Author's note: I absolutely hated the original draft of this, so after several weeks of thinking out an actual storyline I decided to rewrite this story. Thanks for reading!

Chapter One: Initiation

Star City.

His home.

He grew up walking those streets, and the busy downtown area was his playground. He had lived there all of his life, and he didn't feel like changing that now. Among those bustling streets, he walked with the masses. None of them paid any attention to him; not to his long, spiky black hair; nor his worn leather jacket. Not to his many facial piercings; or his black, spiked boots; or even the worn brown backpack currently hanging from one shoulder carelessly. He chewed on his toothpick, a trait he had picked up from his mentor. His role model. His father. It was because of his father that he had learned to be invisible. To be completely unnoticeable in broad daylight: walking down the sidewalks that seemed to burst with faceless crowds.

Just the way he liked it.

His name was Jason Lawton and he was hunting. He didn't know what he was hunting, but he knew that today was going to be different. There was something in the air that spoke of change from the usual monotony. He looked around the truly shining city with something akin to pride. This was his city, and he knew it had a protector. That protector was named Green Arr-

"LOOK OUT!" a woman screamed from his right, pointing behind Jason. He turned to the direction that she had indicated and saw a strange man wearing a mask with a bunch of circles on it, firing wildly behind himself, in sing-song, "Bang! Blam! Boom!" with every shot he made. Jason narrowed his eyes, Onomatopoeia; he thought to himself, what the hell is he doing in Star City?

Suddenly, bursting from the crowd appeared the source of the villain's behavior: Star City's hero himself, Green Arrow. The blonde hero ran after Onomatopoeia bow drawn. He looked hesitant to fire due to the large possibility of collateral damage on the street. His adversary, however, did not share his concern and several people were laying on the ground bleeding from bullet wounds amidst the chaos.

As Green Arrow tried to follow Onomatopoeia, the villain turned and fired a round, hitting Star City's hero in the chest. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Jason and he rushed towards the fallen hero and caught him before he could hit the ground. The archer's breathing was erratic and he was losing blood fast.

"Hey you," Jason called pointing to a nearby man, "Lose the shirt." The slightly overweight man looked at him, taken aback. Jason sighed and pulled him in closer, "Look man- What's your name?" he inquired. "Jerry…Jerry Caldwell…" he said nervously. Jason patted his shoulder, "Look, Jerry pal, see that man on the ground?" he asked pointing at The unconscious body of Green Arrow. Taking his nod as an affirmation he continued, "Of course you do, that's Green Arrow. He's in pretty bad shape right now and we need to use your shirt to bandage him up. Followin' me here, Jerry? See, you have a unique opportunity to save a hero today and I'm sure he'd be pretty grateful after he gets back to business, right?"

Realization had dawned on Jerry and he quickly pulled his shirt off. After Jason tied the shirt in a bandage-like manner, he could hear the sounds of sirens approaching. He quickly darted down a nearby alley. Once he knew he was out of sight he began shedding his costume. He ripped off the black wig, setting a tangled mess of brown hair free. He then pulled off all the fake piercings that were annoying him all morning and flung them into his now open backpack. Reaching into the bag, he then pulled out his most prized possessions.

Firstly, a long KA-BAR combat knife: black handled, sharpened to a lethal point. It was modified to be lighter than the average KA-BAR without detracting from its deadliness. Then his piece de resistance: a metal mask. It was made from extremely durable (and light) steel that could protect the wearer from anything less than a direct shot. It fastened from the back and hooked into the front, and was customized to fit Jason's face perfectly. White lenses covered the eyes, and it was painted a dull grey.

It was unfortunate that he had left the rest of his armor as the apartment, but Jason knew how to work with what he had. Giving himself a quick once over, he slipped the combat knife into his boot holster. He took the spikes off of his boots, revealing that they were just disguised Combat Boots. He kept his black jeans, knowing that it would restrict leg movement and reminded himself to limit his kickboxing combat style for a more attire-friendly one. He wore a white t-shirt that would probably get stained by the end of this. Jason sighed sadly, that was one of his favorite shirts. He kept the black leather jacket, and then put on his mask. Suddenly, the mask changed from the previous dull grey, to the same tone as his tshirt.

