The Next Generation

"No... I mean, there shouldn't be," Nightwing said with a sigh. "The last time we saw each other, he was pretty upset, though. It was at Lian's funeral... that's his daughter."

Rose hung her head. Hearing that the man on the footage had been Roy of all people was quite surprising. It brought back a lot of memories. "I... remember that. Seems like such a long time ago." She breathed outwardly and shook her head. "I was Lian's nanny for a while, you know, back when I was only like fifteen. She was such a sweet girl."

"When she died, something broke in Roy," Nightwing added, hanging his head. "We tried to offer our condolences at the funeral, but he went off on us, said he didn't need our pity. That's the last we saw of him."

Neal hung his head as he heard Nightwing continue to explain. It was such a sad thing, no parent should ever have to bury their child. Neal couldn't even imagine what kind of pain that was like. The only thing close to it, was perhaps losing a wife, or a wife-to-be in this case. Neal just gave a small sigh before glancing up once again.

"His daughter, how did she die?" Neal asked softly. He wanted to know, but part of him was worried about just what the answer might be. If it was something truly awful, perhaps something made this guy snap. But than, why would he take it out on Dick of all people? And after so many years?

None of this was adding up to Neal, and it only made him nervous about what they would find in Star City.

Nightwing leaned forward in the cockpit, folding his hands and staring out a the sky. The Batwing was on autopilot right now, so he didn't have to worry about flying it. "Roy had just been drafted from the Titans to join the Justice League, on Green Arrow's recommendation," he explained. He didn't want to, but... we pushed him to, said it was a great opportunity. But just a couple days after he left the Titans and joined with the League, a crazed villain named Prometheus attacked them, tried to wipe them out. We tried to help, but it was too late to stop the first part of his plan. Prometheus initiated devastating attacks on each of the League members' home cities... the death tolls were catastrophic. Lian... she was in their house when it collapsed. She was just five years old... Roy ended up in a coma for a few weeks, lost one of his arms... when he woke up and found out the news, his entire world ended."

Neal waited patiently as the story was told, apparently Red Arrow was pushed back into the Justice League despite his initial hesitation. It ended up being a terrible mistake, as his home city ended up destroyed and his five year old daughter had been killed in the attack. How horrible, to wake up from a coma, lose an arm, and learn that your daughter was dead. It must have killed him.

Neal let out a long breath of air before rubbing his forehead. "So.......do you really think that Roy had anything to do with what happened to Jessie?"

"I... I don't know," Nightwing muttered, gripping the arms of his seat tightly. "I don't want to. I really... don't want to." But he knew that it was a distinct possibility at this point. If Roy had been the one who killed Jessie... it didn't matter what he'd been through in the past. Nightwing would make him regret it.

The Batwing touched down in Star City a few hours later. It was night, perfect cover for them to slip around unseen, over rooftops. Nightwing led them to Roy's last known address, a small apartment located downtown. He gave them a signal to wait until he checked things out, landing on the fire escape and slipping the window open. Disappearing inside for a few moments, he looked around and found that no one was home. He reappeared a moment later and waved the two inside.

Rose landed inside silently, at least until she almost tripped over a discarded bottle of alcohol on the floor. Taking a closer look around, she found the place to be quite a mess. There were quite a few more empty alcohol bottles scattered about, as well as empty pizza boxes, and Chinese takeout, even dirty laundry. The place didn't look like it had been cleaned in a long time. On the coffee table, there a couple used syringes.

Nightwing went over to the table and lifted up one of the syringes, inspecting it. "Heroin... damn it, Roy." He let out a sigh and tossed the syringe back to the table. "Spread out and search for clues."

Neal just gave a nod, understanding why Nightwing wouldn't want to believe that Roy had anything to do with this. In truth, Neal hoped that this was like the last time. He hoped that all of the clues just pointed to the wrong person, just as they had pointed to Cheshire. Neal shook his head quickly, not wanting to think about the woman anymore. It was going to be a long flight if he couldn't get thoughts like these out of his mind.

As they arrived in Star City, it was easy to move towards Roy's last known address. He was a retired hero after all, he wasn't going to be living in some place with huge defenses. Neal also doubted that Roy's senses were as sharp as they once were. Hopefully this time they'd be able to sneak up on him, unlike what they did to Cheshire where they were caught immediately.

Nightwing soon signaled for them to move in, and what they found was definitely not pretty. "God, life has not been king to Roy," Neal muttered to himself as he especially saw the Heroin. Who knew what kind of stuff this guy had gotten into. "On it," Neal said before beginning to search the room that they were currently in. Once finished there, Neal quickly moved towards a different room and began to look around.

