I was having a hard time deciding if I was looking forward to meeting the group heading my way or not.
On the one hand, I had been excitedly waiting for a situation like this since I learned the Sidekick Squad formed a formal team.
On the other hand, I barely had time to actually grow stronger and had been expecting to have a few months or so before my next major fight. So while this would be the first time I'd be fighting the Team (name still pending, somehow) I wouldn't be showing off anything shocking to them.
… I think.
Did I ever show all of them the afterimage technique?
Donna knew because I used it in our last fight, but would she tell the others?
Meh, anyways, on the third tail… there was nothing that really felt special about this confrontation. I wasn't stopping them from thwarting some plan of mine. We weren't fighting over the same objective or anything like that. And there was nothing really forcing me to fight them if I didn't want to.
At most they were coming to steal my training tool… and that just sounded lame.
I wasn't against a battle. I just wanted something a little… more… than that.
I eyed up a nearby boulder as an idea came to mind.
Hmm, I should have enough time to do something before the Team found their way to me.
-o-
[Robin POV]
"Did the signal move at all?" Aqualad asked.
"No. She's either waiting for us, or she left her communicator behind when she went out somewhere." He informed the rest of the Team as they followed the signal tracker showing what was hopefully the Saiyan's position.
Unfortunately when it came to Califa, both were realistic scenarios.
Aqualad thought for a second before coming to a decision. "Then we leave the bioship behind and proceed on foot. If she's here, she definitely knows we're on our way by now and when this turns into a fight I don't want one of her stray attacks hitting it."
Everyone nodded at that, especially Miss Martian.
And speaking of which…
"Hey MM, any chance you can pick up Califa with your telepathy?" Robin asked, only for the Martian to shake her head immediately.
"We're still too far away for that." She admitted.
"It's still a good idea." Aqualad commented. "Can you let us know when you get in range?"
Miss Martian nodded. "I'll try, but it will be hard to pay attention while I'm moving. I'll probably slow us down."
"It's fine. I can carry you." Troia volunteered.
"Oh, uh, sure?"
Robin huffed slightly. He didn't even need to turn around to know Miss Martian was giving Superboy a look hoping he would volunteer instead.
Unfortunately for her, the clone still only had slightly more social skills than a particularly outgoing potato and still had no idea about her rather obvious crush.
He might be a teenager, but he was happy to keep 'teenage drama' as far away from him as possible. He had enough issues trying to do things like busting mafia families' counterfeiting operations, capturing the ever growing list of Supervillains crawling out of the woodwork, or retrieving magical artifacts from a superpowered alien monkey girl to go looking for problems like relationship drama.
-o-
Miss Martian landed the bioship in a fairly rocky area that would hopefully keep it safe from any stray energy blasts and the five of them started making their way on foot.
Part of Robin wished that Kid Flash had been able to come with them, if only so he could run ahead and give them an idea about what they were walking into, but unless Califa was literally asleep all that would do is set the speedster up for a one v one.
And depending on what mood Califa was in that would either mean the rest of the team would get left behind as the two raced each other. Or KF would just get beaten up before the rest of them could catch up with him.
Probably for the best they stuck together. Especially after Miss Martian picked up on Califa's mind and started leading them away from the communicator signal.
Robin guessed the Saiyan had already removed anything she didn't want to risk getting broken. Which meant she was expecting a fight and was not going to hand over the Orb just because they outnumbered her.
That didn't surprise him in the slightest.
The five of them walking into a small clearing to see Califa lounging on a giant stone chair that looked like it had been – and probably was – carved out of a single boulder?
Slightly surprising, but honestly more confusing than anything.
What was she doing?
"You've come a long way, heroes!" Califa boomed as she sat up straighter on her chair. "Too bad it was all for nothing! The only thing you will find here is the bitter taste of defeat!"
Robin felt his eye twitch.
While they hadn't figured out exactly what the Orb of Atlas did or could be used for, he felt it safe to say Califa was probably safe from any mental influence.
Afterall, it was hard to manipulate something that didn't have a brain in the first place…
-o-
[Califa POV]
I tried to hide how awkward I felt using what was essentially a generic RPG voiceline for my opening pre-fight banter.
Thankfully the only one that would really know was Birdbrain. And he hadn't immediately called me out on it, so I was just going to assume he was letting it slide.
Or he just missed the timing because Donna stepped forward and glared at me. "You won't get away this time, Califa! Give up the Orb, you have no idea what it could do!"
I cackled a bit at the perfect setup.
"I know exactly what it can do! It can help grow my power so I can take revenge on my TRUE nemesis, Superman!"
"Not if we stop you here!" The Amazon shouted as she, Superboy, and Aqualad rushed forward at the same time.
I hadn't seen any signal for it. So either they had simply preplaned when to attack or Miss Martian had them all telepathically linked already.
