Chapter Eight: Schooled
LOCATION: Wild Ones Boxing Center,Pennsylvania, 8:00 AM.
Eddie would never get used to being punched in the face, no matter how much Wildcat said otherwise. It had been a few weeks since The Team's first official mission, and Eddie had spent most of that time training. His encounter with Bane reminded him just how much he had to learn if he wanted to stand a chance in a fight with a skilled opponent. When he told Wildcat about this, he figured the training would get more intense... he wasn't expecting his mentor to set up a boxing ring of death! Ted "Wildcat" Grant had booby trapped one of the boxing rings, rigging it with trapdoors, surprise electric panels, and somehow boxing gloves that would come down from the ceiling and punch him in the face randomly. And he had to deal with all of that while boxing Ted at the same time.
"C'mon Eddie, I've fought mutant leprechauns that hit harder than you! Don't just dodge and block, fight back!!"
Despite the chaos of the rigged boxing ring, Eddie gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain and frustration. He knew Wildcat's unorthodox methods were meant to toughen him up, but sometimes he wondered if his mentor's training would end up killing him.
As he ducked a swinging glove and countered with a jab of his own, Eddie's mind flashed back to his encounters with Bane and Mr.Twister. He had been incredibly lucky during both of those fights. Essentially winging it, hoping he would survive. He knew he couldn't do that anymore, he had to improve, to learn how to fight back. With newfound determination, Eddie stepped up his game, channeling his energy into each punch. He could feel the symbiote pulsing within him, eager for the thrill of combat., even if it was just training. (Perhaps it felt Eddie's sudden surge of determination?)
As the intensity of the training increased, Eddie found himself slipping into a state of focused aggression, his movements becoming fluid and instinctual.
Wildcat grinned, impressed by Eddie's progress. "That's it, kid! You're starting to show some real potential. Keep pushing yourself, and you'll be a force to be reckoned with."
Feeling a surge of confidence, Eddie pressed the attack, dodging traps and landing blows with precision. With each passing moment, he could feel himself growing stronger, both physically and mentally. And as the session drew to a close, Eddie felt a renewed sense of confidence. Looking at his arms, which had somewhat been enveloped by the Symbiote, Eddie smiled. It was always good when they were able to work together.
'Maybe we CAN do this hero thing after all.'
LOCATION: Mt.Justice, Rhode Island, 11:03 AM
*RECOGNIZED:Venom:B-0-5*
Eddie walked through the Zeta transporter, and instantly had to duck. A razer-sharp Birdarang came flying and narrowly missed his head.
"What the hell, Rob?!" Eddie was about to chew the boy wonder out, only for Wally to come running up to him.
"Sorry Eddie, that was my bad. I made a bet with Rob that I could bounce that thing off of walls and to a target, and I may have... missed."
Eddie simply sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, I think 'missed' is an understatement. If I hadn't dodged that, you'd be paying for my face stitches right now."
Wally chuckled and grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Hey, at least you got a chance to test your reflexes out of it! Consider it post-workout training."
The blonde couldn't help but laugh at that. "Now I see why Robin called you 'Kid Mouth' the other day. You can't help but be an ass, can you?"
"What can I say? It's part of my charm." Wally smirked and did a dramatic bow.
Robin himself made his way over to check on where the Birdarang had landed, and admonished Wally for nearly injuring Eddie. "I knew that I shouldn't have let you use my Birdarangs, like giving a gorilla a minigun."
Eddie laughed and smiled. "It's fine, Rob. Just don't let him near anything sharper than a butter knife from now on, okay?"
"Deal" Robin nodded
The Zeta tube powered up, and emitted its familiar glow.
*RECOGNIZED: Aqualad: B-0-2, Miss Martian: B-0-6*
After they stepped through the Zeta tube, Kaldur and M'gann walked over to the others, who greeted them.
"Hey guys, how was Atlantis?" asked Wally.
Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Wait, you were in Atlantis?"
