Justice League And The Hounds Of Hell

Chapter 21: Action

The plan was a go. Armed with Ivy's knowledge, I was confident and the rest of the team trusted it.

Of course, I didn't tell them how I knew what I knew, and they didn't really ask. If they knew Ivy was my informant, and the deal I'd agreed to in order to get information out of her, they'd scrap my plans. Especially since, in hindsight, I'd actually been pretty easy for her to win over.

They wouldn't be able to understand. They didn't see her dying and suffering like I did, and they didn't have to confront that they were the ones responsible for it, either.

The only ones who had any chance of figuring out the truth were M'gann and Tim. I wasn't very worried about M'gann because, for a telepath, she was really good at minding her own business. Tim, on the other hand, not so much. He'd get a little preachy and try to mettle. I didn't want him messing anything up.

Most of all, I didn't want to disappoint him. Which was inevitable. He was going to figure it out. I just needed to keep the jig up long enough for it to be completed. Then, I'd ask for his forgiveness.

"I had no idea you uncovered so much while you were in the port." Tim said to me.

I looked up at him from my desk with a simple "and?" Face. I hoped it was enough to keep him from sensing what I'm hiding.

He grinned. "I'm proud of you. You're doing great work."

"Thanks, Tim." I felt my own smile follow his. He had such a way of bringing that out. "Let's get this done."

We met the rest of the team in an elevator that carried us all the way down the tower and the cliff, to the submarine bay. Cyborg, the Twins, Robin and I were going to travel to the port by water. M'gann and Conner stayed on the surface and flew ahead of us to check out the premises.

The submarine was cramped and dark. Cyborg sat at the head and drove it through the tunnel and out to the sea. I sat to his left, in front of the twins, and Robin sat to the right to help navigate.

The ocean was dark, and something about it seemed unsettled. We planned to dock under one of the old piers, but not before mapping out the coast right by the port to find a safe way to make the ocean water drain into the pits.

The submarine ride took about an hour in relative silence. Every now and then the twins bickered, but maintaining peace between the two was easy. All it took was for me to twist around and say a couple sharp words to them. Cyborg played some music over the speakers while Robin focused on identifying a safe place to dock the submarine using a holographic 3D map.

"Here." Robin said, pointing to a pier we were approaching. "The current is relatively calm and it's a straight shot to start tunneling into the bunkers."

"On it." Cyborg glanced over at Robin and chuckled.

"What is it?" Robin asked.

Cyborg shrugged. "Nothing. It's just that, seeing you there, reminds me of the old days, when Nightwing was Robin, and he was leading the Titans."

"Somos la segunda generación." One of the twins stated proudly.

"El mejorador."

I gave them a thumbs up and a smile.

Robin nodded at Cyborg. "Are they fond memories?"

"Mostly. We had our differences, but at the end of the day, we were always a team and had each other's backs through thick and thin."

I stared at the floor and thought about this whole "team" business. How much of a team player was I being by not trusting them enough to let them in on every working facet of my plan? The whole point of joining was to learn to work with others, and yet, I went into this at my own angle, and I didn't even let Tim know about it.