Chapter 4
"Normal talk"
"Thought"
"Hologram, communicator & video link"
AMAZO BE AMAZED
Location: Metropolis, August 3; 07:38 EDT
In the early morning, we see the hardworking people of Metropolis moving along to get to their jobs using various modes of transportation. On one of the Metropolis bridges, a bright yellow bus could be seen, driving the younger generation to school. They were stuck in some milling traffic that was normal for most big cities.
Their drive was interrupted as something started to shake the bridge, which in turn destabilized the bridge's structural integrity. The bridge could not take the force and started to collapse. On the road, the concrete started to crack, while the cables that supported the bridge snapped like guitar strings and fell onto incoming traffic.
The drivers panicked and tried to evade the destruction, and some at the end and the beginning of the bridge were able to escape, but the ones in the middle were not so lucky. They had to evade the falling cables, and they had no way to go as the cracks got large enough that no car could cross them.
The bus full of kids was having the worst luck, as their driver panicked and turned the bus left and then lost control as he moved too fast to stop, and they crashed against the side barricade, where they hung in a fragile balance that dictated whether they would live or die.
Gravity, always with its skull-faced grin, decided on death, and the bus moved slowly over to its tipping point.
Out of nowhere, a blue and red blur flew by them, and suddenly the bridge started to rise back up. Under the bridge, we can find our blue-and-red-clad boyscout fixing the bridge with his heat vision. However, he was suddenly stopped when he felt a large force come crashing on the bridge above.
Up above, we find the young Kryptonian jumping on the bridge to get to the people in danger faster. As he reached the cars that were about to slide off to their doom, he used his strength to move them from the sides of the bridge and stopped the cars, and by proxy, the people inside. He then reached the yellow school bus that was on the verge of collapsing and was thus in the most danger.
Superboy grabbed the back of bus and dug his fingers into the metal, started to pull. That was when a piece of the bridge crumbled underneath the bus, making it tip forward, pulling Superboy along with him.
Superboy was half-Kryptonian, and this meant that he also had the famous Kryptonian stubbornness. He would not give in and he would not stop. However, for all his strength, the bus started to slip away from him as the very metal he held in his hands started to rip apart.
Suddenly, he was able to lift the bus as if it weighed nothing. As if that wasn't enough, the bus was then ripped from his hands, and as it floated up into the air, casting a shadow over him, Superboy looked up and saw that under the bus, holding it up, was Superman himself.
As Superman lowered the bus safely to the ground, Superboy got in his face.
"I had that," he said, angry that his father'd interfered with his rescue attempt. However, what he received was a serious look on the man of steel's face.
"I didn't want to take the chance," said Superman, with a subtle angry undertone that showed that he did not approve of Superboy's methods of heroism. "As it is, your landing could have destabilized the entire bridge."
Superboy crossed his hands over his chest, admitting no foul. "It didn't."
"But it could have…we don't yet know the limits of your powers," said the Kryptonian, and he looked a bit uncomfortable at the end of the his answer, as he had not yet come to terms that he basically had a son. He was pulled from his thoughts by Superboy speaking once more.
"But maybe you could, you know, help me figure that out," said the clone as he looked up hopefully, thinking that he might be able to connect with the closest thing he had to a family.
That hope was quickly extinguished as the man of steel spoke once more.
"Batman's got that covered," said the Kryptonian, with a cold look on his face showing that there was no way to get him to change his mind, but he did not count on the stubbornness that Kryptonians were known for.
"I know, but-" Before the young man could continue, he was stopped by Superman putting his hand up and putting two fingers to his ear.
"Superman here…wait, Arrow, slow down." His face looked shocked as he received the information from his comrade. "What's attacking?" he said as he looked towards Superboy for a moment before looking away again. "No, I'm definitely available…Coordinates? Acknowledged…On my way."
He then turned awkwardly to Superboy. "Sorry, Superboy…Duty calls," he said as he then flew away towards the emergency, not seeing Superboy looking after him with a sad look that was quickly replaced by anger and disappointment.
However, not far away, we find a man standing inside a big office in a building with a name synonymous with one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where the corrupt push down the weak and take whatever they want…but it also known for another reason, for their everpresent Dark Knight, who would do anything to bring the people that do wrong to justice…this city was Gotham, and the name on the building was Wayne.
The man was a tall Caucasian male with a dark and imposing figure, short black hair, and dark brown eyes. He wore an expensive suit and designer shoes that spoke of his wealth. This man was none other than Gotham's prodigal son, Bruce Wayne. He was currently on a private phone linked to a special server. He heard a voice come through the phone.
"Already got the alert, Bruce," spoke the blue and red clad hero as Bruce could see him flying away. However, Mr. Wayne was not one for small talk, so he got straight to the point.
"I know, Clark, but we need to talk," he said, then hung up the phone before turning towards his desk, where a drawer was open, and inside was a costume with a bat symbol on it. Bruce released a sigh before he closed the drawer and got back to his work and put the mission in someone else's hands for now.
Location: Mount Justice, August 3; 13:06 EDT
We find our young heroes in the main room of the mountain, using the holographic trainer for some fun. Aqualad and Kid Flash could be seen playing a game of glow hockey, while Robin and M'gann were watching the match. Suddenly, the puck crashed into Aqualad's goal, and a screen appeared with the words KID FLASH WINS on it.
Aqualad growled in irritation as he saw that Kid Flash was playing with one hand while eating a banana with the other. They were just about to play again when the zeta tube flashed, while the computer for it came alive.
"Recognized, Superboy," it said as the figure of Superboy appeared and started to walk towards his room with an angry look in his face.
M'gann did not notice the look on his face, and just remained her ever cheerful self as she greeted her not-so-hidden crush. "Hi, Superboy, how was Metropolis?"
Superboy, walking straight through the holographic projection and continuing to his destination, ignored her.
M'gann was about to follow him when she heard a clearing of the throat, and she turned around to see two people coming towards them.
The first was an attractive young woman, with long blonde hair, blue eyes and a slender yet toned build. She wore a very distinctive costume, which consisted of a black, one-piece bustier-leotard combination, gray stockings with seams up the front and back, and black, heavy calf-length boots on her feet. She finished off the look with black fingerless gloves that went past her elbows to the biceps, a blue jacket, and to put the finishing touch on it all, she wore a black choker around her neck.
