I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters.
First Mission
Cassius took a long, slow breath before opening his eyes. They had their first mission. Santa Prisca, an island that produced a neo-steroid called Venom which would drastically enhance its user's strength several times over for as long as it was in their system, was still operating, but had cut off all shipments of Venom. The team wanted them to go in and investigate, likely to ensure they weren't building an army. The team would be dropping in at two separate points for covert recon, and the Justice league had left leadership of the team up to them to decide.
"Drop Zone A in thirty," Megan announced.
Cassius and Aqualad stood. Aqualad tapped his belt buckle and his red shirt turned black in a wave running up from the belt as Cassius shifted his clothes into a formfitting suit of armor which flexed like cloth but could deflect fifty caliber heavy machine gun bullets. He knew. The League of Shadow had tested it. He also formed himself a matching metal mask over the lower half of his face, just for kicks.
"Ready," Aqualad said as their chairs melted into the floor.
"Ready," Cassius nodded.
"Putting Bio-Ship in Camouflage Mode," Megan said as she flew lower.
Then, the floor opened up beneath them and they both fell, splashing down in the water and beginning to swim, Cassius forming himself diving fins in order to keep up with Aqualad. Aqualad formed a water sword with one of his handles and slashed a net in front of them open, allowing them to slip through and swim to the water. Cassius retracted his goo fins before they climbed out, Cassius instantly launching himself to a sensor in front of them and sticking a device the League had given them to trick the sensors onto the top of it.
"Heat and motion sensors are patched," Aqualad reported. "Data is now on a continuous loop. Move in."
"Aqualad, Void, Drop B is go," Megan said.
"Head to the factory," Aqualad said as Cassius used his goo to rapidly scale the face of a cliff while keeping Aqualad stuck to his back. "We'll track your GPS and rendezvous A-S-A-P."
"Roger that!" Robin said before their communicators went silent.
"Megan, we linked?" Cassius asked.
"Yes," Megan replied, the two of them being the only two with a link, since he was the only one used to it enough to not get a headache when she put a little too much force into her telepathy. "I know I've asked this all the time, but are you sure it's a good idea to try and fool the League of Shadows instead of just taking Cassandra and Rose now?"
"Stay on mission, Megan," Cassius said. "And yes, I'm sure. If I tried to take them now, the Shadows would kill them both. Unless the Shadows force my hand, I have to earn the Justice League's trust first." He set Aqualad down on top of the cliff, retracting his goo. "Besides, Cassandra doesn't want to leave, and Rose isn't sure. If I take them before they're ready, they'll just go back, or worse, they'll be actual spies."
"True," Megan said. "Alright. Going silent. I'll keep us linked."
Cassius sent her a general feeling of acknowledgement, rather than actual words, and he and Aqualad continued in silence.
"Wait, did you hear that?" Superboy asked suddenly.
"Uh, no," Kid Flash said. "Wait, is this a super hearing thing?"
"Man, you do have great ears," Megan said.
"Rob, you got anything?" Kid Flash asked. "Robin? I hate it when he does that."
"Superboy, Kid, switch to infrared," Aqualad said. "See if you're being tracked."
"Got a squad of armed bozos, incoming," Kid Flash said.
"Are they looking around, or just walking?" Cassius asked.
"Two squads," Superboy corrected. "The one I'm tracking is just walking."
"Same," Kid Flash said.
"They'll meet each other before they find us," Superboy reported, just before gunfire crackled through the air.
"No super hearing required now," Kid Flash said.
"Each other, or you?" Cassius asked.
"Each other," Superboy said.
"Swing wide, steer clear," Aqualad reported, he and Cassius running through the trees now.
"Yeah, yeah, just as soon as I find Rob," Kid Flash said. Then, a moment later, he shouted begore grunting several times, Cassius swearing instantly as the gunfire stopped. "So much for the stealthy."
The gunfire began again and Kid Flash began to shout in fear.
"Move in!" Cassius snapped. "Clean up his mess!"
He looked to Aqualad, who sighed and nodded. They both moved as quickly as they could. Finally, they reached the fight just in time for Cassius to drop from a tree and knock out a man wearing a red cloak with a black mask that was designed to have a pair of fangs handing down over his cheekbones. Aqualad landed beside him and Cassius looked between the two groups, one of which were all dressed the same as the one Cassius knocked out.
