AN: Hey everyone! I'm sooooooo sorry that this is late, well for me it is. I was trying really hard to get this out a couple days ago but I had a LOT to deal with but anyway, I'm sorry! I'm such a flake!

Anyway... The results of the poll were rather inconclusive, only one person voted (Thank you Pretty Kitty!). And so I will be adding in a little of everything until I decide for myself who to finalize as Tommy's love interest. In this one is a bit of Tommy/Kara or as I think I'll call them, SuperLantern. Enjoy!


DISCLAIMER: I'm putting this on now so that I don't get sewed. Not fun. Not sure that I need it but just in case. I do not own Young Justice or any of the characters portrayed in this story other than my OC's and the plot line. Nor do I own the rights to the song 'Don't Stop Believing,' I just added it for stuff and giggles (I'm trying to honor my T rating).


|STAR CITY LIMITS
|October 17, 23:20 EST

I won't recount the full chastising I got after the events at my "party", I'm not even sure you could call it that anymore, but basically Ollie and Mom tried to yell at me and I told them how Dad had died on my birthday. When they heard that they were a bit more understanding, but still upset about my behavior, also breaking the sitting room windows didn't help. In the end I got a literal slap on the wrists and grounded for a week. Which being the saint I am I totally honored.

"Oh and there's one more thing." Ollie said as I walked up stairs. "I know we did just grounded you," which I was still mentally laughing at, "I did still get you a present and I can't hold it in any longer."

"Ollie I don't think this is the time for-" Mom started.

"I just wanna show him Dinah." Ollie said with a smile. Mom gave him a look that told him to make it quick, and to never interrupt her again.

"Alright, Tommy," He said, "fallow me." He threw an arm around my shoulders and led me through the house. Mom fallowed us, probably concerned about this gift.

"Where did you put it? The roof?" I asked.

"You'll see." He smiled. He opened the door to the garage and flicked on the lights. There was a brand new black five seat car with a big red bow on it among Ollie's other cars, which he had quite a few of. I don't know much about cars but I think it was some kind of Jaguar, and very expensive.

"Huh?!" Ollie asked, clearly very excited.

"Ollie!" Mom protested. "This is much too expensive for a first car! And he doesn't have a license, not to mention that we just grounded him!"

"Oh don't be like that Dinah." Ollie said. "I know he doesn't have a license, I just figured that since he's sixteen now he'll need something to drive in order to get his license. I'll take him out as soon as he gets his permit and then when he earns his license, it's his!" Mom raised her eyebrow. "You know starting after his punishment is up." He added quickly.

"I still think it's too much." She said stubbornly.

"Well, what do you think, Tommy?" Ollie looked at me.

"Uh… thanks. It's… cool." I offered.

Ollie looked deflated. "Just cool?"

"No, no!" I said quickly, "It's an awesome car. It's just…"

"Just what?" he asked looking at the car as if he could see it on the hood.

"Well…" I started. "I can fly at like mock ten." I shrugged. "Wherever I need to go, I can just fly there and probably be there faster."

If words were solid then mine hit Ollie like a truck. "Well just look at it!" He urged. "It can go up to two hundred and twenty miles an hour! And look, I added a compartment in the armrest for your lantern in case you run out of energy! And the cup-holders can even hold the biggest size slurpies! And here!" He walked around the car pointing out all of the customization he did.

"Hmm hmm." Mom cleared her throat.

Ollie looked up from the trunk. "Uhh, of course you don't get to drive it until you get your permit. And not until after your punishment is over." He added.

"Of course." Mom added sarcastically. Then she looked at me. "Now off to bed. You have school tomorrow."

I marched up the stairs, all the while all I could think about was finding out more about my Dad.


|STAR CITY LIMITS
|October 20, 13:15 EST

I busied about my room stuffing supplies into my backpack. I was going to find out what was up with Dad, no matter what. Meanwhile the doorbell would not stop ringing. I threw my bag over my shoulder and opened up my window. Taking a last look at the door, I hopped out the window and fell three stories to the ground, rolling on the landing.

