Threads & Posts to Adapt into Next Justice

Originally posted by Emerald Empress on NGA:

Location: The Preserver's ship, space; a few years ago -

Her heels clicked against the floor of the spaceship. Lex Luthor and Vandal Savage were with her, but she made a point to walk several strides ahead of them, the Eye floating right by her side. She stopped when she got to the holding room, grimacing momentarily when she first saw the Preserver. Even with his skin on in this form, he was still disgusting to look at, she thought. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Lex and Vandal come to stand by her.

There was only one person being held there at the moment. The Empress strode forward, approaching the see-through enclosure the woman was held in. It had been made to look like some living room. She supposed some people might find the decor homely. The woman in the enclosure was yelling, furiously, pounding her fists against the walls.

"I take it you had no problem getting Ms. Lane here?" the Empress spoke up, still looking at the furious woman in the enclosure as the Preserver floated over to hover by her side. "Can she see us?"

"I paid the bounty hunter Lobo to bring her here," the Preserver said in his annoyingly calm tone, "He made it look like an attack, left that synthetic blood you brought from your time - an exact replica's of Ms. Lane's - to make it look like she'd lost so much, she couldn't possibly survive."

"I thought Lobo didn't like you," the Empress pointed out, noticing Lex and Vandal approach them.

"That maniac is willing to do anything for the right price," Lex stated, "And keep his trap shut for an even better price."

"I still don't understand why she had to be the first taken," Vandal commented, eyeing the Empress carefully. Both men knew little about her since she'd come from the future. "She's not a hero. She's a nuisance. How does she play into any of this?"

"Superman cares about her, does he not?" the Empress questioned evenly, "She may have married some farmer, but Superman still cares about her. The appearance of her death will shake him. Have him spend years without her, wondering what he could have done to save her, he will be broken. He won't be able to stop us."

Lex didn't look convinced. That annoyed her. "And what is the next part of your oh-so-brilliant plan?"

She turned to face Lex and stepped into his personal space. They stared at each other; the Eye stared at Lex too. She could feel him daring her to back down. She silently dared him right back.

"Nothing."

Lex's brows furrowed. "Nothing?"

"We don't want them to connect Ms. Lane's disappearance to the rest of our plans," she stated, her tone suggesting that she were talking to a child. Lex cringed in disgust. She'd made sure to claim the plan belonged to all of them to keep the two men and whatever the Hell the Preserver was happy. She needed them happy if she were to use them. "We wait a few years. Then the Preserver can start taking the heroes - members of the Justice League and their allies. Anyone we think should be taken."

"And the children?" Vandal asked, clasping his hands behind his back. "It's be foolish to assume their children won't try to follow in their footsteps."

The Empress couldn't help but give a small laugh. The thought of children being a threat to her was ridiculous. "Leave the children alone. When we start taking their parents, their confidence will melt. They'll be scared, like chickens without their heads. They won't be a threat. We will have to have some of our own allies appear to go missing too, though." She gave each man a wicked grin. "It will throw the Justice League off, make them believe they're not the only targets. But we'll just have our own allies hide out. And once all that's left are these children, we will crush them. Show them that while their numbers have dwindled, ours really haven't."

"And if this plan fails?" Vandal asked firmly.

The Empress frowned. "It won't fail."


WORDS:; 693
OUTFIT:; costume
TAG:; closed
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; Yeahhhh never written Lex or Vandal before, plz ignore if they're poorly written.

Originally posted by Olivia Queen on NGA:

Location: Queen Mansion, Star City; noon, present day -

God, what was she doing back here? What if they didn't welcome her back? What if they didn't want to see her? She thought they had every right to turn her away. Her hand froze before she could knock on the front door. Nervous was an understatement. She had so many fond memories of this place, this home. But among those memories were ones of arguing, insecurities, and endless searching for who she really was.

Olivia Sara Queen. She had taken on the Black Arrow identity rather than becoming the next Speedy as a nod to both of her parents' legacies, after all she was part of both legacies. The first Green Arrow and the second Black Canary. Black Arrow had seemed to fit, combining her parents' codenames into one. But it had never told her who she was. It had never made her feel like she was who she was meant to be. Who was she? Was she like her father: arrogant but somehow self-doubting? Was she like her mother: confident but still modest? Or was she like her codename: a mixture of both?

That feeling, that constant questioning who am I? had driven her to runaway. She had thought she could make a name for herself, become her own individual. She hadn't seen much for her at home. Connor had taken up the mantle of Green Arrow, Roy was still Red Arrow and had married Jade Nguyen, Sin was still Sin, and Mia had adopted the name Artemis. They had all been part of the family longer than her. They would have been missed. But at the time, a voice in her head had been telling her that she wouldn't be missed. She was the spare, the voice had accused. She had just been a child, a young teenager. She had listened to that voice. After all, why would her own mind lie to her?

But Black Arrow had always followed her. That name. It had always seemed like an impossibility. To earn the right to be an Arrow, to feel like she belonged, she had to be some great hero. She had to be worthy like her family. The voice had told her all that. Her own thoughts had betrayed her. Her own mind had made her feel worthless.

Until she met Rider's Deck. They had been like her. Lost, wandering the world for some sense of purpose, yearning to walk out of the shadows of those before them and into the warm light. They had given her a sense of belonging. She had gladly thrown away the life of a hero to become a thief, a criminal with them. And she had loved it. She had learned new ways to fight, ways to break into buildings instead of preventing them. She had learned how to fight alongside her teammates, moving with them, bouncing off their skills and abilities as if they were all just one.

She had learned something about who she was. She was willing to leave everything in her past to silence that voice, silence that doubt, that self-hatred. She had been willing to give it all up to have some place to belong, to just be happy. And she had learned so much about the world. Her team had never judged her for being the kid of heroes. She had learned not to judge them for being the kids of villains. When they learned her secret identity, it hadn't been hard for them to figure out the rest of her family's identities. But they had never once gone to the Injustice League with that information. She had learned to trust them more than she trusted herself. She had learned that not every criminal was a villain.

But they had tried to be villains. She had tried to be a villain. She could still vividly remember the look on her old friends' faces when they had first seen her with Rider's Deck. Josh and Travis... She had almost killed Travis, setting off an explosion in the Titans Tower in Jump City. He had gotten Kryptonite poisoning from that... It had driven him mad. He'd almost killed Josh under the poison's influence. After all that, she had questioned if she could ever face them, if she could ever repair her friendship with them.

She had decided that if she couldn't even try to repair her relationship with her family, the ones who were supposed to love her unconditionally, then what right did she have to think she could repair her relationship with her childhood friends. Terror was an understatement to how she felt. She was a bundle of nerves and anxiety. She wanted to see everyone; she hadn't realized how much she needed to see everyone, but she knew she wouldn't. Her mom was missing. Her mom had gone missing, and she had never even tried to contact the woman to apologize for running away. There was a chance her mom was dead, and she had waited far too long to try to repair their relationship.

Taking in a deep breath and slowly letting it out, her hand shook as she knocked it against the front door.


WORDS:; 870
OUTFIT:; link
TAG:; @greenarrow , Arrows (any apped after this is started can be added to the thread)
MUSE:; I'm Coming Home by Skylar Grey
NOTES:; I would have tagged Sai 'cause he's an Arrow too, but what would he be doing at Queen Mansion? Plz, if he's in Star City, he's probs avoiding that place. Besides, he doesn't know any of the Arrows aside from Olivia, and he only knows her through Rider's Deck and Young Justice as an ally, not close friend.

Originally posted by Connor Hawke on NGA:

Location: Queen Mansion, Star City; noon, present day -

He'd been keeping an eye on her for a while now. Not in a creepy way - he didn't watch her every move. Rather when she'd first ran away, he had kept track of every place she'd been spotted at. He'd searched so hard to bring her home, and he had never given up that she would one day come home. He had learned, though, that he needed to give her space. She needed to want to come home. None of them could have ever forced her back. She surely would have resented them if they'd tried. It had been hard for a long time. His dad had thought he'd failed another kid. The family hadn't been the same, but they had eventually recovered from it enough to live their day to day lives.

He had once tracked down Rider's Deck in disguise. He'd watched as they had robbed a bank in Happy Harbor, narrowly escaping from Young Justice, who had tried to stop them. He had watched how the team interacted, how his sister was with them. Admittedly in that moment, he had felt a little hurt. It was clear that his sister had found a new family. If it made her happy and kept her safe, then he would be happy for her. He had just hoped that she would never forget the family waiting at home, the ones who would never stop loving her.

After the incident on Mount Justice, where Travis had gone berserk and attacked Rider's Deck and Young Justice, he had gone with Oliver and visited his sister in the hospital. She hadn't been awake then, but they had sat by her side for hours before deciding that they should go. He'd heard that she had woken up with her teammates by her side. He'd smiled at the news. Whatever made her happy. Though he had hoped someone had told her they visited. She needed to know that she was always welcomed back home.

There was a knock on the front door just as he walked by it, his nose in a book. He closed the book and walked over to the front door. He didn't expect to see who he saw when he opened the door. He froze in place, surprise on his face. The surprise quickly turned into a soft smile, and he said the first thing that came to his mind, "Welcome home."


WORDS:; 409
OUTFIT:; link
TAG:; @blackarrow , open to other Arrows
MUSE:; Unconditionally by Katy Perry
NOTES:; Big brother Connor just wants to hug his baby sister. uwu

Originally posted on WFF:

Chris would have moved faster had he not been in civvies and had a secret identity to protect. That being said, he still rushed into Star Labs. With that being said, by the time he arrived, a doctor - professor, whatever the hell the man was - was finished explaining the condition to Clark. All the Kryptonian Nightwing managed to catch was something about Kryptonite and that Star Labs would do their best to help. Krypto was at his side, unhappily with a leash attached to his collar. The dog was actually practically dragging Lor-Zod down the hall as he ran to Clark's side. The scientist walked away by the time Chris got there, leaving the young man with nothing but questions.

They were standing outside a room with a large glass window covering most of the wall by the door. In it lay his little brother, Travis, on a bed with machines hooked to him to monitor him. Somehow they'd even managed to get an IV in him. He looked pale, fragile, and weak, sleeping peacefully though. Fear gripped the Kryptonian's heart in an iron grasp. He'd been off world when it'd all gone down. It was a couple days since he'd been alerted that something had happened to his brother. He'd admittedly left Thara to finish their job, but she'd insisted on it. He'd gone to the farm only to find Conner and Cassie there. The news just kept getting worse.

Kara hadn't been seen for a few days now. Normally he'd assumed she'd made a trip to the future to see Brainiac 5, but there was a nagging voice in the back of his mind telling him that that wasn't the case. Conner was going to meet them later at Star Labs - apparently he'd already visited. Cassie was at the farm with him for moral support. Neither of them told Chris what was happening, what had happened to his little brother.

He'd sped off like a rocket from the farm, Krypto flying after him. Star Labs was near the edge of Metropolis. He landed a good distance from it, clipped a leash to Krypto, and rushed like a civilian the rest of the way.

Now he stood next to his dad, staring into the room where his little brother was, and asking the question that had been on his mind for days. "What happened?"


WORDS:; 397
TAG:; Kent Family
OUTFIT:; See gif
MUSE:; Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars
NOTES:; Nat will be NPCing Clark Kent - his chosen claim is Dean Cain. Chris' chosen claim is Jack Falahee. Someone may join to NPC Conner Kent, his chosen claim being Sean Faris. All three Kents are open for taking on the sister site: New Genesis: Apocalypse. Kara not being seen if a reference to NGA's main plot. Don't worry, I plan to actually have Travis waken in this thread.

Written by T:

NPC of Clark Kent

He was somewhere between completely numb and painfully alive. The words of the doctor hit him and, like bullets, seemed to bounce right off his skin until he forced himself to take them in. His son had kryptonite poisoning. There was kryptonite in his blood. How had that happened? Why was he not made aware sooner? How had he simply not known? It wasn’t like he never saw Travis, for God’s sake.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a nudge against his leg and heard a familiar whine. Giving a weak smile, he bent down to pet Krypto. He stood back up after a moment, turning his attention to the young man who had accompanied the dog. He pulled his other son, Chris, in for a hug. He pulled back after a moment and let out a breath. There was a slouch to his shoulders that wasn’t faked for the sake of a façade. There were lines of defeat on his face that he didn’t feel he had the strength to fight.

He glanced toward where his son was laying. He’d already lost Lois. Now he might lose his son? This was more than any man could handle, really. Even Superman.

“There’s kryptonite in his blood,” he supplied Chris, voice tired. “We don’t know how or why. The doctors are doing all they can.” But how much time did Travis have for them to find the answer? He didn’t want to think about it, but it was an outcome he found entering his mind anyway.

He clenched his jaw. No. There had to be a way to save him out there. Somewhere.

By me:

NPC of Chris Kent -

Chris felt like he was going to be sick. How had this happened to Travis? Why hadn't he been there to protect his little brother? He clung to his dad in the hug until he was released, taking a step back to stand next to Clark. Krypto sat between them, staring into the medical room and whining. The dog must have known that Travis was in there, he guessed.

"He'll be okay," he forced out, though he could hear the doubt in his own voice. He wanted to go into that room and hold his brother and protect him from the world. How had he not seen this coming? How had he not been there? How could it have gotten this bad? He let out a shaky breath. His hand rested on Krypto's head, absent-mindedly as if searching for comfort from the dog. "He has to be."

He knew his brother had been battling depression for years now, and even that had taken a toll on him. He'd always wished he could make those thoughts, those feelings go away and just have Travis be happy. He didn't have any control over his brother's depression - it was clinical, he didn't think he could have prevented it... But this... This he thought he could have prevented. If only they'd kept him at their side more, like a real sidekick.

Had he gotten hurt with Young Justice? Had that Nebula group that the kids were after done this? How long ago had this happened? How bad was it really? Should they have kept him out of the crime fighting side of the family?

He reached up and placed a hand against the room's window, staring in at his brother. He could faintly see his own reflection - see the tears in his eyes. "I want to see him," he choked out, his voice barely above a whisper.


WORDS:; 317
OUTFIT:; See first post.
TAG:; Kent family
MUSE:; I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz
NOTES:; Sad post is sad. ;-;

TAKES PLACE AFTER Travis' Kryptonite poisoning arc.

Takes place during Travis' Kryptonite poisoning arc

Josh hadn't been in a good mood since learning about the situation in Jump. He owed the fact that he and his three teammates were back in Jump to Serenity, a debt he wouldn't forget about. Had he gotten permission from his father and older brother to go back to Jump? Nope, and he didn't particularly care. Dick has called him, asking where he was and, this he felt bad about, he snapped at his brother. He'd been, and still was, furious that the T-Tower had been destroyed and the National freaking Guard was out again all supers - a fact he should have sent a message to Harvey about, but surely the leader of Rider's Deck had some observation skills.

He'd yelled over the phone at Dick - he'd known he was on speaker and his father and anyone else in the Batcave could hear him - that the League should be handling the situation and if they were, they should have been doing a Hell of a better job. He'd never cursed so much in his life, especially never at Dick. Kenna, Travis, and Ken had all fallen silent in the room. The fact that he didn't know who was behind it - was it Nebula? - pissed him off even more. And it went a bit deeper than that. No one had been there to protect his team when Nebula rolled in and massacred Coalfield. He wasn't about to let that happen again.

He'd ended the call after snapping that Dick should be the great detective Batman was supposed to be - with a few curses thrown in-between - and then hung up before his adoptive brother could respond.

And now he felt like a massive asshole. Kenna and Ken had left to patrol, though they'd done so in civvies, lying low, and to see if they could find Rider's Deck. Joshua sat in the rolling chair in front of their make-shift computer - a holo-screen Tim, Bruce, and Wayne Enterprises had helped invent. He preferred an actual computer, but the holo-screen and keyboard were more easy to move to their temporary base. He had one head in a hand, his elbow resting on the arm of the chair. His other arm hung limply off the other arm of the chair.

"I'm an ass," he said out-loud when he heard footsteps behind him. He heard Travis chuckle nervously, and then his best friend was standing at his side, a hand on his shoulder.

"You've always been a bit of an ass," Travis joked, "But trust me, you make up for it."

Josh lifted his head up and looked at him. "I yelled at Dick Grayson. I cussed him out! He's the nicest brother I have! For God's sake, he practically helped raise me!"

Travis looked like he wasn't sure what to say. "Well I doubt you broke his heart."

Josh groaned and put his face back in his hands. "God, I'm an ass."

