( MADELAINE PRINCE )

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*"𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐀 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐓!" madelaine exclaims as she twists her body so she's now laying on her stomach across the couch in the justice league tower living room. wally sat on the single chair beside her as he gripped the game controller tighter.

"no you're just bad at this game" the boy laughed before he felt the controller being pulled out of his hands, his car on the screen crashing and victory going to madelaine. "hey!" he yells turning only to come faced with superboy who's arms were crossed over his chest.

wally yelping before throwing himself off the chair at how close the boy was, madelaine stifling a laugh before shutting up as superboy turnt to her. the girl coughing to cover it up well also sitting straight up.

"we have a mission, get ready" the boy says before dropping the controller on the chair and beginning to walk away. the two younger teens staring at him before looking at eachother and laughing again.

"i would've won if he didn't do that" wally grumbled as he stood up and turnt the tv off, madelaine also standing the two meeting by the entrance of the room.

"sure" she muttered as she glanced at him, the two beginning to walk to get ready for the mission. they had been spending more time together over the past week considering they were the closest in age. robin would sometimes join but he was usually training.

madelaine turnt to glance at wally seeing him think to himself before he grinned and spoke up "first one to the bioship wins whatever prize they want" he didn't give her time to reply before speeding off.

the girl stopping in her steps staring at where he once stood "no fair! she called out into the empty corridor before rushing to her room to get into her hero costume.

———

she wasn't shocked that wally won but she was a bit annoyed that he used his powers to win. she sat in between m'gann and robin at the back of the bioship as far from wally as possible. she let the glamour leave her appearance as she was now in her natural form with her silver hair and purple eyes, as violet veins spread from her hands.

"we're approaching santa prisca." m'gann tells them, no one replying for a while as they all avoided speaking to eachother. "drop zone a in 30." miss martian announces again, startling robin and getting him to look back at her.

aqualad stands as the straps around him remove themselves, his chair disappearing as he stands up. he hits his symbol and his suit turns from navy blue and red with black accents to black, grey and black accents. "ready." he says, looking to m'gann.

madelaine looks down to her purple, pink and black outfit and goes to hit the belt around her waist as her outfit turns black with white stitching being the only form of colour, even her legs get covered by black tights, her arms now covered by a dark grey.

"sick" she whispers to herself as she keeps hitting the belt, the outfit changing from it's original colours to the darker ones before superboy speaks up being able to see the colours changing from the corner of his eyes.

"cut it" he tells her still not turning before she rolls her eyes and sinks in her seat, not in the mood to argue.

"putting bioship in camouflage mode." m'gann says as they come within eyesight of the island. over the water a hole in the base of the bioship forms, aqualad dropping out and diving into the water below.

"heat and motion sensors are patched." he tells the team through his comm. "data is now on a continuous loop. move in."

"drop zone b" m'gann says as they stop over a break in the canopy. all the remaining members stand as their straps and chairs fade into the ship's floor. m'gann raises a hand and lines fall from the ceiling which robin and wally don't hesitate to attach to.

once attached, wally raises his hand to his lightning bolt emblem. the white turning light grey as the yellow turns to a darker grey and his goggles turn almost black, his red accents remaining as he looks it over with a smile. "how cool is this?" he asks, turning towards madelaine.

"they're so cool" she gushes to him as she looks down at her own outfit, the colours complimenting her hair nicely.

m'gann changes her own clothes, her blue boots and skirt become a skin tight full body suit, all black and accented with the same red x and edging like on martian manhunter. only her cape remains blue.

"uh, that works too." wally admits as his eyes meet m'gann's, then turns towards superboy who kept the black t-shirt with the superman s on it, black pants and boots. "hey, supey, not too late to put on the new stealth tech."

"no capes, no tights. no offense." kon-el says crossing his arms, madelaine smiling to herself at how stubborn he was.

"it totally works for you." m'gann says as she stares at the boy dreamily. superboy glances over at her, and she stands up straighter and stops leaning her head on her hand. "in that, you can totally do good work in those clothes." she tries covering, badly.

madelaine giggles to herself before sending her bestfriend an apologetic smile. m'gann was useless when it came to boys but madelaine intended to help her out with that soon.

superboy looks away, and m'gann brings her hood over her head and disappears from sight before dropping out of the ship.

m'gann, kid flash, and robin hit with small thuds. realizing superboy and madelaine are not beside them, they glance up and yelp before diving to the side. just narrowly avoiding superboy as he hits the ground hard enough to create a boom and a two-foot-deep crater. "knew I didn't need a line." he says confidently.

besides him lands madelaine as she floated down gently, glancing down at the hole superboy created and shaking her head to herself.

