Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.
A/N: this is my first fan fiction, please review because I'm trying to improve my writing and I need feedback.
This one took a little longer because my grandma had to go to the hospital. She's fine now but she was pretty close there for a time, please pray for her if you can.
You don't have to read this if you don't like it, no hate just go away.
Chapter 9: Are we a team or not?
Mount Justice; September 23rd, 06:34 EDT
A birds call goes through Happy Harbor and the tenseness in the darkened Mountain does not disturlb them. One of the Green Lanterns, along with a few other leaguers were repairing the cave power systems.
Inside, Sphere rolled down the stairs, coming to a stop beside Martian Manhunter and Captain Atom, who are each working on a HoloComputer. As Sphere stops the Manhunter smiles and pats it before turning back to his work. "Synchronizing Security Protocols with Watchtower Mainframe." The mountain's AI calls out.
Green Arrow places a bowl of pretzels on the table. Wally has both his elbows on the table and is resting his chin on his crossed arms. Artemis sat on the same side of the table as him, leaning her right elbow on the table as her head rests in her hand.Conner stood opposite of Green Arrow, defensive in his body posture, but the worry is clear on his face. Beside him, Joshua just looked exhausted, his arms crossed and his head down. M'gann sat across from Artemis, looking expectantly at the hero, clearly mirroring the Boy Wonder who sits beside her.
"Thanks, but no thanks." Wally says harshly, getting Green Arrow backs off. "We don't want snacks, what we want are answers." Robin points out, looking to Wally as his only other means of support since Kaldur is not sitting with them.
The redhead sits up straighter, following the Boy Wonder's trail of thought before they both turn towards the blonde hero. "About Red Tornado and his siblings." Nothing shows on Green Arrow's face, he doesn't even flinch.
"Exactly." Wally snarks, though it loses some of its heat as he sees Green Arrow grab the bowl and start to walk away with it. He doesn't even manage to fully turn around before Wally's hands are around the bowl, taking it back. "Leave the bowl." He murmurs quietly, taking a handful of pretzels into his hand and eating them.
Conner keeps his back mostly to the Team, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. He changes his attention to Aqualad and Batman, who stands on the far side of the room. Their conversation only noticeable by the fact that Kaldur's mouth is moving.
Conner and Joshua, however, can hear all of it now that they are paying attention. "It was during the Taipei mission with Red Arrow and Legend, Sportsmaster revealed the possibility of a Mole within the Team." The Team Leader informs The Dark Knight. "In light of last night's attack, Red Tornado would appear to be the traitor. But whether he betrayed us willingly or was pre-programmed is still-"
"You knew?!" Conner shouts from across the room. Both turn to the source of the sound. Kaldur barely has time to recognize who spoke before Superboy came stomping towards him, He grabbed Kaldur by the shirt and pulled him so that they were face to face. "That android and his maniac family nearly killed M'gann!"
Joshua grabs and pulls Conner's hand off of Kaldur, earning a glare from his fellow clone that he returns. M'gann flies over, confused. "Conner, Joshua, what are you doing?!"
Conner ripped his hand out of Joshua's grip. "Kaldur knew we had a traitor and said nothing!" The Kryptonian teen snarls. "You knew?" Robin questions, betrayal clear in his voice.
"And didn't tell us?" Kid speaks so closely behind Robin that it's hard to tell if they're just that in sync or it was actually meant to be two separate questions.
"We sought to protect the Team from-" Kaldur only looks to Conner as he speaks.
"Wait, we?" Robin asked. "Yes, I knew too." Joshua said looking at the team, get shocked looks from everyone except Superboy who glared at him.
"Sought to protect us, from what? Knowledge that might've saved our lives?" Artemis finally spoke up, getting out of her shocked state, just as mad at Robin and Wally.
Conner turns to a mostly silent M'gann. "You almost died." She doesn't say anything but looks shaken nonetheless.
"Enough." Batman gets the respect he demands instantaneously. Everyone turns towards him as he narrowed his eyes.
"With Red Tornado missing the Team will now be overseen by rotation supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take the first shift."
Said hero comes in and stands beside the Dark Knight. "I'm really looking forward to hanging out with you guys." He says simply, a smile coming over his features.
