It was a glorious morning in Metropolis. The sun was rising into the sky, like an Apollo riding his fiery chariot. The sky was clear and the temperature was already warming up. The citizenry was out and about enjoying the beautiful day, as more than a few workers played hooky and skipped work to enjoy the what promised to be a pleasant day, joining the countless students who were already on summer break. The streets and parks were bustling with teenagers and young adults, who were having a grand time promenading, eating ice cream and scoping out who they might be able to flirt with. The retirees were also out; walking their tiny dogs and sipping on lattes in paper cups while they stopped to chat with other geezers.
A few people noticed the 3 figures flying overhead, patrolling the city from their lofty positions. Two were recognizable in their blue costumes and red capes, but few recognized the 3rd figure who had joined Superman and Supergirl in the sky. Those with binoculars could see that the third member of the patrol was a male teenager wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt with the familiar S shaped logo on his chest.
After weeks of training Superboy was finally able to achieve sustained flight, and while he was not as proficient at it as the other two Kryptonians he was nonetheless thrilled about achieving this new milestone. As they flew Supergirl teased him, doing barrel rolls around him while giving him a ribbing for his attire.
"So Kon, are you thinking of joining us and donning the red cape?"
Connor laughed as he replied.
"I just can't picture myself in spandex Kara, I like my look."
"But you don't look like a superhero! Every superhero has his or her own look." She snickered back at him.
"You mean like how you took Kal's costume and turned it into a cheerleader's costume? At least Powergirl has an original outfit!" He snarked back at her.
Kara moved in front of Superboy, flying backwards so that they were face to face.
"Oooh! So you like boobarella, huh?" She teased him. "Does M'Gann know that you like well endowed girls? Of course since she's a shape shifter she can make hers as big you like them."
"That's not a nice way to describe your twin sister from another dimension." He replied. "Anyway, if she's your twin, why did you get the smaller set of …"
"That'll be enough!" Clark boomed from overhead. "In case the two of you have forgotten, we are on patrol."
No sooner than Superman finished chastising the two teens he noticed a disturbance on the street below. With his supervision he could see that people were running away from what appeared to be plain white humanoid creatures that were firing some sort of energy beams at random. Superman watched in horror as a young mother and her baby were hit by one of the beams and were both instantly incinerated.
"Follow me!" He barked at the two junior members of his squad. "Whatever those are, we have to stop them. They're firing indiscriminately on civilians!"
Connor felt his heart rate jump as he followed Superman and Supergirl down into the heart of the fight. There were thousands of the strange creatures spread across the central section of the downtown area, and they were mowing down people without a second thought. Clark reached ground zero first and punched the first three attackers he encountered, sending them flying into a brick wall, where they flattened as if they were made of clay. He proceeded to attack more of the strange invaders and was overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. He noticed that the Police were firing at the humanoids, but their bullets simply passed through their bodies. The police did not fare as well and were being disintegrated by the humanoids energy weapons.
"Get out of here! You can't help!" Superman bellowed at the Police as Kara and Connor joined him in the battle, pummeling the strange attackers.
Once the three Kryptonians were present the strange creatures switched the focus of their attack, and ceased to attack the civilians, refocusing on the mighty trio that continued to battle them. It was then that Connor noticed that the invaders that had been converted into the equivalent of bug splat reformed themselves. He also noticed that the weapons that formed in their hands were now different. They still resembled pistols but had a different shape. The first group to reform aimed their weapons at Kal-El and fired. The Man of Steel moaned in agony and fell to his knees.
"Kara! What's happening to Kal!" Superboy shouted.
Kara's eyes widened in surprised.
"They're firing red sun beams at him. They're draining his powers!"
Kara then noticed another group of flattened attackers reform themselves. They were behind Connor and he had not seen them. Kara lunged at him, shoving him out of the way, taking the brunt of the blast herself. Superboy then had to dodge more blasts aimed at him. Meanwhile Kal and Kara were being completely subdued by the power robbing beams while some of the invaders approached them and began to wrap them in lead lined blankets that had a hint of Kryptonite on their surface. Connor understood what was happening. Kal and Kara were being captured and the lead blankets would insure that they would not recharge using Sol's yellow rays and the Kryptonite would keep them in a weakened state.
"Kal! Kara!" He shouted to them, still dodging the red rays, which now seemed to come from everywhere.
"Get out of her Kon!" Clark shouted at him as he was being wrapped in lead.
"What should I do? Where do I go?"
"Find the other Young Justice League members."
"Then what?"
Superman could no longer respond as he was now fully cocooned in lead and was being taken away by the invaders.
"Find the Teen Titans!" Kara replied just before she was sealed off and taken away.
Barely able to continue dodging the debilitating beams Superboy gritted his teeth and flew away. His mind raced as where to go next. He realized that closest YJ was Kid Flash in nearby Central City. As he streaked away at near supersonic speed he saw that the local National Guard was now fighting the invaders. It didn't take him long to see that the Guard was being routed. He turned away, with tears streaming down his cheeks and he picked up the pace as he flew to Central City, hoping that the Flash, the two Kid Flashes and Jinx would know what to do.