"Yes, M'gann asked that I help her with learning how to breathe underwater, and some local Atlanteans taught her the best techniques for swimming underwater." Kaldur anwsered.
M'gann nodded. "I'll admit, it was tricky. But I feel like I'm fully prepared, if I had to use what I've learned in the field. Shifting my body to adapt to gills was the most difficult, but we spent about two hours on getting that down, so I shouldn't have any problems with that in the future."
"I must say that M'gann did quite well, she was swimming like a native Atlantean. I wish we could've spent more time there." said Kaldur. There was a hint of wistfulness in his voice, although no one commented on it.
"Hey, where's Superboy? I haven't seen him since we left this morning." asked M'gann
Eddie had been wondering about that himself.
Wally was the one who answered this question. "He went to Metropolis, said he wanted to go on patrol, maybe fight some bad guys. I think he's still getting used to having freedom on where he goes, I doubt Cadmus took him on many field trips."
"Well, we've got a few hours before group training with Black Canary, why don't we have some fun for a bit?" Robin suggested.
*A FEW HOURS LATER*
The group spent the next few hours relaxing, and playing games. Before they knew it, it was one in the afternoon. Robin and Aqualad were currently playing ping pong, with the others nearby watching them. The nearby Zeta tube powered on.
*RECOGNIZED: Superboy: B-0-4*
The clone stormed past them, ignoring any attempt at conversation. Before anyone could go after him, a familiar voice called out from behind them.
"Is everyone ready for training?" The voice belonged to Black Canary, who was not alone. J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter, was with her. M'gann was very excited to see her uncle again, and ran up to him and hugged him. While they exchanged greetings and familial affection, Superboy had stopped to observe. While he would never say it aloud, he envied M'gann's relationship with J'onn. He wanted that kind of relationship, a family. But his only "relative" so to speak was Superman, who wanted nothing to do with him. Superboy turned and began walking away, however, he did not go unnoticed by Black Canary.
"Stick around! Class is in session."
Superboy and J'onn stayed where they were, while Canary and the others walked a few feet over towards the training area. It was a specialized state-of-the-art sparring circle. Completely tech based, it was almost like a video game in real life. As Canary stepped into the center, the area powered on, lighting up.
She then turned to the others, and spokie. "I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you, everything I've learned from my own mentors- ow- and my own bruises." She winced in pain as she took her jacket off. Revealing her left arm was bandaged.
"Geeze, that looks nasty." Said Eddie
"Yes, what happened?" Asked M'gann, both of them showing concern.
However, Canary looked unbothered. "The job happened. Trust me, I've been through much worse. Now, for today's lesson. Combat is about control, you should always be acting, but never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."
Before anyone else could even consider volunteering, Wally ran up to her with his super speed.
"Me first! After this is over, I'll show you my moves."
The speedsters flirtation did not go unnoticed by Canary. However, instead of admonishing him, she merely smirked.
She threw a punch, which Wally was able to block. However, she then countered with a leg sweep that knocked him down.
"Oww..." with the wind and the sass knocked out of him, Kid Flash layed on the ground until Canary helped him up.
"Good block. Now, can anyone tell me what went wrong?" Canary asked
Sensing the perfect moment to embarrass his mouthy friend, Robin quickly spoke. "Oh, oh! He hit on teacher and got served?" Despite Robin's smirk and some chuckling from Eddie, Wally did not find the joke funny
"Dude!" He glared at the boy wonder and got back with the others.
"Perhaps another volunteer will make things clearer, who's next?" Canary looked at the others, waiting for one of them to volunteer.
After none of them spoke, Canary took it upon herself to choose one of them. "Alright, since none of you feel like volunteering... Eddie, come up here and show me what you've got,"
Eddie was caught off guard, genuinely expecting her to call on someone else, like Robin or Aqualad, someone more experienced in fighting.
