Athena II.
The room pretty much erupted, as one would expect. Bursts of joy and outrage filled the lecture hall. Questions, comments, and concerns fly from the mouths of my peers, all targeted at NIghtwing who stands tall at the front of the lecture hall, not even flinching. The guy might be a mess emotionally, (Hell, we all are), but he could be pretty bad ass when the time called for it.
Jason and Jon are on their feet and out of their seats swearing and cursing at Dick for not telling us sooner. I myself heard this news weeks in advance, but refrained from telling anyone due solely to the fact that I knew it would cause an uproar like this. I look back over my left shoulder at Alfie, who sits cross armed with his feet up completely un-phased. I guess all of the bat brats are pretty tough after all. Even Blackbird, his twin sister Alex, had no idea what was going on. Although beta remains quieter as a whole, the lecture hall is still in an uproar.
"Barbara and I have been analyzing patterns on the planet's surface for a number of months now. With a number of the civilian scientist's and doctor's input, we have judged that it is safe to start retaking the planet." Nightwing gestures with his hand, the only hand he has, making kind of a "come on" gesture. "Any questions?"
Another uproar. It's been so long since all 20 kids have been in the same room at the same time for a meeting like this. Enough is enough though, time to show some spine on my part.
"You all need to shut the hell up before I come shut you up myself!" I stand up, saying in my best commanding voice. It quiets down a bit. I've earned the respect of all of these people in the last couple years, as has Nightwing. The only difference being is that I'm one of them. I'm the oldest, Rex, Rob and I are both 19 and my birthday is two months earlier than theirs, so I am pretty much the den mother. Aflie looks up at me, coyly, and gives me a thumbs up from one leader to another.
"Thanks, Fury." Nightwing clears his throat. "I guess I know why you chose that as your field name. Anyways, just a quick refresher course on the last 15 years in history so that everyone here remembers." He motions for Jimmy, who acted as one of the teachers on the Watchtower for the last 15 years, to come up to the front.
Jimmy Olson was scrawny with a mop of red hair on the top of his head. He was quite possible one of the least heroic looking men I've ever met. He starts off his briefing with a voice crack.
"For those of you who don't remember, 15 years ago an organization of super villains calling themselves 'The Legion of Doom' met with an alien race known as 'Serenity' and together, they systematically destroyed every member of the Justice League." The room falls silent. To my right, Rex takes a rosary out of his pocket and starts to do a quiet prayer under his breath. His father was John Stewart, and that rosary belonged to his Grandmother.
"A large contingent of Justice League forces were called into orbit, where they were ambushed by Serenity. That contingent contained Superman, Martian Manhunter, both Green Lanterns, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Fate. Using some form of atom scrambling beam, they were able to eliminate almost 10 percent of the league in one fell swoop."
Jimmy continues on for a couple minutes, recapping where all of the Justice League members either died or went missing or were captured. Whenever a parent of one of us is mentioned, you can hear a child react farther back in the row. Kat is the youngest of us, and her father was one of the first to be killed. When Jimmy starts talking about my mother, I almost lose it.
"With almost 75% of the Justice League defeated, Wonder Woman led a small Strike Team to where she believed the Legion of Doom Headquarters were in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. There, her and her team were ambushed by Circe and a small group of rogue amazons. Plastic Man, The Atom, Black Canary, Beast Boy, and finally Diana herself were all struck down in battle. After she was defeated, all of the remaining Justice League members surrendered to the Legion of Doom."
"Except Batman, right?" The voice is that of Helena Wayne, Batman's Daughter. "Batman was never reported KIA and he wasn't one of the leaguers that surrendered after Roxy's mom died. Sorry Rox."
"It's fine." It really wasn't fine. Rex notices me fighting back a couple of tears and puts his hand on my knee, and I put mine on top of his and squeeze. He's always been the kind of strong-silent type, which is one of the reasons he's one of my best friends.
Nightwing stands up from his chair in the corner of the room. "That's right, Helena. Your father was the only unaccounted for member of the JLA. We don't know what happened to him."
"So he could still be alive?"
"No." Victoria Stone sits two seats to my left, and speaks for the first time all morning. "We've done the calculations. I've done some of them myself. The league is gone, one way or the other."
"Screw you Vikki, your dad was a robot and you're just a bitch." Says Jason, at Helena's right side.
"Everybody ENOUGH." Barbara Gordon is just attentive enough to say those two words before she goes back to fiddling around on her tablet. "Helena, Vikki, you guys can have your catfight later. Now is not the time." Both girls let out an audible pout, and Jimmy continues with his briefing.
"That was 15 years ago. A year later, after Serenity was promised the earth in exchange for wiping out the justice league, the legion launched a pre-emptive strike against them using nuclear warheads from a number of countries around the world. The aliens were decimated and the bad guys won without any consequences."
"Except now we're gonnna come take the earth back from them and throw their asses down the Marianas Trench!" Jason's voice rings out from the back of the room. A couple of the guys and girls cheer.
