22 June 2010
Santa Prisca, Caribbean Islands

A couple of days later following the heartfelt camping trip, found the Team on their first offical Batman-appointed mission. Garbed in the newly-minted stealth gear, Raven rigidly sat in one of the window seats as her nerves ran haywire. Unlike the missions she'd done with Fate (mostly magical/combat training exercises hidden behind a glamour), here they would be alone and unaided by League support. Suffice to say, she was worried; particularly when she thought back on their current track record.

Outside of the rain-splattered window, the starry sky blurred passed as her thoughts mulled over the stern briefing given to them by Batman. Emphasis on 'stern'. Santa Prisca, the Caribbean island that they were headed to, was the primary source of a dangerous & illegal substance known as 'Venom' It was a strength-enhancing drug that Batman suspected had something to do with the Cadmus-produced steroid of a similar nature, the one that had turned Desmond into that…thing.

Earlier infrared sightings had told them that their factory was still operating at full capacity, so they had to expect there to be at least a horde of workers milling about when they arrived. Though, the strangest thing about the whole ordeal was that all of the Venom shipments had been abruptly cut off, even though they were still mass producing the substance which had been what caught the League's attention in the first place.

Rachel winced again as she was reminded of Batman's needless emphasis on the stasis of the covert mission, where he used words like 'recon', 'observe', 'report' and 'League intervention' in the most patronising of ways. It almost felt like he & Red Tornado (ever the silent vigil) was babying the eager sidekicks, because apparently none of them knew the definition of subterfuge. Which was ironic really, coming from a Leaguer whose face & name was plastered almost anywhere you looked. Plus, y'know, there was that whole thing about democratically picking a leader (a position that Robin was clearly vying for despite his age) that they still had to figure out.

"Drop zone A in thirty" Reported Ms Martian, bringing the witch back from her thoughts.

"Ready" Aqualad replied as he rose to his feet and donned the new stealth tech (via a button on his belted emblem).

"Putting Bioship in camouflage mode" The martian nodded, as she brought the (now) invisible ship down close to the dark waters which allowed the atlantean to drop from the Bioship without so much as a by your leave.

"…Heat and motion sensors are now patched" Aqualad reported over the comms, not two clicks after he had departed. "Data is now on a continuous loop. Move in"

"Roger" Ms Martian replied as Bioship barely brushed against the tops of the canopies, "Drop zone B"

Here, the remaining sidekicks clambered to their feet and those who were non-flight capable, clipped themselves to the martian-made cables which dropped from the ceiling. "How cool is this?" Kid Flash sang as he too donned the new gear which turned his usual golden costume to one of a dark grey. Next to him Robin did the same, though only his chest & the inner layer of his cape, plus golden trimmings were transformed into a muted colour to better hide him in the jungle. As for Raven, her muted costume need not change (especially if you took into consideration her transport through the shadows) save for the new dullness of her belt & brooch.

"Very impressive" Ms Martian smiled as she simply shapeshifted, allowing her cheerfully bright costume to change from white to black in one seamless motion.

"Uh…that works too" He leered before turning to the kryptonian who had yet to bare any resemblance of a costume outside of the touristy Superman t-shirt & cargo pants, "Hey Supey! Not too late to put on the new stealth tech!"

"No capes, no tights" Superboy sternly retorted as he crossed his arms in defiance. "No offence"

"And it totally works for you…!" Ms Martian sighed dreamily as she ogled the muscle-bound boy (much to Kid Flash's chagrin), before quickly—but not so smoothly—catching herself. "…In that you can totally do good work in those clothes!"

It was enough of an embarrassment to make the martian want to hide inside her cloak—it was enough of a secondhand embarrassment to make Raven hide within the confines of her own hood as her nose scrunched up at the cocktail of emotions swirling together within the cockpit of the Bioship. Sometimes teenagers were worse than demons. The witch furiously shook those thoughts from her head as she trotted over to the newly-made hatch in the floor. She didn't even have to think before she was falling through and alighting down on the jungle floor alongside Ms Martian, before hopping out of the way so that Robin & Kid Flash could do the same. Superboy, having seen no need for a cable, simply dropped from the Bioship with an almighty thunk, that seemed to ripple through the trees.