I snuck through the trees until I was sure that no one could see me and then flew away. I got about forty feet before Blue Beetle blocked my path, holding Bart in his civvies. I looked from Blue to Bart a couple times before it finally hit me.

"The movie!" I face-palmed.

"You were supposed to meet us at the theater an hour ago." Blue said.

"Actually it's an hour and fifteen minutes ago now." Bart said checking his watch. "What's up dude? What's so important that you'd miss the new Brain Crusher's movie? I hear this one is the goriest yet!"

"And after the way you treated everyone at the party, you've got some explaining to do, hermano." Blue said.

I sighed and looked at them. "Look-"

"Could we have this conversation at ground level?" Bart asked. "This is kind of humiliating."

Back on the ground Blue and I powered down. "Look, guys, here's how it is, my dad died."

"Yeah, we know." Jaime said.

"No, my Dad died, on my birthday." I added.

"Oh man…" Jaime muttered, his expression softening.

"Oh man, that's- I'm sorry." Bart put a hand on my shoulder.

"And now I found out that… that maybe he wasn't the man I remember him to be." I added. I looked up at them. "I need to figure this out."

Jaime and Bart exchanged a look. "OK." They both said at the same time. "And we're coming with you." Jaime added.

"No guys-" I protested.

Jaime silenced me with a hand up. "Non-negotiable, hermano."

"Yeah, you can't separate us." Bart smiled. "We're the three amigos!"

I quirked my eyebrow at him. "You know of that movie?"

He gave me a blank look. "What movie?"

"Forget it." I waved my hand. "You guys aren't coming with me."

"If you leave us behind we're just going to tell everyone." Jaime said.

"You wouldn't." I warned.

"I wouldn't. But we all know how Bart is with secrets." Jaime shrugged.

"Ugh!" I groaned. "Fine!"

"I'm coming too!" I heard a high pitched voice call.

We all looked up to see the one and only Supergirl hovering above us. "How did-?"

She shrugged, "I was in the neighborhood."

I looked around. "The mansion is in the middle of nowhere. What in the hell could you have been doing?"

She dropped next to us and said, "Super hearing remember?"

"Oh yeah." I sighed. "OK, just you three."

"Four." Tim said jogging up to us. "I figure you could use a detective on this journey."

"OK now where do you fit in with this?" I asked.

"Bart invited me to the movie and when you didn't show up we decided to go look for you. Bart and Jaime went ahead and I fallowed, just now getting here." He explained.

"ANYONE ELSE LISTENING IN?" I shouted.

"Ow!" Kara punched me. "That's like right in my ear!"

"Ow, that like my arm!" I complained.

"So where are we going first?" Jaime asked.

"First?" I asked. "That is the easy part. First we're going to Gotham."

"What's in Gotham?" Jaime asked.

"My old apartment." I answered. "Where I lived with my dad."

"OK, then where?" Tim asked.

"That's gonna be the hard part." I said rubbing my arm. "We need to find his medical records, to find out who he really was, so we need to go to my dad's home town."

"Whoa, this is serious." Tim said.

"Where is that?" Kara asked.

"It's a place in North Carolina called Falling Rock." I said.

"North Carolina?" Tim said. "Well it's a little far but there's a Zeta-tube near there. If we-"

"No Zeta-tubes." I said. "I don't want anyone knowing what we're doing, and so that also means no costumes."

"Well then how am I going to get there?" Tim asked. "Cause if you don't want the League knowing I can't just take the Robin-cycle. Plus three flying teenagers and a super fast blur are a little conspicuous."

I smiled, "I think I know."


I opened up the garage to reveal all of Ollie's cars.

"Whoa!" everyone said at the same time.

"Yeah." I said with a smile. "Ollie is like, that rich."

"So which one of these bad boys are we taking?" Kara asked as she ran her fingers over the hood of a red Ferrari.

"That one." I clicked the button on the keys to disengage the alarm. It beeped twice almost excitedly. I walked over and ripped off the bow. "Nice huh?"

"Crash!" Bart sighed, almost drooling.

"Road trip! Sweet!" Tim cheered.

"Shotgun!" Kara announced.

"Aw!" Jaime sighed.

