July 8th, 2012

Happy Harbor, 8:04 AM EST

Beep

Beep

Beep

Azzon scrunched his muzzle as the annoying beeping gradually grew louder in his ears. Blinking blearily, the dragon opened his eyes to see a sky of dark, charcoal grey. 'Th-that's not the sky,' Azzon thought. 'I'm inside…? Where am I?' raising his head up, the dragon winced and his left foreleg twitched in response to the pain at his side, looking down to see a large swath of heavy bandaging over his side. "Oh," Azzon murmured. "That's right. We got out of Cadmus, but I got hurt in the process…" Well, it was unrealistic that everyone would get out unscathed, he supposed. Azzon was just glad it was he himself who got more seriously hurt and not one of the squishy-skinned humans he had been protecting.

Speaking of which…

The dragon heaved himself off the floor he was laying on, grunting as his wounds pulled on themselves. Azzon made a mental note to lay in a firepit as soon as he located everyone. Staggering a bit to keep on his feet, the dragon slowly made his way to a large door. Looking up, Azzon saw that there was a large hole opening into blue skies; a quick sniff told the dragon that they were near the ocean.

The door opened, and a blonde woman dressed in black came into the room, blue eyes widening when she saw that Azzon was up and about. "Oh, you're up," she said in surprise. The dragon snorted, shaking out the remaining cobwebs in his brain. "Yes, more or less," Azzon said. Looking around the room once more, the dragon closed his eyes and compacted himself, stumbling when he was back on two feet again instead of four. Using his wings as a crutch, Azzon hobbled for the woman, but a line on his chest pulled him back lightly.

"Hold on, there- let me unhook you from the monitor." The woman stepped forwards and began to pull off a strange little patch over his heart. " 'unhook me'? what do you mean?" the woman hummed, rolling up the little ropes. "You had lost quite a bit of blood from the gunshot wound you retained, as well as the entry and exit of the rebar you were impaled on." Blue eyes flicked to the teen reproachfully. "Your mother was very… upset with your condition." The dragon let his eyes close in a wince. "Yes… I suppose I'll have to reassure her when I cross paths with her next."

The blonde chuckled and stood, crossing her arms. "Well, I've already introduced myself to the rest of your teammates; you're the only one left to have as full meet-and-greet." She stuck out her hand and Azzon took it, shaking. "My name is Black Canary. I'll be your talk therapist and hand-to-hand combat mentor here at Mount Justice."

"Skyking," Azzon said. "But since you said teammates with no 'former' attached to it, I'm guessing we made enough of an impression with the league for them to sanction our team?" Black Canary nodded. "Then, when off of missions, my name is Azzon." the Leaguer nodded, returning the shake with a firm grip. "Well, it's good to meet you. Your teammates should be gathering in the common room for bonding time. I have some business to attend to with the other Leaguers, but we do have a training session scheduled in three days." Black Canary's gaze sharpened. "Training is mandatory, so try not to skip. Otherwise, Wonder Woman will not be happy."

The dragon suppressed a gulp and nodded, a nervous smile on his face. "I'll keep that in mind, Canary."

"Woah, Skyking! Glad to see you're okay!"

Kaldur'ahm looked up and released a sigh of relief when he saw the Mountain's resident dragon come limping out of the docking bay, using his wings as crutches. Robin and Wally gathered to the recovering creature while Superboy followed at a more sedate pace. Skyking grinned, draconic teeth glinting in the light as the Leaguers worked around them to make the Mountain more hospitable. "So am I, my friend. I heard our team's been made official; when off missions, call me by my name." Superboy crossed his arms, looking the dragon boy up and down. "What exactly is your name?" the clone asked. The dragon grinned, looking up a bit as Superboy had a good cut in height on him in this smaller body.

"Azzon." He answered.

Kaldur hummed, nodding his head. "A strong name. It suits you."

The now-named Azzon chuckled, scratching the back of his head shyly- first-name basis with someone his age in the World of Man! It made the dragon almost breathless with excitement. "Anyways, sorry about any worrying I might have caused… I know me getting hurt wasn't the most ideal, and usually, I'm better than that." Wally laughed. "Hey, we're just happy you got up in time to attend the team's first meeting!" At that, Batman, Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, Hawk Man, and Captain Marvel came through the Zeta Beams.

"Due to your excursion and… determination to stay together," Batman began. "We are calling the original base of operations, this Mountain, back into service." The Dark Knight of Gotham paced down the line of young heroing teens. "As such, this is your base of operations now. Red Tornado," the android nodded his head for the one who didn't know him. "Will be your supervisor. Black Canary will be your combat trainer, and I will deploy you on missions."

