CHAPTER FOURNear The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, Outside Vasilsursk, RussiaThe dark jet, hidden from even the most advanced radar and other detection systems, flew near silently through the night sky. Inside sat David Cain, along with about a dozen men and women, all dressed in black.
“We have most of the equipment we need, and the Russian station will have the rest,” Cain was telling the group. “No stealth this time, we’re just going to blast our way in.”
He turned his attention to four specific members. “Once we’re inside, you four will head for the lab, while the rest of you will cut open the roof, and start hauling up the equipment, just like back in Alaska. With any luck we should be in and out in a couple of hours. Understood?”
Cain looked at those present; each person nodded his or her head, beneath the dark mask. “Good,” Cain commented. “Any questions?”
“Just one,” One of the women present said. “What will you be doing?”
Cain pulled a small, electronic device from the folds of his coat. “I’ll be busy preparing a greeting from when our ‘guests’ arrive,” He told her with an evil smile.
* * * * * * * *
About an hour behind Cain’s jet soared the vehicle containing Black Canary and the others, the plane just as invisible to sensors as the one it chased.
“My big concern is if Cain’s involved then so is the League of Assassins,” Nightwing commented, as the four heroes, and one want-to-be hero, sat in the main cabin.
“That’s the last thing we need,” Canary replied, nodding in agreement.
“Those goons with him didn’t seem like League type though,” Jade pointed out. “Unless they’re rookies.”
“Certainly has the League’s ‘Dead Men tell no tales’ mentality,” Canary said. “Not that the League’s the only group that has a monopoly on such a thing.”
“Looks like our stow-away was right again about their destination,” Flamebird said, as she looked at the signal from the tracking device planted on Cain. “Cain’s heading straight towards Vasilsursk, or however it’s pronounced.”
Canary nodded, pressing a button on her seat. “Can this thing go any faster?” she asked the pilot.
“Sure thing, skipper,” Came the response. “Y’all just strap in, and hang on. I’m gonna redline this baby.” Those in the cabin got into their seats as the jet sped through the air.
* * * * * * * *
As soon as the jet reached the facility it began jamming radio transmissions. Cain grabbed a rope as the underbelly of the plane opened up, and he leaped out, pulling his pistol as he slid down. The assassin easily killed the three outside guards before his feet had even hit the ground, and then shot another one off-handedly while undoing his harness. Behind Cain came his four operatives, covering the man. He quickly and easily took out any opposition as they charged the main building, the jet hovering ominously overhead.
By the time the group entered the lab, Cain had not quite used a clip, yet left a trail of bloody and broken bodies behind him. He emptied the clip on those inside the room, the roof already starting to rumble as it was sliced away.
“Alright people, let’s move!” Normally Cain would have preferred taking his time, like he had in Alaska, but now he was in a rush. He’d gotten information that things were in their final phase, and that, along with the small amount of equipment they still required, and the soon-to-arrive heroes, forced him to throw caution to the wind.
He stood in the doorway as the roof collapsed, cold wind from outside blowing into the room. “You know what to do,” he said to those present, before turning, and heading back down the hall, to prepare for their incoming ‘guests’.
* * * * * * * *
“Sure wish the boss lady let me have some weapons on this crate,” the blonde pilot of Canary’s jet muttered to herself as they approached the facility. She easily spotted the other jet through her cockpit window, ropes hanging down from it and into the building. “Hang on,” she told her passengers through the plane’s speaker system. “This might get a little bumpy.”
She quickly, and deftly, maneuvered the plane towards the building, doing a flyby of the other jet, so close her wake caused it to wobble a bit. Close enough so that she could notice the look of shock and terror on the other pilot, a grin forming on her face at the sight. Just as skillfully, she whipped the plane around in a one-eighty, and dropped the vehicle down so that it hovered just a few feet from the ground, her movements causing only a bit of a shake up to her passengers.
“Time to get off,” she told the others over the speaker. “Don’t know how long I can stay here before they start shooting at me.”
Nightwing gave a confirmation through the speaker as the group headed towards one of the open ramps.
“Stay here,” Black Canary told Steph.
“Yeah, but…” Steph started.
