The Bioship thrummed beneath my boots, a living machine carrying us toward the dark jewel of Santa Prisca. Somewhere down there, Bane was running his usual operation: venom, drugs, and enough steroid juice to turn men into living refrigerators.
Mission parameters? Simple. Get in, find out why shipments had stopped despite the factory burning through overtime, then get out and report back to Batman. Easy. Clean. No casualties. Stealthy.
Of course, Batman had insisted on adding me to the team. Because nothing says stealth like dropping a half-Pinoy smartass with a cursed hand and god-tier assassin powers into the middle of a black-ops op.
My codename was Attano. I'd taken it to honor Corvo Attano, one of the figures I'd seen in my dream—or vision, or cosmic hallucination courtesy of the Outsider. Didn't matter which. The name felt right. And the Outsider? He probably thought this was peak comedy.
I glanced at my reflection in the Bioship's smooth walls. My suit was a custom piece: dark gray with blood-red highlights on the shoulders, knuckles, and knees. Bulletproof hex-weave, coltan-titanium mesh, segmented for flexibility. Over my face, the skull mask the Outsider had "gifted" me, shadow-eyed and menacing. Very Death's fashion catalog.
Weapons? Just my folding switchblade, the same style Corvo had carried. Batman had confiscated everything else. According to him, I was "too dangerous" to be trusted with firearms or gadgets. Which was hilarious, considering Robin was twelve to thirteen with more sharp things in his belt than a butcher's shop. Hypocrite.
The rope hissed down. Robin went first, smooth as silk. Kid Flash zipped down, landing in a crouch like a wannabe action movie star. Miss Martian floated after, soft and soundless. Then it was my turn.
I fast-roped down and landed in absolute silence on the soft jungle floor alongside Robin, Kid Flash, and Miss Martian. Years of Call of Duty camping prepared me for this moment.
And then—
CRASH!
Superboy hit the ground like a meteor. Dirt exploded. Trees shook. A fresh crater yawned beneath his boots.
He stood up, smirking like he'd just won a gold medal. "Hah! Told you I didn't need a line."
My mask tilted toward him. "…Tangina mo, gago! Are you trying to summon every guard in a three-mile radius? Punyeta ka, putang ina!"
Robin winced. "Uh, translation?"
I pinched the bridge of my mask. "Translation? It means this overgrown sperm sample just announced our presence to Bane, the factory, and probably the cockroaches, too. Stealth is dead. Long live stealth."
Superboy frowned. "I didn't hear anything."
"Exactly, Boy Jr.—you didn't hear the stealth, because you killed it."
Before he could puff his chest at me, I raised a hand. The Mark flared, black energy curling over my knuckles like smoke. I blinked forward, disappearing from the spot in a crack of darkness, and reappeared twenty feet ahead, perched on a branch.
"I'll scout ahead," I called back, voice dripping with smug. "Try not to break the continent while I'm gone."
And then I was gone again. [Blink]. Tree to tree. Rock to rock. Each teleport a little shiver of void energy, as if the Outsider himself was laughing in my ear.
God, it felt good.
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A group of Kobra Cultists had gotten into a firefight with Bane and some of his foot soldiers, and that shouldn't have been a problem at all. Robin and I were damned near undetectable without advanced sensors, and the rest of the team had super-senses or training sharp enough to let them slip past the chaos. Easy peasy.
Then, all of a sudden, the gunfire stopped and I heard a very familiar, very stupid voice chuckle nervously through the comms.
"Heh heh, so much for the covert."
Son of a bitch.
I blinked toward the firefight just in time to see bullets spraying—not at each other anymore, but at Kid Flash. Of course.
Superboy was already trading blows with Bane, who, to his credit, was holding his own against a Kryptonian clone. And wasn't that just humiliating? Jesus Christ, Superboy—get your shit together. You're supposed to be Superman Lite, not Superman Discount Edition.
Robin flung a pair of batarangs at two cultists, sharp and efficient. Kid Flash was zipping around like a caffeinated cockroach, smacking guns out of hands but also drawing every single bullet toward himself. Miss Martian grabbed two poor bastards and slammed them into a tree so hard I heard a wet crack. Ribs? Spine? Both? Ten out of ten on the brutality scale.
And me? I Blinked.
One heartbeat I was in the treeline, the next I was behind a cultist, my blade slipping cleanly into the side of his neck. I twisted his head toward me, shushing him as the light faded from his eyes. Before his body even hit the ground, I ripped his rifle free and stitched two of Bane's men with hot lead as they turned to flee.
I leveled the sights on a final runner—only for a crackling whip of Atlantean water to lash out and drop the guy into twitching unconsciousness. Aqualad. Always with the timing.
Nobody noticed me. Nobody ever noticed me unless I wanted them to. So I casually let the rifle clatter onto the corpse, which happened to tumble neatly into a thick patch of brush. Couldn't have staged it better myself. I slipped the pistol from the cultist's holster into my belt.
Fuck you, Batman. You can lecture me all you want in the cave, but you can't stop me from picking up toys in the field.
"Gago ka talaga, Kid Flash!" I yelled, stomping out of the trees, pointing at the speedster like an angry Pinoy uncle. "You had ONE job to do. Isa lang! Keep quiet, stay hidden. That's it! And what did you do? You announced us with fireworks! Putang ina naman, bro!"
Kid Flash froze mid-tie-up of a cultist, his face red. "Hey! It's not my fault! They saw me!"
"They saw you because you were louder than a karaoke night with free beer!" I shot back, hands flailing. "Ano ka ba, allergic ka ba sa stealth? You see jungle, you think, 'Oh look, playground!' Tarantado ka!"
M'gann pressed her lips together like she was trying very hard not to laugh while she bound the last cultist to a tree. Robin openly smirked, and even Superboy paused mid-grapple with Bane long enough to frown at me in confusion.
