Auld Acquaintance

## Synopsis

In a subway tunnel under the National Mall, Red Arrow is pursued by Flash, Green Arrow and Aquaman. He is clearly outmatched: his former mentor knocks him down with an explosive arrow, Flash punches him at super speed, and he breaks his bow when attacking Aquaman with it. A passing train distracts his assailants long enough for him to escape via a small drainage pipe.

The Team arrives at the Cave, proud of their work in Santa Prisca but still questioning who the mole is. Batman reveals that Red Arrow was the mole. Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash are appropriately shocked and in denial of Roy's betrayal, but Red Tornado reveals that the Roy Harper they knew for the past three years was just another Project Cadmus clone. Batman explains.

*The Roy they knew had replaced the original Speedy three years ago, shortly after he became Green Arrow's sidekick. The clone was programmed with a fervent drive to join the Justice League, which explained his intense anger at being denied in Independence Day. Wishing to eventually gain the approval of the Justice League, he refused to join the Team and struck out on his own. Unaware all along that he was a clone and a traitor, Red Arrow's secondary programming activated upon his induction. He betrayed the League to Vandal Savage by attempting to infect them with mind-controlling bio-nanotech chips.*
Batman says that he had figured out that Red Arrow was a clone and had planned ahead, subduing Savage but that Roy had escaped. Robin asks where the real Roy Harper is, to which Batman says he doesn't know, but was most likely dead. Aqualad is determined to find the Red Arrow, but Batman says Roy is now a League member and therefore, his apprehension is a League matter. Batman leaves the Team with Red Tornado.

Aqualad is still keen to find Red Arrow, at which point Red Tornado completely shuts down. The Team notices that something is not right: Zatanna says she sensed a strange mystic energy within the Cave, and she thinks that is what caused Tornado's shutdown. She also sensed the same energy emanating from Batman. Robin realizes that Batman called the Team "kids", something he would never do. Kid Flash finds one of the modified bio-tech chips from the briefcase they acquired in the Smokey Mountains, in Tornado's hand.

Aqualad directs Robin, Kid Flash, Zatanna and Rocket to see if they can get Red Tornado back online, while he and the rest of the Team leave to look for Red Arrow.

Robin thinks Tornado's shutdown was a hardware, and not a software issue, but has no idea on how to reactivate the android. Zatanna suggests moving his consciousness to the "John Smith" android Tornado built. The Team hooks him up so that they can transfer his programming to the new android. Black Canary arrives during the download, indignant at their actions. The android then wakes up, yelling at the Team to run. Canary attacks them with her Canary Cry.

Robin attacks her, but is easily repelled. She opens her mouth to scream but finds Robin's attack was a ruse to plant a gas pellet on her. It detonates, and Rocket traps her inside a force bubble with the gas, knocking Canary out. The Team, with John Smith and a bound and gagged Black Canary in tow, escape the Cave in the Super-Cycle, before Icon, Doctor Fate and Captain Marvel have a chance to catch them. John Smith instructs them to stay off the radio and let Sphere track Superboy's signal.

Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., Aqualad has found Red Arrow, in one of the many equipment caches he installed in major cities when he went solo. Aqualad is not looking to capture him; he just wants answers. Red Arrow demands that Kaldur prove he is not under the Light's control by asking him who broke his heart. Kaldur answers it was Tula, who left him for his best friend in Atlantis, and now his best friend on the surface world is aiming an arrow at his chest. The answer convinces Red Arrow, and he joins them aboard the Bio-Ship, confirming to them he was the mole all along.

*He was a sleeper agent, programmed by Cadmus to infiltrate the League. Sportsmaster was his handler, who used the key phrase "Broken Arrow" to bring him to a hypnotic state. While in that state, he could retrieve secrets from Arrow, or install further instructions in Arrow's subconscious. Red Arrow would carry out these instructions, completely unaware of what he was doing. Part of these instructions might be to cast suspicion on Superboy, Miss Martian, and Artemis as mole suspects.*
Aqualad wonders how Batman deduced this and prevented him from betraying the League to Savage. Roy says that Batman never did.

Meanwhile, in the Super-Cycle, Red Tornado reveals that the League is under the complete control of Vandal Savage and the Light.

*The bio-tech chips, called Starro-tech by Savage, were implanted by Red Arrow. The alien organisms, infused with nano-technology and magic, shut down the independent control of the individual and allowed Savage to reprogram the mind to suit his needs. Even robotic brains like Red Tornado, mystically-protected minds such as Doctor Fate, and a variety of aliens were not immune. However, the chip needed 0.16 nanoseconds to completely subvert the host, and that delay allowed Red Tornado to create a failsafe sub-routine. If he tried to infect another person, as what happened earlier when he attempted to contaminate Aqualad, the sub-program would completely disconnect his power cells, shutting him down. The reason that in the body of John Smith Tornado was not affected was because the Starro-tech was body specific.*
At this point, the Super-Cycle has found the Bio-Ship. Megan decloaked the ship to allow the Super-Cycle to enter, and both teams started to compare notes. They are unaware that the bound-and-gagged Black Canary has regained consciousness.

