Chapter Title: Breaking Loose
Gotham City
July 8, 23:00 EDT
Outside the Gotham City limits stood a very luxurious mansion owned by none other than billionaire Bruce Wayne. What the public didn't know, however, was that Bruce Wayne was Batman, and beneath the mansion was the Batcave.
The Batcave consists of bare rock and metal support frames with several floodlights and spotlights to provide illumination. A metal platform houses a powerful computer that uses the same system as Justice League computers. The computer can be used to view and analyze footage from cameras inside Wayne Manor and mounted in Batman's suit, as well as access all sorts of information.
Typing away at the Batcave computer was Robin, who was out of uniform in casual clothes and without his trademark sunglasses.
As he typed away at the computer, he would look around now and then, wary that someone would catch him. After a few minutes of digging through files, he found what he was looking for. He printed a picture of a lady and stuffed it in his pocket before erasing any trace that he was there.
"Master Dick." said an aged voice, surprising Robin.
"Geez, Alfred, you scared me." said Robin, glad that it wasn't Batman, "What are you doing down here?"
"I should ask you the same thing. I noticed that you weren't in your room nor with Master Max in the training room." he said.
"Uh, I just came down here to think." said Robin.
"To think, Master Dick?" asked Alfred, eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, to think. It's quiet down here and it feels nice." he said as he turned around to leave, "Anyway, gotta go to sleep. Night, Alfred."
"Master Dick." said Alfred causing him to stop, "Please do be careful where you...think. Neither I nor Master Bruce would want to see you get hurt thinking."
"Yeah, I know. Thanks, Alfred. Night." said Robin, smiling at Alfred's words.
"Good night, Master Dick."
Instead of making his way back to his room, Robin made his way to the training room where Alfred mentioned that Max was.
CLANG CLANG
Before even entering the training room, a room that was full of all types of exercise equipment from free weights to machines to gymnastic rings, Robin could hear the sound of metal hitting metal. And once he entered the room, he saw that Max was in the middle of bench pressing.
Seeing that Max was honed in on his exercise, Robin decided to let him finish. A minute later, Max racked the weights and turned to Robin.
"What's up?" asked Max as he took off his earphones to listen and wiped his sweat with a towel.
"That's a lot more weight than you could move when you first came here." said Robin.
"Considering I struggled to lift 90 lbs (40.8 kg) when I first started, I'm just as surprised I can lift 180 lbs (81.6 kg) in two months." agreed Max.
"Think it's the ring?"
"Has to be. But maybe I'm just genetically blessed." joked Max eliciting a chuckle from Robin, "Are you here to work out with me?"
"Got some information about something going down tomorrow. You interested in a little outing?" he asked.
"Who's going?"
"Right now, just me and you. But I already asked Kaldur and Wally to meet up with me in Central City."
"And what about Superboy and Miss Martian?"
"If I'm right, we're going to be dealing with the League of Shadows. They're too new to go up against something like that."
"I'm assuming neither Batman nor the League knows about this outing?"
"Nope." said Robin with a smirk.
"Okay, count me in." said Max.
"Cool. We leave at 2." said Robin, "Gotta go do some more digging. Later."
"Night." said Max as Robin left before he got back to his workout.
An hour later, Max was done with his workout and decided to take a shower to wash off the sweat and grime. As he stood under the shower head and let the water run down his face, he looked at the ring on his finger and couldn't help but get lost in thought.
'Two months since my life took a turn, one month since I moved into the Wayne Manor. More important than moving into Wayne Manor, is that it's been one month since I was trusted with Batman and Robin's secret identity. That was one hell of a day.
Still, it almost feels like a dream thinking back on those days, having to steal to survive, not knowing where my next meal came from. Now here I am in a multi-million, definitely billion-dollar mansion if the Batcave is included, with new friends and purpose in life. How did I get so lucky?' he thought with a smile as he finished up his shower and hit the hay.
~
Central City
July 9, 13:25 CDT
On an outdoor patio of a cafe, Max, Robin, and Kaldur were seated and making small talk while waiting for Wally.
