The New Young Justice (IC)

[The Jeffinator]

(If you are interested in playing, please check out the OOC HERE.)

There have always been people with special powers, but the terms “superhero,” and “supervillian” are relatively recent, appearing in the 1930's during the prohibition. Due to a sharp rise in crime, people began taking the law into their own hands, many wearing costumes to conceal their identities. This gave birth to the golden age of the superhero.

In 1940, a group of heroes led by Hawkman (Carter Hall), the Flash (Jay Garrick), and Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) joined together and became the Justice Society of America. Following suit, a group of supervillians led by Vandal Savage became the Injustice Society, but had been influencing a number of events behind the scenes to start World War II since the mid 1930s. Due to public and government pressure, the JSA were also dragged into the war.

In 1945, the war was over, the Injustice Society behind bars in the recently constructed Belle Reve Penitentiary, and the JSA were hailed as national heroes. They inspired hundreds of new costumed vigilantes, some of them bolstering the ranks of the Society.

By 1950, the JSA had dozens of core members and over a hundred associate members. It was the strongest superhero team in the world, but it was torn apart in 1951 due to public and government pressure to enter the Korean War. A number of Society members fully supported the war, but others did not want to leave the country for an extended mission and compromise their secret identities. Ultimately, the team shattered into smaller groups, with some going to Korea, some staying stateside, and others retiring altogether. The JSA was dead and led to a sharp decline in the popularity of superheroes over the following decades.

In 1970, there was a flash of light in the skies over Smallville, Kansas, and a small space pod crashed into a corn field. Inside was the infant Kal-El, sent from the doomed planet Krypton, which was engaged in a long war with the Apokkian Empire (my version of Apokolips). Shortly after Kal's pod departed, an Apokkian weapon caused Krypton's sun, Rao, to explode and destroy the planet.

In the late 1980s, J'onn J'onzz, a Martian masquerading among the humans as Detective John Jones, witnessed a teenage Clark Kent using his powers and took the boy under his wing. In 1999, when General Zod and other surviving Kryptonians came to Earth to recruit Kal-El for their revenge against Emperor Uxas (Darkseid) of Apokk, Clark donned the red cape and became Superman for the first time. Zod wanted to make Earth the new Krypton, and they clashed. J'onn came to Superman's aid, and they defeated Zod and his men. Stories of “Superman and Martian Manhunter” spread in a media frenzy, and inspired a resurgence in superhero popularity.

Over the next few years, Kal-El and J'onn grouped up with other heroes, forming alliances and networks of contacts. On July 31st, 2003, the Justice League of America was officially founded with Superman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, the Flash (Barry Allen), Aquaman, Batman, and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). Through Jordan's Green Lantern connections to the Galactic Alliance, Earth became an associate member., leading to a strong science program between the blue planet and Rann. It was their union that led to Zeta Beam technology.

It has now been ten years since the Justice League formed. In the weeks leading up to the anniversary party, a group of youngsters and sidekicks are about to uncover a plot to destroy the League.




THE STORY SO FAR...


Issue #1: Independence Day

After being denied access to the Justice League Watchtower, Nightwing, Ben Ten, Beast Boy, Raven, and Poison Ivy find themselves responding to a fire at Cadmus Labs. They are guided by a psychic voice and soon end up below ground, fighting against hordes of mutant creatures.

Issue #2: The Secrets of Cadmus

Upon reaching the bottom level, the heroes discover a teenage clone of Superman called Superboy. At first a fight breaks out, but soon Dubbilex appears and reveals he was the one who brought the heroes to rescue Superboy. He chooses to leave with them.

Issue #3: The Blockbuster Formula

Before they can leave Cadmus, Mark Desmond appears and consumes the Blockbuster Formula, becoming a hulking brute. With effort and teamwork, they are able to defeat him.

Issue #4: Party of the Year

While Nightwing leads Ben, Beast Boy, Raven, and Poison Ivy on a few very small, brief missions, Superboy is given the name Conner and goes to live on the Kent Farm. A few weeks later, they attend the Justice League's Tenth Anniversary Celebration, along with a wide variety of other party goers.

Issue #5: Birth of the Beetle



Issue #6: Battle at Diamond Gardens



Issue #7: A Desperate Struggle



Issue #8: Life or Death

 

[The Jeffinator]

CADMUS LABS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Thursday, July 4th, 2013 01:00 EDT

“Well, shit,” Nightwing said as he stood at the end of the hall with Raven, Poison Ivy, Beast Boy, and Ben Ten. Barreling towards them were five enormous creatures that looked like a mix between a gorilla and some sort of reptilian species, like trolls. They were mostly white and gray and on their shoulders were smaller, skinnier creatures that looked like elf-monkeys and had longs tails and a similar color pattern. There were more than a dozen of the smaller creatures, and they flung themselves off their shoulder perches and straight at the heroes.

