We have reason to feel proud of yesterday's victories. But one thing has not changed.
Somehow, the bad guys are still getting intel about us.
Yeah, but at least we know none of us are the mole.
That's correct.
The mole was Red Arrow.
- Roy? - No way.
Batman, that cannot be. He was Green Arrow's protégé.
We have all known him for years.
Unfortunately...
the Roy Harper we have known for the last three years...
is another Project Cadmus clone.
We've learned the real Speedy was abducted and replaced...
immediately after becoming Green Arrow's sidekick.
The clone was pre-programmed with a drive to join the Justice League.
Which is why he was so angry over any delays to his admission...
and why he refused to join the Team.
This Roy Harper had no idea he was a clone or a traitor.
And his subconscious programming drove him to become League-worthy.
So he struck out on his own as Red Arrow.
When he was finally admitted, his secondary programming kicked in...
and he attempted to betray the League to Vandal Savage.
Fortunately, I had already deduced Red Arrow was a clone.
We were prepared.
Savage was subdued...
but Red Arrow escaped.
He is now a fugitive, armed and dangerous.
If you guys hadn't rescued me from Cadmus...
What happened to the real Roy?
We don't know. He isn't at Cadmus.
We have to face the possibility that the real Roy Harper is dead.
The clone Roy. The Team will find him.
Negative. Red Arrow's a member of the Justice League now.
Leave him to us.
I'm needed on the Watchtower. Tornado, stay with the kids.
Recognized, Batman, zero-two.
Clone or no clone...
Red Arrow was one of us.
We will go after him.
- Tornado. - What happened?
- He's powered down. - All functions off-line.
Guys, I'm sensing...
a low-level mystic force at play.
I don't know if it caused his shutdown, but...
Now that I think about it, I was getting the same buzz off Batman.
Batman. He called us kids. He never does that.
Look.
One of those bio-tech chips we confiscated off Cheshire.
Something is not right.
Robin, Kid, Zatanna, Rocket, see if you can get Tornado back online.
The rest with me to find Ro... Red Arrow.
The problem's hardware, not software.
But where do we start?
I have a thought.
Download in progress.
So Tornado built this android to party?
Not how he'd put it, but, yeah, more or less.
Recognized, Black Canary, one-three.
Hey, guys.
Wanted to check in, see how you're handling the...
- What are you doing to Red? - It's not how it looks.
It looks like you're downloading his consciousness into a new body.
Okay, it's pretty much exactly how it looks. But...
Team. Get out of the cave. Now!
Black Canary attacked us?
Black Canary is the least of our problems.
We must abandon the cave.
Recognized, Icon, two-zero.
Doctor Fate, one-seven. Captain Marvel, one-five.
Stay off your radios. Let the super-cycle track Superboy.
Instruct her to mask all signals. We cannot allow the League to track us.
Right. Of course. Just one question. Why is the Justice League after us?
Logs indicate Red Arrow zeta'd to the Hall from the Watchtower.
But he could be anywhere by now.
After Roy went solo, he installed equipment caches in several major cities.
One is here.
I have not come to harm or apprehend you.
- But the Team requires answers. - Me first.
Tell me something you haven't told anyone else.
Tell me who broke your heart.
Tula. The girl I loved chose my best friend Garth over me.
While my best friend on the surface world aims an arrow at my chest.
We were told you were the mole.
- But we have reason to doubt. - Forget doubt. I was the mole.
Batman and Tornado said you're a Cadmus clone. Like me.
That explains it.
I was a sleeper agent, pre-programmed to infiltrate the League.
I think Sportsmaster was my handler.
I hear you go by Red Arrow now.
More like Broken Arrow.
He had a key-phrase, Broken Arrow...
that could shut me down.
Put me in a hypnotic state to steal secrets for his superiors...
or incorporate further programming.
I'd then carry out all orders subconsciously...
completely unaware of what drove me.
I think one of those orders was to focus suspicion on the three of you.
I'm sorry.
How did Batman discover this and prevent you from betraying the League?
He didn't.
The entire League is under the complete mental domination of Vandal Savage.
Red Arrow seems to have been his means.
His method was something Savage referred to as Starro-tech...
an alien bio-organism infused with nanotechnology and magic.
It shuts down the mind's autonomy...
allowing Savage to reprogram the individual to suit his needs.
Even my inorganic brain was not immune.
But the process requires 0.16 nanoseconds to integrate with its host's nervous system.
That delay allowed me to create an internal subprogram...
which would disconnect my power cells if I attempted to infect another person.
Fortunately, the Starro-tech is body-specific.
As John Smith, I am now free of outside control.
This Starro-tech...
it worked on super-powered humans, four flavors of alien, an android...
even Doctor Fate, defeating all of you without a fight?
Indeed. A remarkable achievement. One not easily countered.
I'm sorry, but how is it that you are no longer enslaved?
No Starro-tech, for starters. Just my Cadmus programming.
