Authors Notes:Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying the story. A few things I wanted to address. Firstly, Vixen won the character poll, and will be introduced in a later chapter. I understand that not everyone wanted new characters in the story, but I don't want to do a copy and paste of Young Justice with Venom added in it, I want to do a unique take on Young Justice. So I will occasionally add characters here and there. They won't all have major roles or may not appear more than once, but I want to use the DC Comic universe to make this fanfic the best it can be. Secondly, I appreciate the comments and feedback you all have been leaving. to negi83: Your comment about Anansi has given me some ideas, I'm looking forward to writing them. Also, as for Eddie's speech sounding like Deku from MHA, I agree. That wasn't my intention, but that's how it turned out. I did actually want to include the 'Spit Venom' line into the speech, but I couldn't think of a way to do so without it sounding out of place. I do have a plan of how to reference that line for a future chapter though. Alright, that's it for now, enjoy the story!

Chapter Seven: Drop Zone

Location: Caribean Sea

The six members of the Team were quiet, in the Bioship heading for an island known as Santa Prisca. After over a week of waiting, they had been given their very first mission just a few hours ago. Batman had been monitoring Santa Prisca, as it was responsible for shipping a powerful drug known as venom, which gave the user super strength. The reason for this mission, was that all shipments of venom mysteriously stopped leaving the island. Batman wanted to know what was going on, so the team was tasked with recon, they were to find out what was going on, and return to Mt.Justice. When asked who would lead the mission, Batman told the team to decide amongst themselves, that made sense to Eddie. What did not make sense, was that the team had still not decided, or even discussed who would lead them since leaving the cave. Not that Eddie could complain much, he hadn't brought it up either. The whole trip had been silent, aside from Ms.Martian communicating their drop zone coordinates. Everyone was excited and nervous at the same time, Eddie himself felt more of the latter. While the other five had either done superhero work, or at least been in combat before, this was Eddie's first time with anything like that (Except the Mr.Twister incident, but this was far more serious than that in Eddie's opinion.) However, out of everyone, Eddie felt the most excitement eminating from Robin. Yes, he could literally feel it. Apparently, since bonding with the Symbiote, he had minor empathic abilities. He couldn't influence emotions of others, he could just tell what they were feeling. Before he could ask Robin why he was excited, Ms.Martian spoke.

"Now approaching Drop Zone A."

Aqualad then stood up, his chair disintegrating beneath him, then a hatch opened beneath him. Aqualad fell into the water and swam past the underwater defenses, before reaching shore. Once on dry land, he approached several large machines which controlled the island anti-air defenses, and attatched a small device to them.

He radioed to the team. "Heat and motion sensors are patched. Data is now on a continuous loop, move in."

The Bioship did just that, continuing past the beach and towards the dense jungle-like part of the island, until they reached their destination.

M'gann spoke "We're here, Drop Zone B."

Everyone in the Bioship stood up, and their chairs disintegrated beneath them, as did M'gann's command console. The ship lowered drop lines for everyone, although only Kid Flash and Robin took them and attached them to their belts. Eddie could make his own line with the Symbiote, Ms.Martian could float down, and Superboy simply said he would be fine without a line. Before dropping, Kid Flash tapped the logo on his chest, and his costume's color scheme switched from yellow and red, to black and red. He looked over at the Martian girl hoping she would be impressed. "How cool is this?"

She smiled kindly, but then proceeded to playfully one-up him. "Very impressive." She struck a similar pose to Wally, and her clothes organically shapeshifted to a black and red stealth design with a blue cloak.

Wally mentally facepalmed, he completly forgot she could shift her clothes with her powers. "Uhh, that works too. Hey Supie, Eddie, how about you? It's not to late to put on the new stealth tech."

Superboy was the first to respond. "No tights, no capes, no offense."

"It totally works for you..." M'gann couldn't help but admire Superboy's looks, but she quickly caught herself and attempted to act natural. "I mean, in that you can totally do good work in those clothes!" Superboy gave her a confused look, but then looked away. M'gann was embarassed, she pulled her hood over her face and turned invisible.

Kid Flash was completly oblivious to M'gann's crush and accidental flirting with Superboy. He just assumed it was an awkward moment. "Okaaaay... How about you, Eddie?"

Eddie shook his head. "Thanks, but I don't think the stealth tech would be compatible with the Symbiote. Plus, our costume is mostly black already."

"Yeah, mostly, if you don't include the giant white spider logo. What's that about anyway?" Asked KF.

