Chapter Three
"If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask. If you want to be honest then you have to live a lie."
- Banksy
Young Justice and Nox
The Pier, Gotham City
January 16, 2013 23:00 EDT
The men walking the docks shivered; whether it was from anticipation and fear or from the chill rolling in with the shadows from the bay, was questionable. At any moment they were expecting a dark figure to leap from the building and end their operation in a flurry of blood and pain. A part of them was always prepared for Gotham's Dark Knight to swoop in and turn them into the cops; the other part of them knew that this ship was so top secret that even the Greatest Detective would be too late, and the shipment would be long gone. Deathstroke22 the Terminator himself helped to conceal this operation. So, there was nothing for them to worry about. Yet, they soon found that their fear was warranted, but not for their original reason.
A yellow blur flew pass them, ripping the semi-automatics from their hands and a green arrow released a net that encompassed them, pinning them to the deck. The yellow blur stopped in front of them with a large smirk on his face.
"That was a cakewalk." The teen joked, placing his hands on his hips and turning to look behind him. "I didn't think Gotham's villains would be that easy, Nightwing. At least, Captain Cold would have heard me coming and tried to freeze me."
The former Boy Wonder strolled up next to his fellow hero, pulling up a map on his holocomputer. He typed quickly and nodded to the Atlantean who joined them with the rest of the Young Justice team. "The shipment isn't even here yet, KF. Lookouts in Gotham are usually hired from outside sources. Plus, Gotham villains don't deal with superpowered heroes on a daily basis. I'm actually shocked that Bats let you guys come here."
"Excuses." Kid Flash laughed as he helped Aqualad and Superboy move the hired lookouts into an empty storage unit, that was left wide open. They hid the men behind some boxes and totes in the storage units before locking it up. The group then hid themselves in between blueish gray storage units, waiting for their target. "How much longer anyways?"
"It's coming." Nightwing grunted and pointed to a ship making its way through the bay. It had been awhile since Nightwing had worked with his old team, and he forgot how much talking the Team tended to do. With the Teen Titans, he gave orders and there was nothing said, and that team jumped straight into action. It was business as usual with the Teen Titans. The Young Justice team was different, they all knew each other for so long that they were on a level playing field. There wasn't one leader giving all the orders, or one person coming up with the contingency plans. It just felt easier to joke around at times, and maybe that's because they were still working under the adults.
When the ship docked, men began unloading a pallet of boxes. Sportsmaster followed behind them with a group of men who were clearly League of Shadows members. They fanned out along the dock, watching every entrance. No one was getting on or off that ship, and nowhere near that shipment.
Great. Artemis muttered in the telepathic link. How are we going to get to the ship?
We'll have to figure it out. But at least we know who we are up against. Aqualad observed.
"What happened to your lookouts, Bane?" Sportsmaster called. "Are they really that incompetent?"
"Well amigo," The Team jumped into fighting stances at the voice that had snuck up behind them. Nightwing was a little angry at himself for being so distracted that someone like Bane snuck up on him. "It seems that these ninos and ninas wandered into a place they don't belong and got involved in a bad situation.
The Team was forced from their hiding place, and they stood back to back in order to face all the villains surrounding them. There couldn't be any blind spots.
"What a surprise." Sportsmaster chuckled, sarcastically. "The Justice League really shouldn't send children to do a man's job. Hate to tell you brats but your outnumbered and outgunned."
"Can I crash this party?" Everyone's heads snapped up to the new voice. On top of the bluish gray storage unit, Nox lounged with one leg hanging off the edge of the unit. No had noticed she was up there until that very moment and no one heard her alive. Kid Flash had to give her credit; she was as silent as every member of the Bat Family. Her stealth was on pointe.
"Ah! So, you are the girl that everybody is raving about." Sportsmaster raised his gun and Nox stood with a smirk gracing her lips. The bullet ricocheted off the metal of the unit as the girl flipped through the air. She landed on the pallet behind the villain and the men that had been unloading the ship, backed away and raised their guns at the girl.
"It's always a pleasure to meet a fan." Nox gave a overdramatic bow, before she reached down and grabbed a vial of greenish-blue liquid from a box below her feet. "If you don't mind, I would like one of these."
"We do." Bane growled; Venom began pumping through his veins. He charged at the girl, who jumped back using the pallet as a vault. Bane rammed right into the pallet, almost knocking it into the bay.
"Watch it, Idiot!" Sportsmaster commanded and growled back at him. Nox just laughed as she tucked the vial into the leather pouch at her thigh. She quickly dodged another attack from Bane.
