Sunday, December 13th, Metropolis National Zoo, 2pm

The screams of a Steel could be heard from all across the Zoo as the young hero was held in the grasp of a very large, mutated elephant. Whatever had infected the large creature had made it even bigger, stronger, and forced it to grow a thick shell of carapace-like armor all around its body. "Put me down, you big bastard!" He screamed out as the elephant whipped him around with his trunk. The elephant was about to bash him into the ground when an arrow was suddenly shot into the elephants side and exploded, distracting and allowing Steel to squirm out of its grip and get away from the irritated elephant.

"Come on Steel, get it together! Take it out already!" Speedy yelled as he fired off two more arrows that exploded as they collided with the Elephant's armor, doing nothing except make the animal madder.

"Yeah well, I'd like to see you wrestle an elephant!" Steel shot back as he dusted himself off and attempted to once again bring the large animal down. He flew into the back of the elephant's left leg, colliding with the large and armored leg and managing to make it stumble. The walking tank trumpeted angrily and looked back at the tiny human that dared to attack it. Wrapping his arms around the thick leg he started to lift, using all his strength to fly in the air and drag the large seventeen and a half thousand pound elephant with him. He almost dropped it a few times due to the mutant's insistence on moving around, but he managed to keep a tight enough grip on the leg to fly up high enough until Speedy and all the civilians that were desperately trying to escape the zoo turned into ants, and then he let go.

Sunday, December 13th, Metropolis National Zoo, 3:30pm

Steel and Speedy watched as the armed S.T.A.R.S guards loaded the mutant elephant into the back of a large truck. Steel felt bad for the elephant, one of its tusks were broken and the armor that covered its face was cracked, a thick and dark ooze seeped out from the crack, dropping the elephant sure did a number on the poor thing.

"I think I went a little too far there.." Steel mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as the truck drove away. He turned to his left and watched as Superman and Green Arrow handed the mastermind behind the zoo attack to the police, the man was screaming and crying, thrashing in the police officers grasp as they shoved him in the back of the car.

"Don't worry about it. If you hadn't dropped it, it would have kept rampaging. You saved lives." Speedy said, patting the super-powered teen's shoulder.

"Yeah well, I suppose so. What were you and GA doing here in Metropolis anyway?" Steel asked as they walked towards their mentors, who were talking about what was going to happen to all the mutated animals.

"Don't worry about it, I'll tell you later.." Was all speedy said as they walked.

"Three Silverback Gorillas, two Nile Crocodiles, one Grey wolf, an African Elephant and an entire enclosure of Kangaroos. All mutated, possibly permanently. All because his wife left him." Green Arrow sighed, shaking his head.

"S.T.A.R.S will help them. Or they'll make sure the rest of their days are comfortable." Superman stated as he waved to the two sidekicks.

"Steel, great work today. Take the rest of the day off and relax, you earned it."

"That's perfect because Steel and I have plans." Speedy said, leaning against a pile of rubble.

"We do?"

"Yes. We do. Now let's get going, we're already late." Speedy grabbed Steel's arm and began to drag him away from the two adult heroes.

"Don't get into trouble!" Green Arrow shouted as they left the zoo just in time to watch a bunch of news vans arrive out the front of the zoo and entire teams of journalists rush out and mob Superman and Green Arrow.

"Come on, let's get going before they shove a camera in our faces." Speedy said as he fired a grappling hook onto the roof of a nearby building. Steel flew up into the air and met him on the rooftop.

"Can you at least tell me where we're going?" Steel asked as they made their way across the rooftops.

"Star City. There's some people I want you to meet."

Sunday, 13th of December, Star City, 4:00pm

"So where are we going? You said we were late, what are we even late for?" Steel asked as he followed Speedy into an alleyway and behind a dumpster. Speedy looked around the alley to make sure no one had seen them and leaned against a brick wall, smiling at Steel. Steel just scratched the back of his head, still confused at why Speedy had brought him into a dirty alleyway, until it all clicked in his head.

"Look, Speedy… I..I appreciate your interest, but I don't… boys aren't my… I just see you as a friend."

