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Earth Orbit
March 21, 2030 (16 years after the Cataclysm)
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The sky above the Earth was in chaos, burning from the fires of fierce battle.
The blackened and charred surface of the planet looked almost serene compared to the skies above, as small black fighters clashed with Javelins, the spaceship of choice for the Justice League.
Wave after wave of onyx ships shot up from the Earth's surface, eager to engage and destroy the League ships above, sending streaks of green and red energy beams at their adversaries.
The long shimmering Javelins could not hold their enemies at bay however, and they were quickly overwhelmed, leaving the massive space-stations, the Watchtowers, defenseless. The small black fighters were too nimble for the weapons of the stations, and the smaller ships opened fire.
One by the one, the Watchtowers began to plummet to the surface in red hot balls of debris, set afire by both their enemies weapons, and from the friction of their descent.
There was now, only one left...
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BREEEEE-BREEEE-BREEEEE!
"It's no good sir, I can't restart the Tower's defenses," an engineer shouted as he typed furiously at his console.
"Keep trying! Allocate all power from weapon systems to shields," his commander yelled back.
Amidst the blaring noise of the emergency alarms and the flashing red lights, the crew of Watchtower 01 diligently tried to bring their station back on line, and hopefully give it a fighting chance.
FWOOOOOOM!
A loud explosion rocked the ship violently, knocking several crewmembers out of their seats.
"Damn! Status report," the gray and blue uniformed commander asked to the engineer at his right, clinging to the large computer terminal in front of him.
The engineer readjusted his glasses and focused on his console, "Hull Breach on decks four, five, and six...Several heat signatures detected...Their not organic sir!"
The commander ran a hand through his brown buzz cut hair as he tried to gather his wits on the trembling deck.
A moment passed and the commander responded, a grave tone in his voice, "Attack drones...How many?"
"I'm counting twenty two so far!...No thirty...Forty Two!...It's a boarding party!"
"Lock down all decks adjacent, and shut down the transporters to keep them contained."
The engineer wiped his drenched forehead, "I've already shut down the 'porters, it's no good! They're destroying the blast doors on each deck! The Tower will be overrun in less than fifteen minutes at this rate!"
The commander tapped a few buttons at his terminal, bringing up a green, see-through display of the Watchtower, and he grit his teeth as tiny red dots that began to filter into the ship's floors from a single spot.
"At this rate we may not last five...," he sighed, and punched another button extending a microphone from his computer.
"Attention, Watchtower One, we have been breached. All crew members prepare for combat. Any Justice League members not yet deployed, are to report on the double! Use whatever means necessary! Protect Lab 05!"
He slid the microphone back into the computer and turned to the engineer again, "Send out a distress call! Blanket Frequency!"
"Aye sir," he pulled out a wireless headset from underneath his console.
"Mayday! Mayday! This is Watchtower One, we are under attack. Enemy unknown, Coordinates 09-23-16! We have sustained heavy damage and lost our offensive weapons...We are the last tower standing! Mayd---"
BOOOOOOOOOM!
An earsplitting explosion ripped the entrance doors of the bridge to pieces, sending debris and crewmembers in all directions, mixed with fire and smoke.
The engineer himself slammed into the bridge windows, before falling to the ground in a heap.
"May..Day...Last...Tower...," he muttered, more out of shock than anything else. He knew that the commander was dead, for he was closer to the blast, but he couldn't quite guess how many were still alive with all of the smoke.
In front of him, two broad-shouldered drones stomped toward him, their feet pounding into the metal deck while red eyes focused on the lone engineer.
"Send...Help...Under...Attack..."
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
"Enemy..."
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
"...unknown."
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Titans...A terrible purpose lies before us. A mission of deep implications for each and every one of you.
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"Sir! We've got incoming," the blond mechanic said, pointing to the display inside of the hangar control room.
His supervisor bit down on his cigarette, "We've got a shtload of incoming!"
"No, sir! It's not League, and it's not a bogey!"
The bearded supervisor grumbled and stalked over to the monitor, catching a glimpse of the craft display.
The ship was odd, a manta-ray shaped ship, with two engine pods on either side, and what appeared to be five pods on the topside.
"Titans...Open those damn bay doors!"
The mechanic flipped the switch, "At this speed, they won't make it! They'll smash into the doors! It's impossible!"
The supervisor spit out his cigarette, "Yeah...They're known for that..."
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The Watchtower is under attack. The Justice League is powerless to stop this unknown enemy...
