New. Everything was new to him. From the chair he was sitting in, to the feeling of his thoughts zipping around his head. And they kept checking in on him. Not giving him a moments peace. He couldn't think with all their questions. He bent down and picked up a wooden board from the mound of trash surrounding his chair. He walked over to the door and placed the board on top of the knob. With a contented nod he walked back over to the chair. It was in the middle of his room and the trash around it made for a difficult time of actually sitting in it. He shoved some of the trash to the side, and with a little hop, plunked down in the chair with his feet up on the trash he'd just moved. He closed his eyes and drowned himself in thought.
He understood that in reality he was only four days old. He did, however have the body of a fifteen year old boy, and the knowledge of a 100 year old immortal alien man. That man could loosely be referred to as his father, though he didn't like the sound of that. Because that man was great. Unstoppable, strong, and fearless. Yes, fearless. He'd tackled many dangers and come out on top without a trickle of fear along the way. How he wished to be like his "father." But he wasn't. He was scared. The moment he was born, he was terrified. Terrified of the death and chaos surrounding him. However consumed by the gnawing feeling that is fear, he was able to survive. But he looked down on himself for it. If he was really like that man, he shouldn't have felt fear. He was undeserving of any association with that man. But they didn't understand that; the other people he lived with know didn't at all.
For lack of all else to call him, because he was born without a name, they addressed him as they did that man. That made his stomach turn. It also made him feel for the first time what the vast knowledge he'd attained from his "father," told him was anger and disappointment towards himself. For not being worthy of that name. And even now, when those people came knocking on his door and interrupting his thoughts they addressed him with that horrid name that made him feel angry and sick: Lobo.
"Leave, I feel like crap," he venomously spit at the door.
"Well of course you do. You haven't eaten anything for a while now," replied the voice on the other side of the door with concern. He heard the door creak as the voice pushed against the door and gave a slight groan.
"What the hell. What did you do to the door? I understand you're confused and upset, but we're just worried. We want to help you, Lobo. We-" the voice didn't get to finish because he had jumped up, ripped the door off its hinges and screamed with his bright yellow eyes glaring, "Don't you call me by that name! I don't ever want to hear that name. I want to be left alone!" He took a step back and looked at the damage he'd done.
His white skin that was tinted red with anger was now rouge with embarrassment and his rapid breathing started to calm down as he said slowly, "You just don't understand What it feels like to...to have these memories of things I've never experienced. Even I don't understand it. Who I'm supposed to be."
It was clear now that the voice belonged to a young girl of about 16. She had long blonde hair and clear blue eyes. She stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder and whispered, "You're Lobo. It's al-"
Instantly at hearing that name his anger and confusion was set off stronger than ever. He couldn't stop himself as he screamed, "No! Thats not me! That name. Stop calling me by that name! I...I-" However he never got to finish, as a shooting pain rang through his head and he dropped to his knees with a cry. The girl, horrified by his violent manner, which was unlike him, called out that name again and again. He could hear her only slightly, without really seeing her, his eyes were half shut from the pain. She didn't waste any time though, quickly he could feel her hands grabbing at him. Her hands under his...armpits he believed they were called. She was taking him somewhere. Somewhere far away it seemed. But everything passed him in a blur as the pain in his skull reached, and this word suddenly came to his mind, though he didn't know why, richter scale levels. He remained conscious up until the part where he was placed on a cold metal table, and what seemed like many different colored beings were surrounding him. One of them, who consisted of mainly primary colors, shoved a light in his face and that exceeded his limit. It was the last thing he saw before sucumbing to the pain and finally, shamefully enjoying the darkness that followed.
Pain. Horrible, earth shattering pain. Why? He did not know. But he was sure, that this was another reason he didn't deserve to bear that man's name. Darkness. Darkness everywhere around him. Swallowing him whole. And before he could figure out where he was, that man's face was before him. The red eyes surrounded by black star shaped markings glaring out from a pale white face, twisted into a scowl only for him. His own face closely resembling the scowling one. Except for the color of his eyes. That was one other difference that told him he was not that man. He did not want that man's name, it was too painful. But what else could he be called? He didn't know.
