YJ-Robin pointed up at as the Titans' signature transport continued to hover overhead, the roar of its jet engines rumbled through the hall's glass ceiling. The other 5 and Tula looked up as well. The female Atlantean gave her fiancé a puzzled look and he leaned over, explaining to her who the orange colored ship belonged to.
"That's cool; they invited the Titans to our party!" Wally exclaimed. "You'd think they would have arrived on time though."
Kaldur shook his head.
"I do not believe they were asked to come."
"They don't strike me as the kind that crash parties. So why are the here?" Artemis asked.
Kaldur frowned, as he had a good idea of why the five west coast heroes arrived suddenly.
"Perhaps it would be best to let Batman handle this." He deflected her question away, preferring not to lie to Artemis.
As the young heroes watched the scene Superman flew up to the T-Ship, stopping in front of it, blocking its path. There were a few TV news vans parked in front of the Justice Hall, trying to get a scoop on the private event. They were about ready to throw in the towel and leave when the T-Ship showed up and Superman noticed that every TV camera was focused on him and the Titans.
Batman had sent him out to send the Titans away, by force if necessary. With the media watching this was no longer an option. The last thing the League needed was the negative publicity of having footage on the 5 o'clock news of the Kryptonian manhandling the Teen Titans. It would look even worse if they put up a credible fight.
Kal-El debated what do next. He tapped on his ear piece.
"Batman, the media is still here and they're watching."
"Great, just great … go ahead and escort them to the landing pad. I'll have Red Tornado take them to one of the holding rooms. We'll talk to them once we're done with the event."
Superman glided up to the front canopy on the T-Ship and tapped on it. Robin popped it open.
"Long time no see, Boy Wonder." Superman greeted him. "Follow me."
Robin guided the T-Ship to a landing pad and saw that Red Tornado was waiting for them as Superman flew away. The T-Ship touched down and Robin killed the engines. The five Titans disembarked cautiously from their transport, never taking their eyes off their Red host.
"Greetings. Inquiry: What is the nature of the Teen Titans visit to the Justice League?" The red robot asked.
"We want to see the Justice League's leadership team. We have some questions we want answered." Robin replied in an impatient voice.
"Please follow me."
Instead of leading them into the main hall the robot guided them to a building that resembled a heavily fortified bunker. Once inside they followed him down a long hallway into what resembled a conference room which contained a large circular shaped table.
"You will need to wait here, as there is currently an official justice league event in progress."
"What kind of event?" Cyborg asked.
The Red superhero paused before replying, no doubt running simulations to determine which would be the best reply to give.
"I am afraid that information is on a need to know basis. Your wait should not be long; I estimate that you will be received between 16 to 19 minutes with a confidence level of 98%. There are refreshments in the cooling until and you are welcome to partake of them."
Red Tornado stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, after which a loud click was heard.
"Need to know basis?" Cyborg howled.
"Dudes! He locked us in! What do they think we are, kids?"
"That's exactly what they think we are." Raven replied. "And that's how they're treating us."
"Yeah right, like we can't bust out of here." Cyborg harrumphed.
Starfire walked up to the door and looked at Robin, who nodded at her. She drew a fist back and punched the door. The door did not budge and it was obvious to the others that the princess's hand was smarting from the impact.
"I cannot break it." She announced.
"And I can't open a portal." Raven added.
Cyborg began tapping on a mini console that popped out of his forearm.
"The door is made of neutronium and the walls, floor and ceiling have neutronium in them. We can't punch our way out and Raven can't open a portal through it."
"Nice." Robin remarked unhappily. "The room is childproof, we're gonna have to wait for them to let us out."
Beast Boy walked up to the door, examining it carefully.
"Maybe not." He remarked before vanishing into thin air.
After a few seconds the door unlocked and they were greeted by the changeling's signature grin as he opened the door from the outside.
"Good job Beast Boy. I keep forgetting that you can morph into microscopic sized creatures." Robin congratulated him.
"There was tons of room under the bottom of the door; it was a piece of cake. So what do we do now?" The changeling replied.
Robin smacked his fist into his palm.