Hopefully they'd find something here.

Rose wandered into the next room, though the place wasn't really that big, so they likely wouldn't be searching for very long. She ended up in the bedroom, which was just as much of a disaster as the living room. They didn't have any clue what they were searching for, and it was going to be even harder to find that something in a mess like this. Apparently overwhelming grief plus a drug addiction resulted in extremely sloppy behavior. She started over at his dresser, going through the drawers and searching for anything that might be a clue.

She found a round trip plane ticket from Star City to Gotham, but that didn't help much. They already knew he'd gone to the wedding, that's how they were here in the first place. Moving on, she continued searching. Eventually, she found herself in front of a laptop computer. Well, if something was likely to have secretive information, it was his personal computer. Flipping it open, she found, to her surprise, that it was not password protected. In fact, the moment that it flickered on, she lost all control over it as a program started to run instantly.

It took her a few moments to realize what she was seeing. It was a video feed of some sort, a live feed. It showed what looked like a city street in Gotham, though from a view that suggested the camera was perched atop a building. Then, the camera started to move along the rooftop, scanning the street below... that's when Rose figured out that the camera must be attached to someone, as if showing their viewpoint. What she saw next mad her jump out of her seat.

"Guys!" she called. "Over here, now!"

On the screen, it showed Beast Boy and Raven, dressed in civilian clothes, walking out of a pizza parlor, apparently on a late night date after working all day. But what had made Rose's nerves fire off was the red bow and arrow that appeared on screen, from the point of view of the one wielding it. The arrow fired with deadly accuracy, and pierced Raven square through the chest.

Neal had ended up in the kitchen, or at least what he assumed was the kitchen. It was more likely just a very tiny area that had a refrigerator and stove in it. There was a counter, but other than a few knives and some opened up packages it didn't seem like there was much here. They were supposed to find anything that might indicate that Roy was responsible or had some idea of why the attacks were taking place, so far they had no luck though.

Neal moved into the tiny dining area, which was basically a table in the corner that was once again filled with bottles of alcohol and take out food. Neal checked the contents, but the only remnants of anything were a few pieces of cheese from the pizza. "None of this makes any sense," Neal muttered to himself. "Just what the hell is going on here?" he asked himself as he closed his eyes.

Neal didn't have any further time to focus on it though, as he suddenly heard Rose calling for them to show up. She had found something apparently, so Neal turned and ran down the hallway to enter into the bedroom. "Rose what did you find?" Neal asked before his eyes darted to the one thing in the room that stood out. Neal had missed the beginning, he only walked in on time to see Raven being shot in the chest.

"Raven!" Neal shouted as the arrow made complete contact. "That son of a bitch! He's still in Gotham!" Neal shouted angrily as the arrow struck true. God that looked bad, was she okay? "We have to get back there, or warn the others, or something! Why is he going after Raven?" Neal questioned weakly.

Why was none of this adding up? Had Roy really gone that far off the deep end?

The scene on the screen was one of bedlam. Raven fell hard, twitching and gasping as blood poured out her mouth. Beast Boy was panicking, shouting for help, while other people on the street looked on, horrified. At least a couple people had the sense of mind to pull out their phones and dial 911. Seeing Beast Boy, though, was hard. He was already in tears, screaming and holding Raven. His abilities couldn't do anything for her, couldn't heal her or stop the pain in any way. All he could do was sit there and wait for the ambulance to arrive.

"Bastard!" Nightwing shouted, slamming his fists down on the table so hard that it cracked. "Roy, you... damn you!"

"We need to go now, we have to stop him," Rose said, starting to move away from the computer. But as she did, Roy's hand came into view on the screen. It was holding a small device with a button... a button that he clicked. Instantly, the laptop's screen went black except for a single red number in the middle, a five. Wait, a four. Three. Two

"Everyone move!" Nightwing yelled, pulling Rose out of the way. One. There wasn't enough time to make it out of the room, only enough time to lunge behind the bed for cover.

Zero.

Neal wasn't sure if he had ever gripped his hands so tightly. He felt as if his nails were about to draw blood from his own skin. Just watching Raven being shot like that, out of nowhere, with an attempt to kill, he did all of this on purpose! He had shot Raven, now there was no doubt that he had been the one that had killed Jessie! What was he doing? Targeting super hero couples?