"Well, not quite yet. You see, we have some new Intel which will give us a hint about how to go about taking the planet back. And, I think that's where Dick comes back in."
"Thanks Jimmy." Nightwing takes his spot back up at the front of the lecture hall with a laser pointer in hand. "As Jim said, we have some new information from the ground."
A 3D Holographic map of the planet pops up from each of our desks. Instead of where the continents used to be, there are now different colors. Europe is Yellow, North America is Green, except for a small portion of the east coast which is an off shade of lavender. South America is red, etc. We're free to manipulate the hologram at will until Nightwing starts talking again.
"Each color coded area of the map corresponds with a different member of the Legion of Doom. Whole continents are now ruled by brutal, super-powered dictators. Now from what we understand, these are the corresponding villains."
A small legend appears next to the hologram of the planet. Each color, like Dick said, has the name of a supervillain next to it. Africa, with the exception of the northeastern portion, is colored grey, which corresponds with Gorilla Grodd and Black Adam. South America is Red, which represents Circe. I hope I'm the one that gets to take that bitch down.
The rest is fairly straightforward. A dark shade of green encompasses most of North and Central America. Lex Luthor's territory. That small, eastern portion that is a shade of Lavender represents The Joker. Europe is a disgusting shade of yellow, corresponding with Eobard Thawne A.K.A. Reverse Flash. Asia is split into 3 different territories, under the rule of Ras Al Ghul, Vandal Savage, and Queen Bee respectively. Australia and Indonesia are under the rule of Dr. T.O. Morrow and his bodyguard Amazo the Amazing Android. And Killler Frost, Leo's mother, was gifted all of Antarctica for her 'work'.
"What about Black Manta? That bastard was one of my father's greatest enemies!" Jason seems outraged at the fact that his own personal vessel of vengeance isn't on the list.
"We have it on good authority that Manta is the current ruler of Atlantis." States Nightwing, matter-of-factly.
"Son of a Bitch!" Jason slams his fist down on the desk, smashing it and the hologram projector into pieces, and walks out the door with Helena not far behind. The would-be King of Atlantis is moodier than usual.
"Someone can fill them in later." Says Jon-El, who was sitting next to him. A couple kids chuckle.
"Continuing on, our first assignment is strictly Alpha Team Deployment. We've sent pods to the surface and we have discovered that all of the Joker Gas in North America released on Zero Day has evaporated. The air is safe to breathe you guys." Nightwing seems excited at the proposition of breathable air, and no one blames him. "Athena, you and your team will take a dropship and fly into the Louisiana Bayou, where you will search the remains of Belle Reve Penitentiary." Belle Reve was a super-prison created by the American government to house super-criminals. It was one of the correctional facilities that was raided during the Zero Day attacks.
"A large number of the Legion of Doom are metahumans, therefore if we have a way of neutralizing their power we can better understand how to defeat them. Belle Reve implemented collars that could actually suppress specific metahuman or magical abilities. For instance, if you put one of those on the Flash, no more super speed."
A couple of my teammates nod to show understanding. A couple of the boys in beta pound fists.
"Your mission is to drop in two miles south of Belle Reve, and search the facility for any remaining and or functioning collars. Do you accept this mission?" Dick is looking right at me, into my eyes. He's trying to egg me on.
"You bet your skinny ass I do, Nightwing."
Alfred II.
The next couple days passed in what felt like a blink of an eye, and I have more than one friend who can break the sound barrier, so I know what fast feels like. The first day was a shit show. Alpha team got their assignments, while the rest of beta and I stick around like gum on a shoe. While they're doing last minute training drills in combat and survival, my team and I are looking at the drop ship and figuring out how the monitoring software looks. It's unfair. I deserve to be on the ground.
That first night, everyone was in a great mood except for me. They were so pumped to be going to the ground soon that they didn't even think that soon might not mean as soon as we think. Alpha gets to go on a mission. I don't think I've ever been this jealous before.
I walked into the port loft, an area that is purely recreational for use of both Alpha and Bravo teams as well as the 106 other people, civilians, that work on the Watchtower as engineers, farmers, teachers, doctors, and security. It has leather couches, bean bag chairs, a Jacuzzi, and a sound system. Pretty much heaven for teenagers. Jason and Jon are playing at the pool table, using restraint as to not shoot the pool cue right through a pool ball, or snap either of them in half. Rex is playing Foosball with Athena, but I can't help but notice her looking longingly in the direction of the pool table. Maybe she wants to play a round, or maybe she wants to hop on Jason like she used to. Who knows?
Victoria is in front of one of the massive flat screen tv's that line the wall, playing some sort of first person shooter where she is annihilating wave upon wave of little green aliens with an assault rifle. She and Zatanno are playing split screen. Robert is asleep on the next couch over from them, with a copy of Hustler over his face as he snores audibly enough for everyone to hear him. Jenny and Helena are in the hot tub in a raised area in the corner of the loft, hanging out with what looks like one of the Jordan boys. Hal Jordan's sons never inherited any powers because other than the power ring, their father was never a meta. They did inherit his shockingly green eyes, as did Rex. Li and William are nowhere to be found.
