18th February
22:02 GMT -5
"Recognized, Superboy, B zero four."
I raise my right hand in greeting as Kon walks out of the zeta tube into the training area.
"Hey." He nods in greeting. "How'd it go?"
"The suicides were being caused by a group of the things the sheeda set on Magnificus. We caught them, a number of sheeda creatures for STAR Labs to study and someone from Witch World who appears to have been overseeing them. You?
"
He shrugs as he strolls over and flops into the construct chair I make for him.
"We found the fight ring no problem. But they weren't breaking any local laws. Canis wanted to enter and kill everyone in the arena-"
I roll my eyes.
"Of course he did.
"
"-but instead of doing that we just took pictures of everyone's face and planted bugs everywhere so we can track their movements."
"No one with international warrants?
"
"No." He shakes his head. "Robin said he recognised some of their moves, so maybe they're having supervillains train them?" I nod. "There's not much more we can do until the tracking devices say they've moved."
"Any trouble?
"
"No. I kinda wanted to join in some of the bouts, but I couldn't see how that would help the mission. Roulette's gotta be doing background checks on everyone. If I was gunna get hired there I'd have to get up a villainous identity and that would take
months."
"You could go in as yourself. Supervillains would be lining up to fight you.
"
He smiles at the idea, then shakes his head. "Yeah, but they'd hide all the illegal stuff. And I don't think Roulette would go for it."
"Okay… How about pretending to be Ultraboy? He's not
well known, but his picture did get released to the media.
"
He looks thoughtful. "I don't have a parallel universe transporter."
"I could build you a type of teleporter that doesn't exist on Earth. Unless Roulette had exactly the right people look at it there wouldn't be any way for her to tell the difference.
"
He nods. "Maybe we could try that during winter break. Otherwise she just has to schedule a fight during school hours and I can't show. Does Ultraboy go to school?"
"I.. didn't check. I… Probably gets tutored?
" I frown.
"How did you get time off for the Belle Reve infiltration, then?
"
"Ah…" He looks away. "Batman wanted me to do it, and… At the time, school wasn't all that important to me. I guess Batman knew that I didn't really
need it, and he needed
someone who could pretend to be Tommy Te-."
I give him a mild glare.
"r-ah-whatever his name is?"
"Beresford.
"
"Right, yeah."
We sit in silence for a moment.
"Did you know that Madagascan taxi drivers usually rent their taxis day by day?
"
He frowns slightly. "Really?"
I nod.
"But they have to pay for their own petrol, so they hate buying more than they need because if they leave any in the tank then the person who gets that taxi tomorrow gets it.
"
Another shake, but this one is tinged with amusement. "Guess that explains why they were driving so-"
"Recognized, Aqualad, B zero two, Arsenal, B one six, Green Lantern, B two two."
"-slow."
Kaldur has a few minor cuts and Roy's armour has.. enough damage that he's probably going to swallow his pride and ask me to fix it for him. Arisia's armour has a few scratches, but nothing like that much.
Kon's eyes widen slightly. "What
happened?"
I take a purple healing ray out of subspace and float it over to Kaldur, who takes it and begins playing it over his injuries before replying.
"Mister Gaines was being held captive by an alien Green Lantern identified as a durlan."
"Ooh, nasty. The Chinese have been fighting them for
decades.
"
He nods. "It did not communicate with us directly, so I do not know whether or not it was part of the same group. And since it died when its ship was destroyed I doubt that we will ever know for certain."
Arisia looks at my construct chairs for a moment, then raises her right hand and
creates chairs for the three of them.
Kaldur gives her a small nod as he sits down. "Thank you."
Roy pulls off his helmet and shakes his head. "I'm gunna go start work on my armour." I start to open my mouth. "Yeah, I know. I just wanna do what I can before I hand the rest over to you."
I nod as he stomps off down the corridor, the right leg's motive systems noticeably lagging. Could be the power, the data links or the servos themselves, but he can probably fix
that…
"The Green Lantern assigned to Durla. He's called…
Von Daggle? Van Daggle? Something like that?
"
"
I will check." Her eyes
glow for a moment. "No, there is no Lantern Daggle in the Green Lantern Corps. I've sent a copy of our mission report to the Lanterns assigned to that Sector. Hopefully, they'll be able to find out why it was here."
Kon leans towards them slightly. "Did that Gaines guy make it out okay?"
Kaldur nods. "He had only minor injuries. He is staying at STAR Labs so that they can ensure that he is not carrying a durlan nanotech infection like the one which transformed August Colonel in Iron, but they believe that he will be fine. Is your mission complete as well?"
"For
now. We're gunna keep an eye-."
"Recognized, Miss Martian B zero five."
Kon gets out of his chair to greet her.
"Hey, how'd it g-?"
**
Ugh!**
M'gann's jaw is clenched and I can see her
anger.
Kon looks concerned as he lays his hands on her shoulders, and she reaches up to put her hands on his.
"What happened?"
"There weren't any Kobra cultists
before the police started beating up civilians, but there are plenty
now. I don't even think they're part of the Kobra we fought before. I think they're just using the
name."
Kaldur nods. "That is troubling."
"And the police did
not want to hear that
they were the cause of the problem. It's just like-."
"Mars and the Hyperclan?
"
"Yeah. And I don't think the situation is going to improve."
I wave my hand and a holographic after-action report form floats over to her.
"Maybe. But we're not out of options yet.
"
Kaldur nods. "My mission requires no follow up, and I am certain that we are all willing to assist you with yours."
M'gann nods and manages a small smile.
"Thanks guys."