Young Justice Reborn
Arc One: Origins & Unity – Part 4: Nuclear Man VS The Team
12/4/17 (Date Written) 8/2/2021 (Re-upload)

~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~ Explosive Anger, 5 Miles from the Team ~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~

With a trail of nuclear fire in his flight path, Nuclear Man lands on a small island and begins to release fire blasts at rocks. Once he felt his aim was better, he ran over and punched a volcanic rock face. The vibrations are strong enough that the cliff cracks in half clean then falls apart. The vibrations move throughout the nearby island chain. Nuclear Man's eyes glow orange as a pair of orange energy beams fire out of his eyes and turn the rocks into liquid magma. He is destroying the last of his obstacles.

"Oh yeah, Nuclear Man is strong! Nuclear Man is ready! Nuclear Man is wiping out Fisherville!" Then, with a click of his heels, Nuclear Man jumps into the air and flies off with nuclear fire behind him.

~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~ Getting Ready ~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~

"Fisherville... I can't find this place on a map, Teddy. Does it even have a post office?" Jason's voice comes over the small headsets of the team.

"Fisherville, Alaska has exactly 137 people, 40 children, 65 adults, and 32 senior citizens. There's a police force of five people, an EMS team of two Retired Navy Medics, and a breathtaking total of one school with five teachers covering everything from Kindergarten to High School. It's namely a fishing town." The matter-of-fact voice of Teddy shoots back.

"Did you Wikipedia that, Ted?" A condescending Teri interrupts.

With a large smile, Teddy confirms to his assistant with a bit of smugness in his voice. "Actually, yes!"

Jason laughs as he went back to a screen. "So we get to watch with these tiny beetle cameras?"

"Yes, Kord Industries is working on high definition spyware combining alien technologies we've recovered and our own in insect size mobile devices." Adds the knowledgeable Teri quickly.

Jaime and Aqualad notice a few of the bugs; Miss Martian uses her microscopic vision. Jaime's scarab armor allows him to zoom in with his sight as Aqualad grabs one. Bart rushes over and checks out the Bug with Aqualad and has the same somewhat worrying and questioning look. Finally, after a few moments of awkward silence, Aqualad speaks up as he releases the tiny blue beetle.

"Theodore Kord, this may sound rude, but why are they in the shape of tiny blue beetles?"

Above them, the Bug begins to lift off the ground and gains height quickly. The young team looks up at the Bug above them while Teri and Jason stare at Teddy inside. With all eyes on him, which Teddy certainly felt, he then turns around with a face that lacks surprise. "I need to keep to the theme. NO JOKES, JASON!"

This time, everyone jumps at Teddy's outburst while Jason backs down from any comment he was about to say. Being a good friend, Kyle laughs nervously for him. "Okay, Ted, what do you want us to do?"

Switching emotions faster than water runs, Teddy calms down and gets back into a strict mood. He jumps into the pilot seat, takes the Bug higher, and flies off while the team continues their mission. "You need to go to town, assess the situation if and when trouble shows up, dispatch it as fast as possible."

"Quick question, T.K." Bart fixes his goggles and readies to leave everyone behind. "Does that mean subdue or eliminate? I don't like the idea of killing."

"Neither do I." Most everyone agrees with Bart, which included Jason and Teri in their stance against killing.

At this point, Teddy knew it was going to be a long day and lout out a loud sigh, put his palm to his face, then drags down. "I never said I wanted any of you to kill. You're not a member of the Legion of Doom. You're to stop whatever shows up with non-lethal methods, is that clear?"

"Crystal clean, T. Kord!" With a smile and glance at his allies, Bart readies himself while noticing most are not blending in for this mission.

"Good, at this point, we're going to see what we can find. We'll be listening, T-K out." The transmission of Ted Kord cuts off for the time being.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm changing." First, a low humming emits out of Bart's body. Then, vibrating his body faster than the others can see, his street clothes turn into his light yellow and red Impulse jumpsuit.

With a hardy laugh, Jaime takes his shirt off and stretches his arms out. "Check this out, amigos." With that, the Scarab on Jaime's back starts to overgrow his body and covers him in blue metallic armor, in turn making him look like his namesake.