"and yet, creating a seismic event may not have helped us much with the 'covert'." robin grumbles as he stands up from the base of the tree he threw himself into. wally comes out of the forest from the other direction and m'gann comes back down to the ground.

"aqualad, drop b is a go." m'gann says. aqualad climbs a cliff with ease.

"head to the factory. i'll track your gps and meet you asap."

"roger that and be safe" madelaine says to the atlantean before tuning out of the communications system and joining robins side

the boy looks down at his hologlove which has a map of the island, as superboy, madelaine and m'gann stand at their full height and look over his head on his right and wally is crouched over his left shoulder.

all five take off to the factory. passing through the forest, under a waterfall, before ending up back in the forest.

———

the team now in the trappable terrain, robin pulls up hiss hologlove which shows off mines that have been set around them, then the safest and straightest path to the factory.

there's a rustling in the forest, but a snap of a twig catches superboy's full attention and stops him short. "did you hear that?"

"uh, no..." wally snarks. "wait." clearly he realized how rude that was. "is this a super-hearing thing?"

"you do have great ears." m'gann comments absentmindedly, no one says anything as madelaine joins her friends side wrapping an arm around her shoulder in comfort.

"okay, rob, now what?" wally asks, but robin is gone again. "man, I hate it when he does that."

"superboy, kid, switch to infrared, see if you're being tracked." aqualad commands through the comms.

robin smirks and drops his goggles down over his eyes immediately picking up on heat signatures further down the trail. "got a squad of armed bozos incoming."

the four, run further forward, ducking behind a rock and fallen tree to avoid being seen. superboy looks in the opposite direction of madelaine. "two squads." he corrects then expands his focus. "but they'll meet each other before they find us."

gunfire commences. clearly, they aren't on the same side, which is good news for the the teenagers.

"no super-hearing required now." wally comments smugly.

"swing wide, steer clear." kaldur commands as wally steps forward to be next to superboy, madelaine wanting to pull the boy back considering he wasn't indestructible and was probably about to do something stupid.

"yeah-yeah, just as soon as I find rob." wally tells the others, then vaults over the tree, running down the trail. the trail is wet, and he loses his footing, falling down the hill and right into the firefight. as he falls, he looks up to find a surprised bane to confirm that he's seeing things right he even lifts his goggles off his eyes. "so much for the stealthy."

madelaine grumbles under her breath and running out after the boy, m'gann and superboy's calls falling deaf to her ears. she skids to a stop in the wet mud besides wally as she turns so she's back to back with him.

bane's surprise only lasts a moment before he starts firing rapidly at the two, wally picking madelaine up and trying to run which doesn't help much as it gains the attention of the kobra soldiers as well.

superboy charges ahead, taking bane's blind spot and tackling him to the ground. or at least attempting to, bane gets himself over the teen and slams him into the soft ground. he goes for a wristlock on his captive right arm but finds superboy overpowering him, grabbing his shirt and throwing him into a tree.

wally and madelaine continue to evade the bullets, and two of the men see a shadow pass over them, looking up robin drops right on top of one of them. "what is wrong with you guys?" he questions, upper cutting the other and following up with a side kick to get his bubble back. "remember covert? why didn't you follow my lead, vanish into the jungle?"

wally places madelaine down as she blasts a guy coming up behind robin into a tree "maybe because you didn't give us time?" she asked sarcastically turning to kick another kobra soldier back, avoiding his punches.

wally also hits another assailant, backing him up into the clearing. "that's what you were doing?" then hitting him with a front kick to the chin then completing a full flip before landing on the ground again. "way to fill us in. we're not mind readers you know."

m'gann throws another two assailants into the tree behind telekinetically which wally avoids by ducks ducking..

"er, i'm not anyway." wally corrects himself as m'gann drops to the ground.

"you told me I could only read the bad guys' minds." m'gann argues which madelaine nods agreeing with the girl.

robin's attention turns, hearing one run away. he pulls out a birdarang to throw at him, but instead, the kobra soldier is stopped short by kaldur dropping right in front of him. not sure what to do as the atlantean places his hand on his chest, and his tattoos glow before he zaps him right in the chest. stepping on the communicator that fell out of his hand, which crunches under his barefoot.

