" metahumans; they call themselves heroes, protectors of the people, but what

are they really? The few metahumans who do not choose the path of robbing banks,

murdering, and god knows what else: choose to involve themselves in police

business. The so called 'heroes' are ruining our society! Children no longer

want to grow up to be doctors or lawyers, they want to be superman! And even the

youngest of meta humans, are still a danger to our society! These 'teen titans'

could be attending your child's school! They could live next door, a child with

the captivity to destroy a block with a snap of their fingers, living right

under our noses, even the adult heroes have the leniency to break the law,

because of the guarantee they cannot be forth to justice without knowledge of

their 'secret identity' which is why I, pose the option to you, the good people

an parents of america, should meta humans be forced to register to be active

heroes? Or shall they continue to rampage our cities with their-"

The tv screen went black with a click and a remote flew across the room,

crashing into a wall on the opposite side. Carter Reed was curled up on the

couch in a glaring daggers at the TV, completely ignoring her sister Erin's

shocked glance. "you know," she said looking back dully at the blank screen.

"-if you really wanted, we could of just changed the channel." Carter just

grunted and curled up tighter on the couch. Erin sighed and stood up. Crossing

the room, she bent down for the remote and clicked the TV back on. The plump

congressman who had been speaking, had been replaced by a commercial of "happy

kitty cat food" with striped kittens eating it and looking like they got high

and danced under a rainbow. She took this as an opportunity to switch to

cartoons and jumped back onto the couch, releasing a cloud of dust and

aggravated squeaking noise. Sure it was true, their little family of six wasn't

the luckiest in the world, but they get by and had each other. Mom and dad were

both at work right now; dad as a construction worker and mom A cashier at a

department store. Austin was no doubt using the schools gym to work out, and

hunter didn't even get out of school for another hour. Carter was only a year

older than Erin, but they were both freshmen anyway thanks to their birthdays.

Erin remembered just last year, this time of the day would be spent with them

both goofing off in their room, sharing crushes and soccer tips. Now; a year

later, Carter had quit soccer and quit speaking to anyone really. Her once

straight glossy blonde hair that Erin had been so jealous of was now yanked back

into a tangled mess. She had lost weight and the pants that she had complained

about being to small last year were barely able to stay on her narrow hips. But

the scariest thing that had happened, was the scars. Carter constantly wore long

sleeves and pants, even in summer. Whenever Erin would walk in on her changing

or in the shower, she would rush to cover herself. But she couldn't hide them

all, even know, in the middle of winter, when she had excuse to be wearing

nothing but hoodies, you could see them. A thin line covered her left cheek and

tiny little white lines and splotches were visible on both her hands. But what

could they do? Therapists were expensive and out of the question, mom and dad

were either not home, or so tired they couldn't think straight. Austin dismissed

it as normal and Hunter was nine, he didn't even know what the word emo meant.

So Erin did nothing, she simply laid down on the other end of the couch so the

entire room looked sideways. She closed her eyes and stretched out her foot for

her sisters and gently prodded it. A year ago, that would of sparked a

competition of kicking which would of lead to fits of giggles and a pillow

fight. But the foot didn't move. And Erin buried her face in the dusty old

couch, and dis her best to cry as quietly as she could.

Carter lay awake and staring at the ceiling, listening to nothing but her

sister's body breathing on the bed below her. When Carter looked out her bedroom

window, she didn't have an amazing ocean view. She didn't see a brightly lit

city that never dimmed, or a lush jungle with the sounds of animals. She saw a

bush. The widow she used to sneak out only lined the top of this wall, and let

out right at ground level, as they had a basement bedroom. It seemed like

forever before Erin was asleep and she could leave. The window pushed out

without a noise and Carter rolled onto the grass behind the apartment. She

reached in the little ditch under the bush and grabbed her costume, silently

shut the window, and slipped outside.

