Revelation:
The Cave, Happy Harbor, October 1st, 2010:
Kaldur prided himself for being able to keep calm in tense situations. To be able to see all possible solutions to a given problem and then solve it as efficiently as possible.
But at this moment all he felt was frustration and an unhealthy amount of embarrassment. For the past fifteen minutes, he and Robin were sparring with Matt, trying their best to land a punch, a kick. Any attack on their leader.
But so far he seemed to be evading their combined assault like a skilled politician might an incriminating question. Aqualad was accustomed to that by this point. But it was his expression that always irked Kaldur.
Matt had a snide smile appear on his face wherever he dodged an attack. A facial expression that Dick was all too familiar with.
Robin flips forward, performing a quadruple somersault towards Matt in an attempt to deliver a powerful kick. But the blind fighter simply rolls under his young friend and swipes him off of his feet when Dick lands, making the acrobat land with an unceremonious thud.
Kaldur sees more points being awarded to Daredevil by the simulation. He observes that his back is turned to him and his instincts kick in. He rushes toward Matt at full throttle, hoping to take him by surprise.
The Atlantean extends his left arm, his hand balled into a fist and aims it toward the back of Matt's neck. But, without even turning, the blind teenager grabs Kaldur's fist. The sound of skin grinding against skin filled the training grid.
Matt grabs the stunned Atlantean by the collar and throws him over his head. Kaldur gasps as he flies straight into Robin's chest - who had just gotten back up - knocking the wind out of both of them. The two land outside of the ring, groaning in pain and the holographic display they spared in shuts down.
"Rob. You can't rely on your agility if your attacks are gonna be that easy to predict. Kaldur, punches are powered by the hips, not the arms. I don't care how much stronger you are. With form that bad, nearly anyone can exploit you," Matt says, helping the two get back on their feet.
Kaldur smiles when he hears his feedback. Despite his frustrations, he was always willing to learn from his mistakes. "Was there anything else you found lacking?" He asks humbly.
"Yeah. You tried to sneak up on a guy with no blind spot. Bad move," Dick says cheekily, nudging Kaldur in the ribs. He remembers how often he tried to attack Matt from behind only for him to slap him silly immediately after.
Matt lightly taps him on the head for that layered comment and the three notice Superboy and Miss Martian entering the main hall together. Robin leans in to whisper to the two. "You know they're a couple right?"
Kaldur raises a knowing brow. "I believe I knew before they did," he whispers back.
"They were kissing in her room for the past ten minutes. It was really distracting," Matt says, listening to their footsteps. He hears Wolf's paws and the spheres metal scraping against the floor as they followed the two aliens.
A few seconds later Wally and Artemis walk in together. "Those two are practically made for each other," Matt says. He could feel their temperatures rising whenever they looked at each other.
"Think we should tell them?" Robin asks rhetorically.
"I do not believe that is our place," Kaldur says with a serious tone. Matt sighs, his friend's inability to understand some of the surface world's verbal quirks was humorous at times.
"Though, I'm not sure how I feel about Captain Slow and Zatara babysitting us. I mean, the Captain's like a big baby," Matt says, pointing to the two without turning in their direction.
Robin nods, "He's so immature. I'm pretty sure he told Connor and Megan to stay away from each other to stop them from catching cooties," he says, scrunching his face as he recollects the event. Kaldur lets out a small chuckle after hearing that. He has seen enough surface television to know what "cooties" were.
"It's not that. I meant that his body produces virtually no testosterone at all. It's like standing next to an overgrown ten-year-old," Matt says. He gives Captain Marvel a forced smile to throw him off of the fact that they were talking about him behind his back. Kaldur and Dick weren't sure whether to be concerned for Marvel's lack of hormones or for Matt's complete lack of personal boundaries
Noticing his friends awkwardness Matt spreads his arms. "I can't help it," he says. He had to perceive the world somehow and that was one way he identified people.
Luckily the silence in the air was cut short by the sound of the zeta tubes activating. Batman enters the cave and immediately walks towards its centre.
He pulls up some holographic displays of the national news, showing large, building-sized plants enveloping metropolis.
The reporter, Kat Grant was delivering the news. "The initial attack was short lived. However, Metropolis was only granted a short reprieve. And despite the intervention of Superman and the Justice League, there seems to be no end in sight," she says over footage of Superman and various other heroes battling the monstrous plants and saving multiple civilians.
Kaldur and Wally were giving Matt visual descriptions of what was happening on screen. Though Wally's eloquent way with words, spouting gems such as, "Superman went woosh," left much to be desired.
The report ends and Robin steps forward. "Should we get out there?" he asks Batman.
"No. The League will soon have the situation under control. But that's not why I'm here. According to your intel, Sportsmaster was supplying Cadmus BlockBuster formula to Kobra," the Dark Knight says.
"Who combined it with Bane's venom to create Kobra-Venom," Wally says.
"Which The Brain used to build his animal army," Robin added.
Connor was stroking Wolf underneath his jaw, making the canine somewhat docile. "And it upgraded Wolf," he says.
"The Brain also used inhibitor collars. Like the ones in Belle Reve Penitentiary," M'gann says.
Artemis looks towards Batman. "Is it possible that plant-thingy is on Kobra-Venom too?" she asks, disgusted by the idea of having to fight them.
