Alright, so I'm pretty sure ALL of the characters are going to be out of character. I love superheroes, but I've only really seen the TV show portrayals: Flash, Supergirl, and YJ (which this is based off of).
So considering I've never (really) watched a superhero movie, am I allowed to say I love superheroes?
Eh, doesn't matter.
Also, reply to this story with what superhero movie I should watch first.
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of the characters (Other than 'Black Braniac' who I made up for pure plot convenience. (Unless there is actually a character in some published work that is called that.))
"So how does this work?" The blond man asked, looking at the small implant.
"Inject it into her, and when The Joker sets off the bomb I created for him, this will be combined into her DNA, as will some other power most likely. This will cause a second mind in her, to side with us and to be in control of her while using the power. So eventually she will come crawling to join the shadows once more," The figure spoke.
"By your explanation, it sounds like she'll only side with us while using her new power, how do we keep her on our side while she isn't?" Sportsmaster pondered.
"It's simple psychology, she will be conflicted due to the fact that she is acting on our behalf again, and that conflict will soon cause her to force herself to agree with us." Black Braniac said. He was a genius that was seldom known of, and wore a pure black costume, that perfectly hid his identity.
"And when will the bomb go off?"
"Midnight tonight,"
"Perfect," Sportsmaster smiled and left the room.
Artemis looked at the clock. And glanced into the master bedroom where her mother was fast asleep.
Artemis clenched her teeth and slipped out of the apartment, off to go train with her father, or as she put it, allow him to beat her up again.
She made her way over to the base, dressed in black, with her face visible and her hair pulled back. As she pulled the door open and stepped inside, she was immediately greeted with a blow to the head, knocking her out.
When she woke up she was lying on the floor. Sportsmaster walked over to her with a knife. Swiftly, he took his knife and slashed across the top of her legs and arms, cutting through the clothing and the flesh. "Tonight you will be working on battling while losing blood," He commented.
Artemis nodded. Sportsmaster didn't follow many rules during these training sessions- or any for that matter, sometimes it was pure torture, but there was one rule he did bother to follow: Don't leave any visible marks anywhere that her YJ costume didn't cover that couldn't be easily explained away. For that Artemis was grateful.
She stood up and grabbed her bow, ready to begin fighting, wondering why the training was going to be so easy today.
First they worked with hand to hand combat, before Artemis stunned him with an arrow and climbed a ladder to get up to one of the ledges she could stand on around the rim of the room. Once he could move again, Sportsmaster hurled an exploding hockey puck at her. Artemis fired a smoke bomb arrow downwards and used her zip line to cross the room. But midway she was to weak to hold on and fell into the smoke that filled the room below her.
Batman and Robin stood on a roof watching the city as a blast of radiation from a bomb flew through the city. Robin glanced up at his mentor, as they made their way towards the heart of the city.
As they did so, televisions everywhere turned on, showing the Joker's face. "Why hello everyone. Bet you're wondering what just happened. Well you can rest easy knowing that wasn't really a normal bomb. You see, it drew its inspiration from Central City, I mean after all, what Gotham truly needs right now is some of its own Meta Humans. Don't ya think?" He laughed. "Well, see you later with your lovely new meta crimewave," the televisions switched off as the end of his speech.
Artemis returned home, once there, rapidly wrapping her injuries. Surprised that her father hadn't cut her deeply enough to be too hazardous.
She glanced at her phone, which instructed her to make her way through the zeta tubes. She pulled her costume on and made her way there .
"Recognized Artemis" The voice announced as Artemis walked into the base. "What's going on?" She asked.
"The Joker sent radiation through Gotham." Robin told her.
"So we have a mission," Artemis guessed.
"Nope, its the league's responsibility. They want us to stay here and train until they've dealt with it." Kaldur explained.. Artemis nodded.
About a month passed, and Batman and Robin were back on patrol, dealing with an attempted burglary. As they detained the burglar, a mound of smoke filled the area, breaking open the windows of the nearby stores. The mound flowed into one of the stores, Marvelo's Jewelers. Robin glanced at Batman, before the two made their way over. They looked at all the broken windows, before hearing a woman scream. Robin looked towards the voice. It was from the jewelers store, which had a smoky black interior.
The smoke pillowed out of the store, littering the street with jewelry and a woman who was now struggling to breath.
Robin stared at the smoke. In the heart of it there was the outline of a human form. The form turned to look at him, and Robin swore he had seen a face just like it before. Robin prepared to run for the smoke, but before he could do anything it took to the air and flew away.
Kid Flash: Fail. Wally groaned and sat up. M'gann floated to the ground, then walked off to the side. KF followed. "Who's up next?" M'gann asked. After a moment both Artemis and Robin volunteered. The walked down to the training area, to begin.
Robin lunged towards Artemis, who quickly attempted to trip him. Robin dodged the attempt. They kept sparing. Eventually Artemis launched a new attack at him, before smoke filled the training area, this time, the smoke mound was smaller, just surrounding Artemis and Robin.
"Guys!?" Megan shouted. She glanced at Superboy and Kaldur. This wasn't normal, they were practicing hand to hand combat, no gadgets or weapons.
Wally watched the mound of smoke. It was quite livid, moving around rapidly. He could hear coughs as Robin struggled to avoid breathing in the smoke that surrounded him.
A moment later, as quickly as the smoke had blossomed into the fight, it collapsed, quickly enough for the team to see Artemis fall to the ground, unconscious. Robin was lying a few feet away. He sat up trying to breath. Robin: Fail. Artemis: Fail. The floor read. The rest of the team ran over.
Wally helped Robin to his feet. "Where's Black Canary?" Robin asked.
