44 Chapter 43
-[Dante]-
A few days had passed and his training exercises with Connor were going somewhat smoothly. The first thing they did was get him comfortable with telepathy.
It wasn't the usually simple telepathic communication but a full dive instead. With the aid of a telepath, it was able to visit and shape a being's mental world.
Superboy's was a mess and that was putting it nicely.
Of course he was reluctant about such an invasive exercise but the possibility of gaining his full or some of the full Kryptonian powers was his motivation to allow it.
At the moment, he was in the mission room in the cave looking at the file Batman had given to him earlier.
It explained how four ice villains had attacked on the same day in July and all were easily apprehended. Using Artemis' connection with Icicle Junior, who was one of the four villains, they learned that they were planning something in Belle Reve.
Something big.
What struck him was that the terror twins were supposed to attack, which would allow Miss Martian and Superboy a way to get into the prison by disguising as them.
The twins didn't attack, leaving them stranded on how to approach it.
He frowned a bit as he closed the file. He was told to approach it however he saw fit but that was a broad horizon to explore.
He was already thinking of a few ways to achieve it but all of them involved him going into the prison alone.
There was also the fact that he sent the females of the team on another mission earlier in Japan. There were a decent number of spores gathering there and with how random the world was getting, he expected one to pop up soon.
-[Artemis]-
Sitting in the bioship, there was an awkward silence as she, with M'gann and Zatanna, flew to Japan.
At least it was awkward for her.
She barely even acknowledged the fact that it was the first only girls mission. Ever since the mission when Dante returned, she had been doing her best to avoid him.
She'd mostly succeeded but with the blond being their team leader, she couldn't hide forever. Now, she was stuck on a mission with Zatanna, the girl who had unintentionally(probably) robbed her of her crush.
She didn't blame the dark haired girl but that didn't mean she wasn't jealous. Why wasn't it her? Why didn't she make a move before her? Why was it so unfair?
She had a lot of questions that she needed off her chest and being on a mission with the girl who earned her jealousy and M'gann who was too nice to side with either of them didn't help but she swallowed it.
Despite the pain she was feeling, Dante had given them a mission. She had to focus on that and do her job.
"Um guys?" Zatanna called out, gaining their attention. "Is it just me or are those Ogres on the Tokyo tower?"
Looking out of the bioship, she realized what the girl meant.
Hanging from the side of the tall tower were two hideous creatures hanging from the side of it with clubs in their hands.
She really had to focus.
-[Dante]-
Robin and Aqualad were with their respective mentors in their respective cities/kingdoms, Wally was on probation and Superboy was forced to stay in the cave doing calming exercises that Dante had assigned to him.
Superboy's mental training was in a fragile stage so he didn't want to interrupt and possibly ruin the progress.
That left only him to complete the mission, not that he was complaining. It wouldn't even take long.
He was currently in his bioship, laying in camouflage above Belle Reve Penitentiary. Shifting his density, he went through the floor of the bioship and continued until he was inside the actual ground below.
He then flew through the ground, until he was under the prison. It was becoming his favorite way of sneaking around seeing as how he couldn't be found unless he wanted to be.
He easily peered above ground and throughout most of the penitentiary, locating Killer Frost first in the female section of the prison. She was asleep in her cell.
'For the so-called greatest prison on earth, it's not really hard to get in.' He mocked.
Choosing her as his target, he delved into her mind, sifting through her dreams and recent memories. He ignored her rather interesting…exploits in the prison showers, quickly finding what he was looking for.
Moving on, he made his way under the male section, quickly finding Icicle Jr, Captain Cold, Icicle Snr and Mister Freeze. Unlike Frost, they were all awake but that was barely an inconvenience.
He quickly extracted what he needed.
When that was done, he realized that nothing had changed. He wasn't sure that they would attempt the same plan they did in canon so he had to be sure.
Their plan was to bust out every criminal in Belle Reve. That was the plan that Mister Freeze, Icicle Jr and Captain Cold were aware of. Icicle Snr was aware that it was merely a plot to discredit Amanda Waller and have her removed from the post of Warden.
The main objectives were for Hugo Strange to take the warden position, effectively putting the prison and by extension, the inmates, under the Light's control and for the Riddler to escape.
That wasn't all he found, a good number of the guards were corrupt, helping them sneak some tech that would allow the ice villains carry out their plan.
Still moving through the ground, he made his way to the storage unit where the smuggled equipment was kept.
With a thought, a blue portal opened up under the boxes of equipment, the boxes dropping in quickly before the portal closed.
He still marveled at his perception as he could see Amanda Waller sitting in her office even from where he was.
His perception moved past her, locking on to Hugo Strange, the prison psychiatrist. He wasted no time infiltrating his mind, his paltry defenses doing nothing to stop him from gaining access.
What he found were things he already knew of so it wasn't enlightening. That had stopped being true until he found something that made him immediately pause before frowning.
The Sportsmaster and Professor Ivo currently in their cells were fakes! They were robots created by Ivo to fake their imprisonment while they worked freely.
He was wondering why he couldn't feel them earlier, planning to search for them before he left but now things were different.
As the psychiatrist, he was able to keep up the ruse that Sportsmaster and Ivo were in the prison.
Ivo didn't spend much time before switching out with his robotic duplicate. Sportsmaster spent more time before his own duplicate was made.
That means that the Light has still been getting intel from Sportsmaster who is getting it from the Red Arrow clone.
Dante's frown deepened as he sifted through the man's mind, finding out as much as he could, which wasn't much.
Hugo Strange was just a puppet for the Light so it wasn't weird that he wasn't in the know about things other than his assigned role.
Regardless of that, Dante went ahead to do something he'd found himself doing lately; adding some 'useful suggestions' in the man's mind.
He couldn't allow the Light to gain control of the prison and he would make sure it didn't happen. He just had to lay down the groundwork to prevent it from happening.
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Author Rant: I am sleep deprived while writing this so blame TheNeutralEvil for any mistakes you see here.
Also he 'stole' yet another idea from my list of ideas and started a young justice fanfic as well. I'm going to kill him…not soon but I'm going to do it…eventually.
Anyways, it's called DC: Path of Technology for those interested. I was not bribed to advertise this…nope…absolutely not….maybe…
