A/N
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Episode II: Venomous, Part II
Head pulsating with an endless amount of pain, her vision is blurred, like his own mind is struggling to process the information coming into her eyes. Unsurprising, considering she was just blindsided.
Somehow, she instinctively hears a punch being thrown her way and ducks just in time to avoid another damaging blow, making backwards and desperately trying to regain his composure.
Eyesight slowly returning, but her mind and body jolted to the point her arms aren't following her orders, her body moves seemingly on auto-pilot, sluggishly trying to create some distance between the two.
Seeing a blow coming in, she tries to force herself to duck, but her body doesn't respond and his fist connects with the side of her jaw, knocking her to the ground harshly.
Panicking, she automatically scrambles to her feet as her opponent rushes towards her, slamming into his leg and grabbing onto it desperately. Finally regaining enough control to lift her right arm, she punches the leg from the side, putting her body weight on the leg simultaneously and pushing forwards.
Forcing the thug to trip up, she clambers onto his body and begins to furiously pound the man's face as he protects his head.
Though her efforts only tire her out even further and the man grabs her wrist, rolling over so he's on top and impersonating her, battering her head as she tries to fend off the incoming strikes without much conscious control.
Risking it, she slams her head into his, forcing upwards with her hips and kicking the man off, her body almost nearly in synch with her mind.
The fight quickly turns sour for her as she attempts to move only to be met with slow responses from her legs, and a slight headache at the back of her brain. Just when she prepares to defend her vital areas once again, a green light slams into the thug, knocking him to the floor.
"Kyle!" she squeals, but she immediately regrets it as Robin stands up in front of her with a concerned look on his face underneath the mask.
"You okay?" he asks, "I saw him knocks you out for a few moments. I tried to get here as fast as I could, bu-."
"Watch out!" he interrupts himself, using Artemis' shoulder as a springboard to launch his body.
She turns around in time to watch him fly into a thug foot first, connecting straight in the chin.
"As you can see, we could use some help," he finishes.
Examining her surroundings, she sees an increasingly dire situation. Kid Flash is running rings around three criminals, clearly getting slower as he exhausts himself without any rest; M'gann and Superboy are on the other side of the hangar, battling Bane and plenty more of the super villains cronies.
Analysing her with a close eye, Robin waits, presumably for her to choose where to help, so she takes the initiative.
"I'll help KF, you know Bane, so you'd be best helping Superboy and M'gann."
"A little help guys," Kid Flash conveniently requests, and she swiftly obliges, sprinting over to where he's evading the three at super speeds and fighting back where he can.
Nocking an arrow with the grace and swiftness instilled by endless hours practising the motion, he lets loose an arrow the moment she raises her bow, slamming it into the ground next to Kid Flash and the goons.
A burst of smoke follows a short hiss from the embedded arrow, covering her approach as she bounds towards the combat zone, hand already moving for another arrow from her quiver. This time, an arrow laced with a powerful tranquilliser fires into the barely visible leg of a thug, only being noticed for a split-second amidst the dense smoke.
A loud thud signals to her the dart has completed its task, and she takes cover behind a pile of wooden crates, bow and arrow at the ready.
Ignoring Kid Flash whizz past her, she focuses on the smoke, and as it begins to settle and fade away, she fires, hitting the target square in the chest with another arrow. Luckily for the criminal, it won't hurt much when he wakes up in cuffs; Green Arrow doesn't approve of using sharp arrows on human targets.
Head swivelling around, confused as to what happened to his comrades, the last one doesn't have too long to consider his next options as Kid Flash zooms past, delivering the final blow and taking him out with an incredibly well-placed uppercut.
Vaulting over the crates, she heads over to Kid Flash.
Being so focused on helping KF, she only just hears the grunts and groans as the battle rages on at the other end of the hangar, where it apparently seems as though the team is gaining ground, though Superboy's having trouble fighting Bane despite being a Kryptonian.
