22 Chapter 22: Team's First Mission Part 2: Title at the end.
[Third Person's Point of View]
The villain known as Bane, one of the non-cultists they tied up, chuckled at what he was seeing.
"Such clever niños. But you only know half the story."
The Team starts to gather around Bane.
"Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory, via my secret entrance."
"There is a secret entrance."
Miss Martian says slowly, crouching down in front of him.
"But he's also hiding something."
Miss Martian's eyes glow as she tries to delve deeper into his mind.
"Ah, ah, ah chica. Bane is not that easy." the venom user admonishes.
"Ah, he's mentally reciting fútbol scores, in español. This could take a while."
Miss Martian says, turning to the Team.
"It's not complicated."
Bane says before adding on.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Supergirl whooshes towards Bane and grabs him by his shirt before lifting him.
"Not happening so you either tell us what you know now or after I broke a couple of bones."
With glowing red eyes, she threatens Bane who simply chuckles not even a bit scared of her.
"Adorable chica. I have faced Batman and you think that little glare is enough to scare me."
Acnologia looked at Bane before speaking.
"Supergirl, let him go."
Grudgingly, she did as she was told while Acnologia walked up to Bane before he pointed his finger at Bane as he spoke.
"What is your true intention."
Bane entered a trance-like state and spoke in a monotone voice.
"I want my factory back! So I plan to force you niños into a situation where you would either take down my enemies or die trying. If the latter, the Justice League would certainly have come to avenge their sidekicks. And when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more."
Acnologia waved his hands as he spoke.
"You will lead us to the secret entrance."
"Sí..."
Bane responded in a trance-like tone. They release him and make sure the others will not get free anytime soon. Bane, still in a trance, leads the Team through the jungle for about half an hour. He stops at a ledge overlooking the factory.
Kid Flash and Robin move to the edge to get a better view, observing through their respective binocular devices.
"Look at all that product."
Robin whispers. Bane stays still as drool comes out of his mouth.
"A buy is going down. But if Kobra's not selling to the usual suspects-"
"We need to identify that buyer."
Aqualad finishes for him.
"A production this large should have a trail that can be traced or at the very least data about what is being produced."
Acnologia adds.
"Just what I was thinking."
Kid Flash says, pushing his goggles back up.
"Yeah, you're the thinker."
Robin smirks.
"Sarcasm?"
Kid Flash asks before sending a verbal jab at his friend.
"Dude, a real leader would focus on getting answers."
"For once, Kid Flash makes a good point."
Acnologia says before snapping his fingers in the air. Bane moves over to a large boulder covered in moss. They would have ignored it and walked right past it since the stone looked inconspicuous. Bane throws it to the side, revealing a tunnel shored up by wood beams and lit by occasional lights designed to look like oil lamps.
"Answers… are... this... way..."
The villain says in a Zombie speed-like speech. The others move over to see the tunnel. Bane walks forward, leading the way.
"So, now mind-controlled el luchador is our leader."
Kid Flash says sarcastically. He grunts as Robin shoves him aside. The Team follows Bane as he leads them through the tunnel. They stop as they reach a door. Bane presses his thumb on a button and holds.
Soon the light blinks from red to green and they walk through the newly opened door. They end up in a storage closet. Bane opens the door and looks out. Robin peaks out from below him. They see no one.
"All clear."
Robin says, then dashes to the nearest cover. The rest follow behind, but quickly lose sight of him.
"Where did he go now?"
Supergirl asks and before anyone can answer they all hear muffled noises. Turning towards the source they see Robin entrapped in Shadow-like bandages all over his body as well as covering his mouth. They looked at the source of the shadow and were bewildered to find that it came from Acnologia who decided to speak.
"This is how it's going to go, Robin, you, Supergirl and Kid Flash will go investigate what the new product is made of. What makes it different than the normal venom and its purpose? Meanwhile, Miss Martian, Aqualad, and I will watch them in case the buyers show up."
He put Robin down before knocking Bane down and carefully laying him on the ground. The Team then did as Acnologia had instructed them to do. Robin was not happy about having been caught by Acnologia.
"It's a massive shipment."
Aqualad says quietly, in awe of the operation.
"They're only taking the new product off the line, they're not touching this venom."
Acnologia says.
"Maybe… freshness counts?"
Miss Martian puts out there.
