Thursday 22nd July 2010, 20:10.
Caribbean Sea,
Santa Prisca.
Sitting quietly, Esau looked out of the Martian Bio-Ship in deep thought, watching as the Caribbean Sea passed him by at high speeds. Things had been quiet on the ship for quite a while, the pre-mission nerves kicking in at various points for the people on board. Even Esau still felt the nerves that came with putting his life on the line and to him, these nerves were a good thing. The last time he hadn't felt such caution and tension was when he had run into an ambush set by Black Mask leading to his first fight against Robin.
No, to Esau the nerves were a good sign as it meant he was thinking clearly and not arrogantly.
Turning his gaze away from the passing ocean, Esau instead took in the interior of the ship.
It was certainly a marvel to behold.
Mostly a blue-purple colour, with it being red and black on the outside.
The best part about it all was that it could change its size and add more or remove chairs in order to perfectly suit the number of people on the ship at one time. Currently, Robin and Kid Flash were at the front, with Aqualad and Superboy behind them and him and Batgirl behind them. Then, dead centre in between him and Batgirl was Miss Martian, both hands encased in two orbs of blue light that apparently served as the controls over the sentient ship.
How it was sentient was beyond him, but he was just going to write it off as a Martian thing and leave it at that.
The Undead Talon and superpowered aliens were a reminder that he didn't fully understand the world he was in like he thought he did and the best way to deal with that right now, was to just expect the unexpected.
You have a sentient Martian ship you say? Hey, why the hell not?
That was pretty much how Esau viewed every weird and impossibility in his life now.
Was it healthy?
Probably not but it was certainly better than stressing out over every new detail that sprung up out of nowhere.
"We're approaching Santa Prisca." Miss Martian informed the team, whose bodies simultaneously tensed and relaxed at the same time, except in the case of Superboy. The clone was so dead set in his belief that he was the strongest and a living weapon being the main focal point behind his unnatural calmness. It was a mindset that many on the team knew for fact needed to be changed and soon, lest it cost him or one of them their lives.
Turning his gaze from Superboy, Esau instead looked at the island dead ahead of them.
Santa Prisca itself.
From what Batman had told them, it was the leading production centre of a highly addictive enhancing drug known as Venom. Esau hadn't come across the drug personally, either as Black Hood or as Esau but he had certainly heard about it.
'Shame I'm only getting paid for a simple observe and report job, I'd have happily taken the chance to take this place out myself.' Esau knew that this place wasn't the only production centre of Venom, any criminal worth his salt knew to have more than one place set up, but a place this big would certainly contain a bulk of the production. Islands this remote were few and far between and most were very small, too small to hold a big production centre like this and go unnoticed.
His eyes then panned over the island to where he could just make out the sight of the tip of the factory.
With all the trees and foliage, it would be all but impossible for most people to see, but thanks to his enhanced eyesight he could make it out, albeit barely.
'Even then, this could prove to be informative.' The main reason this mission was given to them was because the factory, while still running at full capacity had cut off all shipments.
A fact that was both highly odd, but also intriguing.
As they neared the island, Miss Martian spoke. "Drop-zone A in thirty." In front of him, Aqualad rose to his feet, the chair he was sitting in melting back into the ship.
Tapping the A-shaped symbol on his waist, the red of Aqualad's suit changed into a blackish-grey colour. "Ready." He said shortly with a nod to Miss Martian.
"Putting Bio-ship in camouflage mode." At the same time the ship slowly descended towards the surface of the ocean and upon reaching the designated point, part of the floor in front of Aqualad opened up. With a firm face, the Atlantean dived down into the ocean while the ship continued on towards the island itself.
"Heat and motion sensors are patched," Aqualad informed over the commlink a few moments later. "Data is on a continuous loop, move in." With this, Esau rose to his feet, his chair dissolving back into the ship itself as the rest of the team followed his lead, except for Miss Martian who continued to fly the ship.
The island of Santa Prisca was not invulnerable, but it was certainly very difficult for most governments to actually lead any mounted attack upon it. There were only a few open beaches big enough for a few boats to actually deploy on and they were monitored continuously by a network of security systems. Not to mention that any ship or plane would be seen miles away.
However, what none had prepared for was a ship that could camouflage and as a result, the main problem they faced was a landing zone. The only real landing zones are those guarded by a network of security systems that would make it impossible to sneak past in most cases.
That was where Aqualad had come into play and with those security systems now transmitting incorrect data, they could move towards Santa Prisca undetected, which they would not have been able to do had they shut down the security system entirely. Not only would that have been time-consuming, but if even a single part of the network were to be shut down, it would alert those on the island to someone else being here as well.