The second was a man, if you could call him that. He was a tall, green-skinned humanoid, his head completely bald, and his face oddly proportioned, with heavy brows, thick lips and red eyes. His costume was primarily black with red accents, and a large red belt and x-shaped straps across his chest. He also wore a blue cape that was fastened by gold clips.
The young woman spoke up as soon as she had moved close enough for the young heroes to hear her. "Ready for training, everyone?"
She looked at every member of the team, inspecting them, her tactical mind going through different scenarios that could happen in this meeting. However, her attention was diverted back to the young green-skinned girl who ran towards the man that was standing next to the blond woman.
"Black Canary! Uncle J'onn!" the girl said as she hugged her uncle with a happy smile on her face.
As they parted, J'onn spoke.
"M'gann, I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd see how you were adjusting," he said as he put his hand on her shoulder.
"A few bumps, but I'm learning," said the young Martian girl as she looked at her uncle.
The older Martian smiled. "That's all I can ask." They then continued to make smalltalk.
Canary then looked around once more and saw that Superboy was leaving the main room. "Stick around, class is in session," she told him. Superboy looked at the woman and grudgingly moved back to his teammates.
"First, let me say that I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I'll throw a lot at you… Everything I've learned from my own mentors-uh!" she stopped for a moment as she took off her jacket, brushing against her bicep that was bandaged and had a small amount of blood on it, "and from my own bruises."
"What happened?" asked M'gann in a concerned voice as she looked at the wound on Black Canary's shoulder. The veteran hero looked at the injury, then back at the Martian and gave a small smile to comfort the Martian girl.
"The job. Now, before I continue this lesson, I would like to know where the last member of this team is hiding, as it would be unfair to deprive him of what he may learn today."
The three members that had been in the mountain for the majority of the day looked at each other, and then looked at Black Canary once more. It was then that Aqualad stepped forward and put his hands behind his back, straightening like a solider in a show of respect to their superior.
"Well…Well, we don't know…"
Location: Washington DC, August 3; 13:35 EDT
In the Capital of one the most powerful countries in the world, we can see a special ceremony being held. In a lavish building, we find a party being thrown and a lot of very important people have gathered for this festivity.
Then, the people's attention was pulled from their mingling, and diverted to the stage that had been set up, as the mayor of the City walked onto the stage. She was African-American, in her early forties, with short black hair and green colored eyes. She wore a simple sleeveless red dress that reached just below her knees and showed off an impressive figure for her age.
She walked towards the microphone and tapped it once or twice before she moved a bit closer and leaned on the podium.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen - we are gathered here to celebrate the accomplishments of a man that we all know and love…This man is responsible for many things that have made this city better. With his help, we were able to rebuild after the many battles caused by those who try to go outside the law, and were luckily stopped by the heroes of the Justice League. However, while the work our heroes do to stop these individuals is honorable, it is the ordinary heroes, like the man we are honoring today, that are the real heroes! Heroes who help the people in need after the crisis has passed! Now, please welcome the man that helped this city in its time of need… Victor Mazarin!"
As she and the audience started to clap, a Caucasian man stepped on to the stage. He was quite well built, as you could see it through the expensive suit he wore, had short brown hair and blue eyes. As he got up to the podium, he hugged the mayor and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then turned towards the people that had gathered at the party.
"Well…where to start? This is one of the proudest moments in my life…I won't take up much of your time, so I'll just say that this could not be possible if the good people of this city had not come together in this city's time of need, so this award is not just mine, it also belongs to each and every one of you that helped in the rebuilding, in helping anyone in need… so thank you all," he said as he raised the award above his head and gave a million dollar smile while the people started to cheer and clap loudly.
No one in that room would have believed that there was another person watching the event with cold and dispassionate eyes. On a roof that should have been out of range for any man-portable firearm, a man was currently lying on his stomach, a high powered sniper rifle in his hands.
He wore a red suit with a lot of armor plating, as well as a white mask that had some sort of goggle over his right eye. He also had a pair of silenced, wrist-mounted 9mm cannons on his forearms.
He smirked as he looked through the scope of the sniper rifle and put his finger on the trigger preparing to fire.
"Easy money…" he whispered.
Before he made a conscious decision to pull the trigger, he suddenly rolled to the side, dodging instinctively and without understanding why, as a massive something came crashing down on the spot where he had previously been. The man leapt to his feet and moved further away to get some distance from his attacker. As the dust cleared from the first attack, the assassin finally saw who was trying to assault him.
The first thing he saw was a large symbol of a shield with two wings crossed over it on the back of his attackers brown jacket. Then, he made out a young man, no older than fifteen, with blond hair and wearing a skintight black T-shirt with the same shield-and-wings design emblazoned on his left peck. The kid also wore baggy black pants that were taped at the ankles by medical tape that also covered his feet – strange, the assassin thought, his feet are bare - and biker gloves on his hands. To finish off the look he'd wrapped a scarf around his neck, concealing the lower part of his face.
As the kid turned around to face the man, he spoke.
"Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot, we need to talk…" The kids eyes, Deadshot noticed, were very cold. It didn't impress him much – he had faced many cold men before, men who thought they were hard, and every one of them was dead now.
"What do you want, kid? Are you playing hero?" He chuckled, aiming his sniper rifle at the young man. "Or maybe you have a death wish, seeing as you know who I am and what I'm capable of."
"No, I have no death wish… I may be a hero, but right now, I need information that you might able to provide," said the young man, narrowing his eyes at Deadshot. "Also, don't call me kid. If you must call me something, call me Sentinel." He crossed his hands over his chest. "Now, I want everything you know about a particular person… who has been off the radar for quite some time now." Seeing that he got Deadshot's attention, he continued. "Now, tell me what you know about Kushina Uzumaki."
Naruto saw Deadshot hesitate for a second, as if he'd remembered something about that name, but then the assassin quickly composed himself and straightened, aiming his rifle straight at the blond boy's head.
"I don't know anything about whoever that is. Now get lost before I put a bullet straight through your skull," Deadshot said, weighing whether or not he felt annoyed enough yet to kill the young man regardless of whether he tried to leave now.
However, he was surprised that instead of looking terrified, or even a narrowing of the eyes, the boy started to laugh. He continued for almost an entire minute, during which Deadshot got progressively more and more angry at his insolence, before he got himself under control, then looked at Deadshot once more and his face turned serious.
"Very well, you can shoot me right here," Naruto said, tapping twice on his own forehead. "But remember, if you miss, I will and break every bone in your body until you give me the information I seek. So what I'm saying is, don't miss-"
He was suddenly cut off as a deafening bang filled the room. His neck snapped back violently from the force of the bullet, and the boy swayed in place on his feet.