"Someone is coming here from the sky..."
Acnologia says as he closes his eyes turning towards the stars.
"It's a helicopter and it will land any minute."
"More than likely the buyer."
Aqualad says.
"Miss Martian, I want you in position to listen in on Kobra and the buyer's discussion."
Acnologia orders and Miss Martian nods before turning invisible. She flies up and over the heads of a couple of cultists.
---
Robin taps away on an outdated computer in the office area of the factory, looking at a screen titled 'Cell Structure'. He's sitting in an office rolling chair, the cultist formerly occupying the seat now sprawled unconscious on the floor.
"Mm, whatcha got?"
Kid Flash sitting next to him is munching on a protein bar.
"Chemical formulas."
The Boy Wonder responds.
"I'm guessing it involves venom, but…"
Kid Flash comes up behind him to look and points with his snack at the two different images.
"This one's venom, and that one's… whoa, the Ultimen formula from Cadmus. Mixed correctly, Kobra's new juice is five times stronger than venom, permanent, and probably a unique ability to boot. But how did Kobra get access to Project Ultimen?"
Kid Flash may act like a hormonal kid but this does not change that he was smart enough to recreate the accident that gave the Flash his powers. He remembered the formula of the Ultimen that he had been shown in the hall of Justice.
"Our mystery buyer must also be Kobra's supplier!"
Robin deduces.
"Using the cult to create an Ultimen-venom super formula!"
"With this, they will bypass the problem with cloning and give meta-human abilities to anyone they wish. Creating an army of super Henchmen."
Supergirl comments realizing the gravity of the situation. Robin stands and places a hand on his comms.
"Robin to Triton, we got-! Static."
Kid Flash exchanges a look with his best friend. From their experience out in the field, something must be wrong if communications are down. Supergirl on the other hand is not worried. If things were as grave as the duo thought, then they would have heard some commotion by now.
---
The camouflaged Martian is in position as a blonde-haired man wearing a hockey mask steps out of the helicopter and walks towards an important-looking figure wearing a red cloak, the cowl resembling a snake.
"Lord Kobra."
Hockey masked man says.
"Sportsmaster."
The snake man replies before adding on.
"The shipment is ready."
At his words, one of his followers steps forward bearing a case. She opens it and Sportsmaster takes out a single vial of purple liquid.
"The new Kobra-Venom?"
He questions already knowing the answer.
"A complete success."
The pale snake-like man replies, gesturing to his champion that defeated Bane. Though defeat is not enough to describe the fight, crushed would be an apt term.
"Our friends will not be disappointed."
Kobra says ominously.
"This is a game changer."
Sportsmaster says, raising the vial.
"Finally, we can go mano el mano with the Justice League! Heck, we might even outnumber and outpower them."
'Triton, Aqualad, sending you guys a telepathic image of the buyer now.'
Miss Martian says, adding the Atlantean duo to the link. Hidden on the catwalk above the factory floor, Aqualad receives the image.
"Sportsmaster. He is the buyer. Aqualad to Red Tornado, do you read?"
He says into the comms while Acnologia keeps observing. After trying all of the different League frequencies and getting nothing but static, Aqualad gives up.
"Ugh, can't reach the League, Robin, or Kid. Comm's jammed. We need a plan, now."
'Calm down Aqualad, for now, they have no idea that we are here. We still have the element of surprise and from what they said Sportmaster may be the buyer but he is a proxy at best. They plan to use this Kobra-Venom to fight the league.'
Acnologia tells Aqualad through the mind link that he ordered Miss Martian to make. He then addresses everyone.
"Guys, listen up! I have a plan. First, wake up Bane..."
------
Bane runs off the edge of the catwalk, into the unsuspecting cultist guards below. He smacks them aside, but not before one manages to shoot off several rounds of gunfire, attracting unwanted attention from outside.
"What is he-"
Aqualad begins to ask but is cut off by an angry roar from behind. He and Supergirl turn around to see the Kobra-Venom test subject jump through the window and smash the catwalk to the floor, the duo landing on their feet not far from Bane.
Kobra's champion roars then takes a menacing step forward. Kobra and one of his most trusted followers, enter the factory to investigate, along with a half dozen other cultists.
"Destroy them!"
