Time for our first chapter solely in Banshee's POV! Let me know if you liked it, and let me know what you think of him so far! I would really love to hear your feedback on our new character :)
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Qurac
February 19, 19:06 UTC+2
Banshee leaned back in his seat on the Bioship with his hands propped behind his head, eyeing the video projection of the two team leaders on the window in front of him. The adults in question were reviewing mission parameters with the squad, but Jenna, specifically, seemed distracted in the background so it was mainly Nightwing speaking.
"Investigating the origin of the alien bomb that destroyed the Krolotean invasion force is still a high priority," he said. "We suspect the bomb may have been smuggled to Earth via boom tube."
That was one problem that the new Zeta-Shields wouldn't be able to fix, which Banshee found out from Superboy. If anyone had access to boom tubes, they could still traverse freely to and from Earth. And that seemed like an even worse figurative bomb waiting to go off. Or literal.
"Watchtower sensor scans in Bialya have recorded an uptick in boom tube activity. Alpha Squad, your mission is-"
The young demigod in front of Banshee leaned forward eagerly. "-sneak behind enemy lines, recon known boom tube hotspots, and find alien tech matching the bomb," Wonder Girl rambled, switching to stealth mode as she did. "Oh, and don't get caught or create an international incident…right?"
Nightwing paused in surprise before smirking. "That about covers it."
Jenna snorted, glancing over at her co-leader. "Careful, Wing, she might take over our job one day," she teased as she adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose.
"Psimon?" Miss Martian spoke up from her usual place behind the controls, wondering about the psychic man the original team members first encountered in Bialya during year zero.
Banshee's nose wrinkled. I don't want to wind up with amnesia like they did back then.
"We have confirmation that Bialya's telepathic enforcer's still catatonic in Quraci hospital…after his last encounter with you," Nightwing assured her, making Banshee wish he had been there to see that fight. "But Bialya's dictator, Queen Bee, is another story. Her ability to control the minds of men and some women is why Alpha is nearly an all-female squad for this mission. Besides, of course, Banshee."
The corner of Banshee's lip turned up. And that's why Jen didn't go on this mission but I did. It grew when he noticed Jenna smack her forehead behind Nightwing.
Apparently, Batgirl had the same idea as her, whatever it was. "Oh really? And would you have felt the need to justify a nearly all-male squad for a mission?"
Banshee covered his mouth to hide a snicker at Nightwing's uncomfortable expression. All of the girls on the ship were shooting annoyed glares at him.
He cleared his throat. "Uh, th- there's no right answer for that, uh, is there? So…Nightwing out."
The last thing they heard was Jenna laughing loudly before the screen closed.
"Queen Bee isn't the only woman who can mess with a man's mind," Batgirl said smugly, inspecting her nails before the group broke into laughter.
~/~/~/~
Bialya
February 20, 00:12 UTC+2
Banshee was the last to step out of the Bioship, being mindful to remain quiet as he joined his squad at the cliffside. It had been a couple of hours since they started checking out the other hotspots, but so far, nothing was coming up. More times than not, there weren't even facilities around the marked locations to snoop through.
Banshee was getting tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Continuously exiting the ship, finding nothing, radioing in that information to the Cave, then reentering the Bioship to head out to the next hotspot. And he could tell that he wasn't the only one getting antsy from the lack of action.
The squad looked out over the site. There were a few hangars that looked pretty normal, but it did strike a bit odd that the place was crawling with Bialyan soldiers.
"The other boom tube hotspots have all been busts, but-"
Banshee wasn't too surprised when Wonder Girl interrupted Batgirl. "But this much security must be guarding some big deal alien stuff, right?"
"Our job is to find out," Miss Martian reminded. "Batgirl, take the north hangar. I'll take the south. Bee and Banshee, the middle. Wonder Girl, hold position."
That was not what Wonder Girl had in mind as her eager grin fell. "What? Wait, why can't I go in?"
"'Cause you're Wonder Girl, honey. Not Stealth-er Girl," Bumblebee pointed out.
"I can do this," Wonder Girl defended herself, eyes begging.
"No one's knocking your enthusiasm, Cass," Batgirl tried to reassure her. "And if we were in a firefight, there's no one I'd rather have beside me…"
"But we're trying to avoid a fight," Miss M interrupted. "And we need a lookout."
"Besides, the less of us that go in, the faster we can be done and get out," Banshee said, trying to find a logical reason to give his friend, but she only looked disheartened, making him cringe.
"Use the psychic link only," Miss Martian reminded them all. "The Bialyans have the tech to intercept our radios. Anything goes wrong, we scatter and meet at the rendezvous point, clear?"
"Clear." Banshee nodded, moving to follow Bumblebee, belatedly hearing Wonder Girl agree. I'm sorry, Cassie.
