May 23rd, 2020. Gotham City. 22:54 EST.
Mari McCabe leapt over another grimy Gotham alley. In the late evening it was hard to distinguish between them all, these urban streets a far cry from her home city in Michigan. But, even with the smog and darkness, her eyes could pierce through the night to the street signs below, confirming she had arrived at her date spot.
Despite her invitation to the locale, Vixen felt exposed, even in full costume. A yellow suit, and her Mantu Totem wrapped reassuringly around her throat, she fingered the artifact, growing more anxious with each passing moment.
"Far cry from home, miss," a low voice called from the shadows. She didn't recognize it. Vixen took a cautious step backwards, calling upon the spirit of an owl's night vision to peer at her companion. It was not the man who had invited her.
Red Hood walked out of his cover with gloved hands raised to the sky. "Relax, Vixen, I know this is strange."
"Where's Batman? I received a message that he needed my help," she replied, ignoring his command. She'd seen the Red Hood in action, and knew he was a far cry from a straight and narrow hero she could trust.
Jason Todd stopped moving towards the woman, quickly losing confidence in his own plan now that it was actually in motion. "You should've known it wasn't like him to send that. Have you ever heard of Batman asking for help?"
"I don't hear anything from Batman. I'm not one of his Superfriends in the League."
"None of us really are," a cold, steely voice raised the hairs on the back of Mari's neck. She called on a jungle cat's legs to leap her away from this second man, clearing a dozen meters and landing defensively at the edge of the motel's rooftop. She was not safe.
Black Manta's helmet shined two scarlet eyes, the rest of his dark armor emerged from where he'd been hidden, his presence the last straw for the superheroine. He was a clear sign for her to get the hell of dodge. The spirit of a hawk welled up inside of her, and Vixen soared smoothly down to the sidewalk, far away from the two associates.
"You couldn't have waited like… two minutes, man?" A frustrated Red Hood complained, but his question was only met with a casual shrug.
"I was against bringing another card into the fold anyways. I'm especially against dealing in a coward."
"We need a face people can trust! You and I don't even have faces!" Jason gestured wildly to their helmets, but again was stonewalled.
"I have a damned handsome example of a face," came Black Manta's retort.
"Not after I'm through with it," his partner concluded, leaping off the squat building to go chasing off their escaped hero.
Manta leveled a harpoon gun at the red brick building across the street, pinning a grappling line into its stone and muttering, "As if you'd land a single blow," before getting in on the pursuit.
May 23rd 2020. Gotham City. 23:47 EST
It took almost a full hour, but Vixen finally felt she'd found herself a spot to rest. The woman was doubled over and heaving breaths in and out. She had no idea where in Gotham she even was, getting lost in the Gothic labyrinth after only a couple minutes into the pursuit.
When she'd received a video message from Batman, she was embarrassed now to remember her excitement. Finally, what she thought was an invitation to the one and only Justice League had come for her, after years of patrolling Detroit's streets in the late hours of the night, she thought she'd finally earned the recognition she deserved.
To find out it was all some two-bit ambush by some supervillains… it was all she could do to keep herself from letting tears flow from her dark eyes. Superheroes didn't cry and she'd be damned if getting left out of some ridiculous club was going to make her break that rule.
A right angle of metal and lead collided with her shoulder, breaking Vixen free of her self-pity. Looking down at the projectile, it was a heavy pistol, and the man behind the throw, Jason Todd, was hacking up a storm, hands on his knees at the end of the alley.
Just as she was beginning to resume her escape to another urban hidey-hole, he yelled out, "I could've," he sucked in some more wind to finish the sentence, "just shot you, but, I didn't."
"If you're expecting some thanks for throwing a gun at me, don't hold your breath."
"I'm just trying to catch it at this point," Red Hood admitted. He took a step into the alley, now leaning against the exterior of a defunct Mongolian restaurant. "Please, don't run. We really just wanna talk."
"I wasn't exactly sure where you landed on the moral compass, Hood," she responded, "but hanging with villains lands you pretty safely in criminal territory."
