I do not own Young Justice nor Young Avengers, they are the property of DC and Marvel Comics.
Three people were expelled from a portal in front of the Zeta Beam Teleporter, sliding across the ground, the female in various shades of purple reached out and by dragging her fingers across the ground was able to get the right angle to flip and struggled to race towards the open portal against the typhoon strength winds gusting from the horizon of it.
"Strange! No!" She said throwing out a hand to the open portal. .
They saw a craggy face in the portal, shrouded with pain, and heard screaming happening in the background, barely heard over the fierce winds emitting from the portal.
"Strange, Come On!" She screamed to the man on the other side of the portal, angling her palm to give him something to grab hold of. She was struggling to get close enough, but failing until she unsheathed a long-sword and shoving it easily into the ground to give her something to hang onto.
"Good luck Avengers…" The man said, his voice booming over the winds; a wise and understanding look appearing in his eyes as he glowed a bright blue.
"No! Strange-!" She yelled as the man, Strange, closed the portal.
The typhoon class winds died down and the female swore, pounding her fist into the ground, before taking a moment to gather herself and stand. She easily removed her sword from the ground, and walked towards her downed teammates.
A gesture above their bodies gave her a 3-D hologram of their injuries and a list. Luckily from what Robin could see, the injuries were minor. So with a gesture, the hologram's disappeared and the female turned to face Batman, Black Canary, Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter.
Her face was armored, but she had twin peaks standing curved above her temples arching down toward the area where the arch of her nose would be. Her eyes weren't naked, neither was her mouth. But the armor did give her a semblance of them; giving them a glowing purple impression. (A/N:Think Ironlad) That was when Robin and Aqualad, not to mention Artemis noticed the arrows in a quiver on her back, as well as the sword sheath at the back of her hip and the staffs on her left leg.
"Another archer?" Artemis whispered to Zatanna.
"With a sword and staffs? More like a female version of Batman…" Zatanna retorted.
"I doubt she has gadgets like Batman." Artemis said, frowning.
"With that armor would you need them?" Zatanna questioned her teammate. Artemis thought about it and shrugged.
"Who are you?" Batman demanded of her.
She didn't say anything but merely watched them carefully, her long-sword held casually in her right hand.
A quiet groan drew her attention briefly from the adults to pass over her teammates; before they woke, noticed where they were, and leapt to her side.
"I cannot read their minds." Martian Manhunter admitted to Black Canary.
"Where are we." The male of the trio stated, not asking. When no answer was forthcoming, his eyes glowed a brighter white beneath his armored helmet. If he found the answer to his statement he didn't share it with his teammates. He was armored in a similar way to the purple female. But in varying shades of black and metal, with a red capping about his shoulders. His full helmet had an engraving across the forehead, to most of them, from what they could see, they looked like Celtic designs in the metal.
"Who is your Sorcerer Supreme?" The last female of the trio asked. She too was dressed in formfitting armor, consisting of red and black, with a black circular pattern on her chest, an interesting helmet fully encompassing her head resembling an ant but with a similar feature for the mouth, as was with her purple teammate; except in dark-red.
"Dr. Fate." Was the answer that Red Tornado supplied.
"May we speak with him?" She asked again.
"Who are you?" The male and ant-female looked toward the female in purple.
Her glowing purple eyes seemed to take in the Justice League members present, before coming to a decision. She pulled a card from the round buckle on her belt and in two fingers and tossed it in the air. It hit the laser holographic field and computer code filled the screen. Then, files began uploading and several windows appeared in the screen, the most predominant of which were three images of presumably the three people before the Leaguers. Finally the rest of the windows closed by themselves within seconds upon opening leaving the stats alone.
The images were of people in similar costumes to the trio, but there was visible skin and hair showing. Once the set of three stats came up on the holo-screen, she moved and plucked the card from the air. Batman and Robin both noticed the image of a teenager in purple and white with her code-name and an oddly shaped 'A' beside her image.
Both the Justice League Members and Young Justice League Members viewed the results briefly before looking back towards the trio.
"We are the Avengers, I am Hawkeye, this is Wiccan and Stature." She said gesturing to each member of her team.