Wally, Robin, Artemis, and M'gann share a look behind a still tense Conner, Joshua, and Kaldur. The clone turns to the leader, speaking in a low snarl. "After I dismantle Red Tornado, I'm gonna-"
Batman walked in between them the second Conner looked away, knowing what the teen was thinking as he unabashedly cuts him off. "Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League. That makes him a League responsibility. You will leave him to us." No one says anything so he turns and pulled up a HoloScreen that showed a newspaper article.
"I have another assignment for this Team." Gotham Mayor attacked by Guerilla Gorilla?" Wally reads the skepticism is clear in his voice. "Was this the only thing he could find to distract us?" Conner asked telepathically. "Batman, please!" Robin begs. "Tell me you're not sending us on this joke of a wild ape chase."
"I never joke about the mission." The Dark Knight says to his protégé, leaving him no room to try and argue. "I've checked the sources." He continues. "I've studied the patterns. Mayor Hills' encounter is only the latest in a series of incidents." He turns to the team leader. "Aqualad, you and your Team will depart for India and check this out."
Aqualad nods, and the Team is already walking towards the Bioship's hanger. Wally stops in front of the Atlantean, making a small noise of disagreement. "Your Team." He taunts. Kaldur watches the entire Team walk away with a determined look in his eyes. He feels a hand on his shoulder and turns to see Legend who gives him a look of understanding and walks off, following the rest of the team.
Superboy, Artemis, and Miss Martian head into the Bioship, Sphere coming up quickly behind Superboy, who is the last one in line. Superboy turns towards Sphere, holding out his hand.
"Uh-uh, Go." He points back inside the Mountain. Sphere whirs and beeps before heading back, coming under a flying Captain Marvel. "You're coming with?" Robin asks skeptically as he and Wally head towards the ship. "Sure!" the Hero says brightly. "We'll have a blast."
"Translation, he blames us for the Red Fiasco." He mutters, turning to Wally as Kaldur walks by. "He doesn't trust us."
Wally realizes Robin is looking past him and turns to face Aqualad and Legend. "It's a big club." He remarks darkly. Both of them heading into the Bioship without so much as a word from Kaldur or Joshua.
The Team Leader looks offended for barely half a second before determination sets in again. Legend follows he's example, hardening his gaze and enters the Bioship.
Northern India; September 23rd, 21:36 IST
The camouflaged Bioship flies over the darkened landscape. Before it even lands, the bottom opens to let Robin and Artemis who jumped out. Landing almost silently, pulling out a pair of disks and notching an arrow before they head out to secure the perimeter. The Bioship landed behind them and the door opened letting the others out.
"All Clear." Robin and Artemis informed the others as they came back.
Aqualad switched to his stealth outfit. "Switch to Stealth and we'll review mission parameters." Miss Martian and Legend are the only one's that do as they're told.
"Parameters? We don't need no stinkin' parameters." Kid asks, tapping his suit to change color.
Robin is quick to agree. "It's Recon, we know what to do." With that the two of them turn and head into the jungle.
"Kid, Robin!" Kaldur shouts trying to stop them. Robin turns back instantly. "The three of us started this team because the Justice League was keeping secrets from us." Robin points out harshly.
"Or did you forget that like you forgot to tell us about the Mole?" Kid adds both sarcastically and rhetorically as he puts his goggles on.
The two took off, and Captain Marvel looks disappointed at Kaldur's lack of a response to it, not that the Atlantean could see it with his back to the hero. Superboy then grabs Miss M's arm. "Come on, I'll keep you safe." Miss M pulled back her hand.
"You're my boyfriend Conner, not my keeper. Stop hanging on me like a character from a 70's sitcom." Miss M tells him telepathically, clearly annoyed as she crosses her arms. "I just… wanna protect you." Superboy tries to explain, clearly confused as to what he's doing wrong.
"Like how Aqualad and Legend protected us?" Artemis steps up beside the only other girl on the Team. "I'm not sure if your protection or patronizing is good for our health." Accenting her point by poking Superboy's chest with her bow. Eliciting a dark look from Superboy that has Miss M looking at him with more annoyance than before.
The two girls walk off without another word. "Why didn't you stop them? You're supposed to be in charge." superboy yelled out angrily.
"I am…" Captain Marvel asked confused, but trails off as Superboy turned away and jumped into the forest.
"Um, did I miss the part where you actually said what the plan was?" Captain Marvel asks. Legend walking up beside him. "They feel betrayed, a response like this is normal, I just wish they left it at the cave." Legend said with a sigh.
Finally, Aqualad shows how much the situation is weighing on him, and his lack of a response other than a small sigh is the only one the Justice League hero needs.