We all hopped in, me driving, Kara riding shotgun (as called), Jaime behind me and Tim behind Kara with Bart in the middle.

"Well, let's see what this baby can do!" I pressed the garage door opener and peeled out, leaving the mansion in the dust.

"Do you have a license?" Tim asked from the backseat.

"Hey! No backseat driving!" I called, looking at him through the rear view mirror.

"Do you?" Kara quirked her eyebrow.

"Ah, can't be much harder than driving 747." I shrugged.

Everyone stared at me. "You've driven a jet?" Kara asked.

"Well it was years ago. The Hidden Fist had actually made everyone else fall asleep, including the pilot and copilot so I had to do something! And I think I did pretty good for improvising. I mean, no one died in the crash." I said.

Everyone just stared at me.

"What the hell else haven't you told us?" Kara asked.

I shrugged again. "I didn't think it was important."

I could hear Tim muttering something that sounded like, "We're gonna die. We're gonna die. We're gonna die." And Jaime seemed to be praying.

"Uh… how 'bout some music?" I offered.

"Please!" Kara said. "Anything to get what you just said out of my head."

"What do we want?" I asked ignoring her.

"Dubstep!" Bart suggested.

"Jazz." Tim suggested.

"Rock." Jaime suggested.

"Hip hop." Kara suggested.

"OK, I'll pick!" I said. I turned on the radio and heard a country song.

"Oh god no!" Kara complained.

"Please no!" Bart complained.

"Here." I pulled a CD out of my bag and handed it to Kara. "Put this in."

"'Best rock hits of the 80's'" She read off. "Really? 80's rock?" She asked.

"Hey, driver's choice." I said.

She sighed and put it in. The first song came on, Journey, Don't Stop Believing.

"Hell yes!" I smiled. "'Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world!'" I sang along.

"You realize that this is the most cliché 80's song there is, right?" Kara asked.

I just ignored her. "'Just a city boy, born and raised in SOUTH DETROIT!'"


|GOTHAM CITY
|14:30 EST

The building in which I once called home was completely abandoned. We pulled into a parking garage a couple blocks away. It was a bad neighborhood and I was not gonna carry everyone to Falling Rock after we were done.

"Why did we park so far away?" Bart complained as we walked.

"You have ran clear across a desert in a couple minutes. Why are you complaining about walking a few blocks?" Jaime asked.

"Dude, I don't do walking." He groaned. "I'm a speedster! I run! Running is our thing! We live to run! We run for fun!"

"If you say run one more time I'll rip your colon out through your nose." Kara warned.

"OK geese." Bart huffed.

"This is it." I said.

"This is where you lived?" Tim asked.

It did look like a dump. The windows and door were boarded up, the bricks were faded, the door was even hanging off of its hinges. It was definitely not like I remembered it.

"Yeah." I sighed. "Good times." I said sarcastically. I turned to the others and said, "Alright. You all just... wait here."

"Oh hell no." Kara said. "You did not just ask us to wait here."

"Look I appreciate the moral support but this is where things get... personal." I explained.

"Look here green burrito," Kara grabbed me by my hoodie and held me up off of the ground so that my feet dangled, she was actually flying a little in order to get me off of the ground but it was still pretty surprising, "we didn't come all this way to wait in the car. We are going in there with you, we are helping you, and if we end up knowing an unnatural amount about each other by the end of it then so be it! But damn it Tommy, we are not letting you go in there alone!"

I looked into her fierce sapphire eyes that held no doubt that she could make this happen. She had her lips set into a firm line and her eyebrows were raised in challenge, daring me to argue. All I could manage to say was, "You're kinda hot when you're angry."

She put on a tough face but I could see her blushing. "Don't change the subject!"

I shrugged, or as best as I could while being held up by my hoodie. "Fine."

I was fine until I made it up into the hallway outside my old apartment. As I walked the steps that I knew too well I was no longer a sixteen year old Green Lantern and defender of Earth, but a seven year old child walking home from school at Thomas Wayne Memorial Elementary. I got three feet from my front door before I could feel my tear ducts begin to water. As I stood in front of the door the others surrounded me and waited for me to open it, but I stood paralyzed.

