Chapter Four: Recon Surprises
Off the coast of Africa:
Islands of Cape Verde, Santo Antão
The night breeze played with Tim's hair as he sat in a tree, waiting for Kaldur's Drake, more commonly known as Robin, and his team had been waiting for over half an hour, with no sign of their target.
They were in a deserted part of Santo Antão, surrounded by greenery and lush. Only the light of the moon illuminating their surroundings.
When Batman had learned of Bane's whereabouts, he said that Bane was commercing some sort of weapons to an unknown buyer, and that they were preparing to move the products to a safer location.
Bane was a drug-weapon, or other illegal products-dealer who used a strength-enhancing steroid known as "Venom" to increase his strength and body mass, and had dealings with The Light previously.
Batman had sent the more experienced young heroes on this mission to find out who and where Bane was meeting with his employer. He was unable to send a Leaguer to help them, but Tim knew that Batman knew they didn't need one. After the Reach invasion, the Justice League and the Young Justice team started working side by side, but the YJ team was still the JLA's covert secret team after all.
Miss Martian's voice rang in his head, snapping him out of his thoughts.
'Is everyone in position?'
'Affirmative, Superboy, do you sense our enemy?' Kaldur asked through the physic link Ms. Martian linked up.
'I can hear them now, It's Bane and a few of his men.' Connor-Superboy-answered.
'Define a few.' Karen, otherwise known as Bumblebee, wanted to know.
'Twenty I think, something like that.' Came the nonchalant reply.
'SB, that ain't a few, kiddo.' Karen said.
'Kaldur, when should we attack?' Barbra, the Batgirl, asked.
'On my signal.'
Tim listened as his teammates continued to have a psychic conversation in his head.
His team consisted of Aqualad-their leader, Superboy, Ms. Martian, also known by her martian name Ma'gaan, Batgirl, Bumblebee, and himself. They were all well composed, and everyone got along. Tim was, in a way, glad Bart hadn't come, that kid knew how to go overboard sometimes, though he did like him.
Not only Bart, but also La'gaan. After he and Ma'gaan had their break up, things were a little … awkward between the two of them, not to mention tense between him and SB. Connor and Ma'gaan were… sorta, kinda back together, but it wasn't really official. And since Tim had become really good friends with Connor, he was voting for SuperMartian.
After Dick had left the team, Tim hadn't seen his older brother for months, leaving him to lead without Nightwing's guidance. Not long after, Conner had started hanging out with him more often during the many team ups and missions, and they had quickly become friends. Tim let out a tired sigh and shifted his position. Not sleeping two nights in a row was doing wonders for him.
Gradually, he heard men laughing and speaking in Spanish, instantly sending him out of his thoughts and ready for the attack. When they came into his line of sight, he saw they were all wearing cargo pants, boots, tank tops and gloves, or something like it. But their leader was what caught Tim's attention.
A large Hispanic man with tubes running from his hands to his back marched along the path below. As Bane passed, Tim quietly followed behind from the trees, letting Kaldur know.
When Bane and his group of men stopped at a clearing, the Boy Wonder noticed a warehouse a few feet away from where they were.
Tim shifted his weight, preparing to jump from the branch he was on, but the moment he shifted, he heard a crack, and out of instinct that had been trained and perfected, made Tim jump, flipping in the air and landing without a fault.
'Shit!' Tim cursed silently in his mind.
'Robin, what happened? Are you alright?' Kaldur asked, an urgency in his voice. As Tim ducked out of the light and back into the shadows.
'Yeah, I'm fine. The stupid tree branch I was on just snapped, probably because it was dead and rotting.' He deducted, a tinge of anger and annoyance accenting his voice. He honestly shouldn't have pulled a double all-nighter again. He was losing his touch, and that meant mistakes. And mistakes got people killed.
Unfortunately, as agile as Tim was, Bane had heard the noise, and scanned the area. If he hadn't been looking, he would've missed the figures in the trees.
Seeing that they're cover was blown, Kaldur jumped from the tree he was in, to the forest floor in front of Bane.
Bane looked over and cocked his head at Kaldur. "If it isn't de Justice League's sidekicks." He snarled through a thick Spanish accent, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"We are not sidekicks." Kaldur affirmed with a stance of defiance and confidence, as he jumped from the tree.
It had been six years since his last encounter with this man. He had learned much since then, working with JLA and saving the world countless times.
'Change of plans, we attack them head on. Stall them, we wait for their partner.' A round of 'okay' and 'got it' went around in Tim's head, he silently chided himself for not examining the branch he'd landed on.