"Why are you here?" Black Canary asked.
Hawkeye removed a thin implement from the area around her carotid, and the armor collapsed into itself revealing the battle hardened image of the smirking teenager on the holo-screen. She had no bruises or scars, but there was a feel about her that made the Justice Members wary and sympathetic.
Kid Flash winced as she removed it. "Doesn't that hurt?"
"No worse than breaking a bone." She answered candidly.
Aqualad and Robin shared a startled look, before turning back to watch the interaction between Batman and the trio.
The other two, Wiccan and Stature respectively also removed a thin implement from their persons. They too were revealed, battle weary.
"Why are you removing your armor?" Super Boy asked.
Stature answered. "Our armor is only for the war from our world. There's no reason for us to wear it here… Unless you are in an un-winnable battle yourselves, and the human race will die…"
"No, haven't had that sort of thing." Kid Flash said, munching absently on an energy-bar.
"Our Earth has been on the losing side of a galactic conquest that we, like many before us, have failed to prevent from proceeding." Wiccan said, sighing, rubbing a palm across his temple.
"Why come here?" Batman asked, "are you going to involve us in your war?"
"No. We were prepared to die with the last of our human race on Earth," Hawkeye grimaced, shoving a gloved hand through her long black hair. "Strange had other plans."
"Who, is Strange?" Martian Manhunter asked, concerned at the attitude these three teens were presenting. He was used to seeing this attitude from his fellow Justice League Members, specifically Batman, not including Captain Marvel, after a particularly hard and long battle.
"Strange, Dr. Stephen Strange, is- was" Wiccan corrected himself, "a famous Brain Surgeon; who after an accident, lost the use of his hands, and within the course of two years, became the Sorcerer Supreme of our world." Wiccan stated.
"More than likely, he wanted to prevent a similar, if not exact event from happening to you, as the three of us have been humanity's defense for the past thirty-seven years."
"Thirty-seven?" was the shocked demand from most Justice Members.
"Strange, and the more brilliant members of the Avengers created some devices to help prevent the alien coup of our people." Wiccan stated, "Our armor is one of the devices that were built for our use." Wiccan decided against giving more information.
Hawkeye glared at Wiccan, not liking the divulging of that type of information to these new people so soon.
"How does your armor help?" Black Canary asked them.
"Our armor protects the wearer." Stature answered, looking in her hip-packs for something.
The Young Justice Members exchanged a 'ya think?' glance.
"What other things did they create?" Martian Manhunter asked, well versed in battles that were un-winnable.
Stature looked to Hawkeye and then shook her head. "That's for later, and not pertinent to the information at hand."
"How is it you are thirty-seven?"
"Oh- we're actually in our fifties…" Stature had no problem divulging. She pulled out, what looked like a calculator from her hip-pack, peered at the screen, nodded and put it away.
Hawkeye heard jaws drop. "It's one of the reasons why we need to speak to your Sorcerer Supreme…" She said.
"We need your information-" Red Tornado said, stepping forward.
"Hawkeye downloaded our stats to your mainframe earlier." Wiccan reminded them.
"You can do that?" Black Canary asked amazed, turning back to the screen to view them more intently.
"Being the Avengers, we have access to all kinds of things…" Stature said lightly. "But can we talk more over a meal? I don't know about you guys- but we haven't eaten in over six months!"
At this Kid Flash looked shocked and one look at Batman and the Martian Manhunter added looks of disturbance and distress to her statement.
"I'll go cook something!" Miss Martian volunteered. "I've got this recipe that I've wanted to try out for weeks!" With that she flew into the kitchen.
"Do we follow?" Stature asked her team leader.
"In a moment." Hawkeye said. "Batman, is there anything else you need to know?"
The narrowing of the eyes of his cowl indicated that he did. "How do you know who I am?"
Wiccan looked apologetic. "It's a precautionary measure of ours…" He looked to his leader before pulling up a holographic version of himself and making swishing movements with his hands, expanded his holographic image to three images, one of the skeletal structure, one of the nervous system structure of his body and the last was a picture of his body in regular uniform. He pulled down the nervous system image and enlarged the brain to view a certain sector.