“You want to be a member of this team,” Canary told her, “then you have to follow my orders.”
Steph sighed. “Fine,” She pouted as the others dashed off, before realization crossed her face. “Wait! I can really be a member?”
“We’ll start your training as soon as we get back to Gotham,” Black Canary told the young woman as she vanished through the door.
Jade was the first on the ground, followed closely behind by the others, the jet taking off just seconds later.
“Jade!” Canary shouted, motioning towards the other plane. “Get up there, and see what you can do to stop them.” Jade nodded as green energy flowed from her hands to form a set of stairs up to the target craft, while Canary, Nightwing, and Flamebird entered the building.
Jade was meet by a hail of bullets as she headed towards the plane. She was prepared and erected a green-tinted brick wall in front of her, causing them to bounce harmlessly aside. The young woman then formed a large boxing glove and slammed it into the plane. “Hope Dad would be proud,” she murmured with a grin. While it didn’t do much more then rock the vehicle, it forced the pilot to lift off, stopping the villains from their theft.
Being the quickest of the three, thought not by much, Flamebird led the charge into the main lab. The young woman was unaware as David Cain dropped down from his hiding place in the ceiling, and knocked her against a nearby wall. Cain grinned, turning his attention to the other two heroes as they stopped their run, slowly approaching the assassin.
Jade, along with the heroes’ jet, was following the other plane up, higher and higher into the atmosphere. Jade clung onto a green glowing rope that clutched the assassin’s craft as she traded jabs of her energy fist with the villains’ gunfire, while the other jet could do little more then draw their attacks. Inside, Steph was busy typing away on the plane’s computer. She’d noticed a wireless transmitter attached to the other jet, and hoped she could break their systems, possibly gather some information as to their mission, an effort made all the more difficult with her aircraft’s jerking around combined with the jamming signal from the other plane.
One of Jade’s “fists” got lucky with a miss and smashed the jamming system. Steph gave a triumphant cheer as she entered the other computer, though a short-lived celebration at her first glance of its security systems.
Inside the facility, Cain was trading blows with both Nightwing and Black Canary, easily holding his own against the two heroes. Flamebird got back to her feet, and rejoined the battle with a sharp kick to the small of his back, forcing him to retreat slowly under their combined assault. Cain moved to a narrower part of the hallway, regaining the advantage as the attackers were forced come at him one by one.
Up in the sky, the facility was now just a little dot on the ground below as the strange dogfight continued. Jade was beginning to tire from the constant barrage of attacks, sweat dripping over her verdant forehead. That was when they brought out the bazooka. Jade saw the launch and gritted her teeth as the missile struck her “brick wall” with enough force to knock her unconscious, its light flashing through the windows of the two planes present.
“See if you can move close to her,” Steph called through the intercom as she dashed to one of the exits. Making sure she was well attached to the plane, she popped open the hatch, wind gusting by her as the plane depressurized. “Just a bit closer!” Steph shouted as the plane was put into a nosedive just a few feet from the falling woman.
Back on the ground Canary was the first to fall. Cain had managed to grab and throw her at the other two. Though Flamebird jumped out of the way, Canary collided with Nightwing’s shoulder. This allowed Cain to easily slip past his defenses and quickly take the hero down before he could recover. Then Cain turned his attention to Flamebird. The blonde heroine was already back on her feet and fighting bravely, a flurry of blows even knocking Cain off balance at first. Too soon though, he managed to recover and grabbed Flamebird, one of his hands around her throat.
“Looks like you lose,” He chuckled as he readied a final, brutal blow.
Visions of the similar scene from a year ago, the one that haunted her dreams, flashed before Canary. She wouldn’t let this happen, not again. Opening her mouth, she let out her cry as she stood, the very walls vibrating from the force of her sonic assault. Cain released Flamebird, the limp young woman falling to the side as he covered his ears. Black Canary slowly stalked towards Cain, the full force of her cry crashing into him like a gust of wind from a hurricane. Finally the force of the cry threw Cain back into the far wall, slumping to the ground. Dinah’s cry ending as she rushed towards Cain, Nightwing right behind her. Cain was stunned, but still conscious. The dazed assassin looked up at the two heroes and lifted his arms to admit defeat.
