Near The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, Outside Vasilsursk, RussiaThe dark jet, hidden from even the most advanced radar and other detection systems, flew near silently through the night sky. Inside sat David Cain, along with about a dozen men and women, all dressed in black.
“We have most of the equipment we need, and the Russian station will have the rest,” Cain was telling the group. “No stealth this time, we’re just going to blast our way in.”
He turned his attention to four specific members. “Once we’re inside, you four will head for the lab, while the rest of you will cut open the roof, and start hauling up the equipment, just like back in Alaska. With any luck we should be in and out in a couple of hours. Understood?”
Cain looked at those present; each person nodded his or her head, beneath the dark mask. “Good,” Cain commented. “Any questions?”
“Just one,” One of the women present said. “What will you be doing?”
Cain pulled a small, electronic device from the folds of his coat. “I’ll be busy preparing a greeting from when our ‘guests’ arrive,” He told her with an evil smile.
* * * * * * * *
About an hour behind Cain’s jet soared the vehicle containing Black Canary and the others, the plane just as invisible to sensors as the one it chased.
“My big concern is if Cain’s involved then so is the League of Assassins,” Nightwing commented, as the four heroes, and one want-to-be hero, sat in the main cabin.
“That’s the last thing we need,” Canary replied, nodding in agreement.
“Those goons with him didn’t seem like League type though,” Jade pointed out. “Unless they’re rookies.”
“Certainly has the League’s ‘Dead Men tell no tales’ mentality,” Canary said. “Not that the League’s the only group that has a monopoly on such a thing.”
“Looks like our stow-away was right again about their destination,” Flamebird said, as she looked at the signal from the tracking device planted on Cain. “Cain’s heading straight towards Vasilsursk, or however it’s pronounced.”
Canary nodded, pressing a button on her seat. “Can this thing go any faster?” she asked the pilot.
“Sure thing, skipper,” Came the response. “Y’all just strap in, and hang on. I’m gonna redline this baby.” Those in the cabin got into their seats as the jet sped through the air.
* * * * * * * *
As soon as the jet reached the facility it began jamming radio transmissions. Cain grabbed a rope as the underbelly of the plane opened up, and he leaped out, pulling his pistol as he slid down. The assassin easily killed the three outside guards before his feet had even hit the ground, and then shot another one off-handedly while undoing his harness. Behind Cain came his four operatives, covering the man. He quickly and easily took out any opposition as they charged the main building, the jet hovering ominously overhead.
By the time the group entered the lab, Cain had not quite used a clip, yet left a trail of bloody and broken bodies behind him. He emptied the clip on those inside the room, the roof already starting to rumble as it was sliced away.
“Alright people, let’s move!” Normally Cain would have preferred taking his time, like he had in Alaska, but now he was in a rush. He’d gotten information that things were in their final phase, and that, along with the small amount of equipment they still required, and the soon-to-arrive heroes, forced him to throw caution to the wind.
He stood in the doorway as the roof collapsed, cold wind from outside blowing into the room. “You know what to do,” he said to those present, before turning, and heading back down the hall, to prepare for their incoming ‘guests’.
* * * * * * * *
“Sure wish the boss lady let me have some weapons on this crate,” the blonde pilot of Canary’s jet muttered to herself as they approached the facility. She easily spotted the other jet through her cockpit window, ropes hanging down from it and into the building. “Hang on,” she told her passengers through the plane’s speaker system. “This might get a little bumpy.”
She quickly, and deftly, maneuvered the plane towards the building, doing a flyby of the other jet, so close her wake caused it to wobble a bit. Close enough so that she could notice the look of shock and terror on the other pilot, a grin forming on her face at the sight. Just as skillfully, she whipped the plane around in a one-eighty, and dropped the vehicle down so that it hovered just a few feet from the ground, her movements causing only a bit of a shake up to her passengers.
“Time to get off,” she told the others over the speaker. “Don’t know how long I can stay here before they start shooting at me.”
Nightwing gave a confirmation through the speaker as the group headed towards one of the open ramps.
“Stay here,” Black Canary told Steph.
“Yeah, but…” Steph started.
“You want to be a member of this team,” Canary told her, “then you have to follow my orders.”
Steph sighed. “Fine,” She pouted as the others dashed off, before realization crossed her face. “Wait! I can really be a member?”
“We’ll start your training as soon as we get back to Gotham,” Black Canary told the young woman as she vanished through the door.
Jade was the first on the ground, followed closely behind by the others, the jet taking off just seconds later.
“Jade!” Canary shouted, motioning towards the other plane. “Get up there, and see what you can do to stop them.” Jade nodded as green energy flowed from her hands to form a set of stairs up to the target craft, while Canary, Nightwing, and Flamebird entered the building.
Jade was meet by a hail of bullets as she headed towards the plane. She was prepared and erected a green-tinted brick wall in front of her, causing them to bounce harmlessly aside. The young woman then formed a large boxing glove and slammed it into the plane. “Hope Dad would be proud,” she murmured with a grin. While it didn’t do much more then rock the vehicle, it forced the pilot to lift off, stopping the villains from their theft.
Being the quickest of the three, thought not by much, Flamebird led the charge into the main lab. The young woman was unaware as David Cain dropped down from his hiding place in the ceiling, and knocked her against a nearby wall. Cain grinned, turning his attention to the other two heroes as they stopped their run, slowly approaching the assassin.
Jade, along with the heroes’ jet, was following the other plane up, higher and higher into the atmosphere. Jade clung onto a green glowing rope that clutched the assassin’s craft as she traded jabs of her energy fist with the villains’ gunfire, while the other jet could do little more then draw their attacks. Inside, Steph was busy typing away on the plane’s computer. She’d noticed a wireless transmitter attached to the other jet, and hoped she could break their systems, possibly gather some information as to their mission, an effort made all the more difficult with her aircraft’s jerking around combined with the jamming signal from the other plane.