"Ummm... okay?" He was very apprehensive, but figured it would be better to go along with Canary rather than argue with her. He walked over to the sparring circle and stood a few feet away from her. It was in that moment that something in his brain clicked, and he realized that he was the only one not suited up. He was in normal clothing while the others were in their costumes.
Responding to his thought, the Venom costume instantly formed around him. While the Symbiote's behavior had become fairly normal for Eddie, the other members of his team still found the Symbiote fascinating, except for Wally who was still creeped out by it. Robin nudged his best friend. "Come on, you've got to admit that's pretty cool."
Kid Flash did not share that opinion. "Um... no, the living goo is in fact, NOT cool, I swear I'll never get used to that thing just popping out like that."
Eddie turned around and looked at Wally. "The Symbiote says stop insulting it. Or else we'll start calling you 'Meatbag'." Eddie then turned his focus back to Canary.
Kaldur lightly scolded Wally. "You must remember that not only is the Symbiote alive, it has feelings. You don't have to like it, but you should show it the same respect you show the rest of us."
"Fine, I'll try. I'm just not accustomed to hideous shapeshifting monsters." Wally said, already back to insulting the Symbiote.
"I'm not sure what's got you so creeped out by it, they actually remind me a bit of myself. I'm a shapeshifter too, and the Symbiote's telepathy with Eddie is on a similar wavelength that we use on Mars. Plus, the Symbiote seems nice, and I actually think it's cute." M'gann said. Seeing a chance to get on his crush's good side, Wally did some damage control, or at least tried to.
"W-Well, I mean you're not hideous, of course not! I didn't mean that all shapeshifters are gross, just the slime. You're a tall drink of water, beautiful." While Robin groaned in irritation, Eddie was a bit agitated by Wally's continued insulting of the symbiote. They were both connected, so Wally wasn't insulting just the Symbiote, he was insulting them both! Venom deployed a tendril which wrapped around Wally's leg and pulled, knocking him down on the floor again.
"Perhaps you would rather settle your grievances with us in the ring after this? Or are you too busy flirting?"
Sensing the rising tension, Canary intervened. "That's enough, all of you. Now Eddie, we were about to start sparring." While she understood their frustration with Wally, this was not the time to be having arguments.
Taking a deep breath, Eddie regained focus. "Right, sorry Canary. We're ready when you are." They both got into fighting stances.
Just as she did before, Canary threw a punch to start the spar. Eddie swung his body to the left, before throwing a set of counter punches, taking what he had learned from Wildcat and using it. Canary was able to block all of his punches, and then attempted to sweep his legs like she had done with Wally. However, much to her surprise, the Symbiote was expecting this, and had expanded the armor on Eddie's legs, actually stopping her leg and allowing Eddie to push her away.
"Impressive Eddie! I can see your lesson with Wildcat are helping, not to mention that you and the Symbiote are much more in sync than before." Dinah had a smile on her face.
"Thanks, we've been working hard to get better." Eddie and the Symbiote were both proud of themselves, and were glad that Canary had recognized their hard work.
"Of course, but we're not done yet." Canary then charged at Eddie, who tried to stop her by launbching tendrils from his arms. Canary jumped over the tendrils, and preformed a dive kick, making contact with Eddie and knocking him down.
"OOF!" Eddie shouldnt have been surprised at being knocked down, I mean, Black Canary was a veteran superhero after all. But, Damn! He sure wasn't expecting her to move that fast! Like Wally, Eddie was helped to his feet by Canary.
"Good effort, but you allowed me to dictate the terms of the fight. You had the upper hand, yet you waited for me to move before planning your next attack, which left you open." Canary said.
This confused Eddie, however. "But I thought that it wasn't good to keep swarming an opponent with attacks, Wildcat said it takes your focus away from everything else around you."
"And he's absolutely right. Swarming an opponent can leave you open to attacks from others, or a counterattack at close range. But there's a difference between not rushing, and waiting too long entirely." Canary answered.
While most of the team was taking in her words, Superboy merely scoffed. This did not go unnoticed by the veteran hero. "Do you disagree, Superboy?"
