Thirty seconds later, as expected, Superboy and Wonder Girl landed there, and then they saw Bart with a gunshot wound to his right knee.
"Bart!"
Both of them exclaimed in shock, quickly descending.
"How did this happen? Who attacked you?"
"Uh... It's, it's Deathstroke... I'm so sorry... I messed everything up."
Bart gritted his teeth against the pain, his face full of remorse.
"Deathstroke... Deathstroke wanted me to tell you... kids shouldn't play dress-up in uniforms!"
"To hell with Deathstroke!" Superboy cursed angrily, "I'm definitely going to smash his brains in!"
"I agree!" Wonder Girl's face was full of anger, her voice filled with hatred, "I won't forgive anyone who hurts my friend!"
Suddenly, countless arcs of white electricity surged from Bart's body, wildly dancing around him.
His visible gunshot wound on his right knee rapidly healed, but in the moment of restoration, his knee bone fractured again. Bart's leg contorted into a grotesque shape.
Then, the fractured knee bone quickly healed once more, only to fracture again in an endless cycle.
"What's going on?"
Superboy and Wonder Girl stared in astonishment at the transformation occurring on Bart's body, completely bewildered.
"I've had super speed since birth. This has led to my metabolism being much faster than a normal person's. To balance the speed of my metabolism, I have to wear this impulse suit to use my super speed. But Deathstroke just broke my suit..."
Bart's face contorted in pain as he explained the situation with difficulty.
Due to the vulnerability in Bart's suit, his metabolism's speed had become imbalanced once more, and Deathstroke was clearly aware of this fact.
Therefore, Deathstroke had shot Bart's leg at a very strategic angle, causing severe dislocation in his right leg's joint.
Without surgical correction, relying solely on his accelerated metabolism for recovery would not only be ineffective but would exacerbate the dislocation. Eventually, his entire leg would become useless.
And this was the best-case scenario. If Bart's super speed continued to affect his metabolism, he might die of heart failure within a month!
"Cassie, take Bart to the Star Labs! We'll handle things here!"
Superboy urgently said. While Star Labs wasn't a hospital, its medical equipment and personnel were far more advanced than those found in a conventional hospital. These medical resources were something not even money could easily secure, but members of the Justice League and the Teen Titans series could receive treatment there free of charge.
Of course, "free" in this context meant they didn't have to pay out of their own pockets; it didn't mean the treatment didn't cost anything. It was indeed an unfair situation, but that was the reality.
"Sure!" Wonder Girl nodded firmly and prepared to pick up Bart.
"No!"
Who knew, Bart suddenly shouted, "Don't mind me, hurry and save the other tourists!"
"I'm sorry, Bart, but this is the one thing I can't listen to you about. We're friends, and nothing is more important than that. I won't just leave you behind!"
Superboy said sternly, "Take Bart away quickly, Cassie!"
As soon as he said that, Yuri, who had transformed into Stingfly, and Beast Boy as a fast green bird also arrived at the scene.
"Conner's right. Saving people is important, but we can't leave our friends behind. Cassie, do as Conner said and take Bart away!"
Yuri didn't land but shouted from the air towards Superboy and the others.
"We'll put out the fire. You don't need to worry about that!"
Cassie scooped up Bart and with a swoosh, shot up into the sky, heading towards the direction of the Star Labs.
At the same time, Beast Boy suddenly transformed into a giant elephant, more than five times the size of a regular one, and started sucking in seawater.
He kept on sucking until his belly swelled.
"Conner, quickly carry Gar to the middle of the fire!"
Yuri yelled.
Superboy understood quickly and flew under Beast Boy's belly, lifting the massive elephant, then flying into the intense center of the flames and setting Beast Boy down.
Following that, Beast Boy started frantically spraying out the water he had sucked in using his trunk. While it wasn't as efficient as a fire truck, there wasn't a better option at this moment.
"Conner, use your freeze breath to extinguish the flames, just like Superman often does!"
While trying to douse the flames, Gar yelled at Superboy.
"I don't have freeze breath!" Superboy replied loudly. "I'm not Superman, I can't do everything he can."
"What? Please tell me you have X-ray vision. I was actually counting on you to help me with something!"
Beast Boy exclaimed.
On the other side, Yuri wasn't idle either. He began using Stingfly's ability to spray adhesive fluid, flying around Demon Island, spraying the fluid onto the flames to extinguish them.
Stingfly adhesive fluid would react chemically and explode upon contact with the flames produced by Heatblast, but normal flames wouldn't cause this reaction.
Although Yuri didn't know the principle behind it, Stingfly seemed to be able to secrete this adhesive indefinitely. The only ways to stop it were to exhaust its energy or wet its wings.
A few dozen seconds later.
"Hmm? What's this!"
Yuri was extinguishing flames from high above and had free movement. He flew directly to the location where he heard the most cries for help and coughing.
However, as he almost extinguished the flames in that area, he shockingly found that there wasn't a single person here! He could only see a patch of raised stones on the ground.
But the cries for help were clearly coming from this spot, and Yuri heard them very distinctly.
"Could it be…" Yuri instantly thought of an ominous possibility.
He descended to the ground immediately, inspecting those raised stones. To his surprise, hidden in the shadows of the stones were actually speakers!
Each speaker was intermittently playing sounds of screams, wails, cries for help, and roars, making it sound like there were countless victims within the sea of flames.
"Damn!" Yuri couldn't help but curse under his breath.
Perhaps there were no tourists on this island at all. Someone deliberately created this illusion!
Was it Deathstroke's doing? But why would he do this?
Could he have gone to such lengths just to harm Bart, using this method to scare the Teen Titans and force them to disband?
Yuri didn't believe it. He believed that Deathstroke must have some other motive.
"Could it be... is Deathstroke also searching for that girl? Did he find some clues, or maybe he found her before us, and he intentionally started the fire to slow us down..."
Just then, Starfire suddenly flew over. "Yuri, something's not right!"
"We found a timetable on the cruise ship. The previous batch of tourists should have left before the explosion! And the next batch of tourists can only arrive on the island in three minutes!"
During the division of tasks, Starfire and Tim had been checking if the cruise ship could sail properly. So, their flight path deviated slightly from Yuri's group. They went directly to the cruise ship.
Then, they discovered the discrepancy in timing.
As expected!
Hearing Starfire's words, Yuri completely affirmed his thoughts.
°°°
A/N: Next chapter title: "Ambush" Be sure to tune in.
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