"It's interesting how he says that it's a precautionary measure, but they're being so amenable with us…" Aqualad mentioned quietly to Super Boy.
"It could be that they feel safe. If their Sorcerer Supreme sent them here, away from the lost war, then they would have to gain allies and connections… Right?" Super Boy asked in return.
Batman looked at them, having overheard them and narrowed his eyes. He looked back to the Avengers and crossed his arms, waiting for more information from them.
"After the first year of the invasion, we started to maintain precautionary measures beyond the Avenger norm…" A nod from Batman and Black Canary told Wiccan he could continue, but the sideways glance from Hawkeye gave him the go-ahead. "Most of the human race was still unaware of the threat."
"Panic is never a good thing in a battle." Martian Manhunter conceded.
"The main Avenger task force, our predecessors, were trying and failing to stop the invaders, so they had us move their families to Asgard."
Batman filled in his confused League teammates. "A mythical place of legend where the Norse Gods reside."
"Not myth from our world…" Stature muttered.
"There we were met by Sif and Odin. Their weapons makers gave us new weapons, for those of us that use them… And within six hours, the world as we knew it, would no longer be the world we cared to remember." Wiccan took a deep breath to steady his nerves.
Stature continued for him. "Dr. Strange, our Sorcerer Supreme arrived with Dr. Reed Richards, and King T'Challa and told us that they had something that would help us. We- our original leader, Patriot, agreed that we would do whatever it was that needed to be done."
"You're not the leader?" Robin asked Hawkeye.
"I am now." She said, her voice hard.
"Unfortunately," Stature continued, "at the time, there was a limit of what could be done. We contacted the Skrull and Kree Empires on the other side of the Milky Way, and Hulkling went as the Ambassador of his two peoples. Patriot and Speed were sent to Earth, and left Vision and ourselves with some of our Avenger forbearers."
"You weren't the original Avengers?" Was Aqualad's question.
"No." Hawkeye answered. She brought up an image minimizing Wiccan's images. "These are the original Avengers: Captain America. IronMan. Thor. The Hulk. Hawkeye. And the Black Widow." She said pointing proudly to each one. "There were three generations of Avengers before us, all three 'generations' included Captain America and IronMan… Until us." She finished sadly.
Wiccan continued where Stature left off. "Dr. Richards came up with a device that- and I'm quoting here: 'Should make telepathic contact readily easy for the three of you.'." He shook his head. "There was more. Strange and a Priestess of Asgard foresaw the war going poorly, so they'd contacted several Science-y members, including King T'Challa of Wakanda and it was agreed that something must be done."
"What was it?" Zatanna asked, transfixed by their tale.
"We went on the table, and under the knife." Hawkeye answered. "The first thing that was put in," she said, "was the device that Dr. Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic, created." She brought up Wiccan's enlarged brain image again. "This is the device. It allows us to share information, and understand it precisely as it was meant to. It also allows for languages, and it is the size of a piconite."
"Piconite?" Was Kid Flash's question. "As in One Trillionth the size of a nanite?"
"Yes." she said. "It has the capability of six petabytes of information storage."
"Whoa." Was Artemis' assessment.
"Yes, it's been placed directly into the memory portion of our brains and is incapable of being removed or tested upon." Stature said to Batman.
"Dinner's ready!" Miss Martian called out to everyone and they filed into the dining room.
As the three teenagers ate, Batman noticed that their manners were court etiquette.
"I expected you to wolf down your meal…" Kid Flash admitted.
"We may not have eaten for the past several months, but our armor provides for all our needs." Stature said before she took a sip of milk. "Ugh- I think this is sour…"
Artemis leaned over and smelled the milk. "Definitely sour… Sorry 'bout that- will water do?"
"Don't worry about it…" Wiccan said, waving a hand over their glasses. They all took a sip and hummed in appreciation. "Now that's milk…"
"Does a body good." Hawkeye agreed.
Kid Flash snickered. Apparently colloquialisms were a constant between universes.
After they finished their meal, the settled themselves on the couches in the living room, and the three of them continued their tale.