Travis sighed and sounded like he was going to say something else but he cut himself off. "Someone's coming."

Josh looked up, alert. "You can hear them?"

"No - well yes, but that's not how I know," his best friend replied, pointing to the holo-screen.

It was alerting to an access code being used. Of course, due to Josh's paranoia, when a code hasn't been used recently, a retinal scan, hand print, and voice activation was needed. He would have required a blood sample but Travis and Kenna had argued that that would have been absurd. A profile popped up on the screen, a very detailed profile he hadn't shared with the League or Batman. He had more detailed files on Rider's Deck than the League because he knew them better than the League.

He exchanged a look with Travis as he heard the click of the main door opening that would lead to a hallway and then the room the two of them were in. He hadn't seen the Rider's Deck member in a while, and it was bound to be awkward. He hesitated when he got a good look at his best friend's face.

"You look sick," he commented to which Travis rolled his eyes. He got off his seat and gestured for the half-Kryptonian to take it. After a quick staring match, Travis conceded and sat down - or rather slumped into the chair. "We should tell her."

"She'll feel guilty and it's not her fault," Travis commented quietly, not wanting to be overheard. "She doesn't need that on her shoulders."

Josh sighed irritably. "She has a right to know."


WORDS:; 769
OUTFITS:; Josh, Travis
TAG:; @ollie
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; n/a

She had been far out of state when she had gotten Harvey's message. Carlos was alive, and Arthur was captured by some crazy lady. although if Harvey was calling someone crazy she had learned to take that with a grain of salt. The question was where were they. She would track them down later and get an answer out of him or whoever she needed to, no one messed with her team and got away with it.

So she had called up gotten her old job at the Roundhouse back(go figure good looking blonde bartenders were always needed), packed a bag, strapped it on her bike and rode all the way out here. It helped she could just wear her uniform the entire way here, it helped stop the windburn at least. She had been crashing in parks on her way here, it had only been two nights so she didn't really mind. Park benches were much more comfortable then some of the places she had slept in the past and she didn't mind grabbing gas station food on her way. Not that she had any money to pay for it but desperate times called for desperate measures.

When she finally pulled up in front of the door entered her access pin, and she swung her leg up to wheel her bike inside when she heard the computer give her a very annoyed sounding beep followed by, "Retinal Scan Denied." Olivia's mouth dropped open. This had to be Josh, only he would set up such a hair brained scheme.

"You have got to be shitting me?" She pulled off her helmet hung it on her bike and walked over to the door. Entered in her pin a second time looked for the tiny pinprick of a hole in the wall where she was supposed to look and tracked down the trick panel where the handprint scanner was located. She continued her rather colorful rant at Josh's paranoia as the door finally after much arguing opened up for her. Opening the front door shouldn't be that much trouble especially when no one was home to open the door from the inside.

She grumbled at Josh's paranoia as she wheeled the bike in only to see the person she had been swearing about standing right in front of her. "I'm going to kill Harvey." It was her own fault, she should know by now that Harvey never had good intel he hadn't even warned her that the national guard was running around town. He had at least known that the Titans Tower was in shambles, she didn't know who would pay for the rebuild but it would have to be an entirely new building. "Josh your door is the worst, why~" she trailed off as she glanced at Travis who looked like, to put it nicely, he looked like crap.

She flicked the kickstand on her bike and walked over to her old friend, yes she hadn't seen him since they had both gotten caught in an explosion she had set but he looked awful. There were times she wished she had gone with her old friends and become a hero, if only so she could have their back and not cause them any more trouble but something was up. Travis had that look on his face he always did when something was wrong, and it hadn't changed since they were ten. She crossed her arms and shot the both of them a look while she was scared of what their reactions would be to her being back in town she was much more irritated that there was some secret they were keeping from her. "What's going on?" That boy scout still couldn't lie to her.

This wall between them, good and not so good, was something she really hated. While they were on opposing teams all bets were off but right now they were sorta on the same team at least they were allowed to be friends right now. They may not be able to be those trouble kids they had been years ago which was fine by her the two boys had grown up pretty well and she enjoyed having a body that distracted people around her. It made kicking their ass so much easier when they were staring at hers.

---

Words: 714
Notes: Already pissed off at Robin and now doubly so since Travis looks like crap and she's not in the know.
Outfit: Here
Music: Here I am
Tagged: @batboy, @superstar

315 words	@ollie
travis, josh	sorry it's not the best

Travis and Josh looked at each other when they heard Olivia's voice. How long had it been since they'd seen her? A year? No, it felt like much longer. Travis wanted to ask how she'd been, what she'd been up to. He wasn't entirely sure why she'd left Jump, only had some guesses. Had Harvey asked her to go on some secret mission? Well technically Rider's Deck missions weren't any of his business so long as they were legal, that was part of the agreement between the two teams.

Josh was looking from him to Olivia, wearing his best fake smile, which was very believable. He was fairly certain that if Josh wasn't a crime-fighter, he would have gone into acting. He thought all the Bats would make good movie-stars.

"Hey stranger," he said with a genuine smile. He didn't have that much energy to put into the smile, but the happiness he felt at the sight of Olivia was still clear. The three of them together again felt like old times. He'd missed her. "Long time no see."

Josh, unknown to Travis, mouthed to Olivia that they needed to talk, but his look said it would be later, implying he didn't want to talk in front of Travis. Whether Travis wanted Olivia to know or not, he wanted her to know. She had a right to know and he just.... he had to tell someone. Someone other than him and Laura. They needed a fresh mind, fresh ideas. But he wasn't sure how Olivia would react to it. He prayed it wouldn't crush her.

"You know me and my paranoia," Josh added with a light shrug, "I wanted to require a blood sample but Travis and Kenna said that would be crazy."

Travis rolled his eyes playfully. "Because it would be crazy, which you are, but we don't want everyone else to know that."

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

IAIN'TGONNABEJUSTAFACEINTHECROWD
YOU'REGONNAHEARMYVOICEWHENISHOUTITOUTLOUD

Ollie caught Josh's message and gave him a sideways glance. Travis and Josh shared everything when they were kids why would something be different now. She glanced from Travis back to Josh and quickly wiped the confusion off her face. If there was one thing that the Bats had taught her growing up it was how to lie with the best of them. She would get the truth out of Josh later if she had to, since Travis had somehow learned how to keep a poker face on. So she forced out a fake groan at the blood sample joke. "Everyone just sort of assumes you bats are all crazy. Harvey's words not mine." She joked twirling her keys nervously in her hands. So she wanted get Travis away from Josh in a slightly subtle way. "Speaking of Paranoia where do I log my bike and which room is mine?" She dropped her bag next to Travis and grinned down at him trying not to take into account just how pale he was compared to the last time she saw him. Well the last time she had seen him he had just taken the brunt of a bomb for her so the moment before that bomb went off is what she was comparing to. She flipped her hair and grinned down at Travis. "You mind watching my bag while I go interrogate Boy Wonder? I hear this place has thieves running around now." She joked and threaded her arm through Josh's in order to lead him off into the other room. She wanted answers and she wanted them five minutes ago. She shot a glance over her shoulder at Travis's disappearing form and shoved Josh into the nearest open room she could spot. She hated being kept in the dark and why Travis looked like he had been run over by a planet was something she was dying to know. "Ok Spill what the hell is going on?" She was done with playing nice. Done with secrets and lies in general.

Words: 341 Notes: There is my pitiful muse at work Lyrics: It's My Life, Bon Jovi
Outfit: Costume sans mask Music: The Reason Tagged: @batboy, @superstar

Template by Iso

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Harvey says my family's crazy?" he repeated and then laughed which caused Travis to smile. Josh didn't laugh often, and his best friend thought it was nice when he did. "I don't think Harvey's one to talk in the slightest bit, but considering what us Bats face practically every day, I wouldn't be surprised if we're not entirely sane." He frowned faintly, confused at her next comment. "I don't see how any of that has to do with paranoia."

Travis grinned up at Olivia. "If you're not too careful, some of Josh's paranoia might rub off on you." He turned the grin on Josh when the Boy Wonder rolled his eyes playfully.

"You're going to be in Cirna's old room," Josh explained. The base had exactly enough rooms for each member that was there with one room leftover for any guest that might come or teammate they might call for assistance. "Don't worry, she didn't leave any of her stuff there, and she took off the curses she'd placed on the room in case someone tried to snoop." He still remembered the one time Harvey had gone into the room looking for Cirna and ended up getting mildly electrocuted by a curse. He'd found it hilarious though Harvey hadn't laughed about it at all.

He saw the frown coming before it even appeared on Travis' face. His best friend looked confused, but he didn't look like he had the energy to argue. All he said was, "Why do you have to interrogate Josh?"

Josh, for the life of him, couldn't think of an excuse. He could see the suspicion growing in Travis' gaze. He didn't like lying to Travis. He didn't like keeping secrets from him. Travis, Ishi, Lolli, and Dick were the four people he absolutely hated lying to. Olivia had once been on that list too, but their friendship had been taken down a bumpy road when she'd ran away and joined Rider's Deck, back when the team had been villains. He liked to think their friendship had survived, but it wasn't the same as when they'd been kids.

"Olivia and I just have some things to discuss," he said, though the next part was a lie, "Involving her family. It's rather personal."

Travis' suspicion quickly turned to concern. "Everything okay?"

Josh smiled at his best friend. "Yeah, don't worry."

He walked with Olivia until they were alone. At Olivia's question, he frowned faintly. Truth be told, he thought she had a right to know because it involved her because of the bomb that had caused Travis' kryptonite poisoning. If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have had a problem keeping the kryptonite poisoning from her. Olivia had his trust as much as any other member of Rider's Deck, but she didn't have as much as any member of his own team. He trusted her as much as he trusted Harvey, and he did trust Harvey.

"Your family's fine by the way," he quickly replied so she wouldn't worry. He didn't mention that her family would be aware of her return to Jump. "Though I'm sure they miss you." A part of him wanted to blame her for the situation Travis was in. A part of him wanted to hurt her, to get payback for the hurt she'd caused him. A part of him wanted revenge for her betraying their friendship. She'd once been like a sister to him.

But that part of him was an ugly side, and it wasn't one he wanted to show. "Travis is sick."


WORDS:; 595
OUTFITS:; Josh, Travis
TAG:; @ollie
MUSE:; Here We Are by Lene Marlin
NOTES:; Whelp those aren't happy feels. Honestly I hadn't realized how bitter Josh actually is toward Olivia.

Tweak:

756 words	open
costume	don't worry, Sai hasn't killed anyone c;

There was a loud thump and one of the crooks cried out, the shaft of an arrow now sticking out of his hand, with the arrow's point embedded in the wall of the museum behind him. He flinched as another arrow shot by, this one striking the wall by his head and emitting a puff of gas that went straight to his face. He coughed before he passed out, slumping against the wall.

Speedy dodged a punch and swung his leg up, connecting it with the ribs of another crook. He was sore, bruised and scraped from when the Tower had blown up, but he was healing. He'd fought back and annoyed Robin enough that the Boy Wonder had given up on getting him into their infirmary. He'd wanted all of their attention to go to Chae and anyone else in worst shape than him. And he couldn't go to the infirmary, even now. He blamed himself. He couldn't face Chae. If he saw her in any condition that wasn't one-hundred percent, he'd murder the asshole that had caused it.

That was why he wasn't with Serenity, Shift, and the other Titans at the moment. They'd gotten a message from Serenity about her capturing or finding Blackhat, one of the two. He'd deliberately set out on patrol after that. If he saw Blackhat, he'd murder him. He desperately wanted to murder him just as he wanted to subject those that had tortured and killed his mum to every cruel punishment he knew they'd inflicted on her.

He didn't want his teammates and allies to see that side of him, so instead, he was at the museum, stopping a robbery. It was cruel, taking out his frustrations, his anger against simple thieves. But this was what he did. He took his feeling out on criminals he ran into on every anniversary of his mum's death. He'd take every arrow from the scene so the cops and Titans wouldn't know it was him and lecture him.

When he'd first joined the East Titans, he'd hoped they would ground him. He'd tried desperately not to get close to them, to dislike them. He'd been so close to his mum and she had been taken away from him. He couldn't face a loss like that again. That was why he'd cut ties with his family in London, why he didn't want to get close to his teammates. He didn't want to care. He didn't want his enemies to have leverage over him. Perhaps someone would think having friends, having a family was worth the risk. But it wasn't to Speedy, not after what he'd seen, what he'd found left of his mum.

Speedy cracked his recurve bow against the side of a crook's head and the much larger man crumpled to the floor - it helped that his bow was made of metal.

Mentally cursing, he rolled to the side, behind a pillar as shots rang out around him.

"You're a terrible shot!" he called over and briefly shivered behind the pillar. The museum was closed for some reason - he didn't care so he hadn't taken the time to wonder why - and thus the heaters weren't on. He was regretting designing his costume with a tank-top and sleeveless jacket. He felt like he was going to freeze his ass off and it was only adding to his tundra of emotions.

A bullet skimmed the pillar way too close for comfort. He still thought he could handle it on his own. He'd taken down two and there was three left - one of which was firing at him while two others were frantically trying to get a priceless painting out of the room. He had a few new arrows he wanted to try out - Robin had insisted on getting him new trick arrows and had seemed too giddy about it, constantly smirking with Superboy as if they knew something Speedy didn't. They weren't all finished, but Robin had given him the ones that were.

When the bullets' stopped coming - it would only last a brief moment, he knew that - he had an arrow notched and swung out from behind the pillar. He let the arrow fly. The point burst into a boxing glove and struck the man with the gun in the jaw, causing him to fall to the ground, though he wasn't unconscious. The archer shrugged, making a mental note to thank the Boy Wonder later.

He still had three crooks to take care of.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

289  words	@lian
costume	these 2 need to be a brotp uwu

Sai wasn't sure what happened at first, but then the red-clad hero made herself known and all he could do was stare.

He admittedly stared for a moment, very much starstruck. He knew there were two Red Hoods - a Bat and an Arrow - and here he was meeting the Arrow one. While he wasn't associated with the Arrows, they were amazing archers and somewhat idols for him. They protected the city that his dad's side of the family lived in.

He fumbled with his words for a moment, and his hands, before shaking hers. "I-I know - I mean it's an honor to meet you. I'm Speedy." He inwardly grimaced, hoping he didn't sound like a complete idiot. He slung his bow over his shoulder and looked at the crooks she'd taken out before looking back at her and nodding toward the crooks.

"Thanks for the help," he said, smiling like a fanboy. Normally he'd insist he didn't need the help but any time an Arrow wanted to help him, he'd gladly take it.

He hoped she wouldn't think he was some wannabe. He was an archer because of his mum. She'd taught him and he'd once dreamt of going to the Olympics for either archery or fútbol - er soccer. He still didn't understand why the name was different in America.

"It's nice to finally work with another archer," he commented, then caught himself. "It's uh - it's just an honor to meet you... Though I said that already. I'm sorry."

He mentally slapped himself and busied himself with picking up his arrows - he only had so many after all. Hopefully he could go the rest of the day without embarrassing himself to no end.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

Sai was fully prepared to hear something along the lines of Oh, you're Speedy and then about how idiotic his actions at the Tower had been. He'd been chewed out, gotten grief about it. He was sick of it - it was another reason why he wasn't at the Young Justice and Rider's Deck base that the Titans were currently utilizing, well that and he had a home in the Steel Tower. Yes, he couldn't face Chae. Yes, he blamed himself for what happened to her, that she'd gotten so damn injured. Yes, maybe it'd be nice of him to actually visit her in the infirmary, but he could bring himself to look at her injuries and not feel a strong tug of guilt. But no, he didn't have to sit around and listen to people calling him an idiot. Only one person had told him they thought what he'd done was brave. Perhaps not thought out well, but in the heat of the moment, it was brave.

It had just been Robin, but coming from a hero with a legacy like his, Speedy considered it a great compliment. No one else in Young Justice or Rider's Deck had said anything, but Robin had mentioned that he wasn't the only one to feel that way.

"There's a thin line between bravery and stupidity," the Boy Wonder had said, "And sometimes, you don't cross the line any which way. Sometimes you stand directly on it."

It'd been a nice thing to hear, but it hadn't been enough to keep Sai from wanting to kick bad guy ass. He was actually relieved when no mention of what had happened on Halloween came. Instead Arsenal complimented his name and then he was handed two arrows by... Black Arrow! He had to keep a grin off his face. It was an honor to meet her too, even if she seemed to be thought of as the Arrow who went bad.

