A/N: Well, I've finally decided to stop waiting for my Beta and publish the next chapter. This chapter will mostly follow Independence Day, Fireworks, and Welcome to Happy Harbor, but with the addition of my two OC's. The italics when Shade is talking is because he uses a voice modulator to disguise his voice. I've never understood how people never figured out heroes identities by their voices, so I fixed that with Shade. If you're interested in Shade, please read The Veritas Saga in the Smallville stories, and Brother's Keeper: Shade's Justice in Green Lantern.

Conversation Code: "Normal Speech."

"Altered voices/Robotic speech."

Telepathy

Bleeding Multiverse

Chapter Three: Joining Up

Coast City-July 4, 2011-10:15 PDT

I quickly changed my suit into casual civilian wear and pulled on a bomber jacket, tennis shoes and fedora that I'd packed in my bag. First thing I had to do was figure out the time so I could know exactly what was going on. I had just entered Star Square when to my surprise, a wall of ice formed halfway between me and City Hall. I tried to think of an ice villain that attacked here, according to Young Justice, but I realized that only the most famous ice villains had been shown, or even mentioned. I quickly hid my bag and civvies and reactivated my costume. I took off over the ice wall to find out who had been responsible. The Justice Society's Icicle, maybe?

When I passed the wall, I froze in mid-air. This guy could have almost passed for a relative of Captain Cold, but I knew that Cold was in Central City being beaten by Wally West and Barry Allen, if that hadn't happened already. Besides, this guy had black where Cold had blue, and a visor like Cyclops instead of sunglasses and a hood. And this guy was clearly a meta-human, creating the ice with his hands instead of a gun. Then I recognized him. Well, no wonder it had taken me a while, his girlfriend wasn't there. "Hey, Coldsnap! Where's Heatstroke? I thought you two were partners." Coldsnap was a little-known mercenary that was usually a member of the Masters of Disaster, and had a bit of a grudge against Black Lightning. But what was he doing here in Coast City? As far as I knew, Jefferson Pierce hadn't become Black Lightning yet, and neither of them had ever worked here, so why was he here?

"I got hired for this job alone, kid. Now beat it or I'll put you on ice." I just laughed at that. A number of people had said that to me before, including Bobby Drake and Magneto, but none had succeeded. "By the way, who are you? One of the Lantern's sidekicks? You kind of look like them."

"Yeah, something like that. Now, you said something about 'putting me on ice'? Give it your best shot, Snap." Snap took that literally, as he created an extremely long spear that he threw at me. I just barely managed to melt it before it hit me, but that was only the beginning. I was starting to wish that I hadn't told him to give me his best, this guy was far more dangerous than I'd thought he'd be from the comics. But then considering he didn't show up often, it is hard to gauge his level of competence. I managed to melt another spear and another smashed against the force field I usually erected around myself for protection. "Alright, this has gone on long enough, Snap. How'd you like to get cooked?"

"HEY! If I'm going to get cooked, it's going to be by my girl, not some kid." He built up an ice wall around himself, but I just moved in and turned up the heat. Within thirty seconds, the wall was gone, and Coldsnap was starting to sweat. "You need to . . . cool . . . down . . . kid? HEY! Why . . . aren't my . . . powers working?" That was the last thing he said before he collapsed from the heat. I looked around and realized that I had drawn a bit of a crowd, so I took off and then activated the invisibility so I could retrieve my bag and clothes. But before I did, I noticed that the clock at City Hall said it was 10:30. Ten thirty? Great, that means that the other ice villains had all fallen more than an hour ago, and only half an hour before Rob and the others visited the Hall of Justice and about six hours before they made the fateful entrance into Project Cadmus. Great, there was no way that I'd make it there in time to join them to free Kon. BUT I could still help with their escape . . .

Hall of Justice-Washington DC-July 4, 2011-14:05

I heard Batman mention having a discussion about the coincidence of four ice villains attacking on the same day. "Not four, but five Bats. I just got a call from GL. Apparently Coldsnap attempted to attack Coast City's City Hall about half an hour ago."

