Thanks for Reading the third Chapter.

Chapter 3 Indecision (Santa Prisca)

Mount Justice June 13th, 2010

Robin grumbled at the team's joy of a successful mission. He wasn't so jolly. They had run away from Sportsmaster and two teenagers. This wasn't a job well done, it was a job barely done. Kalder picked up on his discontent. "We accomplished our mission, Robin. There is no shame in that."

Robin nodded. "I get that, I just don't think this is a job well done. We didn't catch the bad guys. They didn't pursue once we got in the air. The question is was that because they realized we didn't have the Metallo Prototype?"

Robin found Kid Flash in an empty library, smiling at the empty shelving, there was a single item on one of the shelves, a throwing star. Robin sighed. "A memento? Really? Are you that sentimental?"

Kid Flash frowned at his friend "Well, how many throwing stars do you have?" "Eighteen" "Right now?" "No, at my house." The two started laughing.

"What are they even for?" "Literally nothing, I have never used them." the two chuckled for another minute.

"Hey Robin, you still owe me dinner!"

June 15th

Robin flipped up from the ground, "I can do it, let's go again." Black Canary was starting to look concerned. "Robin, sit down, you need a break." Robin didn't move from the training circle, so she removed him. "Can anyone tell me what he's doing wrong?" Robin rolled over and sat up, clearly frustrated.

Kid rose his hand, "He's not staying hydrated." Speedy smiled and added to the dumb answers, "He's a child trying to beat a professional" Zatanna decided to try a more reasonable answer, "He's trying too hard?" Kalder completed the rational connection, "He's not acknowledging his limits."

Canary sighed, someone was paying attention, "Thank you, Zatanna, Kalder. It's both of those is nothing wrong with pushing yourself, just make sure you set obtainable goals. You aren't going to master a new martial art every two days. It took your mentor, one of the most dedicated people on the planet, years to master so many martial arts, and years more to optimize his body and integrate them into the remorseless ass-kicking machine that trained you."

Kalder nodded. "We should incorporate conditioning into our training regimen. It would allow us to optimize our specialization."

Canary nodded. "Let's all remember to run some drills, were out of time for today, I'll see you all on the seventeenth."

Zatanna gave Robin a water bottle, "You don't need to push yourself so hard." Robin drained almost half the bottle before responding, "I definitely do, we all do. I don't have magic or super speed or telepathy, I have electrical devices and my hands. It might not seem like it, but my utility belt has finite storage space. Everything I do has to have a calculated risk."

Zatanna pursed her lips, "We all have limits Robin, I run out of can run out of MP, Wally burns calories like diesel, Speedy only ever has like twenty arrows, Aqua Lad gets dehydrated, and Meghan can be incapacitated by a book of matches."

"Yeah whatever, I'm going to go shower." Robin left her there.

Wally stood next to Zatanna. "Don't beat yourself up, he's just mad about the Sportsmaster fight."

LATER…

"Team, report to the mission room"

"Santa Prisca is an island nation notorious for its exportation of a dangerous and addictive performance enhancer called Venom. Over the last three days, various agencies noticed a sudden drought in conventional Venom supply lines. Thermal imaging found the factories are still functioning at full capacity. Your task is to find out where the Vehom is going. This is a covert recon mission."

Meghan asked, "If it's so dangerous why do people use it?" Robin commented, "People are attracted to the promise of power, and get hooked on the ability to fist-fight thing weaker than a tank." "Weak men show weakness, it's nothing new. Take off at fifteen hundred, you should arrive after dark.I expect you will be off the island before oh-two-hundred."

"Yes sir"

Santa Prisca

Kid Flash smiled at his new coloration, "Kid Flash in all black. Aww yaass!" Zatanna was geared up for more rugged terrain than her usual outfits, pulling up a balaclava to cover the lower half of her face. Speedy was similarly excited about his Black arrow outfit. "Should this be my permanent costume?" KF shook his head, "No way am I dressing in all black outside of a stealth mission. Kid Flash is not edgy."

Miss Martian rolled her eyes at his self-absorbed comment, "You would look fine in any color K F." Robin looked at the team, "Ok, follow my lead and we'll be out of here before midnight." The boy wonder descended into the jungle, followed by his companions.

