10

After a brief lesson on proper mission etiquette/asking permission before you put your tongue down their throat, Aqualad managed to get the lot of us back on track. Bane and his crew had slipped away, but they weren't bothering to hide their trail, and it was clear that they were headed to the same place we were going: the factory. Robin took point with following the trail, and soon enough we found ourselves at the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley, and in a large cleared out space was the building in question. Oddly enough only a small portion of the structure looked like factory, as the much larger front portion was shaped like an airplane hangar or warehouse.

I focused my eyes and my vision zoomed in to get a better look. My attention was drawn to the large open space out front, the center of which was paved over and painted like a target. I saw a multitude of cultists at work haling crates off to the side of the target, some carrying them, others hauling them in by forklift. I then occurred to me what that 'target' was: a landing zone.

Robin, equipped with a pair of binoculars, came to a similar conclusion. "Look at all that product! They're definitely shipping it out somewhere. But they're not using it themselves, and there haven't been any rumors for a buy this large. And there's no way you could keep something this big a secret."

"So we find out where it's going and who it's going to, easy." Kid Flash said before he looked over to our left. "So is that our secret entrance?"

He pointed to a rocky outcropping that rose up before dipping back into the ground. It was hard to see from my angle, but it looked like the entrance to a mining tunnel, framed by wooden supports. "If so, that's a hell of a hike for a secret entrance." I said as I gestured back to the factory. "We're still at least a kilometer out."

"Then we should get moving. We may not have much time." Aqualad remarked.

I hesitated. "I don't like this. We don't know what waiting for us down in that tunnel, or what's on the other side. And all the while we're down there we don't know what going on top side." I said with a frown. "I think we should at least tell the League what's going on."

"No, we can't risk it until we have all the facts." Robin countered quickly. "Maybe if it was just Bane's gang, but Kobra is way better financed. They could have equipment that can intercept our long distance communications."

I gave a small start at that. Our communications not being secure seemed like a huge oversight. I mean, the League does have access to alien tech, and I would think that some of it would include communication systems that can't be compromised by earth based systems. I'd have to look into it when we got back, but for now I had to take Robin at his word. "Alright, but I still don't like it. Too much is happening and we're not seeing it all."

"It would be ill advised to not have adequate information while proceeding with the mission." Starfire agreed. "But to do so, one or some of us will have to play the part of rear scout, to ensure that there are no surprises for the others while they are in the den of cobras."

I let out a breath. "Well, I guess that's me then. If I'm here to 'observe', I might as well play look out."

Aqualad looked at me for a moment before he nodded. "Agreed, I will stay as well-"

"No." I cut him off. "If things go wrong you lot are going to need all of you to back each other up. Besides, no one else can both move and hide like I can except for maybe Robin, and you'll need the expert on the inside. I can handle this on my own."

The Atlantian looked wary. "Are you sure?"

"I've got super-senses, stealth, and I'm very tough. Besides, no matter what happens out here, it's going to be less dangerous than it will be in there. I got this."

He stared at me for a long moment before he glanced at Robin, the boy simply shrugging in response. He then looked back at me. "Very well. Stay in radio contact and kept us informed if anything changes."

"You got it." I said before I moved to the edge of the cliff, my arm changing into a grapple gun as I reached the lip. Here's to hoping I'm not biting off more than I can chew, I thought as I fired the hook into the ground, giving my team one last look. "Good luck." I said before I threw myself off the edge and rappelled to the valley below.

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I had changed back into my xenomorph form the moment I reached the ground and made a beeline for the factory as fast as I could move. I had never really had the chance back at the Mountain to test my movement capabilities to their fullest simply due to space limitations, but now that I was on my own I finally had the chance to open up. It felt almost unreal the speed at which the jungle passed me by, barely letting my surroundings register as I ran and leapt through the forest. I'm sure my pace wasn't anything special compared to Kid Flash, but for me it felt exhilarating.

All too soon the jungle opened up in front of me and I slowed to a stop at the edge of the massive clearing which held the factory. The angle at which I had approached it left me closer to the landing pad than the structure itself, but I still had a clear view of the front entrance. Activity near the landing pad had died down, with only a handful of cultists guarding the stacked up pile of crates next to it. I activated my com. "Machina to team, looks like Kobra has finished getting the shipment ready. Now they're waiting on something."

