Mount Justice

July 22nd , 19:18 EDT

It was happening. It was finally happening. Black Canary had first come through on the costume delivery, and after receiving a message from Batman on my phone, I had gathered in the Mission Room with all the others, wearing my new hero costume, something that could have been a uniform of mine back in Jujutsu Tech, and a blindfold for added style points.

Robin looked up at me, bemused. "What's with the blindfold? Unless there's a screen behind them."

"No, just cloth," I said, taking it off and tossing it to him. He looked at it with an upraised eyebrow.

"Why?"

I pulled it back from his hands with Blue and wore it again with a grin, "Because it looks cool, doesn't it?"

"If you say so," Robin said. I chuckled at that.

"I think it looks interesting," Miss Martian said to me. Apparently, according to Canary, I had to think of her now as Miss Martian and not Megan, because during mission time, we had to use codenames.

"What, you're saying you can do all this hero work blindfolded?" Kid Flash asked accusingly.

"Yes," I said to him with a grin. "Try to keep up. I will slow down for you." I really would, in any case. I was very interested in seeing what these kids could do.

"Focus," Aqualad demanded. "Batman is arriving with our first mission. You two need to be on your best behavior and prove to him that he was not mistaken in putting his trust in us."

Contrary to my expectations, Kid Flash did calm down at that. "Aye aye, captain," I said to Aqualad.

I turned to Superboy, who was facing the Zeta Tube with folded arms. "Nice costume."

He looked back at me, looked me up and down, and shrugged. "Yours too."

Wow. What a momentous occasion. Superboy was being nice! What a super boy he was!

"Don't ruin it with that smile of yours," Superboy sneered. I chuckled at that.

"Yes, yes," I chuckled, "I'm just glad that my upperclassman has noticed me."

He rolled his eyes.

Finally, the Zeta Tube lit up and in walked Batman. "Team," he said in acknowledgment of us, "Computer, download Team Mission File One from the Watchtower. Display documents."

A screen appeared behind him, an aerial view of a tropical island at night.

"This is Santa Prisca. This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neosteroid— A strength enhancing drug sold under the street name 'Venom'."

The screen introduced a bunch of crates being shipped to the docks, containing multitudes of red vials.

Batman continued. "Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory Is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off. That's where this team comes in. This is a covert recon mission only. Observe and report. If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will. The plan requires two drop zones."

"So who's in charge?" Asked Kid Flash.

"Work that out between you." Batman dismissed.

I raised my hand, "Can we try Aqualad?"

"I appreciate your faith," Aqualad said, "But I would like it if we could try Robin instead."

"Thanks," Robin said in exasperation, "I'm glad someone sees sense!"

"Aye aye, captain," I said to Aqualad, "You're the boss," then I turned to Robin, "Your orders, captain?" I saluted him.

Robin turned to Batman, "The drop zones?"

"Drop Zone A will require a subaquatic infiltration. Aqualad can arrive from the ocean and reach the heat and motion sensors on-land. He will patch them using this," Batman pulled a cylindrical machine thing with a red bulb from behind him, strapped to his back underneath his cloak, and threw it at Robin, "This gives your Bio-Ship free reign to enter from any point in the island. Drop Zone B is in the forest, far away from any possible detection. You make your way from B to the factory to gather intel, then you return and leave. I will say this only once more: observe and report. Possible belligerents are being sent to your personal computer," Batman said, "As the leader, you will have to plan around these possible obstacles. Dismissed," then he just turned around to the Zeta Tube to leave.

"To the Bio-Ship, Titans!" I said imperiously, pointing the direction down the hallway of the cave.

Santa Prisca

July 22nd , 20:08 EDT

A part of me had been seriously worried that Batman would have held me back from the mission for some arbitrary reason. Then he hadn't!

Amazing. While we flying over the seas on our way to the Caribbean island of Santa Prisca, Aqualad broached a topic I hadn't even considered yet, "Gojo, you need a codename. Don't you?"

