Chapter 47: First Steps
From his post against the med-bed rail, Wildcard tilted his head slightly, arms folded.
"Good. Solid enough for fists and fire." He let that settle, then his tone cut sharper.
"Shame that's not how he fights."
The subtle hum of Raven's containment shell was suddenly the only sound in the room.
Wildcard: "He doesn't fight. He dreams. And you—" his gaze swept them one by one, "—haven't got a plan for when he turns your minds inside out again. When the nightmare starts and you're stabbing at shadows while he just walks past you?"
Beast Boy's hands clenched into fists, the memory flickering—hours lost fighting friends twisted into monsters that weren't really there. Robin's jaw locked, but no answer came.
It was M'gann who finally stepped forward, voice firm.
"I can act as a mental anchor. My telepathy can keep us all linked. If anyone starts to lose focus, I can push back and stabilize them."
Wildcard cocked an eyebrow. "And when he rips right through that anchor? Because he will. This is his specialty."
M'gann's eyes narrowed, her shoulders squaring. "Then I won't be holding it alone. You can… whatever it is you do—magic, mind-tricks, whatever—and link it with my telepathy as a second anchor. Two layers, one shared mental ground that we control."
That made him pause, really thinking it through. Then a faint, slow smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Wildcard: "A shared mind-space reinforced with magic… dangerous, unstable, but if it holds, he'll have to fight us on our turf instead of dragging us into his."
M'gann allowed herself a small exhale, though her hands curled into fists at the thought of facing Asmodeus's full psychic power.
Wildcard: "…Alright. I'm in. But if you crack first, we both go under, and no one's waking us up."
She nodded without hesitation. "Understood."
Wildcard looked back to Robin, smirk sharpening.
"Anything else, Boy Wonder? Or was that the whole party trick list?"
M'gann's steady gaze stayed on Wildcard a moment longer before she stepped back beside the pod. Robin didn't answer his jab immediately — he just looked at the team, weighing the silence.
It was Sage who broke it.
Sage (comms): "Route to Blackridge is clear—for now. But you've got one hour before several regional ley lines hit peak. That's when demon gate travel gets easier. My advice? Get moving in five."
Cyborg straightened. "Copy that. I'll prep the scrambler rig."
Before anyone else could react, Wildcard clicked his tongue softly and shook his head.
Wildcard: "Blackridge, huh? Long drive. Plenty of room on the road for His Royal Horny-ness to pull up alongside and say hi."
Beast Boy frowned. "It's remote — that was the whole point."
"How many innocents are you willing to place in danger for minutes saved?" Starfire's voice was tight and low.
Wildcard turned to her, his smile thin. "When the clock runs out, no one's innocent." He swept his gaze over the team. "We don't need a postcard view. We need somewhere empty, with open ground, and close enough to keep the travel window short."
Robin's eyes narrowed. "You're saying change the drop point? To where?"
Wildcard glanced at the containment pod like it was the trunk of a car he was about to deliver.
Wildcard held up a hand, cutting off the question before it had even formed.
"We go to Jump City Stadium."
The room instantly shifted — Starfire's eyes narrowing, Cyborg frowning, M'gann raising a brow.
Someone started to protest —
But Wildcard's voice rode right over them.
Wildcard: "Abandoned stadium. It's shorter, it's empty, it's got open space to run containment drills if she goes feral — flat ground, clear sightlines for all of you. Enough room for me to knock some sense into her without worrying about knocking over skyscrapers."
He took a step closer, tone growing harder.
"Downside? Asmodeus might get to us quicker. And if — when — we lose against Raven, the city's not so far away."
That last line hung in the air like a loaded weapon.
Beast Boy swallowed. "You're saying if we screw this up—"
Wildcard cut in without a pause, voice flat but carrying enough weight to shut the room down.
"—It's the same as before. Even in your precious Blackridge plan, screwing up wasn't an option."
He straightened, scanning the group one by one.
"The difference now? You won't have the comfort of thinking distance saves you. Mistake here, mistake there—doesn't matter. You botch this, we all pay the same bill."
His gaze lingered on Raven's containment pod — the faint indigo glow flickering against his coat.
"You want to change the backdrop, fine. Just remember, the stakes haven't moved an inch. Failure's still failure… and none of you can afford it."
Jinx smirked faintly. "Cheery as always."
Wildcard didn't even look her way. "Realism isn't cheery. It's survival."
The room went quiet again, the hum of the pod filling the space like a ticking clock.
