TAIPEI
SEPTEMBER 7, 19:20 NST
Crowds gathered outside the embassy as they waited to see who the mystery arbitrator for the peace summit between north and south Rhelasia would be, reporters talked, explaining the situation and talking about the current suspicions. Red Arrow leant against a pillar and reached up to the comm link in his ear.
"Ghost." A voice came through the earpiece.
"Red Arrow," The Red-headed leaguer responded, "I need to know the exact height of the assassin known as Cheshire."
"Five-six." Ghost responded immediately, "I assume this has something to do with you being outside the Rhelasian embassy and the mystery Arbitrator being about a minute away?"
"Y'know, it's actually really creepy when you do that." Red Arrow said, annoyance seeping into his tone.
"Yep, Err, I doubt that Cheshire will take a subtle option, so I'd watch out for people that height who are around trees or benches. Just my two cents."
"Thanks, I see her." Red Arrow said before unfolding the compact bow hidden in his suitcase. Cheshire sprang up onto the top of a stall, holding an RPG. She took aim at the limo but Red Arrow sent a blunt tip flying into her hand, causing the RPG to be knocked off target. Cheshire hissed in annoyance and leapt at the limo, drawing two Sai. She quickly tore through the crowd of Guards only to be caught in an arrow fired by Red Arrow. She slashed through the net quickly and made to attack the limo again but Red Arrow tackled her. She swung for his head but he caught her wrist and flipped her. She lashed out and grabbed his tie, using it to pull his head down as she swung her knee up, hitting him in the face. She rolled on top of him and then raised one of her Sai before a voice shouted at her.
"Hands on the ground or we shoot!" Cheshire looked around and sighed in annoyance as she realised that this was a situation where she would need help breaking out. The Taipei police dragged Cheshire off Roy and her hands cuffed behind her back. Roy was also dragged onto his feet and likewise handcuffed, not that this surprised him.
"You need a bit of help." Ghost said, in a tone that made it clear this wasn't a question. "I don't have the freedom to come and help you by myself, but Kaldur should be up to coming with me. Give me a sec and I'll clear up this mess you've got yourself in."
True to his word it took Ghost about a minute to call the Taipei police department and confirm that Roy was Red Arrow, aka Speedy.
"Meet us at the Taipei Zeta tunnel and we can catch Kaldur up on this. I'll give the embassy a look whilst you two interrogate Cheshire."
"Don't order me around." Roy hissed, marching towards the Zeta tube entrance regardless of his words.
"Oh," Ghost said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, "I didn't realise that you're the resident expert on assassinations.
"Please, don't remind me you're a murderer," Roy responded.
Lex Luthor was not usually jumpy, preferring to stay calm and collected, or at least appear so but the sudden appearance of Ghost in his hotel room was surprising enough to make him jump.
"Ghost?" He asked, surprised.
"Luthor?" Ghost asked in a mocking interpretation before becoming serious again, "Red Arrow called in some assistance in the matter of protecting the peace summit. I need you to get me in so that I can survey the area and make sure we watch all the entrances and block the exits." Lex nodded, returning to a calm state when he realised that the white-suited assassin was not here to kill him.
"Very well, let us away to the embassy."
"Don't get sarcastic with me Luthor."
Aqualad and Red Arrow stood outside Cheshire's cell in the Taipei police station.
"Aren't you going to ask me… anything?" Cheshire asked as she moved through a sequence of motions, her entire body moving and bending smoothly.
"I think you know what we're after." Red Arrow said, eyebrows furrowing in annoyance.
"I do actually, do you?"
"Who hired you?" Red Arrow snapped.
"The shadows," Cheshire responded.
"And who hired them?" Red Arrow growled.
"I don't ask," Cheshire responded before winking at him.
"What's the end game? The Summit? Or Luthor himself?" Red Arrow asked.
"Hey, where are the rest of your little sidekick friends? They're always fun to play with. Especially Art-chery girl, I like her."
"She- They- aren't in my league."
"No, they aren't, you're better than most of them and worse than Ghost, Ghost's dangerous, he's vicious. Where's he when you need him?"
"I don't." Red Arrow growled.
"Sure about that?" Cheshire asked before ducking down and grabbing the Bars of her cell.
"Oh no." Red Arrow said in a resigned tone before Kaldur tackled him as the wall of Cheshire's cell exploded.
The two young superheroes looked up as the wall exploded. A bald man in black sleeveless combat gear hung from a rappelling rope over the hole.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Cheshire asked frantically.
