Official Kaldur X Lina ship name: Seabreeze. Thanks to Guest for suggesting it!
The ride to India was tense and filled with anxiety and anger. It didn't help matters that Captain Marvel, our new 'den mother' decided to come along; which nobody was overjoyed about. But to be honest, I kind of just half-blocked everything out and stared out the window, which I knew would cause some unwanted attention from my teammates, but to be perfectly honest: I didn't care.
Once arriving at the Indian jungle, we landed and Artemis and Robin jumped out to scout the premises. The rest of us walked out right after Robin gave the all clear.
"Switch to stealth." Kaldur said, doing so himself. "We'll review parameters."
"Parameters? We don't need no stinking parameters!" Kid barked.
"It's recon we know what to do." Robin agreed darkly, and the two friends turned to head into the jungle.
"Kid! Robin!" Kaldur said desperately.
"The four of us started this team because the Justice League was keeping secrets from us." Robin snapped.
"Or did you forget that like you forgot to tell us about the mole?" Kid said, pulling down his goggles down and ran into the jungle, his best friend on his tail.
"Come on!" Conner said, grabbing Megan's hand. "I'll keep you safe." Megan pulled away from her boyfriend and crossed her arms, looking ticked off.
"I...just want to protect you." Conner said innocently.
"Like Aqualad protected us?" Artemis growled, poking the Kryptonian in the chest with her bow. "I'm not sure your protection or your patronizing is good for our health!"
The two girls began to walk away, but I heard my name being called. I snapped out of the light haze I had went into and turned to my female comrades.
"You coming?" Artemis asked.
"I..." I looked from Artemis' angry gaze, then back to Kaldur who had a neutral, but slightly annoyed look on his face. Or was that desperation? Nevertheless I looked down, tightened my fists and nodded to Artemis before joining Artemis and Megan.
Walking silently with the two girls, I let my mind be taken into its haze again and drowned out the rest of the world.
There's no way that both Red could have betrayed us. He's overcome all his evil programming, and wouldn't have made more sense to go after the league? I mean, he was already a full-fledged member. But even so, there's no way we would've betrayed anyone! It's just not him!
And then there's Kaldur. The Kaldur I know wouldn't have kept such a big secret from us, it's just...not like him. He's honest, caring and just and too...betray us like that, even if he did probably think it was for the good of the team...
Why are the people close to me suddenly betraying me?
"Lina? Hello?" A voice suddenly cut through my thoughts and I jumped to attention, meeting Megan and Artemis' concerned gazes.
"Sorry, what?" I said, startled.
The two girls looked at each other before looking back at me.
"Are you okay?" Megan asks. "I mean, we know you're taking all this pretty hard but-"
"I'm fine." I lied, sounding a lot darker then I intended. "Let's just...get this mission over with."
"Zeph'..." Artemis said, using a nickname I'd never heard before. "Yo-"
The blonde was cut off when a giant alligator suddenly sprang from the water and attacked Megan. And when I say giant, I mean at least three times bigger then normal.
I go to help Megan when suddenly another alligator jumps out of the water and grabs Artemis before dragging her underwater. I look at Megan and deicide that she can hold her own before running and leaping underwater after Artemis. Once my vision becomes clear enough, I see the alligator barrel-rolling Artemis by the quiver. I use my powers to propel myself over and unclip Artemis' quiver and yank her away from the alligator. Seeing that the blonde is two seconds away from drowning, I summon as many winds as possible and push them away with all my strength.
The winds push all water and the alligator away and before I know it:I'm standing on the floor of the river with Artemis hangs onto me, coughing and I repel the water away as to form alarge clearing.
"Okay, nearly drowning two nights in a row..." Artemis coughs. "Is way less fun than it sounds."
"Are you okay?" I ask, and when Artemis nods I grab her and fly us out of the river as I let the water revert back tonormal. We land in time to see Megan telekinetically force the alligator back into the water.
"All good?" Megan asked and Artemis and I nodded. "I'm going to tell Aqualad about the attack."
In the corner of my eye I spot Artemis' quiver floating in the water. I pick it up and hand it to the blonde archerand she takes it, flipping it upside down to empty out the water.
Suddenly the familiar dull sting of a psychic link being established entered my head. My head wanted to wander again, but the sound of my teammates in my head kept it anchored to the real world.
"Link established." Megan said telepathically.
"Should he really still be giving us orders? Andshould you really be following them?" Artemis asked.