Max was wearing a logoless white tee with jeans and sneakers and was drinking a coffee and Kaldur was wearing a black and blue sports jacket with black pants and sandals and was drinking water since he needed to stay hydrated due to his Atlantean physiology. Robin on the other hand was wearing a red hoodie with jeans and sneakers while sporting his signature sunglasses and had refrained from ordering a beverage.
"Sorry, I'm late." said Wally who was wearing an open green shirt over a yellow long-sleeve with burgundy pants and sneakers, as he ran down the street at normal speed and sat down on the chair.
"I'm always amazed that you have super-speed and yet you somehow manage to be late." said Robin causing Max and Kaldur to chuckle.
"Give me a break, it's not like I could run here. People would notice." he said before noticing that there was no drink for him, "What, no coffee for me? Or a donut? Or a dozen donuts?"
"You can have mine." said Max, offering up his coffee.
"No offense dude but if I'm sharing a coffee with anyone on the team, it's going to be Miss M." he said.
"Suit yourself." said Max as he drank his coffee, "Dang, this coffee's the best I've ever had."
"Alright, maybe just a sip." said Wally, taking the offered coffee and removing the lid before drinking it, "Whoa this coffee is good."
"Speaking of Miss Martian, why aren't she and Superboy here?" asked Kaldur, moving the conversation back on track.
"We'll get to that. First, this." said Robin as he took out a picture of a lady wearing a magenta suit.
"Who's she?" asked Wally.
"Her name is Gonzalez. Selena Gonzalez." said Robin.
"And we care why? Other than the fact that she's a hottie?"
"She's in Central City and she's being targeted for a hit. I don't know why just yet, but I think I found something that might be related to her."
"Related how?" asked Kaldur.
"Looking through some of Batman's files I found that there have been a few targets. Seemingly unrelated, but I've cross-referenced tons of data and I think I found a pattern."
"More like hacked into Batman's files." said Max, eliciting a smirk from Robin.
"Anyway, I think this CEO might be next. All of the other hits have been made to look like accidents. Random muggings gone wrong, things like that. I figured we could look into this."
"Why? What were you looking for that you stumbled on to this?" asked Wally.
"I've been looking into Cadmus the last couple of days, corporate holdings, who they do business with, and such. I noticed a few people they've done business with seem to meet with untimely accidents." he explained.
"You want us to look into this on a hunch that someone might have put out a hit on the CEO of this company? Cool!" said Wally.
"And Superboy and Miss Martian?" asked Kaldur.
"Like I told Max yesterday, they're too new at this. We don't want them to get in trouble before the team even gets going, do we? Besides, if you think about it, we haven't even had a real outing as a team yet, except for Max and I." explained Robin.
"Let's do it! C'mon Kaldur, this could be fun." said Wally.
"Think of it as a training session, then. We haven't even had one of those as a team yet." said Robin.
"Then why are Superboy and Miss Martian not here? They are part of the team, are they not? They should be included." said Kaldur, turning to Max, "Don't you agree?"
"I don't." said Max, shocking Kaldur, "But only because of who we might be dealing with."
"Who?" asked Wally.
"The League of Shadows." said Robin, gravely.
"Whoa! Really?" said Wally, shocked.
"I don't know who is behind all these random accidents. It could be Cadmus but the evidence doesn't point to them, but who I think was hired to orchestrate all these accidents is the League of Shadows."
"Wait, who is the League of Shadows?" asked Kaldur.
"You've never heard of the League of Shadows? You been living in a cave or something?" asked Wally.
"More like underwater."
"Oh, right."
"The League of Shadows is an organization with their hands stuck in all kinds of dirty stuff all over the world. Killing is one part of their business." explained Max, "It's because of that that having someone like Superboy who is new to living much less doing our kind of work, and Miss Martian who we just met that they're not here."
"I see. When explained like that, I understand why they are not here. But just to reiterate, you want the four of us to look into what may or may not be a sanctioned assassination attempt on this CEO, carried out by a covert organization called the League of Shadows and without authorization from Batman and the rest of the Justice League?" said Kaldur.