Everyone turns to Kyle and M'gann; she smiles at them, lifts her hands as her white shirt and blue shorts turn black. "Ta-da! Nothing special."

"Must be comforting to have organic clothes that change with your thoughts." Kyle drew attention to himself as he slams his hand against a rock with a vain hope that it'll make his ring work.

"I don't think that will help matters, Kyle." Aqualad attempts to walk over and get him to stop.

With his patience lost, Kyle points his ring in a safe direction. "Oh, green ring! Turn on!... Do something. Do anything!"

"Kyle, this is Terri. What happened at the Warehouse? If you think back, I'm sure you'll remember how to turn on your powers."

Kyle's mind tries recalling what triggered his transformation from the previous day. "Honestly, I just heard the ring say, "Come and get me, come and get me" in my head. Weird, it's not going to speak to me again and-"

The voice in the ring whispers to Kyle once more. This time, it bestows him the knowledge he wants. A green lantern the size of a typical camping lantern emerges out of the symbol on his ring. His left hand grabs hold of it. Raising his right fist, Kyle presses the ring to the lamp. The three in the Bug observe on their monitors, one of Jason's eyebrows extends higher than the other.

"In Brightest Day. In Blackest Night. No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship Evil's might. Beware my power, GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT!" Greenlight emits from the lantern, his body is now in the black and green spandex like armor, just like the other day, and now Kyle felt his powers fully restored by the lantern.

"Power level 100%" The ring speaks into Kyle's mind.

A guttural sound broke the silence as Jason leaned over into a microphone. "Kyle, can you hear me, buddy? Was that you?"

"Yeah, it was; what's up, Jason?"

"That has got to be the absolute worst thing I've ever heard my entire life. I think I rather listen to my brother getting dirty with his girlfriend again. I think giving a sponge bath to my dad and grandfather would sound better." Mocked Jason, which in turn got his friend angrier.

Angered, Teddy shouted and stomped over to Jason and stole his microphone. "STOP WITH THE USELESS BANTER! Get to work, NOW!"

Pained, Jason held his ears then fell out of his seat while their team members were on the ground. Each of them gave their ears a quick break from the screaming. Then slowly, each one put the earpiece back. Finally, M'gann flew upwards, looked around, and found what they needed. It's not far, luckily.

"Hey guys, the town looks like it's maybe a forty-five-minute walk from here!"

"Good job, M'gann! Please join us." Kaldur'ahm spoke into his headset.

The teens gather around, looked at one another; Aqualad took the lead with Miss Martian close and gave him directions. The group continued their way to the town known as Fisherville. Meanwhile, Nuclear Man burned through the sky fast. On the Bug, Teddy's instruments pick up the nuclear heat signature of Nuclear Man. Firing up the engines, Teddy takes off towards him.

~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~ Nuclear Man VS Ted Kord & The Bug ~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~

The Bug soared through the air at an incredible speed for such a large machine. Teddy's experience at being a pilot showed off as he handled it well as a chef did a knife; Jason is very impressed with Teddy and his abilities. "Hey T. Kord, how long have you been flying this thing?"

"I've been flying myself around in helicopters, jets, single-engine crop dusters, jet packs, and this beauty since I was 11. Why do you ask?" Teddy saw Nuclear Man headed straight for him. His computer estimated they'd meet up in less than three minutes.

Jason readies himself for the first aerial fight he's ever been in; he looks over at Ted. "Well, I've logged in over a thousand hours in Flight Simulator 2006. Think I can learn?"

"Sure, hold on!" Teddy shouts as he kicks on the afterburners, which increases the speed immensely.

Up ahead, Nuclear Man saw the Bug head toward him. Bright yellow fires ignite along his spine, arms, and into his hands. Large streams of fire shoot out towards the Bug with a war cry to match his anger. Some flames connect and do minor damage to the ship, but Teddy flew around Nuclear Man and the fires. With the flip of a switch, Teddy armed a stun cannon and attempted to shoot his target. But the fires of Nuclear Man get hotter as they turn red and melt the guns.

