Bioship, en route after the Cheshire op.
The Bioship hums softly, gliding through the night sky. Rain spatters against its hull, the droplets running like veins of mercury. Inside, the Team sits in uneasy silence, the aftertaste of the Cheshire mission still lingering like ash.
Robin hunches over the console, fingers flying across the holographic interface. His expression hardens with each decrypting layer that peels back.
Robin (quietly): "…Oh no."
Zatanna notices first. "What is it? Cheshire again?"
Robin doesn't look up. He stares at the decrypted code — the Bat-symbol glowing blood-red against the interface.
Robin: "No. Worse."
He expands the feed. A new overlay appears:
PROTOCOL PHANTOMAUTHORIZATION: BATMAN-PRIME.STATUS: ACTIVE. 12:12:55 UNTIL DEPLOYMENT.
The countdown ticks downward with a cold, merciless rhythm.
Robin (grim): "If he triggered this… it means the League's been compromised. All of them."
Conner pushes forward, his voice low, tense: "Phantom? You mean… Kade?"
Robin nods. "Yeah."
Aqualad steps closer, his calm barely containing the unease simmering beneath. "Batman would only wake him for one reason."
Zatanna's brow furrows. "What reason?"
Aqualad meets her gaze. "War."
The word hangs in the air like a guillotine blade.
Rocket leans back, crossing her arms, trying to mask her nerves with bravado. "Okay, hold up. What exactly is a 'Phantom Protocol'? And who the hell is this guy?"
Zatanna, quieter but sharper: "Yeah. Everyone keeps talking like we should know him."
Robin exhales sharply. He doesn't want to do this. But they need to understand.
Robin: "Cadmus' best weapon."
Rocket blinks. "Weapon?"
Robin: "The kind that makes even Batman lose sleep."
Conner mutters under his breath, almost to himself: "More than that. He's… like me. But worse."
Rocket's voice wavers. "Worse than you? That's not exactly comforting, big guy."
Robin turns to her, eyes like steel. "Batman calls him his worst-case scenario. Phantom isn't a teammate. He's a contingency plan."
Rocket: "Contingency for what?"
Robin: "For when everything else fails."
Silence.
Even the Bioship seems to hold its breath.
The countdown clock ticks down mercilessly on the console:
12:12:54.
12:12:53.
Zatanna hugs herself, her voice small: "So… Batman thinks we've already failed."
Robin doesn't answer. He doesn't have to.
The hum of the Bioship fills the silence, but all eyes are on Robin.
He leans back from the console, fingers steepled like he's bracing himself before stepping off a ledge.
Robin: "You want to know what Phantom is? Fine."
His voice is clipped, clinical — but beneath it, there's an edge of something personal.
Robin: "Cadmus Project: Obsidian. Subject 47. Male. Codename: Phantom. Real name… Kade. They captured him young — preteen — ran him through everything: memory erasure, chemical conditioning, shadow manipulation trials. They broke him, rebuilt him, broke him again. By the time the League even heard his name, he wasn't a kid anymore. He was… something else."
Zatanna shifts uncomfortably. "Something else? You mean…?"
Robin nods. "Weaponized. Shadow-meld abilities — he can slip through walls, disappear in darkness, and… the shadows obey him. Not like an extension of his body — more like… he commands them. Cloaking, clones, lethal strikes."
Rocket raises her eyebrows. "Okay. Creepy. But powers like that don't make him Batman's boogeyman. Why ice him? Why keep him locked up?"
Robin exhales slowly. "Because he doesn't hold back."
Conner stiffens.
Robin continues: "First mission with him? Qurac. Cheshire and the Shadows. We saw what Cadmus turned him into — he dismantled a dozen operatives in under two minutes. No hesitation. No nonlethal measures. It wasn't a fight. It was a slaughter."
Zatanna swallows hard. "So that's why… he's been frozen this whole time?"
Robin: "Partly. He's too dangerous to keep in the field unsupervised. But Batman… saw something in him. Said he wasn't beyond saving. J'onn's been working with him telepathically while he's under. Trying to… fix what Cadmus broke."
Rocket leans forward, voice sharp but uneasy: "Fix him? Or leash him?"
