| MOUNT JUSTICE
| August 13, 15:22
"WHEN YOUR MISSION relies on subterfuge, resist the urge to go on the offensive..." Captain Atom lectured the team. The Justice League decided that the team - being a covert operations team - should have some idea of what espionage entails. The pros and cons, what to do and what not to do, how to avoid blowing up something or someone during a mission and what use that could be in fights.
Based on past missions slash adversaries the team has encountered and their 'explosions per missions' ratio (ten explosions in three official missions) being a red flag for the team as it is... they definitely could use a class like this.
Only problem was, the class was so beyond boring that Kamila would rather be single handedly fighting Eobard Thawne - Aka the Reverse Flash - than sit in this cave listening to the hero talk any longer.
To entertain herself for the past hour, she's been scribbling down small notes and passing them to either the speedster on her right, or the archer to her left. A few moments earlier, before Wally had sneakily speed off, the three of them were talking about plans to hang out at big belly burger in Star City then go patrolling around the city.
When one person would be writing, or whenever they'd need to pretend to pay attention because Captain Atom was looking their way, Kamila would feel her eyes turn blue and she'd start 'erasing' a few words on the holographic whiteboard.
"... last thing you wanted is to risk exposing yourself and the team..." the hero continued as Kamila started to draw different hero logos on the board, including the Superman shield, the Batman crest, the Flash's lightning bolt, and many others. The sketches would disappear every time the man turned, so he of course didn't know.
Wally had made more than a few trips to the kitchen during the class. His latest trip brought back a banana. The one before that two of M'gann's cookies that the girl had made the night before.
Kamila had glared at him until he gave her one.
Kamila looked over at Artemis and noticed the girl had a piece of gun that she was stretching out, biting down on one end and pulling the other with two fingers. Kamila hit the side of her stool and caught the girl's attention, nodding to the gum to ask what she was doing.
The girl shrugged and looked back to the hero in front of her as he kept speaking, "...because a covert operation means keeping to the shadows..."
Kamila rested her cheek on the palm of her hand as she looked around at the rest of her team. Robin had probably gone over a similar lecture like this from Batman while in training - like Kamila had when Canary took her out on her first stealth mission in Star City years ago, and like Batman had before her mission a few days prior. The girl then leaned forward a but and noticed that her atlantean second in command was actively falling asleep as he was taking notes.
"... concealing your identities, infiltrating your targets, and that means advanced research," Captain Atom continued as he wrote down a few key words on the board. Kamila sighed and looked over to M'gann, silently hoping the girl would hear her mental plea to set up a mind link so she could talk to someone. Sadly, M'gann was otherwise occupied and looking at a very bored Superboy as he extended his arms over his head, and let out loud yawn, cutting off the captain as he explained how you must always remain alert on stealth missions.
"This is boring, isn't it?" Captain Marvel asked, snapping the attention of the team back to focus. M'gann nearly jumped as she looked away from Superboy, and Kaldur's head snapped up as if he'd been awake the entire time.
The Martian was quick to reassure the man, "oh no, Captain, it's quite-"
"Yeah, this is boring," Superboy interrupted.
"All right, let's learn in the field," the man waved a hand and used the keyboard to look up a case folder labeled both classified and confidential.
" This is a cold case. Vietnam era," he opened the file and a bunch of government information appeared on the screen, "Captain Nathaniel Adams, United States Air Force. Convicted in 1960 of murdering Air Force General Clement Lemar. Adams died in prison, but I've received a reliable tip saying he was framed. Your assignment: investigate. Prove Adams' innocence, or reconfirm his guilt and report back to me."
"Really?" Superboy asked as he crossed his arms, "you need superpowered operatives for this?"
Kamila threw a rolled up piece of paper at the clone's head where she had scribbled the words 'shut up!' on it.
Captain Atom simply smirked and nonchalantly gesture back to the notes from the previous lecture, "Oh you're so right! I'll continue the lecture-"
"NO!" The team shouted as Kamila yawned, causing them to look at her a bit weirdly.
"Just the word lecture makes me tired."
