Dysfunctional

Thursday 22nd July 2010, 20:30.

Caribbean Sea,

Santa Prisca.

The walk through the forest had been slow on account of Robin and Batgirl using their holographic maps and small, in-built radar system to pick out the mines on their route. While Superboy could survive the blasts the rest of their team couldn't, Esau was also unsure whether Aqualad and Miss Martian, but no one was in any hurry to find out. Especially when even if they could survive, the explosion would let everyone on the island know that something was going on, defeating the purpose of stealth.

Right now though, the objective was simple, rendezvous with Aqualad and infiltrate the factory.

He would be there long before them as well considering they had to manoeuvre their way through the thick forest rigged with mines and many others traps. Aqualad on the other hand was able to take a straight route to the factory by scaling the cliffs on the west side of the island, avoiding many of the traps they had, even though they had chosen a drop point that had fewer defences around it.

But as they moved, the only sound being the crunching of Kid Flash's, Superboys and Miss Martian's feet against the ground, the three trying their hardest to keep quiet. "Did you hear that?" Superboy asked, abruptly coming to a stop as his eyes narrowed as the rest of the team turned to him.

Despite having enhanced hearing, Esau could not hear anything at all.

However, when their group came to a stop, going silent as they too tried to hear anything going on around them, Esau was able to make out the sound of twigs snapping. Yet it was faint and he was only able to catch it for a split second before it disappeared, but it was clear that there was a patrol nearby and they had to be careful from here on.

Except, instead of trusting the guy with super-hearing, besides himself, Batgirl and Robin or at the very least keeping their voices quiet, Kid Flash decide to speak normally. "Is this a super-hearing thing?" Kid Flash questioned, Esau restraining the urge to groan loudly and smack the speedster upside the head for his lack of awareness. They were on an island, belonging to Bane, a known criminal that defeated Batman, filled with armed soldiers and a host of Venom, yet that seemed to mean little to him.

"You do have great ears." At least Miss Martian had the tact to be quiet, but even then this was getting ridiculous.

"Quiet." Esau whispered loudly, cutting through all the stupidity that he was witnessing.

Batgirl turned to Superboy. "Can you pick up on how many?" She whispered, well aware of the risk they were currently facing, even if the patrol was miles away, they still couldn't be overconfident.

Superboy tried to focus in more but that was when gunfire erupted. "Well, I guess that answers that question." Robin quipped sarcastically.

Kid Flash turned in the direction of the gunfire, his goggles switch to infrared. "There's two groups firing on each other. Don't know what happened but they clearly are not friendly with each other. Possibly an internal conflict. Could explain why the shipment of Venom has dried up." Kid Flash suggested, Esau actually found the idea viable, silently wondering to himself why Kid Flash couldn't be like this more often.

Competent that was.

But as they were about to get moving, they all realised that they were missing one person. "Where'd Robin go?" Miss Martian wondered.

"Don't worry, Robin won't be spotted by them." Batgirl responded, putting Miss Martian's mind at ease, but she was frowning deeply. "But I'm going to kick his ass when we find him."

Esau nodded his head, taking a deep breath to calm himself, the regret he was feeling becoming almost unbearable. "We need to avoid being seen." He said. "Swinging wide to avoid them should be the best option, our goal is the factory, not the fight." Esau had learned the hard way what getting sidetracked could cost him, one needed to make a plan and stick to the objectives of that as best as possible. Perhaps if they were more skilled and experienced, they could add other objectives to their goal, but with a team like this, they were by no means capable of doing even that.

"They should be too focused on each other to notice us." Batgirl added. "But going wide is the best way to avoid any problems."

"Yeah, yeah." Kid Flash had other plans though as he nonchalantly dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "Just as soon as I find Rob."

"Wait don't..." Esau called out in an attempt to stop Kid Flash but he wasn't fast enough as the speedster took off leaving nothing but a blur behind, Esau slowly clenching his fist together. "Great. Just fucking great. As if this shitshow couldn't get any worse. Batgirl, can you find Robin and kick his ass for me. I'll deal with Kid Flash myself."

"Yeah, I'll find him." She agreed, taking off and leaving him, Superboy and Miss Martian behind.

"Let's go." He asked with a sigh and the three quickly took off in the direction of the fighting, all the while Esau couldn't help but curse Batman once more. Esau could understand why Batman didn't want to outright name him as the leader because there were a few that wouldn't accept it, Robin and Kid Flash to be precise. The only way either of them would accept Esau as leader was if they choose him, but at the same time, the lack of clear leadership was already causing problems.

