This can be taken as a sequel to First Night, which you should totally check out, but it can also be taken as a one-shot in its own right. I hope I've got the story right but I'm not too sure… Nightwing is 16 and a half in this, and Jaime has just turned 15. I know this may not be canon because of impulse or something but yeah. Don't care. I know you guys probably know this, but Jaime is pronounced hi-may, not jayme. In this fic, Ted Kord is already dead and everyone knows.
Jaime's mum knows about the scarab (I think).
Something was beeping. Quickly enlarging the feed, Nightwing scanned through the information. The Kord Industries building had exploded. An unused building exploding randomly was enough to set off anyone's uh-oh radar, but this was the former occupation of the old Blue Beetle, Ted Kord. Normally, it would have been someone else's job to check it out, but since it was the old Kord building, Nightwing wanted to investigate it personally.
He'd been friends with Ted Kord, and he knew he was a good, kind, honest man. He'd worked with Blue Beetle on numerous different occasions and also knew the man was incredibly trustworthy and reliable.
Sighing, Nightwing closed his holo-computer on his wrist and walked away from the central console of Mt. Justice. Since he was the one in charge around here, he had 'access all areas' when it came to information files; not that he needed it, the master hacker had long since been able to access all areas. His second in command when it came to computers was Connor, and although he didn't really understand the technology, he knew how to use it properly.
Nightwing called the Kryptonian through his comm., which was always in his ear now, no matter the time or place.
'Connor?'
''Wing!'
'I have a favour to ask you.'
'Shoot.' That was what he liked most about Superboy; he was always willing to help.
'Can you take my shift for a few hours, maybe spar with the younger ones a bit?'
'Sure, why?'
'There was a disturbance at the Kord building. I want to go check it out, and there's been strange energy signals being emitted, ones that don't originate from earth.'
'Are you sure? It sounds dangerous. You shouldn't go alone. Take someone else for backup.' Connor was always the sensible one who looked at risks, despite his angry exterior.
'Hmmm. Actually, this might be a good experience for one of the rookies… who d'ya think I should take?'
Connor facepalmed. He was trying to get Nightwing to take a meta along just in case, and a powerful one at that. Not just a few rookies, someone who could fight, like La'gaan or Tim. He thought for a moment before replying.
Within five minutes, Nightwing, Beast Boy, and Impulse were all suited up and ready to go. Nightwing kick-started his motorbike, Beast Boy transformed into some kind of green bird, and Impulse just yawned, before blurring up out of the cave after them.
Impulse and Nightwing raced for a bit on the roads, before the younger rocketed ahead with a burst of laughter.
'Impulse.' Nightwing chided over the comm.
'What, just havin' a bit of fun here, isn't that right BB?'
There was no answer from the green bird. Of course, that was to be expected – whilst flying in bird form, there was no way to connect a comm to the half-martian without attracting suspicion. However, he still seemed to get the picture and cawed loudly at the speedster.
"All right, spoilsports!" He yelled, the noise being whipped away by the wind. Slowing down ever so slightly, he slipped into second's position by Nightwing's side.
After a few more minutes, they were just outside the neighbourhood of El Paso. Garfield had changed back to his human(ish) form, and Impulse lifted his goggles from his face. They stood under the cover of some trees, and Nightwing had his holo-computer up again and was checking up on the energy source.
"It seems to be coming from that house over there," he informed the others.
"Crash! Now let's go check it-aargh." Nightwing's wrist shot out and he snagged the speedster before he could escape. "Aw, man," he complained.
"Shut up," the older teen hissed. "You go marching in there straight away and our cover is blown to smithereens! They might even capture us and try and get our identities!"
Nobody really knew who 'they' were, but they both got the picture. Impulse looked a little guilty – this was his first proper assignment/mission and he didn't want to mess up.
"Should I change into a dog or something and get a better look?" Gar asked timidly. Nightwing knew he could do it himself but the experience would be good for the young teen, as well as how he handled it.
"Not a bad idea, but what kind of dog is bright green? Try a small bird, you can use that tree over there." In a flap of feathers he was gone.
He flew back almost immediately. "There's no-one in, apart from one guy. About mid-teens by the looks of it, nothing Meta about him that's obvious."
"Nice one. Okay, Impulse, I want you to stay out of sight but well in earshot, just in case." Said hero frowned briefly but then nodded. "Gar, what's the smallest animal you can do?"
