Mount Justice July 22, 2010, 12:00 EST
Batman called the team to the mission room, getting everyone hyped for an official mission. Getting to the mission room, we see Batman and Red Tornado waiting.
"We finally got a mission," Wally says.
"I know, finally, "Robin replies with a strike on his face.
"Pay attention." Alex reminds them, and when they look up, they see Batman glaring at them, shutting them up and focusing on the mission briefing.
Batman starts. "Isla Santa Prisca," he says, showing us a map of an island. "This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neo-steroid, a strength-enhancing drug sold under the street name Venom. Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off." Batman shows us images of the factory.
That's where this team comes in. "Batman tells us, turning around. "This is a covert recon mission only; observe and report; if the Justice League needs to intervene, it will." Tells us to turn back to the screen. "The plan requires two drop zones." Showing us the map and where we'd be dropped.
"So, who's in charge?" Robin asked
"Work that out between you, "Batman tells him, turning back along with Red Tornado and looking at each other.
Robin smiled at that, thinking he would be the best person to be the leader. After the briefing, we were given 7 hours to get ready and make our way there. When we got ready to leave on the Bio-ship, the team finally saw Alex in his Akuma dress. Suit? Not really caring, Wally asked how he could wear something so inconvenient that could easily get damaged and offered no protection. Alex smiled and told him, "For me, this is the best outfit," and proceeded to put on his white domino mask. Looking like an actor on the set of "The Phantom of the Opera.
Caribbean Sea, July 22, 20:08 ECT
Making their way to Santa Prisca, the team sits in silence.
"Drop Zone A in 30." Miss Martian says, breaking the silence:
Aqualad gets up and puts his suit in stealth mode, giving Miss Martian a nod.
"Putting Bio-Ship in camouflage mode."She tells him.
Seconds later, a hole opens in the floor, and Aqua Lad dives down to the sea below and gets through the mines and nets. Getting onto the island, he goes up to some machines and attaches a device.
"Heat and motion sensors are patched, "Aqualad tells us over coms. "Data's now on a continuous loop. Move in."
"Drop Zone B." Miss Martian tells us as we get up. We all put our suits on in camo. Kid Flash tries to show off to Miss Martian, only for her to shapeshift into stealth clothes. Trying to cover up his embarrassment, he turns to Superboy and asks, "Sure, you don't want the new stealth tech?"
"No capes. No tights. No offense." Superboy tells him as he looks at everyone else in capes and tights.
"It totally works for you." Miss Martian says this to him, staring at him. "In those clothes, you can totally do good work in those clothes."She tells him, trying to hide her embarrassment by turning invisible.
We are dropped out of the ship, landing in the forest below, with Alex stopping Superboy from causing a loud bang and landing on the ground.
"We're here on a stealth mission, not combat." He tells Superboy, putting him down on the ground gently. Superboy turns his head and huffs, not speaking.
"Aqualand Drop B is gone, "Miss Martian says.
"Head for the factory. I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP." Aqualad tells us
"Roger that." She tells him as we get going. running through the forest, coming upon a waterfall, and walking behind it on a trail. When Superboy asked us if we had heard that, not having super hearing, we were clueless. Aqualad told us to use thermal vision over communications. Looking at the surroundings, we find two groups of people about to come across each other, and as they do, we hear shooting when Kid Flash was going to ask Robin something, and Robin already had taken off where the rest of the team couldn't find him. Being impulsive, Kid Flash runs to find him, only to slip and fall down a hill right into a group of guys with guns pointed at him.
"So much for the stealth," Kid Flash says.
In a moment, the two groups started firing at Kid Flash, resulting in the rest of the team coming in and starting to take them down as Kid Flash runs away from the bullets. Superboy went after the leader of one group, while Alex and Miss Martain flew down from above, slamming the shooters on both sides into the trees. When Robin comes down, he knocks down two goons,looking at Kid Flash as he complains.
"What is wrong with you guys? Remember covert?" he tells us. "Why didn't you follow my lead? Vanish into the jungle?"
"That's what you were doing?" Kid Flash asked. "We're not mind readers, you know," he said, looking back at Miss Martian. "Well, not all of us, he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds." Miss Martain says:
"That's not the point, Robin; you left without confirming with the team." berates Alex.
That's when Aqualad comes in to take down the last guy. We tie them up, and Robin says he knows one group.
"I recognize those uniforms. They belong to the Cult of the Kobra," he tells us. "Batman would have told us if he knew they were here."
"Seeing no love between the two groups, I'd say they're here for something," Alex tells them.
"That's why the normal supply of venom has been cut off," Robin says.
"Ok, I got it. Kobra wants super-cultists." Kid Flash says, "Mystery solved now; let's radio back and be home for..." Wally starts talking when Robin interrupts him.
"These cultists aren't on Venom; Kobra's hoarding the stuff. We don't leave, not until I know why." Robin said.
"Until you know why?" Kid Flash asked Robin pointedly.
"This team needs a leader," Robin says, getting everyone's attention.
