The four man team consisting of Captain Marvel, Robin, Artemis and Superboy moved stealthily through the trees of the forest they'd ventured into, in an attempt to avoid any potential hostiles in the vicinity.
They'd arrived in India a few hours ago after which Robin had sunk the submarine into the ocean via remote control until they were ready to leave, to protect it from prying eyes and anyone who might try to help themselves to it.
Since then they'd been on high alert as they searched through the forest for anything that looked out of place. They had just come upon a small clearing when Superboy noticed some slight red stains on the ground and splatters of it on some of the plants around. His extraordinary sense of smell told him exactly what it was, making him narrow his eyes.
"Stop! There's something over there." The black clad teen called pointing out the stains to the other members of the team.
Robin cautiously walked up to the larger stain on the ground and stuck a cotton swab into it, bringing it up to his face to inspect it. He didn't need to analyze it before realizing what it was. The pungent coppery smell was more than enough.
"It's dried blood, probably from the attack on the poacher mentioned in the mission briefing. I guess they weren't able to clean it all up." The caped hero finished with a sombre expression.
The rest of the team all had adopted serious expressions as they realized that this mission might be more serious than they first realized. Robin quickly fell into the leadership role and was giving orders in an instant.
"I guess this means we're on the right track, I'd say we split up and cover more ground but if the gorillas that killed those poachers are still around, chances are we're going to end up running into them. I don't want anyone by themselves when that happens."
"Artemis, Superboy, you two go together, I'll go with Captain Marvel. We'll go three miles around the forest meet up and work our way toward the center. Any objection?"
Getting none, the dark haired boy ordered them to move out, heading off in one direction with Captain Marvel hot on his heels while Superboy and Artemis headed in another. All the while a set of red eyes had been watching them hidden safely in the thick bushes. The owner of said pair stalked out into the clearing, revealing itself to be a massive gorilla, equipped with an automatic machine gun.
It let out a growl and started to in the direction Captain Marvel and Robin had gone, only to stop abruptly and fall face first on the ground. Lodged deep in the back of it's neck was a kunai. Just then the masked Naruto jumped down from the tree he'd been standing in, landing right next to the masked mammal.
The gorilla glared balefully into the visible eye of the blond. It's red eyes showed only malice and anger, even as the life bled out of them.
Naruto stood over the now dead animal for a few moments before turning towards the direction he'd seen Artemis go in, silently stalking after them.
In China, Aqualad and Kid Flash dressed in casual outfits were approaching the neighborhood where the attempted burglary had taken place. As they headed toward the address, the two were arguing over what cover story to tell for why two teens were poking around a past crime scene. All things considered it was a ridiculous conversation.
"I think we should go with a term paper. If anyone asks, we're here because were doing a paper on burglaries and super heroes." Wally said while tossing while tossing some Chinese dumplings he'd gotten from a street vendor into his mouth.
"Would it not be more believable for us to maintain our tourist cover. It would proffer a more viable explanation, would it not? Plus it does come with some added benefits." He stated subtly indicating to the camera hung around his neck. He slightly adjusted his hat and jacket collar so that they hid his features better, most especially his gills.
"Oh come on dude, we can take pictures with our phones, besides I doubt anyone's gonna let a couple of tourists into their house. I mean what are we even gonna say. 'Oh hi, we heard that you guys almost got robbed and so we wanted to take some pictures of your house, because that is totally what tourists do.'" Wally said, stating the last part with an overly friendly voice before dropping off into a sarcastic tone.
"Obviously we would need to be more tactful in their approach, besides I do not see how they'd be any more willing to open their doors to us if we went with your suggestion." Aqualad responded coolly, quirking a single eyebrow in question.
"Dude, easy, adults like seeing kids do homework!" Wally responded finishing the last of his dumplings.
Kaldur sighed and shook his head at the response, and after mentally questioning whether or not it would be beneficial to poke holes into the speedsters logic decided to answer.
"I do not believe that there is any school that would give their students such an assignment, much less any students who would travel around the world to complete it." Aqualad argued before noticing that they were in front of the house. There was a sign outside with some Chinese characters written on in, bit seeing as neither could read Chinese and Wally could only say a few basic things, they decided to ignore it.
"I still say we go with my idea." Wally said. The Atlantean ignored him however, opting to ring the doorbell. Getting no answer, he tried it two more times with the same result.
"Maybe they're not home." Kid offered.
"Seems so. We'll need to come back when it's dark out and see if we can make our way in. Perhaps that was for the best, after all our stories had little weight to them anyway." Aqualad said walking away from the house.
"I still think my idea would have worked!" He called at the Atlantean who was still walking. "Hey wait up!"
Wally jogged up to dark skinned teen at normal speed, and fell into pace beside him.
