"Latin, my mother made sure I could read the bible, even though I am affront to god by the nature of my birth... I can generally translate the languages that evolved from it. Start talking or ill use some other methods my mother taught me." Mordred threatened the masked man.
"Hey, we don't torture our captives." Robin pushed her back.
"I never said torture. I could have a truth spell or something similar." Mordred lied, she wanted to torture the information out of him.
"Miss Martian can you read his mind?" Robin asked.
Megan knealt in front of him pressing her fingers to her temples. "Aeh aeh aeh, not so fast chicka, Bane is not so easily read."
Bane, Mordred made note of the name, should he prove difficult. "There is a tunnel, but... there is something he's not telling... ugh he's reciting football scores en espanol."
"What's there to tell its quite simple, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Bane said with a smile, one that told Mordred not to trust him.
Chapter 5: Kobra
Mordred crossed her arms as Robin let Bane stand up. the large man clenching his fists as he looked down at each member of the team. "I don't trust him." Mordred said under her breath to Kaldur. "It's too convenient, that he just happens to have a tunnel."
"I agree, stay on guard." Kaldur said as the group took off the through the jungle. Mordred was on edge on the walk, she would much rather charge into the factory and level the cult in one full frontal attack.
"What that one's story? The blonde girl, she doesn't strike me like a sidekick of any of the heroes." Bane asked as he led them through the trees. "She's a piece of work too."
Mordred clenched her fists. "Who I am isn't important for scum like you, but refer to me as a woman again and I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget for you very short bloody life." The rest of the team looked at her nervously.
"Don't threaten our way into factory." Robin whispered to her only to get a deadly glare back. "What is your problem?"
"Mordred see's themself as the son of their father, not the daughter." Kaldur said. "There is also the difference in the morals of our time compared to theirs."
"I am trying to adjust. The world is... different. Bigger. I did what I had to to serve my father. My methods were for the good of the kingdom."
"Good of the kingdom? Didn't you kill your father because you threw a fit over daddy not paying attention to you?" Wally asked only to find the point of Clarent at his throat. "Woah hey hey!"
"Don't you dare speak of my father or the event's of my life. I have tolerated your annoying disgusting comments, I am not interested." Mordred glared at him. "You don't know what it was like, having my whole life revolve around my mother's schemes and serving my father. What I lost, who I lost, in the lead up to that rebellion, if you want to keep your head you'll shut the hell up." Mordred said frighteningly cold.
"Woah, woah, woah! Let's cool our heads real quick and think first." Robin said trying to step closer.
"Mordred, I agree, Kid Flashes comments have been... unwarranted but you can't kill him. Aside for him being our friend it will force our hands. This life is your second chance." Kaldur placed a hand on Mordred's shoulder. The knight looked back at the Atlantean. She let out a breath through her nose as her shoulders dipped
"Yeah I'm really totally sorry. I didn't realize it was such a... sore subject." Kid Flash apologized. A bead of sweat rolling down his face.
Clarent vanished in a glow of red light as Mordred's armor appeared around her, helmet covering her face. "Lets finish the mission. I need to break something."
"Everything is just peachy with your team, Answers are through here." Bane said as the crested a cliff over looking the factory.
Looking down to the factory the team could see plent of movement. Forklifts carrying crates and patrols of men. "A buy is going down... but if Kobra wont sell to the usual suspects..."
"We need to identify the buyer." Kaldur finished the thought.
"Just what I was thinking." Kid Flash said
"Cause your the great thinker among us." Robin said, his voice thick with sarcasm.
"Really?" He asked back. "A leader and teammate would focus on getting answers. Not making jokes."
The ground aa bane grunted l moving a massive boulder out of the way from the tunnel. "Answers are this way."
"Great now el luchador is our leader." Kid flash commented.
The hum of the electric lights filled the air as the team entered the tunnel. Mordred right behind Bane. "You certainly have more steel in your bones then these kids."
"Unless you want to taste the steel of my gauntlets you will shut up." Mordred glared at him. Her helmet came apart individual pieces sliding into place on her armor.
"Feisty." Bane said looking back at her.
Megan was quiet as she looked at Mordred unsure of what to say. the Martian was sure the knight was someone she could trust, but...
"Her own father... I can't imagine what that felt like." Superboy said. "I mean... I was created to replace or... well kill Superman if he turned from the light."
