Well Traveled Chapter 33: Assault (Patreon)

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Chapter 33: Assault

I only felt relieved when Robin, at Kid Flash’s reassurance, let Miss Martian restore his memories. He was quick getting back up to speed. He raised eyebrow when he saw that I was taking charge of the team in Aqualad’s absence, but on a mission as messed up as this one, he knew better than to mess with me.

After all, he said, one wrong move and the entire Bialyan military would come down on our necks.

“The only reason they haven’t brought in the real heavy duty stuff is because Queen Bee needs to look like she’s in control of the situation,” He continued. “Heck, she probably doesn’t want anyone to know that there is a situation to begin with. That’ll change if she realizes that she really can’t deal with us.”

“All the reason to get this over with as soon as possible,” I said. “Any word from Raven yet, Miss Martain?”

We were situated in a rocky area a few kilometers away from our primary target. It changed since M’gann’s last scouting run, a day ago. Before there had been maybe a few dozen soldiers, along with various jeeps and a lone tent. Now it looked like a full battalion—or whatever the proper name was—had set up an encampment. Instead of a dozen or so soldiers, there were that many APCs.

What worried me most however, was the flatbed truck.

“She’s found Aqualad!” Miss Martian said. Thankfully, she still kept her voice quite despite the enthusiasm. “She’s making her way to us, but they’ve stepped up drone patrols in the area. It really would be faster if I went and picked her up in the bioship…”

I thought about that for moment, turning my sharpened eyes towards the campsite. It was difficult to get a good look of things with the soldiers darting around, they’d clearly started mobilizing. Soldiers had started loading supplies back into the trucks and striking the outer tents.

As I watched actually, several men, overseen by a team of scientists, wheeled a large metal box out of the main tent. Ever few seconds it shook slightly, as if something was vibrating in side of it.

“Doesn’t look like we have the time,” I said. “That box looks like our target, and they’re moving it towards the big truck. Can we get a scan?”

“Things lousy with radiation and energy sources,” Robin said, looking at his glove computer. “If it’s not our objective, then it’s hella worth grabbing anyway.”

“I’m with you, but there are a lot of soldiers down there,” Kid Flash said. “We can probably clear them out, but it’ll be close, especially without Aqualad or Raven.”

I suppressed a frown. “Miss Martian, can you lift something that large telepathically?” I said, indicating the box.

She shook her head. “Not unless it’s a lot lighter than it looks, or not quickly, and either way I have to be close.”

“Robin, what do you think…” I turned, but he wasn’t there.

“And of course he picks now…” Kid Flash muttered.

I felt a rising urge to swear. The last thing we needed we another rogue element, even if he was on our side. “Martian—”

“Sorry,” She said, shaking her head. “I… I haven’t been maintaining an active link.” 

An action that could be called prudent, but then, keeping the entire team telepathically linked in the first place could also be called prudent, until we ran head first into a telepath!

I pushed away the rising tide of frustration with… 

… my power.

My power that was actually a massive space parasite, hooked into my brain and recording everything that I did.

My power that, now that I knew where to look, I could feel watching me. It was silent now, quiescent but eager. It was waiting to be used, waiting to see what new tricks I might devise. Tricks like controlling emotion by removing physical impetus, and so many other things I’d shown…

“Uh, Destiny, are you okay?” Miss Martian asked asked.

I noticed then that my hands were clenched, fist trembling slightly. A frown had slowly emerged on my features, going from annoyed to practically thunderous in the small moment I’d been distracted. This time, I tried to push my power away. I… I could control myself without it.

But god damn if Robin didn’t just pick the worst time to wander off like an unaccompanied minor! As if I didn’t have enough on my plate already.

“God damn it!” I shouted.

“Whoa! Des, chill!” Wally hissed. “We’re supposed to be doing the stealth thing right?”

I felt my breath coming in short huffs, heart pounding in my chest. I couldn’t… it… I felt dizzy.

Spiraling out of control… down and down and down…

Each time I tried to calm my pounding heart, it felt like I was running into a wall, with hysteria dogging my every step. I could feel my hands trembling.

The rest of the team was… staring. Staring at me. Everyone always stared at me. 

Whispering… I couldn’t control my breath. My head swam…

I… I… I…

I clamped down. Channels slammed shut all through my body. Check and balances that I’d spent days and weeks carefully honing came back in a heartbeat. My pulse slowed from its frenzied gallop and I purged the excess adrenaline from my bloodstream and processed it.

I forced down each rising sign of tension. After that, it was just my own… intellectual annoyance I had to face, instead of the infinite feedback loop that my body wanted so badly.