"still don't know how you walk without shoes" madelaine directed to kaldur before doing a roundhouse kick across a soldier's face knocking him out. the girl wiping her sweaty palms across her dress and spinning round.

"i recognize those uniforms." robin says, looking at most of the assailants that all now tied to the trees. "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." wally tells the robin, not letting him leave his sight in fear that he will disappear again.

"agreed." robin says, putting no fault on his mentor. "and since there's no love lost between the cultists and those goons," he puts his hand on his chin as it all suddenly becomes clear. "i'm betting they came in and tossed them out. that's why normal supply lines have been cut off."

"we get it. kobra wanted super cultists." kid Flash says confidently. "radio bats and we'll be home in time for-" the boy is cut off as madelaine slaps a hand over his mouth shutting him up.

"these cultists aren't on venom." robin speaks as wally slaps madelaine's hand off his mouth. "kobra's hoarding the stuff. we don't leave. not until I know why." the boy continues.

"until you know why?" wally and madelaine question at the same time, wally leaning forward to get right in front of the boy's mask covered eyes.

the girl found that her and wally said a lot of the same things at the same time, she didn't like it but she also didn't necessarily mind it. it showed they thought the same.

"this team needs a leader." robin says strongly, standing up straighter. madelaine nods agreeing with him already knowing who should be leader.

"and it's you?!" wally questions, annoyance clear as he steps into robin's personal space. "dude, you're a thirteen-year-old kid who ducked out on us without a word."

robin laughs for few seconds. "and you're a mature fifteen? you blew our cover first chance you got."

madelaine walks in between the two pushing them away from eachother, "grow up both of you" she sighs out as she shakes her head. it should've been kaldur, she thought it had been obvious since their first "mission"

to the side, m'gann and superboy can only look on in silence until m'gann speaks up. "don't you want to lead?"

the kryptonian shakes his head and scoffs, then turns to look at m'gann out of the corner of his eye. "you?"

m'gann nearly leans back and puts her hand up as if to shove the idea away from her physically "after the mister twister fiasco?"

superboy smiles, looking at her directly "you did alright." m'gann's cheeks turn bright red, superboy noticing he was smiling the boy dropped it and tried covering up his compliment "and anyway, mads is too bossy" m'gann laughs softly and nods her head agreeing.

she liked how kon-el had used a nickname for madelaine it made her feel like the three of them were truly friends, even if she wanted to be more than friends with superboy.

superboy's super-hearing picks up on the spanish near them with ease "míralos, argumenten. liberarte y asumirlos mientras están distraídos." (look at them argue. free yourselves and take them while they're distracted.) it was one of bane's lackeys.

"callade!" bane hisses at the other man tied to the tree. "por el momento lo llamaré. y entonces me darán lo que necesito." (quiet! for now, i'll call {play along}. {and then} they'll give me what I need.)

superboy smirks, understanding every word and knowing just how to play bane at his own game. though he's mildly distracted when wally shouts again "yeah? you don't even have superpowers!" he sees wally go to walk away from the conversation, but robin and madelaine follow close behind.

madelaine notices superboy's smirk and doesn't have time to ask why before robin yells right into her ear "neither does batman!" causing her to slap her hands over their mouths once again.

"neither of you are anywhere near responsible to be leader" she retorts in anger before she feels their breathing calming down, hesitantly removing her hand. regretting it a moment later as wally continued.

"you're not batman." he retorts back to robin's previous comment. madelaine throwing her arms up before storming over to m'gann and superboy the only two responsible enough besides kaldur she could bare.

"duh, closest thing we've got." robin retorts, he jabs his thumb at himself to prove his point.

bane finally gives his consciousness away to the two teens, both boys snap their heads in his direction. wally still annoyed, but robin's eyes go wide. "such clever niños. but you only know half the story." bane tries baiting them. the whole team now steps in so they can see bane "let me show you the rest get you into the factory via my secret entrance."

m'gann steps up "there is a secret entrance" then she kneels down and places her hand on her temple to further concentrate. "but he's also hiding something." her tone goes sour and her eyes glow white.

