Carribean Sea
August 3, 20:08 ECT
"Now, let me remind you; this a covert operation, which means no getting caught, no being loud and obnoxious, and absolutely nothing that will endanger my sister," Mikael said firmly, staring down his sister's ghostly half.
Spirit rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know; fun is outlawed here; I get the point, magic boy! And really, when are you going to realize that I'm not a different person; that this is just a hidden facet of who Emma Danielson really is?
Mikael rolled his eyes, stretching a bit as Miss M's voice sounded out before he had a chance to respond.
"So, remind me why Spirit doesn't need stealth gear?" Kid Flash asked curiously.
"One of her powers is invisibility," the older twin explained, readjusting his outfit. He was of the honest opinion that a cape wasn't cool unless you were capable of flight. If flying wasn't one of your powers, then a cape was just a flying hazard. However, he took no issue with the loose fitting top of his outfit.
"Ah, so no stealth gear needed," The redhead clarified with a smirk. "And you?"
"My gear turns dark just like yours, Kid Dork," the brunette said simply, adjusting the hood on his head. "I mean, at least my fashion sense is better."
"No way; you look like you just came out of Lord of the Rings!"
"And you look like a walking hotdog!"
Miss M clearing her throat brought the guys out of their argument. "Drop zone A in thirty."
Mikael lifted his head and watched as Aqualad stood, his seat disappearing from the ship as he tapped the icon on his belt, his red top turning pitch black and looking to the Martian once the change was complete. "Ready."
She simply nodded at that. "Putting bioship in camouflage mode."
A moment later, a hole opened in the bottom of the ship, allowing Aqualad to drop down into the sea below.
"So, I got a question for Nighthawk. You know magic, right?" Robin questioned, turning in his seat once KF had dropped from the ship with the others.
Mikael simply nodded. "Some, yes. I know some defensive spells, healing spells, and a few minor attack spells. I also see ghosts," the brunette explained.
"R-Right, but, can you do anything besides that?" the Boy Wonder tossed in, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm captain of my school's boxing team," he said simply, dropping down alongside his sister.
Once down alongside Miss M, Robin, Kid Flash, and Spirit, Nighthawk's eyes widened as he saw Superboy jumping without a line, and the five quickly darted out of the way.
When the dust cleared, the Kryptonian stood with a smirk. "Knew I didn't need a line."
"And yet, creating a seismic event may not have helped us much with the covert!" Robin pointed out, shoulders tense.
As Miss M lowered herself back to the ground, she held a hand to the comlink in her ear. "Aqualad, drop B is go."
"Head for the factory. I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP."
"Roger that," Robin said simply, darting off into the woods with the others close behind.
After a while, as they continued into the woods, Miss M slipped back to talk with Spirit, who'd reverted back to Emma for the time being in order to conserve energy.
"Hey, are you alright?" the Martian said softly.
"Hm? O-Oh, uh, n-never better," Emma reassured. "It's just, well... When I was little, I remember always wanting to do things like this; go on big adventures to help people, but now that it's actually happening, I'm scared... I'm not strong like Mikael is."
"You mean, Nighthawk?" the redhead asked gently.
The brunette sighed softly. "Yeah. Captain of the boxing team, big jock on campus, really good with a skateboard... He's strong. He's not afraid to take risks to help people, and he's always there when I need him... But I'm not like that. I'm quiet, reserved, shy, and... I'd be scared of my own shadow if I didn't have him. I'm not brave."
"Hm... Well, I think you're brave. After all, you just said you're scared because you don't think you're strong like him, but you came here anyway. Sounds pretty brave to me," Miss M pointed out, offering a gentle smile to the younger girl.
Emma giggled quietly, blushing and turning away from the Martian, tears of gratitude clouding her vision. "That's kind of you to say, really... thank you."
As their walk continued in silence, Superboy suddenly stopped and said, "Did you hear that?"
"No," Kid Flash started, but then quickly added, "Wait, is this a superhearing thing?"
"You do have great ears," Miss Martian complimented.
However, when Emma saw the look on the Kryptonian's face, she gently said, "What she means is your hearing must be pretty good to hear something so far away, e-even by Kryptonian standards."
"Y-Yeah," the Martian agreed quickly.
KF sighed and then turned to speak to Robin, before noticing that he was nowhere to be seen.
"Kid, Superboy, switch to Infrared; see if you're being tracked," Aqualad instructed.
Without so much as a word, the redheaded speedster simply pushed his goggles over his eyes before checking his surroundings. "Got a squad of armed bozos, incoming."
Superboy turned in the opposite direction before correcting him. "Two squads, but they'll meet each other before they find us."
Before any of them could react, they heard bullets sounding.
"No super-hearing needed now," Kid said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Swing wide; steer clear!" Aqualad said urgently.
"Yeah, yeah; just as soon as I find Rob," the speedster said simply, but Nighthawk put a hand on his shoulder.
"No offense, Kid, but I think I have a better method than just blindly running after him," the brunette explained. "I can attempt a tracking spell here, while... Em, you cool with shifting for a bit?"
The younger twin simply nodded, a weak but determined smile gracing her features. "Of course. I take it you want me to go invisible and search that way while you try the tracking spell?"
