Young justice 12:
Rip hunter took a sip of his cup of tea he was half studying for his midterms and half talking to Gideon. The other members of the team were also sitting around studying for their future tests with the exception of Aqua Lad who was back in Atlantis.
Wally moaned loudly "im booooooored"
Artemis elbowed him "quiet Baywatch I'm trying to study algebra"
Wally pouted turning his attention to Robin "come on Rob your just as bored as me!?"
Robin looked at him clearly displaying his thoughts on the matter. Wally sat back defeated.
The girls quietly excused themselves sneaking away. Rip and Robin were too busy working and Wally to busy annoying a disinterested super boy to notice.
The girls slipped into Rip's room going straight for the tablet pressing the circle allowing Gideon to appear. The avatar smiled as she said "good evening Artemis"
Artemis smiled "hey Gideon thanks for helping us with this"
Gideon smiled "I'm happy to help in anyway. However I would advise trying to keep Captain Hunter out of your so called prank war"
Rocket laughed "we will do what we can Gideon but he may be a casualty of war"
Gideon smiled "if you do get him involved I can't help you"
Emily laughed "Rip doesn't seem like the prank type"
Gideon narrowed her eyes at the half of firestorm "don't underestimate Captain Hunter"
The girls shrugged before deciding they were going to go through with it anyway.
Rip wrote his answer to 11 question on his English review musing that he has actually met Shakespeare he was interesting man and a terrible card player before the kitchens emergency fire system kicked in covering the room with foam and destroying everyone's homework save for the girls who had quietly exited a minute earlier.
Wally yelped speeding away from the foam robin also managed to dodge it with his ninja skills leaving only rip and super boy covered in foam.
The girls heard the yelps and high fived before they heard the sound of rip cursing loudly and yelling "Gideon Are we under attack?!"
The voice of Gideon responded "no captain however you seem to have been caught in the cross fire of an ongoing prank war between the males and females of the team."
Rip took off his foam covered duster and said "Gideon we will need to discuss some…options in private" he said glaring at the spot where the girls were and just then they realized they made have made a big mistake.
It had been nearly a week since rip had been caught in the cross fire of the prank war. Yet the promised retaliation had not yet come and the entire team was beginning to get paranoid.
Rip had spent the last week choosing his targets and preparing carefully. It brought him back to his younger days Diz loved pulling pranks much to his annoyance. However you watch it enough and you start to learn. Rip chuckled darkly and learn he did.
Cave:
Miss Martian was distracted. Honestly no one could really blame her. Rip had tripped accidently dumping a glass of water onto super boy making his shirt soaking wet and allowing her to see his abs so clearly. So no one could blame her for not paying too much attention to her cooking she followed the recipe just like she always did.
So nothing surprised her more than when the entire team save for Rip took a bit of her food they all started coughing and spiting wally croaked "what did you put in this M'gann!?"
Artemis said "I can't believe you would prank all of us! We trusted you!"
Miss Martian insisted "I just followed the recipe"
Just then everyone noticed Rip let out a chuckle and super boy accused "you didn't touch your food!"
Rip got up from the table casually and replied "no I suppose I didn't"
It wasn't until closer inspection that the team realized Rip had replaced every time sugar is requested to salt and then distracted M'gann so she wouldn't notice.
Zatanna asked "that's it…right?"
The team spent the next few days ready for anything. But with Rip showing no signs of planning something they eventually let their guard down. And when they did Rip found his time to strike.
Zatanna was getting ready for a training session. She was looking forward to using a new spell she had recently learned and to showing off to the team. The training session had been going well but it was time for Zatanna to face Captain Hunter at his insentience. The stood on the floor facing each other Rip raised his fists in a defensive stance that black Canary insisted he learn. The round started and Zatanna was about to cast a spell but she begin to hiccup. Ignoring it she tried again to cast the spell to hiccup again even louder. The team begin to chuckle lightly as Zatanna held her breath for a few seconds thinking that she finally got rid of the hiccups she opened up her mouth intent on casting a spell that would stop laughing only to hiccup the loudest yet. At that everyone lost it laughing even black canary smiled gently. Rip chuckled lightly saying "maybe we should stop this session into you are feeling better?"
Zatanna opened her mouth to protest only to hiccup again much to the laughter and applause of the team. Zatanna then realized she had been pranked.
