Not twenty minutes later, the Team found themselves crowded around a large circular door (one which had no right to be in a mine shaft) which Bane opened with a swipe of his thumb. Raven knew that this was Bane's 'secret entrance' but even then, she had to wonder, if it was so secret why was there a fingerprint lock that only he was keyed into? Just how involved was Bane? And should they really have been trusting him?
"…All clear" Robin reported after a moment as he peered through the gap in the next door (this one looked like it belonged in an office building of some kind). Amused, Bane's lips quirked upwards at the little bird who poked his head out of the doorway, beneath him.
"Has that little fool already been caught?" Bane huffed as they followed after the boy wonder, only to find him gone as soon as they'd stepped inside.
"No" Aqualad heaved a tired sigh, "He just does that…"
"We should really put a bell on him…" Raven mused quietly to herself, though the others still heard.
"Or three" Kid Flash grinned as he pulled his goggles down over his eyes and plucked a raven feather from his hair that he'd missed earlier. "Stay put, I'll get our intel and be back before the boy wonder—"
"—Wait! Kid—!" Aqualad objected, vainly trying to catch the speedster before he could leave.
"Great chain of command" Bane sassed with a roll of his eyes.
What? Raven huffed as she crossed her arms, It's not like we're Leaguers!
Down at the docking bay, Raven found herself seated amongst the shadows as they watched crates of the steroids move about. There were more cultists on the tarmac than inside the warehouse, so Raven could only assume that there was some kind of big league buyer on the way, the kind that demanded armed guards and crates of illegal steroids to be shipped under the cover of darkness.
"It's a massive shipment" Aqualad noted from where he sat crouched behind a stack of crates & barrels.
"Yeah, but they're only taking new product off the line" Superboy replied as he peered around the barrel he was using for cover. "They're not touching this Venom"
"Maybe…freshness counts?" Ms Martian suggested from where she was squashed between the two.
"Helicopter's coming" Superboy reported, his eyes snapping up towards the undisturbed starry sky. Following his gaze and trusting in his super hearing, they waited for the aforementioned vehicle to come into view and when it did, they were greeted to the sight of Sportsmaster, Shimmer, Lord Cobra, his champion (who looked like a carbon copy of Dr Desmond, but ginger) and his cultists gathering together on the tarmac.
Sportsmaster is the buyer? Raven blinked as she silently catalogued those faces that she knew. Turning to share her thoughts with the others, she quickly found herself alone—even Bane had disappeared. Sulking a little, Raven tried not to drown in the feelings of abandonment as she radioed the rest of the Team. "Superboy? Robin? Anyone there?" Or at least that was the idea, instead she only received grating static in reply. Great. Alone again.
After sparing another glance over her shoulder at the desolate warehouse, Raven made up her mind to take a closer look at the helicopter in the hopes that it would unravel a few more secrets. Swimming through her shadows, the witch eventually popped out next to the stationary machinery and after checking to make sure that the coast was clear (or at least that the gathered group were still occupied with each other). It was all going so well too, until gunfire lit up the warehouse, catching everyone's attention.
They really can't go anywhere, can they? Raven cursed to herself as she imagined her peers now engaged in an all out battle. Lord Cobra ordered every one of his men inside—Sportsmaster & Cobra's champion included—leaving the cult leader & his handmaiden remaining on the tarmac. It seemed that in all her carefulness, Raven's brief lapse of concentration had alerted the cult leader to her presence which was why she was forced to flee the helicopter and leave behind any potential evidence she had been hoping to find & maybe cause a little chaos as well.
Instead, she found herself caught in the crosshairs between Lord Cobra and his handmaiden, Shimmer. Body tensed and hands clenched into claws beneath her cloak, she eyed the two parties with much trepidation as the nightly gale (which had been plaguing them since they'd arrived, but only really picked up in the last few hours) knocked back her hood to reveal who she truly was. Illuminated by the light of crimson gunfire, the gem on her forehead seemed to glow in the dark, making sure that there was no way she'd be able to deny who or what she was. She could almost hear Fate laughing at her.
"Ah…Lady Munin" Lord Cobra drawled as his gaze alighted upon her bejewelled forehead, "I'd heard rumours of your return and your subsequent downfall"
"My downfall?" Raven inquired, eyes narrowed at the cult leader before her. She didn't know how Cobra knew how she was, but like she'd said before, cults tended to run in the same circles. So it wasn't unheard of for the serpentine man to know of her. Particularly, if she took into account the reputations of Lords & Ladies of Chaos and the Apostles of Trigon. It was a small circle and gossip travelled fast, but it made her wonder. What are you playing at? What do you know?
"How you'd fallen in league with these heroes" He spat out the word like it tasted vile on his tongue, "Wouldn't you prefer to be part of something a little more chaotic? Something a little more fun?"