The night certainly hadn't gone as expected. Just a few hours earlier, the team had been at the Hall of Justice, hoping to gain access to the Watchtower, a space station in orbit that used Martian cloaking technology to remain hidden, the same tech used to make Mars appear uninhabited to the external observer. The young heroes had been given full access to the Hall, which was the “public” headquarters of the Justice League, but not the Watchtower, where only core members were permitted on-board. The station's existence was very secret, known only to the League's associate members.

After learning that they were not trusted enough to be granted access to the “real” headquarters, the five youths had left the Hall angry and disappointed. They were walking around D.C., when suddenly they heard an explosion and saw smoke coming up a few streets down. The heroes took off towards the blast, finding the Cadmus Labs building on fire. They wasted no time jumping to the rescue and evacuating the building, but a psychic voice led them to a secret elevator that showed there were fifity-two sub-levels below the two-story building. Nightwing thought it might be a trap, but they decided to investigate anyway and soon found themselves being attacked by the troll and elf mutants once they stepped out on B15 after the elevator was shut down by security.

Nightwing pulled out a small rod and it extended it from both ends to form a long metal staff, then grabbed a few capsule bombs from his utility belt and flung them at the trolls. As soon as they blasted, he jumped at one, twirling his staff over his head and bringing it down hard on the skull of the nearest brute. He followed it up with a round-house kick and then used his staff like a bat to send one of the elves flying into a wall.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Ben was disapointed he hadn't been let into the Justice league, a lot more than he was going to say aloud. However his official stance was that he was a Plumber and one of relatively few one hundred percent purebred humans in the organization. The fact that he was actually one quarter alien completely nonwithstanding. Besides he'd never learned how to control any of his anodite powers if he even had any. So he still had his ever present smile slapped on and when the call to action had come there had been no hesitation at all from Ben.

"Does anybody know what those things are?" Ben asked in a tone that might have been nervous or mocking depending on how you took it. When nobody answered him before the distance between him and the 'Trolls' was dangerously close he shrugged and dialed in the Omnitrix and slapped the face dramatically. "This calls for. . .Swampfire? Okay that's not what I was aiming for." Ben grumbled as he transformed from teenage human to Swampfire, a humanoid plant with orangish petals around it's head.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110628160451/ben10fanfiction/images/thumb/8/84/Original_Series_Swampfire.png/350px-Original_Series_Swampfire.png​

Ben curled his hands back to his side both of them erupting into flames and he charged the nearest troll hitting it square in the face, it looked like his hand was hurt more than it's face and it returned the favor destroying Ben's head in a single blow.

Ben crumpled to the floor and the troll stepped over him heading for the rest of the team.

It took two steps before Ben sat up and wrapped his vine like appendages around the Troll's legs bringing it down however briefly. He smiled, for a moment until he noticed the floor was trembling beneath the rest of the horde. "Uh anybody got a plan?"

 

[Creotia]

Poison Ivy didn’t walk, she sauntered, and she was fully aware of the hungry male gazes following her every step. If she minded she wouldn’t wear foliage undergarments that moved just enough with every breath that a glimpse of something naughty seemed to always be just a heart beat away.

She’d been a little surprised when Nightwing contacted her to come with the rest of the team and be allowed entry to the Watch Tower. Actually she’d been a lot surprised and spent a while trying to talk him out of it, she wasn’t exactly the paragon of good that the rest of the team was but he’d insisted.

Later he’d insisted that it wasn’t her fault they’d been turned down and offered the use of the public HQ. She couldn’t tell if he was lying to her, to himself or if he honestly believed that. It didn’t really matter, she would have gone on her own but Nightwing had learned about Cadmus and she couldn’t leave the team in the middle of a mission.

Now she was questioning why she let him drag her into this underground fortress. That was one of the traditional advantages of being an antagonist, you always had the home court advantage. Down here she wasn’t powerless but against those things? Those ogre, troll, orc thingies that were barreling down the hallway so fast the hall itself was quaking weren’t really something she’d been prepared to fight.

On the bright side they didn’t seem to be human so she didn’t really have to hold back.