Robin doesn't answer.
Zatanna hugs her knees on the seat, curling in on herself. "I don't know what's worse. That Batman's waking up a living weapon… or that he thinks he doesn't have a choice."
Rocket glances at her. "I don't know what's worse either — that this guy sounds like some horror movie monster… or that Batman trusts him more than he trusts us."
Conner cuts in, his voice hard: "He's not a monster."
The sudden heat in his tone makes both of them glance at him.
Conner: "You weren't there in Qurac. You didn't see him when the mission was over. He… he didn't know how to be anything else. He wanted to — but Cadmus never gave him a choice."
Rocket: "Sounds like excuses for a killer."
Conner glares at her. "Sounds like someone who's been through what I have. Worse."
The air between them feels like a drawn bowstring.
Robin glances at the countdown.12:58:12.
He shuts the console.
Robin: "Whether you like it or not, in seventy hours, Phantom's waking up. And when he does? Everything changes."
The words drop like a hammer, silencing the ship.
--
The holo-screen glows pale blue, casting harsh light across the Team's faces as Batman's pre-recorded debrief plays out — but Batman isn't here.
Red Tornado's voice fills the room:
"The mole was Red Arrow."
Rocket blurts out: "Roy? No way."
Aqualad: "That cannot be. He was Green Arrow's protégé."
Zatanna's voice is quieter, uncertain: "We've all known him for years…"
Robin doesn't answer. He's at the edge of the room, leaning against the console, hood shadowing his face. His gauntlet glows faintly beneath the cape — a countdown in red.
4:03:27.
Red Tornado continues:
"Unfortunately, the Roy Harper we have known for the last three years… is another Project Cadmus clone."
Silence.
The words hit like a punch.
Conner's fists clench, his jaw tight. He doesn't look at anyone.
Rocket: "So the real Roy—?"
Red Tornado: "Abducted and replaced. We do not know his fate."
Zatanna glances at Robin, her voice barely above a whisper: "Did you know?"
Robin's eyes stay fixed on the countdown.
3:59:50.
Robin (flatly): "Not this. Not until now."
Aqualad steps forward. "We should pursue him. Find answers. The Team owes him that."
Red Tornado: "Negative. Red Arrow is a Justice League matter now."
Rocket scoffs. "Of course. Sweep the clone drama under the rug. Typical League—"
Conner cuts her off, voice low and dangerous: "Don't talk about him like that."
Robin barely hears them. His pulse is in his ears, matching the tick of the countdown.
3:57:11.
"Twelve hours," he thinks. "That's all Bruce gave us. And it's almost gone."
He adjusts his gauntlet, hiding the timer from the others. They don't need to know yet.
Zatanna watches him, frowning. She knows he's holding something back.
Red Tornado drones on about Red Arrow's escape, Savage's subjugation, the League's investigation… but Robin barely registers it.
"Four hours. Then Kade wakes up in the middle of this nightmare. And if the League's still compromised…"
He doesn't finish the thought.
3:54:02.
The countdown blinks softly, the silent drumbeat of what's coming.
Robin clenches his fist.
"Come on, Bruce. You'd better know what you're doing."
The others are still caught in the storm of Red Arrow revelations, but Zatanna's eyes stay locked on Robin.
She's seen him steal glances at his gauntlet every few seconds, the way his jaw tightens a little more each time.
Finally, she moves closer.
Zatanna (quietly): "You keep staring at your wrist like it's going to explode."
Robin doesn't look up. "It might as well."
Zatanna: "What aren't you telling us, Robin?"
He hesitates. Normally, he'd deflect — a joke, a smirk, anything. But her voice isn't accusatory. It's worried.
Robin exhales. "…Batman triggered Protocol Phantom."
Her brow furrows. "…The thing you mentioned on the ship? That Cadmus weapon?"
Robin nods once.
Zatanna glances at his gauntlet. "How soon?"
Robin's silence is answer enough.
She steps closer, lowers her voice. "Robin. How soon?"
He glances down at the timer. 3:47:08.
Robin: "Less than four hours."