While Nightwing tied him up, Canary rushed toward the main lab, Flamebird following at a slower, unsteady pace. Inside, the room was trashed, not only due to the hole cut from the jet, which was just now lifting off into the air, but from the battle that had obviously taken place inside. Three of the black clad figures were still present, knocked to the ground, while in the center of the room, looking up at the fleeing jet stood a young man, just a few years under Flamebird’s age.
“Greetings, comrades,” the young man said, speaking in English with a Russian accent, while he looked towards the three heroes. “My name is Red Star. I arrived to stop the attack, but I fear I was unable to stop them from their theft. I am glad to offer my assistance to you three great American heroes.”
“Hear that?” Flamebird commented, a weak grin on her face. “We’re great heroes.”
Meanwhile, the ground was growing awfully close, awfully fast as Steph reached out towards Jade, her finger’s just missing the other woman’s arm. Hearing the pilot’s calm shouts of their upcoming impact in her ear, her fingers managed to snag Jade’s shoulder, and she pulled her inside the hatchway with all of her might. “Pull up! Pull up!” Steph screamed into the speaker, the plane pulling out of the dive with only feet left to spare.
“I wasn’t worried for a moment,” came the pilot’s response over the intercom, as Steph all but passed out.
* * * * * * * *
“Now what?” Dinah muttered in defeat as the group headed back to the plane. Russian authorities had arrived to take over the operations, and take Cain into custody. Nightwing and Red Star were speaking with the officials, while Flamebird and Black Canary checked on the rest of the group.
“Good work,” Flamebird said with a grin, congratulating Steph on her part in the saving of Jade’s life. “Couldn’t have done it better myself. Well maybe better, but not ‘flashier’,” the older teen admitted.
Steph for her part sat in one of the chair, catching her breath, her face still pale from the action, but a small smile on it.
“What’s this?” Canary asked, looking at the information on the computer screen.
“Huh? Oh! Yeah. I tried to hack into the other jet’s online computer. Don’t know if I got anything useful though.”
Canary went through the info while Nightwing entered the jet. “Looks like we’ve got another tag along,” He commented. Behind him Red Star walked into the cabin.
“My government wishes that I go along, to recover or destroy that which was stolen from us,” Red Star explained.
“And they didn’t seem to give us much choice in the matter,” Nightwing commented.
Canary looked up from the computer screen. “Why am I not surprised?” She then turned her attention to Steph. “You got a bit, mostly what they were after though. Nothing to tell us where they went. Sorry, Steph. Nice try though.”
Steph frowned in disappointment before Jade spoke up. “Guess it’s a good thing I borrowed a page from her book then, and slipped a tracking device on the plane during the battle,” she told the others with am exhausted grin.
* * * * * * * *
A large man stood by the side of the road, his thumb out as he walked. It wasn’t long before a truck finally stopped, the passenger door being opened for him.
“{Where to?}” The driver asked in Russian as the man slipped inside.
“{The closest airport,}” Was the response.
“{It’s you’re lucky day,}” The driver told him. “{I’m headed there as well.}”
With his passenger aboard, the truck drove off, unaware that not a hundred yards away, hidden behind bushes and trees, were the remains of a wrecked Russian police vehicle. Inside were the bodies of two freshly killed officers.
CHAPTER FIVEKeystone CitySpeedy woke up as the bright sunlight stabbed into the living room and onto her face. She felt warm, but stiff. She sat up on the couch and stretched, feeling her young limbs cracking into place after a hard night of too little sleep. She yawned and rubbed her eyes carefully under her red domino mask. She had never slept in her gear all night before, and it felt weird on her right now. She stood up, and looked around for her boots and leg guards.
She saw one of her armguards handed to her and looked over at Kasumi. That’s what Kid Eternity had called her, Kasumi. The one who turned on the Fearsome Five and helped her and her allies drive them off. She took the armguard from her and looked into the dark eyes.
“Thanks,” Speedy said softly. “These can be hard to find after a hard night at the office.” She gave a grin and then found the other as well. She noticed that the petite woman was barely smiling, but said nothing. No sound at all. “It was a weak joke, but you can say something at least.”