"So Lantern took care of him?"

"No, some kid that he didn't recognize did. Strange thing is, the kid's costume kind of looked like GL's uniform, except it was blue, and there was no symbol on his chest. Ever hear of him?"

"No, that's something else we'll have to discuss." He turned to the kids and said "We shouldn't be long."

Roy wasn't to happy about that. "That's it? You promised us a real look inside, not a glorified backstage pass." AC reminded him that it was a first step, and Oliver said that he needed to be patient. "What I need is respect." He was getting madder by the second. He turned to the others and made his case to them. "They're treating us like kids, worse, like sidekicks! We deserve better than this." The others didn't understand what he was talking about, and Roy wasn't happy about their reactions. "You're kidding, right? You're playing their game? Why? Because you think they play fair? Today was supposed to be the day. Step one in becoming full fledged members of the League."

Wally was a little confused. "Well sure, but I thought step one was a tour of the HQ."

"Except that the Hall isn't the League's real HQ." All of us were shocked at that. How the hell did Roy know that? "I bet they never told you that it's a false front for tourists and a pit-stop for catching zeta-beam teleporter tubes to the real thing: an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower." I smiled at that, even though I was still shocked that Roy knew so much. The founding members of the League had named the satellite after the information hub that my wife, Chloe Anne Sullivan runs for me, and that I had let the League borrow on our first mission, the mission that had started the Justice League in the first place.

Bruce and Wally glared at Oliver. He had to be the one that told Roy about the Watchtower. "I know, I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception?"

"Just because you help fund the Watchtower doesn't mean you can go blab about it to anyone you want, Arrow." I turned to Roy. "As for you, you're not convincing us that you are ready to be a full member of the League yet. If you can't keep that temper under control, it could prove to be a danger to everyone you work with. Stand down son, or else . . ."

"Or else what? You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son, I'm not even his. I thought I was his partner, but not anymore." He threw down his cap and stormed out of the Hall, but not before throwing one final parting shot at the other kids. "Guess they're right about you three, you're not ready."

I don't know what would have happened then, if Superman hadn't called in about an explosion at Project Cadmus. Bruce and I had both had our suspicions about Cadmus, especially after Chloe failed to hack into it. (That was extremely unusual because Chloe had been able to hack into everything before, including Checkmate, the NSA, CIA, DDS, and DHS when necessary.) But before we could get ready to go to Cadmus, Giovanni 'John' Zatara warned us about the sorcerer Wotan attempting to blot out the sun with some amulet. Great, a magician. I hate fighting magic users. Batman decided that the investigation into Cadmus could wait, and told the kids to stay put. Dick asked why and the other mentors said that this was a League mission. Barry added in "You're not trained . . ." I'm sure he was going to go on, but Wally interrupted by asking since when had they not been trained. "I meant that you're not trained to work as part of this team." The demand that they stay out of the sun mission gave me an idea.

When I stayed behind while the others went on to the teleporters, Bruce gave me a look. "I have something I need to do here, I'll catch up later." Bruce didn't look too happy about it, but he let it go. I turned to the computers, and laid my hand on them, commanding all the recording devices to shut down for twenty minutes. "Now that that's taken care of, we can speak freely. Listen, I'm on your side. I'd like for you guys to join the League, but Flash is right, you guys aren't ready to join us yet." Dick was about to say something, but I cut him off and turned off my voice modulator so he'd know that I wanted him to trust me. "Just hear me out Robin. You guys are all great at your partnerships, I'm sure, but a partnership is very different from a team. That is why I want you to do something for me."

They all looked shocked at that. Kaldur asked "What can we do for you?"

