9 July 2010
CC Jitters, Central City

"So, why am I looking at a picture of…?" Wally obnoxiously slurped at his iced coffee, straw tuck between his teeth as he looked at the snapshot shoved in his face. It was of a black-haired woman dressed smartly in a fuchsia two-piece suit and grinning at the camera with a smile that dazzled.

"Her name is Gonzalez, Selena Gonzalez" Robin replied, finger impatiently tapping at the edges of the picture.

"And we care why?" Wally repeated, sparing an unimpressed glance towards the atlantean at his right."I mean, other than the fact that's she a total hottie?"

"Tch! She's here in Central City and being target for a hit. There's a reason…I just don't know what it its yet, I found something that might be related to her"

"Related how?" Kaldur quirked a brow in question, sipping at his own drink, though much more politely than the ginger.

"Looking through some of Batman's files, I found that there have been a few related targets. Seemingly unrelated, but I've referenced tons of data and I think I found a pattern—"

"—Looking through? You mean you hacked into Batman's files!" Wally interjected, jumping to his feet.

Robin didn't reply, though he ground his teeth together as a tenseness settled over the trio that almost seemed to choke at them. The vein on Wally's neck bulged as the two friends silently fought over the proposed mission. Suddenly, the atmosphere was cut by the sound of a symphony of laughter and bright chatter at the ice cream shop across the way. All three turned to the source, shoulders relaxed and breath hissing out from between clenched teeth. As Robin watched a father hand his daughter an ice cream cone, he was somehow reminded of Raven. The young witch hadn't been able to attend the impromptu meeting, citing summer homework for school and grimoire studies from Doctor Fate as her excuse. Though his lips did twitch upwards when he remembered her happy exclamation that she was—technically—no longer the youngest sidekick there.

"Anyway" Robin cleared his throat as he turned back to the conversation with a much calmer disposition. "I think this CEO might be next. All of the other hits have been made to look like accidents, random muggings gone wrong, things like that…anyway, I figured we could look into this"

"And what brought this to your attention in the first place?" Kaldur asked.

"I've been looking into Cadmus the last couple of days—corporate holdings, who they do business with and such. I noticed a few people they've done business with, seem to meet with untimely accidents"

"You want us to look into this on a hunch that someone might have put out a hit on the CEO of this company?" Wally retorted.

"Tss!" Robin's lips thinned out into a line, expression turning sour as he tried not to bark at his friend.

"What about the others?" Kaldur interjected before things could take a turn again.

"We don't want them to get into trouble before the Team even gets going do we? Besides, if you think about it. We haven't even had a real outing as a team yet"

"What about Raven?" Wally slurped.

"She's doing the magic thing with Fate, or whatever it is that witches do" Robin shrugged in reply, hands shoved into his pockets.

"Tch! Yeah right! Y'know magic's not even real, right?" Wally scoffed in disbelief.

"I'd pay to see you say that to her face!" Robin grinned.

"Yeah, no—the last time I ticked her off, she hid a lemon in my room—it took me weeks to find out where all the fruit flies were coming from! And—and she ate all of my waffles—even the hidden ones! Her ability to find waffle-anything is uncanny!"

"I am not sure about this idea" Kaldur returned to the proposed mission, though his lips did tilt upwards slightly at the anecdotes.

"Okay, think of it this way: it's like a training session, yeah?" Wally replied. "We haven't even had one of those as a team yet"

"Well, then why are Superboy and Ms Martian not here? They are part of the Team, are they not?"

"Yeah" Robin nodded, "But we've been around longer than they have and we haven't even had much interaction with each other. We're always doing our own crime-fighting with our own partners…I figured it would be a chance force us to kind of clear the cobwebs before we get into full team mode"

"Cobwebs? Dude, you've been hanging out in dark caves way too much" Wally chortled.

"I am still unsure about this" Kaldur hummed, uncertainly.

"I'm not! Count me in!" The speedster grinned, "You think Selena likes younger guys?"

"How do we even know all of these random accidents and muggings are hits put out on people?" Kaldur leant forward, hands on the table. "And why do you think they're all related?"

"Yeah! Who do you think is behind all this?" Wally agreed.

"Behind it?" Robin mused. "Hard to say, could be Cadmus but none of the evidence points to them. But who do I think was hired to do the job on Selena Gonzalez? The League of Shadows"

"Whoa! Really?!" Wally jolted upright at the admission, eyes alight with something that Robin couldn't quite name.