"Team bonding." I say to myself. "Maybe we should try that sometime."
The next two days and nights follow suit. The "Varsity Team" has 8 hours of training a day, in combat and survival, and we are allowed to either join, spectate, or do our own thing. I choose to spectate on day one, and on day two I decide that doing my research on the Legion of Doom might be a good idea. I find nothing we didn't already know.
However, after training on the day before the drop, things get really cool.
"Alpha Team report to the training area. Redwing, report to the training area."
I legitimately jump for joy. Already in my training gear accented with crimson, I rush to the training area as fast as my human legs will take me and I get there apparently just after everyone else. Nightwing stands at the front, his one remaining arm behind his back, and with a shit eating grin on his face says: "Who wants to make their super suit?"
A bunch of us yell in surprise and joy. This is going to be sweet. The only one seemingly uninterested is Will. His ability is to transform into a twisted, dark version of any animal he wants. So I guess he feels he doesn't need clothes in the field. Nightwing leads us down a hall and past a couple of twists and turns. I lag behind, not wanting to overstay my welcome. I guess Athena takes notice, and slows down to match pace with me.
"Alfie, how pumped are you to make your own super suit?" She asks me, with a massive grin on her face. I feel myself blush, I wish Alex was here to do the talking for me.
"Pretty gi-, I mean I'm pretty pumped I guess." Idiot.
"Do you know what you're gonna make yours like? I want mine to pay tribute to both of my parents, so I'm going to do an army green jacket with a colonel emblem on the sleeve, and I'm gonna have a belt like my mom's and-"
"I'm going to make mine like my dad's, but maybe use grey or black instead of blue." Jon-El says from the front of the line, damn his super hearing is like an eavesdroppers dream.
"Way to cut me off, Krypto!" Athena shouts back. The rest of the jog there is filled with excited chatter about finally getting our field uniforms. I don't know why I'm getting one though.
When we finally reach the room, we are on the lowest level of the combat section of the Watchtower. The door is unmarked and looks like just one of the many storage closet in the Watchtower. This is odd. We've been up here for 15 years, I thought I would have found everything by now. Nightwing puts his hand on a section of wall panel next to the door, and it makes and audible and visual queue to signify that his hand is being scanned.
"Recognized: Nightwing. Waynewear supersuit generator activated." Says a robotic, female voice from an unknown speaker. The door slides open and the 12 of us step into the room behind it.
The room is dark at first, but fluorescent lights come on after we're all in and the door closes with a woosh behind us. There are a number of computer screens around the room, each of them look like touch screens. And on the far side of the room, there are 6 tubes, each with a basic grey, armoured bodysuit. Similar to the earlier versions of the batsuit, or so I can imagine.
"Helena, want to start us off?" Nightwing asks, and almost immediately Huntress sits down at the closest computer on the left and starts immediately pushing buttons. Figures that Bruce Wayne's daughter would know how to use these machines off the hop. We all crowd around and see how the 3d model of one of the bodysuits is manipulated using the touch screen. Color, density, accessories. Everything you could want to put on a supersuit is there, including a logo designer.
We all get at it and the fastest of us finish in about half an hour. Jon picks a dark grey body with a red half cape and his signature "S" on the front. Jason makes his a shade of dark blue accented with orange and leaves space so the water tattoos on his body show, so they can glow when he manipulates water. He also puts a big trident on his chest and his belt is buckled with the same belt his father had. Rex's is more akin to a suit of armor, with plates allowing for more flexibility. His visor is practical, and on his chest he puts his mother's symbol: that of Hawkwoman. He also scrawls "Warhawk" across his back, like they did to athlete's jerseys back on earth. Everyone takes a turn, and after an hour and a half it's only Athena and I left, sitting side by side. Nightwing went to go check on Pennyworth, my namesake, and most likely to fall asleep again.
"So how do you feel about being in the field?" I ask her, my voice only cracking once.
"I'm excited, but nervous. They say the prison is abandoned and empty, but the place held metas. Who knows if one or two of them stuck around?" she never takes her eyes off the screen in front of her. Her supersuit looks very much like she said. It has navy pants with combat boots, a belt with her mother's logo on it, a dark red almost black armored chest piece, and a green military jacket over top. The jacket has a colonel's symbol on the left arm with the name "Trevor" underneath. "What about you? Are you upset you couldn't go?"
"Yeah I am. I wanted to be in the field but I guess I'm not ready."
"You are ready, Alf. You'll get your chance." She puts a hand on my shoulder and saves her work, the pods at the end of the room have already built a couple of suits and hers starts glowing blue, indicating that it will start manufacturing. "You're going to be leading us soon. I know it." She leaves.
When she does, she leaves me alone, with my thoughts, and with Red Robin's costume on the screen in front of me. I am ready.