"What's wrong?" Bart asked. Jaime silenced him with an elbow in his side.

"I-" I choked out. "The last time I was inside of this apartment... my Da- my dad had sent me off to school, promising that afterward he would take me to my first Yankees game." I looked at Kara. "It was his birthday gift to me." I looked back at the chipped, faded green paint of the door. "He died before we could go."

I felt a pair of fingers intertwine with mine in my right hand. I looked over, Kara had taken my hand. She had tear in her eyes. Looking around I saw that the guys were fighting off tears of their own. Kara gave my hand an encouraging squeeze. I looked back at the door, and as I reached out for the handle every time I had done the same as a child flooded through my mind in one massive flash back.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, CREEEEEEEEEEK.

"Hey! Welcome home buddy? How was school?" I whispered along with my Dad's ghost like voice in my memories.

That was it. That was too much. When he wasn't there and he didn't say that... it was just too much. And suddenly I no longer cared. I didn't care that Tim and Bart and Jaime would see me. I didn't care that Kara put her hand on my back and whispered to me like a baby when I crumpled to the floor. I let it all go. All of the sadness and regret and loneliness and all of the feelings I had been keeping to myself since that night go. I fell to the floor, on my hands and knees, and I cried.


I looked up to Kara, she was smiling softer than I had ever seen her before. She held out a hand to me. I took it and she pulled me to my feet. Looking at the others I could tell that I had made things awkward. I coughed saying, "Look, any of you speak of what just happened here-"

"Don't worry hermano." Jaime smiled. He clapped a hand on my shoulder, "What happens in Gotham, stays in Gotham."

"Got that right." Tim laughed.

"So what are we looking for?" Bart asked, getting back to the matter at hand.

"Anything unusual." I answered, thankful for the break from all the touchy-feely stuff.

"Thanks for making it specific." Kara snipped.

"Hey it's not an exact science." I shrugged.

"Well which is your Dad's room?" Jaime asked.

I shook my head. "He didn't have one. He gave me the only room."

"That doesn't sound like a bad guy." Kara said with a smile.

"I don't know anymore." I muttered.

We each seemed to wander around the apartment to different areas. Jaime walked over to the bathroom, Bart walked over to the kitchen, Tim to the living room and I gravitated towards my old room with Kara right behind me. The little white door was still open. I gently pushed it open.

Dust covered everything in the room. I walked across the soft carpet to the dark wood dresser. The pictures I had once loved and cleaned every day were filthy. I saw the picture of me and my Dad in the park; the first time I played baseball, the picture of our dog Maggie; she got hit by a car when I was seven, the picture my Dad gave me of my Mom when I thought she was dead; just another lie he told me.

"You were a cute kid." She smiled.

I smiled back. "I'm still cute."

She gave me a strained smile. "And full of yourself." She looked over to my bed. "I can't believe you had a Teddy bear." Kara exclaimed.

She was lifting up my old Teddy bear from my bed. "I was nine!" I claimed.

"I think that's adorable." She smiled. "A little kid with a stuffed bear. Did you have a name for him?" She teased.

"Yes." I sighed.

"What was it?" She had a huge smile on her face. "Come on, tell me."

"Teddy..." I sighed.

She quirked her eyebrow at me. "You named your Teddy bear, Teddy?" She asked.

"Well actually I named him Theodore. But I did that just so I could call him Teddy." I huffed.

"That's incredibly adorable." She smiled, snuggling it.

"You know, I never imagined that I'd ever see a girl snuggling my old Teddy bear." I said

She smiled and shoved me playfully. "Shut up I wasn't snuggling it!"

"Uh guys!" Bart called. "I found something!"

We all ran into the kitchen. He was standing in the kitchen, in front of the fridge.

"What is it?" I asked. Bart only pointed at the base of the fridge. The fridge was at an angle so that there was a bit of the floor that would normally be under it showing. Only there was no floor under it. There was a hole where the floor was exposed.

"Tommy, why is there a hole in your floor?" Jaime asked.

"Kara, help me move this." I asked. We each got on either side of the fridge and with a grunt from me and pretty much no effort from her, we shoved the thing out of the way, revealing a vertical tunnel big enough for a person to crawl through with a ladder.