"I had Green Lantern run a spot analysis. The vines chlorophyll do contain a Kobra-Venom variant," Batman says, displaying the chemical composition of the modified drug to the team. Though Wally was the only one who could understand it.
Matt crosses his arms. "There's no way these are all coincidences," he says.
"I agree. Unrelated criminals are co-operating on a worldwide scale," Kalur says. Dick opens a holographic keyboard and starts tapping away.
Batman gives the teenagers a serious look. "It is now clear that our enemies some kind of… secret society of super-villains," he says, choosing his words carefully. "The attack on Metropolis is only the beginning."
Dick pulls up footage of the plants erupting in other nations. "You got that right. Plant creatures have sprouted in Gotham City, Paris, New York, STAR City and Taipei," he says. But the moment he finishes his sentence the screens become filled with static.
"Dude?" Wally asks. Dick grumbles, "It's not me. Someone's interfering with the satellite signal. All satellite signals."
A few seconds later a person fills up the width of the screen. His face was responsible for causing nightmares to grown men and women. A man who has single-handedly filled entire graveyards with his killing sprees. A man who has given Batman and Robin an endless number of sleepless nights.
"Joker," Batman says with vitriol, forming a tight fist behind his cape. Matt never heard Bruce speak with so much emotion before. Though he's felt the same anger whenever he had to interact with Bullseye. And if the files he has read were any indication, The Joker was just as dangerous. If not more so.
The clown prince of crime tapped the camera and had an unsettling smile plastered across his face. "Ladies and gentlemen. We interrupt your usually scheduled mayhem to bring you this important announcement," he says with a voice Matt was not expecting to hear.
He sounded like a children's TV show host mixed with a British stand-up comedian. Matt assumed that The Joker would have a duller, more menacing voice. Nothing as theatrical as this.
The clown grabs the camera and pans it to the side to reveal a group of villains standing together. "An announcement from the Injustice League," he finishes among a fit of laughs.
The camera zooms in on the man in the middle. He was Caucasian with blue eyes, white, slicked-back hair and a widow's peak hairline. He wears a lime blazer on top of a brown waistcoat and a dark green ascot with a golden brooch. He also dons a dark green cape and matching pants and gloves. He speaks with a thick but elegant eastern European accent.
"We are responsible for the attacks on your cities. If you wish to save them, a ransom of ten billion US dollars is required. Delivery instructions have been sent to the United Nations. There is no time limit. But, the longer your governments wait..." the Eastern European man says.
"The longer we get to have some fun," The Joker finishes, turning the camera back towards him. He starts giggling, then a small laugh emerges and finally a throaty war call like noise exits his throat that sent chills down Matt's spine.
Batman receives a message from his cowl and he puts a finger to his ear to hear it. "Roger that Aquaman. The ransom will be prepared by the UN as a fallback. But it will not come to that," he says, turning towards The Team.
Robin reverses the footage to see all the villains in that line-up. He deploys some face-tracking software to double check.
"Count Vertigo, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Atomic Skull, Ultra-Humanite, Wotan, Black Adam. That's seven heavy hitters. Probably behind everything and everyone that we faced so far," he says with a sense of alarm.
"There's your secret society," Wally says.
"Not so secret anymore," Artemis adds.
Kaldur considers what she had just said for a moment. "Perhaps after India, they realised we would deduce the truth and saw no point in hiding any longer."
Wally pumps his fist in the air. "Oh yeah. Well, that was their mistake. Right now I say we kick some plant creature butt," he says enthusiastically.
"Something doesn't add up. Most of those guys don't care about money. Why would they get together and do all of that stuff just to demand a ransom?" Matt asks.
Batman jumps in. "A question to be answered on a later date. But the Justice League will handle the vines. I have a different job for this team."
Wally's face sinks when he hears that. "Oh man," he whines. Which prompted Artemis to hit him on the shoulder, making the Speedster rub it in pain.
"With the plants attacking several locations simultaneously, there must be a central control system. Your mission is to destroy it," Batman says, ignoring the two teenagers exchanging annoyed glances at each other.
Zatara approaches Bruce. "You do realise what you are asking of them?"
"They're ready," he tells the sorcerer.
"Ready? Ready for what?" Wally asks. Artemis gives out an annoyed grunt and punches him in the shoulder again. "Will you cut that out?" he shouts at her.
Artemis tilts her head and squints her eyes. 'How can someone so fast be so freaking slow,' she thinks. "Hello, Wally. If the League are fighting plants, who do you think we'll be fighting?" she asks him slowly. Like one would a small, dimwitted child.
He gives her a confused expression and shrugs his shoulders. Irritated with their banter Matt grabs Wally by the head and turns it so as to face the screen. The speedster sees the frozen image of the Injustice League and the gears in his head start to turn.
"Oh. Right," he says, blushing slightly.
Zatara and Batman turn towards each other. "Batman. I trust you are correct."
"I trust that you can locate the enemy," Bruce responds.
The Sorcerer nods. "Indeed. Wotan's involvement indicates that sorcery is part of how the plants are controlled. Robin, if you could provide a holomap," he asks the Boy Wonder kindly.
Robin nods and pulls up a holographic display of the globe. "I will search for signs of concentrated magical activity. This map will help me with visualisation," he says, extending his arms and flourishing his wand.
