13 August 2010
Mount Justice, Happy Harbour
"…When your mission relies on subterfuge, resist the urge to go on the offensive. The last thing you want to risk is exposing yourself and the Team because a covert operation means keeping to the shadows…" Not even a week later, Rachel found herself only half-pie listening to Captain Atom as he taught the sidekicks about the art of an undercover operation (because clearly, some of them were too versed in the art of espionage whilst others were not enough). Or at least, he was trying to, but it was clear to anyone who was looking, that they were clearly bored out of their minds.
Robin was either staring off into space or had taken a nap (it was hard to tell with the sunglasses) with his arms crossed over his chest. Wally had busied himself with devouring his snack collection (currently, he was halfway through his third banana) and Artemis looked every bit the bored teenager as she chewed obnoxiously on a piece of bright pink gum. Kaldur looked to be the only one actually taking notes, but if you looked closer, you'd note that his notebooks were filled with doodles pertaining to his atlantean crush: Tula. M'gann wasn't much different, only her notebook doodles tilted towards her fancy of Conner (who she unabashedly stared at with lovesick eyes). Conner, for all his studiousness, looked to be about two seconds away from collapsing onto his desk as he yawned for the umpteenth time and Rachel opted to play with her familiar instead; fiddling with the sparkly gel pens on the edge of her desk which Hugin had taken a great interest in.
"…Concealing your identities, infiltrating your targets and that means advanced research, study and long hours on stakeouts. And, of course, you must always remain alert—" Captain Atom paused, finally taking note of the lack of interest in his class. "—Is this boring you?"
"Oh no, Captain!" M'gann perked up, shaken from her stupor as she flushed in embarrassment. "It's quite…"
"Yawwwwwn…!" Rachel muffled an equally embarrassed yawn as the Team was called out by their teacher. Aside from the two girls however, the others didn't so much as blink at being called out and Conner, even replied rather honestly.
"—Yeah" Conner nodded, "Boring"
"Hm" Captain Atom hummed, recapping his pen before he turned to face the sidekicks, mind seemingly made up. "All right then, let's do something a little more practical. Perhaps a lesson in the field will be more your speed?"
"Huh?" Wally perked up at the idea about going outside.
"This" Atom pulled up a new screen which showed a confidential/classified file. "Is a cold case from the Vietnam era. Captain Nathaniel Adams, Untied States Air Force; convicted in 1968 of murdering Air Force General Clement Lemar. Adams died in prison, but I've received a tip that he was framed. Your assignment: prove Adams' innocence or reconfirm his guilt and report back to me"
"Really? You need superpowered operatives for this?" Conner quirked a disbelieving brow in question.
"Right then, shall I continue the lecture—?"
"—NO!" Chorused the sidekicks with more enthusiasm than was likely necessary.
13 August 2010
Arlington, Washington DC
Snuggled into the depths of the Pentagon's shadows, Raven waited patiently for Ms Martian to arrive. Stationed up in the air vents (where he seemed the most comfortable), Robin had taken up his position where he had already hacked into the Pentagon's system. In turn, the rest of the Team had split up after Captain Atom had presented to them this assignment; however dull it may have seemed at first (who cared about some old captain's cold case?), but it was leagues better than sitting in a cold classroom as their teacher bored them to tears.
'Coast is clear' Ms Martian reported as she parked the bioship (in camouflage) nearby, before following after the younger two who had already gone ahead; Robin into the vents and Raven into the shadows. 'Entering the Pentagon now'
'You ready?' Robin asked as he plugged into the security cameras and Raven settled in close to the shadows of General Eiling's office (the ones under his desk).
'Ready' Ms Martian replied as the three switched over to comms. When she next spoke, it was as Captain Morgan; a blonde woman in blue military fatigues and a simple pair of glasses. "General Eiling, sir!"
"At ease, Captain" General Eiling greeted with disinterest, not even sparing a glance up from his papers. "Sit and explain to me why the Judge Advocate General's Office is reopening this case"
"Respectfully, I am not at liberty to do that sir" The martian replied as she sat in one of the seats provided, perching on the edge of the seat. Raven grit her teeth against the waves of anxiety flowing off of the martian; she didn't need to be a telepath to know that the older girl was worried about being found out and by a powerful man, no less. "You were the judge at Adams' court martial, which makes you a potential witness—"
"—Witness to WHAT? The Adams case was open and shut!" Eiling retorted, slapping his papers against the desk with far more force than was necessary; so much so that Raven had to brace herself inside the scarce shadows so as not to tumble out onto his feet.
"…Why don't you just tell me what you remember, General?" Ms Martian grit out, swallowing thickly against the frustration that threatened to bubble out in response to his patronising tone.
"FINE" Eiling growled, settling back in his chair. "Nathaniel Adams was your classic MALCONTENT…We were barely acquainted before THE INCIDENT. In fact, I was BETTER acquainted with his VICTIM"
"Oh?"
"Adams blamed Lemar for a Viet Cong ambush, as if any officer would INTENTIONALLY get his own men killed! But Adams would NOT listen to reason. Mercifully, he was caught in the act by an MP Sergeant Polk, I think his name was…? Anyway, I was a Colonel when I drew up the case and I found Adams guilty & sentenced him to a life in prison. Turned out to be a short sentence because Adams took his own life before a year was out. Now, if that's all, I have a LOT of paperwork to get through"
"Sir" Ms Martian nodded primly before showing herself out of the door. Following the martian's lead, Raven slid from the shadows in the office (nothing else of note, besides the general's muttered grumblings, came about) and emerged out in the hallway once the coast was clear.