"You can investigate Project Cadmus for us." Now that really shocked them. "Batman said that you couldn't join us for the mission against Wotan, but he never said anything about not investigating Cadmus." I then gave Dick a secret sign I'd shown him four years before, when I'd wanted to talk to him without Bruce knowing. I then signed Lvl 52, I knew Dick would be able to figure out what I meant when they got there. According to a source I had in Cadmus, there were some strange things going on inside Cadmus, including some secret project on Sublevel 52, something both Superman and I would be interested in. I then reactivated the voice modulator and jumped to the teleporters. After all, I didn't know where Wotan was. "Recognized: Shade-08"

Just outside of Project Cadmus-Washington DC-July 5-00:35

I had finally made it to Washington, and Cadmus was still standing, so I had made it in time. I looked through the window, and saw Aqualad electrocuting Blockbuster, so I knew I had made it just in time. The columns exploded thanks to Rob's batarangs, and the entire building started to come down. Just as the building was about to collapse on the four founding members of Young Justice, I threw a force field over them, and I sneaked a souvenir for Wally, Desmond's old nose. When the building finished collapsing, I pushed it off them, revealing the young heroes, and the effectiveness of my force field. Their uniforms were still torn, but nowhere near as bad as they had been on the show. The only costume that looked exactly the same was Kon's, the tear matching the show perfectly.

I watched as the members of the Justice League came down on Cadmus, all of whom I recognized: Superman, Captain Marvel, John Zatara, Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter were the first to arrive. They were quickly followed by the others: Captain Atom, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Hal Jordan. And being lowered down by John Stewart were Black Canary, Green Arrow, Batman, Aquaman, and one other that I did not recognize. The other wore a costume much like the one Clark had used in Season 9 of Smallville, except he had a hood and the S-shield was blue.

Ruins of Cadmus-00:39-Shade's POV

I couldn't believe it, I had just asked them to investigate Cadmus, not bring it down! Then I noticed that they had gained a fourth member, a young man in a white suit with a red symbol that was covered by a torn part of his shirt. He looked surprisingly like a sixteen year old Jor-El or Kal-El. Who was this kid? Then he raised the shirt, revealing a red crest of the House of El. This kid was a Kryptonian? But how? Bruce recognized the crest as well. But who couldn't? Our family crest was probably the most famous symbol in the world. Then the boy revealed that he was Kal's clone. So, that's what Dubbilex meant about Sublevel 52, they had been cloning Clark. Everyone was shocked by this revelation, and I didn't like the reactions I was seeing in my ESV. Clark and Bruce were full of red-rage and yellow-fear. I wasn't too surprised about Bruce, but Clark? Since when was he afraid of anything? We had to talk about what had happened.

A few minutes later, Bruce turned to the kids. "Cadmus will be investigated, all 52 levels. But let's make one thing clear: end results aside, we are not happy. You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives."

"That's not quite true, Batman. I told them to go investigate Cadmus. And even if I hadn't you just told them not to join us on the Wotan mission. You never said anything about not investigating Cadmus." Bruce gave me the infamous Bat-glare, but I gave him my own glare, one that usually caused criminals to start running their tongues about anything and everything. Bruce eventually yielded, but he told the kids that they wouldn't be doing anything like this again.

Kaldur was the first to stand up to him, declaring that they would be continuing working together. When Arthur told him to stand down, Kaldur defied even him. "Apologies my King, but no. We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together, on our own, we forged something powerful, important." Each of them stood up to Batman and their mentors in order to keep working together. Robin said it best, when he said "Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us. Or why teach us at all?"

Superboy finished it by giving Bruce an ultimatum. "Why let them tell us what to do? It's simple: get on board, or get out of the way." When he said that, I decided to go with the better of the two choices, I would support them, even if the entire League was against them. When faced with determination like that, it was better to just fold and let them do it on our terms, rather than stand up to them and let them get into situations that would require our involvement. Bruce decided to think on it for three days and get back to them. I hoped that he made the right decision. I was going to talk to him about this in two days and make sure that he did. Otherwise, we'd probably have a full blown mutiny on our hands.