As Nightwing showed his own displeasure, Neal's face showed only anger and rage. "He will suffer greatly for what he has done," he said in a voice that was filled with venom. Neal would personally make sure that he went through ten times the amount of pain that Cheshire or anyone else he had tortured! HE would pay for this.

Neal was about to move for the door when Roy's movement caught Neal's attention, followed by the numbers that appeared on the screen. "Damn it!" Neal shouted as Nightwing pulled Rose behind the bed for cover. Neal wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth a shot. HE quickly jumped over to the same area as Nightwing and Rose before pulling up an entire wall of his soul-self. Depending on the power of the explosion, it might hold it back long enough for them to not be affected.

If it didn't, they'd have a whole lot more problems than just Roy.

The explosion didn't just take out the one apartment. It blew threw the bedroom, the hallway, the kitchen, the living room, then engulfed the floors above and blow it, until a sizable chunk of the entire building was gone. Though Neal's barrier protected them against the initial blast, they soon had a the ceiling collapsing over them, while the floor crumbled below. Before they knew it, they were falling in a pile of rubble that threatened to bury them alive.

"Shit!" Rose yelled, reaching for her energy blades. It was a good thing they didn't just cut things. Turning them on, she cross the blades together, causing an energy barrier to form around all three of them that protected against the debris falling above. However, when they hit the ground below, she landed awkwardly on her left arm and felt it twist and snap. "Fuck!"

The barrier held long enough them to dig themselves out of most of the rubble. Nightwing pushed aside a particularly large piece of drywall and rolled out onto the sidewalk, coughing and trying to get his breath back. "Everyone alright?"

"Been better," Rose muttered, holding her limp arm. "Damn thing's broken."

That explosion was definitely far more powerful than Neal had anticipated, and he was thankful that he had brought up his barrier. They might not have survived being this close to the blast originally. Of course, due to the size of the explosion, they had a bit more than just the blast to worry about. The ceiling was collapsing, and Neal didn't have time to bring up another barrier after the beating his soul-self just took.

Neal originally placed his hands over his head, as if hoping that would protect him more. Before he felt an impact though, he saw a strange bit of light. Rose's swords had created some kind of barrier, something that Neal had never seen them do before. If they were in a less dangerous situation, Neal would have complimented her on the trick.

Soon enough, the floor collapsed beneath them and they fell to the lower part of the ground. Thankfully Neal didn't land as Rose did, although he did hear her yells of pain and curse words. As they pushed out of the building and on to the sidewalk, Neal let out a series of coughing fits as he felt the dust that had entered into his lungs.

"I swear I am going to make Roy regret this," Neal muttered as he placed an arm on Rose's shoulder. "Are you alright dear?" Neal asked as his voice took on a much more concerned one.

Roy just tried to kill Nightwing, Neal, and Rose. Roy had attacked Neal's friends and Neal had a feeling that this wasn't over. It was personal now.

"We need to get back to Gotham as soon as we can. Who knows who he might go after next! For all we know he's going to try to kill Lori" Neal insisted as he looked over at Nightwing.

"I'll be fine," Rose said, already running after Nightwing, who was heading back to the Batwing. "Let's just go, we have to get back to Gotham as soon as possible!"

The group was back in the Batwing in record time. Normally, they'd stay behind and help the authorities with the cleanup from the explosion, but they couldn't waste any time right now. Every one of their friends was in danger right now. They didn't know Roy's motives, why he was doing this, but they were all targets. Surely, the others would figure out who the killer was now that he'd gone and struck so outright, with his signature arrows even, but would they be able to stop him before he hurt someone else?

"That's it," Nightwing muttered, pushing the Batwing into full gear. "I'm done feeling sorry for you Roy, you've gone too far this time!"

Neal quickly took off after Nightwing as Rose showed that she was fine enough to move and run. She was running after Nightwing already, with Neal quickly moving off behind her. They needed to keep moving before things grew too late. It would take several hours to get back to Gotham, who knew what might happen in that time period?

As they sat in the Batwing, Neal could feel that Dick was pushing the vehicle as fast as it could go. They needed to get to Gotham and stop Roy before anyone else was hurt after all. With luck though, they will have already found him and caught him before he struck another target. "Yes, too far indeed," Neal said in an angry voice as he just stared at the ground.

It was one thing to fight a villain that was against them, but Roy had been a hero and even part of the Titans. Had he fallen so far from his sanity that this is what it lead him to? Murder of his own kind?

He would pay.

"Batman, come in, do you read me?" Dick asked, pressing the long range communication button. There was a small hiss of static before he received a response.

