A/N: Before I start this chapter, a quick shout out to the master author Peter David. It's thanks to him that I was able to write the introduction to Tony's history. It's a direct quote from his novelization of Spider-Man, the first movie in the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst/Sam Raimi trilogy.

Bleeding Multiverse

Chapter Four: Histories and a Leader

Happy Harbor-July 20-20:15

We were all camping out on the summit of Mount Justice thanks to an attempt by Wally to get closer to M'gann. Kon was a little disappointed at camping, he probably thought that it was a little boring. Wally told him, "If you feel like heading home I can sit out here with Ms. M . . . alone."

"Subtle Wally, real subtle. You're just trying to prove that you're a ladies man, and with one of your own teammates. For shame. What would Flash say if he heard about this?"

"Please, you're just jealous. I bet you'd be doing the same thing if I hadn't thought of it first."

I laughed at that. "Me and M'gann? Are you crazy, Wally? Don't answer that. Sorry, but the two of us would be as likely as Ba-" I almost said Batman and Joker, but I wouldn't speak of that thrice-damned dreg of a clown if I could help it, so I switched. "I mean, Aquaman and Black Manta."

"What's wrong? Don't you like me?" M'gann asked.

I laughed again. "You guys really don't know me at all, do you? Even if we did like each other romantically, we couldn't be together."

"Why not?"

"A simple demonstration should remind you, Kaldur." I stuck out my hand and created a ball of fire hovering an inch over my hand. "There's a reason that I call myself Torch, I can create and manipulate fire. And in case you forgot, fire is a Martian's Kryptonite, so no chance."

Dick interrupted our little impromptu discussion about romance with a suggestion. "You know, usually you sit around a campfire and tell stories." M'gann immediately suggested that Kaldur tell his origins story. "I was thinking more of a ghost story type of thing, but I guess . . . whatever." I smiled at that. Kaldur's story was one of only two of my current teammates origins that I didn't know by heart.

Kaldur began, "Well, I grew up in the city of Shayeris, which is a city in Atlantis." I was startled by that name, it was surprisingly close to Shayera, one of the names of Hawkgirl. "Surface dwellers think all Atlanteans are the same, but our kingdom has many cities, many people, many cultures. When I was twelve, I completed my education and began my mandatory service in the Atlantean military, which is standard for all at that age. After a while, I was transferred to the prestigious Conservatory of Sorcery in the Atlantean capital of Poseidonis." I glanced over at Wally. Sure enough he scoffed at the idea of learning magic. I smiled at the thought of the bet I had planned for our trip to the Tower of Fate. The only question remaining was what I would demand from Wally for winning the bet.

Kaldur continued "Queen Mera is the head mistress of the Conservatory and wife of King Orin, Aquaman. It was a very different time for me. It was difficult, as it would be for anyone at age fourteen I suppose, but also a time in my life where I met friends that I know will be with me for a lifetime. Then came a day, a horrible day when Poseidonis was attacked by the Ocean Master. I can remember it vividly, as if it happened only yesterday.

"It was the day Aquaman nearly met his end. Aquaman and Ocean Master fought for what seemed like hours. When Aquaman and Ocean Master clashed, it seemed to shake to the very foundations of the city. Ocean Master had gained the upper hand and nearly defeated Aquaman. Correction. Aquaman was defeated. Garth, a fellow student, and I intervened on the king's behalf. It was the only thing we could think of doing. The danger did not occur to us, the only thing that mattered to us at the time was that our king was in trouble. It may have been one of the most foolish things Garth and I had ever done, as we nearly met our own end. We had no hope of defeating him whatsoever, but the time we spent engaged in battle against the Ocean Master was time enough for our king to recover.

"That was all he needed as Aquaman finally triumphed over Ocean Master. He was able to drive him away from the city and save us all. Aquaman is a being of two worlds. On the surface world he fights for justice for all beings. Under the sea he is a leader to many. Both carry the weight of responsibilities, overwhelming responsibilities, only even the best of men can carry for so long. Even Aquaman cannot do both forever. Realizing that on the surface both Batman and Green Arrow had taken on apprentices that could one day take over their respective mantles, King Orin had been contemplating the same idea. With this in mind, he approached both Garth and myself with the possibility of becoming his protégés. I must admit the possibility intrigued me immediately. I had never been to the surface world, and I am the first to admit that I am a bit of an adventurer. Many is the day in class that I would dream of visiting distant oceans and possibly one day even the surface world. Both Garth and I seriously considered the king's offer. Garth ultimately chose to continue his studies with Queen Mera at the Conservatory of Sorcery. For me, however, the chance to visit the surface world was a dream come true, so at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. I miss my friends Garth, Tula, but the chance to work with my mentor and king was an opportunity I could not pass up. I like to think the work I am doing makes a difference."