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Artemis fired an explosive arrow at the pale figure that pursued her. Her regular arrows seemed to have no effect on the creature, which simply ignored the 5 arrows it already had impaled in its body as it pursued the archer. The sixth arrow hit its target and blew up; sending what appeared to be clay like material flying in all directions. The blond noticed what appeared to be a small circuit board on the ground and picked it up, tucking it into her belt. She reached into her quiver and cursed as half of her arrows were already spent. She tapped into her ear piece.
"Ollie! What the hell is happening? Who, or should I say what are these things?"
The Green Arrow responded immediately.
"I don't know, but I just found out that they aren't just attacking Star City, they're everywhere! There are unconfirmed reports that Superman and Supergirl were captured. Another report says that Jump City is the only major population center that hasn't been attacked yet."
"What do we do? There's thousands of them and I'm running out of arrows!"
"Get back to Queen Industries. The Arrow Plane is there. Take it and go to Jump City and join up with the Titans."
"But what about you Ollie? And why the Titans?"
"I just got a message from Batman. He thinks Deathstroke is behind this and he's in Jump City. As for me, forget it! I'm down to my last two arrows. I can't hold out much longer. I think they want to capture me, they could have taken me out already if they wanted to do so."
"But Ollie, I can't leave you behind…"
"Yes you can, now go before it's too late. The Teen Titans are going to need all the help they can …"
The Green Arrow's voice was replaced by the hiss of static. Artemis clenched her teeth and fought back the tears. She then checked the customized PDA that Ollie gave her. Queen Industries was just a few blocks away…
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Miss Martian and her uncle the Martian Manhunter were busy bringing the new bioship online in the landing bay in the until then mothballed Mount Justice. Unlike the Mount Justice she knew from home this one had an abandoned feel to it, with a musty aroma that made it smell like an old basement. Her uncle didn't have a "hangout" per se like the other mentors did and it was M'Gann who suggested using Mount Justice. At first it seemed like a smart move as it was large and therefore had plenty of indoor space where she could train in privacy. On the other hand, it brought back many memories to her, memories of home which served as a reminder to her that this world, while very familiar, was not home.
The replacement biocraft had just been shipped in from Mars as a temporary replacement for the original bioship which was still recovering in the Titan's hangar. M'Gann has not been in contact with the ship due to the large distance that separated them and could only hope that Cyborg had been taking care of, as he called it "her baby". During her brief tenure in Titans Tower she watched on occasion as the bionic boy lovingly performed maintenance on his various modes of mechanical transportation. If he could show such concern for what were merely inanimate objects, she reasoned that he would be even more doting with her ailing bioship.
"It is ready M'Gann, you should be able to take it out for a break in flight."
M'Gann walked around the bioship, which was still in its winged aircraft form. She caressed it gently, feeling the ship's thoughts and emotions through her telepathic link. While her uncle watched she stepped back with a troubled look on her face.
"Is something wrong M'Gann?"
Her eyes were wide with surprise.
"The two ships made contact with each other."
"Yes, they do that sometimes. I believe the replacement ship merely contacted your ship in Jump City over a non telepathic link to retrieve your preference settings."
"It's not that! The ship in Jump City, it just told me that someone took a sample from it a few weeks ago."
"That is unexpected." J'onn replied. "Why would the Teen Titans extract a tissue sample from the bioship?"
"It wasn't the Titans. It was someone else … a blond girl."
"The geomancer. This is bad news. I will inform immediately Batman of this."
J'onn turned to the communications console that had been brought into the mothballed base and after tapping a few keystrokes Batman's face appeared on the screen. He looked battle scarred as did Robin and Batgirl who stood next to him.
J'onn! I was just about to contact you."
"Robin! Batgirl! Are you OK?" M'Gann shrieked.
"They're could be worse." Batman replied. "J'onn, millions of shape shifting creatures are attacking the country. There are so many of them that they are virtually unstoppable. They also appear to be prepared for us. They captured Superman and Supergirl using red star ray beams and kryptonite. I also lost contact with Ollie."
"What about Superboy? Was he also captured?"
"I don't know Megan, there are unconfirmed reports that he escaped."
"Who is behind this Bruce? This isn't the work of The Joining, is it?"
"Negative. At first I had the same suspicion, but it's not the Joining's style. These creatures are artificial but organic; I captured one and found this implant in it. It has Deathstroke's handwork all over it and I've traced a few stray signals coming from Jump City. I've tried to jam them but the frequency keeps changing."
"What do you think we should do?" J'onn asked.
"I'm sending all the members of Young Justice to Jump City to help the Titans bring Deathstroke down. M'Gann, take your ship and leave immediately. I'm sending your Robin and Batgirl in the Batwing. I've also sent a message to Titans East suggesting that they also go to Jump City, but I haven't heard from them. I've summoned all members of the Justice League to fight the invaders. But the outcome will be in the hands of Young Justice and the Teen Titans. They have to stop Deathstroke to stop this army."
