Chapter 9
A/N: Hey everyone, welcome back! Good to see y'all again, thanks for all the reviews! Hope y'all're enjoying the story so far. So, my semester is starting up in a few days, so expect updates to be a little more sporadic.
Anyways, here's what you're here for, the next chapter!
/comms/
Telepathy/flashbacks
Mt. Justice, August 13, 15:28EDT
"When your mission relies on subterfuge, resist the urge to go on the offensive. The last thing you want to risk is exposing yourself and the team because a covert operation means keeping to the shadows. Concealing your identities, infiltrating your targets is important; which means you'll have to do advance research, study, and long hours on stakeout. And, of course, you must always remain alert…" looking back to the group of teens, Captain Atom trailed off. Out of all of them, Amber was the only one paying attention. Superboy and Aqualad were dozing off, it looked like Miss Martian was daydreaming, Artemis and Remix were doing something with folding paper and flicking it at each other, and Robin, Kid Flash, and Nightmare were playing what looked to be a very intense game of rock, paper, scissors. "This is boring isn't it?"
"No!" Amber said her large wings twitching. "This is—"
"It's boring," Superboy interrupted yawning again.
"Superboy!" Amber scolded. "Cap, I'm sure he didn't mean it."
He raised a hand, silencing his protégé, "It's all right Amber. How about we do something else about this?" He turned to the screen and pulled up a file as they all watched curiously, "This is a cold case, Vietnam era. Captain Nathaniel Adams, US Air Force; convicted in 1968 for murdering his commanding officer General Clement Lemar. Adams died in prison, but I've received reliable intel that he was framed," he explained. "Your assignment is to investigate this claim. Prove his innocence or reaffirm his guilt and report back to me."
Amber raised her hand, "Are you sure, sir?"
"Yes, Aurora, I think this will be a good way to put what you've learned into action."
Superboy crossed his arms, raising a brow in disbelief. "Really? You need superpowered operatives for this?" he scoffed.
Captain Atom crossed his arms challengingly, "I could go back to the lecture?"
"NO!"
-.-
Washington D.C. 23:03EDT
"Entering Pentagon now," M'gann informed as she flew inside the building. Ducking into a bathroom, she decamouflaged and morphed into the form of an unassuming Pentagon officer. "Coast is clear."
Walking out of the bathroom, she strode down the hall towards a door. With a spot rap on the door, she stepped into an office, raising her arm into a salute. "General Eiling, Sir!"
"At ease Captain, sit," the general spoke. "Now, explain to me why the judge advocate general's office is reopening this case?"
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to do that sir," she answered taking a seat. "You were the judge at Adams' court martial. Which makes you a potential witness—"
"Witness?" he interrupted. "To what? The Adams case was open and shut."
"Why don't you just tell me what you remember general?" M'gann prodded glancing behind the General to the vent. Just through the grate, she could make out a small camera from where she sat. On the other side of the grate, Robin opened the feed, watching the interview.
"Fine. Captain Nate Adams was your classic malcontent. We were barely acquainted before the incident. In fact, I was better acquainted with his victim. Adams blamed Lemar for a Viet Cong ambush; as if any officer would intentionally get his own men killed. But Adams wouldn't listen to reason. He was caught in the act by an M.P. Sargant Polk, I think his name was. I was a colonel when I drew the case. I found Adams guilty and sentenced him to life in prison," the old general scoffed, "Turned out to be a short sentence. Adams took his own life before a year was out…"
-.-
Las Vegas, 20:12PDT
"So…a casino?" Amber asked as she, Superboy, and Wally strode up the steps to the brightly lit building.
"It is Vegas angel," Wally smirked. "You know, you could take that charm off, here no one would think twice."
"I'm good," she waved off as they stepped inside. Blinking the girl stared, it was loud. There were people either screaming or cheering, she couldn't tell. And all the flashing lights were going to give her a headache.
Superboy seemed to spot something and he started towards one of the tables. "Lieutenant Yarrow?"