"It's time to crash their party."
-( scene break )-
The Titans quickly made their way out of the building via a connector tunnel. Fortunately the hallways were clearly labeled and they were soon at the entrance to the Justice Hall. They entered with the greatest of stealth and found themselves at the rear of the main hall. Robin gasped at the number of assembled heroes. He gestured to his team to hide behind the buffet tables, which they did. As they settled in a gloved hand emerged and began to scout the table's surface.
"Dude, haven't these guys ever heard of vegetarians, there's nothing but meat on this table." Beast Boy complained in a whisper. He fell silent upon receiving an elbow in his side and one of Raven's icy death glares.
"Friends, look upon the stage at the other end of the room." Starfire whispered.
At that point Batman walked back onto the stage.
"I apologize for that interruption; however it was in some ways serendipitous and even appropriate as it highlights the purpose of today's event."
Batman cleared his throat before continuing.
"I've asked all of you to join us here today because you are being introduced to the future of the Justice League. These 7 young people you see here on stage are members of the Young Justice League. Now I expect most of you are thinking to yourselves that you've never heard of the Young Justice League before, and for good reason, because until a month ago it didn't exist. Six teenaged superheroes from a parallel dimension accidentally wound up in our own universe, back home they were the Young Justice League. While every effort is being made to return them to their universe, the truth is that it is virtually mathematically impossible to locate their dimension, so these 6 young people, along with Miss Tula from Atlantis, have chosen to affiliate themselves with the Justice League."
A polite round of applause was heard.
"This is significant, as since the days when the Teen Titans rebelled against the League…"
"Rebelled?" Raven hissed. "We were never offered a chance to join the League."
"… we have found ourselves short of sidekicks to someday take our place … "
"Dude, I'm no one's sidekick." Beast Boy grumbled.
"… as nearly all junior superheroes around the globe have chosen to affiliate themselves with the Teen Titans …"
"For good reason." Cyborg mumbled.
"… which is unfortunate, as there is a clear lack of professionalism in the extended Titans team. The new Young Justice League will provide an alternative for up and coming superheroes, a more professional environment where young heroes can receive the type of training and formation they need to become fully fledged members of the Justice League."
The assembly broke into thunderous applause while the Titans stewed in their juices. As the applause faded the Dark Knight continued.
"I know that there are many of you out there who have prematurely lost your protégés to Robin and his band of teenaged heroes and wish you could get them to return to complete their training. The Young Justice League will serve as a beacon to help these prodigal sons and daughters to come home to the League. I also know that some of you admire the Teen Titans. They are of course a well intentioned group and have a few feathers in their cap so to speak. Our ultimate goal is to have Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven and Starfire join the League themselves. They are all incredibly talented but would still benefit immensely by completing their training under the guidance of a senior Justice League member, just as the members of the Young Justice League are doing right now. In just one more month they will be ready to be autonomously deployed without any supervision."
The 5 Titans frowned at the invitation they weren't supposed to hear.
"Before we conclude, I would like to present to you the Young Justice League:"
One by one, the young heroes stepped forward as Batman introduced them.
"Artemis, disciple of the Green Arrow."
"Superboy, Superman's disciple."
"Miss Martian, disciple of the Martian Manhunter."
"Kid Flash, the Flash's disciple."
"Robin, my protégé."
"Tula of Atlantis, Aquaman's disciple."
"And the group's leader. Kaldur'ahm of Atlantis, also Aquaman's protégé. Kaldur'ahm, would you mind sharing a few words with the assembled Justice League?"
"Those double crossers!" Cyborg fumed.
"We don't know that." Raven corrected him. "They were members of the Justice League before we met them after all."
"Raven's right. We might not like this, but the YJs haven't done anything wrong. They never officially became Honorary Titans." Robin added.
Kaldur stepped up to the microphone.
"Thank you Batman, and on behalf of my team I thank the entire Justice League for bringing us onboard. The training we have received so far has been both challenging and demanding, but it also demonstrates to us that we are not being treated as sidekicks. There have been no baby steps for us, it has been 100% hit the ground and run."
