Ruby: And we're back everyone! Now that the meddlesome author is out of the way *points handle at a tied-up struggling, gagged me* we can have some real fun. Unfortunately, I can't change the story, he protected it with a stupid password, but I can still do the intro.
Sapphire: Sister, please stop this. Release author-sama!
Ruby: Never! I am the all-powerful author of this story and I- Aah!!!
*Ruby is grabbed by a hand. The hand belongs to Rin Tohsaka. She looked pissed.*
Rin: You stupid wand!!! Where the hell did you go!
Ruby: R-R-Rin! What are you doing here?
Rin: Trying to find you. I finally tracked you down, to find you here in this- What is this place?
Sapphire: This is the author's story room. It is where author-sama writes his stories.
Rin: What does he write about? *She looks at the computer. Then she turns to me angrily.*
Rin: Y-You! *Her voice was shaking in anger. She pointed a finger at me, preparing a Gandr shot and revealing her magic crest* Y-Y-You!!! You've been writing stories about SHIROU. I'm going to kill you!!!
*I struggle against my bonds*
*Sapphire turns to the audience*
Sapphire: The author wants me to say, "Disclaimer. You should find the true owners by yourselves." You know you shouldn't be so lazy author-sama.
*I scream in agony as a response*
Caribbean Sea, June 22, 20:08 ECT
A red ship was flying over the seas. It was a Martian Bioship belonging to Miss Martian. She and the rest of the team were riding inside, preparing for their first real mission.
"We're approaching Santa Prisca," Miss Martian said.
Shirou remembered that this mission was to explore the factory that sells the drug, Venom, a strength inducing drug that is commonly used by the super villain Bane. The factory has stopped supplying Venom, but is still working at full capacity.
"Drop zone A in 30," Shirou reported, looking at the screen.
Kaldur stood up, and his seat morphed into the ground. Shirou was amazed that something like this existed. The bioship was remarkable. Kaldur pressed his belt buckle, turning his suit black.
"Ready," he said.
"Putting bioship in camoflage mode," Miss Martian reported.
The ship turned invisible and flew down low. A hole opened in the floor, which Aqualad jumped in. Once the floor closed, Shirou saw with reinforced eyes Aqualad jumping out of the ocean and running on the beach. He then deactivated the heat and motion sensors.
"Drop zone B," Shirou reported.
Miss Martian manipulated the bioship to send ropes down to Kid Flash and Robin. Wally pressed the lightning insignia on his shirt, turning his suit pitch black. Superboy, Shirou, and Robin didn't need to dress in any more black as it is.
"How cool is this," Wally said, showing off his clothes to Megan.
"Very impressive," she said, changing her clothes to give a more black, stealthy appearance.
"Uh, that works too," Wally sighed. "Hey, Supey, not too late to put on the new stealth tech."
"No capes, no tights," he said. "No offense."
"It totally works for you..." Megan said, staring. She then realized that she was staring and got flustered. "...in that you can totally do good work in those clothes."
Embarrassed, she camouflaged and flew down.
"I have to go with Supery on that opinion," Shirou said. "Capes, spandex, and leather just aren't my thing."
"You do realize that the red isn't good camouflage," Robin said.
"You're one to talk," Shirou replied. "You look like a traffic cone."
Robin responded with an annoyed glare, while Wally laughed. They promptly jumped down, with the rope of the bioship. Shirou flew down with some levitation magecraft. He noticed Superboy about to jump down, so he set a bounded field he had seen Rin make one time. Superboy came down with a crash.
"Knew I didn't need a line," he said, grinning.
"And yet creating a seismic event may not have helped us much with the covert," Robin snapped, annoyed.
"Don't worry, kid," Shirou said, he and Megan descending. "I set up a bounded field. It still allows people to see inside, but they can't hear us.
"Aqualad," Megan said, "drop B is go."
"Head for the factory," he replied, through a comm link. "I'll track your GPS and rendezvous ASAP."
"Roger that," Robin said.
The four explored the vast jungles of the island. They went through trees, past a waterfall. Suddenly, Shirou and Superboy stopped. They had both heard a twig snap, Superboy through his alien superhearing and Shirou through his magical reinforced hearing.
"Did you hear that?" They said, simultaneously.
"Uh, no," Kid Flash said. "Wait. Is this a superhearing thing."
"You do have great ears," Megan flirted.
"Okay, Rob," Wally said. "now what?"
He turned to find Wally missing.
"Man," Wally said, "I hate it when he does that. Shirou can you find him with your supposed 'magic?'"
