She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, developed by ND Stevenson, is property of Mattel Inc. and DreamWorks Studios. Young Justice, developed by Brandon Veitti and Greg Weisman, is property of DC Comics and Warner Bros Entertainment.


STAR CITY

September 16, 17:01 PDT

A stubborn summer heat clung heavily to the city, even this late into what was ostensibly Fall. The afternoon sun continued to sear the world below, raging against its own fate as it was inexorably dragged down to the horizon. The only relief was the cool salt breeze that wafted occasionally over the bustling docks from the shimmering western sea. Though even that came far too infrequently.

This can't be normal, she thought to herself, chugging down the lukewarm dregs of her water bottle. She paused to regard her reflection in the window of the prefabricated security shack that guarded entrance to the pier.

To all outward appearances, she was a slender human woman of indeterminate ethnicity, twentyish or thereabouts. She wore a simple uniform; navy blue cap, dark shades, sky blue short-sleeve shirt, dark grey slacks and glossy black shoes that felt absolutely suffocating on her feet.

About the only thing she wore that didn't conform to the official Bowhunter Security dress code was the small amber pendant hanging from the black choker about her neck.

The reflection was a stranger's.

"Yo, Probie!" a harsh voice rang out across the docks. It belonged to a young man in the same uniform as herself, red hair shorn tight to the scalp. He waved her over with a prosthetic hand.

She sighed, shuffling over.

"Good of you to join us," snarked Roy Harper, Bowhunter Security's resident jerkwad and her immediate superior. He gestured to a man in black by his side. "Blake, this is Daniel Temple. He's representing our client, ARBKO Ltd. Mr. Temple, this is Kat Blake, Bowhunter Security's latest recruit."

"Hey," she replied laconically.

"Charmed." Temple's nose wrinkled in a way that made clear he was anything but. "Mr. Harper, I shouldn't need to impress upon you that ARBKO has a great deal invested in this shipment, more than you could possibly imagine."

He gestured to the large cargo ship currently docked at the pier – the S.S. Buto – currently being loaded with dozens of steel shipping crates.

"Are you certain you can entrust the security of this operation to an… intern?"

He pronounced the word like slur.

"Believe me, Mr. Temple," Roy replied. "What Blake here may lack in the social graces, she more than makes up for in killer instinct."

Temple's eyes narrowed to slits, eying her sceptically. "I should hope so."

"So, where did you say this barge was headed again?" Roy asked casually.

"I didn't, Mr. Harper," Temple turned to take his leave. "Just ensure sure the shipment is loaded aboard and secured before the Buto departs."

"Will do, Mr. Temple," Roy saluted cheerily, waiting until the darkly clad man was out of earshot before turning to his colleague. "Great hustle, Probie. Way to put the client at ease with that friendly customer service."

"Whatever," she scoffed. "He's a creep."

"Of course, Temple's a creep, but that's no excuse for being unprofessional."

"My last job didn't exactly put much stress on politeness."

"Just clear the last truck through the checkpoint," Roy tossed her a clipboard. "The sooner ARBKO gets their junk stowed, the sooner we can call it quitting time."

She caught the clipboard in mid-air. "Fine."

Clearing the trucks wasn't a particularly arduous task. Largely it consisted of verifying the driver's ID and inspecting the seals on the steel crates inside to ensure they were still unbroken. She had no idea what was in the crates. If Roy did, he kept it to himself.

Satisfied, she hopped out of the back of the truck and closed it behind her. All she had to do now was wave the truck through the checkpoint and let the dock workers take over. She was about to do just that when something metallic rolled across the asphalt, clinking against her shoe. She glanced down, eyes going wide.

"GRENADE!"

She jumped clear just as the grenade detonated, blanketing the dock with a cloud of billowing grey smoke that stung the eyes and burned the throat. She fell to her knees, coughing and sputtering until someone forced a gas mask over her face.

"Get your head in the game, Probie!" Roy shouted through his own mask, his prosthetic arm reconfiguring into a taser.

A hulking figure barrelled through the acrid smoke, clad in a tatty oversized grey hoodie. He paused only to tear the side door from the stopped truck with a wrenching metallic screech, before casually ripping the choking driver from their seat and tossing them to the asphalt.

"Stand down!" Roy barked, taking aim with his taser as 'Probie' checked on the driver.

The hulking figure grunted something under his breath, ignoring the order.

"One warning, asshole!"

Roy fired.

Before the hulking figure could squeeze his bulk into the truck's cabs, two taser lines hit him directly in the chest, sending an electric jolt through his massive frame. The figure staggered back in convulsions, snarling as he tore the taser prongs from his chest. He paused to finger the twin pinprick holes of singed fabric left by the weapon.