Bane laughed and took a step forward, turning the knob on his glove. The red tube glowed as the Venom liquid passed through. The already-big-man started grunting as the steroid took effect, making his shoulders, arms, legs and neck grow twice their size. When the transformation was finished, he cracked his neck, and knuckles, in the signature way he always did.
Tim let out an exaggerated sigh, but shook it off as Connor gave him a pat on the back. A movement from Bane snapped them back to attention. The big man looked like he was about to make some sort of smart remark, but was cut short.
One thing Conner was not expecting was a boom tube. He genuinely thought that throughout his life filled with the strange encounter, things could get any weirder. He didn't realize how wrong he was.
The boom tube had opened in the space between the YJ team and Bane's group. Before the portal disappeared, it deposited eight teenagers-young adults-screaming- in the middle of the clearing, leaving everyone, including the new arrivals, shocked.
"This should be interesting." Bane said with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah-ha-ha-ow!" One of the newcomers sat up, his friends following. Then he looked around, the mask he was wearing wrinkled, as if he was giving a sheepish smile. "Eh-heh. Don't mind us, we didn't mean to interrupt."
Apparently, Bane thought overwise, and charged straight towards the guy with a loud cry. "No one trespasses Bane's territory!"
"Or not!" the guy called, jumping from his place on the ground.
A second person stood up and moaned. "Why does this always happen on our day off?"
Last thing Peter was expecting was to be thrown into the middle of battle. Well, he honestly should've been, after his past experiences with the Goblin universe hopping and collecting his- the other Spider-man's blood to make him stronger-Peter decided not to think about it.
After they jumped in the portal, Taskmaster, Beetle and Loki had disappeared, leaving them following an unknown path to places that the young adult was sure he didn't want to experience.
That left Peter, Sam, Danny, Luke, Ava, MJ, Flash and Amadeus screaming right in the middle of two groups ready for a throw down.
Peter took a few seconds to look around, analyzing each group, and their leader looked like some weird clown guy, with a tube attached to the back of his neck.
One group were Hispanic looking men, with sketchy looking clothes and boxes, with firearms and other weapons in their hands or hidden someplace on their body.
The other group wore costumes that reminded Peter of a Halloween party. But he couldn't really say anything, considering his own teammates' costumes.
The leader, he supposed, had black skin and white hair, and he wore red and black and held two stick type things, which Peter was unsure of the use of.
Floating in the air above was a green-skinned girl in a black skin tight suit with an 'X' wrapping around her chest, and a blue knee-length cape.
The person next to him was in more casual attire, wearing cargo pants, combat boots, and a black shirt with an 'S' symbol on the front. His intense blue eyes stared back in surprise through a strand of black hair.
Crouching next to him was younger than the first two, with black and red skin tight suit, a utility belt, domino mask, and bow staff. An 'R' symbol was placed over his right breast, and Peter had the feeling his name started with R.
A girl not far from the leader wore the same material as 'R' boy, but she was in black with a bat-like symbol on her chest, and a cowl that revealed her blue eyes and red hair. Definitely Batgirl or something like that. Peter thought as he stared at the ears at the top of her cowl.
The last person, her brown eyes wide with surprise, was a black girl in a yellow and black bumblebee costume. Her goggles had two stick thingies, which Peter assumed were supposed to be antennas.
After a moment of analyzing each group, and the other groups analyzing them, Peter made a remark-as per usual-and the Macho Macho big guy attacked. As per usual-and really, couldn't they have thrown them a 'welcome-to-our-strange-universe' party instead? -and that's why Peter was thrown against a tree. As per usual. Though usually it was a wall.
The other two groups had converged in battle when Macho Macho attacked. The bee girl shrunk, to Peter's surprise, and again he wondered why anything surprised him.
Is this the world's Ant-wasp-Bee… girl?
The green girl took off the ground, levitating, or flying, in the air. Her eyes turned a glowing green, and she spread her hands out, the boxes of Macho's men seemed to lose gravity, left suspended in the air, then shot for the Hispanic men.
While that happened, Peter's team dodged out of the way, as the water from the pond behind them glowed blue, and shot forward towards Macho. Peter saw that the Leader of the second group used the two stick-handle things, the bottom of the handles glowed the same blue as the water, and Peter understood that he was manipulating the pond's water. All the while the other members of that team ran and attacked the Hispanic men without so much as a look thrown their way.
"Not how I imagine things to go… But oh well." Peter said aloud to himself.
"Does anything you imagine ever happen?" Luke asked, turning toward his friend.
"Uh…"
"Didn't think so." Ava added, ducking out of the way from one of the Hispanic guys attack, a growl sounding from her throat. Ava uppercut the guy in the chin, then elbowed him in the stomach. She grabbed his shirt and flipped him over leaving him unconscious.
