A/N: Alright, Chapter 4 is now up! Speaking of chapters, I have an announcement to make: Because college is starting up again for me, I might not be able to write as much as before. What this means for you, dear readers, is that updates might be slower. I will try to aim for once a month at the very least (and I would like to accelerate that) but I'm not entirely sure if I can stick to it. It's just a heads up in advance. Now, onto reviews:

Guest and Death Fury: I have a list of names at the bottom of the chapter. Save for the Martian form *cough cough*, all of them have been named.

Es: Sorry, but it's not in my plans. As mentioned in chapter 3's review replies "There is a relationship planned and the girl (not naming names) will appear in the downtime equivalent". I understand where you got the implications of me gearing up to Miss Martian x Chimera, but they're nothing more than implications.

Mount Justice, United States

July 18, 2010 10:52 EDT

Recognized: Chimera B-0-4

As I walk in the cave wearing nothing but a black shirt, blue jeans, black shoes and a green jacket with the number 10 in a black circle, I take a look around the training room, seeing nothing but the 'holodeck' (as I've taken to calling the training computer to everybody's confusion), the large metal tube that I think is a computer and the hatch accessible only by flight.

A vworp vworp vworp comes from my cell phone. Checking it, I see that I got a text from John Stewart saying "At Mt. Justice's medbay with Superboy. Come ASAP."

Putting my phone away, I bump into M'gann wearing her civilian clothes that she wore during her stay at my house. "Ezekial! What's with the jacket?"

"It's something that reminds me of my favorite cartoon back home."

M'gann nods slowly as she gets the hidden message of I'm wearing something Ben Tennyson wore because I thought it was funny. I knew that explaining the truth to someone close to my age (even if it's on a technicality, Martians apparently age three times slower than humans so M'gann's actually 48 years old by Earth's standards) would help with explaining the truth to the rest later, so I told M'gann about two days in after we got the cave as our base of operations. After all, she knew a part of it so why not let her know the rest?

"Anyways, what are you doing here right now? I thought you would be here later!"

"I was wondering if you know where the medbay is? I was told to meet Superboy and Lantern Stewart there to see if we can identify the problems with Superboy's powers."

M'gann nods with understanding. "Follow me."

A few short minutes later, I see a very futuristic medbay equipped with enough medical supplies that would make a doctor at a low end hospital green with envy usually felt only by Lex Luthor against Superman. On a medical bed is Superboy, with John Stewart being right next to him.

M'gann does a flourish of her arms. "Well, here it is. I'll be back at the training room to wait for everybody else. I guess I'll see you there?"

"Yeah, I'll see you there."

The two take a look at me and Lantern Stewart smiles very briefly and faintly. "Glad to see you here, Zeke. How's life?"

"It's not too bad. The therapy sessions are going well, the startup's worth the effort, and crime's down in the sections of Coast City that I patrol in under supervision."

"Good to hear that." Stewart turns to Superboy (who is wearing a black jacket over one of his Superman shirts and jeans) before returning to me "Now, shall we begin?"

An impatient Superboy goes "Of course!" in a tone that reminds me of Raul Julia.

Without further prompting, a green rectangular light shoots out of the Lantern ring and goes up and down Superboy's body before disappearing. After a few seconds, a green tinted one to one scale model of Superboy's interal workings shows up. While most of the body matches with the limited amount of human physiology/anatomy that I know of, there are two things that would be out of place: the organs responsible for Kryptonian powers and what appears to be a secondary nervous system attached throughout the entire boy.

I'm not the only one to notice it, as Superboy points out the secondary nervous system. "What is that? That doesn't match with what I know of Kryptonian anatomy."

Stewart ponders the subject for a few seconds before doing something with the ring. After a few more seconds of pondering, he speaks up. "That appears to be an artificial nervous system designed to regulate Superboy's powers. As you can see here," The model zooms to a section on the brain that I guess is the part managing pleasure "It's hooked up to the hypothalamus. From what I can guess based on the cellular structure of the limiters, it's designed to temporarily stimulate this area to give you an addiction over time whenever you disable the limiters through a certain chemical compound."

Wait, so Cadmus deliberately implanted limiters as a secondary contingency in the event that they lost control to ? Let's see here, who was involved with Superboy's conception who's capable of such long-term planning? Suddenly, an idea comes to me. Lex Luthor. Before I voice my thoughts, Superboy beats me to the punch.

"Is there any way that we can destroy it?"

Stewart ponders the question a bit. "Hmm, I'm not sure. It could be possible, but this is a unique case that will need discussion."

I think this situation over and ask "What if we overwhelm the limiters?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me. What if we give Superboy a Solar Converter suit that turns the Sun's ultraviolet rays into the ultraviolet rays of a blue-yellow sun?"

Stewart muses on the idea for a bit. "Hmmm, that could work. But if I may ask, why not pure blue sunlight?"

"If I'm correct, then blue-yellow sunlight will destroy the limiters without making Supes here much more powerful than Superman with continued exposure, 'merely' more powerful. The difference is semantics and the fact that blue sunlight increases Kryptonian powers to unmanageable levels."

"Will there be any problems?"

"The only problem is that I'm theorizing based on a limited pool of knowledge and that I would require further knowledge and testing before jumping to conclusions." Translation: Give me everything I'm allowed to have about the topic and contact Batman to tell him that I'm going to do something that could blow up in our faces if worst comes to worst.

