10 YEARS AGO:
The entire Justice League were all banded together for one purpose. To discuss the figure of their mission, after the death of Oliver Queen, Barry, Peter, and the rest of the team called an emergency meeting for this problem.
Luckily everything was quiet in all of the cities, meaning everyone could make it. Sadly, the Defenders couldn't make it as they had other things to do, but that's fine due to the fact this subject doesn't exactly concern most of them.
"Thank you all for coming." Barry tells his friends and people he's considered family. "We know it's hard to get out of the city. And away from your families."
"Just be glad it was a school day." Peter-38 tells them with a chuckle. "Even then, things have been getting a little crazy."
"Angel's powers surfaced." Kara explained to them. "Freaked everyone out a little."
Peter-1 chuckled at hearing that. "Yeah, the Rogue Squadron have been keeping Crystal and Caitlin busy. Not to mention the newcomer."
"So, what's this about?" Clark asked, crossing his arms. "Why'd you call us in?"
Barry looked over to Peter-1, who nodded in confirmation in what they brought them here for. "We brought you all here to discuss the future of our mission. The mission to save the world."
"Why do I feel like I'm not gonna like where this is heading?" Kate asked, feeling this is gonna be a sadder meeting.
"We had time to discuss this as a team before we thought it was time to spread it amongst all of you." Peter-1 continued for his friend. "We think that after what happened to Oliver that we should have a contingency in place in case it ever happens."
"What 'ever happens'?" Kara asked.
"The day that any of us don't make it back." Barry and Peter-1 stated almost in sync.
"What?" Ralph asked, wanting that clarified.
"We think it's time we put a protocol in place just in case another one of us falls. Like Oliver." Barry explained as they looked back over to the memorial for Oliver. "We know Mia will be ready for the day to come, but we need to be ready for the day the rest of us fall."
"What are you suggesting?" Jefferson asked them.
"We put a protocol with that specific purpose in place." Peter-1 said and looked to them as a father, not a person, not a friend. "A Young Justice Protocol."
"Who exactly would be the candidates?" J'onn asked him.
"We already agreed on Tina and Tommy to be the first candidates." Barry said as he looked over to Peter-1 who nodded. "And I plan on adding Dawn on the list when we confirm she has the Speedforce."
"You want to put our kids on this list?" Peter-38 asked, wanting to make sure he got it clear.
"Well, a few acceptations. Jefferson's kids are a little too old, no offense." Peter-1 said and looked over to Jefferson.
"Nah, no worries." Jefferson promised.
"We want to use all candidates we can. We think that when the day comes, if they show potential, they should become friends. Family. A team." Peter-1 said as he explained the pitch.
"A team made out of the younger members of the older team." Clark sighed and rubbed his head at the thought. "I don't know. The boys aren't really showing off any powers, yet, but that can change any day."
"This isn't an overnight decision, Clark." Barry promised him. "This is a whenever you think you're ready to allow them, or when you think they can take the responsibility."
"Or when one of us falls or hangs up the cape." Peter-1 was sorry to say. "Tommy and Tina are already a better Spider-Duo then I could imagine. But they need more training, and I'm not done with the tights just yet."
"I think Anjelica will be ready." Peter-38 said, getting Kara's attention and a smack on the hand. "Ow! I mean when the time comes, she still needs to learn to stop floating off the dinner table. But when the day comes, she needs to answer the call, I say she'll fit in nicely with the twins and Dawn on a team. A Kryptonian, Spiders, and speedster. Story of our lives."
"We'll talk about this later." Kara muttered, not sure she's comfortable with the idea.
"I say I'll keep an open mind." Clark supposed. "Talk it over with Lois, see what she thinks."
"No problem." Barry assured him with a nod.
"Daniel will be ready. Put him down for spot five." Ralph tells them.
"Well, then its settled." Peter-1 said with a smile as he sat down. "Young Justice will be put into effect but is never to be used until it's absolutely necessary."
"Let's hope at least." Peter-38 muttered, feeling that a day would come that they need this protocol.
