Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.
Robin resisted the urge to scratch his nose.
He had 'borrowed' a rather small technician's uniform so that if anyone came across him tinkering with the computers they wouldn't set off an alarm. The uniform came with a welder's mask of sorts, to protect the technician's face from sparks. It was sleek and covered his full face, leaving only a tinted window for him to see out of.
It had been a good call as, in the middle of breaking through the firewall, a group of workers came into the room. They hadn't seemed to have cared that he was there and had just kept on talking among themselves.
He had managed to find a small, unguarded computer terminal in what looked like a small office. If offices were painted black and the office workers wore bullet proof armor and carried firearms.
He now had an incredible dilemma in front of him; lift his mask to scratch the itch on his nose and risk that the workers notice that he's a kid or suffer the eternal torture that comes with unscratched itches.
He stripped a wire to expose the copper beneath to keep his hands busy. The computer was in pieces all around him as he created a manual bypass. He unhooked the soldering iron, it had come with the uniform, and quickly started reassembling the machinery. His fingers cramped as he nimbly soldered the tiny wires to place, desperately trying to finish quickly.
He sighed in relief as he finished. The boy wonder picked himself off of the floor and moved to sit in front of the computer's many monitors. The keys on the keyboard clicked with protest as he started to dive into the hard drive.
"Hey! Get your grubby hands off of the computer. Your job is to fix the wires and stuff, not to play solitaire." One of the workers yelled.
Mimicking an older, deeper voice Robin replied. "I'm just checking to make sure it works."
He winced as his voice sounded distorted and fake.
"Are you mocking me? Fellas, I think this scrawny tin-head is mocking me!" The man's face contorted as he started lumbering towards Grayson. The other men didn't seem to have heard the enraged man, much to his chagrin.
If he gets too close he'll see what I'm doing.
"Uh, sorry. It wasn't my intention to insult you." He said, trying to pacify.
"Sir." Robin tacked on for good measure.
The off-duty guard didn't slow or even indicate that heard the apology. He flung a chair out of his way as he advanced.
Robin tensed his muscles, subtly maneuvering off of his chair and into a fighting stance. He would rather avoid this but he would take them all out if he had to.
Just as the man reached him an ear grating shriek filled the air. A robotic voice joined in informing the compound that there were intruders. The already dim lights shut off and a flashing red emergency light took their place.
Luthor's employees completely forgot about him as they dropped their coffee mugs and rushed out the door.
Dick let out a muted curse as he jerked back to the computer. Closing what he was previously doing, he opened the security camera's feed. His brow furrowed as he saw how many cameras he would have to sort through to find Wally.
He should never have left, without him Wally was probably surrounded. He would barley be able to fight as he couldn't use his powers without revealing his identity. Robin should have known that it would be extremely difficult to sneak out of the facility without being caught. What kind of leader leaves their team to be caught? What kind of leader was he?
Scrolling through the feeds he was able to track the guards movements, they were running through the halls to the source of the alarm. He hurriedly clicked on the feed that would hopefully show him where the men were converging.
The screen was a flurry of activity but smoke obscured the majority of the action. However, the young detective was still able to see occasional flashes of red hair. Guards were being thrown out of the mass of smoke left and right, even as more ran in to fight.
Robin felt frozen, unable to move as he watched his best friend fight an army of armed guards alone. He wouldn't be able to fight all of those men while also protecting two civilians, even with his speed. Luthor's men disappeared into the encompassing fog, leaving Dick with nothing to see but vague blurs. He waited, completely still, for five tense minutes before the screen started to change.
The air slowly cleared to reveal a pile of men lying prone on the ground. He scanned the bodies for Wally's tell-tale red hair and sighed in relief when he spotted his friend unharmed. His back was to the camera, but Robin could tell by his posture that he was relatively uninjured. The guards all seemed to be down for the count, but a quick glance at the screens beside him told Robin that they would be easily replaced. More guards were quickly approaching Wally's locating from every direction, swarming by the dozens.
He looked back at Wally and watched as the red head bent down to pick something up.
Wait. Are those arrows?
Robin blinked.
Roy? What the heck is he doing? He stared at the screen, transfixed as he watched his older brother (in everything but blood) collect his ammo. The boy wonder desperately tried to grasp why Red Arrow was here.
He shook his head. If Roy wanted to crash their mission, then fine. Red Arrow ran out of frame, wisely deciding to leave before reinforcements showed up.
Robin moved his mouse to close the footage when a familiar blur stopped him. He watched as the streak rushed past the camera's line of sight. Wally seemed to be going in the opposite direction of Roy, which was conveniently towards Robin's current location.
Springing out of his chair he rushed towards the door. He quickly flung it open and lifted his mask. As he looked down the hallway he felt dread start to build in his gut. Wally could've already passed him, who knew with a speedster. It was hard to judge what time they would make it to a destination, it was more likely that he was already long gone.
Robin turned to go back in the room.
It was a long shot.
