Chapter 12
Eleanor pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed at her father's antics. She could tell that she would have to explain this to everyone and the sounds of the Big Daddy leaving the area while on different modes of transportation were more distracting than helpful.
{You can stop doing that now.} she told him as she now heard the rotors of a helicopter inside her head.
{Sorry. I really thought that it would work.} Delta apologized as the sounds of the copter ceased.
{Who are you? How did you intercept the link?} Superboy angrily demanded.
{He didn't.} Siren decided to answer instead. {And as for who he is, he's my father.}
{YOUR DAD?!} they all screamed in unison.
Both Alpha Big Daddy and Alpha Big Sister winced at the intenseness of the shout.
{Ow.} Siren could somehow sense her father rubbing his ears despite him not having any actual ears or body. Did he somehow make a mental construct of a body for himself? Maybe. It would explain the things that he was doing earlier.
{Didn't you tell us that he died?!} Kid Flash looked around frantically. He was afraid that the giant of the man would appear out of nowhere and clobber him for trying to flirt with his daughter. He was quite frightening even though Miss Martian only showed them a memory of what he looked like.
{Not…exactly.} she scratched the back of head. She had hoped that she would not have to inform them that her father was a part of her compound intellect to the Team or Justice League.
{I did technically die though. Several times in fact. It even got to a point where I could just laugh it off after I die. There was this one time where I accidently killed myself in a rather ridiculous way. It was really quite funny now that I think about it-} Subject Delta began to tell them.
{Not being very helpful at the moment, Father.} she rubbed the spot where a headache was threatening to appear.
{Shutting up now.}
{What the hell is he talking about?! How is he still alive if you guys just said that he was dead.} Artemis joined in. {Better yet! What does he mean that he died several times already?!}
{It is a very, very long story and I suggest we should leave it for later for we have more important things that we have to do at the moment. I promise that I will tell you the full story of my family after the fate of the world is no longer at stake.}
{Good idea.} Aqualad nodded.
{Okay, I'm not sure if I'm the one getting a headache or I'm just feeling it from someone else. But since she just finished the virus, I just have to track the FOG down. Unless she can also track it down. If she can, I don't see the whole point on having me here in the first place.}
{I don't think I could track the FOG because I didn't create it in the first place.} Siren shook her head. {I only knew how to complete the virus for I have already developed one with a similar algorithm.}
{Something tells me that having the Justice League would a lot less stressful than this.} Rochette pinched the bridge of her nose.
{The virus won't be of much use if we cannot find the weapon. Can you track it?} the Atlantean asked the doctor.
{My utility FOG is not a weapon.} she corrected him. {It's science. Brilliant science. And of course, I can track but I have to go online. Might as well rent a billboard with this address and "Assassinate Me!" written in neon.}
{Oh yes, let's create a swarm of nano-bots design to destroy everything in its path and call it "Brilliant Science" instead of a weapon. That is an ingenious idea.} Siren muttered sarcastically.
{The scientists who tortured me an my sisters were probably thinking the same thing as well.} she added in a dark afterthought which she didn't mean for them to overhear. But left them speechless-er-thoughtless either way. (This mind link thing was really starting to get annoying.)
She smacked herself on the head when she realized her mistake. The impact left a loud crack in the room. She must have socked herself really hard if it left a definite sound like that.
{Wait. Is that how you got your powers?} Artemis stared at her in shock.
She was going to say more but it was interrupted by a menacing growl that made everyone except the Rapturian shiver in fear.
{Later.} her father said in a tone that promised bloody murder to those who disagree. {Track the weapon. NOW.}
Dr. Serling Rochette gave an audible gulp as she went online. {Tracking the FOG now.}
The screen showed that it was in a plane that had recently arrived in Philadelpia. They now know the location of the weapon. But the enemy also knew where they were.
The Team and the doc could hear Siren's father rumbling in anticipation of the coming the danger. They may not know it but they were experiencing firsthand the bloodlust of a Big Daddy. And it was kind of ominous.
Of course, the only one unfazed by this was the daughter of the man-if he could still be called that. It was as if this was a common occurrence for her but considering that he was her father, it probably was.
{I'm going to go help Miss Martian and Superboy patrol the perimeter. Anyone else want to come?} Siren turned to the others.
{Sure, I'll come too.} Artemis began to walk to the door but the hooded girl placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
{We're taking the faster way.}
{I thought you said that it was harder to control if you're taking someone with you?} the Krptonian asked the Rapturian. He had an idea on what she was planning to do.
{Practice makes perfect.} she shrugged. {Besides, I'm pretty sure I won't accidently rip her insides apart now that I got the gist of it.}
{Wait, WHAT!} the archer was able to yell right before Siren teleported the both of them outside.
