Mind Games (JLA: KOR Episode)

Mind Games is the 8th episode of Justice League: Knights of Rao.

Featured Characters

 * Bat-Family
 * Batgirl / Barbara Gordon
 * Batman / Bruce Wayne
 * Red Robin / Tim Drake (first appearance)
 * Robin / Damian Wayne
 * Royal Guard Patrol (first appearance) (flashback and main story) (join the Knights of Rao)
 * Bishop / Lucas Blake (first appearance)
 * King / Cade Ferguson (first appearance)
 * Knight / Adam Hill (first appearance)
 * Queen / Sarah Falsworth (first appearance)
 * Rook / Karen Blake (first appearance)

Supporting Characters

 * Knights of Rao
 * Alpha Wolf / Milo Chaves (cameo)
 * Blue Lantern / Collin Hill (cameo)
 * Emerald / Dionne Stewart (cameo)
 * Galaxor / Mitchell Davies (cameo)
 * Indigo Lantern / Amber Lang (cameo)
 * Long Shadow (cameo)
 * New Gaia / Delilah Raymond Snow (cameo)
 * Omega Knight / Jason Burke (cameo)
 * Sun Rose / Esperanza Del Rey (cameo)
 * Terra / Tara Markov
 * Toymaster / Hiro Hamada
 * Justice League
 * Geo-Force / Brion Markov
 * Supergirl / Kara Zor-El
 * Alfred Pennyworth
 * Vicki Vale (first appearance)
 * Ace / Bryony (single appearance as Ace) (leaves the Royal Flush Gang)

Villains

 * Joker (first full appearance)
 * Royal Flush Gang (first appearance) (leave Project Cadmus)
 * Jack (first appearance)
 * King (first appearance)
 * Queen (first appearance)
 * Ten (first appearance)
 * Harley Quinn / Harleen Quinzel (first appearance)
 * Project Cadmus
 * John Lynch (single appearance)


 * Vandal Savage (flashback only)

Other Characters

 * Superman / Clark Kent / Kal-El (hologram only)
 * Mike Falsworth (flashback only) (deceased)

Summary
Terra and her team train a group of teenage sportspeople with superhuman abilities they just rescued from Project Cadmus agents. The new group, calling themselves the Royal Guard Patrol, aids the Batman and his trainees Robin, Batgirl and Red Robin to defeat the Joker and his Royal Flush Gang and works to expose John Lynch, the Cadmus General who attempted to capture them and turn them into weapons and indirectly created the Joker's group.

Plot
Terra is training a group of Chess-game themed new recruits known as the "Royal Guard Patrol". A flashback set one day ago (narrated by Terra herself) reveals that the group (consisting of Basketball champion Cade Ferguson (King), professional surfer Sarah Falsworth (Queen), Archery and Skeet champion Lucas Blake (Bishop), Gymnastics acrobat Adam Hill (Knight) and successful boxer and wrestler Karen Blake (Rook)) was formed and brought together as a family by their trainer and father-figure Mike Falsworth (who was also another victim of Vandal Savage's rampage) and saved by Terra from terrorists working for Savage, who wanted to make weapons out of Project Cadmus' metahumans. Meanwhile, in the Batcave, while training his prodigies, Batman overhears a message from the Joker announcing from a Game Show channel in Las Vegas his twisted plan to take dozens of lives with bombs implanted all over the nearby Casino.

With other members of the League unavailable due to their proper missions, Batman, Batgirl, Robin and Red Robin recruit Geo-Force and Supergirl to help deal with the Joker and his Pawns, including Harley Quinn and a group of teenage super-soldiers from Project Cadmus known as the Royal Flush Gang. The Joker publicly reveals that the teens were subjects of the agency's metahuman research under supervision of Colonel John Lynch. The Joker "freed" them from a government facility and formed the group. Knowing that both the Joker and Lynch are corrupt, the Royal Guard Patrol travel to Las Vegas determined to help Batman's group stop the Joker and expose Lynch. Batman and his team arrive and eventually meet the Patrol before the Joker announces his "game": the heroes have 20 minutes to defeat the Gang and defuse the bombs before they explode and destroy the city.

