THE TEAM UNITES – Part 3

Keeping up with an enthusiastic Emily turned out to be a bit of a pain, as the other heroes discovered. Her Jet Pack allowed her to fly far faster than Adora was used to, and seeing as very few of the heroes could actually fly, they eventually resorted to using one of Bloom's vines as a makeshift leash to make following her easier. Emily wasn't exactly happy with this but the others made it very clear they needed to stick together if they were dealing with Apokalips technology.

As they traveled, Adora looked at Angie. "So… you're a New God right? Has your mother told you about Apokalips?" she asked, genuinely curious.

Angie shivered slightly. "Yeah, unfortunately. Darkseid was something of a boogeyman to me growing up. The things mom told me about the Apokalips-New Genesis war..." She admitted.

Bow looked over. "Well...maybe you should tell us? We'll need all the information we can get in case we run into something nasty." He explained.

"Yeah I'd rather not walk into a fight unprepared..." Mermista replied in her usual deadpan.

Bloom nodded, "Any weaknesses or means of preventing a fight would be appreciated."

Angie chuckled a bit at that. "An Apokaliptian refusing a fight. Never gonna fuckin' happen." she quipped, before taking a deep breath. "Okay so IF Apokalips is involved, there are several potential things at work. One, these weapons are just scavenged."

"That would be best Case scenario." Adora commented.

"Two, A low ranked Apokaliptian is looking to gain Darkseid's favor." Angie continued. "In which case it's likely still only the technology and a single figure to worry about."

Emily grinned. "More for me to study!"

"Three, it's someone like Steppenwolf or Desaad, in which we need to worry about Parademons, four-" Angie continued before being interrupted by Bow.

"Para-what?" he asked.

"Parademons, remember those freaky winged things from a few years back. They used to be slaves and conquered species from Darkseid's various victories that he's had tortured into Feral insanity and mutated into a horrific form to be his servants." Angie explained, shuddering. "I know this isn't normally a hero thing but if we run into any, go for Kill Shots….it's a mercy for them anyway."

Bloom whimpered. "I've never taken a life before..." she solemnly said.

"Pretty sure none of us have. Though I am trained in lethal Combat as an Amazonian." Adora replied.

"I have." Mermista dryly commented, getting shocked looks from everyone. "He was a cult-leader and terrorist leading war on my kingdom. It was either kill him, or risk him destroying my kingdom." She defended. "I'm Atlantean, killing isn't exactly as big a deal for us when the fate of thousands is involved." Everyone just slowly looked away, making mental notes to never become Mermista's enemy.

Bow quickly redirected the conversation. "So uh….what were the other Options?"

"Four, It's one of his most elite." Angie continued. "Like Granny Goodness, Glorious Godfrey, or someone else very high in Darkseid's ranks. In which case they've likely got machinations in place alongside Parademons." Angie then got a very worried look. "Option five….it's Darkseid himself."

Winter immediately took note of her sister's face. "Glimmer, I've never seen you scared before."

Angie looked at the others. "Darkseid is evil incarnate. An unstoppable god of Hate and Cruelty who wouldn't think twice about vaporizing us with his horrific Omega beams." She explained.

"So Option five means..." Bow nervously began.

"We'd be fucking dead." Angie finished. Noticing she brought down the mood she chimed back up. "That option is the least likely. Even he is scared of upsetting Highfather, according to Mom." She said with a forced smile.

"Point still stands." Adora spoke up, "If things go poorly or get too dangerous I am calling in the Cavalry."

"I think we'll be more than enough for these idiots, Power Princess." Winter boasted, grinning as the group neared Intergang headquarters. "So, do we knock?"

Adora punched her way into the building and Intergang quickly panicked and reached for their new weaponry. The Young heroes quickly descended on them with surprising co-ordination as they began quickly arresting the various thugs in the building. As everyone fought, Emily checked her scanner.

"Guys there's a BIG concentration of this tech on the upper floors." She told them.

"Then that's where we're going!" Angie gleefully announced.

Adora quickly tried to catch up to Angie, before suddenly being tackled from a figure bursting through the door. She looked up into a nightmarish, snarling face. "Wh-what the Hades is this thing!?" she yelled out, scrambling to throw the monster off of her. As she recovered, it leapt for her again, and Mermista stepped in front of her and impaled the creature on her trident.

