Chapter one
I blinked groggily as I came to, my back laying on a pile of snow. I sat up and checked myself over no injuries, everything in its right place. The last thing I remembered was going to bed, in a country without snow.
The fact that I was dressed in heavy coat, sweatshirt, jeans and black leather work boots, when before I had been dressed in tan B.D.U.'s only reinforced the freak out factor, I stood up, my joints aching, and what felt like nails rattling around my lungs.
I coughed a few times, and almost screamed as pain lanced through me, turning my head to the side I spat onto the snow and then started. Instead of saliva, I had spat out mouthful of blood.
Huh. That… That does not look particularly good.
I sat up groaning, as my joints creaked and ground like rusty hinges I stood up and patted myself down, joints inflamed, capillary reflex is slow, but range of motion in ankles, knees, and wrists are all good, if incredibly painful.
I patted my down my pockets and drew out a black leather wallet, even just the color of the wallet was disconcerting, the wallet I last had being smooth brown rather the turtle-shell black. I opened the wallet and took a look at the I.D.
Well, thats even more concerning, my I.D. showed an accurate photo of me, a young photo, like an early twenties photo, but accurate, but my original name, which I had changed both illegally and legally a half dozen times using aliases and fake I.D.'s. Let me tell you, using a fake name and then to legally change your own name a half dozen times, along with a half dozen other alternate identities, and then finding a name that you hadn't used in over a decade is more then a little alarming.
I mentally shoved away that little tidbit and looked around, just at the horizon, were what looked like a dozen small buildings.
I walked closer feeling a burning sensation in my lungs with every step, as I walked figures slowly solidified in the far distance, one of which was walking closer to me, it resolved into a figure wearing a freaking weird black and red bodysuit with an oversized gun. The figure in the bodysuit gestured aggressively at me with its oversized gun and screamed something at me, in what sounded like… Russian? Maybe a dialect from the Ukraine close to the border? Whatever the language was I couldn't understand it. So I raised my hands up, and calmly spoke, alternating languages, keeping the same calm and even tone.
"I'm sorry sir, I don't understand you."
A step closer, fingers twitching as I pointedly ignored the screaming soldier.
"Izvinite, ser, ya ne ponimayu."
A step closer, just two more…
"Lo siento dentro, no lo entiendo."
One more step, the body suit the man was wearing didn't look like it was thick around the neck , the glass over the face looked like it also might be cracked easily.
"Omlouvam se, pane, nerozumim."
Whatever language the other guy speaking, he either didn't understand or thought the language of large guns would be enough to get me to stop. Either way, I got within reach and slapped the gun out of the way, took two quick steps, inside the strange soldiers reach before striking out with the knuckles of one fist.
Interesting side note, the human body is a mass of contradictory strengths and weaknesses, bones that can stand up to thousands of pounds of weight, and yet with organs and other parts of the body so weak, as to crumple under five pounds of pressure, parts of the body such as the esophagus.
So when my fist impacted on the other mans throat with my just over two hundred pounds in the fastest and heaviest strike I could land from so close? His throat crumpled like wet cardboard.
I watched dispassionately as the man choked to death, honestly, a crushed throat was one of the deadliest and easiest options I had for killing someone, without almost immediate medical attention the blow would almost always be fatal, without an emergency tracheostomy which I could provide, but, I would rather have a dead enemies gear at this point, then a live ones intel.
As I stripped the body, I encountered a couple of major surprises, the first was that the mans armor was optimized for aquatic environments, what with the frankly stupidly advanced jetpack designed for speedy and aquatic combat and an effective oxygen tank and reclamation system that would allow for extended underwater deployment, they were essentially underwater gills that also supplied the jet propulsion for the suit, the protection it supplied however was week, essentially the body suit was designed around getting somebody to the fight, not so much protecting them once they were there.
The other major surprise was the gun the soldier had been carrying, a literal laser gun. That beyond everything else told me that weird crap was going on, from all my contacts still in the military or in serious private security all agreed the last time I had talked to them that any sort of energy weapon was still at least fifty years away from prototype development let alone standard production like the gun in front of me was.
What happened next, well, I heard a gargling sound from behind me, and I whirled around to see the corpse of the man I had just stripped sit up and look at me.
And I absolutely did not scream like a little girl when the corpse looked at me with clouded, milky eyes.
