"Bat Him Out of the Park"
In their hollowed out mountain base, the members of the evil team, known only as "the Bean Brigade", waited to receive the next assignment from their boss. To break the tension, Motor Ed decided to engage one of his teammates in meaningful conversation.
"So...yer a ghost, right?" Ed asked Ember.
"Wow, you do have a brain" Ember replied, her voice dripping of sarcasm.
"Yeah, and its' pretty big too" Ed said proudly, not catching the insult "anyway, if your a ghost, how'd ya die, seriously?"
"I don't want to talk about" Ember said, not bothering to look at him.
"'Kay, that's cool" Ed said, "sweet axe by the way."
"Thanks" Ember replied, "you play?"
"I play a mean air guitar" Ed said, "Yaaaaaaah! Whadda think, seriously?"
Before Ember could offer her reply, the armored form of Hannibal Bean entered the room.
"Sorry ta keep y'all waiting" he said, "but I had to obtain the information necessary for this plan."
"So what do you want us to do this time?" Ottoman asked, "send us into a military camp so the soldiers can shoot at us?"
"I realize many of you are still a little peeved about yer last assignment" Bean said, "but I assure you this one will be much easier."
He tossed a manila envelope on the long table, and two photos spilled out. One was of a large man with huge metal gloves. The other featured a shorter, thinner man with a cybernetic left arm.
"This is Temblor & Gearhead" Bean explained "two lesser known foes of that caped clown the Batman. Unfortunately, they're far too old, or worse, now to be of any use ta me. Which is where the Sands of Time come in."
Bean grabbed the hourglass like Wu from off the table, "ya see, this little item here allows ya to travel back, or forward in time, to any year ya wish. You are gonna go to Gotham City in the past, exactly three years after Batman came into existence. Locate these two criminals and bring them back here."
"Wait a minute, hold on!" Control Freak said, "you're telling me you want us to go back in time to get these two criminals, but a much younger and inexperienced Batman will be there too?"
"That's about the gist of it, yes" Bean replied.
The acne-ridden adversary rubbed his hands "ooh, this is too good to pass up!" he exclaimed with delight. "If I kill Batman in the past, then Robin will cease to exist. And no Robin means no Teen Titans. And no Titans means I can terrorize Jump City at my leisure!" he said, chuckling evilly.
"Hate ta burst yer bubble" Bean said, "but I'd prefer it if ya didn't attract any attention to yerselves. And that means staying clear of the Batman. You get in, get the crooks, and get out, understand?"
"Yes sir" a dejected Control Freak added.
"Very good, now then, let us…"
"Wow, this secret hideout rocks!"
Bean raised himself to full height to see who had interrupted his speech. It was someone he was hoping he would never see again.
"Jack Spicer?" he asked, the disappointment evident in his voice, "how in the heck did you get here?"
"Hannibal Roy Bean?" an excited Jack exclaimed, "they didn't tell me you were leading this group. Hey, how could you assemble a group without me? I mean, its' not like I'm hard to reach or anything…"
"May I ask what the heck yer doing here?" Bean asked, tapping his fingers on the table.
"Oh yeah" Jack added, "I met your pals here when they were attacking the monks, and hooked 'em up with some Wu. So when they fled, I figured I'd follow 'em ya know, and find out if they needed any of my valuable expertise. So…" Jack suddenly got down on his knees "can I join you please? Oh please oh please let me join you!"
"Quit yer whining ya little toad" Bean said, "I suppose ya do have yer uses. Very well, I'll let ya join, but first ya have to go through an initiation test."
"No problem, I can handle any test" Jack said, springing up quickly "Um, this isn't gonna involve my underwear on a flagpole, is it?"
"No, nothing like that" Bean replied "yer gonna accompany the rest of the team here on their next mission. If they tell me ya did a good job, yer in, simple as that."
"Is that all?" Jack asked, "pfft, I can do that standing on my head. So, what's the mission?"
"Traveling back in time to recruit some criminals" Herring explained.
"Neat" Jack said, "let me just get my Jack Bots together and we can go."
After waiting for Jack to call in his robots, Slipstream took the Sands of Time off the table.
"So…how do you work this thing?" he asked.
"Gimme that!" Jack yelled, snatching it from his hands "amateur. Sands of Time!" And with a flash of light, the Bean Brigade disappeared.
Uh-oh, they're off to cause problems in the past! And that might not be good for anyone's future! In the next chapter, the Brigade attacks the Gotham police headquarters in their search for their newest members.