"I hear you," Batman said, giving him a small nod as his picture appeared on the screen in the Batwing.

Dick quickly explained the situation, about them going to Star City to question Roy, only to find the evidence at his apartment, and seeing Raven shot by one of his arrows. "We have to find him and stop him before he hurts anyone else!"

"I'll have Oracle check into things," Batman said. "See if she can find any information regarding Roy or his known aliases checking in anywhere. If he's still on the grid, she'll find him."

"Just make sure to watch out for rooftops," Dick added. "And tell everyone involved to be careful, there's no telling who he might go after next."

Rose clutched her broken arm tightly; after pulling the sleeve on her outfit up, the skin on her forearm was bright red and beginning to swell. "He's really gone off the deep end this time..." she muttered, leaning back in her seat. "If Raven or anyone else dies, I'll kill him. I don't care how much I've changed, I'll fucking kill him."

Neal listened to the conversation between Dick and Batman took place. Batman was now fully caught up with the situation, so now everyone would know who to look out for at least. Roy was guilty, the evidence at his apartment and his own attack on Raven was all the proof that they needed. When they found him, they would put an end to his madness. He only wanted to kill now, and for all they knew he had already claimed his second victim.

"Please be okay Raven," Neal said under his breath.

As Rose spoke, Neal glanced over at her and thought about what she said. He couldn't help but wonder if she really meant it or not. He believed that she did, and that was what made Neal nervous. "We don't kill.......we can't or we'll ruin all the good that we've done," Neal said in a low voice. He wanted to kill Roy and make him suffer, but it wasn't what they did. They were heroes, they were the good guys. If they killed off one of their own, what would be the consequences of that action?

"God this whole situation is just so..........wrong"

Rose bowed her head and grumbled. "So he can kill all our friends and the best we're supposed to be able to do is punch him a few times and throw him in jail? Not good enough... not this time."

"We'll stop him," Nightwing said, flatly. "Before anyone else gets hurt."

The Batwing continued its journey towards Gotham at full speed. It would still be another couple of hours until thy got there, and anything could happen during that time. They were just hoping they didn't get another call before then with bad news. There had been too much of that lately, bad news. Unfortunately, it just kept piling on.

"Nightwing, do you copy?" a female voice sounded over the comm system.

"Oracle," Nightwing said. "What do you have?"

There was a brief pause. "It's Tim... he's in the hospital. It's pretty bad."

Nightwing let out a shout and smashed his fist against the console. "What happened?"

"He was patrolling the streets," Oracle replied. "A truck hit him and threw him off his R-cycle. Witnesses say that the truck veered straight at him. Wonder Girl went with him to the hospital, but he's in critical condition."

"Wonder Girl..." he muttered. "She and Tim started going out a while ago, didn't they?"

"I believe so," Oracle responded.

Rose lifted an eyebrow. "Another couple."

Neal couldn't look at Rose when she spoke. It wasn't because she was so far off, but because what she said seemed so reasonable. This guy was attacking and killing their friends, didn't they have the right to crush his head in? Shouldn't they be able to kill him and not feel bad about it? Neal only asked himself one question, would he kill Roy if it meant making sure that Rose was safe? The answer was obvious. Neal would do it in a second if he had that guarantee.

As the news came in about Tim, Neal just shook his head. It was like being powerless all over again. Roy was in Gotham attacking the Titan couples, and there wasn't a single thing that he could do about it. They had to just keep listening. At this rate, someone else was going to get killed.

"Three times makes a pattern," Neal said simply as he glanced over to Rose. "Apparently Roy losing his daughter has made him want to destroy all the other heroes's chance of happiness," he remarked sadly. "Can we think of anyone else that he might go after?"

Nightwing went quiet for a minute, thinking about possible new targets. But there weren't anymore Titans involved in a relationship of any kind. Theoretically, that should mean the attacks would stop... but he knew it wasn't that simple. But aside from Neal and Rose, he couldn't think of...

"Shit," Nightwing said, pressing the comm button again. "Oracle, get me Starfire. Now!"

"Kory?" Rose said, looking at him curiously. "But Sarah's..."

"Not here," he finished. "Which means she's not the one he'll go for. But Kory still has someone. I just pray to god I'm wrong."

Rose flinches, her eye going wide. "Lori."

Oracle's voice came over the speakers a second later. "Patching her through now."

And then it was Starfire's voice. "Dick? What is it? Is everything okay? I heard about the attacks."

"Kory, where are you?" he asked.