To say he was envious of the girls' was an understatement. They'd both had the opportunity to train with some of the best archers. He wished he'd had that chance. His mum had been an amazing archer, gold medalist from the Olympics, but she'd never used archery for offensive or defensive. He'd had to learn how to fight with his bow and arrows all on his own. And even then, there was a lot he had to learn.

"Thanks," he said as he took his arrows Black Arrow held out. He fit them back in his quiver. He did think he could have handled it on his own, like Arsenal said, but he never minded having help. "Well it's nice to work with some other archers for a change." He smiled then nodded and got to work collecting the rest of his arrows. He wiped them of on one of the crook's pants - he didn't want them to get stained with blood after all. Once he had them back in his quiver, he turned to the two girls. They both had more experience than him, so naturally he planned to follow their lead.


WORDS:; 518
TAG:; @ollie, @lian
OUTFIT:; Costume
MUSE:; Echo by Jason Walker
NOTES:; Yeahhh Halloween Bash is a sensitive topic for Sai >.> no one brings it up yet he still finds himself thinking about it -sprays Sai with water- Bad Sai, bad.

Tweak:
Change Nebula to Cadmus
Takes place during the Cadmus arc.

Team 1: Covert led by Robin, containing Wonder Girl and Wonder Boy. This team's mission is to distract Nebula at their Jump Base. This team might appears to have an ulterior motive. How the team gets into the base is up to Robin.
Team 2: Covert led by Shift, containing Serenity, Nightshade, Jester, Black Arrow, and Sorceress. This team's mission is to find and rescue Rider's Deck members from Nebula's Jump base. This team will be confronted by and have to fight Wraith. How this team gets into the base is up to Shift.
Team 3: Covert led by Blackwing, containing Stone Alice, Whisper, and Glancer. This team's mission it to get any and all information from Nebula's Jump Base. This team will be confronted by Nebula lackeys and foot-soldiers. How the team gets into the base is up to Blackwing.


Robin had already hacked into the building and set the video feed to a loop and disabled the alarms. He stood on the roof with the other two teams and nodded at Shift and Blackwing before he and his two teammates slipped into one of the vent openings. Alice and Whisper stood by Blackwing and Jester and Sorceress were with Shift the last time he'd glanced at them. He quietly crawled through the vents with Kenna behind him and Ken behind her. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous, which was why he hadn't commented on how he felt. Their comms were all set to the same frequency, but as he paused to check, his suspicions were confirmed. Once they were inside the building, their comms were jammed. He wasn't surprised. Nebula wasn't a force to be underestimated. He preferred to overestimate their abilities.

He silently longed to have Hunt with his team, missing her telepathy. Alice was a telepath but only with animals. A telepath would be easier to keep them in contact then their fizzed out comms. All he heard was static when he tried to send or receive a message. He glanced back at his teammates before continuing through the vents. He paused every now and then when an opening appeared to look down and see what room they were over. So far, he hadn't seen the room Arthur and Carlos were in, but that wasn't his mission. He'd explained the mission to Kenna and Ken. Only they knew, and they'd promised to keep it quiet.


OUTFITS:; Costumes
TAG:; Anna, @reni, @tigergeme, @whisper, @peter, @lyola, @irazehl, @ollie, @wonderboy, @wonderstar, @jester, @arthur, @banshee, @lian, @cat, @batboy
NGA GUEST:; Sorceress

Wonder Girl wasn't so sure that this was a good idea. Robin had an ulterior motive. She may not have known what it was, but she knew he had it. He was never clear cut, not when it came to Nebula. He kept secrets, even from her. She'd never been as close to Robin as Superboy was, but she wasn't sure if even Travis knew. The fight against Nebula was personal to her - after what had happened in Coalfield - but it seemed even more so for Robin. And all she could do was sit back and watch, hoping her friend wasn't on a self-destructive path. Life wasn't that kind, though. Most likely this would end with sweat, tears, and a lot of blood.

As she followed Robin into the vent, her brother trailing behind her, she made a vow to protect him. No matter what happened that day, she'd make sure he got out of it safely. Everyone was going to return to their respective homes, including Arthur and Carlos. They trudged on in silence, allowing her mind to wander. She knew what their mission was, but why just her and Ken? Why had they been sworn to secrecy? Josh was a Bat, yes, but even this was a bit extreme. He kept secrets to protect other people, so who was he protecting now?

She couldn't ask him. They had to be quiet. She wasn't Hunt, she couldn't ask him telepathically. Their green-skinned teammate hadn't been able to be there, but they hadn't necessarily needed her. Young Justice had worked many covert missions before, mostly for the League. It was their specialty. The Titans and League were mostly in the spotlight. Despite being able to fly, Kenna was used to crawling through vents.


TAG:; @batboy, @wonderboy
OUTFIT:; Costume
MUSE:; Catch My Breath by Kelly Clarkson
NOTES:; n/a

275 WORDS	TAG: @tigergeme, @whisper, @peter
OUTFIT: Costume	Hope this works~

put on your shades

She nodded back at Robin, before glancing to her teammates, the people she’d been put in charge of. They all seemed ready to get down to business- well, except for Glancer, who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. “Let’s roll, folks.” Blackwing and the Spandex Kids, off to save the day. She attached her grappler to the side of the roof, before propelling down the side of the building, stopping in front of the window to the storage room. She quickly took out her glass cutter, cutting the whole in the glass big enough for the others to get through. She popped the loose glass off, grabbing it quickly and then leaning forward to set it on the ground off to the side. She then swung herself into the window and released herself from the grapple, before tapping on the communicator in her ear. “Alright, you guys can come down.”

She waited until everyone was gathered in the room, before relaying the plan. “Alright, here’s the plan: the computer and file room should be located down the hall. Once the distraction starts, we slip out of here and into there. Once we’re there, we’ll probably have about five minutes at most to gather the information. Got it?” Her tone was almost nonchalant, knowing that these people understood the mission and the guidelines. Josh had praised these people multiple times and, hell, he was dating one, so she trusted them. Should there be a confrontation, she and Stone Alice could take care of it. They were most likely to run into foot soldiers, and she doubted those would be too difficult to take care of.

'cause I'll be dancing in the flames

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

Tweak:
Climax of Travis' kryptonite poisoning arc

Mount Justice, With Comms Open to the Titans

Olivia wrung her hands together as she paced the floor. This was not easy for her to admit, she was wrong. There she could at least say it to herself, now to say it to everyone else in the room, and the Titans who were watching from the video and the creepy seer who hung around. She and Josh had got everyone here to inform them that she had screwed up and now Travis was paying the price for her mistake. Damn it why did she have to even set that bomb in the first place. True she had been scared and about to run away at the time but now it seemed like such a bad idea. A childish mistake and she was going to deal with it no matter what.

She glanced over at Josh, at least there was one person in this room who wasn't going to kill her for this. Heck she almost wished that Kenna would break her neck for this, she needed someone to blame her. She knew her team would be on her side but she almost wished they weren't. "So there's something that we need to tell you." Her voice caught in her mouth. She had been ready to come clean not five seconds ago and now her voice was stuck in her throat. What was wrong with her? She glanced sideways at Josh. Why was this so hard? Because it's Travis.

Josh turned away the holo-keyboard he'd been typing at, fixing up the holoscreen that showed them the Titans at their temporary base in Jump City. It hadn't been used in some time and the image had come up blurred and it had bugged him so he'd fixed it, hoping the Titans were seeing them in HD quality too. Both Rider's Deck and the Titans had guest access to Mount Justice - the Titans could access it any time, but Rider's Deck needed to be with a member of Young Justice in order to get in; he'd made a compromise with Dick on that one. He shot a glare at Harvey, silently telling him not to touch the holo-keyboard he was reaching for. As soon as they stepped away, the keyboard disappeared.

"How do you get such fancy tech?" Harvey asked.

"We invent it, not steal it," Josh replied, shooting the costumed thief a disapproving look, to which Harvey stuck his tongue out in response.

Recognize Kryptonite, C08. Recognize Aqualad, C04. Recognize Hunt, C05. Recognize Sorceress, D02.

Josh looked to Olivia and the last four they'd been waiting for. He would have preferred the Titans come as well, but he'd discussed it with them and had decided he didn't like the idea of leaving Jump hero-less. He'd invited Collin to go to the temporary base to join the meeting. She was his sister and had seen both him and Travis grow up. She needed to know.

"It's been a while since we've all gotten together," Austa commented with a smile, coming over and hugging Josh. When she pulled away, she moved to stand by Kenna, giving the Amazon princess a high-five and a grin. "Last time, if I'm right, was when we made an alliance with Rider's Deck."

"I think you're right," Cirna commented off-handedly.

The teams fell silent when Olivia spoke up. Carlos and Arthur exchanged a worried look, noting the emotion in their teammate's voice. Raptor stood next to his brother, his tail flicking in agitation. What was wrong? The only one missing was Travis. Josh had asked him to stay in the infirmary and that was where he thought he was.

Josh looked to Olivia and nodded, silently encouraging her. He turned to the group and the screen that showed the Titans. "The League will be here in an hour or so, but we wanted to let you guys know. There's a um... There's a situation with Superboy." He didn't know any other way to say it unless he was going to be brutally honest. He couldn't say his best friend was dying. Those words just wouldn't come.


OUTFITS:; Costumes
TAG:; Young Justice, Titans, East Titans, Rider's Deck, @collin
NOTES:; Austa J'Onzz aka Hunt, Cirna aka Sorceress, Laura Luther aka Kryptonite, and Nate Curry aka Aqualad are New Genesis: Apocalypse characters played by myself and Reni. I'll be NPCing Austa unless someone takes her before this thread ends. The Titans are at the temporary base in Jump City, but they can still post here with reactions, comments, etc. and they'll be needed later in the thread to contact the League. For the zeta-tube, members of Young Justice are C#, and Rider's Deck are D#, as guests. The Titans are up to you guys, but since they've been a team longer, I was thinking they'd be B# since the League are A#?
NGA CHARACTERS:; These are the claims of the NGA characters I'll be guest writing in this thread: Austa, Laura, and Cirna

Recognize Mockingbird B 11 Error 666

Serenity glared at the speaker as she Zeta'd into the temporary base. She had not been Mockingbird for over a year and the computer still assumed that she was dead. One of these days she would get someone to update that but today wasn't that day. Today Rider's Deck was going to learn that actions had consequences. Bombings didn't go around for free. "This have to do with the Superboy problem?" Serenity nodded at the dove and quickly glanced over the new players that had showed up. She hadn't really prepared for this meeting as much as she would have liked, only ten minutes ago she had been asleep and it was impressive she had managed to make it here in time for this.

Sorina didn't like the look of the blonde, she hadn't had time to do much other then throw clothes on and pull her hair back in a pony tail and grab a bottle of mountain dew on her way out. She still looked like she could use another full day's worth of sleep or so. One of these days she was going to leave a message for Athena on the bathroom mirror something like spike her coffee with some sort of sleeping drug she isn't sleeping. The message would be more eloquent when she gets around to it.

Serenity glanced back at the dove, "So this meeting is about the fact that Superboy's dying of Kryptonite poisoning. Right?" Sorina looked at her friend aghast at what she just said. The girl was more sleep deprived then either thought.

Nate grinned and slid into an open space next to Ken, it was nice to have the whole team back together agai~ "Wait what did she just say?" Travis dying. That was crazy talk he was Superboy. The biggest heavy hitter on the team. No one could take him down.

Olivia's mouth dropped open at the seer's words. She tried to cover it by putting her hand over her mouth but that was not how she wanted to break the news.

Josh stared at Serenity for a moment, a look of absolute horror on his face. That was not how he wanted to break the news nor how he thought the news should be told. It took him a moment to find his voice, but by that time, Kenna hands were already in fists and she looked furious.

"Wait, what?!" she snapped. Ken, who was in-between his sister and Nate, flinched away, obviously startled by his sister's sudden out-burst. Kenna looked to the screen that showed the Titans to see if they'd heard it too or if she'd just imagined it. Then her anger turned to Josh. "Superboy is dying? Is she fucking serious?" Her expression told Josh that if he lied to her, she'd knock him out cold. Side comments started amongst the group, to which Josh whistled to get their attention back on him and Olivia.

He looked away from Serenity to address his friends. "Superboy is sick, very sick. Do you remember a bomb being set off at the Titans Tower?"

"You mean when the Tower was blown up?" Ishi interjected. She'd been standing close to Josh, exchanging fond looks, but now she just looked concerned. "Superboy wasn't even in Jump when that happened."

"Not that one," Josh explained, giving Olivia a look that said he'd explain this part. No one needed to know she'd set the bomb, no one needed to remember that. At least not now in his opinion. "It was a couple years ago. Catgirl, Black Arrow, Shift, and Superboy were there. The bomb was set off in a room at the Tower. It was laced with Kryptonite. Superboy, as he recalls, shielded Catgirl from the blast, but the Kryptonite cut him and some of it, a large amount actually, got into his blood." He took in a shakey breath and let it out. "He's been sick with Kryptonite poisoning for about two years now. Yes, it's killing him. Laura and I have been trying to find some cure--"

Most of his friends looked shocked, some on the verge of tears. Austa managed to speak, choked up, "L-Lex Luther. He cured himself, what about him?"

"We've tried modifying his cure to work for a human/Kryptonian hybrid," Laura added, unable to meet her friends' eyes. "Nothing's worked."

"What about the League?" Arthur asked.

"Hasn't the League done anything? For the sake of the gods, it's been two years and he's Superman's son!" Kenna snapped, but quickly drew back, moving into her brother's embrace, hiding her face against his shoulder and neck, her own shoulders shaking. It was too much for her. She'd grown up knowing Travis, always teasing and tormenting him and Josh. They were best friends in her opinion. Travis was the last person she ever thought she'd hear the name of and dying in the same sentence.

Josh could no longer meet their eyes. "We never told the League. Superboy begged us not to. We... I shouldn't have listened to him. Black Arrow only found out recently. I'm sorry, I should have told you guys earlier. It's... it's gotten worst..." He absent-mindedly rubbed his healing broken hand. "That's why we're telling you now and telling the League when they get here. I'm... I'm really sorry..."

Sorina glared down at her companion. She didn't make mistakes like that ever, sometimes she revealed a little to much information to a friend but to a group of people like this she was usually more controlled. She didn't make mistakes. She was Serenity. "Serenity you need to get some sleep." Serenity blinked blearily back at the dove and shrugged.

She was going to claim she was fine right up until the moment when she couldn't keep up the lie.

Nate was still letting the words sink in. He had always looked up to Travis, he was always the strong one and the kind one despite all the powers at his disposal. Sure Josh was the leader but Travis was always the one he had wanted to emulate. "What about some sort of magic? Can't some sort of healing spell effect him?" Maybe someone forgot that. Hopefully.

Olivia bit her lip as she shot a thankful look at Josh. She had been ready to face everyone's blame she still felt she owed them an apology but she wasn't ready for that yet. Maybe if she could tell her team first, at least they wouldn't try to kill her if she told them. Young Justice she wasn't so sure about. She hadn't wanted anyone to be hurt, it just happened that way. "We're hoping the league magicians can help once their informed." Hoping and praying would be more accurate. Olivia couldn't really remember a time where she was sure there was someone up there watching over them, but right now she was praying for a miracle.

Travis was miserable. He was curled on a bed in the Mount Justice infirmary. He was shivering, but he could have sworn he had sweat beaded on his forehead. His vision was off and on blurring. It had gotten bad the past couple of days. Yesterday, Laura had visited him and tried to redirect some of the energy. It hadn't worked. He'd started coughing up blood that morning. Josh had told him to try to catch some sleep, but he couldn't. Every time he closed his eyes he saw that hole in the house, blood on the carpet, his mother nowhere to be found. He still had his strength, but his senses were becoming less enhanced. He'd accidentally blasted a small hole in the infirmary wall with his heat-vision. He'd grabbed a glass of water and crushed it with his strength on accident.

He felt so scared.

He pushed himself to his feet. He had to find Josh. He had to tell him it was getting worse and it was getting worse really fast. His vision blurred and he stumbled. His head was pounding. He could barely think straight. He pushed on, leaving the infirmary. He could hear voices, more clearly as he grew closer, but... they didn't sound like his friends. He froze as he listened more. They were talking about him. He moved stealthily - as much as he could in his current state - peaking out to see who was talking. He didn't see his friends.

He saw the Injustice League.

