Chapter 39
A/N: hey y'all, welcome back, good to see y'all again. Hope y'all are enjoying the comic-based chapters so far. I'm using them cause I discovered that there was so much that happened in them that didn't happen in the show.
"Bold is raptor."
Telepathy/flashbacks
/comms/
February 17th, 20:12PDT, Star City
"What do you see Artemis?" Green Arrow inquired as the vigilante and his protégé sat perched on the roof across the museum.
"Museum after hours, bypassed security system, and a point of access for a thief," she listed lowering he binoculars. "We going in? I'd love to nail this guy!"
Green Arrow snickered, "How do you know it's a guy? And yes," he fired a line across to the museum. "We're going in."
Without hesitating, Artemis threw her bow over the line, using it to zipline down to the museum with her mentor hot on her heels. Letting go, the acher down through the open window, rolling to her feet and looking around the dark halls warily.
"Ok, so he or she has to be around here somewhere," she murmured.
"Not he or she," Green Arrow corrected reaching into his quiver and pulling out an arrow. The end of the arrow light up, illuminating the room, "they."
Artemis' eyes widened as she spotted the robbers. "They, got it!" she huffed diving out of the way of a hail of bullets. Reaching into her quiver, she notched an arrow covering her eyes as her mentor fired one of his own. Through her closed lids she could see the room flash with light and her ears ring as the flashbang want off.
"GAHHH!"
"I CAN'T SEE!"
"See," Green Arrow chuckled elbowing one in the face before whirling on his heel and whacking another upside the head with his bow, "Gotta keep them off balance! We're not looking for a fair fight here!"
"I'll keep that in mind," Artemis replied emerging from her hiding spot and firing. Her arrow slammed into the ceiling, causing oil to rain down on the disoriented men.
"I CAN'T SEE!"
"WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?!"
Artemis lunged forwards, swinging her bow and slamming one of the robbers into the other Green Arrow was fighting, knocking both out. "Well," she panted, "what did you think?"
"That we're going to discuss using arrows that don't up my dry-cleaning bill," her mentor deadpanned. "But first…"
Green Arrow took off up the stairs, leaving Artemis to race to catch up as they began to head towards the roof. As they got closer, they could hear the sound of a chopper. "We're too late!"
"It's never too late!" GA replied firing an arrow. "GPS tracker armed and activated."
Artemis scowled as the screen of the tracker went dark, the words no signal flashing across the screen. "Uh, discovered and deactivated."
"Dang," the man muttered glaring down at the ground.
Rolling her eyes, Artemis pulled out her tracker. "By the way, that arrow I fired," she showed him the screen, "microbeads in the oil contained built-in GPS."
"Nice."
"I have a good teacher."
-.-
Central City, February 18, 16:39CDT
"Ok, so you're on patrol and you hear a growl," Wally began racing after his uncle, "but why call me to help with one escaped cheetah?"
"One: I knew you'd have a large, raw steak in your fridge," Flash replied as they ran into the zoo, "And two: it's not just one cheetah."
Looking forwards, the younger speedster practically skid to a stop at the sight in front of him. All over the zoo, he could see animals rampaging out of their enclosures. A rhino had chased some people onto the top of a gazebo. A lion was growling at an elephant. Two tigers were circling a food cart with an unfortunate person crouching on top, trying to keep away from the animals. Two bears were swiping at the people hiding on the gazebo.
And that was just what he could currently see.
A growl came from behind him and the redhead's eyes widened as he dodged the cheetah's attack as it chased the steak currently in his arms. Dropping the meat, it began to chow down.
Good, that was one less problem to deal with.
"First thing's first," Flash began.
"Isolate the animals?" KF inquired.
"Rescue the bystanders," his uncle corrected.
"Right…one all-purpose rescue coming up."
With that, the two speedsters split up, rushing in and out of the zoo, dropping off people in the safety of the outside until they were sure it was clear.
"Now do we isolate the animals?!" Wally exclaimed.
"You got it Kid!" Flash replied sprinting back in. "Step one: herd!"
Following his mentor the two speedsters rounded up the larger animals rampaging at the entrance to the zoo.
"Step two: contain!" Wally smirked as they began running circles around the encircled animals. "One deep trench coming up!"