"What the hell?" I asked.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Tim asked and started climbing down fallowed by Bart and Jaime.

Kara waited for me to go and when I didn't she asked, "What's wrong?"

"What do you think's gonna be down there?" I asked hesitantly.

"There's only one way to find out." She said and dropped in.

I took a deep breath and fallowed after her.

We dropped into a scene from a horror movie. It was some kind of mad science lab. It seemed to just be the apartment below. There were beakers and test tubes and containers with a suspicious red liquid in them everywhere. One wall was taken up entirely by computer monitors with a single chair. Tim sat down in the chair and a holographic key board lit up. He began to type something into it while the rest of us looked around.

Along with the test tubes and beakers there was a whole lot of other chemistry crap laying strewn across the counters. I saw a bunch of chemicals laying across a certain counter that was cleaner than any of the others. It had two samples of the red liquid in a couple of test tube holders. One marked TJC and the other ABC. I picked them both up. Unable to resist the urge I smelled the one marked TJC. Yep. It was most definitely blood. But who's? TJC… No… It couldn't be…

"Hey guys, check this out." Tim called. We walked over and he pulled up a list of files. "OK this computer is way too advanced to be from 2010." He said. "It's even more advanced than today's standards." He tried to open a file but a password came up. He typed in several different things but they all came back as negative. "Uh!" He grumbled. "Tommy, he was your Dad, got any ideas?"

I shrugged, "Tommy?"

He typed it in. Surprisingly it worked and a file opened up. The title was a date. 4/12/02. A video came up. It was my Dad. He looked pretty shaken.

"Dinah has started to work as a vigilante late at night, and it's attracting unwanted attention. There has been sightings of the Hidden Fist as close as Star City. I'm afraid they'll come for me and my son. If they find out about the boy, about how I altered him… I can't let him get into the hands of the Hidden Fist. If necessary, I may have to kill him. But I pray to whatever god there is that I don't."

I reached out and pressed the pause button on the screen. "Tommy-" Tim muttered. Before he could say anything else I clicked another file. 7/05/02.

"I still haven't told Dinah about experiment TJC. And now it looks like I might never be able to. It's probably for the best. No one would understand my work. Not even the boy. The Hidden fist have now been seen in Gotham. And so I am leaving. With the boy. I wish I could tell Dinah, or even take her with us but she insists upon being a self-proclaimed hero. She has attracted too much attention and so I am leaving her. I made up the excuse that it was for the boy. That he wouldn't be able to deal with the constant worry at his age. It's total crap."

I kicked Tim out of the chair and scrolled through the files until I found one that was titled PROJECT TJC.

"It's remarkable! Tommy has shown incredible abilities. He has the athletic skills of a teenager at four years old! And his IQ is off the charts! I gave him a three step algebraic equation the other day and he solved it in a few seconds then asked me for a Popsicle! He never complains no matter how much physical strain I put on him. He's already playing soccer at a professional level. I can't even beat him! He never gets sick. The kid's immune system is like some kind of super antibiotic. This kid is insane. Tommy is the next stage in human evolution. And I think I am close to perfecting the serum that made him so incredible. I'll have to try again. And it will give me an excuse to see my beloved again. It's funny, I've gotten so involved with one of the people who are hunting me."

There was a smile on his face throughout the entire video. The next one was titled about two years later.

"Tommy's blood has evolved far beyond anything I have ever seen. I compared it to a sample of my blood and found that it was more resistant to heat, cold, electricity and even magic. Tommy truly is super human. Though… I feel more and more conflicted about all of this. I know my work is necessary, bu-"

"GRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" I smashed my fist into the monitor, unintentionally pausing the video and making everyone jump. I stormed over to the closest counter and smashed everything on it. I then donned my suit and proceeded to smash the counter.

"Tommy!" Kara gasped. I didn't even hear her.

In a blind rage I smashed everything in the room other than my friends and the computer consol. When I was finished I just sat on my legs, pounding my fists into the floor shouting, "Liar! Liar! Liar!"

"Project TJC?" Bart whispered.

"Thomas Jacob Crane." I muttered. I looked up, my eyes puffy. "It's my name." I dropped my head.