"ah, ah, ah chica. bane is not that easy." he says smugly, madelaine rolling her eyes at the man and keeping a strong guard up not trusting the man at all.

miss martian's eyes still glow but she loses her intensity "ohh" she groans in frustration, pulling out of his mind. "he's mentally reciting fútbol scores en Español." she looks over her shoulder at the boys and madelaine "this could take a while."

bane speaks up before anyone else does "it's not complicated. the enemy of my enemy is my friend." behind m'gann the boys exchange looks, then eventually nod. madelaine however only glares.

she didn't agree with his statement, she'd never be able to. diana was her mothers enemy but diana was also like a mother to her. she'd never be able to hate the woman enough to call her an enemy and she hoped she never would. it had been two weeks since the last time they spoke and she felt the sudden urge to call her immediately when they got home.

———

on top of a cliff, the team and bane look down as they see the factory clearly. bane stops about three feet from the edge, pointing. both robin and wally both step up to get a closer look. wally with his goggles, robin with a pair of binoculars. there's a forklift and containers by a helipad.

"look at all that product" robin mutters, shocked. "a buy is going down." bane walks away, but the team remains. "but if kobra's not selling to the usual suspects, then-"

"we need to identify that buyer." aqualad states with conviction, madelaine nodding as she agrees with the boy.

"just what I was thinking." wally agrees, lifting his goggles as he stands up straighter.

"yeah. you're the thinker." robin says with a smirk as he stands up. if madelaine wasn't sure wally had a crush on m'gann she'd have thought him and robin were flirting.

"sarcasm?" wally questions, annoyed. "dude. a real leader would focus on getting answers." all three observing as bane lifts a giant rock away from the entrance to an old mine. the only point of his efforts are a few grunts, while m'gann, madelaine and superboy exchange a slight look of confusion.

"answers are this way." bane says simply, gesturing down the mine tunnel. all six teens join him to look down the tunnel. Bane says nothing as he heads towards the tunnel.

"so. now el luchador is our leader." wally comments angrily and slightly sarcastic. robin stalks past him, using the back of his hand to smack wally's cheek making madelaine smirk. wally turns to superboy , m'gann, madelaine and aqualad with a shrug.

as they begin to follow bane, madelaine stays besides kaldur walking in pace with him. robin and wally were acting like children and she wasn't going to join into their idiocy. kaldur was the best option for leader, she trusted him with her life and would do so for as long as she could imagine.

"i think it should be you" she whispered so only he could hear, the boy who was a year older than her looking down at her with a raised eyebrow in question.

"you deserve to be captain" she clarified as she squeezed his bicep, a smile set in his direction.

the boy smiled at her before nodding "thank you, mystique" the use of her hero name making her chuckle slightly.

"call me mads, that's what my friends call me" she said using the same words he di when m'gann had first joined the team. she wanted kaldur to know that they were friends as well as teammates and that was something he should remember.

———

the team and bane walk down the mine until they come to a metal door, which bane uses his fingerprint to unlock leading them right to a door on the factory floor.

bane props the door open slightly, giving robin just enough room to get a full look around the- now confirmed to be- empty floor. "all clear" he vocalizes before running out of the doorway. the others follow but, once they get to another hidden location robin is nowhere in sight. again.

"has that little fool already been captured?" bane questions, annoyance at the possibility of their infiltration being compromised rising. madelaine shakes her head before explaining.

"he disappears. it's his thing" she doesn't let on how annoyed at the boy she actually is, she'd been putting up with the act for the past four years.

wally slides his goggles over his eyes with ease. "stay put. I'll get our intel and be back before boy wonder" by the time he finishes the sentence he's already running.

aqualad reaches out as he sees wally's movement, but doesn't get hold. "wait, kid!"

bane watches as the grey and red streak disappears, looking to aqualad with a smug smile. "great chain of command." he continues his jabs at aqualad with the sarcasm and the continued smugness in those four simple words.

madelaine glaring at the man waiting for when he betrays them so she can get back at him.

over their heads robin runs across the catwalk and up the stairs to the command centre. madelaine, m'gann , aqualad and superboy are all crouched behind an unused assembly line, while bane hides in the shadows of a crate stack.

"it's a massive shipment." aqualad observes with shock.

"yeah, but they're only taking new product off the line." superboy observes. "they're not touching this venom."

as a forklift drives away they turn towards each other. "maybe freshness counts?" m'gann offers, unsure, but figuring a one off guess is better than nothing.