"Two factions," Cassius said. "One's a cult."
"Tie them up," Aqualad said, holding a rope out to Kid Flash, who had everyone restrained in moments.
"The cultists belong to the Cult of the Kobra," Robin said.
"I am sure that Batman would have mentioned it if he knew that a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's Venom operation," Kid Flash said.
"Agreed," Robin said. "And since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists and those goons-"
"The cultists took over by force," Cade finished. "The cartel used to own the factories, but the cult moved in and took over, somehow. Which is all the more impressive given this guy is here."
He nudged a cartel member with a full-faced wrestling mask on, which was white over the face with a pair of horn-like spikes on the sides of the forehead, then the rest black.
"Who is it?" Kid Flash asked.
"No way," Robin said. "Is that...Bane?"
"Wait, like...super strong, uses Venom, thorn in Batman's side, Bane?" Kid Flash asked.
"That's right," Cassius nodded. "To take over, they'd have had to beat him. Which means they had someone here stronger."
"I would think a cult filled with guys on Venom would do it," Kid Flash said.
"These cultists aren't on Venom," Robin said. "Kobra's hording the stuff."
"If they were on Venom, they'd be about as big as Bane is now, and they'd be super strong," Cassius said. "Whatever they want with the Venom, it's not an army of troops who're using it."
"What then?" Aqualad asked.
"Why don't we go ask?" Cassius asked.
"I agree," Robin said. "We're not leaving until I know what's going on here."
"Until you know what's going on?" Kid Flash asked.
"This team needs a leader!" Robin argued.
"And that's you?" Kid flash scoffed, leaning down to get in Robin's face. "Dude, you're a thirteen-year-old kid who ducked out on us without a word!"
Robin laughed. "And you're a mature fifteen? You blew our cover the first chance you got!"
"Aqualad's the leader," Cassius said, stopping them continuing to argue. "He was giving orders earlier and knew how to respond to situations as they developed. It would have worked perfectly if Robin hadn't abandoned the team and Kid Flash hadn't moved in when we told him not to."
"Don't you want to lead?" Miss Martian asked Superboy, who shook his head.
"You?" Superboy asked.
"After the Mister Twister fiasco?" Megan asked, holding up a hand and shaking her head.
"You did alright," Superboy smiled.
Megan blushed, looking away. "He's so sweet! Come on, Megan, just tell him! But, what if he doesn't like me back? I need to-"
"Save the angst for after the mission, Megan," Cassius said through their link, making her blush darken, apparently having forgotten they still had an open telepathic link.
Superboy's head turned toward the cartel suddenly, his eyes narrowing before he smirked.
"You don't even have powers!" Kid Flash was saying.
"Neither does Batman!" Robin argued.
"Are they still going at it?" Cassius asked.
"They ignored you earlier," Aqualad said.
"You're not batman!" Kid Flash said.
Just then, Bane laughed. "Such clever niños," Bane said. "But you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance."
"There is a secret entrance, but he's also hiding something," Megan said, keeling down in front of him, her eyes beginning to glow white.
Bane grinned. "Ah, ah, ah, Chica. Bane is not that easy."
Megan groaned in irritation. "He's mentally reciting fútbol scores en español. This could take a while."
"It's not complicated," Bane smirked. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
"I could make him talk from here," Cassius volunteered. "Even he can only handle so much pain. Might also take a while though."
"No torture!" Robin snapped.
"We'll follow you," Aqualad decided. "However, if you double cross us, you will regret it."
Bane's grin grew before he nodded. Cassius untied him, only to bind his hands to each other and to his back with his goo. Bane glared at him before turning and leading them through the trees. After a little bit, they reached a cliff where the cult was loading containers of what they assumed was Venom near a helipad. Cassius tapped his communicator to test its signal, but instantly heard static.
"Comms are jammed," Cassius said. "Time for the Martian phone?"
"Not yet," Robin said.
"If the cult's not selling to the usual suspects-" Kid Flash began.
"Then we need to identify the buyers," Robin finished.
"That's what I'm thinking," Kid Flash said.
"Yeah," Robin snorted. "You're the thinker."
"Sarcasm?" Kid Flash asked. "Really? A real leader would focus on getting answers."
"Answers are this way," Bane said, tapping a boulder with his foot. "Since you won't allow me free use of my arms, perhaps you would be kind enough to move the boulder for me?"
