Alpha Male
All available justice leaguers were at the mountain to help repair all the damages that the Reds had made. Dick had been in complete shock when he went to the mechanics room and found that the Meca-suit had been destroyed, the only thing left was just a couple of pieces from the fire, guess he was going to have to start from scratch again. Right now Batman wanted him at the mountain with batwoman to help explain what had happened
Green Arrow set down a bowl of pretzels down in front of Kid Flash
"Thanks but no thanks" Wally glared at the archer
"Yeah we want answers" Artemis joined in "About Red Tornado and his siblings"
Dick didn't really care about the situation the reds had tried to kill them so why should they even bother looking for them unless they knew they were coming back. Finding Tornado would be up to the league anyway since he was a part of their league and not the team
Green Arrow stared down at them, Wally continued "exactly" when Oliver was about to take the bowl back Wally stopped him "Uh, leave the bowl" and began stuffing his mouth making artemis slap her forehead
It was silent for while before they heard a angry shout behind them where aqualad had been talking with the adult bats. "YOU KNEW!"
Dick turned just in time to see Superboy push Aqualad up against the mountain wall "That android and his family nearly killed M'gann"
M'gann flew over to break them apart "Conner what are you doing?"
"Kaldur knew we had a traitor among us and said nothing!"
'Great' he inwardly groaned once he caught sight of the few leaguers in the room turn their attention to him 'I never wanted to work for the court!' he felt like yelling but knew that would be just like telling everyone he was an ex-assassin
Selina glared back at the leaguers making them turn their attention away from her son
"You knew?!" Kid flash yelled
"And didn't tell us!" Artemis yelled
"I sought to protect the team—"
"Protect us from what?" artemis continued "Knowledge that might have saved our lives"
Superboy looked to Miss martian "You almost died"
"Enough!" they all turned to batman "With Red Tornado missing, the team will now be overseen by rotating Justice League members. Captain Marval had volunteered to take the first shift"
Dick looked over to see the boy in his superhero form walk up behind batman "I'm really looking forward to hanging with you guys" his eyebrow twitched, Billy could at least try to hide his child like personality
Superboy turned back to Aqualad "After I dismantle Red Tornado, you and I are gonna—" but batman stepped forward interrupting him
"Red Tornado is a member of the justice league that makes him a league responsibility, you will leave him to us. I have another assignment for the mission" he pulled up the holographic computer with a newspaper article on it
Dick lifted an eyebrow after reading the name
After wally read the title out loud, superboy communicated through their mind link "Was this the only thing he could find to distract us?"
"Please tell me you're not actually sending us on this joke of a mission?" artemis groaned
Batman glared "I never joke about the mission" he growled "I've checked the sources, I've studied the patterns. Mayor Hill's encounter is only the latest in a series of incidents. Aqualad you and your team will depart for India and check this out"
Aqualad nodded but seemed a bit unsure
Dick could already tell this mission was not going to go well. Wally bumped into Kaldur as he walked by him "Hmph your team?"
He was the last one to leave "Are you sure it's wise to send us on a mission considering their attitudes?"
"I'm sure they can work together" Batwoman assured him
"Just make sure to be on your guard"
He nodded and went after the team
oOo
"You coming with?" Wally asked once Captain Marvel flew toward the Bio-ship
"Sure we'll have a blast" he cheered before walking inside the ship
"Translation he blames us for red fiasco, doesn't trust us" Kid flash whispered into his ear as he walked by, kaldur must have walked in then "It's a big club"
'Oh I have a big enough fan club for haters already kid' he thought as he strapped himself in on his chair
oOo
The bio-ship flew over the island so Miss Martian opened the hatch so Black Bat and Artemis could jump out with their cables. He unclipped the cable from his belt and scanned the jungle with artemis as the bio-ship landed and everyone else got out
"All clear"
Aqualad tapped his uniform making It turn from blue and red to black and gray "Switch to stealth mode, we will review mission perimeters"
Kid flash tapped the lightning bolt on his chest and the yellow and red faded to black and gray too "Perimeters we don't need to stinking perimeters, it's recon we know what to do" he then sped off into the jungle
'Idiot' he thought even though they already knew the requirement for a recon mission they still needed to know the area before barging in with no information
"Come on" superboy walked up and grabbed miss martians arm "I'll keep you safe" but she flung her arm out of his grasp
"You're my boyfriend Conner not my keeper stop behaving like a character from a 70's show" she turned away and crossed her arms
"I..just want to protect you"
Artemis walked up and jabbed her bow into his chest "Like aqualad protected us, I'm not sure your protection or patronizing is good for our health" she and miss maritan walked away into the jungle
"Why didn't you stop them you're supposed to be in charge" superboy yelled to aqualad
"I am—"
Superboy waved him off then jumped away
'None of you will listen to him that's why'
"Um did I miss the part where you actually said what the plan was?" Captain Marvel asked
Aqualad sighed then turned to him "You are not angry?"
