A/N: Here's Chapter two. I've also changed my mind about Gohan's pairing — I've put up a poll on my profile. Please vote. Once the poll closes, I'll put my other one for Young Phantom back up; the two powers in the lead are Telekinesis and Cryokinesis.
Also, This story is now being Beta'd by pyromania101.
-Read and Review-
0o0o0o0o0
On the island nation of Santa Prisca, an island known for the production of steroids, a factory had been taken over by an extremist cultist group that worshiped their leader. They called themselves The Cult of the Kobra. Inside the main factory of the island, the "old" owners of the factory were being held prisoner by the dangerous extremists. ["Our most exalted Leader has said that if one of you can defeat his greatest champion in single combat, then he will return your factory to you, and leave,"] a robed man said in Spanish.
A large, very muscular man stood up from the group of prisoners and walked towards the steel cage door to the fighting arena. ["Just make it interesting,"] the man spoke, also in Spanish, as he entered the room.
He heard the sound of something hitting the factory floor, and looked behind him to see his Venom injector lying a few feet away from him. ["You return to me my greatest weapon? What's the catch?"] the large man asked.
["No catch; It would hardly be a true test of His champion's prowess if you were not at your best,"] the robed man explained calmly.
["You want my best?"] the large man asked, before putting his Venom containers on his wrist and hooking the hose up to the back of his mask. ["You've got it."]
An orange liquid started to flow through the tube, and into his system, causing a massive growth of muscle that made him quite intimidating in build.
A girl with orangish hair that had been reduced to a mohawk – called Shimmer by others –stepped up to a boy, her brother, with a hand-held injector filled with a purple liquid, and jammed it into his body. He started to groan in pain, before collapsing to his knees and starting an incredibly disturbing transformation.
When the transformation was complete…where once a scrawny, no threat boy had stood…there was now a hulking behemoth of a monster. It had greyish-colored skin that was ripped open in many places which exposed the muscle underneath, and was easily over seven feet tall. When it got to its feet, which now had claws instead of nails, it roared at the masked man in front of it before charging him.
It struck him once, before the Spanish-speaking man gave two powerful punches to its chin and chest…only to see that he'd done absolutely nothing to it. It then grabbed the surprised man by the neck and punched him with devastating force in the stomach. The beast then punched him into a standing position, before punching the man across the face.
It then grabbed the man and spun him through the air, before throwing him at a large pipe. When the masked man staggered to his feet, the beast shoulder rushed him into the pipe with even more force than it had thrown him with. The pipe burst, letting steam shoot out all around the man and beast. The hulking monster grabbed Bane, for that was who this man was, and threw him out of the steam, before leaping out itself and delivering a crushing blow to the man's head when it descended.
Those watching couldn't help but wince as a sickening crunch was heard.
When the beast stood up, the man's head was in a small crater of concrete. Mammoth – for that was what the creature was called – roared one last time, signaling its victory over the masked villain known as Bane.
The man who'd offered the chance of battle to Bane smiled. "Hail Kobra, hail Kobra," he said, the others around him soon picking up the chant, until the entirety of the factory was filled with the shouts of the cultists. "HAIL KOBRA! HAIL KOBRA! HAIL KOBRA!"
The whole time this was happening, a tall and well-muscled man watched on. He was Kobra, the Leader of the Cult of the Kobra and a man who believed himself to be the mortal incarnation of Lord Naga Naga – the God of Snakes.
0o0o0o0o0
July 22, 20:08 ECT
The Team was flying in the Bioship over the Caribbean Sea.
"We're approaching Santa Prisca," Miss Martian told them. The Bioship was occupied by Robin to her right, Kid Flash to her left; Superboy was in the front deat with Gohan on his left and Aqualad on his right.
0o0o0o0o0
-5 hours earlier-
At Mount Justice, nine heroes were gathered for a mission briefing. Batman and Red Tornado were standing next to some holographic viewing screens, while the Team stood in front of them.
The members of the Team were in their civilian clothes, which in Gohan's case was an outfit that was an exact copy of his Father's signature outfit – the orange of the Kame Sennin House of Martial Arts. There were only two differences between his clothes and his father's: Gohan's were obviously smaller to fit his younger body, and the 'Ma' or 'Demon' symbol on the back under a smaller Kaioken symbol – he had the symbol put there out of respect for his first mentor Piccolo.