Wally tried to impress them with his story, but I interrupted him. "Please, your origin isn't that impressive."

"Pssh, like you actually know it."

"I know just about everyone's origin. Tell you what, I'll tell your origin and if I make a mistake, you can take over. Agreed?" Wally quickly agreed, probably doubting that I could actually do it correctly. The others also leaned forward, curious to see how well I did.

"In the 1930's, a young college student named Jay Garrick was doing an experiment with hard water when something went wrong and he woke up a week later with superspeed and became the first person to take up the identity of the Flash. Over the next three decades he worked as a member of the Justice Society of America, the predecessors to the modern Justice League. Flash was one of the handful of heroes that didn't bother with a secret identity, and as such developed quite the following. One of his fans, another young scientist named Barry Allen wanted to know everything about his idol, including the accident. One day, Barry decided to recreate the accident that made Jay the Flash. Maybe it was a mistake to do it in the middle of a lightning storm, maybe it was fate, who knows. But the lightning bolt combined with the same accident gave Barry the same abilities, but with an extra boost of speed. Barry Allen was now the fastest man alive and the second man to take up the mantle of the Flash."

"Hold it!" Wally interrupted. I was actually little surprised that it took him this long. "How did you know that Barry Allen was the man underneath the mask?"

"That is a long story that I'll get to later tonight. Now, Barry met a girl named Iris West and married her. Turns out that Iris has a brother named Rudy who was already married and had a young son, Wally. One day Wally was visiting his Uncle Barry and accidentally discovered Barry's journals and discovered that his favorite uncle was also his idol, the second Flash. When Barry found out that Wally knew, he was naturally upset, and he was even more upset when Wally insisted that he become Barry's sidekick. Unfortunately, Barry was too late to stop Wally, because Barry had written down the notes about the experiment, and Wally duplicated it."

"The experiment worked?" Kaldur asked.

Wally grimaced. "Well, not at first actually."

"Nope. Like Jay, Wally also had to wait about a week before his speed kicked in, most of that time being spent in the hospital with Barry blaming himself. But when Wally revealed that he had superspeed, Barry reluctantly took Wally on as Kid Flash, so long as Wally agreed to follow Barry's instructions to the letter." I paused for a minute, then asked "Well? How'd I do, twip?" Wally just glared at me, and I knew that he would have to admit I did a good job.

M'gann turned to Dick and asked "Can you tell us about how you got started, Robin?"

Wally started laughing. "Are you kidding me? Bats won't even let him tell you his real name! I mean, you'll probably get a better origin story out of Supey over here." Then he turned to glare at me. "Although, I bet that Torch over there knows everything about Rob."

I smiled. "Of course I do, Wally. Rob's origin story has got to be one of the most famous and well known origins out there. Everyone back home knows how Rob got started." Dick turned towards me, shock clearly showing on his face, his features clearly begging me not to tell them. "However, his story is an extremely personal one, a story that I think is better told by Rob himself or Bats. If it becomes necessary for a mission, I will tell it if they don't beat me to it." One of the most popular Young Justice stories back home was how the team finds out Robin's name, usually the story had something to do with Anthony 'Boss' Zucco somehow getting on our radar.

"Well then, what about you? Who are you, and how did you start?" Kaldur asked.

I grimaced. Although I had prepared for this all week, I still didn't want to tell it. "Who am I? You sure you wanna know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody told you it was a happy little tale . . . if somebody told you I was just your average, ordinary guy, not a care in the world . . . somebody lied. Mine is a tale of pain and sorrow, longing and heartache, anger and betrayal. And that just covers my childhood." With that introduction, I started my history, starting with the origins of the multiverse, then that of the Fantastic Four, going into the Civil War, my own manipulated childhood, and the few times I had actually gone out as a hero.