Their rapid treads on the ground slowly wore through the concrete, before long reaching the weaker soil down below. The dirt gave way much faster, allowing the pair to carve a deep trench into the ground, unfortunately, Wally was feeling anything but happy as his mentor repeatedly lapped him.
"You're doing it again!"
"Sorry—kid—I—know—it bugs you—when I—lap you—like this," Flash replied with each lap. The older speedster raced out of the trench, forcing Wally to follow. "But we needed this dug quickly so we could address the real problem."
"Yeah, figuring out who released the animals in the first place and why," Kid Flash agreed as they skid to a stop in front of the cops.
"Thank you Flash, we can take it from here. Tranq the animals and get them back to their cages safely."
"FLASH! TROUBLE IN THE REPTILE CENTER!" another cop screeched sprinting over.
"We're on it!" Flash said as they took off and ran into the center. "Wow, that's a lot of monkeys."
"Yeah, SB would hate this," Wally grimaced. Running forwards, he began to grab as many monkeys as he could carry. "Seriously, I know this is a zoo, but who needs this many monkeys!" One began punching his arm, another was pulling on his hair, two were fighting in his arms, and one was surrently shoving it's fingers up the speedster's nose. "OW! QUIT IT!" Wally ran into the cage, throwing the infernal primates down before slamming the door behimd him panting. "Almost done. Where to now?"
"Back to the reptile lab. I spotted something," Flash replied.
Frowning, Wally gave chase, "You're having another CSI moment aren't you?"
"Kid, I was a CSI before anyone knew what CSI stood for," Flash skid to a stop in front of the one the sample fridges, "but you don't need a degree in Criminal Science to spot what's wrong with this picture." Flash pulled out the empty container, examining the label. "Someone went through a lot of trouble to create a diversion to steal this: concentrated cobra venom."
Kid Flash furrowed his brows. Why would anyone steal that? Looking down at the ground, his gaze landed on something on the ground. "Uh, Flash, I think I'm having my own CSI moment," he crouched down looking at the massive footprint. "Either this zoo has bigfoot, or someone sporting size twenty-fours. And there's something else too," lowering his goggles, the teen turned on the scanners, "switching to microscopic mode…pollen. Nothing like what I've seen around Central City. Take a sample back to your lab and it should lead us straight to the thieves!"
"Great catch Kid!"
Wally smirked putting his hand on his hips, "What can I say? I'm awesome."
"Keep telling yourself that."
-.-
Gotham, February 22, 20:37EDT
"STOP CHEATING!" Dick exclaimed as his kart went flying into the void as they played Mario Kart.
"I'm not cheating!" Onyx stuck his tongue out. Crossing the finish line, the hybrid through his arms in the air, "YEAH! FIRST PLACE!"
"THAT'S ONLY CAUSE YOU GOT THAT STUPID BLUE SHELL!"
"You're just a sore loser!"
Dick tackled Onyx, causing the pair to roll around the living room as Bruce walked in looking up from a report to watch the two teens. "Boys."
The duo froze, looking at him with wide eyes. Crossing his arms, the Dark Knight raised a brow, causing the two to quickly separate and try to look innocent.
Sighing, the man shook his head. Suppose he shouldn't be surprised about this, given what happened over Christmas, but at least they were caught early in their ruckus this time. "Come on, suit up."
"For what? I thought we weren't doing patrol tonight?" Dick asked.
"You two weren't, I was until I got the intel on a rash string of robberies across the country," he replied. "So both of you suit up."
"Wait, I can go too?!" Onyx perked up.
"I doubt your mother would forgive me if I left you alone at the manor," he answered. "Or would you rather join her at that gala in France?"
"I'll go get my suit!"
-.-
21:48EDT
"The observatory?" Robin murmured as he, Batman, and Nightmare crouched on top of the model of Earth. "You sure this is the right place?" Batman turned his head slightly, and the Boy Wonder shrugged. "Standard question."
Onyx sniffed the air, frowning as he caught a strange scent. "I think whoever we're waiting on just got here." Looking down, he could see several masked individuals ambush the scientist below covering his face with something and slinging the man over one of their shoulders.
Firing their grapples, Batman and Robin swung off the Earth model, down towards the assailants. Batman threw a batarang, out as the men began to open fire. It cut through the wires supporting the Jupiter model, causing it to fall towards the ground.