"Etacol retnecipe fo yrecros!" he yells out, his words echoing when he speaks. The globe stops spinning and a small marker appears on the map. "There. That is where you will find the Injustice Leagues central control system," Zatara says.
Robin downloads the information. "Co-ordinates locked in. The Louisiana Biome in Central America," he says.
"Alright. Team, suit up. Meet me at the hanger in ten. Aqualad, get the thing," he instructs them. The Atlantean nods and they run towards the changing rooms.
"Where're you going?" Robin asks Matt.
He smiles. "I'm gonna need something more than my Billy clubs to fight those guys. I'll pick up a few things in New York. Won't take a minute," he tells Dick.
The Team go to their respective locations and Captain Marvel starts to head towards the hanger. But Batman stops him.
"Captain Marvel. For this plan to work, the entire League must be seen fighting the plants. You, Zatara and I are needed elsewhere," he says.
The Joker laughs maniacally at the sight of firefighters succumbing to Joker venom emitted from the plants, viewing it on one of the multiple screens. The men and women inhale the gas and start to cough vigorously. But the coughs rapidly shifted to laughs. And the intensity of the laughter was clogging up their throats, suffocating them in the process. When they fell, they all had a permanent smile, etched on their face.
The image filled The Joker with more joy than he could express. He was contorting his fingers like a puppeteer, his hands covered with specialised gloves that allow him to interface with the plants on a worldwide scale.
"Kobra-Venom has got nothing on good ol' fashioned Joker venom," he says smugly, watching and manipulating the plants to suit the Justice League members that they were facing.
"Both work well in concert," Count Vertigo says, admiring his colleague's ability to multitask.
Poison Ivy looks at the dying roots of the primary plant that was controlling the rest of its brethren and strokes it gently, bringing back some of its former green shade. The villains and the plant were situated in a large dome that was once used as a greenhouse. It seemed to be the perfect location for their little enterprise.
"We're putting considerable strain on my baby," she says, comforting the giant plant further. Ultra-Humanite stumbles forward, carrying a handheld device. The white ape takes a few measurements and calculates how much power the plant needs to sustain itself and the others across the globe.
After typing in a few numbers a pulse is sent through the creature and Woton hovers in the air, uttering a spell that reverberates throughout the lair. His magic sustains the pulse inside the plant, making sure it was ready for the next stage.
"We will keep her safe Ivy. Skull, it requires more power," he says to both teammates.
Atomic Skull walks towards a metal platform that one could tell was once pristine but now it was stained by scorch marks. But it still served its purpose. The villain grabs two metal rods that protruded from the platform and he closes his eyes. His body starts to glow a bright green and the emaciated villain sends a beam of radiation passing through the machine.
Woton's magic and Ultra-Humanities machine provided new life to the plant, causing it to sprout even higher, it's height surpassing that of the roof of the dome itself. The plant, which acted as an antenna, boosted the signal to all the plants that Joker was controlling. New branches and leaves take shape and a content look appears on Ivy's face.
"Stunning what a little teamwork can accomplish," The Count says, feeling a sense of satisfaction from stealing from the heroes playbook of forming powerful alliances. His attention gets diverted by the sound of the alarm blaring. "Intruder alert," he says.
"And that's the motion sensors tripped. They'll attack in any minute," Matt says, feeling the shift of radio waves in the air. He keeps the items he acquired from his trip to New York safely on his lap, feeling the need to check them every other second.
He picks up the first item from the pair. The sound of metal running smoothly along the leather insides of the black scabbard filled his ears. He inspects the Katana, running his fingers along the three magical kanji runes once more. 'Burn. Bleed. Cut. Yeah, real descriptive there,' he thinks sarcastically.
He puts the sword back in and unsheathes the second sword from a red scabbard. Its hilt was without decoration and was a plane crimson. It had no magical inscriptions or anything that made it extraordinary except for the construction of the blade itself. The sharp edge was forged on the opposite side than normal, making it a sword ill-fit for killing.
A reverse-bladed sword.
He remembers the circumstances under which he received these weapons. How he and Elektra saved the black sky. How Kato told him that he needed to keep the Team safe, though he wasn't sure how he knew about them or why he even cares. He strokes both their hilts, the protective fibres were fresh and tight, never having been used in combat. He does the same with his Billy clubs. In contrast with the swords, both were worn and marred with scratches. The paint was now a faded shade of red. 'Respect and understand the tools of your trade.' He thinks.
Though Matt wasn't the only one taking stock of what they had. Every member of the team with weapons was checking up on them. Feeling their weight. Keeping their minds fresh and ready for the battle up ahead. Artemis with her arrows, Kaldur with his water bearers and Dick with an entire arsenal in his belt. They were all mentally preparing themselves for the task at hand.
Feeling left out, with only a half-eaten banana in his hand, Wally asks Matt a question he had been holding in for a few moments. "Why'd you bring those here? I kinda doubt that we're gonna beat the Injustice League with a couple of swords."
"They'll be useful. Trust me," Matt replies with confidence. 'I hope,' he thinks to himself with an equal amount of doubt.
Kid Flash then asks Aqualad, who had switched his costume to stealth mode. "What's in the bag?"
Kaldur pats it and glances at M'gann and Matt. "Plan B," he says.