He turned around to find Shirou had disappeared.
"And now there's two of them. You know I'm really starting to hate that guy," Wally complained.
Shirou was currently using the skill Presence Concealment from his father to travel in pure stealth. The skill is A+ so it is impossible for Shirou to be detected unless he gets into attack formation.
Shirou watched as the others spy on two groups of enemies, one group dressed in red robes and the other regular clothes. The two began fighting, and Shirou was about to step in to narrow down casualties, when Kid Flash stumbled down in between the two groups.
"So much for the stealthy," he said.
The leader of the normal clothes group, Bane, began shooting at Wally, but Shirou quickly protected him with Caster's Argos spell to protect him. The defensive spells has similar protections to God Hand, letting only A-ranked attacks to pierce through. Finding himself alive, Kid Flash back-flipped and ran, bullets chasing him.
Wanting to protect his friend, Superboy rushed forward and tackled Bane. However, Bane proved the better fighter, throwing him into the ground. Superboy retaliated by throwing him into a tree. As Wally was being bombarded by bullets, Robin and Shirou took this time to attack. He moved and took down several thugs with martial arts while Robin fell from the trees to assist, taking out his own share of thugs.
"Why didn't you follow my lead?" Robin asked, annoyed. "Vanish into the jungle?"
Kid Flash at the moment was punching his own thug.
"That's what you were doing?" he said. "Way to fill us in."
"Mystic did it!" Robin retaliated.
"I was just doing my one thing," Shirou said, taking out more thugs.
"We're not mind readers, you know," Kid Flash said, not hearing Shirou. He then realized what he said and looked back at Miss Martian, who had pushed a thug with her telekinesis. "Er, I'm not anyway."
"You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds," Miss Martian defended.
Aqualad, who had just came, knocked out the last thug with mystical lightning. They soon tied up the thugs to trees.
"I recognized those uniforms," Robin said. "They belong to the cult of The Kobra."
"I am certain Batman would have mentioned it if he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's venom operation," Aqualad said.
"Agreed," Robin replied, "and since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists and those goons, I'm betting Kobra came in and tossed them out. That's why normal supply lines have been cut off."
"We get it," Wally said. "Kobra wanted super cultists. Mystery solved. Radio Bats, and we'll be home in time-"
"These cultists aren't on venom," Shirou pointed out.
"He's right," Robin said. "Kobra's hoarding the stuff. We don't leave. Not until I know why."
"Until you know why?" Wally said, annoyed.
"This team needs a leader."
"And it's you? Dude, you're a 13-year-old kid who ducked out on us without a word."
"Ha ha! And you're a mature 15? You blew our cover first chance you got."
"Yeah? You don't even have superpowers!"
"Neither does Batman!"
"Duh, you're not Batman."
"Duh, closest thing we've got."
"Hey," Shirou said. "Enough fighting."
"Don't even get me started on you," Wally glared.
As Shirou backed off, Bane began to laugh. "Such clever ninos," he said. "But you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest, get you into the factory via my secret entrance."
Miss Martian began reading his mind. "There is a secret entrance but he's also hiding something." She then delved deeper into his psyche.
"Ah, ah, ah, chica," he said, mockingly. "Bane is not that easy."
"Ohh," Miss Martian said, frustrated. "He's mentally reciting football scores en Espanol. this could take a while."
"It's not complicated. The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
The teens reluctantly freed Bane, who led them to the edge of a cliff. Down, they had a perfect view of the factory. There, they discovered Kobra bringing vast amounts of product to the helicopter pad. Determined to find the buyer, the teens traveled through Bane's secret passageway, a hidden mine entrance. Once inside, both Robin and Kid Flash rushed off to find answers.
"Mystic, go after them," Aqualad ordered.
"Got it," Shirou said.
Idiots, Shirou thought. I'm going to kill them.
Shirou activated his Presence Concealment skill to sneak around the factory, spying of the cultists readying boxes of Venom for transportation. He noticed that the new boxes were being shipped off and not the ones with the older product. In the distance, Shirou heard a helicopter in the distance. He finally found the two in the control room.
"You're late," Kid Flash said.
"We've discovered that this Venom is being combined with the Blockbuster formula from Cadmus," Robin said.
"Seriously?" Shirou asked.
"Seriously," Robin said. "But we don't know who's making this stuff. Neither Kobra nor Bane has the know-how to make this stuff."
"Well, we can find that out from the buyer himself," Shirou said. "A helicopter is coming."