"I'm at Cassandra's apartment," she replied. "She was kind enough to allow me to stay here with her while we were in Gotham. But she's out patrolling right now. Dick, what's this about?"

"Where's Lori?" There was a small pause. "Kory, where is she?!"

Starfire's voice reappeared. "She's in the bedroom sleeping in her crib. Dick, you're scaring me, what's wrong?"

"Go check on her," Dick ordered. When Starfire tried to question why, he shot back harshly. "Just do it!"

Another long pause as Starfire went into the bedroom. "X'hal..." Starfire uttered, in shocked fright. "Lori! Lori, where... she's gone. Dick, she's gone!"

Neal tried to think about it along with everyone else, but it didn't seem like any of the other Titans were in a relationship of any kind. He thought that one of the others might know something that he didn't, as Dick knew that Tim and Wonder Girl were dating. So who could possibly be next?

As it was revealed who, Neal's heart felt like it was about to explode. No....no that was impossible. Roy had kidnapped Lori, and that meant the only thing he planned on doing with her was to harm her. God, for all they knew she could already be dead. No, Neal couldn't afford to think like that. They couldn't give up.

"Alright, I take back what I said earlier. This guy's dead the moment we get our hands on him," Neal said in anger as he grabbed the handle of his sword tightly. Why would Roy go after Lori though? Starfire had already lost her wife, so was Roy so angry that he would take away someone else's daughter as he had lost his own? That was messed up.

"We have to inform everyone about this immediately, we can't let Lori get hurt by Roy"

"That's it, Oracle, get me J'onn," Nightwing said quickly. "I want him to do a psychic sweep of the city. I want him to find Roy, now!"

"I'll put in the request," Oracle responded. A brief few minutes went by, though those minutes felt like an eternity. Every minute longer spent looking for Roy was another chance for Lori to be hurt. "Done. J'onn's located Roy in an old shipping warehouse near the docks."

"Have Batman and everyone else get there immediately!" Nightwing said. "I want him stopped!"

Another few moments of silence. "What the... oh my god," Oracle uttered.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Nightwing asked.

"I've just received about a dozen reports of coordinated attacks all over the city," she explained. "It's like all the gangs in Gotham just decided to start a field day! I don't know if we have enough people to cover this..."

Rose blinked. "All the gangs in Gotham? That's too much of a coincidence... Roy must have planned that somehow."

"Forget it, upload the coordinates to me," Nightwing said, pressing a few buttons. "And inform Starfire to meet us there. We'll handle Roy while everyone else takes care of the gang warfare."

"Hold on," Rose said, giving him a concerned look. "Did you just say... a few minutes? But we're an hour and a half out at least."

"Not anymore," Nightwing said, pressing a big red button on the dash. Suddenly, the Batwing lurched forward with about ten times as much speed, the jet in the back going on overload. "Everyone hang on!"

"Holy shit!" Rose yelled, as she was cemented into her seat from the sudden force. "Why didn't we just do this from the beginning?!"

Nightwing pushed the controls forward, adding speed. "Because there's an eighty percent chance that the Batwing will explode about three minutes from now."

Neal waited eagerly, hoping that J'onn would be able to find something that would help them to find Roy before he hurt Lori. The longer that they waited, the more likely that he'd murder the poor girl. Neal felt his insides cringe as he thought about Starfire. She had already lost Sarah, they couldn't let her lose Lori!

As Roy's location was submitted to them, it became obvious that Roy had a plan to stall the heroes tracking them down. "God how long has this guy been planning all of this?" Neal asked himself as they received the news. He was one retired hero, and yet he was still capable of so much chaos and destruction. It was a terrifying thought to focus on.

Neal raised an eyebrow as Dick said that they would get there within a few minutes. "What do you mean by-" but Neal cut himself off as he was shot back into his seat as well. "God I feel like my heart just hit the back of my chest!" Neal shouted as he hung on to his seat. He wasn't sure just what kind of power they were using, but it was very obvious that this was a dangerous move to make. Still, Neal couldn't blame Dick. By the time all the gangs were dealt with, Roy could disappear forever.

As they approached Gotham fast, warning lights and alarms began flickering inside the Batwing. The systems were definitely going haywire. Rose was starting worry what would come first, their arrival, or the explosion. Fortunately, they didn't have to die in a fiery crash, as the city quickly appeared on the horizon, and got exponentially closer in seconds.

"Prepare to eject!" Nightwing said, waiting until they were at the right point. He then hit he button, causing the top of the aircraft to open up and all three of their seats to fire up into the sky. Their forward momentum carried them just far enough to reach the correct warehouse by the docks, where Starfire should be waiting. "Alright, Neal, take us down." Descending with parachutes would be much to slow, so he was counting on Neal to bring them down with his soul-self.

