AN: Glad everyone's enjoying the new episode.
3.
Jump City
August 07
21:17 UTC
With night fallen on Jump City, the early nightlife was in full force. A sea of lights filled the streets from the cars passing below with pedestrians hurrying to get to their destinations. A police or other emergency vehicle's siren could be heard streaking by every once-in-a-while with the sound of honking filling the gaps. Laughter and loud conversations floated in the air with the night only getting started. Of course, that was down below where the 'normal' people lived. Up on the rooftops, five shadows leapt from building to building, running through the city without anyone seeing them unless they wanted to be seen.
"Alright, Dummy McDumb Dumb from Dumbtown," Arrowette said as she swung across the city street among her teammates, "Kyle, truth or dare?"
"Uh, truth." Firing a construct from his ring, the teenage Green Lantern retrieved a kitten from a tree with a little girl calling for it to come down.
"Have you ever drawn people in 'compromising' positions?"
"Um, uh, no comment," Lantern answered with a blush.
"That's a yes!" Terra shouted as she flew by on a slab of rock the size of a skateboard. She had managed to control her powers to the point where she could levitate soil or stone. "Sinner!"
"Busted!" Morphing from a hawk temporarily, Beast Boy had to add his own two cents.
"Fine, uh, what letter are we on?" Lantern asked.
"A, b, c, d, e, we're on 'E' Arrowette answered.
"These are such a stupid games," Raven commented.
"Thanks, Cis," Green Lantern said as he flew alongside the green hawk. "Your turn, ear licker. Truth or dare, Gar."
"Dare, fungoid!" Beast Boy answered as he quickly morphed from his hawk form to his regular form then back.
"The next guy you get, take him down as a pig."
Shifting to his regular self, Beast Boy responded, "You're on!", then shifted back again.
With the bright lights of the surrounding buildings streaking past them, the teens continued to leap from rooftop to rooftop while Green Lantern and Beast Boy stayed in the air. Even Raven was getting into the rooftop dash and was using what she called her 'shadow step' by fading into the darkness and appearing somewhere else, almost as if she were teleporting.
"Sweet!" Lantern said as he went higher into the air. "B and E at one o'clock."
"Whoo hoo!" Leaping into the air, Arrowette performed a flip, firing a bola trick arrow at a would be thief attempting to break into a second story apartment. He landed with a thud inside a nearby garbage bin with the lid slamming shut on him as his captor landed on the ledge of the apartment building.
"On your left!" Shooting past her, Green Lantern swerved around the archer and landed in a run on the middle of the roof. "That was mine!"
"Should have been faster than that, green bean."
"If speed's a factor," rising from the shadows, Raven twirled in the air with her cape flushing outward to resemble wings of a demonic raven before she landed, "then I believe I'm ahead with two more than Lantern and one more than you."
"But one less than me." Dropping in from the sky, Terra landed in a squatting position then removed her goggles as the rock she rode in on landed beside her. "Ew. Glad I wore these. Sucked to have had that fly hit my eye." She then flicked the dead insect off.
Coming in last, a green cheetah slid to a stop beside Arrowette and morphed back into Beast Boy. "Really? I'm in last place?"
"Just check in and tally up the score, hose brain," the archer told Beast Boy.
Pulling up his holo-computer, Beast Boy checked into the latest checkpoint. They were traveling faster than originally planned and looked to finish well before the four hour limit, about thirty to forty five minutes before.
"There. Next one's about a mile south east from here."
"You mean we have to back track to get to the next one?" Terra asked.
"What were they thinking when they came up with this map?" Lantern asked.
"Looks like they want to make sure we go around the entire area," Arrowette stated as she looked on her own holo computer. "The one after's about four miles north west with the next about two miles north east."
"Well I don't know about you imbeciles, but I'm hungry." Hopping on the building's ledge, Terra leaned on a leg with her hands on her hips. "If we keep on like this, we'll need sustenance, jackalopes."
"Well we're all out of snacks, knucklehead," Beast Boy told her. "Never thought I would see someone eat as much as Wally. Or Bart. Or Bart and Wally at the same time."
"Sorry you...lecherous lethargic limey little lint licker," Raven replied dryly.