The three rushed out of the room with Shirou in the lead, only to find the other members of the team fighting cultists, a humanoid monster, and the villain Sportsmaster.
Immediately, the three rushed into action. Shirou saw Megan get hit with an exploding javelin courtey of Sportsmaster. He rushed to Miss Martian's side and provided healing. Then he jumped towards and attacked the villain, who blocked it with another javelin.
"Radio's jammed!" he heard Aqualad yell. Both Kaldur and Wally were under fire. "Link us up!"
Shirou felt his mind linking with the others. Everyone online? Megan broadcasted.
Yeah, Superboy thought.
Me too, Shirou thought, still battling Sportsmaster.
You know it, beautiful, Wally thought.
Good, Aqualad thought. We need to regroup.
Busy now, Robin mentally snapped.
"Not bad, kid," Sportsmaster said, as the two dueled. Kanshou and Bakuya clashed against Sportsmaster's javelin, sparks created in each clash. Sportsmaster then drew a large ball and chain that reminded Shirou of a wrecking ball. Shirou blocked the first shot, knocking the heavy ball back. Unfortunately, his blades could only defend against Sportsmaster, as the villain's weapon forced him to stay back. Shirou then switched to another style, he created Trident of Poseidon and when Sportsmaster attacked again, he locked the weapon down with the trident.
Strategic retreat, Aqualad thought. Kid, clear a path.
Kid Flash quickly knocked down the other cultists blocking the way to the exit, the other heroes in hot pursuit.
"Sorry," Shirou said. "Got to go."
He brought Sportsmaster in and kneed him in the face. Sportsmaster flew back, back-flipped, and landed on his feet, only to find his enemy had escaped. As Shirou ran, he saw Superboy struggling with the humanoid monster, who he had decided to name Mammoth.
"Hey!" he yelled, distracting Mammoth to allow Superboy throw him into a group of chasing cultists.
The two ran into the exit, and locked the door. They ran, and the door was smashed down by Mammoth.
"Mystic, Superboy," Aqualad yelled. "The support beams!"
Shirou slashed the right beam and Superboy slashed the left. Miss Martian quickly grabbed them closer, to save them from the falling debris. Safe, Kaldur lit a glowstick so they could discuss what went wrong.
"How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" Robin lamented.
"You do have the most experience," Kaldur said.
I've been doing this thing for years, Shirou mentally protested, but found it rude to interrupt.
"But perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared," Kaldur continued. "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, explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan."
"Oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands," Robin snapped.
"Dude, this team is inexperienced," Shirou said. "Being leader means that you have to help and command the team. Experience is good, but so is communication."
"He is right," Aqualad said. "If you want to be leader, you have to more communicative and open."
Robin sighed. "Ah, who am I kidding? You should lead us, Kaldur. You're the only one who can."
"Please!" Wally snapped. "I can run circles-"
"Wally, come on," Robin said. "You know he's the only one. We all do."
"Hello, Megan," Miss Martian said. "It's so obvious."
"Could have told you," Superboy said.
"I'd apply for the position, but I don't think I know you all enough," Shirou said.
Kid Flash only shrugged. "Okay," he smiled.
"Then I accept the burden," Aqualad said, turning to Robin, "until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. You were bron to lead this team, maybe not now, but soon."
He then turned towards the rest of the team. "Alright, our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island."
"Funny," Robin smirked. "I had the same thought."
The team rushed out of the cave and discussed what they've discovered. While Sportsmaster is the buyer, neither he nor Kobra has the knowledge or resources to make the Blockbuster-Venom combination. Also, it is unlikely that does two villains would just work together. As they reached the end of the tunnel, they found Bane blocking the way.
"Halt, ninos," he said. "I'm feeling explosive."
The team looked up to notice armed bombs above them. "You betrayed us," Shirou said. "Why?"
"I want my factory back," Bane said, simply.
Kid, you'll need a running start, Aqualad ordered, through telepathy.
As Kid began walking backwards, Bane explained his plan more. "So 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. Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect."
Bane pressed down one the trigger for the explosives, only to find it no longer in his hand.
"With what?" Wally said from behind him, holding the trigger. "This trigger thingy?"
Bane roared in anger. He tried to attack Wally, only to be caught by Megan's telekinesis. Superboy walked up.
"Finally," he said. "Drop him."
Bane fell down to Superboy's waiting fist.
Scene Break
A helicopter is starting. Kobra, his cultists, the henchwoman known as Shimmer, Mammoth, and Sportsmaster were ready.
