My name's Nightwing, and I'm a Titan...
The dark heroic figure known as Nightwing stood surrounded by a gang of thugs, all wanting a piece at the hero.
I'm sorry. FORMER Titan...
He quickly whipped out his stainless steel staff and stood in battle position. The thugs surrounded him, all gritting their dirty rotted teeth.
The Titans had disbanded a long time ago, after the disappearance of a dear friend of ours…
"Come on, Bird Brain!" shouted one of thugs. "Do you think you can take us on? The Mutants? We rule this city now!"
The Mutants. A gang of thugs who terrorize our city. They make it hard to set foot outside the house…
The Mutants were muscular thugs; some were short and stocky, but could still hold their own. They all wore multicolored Mohawks and spiky hair with red 3-D glasses over their eyes. They may have looked ridiculous, but they were quite the nuisance in Jump City.
And I try to make it harder for THEM to set foot on my turf…
It was dark out. Not even the light from the moon or the stars lit up the streets in which this battle was to ensue.
And that's just how Nightwing liked it…
"RRAAAAAAHHHH!" shouted the Mutants as they all leaped for Nightwing.
Quickly the Former Boy Wonder leaped into the air doing a black flip over the majority of them, whipping around and slapping them left and right with his staff.
Nightwing pulled out three disk shaped objects and flung them for 3 Mutants. The disks hit them, exploding on contact and freezing them in place. He then turned around to the remaining dozens and held up more disks.
"Who wants a taste?" he asked.
The Mutants stopped in their places and looked at each other, and back towards Nightwing's direction with puzzled faces.
"What're you loo…" Nightwing turned around to see what they were staring at, and saw them.
There they stood.
Oh no…Not them again…
There stood 5 costumed teenaged kids: The Ray, Empress, Slobo, Secret, and Impulse.
"Looks like you could use some help," said the boy known as Ray as he grinned.
"No need to worry, Pops, 'cause the new generation of heroes is here!" shouted the gray skinned Slobo, wailing his fists in the air.
You've got to be kidding me…
Young Justice
These kids don't worry about changes…they MAKE them…
Chapter 01
Don't Flaunt the Youth
"Alright, guys," shouted the blonde haired Ray. His light blonde hair went along with his golden yellow and black leather jacket; he wore black leather gloves, white pants and black boots. "Let's take these Mutant scum down!"
"Why does that sound like something straight out of an X-Men comic?" joked the speedster Impulse as they prepared to fight. Impulse had shoulder length brown hair and wore yellow goggles with red trimmings; his suit consisted of large red gloves and a white jumpsuit.
"Who are those clowns?" whispered one of the Mutants.
"Dunno, but I got dibs on the gray runt," said a big muscular Mutant, cracking his knuckles.
"NO!" shouted Nightwing to the kids as they ran past him. "Stay back!"
He then stopped calling as he saw that they were not listening.
The young heroes all charged for the thugs, and at the same time the Mutants charged for them.
Five of the mutants surrounded Impulse and Slobo, the two heroes back to back.
"RRRAAAAAAHHHHH!" growled the thugs.
Slobo merely raised an eyebrow. "GGRRRRAAAAAHHHH!" he growled back.
"What's wrong?" asked Impulse. "Getting nervous?"
"Me? No way! I'm Slobo! But it would be a bit easier on us if we imagine them in their underwear."
"Why imagine?" Impulse quickly disappeared in a blur and moved swiftly and quickly around the Mutants, yanking down all of their pants and revealing their undergarments.
"Oh yeah, you kids are gonna pay for that!"
"We're outta here!" Impulse then speeded off while holding Slobo's arm.
Just as the Mutants were about to go chase them, a blast of light hit the ground and kept them back. This light came from the Ray.
Behind him stood a pretty young Black female; this was Empress. She had silky long hair, wore a brown and reddish leather jacket and tight leather pants with red boots.
Next to her stood the mysterious girl known only as Secret. She had short light blonde hair, a light tan leather jacket with white pants and tan boots.
