When reasonable men do unreasonable things [Fong]

[Slade]

It has been a quiet night tonight...

Bright one too, the moon, unusually large, was showering the empty streets with its cold, haunting silver light, like a sort of a sun that gave no warmth, no heat. There were no people around, no good people that is. Good people don't dwell around at midnight, especially at the docks. And bad people are too clever to show up in the open. Not in the city which has members of Young Justice as residents, oh no!

However, to say that it was peaceful out here would be a stretch. Tensions have been rising lately, and not all of them due to crime and villains. Sometimes the mighty government manages to make problems for itself out of thin air.

Recently, the city's harbor, due to proper legislation acts, and decisions of the congress, was appointed to be a transferring point for some sort of chemical, arriving from somewhere by boat. These actions immediately escalated into a somewhat wave of protest, people who cared about environment coming out for manifestations. The police had to surround the docking bay area, and there has even been a few confrontations between men in blue uniform, with more radical activists of environmentalist movements...

But right now, it was safe. Even the most radical punks have to sleep some time, though the law enforcement left several patrols here and there, just in case... And, as practice would show, these measures of security were ... ridiculously weak. For someone skillful, and intent on getting in, that is...

The cops were only worried of those who would come from by land, but had made a mistake of forgetting the most obvious approach - by sea. And right now, a certain figure was moving underneath the water, quickly as a fish, and nothing but a dark tint to water giving away his presence. It was coming from the drydock, and making its way towards where the tankers with chemicals were anchored. The large ships, like floating structures, were being slowly rocked by little waves, coming from the ocean, the steel monoliths they were, symbolizing power and will of the state and corporations funding their creation.

And then... A hand emerged from the water, clasping around one of the chains that connected the ships to anchors sunk in the waters. A dark figure, human-like too, its image distorted by shadow of the gigantic ship, pulled itself up, climbing up the chain with unnatural agility, before reaching the opening where the chain went inside the ship, and slipping inside, undetected by a few sailors on watch aboard the deck.

Something was at hand, but question was... what?

[Aqualad]

Aqualad, despite having decided to remain on the earth as part of the Team, was still the most at home when swimming in the sea. And tonight, he had been assigned to keep an eye out in the sea.

Chemical shipments had been prepared to be brought in by boat and for that, the harbor had been closed off to the public by the police. Of course, the decisions made by the congress hadn't been taken well by a part of the population and fights had broken out here and there - even some thugs and villains had been intercepted on land by the police and send to prison.
So far, the damage had been minimal and the crowd held at bay. And when night finally fell, the ruckus was over and most of the security send away, leaving a patrol or two to keep an eye on things...on land.

Aqualad had been dispatched to keep an eye on things under water. As no known villain was interested in those shipments, it hadn't been deemed necessary to send out a whole squad, as there were other things more urgent than this one.
And so far as he had been able to see, things were peaceful and without any disturbances. The waters didn't move much and no suspicious air bubbles could be seen.

The young hero twisted around and moved towards another boat, to check if anything had changed over there.
And when he came closer, he managed to see a foot disappear from out of the water, as if someone had climbed up on the ship. The young hero frowned and came closer, slowly and silently letting himself emerge from the water as well, just in time to see a dark clad person slip on board.

Aqualad followed his example and climbed up as silently as possible as well, keeping up at a safe distance from the intruder...

[Slade]

Indeed, none of the famous villains around were interested in this little ecological crisis at hand. With all of their personal schemes being in play, it was not easy to consider the new possibilities. Which ... would put newcomers in a position of ... advantage. Being a dark horse always lent an element of ... surprise. And there has not been a horse darker than this one...

Slade did not come to this place because of some sort of a contract with nefarious people and organization. No, his reasons were his own, and he intended to keep them that way. Making a name for himself in this city... Sounded very tempting. But then... Then I would have to trade my element of surprise for mere fame.

The dark-clad assailant has made it into the ship. Right now, he was in a small compartment that housed the anchors, and their chains, with only a small door leading out of it - that one was left for maintenance purposes. A simple metallic one, which can only be opened from the other side.

- Not an obstacle.

With that, Slade aimed his wrist-laser at the lock, and soon, a red beam emerged, silently cutting a neat hole in the cross-section where the lock connected to the wall. A matter of moments, and it fell, allowing the intruder inside. He followed, silently, and disappearing into shadows, on his way towards the cargo hold. The man knew where he was going, so certain he must have studied the blueprints beforehand... Somehow...

The cargo hold was below the deck, guarded by nothing other than the similar metal door - there was no need for high-security on board of a freighter ship. Slade looked at the door again, with his only eye, before slicing down the lock. A sound, familiar to a sigh, escaped his respirator.

- It gets rather boring, doing this. Pity.