Ivy ran a hand down over her svelte hip, a few seeds dropping from the foliage there into her hand. Puckering her rose red lips she blew a poisonous kiss to the nearest troll. “Protect me.” She whispered. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t human, the Troll was still male and it was still driven by base human instinct. It spun in place and dove at it’s former allies swinging it’s enormous fists. It didn’t feel pain or fear as it barreled into it’s former allies.

That seemed to tie up three or four of the dozens. Ivy wasn’t finished yet though she hurled the seeds just past her ‘champion’. The seeds sprouted into massive vines twisting there way around arms, legs and torsos, rending flesh with inch long thorns.

From the corner of her eye Ivy noticed Ben ten transform into . . .something he called Swampfire but it was clearly part plant. She reached out with her powers just testing to see if she could actually touch him in that form.

The experiment was cut short when she noticed the smaller monsters were simply climbing through the vines and the larger ones were happily tearing it to mulch. It was slowing some of them but it wasn’t stopping anything.

 

[Remec]

Beast Boy

"Whoa!" shouted Gar as Ben's head was crushed by one of the large assailants facing them. A short breath of relief escaped from him as Ben reformed himself and rose up, entangling his opponent and dropping him to the floor for a brief moment. While Gar considered his options and what form would be best, Poison Ivy entered the fray.

Her actions tied up the rest of the large creatures, but the shoulder-riders slipped past her vine barrier and continued onward. Looks like I get to hit something after all.

Gar stepped up to close the distance and back Nightwing up. The smaller creatures actually appeared, once up close, to be the more dangerous of the two types. The brutes were obviously muscle, but the spry monkey-like beings had both numbers and hefty claws--and a rather malicious look in their eyes as they closed with Nightwing looking for revenge for his dropping one of them.

"RAWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!"

Next to Nightwing there was suddenly a large mandrill, bright green, of course, that bared its fangs and snarled at the wave of creatures before setting into them with his own, not insubstantial, talons. Gar found the creatures to have more than just instinct and rage fueling them, but he had training from a number of combat intensive heroes and was holding his own well enough.

For now, anyway.

"What's the plan?" he said to Nightwing over his shoulder. "Are we dropping these things for good or working past them towards a particular part of the complex?"

 

[The Jeffinator]

"The plan?" Nightwing said as he flipped and spun his staff around, clocking elf skulls. "Don't die!" He dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way as a troll broke free from the vines and threw a fist at him. He tried not to get caught in the vines himself, jumped back to his feet, then ran up the arm of the brute and shoved three capsule bombs in the giant mouth before back-flipping down to the floor and dashing to avoid the next blow. A moment later, the bombs went off, and the troll fell to the ground, but was back up in seconds.

"Well, shit." Nightwing thought for a moment, trying to come up with a solution. He kept dodging the troll's blows since it was focused on him solely now. "We can't take these things out. The elevator is down, so our next move should be to find the stairs. We can easily get past these giant troll things, but the smaller guys are pretty fast and will likely chase us, so we need to take them all out. We can't defeat the bigger guys, so just focus on dodging their attacks. Ivy, once the smaller guys are down, use your troll minion to provide us extra cover as we retreat to look for the stairs."

As another giant fist came at him, Dick grabbed the nearest elf and threw it into the path of the punch. The little guy squished up against the wall as it cracked around it, then fell to the floor unconscious.

 

[Creotia]

Raven

“That’s a lot of them.” Raven deadpanned to nobody in particular. She slowly extended her hand from beneath her cloak pointing it towards a group of elves wrapping them in a sphere of black energy and hurling that back into the horde. She repeated the move several times slowly gliding backwards as they advanced.

She glanced around at the rest of her team, Beastboy and Nightwing seemed to be holding their own reasonably well. Ivy was holding up a fair number of the larger beasts up but more were coming. The small demonic beings didn’t seem to mind being flung around much, other than a few with upset stomachs they were all still coming at full speed.

The plan was to go down. There wasn’t time for her to point out to Nightwing that down with those monsters behind them wasn’t the wisest course of action. Raven made a sweeping motion with her hands sending a wall of force to push back as many of the ‘elves’ as she could manage which wasn’t many, the majority of the acrobatic bastards had no problems leaping over the top or sliding beneath it.

Raven glanced around at the team. Poison Ivy and perhaps Ben might need to be carried but Beastboy could fly, Nightwing could zipline. It might be problematic but a lot less than trying to fight those monsters on a flight of stairs. Breaking off from the battle she slid her black tendrils in to the elevator doors and pried them open opening the way to the shaft. “If you want to go down this will be faster.”

 

[Sean Renaud]

Swampfire shuddered slightly feeling a strange sensation pour over him, but just for a moment and then it faded away leaving Ben back where he started trying to slow down these monsters but he could only be in one place at a time.

