Chapter 5
A/N: hey guys, welcome back to the story. Hope y'all're enoying it, I know I'm having fun writing it. Now, I don't own Young Justice or Godzilla, just my OCs.
/comms/
Telepathy/flashbacks
Mt Justice, July 22, 16:45EST
"Isla Santa Prisca," Batman began as the teens gathered around. "This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neuro-steroid. A strength-enhancing drug sold under the black-market name: Venom. Infrared heat signatures indicate that their factory is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments have been inexplicably cut off. That's where this team comes in," he turned away from the screens to look at them. "This is a covert recon mission only, observe and report. If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will. The plan requires two drop zones?"
"So who's in charge?" Robin asked.
Batman turned, sharing a look with Red Tornado. "Work that out between you." As they began to leave to get changed, the Dark Knight spoke again. "Nightmare, Aurora, Remix. You three have a different assignment."
-.-
Salt Flats, 18:22MDT
"I think apropos don't you? The Psycho-Pirate Plundering Plutonium!" a masked man in a trench coat exclaimed holding up a glowing canister.
"I swear to God these villain names are just getting worse," Remix deadpanned. "Alliteration Doofus sounds better in my opinion. Were all the good names taken?"
"Am I the only one wondering why he wants the plutonium?" Aurora muttered.
"To build a bomb!" Remix snapped.
"But that's not his M.O."
"What do you know about his M.O?"
"Am I the only one who reads the data files?!" Aurora exclaimed throwing her arms up in the air.
"Guys! This is not the time for this!" Nightmare reminded. "In case you forgot, we have them to deal with," he motioned to the workers running towards them.
"I will take one and all comers who wish to take my prize away from me! Come and face the power of the Medusa Mask!" Psycho-Pirate challenged.
"Bet he won't be so tough when we get rid of his little minions," Remix smirked cracking her knuckles.
Aurora flared out a wing, blocking her friend as she attempted to punch one man in the face. Giving a roundhouse kick, she knocked the man back into several of his comrades. "We cannot hurt them. They are merely victims under his control. His mask, he's controlling their emotions, I can feel it."
"So he's making all of them hate us?!" Nightmare exclaimed picking one worker up and hurling him into his buddies.
"Precisely," Aurora said. "You two hold them off, I'll get the plutonium." Flapping her wings, she knocked several of their attackers over as she took to the air.
"Who put her in charge?" Remix grumbled elbowing a guy in the face. As he fell to the ground unconscious, the winged girl ducked under another sloppy punch, sweeping his legs out from under him. Springing back to her feet, she waved her hand, causing a wave of fire to arch out.
"REMIX!" Nightmare shouted.
"Hey gives moment to recover," she defended motioning as they all were forced to dodge her wave of fire. "Maybe if you weren't too chicken to use your powers then we could get this done a lot quicker,"
"I don't think lightning and regular people mix well," he replied hitting someone with his tail.
"Neither do fire and regular people, but it's working," she smirked. Spreading her wings, she spun in the air, getting several satisfying slaps to the face of multiple workers, creating a ring of unconscious, slightly singed men around her.
"Surrender the plutonium," Aurora demanded as she landed in front of Psycho-Pirate.
"Well, aren't you a brave girl," Psycho chuckled. "At least, that's what you want people to think, right? You strike more as the anxious type. I wonder," his mask began to glow, "what does make you anxious?"
Amber gasped as she found herself in a dark room, her wings and hair being the only source of light. Something cold wrapped around her wrists, reaching up, her fingertips brushed the cool metal cuffs, trailing down the chains connected to a spot in the floor.
A hiss came from the far side of the room and the girl slammed her eyes shut as bright light poured in. "Bonjour mademoiselle," a familiar robotic voice greeted as the little can on wheels rolled into her cell. "Are you ready for your next test A3?"
Stifling the rising fear at what sort of pain awaited her this time, Amber nodded. There was no point in fighting back, there never was. They always won in the end. Always.
-.-
Skylar hissed as the biting cold tried to eat through her skin. She flexed her fingers, grimacing as they ached with pain from both the cold and the cuffs. A small puff of fire left her mouth, quickly dying under the freezing temperature. Pulling her wings closer, she bit her lip as the frozen tips came into contact with her warmer skin, melting off the frost that had collected on them.