"No, the man grumbled swirling his drink. "Retired the uniform and the title. Now I'm just Mr. Yarrow. But you can call me Henry. Hit me." The dealer nodded, sliding a card over, Yarrow flipped in and cursed under his breath, "Twenty-two, bust."
"Sir, on one under twenty-one is allowed in the casino," the dealer spoke. "You are under twenty-one?"
"In weeks or months?" Conner quipped causing the others to snicker.
"Cute," the man snickered. "You must be the journalism students. C'mon, my luck's run out anyways. Let's find a place to talk."
The group walked over to a booth, sitting down as Wally ran off to get food. Coming back a few minutes later, they could see the redhead had a huge grin on his face. "Four-ninety-five all-you-can-eat buffet! My kind of town!"
"So you were Adams's defense counsel?" Amber asked.
"His friend too," Henry spoke. "We served together in 'Nam. The only survivors of Hill four-o-nine. Nate worked Air Force intelligence. He suspected a weapons smuggling ring and confided as much to General Lemar."
"So how does that lead to him being accused of murder?" Wally asked between bites.
"Lemar claimed to hear about the rumors too. He ordered Nate to take a squad to Hill Four-o-nine. It was an ambush," Henry continued looking down and fiddling with the ring on his finger, "Nate saved my life. The rest of Nate's men weren't so lucky. Afterwards, Nate became convinced that Lemar was part of the smuggling ring and sent us into the ambush. I tried to talk him out it…"
"Out of what?"
The former Lieutenant sighed, "Nate was insistent on confronting Lemar. But, he blacked out a moment later. Afterwards he'd claim to be drugged and I believed him, 'cuz there's no way the Nate Adams I knew would murder a man in cold blood. I took on Nate's defense, but the prosecutor, Lieutenant Kevin Blankly proved Nate's service knife was the murder weapon. And the medical examiner, Major Shirley Mason, testified there were no drugs in Nate's system. So, as a result, the judge found Nate guilty and sentenced him to life in prison," he slammed his fist on the table, making Wally and Amber jump, "and that's where Nate died! But, get this, that judge, Colonel Wade Eiling, he married Nate's widow and raised Nate's two kids as his own! Don't tell me that doesn't stink to high heaven?!"
-.-
Arlington, 23:57EDT
"Hey guys, what's the word?" Onyx greeted.
/So get this, turns out Adams' buddy believed he was drugged and framed to commit the murder/ Amber informed. /But here's the thing, the medical examiner said there were no drugs in his system/
"That's weird."
"Yeah," Robin agreed pulling up a map, "If Adams was framed, looks like the place to start would be the medical examiner Shirley Mason."
"Where can we find her?" Miss M asked.
Closing the map, the Boy Wonder ran forwards, causing his two teammates to chase after him over the rooftops. They came to a window and the Martian used her telekinesis to open it.
Almost immediately, Onyx began growling. He knew that scent, he knew it all too well. This place had the scent of death.
Forcing his way in first, the hybrid crawled over the couch, sniffing the air to follow the scent. It didn't take long for his gaze to land on the body just a few feet in front of him.
"What is it?" Robin asked climbing in before he spotted his teammate crouching by a body. "Oh…looks like the medical examiner needs a medical examiner," he hopped down, crouching beside the body, "she has something in her hand. I don't wanna disturb the crime scene, but we need to see what it is."
"Need to see—OMG!" M'gann gasped covering her mouth with her hands.
"M'gann, get whelmed," Onyx hissed. "Work now, panic after."
The redheaded girl nodded shakily raising her hand, "How's this?"
The body levitated off the floor, and the trio could see the picture frame held in her hands. "Perfect. Looks like this photo was taken in the sixties," he grumbled looking over the image, "this might be her, but the sixties were a while ago…"
"They don't have to be," M'gann piped up. She stood up, shifting her form into the image of the woman, "Here's the woman in the picture," she aged herself, "and here's the woman on the floor. They have the same musculo-skeletal structure. She's definitely the woman in the picture."
"Guess that answers that question," Onyx muttered.