"Shut up and watch." The smug smile on Speedy's face disappeared. Now scowling at the other boy, Speedy pulled one of the bricks out of the wall and revealed some sort of machine with a keypad. Typing on the keypad, Speedy said a few words out loud and put the brick back in the wall. A fraction of the wall began to shake and lower into the ground, revealing a doorway. "After you." Speedy said, smiling again as he looked at Steel's shocked face.

Walking through the doorway, Steel walked through a brightly lit hallway as Speedy walked behind him. "GA has a bunch of these little safehouses spread out throughout the city in case he needs to resupply during a patrol. I decided to use this one to introduce you to a few friends.."

Walking up to another door, Steel opened it and walked into a large room that had everything Green Arrow and Speedy needed. Quivers of arrows were mounted along the walls along with extra bows, a set of new suits, a motorbike and a medbay. Steel was impressed with the room, but what really drew his attention was the group of people standing around a table in the middle of the room. Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad were all staring at him. Steel was left speechless as he approached the table with Speedy.

"You've already met Kid Flash, but let me introduce you to Robin and Aqualad." Speedy began to say before Robin interrupted him.

"Hey, the name's Robin, nice to meet you." The masked hero said, quickly making his way around the table to offer his hand, which Steel shakily shook. He was shaking hands with the boy wonder. The first sidekick. Before he could even talk to Robin, Aqualad was also offering a handshake.

"It is nice to meet you, I am Aqualad, but you may call me Kaldur'ahm if you would like." The soft spoken Atlantean introduced himself to Steel, who audibly guffawed at the fact that Aqualad just gave away his real name.

"You're telling me your real name? Aren't you worried about anyone else finding out?" Steel asked, still shaking Aqualad's hand awkwardly.

"He's Atlantean, so if someone wanted to get to his family they would need a submarine and an army." Kid Flash told Steel before pulling back his mask and showing Steel his face. "My name's Wally by the way," He then pointed at Speedy "and he's Roy. Don't bother asking Robin what his real name is. Batman has forbidden him from telling anyone."

Steel did a double take at Kid Flash, he just exposed his identity to him. Aqualad made sense, he didn't have to worry about anyone on the surface hurting his family. But Kid Flash was a human, with human parents who could be hurt, and he was still telling Steel his public identity.

Speedy, now known to Steel as Roy, glared at Kid Flash until he shut up. "I know it's a little weird, but we're all friends here so we all know each other's public personas, except for Robin's of course. We won't push you to reveal yours if that's what you're worried about."

Aqualad spoke up again, his soft voice put Steel at ease. "Yes, despite Wally's… honesty, we will not force you to reveal anything to us until you are ready to share. We will never force you to reveal anything against your wishes."

Steel rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He hoped Superman wouldn't be angry with what he was about to do. Steel grabbed his mask and pulled it back, showing the collection of sidekicks his face. He hoped they didn't think his nose was too big, or that he was weird for shaving his head. It was a silly thing to be worried about, but he still felt self conscious anyway.

"My name is Arthur… Arthur Stark."

Aqualad once again offered his hand. "It is nice to meet you. Arthur."

Sunday, December 13th, Metropolis City, 7pm

"Well you definitely had a busy day. That elephant didn't leave any bruises, did it?" Arthur's mom, Elizabeth Stark, asked worriedly, looking her son up and down.

"No mom I'm fine, I hurt him a lot more than he hurt me," Arthur said, gently pushing away his mother's hands that were gently running along Arthur's face, seeking any bruises or cuts the elephant might have left. "Mom, seriously, you can stop."

"I can't help it, mothers worries," Elizabeth said before kissing the top of her son's head. "Do you want me to cook you up some quick dinner?"

"No thanks mom, I got some pizza earlier."

"Tsk. Having pizza for dinner everyday isn't healthy, tomorrow you're staying home and I'm going to cook you a proper dinner. Now go have a shower. You smell like an animal."

Groaning, Arthur walked down the hall and into the bathroom.

—-

Another chapter done. Sorry for taking so long with the chapter, and that it isn't very action packed. I wanted to introduce Steel to the rest of the sidekicks. Next chapter I plan on time-skipping a few months, that way we can actually get on with the season 1 plot and introduce Superboy to Steel and the issues they'll have in the future. Thanks for reading. And once again, sorry if this chapter wasn't entertaining. From now on I'm going to try and get at least one chapter done per month.

-GreyThu'um