Superboy is passionate and loyal to a degree no-one can doubt him no matter what, but Artemis knows that on the inside, he might never lose the hot streak he has; against a skilled, powerful, and experienced fighter such as Bane- who even took down the Batman- pure strength isn't going to cut it anymore. And even taking into account how much he did grow in terms of his ability to control his power and emotions, he still loses his grasp, and it's costing him, and will cost him even more in the future.
Conner might be many things, but patient and composed might never be one of them.
If anything, it makes her job more entertaining. When things go awry, it makes the missions just a little bit more enjoyable.
Then again, all it takes is one mistake when the mission goes south for someone to get hurt, or worse. She knows she's human, and so does Robin; Wally, on the other hand, believes his speed can get him out of any impossible situation.
She loves his light-hearted approach to life, but hates the way it restricts his ability to see the larger picture.
There's never a happy ending for heroes.
"You want something done," Artemis mumbles.
"Get a speedster to do it for you," Wally finishes, zooming towards the fight with his usual energetic enthusiasm.
"Well, this went as bad as expected," she grunts to herself, shaking her head.
Feet springing from the ground, leaving a faint trace of dirt from his boots, Robin leaps onto the wing of the cargo plane situated in the middle of the hangar, clambering to the top and assessing the interesting situation.
Following him to the top is four heavily muscled men, each with a hefty dose of venom flowing through their rapidly deteriorating veins.
Venom has a tendency to wear out after a while, and since these thugs don't possess the constant supply of filth from tubes inserted into the body like Bane, Robin's main plan at the moment is to utilise their weakness against them.
If he can outlast them, they should weaken enough to give him the decisive advantage he needs to turn the tables. With the confrontation raging on around him, he needs to gain some space so he can reassess the circumstances and formulate a plan. And of course, the only things lying between him and the distance he needs is four of Bane's mindless lackeys.
They follow out of fear more than loyalty, but in a sense it makes their obedience much more dangerous. Bane's patience wears thin when it comes to failure, according to the rumours and stories he's heard of Bruce's villain.
Fear can make even the sanest of humans do the craziest of actions. And if he isn't careful when dealing with these cavemen, he might just find out that's true.
Buying himself more time, he rushes over to one of the climbing thugs and stamps down on his hands, causing him to yelp and fall down.
As the others begin to stand up and come towards him, he sprints towards the nose of the plane, momentarily catching a glimpse of Bane and Superboy fighting directly below.
Turning around, his staff calmly enters his hands and he limbers up with a few rotations of his shoulders and wrists.
One particularly enthusiastic thug decides to lead the assault before his companions reach them, and he earns a staff to the back of the knee for his troubles.
As Robin follows up with an overheard swing to the head, the man counters, springing upwards and bear hugging the young teenager.
Bruce is always complaint about him not having enough muscle on his body, and for once, he actually agrees with his adoptive father, as the thug slowly squeezes down on his spine as he struggles.
Hearing something crack, he shoves his hand into the man's face and pushes forwards, using his other hand to punch the man in the throat, forcing him to drop the hero and step back, coughing.
In one rapid motion, Robin scoops up his staff from the ground and whacks his assailant on the jaw, knocking him the ground unconscious just as his buddies arrive to make it two-on-one.
"Which one of you wants to get beat by a kid?" he taunts the two, noticing them exchanging a devious smile and nodding.
Okay... so both?
Attacking together might have just been the best option for them, as it seems from the initial stages of the combat they have fought beside each other on a regular basis; taking turns to search for an opening in the Boy Wonder's stellar defence, they give him little chance to breath.
Stealing a glimpse at their arms, he takes note of how their veins are gradually starting to glow green weaker, diminishing from a once prominent colour to a much more natural appearance. For now, it seems his quickly concocted plan is beginning to pay off, but he still has to survive a while longer as their efforts increase, catching him with a few glancing blows.
Though their knuckles only slide past his body, he can still feel the power behind the strikes- more than enough to break his human bones if one lands cleanly.
Over a short period of time, their become more and more successful, their fists coming dangerous close to him as he twirls his staff and steps out of the way.
Breaking his weapon into two smaller batons, he steps in between the two, facing one and elbowing the other behind him. Ducking the swift strike from the opponent in front of him, he grabs his arm and uses the kinetic movement to throw him into his ally.