"I'll tell you later." The Intruder said, seemingly unbothered by the two heroes a few metres away, "Let's go." He then kicked off from the wall and disappeared downwards. Cheshire sprang to her feet and lunged out of the hole disappearing downwards.
"The roof!" Kaldur yelled, standing up and sprinting out of the door, Red Arrow following close behind him. The two ran all the way up to the roof kicking open the door and running towards the side of the wall which had been blasted open. Cheshire and her saviour were running along the rooftops, moving swiftly. Red Arrow fired a rope arrow and began to zip line along it moving fast enough to catch up with the others. Kaldur hooked one of his water bearers over the rope and jumped, following.
"Are you even trying to lose theses two?" The black clothed assassin said to Cheshire, not sounding bothered at all.
"Not really," Cheshire said with a slight laugh
"You're going to have to try at some point." The Assassin responded.
"Yeah, you're right." Cheshire turned and threw a shuriken at the rope cutting through it easily. The two young heroes dropped a few feet down towards the rooftops and rolled to break their falls. They looked up as the two assassins threw themselves into a large black helicopter which had already begun its ascent before they entered. Red Arrow grabbed another rope arrow from his quiver and fired it, catching onto the chopper, he began to haul himself up the rope. The black-clad-assassin leant out of the door of the chopper and sighed.
"These guys, they refuse to give up, don't they?" He asked, glancing at Cheshire, amusement very much clear.
"No, they don't, it's really quite funny," Cheshire responded.
"I like the ginger, what height do you reckon won't kill him?"
"Give it another couple of metres."
"Alright."
The two sat in a curious silence, both watching Roy haul himself up the rope before the black-clad assassin drew a knife from his belt and sliced clean through the rope. Roy dropped but was easily able to fire a foam arrow in order to break his fall. As the redhead watched the helicopter disappear into the distance, Kaldur ran over to him, having only just caught up.
"They were playing with us," Roy growled.
"They were, my friend, perhaps we should retreat and focus on defending the peace summit."
"Yeah, we need to meet up with Ghost and see what he's got."
The three teens stood around a table. After explaining the situation to the summit's security team (the insinuation that they were not sufficient defence had annoyed them at first) they had been able to set up in a reasonably sized apartment. Ghost placed down a projector on each corner of the table and flicked his wrist. Instantly a 3D image of the embassy appeared.
"If what you're telling me is correct, which I have no doubt about, then our job just got about a dozen times harder and you should be very glad I'm here. That assassin who helped out Cheshire is called Nodachi, he's a member of the Shogun clan, and one of the few members of the Shogun family. They are all of Japanese descent, although Nodachi's possibly adopted or just really diluted. The Shogun clan is led by Shogun himself."
The holographic model changed to show a bulky suit of armour, that vaguely resembled classic samurai armour.
"He was a normal guy in a suit of armour, until he died, or came near enough to doing so. Now he's a brain in a robot, strong enough to stop superman, fast enough to give Bats a run for his money, tough enough to ignore most attacks. Highly skilled in melee combat, carrying a virtual clusterfuck of equipment. His disadvantage is that his suit needs regular maintenance so he very rarely actually appears. Sadly, that doesn't make the clan any weaker. He has two children, Nodachi and Kunoichi."
The hologram changed, yet again to show the assassin from earlier as well as a girl, about 17 and much more blatantly Japanese. She wore a kimono that was a tad more revealing than probably necessary.
"Yeah, Kunoichi uses her appearance as a distraction, do not get distracted by it or you. Will. Die. She, like her father, carries a clusterfuck of equipment, including bladed fans, retractable spears and foot long claws, no one has any clue as to how she carries all of that whilst wearing about a metre squared of cloth."
"A metre squared's a bit generous," Roy said, smirking.
"Stop it!" Ghost said with a slight laugh. "Nodachi carries blades, quite a few of 'em. He got his name from his favourite sword, a five-foot-long Nodachi sword. He's the most physically active of the family."
"I reckon Kunoichi's probably very physically active," Roy said, smirking once more.
"Fuck's sake." Ghost said, exasperated but amused all the same. "Look, the point I'm trying to make is that if Nodachi shows up, let me handle him; if Kunoichi shows up, shoot the bitch and run; if Shogun shows up, don't even bother shooting him, just plain run."
The white-suited boy waved his hand and the hologram changed- much to Roy's disappointment- back into the model of the embassy.
"Really, the guys who set up this summit were having a bad brain day, because the hall it's in has a giant fucking window, as well as air vents big enough for a small ICBM, and about three doors. Roy, everyone knows you're here, may as well be in close proximity to Luthor and the others. Kaldur, Nodachi and Cheshire both know you're around, and you're a hero, so you can get away with being out in the open. I'm going to be around, keeping an eye on the comings and goings."