⚡︎
| LAS VEGAS
| August 13, 20:09 PDT
KAMILA, WALLY AND Superboy stood outside the casino in civilian clothing. Miss Martian and Robin were currently infiltrating the pentagon (as one does). The girl impersonating a military captain as Robin recorded the conversation using his tech. Kaldur and Artemis were over in Honolulu talking to Adams' kids to see if they know anything. The team was planning on using all the information to cross reference the what they had all gathered.
Now, Kamila - who was constantly making sure her grey streak was hidden to help conceal her identity - was wearing a black cocktail dress with a black leather Jacket - different from the one she wears as Astra - and standing outside of a casino with her loud speedster half-secret boyfriend and the clone of one of the most recognizable heroes in history. Wearing the merch of said hero.
Kamila sighed as she pulled out the fake ID Captain Atom gave her after releasing the tree of them were too young to enter the club, and the three fake journalist cards - two of which were for interns.
"You think Atom is gonna realize he gave a seventeen year old a fake ID using my face that makes me twenty one? Or would I get to keep it?" Kamila asked her mission partners, and Wally raised an eyebrow.
"What are you gonna do with that ID, Kam?" He asked as the three of them walked towards the Casino's entrance, "You planning on throwing a rager or something?"
The girl shook her head, "no, but the fact that was the first thing you thought of proves my point."
Superboy looked over at her, "what point?"
"That Captain Atom should not have given me a fake with my face on it," the girl walked over to the front door and was stopped by one of the security guards.
"Excuse me ma'am, we're gonna need to see some ID," the man said as he looked over the trio with a bored expression.
Kamila nodded and pulled out her ID along with her journalist and the intern badges. The man raised as eyebrows at the badges so Kamila elaborated, "I'm a journalist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal looking to interview a former marine who said he'd meet me here? I have two interns trailing me, I hope that will be okay?"
The man looked between her and the ID and eventually sighed as he moved to the side so she could enter. The girl gave him a polite nod and gave the two younger boys a fist bump each once they were out of sight. Captain Atom had given her the script for what to say in case they got stopped outside, which clearly came in handy.
Eventually, the three teens made their way to a table in the back of the casino where their target sat, playing a game of blackjack and drinking beer from a tall glass.
"Lieutenant Yarrow?" Superboy asked the man. The former marine looked over to the trio and shook his head.
"No," he said, "I retired the uniform and the title. Now I'm just Mister Yarrow, but you can call me Henry," he looked at the dealer "hit me."
The younger man placed a King of Spades next to his two and ten
-diamonds, "twenty two, bust. Also, sir, no one under twenty-one is allowed in the casino- er-" he looked up at the Kamila Wally and Superboy, "you are under twenty, yes?"
Wally was about to speak up but Kamila elbowed him, though she didn't stop Superboy from speaking, "in weeks or months?"
(Kamila made a note to hit the clone over the head with a chair or shock with him with her powers after this.)
The elder man laughed, "cute," he told the clone before addressing Kamila, "you must be the journalist with her two interns?" Kamila nodded, "C'mon, my luck's run out anyway. Let's find a place to talk."
⚡︎
"KAM LOOK!" WALLY whispered excitedly as he pointed to the all-you-can-eat buffet, "Can I...?"
The girl smiled at him, knowing he used his speed to run across the country must have taken a bit out of him, "go for it, but be quick we're still on a mission."
The speedster smirked, "I am the definition of quick, KC."
The girl felt an involuntary smile creep up on her face as she lightly shoved the boy towards the buffet and sat down with Superboy and Henry.
"You were Nathaniel Adams' defence council?" Superboy asked in a blunt tone just after they sat down.
"His friend too," the man said, "we served in 'Nam together. Only survivors of Hill four-oh-nine. Nate worked in Air Force intelligence. He suspected a weapon smuggling ring and confided as much to General Lemar. Lemar claimed to have heard rumours too, so he ordered Nate to take a squad to Hill four-oh-nine. It was an ambush. Nate... he saved my life. The rest of Nate's men weren't so lucky. He soon became convinced Lemar was part of the smuggling ring and had sent us into an ambush. I tried to talk him out of it, but Nate insisted on confronting Lemar... only to blackout moments later...