Lady Luck just happened to be on their side for the night as the two teenagers were safely transported to the outside of the high school where the Martian floated down to meet up with them.
{There. That went along swimmingly, don't you think?} the Alpha Big Sister told her passenger. She was grinning from under her hood so the other girl didn't see it.
{A little warning next time wouldn't hurt.} she glared at the hooded girl.
{I did warn you.}
{Since when?}
{When I said that we're taking the faster way.}
{What I mean was that you could've told me that teleporting me could accidently kill me!}
{That was only the second worst-case scenario.}
{Second? What's the first?} she immediately regretted asking after that.
{The worst-case scenario would be you puking all over me.}
{That doesn't sound so bad.} Kid Flash commented from where he was.
{She forgot to mention that she would be literally puking her innards out and die a slow and painful death.} Delta added.
Superboy interrupted before the Big Daddy could send them a mental image of that happening by landing in the spot next to them. He nonchalantly resumed his patrol of the school grounds.
{Mmm…That boy.} the female archer admired, briefly forgetting about the mind link and the near death situation earlier.
Said boy gave her a look before turning to leave.
{He can hear you.} Miss Martian reminded her in an irritated manner. {We can all hear you!}
{Oh, I know.}
{Dr. Rochette has located the FOG. Reconfigure the Bioship so that Robin and Superboy can pursuit.} the Team's leader ordered.
M'gann sent out a telepathic command to the sentient vessel. It then landed in front of the school.
{Ready.} she announced as the Boy of Steel and Boy Wonder ran to enter the Bioship. The girls watched their departure in silence.
The English girl's head turned to look at the bushes and she sent a bolt of lightning at whatever was her target without warning.
"Snooping around, are we?" she called out to the bushes, hand still raised and surging with electricity. She knew that Martians were susceptible to fire so she avoided using her Incinerate! Plasmid.
Shruikens were instantly thrown at her in response. Miss Martian quickly used her telekinesis to deflect the projectiles as Artemis shot an arrow at their point of origin while Siren shot another lightning bolt to the left.
"Aaah!" a female and older voice cried out in pain as a feminine figure dressed in green and wearing a cat mask fell out of the bushes. Her right shoulder was singed a bit because of the hooded girl's attack. She held her injured shoulder with her left hand and wielded a sai in her right hand.
"That had to hurt," the archer noted the electrical burn on the female assassin's shoulder as she nocked another arrow.
She then let out a barrage of arrows at the masked assassin who merely slashed at the arrows in midair and charged at them. The Rapturian was able to parry the slashes with her metal gloves, the materials being tough enough to withstand the blade. The assassin somehow got through her guard and delivered a kick to her sides that would have crippled an ordinary human. But as the leg made contact with her body, Siren felt an extreme pins and needles sensation that she usually got when she was using the Electro Bolt Plasmid and it was happening all across her body, not just her hands. In the next instant, a large electrical burst was then emitted from her and blasted everyone near her back, enemy and allies alike.
"AAAH!" the archer, the Martian, and the assassin cried out in unison.
The English girl was so shocked (no pun intended) at the sudden electrical explosion that she failed to see the masked assailant recover before detonating a smoke bomb. The smokescreen successfully hid the attacker as she made her escape.
{Aqualad, Kid Flash, we had just confronted an assassin from the Shadows but she managed to slip through. She might be on her way to Dr. Rochette!} the hooded girl warned the others.
{I doubt it.} the blonde archer groaned as she got back up to her feet. {Siren sure did a number on her.}
{And us too by the way.} she aimed an irritated glare at the only unscathed one among them.
{I can't sense the assassin anywhere in the school grounds.} Miss Martian had her hands on her temples as her eyes glowed red.
{Maybe she has a block on her mind?} the speedster suggested helpfully.
{I would still be able to sense her but I won't be able to hear her thoughts.}
The communicator in the Atlantean then beeped, meaning that he had an incoming transmission.
[Robin to Aqualad. We're over Philadelphia. We've located the Shadow's next target, Star Labs but we're too late.] he heard the youngest member say to him. [It's destroyed. Totally destroyed. The FOG decimated it. This is bad. Star Labs has cutting edge science now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy… What's our next move?]
"Rescan for the FOG. We're moving the doctor," their leader announced to them through the comm link.
00000
The Team had shortly transferred the doctor away from the school after scanning for the FOG again. It was revealed that the Shadow's next target was the Wayne Tech facility that was also located in Philadelphia.