"Tommy." Kara said. I didn't look up. She leaned down and held my face in her hands. "Look at me." She insisted. "Who you are is not what you were made to be. This man," She pointed to the cracked screen where the image of my Dad flickered on and off, "Is not god. He cannot make you do anything. He hasn't made you do anything. You are who you choose to be. OK?" When I didn't answer again she lifted me into the air again and repeated, "OK?!" I looked away. She threw me down hard, making me gasp for air. "Damn it, Tommy! Why can't you see that you are more than just someone's son?!"

I glared at her. "More than? I'm not even! I was never anything more than an experiment! One that he improved upon in someone else apparently!"

"Why are you obsessed with this man?" She asked. "Can't you see? You have plenty of people that love you for you!" She pointed at the guys and herself.

I stood up and dusted myself off. "Let's go. We still need to find my Dad's medical records." And with that I turned and left, unsure if the others would fallow me.


|FALLING ROCK NC
|October 21, 24:43 EST

They did. We had been gone so long that everyone had to call in to their parents to say they were at a friend's house or something. I hadn't talked to Mom or Ollie yet.

Everyone in the backseat was asleep I was driving through the night to make it there as soon as possible. The Jaguar was surprisingly great on gas mileage and no one doubted we weren't just a bunch of teenagers on a road trip. I mean, we were, but no one questioned whether or not I was old enough to drive so it was pretty smooth sailing. Although Bart kept asking to stop for more chicken wizzies. The backseat was a mess. I had only been driving this car for a day and already they had messed it up. I don't know why but that pissed me off a hell of a lot.

Kara sat reclined in her chair, watching me as I drove. She had a small smile on her face. I watched the little white tags on the side of the road fly by. I thought that the mindlessness of road travel would clear my head and allow me to focus on the task at hand, when in fact it had only given me the time to efficiently evaluate his conflicting emotions. And they were very confusing. I felt so outraged at what my Dad had done, I felt worried for what we would find in Falling Rock, I felt hurt and angry that my Dad lied to me, but most of all, I felt a need to find who, or what, I really was.

"Don't worry." She whispered. I looked at her. The concern must've been plastered all over my face. "We'll figure this out. Together." I didn't respond, just looked back towards the road. "You know this is kind of like a movie." She continued. "Five kids go on a road trip to find out about one of their mysterious fathers. We even have all of the stereotypes." She looked at everyone in the back. "The smart one, the immature one, the minority," she looked back at me, "the girl, and the leader."

"I'm not the leader." I said sternly. "And I don't like the way you referred to Jaime as the minority."

"Well that's what he is!" She huffed. "And yes, you are."

"No, I'm not." I insisted.

"Yes. You are." She said, seriousness slipping into her voice. "And everyone can see it. Everyone except you." I didn't reply. "Look Tommy-"

"We're here." I cut her off.

We pulled up to a motel on the outside of town. When I got out the sound of my door closing woke up Jaime and Tim. Bart, however, was busy snoring away. Jaime elbowed him jolting him awake.

I tossed my wallet to Tim and called, "Get us a room. I need to make a call."

Kara looked shocked. "A room? Singular? As in, sharing a room with four boys?" She asked.

"I only have sixty bucks on me." I said. "And I am not using the emergency credit card Ollie gave me. That'd be just like a signal flare saying where we are."

"I am not sharing a room." Kara literally put her foot down.

"Well do you have any money?" I asked, sticking my face in hers.

"No." She grumbled, but didn't back down. "I've never had a reason to carry money."

"Oh yeah, I forgot." I shook my head. "You flip your hair and smile and everyone just gives you stuff."

Before she could argue Jaime spoke up. "I have a twenty." He offered.

"I got like-" Bart rooted through his pockets, "twelve dollars."

Tim shook his head and threw my wallet back. "This one's on me." He offered.

"Thanks." I said, already halfway to the payphone. I took the phone off the hook and heard a dial tone. I put in the money and dialed the house phone. It rang twice and I was stupid enough to think, or maybe hope, that no one would answer.

"Tommy? Tommy, is that you?" Mom's voice asked from the other line.