"The helicopter is operational, exalted one," a cultist said to his master.
As Sportsmaster walked towards the helicopter with his package, Kid Flash ran and attacked some of the cultists.
"Take the shipment!" Kobra yelled.
Superboy landed with a crash next to the helicopter. "Go again," he said to Mammoth.
The monster roared in response to the Kryptonian's challenge. Kid Flash quickly got a cultist out of its way, and Aqualad blasted Mammoth with a torrent of water.
"Sorry," Superboy smiled. "Not the plan."
Suddenly, Sportsmaster appeared behind Superboy and blasted him with a laser. He began shooting Superboy with blasts of energy. Miss Martian, camouflaged, was about to sneak attack him from behind, but Sportsmaster sensed she was there and he caught her. Luckily, Shirou, under Presence Concealment, crept up behind him and got between them, swords in hand. Sportsmaster was forced to let the Martian go and back away.
Kid Flash and Robin took out of more of Kobra's cultists, with Kid Flash stealing one of the cultists' masks.
"I know you hate getting your hands dirty," Robin said with a smile.
"True," Kobra replied. He took off his cloak to reveal an shirtless, albino body. "But sometimes, even a god must stoop to conquer."
The two faced off, with Kobra easily fending off Robin's attacks. After a kick sent him back, Robin gritted his teeth.
"What's wrong, boy?" he asked. "You look disconcerted."
Robin then smiled, and behind him, three white birds flew out. The birds seem to be made of white thread. They began to shoot Kobra with blasts of magical energy, which Kobra was forced to dodge.
As Kid Flash took out more cultists, Aqualad electrified the water stream hitting Mammoth, knocking the beast out.
Meanwhile, Sportsmaster was still fighting off Superboy. "Thanks for the workout, but I got to fly." He catches and throws Miss Martian into Superboy, and gets into the plane and flies away. Shirou, however, smiled and revealed the trigger Bane had threatened them with. He had placed bombs in the plane. The plane blew up and Shirou saw Sportsmaster parachute from the falling plane, which hit the factory causing a massive explosion.
Back to Robin, he was losing the fight with Kobra. Kobra had caught and destroyed each of the birds and was currently stepping on Robin's chest. "I am plagued by mosquitoes," Kobra said. "Quite literally," he said, thinking of the strange birds.
"Good," Robin grunted, "cause this mosquito's might concerted over your pain."
He back-flipped to his friends, who were in fighting position.
"Another time then," he said and he began walking backwards into the darkness. Shirou quickly retaliated by throwing a Black Key into Kobra's shadow, paralyzing him. As he struggled to move, he glared. "What is this?"
"I paralyzed you with my sword," Shirou said, happily. "Only I can unparalyze you, so get comfortable."
Robin smiled, and turned to the others. "We picked the right guy to lead," Robin said to Aqualad. "Automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to Batman." The Boy Wonder laughed in relief.
Mount Justice, August 4, 01:06 EDT
Batman, at the moment, was lecturing the team on what exactly went wrong.
"A simple recon mission," Batman said, "observe and report. You'll each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes. Until then, good job."
The team looked up and stared at Batman in shock.
"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success. And how you choose who leads determines character."
A wise and inspiring man, Shirou thought. Saber would have liked him. Rin and Illya, would have been a little annoyed, however.
In An Unknown Location
Sportsmaster was reporting what happened to his masters.
"All I recovered is a single ampoule of Kobra venom."
"Peut-etre, the drug can be reverse engineered," a french accented voice said. "Mais what of our young heroes? First, Cadmus, then Mr. Twister. Now, Santa Prisca."
"Once is happenstance," a deep voice said. "Twice is coincidence. But three times is enemy action, and enemies of the Light must not stand."
"And what of the boy," a female voice said.
"He's good," Sportsmaster said. "I got the impression that he could easily kill me if he wanted. Also, he easily incapacitated Kobra."
"The boy continues to show a variety of abilities," another voice said.
"My connections say he has mystical origins," a childish voice announced.
"Then we must do more research," the deep voice stated. "He will see the Light, or die."
Rin: *stretching* All done! *smiling evily* That should take care of you.
*I was laying on the ground twitching and groaning in pain*
Rin: Well, that was fun. Goodbye. Come on you stupid wands. *She forcibly grabs both Ruby and Sapphire, then leaves*
*I slowly crawl to the computer*
Bye, guys. See you soon.
*I collapse in exhaustion.