He paused and cleared his throat before continuing.
"We have been overwhelmed with the trust that has been placed in us by the entire league and we hope to set a good example for all young and developing superheroes. That said, I do wish to also express my admiration for Robin and his Jump City based team. Their professionalism and independence inspired us to accept the League's offer to train so that we might become much as they are now. I hope to not alienate our new friends in Jump City but rather to once again extend our hand to them in friendship and cooperation…"
Batman interrupted the Young Atlantean.
"Then why don't you ask them right now Kaldur'ahm. They are in the rear of the room, hiding behind the buffet tables, spying on us."
Robin cursed; using what for him was an uncharacteristic expletive. He stood up, followed by his teammates. It was now evident that they had been set up. Robin cursed again, getting out of the room and into the main hall had been far too easy. He cursed a second time, knowing they had been sucker punched.
Kaldur and his team stared in disbelief.
"Thanks for setting us up, Batman." Robin hissed in anger.
"Don't blame yourself Robin, once your training is complete, this sort of situation won't catch you offguard. There's no need to stay back there. Please come forward."
The five Titans reluctantly stepped out and approached the stage. Robin was fuming, as he knew that his teammates were more competent than 90% of the assembled "adult" heroes, but Batman had gone out of his way to make them look like fools. Still he and his teammates kept their composure. They walked up the steps onto the stage and faced their friends and now rivals. Kaldur gave Robin a friendly smile and offered his hand. Robin accepted it and they shook. The audience applauded their approval.
"Who's your friend?" Robin asked as he nodded towards Tula.
"It is a situation that demands a proper explanation." Kaldur replied as he turned to Batman. "I would like to meet with the Titans in private."
"You may." Batman replied. "Take all the time you want."
-( scene break )-
Terra slowly woke up. She moaned as her whole body was consumed by an encompassing dull pain. Her limbs felt as if they were on fire and a strange and familiar tingling sensation resonated throughout her body. She felt disoriented, unable to distinguish up from down or left from right. Her mouth was dry and her head felt full of cobwebs, keeping her from being clear headed.
She tried to sit up but fell back down onto what she recognized was her own bed in Slade's lair. Suddenly she remembered what had happened: her attempted suicide and Slade's last second intervention to stop it.
As she became more lucid she also became aware that something was wrong, very wrong. The tingling sensation was beginning to feel familiar. Too familiar. And then it dawned on her just what the memory was.
Now in full control of her motor skills she sat up, her face betraying the fear she was experiencing.
It was back. The armored suit and … the implants.
"What have you done to me Slade?" She growled angrily. She hadn't seen him yet, but she knew he was there.
"I warned you Terra, anymore insubordination and I would change the deal, again. And don't think you will be able to overcome the implants like you did last time, these ones have been improved."
"I hate you!" She snarled at him.
"Not as much as you hate yourself child and I can't afford to lose my star apprentice."
Terra spat at him. Slade chuckled.
"Yes, anger, it has such a delicious satisfying taste, doesn't it Terra? Some people believe that it enhances pleasure, even sex. But I am a pragmatic man Terra, business before pleasure. I will manipulate your anger and use it as a tool to eliminate the Titans once and for all."
Terra tried to lunge at Slade, but her limbs refused to obey her will. Slade chuckled as he watched her squirm.
"It's a shame that you rebelled. I was actually going to let you keep Beast Boy as your … what does your generation call it … your 'boy toy'. Unfortunately I have had a change of heart in that matter. He will also have to be destroyed I'm afraid."
Terra's jaw trembled.
"No … please Slade … don't hurt him … I'll obey you." She muttered in defeat and total capitulation.
The towering villain stared down at his apprentice.
"That's what I want to hear Terra. We will discuss the changeling's fate at later time. But now I want to show you something … follow me, apprentice." He replied in his trademark monotone.
Terra felt the power to control her legs return and she obediently followed Slade out of her room. Her heart felt heavy as she followed her master and she almost didn't notice the change in Slade's lair. At first she sensed that something was amiss, but couldn't put her finger on it at first, until she finally figured out what had changed.
