Zodiac (DC)

"Come back here, you little shit!" I hollered, my voice echoing through the base as I sprinted after my mischievous cat, who seemed to take immense pleasure in making me chase it relentlessly.

Earlier, the furry culprit had sneaked into my room while I was in the shower, meddling with my talismans. I had left my power belt which housed all of my talisman beside my clothes, since I figured wearing it while I was taking a shower would be a bit much.

These days I rarely ever took it off except for showers or for when I went to sleep.

Upon my emergence from the shower, I found Cuddles had managed to pry one of the talismans out of its housing and was holding it in its mouth.

When I attempted to retrieve it, the cheeky feline bit me, triggering the talisman and transforming him into a fully grown tiger. Now, I found myself in pursuit, clad only in a towel.

The escapade continued within the base as the tiger raced away, clutching my talisman belt in its mouth.

An absurd image indeed– me, chasing a tiger, scantily clad in a towel. God, what was it with cats trying to steal my shit?

I knew he thought we were just playing a game of tag or something and normally I wouldn't mind chasing the little bugger, but I was concerned he would accidentally swallow one of them or maybe even stash it somewhere when I wasn't looking.

' That's an idea. Perhaps I should look into getting a tracker installed into the belt incase I lose it or something.' I idly thought.

Navigating a sharp corner, I collided with Megan, who ended up beneath me. As she looked slightly dazed, her cheeks adorned a rosy hue.

"Hiya, Megan. Good morning. Did you sleep well?" I casually asked.

Megan chuckled softly, pushing my shoulders away and sitting up. Rubbing the back of her head, she sported a thin shirt that barely concealed her breasts, making it a challenge for me to avert my eyes.

"Morning," she greeted with a soft voice. I detected a fleeting glance towards my abs, quickly diverted.

"Sorry, didn't mean to fall on you. Are you okay? You look dazed," I inquired.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Thanks," she replied, avoiding eye contact. The towel around my waist made my recent predicament quite apparent.

"Are you hungry? I was thinking about cooking breakfast this morning. I don't think Aqualad knows how to cook land food if you catch my drift and Robin told me Kid Flash is going to probably need a second breakfast. " I asked, standing up after extricating myself from the collision.

" No, I ate already and was going to spend the rest of the morning decorating my room. " She declined.

"I'd be happy to help you out if you want," I offered.

"No, it's fine. I enjoy doing it, plus I think you have other things to do right now," she giggled, spotting Mr. Cuddles peering out from around the corner, probably wondering why I stopped chasing him.

"Okay. Well, if you're sure," I said, feeling a tinge of embarrassment due to only having a towel covering my lower half.

"Yeah. Sorry. I should probably get going," Megan said, retrieving her bag. I handed her the other bags, and she used her telekinesis to secure them, offering a smile.

"Thanks. See you around," she said, turning towards her nearby room. She shot me a final glance before closing the door.

As her footsteps faded away, I finally redirected my attention to my feline companion, observing the entire episode with curious eyes.

" I don't know If I should be mad at you or not." I said.

To which he responded by cutely tilting his head to the side. I chuckled while slightly shaking my head.

" Now where were we? " I said with a nasty smile that showed too much teeth.

In response, he slowly started backing away eyeing my warily.

' Huh, didn't know tigers could gulp.' I thought. 

.

.

A few A few hours later, I was standing in my room, power belt strapped on and dragon talisman in hand. I knew it gave me pyrokinesis, but I wanted more control something beyond just an all-out fire blast that would probably turn a normal person into an overcooked steak.

Cuddles, meanwhile, was back to his usual self after I caught him and reversed his transformation. He was not happy about it. Apparently, he'd really enjoyed being a giant predator because now he was sulking, ears drooped, looking as dejected as a cat could possibly be.

And he wasn't subtle about it either. Every few minutes, he'd shoot me a pitiful look, silently begging for another round. But I wasn't falling for it. I was a responsible owner, and there was no way I was giving in to his cuddly little demands.

To save myself from distraction, I handed him off to Megan, who was more than happy to babysit. His pitiful meows had been making it hard to focus and I was literally playing with fire, so there wasn't much room for mistakes. 

Now, back to training. There were two things I needed to figure out when it came to my firepower.

First up: intensity. Fire changed color depending on heat, and if I remembered correctly. I think t went something like light orange, orange, red, blue and white. With white flames being the hottest and light orange being the least hot.

If I could gain control over the temperature of my flames it would give me a lot more options during combat, after all being able to produce flames that were super hot or just warm enough to be toasty would be a definite boost to my versatility.

My current options at this point were full blast or nothing, which wasn't exactly ideal.

The second thing I wanted to work on was shape-manipulation . Fire could be molded if you knew what you were doing.

I was planning on asking Aqualad about how he was able to control water so freely, perhaps I could gleam some insight from what he learned back at Atlantis and apply it to my fire.

Stuff like fire orbs were simple, but I was eyeing more complex shapes, like a flaming shield, a sword or even a whip.