"GET THE FU$# away!"
And then as the corpse moved away in a jointless crab walk, I most certainly did not scream again. I paused as the corpse acted as I ordered.
"Stand up."
The corpse stood up.
"Sit down."
The corpse sat down.
Huh. Okay. So zombies, apparently zombies that I control, are a thing. Well, I apparently have the ability to make loyal zombies, and there is a entire village most likely full of angry soldiers with advanced weaponry. Lets see what I can do with this.
Scene Break
Black Manta, terrorist and scourge of Atlantis stood before a serious of screens.
"What is the problem Manta? You frantic attitude in the message you sent us suggested that you required urgent assistance from the light."
The voice that spoke was rough, gravely, and yet conveyed the bearing and authority of a king addressing his subject. Manta bowed slightly before answering, his respect for the voice obvious.
"An outpost in Alaska that we had just made in order for a sorry against an Atlantean research team was eradicated this last week, the scouting team we sent out reported them standing guard outside the village, with visible wounds, they refused to answer any coms, and attacked on, not only sight, but as far as the scout team was able to tell, by smell, audio range, or any other human sense. They also were not affected by anything less then a direct hit to the head, the apparent traitors newfound resistance to laser fire prompted a retreat. I would ask the Light for advice and assistance in this matter."
Their was silence across the screens as the Light considered the matter. Finally a voice with a European accent spoke.
"Very well Manta. A detachment of Shadows led by Death-stroke and Cheshire will be at the location with the day. Is that agreeable to the rest of you?"
Murmurs of agreement all around. Finally the first voice spoke up again.
"Very well, it seems we have reached an agreement, A detachment of shadows will be at the location indicated soon to meet up with your scouting team. Any other member of the light may take the liberty of sending additional reinforcements to the area as well, as long as they clear it with Ra's Al Ghul. This meeting is dismissed, good day gentlemen and lady."
Scene Break
I stared at the computer screen in front of me. So, thats, different.
To recap, I have the ability to make zombies, I somehow look 20 again, and wasn't that a shock when I looked in the mirror and saw that I had lost over twenty years in my face. I had also discovered what the soldiers had done with the other villagers. Yeah, the giant pit of corpses in the center of town made sure that any feelings of guilt I might have had over killing all those soldiers swiftly disappeared.
And now, I had reached the weirdest bit of this, whatever this is.
Apparently the Justice League was real… Yeah, thats a thing.
WHAT THE FUC#!?
I mean, granted I should have probably expected something this weird considering the whole zombie thing, but this shit is weird. Seriously. I had finally figured out where I was, and it was apparently in the Young Justice universe. Yeah, the one from the television show. In all my years, I had never, ever expected this though. The research I had done indicated that the soldiers I had killed and zombified were minions of Black Manta, an all around ass-hat who was essentially an eco-terrorist who regularly targeted Atlantean. The question was, what the hell was he doing in Alaska of all places.
But now that I was in the Young Justice universe, there were a few options viable to me, first, I could of course run to the Justice League, and probably get seconded to the Young Justice team. The second option was I could immediately give my services to the 'Light' as soon as they got here. The 'Light', stupid name.
Of course there was a third option.
Screw with everyone, everything, and every side, leaving all sides grasping at straws.
Before I get any farther, I suppose I should introduce myself.
I am a man of wealth and taste. Well. A man with a taste for high explosives and big guns.
My name, or at least my current name, is Amadeus Grey, 42 years of age, apparently now looking like I just turned 20. I had spent 10 years in the U.S. military, the first five as a medic, the last five as an interrogator. I then spent the next 10 years working for private security firm that contracted all over the world, putting my skill to use for the highest bidder in wars on ever continent, polishing old skills, and learning new ones, like how to handle high explosives.
Due to a fondness that I developed for high explosives during the first five years as a contractor I became known as the guy you sent to make sure that a hostile organization stopped existing. Of course, usually when I went to work it meant the rest of the block stopped existing too, but most of my clients didn't really care about the collateral damage.
And now I was in a universe filled with superpowers, on the verge of what would be multiple shadow wars in-between, if I remembered correctly from the show, the Light, and a fresh faced Young Justice team, since from what I could tell, it was a week after the events of Cadmus.
It was time to flip the game board. After all, it would be so boring if things followed the scripted television show, now wouldn't it?