"Hey, my plans have gotten you outta trouble more than once."
Ava looked like she was going to respond to Peter's remark, but was slammed to the ground by 'S' Boy.
"Ouch!" Ava exclaimed, a tinge of annoyance in her voice, pushing the dude off of her and flipping over back on her feet. Cats always did land on their feet.
The guy looked over his shoulder, caution, curiosity and other thoughts seeming to show in his blue eyes. "Who are you?" He asked cautiously, shooting an apologetic nod at Ava.
Peter wasn't offended. If some group of random strangers appeared out of the blue, he probably would be suspicious too.
"We're… Uh…" Amadeus, who had been next to Peter, glanced at him unsure of what to respond with.
"We're good guys." Peter nodded, as well as shrugged. Seemed like a reasonable thing to say.
The dude gave him a skeptical look, unsure how to respond to that. His eyes flickering over Batgirl and the green lady were attacking the Macho man, as the water-dude recovered from a blow from Macho man.
"Soooo…Which side are the bad guys?"
"Can't you tell? The ones trying to kill us." He nodded with his chin towards the Macho Macho group.
"How do we know you guys aren't?" MJ questioned, dodging a bullet.
S boy raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't we have attacked you before? Also, they're the ones with guns."
MJ paused, looking around at the men who had pulled guns out and started shooting not a second ago. "I see your point."
Peter moved out of the way from an oncoming man-who was flying through the air. The tattooed guy turned around and did the same thing to another guy who had tried to ambush him.
On the other side of the clearing, the bee girl, and the guy with the bow staff were fighting the Macho man, as the green girl fought more of Macho's men.
A tingling sensation around Peter's head warned him of danger. A feeling that had saved his butt more than once, and clearly was about to once again.
"Spidey Sense!" he exclaimed, shoving himself and the 'S' boy out of the way right as the ground they were standing on exploded.
"What was that?" The guy grunted from where he lay on the ground, quick to get to his feet.
Without a second's hesitation, Sam jumped to action, the sound of his takeoff was heard as he neared the man who'd shot at his friend and the 'S' dude. With one smooth move, he fired the opponent with a cosmic ray, and slammed an elbow to the back of his neck, the man crumbling unconscious.
"So, what's your name?" Sam asked, facing the stranger. He hadn't attacked them, and by the looks of it, was trying to determine who they were, and what their objective was.
The guy answered, but Sam could tell he was on guard. "Superboy. That's Aqualad, Ms. Martian, Bumblebee, Robin, and Batgirl." He indicated his teammates with a wave of his hand.
"I knew it was bat-girl." Peter mumbled to himself, proud of his detective work.
"Who are you guys?" Superboy asked for the third time.
"Well, that's a long story. It's kind-" as Ava began to explain, the sound of a grenade going off cut her short, the group of heroes immediately whipping around towards the action.
"Act now, talk later!" Luke sent one of the offenders flying, and he hit the tree, a few more Hispanic guys charging in.
Superboy intercepted another, exchanging a few blows before Amadaues fired at the burly attacker, forcing him to his knees before one last punch knocked him down.
Danny dodged a bullet and ducked a flying object before standing next to Superboy. "Who is the one leading his charge?"
"That guy!" the blue-eyed man pointed to a huge figure at the other side of the field. "His name is Bane, he's the leader. If we take him out, then the rest of them are a piece of cake."
"So take the leader and the rest fall apart? Got it." Amadeus crossed his arms over his chest and nodded, hardly caring that one of the passed-out men had woken, attacking him again.
"Man, he sure is the bane of that group." Peter grinned from under his mask.
Superboy let a small smile fall on his lips as Peter's team groaned.
"Hilarious." Luke deadpanned.
"Good thing Scarlet's not here, otherwise we'd never hear the end of his complaints 'about your jokes Spidey." Ava sighed.
"I thought it was pretty funny." Superboy put in.
"It gets old when you've been hearing them for four years." Luke moaned.
Superboy nodded and chuckled. "Follow me, it looks like the others need help."
But Amadeus, Danny, Flash, and MJ had already joined the fight. They'd been held by some of Bane's men, and occupied by them, allowing the others to jump over the debacle and head for the leader. Peter jumped and swung from a web across the trees freely, surveying the threat before honing in on the fight between a few of Superboys friends and Bane.
"And once again, the big baddie's going down!"
'Superboy, where are you?' Miss Martian asked through the mind link.
'Checking out the newcomers, I don't think they're Bane's partners. Don't seem to know who he is.' Superboy responded.
'Who are-ah!-they?' Barbara asked, right as Bane jumped at her, she dodged and threw stunt bombs at his feet before rejoining with Karen. On his side, Kaldur dodged an attack from one of Bane's men, slaming a knee into his pelvis.