God, what she wouldn't give for a bit of warmth.
"Are you ready to behave B4?" a familiar voice teased.
Glancing up, her gaze met the dark gaze of the infernal dumbass in the tux with the cat. "Are you ready to lose that stupid haircut?" she retorted.
There was a cackle, "Well, someone's a glutton for punishment." Skipping to the wall, he pulled a lever yanking her arms further behind her. "You really should learn to respect your betters girly. Oh well, maybe you'll be better tomorrow. Have sweet nightmares!"
Baring her fangs as the devil-haired moron closed the door behind him, steam left through her lips. One day, one day she'd get to burn this place to the ground.
Her keepers wanted a monster, she'd show them a monster.
After all, that's what she was.
-.-
Onyx growled, pulling at the muzzle covering his face. It was hard to breathe, the hot dry air made it almost impossible. Feeling something warm run down his cheek, the hybrid sniffed, sighing as he caught the all too familiar scent of blood.
Sitting down in the corner, he could hear the small drops of blood hitting the chains on his arms and legs. The door opened, and the familiar heavy steps of combat boots. Opening an eye, he pulled his tail closer, pressing himself to the floor as the man approached. "Why are you here A1?"
Onyx hissed, his red stripes glowing blue for a moment.
"Oh, an intimidation display?" the man chuckled. A hand grabbed the teen's hair, slamming his head against the wall. "Those only work on those who don't know how pathetic you are. So, I'll ask again," he backhanded the teen before kicking him in the gut, "Why, A1, do you insist on making me hurt you?"
-.-
18:54MDT
"Ugh, what the hell was that?" Skylar groaned rubbing her head.
"The Medusa Mask, causes its victims to experience their worst fears," Amber replied quietly.
"Lovely," she grimaced spreading her wings, stretching them. "So where did Psycho-Whatever-his-name-was go? I really need to beat the shit outta something."
Sniffing the air, Onyx looked north towards the mountains. "He went this way."
"You sure?" Sky called racing after him.
"Unless he can change the way he smells," he quipped. "Besides, I can't be the only one feeling the radiation signature?" Nodding, Remix flapped her wings, diving down and grabbing Onyx. "Hey!"
"We don't have time to wait for you to catch up on foot," she deadpanned.
"I'm not that slow!"
"Perhaps not," Amber spoke gliding beside them, "but Remix is right. It is imperative we find our target. This is a test, if we fail…well, you know what happened when we failed at the lab."
The other two went silent at her words. She had a point. Failure at the lab was never tolerated, failure meant punishment. They still didn't know how the League handled failure, they hadn't failed anything yet to deserve it. They were not about to let that happen.
Fortunately, it didn't take them long to spot the jerk who attacked them. The moron was standing in the middle of a field.
Grinning, Skylar clapped her wings, swinging Onyx, "Bomb's away!"
"What?!"
And suddenly he was falling from the sky. Nightmare's eyes widened as he fell down towards Psycho-Pirate—whom still hadn't realized anything was wrong—what he'd give for the power of flight. Being dropped from the sky was not fun.
At least he had a person to break his fall.
Flipping in the air, Nightmare's heels slammed into the villain's shoulders, slamming the man to the ground as he flipped off, landing in a crouch nearby. The plutonium canister rolled away, and tapped into the boot of someone else.
Turning, Nightmare bared his fangs as he saw, well, a zombie for lack of a better term.
"Atomic Skull," Aurora supplied as she landed next to him.
"Ok, that name's actually cool," Remix shrugged grabbing Psycho. Lifting him off the ground, she punched the man in the face, breaking his mask.
"Stop focusing on names! This guy is bad news!" Aurora remembered.
"Yeah, he absorbs radiation and uses it like we do, we get it: bad guy," Nightmare grumbled.
Atomic's eyes began to glow and he fired at them, forcing them to dodge. Remix flew up, throwing out her arms sending two long waves of fire towards him. Skull rolled out of the way, his head beginning to glow as he looked up to the flying girl.