"Yeah, pretty much." said Robin.
"What are we waiting for?" said Wally, excited.
"I have to say, I'm quite surprised that you are on board with this, Max." said Kaldur, "You strike me as risk-averse."
"Well, that's mostly true, but I know that you can't always plan for everything to minimize risk so I like to keep myself on my toes. If the four of us who have been doing this longer can't work together, then we'll have our work cut out for us when it's the six of us. It gives us a chance to clean the cobwebs before we go into full team mode." explained Max.
"You make a good point. Okay, I am in." said Kaldur.
"Sweet! You think Selena likes younger guys?" said Wally causing everyone to laugh, "What's so funny?"
~
Central City
July 9, 19:54 CDT
Atop a rooftop, Max, Robin, Wally, and Kaldur, all four in uniform, had been staking out the office building across from them for hours.
"Why is she still at work? Everyone else went home hours ago." said Wally as he stuffed his mouth with chips and chewed loudly.
"Kid, I beg of you, please stop chewing like that." said Max, who had an aversion to hearing people chew.
"At this point, I wish he could feed with a filter system like a humpback whale would. It would not be as nauseating to watch." chimed in Kaldur.
"Ha ha! Very funny." he said as he swallowed the mouthful of chips.
"Just keep it down, would you?" said Robin who had been staring at Selena through binoculars for the past couple of hours.
"Which one? My voice or my chewing?" asked Wally as he continued to stuff his mouth with chips.
"Both!" said all three simultaneously.
"Alright, alright, jeez. I can't help it. I'm bored. And I need to eat. We've been sitting here for hours, do you know how hard that is for me to do? She's been in that building all day. All of the employees have gone home, she's all alone. If they were going after her, don't you think they would've done it by now?" he said.
"No." said Robin as he looked through his binoculars.
"How do you know that, Einstein?"
"Because they're doing it right now." said Robin causing Max, Kaldur, and Wally to focus up and move up towards Robin.
"I don't see anythin-"
"Below the window." said Max, pointing at a human figure crawling up the side of the building like a spider.
"We-" started Max before Wally zipped away with his super-speed while Robin grappled away, leaving him and Aqualad on the rooftop.
"Sigh. This is not team building." said Kaldur.
"I wouldn't worry about them." said a voice from behind the two, causing both of them to turn around while backing up.
Standing before them was a tall white-haired man with a giant metallic hook for a right arm and was wearing an open black jacket with a bandaged stomach.
"In a few minutes, you won't have a team to worry about." said the man before swinging down his metal hook arm at Kaldur who jumped back to dodge.
THOOM
"You know for someone who works for the League of Shadows, you'd think you'd be smarter and not announce yourself before attacking someone unaware, Captain Hook." said Max as he spun his ring with the number 47 showing shortly after followed by black boots appearing on his feet.
'Traveller's Boots: Hermes'
'Hermes takes the form of boots that allow me to walk on anything from air to water and allows me to flash step while also dramatically increasing my lower body capabilities. Not the worst, but not the best.' thought Max as the information about the Imperial Arm appeared in his head before focusing back on the fight.
"Heh, I announced myself because I knew it wouldn't matter." he said, "And I never said I was with the League of Shadows nor am I a captain, kid."
"Fine, we'll ask questions later." said Max, lifting his foot as if to move before disappearing and reappearing behind Hook, kick aimed at his head.
Even though Hook hadn't expected him to reappear behind him like that he was able to react on instinct and just barely dodge the kick. Then he used his free hand to grab and pull Max's leg, causing him to lose his balance.
Meanwhile, Kaldur was surprised at Max appearing behind Hook, but he quickly refocused and was on his way to follow up on his attack when he saw that Hook had managed to make Max lose his balance before throwing in his direction.
Kaldur braced for the impact for fear that Max may be thrown off the roof if he dodged, but was surprised yet again when he saw that he had stopped moving in mid-air as if he was standing on something.
