8 August 2010
Happy Harbour High School, Happy Harbour

'Ms Martian, link us up!' Aqualad commanded as each member of the Team stationed themselves around the high school, and in turn, the doctor. 'We do not want the Shadows intercepting our comms'

'Everyone online?' Ms Martian asked as she linked all of their minds as had become the norm for them.

'Ugh!' Artemis groaned, 'This is…weird!'

'And distracting!' Sterling grunted in agreement, 'Coding a distributive algorithm virus on a kiddy computer with less RAM than a wrist watch is hard enough. NOW, I have to hear teen think in my skull?!'

'Lady' Kid Flash scoffed around a granola bar, 'D'you always complain when people try to help you?'

'Pot—kettle' Artemis retorted nonchalantly, 'Have you met?'

'Hey—hey! I do not need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the Team!'

'That is SO not on me!'

'Fate. Of. The. World. At. Stake!' Sterling irritably interjected.

'She started it!' Kid Flash petulantly whined.

'Biat Azar…!' Raven groaned into her hands from where she sat perched on the roof, watching the unrelenting shadows around them. Not even ten minutes into their mission and the two were already at each other's throats. Hugin, who sat at her shoulder seemed to agree as he headbutted her crown in embarrassment. That, or he was going to sleep.

'How about I just help Ms Martian, Superboy & Raven patrol the perimeter?' Artemis huffed as she strode outside; more than done with this conversation. Satisfaction poured off of the speedster in waves, as if winning that petty little spat had boosted his ego.

'Good idea' Aqualad agreed, sounding more like a tired older sibling than ever before.

'You might cut her some slack' Robin hissed to his best friend as the blonde wandered out into the hall. 'It was HER arrow that saved your butt against Raven & Amazo'

'W-what?! No! That was Speedy's—I mean—Red Arrow's arrow, right?' Kid Flash spluttered.

Up on the roof, Raven waved off Ms Martian's look of concern but it did not stop the guilt from cutting her deep. Though the pair had made up, the young witch still felt guilty for hurting one of her friends (even if it was to avenge her familiar).

'Eh…not so much' Robin shrugged.

'Ugh!' Kid Flash pouted, 'Well, still not giving her the satisfaction!'

'Y'know, I can STILL hear you!' Artemis piped up at the right time, her tone swimming with mirth.

'UGH!'

'Heh…' Sterling sighed painfully, 'I couldn't get the Justice League!'

'The virus won't be of much use if we cannot find the weapon' Aqualad smoothly interjected, shutting down all further complaints in the process. 'Can you track it?'

'My Utility Fog is NOT a weapon!' Sterling replied hotly, 'It's science—BRILLIANT science!—and OF COURSE I can track it. But I'd have to go online! Might as well rent a billboard with this address and "Assassinate Me!" written in neon!'

'We WILL protect you'

'…Tracking The Fog now'


A certain tenseness hung over the local high school as the lone occupants waited in the dark for the enemies to come. As the night wore on, Raven found herself not needing the telepathic link nor her empathic abilities to know that stress and anxiety was pouring off of her peers in waves. Confronting the League of Shadows was a big deal; even one or two of their assassins were said to be able to slaughter hundreds and get away unharmed.

The witch spared a glance over her shoulder as Superboy hopped passed, traversing from one side of the school to the other in a series of bounds that unnerved the nearby wildlife. 'Mmm~!' Artemis hummed, her tone full of lust. 'That boy~!'

'HE can hear you!' Ms Martian snarked, jealousy thick in her tone 'WE can all hear you!'

'Oh, I know' Artemis smirked.

'Gross!' Raven scrunched up her nose in disgust as she felt both Superboy's uncomfortable confusion and Ms Martian's jealousy that mingled with Kid Flash's blatant disbelief. Teenagers were so weird, she just hoped that she never had to deal with any of that any time soon.

'Ms Martian' Aqualad chimed in, 'Doctor Roquette has located The Fog. Reconfigure the Bioship so that Robin and Superboy can pursue'

'Acknowledged' Ms Martian nodded, pulling down her martian ship from where it had languished amongst the clouds, unseen. 'Ready'

'Thanks, Ms M!' Robin tossed over his shoulder as he and the kryptonian trotted up the ramp and took off for the Fog's location.

The spaceship had barely disappeared into the dark horizon when Ms Martian seemed to explode, her emotions becoming far too much for a girl to bare. 'You embarrassed Superboy!' Ms Martian chastised the blonde, arms crossed as Raven rolled her shoulders. They'd become stiff after sitting still for so long, even without the added weight of her familiar who had disappeared back into the depths of her cloak whilst nothing of import was going on.

'Didn't hear HIM say that!' Artemis retorted mercilessly. Raven rolled her eyes; it was like listening to one of Kent's daytime soap operas.

'MUST you challenge everyone?'

'Where I come from, that's how you survive'

Suddenly, a glint in the shadows to her right and the flutter of whisper-soft footsteps that padded against the path caught the witch's attention, pulling her from her perch. Trotting over to the edge of the building, Raven climbed atop the old air conditioning unit and leant out as far as she could go to get a better look at what it might've been. She assumed that, like the rest of the close calls that night, it would be some nocturnal bird or an unkempt squirrel scurrying from tree to tree in search of someplace to rest. What she didn't expect was the hard blow to the noggin. She didn't even see them—hear them—coming. The next thing Raven knew, the blackness of unconsciousness blanketed her vision and she collapsed back onto the unit beneath her feet without so much as a peep.


At some point in the evening, Kid Flash had migrated to the hall, first in search of water and a vending machine and then back to stand guard by the computer lab's door. Left alone with Dr Sterling, Aqualad paced listlessly so that he did not become a nuisance by hanging over the doctor's shoulder. But time was running out and he had no doubt that they'd soon have company. The League of Shadows were not patient people.