"or maybe someone's been lying to us" madelaine whispers low enough for her team to hear as her eyes turn to slits as she looks at bane.

superboy's focus changes as he looks in the opposite direction they just were. "helicopter's coming." he says, out of instinct the other three follow his gaze. bane's eyes narrow as all four look out the small skylight.

m'gann camouflaging and flying out to get a closer look.

it takes a few moments, but then they start to be able to hear the helicopter's blades as it approaches. from out of the helicopter's opening doors the shadows clear, revealing a buff white man with blonde hair in a black on black outfit and his facial features covered by a grey hockey mask. as he walks between two lines of the cult his matching forearm and shoulder/upper arm guards show.

"lord kobra." sportsmaster greets.

"sportsmaster." kobra returns, as the girl from before steps up. "the shipment is ready." she opens the box to reveal the blue vials.

sportsmaster takes one, holding it up to look at it. "the new kobra-venom?" he questions.

kobra gestures to blockbuster. "a complete success. our friends will not be disappointed."

"this is a game-changer." sportsmaster proudly states, flipping the vial to catch it in his fist. "finally, we can go mano-a-mano with the justice league."

above them, m'gann is using her camouflage. "aqualad, sending you a telepathic image of the buyer now." even though she basically invisible her eyes begin to glow.

in the factory, on a catwalk. bane, madelaine and superboy keep watch while aqualad has his eyes closed to see m'gann's telepathic image.

"sportsmaster." he says, opening his eyes. "he is the buyer?" he questions, looking to superboy and madelaine shocked. then brings his hand up to his ear. "aqualad to red tornado. do you read?" to only get static. "can't reach the league, robin, or kid. comm's jammed. we need a plan now."

bane is all too pleased with his opening. "i have a suggestion." then jumps over the rail with a battle cry. two Kobra agents look to the source, shocked to see bane. he lands just before them, shoving one to the side with ease and pushing the other's arm to ensure his aim is only to the ceiling.

"what is he-" aqualad begins, only to be cut off by blockbuster's battle cry and he charges at the window behind them. shattering it and taking down the catwalk. both boys and madelaine land away from the rubble, but so does blockbuster who roars to catch everyone's full attention.

"destroy them." kobra commands. in an instant blockbuster charges at the four infiltrators.

superboy meets him halfway, in comparison to blockbuster, he's plenty small enough to get under his arms and catch his torso. however, due to the size difference blockbuster grabs superboy's waist from behind with efficiency.

aqualad's tattoos begin to glow as he reaches behind his shoulders to take out his water-bearers. the Kobra agents start firing on him, but can't land a hit as he crouches behind a shield and uses his other water-bearer to fire non-lethal projectiles at their chests and knock them out.

bane hides, away from the action, chuckling to himself, madelaine however sneaks up behind the man before grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back. bane being triple her size however grabs her and flips her back into the floor, the girl pulling him over her. the fall doing nothing to him before they're both up again, bane sending punches her way and her dodging to the best of her possibilities.

m'gann flies in and starts throwing agents around, but sportsmaster can clearly see her despite the camouflage. aqualad continues to shoot projectiles while superboy gets launched into a large container by blockbuster behind him getting a massive uppercut that pins him back to the container, he punches blockbuster in the face from his pinned position knocking his assailant back and giving him plenty of room to land back on his feet, then charge at Blockbuster once more.

sportsmaster eyes continue to narrow as he brings out a rod which then extends to form a sharp point that he throws at m'gann which she just barely manages to dodge, but it blows up right beside her knocking her away and hitting her hard enough to turn off her camouflage.

madelaine manages to kick bane in the gut causing him to stumble back a bit as robin runs along the catwalk over their head. wally runs behind him and both come to a stop to watch over the chaos. wally runs off, while robin remains and he gains a mischievous look before he runs back the way he came.

aqualad is now standing upright but is being backed up despite his shield and projectiles. ducking behind some piping he can put down his water-bearers, but then finds two more kobra agents on his other side.

before they can fire wally runs in and slams his feet into both their chests to knock them out and back. only for three more to arrive on the catwalk over where the two now lay unconscious, he barely ducks behind a pillar to avoid getting shot.

aqualad reaches for his comm, but then remembers it's jammed. "m'gann , radio is jammed." he tells her, since at this point she's the only one that doesn't know. "link us up! and where's mads?!"

behind the men shooting aqualad, m'gann's slowly coming to. her eyes widen as she processes what she heard, bringing her hand to her head. "everyone online?" she asks.

superboy growls through the punch that hits him in the face. "yeah." he replies, his dislike all-too-obvious.