"Is that all you got?" She challenged. "I know a seven-year-old that packs a better punch than you."
Bane yelled and started throwing rapid fire punches, that the girl dodged easily.
"You couldn't hit the broad end of a barn!" Nox flipped backwards, doing handsprings until she landed softly next to Superboy. She smirked at the Team before turning the villains. "I was only after this vial to begin with. So, although this has been fun, I must bid you adieu."
Wait! Nox turned to glare at the Martian that had brushed against her mind with the telepathic link. Miss Martian at least had the decency to look remorseful for intruding on the girl's mind. Please lend us a hand. These people kidnapped someone that we were sent to save.
Nox just gave the woman a blank look. And? I came here for the shipment. I'm sure whatever hero got kidnapped can help themselves.
It's a child. Kid Flash said. Bruce Wayne's youngest son, Damian. He's only seven.
The vigilante seemed to think for a moment before she muttered, "Umbra." A shadow raised from the ground between Superboy and Nox. It was just dark and sinister, its ruby red eyes the only feature that was distinguishable. "Ite puer ad recuperare. Ut vadam Damian Wayne!"
The shadow looked to the ship before it disappeared. Nox looked at the Team and nodded. "Hope you're ready for a fight."
"Now what was that, Nina?" Bane growled.
"Your worst nightmare." Nox growled. "Don't know why you guys felt the need to kidnap a kid, and I really don't care. But you're going to wish that this shipment and the kidnapping didn't happen on the same day."
After the last word had left Nox's lips, everyone jumped into action. Superboy went after Bane, knowing that only he could match him strength for strength, and the rest of the Team went after the League of Shadows assassins. Nox shot straight for Sportsmaster, dodging a bullet with her katana. When Sportsmaster knew that his guns would be useless against a vigilante who could somehow dodge a bullet at close range, he met her in hand to hand combat. The girl was a lot stronger than he would have gave her credit for, it was suspicious and Sportsmaster was starting to wonder if she was even human. That, and she had training that reminded him of Ra's Al Ghul. She was fast and swift; each punch and each kick meaning something and had some bigger plan.
And then suddenly she stopped and flipped away from him, just as a bullet and red electricity soared through the empty air where she once was. Sportsmaster turned to find Deathstroke standing at the front of the ship with a sniper in his hand and Klarion the Witch Boy right behind him with his cat sitting on his shoulder.
Klarion smirked as he raised his hands. The girl's eyes narrowed, and she made a sort of "come here" with her hands. Then some force seemed to pull the Team behind her, and she clapped her hands together, a wall of fire growing between her and Klarion's onslaught of magic.
"Don't hurt your comrades, Kiddie!" Klarion laughed and Nox looked behind her to find both Aqualad and Miss Martian growing weak from her defense. The fire wall suddenly dropped and Klarion's magic hit her in the chest; she knocked into Superboy with a grunt. "So, you must be the one I felt the bizarre magic from."
Sportsmaster and Deathstroke both raised their guns at the Team as Nox tried to regain her footing with Superboy's help. When everyone saw the guns pointed at them and the villain's fingers on the trigger, Superboy tried to put himself between the bullet and his friends. Nox was barely able to get to her feet, let alone doge a bullet like she already had, but she tried her best to place her body in front of the recovering Aqualad and Miss Martian.
Suddenly a dark blur came from the sky with a contrasting white one. "Don't hurt my sister!" A childish voice screamed as both blurs knocked into Sportsmaster, dislodging his gun and distracting Deathstroke long enough for Nightwing the throw a birdarang into the barrel of the sniper.
The newcomer jumped back and held himself between the Team and the villains. The Team was shocked to see that it was a boy of about seven that had jumped into the fray. He wore blue jeans and an undistinguishable black hoodie. He wore a red mask like Nox's, and his hair was slicked back. Beside him stood… a dog? A white Labrador to be exact.
Nox's eyes narrowed as she was able to recover. "Jo—"
"No civilian names in the field!" The boy commanded turning on the vigilante, who just gave him a tired look. The dog beside him barked and that's when everyone realized that the dog was also wearing a red mask.
"Whatever." The girl grumbled and walked up to stand beside the boy. She grabbed two throwing stars from her leather pouch and glared. "Just stay behind me."
The boy grinned and got into a fighting stance.
"Oh! And don't think you're not in trouble." Nox added for which the boy smiled.
"But I had impeccable timing. Super even."