Stewart nods his head in agreement. "Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"Glad to hear it. Anything else?"

I need to think of a way to get him to check Superboy's DNA. Then all of a sudden, it hits me. "Can you do a DNA scan? I think it's best to see if there's going to be clone degradation or something similar down the line."

"The ring already scanned his DNA, I just didn't look over the results."

A crossed eyebrow is all Superboy does to express his curiosity. "Shouldn't you have done that already?"

"I'm doing that as we speak. Hmmm, it appears half of your DNA is human. Now, let's see who's the donor." As he finishes that, Stewart's face goes from curious to resigned surprise.

Superboy grows impatient. "What?"

"Give me a moment, I'm just double checking to see who human donated their DNA to form your human half."

We wait for a few seconds until Stewart's face looks like he's done with this shit "Lex Luthor is your human father." Huh, called it.

A mixture of horror and concern crosses Supes' face. "...What?"

"That's what the scans say."

"How come?"

I discuss my theory on what happened. "Best guess? Cadmus tried cloning a pure Kryptonian earlier and failed, so when they attempted to do so again, they asked the higher ups to donate their DNA and Lex Luthor responded by giving them his so that he can get a Kryptonian child."

"So, am I destined to turn evil?"

I put a comforting hand on Supes' shoulder. "Look, don't believe in Lamarck's stupid theories. You are not your human 'father'. You're already better than him."

John then speaks up. "I agree. Actions speak louder than words, and what you did proved you're better than Luthor."

"...Thanks, guys."

"Now, if you excuse me, I have to get going. I need to report this to Batman."

"Right. Tell him I said hi."

A smirk crosses Stewart's face. "Will do."

And with that, Stewart leaves the room and presumably the mountain. I ask a somewhat brooding Superboy "Do you want to head to the training room to run into the rest of the team?"

A somewhat interested shrug is all I get. "Sure."

We walk up there and stand near a holoscreen alongside Kaldur and M'gann that seems to be tracking Red Tornado. All of a sudden, one of the Zeta Tubes starts up and the ever so familiar voice of the computer speaks up. Recognized: Robin B-0-1, Kid Flash B-0-3

The Zeta Tube dies down and we see Robin wearing sunglasses, a green turtleneck, a black jacket and black pants being joined by Wally wearing a red jacket, yellow long sleeved shirt, and black pants. There seems to be something else going on as the greatest DC bromance rushes up towards Kaldur. Robin starts off with "Did you ask him?"

Wally follows up the line of questioning. "What did he say?" If I'm correct, then everybody here's impatient for a mission. Can't believe I used to be like that before forcing myself to learn patience.

As always, Kaldur calmly replies to this outburst. "He is arriving now."

In response to this news, Wally friendly punches Robin in the chest while shouting "Then what are we waiting for?", before running off to the wall opposite the Zeta Tubes.

Stopping at the entrance, we wait as the ramp falls down before we walk outside to see Red Tornado landing on the ground. An enthusiastic "Red Tornado!" from Wally is all we need to greet him.

Red Tornado takes one look at us. Stoically, he moves his head towards, implying he wants to talk. "Greetings. Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"

Kaldur replies with "We hoped you have a mission for us."

"Mission assignments are The Batman's responsibility."

This time, Robin speaks up with "But it's been over a week and nothing-"

One of Red Tornado's hands is raised in the stop gesture. "You'll be tested soon enough. For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company."

Kaldur objects firmly, telling Red Tornado "This team is not a social club."

"No, but I am told social interaction is an important team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarzing yourselves with the cave." And with that, he gets the final word by walking towards the Zeta Tube.

Wally punches Robin in the shoulder, mockingly repeating the words "Keep Busy" as he does so. Robin angrily replies with "Does he really think we're falling for this?"

I see an opportunity present itself. "I'm not even sure if he even has a plan to trick us with."

"Not. Helping."

A happy expression appears on M'gann's face. "Maybe I can find out if I read his mind. Chimera, mind turning into Upgrade for me?"

"Sure."

Sensing the crazy idea about to occur, I activate the Omnitrix and select Upgrade. The core pops up, and I push it down gently in order to guarantee success (I have no way of knowing if Azmuth was true about what happens if you slam on the core, but I'm not risk breaking this very advanced piece of technology). Immediately after, I feel M'gann's telepathy touch me for a brief second as something best described as psychic static enters my mind before quickly retreating.

M'gann sighs due to what I assume is the same psychic static. "I thought that would work."

A curious Robin speaks up. "What would work?"

This time, I speak up. "I guess M'gann wanted to use her telepathy in conjunction with Upgrade's technorganic nature in order to read Red Tornado's 'mind', only to fail because of said technorganic nature. Had I known about that, I wouldn't have followed up on the plan."

The scientific genius in Wally starts up. "What does Upgrade do again?"

"The Galvanic Mechamorphs-which is Upgrade's species-can merge with technology and shape it to suit their needs. In addition, he can stretch somewhat like Plastic Man and shoot a laser out of their eye."

"Why didn't you merge with Red Tornado then?"

"For two reasons: One, I'm not entirely sure if it would work, him being a sentient AI and all that. Two, If it did work, then it would be considered abuse of exotic abilities and/or technology against a League Member and I don't wanna explain myself to Batman why I did it." With that said, I slam on the Omnitrix to detransform.

