(Well I guess this could be thought of as the first real chapter. I would like to thank all of the entries, I had a difficult time choosing, especially since I wanted to keep the genders balanced out. Now to name those who made the cut, Thomas Jackson made by Mr. Wartburg, Jason Law, made by Reven228, Tay Stevens, made by toonwriter, Alicia Tinkov, made by STicker55, Morgan'auli, by AvarielArcher, Leeann Harridge by The Missing Castle, Steve from the crimson nutcase, and Strix, and M are mine. This is a non-profit story, I do not own or am in anyway affiliated with Young Justice, or DC Comics as a whole, all rights go to their respective owners.)
Five months had passed since the Justice League had made the choice to expand The Team into other territories of the United States, as a way of being able to react to various problems at a faster rate. The Midwestern base had reached completion. The location of the base was in the city of Vadak. Unlike the League's previous attempts, this team had a selection ahead of time, of those that the League felt would work best together. The League had kept a close eye on their progress as individuals, before making their choices, along with who would be the leader of the team. The base had two parts to it. A front, which was an abandoned shipping yard, filled with many old crates, and then the actual base that was located underground. On site there were currently two people, one of them a Justice League member, the other one of the one's chosen to be a member of the Midwestern States Team. The young man ran a hand through his neck length dark brown hair, as he waited for Superman to finish up with the sweep of the base. He was in the living room area, which was akin to being a funhouse, almost. The floor was in all sense a giant feather pillow, that was black in color. The room had four cinema sized television screens, with every video game console, and game available. The living room had a large sofa, that could be pulled out into a bed. It was easily several times the size of a King Sized bed, along with having multiple recliners, and a smaller couch. There were also four tables in the living room. After waiting for a few moments Superman came back into the room. "Alright everything's all clear." Superman said, and then his expression became more relaxed. "Thomas, the League chose you to lead this outfit, we're counting on you. I know that sometimes it can get difficult, but we believe in you, and for the team to work you have to believe in yourself too." Thomas hesitated for a moment, not used to speaking to someone of Superman's status. "I will sir." He said at first, as Superman raised an eyebrow. "I mean I do, I do believe in myself." Superman smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know you'll do great, I have to get back to the Watchtower now, your other team members will be arriving shortly." Superman walked out of the living room, and as he did so, his body was engulfed in light, as he was teleported back to the Watchtower.
Through the shipping yard, there walked ten individuals. One of them an adult man, and the others were all teenagers. "Step up, now it's not that much further." The man known as John Stewart said as he lead the young adults. He lead them to a dark blue crate labeled 61998. "Alright now before we go in, there are a number of security protocols in place. Now obviously The League doesn't endorse killing, but in the event of someone trying to break in, an energy beam that neutralizes gravity particles around their bodies would activate, leaving them trapped in a force field." John explained to the group. "You know I was half expecting the laser part to go more, "And if someone tries busting in here, the death laser shall wipe them from the Earth!" A younger African American teen said to the group. "Lasers don't wipe people out, they turn them into fine barbeque, speaking of which I could go for some." Another of the group responded, this one a taller, black haired young man. "That's enough, now pay attention." John said, his time in the Marine Corps showing through in his gruffness. "Now all of you form a line, we're going to do this as smoothly as possible." He told them, and it was clear, that his words were an order. John then approached the crate, and raised up a panel. It performed, a hand, and eye print scan. Then he spoke into a voice recognition box. "Green Lantern 11972" He said, as a green light appeared confirming his authorization to enter. He then punched in a code, to gain full access. A girl from the group an Atlantean spoke up, on a question she had. "Sir, I don't mean to question The League, but well a hand print scanner could leave behind residue, which could um be bypassed." She pointed out to him. "That's an excellent observation, however we've handled that, after every scan is complete, a chemical cleansing occurs, destroying all evidence of the fingerprints in question. Don't worry we've got you covered." He said to her. "Alright everyone come up one at a time, and I'll walk all of you through the process, of getting aquatinted with the system." He told them, as the first of them stepped forward. The process in total took about twenty minuets to get complete, and then the entire front of the crate slide upwards, and inside it looked like just an empty crate. "Step inside." John told them, as they all went in, and the front of the crate slid down. Everyone was engulfed in a bright light, as they were teleported to the base.