The darkness had begun swirling. It distorted the floating face of that man and he was glad. Glad to no longer have that man scrutinizing him. But the pain that had momentarily faded, was coming back. It made it hard for him to focus on this dark world. The pain turned the simple swirling into tearing and ripping. The comfortable darkness was being destroyed. Everywhere he looked he saw holes pierce through the darkness. Bright beams of light ripping and tearing through and stinging his eyes. He closed them tightly in response, unsure of what exactly was happening.
When he opened them, he saw he was in a small white room. The walls reflected and amplified pure fluorescent light, only making his headache worse. He kept his eyes partly shut in response. He couldn't see much of his surroundings, though he knew he was still in the same building with those people who seemed to care so much about him.
He knew this because he could hear their voices. They were nearby, whispering about what they should do with him. He wondered why they were trying to be secretive while so close to him. He had excellent senses, that was just part of being a Czarian. No matter how softly they spoke he could hear them, and they almost seemed to be aware of this because as they approached him he almost had to strain to hear their words.
"He's too violent. I don't think it's a good idea to keep him here," a male voice soaked with worry said.
"But he was never going to hurt me. He was in pain. I could see it in his eyes...It was my fault for pestering him. I should have left him alone. Besides we can't kick him out. He saved our lives. We never would have made it home without him and even if we asked him to leave...where could he go?" asked what he recognized to be the voice belonging to the blonde girl. He could hear their footsteps approaching his bed and the two began to speak in even fainter whispers.
"I...don't know. It's just he can't stay here if he isn't going to behave himself. I can't afford to worry about him," responded the same male voice.
"Well, you know as well as I do that he isn't actually a violent person. So why don't we see how he's doing now?" asked the blonde girl as their two figures cast a shadow over his bedside.
"Fine with me," answered the male voice.
"But it seems he's still asleep," added the girl's voice as she looked at the monitors surrounding the bed. Then after observing the squiggles on the monitors for a moment, the owner of the male voice walked over to the light switch and clicked it off. The room went dark.
"Hey, what are you doing Robin?" asked the voice of the blonde girl.
"He isn't asleep," replied Robin. "See?"
He was sitting up now. Blinking his eyes a few times and looking around the room.
"Uh, erm...we don't know what to call you...but how are you feeling? Was the light bothering you?" the blonde girl asked him.
He groaned in response, with one hand on his forehead. Then brought his attention to the IV in his arm and yanked it out.
"You shouldn't do that," said the blonde girl. "You'll make yourself bleed," she added as a red trickle of blood escaped his arm. He didn't seem to notice though. Robin nodded to the blonde girl and she left the room with concern twisting her features.
Robin had ultimately decided to speak with...their guest when he awoke in order to see if he was mentally and physically sound. If he was, he would be a nice addition to their team. Robin dragged a chair over to his bedside and sat in it swiftly.
He looked over at Robin through squinted eyes and said dryly, "Birdie boy. You look like you want to chat. But before that, anything you can give me so my head don't explode?"
Robin got up and went over to the counters at the far end of the room. After rummaging for a few minutes he handed his guest two small red pills.
"Take those. Though you wouldn't need them if you remembered to eat and sleep," said Robin as he sat back down. Robin's Guest swallowed the pills without water and then swung his legs over the side of the bed so he was facing Robin. He winced in pain.
"Well?" he demanded of Robin, with a sour look on his face. Robin just crossed his arms and shot the same look back at him.
"I'm in trouble, right? Probation it seems?" he asked with an air that suggested he really didn't care.
"Regardless of what's going on, you can't act violently. You know that. And what's more it isn't like you in the first place," said Robin.
He looked up with his yellow eyes focused on Robin's and replied, "Isn't like me? What's like me? I'm glad you seem to know because I don't got a clue."
