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Gotham City
July 4th; 12:00 EDT
As people enjoy their Fourth of July, many run in fear as blue beams freeze them solid, one by one. Mr. Freeze then expands a cliff's ledge with ice before standing on it, questioning the opposing family.
"Enjoying family time?" He asks, rhetorically. "My family. . . Has other plans."
As he freezes the next family and moves on, attempting to shoot more ice, a Batarang throws off his aim, leading Freeze to remark,
"Batman. I was wondering when—"
"Save it," I demand of him in the most badass, deep voice I could muster. Batman would be jealous. Anyway, I hit our ice-cold criminal with a point-blank pressure blast. He skidded back, almost falling at my daunting display of dominance.
A bunch of laughter ensues, and a black shadow which reveals itself to be Robin descends. He then cracks the helmet of Mr. Freeze with a couple of batarangs.
"Just who are you two? Rather, this one?" He asks, clearly referring to me.
"Rocky," I smirk, ignoring that Freeze called me irrelevant. "Sun. Now, Robin, don't'cha think we should get going?"
"I'm underwhelmed." He monotonously says, getting up and aiming his gun at Robin. "They sent the Boy Wonder and the Steaming Fist. Oh, and must kids be in such a rush?"
"I believe he was talking to me," Robin interjects. As Mr. Freeze looks ever confused, Robin points behind him, and Batman slugs the mess out of Freeze, cracking his helmet.
"Hey, Robin, I'm gonna go get the others, yeah?" I confirm with him. He nods, and I teleport.
Star City Main Bridge
July 4th; 9:01 PDT
Icicle Junior ices the bridge and creates a shell of ice. Maniacally, he laughs, as cars become displaced and arrows rain down on him.
Five arrows— three green, two red— rain down before a green one knocks him down and a couple more explosive arrows do him in for a bit.
Green Arrow and Speedy rain arrows down on him. I appear not too long after and laugh at the spectacle in front of me.
"Hah! Local superheroes giving you the cold shoulder?" I cackle.
Ignoring me for some reason, Junior fires countless icicles at the two that well-timed arrows explode.
As Junior continues firing more ice, I clock him with a fiery punch to the chest, and an ax kick to his stupid face.
Speedy and Green Arrow leap down the bridge, descending as more and more of it becomes ice. With a clever shot, Speedy socks Junior in the face with an arrow.
"Hah. The kid had a glass jaw." Green arrow jokes.
"Speedy," I say. Almost instantly he replies, "Can we go now? Today's the day."
I then depart for the next person.
Pearl Harbor
July 4th; 6:02 HST
As Aquaman and Aqualad battle Killer Frost on top of a battleship, she catches the former and freezes him from the neck down. Aqualad leaps in front of him, allowing Aquaman to escape the ice as I appear.
"Don't tell me you aren't excited." He begins.
Aqualad, probably the best-looking Atlantean I've seen, replies, "Right now, my king, I am more focused on the matter at hand."
Aqualad then dodges three ice shots. "Your aim is… shocking. Shockingly bad." I add.
He jumps into the air, taking out his Water bearers as his tattoos glow a bright blue hue. Aqualad brings them down on Frost in mid-air which interrupts her beam of ice. He lands, then boom! He smashes the ice on her jaw in an uppercut. Aquaman crosses his arms a few feet away from his partner. "Well?" "Yes. I'm excited." Aqualad relents. I smile at him, and I didn't have to help this time. Next!
Pearl Harbor
July 4th; 6:02 HST
In the middle of two speedsters, Flash and Kid Flash, Captain Cold held a briefcase closely and his freeze gun in his other hand. "Stealing Ice? Isn't that a bit Cliche, even for him?" "Come on, we don't have time for this." Kid Flash replies. With a lucky shot, Kid Flash gets sniped in the shoulder, so he takes Cold's gun from him really fast. Flash then slugs Cold across the face, doing him in. "Calm down, Kid." "Oh please! You'll chat it up with the cops, bystanders, and even Cold!" Kid Flash starts. "You tell 'em!" I instigate. The two suddenly look at me, curiously. In response, I sit down on top of Cold and stare back at the two. "Like I was saying, no way! Today is the day!" Kid Flash continues, his emerald eyes opened wide, with an equally wide smile on his face.
Shoot. Did I forget the part about why I'm here of all places? Welp.
Casanova Port
February 21st; 20:73 EST
Pink and black boxes, scattered everywhere, were all around me and were everything I'd seen for a good mile. Miles? Kilometers? I don't know, and I don't care. I've been conscious for more than a day at this point, which is bonkers, and—and—this is WORSE than death!
I can't help but smile. All of it is so poetic, so right, but if only things had gone differently.
Oh– oh? I took my mind off of the boxes, my existence, and all that other jazz for just a minute. And, in front of me stood a wall of red flames.