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The doors slowly began to peel open, revealing the turbulent space battle going on outside as green and red streaks shot back and forth, but the two hangar members could make out the shape of the orange ship as it made a bee-line for the hangar bay.
"They won't make it...," the mechanic simpered, biting his nails.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
The doors to their left began to pound incessantly, the sound of drones...
"Aww sht," was the bearded man's only reply as he drew his sidearm.
SLAM! BFOOOM! SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The T-ship crashed, the two engine pods smashing into the doors, sending sparks everywhere in its wake as it slammed into the bay floor. It screeched like a banshee as it skidded to a halt, barely missing the hangar wall below the hangar control by only a few feet.
"They might be alright," the blond-haired recruit exclaimed, until another pounding slam brought the doors to the control down.
A big, hulking yellow-gray drone, plodded its way into the room. It peered at the two crewmembers with grim red eyes that were embedded in a mask that resembled a skull.
It raised its massive arms, the guns mounted on them humming as they warmed up.
The two didn't have time to scream...
In that very instant, the front pod to the ship below burst open, and a dark figure leaped out, sending a metal-booted foot into the window, breaking it with a loud crash. He rushed at the metallic monster with inhuman speed.
The drone barely had time to turn and regard the intruder, who crouched low and slammed a glowing blue fist into its chest. The punch penetrated the breastplate of the robot, cutting through it like a hot knife through butter, sending the remnants of the robot careening into the wall with a loud thud.
The hangar crew were speechless, mouths agape as the figure stood.
He was very tall dark-skinned boy, with a mane of dreadlocks that were tied back with a single band. Broad-shouldered and powerful looking, yet his build was relatively thin, dressed in a skin-tight black and gray suit, with metal plates on his shoulders, back, and chest. His hands were glowing blue from the metal gloves that he wore which vibrated, humming a low tone.
The boy looked back at the two men, turning his gaze over his shoulder, "Go...More are coming. The jump down to the bay isn't that far."
The two men blinked, noting that his eyes were a bright silver, pupil-less and unblinking.
The bearded supervisor stood straight a moment later, exasperated, "Wha---!"
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
Three more drones were already making their way down the hall, towards the hangar control center.
"Go!"
The two scrambled out of the window as quickly as they could.
The boy turned, leveling his silver eyes on the three attack drones.
"Okay...You want to play...?" he asked, his deep voice dripping with venom.
He clenched his fists tightly, a pair of long blue wrist-blades shooting out from his gloves, humming eerily.
"Let's play..."
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The Tower will fall.
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"HRRRAHHH!"
An attack drone was hurled high and slammed helplessly the hangar wall, falling to pieces on the floor below.
"Who else wants some?"
The dark-haired boy grinned as three more drones stomped towards him, aiming their deadly lasers at him.
"Go ahead and try..." the hero said nonchalantly.
They opened fire on him, red lasers converging on him with great fury.
He put his large hands on his hips, puffing out his chest with a cocky smirk as the lasers bounced and ricocheted off of his red and blue uniform. The boy raised a hand and pointed down to his chest, at the large yellow "S" symbol emblazoned upon his suit.
"You guys aren't very smart are you?"
The drones did not stop their barrage, and in fact seemed to only increase their rate of fire, the single beams becoming rapid bursts of energy. It did them no good as the blasts seemed to only be annoying their target.
"My turn...," he sneered, his ice-blue eyes narrowing, a bright red glow illuminating them.
ZZZZAAAAAAT!
Twin beams of hot red energy blazed out of his eyes, hitting the first drone and melting its head clean off. All that was left was a stub that glowed hot orange from the blast as the now lifeless automaton crumpled.
One by one the hero turned his head at remaining drones, cutting one in half in mid turn, and focusing his beam on the last one, melting it down to a smoldering pile of metal and circuits.
The boy blinked, his eyes going blue once more, "Well...that was...disappointing."
Another batch of drones ran through the adjacent door at the lower level of the hangar bay.
"Oh boy...More pushovers...," he muttered deadpan, before crouching low and charging at his enemies at full speed, bashing into them with his fists. Metal crunched and yielded beneath the weight of his blows, each punch sending a drone in one direction or the other, leaving fists-sized dents in their armor.
"Comin' Through!"
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I cannot ask you to throw away your lives to fight a losing battle...All I ask is that you do what is necessary for our future.
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The masked girl leaped up high, doing a somersault in mid air, twirling her bo-staff. She landed low in a crouch and swung her pole down low, slamming it into the bulky leg joint of a drone, snapping the joint with a crunch. She didn't give it a moment to register the damage before spinning upwards in a corkscrew and smacking the robot across the face with a backhanded swing, cracking the droid's head open like a walnut.