Miss Martian and Daredevil both put their hands to their heads almost simultaneously. Matt could feel something affecting the Bioship. "You alright?" Connor asks her. Even Wolf let out a concerned whimper.
"M'gann. Turn to starboard now. We've got two hostiles in front of us," Matt says, hearing two malicious heart beats a few hundred meters on the ground below.
She nods in confirmation and turns the struggling ship right, despite the effort being a major strain on both her and the ship. But the Bioship started to lose elevation and it brushed against the top of a few trees, visibly damaging them.
"There," Count Vertigo says, stopping his psychic wave that was affecting the ship. Black Adam sees the shimmer of the cloaked Bioship and leaps towards it like a lighting bound spring. He strikes the side of the ship with a powerful blow that made Matt's ears ring and sent the entire ship spiralling downwards.
M'gann was struggling to keep the ship afloat. Flying through Red Twisters tornado was less strenuous. "Hang on," she screams out to the team, seconds before the ship makes an impact with a river, skidding along the surface like a flat stone.
Two large tendril-like vines wrap around the fallen Bioship and start to pull it further below the surface. The teenagers, not even having time to register what was going on heard a tremendous thud on top of the ship. The organic material of the ship concaves as a fist forces itself through.
The hole widens enough to reveal the scowling face of Black Adam. Matt reacts immediately to the threat and runs under the hole. He then pulls out his enchanted katana and swipes upwards. The blade pierces Adam in the eye, causing the villain to scream in pain, feeling an excess of blood leave his body.
M'gann was groaning, feeling the distress the Bioship was in. Seeing this, Connor leaps angrily towards Black Adam, punching him in the face so hard that he was sent flying away in the distance, through a few trees.
The large vines pull the ship deeper into the river and water starts to flood the insides of the ship. "No. No way I'm drowning three missions in a row," Artemis says, trying to find an underwater breathing device she had on her person.
Wally looks around and sees that Daredevil, who had his swords tied to his back, and Robin had already put the breathing devices in their mouths and dove underwater. Superboy and Wolf took in a deep breath and followed suit. Miss Martian used her shapeshifting to grow gills across her neck and she and Aqualad followed their teammates.
Seeing his distress Artemis rummages through her things and pulls out another breathing device and hands it to Wally, surprising him. "Wow. Thanks," he says simply as the two dive down through a small opening in the ship that Miss Martian had morphed. The Team swim ashore, with Aqualad leading the way underwater and with the exception of Kaldur and M'gann take in massive gulps of air when they reach dry land.
"Ok. Let's… " Matt started to say but he drew his Billy club and threw it into the forest, causing Count Vertigo to audibly fall to the ground. Matt raises his hand to catch the ricocheting weapon but feels something large coming at him faster than he could react.
He feels someone grip his throat and feels a rush of air travelling past his body at blistering speeds. His aggressor violently pushes him against a tree, causing it to fall and Matt grasped his arm, trying to pry it away to allow him to breathe.
"Let's see how you look with a hole through your chest," Black Adam says, pulling back his free hand. Matt tastes the blood where Adam's eye used to be and smirks.
"Look up," he says with a burning throat. The villain looks up but sees nothing. Instead, a powerful set of arms wrap themselves around his waist and push him towards the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
Connor puts Adam's arm in a hold that Black Canary had taught him and he turns to Matt. "Go. I got this," he says. His voice was shaking from the amount of effort he was putting into restraining the villain.
Matt hears Count Vertigo get up and he makes an announcement over the psychic link. 'Robin, M'gann. Disappear into the jungle with me. Everyone else, keep the big guys distracted till we finish the job. Aqualad, take charge,' he thinks as the three he mentioned disappeared into the shadows, with M'gann cloaking herself.
Black Adam flys upward and grabs Connor by his shoulders and hurls him into the remaining heroes. They get out of the way but they inadvertently stand in front of Vertigo. The Count mentally activates the ring around his forehead and a psychic wave is emitted from it. The teenagers grab their heads and fall to the ground, unable to withstand the barrage.
Superboy stands up. His eyes bloodshot and his head made him feel like he was repeatedly being slammed through a mountain. But he soldiered through, slowly making his way towards Count Vertigo. The psychic waves stop and Connor feels someone hit him in the back of the head.
His vision goes black for a second but he stands back up and sees Black Adam standing behind him. Superboy throws a relatively weak punch at the villain but misses. Two more punches hit Connor square in the jaw but he still wouldn't go down. "That the best you got?" he asks weakly.
Black Adam snarls at the Kryptonian. He floats into the air cocks back his arm and flies into Connor at full speed. The teenager crumples down into the ground, the impact sends a large shockwave across the island.
"You guys feel that?" Matt asks, feeling the vibrations through the ground. Robin and M'gann nod, they didn't need super senses to notice an impact like that. M'gann wanted to go back and help Connor but she stopped herself. He wasn't the mission.
Daredevil leads the way and was using his sword to cut through any branches that blocked their path. 'Guys. Take a left,' he thinks over the link.
Robin sees the map on his holographic display and gives Matt a puzzled expression. 'Why? The dome's two klicks in front of us.'
'Just checking out a hunch,' Matt responds mentally. The three take a sharp right turn and Matt felt the ground behind them shifting in the same direction. 'Something's tunnelling through the ground below us,' he warns them.
'Probably more vines,' M'gann responds mentally.