Mikael smirked a bit. "Damn right," he explained, pulling out one of Robin's Birdarangs. "Really glad I managed to snag this off him before the briefing; I can't track without something that belongs to whoever I'm looking for"
"Dude, you seriously took one of Rob's weapons?!" KF demanded.
"Hey, I have something of everyone's for just this sort of scenario. Hell, the only reason I took it was because Rob refused to give it to me willingly," the magic user said firmly. "What did you think I meant when I asked you for a bit of hair?"
"... That you're doing a summer genealogy thing? Dude, I seriously didn't think anything aside from what a weird request it was."
Mikael groaned and simply knelt down on the ground, one hand on his runestone while he used the other to draw a magic tracking circle around the birdarang. "Regardless, I wanted to be able to track you guys in case we were separated, especially since tracking was one of the first spells I mastered. Now, let's follow this thing to Robin."
And of course, the first thing they heard from the Boy Wonder when they finally caught up to him wasn't exactly pleasant, because it required going along a muddy area near the two feuding squadrons, and, of course, Kid Flash and Emma both slipped and slid, landing right between the two groups.
"So much for the stealthy," the speedster mumbled, lifted Emma into his arms and running to avoid bullets.
Emma, meanwhile, quickly shifted forms and maintained intangibility on them both, just to be safe.
"What is wrong with you guys?!" Robin demanded as he dropped down. "Remember covert? Why didn't you follow my lead and vanish into the jungle!"
"Dude, aside from Miss M, none of us are mind-readers!" Mikael said firmly, launching a wind spell through a series of quick hand gestures, mainly using his index and middle fingers. "We can't be expected to know what's going on because none of us have worked with you before now!"
Once all the enemies were tied up, Robin's eyes widened. "Wait a minute, I know those masks; they're part of a cult called Kobra."
"I'm certain that Batman would've mentioned something if he knew a dangerous extremist group was running Santa Prisca's Venom operations," Aqualad said firmly.
"Agreed," Robin nodded. "And since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists and these goons, I'm betting that Kobra came in and tossed them out."
"Which would explain why the usual supply lines have been cut off," Mikael picked up, crossing his arms as he readjusted his hood.
"We get it: Kobra wanted super-cultists; mystery-solved," Kid Flash said in a bored tone. "Radio Bats and we'll be home in time for-"
"Sorry to tell you this, Mini-Flash, but that's not right. These cultists ain't on Venom; trust the word of someone who's been in a boxing match against someone on venom," Nighthawk argued. "My guess is that Kobra's hoarding the stuff."
"Agreed," Robin added. "We don't leave. Not until I know why."
"Until you know why?" the redhead checked.
"This team needs a leader!" the raven defended.
"And it's you? Dude, you're a thirteen-year-old kid, who ducked out on us without a word!"
"Haha, and you're a mature fifteen? You blew our cover first chance you got!"
"Don't you wanna lead?" Miss M asked Superboy.
The Kryptonian simply scoffed. "No... You?"
"After the Mister Twister fiasco?" she pointed out, holding up a hand as if to say, 'Yeah, no thanks'.
"You did alright," Superboy reassured with a firm smile, causing the girl to blush.
Once she'd regained her composure, she turned her attention to the Danielson twins. "What about you two?"
"I already deal with a bunch of sweaty, hormonal teenage guys on the boxing team; I don't need to add a bunch of supers to my list of stressors," Mikael said simply, crossing his arms in disdain. He loved his boxing teammates, really, but sometimes it was hard being captain of the team. It was a lot of work, and them whining whenever he wanted to go over strategies at competitions just made things harder.
"After how I helped blow our cover a minute ago? No thanks," Emma said simply. "Besides the fact, I'm better suited to taking orders than giving them. Spirit would just make everyone rush in, guns blazing, and I wouldn't be able to get the attention required to give orders as myself.
"You don't even have any powers!"
"Neither does Batman!"
"Duh! You're not Batman!"
"Duh! Closest thing we've got!"
One of the men they'd apprehended chuckled a bit. "Such clever Ninos, but you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest; get you into the factory via my secret entrance."
Emma turned and shared a certain, knowing glance with her brother. Their faces both had the same words written on them.
'Why do we have a distinct feeling that this night is going to get much worse before it gets any better?'
Wow, two updates on separate stories in one night? Witchcraft!
Lol, just kidding. I'm currently hyped up on an oral steroid to help with some throat pain and can't sleep, so yeah.
Decided to work on this while I could. So, since I clearly am incapable of keeping to a chapter-a-week schedule with this fic, I'm going to change it to a chapter-a-month update policy instead. I'll try to add more at the end of each month or so.
I ended up cutting this short because I really wanted to skip Miss M reading Bane's mind without the skip being awkward. Also, I feel incapable of making this chapter go any longer
And yeah, Mikael is captain of his boxing team and has the leadership experience, but while he might play an advisatory role from time-to-time, Aqualad will still be team leader here; ain't nothing gonna change that.
As for how Mikael's magic looks, go to Fairy Tail and think of the hand-motions Levy makes when using solid script unless I specifically say otherwise like with the tracking spell.
Sincerely,
MckennaTennyson-Harper12