"Supervillain," Black Manta corrected, lurching over the fire escape, four stories above Vixen, a crescent moon and cloudy night sky framed the man.
"Fecal matter works too," she replied, but surprising herself, she didn't run away. She'd faced plenty of criminals before, superpowered and otherwise, but these two lacked something they all had. There wasn't a scrap of killing intent between the pair.
Red Hood finally seemed to catch his breath and composed himself before making a few heavy steps towards Vixen, before the woman stopped him. "That's far enough, Hood."
"I posed as Batman in the message to get you here, we needed to speak with you somewhere I knew was safe."
"I didn't know Gotham was any safer than Detroit," Vixen felt just a bit insulted at the insinuation. Her city wasn't perfect, but she at least managed to keep their population of masks and freaks well below the myriad of Gotham's lunatics.
"We're not talking about criminals, lass," Manta said from his vantage point on high. "We're talking safe from heroes."
Mari's brow furrowed together. "No witnesses for whatever you have planned?" she tried to poise the question as insulting, but now they'd genuinely piqued her curiosity.
"The Justice League has been compromised, Vixen," Red Hood wanted to build up some suspense a bit more, but it didn't seem like theatrics were going to get him very far with her.
"And on whose authority does this information come from?"
"It comes straight from Batman himself."
"Lately his word hasn't been doing much for me."
Black Manta rappelled down from the roof of the building, landing next to Red Hood. Vixen was now beyond surprised. If they were really trying to capture her, the obvious move would be to land on the side opposite his partner. Instead, the seasoned fighter had abandoned a clear vantage point and opted out of surrounding their target. But, there was no way they were telling the truth.
"So why do two partners in crime tell this to me? I'm not much in the way of firepower compared to them."
"You believe us?" Red Hood asked incredulously.
"Of course not," Vixen believed them more than she'd have admitted. She needed to at least act skeptical to their claims. "But, I've come this whole way, might as well entertain me."
"We're assembling a team to fix this. Manta and I are the only members," Red Hood roped a friendly arm around the stalwart villain, who cast a shady glance at the man. "We're in need of a face the public actually trusts."
"So I'm working PR for you two?"
Manta struggled to resist the opportunity, "If you're nice, you can be my secretary," receiving a light push from Red Hood in place of a scolding.
"What he means, is that there's a lot more than just that you'd be doing with us. You're probably the most important piece of our puzzle."
Vixen passed her gaze between the two figures before her. She knew it was entirely foolish to trust them. She knew it was the stupidest thing she could do since she started calling herself a superhero. But, all the same, it was almost too stupid to not believe it. The whole situation was ridiculous.
"I assume you two have proof?"
Jason Todd smiled behind his mask. He picked up his pistol off of the cracked asphalt and holstered the weapon as it satisfyingly clicked into place. "We'd be happy to show you to Exhibit A, if you'll trust us enough to follow along."
"I don't really. Not yet," Vixen admitted, taking a step in their direction nonetheless. "But, if you're lucky, you'll be able to convince me.
"And according to you, the three of us would be meant to take on the most powerful group in the world?"
"Manta and I have a few more people in mind."
"Even more? If the whole League is in some sort of conspiracy, who else is getting an invitation?"
"Nobody you'd know. And that's exactly the point."
A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm so hyped to begin this new project. My previous attempt, Renaissance, was really problematic, I know as well as anybody. But, I've got here a much more fleshed out concept, a concise story plan, and barrels of excitement for Young Justice: Sinister. For anybody who was a fan of the last run, I'd ask you keep your faith in Sinister, a lot of thought went into this story, and it's every kind of an improvement over my past work. I hope you'll all agree.
If you're interested in submitting a character, the form and contest rules are on my profile. As you can probably tell by these mentors, your characters can be anywhere from a pure-hearted hero to an ambiguous anti-hero, or a full blown villain. Chances are, it'll all work. Good luck in your submissions, and thanks again for reading. I hope you're here for the next chapter as well!