"When my powers finally kicked in, I thought I'd be able to find a measure of peace, something to take my mind off what Mr. Fantastic was doing, but it didn't. Nothing helped, not even flying, and every flier I've talked to said that flying was usually the most peaceful thing they'd ever done."

"Didn't anything you do bring you peace on your world?" M'gann asked.

"Two things. One was my music, the one thing I'm glad that my father forced on me, and even then I defied him. He gave me a list of instruments to pick from, and I deliberately chose one that wasn't on the list: a violin. It took me a long time to learn, but I've come to love the sweet music that can only come from a good violin. I even made sure to bring my two best violins with me."

"And what was the other thing?"

"That's easy Rob, you." They all looked at me in shock, especially Dick. "This entire multiverse gave me peace. I devoured everything I could get my hands on about you guys. I own every comic, every book, every movie and every episode of every series that featured even one of you, no matter how badly the critics rated it. I became the ultimate authority on your multiverse. When I was reading or watching your adventures, it was like I became a part of it. And when I saw the show that is based on this universe, I knew what I had to do. I'm here to make sure that certain mistakes aren't made and that certain events don't happen at all. As to what those events are, that is going to remain a secret."

"Can you prove it? And when you're ready, can you show us what you want to prevent?"

"Easily Rob. This is actually the second universe that I visited based on you guys, and your counterpart didn't believe me. So this time, I came prepared. I've brought my entire library here. Every movie, TV show, book and comic is in my room, safely under lock and key, and I'm the key, so don't even try to hack in Rob. But do you see why you can trust me now? Ever since I learned to read, you've all been my heroes, Rob and Superboy especially, at least for this generation." Even if you're not exactly the right Robin I silently added. I far preferred Tim to Dick and couldn't wait for Tim to show up. "As for the events I want to prevent, well, I'm not actually sure they will occur here. The events I want to prevent all happened on Earths that my universe called Earth-0 or Earth-12. This is officially Earth-16, so who knows if things will be the same. But believe me, I want us to be prepared, just in case similar events take place."

Caribbean Sea-Near Santa Prisca-July 22-20:08

We were flying to the island of Santa Prisca to find out why the island had stopped shipping out the infamous steroid Venom. I was looking forward to this, I really wanted to see the Man who Broke the Bat, the infamous Bane. Aqualad left the ship just off the coast so he could shut down the heat and motion sensors, while the five of us left the ship inland, closer to the factory. Wally first tried to flirt with M'gann with the stealth tech, and then tried to convince Kon to use it. "Why should he, Wally? He's already dressed in dark clothes."

"Well, what about you? Your uniform is so bright that you'll stick out like a sore thumb."

I just smiled and sent my uniform a mental command, turning it from it's usual bright blue to a military-based jungle camo uniform. "The benefits of having a nanotech suit that responds to your thoughts. I can manipulate this to look like anything I want it to." We then dropped from the ship, and went scouting, quickly discovering two squads of men, but before we found anything else about them, Robin disappeared, and Wally ran off before I could stop him.

Wally slipped and fell in front of the two squads of men, causing them to stop firing at each other and start firing at him. Kon jumped in and attacked the largest man, a guy in mask that was mostly black, and white for the face. It was too late for us to continue in stealth mode with this group, so I reverted my costume back to it's usual form and started attacking the guys in the hooded robes. Rob tried to get after us for not following his lead, but I told him off. "Look Rob, as much as I respect you, you need to remember something. We have not been a team for long, this is only our first official mission together. In your partnerships, the roles are clear and defined. But that isn't the case here. Until we've gotten used to working as a team, a leader needs to give clear directions."

"Oh, so now I've got to hold everyone's hand?"

"Did I say that? No, I just said that you need to give directions. Most of us are not telepaths, Rob. If you want to be the leader, then lead by telling us what you want us to do. And don't you even think about bat-glaring me, I'm just trying to help you out."

"Bat-glare? What in the world is that? Oh, and does that mean that you're supporting me as leader?" Wally asked. That's when I noticed not only had the others beaten the squads, they'd also tied them up while Dick and I were talking.