Angie's face went pale. "That's….a parademon." she said with remarkable calm. "I don't recognize the armor though."

Adora, having recovered from her shock, looked at the other young heroes and took a breath. "I'm gonna call in the League." She stated, "We're way in over our head."

"No we aren't!" Angie yelled back. "We can take a few Parademons!"

"And what about who's commanding them!" Adora yelled back, Bow and Bloom stepping between them.

"Girls please, settle down, this arguing isn't helping us." Bloom pleaded.

"You both have a point anyway!" Bow quickly added, getting their attention. "We have to do something about the Parademons here anyway, so they won't spread out of the building. But we should still call in the League for help."

"Apollo's right." Winter interjected. "If we just leave, odds are good they'll send those things out to hunt us anyway."

"Yeah and I'm not gonna let any innocents get hurt because of us." Bow said, calmly.

Adora sighed heavily. "Alright, but I'm making the call still." She explained, reaching for her comms. "You all go on ahead, I'll catch up with you." As the rest of the heroes ran ahead, Adora tried to get into contact with the League. She just hoped they could get there before Anything bad happened.

On the Upper floors, the six heroes burst into the penthouse and stopped in their tracks at the site of a small squadron of Parademons. "Aaaand more of them. Lovely." Mermista groaned out.

"Alright, try to only fight one at a time. Remember, go for the kill, there's no knocking out Parademons." Angie said, her hands sparkling as she teleported into battle.

"Not really comfortable with this!" Bow yelled out, notching a lethal arrow for the first time and opening fire on the Parademons. The creatures flew towards the heroes and complete Chaos broke out.

Mermista fell back towards a rather ornate fountain to be able to utilize the water as well as her own Hydromancy. Winter quickly coated herself in Ice armor, before realizing just how freaking cold that would be. Even still, she turned her hands into Ice Hammers and charged a small crowd of Parademons, hoping her armor would absorb the blows. Bloom manipulated the various plants to grow out longer vines to restrain and swat aside Parademons. Emily began throwing out small sticky-bombs, hoping to blow open their armors. "Man I have GOT to get my hands on this metal, this is INCREDIBLE!" She yelled out happily, examining a chipped off piece.

"Please focus on the fight..." Mermista deadpanned, throwing her Trident into a Parademon and pinning another down with a torrent of water. One attempted to sneak up on her, and Frosta smashed its head with her hammers.

"O-oh geez, oh man that was way more brutal than I was trying for..." Winter said startled, looking a bit faint.

Angie teleported over and got her sister out of the way of another. "They're no more than mindless drones, just keep focusing on that!" she explained again, throwing a handful of sparkles into a Parademon's eyes. Bow followed this up by planting an arrow directly into its neck. He even managed to shoot one that was trying to sneak up on him.

Emily was nearly ambushed by a Parademon before Bloom jumped over and used a vine wrapped around her arm to whip them aside. "Thanks Perfuma!" she responded, tazing one of the last ones. "Man they're almost endless!" Another Parademon pounced at the two, but was stopped by a flying couch, thrown by the finally caught up Adora.

"Just keep going everyone, nothing is endless." Adora shouted, putting her Amazonian training to good use as she rushed in, cutting down creatures with her short sword and providing cover for her teammates. Within moments, the seven had cleared out the Parademons. Then realized they struggled with a mere 12. "This was barely a squadron." Adora meekly pointed out.

Angie took a few breaths to calm herself. "Yeah and I'm runnin' low on mana. We've gotta be near the big bad boss man right?" she replied nervously.

"Nowhere to go but forward...right?" Bow added as the seven approached the next room, opening the door to reveal a rather high tech control room. Inside awaited Bruno Mannheim...and a large imposing figure, Hordak himself.

"Uh...who's the freaky pale demon..." Mermista dryly asked.

"Careful everyone...he's CLEARLY Apokaliptian.." Angie quietly said as everyone got into position.

Hordak slowly turned to face the team, and handed something off to Mannheim. "I have to admit, children. You've come much further than I was expecting. Seems I underestimated you." he said, powering up his suit.

"Who are you!" Adora demanded, taking charge of the group of younger heroes.