"Dammit," swore a voice laced with gravel. "This was my last hoodie!"

"Wait a minute, I know that voice…" Roy said. "Brick?"

The figure pulled back his frayed hood to reveal a broad face of dark red granite. Danny 'Brick' Brickwell had once been Star City's premier metahuman crime lord. Not that anyone would guess from the patchy days-old stubble covering his face, or the desperate haggard gleam in his dark eyes.

"Mother of Goat, Brick…" Roy swore, keeping his weapon-arm trained on the dishevelled gangster. "What happened to you, man?"

"'What happened to me'? You have the sheer fucking gall to ask 'WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!?'" Brick bellowed indignantly. "YOU happened to me! You have any idea what getting busted by you goddam rent-a-cops did to my rep?! After I busted outta Belle Reve, nobody on the streets would take me seriously anymore! I'm a joke now! Even the fucking Ten-Eyed-Man is laughing at me! THE TEN-EYED-MAN!" He patted the side of the truck like a starving bear patting a honey pot. "But this ARBKO score is my ticket back to the top!"

"Do you even know what's in that truck?" Roy asked.

"Don't care," Brick answered, edging back towards the truck. "As long as it's expensive."

"More than you can afford!"

Roy's cybernetic arm rapidly shifted into its laser cannon configuration. But not rapid enough to stop Brick snatching up the torn cab door and tossing it like a discus.

"DOWN!"

'Probie' tackled Roy to the ground as the cab door went sailing mere inches over their heads. By the time they both staggered back to their feet, the truck was already screeching down the asphalt.

"Later, rent-a-cops!" Brick laughed heartily, his voice rapidly fading into the distance.

"You good?" 'Probie' asked.

"Yeah, I think so-" Roy inhaled sharply; a shard of metal shrapnel was jammed in the elbow of his prosthetic limb. The cybernetic joint ground and sputtered as he tried to move it. "Well, that's just fucking astrous. No way we're catching him now."

'Probie' glanced at the long block of warehouses to her left. Brick would have to loop around them to reach the open road. She yanked off her tight shoes.

"Maybe not."

She dashed barefoot across the asphalt, shimmying up the warehouse walls with inhuman speed and nimbleness.

"Probie, wait!" Roy cried.

Too late, she'd already disappeared over the roof.

[-]

Working the wheel of the cramped truck cab while making a speedy getaway wasn't easy for someone with Brick's frame, but it would all be worth it. This score would put him back on top; he'd be feared again, respected. The thought warmed his cold heart as he sped recklessly towards the dock exit. All he had to do now was hit the gas, ram through the final checkpoint and he'd be home free.

Something landed on the roof of the cab with a shuddering thud. Brick turned to see the Bowhunter girl's face hanging upside down from the empty doorframe on his left.

"Pull over," she deadpanned, pony-tail whipping in the wind.

"LIKE HELL!"

Brick swerved left, hoping to scrape his unwanted passenger off against the warehouse walls racing past. As his hefty frame tilted with the truck, the girl darted up out of sight. The next thing Brick knew, two bare feet struck him from the right. Caught off guard, the metacrook went sliding out of the cab, tumbling down the cracked asphalt like a runaway boulder.

The truck skidded to a halt at the base of an overhanging crane as a bare foot hit the brakes. The girl hopped lightly from the cab. "Huh, that was surprisingly fun."

"No way…" Brick fumed, clambering to his feet. "Getting busted by glorified rent-a-cops is one thing, but no way in Hell am I'm going down to a goddamn intern!"

The girl scoffed. "Whatcha gonna do about it, big guy, whine me to death?"

"I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, girlie. I'm gonna tear your head off with my BARE HANDS!" Brick charged forward with a roar, his massive meat hooks reaching to follow through on his gruesome threat.

The girl leaped over Brick's head at the last moment. His flailing fingers managed to clasp around the amber pendant hanging from her neck, tearing her choker free as she sailed to safety.

Brick rammed uncontrollably into the base of the crane, bringing the whole structure crashing down on top of him. Unbreakable rocky skin and superhuman durability meant the falling steel wreckage did him no serious injury, but it was enough to pin the already exhausted and sleep-deprived gangster to the concrete.

He weakly raised his head, glaring up at his victorious foe to find her form completely altered. Her skin was covered in a coat of fine orange fur, two pointed ears peeking out from atop her shaggy head. Her long tail flicked back and forth as she glared down at him with contemptuous heterochromatic blue/yellow eyes.