The Symbiote formed around Eddie, and soon they transformed into Venom. "Honestly, neither of us are sure, it just... felt right."

Robin got everyone's attention. "Guys, we're on the clock here, we need to drop!" The chatter ceased and everyone dropped quietly. M'gann floating down, Robin, Kid Flash and Eddie using lines. They were wondering where Superboy was, until they all looked up, and quickly dove out of the way. Superboy crashed down with a boom, his impact leaving a crater in the ground.

Everyone glared at Superboy, wondering why Superboy would do that and not even warn them, they were almost crushed! He simply smiled confidently "Knew I didn't need a line."

Robin was not amused. "And yet, creating a seismic event may not have helped the 'Covert' part of this covert mission!"

M'gann radioed Aqualad to let him know they had dropped. He quickly responded. "Head for the factory, I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP."

The team ventured through the dense foliage for some time, until suddenly, Superboy stopped moving "Do you hear that?". Kid Flash took notice, and was about to chastise his teamate for it, nut then he realized something. "Wait, is that a super-hearing thing, do you hear something heading this way?"

"You do have great ears." M'gann was once again fawning over Superboy. This bugged Eddie, not the fact that she was doing it at all, but that she was doing it while on a mission. He tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to look at him. Although his entire face was covered, his eyes were narrow, in an expression that said 'Really?' M'gann realized what he was saying, and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry..."

Kid Flash knew they would need a plan. "Okay Robin, what now?" However, Robin had vanished. "Man I hate it when he does that." Eddie had to admit he was getting tired of it too. Splitting up without warning on a hostile island did NOT seem like a good idea. Thankfully, Aqualad had overheard the situation through the open radio, and took charge. "Kid, Superboy, switch to infra-red and see if you're being tracked."

Kid Flash put on his stealth goggles, which had an infra-red mode. "Got a squad of armed bozos nearby."

Superboy didn't need any special tech, while he didn't have heat vision, he had the other Superman vision powers, X-Ray and infra-red. "Two squads... but they'll meet eachother before they meet us. Before they could formulate a plan, gunfire rang out. It was unknown what the squads were shooting at, but KF worried it might be Robin. "Aqualad, shots fired. But we don't know what they're firing at."

Aqualad began running to get to the rendezvous point. "Swing wide and steer clear, continue to the rendezvous point!"

Unfortunately, KF wasn't really listening, he was hyperfocused on finding the boy wonder. "Yeah yeah, just as soon as I find Rob." With that he took off, before anyone could react. He dashed through the jungle, but unfortunately he tripped on a root and began tumbling. He landed right in front of the two armed squads. And while his sudden appearance surprised the groups enough to stop firing, neither looked pleased to see him. "Heh, so much for the stealthy..." The groups began firing at him, thankfully he was fast enough to dodge bullets. One man, in a luchadore mask, tried grabbing KF only to be surprise attacked by Superboy. The two of them grappled, but after a bit Superboy was able to throw the man through a tree, knocking him out.

Two men in red tried firing, but two strands of black goo attached to them, before they were yanked backwards and sent flying. M'gann telekinetically threw some more goons into eachother. Robin finally appeared to help, but KF wasn't happy. "There you are, where did you go??"

"Why are you mad? You all should've followed my lead and disappeared into the jungle! Remember, stealth mission??"

Any further arguing was halted when Aqualad appeared and knockout the rest of the bad guys. "Enough! We have drawn enough attention to ourselves as it is, we must restrain these men so they cannot report back to their superiors." Everyone agreed, and they managed to tie the unconscious bad guys to trees.

Afterwards, the group stopped to talk. Eddie spoke first. "Okay, can anyone tell me who these guys are? They don't look like they're on the same team to me."

Robin took a closer look at the men in red. "I recognize these guy's uniforms. They're from The Cult of the Cobra. They're a group of terrorists who want to take over the world."

"I am sure Batman would've mentioned that such a dangerous group was running Santa Prisca's Venom operation." said Aqualad

Robin nodded. "Agreed, besides something like this isn't Cobra's style, they prefer destruction, not organized operations. And, since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists and those goons, I bet Cobra came and kicked them out. That's why Venom shipments have stopped."

Kid Flash spoke next. "We get it, Cobra wanted super cultists, radio Bats and we'll be home in time for dinner."

"These cultists aren't on Venom, they're hoarding it! And we can't leave until I find out why."

"Until you find out? Since when are you in charge?"