"KF, do you know the look that Bats gives when he's trying to scare someone? The look that's intense enough for even Superman to fold? That is the Bat-glare. It's quite famous where I come from, and while I want to see how I'd do under it, the only person I've ever heard of that can do it to the degree of proficiency that Bats can, isn't active yet, and probably won't be for another four or five years. As for supporting you, not a snowball's chance in hell. Rob would be a far better choice in leader than you simply because he's a strategic thinker. But you, you act before you think, which is a far worse quality for a leader than one that assumes you know what he's thinking. In fact, I think your codename should be Impulse instead of Kid Flash, that's how impulsive I think you are." I hoped Bart would forgive me for that.

We found out that the guys in hooded robes were actually members of the Cult of the Kobra, who had taken over the factory from the usual guys. The large guy offered to take us into the factory using his own secret entrance. M'gann attempted to read his mind to find the entrance but he started reciting football/soccer scores in Spanish. We decided to trust him and let him lead us to the other entrance. There was something about him that seemed extremely familiar, so I asked him "Who are you?"

"Well, chiquita, my name is Bane."

I guffawed at that. "You? You're Bane?" I started laughing uncontrollably. This guy was the infamous Bane, the Man Who Broke the Bat? He was at least a foot shorter than I'd been lead to expect from the other three times I'd seen him. I couldn't believe this guy was the infamous Bane!

"What is so funny, chiquita?"

"Nothing, Bane, nothing at all. I just expected someone with your . . . reputation to be a lot taller. I thought you'd be at least seven foot, not six foot six."

"Thank you, chiquita. It's good to know that my reputation has spread so far, and to know that you believed me to be so large." Bane then moved the stone away from the entrance and led us into the factory. When Rob and Impulse (as I was starting to think of KF as) disappeared without warning, Bane turned to us and said "Great chain of command."

"It's our first official mission, and we don't exactly have a designated leader, so what do you expect?" As we watched, Kon mentioned that they were only taking the Kobra Venom out to the buyer, not even touching the Bane Venom. M'gann suggested (rather naively) that freshness was important. "No, Kobra's doing something different to Venom since they took over. If only I could remember what they did." Then Kon mentioned a helicopter coming. I used the nanites on my mask to allow me to hear further, and sure enough, Sportsmaster was almost here.

When Aqualad found out about Sportsmaster, he insisted we needed a plan, and Bane launched himself at the cultists. Unfortunately it drew the attention of Mammoth and he jumped back inside through the window, right on top of me! When we hit the ground, I panicked and accidentally gave him a dose of the gas I kept in my suit near the wrists. To my surprise, Mammoth reacted fairly violently to the gas. As I backed away from him, I stared in shock, this wasn't a side-effect of the gas! Actually, it didn't have side-effects, so why was he . . . shrinking? What the hell was going on with him?

Then I realized that I wasn't the only one staring at Mammoth. Kobra, Sportsmaster, Shimmer, and everyone else was also staring at Mammoth's strange reaction to my Gotham gas. Taking advantage of the distraction, I threw a few shruiken at the cultists while Kon took on Mammoth. Unfortunately, while I took down a number of cultists, our attacks also served to wake them from their shock. Kaldur had M'gann link us up telepathically and then ordered us to retreat back to the tunnel. What? But we're winning! Mammoth is down for the count and the cultists are dropping like flies! I wasn't the only one wanting to stay, as Robin claimed he was busy elsewhere.

Robin, Torch, NOW! Kaldur ordered. Both of us reluctantly retreated back to the tunnel where we unanimously voted Kaldur the leader of Young Justice. Or at least, leader until Dick could take over. "Well then, before we go any further, I think we all have a question we need answered. Torch, what was that gas that you used on Mammoth?" They all turned, waiting for my answer.

I cringed at their looks. I really didn't want to tell them the truth about the gas, especially considering how Dick would probably react to finding out what it was. So I decided to delay the inevitable. "Is this really the best time to ask that? Right now, we need to stop that shipment. If you still want to know what the gas was afterwards . . . then I'll tell you on our way back. Deal?" They all reluctantly agreed. Fortunately Dick had already managed to delay Sportsmaster by sabotaging the engine of the helicopter, so now all we needed was to stop that chopper from leaving, permanently. When we went to leave the tunnel, Bane turned on us, just as I knew he would. And as in the show, Impulse stole the detonator and Kon knocked him out.