After a few hours of investigating, he finally picked up on Onomatopoeia's trail. His father had taught him a lot of important things, and how to tail a target was definitely one of them. He soon found himself only thirty or so feet away from the shooter. Onomatopoeia and Jason found themselves staring at each other, daring the other to make the first move.

Onomatopoeia dug his hand into his coat to grab the handgun he had stowed. Before he could pull the trigger Jason quickly reached down and tugged the knife from his boot holster and with a small turn, flung it with pinpoint accuracy into the barrel of the villain's pistol. Jason made a handgun motion with his finger and let out a cheerful, "Bang!"

Before he could recover, Jason sprinted forward and threw in a surprisingly effective headbutt, disorienting Onomatopoeia. When Jason tried to follow up with a haymaker, Onomatopoeia blocked and put some distance between them with a heel kick to the chest. The fight continued on like this for several minutes, neither one gaining the upperhand, or showing much signs of stopping. Suddenly, the villain kneed Jason in the crotch and managed to flip him onto his back. Jason tried to fight the hands that grabbed around his throat but he could feel himself fading fast.

No, he thought, I've got you, you bastard. Jason broke the chokehold, elbowed his enemy in the side of the head and rolled him into a sleeperhold and put all of his strength into it. After seemingly endless seconds of struggling, the shooter's body stopped fighting. Jason checked his pulse, and confirming that Onomatopoeia was still alive, hung him from the Fire Escape upside down using rope from his bag, a la Batman. He surveyed his work appreciatively and then looked at his clothes. "Damn it," he said to no one in particular, "I knew I was going to ruin this shirt."

Several days later, Jason was rereading Oliver Twist for the 50th time, turning pages with a hand that also held a lit cigarette between the index and middle fingers. The tv was on, and Jason caught occasional words, but he didn't really pay much attention. A tapping at his window finally registered and when he opened up he saw none other than Star City's favorite archer himself perched on the steel frame of the fire escape.

"What's up Arrow?"

"Hey kid, just saying thanks for the help with Onomatopoeia a few days ago," said Green Arrow, hopping through the window that Jason had opened up for him.

Jason grinned at the older hero, "No problem Oliver, happy to help. Want something to drink?" After taking a sip out of the soda he contemplated the younger man. He had truly come a long way from their first meeting, almost three years ago.

Ollie breathed in the night air and grinned appreciatively. Work was stressing him out: Queen Industries was getting its ass kicked by WayneTech, and had lost a huge sale to Central City Police Department. It was hard to believe that fighting crime was now his leisure time activity. After scanning a nearby alleyway he heard the sound of a scuffle.

"See what happens when you mess with Brick's gang, bitch?"

"…"

"The fuck you say?"

Ollie silently followed the sound of the voice and finally found the source. There was a muscular guido-looking male wearing a black tank top and had his black hair gelled into a faux hawk. He had his back to Green Arrow and Ollie could see two goons in front of the thug holding a smaller man up. He appeared to be around twenty and his dark brown hair was covered in his own blood. His face was a Picasso: blue, bruised and his split lip bleeding. His silvery-blue eyes glanced over and caught the Hero's. Jason gave him an expression that told Ollie to not attack.

"Who do you think you are? I said, the fuck did you say?"

Jason's beaten lips lifted into a painful smirk before he answered.

"I said, if I see your Jersey Shore-ass in the street again I'm kicking your tequila-stained teeth down the back of your throat. Step off Tre, and I won't beat your face so bad that your own mother can't recognize you."

Ollie winced at the sound of a fist hitting flesh.

"s' tha all ya got? Met nun's 'o punch harder than tha." His voice slurred from the pain.

Oliver had heard enough. Quickly unsheathing his bow, he fired a taser arrow into the back of Tre's back and swung his bow in an arc, knocking out one of the goons. The other goon tried to attack, but Jason tripped him and Ollie shot a concussion arrow.

