AN: I need to say this cause I don't say this NEARLY enough. Thank you so much to everyone reading and reviewing! You have no idea how much it means to me. I seriously squeaked when I saw I got 100 reviews. And as promised, you get something special because of those 100 review (Not just virtual cookies either). I'm gonna post a one-shot that is interconnects with this plot. Keep an eye out for it, okay? Anyway, read on!
The majority of the Team, who were sleeping in their respective rooms, were awoken by Batman's voice over the intercom. They quickly dressed in their mission uniforms and met in the hallway connecting their bedroom doorways, walking as a group to the kitchen. However, the four members present found an unexpected surprise awaiting them in the living room.
Wally was lounging upside down in the armchair, game controller in hand and his tongue poking through his lips. Whisper was balanced on the back of the couch, occasionally making noises of protest or victory.
"Take that you brain-eating, semi-decomposed, soulless corpse!"
"Dude, use the grenade! The grenade!"
An explosion on-screen followed shortly, prompting the two gamers to shout in excitement.
Whisper turned his head slightly, before catching sight of his assembled teammates. Flashing them a quick smile, he turned back to the screen and said joyfully, "Hey guys! KF is showing me how to play video games! I-DIE ZOMBIES! DIE!"
Miss Martian gave the small teen a frightened look as he front-flipped from his perch on the couch and landed sitting on the middle cushion.
Aqualad asked somewhat reluctantly, "Have you two been up all night?"
It was Whisper who replied. "Yep! We started playing around 9, but then we started to get tired and KF gave me some drink he called a 'Monster' or something and then we started playing again and we already beat all the other levels so now we're on this level and we are so going to wi-WHAT THE ASTER?! I JUST KILLED THAT ZOMBIE!" All throughout his speedy monologue, Whisper had his eyes glued to the screen, his thumbs never stopping.
Superboy winced at the volume before heading into the kitchen, where he paused, seeing the counter littered with at least twenty crushed cans. Turning his head slightly, he called the rest of the Team in to see the mess (Except for Whisper and Wally, who were still beating zombies to virtual pulps). Miss Martian and Aqualad didn't react at first, unfamiliar with the sugar-filled drink that were Monsters, but Artemis stared in horror.
The two boys were already hyper to begin with, but if they drank all of those cans, well, nothing good could come from that. She just hoped that Wally drank most of it. After all, his metabolism could handle it much better than Whisper's could.
Eventually, the teens decided to clean the kitchen before Batman saw it. After they finished with that, they went back into the living room, where the pair of trouble-makers were passed out on the couch.
Aqualad let out an annoyed sigh through his nose before shaking his teammates awake. Wally let out many noises of protest, yet finally managed to pry his eyes open. Whisper, however, didn't have as much of a nonviolent awakening. As soon as the Atlantean's hand touched Whisper's shoulder, his eyes shot open and not even Wally registered Aqualad's arm being drawn behind his back. Two seconds passed until Whisper let out a nervous chuckle and dropped his captured limb.
"Sorry about that, uhhhh instincts?"
The Team decided to drop it, they understood by now that there were many things about Whisper they would never understand. After the two gamers were informed of the intercom announcement, the teens gathered in the still darkened hangar in uniform, where they patiently awaited the mission briefing. (AN: I couldn't resist adding some video games and Monster bonding with these two. Sorry if the results of a Monster is way off, I've never had one, so I wouldn't know.)
Whisper had been watching Kid Flash devour a bowl of pretzels when a yell from Superboy caught his attention. When the clone loudly announced, "Kaldur knew we had a traitor among us but said nothing," Whisper stayed silent.
When Batman finally averted the attention of the adolescents off the topic, Whisper silently thanked him. He wasn't stupid; he knew that if Red Tornado wasn't the traitor, he would be the next top suspect. Batman would definitely back him up, but no one even knew his real name, let alone do his past. Whisper was pulled from his musings when the Dark Knight began to address the Team about certain arrangements.
"With Red Tornado...missing, the Team will now be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift."