Once the squad reached the bottom of the hill, they split off in opposite directions.
Banshee felt jittery, worried about being caught. He was still learning to improve his stealth skills so when a mission fully required stealth, it could be nerve-wracking. But he stuck to the shadows—understanding why Siren was so insistent on him sticking to dark clothing for his uniform—before quickly grappling to the top of the hangar before he could be seen.
Now, where's a vent? It wasn't going to be as simple as waltzing into the front entrance, but it wasn't Banshee's first time slipping into a building via the ventilation shaft. That museum robbery was a mess to deal with. If Siren hadn't been there, I would have definitely gotten shot.
Being careful not to make a lot of noise, he shimmied down the long shaft, following it down until it bottomed out. Bracing his legs on the sides of the vents so as not to fall through, he pried at the grate at the bottom.
He attached his grappling hook with one hand to slide down the rest of the way until he could land behind some crates. He was also careful to not let the grate in his hand fall and make a clatter.
Slow and steady. Banshee crept along the side of the metal containers, keeping his hood over his head as he stuck to the shadows. All of the storage containers seemed to be pretty sealed tight, unable to reveal anything to him.
There were some crates nearby though, so when the coast was clear, Banshee darted over to them, crouching behind them to remain out of sight. Moving periodically between movements of the guards, he slowly pushed open a lid to peek inside the wooden boxes.
Nothing. Banshee scowled down at the crates full of weapons, but nothing of alien origin. Now what? With Bumblebee being so small, he knew it would be virtually impossible to reconvene with her.
"Bee, are you nearby?" He frowned when there was silence. Even more than that, he couldn't tell if there was a psychic presence in his head.
Siren had told him that once he got used to it, having a mental link would be easier to ignore unless others were speaking, but he doubted that would happen so soon. So something had to be up.
I really shouldn't speak out loud with soldiers everywhere. Maybe I should return to the rooftop and check on the others? Banshee began to slowly make his way back to the way he came in, but before he had a chance to get very far, a loud siren began to blare.
Jumping in his skin, Banshee whirled around. He was still hidden so the soldiers running toward the entrance weren't noticing him, but that was the least of his worries. He ducked to avoid the gazes of the soldiers remaining inside, letting out a sigh.
"Back through the vents it is," he whispered to himself, spinning back around to race toward the open gap in the ceiling.
But as he drew closer, he noticed a couple of extra guards were circling the area, having seen the abandoned grate. Shit. Banshee quickly rolled behind a metal container that was nearly flush against the wall, but it would have to do.
What to do, what to do… There was no psychic link, using the comms was out of the question, Bee was still nowhere to be seen, and Banshee had to find a way to get to the rendezvous point without getting shot down. Not exactly what I expected after having no luck with the other hotspots.
Quietly standing so he could move behind the storage container, Banshee shuffled his way alongside it to see what was on the opposite end. What do you know, more soldiers. Scanning the open area, he did manage to find a floor grate only a short distance away. However, with all the guards around, he would have to figure out how to create a distraction of some kind to have time to get it open and get inside.
Banshee's foot brushed something, making him glance down. A spare crowbar was lying around, probably having been used to open the crates from earlier. I can use this to get that grate open…or throw it at something to make a racket and turn their attention.
Banshee flinched when he heard one of the Bialyan soldiers speak, unable to tell what they were saying, but that didn't matter as the voice was very close by. Distraction it is.
He turned back to face the hangar entrance that was still sealed tight, but he noticed it also had a second barrier made of chain in the scenario that the primary doors would be blown off. Bingo.
Raising the hand that tightly gripped the crowbar, he chucked it as hard as he could at the hangar doors, immediately ducking to avoid being seen. Once he did, a loud bang ricocheted in the door, turning the soldier's attention to where the noise came from. It wasn't going to take their focus away for long, so Banshee gunned for the grate, yanking it off with the help of his grappling hook and dropping down into the ventilation system.
Then he could finally breathe again, army-crawling through the vents to try and find another way out. As he did, the sound of hushed voices began to grow louder. Ones that thankfully sounded familiar.
"…here when the alarm sounded and the psychic link went down. What happened up there?"
"No idea. Let's get to the rendezvous point and find out."
Banshee stopped when he found Bumblebee and Batgirl both. "Uh, there's no way we'll be able to get through the hangars. They're sealed up and it was hard enough trying to avoid being spotted," he admitted. "And I think the last thing we need is to start a firefight."
Batgirl reached behind her body in the cramped space to pull out a projector showing blueprints of the area. "I've scanned the air shafts," she explained. "They connect all three hangars, but they also lead to a larger chamber twenty meters below."
"So…we should definitely take a look, right?" Banshee wondered.