Red Tornado, Black Canary, and Red Arrow teleport aboard the Watchtower. Black Canary tells Savage that she was captured but escaped and used the Starro-techs on the two heroes with her as well as the Team. She informs her master that they are waiting for him on Earth. However, Klarion is monitoring all pieces of Starro-tech and realizes that she's lying; the three are not under mind control. Hal Jordan restrains them and they are infected by Starro-tech once more while Savage reveals the reason behind his plan.

What Savage doesn't know is that Red Tornado shut down the Watchtower security systems when he came aboard, and the Team has infiltrated the satellite. Using cure-tech, they take out Plastic Man, Atom, Captain Atom and Hawkman. Klarion picks up the shutdown Starros on his monitoring system and realizes that Black Canary and the others still weren't under Starro control despite having put new chips back into them. The three heroes take out Hal Jordan but Klarion recalls six Leaguers from an away mission to battle them: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, John Stewart, Hawkwoman and Martian Manhunter. They make short work of the heroes, breaking Red Arrow's bow and ripping Red Tornado's limbs off. Realizing the Team has found a cure to negate the effects of Starro-tech, Vandal Savage gives orders to dispose of the Team.

Icon, Doctor Fate and Captain Marvel return to Watchtower, but the Team ambushes them. Icon and Fate are easily tagged with cure-tech, but Captain Marvel is too fast. Zatanna casts a spell to make him speak his magic word and transform back into Billy Batson. Billy wasn't exposed to the mind control, and stays with Zatanna as she tries to take the Helmet of Fate off her father's head. Zatanna is clearly anguished that though she is able to save Fate from Savage, she wasn't able to save her father from Fate.

Meanwhile, Artemis and Kid Flash are in the cargo hold and struggling to battle Green Arrow, Aquaman and Flash simultaneously. Aqualad rushes to their aid and opens the airlock. He and his teammates hold on while the pressure out-rush begins to suck out the three adult heroes. Once Aqualad closes the outer door, the three adults are thrown into the door and knocked unconscious. Kid Flash quickly applies the cure-tech to the three Leaguers.

The rest of the Team battle the remaining League members on the observation decks. Robin, Wolf, Sphere, and Rocket manage to contain Hawkwoman, John Stewart and Wonder Woman. Batman goes after Robin while Miss Martian fights her uncle and Superboy battles Superman. Miss Martian takes on her true form and telepathically induces Martian Manhunter's weakness to fire, and tags him with Cure-tech. Robin and Superboy join forces and first take out Batman. Superboy then holds Superman long enough for Robin to use a piece of Kryptonite that he stole from the Batcave to weaken both Kryptonians and tag Superman with cure-tech.

Savage watches the battle on the monitor and tells Klarion they have to leave. Klarion wants to stay and fight but Savage warns that they might destroy the satellite, or kill several League members, and the Light can't have that, since Klarion might lose control and "bring the chaos in." Klarion teleports them both away just in time and Red Tornado congratulates the young heroes on their victory.

The computer pops up a view screen indicating the date and time, and greeted the League with a cheery "Happy New Year". As strains of "Auld lang syne" play, Kid Flash takes Artemis in a bridal carry, and kisses her, saying that he should've done it "a long time ago" and Artemis agrees. Superboy and Miss Martian follow suit passionately. Zatanna steals a kiss from Robin, and Rocket gives Aqualad a peck on the cheek. A bemused Red Tornado declares his inability to understand human customs.

After everyone has recovered, Superboy and Miss Martian are looking at Earth through the viewports when Superman comes in, prompting Miss Martian to leave. He compliments Superboy for the first time and asks Superboy about his real name. When the boy tells him, Superman responds by revealing his own secret identity, Clark Kent, and says he's proud that they're "family".

Red Arrow meets with key members of the Team and the League, distraught over what he has learned about himself. He vows to find the real Roy Harper, and Batman tells him that Guardian is already searching Cadmus for the body. They are unaware, however, that the Light has raided Cadmus, subdued Guardian and the staff, and are carting Match and the original Roy Harper out of the facility.

As Green Arrow and Black Canary take care of Red Arrow, Batman and Robin discuss another problem: during the time that Savage controlled the League, all members of the League were accounted for, for most of the time except for six of its members—Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern and Hawkwoman—who were gone for sixteen hours with no record of where they went or what they were doing for Savage.‏