They were calling in their magicians. Kryptonians were vulnerable to magic. Were they going to use him to trap his dad? Or try to control him? His mind swam with illogical thoughts, a sense of immense danger washing over him. Even at his strongest, before he got sick, he couldn't take on the whole Injustice League. He had to get away. But wait.... He'd come to Mount Justice with Rider's Deck and Young Justice. He was still at Mount Justice, but where were his friends? His hands clenched into fists. He had to save his friends. He had to pretend to be stronger than he was. Let the Injustice League underestimate him.

Except it wasn't the Injustice League.

He flew fast, colliding with who he saw as Cheetah - a villainous that could keep Wonder Woman on her toes; best to take her out fast. But it wasn't Cheetah. He collided with Kenna, shoving her against the far wall, creating a crater in the wall. It happened so fast. It took a moment for a reaction.

"Superboy?!" Ken yelled, startled.

Josh already had a bataraang out and ready. "He's not thinking straight. It's the poison!"

"I'm thinking clearly!" Travis snapped, grabbing Kenna by the front of her shirt and slamming her back against the wall. She swung out, cracking her fist against the side of his head. He sent a hard punch under her ribs and heard her breath hitch. He grabbed her by her ankle and swung her, throwing her across the room. She collided with the controls for the zeta-tube, was momentarily electrocuted from it and passed out.

A look of fury actually flashed across Ken's face. He looked at Travis for a quick second before he took off, flying at the half-Kryptonian and shoving him into the wall. "Superboy, it's us!" But Travis didn't see him. He saw Bizarro.

"I know who you are," Travis replied as he grabbed Ken's head and yanked it down just as he brought his knee up. He slammed his knee against Ken's head punched him three times in a row - twice on the head, once in his gut. He threw Ken with just as much force at Nate, hoping they'd collide and go down, the moment he thought he saw Nate - he saw Black Manta - move even an inch.

"What the Hell is wrong with him?!" Cirna asked, hands glowing as she prepared to cast a spell.

"What did you do with my friends?!" Travis demanded, now locked in battle with Laura. They were in the air, both flying. He saw Metallo, not his friend. Laura managed to get behind him and Austa flew up, reaching out to touch his temple.

"Superboy, let me into your mind, I can help you," Austa pleaded, placing her hands at his temples. But he didn't see her. He saw Malefic.

"Don't touch me!" Travis snapped. He pushed back, away from Austa and then up, rotating so his back and Laura slammed against the ceiling. He did that until Laura slumped and slipped off his back. He caught her by her hair and flung her. She slammed into Austa, sending both of them to the ground hard, the two girls landing on Ishi. He fired off a heat vision, which Carlos and Raptor jumped to the side to avoid.

"Bring him down!" Harvey ordered.

"On it!" Cirna replied, raising her hands.

Travis' eyes narrowed on her. As she began to chant, he dove down at her, causing her to stop mid-sentence and leap out of the way. Harvey threw his pocket-knife, but Travis caught it and tossed it to the ground. He frowned. Harvey was trying to distract him. He shot his heat vision, making a circle of fire around Arthur, who immediate froze in place, eyes wide. He flew at Harvey and tackled him. He grabbed his wrist and twisted, hearing it snap. Harvey cried out. Travis only let go of his wrist a second before he kicked out at his chest, sending Harvey back hard against the wall. The leader of Rider's Deck crumpled to the floor, groaning.

Next he was on Arthur, grabbing his head and slamming him down into the ground. The force was strong enough to knock him out. He grunted, annoyed, when Raptor was suddenly on his back, nails transformed into sharp claws and sinking into his shoulders. Raptor hisses viciously, his vampire fangs out. He sank his fangs into Travis' neck, the act much easier with the poisoning weakening the Teen of Steel's invulnerability. Travis made a sound of pain and reached back and snatched Raptor.

"Raptor!!" Carlos cried out, terrified for his brother. His fear was obvious on his face. He wasn't ready to get back in action. He wanted to get away, to get to safety, but he couldn't leave his little brother.

Travis threw Raptor to the floor, the demon yelping on impact. Carlos ran and then dropped to his knees, sliding to Raptor. He lurched forward, wrapped his arms around him and pushed down, phasing the both of them through the floor just before Travis foot stomped on the ground where Raptor's chest would have been.

He turned, seeing just Josh and Olivia left, assuming the Amazon he'd thrown had managed to knock Nate out. He shot his heat vision out, frying a bataraang in Josh's hand.

The Boy Wonder cursed and shot a quick, serious glance at the video-screen. "Call the League! We'll try to keep him at bay!"

Olivia turned thinking she heard some footsteps behind her, the League can't be there now? That was when she spotted Travis. He was looking worse then usual, earlier he had looked like he was on death's door but now he looked more like someone that belonged in a grave. She was scared for him and didn't think she would trust herself after all was said and done. No more bombs no more master plots, not if it kept hurting everyone around her. People like Travis.

She took a hesitant step back after seeing the look on his face, "Superboy?" Then he launched himself at Kenna and she swore rather loudly. Arrows there had to be some Arrows around here. She grabbed her quiver and drew an arrow back putting Travis in her sights. She pulled back, those were real arrows not he lovely trick arrows her family was so fond of. She didn't know if it would actually hurt him or not. She let loose the arrow missing her mark as Travis rushed around the room. On her best day she wasn't the greatest archer around, she doubted even her father would have trouble hitting a speeding bullet.

Serenity was already rushing to the computer a moment before things started to get out of hand. She wished she had had another ten minutes to wake up then she could have at least been awake enough to see this coming, she should have been watching to see this. Superboy going crazy wasn't supposed to happen for another while. How could she miss something like this. "Sorina stay away from that control panel." She stopped the bird from landing before she could short circuit the wiring. She started entering in Athena's passwords to get into the emergency frequencies, she was going to have to have a chat with Josh about getting her own computer access codes.

Nate was reacting differently he was drawing the water from the pipes about to lash out in an attempt to control Superboy the water began to swirl around him starting to destroy what was left of the electronics in the room, a giant wave tended to short out electronics. He'd help rebuild them later if he could start to direct it at Superboy and help stop his friend from doing any more damage. The water wasn't enough to stop a flying Wonderboy. Water crashed around the floor as Nate lost consciousness.

Ollie looked on horrified as Travis took out everyone on both teams. Carlos was running and now it was up to her and Josh to take out. "Travis just stop it this isn't you. Please just stoOOO" She hadn't meant to screech but it was out now, she was hoping against hope that it would slow him down enough for Josh to subdue him.

Serenity had managed to break through Robin's many firewalls and was opening a channel to the league, "There's an emergency at Mount Justice, Superboy needs to be subdued he's taken out two teams of heroes, send Superman. NOW!"

Travis covered his ears at the scream. Josh was already looking at Olivia, scared.

"Arrow, stop," Josh tried to plead to his friend, "It's not him. He's not thinking right." But he seemed too late.

Travis pushed against the scream until he was right in front of Olivia. He struck out, clasping her throat and cutting off the scream. He lifted her off the ground and watched her for a second. He no longer saw them as villains, but his mind wasn't any clearer. He wasn't thinking straight. He was angry with them, with life.

"You did this to me," he said, the hurt evident in his voice, but it melted into anger. "You betrayed all of us! We trusted you! You turned around and joined criminals! You did this to me!" He turned and threw her. She hit the ground and slid on the smooth floor until she collided with the wall and fell limp.

Travis' eyes met with Josh's for a moment. He saw the fear there. Then Josh threw something down and smoke erupted in the room. When it faded - the smoke alarm now blaring - the Boy Wonder was gone. But he knew Josh. He knew where he'd go.

Josh crawled through the vents, trying to put as much distance between himself and Travis as possibly. He needed to get to his room. He needed to open a lead safe he had there that his father had insisted he have. He'd heard before the water had fried the systems that Serenity had contacted the League. He just needed to keep Travis preoccupied until then - God help them if Travis decided he was pissed off at Happy Harbor - and try to contact help as well. He had his usual wrist communicator with the earpiece in, but he had to keep moving. He had to put distance between--

The vent shook and dropped drastically. Josh managed to curse before he found himself sliding down and out of the vent. He turned his slide into a roll and pushed himself to his feet. He quickly took in his surroundings. The vent had been yanked from the wall - that was going to be expensive to fix - and lay like a slide toward the floor. He was in the boiler room. The lights were off. He reached to his mask, switching the night vision on. Where was Travis? He tried to calm his breathing. Travis might be able to hear him. Hell he might be able to hear his heart's rapid beats.

His training kicked in. He'd sparred against Travis plenty of times. He tapped his wrist communicator, switching the frequency to the League's - he knew his father always listened in on the League and used the same frequency in case he was needed. He reached to his ear and turned his communicator on.

"Da--" he started, hoping his father could give him advice on where to go, what to use if he couldn't get to the safe, but he was cut off by a sharp tug to his cape. He stumbled back but quickly reacted, unclipping the cape from his shoulders and letting it fall off. He pulled his bow-staff from his belt and clicked the button that elongated it. He swung his staff out, but Travis caught it. Josh personally wasn't surprised - the bow-staff had been the first thing he'd grabbed from his utility belt. He didn't think any of his weapons would make much damage. He needed to get to that safe.

But he didn't think he'd get the chance.

"We're in the Mount Justice boiler room," he said out-loud, hoping the League was listening in to the frequency. Apparently they were.

"Robin, what's happening?" his father's voice crackled through the comm.

Travis yanked the bow-staff out of his grasp and snapped it in half, tossing it to the ground. "You could have saved me."

"Superboy, you're not thinking straight," Josh insisted. Travis just stood there for a moment. Josh darted and snatched up the two halves of the bow-staff, using them like escrima sticks. But Travis was already on him. He was grabbed by the front of his vest and slammed back against some pipes with enough force to dent them slightly and bruise his back.

"Robin!"

He could hear the worry in Bruce's voice. His father may have been hard on him sometimes, but there was no doubting that he cared a lot. Josh gasped when he found Travis' hand on his throat. The force wasn't enough to break anything, but it startled him.

"You could have saved me," Travis sneered, "I believed in you. I trusted you."

Josh felt his eyes water behind his mask, his voice choked. He was scared of his best friend. He clawed at Travis' hand on his throat. "I-I know. TK, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Travis' expression softened. His hand left Josh's throat and he pulled the Boy Wonder into a hug. Josh's guard immediately fell and he wrapped his arms around his best friend's neck, clinging onto him. Travis was back to himself. It'd worn off.

Except it hadn't.

Alarms went off in Josh's mind when he tried to pull away and he found the hug was too tight. He pushed against Travis' shoulders, trying to get away. "Travis, let go!" He could make out on the other end his father's voice, talking to someone else, worried and rushed. He sounded like he was telling someone to hurry up, informing them the zeta tubes were broken at Mount Justice. The hug got tighter and tighter until Josh felt something crack and cried out. He swung a punch at Travis' head but all that did was hurt his own hand. Another crack, another rib broken. He struggled frantically, trying to get away, trying to land some blow that would hurt his friend. It was getting too tight. He could feel the pressure on his back.

Travis dropped him and he crumpled to the floor, wrapping his arms around his ribs and groaning.

"You could have saved me," Travis snapped, bending down. He grabbed Josh's throat again and pulled him up, standing up straight. He lifted him until Josh's feet weren't on the ground. Josh struggled, gasping, clawing at Travis' hand. But he couldn't get free. Travis held him until he went limp. He dropped him, and Josh fell to the ground, out cold.

The half-Kryptonian screamed in frustration and punched a hole in the wall. He took off, flying through the ceiling and then out of the mountain. He looked out at Happy Harbor, but lurched forward. He coughed into his hand and had to land, retching out blood. His body shook. Nothing made him feel better. Why didn't anything work?

NPC of Clark Kent

He’d been in space, breaking up a rather large comet that was on trajectory toward Earth, when he received the message from Bruce.

“Superman.”

“Yeah?”

“There’s a problem at Mount Justice. You need to get there. Now.”

He paused, worry nipping at his gut. “What-?”

“It’s Travis.”

And like that, he was flying, tearing through space back toward Earth. The comet be damned, someone else could take care of that. It wasn’t an immediate threat anyway. This, this was his son. There wasn’t a force in the universe that could keep him away. Bruce’s voice was in his ear, telling him to hurry and that the zetas were broken. He only paid it half mind, ‘cause he could get there just as quick as zeta.

He was at Mount Justice in less than a minute, tearing through the entrance. Bruce could pay for it to be repaired later. His ears instantly picked up on the sound of the struggle downstairs, and he was flying down the stairs. He was in the room in less than a second and collecting the sight before him. Travis’s friends were out cold, the room was rather destroyed, and his son- his son was not behaving like his son. What the hell had someone done to him?

“Travis,” he said, taking a cautious step forward and holding his hands up in a placating manner. “Tell me what’s wrong, son.”

Travis was taking in shallow breaths, staring at his blood on the ground. It hurt to be near it because of the Kryptonite in it. He clutched his head, which was pounding. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he didn't see Mount. Justice. The base flickered out of existence and became the Kent farm. He was back in the living room. There was a large whole in the wall and a large amount of blood on the floor. He stumbled to his feet, approaching the hole - but in reality, that part of the wall was unharmed. It was whole. There wasn't a gaping hole in it. There wasn't a pool of his mother's blood there.

"Mom?" he softly called out. His throat burned from retching blood all day. He stumbled closer to the wall. "Mom?!" He'd lost her again. He'd failed to save her again. He wasn't a child this time, he was a trained hero. He should have been able to save her. He looked around as if in a daze, seeing his friends as Injustice Leaguers he had some how managed to knock out.

His head snapped up when he heard Clark. His eyes had become bloodshot. He looked like he was on death's door. And he didn't see his dad. His mind registered him as a Kryptonian, but as Zod. His mind put together that his home was in danger and the man in front of him had taken his mom.

"Where did you take her?!" he practically screamed, "What did you do to my mom?!"

NPC for Clark Kent

He visibly flinched when his son called for his mom. He was hallucinating, obviously, but the agony his son was experiencing was clear. He knew his whole family- himself included –had been suffering since Lois’s disappearance. Truly, Clark could feel himself reaching the end of his rope, barely able to contain his own desperation most of the time.

“Travis,” he pleaded, “It’s me, your dad.” He remembered the days when Travis was young and he wanted nothing more than to swoop the boy away. Away from this life and anything that could pose the slightest danger. Eventually, mostly thanks to Lois’s wisdom, he’d managed to get his constant worry under control.

“Son.” He reached to place a hand on Travis’s shoulder. “It’s alright.”

Travis couldn't hear what he was saying, it was blurred, fuzzy. He felt like he'd flown to high and his ears needed to pop. But Zod was saying something to him. He was coming toward him. He was reaching toward him. This man who could rival his dad in strength was going to attack him. He wouldn't survive. His breath hitched with fear and his eyes glowed red.

"STAY BACK!" he screamed out of fear. His heat vision struck out, aimed right for Zod's chest. Right after, he flew into the air and as fast as he could, got out of that room, trying to put distance between himself and Zod. He fully believed the man wanted to kill him. He landed in the rec room, panting from the energy he'd used up. He didn't have much left. He reached and turned his comm on.

"Dad?" he said in his comm, over the League frequency he knew his dad would be on. "Dad, Zod's at the base - M-Mount. Justice. Dad, I can't fight him, please, he took Mom."


"Travis," it was Bruce.

Travis' voice shook. "U-Uncle Bruce?"

"Travis, Zod's not there," Bruce sounded so sure, but Travis had seen him. "It's Clark."

Travis frantically shook his head though he didn't know if Bruce could see him. "N-No! It's him! The - the Injustice League, they were here! I-I fought them but I can't fight Zod. P-Please I need my dad. Dad? Dad, are you there?"

"Travis--"

He choked back a sob, tightly hugging himself. "Daddy, please."

NPC for Clark Kent

Ignoring his own pain, and the wetness gathering in his own eyes as his son pleaded for him, he focused on calming his son down. He skidded back a few inches and gritted his teeth when his son’s heat vision struck him. Compared to previous experiences, Travis’s heat vision wasn’t much.

He listened as Travis talked to Bruce, noticing how Travis was quickly losing his energy. He swooped in, wrapping his arms around his son, despite his struggles. “Sssh, I’m here, son. I’m here. Everything’s going to be alright.” What was it Lois had said to him when he was a kid and afraid of monsters? “The monsters can’t fly.”