"You may refer to me as Hordak, son of Darkseid." came the reply.

Angie felt her hair stand on end. "S-s-son of D-darkseid!?" she whimpered, realizing just how over her head she was.

Hordak didn't even spare another word for them, as a high tech firearm extended from his suit's wrist and he opened fire on the group. Everyone quickly dodged for cover and began their attack. Bow fired a few exploding arrows, hoping to shatter his armor. Hordak however, blocked them all with a forcefield. "Oh crud!" Bow yelled, barely dodging another attack.

"He's got a forcefield? Oh that is AWESOME!" Emily said, practically fangirling as she attempted to get close and strike with her hair. Hordak caught her hair attack and swung her into Bloom, who was readying another attack at the time. Mermista rushed in to try and spear him, byut her attack bounced off the field as well, before she was backhanded aside. Adora leapt at him alongside Winter, both unleashing melee attacks as hard as they can to try and break through the field.

"Is this all you whelps can do?" Hordak commented, knocking the two aside. Angie tried a sneak attack but even that failed. "I'm growing tired of this."

Adora quickly limped over to Emily and began whispering. "You got any way to deal with the barrier?" she asked.

"Maybe? If I rewire my remote hacking tool I might be able to bring the forcefield down. It's like a….12.33% chance?" Emily admitted, pulling out her hacking tool and quickly getting to work.

Adora stood back up and motioned to the others. In that moment, everyone silently agreed to buy Emily as much time as she needed. They redoubled their assault, using their attacks in tandem to try and divert Hordak's attention as much as possible. Winter began to freeze Mermista's attacks to make them more potent, Adora covered Bloom while she summoned her larger plants from the previous room. Angie even began teleporting Bow around to let him have much better shots at Hordak, admittedly causing Bow to be a bit flustered, considering how cute he found her. When Angie collapses weakly from a lack of Magic, Bow stood his ground to protect her.

Despite the endless barrage, Hordak's shield held as he attacked with more and more weaponry hidden in his armor. And then...His shield gave out, as Emily cheered. "Guys his shield's down!" she yelled out. Hordak, realizing how dangerous things had gotten, calmly typed something into his gauntlet and motioned for Mannheim to use what he was given. "Let's get-!" Emily couldn't finish as she felt herself unable to breathe. In fact, all the heroes found themselves beginning to choke.

"How is the air, children. Rather….thin isn't it?" Hordak taunted. "Unlike you, I have no need of oxygen, so I turned this entire room into a vacuum until I have left." He turned to face Mannheim, wearing the oxygen mask he was given. "This endeavor is no longer worth the effort. Come Mannheim, my master has need of you." Hordak commanded, turning and activating a Boom Tube.

"WHAT?!" Mannheim yelled out. "We've got the little brats cornered, let's just finish them!"

"I intercepted a call from the blond one. She contacted the Justice League, and seeing how long they forced me to fight, we have no time." Hordak explained, grabbing Mannheim roughly and dragging him into the Boom Tube. As it closed, Adora began to slip out of consciousness. The last thing she saw before passing out was Superman punching the wall open.

Adora found herself waking up later, in what appeared to be a medical center, with Martian Manhunter watching over her. "Power Princess, it is good to see you are awake." He said in his usual monotone.

"How long was I out..." Adora groaned, trying to sit up.

"You and the others have been unconscious for several hours. We were able to bring you to the Watchtower's medical facilities."J'onn explained, motioning to the other beds in the room, where the rest of the young heroes were starting to wake up as well. "It is fortunate we arrived when we did. Had you remained in that vacuum much longer, you may have suffered permanent brain damage."

Angie groaned rather loudly, "I still feel like crap after all that." she said, sitting up as well.

"So that's how you humans feel underwater..." Mermista dryly commented.

"Usually people tell me I never take a breath, I think that proves I most assuredly do." Emily said, rubbing her head with her own hair.

"I'm just happy everyone's okay." Bloom said, gently nurturing the flower by her bed.

Winter was just pouting the whole time. "We HAD them. Stupid cheating alien." she grumpily commented.

"Let's just be thankful the League arrived so fast." Bow added.