Just a gut feeling.
PRESENT DAY, NATIONAL CITY:
The team were all left in distraught after what they just witnessed. Anjelica, the one they came to protect, the one they tried to save, ended up taking the end of a blast from the Phantom Zone projector.
Picking up the members of the Nightmare Crew, Morgan tossed Biogeneral into the pile of criminals.
Banshee laughed as she started to get back up. "You think that-"
Before she could even finish that thought, Peter shot a web that covered her mouth so as to not get hit by one of her screeches again. "I've had enough out of your mouth for a lifetime."
"Brainy, how are we at opening that portal?" J'onn asked as Brainy was working on getting Anjelica back.
Brainy groaned in anger and smacked the side of the Projector in frustration. "The data has been wiped. I don't know if it's recoverable and the projector itself..."
"No, we don't need it." Kara guessed. "We'll just have Lena transmat a portal like she did during Crisis."
"Even if that did work, without the coordinates as to where she was sent to, she could be anywhere in the Phantom Zone." Brainy stated as he showed off a map for just how big the Phantom Zone is.
"We have to get her back." Kara stated.
"And we will." Peter promised as he held her close and looked over to the criminals. "But first let's get our guests to a holding cell."
A breach opened up in the middle of the Ramon household as Armando and Cisco fell through and landed in the middle of the living room.
"Whoo!" Armando cheered as he got up and his suit retracted back into the watch. "Wow, what a day."
"That about sums it up." Cisco groaned as he got up and quickly called in the attack to ARGUS. "Kamilla took the wrong day to take her trip."
"Did that ship look strange to you?" Armando asked, finally calming down after the attack.
"It was an alien ship, they don't have a specific design, so they're always strange." Cisco stated as he finished sending the location.
"No, I mean it looked like it was scorched." Armando explained.
Cisco looked over the photos he took and actually started to see what his son was saying. "You're right, it looks like it was scorched."
"Can their ships survive in extreme heat?" Armando wonders.
"You wouldn't believe." Cisco stated as he knew they needed to take another look at this girl. "I'm gonna call in Superman, see if he can help us track her down."
Triumphant music plays off a bugle before the Daily Bugle showed up on the screens of the people around the world before focusing on Norah.
"Welcome back to the Daily Bugle, where we have world renounced owner of the Personal Artificial Resourceful Kinetics Enhancement Researchers Industries. Dr. Peter Snow-Parker." Norah said as the camera looks over towards Peter who had a smile. "Welcome to the Daily Bugle, Dr. Parker."
"Norah, please, it's Peter." Peter assured her, wanting to keep this casual. "We've known each other since I was in high school."
"Okay, Peter." Norah guessed. "That's something I'd like to talk about first. You actually started off your career right here in these very halls, didn't you?"
"That's right." Peter agreed. "Your photographer."
"Did you ever think back then you'd be where you are today?" Norah asked Peter.
"What? Being put in charge of the company I once worked for?" Peter asked. "No. I never thought it."
"I was actually referring to the rest of your life." Norah explained and continued. "Married, a billionaire, two genius inventor kids."
"Nope." Peter admitted. "I never had the best luck with relationships back then."
Norah raised her brow and chuckled. "I really doubt that. I mean, you once got the number of a famous actress because she thought you were cute. What was her name?"
"Honestly, I forgot about her." Peter admitted. "I have eyes for one girl. And I know if I ever get eyes on someone else, my wife will set me straight."
"Sounds like you're afraid of her." Norah noticed.
"You don't know terror until you meet an angry Caitlin Snow." Peter stated, remembering the birth of the twins and how she almost froze his hand.
In the other room, Joseph was waiting as Patty walked over to talk to him. "Mr. Carver?"
Joseph turned to face her and straightened out his suit. "Joseph, please, detective. What can I do for you?"
"We'll, it has been brought to my attention by an anonymous source that has proven that you had a dangerous photon rifle was stolen last fall and is now in the hands of a secret organization linked to terrorist, kidnapping, illegal arms deals, and murder."