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"This is bad, really bad." Cyborg moaned while he sat at one of the backup consoles he brought into the common room. Each Titan was seated at a workstation with a grim look on his or her face.
"According to early reports Metropolis and Star City have fallen under the invaders' control. There are also reports that Superman, Supergirl and the Green Arrow have been captured." Raven announced in her monotone. Her teammates had known her long enough to hear the mild timber of worry and concern in her voice.
"I just received a message from Artemis. She's flying here in the ArrowPlane … by herself." Beast Boy added. "Kaldur, Tula and Aqualad are on their way here from Atlantis."
"I have received word from Jinx that the Flash was also captured but that he made sure the she along with both Kid Flashes got away. They are on their way here along with Superboy who escaped from Metropolis." Starfire reported from her console.
"So far there hasn't been an attack here in Jump City. But the locals aren't taking any chances. Everyone's getting out of Dodge while they can." Cyborg reported as visuals of the entire city's freeway system, tied up in hopeless gridlock, appeared on the giant TV screen.
"Good luck with that." Raven commented. "We also lost contact with Titans East and I'm having trouble locating most of the Honorary Titans."
"Batman has sent the other Robin and Batgirl here on the Batwing while what remains of the Justice League will try to recover the conquered cities. He also says that he's traced signals to control the invaders back here to Jump City, which is why he's ordered the Young Justice League to join forces with us." Robin updated the team.
"Dude! That means …"
"That Slade's behind this. Batman came to the same conclusion." Robin finished the sentence for the Changeling. "And there's more bad news. Apparently these shape shifting androids were created with stolen technology. Biological technology."
"You mean from the bioship? Nuh uh! No one's breached our security since we parked it in the hangar." Cyborg growled.
"They didn't need to breach our safe guards." Raven frowned. "Because we let her walk right in. I should have known that when Terra saved me from that Slade-bot that it was staged."
The room fell silent as the impact of their mistake hit them like a 2 by 4 across the face.
"How could we be so stupid?" Cyborg moaned.
Starfire's console beeped.
"The Kid Flashes, Superboy and Jinx have arrived." Starfire announced. Everyone else should arrive within 15 minutes."
Robin stood up and looked out the giant windows in the common room.
"Slade is saving us for last! He's toying with us." The Boy Wonder announced. "He's going to attack us with thousands of his shape shifting warriors."
"But where is his army?" Raven asked. "There's no sign of it anywhere in the city."
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On a lonely, desolate beach across the bay from the tower the waves lapped on the rocky shore line. Boulder beach, because of its lack of sand and preponderance of rocks and boulders and its inaccessibility was not a popular beach with the locals, except for the nudists who liked the privacy it afforded them. It was still early in the morning and the sun was still rising, so the local textile free sun worshippers had yet to arrive for a day of sunbathing and wouldn't be coming anyway as the city was being evacuated.
This was fortunate for the usual beachgoers as the rocks and boulders began to morph into humanoid forms with flippers and webbed hands. The strange white creatures gathered on the shoreline, as if waiting for something.
After a few minutes a lone figure appeared in the sky, standing on what appeared to be a surfboard. She was wearing armor and her long blond hair flowed as it was caressed by the gentle morning breeze. Her granite platform landed on the beach and she stepped off and began to inspect her troops. As she completed her review the remaining Young Justice League members began to arrive.
"Remember Terra; don't attack until the remaining heroes arrive. I want to take them down all at once." Slade's voice buzzed in her earpiece.
"No problem Slade, I have this under control."
"Don't fail me Terra. I'm leaving you in charge here. The Justice League has mounted a counter attack that I need to supervise. I'll check in with you in 15 minutes. I want to see Robin and Raven's heads on a platter when we are done apprentice. Have I made myself clear? Do this and I will free you from the curse and let you keep the changeling."
"Perfectly clear Slade. See you in 15 minutes. Terra out."
As soon as the audio link was cut Terra removed a small control pad from her belt and pressed a button on it. As soon as she did the shape shifters assumed a spherical form and rested on the rocky shore, giving the beach the appearance of being carpeted with white beach balls.
She then looked down at her left arm and removed the armor that protected her forearm, exposing one of the 8 body controlling implants Slade had placed in her body. She grabbed the part of the implant that protruded from her skin and began to pull at it. The implant was more than merely grafted on her skin; it was woven into her muscles and nerves. This did not deter her as she continued to pull at it. At first the skin around it broke and she began to bleed. As she continued to pull she ripped both flesh and nerves, gritting her teeth as the pain was excruciating. With a primal scream she ripped it clear of her arm and tossed it aside, leaving a gaping, bloody wound in its wake.
She then removed the armor from her other forearm.
One down, 7 to go she reminded herself as she began to repeat the painful task. And she had to hurry, she only had 15 minutes before Slade returned.
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I felt inspired today, and I cranked this out. I hope you like it.
And thanks for all your comments.