3rd September 2010
23:02 GMT +3
"Artemis-."
Artemis wheels around to glare at me, jerking her hands up to the sides of her head in a sort of grabbing gesture. "
Don't even talk to me."
I bow my head and raise my right hand in surrender. "Okay."
She lowers her hands, maintains her glare for a few moments to ensure that she's made her point, then turns away to stalk over to a dune on the far side of our temporary base of operations, Superboy and M'gann stepping back to give her room.
Wallace looks up from the sensor array he and Richard are working on. "What's
her problem? Y'know,
now."
"I'm.. afraid that it's personal." Kaldur frowns slightly at me. "And I'm sure that it won't be a problem going forward. I.. just gave Artemis a bit of a surprise and she's… Adjusting."
Wallace smirks. "What, did she ask you out without knowing you're the team token adult?"
"No, though I
am meeting up with
Patrick Dugan in a couple of days so we can compare notes."
Superboy frowns. "Who's that?"
"Stripesy." Richard doesn't look around from the scanner array. He also isn't having to look the name up. "The Star Spangled Kid's sidekick. They were both members of the All-Star Squadron during the Second World War. I think he was twice the Kid's age."
I nod. "A little over, actually. Robin, is that thing picking up anything my scans didn't?"
"You heard Batman, Oh El. Power ring scans aren't admissible as evidence."
"Right. Except that the reason why
we're here is that the Justice League doesn't have legal authority to act in Bialya. We don't
either, but… For reasons which I'm.. still not clear on, that isn't a problem because as a League-affiliated auxiliary body we aren't covered by the League's UN Charter in which they agreed not to do exactly what we're doing right now."
"That's about the size of-."
"But as we're a black operation squad, this can't ever come to court anyway. The League can't say that
they took those scans without admitting to violating their Charter. They can't say that
we did without drawing attention to a huge Charter-bypass that Batman is hoping that no one is going to spot and admitting that this team exists. Boom tube radiation requires specialist equipment to detect, so he can't claim that it was picked up by… I don't know, local physicists or something. And unless one of Bialya's neighbours decides that whatever's happening here is bad enough to declare war over, any follow up activity will have to come from
us, because… Charter, black operation."
Wallace stands back from the machine,
probably frowning under his mask. "So… This is… A complete waste of time."
"No… Ah… Maybe? Batman can get more of those sensors made and he can't get hold of more power rings, so maybe we're here to test it? Or this is a test for
us?"
Superboy folds his arms across his chest and huffs contemptuously.
"Is there a…" Wallace waves his right arm. "Reason you're bringing this up
now, rather than when we were in the cave?"
"Because Batman doesn't stop being intimidating just because you reach eighteen. Or, indeed, twenty nine. I didn't really
think about it until we'd… Been here for a while."
"Oh
man, this is exactly what Red Arrow said would happen!"
"Kid Flash." Kaldur regards him with mild displeasure. "Control yourself. We are in enemy territory."
"Yeah, and this…" He glances at the sensor array. "
Thing, and Oh El's ring and Miss Em's telepathy and Supey's hearing will
all pick up anything heading our way before either of
us notice them."
"Even if this
is simply a test, I do not want us to
fail it. And neither should you."
"Huh." Wallace thinks for a moment. "Okay. So if this is a test, and we need to do these scans to
pass, how do we ace it?"
Oh dear.
Superboy perks up slightly. "We could attack the site, beat up the guards and get
them to tell us what's going on."
Oh dear.
Richard turns away from the sensor. "This isn't supposed to be an overt mission. It's not even a vert mission. And since it's
covert, losing the 'co' means co-failing the mission."
Hm.
"Miss Martian? How good is your mind control?"
"A
aaahh…" She looks around the group. "Bad. Really
really bad. Like I could maybe make someone move their arm when they didn't want to or something but I couldn't make them obey me permanently."
I nod. "I suspect that I can permanently alter someone's desires with this ring, but I don't really know how to do it either. Aqualad? Does the Conservatory teach mental domination magic?"
"Yes, but it is a specialist course, and only available to the most advanced students." He bows his head slightly. "My time studying combat under Aquaman has limited the time I have for arcane study."
I nod. "So we can't mind control Queen Bee into telling us what she's doing, stopping, and reforming the Bialyan government. I could try lecturing her on political theory, but I'm not sure that she'd listen."
Superboy frowns. "They're using the boom tube to bring stuff here from… Apokolips, right?"
I nod again. "Probably."
"So why don't we just blow it up?"
"Not very 'co', Superboy."
"Why? I mean, as long as they don't see us they still don't know the Justice League are the ones who stopped them. We can get Batman's readings and
still stop them doing whatever they're doing."
"
No." Kaldur shakes his head. "I understand your frustration, but this team is intended to act with subtlety. Unless there is a clear reason to break cover, we will limit ourselves to observation."
"Um." M'gann raises her right hand. "I could take a closer look? I can go invisible so the guards can't see me. And I can keep in contact with telepathy."
I shake my head. "Miss Martian, we know that Doctor Simon Jones is over there. Your invisibility doesn't prevent telepaths from hearing you, does it?"
"It… No."
"And Apokolips is
very technologically advanced. If they're trading, then there's a good chance that the Bialyans could detect you even
without him."
"They didn't detect the Bio-Ship."
"How do we know that?"
Her eyes widen slightly.
Richard nods. "Oh El's got a point. If they know we're here, and they know that the League won't stop them, and that the League wouldn't send someone unless they knew that
something was going on, there's no actual
reason for them to attack us."
Kon glowers. "So not only does
Batman know this is a waste of time, the Bialyans do too?!"
Kaldur turns my way. "Orange Lantern. Are your scans precise enough to tell when Doctor Jones is asleep?"
"Yes."
"Once he is, Miss Martian will
cautiously investigate the camp. Unless we uncover evidence that requires us to act immediately, that is all that we do. If any of you dislike the parameters of the mission, you may take it up with Batman upon our return."