"Acknowledged, keep us posted." Aqualad said back.

I started to skirt around the edge of the clearing, both to get a better view and to keep an eye out for any patrols that might spot me. It didn't look like I had much to worry about though, as everyone I could spot was staying close to the building or the product. About a minute went by before I noticed activity from the warehouse structure, as a small party of unique individuals made their way out of the front entrance with a procession of armed cultists on either side. The one in the center was wrapped in a Kobra cloak which obscured his features, and to his left was a teenage girl with half her head shaved and dressed in purples and blacks. To his right though…

Ugh, really need to cut back on your gains, buddy, I thought to myself as I looked at the nine foot tall behemoth of a man. Dressed only in tattered shorts, the man's muscles were so overdeveloped that his skin had torn open from the expansion and there were exposed muscles in the seams. His hair was a wild mass of faded red, and his face looked almost gorilla like. To be honest he looked a lot like Mammoth from the Teen Titans show, only more grotesque (and I'd probably be mentally calling him that until someone corrected me). There being more super-powered villains here would definitely complicate things. Hopefully there weren't even more villains vying for this illegal drugs factory waiting to pop out and make things worse.

I swear to Christ if Snowflame shows up I was going to flip my shit.

It was then a new sound started to echo through the jungle, a sort of wumpa-wumpa that was steadily growing louder. It wasn't long before the sound resolved itself into a large cargo helicopter flying overhead, slowing as it came to hover and then land on the landing pad. As the rotors wound down I saw a single figure exit the pilot's seat and head towards the approaching cultists. He was a heavily muscled man with blonde hair wearing cargo pants and a thick blue vest, with armored pads covering his arms. His face was covered by metal hockey mask, but I remembered the Casey Jones look-alike from when I had been browsing the League's villain database. Sportsmaster… he's a mercenary. Someone must have hired him to transport the goods. But who-?

That was as far as my thoughts went before something exploded.

My head snapped back towards the warehouse in time to see a fire ball shoot out of the entrance, a couple of cultists being tossed out or lit on fire by the explosion. I could hear gunfire a second later along with flashes of light from the high windows of the building.

As I saw cultists ready their guns and Mammoth charge back towards the flames without hesitation, I frantically tried to com my team. "Guys, things are exploding and people are shooting! What's going on?!"

I got no response, instead hearing a continual drone of static. I felt a brief moment of pure terror before I noticed that the static had suddenly appeared across a wide spectrum of radio frequencies. I calmed for a moment. Not dead, just being jammed.

The moment passed quickly though, and I froze in realization. I was alone on an island with two different terrorist organization who wanted me and my teammates dead. And I now had no way of contacting anyone.

Shit.

I turned my attention back to the chaos in front of me just in time to see Bane barrel out of the doors to the warehouse, far more heavily built than when I had saw him last (guess he found some Venom to use) and running straight at Mammoth. The larger metahuman let out an inhuman roar as he charged the other man head on, but at the last second Bane went low and to the side, knocking Mammoth off his feet before continuing his run at the group near the landing pad. The cultists opened fire at him, but he managed to dodge to the side fast enough that he had time to toss a bundled of grenades at his target.

I saw the group scatter before the bundle reached them, sailing past the group to land amide the pile of crates. There was a second before the whole thing exploded, fiery debris flying everywhere. The lot who had dodged out of the way regrouped and tried to take aim at Bane, but Mammoth had already recovered and was trying to crush the luchador's skull in with wild swings, blocking line of sight for his allies.

I twitched anxiously as I watched all of this unfold. I had no idea what to do. Ostensibly I should do nothing and wait for the team to sort this out, as I was just 'support'. But I couldn't just do nothing with all of this chaos happening and my teammates potentially in danger. I forced myself to calm down and think about the situation. Ok, just because you can't contact them doesn't mean they're in trouble. Bane probably set the jammer himself to use against Kobra, not against us. Neither side should have any idea that we're here-

Suddenly the sounds of combat in the warehouse reached a new volume, a series of green energy bolts ripped their way through the factory wall, detonating a small pile of munitions. …Never mind.