The silence stretched for a few drawn-out seconds after Wildcard's last words.
Robin glanced around at the others — Starfire's tight jaw, Cyborg's focused stare, Beast Boy's unease, Jinx flicking her eyes between them like she was trying to read the room.
Beast Boy shook his head sharply. "You can't be serious — the stadium is practically in the city! If she blows there, people will get hurt."
Starfire stepped forward, her voice tight but low. "I agree. The thought of harm spilling to innocents is not acceptable. Blackridge may take longer, but—"
Wildcard sliced a hand through the air, cutting her off. "—And give Asmodeus ninety extra minutes to drop in before we even get near the door? By the time you unbox her out there, he'll have the high ground, the leyline, and maybe a picnic set up."
Cyborg frowned, torn. "He's not wrong. We can't gamble on that much time."
Robin's gaze swept over the team. Reluctance was in every eye he met.
He looked back at Wildcard and said, almost like spitting out a stone,
"…Stadium plan it is."
Cyborg exhaled and muttered, "Shorter drive, quicker job. Let's move."
Beast Boy didn't look convinced, but he gave a reluctant shrug.
Jinx grinned faintly. "Well, at least the view will be better than a quarry." The smirk on her face faded for a split second, a flicker of genuine fear passing through her eyes, before the mask of irony settled back into place.
Wildcard's smirk returned—just slightly—as he pushed off the med-bay rail. "Good. We're all on the same bloody page for once."
Wildcard's smirk returned — just slightly — as he pushed off the med-bay rail.
"Good. We're all on the same bloody page for once."
The hum of Raven's containment pod filled the med-bay again — but this time it sounded less like a clock ticking, and more like the fuse of a bomb they had just agreed to carry into the open.
No one spoke. A few exchanged glances, but for the most part, they stayed locked in their own heads.
The indigo light flickered once, as if in response, making everyone in the room tense.From her position near Wildcard, M'gann let her telepathy brush against her teammates in the subtlest way possible. Not enough to intrude — just enough to feel the emotional static boiling under the surface.
Robin: determination like hardened steel, but wrapped around a core of very real fear.
Cyborg: already running simulations in his mind, but each mental branch kept ending in flames.
Beast Boy: unease tightening around his loyalty; the thought of fighting Raven wedged like a splinter in his resolve.
Starfire: steady and resolute…but charged with the kind of energy that always precedes a storm.
Even Jinx, leaning lazy against the wall, gave off a ripple of something sharp — a quick flash of real fear before the mask of irony slipped back into place.
Wildcard flicked his gaze toward the pod, jaw tightening fractionally. He noticed all of it. He just didn't say anything.
From the comms, Sage's voice cut softly, without its usual bite.
"This will work, if everything goes to plan. But remember — plans have a shorter lifespan in the field than most of my servers."
A pause, then a faint edge:
"…Come back alive."
Jinx actually stepped forward, peeling away from the wall. She glanced at Raven, her usual smirk fading for just a breath. "Yeah… same here," she murmured — too low for anyone except Wildcard and M'gann to catch.
Wildcard broke the heaviness with movement, rolling his shoulders like a fighter loosening up before a match. "Alright. Enough standing around playing statue. This circus is moving."
First Steps
In a corner, Cyborg keyed a sequence into his arm panel; a faint hum filled the med-bay as the scrambler net powered up, its field folding across Raven's containment like a second, invisible shell.
On the far wall, Jinx grumbled while checking her pouch of hex charges. Starfire adjusted the bindings on her gauntlets. Beast Boy was already halfway into hawk-form, testing wing strength with a single flap.
M'gann stepped toward the pod, hands hovering a few inches above the suppression glyphs. "I'll keep her stable for transport. But when we start… there's no reversing it."
Wildcard gave her a razor-edged smile. "That's why we don't start till everything else is ready."
He turned back to the team one final time.
"One more time for the people in the cheap seats — whatever your piece of the plan is, do it right. No hero moments, no solo runs. Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Jinx — perimeter and interference. Keep Asmodeus away from me and M'gann."
Then his eyes locked on Starfire.
"When she wakes — and she will — neutralizing her is on you, me, and M'gann. No one else comes close unless they've got a death wish. Understood?"
Starfire straightened, her voice steady. "Understood."
Robin gave the final nod. "We move on your signal."
Wildcard smirked faintly, just as the pod's hum seemed to deepen.
"Good. Get ready to roll because once we start, there's no turning back."
End of chapter.
Author's note:-
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Spider-Man: Legacy of the First Hokage