Mount Justice - September 20- 2:00 PM-
An alarm went off around the cave, most of the team had been training after what seemed to be a slow week. They gathered around the screen that Red Tornado had brought up to see Riddler's face pop up way too close to the screen.
"Oh, hello there!" He said and then backed away so that they could see his whole body and not just his head. "I had a little something prepared for Batman but then I heard he left, you can't imagine how distressed I was thinking about how all my hard work would be going to waste, but then I thought...it doesn't have to there's still the Junior League to play with," he said waving his cane around while he spoke. The team looked at each other before turning their attention towards the screen. "Thirty-one civilians trapped in this wonderful machine I have created, I put in the latest technology in this little deathtrap, I would explain but I'd rather do it in person," he said as a clock popped up behind him giving them one hour and a half to reach the place the map that also popped up on the screen showed.
"Funland," Nightwing muttered.
"See you soon!" The Riddler said and then the screen went blank. The team organized itself, they designated Kid Flash, Lagoon Boy, Miss Martian, Rocket, Aqualad, and Robin to take him down. Nightwing wanted to join them as well but he and others already had a mission designated so Robin was their second-best option.
They watched the team departing through a Zeta-tube and the others got ready to leave just as Nightshade, Artemis, and Bumblebee walked into the room, they had been the ones missing from the rest as Artemis had gone with Nightshade to fill out the guardianship documents and they had met Bumblebee on the way to the cave.
"What's going on? Where are the others?" Artemis asked, seeing fewer members than expected.
"Riddler called us out to stop one of his schemes. Aqualad has part of the team with him," Superboy filled them in. Nightwing walked over to Nightshade who was eating some chips and they started sharing while he asked her how it'd gone with the documents.
"Where is Black Canary?" Bumblebee noticed her absence which got Nightshade's attention.
"She is at the Watchtower, I will be joining her as soon as Nightwing and his group leave for Santa Prisca," Red Tornado told them. As soon as she heard that, Nightshade lost interest and went back to her chips.
"Well I guess it's time for us to leave," Nightwing said, giving Nightshade a kiss on the cheek before walking up to the Zeta-tubes with Superboy, Zatanna, Tula, and Livewire. After they left, Red Tornado headed for the Watchtower and Nightshade, Bumblebee, Artemis, Batgirl, Troia, Red Shot, Tempest, and Beast Boy were left behind in the cave.
"So, what do we do now?" Beast Boy asked.
"Give it a second," Nightshade said while Batgirl got their things ready to head out.
"What are you talking about?" Toria asked, watching Batgirl stuff her belt with additional weapons and tech.
"Two missions in a row targeted directly at the team just when the Justice League is out and the only remaining members are in the Watchtower," Batgirl explained while Artemis restocked her arrows. "It's not a coincidence." As soon as she said that, the alarm started blaring. Tempest opened the screen that showed Cypher standing in the middle of the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, his tendrils attached to the backs of thousands of people with some of Ivo's androids lined up in between the public.
"Come out wherever you are," The people chanted in unison.
"Fuck, I didn't expect it to be this guy," Nightshade said when she saw Cypher popping up on the screen before it started going blank.
"I'll let the others know," Batgirl said, but when she tried to get in touch, she realized that communications were down. Artemis tried the Zeta-tubes but they wouldn't turn on.
"Awesome," Tempest said as he understood the situation. "Why didn't they disable the Zeta-tubes after we got there?" He asked.
"I think they knew that Nightshade would be with us," Bumblebee glanced back at Nightshade.
"And since this is Cypher, he wants to make this public," Red Shot said.
"Good, he'll get what he wants," Nightshade said, her hair slowly turning a dark shade of red and a shadow portal opening up on her side.
"Get in," Nightfall said pointing at the portal.
Funland, Gotham City- September 20- 4:30 PM-
"Are we sure this is the place?" Kid Flash asked. "I'm only asking because this is a literally abandoned carnival and I don't see how this can be relevant in world domination," Kid Flash said.
"Joker and Harley sometimes use this place as a lair, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for The Riddler," Aqualad said.
"You see, that's where you're wrong, with Harley and Joker this place is totally on brand, but for the Riddler it is too tacky," he continued as they walked into the place. As soon as the last one of them stepped in, the door slammed closed.
"Well excuse me for being too tacky," A familiar voice filled up the space around them and the light went on to reveal two platforms with a slim beam that stretched over a vat of acid and onto another platform.
"Everyone, be on your guard," Aqualad told them when they saw the trap, Riddler's laughter was coming through the speakers, and when Aqualad tried to call the team, all he heard was static.
"You can try if you want, but that is all you are going to get," Riddler said. "As you can clearly see, in front of you there is an enormous vat of acid and your only way of crossing it is through those shiny yet unstable beams," Riddler said. The team glanced over at the beams and saw them slightly sink closer to the acid. "All you have to do is cross it and then walk through that door at the end of the hall to save those poor, poor souls, but before you get too excited about that, to cross it you'll have to answer my riddles," he explained and a control station emerged from the ground.
Aqualad glanced over at Miss Martian who nodded and started levitating off the ground when Riddler's voice came up again. "Oh, sorry forgot about that. I usually play with less… advantageous players. Powers are not allowed," he said and from the floor, robotic arms emerged and locked a collar around each one of their necks, pulling Miss Martian to the ground. Kid Flash tried vibrating his way out of the collar, but nothing happened. "Cute," Riddler said as the screen in front of them lit up and showed a blank screen.