Roy and Kaldur both nodded.
"Well then," The redhead began, "Shall we go and achieve peace between two countries?"
"Fuck yeah!"
"You gotta admit Bats, disappearing without saying anything takes balls, especially since Ghost's supposed to only go on league sanctioned missions." Green arrow said, smirking at the very angry looking vigilante in front of him.
"The disappearing doesn't bother me, Kaldur will stop him from doing anything too destructive, like blowing up expensive rocket launch computers, it's the fact that neither of them has said anything." The Bat grumbled as he paced around the Hub of Mount Justice.
"Hold up," Black Canary said from where she was working on the computer, "Blowing up launch computers?"
"Long story."
"I guessed," There was a chime from the computer and Black Canary looked down at it, surprised, "It's a message from Ghost 'achieving world peace, fighting ninjas, kicking ass, back for dinner', Ha, he did a smiley face emoji, like the proper image." The blonde heroine turned the screen in mid-air to show both heroes the yellow smiling face.
"Wait, can the league computer even do those?" Green Arrow asked.
"No, it can't," Batman grumbled.
"Can now." Black Canary said, smiling in amusement.
"Kal, check in."
"Kaldur, check.
"Roy, check in."
"Roy, check."
"Cool."
Red arrow almost laughed as the currently invisible killing machine ninja said 'cool'.
"Hey, Ghost?"
"Ya?"
"How do you know all that about the shogun clan, I'm assuming they don't have a Wikipedia page."
"They have a penchant for trying to be the dominant villain group in places, so far, they haven't achieved that anywhere near the west but they've tried before, I had to push back, which means I've had to do research on them."
"Oh, I always thought of you as just a mindless machine, Y'know, before you broke loose."
"Emotionless, yes, mindless, no. and I sort of showed emotions, when dealing with allies, I knew how to act since it helped me work with them."
"Hmm, cool."
"Why are we having a casual conversation when we are fairly sure that a group of assassins are going to attack us?" Aqualad asked.
"Because waiting is boring, and I can't actually do anything else since I'm hanging off the ceiling." Ghost said.
"Why are you hanging off the ceiling? There's like a bunch of places you could stand and not get noticed." Red Arrow said.
"Because," Ghost growled, "if I'm just standing there, I don't get as dramatic an entrance."
"You're obsessed with theatrics aren't you?"
"Oh god yeah, theatrics are everything."
"Focus, my friends, focus."
"Sure, sure." Ghost muttered.
"Gentlemen, please," Luthor said, interrupting the two arguing state leaders and catching the young heroes' attention, "This is mere rhetoric, despite your differences you both share an appreciation of many things such as the exquisite brilliance of the Rhelasian tea ceremony."
He gestured towards the front of the hall where a young woman in a kimono was pushing a trolley towards the table.
"She's five-nine," Roy muttered.
"Dark haired too," Aqualad said.
"Her arse is the same shape as Cheshire's too." Ghost said.
"And you call me a perv," Roy said.
"I have an eye for details, what can I say. Kal, move up and engage."
Aqualad stepped up to intercept Cheshire.
"That is far enough… Cheshire." Cheshire's gentle smile faded into a glare before she pushed a button on her cart and shoved it forwards. Roy fired an explosive arrow to counter it whilst Aqualad raised a water shield. The explosion ripped through the entire hall.
"Ah, fuck," Ghost grunted as he was struck by a wave of heat.
As the smoke from the explosion faded Kaldur ripped his jacket off and Roy moved up to stand next to him.
"It's over, Cheshire," Roy growled, levelling an arrow at her.
"You would think so," Cheshire said, smirking as a helicopter rose up behind her. Nodachi stood on the leg of the chopper, hanging off the top of it. He stepped casually across the gap between the helicopter and the building. As Ghost had said his five-foot-long sword was on his back and he drew it. Men in black, armour padded suits stepped off behind him and drew pistols and knives.
"I've got Nodachi, you guys deal with the other clan members and Cheshire." Ghost said. He dropped from the ceiling and landed, becoming visible. Nodachi smirked when he saw the white assassin.
"Ah, Ghost, we thought you would be here, care to battle?" Ghost nodded and the two charged at each other.
In close quarters it would have been fair to assume that Ghost's meter long swords would have had the advantage over Nodachi's five-foot-long one. This assumption would have been false. Nodachi twisted and turned his blade to block both of Ghost's swords simultaneously, the two combatants twirling and gliding across the room, as if they were dancing.