A klaxon goes off with warning lights around them, as do the computer screams, showing the imminent danger of excessively high heat temperatures. Teri jumps onto a console and activates an emergency coolant system. Her fist broke the glass and pressed the button to release emergency liquid nitrogen throughout the Bug's inner and outer shells. The Man of Nuclear Fire releases more fire onto the Bug. Knowing the imminent danger as the Bug only has so much resistance to heat and liquid nitrogen already being in use.

A firm grasp clenches a hold of Teddy's shoulder. It was Teri who shook him. "TED! GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Ted pushes the goggles he wore on his head down, then smiles at Teri and Jason. "I got an idea; hold onto your butts!"

The thrusters kick on and push the Bug towards Nuclear Man. The realization of Teddy and his ship with increasing speed,

Nuclear man knew he was going to ram into him, with that he stopped, drop-down narrowly missing the ship. With a sigh of relief, Nuclear Man watches the Bug speed past him. The red hot Bug misses him by several inches and crashes into the water. A loud howl echo over the sea as Nuclear Man gathers as much energy as he could, and with one last barrage, sent everything he could at the sinking Bug. Steam rises out of the sea and bestows Nuclear Man the sense of accomplishment; however, his aim was ever so slightly off. Once the Bug was level in the ocean, Teddy checks on Teri and Jason, who were fine.

"Teddy, I'm starting to doubt I want to be a member of your team. I'm not too fond of the idea of being burned alive and drowning at the same time. It doesn't hurt that have a fear of depths." Jason said as the emergency lights turn on.

"Shut up, Jason. Team, this is Teddy. Do you read me?" Teddy tries their radio; however, the silence was the only sound headset could make as their communication systems are down.

"Teri, want to play a game? I'm thinking of someone who is a multi-millionaire but is as bright as a sack of coal. He should be a multi-billionaire and has a fetish for small blue bugs."

With a laugh, Teri turns to Jason. "Is it Teddy?"

"Correct!" Jason said happily; Teddy growls and attempts to reach the team again.

~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~ Nuclear Man VS Ted Kord & The Bug ~*O*~ ~*O*~ ~*O*~

Meanwhile, on land, the group witnessed the fight and crash of the Bug from a distance. With a calm mind, Aqualad looked at his team and waved them to come in. The six teens look to one another, with M'gann and Kara spotting Nuclear Man's fire trail. The young Atlantean's voice was firm; although recent events were on his mind, they wouldn't hinder his judgment or determination.

"Ted's Bug is down. I don't think they are dead as we didn't see an explosion. I'm sure Teri, Teddy, and Jason will get in contact with us." Taking the point of the group, Aqualad leads the group towards the town.

Supergirl and Kyle can see Nuclear Man making his way for them, call to the others and wait up high. "Hey guys, this is Supergirl. Kyle and I see the enemy; should we confront him?"

M'gann looks up then towards Aqualad, who looks back to the rest of his crew. "Well, Aqualad?"

"Be safe. The rest of us will head to Fisherville." The group looks to Aqualad and follows his lead, taking a quick pace.

As Aqualad, Impulse, Miss Martian, and Blue Beetle move ahead as Green Lantern and Supergirl flight straight for Nuclear Man. With a hardy laugh, Nuclear Man fires his hand up and sends several shots of the nuclear fire at the two. At first, they easily dodge his attacks, but Nuclear Man makes his shots explode by them in an attempt to burn.

Supergirl throws her fists at Nuclear Man, who bobs and weaves around her attacks. The Green Lantern joins in by trying to kick him. But, with a quick grab, Nuclear Man redirects Supergirl's fist into Green Lantern's leg; he drops down several feet as she packs an incredible punch. She grunts loudly, trying to connect a fist; however, Nuclear Man throws one of his own, and their fists clash. A slight shock wave pushes the two back.

"Fall to my might!" Two red hot jets of nuclear fire shoot out from his fists.

With her arms crossing over her face, Supergirl takes the fire and tries to push forward. A blast of green light goes past her and through the fire. Despite the speed, Nuclear Man dodges the light. Green Lantern rushes up to him but Nuclear Man ducks under his fist and slashes Green Lantern's back. Screaming, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner falls from the sky as he can't move. Supergirl goes after him, but Nuclear Man slashes her back as well. This time, she feels drained of most of her power.

TO BE CONTINUED...