A/N – I've had this story just sitting around in my documents half-finished for a good while now. It came to me after reading "Making a Better Yesterday" and watching JLU's "A Better World" for the hundredth time. I love both but they got me wondering – why is the Justice League the only ones that get to go anti-hero? Young Justice would just as harshly affected if their mentors were killed as the mentors would be if their protégés were killed. So why are there so little stories about them going bad or anti-hero for purposes either good or bad?
So, I made one. Enjoy! The first chapters will come fast while much later ones slower.
Right outside of the city known as Happy Harbor, there was a mountain. No had been allowed near it for years, restrained to the city limits as they were. Yet right then six people were all hidden inside a secret base that has been erased from the books many years prior. After all, they had no other base to go to anymore – the Watchtower, both of them, were destroyed. They were all waiting, some more patiently than others, for their seventh teammate to call.
"Where is he?" Flash muttered, pacing at super speed across the middle of what was once a living room. It was now the meeting room of this particular group of heroes and heroines, the living room now a smaller side room that was practically unused. Seven chairs of various styles made an uneven circle surrounding the middle point of the room.
This middle point Flash was currently pacing. The other heroes and heroines sat in their respective chairs, watching either him or the giant monitor.
The Flash costume was not much different from before, with one exception: the red spandex suit could now become covered in thin but powerfully protective black armor with an audio command from Flash, highly resist to all forces such as fire, wind, and water. Flash always activated it, having a good bit of his carelessness knocked out of him after the 'Day of Light', as the current totalitarian government demanded it be called. Flash and the other heroes all deemed it the 'Day of Darkness' for that was the day the world began to fall apart, the day their own personal worlds ended.
Flash didn't have the armor on now though – in fact, he didn't even have his cowl on at the moment, something few masked heroes did anymore except for when showering. None of them knew when they'd be needed to do another job. The cowl pooled on his shoulder blades, revealing his worried face.
"Calm down Flash; he'll call soon. You know how he likes to take his time." Superman muttered in irritation from his position in his steel chair. Even without their cowls on they were all still superheroes. Their secret identities had died within them many years ago so that only their superhero halves of themselves were left.
Flash paused to stare at Superman for a moment. "'Likes to take his time'? He's not taking his time; he's being damn slow on purpose!" Flash spat angrily. Superman sat unfazed at Flash's angry words and cussing. Flash had a nasty habit of cussing every chance he got. The others stopped scolding him for it long ago. "I'm surprised you even bothered to speak at all. It's been what, a damn week til now, almighty Man of Steel? Or are they calling you the Man of Bloody Steel now?"
Superman did look different now. The costume was the same, but the colors were switched up. The blue part of his costume had been changed to black and the yellow part of the S shield had become black too, the once yellow belt now the only blue part of his costume. The red 'S' now looked like splattered blood, as Flash had once put it.
Superman growled low in his throat. Flash didn't bother to flinch anymore. They all knew how animalistic Superman was, but they also knew that Superman wouldn't dare hurt the last people he had left in the world. They had introduced him to it in the first place.
"Hush, Flash. He will call soon. He has never failed to call before." Lightning Trident said emotionlessly from his chair, his pale blue eyes dulled over like always. There was rarely any emotion in his dark face anymore. His chair was a plastic beach chair, slightly dented but useable.
Lightning Trident wore a long sleeved fishnet shirt underneath an ocean blue shirt, the fishnet sleeves visible. On his shirt was his symbol: a grey storm cloud with a wavy blue line underneath it to symbolize the ocean, an upside down yellow trident running through it, the trident design jagged as to look like lightning. He also wore black pants with black army boots and ocean blue gloves, a seaweed belt around his waist.
Flash shut up and returned to his pacing. He didn't listen because the hero was their official and unofficial leader, no; Flash listen out of respect for his childhood friend, who he had known since before they were even teammates. There was no reason in not listening anyway – arguments with Superman would get him nowhere, as Superman barely spoke as it was.
A delicate sigh seemed to echo through the room, as Flash's footsteps were so light they were soundless, a product of hours stealth of training. Their owner lifted up her fingernails and examined them, flippantly noticing their long length and pink painted perfection, just like in the human teen magazines. She sighed a second time from her floating wooden kitchen chair.
"Why are we even here right now anyway? I have better things to do right now – like bashing Light heads in." She said with only mild curiosity.
Another heroine smirked viciously, spinning on her ripped bar stool to look at her. "You mean breaking apart Light heads from the inside out, don't you Lady Martian?"
Lady Martian was quite stunning. Her shirt was now green with the same red X across it, yet cut into a lower V to emphasize the X. The yellow center of her red belt was now black, her skirt now just above her knees and tighter but ripped slightly on the side to allow normal movement. Her blue boots were now blue heels and a matching blue cape floating behind her. Her long red hair was shiny slightly with health, curling at the ends.