The group stared at Raven's choice of words. Since starting their patrol, it was agreed to break one of the team's rules since they were unsupervised. That being, 'no games." They quickly got into playing 'Truth or Dare' and the 'Alphabetic Insult Game'. Raven just blew them out of the water with that one.
"And the trophy for best insult goes to Raven," Arrowette commented. "The rest of us have crashed, burned, and will never be heard from again."
"Good one," Beast Boy said with his hand up. "Oh come on, don't leave me hanging."
Tempted to ignore her green partner's high five, Raven looked away and quickly slapped his hand, concealing a small smirk while doing so. Being able to hide like that was one reason she liked wearing a hood. "So what about food? We still have a schedule to keep and can't stop every so often."
"Well if you didn't eat all the Peanut Butter Buddies, we wouldn't be hungry," Terra pointed out.
"It's not just her," Beast Boy said in Raven's defense. "You ate sis' chocolate chip cookies. The entire dozen."
"Duh, they're that good."
"Enough," Lantern said. "Look. Speedy Pizza's right down there. I can go down there in my civies, order a pizza or two, and high tail it back up here in no time. I just need some cash."
"Where's your wallet?" Arrowette asked.
"I left it back at the Tower."
"Well don't look at me. Mine is in my purse in my day room too. Gar?"
"Oh yeah, like my suit's made to carry anything." To emphasize his point, the green teen patted where his pockets would be. "Terra?"
"Sorry," the Earth mover said. "No cash in these pockets."
"Raven, what about you?"
Shaking her head, the Gothic girl had her cloak completely cover her. "No."
"Well...anyone have any ideas on what we can do for food?" Garfield asked after a moment. It was then when fate intervened. Not the hero, the concept.
Below on the street, a young man with messy silver hair and an orange jacket with matching pants slammed his fist on the table beside the cash register as he yelled at the cashier of Speedy Pizza. Those in line grew nervous when he began to threaten the young man at the register until the manager came out.
"Calm down, buddy," the portly dark skinned manger of the pizza business said once he got to the spot of the commotion.
"'Bout time you got here," the orange wearing man angrily said. "I ordered two large pizzas, one with triple pepperoni and the other with quadruple the cheese and this fool gave me two with roaches on 'em!"
"Sir, I swear I didn't do that," the employee told his boss. "They just came out of the oven."
"They did, I saw when the girl back there took them out," one of the customers said.
"He put something in the boxes when the cashier grabbed the peppers he asked for," another said.
"You didn't see nothin', got that?" the irate man said. "Look I demand the pizzas be free or I'll sue this place. Don't you know who I am? The name's Thomas 'Punk' Rocket! As in the lead singer of the Screechin' Chickens!"
"Hey, I don't care who you are," the manager told him. "You want pizza, you pay for it. Now where are these roaches?"
Grabbing the two boxes, the manager opened them despite what the musician said. "These are the roaches? Really?"
"Well, he stuck them in there." Seeing the manager lift one of the insects, Punk Rocket saw the man jiggling around a plastic bug resembling a roach.
"Well, I, errah..." Acting fast, the man known as Punk Rocket grabbed the two pizzas and ran away as fast as he could with the manager yelling for him to stop.
As Punk Rocket raced down the street, a nearby police officer heard the ruckus and chased after the orange clothed musician. As the two weaved through the people walking along the sidewalk, none saw a little green pig wonder in the middle of Punk Rocket's path.
Titan Tower
August 07
21:32 UTC
"Looks like they checked into the next spot." Sitting on the couch in front of the large TV in the living area, M'gann swiped the screen on her Tpad to see the current criminal count. "Terra's in the lead still with nine followed by Raven with eight. Arrowette's captured seven with Lantern catching six and Beast Boy nabbing five. Thirty five in all."
"Not bad," Conner commented. Leaning back on the couch, he sat his Tpad on the armrest and grabbed a drink from the small side table.
"Not bad at all." Setting her tablet computer to the side, M'gann leaned in on Conner's side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she started playing with his fingers. "You do know, if all goes well, we'll be sending them out alone like we were."
