Robin picked the lock on the window and slipped in, his body blending into the shadows of the warehouse as he crawled around. He found a series of cords hugging the wall, and linked up his onboard computer to it. Without any input from him, he got full access to the computer system imbedded into the building, and indeed, all of the buildings. They all shared the same network, the same security system, and most importantly, they all had a line out going to Lexcorp's personal security force.
Robin chuckled lightly to himself and quickly wired the security system so it wouldn't detect the teams presence.
"Robin to Aqualad, you're clear." He thought, his inner voice echoing over the psychic link. Robin oriented himself and sneaked to the corner of the building, where the side door was located. Just as he arrived, Aqualad opened the door, and behind him Superboy crept in, both decked out in black that concealed their presence to the guards.
The security was lacking, or at least it was in the corner of the train station, where the relatively benign of Lexcorp's exports were located. The few guards monitoring the area were armed with little more than stun guns and radio's. it was the innermost of the area they needed to go too, and, as Batman had suspected, infiltrating one of the lightly secured warehouses would allow them access to the more secured areas.
"Aqualad to Miss Martian." Kal thought. "Are you in?"
"Affirmative." She replied. She, kid flash and Artemis infiltrated overhead of the building they truly wanted to inspect. Batman had marked some Kryptonite that was owned by Star Lab's in order to track it if it was stolen. Sure enough, it had been, and the tracking signal imbedded into the kryptonite had led them there. And, seeing as how it was a Lexcorp owned train station just on the outskirts of Metropolis, Batman was relatively sure the end goal was to kill Superman.
"Alright." Aqualad whispered as he followed Robin into the shadows, past a group of guards playing poker. "We'll meet up with you. Remember; you are to observe only. Robin will copy the contents of the hard drive nearest the kryptonite, install a Trojan and we'll find out what the plan for it is. We engage under no circumstance; we don't want them to scatter."
"Lets just get this over with." Superboy muttered. They exited the opposite side door, dodged a few mobile sentinels patrolling the outside train yard, and quickly entered the next building. Aqualad was surprised; the level of security visibly and dramatically increased the nearer they got to the middle.
They were two buildings away from the target when Aqualad made a signal for the three to stop.
"How heavily secured is the target building?" he asked over the link.
"Heavily." Artemis replied. "at least twenty goons, all with fully automatic weapons."
"anything else?"
"I can see what looks like some kind of control center; a glass box overlooking the place on the east wall. Its facing some kind of vertical table, and some guy is latched onto it, with machinery doing…something to him, I can't get a good look through the skylights."
"it looks like there's some kind of surgery going on." Kid Flash pitched in.
"Miss Martian, what're you picking up?"
"Everybody is extremely focused on what's happening to the man on the table. I think you could probably get in now with nobody noticing." She replied.
"Alright." Aqualad turned to Robin. "Go in, copy the hard drive, install the Trojan and come back. Got it?"
"Got it." He said with a smile. Even when looking right at him, Aqualad was surprised to find out that he still seemed to disappear without a trace. Batman had taught him well.
Robin dove in and out of darkness until he entered the building. He dropped in, and quickly hid behind a pillar of boxes. He ducked his head out of a corner and glanced up to see the skylight. He could barely make out the shadows of his team mates, ready to drop in and help him if the need arose.
he looked towards the glass box on the south wall; it seemed to be the command center for whatever was happening. He too was unable to get a good look at what seemed to be an operating table on the north wall, but he didn't pay attention. He made his way towards the glass box.
He got to the stairs, managing to avoid the guards. He began to slip under the box, but as he did, he felt something fleshy in the shadows. He looked intensely and saw a pair of eyes looking back at him, also hid under the infinite shadow of the box.
"Aahhhhh!" it screamed, in a shrill pre-pubescent voice. Surprised and stunned, the pair of eyes quickly punched Robin the face; a weak strike from underdeveloped arms, but enough to knock him down, as he was crouched when he absorbed the blow. He fell into light.
"Hey, what's going on!" a plethora of voices began to speak, and Robin was able to jump behind a few boxes as the guards let out with automatic fire.
"A little help, guys!" he yelled, both aloud and in his mind.
"What's going on?" Aqualad asked.
"Pinned down!" Robin yelled back. He readied a few explosives, but a voice echoed in the warehouse before he could throw them.