"Isla Santa Prisca," the Dark Knight began. "This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neo-steroid, a strength enhancing drug, sold under the street name 'Venom.'"
Batman pulled up some maps and charts, before continuing with his mission briefing. "Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory is still operating at full capacity," the Caped Crusader explained, "but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off."
The Team was listening intently, the only one of them doing something other than listening was Wally – who was eating a bag of chips.
"That's where the Team comes in," Batman said, turning to face them. "This is a covert, recon mission only. Observe and report. If the League needs to intervene, it will."
Batman turned back to the holographic monitors. "The plan requires two drop zones," he said.
"So who's in charge?" Robin asked, alerting the two Leaguers to the question on the minds of all but two members of the Team – those two being Aqualad and Gohan, neither of which really cared as long as the mission was a success and no one on the Team got hurt.
Batman and Tornado looked at each other, before Batman looked back at the team. "Because Gohan has the most experience facing the unknown, as well as having agreed to teach the rest of you how to manipulate Ki, he will be placed in charge of the Team when you're deployed on missions," Batman declared.
Artemis, Kid Flash, and Robin seemed a little peeved at the idea that they had to take orders from an eleven-year-old (despite him looking older) for their first real mission, but they knew better than to argue with Batman when he had made up his mind.
0o0o0o0o0
"Drop Zone A in thirty," Miss Martian informed the team as they got closer to their destination.
Aqualad stood up from his seat, and pressed the symbol for Atlantis on his belt, his clothes taking on a grey and black shade as he activated his stealth tech. "Ready," the Atlantean said.
"Putting the Bioship in camouflage mode," Miss Martian said. The Bioship shifted its outer coloration to match the surrounding environment.
The ship lowered itself down to being just above the water, and Aqualad dove out of a hole that appeared in the bottom of the ship and entered the water head first. Aqualad quickly swam through the water, avoiding the mines and cutting through the net surrounding the island's waters.
He leapt onto the beach, and quickly ran up to the motion sensors, placing a high-tech device on top of one of them, before a beep was heard. "Motion sensors are patched," Aqualad radioed to the others. "Data's now on a continuous loop. Move in."
"Drop Zone B," Miss Martian said, moving the Bioship over a clearing in the rainforest.
The six remaining heroes got out of their chairs and – with the exceptions of Gohan, Superboy, and Miss Martian – activated their newly acquired Stealth-Tech. Miss Martian had two hooks lower from the ceiling of the ship so that Robin and Kid Flash could safely lower themselves to the ground.
"How cool is this?" Kid Flash asked Miss Martian, while starting to play with his Stealth-Tech.
"Very impressive," Miss Martian said, before her clothes changed, the main part becoming a full-body black suit with a red "X " that went from her shoulders down to her red belt while at the same time her cape gained a hood to further add to the stealth of the mission.
"Uh, that works too," Kid Flash said, feeling somewhat under-equipped. "Hey; Supey, Gohan. Not too late to put on the new Stealth-Tech."
Superboy answered first. "No tights, no capes; no offense," the Boy of Steel said as he stood up.
"It totally works for you," Miss Martian said in a dreamy daze while gazing at Superboy, who turned to look at her. "That you can totally do good work in those clothes," She finished defensively, trying to save herself the embarrassment of her crush thinking she was weird. Superboy looked away, while Miss M turned invisible and put her hood over her face to try and hide her blush.
"So what about you Gohan?" Kid Flash asked, trying to ignore the scene that just happened. "Why don't you want the new Stealth-Tech?"
Gohan was wearing an exact duplicate of the outfit he wore at the Cell Games, minus the cape. "I prefer to honor my family and teacher with the clothes I wear," the Demi-Saiyan responded simply. "Now let's get going."
Miss Martian floated out of the Bioship, followed by the lowering Kid Flash and Robin. Superboy jumped down to the forest floor, creating a small localized seismic event. "Told you I didn't need a line," the Super clone said as he stood up.
"And yet creating a seismic event may not have helped us much with the covert," Robin complained; he, Kid Flash, and Miss had been forced to move out of the way of the descending Kryptonean clone.
"Guys, you need to be quieter – we have no idea if we're alone out here," Gohan informed Superboy and Robin, alerting the others to his location twenty feet away – none of them having even noticed he'd joined them on the ground.