"Is what I'm saying to her... like actually disgusting... I thought..." Kid said quietly.
"That's because you didn't think, while Mordred is our friend, yes her past is... questionable to her morality. Yet she clearly has regrets about her last life. But she is from the past, your comments on her would be considered enough to initiate a duel to the death." Kaldur said.
As the group walked down the hallway the whispers and murmurs were drowned out by the root steps. The heavy clucking of Mordred's plate armor echoing before she returned to her red garb. The door at the end of the tunnel appeared on the darkness.
Silently slipping out into the factory they kept low and to the shadows. "We need to stick... Where's Robin?" Mordred asked as she looked at the team. They were missing a member.
"Did he already get himself captured?" Bane asked frustrated.
"No he just does that, I'll go get the intel were looking for and be back before the boy wonder." Kid Flash said before running off.
"Kid wait... damn it." Kaldur gritted his teeth.
"Great chain of command." Bane said with a smirk.
"Shut it or I'll stuff a chain up your..."
"Mordred." Kaldur cut her off. "We have a mission.
Moving through the factory they came behind a row of crates. "It's a massive shipment." Kaldur said as another forklift drove by.
"But their only taking new product, their not touching this Venom." Superboy noted.
"Maybe freshness counts?" Megan asked.
"Or they changed the formula. And that appears to be their test subject." Mordred pointed at a large beast of a man, part of his muscles showing through torn skin. "Reminds me of what happened to that bastard Desmond at Cadmus after he drank the blockbuster formula."
"Robin's and Kids investigation should bring that up if they can find anything for now, let's get the high ground." Kaldur said as the group moved from the crates and climbed up a ladder to the sky walks over the factory floor. "Miss Martian keep an eye out for the buyer."
Mordred sat against the railing next to Bane and Kaldur. "So what is this Kobra cult?"
"Its a pseudo religious terror group led by Kobra, he believes himself to be a the snake god Naga."
"Gods... their a pain... weather its a mortal lost in delusions or the real thing." Mordred said looking down at the cult.
"I thought the knights of the round table were devout Christians." Kaldur said.
"Well as I said I'm a afront to god, as a homunculus I don't exactly fit within his divine creation, there was no heaven or hell when I died... but no I refer to actual gods. During my quests across Europe I encountered many things. One was a island if warrior woman. Themiscrya."
"You visited the home of Wonder Woman?" Kaldur asked.
"Woke up drunk there after drinking from a cache of ancient Greek wine, the kind that had to be watered down. I didn't do that." Mordred laughed softly. "The goddess Athena and the god Ares were not happy to see me. I had to best their favored warriors in combat to leave the island. it took them a month to choose a champion each due to petty bickering as whenever Athena chose a champion Ares would also claim that champion, then when Ares chose a champion Athena would bless them." Mordred soft chuckled.
"Got any more stories?" Superboy asked.
"Thor owes me five gold coins." Mordred said with a little more of a laugh.
"A god... owes you money?" Bane asked a little bewildered.
"He knows and I will collect." Mordred adjusted in the spot she was sitting.
"We got a helicopter incoming." Super boy said getting to his feet. Mordred got to hers summoning her sword.
"Must be the buyer." Kaldur said ready to go. Mordred waited in silence as Kaldur spoke with Miss Martian telepathically. "Sports Master, he is the buyer. Now we contact the league." Kaldur touched the ear bud radio to signal the league. "Comms jammed, can't signal the league, Robin or Kid."
"We have to do something." Superboy urged.
"I got an idea." Bane said before jumping off the skywalk to quickly take out two Kobra cultists. Gunshot soon followed.
"I'm going to shove a pallet up his..." Mordred said quite annoyed as she leapt from the railing. Kaldur and Superboy followed her as they didn't have much of a choice. Mordred came down in a flash of lightning as her armor appeared. Her helmet shutting around her head as the bullets deflected off the steel.
She back handed a cultist before brandishing her weapon. Slashing and cutting down cultists, lightning arcing off the weapon. The massive creature charged her only for super boy to tackle it. A man wearing sparts gear standing next to a robe wearing man who Mordred assumed was Kobra and a slim blue tank and orange haird woman.