The half-kryptonian scowled. "Yeah, I do. With my powers the battle is always on my terms, and when I hit someone they don't have time to counter, they stay down. I'm a living weapons, and this is a complete waste of my time."
While some people may have been offended at something like Superboy's response, Dinah knew that the only way to get through to him when he was like this was with action. "Prove it."
Superboy looked at Canary with confusion. Was she serious? Well, if she wanted proof, he'd give it to her. No further words were exchanged as Superboy stepped into the ring. Eddie walked over to the rest of team, not wanting to be in the middle of this.
Superboy was the first to make a move, throwing a punch. Canary grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder, Superboy landing on his back. While most of the team were silent, Robin laughed at his teammates misfortune, until Kaldur elbowed him in the arm, wordlessly telling him to be quiet. As Superboy stood up, he growled in anger, not liking that he had been so easily countered.
Canary noticed this and tried to make it a teaching moment. "You're angry, good. But don't react, channel that anger into-"
Superboy didn't feel like listening, charging at his teacher with a battle cry. Only for Canary to jump over him before sweeping his legs again. Dinah tried helping Superboy up, but he shook her off, stating that he was done with this. Dinah informed him that training was mandatory, and just as it looked like there would be another confrontation, the cave's holo-screen powered up showing a call from Batman. Everyone gathered in front to hear him.
"Batman to the cave... Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of it's opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant." Footage of the battle was playing for all to see.
The team was beyond shocked. "Woah, one guy with the powers of the entire League?" Wally said.
"Seriously, that's all kinds of scary." Said Eddie, now he knew how Canary got hurt.
Batman continued. "In the end, it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android."
At the mention that this was an android, Robin inquired about it's origins. "An android? W-who made it, T.O. Morrow?"
Eddie had recently learned that T.O. Morrow was the mad scientist who created Red Tornado, Morrow had planned on his creation betraying the heroes, but Tornado grew a conscious and made his own choices, defying his creator.
"Good guess, Robin. But Red Tornado doesn't think so." Batman answered.
It was the Martian Manhunter who answered. "The technology bears the signature of... Professor Ivo."
Aqualad was stunned. "Ivo? But Ivo is dead."
Canary frowned. "So we all thought... or hoped."
Eddie felt left out, and inquired for more info. "Okay, who is this 'Professor Ivo', and why is everyone so freaked out by him?"
Batman spoke, answering Eddie's questions. "Professor Ivo is a roboticist, he's built numerous machines capable of going toe to toe with metahumans before, and more than a few times was almost successful in destroying the Justice League. But he's never built anything like this before. It was thought that Ivo died two years ago, when his lab was destroyed by an exploding reactor while he was inside it, but it seems that he escaped."
"Holy crap... this guy's really that dangerous? Well it's a good thing that you destroyed that android then."
"Indeed. To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two seperate STAR Labs facilities for immediate evealuation, one in Boston and the other in New York. Every precaution is being taken, we'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo- or anyone- tries to recover the remains. The team will split into two groups to follow the real trucks and ensure they are protected. We don't want to draw any further attention than necessary, so you'll be wearing normal attire, and riding on specialized motorcycles rather than using your powers or the Bioship. Now if the trucks are attacked, powers and equipment are fully authorized, but not until then. Also, the motorcycles have an autopilot feature for whomever needs it."
While the others fully grasped the importance of this mission, Superboy felt it was beneath him. "So now we take out your trash?"
"You had something better to do?" Batman had no problems reminding the half-kryptonian that he was a part of the team, and that he would go on missions wether he liked them or not. As the team headed out, Canary told Superboy that she would be there whenever he was ready to learn.
--
LOCATION: Litchfield County, 8:08PM EDT.