…
Still in his green coat to hide his uniform, and a baseball cap to conceal his domino mask, he approached the door and knocked twice. It slid open a crack and Nightwing saw a brown eye peer through the gap.
"Uh, hi? What can I do for you? If you're here trying to sell something then-"
Nightwing took off his baseball cap. The kid looked at him strangely, so he unzipped the front of his coat and showed him the insignia on his chest. He was counting on his reputation to help him out here.
"Can I come in?" The other teen just gaped. Nightwing waited for five, ten, fifteen seconds.
"Um, sure, I guess…" he opened the door fully and let the vigilante through. "So, what brings you here, Mr… Wing?" he asked as he led him through to the kitchen
He chuckled. "Just Nightwing is fine. And I saw some strange signals…"
Jaime was very confused. Where he lived wasn't the most law-abiding of places, but it wasn't anything like Gotham or Bludhaven in terms of criminal activity, so what was Nightwing, the Nightwing, doing here? Unless…
He seeks to confront us, the scarab, Khaji Da, informed him. He wishes only harm.
No he doesn't! That's Nightwing,he doesn't do harm! Khaji Da kept arguing. The noise was giving him a headache, so he decided to try and distract himself.
"… I'm Jaime Reyes." He held out his hand for a handshake. Nightwing brought his up too. Nobody expected what happened next.
He is striking you!
A flash of blue light and some clicking noises later, a sonic cannon extended itself from Jaime's now armour-covered left arm, aimed in Nightwing's direction and prepared to fire. It fired a narrow beam and knocked the vigilante backwards out of his chair. Suddenly, there was a flurry of movement.
"Freeze, pal!" A younger sounding voice reached his ears, followed by a deep, threatening growl. Slowly turning his head, he laid eyes on one heck of a scene. Crouched behind him, tensed and ready to strike, was a huge, bright green lion. On the other side of him, just in front of the window, was a kid in a red and white bodysuit and a translucent yellow visor with his fists raised, also ready to strike.
"'Wing!" the kid shouted, alarmed. "Hey, blue guy, if you so much as move a muscle…" The lion growled again.
Insect? He realised that with all the commotion, he hadn't noticed the rest of his armour was covering him and he was hovering, almost scraping the ceiling.
"BB, you've got this one covered? I've gotta check Wingster!" The green lion nodded. Wait, nodded?
In a blur of movement so fast it was almost invisible, the red and white kid raced over to Nightwing, who he noticed was on the floor. Khaji Da must have hit him, Jaime realised.
"'Wing! Nightwing! You know the team are gonna kill me if they think I let you get hurt!" The kid cried anxiously, "'Wing!"
"…Don't…don't call me that, Impulse," the teen groaned, sitting up. Impulse sighed in relief as he saw no harm had come to their leader.
I do not understand! That blast should have at least cracked ribs! Khaji Da hissed.
"Impulse, Beast Boy, I'm fine!" his teammates looked at him dubiously – well, as dubious as an angry lion trying to focus on a flying armoured blue being can look, anyway. "Kevlar and body armour plating, remember?" He tapped his chest to emphasize the point.
"Khaji Da! Stop!" Everyone looked at him confusedly. Jaime realised he'd said that out loud, and turned red; not that anyone could see him in the armour. The sonic cannon retracted and he dropped to the floor, although the armour stayed put. Impulse gaped at him and the lion rumbled.
"Gar." The lion turned its head, keeping the battle-ready position. "It's okay." It growled in response. In all the commotion, Nightwing's green coat had come off and he now looked a heck of a lot more threatening.
"Gar!" The lenses on the domino mask contracted in what Jaime assumed was a glare. "Stand down." Grumbling, the lion's legs began to narrow and its face begun to change until a small green boy with sideburns and fur covering most of his body apart from his hands, feet and face, and wearing a red bodysuit.
"Woah!" the armoured teen gasped. He is part Martian, Khaji Da told him, able to change into animals.
The part-Martian boy ran on his hands and feet to the other side of Nightwing, who was clearly their leader.
"Uh, so what exactly is going on here?" Impulse asked.
"My best guess is that there is something in control of Jaime's body which made him react like that. It must have taken my handshake for a threat," Nightwing mused.