"Listen! Please!" Kaldur said desperately.
"Oh good, Aqualad's voice in my head. I so missed that."Wallysaid sarcastically.
"Hey Kaldur, KF and I were attacked by giant vultures." Robin said. "Of course since we're moles you probably think we attacked ourselves."
"If he did he wouldn't tell you!" Artemis said.
"Superboy are you online? Or just pouting?" Megan asked.
"Busy, call back later." Conner grunted.
"What gets me is how nonchalant he is about not telling us." Wally said.
"He should be chalant!" Rob agreed. "Way chalant! Extremely chalant!"
"How can we be a team when we don't trust each other with our secrets?" Artemis asked.
"Or if Conner doesn't trust us to take care of ourselves..." Megan 'muttered'.
"Or if our mentors suddenly decide to up and betray us, ruining every little thing you thought you knew about them." I say, making everyone on the link pause in their argument.
But only for a moment before Wally started off again.
"Did he seriously you or I could have been the mole?" Wally asked his partner.
"We've known each other for years!" Robin agreed.
"And what about Lin'? I thought they were supposed to be 'best friends' or whatever!" Wally added, catching my attention but only slightly.
"Enough!" Kaldur's voice suddenly exclaimed, catching us all off guard. The seriousness, anger and power in his voice was purely out of character and nobody was used to anyone, especially Kaldur using that kind of tone. For the first time all day, my mind was focused on one specific thing.
"Captain Marvel has been captured and we must act together as a team to save him."
"Under your leadership?" Wally said defiantly to Kaldur. "I don't think-"
"This is not up for debate!" Kaldur growled. "You all chose me to lead. When the mission is over, if you wish to select a new leader I will happily step down. But until that time I am n command here!"
We all froze, and looked at the people we had teamed up against.
Theteam rendezvousedat Kaldur's coordinates which happened to be at some sort of compound. We all approached in the shadows, and held off an attack when we spotted pylons.
"I'll fly over-" Megan said.
"Negatory." Kid corrected. "The pylons extends like a dome over the whole compound."
"Pylons are insulated, but one good shock could cause a momentary gap." Robin explained.
"I see a target." Artemis called.
"Then be ready to hit it." Kaldur ordered. "Be ready, all of you."
Kaldur ran over to the pylon's dome and placed his hands on the surface before using his Atlantean magic to shock the dome with electricity. After a moment, a small hole appeared. On que, Artemis shot an arrow through the hole and hit the button she was aiming for. Once the button was hit, the dome fell.
We all approached the compound when suddenly, there was a screeching sound and an alarm followed. After the alarm, an army of monkeys flew out of nowhere and attacked us.
We all did our best but there were too many, and to be honest I didn't want to fight monkeys.
"Remove the collars!" Kaldur yelled, and I followed by grabbing one of the monkeys by the collar around it's neck and sliced my hand: letting a slice of air to cut the metal. When the collar was removed, the monkey blinked and stared at me before turning and attacking its brothers.
When I got a monkey-free-moment, I looked over to see a huge ape holding Megan by the cloak. Wally ran at her attacker, but it proved useless when the ginger's body just bounced off the monkey's massive one.
I flew over and used my winds to push the ape with all the force I could muster. Luckily for me, the attack was a lot stronger then Wally's and the ape went flying. Before any damage could be done, I used my remaining winds to grab Megan.
"Thanks." She said and I nodded.
We entered the hole that my attack and the ape had caused to see Captain Marvel being held down to a table with what looked like R2D2 with a brain poking out the top over him.
"The Brain!" Wally cried.
"We can see it's a brain!" Artemis snapped.
"Not a brain, The Brain." Wally exclaimed.
"In ze flesh, so to speak." The villain said with a French accent that made me cringe.
That almost sounds fake.
"Ah, Zephyr, so nice to finally meet your finally meet your acquaintance." The villain said. At first, I was confused as to why he was focusing on me but then it struck me.
"Really, just becauseI'm French?" I deadpanned, not amused.
Suddenly however, the ape from earlier appeared and pulled out a remote and pylons appeared and we were all forced to the ground.
"Miss Martian, Superboy: now." Kaldur ordered. Megan telekinetically grabbed the remote from the ape's hands and flew it over, turning off the pylons. As we stood up, Superboy crashed through the wall with ahuge, white wolf, which immediately attacked the ape and pushed the primate down. Before the creature had a chance to get up, Kidkicked it. Asthey four youngermembers (and the wolf) handled the ape, Iturned to see the Brain shooting red lasers at Kaldur. I looked back at the ape and smirked, picking up The Brain with my powers and throwing him at the ape, who caught him and set his master on the ground.