Aqualad had devised a plan to lure the assassins to ambush them. The enemy didn't know that the virus had already been completed so they will still be targeting the doctor and her life was still being endangered.
Their new location was the city hall that was by the pier. Kid Flash and Artemis were inside and were guarding the doctor while the rest were outside.
{Stop it, both of you.} the Atlantean ordered the two firmly.
{What?} the speedster and the archer both demanded at the same time.
{I can hear you glaring.} he told them.
{I knew I shouldn't have drank too much water.} Siren said to herself as they heard her wash her hands after relieving herself in the nearby loo (restroom), which was unfortunately a few blocks away from the city hall.
"Miss Martian, stay in camouflage mode and make a wide perimeter sweep while Siren will rendezvous with Robin and Superboy," Kaldur called out to the Martian out loud.
Without warning, Aqualad found himself being pulled up by some web-like substance. He then felt strong blows hitting him and sent him crashing into a van that was close by. His body left a large dent on the vehicle. As he made his way back up, he saw a man leapt out of the trees.
The assassin wore a purple and black bodysuit. His mask covered his entire head. It had two big yellow lenses where the eyes were and there was a black symbol of a spider on the forehead. Aqualad quickly identified him as the assassin, Black Spider.
Before he could battle the arachnid themed villain, something hard and metallic collided smacked him at the back if his head that promptly rendered him unconscious.
"The Martian could return any second and I'm not keen on evening their odds," he could hear a female voice calling out but it was like it was coming from a distance despite the fact that he could sense her near him.
"But at least I know that girl isn't here at the moment so we end Rochette now."
00000
Black Spider crashed through the double doors of the building. Kid Flash, being the first to react, dashed at him and attempted to perform a sliding kick at the assassin who avoided it by jumping and latching onto the ceiling. The assassin shot out web from his wrist at the speedster who rolled out of the way and threw a nearby trashcan in retaliation. He dropped down to the floor and entered into a hand-to-hand combat with KF.
Artemis nocked an arrow and aimed at Black Spider to assist her teammate. The sound of glass breaking behind her tore her concentration from the fight in front of her. She turned to see a white haired man with a giant metal hook where his right hand should be. She shot the arrow that was intended for Black Spider at him. The man swiftly dived for cover behind a bench.
"Don't stop working," she told the doctor as she let loose more arrows at the second assassin.
A bench was then telekinetically lifted and blocked an arrow from the first assassin that the three girls had confronted.
"Martian's here! It's now or never!" she called out to her companions.
Black Spider used his legs to bodily flip the speedster before shooting out another webline at the bench. With a mighty tug, the bench was removed from where it was floating. The cat-masked assassin chose this time to strike.
Artemis focused at the female assassin and aimed her bow at her. However, it was revealed that the man's hook could be shot out with a chain connected to it as it slammed into the archer and knocked her back.
As a last resort, Serling Rochette tried to escape by running away but this plan was to a stop as the cat-masked assassin kicked her from behind and knocked her down.
The deathblow was about to be brought down unto the unfortunate scientist but the doctor's head turned in impossible degrees to look at the assassin as her skin morphed into green. The now green face of their target now had a smug look on it.
"We've been duped!" she realized with a start.
Miss Martian then fully transformed back into her human form and flew above them.
"You'll never find Dr. Rochette!" she told the assassins.
"Never's such a long time," the female assassin retorted.
"Pursuing target," she told the others as she began her pursuit for the nano-robotics expert, "Keep them busy." The man shot his hook at the Martian in response.
Artemis recovered in time to see the cat-masked assassin exiting the building.
"Pursuing their leader," she called out to Kid Flash and Miss Martian as she chased after the said leader, "Take the rest down!"
Kid Flash, who was able to punch Black Spider back, turned to glare at the archer.
"You are sooo not the boss of me!" he yelled at her.
"Just do it!" she yelled back at him.
The leader had returned to where the unconscious form of the Atlantean was to discover that he was no longer there.
"Oh, I do not like being played," she said as she activated the infrared vision on her mask to see the footprints that were left behind through Aqualad's body heat. She resumed the pursuit.
Artemis had already spotted the female assassin and nocked an arrow. She waited for a few seconds to get a better aim at her target before letting it loose.
The leader turned around at the last second and slashed the arrow from midair like she had done before.
"I was hoping it would be you," the cat-masked assassin told her and she could somehow tell that she was grinning from under the mask.
The two-way pursuit was back on as the assassin ran off to kill the doctor while the archer ran after her to prevent that from happening. The assassin took to the rooftops in an attempt to lose her pursuer.
Another arrow was shot at the assassin who simply bent her body to the sides to dodge the projectile as it hit the roof instead. Knockout gas was suddenly released from the arrow. She coughed a few times before slipping to unconsciousness.
