Capítulo 27: The Enemy Within
With the door shut and his team hidden from possible enemy patrols Dick leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief, while the plan had sort of gone to hell they'd at least managed to get things back on track 'Megan, anything from Mark?' He asked as he turned to the Martian who was standing in the middle of the room next to their host.
Megan turned to him and shook her head 'Nothing yet, I believe he may have cut the connection on his end,' she stated.
'Can he even do that?' Donna asked as she stood by the window keeping an eye out.
'His race has minor telepathic abilities so it's possible,' Dick explained. After taking a second to calm down he pushed himself off the door "You are late." The woman next to Megan said with an unamused expression on her face.
"There were some complications..." Dick tried to joke around as he smiled, though he could see that she still had the same unamused expression on her face and so his smile died down "This may be just a game to you and your super friends, but I do not find this nearly as amusing!" She shouted in a low voice as she stomped over to Dick.
She had long black hair and light brown skin, she was quite beautiful or at least she would've been if she didn't have a scowl on her face.
"I assure you we take this-"
"This is my country! My home! There is too much and too many people relying on this moment... so no more mistakes." She said as she took a breath and calmed herself down.
"I'm sorry... Miss?" Dick said not able to think of anything else to say.
The woman ignored him at first "There were meant to be five were there not? Where are they?" She asked.
"He distracted the anti-air artillery so we could land safely," Connor chimed in as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed "Thanks for the heads up on that by the way." He said a little sourly.
However the woman didn't look perturbed "I am Clara, that is all you need to know," she said as she walked to the next room, she came out a second later bringing three duffle bags which she throws on the ground.
"The girls is on the left, you two can decide who gets the others, tell me when you're ready," she said before leaving the room.
"Charming..." Dick said before walking down to the back and unzipping it, inside was a smart white shirt with dress pants and a red vest and bow tie, something he quickly recognised as a waiters uniform 'Not too bad...' he thought to himself as he started going through different possible plans once he got inside 'People don't see Waiters so that should give me a little wiggle room when moving around, and with Megan able to go invisible we shouldn't have any issues finding the stockpile of products,' he thought as he whipped the clothes out of the bag and started to get changed.
Connor pushed himself off the wall and walked to the bag before kneeling down and opening it "No." he said after one look and he stood up and went back to leaning against the wall. Donna was curious and looked inside of Connor's bag, with a confused expression she took out his outfit which turned out to be nothing more than leather pants with chains that were supposed to be used as suspenders and a luchador mask. Dick couldn't help but laugh under his breath even when faced with the glare that Connor was sending his way.
"What a curious outfit..." Donna said as she inspected the outfit, Megan couldn't help the intense blush that appeared on her face when she looked at the outfit and then at Connor.
"I'm not wearing it," Connor said in a blunt tone.
Dick having finished laughing sighed, he knew Connor wouldn't budge on this and so he relented, out of everyone there he had to least to lose if his secret identity was leaked, and that was because he didn't have much of a secret identity in the first place. He was as much Superboy as he was Connor, perhaps even more so "Fine but change your shirt, that S will just be a giant target." Dick stated.
Connor grumbled but took his shirt off and turned it inside out before putting it back on with the S now hidden "Are you done yet?!" Clara shouted from the next room as she was starting to get impatient.
"In a moment," Dick called back as he took off his body armour and started to get changed into the suit. Meanwhile, Donna looked at her outfit with a curious look before shrugging and getting changed herself, while most women would be embarrassed to get naked she didn't much care as she knew her teammates were professional and it wasn't as if there was anything special to see.
Once she was changed she couldn't help but notice the intense stares that were coming from the three of her teammates "Is there something wrong?" Donna asked with a raised eyebrow. She was wearing what amounted to a belly dancing outfit that left very little to the imagination, so much so that it even managed to catch Connor's attention.
Dick coughed before looking away "No, let's get a move on." He said, as he did Clara came back into the room before moving the coffee table that was in the middle of the room, after that, she moved the carpet and opened a secret hatch that seemed to lead down into pure darkness "This will lead you to the wine cellar in the basement of the palace, from what my contacts have told me the auction has already started," she stated.
Dick frowned "Already started? But Batman told us we had at least two days before it started,"
Clara shrugged "The timetable must've been pushed up for some reason, it matters not, none of the products will be paid for and delivered until the end of the auction," she explained.
"Miss Clara..." Megan said in a quiet voice.