The gears were no longer turning and the lair was now silent.
Static gears of course meant that the Slade-bot assembly line had stopped, which meant that new robots were not being built. Slade notice her look of bewilderment.
"Yes Terra, you aren't imagining things. I have shut down the assembly line."
The geomancer followed Slade into a large cavernous room, the size of two football fields. In the past it served as a ware house for both components and finished Slade-bots. The sight the greeted her was unexpected. The room was full of giant glass tubes, large enough to hold an adult human. There were thousands of these tubes and each one had a white sphere floating in it. The spheres in the front of the room were no bigger than tennis balls, but as they walked towards the rear of the room the spheres became larger and larger, until they were the size of a large beach ball.
But what really surprised her were the final rows, where the spheres were being decanted by … perfect replicas of Slade and herself!
As she watched the replicas drained one of the tubes and opened it. They then applied a small implant to the sphere. Terra watched fascinated as the sphere began to morph into a humanoid form. At first it was androgynous as it appeared to be neither male nor female. Soon that changed as it began to take on a female form as its hips widened and breasts began to form on its chest. As the face became defined Terra recognized it as her own. Once the body's formation was complete a unitard, identical to the ones the drone versions of herself were wearing, began to appear, covering the nakedness of the drone, which also began to adopt human coloration.
The decanted drone stepped out of the tube and walked away, entering another room. Terra stared mesmerized, still unable to believe what she had just seen.
"Beautiful, isn't it Terra. Now I can grow my army. And I can create a drone in one twentieth of the time it takes to build a robot, and the only raw materials I need are glucose and the protein compound that I extracted from the feeding solution you recovered from the Tower. And don't even get me started on the flexibility. My army can morph into any shape. They could disguise themselves as groceries and the Titans would carry their executioners into the Tower inside a grocery store bag, what am I saying, they could be the very bags that the clueless Titans will carry into their home. Oh, and did I tell you that they can morph their own weapons Terra?"
Terra stared in horror at the nightmare in front of here.
"What have I done?" She sobbed quietly.
-( scene break )-
Well, it seems you guys weren't too crazy about my all about Terra chapter. I must admit, I'm a little surprised as I thought it was one of the best chapters in the story. Terra is a great character, but I suppose that since she's from the "other show" that her chapter left some of you YJ fans a bit flat, judging by the significant drop in reviews. I guess you can't please everyone.
Anyway, the YJs, The Titans and Batsy are going to have a heart to heart next chapter. TT-Robin's ego is clearly bruised at this point, and I'm sure that his teammates are also less than thrilled as well.
As for the mail bag, I'll do chapter 17 and will skip 18.
Thanks for your support.
And for today's shout out: Novus Ordo Seclorum, in particular his story 'Collateral Damage'. Novus is a master of dark and cerebral stories. He is currently retired from fan fiction, but if you leave him enough reviews he might just come out of retirement and maybe even write a YJ masterpiece!
And now the mailbag
Gingerstorm101 - "yep...
anyways, back to the bloody murder...
*slowly kills the jusitus legue members with a large foot long night, not letting them to die without suffering. not one able tpo heal*
Hmmmm...are you sure you aren't the Joker?"
titanfan45 - "Looks like Batman and Robin are about to have a large confrontation."
Batsy has thrown the gauntlet down
Ferlion - "Score. good chapter"
Thanks!
Riqis Inna Sunja - " totally busted! batman seems extremely angered by the arrival of the titans! kaldur to marry? oh man! its all so sudden! *faints* cant wait for another chapter! take a cyber-cookie tin for all that hard work!"
The best thing about Cyber Cookies is ... zero calories!
The Cretin - "Shooo...Finally caught up. The Justice League is gettin rather arrogant. Just come in and set up shop? Sounds like them sort of. Can't wait to see what comes of that. I'm interested in what's gonna happen with Kaldur and Tula too. As always, the more I read your stuff, the more I'm drawn in. You are a spider...yeah that's it. Words are your silk, your stories are skillfully woven webs...(chuckles) Mr. Force, I eagerly await your next update. Peace be with you."