"Well it's only been 5 days now. But you saved everyone. You cared, whether you want to admit it or not," said Robin. He noticed that his guest was about to interject but he continued anyways, "And I don't want to know why you think you did it. I don't care if you were only acting in your best interest because of fear. I don't care if you look down on yourself for that. You saved my team, and so I want to give you a fair chance. So far, you've only shown me how unstable you are," finished Robin with his usual brooding face on.
Robin's guest looked down in response. "Is that true?" He asked. "You don't think any less of me for...?" he was afraid to finish that sentence and hated himself for it. But Robin seemed to understand what was being asked.
"I'll repeat myself for you. You. Saved. My. Team. We, no I owe you. And because of that I'm going to give you my trust. I'm going to trust that you'll accept my invitation into Young Justice, and that you'll sort out all of this confusion. If you're going to be part of the team, I can't be worrying about you constantly," said Robin while keeping his serious face on.
Robin's guest was shocked. He looked down at the floor to think. He knew that they had been keeping him here because where else could an alien like himself go? But now they weren't just allowing him to stay, they were offering for him to be a part of something. And he knew he didn't want to be alone. He wanted to join them more than he'd ever wanted anything in his incredibly short life.
He looked up at Robin and said, "You've got me an' my word, Bird Boy. I'm not sure how helpful I'll be, but I'm in."
Robin finally cracked a smile and held his hand out. "Now if we shake I'm going to assume that you'll keep a straight head for me, right?"
"I ain't ever gone back on my word," he replied as he took Robin's hand and shook it with an almost unusual roughness. Robin winced, got up and before leaving the room said, "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we have two things to fix. First: you need to eat something and rest. Second: You need a name. A real one, that's uniquely yours. I'm going to send in Impulse with your dinner in a few minutes."
"Sounds good, Birdie Boy. I'm absolutely starving," he replied as he leaned back on the bed and put his feet up.
"And quit it with the nicknames!" Robin shouted from down the hall. He could only snicker in response. In his opinion Robin took everything too seriously. Robin needed to calm down a little. But he had a point, it would be impossible to be part of the team if he couldn't put his confusion in the back of his mind for at least a little while. He'd figure everything out soon enough. And the first thing to figure out was his name. Robin had said that the team would help him with that.
Help, he thought. He liked the sound of that, perhaps he'd been foolish to hide himself in his room while there were people around who would be there for him. Who would try to understand at the very least.
But in the dregs of his mind he could see that man's face glaring at him with red piercing eyes. Denouncing his weakness in needing and asking for help. That man's face sent shocks of pain through his head and he closed his eyes tightly in response, trying to erase the face. When he opened them, a jittery young boy with shoulder length brown hair and no attention span was holding a tray of food in front of him.
. . .
"Great to have you with us," said Superboy with a smile as he playfully wrapped an arm around his new teammate's neck.
"Yes, it's wonderful you're finally feeling better!" said Secret in her usual cheery manner as she floated over to him and Superboy. Before their new teammate could respond she added, "After being in the sick bay for a week, going on a real mission must be a nice change of pace...So Lobo-" But she cut off because Superboy was giving her a horrified look and making the universal "taboo topic" sign. He was crossing his eyes, sticking his tongue out and drawing a finger across his neck as if dying from the act.
Instead of immediately getting angry like usual, their new teammate was examining the ground, deep in thought.
"H-hey, you okay?" asked Superboy lightly shaking the boy without a real name.
"Did I say something wrong?" asked Secret genuinely confused.
"Well, one of the reasons he was in the sick bay was because of that name. You can't call him by that name," said Superboy who was still worriedly shaking the very silent boy with no name.
"Is he...alright?" asked Secret.
"I like that," he said nodding.
"What?" responded Superboy with surprise.
"I like that name. Slobo. Call me that from now on."
"But I didn't mean for that to be your name," said Secret reaching towards him as if to stop his decision.