He heard Nightwing order them not to die and rolled his eyes. Not that anybody could tell since Swampfire didn't have pupiles, or even eyes strictly speaking. They were highly specialized light/dark detectors that evolved closest to the most prevalent light sources.

Stairs.

That was something Ben could agree with, getting the hell away from the army of gentically modified super monsters. Ben let his mind wander a little more than he should have and another solid blow send him skidding across the floor.

"Okay, that hurt." He pulled his hands back and together a ball of flame forming between his hands and rapidly growing. He held it tight for a few seconds before rearing back like a baseball pitcher and throwing a flaming fastball at an elf knocking it clean off it's feet.

"Stairs!" He started backing away looking for a door labeled stairs. He opened one door and behind it was an enormous troll looking down and breathing hard. "Wrong door." He slammed it shut and a fist slammed clear through it narrowly missing him.

Raven was working on opening the. . .elevator doors? The elevator was down!

 

[The Jeffinator]

"Genius!" cried Nightwing as he saw Raven open the elevator door and lift it up to expose the shaft. "Ben, you got an alien that can fly? Beast Boy, I know you're good. Ivy, you can use your vines. Okay, let's go! Good call, Raven!"

Nightwing kept fighting the monsters until everyone else was making their way down the shaft, then he heard Raven yelling for him to come. He turned and dove into the opening, grabbing the elevator cord and sliding down it, digging his feet in periodically so he didn't go too fast. After a bit, they hit the bottom -- B52.

"We should probably go back and inform the League, but if we do this on our own, we will prove that we are ready to join them. There is still the possibility that the psychic voice is leading us into a trap, but I'm willing to take the risk. This could be huge, whatever they are doing down here. Are you with me?" he asked to the group.

After they responded, the door was opened and they stepped out into the hall. It looked like the inside of some creature, with soft, pink flesh covering the walls and tunnels winding off into other areas of the complex.

"Wow, surprisingly little security for the bottom level of a top secret lab," commented Nightwing as they walked through the hall. Just as he spoke, the walls seemed to come alive, reaching out with reddish tentacles that looked like blood veins. They came out of everywhere and wrapped around the team. Some of them were cut and leaked what looked like blood, but they just grew back and kept coming, forming a cocoon around the heroes. Nightwing managed to utter a "dammit!" before his face was covered.

 

[Creotia]

Ivy glanced over her shoulder after Nightwing altered his orders. Throwing a second set of Vine Seeds to slow them down and give her minion a final chance before he inevitably expired Poison Ivy leapt into the open shaft locking her grip around the thick elevator cable and sliding down the shaft.

She'd only just gathered her wits when Nightwing was captured by some kind of sentient tentacle. She instinctively reached out with her power but whatever they were it wasn't plant life. There wasn't time for her to come up with a second plan before she could come up with a new plan the Blood Veins had wrapped themselves around her pulling her in. She ripped and tore at them and after a few seconds the only thing she had to show for her effort was her skin seemed to have been dyed pink but she was no closer to escape than anybody else.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Do I have an alien that can fly?" Ben repeated the question outloud in the most sarcastic and annoyed voice he could muster while fighting an army of monster, aliens, genetic creations or what not. Do I have an alien that can fly?! Azimuth had reset the Omnitrix just after this last adventure and he didn't actually recognize most of the aliens, he still had Wrath, and XLR8 but the others looked exciting and new.

After another fist obliterated his torso Ben realized it didn't matter one bit if he could fly. Nightwing wasn't actually asking Ben to fly, he was asking him to fall without injury, an important distinction. He waited until Beast Boy was out of his line of sight and then leaped up and back firing enormous gouts of flame from his hands and feet simultaneously. He couldn't tell how much or even if it was hurting them but it was blocking their sight at least while he propelled himself backwards and fell into the shaft splattering on impact but quickly reforming.

"Ouch." The experience was less pleasant than he's expected, apparently Swampfire's brain was. . .well plants didn't eat really so they didn't eliminate waste. Which meant they didn't have asses. So the place with the most pain receptors wasn't an ass so much as where his legs separated from his torso. .. trunk. Alien anatomy wasn't exactly Ben's strong suit.

"We don't actually need the Justice League. This is my first team. . .real team and I've done okay and didn't you become Nightwing because the League didn't give you the respect you deserve and now. . .why is everybody glaring at me I was a civillian at the time and I figured out that Robin vanishing and a new guy of similar build, skill, and weapon choices showing up in the town next door meant something."