One unfortunate bad guy was trying to escape the falling planet when a lasso wrapped around his arms. The rope went taunt and the man screamed as he was yanked off his feet and hurling into one of his buddies.
The big guy carrying the hostage continued to race forwards. With his free arm, he punched the Jupiter model, breaking part of it with the sheer force sending it flying towards Batman.
Eyes widening, Nightmare dove down, catching the model. Unfortunately, he underestimated the momentum behind the throw, because it send the teen and Dark Knight sliding across the floor. Shoving the planet aside, he panted looking around the room. "That was fun."
"Robin, you good?" Batman inquired.
"Ugh," he groaned sitting up rubbing his head, "totally felling the aster."
A startling smell caused the hybrid to bristle as his head snapped to the remaining four kidnappers. He knew that smell, his time in the Light made him very familiar with the smell of poison.
Batman appeared to notice the hybrid's alarm. And his gaze swerved towards one of the men throwing a pill into his mouth. "No!" The Dark Knight grabbed the man by his collar, unfortunately, he was too late as the man already swallowed the pill. His head snapped up towards the others as they started to do the same.
"There's still one left!" Robin exclaimed throwing one of his disks. It hit the kidnapper's hand, knocking the pill out of his grip, and Onyx threw his lasso, dragging the man by his ankles towards Bats, who quickly began his interrogation.
With a quick swing, Nightmare rehooped the lasso and put it on his hip as he approached Robin. "What's that?" he asked looking at the card in the Boy Wonder's hand.
"ID card of the victim."
"Dr. Jason Burr," Onyx read, furrowing his brows. "Any idea what these guys wanted with him?"
"No, but we're gonna find out."
-.-
Minneapolis, February 23, 21:57CDT
"Recognized: Green Arrow—08, Artemis—B07, Flash—04, Kid Flash—B03, Batman—02, Robin—B01, Nightmare—B08."
"All right, let's compare notes," Batman said crossing his arms.
"Artemis and I used GPS to track the Cobra-Dagger thief until they ditched the tracker somewhere here in Minneapolis," Green Arrow began.
"And we know their base of operations is here due to the pollen traces I found at the zoo they stole the cobra venom from," KF added.
"Which we confirmed through our interrogation of one of the kidnappers whom we managed to capture," Batman agreed.
Robin began typing on his hologlove, "He informed us that the location of their headquarters: a New Age Monastery, built in 1983 and abandoned in 1991, that was purchased recently by Jeffery Burr, the fraternal twin brother of our victim, but who we know as Kobra."
"Really? Kobra again?!" Wally whined.
-.-
22:00CDT
The group of heroes crept into the monastery, crouched and crept into a large atrium-like room. In the center, they could all see Jason Burr tied down on an alter, Kobra looming over him with the dagger in hand and his followers surrounding them.
"ALL HAIL NAGA-NAGA! ALL HAIL KOBRA!"
Kobra raised his hand, silencing his cult. "My brother, as an astronomer I believe you'll appreciate the irony—the moon and stars are in alignment for this rite. And I require your blood."
At that statement, Batman determined it was time to announce their presence. He threw a batarang, down towards Kobra in an attempt to knock the blade from the man's hand. The cult leader used the ritual dagger to deflect the attack, sending the batarang flying into the crowd. The group dove over the railing, leaping down to the floor below.
Cultists whirled on them, charging towards the intruders. Onyx grabbed his lasso, throwing it out around Mammoth's throat as the beast attempted to grab Batman. Yanking back, Mammoth grunted as he was slammed onto his back. As his opponent began to get back up, Nightmare ran forwards wrapping his legs around Mammoth's neck using his momentum to flip the monster over and slam him face-first into the ground. Picking him up, Nightmare hurled the titan into several cultists trying to attack Robin as he pulled out one of his disks and hurled it towards Kobra.
The cult leader blocked the attack with the ritual dagger before slashing his brother's chest. Blood dripping down the dagger, Kobra held the blade over the pot Shimmer held, revealing a cobra inside. The snake opened its mouth, and began glowing as soon as the blood hit it.
Three seconds later, they had a building-sized cobra in the room.