In a remote location, six trucks were pulled over in a grassy area by the side of the highway. These were the trucks bound for STAR Labs, or two of them were. The others were heading for destinations unknown. While Batman and Superman oversaw the trucks being loaded, The Team waited behind the bushes. While they were supposed to be undercover, the motorcycles were coincidentally color coded. Aqualad's was gray, Ms.Martian's was violet, Kid Flash's was yellow, Venom's was black, and both Robin and Superboy's were red with a black stripe, though Robin's was brighter. As the truck drivers signaled that they were ready, Batman gave them the go signal and they drove off. The Team split up, with Superboy, Robin and Venom following the Boston truck, while Ms.Martian, Aqualad and Kid Flash followed the New York truck.
As Robin, Venom and Superboy followed their truck, the former two tried making idle conversation. Venom being the first to speak. "Okay, I wasnt sure about the whole 'motorcycle plan' at first, but I'm already loving this thing. Do you think Batman will let us keep these things after we're done here?"
The boy wonder chuckled at his team mate's joy. "I like the wishful thinking, but Batman's never been one for taking equipment out on joyrides. He'll probably have these put in storage until we need them again."
Venom playfully cursed. "Well damn it. Was a nice thought."
Robin gave Venom a nod. "No harm in that. By the way, I've been thinking... If 'dislike' is the opposite of 'like', is 'disaster' the opposite of 'aster'? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right."
Now it was Venom's turn to laugh. "Ha! That keeping you awake at night, eh Rob?"
"This has been 3am thoughts with the boy wonder, tune in next time for another instalment in nonsense words." Robin quipped back. the two sharing a good laugh. However, once the laughter subsided they both noticed that they were the only one's talking, Superboy had been silent, clearly something was bugging him.
"Uh, clearly someone's not feeling the aster. What's wrong, Superboy?" Robin asked.
"Yeah, youre a bit more broody than usual, might make Batman feel insecure if you keep it up." Venom quipped, hoping to cheer his friend up.
Superboy gave Eddie the tiniest of smiles before explaining. "It's Canary, what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength? Oh, no offense Eddie." Superboy quickly remembered that while not as strong as himself, the symbiote did infact give Eddie enhanced strength that could be classified as 'Super Strength'.
"No prob. But if you think about it, someone who doesnt bbhave super strength teching us seems like the whole point of it. I mean, the symmbiote and I can do awesome things together, but if it wasn't for Wildcat and Canary, we would be helpless against most people if they know what they are doing in a fight." said Eddie.
"Eddie's right, Superboy. Taking down stronger guys if part of the gig. Canary learned that the hard way. Same with, Wildcat, Batman, and well... me." Said Robin. Rather than respond, Superboy speed up and got closer to the truck. Figuring he just needed a moment to cool off and process their words, Robin and Venom gave him some space. Unfortunately, this didn't last long. Suddenly, a dozen robots emerged from the corn fields on either side of the road, and swarmed the truck.
Robin and Venom got closer to superboy, but not too close in case they needed to engage in combat. After all, they didn't want to dodge his motorcycle in case he abandoned it. It was then that they got a call from Aqualad on the comms. "Robin, Venom, Superboy, our truck is under attack!"
"Yeah, we were just about to tell you the same thing, guess Ivo is making his move." responded Eddie.
While Superboy and Venom were in a slightly more serious mood, Robin seemed excited. "Robot mokey's! HA! Totally Ivo's tweaked style."
Superboy growled. "I HATE monkeys..."
Robin and Venom pressed a button on the console of their bikes, and the motorcycles transformed into one wheeled with a drone splitting off from the front. Instead of doing the same, Superboy leapt from his motorcycle and landed on the roof of the truck, his team mates just barely swerving out of the way of his unoccupied ride. As Superboy battled the monkeys on the truck, Venom and Robin were blasting away at the monkeys with the drones. Unfortunately, they soon lost the upper hand, as four monkeys grabbed superboy and flew off with him, dropping him far behind the truck. Then, several monkeys shot lasers from their eyes, doing severe damage to the motorcycles.
"Guess this is where we get off!" Robin shouted. Jumping off his bike and launching his grappling hook at the truck, propelling himself forward until he was on top of the truck.