"Go, before he gets his hook free." said Max to Kaldur as he ran on air until he was right above Hook where he then started falling with an axe kick at the ready while Kaldur had already got near with his twin hilts turned water lassos that were on their way to hold Hook down.
Hook managed to free his hook arm, launching a lot of debris at Kaldur who jumped out of the way but managed to still get one water lasso around Hook's leg. Hook was too focused on blocking the incoming axe kick from Max that he failed to notice, which Kaldur took advantage of by pulling his leg, making him lose his balance and fall backward.
This made Hook's hook arm move out of the way from the trajectory of Max's axe kick which ended up landing on his shoulder. Without Hermes, the kick would have been painful but nowhere near enough to stop a seasoned fighter like Hook, but with Hermes, it's a whole other story.
The power behind the kick was enough to slam Hook down onto the ground and break it, causing the two of them to fall onto the floor below them. The impact from the kick added to the impact from hitting two floors was enough to render Hook unconscious.
"Nice job." said Kaldur, looking down the hole in the floor.
"We're lucky he was cocky." said Max as he took out some rope he carried in his utility belt and tied him up before flash-stepping next to Kaldur, "Let's go. Knowing those two, they might have knocked each other out."
"I am now even more curious than Kid to know what your abilities are." said Kaldur.
"I'm surprised he didn't pester me about it while we waited, but I promise once we're done here, I'll tell you."
~
While Max and Kaldur were fighting Hook, Wally and Robin were fighting their own League of Shadows baddie, Black Spider who was wearing a purple spandex costume with a spider emblem on his helmet and two dull gray bracelets on his wrists.
When Wally ran away leaving Kaldur and Max alone, he ran up the side of the building appearing behind Black Spider.
"Hey! Ninja dude-" said Wally but before he could do anything, Black Spider turned around with his right fist pointed at Wally and shot out some webbing, managing to wrap up his legs. The momentum from Wally's running was enough to keep him going even after being webbed up.
"Name's Black Spider, Fast Dude." said Black Spider before dodging to the left.
CRACK
"And you need to be faster than that." he said to Robin who had grappled up to the building and landed where Black Spider was before he dodged.
"Missed." said Robin as he jumped to avoid Black Spider webbing him.
"Did I?" said Black Spider, causing Robin to look up and see that the webbed-up Wally was falling back down.
"Look out below!" said Wally as he collided with Robin.
As they fell, Robin managed to get out his grapple gun and latch on the building, stopping their fall.
"Wow! We so didn't take that guy down!" said Wally.
"No. Just the opposite. He took us down." said Robin as he lowered the both of them onto the ground before taking out a birdarang and cutting the webbing off of Wally's legs.
"You need to get upstairs and get to the target before that spider guy does. I'm right behind you." said Robin.
"On my way!" said Wally as he ran to the emergency exit and up the stairs in no time flat. Robin was about to move before seeing Max and Kaldur make their way to him.
Just as Wally got to the room where Selena was, Black Spider jumped in through the windows.
"Hey, just in time! By the way, are you busy Friday night?" said Wally as he picked up Selena and ran away while dodging webbing from Black Spider.
"Sorry for the dash and grab, lady." he said as he quickly ran back down the stairs and to Robin who was standing with Max and Kaldur.
"Hey, you're he-" said Wally as he ran to his team but was interrupted by a red laser beam that hit him from behind, causing him to fall forward and launch Selena into the air.
Although surprised by the laser beam and Wally's fall, Max was able to react and jumped up into the air to grab Selena. As he fell back down, however, he noticed some webbing was on a trajectory to hit his feet as he fell, so he activated Hermes to walk on air, dodging the webbing.
"You a magician kid? Too bad I don't have time for a show." said Black Spider as he held onto the wall.
"Enough playing around, Spider." said a suave-sounding accented voice that came from a man wearing a high-tech helmet with one red eye as he came out of the shadows, "It's embarrassing that you've taken this long."