Batman and his teammates agree to work alongside the Patrol as the has them split in small groups (Geo-Force and King, Supergirl and Queen, Batgirl and Rook, Robin and Knight and Red Robin and Bishop) to stop the bombs and outwit the Joker's pawns. A battle issues between Batman's allies and the Joker's goons. The heroes keep the Gang members occupied while Batman defuses the bombs one by one and reaches the Joker. Harley attempts to stop him by attacking him from the helicopter, but she is attacked by Batgirl, who brings the helicopter down with Jack tossed in its Blades, and Rook, who breaks Harley's back. Batman is near to reach the Joker in the Control Room until he is confronted by Lynch, who turns out to be allied to the Joker. Batman is not surprised (and nor is he pleased by this), saying: "Did you really think I didn't know any of that? Like the Joker and every criminal I fought against, you and those Project Cadmus so-called "patriots" have been nothing more than exactly what the Joker is. Irredeemable... Mindless... and Unforgivable psychopaths.".

Lynch voices his disagreement in Batman's opinions, claiming that he plans to aid the Joker to report the destruction of Las Vegas as an "accident" the Justice League could not stop. As he and Batman speak, Bishop discreetly records Lynch's confessions with his tech for the authorities to hear before Batman subdues him and leaves him to be arrested. Right after defeating the Gang, Batman's group and the Patrol break into the Control Room, where the Joker attempts to use Ace, who has telepathy and is able to create illusions which drive people insane just by looking at them even through video broadcasts, to cripple the heroes' minds. However, the heroes predicted this after having tricked Harley and the other Gang members into revealing the secret of Ace's powers to them, and were wearing special glasses and helmets to prevent the influence. As Batman, King, Geo-Force, Knight, Bishop and the Robins subdue the Joker, Supergirl, Queen, Batgirl and Rook intercept Ace and depower her with Toymaster's River Styx serum. The progress also reverts Ace to her true form: a five-year old helpless child girl with human blue eyes (her teenage form with large black eyes was just an hallucination created by her powers). Assuming that Ace herself had been twisted by her own powers her entire life, King and Queen, renaming Ace as Bryony, decide to adopt her as their own daughter. As the Joker and Lynch are taken to prison along with the remaining members of the Gang and Harley, who end up vengefully beaten by the Joker for jeopardizing his plan, Batman and his team thank the R.G.P. for their help before they leave with Bryony back to Terra's headquarters, where they are congratulated by her and Superman for their success. Terra wonders if Batman will learn about Superman's involvement with the team's activities, to which he replies: "Sooner or later. But he'll understand. He always does."

Voices

 * Kevin Conroy as Batman / Bruce Wayne
 * Jason Marsden as Geo-Force / Brion Markov
 * Josh Keaton as King of the Royal Guard Patrol / Cade Ferguson
 * Tara Strong as Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, Robin / Damian Wayne, Vicki Vale, Queen of the royal Flush Gang
 * Jennifer Hale as Queen of the Royal Guard Patrol / Sarah Falsworth
 * Kath Soucie as Batgirl / Barbara Gordon
 * Danielle Nicolet as Rook of the Royal Guard Patrol / Karen Blake
 * Roger Craig Smith as Red Robin / Tim Drake
 * Bumper Robinson as Bishop of the Royal Guard Patrol / Lucas Blake
 * Ashley Johnson as Terra / Tara Markov
 * Eric Bauza as Toymaster / Hiro Okamura, Knight of the Royal Guard / Adam Hill
 * Martin Jarvis as Alfred Pennyworth
 * George Newbern as Superman / Clark Kent / Kal-El
 * Mark Hamill as the Joker
 * Kat Cressida as Harley Quinn / Harleen Quinzel
 * Scott Menville as King of the Royal Flush Gang
 * Hynden Walch as Ace of the Royal Flush Gang / Bryony
 * Khary Payton as Ten of the Royal Flush Gang
 * Greg Cipes as Jack of the Royal Flush Gang
 * Fred Tatasciore as Colonel John Lynch