After they the three head off in their own direction. Legend chose to follow in the direction of Superboy while Aqualad went with Marvel.
From the brush, something growls, red eyes clearly having seen everything.
Miss Martian flies just above Artemis' head as the two make their way through the jungle under the full moon. Moving alongside a large river, a waterfall to their back. What they don't notice is the large shape moving in the water.
Kid and Robin make their way through a thicker part of the jungle, the towering canopy hiding the large shadows flying in the moonlight above them.
Superboy crashes through the forest, followed by his fellow clone. "Why are you following me?" Superboy says, holding back a growl. "I'm trying to show you that me and Aqualad were just trying to protect you guys." Legend says, Superboy scoffs and looks away. Legend sighs.
Their heads snapped up suddenly and they started looking around. "I think that we're being watched." Superboy let out a grunt of agreement as they looked around.
Aqualad walked through the path, pausing as Captain Marvel landed beside him. They find a multitude of footprints and bullet casings on the jungle floor.
"Guess this is where Mayor Hills' monkey business went down." Captain Marvel comments to Aqualad as he stood up. However the teen's eyes are focused on something in the distance. "At least we've confirmed his story, right?" Still no response. "Aqualad?" He questions curiously, still not getting a response.
Finally, the Atlantean turned back. "My apologies, Captain, I am currently… plagued by doubts." He looks away from the older man, ashamed of his weakness. Though the man says nothing, merely raising an eyebrow. "Perhaps I was wrong to withhold the truth."
Something rustles in the trees, taking away both their attention. Whatever spooked the birds was large, by the sound of the steps, but they can't see it in the darkness. The two continue to look around as the steps get louder, but Aqualad moves his gaze to the ground, watching as small, loose rocks shake under the steps.
A massive elephant breaks through the tree, looking more like a woolly mammoth with the length of its tusks and being much bigger than an actual elephant. The trumpeting sound it makes, however, is neither.
Captain Marvel jumped to stop the behemoth, gritting his teeth as he did so. It works, but only momentarily, the mammoth creature then grabs the man with his trunk and throws him away with ease, and with enough strength to break a few trees before he stopped.
Shocked, Aqualad looks in the opposite direction that the creature was coming from. Seeing a grey behemoth come out of the trees. Aqualad barely manages to jump out of the way of the massive foot.
Captain Marvel comes to at the sound of a growl. Finding himself face to face with a red-eyed tiger with a Belle Reeve control collar on. The oversized tiger roars at the man as he regained consciousness.
Off to his left, Aqualad kicked off a tree avoiding the tusks of the large elephant, but not its trunk which knocks him to the ground, the tiger leaped out of the way. Captain Marvel turned to see the elephant standing behind him, snarling at the two of them.
Superboy and Legend make their way at a cautious pace until a wolf jumped out of a nearby bush, attacking Superboy with a growl. Another wolf jumped on Legend from behind.
Superboy threw his wolf off, standing up just in time to punch another one away with his left hand. Leaving his right arm open to be bitten by another one of the wolves.
Another one pounced on Legend after he threw one away, biting his midsection. Legend planted his feet and grabbed the wolf by the throat and flipped it, slamming its back into the ground.
From high above, two wolves, one white one gray, we're watching.
A caw brings Robin and Kid's attention behind them, they watched as three vultures fly overhead, they screech and dive towards them, both of them barely missing the claws that are nearly as long as the younger boy's forearm.
"I thought vultures only ate dead meat." Robin shouts, throwing exploding disk before hi and Wally ran off. "Yeah, these are some very proactive scavengers." Kid gripes as they duck under the claws.
"Proactive and super-sized. You thinking what I'm thinking?" Robin asks easily. "Kobra-Venom?" Kid said, Robin barely ducked in time to avoid being caught. "Yeah."
A gaping mouth jumps out of the water at Miss M's turned back. The gigantic alligator was barely being stopped by her feet and hands, keeping its mouth open. Artemis grabs an arrow, took aim and fired. Only for the log she stepped back on to be another alligator. The snapping teeth barely miss her once, but the second time it catches her quiver and drags her down. Artemis tries to get the gator to release it's, but it just started to spin.
Miss M dives in, heading straight for her teammate. She grabbed a hold of her forearm as the supersized gator stopped spinning, ripping the strap of her quiver allowing Artemis to swim away.