"Give it 'em, girls!" said Ray.
"These thugs are going to pay!" Empress then vanished in a poof of red smoke, followed by Secret transforming into a ghastly ghost figure of herself and flying off into battle, and Ray glowing yellow and firing blasts of light at the attackers.
Empress reappeared behind one of the Mutants and began drop kicking him. She quickly vanished again and reappeared again in front of two more and knocked them out with her skilled hand to hand combat.
"And I'm waiting for you to say some corny sexist line, bub," said Empress standing victorious over her defeated ones, not knowing that behind her was another larger Mutant.
Just then, Secret flew over to her teammate, flee through her body and landed a physical punch to the opponents face.
"I second that," added Secret in a soft, hushed tone.
"GUYS!" shouted Impulse. "Nightwing needs help!"
Everyone turned to see Nightwing backed into a corner fending off a dozen more Mutants.
Slobo punched another Mutant in the head and slammed two more heads together.
"Kind of busy here!"
"I'm on it!" Ray flew over to Nightwing's aid. "I'm here to help."
"Back off, Ray," said Nightwing. "I—I can handle this!"
WAM! A punch was landed to Nightwing's face, causing him to nearly drop to his knees.
"I told you, Bird Brain," said the biggest Mutant. "We Mutants rule this City!"
He raised his fist in the air, ready to land another hit, when his fist was stopped in mid air. He looked and saw a glowing Ray gripping his wrist.
"Play nice, young man."
"BITE ME!"
Ray's grin turned into a frown, as he gripped his wrist even harder and flung him high into the air all the way into a large truck.
Ray turned around and saw the rest of the Mutants staring at him. He charged up his body with energy and focused it into the palm of his hands.
"HAAAAA!" he shouted as he fired the blast into the rest of them, knocking them all to the ground unconscious. "Don't play nice, you get a time out."
Nightwing stood and rubbed his jaw, but made sure that the kids didn't see him. He flipped his staff, causing it to collapse. He then put it into his belt and walked over to the fallen bodies. He knelt down next to them, and then turned back over to Ray, who was now joined by Slobo, Empress, Secret and Impulse.
"Oh man," said Nightwing shaking his head. He then stood up and walked away. "Might as well come along."
"Now were we hot, or were we HOT?" asked Impulse.
"I'm leaning towards STEAMING!" exclaimed Slobo.
Nightwing had lead the group of crime-fighters to his hideout, an old abandoned hideout full of large metal gears hanging around with a large super computer in the center of the hideout. Empress stood while the others sat down on old metal chairs, disgusted by the old hideout.
"When's the last time this place was cleaned?" she asked, in her usual snotty tone.
Nightwing quickly shot a sharp glare at her. "Ummm, not that it needs one. I mean, it has charm. In a bat-cave sort of way."
Nightwing ignored her ignorant comment and sat down on his large metal chair and spun it around to face the kids.
"Why do you like to make things harder for me?" he asked.
"But Nightwing," began Ray. "Why won't you let us take up where you guys left off? Jump City needs some new heroes ever since you guys stopped the whole crime-fighting thing. Ever since that, the Mutants came out of nowhere and started taking over the streets, and that's why we came together to stop them and protect our home."
"If you ask me," whispered Slobo, "someone's a little upset 'cause we stole the spotlight."
"Agreed," said Impulse.
Nightwing shot another powerful glare at the two heroes, as they quickly looked away and pointed at one another.
"You guys don't need such a responsibility as guarding this city on your own. We tried a long time ago, and now look where we are. That doesn't need to happen again."
"And it won't Nightwing," said Ray. "You just saw that we have what it takes. We could totally be your sidekicks."
"WHOA!" said Empress. "Sidekicks? Empress doesn't do sidekick."
"I have to agree with Empress," said Secret. "We could
totally handle the job. The mutants don't stand a chance."