"Were linked together." Megan said in everyone's minds. As three cultists charged Kaldur and Mordred and the invisible Martian threw crates at them as Kid flash ran into the fight taking out a group of cultists. The man that Mordred assumed was Sports master took out an expanding javelin and threw it at the invisible Martian.
Mordred instincts went into overdrive as she launched her self in the air blocking the javelin from Megan as it exploded on the knights back. Mordred landed in crash if venom crates.
"Damn it. There's too many." Kaldur called out. He was pinned down by gun fire. Mordred extracted herself from the rubble as a cultist charged her. Mordred punched him as he got close with a hammer. The wet crunch of bone and cartilage as blood sprayed from his nose. "Oh... fuck... my... nose!"
Mordred kicked the room causing him to crash into the cultists keeping the others under fire. Mordred looked around, she could wipe the cult out with her magic...
'You need to riegn in your power, you nearly killed us.' Kid Flashes voice rang in her head. If she went all out here, she could end up killing the team too.
'We need to pull back!' Mordred said over the telepathic link. 'I'll cover you!'
'Very well, Superboy, Robin, Time to go!' Kaldur ordered the retreat. Mordred rushed to Superboys aid, red lightning arcing off her sword as she swung into the hulking brute sending a spray of blood as she severed a hand. It roared in fury as Mordred went with the momentum of the swing launching a devasting kick into the beasts jaw as Super boy decked it with a powerful punch from the other side. The creature feel back as it roared in pain Robin running past.
The team got back to the tunnel and slammed the door shut behind them. Getting about ten seconds before the ragging beast blew through the door into the tunnel. "Keep running!" Mordred shouted as she channeled her power into clarent and swung her blade launching a last of lightning that blew apart the tunnel behind the team causing it to collapse. Turning and running to catch up she had to launch her self to avoid getting buried in the rubble. She crashed into someone with a grunt.
"Armor... Mordred..." Kid flash groaned as he rubbed fore head where it had hit her helmet. Getting up she offered a hand to the speedster only able to see due to the light and arcs of lightning off her sword.
"Thanks for breaking my fall." Mordred smiled.
Everyone took a breath and looked themselves over. No one seemed hurt. "Mordred... thanks for tanking that blast." Megan said.
"Ears ringing a bit from that, but I'll live." Mordred said to her. "Anyone got water?"
Kid flash handed her a small bottle from his wrist compartment. "Sorry, don't really carry much."
"How could things go so wrong my first time as leader?" Robin asked himself as he looked at the collapsed tunnel.
"Because you weren't acting as a leader." Mordred said between sips.
"You do have the most experience but that may have left you unprepared. With Batman your roles are clear defined, but this team is new, a leader must be decisive and not disappear and expect others to play a part in an unknown plan." Kaldur added on.
"So what I'm supposed to babysit you?" Robin turned to face the two of them.
"Yes. Leaders have to lead, and to lead is to be seen and heard. To give orders and maintain order." Mordred handed the water back to Kid Flash.
"Right... Kaldur... Mordred, you two should lead us. Kaldur as leader and Mordred as his second." Robin said.
"You kidding me? I could run circles around..."
"Kid, you know its true." Robin cut him off. "Their the only ones that can."
"Could of told you that from the start." Superboy said as he crossed his arms.
"Hello Megan it's so obvious." Megan said as she tapped her forehead with her palm.
"Hey I don't want anything with command... their enough..." Mordred said as she stood up.
"Mordred you understand the weight of your actions in command, you saw the mistakes that led to the fall of your home, if I'm gonna have a second in command, it has to be you." Kaldur looked at her.
"Fine... I'll do it." She said. "At least until we find someone to take my place."
"Robin you were born to lead this team, maybe not today, but someday you will. When your ready. Until then me and Mordred will do our best." Kaldur rested a hand on the younger heroes shoulder.
"All in favor of Kaldur and Mordred?" Kid Flash called. The entire team cheered.
"Alright we need a plan." Kaldur said. "That shipment can't leave this island."
"And we need to make sure they can't make any more." Mordred added. "Deny the enemy assets." The team made their way out of the tunnel. As the team reached the mouth there waited Bane holding something in his hand as small boxes flashed around the mouth of the tunnel.