"Aqualad, Drop B is go," Miss Martian said over the radio comlink.
0o0o0o0o0
Aqualad was currently climbing up a cliff face. "Head to the factory," the Atlantean said, not once stopping his ascent of the cliff. "I'll track your coordinates via your GPS and rendezvous as soon as I can."
0o0o0o0o0
"Roger that," Robin said, before he and the other members of the Team took off into the forest.
After a minute of traveling, Robin picked up multiple heat signatures on his wrist computer while Superboy and Gohan heard twigs snapping underneath footsteps.
"Sshh, you hear that?" Superboy questioned, Gohan nodding in the affirmative.
"Uh, no – wait, is this a super-hearing thing?" Kid asked
"Of course it is, Kid. Did you really have to ask?" Artemis asked, slightly annoyed that Kid had actually asked the question with the most obvious answer ever.
Miss Martian was looking at Superboy and made a slightly embarrassing comment. "You do have great ears."
"Okay Gohan, what's the plan?" Kid Flash turned to see Gohan walking out of the forest with Robin in tow, alerting the others to the fact that Robin had once more disappeared on them.
"First, Robin doesn't run ahead into an unknown situation. Next, we figure out who the guys with the guns are and why they're about to start firing at each other," Gohan responded, stressing the word 'doesn't' while looking at Robin, making it clear he was not to do that again.
Aqualad was running through the forest, and radioed in. "Superboy, Kid, Switch to infrared. See if you're being tracked, just in case there are more people running around the forest."
Kid Flash put his goggles down over his eyes, and turned on thermal mode. He instantly saw a medium-sized group of armed men making their way in the Team's general direction. "Got a group of armed bozos inbound."
Superboy used his infrared vision to look around the forest, and noticed a second group of armed men making their way to the same place the first group were. "Two groups," Superboy corrected, "but they'll meet each other before they find us."
Gohan spoke up, "Those are the two groups I sensed earlier, and they're not friends."
Right after the Demi-Saiyan spoke those words, the sound of gunfire erupted all around them. "No super-hearing required now," Kid Flash said.
"We need to make sure they don't kill each other," Gohan said, before moving forward – in the direction of the gunfire.
Robin sighed before commenting, "He's the boss."
And with that, the rest of the teen heroes moved towards the scene of the gun fight. Kid Flash decided to run ahead and forgo the part about being careful where you step. He slipped on a rock, and started to tumble down the hill he was nearest to.
The two groups that were fighting were composed of Bane and his men, and cultists from The Cult of the Kobra. Bane had returned in an attempt to reclaim his factory and was firing his gun at the cultists, his Venom having once again been taken away from him, when the sounds of Kid Flash tumbling through the forest stopped both sides. Kid Flash came shooting out of the forest, before landing a couple of feet in front of Bane.
"So much for the stealthy," Kid Flash said as Bane pointed his gun at the speedster and started to fire at him, the teen barely getting out of the way in time to avoid an injury.
The Kobra cultists started to fire at the speedster as well, in an attempt to kill him before he escaped. It was at that time that the other heroes arrived on scene, trying to help their friend out of a tight spot.
Superboy charged Bane, knocking the Spanish-speaking criminal back with him continuing forward himself. Bane flipped them around and slammed Superboy into the ground and smirked, thinking that he'd subdued the teen due to the hold he had him in. Superboy surprised the Latin-American man by easily breaking out of his grip and slamming him into a nearby tree.
Kid Flash kept dodging laser gunfire from some of Bane's men, when they saw a shadow envelop them from above. They looked up to see Robin descending on them. Robin made quick work of the armed goons, all the while chastising the actions of Kid Flash and Superboy. "What is wrong with guys? Remember covert?" he asked rhetorically. "This is why I should have been in charge, we would've just vanished into the jungle and completely avoided this situation."
"Dude, you snuck off without telling anyone what the plan was," Kid Flash said as he started battling more armed goons. "This still would've happened because I would've sped off to look for you, Rob. The only mind reader on the team is Miss Martian."
It was at that moment Miss Martian showed up, announcing her presence by telekinetically pushing a large group of Bane's goons together in a pile against a tree. "You told me I could only read the bad guys minds," she reminded the teen speedster.