"What would you have me do?" She stalled.
"Join us, we can show you the world as it was foretold! Together we can bring about the prophecies as foretold by our forefathers…!"
'Everyone online?' Ms Martian's voice rang through her head, though the witch more or less ignored her (though that was more because she wasn't paying attention to the other voices in her head aside from her own).
'Ugh! Yeah…' Superboy huffed in reply to the martian's question.
'Y'know it, beautiful!' Kid Flash managed to sound flirty despite the situation.
'Busy now' Robin sang, sounding almost childish as random flickers of scientific equations & half-baked plans flitted through his mind.
'Good, we need to regroup' Aqualad ordered, easily taking charge.
'…Why do villains monologue so much?' Raven wondered to herself, not quite aware that she had been mentally linked with the rest of Team, whilst she let Lord Cobra rattle on about whatever 'business venture' he had up his sleeve for her.
'Raven?' Asked Ms Martian, sounding confused. 'Is that you?'
'Like, is it a compulsion thing?' Raven steamrolled on. 'Do they HAVE to do it? Are they like, practising it in the mirror beforehand or is it all just off the cuff?'
'Y'know, I've often wondered that…' Kid Flash mused. 'Why DO they do that?'
'Raven! Regroup! NOW!' Cried Aqualad, his tone sounding urgent enough to break Raven from her personal thoughts.
'Kaldur? When d'you—? OW!' Her little moment of distraction was enough for wayward gunfire to strike a target. That target being her forehead which the bullet cut a neat line across, digging a small trench into her flesh and bouncing off of her gem. It was barely more than a scratch, but pissing blood like you wouldn't believe.
Almost as if in shock, her fingers trailed up to the bleeding appendage as the world turned to static around her, the only noises she could hear coming from inside her own head. Which, y'know, given any other situation would've sent straight to the psych ward. 'You hit me in the forehead! Who hits in the forehead?'
'Raven!' Ms Martian panicked, likely sharing in the feeling of numbness of shock. 'Are you okay? Where are you?'
'Outside…Oh, that's not good…' She blinked languidly at the viscous red liquid that coated her gloves. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that Lord Cobra almost seemed…concerned. 'Are foreheads s'posed to bleed this much?'
'Rae!'
'Are you okay?!'
'That sounds like shock—is she going into shock?' Kid Flash, Superboy & Robin's voices overlapped each other, tones filled with concern at her nonchalant query.
'Raven!' Aqualad's voice was clear & strong. 'Stay where you are, we'll come to you'
'Why's it bleeding so much? It's barely a scratch!' She whined, trying to plug up the small mark on her forehead. If she hadn't known any better, she'd have thought Teekl, her brother's familiar, had turned her into a scratching post. Again.
'Raven…?' Robin almost sounded scared.
'There's medical supplies in the Bioship' Reported Ms Martian, 'Go, she'll help patch you up'
'Raven? Go to the Bioship. Get patched up' Aqualad asserted, agreeing with the martian. 'We'll meet you there'
'Okay…' Raven hummed absently as the shadows at her feet surged upwards to swallow her whole. A noise of surprise fell from Shimmer's lips as the witch sank into the ground, but she could've sworn she heard Lord Cobra mention a farewell.
"Til next we meet, Lady Munin" Thankfully, Lord Cobra made no move to stop her as she retreated into the shadows.
Trapped inside the blocked mine shaft, the elder members of the Team finally found themselves with a moment's respite, however tense it may have been. With half their minds concerned with their youngest member injured & traipsing back through the jungle alone and the other half still on the mission, it was fair to say they needed a moment to breathe.
"How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" Robin despaired, fiddling with his belt as Aqualad cracked open several glow sticks for them to see by.
"You do have the most experience" Acquiesced Aqualad, "But perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman, your roles are defined—you two do not need to talk—but this Team is new and a leader must be clear. Explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan"
"Oh! So I'm s'posed to hold everyone's hands?!" Robin snapped irritably in retort. "Gah!"
"Dude!" Kid Flash replied, "Communication is everything! Raven got left alone and now she's hurt…What if Fate never lets her back on the Team?"
"She may be powerful, but she is still learning" Aqualad agreed diplomatically as they watched the detective's face fall at that reminder. Sometimes it was hard to remember that the witch was in fact, only ten years old. "We all are"
"Oh, who am I kidding?" Robin sighed dejectedly, shoulders slumping over with the weight of it all. "You should lead us, Kaldur, you're the only one who can"
"Please!" Kid Flash scoffed, crossing his arms in defiance despite his earlier support of the atlantean. "I can run circles—"
"—Wally, c'me on! Y'know he's the one, we all do"
"Hello Megan! It's so obvious!" Ms Martian chirped, hands on hips.
"Coulda told ya that" Superboy shrugged as if it were obvious, and maybe it was.