Kasumi shook her head slowly, looking apologetic. She shrugged her shoulders and looked down a little.
“Can’t talk?” Speedy asked, and then laughed at herself. “Like you’re going to tell me. Wait a moment.” She looked around, and found what she needed. She felt bad, this girl, Kasumi, looked almost miserable. Not surprising, Carla Redondo had spent much of their trip to the hotel last night making snide comments about the girl.
She snatched a memo pad from a nearby table and stuck it onto the end of an arrow, and held it out to Kasumi. “There. My notebook arrow, I call it.”
Kasumi smiled. Her eyes sparkled with a laughter that her throat didn’t produce and Speedy grinned at her own joke.
So there was hope for the poor girl yet, Mia thought.
“Who are you?” she asked as she handed the paper, and a pen, to Kasumi.
The petite woman took the paper and pen and scrawled out a name. When she handed it back to Mia, the archer could see the scrawl of letters more indicative of a fifth grade student.
“Cassandra?” Mia read aloud. “Cassandra Cain?” she asked the girl and watched Kasumi nod with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cassandra Cain.” She put her hand out and the two women shook in greeting. “So, Cass…can I call you Cass?” When Kasumi nodded with that pleased smile of hers, Mia continued, “So, Cass, how did you end up with a group like the Fearsome Five?”
Cassandra looked at the pad of paper and her pen and gave a silent sigh. She glanced around and then pointed to a magazine on the coffee table, her finger underlining the specific word, ‘story’, before then spreading her arms as wide as she possibly could. Speedy looked at the odd movements and tried to puzzle them out. “Oh! Long story?” Kasumi nodded the smile a little wider. “Gotcha! You can tell me when we have more time. And more paper.” Kasumi gave a single emphatic nod.
“Sounds like a plan then,” Speedy answered. She stretched once more, and then twisted her upper body. “Okay, I’m going to take a shower. If I’m stuck in this outfit for who knows how long, I’m at least going to be clean underneath it. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes. Make sure the guys know to knock first, okay?” she asked Cass as she walked past the girl to enter the bathroom.
Kasumi walked off to find the rest of the group, hearing voices from the kitchenette. The once calling himself Vibe was in the kitchen with the twins, and they appeared to be fixing some food and chatting. She watched from the doorway a few minutes.
“So I think that cop last night was blind,” Carla said as she poured out some orange juice into a glass. “I mean, look at Vibe there. Yeah sure he looks like that Flash Garrick guy. If he’d been shipped to Puerto Rico for a race transplant,” she added in a sneering voice. “The dumbass.”
“I don’t know, Carla,” Juan answered as he sat down with a bowl of cereal. “I can see the resemblance. Though he’s definitely not white, that’s for sure. But it was dark out.” He chewed on the frosted flakes of corn as he looked at Vibe. “You want some cereal? They got those little boxes in the cupboard.”
“Thanks, no,” Vibe answered. “I’m not feeling hungry.” He sat down opposite Juan. “So, I really look like this Garrick guy?”
“I guess. A little,” Carla finally admitted as she leaned on the counter. She saw Kasumi in the doorway and narrowed her eyes. “What do you think, chica?”
She nodded slowly as she stepped into the room silently. Hesitantly, she took one of the boxes of cereal and opened it up, taking a fingerful and chewing on it dry.
“It’s strange,” Vibe replied. “I don’t remember anything before this loud blast of sound rattled me to the bone and I found myself watching those guys attacking you guys.” He looked at the twins.
“There’s something damn strange about that place,” Carla almost seemed to spit out. She looked angry as she finished her juice and stuck the glass on the counter. “’Course, we did get something cool out of it, but man! How?” She reached out and took Juan’s hand and they watched in fascination at the dark blue traces of lightning that arced between their fingers. Then she looked up at Kasumi. “Okay, I’m done talking to you now, chica. You can move on if all you’re gonna do is stare.”
Kasumi took her box of cereal and trudged out of the kitchen, her fingers trembling in restraint as she held the box in her hands.
“That was mean, Carla,” Vibe said as he looked up at her. “I mean, she did help us out back there.”