Whatever conversation they might have had was cut short when vines shot out and entangled themselves around the team, Nightwing and Ivy were gone before Ben even knew they were under attack.

Damn teammates! Ben wasn't mad at them, he was actually upset with himself and his lack of precision. He could easily have lit the entire hallway on fire freeing himself but he lacked the finesse as Swampfire to just burn himself free. . .

Burn himself.

Ben's eyes widened at the prospect and crossed his arms over his chest and shot his fire through his own shoulders freeing his torso and starting to claw his way free. There were more tentacles coming but he just needed a few seconds!

 

[Creotia]

Raven waited as patiently as she could as her friends broke from the fight one by one and went down the elevator shaft deeper into the Cadmus facility. Nightwing insisted on going last and there wasn't really any time to argue why she should be the last to go so she left him and landed amid the rest of the team.

Nightwing gave his speech and she agreed to push on farther. At this point the only thing they had learned was they had some monsters and that wasn't enough information for them to do anything. Before he could start to lay out his plan though the walls themselves came alive wrapping him up in short order. Ivy didn't fare any better but Ben. . .she could sense his frustration. He was holding back for the sake of the team. A feeling she was only too familiar with. Before she could tear anybody free the vines wrapped around her entire body dragging her into the wall eyes wide with panic.

 

[Remec]

Gar Logan/Beast Boy

Gar had not noticed Raven working on the elevator doors, as he was too busy using mandrill strength and talons to wreck the day of the small, monkey-like things around himself and Nightwing. When Nightwing called out praises on Raven, Gar turned his head and a broad smile broke out across his baboon face. with another roar, Beast Boy switched to some sort of greener-than-usual alligator, and used a tail sweep to scatter their closest opponents back into the crowd. He giggled as they squeaked and shouted while trying to avoid being stepped on by the big creatures as they blundered about in combat with the one Ivy had commandeered.

"Yeah, I'm good," Gar agreed as he shifted to his human form and shuffled on over to the door to the shaft. He had though to jump or use the cable in the center of the shaft, but the bottom was out of sight and he wasn't sure he had any forms that could slide along even oiled steel cables. So he became a really small green owl, and used the nocturnal vision to guide him as he coasted his way down to the bottom. Luckily, it appeared the car was above them, so someone had pried open the doors at the base of the shaft, and the team exited into the hall outside.

Moments later, as they came under attack from the walls about them, Gar shrank quickly into a gnat and buzzed about each of his teammates in turn, looking for a way to help them. Okay, they probably responded to our not coming down in the elevator, and seem to be holding us for security. So, if security showed up, the walls would probably stand down. And... Gar looked about the floor where they were at and flew...shifting to faster creatures once out of the active tentacles' range...to a door at the hall's end. Returning to an insect form, he went under the portal and reformed himself on the other side.

Okay, so far, no goons...works for me. Let's see how this does.

Gar placed his hand on the panel that released the sliding door, and opened the barrier to the living hallway.

 

[The Jeffinator]

As Beast Boy walked through the door, part of the wall grew out into a pink head with a large mouth and black eyes with red irises and tiny dots for pupils. Fangs were revealed as it spoke in a soft, raspy voice.

"A new genomorph is you?" it asked as the neck turned into a long tentacle, letting the pink face stretch out to see Beast Boy better. It looked like a large snake coming out of the wall with a creepy, human-like face. "Is green? Why is green? No, not, nothing. Nothing. Not matters. Here. Intruders I have. Security is you, yes-yes? Release them to the green one?"

It looked as if Beast Boy was about to speak, but then another voice rang out behind him from the intercom speaker on the door panel. "No, the green one is an intruder! Kill him!" Suddenly, Pinkface's eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a mischievous grin.

"Fool me, you did try! You did try, but no you didn't! Fool me you did not! Hahaha! Now you can bleed! Your blood is green too? See it I will! Your green blood is tasty? I like tasty blood, yum yum! Yes-yes, I do!" As it spoke, Pinkface separated from the wall, and the snake body shifted and became humanoid, making him look like a tall and gangly man made out of pink clay. He balled his fists and grew sharp punching daggers, the blades becoming very sharp pink crystals. He let out a disturbing laugh as he charged towards Beast Boy with a fist raised.

 

[Remec]

Beast Boy

Great...carnivorous, shape-shifting wall units...joy joy

Gar didn't answer the taunts from Pinkface, but dropped to a football stance to kick off towards his opponent. As he left the floor, he rapidly moved between a cheetah to a swift--letting his velocity build--and then pulling up short as a bright green rhinoceros and let Pinkface's torso impact against his horn.

