I own nothing but my own ideas.
Chapter 10
Rescue Mission
Inside the magic shop
"You said The Joker was looking us, how is he here?" Nightwing asked. Raven shook her head, "I don't know the answer to that."
"What does he want?" Miss Martian asked Raven, she again shook her head. "If you're thinking about prying into my mind, don't. Your telepathy is not a match for my magic," Raven threatened.
"Just who are you? How do you know so much?"
"We have to leave," Raven said, "They're coming."
"Who's coming," Miss Martian asked. No sooner than she finished speaking, the door to the magic shop burst open. "They must be in here somewhere" the intruders said. Dick peeked through the curtain, he saw four people dressed as ninjas wearing all black, walking slowly as they looked around the magic shop. They pulled out Katanas that looked sharp enough to cut through entire buildings as they creeped through.
"We've got four," Dick whispered. "They have swords so we have to be careful. I'll take the two on the left and you take the two on the right." Mgann nodded, "No, we need to run. There are far more of them," Raven warned. Miss Martian made herself translucent as she disappeared into the floor, Dick patiently waited for her signal. She reappeared behind the two isolated ninjas and smashed their heads together knocking them out. The other two whipped around to attack her, then Dick jumped from behind the curtain. He threw a high kick to one ninja's head and a swinging low kick to the other, tripping him. He punched the downed ninja in the face as the other one got back up, he tried to attack Nightwing but was met by a psychic blast from Mgann, rendering him unconscious. At that instant 6 more ninjas burst into the magic shop, one was built like a refrigerator, he was 7 feet tall and had muscles for killing. Dick and Mgann got ready, then a large table flew from behind them cracking the ninjas. "Run!" Raven yelled from behind them. Nightwing and Miss Martian took her advice this time as they started to sprint away from the ninjas, Nightwing threw a smoke pellet to cover their tracks. The three burst out of he back door and ran through the alley of New Orleans, at the end of the long alley they saw two more ninjas. Raven and Martian took flight while Nightwing flawlessly jumped on a dumpster and then to the roof. They continued to run, as ninja stars were sent flying in their direction from their pursuers. Miss Martian reinitiated the psychic link, including Raven in this loop. "We'll never get away from them here," she said as she dodged a ninja star.
"We've got to get back in the crowd!" Nightwing communicated, the two girls landed next to him as they sprinted to the end of the street.
"Grab on," the two girls grabbed Nightwing as he shot a bird shaped grappling hook across he street and hooked onto another building. The ninjas stopped running as they reached the end of the alley and saw a large group of people. They began pushing them aside to get closer to their prey. Nightwing dropped a smoke pellet to cover their tracks as they disappeared into the crowd.
"Who were they?" Miss Martian asked.
"I know who they are, they belong to the League of Shadows. But what do they want?"
Back on Poydras Street
"Why are we hiding? He's just one guy and his power level is slightly above average," Trunks asked Barbara.
"While his power level may be low, he's extremely dangerous. He kills without hesitation, he's not to be taken lightly," Barbara scolded.
"We understand that you can defeat him pretty easily, all of us could, in a fair fight. But a lot of what we do is tactical, we need to find out why he's here," Kaldur reassured Trunks.
"Hey guys, where's Superboy?"
Cassie asked. "I thought he was with you."
"No, he was with you" Barbara said pointing to Trunks and Cassie.
"Hold on, I'll sense for him." Trunks started concentrating so he could find the energy signature of Superboy. "There he is, got him! Oh, that's not good."
"What! What's not good??" Barbara asked.
"Well I have his signature, yeah that's definitely his energy. But it's low, average human low. And it's on the move. He's moving pretty fast, I think he's in a car."
The teenagers dropped back against the wall of the building as they saw Deathstroke walking by, he was on the phone. "Yeah, good. Which one did you capture? Superboy, excellent."
The group stepped out of the alley and carefully walked behind Deathstroke, they had to find out where their friend was. "What about the rest of the brats? They got away? Then find them!"
He turned around slowly, stopping the Team in their tracks. "Hello children," he said coolly. "What brings you to New Orleans?"
"Where's Superboy!?"
"He's occupied at the moment," Deathstroke was almost taunting the kids now as he talked. Trunks stepped forward, "Tell me! Or this gets ugly for you."
"Oh aren't you the bold one. I wouldn't think of fighting you, I'm outnumbered. Besides, I have places to be." The second he finished his words, he fired a smoke pellet from his bracelet. The Team and the surrounding people coughed, Kaldur launched through the smoke and looked around. "He's gone."