Leaping up, he brings both his feet firmly down onto the top one's chest, forcing his entire body weight down into the blow.
Crushing his friend beneath his hulking envenomed mass, the remaining thug bounds up and throws Robin onto the nose of the plan before he could react.
Temporarily out of sight as he lies on the nose, he utilises his environment and smashes through the cockpit window of the plane and sliding inside.
Hiding behind one of the many venom crates inside of the cargo plan, he takes a second to realise the scale of the operation.
Judging by the amounts of crates and the size of the crates themselves, there's enough venom here to supply most of the major cities within the United States to the point it would be much more serious than a few street thugs getting ahold of it. No wonder Batman sent them straight to Bane's headquarters, but then again, it raises the question as to why he would risk sending them as he could have simply assembled a team from the Justice League itself.
It's simple: there's forces at work here Bruce isn't willing to share with them, and it doesn't sit well with Robin. He has a team to look after now, and anything which could place them in danger is his responsibility.
Reminding himself to have a chat with the Dark Knight when they get back, Robin palms a few smoke pellets as he faintly hears footsteps entering the cargo bay from where he entered.
Scattering them across the entire cargo bay- these particular type of pellets are remote activated- he whistles for his pursuer when he arrives at the centre of the bay.
"This is a lot of venom," he greets the criminal with a tense body and a straight face. "What's your boss planning?"
There's no answer- whatever Bane is planning with the batches of venom, it's highly unlikely they would give up his motives without some extra persuasion from the Batman. Robin's too small to intimidate these thugs; he knows, as he's tried multiple times.
"Okay then, don't say I didn't warn you."
That mocking smile.
Conner has encountered many annoying things in his short life, ranging from his fellow team members, to monkeys, to the abandonment of his supposed father, but the way the smile bends as Bane's eyes glimmer with amusement- nothing irks him more than being mocked, and being helpless to stop it.
Swinging wildly with rage, the super villain effortlessly tosses him away to the ground, forming a crack on the surface.
"I wonder where all this anger comes from," Bane continues to mock him with a fake sympathetic tone, "Like a child throwing a fit."
Ending his words by grabbing Conner by the wrist and launching him into the ground and standing on his chest, the villain peers down at the clone from his muscled frame.
"Maybe you'll find out!" Superboy roars, grabbing Bane's boot and pushing him off, grabbing the villain by the waist and tackling him into a wall, breaking straight through and out into the open night.
Twirling around, he throws Bane into the dirt and jumps up, aiming to come crashing down on him.
Rolling out of the way, Bane gracefully steps back up to his feet and eyes Conner with a new sense of caution. Apparently, the time for fooling around is past; Bane's too smart to underestimate him for too long.
It fills Conner with an interesting mixture of pride and nervousness to see Bane respect his power. On one hand, it means he understands what Conner has been trying so desperately to show his peers: he is a clone of Superman, and can at least fight with a fraction of his strength. Secondly, it engages a wary part of him. From the files he's read about the venom drug king, he's dangerously intelligent, and shouldn't be shaken off lightly.
Conner carefully watches as the venom creeps its way down the tubes and into Bane's body, a sickening twist of flesh and chemical. Then, he comes to pity the villain.
In the end, Bane's simply struggling to keep up with the wave of heroes and villains. His venom is all he has to maintain his status as a supervillain, and without it, he's just a smart thug with a penchant for violence.
"I've secured the venom, now all we need is Bane," Robin informs through the mental link.
"On it," he quickly replies, charging Bane with a flurry of powerful punches, all of which hit nothing but the Madagascan air as Bane dodges and parries them.
Delivering a brutal punch which knocks Conner to the ground a few yards away, Bane looks over to where the team is hurrying his way before placing his attention back on Conner.
"Not yet, children," he smirks, stepping into a blood red portal which magically appeared behind him, undoubtedly cast by the Klarion.
Coming to a halt next to Conner, the team groans in disbelief, their many bruises painted like splotches across their faces and exposed parts of their costumes.
"Something tells me this isn't a one-time thing," Robin wonders out loud.
A/N
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