Carla pulled away from Juan and looked over the small coffee maker on the counter, debating if she wanted to make a cup. “Hey, she was with them. Just ‘cuz some hero kid from Fawcett says she’s cool, doesn’t mean she is cool.”
Juan looked at Vibe and shrugged but said nothing. He had a helpless look on his face at Carla’s words.
Kasumi found the last two of the group on the balcony. Victor Stone was sitting in a chair, looking out at the city as the sun rose higher into the morning sky, while Garfield Logan, the teen hero known to some as Beast Boy, was snoring in a chair, a table set between them.
“Hey there, Kasumi,” Victor said softly. He was still occasionally glancing at the metallic sheen of his skin and shaking his head. “Stayed up the whole night. What about you? Get any sleep?”
Kasumi stepped up so that she could see into his face, the one blank red eye unnerving even her. She chewed on some more of the cereal and nodded. She gave a quizzical tilt to her head, pointed to Victor and then put her hand up to the side of her head to indicate a pillow.
“Didn’t get sleepy,” Victor said with a touch of bitterness in his voice. “Something…got in me last night. Now I’m this freak. I don’t feel hungry, don’t feel thirsty, don’t feel sleepy. Just felt real mad for a while.”
She pointed to the sleeping Garfield, stretched out on his chair, green hair a tousled mess to frame the emerald skin. “Gar? Let him sleep. He only dozed off a couple of hours ago. The kid sat with me all night. Talked me down. Helped me out tons. He knows about being a freak, and while he’s got the most irritating sense of humor…he’s good people. You don’t talk?” After he watched her shake her head he nodded his slightly. “Well then, guess I can be thankful for some things.” He shrugged and slumped into his chair.
Kasumi nodded and headed back into the room, as the door to the bathroom opened. Speedy stepped out, in her mask, and her red body stocking, that still clung tightly to her slightly damp body. She looked at Kasumi with a grin and said, “Great hot water. I almost feel human again.” She padded barefoot to the couch and started to pull on her boots and arm guards when scattered white wisps seemed to be blown in on an ethereal wind, gathering together into the shape of Kid Eternity. He shifted his glasses down over the bridge of his nose and smiled.
“Ah, the tortures of being dead,” he mused. Speedy looked up and caught him staring and felt her cheeks go hot, turning red as her costume. “Okay everyone!” Eternity called out loudly. “I’ve got us our transportation!”
Slowly, the group trickled in to the main room, and the spectral hero continued. “I’ve got us a jet, and if Kasumi will just let us know where our destination is, we can head out on our way.”
Without hesitating, Kasumi took the pad of paper and scrawled out a list of numbers. She stuck the pad of paper onto the end of the arrow, right through the same hole and held it out to Kid Eternity, while looking over at Speedy nervously. The archer started to laugh and put a hand on the warrior’s shoulder while the rest of the group stared at the pair.
“I’ll explain on the way.”
Elsewhere……the private jet was pulling onto the tarmac and settled to receive its passengers. The pilot glanced out of the window and shook his head as we watched the passengers step on board. A stranger bunch of kids he’d never seen, but he was assured by his employer, Sterling Morris of KWHZ radio, that this was a mission of vital importance. And it was for Kid Eternity. Sure he was the creepiest of the Fawcett’s heroes. Sure he wasn’t really a Marvel…but if Mr. Morris said it was all good, then he’d do his best for these kids.
“Everyone on board?” the pilot asked as he stepped out from the front cabin. “I’m Mickey Malone, and I’ll be your captain. I believe one of you has our destination?”
“Here you go, captain,” Kid Eternity said as he handed him the paper. “Somewhere in the Rockies, I’m guessing, but you’re the expert.”
Captain Malone looked over the numbers and nodded. “Looks like. Okay, you kids get all settled in and I’ll get us up in the air. When I switch the ‘wear seatbelts’ sign off, feel free to move around. There are some drinks and snacks in the fridge in back.” He turned to point it out.
“This fridge, right here?” Garfield Logan asked, having already settled in front of it and guzzling a cola and a bag of chips in his other hand. “Is that where?” He looked at the captain, and the others, and grinned sheepishly. “Hey, I was hungry. You all go to eat back at the hotel.” He got up and took a seat, as did the rest of the group.