Jason got to his feet shakily with a scowl. "Why'd yo' jump 'n? I had 'em!" he exclaimed before collapsing into the Green Arrow's arms.

Five minutes later Jason was bleeding all over the back seat of Oliver Queen's car. "We need to take you to a hospital," he said to the younger man sternly. "NO!" he said harshly then started coughing, "No hospital. Church on sixth. they'll know wha' to do." They drove into the night, and Oliver knew that this wouldn't be the last time he came across that reckless young man.

Snapping back to reality Oliver glanced over at the young man, now going back to read his book and smoking a cancer stick. Oliver watched at the smoke tendrils rose around his face and out of the window.

"Alright kid, going back to patrol, keep in touch alright?"

Jason nodded absentmindedly. Green Arrow sprang out the fire escape and into the night. Jason closed his book and flicked his cigarette out the open window. As he started walking towards his bedroom he heard a baritone voice come from behind him. "I'm sure you meant to throw that in the garbage, right?" Jason turned around and saw the current Green Lantern with an amused smile and a green glow surrounding Jason's discarded cigarette. Jason gave an exaggerated bow and quipped, "Do you prefer to be called 'Green' or Mr. Lantern?"

"John is fine," GL said good naturedly. Jason offered him a soda, but he declined. "I'm sure you are wondering why I'm here." Jason nodded in agreement. "I'm here to formally invite you to join the Justice League, and come aboard the Watchtower for debriefing and to meet the other members."

Jason was speechless. He grew up idolizing these gods, and now they were inviting him to their Olympus. He couldn't accept any faster. After quickly grabbing his bag, and armoring up in his suit of flexible steel/mesh hybrid (currently in shiny silver) he was ready to go. GL gave the okay for him to be beamed up and he felt a slightly uncomfortable feeling of his atoms being scrambled. He opened his eyes and saw that he was on a platform, surrounded by other costumed heroes.

He walked off the platform gaping at the sight of the giant space station. Remembering his training Jason quickly did a check of every vantage point and went right back to staring at everything, his eyes full of wonder. His carelessness caused him to bump into someone quite a bit shorter than him. "Sorry!" he said helping up the blonde girl he knocked over. She grasped his hand and he could feel that she was a lot stronger than she appeared. She got to her feet and his eyes were immediately drawn to her beautifully blue eyes, and then to the emblem on her chest. He recognized it as the Superman "S".

"No harm no foul," she said grinning, "Kara." She said, reaching out her hand. Jason grasped it with his right hand into a firm handshake, "Jason, it's not everyday I meet a lovely lady." She wagged her finger playfully, "Careful now, if you get any funny ideas I can throw you through a wall." He smiled back at her, "I'll keep that in mind, I'll talk to you later?"

Taking her nod as affirmation, he continued his wandering before seeing a familiar face. "Hey Arrow!" he exclaimed before meeting up with his friend. Ollie grinned in surprise at seeing Jason here. "At least there's someone I trust." He muttered quietly.

Superman took the stage and began speaking, "Each of you brings something different to the table. Strength. Speed. Stealth. Whatever. But we're all equal in at least one way: Each of us is willing to make the sacrifices a hero needs to make, even the ultimate one. Since there are so many of us, we have a chance to do more than just put out fires, both literal and figurative. We can be proactive. We can do some real good in the world. But we're going to have to be organized. J'onn'll be up here keeping an eye on everything. He'll be the one to decide whose going where and when. I know a lot of you are used to making those decisions for yourself, but from now on we have to be more coordinated than that. We can't be cowboys any more... or cowgirls."

Several people tittered at that last part, but Jason was too busy studying the founders who stood above them. Green Lantern was given a mission, Jason could tell from here, and he picked Captain Atom and the attractive blonde he had met earlier. Before he could protest Ollie took off towards GL. Dammit, Jason thought to himself, Ollie leaving me alone among these Meta-humans. What could possibly go wrong?