And once I had satisfied its last parameter, my mind began to clear.
- L... I was the mole? - Yes. Yes, you were.
I'm sure Savage planned to Starro-tech me...
but he paused to bask.
I escaped.
I promise, I can clean any residual programming from your mind.
- Miss Martian, are you in range? - Here, Robin.
Linking both squads and de-camouflaging.
Great. Because we really need to compare notes.
Recognized, Black Canary, one-three...
Red Tornado, one-six...
Red Arrow, two-one.
Any problems?
Despite an initial setback, I was able to re-infect Red Tornado and Red Arrow.
As well as the entire Team.
They await reprogramming back on Earth.
I think not.
You see, Starro-tech does not reprogram the mind.
It offers us remote control of it.
We know exactly who's infected and who's not.
And none of you are.
But that is easily rectified.
Fifty-thousand years of life...
and nothing ever troubled me as much as the founding of the Justice League.
Dedicated to maintaining society's calcified status quo...
the League would protect mankind from disaster, crime, tragedy of any kind.
Had you never heard of the survival of the fittest?
In essence, you heroes sought to protect humanity from its own glorious evolution.
As such, you forced my more enlightened colleagues and myself...
to organize a response.
We created or co-opted networks of operatives.
Placed key individuals in key positions.
Made certain we were on the cutting edge of all new technologies.
Genetic engineering, bio-chemical engineering...
robotics, nano-robotics, even techno-sorcery.
Not to mention, every conceivable method of mind control.
Cold, hard science and a little misdirection...
and now you champions of stagnation have become our agents of change...
forcing the human race to evolve on a more advanced schedule...
allowing the Earth to take its rightful place at the center of the cosmos.
RT did it.
Wirelessly bypassed security for us as soon as he arrived.
- Savage shouldn't know we're here. - Move out.
Huh?
The brats are aboard.
They've taken away four of my toys.
Recall all League away missions.
It's time to put these children in their place once and for all.
Finally. Oh, yeah.
Hey, Vandal.
Shouldn't those three be online by now?
What?
You'll be sorry.
Ah!
The children have clearly reverse engineered a Starro-tech cure and vaccine.
- So there's no point in taking them alive. - Goody.
Recognized, Captain Marvel, one-five...
Icon, two-zero, Doctor Fate, one-seven.
Shazam! Whoa!
Too bad Cure-tech doesn't work as fast as Starro-tech.
We could use these guys.
It is a small miracle Queen Mera and Doctors Roquette...
Spence and Vulko were able to re-engineer a cure and vaccine.
- If you guys aren't busy... - On my way.
You three rendezvous with Robin and Superboy.
Uh, I'll be right behind you.
Ah!
I can save Fate from Savage, but I still can't save my father from Fate.
I'm amazed we're still alive.
They're being controlled.
They're limited by whoever's pulling their strings.
The very thing putting us in danger is the only thing giving us a chance.
Artemis. Kid.
Now!
- Hold on. - Holding.
Warning. Cargo bay venting atmosphere.
Apologies, my king.
Now.
Can she escape your force bubble?
Not if she keeps punching it.
The kinetic energy only makes it stronger.
But I'm stuck here. Anything I do risks freeing her.
Look out!
Sorry, Uncle J'onn. You leave me no choice.
- We're not gonna beat them one-on-one. - Plan B, then.
- Sure about this? - Do it.
Ugh. Kryptonite hurts.
Which is why Batman keeps it...
in an overwhelmingly impenetrable vault at the Batcave.
Well, more like a whelmingly penetrable vault.
- Time to go. - Come on, we can take them.
Yes, but in the process you'd lose control, perhaps even destroy this station.
And whether or not they're in our thrall, the Light still needs the Justice League alive...
for Phase Two.
I wouldn't lose control.
Okay, yeah, I bring the chaos.
Congratulations, Team.
You have won the day.
Happy New Year, Justice League.
- I should've done this a long time ago. - No kidding.
Liking this Team more every day.
Human customs still elude me.
The Team did good work here. You did good work.
Um, thanks.
- So I, uh... I heard you took a name. - Uh, yeah. Conner Kent.
My secret identity is Clark Kent.
I didn't know. I wasn't trying to...
No, the thing is... I'm glad. Conner Kent.
It seems right.
Everything I thought I knew about myself was a lie.
I'm not a hero or a sidekick.
I'm a traitor, a pawn.
- Roy, it'll be all... - I'm not Roy.
I don't know what I am.
All I know is I need to find the real Roy. I need to rescue Speedy.
Guardian is already searching Cadmus.
The League will arrive shortly. Leave nothing behind we might need.
Match, of course.
But I believe this might still prove useful as well.
Something else is wrong.
The entire League was under Savage's spell for just over a day.
We've accounted for most of that time.
But these six went missing for a full 16 hours we can't account for.
Sixteen hours.
What did we do?