Zatanna lost sight of Robin almost immediately, the jungle was dark, dense and alive. She tried to find Speedy or Miss Martian, "Speedy? KF? Where are you?"

Robin led the team into the jungle, it was almost two miles to the factory, Aqua Lad had further to travel. Robin checked infrared, there was a squad of guys ahead, they would need for them to pass. He held up his hand to tell everyone behind him to stop, only to look over his shoulder and see no one was with him. "Oh no"

Robin tapped him comm getting nothing but static, 'Meghan! Meghan! if you can hear me tell everyone about the squad ahead of us' 'Roger that' She didn't give him a headache hardly at all now. Then the gunfire started, 'Kid Flash is up there!' 'Take them down!'

He rushed in after the speedster, he had thrown a second electric disk by the time he realized the Cobra Cult was here, shooting at Bane's typical guys. They disabled all twenty-six of them in a matter of minutes.

Robin rounded on Kid Flash, "This is a covert mission! COVERT! You don't do gunfights with death squads on a covert mission!" Kid Flash pointed at him, "You ran off without us" Robin scowled, "What? I Out Ran You? That's your excuse?" Speedy punched them both in the arm, "Will you two shut up? Kalder and Zatanna are missing, and our comms are down. Pull it together and let's find them." Robin turned to Meghan, "Can you tell them where to find us? She nodded, "give me a minute."

Kalder and Zatanna regrouped with the team. Kalder spoke, "We need to proceed more carefully, as a group. Robin, take the lead." Robin made his way through the jungle more carefully now, slower, making sure his allies kept pace.

They weren't getting out of Santa Prisca, before midnight, not at this pace. It was frustrating but everyone had different skill sets, his just happened to be reconnaissance based.

The factory was being run by the Cobra Cult. Crates were being marked with different colors. Red, yellow, and blue 'Meghan, let everyone know, they're using multiple formulas, this just got more complicated. We need to either steal some samples or check the vat.' 'I just realized. I can make a psychic link. Everyone can hear each other's thoughts now.'

Kid Flash 'I guess having girls on my mind is nothing new.'

Speedy 'This is NOT comfortable'

Aqua Lad grimaced, 'Bare through it, my friend. Robin, Speedy, you have gas masks, go into the mixing chambers and take some samples, everyone else must remain unseen.'

Aqua Lad waited patiently with Zatanna, keeping his mind clear and focused. Robin's voice came through their minds 'Oh, crap. plant pheromones I think Ivy might be here.'

Speedy 'spoke' next, 'My filters aren't graded for the fumes over here, these guys are in full hazmat gear.' Dick responded quickly 'I'll look. They need to vent that stuff.'

Aqua Lad could barely make out Robins shadow on the roof, 'Formaldehyde, Arsenic, Nitrous oxide' Robin stopped reading the list. 'It's joker gas no doubt about it.'

Speedy commented, 'This other stuff is some kind of venom variant. We don't know what's mixed in.'

Miss M spoke up 'Guys, these guards are expecting someone to pick up a shipment tonight. I have eyes on Bane and Cobra One.'

Robin confidently stated, 'I'll check their computers, for whatever they're mixing, and see if I can find out who's buying.'

'Be careful Bane is a brilliant strategist, we do not want to be discovered.' Aqua Lad warned.

Robin sounded smug, 'Don't worry, I could seek up on a shadow.'

Robin dropped two guards, and began hacking their computer until he found something 'What's Blockbuster?' Kid Flash seemed amused, 'Ha, dude, you would know, not us.' Speedy growled, 'Helpful voices only. You're giving me a killer headache.' Robin pulled away from the computer, 'We know what, now we need the who and the where.' He left the building the way he came.

Meghan watched Bane and Cobra One, both were completely calm, waiting for their meeting, it did raise a question. 'Why are these guys working together?' No one gave an answer, except for Wally after a moment of silence, ' '

And the waiting continued, Miss M prodded the guard's minds, it was taking too long. 'Whoever's coming is behind schedule.'

Robin let out a small sigh, he checked the time, seven minutes after midnight. Then a helicopter approached. Robin moved back to a crouch 'Look alive people.'