"Later on, Nate would insist he had been drugged, and I believed him because there's no way the Nathaniel Adams I knew would murder a man in cold blood. I took Nate's defence, but the prosecutor - Lieutenant Kevin Blankley - proved nates service knife was the murder weapon, and the medical examiner - Major Shirley Mason - testified there were no drugs in his system, so the judge found Nate guilty and sentenced him to life in prison... and that's where Nate died," his tone then changed as if this was a clue or a secret he's been keeping, "but get this: the judge - Cornell Wade Eiling - he married Nate's widow and raised Nate's two kids as his own! Tell me that doesn't stink too high heaven!"
Kamila's eyes widened at the statement, "That's... more than suspicious... uh- thank you for your time sir, but we should get going now."
The three teens hurried their way out of the booth and Wally pressed a hand to his comm, and Kamila made sure hers was in and on as well. The boy spoke, "You got all that Rob?"
"Yeah, and if Adam's was framed, looks like the place to start is with Shirley Mason, the medical examiner, who said Nate wasn't drugged," the Boy Wonder explained and Kamila then pressed her own finger to the comm.
"You and Miss M track down where she is and see what you can find. Radio is if you need backup. Astra, out."
⚡︎
| ANNAPOLIS
| August 14, 00:33 EDT
THUNDER RUMBLED AS Astra slid to a stop on the road with Kid Flash and Superboy landed surprisingly gently next to them. They were on a winding road just across from a huge Japanese-style mansion, which would be normal if they weren't in the middle of Maryland. Astra gave a nod to Miss Martian and felt the familiar presence of the mind link form.
"I know my grasp of earth history is based largely on earth sitcoms,.." Miss Martin said through the link once everyone was connected, "But why would a North Vietnamese general be in a nineteen-sixty-eight photograph with US personnel?"
"Good question," Robin said as he pulled up his holo computer, " this General Trang was the first person my facial recognition software identified... but that doesn't explain how Trang would be living in a mega-mansion in the States."
"That takes money and connections," Astra stated as she motioned for Kid Flash's goggles so she could use the binoculars on them. She saw the General holding up what she assumed was a drink and it looked like he was... talking to someone?
"Two things participation in an illegal smuggling ring might provide..." Kid said as Astra handed him the goggles back.
"So... maybe Adam's was right?" Superboy started, and then he noticed something, "Wait a second! Thang's not alone in there... someone's with him! Someone with a sword!"
The eyes of Robin's mask widened, "Shirley Mason was killed by a sword!" He mentally exclaimed.
"Then what are we waiting for?!" KF said, getting ready to run. In a similar fashion, Superboy crouched down to jump over and said "Let's get him!"
Astra grabbed Kid's arm and stopped him before he took off, "no!" She called out through the link, " This is a covert mission. The whole point is that we keep the shadows."
"Like in Captain Atom's lecture," Robin added as he sent Miss Martian a look, "Miss M, you're up!"
The green girl put on her hood and flew away camouflaged against the night sky.
Kid gave the two experienced heroes an odd look, then spoke outside of the link, "You two were paying attention?"
The girl shook her head, "Nah, Batman gave me that same lecture for my Markovia mission, and when the bat lectures you on something..."
Robin finished her statement, "You can't really forget it."
(Kamila still has nightmares sometimes when she thinks about the lecture they'd forgotten after the New York incident...)
Suddenly, Superboy snapped up and jumped over to the mansion where M'gann was. Astra was quick to react and asked what was going on through the link, "Miss M?"
"We're under attack and- Superboy! You're cut?! But- How?! A Kryptonian can't be cut!" She replied, and Kamila cursed. She let she powers travel along her hero suit and it quickly changed from its normal teal and yellow to dark greys and blacks. She then nodded at Kid Flash and Robin, the three of them running over to the building.
Well, Kamila and Wally ran. Dick disappeared, but the sound of a grappling hook could be heard.
Astra moved to stand in front of the speedster as he ran towards her and prepared to launch the boy in the air with a boost that - with his momentum - would launch him into the window above.
As they executed their over-practised move, Wally flipped over the girl and managed to send her a two-finger salute and a wink before refocusing on the task at hand. Kamila rolled her eyes affectionately and summoned a lightning bolt to strike her and then the opened window, allowing her to quickly make her way up to the window.
Her first reaction when she reached the fight was 'Holy fuck is that a samurai with a lightsaber?!' And her second was 'Oh shit the samurai with a light sabre is about to kill Wally!'