"Master will not be pleased. Ubu does not like it when Master is not pleased." said a large, muscular, bald man with bulging eyes wearing a practical utility suit, consisting of a green shirt, gray cargo pants, sturdy boots, and a utility belt with plenty of pouches.
"Bite me, Ojo. These kids are slippery." said Black Spider as he landed next to Ojo while Max similarly rejoined the team as his ring reappeared.
"Guys, I think we're in trouble." said Wally, as he and the others readied up for a fight.
"We need a plan." said Max.
"If you got one, call it." said Wally.
"If you hand over the girl, this can all be over." said Ojo, interrupting Max before he could come up with a plan.
"Sorry, Cyclops, no can do." said Robin.
"Too bad." he said as the red circle on his helmet lit up before a laser blast hit the ground in the middle of the team causing dust and debris to be kicked up.
With the fight having begun and with him carrying Selena, Max quickly spun the ring, smiling as he saw the little white dog he had come to adore appear next to him.
'Magical Beast Transformation: Hekatonkheires'
"Cottus, grow." said Max.
With his command, Cottus went from a small cartoonish dog into a hulking beast that was twice the size of Max with massive arms.
"What the hell is that?" said Black Spider as Cottus appeared from the dust.
"Cottus, get him." said Max pointing to Black Spider with him being the most likely one to mess up his patchwork plan.
"Growl!" said Cottus as it quickly dashed to Black Spider and started a fight to keep him busy.
"Kid, take her and run. Get her to safety. She's the one they're after and they won't be able to catch you." said Max as he handed Selena over to Wally while Kaldur fought Ojo and Robin fought Ubu.
"What about you guys? These guys aren't pushovers." said Wally.
"We got this! Go!" said Robin as he nimbly dodged a punch from Ubu before retaliating with a kick.
"I'll be back in a jiff." said Wally as he sped away with Selena.
"Stop him, Spider!" said Ojo as he shot a laser beam at Kaldur who blocked it with a water shield.
"A little busy!" said Black Spider as he dodged Cottus' punch before webbing his feet, though Cottus easily ripped through the webbing with his strength.
"Robin, maneuver 25A!" said Max.
"Got it!" said Robin throwing a smoke bomb at Ubu's face, buying him time to back away, "Aqualad, cover your ears!"
Hearing Robin's words, Kaldur kicked away Ojo and then covered his ears, not hesitating for a second.
"Cottus, speak." said Max as he covered his ears.
ROAR!
"Agh!" said all three League of Shadow operatives as they yelled and covered their ears from the powerful roar from Cottus.
Not letting the opportunity slip through their fingers, all three young heroes delivered a string of blows that rendered the baddies unconscious.
"All right, the Kid's back!" said Wally as he appeared before noticing that all three bad guys were out for the count, "Aw, man."
"Tie them up." said Max as Cottus shrunk back to his cute form.
"Now I know why you were so afraid of that dog, Robin." said Kaldur.
"It can get worse." he said before turning to Wally, "Where's Selena?"
"Dropped her off outside the police station. They should be on their way here."
"Nice job everyone." said Max.
"How's that for cleaning out the cobwebs?" said Robin as they all happily fist-bumped to a successful mission.
~
Mount Justice
July 10, 22:12 EDT
In the central chamber of Mount Justice, the four young heroes who had shaken off the cobwebs were looking at a news report.
"According to CCTV footage, Selena appeared outside the police station in the middle of the night. Before she could even enter the station, however, a black van appeared and took her. That was the last time she was seen. Police say it is too early to tell if the disappearance of Farano Enterprises CEO Selena Gonzalez is in any way connected to what happened at their corporate headquarters last night.
Although it is a good possibility as the four men captured on the premises and allegedly responsible for all the property damage have themselves escaped custody as they were being transported to a maximum holding facility." said the news anchor.
"All that for nothing." said Robin.
"I-I'm sorry guys. I should have-"
"It's not your fault, Wally. The League of Shadows was hell-bent on getting rid of her. We underestimated them. It won't happen again." said Max as he patted Wally on the shoulder to comfort him while they all hung their heads in silence.