"And it's you? Dude, you're a 13-year-old kid who ducked out on us without a word." Kid Flash tells him.
"Ha ha ah," Robin chuckles. "And you're a mature 15? You blew our cover the first chance you got." Robin tells him.
While the two argued, Miss Martian asked Alex and Superboy if they wanted to lead, with both saying no. "You?" asked Superboy. "After the Mister Twister fiasco? No way." Miss Martain," she says, shaking her head. Then Superboy tells her she did alright, causing Miss Martain to blush and look down, and Alex just looks away, giving the two their moment. Superboy hears the goons talking in Spanish.
After a bit, Kid Flash tells Robin," Well, you don't even have superpowers."
"Neither does Batman, "Robin yells at him.
"Tscha. You're not Batman." Kid Flash retorts.
"The closest thing we've got," Robin tells Kid Flash, annoyed.
That's when one of the tied-up goons starts laughing and, in English, says "Your clever ni-os."
"But you only know half the story. Let Bane here show you the rest and a way into the factory through my secret way in." Bane says to the team:
"He's not lying, but he's not telling us the whole truth." Miss Martian tells us as she reads his mind.
"Ah, ah, ah, Bane is not that easy," Bane tells her.
"He's started to think about football scores in Spanish; I could break through, but that would take a while." Miss Martian tells the team
"I can do something to him that'll get us the answers, but I would need you to erase his memory of it," Alex tells the team and asks Miss Martian.
"I could, but I might also break his mind." She tells Alex.
"What do you all think? Should we risk it because I don't want to show my powers off?" Alex asked the team.
"Why don't you want to use your powers to help the mission? So what if he knows about it."Asked Kid Flash, not knowing what the problem was.
"Because the more people know what I can do, the more likely I'll be targeted, and people will plan how to deal with me," Alex tells him, getting into Kid Flashes' face for being questioned. not like being told to expose his power.
"It's simple; the enemy of my enemy is my friend, "Bane tells them quickly, not waiting for too much trouble.
Robin gets between the two and tells them, "It doesn't matter; there's not that much of a risk right now; we can just let him lead us the way in.
With that and a nod from Aqualad, we go on with Bane leading us to the factory and see the Kolbra cultists getting ready to ship out a large batch of venom.
"Look at all that venom! A buy is definitely going down." Robin says, "But if Kobra's not selling to the usual suspects, then we need to identify the buyer."
When Kid Flash hears that he doesn't like taking orders from Robin, they start arguing with each other again. Alex tells them to shut up and follow Bane, who reveals the secret way by saying 'answers this way'. After going through it, we eventually reached a wall. when Bane used his thump print to open it up. Going into a closet, Robin looks out the door, telling us it's clear he goes through disappearing. Kid Flash also starts running through the factory, telling us he'll get the information before the boy wonder, ignoring the rest of the team, making Bane comment 'great leadership," and annoying the rest of us.
The rest of the team is watching the cultists take out new products, leaving what's already been made alone. when Superboy tells them a helicopter is coming.
In the command center of the factory, Robin knocks a cultist out and starts looking through the computer he's on. When Kid Flash comes in, asking if he has found anything yet, Robin starts finding chemical formulas. Kid Flash tells him this is the venom formula, and that's the blockbuster formula from Cadmus, not knowing how they got it. They combined the two to make a three-times stronger formula. Robin tells him they need to call the team for backup, only to find the signal blocked. upset, Robin tells Kid Flash, and they make their way out to the others.
As the helicopter came in for landing, a man with his face covered by a hockey mask came out and walked to Cobra, who was standing there with his followers, when the two came closer, while Alex and Miss Martian were floating above them. Miss Martian connects to Aqualad's mind, showing him an image of the hockey guy. telling us it's Sportsmaster, not knowing why he's the buyer, as he tries to radio the league. When Sportsmaster gets to Cobra, they greet each other when Cobra's servant opens a case to show him the contents.
"The new Kobra-Venom?" Sportsmaster asked.
"Yes, the shipment is ready." Cobra tells him. "A complete success. Our friends will not be disappointed."
"This is a game-changer," says Sportsmaster. "Finally, we can go mano a mano with the Justice League."
With Aqualand, he tells Superboy we need a plan, and Bane tells him he has one, yelling out and jumping down to attack the cultist and getting a cultist mutated by the cobra-venom crashing in roaring. Braking the catwalk, he's on.
"Miss Martian, Link up our minds, "Aqualad tells her, blocking bullets flying at him.
"Ok, everyone connected?" Miss Martian asked, getting replies from everyone.
When Miss Martian goes back into the factory to help Aqualan and Superboy, Sportsmaster sees her movement and takes out a javelin to throw at her when Alex gets in front of him. He punches him back as the javelin explodes, sending Alex flying back. While Robin was going after the cobra, Aqualad told everyone to retreat as there were too many cultists surrounding everyone, while Superboy was stuck fighting the mutated cultist Mammoth.
"Kid Flash, make a way for us," Aqualad tells him as he blocks everything for him.