One of Jade’s “fists” got lucky with a miss and smashed the jamming system. Steph gave a triumphant cheer as she entered the other computer, though a short-lived celebration at her first glance of its security systems.
Inside the facility, Cain was trading blows with both Nightwing and Black Canary, easily holding his own against the two heroes. Flamebird got back to her feet, and rejoined the battle with a sharp kick to the small of his back, forcing him to retreat slowly under their combined assault. Cain moved to a narrower part of the hallway, regaining the advantage as the attackers were forced come at him one by one.
Up in the sky, the facility was now just a little dot on the ground below as the strange dogfight continued. Jade was beginning to tire from the constant barrage of attacks, sweat dripping over her verdant forehead. That was when they brought out the bazooka. Jade saw the launch and gritted her teeth as the missile struck her “brick wall” with enough force to knock her unconscious, its light flashing through the windows of the two planes present.
“See if you can move close to her,” Steph called through the intercom as she dashed to one of the exits. Making sure she was well attached to the plane, she popped open the hatch, wind gusting by her as the plane depressurized. “Just a bit closer!” Steph shouted as the plane was put into a nosedive just a few feet from the falling woman.
Back on the ground Canary was the first to fall. Cain had managed to grab and throw her at the other two. Though Flamebird jumped out of the way, Canary collided with Nightwing’s shoulder. This allowed Cain to easily slip past his defenses and quickly take the hero down before he could recover. Then Cain turned his attention to Flamebird. The blonde heroine was already back on her feet and fighting bravely, a flurry of blows even knocking Cain off balance at first. Too soon though, he managed to recover and grabbed Flamebird, one of his hands around her throat.
“Looks like you lose,” He chuckled as he readied a final, brutal blow.
Visions of the similar scene from a year ago, the one that haunted her dreams, flashed before Canary. She wouldn’t let this happen, not again. Opening her mouth, she let out her cry as she stood, the very walls vibrating from the force of her sonic assault. Cain released Flamebird, the limp young woman falling to the side as he covered his ears. Black Canary slowly stalked towards Cain, the full force of her cry crashing into him like a gust of wind from a hurricane. Finally the force of the cry threw Cain back into the far wall, slumping to the ground. Dinah’s cry ending as she rushed towards Cain, Nightwing right behind her. Cain was stunned, but still conscious. The dazed assassin looked up at the two heroes and lifted his arms to admit defeat.
While Nightwing tied him up, Canary rushed toward the main lab, Flamebird following at a slower, unsteady pace. Inside, the room was trashed, not only due to the hole cut from the jet, which was just now lifting off into the air, but from the battle that had obviously taken place inside. Three of the black clad figures were still present, knocked to the ground, while in the center of the room, looking up at the fleeing jet stood a young man, just a few years under Flamebird’s age.
“Greetings, comrades,” the young man said, speaking in English with a Russian accent, while he looked towards the three heroes. “My name is Red Star. I arrived to stop the attack, but I fear I was unable to stop them from their theft. I am glad to offer my assistance to you three great American heroes.”
“Hear that?” Flamebird commented, a weak grin on her face. “We’re great heroes.”
Meanwhile, the ground was growing awfully close, awfully fast as Steph reached out towards Jade, her finger’s just missing the other woman’s arm. Hearing the pilot’s calm shouts of their upcoming impact in her ear, her fingers managed to snag Jade’s shoulder, and she pulled her inside the hatchway with all of her might. “Pull up! Pull up!” Steph screamed into the speaker, the plane pulling out of the dive with only feet left to spare.
“I wasn’t worried for a moment,” came the pilot’s response over the intercom, as Steph all but passed out.
* * * * * * * *
“Now what?” Dinah muttered in defeat as the group headed back to the plane. Russian authorities had arrived to take over the operations, and take Cain into custody. Nightwing and Red Star were speaking with the officials, while Flamebird and Black Canary checked on the rest of the group.
“Good work,” Flamebird said with a grin, congratulating Steph on her part in the saving of Jade’s life. “Couldn’t have done it better myself. Well maybe better, but not ‘flashier’,” the older teen admitted.
Steph for her part sat in one of the chair, catching her breath, her face still pale from the action, but a small smile on it.
“What’s this?” Canary asked, looking at the information on the computer screen.
“Huh? Oh! Yeah. I tried to hack into the other jet’s online computer. Don’t know if I got anything useful though.”
Canary went through the info while Nightwing entered the jet. “Looks like we’ve got another tag along,” He commented. Behind him Red Star walked into the cabin.
“My government wishes that I go along, to recover or destroy that which was stolen from us,” Red Star explained.
“And they didn’t seem to give us much choice in the matter,” Nightwing commented.
Canary looked up from the computer screen. “Why am I not surprised?” She then turned her attention to Steph. “You got a bit, mostly what they were after though. Nothing to tell us where they went. Sorry, Steph. Nice try though.”
Steph frowned in disappointment before Jade spoke up. “Guess it’s a good thing I borrowed a page from her book then, and slipped a tracking device on the plane during the battle,” she told the others with am exhausted grin.
* * * * * * * *
A large man stood by the side of the road, his thumb out as he walked. It wasn’t long before a truck finally stopped, the passenger door being opened for him.
“{Where to?}” The driver asked in Russian as the man slipped inside.
“{The closest airport,}” Was the response.
“{It’s you’re lucky day,}” The driver told him. “{I’m headed there as well.}”
With his passenger aboard, the truck drove off, unaware that not a hundred yards away, hidden behind bushes and trees, were the remains of a wrecked Russian police vehicle. Inside were the bodies of two freshly killed officers.