Venom got as close to the truck as he could, trying to think of how he was gonna get on the truck before his bike exploded, when the Symbiote spoke. "EDDIE, I HAVE AN IDEA. DO YOU TRUST ME?"
"Of course I do, but what..." Suddenly, a mass of black tentacles appeared and launched Eddie forward with incredible force and speed. "AAAAAHHH!" Thankfully, Eddie made it onto the truck safely, just before his bike blew up.
Now on the truck, Robin pulled out two baton-like weapons (known as escrima sticks) and began attacking the monkeys. "Glad you two could make it, ready to throw down?"
Eddies arms were enveloped by the Symbiote, as he began destroying the monkeys that tried attacking him. "As ready as we'll ever be!" Eddie replied.
While the fight was going well for a short time, eventually things would go south. While Robina and Eddie were occupied, four monkeys went into the cargo hold, which they opened with their laser eyes, and flew off with the android parts. Just as Superboy returned, his landing shaking the truck, the monkeys had apparently decided to end the fight entirely. One of them flew to the back tire and blew it out with their laser eyes. Knowing that their time was limited, Robin took quick action. "I'll get the driver, you two, it's time to bail!!"
As Robin grabbed the driver and jumped off, Eddie quickly gathered the courage he needed and jumped off of the truck. The Symbiote cushioned his fall the best it could, but it was still unpleasant to say the least. Meanwhile, Superboy was too caught up in fighting to heed Robin's instructions. The truck crashed and tumbled, if not for his Kryptonian durability, he would have been seriously hurt, if not worse.
When the dust settles, so to speak, Robin and Venom regrouped. "So, how was your first time jumping off a moving vehicle?" Robin asked playfully.
"Ugh, definitely wasn't feeling the aster for a bit that's for sure. I don't think I even want to know how many times you've had to do that." Replied Eddie.
"Too many."
Suddenly, Superboy emerged from the wreckage of the truck, more pissed off than hurt. He then started following the monkeys, ignoring the calls from Robin and Venom to come back or wait for them, before ditching his com link entirely.
After calling the other three members of the team, Robin was able to hack one of the downed monkeys, and found out that the android parts had tracking devices in them, hence how the monkeys knew exactly which trucks to target. When Robin told the others that the parts were heading to Gotham City, it was decided that Robin and Venom would head there and Kid Flash would meet them their, as Aqualad and Miss Martian wouldn't be able to get to Gotham any time soon.
"Oka, so e have a plan, but how are we going to get to Gotham? Our bikes were destroyed." Eddie reminded Robin.
Robin looked around, and saw just the thing that would fix their dilemma. "Our bikes were destroyed... but Superboy's looks like it will still run, at least long enough to get to Gotham."
Sure enough, Superboy's bike had miraculously survived the crash, although it was a bit beaten up, Robin was able to get it to run. "Okay, I guess theirs no point in civilian clothes anymore, let me go change real quick and we'll be off."
With a thought, The Venom suit formed around Eddie. Robin smirked"Lucky, you don't need any time to get ready, your suit is thought powered.
--
Later, Robin and Venom were fully changed, and riding on the motorcycle with Robin driving. It wasn't long before Kid Flash caught up to them. "Hey, you guys changed too, I see."
"Are you kidding, I feel naked in civillian clothes!" said Robin.
"I gotta admit, the suit is starting to really grow on me..." He paused when both of his team mates started snickering. "You know what I mean!"
"So, you guys still tracking the parts?" the speedster asked.
"Well, they were just passing through Gotham, but they veered off course." Robin froze as he saw where the parts were at. "Guys... they're at my school!"
--
After a short travel, the three teen heroes arrived at Robin's school, Gotham Academy.
"Dang, this place is fancy, Rob! Who knew you had such a fancy secret identity?" Venom remarked
Wally muttered under his breath. "You have no idea- OW!" he was interrupted by Robin elbowing him in the ribs.
