109 CHAPTER 103

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[David Lance POV]

After having taken down Bane and the Kobra troops, we regrouped and waited a few minutes for Bane to wake up in order to interrogate him. However, it soon became clear after Bane had woken up that he was not going to give us any information easily.

Instead, Bane offered us an alliance, saying that the enemy of his enemy was his friend and that with his aid, we could enter the factory easily because he had a secret entrance.

Seeing this, I turned to Miss Martian, giving her the green light to read his mind in order to pry the information out of him by any means necessary. However, she quickly realized that reading his mind wasn't going to be as easy as it looked by any means. "He's mentally reciting football scores. In Spanish. This could take a while..."

"So, ninos? What do you say?" Bane asked with a cocky smile adorning his face.

"Allow me," Raven said, her voice low and cold, as she drew near to Bane, darkness surrounding her like a cloak slowly expanding out of her, her eyes glowing white, promising a world of pain. With each step, I could feel the atmosphere growing colder, a fact that Bane was slowly becoming aware of. "Let's have a talk, shall we?"

With that said, Raven engulfed Bane in her darkness alongside her, creating a small dome around them that covered a small area in order to have a one-on-one with Bane.

"Should we worry?" Miss Martian asked, looking at the dome with an unsure look.

I shook my head. After all, it was Bane the one who had to worry, not us.

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After a few moments inside the dome, Raven emerged from the darkness, her eyes returning to their normal black color as the darkness around her dissipated. "I have what we need," She said simply before turning to Bane, who was now shaking in fear.

"E-l d-demonio!" Bane said, his voice trembling.

Raven, at this, didn't answer, instead making her way toward me. "Kobra took over the factory and is apparently working on a secret project that requires large quantities of Venom. That's all he knows about the why."

"What did you do to him?" Aqualad asked, eyeing Bane as he trembled on the floor.

"I had a heart-to-heart with him," Raven replied, her voice as cold as ice.

"We don't do this kind of thing; we don't traumatize villains!" Kid Flash interjected in clear disgust over Raven's methods.

Raven, at this, turned to him, her eyes narrowing. "What we don't do is let innocent people die because we're too squeamish about getting our hands dirty."

"That's the thing! We are heroes; we don't get our hands dirty!" Kid Flash said, clearly not backing down from his stand.

"Says the boy who's never had to make a difficult decision in his life," Raven retorted calmly, unfazed by Kid Flash's attitude. "Batman made very clear the do's and don'ts of interrogation, and believe me; I didn't do anything he wouldn't have done. You can ask Wonder Boy."

"You don't know anything about me!" Kid Flash said, advancing toward her menacingly, clearly taking offense to her first comment.

I stepped in then, putting a hand on his chest to stop him.

"Kid, she's right," Robin interjected calmly. "I have seen Batman interrogate villains to the point we have to provide them with clean clothes before the police arrives."

Kid Flash, at this, backed down, but the look on his face made it clear that this was far from over. I guess it was to be expected; I mean, out of all the heroes, The Flash was the friendliest one when dealing with his enemies, so it was only natural that Kid Flash of all would adopt his practices and beliefs.

"We will have time to discuss this later," Aqualad said, giving Kid Flash a look before turning to Raven and then me. "For now, we need to finish the mission."

I nodded, turning to Raven. ~Did you get where his secret entrance was?~

Raven nodded before turning to the group. "He has a secret entrance connected to one of the mines of the island a few miles away from here," she said before turning back to me.

I nodded before addressing the group. ~Very well, here's the plan. We'll split up into two teams; team one will take Kobra and his goons and apprehend them, while team two will infiltrate the factory to figure out what they are planning, using team A's distraction as a cover.~

"I guess I'm team infiltration, right?" Robin asked, and I nodded.

~And Kid Flash,~ I added, giving Kid Flash a look.

"So, the rest with you?" Raven asked calmly.

I nodded. ~Except for you, you are going solo. Your mission will be to destroy all their means of escape, one by one.~

By cutting up their ways of escape, we would erase multiple scenarios, allowing us more freedom to act and react to their advances without having to worry about their escape during battle. This would also maximize our chances of stopping whatever they were trying to distribute from escaping the place.

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Moments after planning, we moved to the secret entrance Bane had, finding that it was blocked by a large boulder that covered the entrance, one that Superboy punched out of the way with ease, opening the path that led down a mining path leading into the factory.

For this, we brought Bane with us because the door at the end of the mining tunnel, the one leading into the Venom factory, required his biometrics to open, according to what Bane had shared with Raven during their one-on-one.

Following the path, we soon reached the door leading to the factory.

"Open it," Raven ordered, to which Bane immediately complied, putting his finger where he had to in order to open the door.  His purpose completed, Raven tied Bane with the use of her magic, before portaling him into the forest.

~Miss Martian, connect us,~ I said, asking her to once again make a telepathic link with us so that we could communicate without having to rely on the radio or our voice, which would only give our position away.

"Ok," Miss Martian said a moment before linking us all together once again.

With that done, I pushed the door open slowly. The door in question opened with a hiss, revealing a dimly lit area of the factory filled with massive pipes that ran around the place. Looking around the place, I noticed the room had no sign of anyone around besides, which meant that our targets were either busy elsewhere or that they were expecting us.