Travis tried to struggle, tried to kick his way out of Zod's arms. He screamed, cried out for his dad to help him. Bruce had gone silent in his ear. Why wasn't Bruce calling his dad? Where was his dad? He continued to scream for Clark until he broke out in a coughing fit, doubling over in his dad's arms. The coughing left a trickle of blood on his chin. He stared at the floor for what felt like hours, but wasn't nearly that long. His eyes grew moist until he was sobbing, his whole body shaking. He hadn't cried this much since the day his dad had come home and he'd had to tell him his mom was gone. It had been years since he'd felt this way. He wanted it to end, he wanted to end. But at the same time...

"I don't want to die," he sobbed. He cried so hard he coughed and retched, but nothing came out so all he was doing was dry heaving that scorched his throat. He fell limp in Clark's arms, tears streaming down his face.

NPC for Clark Kent

He was horrified, absolutely horrified. Something agonizing was happening to his son and he had no idea what it was or how to stop it. But he had to, because he was the boy’s father, and he’d made a vow to keep him safe from the moment he came into the world. He couldn’t break that promise. Not that one.

“You’re not going to die, son” he said, voice thick and shoulders sagged with the weight of the promise he just made. He would go to the end of the universe to make sure his son was helped. He’d already lost Lois- for now, she was out there, somewhere –and he couldn’t lose his son. He couldn’t let Lois or his son down. He’d rather trade in his own life. “It’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright.”

At least he prayed it would be.

tweak:
Takes place during Cadmus arc
Leads into rescuing Carlos McDougal from Cadmus & Arthur Milo returning to Rider's Deck

Rider's Deck had been absent from Jump City just like their hero counterpart. However unlike Young Justice, they had left by their own choice. They had had business that needed to be taken care of. Two of their teammates - well technically former teammates - had been captured by Nebula, one of them had even been resurrected from the dead. A rescue was, of course, called for. Jester, Alice, and Whisper had tracked down two of their teammates, Sorceress and Black Arrow, and not only discussed their current predicament but also the future of their team.

Harvey had always seen great things for Rider's Deck. At first the team had had the potential to be feared villains in his opinion, but now he saw much more. He wanted to be as powerful as the Injustice League. He wanted to be respected. After discussing with his teammates, they had decided to split the team into two factions. One would remain in Jump City, led by Jester, to help the fight against Nebula as best as they could. The other would travel the world, led by Sorceress, recruiting young supers and growing their numbers. However that meant that Black Arrow and Sorceress would be unable to help with the rescue mission. They'd be kept updated, though.

So that was how the trio ended up back in Jump. They would discuss the rescue mission with Robin when Young Justice returned to Jump City, but until then, they had planned on alerting the Titans. That was until they'd seen what was left of Titan Tower. They'd stared for what felt like hours at where the large T had once stood with mixed feelings. Concern and wonder mostly. Harvey had questioned out-loud why they had never thought to blow up the Tower when they had been villains, to which Ishi had reminded him about the bomb Black Arrow had let off in one of the bedrooms of the Tower what felt like years ago.

But how were they to contact the Teen Titans now? Raptor had attempted a fire-message, writing down a time and place on a piece of paper and then burning it with a spell, hoping it'd appear to the Titans. None of them were sure if it worked or not, but they waited at the Roundhouse with ten minutes to go until the time they'd chosen. Ishi had gone into the Cage several times while they'd been waiting, using her teleportation and anger to kick the crap out of some guys. The crowd found her entertaining and there was no hiding that she liked the attention. She also liked being able to take out her frustration by physically hurting someone.

She strode over to the two boys, Harvey downing a glass of Coke while Raptor sipped at some milk. She snatched up her own drink, a Gatorade and took some gulps before setting it down. She leaned back against the wall, next to the two boys. She vaguely wondered if they were anywhere but in Jump, in their costumes like they currently were, would they draw more odd looks? Perhaps someone would even call the police? They probably would have blended in the most in Gotham, she thought. Costumed freaks were very common. And the three of them were certainly freaks.


WORDS:; 548
OUTFITS:; costumes
TAG:; Anna, @reni, @irazehl
MUSE:; Alive by Superchick
NOTES:; Left open in case other Titans wanted to come? IDK, enjoy!

She was late. Nice first impression, Lolli. She wanted this team thing to work. Not only ‘cause her mentor was a founding member, but because she wanted to build a reputation and respect outside of that. Besides, she liked the team so far. She didn’t want them to think she was some flake. Then again, their tower had just exploded, perhaps tardiness due to a late photoshoot wasn’t one of their priorities.

She entered the Roundhouse, eyeing her surroundings curiously. She found the Cage crude, yet interesting. If it wasn’t for keeping up pretenses, she’d probably want to give it a try, if she was being honest with herself. She walked up to the bar and perused the menu. God, she couldn’t wait until she could legally drink. Not like she planned on getting drunk. It’d just be nice to have a beer or something fun for once. “Diet Coke, please.” She leaned against the bar as she waited, eyes landing on the table in the corner where it looked the meeting was being held. She ignored a guy who not-so-subtly slid up next to her on the bar. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes as he kept glancing at her. The bartender gave her her drink then and she thanked him with a smile and good tip.

“Sorry I’m late,” she apologized as she sat herself in a chair at the table. She glanced at each face, some familiar, some not as much. Some were very familiar. “Hey Ollie. Been a bit.” She gave a friendly smile that was sincere. While she wasn’t exactly fond of some of Olivia’s choices, she was still a good friend of hers from her childhood. She was definitely interested in catching up later, but for now, it was time for business.

It was odd, meeting with heroes and especially non-heroes with no disguise, but they already knew Josh’s identity, so she figured hers wasn’t that big of a deal.

339
Outfit
@lots o' people

535 words	@reni, RD, Titans, open
costumes, Josh	whoop there it is

Ishi had no clue who the stranger was that had just put a hat on Raptor, and she wasn't sure if Raptor knew or not, but her teammate simply mewed, despite being in human form, and adjusted the hat. Harvey promptly took his domino mask off. She considered her team lucky that their costumes were street clothes. She shifted, her hair turning blonde and her skin becoming Caucasian. Her eyes remained orange.

"We weren't made aware," Ishi stated, the frustration clear in her voice. "Josh would have told us, I'm sure, but we haven't seen him." She wasn't sure how they were supposed to know metas were suddenly being hunted down. They hadn't even known the Tower had been destroyed until they'd returned! It wasn't as if they watched the news. And besides, they were former criminals, they knew how to hide and stay low.

The National Guard, however, they had noticed. The trio just hadn't thought much of it. Raptor didn't know what the National Guard was, and Harvey and Ishi had assumed they were after some mega-villain. Perhaps Josh had actually convinced them to come help with Nebula? Doubtful, but still a possibility.

"Aren't the National Guard supposed to be the good guys?" Harvey asked the blonde, genuinely curious. "Why are they after metas? They do realize Superman's a meta? Well, alien, but whatever, same thing. Are they going to arrest the Big Blue?"

Ishi lightly rolled her eyes. Arresting Superman or any member of the League didn't seem likely. The government could try, but she didn't think they'd succeed. She subtly glanced at Peter, a nice face to see back around again. She wondered why Harvey had taken him back so quickly, so easily, when betrayal was something Harvey got very bitter over.

She followed Harvey, who followed Athena to a better seat, gesturing for Olivia to leave the bar and follow them so she could stay involved in the conversation. Raptor sat down between Ishi and Harvey like a child between his parents. His tail was gone, and his ears too, Ishi guessed, though he kept the hat on.

Ishi didn't particularly know Lyola, but she'd heard Josh talk about her and seen her picture on Josh's phone, amongst his contacts, so she vaguely knew who she was.

"Nothing much," the shape-shifter replied to Irazehl when she heard him speak up, "Just started, really."

Harvey, though, already had his attention on Athena, but right as he went to answer, a familiar voice piped up from behind, sending butterflies all throughout Ishi.

"And we'll do whatever we can to help your team." It was Josh, dressed in civvies. He took a seat on the other side of Harvey, which Ishi found disappointing. His eyes lingered on her, she noticed, a moment longer before he looked to Harvey.

"Two of our members are being held by Nebula," Harvey stated matter-of-factly.

Ishi could see the way Josh paled at the mention of Nebula. He looked at everyone around them, noticing Peter and Olivia. He frowned.

"Wait, who?" he asked, clearly confused. "Cirna's the only one I don't see here."

"Well," Harvey added, "They're technically former members."

Josh's confusion only seemed to increase. "Who?"

"Arthur and Carlos."

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

330 WORDS	TAG: @peeps
OUTFIT	NOTES: idk

put on your shades

She did feel kind of guilty for using the nickname Olivia hated. She had often referred to her as that as a kid, so it slipped out sometimes. While she couldn’t exactly relate with Olivia’s relationship with her father, she sympathized. It made her all the more thankful for Dick. While she hardly ever referred to him as her father- she’d called him “Uncle Dick” for as long as she could remember, probably because the man had never wanted to force himself into a father role for her –it was clear that was what he was to her. She didn’t need to refer to him as such in order for them both to know that. He was the only parental figure she’d really known. Her biological father had ditched as soon as he found out. Her mother had been forced out of her life and died a few years later. And she barely remembered her grandparents. Her mentor was the most important person in her life, to be honest.

She smiled at Olivia and nodded. “I will.” Perhaps she could get her mentor to talk some sense into Oliver, though she was sure he’d probably already attempted to do so.

She glanced toward the familiar voice of her cousin, making an entrance as usual. She smirked slightly. She remembered when he was just a little boy, now here he was leading a team and making a name for himself. She hoped she could earn the respect he’s managed to gain around here.

She devoted her focus to the conversation then, listening in silently until a time for input came. She raised an eyebrow as an unfamiliar blonde- Serenity, she thinks, going through the list of people Josh had briefly described to her –pulled out the floor plans to the Nebula base. She eyed the plans over, before turning her attention to Serenity as Olivia asked the obvious question. Good, so she wasn’t the only one out of the loop here.

'cause I'll be dancing in the flames

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

465 words	@reni, Titans, RD
costumes, Josh	enjoy! <3

Josh listened to both sides, quietly, calculating. When it came to battle strategy, the Bats weren't that bad, in fact they were very good. Whether he was as good as his relatives, that remained to be seen, though he liked to think he was.

He nodded to Athena. "Any member of my team will be willing to help." He was speaking for them, of course, but he didn't think they'd have an issue with that. While listening, he was going over his teammates strengths in his head, trying to figure out who could help the most. At the mention of a teleporter, though, he looked across from Harvey, who was watching him, knowing he was the better of the two of them when it came to strategy.

"Alice's a teleporter," he pointed out. Ishi blinked, surprised to be brought up, and looked at him, their eyes meeting briefly, for a moment but his gaze lingered on her barely a moment longer before he looked back to address the group.

"I have no problem using a known villain and the National Guard," he said. He saw Harvey shrug out of the corner of his eye and knew that the leader of Rider's Deck didn't have an issue with that either, though he hadn't thought he would. The list of what Harvey didn't have a problem doing could fill a whole trilogy of books.

"Nebula aren't known villains, though," Ishi pointed out.

Josh nodded. "The world seems to think they're a group that helps out charities, that they're devoted to making the world a better place."

"The public believes whatever bullshit Nebula throws at them," Harvey grumbled, folding his arms across his chest.

"If a wanted meta or hero is hiding out at Nebula," Josh continued, looking to Irazehl. "And I agree that that will draw in the National Guard, but will they still open fire on Nebula? They might just storm the building and I'd say that's still good, but Nebula hides what they don't want people to know about and they hide it well."

"Why can't Alice just teleport in, grab them, and get out?" Raptor's voice piped up, sitting next to Ishi like a quiet child, timid.

Ishi shook her head. "I have to be able to picture where I'm going and we don't know where they're being held exactly."

"If we have Hatty," Harvey added, already having come up with an annoying name for Blackhat. He'd never heard of Blackhat before, but he was willing to use him. "Blow up the building, how do we know my teammates won't be killed in the process?" He looked the Shift and Josh as if accusing the two leaders of not caring about his teammates. After all, they were former criminals, but to him, they were family.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

310 WORDS	TAG: @lots o' peeps
OUTFIT	idk

put on your shades

She listened silently as everyone planned, glancing between the faces as each spoke. She wasn’t particularly keen on using anyone as bait, but she wasn’t sure if there was a better alternative. She perked, though, and leaned forward on the table when it was brought up that the public wasn’t aware of Nebula’s villain activities. “Proposition: while we’re at this whole rescue thing, we steal some less than glamorous Nebula files that just happen to be leaked to the press. Two birds, one stone.” Her hacking skills were sufficient, but she was sure that there was someone else more proficient who could get the job done.

The plan was formulating in her mind as each step seemed to come into place. “I can be on the covert team.” It seemed natural, as she’d been trained in stealth more so than some other vigilantes. She knew how to stick to the shadows and use them to her advantage. She knew how to check for security cameras and figure out their blind spots. Of course, she’d go wherever she was told in the end, as she knew she could contribute to either one. “The best candidates for the distraction are probably the known villains.” Or whatever they are, she thought, gesturing toward the members of Rider’s Deck. “They’re more likely to get a more immediate reaction, and we heroes don’t have to worry about possibly screwing up our public reputation anymore.” She leaned back slightly, pleased with how quickly this plan was coming into place. She’d been slightly hesitant, at first, to join the Titans and get involved in the City, having never been on a team before. But she could definitely see herself working with these people. Well, she still wasn’t entirely sure what Rider’s Deck’s stance was, but as long as they weren’t committing crimes, she didn’t have a problem.

'cause I'll be dancing in the flames

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

412 words	END
costumes, josh	I'll start the next thread soon <3

Josh admittedly wasn't fond of how the plan was going. Bombs? The National Guard? He didn't like the sound of it. He stared at the files in front of him. They'd be inside Nebula's Jump base. What if Nebula's leader was there? What if he could find him, confront him...?

"Three teams," he stated, glancing at everyone around the table. "Led by myself, Athena, and Lolli." He met Harvey's gaze when the blonde raised an eyebrow. "Who's more likely to pull this off? Trained heroes or you guys, no offense?"

Harvey didn't even hesitate. "Heroes."

Josh nodded. "Anyways, Lolli leads a covert team who's mission is to get information on Nebula. Once we have the information back at our base, we'll figure out what to do with it. Any information, paper files or computer, if it looks useful, take it. Take Ishi, Raptor, and Peter with you."

He turned to Athena. "You're best to lead the rescue mission and you're most likely to run into someone tough from Nebula, guarding those two. Nebula's not stupid, they'll know we want Carlos and Arthur back. I suggest take some heavy-hitters, but also the rescue should be covert too. There's a chance, even with files leaked, we won't be able to convince the public Nebula's bad. And if we can't, we don't want to be attached to an attack on Nebula publicly."

He tapped the papers Serenity had brought with her. "Superboy is... unable to help. I say you take Irazehl - who better to kick ass than a ninja? - Harvey, Cirna, Lian, Olivia, and Serenity."

He could see the question forming, so he quickly continued, "I'll lead a team with Kenna and Ken to distract Nebula, without getting the attention of the National Guard. We don't need the League on our asses for them thinking we weren't cautious enough. If things go south and we need the National Guard, we'll have a fail-safe plan with the other Titans and East Titans to get the Guard's attention somehow on Nebula's base."

There was a reason why the team he'd lead only had his own teammates on it, but he wasn't leaving it up for debate. He wasn't trying to boss everyone around; he genuinely thought he had a good plan. He had... other interests with this mission, with his team's part of the mission. If it went south, he'd need Ken and Kenna's help.  He'd need their help to keep him from doing something he'd later regret.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

Tweak:

Josh had been absent from Jump City for a bit - if it weren't for the Titans, he would have said it was longer than he liked. But the Titans could handle their city after all. He couldn't think of a city that didn't have some hero to save it, and even if there were one, a Flash or Super could easily get there to help. So where was the Boy Wonder and why wasn't he in Jump City? His team had, in fact, been asked back to their main base at Mount Justice. He hadn't like the idea of leaving Rider's Deck alone at the base - he trusted them to a degree; and trusted some members (Ishi, though he wouldn't say that to Harvey and Raptor's faces) more than others.

But Harvey had apparently been planning on taking a leave from Jump as well. Something about tying up loose ends. He'd refused to divulge any more information to the hero group, just that he'd be taking Raptor and Ishi with him. So with that, Josh had sent a message to Athena - he hoped she'd received it, he hadn't had time to check for a reply - that his team was being called away temporarily by the League and that she wouldn't have to worry about Rider's Deck because they had some quest to go on for themselves, he'd attempted to joke by comparing their quest to searching for Oz.

