The young girl is one of hundreds who have been partially orphaned by theit acting on hypnotic messages in the children's video series "The Hugga-Tugga-Thuggees." The magical messages, visible only to children and others possessing a certain level of innocence, were apparently inserted into the videotapes at their source, a radical Hindu temple in Calcutta, India. According to Superboy, speaking on behalf of the young hero group Young Justice, the creators of the tapes had been hoping to bring about a renewal of the Earth by the Hindu diety Kali, which would have been achieved through the mass killing of parents by their children.

Young Justice's role in stopping this scourge is unclear. While the hero group's interest in stopping an impending mass murder is obvious, what is not obvious is how Young Justice discovered the plot. Superboy offered no explanation for this other than "We find these things out. It's our job, you know."

What is clear is that the killings were stopped, but not before Traya was affected by the tapes and moved to attempt to kill her mother, Kathy Sutton, who remains in critical condition. Red Tornado, who had adopted her using the human alias John Smith has attempted to take full custody of the child, but is being blocked by the courts.

What has changed that is still uncertain. He was seen working with the mysterious group known as Primal Force, but the nature of that group is not fully understood. The heroic Black Condor is known to have been a member, though, so his rehabilitation may have already begun then.

It was not long after that that he developed an interest in the Young Justice group. Justice League spokesman Steel has stated that the Red Tornado had confided in him that his alienation from humanity had left him feeling hollow and that the three boys who founded Young Justice were made up of distinct personalities which made them an excellent case study for renewing his understanding of human emotion.

Complicating his apparent re-found humanity, though, is the fact that he attacked the Pope several months ago. While it has been determined that this was due to the influence of a machine-controlling villain named Harm, that fact has raised another point: if his mechanical nature makes him more susceptible to outside control, can he be trusted with sole custody of the child?

Sources within the super-hero community deride that suggestion. "Are human minds so hard for a super- villain to control?" laughed Steel. "Around the same time as Red Tornado's attack on the Pope, we fought to free all human minds from the control of a star-creature," he pointed out. This reporter will note for the record that he has no recollection of such an event. More convincing was Steel's also pointing out that it was someone controlling the completely human Traya who caused the injuries to her adoptive mother.

The latest controversy regarding the mysterious man occurred after two people who identified themselves as followers of his were admitted to a hospital in Gotham Heights. The two demonic-looking men had apparently been seeking to rob the place, but soon fell ill. Upon further examination, their demonic faces, which had been assumed to be masks or plastic surgery, proved to be the result of advanced genetic manipulation, and their anatomies turned out to also have been altered to something other than human.

Mickey Cannon, the new director of the government genetics project Project Cadmus expressed bafflement. "If this man is from Earth, I'm surprised we haven't heard of him until now," Cannon said. "This is cutting-edge genetic manipulation he's playing with. All I can say for certain is that this did not come from Cadmus."

Experts in mysticism are no more knowledgeable. "While it's obvious from his name that he fancies himself a devil, I have no knowledge of him from netherworldly circles," said Jason Blood, Gotham's top demonologist. About Scratch's henchmen, he said, "They don't appear to have truly become demons. I'd say that what's happened to them is a purely natural phenomenon. However, just because I don't recognize the handiwork doesn't mean it's definitely not demonic."