"took you long-" madelaine is cut off as she grunts from being thrown into a metal crate by bane before finishing "enough" she spits.

"you know it, beautiful." wally says with a smile, despite the fact that he's getting shot at, still. "and where you at, mads?" he asks wincing at the girls voice.

"behind the crates, bane's an ass" she tells her team before getting up and floating above the man.

aqualad ignores wally's compliment to m'gann "good. we need to regroup."

"busy now" robin's voice cuts in making madelaine groan out, the girl trying to find her teammates from the air only being able to see soldiers.

aqualad uses his water-bears to create long whips and take out many of the still shooting Kobra agents "strategic retreat. kid, clear a path."

wally takes out seven kobra agents, aqualad running behind him and robin grappling above and behind the atlantean's head. m'gann flies to madelaine's side before grabbing the girls hand and pulling her along behind robin. as he drops from his line she and madelaine return to the ground, superboy continuing to hold off blockbuster.

finally getting a proper hold he throws blockbuster into amassing kobra agents to give him time to get away as well. he makes it through the door then slams it shut. he and aqualad are the only ones who have to take off and run, which they don't wait on as blockbuster knocks the door in.

catching up the rest of the team aqualad shouts a command. "superboy, the support beams."

he punches out three in succession but wasn't expecting the cave in to be so rapid, thankfully m'gann grabs the back of his shirt and pulls him away from the debris saving him from being crushed, forcing the kobra agents to the same on the other side of the cave in. blockbuster takes one look and walks away.

aqualad snaps a glow stick create a light source, madelaine grabbing the glow stick and throwing it before rubbing her palms together and emitting a glow lighting up the cave. robin stands with his back to aqualad, looking to the cave in, while wally leans heavily on the wall, superboy calmly standing beside him and m'gann on the other side.

"how can my first mission as leader go so wrong?" robin questions.

aqualad turning to look at the youngest member "you do have the most experience but perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared." wally stands and the whole group has their focus solely focused on robins body language. "fighting alongside batman, your roles are clearly defined. you two do not need to talk, but this team is new. and a leader needs to be clear, explicit. he cannot vanish and expect others to play part in an unknown plan."

robin turns and physically swipes the idea away "oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands?" then looks down with a pained groan. "ah, who am I kidding?" he questions, entirely to himself and with a note of pain in his words. "you should lead us, kaldur. you're the only who can."

"i second that" madelaine speaks up loudly throwing her hand up which lights the top of the cave up, aqualad smiling at the girls support.

"please!" wally shouts. "I can run circles-" he's cut off by robin.

"wally, come on." robin says "you know he's the one, we all do."

"hello, megan!" m'gann says, placing her hands on her hips. "it's so obvious." her words confusing everyone as they turn to her momentarily.

"coulda told ya" superboy concurs, leaning against a support beam slightly behind aqualad with his arms cross and actually smiling. he turns his attention towards wally with a frown waiting for the boy to agree.

madelaine joining in staring at wally, him being the only one against the idea of kaldur being leaser. wally brings his hands off his hips and over his shoulders as he shrugs, then brings his hands back to his hips and smiles. "okay."

"then I accept the burden," kaldur says as he walks towards robin pausing as he places his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. "until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. you were born to lead this team. maybe not now, but soon." robin smiling the whole way through the speech and confirms the terms with a small nod.

kaldur then turns away and looks to all of the team. "alright, our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving the island." they all gather around.

robin laughs, crosses his arms, and takes on a wally-like smirk. "funny. i had the same thought."

———

"sportsmaster the supplier/buyer." robin says as all six run down the mine tunnel. "but it still doesn't track. he doesn't have the juice to acquire the blockbuster formula or to get kobra to do his dirty work."

despite having superspeed wally remains beside robin, though both are in the lead, with aqualad and superboy behind them, and m'gann and madelaine the furthest back and in the air.

"and neither of them have the chops to bond blockbuster with venom." wally agrees. "that took some major nerdage."