"Yeah it's me." I answered.

"Tommy, are you OK? What's going on? Where are you?" Mom practically vomited out the questions.

"Mom, Mom. Everything's OK. I'm fine." I tried to think up a good lie. Something believable and good enough to get me to leave. But when it came down to it. I couldn't lie to her. After all, that was the reason I was here, my dad's lies. "Mom, I found out that Dad may not have been the man we thought he was. I need to know. I need to find out who he was and... I need to know who I am."

"When are you coming home?" There was another implied question, Am I coming home.

"I'll be back on Sunday before dinner." I said. "I'll be fine. I just- I have to do this."

There was a long pause before she said, "OK. Be safe OK?" Mom was a strong woman who wouldn't let anyone see her cry, but as her son I could hear tears in her voice.

"OK." I was choking back a sob myself.

"I love you, Tommy." She said, more as a reassurance then anything.

"I love you too." I whispered into the phone. And I hung up.

"That was... wow." Kara said from just outside the phone booth.

I glared at her. "You heard nothing, Kryptonian." I snarled.

The look in her crystal blue eyes showed that she clearly wasn't scared of me, which I didn't like, but more so that she felt sorry for me.

"I don't need your pity." I growled.

"Not pity, empathy." She said softly.

"Whatever." I stormed away.


|FALLING ROCK
|3:23 EST

We entered the hospital really early in the morning. I'll skip the actual entering of the hospital, after all, we are trained to do exactly that. There was almost no one there. The easy part wouldn't be finding the file room, the hard part would be finding Dad's file. Or so I thought... Tim opened the door to the archives and we discovered that we were not alone. There were five other figures in the room. The smallest looked like a little kid. And they each had on all black armor with a white fist painted on assorted parts of their suits.

"Hidden Fist!" I snarled.

"Awkward!" Bart mumbled.

Kara looked awestruck. "How is it possible you have such bad luck?" She asked me.

I shook my head. "Hell if I know." If the five there were three women and two men, that I could tell, all ranging in ages. One of them, the larger man was holding a file. I could just barely make out the name: Majors, Johnathan T.

"OK, let's talk this through like responsible-" Tim began the negotiation thing. Yeah, screw that.

With a loud roar I leapt forward and punched at the closest shadow stalker. But she was fast. She grabbed my leg, twisted it and slammed me against the wall. A grunt of pain escaped my lips as my suit formed around me. I twisted my hips, launching my attacker into the wall with me.

"Or not." Tim mumbled.

Everything erupted into chaos after that. We each paired up with one of the shadow stalkers. I couldn't tell what was happening with the others, I was too focused on my own fight. And I wasn't doing very well. Or at least if I was, it was hard to tell. The girl I was fighting was good. Really good. And somehow she seemed to know all of my moves. When I punched, she dodged. When I kicked, she jumped. When I swiped at her with my cutlasses she sidestepped every attack like she could see which way my blades would move. It was almost as if she was psychic.

Although I was having trouble the others seemed to be doing fine. In fact they had almost won. But that made our opponents desperate.

One of the shadow stalkers stood up and shouted, "You think you've won?! You have won nothing!" He chanted some spell and the little one stumbled back shuttering. Red glowing glyphs appeared all over his body making everyone stop and watch.

"What have you done, Kline?" The tall one, a woman by the sound of her voice, shouted with a mixture of fear and anger. "I am the only one allowed to activate him!"

"I did what was necessary for the mission!" The man, Kline, replied. "You wouldn't understand, Carmen."

The little one shouted in pain that turned into an animistic roar. His body shook like a piece of popcorn in a microwave. His arms and legs got longer. His chest grew wider. Thick black hair spewed from where his suit ripped from over stretching. He grew a long dog-like snout and pointed ears that stretched over his head.

"Seriously?" Jaime asked.

"He's a..." Kara stuttered.

"Werewolf." I finished.

"Those are real?" Bart asked.

"Apparently." Tim said.

The boy had turned into an eight foot tall, black haired, green eyed, razor clawed, saber toothed, bipedal wolf. And he looked angry.

"OK, Tommy, what's the plan?" Kara asked.