Astra had her reflexes to thank as she sped over to the fucking samurai with a light sabre and managed to grab hold of the dull side of the blade and she realized that the glowing light from the sword wasn't because it was a lightsaber. It's because it had a foreign energy signature. One she often associated with Captain Marvel...
She knew she could absorb it. It was hard, given the fact it wasn't pure electricity, but the sword dulled in its brightness. Before Astra could return the blade to a normal katana, the man pulled the blade away from her, and then threw the girl across the room.
She ended up landing next to Superboy and started to get up as Robin swung into the room. "NO!" The boy shouted, and Kamila looked over to see four shurikens headed straight at the girl.
Kid Flash was soon in front of Astra and offered her a hand. She took hold and thanked the boy before the two of them looked over at Superboy.
"You alright?" Kamila asked the clone, noticing the long cut across his chest, effectively cutting the S shield in half.
The boy didn't react, so Kid Flash tried to snap him out of it, "C'mon Supey! Get it together!"
That seemed to do the trick as the clone looked up from the cut and small amount of blood staining his skin, "what? Oh, right," he snapped back into focus and glared at the samurai, "Let's take him!"
The team small portion of the team changed, Wally using his speed and M'gann flying to quicken the attack. Astra was right behind them, but at the last moment, she noticed something and rolled out of the way with Robin.
RRRIIIPPPPPP!!
"Hey!" Wally yelled from under the tapestry of an elephant that was formerly resting of the wall, "Who turned out the lights?!"
"Get this off me!" Superboy's muffled yell was heard through the sheet.
Kamila sighed and pulled the tapestry off Miss Martian, Superboy and Kid Flash. The speedster groaned, "This is... so embarrassing. Practically a comedy."
Astra walked over to the hall that was revealed from under the tarp, seeing that Robin was already there and investigating the dead body of General Trang's body.
"I would be..." the Boy Wonder stared, "if Trang's corpse didn't scream 'tragedy'"
⚡︎
| CENTRAL CITY
| August 13, 00:45 CST
THE TEAM MET up at CC. JITTERS, a coffee shop that Iris used to work at years ago. It was probably the most popular coffee shop in Central City, but one thing that made it so special was the menu items.
Just under half of the items on the menu were named after Team Flash - the heroics side, not the tech support. You could find items like The Flash, a normal coffee with an extra shot of expresso, The Astra, which is just a caramel Frappuccino with yellow sprinkles and a dash of vanilla, and The Kid Flash, which is the decaf version of The Astra.
(They also have seasonal rouge-inspired drinks... which would be slightly problematic if the Killer Frost Latte wasn't absolutely amazing. Plus, Frost seemed to appreciate it and vowed never to attack anyone in or around CC. JITTERS, which was a slight relief.)
Kamila walked up to the counter and The rest of the team sat around one of the tables, even pulling up a few chairs so they could sit together. The girl noticed that the barista working that night was Stacy Conwell, a friend of Iris' when they worked together whose dad used to work with Kamila's before his death. The two of them were friends with one another, and Kamila knew that the girl wouldn't mind the team staying in past closing as long as she and Wally were here.
She sent the barista a smile, "Hey Stacy!"
The girl looked up from the counter she was whipping down and smiled at the younger girl, "Kamila! Are you here with friends? You need to come by more often! How are you?"
Kamila laughed, "I'm good Stacy, I've been busy, sorry I haven't come by that much," she then explained how she and her friends were working on a summer project and needed a place to work. Stacy obviously was okay with that and asked what they'd like to drink.
"Wally is with you right?" She poked her head to see over the taller girl's head and waved at Wally, "Hi Wally! Tell your aunt I say hi too!" Stacy then wrote something down, "Alright so an Astra with extra caramel and a Kid Flash with extra vanilla syrup and whipped cream for you two, right? What would your friends like?"
Kamila thought for a second and decided she'd get Robin and M'gann two Kid Flashes, a Flash for Kaldur, and two Astras for Superboy and Artemis. Kamila walked back to the table and repeated what she had ordered for the group.
"- an Astra for me and a Kid Flash for Wally," she said as she placed the last drink on the table and sat down. Everyone aside from Wally looked at her a bit weirdly, "...What?"
Artemis was the first to ask, in a silent whisper so Stacy wouldn't hear, "You guys have drinks named after you?"