I shrugged with a grin, "I don't have a secret identity. And hopefully, I won't need to stay in this world for very long."

"But in case you do, shouldn't you want to protect your identity?" Aqualad asked.

Oh gosh. What should I call myself? "Infinitylad, Infinityboy, Boy Infinity, Mr. Infinity, Kid Infinity?"

"We'll go with Infinity," Aqualad said, and I chuckled at that.

"I kind of liked Kid Infinity," I said with a grin.

"Funny," Kid Flash said.

"Approaching Drop Zone A," Megan said as we started flying up to the island. Aqualad stood up and let his chair melt into the floor. Then he clicked his belt buckle emblem, turning his orange suit dark gray. A hole appeared before him and he jumped through. Then we spun around the island, waiting for him to disable the motion and heat sensors around the island.

After Aqualad managed to override the motion and heat sensors, I proposed a plan, "Thanks to my Six Eyes, I can probably cut this mission very short. All we need to do is cloak the ship and fly close to the factory, and I will be able to see everything they are doing, and then we can report back to Batman."

"You can see through walls?" Robin asked.

"I can see through anything," I said.

"Oh, hell no!" Kid Flash said, "We waited all this time for a mission, and all we end up doing is a fly-by relying on this guy's X-ray vision? Besides, don't we already have Superboy for that?"

"Infrared, not X-ray," Superboy said.

"Plus," Robin said, "You won't be able to read the data they have on their computers with just your eyes, will you?" He said.

"I could just warp their computers into the ship, no problem," I said with a chuckle, "Ah, in case you did not know this, I can teleport things. Watch," I said as I locked in on a bush on the forest floor. Then I teleported it onboard. "Nice, huh?" I teleported it back outside.

"You had that all this time?" Kid Flash asked, shocked.

"There's a reason why I suddenly found myself in this universe," I said with a shrug, "My Limitless allows me to manipulate space. But you know what? I never thought I would say this, but you are right, Kid Flash. I could seriously stretch my legs a bit. Let's do this the hard way. To Drop Zone B! Let's get our feet wet!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but… yeah, totally agree," Kid Flash said.

"Hold on," I heard Aqualad's voice through my earpiece, "Would the responsible thing not be to follow Infinity's plan?"

"I won't tell Batman," I said with a shrug, "But it is your orders, Robin! What do you say?"

Robin looked at the floor in consternation before nodding, "There's no telling how thorough the intel will be if we rely on Gojo—I mean, Infinity to gather all the data. We can do a much more thorough sweep on foot. To Drop Zone B, Megan. "

"Roger," Megan said, "Uh, that's what you're meant to say, right?"

"Roger, roger," I said with a grin, looking over my shoulder at Megan. She giggled bashfully.

She flew us quickly over to Drop Zone B and hovered over there. Ropes started extruding from the ceiling, with hooks on the ends. Kid Flash got up and clicked on his emblem, darkening his suit.

Kid Flash turned to Megan with a grin, "How cool is this?"

"Very cool," Megan said indulgently.

"What about this?" I asked Megan, turning invisible.

"Whoa!" Megan looked at me, "Very cool! I didn't know you could do that!" Then she turned invisible, blinking on and off. I could still see her with my Six Eyes—she wasn't good at veiling her heat signature—but that was fun. We shared quite a few powers, huh?

Kid Flash frowned at me, "Wait, how are you doing that? How many powers do you have?"

"Focus, guys," Robin said. "Also, Gojo, don't turn invisible yet or I won't be able to keep track of you."

I turned off my invisibility with a grin. "Sure, captain!" I gave a thumbs up.

Kid Flash grumbled under his breath, then looked to Superboy, "What about you? No stealth tech?"

"No capes, no tights, no offence," Superboy said, the last part only slightly apologetic.

"That's my boy!" I said with a grin. He growled at me.

