14 August 2010
Yarrow Residence, Las Vegas
Squatting in the bushes outside of the Yarrow residence, Rachel felt a little skeevy as they watched the lieutenant move about his home without his knowledge (she could've done without the strange towel rubbing in the light of the living room). At school, the girls were taught/warned about how boys (usually older) would try to sneak a peek at them, not the other way around. It was certainly an odd feeling, to say the least. "…Not too fancy" Robin noted pleasantly as he looked about the Las Vegas ranch in which Yarrow had taken up residence for his retirement. "Looks like Yarrow wasn't on the up & up like the others"
"I knew there was something about the guy that I liked" Wally grinned.
"Why're we just sitting here?" Conner huffed as he tried to hunch himself behind the small thicket, "We should get in there and warn him about how he's in danger…"
KA~BOOM!
The sudden explosion ripped through surrounding area, knocking all of them off of their feet and the breath from their lungs. The aftermath was intense; waves of heat flowed from the explosion, blistering all that it touched and pieces of wooden shards, bent pipes and daggers of glass flew towards them. Cowering on the ground, Rachel squeezed her eyes tight as her hands flew up to protect her head and she tried not to think of another night which had been bathed in blood & fire. Conner, who had been on her left, quickly threw himself over the young witch in an attempt to shield her from the blast, and a quick glance to the right showed her that the speedster had done the same for Robin.
"Are you okay?" Conner asked when he eventually rolled off of Rachel.
"Uh huh" Rachel nodded, blinking rapidly against the sudden change in light. "What 'bout you guys?"
"Yeah—koff—we're good" Robin coughed as he pushed his best friend off of him.
"Heh…Yarrow was in there!" Wally suddenly bolted upright, eyes blown wide as he stared up at the broken & burning remains of the Yarrow residence. Jumping to his feet, Wally took off for the burning building at superspeed without a second thought. The other three could only sit & watch as the speedster created a vacuum around the building, one that sucked up the flames and sent them spiralling towards the sky, until even those were snuffed out.
"Fast work, KF!" Robin greeted as the others ran to join the speedster at the fire's edge.
"Yeah…" Wally panted, bent over with his hands on his knees. "Not…fast enough. Yarrow's dead"
"Are you sure?" Rachel asked, standing on her tiptoes which helped her to catch sight of an arm and a leg reaching skyward. Both limbs had been horribly burnt, but the outstretched hand looked like it was clenched tightly around something—clearly something which had meant something significant to the man.
"Yeah" Wally sighed heavily as he pointed to the akimbo limbs, "See? There's his tattoo"
"Oh" Rachel fell back to her heels when her eyes followed his finger to the faded painting of an eagle on the man's bare bicep.
"I don't get it" Conner puzzled, "Rako's MO was swords and shuriken"
"But Rois' MO included demolitions" Robin replied.
"Doesn't that confirm that they were working together?" Rachel wondered, "Y'know, to complete the hit list?"
"And if Kaldur and the girls didn't have better luck with Polk, then he's probably dead too" Wally huffed, crossing his arms in defeat. "Along with any chance that we ever had of breaking open this case"
"Great"
14 August 2010
St. George Airfield, Utah
Now dressed once more in their hero costumes and once again reunited with the others, the Team moved as one into the main warehouse of the airfield on campus. It had been long abandoned, something often used by the local teenagers for parties and such, but once upon a time it had been an airfield for the military (as told by the worn stickers plastered about the place). "…Can we get this over with?" Kid Flash groaned as they entered the old warehouse.
"We can indeed" Came a voice from the shadows, halting the Team in the middle of the room. Even though Raven knew that they were walking into a trap, rather prepared (for once), the thought still wasn't able to calm her racing heart.
"You're Rako! General Trang's protege" Ms Martian exclaimed as a light clicked on overhead. To the right stood the golden-plated samurai from Trang's place, to the left stood a bearded man—who must've been Rois—in slacks and up ahead there was the man known as Yarrow. "All grown up, to become his murderer!"
"Which means you must be the CIA spook, Alec Rois" Artemis noted as she spun to face the agent, bow clenched tight in her hand.
"Alec Rois is dead" Rois denied, hands shoved in his pockets as he stared down the barrel of the bow.
"So, you're his ghost then, or whatever"
"That just leaves the big boss" Robin raised his chin to the sandy blonde standing over them, on the overhanging catwalk. Though they were boxed in on every sides, Raven felt like they were in some sort of bad 80s cop movie; all that was missing was the two scantily-clad women dressed in feathers & loud patterns on either side of the man.
"Henry Yarrow" Kid Flash growled, a glare narrowed at the smirking man above.
"You don't seem surprised" Yarrow noted, "Did you also guess that you were walking into a trap?"