Robin crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Real missions?" Batman nodded. "Yes, but covert missions."

"The League still handles the big gun-baddies," Flash said. "There is a reason we have these targets on our chests." "Cadmus only proves that the bad guys are getting smarter, wiser…" Aquaman said. "So in return," Azzon said. "We have to be smarter and wiser as well- that's why you've officiated us as a team, yes?" Hawk Man nodded. "That's correct, and the six of you will be that team." Azzon side-eyes the other boys. 'I only count five of us… who's that smell?'

"Cool- hang on, six?" Answering Wally's question, Azzon turned to see a green human-not-human, Martian Manhunter, and a green-skinned girl with auburn hair approaching beside him. "Yes, six," Batman said. "This is Miss Martian, Manhunter's niece."

The girl gave a shy wave and Azzon raised an eyebrow in confusion. 'They don't smell familiar in a familial sense,' the dragon thought. 'But I could be wrong… they aren't human, so that's probably throwing me off a bit.'

While Kid Flash introduced himself and the others, Azzon hobbled backwards towards Superboy. A wrong move made the dragon wince, and the clone glanced at him before looking back at the proceedings. "I really need to take that fire bath now," Azzon grumped. Robin, noticing that they were down two other members, turned to wave them over. "Azzon! Superboy! Come meet Miss M, she won't bite!"

The dragon snorted, tail waving as the fins at the ends twitched, "Sure, sure. Hurry the injured party, why don't you?" Superboy followed, albeit hesitantly, still iffy on newcomers himself. Upon approaching the Martian girl, her outfit suddenly changed, shifting from white and red with a blue cape to black and red, mimicking Superboy's outfit a little. Azzon raised an eyebrow and tilted his head, bending closer. "That was interesting," he said, smiling easily at the girl. "You know, I think this team up, provided we work out the kinks we'll be bound to have… will work out just fine."

4 Hours Later

Once the Leaguers had left, the newly assembled team separated to either their own home cities or, for those who were staying at the Mountain due to their accommodations, went to explore their new home together. Slipping away right after everyone separated, Azzon found himself in the forest bordering the Mountain and a stretch of rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean, looking for a place to set up a fire pit and a paw-made cave of his own.

"Hermes, the space here is just perfect!" Azzon said to himself, shielding his eyes from the sunlight so they could adjust and breathing in the fresh air gratefully. "Not only that, but the rocks are warm and smooth thanks to the sea air. It's perfect for me to build a fire pit here, and even better for my own space." While the Mountain had space enough for Azzon to run around inside, he couldn't do that in many of the areas, mainly the residency rooms, in his natural body as he was most comfortable doing. After speaking to Red Tornado, the android gave permission for Azzon to carve out his own space in the forest around the Mountain, provided he be at the Mountain for any team bonding, mission brief and debrief, and/or drills on time.

Shedding his humanoid skin, Azzon breathed in deep once more, nostrils flaring, before breathing out, sending a cloud of smoke into the bushes. "Well," the dragon said to himself. "Time to get to work." Taking a breath, the dragon opened his mouth and unleashed a blast of superheated, concentrated fire on the rock around him for several long minutes, warming it to a cherry red and brilliant gold-orange. Seeing that the consistency had gone from hard to soft and doughy after about ten minutes, Azzon cut the stream of fire and cautiously placed a paw into the bubbling mixture.

"Alright… now if I just…" mumbling to himself, Azzon set to kneading at the bubbling, lava-like mix with his tough paws, occasionally licking at the softened, near-molten stone to make formations that would suit his tastes, almost like a cat kneading a blanket. As he went, he found a rhythm, and before he knew it, he was kneading to a specific beat he felt deep in his bones. His chest thrummed, growling low and high at different pitches, and his tail began beating the softened ground to make large lumps and indents in the doughy rock. The force of his beats and the vibrancy of his hums were felt all the way back to the mountain enough to garner the attention of his 'housemates' as they had noticed he was missing.

"Superboy, have you seen Azzon?" the clone looked up at Kaldur's question, blinking in confusion before shaking his head 'no'. "I haven't seen him since everyone split up," M'gann said, humming contemplatively. "I wonder where he went- I don't think he's laid claim to one of the rooms yet…"

Superboy went to ask why they wanted to find the dragon boy when he paused, tilting his head almost as if seeking out an unheard sound. "I think he's outside," the clone said, hearing the telltale sound of fire he'd come to associate with Azzon… along with something else entirely. "How can you tell?" Kaldue asked curiously. The clone frowned. "I can hear him; he's doing something, but I don't know what. He's making a lot of noise, and… vibrating?"