"Never thought about how that felt like when we were the ones in the field by ourselves. It's different when we're the ones issuing the orders."
"I know. I worried about Gar every time he went on a mission without me or you. Even when we were apart, I always trusted and knew you would keep an eye on him. And now we have four more to deal with. Only downside to being on a team of heroes and be the veteran leaders of the group."
With his arm around her shoulders, Conner held her a little tighter. "I was almost going to have Sphere follow them to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. And staying safe."
"But that wouldn't be having too much confidence in them."
"Yeah." Taking a sip of his drink, Conner heard his wife mentally ask for a sip and handed it to her. "We trained them. They know what they're doing and should be doing it in their own way like we did. I still feels weird having to let them go like that."
"Conner Kent, you sound like a parent sending the kids off to college."
"And you don't feel like that with Garfield?"
"Of course I do. But like you said, we trained them. They're just finding their own way to do things right now. Otherwise we'd be helicopter mentoring them until they retire."
"Which is what you'll do when Carter get to their age, right?"
A small silence fell between them as they watched the map on the TV. "You know me too well, Conner."
"Well yeah. It's from being in each others heads."
A few moments later, Beast Boy's criminal tally went from five, to six.
"So about Raven," bringing her legs up underneath her on the couch , M'gann crossed her arms, "If she has had run ins with this cult like she told you, should we request a mission to attempt to infiltrate them the next time we find a large group?"
"I really don't know." Spreading his arms across the back of the couch, Conner rubbed the back of his head before leaning it on the headrest. "Kaldur told us they knew he and the others were in the temple with them without them making any noise. You could tail them but they may know you're there too. And then there's their leader, Blood."
"Never thought I would ever hear of Batman being bested by one person. I heard about him and Bane, but that was before I was even on Earth. Still, with what Raven told you and after speaking to her myself, could she really be related to something like a...demonic deity?"
"Why not? I am."
"I'm serious, Conner. Had she have come clean earlier-"
"Fransisco may have still been killed, or someone else. I know we haven't had time to think this out, but now Batman and the other higher-ups know. With Cassie being a demigod, we have to take this as real."
"I told her we wouldn't tell the others, that it's her choice but it needs to happen sometime. Secrets can be dangerous and this is too deadly to be kept quiet. And considering how far she's come in trusting us since being here...she's one of us, Conner. And we protect our own regardless of where they come from. We can't all pick our fathers."
Staring at the ceiling, the Kryptonian co-leader let out a quiet sigh. "Unfortunately."
Happy Harbor
August 07
21:33 UTC
Below the old location of Mount Justice, a few of the black ops team were still hanging around after a late night practice session. With a few members deployed on missions, there were only a hand full of the team members present, among them were Batman's two newest guests in his house, Cassandra and Damian.
"Ugh, how can a kid pack that much power in a single punch." Coming out of the hall leading to the locker room area, a freshly clean Mal Duncan rotated his shoulder, which had an icepack wrapped on it.
"Know what you mean," Jaime said from the couch. "My armor absorbed the initial hit but he managed to knock me off balance."
"Little troll," Kara muttered as she stomped into the living area and sat beside the Hispanic teen. "It's official, I hate everyone associated with Batman."
"Slick move him blinding you with your cape," Jaime told her. He instantly shut his mouth when he saw Kara's eyes glow red.
Recognized, Oracle, B, sixteen
With the Zeta platform dimming from the bright light, Barbara Gordon, or Oracle, rolled into the underground base for the black ops team. She was still confined to her wheel chair but had since outfitted it with a more powerful motor to get around easier and faster. It was something that came in handy when she had to move from one section of the Batcave to another while going about her 'extracurriculars'.
"Hey, Barb," Mal greeted as she rolled by. "How's it going?"
"Just fine, Mal. What happened to your shoulder?"
"That new kid Batman brought in. Wherever he picked him up from, he has some skills. Caught me from behind and nearly knocked my shoulder out of socket with an arm drag."
"I'll tell him to be more careful. Like Batman said, he's still used to fighting for his life and we're trying to train him as best we can."
"And where did you find him again?" Jaime asked. "I know you said he's Cassandra's half brother when he started coming around here, but he really doesn't act like he was homeless."
