Chapter 1: Mission Gone wrong

"Get down!"

A loud explosion followed shortly after Robin's shout of warning, and though his team mates had reiterated for shelter, they were still rocked by the violent vibrations that spread through the warehouse.

"I thought you said this was a minor drug depo! why the heck is it so heavily guarded?!"

Aqualad quickly lashed out at one of the guards who had been training his gun in Robin's direction with two whips of water that slowly retracted once the target had been dealt with. Still holding both of his weapons at the ready, he quickly rushed besides Robin who had unfortunately been knock aside during the explosion and had been slammed into a wall.

"Ugh, I was just as surprised as you. This was supposed to be a minor drug depo, that's what my intel showed. Guess it was hidings something a little more important than just a few drugs."

Robin groaned as he leaned against the shoulder that Aqualad offered him, and the two quickly made their way to better cover, ducking and weaving to avoid getting hit by the stray bullets that where flying all around in the mayhem that was unfolding around them

"Hey, are you two alright? Things are getting a little out of hand, should we retreat?"

The floor shook as Superboy landed next to the two wounded boys and he quickly pulled one of the crates that were off to the side, and used it a shield to block the gun fire that had been thrown at him. He glanced at robins battered costume and exchanged a look with aqua lad.

"I'll get Robin out of here, you stay back and see if you can round up these goons up, if it gets to much for you retreat immediately. Do you understand?" Asked Aqualad as he glared at super boy.

"Yeah I get it, no recklessness. If it's too much I'll back down." Superboy frowned in annoyance but other than that, he didn't fight back against Aqualad's orders.

"No leave me here, I'll be fine with this cover. We need to figure out what's happening here." 

Before Aqualad could pull him away, Robin pushed away from him and shakily stood on his own two feet. he looked at his two friend and teammates and shook his head when Aqua ad opened his mouth to protest.

"What ever is happening here is obviously more important than a few drugs, that's the only way to explain all of this tech and the heavy guard detail. The drugs were most definitely a front to hide what was actually happening here, and if we leave now, then the masterminds will have more than enough time to wipe the place clean."

"I get that, Robin, Trust me I do, but we aren't fully prepared to take on what happening here right now. We didn't bring the whole team because we thought this was going to be a quick side mission. if the rest of the team were here then I could get behind the idea of pushing forward, but you are already hurt and me and Super boy alone aren't enough muscle to force or way through. " Aqualad growl out, his frustration at Robins insistence bleeding through the usual facade of calm that he always portrayed.

"I hate to admit it but water boy is right." Chimed in Superboy. "I'm all for going in guns blazing, but even I know when I'm in over my head. We have to regroup, Try again later."

Robin ignored the two of them and was busy wrapping bandages around his injured arm as he leaned against a wall. He snorted when he heard super boy, but even then he wasn't going to back down.

"So what you're saying is that as long as the rest of the team makes it you guys are on board with finishing the mission?" inquired Robin.

Both Aqualad and Superboy looked at each tower before nodding at Robin.

"Yeah as long as the rest of the team's here"

"As long as we have the man power then I can agree with moving forward."

As he listened to Aqua lad and Superboy's response, Robin smiled ever so deviously. A look the Superboy was still having trouble deciphering, but one the Aqua lad knew all to well.

"Robin, I don't know what sort of plan you're concocting in your head right now, but there is no possible way for the rest of the team to make it her-."

The familiar sound of whistling air cut off Aqua boy's rebuke and the three boys heard as a few of the lackey's that had been shooting at them crumpled to the ground with grunts of pain. 

The sudden lull in the gunfight surprised them all and Super boy quickly tossed aside the crate he had been using as cover to shield them all. The three looked around and saw that all the goons where either slumped against the walls of the warehouse, or crumpled to the ground. All of their fire arms where piled up in a neat pile in the center of the room.

"Hey guys, you missed me much?" 

The three looked to their left and saw Kid Flash casually leaning against the wall blowing on his fingernails with a bored expression on his face. They simply stared at him, With Aqualad and Supperboy sporting looks of confusion since Kid Flash wasn't supposed to be anywhere near here last time they checked.

"No need to look so shocked, the calvary has arrived to save your guy's sorry butt after all."

No sooner had the words exited Kid Flash'd mouth, did the now familiar sensation of being apart of a telepathic network wash over them all.

"Hellllooo Megan, did someone call for reinforcements. "

Miss's Martian's silhouette slowly came into into focus as she emerged from the wall behind them. She took a look around at the team and with a wave of her hand, the bandages that Robin ad been fumbling with simply floated into the air and unraveled themselves, before tightly binding around the injured arm and leg of the young boy wonder.

"How... When did you guys get here?" asked a still very confused Aqualad.

"I radioed them in from the moment i noticed that something was wrong, In all honesty we were just stalling till they got here." Replied Robin as he stretched and adjusted to the bandages.

"So why didn't you tell us that?" Asked Superboy with his arms crossed and a disgruntled look on his face.

"Because I knew that Aqualad would have forced us to wait till the rest of the team got here before going in. The whole reason why we were here is because tonight was supposed to be a big delivery, If we waited, chances are what ever they were transporting would have been shipped out and we wouldn't be able to track it." 