Clara turned her head and looked at the green woman "What?" She asks impatiently.
"Why are you helping us? We aren't here to depose a dictator or help the rebel faction, so why help?" She asked, it was a good question and her other three teammates had each wondered the same thing on more than one occasion, though as usual, Batman had chosen to not tell them the reason if he knew it, which he probably did.
Clara frowns before sighing "I have chosen to help you for two reasons," she said as she held up her hand.
"Once you steal or destroy all the product in storage, Rumaan will take the blame and Intergang will likely kill him which will help our cause," she explained.
"And the second reason?" Dick asked.
"Doesn't matter," she quickly replied.
"Now hurry and go, most of the attendees will be in the main hall giving you a chance to sneak inside," she said as she ushered them down the steps.
"Oh and here," she said as she threw a flashlight down at them, one which Dick deftly caught.
"It gets pretty dark and cramped down there," she said with a dark giggle before closing the hatch and leaving the team in darkness.
"She's quite rude..." Donna ended up saying.
"That's one way to put it," Connor replied before turning around and walking through the cramped corridor, as a Half Kryptonian he had retained most of their visual abilities with the exception of heat vision so he was able to move forward and see in absolute darkness.
Turning on the flashlight Dick followed behind him and led the way for Donna and Megan "Megan do you have the teleport transponders?" Dick asked as he squeezed through a particularly tight gap in the passage.
Megan nodded "They're under my cloak safe and secure," she said enthusiastically.
"Good, we don't want to have to resort to Plan B so fast," he said.
"I'll be able to distract them," Connor stated as his hands traced the small metal package in his trousers.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Megan said with a slight worry in her voice though it was ignored by Connor who kept moving forward.
Eventually, after what seemed like an hour of travelling through tight passages, they reached the end, or at least they assumed it was the end as it was a crudely carved-out set of stairs that led up to stone. Connor climbed up first and lifted it carefully as he inspected the room for any people inside, once he decided that the room was empty he pushed the block of stone up and to the side before climbing out.
The rest of the team followed Connor out quickly before they placed the stone block back on the passageway 'Alright, I'll go out first and start my new job, Miss Martian you turn invisible and follow me, don't be afraid to wander off if you see something,' he said through the mental link.
He then turned to Connor and Donna 'Both of you get to the main atrium, give us updates on the auction and make a note of any villains of importance that are here,' he instructed.
'What shall we do about Mark?' Megan asked.
Dick sighed 'Mark knows the plan, hopefully, once he gets here he will do what he needs to,' he stated.
'But what if he's hurt or worse?' Megan asked again.
'He will be fine, he's probably distracting them all as we speak,' Dick replied.
Dick saw that there were no more questions and smiled 'Alright let's go,'
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Mark finished eating his fifth sandwich and went to go make another before realising that there was no more bread, he leaned back in his seat before sighing and placing both hands over his stomach. He rocked his chair back and forth for a moment before sighing again "I should probably get back to work," he said to himself referring to the mission he was currently on, but he had just had a pretty damn good meal and wasn't much in the mood to move yet.
"Can't always get what you want I suppose," he said to himself as he got up and started walking towards the door of the barracks. As soon as he opened the door he was shot and assaulted by the platoon of soldiers that were stationed outside the barracks in an attempt to surround him.
Mark caught a shell that was shot at him from a tank and he let it drop to the floor, he wasn't much concerned about the dozens of men surrounding him nor the tanks but what had managed to catch his attention was the kid that was floating in front of the platoon wearing a familiar white spandex suit, Mark found it familiar because he'd only seen it once and that was when he'd fought his Father 'Damn playboy...' Mark thought to himself as he shook his head. He did consider that it wasn't Nolan's son and just another Viltrumite but he quickly dismissed it since the boy was younger than he was.
Mark floated up from the barracks before conjuring a sphere of blue in his hands he shot it out of his hand and it grew rapidly to the size of a boulder, he moved his hand around like a conductor as the blue sphere decimated the soldier's ranks. In less than a second all the soldiers were incapacitated and the only two standing were Mark and the boy.
Mark flew towards him and landed on the ground in front of him "So you're Dad's other son?" He asked though it was more rhetorical than anything, the costume was a dead giveaway.
"You're the failure!" He said arrogantly as a smirk appeared on his face.
Mark raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms "Failure?" He replied.
"What else would you be, you failed in your duty to the empire," he stated.
