"Man, that was a close one,"
Batman grit his teeth as the Batmobile soared through the secret entrance to the Batcave. He felt pain surging throughout his body, but he ignored it and simply focused on the current task at hand-pulling his massive armored vehicle into his secret hideout. As the Batmobile came to a halt, the Caped Crusader reached above his head and flipped a few switches, causing the vehicle's hatch to slide open. This allowed him to hop out and limp over to a large glass display case, which he opened to reveal several suits. Some of them were older versions of his Batsuit, others belonged to his former proteges. All of them were memorialized in the case, hung up alongside an empty space in the rightmost part of the case.
With a quick breath, Batman reached up and removed his cowl, revealing not Bruce Wayne, but rather, Richard "Dick" Grayson, the first Robin, the former Nightwing, and the current Batman. As he took the cowl and mask and placed it inside the display case, he frowned; it has been almost a decade since he donned the mantle, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that the costume belonged to someone else every time he looked at it. Whenever he was out in the field, he was able to focus on the job at hand, but as soon as he got back to the Cave, he felt a small part of him yearn for the days when his mentor Bruce had been the one under the mask instead.
Several moments passed, as Dick unknowingly zoned out, blindly reminiscing about days past. He nearly lost himself in the memories until another wave of pain surged through his body, reminding him that he had injuries to tend to. With that, he turned and began to make his way further into the Cave, but before long, he was faced with the cold stare of another figure…
"So, you enjoy your night off?" Said the figure, who stepped into the light to reveal himself as Terrence "Terry" McGinnis, Dick's teenage ward and current protege. Dick, who was caught off guard by this, rushed to think of a response.
"I realize we were out of Bat snacks…?" He said with a nervous chuckle, to which Terry rolled his eyes. "I know I said I wanted to take the night off tonight, but clearly Gotham had other plans. Y'know the drill, when the city needs Batman, it needs Batman."
"It needs Robin, too," Terry countered, gesturing to his costume which was currently hanging up in the display case.
"I would've brought you along, but it's a school night," Dick offered meekly. Seeing Terry fold his arms, he continued with, "Terry, I know you're eager to prove yourself. Believe me, I've been there. I felt the same way when I was Robin. And you'll get your chance, just like I got mine. But sometimes-"
"I know, I know. Sometimes Batman has to handle things on his own. Sans Robin," The sixteen year old replied. "I know I've still got a lot to learn, Dick, but I'm never gonna be able to learn if you don't let me get some action under my belt. I can be the Robin this city needs-"
"You already are," Dick told him, placing his hand on his protege's shoulder. "I'll take you out more when the time comes. I promise."
With that, he began to make his way up the stairs towards the upper level of the Batcave. His protege turned and followed him, and together the two partners ascended the staircase.
"What's all this doing out here…?" Dick asked as he spotted several old photographs scattered across a large table. Terry immediately rushed to clean them up, stuffing them back into the box he'd found them in with a sheepish look on his face.
"Sorry, I got bored while I was waiting for you to get back from patrol, so I looked through these for a bit," He told his mentor. "That reminds me, what're these of, anyway? Were you on a team before the Justice League…?"
"I was, actually, yeah," Dick nodded. He spent a few moments reminiscing as he lost himself in a photo depicting himself, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Artemis, Superboy, and Miss Martian all together during the Team days, but he soon shook himself from his thoughts and added, "We were a covert division of the League designed to handle top secret missions. Stuff the League couldn't really look into for one reason or another."
"Sounds pretty cool. I just assumed you were the Junior Justice League or something," Terry joked, earning a look from his mentor. "Kidding! Anyway, whatever happened to you guys? Is that team around anymore?"
"Not really, no," Dick shook his head. "After the...incident nine years ago that caused Bruce to retire as Batman, the UN found out about the Team's existence. They weren't very pleased. They offered to let it continued to operate under a new set of stipulations, but the remaining members didn't really see a point so they just decided to fold the Team into the League."
"Bummer,"
"Yeah, it is kind of a shame if you ask me. It'd give you and the other sidekicks something to do," Dick joked, carefully placing the photo he'd been looking at in the box. "But hey, no biggie. Maybe the next time I run into Superman he and I can try to organize some kind of teen hero club for you guys!"
"Haha, very funny," Terry said sarcastically as he hoisted up the box of photos and carried it back to the place where he'd found it. "Well, I guess I'll hit the hay now that you're back. Sorry for coming down here without permission,"
"Nah, don't sweat it. It's the universe's way of paying me back for all the times I did the same thing to Bruce," Dick said with a chuckle. "I enjoyed the company, anyway. Night Ter,"
"Night Dick," With that, the young sidekick turned and bounded up the stairs, making his way back up to the manor. Once he was gone, Dick found himself pulling the box of photos back out in order to look at the picture of him and the Team one last time.
It really is kind of a shame they shut it all down...I'll bet the world could really benefit from a team of younger heroes right now. He thought to himself. ...Oh well.