"Yeah, I think these 'accidents' were executed by them"

"Executed? That seems like an appropriate word"

"Wait—who is the 'League of Shadows'?" Kaldur interjected with an air of confusion.

"What? You've never heard of the League of Shadows? Have you been living in a cave or something?"

"More like underwater" The atlantean retorted, unimpressed.

"Oh yeah…"

"The League of Shadows is a deadly organisation with their dirty hands stuck in a whole bunch of stuff all over the world" Explained Robin, his voice hushed as if speaking any louder could bring them out right there and then. "Killing is only a part of their business"

"Allegedly, nothing ever seems to get proven against those guys!" Wally seemed almost giddy.

"So, just to reiterate" Kaldur heaved a breath as if to center himself whilst talking to toddlers. "You want the three of us to look into what may or may not be a sanctioned assassination attempt on this CEO, carried out by a covert organisation called the League of Shadows, without our teammates. And without authorisation from Batman or the rest of the Justice League?"

"Yeah, pretty much" Robin shrugged, nonchalantly.

"What're we waiting for?" Wally grinned, completely pumped up for taking on such a big target. The atlantean sighed heavily, seemingly outmatched and resigned to playing babysitter for the evening.


9 July 2010
Farano Enterprises, Central City

That evening found Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash sat upon a rooftop that overlooked the adjacent building where Selena was still working away. "Why is she still at work?" Kid Flash griped through a mouthful of Chicken Wheezies. "Everyone went home hours ago"

"Could you not chew so loud?" Robin snarked in retort, eyes still glued to the binoculars trained on the woman across the street.

"At this point, I wish he could feed with a filter system much like a humpback whale would" Kaldur agreed. "It would not be as a nauseating to watch"

"Ha~ha!" Kid Flash sassed as he gulped down the mouthful stuffed into his cheeks, chipmunk-style. "Very funny!"

"Could you just keep it down?" Robin sighed.

"Which one? My voice or my chewing?"

"Both!" Robin snapped, finally pulling away from the binoculars to glare at the speedster.

"I can't help it!" Kid Flash exploded. "And I need to eat! We've been sitting here for hours! D'you know how hard that is for me to do?! She's been in that building all day! All of the employees have gone home, she's all alone! If they were going after her, don't you think they would have done it by now?!"

"No" The boy wonder returned to staring through the binoculars.

"How do you know that, Einstein?" Kid Flash sassed.

"Because they're doing it right now"

"I don't see anything"

"There, below the window" Aqualad pointed towards a dark figure who clung to the side of the building, likely what Robin had spotted earlier. "We—"

FWOOSH!

Kid Flash eagerly took off, happy to be moving once more as he zipped down the side of the building without another word. The only note that he'd been there to begin with was an empty Chicken Wheezies packet that sat crinkled next to a few dusty crumbs. "Robin, we—" Aqualad turned to the right where the detective had once stood, only to find him too, diving over the edge with a quiet chuckle. "…This is not team building"

"I wouldn't worry about them" A dark chuckle sounded from over his shoulder, catching the sidekick off guard. "In a few minutes, you won't have a team to worry about"

"Wha—?" Aqualad spun around to find himself face-to-face with a large albino with an oversized hook for a hand. After so many hours on the rooftop, he had been sure that they were alone, he couldn't fathom how they'd missed someone so large.

"HA!" Hook surged forward, ready to take Aqualad's head off.

"Who are you?!" Aqualad demanded as he danced around the outstretched weapon and tried to avoid the subsequent craters which landed where he had been only moments before."Are you with the League of Shadows?"

"What kind of question is that? Even if I was" Hook blinked as he tried to yank his hook out of the ground where it had been embedded. Aqualad had leant in a smidge too close and received a fist to the face. The atlantean had barely stumbled to his feet before the assassin was on him again, unrelenting fists raining down upon him. "I wouldn't admit it to you! Doesn't matter one way or the other—"

BAM!

"—Because you—"

BAM!

"—Won't be able to do—"

BAM!

"—Anything with the information! Now, what say we go find your friends?"


Meanwhile, Kid Flash and Robin found themselves being confronted by the arachnid assassin who they'd first spotted. "Hey, ninja dude!" Kid Flash called out, trying to catch him off guard. It didn't work. The assassin simply spared a glance over his shoulder as he sent a thwip of spider web that latched itself around the speedster's legs and stopped his ascent lickety-split.