"This team needs a leader-"

Kid Flash and Robin went back and forth like this for a while. M'gann looked over at Superboy and Eddie. "Do either of you want to lead?" Superboy simply scoffed at the notion. Venom spoke as one. "We have a hard enough time agreeing with ourselves, we don't need to add five others into the mix."

Superboy looked at M'gann. "How about you?"

She herself scoffed. "After the Mr.Twister fiasco? Hard pass." Superboy smiled warmly at her. "I think you did well." M'gann blushed a bit and smiled back. Superboy then heard two of the tied up men talking. They were speaking Spanish, but Superboy was multilingual due to his Cadmus education, so he understood them perfectly.

"Look at them argue! Free yourself and take them out while they are distracted"

"Quiet! For now I play along. They'll give me what I need."

Siperboy smirked. It was clear that the man in the Luchadore mask was planning something, but now Superboy could counteract that with a plan of his own. He looked at Ms.Martian and tapped the side of his head.

While she was confused at first, she quickly realized what he was asking her to do. She linked the both of them telepathically, and Superboy told her what he had heard. The telepathic message was soon spread to the rest of the team, and they kept acting as they had been while forming a plan. Afterwards they cut off the link, just in time for the masked man to speak, this time in English.

"Heh heh heh... such clever niños, but you only know half of the story. Let me show you the other half, release me and I'll guide you to the factory, through my secret entrance."

Eddie didn't like the menacing tone in this man's voice. "Okay, please tell me we're not about to trust this guy, he's clearly up to something. Who is he anyway?"

Robin nodded. "Good instincts, his name is Bane. He goes head to head with Batman usually. The venom drug is made by him, and he likes to juice up with it too. Normally I wouldn't even listen to him, but he's the only one who knows how to navigate this island."

M'gann tried reading his mind. "There IS a secret entrance, but he's also hiding something."

Bane simply smiled. "Ah ah ah, chica. Bane is not that easy."

Miss Martian groaned. "He's mentally reciting football scores, en español... this could take a while."

Eddie shook his head. "We don't have a while."

The masked villain smirked. "It's not that complicated. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The team didn't like it, but Bane was the only one who could get them into the factory undetected. They decided to release him, but not his men. Bane led the team to a cliff overlooking the factory. Everyone except Eddie went to look, and Bane noticed. "What's wrong araña, don't you want to get a closer look?"

"And be in the perfect position for you to push us all off of the cliff? We'll pass." Venom said with a slight edge in their voice.

"Hahahah! The boy wonder was right, you do have good instincts. But worry not, just as you need me, you all are of much more use to me alive than dead."

After the team (Minus Venom) took a look at the factory, Bane moved a large boulder, revealing a hidden cavern. After a short journey, they all made it to the other side, and were finally inside the factory. Robin dashed through the factory far ahead of the others, eventually losing them entirely.

Bane frowned. "Has that little fool already been caught?"

"No, he just does that..." Said Aqualad with disappointment in his voice. Before anyone else could speak, Kid Flash put on his goggles and sped off, saying this: "Stay put, I can get the Intel and be back before him!"

Aqualad tried to stop KF, but he was already gone. Bane looked at the four remaining members of the team. "Some chain of command." His voice dripping with sarcasm. While the others hated to admit it, Bane had a point, they were not at all organized. However, there was no time to debate this matter, the five of them quickly moved behind some crates and observed Cobra moving product. They noted that Cobra was only moving newly produced venom, and none of the already-existing reserve, M'gann made a remark about freshness counting, but Bane told them Venom did not ever lose potency. It was clear that this venom was different somehow, perhaps Robin or KF had found out more, they could talk when they met back up. Superboy told the group that he heard a helicopter incoming, this (as Eddie was told) most likely had the one who was buying this venom shipment on it. Aqualad knew that now was the time for action.

"Miss Martian, turn invisible and fly over to the landing zone, once you see the buyer, send me a telepathic image of them. Venom, you go find Robin and Kid Flash, we will need to be ready to act as a team. The three of us should get to higher ground."

Once M'gann took off and Eddie turned a corner, Aqualad Superboy and Bane went to the rafters to get a better vantage point. However, Eddie did not actually look for Robin or KF, instead he found a spot to hide where he could see Bane from. After a while, some Cobra goons walked into the warehouse, and Eddie saw Bane jump from the rafters and attack them. While Bane won the encounter, the Cobra goon was able to fire his weapon. The sound of gunfire caught the attention of the people outside. A giant monster crashed through the building, A red cloaked man, a tattooed woman, a man in a hockey mask, and a half dozen Cobra cultists folled behind them. Aqualad and Superboy jumped down from the bleachers.

