Worst Case Scenario

Chapter 63: Infiltration

Stuttgart, Germany

December 29, 04:16 CET

A red, yellow and blue blur sped through the darkness. Flash squinted to try and see the path ahead.

He'd gotten off the main road ten minutes before (of course the bad guys would be watching the road leading up to their base, right?), so now there was a very real risk of tripping, falling and breaking his neck at 500 miles an hour. Or overshooting his destination. Also his arms were getting tired. Running 300 miles with a Lord of Order in a bridal carry will do that, even if he's nice enough to put on a spell or two to cut down on his weight.

It was awkward, running like this, but there was no other way to get Fate there fast enough without flying, and that was just asking for another round of surface-to-air missiles to the face, as well as the loss of the element of surprise. And if they lost that, they'd lose Wally and Robin.

So, here he was, running through the better part of Germany, off-road and practically blind.

Iris had better appreciate getting her nephew back in one piece.

The GPS on his wrist beeped and he slowed down to the more modest 100 mph before skidding to a stop.

"We're here" he said, putting Fate down. The Lord of Order grunted and brushed off his cloak as the spell which had shielded him from the intense friction of the run faded away.

"Bats, we're at the location" Flash said into his radio.

"Is Fate ready?" Batman asked.

"I am not the Justice League's personal teleportation device, but yes, I am ready" Fate replied. He raised his arm and a golden ankh appeared in the air. Aqualad emerged, followed by Miss Martian, Superboy and Red Arrow, all wearing the darkened colors of stealth-tech uniforms.

"Batman's not coming with?" Flash asked. Aqualad put a finger to his lips and a second later Miss Martian had added both Flash and Fate to their telepathic link.

"Batman does not wish to say it," the Atlantean thought aloud (literally) "but he believes that it is necessary for the Team to do this recon ourselves. He is afraid that the events of the past few nights have shattered our confidence in ourselves."

"'Sides" Superboy thought-spoke. "This is our mess. Robin and Kid Flash are our teammates, and Artemis is our responsibility."

"Well then," Flash thought. "Don't mind us. Evil bad-guy base is that way."

Klarion was bored. Since Vandal had insisted that he not destroy anything in the base or torment any of the personnel, he'd decided to copy an old Earth method of boredom: Bouncing a tennis ball against a wall.

Okay, so the tennis ball was on fire and enchanted to scream "Help me! I'm on fire!" but the principle was the same.

Tala was at the other end of the room, sitting cross-legged, reading the leather-bound magic tome which she'd fortunately been able to retrieve from Aguila Base before they'd evacuated. For some reason, all of the mortals seemed to think that just because she and Klarion were both Lords of Chaos that they had the same interests, or personalities or, you know, liked each other. Even without the whole Salem thing, Tala had never liked Klarion. How could she? He was childish and annoying and he had the attention span of a hungry squirrel and the forethought of a mosquito. Tala was really very curious about what Vandal Savage had done to get Klarion on his side and more-or-less behaving. Klarion was, after all, one of the main reasons that Chaos had such a bad reputation on Earth. Didn't he realize that tormenting humans for his own amusement was just going send them running into the hands of Order?