July 19th
"And that concludes my lecture on why asking permission first is better than hoping for forgiveness. Understood?" I asked pointedly.
"Cargoooo," My lava girl whined sadly. In our base again, the sounds of Gurdurr working could be heard behind me, but I focused on Magcargo.
"Now. You can help Gurdurr out all you want. But from now on, no more messing around with other people's bases. You're lucky you did that to the base of a bunch of teenagers. If Batman finds out, we'll all be in traction."
Well, probably not, but my point was still made.
"Okay… go to work, baby girl," I scratched Magcargo's head, getting a teary-eyed smile from her before she slithered off.
That done, I walked over to Alakazam, who took my shoulder. As we teleported, I saw Gurdurr and Magcargo looking at a blueprint, before we disappeared and reappeared, the spot in front of me now taken up by Clock King. We had teleported into his lab, on top of the meditative spot set aside for Alakazam's teleports.
"Ah, Kahu! Perfect timing!" The former supervillain rushed over, a series of papers in his hands. "Some designs for your appraisal."
He handed them over to me and I flipped them open. "Oh… these are comprehensive."
"They are indeed," Clock King chuckled, watching through his mask as I held up a diagram for Alakazam. "While I was unsurprised by how much crossover there is between my old job and current one, in terms of useful technology, Robin revealed some key points I would need to account for, especially in terms of what to provide for the team."
"Is this a music player?" I asked, lifting up one diagram in particular. "For Smiley?"
"Yes, but also in order to play music that may be related to a case," Clock King looked over at Alakazam, who had placed his glasses on and started scratching at the papers as they floated in mid-air in his telekinetic grip. "What do you think?"
"Inspired, for the most part," Alakazam said. "And these will become a part of the teams standard kit?"
"For the most part," the time-based man gestured for us to follow, walking over to his side of the lab. Orca wasn't in, probably taking care of something with Giovanni, so we were alone. On a table were some small objects. "Now, while I haven't made the more esoteric items, I have a few simple prototypes. I avoided items requiring special training, so the entire team should be capable of using these. A more advanced version of the communicator I created," he tossed it over to me. It was a watch rather than a stopwatch, much less bulky, but with a new digital bit within it.
"I feel like you're going against type, adding this bit," I noted while tapping the digital screen.
"A necessity, sadly. If we wish to work with our new allies, we will need our communicators to be able to speak to theirs, and that requires something less mechanical," he said with some real sadness. "I would recommend that we keep the stopwatches however. You never know when some form of AI or advanced hacker can manipulate that watch and it's best to have a backup."
He then turned to the next device, handing it to Alakazam. It was some sort of steampunk gauntlet, with a small spike along the back and some various opening inside of it. Alakazam put it on, the device letting some noise as the gears twisting and turned before it shrank enough to fit him comfortably.
In truth, while steampunk was a good word for most of his aesthetic, the best way to describe his tech was 'gearpunk'. Powered by the precise physics of moving gears to generate energy and work.
Which was insane comic book logic, but okay.
"I'm calling it the Clockwork Gauntlet," he said proudly as Alakazam looked it over. "It can fit the watch inside it if you wish, but it's also able to launch a simple grapnel line for quick traversal. Based on the designs Robin showed me of some less advanced models Batman once used, with my own advancements of course. It's also capable of firing simple pellets of various chemicals, though I will take time to figure out what pellets would work best."
As he spoke, the gauntlet popped out the spike just a bit, then a small barrel like the kind you'd see on a revolver, with rifling on the inside of it.
"Potions," I said immediately. "Make it fire a pellet that creates clouds of potion. Not everything has to be explosions and smoke."
"Ah," Clock King's mask hid his expression, but I could imagine him blinking. "I'm afraid that didn't occur to me… in retrospect, my former lifestyle may have led me to be more offensive in terms of my strategic thinking than I realized," he turned to look over the rest of the gear. "Yes… I'll have to remember that."
I hadn't expected that. But it made sense. Easy to go from beating up cops to beating up criminals. Harder to keep in mind all the other nuances of being a hero, even for a genius.