Wally stopped drinking to answer the archer, "Yeah, they have drinks named after the three of us, Vibe and like three of our rogues."
Robin looked at them weirdly, "Wait- who is vibe? I've never heard of them?"
"He's a friend, pretty local and not really interested in being a worldwide hero, don't worry about it," Kamila briefly explained, before giving M'gann a look, "Megs?"
The girl nodded and opened the link, "everyone online?" Nods went around the table in response.
They all pulled out their phones and opened up the group chat that they shared, (named by Kamila: 5 unreliable teens and 2 tired parents) and they began.
"Did everyone download the annotated photo we found in the dead woman's hand?" Robin asked like any normal person would. Almost everyone gave different responses confirming that they'd downloaded the image, but Superboy hadn't said anything.
"Superboy?" M'gann asked in concern, snapping the boy out of his daze caused by his injury.
"What? Uh- Yeah. The photo. It's downloaded," the clone finally responded, causing a look of worry to spread across M'gann's face.
"Is it your wound? Does it still hurt?" She asked in a concerned tone, but the clone reassured her that it was just a scratch, and for the team to move on.
"Alight, so the cave's facial recognition software identified almost everyone in the photo except for the little kid," Kamila explained as she took another sip from her drink, "anyways, we think the photo was taken in nineteen sixty-eight. The year Adams was charged with murder."
Robin continued, "The only players, not in the photo are Nathaniel Adams himself, General Wade Eiling who was the judge at Adams' court marshal. Eiling sentenced Adams to life in prison where he died... after which, Eiling married Adams' wife and raised his two children, Randall and Peggy."
"This boy... could he be the assassin?" M'gann asked, referring to the samurai the team - sans Artemis and Kaldur - had fought, "The one Trang called Roko? Trang said he had protected him since Roko was a child. But Roko said he was loyal to someone other than Trang."
"It's a good bet that someone was our missing CIA spook, Alec Rois. His Dossier listed numerous nasty spectacles, including brainwashing," Robin explained, referring to the military documents he had copied while in the Pentagon.
"This photograph is looking more and more like a hit list!" Artemis exclaimed through the link, "Somehow Rois and Roko found out we were investigating the Adams case..."
"and decide to tie up loose ends," Kamila glumly noticed as she took another sip of her drink.
Wally continued her train of thought, "That means either Sergeant Polk or Adams' old buddy, Henry Yarrow, or the next to die and if so... it's kind of our fault!"
Robin sighed, "So what's our next move?"
Kamila looked at Kaldur once she realized he hadn't added anything to the conversation, once he did snap out of his temporary daze, Kamila explained the plan.
"We'll split the team. Half of us will head over to Metropolis and investigate Polk, while the others head out to Las Vegas to protect Yarrow.
⚡︎
| LAS VEGAS
| August 14, 00:17 PDT
KAMILA, WALLY, DICK and Superboy sat behind a bush, wearing civilian clothing, trying to determine what they would be doing next.
Kamila kept on her Uniform Jacket simply because Superboy was still wearing his Superman T-shirt. She also wore white-washed blue jeans and a white shirt.
"Not too fancy," Robin said, "looks like Yara wasn't on the take like the others."
" I don't know I sense a lot of tech coming from the place," Kamila said as she flashed her eyes blue and yellow, "Maybe it's a really expensive smart house?"
Wally shrugged, "I dunno, I like the guy. We should get in there and warn him he's in danger-"
The speedster was cut off by the house blowing up and throwing the group back a few yards. Kamila and Wally quickly recovered and stood up to look at the fire that was burning.
"Yarrow was inside!" They yelled in sync and took off. A boom of thunder followed Kamila as she sprinted off.
The two teens ran in circles around the burning house. The fire began funnelling from the wind force created by the two of them running. Occasionally, Kamila would lap Wally and he would groan in playful annoyance as lighting hit the ground around the girl's footsteps.
Eventually, after what Kamila counted was six hundred and thirty two laps of the house in thirty seconds, the fire was down to just smouldering wood and the two stopped running. The two of them were panting and resting their hands on their knees. Kamila reached inside of her jacket and pulled out a speedster protein bar from S.T.A.R. Labs and handed it to her boyfriend. He was gonna need the four thousand calories to replenish his energy.