"Knew I didn't need a line" Superboy smirked as he climbed out of the small crater he'd left in the dirt.

"And yet creating a seismic event, may not have helped us much in the 'covert" Robin sassed as Raven helped him to his feet.

"Aqualad, Drop zone B is a go" Ms Martian reported, helping Kid Flash to his feet much to his glee.

"Head for the factory" Aqualad replied, voice crackling over the comms as Robin pulled out a map of the island which showed their locations. "I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP"

"Roger that" Robin nodded as everyone crowded around and his finger traced along the path that they needed to take.


Tramping through the bush sometime later—with Raven & Ms Martian flying—the remaining sidekicks followed after Robin as he led the way, only pausing periodically to check their trajectory. To be honest, trudging through thick jungle was not how Raven thought this mission was going to go. With Fate, they'd either teleport straight there or she'd race him (still unable to take others with her through the shadows) to the specified location. But this? This utter frustration & boredom felt like she was on some underpaid school trip or like she was running the fitness test (mindless of the fact that she was flying); an ordeal that was not complete without complaining companions, sweaty suits and wayward children.

At least that was the case until Superboy suddenly paused in his step and tilted his head just so, as if he were listening to something. "Did you hear that?" He whispered, eyes searching for the source of the noise.

"Uh, no" Kid Flash replied, the 'duh' going unsaid. "Wait—is this a super hearing thing?"

"You do have great ears…" Ms Martian gushed quietly.

"Okay Rob, now what—?" Kid Flash turned to the front of the group where said boy wonder was supposed to be. "Man! I hate it when he does that!"

"Superboy! Kid!" Aqualad interjected, "Switch to infrared, see if your being tracked"

"Uh…got a squad of armed bozos incoming" Kid Flash reported as he yanked his goggles down over his eyes and searched through the trees in front of them.

"Two squads" Superboy amended as he too peered through the foliage with infrared eyes. "But they'll meet each other before they find us"

POP~POP~POP! POP~POP~POP! POP~POP~POP!

"What was that?" Raven murmured, her head jerking upwards as the jungle was lit up with gunfire.

"Whelp" Kid Flash sighed, popping the 'p' "No super hearing required now"

"Swing wide & steer clear" Aqualad sternly ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah—just as soon as I find Rob" Kid Flash brushed off as he raced off down the path.

"Kid—wait!" He tried, but it was no use, the speedster was already off and running. Between one blink and the next, Kid Flash had gone, but they were still able to listen to his failed rescue through the comms, not that they really needed them considering the awkward silence that had reigned over the island in the pause of hailing bullets. Not that that lasted long either.

POP~POP~POP! POP~POP~POP! POP~POP~POP!

"So much for the 'stealth" Kid Flash muttered, his tone tingling with fear over the comms as he faced down whichever foe he had managed to make a fool of himself in front of. The others had barely shared a glance before they were following after the speedster and racing for the treeline. As for herself, Raven felt like she had barely even cleared the canopy before the sound of gunfire had started up again and Kid Flash's startled yelp accompanied by the sound of thumping feet against the mud helped to direct the heavy hitting kryptonian in his direction.

Emerging from the trees, Raven was treated to the sight of Superboy pinned beneath the great hulking mass of an underground brawler & steroid supplier, known as Bane, and trigger-happy cultists faced off against armed factory workers and a panicked speedster who was trying to avoid getting hit. So much for the covert mission! She huffed as she tossed Bane aside, allowing Superboy to rise to his feet and go after the wrestler once more. Batman is NOT going to be happy about this.

"What is wrong with you guys?!" Robin demanded as he descended from the canopy and launched himself at the closest armed goon. "Remember 'covert' ? Why didn't you follow my lead? Vanish into the jungle?"

"What lead?" Raven retorted as she flung several cultists away (probably with a little more force than was necessary, but there was no love lost between her & these kinds of people).