Deadshot smirked at the teen, not paying any mind that the dead guy was still standing.
"I never miss, kid," he said and turned around to leave, seeing that this chance to assassinate Victor Mazarin was gone, but before he could continue, he was stopped by a sudden weight on his shoulder.
He froze, then slowly turned around to see the blond boy there, but he was different than before - he had some kind of plates covering his body, including his face. The boy opened his mouth to speak, and steam gushed out, into Deadshot's face.
"You missed."
Deadshot's eyes widened as he spun around, dropped his sniper rifle and started to unload shot after shot from his wrists into the kid's chest, not noticing that he was not doing any damage beyond putting holes in Sentinel's shirt. When he'd unloaded every single bullet he had in the wrist mounted-cannons, he looked at what he'd achieved, and only then saw that the shirt and jacket had a lot of holes in them, but there was no blood coming out.
Sentinel then looked at his shirt and jacket, smoke still rising in thin tendrils from the bulletholes, before looking at Deadshot once more.
"THAT was my favorite jacket and you ruined IT!" he shouted as he walked towards Deadshot, who fell on his ass as he watched this kid turn into a monster, as an aura appeared around him and a giant beast roared at him, making him nearly piss himself.
All that was heard from there on were the tortured screams of man in more pain that you can imagine.
Location: Washington DC, August 3; 14:05 EDT
We can now find Naruto standing on the edge of the building, watching the traffic go by, when he suddenly heard his communicator buzz.
"Sentinel, here what is the situation?" said Naruto as he pressed the button on his earpiece.
"Naruto, finally! Where are you? Canary came here for training and found out you didn't tell anyone where you were, and she went ballistic, then told us to track you down, we have be trying to reach you for an hour now …get back here now, before she gets the league involved," Robin said/shouted over the com as he expressed how serious the situation was.
"I was doing something so on my own, so don't worry, and I was busy so I couldn't answer the call. Besides it's none of her, or the league's, business what I do on my time," Naruto said and turned off the comm. He faced the man he was previously engaged in combat with.
Deadshot had seen better days, bleeding profusely, one of his arms bent at an unnatural angle. Naruto looked at the man, smirking under his scarf, and said, "Thanks for the information - I will be sure to pay the man you mentioned a visit."
He had what he wanted, so he took the fire escape to ground level, where a black and red, heavily modified 2016 Suzuki GSX-S1000 ABS awaited him. Naruto had been given this bike when he joined the team, for transportation, and he'd seen the potential in it, so he diverted some attention from his other projects to work on it, which had paid off handsomely in the end.
His other projects had not been so successful, and he hadn't made much progress in those fields. The only thing he'd got to work so far was a design for a tornado mine that would release a small scale tornado which could allow for a distraction, or serve as a surprise attack on the enemy.
He'd been able to make quite a few changes to Venom, but it still wasn't working to his satisfaction. Despite all its benefits, it also had a big effect on the person using it, was ten times more addictive as before, and any user could only go so long before he was so addicted that he would have had to take a fresh dose every hour, or else go into extreme withdrawal, thus making him weak, not to mention it could kill if the subject overused it.
As he reached the bike, he saw the G-elf sitting there, patiently waiting for him to return. He smiled at his companion, scratching it under its chin.
"I'm sorry it took so long, but our friend wasn't very cooperative, and it took longer to persuade him to help me than I expected," Naruto said as he mounted the bike and started it up, while the G-elf grabbed onto his back, and with that, they sped off towards the nearest zeta tube.
While he was driving, he called 911. He had to wait several minutes to talk to a real person, but he finally got someone on the line.
"911, what's your emergency?" came a woman's voice over the line, in the typical voice of a emergency line worker.
"Yes, I heard gunshots fired and some screaming as I was passing by Holiday Inn Washington DC-Central/White house, I believe someone's been shot! I think it happened on a roof opposite to the hotel, you have to help!" Sentinel said, faking his panic so as to seem that dispatch was talking to just a terrified citizen instead of a hero.
"Don't worry, sir, you just get to safety, we will dispatch the paramedics immediately," said the female voice as she cut off the call, no doubt to get the ambulance to the location he had given them. With that done, and the gun for hire safe, Sentinel continued on to his destination.
Location: Mount Justice, August 3; 14:35 EDT
The sidekicks in Mount Justice had once again gathered in the main room with Black Canary and the Martian Manhunter as they waited for the final member of the team.
Canary was not happy about it. She thought that the team should have known the whereabouts of every member of the team. She thought that it was unethical to just up and leave, when you could be seriously injured, and perhaps even killed.
Everyone's attention was diverted to the zeta tube as the computer recognition program came to life, announcing their visitor.
"Recognized: Sentinel B06," spoke the program as the image of the blond hero could be seen coming out of the teleporter. The blond didn't greet his teammates or the two heroes of the League. He moved along towards the vehicle bay, ignoring the other people present in the room.
He was stopped by someone stepping in his path. Black Canary stepped in front of him and refused to move.
"What do you want?" asked Naruto as he looked at the blonde female in front of him.
"WHERE WERE YOU…You left without telling the rest of the team or your supervisor!" she shouted at him as she saw the holes in his jacket, and how many there were.
"I don't need to tell you anything about what I do when I'm off the clock…so get out of my way," he said as he tried to move forward, but was stopped by Canary once more, as she examined his jacket.
"What happened to you – are those bullet holes? What were you doing to get those?" she said as she looked him straight in the eyes.
Naruto ignored her and tried to push forward, but he was not expecting Canary to suddenly grab him by the back of his collar and flip him so that he landed face-first onto the ground. As he slowly got up, he looked at Canary with anger in his eyes, to which she responded with a smirk on her face.
"Class is in session," she said as she moved towards the center of the room and the floor under her lit up, showing that match had started. Naruto rose to his feet, walked towards the ring, and got in a kick boxer stance.
Canary's face turned serious as her eyes narrowed.
"Now, combat is about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting," she said as Naruto charged her and threw a powerful right hook. Canary used this to her advantage, leveraging his momentum to throw him over her shoulder, where he landed on his back.
Before the computer could relay the winner, he was already back on his feet and charging once more. They started a fierce a battle that showed no clear victor at first, however, after some time, everyone could see that Naruto was slowing down. On closer inspection, the rest of the team could see what was really happening.