"We did, actually" Kid Flash smirked, "Not much of a trap, though. Since we outnumber you seven to three"
"Unless you're talking explosives" Yarrow smirked as he happily watched the speedster's face fall. "My friend here, is holding a dead man's switch. If anything makes him unhappy or causes him to let go, then this whole hangar goes boom!"
"Grr!" Raven growled as she clocked the sight of the small red buttoned device in the agent's hands.
"After forty years in the arms game kid, lemme offer you a little tip: quality always beats quantity. Unless you're talking boobs, babes and coin"
Eurgh! Raven scrunched her nose up at the man's rather sleazy tone.
"You keep that in mind, son" Yarrow sneered as he leant up against the railing and turned from the golden-clad speedster to the glowering kryptonian who squared off against the samurai. "I see that 'S' down there. Hm, we can guess what that means. But your little pals aren't as invulnerable as you"
"Him?! Invulnerable?!" Rako exclaimed in disbelief, "My sword proved otherwise!"
"It proved nothing, Rako" Yarrow refuted, "Your sword was forged by our stolen government, X-Ioniser. Your sword could cut the real Superman, so why don't you just—Is that a chaos gem? It couldn't be…"
Raven grew tense under Yarrow's gaze, subconsciously she drew her legs up and closer to her chest, under the safe confines of her cloak. A sickly shiver ran down her spine and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as she tried not to cower beneath the man's gaze. She'd seen that kind of expression before, usually on the face of one of her demonic teachers, siblings or that of her father. It wasn't a good one; it was the kind that usually promised pain and degradation.
"On second thought, Rako—!" Yarrow called the samurai over, his gaze still glued to the floating witch. "Forget the krypto-brat and grab the witch. I've got guys that'll pay top dollar for a gem like her"
"No thanks" Raven immediately turned down as she eyed the samurai now facing her. Down below, the Team had grown tense and had formed a sort of circle of protection around their youngest member.
"Oh, it wasn't a question. Rako—"
"—Perhaps, we might return to the matter at hand?" Aqualad interjected, having grown tired of the old man's blithering as he placed himself in the path of the samurai with Raven at his back.
"Ah, apologies" Yarrow sneered, "Old men are so easily distracted, y'know? Now—wait a minute! Where's the flippin' boy wonder?"
"Hahahahaha~!" Robin's eery cackle filled the warehouse as he disappeared from his spot on the ground floor, only to reappear up on the catwalk next to Yarrow. "I'm flippin' your way, right now!"
"RAH!" Yarrow gasped as Robin kicked him backwards and just like that, the Team was on the move, "ROIS! BLOW THIS POPSICLE STAND!"
"I'M TRYING!" Rois panicked when he found that he could not lift his finger from the button; something that was, thanks to Ms Martian's telekinesis. "SOMETHING'S HOLDING MY THUMB DOWN!"
SCHWEEEET! SPLOSH!
Putty suddenly exploded out of the arrow that Artemis had shot towards Rois, enveloping both the outstretched hand and dead man's switch so that Ms Martian could release her telekinetic hold on the man's hands without risking an explosion should Rois (try to) let go. "NO!" Rois cried out in anger even as he tried to rip the putty off of his arm with his other hand. But it spread too quickly & was far stickier than he imagined it would be and just as Ms Martian telekinetically smacked away the wayward hand.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven cried, blanketing the agent in inky blackness and threw him across the warehouse, away from them.
"YES!" Kid Flash grinned in retribution, pumping his fist in emphasis.
Across the way, Aqualad found himself squared off against the samurai. "You! Young fool! No sword has ever stood up against mine!" Rako crowed as he pointed his blade towards the atlantean who stubbornly refused to move from his guard position.
"Then I shall not use swords" Aqualad replied as he pulled both of his twin water bearers from his pack and with a flick of his wrists, two torrents of water surged forward into Rako's face.
WHOOSH! SPLASH!
"Mmmppph!" Rako choked on the water being shoved against his face, against the gallons trying their best to push past stagnant lips and knocking aside the low-hanging helmet which had once sat upon his crown.
ZZZZTTT!
"RAAAGH!" Rako bellowed in pain as Aqualad then used atlantean magic to electrify the stream of water, and in turn, the samurai as well. The scent of burnt flesh immediately began to permeate the air and Raven buried her nose into the cowl of her cloak in an effort to muffle the scent. It didn't work as well as she'd hoped. Thankfully, however, it was enough to toss the gold-plated samurai off of his feet and knock the blade from his hand as he hit the ground. Another zap, for good measure, and he was out.
"…Robin!" Ms Martian cried, pulling Raven's attention away from Rako & Aqualad and over to where the boy wonder now found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol as he slowly backpedalled.