Lady Martian gave a gleeful smile. "You know me so well Tigress." Then her smile dropped into an annoyed frown. "But I agree; he is taking forever."
Red Arrow rolled his eyes from his green loveseat taken straight from his old mentor's house, lounging back in relaxation. It only bothered him when he thought too much about it.
Red Arrow hadn't changed his costume at all outside of making the feather on his fedora green. Yet Tigress had changed herself quite a lot. Her once green outfit was now black with orange stripes slashed throughout it, the upwards arrow replaced by three white claw marks across her chest. She no longer wore a mask but did wear contact lenses to make her eyes appear golden and slit, hiding her sapphire eyes. Her once long blonde hair was let down and cut short just above her shoulders. Three claw lines scared her left cheek, looking disturbingly like the symbol on her chest. Her black bow and arrows were at her feet; her fake metal nails gripping the bar stool and spiked steel boots hanging just above the ground.
"You know, back in the old days I heard you were an extremely patient person – almost as much as Trident here." Red Arrow said to her, motioning to Lightning Trident. "Now you're just plain impatient."
Lady Martian let out a girlish giggle and batted her eyelashes at the red clad archer. "You know what they say, times change – just look at Flash." She said, flipping her gaze to the other red hero.
Flash just huffed in annoyance, still pacing. His worry for his friend was starting to take over. What if something went wrong with the experiment? He didn't want to deal with Lady Martian right now.
"You know, I used to like you when you weren't bipolar Megan." Flash snapped, pausing to run his hand through his bright red hair, green eyes narrowed with the intent to hurt. He smiled cockily when he saw her seductive smile drop and an ugly scowl mar her face. It was practically an insult to call each other by their old names; after all, those people were dead for all intents and purposes.
"Well I think I liked you better when you were Kid Flash, Wally." She said dangerously.
Flash held back from punching the girl – he hated his old name, more than the others hated theirs – but before he could respond the large monitor screen lit up, the face of their missing comrade's face appearing larger than life.
Flash swiveled his head to see his old friend. Letting out a relieved smile Flash blurred over to his chair, sitting upright instead of lounging backwards in the bright red loveseat like he usually did, practically vibrating in excitement, cowl back in place.
"Did it work? Did you get it?" He said instantly.
The black and blue dressed figure on the screen switched his gaze to his friend before saying warningly, "Flash."
Flash rolled his eyes. It wasn't his fault that their dark clad friend trusted him the most – Flash wasn't going to keep it a secret. And he could be excited if he wanted to. After all, he had plenty of reasons. "Don't 'Flash' me – I'm older than you. Now tell me – did it work?"
"Wait a second," Tigress said, seeing Flash's excitement. "You know what's going on." She accused the speedster with narrowed golden eyes.
Flash grinned cockily at her. "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"
"What news do you have?" Lightning Trident demanded in his usual monotone. Somehow the Atlantian managed to be both demanding and uninterested at the same time. The black and blue figure turned to him.
"For a few months now Flash and I have been working on a project," The hero began, taking Flash's hint to include him. Flash wasn't a genius like his best friend, but he wasn't a slouch when it came to science either. "It took many long hours and lots of work, but last night I put together the final pieces and managed a test run this morning. It worked perfectly."
Flash let out a hoot of happiness, fist pumping the air. "Yes! It worked! Oh dude, how long til-"
"Calm down Flash," the hero on the screen said, a bit of amusement in his tone that only showed up for Flash. He lost it quickly. "I'm still just testing it out. However, very soon it should be ready for transport."
"Transport?" Red Arrow asked. All of them were confused; what had those two gotten themselves into now?
The figure nodded but gave no further explanation. Tigress gave an irritated sigh.
"I hate getting information out of Bats and speedsters – it's like pulling teeth." She muttered under her breath. Said Bat read her lips and smirked.
"I'll let Flash explain," Nightwing said from the monitor screen and Flash nodded happily before calming down. A serious look in his eyes he turned to the rest of the team.
"Several months ago the two of us came up with an idea. What if we could stop the Light before they became powerful? What if we could go back and save the world one more time, really save it, not just annoy the Light like a fly buzzing around their heads like we do now? We'd know how to beat them, because we'd know what they're going to do. They wouldn't stand a chance against us."
"So you're saying what?" Lady Martian said sarcastically. "Go back in time?"
Flash looked her in the eyes. "Yes. We go back in time, lock up our mentors and past selves in Mount Justice for their safety, and then go take down the Light. Kill all the criminals that we know supported them – maybe even some who didn't while we're at it. The Day of Darkness will never happen. Our mentors will never die. The world won't go to hell." The protégée of the Flash paused for a moment, sending a glance at his best friend on the monitor, Nightwing. The protégée of Batman met his gaze evenly, shared meaning flowing between the two for a second. Flash turned back to his other teammates. "Dark Justice will never have to fight a losing battle."