Robin began typing on his glove-screen, "I'll run facial recognition software on the rest. It could take a while. But I should be able to generate a list of names to go with Mason's.
-.-
Honolulu, 19:06HST
"Thank you again for meeting with us," Kaldur said as he, Artemis, and Skylar sat down across from a woman and a military officer.
"I'm only here for my sister Peggy's sake," the brother grumbled taking his seat. "Nate Adams is not a topic to ever choose to discuss."
"Randy!" Peggy hissed punching her brother's arm. "You're talking about our father!"
Rubbing his arm, Randy tossed a glare at his sister, "Wade Eiling is our father. He raised us. Adams gave up any parental rights the day he betrayed our country and murdered her superior officer!"
"Our mother never thought he was guilty! And I don't believe it either."
Randy rolled his eyes, "I love you sis, but your opinion doesn't count. Dad died in prison before you were born."
"Ha! You just called him dad!"
-.-
"Well that was useless," Skylar grumbled as they walked along the beach, the waves lapping at their feet.
"Yeah," Artemis agreed, "Randy was…intense, but at least he was realistic. Biology hardly guarantees parental skills or even basic honesty. Nathaniel Adams may be guilty as charged. Right Kaldur?" Getting no response, the two girls looked at their teammate. "Kaldur?"
"Apologies Artemis, Skylar. My thoughts were of Atlantis with my mother—Sha'lain'a—she's a native of the Atlantean city-state of Shayeris; my father, Calvin Durham, is a surface-worlder like you two. He was genetically altered by Black Manta to infiltrate Atlantis. He did, but his love for my mother caused him to switch sides."
"Your dad worked for Black Manta?!" Artemis exclaimed.
"Hey people change," Skylar shrugged.
The other two looked at her before the blonde pointed at her accusingly, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH SKYLAR?!"
-.-
Annapolis, August 14 00:32EDT
"I know my grasp on Earth history is based largely on sitcoms, but why would a North Vietnamese General be in a 1968 photo with US personnel?" M'gann questioned as she, Onyx and Robin crouched behind some foliage observing a large house from below.
"Good question," Robin agreed pulling up his data, "This General Trang was the first person my facial recognition software IDed."
"But that doesn't explain why he's here, in the states with a mansion," Onyx pointed out.
"Yeah, that takes money and connections."
"Two things participating in an illegal smuggling ring could provide," Wally said as he, Superboy and Aurora joined them.
"So Adams was right!"
"KF switch to thermal. You seeing this?" Superboy asked as he looked at the house.
Pulling down his goggles, he turned them on to look as Remix looked in the same directions. Her large wings flared with magma-fire for a moment. "Shit. Trang's not alone in there."
"Looks like some sort of samurai," Wally confirmed.
Onyx perked up, looking to Robin, "Rob wasn't Mason killed by a sword?"
"That's right, which means we probably just found the culprit."
"Then what are we waiting for?!"
"Let's get him!"
"No," Robin interrupted, "remember, this is a covert op. We need to keep to the shadows. We don't take the offensive. Like in Captain Atom's lecture."
"You were actually listening to that?" Remix questioned. "Look, I think we have all the intel we need. Why don't we just grab this guy and interrogate him?"
"Because it's a covert op," Robin reminded. "Besides, we still don't know who's in charge or if Adams really was framed."
"I'll go check it out," Miss Martian volunteered. Pulling up her hood, she went into camouflage mode and flew up towards the mansion.
"I know why you're here," she heard as she approached the balcony door, "I still have my sources. I know about Mason, I know about your work. I am disappointed Rako. I have protected you since you were a child; have you no loyalty?"
"I do," a new, slightly gruff voice spoke, "just not to you." M'gann gasped as she saw the man raise his sword. Thrusting out her hand, she used her telekinesis to rip it from his grip as the samurai turned to face her. "A new security system General? Most impressive." He threw out an arm, slapping M'gann across the face and knocking her to the floor where her hood fell off, revealing her. "Too bad I'll have to dismantle it."
"NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!" Superboy snarled bursting through the wall. Lunging at the samurai, the man growled, swinging his blade across Superboy's chest. Stumbling back, the clone pressed a hand up to the wound, hissing as he felt something wet and sticky trickling over his fingers and soaking into his shirt. "I'm…I'm bleeding?"
"Superboy! You're cut!"
"What?! But I thought Kryptonians can't be cut?!"
"I'm going in."
Kid Flash sprinted forwards, leaping through the hole Superboy made in the wall. He flipped in the air, vaulting off the samurai and causing him to stumble. The armored warrior turned towards the speedster, sword raised.
A fireball hit his hand, knocking the blade out of his grasp. The samurai whirled on his heel, throwing several throwing stars in her directions. Skylar covered herself with a wing, smirking as the throwing stars bounced off. picking the heated metal up, she hurled them back to their owner.
The man ducked allowing Nightmare to run in, holding the samurai's katana. Their opponent rolled out of the way, grabbing the sword and kicking Onyx in the gut. The force of the blow sent him flying into Superboy and Kid Flash. "Ow."
"Come guys, get it together. Let's take him!"
They all lunged forwards and were barely saved by Aurora from something falling towards them. Letting the heroine tossed the beam away, Conner ripped the offending object aside revealing a doorway that was hidden by a tapestry that'd been previously been hanging there.
"We were caught off guard by a blanket," Wally grumbled. "This is so embarrassing, almost a comedy."
"It would be," Robin said standing in the door, "if Trang's corpse didn't scream tragedy."
-.-
Metropilis, 01:45EDT
"Kids today. They stay out til all hours and for what? So they can ignore each other in my diner!" Bibbo grumbled serving another customer as he glared at the group of ten teens on their phones.
"Has everyone downloaded the annotated photo we found in the dead woman's hand?" Robin asked.
"Yes."
"Yep."
"Yeah."
"Check."
"Superboy?" M'gann asked.
"What? Oh, yeah. Got it."
Amber looked worried, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Is it your wound? Does it still hurt?"
"It's fine. It's just a scratch, move on."
Onyx and Skylar looked at each other then back at their teammate. "Really? Dude, I know my wounds," Onyx stated, "that was more than a scratch. You're just lucky it didn't go any deeper."
"Anyways," Robin interrupted, "facial recognition software's IDed almost everyone in the photo, which we think was taken in 1968. The same year Adams was charged with murder."
"The only players not in the pic are Adams and General Eiling, whom sentenced Adams to life in prison, where he died and after which he married Adams' wife and raised his two kids."
"This boy…" M'gann spoke up zooming in on one figure in the photo, "could he be the assassin? The one Trang called Rako?"
"He did say he raised him since he was a child," Wally reminded.
"But didn't he say he was loyal to someone else?" Skylar asked. "Cause it didn't seem like he was too loyal to Trang back there."
"No kidding," Artemis agreed. "This photo's looking more and more like a hit list."
"And I can bet on who's in charge of it," Superboy said, "our missing CIA Agent Alec Rois."
Onyx nodded, pulling up his stats, "Considering his resume has things like brainwashing," he growled a little at that, "I can take a guess on who Rako's working for."
"And somehow Rois and Rako found out we were investigating the Adams case and decided to tie up loose ends."
"Which means either Sgt Polk or Adams' old friend Yarrow are next," Amber frowned and Wally nodded.
"Yeah, if that's the case it's kinda our fault…"
"Doesn't matter right now. Yo Kaldur, what's our next move?"
All eyes turned to their leader as he looked up from his own phone. "We split up. Half of us go investigate Polk here in Metropolis, the other half heads to Vegas to protect Yarrow."
-.-
Las Vegas, 00:45PDT
"Not too fancy, looks like Yarrow wasn't on the take like the others," Robin muttered as he, Superboy, Wally, Onyx, Skylar crouched in the bushes near the former officer's house.
"I knew I liked the guy. We should get in there. Warn him he's in danger."