For now though, making the fire hotter seemed easier than trying to lower its temperature, so I was working on making it hot enough to cause anything passing through it to be instantly vaporized.

I just needed to find that sweet spot where I wasn't the one getting roasted in the process. Easy peasy, right?

A few scorched eyebrows later and the pleasant discovery that yes the horse talisman's power could restore hair and I was already seeing some progress.

I could already see small blue wisps in the fire and I also managed to contain the flame into a flat shield like shape.

I was about to take a break before I got back to it, when the base's alert system activated.

"Attention team, rendevous in the briefing room." Batman's voice resonated through the speakers.

I swiftly traded my workout clothes for my sleek, black hero outfit, which consisted of reinforced black cargo pants, black boots, a green hoodie and a black leather jacket that was heat, stab and bullet resistant with armored plates inserted into it.

To top it all off was my power belt around my waist that housed all of my talisman and finally my newest addition to the costume which was an enclosed green helmet that was made out of reincorced carbon fiber.

The helmet had a few useful features like a communicator, air filters, night vision and a cooling system to keep me from sweating under the helmet and it didn't hurt that it kind of looked like Iron Man's helmet.

All in all I had opted for the urban street look instead of a bodysuit or the leather tights most of the heroes liked to go for.

I walked into the briefing room, and found the team already there.

I quickly greeted them and after a quick nod of acknowledgement from Batman he started laying out our mission.

"This is Santa Prisca" Batman said standing in front of us with Red Tornado.

"It houses a large factory that is the main supplier of a type of steroid drug sold under the street name 'Venom' " He said.

"Thermal and satellite imaging shows that the factory has still been operational. But according to the League's sources, all supply lines have been cut off. " Batman added.

"So we're sending you in to find out why. This is a simple recon mission. Observe and report back, if the League needs to intervene it will. " Batman said.

"So who's in charge?" Robin asked as the two Leaguers looked at each other before looking back us.

"Work that out between yourselves." Batman said as Robin nodded and smiled.

' Yeah, like that was going to work.' I thought.

Damn, I could already tell this was going to be a headache and it didn't help that I was getting some intense Deja vu vibes from this coming mission. I think I remember an episode were they went to an island or something and ended up fighting a guy named sportsman or something?

'Nah, I must be remembering it wrong, there's no way a villain would be lame enough to have a sports theme. Right?'

We quickly found ourselves in Megan's bishop and were on our way to our first official mission as a team. A few hours later we were closing in on the location.

"Approaching Santa Prisca now. " M'gann said as she flew the bio ship towards the island. I sat in between Superboy and Robin, who had a smirk on his face ever since we left Mount Justice. 

Aqualad was going to be the first to be dropped off, so with a mental command Megan had the ship form a hole in the hull.

Aqualad dived into the water as we circled the island for a few minutes waiting for his signal.

''Heat and motion sensors are deactivated video is on a continuous loop" Aqualad's voice said. M'gann then flew over the beach.

"Over drop point B " M'gann announced.

Robin stood up, pressed his belt buckle and his suit then began to turn black in front of us. Kid Flash also did the same and started showing off.

"Hey how's this look?" he asked. M'gann smiled.

"Very impressive" she said before raising her hands. Her clothes changed so that she had on black skin tight pants and her shirt went black as well. The large X on her shirt remained red.

"Oh yeah that works too" Kid said before turning to us.

"Hey Supey, Zod not too late to get on any of this new stealth tech" he said. I scoffed while Superboy crossed his arms.

"No capes, no tights. No offense" Superboy said.

I gestured to my own outfit and stated.

"Not a fan of the tights, plus who needs stealth tech, when I can simply do this." I finished by tapping the snake talisman on my power belt and going completely invisible.

" Now that's just not fair." Kid Flash chortled.

Robin and Kid Flash repelled down from the bio-ship using a cable while M'gann simply flew down.

I also flew down, while Superboy opted to jump. But as soon as he landed I felt what seemed like the whole island shake and rumble. I looked over at Superboy, who was standing in a giant crater.

"I knew I didn't need a line," Superboy boasted.

"Creating a mini earthquake doesn't scream 'covert'. Plus, I could have lent you the rooster talisman." I said.

"I don't need your rock. I can handle my own jumps," he retorted, scowling.

"First of all, rude. Those talismans are family heirlooms, not just 'rocks' Secondly, you... " I shot back.

Robin, interrupted, " Guys can we save the bickering for later."

Aqualad's voice buzzed, " I found the factory its three clicks west."

" I'm going to scout ahead and alert you guys if I find something. " I said, before transforming into an owl.

I decided to pick this particular form since owls had incredible hearing and night vision not mention the fact that they hardly made any sound since as silent predators of the night, they were capable of flying just inches from their prey without being detected.

The quietness of their flight was owed to their specialized serrated wing feathers, which minimized air turbulence. And, since we were at night and this was an island even if someone were to notice an owl, hardly anyone would find it strange. It was practically the perfect form for a stealth mission.

And so, with me leading the way and Superboy bringing up the rear, our eclectic team strolled towards the ' Venom' factory.

(Chapter End)

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