"Hey, how did you know that?" the green kid enquired.
"His movements seemed jerky, like a puppet on strings. No human in control of themselves moves like that, not even Metas."
After waging an internal war with himself, Jaime was able to convince the scarab to let the armour off his face.
"I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?"
They all sat back down at the table calmly after the older teen had placated the speedster and Martian. Nightwing relaxed, although his teammates did not and sat close to him, worried expressions on their faces.
"Jaime, this is Beast Boy and Impulse. BB has Martian powers and Impulse is a speedster. They're on my team." Impulse flashed a grin at him whilst Beast Boy avoided his eyes.
"Uh, hi?"
"So, can you tell us about," Nightwimg waved his hand at the armour, "This?"
"Well, it started when…" After Jaime had recounted his story, Impulse blurred over to him.
"That's so crash! Canweseeitcanweseeitpleease!" he gestured to his back.
"Um, pardon? A little slower, ese?"
"Can we see that scarab on your back?"
"Uhh-"
"Impulse." The speedster immediately backed off, hanging his head slightly. "Leave it for now," Nightwing said, "We know Jaime is our friend, but we don't know what this… 'Khaji Da' would interpret as a threat, remember?"
"Yeah. If it thought Nightwing trying to shake your hand was a threat…" Beast Boy shuddered, "What would it do if we tried to touch it or take off your armour?"
There was a knock at the door. Everyone flinched.
"-ime? You home?" A voice floated through the air. Nightwing raised his eyebrow again.
"It's fine with me, as long as you guys are okay with my mum being here." Beast Boy and Impulse looked to Nightwing, who nodded.
"You mean she knows about your armour and stuff?" Impulse asked
"Yeah. Coming, Mum!" Jaime walked to the door and let in a petite woman with brown hair.
"Oh my," She said, "You are in a lío here, are you not?"
After even more explaining, Nightwing formally offered Jaime a place on the team. "We could use someone who can fly, and that armour and cannon are pretty cool too. But, the best thing is that you want to help people and are prepared to contribute."
"It would be crash if you joined! There's all sorts of cool stuff at the cave, like-"
"Impulse! We don't know if he's going to join yet, so you can't tell him details of the Cave, okay!"
"…Oops."
"It's fine."
"Of course! I'd love to join the team! I've heard so much about you guys!"
"That's good. But," Nightwing looked over to Jaime's mother, "It's not just your opinion."
"Oh yeah! Ms Reyes, do you give consent for your son to join the team?" Beast Boy asked formally. Nightwing looked at him, impressed by his etiquette.
"Yes. If you want to, you should. Try to do some good in the world, hm?" Ms Reyes replied.
After a bit more conversation, it was agreed that Jaime would stay at the Mountain for a week to see if he was the right person for the team, and if so, he would become a member of Young Justice.
Jaime's mother left the room, presumably to pack him some clothes.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to blindfold you for the way there. Just in case you don't join, civilians can't know where our base is; it puts them in danger of the telepathics out there." Nightwing told him. "You can come back on my bike – BB can't carry you and not look suspicious, and Impulse just can't carry you anyway."
"Um, okay. But I shoulc probably blindfold myself in case Khaji Da thinks…" Nightwing nodded and handed him a strip of fabric which he tied around his head so he could still see.
He said goodbye to his mother and took the bag of clothes from her. Beast Boy and Impulse flanked their leader as they walked to the woods.
"So, where's the bike?" Jaime asked
Nightwing pressed a button on his belt. A blue and black motorbike screeched to a halt in front of them. Jaime sighed. "Should've expected that, I guess."
"Yup," Impulse added.
Beast Boy shrunk into a falcon, and NIghtwing walked over to his bike.
"Well? Hop on." All Jaime could do was stare at all the buttons, levers and dials jutting out of the bike's panels. "C'mon already!" Shaking himself out of his ogling, he climbed onto the bike on the back seat. Nightwing swiftly slid on in front of him.
"Bike computer – Mount Justice." He instructed.
"Ready," A cool, female voice replied.
"Jaime. Blindfold." The other teen compiled after staring at the holographic interface projected from the bike.
"Start."
The bike revved its engine before pulling off, followed by a red blur and a green falcon above.
Dun dun durrrr…
I'm gonna have to do another few chapters, meeting the team and stuff.
Bye!