"I've made it two years so far," Tim starts, then stops. He hates everything about this, but most of all, he hates the realization that if there was someone else doing what he'd done, he might be right there on Loki's team. They don't know him. They've got no reason to trust him. There's no Justice League here, no Titans, no visible team to vouch for his credentials. He changes tactics midstream.

"And if you think I did it without help, you're dead wrong. You've got me wrong. And I'm going to prove it, the only way I can."

He pauses. Swallows. "Give me back my system," he says. "All feelers, all back doors, all Trojans. Get out of it. You won't need it. If anything big comes up this week, I'll tell you. And I hope you're up to writing some new security programs, because if I'm going to extend network access to every vigilante on the island that we can agree is trustworthy, it's going to need the upgrade. You don't get any information on my current collaborators they don't offer freely, but apart from that, everything I have archived and everything I can see, that's yours."

It stings. Also, this guy said no bargaining, and he's already shown he doesn't need Tim's permission, so maybe it's a futile gesture. But it's the best he's got.

"Coding a smartphone app will take me a week. Another week or two to get it tested, synched, and integrated with security. But after that... you'll be able to see I'm not what you're making me out to be."