Spoiler: show
It had taken a couple days to get the paper trail set up for Mal’s employment, but in the end, Harry was confident that Mal wasn’t going to be able to figure out his identity, not through looking at his paystub, at least.
With the new equipment and tools, Harry was confident Mal would be able to make some real progress, especially since Karen was joining the Team as Bumblebee. That was enough enticement all itself to get the Stingers to work as a ranged option.
Harry was also putting out feelers to get the prototype Stingers marketed. His first thought had been to look to the military and government contracts, but an offhand comment by Dick had made him think about marketing to the civilian market as well. Given how often super-criminals and their minions attacked fundraisers and parties in Gotham, Harry could see quite a few of the Gotham Socialites buying a pair of opera gloves that doubled as a taser. He’d just have to make sure they were seen as fashionable.
Batman had allowed him back into the Gotham patrols, after the success with Atom’s research. Fortunately, Gotham was fairly quiet. Joker was taking a vacation in Arkham, and Penguin was down with a bad case of multiple broken bones, courtesy of Harrier’s last visit.
Gotham’s court system may be too crooked to ever lock Penguin up, but that didn’t mean there was nothing Harry could do about his criminal activities.
A few of the other Rogues were making noise, but nothing out of the ordinary. It looked like Riddler was gearing up for a heist, and Two Face was making moves against Penguin’s men in the Bowery, but it didn’t seem like it was going to erupt any time soon. Just Gotham politics at work.
Karen was fitting in well with the Team. It helped that she already knew M’gann and Connor from school, and they helped her ease into the Team nicely.
While she was certainly athletic enough from her time as a cheerleader, that still didn’t make her ready for combat. Black Canary and Robin were running her through an intensive training course, with Aqualad helping prepare her for superpowered fights. Mal even joined her most days, when he wasn’t in his lab with Wally and Red Tornado. She was doing well, but it was clear she’d never be a front line fighter. Fortunately, with her abilities, she shouldn’t ever have to.
It wasn’t until the latter half of July that Batman called the Team in for their next mission.
0oOo0
“There’s a new player in the corporate espionage game,” Batman started as the Team assembled. “We don’t know who they are, but they are working for the highest bidder.”
“And this involves us because?” Artemis asked. “Companies sabotage each other all the time.”
“Normally, it wouldn’t be something the Team would investigate. But in this case, the highest bidder is one of the members of the Light. Lex Luthor.”
Luthor’s picture appeared on the holographic display and several windows of data opened beside it. “These are the companies that have been attacked that directly benefit Lex’s holdings.” Three more windows opened. “These we can reasonably attribute to our saboteur, but don’t appear to be connected to Luthor. We believe that the notoriety from these jobs led Luthor to hiring our saboteur.”
A map appeared, and the attacks were marked off and labeled. “All the attacks have been in Western Europe, and most of them have been located in France. For this reason, we believe the saboteur is based there. Furthermore, the timing of the attacks suggests that there should be another within the next twenty-four hours.”
The images were wiped away, and profiles for three companies appeared. “We believe these companies are the next most likely targets, based on Luthor’s patterns and the saboteur’s previous actions. Aqualad, divide the Team into squads and stake out these companies. This is a reconnaissance mission, so we’re staying quiet. If you do your jobs right, the saboteur will never know they’ve been made.”
Batman nodded once at Aqualad and started walking to the Zeta Tubes. With the mission briefing given, his job was done. It was up to the Team to get the job done.
Aqualad moved to take Batman’s place. “Alpha Squad will be Robin, Rocket, and myself. We will cover Saint-Gobain. Harrier, Kid Flash, Artemis, and Zatanna, you’re Beta Squad. You’ll cover Areva. Superboy, Miss Martian, Bumblebee, and Batgirl will be Gamma Squad, covering Safran. Mal, I want you to coordinate the comms from here. If something goes down with one squad, the others need to know about it immediately.”
Kid Flash pumped his fist and shot a smile at Artemis. Conventional thinking wouldn’t have people in a relationship working together, but they were one of the best pairs the Team had. Even better than Miss Martian and Superboy, even if they brought less collective firepower to the table.