"I know you must have had reasons why you kept this information from us. They should have let you explain first"
"Thank you" he then turned to the direction kid flash had gone "Can you go and make sure kid is alright"
He nodded running off
oOo
"So you got tired of having kaldur boss you around too?" Wally sped up to him while he was walking through he jungle
"No he sent me to make sure you did not do anything idiotic"
"How are you not angry about this!" he yelled
"We need to focus on the mission. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgment" he walked past him further into the jungle
"You can't tell me your not angry I mean something like this must have happened once before in your life and you didn't get angry about that either?"
Dick thought about that as he was walking yes lots of people had kept major secrets from him. The graysons didn't tell him he was sold to the court of owls for entertainment purposes in return, William lied about him being the court's heir he could go on forever but he learned to hide his true emotions "Yes and some of them were life threatening as well but I learned leave it behind"
"What did your parents do that almost caused you to die then"
"It wasn't them it was about something else"
"What?"
"Nothing that concerns you"
Wally groaned "Did Batman or Batwoman ever keep secrets from you?"
Dick thought about that too but they promised him that there would be no secrets between them, and he was sure they didn't know about the mole until kaldur told them "No"
"Not even once"
"No"
"Man I wish I had parents like that" he could see wally was thinging about something before he continued "What do you think about aqaulad keeping this from us though"
"I'm sure he had his reasons"
"Reasons putting our lives in danger"
"I am sure kaldur would have told us if he had known that was going to happen. I do not believe Red Tornado is the traitor"
"What?!"
"Red Tornado had been a hero for decades he would not have suddenly just decided to go rouge the other android must have been capable of reprogramming his mainframe"
Wally paused taking that into consideration "Well that is true"
But he stopped in his tracks when he heard something above them
"What's wrong?" wally asked
He narrowed his eyes motioning for him to keep quiet then proceeded to walk forward. He switched his mask lenses to magnifying mode and scanned the jungle, something passed through the moonlight making them look up and catch sight of large vultures coming toward them
"Get down!" he and Wally jumped to the ground to avoid being hit
"I thought vultures only ate dead meat!" Kid flash yelled as they began running
He quickly threw some of his disks up at the large birds and began running with kid. Vultures did only eat dead meat and he doubted he would taste very good with the electrum, he noticed that these were much larger than any normal vulture though
"Kobra venom must have increased their size"
He looked to see that the vultures where about to grab him with their talons so he dove intot he bushes to avoid it 'Talons? Oh right' owls had talons too. As he watched the vultures keep flying he noticed something around their necks that looked oddly familiar 'Shock collars?' no he got a closer look "Inhibitor collars" they just looked a lot like his old collar
Dick ran and dove under the log of a tree as a vulture began coming after him. He threw another one of his disks and managed to clip off the edge of one of its wings making it screech in anger as it crashed into the ground
He inwardly flinched when it hurt it's wing he always had a soft spot for animals and it had killed a part of him inside when he was forced to kill all those animals in his assassin training. But these vultures were trying to kill him so he guessed he shouldn't feel too bad
He heard another screech from above to see kid flash had taken out the other vulture. He used his acrobatics to flip through the trees over to where the vulture had landed to see it wasn't too injured, he landed next to its talons while it continued to try and fly
He ran over to its neck and destroyed the collar on it, and a few seconds later the vulture no longer had the violent behavior it had a few moments ago. But it was still in pain from the injury he had caused
He looked through his belt to try and find something to help and found a few bandages so walked over to its wing and patched it up putting it back in the right position, the vulture looked alright now it got up to its feet and began flapping its wings as it was able to fly off
"Dude how do you know how to do that?" he heard and turned to see kid flash coming toward him
"Read about it" it wasn't a lie anyway
Before wally could say anything else Miss Martian contacted them through their mind-link
"Link established"
"Did Aqualad order that? Should he really still be giving us orders? And should you really be following them? Artemis complained
"Listen, please—"
"Oh good aqualad's voice in my head, I so missed that!" Wally complained
"Kid flash and I were attacked by vultures" Dick tried to get them to focus on the mission "How are is everyo—"
"Superboy are you online or just pouting" Miss Martian interrupted him
"Busy. Call back later"
"What gets me is how nonchalant he is about not telling us even if he did have a reason" Wally continued
"How can he be team leader when he doesn't even trust us with his secrets?"