With a snort and a toss of his head, Gar slammed his adversary into the actual hallway walls and then dashed off down the corridor towards his teammates, hoping they were conscious and planning on carting them off otherwise. He didn't pay direct attention to Pinkface, but tried to keep the odd creature in his peripheral vision as he moved.

I need to watch some documentaries and find big creatures with decent eyesight, or else practice using my hearing and sense of smell more.

 

[Creotia]

Ivy shrieked still ripping and tearing at the vines wrapping themselves around her supple curves and lithe legs. There didn't seem to be any stopping in sight, for every one she managed to free herself of a few more managed to capture her.

A green rhino?! Knowing the capabilities of her team mates didn't make the sight in front of her any less absurd. The only thing that was keeping her from laughing was a desire not to let any of those blood tentacle things enter her esophogus. She forced her hand to her hip gathering a few sprouts and flicking one onto the rhino as it passed by. The vines instantly wrapped around it's middle hauling Ivy clear in the process.

Then she cringed. It didn't look like she'd hurt him but the vine did have thrones. "Sorry! I'm usually not trying to be too gentle!" She quickly looked around at the rest of the team trying to figure out who else she could help without hurting them. For the moment she settled on keeping from being captured again.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Fuck!" Ben roared. Setting himself on fire had hurt and a lot more than he'd been expecting. Generally Swampfire didn't seem to feel much of anything but apparently having a limb torn off or your head crushed was entirely different from being set on fire for an extended period of time, and he'd had to really kick it up. Swampfire was predictably fire resistent but he managed to burn his way free just in time to see Beast Boy return to rescue them and Ivy to rescue herself.

"Ivy, get out of here! Beast Boy get Raven!" Ben shook his head hoping like hell that this worked exactly how he planned it. He plunged his hand into the bundle of vines nearest where he'd last seen Nightwing and kept feeling around until he found the leader and rapidly growing his vines around Nightwing's torso and wrenched the former Boy Wonder free of the tentacles before collapsing to the floor and reverting to his human form. "I hate you Omnitrix." He mumbled staring at the red hour glass that indicated the device was charging. It could be seconds, minutes or hours (most likely one of the former) before he'd be able to change again and those tentacles were reaching out again. "Please move." Ben whispered hoping Nightwing could do something since the only thing Ben could do at the moment was dance to avoid the tentacles and start making his way toward the rest of the team, whichever direction they were headed.

 

[Remec]

Beast Boy

"Ivy, get out of here! Beast Boy get Raven!"

Gar nodded his rhinoceros head at Ben's shout. "Gotcha! Ivy, I'm gonna shrink, get ready to haul that lovely ass towards the door at the end of the hall," Gar said quickly. He then tore through the entanglement, making a hole large enough for him to zip in as a small bird.

Once there, he settled his claws on Raven's clothes and became a small dinosaur--sort sort of raptor, for those who recognized such things--and the rapid expanding of his body was enough to free both him and Raven. "Sorry," Gar said, "No time to ask if you mind being touched."

He then began to head towards Ivy and the exit, pausing for just a moment as he passed Ben and Nightwing. "Dino Express coming through! Need a ride?"

 

[Creotia]

Raven

Raven didn't like admitting that there were things that frightened her but tight, dark places, filled with squirming things all over and occasionally slipping beneath her uniform was the kind of thing that she had night terrors about. She kept focused by linking to her friends minds, Ben was still fine, frustrated, hurt but nothing he wouldn't survive, Ivy seemed to have worked her way free and Beast Boy was doing something.

Something that involved her! She realized that only just before he grabbed her and started carrying her towards the exit. She had neither the time nor the inclination to argue with him right them. Instead she wrapped her arms around his thick neck and curled her body around his reptillian form firing off blasts of her dark energy at anything attempting to recapture any of the heroes.

Raven considered saying a kind word towards both Ben and Beastboy but she wasn't anywhere near close enough to death to flatter the goofball or the big head.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Ben looked up at Beast Boy and smiled. Having a team definitely had it's perks and one of them was not having to do every damned thing yourself, which since the damned Omnitrix was still blinking angrily wasn't even a realistic option for Ben. "I hope we get one of those tech heads soon." He grumbled looking down at it. Everybody looked like they were free of the. . .whatever those damned things were and that had nearly taken out the team.

