July 17th
Destin, Florida
0800 CST
"Recognize Nightwing Bee Zero One. Recognize Miss Martian Bee Zero Five. Recognize Wondergirl Bee Two One. Recognize Superboy Bee Zero Four" The Zeta system called out. One by one, the three members of the team materialized. The entirety of the other team was in the area, conveniently doing something productive. Koa first looked at the more established heroes, and then at Batgirl, who was working on her tablet. His facial expression was like that of a puppy, so when she gave him a nod towards M'gann, his excitement erupted. (mercifully, unlike a puppy, he didn't pee everywhere.)
M'gann could feel the happiness off the huge man and just threw her arms out, happy to get hugs. Nightwing and Cassie sidestepped and walked down the small ramp while Miss Martian got wrapped up in a giant bear hug.
"One day, he'll learn to get over being so shy. We're working on it." Godiva said, taking a moment to eye Nightwing appraisingly. And Wonder Girl too. And Miss Martian. And Koa. And Nightwing again. And Batgirl. And Daeva. And Superboy, twice.
"Good luck with that." Nightwing said. He approached Fractal, and the two stepped aside for a private conversation. While they talked, Wondergirl and Miss Martian approached the remainder of the team.
Deke set his copy of The Art of War down (required reading according to Fractal) and stood up. "Miss Martian, Wondergirl, let me introduce my team." He said, and began pointing. "The hug monster is Koa, Fractal's over there talking to Nightwing, this spunky little lady is Daeva, and the blonde to my left is Godiva, or Lady G. Team, this is Miss Martian and Wondergirl. The other guy over there brooding is Superboy." He said, making appropriate gestures.
"I'm happy to meet all of you." Wondergirl said, shaking hands with everyone.
"Yes, this is all very exciting, isn't it?" Miss Martian said, hugging people. When she got to Deke, and they made physical contact, she could feel a push into her thoughts.
[Something's bothering you.] He said telepathically, not a question. He could feel the emotional turmoil within his friend.
[We'll talk about it later. I promise.] M'gann replied. [You owe me an explanation too.] her tone wasn't angry, like he needed to explain why he'd eaten the last cookie. It was curious, like he needed to explain the difference between American and Canadian football. Deke had a good feeling he knew what she was talking about.
"So, are we expected to fight each other? Is that a thing?" Godiva asked, looking at the assembled group. She'd never show it, but the idea of having to throw down against a girl that Wonder Woman was perfectly okay with claiming seemed a bit daunting.
"I dunno, you wanna spar anyway?" Wondergirl offered, not threatening or even really challenging, asking it like she was asking someone if they wanted ice cream.
"I'll wait and see what the overall plan is, thanks though." Godiva said, realizing she might have eaten her foot on that one. Wondergirl looked disappointed by the woman's answer, and strolled towards the kitchen to catch a lean on the counter.
"How you feelin sistah?" Koa asked Daeva, a bit away from the rest of the people. She'd gotten out of the mix of people, content to hang back. The contrast between the two was dramatic. She wasn't quite five feet tall, and he was almost seven. The difference in weight between them was heavier than anyone else in the room except maybe Mustang. But there was a lot similar between the two. Both had tremendous hearts and wore them on their sleeves, and both were just happy to be there.
"I'm well, thank you." Daeva replied in a pleasant tone. "But there's so much going on I felt it best to stay out of the way."
"You shouldn't." Daeva heard to her left. Miss Martian had approached them, and had also apparently overheard their conversation. "We're all here to work together after all."
From the other side of the room, Fractal and Nightwing adjourned their conversation and headed back towards the collected teams. "We'll be training here for now, to take advantage of the closer quarters." Nightwing said. Their destination would present similar challenges and both he and Fractal agreed it was the wiser choice to remain in Florida.
Koa had insisted that the team open with the Ha'a, something quickly becoming legitimate tradition. As he marshalled the team, Batgirl leaned in towards her own people. "This is something to watch." She said to them. "Keep an eye on Daeva."
Again, the team went through the Polynesian ritual, and Batgirl could tell right away they were putting on a much bigger show than previous, their motions and voices much harder and more powerful. As she predicted, Daeva, so small but so very fierce, really got into it.
Following the ritual dance, Nightwing blended the teams, split them into groups, and had them tangle with one another in quick matches, until he and Fractal were satisfied with the compositions. After that, he'd cut Superboy loose on Koa, and let the two titans go at it. Even only half Kryptonian, Superboy was more powerful, but Koa had several years of training on his side.
The end result was messy, but both men looked like they needed to get a real tangle out of their systems. If a person didn't know one or the other, it sort of looked like a simple scrap between two guys, but with the understanding the people watching had, the effect was much more impressive. Rarely did either of them get hit so hard they got rocked back on their feet, and rarely did either of them have to hit the same target twice. That they were able to absorb the impacts from one another, that was a sight to behold.
Following that, it became a lot of exercises, mostly designed to help the two teams understand one another, determine strengths and weaknesses, and in general get a grasp of what they could expect from one another. At one point though, Wondergirl noticed Daeva wasn't too heavily involved.
"What's she going to do for us?" She asked, pointing at Daeva.
"Easy," Fractal said, wiping sweat from his brow. "She will own the environment for us, make it work for our needs." He sounded so proud when he described her, and the feeling lit Daeva up inside with a happy smile. "Asking her to demonstrate her abilities in our home however, is probably not the wisest choice."
After several hours more of this, the two team leaders conferred for a while, comparing notes and working things out. Deke sat down against the wall, relaxing while the two men worked things out. [So, who's going first?] He said telepathically to M'gann.
[I will.] She said from across the room, grabbing a bottle of aloe water from Deke's stash. [I'm seeing L'gann now, and it's making things difficult around Superboy.]