"Oh." A flirtatious smile crawls up Wally's face as he moves towards M'gann. "So, uh, you know what I'm thinkin' right now?"

Robin bickers back with "We all know what you're thinkin' right now." before elbowing Wally back. Karma in action, folks.

"Ow."

Aqualad sarcastically responds to everything going on. "And now we tour the clubhouse."

M'gann tells us "Well, Superboy and I live here. We can play tour guides." to which Superboy shoots down the idea. "Don't look at me."

Wally continues his failed flirting attempts. "We won't. A private tour sounds soooo much better."

Odd, I never recalled Wally being this much of a flirt. Granted, most of what I know of him from the comics is from his Flash days, and most of them are the married ones. I go to Robin and ask him "Is he always like this?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Kaldur interrupts Wally's flirting session and everybody else's reactions to it. "Team building. We'll all go."

We all turn to the ramp as M'gann begins the tour. "This would be the front door…"

Mount Justice Back Entrance

July 18, 2010 11:39 EDT

As we arrive near the end of the tour, M'gann finishes her role as a tour guide while we bask in the natural beauty of the ocean. "And this would be the back. The cave is the entire mountain."

Wally then takes over M'gann's role as the tour guide when we decide to head back into the hangar. "The League decided that using the Justice Society's old headquarters wouldn't be practical due to its status as a monument in New York City and their desire for secrecy. So, they decided to look for a way to hide a bunker in a sparsely populated area. One search later they found the future Mount Justice and covertly bought it from the US Government."

It's at this point Superboy asks "How did they buy a mountain?" to which I wittly reply with "Batman. He can do anything once he puts his mind to it."

Wally continues his little spiel. "It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League."

"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Superboy asks.

Kaldur explains tensely. "The cave's secret location was...compromised."

"So they traded it in for a tourist trap? Yeah. That makes sense."

Panic crawls onto M'gann's face as she puts her hand on her chin in a frightened expression. "If villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert!"

Robin, ever the master of language, reassures M'gann while putting his hands on hers. "Relax. The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here."

I sigh and tell M'gann "We're hiding in plain sight."

A somewhat confused expression crosses M'gann's face. "Ah, that's much clearer."

Before we can finish the tour, Supes sniffs the air twice before alerting us. "I smell smoke."

"My cookies!" And with that, M'gann flies to the kitchen. We all follow her as fast as we can. Once we arrive in the kitchen, we see her use her telekinesis to open up the oven and move the tray of burnt cookies onto the countertop. "I was trying out Grammy Jones' recipe from epsiode 17 of-" an awkward chuckle rings throughout the kitchen "Never mind."

While Robin tries to cheer her up, Supes, Aqualad and I see Wally wolfing down several burnt cookies. Curious, I ask him "Won't eating those burnt harm you?" to which Wally sheepishly replies "I have a serious metabiolism problem."

"I can relate to that. Using Fastcat makes me want to compete in a buffet eating contest. It's gotten to the point that I've asked for boxes of your calorie dense bars." I still remember that one time where I had to outrun Speed Demon across states to put him behind bars. Long story short, I'm now banned from The Grand Buffet in Reno, Nevada (as Chimera, of course) for eating a good chunk of their entire stock they had for the day.

Kaldur goes into friendly mode and tells M'gann "It was sweet of you to make any."

"Thanks, Aqualad."

"We're off duty. Call me Kaldur'ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur." So, we're beginning to share our identities then? Well then, I think I'll reveal mine.

Wally introduces himself with "I'm Wally."

"Mine's no secret. It's M'gann M'orzz. But you can call me Megan."

"My name's Ezekial."

M'gann takes a look at where Superboy is. "Don't worry Superboy, we'll get you a name."

I sense an opportunity here. "How about we call you Connor? If you like it, that is."

Superboy ponders the idea. "Sounds right for some reason. But why Connor?"

"It was the first thing to pop into my head."

"It's a nice name." M'gann points out.

The silence in the room grows until Kaldur asks "Does anybody have any other ideas on what we should do? Because I am at a loss for conversation topics."

"I know what we can do. Quick, follow me!"

Reluctantly, we do so and follow her into an elevator. As she hits a button, M'gann theatrically goes. "I have a surprise to show you all."

The doors open up into the hangar and we see a large red egg. "It's my martian Bioship!"

"Cute. Not aerodynamic, but cute." As Wally demonstrates that he fits the stereotype of scientists in pop culture, M'gann chides Wally by going "It's at rest, silly. I'll wake it." Almost immediately after, the red egg morphs into a fleshy spaceship. "Well, are you coming?"

Despite my comrades' hesitance in doing so, I smile and walk into the spaceship. As we head to the cockpit, the inside morphs and generates five passenger seats and a pilot's seat. As we all sit down, a "Strap in for launch" is given to everybody present. Sitting on a chair, I squirm a bit as the seatbelts suddenly grow on me.

"Red Tornado, please open the bay doors."

The bay doors open and the bioship flies out at incredible speeds, barrel rolling towards the mainlands.

Astounded, Robin goes "Impressive!"

"S-she sure is..." A lovestruck Wally agrees while making googly eyes at M'gann. "I-i mean the ship, which like all ships, is a she."

I flash a smirk at Wally. "Smooth going there."

"Dude!"

Before our bickering can grow, Robin changes the topic. "Hey, how 'bout showing us a little bit of martian shapeshifting?" A subtle nod is all we receive before M'gann shifts into a Rule 63'd Robin. M'gann spends a few seconds posing before turning into a Rule 63'd Kid Flash.