Thanks! You'd think that Batman would know that it's easier to catch flies with sugar than with vinegar. Then again they call him the Dark Knight, not the Nice Knight!
Hairul The Nightrage Beast - "Haha in the next chappie, Dick will so gonnq dress down Bruce and tell him to F Off And besides the Titans wins that they bagged against the heavy villains like Brother Blood, Trigon, The BoE, speaks volumes on the team success and at least they nullify the treat permanently unlike the JL who still have to squabble with Darkseid, Luthor, etc 24/7 and no solution is in sight. That's the thing I love about the Titans, they nullify a major threat completely well with an exception for Slade lol."
As for Slade, everyone needs to have that nemesis that they can't quite vanquish. I was so disappointed when Terra killed Slade in Season 2, good thing Trigon brought him back in Season 4. And Slide had a cameo in the series finale, which IMHO was a terrible finale (it was a damn cliffhanger for the sixth season that never happened!)
KaliAnn - "Why is it that adults only see the faults instead of the triumphants? How many times has the League scraped a victory from defeat by the jaws of their teeth or upset aliens one way or another? Kaldur was right that they trained like the originals, and I'm happy that he has a girl, but I'm sorry at the same time because I can't help feeling Tula fell in love with a memory of someone that doesn't' exist in reality. You better have an all out confrontation in the next chapter and get the two most stubborn people on and off earth to say what they're really feeling, because I have a feeling if this doesn't happen the Titans might just attack the League right there and then."
As we are now beginning to learn, what the League really wants is to bring the Titans into the family.
KatieLovesPeterPan - "I really liked this chapter! Great work :) lol I love how everyone is shocked that Aqualad is getting married, but to him it's normal. Oh, and as for the YJ new episodes: I agree if they make each season 13 episodes I'll be so annoyed! But I don't think they will. I heard they plan on making the first season 23 episodes, but I'm not possitive if it's true or not."
I'm glad to hear that the seasons will be longer. Teen Titans and The Batman both had tiny 13 episode seasons.
Master Doc - "I must admit, I completely forgot Tula was a badass herself. Heh, proving herself to the others shouldn't be that hard a conquest "
I think Tula would make a fine YJ member.
JakeFL - "Ooooooo! Now the shit's gonna hit the fan!
And we will be getting the new episode of YJ - "Targets" - on June 3rd. It will feature Red Arrow and the League of Shadows again.
And the reason for the long hiatus was because they hadn't finished any other episodes yet. Episodes 10 and 11 have been in the post-production stage for a while. Good news is that there will be 26 episodes in the first season, and they've signed the first 10 episodes for the second season - the miniseries "Invasion" - so I think we're in for a good run of this show!"
Good news indeed! I hope that they continue developing the characters.
David-El - "Not bad, but there is one pairing that you haven't done at all. Where is the Clark/Kon interaction? I don't remember you even mentioning how Clark reacted to learning about Kon."
Good point, I blew that!
Dew - "Wow 17 good chapter in a row. FAV line from this chapter-
"Before Beast Boy could reply he found his mouth covered by Raven's dark energy and she promptly dragged him away while he kicked and flailed his arms."
LOL LOVED IT!
Plus I loved how the teen titans crashed the party ;)"
Poor Raven, she's gonna have to finish raising BB! You'd think that Mento would have done that though!
boomihavearrived - "yayayayay another awesome chapter
ITS GETTING INTENSE"
The tension continues to build.
yob3 - "Awesome! TT vs. JL confrontation! Can't wait to see what comes of it"
Stay tuned. It's still coming.
babytiger5360 - "Ohhhhh Snap! I soo wanna see batmans face right now! Lol please update soon! Everything is going great! :D""
But he wears the cowl! (That must be why!)
swirlhearty23 - "Maybe get beat up by a crowbar(really bad)? Love the chapter~ "
I seem to bring out violent tendencies in some readers!
Tiger Lily Roar - "Gotta love party crashers! lol"
Never underestimate Batsy, if anyone knows how Robin's mind works, it's him.
Nightlover2 - "Can u pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty please update soon"
I will always do my best.