"Definitely."
Bumblebee snorted. "Lead the way then."
Batgirl only shot her a look like Bee had been teasing her already so the latter acquiesced. "Fine, fine, let's go." She easily flew through the vents, leaving the other regular-sized heroes to follow.
"It's easy for you," Banshee grumbled, shimmying his way through.
They slowly but surely found the shaft that dropped down into the secret chamber, the space opening up enough for it to be a bit easier to move around to fall feet first rather than head first. Once Bumblebee signaled that it was clear, Banshee did just that with Batgirl close behind.
What they found was far from expected.
It looked like some sort of ancient ruins, emphasis on the ruin part. But there were also more Bialyan soldiers in the area, using computers that had been placed down there.
"Can you say 'Temple of Doom'?" Bumblebee whispered.
As she flew off to scope out the area, Batgirl seemed to have other things in mind. When she dropped down, moving past the soldiers, Banshee nervously glanced between her and Bumblebee. He didn't want to call out to either of them for fear of being heard by the Bialyans so he had to decide on who to stick with. On one hand, Bumblebee was small and could avoid being detected. On the other hand, Batgirl was trained by Batman so she could easily evade capture. But what if she does get caught and needs help?
Sighing, Banshee dropped down to follow one of the Bat's many protégés. He copied her actions of slipping past the soldiers and to a runway that had a plane ready and waiting. That couldn't be good.
"What do you think is in there?" Banshee asked quietly but he turned his head when he got no response to find his teammate was gone. "Batgirl?"
Quickly looking around, he found her vaulting from their vantage point to land on the runway. Following suit, he trailed after the older girl to see what she was looking for.
There were a couple of soldiers standing around, but they didn't seem to be all that alert as the duo was able to slip past without being noticed. Banshee ducked beside some containers, watching as Batgirl moved forward only to see what was in the containers and stop in surprise. Banshee's brow furrowed.
"What is- oh."
He stared with wide eyes at the several unconscious teenagers contained in some sort of pods. They all seemed relatively okay, but the sight was unsettling nonetheless.
He took a step back, examining the group of kids to see if there was a way to free them when he was hit with the most nauseating headache he ever experienced. And he wasn't the only one assumed by Batgirl's matching cry of pain.
Banshee dropped to his knees, slumping further down as his eyes rolled back.
~/~/~/~
"-am?"
"-ot you too…"
"-bout this…"
A shock to the chest jolted Banshee awake with a startled cry. His head darted around to find the cause of it to find Bumblebee floating in front of this with Batgirl just behind her.
"Uh, ow!" he snapped.
"That's how I felt," Batgirl mumbled, rubbing her chest with a pout.
Banshee stepped out of the pod he was in with a disgruntled look. "What happened?"
"No time for that," Bumblebee waved off. "Batgirl's about to fly us out of here with the rest of the abductees. Wonder Girl, Miss Martian, you, and I are gonna hold off Psimon, Devastation, and the rest in the meantime."
Banshee started running toward the back of the plane. "Sounds like a solid plan to me!"
He leaped out of the opening, not wanting to waste any time moving down the ramp before it tried to close. Mammoth and Devastation were so busy trying to stop the plane that they either completely ignored him or just didn't notice him at all, but he wasn't going to worry about that.
Icicle Junior was hurrying past an idle Miss Martian–disguised as Shimmer–and Psimon, heading for some sort of control panel. Not wanting him to accomplish whatever it was he set to do, Banshee sprinted after him.
"Hey, Junior!" he called out before letting out a sonic scream.
The cold villain whirled around, throwing up a sheet of ice to block the blast which worked, but it still gave Banshee more time to get right up to the controls. The teenage hero sought to at least shield the panel from the man's icy touch, but another quick blast from him forced Banshee to duck.
Unfortunately, he didn't have as much time to jump, so his feet and calves were promptly frozen together. Even through his insulated boots, he could feel the bitter chill creeping up his legs. Cold, cold, cold!
Junior had managed to hit a button on the control panel while Banshee was distracted and, with the sound of an alarm, the hangar doors all the way at the end closed. And when he turned around, he didn't seem to care about the teenager stuck in ice.
"This is for breaking my heart in Belle Reve, Martian," he cried out, raising his hand that was encased in a frozen spear. But Bumblebee shooting Psimon caught his attention.
Banshee let out a screech, not at the ice villain, but at his own feet to break the ice encasing them. Once he was free, he spun on his heel, lifting a leg to slam into Junior's stomach and kick him into the control panel. That gave Bumblebee a chance to knock Psimon out with a concentrated blast to the head, allowing Miss Martian to come out of the psychic battle.