Mount Justice-Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-July 8, 2011-8:04

After the encounter at Cadmus, I laid low and managed to hack into government databases and create a new civilian identity, renaming myself Tony Peter Storm, getting rid of my last link to the father I hated. And I enrolled myself at Gotham Academy for school this year, in order to be closer to Dick. I also found out that there were no comics featuring my world. (Hey, I figured if DC was real, then why couldn't my world be in a comic book in another universe?) Three days after the destruction of Cadmus, I snuck into Mount Justice (with invisibility on) just as Batman was giving Young Justice their brief. "This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League. We're calling it into service again. Since you four are determined to stay together and fight the good fight, you'll do it on League terms. Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor. Black Canary's in charge of training. Shade and I will deploy you on missions." So, the stranger was called Shade, huh? Well, I'd have to look him up, because I didn't realize there was a hero called Shade.

Then Batman mentioned that the five of them would be their covert team, and introduced Miss Martian/M'gann M'orzz. While they started talking, I decided to explore the place, and try to decide on a room. Fortunately, they were all basically the same, so I didn't have to worry about someone taking 'my room.' I heard Kon mention hearing somebody else, and I thought that I'd been discovered already. Then I heard him say something about "putting this Joker down." Joker? Oh, he can't be serious, can he? I couldn't be that lucky so soon, could I? I ran into the room, and I found Kon fighting himself, with a G-gnome watching. Oh, so that's it huh? I decided to enter Kon's mind to help him out, but only showing him my unmasked head.

When I entered his mind, I saw a full-fledged battle going on between the League and Joker, with an army of green robot monkeys. "Kon! Kon, where are you?"

"Who the hell is Kon? And why do I see a floating head? Hey Bats, do you see what I see?" Fortunately, Batman didn't pay attention to the Clown Prince of Crime, and I was able to spot Kon afterwards. Bruce's cape had been in-between me and Kon.

"Kon, listen to me! This is not real, it's all in your head. A telepath has gotten into your head and is making you play out this scenario."

"How would you know? Who are you? And why did you call me Kon?"

"I'm a friend, and to me, you'll always be Kon, no matter what happens in this universe. And although I know how much you hate telepaths, I'm in your head too, but you can always trust me, Kon. Try to think, are there any discrepancies between this world and the real world?" That was all the hint that he required, as he quickly tested his theory by tossing AC near a zeta-beam teleporter, and the teleporter didn't recognize him. Kon then hit the ground with everything he had, and disrupted the G-gnome's telepathy.

"Now that he's taken care of, I want some answers. Who are you? What are you? Why are you here? And why can't I see your body?"

I laughed. Already acting like a reporter, just like his dad. Or at least one of his dads. I left before I found out if Kon's origins were the same in this world as in Earth-0. I really hoped not. Hopefully one of the FanFiction writers was right about the identity of his other parent, preferably Jessesgirl1549. "Alright, I'll give you some answers. My name is Tony, and I'm here because I want to join your team. With any luck, I'll be doing that in about ten days. You can't see my body because I've turned it invisible. As to what I am, I'm complicated. But know this, I shall always be your friend, and you can always trust me, no matter what." After that, I winked at him, and left.

Happy Harbor-July 18, 2011-11:30

I'd found absolutely nothing out about Shade over the next week, he was barely even mentioned in the newspapers except as a rumor! I also made a quick visit to Smallville and Gotham to pick some things up. And when I arrived at Mount Justice today, I decided to be nice to M'gann, so I saved her cookies. Turns out, they were chocolate chip, I'd always wondered about that. After saving her cookies from becoming inedible, I sneaked out and waited for Mr. Twister to make an appearance. I thought it wouldn't be too hard to find him, just look for the tornado. Unfortunately I had forgotten one crucial detail: Mr. Twister first struck inside a building, so I wasn't able to find him until Kaldur shouted "We will not indulge you! We will not engage!" Then Twister started generating lightning, prompting Wally to doubt their guess that Twister was Red Tornado.