Having heard the others arrive, Thomas stood at attention, to greet them, and the den mother of the group. "Mr. Bale I am a huge fan of yours." The tall, black haired teen said,
with a light laugh. Green Lantern took over from there. "Everyone this is Thomas Jackson, he's going to be acting as your team's leader, all of you make your introductions." He ordered to them. The younger black, boy was the first one to step up. "I'm Tay Stevens, some folks call me Supah T, but I don't really mind either way, even just T is fine." He said to Thomas. The taller black haired young man went next. "Name's Emerald, well codename, don't let the joke's fool you, I don't give out my real name unless I'm pretty close to someone." The one to go next was a lightly tanned girl, with curly dark brown hair. "Alicia Tinkov, no alias." She said to him. Then another girl went next, this one having white, not Caucasian white skin with a slight gray tinge to it. "Strix." She said, and left it at that. The next girl to go was far more exuberant, with a ponytail of dark red hair. "I'm Leeann Harridge! You can call me Lee though." She said with a tone of happiness. The Atlantean girl was the one to go next. "It's nice to make your acquaintance, my name is Morgan'auli." She said to him "Shade, Steven, either is fine with me." A blonde haired, boy said. The girl who went next introduced herself as Kate, and the final one was a red haired boy who said he was M. "Are you a Death Note character?" Emerald asked him. "He doesn't have the notebook." Tay said and they two of them shared a laugh. Thomas looked the entire group over, taking all of them in. "I have to say that I'm used to working alone, I'm not going to sugar coat that. I imagine that most of you are as well. However as the leader of this team, it is my promise, that I will do my best to to be an effective one." He told them. "I would like to know however what everyone is capable of, your powers. As a rule of fairness I will go first. I am a pyrokinetic, who is in peak condition, this here;" Thomas said holding up his bat, "is my special bat, made out of prometheum." "Seems a tad crude for a hero." Tay said to him. "Well start with you, what are your abilities?" Thomas asked him. "I can fly, and well I can manipulate a form of energy, I don't have full mastery of it yet, but I can fire it off from my body, or surround myself in a shielf of it, and act like a missile, I have super human strength, I'm actually not sure how much I can lift, I mean cars are fine, though I did have to strain a bit one time, to lift a tractor, the heavy duty kind, not the small farm owned one's. I can also filter energy through my eyes, into either heat or an ice like beam." Tay explained to him. Leeann seemed to be getting a tad excited to go next, and Thomas did not even need to ask her. "I'm a shape shifter!" She said proudly. "Like no way!" Emerald said to her, mimicking her voice, and earning him a glare from the girl. "Calm down both of you." Thomas said, stepping into his leader role. He then allowed the rest of them to say what they could do as well. As they went, he learned that Alicia was capable of telekinesis, and creating telepathic projections. Shade was capable of defying gravity, and passing through solid objects. Morgan as an Atlantean had above human strength, as per her Atlantean heritage, along with some magical abilities, and hydrokinesis. Emerald's power was the ability to generate, and then manipulate crystals, similiar to emeralds. Strix had Owl like super powers. M was capable of plasma manipulation of all forms, as well as super strength, and flight. Kate who had went last was capable of healing, mind reading, and possibly control, along with aura reading. "Alright,...ah I am still not used to this leader thing, hmm let's hit the training room. Is that okay Mr. Stewart?" John told Thomas that it was his call, and the rest of the team seemed happy to do so, though some of them had very impassive faces.