So what had the League wanted? Several things, actually. His father had been there, which was unnerving since Bruce Wayne was, probably not willingly, retired. And Batman, Dick Grayson, had been there as well. Josh could practically feel the disappointment rolling off of his father, though to this day he hoped it was his imagination. All of his teammates had been there and considering several of them didn't stay at the Jump City temporary base and instead were often off helping their mentors, he automatically assumed something was terribly wrong. But it couldn't have been that bad because not all of the Leaguers were there and other teams like the Titans and East Titans hadn't been called.

Turned out that the League had been made aware of his team's partnership with Rider's Deck, known convicted criminals - at least some of them had been convicted before. And the League wasn't happy about it, especially the part where they'd neglected to inform them. He and Travis had just stood there, taking the lectures like good sidekicks, but he'd noticed Travis flinch when Superman put in his two cents. They'd taken the lecture, the constant how can you trust them that was occasionally said but mostly implied. They'd taken it until Josh had cracked.

"It was my decision!" he'd snapped back suddenly. He'd gestured to his teammates. "I didn't give them much of a choice in the matter."

"That's not true," Kenna had spoken up, hand grasped in Travis', their fingers intertwined. "We all had a say in it." The look she had given him told him none of them were going to let him take the blame for this.

Josh had put on his best mask, an emotionally calm mask and faced Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman - later, he'd describe that moment to his sister as something that he was surprised didn't make him pee his pants. "Rider's Deck was there when we failed badly," he'd explained. He hadn't been making excuse, he was telling them the facts. The only thing his team referred to as their greatest failure was the city they'd failed to save from massacre. He thought, no he knew it had effected the way the League viewed them.

"Do I trust them one-hundred percent? As much as I trust the League or the Titans?" he'd continued, "Hell no. Probably contrary to popular belief, but I'm not the dumbest bird. We believe a strong threat has come to Jump City and we are aiding the Titans in finding them and taking them out because the larger our numbers, the better chance I believe we have." He'd looked pointedly at some of the Leaguers. "A threat that I have notified the League on and have received no offer of help, unless you secretly sent Nightwing to Jump to help, but I seriously doubt that." He'd ignored the look he'd got from his father - the typical I'm not happy with you look he'd grown up with. "We made a treaty with Rider's Deck because shocker! They want that threat gone too, they want revenge just like we do, I won't deny that."

He'd seen the comment forming on Dick's lips and answered it before it was even asked, "I know revenge isn't sweet, it's a double-edged sword that will kill us as we're satisfying it. I'm not an idiot. Revenge is only part of what's driving us and that won't go away." He looked straight into his father's eyes, something he'd rarely gotten the courage to do. "Taking down Nebula is more personal to me than you will ever fully understand. We made a treaty with Rider's Deck so we'd only have one big bad to fight in Jump. Rider's Deck is neutral now. Do I believe that? Yes. Do I think they'll always stay neutral? That they won't become villains again? No, I can't see into the future. I don't know what the Hell will happen. They could become heroes for all I know - God knows at least some of them have that potential."

He'd looked toward Green Arrow and Black Canary. "You're daughter as a matter of fact, has that potential. I still believe in her." He'd looked to his teammates and upon recieving nods from each of them added, "We still believe in her. Perhaps we have more hope than you'd like, but that's how we are and you can't train that out of us."

"Rider's Deck is our problem, our responsibility," Hunt, or Austa J'onzz, as he knew her better, had spoken up, pushing the hood of her costume off. "If things go south, we'll make sure there's nothing that they can use against the League. No information, no leverage. We're hardly children anymore. And if this is some big mistake, then it's our mistake to make. Our lesson to learn that we have to learn on our own."

The rest of the conversation hadn't gone terrible. However it had ended with them sort of "grounded" - he'd sent another message to Athena, letting her know he wouldn't be returning to Jump any time soon. Their "grounding" was basically them being glued back to their mentors' sides, fighting crime in their home turf, while the League claimed to be keeping in contact with the Titans in case Nebula showed their ugly head. Josh had always had faith in the League, he trusted them with his life, but he wasn't sure if he always believed them.

So where was the Boy Wonder currently? Why fighting crime in Gotham City of course - and avoiding Batman. In his opinion, his older brother was much more reasonable than his father, but he couldn't face him. He was an angry teenage boy at the moment and that's how he wanted to stay. He was allowed to throw some teenage tantrums. Though currently he was getting a staff whipped at him. He narrowly dodged, somehow managing to stay on his feet. He was almost at the top of a construction site - a new casino he thought it was going to be - and he was facing off against Amanda Nigma, or Riddle as she preferred to be called. He'd arrested her a few months back, but her father, the Riddler, had apparently had spare time to break her out.

"RIDDLE ME THIS BOY WONDER!" she cried dramatically, twirling her question-mark staff like a baton. "Everyday I stalk you all day long. With every move you make, I never make one wrong. I vanish twice a day with the sun's height and fall. I will follow you anywhere, even the bathroom stall. What am I?"

Robin hated riddles. They were easy enough to solve but an annoying pain in his ass at the same time. He took out a birdarang - seriously, who had named those? He certainly hadn't. - and threw it at her. "Crazy?" he quipped. He knew it wasn't the answer, but she certainly was crazy.

She brought her staff up and deflected the weapon. Her face contorted with anger. "No!" The tip of her staff moved, revealing a gun-like machine that promptly started firing bullets at him.

Robin mentally cursed and dodged to the side. "Seriously, Riddle, when was the last time you took some meds?" He was getting on her nerves. Good. He needed to throw her off. But his focus was on her. He was knocked off his feet by what felt like a metal pole slamming into his face. He made a pained noise and fell down, soon finding a foot pressed hard against his chest.

"She's your shadow, little bird," the Riddler chimed in, grinning down at him.

He subconsciously wished he hadn't ditched Batman.


WORDS:; 1513
OUTFIT:; Costume
TAG:; Open; I figure there's some people who could pop in Gotham.
MUSE:; I'm Alive by Shinedown
NOTES:; Amanda, Riddler, Austa, and well the League are all NPCs; Austa and Amanda are both on my want ad, though I'd love to see Amanda get picked up more. I figured since I've been gone, so have my characters, so I'd explain a little bit of why YJ has been absent. I'll post a one-shot explaining RD later. Enjoy! Feel free to NPC Amanda and the Riddler! <3 Editing to tag: @amanda

Written by Mandi:

For Amanda Nigma it was a regular day. Earlier that day she had been out and about, looking for a band to join. While she was unsure of her father felt on the matter, she decided to keep it to herself for as long as she could. It was her dream. Sure she loved going out and stealing, but she knew that stealing wasn't the best choice for a career for her. She had met other people that were the children of criminals and what not.

Stealing and robbery was more like a hobby for the daughter of the Riddler. Amanda remembered stealing from a young age, it was what her childhood was filled with. Well stealing and riddles. Earlier while she decided to merely survey the area, a bright and shiny red car had caught her eye. Now the car wasn't anything super fancy or special like a Corvette or a Lambo. The car was a small ruby red colored Bug. It was her favorite car really. And once her eyes had landed on the car, she knew that she had to have it. But she had to ask her father for help.

When Riddle had asked her father for help on stealing the car, it seemed that her father's face lit up with happiness. So of course once they suited up, it was off to steal a car for his baby girl! The only bad thing was; Robin just had to show up. Ever since he had caught & arrested her, she had a small hatred for him.

Of course Riddle just had to ask him a riddle once she saw him. It was what her and her father did. Riddle me this and thus a riddle would surely follow. And thus the two began to fight. Riddle wasn't the best at hand to hand combat, which was why she made sure to have some sort of weapon on her at all times whether it was her staff, a knife, or anything she could get her hands on.

But the fighting stopped when she felt something heavy fall and hit her head. A toolbox had come falling out of the sky randomly, as if some stupid and lazy person had left it out after work. But no. It was the work of Serenity Swanson. "Son of a!" she cried out as she dropped her staff and reached for her head and rubbing where she had been hit. She would definitely have a major headache, bruise and a possible concession later. But her health would have to wait for a moment. Hastily picking up her staff, her eyes narrowed at the newcomer. Now she was at a small dilemma, attack Robin or the new girl?


WORDS:; 452
OUTFIT:; Costume (in her app)
TAG:; @batboy & @reni
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:;Sorry its so short & horrible compared to the rest!

got you all tongue-tied

'cause you're living a lie, my friend

Robin wasn't sure who'd caused the toolbox to strike Riddle, but it was enough to distract her father. "Amanda--?!" the Riddler began to say when the Boy Wonder struck back. He punched behind Riddler's knee, bending the man's leg just enough and bringing him down just enough to grab at the end of his jacket. With the fabric in hand, Robin yanked him down on top of him where he promptly rolled over a couple of times with the villain, each one grappling for control. Robin managed to get on top of the Riddler's back, pinning him down. He took out some bat-cuffs from his utility belt and cuffed the Riddler's hands behind his back. "You know, Riddler," he said as he finished closing and locking the cuffs, "You're tougher when you're not worrying about your daughter." It was strangely nice to see one of Batman's villains actually care - even if his reasons were probably selfish because if his daughter was unharmed, it'd be easier to take out the heroes or at least put up a good fight. Robin's attention was next on Riddle to see if she was alright. She could have been bleeding from her head for all he knew, and his medical training, though not as extensive as his older relatives, told him that that wouldn't have been good. That was when he saw her, the blonde that had caused the toolbox to fall. She looked familiar, perhaps a face on a file he'd read some time ago. He shot the blonde a grateful smile. The smile was brief, though. He noticed Riddle's attention was on the blonde, perfect timing for an attack from behind. However barely a moment later, Robin found himself on the ground again, the Riddler on top of him. The man's elbow jabbed under his ribs and the leader of Young Justice winced. The Riddler jumped to his feet. He wasn't that formidable with his hands behind his back, but he was still formidable. Robin mentally cursed and quickly got to his feet. He'd long ago learned not to underestimate Batman's villains, but he'd been caught up in the moment and hadn't realized just how easy he'd gotten the Riddler. It'd been too easy. "I'd say that was a valiant try, heroes, but I'd be lying. Now, what say we gain the upper hand, daughter?"

muse I'm alive by shinedown Tagged @reni @amanda outfit costume words 393 notes Gods, I write a terrible riddler ><;;

THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY WILMETTA OF CAUTION.

Converted @ Delusional

Written by Mandi:

The throbbing pain in her head would have to wait for later, when Amanda was in a room with lights. It was hard to see if there was any blood, since her gloves were a dark purple color and blood was typically a dark red (depending on how much was shed). Feeling the back of her head a few times, she merely assumed that she was fine. Her father could always check it later.

Rather than focusing on the new girl like she had originally planned, Amanda looked over Robin. He had now cuffed her father, who had managed to escape. With her staff becoming a regular staff again, she looked at her father. He was always her main focus. She wanted him to be safe & nothing bad to ever happen to him. Sure if he had been arrested, he could always break out. After a minute or two had passed of what her father had said, she gave a small nod. "Uh yeah dad" she said to him quietly.

Quickly glancing from Robin to the new girl, Amanda noted a different 'air' between the two. As always, Robin had this extreme sense of justice to him. So much that it almost made Amanda want to gag and puke. It was as if he was trying to be Captain America, in her opinion at least. While the new girl, she had no idea. It seemed as if Amanda could run off & the new girl couldn't have cared less, like her focus was on something else. Riddle smirked at this new opportunity, her car would have to wait another day. Going through her small pouch and pulled out a smoke bomb. "Well lovelies, it was fun asking all of you guys riddles. But this is getting really boring. Bye bye!" she and with that, threw smoke-bomb onto the ground & watched as a thick layer of smoke covered the area. Grabbing her father by the arm, it was now their time to leave. "Come on, we'll get that car another time." she told him. They weren't 'running away', they were picking their fight for another time.


WORDS:; 355
OUTFIT:; Costume (in her app)
TAG:; @batboy & @reni
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; And she is going to sneak away, though it's not like you'll never see her again!

Use as inspiration for some event/arc:

It had been a long time since Sai had partied. He hoped the party would have alcohol. He was underage and Athena and Annette both might get on his ass about it, but he had quickly discovered the reason why adults drank and while alcohol tasted disgusting, it worked very well when one was trying to push down some trauma and pain. And he had a lot of trauma from his past to push down. He wondered who would be attending the party - a costume party for God's sake, and he doubted he could get by with wearing his Quickshot get-up. He knew Young Justice and Rider's Deck - at least he hoped Rider's Deck wouldn't be there - probably wouldn't be attending. He didn't know why, but he'd noticed they hadn't been seen around town lately.

He didn't have much money - though apparently the dollar went farther in the States than it did as a pound back home - but he'd managed to get a costume. He had just grabbed a cop costume because he didn't want to put that much time and money into it. And if someone had a problem with it, they could kiss his rear for all he cared. Halloween reminded him of trick-or-treating with his mum and while they were pleasant memories, they just brought more pain. He vaguely wondered if he'd ever have the courage to tell his father who he was, but quickly pushed past that thought.

He walked into the tower's living room, adjusting his hat. He knew if he'd chosen something like Robin Hood, he would have been made fun of. He gave a curt nod to Shift - it was a green wolf, of course it was her - and then looked at the other girl, forcing his eyes to stay on her face. He wasn't a pig so he wasn't about to look like one.

"Who the bloody Hell are you?" he asked, giving her an odd look. New Titan maybe? It took him a second before he remembered he had other teammates aside from Annette and Naomi. He practically face-palmed. "Right. Alexandra, sorry. Shit, that won't happen again." And by that he meant he'd try not to forget who she was. He did spend a majority of his time working with Athena's team rather than his own, though he still had a strong loyalty to Annette. He felt more needed, more at home in Jump. He studied Alexandra's costume the most subtle he could manage. "What are you supposed to be? Zatanna?"


WORDS:; 420
OUTFIT:; Described in post; cop costume
TAG:; Anna, @kittyempress
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; Look who's back! <3

Sai rolled his eyes, honestly thinking that Alexa- Chae was lucky he remembered her first name. How long had they been teammates? He didn't think it was as long as he had known Annette, but faces tended to melt together after so many new ones. He had to bite back a very rude response to his teammate - something along the lines of her not being memorable. He instead smirked, glancing from Athena to Chae. "Don't worry about me, Jail-bait."

The next thing he knew, his plastic handcuffs were gone and when he found them again, he realized his hands were cuffed behind his back. He was going to joke about it being kinky when he noticed who had done it and the joke quickly died in his throat.

"For the love of God, Naomi," he began to snap before pausing and looking at each sister. He liked to think he'd known them long enough to tell the difference between them at rare times when it wasn't so obvious it was blinding. "Annette?" He looked at his team leader, blue wig and all. Only those two would come up with a costume idea that would give him a headache, he was sure of it. The handcuffs were an easy break, but he'd paid money for them, even if they'd been relatively cheap. He had only so much money - he'd taken as much as he could out of his mum's accounts before leaving England - and he didn't want to waste any of it. The cuffs didn't need a key which was good because they hadn't come with one. "Take these off me." His tone was slightly irritated, though he'd taken a breath and slowly let it out to keep his calm.

To say he didn't like being embarrassed would have been an understatement. He was trying hard to keep the heat on his face hidden, looking anywhere but at who he was certain was the real Naomi - God, she'd probably never let him live it down. It wasn't every day that someone got the drop on him, though he knew it wasn't impossible. The last thing he thought he needed was to be embarrassed by his own leader in front of... Wait, who were some of these people? He recognized Serenity - he'd heard about her, though he could have sworn he'd been told she was blonde - wig, he assumed. He overheard one girl call herself Batgirl and resisted the urge to groan. Another Bat? He vaguely wondered if Robin was aware and mentally smirked at the thought of the Boy Wonder having no clue.

He had utterly no clue who Han Solo or Joan of Arc were. But he guessed if they had access to the Tower, they weren't anyone to worry about.


WORDS:; 461
OUTFIT:; Described in first post
TAG:; Heroes
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; Sorry for the wait <3

One minute he'd been talking to Annette!Naomi, rubbing his wrists out of habit where the handcuffs had been, and the next he was on the floor, a ringing piercing his ears. Someone was talking - no yelling - no screaming. The words barely came to him as if they'd been sifted through too many filters. His vision blurred when he tried to get up to fast and he stumbled back down to his knees. His mind was whirling. What the Hell was going on? As long as he'd been a Titan, both Towers had always been safe, a refuge of sorts when life was kicking his ass.