"Ah ah ah ninoes. I had hoped you had wiped out the cult or they had killed you, because at least then the heroes would come to avenge their brats." Bane said holding up the detonator. "Blow up the tunnel with you in it should have the same effect so that once the smoke fades I will be ruler of Santa Prisca once again!"
"You really want to go down that route Bane?" Mordred asked.
'Kid you'll need a running start.' Kaldur said over the mental link. Kid Flash took a few steps back into the tunnel.
"Oh yes I do chika." Bane tried to press button but Kid Flash ran by him grabbing the detonator faster then the crime lord could react. "What the..."
Mordred was the next to act jumping up in the air as lightning sparked around her and came down driving the heel of her foot into Bane's face knocking him out cold. "Oh 've been wanting to do that all night. Now we have a drug deal to ruin."
Mordred knelt in the shadows of the tree line, waiting for Kaldur's signal. Her target was Kobra, Megan and Superboy would hanle Sports Master Kaldur the beast, Kid Flash would take the henchmen and Robin would make sure that helicopter did not leave the island.
'Now!' Kaldur called out. And the team emerged from the shadows. Kid flash disarming and taking out the cult members while dodging gun fire. Superboy leapt through the air at Sports Master who threw a exploding javelin at him only for Megan to send it right back, the masked villain dashing away from the explosion.
The beast man roared and charged Superboy but was hot with a torrent water under Kaldur's control. Letting Robin run past to the helicopter.
Mordred charged Kobra and his female body guard. "Shimmer deal with her." Kobra said annoyed.
Shimmer lunged at Mordred who spun with her blade generating a arc of red lightning that launched from the weapon hitting the woman and blasting her against the wall of the factory. "KOBRA!" Mordred roared as she threw herself into combat. Mana bursting from her body in a red aura she unleashed a series of attacks at the so called god.
"So angry." Kobra said as he calmly dodged the blows. "Who's whelp are you? To step to a god?"
"God, you're an ant to me." Mordred said as she launched her self into a flurry of strikes that fired lightning at Kobra. The arcs burned his greyed skin and ripped through his cloak leaving only his red trousers. "For what is a god to a nonbeliever!" She swung the blade down from above her head.
Kobra brought his arms up to block the attack only for Mordred to vanish and appear behind him coming trough with a upwards strike launching the cult leader through the air and through the window of the factory.
Robin ran out of the helicopter pressing something on his data pad. A few seconds later the vehicle detonated. At the same time Kaldur channeled his blue lightning into the water he controlled electrocuting the beast into unconsciousness.
"Damn it..." Sports Master threw a smoke bomb at the ground and vanished.
Mordred took her blade in both hands lifting the weapon in front of her as Kobra emerged from the factory. Clarent erupted in red mana and lightning "This is the evil blade that killed my father... Clarent Blood ARTHUR!" A raging blast of magic power slammed into Kobra driving him back into the factory and in a flash of light fire and ash the factory detonated. Kobra was flung from the ruins, covered in blood, burns and ash. He was bent over slightly in pain. "So you lived." Mordred leveled her blade at him. "Kneel." She ordered as the team stood next to her.
"This is not over... Knight." He snarled. Stepping back into the jungle he vanished. Robin ran after him
"He's gone." Robin said turning back to the team.
"Oh, souvenir." Kid flash said taking the mask from a cultist.
"Well you two really were the right ones to lead us... which makes you two the perfect ones to explain this mess to Batman." Robin laughed while looking at the burning factory.
"Great..." Mordred said with a smile at Kaldur.
"A simple recon mission, observe and report." Batman said as he walked back and forth in front of the team. "You will each be getting a written report about your many failures. Until then... Good job. No plan survives first contact with the enemy." He looked at the team. "How you adapt and improvise determines success while who you choose to lead determines character."
The Team all smiled at each other.
In a dark room Sports master stood in front of a series of monitors that glowed with the illuminated profiles of others. "I was only able to recover a single sample of Kobra Venom. The Cult is near broken and Kobra needs to recover."
"It can be reversed engineered." A French accented voice cut in. "We are not without options."
"First Cadmus, then Mister Twister, and now Santa Prisca. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action. The Knight is a major threat." man said.
"I may have the means to... contain or coerce my way ward child to the Light. I must find more relics of that time." A woman spoke up. Her voice chilling and cold.
"Enemies of the Light must not stand."
Chapter completed.