Disclaimer: I do not any DC characters depicted within this story.

A/N: Thank you to all who submitted characters. There were some great submissions and I have narrowed down the field to these nine:

Cameron Spear – Mr. Wartburg (me)
James Stevens – Lt. Col. John Sheppard
Avery Pierce – Jgirl53
Maya Ghale – Dino724
Samantha Curro – Ansa88
Chastity Alban – NekoRy
Colton Hale – brandogriffin
Penelope Hanway – XxxCloudyxxX
Thomas Anderson – Mr. Scary face

There is also an outside chance another OC of mine will make a very brief cameo in a future chapter, but that is far from certain.

Enjoy!

Reach research lab – Somewhere in the Pacific
March 30, 2016

It was the blaring alarm that woke Cameron from his slumber. Well, that and the entire facility shaking. The flashing red light on the ceiling clued him into the fact that something was very amiss when he shook off the cobwebs of drug induced sleep. At first, he figured the scientists had just done something dumb and blown something up, but he didn't expect the facilities main power to down in his entire section. The 17-year old also didn't figure that his containment pod would open of its own volition, allowing him to walk freely into the cavernous laboratory. As he slowly stepped from the pod Cameron looked left, then right. He saw several others stepping from containment pods as well, each looking just as confused as the last. Looking at the open door to the rest of the ship Cameron could only think one thing; We have to get out of here.

To his right Cameron saw a young man with short brown hair staring around the room. What struck Cameron as odd was that the man didn't seem too awed by his surroundings. Rather, the man in question was staring around in an analytical fashion. To the man's right was a small, thickly thin girl that Cameron guessed couldn't be any older than 16. Continuing his assessment of the others Cameron's eyes settled on another girl, about the same height as the last. This one, however, looked far healthier and had black hair with several different streak of color running through it.

A voice belonging to the young man brought Cameron out of his observation, "So any idea how to get out of here?"

The room was silent after the man's question until Cameron spoke up, "No clue, but we won't be getting out of here without at least knowing each other's names."

The man nodded after sixing up Cameron, "Name's James, but call me Jim."

"Alright, Jim. I'm Cameron, Cam for short." Realizing that many would probably begin freaking out soon if someone didn't take charge Cameron looked to the thin girl to James's right, implying she too should introduce herself.

The thin girl spoke up next, "Chastity."

"Avery." The other girl Cameron had seen earlier was next.

"Tom." A young blonde teen Cameron hadn't seen before quietly said his name from behind another female.

The last male yet to speak appeared annoyed with the current introductions, "Could we get out of here? Names can wait."

"You're welcome to leave, who ever you are." When Colton didn't move Cameron continued, "I figure we're better off together and we can't really communicate without names now can we?" Cameron looked at the last three girls in the room. One was obviously of mixed Asian/American descent, the other a young blonde.

The blonde notice Cameron's stare and responded quickly, "Penelope, but call me Penny."

A young girl, around 14 years old, was next, "Sam."

The impatient boy from early and recovered from Cameron's rebuke, "My name is Colton, by the way."

Cameron nodded in acknowledgement, "Thanks, and that leaves just one." Everyone turned to stare at the only unnamed person in the room.

"Maya." The Asian girl stood to her full 5'9" frame with her arms crossed as though she felt the whole exercise was pointless.

Cameron looked around at those in the lab, "Alright now that that's out of the way have any of you been outside this lab since we got here?" His request was met with silence.

Wanting to keep moving, Maya moved toward the open door. Her actions drew the attention James, who was quick to call her out, "Where you off to? Happen to know the nearest exit out of wherever the hell we are?"

"I work better alone. No offense, but I doubt any of you could keep up with me anyway."

"Because you're clearly doing so well for yourself, what with getting captured just like the rest of us." James's brown eyes narrowed slightly as he sarcastically answered Maya's perceived insult.

What none of the teens noticed was that Avery had moved over to a monitor of some kind on the far wall. Picking up her pace she began working the screen like a seasoned pro, frantically moving her fingers over the monitor until what seemed to be a map appeared on the screen. Not feeling like being nice Avery was blunt about getting the group's attention, "Hey! If you guys feel like quitting the bitch-fest you might want to take a look at this." Everyone else in the room quickly huddled around the pale-skinned girl.

"So what are we looking at?" James was the quickest to ask what everyone else was thinking.

"A map, genius." James frowned at the last bit of that statement, though Avery didn't notice, "We're in an undersea research lab. I think they're called the Reach, judging from how many times the name is in the database. I've highlighted the best escape point here, what looks to be a launch bay for some kind of small craft."

Everyone was thrown by how much this girl could possible know about their captors. Trying to wrap his head around the new information Cameron was first to question Avery, "So how could you possible know all that?"

Avery's reply was quite deadpan, as though she had been asked the same question a million times in her short life, "I'm pretty good with computers, engines, and motors, pretty much anything mechanical."

Tom's eye's widened at Avery's explanation of her ability, "Are you like an X-Man or something? You're just like Forge!"

Avery, showing a rare emotion, smiled at the young boy, "I guess I am, kid."

Colton, growing impatient injected, "Hey, mind telling us where we're going?"

"Yeah, I've got the map memorized. Follow me."

Following Avery, the other 8 teens moved out of the lab and into the adjacent corridor. Taking several lefts followed by a right the group came upon a intersection of four hallways. Avery closed her eyes, as though she was concentrating on what the map showed. Unfortunately while she was figuring out which way to go the group was a bunch of sitting ducks. That came back to bite them as doors opened in each of the hallways with droves of Reach security forces streaming out to apprehend the escaped subjects. The team back into each other as their enemy quickly surrounded them; brandishing electric prods that promised to re-imprison them all.

So what did you think? I know it wasn't the longest, but I didn't want to get to bog down in the information dumping that you see a lot in other OC tales. This is my first foray into SYOC storytelling and I will improve as I go along. For those worried about the scarcity of detail I will rectify that once we get a little further on in the story. I just didn't think that they would really get too detailed in any introductions given their current predicament.

I'm excited to keep writing these fantastic characters and will delve more deeply into their abilities and personalities in coming chapters. So if I didn't get too much written about your character this time around, be patient!

Please review or PM if you have questions/suggestions!