Robin subtly looks around for the culprit but sees no one. Matt knew who he was looking for too but he couldn't hear a woman's heartbeat anywhere. For all he knew Poison Ivy could be in the dome, controlling the vines remotely or could be a few yards away.
After walking for a few more minutes the dome and the beanstalk like structure sprouting from it was now in sight. 'Ambush in three, two, one,' Matt thinks, hearing a set of footsteps behind them. Plants break out of the ground and wrap themselves around the three, trapping them.
"Why hello," Ivy says. Ultra-Humanite jumps behind her and points a rifle at them. "And goodbye," she finishes as the ape puts M'gann's head in his sights.
Matt felt the metal around his sword getting hotter and the vine trapping him get weaker. A flame erupts from the sharp blade and he swings it around, cutting the three of them free. Ultra-Humanite fires at Matt but he flips forward and narrowly dodges the bullet. 'Now I know what one of the runes are for,' he thinks.
Robin slides across the vines and leaps up into the trees and M'gann used her telekinesis to ward off any of the plants that tried to entrap her. Daredevil sees that they had no time to waste here and makes a decision.
'I'll fight the two in the HQ. You take care of the ones in front of us,' Matt orders mentally. He runs through the woods, burning through any vine Ivy launched at him while Humanite provided suppressing fire with his gun, preventing Miss Martian and Robin from getting too close to her.
Ivy sees Daredevil run towards the dome and frowns. She hopes her teammates inside could handle him.
Daredevil slung his sword onto his back and grappled to the top of the dome. He heard two heartbeats inside. One was accompanied by a unique laugh that could only belong to the Joker and the other was surrounded by an unusually large amount of radiation. 'Probably Atomic Skull. Great, a zombie that shoots lasers from his head and I've got a couple of swords and Billy clubs. Now what?' Matt thinks.
He feels the carbon-dioxide level in his vicinity decrease and hears something slither behind him. Matt draws his sword again but more vines wrap around his body and he is brought down to ground level. The two villains walk towards him.
Joker waves a finger at Matt and smiles. "When you're pen pals with Bats for as long as I've been, you tend to look for any hidey holes where he might pop up. So, what're you supposed to be, his understudy? Seriously kid, you need a new suit. A red colour scheme doesn't hide the blatant plagiarism," he tells him nonchalantly, lamenting the time he once threw Harley out of a window for wearing blue one day.
Atomic Skull charges his beam and aims his head at Matt. Bring bored with the Jokers rambling.
Refusing to die at the hands of these clowns, Matt removes a smoke grenade and ruptures it inside his hand, allowing a grey cloud to envelop the surrounding area. He burns through the vine with his enchanted blade and he runs in circles around Skull, occasionally allowing the zombie-like villain to see brief flashes of red.
Unable to contain the energy build up any longer, Atomic Skull fires upwards into the sky, making sure that he wouldn't hit the plant or Joker. But that was the opening that Matt needed.
He sped towards the villain and draws his reverse-edged blade to strike Skull in the side of the neck, hitting the carotid artery. The impact didn't penetrate the skin. It couldn't. But it momentarily stopped blood flow to his brain and he stumbles. Matt hits Atomic Skull three more times in the head and knocks him out, fracturing his skull.
He turns around when he hears gloved hands, slapping each other in a round of applause. "Bravo. Loved that move with the gas. I mean, it's really old school and even Robin could do it but that doesn't matter. You still took out Skull. But the question is… " Joker says bowing before Matt. "Can you take me?" he asks with a menacing giggle.
Matt flourishes his sword and points it at Joker. He tilts his head upon hearing his unnaturally steady heartbeat. "Give me ten seconds," he tells the villain with a cocky tone of voice. Joker covers his mouth and gasps with facetious shock. He pulls out a pocket watch and winds it up, checking the second hand.
Daredevil puts the sheath to the side of his hip and puts his sword back in. He takes a right step forward and leans in, preparing to land a quick strike on the Joker, with the act of pulling the sword out from the side making the attack much faster than usual.
Matt launches himself at The Joker, drawing his sword and aiming it's reverse-blade towards his chest. But he has seen Daredevil run at top speed when fighting Skull. The Joker pulls on the flower pinned to his jacket and aims it at Matt.
Feeling small residual particulates sting his face, Matt stops inches before hitting The Joker and covers his face. A dark green liquid squirts out of the flower and hit's Matt in the forearm. He quickly drops the sword and removes his glove, feeling his skin blister despite his armour. The corrosive liquid eats through the glove and the ground surrounding it.
Before Matt could think Joker took a small can out of his purple jacket and sprayed it right under Matt's nose. The teenager held his breath, stopping the Joker's venom from entering his system but the Clown Prince of crime kicked him to the ground and started to step on him like a feral child. Matt rolls into a ball, unable to defend himself any other way.
Joker places his hands on Matt's temples and he slowly opens his lips next to Matt's ear. "Can you hear me in there Bat's? Sending second-rate cosplayers after me isn't a good idea. The results might be… shocking," he whispers next to Matt. A throaty laugh exits his throat as he presses an electric buzzer against Daredevils helmet.
Matt shouts in agony as he feels an ungodly amount of electricity course through his body. Despite his armour insulating him from the brunt of the current, he still felt like fire was coursing through his veins. Eventually, the small device runs out of power and the electricity stops.