"Like I told you. He and his sister were talented little thieves and Batman saw something in them. He thought they would make good candidates for one of the teams. Mostly the black ops team."
"Well like I said, kid's got skills." Heading to the kitchen area, Mal was passed by Cassie. Bringing up Karen's number, he waited for her to pick up when he saw Koriand'r shut the large refrigerator and shoot a strand of Dijon mustard onto her tongue. The sight was enough to make his mouth sting as he remembered the condiment burned if one ate too much of it at once.
As he headed for the Zeta Tubes, Cassandra exited from the locker room hall with Damian beside her. Acting as smug as ever, the young boy barely registered the others being in the room as he headed to the Zeta Tubes to travel back to Gotham when Cassie ran up to Cassandra and grabbed her from behind.
"Hey, Cassandra," Cassie said once she got the Asian girl's attention, "those were some amazing moves you did in training. And I thought Barbara was flexible. But seeing as tomorrow's a free day, I just want to ask if we can work together one on one in the training room. I'd love to learn some moves like that."
Grinning, Cassandra signed her response, drawing a raised eyebrow from the demi-Amazon.
"Hey, chico!" she called out to Jaime.
"Yes, chica?" he yelled from the couch.
"Can you translate please?"
Getting up with a groan, from how tired he was, the Hispanic hero had Cassandra repeat her gestures with his scarab translating. "She says she would be honored to teach what she knows. What time would be appropriate for training?"
Looking back at Cassandra, Cassie let out a grin of her own. "Thanks. Um, about ten in the morning would be good. I got some stuff to do before I can leave the house."
Seeing the dark haired teen girl make another gesture, Jaime translated. "She says she'll be here."
"Cassandra, it's time we go," Damian said. "There's nothing more for us do here."
The Damian has displayed an attitude of arrogance, superiority, and rudeness, Jaime Reyes. I would suggest-
"I'm not vaporizing anyone. We're over that, remember?" Jaime muttered to his scarab. Only Cassie and Cassandra heard him with the latter raising an eyebrow as she did not know what was going on.
I was not going to suggest vaporization. I was going to suggest what Earth adults refer to as a spanking. The Damian, in your words, thinks he is too big for his britches and must be disciplined.
"Yeah, not going to happen."
Watching Jaime as if he were crazy, Cassandra shifted her eyes to Cassie.
"It's a story with him," the blonde explained with a slight chuckle. "So...meet you at ten then?"
"Cassandra!" Damian called as his bodyguard/'sister' nodded to answer Cassie. She then joined him in heading back to Gotham.
Waiting for the bright light of the Zeta Beam dissipate, Cassie crossed her arms. "Little brat. Needs to get off his high horse."
"Cass," Jaime said as he slid an arm around her shoulders, "believe it or not, but you and my scarab both want that."
"Really?" Cassie said with a sly smile. "Anything else you want?"
With his face turning red, Jaime tried not to smile too much.
Entering the war room, Barbara wheeled herself up to the main computer and typed in her personal password. The computer screen flashed the symbol of Batman for a second before dissolving to a network feed into the Batcomputer. With her fingers flying over the keyboard, she had files se had worked on download to the current terminal she was at. Everything from what new information they obtained from searching the hotel Robin's failed mission infiltrated, to what she found on Scarecrow was downloaded.
Looking up at the screen, she saw the current mugshot of Jonathan Crane from his last stint in Arkham. As the criminal known as Scarecrow, he utilized fear gas of his own design to immobilize unsuspecting people. She herself was exposed to it early in her Batgirl career and could still remember her unspoken fear clearly. Now; however, it seemed as if Jonathan had struck some sort of deal with a member of the blood cult. Other than some strange glyphs and drawings in blood, there was nothing else to discover on what he actually became involved in.
With the download complete, she disconnected the Batcomputer link and placed the new files in a folder for Kaldur to go over. But before leaving, she pulled up footage of the training exercises from earlier and watched Cassandra as she worked with the members of the black ops team. It was something she had been doing for a while now and had been carefully going over her every move.
Sitting back, she sat quietly in the dark, and watched.