CHAPTER 8

Superboy dragged Zeron towards the base as quickly as he could. Robin and Batgirl's 15 minutes were almost up. Dragging Zeron to the edge of the tree line, Superboy scanned the clearing. Robin said that Superboy could be a distraction to allow the team to escape, well he would be more than that.

Superboy threw Zeron to the ground, and ran at the building. Jumping up, he smashed through the wall with his fist. As he entered the building, Superboy heard alarms blaring through the building. If this wasn't a distraction, he didn't know what would be.

He heard the patter of footsteps, and threw Zeron down. The crew of people who looked exactly like Zeron stopped in their tracks, and stared. Superboy picked up Zeron, and turned around once showing all the aliens near him his captive. Guns clicked into place, as every single one of the aliens in attendance leveled their guns at Superboy.

However, the shots never came. A figure was marching down the hall towards the wreckage that Superboy had caused. Superboy found the aliens making a large ring around him, and allowing this newcomer to have a straight line to him. It seemed that they expected him to fight this newcomer, presumably their leader. It only took Superboy a second to make his decision. If he could win this fight, he could take out a problem the league, and the entire team had had a difficult time with. Throwing Zeron to the side, he got ready to fight.

…

Clacking key after key, Robin tried to find the release switch for his friends tanks. After yet another unsuccessful attempt, Robin looked over his shoulder once again, to check the door. Batgirl was still guarding it, but the alarms blaring meant he didn't have long to free his friends. Thinking fast, Robin took an explosive batarang, and threw it at an empty canister, to check the strength, and possible countermeasures. The batarang exploded, and broke the canister. Nothing else seemed to happen.

Tapping in once more to the network, Robin tried to pry more information out of the system regarding these canisters. He double checked for defenses, and, finding none, threw a batarangs into all the containers. They exploded, and Aqualad, Kid Flash, Ms. Martian, Rocket, and Zatanna tumbled to the floor. Robin rounded them up, then realized something. Artemis wasn't there. Robin pulled out some smelling salts from his belt, and tried to wake the team up. He got Aqualad, and KF before Batgirl came running over to help him.

As she was running, shots were fired from the door. Robin turned, and threw an explosive batarang at the door. It exploded, knocking the shooters back, and throwing rubble in front of the door. Batgirl helped KF and Aqualad to their feet, and tried to steady them.

"We have to go," Robin said, looking at the door as the rubble shook. "They're trying to get in, so we might need to find an alternate route out." After a more thorough examination of the room, Robin saw an alternate exit. There was a small door in the corner, cleverly concealed. Mentioning it to Batgirl, he jogged to it, slowing as he got closer. Putting his ear to the door, Robin listened for any sounds from the other side of the door. Hearing nothing, Robin checked the doorknob. It twisted easily, and Robin pushed the door open with one hand, the other grabbing a batarang from his utility belt.

The door led to another hallway that was empty. Robin went back to get the rest of the team, and they followed. Aqualad was holding Rocket, KF was holding Ms. M, and Batgirl was holding Zatanna, which left Robin to protect them in the case of a fight. "This way," Robin said, walking to the door. The hallway wasn't that wide, but Robin still was able to squeeze around everyone to close the door behind them. Then he went back to the lead. The next door led to a long hallway, similar to the one they found at the very beginning. Motioning everyone out into the hall, and closing the door behind them, Robin tried to figure out which way to go.

…

The Light watched with the utmost fascination the new clip that they had received from a new supplier. This new supplier had given them this as proof of their skill as a hacker. Of course, the light had hired them as quickly as they could, after all, not many people could hack justice league level equipment. This clip supposedly was proof of their skill, but the members of The Light were skeptical. They would need some way to verify this clip. After watching it again, they made a decision. They would do all they can to check the authenticity of the clip. If it was right, they would need a new strategy, because they would have a new objective. They would have to use their inside agent.

That was when the alarm went off. A screen pulled down showing one of their facilities. On the screen were two alerts. They looked at the screen as they saw Superboy with an unconscious figure behind him, staring down a new threat. The second screen didn't show anything for a little while, then it showed a door open into an empty hallway. The Light watched as Robin led the rest of his team out into the hallway, then looked both ways. Smiles formed around the entire room as they formed a new plan. Their maniacal laughs rang around the interior of the soundproof room, echoing over and over again.