His muscle where twitching uncontrollably but Matt was used to fighting with a handicap. He headbutts Joker, breaking his nose and pushes him away. He stands up and gets into a traditional boxing stance. "Pretending to be Batman wasn't enough for you? Now you're trying to pull off an Ali? Still, if it's a whooping you're a-wantin'," Joker says with a giant smile.
The clown hunches forward and lets his hands droop down free and relaxed, inviting the younger fighter to take a crack at him. Matt frowns in frustration. 'Why isn't he taking this fight seriously. I could knock him out in a single punch with a guard that bad,' he thinks to himself. He slowly circles around The Joker, trying to determine if he was trying to play another trick.
"So. Are we fighting or do we need daddy Bats' permission to trade a few blows?" Joker asks with a wild expression, giggling uncontrollably. The sound of his laugh was poison to Matt's ears. He steps forward and delivers a blinding jab right into Joker's face.
The clown's expression changes from relaxed to alarmed in a split second. He raises his hands to block the incoming assault. Matt was driving Joker backwards with his punches, each blow bruising his pale, white skin. He follows up with a devastating shot to the body, making The Joker wince and spit out a few drops of saliva and blood.
The assault continues, with The Joker barely hanging on for life and Matt pounding away at him, exploiting any gaps in his defence he could find. The villains slip back and finds that he was resting against something. He looks behind him and sees that he now had his back against the giant plant.
Matt smiles. Not just because he had The Joker cornered but because he could hear Miss Martian and Robin coming towards them a few hundred metres away. They would reach the dome in a few minutes and then would plant explosives on the target. Which in this case was a plant. 'Funny,' Matt thinks.
Daredevil rushes forward and delivers a right hook that planted itself firmly into Joker's chin. His body violently bends backwards from the force of the punch and it looks like he was about to fall over. But a bored expression spreads across his pale face. The Joker grabs onto a vine behind and from his half fallen position hits Matt under his jaw with an uppercut, launching him a foot off of the ground.
'The hell was that?' Matt thinks, rubbing his chin, not expecting any retaliation from his opponent. With his back still bent backwards Joker starts slamming Daredevil, who had gotten up with with a series of odd but powerful punches, left and right to various parts of Matt's body. It was like a demon possessed the clown and was taking over his body. Fighting with a controlled savagery than Matt has never encountered before.
The Joker takes out a switchblade from his sleeve and cuts Matt across his ungloved hand. He jumps back from the next strike which only grazed the armour on his chest. A blood soaked laugh erupts from Joker's mouth as he grabs Matt, dropping the knife. The Joker then taps his heel and a small blade comes out of his shoe. He kicks Matt in the side and the knife penetrates his armour, piercing his skin.
Daredevil falls to the ground again, clutching his new wound. Joker dusts off his suit and straightens his tie. "He has the same weakness in his armour you know. You even copied the flaws. Shame. After hearing Bullseye talk about you I thought you'd be a hoot to deal with. But instead, I get a wannabe who doesn't even try anything new," Joker says with a complacent tone.
He steps on Matt's knife wound which makes him him hiss in pain. "Well come on. At least give me the usual cliched dialogue. 'You'll never get away with this.' Or, I dunno. 'You haven't seen my true form.' Something. Anything. Even Batman's more chatty than you," he says, stepping on the teenagers throat.
Matt mutters something under his breath but it was inaudible to The Joker. "What's that junior. Might want to speak up a bit. Not as young as I used to be," he says, coming closer to Matt.
"Would Batman do this?" he asks him menacingly. The Joker felt a sharp pain in his side. He looks down and sees that Daredevil had stabbed him. He looks to Matt's wound and notices that the blade piercing his armour was missing.
"Not bad kid," he coughs out, laughing slightly. Matt uses a knife-hand strike to his throat and almost knocks the Joker unconscious. "You remove that bit of metal, you bleed out and die. Imagine Batman's face if you did that," he tells Joker, grinning in front of his battered body.
He removes his enchanted sword and places the tip over his injury. Moving the armour away from the stab-wound slightly.
Matt bites down on his Billy club and allows a small amount of heat to exit the sword and fuse the skin there, cauterizing the wound. He falls over, not expecting the pain to be as bad as it was. He spits his club out and lies on the floor.
A smile crawls across his face, hearing a few friendly footsteps come his way. "We leave you alone for like fifteen minutes and you do all this?" Robin asks him jovially. M'gann sees the unconscious body of the Atomic Skull and the conscious form of Joker, clutching an open wound and helps Matt up.
"Am I the only one concerned that he stabbed the bad guy?" M'gann asks the two.
Dick sees her and gives her a considered look. "Hey, I saw Batman throw him into a grenade once. He'll be fine." Robin then looks at Joker with a smug face. "How's it feel to get beat up by the Devil?"
"You know. With the benefit of hindsight… " Joker started to say but Matt picks up a small rock and throws it at his head. Knocking him out stone cold. He gives Dick an expectant look making him nod. Robin climbs the primary plant, placing explosive disks all around it.
Matt hears a smatter of footsteps stepping into marsh and water outside the dome. The other members of the team were doing there best to fend off the remaining members of the Injustice League. "When we're done here. We need to join the others," he tells M'gann with a small voice.
