Love of my Life| Conner Kent

10| the new leader

bane led us towards a factory, though i didn't quite understand why we were trusting the bad guy. he pointed in the direction of it, allowing robin and kid flash to examine the area.

"look at all that product." robin said.

"i would love to, rob, but i can't see that far away." i muttered, squinting as i tried to see what robin was talking about.

robin ignored me. "if kobras not selling to the usual suspects, then-"

"we need to identify that buyer." aqualad cut in.

kid flash stood up and scratched his head. "just what i was thinking."

"yeah, you're the thinker." robin commented with a scoff.

"sarcasm." kid flash said. "dude. a real leader would focus on getting answers."

bane, who nobody was paying attention to, walked over to a large boulder and moved it out of the way. super boy and i looked at each other.

"answers are this way." bane said.

"so no, el luchador is our leader." kid flash said with his hands on his hips. robin nudged him as he walked.

robin and superboy led the way while kid flash and aqualad were in the middle, miss martian and i rounded out the back. i looked at kid flash who had his arms crossed and snickered a little.

we walked until we came to a large metal door. bane reached his thumb forward and placed it on a button. the door opened, bane and robin peaked through to make sure we were clear.

"all clear." robin said as he took of running. it was silent as we walked.

bane turned to us. "has that little fool already been caught?"

"no, he just does that." aqualad sighed.

"stay put." kid flash said. "i'll get our intel and be back before the boy wonder."

"who put you in charge?" i asked with a raised eyebrow.

kid flash didn't respond as he sped off. aqualad tried to stop him but kid flash was in his own mind.

"great chain of command." bane said to aqualad.

"you try controlling kid flash and robin." i said with my arms folded across my chest. "it isn't exactly easy."

—

the remaining four of us, and bane, were crouched down behind large hunk of metal. miss martian and i were squished in between aqualad and superboy.

"it's a massive shipment." aqualad whispered.

"yeah but they're only taking new product off the line." superboy said. "they're not touching this venom."

"maybe freshness counts?" miss martian said.

superboy looked up. "helicopters coming."

we all turned to the sky. i squinted my eyes to try and see but i'm blind as a bat. we decided to send miss martian out to see what was happening since she can cloak herself.

aqualad suddenly closed his eyes after a moment. "sportsmaster. he is the buyer?" he brought his fingertips to his ear comm. "aqualad to red tornado. do you read?" nothing. "i cant reach the league, robin or kid. comms jammed. we need a plan now."

"i have a suggestion." bane said, jumping down and pushing to of the guards. a large creature jumped through the window and broke the beam that we weee standing on.

he advanced towards us, superboy ran at him as aqualad and i fought off the guards. one tried shooting at me but i dodged it and kicked him in the face. the guard fell back.

"everyone online?" miss martians voice came through our heads.

"yeah." superboys gruff voice groaned.

"you know it, beautiful." i could practically hear iid flash's smirk.

"gross, kid." i said in my head.

"good. we need to regroup." aqualas instructed.

another guard advanced towards me. i ducked and grabbed the guard by his arm and slung him against a pillar.

"kid we need a path."

kid flash ran through a line of the guards. aqualad, miss martian, robin and i all ran towards the door we came through. superboy held off the beast for us and he soon joined us as well.

we ran through the tunnel we had come through but the beast broke through with the guards.

"superboy, the support beams!" aqualad exclaimed.

superboy punched them but nearly hit me. he scooped me up and dodged the falling rocks. he set me down gently.

"thanks." i huffed out, placing my hands on my knees. "shew i should've taken cardio seriously."

aqualad grabbed a glow stick and snapped it so we could see. robin stood looking at the rubble. "how could my first mission as leader go so wrong?"

"you and lotus do have the most experience." aqualad said. "but perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. fighting alongside batman, your roles are defined. you three do not need to talk. but this team is new. and a leader must be clear, explicit. he cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan. l

robin turned to us heatedly. "oh so i'm supposed to hold everyone's hands." he groaned. "who am i kidding? you should lead us, kaldur. you're the only one who can."

"please!" kid flash scoffed. "i can run circles around-"

"wally, come on." robin said. "you know he's the one. we all do."

"hello megan!" the martian exclaimed. "it's so obvious."

"could've told ya." superboy said.

i smiled. "he's the only one who can control both wally and robin."

"the i accept the burden until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders." he said placing a hand on robins shoulder. "you were born to lead this team. maybe no now, but soon."

robin nodded curtly as aqualad turned to us again. "our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island."

"funny, i had the same thought."