“Thanks for helping us out, Mickey,” Kid Eternity said to the pilot softly. “You and your boss are the tops.”
Malone nodded and headed back into the pilot’s cabin, and soon, the plane was taxiing down the runway and lifting off into the air, and towards its destination. In the passenger cabin, the group gathered around Kid Eternity to discuss the situation.
“We can’t be sure what we’re getting into,” the spectral hero explained. “The remaining members are going to be very unhappy with Kasumi, and that could be dangerous for her, especially since she’s mute.”
“So?” Carla snapped. “Maybe it won’t be so dangerous for her. Maybe her being dumb might just be cover to help stab us in the back instead?” She gave a cold look at the Asian teen, who merely glared back, tired of the jibes.
“Stop it!” Mia said sharply, staring back at Carla. “This isn’t helping at all. We’ve got to be on top of our game if we want to put an end to this. We were lucky at the lab. The Fearsome Five have a rep, and for a reason.”
“Right,” Gar said in support. “If Kasumi here is a plant, we’ll have to jump off that bridge when we get to it. Meantime, you’d be better off paying attention to the actual bad guys in the actual black hats.”
“So what do we do, Kid Eternity?” Juan asked, trying to stop the argument, sensing the tension in his twin sister, who was ready to explode in retort.
“You guys can call me Kit, and here’s what we do,” the hero explained. “We outnumber them, but we don’t over power them. So we hit and run, jump targets, try and work in pairs so that everyone has someone watching them at all times.”
“You and I should hang back and use our attacks to throw them off,” Speedy said as she looked at Vibe. “Seeing as we got the ranged firepower. Act as support.”
Vibe nodded at Speedy and Juan just gave the scarlet archer a smile, a smile that received a poke in the ribs from his sister when she caught the approving look.
“Bad news is, I’m afraid we’ll find the guy who’s hired them,” Kit continued, trying to ignore the small in-fighting for now. “Sivana. The most wicked scientific criminal I know. Possibly the world knows. If it’s really his lair, there’s no telling what gadgets he has defending it, or what he wanted at the lab. So be on your toes, and if you spot him, try and put him down as fast as possible. His biggest weakness is his need to control. He’ll have any base defenses and operations responding to him.”
The plane shuddered a bit, and Malone’s voice came in over the intercom. “We’re reaching the Rockies now, and should be at your destination in minutes. It’s a bit stormy in the area, so be careful. No place to land, so you’ll have to jump, or fly, or teleport, or whatever you kids do. There are chutes in the back. Good luck, kids.”
The heroes moved about, with Speedy, Vibe, the twins and Kasumi all putting on the parachutes. When the plane was in position, and with one last alert from Mickey Malone to alert them, the hatch was opened by Kid Eternity, and the eight teens plunged out into the cloudy, cold skies.
It might have been one of the toughest jumps to make, but with Beast Boy flying along in the form of a giant green eagle, and Kid Eternity floating between the kids to keep them calm, the five drifting people landed safely into the snow-topped peaks. They were cold, and out of breath, but safe.
“Damn! I’m making a space heater arrow as soon as I can,” Speedy joked as she hugged herself under her short yellow mantle. Cyborg, who had leaped down, pulled himself out of his crater and leaped over to arrive with the others.
“Everyone here?” he asked as he looked over his partners. When they all nodded he looked around. “Up there, you think?” He asked, as his red eye formed cross-hairs and moved to position over a small, sturdy looking concrete structure further up the mountainside.
“Looks like,” Kid Eternity said, and Kasumi nodded in confirmation. The small group started upwards, this part of the mountain on a less steep slope and allowing them to clamber to their target with relative ease. As they drew closer, a sealed metal door came into sight, and the Kid looked over his team. “Who wants the honors? I’m thinking there’s not a lot of surprise that will be happening, so fast and frontal is our best option.”
“Leave it to me,” Victor Stone grinned as he charged to the door. “An ole cyborg like me is just perfect to go battering ram!” His shoulder slammed into the door, rattling his body and jarring his senses for a moment, but the powerfully thick door could not resist. It tried, it held on as best it could, but with a loud, ominous clang, it crashed to the floor, Victor falling on top of it.
