Worst Case Scenario

Chapter 7: Divided We Fall

4...

Superboy emerged from the fake bushes with several new bullet holes in his shirt and a good deal more frustration than when he went in.

Something that was not helped by the sudden appearance of Kid Flash.

Especially not when they collided at 80 miles an hour.

"Superboy!" said Robin over the radio. "The trackers say KF should be near you. Can you see him?"

Superboy picked himself up off the ground and glared at the speedster.

"Found him" the Kryptonian muttered.

"You two are almost at Aqualad's position. Get moving!"

Superboy gave Kid Flash one last glare and leaped into the air.

It took the two of them less than a minute to reach the beach. There were scorch marks and a large crater in the sand, but no Aqualad. A quick scan with thermal vision showed what looked like several land mines buried under the sand.

"Robin! He's not here!" said Superboy.

Robin swore. "His tracker's dead. He's off our radar. M'gann, Artemis and RA are gone too."

"Then we go after them!"

"Negative. We don't know where Aqualad is and we don't even know who we're fighting. Whoever they are, if they can take out Artemis and Red Arrow, they can take any of us alone. We can't risk losing anyone else."

"You think they can take me?" growled Superboy, almost offended.

"If they knew how to shoot down the Bioship then I think they know who we are, so they probably thought to bring kryptonite too. We can't rush in. We need to think."

People often told Superboy he rushed into fights without thinking. Probably because he did.

Fighting is more than just fists and weapons Black Canary had said. Knowing the smart way to fight and adapting to the situation is the key to victory.

Kid Flash stomped the ground in anger. "That's crazy, man! We can't just leave them!"

"Aqualad's down and that means I'm in charge, Wally. I want to go after them too but we can't keep throwing people into the fight like this. They're picking us off! We need backup from the Justice League, but our long-rang comms are being jammed and our radios don't have the power to get through. I don't think we even got a mayday off when we went down. No one on the outside knows anything's wrong."

Adapting to the situation.

"Robin" said Superboy. "I ran into some automatic turrets a ways back. I think they were remote controlled. Could you hotwire something more powerful from there?"

"I guess it's worth a try" said Robin. "They probably aren't jamming their own frequencies. Might be able to learn something about what we're actually up against, too. Are the turrets disabled?"

Superboy smiled. "They are now."

"Right. I'll head over and meet you two there. But we'll need to be stealthy and I don't think we can move Zatanna anymore. Rocket's here but she's tapped out and powerless."

"Hey!" complained Rocket, though she knew it was true. She was pretty useless in a fight without her belt.

"KF, can you get back here to cover for me?" asked Robin.

"I don't know, man. You're the one with the map. Besides, it might take both of us to rig something up."

Robin sighed. "Fine. I'll be there. Be careful."