"We've got to find Superboy," Barbara turned to Trunks.
"I can still track him."
Mere seconds later, Nightwing, Miss Martian and Raven rounded the corner and found the rest of the team. Barbara filled Nightwing in on what happened and he revealed to them what he discovered and introduced Raven. "Ok, next step is rescuing Superboy, Trunks do you have a location?"
"They just stopped moving, they're on the other side of the city on the banks of the river."
The team arrived at the docks, their target was a lone warehouse on the abandoned side of the river. The warehouse was a large, wooden building it looked very decrepit on the outside as if it wasn't safe to be under the roof.
Their seemed to be an intentionality behind this, probably to prevent people from snooping around. Suddenly, a boat arrived containing two soldiers, they hopped out and prepared to go inside. They never made it though, Nightwing and Miss Martian took them out. She disguised herself as the second soldier and Nightwing put on his helmet and glasses hiding his face. "Hang tight guys, and stay out of sight. We'll check it out." The duo gained access to the warehouse under their new disguises, they were shocked at what they saw inside the warehouse. From the outside, it looked more like an old barn than a secret villain hideaway, but the inside should have been on the cover of Super Villain magazine. Inside the warehouse were high vaulted metal ceilings, computers on the wall, and a lot of bad guys. Dick counted about 30 ninjas and 15 soldiers armed with machine guns. He looked around and found Superboy locked in a cage with a large metal collar around his neck, he was awake. Miss Martian added him to the psychic link, "Superboy, it's us. We're here to break you out."
Superboy heard the mental communication and looked around until he found eye contact with a guard, he instantly knew it was her. "Boy am I glad to see you."
"You've got company," Cassie said.
"Hey you!" Deathstroke shouted at Nightwing, "Go open the door." Nightwing nodded and moved towards the door of the warehouse, he opened it and looked straight into the face of The Joker. The Joker entered with four clowns, they were carrying large containers and by the way they walked, these containers were very heavy. He walked right past Dick to Deathstroke.
"The Joker's here!"
"Oh this is not good."
"I'm going to eavesdrop on the conversation, I'll play it in the psychic link," Miss Martian said. "Nightwing, we have to look busy."
"Do you have what we asked for?" Deathstroke asked the killer clown.
"No inside these containers is actually my lunch. Do you have my money?" He ordered Nightwing to go the office and grab the black duffle bag. "Let me see the product." The Joker gave his boys a signal and they opened the lids to the containers, "Haha, pure uranium."
"What?! Uranium, why is he bringing them Uranium," Cassie couldn't believe what she heard.
"I'm calling Batman," Barbara pulled out her communicator and dialed the Caped Crusader.
"Good, my master will be very happy," Deathstroke smiled at the delivery.
"He won't be happy about anything until I get my money."
Nightwing returned with the duffle bag and handed it to Slade. Slade handed the bag to the Joker, "That's all that's in here? You're a little short aren't you?"
"You only managed to capture one Justice Brat, you didn't hold up your end."
"Don't blame me, your ninjas let the Bat brat get away. I need more than this, I delivered on the uranium and gave you the strongest of the brats."
"He's not the strongest anymore, there is another."
"Not my problem."
"Take it or leave it," Slade gave a hand signal that made the soldiers move in drawing their weapons.
"Haaaaahaaaaa." The Joker's evil laugh was punishing to their ears. "You think I came in without a back up plan," he pulled the lapels back on his jacket to reveal a large cluster of grenades. All the soldiers stepped back, as Slade continued to stare down his opponent. The intensity in the room was thick, one false move and everyone inside would be dead.
"You truly are insane," Slade laughed. He pulled out more money from his pocket and handed the wad to the Joker.
"Oh Slade, why does every transaction have to be like this. It was business with you." Joker began to walk out of the warehouse. "He's coming, should we engage?"
"Negative, the primary objective is to rescue Superboy and shut down this warehouse, it's time to move in." They watched as Joker got into his speedboat and left the warehouse as quickly as he had arrived.
The team moved in and took position near the warehouse. All this stealth was new to Trunks, but combat he was used to. The group quickly circled the building placing structure altering smoke bombs on the exterior. Next, Aqualad formed his large water hammers and smacked them against the warehouse, creating a very loud sound. As planned, two soldiers came outside to investigate they were then quickly incapacitated and replaced by Aqualad and Batgirl. "Wait for my signal," she communicated as they headed inside. Knowing there was only a brief period of time before they were discovered, her and Nightwing got to work. They used their BatTech to disable the weapons of 8 of the remaining soldiers. "Alright Trunks, Wonder Girl, get ready. As soon as the bombs go off, you burst in and take out the soldiers.