Artemis cautiously approached the downed figure of the enemy with an arrow ready to fire. It was then shown that the assassin was merely playing possum as she swept a leg at the archer and knocked her down.
"Mask has built-in filters," she told the young archer who tried to kick her as she got back to her feet but the cat-masked assassin blocked both attacks and placed her arms into a hold behind her back.
"Better luck next time, kid," she told the female archer before she hit her in the back of her head, which knocked her out.
The assassin smirked from under her mask as she continued to chase after the doctor. Out of nowhere, a fist collided with her mask and sent her flying a couple of feet back.
"I could say the same to you," Siren told her as her body became visible with flames pouring out from her fingertips and palms.
"You," the assassin glared at the hooded girl from behind her now cracked mask as held her Sais in reverse grips and entered a fighting stance.
Siren wanted to improvise her plasmids instead of using the standard attacks so she jumped at the assassin as flames covered her arms and legs, giving her the appearance of a phoenix. It temporarily gave her flight as she charged at the assassin in midair.
The assassin's eyes widened at the display. She was able to roll out of the way but she was unable to avoid the small explosion of heat and fire that quickly came after. The force sent her tumbling to the streets below.
"Artemis, are you alright?" the English girl ran to her teammate's side to check her condition.
"Urgh, I'm fine," the archer groaned as she got back up while shaking off the dizziness, "Wait! What about the Shadow?"
Without another word, she placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder before teleporting them to the street where she saw the Shadow fall into. They reappeared in an alley but the female Shadow was nowhere to be seen except for the cat mask that was left behind.
"She got away," Artemis gritted her teeth.
"This mask reminds me of the Cheshire Cat from the book "Alice in Wonderland"," the Rapturian noted as she picked up the mask and examined it.
"And like the Cheshire Cat, she disappeared," Artemis stated as her eyes narrowed. She had a hunch on who the Shadow was but she didn't have any evidence to confirm it.
Her companion noticed this and wondered if there was a connection of some sort between the two.
[Robin and Superboy had neutralized the FOG.] Aqualad announced through the comm link. [Meet us at the Internet café.]
"Understood," Siren said as the archer placed a hand on her shoulder before transporting them to the Internet café where the real Dr. Rochette was located.
"Artemis, Siren, where's the assassin?" the Atlantean asked them.
"She…she got away," the archer responded.
"Whoa, from you?" Kid Flash said in mocked surprise as he arrived with his superspeed.
"Big surprise. Noticed? We got ours," he gestured to the two tied up Shadows that were being held up by Miss Martian.
The speedster's behavior irked the Alpha Big Sister. She tossed the mask that she still had in her hand at him and it bounced off his chest.
"That's not really being fair, Wally," she said to him as she folded her arms, "She escaped from me as well."
"She distracted you!" he tried to defend himself.
"She was hurt and I wanted to see if she was alright," she told him, "I did what anyone else here would've done."
The speedster opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by a certain Big Daddy.
{Enough of this childish squabble! You are being unreasonable and immature. The doctor is safe and the weapon had been destroyed. That's all that matters.} Subject Delta growled through the still opened mind link.
Kid Flash paled at the Big Daddy's statement. He tried to take his mind off the frightening voice as he noticed the mask that Siren had tossed at him.
"Cool! Souvenir," he picked up the mask and admired as he tried to forget how threatening the English girl's father was.
"Did you see her face?" Aqualad asked the Rapturian and the Archer.
"No," Siren shook her head, "She left behind the mask before she disappeared again."
"Like what your father said, the FOG had been neutralized and the Dr. Rochette is safe thanks to a small part to both of you," he said to the two new members as he offered a handshake to them, "Welcome to the Team."
"I always wanted a sister," Miss Martian said to them after they shook Kaldur's hand, "Here on Earth, I mean. I have twelve back on Mars but trust me it's not the same."
"I…wouldn't know," Artemis replied.
"But I do. I had about more than twenty sisters," Siren shrugged.
"No relations. We just all shared the same bond of sisters back at the orphanage," she explained to them when she noticed the looks that they were giving her.
"Ow!" Kid Flash exclaimed as Miss Martian elbowed him roughly in the ribs.
"Anyway, welcome to the Team," he said to the archer a bit forced. He flashed a flirty smile at the other new member. But it was instantly wiped away when he heard a menacing growl from her father.
"When we return to the Cave, you should tell us the whole story about your father," Aqualad said to the hooded girl.
"A promise is a promise, I suppose," she sighed, "But you'll soon know why I kept it from all of you."