Alright, so what was the mission objective now? Our cover has apparently been blown, the people we were sent to report on are scrambling for cover, and I wasn't sure the factory would even be left standing after tonight. Calling off the mission would probably be the smartest thing, but right now my teammates are in the thick of it and I have no real way to help them. The only way that this might be made worthwhile is if we could capture the commanding Kobra operative and/or Sportsmaster and make them talk. And at the moment they had too many methods of escape.

My eyes fell on the cargo helicopter as Sportsmaster made a run for it, and I noticed something shimmering underneath the craft. Focusing my eyes on it, I realized that there was a growing puddle of fuel leaking out onto the ground, slowly flowing out from a small hole that must have been made by shrapnel. I paused for a moment as my eyes shifted left and right. I'm not supposed to take action… but these are extenuating circumstances, I thought to myself as my arm shifted into a small laser cannon. An infrared laser cannon to be precise, as when I took aim and fired, the beam was almost completely invisible save for a wavering in the air. It wasn't a very powerful shot, but it was enough to ignite the fuel and cause flames to start spreading.

There, that should make it useless, without making it explode or something dramatic, I thought to myself as my arm changed back to normal. Contrary to popular belief, it is very difficult for gasoline (and various other petroleum fuel) based vehicles to explode by lighting them on fire. The fuel is made so that is only explodes under the right conditions, like those made inside a piston engine. So, while the fire would certainly destroy the helicopter from the inside out, it shouldn't go boom.

But wait, you're in a superhero universe, a voice spoke up from the back of my mind. How do you know that everything isn't made of explodium here?

…Well-

It was of course at that moment the helicopter exploded.

It wasn't that large of an explosion, just enough to blow the fuselage open, but I winced all the same. I'm going to stop making assumptions now, I thought as I nervously looked around for anyone that might have been injured by the blast. Thankfully I spotted Sportsmaster sprinting away from the burning wreck, and no one else seemed to be nearby.

I tried to get eyes back on the action, but everything was slowly devolving into chaos. Bane and Mammoth's fight had moved back into the warehouse (through a wall), and I could see flashes of people shooting at each other through the entrance. For a second I argued with myself about simply screwing what Batman told me and diving in to help, but I was stopped when I caught sight of Mammoth flying back through the gaps in the wall. He managed to land on his feet and slide to a stop, but Starfire flew into him fists first. The inhuman meta roared in pain as he staggered and swung his fist at the smaller woman, but she juked to the side in the air. She then darted back in and grabbed his extend arm, giving a scream of her own as she twisted and spun Mammoth around her before tossing him into the air.

It was then Superboy came out of nowhere, jumping through the air with both his hands clasped over his head like he was going to spike a volleyball. And unfortunately for Mammoth, he was the ball in this scenario. The sound of Superboy's strike was only exceeded by Mammoth crashing into the ground, and when the dust cleared it was clear the metahuman wasn't getting back up again. I saw Starfire nod and say something to her teammate before she gestured in a direction, and the two of them split up as they ran back into the building.

…well that was fucking awesome. I thought to myself as I sat on my haunches. Looked like they were handling things just fine without me. I felt both a bit relieved and a bit guilty about that. Still didn't help me figure out what I was supposed to be doing thou- wait a second, where did Sportsmaster and that head cultist go?

I sat up straighter as I looked around, scanning the area outside of the warehouse to see where they had gotten off to. I almost missed it, but my infrared vision let me see a group of people on the other side of the clearing, making their way away from the mess the factory had turned into. It was hard to get details, but I could identify Sportsmaster's profile amidst them.

I hesitated, looking at the retreating group before looking back at the factory. I tried the coms again but I still got jamming static. Damn it, now what? I thought to myself. I want to regroup with the others, but I don't know for certain where they are in there, and I am certain that those guys will have escaped by the time I find them. Normally I wouldn't have thought of anything but regrouping considering this was a covert mission… but, again, that had kinda already been blown by this point. If we didn't find out why Kobra had wanted the factory in the first place, or who the hell Sportsmaster was bringing the stuff to, the whole mission was for nothing.

I waited for a few more seconds before I let out a breath and headed after the group of terrorists. I wasn't going to try to take them down or anything, but if I was careful I might be about to hear something that would make this whole trip worthwhile.

--------------------​

Unfortunately, the group was mostly silent as they moved, focusing on navigating the terrain rather than conversing with one another. Some of their guards called out to each other to check what they were looking at, but the VIPs weren't talking. Maybe if I moved in and got a closer look, I thought to myself.