"So, where should we start looking?" Venom asked. However, he was shortly answered when they all heard the sound of Superboy screaming in rage.
"RAAAAAAAHH!!!"
Robin spoke "Just follow the sounds of destruction."
The three of them did just that, and followed the sounds all the way to the gymnasium. They arrived just in time to see the android, which had been fully assembled to their horror, looming over Superboy. Before the android could deliver a crippling blow, Kid Flash rushed in with his super speed and grabbed Superboy, taking him to safety. Robin had already taken a position next to the two of them, and threw razor sharp birdarangs at the android.
However, the Andro was ready, as it spoke to activate its power. "ACCESS: MARTIAN MANHUNTER." The android then turned intangible, the dangerous weapons passing through it harmlessly. Before any of them could react, the Android counterattacked. "ACCESS:RED TORNADO" Then creating a red gust of wind, blasting the three of them away.
The android then targeted Kid Flash, using Captain Atom's energy blasts to try shooting him. Wally ran behind the bleachers in an attempt to dodge. While he was successful, the android then used Black Canary's scream to knock him down.
Professor Ivo sat on the bleachers, watching this fight unamused. "Ugh, normally Amazo would study and then duplicate your powers during combat, but you're all such poor copies of the originals. Amazo, destroy the Kid Flash, priority alpha."
Amazo walked towards Kid Flash, intent on destroying him. But then... Venom dropped from the ceiling, falling on the android and attacking it with sharp claws. This actually did some damage, tearing the back of it leaving scratch marks in the metal, revealing circuitry.
"ACCESS:RED TORNADO." The android spun, throwing Venom off, yet he managed to land on his feet. Amazo then stared intebtly at Venom as it's eyes glowed.
"Ummm... I dont think that's good." Said Eddie
"Venom don't let him scan you!" Robin cried out
"Too late, boy blunder!" Said Ivo
"Scan complete... ACCESS:VENOM" the androids arms turned into metallic tendrils, which were lashing out at Venom. Eddie was able to dodge, but now it was only a matter of time before the android got the upper hand. For now, though, Eddie was keeping it busy.
Superboy observed all of this, realizing that his anger had gotten him in this situation. Black Canary was right, he needed to act, not react. And he needed to channel his anger. He came up with a strategy. He went after Professor Ivo, knowing Amazo would protect it's creator. Sure enough, it did. Ivo ordered his creation to protect him rather than attacking the others. The other members of the team realized what Superboy was planning and followed along. Each taking a turn going after Ivo. The android channels, the powers of several different heroes to stop them, but failed. Eventually, venom unleashed tendril at the android, it used its density shifting to face through them. That was when Superboy jumped in front of the android and punched its phased-out head. When the android solidified again, it short circuit and exploded, permanently, defeating it.
everyone was beyond glad that the android had finally been defeated. When asking how Superboy felt, he replied. "Better, Feeling the aster. But wait… Where is Professor Ivo?"
Everyone looked around and realized that the professor had made his escape during the chaos.
--
back at Mount Justice. The team was debriefed on what transpired during the mission. Although there were complications, the important part was that they had recovered and finished the mission.
Superboy walked over to Canary, who had been at the debriefing. "I'm ready" he stated solemnly. Hoping that she would recognize his apology.
She gently smiled and replied "I'm here".
_
A/N: It's alive... it's ALIIIIIIVE!!!
Yes, this story is back from the dead. My apologies on such a long delay, but I had lost inspiration for this until recently. I left out the Artemis scene on purpose, because I personally felt that the arrow had no real effect on anything. Everyone except Wally ended up accepting her from day one anyhow, at least after the first mission. So I see no problem with them becoming aware of her existence officially in the next episode, rather than it being hinted at here. also, I mainly going to be sticking with Eddie's point of view rather than switching to the others. I will do so if Eddie's presence had affected things differently in the episode, or if I do an original idea for an episode, which I will probably do at some point. But other than that, I'm going to stick to Eddie. Thanks for your patience and see you next time