CHAPTER FIVE

The bio-ship flew over the island in camouflage mode, coming to hover just a few feet above the sandy beach. The island was very small, with no visible buildings, because they were all underground.

Kaldur dropped into the water, and swam silently closer to the shore. From there, he scouted the ground, and found a nice place for the bio-ship to set down. Superboy, Kid Flash, Artemis, Zatanna, and Rocket all exited the bio-ship. Megan had to stay with the bio-ship. If security was anywhere near as good as Batman said, they couldn't leave it lying around with out it being found, and compromising the secrecy of their mission.

The bio-ship disappeared into the night. Kaldur motioned for everyone to move towards the tree line. There the building would be visible. "Guys," Megan said telepathically. "I checked, I won't be able to keep up the mind link once you enter the building. From there on out, your on your own."

"Thanks for the warning," Kaldur said.

"I'll see what I can do to aid you from out here, but I don't know if I'll be able to."

"If you do find a way you could help, do, but if not it isn't a problem," Kaldur replied.

"Be careful," Megan said

"We will," Kaldur thought back.

When they reached the tree line, they looked over the building. It looked just like your average warehouse. "Alright here's the plan," Kaldur said turning to the team. Artemis, you will check the top for any entrances, Wally, you run around the perimeter of the building and check the defenses. But keep in the trees, and out of sight."

The team immediately executed the plan, and in less than a minute Wally was back. "It's pretty well guarded," He said quickly. "There's probably at least 20 guys guarding the outside, and even more on the inside. The guard's routine checks don't leave a big enough gap for anyone but me to get in."

Artemis crept over to the group, and simply said, "I found an entrance, but it'll be tight, and noisy. In order to get in, you would have to be virtually silent." Kaldur didn't like their options, but they wouldn't get any better.

"Ok, Wally, you sneak in the front door, Artemis and myself will use the top entrance."

"What about me?" Superboy asked.

"You will stay out here with Megan.." Superboy was about to protest when Kaldur went on. "In case we need backup. If we are discovered, it would be nice to know that we have you waiting to crash in, cause the distraction we need to escape, and help us pull off the escape. Superboy's unspoken protest died immediately. "Artemis, show me that entrance, and then we'll execute operation infiltrate."

…

As it turned out, getting in was the easy part. Artemis had found the air intake system, and they followed it in. Once inside, they finally saw the true security of the place. It seemed like there were security cameras on every corner. There were also guards constantly wandering the halls. With no way to regroup with Wally, and no way to communicate safely, the mission had just taken a turn for the worse. Artemis shot a small projective into one of the cameras. The camera had just taken a picture of the hallway, and it would only show that picture to the guards monitoring the security control. Now came the hard part. With a second of the mini-cameras, Artemis managed to hit the other camera with a picture that would resemble the first very well. Only an expert could tell the difference, and even then, if they weren't warned something was off with the picture an expert might have a hard time.

With that taken care of, Artemis and Aqualad dropped down out of the ceiling vents into the hallway they had just cleared of camera feed. They snuck up on the two guards in the hall, and silently took them down. The next step was to look for Wallly, and hope he didn't get himself caught.

…

Wally waited for the guards turned their backs on the main door before he moved. Despite what most people thought he actually knew what he was doing when it came to stealth. If he needed to he could be deadly serious. He darted in, and quickly slid between the barely open doors. In a flash he was in the corner. His black suit blended in perfectly with the shadows cast into the corner by the over head light in the center of the room.

Wally quickly checked the mind link, just in case Ms. Martian was wrong about it blocking her Martian powers. Of course she wasn't, but it didn't hurt to check. Looking around, there didn't appear to be anything off about the warehouse. It looked completely empty. No.. it Was completely empty. The warehouse shook, and Wally heard thunder. Over the noise, he missed the quiet voice speaking.

"Master, the subjects have arrived.

…

Dick Grayson managed to sit through the entire show, but only because Barbara had constantly pinned him to the seat. If she hadn't been there, he probably would have been long gone. The strong men, and archers were doing their post show performance they do while everyone is exiting. Dick headed for the exit, not really wanting to talk to anyone from the circus right now.

Dick felt an arm on his shoulder leading him aside. He complied, and Barbara followed. Looking at the man leading them, he realized it was Hailey, the ring master. "Did we do a decent job with the show, Dick?" he asked.

"It was fine," Dick said. " You did a good job of portraying everything they enjoyed doing, but it just… I don't know what I was hoping for, most of the stuff just seemed weird to me since my parents weren't there."

"I understand," Hailey said. "They were the best I've ever seen on the trapeze. It's a shame, really. Most of the people in the audience have never actually seen a Grayson on the trapeze."

With a sigh Dick pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and asked for a pen. When Hailey gave him one, Dick wrote something on it, then handed it to the ring master. "Next time you have a show, give me a call," He said. "I'll see what I can do on getting here early.

"So… how has life been for you since you got adopted?" Hailey was asking as Barbara walked towards the exit. Hailey would keep him occupied, and probably up beat. That allowed her to scout out the area. Of course, it was probably safe, but with so many baddies out since the breakout at Arkam, it didn't hurt to check.

Barbara quickly scanned the area. Her phone vibrated in her pocket, so she brought up the caller I.D. The screen was blank. "There is no caller I.D.!" She realized. She pulled up her phone, and answered. "Joe's Salon, this is Becky speaking how can I help you." It was Barbara's thing to answer like that, especially when she couldn't see a caller I.D.

"How is he doing?" Bruce asked from the other end of the phone.

"About as well as you would expect. He had a really hard time staying for the entire show."

"Well, when you finish up there, I would like to talk to both of you," Bruce said, ending the call.

"Great," Barbara thought. "Whenever he wants to talk to both of us it never seems to be a good thing." Then Barbara walked back into the tent. She needed to tell Dick that Bruce wanted to talk to them, and then they probably needed to leave.

…

Bruce Wayne had finally, after watching the video he had taken of the team's training session, made his decision. The team was ready. The screen on the Batcave computer beeped, signaling that one of the small devices he had put on each member of the team had gone offline. The device would scan the person it was attached to, constantly sending out a signal to his computer. The only reason it would turn off was if the person was unconscious. The computer beeped twice more. If three of them were unconscious that could only mean one thing. The team had been discovered. Bruce activated his communicator, and called Dick.

…

Dick's phone rang, and he answered. "Hello"

"The Team need's your help, if you aren't too busy."

Dick pulled his phone down, covering the speaker, and saying "I have to go, give me a call, we can talk more then," Dick walked towards the tent opening, when Barbara walked in. Pulling the phone back up, Dick said, "Ok, I'm open, what's going on?" Barbara stopped in her tracks. "What's going on" was their code with the Bat that the used when they weren't in costume. It meant they had a mission, and needed to know more, because they were going straight there, and not to the Batcave first. "Babs, we need to go," Dick said as he jogged out the tent entrance.