The team examined the room, five beams for the six of them, all of them were either cracked or looked as if they would slide right down the moment they would step on it, on the ground in front of each path was a button in the shape of a green question mark. Aqualad looked over at the others and slowly walked over to step on the question mark.
"That's the spirit!" Riddler's voice came back just as a cuff emerged from the ground and closed around Aqualad's leg, keeping him from leaving. "For your first riddle, you'll have to take a look at the screen," Their heads turned to the thing that now read:
'Why is a woman in love like a welder?'
"Why do I feel something sexist coming?" Miss Martian asked just as the screen switched to a ten-second timer.
"What the hell man?" Lagoon Boy asked when he noticed.
"They both carry a torch," Robin answered and the timer stopped.
"Wonder Boy gets it and spoils my fun in the process. Fish Boy gets to cross," Riddler said as Aqualad's ankle was released from the cuff. He looked down at the beam, but when he was about to start crossing it, he heard a loud rumble coming from his left side.
"Get down!" Aqualad yelled as a flame thrower came out from the wall and went off.
Santa Prisca- September 13- 4:30 PM-
Nightwing, Zatanna, Livewire, Superboy, and Tula landed Miss Martian's ship in Santa Prisca, the mission was simple, the files recovered by Aqualad and Nightshade specified that The Light had been dealing with Bane and his followers on the island, they were supposed to get in, identify what they were trading and stop it. They split up and spread through the area, Livewire went for the left while Nightwing and Tula took the right. Superboy and Zatanna headed for the main building using one of Zatanna's spells that teleported them inside.
"I think this is the first time we are working together," Tula said while walking alongside Nightwing. "Kaldur has always said great things about you, people have a lot of expectations for you, huh?" she asked. They had been walking for a while in silence so she was looking for ways to break it.
Nightwing chuckled after he heard that. "I guess you could put it that way," he said. The awkward silence continued for a while until Tula thought of another thing to say.
"You're really easy to talk to Nightwing...Nightshade on the other hand is a little scary," She said as they reached the clearing on their side. Nightwing put out his hand in front of her to keep her from going forward and pushed her back into the bushes.
"Get down for a second," he said as they hid behind the bushes, Tula followed his gaze to see a group of League of Shadows' assassins carrying some boxes into an aircraft parked on the side of the island. The boxes were different shapes and sizes as if they were carrying different types of things inside.
"It looks more like they are moving," Tula said, squinting her eyes to try and get a better look at the boxes.
"Right, but why?" Nightwing asked and while they watched and decided what would be the best approach, a knife was thrown in between the two of them. Nightwing quickly turned around and blocked the second knife with his escrima sticks before looking up to see Lady Shiva staring down at them from one of the trees.
"Came to play?" Shiva asked as she jumped off the tree branch.
"Let the others know," Nightwing told Tula while pressing the button on his sticks and charging them up. Lady Shiva attacked him with her sword which he blocked, so she kicked him into a tree and immediately tried to stab him, but Nightwing managed to move away. While they fought, Tula tried to get in touch with the rest of the group, and when that didn't work, she tried the others, but the communication was not getting through. She stopped trying and ran over to help Nightwing and created a hammer out of a water construct that she directed at Shiva's head, but the woman dodged her and kicked her on the side sending her to the ground.
"What about the rest of the team?" Nightwing asked as he helped her up.
"Communications are down," she answered. Nightwing gritted his teeth and got ready to fight Shiva as she ran towards them.
Inside the Building, Superboy and Zatanna hid behind some of the crates that were waiting to be loaded into the aircraft, Superboy quietly grabbed one and opened it. It was full of weapons of all sorts, explosives, guns, bullets, they could only imagine what was inside some of the bigger crates.
"I see a lot of League of Shadows' assassins, but I don't see Bane or his people," he said as they scanned the room for him.
"At this point, I'd really rather see Bane," Zatanna answered and pointed to the back of the room where Ra's Al Ghul stood overseeing his operation.
Tokyo, Japan- September 14- 6:30 AM JST-
The team came out of the shadow portal right in front of Cypher and his army of mind-controlled civilians and androids. Nightshade had taken Nightfall's place and was now standing in front of the group, there were cameras and newsgroups gathering on the sides of the street. While police tried to keep people away from the scene.
"Took you long enough to get here," the people said in unison. Nightshade cringed as she watched them all moving their mouths at the same time.
"So, we're here. What's the other half of the plan?" Red Shot asked.
"Red Shot you and Troia are in charge of making sure that no one in the crowd gets hurt. Bumble Bee, Tempest and Beat Boy you three take care of the androids, and only the androids," Nightshade said. The others nodded and moved away from the team. As soon as they moved, so did the Cypher and his puppets.
"So we handle the civilians?" Artemis asked, taking out a dull point arrow.
"I trust you to be careful, we can't kill anyone or even harm them," Nightshade said.
"I never thought I would hear you saying that," Batgirl said.
"Too many people watching," she said nodding towards the cameras. The three of them split up and started moving through the crowd focusing only on immobilizing or knocking out the puppets. One of the androids picked up a car in the street and flung it towards the crowd of onlookers that started running as soon as they saw it coming their way. In a matter of seconds, Red Shot grabbed the reporter and the cameraman that would have been crushed by the car while Troia grabbed it with her hands, the force of the throw making her plant her feet on the concrete to keep from stumbling back. She broke the ground as she slid a couple of steps back to gain her footing and slowly placed the car on the ground.
"It would be better if you move out of our way," Troia said, looking down at the people behind her. Red Shot returned to place the two of them on the ground and go back with Troia.
"You know, I am very single right now," Red Shot told her.
"I can see why," she answered as the two of them flew back into the street to aid the team.