"You guys don't even have a name," said Nightwing
standing up. "And don't even think about calling yourselves 'Teen Titans'. It's
been done."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Impulse. "Teen Titans is old anyway. No offense."
"So what are you going to call yourselves?"
"Just call us…" began Ray. "Ummm—just call us—actually, I have no idea what to call us, but it's being worked on."
"Okay can we PLEASE get out of here?" asked Empress. "All the dust and mildew is getting to me."
"Don't mind her," said Slobo. "She's just mad 'cause she's dateless for the 5th consecutive week in a row."
"I'm going to ignore that, for the simple fact that it's not true!"
"Now I see why the Ol' man told me never to have kids," said Nightwing to himself. "Alright. If you 5 really want to prove yourselves to men, here's how you'll do it: I have business to handle. The Mutants have a boss, and he's planning something. The reason why I was out there fighting them was to protect my hideout; my secret hideout had been revealed to them, and they were coming to take it from me, so I had to stop them. But I just know there's more to the plan than that, so I'm going out to find out what's going on. You will stay here and make sure nothing happens. I want to come back and meet my place in one piece. That means if the Mutants don't attack this place, there should be no excuse for it being destroyed when I get back."
Nightwing turned around and walked away. Before walking out the exit, he turned back to them. "Ray, I'm leaving you in charge. Don't screw up." He then left.
Everyone glared at Ray in jealousy, especially Empress.
"Don't think that this means you're the leader of our little group, Ray," warned the fiery young girl.
Ray ignored the comment. In fact, he ignored the world around him. He was too shocked by what Nightwing had said. Ray was appointed leader by Nightwing, one of the greatest heroes he knew. He would make sure he wouldn't let him down.
"So. You mean to tell me that the whole lot of you couldn't defeat one hero with not a single power of his own?" asked a dark cloaked figure who sat in a large chair in a dark concealed cave. In front of him stood what was left of the Mutants; the rest having been sent to jail.
"But, boss, he…"
"Silence. I don't want to hear it. Not a word. Is it so hard for a gang of thugs to flood the streets, take out a washed up hero who might still be a formidable opponent but washed up nonetheless, then storm to his hideout, deactivate the defense mechanisms by cutting the wires and or shutting them off with the pass code that you IMBECILES should've acquired long ago, destroy the place and clear everything out, allowing me to make my final move which would place me one step closer to taking over this city?"
The Mutants looked over at each other, scratching their heads.
"Uhhh…"
"IT'S RHETORICAL!" and as this man's voice boomed throughout the cave, bats zoomed in and surrounded the Mutants. "You should thank the Heavens that I am lenient. Now get out of my sight and don't return until you have the hideout cleared. Is THAT clear?"
The Mutants nodded as they all hugged one another, fearing the large demonic looking bats.
"That's very good. Now go."
"Dude," said Impulse, spinning around in Nightwing's chair. "There's got to be a law on being this bored."
"There is," said Slobo, who was standing on his head with his arms crossed. "I'm pretty sure that it was passed along with the 'Laws of Physics'." Slobo then flicked his thumb, causing it to catch on fire, though it didn't faze him.
"Yeah, those have been thrown right out the window," said Empress, rolling her eyes at Slobo's fiery thumb. "Ray! I'm seriously bored here. When are we going to get some action?"
"Calm down, Empress," said Ray, who stopped Impulse's spinning chair, causing the young speedster to go flying over to the wall. Ray sat down on the chair and held his chin. "We don't need any action now. Nightwing wants us to watch over his home, and that's what we're going to do. We don't want to mess this up."
"Why do you think tall, dark, and gloomy is so—well dark and gloomy?" asked Slobo, still watching his flaming thumb.
While the others sat around pondering questions, Secret was looking through a shelf of books belonging to Nightwing. One book in particular caught her attention. It read "FOR MY EYES ONLY". Secret, being the curious girl she is, opened the book, and a group of pictures fell out. She bent down and grabbed them and began to look at one of them, which was covered in dust. It was a picture of Robin and some girl, but it was soo dusty she couldn't tell.