3-2-1 BOOM!!!
The deafening sound was heard as several smoke bombs erupting, causing splintering boards of wood to fly around, filling the warehouse with smoke and confusion. Trunks and Wonder Girl has already knocked out 5 soldiers before anyone realized what was happening. The thugs started to react, realizing some of their guns wouldn't fire. Martian started blasting them with psychic blasts. Nightwing pulled out his electric batons and started cracking heads. Aqualad used his water hammers to knock them unconscious while Batgirl's karate skills devastated the thugs. Raven's magic was he final straw, no one could do anything to defend themselves. None of Deathstroke's commands were effective, as the entire room was filled with confusion and the screams of his thugs. Thanks to the element of surprise, in less than one minute Deathstroke was left alone as the only standing villain in the room. The team rounded on him to prevent any escape. He acted as if he was in no danger at all, "Well, well, well. You certainly are a talented group, I thought you were the Justice League the way you took this room down."
"There's no way out Slade, put your weapons down and surrender," Nightwing commanded.
Slade just smiled, "actually you're gonna let me walk out right now." He reached in his pocket and slid out a remote control, "This lovely device here. It helps keep your super friend under control. You see if I press this button," he pressed the button and it was immediately followed by screams of agony from Connor.
AHHHHHHHHHH
"50,000 volts delivered right through his body. Ouch that's gotta hurt." He released the button and Connor collapsed from the pain. "But this button," he pointed to a second button on the controller. "This button, is far worse. It ignites the C4 connected to his collar and boom. Now I know he's part Kryptonian, but a C4 explosion that close to his brain will kill him. Make one move and I'll press it."
PHEEEWWW
The sound of air was all that was heard as Trunks used his full speed to snatch the remote out of Slade's hand.
"What the-? I'm not going down without a fight." He raised his sword and started swinging it at Trunks, who expertly dodged every strike from the swordsman. It was starting to start be pretty pathetic, Trunks decided to end the fight so he grabbed the hilt of the sword snatching it from Slade and sticking a small ki blast in his stomach sending him flying across the room. Trunks held the sword, admiring it. "I'll think I'll keep this." Slade stood up angrily, pulling out his two pistols he aimed at the teenagers.
He fired, Trunks jumped in front of his friends and used his newly acquired sword to deflect all of the bullets. "Goddamn it," Slade yelled as he reloaded. He prepared to fire again and CRASH!!!
The ceiling to the warehouse opened up and Batman, Gohan, and Green Arrow came floating down into the center of the warehouse. "Stand down Slade!" The Bat commanded as he landed. Deathstroke, truly seeing no option here dropped his weapons. Nightwing ran to rescue Superboy as Batman tied up Deathstroke. Batgirl and Nightwing gave the Leaguers the rundown off all they had discovered. "Uranium huh? There's only one thing they would want Uranium for," Batman put his hand on his chin as he thought.
"What's that?" Batgirl asked.
"Nuclear bombs, the League of Shadows is making nuclear bombs."
"Hahaha, it's too late to stop him. He's going to reset the world into the Dark Ages," Slade laughed.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Batman replied, punching Slade in the face knocking him unconscious. He turned to Barbara, "Where's the Joker?"
"I let him escape, the priority was to rescue Superboy and shut down this Uranium facility," Nightwing took ownership for what was undoubtedly an unpopular decision.
"Dick, that's still dangerous. He's far too unstable to be left alone, we need to find him. I expect sounder judgment from you," Batman chastised his apprentice.
"However, Joker will have to wait. Good work team, I'll take Slade back to jail and find out what he knows. Dick, you're on investigative duty, Ras is planning on releasing Nuclear Bombs, I need you to find any leads. The rest of you can return home."
"What about me?" Raven finally spoke up.
"Who are you?"
"This is Raven, she really helped us out. She actually kind of saved Miss Martian and I. I'm offering her a spot on the Team."
"Your decision Dick. Then you take her back to Happy Harbor and get her settled."
Meanwhile on the other side of the Warehouse
"I'm sorry Gohan. I shouldn't have, I mean I didn't mean to, uh."
"It's okay Trunks. I was never sure that keeping that secret from you was the right thing to do."
"Just don't lie to me man. You can tell me things, you're my teacher you can't lie to me."
"I'm sorry Trunks, I won't lie to you again."
"I'm sorry too. I just miss Mom."
"I know, I miss her too." Gohan extended his hand and Trunks met it, the two saiyans shook hands for the first time since landing on Planet Earth.