"You can barely stand. You have to stay here and rest," she tells him with concern. Robin leaps down and pats him on the back.
"Hey. Two out of seven's still pretty good," he tells Matt, gesturing at the two fallen villains.
Matt relents and asks Miss Martian to hover the three of them on top of the open dome. He decided he would stay there to 'Catch his breath.'
The large plant started to emit pheromones in the air, trying to communicate its peril to its mother. "My baby," Poison Ivy cries out, turning around seeing the dozens of explosive disks, glowing and primed to explode.
A large ball of fire erupts from the plant. The once mighty structure was now falling apart and incinerating in an inferno. Daredevil, M'gann and Robin stood on the edge of the dome, looking down at the skirmish below. "Timber," Dick says, crossing his arms.
Matt points downwards and the two beside him make there way down to where the action was. Count Vertigo sees the two join their teammates and commands his people to kill the young heroes. Ultra-Humanite snarls at Wolf and Superboy. Before the latter could act Black Adam flies behind him and grabs the kryptonian and flies him through multiple trees. Wolf pounces towards Humanite and the two animals start mauling each other.
Vertigo sees that Artemis was in range of his attack and uses the device on his head to generate psychic waves to incapacitate her. She grabs her head and falls into the mud. She looks up and reaches out towards the Count, seeing his smug grin of satisfaction.
"Leave her alone," Wally says, running towards her. But he is hit by an orange blast of energy before he could build enough speed to reach her.
Woton stops the assault on the Speedster when he sees three disks being hurled his way by Robin. The hovering wizard forms a force field around his body, rendering the projectiles useless. He generates electricity from his hands and shoots out lighting which is directed towards every member of the team, currently fighting on the ground.
Robin, Artemis, Wally, M'gann and wolf were instantly pinned to the ground by the attack. Both Superboy and Aqualad were able to withstand the attacks and still stay standing but the former was starting to succumb due to his vulnerability to magic.
Kaldur's tattoos started to glow and he blocks the lightning with his hands, redirecting the current through his body and into the ground. Woton's eyes were closed when casting this spell, concentrating so that he did not kill the children too quickly. He would savour their demise.
The magician feels a faint mystical energy heading his way and stops the barrage of lighting and erects a barrier. But object penetrates it and impales his gut. He looks down and sees blood slowly dripping down his robes. He hovers slowly towards the ground and kneels on shaky legs, not used to feeling this sort of pain.
Matt walks towards the Sorcerer and pulls out his enhanced sword from his target. "Guess I didn't throw this thing hard enough," he says, knowing that the barrier must have reduced the swords velocity. Woton tries to use a healing spell on the stab wound but to no avail.
He was still losing blood.
Running his fingers over the three runes of the blade, Matt now understood what they could do. 'Burn, cut and bleed. Should have been obvious,' he thinks to himself. Woton purses his lips and stares at Matt with bitter rage. He charges a spell at the wounded teenager and prepares to cast it.
Matt reaches for his Billy club but finds it missing after a rush of air dashes past him. Woton's vision is filled with the image of the club hitting him faster than he could even react to. The old wizard falls when a blurry Billy club makes contact with his stab wound, causing his flesh to knot and tear inside his body.
Wally stops running and throws the weapon back to Matt. "That. Was gross," he tells his blind friend, who was wiping the blood of his weapon.
"Behind you!" Matt yells out. Kid Flash turns around and sees Black Adam flying towards them. The Speedster runs towards his teammate and picks him up, but the action slowed him down for a few seconds. Which was more than enough time for Adam to back hand the two into a rock, almost knocking the two out.
Despite Wally taking most of the damage, Matt felt like he was about to vomit out the rest of the blood in his body. He hears bones creaking as he gets up but does not feel anything wrong with his own skelton. He slowly prods Wally's arm and realises that it was broken.
M'gann uses her telekinesis to immobilize Black Adam before he could kill the two and Connor lets out an angry howl, striking the villain in the jaw. Aqualad lifts Matt up and Artemis does the same for Wally.
She sees Ivy trying to hit a cloaked M'gann with her vines, the tendrils missing the near-invisible target. Vertigo uses his psychic waves to decloak the martian and stops to allow Ivy's vines to ensnare her.
"Take care of him," Artemis says gently, allowing Wally to slump against Kaldur. She runs towards Vertigo and leaps in the air. She extends her leg and let her muddy foot strike Vertigo in the chest, making him fall on top of Ivy.
She grabs the Counts cloak and tears a piece off, running towards Wally. Aqualad loosens his grip as the speedster starts to regain consciousness. "Hey. That's my souvenir," he says in a voice that made him sound half asleep.
Artemis slowly takes his broken arm in her hands. "Hold still," she says, using the cloak to make a sling for Wally. Before the stunned speedster could thanks her, Matt kicked Kaldur into the two, preventing them from being hit by Ultra-Humanite, who threw Wolf at the group. Unfortunately, that meant that Matt was now winded by a hundred and fifty pound canine being thrown at him.
'I'd like to get through at least one mission without getting my ass kicked,' he thinks as he pushes Wolf off of his body, his ribs now no the verge of cracking. Ultra-Humanite grabs Matt by the neck and roars in his face, showering Daredevil in spit and small pieces of partially chewed food.