Wally takes one look at his genderbent self and asks "Is it wrong to think that I'm hot?"

Just as he says that, M'gann turns into a rule 63'd version of me in my Chimera uniform. What snarky reply I have disappears, replaced by "N-no, not really."

The rest of the team applauds M'gann, who shifts back to normal. "Impressive," says Kaldur, "but is it possible for you to shift into the opposite gender? Being limited to one gender is limiting when it comes to missions."

A sheepish grin crosses M'gann's face. "Boys are tricky to change into."

Sup-Connor continues the questioning."And the clothes?"

"They're organic like the ship. They respond to my mental commands."

Wally, determined to put his flirting attempts behind him and asks a question we all have on our mind. "Can you do that ghosting through walls thing Manhunter does?"

"Density shifting? No, it's a very advanced technique. I asked Uncle J'onn if Ezekial could help given that he has a Martian form, but he rejected it-Uncle J'onn, I mean-saying something about 'Ezekial's martian form is something you should not witness', whatever that means."

Ah crap. Why did she have to say that? Suddenly, five sets of eyes shift their vision onto me. Connor asks on behalf of M'gann "What happened, Ezekial?"

I scratch the back of my head and mutter while I think of a good excuse, only to fail. Seeing no other option, I decide to distort the truth a bit. "Well, you see, it turns out that Martian DNA and the Omnitrix interact weirdly with each other. So when I turn into my Martian form, I gain a power that other Martians would deem 'Lovecraftian'. Fortunately, I decided not to turn into my Martian form until I had proper tutelage in the mental arts as I was afraid of what I could do without proper training.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about the Omnitrix-induced changes done to the Martian sample at the time. So, when I turned into my Martian form-who has not been named yet-I instinctually set myself on fire by my own unique power and I didn't feel a thing. When J'onn saw it, he got scared and made it a joint Team/League mandate that I can only use my Martian form if I either got permission from a League founder or their successors, if the situation at hand is desperate enough for me to use it, or if I get permission from the team's leader, who cannot be me."

As I end my story, I see the horrified looks the rest of the Team have in their eyes. I send a brief telepathic message consisting of I'll explain what actually happened later to M'gann. She replies with You'd better.

Before I get interrogated more intensely, a beep beep beep comes from the pilot's console. M'gann hits the answer button. "Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An emergency alert has been triggered at Happy Harbor Power Plant. I suggest you investigate covertly. I'm sending coordinates." Whirrrrr-click!

M'gann takes one look at the flight… computer? I should really work on the terminology used for this. "Recieved. Adjusting course."

Robin scoffs. "Tornado's keeping us busy again!"

An optimistic "Well, a simple fire led us to Connor, so who knows what an alert would bring?" from M'gann cheers us up.

One look at the left window shows a tornado headed straight for us. "Umm, guys? Incoming!"

Despite Miss Martian's best efforts (we're in a tornado, so it's best to call everybody by their codenames seeing that being in a tornado would likely only happen in a mission), we get sweeped up into the tornado. Not how I expected this day to go, but I've learned to roll with the punches ever since I woke up several universes from home.

Some deft manuvering from Miss Martian results in the Bioship breaking free from the tornado and landing in the parking lot, which is oddly a safe distance away from being affected by the tornado's vacuum.

Without further prompting, a hole opens up in the floor of the Bioship and we all jump into the great unknown. Or rather, the Happy Harbor Power Plant parking lot.

"Robin, are tornadoes common in New England?" A cautious Aqualad asks. Seeing that we got no answer, we turn to him to ask him personally only to see nothing there and the sound of giggling coming from around us. With that said, I ask the only reasonable question on my mind.

"How is that even possible?!"

An I'm-done-with-this expression crosses Kid Flash's face. "He's trained by Batman. What did you expect?"

As the giggling grows louder, the windows of the power plant get blown out. Seeing no other place for Robin to be, we head inside the power plant.

Inside, we see a Robin lying by a wall, with no visible external injuries. As Superboy asks Robin about our attacker, I decide to take a look at him to see what we're up against: A red robot with blue wires attached to his arms. Save for his blue eyes, blue tubes and brown scarf, red and black are adorned all over his body in a stylized pattern. Wind moves all around him in the form of a mini tornado. He takes one look at us. "My apologies." Apologies for what? Robin's commentary? "You may address me as Mister Twister." As he finished his introduction in that bold robotic tone of his, two tornadoes suddenly appear from his arms.

Superboy tries to push despite the force of the tornadoes. Despite his best efforts, Mister Twister changes the direction of the tornadoes to knock him into a wall. Seeing no other option, I decide to turn into Brainstorm. Switching the Omnitrix from disguise mode to active mode, the digital watch detailing the time right now turns into a minimalist green hourglass. I put two fingers on the touchscreen and the all too familiar dial with five faces pop up. I move the slot away from Fastcat and onto Brainstorm, confirming my choice with the press of the 'lock in' button. The dial pops up, and I push it down, bracing for the mental changes. God, how I hate those.

Immediately, my hands morph into claws that belong on a crab. My brain grows 17 times bigger in size and generates several technorganic growths that would fit on an alien supercomputer. My skull grows in size as well and breaks up into three openable sections. My eyes grow in size, while the rest of my face adjusts to that of a crab's. Various bony spikes grow all around and my legs turn into a lump for lack of a better word, with four two joined crab legs growing out of it. A green and black triple striped neckbrace with the Omnitrix appears, completing the transformation. "Brainstorm!"