Everyone gets the hidden entrance and gets away, with Alex and Superboy left, who were fighting Mammoth. Getting close to the exit, Alex picks Mammoth up with telekinesis and throws him into a group of cultists. Telling Superboy to go. following in after Aqualad tells us to break the supports for the tunnel. Causing it to collapse, separating the team from the cultists.
"How could my first mission lead go like this."Robin Askes
"You do have the most experience... But perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman, your roles are defined. You two do not need to talk. But this team is new, and a leader must be clear and explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan." Aqualad tells Robin, making Robin yell at him.
"Oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands." Robin says, signing, "Who am I kidding? You should lead us, Kaldur. You're the only one who can." Robin tells him, With everyone accepting Aqualad as leader after making Kid Flash give up,"
Aqualad then tells Robin he'll do it until he's ready to lead the team on his own in the future. After that, Aqualad tells us we need to stop the shipment of cobra venom, with Robin telling him he sabotaged their helicopter. The team also talks about who could put all this together because Sportsmaster is the seller and buyer, and the Cult of Cobra doesn't have the smarts to make the formula. On the way out of the tunnel, we get blocked by Bane holding a switch. Looking up, we see explosives with a blinking green light.
"You betrayed us. why?" Aqualad asked Bane to distract him by asking Kid Flash to back up and get a running start to get the switch.
"Because I want my factory back." Bane tells them, "I forced you 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." Bane tells them. "Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect."
While Bane was talking, Alex couldn't help but think this was his fault for not using his power to question him and thinking, "Never again.
As Bane lowers his thumb to push the trigger, Kid Flash goes forward and snatches it before he even realizes it's not there. Kid Flash then teases him, and before he can do anything, Miss Martian picks him up and holds him there when Superboy wants to punch him, but Alex stops him and tells him to let him do it.
"Before, I didn't want to show my power, but now you've changed my mind." Alex goes up to Bane and touches Bane's neck, leaving the kanji for astral projection, popping his soul out of his body, and leaving another one to disrupt his spiritual balance to keep him out of his body for a couple of hours. Seeing Bane go limp, the team asked what Alex did to him. and telling them he pushed Bane's soul out of his body shocked them.
"Dude, that's crazy. Didn't you just knock him out?" Wally asked, not believing Alex.
"I can do it to you as well if you want," Alex tells him, annoyed by Kid Flash's anti-supernatural belief.
After giving Bane a wave, the team went to stop Sportsmaster and Kobra with a plan this time. Taking the explosive from the tunnel, Aqualad tells us what to do. Getting to the factory, Kid Flash was the first one to start knocking down the cultist, then Superboy came down from the sky, distracting everyone and drawing in Mammoth, only for Aqualad to shoot out a column of water from a nearby water tower at him and later shock him unconscious. While Robin went after Kobra and took out his bodyguard. Sportsmaster comes out with a gun, shooting at Superboy and knocking him back. All the while, Miss Martian and Alex get in the helicopter and plant the explosive to destroy the cargo. With Alex grasping the small case of Kobra-venom when Miss Martian went to attack Sportsmaster, he can somehow tell and capture her, planting an explosive on her and throwing her to Superboy, who grabs her, not knowing when Alex gets to them and pulls off the explosive, throwing it away from them, giving Sportsmaster enough time to get away from the helicopter.
"Ready?" Ask Miss Martain who's holding the trigger for the explosives.
"Yep, "Superboy says, watching as Miss Martian pushes the button and sees the helicopter explode at the back, causing it to spiral and crash into the factory, with it exploding with an escaping Sportsmaster who used a parachute to get away. With that done, we regroup with Robin, who got his butt kicked, and we stand in front of Kobra.
Seeing he's outnumbered, Kobra goes to make an escape when Alex shoots out heat beams and cuts down the trees behind Kobra and tells Kid Flash to work with him, and the two speed forward, launching punches one after the other to knock Kobra down and Superboy to jump up and land on him, only for him to dodge and fall into some water that Aqualad electrified, knocking him out.
After tying him up, Robin takes this time to say something to Aqualad. "We picked the right leader to lead us," she tells him. "Automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to Batman." laughing and waking away.
Mount Justice July 23, 10:01 EDT
"A simple recon mission. Observe and report. You'll each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes." Batman tells us, making the team look down. "Until then, good job. No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unexpected is what determines success. And how you choose who leads determines character." Batman tells us, shocking us as he walks away. leaving a smiling Aqualad looking at Robin.
Somewhere unknown, Sportsmaster is in a meeting facing screens with white figures on them.
"All I recovered was a single sample of Kobra-Venom," Sportsmaster reports.
The white figures talk and say they can reverse engineer it, and then talk about the many times the team has interrupted their plans with one that said "Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. But three times is an enemy action. And enemies of the light must not stand," the leading figure says, ending the meeting.
If you like this so far, then leave your power stones to let me know you want more. And for those wanting more changes to happen to the Young Justice timeline, just wait because, with Alex here, a butterfly effect will keep making things change, and I hope you like where it goes. Also, please read the auxiliary chapters; they'll tell you some stuff at the bottom.