Worst Case Scenario

Chapter 65: Breach and Clear

It's quiet up here Superman thought, trying to take his mind off of the battle raging below. That made sense, of course. He was high enough that the atmosphere was practically non-existent. No air, no sound. Just the vacuum of space, a bit of sunlight creeping over the horizon, a few satellites zipping around here and there. The perfect place to relax if, say, you were a full-blooded Kryptonian with decades of yellow-sunlight exposure and an oxygen recycling face mask.

He'd flown up to this height after deploying the SkyCam drone over the enemy's head. There was no telling how much this base had been reinforced, so it would be for the best if momentum was on their side.

Batman's commands crackled through the radio carefully secured in his ear.

"And me?" Superman asked.

"The enemy knows that we're here. Robin and Kid Flash must be secured at once or we risk losing them. You're in the best position to do that. You are clear to proceed. Breach and clear."

"Roger" replied Superman. "Here goes nothing. ETA thirty seconds."

He took a second to take a deep breath and remove his breathing mask.

Then he fell.

Fast.

Superboy rolled under a leaping wolf, only to be blindsided by one of its friends. This situation was aggravatingly familiar, and he'd just gotten a new shirt, too. Nearby, Red Arrow found himself pinned underneath a wolf, with only his bow keeping it from ripping his throat out. The MONQI on the wolf's back laughed in its annoying mechanical tone.

"Little help here?" the archer grunted.

Miss Martian lashed out with her telekinesis, ripping the MONQI's head off, levitating the wolf off of Arrow and pulling off its collar. The animal whimpered as its paws tried in vain to touch the ground. On a theory, M'gann dropped it. As soon as its paws hit dirt, it turned and ran.

"Batman" Miss Martian said into the radio as she spun to avoid another wolf biting at her cape. "We've engaged kobra venom enhanced wolves with Belle Reve inhibitor collars. This is the same M.O. that the Brain used in India."

"Acknowledged" Batman replied, throwing a batarang at a hovering security drone. "All Justice League members, this is Batman. Target the wolves' collars in order to neutralize them."

"What about the deer?" Wonder Woman asked over the radio.

"What deer?"

Aquaman hurled through the air and slammed into a nearby tree. A herd of huge, muscular deer, also collared and almost certainly on kobra venom burst through the bushes, antlers pointed forwards.

"Never mind."

"I must ask, old friend" Vandal Savage said into his radio. "Why deer?"

"Do you know how many animals suitable for kobra venom enhancement and inhibitor collar control there are available in Germany?" the Brain replied. "I had to import the wolves! And all of the squirrels escaped."

"Yes, but... deer?"

"Have you ever fought a deer barehanded, Monsieur Savage?"

"As a matter of fact, I have." Savage paused for a second. "Point taken. Carry on."

"Of course. I am just warming it up now."

Robin awoke with a start. Usually he was a very light sleeper and he would have pretended to stay asleep in order to observe around him, but the stress of the last two (at least) days had really been catching up to him.