Zatanna: "Four hours until… what? He just wakes up? No supervision? No prep? In this?"
Her voice rises slightly, drawing a few curious looks from the others.
Robin turns his back, muttering: "Exactly."
She grabs his arm, forcing him to face her. Her eyes are sharp.
Zatanna: "You said it yourself — Batman froze him for a reason. If he wakes up in the middle of all this chaos, what happens, Robin? What happens if he thinks the compromised League is still his enemy? Or us?"
Robin jerks his arm free, his voice low but cutting: "Then we better figure something out before the clock hits zero."
The words land heavy between them.
Zatanna steps back, unsettled. She glances at the others — Aqualad, Rocket, Conner — none of them have heard this exchange yet.
She looks back at Robin.
Zatanna: "Then we're on the clock too."
Robin: "Exactly."
Cut to: Robin's gauntlet.
3:46:01.
The countdown pulses like a heartbeat.
--
Safehouse. A dimly lit corner, the hum of old ventilation filling the silence.
Red Arrow sits hunched on a bench, his bow leaning against the wall, hands clasped together so tightly his knuckles are white. The revelation of his own existence still clings to him like a second skin — the kind he can't peel off.
Robin enters quietly, gauntlet screen still glowing with the countdown. He doesn't speak. He doesn't need to.
Red Arrow breaks the silence first.
Red Arrow: "Batman set something in motion, didn't he?"
Robin doesn't answer right away. He just stands there, shadowed, looking like he's deciding how much truth Roy can take.
Red Arrow's voice sharpens: "What was it, Robin? I'm not a kid you can keep in the dark anymore. I deserve to know."
Robin exhales through his nose, finally meeting his gaze. "Trust me… you don't want to know."
Red Arrow chuckles bitterly, running a hand through his hair.
Red Arrow: "That's rich. A clone who didn't even know what he was — and I'm still not cleared for League secrets."
He leans back, staring at the ceiling.
Red Arrow (quieter): "Feels like I'm not the only ghost on the board."
Robin tilts his head, eyebrow raised beneath the mask. "Ghost?"
Red Arrow gestures vaguely at him, at the gauntlet, at the unspoken weight in the room. "Whoever this 'Phantom' is… he's like me, isn't he? Another Cadmus experiment. Another… thing the League didn't tell us about."
Robin's silence is confirmation enough.
Red Arrow smirks, but it's hollow. "Great. Clones and ghosts. Guess I'm in good company."
Robin: "You don't know the half of it."
The words land sharp. Robin doesn't elaborate — but the look in his eyes says everything: this is bigger, darker, and far more dangerous than Roy can imagine.
--
The Bioship roars out of the collapsing mountain, smoke and fire chasing its tail like angry ghosts. Inside, the Team is breathless and bruised — soot on their faces, adrenaline still burning in their veins.
Rocket slumps back into her seat. "Can we not almost die for, like, one mission?"
Red Tornado, calm even now: "Your survival was paramount. Remaining was not an option."
Robin doesn't respond. He's hunched over his gauntlet, thumb digging into the display, watching the timer tick down to nothing.
00:00:05.
00:00:04.
His chest feels like it's in a vice.
00:00:03.
Robin (whispering): "Come on. Come on…"
00:00:02.
00:00:01.
00:00:00.
The screen blinks red.
Robin: "Fuck."
Everyone turns at the curse.
Aqualad: "Robin—?"
Robin's voice is low but tight: "We're too late."
Red Tornado places a heavy hand on Robin's shoulder. "Then it is up to him now."
The words settle over the Team like a shroud. They don't ask who "him" is. They know.
Cut to:
Watchtower — Cryo-Chamber.
The pod hums louder than before. Lights flash in sequence, one by one — like a heartbeat restarting after a long sleep.
SYSTEM OVERRIDE.RELEASE PROTOCOL: ACTIVE.
The camera lingers on the pod.
A crack splinters through the frost.
3…
The hum grows to a low, thrumming growl as the pod vents pressurized air.
2…
Shadows begin to writhe faintly inside, like they're breathing before he does.
1…
CLOSE-UP: Phantom's face — pale, frozen, unreadable.
His eyes snap open.