"Fast work, KF and C!" Kamila looked over the wreckage and noticed the arm of the former marine, the one with the patriotic eagle tattoo just past his shoulder.
"Bit fast enough," Kamila said glumly as she looked at the body. She felt a hand brush against her own and noticed it was Wally's.
"Yarrow's dead," Wally continued as Robin stood next to him. The youngest boy asked how they knew it was him, and Wally pointed out how he had the same tattoo.
"I don't get it. Roko's MO was swords and Shuirkens," Superboy complained, motioning to the wreckage around them.
"But Rois' MO included Demolitions... this confirms they're working together to hit the hit list," Robin explained.
"Ah shit, so if Kaldur and the other girls don't have any better luck with Polk, then he's dead, too," Kamila pieced together as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah, and if he dies any chance we had a breaking this case will too..." Wally says sadly. The group looked over the destroyed house once more, then a beep was heard through their comms.
"Aqualad to Astra, do you read?"
"Here, What's up?" After a few moments, Kamila nodded, "Copy, on our way."
⚡︎
| ST. GEORGE
| August 14, 03:26 MDT
THE TEAM LANDED the bioship not too far away from the hanger's entrance. Everyone - save for Superboy, Robin and Artemis, who either didn't need or want it - were dressed in their dark stealth wear. Looking up, Astra Noticed that M'gann was flying overhead in case anything were to drop down from the ceiling. This place screamed trap.
Superboy grunted, "can we get this over with?" he asked rather rhetorically once they were in the middle of the warehouse.
Astra felt the lights turn on around them as the ceiling high above the ground buzzed with power, and a voice echoed through the open space, "We can Indeed."
The team all got into their respective fighting positions, and Kamila scared the room to find three men. The first-
"You're Rako - General Trang's protégé - all grown up to become his murder!" M'gann yelled at the samurai with a lightsaber.
The second-
" Which means you must be the CIA spook - Alec Rois!" Artemis yelled at the man in a suit.
"Alec Rois is dead," the man said in a serious tone, which meant jack shit seeing as he was standing right there.
"So you're his ghost! Whatever!" Astra said as she rolled her eyes.
And the third-
"That leaves the big boss," Robin started, and Kid Flash glared at the man on the catwalk.
"Henry Yarrow," the speedster said with a thin layer of malice over his words.
(Kamila would like to note that the DUN DUN DUNNNNN is very much applied)
"You don't seem surprised," the formerly 'dead' man said with a smirk as if he won a fight that hadn't even started, "did you also guess you were walking into a trap?"
"We did, actually," Astra said as she pulled out her bo-staff and extended it to its full length.
"Not much of a trap, though," KF continued, "since we outnumber you seven to three!"
The treacherous man smirked and let out a low laugh as if there was a hidden joke in his next statement, "After forty years in the arms game, kid, let me offer you a little tip... quality trumps quantity. My friend is holding a dead man switch. So, anything makes him unhappy - or causes him to let go - this whole warehouse goes boom."
Kamila's eyes widened at the danger the team was truly in at the moment. She flashed her eyes blue and yellow with electric sparks and looked around to see if she could locate the bombs.
The girl internally grinned as she spotted them directly under her feet. She closed her eyes and after a few moments of focusing, the bombs were disarmed and disconnected from the trigger.
The boss man on the catwalk crept talking, now pointing a finger at Superboy angrily, "You keep that in mind, son, I see that 'S' and I can guess what it means, but your little palls aren't invulnerable, even if you are-"
The samurai smirked as he moved his enhanced katana, "Him?! Invulnerable?!" He cackled, "My sword proved otherwise!
The elder man looked at him oddly, "That proves nothing, Rako, your sword was forged by our stolen government X-Ionizer," he explained, "Your sword, could cut the real Superman!"
Astra looked around to see if she could spot Robin after sensing his holo glove and other tech weakening as he slipped into the shadow. Kaldur tightened his hands to fists and called back attention to the soon-to-be fight, "perhaps we might return to the matter at hand..."
"Apologies," Yarrow set unapologetically, "Old men are so easily distrac- wait a minute... WHERE IS THE BOY WONDER?"
