Worst Case Scenario

Chapter 44: Parental Issues

"Ideas?" whispered Wally. Sportsmaster and his two henchmen began to advance.

Roy reached into his pocket, removing a small item he had stolen from Cheshire.

"Run!" he shouted, hurling the smoke bomb into the ground. A cloud of darkness materialized, instantly separating the two groups.

"Fire!" cried Sportsmaster as the heroes turned to flee. Wally ducked out of the way as two hovering disks flew through the smoke, fortunately overshooting and returning to their launchers.

Roy made a jerking motion with his arm and suddenly dashed left into the next corridor. Wally and Artemis followed.

"I'm going to guess you're powerless right now?" the elder archer shouted to the alleged speedster, who was lagging behind the others by quite a bit.

"Y-yeah" panted Wally. He wasn't used to running a lot without the aid of the Speed Force, which made everything so much easier.

The heavy clomp of boots on concrete echoed behind them as they continued to run. Rounding another corner, Roy managed to, quite brilliantly, ran smack into a pair of shotgun-wielding goons.

Fortunately, his reaction time was better and he shoved the first man's gun away while kicking him between the legs. Behind him, Artemis caught the other on the chin with a spin kick.

A quick jab to the neck finished off Roy's opponent and he grabbed the man's gun. The boots behind them were getting closer.

"What are you doing with tha-" began Wally before Roy answered his question by cocking the shotgun and firing it around the corner. The concrete exploded, forcing Sportsmaster and his men to stop. It wouldn't keep them back for more than a few seconds, but that would have to do.

Roy dropped the shotgun and he, Wally and Artemis dashed down the hall to a hopefully less crowded area of the building.

Superman leaned against the wall of the cave, his arms crossed over his chest.

In the middle of the room was an impromptu magical circle. As soon as everything had calmed down again, Batman had explained his plan to Fate, and both Nabu and (supposedly) Zatara agreed.

Black Canary was standing in the corner, alternating between talking with Captain Marvel in a cheerful voice and glaring at Batman, who ignored her. Superman wasn't sure which side to take in that. He'd never liked the idea sidekicks in general, let alone sending a whole group of them off on their own without adult assistance, but he had to admit that up until today the Team had proven effective.

Miss Martian and, uh, Superboy were standing a ways off from the rest, watching the magical circle. Superboy still had his arm around the Martian girl. Superman wasn't sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, it wasn't any of his business, but on the other, there was a bit of... something rising up inside of him. It felt a bit like 'protective parent', but that couldn't be right... Besides, Superboy already had people taking care of him. He didn't want or need a really big example of what he couldn't do hanging around. Better for everyone if he just stayed away.

Right?

Nabu finished his circle and began to chant, hovering cross-legged two feet off the ground. Batman tapped a few keys on a virtual keyboard and a hologram of a globe appeared.

Batman's plan was elegantly simple. Fate would attempt to use magic to attempt to divine the Team's location. Of course, using magic to locate a single human or even a group of them anywhere on the planet would be nearly impossible. But tracking a magic human, one well known to the caster, on the other hand...