Once they were in front of the docks, Nightwing looked around for Starfire, but she was nowhere to be found. "She must have gone ahead of us."

"Well as much as I respect Starfire's battle prowess," Rose muttered, "Roy's obviously been planning this for a long time, and he's likely prepared."

"Alright, we go in and split up," Nightwing said. "Keep communications open and contact the others if you find anything. And remember, saving Lori comes first."

Neal's grip on the arm of his seat was a like a vice grip as Gotham finally came in to view. Wow, Neal didn't even want to ask how fast he was going Besides, if he opened his mouth he was probably going to throw up at the rate that they were going. It wasn't long afterwards that Nightwing gave the command that they were going to eject. It all happened so quickly, at first it was just them in the jet, and now they were falling in the air.

"On it!" Neal shouted before creating a large black platform for all of them to land on. Neal took only a few moments to catch his breath before quickly descending down to the docks. He needed to keep up his concentration, or else they'd free fall to the waters below. Once they made it down to the ground, Neal dispelled the black projection that he had made.

"I can't blame her for going on ahead, if it was someone I loved I wouldn't wait for back up no matter who it was I would have to fight," Neal pointed out as Nightwing mentioned that Starfire should have been here.

As the instructions were given, Neal gave a single nod. "Got it, I hope to hear from one of you soon," Neal said before moving around towards the back. He stayed to the shadows as much as he could, since he had no idea where Roy was. He would have to use everything that the League of Assassins had taught him. Neal wasn't going to let this guy's arrow kill him just because he made himself too obvious. Neal continued to press forward, constantly having his eyes scan the area for any sign of movement.

Rose veered off through the long, dark, and run down hallways of the warehouse, making sure to search every room carefully. Her broken arm still throbbed and was quite useless at this point, but she wasn't going to let that slow her down. She'd just have to fight with a handicap. Besides, even with a handicap, she could still beat the crap out of Roy no problem. All he had were his arrows. She just needed to close to him and she could tear him apart, which she would do so gladly, piece by piece. If he so much as harmed one hair on Lori's head, she'd make him wish he'd never been born.

A few minutes later, she ended up in a larger room with tall ceilings. it looked like some kind of storage area, where they would have stacked pallets full of equipment. Large rafters were overhead, perfect vantage points for an archer. She kept her eyes up near the ceiling, checking the shadows carefully for any signs of Roy. Nothing so far, but he had to be here somew-

"Shit!" she yelled, jumping to he side. Her precog had gone off just in time, as she saw the arrow hitting her straight through the back of the chest before it happened. Fortunately, her ability allowed her to gt out of the way before the possibility became a reality. "Come on out, Roy! I'll rip you apart!"

"Now why would I go and do that?" the voice responded from the darkness. "Go down there and let you beat me to hell, or stay up here where I can take you down with ease? I think I'll go with the latter option, thanks."

The kiss of an arrow being fired sounded out. Rose jumped to the side again, dodging. "Why are you doing this Roy? Why are you attacking your friends!"

"You wouldn't understand," Roy replied. "But you will... soon enough, you will. Everyone will."

"Neal, Dick, I have in the back, come and-" she started to say, but she only got static in response.

"Communication jammers," Roy explained. "You won't be able to contact them. Now... lay down."

Another hiss of an arrow. Rose saw it, dodged... but suddenly fell when a crippling pain pierced her achilles tendon. The arrow hadn't been aimed at her at all, but rather at a metal beam behind her. It ricocheted off three separate beams afterwards to come back around and drive straight through her ankle.

"Don't worry, it'll all be over soon," Roy said, firing another arrow. This one erupted with a metal net that surrounded Rose, then delivered an electric shock through her system that dropped her into unconsciousness almost instantly. Roy then finally came back down to retrieve her, dragging her off.

When Neal finally made it to another one of the large storage chambers, he'd find Rose sitting there unconscious in a chair, tied up and the arrow still through her ankle. A strange device was rigged in front of her, connected to a mounted crossbow pointed straight at her head. Also present was Starfire, wrapped up with strong metal bands that shocked every time she moved too much. there was also another metal band over her mouth, rendering her unable to talk. Behind her was a small cradle, in which presumably was Lori. Roy, though, was nowhere to be seen, waiting up in the rafters for someone else to appear. if they even tried to go for their friends, he'd make sure they didn't get very far.