14 Santa Prisca
30 advance chapters in my Pat.reon. Pat.reon.com/Saintbarbido.
Disclaimer: I don't own DC or any of it's related properties. If I did, the storyline would mostly involve hundreds of Supervillain funerals. Just saying.
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(Aden's P.O.V)
I held the guitar firmly in my hands and began plucking the strings. It had taken a while to get used to my new strength but I could now play again.
"Well, come on Aden… we're waiting."
M'gann urged me, while Wally was shoving the cookies that M'gann had taken to making whenever we were all around, in his mouth.
"Yeah, I could be beating your record now."
Robin intoned while smiling behind his glasses. I rolled my eyes.
"Patience guys. I believe he is about to start."
Thank you Kaldur, I pray you live a full life. I cleared my throat and fidgeted in my seat. I was nervous. I hadn't played ever since I had come to this dimension. Not seriously like now or infront of the whole team or any other audience for that matter. It had been 3 days since the fight with Twister and we were all back to a 100%.
I had decided against playing Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay to them, which is what I really wanted to do. To start off, I needed something catchy yet simple.
The melody to Pink Sweats' At My Worst started playing and everyone became entranced. I had always had a lyrical tenor, great for singing but I had trouble controlling my breathing. Funnily enough after the blockbuster formula, that problem disappeared.
"Can I call you baby? Can you be my friend?
Can you be my lover up until the very end?
Let me show you love, oh, no pretend
Stick by my side even when the world is caving in, yeah
Oh, oh, oh, don't, don't you worry
I'll be there whenever you want me
I need somebody who can love me at my worst
No, I'm not perfect, but I hope you see my worth
'Cause it's only you, nobody new, I put you first
And for you, girl, I swear I'd do the worst…"
I put in all my emotions, my fear at finding myself in a fictional world, missing my family so damn much, breaking up with my girlfriend just before I left my world, my hope that things would turn out okay and happiness that despite it all, I had managed to make friends and find a place to belong.
I quickly wiped a tear discreetly after i finished up the song and looked around. Everyone had open mouths.
"Guys?"
I said, knocking them out of their stupor.
"Wow, I didn't know you could sing like that"
M'gann said while blushing.
"Yeah, that was actually pretty good."
Robin added.
"Didn't expect that at all."
Wally said and then went back to stealing cookies from Aqualad's plate.
"I liked it."
Superboy told me while smiling.
"They're all right. That was very good. You have an amazing gift Aden."
I hate being praised and that's because I don't know how to react to it. I nodded and looked away while laughing.
"Thanks guys."
Wally supersped to my side.
"So Aden, what do you think about forming a band? you can sing and I can play. We can call ourselves the huh…"
"You can play? Don't crack jokes like that Wally."
Robin snickered.
"Dude! I can totally play. I just need a few lessons and bam, drummer extraordinaire at your service."
No one looked convinced. I decided to spare Wally the grim reality of how hard learning music was and patted his shoulder.
"I'll think about it."
"Batman to team. Everyone gather at the hall."
We rose up and left for the briefing on our first official mission. To investigate Santa Prisca. I didn't recall this mission clearly. And the lessons with Martian Manhunter were focused more on concealing my memories more securely. I knew the mission with Psimon was just around the corner so I had had to forgo the exercises to better recall my memories for hiding them away better.
The mission was pretty straightforward. It was to covertly investigate the reason why the venom neo steroid shipments supply lines were stalled while the factory seemed to be operating normally. Batman probably thought that the supply lines had been changed but he wanted to make sure before jumping to conclusions.
"So who is the leader?"
Robin asked when Batman was finished with the brief. The Dark Knight and Red Tornado looked at each other and seemed to come to a conclusion.
"We will let you decide that amongst yourselves."
Oh boy.
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I was strapped on my seat inside Miss Martian's bio-ship. My breath came out slow and long, a tactic to center myself for better focus. It was one of the exercises that Martian Manhunter had taught to me. You breath in and hold your breath for 10 seconds then you breath out and stay like that for 10 seconds before inhaling again. The cycle slows down your heart rate abd calms the mind.
"We are arriving near the island. I'm putting the bio-ship in camouflage mode."
M'gann informed us. 5 seconds later, I opened my eyes when she added,
"Approaching Drop Zone A in 20."