Forthwith, I inaugurate my breakdown into our assailant. It appears our assailant is recently synthesized and as such, incognizant of what greater empiricsm with his abilities would give him. He also has some additional generators than what is required, perhaps some sort of electrokinetic based weaponry? In addition, the reaction time is slower than expected. Presumably he is controlled by a pilot? In conclusion: our assailant is a robot suit piloted by somebody familar enough with the principles of Morrow's work to be able to recreate it, if not augment it with their access to more cutting edge technology than what is procurable in the mid-20th century.

With that done, I deviate my attention to the attack patterns. Kid Flash attempts to do a front hamstring, only to fail due to an aerokinetic strike launching him out of the facility and into the forest. Miss Martian and Aqualad run to avenge our comrade, only for an aerokinetic burst to displace them. In conclusion: our assailant is far too reliant on his powers to fight.

I glance at Robin and motion for him to arrive nearby. "We need to incapacitate our foe. Pray tell, are you in possession of anything capable of generating an electromagnetic pulse?"

"W-what?! Why would I have it in my utility belt?" I unfold my skull and generate a small storm of electricity before intimidating Robin. A dishonorable tactic, but a necesscary one needed to curb Robin's uncooperativeness."We do not have the opulence of squabbling. Now, hand it over."

"Fine." With a deft gesture, Robin unpacks his utility belt and hands me a low-voltage miniturized EMP, just enough to send any and all computers into rebooting.

Using my neuroelectrokinesis, I reprogram the circuitry to amplify the voltage of the apparatus at the cost of permanently frying its. Once finished, I activate it. Per my calculations, our robotic assailant will be incapacitated for approximately 8.2349 seconds, giving us a small window of opportunity. Without hesitation, I begin a barrage of lightling on the mysterious figure that lasts 7 seconds.

After the barrage of lightning is over, our assailant recovers from his immobile position. He takes one look at me and announces "Impressive. While I was expecting a real hero to show up, you exceeded all expectations I have of you Chimera. Not that it will do you any good."

With that last statement hanging in the air, I brace for impact as Mister Twister generates a vortex strong enough to absorb me in. I try to strategize a way out of this twister only to remember I am in possession of an Omnitrix, one of the most powerful devices to ever exist in all of creation. With a sudden slam of the dial, I transform into Hawkdown and fly out of the vortex before looking at Mister Twister to give him an ultimatum. "If you think you can succeed, if you can get what you want, if you get to see tomorrow without any consequences for this, then you are sorely mistaken." I love the opportunities I get to flex my theatrical side.

All I get in response is a haughty "We shall see."

Hmmm, what would the Doctor do? He would show the soon-to-be-defeated victim just why they shouldn't mess with them or their friends. But what do we do? Brainstorm's analysis gave me some information, but not enough to get stuff like behavioral patterns and other useful information. I take a break from my thoughts to focus on my opponent.

"Have you no adult supervision other than Chimera? I find his callousness for your safety quite disturbing."

"Well, we hate to see you disturbed. Let's see if you're more turbed once we kick your can!" Leave it to Robin to make a witty retort and butcher the english language while doing so. As if on cue, Miss Martian reaches out with her telekinesis to destroy the pipe above Mister Twister's head, creating a cover of steam that Superboy jumps through. Despite this, two concentrated wind bursts are generated to send Superboy flying straight into Miss Martian. Without a beat, Robin, Aqualad and I dodge the humanoid projectiles.

"Indeed. That was quite turbing. Thank you." With that, our armored aerokinetic android flies away, with us in pursuit.

As we head outside, a rematch between Kid Flash and Twister ensues and ends with a ringout by Twister launching Kid Flash into the air. Before anybody can do anything, I fly over and catch him. "I got you!"

"Thanks!" With that done, I flap my wings and we both descend down to the ground. With that done, we all take a look at Mister Twister who looks like he's wasting his time even being here.

"I thought you would have all learned your limitations by now."

An angry Aqualad yells out "What do you want?!"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for the only other real hero here." The only other 'real hero' here is Red Tornado, so what does he have in store for him? Reprogramming

Clearly panicking, Robin gives out an order. "Quick, read his mind!"

Miss Martian does the Pstandard Psychic Pstance for a few seconds before drooping her head a bit. "I'm getting nothing." And with that, she beams back up. "Hello, Megan! Mister Twister is Red Tornado in disguise." ...What?

While the rest of the Team looks hurt, I go to Miss Martian and go into my kind-yet-stern mode. "Care to explain your reasoning? Because from what I can tell, that is not Red Tornado."

"W-well, he's a robot who can control wind. Why do you think he's not Red Tornado?"

I hold up four fingers. "One: Red Tornado's tornadoes are red in color, not grey. Two: Brainstorm's analysis of Mister Twister told me about electrokinetic weaponry built in, which Tornado does not have. Three: There are various mad scientists capable of recreating and improving upon the technology that makes up Red Tornado. Four, and this is the most important part: Tornado wouldn't destroy public property and risk lives without permission and planning!" With that done, the beep beep beep of the Omnitrix's timer rings out, and I turn back into human form.

