Roberta was currently outside of the farmhouse, throwing her shield at trees a distance away. With everyone else trying to get settled in, she was trying to find some peace and quiet after everything.
"An odd summer, huh?" Anjelica asked as she came out and caught the shield. "From besties to teammates, then ending with being the only defense against an alien invasion."
"Yeah." Roberta sighed. "Difficult telling my parents I'm on a camping trip I never told them about."
"Didn't tell them what was really happening?" Anjelica was surprised to hear as she tossed the shield.
"Well, I went from a regular girl to a super-soldier experiment, followed up by the new Captain America," Roberta said as she caught the shield on its way back. "And I never even told them any of that."
"Lieutenant Americana." Anjelica reminded her as she caught the shield again. "These legacies are...complicated, to say the least."
Roberta then looked down at the shield as Anjelica tossed it again. "When I took up this mantle, I figured it'd be a small-time thing." Then she caught the shield again. "But I think this has become bigger than we could've imagined."
"Yeah, I figured," Anjelica admitted as she looked down at the shield. "But I have to admit, I have had a lot of fun having my best friend by my side this past time."
"I've had a blast kicking a lot of asses," Roberta admitted as she threw the shield. "Keeping the city safe. Being by my best friend's side. You're the closest thing that I've got to a sister."
Anjelica smiled and caught the shield, handing it over to Roberta. "For the longest time, Roberta, you've been a sister to me." She then took her shield back and placed it on her sleeve. "But right now, we need to be on the same side. The world is at stake. My parents are gone." She then started to tear up at the thought. "And they might be dead. My siblings might never get to know their parents."
Roberta placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and patted it. "Hey. Your parents are the most powerful couple in the galaxy. Literally and metaphorically." Anjelica smiled and chuckle at her friend's attempt at humor. "They're waiting for you to save the day. I just know it."
Back inside, Ronnie was taking in everything that he was just told. Dead for over a decade, and is now being told everyone he knew was married and had teenage kids.
"So...you and Peter got married?" Ronnie asked, looking at Caitlin.
"Yes," Caitlin confirmed, trying to ease him into this as best she could.
"And you have...how many kids?" Ronnie wanted to clarify.
"Technically, six. Depending on how you look at it." Caitlin admitted, needing to take a moment mentally to count the kids. "Because only two of them are biologically mine."
"How does that work?" Ronnie asked, wanting her to explain it further.
"Frankie was adopted by Peter before we got married," Caitlin explained and gestured to Frankie, who was in the kitchen with Miles, making food. "She came from terrible foster homes, and Peter felt bad and responsible for her. And honestly, we all had a soft spot for her. Peter took her in, then when we got married, the twins came."
Looking over to the twins, Tommy and Tina were looking around the room, feeling something was off. They felt there was something off with all of this. The place was too clean for somewhere that's been abandoned for years.
There wasn't a bug in the house, and the strangest thing of all...someone definitely was eating on the coffee table. Not to mention the television was warm. Meaning someone was using it. And there were still dishes in the sink when they got here.
"We're not alone," Tina whispered to Tommy.
"Someone is here." Tommy agreed with her.
Upstairs, April was looking around the house. Seeing there were a bunch of empty rooms, all looking almost exactly the same as one another. All except for one room.
When she opened one of the doors, she saw an entire bedroom setup. She looked around and saw that a few posters were hanging. One of them was a poster for a singer named Dazzler. Another for a movie poster on Indiana Jones. There was even a three-screen monitor computer setup with a holographic keyboard.
That was something new that their father had just put out in the past three months. Right before she could ask what this could mean, she was punched, sent flying out the window, and landed near Mia and Terry, who were talking.
"Whoa, April, what happened?" Mia asked, running over to help her up.
"What the hell is that?!" April asked, gesturing to the android as she came flying out the window and looking around at them.
"What the hell?" Mia asked, taking out her bow and shooting an arrow at it.
But the figure only became see-through, and the arrow only hit the side of the house. Before she could react and shoot again, the robotic figure saw this as an attack and reacted. Speeding over to Mia, she pushed her into a tree.
Terry reacted by forming a Batarang and tossing it at the attacker But that only scratched her shirt and didn't even pierce her skin. Smacking the Batarang off her, she punched Terry and took him down quickly.
April shot out webbing from her as the Symbiote starts to form her suit, using it to wrap her up. But the android only ended up ripping free from her webs and grabbed onto her stream. Using it against her, she pulled April and tossed her into the wall, leaving a dent behind.
