Disclaimer: I would if I could but I can't.
Bane gestured to the area. Robin knelt down behind a bush and pulled out his binoculars for a better look. He scanned the area and found several men escorting huge containers of venom across the yard.
"Look at all that product!" Robin said. "A buy is going down. But Kobra's not selling to the usual suspects."
"We need to identify that buyer." Aqualad added.
"Just what I was thinking." Kid Flash said.
"Yeah, you're the thinker." Robin said sarcastically.
"Sarcasm? Dude, a real leader would focus on getting answers." Kid Flash said.
Bane moved a rock, revealing an old mine shaft. "Answers are this way." He said.
The team started walking down the mine shaft.
"Oh so now El Luchador is our leader?" Kid Flash asked sarcastically.
Dark Angel hit him. "What did I say about being a pain in the ass?"
They walked a ways down the dark tunnel and ended up at a metal door. Bane put his thumb on the keypad and the door slid open.
"All clear." Robin said before running out the door.
The rest of the team and Bane piled into the room, Robin no where to be found.
"Has that little fool already been caught?" Bane asked.
"No," Aqualad said tiredly. "He just does that."
"Stay here." Kid Flash put his goggles on. "I'll get our intel and be back before the Boy Wonder."
"Wait, Kid!" Aqualad started but he had already run off.
Bane turned to the remaining team. "Great chain of command."
They all looked at each other.
Meanwhile, a man sat in a control room typing away on the computer. A batarang shot out and green gas emitted from it. The man coughed and sputtered until he finally passed out. Robin quickly slid into the man's seat and set to work hacking into the computer.
Aqualad and Superboy watched as Kobra's men loaded up the cases of Venom.
"It's a massive shipment." Aqualad said.
"But there only taking new Venom. There not taking this line." Superboy said.
"I wonder why..." Dark Angel muttered.
"Maybe...freshness counts?" Miss. Martian suggested.
Superboy stopped and looked up. "Helicopters coming."
Robin sat in the control room checking out some of the files on the computer. Kid Flash zoomed in.
"What you got there?" He asked.
"Chemical formulas." Robin replied. "I'm guessing it involves Venom but..."
Kid Flash came over to take a look. "This one's Venom," He pointed to the screen. "And that one's...the blockbuster formula from Cadmus! Mixed correctly, Kobra's new juice is three times stronger than Venom. But how did Kobra get access to project blockbuster?"
"The mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier!" Robin realized. "Using the cult to create a Blockbuster/Venom super formula." He raised his hand to his communicator. "Robin to Aqualad we got...static."
Up on the rooftop, a helicopter landed. Sportsmaster stepped out and approached Kobra.
"Lord Kobra." Sportsmaster greeted.
"Sportsmaster." Kobra returned. "The shipment is ready."
A punk girl with pink hair opened a box lined with several vials of blue liquid.
"The new Kobra Venom?" Sportsmaster asked as he took out a vial to examine it.
"A complete success." Kobra gestured to the still huge Mammoth behind him. "Our friends will not be disappointed."
"This is a game changer." Sportsmaster said excitedly. "Finally, we can go mano a mano with the Justice League."
Hovering just above them, Miss. Martian watched the whole exchange silently.
Aqualad, sending you a telepathic image of the buy now. She sent to Aqualad.
Down in the building, Bane, Aqualad, Superboy, and Dark Angel sat quietly waiting for an update from Miss. Martian.
Aqualad closed his eyes as he watched what Miss. Martian sent him.
"Sportsmaster," He finally said. "He's the buyer?" He raised his hand to his communicator. "Aqualad to Red Tornado. Do you read?" All he got was static. He groaned in frustration. "I can't reach the League or Robin. We need a plan."
"I have a suggestion." Bane said.
Bane landed down from his hiding place and attacked members of Kobra's cult. The men on the roof turned at the sudden noise.
"He's going to get us killed!" Dark Angel hissed.
"What is he-" Aqualad was interrupted as, above them, Mammoth came crashing through the glass windows and landed next to Bane.
Aqualad, Dark Angel, and Superboy dropped down and prepared to fight.
Mammoth roared.
"Destroy them." Kobra called.
