Mount Justice 12/11/2022 1145hrs
"C'moooon Jake, you've been at this for the last two days. Give it a rest." Artemis complained, she had been trying desperately to spar him for the last two days. Being a non-powered hero, there was always the self-driven push to be the best, and Artemis took that to the next level. At the moment she had beaten everyone on the team in hand-to-hand combat with the exception of Jake and Dick. Dick was trained by the Bat and has had close to a decade of experience, so there was no chance of her ever besting the acrobatic protege. Jake on the other hand just hasn't given he the opportunity to spar him. But for some reason known only to one, Artemis has made it her mission the last two days to change that. "Alright fine, gimme a sec. I'll be down after I finish reading this file."
*long sigh* "Okay, but don't make me get Conner to come drag you outta here." Artemis exhaled as she left for the training room. Currently Jake was investigating what was going on with the Bialyan gear that he found whilst in Vegas when he was protecting that Army officer. Before Artemis so rudely interrupted him, he discovered an interesting anomaly. In the last couple of days the Bialyan military has been rallying on their border as if they were preparing for an all out war. But the strange part was that they were shipping out majority of their heavy artillery and AA guns to a random archipelago in the Mediterranean. The strange part was that all the gear they were shipping to said island seemingly just vanished on the way, encrypted government reports said that it was a result of pirates stealing cargo. But there hasn't been an increased amount of security around the cargo ships and the Bialyan government just keeps sending more shipments to the island.
Contacting Batman before agreeing that this pends some further investigation, Jake sounds the mission alert alarm and gets all the files in a briefing format before the team shows up. "Thanks guys for coming in on such short notice but I know how much you love a good mission."
"Yes, no problem my friend, what is our objective this time?" Kaldur inquired, Jake started explaining the information that he had just gone over with Batman and how their mission would be to find out what is going on with the Bialyan military and their strange movements as of late. Dick spoke up from the side; "Hey Jake, isn't this a mission for someone like the CIA or ARGUS?"
"Normally it would be but I got a gut feeling that says by the time they get their intel together and get all the paperwork and authorisation sorted, whatever it is that is brewing will have already happened." Jake explained, earning a nod of understanding from the boy wonder. He proceeded to explain how this will be a two pronged mission with two ops happening at the same time. As a result there will be two teams, Alpha and Bravo. Alpha consisted of Kaldur, Megan, Conner, Artemis and would be taking the Bioship and intercepting the cargo ship as it exits the port. Bravo team would be made up of Robin, Wally and Zatanna, their mission would be to infiltrate one of the communications outposts on the Bialyan border to try and gather further intel on what might be going on.
"Hold up, two questions; who will be the team leader and where will you be going?" Wally questioned, they had never gone on a mission being stretched so thin like this before. "Kaldur will be taking Alpha while Robin leads Bravo, I need to go meet an intel source in Cairo who might know what's going on. Red Tornado will be running comms from here and keeping me informed about what is happening on the different ops. Briefing is over, go get geared up for your different assignments."
Mount Justice 12/11/2022 1230hrs
As the team departed to their respective locations, Jake returned to his room and pressed a hidden button underneath his desk. With the gentle hiss of hidden mechanical systems the back wall opened up to reveal a small armoury with all of Overwatch's gear. Putting on his suit and equipping himself with a few extra mags of non-lethal rounds, Jake headed towards the garage door where a smaller version of the Batplane was located. Fox had designed this model shortly after the whole Justice League rage incident with Batman missing a critical part of his vehicle line-up. Though it seemed like a good idea at first, a major problem became clear. Because of the smaller size, increased stealth capabilities, boosted engines and still maintaining a fairly large arsenal of ordinance, there was only enough room for one person.
Even though Batman opted to stick with the previous design for the time being, Overwatch gladly accepted the vehicle although he felt like Lucias may have tried to rush it slightly after the incident. Up to this point, Fox has been working on this little project of his to try and push the limits of small aircraft designs. Deciding that today would be the perfect opportunity for a test flight, Jake leaped into the cockpit and took a gaze at the controls. Whenever he has had the opportunity, Jake has been grinding it hard in the flight simulators and learning to be an actual combat pilot. The little stunt he pulled in Metropolis when he engaged Superman was purely luck and guesswork. Now he can actually fly and fairly well at that too.
Taking off using the jet's VTOL capabilities, Overwatch reached the desired altitude before gunning the throttle and plotting a course for the Egyptian capitol. Bringing up a holographic screen, Jake wanted to check up on how the rest of the team were doing. Both teams had departed using the bioship and Bravo would just return via a lift from one of the Lanterns who were on stand-by on the Watchtower.
Egyptian airspace 12/11/2022 2000hrs
After a two and a half hour flight to Egypt Jake was ready to finally stretch his legs. Even though cruising at mach 3 is fun in itself, Jake really had to get out of this minuscule cabin. Making a mental note to never fly this aircraft again for long distance, Jake commenced the landing procedure. Bringing the jet down to just over 50 meters in the air and reducing speed down to 800 kph, Jake did a quick fly-by of the Pyramids and Sphinx before landing the aircraft near the Nile River. Covering the aircraft with a large camo tarp, Overwatch proceeded to jog into the sandy desert where he would be meeting his contact.