"Is it safe up ahead Beast Boy? I think we should get moving to some place where the walls aren't trying to attack us and then . . ." he considered heading back, calling in the League. Ben was frankly a lot more interested in meeting Batman and Superman and most importantly a Green Lantern than he was impressing any of them. He wasn't an Ex-Sidekick, he was a. . . "We finish finding out what's going on here."

 

[Remec]

Beast Boy

The feeling of Raven lying against and around him felt better than anything else Gar could think of. If he had been in a feline form, he just knew he would be purring. Ben's question pierced the haze before it could settle fully on Gar and he gave a dinosaur's approximation of a shrug.

"Safe?" Gar said as the group attempted to make their way down the hall and through the door he had found. "I've only been just on the other side of the door, and there's apparently someone monitoring us because they blew my attempt at tricking the guardian whatever it is into standing down."

He glanced next to Ben and made a motion with his large saurian head. "How's Nightwing? I think I saw those things cover his face and mouth. Is he okay?"

 

[The Jeffinator]

Nightwing was almost unconscious from the vines cutting off his air supply when Ben managed to free him. He fell to his knees gasping for air, then rolled out of the way as the vines reached for him again. He looked up to see Pinkface flinging pink crystal daggers at them, and Raven throwing her energy blasts back at anything that was attacking them.

"Let's get on the other side of that door!" Nightwing managed to choke out, running up to the panel and hacking into it with his holographic wrist com. The door slid open again, and once they were on the other side, Dick slammed it shut again just as Pinkface came running after them. They were inside a corridor where the walls were not living. The door they had come through was circle, and the hall looked like a long metal tube. It went on for a ways and then turned to the right.

"Let's take a minute to catch our breaths," he said as he leaned against a wall and placed his hands on his knees. "Is everyone okay? I wonder what that pink face thing was. These experiments can't be legal. Beast Boy, you said someone talked to "Pinkface" through the door console? That means they have hidden cameras somewhere -- they are watching us. It's only a matter of time before they unscramble the lock I put on this door. We need to decide what we want to do from here. Do we try and break free and tell the League? Or do we keep going? Whatever they are doing here will mostly likely be gone by the time we get back. I'm almost certain it's now or never."

He looked around at the group, and it seemed they all agreed to push on. Cadmus was likely already destroying evidence -- they needed to move quick. "Let me try something..." he connected to the door console again with his wrist com. "Hmmm. They've blacklisted this console from the servers so I can't gain access to the network... But I still can access the network logs... It seems they change the security code every ninety minutes, and the last change was only a half hour ago. So, I should be able to use this code to log into the network from my wrist com... But, it is likely they changed the code again after taking this console offline, in which case no record of it would be in the network log on this device... And even if this code does still work, the moment I logged in, the server would detect an unrecognized system and likely activate the security protocol... However, I may be able to fool it with a little piece of stealth code.... and.... score! I'm in!"

Nightwing typed away furiously on his holographic keyboard for a few minutes without a word. "Aha!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Okay, there definitely are cameras watching us. They saw my attempts to hack in and tried to boot me. However, I was able to override their security protocol, so they had to manually shut down the entire network. Cameras, motion detectors, everything -- it's all offline now, and if they try to turn the servers back on, I will know. I have also compromised their back-up servers. Their only choice now is to restore the servers to factory settings, but then they will have to re-install all their software and drivers again, and that will take time. I'd say we have at least a couple of hours before they can use the cameras or communication systems again."

Still looking at his com screen, Nightwing rubbed his chin. "Before they shut down the network, I was able to download floorplans and a few top secret files. One of them is called "Project Superboy," and has the elemental symbol for Krypton -- Kr. All the file says is that the project has something to do with bioengineering, and we've clearly seen that they have created some incredible monsters. But I want to know what Project Superboy is, and I have pinpointed the location of the lab using the floorplans. I say we head there next."

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Project Superboy?" It didn't take a genius to figure out what could be going on in a place that was already clearly producing some kind of genetic hybrid monsters with a project labeled Superboy with the initials KR. "If you know how to hack their system and send up some kind of distress call to the League that would be nice. Like five minutes ago." Ben said with his signature shakey smile. It was the one he threw on right before he expected things to get seriously out of hand, joking made him feel better and kept everybody else from panicking and if things were as bad as he feared they might be blind panic would be a very appropriate reaction.

"In the mean while we should probably hurry up and get down there if everybody else is comfortable." Ben glanced at his Omnitrix. Still red. FUCK. "I for one am a lot less worried about the fact that they might be destroying evidence than I am that they might be waking up an army of pissed off brainwashed kryptonians! I don't know if I can take one Superman," I'd probably top off at two or three "- but an army? Faster is better."

