Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Missteps by RainySpade

Chapter Two

Tonight, Kaldur hated waiting. Typically he wouldn't mind waiting to ambush the enemy and take them out without incident but something just seemed wrong. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that Roy had come to him and told him that he didn't feel easy about the assignment that was planting the nagging feeling or if it was the fact that from the beginning something seemed off. No matter how hard they looked they hadn't been able to find what was being stored in the warehouse which meant they didn't know who could be scoping out the place or even causing the disturbances that had been reported in the area.

According to the records there had been everything from small explosions to suspicious characters seen in the area. According to property records the warehouse was owned by a Company that didn't exist. Said company was owned by a man who died a decade ago. So there were no leads in any direction. Robin had even tried to find security cameras that could have caught someone entering the building recently. Once again they had hit another brick wall and Kaldur could tell his team was getting frustrated with the constant road blocks. Frankly he was too; it was finally time to get their hands dirty.

At least that had been his thought before Roy dropped in for an unexpected visit. Not only an unexpected visit but to hand him and unexpected favor as well. Although it had just been a small scrap of paper with an address and some messily scrawled vague directions, the meaning behind it spoke volumes for Roy. He honestly trusted Kaldur enough to tell him where his safe house was and let him know that if he needed it, Kaldur could go there for some time off.

Kaldur honestly hadn't had a lot of rest or just some time to himself without having to do the essentials, missions or training. Honestly he was starting to feel it, the weary feeling you get when you go days on end with minimal sleep and just enough downtime to take a shower and eat as much as you could. Wally always had an unfair advantage on that last one though. But Kaldur was getting tired and it was the point where he couldn't really tell if it was affecting his job as leader or not but the team didn't seem to notice anything different, otherwise he was sure that they would have said something.

Waiting really was the worst. He glanced around the crates on the dock, making sure he could see that everyone was in their positions. Kaldur wasn't sure if this was just going to be a patrol or if there would actually be a battle tonight. It was probably too much to hope that their shady friends would show up as if on cue tonight but he also suspected that the League wouldn't send them all out here if they were certain that it was only going to be a small issue. He was also sure that they wouldn't have sent them out here if it wasn't something that they could easily take care of, no matter what Roy thought.

Kaldur did have to admit that the archer had more experience both with the league and with walking into danger but that didn't mean that Roy would always know better. Voices burst through the silence of the docks as Kaldur had to focus his attention to the task at hand. Now was not the time to second guess his team and the league. The voices were hushed as Kaldur saw Artemis give the signal that she had them in view. M'gann connected their thoughts and Artemis informed the group that there were two men who had entered the building. One seemed to be dressed normally the other however was in some sort of strange get up that kind of reminded her of Darth Vader.

Kaldur froze a little and focused more on trying to see if his suspicions were correct. He was hoping he was wrong but the red glow from the open door of the warehouse just crushed any hope he had left for this mission being easy. It had been Black Manta who had been having his men patrol the docks. Kaldur now felt comfortable saying what it that was hidden in the warehouse was the small portion of that sea star that Manta had blown up in an effort to destroy the creature. Prince Orm had said that the piece had already been trying to regenerate after the accident and he had given it to King Orin to take and keep safe in the surface world.

Manta was the last person Kaldur had expected to be their enemy especially on land. What was it about this sea star that he craved so much and more importantly how had he found out the star was still alive? There were too many questions and too few answers, but Kaldur didn't plan on just sitting here and waiting for the answers to come to him. Robin sat across from him at the wait of his command and Kaldur continued to wait for a sign, for a weak spot. He didn't want for them to just run into an unsecured warehouse.

Kaldur couldn't know how large the sea star was by now, he couldn't imagine it being as big as it had been down in Poseidonis but he couldn't be sure. Kaldur watched as Black Manta came closer to the door and then he raised his hand, the signal to go. Robin moved first, if he hadn't known better Kaldur would have said that Robin rivaled Wally in his speed as he climbed the crates and made his way towards the door. Superboy was at Robin's six at Artemis took aim behind the cover of the crates. M'gann created a small distraction somewhere in the warehouse to hopefully draw the attention of the men away from the approaching attack. Kaldur drew his water bearers as he saw a blur of black go speeding past him, Wally's job was to make sure that there were no more men hanging around to carry out a counter-ambush.