Yarrow went to pull out his gun as Robin's Joker Venom-exposed Cackle echoed from each direction. The boy wonder then flipped down from the bannisters using his grappling hook and landed a hard kick to the man's chest, spewing out a terrible joke, "Flipping your way now!"
As the man's back hit the ground he called out to Rois down below, "Rois! Let's blow this popsicle stand!"
Rois began to panic as he repeatedly tried to press the button, to no avail "I- I can't! Something is holding my finger down!"
Artemis pulled back an arrow and shot one at the man's hand, causing him to cry out a no in defeat as Kid Flash did a flip to him in the chest, cheering out a yes to contradict the man.
Astra fizzled out to an old outlet and reappeared behind the samurai who was letting his ego take over as she looked at Aqualad's duel swords.
"You young fool, no sword stands up to mine!" The man said and Astra nodded at Aqualad.
The Atlantean willed his water bearers to change shape and simply blast his eyes with water, " then I should not use swords," Aqualad said as the man stumbles into Astra, who let a large shock of electricity go through his body, allowing him to pass out.
The girl offered the Atlantean a fist bump, but her attention was immediately snapped up to the catwalk where Robin was. In a panic, Kamila used her speed to zip up the nearby stairs and skid to a stop behind the boy, only to see that Superboy had gotten there first and the bullets bounced off of him harmlessly and into the chest of Yarrow.
"Huh," the man mumbled as he grabbed for the bullet wound, "I- I guess... the kid...was... invulnerable..."
Kamila sped over to the gun and made sure to kick it away from the man - and herself - out of habit and singled for Miss Martain to read his mind. Once she had flown up to the catwalk, the green girl's eyes began to change from an amber-like orange to a glowing white. Then a few moments later, the team was on the bioship heading for the cave, ready to report their findings to Captain Atom.
⚡︎
| MOUNT JUSTICE
| August 14, 11:55
THE TEAM GATHERED around in the cave's briefing room where Captain Atom stood, waiting for their explanation and what conclusion they had come to after their mission. Kamila and M'gann stepped forward, and like they discussed on the ride back, began presenting the information.
Kamila brought up the image of Captain Adams while the alien girl started to explain what they had discovered, "It begins and ends with Nathaniel Adams. Adams uncovered evidence of a weapons smuggling ring and brought the intel he found of a weapons drop to his superior officer - General Lemar. Unfortunately, Lemar was part of the ring and saw Adams' intel as an opportunity. Lemar could get rid of Adams and the head of the ring - Henery Yarrow.
"Yarrow was only a lieutenant, and the general hated taking orders from him, so Lamar tipped off their North Vietnamese contact General Trang. Yarrow was told that Trang had simply been instructed not to show at the drop, but Lemar secretly ordered things to ambush the squad instead."
Wally walked up and continued explaining while Kamila continued to pull up the evidence that they had found to back up their story, "They were all meant to die, including Yarrow, but Adams spoiled Lemar's plan by heroically, saving himself and Yarrow. So now Yarrow has two problems, his incorruptible buddy Nate, who knew Lemar was part of the ring and Lemar himself who tried to have Yarrow killed. So Yarrow pitted one problem against the other. It wasn't hard to get Adams riled up against Lemar, and it wasn't hard to drug Adams' drink, either. So Yarrow sent Adams to confront Lamar and the drug took care of Nate. Then enters Yarrow's man Polk who took care of Lemar, using me knife to frame him
" the trial that followed was a joke. Nearly everyone involved - Yarrow Mason, Blankly, and Polk - was a member of the ring," Kid Flash finished explaining, to which Captain Atom simply nodded before asking his own question.
"What about Eiling the judge at the trial?"
Kamila brought up the image of the judge and the one Robin and M'gann had found, "As far as we know, and looking at the photo of the rings' conspirators, he probably believed that Adams was guilty. They did a pretty decent job at covering up their tracks all things considered."
"Did Yarrow's deathbed confession confirm that?" The hero asked with a raised eyebrow, recalling how the team explained they had Miss M search through the man's mind after he got shot.
The Martian girl shook her head, she had already explained to the team that she couldn't tell if the judge had been honest or not, " I'm new at reading non-telepathic minds, and Yarrow died seconds after we linked," the young archer continued from there, "Yeah, he died for the second time. 'Course the first it wasn't actually Yarrow. It was Polk who had the same tattoo."