With that, the teens charged toward their goal, each with their own thoughts and emotions racing through their hearts and minds. As they poured into the building, they saw it held a variety of small aero-vehicles, all of unique and bizarre designs, some astoundingly advanced in look, others just cobbled together parts that never should be used to propel a person.
Toward the rear of the room was a large set of stairs down into the mountain, and as Cyborg picked himself up, he started to follow the team.
“Where are you going, shinypants?” A cold, nasty voice spoke from behind him. There was Gizmo, lifting up out of the snow. He had some kind of projector in his hand, and he pressed the button that fired several pencil-thin beams of red light that traced over Cyborg’s body. “Right. Nanites. We’ll see about that,” he snarled.
“Wanna bet, midget?” Cyborg sneered in return as he leaped at the dwarf gadgeteer. He never made it, however, as Mammoth crashed down onto his back from a ledge high above. Victor felt himself pounded through the snow and deep into the hard rock below, stunned as Gizmo raced past the two powerhouses and into the building, chuckling.
“Oh, I bet,” Gizmo taunted the teen as Mammoth’s huge hands hammered at the back of Cyborg’s head. He was rattled hard by a wall of vibrations crashing into him as he flew head-on into it, Vibe standing there with hands out.
“Nice trap, amigo,” Vibe said with a determined look on his face. “Too bad it won’t help.” He unleashed another wave of vibrations over the upper ceiling, causing it to ripple and crash down over Gizmo.
The rest of the heroes continued down the stairs, the twins at last grasping hands and allowing the lightning to course between their connected arms and then they vanished in a blur. At the bottom of the stairs was a complex filled with a bewildering array of devices of the most advanced designs and the most second-hand parts imaginable. Shimmer and Jinx also stood on opposite ends of the large room, wicked smiles on each of their faces. The twins streaked in and then split up to target the two ladies. But they moved at only normal speed now.
“Oh, poor speeding twins,” came the cackling, gleeful voice of Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana. “Are you not moving as fast as you should? Didn’t it occur to you that I face the Big Red Cheese and his family on a regular basis? Of course this room is contained within a Slo-Mo Bubble of my own invention. Reducing the passage of time. You move normal because you’re so fast. I and my two lovely assistants move normal because we have Temporal Diffusers on to negate the bubble.”
Jinx and Shimmer each continued to grin and wiggled a hand in the air, to reveal a ring they each wore. Speedy saw this, but also saw they each gave of small bluish sparks, not dissimilar to the electricity of the twins, and she noticed they each sparked towards the same general direction. With a quick, fluid motion, still on the stairs, she fired a broadhead arrow into the room, only to see it stick into place it seemed.
“Weren’t you listening, silly girl?” Jinx said as she waved her hand at the archer and let a blast of wind hurl her onto her back.
Kid Eternity saw that the arrow was pointing at a machine humming in the rear of the room, between the Fearsome ladies and grinned. “She did listen. She’s a smart young lady, with a long career!” he said as he flew into the room, his intangible ghostly form unaffected by such crass, scientific manipulations. Instead, he followed the direction the arrow pointed in flew into the wall behind the device. Shortly thereafter, a loud bang, smoke and sparks erupted from the machine and the arrow finished slamming into the metal.
The twins were now hurtling forward at full speed, but Shimmer and Jinx had been able to prepare defenses, Carla plunging into a deep well of water that Shimmer had transmuted around her, while Jinx commanded the air to leave Juan’s lungs, causing him to crash to the floor, clutching his throat.
As the others reached the room, Sivana pulled out a long-barreled weapon of twisted tubes and bulbous projectors. “Ah, you poor kids. You never had a chance here.” He snickered as a spray of pinkish energy scattered in a cone, crashing through Speedy and Kasumi. “My neural scattergun should make for a good learning experience!” He continued to grin and leer as Beast Boy leaped into the air and shifted into a hawk, falling in a power bomb on the mad scientist’s gun and tearing it from his hands.
“Uh, uh, greengenes!” Shimmer chastised him and she moved toward the flying bird, her hands shimmering and causing the matter of the gun to become magnesium. The sudden flare made Gar scream in pain and lose his shape, smashing to the floor, while Speedy and Kasumi were blinded by the brilliance. The three villains merely pulled on thick goggles as Jinx launched greenish flames from her fingertips to torture Speedy further.