"Open us up, Megan," Robin said. Holes appeared before our feet. I didn't put on the rope thing that Megan had offered to me. I just skipped down and floated gently a few meters before landing. Kid Flash and Robin landed gently as well as their ropes descended to bring them down.

Then Superboy was about to come down like a meteor. I slowed down his descent with Limitless, making sure he landed like a feather. He growled at me. "I was going to land okay."

"My mistake, next time I will let you cause an earthquake during our covert stealth mission," I said.

My earpiece crackled, "Head for the factory," Aqualad said, "I'll meet you there."

Then I turned to where I last saw Robin, "Captain, how should—" He was gone. I looked around, feeling a familiar headache at his type—stealthy and annoying about it to boot. Finding him was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but after pouring positive energy into Six Eyes, I finally could—along with a whole bunch of noise that immediately gave me a headache. Gosh, I needed more training. Wow, and he told me not to be invisible because he might lose track of me. What a joker. "Our captain is over there," I pointed into the thicket. "Let us follow."

I ran along after him, Superboy, Megan and Kid Flash keeping up. Until suddenly, "Did you hear that?" Superboy asked.

What a stupid question. It was like me asking someone if they had seen a flea from five kilometers away. "Obviously, we didn't," I said, "What was it?"

I looked around, lifting my blindfold slightly to expose my right eye—

"Oh, was the blindfold too much after all?"

I ignored Kid-iot and scanned around until—"There," I said, pointing into the bush, "Two groups of people armed with guns," my eyes widened at that. Guns were pretty rare where I was from, even in my line of work. That was interesting.

"We should steer clear," Aqualad suggested.

"Wait," I heard Robin speak, "Where are you guys anyway?"

I laughed, "You're the worst captain ever."

"Screw this," Kid Flash said, running off to find our captain at super speed. Unfortunately, the speed led him to trip and spectacularly veer his course, setting him on a straight collision towards the gunfighters as they just started to fire their weapons, initiating a skirmish. I snorted at that.

Guess we had to go and help him. "Kid Flash engaged the gunfighters," I said, "We are converging on his location for a possible med-evac," what a fun word I had learned only very recently from one of Canary's books on military operations, "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo, go, go, go!" I rushed in as I watched him fall in front of a bunch of people with guns, all aiming at him. Thankfully, he managed to activate his super speed in time.

Before I could arrive, Superboy landed in the midst of it all, interrupting the shooting and immediately going after one of them without even understanding the situation.

I laughed and warped in, wrenching all the guns out of everyone's hands and keeping them overhead in a ball of Blue as Miss Martian and Kid Flash engaged the now disarmed villains.

Then all of a sudden, Robin came down from out of nowhere. I laughed when I saw him, "Captain, how relieved I am to see you again! I had no direction before you came!"

"What's wrong with you guys?!" Robin shouted, "Why didn't you follow my lead, vanish into the forest?"

Kid Flash threw one of the villains over his shoulder, "That's what you were doing? Not all of us are mind readers, you know."

A couple came after me for a fight, and I knocked them out within seconds, dancing around them, and of course, making sure that the kids had their fun.

Miss Martian protested that, "You told me I could only read the bad guys' minds!" They told her that? Hah! My, what virtuous heroes they were.

Then I saw Superboy fighting with a rather familiar figure, one with a wrestling mask and a hole on the back of his head. Bane!

And Bane was getting his ass kicked! I wrenched up the last of the idiots with Blue while Miss Martian and Kid Flash finished up with theirs, and all that was left was to watch Superboy piece up the notorious supervillain. "You can do it, Superboy! I believe in you!" I yelled in Japanese.

Kid Flash zipped over and tripped Bane, giving Superboy the right opportunity to lay the villain out with one righteous right hook.

I sorted all the villains up with Blue. "Great work, everyone!" I said, lowering the giant bubble of rifles in the air gently on the ground.