Mammoth and Superboy both charged and collided into each other. Aqualad pulled out his water and Dark Angel grinned as her eyes turned black.
The cult fired there guns at the two teenagers. Aqualad formed a water shield as he still continued to shoot water at the cult members. Dark Angel formed a shield of her own, this one ricocheting the bullets back, causing the cult members to constantly dodge the bullets coming back at them.
No one notices as Bane leaves.
Meanwhile, Sportsmaster noticed that something above the teenagers was not quite right. A section of the wall looked a bit...wavier than the rest of the wall. On a hunch, Sportsmaster threw a bomb toward that spot.
Miss. Martian noticed the bomb and tried to dodge it, but the bomb threw her out of her hiding place.
Robin and Kid Flash ran onto the scene, trying to help their team members fight. Aqualad was forced back and he took shelter.
Miss. Martian, He thought. The radio is jammed. Link us up!
Miss. Martian quickly sat up and joined all the teenagers into one big physic link.
Is everyone online? She sent.
Yeah. Superboy replied half-heartedly.
You know it beautiful. Kid Flash thought.
Was that really necessary? Dark Angel groaned in her head. And present!
Good. We need to regroup. Aqualad said.
Busy now. Robin thought as he approached Kobra.
Kobra turned to him. "Batman really must be desperate if he sends his sidekicks."
"What's the matter Koby?" Robin asked. "You look disconcerted."
"This is beneath me." Kobra said. He turned to the punk girl. "Shimmer, take him."
Robin smirked.
Shimmer charged at him and Robin easily dodged her.
Robin, now! Aqualad shouted in his head.
Robin's smile faded and he sent up a bright light, blinding Shimmer and Kobra and allowing him to make his escape.
The team continued fighting, but they could tell they were outnumbered.
We need to retreat. Aqualad thought. Kid, Angel, clear a path.
Kid Flash ran and knocked several guys out of the way while Dark Angel used the shadows to sweep the rest away. The team used the now clear path to make their retreat.
Superboy, however, was still fighting Mammoth.
"Superboy!" Dark Angel called. "C'mon!"
Superboy threw Mammoth into more cult members and ran after them.
The cultists followed the team as they ran down the same tunnel they used to sneak in earlier. Dark Angel held up a shield as the cultists shot at them.
"Guys, I don't think I can hold this forever." Dark Angel said, already looking strained.
Aqualad thought for a moment. "Superboy, the support beams!"
Superboy took out the support beams, caving in the rocks and creating a barrier between the cultists and the young heroes.
Robin sighed. "How could my first mission as team leader go so wrong?"
"You do have the most experience." Aqualad said. "But perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman your roles are defined. You two do not need to talk. But this team is new, and a leader needs to be clear. Explicit. He cannot just run off and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan."
Robin turned on him. "Oh so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands?"
"Hey!" Dark Angel stood in front of him. "While you were running around doing God knows what, Kaldur was the one leading us. And he did a pretty good job at it, too. So don't get upset because Kaldur just said what I'm sure everyone else is thinking."
Robin sighed, his expression softening. "Your right." He turned to Kaldur. "You should lead us, Kaldur. Your the only one who can."
"Please I can run circles-"
Robin interrupted him. "Oh come on Wally. You know he's the one. We all do."
"Hello, Megan!" Miss. Martian said. "It's so obvious."
"Could have told you." Superboy said.
Dark Angel smiled at him.
Kid Flash nodded. "Okay."
Aqualad approached Robin. "Then I except the burden. Until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. You were born to lead this team. Maybe not now, but soon."
Robin nodded.
"Now," Aqualad continued. "Our first priority is to forbid that shipment from leaving this island."
"Funny," Robin said. "I had the same idea..."
Back outside, Sportsmaster climbed into his helicopter, only to have it not able to fly.
"Sabotage." He said. "Robin."
"Undoubtedly." Kobra replied. He turned to Shimmer next to him. "Find the problem. Fix it."
She bowed and approached the helicopter. A cultist and Mammoth walked up to Kobra.
"Master," the cultist said. "Shall we send out a search party for the intruders?"
"Don't be absurd. They'll come to us." Kobra said.