"Bad idea," Skylar spoke up. "We don't even know if he's on the list. If he's tipped off, then Rako and Rois will know we're on their trail and then they'll get rid of him. He's a liability."
The dark night suddenly became bright as an explosion knocked them on their backs. Scrambling to his feet, Wally began racing towards the house, "Yarrow was inside!" The speedster sprinted around the house, creating a vortex to pull air away from the fire, smothering it into dull embers.
"Fast work KF!" Robin called.
"Not fast enough," the redhead panted. "Yarrow's dead."
"You sure?"
"Judging from the smell, yes," Onyx answered. "Sure it's Yarrow? I don't know his scent."
Wally nodded, "Yeah. Recognized the tattoo."
"Damn!" Remix cursed.
"Here's what I don't get," Superboy spoke up, "Rako's MO was sword and shuriken."
"But Rois' was demolitions," Robin reminded. "Confirming that they're working together on the hit list."
"Let's hope the others had better luck than we did, otherwise I doubt we're cracking this case."
"They didn't have better luck," Wally sighed running a hand through his hair.
"Shit."
-.-
St. George, 03:26MDT
"This the place?"
"According to the intel, yeah," Robin nodded, putting his holoscreen away. "Onyx, you got anything?"
The hybrid sniffed the air, filtering through the scents of rust and decay. "Yeah. Rako's in there, along with two other people, I don't know who though."
Artemis sighed as they all began walking into the building, "Let's just get this over with."
"I agree."
Grabbing their weapons, the team turned to see Rako on their right, Rois to their left. "You're Rako, General Trang's protégé all grown up to become his murderer," Remix greeted.
"Which means you must be CIA Agent Alec Rois," Artemis said.
"Alec Rois is dead."
"Good thing my mace is meant to help beat the shit outta spirits," Remix muttered twirling her weapon with a smirk.
"That just leaves the big boss," Robin said and they looked up, "Henry Yarrow."
The man on the platform above chuckled, "You don't seem surprised. Did you also guess you walked right into a trap?"
"It wasn't hard," Kid Flash deadpanned. "Though it's not like it's much considering there's ten on three."
"After forty years in the Adams game kid, let me give ya a little tip: quality trumps quantity," Henry smiled, "unless you're talking explosives. My friend there's holding a dead man's switch. If anything makes him unhappy, or causes him to let go, this whole hangar goes BOOM! Keep that in mind boys. I know that S and W, and can guess what they mean. Your little pals aren't invulnerable even if you two are."
Rako sneered, "Superbrat? Invulnerable? My sword proved otherwise, though I haven't had the chance to test it on Wonder Boy."
Onyx snickered, raising his gauntlets and shifting into a fighting stance, "You'd have to beat me first."
"Rako!" Yarrow snapped as the samurai took a step forwards. "Remember, your sword was forged from X-ionizer. It could cut the real Superman."
"Aw, so he didn't prove anything at all," Onyx taunted.
"No sword stands against mine!"
Onyx smirked, "We'll see."
"Perhaps we can return to the matter at hand," Aqualad spoke up.
"Apologies, old men are so easily distract—wait a minute!" Henry gripped the railing with white knuckles. "Where's that flippin' Boy Wonder?!"
"Flippin' your way now!" Robin exclaimed springing from the shadows, kicking the man in the face. Yarrow fell back, a gun falling out from his shirt. Scrambling towards it, a bright blast came his way causing him to cover his eyes. The platform rocked and Yarrow's eyes widened as he saw the spot his gun had been melted away. "ROIS! BLOW THIS POPSICLE STAND!" Yarrow shouted.
"I'M TRYING!" he cried out. "SOMETHING'S HOLDING DOWN MY THUMB!"
Artemis fired an arrow, and it exploded into a hardening polymer, encasing the Agent's arm. "GOT HIM!"
"NO!"
Sparks flew off two blades as they collided violently, two different stream of electricity firing against each other as Nightmare and Rako stood off. "Not used to having an opponent who can withstand a little lightning?"
"I have trained to defeat men, you shall lose against me child!"