"Name's Black Spider, fast dude!" The assassin retorted as the speedster slid back down the facade of the exterior. "And you need to be faster than that!"

"Oh really?" Robin chortled as his feet met the assassin's crown with a serious crunch that was almost satisfying to hear. The hit barely seemed to daze the spider, especially as he turned to face the avian and tried to wrap him up in webs, much the same as he'd done to Kid Flash. "Missed!"

"Did I?" The arachnid's smirk turned to dark chuckles as Kid Flash was yanked back towards his colleague, this time sending the entangled two back to the floor. "Look out below!"

"Wow! We so didn't take that guy down!" Kid Flash blinked dumbly as he wrapped his arms around Robin's waist just as the detective grappled just in time to slow them down enough to alight on the ground without much damage.

"No, just the opposite—he took us down" Robin agreed as he unwrapped his legs from around Kid Flash's chest.

"And Hook is the one that's gonna take you out!" Hook greeted the pair, showing off his prize—an unconscious Aqualad—hanging from his prosthetic.

"What the—?" Kid Flash blinked dumbfoundedly before he and Robin had to dolphin-dive out of the way of Aqualad, who'd been thrust towards them.

"Dude! This is getting out of hand!" Robin exclaimed as Aqualad was reeled back in for Hook to relaunch him again and Kid Flash bent to rip the webbing off of his legs.

"We're gonna take this clown down togeth—"

"—You need to get upstairs and get to the target before that other guy does!"

"What about Aqua—?"

"—Go! Now!"

"Looks like it's just you and me now, little bird boy!" Hook taunted as he launched his weapon towards the teen's feet, only to find himself staring at a fistful of explosives instead of the startled expression of the boy wonder. Robin disappeared into the haze with ease, leaving Hook to flounder about.

Inside Kid Flash found himself taking the stairs six-at-a-time as he tried to make it to the upper level office where the target lay waiting. "Hey, just in time!" Kid Flash sang as he burst through the door just in time to see Black Spider crash through the office window. "By the way, are you busy Friday night?"

"Hey~ pretty lady!" Black Spider grinned as he alighted down on the desk, careful to avoid the shards of glass which had blanketed the wood upon his entrance.

"Whoop~!" Kid Flash raced in and grabbed Selena before the arachnid could even touch her, though one of his fingers did graze her hair as they fled. "C'me on, lady, we've gotta get outta here!"

"Whoa!" Selena yelped as she was scooped up from her chair.

"Sorry for the dash 'n grab, lady, but I gotta get back to my…friends?" The ginger skidded to a stop, only fumbling slightly to keep a hold of her as he was met with the business end of Hook's prosthetic.

"Looks like your friends left you high and dry!" Hook grinned maliciously, arm glistening in the dim street lights. Kid Flash swallowed audibly, his mouth suddenly dry as he scrambled for something to do.

"Hey! Captain Hook!" Robin appeared from the shadows, aiming a kick towards the albino's crown.

Thankfully, it was enough to send the assassin back a step or two, far enough that Kid Flash felt that it was safe enough set Selena aside so that he could assist Robin.

"Gotta help my buddy! Be right back! Stay right here!" Kid Flash ordered, setting the woman down before he charged forward and convened on the assassin.

"Kid Flash! Manoeuvre 63!" Robin called out as he scrambled to his feet.

"Robin! High and Low!" Kid Flash retorted in kind, brows furrowed in puzzlement when he didn't understand what his friend was saying. Either way, when the two sidekicks tried to perform their chosen manoeuvres, they found themselves becoming entangled once more. Only this time, neither Hook nor Black Spider had any hand in it.

"What were you doing?" Robin groaned as he lay sprawled out across the speedster's prone form, nose smushed into his golden chest.

"Me? I said High and Low! When Flash and I tackle a baddie—" Kid Flash replied, spitting out strands of black hair.

"—I'm not Flash!"

"No duh! Where's Aqualad?" Kid Flash asked as he pushed himself up on to his elbows, and in turn, shoved the smaller sidekick off of him.

"The guy just got thrown through a wall! He's gonna be out for a whi—uuuff!"" Robin replied as he slid off and clambered to his feet, only to be meet with the blunt side of Hook's prosthetic, knocking him out before he even hit the floor.

"Robin—!" Kid Flash cried out, before he too found his vision shrouded in darkness and a pain that lanced through his head brought him down. Lights out!