 

[Creotia]

Raven

As soon as they were safely away from the room Raven silently uncoiled herself from Beastboy making a point to silently move as far from him as the small room would allow. She didn't want that green skinned boy getting the wrong idea about her.

Even if he was strong, brave and funny.

Moving away from Beastboy though accidently put her a little closer to Ben than she intended forcing her to quickly triangulate the best spot in the room. She didn't understand most of Nightwings computer lingo, the gist was enough an tha twas they had time, not much but time.

"We started this. We may as well finish this." She let a half smile creep across her features. Raven was certain that she wasn't going to be dying this day, she still had a fate and if she knew Nightwing he wasn't going to head back even if everybody else did head back. "Ben has a point too. We don't want an army of Supermen running around."

 

[Josheb]

Interlude - About a week ago

The truth was Jon wasn't particularly good at being a superhero. Luckily he had very forgiving abilities. Especially the force field. The force field was the only reason he was still alive. In fact, if he didn't have the force field he probably wouldn't have chosen to become a crime fighter last month when he discovered this new energy source from some overlooked theoretical physics papers Ted Knight had published.

Most physicists never took Dr. Knight seriously, dismissing him as a rich playboy trying to be the next Howard Hughes. Jon didn't know any of that when he was eight years old and first read Dr. Knight's mathematical formulas. It was only in his last months of working at Luthorcorp that Jon finally worked out a way to test Dr. Knight's work. Since he left to teach college and pursue pure research, Jon had finally built a generator for the energy source. And it wasn't just an energy source, it was an energy source that responded to his every mental command. Jon was able to use the energy to fly, create a force field around himself and fire energy blasts.

It was obvious that there was a great deal of potential to be unlocked from this power source, and the scientist in him made Jon want to take a few years to learn everything about him. Instead he strapped an energy generator to each forearm, put on some Renaissance Faire chain mail and became the Power Knight. He was fairly good at it too. Not so much the fighting, for that he relied on his overwhelming power, but he was an excellent problem solver, and superheroes always had problems. He'd helped Superman stop a tidal wave, and dealt with a few intergang mooks in his few weeks patrolling Metropolis.

Tonight was easy enough so far. Superman was halfway across the world fighting Chemco, or Chemmo, or whatever the giant chemical freak was called. The chemical giant's fight with the Man of Steel was all over the news and the criminals saw this as their chance to attack. Power Knight had already stopped an armored car robbery and a museum heist by Magpie. Jon used a modified Google Glass under his cowl to keep track of newsfeeds, and look up information on the internet.

As he was flying over Hob's Bay Power Knight received a message that a silent alarm had been tripped at Spiffany's Jewelry Store in New Troy. He changed course and was in the richest borough of Metropolis in under a minute. From the outside Spiffany's looked fine. Jon landed and walked inside. Everyone was cowering on the floor as a jock in a hocky mask and football pads swung around a hockey stick and crowed over the crowd.

The jock turned to Jon and pointed the hockey stick at him. “And what are you supposed to be? Lancelot's skinny cousin?”

Jon pointed at the jock and released his weakest blast, about as strong as one of Mike Tyson's uppercuts. The jock was knocked on his back and lay still.

“That was easy enough,” Jon said quietly and exhaled slowly. He inhaled again and spoke in a louder voice, “Okay everyone, everything is okay. Jockman is down and you're all safe.”

“Yeah right,” the jock said. He was up and moving faster than Jon could follow, leaping through the air, his spiked shoes slamming into Power Knight's face. Power Knight barely moved, the force field easily reflected the blow. The jock absorbed the equal and opposite reaction into a backflip and landed on his feet. “And it's Sportsmaster!”

“It's jailbait,” Power Knight retorted, firing another blast at Sportsmaster, this one twice as powerful.

Sportsmaster wasn't there. Somehow in the time it took Power Knight to extend his hand, Sportsmaster had ducked behind the hero and kicked him in the back of the knee. This time Power Knight stumbled. The force field reflected the blow, but it threw off Jon's balance. Then he was flying through the air. Jon landed before he realized Sportsmaster had used some sort of judo throw. Power Knight fired off another bolt of energy at Sportsmaster but the villain dodged it with minimal effort. The Sportsmaster retaliated by throwing a handful of paintballs, splattering paint over Power Knight's head. Well, the force field that surrounded his head.

It took Jon two swipes to clear the paint from around his eyes. By that time Sportsmaster was gone with a bag of gems and jewelry.

“Well, shit,” Jon said.

“Yeah,” one of the patrons said, “This was a job for Superman.”