I got my chance a few minutes later when the party ran afoul of a ravine, and they stopped as the five guard cultists argued with each other (presumably about how to get around it). I carefully crept forward through the underbrush as I tried to get a good look at the people in the middle of the group. Finally, when I was almost right next to the open ground, I managed to get a clear view of the one I assumed was the leader. The red cloaked man was extremely pale, and his skin had an almost scaly texture to it. Combined with the almost completely flat nose, it gave him a reptilian look. I didn't know much at all about Kobra, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they gene modded their higher ranking personal. It also made me wonder about the teen girl next to him and just what her position was in the organization.

Either way, it was Sportsmaster who got my attention the most, as I noticed that he was more heavily armed than when I had last seen him. There was a pistol strapped to his hip and a high tech rifle slung across his back. Even with them stopped his posture was still tense, his head moving around to search for threats. I was as still as possible when his gaze swept over my position, and he didn't seem to react.

As I once again tried to com my team (still jammed), the Kobra leader spoke up. "I do hope that our… partners will not be too aggravated by this turn of events."

Sportsmaster snorted. "You let a second-rate thug take you by surprise and destroy the shipment. Hard to put that in a favorable light."

"The situation would have been handled if not for the additional interference of those heroes." The man replied coldly.

"Yeah, well, it seems this island is pretty popular this time of year." Sportsmaster suddenly spun and hurled something straight at my position. I had only a fraction of a second to think Shit! before I tossed myself to the side. I managed to catch sight of what I thought was a javelin come within inches of me-

An explosion detonated right next to me and sent me tumbling through the underbrush, pain searing into the half of my body that faced the blast. I might have let out a scream before I landed and got my feet back under me, scrambling to get back into cover. It was only a second or two before I was hidden again and the damage had been healed (it was pretty superficial damage). I heard some frantic Spanish from the guards before I managed to catch the tail end of what the high ranking cultist was saying. "-was that?" He said.

"Don't know…" Sportmaster said, and I heard the sound of metal on metal. "But I have the feeling that it's not gone. Everyone, fan out and find it."

I felt more than saw several of the guards move into the dense jungle, and I slinked back further into the foliage. Crap. So much for stealth. I thought. I should probably just book it. And yet… I didn't want to. Even if I wasn't supposed to, if I didn't do something useful… what good was I?

For a moment I lay still in the bushes, watching the men split up and move in different directions through the jungle. Then I started to creep forward. Fuck it, I'm going to Arkham Asylum this shit.

The first was simple enough. He was the one who happened to get the closest to me in the search pattern, and his closest ally was about 5 meters away. As I slipped closer, my aerokinetic core formed in my chest and the 'flesh' of my arms became rougher as small spines formed, the material underneath becoming more mesh-like. I moved slowly, keeping out of his line of sight as I followed in his steps behind him. I got to within a foot of the cultist before he started to turn around.

In an instant I sprang up from underneath the man and grabbed him by the chest, quickly dragging him down to the ground. He only managed to get out a short strangled cry before I shocked him into unconsciousness. I silently thanked Aqualad for teaching me the correct hand placement and voltage for knocking out a man with electricity rather than killing him as I turned my attention to the men nearby. Unfortunately they had heard their companion go down, and were hustling to his position.

I slipped away as quickly as I could, flitting behind the trunk of a nearby tree. The cultists didn't seem to notice, instead focusing on their downed comrade for a moment before hefting their guns and looking around warily. Experimentally, I messed around with my hearing until I managed to pick out their heartbeats, beating faster than normal but not panicked yet. Just had to wait for them to slip up…

I saw my chance when one of them started rapidly spouting off orders, pointing in various directions as he did so. In the instant when the other three were looking in the direction he was pointing, I pounced out of my hiding spot, launching off the tree for leverage as I sailed towards the one who took charge. I plowed into him hard enough that I felt something crack underneath my hands, and sent both of us tumbling across the ground. Shit! I thought as I managed to keep my grip on him and shocked him to unconsciousness by the time we came to a stop. I wasn't used to attacking normal humans, I had put too much force into that. I quickly looked the man over, trying to see if-

Unfortunately, that was when one of the remaining men seemed to lose his nerve, letting out a terrified scream before opening up with his assault rifle at my (and his friends) position. Before I knew what I was doing I moved out of reflex, juking left and right before I ended up behind a large bolder. I felt a small bit of pain from my shoulder and midriff, but ignored it as I peered around the rock. The three men standing looked terrified as they pointed their guns at my position, but most of my attention was on the man I had just downed. His body wasn't moving and I could see blood starting to pool around him.