'You can't save everyone.' thought Max.
"What's wrong with you guys?" asked Superboy as he and Miss Martian entered the central chamber.
"Oh, nothing." said Robin as he turned off the holographic screens.
"If you say so." said Superboy before starting to walk away.
"Wait." said Max.
"What?"
"We're a team from now on and that means knowing more or less what each of us can do. That's all pretty obvious for the five of you, but it's not so obvious for me. And I've been meaning to tell you guys so this is as good an opportunity as any." said Max.
Max saw the opportunity to tell his teammates about his abilities which would allow for more cohesion in future missions, but he also saw the opportunity to distract Kaldur, Wally, and Robin from their failure.
"Sweet." said Wally, sounding not as downtrodden as before.
"Robin already knows, and Kaldur, Wally, and Superboy saw me spin my ring before something happened. That's my ability." said Max, putting his hand out to show his ring, "When I spin my ring, a number from 1 to 48 will be landed on and whatever number it lands on corresponds to a different item called Imperial Arms. Each Imperial Arm is different and can appear as different things, but I can only use them for five minutes before they disappear."
"No way." said Wally.
"That's what that dog creature was?" asked Kaldur.
"Yes. That dog is an Imperial Arm. I can command it and it can grow larger and stronger. It also has some other surprises but they're best left for another time." explained Max.
"That's why you are called Arsenal. Because you have 48 different items." said Kaldur.
"Yes, though it's not my favorite name, Robin came up with and it stuck." said Max while Robin smirked.
"Um, excuse me." said Miss Martian, shyly raising her hand.
"Yeah?" said Max, "You don't have to raise your hand by the way. You can just talk."
"Oh, okay, sorry." she said as she put her hand down, "Would you mind demonstrating?"
"Yeah, show us!" said Wally, just as excited as Robin was in the beginning.
"Sure." said Max as he spun the ring with the number 16 appearing shortly after.
'Earth Shatterer: Mjolnir'
The next moment, in Max's hands, appeared a massive hammer bigger than his body. The hammer was mostly grey with golden glowing vein-like patterns and several brown carapace-like coverings, complete with a handle near the bottom of the hammer.
Everyone but Robin had a surprised look on their faces while Wally's jaw was practically hitting the floor.
"How can you lift a hammer that size? And can it even be called a hammer?" asked Kaldur.
"It's weightless for me but not for anyone else." said Max as he demonstrated by tossing the hammer in between his hands as easily as if he was juggling a ball.
"You know we never tested whether someone with super strength could lift it." said Robin as he looked at Superboy.
"Oh, you're right. It would be good to know." said Max, "You mind helping me out, Superboy?"
"Okay." he said.
"Nice." said Max as he gently put the hammer down on the ground before letting Superboy grab it and try to lift it.
No matter how much strength Superboy used, even to the point of breaking the ground under him, he could not make the hammer budge.
"Stupid hammer! Move!" he yelled as he tried again but to no avail.
"That answers that. Thanks, Superboy." said Max patting Superboy on the shoulder.
"You should ask Supes, he could probably lift it." said Wally off-handedly, causing everyone to look at him like he was dumb, "What?"
"Whatever." said Superboy as he stormed off.
"Oops." said Wally sheepishly.
"Now you all know what I can do. You'll have to wait and see all my other Imperial Arms though." said Max, unsummoning the Imperial Arm.
"Thank you for trusting us with this." said Kaldur.
"We're teammates. We're in this together."
"Um, where's the ring come from?" asked Miss Martian.
"We don't know." said Robin.
"Wait, not even Batman, the world's greatest detective, has been able to figure out where the ring comes from?" asked Wally.
"No. We don't know where it came from or how my parents acquired it, though that's also because we don't even know who my parents are. And material analysis shows it's just a normal iron ring." added Max.
"Perhaps it's magic." said Kaldur.
"Yeah, right, magic." said Wally, rolling his eyes.
"Maybe. But it doesn't really matter. To me anyway." said Max as he looked at the ring, "As long as I can do some good with it, that's enough for me."