Canary was using her mastery of combat to disable Naruto, striking certain chosen points on his body, disabling his ability to move his limbs effectively. It all ended with one powerful punch from Canary to Naruto's stomach that made him stop dead in his tracks as he spit out saliva.
Naruto stood there for a couple of minutes with wide eyes, frozen in place. He then crumbled to the floor and onto his knees, where he stayed.
Canary, seeing that he was not getting back up, turned around towards the others. "Now, who's next to try their luck?"
Kid Flash was about to step up when Naruto rose up with a look of anger in his eyes. Canary only saw that Kid Flash had frozen up and that he had stopped moving. She saw that he was not looking at her but behind her, and her eyes widened as she turned around to meet Naruto's already wound-up punch, which clocked her directly in the face.
She fell down hard, a big red mark on her cheek.
"I wasn't done," Naruto said as he got his anger under control and then left toward his bike and walked out of the room.
The other heroes were shocked that there teammate had done this. However, their attention was again diverted to their instructor, who had risen from the floor while rubbing her cheek, but the surprising thing was, she had a small smile on her face.
"That was quite a good right hook, just needs a little work." She said the last part more to herself than anyone else. She then adjusted her focus to the rest of the team present. "As I was saying, I need a sparring partner."
Kid Flash immediately moved forward, raising his hand while eating his banana.
"Right here," he said as he finished his last bite. "Yeah! After this-" he paused to throw the banana peel into a trashcan, "- Swish- I'll show you my moves." He said it with his best flirting smile, which was ignored by Canary and received an eye roll from the other members of the team as they watched Kid flash and Canary with interest.
Canary suddenly smirked and threw a strong right hook that was barely stopped by Kid Flash, but he had no time to move to the offensive as Canary moved, swiftly struck multiple points on his body, and then used a low kick that took Kid Flash's feet from under him as a finish.
As he came crashing down hard, the sensors on the computer showed that he had lost. "Aah! Uh! Ohh, hurts so good," he said, he had barley any strength in him to raise his head.
"Good block," said Canary as she helped Kid Flash to his feet, then looked at the others once more. "But did anyone see what he did wrong?" she asked the other members of the young hero team.
"Ooh, ooh. He hit on teacher and got served?" came the somewhat childish answer from the young Boy Wonder.
"Dude!" shouted the red headed speedster. The blonde heroine ignored their squabble as she continued her previous train of thought. "He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"
Canary was interrupted by Superboy as he made his opinion on the mater be known.
"Oh, please. With my powers, the battle's always on my terms," he said as he looked at his hand and then balled it into a fist then once more looking at Canary. "I'm a living weapon, besides, Sentinel already proved that he could beat you, he was just holding back because he didn't want it to be too easy, and he has enough power to stop someone as strong as me or even stronger, so what I'm saying is that this is a waste of my time." He was prepared to leave, but the voice of the blonde crimefighter stopped him in his tracks.
"Prove it," she said with a smirk. They both got into their fighting stances and prepared to do battle. Superboy threw a powerful punch, however, it was dodged by Canary, who used his imbalance to throw him over her shoulder, where he landed on the ground…hard.
"Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!" Robin's laughter could be heard as he found great amusement in the fact that Superboy was getting his ass handed to him. The laughter was only muffled once Aqualad elbowed him in the shoulder, which had the desired effect of getting him to cover his mouth with his hands.
As Superboy rose to his hands and knees, he heard Canary speak.
"You're angry. Good, but don't react, channel that anger into-" She was interrupted by Superboy charging at her, which was exactly what she'd expected him to do. She was able to flip over him, then, with a quick sweep of the leg, Superboy found himself on the ground once more.
As he got up, Canary tried to help him, but he pushed her off, saying "That's it. I'm done."
"Training is mandatory," countered Canary but just as they were about to get into a heated argument, a screen appeared in front of the whole team, and on it was a stoic face of the Dark Knight himself.
"Batman to the cave," he said as he got the team's attention. "Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary." It showed the two heroes fighting an android of some kind and getting slowly pushed back, however, what shocked the team was that the android was able to duplicate Canary's signature scream. "The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents," spoke Batman with a cold tone in his voice. "Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant," finished the Caped Crusader.
"Whoa. One guy with the powers of the entire League?" said a shocked Kid Flash as he observed the screen, which showed the android using multiple abilities to fight of the League.
"In the end, it took 8 Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android," said the Dark Knight as he looked at the present team.
"An android?" said a shocked Robin as he moved forward. "Who made it, T.O. Morrow?"
"Good guess, Robin," continued Batman as he continued the train of thought of his protégée. "But Red Tornado doesn't think so."
"The technology bears the signature of professor Ivo," said Martian Manhunter as he filled in the blanks for the present members of the team.
"Ivo? But Ivo's dead," said Aqualad, shocked to find out this information.
"So we all thought," spoke up Black Canary as she looked over her shoulder at Aqualad. "Or hoped," she finished as she once again focused on Batman.
"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate S.T.A.R. lab facilities in Boston And New York for immediate evaluation," said Batman as the screen showed the routes that the trucks would be taking. "Every precaution is being taken. We'll have 4 additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo or anyone tries to recover the remains," he said with a serious tone that was a bit stronger than his normal one. "You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."
"Yes! Road trip!" said Kid flash with a happy smile on his face as he pumped his fist in the air. However, another member of the team was not pleased at the thought of this mission.
"So now we take out your trash?" asked Superboy with a snarl as he looked at the Dark Knight, but Batman did not react, just remained calm and answered Superboy with a question of his own.
"You had something better to do?"
This made Superboy shut up and look away, pulling himself into his own thoughts.
"Coordinates received," came the sudden voice of Aqualad as he looked at the veteran heroes before looking at Batman. "On our way."
Superboy prepared to leave when he was stopped by a hand grabbing his wrist. As he turned, he saw that it was Black Canary.
"When you're ready, I'll be here," she said as she let go of his arm and let him be on his way.
As she watched the young clone leave, Black Canary remembered the final member of the team that was not present. She decided to fill him in and get him to the starting location of the trucks. As she searched for him, she came upon a training room that had a lot of weight lifting equipment, as well as training dummies and boxing bags.
While the weights were intact, the bags and the dummy were not in very good shape, lying on the ground in shambles, holes in some places while sand fell out of the bags. She then looked around and saw a shirtless Naruto looking at a screen, a towel draped around his neck as he talked to Batman. Canary saw that this boy was chiseled and showed a body that most men would dream about having, and women would dream of having a man with that kind of body, but Canary was not focused on that - what she was focused on was the large scar he had tracing down his spine. She was shocked that he could even walk after receiving such an injury.