Cassius formed his goo into a large hand, lifting the boulder aside and revealing a tunnel build like an old mine shaft. Bane walked into it as Cassius set the boulder down and they all followed, Kid Flash pulling down his goggles and switching on their thermal sensors.
"You know you have actual night vision, too, right?" Cassius asked.
"I do?" Kid Flash asked.
Cassius sighed, shaking his head.
"A real leader would know what gear he carries, and what it does," Robin said instantly.
"A real leader wouldn't argue with a team member about whether or not that team member has what a real leader should do," Cassius said. "A real leader would just act like a leader, just like our leader, Aqualad."
Both glared at Cassius just as Bane turned, eyes narrowing in concentration as he contorted one of his arms and bent forward in order to press his thumb to a sensor. A pair of red lights lit up on the wall of the tunnel before turning green as a concealed door slid open, revealing a metal hallway. The walked to a doo on the other end and Robin carefully looked through before reporting it was clear and darting into the room. They moved to follow, but he was already gone.
"Has that little fool already been caught?" Bane asked.
"No, he just does that," Aqualad sighed.
"Stay put!" Kid Flash said said, deactivating his goggles and grinning. "I'll get our intel and be back before the boy wonder!"
"Wait, Kid!" Aqualad said before he took of in a blur.
Cassius sighed, resting his face in his palm. "And I used to criticize the a couple of the Shadows I knew for being immature when they couldn't decide who should spar against me first."
"Great chain of command," Bane smirked.
"Take us to product storage," Cassius said.
Bane nodded and led them through the warehouse. After a few minutes, they reached the storage area and stopped, all of them ducking into cover as they stared at the massive amount of Venom in the room.
"That's a massive shipment," Aqualad breathed.
"Yeah, but they're only taking new product off the line," Superboy pointed out. "They're not touching this Venom." he gestured at a crate filled with Venom beside them that was older than the crates the forklifts in the room were taking.
"Maybe...freshness counts?" Miss Martian asked.
"Bane, how long does Venom stay good?" Cassius asked.
"Depends how long I go between uses," Bane said.
"So, indefinitely, then," Cassius said, thinking. "Maybe they changed it. Maybe they changed the formula of Venom, and the new stuff they're shipping is their new product."
"It's possible," Aqualad nodded.
"Helicopter's coming," Superboy reported.
"Megan, check in with Robin and Kid Flash," Cassius said.
Megan nodded and added their link. "Robin, Kid Flash, any news?"
"Perfect timing," Robin responded. "I was about to try to radio you. I forgot we were jammed. Listen, we found a chemical formula for the product they're shipping. It's Venom mixed with the Blockbuster formula. Combined, it's three times stronger than normal Venom, and it's permanent."
"Understood," Aqualad said, as he had also been added, though Superboy had declined. "Megan, head outside, invisible, and wait for the buyer. When they arrive, send us a telepathic image, if you can. If not, describe them."
"Right," Megan nodded.
She turned invisible and flew away as they all moved to a catwalk over the storage room, and a few minutes later, the image arrived. Cassius covered his mouth to stifle himself as he swore harshly, the word echoing through all of their minds as a shout.
"What?" Megan asked.
"Sportsmaster," Aqualad said. "You know him?"
"He's with the Shadows," Cassius growled telepathically so that Megan would hear the warning as well.
"We have to warn Red Tornado," Aqualad said.
"We can't," Cassius reminded him. "Our comms are jammed."
"We need a plan, now!" Aqualad growled.
"I have a suggestion," Bane said, then shouted a battle cry as he leapt off the catwalk, taking down one of two cultists below them, then shoving the other's gun into the air just as it went off.
"What is he-" Aqualad was cut off by a loud roar behind them and a massive behemoth of a man exploding through the window, and the wall above and below it, behind them.
The three of them scattered as he smashed the catwalk, landing on the ground and staring at him. He had orange hair, grey, scaled skin, thicker scales on his knuckles, and his skin was split open on his right shoulder reaching down across his torso in front and back, then a smaller split just below it, exposing his muscles.
"Well, I'm definitely not using Kobra Venom," Cassius said, forming the armor around his arms and legs into goo and enlarging his hands a bit.
The massive thing roared and stomped toward them just as the door opened, revealing Kobra, Cassius assumed, Sportsmaster, who instantly glared at Cassius, and several other cultists.