"The Hell are you?" Brick groaned.

"Like you said…" Catra re-secured her cap. "I'm an intern."

[-]

STAR CITY

September 17, 19:11 PDT

Once upon a time, I was falling in love

Now I'm only falling apart

There's nothing I can do

A total eclipse of the heart

Artemis Crock hummed along as Bonnie Tyler belted out the climactic chords of the classic power ballad from a small MP3 player on the kitchen table. She was currently going over the lesson plan for her introductory course on Vietnamese literature, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses balanced on the tip of her nose.

Her concentration was broken by a giggling six-year-old girl racing through the kitchen, chasing what appeared to be a common dark-grey housecat. The cat darted up the fridge, perching atop it like an eagle.

"Lian Nguyen-Harper," Artemis chided her niece. "What did we say about playing tag in the house?"

"It was Melog's idea," Lian pleaded as the seeming housecat pounced, landing on her head with a flop.

Artemis lifted the nonplussed feline from Lian's head, looking them directly in the eye. "And if Melog wanted to jump off a bridge, would you go along with it, hmm?"

Lian shrugged. "If there was a bungee cord."

"Hunnies, we're home!" a voice rang out from the hall.

"Daddy!" Lian squeed with delight, running into the arms of Will Harper.

The Bowhunter Security CEO grunted as he hefted his daughter up in his arms. "Hey, baby-girl!"

Catra came shuffling behind Will, utterly exhausted.

"Someone's been working late," Artemis said, poking a head out of the kitchen to greet her brother-in-law and her protégé. "Take down another meta-crime lord?"

"Not exactly," Will answered.

"Uuugh, Roy made me rewrite my report on the whole Brick mess," Catra groaned, kicking off her shoes and flopping herself down on the couch. "I mean… Why!? He was there!?"

"Proper paperwork is an important part of the job," Will chided. "It can't all be kicking bad guys in the face."

"Kick in the face! Kick in the face!" Lian cheered.

Will side-eyed his daughter. "You worry me, sometimes."

Catra fingered the amber pendent hanging from her neck. "Can I take this off, now?"

"One sec," Artemis drew the curtains as the dying sun finally slipped below the horizon. "Okay, go ahead."

Catra undid the silk choker, dispelling the glamour charm that projected a human appearance about her.

At the same time, Melog's form began to shift and expand as they shook off their own guise. In moments, the tiny grey housecat was replaced by a large pantherish creature with mane of shimmering blue mist.

"Oooh, Catra!" Lian ran up to the Etherian on the sofa with a crayon scrawled page. "I drew a picture of you!"

"Oh, wow, squirt!" Catra examined the abstract scrawls. "It looks totally crash!"

Lian looked unamused. "You're holding it upside down."

"I knew that! That's just how we look at stuff on Etheria cuz… we're aliens!"

"Speaking of Etheria, you know it's almost seven-sixteen right?" Artemis called from the kitchen.

"Oh crud!" Catra immediately leaped from couch, tail rod-stiff as she raced down the hall to the guest room she'd been staying in for the past two months.

"No running in the house!" Artemis cried after her, before dropping into a low mutter. "Seriously, kids these days."

[-]

"C'mon, c'mon…" Catra perched on the edge of her shabbily made bed like a gargoyle, fidgeting with the dials on her Etherian data-pad. The flickering static tinged screen cast a pale green sheen over her anxious face.

The pad had a secure uplink to the sub-space relay on-board the Justice League's orbital Watchtower. It was Catra's only connection back to her distant homeworld. But the vagaries of Earth, the Watchtower and Etheria's relative orbits made optimal windows for two-way sub-space transmissions eclectic at best.

"C'mon, you stupid-"

She was about to smack the pad when the image suddenly resolved into a frowning girl with short-cropped dirty-blond hair and a poufy red jacket.

"Hello?" the blond girl tapped the screen. "You sure this thing is on, Bow?"

"Hey, Adora!" Catra instantly lit up at sight of her girlfriend, the sound of her voice, the way her brow scrunched up when she was worried.

"Oh, hi Catra!" Adora's own face brightened, her warm smile spreading like a new dawn. "I was afraid I missed you!?"

"Not a chance," Catra chortled. "Are you alone or-"

"Heeey, Catra!" Bow beamed, emerging from the left side of the screen.

"Hi, Horde Scum!" Glimmer trilled, her pink-haired head poking in from the other end.

"Hey, Bow! Hey, Sparkles!" Catra greeted the master-archer and Sorceress-Queen with a snorty laugh. "You dorks keeping Adora out of trouble without me?"