"You reallythought I was Red Tornado? Ironic. Can Tornado do this?" And with that, the crackle of electricity fills the air as I brace for an impact that never came.

I open my eyes and look up to see the camoflauged Bioship between us and Twister. "Fine then. I won't deny that you children-and Chimera-have real power, but playing hide and seek with you will not help me achieve my objective, so stay concealed. If you confront me again, I will show no mercy."

As he finishes his speech by creating an electric fueled fist before flying away to Happy Harbor, everybody else looks up through the invisible force field protecting us from him.

"What happened?" Kid Flash asks.

"I placed the bioship between us." Miss Martian deftly replies.

Superboy voices his displeasure by hitting a rock formation so hard it breaks, before turning to M'gann voice filled with anger. "And that's supposed to make it right? You thought Twister was Red Tornado."

Aqualad jumps to her defense. "She didn't do it on purpose." which is supported by me going "She reached what she thought was the most likely explanation through mere analysis. Besides, she only has four weeks compared to your two weeks, Robin's four years, Kid Flash's and Aqualad's two years, and my three months. She's bound to make some mistakes."

And with that, Kid Flash speaks up. "Well, you are pretty inexperienced to the rest of us. Go hit the showers. We'll take it from here."

God, was I really this moronic and egotistical when I was around their age? No wait, I'm still around their age. Don't answer that! "Stay, M'gann. We need to work as a team if we need to defeat Twister."

"To be honest, I'm not sure we have a team." Aqualad sulks.

"Now that's just stupid. We all have our dreams of independence and respect, and you want to give it up after a minor failure?"

"We were given this opportunity because of an act of childish rebellion!"

"'An act of childish rebellion' that exposed that one of the top genetics laboratories in the United States-if not the world-were secretly planning to go to war against the League. If you can't look into the eyes of adversary after a crushing defeat, then how are you going to be heroes like the League?"

The speech hits harder than I expect. I see Kid Flash shuffling his feet, Robin looking dejected, Superboy looking stoic, Miss Martian about to break down and Aqualad looking thoughtful, as if he wanted to say something that can't be put into words.

Finally, Miss Martian speaks up. "Ez-Chimera's right! We're heroes. People are counting on us, so we can't give up!" Why does M'gann remind me of Ochako Uraraka?

Kid Flash voices his concerns. "But how are we going to beat a guy who took five minutes to beat us and managed to shrug off an EMP?"

"Apparently, that was a low grade reusable EMP that merely rebooted computers instead of frying their circuitry." My thoughts flashack to Brainstorm's analysis and an idea begins to form. "Now that I think of it, I have the frame of a plan."

"What is it?"

"Everybody here except for Miss Martian will fight Twister. Shortly into the fight, Miss Martian will shapeshift into Red Tornado and fight Twister-with Kid helping her by creating tornadoes to fight him-under the pretense that he doesn't trust that we can handle him. Assuming everything goes right, Twister will incapacitate Miss Martian and try to reprogram her under the belief she's the real deal. While he's incapacitated, we go to town on him. However, there's one catch."

"Which is?"

"We'll need Miss Martian's telepathy to coordinate."

"But it violates our privacy!" I hear Robin shout.

"Yes, but only if Miss Martian didn't learn boundaries and human traditions that I taught her. We need to get used to it if we're going to continue working as a team. So, what do you think?"

I get five smiles in response to the plan. "Alright, M'gann, fly a reasonably far distance away from Twister and change into Red Tornado. We need to make it believable."

"Right! What about the rest of the team?"

I brush off her concerns. "Don't worry about it! Sometimes the best plan is no plan at all."

It's at this point an impatient Kid Flash looks at me. "Well, what about us?"

"We'll fight Twister until M'gann arrives. Once she does, we'll go to different areas where our skills apply while pretending to be disappointed that Red Tornado sent us away. So, who's with me?"

The sounds of agreement fills my ears. Who knows? Maybe this team thing will work out. As M'gann flies away, we run towards the twisters popping up.

"So, anything we should do?"

"Just don't get hurt too much or hurt others. Other than that, go nuts."

A dangerous smirk crosses Superboy's face. "Let's show this guy why you don't mess with the team!"

As we reach the street where Twister is, we see nothing but utter chaos. Car alarms are blaring, people are panicking and a twister tears up the shore, carrying boats into the town square while Twister looks on. "Certainly this will get the required attention."

Kid Flash looks defiantly at the android. In a triumphant tone, he insults our attacker with "Well, you got ours full and undivided, robot!" practically cursing the last name out.

Much to Twister's surprise, Kid runs up to him and kicks him back enough to make him off balance. "Did you really think you can beat me after your previous failed attempt?"

In the most blunt tone Kid Flash can generate, he responds. "Well, yeah."

A cheeky little Robin goes "After all, you made such a disaster that we'll have to turn it into an aster once we're finished with you."

I continue things with "We're heroes for a reason, you know. And you're about to see why."

Aqualad ends things with "Surrender now, or else we'll have to use force."

"Oh? Don't you remember how I managed to win against you?"

A smirk crosses Aqualad's face. "We do, and we learn from our mistakes."

Without any further prompting, Robin throws two exploding discs that Twister catches. As Twister catches them in the air, two explosions go off, generating some kickback and a smoke cover. That gets followed up by Aqualad using his hydrokinesis to shoot a beam of water at our opponent which gets blown away.