I wasn't about to let Twister hit them with the lightning, so I decided to distract him. "Hey, Twister! Why not try me out?" I yelled at him, then I threw two columns of flames at him, trying to damage some of his primary systems. It worked, for a little while, until Twister turned on me and blew me away. Then Kon and I attacked him from opposite directions, but Twister was prepared for that and shot us both back where we started. He moved to finish us off, but I covered all six of us with my force field, moving so that we were close together. "Very well, stay behind your shield. I won't deny you children have power, but this does not help me achieve my objectives. But if you confront me again, I will show no mercy!"

"That guy is not whelmed, not whelmed at all, eh Rob?" I said, deliberately quoting him from when they escaped the cloning facilities on Cadmus' sublevel 42 thirteen days ago.

It got the expected response. "Who the hell are you? And how did you know who I am?"

"That is a very long story Rob, and hopefully one I'll be able to tell all of you one day. But first, let's take care of Mister Twister, shall we? Oh, and before we go, don't blame M'gann for her mistake. It was an honest, rookie mistake and I'm sure that she'll make fewer after she gets some more experience. Now, M'gann, contact Tornado and see if he'll come. The rest of us will try to at least slow him down." They all stared at me, obviously wondering why I put myself in charge of the team. "If any of you have any other plans, please speak up. Otherwise let's get going."

When we returned to town, each of us tried to take down Twister, but to no avail. He even managed to save himself from my flames by using his twisters to suck them up. The best I could do was protect civilians and property from damage. None of the others had any better luck, until M'gann came up with a plan. Once she had explained her plan, Tornado showed up and admonished us for not being able to take care of Twister on our own. "Hit the showers, boys. I was hoping you could handle this, clearly you cannot." When Dick tried to argue the point, Tornado said "The subject is not up for debate." For a little while, it would seem that our plan wouldn't need to be implemented, but as I had seen in the show, Twister managed to gain the upper hand, and I managed to shield 'Tornado' from the explosion. "Remain still, android. The reprogramming won't take long."

Then, as planned, M'gann revealed herself and we each took our turns hitting Twister. Wally blew him around and into Kon by creating a twister-as he had throughout the fight, Kon punched him, eventually sending him to Kaldur, who sent him flying out of the water. M'gann grabbed him with her telekinesis, blasting his arms off, while Dick threw some batarangs into the chest. And when he hit the ground, I turned on the heat, melting away the armor, until the chest opened up, revealing a 'human' operator. M'gann then grabbed a boulder and dropped it on the operator, to everyone else's shock. Dick got after her, until she lifted the boulder, revealing a crushed android. I allowed Wally to get his souvenir, and then torched the rest. Then Dick turned to me and asked, "Well, now that that's taken care of, what about you?"

Young Justice all turned to me, and waited for a response. "Well, I'm guessing you're looking for the usual 'Who are you and what do you want,' right?" They all nodded. "Well, you can call me Torch, and I'm here to join up with you. I want to join Young Justice."

Aqualad was the first to respond. "That doesn't tell us who you are. How is it that we have never heard of you before today? And how did you acquire your abilities?"

Figures, they would ask about the two subjects I really didn't want to talk about. "My story is a little complicated, so I'm going to wait until we don't have any pressing issues. I will be sharing some information with only Rob and Superboy though.."

"Huh? Why are you willing to tell us but not the others?"

"That's simple, RG, I trust you two above the others. Kaldur, sorry but I don't know enough about you to form an opinion yet. As for M'gann and Wally, well, I don't trust you two to keep your mouths shut. M'gann is to naïve, and Wally is willing to do anything to impress a girl."

Rob was frozen in shock when he realized that I had said his initials. Aqualad was the one to keep questioning me. "How is it that you know our names when we've just met? By the way, how old are you?"

"Well, that's a little . . . complicated. Let's just say that you guys are pretty famous where I come from. Oh, and I'm fourteen. So, what do you say, am I in?"