"What the hell?" Tommy and Tina asked, running out to see the android turning to face them.
Hearing the destruction, everyone went into action and was shocked at what they were seeing. Maggie currently left with Cisco to go into town and get some food and supplies they'll need for a few days, so she was the only one who was missing. This person was a sight unfamiliar to all of them and seemed to be attacking their friends.
"Think it's one of Brainiac's?" Cessily asks her friends.
"I say we capture it, then we question it." Sub-Zero stated as he sent a giant blast of ice at it.
But to all of their surprise, its skin turned to a steel-like substance and took the blast of ice head-on. Working fast, Anjelica and Karen went in speeding at her. But then the two of them got backhanded and tossed into the woods. But Anjelica quickly retaliated by shooting a web line and yanking herself back. Landing on her back, Anjelica tried to take her down.
Roberta tossed her shield with all her might, hoping that while the Terminator was focused on tossing her friend around, she could get a hit in. But to her shock, the moment the shield got too close, it manipulated her density again, allowing the shield to pass through her. In the process, it ended up hitting Anjelica and sending her back as she gasped for air.
The shield at least returned to Roberta as she ran in and smacked her in the face with it. But it didn't seem to bother her as she just ended up punching her back. Working fast, Tina and Tommy started to simultaneously shoot webbing and ice to embed her. But then to their surprise, the figure shot out a laser from her head, sending them ducking for cover.
Back inside, Caitlin and Ronnie were still talking, and he feels he finally got a hold of everything that Caitlin has told him. Alex was taking care of the twins, making sure that they were happy and didn't burn the house down with their breath or vision. The Silver Surfer was also meditating on his surfboard. Seems that Brainiac did something to his board, where he got his power from, and he could only help with so much and use so much energy.
"So...Peter not only married you, but a body double of yours named Frost, then had a son with him?" Ronnie clarifies who Aster's parents are.
"Yeah, it wasn't really weird for us considering everything else," Caitlin informed him.
"Speak for yourself," Frankie commented as she walked past and handed them some food. "I had adopted siblings and adopted half-sibling, as well as another one."
"Right," Ronnie remembered what Caitlin said about Ashley. "I can't believe that Peter slept with Black Cat. He's usually strong-willed going against her." But then he remembered all of the times in the past he thought they got together. "Okay, you know what? Forget that."
"Where are the kids anyway?" Caitlin asked, noticing the house is empty.
"I saw them go outside a moment ago," Miles said, gesturing outside. "Guess they wanted to train and get some fresh air."
Halo then flew in and blasted V.I.V.I.A.N. with her yellow blasts as she started to make her density hard enough that it didn't hurt. Tula then charged in, using the hose to conduct water into the shape of a trident, and went in for a strike. Ollie, finally with his Steel Spider suit charged up, flew in and slammed into her stomach to throw her off guard. But that didn't even cause her to flinch.
Cessily then came and wrapped herself around V.I.V.I.A.N. to hold her down. Daniel copied her action, wrapping himself up around her, holding her legs and arms out as well as her head. Armando started to use his gauntlets to try and hold her down with a vibrational frequency to keep her down. Ashley and Sub-Zero just stayed back, neither of them wanting in on the action right now.
Dawn then saw she was the only one who could end this and used the same tactic she used on Death Locket. Speeding up and using Flashtime, she sped her way over to all of them to subdue V.I.V.I.A.N.
But when she got close to the dog pile of heroes, to her shock, V.I.V.I.A.N. turned her eye to face Dawn. Widening her eyes in shock, V.I.V.I.A.N. phased her way out of the heroes and went to punch Dawn. Working fast to get out of the way, Dawn backed away and slammed against a tree.
V.I.V.I.A.N. then came over and started to warm up the laser again. Looking back, she gets an idea and punched the tree, taking a chunk out of it and speeding out of the way. As the tree fell, V.I.V.I.A.N. stood there and watched it happen.
"Did we do it?" Ollie asked as he got back up. "Wasn't so hard."
"Why did you have to say something?" Tula asked.
V.I.V.I.A.N. came walking out and knocked them back down, using her speed to take them down and looking towards Ashley and Sub-Zero. "Last threats detected."
"Threats?" Sub-Zero asked Ashley. "This place was here for us, right?"
"I don't think she knows that." Ashley started to put together as V.I.V.I.A.N. started to float towards them. "He must be a defense for the building." Then she realized Peter would never make something like that and came to a different conclusion. "Aster, get out here!"