The cloaked man looked at the monster and gave it one simple order. "Destroy them!!"

The monster charged at them, and was intercepted by Superboy, he was tossed around by the behemoth. This thing was easily stronger than anything Superboy had fought before, even stronger than Blockbuster! While Aqualad used his hydrokenesis to shield himself from the bullets, Bane took this oppertunuity to escape.

As Bane made his way through the exit tunnel, he laughed to himself. "Hahahaha! Foolish sidekicks, they have served their purpose, and now Bane will take control of- OOOF!" Bane's gloating was cut off with a punch to the face. Venom jumped in front of him to deliver the sneak attack.

"Leaving so soon, Bane? And here we thought you were man enough to finish the fights you start."

"Heh, and here I thought you were foolish enough to blindly trust me. Glad to see you aren't as imprudent as your friends. Although, I would say that facing me alone is itself a poor choice."

"Oh, but we're never alone Bane. We always have eachother, and together... we can defeat even you." Venom charged Bane, when the Luchadore went for a grapple, Venom blasted him into a wall with a burst from his chest. Luckily, Bane hit his head on the wall, rendering him unconcious.

Venom's mask dissolved, revealing Eddie, who was sweating bullets. "Oh thank God! I can't believe we got that lucky." LUCKY?! WE COULD HAVE BEATEN HIM WITH PURE SKILL!

"No we couldn't have! The guy regularly fights Batman. BATMAN! I thought we agreed we were bluffing!" WE SHOULDN'T NEED TO BLUFF! WE ARE POWERFUL, WE ARE MIGHTY, WE ARE...

"Completely new at this! I'm sure we can get strong enough to beat him, but not now!"

After a short bit, the other members of the team joined Eddie in the tunnel. Robin was the first to speak.

"Well, at least Eddie was successful with his part of the plan. Although it was rocky, we were able to find out the buyer, and the product. Cobra took over this factory to mix the Venom drug with Project Blockbuster. They're selling it to an assassin named Sportsmaster."

Eddie was shocked. "Project Blockbuster, like from Cadmus?"

Aqualad nodded. "The same. This new formula is much stronger than it's individual components, and is permanent. We need to make sure Sportsmaster does not leave with the shipment. Otherwise, it could be disastrous."

The Team spent some time formulating a plan, during this time, they agreed that Aqualad should be the team leader. M'Gann, Superboy and Eddie were too inexperienced. KF was too impulsive, and Robin simply wasn't ready to lead. Aqualad was the only logical choice. They formulated a plan and were about to leave when KF noticed something next to then unconcious Bane.

"Hey, look! Explosives! I bet Bane was gonna rig the tunnel to blow and trap us inside."

Eddie put his mask back on. "I bet we can use them better than he can. Let's take them with us."

Aqualad nodded. "Agreed, in fact, Heres the plan..."

Location: Helipad, Santa Prisca

Sportsmaster had his shipment already loaded into the helicopter. He was carrying a briefcase with additional vials, and walked towards the helicopter, only for Kid Flash to dash in front of him, knocking over some Cobra cultists. The rest of them opened fire, as the leader yelled for Sportsmaster to leave with the shipment. Superboy landed with a crash, knocking some cultists away. He looked over at the monster, who he had fought with earlier. "Go again?"

The monster charged at him, only to be blasted by a strong turrent of water. "Sorry, not the plan." Aqualad held the beast at bay, while Superboy attempted to destroy the helicopter. Before he could land a hit, he was bombarded by energy rounds from Sportsmasters rifle. M'Gann and Eddie took this opportunity to sneak a board the helicopter. M'gann would engage Sports master directly, while Eddie planted the explosives. This worked, as Sportsmaster was distracted long enough for Eddie to plant the explosives and leave undetected. Sportsmaster defeated Superboy and M'gann, then took off. Once he was far enough away, Eddie activated the detonator. The helicopter exploded, and Sportsmaster could be seen parachuting to safety, although he was to far away for the team to attempt his capture. The others then joined Robin, who was in a fight with Cobra, one which he was currently losing. Once Robin freed himself, Cobra knew it was unwise to pick a fight when he was outnumbered, (KF had taken out the remaining cultists, Aqualad defeated Mammoth, and Robin rendered Shimmer unconcious.). Cobra backed into the shadows, fading away. Although it had been messy, the team had won, Mission Acomplished... Now they just had to explain this mess to Batman.