LOOTING DC #24. Oolong Island
From above, Oolong Island looked like a slice of paradise carved into the South Pacific - a lush, crescent-shaped expanse draped in jungle, flanked by sheer cliffs and jagged volcanic rock.
But beneath the foliage and calm surface churned something far more dangerous: automated defenses, infrared motion sensors, and patrols clad in cutting-edge armor.
To Damian Wayne, the security system was laughably primitive.
Crouched beneath a low ridge, he worked a control panel embedded in a reinforced junction box beside the perimeter fence. The interface blinked to life beneath his gloved fingers - sleek UI, layered protocols, pressure-sensitive toggles.
He paused.
Three rotating ciphers, a biometric failsafe, and an alternating passcode matrix. The design was strangely familiar. Predictable.
"Can you hack it?" Red Arrow whispered beside him, noticing the hesitation.
Damian smirked beneath his mask.
"I could do this blindfolded."
A few quick taps. A bypass spike. The energy field fizzled out with a quiet hum. They slipped through the gap like ghosts.
The Team was already in motion - scattered across the island in coordinated infiltration.
To the north, Kaldur emerged from the sea, climbing a rocky outcrop with silent, deliberate steps. As a sentry paused to light a cigarette, tendrils of hard water coiled around his ankles, yanked him off his feet, and silenced him in a cocoon of seawater.
Miss Martian took out the other. The second guard collapsed mid-breath, his mind struck with pressure before he could shout. She shimmered into view beside Kaldur, and together they slipped into the base.
To the east, Kid Flash and Superboy moved as stealthily as their styles allowed - Kid Flash disarming guards in a blur, Superboy flattening them with silent, precise blows. The real trick was avoiding the cameras - which, oddly, had started vanishing.
"Remember, this is a recon mission," Kaldur said over comms. "Don't screw this up. Robin?"
"Understood," Damian replied - then couldn't resist adding, "Unlike the rest of you, I'm actually built for stealth."
He landed silently on a catwalk, timed his movement with the camera sweep, and slid a taser dart between a pair of armored plates on a tower sniper's back. He caught the falling man with a line before the body could thud against the deck.
"Pathetic," he muttered.
Back on the East Side (cool song, by the way), Superboy dropped from above - a craterless impact. His foot crushed the air from a guard's chest. A swift chop to the neck finished the job. He pulled the man behind cover and gave a sharp nod to Kid Flash.
To the south, Damian watched as Red Arrow nocked a shaft, drew, and let fly - aimed dead at a patrol's head.
A batarang intercepted it mid-flight. The arrow split in two, followed by twin knockout darts to the patrol's chest. The man went down with a grunt.
Damian scowled. He wasn't a fan of the no-kill rule, but that had been unnecessary. One moment of hesitation and that guard would've been "un-alived."
"Did you just-" Damian started.
"My bad. Must be gettin' rusty," Red Arrow said with a shrug, already moving.
"I think we can get in from there," he added, pointing to a ventilation shaft, then headed for it like nothing had happened.
Damian narrowed his eyes.
"Tch. You must be really getting rusty if you think I bought that," he muttered, watching Roy pry the vent open. "Something tells me there's more to this mission than you're letting on."
He followed anyway - but now, more cautious of Roy than anyone else on the island.
Elsewhere, the others found their own ways into the facility.
"Huh," Kid Flash muttered, squinting at a wall panel. "I swear I've seen this kind of setup before."
"What?" Superboy blinked at him, confused.
"Not just this panel - the whole place," Kid Flash said, vanishing in a blur to drop a guard, then reappearing beside him. "Something about it feels... familiar."
"Have you been here before?" Superboy asked.
"No - Not that I can remember," Kid Flash admitted, doubt creeping in.
"Then quit wasting time with pointless commentary," Superboy snapped. "We've got floors to clear."
Miss Martian and Kaldur were already sweeping the lower levels, gliding through the shadows like phantoms. Superboy and Kid Flash handled the middle floors with less grace but brutal efficiency. Robin and Red Arrow had taken the top.
Everything was going according to plan - which, by now, everyone knew was usually a bad sign.
"Bottom levels all clear," Kaldur's voice came through after a sweep. "No signs of secret labs or illegal experiments. Just dead rats and outdated weapons caches."
"Middle's clean too," Kid Flash added. "The place feels more like a nine-to-five startup. Ping-pong tables, caf, water cooler… just missing the interns."
"You sure your intel was solid, Red Arrow?" he asked.
Silence.
The pause stretched too long.
"Roy? Robin? Come on, say something-"
Then: static. A faint crackle, followed by Damian's voice, distorted but unmistakable.
"There's been a situation."
Through the interference, they caught pieces of another voice - familiar. Calm, commanding. But shaken.
"Why are you here?" the voice asked, strained with both confusion and concern.
Robin's response came cool and clipped.
"Beats me." He gestured to the empty space beside him. "My escort ghosted me."
Roy was gone. Just vanished. And standing before Robin was a tall, broad-shouldered figure that Damian had no trouble recognizing - even through walls, even without the cape.
Unless he was a clone - which, in this world - and especially in his case - was never off the table - there was no mistaking it.
Robin's eyes narrowed behind the mask.
"The better question," he said, "is what are you doing here, Superman."
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And on the west side of Oolong Island, another pair emerged. They didn't move with stealth or elegance.
They didn't drop guards with caution or worry about getting noticed. They didn't go easy on them either. One moved with a bow and arrows; the other worked with webs.
They barely knew each other. But if you looked at them - saw how they worked together, how they weaved like two dancers in a show - you'd bet they were born for this. Trained together since childhood.
And if you still thought it was just talk, you should've seen how they came to a halt at the edge of the perimeter. Together - somewhat creepy, yet perfectly coordinated-
"Stop that!" Artemis said to Jake, her voice laced with bile. "You can't keep coordinating our movements. It's creepy."
"It never hurt anyone to show some finesse," Jake said coolly. A guard groaned under his sole.
Thwip!
He shut his mouth with a web.
"I still don't get why you're here," Artemis said.
"To help, of course," Jake said casually. "I think you need all the help you can get, considering the force you're up against."
"You could get caught. Again. Or worse," she said.
Jake chuckled lightly, pointing at the tears on his chest next to the already scabbed wound. "I think I've punched that loyalty card. No one's catching this Spider any time soon."
"How did you know, anyway?" Artemis shifted the topic slightly. "About her."
Jake's expression turned serious.
"The thing is," Jake started, "I didn't. If I did, I would never have called your sister a psycho. She didn't deserve what happened to her. No one does."
He sounded genuinely empathetic.
"And it wasn't right, how they manipulated you," Jake added, honestly. "I always knew they had a dark side. But not that dark."
Artemis stared at him blankly. "You didn't answer the question."
Jake sighed, shaking off the emotion that had just gripped him. "Look, like I said, I can't explain my powers on a time crunch."
"But maybe I can show you."
Thwip-thwip.
He shot a series of webs and took a deep, trance-like breath. "I think after what happened with the vision and everything, I can use my powers more uniquely. Like an upgrade."
"All I have to do is think," he mumbled to himself. "Think about her."
"Think about Raven."
Artemis' eyes widened with caution as the webs glowed gold - eldritch magic, all the way to Jake's black suit, lighting the spider symbol on his chest. Then it faded.
"I know where they're keeping her," Jake said seriously, his voice full of residual energy. "But we have to move fast. We've got company."
He moved, and Artemis followed. Reluctantly.
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Streak? Day 1/10