All of a sudden, a sharp and painful voice pounded at me. "You want to go home? Well, I'm here to tell you that I cannot do that for you." "Okay, gre– You can't?" I asked him, ignoring the fact this firewall could probably read my mind. "Who even are you to stop me from getting home? Huh, you... you bitch."
"I am a firewall. I am omniscient, I protect all from entering the main, and I know all about you." It spoke. "How about a deal? Hmm?"
"I thought you said you couldn't do anything for me?" I eyed him with skepticism.
"...I know you wish to leave this place. If you do not leave this place in precisely 5 minutes, I will be automatically forced to rid this place of you. Even if this deal does not work out later, it will buy you precious time."
"Aaaaah." I smiled, for the first time in forever. "I think I'm picking up what you're putting down."
Like magic, this wall opened up a hatch to my left.
"You will like this place. It is fit for you, and you will blend in here. You will be safe." And without another word, I entered the hatch. Not like I had any other choice.
Washington D.C.
July 4th; 14:00 EDT
"Stand down, or. . ." I hear Aquaman say. "-Or what? You'll send me to my room?" Speedy objects. "I'm not your son!" He snaps, "I'm not even his! I thought I was his partner, but not anymore." He concludes, throwing his hat to the ground and walking out. "Guess they're right about you four. You're not ready." He finally concludes. For real this time. As I open my mouth for the best one-liner in history, the alarm blares on the supercomputer. "Superman to Justice League. There has been an explosion at Project Cadmus, and it's on fire."
"I've suspected Cadmus," Batman replies. The five "real" superheroes turn to the computer screen. He's cut off when Zatara activates a distress call. A smaller image of him appears in the screen's left corner.
"Zatara to Justice League, the sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Attan to blot out the sun. Requesting full League response.
"Superman?" Batman inquires.
Big Blue further explains, "It's a small fire. Local authorities have it under control."
"Cadmus can wait, then," Batman agrees. He presses a button on the computer and announces, "All leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates. Batman out."
The four of us step up in hopes of possibly, just maybe going along with everyone.
"Stay put," Batman says.
"Ugggghhhhh, why?" I groan.
"This is a League mission."
Flash adds, "You're not trained. Not to work as part of this team."
"There will be more missions. . . when you're ready," Aquaman also adds.
I mumbled something under my breath with a classic teenage eye-roll. "What?" Aquaman asks, almost daring me to repeat myself.
"You're only sucking up 'cause Batman is rich, dude," I repeat.
"Or maybe, dude, you actually aren't ready," Flash replies. Nope, never, I'd never admit my faults.
Batman glares. "For now, you all stay put," Or maybe he's staring. It's hard to tell when he's masked up.
"Glad you didn't bring you-know-who?" Green Arrow offhandedly asks Martian Manhunter.
"Indeed." He replies. All of them walk away before the door closes.
. . .
"When we're ready?" Kid Flash repeats questioningly. He looks around at everyone before furthering, "How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like- like sidekicks?" He asks, throwing his hands up in pure frustration.
"My mentor, my king, I thought he trusted me," Aqualad looks down.
I add to the conversation, "I don't really have a mentor, but. . . I can relate to the betrayal part."
"Trust?" Kid Flash asks with sarcasm. "They don't even trust us with the basics or the secret space HQ!"
"What else aren't they telling us?" Aqualad asks.
With a sigh, Robin adds, "I have a better question: Why didn't we leave with Speedy?"
"Uh, I'm not gonna follow a douche no matter how right he is. That's pretty lame." I tilt my head to the side curiously.
"What is 'Project Cadmus?'" asks Aqualad.
"Dunno," Robin admits. . . before he grins, walking over to the computer and typing out codes, "I can find out."
I teleport next to him while the other plebeians walk to the big computer.
ACCESS DENIED. The computer speaks. Trying again, Robin scans through files at inhuman speeds. Makes me wonder if he really has no superpowers.
"How the heck're you doing that?" I ask him.
With a smirk, Robin replies, "Same system as the Batcave," as he types out more.
ACCESS GRANTED. The magic computer speaks once more. "Genetics lab, pretty close by." I comment.
"But if Batman's suspicious. . ." Robin begins, turning towards us.
"Maybe we should investigate!" I smile. If a light bulb were to be on top of my head, it would be brighter than the sun.
Aqualad pipes up, "But they said... stay put."
Robin smiles, "For the blotting out-the-sun mission, not this," I add, "As far as they're concerned, this hasn't happened."
Kid Flash starts, "Wait, are you going to Cadmus? Because if you two are going, I'm going." Finally, we all turn to Aqualad with a signature smile on each one of our faces.
"Just like that?" He asks. "We're a team on a mission?"
"Catch me if you can," I chime chaotically. I clasp my palms together. I vanish and reappear at a nearby building... In a couple of seconds, I see Kid Flash's yellow blurs speeding down the city. "That lame fire. . ." I comment, squinting to see ONE lab in flames—just one.