Heading further into the island, they came to a stop over an opening in the forest.
"Drop-zone B." Miss Martian informed the rest of the team, rising to her feet while a number of cables came down from the ceiling. Taking his clip, Esau clipped it to his belt before giving one final nod to Batgirl who returned it with a smile, taking a moment to admire his new suit as Esau did the same.
His new suit was certainly better than his Black Hood costume and while equal in terms of durability to his Marauder costume, was probably greater when it came to gadgets. It was a basic, full-body suit similar to that of his Black Hood costume with dark orange greaves, vambraces and shoulder guards. His face mask was similar to his Marauder costume in that it was split between black and orange. A reminder of what he had done, where he had come from and a reminder of past lessons learned.
To finish it off were a number of weapons including a number of throwing knives inside a small patch on his back as well as a combat knife strapped to each thigh. Then on his back was a small cylinder, no bigger than a baton, with two similar, but smaller cylinders, one on each of his thighs, a staff and two swords respectively.
"How cool is this?" Kid Flash asked, turning to look at both Batgirl and Miss Martian with his new stealth tech, built into the symbol on his chest turning his suit from an eye-catching yellow to a dark grey.
Batgirl just shook her head in amusement at his childishness while Miss Martian smiled. "Very impressive." Much like the others, Esau took a moment to admire how Miss Martian's powers worked, her entire outfit changing with just a single thought.
'That sure would come in handy.' He thought, thinking about how much money he could save on not having to buy clothes.
"Eh, that works too." Kid Flash finally managed to say with a smile before turning to Superboy. "Hey, Supie, not too late to put on the new stealth tech?" Despite his gentle teasing, Superboy did not look amused.
"No cape, no tights, no offence." Crossing his arms over his chest Esau found himself agreeing with Superman's clone.
His outfit was the closest he was going to get without going full tight and cape, not that he ever would wear them. Not that it didn't mean others looked awful in them, Batgirl certainly didn't and Miss Martian didn't look too bad either.
Apparently, while he had a filter, Miss Martian did not. "It totally works for you." She muttered dreamily, before quickly realising what she had said. By the embarrassment on her face, it was obvious she had not meant to say that out loud. "In that, you can totally do, good work, in those clothes." To top it all off she even gave an awkward thumbs-up.
Even Robin and Batgirl, who had managed to keep a straight face through the entire proceeding couldn't stop the little smirks when Miss Martian pulled up her hood and turned invisible, all in an attempt to escape from what had happened. But Esau struggled to restrain the urge to roll his eyes, in any other situation, this could have been considered amusing and in some ways, he did agree with that. Yet, they had currently been hovering above Drop Zone B for nearly five minutes and no one had yet to go down.
This whole thing was a complete waste of time and a showcase of just how lax the other heroes were.
"Alright you lot, enough chit-chat, let's go." Esau intervened before anyone could say anything to further derail this mission. "Miss Martian, open a hatch." Esau then turned to Superboy who had yet to put on his clip while the other dropped down. "Superboy put on your clip."
"Don't need it," Superboy replied gruffly, a scowl on his face not only at Esau but at how much he sounded like a petulant child.
"Yes, but this is an observe and report mission, a covert operation. You causing an earthquake with your landing kind of goes against the whole point. So please, put on your clip." He didn't beg, Esau knew that Superboy would see right through his attempt at manipulation. At the same time though, Superboy did not respond well to orders after his experiences at the hands of Cadmus and so, found a middle ground hoping it would work.
It did, mostly because he neither begged nor ordered Superboy to do it.
But it was also because Superboy recognised that both of them had been in the hands of Cadmus and were therefore, more willing to listen to Esau than others.
Even then that wasn't saying overly much.
So, after putting the clip on, both Esau and Superboy dropped down to be greeted by the sight of the rest of the team waiting. "Finally, what took you guys so long." Kid Flash exclaimed only to be smacked up the side of his head by Robin causing him to cry out in pain. Not that any of them were convinced he was actually in pain, especially when he tried to use this as an excuse to get Miss Martian to kiss it better.
"What was that about?" Bargirl asked coming to stand beside Esau as they took up the rear.
"Superboy wasn't wearing the clip, I think he planned to jump down and I pointed out that it would cause a lot of noise that could potentially give away our position," Esau explained, frowning when he noticed Superboy tense up, no doubt having heard him with his superhuman hearing.
Yet, Superboy didn't do anything instead, his shoulders seemed to slump and his stomps increased.
Batgirl also saw it as well. "You know he's not actually angry at you, if he was he would have probably done something just then. He's probably angrier at himself." Esau nodded his head in agreement.