"You should've just let sleeping dogs lie, wonder brat!" Yarrow snarled, as he matched Robin step-for-step.
"Got 'em!" Superboy called as he shot off towards the catwalk, easily scaling the levels in a single bound.
RATTA~TATTA~TAT! RATTA~TATTA~TAT!
Yarrow fired wildly as Robin dodged as best he could. Thankfully, he didn't have to backpedal for too long because Superboy appeared from below and courageously placed himself in the line of fire. It was only due to his kryptonian genetics that the bullets ricocheted off of his chest and away from the pair. Beyond Superboy's shoulder, Robin spared a brief look of relief before another one of calculation & determination set in. In turn, both Raven and Ms Martian quickly threw up their hands in unison, an act which quickly redirected the wayward bullets towards other ends of the warehouse and away from them. Unfortunately, not all of them were caught by the two girls and one bounced back at Yarrow. It seemed to take him off guard as he stumbled back with a hand clutched to the red flower now blossoming across his chest.
"Huh" Yarrow gasped as he fell backwards, "Guess the kid…was…in-invulnerable…"
"Damn" Kid Flash cursed as he watched the former lieutenant fall.
"We still need the information from him!" Robin cried, practically climbing up Superboy's back in an attempt to get closer.
"Right" Ms Martian nodded as she flew over to the dying man. Kneeling next to his head (and trying her best to avoid the blood pooling on the catwalk), the martian placed both of her hands on either side of his head as she established a telepathic link with the man. 'Henry Yarrow, we MUST know the truth'
14 August 2010
Mount Justice, Happy Harbour
"…It begins and ends with Nathaniel Adams" Aqualad began. Standing in front of Captain Atom with a screen of Nathaniel Adams next to him, the Team presented their findings to the Leaguer as if it were a school presentation (and it was, kind of).
"Adams uncovered evidence of a weapons smuggling ring" Ms Martian continued, picking up where their leader had left off. "He brought intel of weapons drop to his superior officer, General Lemar. Unfortunately, Lemar was also a part of the smuggling ring and saw Adams' intel as an opportunity"
"With this intel, Lemar could get rid of both Adams and the head of the smuggling ring, Henry Yarrow" Raven went next as two more screens were added to the presentation; one of Yarrow and the other of Trang. "So Lemar tipped off their North Vietnamese contact, General Trang and Yarrow was simply instructed no to show at the drop. But Lemar had also secretly ordered Trang to ambush the next squad instead. All of them were meant to die, including Yarrow"
"But Adams spoilt Lemar's plan by heroically saving himself and Lieutenant Yarrow, which meant that Yarrow now had two problems" Kid Flash seamlessly picked up the witch's train of thought, "His incorruptible buddy, Nate, who knew that Lemar was now a part of the smuggling ring and Lemar himself, who had tried to have Yarrow killed"
"So Yarrow pitted one problem against the other" Artemis reported, standing tall as she stared down Captain Atom's stoically unimpressed stare. "It wasn't hard to get Adams riled up against Lemar and it wasn't hard to drug his drink, either. So that when Yarrow sent Adams off to confront Lemar, the drug took care of Nate and Yarrow's man, Polk, took care of Lemar by using his own knife against him. To frame him"
"The trial that followed was a joke!" Kid Flash chuckled dryly, "Nearly everyone involved—Yarrow, Mason, Blankly and Polk—were members of the smuggling ring"
"What about Eiling? The judge at the trial?" Captain Atom postured, looking rather content—and almost relieved—at the information provided.
"Eiling wasn't in the photo of the ring of co-conspirators because as far as we know, he truly believed that Adams' guilt was real" Robin replied as Eiling's headshot appeared on the screen next to the others.
"Didn't Yarrow's psychic death bed confession confirm that?" Captain Atom turned to the martian.
"I'm still new at reading a non-telepathic mind" Ms Martian excused, shuffling nervously in place as she replied. "And Yarrow died seconds after we linked…"
"Yeah, for the second time" Artemis scoffed, "Course, the first dead 'Yarrow' was actually Polk who had a matching tattoo"
"When we searched Polk's home, we were meant to think that he had packed a bag and fled" Aqualad added, "But the height of the body at Yarrow's residence matched Polk, not Yarrow"
"And when we found intel amongst the debris tipping us towards the airfield in St George, we knew it was too good to be true" Superboy ended, shaking Captain Atom's hand as if to seal the deal "It was too easy, so we knew we were being set up"
"Team, I am impressed" Captain Atom smiled in relief, "You did good work"
"Yeah" Artemis scoffed as she crossed her arms and turned away, "Work that came too late to help Nathaniel Adams…"
"…But not too late for his kids" Captain Atoms turned to the blonde and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Go and tell them what kind of man their father really was"
"Okay" Artemis smiled.