…

Batman was about to start hacking deeper when his computer beeped. Stopping what he was doing Batman immediately looked at the team's markers. Three were on now, so that was good news. "But if that wasn't it, then what was the beep?" He looked at his computer again, and then ran his software. That found it. There was a virus trying to break through his firewall. It had already copied everything off of his current screen, but fortunately he hadn't been looking into anything too case sensitive.

Quickly, Batman worked to kick the virus out, and found someone working against him. Batman keyed a few more buttons, battling with this hacker. He was good, but no match for Batman. After a few minutes, Batman broke through, and forced the hacker to log off, or risk losing all of his data. That actually canceled many of the hackers downloads, so he would only have gotten a fraction of the material on Batman's main page. He just hoped that wasn't too much.

…

Superboy waited for his opponent to make the first move. In that instant, he remembered everything Black Canary had taught him about fighting. His opponent charged, and threw a punch. Superboy caught his punch with both hands, and countered, twisting his opponent's arm to a painful position. Throwing him back, Superboy regained his fighting stance. He would have to play this one smart, if he wanted to win. In his eyes, the whole mission rested on his success.

The man standing across from Superboy closed his eyes. When he opened them what used to be black was now blue. Superboy stared into the glowing blue eyes, and took a step back. The man's eyes glowed brighter, and suddenly beams shot out of them. Like lasers, but blue. Superboy dove out of the way, and looked at where the beams had hit. There was a large patch of ice where he had been. Staring back at his opponent, Superboy ran at him. The man's eyes started to glow again, and Superboy dove straight at him. However, he was short, and rolled. Springing up, Superboy delivered a punch to the man's jaw. He staggered backward, and the blue exploded from his eyes. When he looked at Superboy, the hatred was evident in his eyes. But even more obvious than that, they were black again.

The man closed his eyes again, and Superboy ran. As his eyes opened, Superboy saw red, and threw a punch at his face as quickly and as hard as he could. As the punch flew, the man suddenly backed up. Superboy saw him blur backward, and stumbled into thin air. In an instant the man was back, throwing punch after punch, however, he was punching fast. Faster than should be possible. As the man's arms blurred together, Superboy stumbled backwards, and fell. The man was literally vibrating as he stared down at Superboy, his eyes bright red.

…

Robin led everyone down the hallway on the left, figuring it went back towards their original entrance. Running down the hall, Robin found an access point to the air duct systems. Upon further inspection, Robin found that the duct didn't connect to the outside. They decided to move on, and again took off down the hall. Reaching the corner, Robin peered around it, and saw another empty hallway. Robin led the team down the hall, and heard the guards as they broke down the door and entered the room the team had just escaped from. He crept up to the edge, and with a few robinrangs, blew up the door again, blocking the guards off.

As they crept farther away from the door, loud sounds began to become audible. Banging, and cheering. Something big was happening. The hallway had an intersection just up ahead. As they got closer, it became more obvious that the sound was coming from the right. They went straight, and could soon hear the stomping of marching feet. The hallway ended with a curve to the right, which promptly led to a single doorway. Taking a minute to be careful, Robin hacked his way through the door's protection, and opened it remotely.

Peeking in, Robin saw a patrol of five troopers walking to the left, with their backs to the door. In the middle of the room was the bioship. There were a few scientists in white lab coats walking around it, poking it, prodding it, and taking notes on their clipboards. Reaching into his utility belt, Robin took out the rest of his sleeping gas canisters, and tossed all three of them into the room in different directions. Then he closed the door. Finally having a reason to wait, KF, Aqualad, and Batgirl set the other team members down, and Robin and Batgirl pulled out some smelling salts, in an attempt to wake them up.

Ms. Martian woke up first, then Rocket, but Zatanna refused to wake up. After about ten minutes of waiting, with no new results, Robin guessed that the canisters should have taken effect by now, and the gas levels should have decreased enough to not be an issue. Pressing a few buttons on his console, Robin opened the door.

The doors slid open without a sound, making the sight inside all the more eerie, but, nonetheless, expected. Nothing moved in the now silent hangar. Robin led the team in, KF had volunteered to carry Zatanna, so he was the only one not ready for trouble. Fortunately, they made it to the bioship without any interruptions. Ms. Martian opened it up, and everyone got out. Now that he was awake, Robin deferred to Aqualad for leading the escape mission. Looking around the group once, Aqualad started giving out assignments.

"First things first," Aqualad said. "We need to find Superboy, and Artemis. Given what happened last time, our priority should be getting out. They already know we are here, so the new mission is to get out, and report what we've seen. Ms. M, take Zatanna and the Bio ship, and get an aerial view. If you can, report back. Rocket, I need you to fly escort."