Kaldur furrowed his brow in confusion.

What did he mean by 'vibrating'?

M'gann clapped her hands. "Well, let's go see what he's up to! I doubt he wants to be alone right now- we're all new to this place… I'm, also curious about what he's vibrating, if that's what he's doing...?" Levitating and gesturing for Superboy to guide them, the three Mountain inhabitants followed the teen with super hearing to the outside. Here, it was able to be felt easier, but not enough for any noticeable changes to occur around the Mountain or the ocean itself.

Following Superboy, the three teens walked for several minutes, M'gann having to levitate Kaldur when the tremors were too much and they hit the rockier terrain, but eventually they came across an area that was flat, but the ground jumped with the force of Azzon's actions. Superboy, who was sturdy enough to handle walking for some time still, bent over when he noticed something shiny on the ground, a stone he hadn't seen before. Picking it up, he saw the broken edge was unusually sharp and wordlessly handed it to Kaldur. The Atlantean turned it over in his hands carefully before his eyes widened, recognizing the sharp factettes. Every other stone had been-.

"It's been turned to obsidian?" Kaldur said in surprise, Superboy reaching over to touch an ashy, glistening boulder. "That's impossible- there's no volcanic activity around here for thousands of miles." Superboy bent over and brushed his hands over the ground- it was still warm, but only by a slightly higher margin than they would be if the sun were warming them.

Superboy straightened, looking over at a large pile of rock the size of the entryway to the debrief area of the Mountain. "I think he's over there," the clone said, jerking his head in the opposite direction. A blast of heat, one that made both Kaldur and M'gann step back in discomfort, made the teen's cloths ripple. "Maybe it would be better if you went on ahead, Superboy," M'gann said. "Due to my Martian physiology, I don't do heat very well at all." Kaldur nodded. "That's a good idea. The same is said for me as well." The Atlantean turned towards the ocean. "I think I'll go for a swim and explore the ocean myself now that we know roughly where Azzon is. I'll meat you three back at the Mountain."

M'gann nodded and turned to Mount Justice herself, heading off on her own as well, leaving a rather put-out Superboy to find a way down this rocky outcrop on his own. With a grunt of irritation, the clone worked his way around the stone and obsidian outcrops, the temperature climbing higher and higher, and the rhythm coupled with the odd thrumming and growling louder, the closer to the dragon's den he got. Finally, he jumped over what was left to see an entire small quarry's worth of space had been cleared away; a pit of sand was at one end of the fifty-foot diameter hole, and a cave that certainly wasn't there on the maps before sat on the opposite end. In the middle of it was Azzon himself, growling and rumbling to himself as he worked on his home away from home, his tail, wings, and paws beating that odd rhythm into the ground and leaving prints with every stomp

The young dragon was so focused on his task, he didn't notice he had accumulated an audience.

Superboy watched as Azzon extended his tongue and licked at the softened stone, creating ribbons of material as it cooled and hardened, making grooves and swirls that couldn't have appeared naturally. After, he would scrape his horns on the edges of the grooves, making sparks that alit and ran up and down the lines with a sort of joyous dance that made the clone raise an eyebrow.

Then, Azzon paused, his nose twitching, and stopped his task to look over at Superboy, freezing completely when he saw the intruder. "Oh! Sorry… was I too loud?" the dragon asked, angling himself to face the clone. Superboy blinked before shaking his head, and Azzon nodded. "Well, that's good. I'm about done here, so I was about to head back anyways. You?" in leu of an answer, Superboy grunted, turned, and made to jump back down, but a rush of air made him pause when a large foreleg barred his way. "Wait! It's a bit of a walk back, if you actually did make the walk here," the dragon said, leaping up to where the clone was and landing with a ground shaking thud. "I can give you a ride, if you want?"

Superboy drew his shoulders up in surprise. "You don't have to do that," he said gruffly, looking away. Azzon chuckled, is chest rumbling as his tail flicked. "But I'd like to- you came all this way, so it's the least I could do." Crouching down and extending a foreleg, the dragon jerked his head back, gesturing for Superboy to climb aboard. "Besides… you said back at Cadmus you couldn't fly. If you're supposed to be a clone of Superman, it won't be fair if you didn't have the opportunity to tase the clouds like we flyers can."