The gator turns towards them, but Miss M creates two more hands and uses her telekinesis to create four spirals of water to try and stop it. This sent the gator flying out of the water and leaving Miss M and Artemis in a dry circle in the middle of the river. Artemis coughs up the water out of her lungs, as Miss M goes back to having two hands. "Okay, nearly drowning two nights in a row is way less fun than it sounds."
The vulture screeches as It goes for Robin again. Barely missing him as he vaults over a fallen tree trunk. Running towards the base of the fallen tree to give himself so height, he backflips, seeing the vulture land swinging away with some of the tangled vines.
Kid Flash has to use his superspeed to evade the other three, running up a tree and bouncing between the two of them to turn himself into a pinball to knock one of the birds out. It crashes to the ground not far from where Wally manages to catch a vine and swing to safety.
Superboy stepped backward, trying to keep his eyes on as many of the wolves as he can, Legend was doing the same and they end up back to back. The wolves jumped at them, catching Superboy on the upper right arm and Legend on the left calf, while they didn't bleed, they still need to get it off of them. They threw the wolves into two different directions, another wolf went for Legend's blind spot, he was glad to see Superboy punch it to the ground.
All of the wolves were whimpering in pain or are unconscious. Only the white and gray wolves remain, but they stood up and out of the two clones range. They growled, making Superboy and Legend to tense up as they know another attack is coming. They growled even louder before running at the clones who ran at them.
Captain Marvel hit the mammoth, finally managing to take it down. Only for the other one to come up behind him and swat him out of the air. Aqualad's eyes catch something sparking around the beast's neck seeing a mammoth-sized shock collar.
He takes out his Water Bearers, surprising the animal, he dodged the giant foot and landing behind its shoulder to get a good view on the collar. Jumping high, he slashed at the metal with a water whip as he wraps the other around the collar before taking another slash at it and yanking the collar to the ground with sheer force.
There's an instantaneous change as the beast calms down from its rage then turns to leave, completely undisturbed by Aqualad's presence.
He hears the other continuing to attack Captain Marvel. "Remove the collar!" He shouts to the adult hero.
"On it." The man replies with a smile. He Easily ripped the collar off letting it fall to the ground, the beast calmed down as its front two feet land back on the ground. Stomping the collar to pieces accidentally.
Both beasts left, uncaring of the two heroes they were just fighting. Captain Marvel landed beside Aqualad and petted him on the back. "Pretty sweet, the way you figured out the problem was the collars."
"But the collars indicate an intelligence behind this attack." Aqualad points out, and Captain Marvel's smile disappeared.
"The rest of the Team may also be at risk." He turns on his earpiece. "Team, status report." All he heard was high pitched ringing. He winces at the noise. "Comms are jammed, and Miss Martian failed to establish telepathic link before we split up."
"Actually, you let everyone split up before communications were set." The Captain points out. "But they would not listen!" Kaldur argues.
"I guess." The Capitan admits, putting his hands on his hips and smirking. "But back at the cave, Batman stopped everyone from fighting with just one word."
"Because Batman is…" there is only one way to describe the dark knight, as redundant as it may be. "Batman."
"Hey, you don't have to tell me." Captain Marvel winces out, but it's a sympathetic wince nonetheless. "When I first joined the League, all he did was boss me around. And it's hard not to take it personally. But…" He smiles. "I never disobeyed an order and that's probably what kept me alive."
"Batman takes command." Saying it like that shows the exact and stark contrasts in their leadership. "He has to… for the good of the League." He gives a small smile back to the hero. "Thank you for helping me understand."
"Hey, Wisdom of Solomon, remember." The hero points to his head with a smile. "Aqualad, can you hear me?" Miss M calls out. "Yes, Miss Martian, Report."
"Artemis and I were attacked by animals wearing Inhibitor Collars like those used on convicts at Belle Reeve Prison."
Unable to hear the conversation Marvel decided to keep an eye out. Something in the distance catches his attention. The soft growling of the tiger from before. It only stays for a little moment before turning to leave. "Cool, a tiger! I'll be right back!" He calls out, but Aqualad had no time to stop him.
"Captain, wait!" But he was already gone. "Right, Speed of Mercury." He mutters. The tiger runs, roaring as it gets zapped by the collar. The Captain's smile fades, the tiger comes to a stop, turning towards Marvel. The tiger growled again.
"Hey there, mister." He flies slowly over to it. "Bet you'd like good old Captain to take that nasty collar off ya, huh?" he lands easily and the tiger didn't attack.