The three of them than noticed the lack of the second group of armed men, when they heard more gunfire. They turned and saw Gohan taking out the cultists single-handedly – he was going easy on them of course, and in one minute he'd knocked out more than half of the cultist patrol. There was one cultist left, and he was attempting to run away – when Aqualad landed in front of him and electrocuted the man, before crushing his gun under his foot.
-Ten minutes later-
All of the goons were tied up to some very large trees, the separate groups on different trees to keep them from trying to kill each other.
"I recognize those uniforms," Robin noted. "They belong to the Cult of the Kobra."
"I am certain Batman would've mentioned something if he knew Santa Prisca's Venom operation was being run by a dangerous group of extremists," Aqualad responded to the revelation.
"Agreed," Robin stated. "And since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists and those goons, I'm betting Kobra came in and tossed them out." What could Kobra want with Venom?
"So Kobra wanted super-cultists," Kid Flash said. "Case closed, let's radio Batman and get out of here." He clearly didn't want to deal with a man as sociopathic and psychotic as Kobra.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Kid, but you're wrong," Gohan said, noticing something that shot down the teen speedster's theory. "These cultists aren't on Venom. When I was at the Batcave, Batman showed me some footage of Bane while he was using his Venom, and none of these guys are on it right now." The other members of the team, minus Robin, looked at him in curiosity.
"Which means they're hording the Venom, not using it," Robin said, realizing where Gohan was going with that train of thought. "And that means there's one question we have to answer before we can leave: why is Kobra hording Venom?"
"Exactly," Gohan said, nodding. "This mission is still active. We haven't solved the reason why Kobra would do this, so we can't contact the League and send them in with only guesses and hunches."
"Great, we have to go up against a guy who thinks he's a god in mortal flesh," Kid Flash muttered. "This night just keeps getting better and better."
While they were talking about that, Bane and one of his henchmen were talking to each other in Spanish, unaware that Gohan and Superboy could understand them, both of them having been taught it, albeit in different ways.
["Look at them talk,"] said the henchman, before continuing with his plea. ["Free yourself and take them while they're distracted!"]
["Quiet!"] Bane said, before explaining his plan, ["For now I play along. They'll give me what I need."]
Gohan looked at Superboy and smiled, silently telling him that the Boy of Steel was in charge of taking care of Bane when he became a problem.
Bane started to laugh, before explaining what he thought was so funny. "Such clever Niños," he began, while the entire Team turned so they could look at the man as he talked, "But you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest. I'll get you into the factory via my secret entrance."
Miss Martian flew down to Bane's level and attempted to read his mind. "There is a secret entrance but he's also hiding something," she informed the group, before her eyes glowed white as she attempted to scan his mind again.
"Ah, ah, ah chica; Bane is not that easy," the large man said with amusement in his voice.
The 'niece' of Martian Manhunter sighed. "He's mentally reciting football scores – en Español," Miss Martian informed the group. She turned to them, a sorrowful look on her face. "This could take a while, sorry."
"It's not complicated," Bane said, getting the Martian's attention. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
0o0o0o0o0
Inside the Venom factory, the Cult of the Kobra were preparing for a sale of their product. One of the cultists was on a phone, before hanging up and turning to his leader. "Sublime Master. He approaches."
"Activate the radio jamming net," The snake-like man said. "Nothing must interfere."
The cultist bowed, before walking off.
0o0o0o0o0
The Team stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Venom factory, watching the cultists move around a large number of crates containing the Venom.
"Look at all that product!" Robin said, astounded by the number of crates. "A buy is going down."
"But if Kobra's not selling to the usual suspects…" Gohan trailed off.
"We need to identify that buyer," Aqualad finished, seeing where Gohan was going with this.
"That's just what I was thinking," Kid Flash said, trying to cover himself from not understanding where the others were going with their conversation.
"Yeah, you're the thinker," Robin joked, chuckling.
"Dude, sarcasm? Really? No wonder Batman placed Gohan in charge," Kid Flash countered.
"It also happens to be the same reason Batman didn't put you in charge Kid," Artemis said, being the only member of the Team to maintain the stealth part of the mission.
Kid Flash just shut his mouth.
Suddenly Bane grunted and rolled away a large stone, revealing what looked like a mining shaft. "If you seῆoritas are done talking, the answers to your questions are through here." He gestured into the tunnel.