His first coherent thought was to find Annette. The real Annette, not the AI software. Naomi, he was certain, could take care of herself. Annette couldn't walk. Whatever she'd been using to walk earlier, what if it had broken? A blast like that - what the Hell had caused that? - could have killed anyone on impact, he thought. He could picture her, his team leader, on the ground, getting soaked in her own blood. He saw red, his fingers clenching into tight fists.

The ringing had faded. He forced himself to his feet, his body protesting. He could see Chae creating a force field, getting the others together inside it. His mind still swam but he managed to force his shaking legs to move. He refused to stand there and stare in terror, and he'd never, not even years after this, admit how scared he was. Before the barrier could stop him, he slipped out of the living room and into the hall. He needed to get to his bow.

His heart pounded in his chest as he picked up speed. Soon he was running down the hall toward the spare room he used when he was in Jump. He forced the door open and scrambled inside, moving to his closet and stripping his costume off as he went. He prided himself in being able to multitask; now was putting that to the test. As he took part of the costume off - yanked it off - he replaced it with part of his uniform. In under a minute, though it frustratingly felt like it took forever, he was Quickshot, clad in yellow and red.

He snatched all the different bows he had and folded them so they could hang on his belt. He slung his quiver over his shoulder, making sure the arrows would secure and wouldn't fall out. He grabbed his communicator as he moved quickly to the room's window. He visibly paled. Why? Why was the National Guard there? He cursed and moved to the bed, kneeling down beside it. He lifted the mattress up and stared for a second or two at what he had concealed there. It was a gun, a pistol his mum had owned for protection. He bitterly thought of how it hadn't protected her. He'd taken it with him when he'd left London, but had never used it.

He grabbed it and checked to see if it was loaded. He didn't know if he should have been comforted that it was loaded, ready to use. Instead he felt unnerved. He'd never particularly cared about taking a bad guy's life or not, but he'd never used the gun. He knew how, but had never felt the need to have it. Now he holstered it to his belt with his bows - a recurve bow and a crossbow. He grabbed his compound bow - it couldn't be folded like his other two. With his free hand, he grabbed his communicator.

"I'll create a diversion, you guys get our of here," Quickshot said before hooking the communicator back to his belt. He used the end of his bow to break some of the window. In a swift movement, he had a trick-arrow notched into place and was already pulling back on the bowstring, taking aim.


WORDS:; 657
OUTFIT:; costume
TAG:; all y'all
MUSE:; Mercy by Hurt
NOTES:; didn't really dabble into it, but after losing his mum, Sai's not ready to lose any teammates.

879 words	y'all know who you are
costume	see? he cares!

Time felt slow around the archer. He brought his compound bow up, an arrow notched into place. He took a breath and let it out as he pulled the bowstring taut. He knew that when he released, the National Guard would know where the arrow had come from. They'd be after him, giving his teammates time to get away, giving Chae and Annette time to get to safety. He didn't think he'd escape this without injury, if alive at all. He didn't want to die. He had so much he still needed to do. He had people he needed to hurt. But protecting his teammates was the priority,

Sai let the arrow fly. It sliced through the air and planted itself right by a tank. Barely a second later, the polymer inside it exploded and expanded, covering over half of a tank. He was about to grab another arrow when the next missile hit.

He didn't even have time to spit out a curse. He was suddenly on the ground, half of his spare room gone. He stared, feeling the nip of the wind from outside. The raw emotion was plain to see on his face. To say he was scared would have been an understatement. The Tower - just like the one in Steel City - was like another home for him. The Titans were the closest to a family he currently had. He felt like he was going to loose both. He felt like the child playing hero.

The next thing he knew, he was in a yellow bubble. He looked to see Chae, to give her a grateful look, but it vanished when he saw she wasn't protected. He quickly scrambled to his feet, placing his hand against the bubble's inner-lining.

"Chae!" he said, the fear obvious in his voice. He didn't use his communicator. He wasn't sure if she could even hear him. His grip on his compound bow tightened, his knuckles under his gloves whitening.

She needed to get to get inside a force-field. She needed to get to safety. Why wasn't she shielding herself? Could she not? He looked around the bubble he was in before frantically looking back at her.

"Chae! Get in here!" he called to her, practically pleading, begging her to get to some sense of safety. He couldn't let anything happen to her. She was the newbie on the team. He should have been able to protect her.

And then she got hit. The world seemed to slow down even more.

"CHAE!!"

No, no, no, no, no, no.

He had to get to her. He had to protect her. As soon as they were on the ground and the bubbles were gone, he was moving, stumbling on his feet. Each breath he took was shaky. His heart hammered in his chest. He felt like he was moving sluggishly, as if he was trying to run through thick snow, when in reality, he had never moved faster.

He should have been able to protect her. He shouldn't have left the group. As he ran he slung his compound bow over his shoulder. He slide down into the crater. She was just a kid. He should have protected her.

He fell to his knees beside her, yanking off his jacket and using it to gently pat down the fires before wrapping it around her small frame. His hands shook, his shoulders shook. He reached down, gently brushing hair out of her face.

"Chae?" he said softly. His voice cracked and he paused for a second before he was able to speak again. "Hang in there, hero. You're going to be okay. We're going to patch you up. It's not that bad, just a quick trip to an infirmary." It was worst than he would ever tell her. He didn't want her to panic.

"Just stay with me, okay?" he added gently, "You can't fall asleep." He took in a shaky breath and let it out, looking at her. He could pick her up and take her somewhere - where? Wasn't the Young Justice/Rider's Deck base on the docks? They should have an infirmary. He could pick her up and take her there, but what if he hurt her? What if he caused more harm?

"Somebody help!" he snapped over his shoulder before turning his attention back to Chae, "You're going to be okay. You're not going to die. It's not even that bad." He was lying. He didn't know if she would die or not. Her injuries looked bad. He wasn't even sure if she'd believe him. But he needed to keep her calm, keep her awake. There was a high chance she had a concussion and if she fell asleep, she might never wake up. That possibility scared him.

"You saved the day, Rainbow," he said, trying to keep her attention on him and not the pain she must have been in. "You're a hero. We're going to throw a big party just for you, I'll make sure of it. You're a true Titan." He was trying to keep his voice steady and nearly failing. He kept flashing back, seeing his mum's remains the day he'd found them.

He'd lost his mum, but he'd be damned if he lost Chae too.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

Ishi stood outside the restaurant, fiddling with her necklace. She was early, of course. She'd teleported. Oddly she felt nervous. Josh was back in town and the first thing he said to her was to ask her out on a date. Did he regret breaking up as much as she did? God, she hoped so. By why was she so nervous? They'd dated before, and it had been wonderful. They even had matching tattoos between their shoulder blades of the other's codename - Robin on her and Alice on him. They were in love. They had to be.

She'd always seen a side of Josh that no one else had. He was more rebellious than people realized. He loved being Robin, but he hated being in Batman's shadow. And he loved her no matter what skin color she had. Before they'd broken up, he'd asked her to be her date to a Wayne Gala that would be coming later in the year. And there was a chance some of his relatives would be there. So that meant he'd wanted to introduce her to his family. That had made her excited and nervous.

Now she stood, freezing in her dress. The sun was setting, lighting the sky in brilliant shades of orange and pink. She moved from fiddling with her necklace to twisting a few strands of her hair. What if things didn't work out between them this time? What if his family didn't like her? She wasn't a convicted criminal like Jester, but she was still a member of Rider's Deck. Should she care about what the Waynes would think of her? She'd never cared about anyone's opinion of her before, except for her own and Josh's.

The shifter let out a shakey breath and closed her eyes. She forced herself to calm down. Everything was going to be fine. Her and Josh would get back together and live happily ever after. Even people like her could find happiness. She'd always wondered what she'd look like in a wedding gown. She could see herself marrying Josh. She was that in love with him. Neither of them had ever been in a rush to take their relationship to the next step, or next base. They had both suffered the same crime, same trauma from the same man - her adoptive father and leader of Nebula. She didn't think they could go to the next stage unless they moved past their trauma.

All in all, she had missed having Josh by her side. She missed going into his room at night and not doing anything but snuggling and falling asleep in each other's arms. Their relationship had been so innocent yet there was nothing innocent about either of them - that had been stolen from them years ago. Yet she had always enjoyed curling up in his arms. They had sthingyed a lot - sometimes she was in his arms and sometimes he was in her arms. She sighed. If this time didn't work out between them, she didn't think she could stand it.


WORDS:; 512
OUTFIT:; link
TAG:; @batboy
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; just a quick thread between these two to get them back together <3

468 words	@tigergeme
link	such a gentleman uwu

For once in his life, Josh felt nervous. He'd made the mistake of breaking up with Ishi before, what if this time didn't go any better? He was completely in love with her - why else would he have gotten her name, or well part of her codename, tattooed between his shoulder blades? It was a fact that his relatives weren't aware of and if he had anything to say about it, they wouldn't find out until he was too old to be grounded.

Now a teenage boy thinking he was in love wasn't rare, but for Josh, it truly was love. She was his better half. She could calm him down with a single touch and keep his feet on the ground. She knew his pace and he knew hers. He was in love with her, completely head over heels, I want to marry her in love. He could very well see himself in the future, getting down on one knee and proposing.

He didn't care what his family would think. Ishi, though part of Rider's Deck, wasn't a convicted criminal. She'd never gone to jail. He doubted his father would approve, but in his opinion, life was full of disappointments. He'd dated Ishi for a little over two years before they'd stupidly taken a break. He wanted her back. He couldn't live without her. He didn't want to live without her.

He paused from walking when he saw her waiting there. She was beautiful. He loved her no matter what form she took, whether her skin was orange or not. She was always beautiful. To him, she put goddesses to shame. He walked up to her, knowing he was smiling like an idiot.

"Hey," he said lamely, placing a kiss on her cheek. "You look - wow, you look beautiful." He instinctively reached forward and brushed his fingers against her cheek, tenderly. Why had they ever broken up? He couldn't remember and didn't want to remember. He hated living in the past. This was his present and she was his future.

"What say we pretend this isn't a first date?" he suggested, "That way it's not awkward. We never broke up, we just never had time for date nights. For the life of me, I can't remember why we would ever take a break."

He opened the restaurant door for her and allowed her to walk in first. He asked for their reservation - under his name, of course - and they were soon seated at a private table on a small balcony, looking out at the ocean, the sunset painting the sky around them. He pushed her chair in for her before taking his own seat. He wanted this night to be special, but then again, every time he spent with her was always special.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

written by T:

“Thanks” she said, offering a smile as the vendor handed her the hotdog she’d ordered. She dug into her pocket and pulled out some crumpled bills, handing them to the man. “Keep the change.” The man thanked her and she nodded back friendly, before walking off. She took a bite of the hotdog and chewed it thoughtfully, whilst looking around the park. She’d told Josh to meet her here, but she hadn’t really given a specific location. Still, it wasn’t as if the park was huge. They’d run into each other eventually.

She’d always considered herself pretty close to Josh. It was probably due to how small the age gap was between them. She’d always referred to him and the other family members closer to her age as cousins, even if they were technically her uncles and aunt. Josh, though, seemed to be the one that suffered the most from her consistent teasing. It was a compliment, really, and she had a feeling they both knew that.

Which was, probably, why he was one of the first people she had contacted. She needed to catch up on what was going on. She’d moved her only a couple days ago, and had been out of town for most of them. The next thing she knows, she comes back and the T-Tower had exploded and people were on the hunt for supers, apparently. If it wasn’t so serious, she’d probably make a quip about how everything had gone to hell as soon as she arrived.

263
Outfit
@batboy

398 words	@lyola
outfit	Enjoy!

Josh was leaning up against a tree, his thumbs moving quickly over the screen of his smartphone as he typed a text message to Travis. A smile was on his face, a genuine one. Travis was one of the few people that could get him to smile like a child, innocent and full of wonder. He sent the message and his smile faded to a bland look as he slipped his phone into his back pocket.

He looked around, eyes searching for his cousin. Well technically she was his adopted niece, but she was too close to his age so he liked to think of her as a cousin. He wondered if she'd been in the Batcave when he'd last spoken to Dick. He grimaced to himself. He still had to apologize to his older brother. He'd been shamelessly putting it off, not sure what to say aside from the lame I'm sorry.

"Lolli!" he called over before walking toward her. He raised an eyebrow at the hotdog she had, silently asking if she was sure that was healthy. Surely it was better than the ones vendors handed out in Gotham, but still, he wouldn't have been caught dead eating one. Part of him yearned for Tim's home cooking. His older brother seemed to have a special touch with food. He didn't think there was anything Tim had ever made that he'd turned away.

He gestured for his cousin to follow him, away from any people, as he asked, "So how have you been?"

He moved away from anybody else in the park, wanting some sense of privacy, though that wasn't entirely likely. When he found a spot he liked, he turned on his heels and moved to face his cousin.

"You picked a Hell of a time to join the Titans," he said matter-of-factly, making sure his voice didn't get too loud. "I'm surprised Dick didn't throw a fit with all that's going on, or did he?"

If Lolli planned on asking how the Boy Wonder was doing, Josh planned to avoid the question or wave it off. He was doing as well as could be expected with the situation. When he'd heard about the Tower being destroyed, he'd already had one Batfamily member to worry about. Now both Lolli and Portia were Titans. They weren't on his team. He didn't have any power to protect his family.

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

written by T:

489 WORDS	TAG: @batboy
OUTFIT	NOTES: josh be in troubllllle

put on your shades

She turned when she heard her name be called by Josh’s voice. She grinned at her cousin- well, technically uncle, but she was older than him, so that’d be too weird –eyeing him as he walked up. It hadn’t been that long since she’d seen him. It was certainly longer than usual, though. Still, she always had the urge to check her family over and make sure they’re ok. She was usually more subtle about it, but her protective instincts were rated pretty high. Probably something she picked up from her mentor.

“Hey, Brat” she greeted jokingly, opening her arms for a quick hug. That’d been her nickname for him since she hit her teens, really. It wasn’t anything but affectionate, and she liked to think he’d grown used to it by now.

When he gave her hotdog a dubious look, she simply retaliated by taking a rather large bite. She made an exaggerated face of enjoyment, trying to mask how difficult it was to chew, and then swallow, such a large bite. She worked her ass off pretty much every day. If it wasn’t school, it was training. She deserved some calories and meat of questionable content.

She followed where he gestured, keeping up a leisurely pace, nodding at his question. “Good, you?” She knew he’d avoid the question- he was such a bat –but she asked anyway. She took the last bite of her hotdog, before crinkling up the foil it’d come in and tossing it into a nearby trash can. She stopped when Josh did- a place at a perfect distance from anyone else in the park. Not so far as to look suspicious, but far enough away to avoid eavesdroppers. It also had a good vantage point of the rest of the park, which Lolli’s eyes scanned dutifully every few minutes. There were some instincts you just couldn’t shake.

She snorted at his remark on her timing. “Tell me about it.” She shrugged at the mention of her adopted father. “He’s concerned, yeah, but he trusts me. He’d have come down himself, too, if he wasn’t so busy. Instead, I just get near daily phone calls.” She raised her eyebrows and gave him a look. “Speaking of Uncle Dick and phone calls…” She hadn’t been there during the call, but she’d certainly heard of it.

'cause I'll be dancing in the flames

HAYANA OF CAUTION 2.0

Ken had grown a lot in only a few years, figuratively of course. He was still short when in came to Amazon standards, but then again Amazons were supposed to all be female and he, clearly, was not. He thought he had his human father to thank for that, though Steve Trevor was by no means short, standing an inch over six feet. The last he saw his father, the man had been crying. It had been the first time in years, after he'd been kidnapped. He hadn't thought his dad would have ever let go of him. His dad's arms around him had been tight and firm but at the same time gentle. For the first time in years, Ken had felt safe.

He had always known he was safe, that Kenna and his friends would never let anyone take him back to the sex trade, but between the trauma he'd face and then his first boyfriend having anger issues and being what most would call abusive, he hadn't felt safe. He kept in contact with his dad after reuniting with him. Steve was in the military, he was fairly certain his dad held some high ranks, so perhaps his dad would have some idea as to why the National Guard was in Jump City and why they were so anti-meta. That was how he'd ended up at the police station. He didn't have a secret ID so he was in his civvies and a car had been speeding to run a red light, while a little girl and her mother had been crossing. He'd flown in, of course, and caught them up, getting them out of the street and onto the sidewalk. Then he'd flown to the car and used his strength to pick up the back, stopping it.