"So, where are we going anyway?" He asked
"Watching you eat all the way here, has made me rather famished myself. I was hoping to find a place to eat." He was interrupted by Kid's finger over his lips.
"Say no more, eating food is one of my specialties. Stick with me and we'll hit all the food places around, starting with that dumpling place back there." Kid excitedly said jogging off in that direction.
Aqualad gave a sigh of exasperation, hoping that he'd at least get to eat something, and that the hyperactive speedster wouldn't get them into much trouble. With that thought he ran after the speedster.
Soon the two were out of sight of the masked blond that had been tailing them since they landed. This was one of Naruto's shadow clones. It had been assigned to tail the superhero duo while another had been sent after Miss Martian.
It was supposed to follow the teens around and find out what they were looking for and then dispel so that Naruto could decide on how to proceed. Naruto hadn't known how long it would take so he'd given the clone enough chakra to last about a week.
Needless to say, neither the original nor the clone were expecting for the two to discuss their entire plan on the streets in broad daylight. Sure they whispered most of the important parts but that hardly mattered when considering his enhanced senses.
The blond now having completed his directive was left with nothing to do. He still has more than enough chakra to last him till the end of the week, and he was being tempted by the ideas his mind was drawing up to mess with the two superheroes. He just had to confirm something first.
Henging into the form of a rather plain looking Chinese man, he walked up to the house neighboring the one the two teens had gone up to and knocked on the door.
A woman answered the door and the disguised blond asked her a question in Chinese.
"Nǐ hǎo. Wǒ shìzhe qiāo nǐ línjū de mén, dàn méiyǒu huíyīng. Nǐ zhīdào tāmen shénme shíhòu huílái ma?" (Hello, I tried knocking on your neighbor's door but there was no answer. Do you know when they will be back?)
"Nǐ wèishéme yào zhǎo tāmen, nǐ rènshí tāmen ma?" (Why are you looking for them, do you know them?)
"Shì de, wǒ shì tāmen jiā de péngyǒu, hěnjiǔ méiyǒu jiàn dào tāmenle, suǒyǐ wǒ juédìng chèn wǒ hái zài dùjià de shíhòu qù kànwàng tāmen." (Yes, I am a friend of their family and I haven't seen them for a long time, so I decided to visit them while I was still on vacation.)
"Duìbùqǐ, tāmen huì líkāi yīduàn shíjiān. Nǐ kàn, bùjiǔ qián yǒurén chuǎng rù tāmen jiā bìng shìtú qiǎngjié tāmen. Hǎo zài tā hái méi láidéjí zuò, jiù bèi xīn yīngxióng lánzhùle. Dàn tāmen réngrán gǎndào zhènjīng, méitǐ de guānzhù lìng rén jǔsàng, suǒyǐ tāmen juédìng xiūjià, liǎng zhōu hòu yīnggāi huílái." (Sorry, they will be away for a while. You see, someone broke into their home not long ago and tried to rob them. Fortunately, he was stopped by the new hero before he could do anything. But they were still shocked and the media attention was becoming frustrating, so they decided to take a vacation and should be back in two weeks.)
"Kěxíle, zhè zhōu jiàqī jiù yào jiéshùle, gūjì zài yě jiàn bù dào tāmenle, xià cì, xièxiè xiǎojiě de bāngmáng." (That's a real shame, my vacation ends this week so it seems I won't be able to see them. Maybe next time. Thank you for your help miss.) The henged clone said turning away from the door but not before offering her a polite goodbye.
The woman responded in kind before retreating into her home. The clone, having recieved confirmation that the house was vacant for the time being, was now freely plotting mischief. The blond allowed himself a small grin at the devilish plan he'd come up with. Those two were gonna be in for one hell of a night. This was going to be fun.
In the precinct, Miss Li Zhao was hurriedly headed for the visitation room where she'd be allowed to see her father. Her face and posture reflected her anxiousness, she seemed ready to run ahead of the guard escorting her, so she could see her father sooner. But luckily she was able to rein it in and soon she found herself sat in a chair in the room. Soon after Adam was escorted in by two police officers. His hands were restrained in metal handcuffs.
He was made to sit in the other chair in the room. There was a metal table between them but that didn't stop Li from flinging her arms around him from over the table and sobbing into his shoulder.
Adam stared guiltily at his daughter's crying form and looked pleadingly at the officer who had remained in the room.
"Qǐng gěi wǒ yīxiē shíjiān hé wǒ de nǚ'ér dāndú xiāngchǔ. Zhǐ xū jǐ fēnzhōng." (Please, give me some time alone with my daughter. Just give minutes.) Adam pleaded, the other man was about to refuse but instead just wordlessly left the room like Adam had asked for a reason that he wouldn't be able to explain later.
Now with total privacy, Adam shamefully stared at his daughter's weeping form.