"Revolvo Offendo!" a few bolts of blue electricity shot out from underneath the box where Robin had encountered the mysterious pair of eyes, striking multiple goons. He saw as the pair of eyes shot out from under the box and into the smoke caused by his attack.
The glass of the skylight broke, and arrows shot into the smoke and confusion, along with Kid Flash, who hit the ground running.
The wall behind Robin shattered as Aqualad and Superboy ran in.
"what happened?" Aqualad asked.
"I dunno, i-" Robin said as he turned. As he did, a third shadow came in through the hole they created. He pushed Aqualad out of the way and threw the batarang into him. There was a metallic "clang" as it bounced off harmlessly. Superboy turned just in time to avoid a punch to the face.
The shadow came into focus; it was a large figure to be sure, but Robin could tell little about it, as it was covered with silver colored armor, with a black tinted glass covering the face, obscuring every detail, even its gender.
The armored figure kicked aside Aqualad and ran right through Robin, and into the fray where Miss Martian and Kid Flash were fighting armored goons.
"Momentum!" a childish voice yelled. The armored figure turned towards it and ran.
The smoke was beginning to clear, and most of the goons had been disarmed and incapacitated, the few who hadn't now had a clear field of vision to fire with. Automatic fire concentrated on superboy, and he jump back behind cover.
"We should take the Kryptonite." Robin said. "If we leave without it we might not get it back."
"I agree." Aqualad replied. "Kid flash, get the kryptonite and run, come back once you've hidden it a distance away."
"on it!"
"Everybody else; cover kid flash."
Robin shot a hook onto the above raptors and repelled up, while Superboy and Aqualad ran out, ready to face the attackers.
As soon as superboy had found an armed goon ripe for the punching, he himself was blind sided by a metallic fist. He turned to see the silver armored goon that had jumped them.
"Incendia Orbis!" an echoing, but childish voice yelled. Superboy watched in his peripheral vision as a circular line of dark, red fire shot out, hitting Aqualad in the back.
Superboy focused on his own target. He threw a punch, and to his surprise, the armored figure caught it as if it was nothing. He tried, again and again, until finally he jumped back, unsure of how the figure was not only catching his punches, but acting as if though they were nothing.
The figure bent his knees and leaned inward. A sudden shock was released from his feet, and he shot out at Superboy with his fist out. The hit connected, and another shock released, sending superboy through the opposite wall.
An arrow connected with the armored figure, exploding on contact. The figure, intact but fallen, pointed to the skylight, where Artemis was picking off stragglers.
"Hex! Nuke the skylight!"
"Aer Incursio!" the childish voice again echoed. Artemis fired an arrow, but a sudden gust of wind stopped it in its path and flung it back at her, exploding just beneath her.
Megan looked up to see a dazed, but alive, Artemis. She searched for the source of the strange voice with her telepathic mind, and found it cowering in a corner, away from the fight.
She flew towards it, ready to quickly disable him.
"There's someone coming right at you, Hex! They're invisible!"
"Ruina!" the voice shouted. The boxes around Megan exploded, sending bits of wood and metal into her body, and knocking her to the floor, her camouflage ceasing.
"KF!" Robin yelled from the raptor's, his psychic link apparently cut off. "are you still here?" Robin heard a brief shriek as Kid Flash emerged from the shadows…flying right at him.
Robin Jumped forward and grabbed him, negating some of the impact, but they both flew into the raptors at high velocity. Robin tried, and failed, to hold on to something, but they both fell to the ground. They landed on a stack of boxes, likely the last ones intact, and it broke their fall, among other things.
"Robin…the kryptonite, its…" Kid Flash muttered.
"Metallo!" a voice yelled. Robin, barely retaining consciousness, followed the source of the voice to see the Silver armored figure standing tall and facing another silver figure. But the other figure wasn't wearing armor; the silver was his metallic skin and body, a robotic suit for a brain that belonged to none other than John Corben. "I should've known!"
"And who exactly are you? A Steel knock off?" Metallo asked as he walked towards it.
"Nope." The silver armored figure replied. "I'm A whole new breed of technological super-hero! I'm…Momentum!"
"There really are no good new names nowadays." Metallo muttered as he got closer.
"Hex, now!" Momentum yelled.
"Amoveo!" the voice echoed again. Metallo pulled forward as the block of kryptonite in his chest seemed to pull out of his body. Cursing, he quickly shut the metal plate that left his power source and greatest weapon exposed. He looked back up to see Momentum, charging him.