"For now, I have a selection of more personalized weaponry that I am still waiting on parts for. Empress is also willing to look into using her unique brand of magic to empower them, though I am unsure how effective that will be before she explains further. For now, take a look."
I do so, blinking down at the weaponry in question. Slowly, I felt my lips move up. "Oh… oh those are going to be fun."
July 21st, 2010
A couple of days after Clock King introduced me, Kaldur called me with a request. A joint mission between his team and mine. Well, some of my team.
"Why exactly can't the others come?" I asked Kaldur on video comms, staring at the computer in my room.
"According to Batman, he wants to limit any unknown factors," Kaldur explained, though he looked dissatisfied. "You have a full team of Pokemon. He doesn't want to include all the rest of… Ah, right, you still haven't named yourselves."
"Neither have you," I pointed out with a chuckle before I became serious again. "Okay. Sucks, but at least like this patrols don't get interrupted too much. What's the mission?"
"A recon, into Santa Prisca," Kaldur explained.
"The Venom place?" I asked.
"You know of it?"
I scowled, rubbing my face. "Yeah, I do."
Fuck. Bane. Bane was a powerhouse. A superintelligent warrior who could become a brute on demand. And sometimes a good guy, in VERY rare circumstances.
"All right. I'm happy to come along."
"You don't seem happy?" Kaldur noted.
"I'm smiling on the inside."
With that, I climbed into the cool alien ship with the others and we flew to Santa Prisca.
It was almost exactly that simplified. About ten minutes after we started flying I got bored enough to look around.
"So… how are you guys liking your new digs?"
"You mean the vast subterranean fortress that was built into the Cave?" Robin teased.
For some reason we all stopped to think on that, feeling a bit of Deja vu before we continued.
"It's awesome!" Robin said. "We're going to break it up into different areas for all of us. And keep it secret from the League."
"Is that wise?" I asked, looking around.
"They will likely find out at some point, but there is no need to tell them," Kaldur said. "I quite like having a portion of the cave for our own, where we have no need to worry about the League's permission on how to use it."
"Yeah, it's awesome. I'm making an obstacle course!" Wally said excitedly. "Something I can really zip through."
I smiled, but then sighed. "Still, Magcargo should have asked for permission. She just thought you guys would like the extra space. Plus, I think she liked working without worrying about her big sister."
"Her sister?" M'Gann asked.
"Pele, a goddess of volcanoes."
"Pfft, sure," Wally rolled his eyes. I decided not to comment, since he seemed to be doing it out of habit more than anything. Baby steps.
"So what's the plan for the island?" I asked carefully, spinning on my chair slowly.
"We'll approach under cloak. From there, I'll drop into the ocean and slip in under the islands defenses, taking over their anti-air missiles," Kaldur explained seriously.
"And then, we go in, see what we can find out, report it to the Justice League, and reap the rewards!" Robin rubbed his gloved hands together, cackling just a bit.
"Right. So what's the plan for when things go tits up?" I asked, looking at Kaldur.
"Tits… up?" Kaldur asked, befuddled, while M'Gann glanced down at her chest in confusion.
"I'm just saying, things go wrong on missions. You'll need something simple planned out just in case, Kaldur."
"Wait, why are you telling that to him?" Robin asked, his eyes narrowing.
"So that he's prepared? You know, to tell you guys what to do in case things go wrong."
"You think Kaldur is our leader!?" Robin said, sounding immensely offended.
"..."
The whole group looks over at me, while I just blink in confusion.
Yeah, I did. I mean… look. When I was a kid, I was a huge fan of the Teen Titans cartoon, and there, Robin was the leader. The crazy, hands first, knees down, crashout leader.
But here? Kaldur was the one who I met first, the one I interacted with the most, and most importantly, he acted like the leader. He was calm, cool, spoke with authority and familiarity with the others. It was a different style from others, but it was something that I recognized in him.
I finally coughed. "I guess I jumped to assumptions. So who is the team leader?"
"No one-"
"Me-"
Kid Flash and Robin spoke at the same time, then gave each other a hard look.
"You!?"