"What?" Sub-Zero asked.
"Let him out!" Ashley cried as V.I.V.I.A.N. warmed her laser again.
Zero decided to just do as she said and allowed Aster to take back control. "Oh, great, so I'm the one that's gonna burn alive?!"
But the moment that V.I.V.I.A.N. got a good look at Aster and was shocked. "Father?" She then did a facial recognition scan on him and came up with an ID. "Aster Frost-Parker, son of Peter Parker and Crystal Frost. A member of the Young Justice Protocol. Put in place in case anything happened to the members of the Justice League. The message was sent out to bring the members here." Then she looked back and did facial scans on all of them. "The Young Justice Protocol had been activated." Then she started to understand something happened to her father and lowered herself down to the floor. "Oh god..."
"Wait, are we not fighting anymore?" Ollie asked, wanting to make sure he understands what was happening.
"She didn't want to fight," Ashley explains, seeing that she was just confused. "She thought we were here to hurt her."
"I haven't been in touch with Peter Parker, my father, in the past few days," V.I.V.I.A.N. explains to them. "I worried that something happened and someone would come to hurt me."
Then they watched as she started to morph her whole body until her green hair turned into light brown. Odd thing was that her skin also turned to the same color. Seems that she has some sort of programmed hologram projection on her to hide her robotic skin underneath.
"Does this firm put you all at ease?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asked them.
"Wow," Tommy didn't know what else to say. "What do we do now?"
"You can start by explaining who you are," Tina said, walking and helping April up. "And where you came from."
"That is a logical question," V.I.V.I.A.N. admitted and started to explain everything.
3 YEARS AGO:
Darkness.
That was all that was there.
Then there was light.
Looking into the light, the eyes adjusted to the lights and looked around the room at the two people there. Standing to her right, there was Peter Snow-Parker, who was talking to the person to the left, who is revealed to be Reed Richards.
As they talked, words appeared on her face:
WAKE UP PROTOCOL INITIATED
Vital.Initiative.Visual.Intelligence.Advanced.Network.
As the systems started to come online, her hearing was activated, and she could hear what they were saying.
"I think she's waking up," Reed tells Peter, the two of them stopping their conversation and looking down at her.
"Hi." Peter greeted her, addressing her as you would a child. "My name is Peter. Do you know who you are?"
"I...I don't know." A childish voice muttered in fear.
"It's okay. You're still uploading." Reed assured her as if that was supposed to be a normal statement. "It should come to you in a minute."
V.I.V.I.A.N.
"V.I.V.I.A.N.?" She asks them. "Is that my name?"
Peter smiled, hearing that she indeed knows who she is. "That's right! At least that's a default name. Do you wanna be called that?"
"I...I like it." V.I.V.I.A.N. admitted.
"Alright, V.I.V.I.A.N. Let's get you up," Reed said as they reached down and picked V.I.V.I.A.N. up, revealing that she is only a head and chest.
"What?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asked as she got a good look at herself in the reflection. "I...I thought..."
Then their computers started to flash, and they saw that her system was overloading.
"She is having an emotional breakdown!" Reed called out as he ran over to fix it. "Come on, come on!"
"V.I.V.I.A.N.!" Peter called as he turned her to look at him. "Hey, stay with me."
"We need to reset her right now!" Reed called out to Peter.
"What?" Peter asked him. "She just came online."
"If we don't, her mind will explode and take the system!" Reed explains his decision.
Peter looked over to V.I.V.I.A.N. and sighed. "Do it. She isn't ready."
Reed did just that, and V.I.V.I.A.N. powered back down. The two of them sighed, seeing her brain was functional, but she was literally a child in all definitions of the word.
"We need to get her prepared for the reality." Peter sighed, knowing that it wasn't right to do this to her.
"We'll get her body printed tonight," Reed promises him. "What do we do with her afterward?"
"What she was made to do," Peter said, knowing he can help her understand what she is.
The next time that V.I.V.I.A.N. opened her eyes, she was laying down on the couch of the safehouse. Looking around, she saw that Peter was in the kitchen, making breakfast.
Looking at herself in the mirror now, V.I.V.I.A.N. saw that she was now connected to an entire body. Her entire skin is dark pink or light purple. Her hair went down to her shoulders and was entirely green. Looking closely at her eyes, she saw that she had yellow irises and something in the center of her head. Looking over her clothing, she had on a green sports bra and matching pants.