Meanwhile, the team was exiting the secret tunnel.
Robin searched for information on his holographic computer. "Sportsmaster is the supplier/buyer, but it still doesn't track. He doesn't have the juice to acquire the blockbuster formula, or to get Kobra to do his dirty work."
"And neither of them had the smarts to join Venom and blockbuster. That took some serious nerd-idge." Kid Flash added.
Aqualad stopped in front of them. "I believe the expression is: Tip of the iceberg."
The team stopped to find Bane standing in front of them.
"Halt ninos. I'm feeling very...explosive." He smirked.
The team looked up to find that they were surrounded by bombs.
"You betrayed us. Why?" Aqualad asked.
"I wanted my factory back." Bane said easily.
Kid you'll need a running start. Aqualad thought in the physic link. Kid Flash started scooting backward
"I forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies, or die trying." Bane continued. "If the latter, the Justice League certainly would have come to avenge their sidekicks. And when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more. Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect." He pressed the button, only to find nothing in his hand.
"Good plan," Dark Angel commented. "Only one problem with that."
Kid Flash held up a trigger behind Bane. "How are you going to blow us up without your trigger thingy?"
Bane lunged at him, but he found himself hovering in mid-air above Superboy.
"Finally." Superboy looked at Miss. Martian. "Drop him."
The helicopter's blades slowly started turning until they were up to speed.
"The helicopter is operational exalting one." The cultist said to Kobra.
Sportsmaster headed towards it, just as Kid Flash came zooming around the corner.
The cultists started shooting, but shadows came whipping out at all sides and knocked all their guns out of their hands.
Superboy crashed down in front of Mammoth. "Go again?"
Mammoth growled and ran towards Superboy, but at the last second was hit by a huge wave of water.
"Sorry, not the plan." Superboy smirked.
Sportsmaster grabbed a fallen gun and shot at Superboy. He noticed Miss. Martian standing behind him and he threw the gun at an empty handed cultist and grabbed her.
Kid Flash grabbed the gun from the cultist. "Souvenir!"
Robin shot a batarang at Shimmer, leaving her tied up. "I know you hate getting your hands dirty." He said to Kobra.
"True." Kobra threw down his cloak to reveal a buffed out body underneath. "But sometimes even a God must stoop to conquer."
Robin aimed a kick at him, but Kobra just grabbed his foot and threw him down. Robin tried from another angle with the same result.
"What's wrong boy?" Kobra asked. "You look disconcerted."
Dark Angel and Kid Flash continued to fight off the cultists as Aqualad kept pushing Mammoth further and further back with the water. He finally shot electricity into the water, electrocuting Mammoth and successfully knocking him out.
Sportsmaster, still holding Miss. Martian hostage, started boarding the helicopter. "Thanks for the workout, but I gotta fly." He threw Miss. Martian at Superboy as he climbed into the helicopter and it took off.
Miss. Martian held up the same trigger Bane had held earlier. She pressed it.
A bomb hidden on the helicopter beeped and exploded. Bane watched as the helicopter went down.
Kobra knocked Robin down once again. "I am plagued by mosquitoes."
"Good," Robin said from the ground. "Cause this mosquito is pretty concerted about your pain." He hopped up as the rest of the Young Justice team surrounded Kobra.
Kobra looked at all the teenagers. "Another time then." He disappeared into the shadows.
Robin turned to Aqualad. "We picked the right guy to lead. Automatically making you the right guy to explain this to Batman!" He laughed.
Mount Justice
August 4, 1:06 EDT
"A simple recon mission. Observe and report." Batman's voice echoed in the deadly silent room as Batman paced back in forth in front of the team members. "You will each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes. Until then...good job."
The team members looked up, surprised.
"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy." Batman continued. "How you adjust to the unforseen is what determines success. How you choose who leads determines character."
Aqualad looked down at Robin.
A/N: So so so so so so so so so sorry about the wait! Blame it on the writers of Young Justice for putting so many twist and turns I have to figure out. But I will keep writing this story and yes Dark Angel will be in season 2 (which I'm thinking might be a sequel) and I already have worked out what I'm going to go with the story in season 2. Let's just hope that the writers don't have many more surprises in store for us...