“Try to make me look foolish with your toys, girl?” Jinx snarled, the flames making Speedy writhe on the floor. “I’ll see you roast alive!” she screamed at her now.
Kasumi, blinded and her skin feeling like it was the blackboard nails had just run over, reached inside of her, found her training, found her center, and calmed her racing mind. She ignored the pain, ignored the jeers and taunts, and picked out the cruel jibes of the sorceress. With a kippup, Kasumi was on her feet and before Jinx could register the motion, the warrior had planted a picture-perfect side kick into the criminal’s sternum, forcing her to lose her own air. Jinx crashed to her knees, the focus on her spells lost, and allowing Juan to breathe again.
Screaming came from the walls of the room, as Kid Eternity found himself unable to escape. “Kid Eternity, the ghost of the Big Red Cheese Family,” Sivana laughed harshly. “Like I’d have forgotten about you. How do you like my newest metal…I call it suspendium. It takes etheric matter like yours and holds it in place. Enjoy your new home!”
“We’re not finished yet!” Vibe cried out as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Kasumi had just landed another powerful palm strike to Jinx and was looking for Shimmer as the mysterious new hero turned to look for Sivana. “We’ve got more than enough to handle you, gringo!”
Shimmer stared at Kasumi and her lip curled angrily. “I’ll transmute your heart to a diamond, traitorous bitch! I’ll get rich of your corpse!” Her hands shimmered with power as Kasumi stared back, keeping out of her fifteen foot range, weighing the odds of reaching her before the transmuter could carry out her threats.
But Gar settled the issue as a large green python coiled up around Shimmer. “Hey, doll-face! You look hot, but man, you’re just too nasty even for me!”
“Stop that! You pervert!” Shimmer gasped in shock at the sudden attack, and then she felt that powerful palm strike of the martial artist.
“We’re all gringos here, you stupid boy,” Sivana laughed. “I am skewered by your rapier-wit. Meanwhile, since the prize has elected to appear, it’s time to end this.” From the ceiling extended a cylinder, perhaps four feet long and three feet wide. It started to hum, and everyone in the room felt their teeth rattling. Gar slipped from shimmer as Vibe’s image began to shake and shift and grow fuzzier. It faded slowly as he screamed in pain, flowing into the cylinder.
“Part one complete,” Sivana said through gritted teeth and he clicked a remote. From the floor rose two halves of a rocket that encapsulated the strange cylinder. “My vibro-sponge did its part, now for the rocket!” He cackled as the rocket sealed up tight and roared to life, firing up through the hangar floor above and into the skies.
“Well, it was a lot of fun, but I’ve much, much more important things to do than continually outwit a group of punk teenagers. Maybe this will learn you all to pay attention and respect your elders!” He reached down and clicked two switches on his belt buckle, the “There/Not There” device going off, and activating similar devices in the rings the Fearsome Five wore.
When Cyborg staggered down the stairs, he found his friends scattered around, Kasumi on her hands and knees holding Speedy and Gar gathering the twins up. Cries still echoed from the wall, and Cyborg peeled it open to let Kid Eternity stagger out, gasping for air even though he didn’t need it.
“Guess that didn’t go according to plan?” he asked.
“No. As not according to plan as it could go. I think we’re in even worse shape than we can imagine.”
Kasumi smiled as Speedy’s eyes opened up. She helped the archer to stand, her scarlet suit singed and ripped, the mantle in tatters. She walked to a small, surviving computer, and quickly typed up a name. Kid Eternity looked at it, and then at Kasumi and she nodded.
“The League of Assassins?” Kasumi nodded again, and looked quite upset.
“What are you saying, Cassandra?” Speedy said in a hoarse voice.
“Cassandra?” Kit asked as he lowered his sunglasses to look the girl over. “Cain? Cassandra Cain?” When she nodded he leaned heavily against the wall.
“Things just got worse?” Carla asked, still dripping from her near-drowning.
Kid Eternity looked over at Carla and nodded. His face was set in a grim mask as he said, “Things just got much, much worse.”
