New Orleans

July 4th, 12:00 EDT

Faust cursed his luck. Bad enough his contact had fled before handing over the tome so desperately desired by the dark sorcerer, but now the unlucky villain had managed to attract the attention of-

"Sepor dnib sih teef!"

-Zatara and his brat.

Enchanted cords sprouted around Faust's ankles and pulled tight, but before they could catch him completely, he muttered a counter-curse, and turned his would-be bindings to wisps of smoke. Distracted by that, however, he didn't hear or see the mystical wall being formed directly in front of him. Faust ended up running face-first into it, and promptly fell to the ground, out cold.

A man and teenage girl dropped down beside him, their rune disks dissipating. "Well done, Zatanna." The elder magician smiled at his daughter. "Though I doubt our foe will be taken by such surprise again."

"Aw, c'mon Dad, you know I'll be able to nab Faust with something else." She grinned up at him. "Now come on and truss him up, we've got to get going! Today is the day!"

Star City

July 4th, 9:21 PDT

Cars swerved and passengers screamed as the cables and walkway railings along the bridge came to life, rising upwards only to spear down fast as lighting. Standing in the middle of the central lane, Wizard smiled grimly at the chaos he caused.

A split second tingling at the back of his neck was all the warning the magic user needed in order to step aside, deftly avoiding the boxing glove arrow that sailed past him. Unfortunately, that single step took him straight into the path of a second specialized arrow. Struck square between the shoulders, Wizard stumbled forward, nearly falling to his hands and knees. He remained upright, however, and turned to glare at his attackers.

Two figures were standing further down the length of the bridge, while a third was flipping towards him. Muttering an incantation, he shot a blast of fel magic at the approaching hero, only for her to dodge at the last second. A pair of arrows then thudded into the pavement by Wizard's feet, exploding before he had time to transmute them into something else.

Longshot landed in a crouch by the unconscious villain, huffing in disappointment as she flicked her long black ponytail back over her shoulder. "Aw, you guys could've let me at least punch him once."

"Sorry, sis." The younger girl smirked, approaching with their mentor. "Not our fault your first arrow missed him by a mile."

"Easy now, ladies - if you really want, I suppose we could wait for him to wake up so we can go a second round." Green Arrow chuckled at the pair of horrified looks he received.

"No freakin' way!" Longshot protested, Arrowette nodding vigorously in agreement.

"Yeah, come on GA, today is the day!"

Pearl Harbor

July 4th, 6:02 HST

Snarling, Circe hurled multiple bolts of energy at her opponents, none of them connecting with the pair of agile Atlanteans. Aquaman summoned a massive wave to rise up over the edge of the ship, forcing the ancient sorceress to turn her attention to deflecting the deluge away from herself. When the woman next looked back, a slim teenager was nearly upon her.

"Incoming!" Aquagirl grinned, twirling as she avoided one final spell before delivering a knockout punch to Circe's jaw. The woman dropped like a stone, and Aquaman nodded approvingly as he approached his protege.

"That was well done. And?" He crossed his arms and gave her an expectant look.

Laughing, the teen gave her agreement. "Alright, yes, I am excited. Today is the day."

Hall of Justice, Washington DC

July 4th, 14:00 EDT

Alone in the rear security room of the Hall, Batman allowed himself to release a sigh as his colleagues and their sidekicks approached on the monitor screens. Beside her king, Tula held her head high and proud, but the young Atlantean's eyes nonetheless danced with excitement. Zatara's daughter, Zatanna, appeared more openly ecstatic, even exchanging a few teasing remarks with the younger of Green Arrow's students. Of those two, Jade kept her building anticipation under a firm shield, while Artemis was practically skipping as they got closer and closer to the Hall.

Batman's scrutiny switched to another screen to witness the girls' reactions as they first set foot inside the League's public headquarters, and couldn't help the slight smirk as each one paused to gape up at the massive statues of the Founders.