The doors to the Medial bay opened, and the Trinity entered. Adora gulped nervously as Wonder Woman gave her a look. Angie was more scared by the infamous Bat-Glare they were getting. "We told you to stay put..." Batman commented, a scolding tone in his voice.

"Intergang was dangerous enough to fight, but the fact they were backed by Apokalips was more just plain stupid." Superman said as well.

"Yes, you really should have informed us before you headed out." Wonder Woman added.

Adora looked down, but she quickly spoke up. "You were busy. We wanted to help." she explained.

"Y-yeah." Angie said, still nervous about Batman's glare. "And until we ran into that Hordak guy I'd say we were doing pretty well."

"Even so," Batman began. "You will not be doing this again..."

"No." Bow spoke up quickly, surprising everyone. "Batman, we worked really well together."

Winter spoke up next. "Yeah we made an awesome team! Like it or not we'll probably do that again any time."

"We may not be Justice League Material yet," Adora added, calmly. "But if the Titans can do amazing things as younger heroes, then so can we." She looked at Diana, "You always taught me that Amazonians are stronger as a team than alone. I want them to be my team." The other younger heroes all spoke up with their approval, even Mermista.

The Trinity looked among themselves and thought. "Well, you did manage to cause incredible damage to Intergang together..." Diana admitted.

"And you worked well together in spite of only just meeting one another today." Superman also admitted.

Batman looked the seven over. "If you are serious about this, then you will still need to answer to the League." He explained, "Are you absolutely certain."

"I am." Adora chimed in.

"Me too!" yelled Bow.

"Sounds like fun..." added Mermista.

"The Super kids!" Winter cheered.

"Huh, Social gatherings of young heroes. Sounds interesting." Emily said with a smile.

"I would love to. It'll make it easier for me to adjust to live in the big city." Bloom said, grinning like an idiot.

Angie thought about it for a while. She wouldn't have the spotlight anymore but...they did save her butt when she ran out of mana against Hordak. "I'm in." She eventually said.

Batman nodded, "Very well… Give us a few days to set everything up. What will you call yourselves?"

Bow stood up, "How about the Super Best Friends Squad?" he suggested.

"NO!" Came the response from the other six, in annoyance.

"The name will be a work in progress..." Adora groaned.

Mannheim found himself in an apocalyptic hellscape, pillars of fire shooting from the ground, the air was heavy and overly heated, and everything was grim and rusted. He had been following Hordak since they stepped through the Boom Tube, but was beginning to have his doubts about this deal. Parademons were watching them from the shadows, sending chills down Mannheim's spine. Large areas filled with slaves being worked to death could be seen in the distance.

As they entered a large citidel, Mannheim saw several figures watching them enter. A Large, elderly woman standing beside four creepy looking females, A surprisingly handsome blond man who seemed to exude an aura of charisma, an older man dressed in a military uniform with a monocle, A hunched over brute who seemed rather irritated with Hordak's presence, a towering soldier in metallic armor with a horned helmet, and an eerie, disfigured hooded person. All of them simply glared at or mockingly smirked at Mannheim as he passed.

"Hordak...where in god's name are we..." he asked nervously.

"That depends..." Hordak replied with a disturbing grin, "To which God are you referring?"

As they entered the throne room of the citadel, Mannheim froze in terror at the site of the figure standing before them. Darkseid slowly stood from his throne and looked down on Mannheim as Hordak kneeled. A sinister grin came to his face.

"Welcome to Apokalips Mannheim. Now….kneel before your god."

TO BE CONTINUED…

And thus the team is officially united...and I got no fuckin' Idea what to call them lol. If anyone has suggestions feel free to leave them. Don't wanna just make them an incarnation of Young Justice or anything. Also I'm very quickly realizing I cannot write good fight scenes ^^;

This chapter took me a while mostly because of the Hordak fight to be honest. And yeah obviously Hordak is gonna be a recurring villain, as will the rest of Apokalips. Reminder I'm still in season 2 right now so please don't be too harsh if I didn't write Hordak the way he is in the show. This IS an AU so he won't be exactly like his She-Ra counterpart. But with that, this first arc is finished, YAY!

I do not own She-Ra or the DC Universe. No Spoilers for She-Ra please.

Please leave me some feedback if you liked. I always like reading feedback.

NEXT TIME: Time to Tour the Clubhouse