The members of Dark Justice, once known as Young Justice, stared at each other. Their two friends were dead serious – they wanted to go back in time.
Lightning Trident was the first to speak.
"I will go with you." He said. For once, their seemed to be some spark of emotion in his dulled over eyes. It looked something like determination, or a sense of duty. None were sure, having seen little emotion in Lightning Trident's, once Aqualad's, eyes in years; not even when he killed Light members.
"I owe it to my King. I promised myself I'd die before I let any harm come to him or my Queen, and I failed. I must keep my promise." Lightning Trident explained solemnly.
Flash grinned slightly.
Superman, once Superboy, nodded silently. The Man of Bloody Steel didn't really have to say his reason anyway – they all knew it. Supes would never abandon any of them, and wouldn't dare miss a chance to see his idol once more time and show him how much he had grown. After all, he could fly now.
Flash's grin grew.
Red Arrow, who had joined the team the day after Green Arrow had died, began nodding feverishly. "Me too; I'm the oldest anyway, so it's practically a requirement that I go."
They all saw through his excuse; Red Arrow really wanted to see his mentor again to make things right. They all knew how guilty Red Arrow felt about never forgiving Green Arrow, how much it killed him.
He and Tigress were all about revenge these days. Tigress practically lived for it – it was all she had left. So none of them were surprised when Tigress's eyes lit up and she gave a feline smile, like the cat that caught the canary.
"I'm in. I'd love to get the chance to get proper revenge on my dear old man." Tigress, once Artemis, practically purred, images of freezing cold revenge floating through her head like sugar plums.
Nightwing was smirking slightly. He had expected Tigress to say something like that.
Lady Martian seemed to be considering it heavily. She looked at each one of her teammates before looking at the pictures mounted on the walls. All the major League members were posted there, their memorial pictures framed and mounted their so securely that only a Dark Justice member could even hope of getting it down without destroying it. The mentors were all in the middle, small lights Lady Martian had demanded back when she was Miss Martian lighting up their faces in a small private sort of glory.
Lady Martian's eyes uncharacteristically softened at the picture of her uncle J'onn. She looked so much like the old Megan at that moment it was almost scary. The others said nothing, watching her – they all cherished these moments when Dark Justice's most psychotic member acted like her old self. It was like she was sixteen again.
She only softened for her Uncle J'onn's memory anymore.
Then her eyes hardened with resolve and twenty-one year old Lady Martian was back. She turned to Nightwing and drew her lips back into a sickly sweet smile that looked frozen over by ice. While Tigress was the master at red hot anger, Lady Martian was an unofficial ice princess; she knew how to both hide and expose her anger through chilling smiles and eyes like ice pricks.
"Don't expect me to just leave you guys hanging. We'll never make it if the whole team isn't in, so how could I refuse?" Here was where the ice pricks came in, where her smile became truly chilling. "But try not to keep secrets from the rest of the team Nightwing, Flash. Something'll pull us apart if you guys keep secrets."
The look in her eyes said very clearly who would be doing the pulling apart, and this time Flash had to work to not flinch. Nightwing never had to work at such things – he was practically a second Batman, minus certain troublesome morals. But Flash wasn't able to keep his cold-heartedness outside of his killing mode, at least not fully. It just didn't work that way for him.
And Lady could be quite terrifying when she wanted to. Maybe it was the fact that she's as unpredictable as Superman was when he first became a hero as Superboy.
Flash and Nightwing met eyes once more, loaded messages flying between the two. Then both nodded to each other and faced their teammates.
"You're right Lady. Secrets will destroy us, and we're the only hope the world has. Dark Justice must put out the Light, and we'll do just that." Nightwing stared out the group of once young. now fully grown, heroes. He was the youngest at eighteen, yet he was far from a kid. He lost all chances of being a kid when his parents were murdered, followed by his adopted father.
"Now here's the plan."
~Interesting cast of characters aren't they? None of them will be the same, but Megan will be the most different from her original self than the others mainly because she's so…not evil. Red Arrow will probably be the most like his old self though he will change a bit – he's a little less forceful and stubborn than he used to be because being stubborn made him lose Green Arrow, his adopted father.
Artemis throws caution to the wind even more than Wally ever did – she's practically a villainess now – and Wally will lose his flirtiness, along with his a good bit of carelessness. He thinks things through more. Dick will be a mini Batman but a little cockier, if you can't tell. Conner will be like an animal for the most part – stripped down to only bare instincts – and Kaldur is literally emotionless.
~For I Will Run You Over