The area behind the apartment consisted of nothing but a few acres

of empty grass which eventually lead to a fenced in construction site. She could

go around it, but what fun would that be? As she scaled the fence, thousands of

volts of electricity surged through her, giving her an adrenaline rush no drug

could ever produce. She jumped off the top of the fence and grinned, now she was

charged for night.

Carter ran through the unfinished buildings like they were her own room, she

could of done it blindfolded by now, after how many times she had run through

it. A 6 months of self training had been done here, until she got into the

league. But even now, with all their fancy high tech training equipment, she

still preferred her old Rusted steel beams and chains. Sometimes even Cork made

it out here and they would spend hours sparing on beams hundreds of feet above

ground. But tonight was different, tonight She had no time to run through the

familiar course of sit on the highest part of the structure and look over the

city of New York; a view far surpassed by her bedroom window, no, tonight She

actually had a job to do. Carter was on the team full of the almost teenage

meta's (and robin) that worked for the league instead of for themselves like the

titans did. There was the seven of Them; Carter, Cork, Bobby, Robin, Lian,

Colin, and Iris. And very rarely did all them get called at the same time,

normally it was just who they needed; based on powers or abilities. So this

meant it must be something important carter thought as she jumped of the final

beam and landed on the opposite fence, where electricity went through her like a

knife until her hair started singeing at the ends and she jumped down. the wet

grass felt nice on the soles of feet, which were made of rubber to reduce energy

loss into the ground when she walked. What looked like an oak tree stood out

among the barren dirt and metal, but she knew what it really was. If you stick

your fingers into two certain creases and pull a certain branch, the ten inch

solid steel 'bark' of the tree would open up to a a small room large enough for

one person to strand completely vertical . Then, you would have your finger and

eye prints scanned in addition to a voice recognized daily password you had to

know and have the voice match. So. Far that much security had been irritating,

but had kept the cave clean from intruders ever since they updated the system.