While the helicopter landed, a large, green and shredded creature emerged from one of the buildings with a known criminal Shimmer. Sportsmaster stared at the behemoth, "Are they buying an army of that ugly mother-?" Cobra one cut him off, "Don't worry about what we're selling, just deliver the products and take the money, like you're supposed to."

The cobra cult started loading crates, but only the blue marked ones. Robin threw a bat-erang. It landed on the side of a yellow-marked crate. 'Guys we can't let this stuff get out of here.'

Kalder grimaced, Robin was right, the mission needed to change. 'The joker gas, can it be neutralized?'

Robin 'Yeah, it's an unstable gas, it breaks down when heated, the problem is you don't want to breathe the products either. If we blow it up it will disperse, it doesn't spread quickly the clouds hang around for a while so, we need to blow that up last. Venom should burn up just like any other chemical fire, and the plant pheromones are special, we need to open up each container and introduce it to a lethal substance.' 'like bleach or formaldehyde?' Speedy asked. 'Yeah, that would do it.'

Kalder smiled, in and out. 'Miss Martian, can you throw the red and yellow crates together?'

'Yes, for sure' the Martian confirmed. Aqua Lad continued, 'Speedy and Robin will detonate them'

Zatanna you and I will need to cover our escape. 'We will intentionally fail to foil Sportsmaster's escape.'

The crates were sent flying and an explosion followed. Aqua lad blew a water pipe in the wall of a building and drew the water up in a wave towards the villains. They would instinctively move away from the gas.

Aqua Lad split the group in half, Kid Flash disarmed the goons outside Aqua Lad's reach while Zatanna used a duplicating spell on Robin, creating a dozen loud distractions as the real Robin lead Bane into the side of a building. 'Te mataré, niño estùpido!'

Robin let out a snarky laugh in response, "Tu eres muy lento." As he scaled the metal siding.

Aqua Lad's attack was broken by the green monster, he dodged carefully, a successful grab would have painful consequences. He countered with a heavy swing to the creature's face. That wasn't going to stop it.

Speedy wasn't letting Sportsmaster get away this time, he fired arrow after arrow, explosive to make him hesitate, electric to slow him down, pointed to make him hurt. Sportsmaster wasn't about to make it easy.

Robin cut the line on the back of Bane's head and proceeded to assault his next dance partner, Cobra One. "Hey, Cobra you look mighty disconcerted." Cobra one wasn't amused, "This is beneath me. Shimmer."

The ginger villain made a run at the boy, who evaded over her head, landing behind her as his bola pinned her arms to her sides. Robin locked eyes with Cobra One as he threw an electric disc, over his shoulder. Shimmer's groans of pain made it clear it landed. "Care to cut in?" he asked the wanna-be god.

Cobra one removed his hood, Robin leaped into action with a kick, his opponent's block seeming effortless, a jab, a swing, another kick. Robin was thrown to the ground. "What's wrong, boy? You seem disconcerted."

Robin tossed a smoke bomb landing it firmly on Cobra One's forehead. Blinded Cobra moved defensively, not fast enough, as the following attack wasn't martial, it was a pair of electro discs. Cobra one groaned in pain. "I'm mighty concerted over your pain."

Sportsmaster pulled away from the fighting and made for the helicopter while the heroes were distracted. Robin and Speedy instinctively put trackers on the side of the chopper. The athletic-themed assassin took the tracer arrow off with a discus.

Aqua Lad, Kid Flash, and Miss Martian were starting to be overwhelmed. 'Robin! We need to retreat. We don't have the muscle to deal with this creature.' Robin spun flinging a cluster of explosives at the monster's back, the attack landed home, sending the creature into a blinded raging frenzy straight towards Robin, who fled into the jungle. 'I'll meet you guys back at the bio-ship.'

The team regrouped at the bioship. The troll thing from before was still yelling in the distant jungle. "we're pulling out."

Mount Justice June 16th 9:00 am.

Batman was not pleased, but the mission was hardly a failure, Robin and Meghan's trackers deactivated, pointed towards South America, the flight range on the helicopter hinted at a secret base in the Amazon. Their next mission would be soon.

Thanks for reading, thinking I'm going to do more. Doing episode-like chapters are kind of long, might try something else.