I spotted one red-robed villain running away, but then Aqualad jumped out of a tree and landed in front of him. He then gave him an electric shock with his hands. He had lightning powers too? Awesome!

He was like an electric eel! That should have been his name! Eelboy!

"Who are these guys anyway?" Kid Flash looked at one of the red-robed people, "I recognize Bane's guys, but not these guys. Who are they?"

"I recognize these uniforms," Robin said, "They belong to the cult of the Kobra."

I clenched my jaws, "Great, a cult."

"Not a fan of cults?" Robin asked.

"Not really, no."

Aqualad looked disconcerted by that, "I am certain that Batman would have mentioned it if he knew that a dangerous extremist organization was running Santa Prisca's venom operation."

"Batman didn't know something?" I asked, genuinely surprised. "Is that real, or is this maybe a test?"

"Batman doesn't know everything," Robin said, "Why do you think we're here? He asked us to gather intel. This is intel. And from what it looks like, since these two groups of idiots clearly hate each other's guts, it's safe to say Kobra came in and kicked them out. That's why normal supply lines have been cut off."

"That's why you're our captain," I said fondly, "Good job, Robin!"

"Alright, we get it," Kid Flash rolled his eyes, "Kobra wanted super cultists, mystery solved. Radio Bats and let's go." Clearly he had had his fill of violence already. Lame.

"These cultists aren't on venom!" Robin said, "Kobra's hoarding the stuff. We don't leave. Not until I know why."

"Great, another order from our glorious leader," Kid Flash said, "You think maybe it's time to give this leadership thing a rest? You ducked out on us first chance you got."

"You broke our cover the first chance you got!" Robin replied angrily.

I turned to Megan with a grin, "Told you, didn't I?"

She didn't look as enthusiastic as I did.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Superboy spacing out. No, focusing. He closed his eyes and his ears stiffened. I looked around and saw that one of the goons was whispering to another. Bane replied. Superboy grinned.

"You don't even have superpowers!" Kid Flash shouted angrily.

"Neither does Batman!"

"You're not Batman!"

"Boys, boys," I said, stepping between the two, "You can both be Batman for Halloween. Until then, why don't we focus on our super-secret amazing superhero mission that Batman entrusted to us? You know, in case you ever want the Batman to give you another mission."

Kid Flash glared at me, "And what's your game anyway? You're clearly not taking any of this seriously!"

I grinned at him, "The last time I took one of your missions seriously, I seriously killed the vibe, didn't I? And besides, I want to see how the real heroes do things, so obviously I'm not going all out."

Bane started laughing, gathering our attention. Since I was holding him still with Blue, I pulled him closer to us and tilted my head, "Do you have anything to say, mister?"

"Such clever ninos," he said as he floated upside down, his body ramrod straight, "But you don't know half the story."

I put him right-side-up. "Tell us everything you know," I said, the first thing that popped into my mind on what to say in this situation.

"No need for that, nino," He said, "I will show you the rest of the story. Get you into my factory. Via my secret entrance."

Hah, that sounded like a fun development. I turned to Robin, "Your orders, captain?"

"Megan?" Robin asked. Megan stepped forward.

"He's telling the truth," Megan said, "But he's hiding something." She started focusing intently on him, her eyes shining white as she used her telepathic abilities.

"Ah, ah, ah," he grinned, "Bane's not that easy."

"Ugh," she frowned.

"What happened?" Superboy asked.

"Nothing, he's just… reciting football scores en espanol."

"Its not complicated," Bane said, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"Well, I am convinced!" I said, "I say we forget every crime that this horrible monster has committed in the past and work with him!"

"Yeah, obviously not," Kid Flash said, "This guy is demented. We can't work with him."

"Why not?" I asked, "That would be very exciting, teaming up with a villain! It's not like there are not ten other ideas any of us could come up with that are much better."

"Yes," Bane said, "But those would be risky, no? You have no idea what those Kobra bastardos are capable of. If I were you, I would step easy."