Joseph didn't seem phased at this and noticed that the interview would be a while as Norah was talking to Peter about the projects that P.A.R.K.E.R. Industries is currently developing.
"Your source is Gene Huskk, isn't it?" Joseph asked and Patty didn't answer. "I understand you want to protect him, but there's something you should know about him. Someone did infiltrate the R division here at McCulloch, but it wasn't a secret organization. It was someone over at Obsidian Tech trying to steal one of our prototypes, but Huskk couldn't accept that. He became convinced there was a conspiracy, became troubled, started scaring the others. I had to let him go. But it's being dealt with, as we finished the investigation and are getting a new security system. Cameras, badges, there's no conspiracy."
Patty took notes on everything he said and knew she needed to run a background check to make sure he's telling the truth.
"Thank you for your time." Patty said as someone came up and called Joseph in as it's time for the back-and-forth between the two.
In a secret holding facility, a place called Ravencroft, two special subjects were being held. One was a familiar face of a forgotten timeline.
August Heart.
He gained powers by accident back when the Speedforce took Barry prisoner. But he was taken as he was seen as too unstable for the outside world.
Looking at the newspaper, August was shocked to learn that his brother, Jorge Heart, was murdered by Ultraviolet who's working for the secret facility Black Hole.
Anger building up inside of him, August was starting to absorb the kinetic energy in his body. As soon as he blasted off the energy, it short circuited the entire place.
The guards raced off to take down the Speedster before he regained enough of his speed in order to escape. But by the time they reached his cell, he sped through them, white lightning that tore through the facility.
And I mean literally tearing through it.
August sped through the facility, slitting everyone's throats before speeding through the facility through the other people who are inside, including the inmates that also had the Speedforce.
All the people were killed, all but one of them that was ready to shoot August when he was stabbed in the back by an ice pick. Crying in pain, the guard fell down as the secondary powerful inmate was standing over him.
Louise Lincoln.
"Please. Don't hurt me." The guard pleaded as he backed away.
"Hurt you? I just wanna give you a kiss." Lincoln stated as she reached down and grabbed the guard before using her power to absorb the heat out of him.
August Heart looked surprise as he was now dressed in his own Speedster outfit being all white and golden. Well, there was the blood on the gloves...
"What do you say we get out of here, big boy?" Louise asked him.
"What do you get out of this?" August asked.
"Other than getting the hell out of here?" Louise asked back. "Call me Killer Frost. What do I call you?"
"Call me...GODSPEED." August demanded.
Patty was back in her office and looking over the wall of everything McCulloch Technologies has told her about, and she was seeing there were a lot more dots connecting. Looking into Obsidian, they denied anything to do with the break in, which was expected even if it was the truth.
"There's something that we're missing here." Patty said as Cecile senses something was off.
"Patty, somethings wrong." Patty warned them. "Everyone down!" She cried as Patty ducked just as a projectile came through and embedded into the wall.
Outside, the shooter revealed to have no weapon. At least none that was being held. The photon riffle was in fact attached to the shooter.
The shooter herself being a young girl who has holographic technology covering half of her face as beneath it is nothing but a steel plate. Half of her face is gone, and her entire left arm was nothing but a giant cannon.
Patty reached into her pocket and used the distress call for backup.
A few more shots fired later, the assassin got off the ground and started to sneak away when a flash of yellow and red lightning came in and was met with Dawn.
"Whoa." Dawn said in shock at what she was seeing. She definitely wasn't expecting the shooter to be someone around her own age. Not to mention one with half a robot body. "Who the hell are you?"
The girl loomed down in sadness as Dawn noticed the Black Hole logo imbedded in her cannon. "Death Locket." She introduced herself before shooting the ground to make a smokescreen.
Dawn raced over to it, but by the time she reached it the girl was gone. "Oh, come on."
Anjelica was still in the Phantom Zone and was having words with Zor-El, her grandfather who looked old enough to be her actual father.