"Well" Raven hummed as she reappeared next to Ms Martian-turned-Captain-Morgan. "Wasn't he just a little ray of sunshine?"
###
On the second channel, the sounds of Superboy and Kid Flash's voices echoed out as Robin, Raven & Ms Martian reconvened in one of the shadowed rooms of the Pentagon; this time exchanging the information that they had been able to glean from either (former) military men. Eiling had been rather guarded about the whole thing, whilst Lieutenant Yarrow had been rather open about his apparent distaste of Eiling and Adams' guilty charge.
"…Adams worked in the Air Force Intelligence" Superboy began, reciting what they had been told as the sounds of Kid Flash chowing down on whatever he had been able to get his hands on (the speedster had taken great glee in devouring as much of the All You Can Eat buffet in Honolulu), filtered over the comms. Raven could've done without the chewing sound in her ears. "He suspected that a weapons smuggling ring had sprung up within the force and had confided as much to General Lemar. Lemar claimed to have heard rumours about it too and ordered Adams to take a squad to Hill 409"
"It was an ambush" Kid Flash swallowed audibly before he continued, "Adams saved Yarrow's life, but the rest of the squad wasn't so lucky. Adams was convinced that Lemar was part of the ring and had sent them into the ambush to die. Yarrow tried to talk him out of it, of course, but Adams confronted Lemar anyway"
"Turns out, Adams was drugged" Superboy easily picked up where Wally had left off. "Because when he woke, Lemar was dead and he was being framed for his murder. Yarrow was adamant that Adams would never kill a man in cold blood which was why he took on Adams defence case"
"Problem was—" Kid Flash burped, "—'scuse me—Problem was, the prosecutor, Lieutenant Kevin Blankly proved that Adams' service knife was the murder weapon and the medical examiner, Major Shirley Mason testified that there were no drugs in his system. So he was found guilty"
"The judge?" Ms Martian puzzled, "That was Eiling, right?"
"Right" Kid Flash nodded, "But get this! After Adams was sentenced to prison and died there, Eiling married Adams' widow and raised Adams' kids as his own!"
"…Talk about cuckoo!" Raven murmured, as she twirled her finger next to her ear.
"Raven!" Ms Martian scolded, though it was only half-hearted at best.
"What?"
"…If Adams was framed, then it looks like the next place to start is with this Shirley Mason" Robin smiled fondly, before pulling them back on track.
"The medical examiner who said Adams wasn't drugged?" Superboy replied.
"Yeah" Kid Flash nodded in agreement, "Sounds good"
A few moments later, guided by Robin's expert hacking skills, the trio found themselves in a more domestic corner of the Pentagon which supposedly belonged to the medical examiner that they were looking for. And they weren't wrong; but it wasn't exactly how they had hoped to find her. Upon entering Mason's room, they found the woman sprawled out on the floor and stinking of death.
"Split my infinities!" Ms Martian gasped in shock, one hand slapped over her mouth & nose whilst the other , quickly slapped one of her free hands over Raven's eyes in an attempt to shield her young eyes from the corpse. Raven didn't mind the action, in fact, she almost thought that it was kind of sweet even though she had seen far scarier things (herself, being one of those things) than a dead woman on the floor. Although, the glassy-eyed stare of the woman's gaze did unnerve her slightly even as she shifted Ms Martian's hand away.
"…Looks like the medical examiner needs a medical examiner" Robin swallowed thickly, using gallows humour in an attempt to lighten the situation.
"What's in her hand?" Raven puzzled, head tilted to the side as she tried to figure out what was clasped in the hand bent at an awkward angle and shoved underneath her body.
"I don't know" Robin replied, shining his light towards the limb in question. "We don't wanna disturb the crime scene, but we need to see what it is"
"…How's this?" Ms Martian levitated the corpse a few inches off of the floor, just far enough that the dust bunnies weren't disturbed and they were able to get a look at the item hidden in her hand. It was an old class photo.
"Perfect!" Robin chirped as he scanned the photo & logged it into his system. "Let's see…Looks like this photo was taken in the sixties. This woman might be Mason, but the sixties was so long ago"
"They don't have to be…" Ms Martian smirked as she took a step or two back from the younger two sidekicks.
"Huh?" Raven turned to watch as the martian took note of the woman in the photo and the one at their feet, before her head & shoulders began to change.
"Here's the woman in the picture" She appeared as the blonde woman—Shirley Mason—in her military fatigues, before shifting to the woman at their feet. "And here's the woman on the floor. Their muscular-skeletal structure is the same"
"That cinches it, right?" Raven turned to a pensive Robin, "That makes her Mason, right?"
"I'll run the facial recognition software to be sure" Robin replied, "And on the others in the photo; it could take a while, but I should be able to generate a list of names to go along with Mason's—"
CLICK~CLACK! CLICK~CLACK! CLICK~CLACK!
The sound of angry footsteps echoed throughout both the hallways and the shadows, as they zeroed in on Mason's room. Raven knew it was only a matter of time before they were found out, and it would do them no good to be caught here; they didn't need to redo Adams' framed-for-murder scene. Turning to her peers, Raven's gaze connected with theirs. "We gotta go"