They were definitely taking this seriously.
Donna reached me first thanks to her being able to fly, and I quickly rose from my makeshift throne to meet her. Not that it saved my chair.
The Amazon threw a punch so telegraphed that I was actually a bit insulted she thought I'd get hit by something like that, only to realize almost too late that it was a distraction to let Superboy get close and attack from right behind her.
Donna moved out of the way and I hastily crossed my arms to block Superboy's punch. But he still hit like a truck, and without enough time to properly brace – I was sent crashing through my rock throne.
Okay, so they were really—
Aqualad was suddenly in my face throwing a haymaker that caught me in the jaw hard enough I saw stars.
He was no Kryptonian, but a lot of people forgot that Atlanteans had a decent amount of superstrength too and only instinct from fighting him when we were younger let me deflect another punch aimed at my liver.
We traded a few punches until Aqualad overextended and I let the punch pass over my shoulder. He already knew I was going to retaliate but wasn't expecting me to headbutt him in the face instead of going for a kick or punch.
I drove him away with another attack and was prepared to chase after him, but Donna reinserted herself into the fight by dropping down on me from above at the same time Superboy charged in from the side.
It was fine, I had sensed them coming so all I had to do was deflect their attacks so they were getting in each other's way while making room for me to counter. Only the moment I was about to do that, they broke off completely the same time I heard something whistling through the air.
I already guessed what those were going to be, so I was unsurprised when I felt flashbangs exploding all around me.
Birdbrain was aiming to disorient me. But he must not have realised that I didn't need to actively focus on my Ki sense to get an idea of where people were anymore. The second any of them moved to get closer, I'd—
And that was when Miss Martian dropped what was left of my rock throne on my head.
…
Okay, they were annoyingly good at this coordination thing.
…
Time to get serious.
-o-
[Robin POV]
'Do you think that got her?' Miss Martian asked innocently, if naively.
Robin couldn't entirely blame her for that. They had operated like a finely tuned machine to the point that even Califa was on the back foot for most of the confrontation.
Unfortunately Miss Martian had also never fought with or even seen the Saiyan fight seriously. Otherwise she never would have asked.
Thankfully, everyone else had plenty of experience dealing with Califa and didn't lower their guard for a moment.
'That wasn't enough to do more than buy us some time.' Aqualad warned. 'Be careful, the real battle is going to begin soon.'
As if on cue, the rock Califa was buried under shattered into tiny pebbles and the Saiyan stepped out of the rubble, a burning white aura surrounding her.
Well… crap, Califa was actually treating them seriously after just the opening clash.
Robin had been hoping the monkey girl would have continued playing around a little more just so they could have worn her out more.
'She's definitely serious. I'll be breaking out some more powerful explosives.' He warned everyone through the link, 'don't get caught too close if you can help it.'
'Got it. We're going with plan DDD. Troia, Superboy, and I will keep her busy while you set up. Robin, you know what to do.' Aqualad ordered.
Robin and the rest of the team gave some acknowledgements but kept their focus on Califa.
"You know, the telepathy thing makes me feel kind of left out." The Saiyan mused as she finished pulling herself out of the indent she had made. "It's a lot harder to pick things to banter about when I can't hear you planning, so I'm just gonna guess." She glanced at each one of them briefly before focusing on Aqualad. "You three are going to try and distract me while Miss Martian supports and Birdbrain sets up a knockout blow."
That was probably the worst thing about fighting Califa. Most of the time she was happy to just straight up brawl with her opponent, but when she got serious she just seemed to… know… how fights were going to play out. That's when she was most dangerous.
'Get ready, she's probably going to rush one of us. Probably me or Aqualad.' Robin warned them. Both targets made sense. Aqualad was the team leader and Robin was the one most enemies overlooked.
Normally he used that to his advantage, but Califa had never hesitated to target him before – in fact, most of the time she seemed to go out of her way to target him – especially when she correctly guessed the Team's plan partially relied on him.
"And as fun as it would be to see what you have planned, I kinda want to see how you improvise!"
'Here she comes!'
Despite being ready for it, Robin still couldn't follow when Califa blurred into high speed and vanished.
Since he didn't have a Saiyan suddenly appear in his face, his first instinct was to look towards Aqualad… only to freeze in shock when he saw Aqualad doing the same thing with no sign of Califa anywhere near him.
Where did—
A bright golden light appeared overhead and Robin whipped his head around to see Califa floating in front of a surprised looking Miss Martian, who was contained in a glowing ball of the Saiyan's Ki energy.
"Sorry, M'gann. This is as far as you go." Califa grinned and then fired off a massive Ki wave that completely engulfed the martian and vanished over the horizon.
Robin could only let his jaw drop in horror as not only was there no sign of Miss Martian when the wave ended, the telepathic link that connected them all vanished as well.
"M'GANN!"
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