"I know that. But I actually think it's a fitting name. Tell everyone to call me that," Slobo responded. Superboy and Secret looked at each other and shrugged. If Slobo wanted to be called Slobo, then so be it.
"Congratulations on the new name, Slobo!" shouted Superboy once again wrapping his arm around Slobo's neck.
Slobo smiled, thanked Superboy and then the three of them jumped into the Super-Cycle to head off to their mission. Only the three of them were needed as it was a lower level villain they were going to be up against. This mission was really a test for Slobo. To see how well he could meld with different members of the team. That and the other members of Young Justice were busy with other commitments at the moment.
Unfortunately, the Super-Cycle, a living piece of alien technology, only liked to be operated by Robin. Superboy of course, believed that he would be able to pilot the Super-Cycle regardless of Robin's absence. And in all truth, Robin had instructed Superboy and Secret to fly to the designated area, with Superboy carrying Slobo. But they had, or really Superboy had chosen to ignore Robin's directions and try it out anyways.
Unsurprisingly it wasn't going so well. The Super-Cycle had bucked Superboy off of it the moment he grabbed the handles. And now it was refusing to move outright. They were in a bit of rush as they wanted to catch the super villain, but Superboy refused to be beaten by the Super-Cycle. After watching Superboy get chucked off a few more times, Slobo found he couldn't stand Superboy's foolishness a moment longer.
Because Slobo was like that man he was pretty good with vehicles, and he actually understood the Super-Cycle's home planet of New Genesis quite well. He could probably get the Cycle to work for him. He put his hand on Superboy's chest to hold him back as he jumped up and grabbed the main controls.
The Super-Cycle could feel Slobo's foreign hands on the controls and tried viciously but without success to buck him off. During that confusion, Slobo leaned down and whispered to the Cycle, "Hey Girl. I know how I look, but I'm actually a pretty decent guy. Just don't go telling anyone, it'll ruin my image."
The Cycle immediately stopped trying to throw Slobo off and instead revved its engine in anticipation.
"Well I'll be damned. She actually likes you," said Superboy with honest awe.
"Now we can get going, right?" asked Secret as she took her seat in the Cycle again.
"Ready when you are, Girl!" cried Slobo as they zipped off smoother than Robin ever managed.
. . .
This villain may not have been a major threat, but he was certainly repulsive. When the team of three arrived in the center of town, they were welcomed by a carpet of creepy crawlies that filled the streets. The bugs made the streets smell of dead things and gave the illusion of endless movement, almost as if they approached an ocean. The Super-Cycle landed on the roof of a store in order to avoid the bugs.
"T-The streets! Oh my God!" exclaimed Secret as the Super-Cycle landed.
"You mean the smell," said Superboy. "I actually think I'm going to be sick..." he added with a gag.
"Some bugs an' bad smells never hurt anyone," said Slobo as he jumped off the Super-Cycle. "Time ta start lookin' around for the villain who did this," he said while flicking a clicking roach off the roof.
"Well we're not going to have to look for long," said Superboy. "I'm guessing the guy in the bug suit is our man," he added pointing to the center of the nearest intersection. Sure enough, there was a tall man wearing a cheap looking cockroach costume standing in the middle of a mound of bugs about 5 feet high and shouting, "Yes, my darlings! Scare everyone who doesn't love you away! We'll have the whole town to ourselves!" He was also making some strange hand motions while continuing to talk to the bugs.
"Is-Is he alright?" asked Secret, genuinely worried about the mental health of their supposed bug-themed villain.
"Don't matter to us, Mist Girl. All we gotta do is kick his ass, then make him call off these bugs," said Slobo as he leaped from the roof and ran towards the cockroach man.
"Well he certainly seems excited," said Secret, only to find that she was evidently talking to herself, as Superboy had already run off after Slobo.
Though the lame, smelly villain he was, the team was realizing he could not be defeated without a plan. Everytime Slobo or Superboy tried to punch him he would simply manipulate the bugs into a brick-like wall.