Robin raised his arm and a holographic projection of a screen and keyboard appeared above his wrist. With a few taps of the keys a three dimensional model of the building they were standing on was shown with several areas blinking an ominous red.

"I might have agreed with everyone's decision to make you leader Kaldur'ahm, but that doesn't mean that I won't do what I think needs to be done."

Everyone grew silent and looked between Robin and Aqualad, waiting to see what Aqualad's response would be. Tension had been raising between the two ever since the mission to the rainforest where Aqualad was crown the leader of the team, and while Robin had agreed at the time, it was painfully obvious that he still wanted a piece of the action when it came to leadership positions.

The seconds seemed to strech uncomfortablly long before Aqualad simply sighed and hostered his water-bearers.

"Since your so certain there's more to this than meets the eye, then by all means Robin, lead the way.

~~~~~

"Is anyone else getting a sense of Deja-vu here, or is it just me" asked Kid Flash as he looked around the hallway that the group found themselves walking through.

"What do you mean?" Asked the ever inquisitive Miss Martian.

"Well.." Said Kid Flash, as he tentatively rubbed the back of his head. "It's just that the last time me, Robin and Aqualad ended up in a place like this, we ended up finding Super boy." 

Everyone flinched at that comment and looked towards Super boy who was currently lagging behind the group. Upon noticing that everyone was looking at him, Superboy turned to them and glared mincingly. 

The other quickly went back to walking down the corridor without another word, though they were all very cognoscente of the fact that Kid Flashes words were true.

They had followed Robin who had located an Elevator with a hidden access panel with buttons going town to several floors that should not have existed. It had taken a little persuading but that had all finally agreed to push forward, though they had notified Red Tornado of their current location so that he could send members of the league to deal with the fall out.

He wasn't to pleased given that this was technically and unauthorized mission that they had taken upon themselves to complete, but at least he hadn't told them to stop what they were doing. Had it been Batman, he would have had made them head back to the watchtower to go on time out or something.

Still it was unsettling how similar this underground base was to the underground Cadmus facility. Complete with several under ground bunkers that had been filled with goons, several floors that were dedicated to Research facilities, complete with vials on unfinished experiments that had been halted midway though.

Walking through the many inter connected pathways felt like walking through an ever changing labyrinth, and the main reason why they weren't lost at the moment, was thanks to the 3-D model that Robin had that was updating in real time.

Every time they passed a terminal, computer or data pad, Robin made sure to scan it for information. Most of the stuff he found was to complex to be understood with a casual glance, especially since it was mostly filled with technical jargon, but from time to time they were able to uncover some floor plans for floor they where on.

After a while they finally arrived at the bottom most floor of the facility. It was the largest of the floors and while they had been swarmed by a small army of bots, they had managed to take them all down without to much hassle. 

"So this is it then? It was just a secret high tech venom research facility then. I guess there wasn't too much to worry about after all Robin." Kid flash, who had been scoping out the less important areas of the facility suddenly appeared, kicking up a small cloud of dust in his wake.

"I agree with Kid, we've searched the place and there really doesn't seems to be anything here besides a venom serum research lab." said Aqualad, before muttering under his breath "Not all that surprising given that there seems to be so many different strains circulating on the illegal markets at the moment." 

The rest of the team soon regrouped on Robin, who had been typing away furiously at his wrist computer for some time.

"I'm telling you guys there has to be something more to this place, I just know it. I just can't figure out what." Robin started pacing as he though about the things that he had seen so far.

"Somethings not adding up. I've been monitoring the energy levels of the facility this entire time, and while I'm willing to admit that my calculations might not be one hundred percent accurate, I'm quit certain that there's a whole bunch of energy that's not being accounted for in the floors that we've seen so far." 

"Why would you be monitoring something like that?" curiously inquired Superboy.

"Because its something that Batman mentioned when we reviewed the Cadmus incident. There was a lot of power being diverted to the lab facilities. But unlike at Cadmus where they had massive generators producing a lot of power, here they don't have generators nearly as powerful. Which is why they are connected to the cities power grid directly. I though that as long as I followed the power lines, then I would uncover all of the hidden vaults and secrets rooms."

Robin scoffed as he continued.

"No matter how much they try to hide something, as long as it needs a lot of power, then I should be able to find it...but I'm getting nothing."

As he kept pacing and thinking, Robin noticed that Miss Martian who had originally been listening in on the teams conversation was currently standing off to the side while looking off in an odd direction. There was a contemplative look on her face and Robin couldn't help but to ask her what was wrong.

"Huh? Oh no its just…" Miss Martian paused to think about what she wanted to say before voicing her thoughts.

"I've been sweeping the building for mental signatures for a while now, looking to find anyone who might have been hiding and that we might have missed. I had stopped searching after a while when I noticed that the only things we'd been coming across had been robots, I can't get a read on inorganic or none sentient life afterall."

She glanced at the others and shook her head.

"I only just sent out a telepathic prob on a whim, but I'm feeling some sort of feed back from that direction. The problem is that it's not a sensation I've ever felt before. Its definitely a living being that I'm sensing, but its like their mind is… I don't know how to describe it."

The other looked towards the wall that Miss Martian had been pointing to and noticed that there didn't seem to be anything odd about it in the slightest. It wouldn't have been odd for them to ignore it, but they all trusted Miss Martian sense.

If she said there was something there, then there was definitely something there.