Kobra orders. The behemoth rushes forward and Supergirl intercepts him. The cultist goons rush toward the other intruders. Aqualad forms his water bearer into a shield, his tattoos glowing. The cultists open fire and Aqualad crouches behind his shield. He then fires hard water at them with his other bearer.
Farther back, Bane hides behind a large steam tank. He peeks out and sees the heroes engaged in battle. He chuckles, then ducks away. Sportsmaster, on the other side of the hangar, moves to stand by Kobra and his assistant to view the battle. He detects movement in his peripheral vision, but turning, sees nothing. Suddenly, several cultists are thrown to the side by an unseen force.
Sportsmaster suddenly draws his collapsible javelin, and it snaps into position. In the blink of an eye, he throws it to where he sees the slight deviations in the air.
M'gann moves aside as the weapon passes by her unfortunately the javelin senses her body heat and explodes. The small burst of flame is enough to weaken the young Martian. The force of the explosion sends the Martian girl free-falling onto the machinery, losing her camouflage as she land.
Above the fight, Robin and Kid Flash speed over on another catwalk. Kid Flash spots the cultist goons and dashes off to fight, while Robin sees something, or someone, that makes him smirk. He slinks away with his own plans.
Aqualad, under heavy fire from the cult, manages to slowly make his way to some cover behind the machinery. He turns around to see more goons appear. But before he can move Kid Flash runs right into them at high speed.
More attackers appear on the catwalk with guns, and Kid Flash maneuvers into cover.
"Miss Martian!"
Aqualad calls out, hoping she will hear.
"Radio is jammed! Link us up!"
The young Atlantean's plea wakes up Miss Martian from her weakened state. She sits up and puts her hand to her temple, concentrating as she connects the whole Team.
'Everyone online?'
'Yeah.'
Supergirl says while dodging another punch from the Kobra-Venom test subject.
'You know it Beautiful'
Kid Flash says while being completely comfortable in his hideout as the cultist goons fire at him from the other side.
'Good.'
Aqualad says before adding on.
'We need to regroup.'
'Busy now'
Robin's annoyed voice says through the link. Outside, he jumps from the grounded helicopter and lands in front of Kobra and Shimmer, who've grown bored of watching the fight and wandered away.
"Batman must be desperate if he sends his whelp to task me."
Kobra sneers as Robin stands up to face him.
"What's wrong Koby? You look disconcerted."
Robin taunts.
"This is beneath me."
Kobra says contemptuously.
"Shimmer, take him."
At his words, the girl rushes forward. Robin smiles, and flips over her, landing in a fighting stance.
'Robin, now!'
Aqualad's voice sounds through the link. Robin's smirk falters and is replaced by an angry look. Shimmer smiles, thinking she got to the Boy Wonder in some way. She rushes at him as Robin throws something from his utility belt onto the ground, which sets off a bright flash of light. When it fades, all that is left is a thin trail of smoke.
'Clever bird.'
Kobra looks around while remaining stoic. Meanwhile, inside the factory, Aqualad hits several of the shooting cultists with his water whips.
'We need to retreat. Kid, clear a path.'
Aqualad advises before Kid Flash runs at super speed through the throngs of Kobra's goons, knocking them off their feet. Aqualad, Robin, and Miss Martian follow behind him at a normal speed. They file through the closet door leading to the secret passage.
Supergirl tries to follow, but Kobra's champion has not had enough yet. Supergirl manages to shove him away into a group of cultists trying to follow them by letting loose a bit. She rushes through the closet and into the secret passageway, slamming the door shut. It locks with a low beep and a flash of red light.
Supergirl and Aqualad run, following their teammates down the tunnel, but do not get far before the Kobra-Venom creation smashes down the door, leaving the cultists the opening they need to shoot at the retreating heroes trapped in the confined space.
"Supergirl! The support beams!"
Aqualad orders. Supergirl smashes the wooden beams that support the tunnel. The ceiling starts to collapse, separating them from the snake-fetish and red-robed attackers. Once they are a good distance away, the heroes stop to catch their breath.
---
"Sabotage, Robin?"
Sportsmaster says as he leaves a creaking Helicopter that is not able to fly.
"Undoubtedly."
Kobra responds before looking at Shimmer and issuing his order.
"Find the problem. Fix it."
She bows before heading to the helicopter. As she leaves one of Kobra's cultists arrives in front of Kobra and Sportsmaster with the Kobra-Venom test subject behind him.