"Enough of this farce!" A hurricane picks up a boat. With a few sleight of hand gestures, said boat is moved towards us at alarmingly high speeds. While Robin, Aqualad and I move out of the way, Superboy just stands there and takes the shot.

In response to this, a twister is made and catches Aqualad, sending him back first into the town hall. Kid Flash tries running to Twister, but he too is caught in the twister and sent to Twister's head. Before anything serious happens, Kid spins the opposite direction of the twister, cancelling it out and making him late for an appointment with the ground. Superboy catches him in time, but is put out of commission by a lightning strike.

Aqualad moves out of the way of the incoming Superboy and throws a boat's motor at Twister to cover for Robin and Kid Flash who are moving to the boat I was hiding behind. They take one look at me and then one look at them.

Kid Flash turns to look at me. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for the Omnitrix to recharge. I never bothered to invest in ranged weaponry, so until then, I'm out of my League, no pun intended."

A grin crosses Kid Flash's face. "Pun totally intended."

This time, Robin is the one to speak up. "If you ever need help with it, let me know." He restates his point by getting his utility belt from his jacket sleeve and tightening it around his waist.

An annoyed Kid Flash takes a look at Robin. "You brought your utility belt?"

"Never leave home without it! First thing Batman taught me."

"Yeah, right after don't go to the bathroom without it."

I jump to Robin's defense. "Hey, you never know when somebody's going to attack you in your own bathroom."

"Really?"

"He works in Gotham! Anything can happen."

As I end that comment, Miss Martian sends her telepathic message to us. Guys! I'm currently far enough to make our ruse believable!

"Well, that's great but you need me to make the tornadoes." Kid Flash whispers/thinks to Miss Martian.

I know that! Which is why I need you to head to the center of the harbor. I'll be landing there.

I head to the center with Aqualad and the rest without ever keeping our eyes off Twister. The familar sound of the Omnitrix's recharge tone hits my ears, and the hourglass flashes green. Just before I activate the select menu, 'Red Tornado' shows up. "Hit the showers, boys. I was hoping you could handle this. Clearly, you cannot."

Miss Martian's voice rings throughout our minds. How'd I do?

You did great! Thinks Robin, while he responds verbally "But we've got a plan now!"

"The subject is not up for debate." We all fake walking to the mountain until Twister goes "I was beginning to think you were never going to show up."

"I'm here now." Wally, I need tornadoes, NOW!

I gotcha, Megalicious.

A tornado is generated by Kid Flash's Beyblade impression, and skillfully sent to Twister, who not only destroys it, but creates a twister of his own to counteract 'Red Tornado' which is destroyed.

"We are evenly matched, Twister." Wally, I need a big one! A large tornado is generated and sent towards Twister.

"No, we are not." He emphasizes his point by creating a concentrated blast of air and shoots several bolts of lightning. 'Red Tornado is down' while M'gann sends a message of Get ready! "Now, remain still android." Four plugs that used to be his fingers are sent to the head of 'Tornado'. "The reprogramming won't take long."

Now! Red Tornado's head becomes Miss Martian's, who snarkily replies "Longer than you may think."

"No." is all Twister can manage before he is sent back by telekinesis and pushed into Kid Flash's tornado. The tornado sends Twister into Superboy, who punches him in the kidney area. I then transform into Construct, stretching my arms to grab Twister by the knees and mash him into the ground back and forth several times before throwing him into the water, where Aqualad awaits. An explosion happens, sending a quite literally disarmed Twister back to us, where Miss Martian rips off his other arm. Robin ends the fight by impaling two bladed discs into his chest that explode after a short while.

Twister rises to his knees, only to see us walk up to him like the second coming of the Justice League. The android's chest opens and a fortyish brownhaired man in a green suit climbs out. "Foul, I call foul." Seeing the fight is over, I hit the Omnitrix and detransform back to human.

Before anybody can do anything else, Miss Martian telekinetically lifts a rock and crushes the man with it. We all look at her in shock, with Robin yelling out "Don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth we don't execute our captives!"

"Relax, I know what I'm doing." Miss Martian then lifts the rock in response and the man is shown to be another android, with circuitry and wires on the ground. "That's why I couldn't read his mind."

Kid Fla-Wally (Mission is definitely over now, so civilian names now) takes one look at the remains and picks an eye off the corpse. "Cool. Souvenir."

I take one look at Wally and ask "Wouldn't trophy be a better term?"

He ponders it over. "Yeah, you're right."

Kaldur walks up to me and says "If we ever decide to vote for leader, I recommend you for the role."

A grumble of "Like you'll ever be one." from Robin catches my ears, which I shelve for now.

"No thanks, I don't want to deal with managing you lot full time. I get enough stress from just being a hero. Besides, I'm literally not allowed to be the leader. Now then, let's get these robotic messes somewhere more secure."

Connor walks up to me. "I have a question to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"Why didn't you just use Solarion to destroy the robot?"

"Because relying on one form would be detrimental to my growth. There's over a million DNA samples in the Omnitrix and they all have purpose. Every single one of them. To deny them their chances to shine would be harmful for both them and me."

Just as I finish saying that, the Bioship drops its camoflauge and opens a hole in its bottom. M'gann lifts the pilot robot up into the bioship with her telekinesis, flying with it as it rises into the ship. The rest of us jump up into the ship and pick our seats.

As the hole closes, a table is formed and the remains of the robot is placed on it.

Wally scratches his neck. "So, uhh, does anybody know what happened?"