"My fraggin' hand," cried Slobo as he bounced away from the villain and clutched his bleeding fist. The finger-less gloves he was wearing were completely torn at the knuckles and the leftover fabric was turning a dark crimson with blood.
Superboy wasn't much luckier. When he punched the wall of bugs, he was repelled into a 10 foot tall reeling mass of roaches that smelled of eggs. Slobo saw his head turn as he sat up and vomited. Slobo prayed Superboy would get over the smell, they wouldn't be able to defeat this guy without his muscle.
"I got it boys!" cried Secret as she whooshed past the two of them in a cloud of smoke.
"Wait! We need ta' work out a plan first. This guy is just too nasty for us to handle individually," shouted Slobo as he tried to stop Secret. She however, was flying past him at a speed that didn't allow her to his words. She tried to rush into the villain's mouth in order to control his body, but she was unable to enter for lack of room. His mouth was filled with live roaches that squiggled and squirmed inside. In horror and confusion Secret flew back to where Slobo was standing. Her eyes wide with surprise.
"He-He..." she stammered.
"I saw," replied Slobo running his good hand through his spiky dark hair and trying not to lose it himself.
"OhGod," Superboy murmured. "I-I can't-" but his sentence was cut off as he was sick again.
Slobo was surveying the situation. They needed a plan and quickly. If they pulled back to regroup, it was possible that this villain would actually succeed in scaring all the towns people away. The mass of people leaving town in a panic would be dangerous. People would get trampled. This guy wasn't worth that risk. No one was.
"Hey, Super-Sick! Go ta the dump and get the largest, gnarliest pile of trash that you can lift. Then bring it here," ordered Slobo. Superboy just looked at him with a blank face. "Common! As fast as you can. These bugs ain't leaving us with time ta spare," he urged.
"Fine," Superboy answered realizing that whatever Slobo was thinking was their only plan. Slobo and Secret watched him zip off, then Slobo said, "Secret, after Sups gets that trash here, I need you ta either possess all the bugs or 'port the trash heap back to the dump."
"Why? I don't quite understand this plan you seem to have," said Secret.
"You don' need ta. It'll make sense once that trash gets here. I know I'm new here but this is my test, so trust me," said Slobo looking away from Secret.
"Of course I will," she responded making partial eye contact to show him he didn't need to be unsure of himself.
It took a good 5 minutes for Superboy to get that trash from the dump, and during that time Slobo and Secret had no choice but to try attacking the villain who apparently called himself the Roach Man. Things were going as well as they possibly could against such a disgusting foe. Slobo and Secret were being bounced off of the guy by his bugs again and again. Slobo was no longer trying to punch him with his bare hands and had resorted to charging him with the Super-Cycle or, at least trying to. Secret thought it was a reckless thing to do, but it didn't seem like there were any other options. And of course, the Super-Cycle took some coaxing in order to get it even near the bugs. Apparently she wasn't too thrilled with them either. But she liked Slobo and had agreed to be his battering ram after a minute or two of coaxing.
Slobo was seated in the Super-Cycle and was revving the engine to prepare for impact.
"Let's hope this does some damage, Girl," he whispered under his breath as he hit the gas and the Super-Cycle flew off the roof towards the villain.
Suddenly, the shock of head splitting pain was back. That man's face which Slobo thought he had successfully locked away in his mind came rushing back clearer and angrier with each bolt of pain. Slobo let go of the Super-Cycle's handlebars, clutched his head and screamed, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GO AWAY! STOP. GLARING. AT. ME!"
In her shock, Secret could do nothing. All she could do was watch Slobo grab his head and shout horrible slurs at what seemed to her to be nothing. She could only gape and eventually scream as Slobo nearly crashed the Super-Cycle into a public monument as it swerved without his hands on the handlebars. But at the last moment, the Super-Cycle herself realized something was wrong and redirected back towards the roof.
The Roach Man blinked in surprise a few times and then said, "It appears you kids have some problems you may want to work out before you try to stop me and my babies."