She waited and listened in on the conversation, and it seemed that Batman had just finished explaining the mission to the young hero.
"Now we need you to suit up and catch up to your team-" however, the Dark Knight was interrupted by one simple word spoken from Naruto's mouth.
"No…" he said as he crossed his hand over his chest.
"What did you say?" asked Batman as he was honestly shocked that he would refuse to do this.
"I said NO, I'm not your clean up crew, and I won't pick up your trash…so that being said, piss off, I have better things to do than be someone's delivery boy - let the others do it if they want." Naruto shut off the screen and walked to one of the machines, if you wanted to use that word for a simple pull-up bar with one distinctive difference; it had different levels to move up on with the bar.
Naruto put the bar at the lowest and prepared to do his workout, but was stopped by Canary storming in and getting right into his face, poking his chest.
"What are you thinking? How could you not go with your team, what if they need you!" she shouted as she continued to poke his chest. Naruto did not budge and just looked at her with his eyes narrowed.
"I don't pick up your trash, and if they want to do it, they can but I signed up for one reason and one reason only - I want to find my mother. So back off!" he said as he pushed her back. "As for them getting in trouble, if that happens and they need my help, I have a friend listening in on the frequency their communicators are on, so if they need me, I will be there." He turned away and was about to start his workout when Canary spoke again, interrupting him once more.
"Where did you get that scar?" she asked as she examined the discolored flesh and moved closer to touch it. Before she could, she was stopped from doing so by Naruto, who grabbed her hand and faced her fully with a look of anger on his face. He then let her go and moved back a few steps.
"You'd better go, or else something may happen that you won't like," he said as he was preparing to workout and clear his head.
However, Canary was not one to take a threat laying down, as she spoke once more. "Hey, was that threat..." she said as Naruto suddenly froze up and just stood there.
Canary was about to ask again when suddenly, her danger senses started to blare, and she saw plates start to rise from beneath Naruto's skin. She was shocked as she saw closely how the plates covered his body and steam started to rise from the cracks and joins. He then turned around, spinning on the balls of his feet, and used Canary's shock to his advantage as he grabbed her by the neck and looked at her with a cold look in his eyes.
Black Canary could see the rage hidden behind those eyes, a rage that was just waiting to come to the surface, just as a volcano, wanting to break through and release its pent up energy. But while there was a lot of anger, she saw something more in those eyes and what she saw was shocking yet expected. She saw great sadness that was being pushed down by the rage so that boy – no, man – could move forward and not just fade away.
She was pulled from her thoughts by Naruto releasing steam right into her face and speaking in a mix of a feral growl and his normal voice. "No, that was a warning," he said as he let her go and let his form recede back to his human form.
He then walked to the pull-up bar and started the workout he was previously going to do and started to do his pull-ups. Once he did ten on one level, he used his strength to move the bar up mid-pull-up, and this pattern continued for about three levels, when he was stopped by Canary's voice.
"I see now, I understand…" she said, rubbing her throat. "Thank you for showing me, even though you did it unintentionally…"
Naruto paused mid-pull-up as his eyes widened at what he may have revealed to the woman, and while he didn't believe that he could have revealed that much, he still knew she had some knowledge in the art of the psychoanalyst, thus, he didn't quite know what he might have given away.
"You are hurting inside," she said, making him nearly lose is grip on the bar, "and you don't want to let it out, don't want to show weakness, and you've learned to not show that in front of anyone…"
Naruto continued to do his workout wordlessly. "But know this, you don't have to bottle it up, and know that if you ever need it, I'm here," she finished as she moved away and exited the room.
Naruto then let go of the bar letting himself fall to the ground however on closer inspection you could see that there were imprints on the bar showing that he had actually bent the metal as he was clutching it to hard. As he landed he suddenly released a angry shout and punched the wall that was close by causing a spider web of cracks to appear on the wall. Naruto then leaned on the wall as he slid down it to calm himself down however he suddenly felt something wet on his arms he looked at he saw that it was falling from his face at first he thought that it was sweat but he quickly realized that it was something different.
"I'm crying…" he said as he wiped the tears from his eyes. He then looked at the tears on his hand. "Why am I crying?"
Location: Litchfield Country, August 3; 20:08 EDT
In a little open field near the town of Litchfield, we find scientists in biohazard suits, labeled prominently with a S.T.A.R. Labs logo on their backs, as they loaded pieces of the android on to the two trucks chosen to transport the cargo, while four other trucks were standing by. Off to the side, you could see Superman observing something behind a foliage of trees and bushes. At first, it appeared that it was nothing, but upon closer inspection, you could see what Superman was looking at with his Super-vision.
Behind the trees were the gathered members of the Young Justice team in their civilian gear, mounted on the bikes that had been provided for them for the mission, waiting for the signal to provide covert support for the truck if needed.
Suddenly, two of the veteran heroes spoke up.
"S.T.A.R. Boston is a GO," said the Flash as he saw the armored soldiers close up the truck with the cargo.
"S.T.A.R. Manhattan is GO," continued the Green Arrow as he watched another truck turn onto the road. Superman then nodded to Batman, who gave the signal for the teams to move out. As the members of the Justice League watched the teams leave, they all started to return home, but just as Superman was about to take off, Batman put hand on his shoulder.
"I told you, we need to talk," said the Dark Knight in a serious tone that suggested there was no alternative route that could be taken. Superman released a small sigh before nodding.
Once on the road, the teams split up, with Kid Flash, Aqualad and Miss Martian going after the Boston one while Robin and Superboy followed the one that went towards Manhattan. As they drove along the road, Robin got bored and decided to chat with his fellow teammate.
"If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right," he asked while explaining his points on the matter. However, he quickly saw that Superboy was not in the mood for his questions, so he decided on a different approach. "Uh, clearly you're not feeling the aster…What's wrong?"
This made Superboy release a small sigh before he looked at Robin for a moment and then focused back on the road. "Canary - what business does she have teaching combat skills to a guy with super strength?" he said as he let some of his pent up anger slip for a moment, though it was quickly put back under check.
"Taking down stronger guys is part of the gig," said Robin as he came to Canary's defense. "Canary learned that the hard way, same with Batman and, well, me."
This didn't sit well with Superboy, as it needled a chink in the armor he had put around himself. It showed that he may have been wrong, and he didn't like that.