The collar zaps the tiger again, causing the animal to roar in pain and stumble back a few steps. Captain Marvel takes one step closer and that's all it took to spring the trap.
The hero instantly falls to the ground, unable to move, but still able to see as a gorilla wearing a red beret jumps out of a tree, and heavily armed. The gorilla that attacked the Gotham Mayor roared, banging on its chest when he sees the hero in the trap. Captain Marvel is now stunned on top of his paralysis.
By the river, the wildlife is recovering from the fight faster than the girls are. Miss M is mostly alright, mainly looking over Artemis as she whips water off of her.
"Miss Martian, I need a telepathic link up with the entire Team. Now." She hears the change in Aqualad's attitude instantly. She brings two fingers to her temple, only needing to blink to complete the link. "Link established."
"Should he really still be giving us orders, and should you really be following them?" Artemis asks Miss Martian.
"Listen, please…" Aqualad tries, both Kid Flash and Robin visibly tense hearing his voice in their head again. Clearly disapproving of his presence.
"Oh good, Aqualad's voice in my head." Kid Flash Thinks sarcastically, but his face is frustrated. "I've so missed that." Robin said in a surprisingly upbeat tone, a stark contrast to his speedster friend.
"Hey, Aqualad, KF and I were attacked by giant vultures. 'Course, since we're Moles, you probably think we attacked ourselves." "If he did, he wouldn't tell you." Artemis quips as she buckles her quiver back on, resting on one of the logs.
"Superboy, are you online, or just pouting? Is Legend with you?" Miss Martian asked curiously, though the edge in her voice is clear. Superboy grunts through the link, fighting off the giant white wolf. "Busy, Call back later." He barely manages to think as he tries to pry the white wolf's mouth from his shoulder.
"Legend, what about you?" Miss Martian asked, with less edge this time. Legend grunts through the link, just like Superboy did. "Kinda in the same boat here, sorry." He gets out despite his situation, he was currently on the back of the gray wolf holding it's snout closed, as it snarled and tried to knock him off like a bull.
A slight slip in Superboy's grip, due to trying to his conversation with Miss M, gives the white wolf the opportunity to bite down harder and throw him across the clearing and into a large rock. The gray wolf managed to hit Legend into a tree, causing him to lose his grip and fall off.
Aqualad walks through the vines to where a trap like what the tiger and Captain Marvel were captured in has already been sprung. "What gets me is how nonchalant he is about not telling us." KF gripes.
"He should be chalant, way chalant, Super chalant!" Robin agrees easily. Aqualad is barely listening to them as he sees two tracks in the ground from the trap. "How are we supposed to be a team if he doesn't trust us with his secrets?" Artemis asks.
"Or if Superboy doesn't expect us to take care of ourselves?" Miss M follows Artemis' train of thought, though a little too far.
"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!" Legend snapped, yelling over the link and making everyone else flinch. "I'm sick of this, yes Aqualad and I made a mistake, but who hasn't, which one of you can say that you've never made a mistake before?" Everyone except for Aqualad looked down knowing Legend was right. "No matter what, you have to remember that we made Aqualad our leader, not the league, us. And as our leader, we have to accept every decision he makes." Legend says, anger lacing every word.
"But what about the mole, you two should have told us." Robin retorts with slight fear at Legends tone and words. Legend and Superboy jump up a tree to avoid the wolves. "Don't get me wrong, keeping the mole a secret wasn't the best idea, but it's the one he chose and I chose to follow it. Now tell me this, would any of you told the rest of us if you found out there was a mole."
"I-" The team started only to bite their tongues because they thought about it and realized that they would have done the same thing. "Now like I said, shut up and listen so that we can finish this mission." Legend finished in a calmer tone that was still filled with anger.
Inside a windowless base, deep in the jungle, Captain Marvel comes to with a twitch at the growling and the feeling of something sticking to his face followed closely by something holding him down.
Looking down, he can see the tiger he was following to be the source of the growling.
"Ze brain enhancement of this tiger already pay dividends, no?" A male voice with a french accent questions. The tiger steps away from Captain Marvel as the voice continues. "For has brought us a prize most glorious. Le Captaine Marvel."