By the time we returned to the factory, Mammoth was nowhere to be seen, and he had been replaced by a kid about the size and build of Kon. He looked a little like the guy I kind of remembered Mammoth was before the Kobra Venom, but far more muscled. So, the S-Gas only neutralizes the Blockbuster formula? Well, it's better than nothing, I thought. Kon quickly managed to take the boy out, while I turned to the cultists, throwing a few smoke grenades to hide myself while taking out a dozen of the cultists. Dick took on Kobra himself, but was unable to best him. "Hey, Kobra! Why so eager to sell the stuff when you know that the effect can be cancelled?"

He turned to me, just as I unleashed the gas on him. But unlike the gas I had unleashed on Mammoth, this version was one I'd mixed up myself, and far less virulent, more like a hallucinogen than what it truly was.

"What was that . . . supposed to do? What have you done? What was that gas?"

"That is a low concentration of the gas that turned Mammoth back into a mere mortal, Snaky. If you want to know what's in it, I suggest you go to the Himalayas and ask around about a little blue flower." With that, Dick and I charged him, and using all of our martial arts abilities, brought Kobra down. By now, Sportsmaster had taken off on the chopper, and Kon was just about to blow it. As planned, the chopper crashed into the factory, utterly destroying it. Unfortunately, the explosion distracted me and Dick, allowing Kobra to escape into the jungle, where he could overcome the effects of the gas in peace.

Painted Desert, Arizona-July 23-00:45

From empty space, a large grey-green, clawed foot stepped onto the desert floor. In five seconds it was followed by the rest of the body, the entire creature, though man-shaped, was easily three times larger than even the largest body-builder. The creature could only be called by it's name in it's home: an Abomination. You could clearly see its bones, as several of them jutted out of the skin. Later observers would say that it almost appeared to be Doomsday on steroids, they were so similar. The only differences were that Abomination's face was clear of any bones and hair, and that the Abomination's spine jutted out of his back. The former decorated soldier, glad to have escaped his nemesis' rage for now retreated to some caves he knew were nearby to heal, then he would hunt his foe again.

Atlantic Ocean-Over Cape Hatteras, North Carolina-July 23-02:13

Half an hour after leaving Santa Prisca, Kaldur finally asked Torch the question that had been bugging me for hours. "What was that gas you used?"

It was obvious he hadn't been looking forward to this conversation. "Alright, I'll tell you. But first, you guys have got to promise not to freak out over my answer. Especially you, Rob." Huh? Why would I freak out over the gas? Once he had our promise, he explained. "Three days before I joined you guys against Mister Twister, I went to Gotham." I gasped in shock at that. He had been in Gotham without me or Bruce knowing it? "There, I made a deal with a psychopath in order to get some of his infamous gas. Something that I'm sure Rob has an antidote for in his belt somewhere."

There was only one guy that I thought it could be, and I couldn't believe that one of my partners would dare go to him. "Smilex? You made a deal with Joker for some of his gas?"

His eyes flared up with blue flame, something I'd never seen him do. "DO NOT EVER suggest that I am working with HIM! UNDERSTAND?" With every word he spoke, the flames in his eyes flashed larger, and by the end of his little rant, his entire head was engulfed in flames. Why did mentioning the Joker cause that? Fortunately he quickly calmed down and apologized. "Sorry, but the thrice-damned Clown Prince of Crime is a very sensitive subject for me. He is the main cause of most of the things I want to prevent. And as you can tell, I am not using Joker gas. Try again, Rob."

Well then, that left only one gas that he could get in Gotham, and only Gotham. "Fear gas. You bought fear gas off of Scarecrow."

"Yeah. Although I have superhuman abilities, I like to do as much as I can without them. The only ability I don't mind using is flight. Everything else I try to use as little as possible. I prefer to rely on my skills as a martial artist and my bag of tricks. Like I said before, Robin was my number two hero, second only to the first GL. I mean, the first GL of the Corps." Huh, a kindred spirit, just one with abilities. I wonder if Bruce would mind having him in Gotham on occasion? "Anyway, I've been working on the fear gas myself. I figured that it would be a useful tool to have, so long as it's in small enough doses." Then he whispered something that I think was meant for me and Superboy alone. "I am working on making it stronger, but only for two special cases." Okay, why would he be working on making a stronger dose, when Scarecrow's regular dosage can kill? And do I tell Bruce, or keep it a secret? What do I do, betray a friend, or wait to find out who his targets are and why?

A/N: How much should Dick insist that Tony tell him? A: Just names, B: Why he's creating the gas, or C: Who and why? Review your answer!