"Yeah, me!"
"You're thirteen!"
"And I'm the most experience one here!"
"You don't have powers!"
"Neither does Batman!"
I stared at the teens fighting, sighed, and turned to M'Gann, Kaldur, and Superboy. Superboy didn't seem to care, M'Gann looked a bit embarrassed, and Kaldur looked like he shared the same exasperation as me.
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to cause some kind of contention," I said, rubbing the back of my head.
"It's all right. In truth, Batman told us to work out the leadership between ourselves. I hadn't thought it would be an issue," Kaldur said while he continued to watch his friends argue.
"Do you want to be the leader?" M'Gann asked Kaldur.
"I want us to succeed. Leadership isn't something I aspire to."
"That's what I prefer in my leaders," I mumble just under my breath. "Guys who want the world to be better and don't want to rule it."
Even though I'd whispered it, I saw Superboy nod out of the corner of my eye.
I took out my Pokeballs and looked around for somewhere to put them, before the floor suddenly sprouted a table. I blinked at it. Right. Organic and telepathic ship.
"M'Gann, your ship is damn cool."
She grinned proudly at me. I placed my Pokeballs on the table and looked them over.
Gurdurr, Magcargo, Alakazam, Mimikyu, Tyrunt, and Mudkip. A good solid team. It was just a recon mission, so I didn't need to have them do anything beyond help us stay undercover and keep a watch on things.
By that metric, some of my Pokemon weren't suited for the mission. Gurdurr was not the best with stealth, Magcargo could do it but only if she stayed underground most of the time, Mudkip was too ready for a joke most of the time, and Tyrunt loved attention.
Mimikyu and Alakazam would be best. I lifted their balls and set them on the front line of my belt, followed by Mudkip, Tyrunt, Magcargo, and Gurdurr.
"Any chance I could get a look at the map of the island?" I asked M'Gann.
"Sure!" She didn't exactly hit a button, but a hologram appeared of Santa Prisca.
"Huh… I could build a nice beach there if it wasn't for the former prison," I mumbled, zooming in on portions of it. I was joking to be honest. The place looked foreboding, hostile, with jagged mountains in the center and long stretches of jungle. I zoomed in on different portions of it.
"What are you thinking?" Kaldur asked, standing up.
As he walked over to look over my shoulder, I spoke. "I'm just figuring out the lay of the land. Kid Flash, Robin?" The arguing teens looked over at me. "Can you guys come take a look at this?"
"Why, you don't want the 'team leader' to help instead?" Robin said with some annoyance.
"I don't honestly give a shit who the fuck your team leader is," I finally snapped. Fine, they had annoyed me a lot more than I thought. "I want the opinions of FUCKING superheroes on a mission we're going on where some asshole might kill us! So you two either come here and share the years of experience you've accumulated, or keep pouting."
"...Fine," Robin walked over, while Kid Flash glared at me but joined in. "What do you want?"
"Ideas for what sort of path we should take after infiltrating. Ideas that account for the teams abilities. Kid Flash and you are the best choices to act as scouts and keep us informed, so I think having you both plan that out works for the best," I said firmly.
"Oh, so the new guy is leader now," Kid Flash grumbled. I glared at him, then continued.
"The rest of us can split up to follow either one of you and help with any issues you run into. What do you think?"
To his credit, Robin seemed to take me seriously. He was still annoyed though. "Fine. I can take this path towards the factory if KF takes this one. Aqualad can rendezvous with us there afterwards."
"I'll give him Mudkip as backup. Alakazam should go with one team while M'Gann goes with another, that way if one of them gets taken down we don't lose psychic communication," I said, rubbing my head. "And if things go wrong?"
"We'll retreat back here," Kaldur said, pointing at a spot in the island. "It's secluded, enough to let us make a stand if needed."
"Got it."
Shit, it was a better plan than just dropping in and heading for the factory. Granted, a plan thrived on simplicity, but we needed something.
I looked out the cockpit. Another forty minutes and we'd reach the drop zone. Huh. This would be my first real planned out team-up. This would be interesting.
I had no idea how much.