"My daughter alive, my wife alive...and I have a granddaughter." Zor-El tried to wrap his head around it all as he was facing out of the cave that they were currently in. "It's more than I ever dared hope for."
"Yeah." Anjelica said, trying to figure out what to do or say. "Argo survived, because of your sacrifice." She then looked around, questioning how exactly he ended up here. "But how'd you end up on the Phantom Zone?"
"When I stayed on Krypton to activate Argo's shields, I knew there was no way I'd get off the planet in time." Zor-El explained to her how it all happened. "Sending myself here was a last-ditch attempt to save my life. A terrible mistake. There are things worse than death."
"This place is nothing like my mother's stories." Anjelica muttered. "It's worse than she could have ever made it out to be."
"Indeed. From the safety of her pod, your mother never had to face the Phantoms." Zor-El stated. "Luckily I got to you just as you arrived."
"There has to be a way out of here." Anjelica stated as she got up and looked around the cave. "Mom once told me about a place called Fort Rozz, it was rooted in space above the rocks by an anchor. The guards would come and go from a portal. Is there a way to get there?"
"To try would only invite the Phantoms' wrath." Zor-El warns Anjelica. "But if we do not provoke them, they will leave us be. We are trapped here forever. We will never die, but we may yet survive."
Anjelica looked shocked at him, but then again, he has been stuck here for at least over three decades.
"We have some work to do." Anjelica could tell, knowing if they're gonna get out, she needs to get his spirits back.
In the hospital, Maggie was back in her bed and was wondering what was happening to her when a few doctors walked in.
"What's going on?" Maggie asked, not understanding why there were so many doctors in her room.
Looking closely, she looked and saw one of them was wearing a pin with what looked to be a black hole.
Becoming afraid, her body started to recognize the threat and the lights of the room immediately went out. And as soon as they came back on, Maggie was gone.
"Where'd she go?" One of the doctors asked.
"Who cares? Find her!" One of the others say and they all went looking to see where she could've gotten to.
What they didn't realize was that Maggie didn't even go anywhere. She was still laying on her bed, but somehow camouflaged so she was blending in with the bed.
As she was still invisible to them all, Maggie started to make her way out of the hospital as to not get attacked or jumped by those people. Luckily, she was in the human registered wing of the hospital, there being another one for specifically trained doctors to deal with Metahumans. Meaning she could sneak out without being spotted.
Once she made it out of the hospital, she sneaked down an alleyway and she went back to normal.
"What? How? What's happening?" Maggie asked, no idea how this is possible. But then as soon as she reached the street, she started to see through people's skin and started to see their DNA, just as she did with her father.
Somehow, it was like her head was being filled with the knowledge of what exactly she was doing. She somehow seems to have gained their DNA to the point she could become these people. Looking down at herself, she noticed she transformed into several different people in the matter of seconds.
Looking over to the wall, she saw a salamander scattering through the city before crawling up the side of the wall. Looking down at her hands, she didn't see anything, but an idea brought to her mind.
She walked up to the side of a building and placed her hand on the side. Taking a deep breath, she reached higher and stocked her second hand against it.
Then slowly, as of afraid the ability will vanish, Maggie started to crawl up the side of the wall like it was nothing. Looking down, she saw she was already halfway up the building.
That's also when a passerby kid took notice of her. "Mom, look, it's Spider-Girl! On the building!"
Maggie then quickly turned invisible before the mother noticed her. "Gotta be more careful with this." She muttered to herself before she climbed up the wall and made it to the top. "This is something else."
After school, Aster was feeling a little better. He has finally stopped allowing his brain to tell him what to do, and he learned by ignoring the voice it goes away. Sort of like a sibling that's looking for attention.
"You know this whole ignoring me thing isn't going to end well for either of us." The voice in his head informed him.
"Well, it's working out great for me." Aster stated just when he was hit in the face by a fist, sending him toppling.
"OW! What the hell was that?" Aster and his voice asked simultaneously as they looked up and it was Karl.
"Great, this asshole is back." His voice stated with a sigh.