"Why can't I move?" the Hero asks in a calm tone. "It is obvious, no." A robotic hand hits a button to rotate a tray of sharp tools towards the robotic center. "Your collar is set to prohibit all movement from ze neck down. I have allowed you to retain ze power of speech." The robotic hand pictures up a small circular saw. "As your reactions may be instructive during la procedure." The saw blade spins at its full speed, but no sound can be heard from it.
"La… procedure?" Marvel attempts to repeat the foreign word, missing a little, but he knows what was said. "What procedure?"
"I have often pondered the effects of your powers on the cerebral cortex." The robot has now turned towards a screen, using one of the three-fingered hands to choose what sectors of Marvel's brain to look at. After selecting two it moves to his brain stem to see the readings there "I long to see le wisdom de Salomon up close. Monsieur Mallah, prepare for surgery." The red beret-wearing gorilla, now wearing surgical clothes, grunts.
Birds call throughout the jungle, but go suddenly quiet as shadowy figures run across the forest floor, and a camouflaged form flies behind them.
Robin moves through the tall brush up the sharp hill from the building that the Captain is being held in. Kid Flash slowly comes up behind him, sliding on his goggles and turning on the infrared.
Up in the tree behind the Robin and Kid Flash, Miss Martian's camouflaged form lands. She looks to her right to see Artemis and Aqualad slowly making their way down the hill, the blonde notching an arrow.
She looks over the open space before the structure, noticeably empty. "I'll fly over." She offers. "Negatory." Kid says sharply. "The shield extends like a dome over the whole compound."
"Pylons are insulated." Robin observers, looking at his HoloScreen. "But one good shock could cause a momentary gap."
"I see a target." Artemis has her eyes set on a large red button on the outside wall. "Then be ready to hit it. Everyone, be ready." Robin and Kid share a small look, with both their eyes covered the true extent of their emotions is hard to see, but they are both frowning.
Aqualad runs up to the nearest pylon, stopping less than two feet away before his tattoos begin to glow and he pushes the electricity into the shield.
Kid Flash is watching the shield's integrity through his infrared and when he sees a small gap form over Aqualad's head he doesn't waste time. "Now!"
Artemis releases her arrow, it flies through the gap and hits her target right on. The panel beeps and Aqualad pulls back the electricity as the shield deactivates. Then waves the rest of them forward.
Kid races towards him, Miss M lands while still camouflaged, but as Robin makes his way out of the brush his eyes go wide. Seeing a howler monkey sitting on the roof, it has been watching them. He gets a sharp look at its enhanced size and the collar around its neck before it lets out a howl.
The two older boys jolt In surprise, just before the actual alarms turn on and an entire pack of Howler Monkeys charges at the Team.
From the camera that rises up, Mullah can see the team fighting.
"Go, Mullah. Deal with these intruders, I can handle Mon Capitaine brain extraction myself." The robotic man speaks easily. Bringing a sharp blade in front of the Captain's line of sight and speaking with complete nonchalance.
Mullah growls, ripping off the clothes he's wearing and storming out of the room.
A howler monkey screeches as it jumps at Kaldur, who has both his Water Bearers shaped like maces. The Atlantean takes a sharp swing at the monkey, knocking it several feet away. When the monkey stops skidding he gets a good look at the familiar collar around its neck.
His eyes narrow as the monkey prepares to jump. Moving first, but to put his weapons away, the monkey jumps at him, but he catches it by the shoulders and slams it to the ground, his tattoos still glowing. When the monkey turns to try and bite him, Kaldur rips the collar off.
The monkey looked confused for a few moments before scurrying away. Kaldur stands tall, looking to his team. "Remove their collars!" Robin, while struggling with two that are nearly as big as he is, grumbles. "Sounds easy when he says it."
Artemis kicks the one closest to her, away, before pulling out an arrow and notching it. Taking out the two attacking Robin. The collars fall off with a small spark, and Robin stays defensive as the two monkeys look around before running away. He turns towards Artemis, where two more drop down behind her. Instead of saying anything, he throws two disks, taking out their collars.
Mullah finally made his appearance, coming out with another machine gun. He growls and sniffs as Miss M tries to sneak back to him while camouflaged. Just as she makes it through the doorway, he grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her into the dirt, knocking her unconscious.
Mullah goes to grab her again when Kid came running at him. "Get your stinking paws off her you darn dirty ape." He goes to shoulder check the gorilla, but he only bounced off of the enhanced animals massive chest.
"You're not taking my brain." Marvel says sharply, as a container full of water comes out from the wall by his head.