That hit a pang in dick's chest that was another reason he declined on being leader too
"Or if Conner doesn't trust us to take care of ourselves"
"Did he really think one of us could be the mole? I know the league doesn't trust you but you've never done anything wrong with us"
Dick felt a headache coming on with all this arguing he wished they would act a little more professional no wonder they were treated like kids so much
"Trust is a two way street"
"And you know everyone else would hate it if we kept secrets from them—"
Dick was about to say something when a large wave of frustration hit them through the link. He inwardly smiled- finally kadlur was doing something about this
"ENOUGH! Captain marvel has been captured, and we must act as a team if we are to save him"
Wally scoffed "Under your leadership? I don't think so—"
"This is not up for debate! You all chose me to lead, when the mission is over, if you choose to select a new leader , I will happily step down. But until that time I am in command here. Return to the Bio-ship , we will discuss the plan there"
The mind-link ended and dick began walking in the direction they had left the bio-ship
"I for one think we should vote for a new leader"
"No one else on the team is qualified enough to lead"
"What!"
"Artemis is too cocky and doesn't take orders well, superboy is thickheaded, and Miss Martian is too timid. You are too carefree; you're never serious enough to take control of others"
"Ok what about you you're a bat I'm sure batman or batwoman taught you how to lead"
Dick had never lead anyone before since batman was always in charge, and with the talons William was the head and whenever he was sent out on missions with a group one of the older talons were to lead. He really couldn't see anyone else to lead in those situations anyway
"No"
"Well you could try"
"You just said yourself that a leader shouldn't keep secrets and I have plenty that I am not ready to expose"
"Fine but it's still up to the entire team"
oOo
The team ran through the shadows, making sure not to be seen or heard by anyone who could be nearby. He was glad that aqualad had persuaded the team into focusing on the mission for once, now they could actually get something done
Although superboy had yet to join them and was not answering to any of their calls but aqualad had decided to focus on that later. They came to a building that was hidden within the jungle-most likely where captain marvel had been taken
"I'll fly over" Miss martian called
"Negative. The field stands as a dome around the entire compound"
"The pylons are insulated. But an attack could disrupt it causing a momentary gap"
"I see a target" artemis called
"Then be ready to hit it, be ready all of you" they watched as aqualad ran up to the shield and his atlantian tattoos began glowing as he shot electricity through the shield, and slowly the gap began forming between his hands
"Now!"
Artemis fired her arrow flying past kaldur through the gap colliding with the control panel shutting the shield off. Aqualad motioned for the others to join him, kid flash ran forward with miss martian flying behind him, but he stopped when he caught sight of a monkey sitting on top of the building with a collar around it's neck
Before he could warn the team it screeched making the others jump in surprise then get out their weapons. The alarms began going off and more monkeys ran out from behind the first one toward them.
Dick began fighting the monkeys trying not to hurt them by grabbing one of their tails then throwing it into a group of other monkeys but one grabbed his cape and made him fall to the ground so he grabbed its neck then threw it over him before flipping back to his feet. He punched one in the face making it squeal in pain he was about to check if it was ok when a group of monkeys all came at him at the same time and made him fall to the ground
He was fighting to make sure they didn't dig their teeth into his skin because that would be hard to explain to the team once the holes disappeared in a matter of minutes.
"Remove their collars!" aqualad yelled
Yes as if he didn't think of that already with them grabbing at his arms and legs. suddenly an arrow came at the monkeys knocking off the collars and they ran into the jungle. He decided to return the favor throwing two of his disks at her
She at first thought they were going to hit her but they went past her hitting the collars off monkeys that were about to attack her. 'oh'
The doors to the building opened and a huge ape came walking out with machine gun in its hand and a red hat. He watched as it grabbed a campoflauged Miss martian and threw her to the ground
'Yes animals can sense you'
When it was about to attack her again kid flash ran forward "Get your paws off her you darn dirty ape" but when he collided with its chest it made him fall back skidding across the ground
Dick could see that the ape was distracted so he decided to just blow a hole through the buildings wall with a couple of his disks just as he turned to see Miss Martian use her telekinesis to destroy the ape's machine gun
They came over to him and ran in through the hole with him. The first thing they saw was captain marvel shackled on a examination table with surgical equipment surrounding him
Dick had a brief flashback of the day he was induced with the electrum he had been in pain for hours after it and was left on the table the entire time so he couldn't even move
The second thing he saw was the brain. He was grateful for once that they had gone on a mission that didn't involve anyone he had ever come in contact with or the talons did in the past. At least that he knew of
"It's the brain!" wally yelled
"I can see it's a brain kid idiot!"
"Not a brain, the brain"
The brain rolled forward toward them as the ape got to its feet with the machine gun "In ze flesh, or so to speak. Mallah!"
Mallah must have been the ape's name as it pulled out a remote pressing a button on it making medal rods come out of the ground below them and caused them to collapse
"Miss Martian, Superboy, go!"