"Who is this?" she asked herself. Just as she was about to wipe off the dust, the entire hideout became blackened by darkness. "Ummm, hello? Guys?"
"Secret!" called Ray. Just then, Ray's entire body was covered in light energy as he lit up most of the room. "We're over here."
"What's going on?" asked Impulse as he stood close to the others.
"Stand your guard, guys," said Ray. "This could get ugly."
BAM! BAM! BAM! The large metal sliding door was broken down as a large group of Mutant thugs swarmed inside, most of them holding ripped up wires and cables in their teeth.
"Told you," said Ray, as the young heroes were then surrounded by all the Mutants.
"Well looky here," said the lead Mutant. "I didn't expect to find you guys here again. This time, you won't win."
"ATTACK!" commanded Ray, as his teammates leaped into battle.
Secret morphed into her 'Ghastly' form and rose into the air next to a large spinning gear.
"First mistake," said Secret. "Breaking in here!" Secret sent a blast powerful gust of smoke to the gear, so powerful it knocked it down, causing it to fall flat on top of a group of Mutants. "Second mistake: Messing with us!"
"SECRET!" shouted ray, holding back more thugs. "Try to keep this place in piece!"
"Oops! Sorry!"
"HYAI!" shouted the Mutants as they lifted the gear off of them and hurled it for Secret. Luckily, the gear went through her, but instead it went heading for Empress.
"Oh no!" Empress quickly teleported herself away, now giving the gear a new course: Slobo.
WAM! It crashed into the small gray skinned hero.
"So much for your friend!" laughed the head Mutant. Just then he was blasted back into a wall by one of Ray's light blasts.
"So much for you."
"GRAAAHHHHH!" shouted Slobo as he punched the gear off of him. Empress then teleported to his side.
"Are you okay, Slobo?"
Slobo ignored her question and merely rubbed his nose as he slowly walked over to the Mutants in front of him.
They all leaped for him, but it was no use as Slobo blocked here and there, tossed here and there, broke here and there. Slobo was then surrounded by five weakened bodies.
Impulse speeded past all of the Mutants and ran circles around them, faster and faster and faster.
And faster and faster.
And faster.
And faster.
Soon, the speed of his movement created a large cyclone of wind around the Mutants, sending them flying about the room in to various objects, especially the book shelf.
"CAREFUL!" shouted Ray, still fending off the rest of them.
The fallen ones stood up and surrounded Empress, who had pulled out her bronze staff for protection.
"TAKE OUT THESE RUNTS!" shouted one of the Mutants.
"Runts?" said Empress. "Do I look small, sweet, and edible to you?"
"I wouldn't mind takin' a bite outta her!"
"Boys," Empress said as she began teleporting here and there, smacking the thugs over their heads and thrusting her staff into chests. But they wouldn't stay down. Empress placed her staff in an upright position on the ground, as she then began to spin around it, kicking her legs at the Mutants and knocking them out. "Like a cup of coffee: hot, black and strong!"
Just then, a large Mutant thug lifted up a fallen gear and raised it above Empress's body. Before it could be let go to flatten her, Ray blasted the thug away, while Slobo came and caught the gear with his brute strength and tossed it aside.
"That was sure lame," said Slobo.
"How many times do I have to say careful?" asked Ray as he then ran off to take care of more mutants.
"THAT'S IT, MUTANTS!" shouted the lead Mutant. "TEAR THIS PLACE APART!"
"You have to get past me!" Ray then glowed with powerful force as he then began firing multiple blasts left and right at the enemies, sending them flying backwards to the ground. "It's over. You…"
"LOSE!" shouted the lead Mutant from behind Ray. Just as the young hero whipped his body around, he was slapped across the face all the way to the computer, cracking the screen and electrocuting his body. "I told you, runts…" The large thug grabbed Ray and tossed him back into the computer screen. "The Mutants…" He slammed Ray into the keyboard. The other heroes were ready to help their teammate out. "RULE!"