It was now clear to the team that Rip would not stop until he pranked each and every one of them personally. The paranoia was already starting to set in something Rip used to his advantage living mostly in the Wave rider making plans and choosing his targets. He sat in his office aboard the ship drinking a cup of tea and asked "who do you think should be next?" the blue head of Gideon simply smiled.
Miss Martian spoke nervously "are you sure this is a good idea?"
Wally responded "we have no choice we have to know what he is up to" the rest of the team nodded there agreement as Robin worked
Rocket said "but what if we see something that…you know breaks the universe"
Emily smiled clapping her on the shoulder "relax Gideon will only let us get so far"
Artemis said glumly "if we can even do it" the team was attempting to hack Gideon's internal memory systems and find out Captain Hunters plan and end the prank war.
Gideon to her credit knew exactly what they were doing and processed her options she could lock them out or she could lead them right into the trap Captain Hunter had prepared. She made her choice and allowed them access to a single encrypted file.
Robin yelled "got it!" before pouting "She locked me out"
Connor said "what is it?" the team nodded eagerly. The file however was not prank plans it was something much worse.
Miss Martian said "no! We can't look at it!" but it was to late the file was large and at the top was a newspaper from five years into the future.
Kaldur said "this is…."
Robin finished "why he is here"
The newspaper read Young justice fails! Atomic dentations In 17 cities, the team stared in stunned silence as Artemis read "today Central city, Gotham city and metropolis were hit with Atomic Bombs, the bombs which were apparently stolen from the United States stockpile five years prior had been kept in a warehouse in star city. The young justice team was able to trace the devices to the warehouse but by then it was too late. The bombs had already been moved to several major city centers throughout the world." Artemis took a deep breath visibly shaking "reports are still coming in however the death toll is estimated to be in the range of 250- 500 million dead with more to follow in the radioactive fallout."
Emily raised her hand saying "this is a joke right? One of his pranks?"
Wally said "can we take that chance Millions of people are riding on us!"
M'gann said "remember what he said. That in our attempt to stop it we will cause something worse to happen"
Zatanna said "we could ask him?"
Wally replied "and say what. Hey uhh Rip we tried to hack into Gideon to see your prank plans but the only file we got was your data on the end of the world we want to see if that's legit thanks"
Emily said "wait the weapons go missing soon. Wouldn't he have just stopped them now?"
Rocket said "that could have unknown impacts on the timeline."
Robin scrolled down to see hundreds of notes on the threat projections death tolls and scenario's he said "look at this" it was a scenario marked green for most likely to succeed he begin to read "Simulations require Lethal action against the following people: Bree Goliard, Lex Luther, Andrew Boyd, Lawrence Crock, Slade Wilson, Queen Bee" Robin stopped shocked before skipping the list of names carrying on reading "estimated civilian casualties as a result of plan implantation, 86, simulations of likely causalities show minimal damage to the timeline"
Wally croaked "that's the best case scenario?!"
Kaldur said "we have no choice but to intervene"
The team agreed
Warehouse star city:
Rip sighed saying "Gideon…what did you do?"
The ai blinked saying "I have no idea what you're talking about captain…"
Rip rolled his eyes "what did you tell them"
Gideon smiled "nukes"
Rip shook his head "they are going to be so mad"
Rip went up onto a cat walk overlooking the entrance "I'm going to blame you for this one"
Gideon bulked "I had nothing to do with this fiendish plot"
Rip rolled his eyes "tell them that" a second later the door burst open with the team at the ready.
Wally said "there…are no nukes here" just then balloons fell from the ceiling filled with fire foam soaking the entire team in one go. They all gasped and yelped surprised by the contact.
Just then Rip appeared holding a stack of towels saying "and that's that"
The team stared at him in shock as Wally sputtered "but the nukes?!"
Rip sighed "yea blame Gideon for that one I wanted something less….world changing but Gideon was made at you for trying to hack her"
Emily exhaled "so there wasn't any stolen nuke?"
Rip chuckled "no there were no stolen nukes."
Aqua lad tried "so then why are you here?"
Rip chuckled "spoiler's…." before shaking his head "come on let me help you guys get cleaned up….the prank war is over….il buy you guys a pizza an apology for making you think the world is over"
The team agreed and went out for the meal.
Back in the cave:
Rip entered his room with a sigh taking off his jacket saying "Gideon show me the future"
The ai compiled displaying the familiar newspaper articles Rip nodded changing the menu to show the plan that has been implemented.
The screen changed to display the green option underneath it read "lethal action required: Jaime Reyes/blue beetle
Rip took a sip of tea and sighed