"While we were on the table," Wiccan said, "our bones were laced or injected with a mixture of Adamantium and Vibranium. Some of the strongest and rarest metals on our Earth."
"While we were out for the incredibly painful process-" Stature said pointedly to the Justice Members. "Mr. Fantastic and Vision were creating our armor with some of the Rainbow road's most famous and noteworthy armor-forgers."
Wiccan then brought up the image of his skeletal frame along with Stature's and Hawkeye's.
"Hawkeye is- was, the only true human of our team. No powers. So she was put through the most intensive surgery of us all… Stature needed a specific ratio for her system, as she can change her mass at will, and I needed a ratio more geared to my magic capability. After I woke up, Odin himself took me into a specific room in the Asgard palace and left me there with two of his most trusted Mages. When I got out three years later for me, three hours later for the rest of the universe, I was fully versed in my powers."
"I needed training of the basest level." Stature admitted. "I can change from a weight of one tenth of an ounce to twenty tons, easily, so I needed to know how to wage battle and challenge the norm of my intelligence per the situation and the area of the attack." She popped her back. "With my Ad-Vib laced skeletal structure, I was sent into a similar room, like Wiccan, but learned combat for three years. I got out about the same time as Wiccan."
They looked to Hawkeye, who sighed. "As they said, I went through the most intensive surgery ever preformed on a human." With Wiccan's aid, Hawkeye brought up the image her own skeletal structure. "I have stents in my throat and nose to prevent them from being crushed and semi-flexible Adamantium cages around my spine and torso do to the same thing, while still allowing me all my regular movements. The Nine realms of Asgard joined and implanted pieces of their nature into my body and soul. My bones are solid Ad-Vib and I've had spells placed on all my joints preventing dislocation for too long. When I awoke from my surgery, I was beneath a large tree that seemed to encompass the universe. Wiccan and Stature met me there two hours later." She took a breath and removed the thin implement of armor from the base of her quiver that she'd removed earlier from her person.
"The armor makers decided that any armor his its chinks, so it was changed to suit our needs and situation." She placed the piece of armor into Batman's hand. "That is a piece of zetta-armor. It is laced into the very molecules of our DNA, and cannot be removed. We can call our armor at will, but that implement is something that ultimately prevents anything from overtaking us, and only we can remove it from ourselves."
"How?" Came a new voice. The three instantly had their choice weapons out, stances rigid. Hawkeye had her bow out and an arrow strung before anyone could blink, Stature had metal gloves on up to her elbows with spikes protruding from all joints, and Wiccan had large blades protruding from atop his wrists, glowing bright blue.
There were two people that had just arrived. One was a woman dressed in red, gold, and blue with white stars, the other was a man in a blue leotard and gold armament.
The three didn't demand who they were, but a wave of blue light came from Wiccan and encompassed the two before diminishing. Instantly Stature and Hawkeye calmed, replaced their weapons and resumed their seats.
"Before dinner, you asked us how we knew who you were." Hawkeye said, pulling a leg beneath her. "The answer is in both our piconite connection and our cards."
"Cards?" Wonder Woman asked as she leaned against the wall.
"Our identification cards. They used to be used for communication, but we changed that since they are easily broken or stolen." Stature said easily. She pulled her own card from her belt, to show to Wonder Woman who nodded in understanding.
"Each have the capability of holding thirty-five terabytes of information, and when we downloaded our information into your mainframe, we received in return only the basic information we deemed fit to skim. Which included your code-names, the place we are-" Hawkeye detailed out.
"Seriously- Mount Justice?" Wiccan asked them.
"The city in which this place is based and the country, as well as current events, and fundamental principles." she finished.
"That's basic?!"
"That's a necessity." Stature corrected Robin.
"Why do you need this information?" Aqualad asked.
"Because we have no home to go back to. What we have left of our human race, is woven into the nine realms so meticulously that there is no turning back."
"Then why is it that you need me?" Dr. Fate asked. "It seems that you have taken care of everything."
"Not true." Wiccan stated, standing to face the host of Nabu. "Whilst I am a magic user, I cannot dispel the enchantment that allows our continued adolescent age to endure."
Stature and Hawkeye rolled their eyes at Wiccan's use of Asgard Verse.