Superboy's gaze lingered on the rocks for a moment before glancing up at the sky. White, puffy clouds floated overhead, and that lingering feeling of resentment for Superman ignoring him rose slightly. Watching the Man of Steel float away as if gravity was nothing... leaving his troubles on the ground… "…fine." He grunted. Climbing awkwardly up Azzon's offered foreleg, the clone made a spot in the juncture between Azzon's neck and shoulders, gripping one of his neck spikes tightly to keep his balance. Once his cargo was situated, the dragon stood, and he felt his passenger tighten his knees against his back warily.

The dragon turned his neck to look into wary sky-blue eyes with his own shifting shades of green. "Trust me- I'll give you a taste of flight you'll be begging to have again!"

And with that, Azzon began to trot over to the cliffside. Towering over three-hundred meters over the surface of the ocean, the cliff made the best take off and landing spot, another reason Azzon picked this area to be his nest. "Try to lean with my turns," the dragon instructed. "If you don't the weight you add will throw me off balance slightly."

"Can we go now, or are you just going to talk?" Superboy grumped. Making the dragon huff. "Fine, fine. Hold on!"

The dragon spread his wings, and leapt off the cliff's edge.

Instinctively, Superboy slammed his eyes shut. The wind howled in his ears and the salty spray of the ocean was so close he could practically taste it… then, a sound akin to cloth opening filled the clone's ears, and gravity seemed to fall away. "Lean forwards or the wind will take you!" Azzon called over the rushing gale. Superboy did as instructed, and the wind became less of a screech and more of a howl.

"I can tell you have your eyes shut, Superboy," Azzon said wryly. "Open them! Look around you!"

The clone fought against his curiosity for a bit but gave in and opened his eyes a crack. They flew open the rest of the way when he found himself surrounded by pockets of white- clouds. Peering down over Azzon's shoulder, Superboy could spot the mountain far below them, it looked like an anthill from this high up. "Wow," he murmured, eyes wide as he took in the view. Turning his face upwards, he felt the sun, warm and constant. The wind trailed over his arms and face, and the clone felt himself smiling at the sensation.

"To never feel the wind on your skin or the rain falling… it's a horrible way to live." This was what Azzon meant- Superboy could see why he was so vehemently against Superboy insisting Cadmus had been his home.

However, all too soon, Azzon brought them both back to the Mountain. Laying on his belly, the dragon let his companion slide from his shoulders before compacting his true body into the more humanoid form. "I'm glad you decided to try that," Azzon said, grinning up at Superboy. "You're sturdy on dragon back, if I do say so myself! A few more rides and you'll be a natural!" Superboy's eyebrows furrowed. "More rides?" he parroted, making the dragon blush slightly. "w-well if you want to,": Azzon corrected himself. "I don't want to presume anything, and we still barely know each other, so I could see if I made you uneasy-."

The clone rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "I didn't day 'no'," he grunted. "Just… let me know when, alright?" Azzon paused before beaming at the stoic clone.

"Sure!"

Time: Unknown

Place: Unknown

Nine figures made of light surround a large table; it's been three days since Cadmus had fallen, and those figures were in a heated debate. "Did you receive all data from the Cadmus files before it was destroyed?" one figure asked, white lit arms folding on the table. A second nodded. "Yes, the Justice League seems to have a small team of proteges acting on their own now…" the voice went silent for a moment. "Along with something that might spark our resident Myth and magic users." Another voice, grating and young sounding, but hinting at boredom, spoke up next. "And what would that be?"

"Yes," a female voice said. "Do tell. It has been millennia since I was entertained. The Witch-Boy loves to take away my toys."

"They have a dragon."

The room went silent. "Impossible," the woman ground out. "I saw to it that the last of those impure fell from the skies by my own claws and ice myself! I ended them in the-!" the first voice chuckled, interrupting the woman's rant. "Well, it seems you missed one. See for yourself."

A screen popped up, showing close-up images of Skyking and his currently used abilities the frames flashed by until they stopped, freezing on the dragon in his more compact form. A humanoid with the arms, legs, wings, horns, and tail of a dragon stood in mid-punch against Blockbuster, and the woman made a sound as if she were about to cry.

Instead, she began to laugh.

"It looks like the hunt is still on, then," she said. "Calm yourself, Tia'," the cackling boy said. "There's still time to have some fun with it. But for now, we need to make sure our next plan doesn't fail."

"Yes," the first speaker said. "For the sake of the Light. On with the meeting…"