CREAK!

The creak of the door alerted him first and as he turned to greet who he assumed must've been Kid Flash checking up on how they were doing or to give a report, or some other unneeded comment to hurry the doctor along (sometimes the speedster forget that they were, in fact, psychically linked and he didn't need to verbally express what was going on. And other times it was the reverse; when he'd forget they were linked and think of something the others did not want to hear. The latter happened more often than not).

WHIR!

Instead Aqualad was greeted by a metallic projectile which sang as it flew through the crack in the door. Thinking on his feet, the atlantean threw himself in front of the doctor, mindlessly slapping the projectile from the air as he did so. Silently, he cursed himself for not being more prepared, for allowing the Team to spread themselves thin across the high school in an attempt to cover more ground once Robin and Superboy had departed.

"Doctor! Get down!" Aqualad ordered, climbing to his feet as the blonde jumped in surprise. Moving quickly, he shoved her out of the way just in time too, as more projectiles found themselves in his path. Only this time they became embedded in his forearm, which he'd raised to block the attack.

"Mm, that had to hurt!" Purred the feline assassin, Cheshire.

"Atlantean skin is quite dense" He replied, simply flicking the weapons from where they lay without flinching. Instead, he plucked both twin bearers from his pack and moved to engage Cheshire.

"And my shuriken are quite poisonous!" Cheshire pressed close.

'M'gann, Kid, Raven, Artemis!' Aqualad grunted over the twin water blades crossed in front of his face. 'We are under attack in the computer lab'

'On our way!' Artemis replied, the sound of slamming doors inside the high school as they approached, agreed with her statement.

Dancing with Cheshire—for it was certainly more of a dance instead of a fight—Aqualad quickly found that keeping Doctor Sterling safe was going to be a challenge; which was why he had called for the Team. Underhanded tricks & snap-call judgements were quick to be used, and even then they were close calls. Very close calls; one sai going so far as to slice off a few strands of hair as the doctor ducked behind a desk. Aqualad could only hope that this mission did not turn out like the one with Selena Gonzalez.

"Almost~!" Cheshire grinned lecherously, "Poison slowing you down?"

"Jellyfish toxin" Aqualad replied smugly as he struggled with the cat, "I am largely immune"

"Largely" Cheshire smiled before headbutting the sidekick which had him collapsing to the floor with a pained grunt at her feet. Sai poised to kill, the assassin barely had time to gloat before an arrow emerged from the darkness and snatch the weapon from her hand. "Ah!"

"Don't. Move" Artemis ordered, stepping into the room from the back door, with her bow & arrow trained on the equally green feline.

"Mmhm~! This gigs getting interesting" She purred as Aqualad rolled to his feet, twin water bearers bared and the doctor at his back. Cheshire's sais were quickly replaced with a whip-sword that snapped together with a click and sliced through Artemis' rain of arrows like a hot knife through butter. Barely two minutes later, they were joined by a rather drenched Kid Flash and a concerned Ms Martian who placed themselves in front of the doctor as well. "Maybe a little too interesting"

POOF!

Aqualad's hand encircled itself around Doctor Sterling's wrist, afraid that in the confusion of the smoke bomb, Cheshire would grab the doctor in her retreat. Thankfully, she did not. Instead, the feline assassin slipped from the room under the cover of confusion, smoke and teenage angst; a distraction as created by Kid Flash as he dove into the dark cloud, hoping to grab her before she left. Instead, he found himself caught in the arms of the archer he did not want to be near.

"Ugh! Gone!" Kid Flash complained as the smoke dissipated, revealing only the sidekicks left behind.

"She's getting away!" Doctor Sterling cried as Aqualad checked to make sure that she was unharmed. It wouldn't do them any good, if the one person they'd sworn to protect ended up injured. "You're letting her get away!"

"This is all your fault! You were on perimeter!" Kid Flash turned on the archer as Aqualad stepped back, certain the doctor was fine, but sported an affronted expression that looked strange on his usually stoic features. "How'd that Shadow get in?!"

"That's—that's not really fair" Ms Martian interjected, a little hesitantly. "Raven and myself were outside too"

"Outside…being distracted by…her! Besides, I can't be mad at you…" The speedster retorted, '…You gave me mouth-to-mouth'

'WE HEARD THAT!' Chorused the Team.

"Dang it!" Kid Flash cursed, stomping off to the other side of the room, only to pause as if the thought had just occurred to him. "Wait—where is Raven?"

'Raven?' Ms Martian worried as she called through the mental link. 'Raven, are you there?'

'Ugh! Biat Azar…!' Raven groaned as she came too, head aching. A wave of relief spread through the Team as they heard the mental voice of their youngest member reply. 'Mad'a a'bani…?'

'Raven! Are you all right?!'

'Huh—wha—M'gann? Oh yeah, I'm all right'

"Phew…" Kid Flash sighed, a shared weight lifted from their shoulders at that.

"I didn't do half as well during my first battle" Ms Martian then moved to comfort the archer who remained stand-offish from when she had been called out, "And I know you can't have been Green Arrow's sidekick for very long—"

"—Focus, everyone" Aqualad interjected. They didn't have time for niceties. "The Shadows will be back any minute"

"Robin to Aqualad!" Robin suddenly chirped over the comms as the wayward pair got into contact for the first time since they'd left. "We're over Philadelphia. We've located the Shadow's next target; Star Labs, but we're too late! It's destroyed! Totally destroyed, The Fog decimated it! This is BAD! Star Labs is cutting-edge science and now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy! What's our next move?"

"Rescan for The Fog. Find it" Aqualad commanded, "We're moving the doctor"