"Right here," Black Canary, declared, walking into the room. "What happened?"
"They were sparing and a mound of smoke enveloped them," Kaldur explained.
"Like the one Batman reported?" Black Canary asked, turning to look at Robin.
"Exactly like it," Robin reported. He glanced at Artemis, then back at Black Canary. Black Canary walked over to M'gann who was trying to wake up Artemis.
Artemis blinked her eyes open, before quickly sitting up. "Artemis are you ok?" .M'gann asked. Artemis touched her head for a moment, looking around rapidly, before calming down and nodding. M'gann looked at Black Canary.
Artemis stood up narrowing her eyes from a slight headache. M'gann hovered beside her.
Artemis shook her head after a moment, trying to clear her thoughts. The smoke had come from her. She knew that much. Did the others? Would they blame her?The smoke wasn't under her control though. If they didn't know already she should tell them. Or should she? How would she know that they would trust her that she had no control over it. "What happened?" Artemis finally asked, trying to figure out what they knew.
"You guys were fighting-" M'gann started, before Wally cut her off.
"And then a big thing of smoke decided to try to kill you guys."
"That's it?" Artemis asked.
Dick looked at Bruce, "I think the smoke comes from a Metahuman," he blurted out.
"And from your voice you think you one who it is," Bruce prompted.
"Artemis," Dick whispered. Bruce looked at him. "I know that she actually lives in Gotham. Plus, she wasn't patrolling the night Joker set of the meta bomb."
"I'm assuming you have more reasons,"
"When the smoke robbed the jewelry store, I saw a person inside of it. And a face. Artemis's." Dick explained. Bruce nodded. "And today, when the smoke appeared in our training, I knew it couldn't be a coincidence," Dick added on.
Time passed and the team went on multiple missions, excluding Artemis who turned up with a broken leg, from 'falling down the stairs'. Though, Dick had suspicions that she was lying about its cause.
Artemis sat in Mount Justice as he team returned from a mission. She made her way over to them to greet them and ask about he mission. They talked for a bit, before Artemis looked down at her hand. It had turned ashen gray and had a thin aura of smoke around it. Artemis's face fell as she stared at it.
"Artemis, what's going on?" Kaldur asked, looking at her hand.
"I-I'm not sure..." Artemis murmured, slowly the rest of her arm turned to smoke.
"Artemis-" Superboy started. Artemis's arm grew longer, reaching out like a tree branch and lifting him into the air.
"Artemis what are you doing!" M'gann shouted. Artemis didn't seem to hear her. She was slouched over grabbing at her hair with her other, still normal arm, which also pressed on one of her crutches, helping her to not lose her balance.
Kill him.
A voice in her head spoke. "No," Artemis muttered. The other members of her team looked at her.
Do it
The voice spoke again. "No!" Artemis shouted again. She smirked slightly, "Besides Kryptonians are practically invincible, I can't,"
Even Kryptonians and half-Kryptonians need to breath. You could easily fill his lungs with your smoke.
The voice pestered. "Why don't you do it, you're the one who controls it," Artemis spoke again, to the teams confusion.
"Artemis, who are you talking to?" Kaldur asked, he turned to glance at M'gann, who immediately began to use her telepathy.
"Not for much longer, once you accept your gift, you'll be able to control it. Not that you'll be the same person though," The voice taunted. "KILL HIM. KILL HIM AND EMBRACE YOUR POWER! TAKE A LIFE, You've done it before. KILL HIM AND BE DONE! YOU COWARD! YOU FAILURE!"
M'gann looked around Artemis's mind, and at the embodiment of the voice, which looked just like Artemis's, only, entirely ashen gray. M'gann turned to look at the mental embodiment of Artemis as she feuded with the ashen gray one. M'gann paused, then once she had an idea of what was going on, she returned to the physical world.
"Stop!" Artemis screeched, in response to the voice. She quickly brought her hands down, to cover her ears: her smoky arm temporarily going back to normal. Superboy fell to the ground, denying the floor. Losing her balance, Artemis fell backwards. A moment later her full body exploded into smoke. This time however, it took to form a larger version of Artemis, made entirely from smoke.
"Artemis!" M'gann shouted.
"I'm not Artemis. Artemis is a weakling, unwilling to do what needs to be done." The smoky form announced. The team looked at each other.
"Then who are you?" Superboy asked.
"Caterpillar,"
"That makes no sense," Wally pointed out. The smoky figure lunged at him.
"But doesn't it?" It asked. The smoke rearranged itself into a strange version of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. It laughed. Rings of smoke billowing from its mouth as it did so.
"It does," Robin said, stiffly. The smoke rearranged itself back to looking like Artemis.
"I knew one of you had to have figured it out," It chuckled, "I mean, Artie didn't, but I knew someone would have to know something. So, how much do you know? Her family? Her history? Her biweekly meetings with her father?" The smoke asked. Robin stiffened.
"Yes," He said, plainly, hiding his surprise at the last question.
"Elaborate please?" The smoke asked.
"Your parents-" He started.
"This is about Artemis!" The smoke shouted, "Not me," it added on in a warning tone.
"Sportsmaster and Huntress are her parents. Cheshire is her sister,"
"And?" Caterpillar prompted.
"She was trained to be an assassin from a young age. Even previously working with the Shadows," Robin answered. Caterpillar smirked, looking at the rest of the team's shocked faces.
"Oh! Did Artie not tell you all that?" She taunted. "I'm sorry,"
"Oh, for crying out loud," Wally muttered. He began to run around Artemis, forcing the smoke back. After a few seconds the smoke cleared. Revealing a dazed Artemis, standing on her non-broken foot. As her leg buckled, causing her to fall to the ground, Wally ran over to catch her.