Coming up on an old dilapidated house, Overwatch halted and took a bearing of anyone that was in the vicinity. Using his thermal vision, Jake only spotted a shepherd with about a dozen or so goats moving towards a watering well but other than that the coast was clear. Sneaking past the herd of farm animals, Jake approached the house. It looked like a two room building however, the roof had collapsed on one end due to poor construction.
Entering through the rubble side of the house, Overwatch removed his mask to take a sip of water to calm his thirst. Hearing the gentle rumble of a dirt bike in the distance, Overwatch took up a defensive position just in case, lowering his guard when he saw the familiar orange and navy blue colours on the rider. As Deathstroke neared the meeting point he killed the engine before dismounting the bike.
"Hey Jake, how's things been?" Slade asked while taking off his helmet to reveal his black and grey hair and a beard that was a few days old at this point. "You know me, busy like ever. Oh, by the way, I took your advice on the whole gun idea and came up with this."
Giving the heavily modified pistol to the merc, Jake waited for a second as Slade inspected the firearm. "The fire select is a nice touch along with the twenty six round magazine. Though I would probably put an optic of some sort on it."
"Way ahead of you, check this out." Passing over the extension piece, Jake saw a hint of surprise from the mercenary. "So what was so important that you had to drag me all the way out here in the desert?"
"Jake something is going on, something big. I have been looking into recent League activities and something is not right. They are shipping equipment like never before, I traced the supply lines and found that Black Manta and his crews are moving the stuff secretly underwater to a hidden site somewhere in the South Pacific maybe even Indian ocean." Jake stroked his chin, suddenly a call came in on his hologlove, Jake saw that it was Aqualad. Overwatch excused himself for a moment to take the call outside. Patching the line through Jake saw Kaldur behind cover as red bolts flew past them.
"Overwatch, Alpha team successfully infiltrated the cargo ship and found the weapons being shipped. You were right, the pirates that were listed in the report are none other than Black Manta's mercenaries. We have encountered them and have pushed them back slightly but I feel like we should evac now while we have the chance." The Atlantean spoke with urgency between breaths as more rounds flew over his covered position.
"Do it, you've gotten all the intel you could. Evac and RV with Bravo team, afterwards return to base. We have some serious work to do." Overwatch ended the call before returning to Slade. "I'm guessing you heard all of that."
"Yep, and by the looks of it, you're gonna need my help on this one. I'll be the first to admit that you and Batman could put up one hell of a fight against the League but you are fighting against the League, the whole Bialyan military, Black Manta, assuming that is all who are involved." Slade spoke with tactical intent. Before the conversation could go any further, the sound of quad-bikes and jeeps could be heard approaching their position fast. Taking up defensive positions, the pair saw a small army of Bialyan troops advancing on their position.
"Damn shepherd, he must have seen one of us come in and told everyone in town." Jake argued, really mad at himself for being so careless when landing. Attaching his extension piece to his pistol, Overwatch started opening fire at the combatants while Deathstroke followed suit a small and portable grenade launcher. Firing 40mm canisters containing a powerful sleeping agent, any soldier that was not wearing a mask almost instantly dropped into the sand. Unfortunately, the ones inside the jeeps were safe from the initial wave of gas and quickly donned chemical masks to shield them from the effects.
Making an advance from the house, Slade distracted the jeeps' machine guns by firing his assault rifle and forcing them to take cover and not be able to look at Overwatch who was quickly closing the distance. Leaping on the first of the five jeeps, Overwatch tossed a flashbang through the gunner's hatch and waited for the soldiers to crawl out of the armoured car. As the stunned soldiers exit, Jake quickly subdued them using either his pistol or taser before proceeding to the next jeep.
After finishing off the last jeep, Jake called Miss Martian to see what the status of Alpha and Bravo teams were. Thankfully no one was injured and Bravo had just been picked up, asking for a ride home, Megan told Jake that the team will be at his location in approximately twenty minutes. Informing Slade of the location of the jet and giving him the access codes, the two bid their temporary farewells, agreeing to meet each other at Mount Justice in twelve hours.
Just as the Batjet exited visual range, the bioship touched down in front of Jake's little sand home. Getting onboard, Jake order Megan to gun the throttle and head for Mount Justice while he tries to organise the latest pieces of intel.
Mount Justice 12/11/2022 1730hrs
Just as the team landed, Batman and Green Arrow alongside Red Arrow approached the exhausted team. "Robin, Artemis, you two stay back. The rest of you wash up and get some rest, tomorrow is going to be a big day for all of us." Batman ordered while gesturing for the three arriving heroes to go to the briefing room.
Pulling up the holographic computer screens Batman and Overwatch composed all the intel so that it somewhat makes sense to the non-super detectives in the room. Going over the information with the rest of the group, Batman explained that the only way to figure out what is going on would be to infiltrate a League of Assassins hideout to gain access to their systems. Confident that the likelihood of the entire plan being present at just one of the hideout being close to nothing there would have to be two simultaneous hits on two different locations. The archers would attack a small intel cache that was hidden in Athens while Batman, Robin and Overwatch attack a small stronghold in Rome.
After gearing up for their stealth assignments, the strike teams left via a single Zeta tube jump to a hidden safe house close to Bari in Italy which was conveniently placed close to both mission objectives. As everyone left on super bikes, the safe house was left silent again in the middle of no-where like nothing had just happened. Speeding in different directions, the two teams set their sights on their respective League of Assassins targets.