His blast was thrown off as something slammed into him. Nightmare bared his fangs landing on top of the supervillain. The hybrid managed to land a punch to the face, and Skull grabbed his arm as he attempted to throw his second punch. Nightmare was thrown over Skull, landing on the ground on his back.
Their opponent scrambled back to his feet, ready to attack again. He forgot about the third member of their party. Aurora tackled Atomic Skull from the back. Atomic Skull used radiation, so, theoretically, she should be able to take it, leaving him powerless.
Yellow light began to come from Skull's eyes. He began to struggle, feeling the energy being pulled out of him. It didn't feel natural, like something was being forcefully removed from him. Bright light surrounded them as Aurora began to glow brighter, nearly blinding the villain and her teammates.
Amber stood up, folding her wings behind her. Atomic Skull lied motionless on the ground, gasping weakly.
"Well, am I the only one who thought that was too easy?" Onyx asked picking up the plutonium canister.
"Who cares, we won!" Remix cheered.
"You nearly started a wildfire!"
"Fire's good for the environment, rejuvenates the soil."
"And too much fire is bad!" he argued.
"Eh, nothing bad happened, we got the bad guys and the stolen goods, I call it a win," Remix shrugged. "Speaking of which, I'll take the plutonium back, you get the bad guys tied up, and Aurora…please stop blinding everyone."
Amber shrugged sheepishly. "No promises. I do not know how."
"Wonderful."
"Well hey," Onyx smiled trying to be optimistic, "if our mission was this easy, I bet the others will be back before we know it."
-.-
Caribbean Sea, 20:08ECT
"We're approaching Santa Prisca," Miss Martian said breaking the silence that had settled in the Bioship as they made their way to their mission. "Drop zone A in thirty."
At her words, Aqualad stood up. Tapping the symbol on his belt, the red uniform changed to grey and black. "Ready."
"Putting Bioship into camouflage mode."
Descending towards the water, a hole opened up in the floor, allowing Aqualand to dive through. A soft splash could be heard as he landed and began swimming to shore. /Heat and motion sensors are patched. Data's now on a continuous loop. Move in/
Nodding, M'gann flew the ship towards the island. "Drop zone B," she announced as they all stood up. Stretching her arm out, several hooks descended from the ceiling. Once they were clipped in, Wally tapped his symbol, admiring the change in his uniform. "How cool is this?"
"Very impressive," M'gann smiled. Raising her arms, her uniform began to change, white replaced by black and red and blue replaced by darker versions as a hood formed on her shoulders.
Wally laughed nervously, her transformation was a lot more impressive. "That works too. Hey Supey, not too late to try on the new stealth tech."
"No capes, no tights, no offense," Superboy replied crossing his arms.
"It totally works for you," M'gann said causing Superboy to look at her. "In that you can totally do good work in those clothes." Blushing, she pulled up her hood, fading from sight. Like earlier, a hole opened in the floor, allowing them to jump through and descend to the ground. The Martian girl landed first, lowering her hood as Robin and Kid Flash landed beside her.
Looking up, their eyes widened as they dove out of the way as Superboy jumped. He made impact with the ground, dust rising in his wake. "Knew I didn't need a line," he smirked.
"And yet creating a seismic event might not helped much with the covert," Robin snapped.
"Aqualad, Drop B is go," Miss M informed.
/Make for the factory. I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP/
"Roger that," Robin said typing on his holo-glove. Setting the coordinates, the Boy Wonder took the lead making sure to check regularly for mines in their path.
The jungle was mostly quiet save for the sounds of animal life moving through the brush. However, the sounds of twigs snapping made Superboy stop. Closing his eyes, he listened closer. It could have been an animal, but there wasn't any reason to take a chance. Hearing another snap he opened his eyes looking around. "Did you hear that?"
"Uh, no," Kid Flash muttered. "Wait, is this a super-hearing thing?"
"You do have great ears," M'gann smiled.
Ignoring the fact that the Martian seemed to be flirting with the Kryptonian, Wally turned back to Robin. "Ok Rob, now what?" he asked. He blinked once, before facepalming; Robin was gone. "Man I hate it when he does that!"