In the blink of an eye warm arms were embracing him from behind. Robin sighed in relief at the sudden appearance of Wally before he shoved the older boy off of him.
"I'm so glad your okay! I heard the alarms and I panicked. I thought they had caught you." Kid Flash spoke without pauses, the words seemingly flying out of his mouth of their own accord. "I was so worried, I was just blindly running around this place trying to find you. I had no idea where you were or if you were okay."
"I'm fine. Apparently Red Arrow decided to make an entrance, he's the one who set off the alarms." The raven haired preteen said as he dragged KF out of the hallway and back into the room. He shut the door behind them and walked back to the computer. Wally followed behind him, confused.
"What? Why is he here?"
"Batman assured me that he wouldn't tell Red Arrow, or our team, what our mission was to stop them from blowing our cover, so he has to be here for a different reason. I have no idea what that reason might be, though." Robin answered as he continued searching the database for the folder on 'Project: Brainiac'.
"I guess." Wally paused. "Look, Rob, I'm sorry. You're the leader on this mission and I should've followed your plan."
Robin swiveled his chair towards Kid Flash and looked him in the eyes. He let out a long breath before replying.
"I'm sorry too. You were right, I should have listened to you. This place isn't safe for civilians. Thank you for getting them out of here."
Wally nodded, before he hesitantly added. "On the way out we ran into some guys. I knocked them out, but they had a cart full of dismembered children. I think they were the missing kids from camp." The speedster tried, and failed, to keep his voice even and calm. "They were going to use corrosives on the bodies to hide the evidence."
Robin growled. "I'm going to enjoy watching Luthor rot in jail for this."
The green eyed boy grunted in agreement.
"I'm almost done getting this file on 'Project: Brainiac', can you try to find Red Arrow on the security cameras?"
Wally sat down next to him and pulled the camera's footage up onto a different monitor. With lightning speed Wally searched through the hundreds of cameras looking for Roy. They worked in relative silence, the alarm fading into the background as they focused on their tasks.
After a couple of minutes Wally stopped on a specific camera and paused the feed.
"Hey, Rob? How sure are you that Batman didn't say anything to the team?"
"He gave me his word. Why?"
He said nothing, turning his monitor to face Robin.
"You have got to be kidding me." Robin groaned as he looked at the frozen image of the team sneaking into the building.
The door splintered into pieces seconds after Roy's boot collided with it. He stepped through the hole that used to be a door and was greeted with a strange sight.
He was standing at the beginning of a metal catwalk that overlooked the room below. The laboratory that sprawled out beneath his feet was massive, filled with swarms of gray suited men in welding masks and guards with guns. The catwalk seemed to jut out of the walls as it wrapped around the perimeter of the lab. The alarm had been turned off in this room and the walls were bathed in the typical florescent glow. In the center of the room below was a large object covered by a sheet, which wouldn't have caught his interest if Lex Luthor hadn't of been standing directly in front of it.
It seemed as though time had stopped as all the people below stared at him.
"Well, it seems as though we've found the source of that infernal alarm." Lex drawled, breaking the silence. "Broken Arrow." He said in a bored manner.
"Doesn't work anymore, Q-tip." Roy growled.
"Worth a shot." Luthor smirked and gestured to his guards. "Open fire, boys."
In seconds every gun in the room was pointed directly at the young red head. Red Arrow threw himself to the side, dodging the incoming hail of bullets. He rolled as he hit the catwalk, popping back up into a crouch with an arrow already notched. He fired at the ground floor, aiming for the center of a large group of Luthor's men.
The arrow lodged itself into the floor below, instantly letting out an earsplitting screech. Red Arrow hurriedly shoved wax into his ears to stop the horrible noise, but the guards had nothing to block the sound out. Their hands covered their ears, guns forgotten on the floor below, trying in vain to smother the screeching. The men closest to the arrow collapsed to the floor unconscious.
Luthor fallen to the ground in agony. Two red lines of blood ran down his face as his ears ruptured. Red Arrow watched the business man squirm with a grim sense of satisfaction.
Using his distraction wisely, Roy fired all of the sedative arrows in his quiver at the people below. He picked off the people with the most effective firm arms, easily grazing them in their prone forms. He felled over half of Luthor's forces before he ran out of the laced arrows. He made a mental note to collect them after the fight, they weren't cheap after all and he was on a budget.
He vaulted over the metal railing, landing in a crouch on the floor below. His knees protested the jump as he stood up and he hid a wince as he started walking. Jumping down a story might not of been the smartest thing to do, but the rage that built up in him after seeing Luthor prevented him from being rational.
He glanced over at his 'Canary' arrow, it was named after Black Canary because she was the inspiration behind using sound waves as a weapon, the light on the side was flickering. This meant that it would run out of power in seconds.
Roy pulled out another arrow while looking around at the sea of armed guards. He would make those seconds count.
A/N:
Sorry it took so long to upload, I've had some personal stuff I've had to deal with and I really didn't have anytime to write. I'm hoping to get back to a more regular uploading schedule. Let me know what you think of this chapter.