"Are they strong?" I asked Bane, "How strong?"

Would I have an opportunity to use Red after all?

"Infinity, stand down," Aqualad said, and I turned to him in surprise.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Then I grinned at him. "See? You are a born leader!"

Aqualad ignored me and then turned to Robin, "Any infiltration will carry some risks. And you know as well as I do that avoiding a serious fight breaking out between him," he looked at me, "And a villain like Kobra is for the best. I say we take Bane up on his offer."

"Agreed," Robin said.

"Good," Aqualad turned to me, "Infinity, release Bane."

I did.

"Infinity, eh?" Bane said, looking me up and down, "You don't look like much."

I can't believe I was talking to him! "I'm a big fan, Bane! I've read all about you! Where are your steroids? Shouldn't you be bigger?"

"Can't say I've heard about your scrawny ass," Bane huffed.

"You will, soon," I promised him with a sunny grin.

"Infinity, focus. Hold the rest of them close to the trees," Aqualad commanded, "Kid Flash, tie them up quickly. Let's move right after. Bane, lead the way."

I followed his orders with a grin. I so loved when I was right.

Once Kid Flash finished up, we took off with Bane leading our way.

This was a horrible idea, but it was fun!

000

In retrospect, there were a million places in which we, as a group, could have made better decisions, I reflected as I took in this split-second moment of pure pandemonium happening in the venom factory.

Superboy going twelve rounds with an abomination of flesh, Robin and Kid Flash having disappeared to steal the data on our objective, leaving only Aqualad, Miss Martian and I to deal with the army of villains and cultists gunning for us in the warehouse of illicit cargo.

Although we had gone at this whole thing in such a stupidly stupid way, I couldn't help but have the widest grin possible. This hero stuff was just fun!

I lifted my arm with a shout, "Blue, baby!" I ripped over a hundred guns from every person in the room and held them up in the ceiling, immediately emboldening Aqualad and Miss Martian into giving it their all.

Then I jumped into the fight against the big guy. Superboy reeled from a giant punch, and I used that opportunity to deliver a kick to the monster's head. It reeled back in shock, but I didn't let it gather its footing, instead lifting it up with Blue and flipping it upside down. Superboy got up and let out a nasty hit at the creature, knocking it unconscious. I let it drop and looked around. I removed my blindfolds, unleashing my Six Eyes in full to take scope of the situation.

Miss Martian was busy packing up the small fry. Without having to worry about their guns, she was sweeping them up like they were nothing, tying them up in ropes while all they could do was flail. Aqualad was efficient as well, taking out handfuls of villains at a time with his water weapons.

I looked for something to do—bingo. Some asshole blond guy in a hockey mask was taking off with a shipment full of—whatever it was we were here for, I forgot.

Batman would give us an earful if we let this slide. I ran out of the warehouse towards the helicopter when I saw a pale bare chested guy in a red cloak try to kick me.

I dodged away easily and regarded him. Then I turned on my earpiece, "I have a pale ghost here trying to fight me. Someone else take care of it while I take down the helicopter getting away with the drugs or money or I don't know."

The man sneered at me. He removed his robes, revealing his bare and muscled chest as well as his bald head and horrible complexion. "You're putting your life in your hands defying me."

Wait… this guy must be the cultist leader, huh? What was it again, rattlesnake? Boa? Whatever.

A couple of his men approached him from behind, and a slim woman with red hair.

I gave him a sharp grin, "I'll deal with you later, snake man." I turned around, showing them my back as I looked at the helicopter that was taking off. As they tried to attack me as one, I disappeared and reappeared inside of the cargo hold of the helicopter.

Ah, it was drugs. Right, a steroid. Hence Bane's presence. Made sense.

The blond asshole who was piloting the 'copter was none the wiser as I wrenched him out of his seat with Blue and punched him in his face, hard enough to immediately make his body go limp.

