The competition mission.

Bombs Away

I woke back up before Wally from habit of getting up in time for school. I ran to my room and switched off the alarm before it even had the chance to go off. I went back to the shared bedroom and woke up Wally.
"Why you waking me up, it's like six in the morning." He moaned as he rolled over.
"Five actually." I corrected him as I ripped the covers off of him, "We need to get to school."
"You need to get to school." He said with a smirk, "I don't have to go anymore. I work as a forensics guy and they've given me the month off for the competition."
"Suit yourself," I said as I walked away to get changed into my uniform, "But you'll miss breakfast."
At that he perked up and when I came back into the room I saw that he had put on the clothes I got out for him yesterday. We headed downstairs to the kitchen where Alfred was finishing serving up Waffles.
"Here you go young Masters." He said, "What shall you be doing today Master Wallace?"
"Not much." He said after he had swallowed his waffle, "Probably just spend the day with my friends."
"Well enjoy your time." Alfie replied, "And remember you are welcome here anytime, as long as we know you are coming."
Wally nodded and we finished our meal. I was dropped off at school today so that Alfred could also take Wally back to the hotel he was 'staying in'.
"Hey freak." I looked over at the owner of the voice, Lance Juht, "Why didn't you finish your fall yesterday? Could've met your parents." I didn't respond and that seemed to spur him on more, "You lost your voice have you? Has the gypsy finally realised he should have been with them. That he should just kill himself and remove the scum he is from our grounds? You know I could always do it for you." I didn't get a chance to respond as he lunged and I had to let him land the hit to my face. Fortunately he was stopped immediately as Mr Telkins came over.
"Are you okay Richard?" He asked as the others went off with some other teacher.
"Fine." I replied as I fixed my nose back into place, holding back a whimper.
"Let's look at that." He said and examined my face, deeming it fine he left me to clean it up.
Once that was done I headed to my first lesson and attempted not to sleep through this hell of a school.

I got home, not that late, after Mr Telkins kept us all back to talk thorugh the tactics for the next step of the competition. We had all got through, somehow, and he was execpting us all to get through into the next 50 after the live round with audience voting. I dumped my stuff in my room, changed into jeans,hoodie and my sunglasses and headed to the cave.
"Oh my god, Rob you won't believe what happened."
"Give me a chance to sit down Wal." I said, prying him off of me and heading towards the sofa.
"Richard said we were freinds and I'm welcome to his house anytime." He said, "And he said we were freinds."
"You said already." I commented with a smirk, "But you musn't forget your misson."
"I know." He sighed, "But still, Richard Grayson."
"Shut up about him Kid Mouth." Artemis said as she came in, "Batman wants to see us in the meeting room."
The three of us headed through to the meeting room with the others already there.
"Good, you have a seperate mission tonight." Batman said, "We need you to stop an explosives trade heading in at these docks tonight. It could be linked to the mission you are currently on, but we are unsure at this moment in time. Suit up and head down there now. Robin, can I bring you aside for a second."
The others headed off and once they were gone Batman came over to me, "The new outfit you designed, it's finished if you would like to wear it out tonight, to try it."
"Yes." I lit up inside, I had only been waiting my entire life, "I'd love to."
"It's in your room." Batman smiled down at me, "Hurry up."
I ran down to my room, and there it was, laying on my bed. I stripped out of my normal clothes and slipped it on. It was perfect in everyway. The kevlar wasn't too heavy and and was plently flexible enough. And the design, simple yet perfect, a single blue bird from my chest to my fingertips. I put on the mask and attached my escrima to my back, the hologlove fitting over my wirst and blending into it perfectly. I was last out and got many appricative words from the rest of the team and we were out on misson. Whilst we waited for the ship to dock I decided to test how much I could move in the suit. I stood on my hands and bent my feet over the top of my until the were lightly tapping the floor.
"That is not natural." Artemis said as she turned around to see me.
"He's a tad bendier than most." Wally whispered loudly in her ear, "It's very natural for him."
"Shut it." She bit, "Rob, that is not right."
"How about this?" I asked as I bent my knees to bring my feet to touch my nose.
Artemis shivered and turned back to face away from me, Wally just kept watching however.
"They are here." Kaldur said as I uncurled to crouch down next to Conner.
"That's a lot of men." Megan said as she flew back up and came out of camo mode, "At least thirty inside and another fifty on the ship. They're not taking any chances."
"It's not too bad." I commented, "I've faced worse."
They all looked at me as if I'd lost my head, "If that's true go and take them yourself. We'll watch." Conner said.
"Conner-" Kaldur began but I cut him off.
"If I take them all down you owe me a ticket to your performance." I said and he agreed, "See you in a minute."
I dropped down from the roof onto the ground and snuck into the warehouse. There were less in here Megan said, so deal with these as a warm up first. I dropped down, knocking two of them to the ground and out cold, instanly swinging back up as the others turned.
"Keith," One of the men said as they came over, "Keith wake up."
I didn't waste any more time trying to stay hidden and take them by surprise, I didn't have all night. Only until the ship finished docking. I threw down a smoke bomb and my mask instantly adjusted to heat signatures and I threw down a couple of Birdarangs as I dropped and landed on the one that had run over. Down to 21 already. I quickly leaped back into action and flew at the men, three more were down before they even knew what had hit them. By the time I had taken out another five the smoke was clearing and they began to open fire. I ducked behind a steel crate and waited for a gap. For 13 men they all seemed to not be that bright. As soon as there was a seconds pause I leaped back up over the grate and threw more birdarangs at them, taking out two. The others instantly opened fire towards me and it took most of my concentration to avoid being hit, twisting as much as I could but this suit was still stiff and so I couldn't move as far and a bullet dug itself into my shoulder. I gritted my teeth at the pain and ran at the men who had been firing at me as they re-loaded. 6 more to go. I made my way back up to the rafters and surveyed the scene below, the remaining ones were all hiding behind different crates, but all in view of each other so if I took out one they would see me. I unsheathed my Escrima's and dropped down directly behind the one at the back. His friend the other side only saw a glimpse of me as I lunched myself into the rafters after I had knocked him out cold.
"It's over that way." He shouted and all the guns were turned in my general direction.
I used my grapple to get out of the way as they opened fire and took them out from the back whilst they were all distracted. As the last one fell I was already sprinting out of the warehouse and towards the docks where they had began to lower the freight doors. I leaped straight into action and took out the eight keeping watch. 42 to go if Megan's count was right. I made my way on the ship, sneaking around everywhere I could get to taking out people as I came across them and only sustaining a broken nose. I made it to the camera room, knocking out everyone in there and scanned to see who was left. Just those below deck actually with the weapons, this should be easy. I walked down there, taking the time to realign my nose and stop the bleeding from my shoulder before I lost too much blood and by the time I was down there I was starting to feel the pain. I kicked open the door and instantly leaped into action. These men were proving a tad more difficult, they actually knew what they were doing, but I quickly over-powered them and left them all to sleep off the pain. I headed back up to deck and called down the team.
"I don't know what you did but teach me senpai." Wally said and I rolled my eyes.
"Maybe, but first I'd like those tickets." I said with a pointed look at Conner who just let out a disatisfied grunt.
"Are the weapons on the ship?" Kaldur asked.
"Bottom floor." I replied, "Don't touch them, I'm not sure how sensitive they are."
"Well done Rob." Megan said and we all headed down to check out the load, hoping this wasn't all for nothing.