"Master, shall we send search parties after the intruders?"
He inquired before Kobra spoke.
"Don't be absurd. They'll come to us."
As he finished his sentence he left.
---
"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu."
Acnologia says to no one.
"Did you say something?"
Supergirl said as she brought another crate of Kobra-Venom while Aqualad and Miss Martian took the crates of Kobra-Venom away from Acnologia. Upon hearing Supergirl, Acnologia smiled before shaking his head. She looked at him before speaking.
"Hey, Triton, I have been meaning to ask. why are you doing this? Don't get me wrong, I understand why we are doing this but I figured you would go like fight me, bad guys, man to man and honor and all of that."
Acnologia sighed before speaking.
"That would be the case if I was properly challenged and I had no other obligation..."
He clapped his hands together as a tone sound emanated from it and he touched the crate as he continued.
"... My pride is my honor, not the other way around. I will not expect others to fight honorably. If my opponent wants to fight honorably then I will but I am not an idiot that will drop the mission that I accepted halfway through to respond to a two-bit taunt.
The same goes for my opponent fighting dishonorably, if they fight dirty then I will fight dirty as well. I already told you and the league though they still think I am joking about this but those that win are those that are just. That's the way the world works."
[AN: The difference between prideful and arrogance is that the latter happens when someone makes some dumb decision due to their pride. This is what I wanted to convey about the MC in this fic, like I said before he is prideful but is not stupid.
Don't expect him to fight {For Reader to do: Insert the Villain that you think is OP} one day and the Justice League comes into the rescue only for him to tell them to fuck off and injured himself to make the fight "even".
For him, his goal, his objective, the reason why he wants his own domain, matters above all else and I have yet to fully reveal which is for later on.]
Electricity crackled around the crate after Acnologia's touch which was previously filled with Kobra-Venom and was now filled with mud in the viles. To explain what happened, they had woken Bane to use him as a distraction.
Acnologia altered their perception which allowed him to put them under complete hypnosis. While they thought that the sidekicks had been beaten and had retreated, they were in actuality, replacing the Kobra-Venom with mud. This was due to the goal of catching the real buyer.
"Even if Sportsmaster is the supplier slash buyer, it still doesn't track."
Robin muses as he walks out of the helicopter after putting the tracker inside it, looking at the holo screen on his glove.
"He doesn't have the juice to acquire the Ultimen formula, or to get Kobra to do his dirty work."
"And neither of them have the chops to bond Ultimen formula with venom. That took some major nerdage."
Kid Flash adds.
"Maybe there's more to it than we have seen."
Miss Martian says as she brings another crate filled with Kobra-Venom.
"What would that be called?"
"I believe the expression is, the tip of the iceberg."
Aqualad says as he does the same.
Acnologia had come in contact with the Kobra-Venom which means that he could now replicate it if he wished though he had mostly done that on a whim. He did not divulge this as that was beside the point, regardless of what happened there was truly no one that he would trust to know the full extent of his abilities, emphasizing the full. They finish quickly and apprehend the cultist after Sportsmaster leaves the Island.
"The helicopter is operational, Exalted One."
The red-robed underling says, bowing to his lord. Sportsmaster walks to his transport carrying the case before the underling falls unconscious. Kobra and Shimmer stand a few feet away, observing the fight.
Shimmer suddenly loses her balance and falls on her face, joining the underling in unconsciousness. Kobra looks to his left.
"True."
Kobra agrees to whatever he thinks to has heard. He shrugs off his red cloak and stands before Robin in red boots, black pants, red armbands on his forearms, and a golden belt with a cobra insignia. Pale white skin shows on his bare biceps, bald head, muscled chest, and chiseled face.
"But even a god must stoop to conquer."
He adds.
The cult leader catches whatever attack he thinks to have seen easily. Kobra catches other attacks and kicks whatever enemy he perceives. Kobra looks at an empty space with contempt.
"What's wrong boy? You look disconcerted."
"This looks kinda funny."
Kid Flash says as he takes a mask from one of the Cultists. Sportsmaster continues back towards the helicopter, with an invisible hostage in his grasp. He shoots in front of him.
"Thanks for the workout."
Sportsmaster says, throwing his invisible hostage toward his invisible enemy before adding on.
"But I gotta fly."
The Team looks up at the helicopter flying up. Back in the clearing near the edge of the forest, Kobra stomps on the ground.