He quickly parried a strike from him, and they began their fight. As they did, Robin, carrying kid flash on his back, ran over to Aqualad, who was on the ground, knocked down from a string of intense flames.
"you okay?"
"I'll be fine." He muttered as Robin helped him up. He looked towards the two fighting. "what's he doing fighting Metallo…?"
"he said he was a hero." Robin said. "I'll check the file's really quick, but I haven't heard of him."
"Hero or not." Superboy muttered as he walked through a hole in the wall that his body created. "I want a piece of him."
"Hold on." Aqualad said as he got to his feet. "We need to take care of our own first. If he managed to do that to you, I think he can handle Metallo for us."
"I'll get Miss Martian." Robin said as he put away his holographic computer. "I think Artemis is still on the roof, Superboy."
"fine." He muttered.
"I'll keep Kid Flash safe, come back here when you're done."Aqualad ordered. Superboy Jumped up to the roof, begrudgingly avoiding the fight. Robin ducked in and out of what shadow's were left and found Miss Martian, who was lying on the ground, bleeding.
"Megan, wake up." He said as he shook her, fearing the worst. She moaned and got up. She began to pull shards out of her body.
"What happened…?" she asked. Her eyes widened, and she jumped to her feet and spun, facing the corner of the building. "He's right behind us!" Robin readied a batarang and looked into the shadow.
"uh, wait!" a childish voice said. It came out of the shadow. The voice did indeed belong to a child; a child shorter than Robin, with a thinner build. The child wore all black, with a brown leather belt that had a book holstered on his side. The top half of his face was covered with a black bandanna with a red star pattern. "Are you…Robin?"
"The one and only." Robin replied. Even through the mask, Robin could see the child's eyes get wide.
"oh no! you…you guys are heroes too?" he asked.
"yeah." Robin put the Batarang away. He turned to Miss Martian.
"I'm sorry! I thought-"
"Look, we don't have time. Metallo's a really bad guy, and we-"
"Oh, don't worry about him. Momentum is about to finish him off." He said as he pointed. They looked to see Momentum being utterly ruthlessly beaten by Metallo. Robin looked nervously to Miss Martian and shrugged.
Momentum fell to his knees. Metallo seemed to gear up for a final attack. As he did, however, Momentum put his hand on Metallo's stomach. an explosion, an explosion that lacked any fire whatsoever, rang out from the palm of Momentum's hand, atomizing the metal that connected Metallo's top half to the bottom, and sending his torso flying into the air.
Momentum stood, and caught Metallo's torso as it came back down.
"What…what did you do to me?" he asked.
"that's my secret." Momentum said. He dropped Metallo's body unceremoniously on the ground. "And once again, a villain falls to the mighty power of momentum!"
"Is this guy serious?" Robin asked.
"Isn't he cool!" the child yelled. He ran forward towards him. Momentum turned. "Look, look! Its Robin, the boy wonder!" he said.
Robin couldn't see through Momentum's mask, but he could imagine the look he made as he realized that he and the boy had attacked other heroes.
"Who are you guys?" Robin asked.
"uh…" Momentum started.
"I am hex!" the child yelled, attempting to make his voice deeper.
"uh, right!" Momentum yelled. "And I am Momentum!"
"And together we are Hex and Momentum!" Hex yelled as he pointed (at nothing) in the air.
"I was defeated by a moron and a child." Metallo muttered on the ground. "Not my finest hour."
"Right, well, uh…Robin." Momentum said. "I guess you were staking out Metallo too. So, uh, why don't you report it to Batman or whoever, we'll just go."
"I don't think so." Aqualad said as he and Kid Flash walked out of the shadows. Superboy and Artemis descended from above as well.
"Look, we gotta go. You know, crime to fight, villains to stop. But you guys, you…you're kinda banged up-"
"Yeah!" Artemis yelled. "Because of you!"
"I'm sorry, we didn't know." Momentum said "But, uh…we did defeat Metallo for you. So…even?"
"We weren't going to defeat Metallo, we-"Kid Flash started, but Aqualad stopped him.
"You said you've been staking out Metallo? Why don't you two stick around we'll compare notes while the police get here."
"yeah!" Hex yelled with anticipation. "Cool!"
"uh…" Momentum gulped. "Alright."
Aqualad glanced around. He didn't want to compare notes at all. He just wanted to make sure they were around when Batman got there, so he knew who to chew out.