"Hey there, loser. I've seen you hanging with my girl. What's that about?" Karl asked him.
"Was there something wrong with just asking me?" Aster asked as he wiped his face and saw his nose was bleeding.
"Let me kill this guy." His voice pleaded.
"Shut up." Aster begged of him.
But it seemed Karl assumed that was meant for him as he kicked a down man. Aster cried in pain as he held his stomach.
"What? You got eyes on my girl, freak?" Karl asked.
"Maybe I should keep my mouth shut."
"That's the first intelligent thing you've ever said since we met." Aster stated. Yet again, Karl thought that was meant for him.
Aster's eyes then started to glow white, and frost started to come off his fingertips. Karl then kicked him again and picked him up by the shirt when someone finally intervened. "Karl!"
The two (three) of them looked over to where the call came from, causing Aster's eyes and hair to return to normal. The person who called out was none other than Carrie, who easily could deduce what happened between the two of them.
"You know, this girl's growing on me. She has balls."
"Will you shut up?" Aster pleaded to the voice in him as Carrie walked over and pushed Karl, dropping Aster.
"Are you okay?" Carrie asked him.
"A little banged up, but I'll live." Aster promised.
"Good." Carrie said and started to pull him away before turning to Karl. "We'll talk later."
When the two of them left, one person was left above the fight. Tina was watching over it all and looked over to the person who hurt her brother. Her entire head started to turn to white, and her breath became visible as her eyes glowed with hatred.
Tina was out for blood.
The two then walked off and Carrie brought Aster to a store where she bought a small bag of ice and handed it to him.
"This will help." Carrie said as she placed it to his cheek, causing Aster to flinch. "Sorry. It's cold."
"No, you're good." Aster said as he took the ice and placed it against his skin. "It's not cold as much as hurts."
"What? The cold does not bother you?" Carrie asked, earning a chuckle from Aster and a groan from his voice.
"That was terrible."
"Clever." Aster said with a sincere smile.
The two of them sat in silence, a little weird bit of a situation for the two of them. Aster had no idea what he's supposed to do as he never been alone with a girl like this before.
"Well, I'm gonna go and yell at Karl for breaking his promise." Carrie said as she stood up. "Need a partner to get you home?"
"Say yes!" He pleaded in Aster's head.
"No, I'll be able to make it back by myself." Aster promised.
"Come on! When have I ever asked for anything?"
"I'll remind you later." Aster muttered as Carrie was writing something down and handed it over to him. "What's this?"
"My number, just in case you need it." Carrie said as she walked off in anger.
"I really like her." He stated and Aster had to admit she's cool.
The Kryptonian that fought Cisco and Armando was currently in a school playground and walked up to one of the kids before picking her up. She was hidden from the world by giving herself the name of Karen Starr.
"What's your name?" She asked her. The girl was scared when Karen sighed. "I'm not gonna hurt you."
"Karen." She answered just as Clark flew down and scooped her up before getting her somewhere else.
"What the hell?!" Karen asked in shock and turned to see Superman. "What? Who the hell are you?"
"Who are you?" Clark asked.
"Why do you wear the crest of my house?" Karen asked and looked to the House of El.
Clark looked very confused and feels their questions are raising every second. "Wait, what's your name?"
"My name is Kara Jor-El." She introduced herself, surprising Clark as this means she's supposed to be from his family.
"Wait, what?" Clark asked.
"I'm Kal-El." Clark informed her, no idea what to even think anymore.
He didn't even realize that Karen was also thinking the same thing after hearing that. "But...that means that you're from my house."
"Yeah, it seems that way." Clark confirmed. "You're from Krypton? How old were you when it exploded?"
"Old?" Karen asked in confusion. "Didn't it just happen?"
Clark then became even more shocked as this girl says that she was there when Krypton died almost fifty years ago, and to her it just happened.
"I think that you should come with me, so that we could start from the beginning." Clark said as he held his hand out for her so that everyone can get the answers that they're all after.
Mickey Facchinello as Rebecca Ryker / Death Locket