The door creaked open, and the shadow man crept inside, into the darkness of the hold. A whirring sound was heard, as Slade turned his night vision on, everything in his visors engulfed in ghastly green light. There were barrels everywhere. They were stacked here, there, everywhere, against walls, with trails left for forklifts to start getting them out, soon. All barrels were different - some contained nothing more than gasoline, while others were labeled with the warning sign "Hazard" and "Flammable". Slade moved, his steps quietly echoing in the empty place. The sailors must've been asleep by now, it was deep at night. What he needed, around here, was one barrel... But, question was ... which one?

[Aqualad]

Aqualad had to give it to this guy. He was well prepared. He knew the boat as if it was his own right pocket and moved around with the same elegance of a panther that is about to jump it's prey. And it surprised him. A simple little thug wouldn't be so prepared, mostly because they wouldn't have the manners to gain enough information and blue prints for this sort of mission. They would have wandered around for a while, searching and opening more than one door, most likely waking a few sailors on their way.
But this man, he was ready for everything and performing like a true ninja, almost unseen and unheard.

The atlantidian, being in stealth mode, kept himself hidden in a shadow while he watched the man force the lock open and let the door creak open. Taking the opportunity that the man was occupied with sneaking in, Aqualad grabbed for his water bearers, ready to grab for the water in his backpack.
He was going to have to stop the man before he was too deep in the midst of the barrels. If one barrel opened and a spark lit on, the whole boat would get on fire, or worse, explode, creating not only an ecological catastrophe, but would also cause several deaths.
And that was the least that Aqualad wanted to happen. And he had to act fast. If he let the man find whatever he had come for, it'd be most likely too late. Not to mention nothing told him he wasn't one of those people who didn't hesitate to let themselves explode along the rest. Or he had one of those powers that allowed him to get out of such situations unscathed.

The lights suddenly switched on in the room, giving Aqualad a good sight on the man. He was wearing a mask, a black suit and a belt that reminded him a bit of that of Robin. He was tall, an adult most likely from what Aqualad could tell.
But he was unknown to his books, never having seen him before. Which didn't mean he could take him lightly. After all, he had managed to sneak in almost unnoticed under his watch.
"Halt!" he called out to the intruder, standing in the door opening, water already agglomerated into one broad sword and the other one into a whip, ready to grab for the opponent. "Place your hands on your head and state who you are!"

[Slade]

A presence.

Which Slade might have overlooked, too focused on searching amid the barrels for the right one. A presence that made itself noticed by calling out to him, instead of taking the possible chances and striking. That's what a combat pragmatist would've done. Obviously, this was not such a man.

Slade turned around. Only half of his face was being visible in the surrounding darkness - the other, painted black, blended in quite completely. The eye, as well as the mask, showed no emotion. No surprise, heck, the man didn't even look startled by the presence of one so powerful, like Aqualad. And soon, came out a voice:

- Nobody of importance.

It was of a creepy, almost mechanical monotone, the result of going through a voice filter no doubt, which was installed inside the mask. The eye, for a moment, fixated on both water-based weapons in Aqualad's hands, and reached out for something on his belt.

- And you do not have the police badge anyway, Officer Aqualad.

As that was said, the thing taken from the belt came into light. It was a small staff, which, however, in a blink of an eye expanded to become almost as long as the man was tall, glowing eerily in scarce rays of dispersed light.

Slade was ... rather glad someone did spot him, despite his best efforts to remain undetected. It would make this otherwise uneventful assignment a bit more ... interesting. He didn't expect the person to show to be a hero of such a caliber... No matter.

- As much as I'd love to stay for a chat, however... I have things to do.

And with that being said, a few pellets were dropped on the floor in front of Slade, immediately poofing into a cloud of smoke. As if being dark didn't hinder vision enough. Leaving such cover, he ran down the 'corridor', made of barrels, towards his destination point. He expected the foe to follow, but ...

First things first.

Especially for what he had in mind.

[Aqualad]

Aqualad couldn't help but stare at the yellow and black mask. It felt unreal, the man being half-invisible in the dark like that, as if he was only an eerie presence.
But this opponent was quite real. And more important of all, he felt dangerous. He was quipping at Aqualad, as if he was simply teasing him about some mundane thing. His stance was confident and strong, if not almost relaxed. The young man knew that he was strong and not to be underestimated - the results wouldn't be pretty if he allowed himself to hold back.

Aqualad saw the man reach for something in his belt and watched a small metallic object expand itself into a thing staff roughly the same size as the foe - the young hero had seen Robin and Nightwing using one of them more than once and wasn't all too surprised of it's apparition in the field.
But instead of facing him, the man bid him goodbye and dropped a few smoke pellets, which blocked quickly Aqualad's vision, leaving him with listening to the quickly fading echoing steps of the villain.

The young hero crossed quickly the smoke covered area, to the other side where Slade had been standing earlier. He let his eyes scan around, without finding anything.
So he followed his opponent down the corridor and glancing between the barrels to see if he could find his opponent, while wondering what this person was really after...There were many different chemicals in this ship, all of them being capable of causing great damage.
But without having any prior knowledge about this foe, Aqualad could only do one thing. Keep on running and trying to find him, so he could stop him before anything bad could happen...