The Team followed Bane into the tunnel, with Kid Flash grumbling about having to follow a criminal.
Bane led them to a large pair of doors, where he pressed a button which unlocked the doors. They opened to reveal a second door about twenty feet away. Bane and Robin peered out of the door to see if any of the cultists were nearby. "All clear," Robin told them before running out to stand behind one of the massive chemical pipes used by the factory to make the neo-steroid Venom. The others, including Bane, quickly caught up with Robin.
Gohan scanned the area with his Ki sense, and then gave his orders. "Robin, Kid Flash; go to the main control room and see what you can find out about their operation, and why they took control of the Venom production." They nodded in affirmation and took off. Gohan than looked at Miss Martian. "Miss M, I want you to scout ahead and find out who the buyer is. Once you've confirmed the buyer is here, send a mental image of them to Aqualad."
Bane smiled slightly. Even though he was planning on betraying the young heroes, he still couldn't help but respect the way the kid took command of the situation, and based on what he saw of the kid's fighting abilities in the forest, he just might be able to take care of the cultists that stole the factory.
"Great chain of command," Bane said. If it had been any other time – if Gohan hadn't been there – Bane's voice would have been dripping with sarcasm, but the kid was actually taking charge as a leader and seemed the type to lead the charge into battle and then give cover for the retreat. Gohan was the first one in and the last one out, you could say.
0o0o0o0o0
Robin entered the command room, and threw a Batarang that released some knockout gas, putting the cultist on duty to sleep. Robin pushed the cultist out of the chair he was in and started to hack the systems while Kid Flash kept watch.
0o0o0o0o0
Aqualad, Miss Martian, Artemis, Superboy, Bane, and Gohan were all hiding behind some crates, watching the cultists move the crates of new product – and completely ignoring the old stuff.
"It's a massive shipment," Aqualad observed, seeing that all the activity could only mean that the buyer was close to arriving.
"Yeah, but they're only taking the new product off the line," Superboy noted. "They're not touching this Venom." Why would they do that?
"Maybe freshness counts?" Miss Martian questioned, also confused about the weird specificity of the cultists with just taking the new stuff.
"Helicopter's coming," Superboy said, with Gohan having noticed it too. He could also sense that while the person inside was experienced for a human; they weren't a threat to him in the least – that didn't mean he wasn't a threat to the rest of the Team. Gohan could sense that whoever the buyer was, they'd killed before – and not all of their kills were defenseless.
Bane narrowed his eyes while looking out at the doors of the factory, waiting for his chance to spring his trap.
Artemis didn't know why, but she had a feeling she knew who this buyer was, and that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience seeing them again.
0o0o0o0o0
Robin was hacking away, getting as much information as he could. Kid Flash was getting bored so he walked over to Robin while eating a candy bar. "What'cha got?" Kid Flash asked the Boy Wonder.
"Chemical formulas," Robin answered, trying to figure them out. "I'm guessing it involves Venom but–"
Kid Flash took a look. "This one's Venom," he told Robin, "And this one's…whoa. The Blockbuster formula from Cadmus. Mixed together correctly, Kobra's new juice is three times stronger than Venom. And permanent. But how did Kobra get ahold of Project Blockbuster?"
"Our mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier," Robin responded, "Using the cult to create a Blockbuster/Venom super formula." Now he was alarm. "Robin to Gohan. We've got–" Robin heard the sound of static. "Static."
0o0o0o0o0
The helicopter had just landed, and the doors were starting to open, once they were, they revealed the League of Assassins villain, Sportsmaster.
He walked up to the leader of the Cult of the Kobra and showed respect for his client/dealer. "Lord Kobra."
"Sportsmaster," Kobra responded. "The shipment is ready."
Shimmer stepped forward, and opened a case of the new steroid Kobra had created. Sportsmaster took a vial before asking, "The new Kobra-Venom?"
"A complete success," Kobra answered, motioning towards his servant Mammoth. "Our friends will not be disappointed."
"This is a game-changer," Sportsmaster said with a light chuckle, his voice sounding almost giddy with excitement. "With this stuff, we can finally go mano a mano with the Justice League."
What none of the villains knew was that Miss Martian was floating above them and watched the whole scene play out. "Aqualad, I'm sending you a telepathic image of the buyer now," she said over a mental link.