Mark couldn't help but start laughing "Kid have you ever even seen the empire or another Viltrumite?" He asked, though he could guess the answer this was a way to probe at what his Dad had been up to and whether he'd contacted the empire.
"So what if I haven't!" He asked impetuously.
"You'd give up your home to people you've never met, you'd let your mother and family be enslaved?" Mark asked.
"It won't be like that! Papa said that they'll make this place better, no more crime or people getting hurt!" He said truly believing the words coming out of his mouth.
Mark sighed and smiled sadly "Reality can often be disappointing, but I'm sure you'll see that soon enough," he said with a look of pity, though this only seemed to piss off his brother even more.
Oliver didn't understand how his older brother couldn't see how the Viltrumites would make the planet better, he'd watched friends and family being shot and kidnapped and even worse, stuff that wouldn't have happened under the watch of people like his papa. He was excited when his papa told him that he had an elder brother and that's why he volunteered to patrol the outside of the palace while papa kept an eye on the inside, he hoped he'd be able to meet him.
He just wished he'd understand so that they could bring peace to the planet together 'I guess I'll need to beat some sense into him,' Oliver thought as he held his hands up just like Papa had taught him.
Mark raised an eyebrow in surprise as Oliver shot towards him with his fist outstretched. Mark swiftly moved to the right avoiding the punch 'Pretty textbook punch,' he thought to himself before dodging another combination of strikes. He was able to ascertain that his little brother hadn't been fighting long and wasn't yet entirely comfortable with using his powers.
Mark caught a punch sent at him by Oliver before returning a right hook that sent Oliver slamming into the ground. Oliver shot back up and tried to tackle Mark but his chin was instead met with Mark's foot sending him flying upwards spinning out of control 'Why can't I hit him!' Oliver thought to himself as he regained his barring, Papa had told him that Mark had gotten his powers less than a year ago so they should both be on the same level. While this was true he'd neglected to tell Oliver of all the battles Mark had been in and the near-life-or-death states he'd been in while pushing himself beyond his limits, that's not even considering that now he had the powers of Shazam.
Oliver shot back down trying to kick Mark in the face but Mark quickly avoided it and grabbed Oliver's leg before slamming him into the ground "Stop you can't win,' Mark said lazily as he avoided blow after blow before grabbing Oliver by the face and slamming him on the ground.
Mark let Oliver get back up just before dodging a lazy punch thrown by Oliver and sending a full-powered blow to the back of his head. His brother lay on the ground not moving though Mark could see his chest rising and falling letting him know he was still alive.
Mark couldn't help but feel a bit bad for the kid but he couldn't do anything about it now, the only thing he could do was take his Dad out of the picture and try and undo some of that brainwashing. Turning away from his brother he looked down at one of the soldiers, looking at his shoulder he could see he was an officer of some kind, lighting danced across his body as the soldier's uniform appeared on himself.
With what he hoped was an effective disguise Mark quickly made his way towards the palace though he landed a short distance away before approaching the palace with a gun in hand. Approaching a back entrance that was guarded the soldiers all saluted him, Mark had copied a black face mask that he wore around his face as he was sure that his disguise would immediately fail if they saw his face so hopefully this would prevent that.
Mark smirked under his mask as the soldiers all saluted him but that smile quickly disappeared when they started speaking to him in a language he didn't recognise 'Shit...' he thought to himself as the soldiers started to get suspicious when he didn't reply.
He zoomed in front of both soldiers before knocking them both out with light slaps to the face "Worth a try I suppose," he said to himself, though when he went to walk past them he felt a tingle at the back of his mind, the same type when he had gotten the idea to merge Red and Blue.
He crouched down next to one of the soldiers and placed his hand against his head a spark of electricity flowed from his hand to his head and a rush of information flowed inside of him making him wince in pain "I guess I speak Arabic now?" He said to himself as he stood up. He knew he had some minor telepathic abilities but he had no clue they could be used in such a way 'Maybe it was the lighting powering it?' He thought to himself before walking inside the palace.
All that could wait, now he'd fulfil his promise and find Harley and get the hell out of there, maybe helping the team along the way.
(AN: It's alllllllll popping offfffffff, tbh idk what to say but it seems weird not to put an AN, anyway since it's Christmas I'll probably not be posting as often, but I'll try and stay consistent. Enjoy Christmas everyone if you celebrate it. Also hope you enjoyed the chapter.)
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