♪ Young Justice: "Auld Acquaintance" ♪ Season 1 Episode 26
We have reason to feel proud of yesterday's victories.
But one thing has not changed.
Somehow, the bad guys are still getting inside intel about us.
Yeah, but at least we know none of us were 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".
And 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...
W-what happened to the real Roy?
We don't know. He isn't in 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 is a member of the Justice League now.
Leave him to us.
I'm needed on the Watchtower. Tornado, stay with the kids.
Recognized: Batman, 0-2.
Clone or no clone, Red Arrow was one of us.
We WILL go after him.
- Tornado! - What happened to him?
- He's totally powered down. - All functions, offline.
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 get Tornado back online.
The rest, with me to find Roy... 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, 1-3.
Hey, guys, wanted to check in and 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!
OK, 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, 2-0,
Doctor Fate, 1-7,
Captain Marvel, 1-5.
Stay off your radio.
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?
Computer logs indicate Red Arrow's headed 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 love 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 are 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.
Ha! More like "Broken Arrow".
He had a key-phrase, "Broken Arrow",
that could shut me down.
It'd put me into 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 fully integrate with it's 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, this 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've satisfied its last parameter,
my mind began to clear.
I... 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, 'cause we really need to compare notes.
Recognized: Black Canary, 1-3,
Red Tornado, 1-6,
Red Arrow, 2-1.
Any problems?
Despite an initial setback,
I was able to reinfect 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 rectifying.
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,
biochemical engineering,
robotics, nano-robotics,
even techno-sorcery.
Not to mention
every conceivable method of mind-control.
Cold-hard science, 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 first, as soon as he arrived.
- Savage didn't know we're here. - Move out.
(Backwards spell)
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 back online by now?
What?
You'll be sorry!
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, 1-5,
Icon, 2-0,
Doctor Fate, 1-7.
- (Backwards spell) - Shazam!
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 at all!
- Hey, if you guys aren't busy... - On my way.
You three rendezvous with Robin and Superboy.
I'll be right behind you.
(Backwards spell)
I can save Fate from Savage, but...
I still can't save my father from Fate.
I'm amazed we're still alive.
It's 'cause they're being controlled.
They're limited by whoever's pulling their strings.
The very thing putting us in danger...
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 as she keeps punching it.
Her genetic 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 'em one on one!
Plan B, then.
- Sure about this? - Just do it!
Ah, Kryptonite.
It hurts.
Which is why Batman keeps it in a "overwhelmingly impenetrable" vault
at the Batcave.
Well... more like a "whelmingly penetrable" vault.
Time to go.
Come on, we can take 'em!
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".
OK, 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.
Uh... thanks.
So. I heard you took a name.
Uh, yeah. Conner Kent.
My secret identity is "Clark Kent".
- I didn't know! I wasn't tryin' to... - No, 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 al... - 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 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?