"Please," Onyx scoffed, spinning around and using his tail to swipe Rako's legs out from under him. Grabbing his opponent's sword, the boy flew into the air. "AQUALAD!"
The samurai-assassin barely had time to react before a torrent of electrified water slammed into his face. Remix raced forwards, swinging her mace and sending him flying across the room. Aurora flew down, throwing a punch and sending him slamming into his comrade.
"Oops."
"Who cares," Remix waved her friend's worry off. Stretching she flexed her wings with a groan, "Man, this would've been a lot faster if they were on one side of the country."
"No kidding."
-.-
Mt. Justice, 11:57EDT
"Adams recovered evidence of a weapons smuggling ring, he brought intel of a weapons drop to his superior officer, General Lemar. Unfortunately Lemar was part of the smuggling operation and saw Adams' intel as an opportunity," M'gann informed. "He could use it to get rid of Adams and the head of the operation Henry Yarrow."
"Yarrow was only a lieutenant so taking orders from him didn't sit will with Lemar," Skylar added on. "So he tipped off their North Vietnamese contact General Trang. And Yarrow had just been told Trang wasn't supposed to go to the drop. In reality, Trang and Lemar agreed to ambush Yarrow's squad instead."
"All of them were meant to die, including Yarrow. He just didn't count on Adams saving both himself and Yarrow."
"Which left our dear lieutenant with two problems," Amber counted on her fingers, "His incorruptible buddy Nate who knew Lemar was part of the ring; and Lemar himself, who tried to stage a coup."
"So to handle it he simply pitted them against each other. Probably wasn't too hard for him to rile Adams up against the General, and he probably had no trouble drugging his pal's drink either," Skylar said. "Allowing him to send Adams on his merry way to confront Lemar."
"The drug made sure Nate wouldn't remember," Robin added, "which allowed Polk to handle Lemar and frame Adams."
"And the trial that followed," Wally scoffed, "that was a joke. Almost everyone was involved in the ring; Yarrow, Mason, Polk, Blankly, all of them."
"What about Eiling? The judge?" Captain Atom questioned.
"He wasn't in on the conspiracy," Kaldur responded, "as far as we can tell he believed Adams was guilty."
"Did his psychic confession confirm it?"
"Basically," she nodded.
"As for the body in Yarrow's house, turns out it was Polk," Onyx spoke up. "They had the same tattoo, and I didn't know the difference between their scents since I hadn't met them. When the others searched Polk's place it was set up to make them think he was on the lamb."
"And when we found the intel among the debris tipping us to St. George's airfield, we knew it was a set up," Superboy rolled his eyes.
"I'm impressed, you did good work."
"Too bad we were too late for Adams."
"But not too late for his kids," Captain Atom reassured. "Go tell them what kinda man their father really was."
-.-
Honolulu, 09:16HST
"Seems I misjudged you. Guess I really wanted to believe you were guilty, Captain Adams," Eiling spoke as he, Captain Atom, and Nate Adams sat in a dark car as the three young heroes in disguise spoke to Nate's kids.
The silver hero chuckled, "Yeah, well, I really wanted to believe you were dirty Eiling. Guess that makes us even then. Nate, now that your name's been cleared, let me go reintroduce you to your kids.
-.-
D.C January 17, 00:00EDT
"Took ya long enough," Eiling grumbled as a man entered his office. "Escaping from a jail in St. George Utah shouldn't be that hard for you Alec."
The former CIA agent shrugged, "Escaping was easy, but you should try hiding a seven-foot Cambodian sometime. How'd it go on your end?"
Eiling snofted, leaning back in his chair and lighting a cigar, "Yarrow took the fall for everything; the smuggling ring in '68, the murders this week."
Rois chuckled, "So no one suspects emyou/em were Yarrow's boss the whole time? The only reason you weren't in the picture is cause you took it?"
"You kidding," he snickered, "Captain Atom's my new best friend. Which should serve us well in the days ahead."
Rois laughed, "Wicked Wade. Very wicked indeed."