Captain Marvel stepped forward and said peppily, "I'm really looking forward to hanging with you guys." Whisper's eyed twitched; it was not natural for those words to come from an adult's mouth.
"As for your mission," Batman interrupted and waved his hand, pulling up a holographic image from thin air. Upon hearing the gasps from his teammates, Whisper smirked. "Whisper allowed me to scan the blueprints of his holographic glove," Batman quickly explained. "We designed a way to incorporate the technology into the Cave and the League used the blackout as a chance to install the equipment." Gesturing once again, a second image came up.
Once Kid Flash read the headline out loud and sarcastically, Superboy said through the mind link, "They're seriously using this to distract us?"
After it was established that Batman was not joking, the teens headed towards the Bioship, where, to their surprise, Captain Marvel met up with them. Shrugging it off, the Team loaded into the Bioship. On the way to India, Whisper mused over all the ways this could go wrong; it was a fact that all far-fetched missions always became an huge, evil, and confusing plot.
He didn't know how right he was.
Giant man-eating vultures. Why not?
Whisper flipped over another fallen tree, tossing a whisp at the bird as he went. Once he and the Team had landed at their destination, Kid Flash had thrown several scathing remarks at Aqualad, then dragged Whisper off into the trees by the arm. Only ten minutes into their trekking, they had been attacked by several grotesque vultures wearing enlarged inhibitor collars. Kid Flash and Whisper had easily deduced that their proactive behavior (Not to mention appearance) was caused by Kobra Venom. Unfortunately, the pair's pursuers didn't really care about that.
Whisper grabbed onto another branch before flipping towards a vine, narrowly avoiding the vulture's beak.
Yep. Giant man-eating vultures=Not feeling the aster.
Whisper stood with the rest of the Team outside the Bioship. They had found the Brain, but, unfortunately, he and Monsieur Mallah managed to escape. Now, the last of the animals had been released and Whisper had to find the answer to a question he'd had for a while.
During the Team's initial argument about leadership, Whisper had tried to stay out of it. He was upset that such vital information was kept secret, but at the same time, he was glad it hadn't been brought up when he would've been a suspect. Still, that didn't change the fact that he was curious.
"Look, I need to know. Why did you keep the mole intel a secret?"
The Atlantean paused and faced the rest of the Team before replying. "The source of the tip was Sportsmaster."
Whisper automatically did a mental review of the villain's file. Works for the Shadows, occasionally does jobs for the Talons, not that the Shadows know that, and let's not forget that he happens to be the father of our resident archer.
The adolescent's thoughts were echoed by Artemis' screech. "What!? You can't trust him!"
Aqualad's reply came instantly. "I do not. It seemed possible, even likely, that he was attempting to divide the Team with false information."
"And given how this mission went," Whisper continued, "He nearly succeeded. But you had to consider it might be true." Whisper was definitely starting to understand why Aqualad did what he did.
"Yes. As leader, I did, in which case I did not wish to alert the traitor."
Whisper nodded. "Hate to say it," (the teen always did despise decisions he made based on his training), "But, makes sense." Whisper sent a grin in the Atlantean's direction.
"I am still prepared to step down."
Kid Flash decided to take that moment and say, "All in favor in keeping Aqualad as leader." All of the teens raised their hands, even Whisper and Artemis, who weren't there when the original vote was held.
Aqualad took in the sight before him before turning to the youngest member. "And if the need arises, I believe you will step in?"
Shocked, Whisper turned to face the others. Despite the little information that they had on Whisper, they couldn't deny the sense that he had more experience then they did, not to mention he managed to keep a level head.
Seeing the vote of confidence, Whisper looked back at Aqualad. "If the need arises," he repeated.
AN: Okay, so I FINALLY finished that. Just warning you now, certain episodes will be left out and there will be no Zatanna or Rocket. The plot is going to be changed around, so there will be no Light, it's just the League of Talons working anonymously through all the other villains. Kapeesh? Okay, good.
And I didn't include the fighting scene in this because nothing was different. Sue me.
-GSDLover