"i believe the expression is tip of the iceberg" aqualad states, coming to a stop as they see bane standing in front of their exit. something long and metal dropping from his grip joining at least half a dozen more just like it on the ground.

"halt, niños." bane commands, something bright green sticking out of his left hand. "i'm feeling explosive."

behind them are explosives on the second to last support beam, judging by the cave in they experienced they wouldn't make it out in time. madelaine knew it they couldn't get out she could generate enough energy to make a forcefield around them all but if it could withhold the explosions was the question.

"you betrayed us. why?" aqualad asks, sounding honestly confused.

"i want my factory back." bane stated simply. and madelaine wanted to be back at the tower taking a nap she thought to herself.

"kid, you'll need a running start." aqualad says through the mind link, the ginger does as he's told and slowly starts taking steps backward.

"so i forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies or die trying." he smirks proudly before continuing. "if the latter, the justice league would certainly come to avenge their sidekicks" the word sidekicks making madelaine clench her fists.

"and when the smoke cleared santa prisca would be mine once more." he holds out the trigger. "blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect." he didn't notice the blur and went to hit the button on to find it missing.

"with what?" wally asks from behind the supervillain leaning smugly against a nearby tree as bane turns to him. "this trigger thingy?" he continues to question, showing bane the still intact trigger in his hand.

bane went to go punch the ginger but was pulled back and away by an unseen force, or rather m'gann's telekinesis. now being held a good ten feet off the ground the others join her where bane can see them.

wally flipping the explosive into madelaine's hands which she caught softly, slipping it into the back of her belt and out of reach of bane.

superboy drops into a fighting stance "finally" sounding both pleased, amused and some nearly kind of desperate. m'gann looks to him and fully settles into his stance "drop him."

she looks up innocently as she drops her hand, the force holding bane diminishes and he falls right into the hard uppercut from superboy. madelaine wincing knowing how much it would've hurt but not feeling bad for the man.

"good one, kon" the girl told him as she nodded in approval of the punch, walking up to superboy and sticking her hand out for a low high-five which he surprisingly returned.

———

the helicopter was now up and running again and the soldiers were loading the product once more.

"the helicopter is operational, exalted one" an agent states the rather obvious. sportsmaster walks back down towards the chopper with the silver box from before only to be stopped as wally runs in and takes out the two furthest agents in the rows on both his sides, then over to one of the agents now shooting at him kicking him in the chest and knocking him away from the gun.

"take the shipment!" kobra commands. two more agents come up behind him, and as sportsmaster goes to leave superboy drops in, cracking the concrete mere feet away from the helicopter.

"go again?" he asks blockbuster. the monster roars, wally takes out one other kobra agent between the two super strong forces, just as he gets within striking distance a stream of water takes out the monster. "sorry. not the plan." then looks over to ensure that aqualad isn't being ambushed as he holds the water stream.

sportsmaster gets behind superboy, using the cover of the helicopter and hits him with a bright red blast from his gun on the teen's back. he gets two more shots, then starts rapidly firing as he manages to force the clone backward.

in his distraction, m'gann goes unseen until she tries to swoop in and help, only for sportsmaster to hit her hard, disabling her camouflage and get her in a choke hold, all while still shooting at superboy. madelaine swoops down behind the man before gripping him in a choke hold with her magic his grip on m'gann loosening.

wally takes out one of the few remaining cultists' guns, swiping his mask in the process "souvenir" then continues to run as the agent falls unconscious. shimmer and kobra taking a step back.

in a second a bola wraps around her body and knocks her to the ground looking to the source kobra glares at robin. "i know you getting your hands dirty." robin snarks as if he did the cult leader a favor.

"true," though he reaches up and takes off his cloak revealing his shaved head and matching pale body. "but sometimes even a god must stoop to conquer." robin smirks and charges at kobra, bringing a knee up with a high jump only for kobra to block it with one hand. his eyes widen, but narrow as he drops back down and goes to sweep out his feet. kobra only needs to lift one leg as robin pushes off the ground once more, a roundhouse aiming right for kobra's face which the cult leader catches with a singular hand, then front kicking the teen in the chest and watching as he flips to land on his feet once more and slide back a few feet. His teeth clenching, but he doesn't attack again "what's wrong boy? you look disconcerted."