The inside of the training room was akin to stepping into a large black cube. "Alright we'll work solo first, one round of physical combat, and then another of stealth combat, I hope that we can get a feel for the styles, everyone brings to the plate." He said, and would've continued except for Emerald interrupted with "I'd like some food brought to the plate." Thomas ignored the remark, and volunteered to go first, loading up a fight program, on the standard of 20 thugs, five of them armored, and five of them with knives. Thomas's fighting style was like his personality, there was control to it, he seemed to forgo fancy techniques, in favor of bone breaking, and quick takedowns. He decided to forgo his bat, in favor of not causing too much harm, that may have killed his opponents. Even if they were not real people. A mix of Hapkido, and Kick Boxing were the closest to any style that could be pinpointed from his techniques, as he fought. A thug swung at Thomas who sidestepped, chopped him in the throat, and then snapped his arm. Another thug rushing forward, was met with his elbow, and then grabbed, and had his kneecap broken with a hard kick. He used his pyrokiesis, to do things such as temporarily blind his enemies, or cause minor burns, which he would then follow up with hard attacks, such as grabbing a thug, and then ramming his knee into his midsection, before elbowing him in the back of the head. When the battle was over, Thomas signed out, and allowed the next person to go and Strix stepped up first, to the disappointment of both Tay, and Emerald, who had been itching to go, and kind of show off. When Strix fought, her fighting style had less power moves, but more flow, and grace to it. This was somewhat countered by the fact that she did have super strength. While she fought, Emerald, and Tay flipped a coin to see who should go next. It came up tails for Tay, who gave a fist pump in his excitement. Strix's fight continued, as she dodged a knife swipe, and then roundhouse kicked the thug, in the midsection, before spinning to bring the back of her heel into his head. "Nicely done." Thomas said to her, as she existed the simulation, and Tay went up. Tay did not have much of a style, he was the youngest member, and had been used to letting his power do the talking. He was more of a brawler type, with sparing amounts of blasting the thugs with energy beams. As Tay continued, an alert sounded through out the tower, the stimulation was shut down at that point. "Suit up, and move out." Green Lantern ordered to them. The group of teenagers did as instructed, some of them were already in their hero gear, and others just had to throw them on.
Thomas lead the team to the living room, and grabbed a gray remote with a single button. "I seriously doubt this is a time to watch TV." Alicia said in a deadpan manner to their chosen leader. Thomas pressed the button, causing a wall to slide up, and revealing a very advanced looking aircraft. It was black in color, with some blue lines. "While I do take responsibility as leader, I will admit, that I'm not the absolute best driver, is anyone here, experienced behind the wheel, the controls work like a video game." "Uh, yeah, I think I can do it." Shade said speaking up to the group. "So are we just rushing in blind? Or does anyone here have a clue of what we're up against?" Emerald asked the group, as everyone boarded the plane. Thomas opened a compartment and gave everyone ear pieces, as well as activating, a radio on a watch given by Superman. In the slums, there had been sightings of monstrous people, they were to investigate, and if need be, neutralize any threats in the area. "Are they people who look like monsters? Or monsters that look like people?" Tay asked the group. "The slums of this city were once a test site, for biological, and chemical weapons, developed by the military, it's possible the residue chemicals, and radiation would have caused deformities, and other irregularities to pop up." Kate explained to him. "So boss man what's the plan of attack?" Emerald asked him. "The heaviest place of activity was reported around the Stane Hospital, since Tay and M have the most raw power, they will stay outside and act as a perimeter, Strix I understand that you have the ability to operate in total darkness, so you'll be going in the basement first, there's no power there, but according to your abilities, that should not prove to be a problem for you. Kate, you stick with Morgan, go in through the East entrance it's near the pumps so your water ability will be strongest near there, in case something goes wrong, and then Leeann, and Alicia will be with me." Thomas explained to them. "Oh and just one more thing, try not to hurt them too much." For a moment the rest of the team believed him to be joking. "I'm not exactly the most righteous person." Alicia told him. "Look these monsters, are people, and it seems that they have a few hours, and then die of a heart attack, we need to either get a blood sample, or if possible knock one out, and take it to study on, so we can find a cure, and if we can isolate what chemicals are in their blood, we may be able to track down the source." The plane landed atop the cracked building of a rundown convient store, and then went into stealth mode. "Alright team, let's do this." Thomas told them, as their first mission began.
(Alright now for some epilogue, when writing this, I do want to give everyone some lime light, so for anyone who feels snubbed, don't worry, I intend to spread out, and give everyone a fair amount of time. Now one of the things I wanted to do, was avoid what looks cool in a fight, in favor of allowing the fighting styles to show their personalities, such as Thomas being more serious, and therefore with his character, I made his combat direct, and overwhelming, forgoing any fancy techniques, in favor of things like arm breaks, and hip tosses.)