Then I teleported us out while the helicopter started spinning out of control towards the forest and I descended down to where the whole team was now tussling with the pale ghost man and his friends, carrying the masked asshole by his shirt like he was a bag of groceries.

The moment I arrived, I let go of the masked blond asshole and jumped straight into the fray. It was Robin, Aqualad, Superboy and I versus the pale guy, the slim woman, and five of his cultists.

I took out three cultists in as many seconds, and the pale ghost man screamed in rage as he realized in exactly that moment how screwed he was, "Cover me!" he shouted.

The slim redheaded woman threw a smoke bomb down on the ground, giving the pale ghost man the opportunity to slip away.

I blew away the smoke with Blue, skipped ahead, catching up instantly, grabbed ghost man and slammed him down on the ground with my hands so hard that he bounced almost a meter up. He tried to clamber up to his feet, but I ended it all with just one hard punch to the back of his skull, rendering him unconscious and hopefully concussed.

That felt good.

I looked over my shoulder for blond asshole. He was crawling away. I grabbed him with Blue and threw him into a pile with snake man while the rest of the team were finishing up with the other cultists.

Once Miss Martian arrived from having incapacitated and tied up all the villains, pulling them out from the factory, the battle was essentially over.

We just stood still, taking it all in.

Then I imitated Batman's voice, "Observe and report only," I said. Then I started laughing. "I observe chaos and I report that everything went perfectly!" No one shared in my humor apparently. "Where is Bane?" I asked, "Did he betray us yet? I must have missed that during all the mess."

"We've got incoming," Superboy said, "Other people from around the island—Bane's guys, probably—are converging on the factory."

Aqualad nodded, "We have the data, we have the supplier, and the buyer, and we have prevented the shipment from leaving the island. We should go."

"Way ahead of you," Miss Martian said as the Bio-Ship uncloaked before us.

Kid Flash quickly ran off into the factory and then returned, having dragged with him the giant monstrosity with ripped skin exposing muscle fiber.

"What about Bane?" I asked, "Shouldn't we go back for him?" I scanned around, "He's running through the forest, I see him right now."

"We don't have much time," Superboy said, "And we can't keep these villains restrained without you."

I shrugged.

Then I teleported Bane before us and punched him in the face. He landed unconscious on the pile of other villains.

I scanned the factory for any other signs of life, and to my joy, I saw nothing. "We can't leave the building standing when it's making the bad-guy juice," I said with a grin, raising both hands, "Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!" I poured more power into the technique than I ever had before, widening its effective range until the giant orb of positive energy was as big as a house. Then I compressed it until it was no larger than a marble.

I threw it at the factory.

The way it exploded was just glorious. One moment it was there, the next, it had scattered into a half-circle of debris that cut down the trees of the forest for hundreds of meters.

"WHOOOOOO!" I shouted, throwing a fist in the air. "Let's go, let's go, let's go! Bravo, India, Tango—"

"Charlie, Hotel, yeah, yeah," Robin frowned in annoyance as we marched into the Bio-Ship. I used Blue to form a gravitational ball of villains and brought them into the ship as well, making sure to isolate outside light and sound so they couldn't see or hear us.

We didn't waste any time pulling out as gunfire started raining on our ship. A few seconds later, and we were off.

"That could have gone better," Kid Flash sighed.

"You were right, Infinity," Robin said to me.

"What?" I asked, turning on my chair to look at Robin in shock. He was sitting in front of the villain pile, locked tightly by my Cursed Technique.

"You were right!" Robin yelled in annoyance, then looked at Aqualad, "It's true, man. You are leader material. Nothing was going right until you took charge."

"I would argue that things still didn't go right after he took charge," I said with one finger raised up.

"Thank you," Aqualad told Robin, "And I know, deep in my heart, that you do have what it takes to make an excellent leader. Someday. Until then, however, I will lead this team in trust for you."