He opens his jaws to bite Matt's head and he squirms in his grasp, feeling the heat of the apes mouth inch closer to his face. Ultra-Humanite looks up and instantly drops Matt to the ground. The teenager coughs out some mud and crawls away towards his teammates.
Matt concentrates to sense what Humanite was looking at and a warm smile stretched across his face.
Superman along with the rest of the Justice League were occupying the skies. With the Green Lanterns constructing platforms with their rings. The remaining villains see the adult heroes arrive on the battlefield. Vertigo looks at the League with contempt.
He looks like he was seconds away from blasting the heroes with a psychic wave but then takes stock of the situation. Over twenty heroes were present her whilst he only had four members remaining in his team. Plus, given that the four were tired from battle and Superman and the Lanterns alone could potentially defeat them in their current state only one action made sense to Count Vertigo.
He removes the ring from his head and raises his hands in defeat. Ivy and Humanite see their leader surrender and decide to do the same. Despite Black Adam's urge to slay Daredevil and Superboy, he sees the entire Justice League stare at him. Batman's infamous glare conveyed to him what the message was.
'Try it. Let's see what happens.'
With his pride now wounded he raises his hands in surrender as well. His thoughts echoes Vertigo's words to the League as they restrain him in handcuffs. "There will be another time."
The Team gather up and stand next to each other. Seeing every single member of the Injustice League being taken away by the flying members of the League, save for Hal Jordan, who decided to stay back and provide transport for the non-flyers.
Joker grins at Matt who simply gave the Clown the middle finger before the villain was hovered away in the air. An interaction Bruce found interesting though one could never tell with his stoic expression.
Batman, Aquaman, Zatara and Captain Marvel then stand before the teenagers. "Our work here is done. The secret society of Villains has been neutralised. As for your performance… " The Dark Knight says, his sentence trailing on, leaving the Team in suspense.
"It was satisfactory."
The injured and muddy Team look to each other in confusion. 'Was that a complement?' Wally asks over the psychic link.
'No idea,' Robin responds mentally. He had given up hope on trying to read Bruce's emotions years ago.
Matt collapses in his bed, sinking into the aging, bloodstained mattress. Claire had spent the previous few hours dressing his cauterised wound. She connected a drip to Matt's veins which provided him with a supply of blood that he had frozen and stored in his freezer.
"You need a better place to store that stuff," she says, gesturing towards the empty blood pack. She seals up the item in a zip-locked bag which she would incinerate later on. Mark sees his foster brother, now bedridden and sighs.
"He can't keep doing this to himself," Mark says, his eyes trailing over Matt's pale and bruised body. Claire wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him in for a hug.
She strokes his chin and looks at Matt. "Not much we can do to stop him," she tells her boyfriend. They see Matt's belly rise up and down. Indicating that he was asleep. Despite knowing that he was probably acting they close his door to the tiny room, giving him some privacy.
Once he hears them move away from his room Matt picks up his communicator and puts it in his ear. He hears a familiar ring as he makes his call. 'They're right. I need to take a few days off,' he thinks, rubbing the bandages over his stab wound.
"Hello?" a voice asks over the communicator.
"Hey El, whats up?" Matt asks.
The Greek girl yawns and glances at her clock, seeing that it was four in the morning. "Matthew? Something the matter? You don't usually call me this early," she says with a dry throat.
Matt sniggers which made him groan as his wounds start to burn. "Just wanted to know if you still wanted to go to dinner on Sunday."
"Of course. Why? Has something come up?" Elektra asks, hoping that another attempt at trying to act like a regular couple was not going to do down the drain.
"No. Just… Well, I wanted to hear your voice is all," he says.
Elektra closes her eyes which were craving to go back to sleep but smiles sweetly when she hears that. Though she suddenly jumps out of bed when she remembers something crucial that she forgot to tell him.
"Matthew. I need to tell you something," she says with a grave voice.
Matt shuffles in his bed and gulps loud enough for her to hear over the communicator. "What? Is it the Hand?"
"What? No? My foster father wants to meet you," she says, biting her lip.
Matt blinks silently. He raises a finger but lowers it, not sure if he had heard her properly.
"HE WANTS TO WHAT?"
And that is the end of that chapter. I made it so that the Helmet of Faith wasn't used this time since the only reason Aqualad used it was to fight Woton.
I am so happy with the response this story is getting. I never thought that I would get this many people reading this story and commenting on it. So keep it coming.
Now to reply to the comments I can't PM
theKike: You can make you find Captain America in a future that would be incredible and that the team knows Electra continues like this
Me: I doubt I'm going to include Cap in this story. There really isn't a place for him. In regards to Elektra, you're gonna have to wait and see.
Guest: Great chapter, it's gonna be interesting when Wally meets elektra lol
Me: Thanks man. Yep. It certainly will be.
theKike: I want to emphasize something, the relationship of Superboy / Conner Kent and superman / Clark Kent is more like brothers than the father or son is something strange, another thing when they go to recruit a red arrow could also do it with daredevil because he has proven to be able. u be able to face the big evils
Me: Well, I made their relationship more akin to a father/son type since I felt that it was out of character for Superman to reject Connor like that, so quickly.
Also, Red Arrow and Matt, while they trust each other more thanks to the stuff they went through with the Shadows I doubt Matt would want him as a full on member of the team. Besides, he trusts Artemis more than Roy anyways.
That's all folks.