The explosion was bigger than he expected, apparently bigger than M'gann was expecting as well, as she apologized mentally. Kaldur slid into the warehouse just after Superboy and Robin. There was smoke building up around them causing a flood of coughs coming from their direction. Somewhere along in the fray Kaldur had lost sight of Black Manta until-

WHAM! Pain struck through Kal's back like lightning. White stars twinkled on the backs of his eye lids as he dropped to his knees. Kaldur looked over at where Artemis should have been to only find her knocked out laying on the ground, her bow kicked far enough away that she couldn't reach it. Wally hadn't come back yet either, which meant that he was probably incapacitated too. This had all been a set up then but it wasn't over before it had even started. Kaldur could hear laughter erupting from Manta's helmet as he leaned down.

"The league sent kids to fight me? I'm disappointed." He nudged Kal's side with his boot, "You just can't seem to impress me Kaldur'ahm, and I blame that king of yours, the one who pretends that you are his equal."

Kaldur supposed he was the only one that had noticed that the coughing had stopped and that the smoke was clearing a little. Kaldur reached out for his water bearer and grabbed it as he heard Superboy's shout. The teen came crashing down on the very spot Black Manta had been only a few moments ago. As Superboy looked up and around searching he was hit with twin laser beams to the chest causing him to crash back into the far wall of the metal building. M'gann, concerned for Superboy's safety, that was shot next but one of the three Manta-men that soon made themselves visible. It was now down to him and Robin and Kaldur liked the odds less and less. Two against four was difficult but not impossible but what worried Kaldur was that he hadn't seen the Boy Wonder since he was in front of Superboy.

Robin was most likely scoping out the scene from the rafters, at least that's what Kaldur hoped until he heard the soft grunt of pain. Not letting it distract him, he activated his weapons to form a whip. He quickly snapped it around Black Manta's neck, Kal's eel tattoos continued to glow threateningly as he took in the damage to his team. Roy had been right. They shouldn't have come here tonight and certainly not as unprepared as they were. His gaze held steady on Manta. "Leave now and leave my team alone and I won't short circuit your body suit." His voice was calm but cold and threatening.

The laugh was maniacal and it caused Kaldur's blood to run cold. "You would do that to your own father? Maybe there is something in there I can be proud of." He laughed again and Kaldur went into shock which was his mistake because Manta wasted no time firing a small missile in Aqualad's direction, knocking him down into the concrete, making a shallow impression around him as if he impacted the earth with as much force as a meteor.

Kaldur groaned as his blurred eyes watched Black Manta move to one of the crates in the room and open it to find a starfish six times the size Kaldur was used to. A soft 'no' dropped from Kal's lips as he raised an arm up to try and stop him. Black Manta handed the sea star to one of the Hench men before making his way over to Kal, "Nice try, better luck next time, son." With his final words Manta brought his foot down hard on Kaldur's arm. A sickening snap filled the air as the overwhelming discomfort of bones in improper places flowed up his arm, distracting Kaldur just long enough to miss Black Manta leaving the warehouse.

Kaldur struggled and with his good arm he reached down and pressed his fingers to his comm link, activating it. "Aqualad to the Watch Tower." His voice was breathing as he willed the pain in his arm and chest away, "Assistance is needed. We have failed our mission." Kaldur hated those words and they left a bad taste in his mouth.

Batman's voice came back over, "Aqualad, what's the situation?" Out of all the people he wanted to talk to about his failures as a leader Batman was second to last followed only by King Orin. Kaldur listened around him seeing if he could heat any of the other team members moving. No such sound was heard.

"My arm is broken, and the rest of the team is incapacitated. Black Manta was-" Kaldur cut himself off. Manta had said that he was his father, but that couldn't be right. His father was dead, at least that had been what his mother said the one time he had asked about his father. Ever since then Kaldur had adopted Orin as his father figure. What he had been told couldn't have been true. "Black Manta was responsible. He took the Sea Star that we had been hiding here."

"We will be out there shortly." Batman sounded crosser than usually and it was probably because of Kal's lack of information about Robin. Kaldur couldn't blame Batman, he was sure that the other mentors were just as worried. Kaldur let his eyes slip closed with the knowledge that there was help on the way. Help and Answers.