"Duìbùqǐ, lǐ, wǒ bùshì gùyì zhèyàng shānghài nǐ de." (I am so sorry Li, I did not mean to hurt you like this.) Adam said remorsefully attempting to console the sobbing girl.
"I'm sorry but I don't speak Chinese, but don't worry, your daughter should be here tomorrow and you can tell her what you said all over again." A feminine voice rang in his head, one he didn't recognize and he was left even more confused when his 'daughter' who had just been crying into his shoulder was now staring at him as if nothing had ever happened.
"Nǐ bùshì wǒ de nǚ'ér!" (You are not my daughter!) He exclaimed worriedly, trying to put some space between them. "Nǐ duì tā zuòle shénme?" (What did you do to her?)
"Don't worry she's fine, like I said she'll be here tomorrow." The voice came again and he could clearly hear it inside his head despite never seeing this woman's lips move. Suddenly Li's form began to morph and change into the form of Miss Martian, startling him.
"Lí wǒ yuǎn diǎn! Tuì hòu, fǒuzé wǒ huì hǎn!" (Get away from me! Stay back or I'll shout!) He shouted edging back into his seat, idly wondering why the guards hadn't been alerted to all the noise in the room.
He was cut off from his thoughts when two gloves hands were placed on either side of his head, and he found himself staring into a pair of amber eyes that suddenly turned white.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. Try and relax, this should all be over soon." With no further preamble Miss Martian delved into his mind, scouring it for information.
On gaining access into his mindscape, Megan started to look around, trying to get a feel of the place. Adam's mind seemed to take the form of a wide hallway, with hundreds or possibly thousands of doors stretching as far as the eye could see. The doors she realized led to memories, and each had dates practically engraved in them.
She also noticed that not every door was the same. Some were wooden and otherwise plain, others were made of refined steel, some didn't even have doors but rather what looked like a shower curtain, and a few others were heavily locked off, secured behind what looked to be bank vaults. The hallway itself seemed to blur in one direction till it was impossible to make out what could be at the end, while the other side seemed to clear up closer and closer to the end.
Deciding that the latter side was the direction of the more recent memories, she flew off in that direction. The martian took note of the dates on the doors as she flew past looking for one particular memory. Soon she noticed a strange door up ahead.
She flew closer to it until she was right in front of it and inspected the door. It was a large steel door, firmly secured by black chains. On top of the door was a red circle with some smaller black rings in them connecting black comma like marks inside the circle.
Guessing that this was probably the memory she was looking for she cautiously tried prodding at the door. She was startled when the chains seemingly disintegrated into what looked like black characters before dispersing entirely, as soon as her fingers touched them.
After a moment's hesitation, she slowly pushed open the door, stepping into the memory.
On the other end of the door she found herself in a living room, presumably of the house Adam had tried robbing. Said man was currently bound to the ceiling by steel wire while another masked individual stood in front of him. The other guy had to be the 'mask' guy and she took a few seconds to take in his appearance. She then focused on the conversation, taking note of every word said. After they'd finished she tried leaving the memory until she noticed that the masked man was now staring right at her, his sole visible eye boring holes into her very soul. She gave an involuntary gasp in fright at the unexpected action and was even more frightened when he started to speak to her.
"You should leave now. There's somebody out there waiting to talk to you." With that sentence said she found herself forcibly ejected from the mindscape.
She gave a sharp gasp as she was forced back into her body. The green skinned girl took several more breaths before noticing that there was a new occupant in the room.
It seemed she'd been in the mindscape for longer than she thought as the guard who she had made excuse them earlier was now back in the room watching her silently.
She quickly jumped back and tried to look as innocent as possible, and in so doing, removed her hands from Adam's head, allowing him to fall into the table, unconscious.
"This isn't what it looks like." She offered telepathically looking very much like a child who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She quickly gained a grasp on the situation however, and confidently announced. "Not that you'll be remembering any of this."
Her eyes glowed as she tried getting into his head but found herself unable to gain even the slightest access. He however didn't seem to have any problem getting into hers, as she found out when his voice echoed in her head. "I'm not what I seem either."
Before her eyes the officer transformed into the masked man she'd seen just earlier, the only evidence of the change being a small cloud of rapidly dispersing smoke. Her eyes grew wide in terror and she unwittingly took a step back, wishing very much that she'd had Connor had come with them.
"You're not the only one who can change their appearance." He said, taking several steps towards her until he was standing right in front of her as she had her back against the wall. It didn't elude her how useful it would've been if she could phase through objects, and silently swore that if she made it out of this alive she would work towards that.
Right now though her complete attention was demanded by the visible blue eye boring coldly into amber ones, eerily similar to the way they had in the mindscape.
"Not that you'll be remembering any of this." His voice rang again in her ears, taunting her with her own words. She felt nothing but fear when she saw the saw his blue eye morph and bleed into a haunting red.