While this was happening, the other part of the team was having a similar conversation about the boy of steel.
"Do you think Superboy's OK? I wasn't reading his mind, I swear, but anger's flowing off him in waves," asked a worried M'gann as she looked for some comfort in the members of the team.
"Heh, surfed that wave," said Kid Flash as he moved next to M'gann's own bike. "Just give him space." Just as he was starting to show some maturity, it was gone again, and he was back to his old ways. "Me? Stick as close as you want."
Both M'gann and Kaldur rolled their eyes. Aqualad then moved closer to the rest of his team as he looked at the Martian. "Superboy just needs time to cool off. A quiet mission will clear his head," he said as he gave a small smile to M'gann to ease her worries. M'gann returned the gesture, her faith restored that everything would be fine. However, something came into her mind that she had kept in the back of her thoughts since earlier that day. She decide to voice her concerns.
"Um, another thing that's bothering me - Naruto is not with us on this mission…why is that?"
"Well, the big guy has his own way of doing things so I guess he just didn't want to go on this sweet road trip," said Kid Flash, not really caring what Naruto was doing as long as the guy had their backs and would help when needed.
"What Kid is trying to say is that Naruto has his own personal demons that he needs to expel on his own, and we are unable to help him until he asks for our help in the matter," spoke Aqualad as he gave his own input on the matter so that M'gann could focus on the task at hand. However, M'gann could not let it rest. The way Naruto reacted earlier had shocked her, being so far different from the cool-headed Naruto she was used to.
"But what happened with Black Canary was completely different then his usual behavior! He looked more like a man that would kill anyone that got in his way than the hero we know him as," she said, and a look of fear appeared on her face as she remembered how Naruto had acted towards their teacher. Her attention was once again brought upon Aqualad, who released a sigh and then looked at the young Martian.
"I know that he may seem different form the normal Naruto you know, but as I said, he has his demons that show themselves at the most unexpected times. The interaction between Canary and Naruto was one when one of them decided to show itself," he said plainly, his gaze going unfocused for a moment as he remembered the time he met Naruto, and where they had met. "Naruto is very complex, and does not trust people, so when Canary showed her concern, he reacted the only way he knew how to…with anger, but I believe that deep down he was sorry for that." Aqualad finished and left no room for argument.
The road led the trucks through a region cornfields, where the tall green stalks reached out toward the horizon on both sides, making it look like they were a convoy of ships sailing a straight line across an ocean of corn. As the team drove along, they did not notice the corn fields starting to move a little, as suddenly metallic monkeys with glowing green parts all over their bodies jumped out of the fields and flew towards the trucks.
They latched onto the vehicles and started to cut holes into the trucks with the help of the lasers inside there eyes. The team wasted no time and they went in to action to protect the cargo they were transporting. Kid Flash and Miss Martian abandoned their vehicles in favor of there powers, while Aqualad radioed Robin.
"Robin, Superboy, our truck!"
Robin cut him off. "Yeah, I kind of figured." The Boy Wonder ducked a swipe from one of the monkeys, then tripped up another with his two batons, sending it sprawling on its back.
Superboy was atop the other truck, smashing monkeys left and right. One of them managed to get onto his back, firing a laser into the back of his skull, trying to drill a hole right through his brain. It only served to get Superboy madder, and he grabbed the monkey and threw it onto the top of the truck, stomping on the creature's head with a booted foot, crushing it.
"I hate monkeys," he snarled as he continued to battle what seemed endless waves of the robotic monstrosities.
Location: Mount Justice, August 3; 20:15 EDT
In the training room of the secret base of the Young Justice team, we find the young blond hero in the same position as we previously saw him. But one thing had changed - he was now clutching his head, and even tears fell from his eyes.
Naruto could not do anything, petrified by the suppressed fear, anger and sorrow he had been bottling up ever since he had been taken from the most precious person in his entire world. His hands shook as he saw images flash before his eyes. He could see bright lights, as well as a shadowy figure coming towards him, holding some sort of needle he could not see clearly. He could feel phantom pains of the needle piercing his neck, and then the image faded to black, but just as he thought that it was all over it got worse…much worse.
The images that started to appear - he saw himself being strapped to a table, desperately tried to escape, but it was all in vain. Where was his strength? His bonds didn't look anywhere near strong enough to bind him, but no mater how hard he struggled, they refused to move even slightly.
A man walked towards him, a shadow holding the gleam of a small surgical knife held in his hand and a sinister look in his eyes. The man spoke.
"Hello, boy, I see you're strapped in for the ride…Ha ha ha!" The man laughed madly as he glided along the floor towards Naruto, the knife pointed towards the boy's chest. Naruto could feel the pain as if they were happening in the present, not a ghost or a memory but the actual moment repeating itself forever.
He told himself it was not real. It didn't help, he still couldn't get the painful memories to go away. He started to clutching his head even harder, his fingers dug into the thin skin that was covering his head as he desperately try to make the images go away. Could he dig the memories out of his brain with his bare hands?
He got on to his knees and started to bash his head against the hard concrete floor, hoping that it would produce one of two affects. It would either knock him out, or it would make the memories go away by way of concussion-induced amnesia, but that was just hopeful thinking.
He continued to bash his head against the floor, screaming at the same time, somehow managing not to bite his own tongue off in the process. Now he was kneeling in a small pool of blood, and his head made wet, splashing noises on each impact.
A small figure appeared at the entrance of the gym. Upon closer inspection, you could see that it was in fact the G-elf that had escaped the Cadmus facility along with Naruto. He slowly moved towards the screaming boy and pressed a specific spot on the blond's head, and suddenly, no sound came from Naruto, even though he still had his mouth wide open and you could clearly see the anguish written all over his face.
The G-elf pressed another pressure point, preventing Naruto from hurting himself by shutting down his body and allowing the boy to slip into unconsciousness. The G-elf then dragged Naruto slowly onto a bench press, where he helped him lie down, and then patiently waited for him to awaken.
Quite some time passed before Naruto's eyes slowly started to flutter open, and his vision adjusted once more to the bright overhead lights. As his eyes fully opened, he suddenly remembered what happened, and he shot up and looked around frantically for any sings of danger, but once he found none, he calmed down.
He felt pressure on his right shoulder, and he turned his head to the side and saw his oldest friend, and the only one he truly trusted. He then saw the horns on his friend's head glow as he sent a mental message to Naruto to get him up to speed at what was happening during the time he had one of his episodes.