"Why is it that you need my help?"
"They have been teenagers for the past thirty-seven years, Dr. Fate." Red Tornado said. "From what I understand of the human race, it is natural for humans to age and die. These three have not aged."
"You would have me make the three of you your actual age?"
"I don't think that can be done…" Stature said sadly. "Our age was merely put on hold until the war ended. And while at home there was no problem with us remaining teenagers, especially with war proceeding a lot longer than the first World War... I doubt that there would be a reason for us to continue on with this enchantment."
"Are you so sure that I can break the spell you are under?"
"It was a spell done by our Sorcerer Supreme, so, as you are the Sorcerer Supreme of this Universe, there is no reason why you cannot dispel it." Hawkeye reasoned. "It was placed at the same time as our respective surgeries…"
"Once I do this, what is it you will do?"
"Hopefully return to somewhat normal if empty lives." Wiccan said sincerely.
"It is a refreshing thing for someone of your caliber to speak so candidly. I will grant your request." Fate said. His ankh appeared behind him and twirled around and through the three teenagers, for it to return to him. "You are now as you once were… Able to age."
"Just because I want to know-" Super Boy started. "Why is it you didn't want to remain immortal?"
"Immortality has its cost." Hawkeye said. "And the enchantment is, for lack of better terminology, programmed to occur if we are needed in our former capacity once more, and we will be teenagers once again… Even bringing us back to life if need be." She muttered the last part, only Super Boy and Red Tornado heard her.
"That and we don't do Peter Pan." Wiccan said as he blasted a bright blue light at their feet before the Justice Members could stop them, and the Avengers disappeared into bright blue fog. The armor implement from Hawkeye's armor in Batman's hand disappearing with them.
Batman turned to Black Canary, "Will they be able to integrate themselves back into human society?"
"Time is the only thing that can tell… More likely, they'll be like War Veterans, which they are, and have trouble reacting like normal humans." She said sadly.
"Question: What is normal for a human?" Red Tornado asked her.
She looked at him startled. "There isn't a normal."
"Then they will not integrate." Red Tornado stated. "Should we not find them?"
"They found us, even if by accident. They know where we are." Batman said stoically. "If they need us, they'll find us."
"They're from another Universe!" Super Boy shouted. "Of course they'll need us!"
"If they are as old as you say they are, then they have planned for a contingent course of action." Wonder Woman said. "They will have all the paper work filled out and new identities within the week, if not already."
Batman said nothing, but walked to the Zeta Tubes, his fellow League Members following his lead. "I will return with a mission for you within the week. Be prepared." He said to the Young Justice team.
~Recognized: Batman, 02. Wonder Woman, 05. Black Canary, 11. Dr. Fate, 09.~ And the Justice League Members were gone.
"I am so whelmed." Robin said, putting a hand to his head. Messing up his hair even more in frustration.
"Seriously. What they went through, only to lose…?" Kid Flash asked rhetorically.
Super Boy looked at them and then brought up the holo-screen and keyboard.
"What are you doing?" Aqualad asked him.
"I want to see what and who they are. There was a lot of information on these screens before their stats came up."
"They said they got the basics…" Zatanna offered as an explanation.
"Not from what I could see." Robin said in unison with Artemis.
Artemis continued. "I saw a lot of information about New York on the screen, and I also saw a brief blurb of medical records."
"And what looked like Home School files!" Robin exclaimed, rushing up to the screen and opening another holographic keyboard. After several minutes of typing, there was nothing. "Whoa- they're good. There's not even a trace of them in our system!"
"Hmm." Was all Super Boy said. He was still looking through files.
"Didja find something?" Kid Flash asked quickly at Super Boy's side, reading over his shoulder.
"I saw three first names, now I'm comparing the names to facial structures of kids around their age in New York."
"That will take forever!" M'gann exclaimed.
"It's done." Super Boy said as the computer chimed. "Katherine 'Kate' Bishop. William 'Billy' Kaplan, and Cassandra 'Cassie' Pym-Lang."
"Batman's going to be ticked that you discovered them before he did." Robin said with a cheerful cackle.