Kaldur looks at the remains. "I assume that Mister Twister and its 'pilot' were designed to find Red Tornado and reprogram him for unknown reasons."

I fidget around with my fingers. "But there's something more to this. I'm not sure what, but I have a feeling that whoever's behind this will return with a vengeance."

Robin nods his head in an agreeing motion. "Right, so if we scan this technology, then we can get an idea on what to do."

"That's what I was thinking."

M'gann clears her throat. "Alright, we're here."

As the bioship lands inside the hangar, the seatbelts unfasten and the door opens. M'gann lifts the robot telepathically into the mission room and places it down on the floor.

Without any prompting, a scanning table pops up and begins scanning to remains. As expected, Wally asks M'gann "How did you know that was there?"

"I live here, silly!"

"Right."

When the computer finishes scanning the remains, I turn into Brainstorm to decipher the readings. As the ego change finishes, I glance at the results. Apparently, there was an audiovisual transmitter/reciever combo that ceased operations several minutes ago. Other than that, there is nothing of major concern within the detritus. The scans themselves reveal that the automaton was manufactured using high-end parts that are untraceable. Created from scratch using raw materials?

"Is something the matter, Ezekial?" Kaldur asks.

I respond in Brainstorm's scottish accent. "This automaton raises more queries than solutions. Who manufactured it? Do they have access to Morrow's work? Where was the transmitter sending a signal to? Why was Tornado the target? Was Twister a prototype? Are there more out there?"

This time, Wally speaks up. "Can't you figure out who it is based on the info?"

"Unfortunately, my deductions require facts behind them. The deductions based on the automaton only gives me enough information to create a background that could be applied to a few hundred mad scientists in the best case scenario, and several thousand in the worst case scenario. We need to wait for another attack by the same perpetrator in order to get more useful data, but that is months away if said perpetrator is smart enough to avow the adversity he is generating."

"Sooo...Who's going to inform Red Tornado?"

"I shall. I have made the observations, so it is only fitting that I should report them to our supervisor."

"Supervisior?"

"Would you prefer 'babysitter' to refer to Red Tornado?"

"Supervisor it is then."

With a quick press of the buttons, I summon Red Tornado. "There. I have sent a signal to muster Red Tornado to our place of arrival."

The shuffle of feet in a specific pattern informs me that Robin is moving closer to me and is about to make questions, doubtless about my remarks with at least one butchering of the english language.

"So, how are we going to preflex this mastermind?"

"Did you not hear my previous discussion of the topic? We cannot. There are far too many variables in this situation to gain anything that can actually identify this mastermind. Had M'gann not smashed the automaton with a rock, I would have used facial recognition software to narrow down the list of potential subjects."

M'gann rubs the back of her neck, deep in thought. "Sorry about that."

"It is okay for now. Next time, please do not ruin any androids beyond repairs and forensic detective work."

It's at this point the mysterious hatch above us opens and Red Tornado glides down using a self-generated ruby tornado. "What requires my attention?"

"Our assailant and the truth behind Mister Twister."

"Explain."

"Of course. Would you like it to be as brief and sufferable as possible?"

"Preferrably so."

With that, I detransform back into human. "Sorry about that. All Cerebrocrustaceans-that's Brainstorm's species-have narcissism issues, a need to use long words, and a lack of restraint when it comes to talking. Now, where was I?"

"You were going to give me a summary on the truth of Mister Twister."

"Ah yes. Mister Twister is in fact, a mechanical suit with wind manipulation and electricity generation capabilites piloted by a remote controlled android. As far as I can tell, the main goal is to locate and reprogram you for some nefarious purpose. Unfortunately, due to the parts here being custom made from raw materials, as well as the fact that mad scientists are a dime a dozen nowadays, we can't narrow it down to anything less than a few hundred people in the best case scenario. As much as I loathe to say it, we need another attack to get more useful information and said attack won't happen until a few months from now."

"I see."

Connor steps up to Tornado. "So you didn't show up to help because you were afraid?"

"No. This was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you, nor should you solve mine for me."

Kaldur steps up to our supervisor. "But you were targeted."

"That is a risk of being a member of the Justice League. I shall file this in an incident report. You should consider this matter closed." With that, Red Tornado walks away into the Zeta tube.

"Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter. They'd all have jumped in to fix things."

"Guess if we're going to have a bab-supervisor, a heartless machine is exactly what we need." And with that, Robin scowls.

"Dude, harsh!" Wally chides Robin.

"And inaccurate." Red Tornado stops and turns at us. "I do have a heart. It is made of carbon-steel alloy. I also have excellent hearing."

Robin forces a nervous chuckle. "Right. I'll strive to be more accurate."

I put my hand on Robin's shoulder. "And more respectful."

As everybody all walks to the showers, Wally voices his thoughts on something I'm unaware of. "Speedy was wrong. This whole team thing…"

"Might just work out." Kaldur finishes for him.

A/N: Here is a list of the Alien Names:

Upgrade

CheMystery (Gutrot)

Spidermonkey

Greenhouse (Blossomed Swampfire)

Brainstorm

Construct (Bloxx)

Fastcat (Fasttrack)

Shockhenge (Shock Rock)

Oceania (Overflow)

Xenowolf (Benwolf/Blizwolfer)

Solarion (Kryptonian)

[REDACTED] (Martian)

Hawkdown (Thanagarian)