Less than a second had passed.

I made a show of letting out the tension with a breath, running a hand through my hair. “I… sorry KF. It’s just… it’s always… one thing after another. I thought we’d have an easier… time… once we all met up.”

“Ah, yeah, I get it. This mission has been…”

“Probably our worst one yet?”

Kid Flash laughed, lightly. “No, that was definitely our first one as a team, uh, you know, before you and Artemis joined. The five of us managed to get our collective asses handed to us by a cheap Red Tornado knock off. Couldn’t even coordinate five versus one, never mind seven versus… them,” he said, pointing a thumb at the camp site. “I get it, you okay now?”

“I… yeah,” I said, giving him a small smile, before firming up my face into an expression of determination. “And… thanks, KF.”

The rest of my team shared a few glances, but it looked like I managed to allay they suspicions. Even still, I could I feel the tide of hysteria thrashing within my chest, but I couldn’t afford to break down and show them that fragility. I needed control in this moment. No matter how much I hated the feeling of… smug victory… emanating from my power.

I’d made myself so utterly dependent on it, without noticing a single thing.

“So what’s the plan?” Superboy asked. I nodded once, before turning back to the camp. Even my enhanced sight, couldn’t pick Robin out of the shadows. For all I knew he could already be within the sentry line.

“Miss Martian if you reach out in search of him…”

“There’s a chance that the other Telepath might… pick up on it. Without knowing where to look I just… I can’t—”

I held up a hand. “That’s fine. Robin might even have been counting on it, so we couldn’t tell him to come back, but he wouldn’t break off without a plan.”

“So what’s ours?” Kid Flash asked.

“We get closer. Maybe he’s going to catch up with us, maybe he won’t have the chance. Either way, we need to be ready to make a move on that crate the moment something happens. Superboy… think you can jump into the bioship holding the target?”

My own superhuman strength might be enough, but I’d never practiced my agility, and perfect body control only worked when the only thing I really had to control was my own body. Not that I wanted to… experiment with it overmuch right now. A shiver of revulsion ran through me. I let it.

“Yeah.” Superboy said.

“I can highlight the ship!” Miss Martian said. “I can’t really do selective invisibility… but I know where it is, so I can make sure Superboy knows where to go.”

“Good. Can you do that for all of us?” I asked.

“Oh, um… yeah I can. I guess.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m only asking because we’re all going to have to get out of here as fast as possible.” 

“Oh! I mean… yes, of course I can,” She said. 

“You can have personal time with tall dark and handsome later,” Artemis ribbed.

“I… that’s not…!”

“Enough,” I cut in. “Martian, do the thing. What you do after the mission is nobody’s buisness, but for now…” I turned back towards the campsite. I could already see a commotion starting. “let’s just make sure everyone gets home in one piece. Now let’s move. Looks like Robin’s already started his distraction!” 

A chorus of affirmatives came after me as I started running down the side of our dune. Wally flashed ahead, but with his stealth armor and going faster than the eye could see Kid Flash was the least visible except for Miss Martian with her invisibility.

The less I had to think about Robin the less angry I’d be. Not that he made himself easy to ignore…

Case and point, I heard the sound of an explosion as we raced through the shallow defiles between each dune. Shouting followed. He was pulling the soldiers away from our approach. With any luck we’d be able to burst right through their defensive line and get the cargo before they could switch their attentions.

Yes it made sense. But that was no reason he could have told us his idea beforehand!

I broke onto open ground only a pace behind Superboy, with Artemis lagging. Superhuman strength may not translate directly into speed, but how fast I could run was nothing more than a function of how much force I could push off the ground.

In the camp, I saw that the sentry lights were unmanned. Every tent was on fire, and as I watched another explosion went off in the distance, blasting a palate of something into the air. The secondary explosions and shouts of fear suggested flairs. Not a single soldier was looking in our direction.

But that wasn’t to say that they were standing useless either. As we got closer, a small group managed to get the steel crate onto the back of the truck and tied it down. The engine wasn’t audible over the cacophony, but it was easy to see the vehicle start pulling away. 

Luckily, none of the APCs were ready to go with it.

“Kid Flash, Superboy, the Truck!” I shouted.

“Already ahead of you, Lady!” I heard. As the truck pulled out of the camp at surprising speed, a grey blur caught up to it, spinning round and around. I only caught the first two rotations before a localized sandstorm sprang up. It threw the driver off balance.

From what I could see it slowed the truck just enough for Superboy’s leap to carry him right into the engine block. I heard a smash, then the whole thing sputtered and died.