I… that man was dead because of me. Not directly, his 'friend' was the one that pulled the trigger, but my actions led to it. But I couldn't have… I didn't think they… ah fuck. As I thought, I idly noticed a pair of bullets falling to the ground at my feet, and I saw the holes in my body seal quickly.

I sat there for a moment longer before I let out a breath, the air hissing through my bared teeth. On my back I formed another speaker, this one much stronger than the one at my throat, and started blasting sound from it. Not audible sound but infrasound, around 18 hertz. I had read a while ago that sounds around that frequencies weren't audible to humans consciously, but a percentage of people hear it subconsciously and cause them to feel fear.

Wasn't sure if it was true or not, but now seemed the time to find out.

The men didn't see me as I moved from my position, and as I stalked around them I took care to pick up small rocks and toss them at trees around them. Each time a rock hit the jumpy one opened fire on the foliage, terror clearly overriding any thoughts he had. The other two weren't doing much better, and their partner's panic was making it worse. Soon one of them snapped and turned to scream at the panicking one, and that was the moment I dashed in. I didn't bother sneaking this time, I just moved in a zig-zagging blur towards them. I was spotted and one of them managed to open fire on me before I reached them. I think a bullet or two hit me, but I didn't care. Before they knew it I was on them, and I reared up and slammed my palm into the nearest man with enough force to send him to the ground, and arc of electricity visible from the strike.

At that point, one of the two remaining cultists turned and ran, but I paid him no mind. My attention was focused on the panicky one, the one who was currently staring at me trembling, his eyes wide. I slowly rose to my full height, my tail sweeping out in front of me as lightning sparked up and down my arms. My mouth opened and I let out a hiss as I moved towards him. The cultist dropped his gun and stumbled back from me, whimpering in fear as he tried to get away. He ended up tripping over his own robes and fell to the ground, scrambling to his knees as I loomed over him. His hands clasped together and he started to speak in rapid fire Spanish, his eyes wet and wild as he spoke.

He was praying. Maybe even praying to me, that he would live. I could almost feel the fear I was causing him, the power it gave me over the man. It was… it was…

Disgusting. Oh god, what am I doing?

Before I could do anything, I felt something slam into the side of my head with crushing force. I was knocked to the ground and fell into a heap. The pain wasn't any worse than what I had felt before, but I stopped myself from getting to my feet immediately. I moved slowly and shakily, feigning injury as I looked at the man who had gotten the drop on me. "Well, just what in the hell do we have here?" Sportsmaster said as he stood a short distance away, a metal ball on the end of a chain held in his hands. "What are you, some kind of bioweapon? Didn't know anyone else was in that market." He started to spin up the chain fast enough that the ball became a blur. "Well, not sure who made you, but I bet Brain would pay me well if I handed you over."

The meteor hammer shot towards me but with a burst of speed I rolled to the side at the last second. The metal ball imbedded itself into the ground where I had lain before I darted back in and grabbed the weapon, sending an electric shock through the metal. Sportsmaster's instincts must have been very good through, as he let go of the chain the moment before I touched it. The current was powerful enough that electricity arced from the chain to his hands as it fell, but it only caused him to flinch back rather than pass out. "Arg! All right, so you're-"

I didn't give him the chance to finish as I immediately shot forward and slashed at him with my claws. The mercenary ducked back with surprising speed, but I pressed forward, slashing and jabbing at him from every angle I could. The man weaved and dodged as best he could, but I could tell he was having an awkward time of it, both due to the terrain and my non-human physiology. It came to a head when he found his back against a tree, and I got ready to pounce. In that moment though he grabbed something out of his belt pouch and tossed it to the ground, causing a brilliant flash and plume of smoke between us. It only slowed me down for a second (it didn't stop my blindsight), but that was all the time Sportsmaster needed to unholster the high tech pistol at his waist. He took aim and fired three quick shots of what must have been plasma into me, burning holes into my torso.