For a moment, Kaldur and I locked eyes before I turned to go help the others.
The team surrounded the two villains after Kaldur freed Captain Marvel. When it saw that it was surrounded: the ape let out a roar.
"Try it." Superboy said, racking his knuckles. "I hate monkeys."
The primate snarled and looked like it was about to attack when The Brain interrupted him.
"No Mallah, this will not be our waterloo." The Brain said before weird extensions poked out of the villain's metal body. "Au Revoir mon amis."
"Get down!" Wally screamed and we all ducked as the room became encased in darkness.
We all waited for something but happened, but when nothing did: we all looked up.
"That thing...was a light-switch?" Kid asked, sounding confused.
Kaldur, Captain Marvel, and I were decollar-ing animals when the monkey that I had saved before came scampering up to me and hoped onto my shoulder.
"Hello?" I muttered, turning my head to see the monkey was perched on my shoulder, looking at me. Surprisingly enough, even on Cobra Venom: the monkey was small enough for me not to be affected by its weight. "What are you doing?"
The monkey made weird whimpering noises and I smiled, lifting my hand. The monkey smelt my hand before grabbing it and nibbling lightly on my fingers; making me smile for the first time today.
"It seems like you've made a new friend." Kaldur said and I looked to see him studying the monkey and I.
"Don't worry." I said. "With Sphere and that wolf Superboy seems to have adopted, we have enough pets: I'm not keeping him."
Kaldur and I smiled before we realized it and we looked away awkwardly.
"Lina...I owe you an apology." He said.
"You owe the whole team an apology, and an explanation." I corrected him.
"True." Kaldur nodded. "But I want to personally tell you I'm sorry. Although I still stand by the fact that my actions were justified: I feel like I should have trusted you especially. The boys were right: you are my best friend, and keeping something like this...could have ended that, and the very idea of that makes me feel sick."
I blushed at his words and I bit my lip.
"Alright." I muttered. "I can't say I understand: but I trust you. I'm sorry for acting childish."
Kaldur placed his hand on my arm and I looked up.
"Your actions were more then justified Lina." He said, a serious but kind gaze in his eyes made my heart tug.
Without hesitation I embraced Kaldur, wrapping my arms around his torso and due to my short stature, my face was shoved into his chest. Immediately, Kaldur wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly. Thankfully, due to the sudden movement: the monkey flew off.
"You're still an idiot." I said, my voice muffled by Kaldur's chest, which bounced as he let out a chuckle.
"You two make a cute couple."
Kaldur and I sprang apart to see Captain Marvel smiling at us.
"Oh not again!" I exclaimed, throwing my head back in stress.
Once all the collars had been removed, we started making our way to entering the bioship. Robin and Kaldur were the first ones on the ramp.
"Look I have to know." Robin said, stopping Kaldur. "Why did you keep the mole intel a secret?"
The caught everyone's attention and Kaldur sighed before answering.
"The source of intel was Sportsmaster."
The mention of the well known assassin took us all by surprise.
"What? You can't trust him!" Artemis screeched.
"I do not." Kaldur shook his head. "It seemed possible, even likely, that he was attempting to divide the team under false information."
"And given how this mission went, henearly succeeded." Robin nodded. "But you had to consider the option that it might've been true."
"Yes, as a leader, I did." Kaldur said. "In which case I did not want to alert the traitor."
"So you did it for the good of the team." I smiled,understanding and takingpleasure in the fact that Kaldur had acted under the morals I had grown to know him by.
"I hate to say it."Robin said. "But it makes sense."
"I am still prepared to step down as leader." Kaldur explained.
"All in favor of keeping Aqualad as leader?" Wally asked and we all raised our hands.
"Guess it's unanimous." Captain Marvel said, shakingKaldur'shand before walking away. "Seeyou tomorrow."
"You're not coming back with us?" Kaldur asked.
"Nope, gotta fly." Captain said beforeblasting off.
"He's...a little odd, isn't he?" I said, looking at the disappearing dot that was Captain Marvel.
"Totally."Wally and Robin agreed in sync.
As we began to load up into the bioship, I let my mind wander one last time.
I'm not giving up on you Red. I'm going to hunt you down, and I'm going to save you from whatever's making you act evil. Because you're my family, and I don't give up on family.