Everything seemed OK at first, but then he ran in to one piece of information that had him worried. He quickly stood up and ran to the nearest terminal, then activated the program that helped him monitor the team's radio, and what he heard once played back was worth him worrying.
"We've lost our cargo." Came the voice of the leader Aqualad. "Did you-"
He tried to continue however he was interrupted by another voice that belonged to Robin. "It's gone…And so is my partner."
As Naruto continued to listen, he heard that Superboy had gone rogue and that he, Robin and Kid Flash were currently in Gotham, more precisely Gotham High. Once Naruto got this information, he quickly ran towards the hangars where all the vehicles were stored, his little friend following close behind.
Naruto quickly jumped on his bike and revved it as the G-elf took his place on the boy's back. They then sped of towards Gotham to assist the young heroes.
Location: Gotham, August 3; 21:21 EDT
In the gymnasium of the Gotham high school, there was a fierce battle going on as three young heroes tried to stop the creations of Professor Ivo, with little success.
Superboy was currently trying to get a solid hit on the android, but was unable to do so as Amazo kept on using the Martian Manhunter density shifting to let the fist fly right through him. This lead to Superboy getting more and more frustrated, and he was swinging more wildly by the minute, while the android kept on evading his blows. This pattern came to an abrupt end as Amazo went on the offensive, and, landing a devastating blow to the young clone, sent Superboy flying into the bleachers, sending part of the wood into the air before burying the boy under the rubble.
Kid Flash and Robin were about to charge in to help their friend, but the android beat them to it as he charged at the two young heroes, and with quick use of his copies of the young heroes' older counterparts, defeated the two young heroes.
Amazo then slowly made his way to the downed Superboy to finish the task he had been given. He grabbed the young hero by the neck and began to squeeze the life out of him. Then, he was interrupted by his sonic sensors alerting him to a distinctive sound of a heavily Dopplered projectile, heading towards his head.
Amazo quickly activated the density shift ability and avoided the projectile. He saw that it was an arrow with a distinctive green tint to it. What Amazo had not realized was that he had let go of Superboy, but he quickly realized his mistake and was it about remedy it when he was again interrupted by the sound of screeching along the tilled floor of the school hallway. All the occupant of the gymnasium turned towards the giant hole that had been knocked in the wall by Superboy and Amazo earlieer in their fight, and watched as a shining light started to be seen through the hole…
It got brighter and brighter as the sounds started to get louder and louder. The suspense was practically killing them as they held their to see what would emerge from the hole. Finally, they got what they wanted as a motorcycle flew through the hole and went straight for Amazo, who did not care for it and simply made himself intangible and allowed the bike to fly straight through him.
As they all looked at the bike, they saw that it had no driver on it or even near it. The question of who was driving the bike was quickly answered when something crashed atop the android, who had already de-cloaked, so to speak, and sent him crashing it the far wall of the gymnasium, where he made a large dent.
As the smoke cleared, the young heroes could see a very familiar plated face with blue eyes. The figure spoke up, while a small amount of smoke escaped his mouth.
"Do I really have to save your asses every time… It's getting really annoying…" said Naruto as he scratched the back of his head, momentarily closing his eyes. Then, his attention was diverted to the arrogant laughter of a short man with orange hair which, while looking cool, made Naruto feel like his favorite color was being perverted in so many ways.
"Bravo, bravo! For a simple Superman rip-off, I must say you are the first person from these young heroes to actually get a strike in at my Amazing Amazo! However, it seems you are nothing more that another armored brute, and thus I have no further interest you! I shall now allow Amazo to finish his job, and then I shall be on my way!" said professor Ivo as he had an arrogant smile plastered on his face.
Naruto's reaction was different from what the professor had expected. The target was supposed to get angry and fall in to a deep rage that would allow him to slip away while Amazo finished off the young heroes. However, he merely received a look of indifference from the young armored hero, who then turned around to look at the young clone, offering an armor-plated hand to help him up, which the clone accepted, though a bit begrudgingly. Once on his feet, he looked at Naruto, who addressed him.
"Superboy, could you use your temper for something more productive so that I can go finish off the little toy robot that the dwarf built?." This got different reactions from the people gathered in the room. Kid Flash started to laugh, while Robin snickered and Superboy just smiled as he remembered the words of Black Canary, telling him to use his anger to his advantage.
Ivo, however, was less impressed by the young man's encouraging words. He could pick up on the not even remotely subtle jabs at his expense. This angered him enough to react a bit out of character.
"Amazo, attack the armored fool! Priority ALPHA!" he shouted as Amazo got off of the wall and ran towards the young hero. Naruto leapt forward, eager to meet the android head-on at full speed. As the distance between them disappeared and a crash seemed inevitable, Amazo went for an, overhand strike, but Naruto saw it and maneuvered around the blow and struck Amazo in his stomach.
What suppressed everyone was that Naruto actually picked up the android and carried him towards one of the walls while Amazo tired to break free by attacking Naruto's back, all in vain. As they reached the wall, Naruto picked up speed and smashed through the wall, then quickly moved away from the prone form of the android and awaited for it to stand up once more.
He did not have to wait long, as Amazo rose with out a scratch on him. Seeing this Naruto saw only one option to end this. He closed his eyes, and suddenly, a large amount of smoke was released from his body and once it cleared, in Naruto's place stood a creature fifteen meters tall, staring down upon the small figure that was Amazo with baleful eyes. The android looked upon the large creature, unmoved.
"New power detected…adaptation system system activating…reconstructing body to feed the needs of the new power…" The android started to grow bigger until he was the exact same height as the Titan.
Once Naruto saw this, he released a deafening roar and got into a basic kickboxing stance. He waited for the android to attack, and wasn't disappointed as Amazo charged at him with wide strikes that showed that he was more a savage monster then a sophisticated machine.
Naruto easily bypassed the wide swing and stared to deliver devastating blows to the android. He first released a powerful low kick to the Androids knees, breaking them in the process, and then quickly grabbing Amazo's right arm, broke it at the elbow before doing the same to the other one, the sounds sickeningly loud and wet in the gym's hall.
While this was going on, Amazo tried desperately to activate his other abilities, but found he was unable to speak in this form, was not able to activate the voice commands needed to get those powers to work.
Thus, he was a sitting duck while Naruto continued to manhandle him, throwing the android into several old abandoned buildings that surrounded Gotham. By the end of the one man throwing competition, Amazo was badly damaged, and was unable to get back up.