Aqualad got up and pressed on his belt buckle. The normally red upper section of his suit turned grey. These were the new suits given to us by Batman for covert missions. M'gann brought the bio-ship low, near the water.
A section on the floor of the bio-ship opened up and Aqualad jumped through it. His mission was to swim and covertly approach the beach to take out the motion and heat sensors. He radioed in and informed us the detectors were down.
"Approaching Drop Zone B."
M'gann controlled the ship, once on the Island to drop us off a distance away from the beach. Wally pressed his belt buckle and his suit turned grey not unlike Aqualad. Miss Martian simply morphed her costume into something more inconspicuous. Luckily my own suit was predominantly black. Superboy on the other hand preferred to go as he was. To quote him, 'No capes or tights.' Robin was a stealth master, it didn't matter if he was dressed like a rainbow or not.
"Inform me when you land so that we can regroup."
Aqualad said.
"Roger that."
Robin answered.
Boy Wonder and Wally used a rope to land while I merely floated down, carried by the air. I landed softly as Superboy jumped from the ship. The air under my control slowed him down before he could smash onto the ground.
"I didn't need your help."
He whispered harshly.
"It's a covert mission. Had you landed, the loud sound would have risked us getting found out."
I whispered back and he shrugged.
"Whatever."
Superboy grumbled, disappointed that he hadn't made a crater under him.
"Hey Robi…I hate it when he does that!"
Kid Flash stated, referencing Robin's disappearance.
"I'll go on ahead and scout."
He then did the same thing as Robin and disappeared into the jungle.
"Do you think he sees the irony?"
Superboy asked while we followed after Kid Flash.
"Nope. Not even if it slapped him in the face."
Our feet were as silent as could be. I wasn't experienced enough to fly in such thick foliage. Man, fiction makes it seem easy to fly but in reality it's like learning how to swim. It takes time to learn all the fancy moves and increase speed in the water. To avoid detection I decided to stick to running.
M'gann floated above us, invisible. We came up on Kid Flash hiding behind a few rocks looking out at a beaten path. His googles were on and he pointed to his front.
"There's a group making their way here."
He whispered.
"Two actually. There's another one with guns coming from the other side."
Superboy corrected him.
"Are they together?"
Miss Martian asked.
"Let me go and find out. It will only take a second."
Kid Flash announced and blitzed, leaving behind afterimages and protests from the rest of us.
"We seriously need a leader."
I muttered in exasperation.
Our resident speedster slipped and fell between the two groups as they begun opening fire against each other.
"Well, the stealth part is useless now."
Superboy stated and jumped into the fight. I brought a hand to the earpiece I had on.
"Maelstrom to Aqualad, do you copy?"
"Send over."
"We are currently engaging two opposing groups. Follow the sound of gunshots to our position. Out."
M'gann had moved ahead and was throwing around Kobra goons like they weighed nothing. A few birdarangs fell between the men on the other group and exploded, sending the men flying away. A second later Boy Wonder was on the scene incapacitating goons left and right, next to Kid Flash.
"What happened to being stealthy! Remember covert? Why didn't you follow my lead and vanish into the jungle?"
He asked in annoyance.
"You didn't tell us anything! We are not mind readers you know!"
Kid Flash shot back and I agreed.
I sailed over both of them and kicked out. A huge gale sent the goons flying away in shouts of surprise and pain.
"He's right Robin. Remember most of us are still very inexperienced."
I told him. A hail of fire cut off what he was going to say next and we took cover behind a tree. Robin threw out smoke bombs that obscured the surroundings.
Kid Flash ran out and took care of 3 of them while I used the cover to pull up on the rest. One Kobra goon stumbled back as I came out of the smoke suddenly. He rounded up his gun to shoot but I ducked the fire, my fists came up and I threw a few jabs on his armpits. His hands slumped, unresponsive. My palm instantly shot out and a blast of wind landed on his torso, throwing him to his partner.
"Motherfucker!"
One of the two left shouted and shot at me. I flew up, escaping the bullets and a tornado appeared before me, sweeping through the two of them and slamming them onto a tree.
I floated down as the gunfire died down finally. Aqualad had regrouped up with the rest and I flew forward to join them. Everyone was gathered surrounding the tied up men.
"Who's the wrestler?"
I asked them, pointing to a middle-aged man in face paint. Bane, no doubt.