"I am plagued… by mosquitoes!"
He proclaims before being knocked out. At this point, Sportsmaster had been far away from the Island. The Team had contacted the league, and in the Acnologia's hand lay the only remaining sample of Kobra-Venom.
[Mount Justice, Rhode Island. July 23, 01:06 EDT]
"A simple, recon mission."
Batman says, getting right up in Acnologia's face. He heavily lays stress on the keywords.
"Observe and report."
The Dark Knight walks down the line of heroes standing before him in their civvies, fury radiating off him in waves. His voice is sharp and cuts like a whip on the teens. Some try to show an emotionless mask on their face, others stare down at their shoes trying to hide the excitement they were containing. It was clear as Lex Luther's bald head that they had outdone themselves.
"Granted, the results were impressive, you have destroyed all the samples of the Kobra-Venom outside of the ones that you brought back but you still took unnecessary risk. You will each receive a written evaluation detailing how you could have optimized your actions. Such as deactivating the jamming system once you had everyone under hypnosis."
He pauses. To those who knew him like Robin, this was akin to a ten-minute-long congratulation speech from Batman. The reason as to why he was doing this was to avoid them getting an inflated ego. Recklessness led to an early grave and he did not want that for any of them.
"Until then... good work."
Batman congratulates, his tone softer on the last sentence. Each member of the Team, except Acnologia, was visibly shocked, and they all turned to the Dark Knight. Robin in particular had could count on one hand the number of times his father figure had said those words and he would still be left some fingers.
"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy..."
Batman explains, beginning to walk away.
"...How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success. And how you choose who leads, determines character. The data you have collected will be useful in tracking the buyers of this Kobra-Venom."
At this, they all share a small smile.
---
Sportsmaster stands in the middle of a group of giant screens with light-infused silhouettes and holds up a purple tube in his hand or at least that is what he saw.
"So you are telling me this ampule of Kobra-Venom in my hands is mud?"
L-6 enters the conversation for the first time, speaking in a French accent.
"C'est bizarre, your cerveau does not show any abnomality. Due to Magic, peut-être? Est-ce que c'est due to our young 'eroes?... Peu importe, we can recreate it elsewhere since we have already saved les formules."
"Analysis indicates that its origin is Atlantean."
L-3 states.
"If it is Atlantean magic then I only know one among those whelps that perform such magic."
L-5 says.
"It appears that they may pose some problems to us."
L-3 adds.
"The young sidekicks are not a threat outside of the female Kryptonian and Acnologia."
L-5 replies.
"First Cadmus, zen Mister Twister, now Santa Prisca."
L-6 comments.
"Once is happenstance."
L-1 says
"Twice is a coincidence, but three times is... an enemy action. And enemies of the Light..."
He declares.
"...must not stand."
"If that is the case... I have the perfect weapon for those whelps."
L-7 states, his figure is peculiar as he seems to have horns on his head.
"Oh, you do?"
L-1 says.
"Yes, as a way to strengthen our partnership, I will take care of those whelps, my weapon has been lying around for thousands of years and is craving for some blood. It as well as I could use what people of this era call a warm-up."
L-7 says ominously.
"For the Kryptonian girl, Kryptonite should suffice but for Acnologia... it will require a finer plan. Luckily, I have just one such plan in mind."
L-5 says.
"... Go on."
L-7 respond.
[AN:
Title: ...Kyoka Suigetsu
I didn't want to reveal what was going to happen in this chapter due to the title.
Now since you guys chose 1 per week I figured I would ask for your opinion on a few things to set the direction of this fanfic in stone so that later on I don't hear any complaining about things like not having enough girls or having too many girls for the MC, the deadline to vote is up until the next chapter is out so comment or like whichever you want:
Harem (between 3 to 7.)
or
No Harem
(I can see the MC going both ways since he is very prideful but also has discipline. So you could have a case where he has more than three women and all that because he can or he could go 'grind don't stop'.
Again, Don't blame me if you don't like the result since it is you guys who will be deciding it and to ease those who are worried about the plot being drastically changed, it won't change the direction of what I am planning but it will change some event's order or the events themselves to a certain degree. I can't say anything else because that would be spoilers.)
----
R18 scene ( lemons scene but also more descriptive violence like during a fight scene or tragic scene)
or
No R18
----
Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]