"Š'il vous plaît, capitaine, do not struggle." The machine moves through the shadows as the male voice speaks. "Brain extraction is largely painless," the machinery over Marvel's paralyzed body move into position. "But the benefits are enormous." The centerpiece of tech extended closer to Marvel, as the robot finally moved closer. "Just look what it has done for me." Finally in the light, Marvel can see that the male voice is coming from the robot with a human brain at the core processor.
He gives the Brain a deadpanned look, before looking back up at the still extending laser. "That thing won't work on me." He comments.
"Perhaps. But it works on solid steel, zo I'll try my luck." The laser continues to move, tracking out its course before it started to turn on. "I'm told you have ze courage of Achilles, no? Perhaps you should have asked for his invulnerability instead."
The tiger jumps the table and takes out the Brain, knocking his robotic body to the floor. It continues to growl at him as he moves back upright.
"Traitor!" the Brain snaps. "You will suffer for that!" A compartment opens on the side of the capsule, turning on the electroshock collar.
The tiger snarls and twitches on the floor in pain "Stop it! I said stop!" Marvel shouts at the Brain.
The wall behind the Brain suddenly cracked, the Brain turns to see Mullah having been thrown through it. The Brain turns to the dust cloud as it clears and Miss Martian flies in, as she landed the rest of the Team joined her.
"It's the Brain!" Kid Flash is able to figure out who it is in a matter of moments, and suddenly the enhanced animals make sense.
Artemis scoffs. "I can see it's a brain." Kid grits his teeth as he glares over his shoulder. "Not a brain, 'The' Brain."
"In the flesh, so to speak." The Brain confirms, then turns. "Mullah!"
The gorilla holds something in its hand, and when he presses the button, pylons rise up from the floor. Taking out the Team the same way they did Captain Marvel.
"Miss Martian, Superboy, Legend, now." Aqualad commands.
Miss M's eyes glow green as she telekinetically takes the remote from Mullah, bringing it towards her. She presses the button to turn off the pylons, just as Superboy and Legend break through the wall on the other side of the hallway.
The white wolf is at Superboy's side while the gray wolf is at Legend's, both snarling as the dust clears. The two clones don't need to say anything to get the wolves to charge at Mullah.
As Mullah gets back to his feet, KF kicks him back, then dodges the gunfire as Robin swings high. Finally, Miss M drops in and lifts the gorilla into the ceiling then lets him drop. Though it doesn't do anything to knock him out, it only makes him angry. Now he is focusing his firing at Miss M.
Superboy jumps at his turned back, attempting to slam his fist into the gorilla, but Mullah's reflexes are just fast enough that he can dodge, he even managed to dodge Legend follow up attack.
While the two land, Mullah takes aim to shoot Superboy back as Legend pushes him out of the way, taking the shot for him. Though he doesn't get any marks, the shots move so fast and hit so hard that he was sent flying, he landed by the wolves.
As the bullets run out, Artemis launches an arrow at the pack on his back, causing it to start smoking.
Robin comes up to her side and both pulled out escrima sticks, he knocked the machine gun out of Mullah's hands.
The Brain fires a laser at Aqualad, but he dodged out of the way of it as the shield started to crack. Seeing that the Atlantean moved too quickly, the Brain switches to short, fast shots that still missed.
He and Mullah end up surrounded by most of the team while Kaldur snapped the collar off of Captain Marvel. "Thanks." He says brightly as all the restraints fall away, he then moves to the tiger. "Now, one favor deserves another."
The tiger rises In front of him, and Mullah turns towards the three of them as Aqualad pulls out his Water Bearers as they formed swords. Turning again he sees Superboy, Legend, and the wolves guarding the hole in the wall.
Mullah roars in rage. "Try it, I hate monkeys." Superboy growls alongside the wolves as Legend cracked his knuckles.
"No Mullah, this will not be our end." The Brain says as multiple compartments begin to open around his body. " Au revoir, mes amis."
"Get down!" KF yells as the humming hits a new pitch, almost drowning out his warning. Superboy and Legend tense and cover their ears, Robin and Artemis back up, and then suddenly everything goes dark. When the lights start to turn on again, they were gone.
"Wait, that big weapon thing was… a light switch?" Kid asks confused. As the sun begins to turn the sky pink the team is back at the Bioship.
"What are you grinning about?" Artemis asks KF. KF holds the red beret in his hands. "One word: souvenir." Then put it on. "Two words: gorilla lice." She says right back. "Huh?" then he processes what she's saying. "Oh, man!" he takes it off and holds it away from him as he groans.