Overhead, I saw the bioship, or rather a white wireframe image of it, sweep in low. It stopped right over the crate. Two figures there were making short work of the guards. With Superboy still hauling himself out of the engine compartment, I suspected Robin.

None of this went unnoticed. Despite the chaos from the other side of the encampment, I could already see the nearer soldiers turning to face this new attack. Heroes or not, we all died pretty well to a gunshot wound. 

Sliding to a stop next to the wrecked truck, I launched two Ankhs of Decay into their midst. The first round of bullets disintegrated on impact, aged into dust by my multipurpose spell. “Get into the bioship!” I shouted, even as I let loose another Ankh at third clump of men.

Such costly spells dug deep into my reserves of mana, but we only needed a moment of distraction. Miss Martian must have highlighted the ship for Robin as well, because he was the first on board. Superboy grabbed the crate and vaulted up without so much as a stumble.

I glanced over my shoulder just in time to catch Artemis sprinting past. She launched a trio of arrows at the ground mid-leap. They exploded into a smokescreen, leaving ample cover for me and Kid Flash to board. Less than a second after we had done so, the hatch melted back into the floor and the Bioship accelerated away from the campsite.

I caught sight of Robin then, high fiving Kid Flash and Superboy a few steps farther into the Ship. I breathed. I forced myself to focus on it. Expand the lungs, process the oxygen, trigger the release of carbon dioxide from the alveoli and let it build up. Release. Do it again. And then again.

I wanted… I wanted to do a lot of things right then, many of them conflicting, almost none of them sensible. Most prominently, however, was an urge to walk up to the ‘Boy Wonder’ and punch him through the side of the bioship for his stunt.

I didn’t indulge in that desire. I wouldn’t allow myself, even if it meant I had to keep leaning on the… crutch that my… power had become. And even that wouldn’t have been a problem if Robin had just waited a second longer, instead of throwing us all off balance like that in such a delicate situation!

I breezed past all of them, taking the front most chair of the bioship, so that I wouldn’t have to look at him any longer. I needed to cool down.

No. I wanted to cool down. I needed to finish the mission.

“Miss Martian, can you pick up Raven?” I said, sinking into the chair. I felt the urge to hunch forward. That too went ignored.

“Already headed her way,” M’gann said.

“Hey, good hustle there, Dee,” Robin said. “Knew you had it in yah.”

I was already beginning to regret that I was probably going to see this kid at Gotham Academy.

“Don’t talk to me right now,” I said.

I felt him draw back slightly at my voice. “Geeze, when did you turn into an oid?” He shot back.

It took me a second to make the connection. An oid, annoyed. You’re annoyed, you’re an oid.

My tenuous mental control began to slip as I found fewer reasons not to tear into him.

“Lay the fuck off Boy Wonder,” Artemis said. “If she’d been any less on the ball we wouldn’t have even been ready to follow up on your little solo act!”

“Hey!” Kid Flash cut in, “If Robin hadn’t gone as soon as he did, the truck would have left.”

“I mean, maybe that wouldn’t be a problem if you weren’t the only Flash too slow to catch a moving vehicle.”

“Oh, this coming from the least useful archer!”

“Enough!” I shouted. When I turned around the entire team was staring at me wide-eyed. I realized that this was the first time I’d raised my voice at them in anger. “We’re still on mission.” I turned to Robin. “Which is why I didn’t want you to talk to me. Because you turned me into a big, angry oid with that stunt of yours.”

After a moment, he shrugged. “I knew you’d be on top of it.”

“We’re a team,” I said. “I shouldn’t have to be… and that,” I added, when it looked like Artemis or Kid Flash had something else to add. “is all that we’re going to say about Robin’s decision for the rest of this mission. Right now, our priority—our only priority—is the safe retrieval of Raven and Aqualad, followed by an undetected exfiltration of Bialya.”

“Well, the second one’s not even that hard,” Kid Flash said. “Bialya’s a desert.”

“Then we shouldn’t need idle chit chat.” With that said, I turned around and sat back in my chair. 

No one said a word until Raven flew into the ship with Aqualad in her psychic grip. He was insensate, spouting nonsense in Atlantean, enough for me to pick up the language. Miss Martian put the bioship on autopilot and began tending him in slence. Seeing a lack of available chairs, Raven then slipped into her normal meditative pose next to mine.

From the corner of my eye, I saw her glance around a few times, as if expecting someone to break in increasingly stilted silence. Then, after a few minutes of silence she said, “I like this new team dynamic. Let me guess, trust falls?”