[Is he being proactively hateful, or just keeping his distance?] Deke asked as he pulled his hat down over his face, but not before beckoning to a bottle of aloe water for himself. It sailed gently across the room to land in his hand, and if nothing else, being telekinetic was great for enabling someone's laziness.
[Keeping his distance, saying angry things, walking away without saying anything. I know he's extremely upset about something, but he won't say what.] M'gann said with a frown. She looked up for a moment and politely accepted the granola bar Daeva offered her.
[Okay, so that's being a guy.] Deke offered. [He'll say it eventually, or he'll get over it. In the meantime, it'll keep bottled up. It's just how we operate. I'd offer to say something but he's still not my biggest fan.]
[Thanks. I'm sure we'll be able to resolve this eventually. Care to fill me in on you now?] She offered, and across the room, she gave him the sweetest look of expectation.
[What do you wanna know? You asking about me and Babs?]
[Of course silly. She told me about you two, y'know, getting together, but she wasn't forthcoming on details. Not that I'm asking for details or anything, that's not what I meant.] Across the room, M'gann was blushing furiously. Barbara didn't miss it either. Instead, she just kept watch on her friend's reactions, to see if she could gauge her boy's response.
Deke snickered audibly, and sat his hat down in his lap. [Well, I mean, I finally told her I loved her. I know you knew about it, but I didn't realize that I did at the time. She didn't run off so, there you go.]
M'gann smiled brightly, without a blush. Barbara was pleased to see that, and could guess their topic of conversation. It brought warmth into her heart, though she kept her poker face. She had rules about things after all.
[I'm so happy for both of you!] She all but squealed. Deke was pleased to see her able to forget her trouble for a minute, and he knew Barbara would feel similar.
[Thanks.] Deke said, glad there was emotional undercurrent to their conversation. He was also trying to keep a poker face, wasn't so great at it, but he was trying. [You'll get your own stuff sorted too, I know you will.]
Deke stood up and wandered towards the kitchen proper, rooting about for something to eat. As he did, he took the time to really observe the people gathered in the base. They weren't quite connecting yet, still mostly keeping to themselves.
Settling on a jar of peanut butter and spoon, Deke ate quietly for a while, and watched Nightwing and Fractal talk. He shifted his perceptions and saw that neither man was quite on the same wavelength, both of them trying to make a point. He was about to go pick a fight with Superboy, just to give people something to watch, when it seemed like the two team leaders finally arrived on something agreeable.
"We've got the new assignments." Fractal said, and gestured to Nightwing, letting him go first.
"Three squads on this mission. Wondergirl, Batgirl, Godiva, and Mustang are Alpha. They'll be infiltrating as guests to the event. Myself, Miss Martian, and Fractal are Beta, we'll be handling accessing the security system and hitting the vault. Gamma is Superboy, Koa, and Daeva. They'll be posing as hotel staff, serving as backup to either team as necessary, as well as sweeping for unforeseen security and other hazards." Nightwing said, watching them shuffle into their new assignments.
Fractal waved his hand near the base's main terminal, and used the holographic interface to blow up a layout of a hotel. "These assignments aren't perfect. I deplore the reference, but we've intentionally mismanaged our assets. This mission, while extremely important, does not present considerable risk of safety, so we've decided to see how a few of you handle things."
"Always training." Wondergirl muttered to Batgirl. "Can't just enjoy a party."
Batgirl nudged and quietly shushed her, as Nightwing and Fractal began fully explaining the plan.
"The Hôtel Hermitage is a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo, site of a very exclusive gathering happening in a few days time. We have reason to believe that blood diamond smuggling has been used to finance some very nasty things, like the recent kidnappings and missing persons cases that are increasing worldwide. We're looking for evidence of this, something we can track back to the people responsible, and tie to them for prosecution." Nightwing said, giving the overarching goal.
"Alpha squad, under Batgirl's command, will go in, in civilian cover, and pose as guests. While there, they will be secretly recording the events. An automatic script will run and match faces to all available law enforcement databases." Fractal explained, pulling up a hologram of a schematic for some kind of spy camera lenses.
"Batgirl, you have your own, but Fractal will need to see them to match the tech." Nightwing said. Batgirl nodded. They were actually her everyday glasses, she just didn't often use them for anything but corrective purposes.
"Beta squad, we'll be entering through other means, including roof and basement access. We're tasked with actually breaching the hotel's vault, and replacing some of the illegal diamonds with fakes fitted with nano-tracking devices. It sounds easy, but this is a highly advanced security system, Miss Martian can't just density shift in. It has to be bypassed." Nightwing said, carrying on the briefing. The decision he and Fractal made to put both team leaders on one squad was what had taken them the longest to hash out. In the end, they'd decided that this task was too important to not combine their abilities to achieve.
"Gamma, your mission is straightforward. Observe and report, and be ready in the event of an emergency. Superboy will take lead, and all of you will have ultrasonic mapping devices, also tied to a script, which will alert us to anything amiss between the registered blueprints and what we're actually seeing." Fractal concluded.
"Any questions?" Nightwing asked.
"Yeah, I have one." Godiva piped up. "Are we supposed to just waltz through the door and expect to be welcomed by the doormen? I mean, this can't just be open to the public."
"No. We have a way in." Nightwing said. "Queen Perdita of Vlatava will be in attendance, she's already agreed to have a squad as part of her entourage. She's also a secondary objective. She has relatives that want nothing more than to see her off the throne, so if something happens, drop everything to protect her."
"I will handle most of the gear for the mission, but Alpha and Gamma will need appropriate clothing." Fractal said. "Batgirl, you and Superboy will handle this for your squads, and I'll only need your glasses for about two minutes of non-intrusive study. Thank you in advance."
"Ok team, fall out and relax." Nightwing said.