Aqualad was resting on his knees on a catwalk above the heads of a couple of cultists. Artemis, Superboy, Bane, and Gohan were with him. Once Aqualad received the image, he was instantly alarmed. "Sportsmaster? He's the buyer!" Aqualad knew instantly that it was time to contact the League. "Aqualad to Red Tornado, do you read?" All he got was static. "Ugh. Can't reach the League, Robin, or Kid," Aqualad looked to Gohan. "Com's jammed. We need a plan now."
"I have a suggestion," Bane said, looking down at a couple of cultists down below them. He jumped down at them before the heroes could react – except for Gohan who was more worried about that large Ki signature close to where the buyer, Sportsmaster, was. Bane started to fight the cultists, one of them firing off his gun, alerting Mammoth, Kobra, and Sportsmaster to the fact that there were intruders in the factory. Mammoth roared as he jumped into the air in the direction of the Factory.
"What the–?" Aqualad asked, just before Mammoth smashed through one of the windows and onto the walkway the heroes were on, causing it to collapse due to his weight. Gohan caught Artemis while they were falling and set her safely on the ground.
Gohan immediately contacted Miss Martian. "Miss M, link us up. Now."
Miss Martian's eyes glowed white for a second before everyone was linked, though the villains didn't know this.
Kobra, who had entered the factory, looked at the teen heroes before giving his command: "Destroy them all."
With that, Mammoth roared and charged the teens and there pre-teen leader. Gohan just smirked, before giving another mental order. "Robin, Artemis. You two get some samples of the new product. The rest of you…retreat, I'll cover you."
Miss Martian was wondering how he'd do that, but before she could ask, Kid Flash beat her to the punch. "How can you provide cover for all of us, oh fearless leader?" Even in their heads, everyone could hear the sarcasm in Kid Flash's thoughts.
"Just trust me. Aqualad, you're in charge until I catch up. You are to get to the Bioship, and contact the League about what we discovered. Robin, Artemis, how's it going with those samples?" Gohan answered/commended/asked his team.
"I've got them, but Artemis is fighting with Sportsmaster," Robin responded. "They seem like they know each other – and Artemis isn't happy about it."
Gohan was currently holding Mammoth back, trying to buy the others time. "Okay, I'll be right there. Get out of there, Robin. Oh, and before you go…do you think you could disable their helicopter real quick?"
"On it," Robin answered.
Gohan twisted his body, throwing Mammoth like a rag doll at a group of cultists. "Multi-Form!" he shouted, before splitting into four Gohans. One of them went after Sportsmaster, another went after Kobra, a third targeted Mammoth, and the last one started to take down the remaining cultists.
0o0o0o0o0
Aqualad was leading the retreating members of the Team through the tunnel. Artemis had managed to get away from Sportsmaster just as Robin finished messing with the helicopter. Both of them were able to quickly meet up with the others and continue the retreat ordered by Gohan.
They were walking down the tunnel, talking about what they were going to tell the League if Gohan got captured.
"Dudes, we have to go back," Kid Flash insisted. "There's no telling how strong that thing is that crashed through the window…and besides, Gohan is only ELEVEN YEARS OLD! How can we honestly expect him to make an informed decision about something like this?"
"Kid, calm yourself. Gohan will be fine. You do remember that he defeated Superman just a few days ago, do you not?" Aqualad asked rhetorically.
"Still doesn't make it right," Kid Flash said.
As they neared the exit of the tunnel, Bane appeared once more. Only this time, he was jacked up on Venom. "Halt, niños," he said, holding up a trigger. "I'm feeling explosive." This last pun alerted the Team to the bombs above their heads. "Wait, what happened to the purple-clothed one?"
"He stayed behind so we could retreat, but why have you betrayed us?" Aqualad asked, though he knew the answer. "Kid, get a running start." The Atlantean told the teen speedster, who started to back up, though it went unnoticed by Bane.
"I want my factory back," Bane started to explain. "So I forced you into a position where you would either take down my enemies, or die trying. If the latter were to occur, the Justice League would certainly come to avenge their sidekicks, and when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more. Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect." He held up the detonator and attempted to push the button…only to feel air.
"With what?" Kid Flash asked, leaning against a tree behind Bane. "This trigger thingy?"