She looked at him weird, but then Rocket relented, "Okay. "But are you sure that splitting up is the best idea?" she asked, turning.

"No," Aqualad replied. "But I'm hoping it's not a terrible one."

Once the Bio ship had blasted a hole through the ceiling, the alarm sounded up again. Having to yell to be heard over the blaring alarms, and flashing lights, Aqualad yelled the plan.

"We don't have time to waste on an extended search. So we will need to split up. Kid Flash and I will take the north side, and you two take the south," he said motioning to Robin and Batgirl. And with that, they split up at a run, moving fast to try to cover as much ground as possible. KF taking the lead to the north, while Robin ran south, Batgirl right on his heels.

…

"So, do we just run, and hope we find someone?" Batgirl asked as they left the hanger, and took a right, to head south.

Robin hesitated a minute before replying. "Yeah, pretty much." Batgirl started laughing,

"You're serious? We have no plan beyond that?" she said after a moment.

"Eh, if we need more we'll wing it" Robin gave her a smirk, then slowed as they were reaching the edge of the building. Peering around the corner, Robin saw a circle of people, each of them fairly tall, so he couldn't see what was happening in the center. Flashing lights in the center, as well as footsteps, and the sound of fighting gave hints as to what was happening, but Robin could draw no conclusions.

"I'll get an aerial view," Batgirl whispered to him, before grappling on top of the rafters, and sneaking closer.

…

Superboy was careful to keep his arms up, all he could do was just sit there and take it until an opportunity to strike back presented itself. The punches didn't hurt all that much individually, but he could tell this person he was fighting was trying to be tricky, aiming for pressure points trying to disable rather than defeat him. Fortunately for superboy, the strikes weren't hard enough to effectively cut off the pressure points they did hit, though they were hard enough to be more than mildly uncomfortable.

Superboy had managed to get off of his back, but rising to his feet had proven more difficult than he had thought. This creature, whatever it was, seemed bent to prevent superboy from catching his breath for even a few seconds. "Is that…The best…You've got!" Superboy said as finally made it to his feet, and started throwing a few punches. Turning offensively, he took four rapid punches to the head, and a rapid flurry of hits to his legs. Frustration building, Superboy jumped, and prepared to smash his fist into the ground. He'd seen Superman do it once, and knew he could as well.

The punches didn't stop as he rose slightly, and as his legs groaned from the hits, he knew the jump wouldn't be as high as he needed. Clasping both hands together, Superboy heaved them downward, connecting with the ground, and sending a shockwave outward from the impact point. His opponent found himself a few inches off the ground, and that gave Superboy the opportunity he needed. Grabbing the man by his arm, Superboy twisted, and threw him over his shoulder. Landing in a huff, the man rolled, his left arm which had just been grabbed did not look good, it bent in the wrong place, and seemed to be quite painful. "Now you can be hurt? What's his deal? Whats going on here?" Superboy thought, but quickly pushed aside. Now wasn't the time for thinking, now was the time to act, to save. Having kept a grip on the figures wrist, Superboy spun him in a circle, before changing trajectory, and pivoting the figure around the impact into the ground at his feet.

The figure's eyes flickered between red and black for a few moments before it stopped, settling back to their original black. The figure didn't move, and as the still seconds ticked on, the crowd around him backed away slowly, chittering nervously. Gradually, the figures in front started to kneel, until the entire audience was on the ground. In his head, he heard a voice clearly speaking, much like how Megan's telepathy felt. "Massster." There seemed to be a slight echo, or the others repeated, Superboy wasn't sure which it was. "New massster. What would you have usss do?"

Superboy couldn't help but smile. "I want you to show me exactly what you all have been doing here on this island. Get me up to speed as fast as you can" He couldn't have imagined his plan working out this well, not only could he rescue everyone, but he could get all the information they needed, and more. "Hang on guys, I'm on my way"

Green eyes. He now had green eyes, but no one noticed; they had all walked away. The strong boy had taken his army, his family, and rage seethed within. His arm relocated itself, bending back to the proper orientation, and his bruises disappeared, but he remained on the ground where he had fallen until his body had completely healed, before he blinked and allowed his eyes to return to their normal dark color. "The experiment was a success then, well done my family. It is time, enter phase two. Begin the absorption process." An infiltration job had never been so much fun before, he really was excited now.