"Ah you know how it is," Bow answered. "Still cleaning up the mess left over from that big Apokolips invasion. How about you? How's the whole Earth superhero thing going?"

"Ugh, not so super," Catra groaned, falling back on the bed. "It's all just busy work. 'Probie, file that report', 'Probie, go pick up an extra box of staples', 'Probie, change the filter in the coffee machine'. I'm like a cross between a guard and a janitor." Her eyes went wide in sudden realization. "Oh crap, I sound just like Kyle! Am I the Kyle, now?!"

"Well, just keep at it," Bow said encouragingly. "I'm sure you'll make it work."

"And if not, you can just run away… like you do from everything," Glimmer muttered darkly.

Catra lifted herself from the bed with a frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Why don't we leave Catra and Adora alone, Glimmer," Bow interjected awkwardly, taking his girlfriend aside. "I'm sure you two have a lot to catch up on?"

"Yeah… sure," Catra said.

"Sorry about that," said Adora once Bow and Glimmer had left. "I don't know what's got into Glimmer lately. Must be queen stress or something."

"Nah, it's cool," Catra shrugged. "I guess I can't really complain when somebody gets a little snarky. How about you? You doing okay with… everything?"

Catra didn't have to specify what 'everything' meant. Four months ago, Adora had been abducted by Granny Goodness and taken to the hellish fortress-world of Apokolips. Granny had taken perverse delight in twisting Adora's mind and body into her latest Fury, the dark warrior known as Despara.

With a little help from the heroes of Earth, Catra, Glimmer and Bow had managed to rescue Adora from that nightmare planet and restore her true self. But that still left her a long way from being healed.

"I'm doing good, really," Adora answered wearily. "Bow and Glimmer have been super supportive, and the weekly sub-space sessions with Dr. Quinzel are really helping. I've actually been trying to convince Kara to give it a try but…"

Catra quietly snorted at the image of the brash Kryptonian teen actually sitting through a therapy session. Though admittedly, Catra had only met Kara Zor-El once a handful of times before leaving Etheria.

Kara had been another of Granny Goodness' 'pet projects'. One of the last Kryptonians in the known galaxy, she'd somehow ended up on Apokolips, where she'd been swiftly conscripted into Granny's Furies.

As Adora told it, the younger girl had quickly grafted onto 'Despara' as a kind of surrogate big sister. After Apokolips' attempted invasion of Etheria months ago, Kara had elected to stay in Bright Moon. She had family on Earth but was seemingly not on speaking terms with them. Which in Catra's mind was totally fair. She wouldn't have been caught dead on the same planet as Shadow Weaver if he could've helped it.

"So, any plans for tomorrow?" Catra asked.

"Not much, we're heading off to Seaworthy to check out some weird monster sightings."

Catra frowned. "Monster sightings?"

"You know what sailors are like, it's probably nothing."

"So… you got some time to kill?"

"Sure, why do you ask?"

Catra grinned wickedly, biting her bottom lip. She quickly dashed to the bedroom door, locking it before throwing herself back on the bed.

"'Cuz right now…" Catra purred, slowly popping the top button of her Bowhunter Security shirt. "I really… really need to get this uniform off."

[-]

"So, there's Roy when Harlan – still disguised as the ficus, mind you – breaks into a full rendition of Feed Me, Seymour!" Will doubled over in hysterical fits as he finished his story, rinsing the dinner plate before handing it off. "You should've seen the look on his face, Art… Artemis?"

"Hmm… sorry, Will." Artemis took the proffered plate and started drying. "Million miles away."

She'd been considering Catra, currently dozing on the living room couch in ripped jeans and an oversized black t-shirt. An old rerun of Space Trek: The Original Series played on the TV, relic of a time when the Klamulons were just bald guys in racially dubious face paint.

Will slipped on a pair of tick rubber gloves before taking steel wool to the burnt-on remains of last night's casserole with a vengeance. "I gotta admit, when you first recommended Catra for the Bowhunter internship, I thought you'd…"

"Totally lost mind?"

"Your words, not mine. But I gotta admit she's really come a long way in a few short weeks. Even Roy's impressed."

Artemis cocked a sceptical brow. "All Catra talks about is how Roy constantly gives her a hard time."

"Roy gives everybody a hard time. It's how he shows affection. Still not totally clear why she has to live with us though?"

"Catra's not exactly… welcome at the Hub."

Now it was Will's turn to cock an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Not my story to tell."

"Okaaay. Well, I'm just glad Lian likes her."

"She is surprisingly good with kids."

"You know," Will held the more or less pristine casserole dish to the light. "She may just be ready for something a little more challenging than guarding cargo trucks and writing reports."