Aqualad, of course, sighed the sigh of a long-suffering team leader. "Attano. Focus. We must secure the area before reinforcements arrive."
I waved him off, still glaring at Kid Flash. "Fine. But if we all die here because Speedy Gonzales couldn't keep his mouth shut, I am haunting your ass. Ghost style. Every night, whispering in your ear: 'cooovert, cooovert.'"
Then my eyes flicked back to Superboy and Bane, still trading blows. And I grinned.
Time to be useful.
I Blinked mid-sentence, vanishing in a puff of shadows and reappearing right next to Bane's blind spot. He didn't even get a chance to register me before I thrust out my palm.
"Surprise, motherfucker!"
WHOOOOMP.
The Windblast erupted from my hand in a violent shockwave, slamming directly into Bane's crotch.
The massive luchador actually left the ground for half a second, eyes bulging behind the mask, before he hit the ground. Superboy, never one to waste an opening, grabbed him mid-bounce and powerbombed him straight into the dirt. The ground cratered from the impact.
"PUTANG INA, DID YOU SEE THAT?!" I cackled, hands in the air like I just scored the winning goal at a basketball game. "Nutshot into suplex! That's teamwork, baby!"
Robin's jaw dropped. "You… just… Wind blasted Bane's—"
"—cultural heritage, yeah," I cut in. "Good thing his mask pumps Venom, because he's gonna need the extra painkillers tonight. Sorry, bro, hope you weren't planning on kids."
Superboy glared at me as he stood over Bane. "That was… unnecessary."
"Unnecessary?!" I repeated, laughing so hard I almost fell over. "Bro, that was ART. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel; I just delivered divine justice to Bane's family jewels. History books are gonna remember this day."
Miss Martian floated over, ropes of psychic green energy wrapping around Bane and hauling him upright. She tied him to a thick tree trunk alongside the few captured cultists. But when her eyes darted to the side, she gasped.
"Oh no. They're… dead."
Everyone turned to stare at the three corpses sprawled neatly in the underbrush. The ones I'd quietly dispatched during the chaos.
I scratched my neck, utterly casual. "Well, duh. They were shooting at us. What, you think bullets are just friendship confetti?"
Robin's expression darkened, his voice low. "There's something seriously wrong with you."
"Nah." I shrugged, smirking. "I'm just built different."
Kid Flash groaned, throwing his hands up. "What does it matter? Attano's a psycho—like, certified. We already knew that. And now we know Kobra hijacked Bane's operation, which is why Venom's off the streets. Case closed. Mission accomplished. Let's go home."
"Uh, no," Robin shot back, rubbing his chin as he studied the unconscious cultists. "That's not all. These guys aren't juiced up on Venom. Which means Kobra's stockpiling. I need to know why."
"Oh, you need to find out?" Kid Flash snorted. "Who died and made you leader? Dude, you're thirteen. You still need parental signatures for field trips."
Robin glared. "Well somebody has to lead."
While they squared off like squabbling siblings, Miss Martian glanced at Superboy. "Do you want to be leader?" she whispered.
Superboy snorted. "No. You?"
"After the Mister Twister fiasco?" she muttered.
"You did alright," He gave her a half-smile before turning his glare to me. "What about you? You gonna try to be leader?"
I grinned. "Hell no. Batman's already paying me hazard rates for tagging along, and I'm milking this cash cow for every cent. I'm basically a parasite desperate for money—clinging to the rich, proud of it, not ashamed. Way better than pretending to be some noble hero with a secret agenda that could compromise the team."
Kid Flash's jaw dropped, when he heard my speech "Wait, wait, wait—you're getting paid for this?!"
I stretched my arms behind my head, smug as hell. "Yup. Hazard pay, baby. The Bats wires it straight to my account. You think I'm sneaking around jungles, getting shot at, and watching you morons argue about leadership for free? Putang ina, hindi ako tanga."
Robin blinked, his frown deepening. "Batman… never mentioned paying you."
"Of course he didn't. Because I don't work for free exposure like the rest of you. I'm not an intern in tights, I'm a consultant." I jabbed a thumb at my chest. "Freelancer. Premium package. Comes with blades, sarcasm, and occasional war crimes."
Miss Martian bit her lip, probably trying to figure out if I was joking or not. Spoiler: I wasn't.
Kid Flash flailed his arms like a dying chicken. "This is so unfair! I nearly broke my ankle running in circles around those guys, and you're the one cashing in?"
I grinned. "Exactly. It's called capitalism. Look it up."
Superboy gave me one of his patented confused-dog looks, like I'd just tried to explain algebra to him. "So… you're only here for money?"
"Of course. I am proudly, unapologetically, shamelessly a parasite. I cling to the rich like barnacles on a yacht. Batman's got the cash, I've got the blades, and together we make beautiful, bloody music." I spread my arms wide, as if presenting myself to an audience. "Better than being someone with a secret agenda who'll compromise the team later, am I right?"
That shut everyone up real fast. Even the jungle seemed to hold its breath.
Robin narrowed his eyes at me, suspicion dripping from his glare. Kid Flash squinted too, like I'd just spoiled the ending to his favorite anime. Miss Martian looked uncomfortable, and Superboy was still stuck buffering.
Finally, Aqualad stepped in, voice calm but firm. "Enough. We do not have the luxury of arguing among ourselves. The mission is unfinished. If Kobra has replaced Bane as the supplier of Venom, then their true purpose must be uncovered."
I gave him a lazy salute. "Aye, aye, fearless leader. Lead us bravely into the snake pit while I keep the meter running."
Robin shot me another glare. "You know, one day your mouth is going to get us all killed."
"Maybe," I said with a smirk. "But at least I'll die with a paycheck."