"That's what you were doing? Way to fill us in! We're not mind readers, y'know!" Kid Flash agreed as he engaged in combat. As if on cue, Ms Martian appeared behind him as she flung a horde of cultists against the closest tree, knocking them out. "…Er, I'm not, anyway"

"You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds" Ms Martian pouted with a whine colouring her tone as she landed. The argument was officially drawn to a close when Aqualad rejoined them, taking down the last of the cultists with a blast of atlantean magic and a disapproving brow quirked their way. Raven couldn't speak for the others, but she was certainly cowed by that expression.


"…I recognise these uniforms!" Robin hummed in triumph a few moments later as they rounded every one of the cultists and armed men up, tying them together in bundles around the treeline. "They belong to the Cult of the Cobra"

"I am certain Batman would've mentioned it if he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's Venom operation" Observed Aqualad, head cocked as his gaze ran over the bound cultists in question.

"Agreed and since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists & those goons, I'm betting Cobra can't even toss them out!" Robin continued, gleefully, "That's why normal supply lines have been cut off!"

"We get it!" Kid Flash groaned over the top of Robin's summary, "Cobra wanted super cultists, mystery solved. Radio Bats and we'll be home in time for—"

"—These cultists aren't on Venom, Cobra's hoarding the stuff! We don't leave, not until I know why"

"Until you know why?"

"This Team needs a leader—"

"—And it's you? Dude! You're a 13 year old kid who ducked out on us without a word!"

"Hehe~! And you're a mature 15? You blew our cover first chance you got…!" It didn't take long for the two to begin squabbling like a pair of spoilt toddlers.

"Don't you wanna lead?" Ms Martian turned to the stoic kryptonian next to her.

"Tch" Superboy shook his head in the negative, "You?"

"After the Mr Twister fiasco?" Ms Martian scoffed, her cheeks colouring slightly in embarrassment.

"You did alright…"

"…Yeah? You don't even have superpowers!" Kid Flash steamrolled on, unawares of the conversation off to the side.

"Neither does Batman!" Retorted Robin, angrily stomping after the speedster as he paced.

"Cha, you're not Batman!"

"Cha! Closest thing we've got!"

"Ugh! Gods, you two are worse than my brother!" Raven groaned with a roll of her eyes as she trotted over to see what she could pry from a cultist's mind. "And he tortures butterflies for fun"

"Oh, like you can talk!" Kid Flash snapped irritably. The witch didn't know what it was about his sudden rebuttal, but it grated severely against her nerves and loosened her lips.

"Yes, I can actually" Raven snarked over her shoulder much to Bane's amusement, "I've got this thing called a 'mouth', it's what words come out from. You should know this, you never seem to shut up"

"Hehe~!" Robin chuckled, his grin full of mirth as Raven pulled down her hood and faced the cultist head on. Whatever the man saw, it made him freeze, his eyes blow wide and she could've sworn there were little bubbles forming in the corner of his mouth.

Whilst she was occupied, Kid Flash made to grab at Raven, to shove her aside or pull her into a headlock, she didn't know. All that she knew was that one moment she had been trying to look into the wide eyes of a cultist—arguing with the speedster as she did so—and the next both he & Robin were squished beneath the belly of Hugin who had emerged from her shadow, enlarged himself and then sat upon the squabbling sidekicks like he was nesting. Blissful silence reigned for the first time since they'd arrived.

"Should've done that ages ago" Raven murmured to herself as she turned back to the task at hand. Between one blink and the next, her vision had doubled and then she was plunging into the man's psyche without so much as a how do you do. Alongside the overwhelming well of emotions, there were also a series of images flashing before her eyes, too fast for her to properly see, only swallow quick glances here & there.

"What is it, Raven?" Aqualad wondered as Ms Martian shuffled over (skirting Hugin) to do the same with Bane, who sat not too far away. "What have you found?"

"Panic" Raven hummed, eyes unblinking as an images of the Dynamic Duo flashed before her eyes. Sidekicks meant Leaguers. "Smugness" A fight between Bane & Cobra's champion. Continued success of Cobra's Venom. "And a buttload of fear" Four-eyed ravens and bejewelled molten cloaks. Word of a new Chaos gem on Earth. "Is that—is that me? Are you scared of me?"