"RAY!" screamed Secret as she began to morph into her ghastly form.
"N-no, Secret!" said Ray. "Stay—stay back. I'll h-handle this."
"But…"
"You heard him!" shouted the Mutant as he flung him into the wall away from the computer. He turned around, his back facing the large cracked screen and stood there. "He wants to go down alone, right."
Ray's hands slowly began to glow again as he gritted his teeth, nearly wanting to break them. That's when the light energy transformed into the shape of a small saber.
"Oh now what are you going to do with that?" asked the Mutant. "It's over! We Mutants are invincible! We're incredible! We're…"
"Through." Ray's small light saber extended with immense power, causing it to stretch all the way to the side of the room, nearly touching Impulse's face. Ray quickly swiped it across, the blade headed straight for the Mutant.
"Use the force," said Impulse, shielding his eyes from the light. "Use the force."
Empress and Slobo rolled their eyes at the comment and watched to see what was happening.
The Mutant quickly ducked his head, causing the blade to miss and instead slice through the large computer screen. The blade then vanished as Ray was out of energy.
"HA! MISSED! I told you that it was no use. You and your friends are…"
The Mutant's words were cut off as he saw Ray's finger pointing behind him. He turned around him, and saw the large computer screen tower over him as it then fell over his body.
Slobo lifted the computer off of the enemy, and the young heroes stood over the fallen foe.
"Ugh," groaned the Mutant leader. "Ugh, my head."
"Well that was one heck of a party!" shouted Slobo as he crossed his arms. "What do we do with these guys?"
"I think these guys are the least of our worries," said Secret, looking around. The entire hideout was in shams. "I don't think Nightwing will…"
"Ahem," coughed a voice from behind. Everyone turned around and saw Nightwing standing at the doorway with his arms crossed.
Slobo, Empress, Impulse and Secret all stepped back from an unaware Ray, leaving him to be scolded by Nightwing.
"Hehehe," laughed Ray.
The authorities had arrived and began taking away the Mutants to jail. And Nightwing stood over his fallen books, and picked up the one that read "FOR MY EYES ONLY". The pictures had fallen out and were all torn apart. He then gritted his teeth. He then looked back at the kids who were all looking away whistling, except for a guilt ridden Ray.
Nightwing then got rid of his angry face, and stared at them.
"Well guys, I left you my home to protect it and leave it in one piece. And now, I'll have to glue back together everything that made it a one piece. On the other hand, you did stop the Mutants, but you ruined my home; you did prove yourselves as young heroes (in a way), but you ruined my home; you came out okay (at least 4 of you did), but you ruined my home."
"I know," said Ray. "It was my responsibility to keep this place intact; you put me in charge, and I let you down. I'm sorry."
"And incidentally, you 5 did well, really well—though you ruined my home. And now you guys are going to have to pay up…"
"You know," said Impulse, nervously. "I'm not really with these guys. They kept me here against my will. Please have mercy on…"
"By working for me," said Nightwing, cutting off Impulse's plea.
"Say what?" asked Empress.
"You mean you accept us now?" asked Secret, clapping her hands in joy.
"For now. I'll mold you guys into the perfect team of young heroes, filling in the gap my team left. I'll be your mentor and we'll see how this works out. But you must follow my orders, which will be given to you through your new team leader, Ray."
"You've gotta be kidding me," said Empress in envy.
"Awesome!" said Ray. "That's just cool with us."
"Alright!" shouted Impulse. "Watch out bad guys and evil doers, here come the Youths of Justice!"
"Youths of Justice?" said Nightwing. "Catchy. Still need a team name?"
"Way ahead of you, Nightwing," said Ray. "Call us…Young Justice!"
And at that, the 5 young heroes all raised their fists in the air, ready for anything that comes their way.
"Young Justice," said a dark shadowy figure from his throne in the dark cave. "Nice ring. Just maybe these kids stand a chance against me. But I won't wait and see if they can. It stops here…"