Kamila pulled up an image of the whale tattoo they had found on each of the corpses and let Kaldur explain what they had found, "When we - Artemis, M'gann and I - searched Polk's home we were meant to think he had packed a bag and fled, but the height of the body at Yarrow's residence match Polk, not Yarrow."
"And we found Intel among the debris tipping us to the airfield in St. George," Superboy explained and Robin stepped up next to the clone to close off the debrief, "We knew it was all too easy. We knew we were being set up. So, we were ready, and came up with a plan to counter and gain the upper hand."
Captain Atom paused for a second to look over at all the team members before smirking, "Team, I'm impressed. He did good work!"
Kamila felt a smile spread across her face at the praise from the elder hero. She then turned off the screens behind her and walked over to Wally's side, but not without noticing Artemis who was looking away with her opposite hand holding on to her right arm.
"Yeah," she said in a small voice, "work that comes too late to help Nathaniel Adams."
Captain Atom walks over to the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder, " but not too late for his kids. Go tell them what kind of man their father really was."
A few moments then passed, and Artemis and Kaldur were in civvies, planning on using the Zenga tubes to confront the kids.
By the time they had left, Captain Atom excused himself with a final good job and began walking words the hanger. Kamila decided to follow, and with a few hurried steps began walking next to him.
"So, Captain Adams," Kamila looked over at the man with a smirk, "you planning on revealing yourself to your kids?"
The hero looked at the girl with a slightly surprised look and raised an eyebrow, "What gave me away?"
"You do realize you just use your own name for your hero ID right? Captain Atom being Captain Adams is just hiding in plain sight," she looked at the shiny tin-like skin the man had, "Well, not in plain sight, but you get what I mean. Plus, it would explain how you got the tip. nobody necessarily gave it to you, you've lived through it through it so you already knew what was happening. On top of that it would've raised more suspicion if you were the one doing the investigation, and this gave us the perfect chance to get field practice in espionage."
Captain Atom (Nathaniel? Ew no that's too personal,) chuckled as the two of them stood by the elevator doors, "You know, Flash talks a lot about you, says you're ready for the next step. At first, not gonna lie I was a bit skeptical, but I'm starting to see what he means," the elevator opened, and the man stepped through the door while Kamila just stood there in shock, "see you around, Astra."
Ready for the next step?
?
"TOOK YOU LONG enough. Escaping from a girl in St. George Utah shouldn't be that hard, Alec."
"Escape is easy, but you try having a seven-foot Cambodian sometime. How did it go on your end?"
"Yarrow took the fall for everything. The smuggling ring in sixty-eight and the killings this week."
"No one suspects you were Yarrow's boss the whole time? That you were in the picture because you took the picture?"
"Are you kidding? Captain Atom is my new best friend, which should serve us well in the days ahead."
"Wicked, Wade. Very wicked indeed."
A/N
Word Count: 6936
For those confused about the ending bit, there's a few panels in the comic this chapter is based on where you find out that Captain Atom is Captain Adams (which I kinda did a little differently) but you also find out that Wade Eiling aka the judge knows his ID and later is considered a best friend of his. Eiling wanted CA to be guilty, and CA wanted to prove that Eiling was dirty. This will happens sort of off to the side while Artemis and Kaldur are talking to CA's kids again and tell them "hey! Ur dad was innocent!"
In the last scene, it's a conversation between Wade Eiling the judge and Alec Rois the trigger bomb guy in Eiling's office at the Pentagon.
I need to stop trying to fit the CW show into this... I mean it started with mentioning Felicity and Cisco, and now CC. JITTERS exists... like at this rate I'm gonna have to go back and edit every single chapter containing Barry Allen to describe him as Grant Gustin so I don't accidentally do it in the future 😭😭
Also, I keep mentioning the group chat that the team has, so I might do a group chat / texting chapter... sorta as a team bonding type thing you know? Like... sometime around Terrors? Maybe sooner? Later? Idk. It would be short and It would legit have no plot importance other than team building and relationship development with the characters and KC.
So yeah! Every few chapters imma put a little message abt the playlist in case anyone has song recommendations to add :)
(The Spotify link is commented on the chapter ASTRAPHOBIA under the playlist but lmk and I'll past it here as well!)
DENIAL IS NEXT YALL 🫶