With that, the Caped Crusader put the box of pictures back where it belonged and returned to the task at hand, dressing the injuries he'd sustained during that night's long patrol…
A/N: Hey everyone! My name is xXRocketShark216Xx, but you can just call me Rocket. Anyway, I'm a huge DC fan and fan of the DC Animated series "Young Justice" in particular, and I've always wondered what it'd look like if and when Earth-16 ever got around to introducing its own version of the Teen Titans. Well, I've had my own vision in my head of what that team would look like kicking around in the back of my head for awhile now, and since I'm unfortunately stuck inside all day every day due to this pandemic business, I thought I'd try something new and write that idea as an SYOC.
Here's how this'll work. I'll be accepting submissions for both Titans and villains, and I'm hoping to get a good mixture of the two. The starting roster for the Titans will only be able to accommodate three OCs, and that's because I already have three characters in mind for the team.
As you saw in the little prologue I wrote up for the story, Terry McGinnis will be featuring in the story as the fourth Robin. I know some people might get kinda pissy that he isn't Batman, but I've always thought it'd be neat to see Terry as a Robin, and just because he isn't Batman now doesn't mean he can't become Batman later on. Anyway, he'll be leading this incarnation of the Titans. Joining him will be Rachel Roth/Raven, one of my favorite DC heroes and a must-have for any Titans team in my humble opinion. Lastly, an OC of my own creation will also be joining the team, alongside three OCs created by you guys to make a starting total of six Titans. More Titans will join the team later, and I'll always be on the lookout for new OCs that can fit what I have in mind for the plot.
Before we get to the application, I'd just like to take a moment to lay down some ground rules. They are as follows:
– Da Rules (Props if you get this reference) –
1. I'll only be accepting OCs that are sent to me via Private Messaging. OCs submitted via reviews will be ignored and I politely ask that you reserve reviews for feedback of the story itself. This will allow the reviews section to not be super cluttered, plus if your character does make it into the story I wanna be able to keep elements of your character a surprise and having their entire bio in the reviews section kinda makes that impossible.
2. In an effort to keep things fair, I will only be accepting one OC per person. If you submit a character and I don't end up liking them, you can always send in another one to see if maybe I'll like that one better, but once a character of yours is accepted, that's it, no more, one per person. I wanna be able to keep this fair.
3. I'll only be accepting one sidekick or protege character per hero or villain, mainly because I don't want half the characters to be members of the Bat Family. (Speaking of, Terry is already Batman's sidekick, so I won't be accepting anymore Bat Family characters. Sorry.)
4. Mark the PM you send your OC in by making the subject "March of the Titans: (Your character's real name/your character's hero name)" so that I can easily sort through my PMs to find each submission. If you don't do this, your submission will likely be ignored.
5. I feel like this goes without saying, but only use the application I'm including in this chapter. Do NOT copy/paste an application from a previous SYOC you've submitted to, there's a lot of very specific things in my application that other applications probably won't have and without those specific details I won't be able to include your character so anyone whose submission isn't using my application will just be ignored.
6. Again, this should go without saying, but try to be original with your characters. They're a superhero/supervillain so naturally parts of their character are gonna be a bit tropey, but try to put your own spin on those tropes and make your character stand out.
7. Be a good sport. If your OC doesn't make the cut, feel free to try again. Don't get angry and leave me hate messages, or lash out at the people whose characters do get in. It's just a story, and it's not worth getting that upset over it.
8. Above all else, make sure to have fun! This can be a nice distraction from current real world situations if you let it, so please have fun creating your characters. I implore you!
Anyway, that's all I've got as far as the rules goes. Here's the application, good luck creating!
Application
Hero or Villain:
Real Name:
Nickname/s:
Hero/Villain Name:
Age (If they're a hero they can be anywhere from 13-19, if they're a villain they can be whatever age you want. Try to give me some range here):
Gender:
Appearance (Be descriptive):
Civilian Outfit:
Hero/Villain Outfit:
Personality (I want full sentences, not just a list of traits. Be descriptive):
Quirks:
Strengths (At least three):
Weaknesses (At least six):
Fatal Flaw:
Hobbies:
Backstory/History (Your character can have a tragic backstory but don't go overboard. Try to avoid the dead parent trope if at all possible):
Family/Friends:
Mentor (If they have one. If they're an OC too, give me a brief explanation of them, their powers and abilities, and their personality. Describe what their relationship with said mentor is like and how your character views this mentor.):
What is their motivation for being a hero or a villain?:
Current Residence:
Will they live at Titans Tower?:
Powers/Skills:
Limitations of their powers/skills? (This is where their superhero/villain weakness should go, like Superman being vulnerable to Kryponite, Batman having a strict moral code that villains often exploit, etc.):
Weapons/Gadgets (Optional):
Fighting Style:
Fears:
Likes:
Dislikes:
What are their views on teams? Will they be eager to join the Titans or maybe reluctant and slow to open up to their teammates at first? (This only applies to hero characters, if your character is a villain just leave this blank):
Are they open to a romantic relationship, and if so, what kind of person are they attracted to? (Keep in mind this isn't a guarantee, some characters may get love interests and some might just stay single):
Possible ideas for character development and storylines that your character could be involved in (This isn't a requirement, but including one or two ideas might help your character get more screentime so I'd highly encourage coming up with some):