Carter tapped her foot impatiently on the floor while the computer finished

scanning her body for angling of unnatural physical changes that had meant a

shapeshifter has tried to mimic her form. The computer cleared her; and in a

bright flash of blue, she felt her molecules being taken apart and put back

together. The feeling was someone uncomfortable, but you get used to it. The

room was empty other than the two people in the middle having an intense sparing

match. A slim boy all dressed in his uniform and a girl in sweats with her hair

tied back, holding her own against Damian just fine. She was the only one who

could. A gust of wind announced Iris next to Carter, still dressed in her

civvies and her red hair let free so it curled around her entire

face.",butidontknowwhatitisor-" she said quickly

and carter gave her the look. She knew her and her father speak so fast when

they were together it was practically another language, so you had to cut her

some slack when she rambled on in super speed. "no one knows why we're here I,

and no body can understand you when you talk that fast." iris humphed and

crossed her arms before making her way to the kitchen where she cleaned it out

in under thirty seconds. Carter ignored her and plopped on the couch. "save some

for the rest of us!" she yelled to the ginger who was halfway through the third

sandwich. "I don't believe your folks are starving you". She said and flicked on

the TV. Iris appeared next to her on the couch and shoved the rest of the

sandwich down her throat. "anything good on?" she asked and sat criss cross

while licking her fingers. Carter said nothing but started channel surfing until

she came to the news. The reported was an energetic blonde woman who was

discussing some traffic incident and which roads to stay away from. Like she

cared about roads, she was above roads. She was about to flip the channel again

when the irritating fat man came on the screen, his mouth frozen open in some

kid of angry spaz fit. THe anchorman was talking about meta-registration laws

and how the bill was finally in risk of passing after being pushed on congress

for years. The screen changed to a live discussion of congress discussing the

bill and Carter leaned forward. "iris," she said "you watching this?" but iris

was gone. The tv screen suddenly let out a hundred surprised gasps at once and

iris was standing there, next to the speaker. Carter squeaked and Cork stood

over her, looking at the screen. "is that Iimpulse? \I" she asked

dumbfounded. Carter nodded and stared. Iris had managed to change into her

impulse costume on the way. The murmuring through the crowd finally ceased iris

said something, that couldn't be heard because she didn't have a mic. "can I

borrow that" Damian translated in a monotone behind us. I jumped and flipped

around. He hand one hand on the couch and was leaning slightly forward. I gave

him a look. "that's what she said" he said with a shrug. Cork stole the remote

an clicked up the volume. The speaker had stepped out of the way with her mouth

open like she wanted to say something. She looked at the cameras for help before

they put the spotlight back on I. She tapped the microphone twice and the three

of us leaned in as iris started to talk. It amazed how much that chick could

public speak, if she took the time to slow down. "you say meta humans are

nuisances, a burden to society," iris started officially. "looks like she read a

dictionary on the way there too." a voice said from the chair. Lian had arrived,

and was twisting one of Her arrow heads on and off with her eyes glued to the

screen. "and, yes I can confess," the iris from the TV started "that we mess

up, we cause fights that cost money, we break curfew, and, sometimes we even

make poor judgement calls, which is what I believe, that congress is doing now.

You want meta's to register, correct? Especially the ones who have come out as

heroes? But what you haven't thought, is what happens in the aftermath? What

happens when our secret identities are common knowledge? We will be picked off,

one by one, by the villains will kill us off. Best case scenario, they come to

our houses and kill us right then and there, worst case, they kill every single

friend and family member we have, informing us they are coming, then locking us

in a rip off torture chamber basement for weeks until we finally die. And on top

of having the murder of the 200+ adult heroes, on your hands, you have

approximately 100 under age 21, 50 under eighteen, and at least 35 active

heroes and sidekicks who are ranging from age seventeen, to age nine. Do you

really want the blood of children on your hands? And even if you think it's

worth it, what happens during the next alien invasion? Or takeover of

intelligent gorillas? Will your government take care of those? No!" iris looked

straight into the camera. The congress was silent but Carter knew she was

imagining the classrooms and bars filled with people cheering for her. "face it,

this nation, this I world /I needs the justice league, they need the titans,

and they need kids like me, who have been given the power to change the world

for the better, and they choose to use it. And after having seen heroes save

every single person in this room's life more than a dozen times, I think we are

allowed to keep out identities a secret for our own protection." she gave the

camera one last look and was gone in a blur of yellow and red. We all turned

around when she showed up behind us. Colin and bobby had showed up during the

speech and the five them were glaring at her with emotions ranging from

admiration to disbelief to pure rage. Carter, of course was laughing her a**

off. Damian was grinning. We all knew there was not a chance in hell the bats

were giving up their identities, and if that bill was going to pass, they would

all have to be on the run, as any of them giving in would give away the rest.

"you crazy bitch!" he said with a grin. "you just saved all our arses" cork said

in her normal emotionless tone. Lian, on the other hand, was not so pleased.

"you broke into congress, took the stage from the speaker of the house, and gave

a freaking speech!" her voice started rising. "and Damian, you dumbass! We're

not freaking meta's, that bill wasn't going to make us register!" Damian cut her

off. "come of lil, do you really think the government would pass up and

opportunity to out out who batman is?" he pulled out his cell phone and started

to read. "section 6 paragraph 4." he stated "any intelligent life form- which

means aliens and mutants too-" or any human who copies the actions or the meta

humans, must undergo a registration process to wear a mask while active." Damian

stopped using his big official voice. "ie: the bat and arrow families" Lian said

nothing but huffed. "well it was still stupid." Damian grinned, he had won. Lian

was the leader, she had been elected. But he still had the smarts that this team

needed. He started again "well no matter the case, we still won. No way congress

can do that to us now, but we are going to have to face the wrath or the justice

league for doing that. The titans are probably cheering, but I know the big man

isn't going to let us off the hook-"

"no, he isn't" the seven of us flipped around