The girl panted, running a hand through her shoulder length black hair, "We need to find that lab..."
She stalked around the room to find some kind of map that would show her the way. She was dressed in a black suit, with a metal choker, and a blue comet imprinted on the chest of her uniform, the tail of which trailed down the stomach of her uniform. The only thing left bare was her arms, which had metal bands wrapped around her biceps.
She took one last look around the empty meeting room. Chairs had been knocked over or burned to a crisp, and the central display was aflame, being the only light for the room besides the flashing red lights. "At least the alarm is off...," she thought to herself.
STOMP!
The girl didn't even hesitate as she turned to her rear, extending a gloved hand and blasting the intruding drone with a deep-cyan starbolt. Its smoking body fell to the floor with a crashing thud.
"We're wasting time..." she muttered, pulling out a round yellow and black communicator, "Has anyone located the lab yet?"
"Negative..."
"Didly."
"Not yet."
"Bingo!"
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Years ago, we were faced with a challenge...A choice. We had to choose between loyalty and duty, friendship or survival.
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A boy with semi-short blond hair tapped a few more buttons on what remained of the console on the bridge. He was glad for the pair of goggles that rested on his brow, which kept his unruly locks and sweat from getting in his eyes.
Despite the heat from battle and fires he still wore his trademark brown vest over his dirt-orange and clay-red unitard.
A brown gloved hand hit another switch and the display that the now deceased commander had brought up reappeared.
"It's on deck 26...Lots of baddies...Narrow passages," he said into the communicator.
A timid whisper answered back, "I'm the closest...I'll go."
Another voice buzzed in, "You sure?"
"Yeah..."
"Alright, rendezvous on deck 26, get there as quickly as you can!"
The blue-eyed boy shut off his communicator and placed it back on his belt solemnly.
"Well...she did say quickly...," he said with an almost childish grin.
He raised his gloved hands pointed them down to the floor below him. His hands and eyes began to glow an iridescent yellow. The metal underneath him groaned and shook with an unknown weight as it began to bend and cup like a crater below his booted feet.
A drone rushed into the door of the bridge, lasers trained on the child.
"Sorry buddy, no time to play!" he shouted as the floor finally gave way and he descended through level, after level, the floors pounding into each other with each successive wave.
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We chose wrong...We failed...And it cost us everything...
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The red and blue boy gave a feral cry as he bashed the head of a drone into the corridor wall, flattening it like a pancake.
His dreadlocked teammate silently finished off the another robot with a downward arcing slice from one of his blue wrist blades, the machine splitting straight down the middle and falling in two separate sparking halves.
The masked leader pointed both arms at the remaining drone and fired off a massive starbolt, the focused beam sending it into the air, leaving only its remains to clatter uselessly on the ground.
Behind them, the ceiling fell, piles of metal, wires, tubes, and pipes, poured into the hallway, as their brown-vested companion managed to hobble his way out, giggling like a kid who just snuck away with a cookie.
They all looked at him.
"What," he said incredulously.
His fellow teammates shook their heads and turned back to the massive doors that were marked, "Lab 05."
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The future must be saved at all cost, and there is no other way to save it. You must succeed where we had failed.
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The four entered the lab and they gaped at the destruction.
All around them, the bodies, or more accurately, the pieces of drones littered the floor of the lab. Expensive equipment was either smashed, knocked over, or sparking from damage. Tiles in the walls had been ripped out, and monitors were cracked or smoldering.
The bodies of white-lab coated scientists were laid out on the floor in various positions, blackened from the destructive lasers of the drones.
Everything in the room seemed lost...Except for one thing.
A massive machine, a ring that was positioned upright and connected to the floor through a stand. A ramp lead up to its mouth, which was lit with swirling white light. It was bright enough to almost make one squint.
In the middle of the room, a petite girl stood, green skinned, with long raven hair and pointed ears, not unlike that of an elf. She was dressed in something like a black dress, with a purple diamond at the breast. The sides of it were cut off, leaving two flaps for her front and back. Underneath it she seemed to be wearing a body suit that covered her torso completely, and went down to mid thigh. On her feet, were a pair of black boots that reached up to mid-calf. On her wrists rested two spiked bracelets.
Before her there was a body on the floor, a black cape draped over his now lifeless form.
She turned to the four, shuddering. Two thin streaks of tears leaked from her violet-purple eyes. The look on her face said everything, as she held the message cylinder, that played back the message, over and over again.
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You must kill Raven...
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And with those final words, the five entered the portal...