And conventional thinking didn’t really apply to a team of teenaged superheroes anyways.
With the new equipment and tools, Harry was confident Mal would be able to make some real progress, especially since Karen was joining the Team as Bumblebee. That was enough enticement all itself to get the Stingers to work as a ranged option.
Harry was also putting out feelers to get the prototype Stingers marketed. His first thought had been to look to the military and government contracts, but an offhand comment by Dick had made him think about marketing to the civilian market as well. Given how often super-criminals and their minions attacked fundraisers and parties in Gotham, Harry could see quite a few of the Gotham Socialites buying a pair of opera gloves that doubled as a taser. He’d just have to make sure they were seen as fashionable.
Batman had allowed him back into the Gotham patrols, after the success with Atom’s research. Fortunately, Gotham was fairly quiet. Joker was taking a vacation in Arkham, and Penguin was down with a bad case of multiple broken bones, courtesy of Harrier’s last visit.
Gotham’s court system may be too crooked to ever lock Penguin up, but that didn’t mean there was nothing Harry could do about his criminal activities.
A few of the other Rogues were making noise, but nothing out of the ordinary. It looked like Riddler was gearing up for a heist, and Two Face was making moves against Penguin’s men in the Bowery, but it didn’t seem like it was going to erupt any time soon. Just Gotham politics at work.
Karen was fitting in well with the Team. It helped that she already knew M’gann and Connor from school, and they helped her ease into the Team nicely.
While she was certainly athletic enough from her time as a cheerleader, that still didn’t make her ready for combat. Black Canary and Robin were running her through an intensive training course, with Aqualad helping prepare her for superpowered fights. Mal even joined her most days, when he wasn’t in his lab with Wally and Red Tornado. She was doing well, but it was clear she’d never be a front line fighter. Fortunately, with her abilities, she shouldn’t ever have to.
It wasn’t until the latter half of July that Batman called the Team in for their next mission.
0oOo0
“There’s a new player in the corporate espionage game,” Batman started as the Team assembled. “We don’t know who they are, but they are working for the highest bidder.”
“And this involves us because?” Artemis asked. “Companies sabotage each other all the time.”
“Normally, it wouldn’t be something the Team would investigate. But in this case, the highest bidder is one of the members of the Light. Lex Luthor.”
Luthor’s picture appeared on the holographic display and several windows of data opened beside it. “These are the companies that have been attacked that directly benefit Lex’s holdings.” Three more windows opened. “These we can reasonably attribute to our saboteur, but don’t appear to be connected to Luthor. We believe that the notoriety from these jobs led Luthor to hiring our saboteur.”
A map appeared, and the attacks were marked off and labeled. “All the attacks have been in Western Europe, and most of them have been located in France. For this reason, we believe the saboteur is based there. Furthermore, the timing of the attacks suggests that there should be another within the next twenty-four hours.”
The images were wiped away, and profiles for three companies appeared. “We believe these companies are the next most likely targets, based on Luthor’s patterns and the saboteur’s previous actions. Aqualad, divide the Team into squads and stake out these companies. This is a reconnaissance mission, so we’re staying quiet. If you do your jobs right, the saboteur will never know they’ve been made.”
Batman nodded once at Aqualad and started walking to the Zeta Tubes. With the mission briefing given, his job was done. It was up to the Team to get the job done.
Aqualad moved to take Batman’s place. “Alpha Squad will be Robin, Rocket, and myself. We will cover Saint-Gobain. Harrier, Kid Flash, Artemis, and Zatanna, you’re Beta Squad. You’ll cover Areva. Superboy, Miss Martian, Bumblebee, and Batgirl will be Gamma Squad, covering Safran. Mal, I want you to coordinate the comms from here. If something goes down with one squad, the others need to know about it immediately.”
Kid Flash pumped his fist and shot a smile at Artemis. Conventional thinking wouldn’t have people in a relationship working together, but they were one of the best pairs the Team had. Even better than Miss Martian and Superboy, even if they brought less collective firepower to the table.
And conventional thinking didn’t really apply to a team of teenaged superheroes anyways.
MrRigger