Amongst their entire team, Kid Flash and Robin who had been doing this the longest of any of them, longer than Aqualad and Batgirl, were the ones causing the most problems. Even Superboy and Miss Martian were being more professional and the two of them were terrible, Superboy had nearly caused an earthquake by dropping out of the Bio-Ship had Esau has not stopped him and Miss Martian, she just didn't have the mentality for this.

Yet somehow, they were doing better at this than the two most 'experienced' members of their team.

Meanwhile, Batgirl was making her way through the one route she knew Robin would take.

The trees.

The high ground was something Batman had taught them to use effectively, especially against superior foes or a number of foes. After all, facing an enemy where they were strongest was stupid and would only cause serious problems for them. More importantly, most opponents didn't have the skill or knowledge on how to fight someone higher up than them and that small difference created a huge effect on the outcome of a fight.

Especially when they could blend into the shadows and attack without the enemy even realising.

Just like she had expected, Robin was moving slowly, using his great acrobatic ability to manoeuvre quickly and easily through the trees only to come to a stop overlooking the clearing where the two groups were fighting.

Neither said anything, but the frown Batgirl directed towards Robin told him that she was not happy which confused the young hero greatly.

He didn't know why and before he could ask, Kid Flash came tumbling out of the tree line and landed in a heap directly in front of Bane. There was a brief pause, neither side knowing how to deal with this new guest, but Bane wasn't one of Batman's most dangerous foes because of his strength alone.

No, he was equal parts brain and brawn with a great deal of combat experience.

As a result, he reacted quickly after a moment's pause, levelling his gun directly at the speedster and firing.

That was when the battle erupted once more, Bane's men opened firing upon what Batgirl and Robin could make out were members of the Kobra Cult as well as Kid Flash. The latter of which scrambled and rolled on the ground like a worm as he avoided the hail of bullets before finally managing to get to his feet and hiding behind a tree to take a deep breath.

This was when the rest of the team sprung into action.

With a roar of anger, Superboy charged forwards, lifting Bane up off the ground with a tackle only for the more experienced fighter to quickly turn this against the clone of Superman. Masterfully done, Bane slammed the back of his elbow into Superboy's back, it did no damage but it certainly shocked him enough so that when they landed on the ground, Bane could push Superboy's head into the ground with one hand while using the other to try and twist his right arm.

Despite his great physical strength however, it was nothing compared to Superboy's own strength and with grit teeth, the clone broke his right arm free and pushed Bane through the air and into a tree.

Robin and Batgirl both jumped down, using Superboy's appearance as the necessary distraction to take out four guys almost instantly. Using teamwork and the surprise factor, they landed in between two men each and with fast and powerful kicks, knocked them all unconscious.

"What is wrong with you guys?" Robin exclaimed a mixture of annoyance and surprise. At the same time, all the guns were ripped from their owner's hands, Miss Martian floating above with both hands extended and her eyes glowing green. "Remember covert, why didn't you guys follow my lead and follow me into the jungle." He finished this off with a jumping, spinning hook kick to a guy's head.

"Because you never told any of us," Bargirl replied shortly, capitalising on Miss Martian's telekinetic ability to flip one Kobra cultist to the ground followed up with a stomp to the head to knock him unconscious. Just as she went to take on another just in front of her, Esau appeared, gripping ahold of the mans neck, lifting him off the ground as he cut off the air circulation.

But he quickly let go, dropping the still conscious man where he struck him across the face with a powerful punch that sent him crumpling to the ground. He then grabbed the mans leg and threw him into two others that were attempting to flee, each of them collapsing to the ground in a heap of bruised and groaning men.

"We're not mind readers, y'know! Or at least, I'm not." Kid Flash shouted, turning to sheepishly smile at Miss Martian who finished off the second to last guy with a telekinetic push that slammed him into a tree.

"You told me to only read the bad guys' minds." She argued only for them all to spot one guy running away. Just as Esau was about to tell Kid Flash to give chase, Aqualad appeared, one hand braced flat against the man's chest as he channelled his Atlantean magic through his body in the form of electricity.

"Enough." Esau ordered instead before a full-blown argument could break out. "Let's just tie these guys up and once that's done, we're gonna have a talk about a few things that need sorting out before we do anything more in this mission."