Junior pushed on the panel to stand back up, only to find Miss Martian was alert again. "Uh, oh," he mumbled as Miss M shifted back to her usual look with her eyes glowing green as an extra flare.
"'Uh, oh' is right," Miss M said darkly. Banshee watched with glee as she flung Junior into the wall several feet away.
"Time to go," she then said, reopening the mind link.
Banshee followed her down the runway, silently noting that the only way out was…inaccessible for a person with no ability to fly and not currently on the plane. "Uh…in case you guys forgot, I can't fly!"
"I got you covered, Ban."
He yelped when he was suddenly scooped up into Wonder Girl's arms. He scrambled to hold tight so as not to fall. "That's one solution."
They caught up to the others, following the plane to the opening. They were home-free.
Wonder Girl whooped. "Yes, we did it!"
But she spoke too soon. Once they landed on the top of the plane, ready to ride out of there, a forklift came sailing out of nowhere, hitting the plane's wing. It sliced straight through, causing an explosion that threw the heroes off the plane.
Banshee let out a cry, desperately trying to grab his grappling hook to use to break his fall, but he was moving too fast. But he suddenly jerked to a stop, hovering mid-air. Looking up, he saw Miss Martian had pulled him to her side with her telekinesis. He let out a small sigh of relief.
The three flying heroes shot out of the hangar with Banshee in tow to try and catch the plane before it killed all of its passengers. Wonder Girl got underneath the nose, trying to slow the fall by flying while Miss Martian flew underneath to mentally do the same.
"It's too heavy!" Wonder Girl cried out, her voice strained with effort.
"For me too," Miss Martian groaned.
"Sorry!" Banshee apologized, knowing that trying to keep him levitated wasn't helping her inner struggle.
"Not your fault," the oldest hero on the squad quickly assured, halting both Banshee and herself as the plane continued to plummet. "But time for Plan B!"
Out of nowhere, the Bioship appeared. A giant claw extracted from underneath it, quickly grabbing the plane moments before it could hit the ground.
"Good girl," Miss M sighed with a grin.
Banshee watched as the Bioship pulled the plane to safety. "Yes!" he cheered.
Wonder Girl was just as excited and happy to celebrate once she realized they were safe. As the others caught up with her, Banshee stretched a hand out to his friend for a high-five which she eagerly accepted.
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Mount Justice
February 20, 03:24 EST
"And all of the teens are now safe and returning home to their families."
Alpha Squad had returned to the Cave once the abducted teens were all awake and safe. Before turning in for the night, they debriefed with their team leaders to account for their success.
Banshee's lopsided grin fell after a moment. "But how did we miss the fact that Psimon wasn't hospitalized anymore?" he spoke up.
Nightwing sighed. "Psimon planted mental suggestions in the minds of his doctors and nurses," he explained. "They've been tending to an empty hospital bed for months."
He looked at Miss Martian. "I'm sorry."
She just shrugged it off. "It had to happen eventually."
"So, no sign of any alien tech?" Nightwing clarified.
Bumblebee shook her head. "None. Though what we found was strange enough."
"It was clear in Shimmer's mind that Queen Bee was acting as a middle man, delivering abducted humans to an unknown partner," Miss Martian continued.
"We questioned all the abductees. Most were runaways," Batgirl added. "All were kidnapped after the destruction of Malina Island and the Kroloteans."
Jenna crossed her arms, frowning. Banshee wondered what she was thinking of. Or maybe who she was thinking of.
"So if the Bialyans weren't kidnapping humans for the Kroloteans-"
"Then who is this partner?" Jenna mused, finishing Nightwing's train of thought.
Wonder Girl sighed frustratedly. "Another unanswered question."
Nightwing approached the demigod heroine. "New questions keep the investigation moving forward," he pointed out. "You saved lives, and you got each other home safe. It's a successful mission in my book, wouldn't you agree, Jen?"
Jenna smiled. "Yes. No mission goes off without a hitch, but we'll get our chance to try again," she assured. "Well done, you guys."
Banshee watched with a grin as Batgirl tugged Wonder Girl into a hug, the other girls surrounding them. "How sweet," he teased, moving to walk away.
"Not so fast, Sam!"
Banshee yelped as Bumblebee grabbed his arm, pulling him into the group huddle. He groaned, playfully trying to break free from her grasp.
"You guys are embarrassing me!"
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Okay, so we're skipping Bloodlines for the next chapter. I wasn't able to provide a long enough chapter for that episode, so we're just going to jump ahead to Depths. There'll be a very brief explanation right at the beginning though as to why at least Jenna would have been absent.
I'm looking forward to posting this next chapter since it kind of kicks off what season two is all about, plus it starts to focus on a lot of inner struggles that Jenna's going to face during the fic. I can't wait for you all to see it :) See you next week!
