A Dragon's Love (Young Justice)

Leader

I hear a click, and the darkness is filled with red light from a "glow stick" in Kaldur'ahm's hands. He looks at me. "Are you alright?" He asks, slightly weary. I nod. "It's not the first time I've been shot at." I state. "How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" Robin asks, not necessarily to us. "You do have the most experience. But perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman, your roles are defined. You two do not need to talk. But this team is new." Aqualad says. "And a leader must be clear, explicit. He cannot vanish, and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan." I finish.
"Oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands." Robin groans. "Ah, who am I kidding? You should lead us, Kaldur. You're the only one who can." He finishes, smiling at him. "Please! I can run circles-" "Wally, come on. You know he's the one. We all do." Robin interrupts Kid.
"Hello, Megan. It's so obvious." "Could have told you." "You really are the best choice out of us all." M'gann, Superboy, and I chime in. Wally smiles, giving in. "Okay." Kaldur walks up to Robin. "Then I accept the burden, until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. You were born to lead this team. Maybe not now, but soon." Robin nods, a big smile on his face.
Kaldur turns back around to face us. "Alright, our first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island." "Funny. I had the same thought." Robin remarks. I roll my eyes. He starts telling us a plan, and we begin running to the tunnel's opening.
"Sportsmaster's the supplier/buyer. But it still doesn't track. He doesn't have the juice to acquire the blockbuster formula, or to get Kobra to do his dirty work." Robin states. "And neither of them have the chops to bond blockbuster with venom. That took some major nerdage." Kid adds. "It's obvious that this thing is bigger than we think." I comment. "I believe the expression is 'tip of the iceberg'," Aqualad says, and we all stop running.
Bane comes in front of the opening. "Halt, niños. I'm feeling explosive." I look up to see explosives tracing all around the support beams. "You betrayed us. Why?" Aqualad asks. "Because he was never on our side to begin with, just his own." I whisper so only the team can hear. "I want my factory back." 'Kid, you'll need a running start.' Kaldur'ahm says through the link. He starts slightly stepping back as to remain unnoticed.
"So I forced you into a situation where you would either take down my enemies, or die trying. If the latter, The Justice League would certainly have come to avenge their sidekicks. And when the smoke cleared, Santa Prisca would be mine once more. Blowing the tunnel with you inside should have the same effect." He finishes his speech, going to press the remote's button in his hand.
Wind passes by us and the remote disappears as he goes to press the button. "With what? This trigger thingy?" Wally asks, leaning against a tree behind him. He goes to punch Kid, but M'gann pulls him back. He stumbles back on the ground, and I tell him, in Spanish. "I told you I'd make you regret it." He gets up and goes for me. He swings his arm, and I catch it, twisting to the side, before I throw him over my shoulder. He hits the ground with a big thud.
Miss M lifts him back up again, and Superboy comes walking up. "Finally. Drop him." He says, smirking. As Bane falls, Superboy knocks him out with one simple punch. "Well, that's one way to do it." I state, and we start heading back to the factory.

***

As soon as we get there, Kid takes off to knock out the cultists, dodging gun shots as he goes. Superboy jumps down in front of them making a crater in the ground. "Go again?" He asks the creature. It starts running towards him, but gets blasted by a stream of water. "Sorry. Not the plan." He looks over to where Aqualad is streaming the water at him.
I go to where Superboy is and notice Sportsmaster coming from behind the helicopter. "Superboy, look out!" I yell out to him, jumping in front of him as Sportsmaster shoots. The blast bounces off my shoulder, and goes soaring off through the sky. Another one bounces off my chest, where my burn is, and goes straight back at him. Pain erupts in my chest once more, and I grunt. He jumps to the side, managing to keep the gun with him.
I go to run up and attack when he does a backflip, grabbing thin air, which turns out to be M'gann. He shoots again, multi-firing, which hits both Superboy and me. Sportsmaster starts backing up into the helicopter. "Thanks for the workout, but I got to fly." He says, throwing M'gann at us. She lands on both of us, knocking us all over. The helicopter flies up, and we all sit up. Miss M looks at us, holding up the bomb activator.
She presses it, and not a second later, the side blows up in the 'copter, spewing fire threw the air. It crashes down in the factory, and the whole building blows up. I look over to see Robin getting pinned by the foot of the Kobra clan leader. I run over and jump, flipping so that my feet come in contact with his chest, before pushing off him and landing where the others now stood, ready to fight. The impact sends him tumbling back, and he lands kneeling down, glaring at me. Robin flips over to us. The leader looks us over, before backing up to hide in the trees. "Another time, then."
Robin goes to look for him, but he's disappeared. He walks back over to us and smiles. "We picked the right guy to lead." He says, walking over to Kaldur'ahm and me. "Automatically making you the right guy to explain this mess to Batman." He laughs. I roll my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. I hiss in pain. Right, burn there. Aqualad looks over at me, concern in his eyes, but once he sees that I'm ok, he smiles. "Come on, let's head back." I say. He nods, and M'gann sends a command to the bioship.
***
Back at the cave, the team is standing in a line in front of Batman. I stand beside Kaldur'ahm. "A simple recon mission, observe and report." Batman states, looking at us all. "You'll each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes. Until then, good job." That last part catches me off guard, and I notice that everyone turns to look at him surprised.
"No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success. And how you choose who leads determines character." I glance at Kaldur and Robin, and I smile, not caring if anyone sees it.