Kaldur and Cheshire battled as well, Sai (Kaldur didn't even want to know where they had come from) and water sabres meeting as Cheshire danced around the Atlantean. Kaldur had learned after his last fight with Cheshire that charging in and trying to use his full physical strength simply exposed him to her superior agility, so he stayed on the defensive, blocking incoming attacks and waiting for an opening.
Red Arrow crouched on a piece of rubble, trying to help the Rhelasian security teams combat the ninjas that had followed Nodachi off the helicopter. It didn't take long as the ninjas didn't seem particularly focused and net arrows, foam arrows and knockout gas arrows dealt with them easily.
He then turned to Kaldur and Cheshire, launching an arrow at Cheshire. The projectile just missed her (the intended effect) and stuck into the ground at her feet. She looked down at it, looked up at Roy, winked and then dropped a smoke bomb, disappearing by the time the smoke faded. All eyes turned to Ghost and Nodachi, neither of whom seemed to be winning per se, with both blocking the others hits easily.
Ghost dropped under one of Nodachi's swings and disappeared, reappearing a few moments later behind his opponent, and silently lunging. Somehow Nodachi saw this coming and spun, raising his foot and striking Ghost in the ribs. Ghost rolled across the floor, having been sent flying by the force of the attack, before rising smoothly to his feet. Nodachi was charging levelling all five feet of his sword at Ghost. Ghost became intangible just before the blade pierced his chest, side stepping out of it, becoming solid and hitting Nodachi in the face.
The helicopter sank down, reappearing at the window, turned so that it faced the crowd full on.
"Rockets!" Ghost yelled, rolling under a swing from Nodachi, his counter strike being deflected easily of the sword.
Roy turned and almost shit himself when he saw the rocket launchers on the side of the Chopper.
"Fuck! Run!" He yelled but Luthor's assistant stepped forwards and raised her right arm. The limb split into four, from shoulder to fingertips and fired a projectile. The rocket struck the Chopper and exploded, a wave of heat rolling over the crowd. Nodachi turned and glared as the now burning wreck of the Chopper fell to the ground.
"Fucker." He said, turning to Ghost before fleeing. Ghost let him go, hand moving to clutch his ribs where Nodachi had kicked him.
"You okay?" Roy asked walking over to the white-suited boy.
"The fucker had steel toe caps, so my ribs sting like a bitch, but yeah, I'm fine, mostly." Ghost replied, his voice slightly higher than normal.
"That's good, we should head off, I'm freelance right now, you two aren't and it's past your bedtime."
"Fuck you, Harper." Ghost muttered. Kaldur joined them.
"The Rhelasian ministers have agreed to sign the treaty and are currently fanboying over Luthor's assistant's arm. Luthor has said that we may leave."
Ghost nodded and then turned to Roy.
"Come back to the cave with us and debrief?" He asked, his tired voice hopeful.
Roy smiled slightly and nodded. "If it lets you babies go to bed earlier, sure." Ghost sighed as Kaldur smiled and nodded.
MOUNT JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 8, 02:40, EDT
"And exactly who sanctioned this mission?" Batman asked glaring down at the two sheepish team members.
"We did," Muttered Ghost, "but to be fair, I sent you a message."
"You sent me once sentence, that didn't even have important information in!" Black Canary said, the lump of worry that had been in her chest fading.
"I told you we'd be back for dinner." Ghost said.
"In what way is showing up at two in the morning with a few broken ribs 'back for dinner'?" Canary said, frustration seeping into her voice.
"I have a very weird eating schedule, alright? Besides I did the right thing and used my skills to help achieve peace, isn't that what you lot have been trying to get me to do?"
"Do not try and guilt trip me, young man?"
"oh, so this is one of those womanly things, isn't it, Y'know 'I told you to do A but I wanted you to do B.' Fuck's sake, try as I might, women will never make sense." Ghost muttered. Canary glared at him and then at Batman who gave her a very slight shrug.
"He has a point, he was doing what we've been telling him to do, but next time," He grabbed Ghost by the top of the head and turned him to face him, "Leave a slightly longer message, alright?"
"Aye aye, Captain." Ghost said, standing up and walking out.
"Unbelievable," Canary muttered as Kaldur followed Ghost, "Was Robin ever this bad?"
"Nope," Batman said, "But I was."
A/N This chapter was surprisingly difficult, at least at the beginning, until I got into my stride, it also wasn't helped by my laptop charger breaking half way through, so I spent two weeks waiting for that to get fixed.