"Why are they so afraid of you, chica?" Bane mused.

"Uh, cults tend to run in the same circles" Raven replied absently, waving off the man's query as she peered up at her teammates with a look of utter incredulous disbelief painted across her face and an eery gaze that remained unwavering, "I'm not that scary, am I?"

"Um…" Ms Martian shuffled in place, a little unnerved by the unblinking stare that she found herself on the other end of. She spared a glance over towards Superboy & Aqualad, but both boys appeared to flounder for a response, something which greatly upset the witch. Kid Flash, though, was not in the same boat.

"You are—pfft!—are a little freaky, Rae" Kid Flash replied as he pulled himself out far enough to spit out the feathers stuck in his mouth. "And what scary cult were you a part of?"

"I'm not freaky…!" Raven muttered to herself, expression downtrodden as she ignored the latter half of his commentary.

"Ow—hey! All right! All right! I'm sorry—stop doing that! Ow—hey!" Kid Flash whined, limbs flailing as Hugin ruthlessly pecked at the speedster for his comment.

"Hehe~Such clever niños, but you only know half the story" Bane chuckled to himself, quite amused by the sidekicks and completely at ease, it seemed. Unlike his counterparts "Lemme show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance"

"There is a secret entrance" Ms Martian confirmed as she read his mind. "But he's also hiding something"

Aren't we all? Raven huffed as she clambered to her feet and recalled Hugin back to her, allowing a rather unkempt pair of sidekicks up. She didn't even bother to hide her rolling eyes at their childish glares (wasn't she supposed to be the child?) as they reconvened on the crouched martian & Bane.

"Uh, uh, uh, chica!" Bane taunted with a smirk as Ms Martian rifled through his mind, "Bane is not that easy~!"

"Ugh!" Ms Martian groaned as she released the telepathic link, "He's mentally reciting football scores in Español. This could take a while"

"It's not complicated, the enemy of my enemy, is my friend"

Well, he's not wrong. Raven nodded sympathetically as Aqualad silently instructed for Robin to cut him free.


Perched on the cliff ledge like birds on a wire, the sidekicks leered down at the factory workers as they moved about crates of the Venom steroid whilst Bane stood at the treeline with a knowing smirk firmly planted on his face. Raven didn't like that expression, she'd seen it too many times on her siblings'—& her own—faces to know that that expression usually meant trouble for the opposing party. In this case she just hoped that that opposing party was not the young sidekicks which had been strong armed into this tentative alliance.

"Look at all that product!" Robin gasped, binoculars tracing over the numerous forklifts that trundled about between armed guards, "A buy is going down! But if Cobra's not selling to the usual suspects, then—"

"—We need to identify that buyer" Aqualad interjected before another round of spats could take off. Kid Flash certainly looked like he was itching to go again.

"Just what I was thinking" Kid Flash agreed.

"Yeah!" Robin scoffed as he rose to his feet, "You're the thinker!"

"Sarcasm? Dude, a real leader would focus on getting answers…"

"Are you two going to fight all night?" Raven complained from off to the side where Bane was—impressively—lifting a large boulder out of the entrance to the mine shaft.

"We're not fighting!" Robin retorted, a slight pout on his lips.

"It's just a light bickering" Kid Flash agreed (for the first time that night with the boy detective), "Like arguing, but cuter"

"Did you just call yourself 'cute'?" Superboy mused, brows furrowed as Raven's expression exploded into a full-on grin.

"What? No! Shut up…"

"Answers" Bane huffed as he dusted off his hands, "Are this way"

"So, now El Luchado is our leader" Kid Flash sassed as they all followed after the brawler and into the mine shaft without much thought.

"Be careful what you say, boy" Bane smirked over his shoulder at the speedster who looked like he'd sucked on lemon when he was caught out, "They say these tunnels go so far, they'll take all the way down to Hell"

"No, you're thinking of the Newman Tunnels" Raven replied as if she were talking about the weather, practically skipping after the brawler. "And those ones barely even reach Limbo"

Bane blinked dumbly at the upbeat little girl next to him, as if Hellbound tunnels were an everyday deal. Who knows, to her, they might've been.