Naruto stood over the defeated android and decided to finish this farce of a mission. He grabbed Amazos body by the head while putting his right foot on the androids chest. Then, with one mighty tug, he ripped the giant machine's head off, or so it initially appeared. Inside however you could still see the intact body of the original android showing that the other one had been nothing more then a shell.
Naruto then reached inside and grabbed a hold of the android before he ripped him out. Once this was done, Naruto look upon the machine, and before the android could do anything, he crushed it between his palms, leaving only remains once more. The titan then simply dropped the pieces and stomped on them once more for good measure, before reverting back to his original form.
Just as he reverted back, the other three young heroes ran towards him to help if needed. However, once they reached him, they saw the destruction and the broken parts of the android that were scattered in the wake of the battle. Robin was the first to speak up.
"What happened here? It looks like a tornado blew past here," said Robin, his concern clearly shown in his voice. Naruto did not react, but simply looked at the surrounding devastation before looking at Robin once more.
"Nothing happened. Amazo simply copied my titan form, and we fought," he said as if it was not a big deal. Robin did not see it that way.
"What do you mean, nothing happened? Do you see the same thing I see, or is it something different, because this is not NOTHING!" said Robin, raising his voice at the end. "People could have gotten hurt because you were reckless and weren't thinking!" continued Robin as he now expressed his fury in the form of shouting his lungs out. Naruto just ignored him and did not seem to care.
Robin would have continued, but he was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps quickly approaching. The heroes present turned towards the sounds and saw that it was Aqualad, followed by a floating M'gann. Once they reached them, Aqualad looked at the gathered heroes with an analyzing look on his face. He then released a sigh and spoke.
"What is the situation, what happened here?" Seeing that no one was in a talkative mood, Kid Flash decided to speak up.
"We engaged Amazo, and were having a difficult time subduing him because he used the powers he stole from JL, and was using them to counter our every move. The android was about to finish us off when Naruto showed up and saved usm but I think that I could have taken him on, it's just that he got the drop on me." Kid Flash realized toward the end that he needed to defend his honor, and to save some face in front of M'gann.
Instead of paying him any attention, the young alien tended to the young Superman clone.
Aqualad understood now what happened, and saw that Robin was not happy with how Sentinel had handled the android, if the narrowed eyes that were trying bore holes in the back of Naruto's skull were anything to go by, and while that would be an okay reaction, seeing that it was Robin's city that had just had to endure a rampage by a Titan, it would seem that Robin could not leave it alone.
"Ya, he saved us, but put the rest of the city in danger in the process…" muttered Robin as he vented some of his frustrations out, which all the others present understood – however, it was the final line that broke the camels back.
"Some hero he is…"
This one line, while meaningless to some, was a harsh blow to young aspiring heroes, or even to some of the veterans. While not really bad if it came from a news team, it could be devastating if you heard it from another hero. Thus, it was no shock to the team when Naruto appeared in front of Robin and punched him in the jaw, which in turn sent him to the floor, where he laid holding his slowly bruising jaw.
Robin looked up and what he saw was honestly saw a beast appear behind Naruto, roaring at him, and while Naruto's body was hidden in shadows, the only thing you were able to see was his bright blue, ice cold eyes.
Robin was brought out of his shock by Naruto's venomous voice.
"You don't get to talk about my hero work and how I handle the situation… I knew that there might be people in some buildings, so that's why I steered the fight towards the abandoned buildings and only them, so don't judge me based on faulty data…" He moved away, towards the school and his bike that was waiting on its kickstand. Before he left, he stopped and looked at Robin over his shoulder.
"You were right about one thing - I'm no hero." With that said, he turned around and left, leaving behind a shocked team.
The first to break out of their shock was M'gann, who quickly flew towards the school, followed by the rest of the team not far behind. As she reached the school, she saw that Naruto was already on his bike, with the small G-elf on his shoulder. Naruto was just about to kick-start the engine, when his hand on the handlebar was stopped by another, greener one.
He looked up and saw a concerned face of M'gann. He sighed and looked at her with a calm look.
"Let go, M'gann, please." he said quietly, in a voice that betrayed little of what he was really feeling. However the young Martian would not back down this time.
"No, Naruto I will not. You're hurt and I - we just want to help you…You just have to let us in, please," she said with a soft tone at the end, trying to get her friend to open up to her, that was to say, them, that's what she meant, them…the team, yes, that was what she meant. However, it did little to sway Naruto, who quickly ripped his hand free from her grasp and simply turned the engine on and started to move forward towards the hole in the wall he had made earlier.
However just before he said something sow that only M'gann could hear. "I'm sorry, I just can't. Not now."
His red taillight disappeared into the night.
Location: Justice League space station, August 3; 22:21 EDT
Inside the space station, we find the founding members of the Justice League, sitting around the round table looking at a recording of a security camera that had been taken earlier that day in Washington DC. It showed a teenage boy mercilessly beating on a known criminal. The video paused when the teen looked at the camera filming him, the frozen frame revealing that his face was covered by some sort of organic plate.
The first to speak was Wonder Woman, as this footage was taken in the city that was under her protection.
"This was taken earlier today at 13:59, and shows someone we know to be attacking a man and not stopping even when he was down so we can conclude that he was searching for something, but what?" She finished and looked around for any ideas around the room.
"He was searching for his mother," came the calm voice of Batman, who was analyzing everything that he had just saw.
"And how exactly do you know that, Bats? Last I checked, there's no audio on this thing, and the kid's mouth is covered by that scarf," spoke up Flash as he looked at the Dark Knight.
"It's the only logical solution. He was using the computers at the mountain to search for her, and the last hit on that computer was Deadshot, though the data was sketchy at best. However, I believe that he was willing to take a risk," he said as he crossed his hands over his chest and then looked at the rest of the gathered heroes. "That is not the issue. We have a bigger problem at hand - he is reckless and a loose cannon. It could endanger the rest of the team while on missions. Thus, my question to you all is, what should we do with him…"
TO BE CONTINUED
Okay, done! What will happen to Naruto now that JL knows about his little stunt, is there tension rising amongst the team of young heroes, and what other tensions are developing…? Tune in next time to find out.
R&R
Till next time year!.
(editor's note: The delay on this chapter coming out is entirely my fault, not Holiday being lazy or anything like that. Although you could say he is too lazy to get himself a faster beta reader than me.
Or maybe he's just that loyal? Nah, let's go with lazy. -Axiomatic)