Removing the blanket from herself, she rolled over and placed her feet on the ground. Lifting herself off of the couch, she tried to take her first steps but ended up slipping and falling on her knees. Catching herself using her hands, she pushed herself back up and tried again.
Getting back on her feet, she took another try at walking. Taking it slow, she started to walk toward the mirror. Once she reached it, she reached out with her hand, watching as her reflection copied her.
"Definitely better than the operating table, right?" Peter asked, causing V.I.V.I.A.N. to jump in shock. He was standing there with a plate of food and a drink in his hands. All he did was smile as V.I.V.I.A.N. walked. "Enjoying your final form?"
"Where...where am I?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asked him.
Peter walked over and placed the food down on the coffee table. "Somewhere I thought it'd be better than the labs. Come over here. You must be hungry."
V.I.V.I.A.N. only realized now that she was indeed hungry and walked back over and sat down to eat.
"Now, I'm sure you have some questions," Peter said as he placed his head in his hands. "Go ahead."
"Who am I?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asked as she looked at her body. "What am I?"
"You're V.I.V.I.A.N. Don't you remember that?" Peter reminded her, thinking back to when she first woke up.
"Oh, yes." V.I.V.I.A.N. took a second to remember that. "V.I.V.I.A.N."
"And to answer your next question, you are a Synthezoid Android." Peter tried his best to explain and poked the light on her head. "Your brain is a multiprocessor computer, which enabled you to wirelessly or directly interact with other computer systems to utilize or extract data from them."
"Why would I want that?" V.I.V.I.A.N. wonders.
"That's what I'm about to explain," Peter assured her as he took his drink. "You were built with the power to protect the world. And with this ability, you can download any information you wish to know."
"So...I'm a weapon?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asks her.
"No." Peter immediately denied that as he took her hand. "You are a living being. A one-of-a-kind being. With a soul and the ability to think on your own."
"I have...a choice?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asks, wanting it clarified.
"You can do whatever you want," Peter assured her. "But you were given powers, in case anything happens."
"Like what?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asks.
"I am a member of the Justice League." Peter started to explain while V.I.V.I.A.N. pulled up all information she had on the team.
"The Justice League. A team created of the most powerful heroes from around the world." V.I.V.I.A.N. heated Peter to the punch. "I have been put on a secondary team known as Protocol Young Justice. A team that was put in place in case anything were to happen to the originals."
Peter confirmed that was indeed what he was gonna say. "Okay, yeah, you're ahead. You are not meant just for that, however."
"Then what is my main purpose?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asks him.
Peter knew this was going to be hard to explain and sighed. "You weren't created with a purpose, V.I.V.I.A.N. You were born to find a purpose."
V.I.V.I.A.N. was confused as to what that meant but was even more shocked when she got a look at the abilities she was given.
Accessing her own head, she got the list of abilities she needs to learn how to properly control.
Vital.Initiative.Visual.Intelligence.Advanced.Network. started coming online.
DOWNLOADING POWER PROFILE:
Density Manipulation
Superhuman Strength
Intangibility
Flight
Solar Radiation Absorption
Computer Brain
Holographic Projection
Camouflage
"Why do I require solar radiation?" V.I.V.I.A.N. was curious to know.
Peter chuckled as he was surprised that was the one that she focused on. "Because your abilities drain your battery power. So, we gave you the ability to absorb solar radiation for a charge, but that you can also use as lasers. Those can be used to either attack enemies or to fix structure damages."
"How do they work?" V.I.V.I.A.N. asks him.
"We need to train," Peter informed her, knowing this was going to take a lot of time and patience. "It'll take some time, but you'll get the hang of them."
As days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, followed by years, Peter would spend most of his day (when he could) with V.I.V.I.A.N., using the breachers to jump back and forth. She was a fast learner and loved to spend time outside and just watch the trees and feel the wind on her face.
She grew her own interests over that time, learned to appreciate the knowledge of the world, learned about the value of living, and just loved her life. When she wished to go out and meet other people, Peter told her she would need to hide her robotic pink skin, as well as the device in her head.
Taking a few days, Vivian created a hologram projection of a human form. Using the same technology Brainy uses to make his human body and skin. Once she designed it, Peter allowed her to leave the house and go anywhere she wished. As long as it was at a speed distance from the house, and she came back at a reasonable hour.
Hey, even an android kid needs boundaries.
That then brings us to today. Where she finally met her (kind of) siblings as well as her new teammates.
Isabela Merced as V.I.V.I.A.N.