"…Okay" Kid Flash easily agreed (though he was also outnumbered) as they all turned to look at him.
"Then I accept the burden, until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders" Aqualad nodded, a slight smile gracing his lips as he directed his words towards the boy wonder. "You were born to lead this Team, maybe not now but soon"
"Mm" Robin nodded, a gentle smile on his face.
"Alright" Aqualad turned to the others, all business with shoulders set back straight. "Our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island"
"Funny, I had the same thought"
"Sportsmaster's the supplier/buyer, but it still doesn't track" Robin puzzled as they made their way to the exit with a plan now in mind. Hopefully this last-minute-get-their-act-together-thing wasn't going to become a habit. "He doesn't have the juice to acquire the Blockbuster formula or to get Cobra to do his dirty work!"
"And neither of them the chops to bond Blockbuster with Venom" Kid Flash continued, "That took some major nerdage"
"I believe the expression is 'tip of the iceberg" Aqualad replied as they soon came to a stop, mere feet from the entrance. Only this time, they found themselves blocked by the imposing figure of Bane.
"Halt, niños" Bane smirked, detonator in hand whilst a smattering of explosives sang upon their heads. "I'm feeling…explosive"
"You betrayed us! Why?" Implored Aqualad, stalling for time.
"I want my factory back—" Bane replied as if it were obvious.
'Kid, you'll need a running start' Aqualad telepathically told the speedster who shuffled back a pace or two. The atlantean just hoped the brawler took his reaction for fear instead of preparation.
"—So I forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies or die trying" Bane continued to boast, "If the latter, the Justice League would certainly have come to avenge their sidekicks and when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more! It's a pity the little one isn't here to join you, but blowing the tunnel with you inside? Should have the same effect"
"With what?" Kid Flash smirked (just barely holding in the protective growl that threatened to make itself known) as he skidded to a stop just passed Bane's shoulder and waved the detonator tauntingly in the air. "This trigger thingy?"
The brawler barely got to cry out his frustrations before Ms Martian was telekinetically lifting him up into the air, suspending him amongst the trees as they all calmly wandered over. Superboy, ever gleeful, braced himself beneath the suspended man and took great pleasure in knocking him out as he was dropped. A few awkward movements later and the brawler found himself tied back up to a tree, only this time, they made sure to give him a nice view of his factory.
From there, it was only a matter of picking off goons & cultists like they were bowling pins, a feat that Kid Flash gladly took to. Whilst a torrent of water (courtesy of Aqualad) took care of Lord Cobra's champion, Superboy busied himself with Sportsmaster, allowing Ms Martian to sneak aboard the helicopter to plant the explosives they'd extracted from the mine. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Unfortunately, Ms Martian soon found herself held hostage by Sportsmaster as he fled the scene; at least until he crossed the threshold of the helicopter before tossing her out. He only got so far before the planted explosives were ignited and the vehicle burst into a ball of flame that crashed into the factory, taking down two birds with one stone.
In turn, Robin found himself tangling with Lord Cobra (as Shimmer had been taken out of commission). It wasn't going as well as he'd hoped. "I am plagued by mosquitoes!" Lord Cobra sighed dejectedly as he pinned Robin beneath his foot without any real effort.
"Good! 'Cause this mosquito's mighty concerted over your pain!" Robin spat as he rolled out from beneath the foot holding him down. At his call, the others soon joined their peer, leading Cobra to become outnumbered five to one.
"…Another time then" Lord Cobra acquiesced as he slipped back into the shadows and disappeared from sight.
"We picked the right guy to lead" Robin chuckled in relief as they stood watching from afar as Santa Prisca's factory went up in smoke. "Automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to Batman! Hehe~!"
"How is she?" Superboy inquired from inside the Bioship where they'd found Raven curled up asleep in the med-bay, her cloak draped around her like a blanket and a cartoonish bandaid slapped to her forehead.
"Good" Ms Martian hummed as her fingers trailed over the girl (she'd never seemed so small before) and the equipment around her. "It's already scarring quite nicely, thanks to her, uh, cambion physiology"
"Good, that's good" The kryptonian nodded in relief, arms crossed as he listened to her gentle heartbeat. When they'd first linked up, everyone could just how much of a shock the wound had been (however minor it turned out to be) to the little witch. Flurries of shock, numbness and confusion had fluttered through the connection, making the rest of the Team worry because Raven wasn't exactly the kind to panic outright.
And then again when they had returned to the ship, Robin had been oh so concerned with finding a pulse, that it almost seemed manic. It wasn't until Raven had tiredly knocked away his wandering hands with a grumbled comment about "ravens in the library" whatever that meant. In any case, it was enough assuage their fears about the young witch and gave them the courage to brave the dressing down that Batman had prepared for them. And what a dressing down it was! At least he complimented their choice of leadership, so silver linings and all that.