'I didn't think that they knew each other, Bane looked pretty surprised.' Robin added in Kaldur's mind.
'Well he did attack them, they also looked just as confused as we were.' Karen noted.
'We will have to look into this more, for now, our main objective is to neutralize Bane. Superboy, stay with them, make sure they do not leave.' Kaldur instructed.
Bane grabbed at Batgirl, who jumped out of reach and did a high side kick to his chin. It didn't do much, but he stepped back, rubbing his jaw.
"You ninos have gotten better since we saw each other last." The big man chuckled; his thick Spanish accent noticeable.
"Who are you calling ninos?" Karen remarked, zapping him with her rays, she doubled back and repeated the action.
Bane growled, and swiped at her
"Batgirl, left hand maneuver takedown, Bumblebee, you and I will distract him. On my mark…" Kaldur stepped back as Bane slammed his fist down on the ground in front of him.
"Ready, and, go-!" Kaldur raised his Water Bearers, forming a spike ball.
But before he and his teammates could take action, a shadow covered Kaldur's face, and when he looked up, he saw a person dressed in a red and blue body suit, with web designs all over, and a black spider symbol on his chest. A full head mask with white screens covering his eyes concealed his face, the stranger not one he recognized. And did he swing from…a web?
"You know what my favorite part of jokes are?" The man said as he flipped in the air, releasing his hold on the web-string.
As Bane looked up in confusion, his eyes widened, "THE 'PUNCH' LINES!" He saw the web-man's fist slam into his face, knocking him out with one blow. The young man snickered as he stepped away from the dealer, proud of his handiwork.
"Um...what?" Karen asked, confused at both his joke and the attack. It certainly shouldn't have been that easy to take down bane.
"Webs, It's so not funny anymore." A second stranger appeared, arms crossed over his chest, mouth pulled in a grimace.
Though the second newcomer wore a black helmet with a red four legged star on the front with glowing white concealing his eyes, Kaldur could guess he had an annoyed look in his eyes.
Superboy appeared next to him, carrying a pile of unconscious men, webbed around their torso. "C'mon, that was pretty good."
"No, it was lame." Said a girl wearing a white tiger-like suit, with a green tiger head medallion attached to her hip.
"Thank you, but who are you?" Kaldur decided to ask, his curiosity increasing by the second. Who were these people and where did they come from? They can't be aliens, and yet...
"Hmm, do you really not know me? I mean, I'm sure someone must've, there's no way JJJ's mouth hasn't reached here. Where ever here is." The person in red and blue placed a hand on his chin, thinking. "I wonder how this world's Spider-Man deals with him… I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and this is my team." He pointed to himself before indicating his team behind him, and by the scrunching of the mask, Kaldur could only assume he was grinning.
"No, we have not heard of you, but I am Aqualad, and I lead this team." Kaldur responded. He offered his hand and Spider-Man took it without hesitation.
"Well the name explains the hydrokinesis." An armored male appeared next to Spider-Man, in a gold and red armored suit. "I'm Iron-Spider."
"I sense a spider vibe going on, are you two spider… people… too?" Batgirl asked two other newcomers, indicating who she was talking about.
One of them was dressed in black, with a utility belt, and a white spider sign on his chest contrasting with his black suit. The other was a girl, she wore an elaborate black and red suit-again with a full head mask and red screened eyes-with an intricate looking red spider sign on her chest.
"Yup, I'm Venom, and she's Spider-Woman." Venom nodded, proudly announcing.
"Venom?" Robin asked, exchanging a look with Kaldur.
"Yeah man!" Venom responded.
"Why Venom?" Batgirl asked, immediately suspicious. "Like why that name?"
"Long story, basically the suit thing he's wearing, not to mention Spider-Woman's, was-is a symbiotes creation which bonded to their bodies." Spider-Man explained bluntly, not even pretending to hide this information.
Kaldur shared another look, but didn't press further. For now.
Karen grew from her bee-size, receiving a 'whoa' from one of the other teammates of Spider-Man.
"...Interesting... sym..biotes?" Karen asked, ignoring the surprised reactions. Kaldur could hear the curiosity behind her question, her interest in the subject growing.
"It's...complicated." Spider-Man replied with a knowing sigh. "The symbiotes were created by Doc Ock-and well," he waved at the two mentioned before and shrugged. "it's a long story."
Ms. Martian, who had been collecting a pile of unconscious men while listening looked up confused, eyes darting to her fellow teammates. "Who's Doc Ock?"
The other team exchanged looks. "Here's the thing," Spider-Man replied. "We're from another universe."
