going to question Batman? No? Thought so. 

Most did not ask questions and the National Guards had retreated amongst themselves, leaving us alone but Starfire did not like it, she questioned immediately, "Why?" 

"Security and a lead," He briefly glanced at me, he probably meant the message I had sent him. 

"Lead, the contents then? I can't permit you to take my entire team on the basis of a lead unless the evidence you provide proves sufficient," She fired back, not wanting us to go, why? Why not? Why the fuck not? Your team nearly died today, the watchtower is a safe haven, why do you want us to stay? Are you an imbecile?

"You all nearly died," His words were simple and flat, not a hint of unevenness to them, "And it goes against the reason of the Titans' existence, to train, to learn, not death sentences." 

"Look, we can take care of ourselves, this city." 

"Your capabilities are not being questioned. Your safety is. You are kids, teens. Now…" 

"No!" Her voice cracked, a slight echo to it, "We are fine, me and my team are fine. We are alive and will be. Not one of us died." But a lot of civilians did…is this her Anti-hero stage? No, that's probably not it. 

Starfire, is she unreasonable? No…no she is not. She is dumb but she is not like this. When we fought, when my gun was pressed to her face, she relented. At the carnival, she agreed to a retreat. It would go against her previous actions if she were to say 'no.'

That is not Starfire, she is dumb, she is a fool but she is not a moron who would risk our lives for some vainglory. 

But why has Batman not noticed, is it because he does not interact with her? Does he think it is her character to be a moron or is he filing it under general Teen nonsense? 

Whatever the reason, it does not matter now.

I stepped closer to Robin, and tip-towed to his ears, "Do you have something to knock her out?" 

He eyed me but pulled out a stun/taser nonetheless, and as I wrapped my fingers around the thing, I felt him squeeze my hand, and pass a whisper "I hope you know what you are doing." 

I nodded at him, "Maybe." 

Then my eyes turned to the two. Stafire's back was turned to me. 

I took one step forward.

"The Titans will move to the Watchtower. It is for your own good." 

Another step. 

"The Titans will stay here! We don't need any League." 

One more. 

"No, Starfire. This is an executive decision." 

Again. This time, many eyes turned to me. Batman's too, for a second, I shook my head at him. Ignore me. 

"Starfire, do not forget that you were only made leader barely three months later." 

One step from her, I tapped her shoulder. She turned. 

I grabbed one hand and pulled her down, before she could do anything I jammed my open palm into her exposed abdomen. 

In an instant, her eyes turned red and another pair opened on her forehead before her body crashed onto the ground, unconscious. 

For a moment her body lay there, unmoving before her mouth stretched, an animalistic screech ripped out following along with an inky black fog blooming out of it and dissipating. 

I switched my eyes to Batman and completely nonchalantly said, "Let's go?" 

A grunt, "Hmm." 

—————————————————————

The Boom-tube was like a blue tunnel ripping reality itself to bits. It was cold, lifeless, and more like a wound or tear made in the flesh of the universe to cut open a shortcut. That's what the thing that Cyborg opened felt like. 

And we were walking through it. I was tracing Cyborg's steps because it felt like one missed step would throw me into the universe's body. One thing to note was we were walking inside, my steps clicking against the whitish-blue of the thing. 

"What gave it away?" Batman asked. 

"Disregard for our life, for civilian deaths, her putting her desire for leadership over logic. Starfire can be dum—" I cut myself off from saying the word drawing a smirk from Wonder Woman who was walking side by side with Batman, "She can be passionate. Yes, that's the word, she can be passionate. But she is not a moron." 

"I see," It was a flat response, I turned the question around to him, "I thought you had noticed so you kept her distracted." 

He nodded, "You were taking action. She was alone and it was an almost safe environment." 

Of course, you did bastard, "So a learning experience, in the middle of all this?" 

Another flat response, "The harder you work your mind the better it will perform later." 

"Fine, but why did you just undermine her authority when you landed?" I asked him, drawing all the gazes from our company. 

He smiled, "Would you have noticed if I had not drawn her into an argument?" 

I froze for a second, stunned, "God fucking damn it. I won't have…Wait, so you knew she was possessed even before you landed?" 

"I knew it when I first saw her, she was bad at hiding it. At first, I was going to observe it long term but seeing you move I decided to make it into a learning experience." 

"And how did you know?" I asked, did he have cameras hiding all over? Probably not. No way. Please no. 

"Nightwing was in the Titans before and now you two are in it, I do research before sending anyone anywhere," He said and I could only agree, if I was sending an asset somewhere I would definitely do a clean sweep. 

Still, I gave him the most deadpan stare possible, this was not the paranoid madman I had seen on TV but a much more…figured out his life kind of guy. 

Wonder Woman let out a laugh, "So this is your daughter? I should have met her earlier." 

I snorted, "Mira Heylel, glad to meet you though I would have liked to meet you in a more peaceful time." 

"Diana of Themyscira," She introduced herself and added, "Quite an unusual name, never heard it before, does it have a meaning?" 

The words ran through my mind and I replied, "From what I could gather, Mira is a Hindi or I guess Hindu word, it means Princess or is at least a very common name for them. And Heylel…it is an old Hebrew word, I think? It's a translation for Dawn Bringer."

She nodded, "So Princess Dawn Bringer? A peculiar name though a good one." 

I gave her a half-hearted nod, "Yeah." 

The conveyor ends as my eyes finally see something other than shimmering blue. We had reached the end of the Boom-tube. 

And the moment I stepped out of the tube, the scene looked like it had been pulled straight from science fiction. The most generic fiction possible. 

I forgot that Detective-Comics' comics are not really famous for their set design. We were dumped onto a metal disk platform surrounded by multiple computer screens, all modern touch screens, and a massive map of the entire Earth. Really it was all generic, something one would see in any sci-fi show or book but something made this place more than that, the scale. 

Our disk overlooked a veritable chasm that extended down for miles. The Watchtower did earn the tower part of its name. 

But the most important thing was not all the work that went into making this behemoth of a space station. It was the sheer number of supers floating about…dozens, scores,  hundreds, in my vision alone, there were sure to be thousands more outside of it. 

An army. A massive army of Supers. Christ. And almost instinctively I turned around to look at the spine of the station, the biggest point against the Justice League in public opinion, the main column around which everything was built. It did not disappoint. It saw a laser cannon that could destroy a city—evaporate concrete and steel as it brings the wrath of an angry artificial God down upon its foes. 

An unintended shudder ran through my voice, "My God...The gun pointed at the head of the Earth." 

Batman corrected me, "Her Enemies not her." 

Sure, it will really go down well with the city that a hacker decides to glass. 

"Right, so what now?" I asked him. 

"Time to follow up on the lead," He said and turned to the Titans, Starfire was still out of it hanging on Blue Beetle's back so she was easily ignored. 

It was none of my issue so I interjected in his plan, "Before that, do you have an armoury here?" 

He raised an eyebrow before nodding, he looked at Cyborg who nodded and said, "Follow me."