"Don't worry, Robin!" I threw a kiss at him, "You will always be my captain, no matter what!"

Robin laughed, "Honestly, I'm just glad I don't have to explain any of that to Batman," He said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the pile of groaning villains. "Should we really be flying them back to base anyway?"

"They can't hear or see anything we are saying," I said, "I'm using my Limitless on them. They are blind and deaf for now."

"Nifty," Robin said, "Still, I think it's time someone patch Batman through."

"I can do it," I said with a shrug, "I think it will be funny! Dear Batman, sorry we blew up the factory and kidnapped their leadership."

"It's not kidnapping if we do it," Kid Flash groused, "Then it's a legal arrest. And these guys are huge criminals. We caught Sportsmaster, Kobra, and Bane! That's not even mentioning the big guy or the girl! Man, Batman's gonna love us!"

000

"A simple recon mission. Observe and report. You'll each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes."

So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Until then, good job," Batman gave an ever-so-slight grin. Wait, what? "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success. And how you choose who leads determines character," he gave a nod at Aqualad. Then he stopped in front of me, looking deadly serious, "I don't approve of the risks you took under to capture those villains. Especially after explicitly telling you not to engage anyone."

I grinned incredulously, "But I thought—"

"What you thought and what you should have done are clearly not the same thing. What were you thinking, herding a group of seasoned supervillains into the same ship as the rest of the team?"

I gaped. "I was thinking—"

"You weren't thinking," Batman interrupted me.

I clenched my fists, trying my best to ignore the niggling feeling in the back of my head that this was all just a huge waste of time after all. I failed in that endeavor. In the end, none of the League could help me out with my situation, and I knew well that my only chance of returning to my home world would be to work on spatial manipulation on my own. I had already succeeded heavily in that regard, and I would only get better over time. I wouldn't even need the Zeta Tubes either once I became better and better.

I definitely wasn't staying the night, that was for sure.

"Respectfully, Batman," Aqualad said, stepping forward, "The decision to arrest these villains does not rest on his shoulders alone. I trusted in Infinity's ability to restrain and immobilize these villains, and his word that the villains were not able to hear or see the rest of us due to his ability. If I saw anything wrong with his conduct, I would have called him out. But today, he was compliant and acted as a decent teammate. Therefore, I will not let him shoulder this blame on his own."

I looked at Aqualad in shock.

Superboy then stepped forward as well. "I'll be the first to say that Infinity's not a good person, but he didn't do anything wrong today."

Miss Martian then stepped forward as well. "I never would have allowed such threats into my Bio-Ship if I wasn't confident in Infinity's power to keep us safe. I trust in Sa-chan."

"I started this mess," Robin said, "I wasn't a good leader, and allowed things to spin into chaos. Gojo shouldn't be getting all the blame."

Batman looked us all over, then turned to Kid Flash, "What about you? What do you think?"

Oh god. Was my fate in this team going to be decided by him of all people? I might as well quit before he even said anything.

"Gojo's an annoying show-off and kind of an idiot, but we ended up bagging Sportsmaster, Kobra and Bane. I stand by what we did, and I'm proud that we managed to do this much. If he's going to get thrashed for this, then so should I for going with it. I brought in the big guy after all. Uh, sir."

What the hell was going on? Was I dreaming?

"And what if I told you that I was planning to have Gojo ejected from this team?" Batman asked, "You've clearly not been able to get along with him, and your first mission ended in all of you diving headfirst into monumental risk."

"If he's leaving, then so will I!" Megan shouted, grabbing my arm. What? What happened to Infinity? Did Batman's mere presence distract me to the point where I couldn't keep it on anymore?

If so, then I really needed to get on top of automating it because this was unacceptable!

Still, I didn't move from her embrace—I… didn't know how to. Everything was just too damn awkward now and it was pissing me off!

"What?" Kid Flash asked, shocked, "Then if she's leaving, so will I!"