He'd been one of several to protest these four joining the world of superheroics at such an early age, but in the years since had come to accept that each of the teens had proven their usefulness. A second Atlantean to put on weather curbing duty during natural disasters certainly didn't hurt, as well as the alert Zatanna had once called in to her father about an ambush some members of the League were about to walk into (when asked about it later, she admitted to using a scrying spell in order to keep tabs on her dad). Even the headstrong Crock sisters once went and shut down what could've been a nuclear meltdown, scraped up but proudly sitting atop Girder's unconscious body by the time their mentor and a few other League members showed up.

Now, the group of four were getting their first inside look at the headquarters of the Justice League.

...Or at least, what the world thought was the League's headquarters.

Sighing once more, Batman stood and made his way towards the briefing room where the teens and their mentors would be arriving. Along the way, he met up with Flash and Superman, each of whom were grinning in anticipation, though the latter was also uneasy about something.

"I still think it would've been a good idea for me to bring-"

"No, Kent." Batman growled at the Kryptonian. "You set the three month training period. It lasts for one more week, and then you get to introduce him to the others."

"Fine, fine," the other hero rolled his eyes, Flash snickering behind them. "I don't know why I decided on such a long period in the first place..."

"Because you were still suspicious at first. Doesn't mean you get to change your mind now." By then, they'd reached the briefing room, and the subject was dropped. A few moments later, the opposite doors slid open, and the group of three adults and four teens entered.

Not five minutes later, everyone was staring in shocked silence as Longshot stalked back out, her forest green hat crumpled on the floor where it had been thrown.

Hesitantly, Arrowette moved to pick it up, being careful to avoid looking Green Arrow in the eye - she honestly didn't want to know how much pain her adopted father was bearing at the moment. He attempted to say something, to put an end to the awkward silence Jade's outburst and departure had caused, only for the computer to chime with an incoming message.

Superman was the first to pull up the alert, frowning as he did so. "Looks like planetary scanners have picked up something closing in on Earth - huh. Can't tell if it's a vessel or a high energy meteor-" Before the Kryptonian could go on, a second chime sounded. This time it was Icon, calling for a full League response to a small army of ice and weather-based villains turning New York City into their own private Arctic Zone.

"Stay put," Zatara said as he and the others headed for the door leading to the zeta tubes.

"What?" His daughter exclaimed. "Why?!"

"This is a League mission," Aquaman said, not unkindly.

"You're not trained-"

"Since when!"

Green Arrow gave his younger partner a pained look. "I meant you haven't been trained to be part of this team." He gestured to himself and the other League members, ignoring Arrowette's outrage.

"There will be other missions, when you're ready."

"But for now-"

"Stay. Put." Batman's blunt order from the doorway had a greater effect on the girls than Zatara reiterating his previous statement. As the adults headed out, the Dark Knight shot a glance at the subdued Man of Steel.

"Now are you glad you didn't bring you-know-who?" He muttered.

Superman sighed. "I suppose so."

Alone in the briefing room, the trio of teens exchanged baffled and irritated looks.

"...I don't know about you guys, but I'm really starting to wish I'd left with my sister."

Aquagirl sighed at Arrowette's words. "Too late now. We seem to be stuck waiting until the League returns."

"Maybe not," Zatanna murmured, looking at the computer screen speculatively. "Laever ot em tsap egami." An illusion shimmered into being, displaying the map that projected where the UFO would be crashing down to Earth.

"Wait, are- are you going after that thing?" Arrowette asked, her eyes lighting up. "Because if you're going, I'm going." The two younger teens turned to look Aquagirl expectantly.

She sighed, but grinned as well. "If we get in trouble for this, I will definitely be blaming the two of you."

"Perfectly acceptable!"

"Blame away!"

And so, the three girls headed for the Hall's zeta tube...

Montana

July 4th, 12:37 PDT

"I'm starting to think we took a wrong turn," Arrowette groaned, jogging up to the top of yet another wooded ridge in order to join the others. Aquagirl didn't even seem winded by their numerous climbs through the region, while Zatanna had just used her little pentagram hover-disks whenever she needed a breather - something that the panting archer felt more than a little miffed by.

"On the contrary, 'Ettie," Aquagirl said. "We're here."

And sure enough, in the little valley below them, a rather worse for wear spaceship had crashed and carved out a long trench through the earth.