"Destroy them!" Kobra snapped.
The behemoth roared, lunging, only for Superboy to grab him around the middle, then Cassius to slam a punch into its face, rocking it backward. Then, it slammed a punch into Cassius's head and launched him away before it grabbed Superboy and hurled him aside. Aqualad formed a shield from his water in time to block a hail of bullets, then stuck his other water bearer through it just long enough to send a solid blast of water into a cultist's chest, then another. Cassius stood, sending out his goo arms and drilling a massive fist into an entire line of cultists just as Megan hurled another group with her telekinesis. However, a moment later, Sportsmaster hurled a javelin at Megan, who was still visible as a blur if Cassius looked carefully. Megan avoided the spear, but it exploded beside her, hurling her. Just as it did, the behemoth punched Superboy across the room and Cassius launched himself at it, drilling a punch of his own into its face, sending it staggering backward before he drilled another fist into its face, then planted a foot solidly between its legs. It shouted in pain, dripping before Cassius grabbed it and spun, hurling it into the cultists still shooing at Aqualad, knocking most down and stunning a couple of them. Everyone ducked into cover, Kid Flash arriving just in time to kick several cultists as they stepped out to shoot Aqualad, then ducking into cover as well.
"We need to regroup," Aqualad said.
"Busy," Robin said.
Just then the behemoth leapt at them and Cassius stepped out, his armor deflecting a dozen shots as he send a massive goo fist exploding into the behemoth, launching it, then stepped back into cover again. Three bullets that had managed to break through his armor dropped to the ground and his wounds sealed, his armor regenerating instantly.
"Not bad," Kid Flash said.
"Robin, now!" Aqualad ordered.
Just then, cultists began to round the massive metal containers they were using for cover and Aqualad sent out a water whip to knock most of them out, Cassius using a goo whip to drop the rest.
"We need to retreat," Aqualad said. "Kid, clear a path!"
Kid Flash took off, dropping all of the cultists in between them and the nearest exit before Cassius formed a massive goo wall, allowing them to run behind it before retracting the goo as he followed. They made it to the mine shaft, only to turn the wrong way, before the behemoth burst out of the doors behind them, along with a group of cultists, only for Cassius's left hand to snap a goo whip against the cultists and drop them, and his right fist to explode into the behemoth's face at the same time as Superboy's left, sending him crashing backward along the tunnel. Then, they turned and sprinted after the others.
"Superboy, the support beams!" Aqualad shouted back at them. Superboy and Cassius each picked a wall and began to smash the beams as they ran.
After three each, the tunnel began to collapse. They slowed to a stop as the collapse ended. Aqualad pulled out a red light stick and cracked it, lighting up the tunnel before dropping it.
"How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" Robin asked.
"Because you're not the leader!" Cassius snapped, turning Robin away from the wall of debris and pinning him to the tunnel wall with a goo hand, pinning Kid Flash beside him. "I'm going to make this very clear! Neither of you is the leader, because neither of you is ready for it! You, Robin, are too independent, and you've only ever been taught to do things Batman's way. You don't work as a team, you take off without a word at the first chance, then tell no one what you're doing, where you are, and leave us all high and dry to deal with whatever comes up while you're off doing whatever the hell you want to! And you Kid Flash, are so wrapped up in trying to prove you're better than Robin, and trying to outdo Robin at everything in order to prove you should be the leader, that you also ran off on your own and left us high and dry twice! One of them blew our cover not five minutes into the mission, and then the next just as soon as we got into the factory where stealth was the most important! You two were so caught up in your little competition for leadership, that both of you acted like children, screwed the mission completely, abandoned the team you were supposedly trying to lead, and then got into arguments about which of you was wrong every time! The only person here who's been acting like a leader is Aqualad, so from this moment forward, he is the leader! You both will do what he says, or else you both will be leaving this island unable to walk or eat solid food for a month!"
Both swallowed hard and nodded. Cassius released them, retracting his goo.
"Then I accept the burden until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders," Aqualad said, setting a hand on Robin's shoulder. "You were born to lead this team. Maybe not now, but soon."
"Alright, our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island," Aqualad said.
"Funny," Robin said, crossing his arms. "I had the same thought."
"Let's talk about it on the move," Cassius said. "This tunnel has to let out somewhere."
The others all nodded and they turned, following the tunnel at a run.
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