Bane growled and attempted to smash his fist into Kid Flash, only for Miss Martian to lift him into the air using her telekinesis. Superboy walked underneath the floating Bane. "Finally, I've been waiting for this," the Boy of Steel said, cracking his knuckles before cocking his fist back. "Drop him."
Miss Martian complied, dropping the masked criminal – right into Superboy's fist.
0o0o0o0o0
While the other members of the Team were dealing with Bane, the four Gohans were busy fighting Mammoth, the rest of the Cult of the Kobra, Kobra and Shimmer, and Sportsmaster.
"Okay, big guy," Gohan said to Mammoth. "I don't want to hurt you, but if you don't stay down, I will." He then proceeded to slam a devastating punch into Mammoth's chest. Gohan started flying and using his speed to dodge Mammoth's attempts to repay each punch he gave to the monster. Gohan eventually got tired of just trying to tire the beast out, and using all of his speed and strength — without enhancing it with Ki — he slammed his fist as hard as he could into Mammoth's face, resulting in the behemoth falling backwards and slipping into the land of the unconscious.
A second Gohan was making quick work of the armed cultists, taking them down quickly and efficiently before tying them up in such a way that they couldn't sneak away when they woke up. When he was done, he noticed that the other three Gohan's were still trying to buy the others time. He decided that now would be a good time to get rid of the forced radio silence. He looked at the control room, having already gotten the cultist who'd been in there out of the room, before firing a small Ki blast at it and destroying the equipment keeping the radio jamming net active; the result was him getting radioed by Batman demanding why none of them were answering.
"Gohan to Batman," he said. "The Cult of the Kobra had taken control of Santa Prisca and had activated a radio jamming device to keep anything from interfering with their sale of a new kind of neo-Steroid. Something they call Kobra-Venom. Right now I'm attempting to keep their buyer, someone called Sportsmaster, from getting away with any of the stuff." His report completed, the clone melded itself with the Gohan that was dealing with Shimmer — or rather, the Gohan that was playing Shimmer.
The Gohan that had been fighting with Mammoth flew to where another Gohan was dodging and striking Sportsmaster. Upon his arrival the two of them merged into one Gohan, leaving only two Gohans — one "fighting" Sportsmaster and the other "fighting" Shimmer and Kobra.
With the Gohan fighting Shimmer, he was starting to get bored of countering every strike she threw, deflecting her hands with his heels and stopping her kicks by grabbing her leg and flipping her through the air. So he vanished, using his speed, and reappeared behind her, before delivering a nerve strike to her neck and rendering her unconscious.
"Well Kobra, looks like it's just you and me," Gohan said, getting into a fighting stance.
"This would normally be beneath me, but you intrigue me, boy," Kobra said. "What would you say to becoming my new Champion? With your skills and powers, I would be unstoppable. I would rule this world, as is my destiny, and you would have a place of power in the new world order." Kobra smirked, believing that he had made Gohan an offer no one would deny.
"No thanks," Gohan responded, not even giving the offer a courtesey thought. "You see, I don't serve snakes. You can't trust them — besides I would never serve trash such as yourself. I bow to no man, which, despite your claims to the contrary, you very much are."
Kobra sighed, thinking he'd have to force the boy to join him or kill him by using his "superior" combat skills. "Fine then, boy. I will just have to show you the error of opposing a god."
Gohan smirked at that. There was no way this guy could force a Demi-Saiyan (or a full-blooded Saiyan for that matter) into doing anything they didn't want to do. "Bring it on."
Kobra ran at Gohan, showing speed that for this version of Earth would be impressive for a non-powered human of his size, but to Gohan, he was moving at a snail's pace. Kobra threw a right roundhouse kick to Gohan's ribs, only for the eleven-year-old to catch it with one hand — at the ankle, which he proceeded to twist out of its socket.
Kobra screamed in pain before using his leg's strength to lift himself into the air, while Gohan was still holding his leg, and throw a punch at Gohan's head. It too was caught by the Demi-Saiyan, who squeezed the hand until he broke a couple of bones before twisting it and giving the man a sprained wrist. Gohan then, while still holding the arm in place, shot his leg up and connected with the man's elbow, shattering it instantly. What had settled down to groans of pain instantly flared up into screams of excruciating agony from the large pale-skinned man.