I hissed in pain as I reeled back, but I turned it into a spinning motion as I crouched low and lashed out with my tail. I tried to spear the pointed tip through the pistol itself, but my aim wasn't perfect, and instead my extra limb just slammed into his arm. Still, it knocked the weapon out of his hand. To my surprise though, Sportsmaster then simply grabbed my tail with both hands and swung, lifting me off the ground and slamming me into a tree with enough force to crack the trunk. To be honest it was more surprising than painful, but it distracted me long enough for him to build up momentum and hurl me away before I could morph my tail into a taser.

I landed and turned to him just in time to see him pull the rifle from off of his back and- argh! More red bolts of plasma bit into my body as I was forced to scramble away, ducking into a small ditch just out of sight.

"That the best you got, you deformed mutt?" I hear the mercenary call out as his footsteps approached. "If so, I'm going to have to take you to the pound."

I forced myself to remain quiet as my nanites moved to repair the damage the plasma had done. Alright. There were some things I had to acknowledge. Such as the fact that the man before me was an expert mercenary. And to become that in this universe with superheroes running around, that required a level of martial skill and physical aptitude that would be unheard of in my world. And then there was the fact that for all my new superpowers I just some guy who fell into all of this and has only had about two weeks of self-training.

But I refused to lose to a man who willingly chose to call himself Sportsmaster!

My body started to expand as my build became more powerful, and all over my 'skin' rippled as it was replaced by electro-conductive spines and Faraday cage mesh. Lightning started to crackle all over my body as the aerokinetic core started to charge up. My hands grew wider to support my mass, and my head became bulkier. If my previous form could be related to a dog, my new one was closer to a tiger. Mixed with a thunderstorm.

With an explosion of motion and electricity I moved, tearing through the jungle and skirting around Sportsmaster's position. I briefly heard the man shout "What the f-!" before he backed away and opened fire with his plasma rifle. The shots went wide not just because of how I was moving, but the blinding light of the electricity arcing off of me. His night vision was ruined and the rapid flashing of lights made his vision even worse.

I pushed myself more and the lightning arcing off of me started tearing into the jungle around Sportsmaster. My aim wasn't the best in this state, but the bolts exploded around his position with enough force to make him stumble and throw of his aim even more. "Screw this, I'm not being paid nearly enough for this shit!" He shouted before he turned and simply ran.

I then moved to chase directly after him, tearing through the jungle with far less grace than I had before. As lightning scoured my path for me, Sportsmaster took blind shots as he tried to shake me from his tail. It was no use though, and soon I was close enough that I leapt into the air and fired a more directed bolt from my claw. The bolt impacted right in front of the mercenary, causing him to draw up short as I landed in front of him. He drew his rifle up and fired, but I powered through it and knocked him to the ground.

One massive claw pining his chest, the other one reached out and snatched the plasma rifle out of his hand, my assimilation spikes consuming it in a matter of moments. Peering at Sportsmaster's eyes behind his mask, I could see his first real traces of fear. "Uhh… nice doggie?" He said hopefully.

I leaned my head in close to his. "Woof." I said before I shocked him into unconsciousness.

Everything was calm for a long moment before I looked around, actually taking in the destruction I had caused. It was then I realized that I had no idea where the Kobra leader was, and was probably long gone by now. God damn it, I thought. All that sound and fury just to take down one unpowered mercenary. I really am shit at this.

The static on my radio suddenly stopped and a voice came through loud and clear. "Machina, are you there? Respond."

I gave a start before I replied "Aqualad! What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"The team is largely uninjured, save for a few minor scraps." He said, and I let out a sigh of relief as he continued. "We managed to find our way into the factory, but Bane attacked the cultists just as we arrived, and we were uncovered in the process. Fortunately Starfire managed to rally us and we played Bane's forces off of Kobra's until we came out on top. What about you? Are you nearby?"

"Not… exactly." I said. "After the attack started, I saw the lead cultist and the person who came in the helicopter, a mercenary named Sportsmaster, try to make a run for it. I followed them and… well, things didn't quite go as planned, but I captured Sportsmaster."

There was a long moment of silence before he responded. "I see. Remain where you are, we will track your position via your com and pick you up."

"Understood." I said before I signed off, once again looking around with a sigh.

Batman's not going to be happy about this one.