M'ganns eyes began glowing taking the remote from mallah's paws and hovering it over to her, woth a click of a button the strage power emitting from the rods released them so they could all get back to their feet
Superboy burst through the wall behind Mallah, his shirt was completely ripped and there were claw marks all over his skin, a large white wolf walking in behind him. The wolf growled then charged at mallah knocking him to the floor before it was thrown off
Wally ran forward and slammed his foot into the ape's chest before running off, mallah fired at kid but he was able to avoid them so he swung in with his grappling hook kicking it across the face before swinging away. Miss Martian levitated mallah off the ground then hit him back to the ground and flew away when it began shooting at her
Superboy attacked last with a shout attacking it as artemis got ready and fired a few explosive arrows at the ape when superboy was pushed back
Black bat came to join her and threw some of his disks at the ape, aqualad shielded himself from brain's rays with some water then ran off when more rays came at him. The team had them both surrounded as kaldur came and released captain marvel from the table
"Thanks" captain marvel jumped off the table "Now one more thing" he took the collar off a tiger that was lying on the ground by the examination table
Mallah turned to see Captain Marvel was free, then looked to see superboy and wolf approaching him, it let out a growl
"Try it, I hate monkeys" Superboy began cracking his knuckles
"No mallah, this is not our waterloo" Large equipment began emerging from the brain's mechanical body and the sound of a whine from it as it began glowing red "Au revior"
"Get down!" kid flash yelled
The lights went out right after everyone braced themselves and after a few moments of silence the lights came back on but the brain and Mallah were long gone
"Wait that big weapon thing was a light switch?" kid flash asked
Aqualad and Captain Marvel turned to each other before sighing "This mission is over although the villains got away I believe this mission was a success. We succeeded in discovering the cause of the animals' strange behavior and I do not believe the brain will remain in India. Miss Martian call the Bio-ship we're done here"
Black bat walked out of the compound with the team not even noticing the Court Of Owls symbol on some of the brand new equipment that was in there
oOo
As they were walking to the Bio-ship artemis turned to kid flash "What are you grinning about?"
"One word: souvenir" kid flash put on the hat that had belonged to Mallah
"Two words: gorilla lice"
Wally gasped and quickly took off the hat "wha, aw man!"
Kaldur took off the final collar that had been around a monkeys neck letting run off into the jungle
"That's the last of the collars?" Captain marvel bent down to the tigers level letting t growl "And I can count on you to keep the other animals out of trouble" the tiger growled again "Good I'll be back for a visit..promise" he said before getting back up and the tiger ran off "I think I'll call him Mr. tawny"
Black bat's eyebrow's furrowed he doubted that would be a good name for the tiger, although he had named his elephant at the circus zitka but that actually had meaning. He had gotten that name from a book that he had to read by the Grayson's called the descendants of Simon kroupa: and descendants of lada and zitka families
"The rest of the pack is gone, what are you still doing here?" Conner asked the white wolf that had followed them
"I think he wants to stay with you" Miss martian told him
"Can I keep him?"
Wally laughed "First the sphere now this beast dude you sure make a habit of collecting strays"
"Maybe because he's such a stray himself" M'gann looked down to him and must have had a telepathic conversation with him
"Well he's gonna need a name" wally said once they were done "Uh, how's about kyrpto?"
The wolf growled a bit "Pass"
"Besides isn't that taken?"
As kaldur was walking up the ramp of the Bio-ship, black bat asked "Was there an explanation for the reason you kept the mole from us?" he turned to see the others wanted to know too
"The source of the tip was sportsmaster"
"What! You can't trust him" artemis yelled
" I do not. It seemed possible even likely that he was attempting to divide the team with false information"
"And given how this mission went eh nearly did" wally said
"But you did take in to consideration that it may be correct information" black bat asked
"Yes as leader I did, in which case I did not wish to alert the traitor"
"Hate to say it but makes sense" superboy confessed
Dick wondered if sportsmaster was trying to turn the team against him as revenge for what he did to him, or if somehow he found out the truth
"I am still prepared to step down as leader"
"All in favor of keeping aqualad as leader?" kid flash asked raising a hand and soon everyone else agreed
"Guess it's unanimous" Captain Marvel walked up and placed a hand on aqualad's shoulder then shook hands with him "See you tomorrow"
"You're not coming back with us?"
"Nah gotta fly" he took off into the sky
After they walked into the Bio-ship and closed the hatch a shadow ran off into the jungle just before it took off
To be continued
I need help with my magazine cover project. I wanted to put the nicknames on the cover so I put Batman as the dark knight, Black bat as the boy wonder but I can't think of one of batwoman so I'm asking if anyone has suggestions that could help me out
I'm starting to move the talons back in little by little