"Let me interrupt before we all fall on our swords," Robin said, "We're all gonna end up leaving, one way or another, if Gojo ends up getting kicked out, Batman. That's just how it is now. I don't know when or how it happened, but he's a part of the team now." Whether I liked it or not, it seemed.

Where the hell were these kids getting off trying to indebt me to any of them? Did they really think that I needed them?

"That's enough," I growled. "I don't—"

"Sa-chan, shut up," Megan said. I couldn't help but immediately close my mouth at that vehement tone of hers. I looked down at her and caught a razor-sharp glare that cut straight through what little remained of my Infinity. "Just… shut up. You don't need to talk now."

Batman looked at me sternly, "Remember this kindness, Gojo." Then he paused for a moment to address the rest, "You will all receive your feedback by tonight. You will be expected to learn these notes by next meeting. Dismissed." Batman then turned to leave.

I didn't waste any time teleporting to my room to meditate.

Annoying.

Annoying, annoying, annoying.

I had gotten too close to this nonsense world, this fantasy realm that felt more like a dream than anything else. I seriously needed to get my head out of my ass and figure out how to travel multiversally again.

First thing's first, however. I needed to set up a program on Limitless and make damn sure this never happened again. For all the good the technique would do against social nonsense.

I sat on my bed and crossed my legs, closing my eyes and making my Six Eyes gaze inwards.

Location Unknown

July 22nd , Time Unknown

Ra's al Ghul closed the intricately scrolled report on Santa Prisca, its vellum crinkling softly as he placed it beside him on a polished mahogany stand.

Facing him in his meditation room, five sleek screens embedded into a stone wall awaited activation. Behind him, tall wooden beams rose up toward the ceiling, the space wide and open, with tatami mats spread across the floor. Ra's pressed a small, concealed button on his armrest, and the screens began to hum as they flickered to life. Without hesitation, he sent out the meeting request and settled back, fingers steepled, his eyes narrowing as he anticipated his guests. One by one, the screens glowed, filling with the light-cloaked faces he'd summoned to discuss the most recent developments on Santa Prisca.

"Lady, gentlemen," Ra's began, "I regret to inform you that our operation on Santa Prisca has experienced a rather emphatic end. Our facilities have been destroyed, and all samples of the serum have been lost. Sportsmaster and Kobra have been arrested as well."

"Mais has the formula not been backed up digitally?" The Brain asked, his tone in disbelief.

"The formula is safe," Ra's said, "But our physical stock is lost to us, and getting production back up and running would require additional funds."

Lex gave a snort. "Just what I wanted to hear. Who among the League did this? This does give the familiar stench of Batman's work. His intelligence must have guided the League."

"According to reports," Ra's said, "From the surviving cultists of the Kobra, the ones responsible were in fact the League's sidekicks. Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, a kin of Martian Manhunter, and our Project Krypton. But there is also a sixth. A new hero. An unknown."

"Hahahah!" Klarion laughed, "Just like that, things are falling apart! I didn't know the heroes had it in 'em to be so spontaneous! I like it!"

"What do we know about this unknown?" The Brain asked.

"He is likely connected to the Star City port incident on the eighteenth of July," Ra's said, "The reports we've intercepted from the League to the police was that of an unknown and unstable metahuman with untold destructive potential. The mess in Santa Prisca is only a scaled-down version of what this metahuman can do. The reports agreed that he had white hair, was taller than six feet, but not by much, and had a Japanese accent. His costume was black, and he wore a blindfold while fighting."

"This team has already sabotaged us once," Vandal Savage said, "And now again, having stolen away our human assets and set our plans back by months. This cannot go unanswered."

"I will gap finance our Kobra-Venom production," Lex said.

"And who's up for killing the kids?" Klarion asked, "I mean, I'd do it, but I can't say I don't approve of this chaos."

"My shadows will gather information," Ra's said, "We wait for the children to step out of the shadows. Where the Light will reach them. Where I will reach them."