Happy Harbor-June 18-19:45

I couldn't believe it. Someone else knew my identity? But how did he find out? I knew Bruce wouldn't be very happy when . . . make that if he ever found out. The next thing I heard was Torch asking if he was going to join the team. I decided to ask what I thought was the obvious question. "Why don't you ask Batman or Shade?"

"Because I know that you guys are willing to go up against the League and Batman if you think you should, otherwise you wouldn't exist as a team. Besides, I want to be on the team because you think I should be on, not because the League thinks I should be on. If you want, I'll walk away so you can talk amongst yourselves and vote. And one more thing, no matter what you decide, know this, I will always be your friend, and you can always trust me, no matter what." Oh, great, now what do I do? Do I vote to let him in so I can keep an eye on him, or vote him out so he doesn't get anymore information?

"Wait, how did you know we went against the League to create this team?"

"That's simple, Kaldur. I saw it a few months ago."

"A few months? But we only went active two weeks ago. Wait, are you from the future?"

"That's only part of my secret, Wally. I promise, I will explain everything inside of a week, assuming you let me in." And with that, Torch walked off and left us to vote on whether or not to let him in.

"I vote yes. He has proved himself useful, and if he is from the future, he can provide valuable intelligence on future missions and enemies." I had to admit, Aqualad had some good points, but what was I to do?

Unsurprisingly Wally and Megan both voted yes. To my shock though, so did Superboy. When I asked him why, he said "Because I trust him." I don't know what it was, but something about his voice was different, closer to Clark's than I'd ever heard before.

Whatever it was, I decided to trust Superboy. And when Bruce asked me why, I could always tell him that I was keeping my friends close and my enemies closer, or at least that would be the excuse I gave him. "Well then, I guess that it's unanimous." We turned back to Torch, and I said "Welcome to the team, partner."

Mount Justice-Happy Harbor-June 18-21:17

I moved in that night, while the others briefed Red Tornado. The one thing I didn't unpack was the bag that held the most sensitive part of my belongings, the things I didn't want anyone to find, especially not Mr. Bruce Wayne. I then set my nanites to shutting down all the bugs and cameras in my room, while setting up my own. Only when the nanites returned did I unpack that last bag. And then I set up a security system that was worthy of Tony Stark, and encrypting it ten times over. After that was set up, I pulled out the Smallville rock and broke off a small piece of it. Taking the smaller piece, I put it in a lead-lined pocket of my belt, while I put the larger piece in a lead-lined drawer in my room. Although I hated to have it, I had no choice if I wanted to protect Kon. I also pulled out the Radion bullet and one other thing I had brought from my Earth, a present for someone that I KNEW was here, and I knew well from my life back home. I just hoped Dick understood why I had it, once I explained why I brought it.

Manhattan alley-New York-June 18-23:45

An enormous black, clawed hand emerged from what appeared to be thin air. But this hand was coming from another universe, one where it was infamous. The hand on it's own actually belonged to a man who was closing in on his fifties, but didn't look over thirty, because of the being that was bonded to it, and it was because of that being that he was infamous. Once the black symbiote was convinced that it could survive on the other world, he stepped through, disguised as mere human. Using his enhanced senses, including a sixth sense, he quickly determined that his arch-nemesis was nowhere near, despite the fact that he often patrolled the area. In fact, he could not find a single sign of his nemesis. This is most unusual. The Spider is always around here. Why is he not here to face us?

Who cares? the other half asked. We are free from him, and we can do whatever we want. We can do what we need to do to survive, and he can not interfere again.

A/N: I hope that works for a cliff-hanger, any guesses as to who it is? (Probably obvious, especially if you're familiar with Spider-Man.) How about the mystery items Tony has? The next chapter will be up sometime around June 22nd, sorry! If you think the nanotech suit makes Tony too powerful, well, sorry, but it has it's uses in the future. And PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! Oh, and I hope that Jessesgirl doesn't mind a little shout out to her story. I definitely wish you were right about Kon's other parent, although Tatsumaki-sama's idea would have been good as well. Too bad they went with the comic origin!