"What? Why me?" I asked.

"You're the leader!" She insisted.

"No I'm not!" I snarled.

"Yes you are!" She shouted, getting in my face.

"No-" I started to say.

"Guys I don't think that this is the time." Jaime interjected.

We both looked at the beast as he stood up fully. The thing was even bigger than me. But what was even more confusing was that the shadow hunters looked even more scared than I felt. Well, that wasn't saying much. I hardly ever felt fear, but this thing was unnerving.

"Raph..." Carmen said in a soothing manner as if she thought he could attack her at any moment. By the sound of the snarl he used as an answer he might've. "Raph, stay calm. You have to keep in control." The Wolf looked from her to his team mates to us back to her. He growled deeply from within his chest. He reared up on his hind legs, preparing to claw off her face. And just when I thought that little Ms. Carmen was done for big old "Raph" turned and smashed the wall nest to him. Before any of us could respond they had all ducked out of the hole.

"What just-" Kara started.

"After them!" I shouted. I ran after them without even waiting for acknowledgement from the others. They each had somehow made it up to the roof of the next building. I flew up after them. As I landed on the roof I saw them on the other side of the roof opening some portal. I saw the woman walk through with the werewolf dude. Kline was cocky enough to actually wave the file at me as he was about to step through the portal.

"You cocky son of a bitch!" I shouted. He tried to step through but I grabbed him first.

"Ah! Let me go!" He shouted.

I pushed him to his knees twisted his arm behind his back. The portal closed right in front of his face. "Who's file is this?" I roared. Rage coursed through my veins like fire, burning me. Fueling me. Empowering me.

"Santa Clause." He laughed.

"You think I'm playing?!" I snarled in his ear.

"Hey, I know how you heroes work." He said. "You can't hurt me. You have rules."

"You think you're safe." I growled. "Who's file is this?" I asked again.

"Eat me." He barked.

"How are you connected to my father?" I growled. The little bastard had the nerve to turn his head and spit in my face. "Tell me when you wake up." I said.

"What?" He asked. I gripped both of his wrist in each of my hands and shoved his face to the roof. "What are you-" I placed my foot on his back and began to press. "Ah! What do you think you're doing?" I ground my heel into his shoulder blade and felt a rush of pleasure as he gasped in pain. "Tel em og!" He tried to cast a spell on me. I couldn't contain the laugh from escaping my lips as the ridiculous spell did nothing to me. "Tel em og!" He shouted again. I pressed on his back more, lifting up his arms as I did so.

"I can find out whose file it is without you. And you're not the only member of the Hidden Fist." I threatened.

"Please stop! I don't know anything! They didn't tell me whose file it is! And I don't know who your dad is!" He pleaded.

I thought for a moment. "Then you're useless to me." I said softly.

"What? Wait?!" He begged. I raised his arms into the air. "AH!" I smiled as the bastard screamed in agony.

The others got onto the roof and ran over to me.

"What are you doing?" Tim asked. I didn't even hear him.

"Tel em og! Tel em og!" My captive cried desperately. "Teg ffo fo em!"

I twisted and lifted his wrists up and kicked his back into the ground. There was a sickening POP, POP, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!

I dropped his arms, which landed at the sides of his lifeless, drooling body.

"What the hell, Tommy?" Kara asked, outraged.

"The bastard deserved it." I mumbled.

Tim bent down and checked his vitals. "He'll live, but you dislocated both his arms and broke them each in four places." He looked at me with fear in his eyes.

"I repeat: What the hell, Tommy?" Kara asked.

"Let's go." I said.

"Wait! Tommy-" Kara grabbed my shoulder.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her so that our faces were inches apart. "Don't touch me." I snarled. "And don't even begin to act as if you know me." I turned and held back my fist, making a rope that tied up the shadow stalker. "Let's get back to the car and go home." I growled.

"Can he just do that?" Bart asked.

"Go ahead and tell him he can't." Jaime said.


AN: OK I feel terrible about how long it took me to write this. I have been trying to set up this for so long. I knew what I wanted to happen, I just didn't know how I wanted it to happen. But I hope you liked it. And as always, thank you for reading!