Gohan than delivered a devastating punch into the man's stomach, causing him to spit out some blood from the force of the hit. "See, If you are truly a snake god…then I am a Titan of Peace and War," Gohan said to the man, not being arrogant at all — he was showing Kobra how very human he was. "Next time, don't go picking fights you can't win." With that said, Gohan then smashed his fist into Kobra's face, knocking him out, as well as a few of the snake obsessed man's teeth.
The final Gohan was dealing with Sportsmaster, and the League of Shadows assassin wasn't happy about it. The boy had already found and destroyed his sample of the Kobra-Venom, and now the annoying kid was knocking him around like a beach ball.
Sportsmaster was sent crashing to the ground from a "love tap" delivered by Gohan to the assassin's chin courtesy of Gohan's right fist. Sportsmaster could already tell that his jaw would need to have surgery to have it fixed. Gohan had been dominating their entire fight, and didn't even have a scratch on him.
Sportsmaster got up, only to receive a kick to his stomach, sending him airborne for twenty feet before Gohan appeared above him and delivered a devastating kick to his ribcage, sending the assassin spinning downward and crashing unceremoniously to the ground. Sportsmaster staggered to his feet, ignoring the painful cracking sounds coming from his ribcage. He definitely had cracked ribs, and a few that were just plain broken, as well as a sprained wrist and broken hand from when he'd actually managed to land a punch on the teenage hero.
"You want to know something that's going to hurt your ego?" Gohan asked as he dodged a left roundhouse kick from the sports-themed assassin. "I'm only eleven years old."
That little tidbit of information stopped Sportsmaster dead in his tracks. He was being beat by a PRE-TEEN! Someone who was barely into puberty was besting him in combat! He was one of the top assassins in the League of Shadows!
That moment of hesitation was all Gohan needed to deliver a right roundhouse kick into Sportsmaster's left arm, breaking it. Sportsmaster just grunted in pain before using his good hand to pull out some smoke pellets and throwing them to the ground. Gohan didn't do anything to try and stop the man's escape, instead choosing to fuse with the remaining Gohan copy, before racing back to the ship (after making sure that none of the captives could escape) and landing on board with the others, but not before taking out the factory with a Kamehameha Wave. Gohan threw Kid Flash the hood of Kobra himself, and told the speedster, "For your souvenir collection at the Cave."
Gohan then looked at Miss Martian and told her, "Let's get back to the base. I have a feeling we're in for a lecture from Batman."
"Okay Gohan," Miss Martian said. "You're going to have to tell us what happened after we left." She was honestly curious about what he'd done.
"I'll tell you on the way back to the base," Gohan said as they started to leave, and Gohan told them what he'd done.
0o0o0o0o0
"A simple recon mission. You were to observe and report only," Batman berated the team of young heroes, Gohan having given a full and detailed report of the events that transpired on Santa Prisca. "You will each receive detailed written reports explaining your many mistakes. Until then...good job."
The Team looked at Batman in shock at his announcement.
"Gohan. You saw the potential danger of the situation and ordered a tactical retreat, while staying behind to make sure your teammates made it to safety. You also had the forethought to place another member of the Team in charge while you were absent. This show's your maturity. You also brought in a very dangerous group of extremists, including their leader," Batman explained, before giving a look at the rest of the Team that said that the written reports would also have what they did correctly. "Dismissed."
0o0o0o0o0
Sportsmaster stood in a dark room with seven screens before him, having his "partner" Cheshire give his report by reading what he had written for just this specific purpose. His left arm was in a cast, his jaw was wired shut, and his rib cage was wrapped underneath his clothes. He held up a single vial of Kobra-Venom.
"And last, all Sportsmaster was able to recover was a single vial of Kobra-Venom," Cheshire informed the Light — for that was who the seven light-covered figures on the screens were.
A man with a heavy French accent spoke after she was done, "It is enough to reverse engineer, but what worries me is the children. First Cadmus, next Mister Twister, and now Santa Prisca."
"Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action," a deep and intimidating voice said from one of the screens. "And enemies of the Light will not stand."
"But what's more interesting is this unknown child," a feminine voice said, a picture of Gohan appearing on the screen next to the figure. "The abilities you described to us means that he might prove useful to our goals."
"Yes, and the fact that you felt he was holding back against you and still inflicted that level of damage to your person…he could prove quite useful indeed to the Light," said another male voice.