Artemis turned to regard to feline alien sprawled on the couch. "Maybe."

[-]

"Whu-whut?"

Catra groaned as someone prodded her back into the waking world. She rubbed dream sand from bleary eyes to find Artemis in full Tigress regalia looming over her.

"Artemis? What's going on?"

"Catnap's over, sleepy bones!" Tigress smirked, cocking a crossbow. "We're going hunting."

[-]

STAR CITY

September 18, 01:04 PDT

Three foiled muggings and a thwarted armed robbery later, Tigress and Catra found themselves in an upscale jewellery store, where a gang of aspiring diamond thieves found themselves having a very very bad night.

Catra absently backhanded a thief. "Are you serious?"

"Very serious, if you want it." Tigress pinned another goon to the wall with a crossbow bolt through the fabric of his hoodie. "Mind, you'll still have to keep up with your 'day job'."

Before Catra could answer, the last thief jumped her from behind.

"Hey, we're talking here?!" Catra snarled, flipping the thief over her shoulder, slamming them into the ground. She took a moment the survey the jewellery store, broken glass and spilled gems scattered across the plush purple carpet. "We don't have to clean this up, do we?"

"So…?" Tigress asked expectantly.

"Well, of course I want it!" Catra panted, yet absolutely stoked. "I've been waiting for a chance like this for weeks!"

Tigress extended a hand. "Then it's official."

Catra hesitated, but only for a split second, before gratefully taking the open hand.

Tigress smiled. "Welcome to the Team."

[-]

S.S. BUTO

September 18, 00:07 UTC-10

Daniel Temple was silent and still as a statue, meditating in the dark solitude of his cabin. The only sounds were the soft lapping waves of the South Pacific and his own breathing, each echoing the other as though timed to the heartbeat of the cosmos itself.

He had always considered himself a God fearing man. Unlike so many others, Daniel had been born into the Order, born and raised to serve the Living God. When Daniel had been selected to serve as the Right Hand of the Sublime Master over eleven years ago, he had been both humbled and ecstatic.

Daniel would stand by his god's side as He ushered in the final stage of the Kali Yuga, when the corrupt old world would be washed away in fire and blood and a new Eden born from the ashes. Daniel would be the first to bear witness the Sublime Master shed His mortal flesh, as a serpent does its skin, to assume His true celestial aspect in the Heavenly Pleroma. Daniel would lead the faithful as they assumed their ordained role as heirs of a purified Creation.

But that's not quite how it happened, was it?

Santa Prisca, Minneapolis, Delhi; each failed scheme had only served to feed the seed of doubt germinating in Daniel's heart until its creeping vines nearly choked his soul. That ridiculous plot to convert the entire world with TV transmissions had merely been the final straw that broke Daniel's faith.

Looking back, Daniel wondered how he could have ever believed that would even work. Watching his 'Sublime Master' dragged off by a pack of spandex-clad children, Daniel had nearly been broken by the bleakness of sudden revelation.

His 'god', the being to whom he had dedicated his every waking moment since birth, had been a mere mortal after all. Worse, the 'Sublime Master' had been nothing but a self-deluded lunatic, just another gaudily costumed would-be tyrant in a world was already groaning under a surfeit of tyrants.

Many of Daniel's brethren had taken their own lives that night, rather than live in a universe suddenly empty of God's light. Others had declared themselves the Sublime Master's true successor, grasping for power as the Order was riven by schism and sectarianism like a snake devouring its own tail.

At the time, Daniel had cursed the chaos of those dark desperate days. Now he understood how necessary it had been. Chaos was the purifying flame that burned away the old so the new could be born.

Daniel had a new God now, a true deity who would soon cast down all tyrants and false idols. Then humanity would become as the Lords of the Kali Yuga; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all shouting and killing and revelling in joy. The Lords of the Kali Yuga would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

Knock-knock.

The door was unlocked, naturally. None aboard would dare trespass upon Daniel's sanctum.

"Enter."

A young woman clad in a crimson robe stepped softly as she entered with a demure bow. "Brother Daniel, the Order is assembled on deck per your request."

"Very good, Sister." He couldn't recall her name; it hardly mattered.

Brother Daniel rose, pulling up the scarlet hood of his own robe before following her through the silent hallways of the ship, up unto the open deck where at least a hundred of his brethren stood in rapt expectation. Their crimson hoods seemed almost black in the white moonlight, faces hidden behind silver shining masks cast in the image of fanged serpents.

"Hail, my Siblings," He exalted, arms raised to the watching cosmos.

"Hail Kobra!"