-We need to be careful,- I said as we all stepped into the factory, being extra careful not to make any noise that would give away our position. -Here's where we part ways, so remember to play your roles as safely as possible.-

At this, everyone nodded before parting ways, leaving me with Superboy, Aqualad, and Miss Martian to continue with our part of the plan, going deeper and deeper into the factory until Superboy heard a sound in the distance, following Superboy's hearing, we walked into a different section of the factory, finding Kobra and his men.

-There's a helicopter coming,- Raven said through the telepathic link.

-Wait until they disembark it and enter the factory,- I replied before I turned to the team and motioned for everyone to get ready for combat.

-We are outnumbered,- Aqualad stated, to which I nodded.

-I am aware,- I nodded, eying the enemies ahead. Most of them were nothing out of the ordinary; the ones we had to worry about were few, those being Mammoth, Kobra, and whoever was coming to meet with Kobra. -You three can move ahead but wait for my signal. As for me, I will flank our targets.-

With that said, I ran towards the opposite side of the room, using the shadows to hide my presence while the others moved ahead doing the same. With everyone in position, we waited in the shadows for whoever had recently arrived to make their appearance before making our move.

A minute or so later, the one we had been waiting for arrived. Sportsmaster.

-Sportsmaster is the buyer?- Aqualad said in shock.

-Highly unlikely,- I replied. -He's a mercenary, a gun for hire. He doesn't have the capital to front this operation. But whoever hired him does.-

-That's right,- Robin said. -The question is, who hired him?-

The Light, if I had to take a guess.

-That we will find out,- I said, giving Sportsmaster a look; the way I saw it, I had two options, reporting to Batman and letting this be, or stop it before it becomes a problem. I choose the latter of the two. -Team A, you have the room to proceed. And Superboy, the big one is all yours. Team B, make sure to collect as much information as possible. Raven cut their wings.-

-Good,- Superboy replied, leaping out from behind one of the pillars, surprising Mammoth as he came down on him with a two-handed strike that sent him flying back.

Seeing this, Kobra ordered his men to attack, showering the team in bullets as I moved through the shadows of the factory into a better position to strike Sportsmaster and Kobra down as efficiently as possible. As I moved behind them, I noticed Sportsmaster following Miss Martian's movements with ease, his head tracing her movements even though she was camouflaged.

-Miss Martian, be careful; Sportsmaster is about to attack you,- I warned her so that she would be ready for whatever he was about to throw her way.

-Okay!- Miss Martian replied, taking some distance between her and Sportsmaster.

With that done, I reached for my belt and pulled a knife, waiting for him to make his move before making mine, which would soon come, because the moment he realized Miss Martian was moving away from him, he reached behind him, trying to grab a javelin from his equipment to hurl at her.

Already knowing what he was about to do, I hurled a few knives at him, two of them hitting him in each hand, forcing him to drop the javelin and the suitcase with whatever Kobra had given him as he turned around only to see me coming down on him with a flying kick that sent him crashing into the ground.

"More children," Kobra said in an emotionless tone that somehow managed to convey his condescending disappointment.

Ignoring his comments, I threw a hard punch at him. However, he deviated my fist mid-swing to the side.

"A God shouldn't have to fight the likes of you," Kobra replied before throwing a kick my way, one that I caught with one hand, getting a hold of his leg in a strong grip before I took a step forward, pulling his leg toward me, breaking his balance as I began to deliver a series of quick punches and kicks that came to an end as Sportsmaster hurled a Discus at me that I had to dodge by jumping out of the way, releasing Kobra.

"You got the jump on me, Kid. That will never happen again," Sporstmaster said with a confident yet annoyed tone as he cracked his knuckles.

-Raven, Kid Flash, if you are done with your tasks, regroup with us immediately,- I said, my eyes fixed on Kobra and Sportsmaster.

"Now, let's see what you have, kid," Sportsmaster said, hurling a javelin at me, that I exploded before it could reach me by throwing a knife at it. "Not bad. But not good enough."

Taking a deep breath, I rushed to them, dodging Sportsmaster's projectiles, forcing him and Kobra into hand-to-hand combat against me. At first, Sportsmaster and Kobra dodged my attacks for a brief moment by reading my moves carefully; that, however, became harder and harder for them as I started to press my advance on them more and more, forcing them into a corner.

"The League of Assassins trained you?" Sportsmaster asked, mostly to himself. "Well, this makes things a bit more complicated than I thought."

Cutting his monologue short, I dashed toward him, ducking under his attack as I sent a rising uppercut into his stomach that made him bend over in pain before I kneed him in the face, sending him flying back a few feet, giving him no time to recover, I moved forward, stabbing him in the leg with an anesthetic, before jumping back to avoid his counter attack.

"My respects, kid, but now, you are dead," Sportsmaster said before injecting something into his leg. Possibly something to counter my anesthetic. "Or at least, that would be the case if I wasn't on the clock." at this, he chuckled, throwing a smoke bomb at the ground.

Knowing very well that he was planning to escape, I leaped into the smoke, throwing a smoke diffusing bomb, only to find he was already gone as the smoke cleared. -Sportmaster is on the run. Keep an eye out!- I said, ducking under Kobra's attack, who had taken the chance to try and strike me.

Dodging a few attempts to strike me, I grabbed Kobra's arm mid-swing before yanking him forward with great strength, headbutting into the ground and breaking his nose. Then, before he could recover, I kicked him on the jaw, knocking him out cold.

Kobra down, I turned my attention to the suitcase I had made Sportsmaster drop at the beginning of our confrontation, pleasantly finding it still there on the ground. -Kobra down.- I announced through the link as I approached Kobra to tie him down.