And then he saw a shadow, moving. He had found him! Without hesitation, Aqualad rushed after the ninja like person, ready to attack...

[Slade]

- Congratulations, you have found me.

The calm, eerily calm voice would echo once more in the empty chamber, where two grown men were playing tag - one running, and another - chasing. But what was strange, was that the voice was coming from... above! And the shadow, it was not coming from someone standing on the floor, but rather, from on top of the nearest barrel pyramid!

Slade was standing there, arms crossed behind his back, his only eye observing Aqualad, and his water-based weapons. His stance, even on such an unstable platform, was still and unmoving, perfectly balanced. Aqualad was wise to approach such a foe with caution.

The man was ... studying his opponent, in a sense. And he seemed like your stereotypical action hero. Too quick on following obvious leads, easy to be baited. Naive as well, perhaps. And, of course, concerned over matters that shouldn't be his business. Otherwise he wouldn't be here, risking his skin to stop a stranger. But in retrospect, it was even better that way.

- But like I said, I will come to you, when I'm ready. Have patience.

And with that, three disks appeared in his hand. They all looked the same, and had the trademark 'S' written on each. Slade was humoring his ego that way, one of the many ways he did. With an easy swing of a hand, the three were sent flying in different directions. Hidden blades emerged from them, making the projectiles become similar to shuriken or batarangs. And they were aimed for...

*PFTANK!*

*PFTANK!*

*PFTANK!*

The shuriken cut the cords that connected the lamps of the cargo hold to their power supply, and with a few sparkles, each turned off the very next moment, engulfing the area in pitch-black darkness. Slade disappeared, so did Aqualad, the barrels, everything. As if they were swallowed by some kind of black hole... Eerie stillness went on for a few brief moments, before a sudden and loud rumble disrupted it!

The barrel pyramid was toppled! And it was falling straight on Aqualad!

[Aqualad]

Aqualad's head snapped towards from where the voice came from. Although he didn't try to feel surprised, he couldn't help it, the eerie voice keeping on sounding as if it had come out of nowhere. The man's ability to remain almost perfectly silent in his movements was shocking, if not astonishing. Somehow, Aqualad wondered if this person hadn't had any lessons with Batman or anyone else of the Bat family in the past...or had used them as example maybe? Who knew from where this strange fellow came from.

Aqualad didn't like the mockery in his voice. Of course Aqualad could understand that he was being a bother to the man and that whenever this foe felt it, he'd come to him. But if he let that happen, it would be too late to stop whatever he was planning. And that was a no-no in Aqualad's books right now.
And then the man seemed to get something in his hands, disks, to be used as shuriken. He had seen Cheshire use some of those asian weapons before, but apparently this one was also trained the the martial arts.
But instead of throwing them at him, he threw them at the three lamps that lightened the room up, effectively breaking them and throwing the room into darkness. Aqualad was at that moment quite happy that he hadn't managed to advance much father into the arts of magic, as his tattoos kept on glowing, giving him some sort of light in the dark room.

But then, a sound! Aqualad just managed to notice the barrels fall over and the bastard disappear, to roll out of the way of them. It had been close and now he had lost sight of the man again. The blond Atlantidian sighed softly to himself before getting back on his feet and try to follow his opponent again, hearing his footsteps disappearing into the back of the room once again...

[Slade]

Having access to certain technological gadgets was certainly a bliss.

And while complete and utter darkness did impair most people, on Slade it had absolutely no effect - the built-in night vision allowed him to see with somewhat relative ease, to orient in this labyrinth of highly dangerous chemicals. Not that he needed that to spot his foe - Aqualad's glowing tattoos were making him somewhat obvious.

I'll deal with you later, as for now...

The shadowy figure went on its quest to find one barrel. One, among many, contained the concoction he sought for his own use. Slade walked by each row, his only eye scanning through all the labels and different warnings marking each. Of course, all of these were dangerous and toxic, but they were average. And as such, did not represent much interest to him. No, he was after a particular kind of poison... And soon...

- Oh there you are. - he said to himself, stopping in front of one of the barrels. He could have grinned at success, but nobody would see it anyway underneath the mask that distorted his appearance, and unsettled many who seen or talked to him. But his quest was finally at an end...

From a compartment, Slade extracted an instrument, that looked like a mixture of a dagger with a syringe, and without any further ado, he stabbed the barrel in a manner most unceremonious.

*DING!*

The metallic hull of the barrel was easily pierced, and a glowing, greenish substance began leaking from the hole. The man 's instrument also began glowing, storing an amount of what poured out in a special compartment. When he had enough, Slade just pulled it out, before hiding the syringe in a special, armored little box.

- Well that was nice. I may even have time to play with my new friend. Come out now, I know you heard that. - Slade clapped, and turned around, to face the direction Aquaman would come from. He figured that the sound of a barrel stabbed, and the talking should be enough to reveal his position. He even drew his staff again, anticipating the hero's approach.

This should prove entertaining...