/Superboy, Kid, switch to infrared, see if you're being tracked!/ Aqualad ordered.
Following his suggestion, Superboy blinked switching to thermal vision. Through the brush he could make out a group moving through it, "Got a squad of armed bogies incoming."
Putting one his goggles, Kid Flash activated them, confirming Superboy's catch before panning and spotting another group. "Two squads. But they'll meet each other before they run into us."
It was a moment later that the sound of gunfire ripped through the forest.
"Well, guess we don't need stealth to figure out what's going on now," the speedster deadpanned.
/Swing wide, steer clear!/
"Yeah, yeah, just as soon as I find Rob!" KF protested pushing some massive leaves aside as he tried to find the Boy Wonder. Breaking into a sprint, he began to do a fast search of the jungle, trying to quickly find his missing teammate before one of the fighting groups found a victor.
Unfortunately, luck did not appear to be on his side. The speedster failed to see a raised root ahead of him as he ran, and, thus, tripped over it. Tumbling head over heels down a muddy slope.
When he came to a stop, Wally couldn't help but notice that the sound of gunfire had stopped. Wiping the mud from his eyes, the redhead gulped as he saw what appeared to be a masked wrestler with a gun and lackeys glaring at him. "So much for the stealthy."
It took the groups a moment to recover, and, for the time being, it appeared, they put aside their rivaly to attack him. Seeing them raise their weapons, KF moved out of the way as they opened fired, a hail of bullets impacting the ground where he'd once been.
Hearing the commotion, Superboy burst from the brush, slamming into the masked wrestler.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" a familiar voice exclaimed, and the speedster turned to see the Boy Wonder kick a guy out of the way before knocking a few other dudes back. "WHY DIDN'T YOU FALLOW MY LEAD? VANISH INTO THE JUNGLE?!"
"Oh that was your plan?! We're not mind readers you know!" Wally snapped hurling a bad guy over his shoulder. Several men flew past him into a tree as Miss M reappeared. "Or, well, I'm not."
"You said I could only read the bad guys minds," she reminded.
One lone member scrambled to his feet in an effort to run away, however, he didn't get far before Aqualad appeared, intercepting him. His palm landed on the man's chest and his tattoos flashed. Electricity coursed down his arm, singing the man's clothes before he fell to the ground unconscious.
"I know these uniforms," Robin remarked as he watched the others drag the men over and tie them against a tree, "they belong to the Cult of the Cobra."
"I'm sure Batman would've warned us if a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's venom operation," Aqualad frowned.
Robin snickered. "Please, I bet they came and boot these guys out," he motioned to the other group, "that's why usual supply lines have been cut off."
"We get it," Wally groaned, "Kobra wanted super-cultists, let's just radio Bats and get home."
"These cultists aren't on Venom!" Robin snapped. "Kobra's hoarding this stuff. We can't leave, not till I know why."
"Till you know why?" KF hissed.
"This team needs a leader!"
"And it's you? Dude, you're a thirteen-year-old kid, who ducked out on us without a word!"
"And you're a mature fifteen? You blew our cover first chance you got!"
As the two argued, Miss Martian turned to Superboy, "Don't you wanna lead?"
He shook his head. "You?"
M'gann groaned, "After the Mister Twister fiasco?"
"You did alright," he reassured. Tilting his head, he picked up the sound of whispering."
"Miralos discutir. Liberate mientras estan distraidos," one of them whispered.
"Callate!" the el luchador snapped. "Por ahora voy a seguir el juego. Me daran lo que necesito."
Superboy smirked. He may have not understood what they were saying, but it didn't take a genius to figure out they were planning a way to escape.
"You don't even have superpowers!" Wally snapped.
"Neither does Batman!"
"Duh! You're not Batman!"
"Closest thing we got!"
Laughter from the tree interrupted the argument, and all heads turned to the masked wrestler. "Such clever ninos. But you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance."
Narrowing her eyes, Miss Martian stepped forwards kneeling in front of him. "There is a secret entrance, but he's also hiding something…"
As her eyes began to glow, he started chuckling, "Na uh, uh chica. Bane is not that easy."