Kaldur removes the collar from a howler monkey, watching as it leaves. "Is that the last of the collars?" Captain Marvel asked the tiger. It growled lowly. "I can count on you to keep the other animals out of trouble?" The tiger growled again.
"Good. I'll be back for a visit, I promise." He pets the tiger before standing up and watching as it heads into the jungle. "I think I'll call him Mr. Tony." Marvel says brightly. "Sounds perfect." Legend said supportively.
The tiger runs past Miss Martian, Superboy, Legend, and the wolves on his way out. "The rest of the pack is gone you know." Superboy reminds the wolves as he pets the white one. "What are you guys still doing here?" Legend asks, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow.
"I think they want to stay with you two." Miss M tells the clones. "Can we keep them?" Superboy and Legend asked her simultaneously, sounding like excited children.
Wally lets out a laugh in the background. "First the Sphere, now these mutts. Dude, you sure make a habit of collecting strays, and now your getting Legend into it. Maybe because they are strays themselves." Wally says with a smile, he said the last part mentally. "Aren't you?" Robin asks him telepathically.
"Miss M, I'm sorry. I was just worried." Superboy says honestly. She kneels down beside him, placing a hand on his knee. "And that's sweet of you, Superboy." She puts her hand on his back. "But on a mission, I'm your teammate, not your girlfriend, Agreed?"
Superboy smiles at her. "Yeah." He says with a both annoyance and understanding in his voice. Legend looks over at them and smiles.
"Well, they're gonna need names." Wally pulls them out of their personal conversation. "Uh, how's about Krypto?"
The wolf growls. "Pass." Superboy says instantly. "Besides, isn't that taken?" Miss M asks. Robin stands on the ramp up to the Bioship, clearly waiting for Aqualad.
"Look, I need to know, why did you keep the Mole-intel secret?" Robin Kaldur just as he went to pass him on his way into the bioship.
Aqualad stops and everyone else slowly moves towards the Bioship for the conversation, Legend walked up next to him since he too kept the mole a secret. Aqualad doesn't turn away from them as they all wait for the same answer.
"The source of the tip was Sportsmaster." He says simply. "What?! You can't trust him!" Artemis snaps. "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, he almost did it." Legend says, making sure to look everyone directly in the eye.
Robin realizes that he and KF were betraying someone they had known for years just as much as they felt betrayed by him. Not to mention Aqualad had a whole other level to put the tip through as the leader. "But you had to consider it might of been true."
"Yes, as Leader, I did. In which case, I did not wish to alert the traitor." He looks directly at Robin as he speaks, knowing that the Team will one day fall to him and explaining this will help him.
"I hate to say it, but it makes sense." Robin says with a one-sided smile. "I am still prepared to step down if that is Nessacery." He says simply.
Wally raises his hand. "All in favor of keeping Aqualad as Leader?" Miss Martian, Superboy, Legend, and Artemis all raise their hands instantly.
As Aqualad turns to Robin, his hand is raised too, he shows a few of his teeth with his smile. The Atlantean nods silently.
"Guess it's unanimous." Captain Marvel says easily as he places a hand on Aqualad's shoulder then removes it and offers a shake. Which the teen takes. "See you tomorrow." He waves then flies off.
The white wolf drops his giant head into Superboy's hands for a moment. The gray wolf walked up to Legend and looked him in the eye.
"Uh, so, how about I call you… Fang." he is cut off as the wolf jumped up and lands on top of Legend with his fur covered chest covering the young hero's upper body. "Hey, get off, I can't breathe!" Legend screams, his voice muffled by the wolfs fur, he was kicking his legged in desperation.
Everyone laughed at Legends , after a moment they finally calmed down.
"So, what are you gonna call yours?" Miss Martian asks between giggles as they head up the ramp. "What's wrong with just Wolf?" Superboy asks. "Generic, but acceptable. Legend's was better." Wally says from inside the ship.
Aqualad looks down before heading into the Bioship, still rattled by the argument they had throughout the mission, but glad that it's over now.
Chapter end. Please review, it really helps. Thanks for reading.
P.S. This isn't my only fanfiction, if you want to read the others please say so in the comments. Also, if someone could make a reading version of my story I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for reading.
One more thing, should I make an else worlds story for this fic? Please answer in the reviews.