"stay whelmed, robin!" madelaine calls out to the boy as sportsmaster finally let's go off m'gann and her grip on him loosens out of distraction him turning to punch her across the face down to the ground.

the girl groaning as she moves her jaw around, the pain seeping around her face for a few seconds before it stills. m'gann reaching her side quickly checking over her friend.

wally runs around, taking out three more kobra agents standing in a semi-circle. the fourth remains and goes to shoot at wally only to be shoulder checked by the super speeding streak.

aqualad continues to push blockbuster farther with the water stream putting away a water-bearer his hand sparks like the eel that his tattoos mirror would. he touches the water to conduct the electricity lighting the monster up like a christmas tree, his tattoos turning back to black as he puts his other water-bearer back.

starting to fire at superboy again sportsmaster begins to back up into the loading bay of the chopper. "thanks for the workout, but I gotta fly." then pauses in his firing long enough to pick up madelaine off the floor and throw her at superboy throwing them both back.

both of them don't even move as the chopper takes off. madelaine shows the trigger that they took from bane to superboy with a smile before pressing the top.

sportsmaster doesn't even know the explosives as there until it detonates setting the loading bay of the chopper on fire and blowing out the back. with that much of the chopper wreaked sportsmaster loses control, seeing where he's going to crash he jumps out of the helicopter.

the chopper lands directly on the factory, destroying the whole thing. madelaine's satisfaction increasing bane can only watch as he's tied to a tree on the cliff by the exit to the tunnel, anger showing, even through his mask.

superboy standing before pulling madelaine up by the arm, the two looking to eachother with large smiles. something madelaine wasn't used to seeing on kon-el's face and something she found she enjoyed.

robin gets knocked to the ground, and kobra's massive foot stepping onto his chest. despite being the amazing boy wonder he can't move the foot keeping him pinned. "i am plagued by mosquitoes!" kobra proclaims, glaring down at robin.

"good," robin says, smirking as he feels the pressure release slightly. "because this mosquito is mighty concerted over your pain!" he executes duel helicopter kicks to fully knock kobra's leg off his chest, then rolls into a handstand and spring back towards the rest of the team.

the six stand ready to fight, kobra glances to the side, then steps back calmly. "another time then." then he disappears into the shadows.

robin attempts to follow but is shocked to find only shrubbery and darkness. he walks back to find the other four still waiting, though m'gann comes back to the ground.

"we picked the right guy to lead." robin tells aqualad sincerely "automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to batman!" then walks away laughing.

madelaine smacking a hand across the back of robin's head as aqualad can only look down in thought.

———

the team now sat back at the justice league tower, the teens being brought in for a scolding from batman not even 10 minutes after landing. they were all tired and that was obvious as they all stood sluggishly around the mission table.

"a simple recon mission." batman gets within inches of aqualad's face as he berates him "observe and report!" then backs off. "you'll each receive written evaluations detailing your many mistakes."

batman then begins to walk past all six, who stand at full attention now. coming to a pause beside superboy, who is the last one in their line. "until then - good job." all of their heads snap up in shock, then look to batman out of the corner of their eyes. "no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy." all of them relax and stand slightly more comfortably.

"how you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success." they all watch him as he continues and starts walking away. "and how you choose who leads determines character." robin smiles, and aqualad looks down at the smaller boy and does as well.

once batman is out of the room madelaine found herself yawning and sliding to sit on the floor "none of you wake me up tomorrow, else you're dead" she mutters as her eyes start shutting and another yawn leaves her lips making the other five yawn as well.

superboy looks to wally before nodding, the ginger picking the girl up and throwing her over his shoulder waking her up quickly before he speeds her to the outside of her bedroom. letting her stand softly.

"goodnight, gorgeous" the boy says sweetly with a smirk making her smile at his words before he turns and starts to walk away only to be stopped as madelaine grabs his hand spinning him around and pulling him closer.

wally's heart picking up as his cheeks warm and turn pink, a nervous chuckle leaving his lips before madelaine rolls her eyes at how his demeanor changes so quickly and then placing a soft kiss on his cheek.

the boys face doesn't hide his shock as he places a hand over his cheek to see her smiling at him well shaking her head "your prize for winning earlier, night wally" she said letting go off his hands and entering her room.

she stayed on the other side of her room for a few seconds as it was silent on both sides before s small "yes, wallman" was heard from the speedster making her giggle at the boy, her own heart speeding up a bit.

it was quite a successful day if she had anything to say about it.