"Ugh! He's mentally reciting football scores, in Espanola," she huffed, "this could take a while."
"It's not complicated, the enemy of my enemy is my friend," he smirked.
Looking at each other, Robin grit his teeth, stepping forwards and cutting Bane loose. "Fine."
-.-
"Look at all that product," Kid Flash whistled as the team crouched on a cliff overlooking the factory.
"A buy is going down," Robin agreed, but if Kobra's not selling to the usual suspects then…"
"We need to identify that buyer," Aqualad concluded.
Removing his goggles, the speedster nodded. "Just what I was thinking."
"Yeah," Robin snickered, "You're the thinker."
"Sarcasm? Really dude? A real leader would be focused on getting answers."
Bane split from the group, walking towards a large boulder. Lifting it off the ground, he hurled it off into the bushes. "Answers, are this way," he stated wiping his hands and pointing down the newly revealed tunnel.
"So now el luchador is our leader," Kid Flash scoffed before yelping as Robin punched his arm.
Following him down the dimly lit tunnel, he stopped by a wall and pushed. The wall began sliding out, creaking open to reveal a door into the main factory chamber. Robin crouched under the large drug dealer, peering out and moving.
Bane peered out, looking around in confusion as he failed to find the boy. "Has that little fool already been caught?!"
"No, he just does that."
"Stay here, I'll be back with the intel and be back before the Boy Wonder," Wally grinned putting his goggles on and slipping past Bane as his teammates protested. A split second later there was a blur of yellow and he was gone.
"Great chain of command," Bane huffed.
Up on the next floor, Robin shoved an unconscious cultist out of his chair and onto the floor. Taking over his seat, he began typing on the computers. A breeze came through and he didn't even have to turn to know that Wally had finally caught up.
"What'cha got?"
"Chemical formulas," Robin answered. "I'm guessing it involves venom but…" he pulled up the chemical structure, letting his friend look at it.
"This one's venom," Wally recognized the first one, "and this one is…whoa, it's the Blockbuster formula from Cadmus. Combining the two makes the new formula three times stronger than venom, and permanent. How the hell did Kobra get access to Project Blockbuster?"
"Which means our mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier," Robin deduced, "using it to create a Blockbuster-Venom super formula." Downloading the information, the Boy Wonder reached up for his comm, "Robin to Aqualad we got…damn! Static."
"Well, that's not good."
"No shit!"
Down below, the rest of the team plus their new ally crouched behind a set of crates. Peering over, they watched as a cart moved between two spots of crates. "It's a massive shipment," Kaldur murmured.
"Yeah, but they're only taking new product," Superboy pointed out, "They're not touching this stuff?"
"Maybe freshness counts?" M'gann suggested.
"Helicopter's coming," Superboy informed.
Going silent, the group watched as the chopper approached. The helicopter began to descend to the ground, its blades slowing down as the side door slid open. Two figures jumped out landing on the ground.
Going into camouflage mode, M'gann flew out over to get a closer look. "Lord Kobra."
"Sportsmaster. This shipment is ready," the cult leader motioned Shimmer. The girl stepped forwards, holding out a case and opening it.
The assassin picked up a dark blue vial, "The new Kobra Venom?"
"A complete success," Kobra said motioning to the grotesque monster with ripped flesh by his side. "Our new friends will not be disappointed."
Sportsmaster chuckled tossing the vial in the air and catching it, "Finally, we can go mono-eh-mono against the Justice League."
"Aqualad, sending you a telepathic image of the buyers now."
The team's eyes widened as the pair came into view. The first one was a dark-skinned boy with smoky-black hair and grey armor like plates on his arms and tail which curved up into the familiar pointed tip of a scorpion. The second figure, was a much more familiar face.
"Sportsmaster? He is the buyer?" Aqualad hissed through his teeth. This was bad, very bad. "Aqualad to Justice League, do you read?" After nothing but static, the Atlantean slammed his fist in his palm, trying to contain his frustration. "Can't reach the League, Rob, or Kid. Comm's jammed. We need a plan."
"I have a suggestion," Bane smirked. With a battle cry, he leapt out of their hiding spot and attacked two cultists.