Then the cops arrested him. Robin had warned him but he honestly hadn't thought he'd be arrested. For Zeus' sake, he'd saved two people! He hadn't fought the police and if he guessed correctly, then the officer wasn't happy about arresting him. Now he stood at the police station, having refused to take a seat. An officer walked back over to him, paperwork in hand.

"I suggest you let me go," Kenith said kindly, moving so he stood in front of the officer. He had a lot of the other officers' attention. They knew who he was.

The officer looked conflicted. "I can't do that, Wonderboy. I have to alert the Guard to your capture."

"Why?" the teenager asked, looking the officer in the eye. When he didn't respond, he continued, "You don't really know, do you? They outrank you so you have to listen. Well can I tell you why it'd be in your, the Guard, and in fact the country's best interest to let me go?"

The officer hesitated. "And why's that?"

Ken normally didn't but this time he held his head high. "Because of my mother. She's the diplomat between the entire world and the Amazons. Do you really want to imprison the Diana Prince's son for saving a couple of people? Is a bad relationship with the Amazons, and thus a Justice Leaguer really worth arresting little me? You know me, I'm not a bad guy." He paused, then added, "And while I don't know much about politics, my mother does."

Thankfully, he thought, his mom was a force to be reckoned with. And after he'd been kidnapped as a child, Diana had become quite protective of him. The officer exchanged a look with his superior before removing the handcuffs. Ken had thanked the man and walked out of the police station. He stood outside for a moment, rubbing his wrist and wondering if anyone knew why the National Guard was suddenly against the heroes and metas. Did the Guard even know? And was the same threat of the National Guard falling on the League's shoulders?


WORDS:; 651
OUTFIT:; link
TAG:; open
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; n/a

Tweak:
Replace Nebula with Cadmus
Takes place during the Cadmus arc
Takes place before rescuing Carlos McDougal

Jester hadn’t expected to receive an encrypted message. He didn’t even know how to un-encrypt it. He’d had to ask Robin for help and afterwards, the two of them had stood staring at the message. It had been from Arthur, giving him coordinates and a time to meet at. He’d debated the pros and cons of talking with his former teammates with the Boy Wonder before being convinced that he should go. It could have been a trap. He’d heard rumors of Arthur working for Nebula. He hoped it wasn’t true, but a sinking feeling in his gut told him it was.

So that was how he found himself on top of a Wayne Enterprises building in the city – why did Bruce Wayne need a building in Jump City? He pushed the hood of his costume off and walked over to Feral, stopping a few paces from his former friend. “Did you conveniently forget I don’t know shit about latitude and longitude? Or were you just trying to annoy me?”

He so badly wished it was nice to see Feral again, but it wasn’t. He’d walked out on the team shortly before Carlos had died – they very day Carlos had died if he remembered correctly. At least he had said goodbye, unlike three other former teammates of his. But he was still very bitter. Arthur had left them to join Nebula, or at least it seemed that way. He’d said he was a danger to them, that he was some sort of monster. Harvey had seen the monstrous side of Arthur’s personality. It was like a split personality that the plant controller couldn’t control. It was dangerous, yes, but nothing that he thought he couldn’t handle.

“What the hell do you want?” the son of the Joker demanded, hatred showing on his face. Betrayal wasn’t something he took lightly. “I’m honestly surprised you contacted me instead of your boyfriend. Or did you try contacting him only to realize he left us with his tail between his legs?” Bitter was actually an understatement to how he felt. He wanted to hurt Arthur. He wanted to hurt him and Teddy and Peter and Midnight and anyone else who had ever left him.

He wanted to make him hurt the way he had hurt.


WORDS:; 384
OUTFIT:; Costume (see app)
TAGGED:; @arthur
NOTES:; None.

Feral wasn’t sure what he had expected. He knew he hadn’t expected a hug, but he’d thought perhaps his former leader would have been a bit more delighted to see him. After all, he had reached out to Harvey. He didn’t think the hostility was needed, but he also couldn’t blame him.

“You have access to Robin’s computers and his trust,” he replied calmly, “I had faith that you would take advantage of that resource since the possibility of you learning a new trick didn’t seem likely.” In some aspects, neither of them had really changed. Their personalities were the same for the most part. In fact, Arthur felt like they were more like their past selves than ever before. They were a couple of years older, but this moment felt more like when they had first met.

He wasn’t going to deny that the way Jester looked at him hurt. He still trusted his former leader, but he knew that the trust wasn’t returned. He didn’t expect it to be returned. He didn’t even expect Harvey to like him anymore. He visibly winced when Teddy was brought up, though he wasn’t named. He’d only ever had one boyfriend.

“I’m single, thank you for reminding me of that,” he retorted, fairly sure that Jester would be enjoying any and all pain he showed. “I would say you’re a terrible leader since your members keep leaving you, but you and I both know that’s not true.” He paused, before adding, “Well at least I know it’s not true. You’re no Robin or Shift, but you’re not bad.”

He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket. The night air felt cool as it blew by, the hood of his sweatshirt keeping his hair from blowing in his eyes. “I need your help, Harv.” There was no point to using codenames. Both he and Harvey were convicted felons. At least with the police and heroes, they didn’t have secret identities. And powerful villains no doubt knew who Harvey was.

“It’s not about me, though,” he explained, not wanting to give his former leader time to refuse. “It’s about Carlos. He needs you.” It was a sore spot for both of them, but he hoped Carlos was a subject that could bring them together.


WORDS:; 390
OUTFIT:; Costume (see app)
TAGGED:; @jester
NOTES:; None.

Harvey chose to simply glare at Arthur, rather than reply to his little dig. He doubted his former teammate had learned any new tricks either. He grinned widely – almost identical to the way his father could grin – when he noticed Arthur wince. Deep within him, he felt a swell of protectiveness, a feeling he’d thought was long dead when it came to Arthur. But he mostly took glee in watching him wince. He’d been hurt, now he wanted to hurt him.

“Maybe he went back to wherever he’s from – England I think – and found himself a new bitch,” he said as if it was a fact. He couldn’t help it. Arthur was wounded and now he wanted to pour acid into his room. “Honestly it’s nice not having hormonal perverts like the two of you no longer on the team.” That was a lie, but Arthur didn’t need to know that. “Never did really like you two. Carlos did, so I put up with you. You were the one who recruited Teddy in the first place.” Mentioning Carlos might be the last straw, he knew. That was if Arthur still cared about Carlos.

He was taken aback by the compliment. He looked away, glad his mask would hide any emotions that were swirling around in his eyes. He felt like his stomach was full of led. He felt like he was going to be sick, just from that single compliment, hearing that Arthur didn’t think he was a bad leader.

“That’s–” he voice cracked and he verbally cursed before continuing. “That’s not true. If I was a good leader, I never would have lost him.” Raw emotion scratched at his throat and he turned his back to Arthur, unable to face him. He suddenly felt weak and vulnerable. They both knew who he was referring to. He hadn’t been there when Carlos had died, and that guilt weighed him down every day.

“I only have Ishi, Olivia, Cirna, and Raptor left on the team,” he muttered, though he knew Arthur didn’t know Raptor. “Olivia and Cirna aren’t even in the city.” He sighed, but paused, wondering if he’d heard Arthur correctly. He needed his help? Help with what? Before he could respond, Arthur answered his question without him even needing to ask.

He felt like the entire world had slammed into him. He took a step back, eyes wide and skin paler than usual. His mouth moved, trying to form words. Arthur made it sound like Carlos was alive. It infuriated him for a moment until he saw the way Arthur held himself, the pain in him, and realized that even despite all that had happened, Arthur wouldn’t joke about Carlos. If Carlos needed his help, then that was true. Even if Nebula told Arthur to set a trap for him, his former teammate would never use Carlos. Arthur wasn’t as heartless as he was.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded as calmly as he could, “Carlos is dead. Everyone knows I wish it wasn’t true, but he’s dead.” He took in a shaky breath and slowly let it out. “He’s dead.” All the pain and the vulnerability he felt whenever the topic of Carlos came up was obvious in his voice. He no longer had the strength to his those emotions.


WORDS:; 564
OUTFIT:; Costume (see app)
TAGGED:; @arthur
NOTES:; None.

Harvey was a good liar, Arthur had to admit, but he’d known him long enough to be able to see right through him. He’d helped him start Rider’s Deck. There wasn’t much Harvey could get past him. Just like he knew that Harvey rarely changed, and the Harvey he knew missed everyone who had ever left him.

“Miss you too, Harv,” he replied, putting his defenses down. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket and looked out at the city’s skylight. “I don’t know why Teddy left. I wish we could go back to the way things used to be, but we can’t. All we can do is grow up and move on.” He sighed and turned his head to look at his former friend. “If I could come back to the team, I would, but I can’t. You’re all safer with me far away from you.”

A sad smile spread on his face when Harvey denied being a good leader. “He died because of his powers, not because you couldn’t protect him. Dios, all we did was protect him.” The thought of Carlos hurt, but it also fueled an anger. Anger toward his father and Nebula. Anger toward himself. “We should have backed off and let him live his life to the fullest. We can’t change the past but we can…”

His voice trailed off when Harvey named off who he had left. He didn’t know who Raptor was, but he guessed the kid was a new recruit. “So call Olivia and Cirna, tell them to come to town. Hell, call Jazz and tell her you need her here.” He fell quiet, allowing Harvey to take in what he’d said. He saw his own pain mirrored by his former leader. It was the same pain he was sure he’d see in Ishi, Cirna, and Olivia if they’d been there.

He held himself still, though when Jester got calm, it was usually a deathly calm. He felt his own heart ache. Watching Harvey break was like watching a brother break. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached out and firmly grasped the upper part of Harvey’s arms, helping to steady him and hold him up.

“He’s alive,” he said, trying hard to keep his voice from shaking. “Nebula has them and God knows how much I want to kill them for locking him up, but he’s alive.” He was smiling now, a pained smile, but there was a touch of happiness to his eyes. “And we can save him. I don’t know how they brought him back – magic I think they said – but that doesn’t matter because I know where they’re keeping him and we can save him.”


WORDS:; 462
OUTFIT:; Costume (see app)
MUSE:; Echo by Jason Walker
TAGGED:; @jester
NOTES:; None.

Harvey met Arthur's gaze and stared him down, the ice in his eyes not melting. He looked away, tsking when Arthur said the team was safer without him. "We're safer in a world full of corruption without you? Oh yeah, one less ally, one less friend makes us so much safer. For your sake, I hope you don't really believe that bull." His words were bitter and pained, but he didn't know any other way to say them. He'd been hurt far too many times. He'd allowed his parents to hurt him his entire life. He'd allowed members of his team to just disappear. He'd allowed friends to leave him. But Arthur hadn't been just another teammate; he hadn't been just a friend. They'd been like brothers. His betrayal wasn't one that Harvey could easily forgive.

He felt like something in him snapped. Arthur's words melted together and he barely registered him grabbing his arms. He reached forward and snatched him by the front of his jacket, yanking him forward so that their faces were inches apart. "We protected him so he wouldn't see the darkness that we had," he said, not once taking his eyes off Arthur's. The hand that held his former friend's jacket shook. "We protected him from our own demons! Maybe we shouldn't have, but you know that because of us, he had a better life than if we'd left him on his own."

He needed to calm down, he knew that, but it was very hard. He wanted the conversation to be over. He didn't ever want to hear any of these topics again. He desperately wanted to crawl through Hyo's window and curl up with him and forget every problem in the world. But that wasn't going to happen. What Arthur was telling him, he'd never forget. The information would weigh him down so that he'd feel like he was being pulled down into Hell.

This time Arthur's words hit him like a blow to the gut. He found himself thankful that his former friend was holding onto him. He clung onto the front of Arthur's jacket, searching his face for some hint, some clue. He didn't know if he hoped it was a lie or not. Carlos was alive? He didn't even wonder how that was possible. He was talking with a genetically engineered half-plant half-human, and was best friends with a demigod. A part of him had always believed that anything was possible. He'd heard about people coming back from the dead. It didn't happen every day and he wasn't sure if all of the stories were true, but he'd always believed that every lie held some truth to it.

"Where is he?" His voice cracked and he could feel water in his eyes. "Please, Arthur, take me to him." The very thought of Nebula having Carlos was sickening and terrifying. If Carlos was alive - and he didn't think Arthur was lying - then they needed to save him. They needed to bring him home.

WORDS:; 504
OUTFIT:; Costume
TAGGED:; @arthur, @cat

MUSE:; N/A
NOTES:; None.

Now this was the Harvey Napier he knew. Not carefree and joking like Jester, but rather strong, vulnerable, and broken all at the same time. Someone who knew his demons by name and welcomed them. Someone who'd been let down and beaten, but had never lost his last shred of hope. Someone Arthur desperately wished he could protect, but he'd learned long ago that he couldn't protect Harvey, especially from the truth. And Harvey didn't want protecting, but he'd never stop wishing he could.

"Harv, I can't, it's too dangerous right now," he said, keeping a firm grasp on his friend's arms. "Get the team, get allies, and then we can talk. Then we can take this fight to Nebula." Technically, he was Nebula. But if he could find a way out, he'd take it. He didn't think Rider's Deck was safer without him, but he desperately missed his teammates, his friends, his family. He was being selfish, staying away from Rider's Deck, but he knew that returning would be selfish too. He didn't get much time to think about it.

Suddenly he was falling. He distantly heard Harvey call out to him. He'd felt this sensation once before. Carlos had phased him into a building years ago. It'd made him feel sick to his stomach and he'd asked him to never do it again. This felt very similar to that. Once they were through to the other building, he took in a few slow deep breathes and let them out, steadying his stomachs. Plants weren't made to go through solid objects and neither was he.

At the sound of a voice, he stood up straight and turned. He recognized her from a picture in a file, but he couldn't remember which particular file. He glanced at the handcuffs and then back at her. He wasn't worried about the handcuffs. He'd gotten out of plenty before because of his shifting abilities. "You've seemed to mistaken me for someone who gives a shit," he said nonchalantly, more so than he felt.  She worked for Nebula, that meant she was a threat, an obvious danger to not just him but probably the city as well.

And he couldn't see anyway out. There were no doors or windows. His best bet was to knock her out - or kill her - and try to get into contact with Harvey somehow. Phasing seemed to be the only way out, unless Harvey could get one of those strong heroes to help out or a magic user. He frowned. Where was Cirna when he needed her to try to work some of her lovely magic that at this moment he was starting to think he'd undervalued. There were no plants that he could see. He couldn't manipulate anything except his own body now. He thought he was only partially screwed, and not in the fun way.


WORDS:; 478
OUTFIT:; Costume
TAG:; @jester, @cat
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; Finally got this up! <3

"ARTHUR!" Harvey dropped to the ground where Arthur had been standing, frantically pushing and rubbing at the ground, trying to find some trap door. He'd been so mad, so bitter toward Arthur, but now all he could think of was finding him. He couldn't lose him, not again. He thought of Teddy, of Peter and Midnight, of Nick. Anyone who had ever left him, abandoned him. Arthur had come back. Arthur still cared. He couldn't lose him. He couldn't.

"No, no, no, no, no," he said over and over again as if reciting a chant. He pounded his fists against the ground. "Give him back. Give him back!" He stared at the floor for what felt like hours. Eventually his panic turned to anger and soon he was just plain pissed off. He got to his feet and in a quick, barely noticeable movement he had his pocket knife down from his sleeve and flicked open in his hand.

He wasn't always an idiot. He knew a kidnapping when he saw it. He knew many forms of kidnapping; many he'd learned from his parents. Arthur had been kidnapped. Perhaps by Nebula. That idiot must not have taken all the right precautions.

"I'm going to kill everyone in Nebula," Jester sneered, "I'm going to burn them alive and not even Robin can or will stop me." The day he finally got to Nebula, finally got the chance to make them pay for all they had done to Coalfield and to his family, was the day he would truly become his father's son. He'd make sure every single one of them from their bosses to the lackeys died an agonizing death in flames that would be nothing compared to the flames of Hell. And he wouldn't come with just a knife. He'd used the weapons he'd stolen from his parents and kept hidden from Robin.

The edge of the roof was close to a window into the Wayne Enterprises building. Robin would kill him for it later, but he swung off the edge and into a window. He crashed into the building, sounding an alarm all throughout. Several employees yelped in surprise and got to their feet. Upon seeing the fury on Jester's face and the knife in his hand, the civilians stereo-typically screamed and ran.

He flicked his pocket knife close and pushed it back up his sleeve. He walked back the offices that the employees had fled from and down a hall. He'd search the entire building for Arthur, his honorary brother. He doubted he'd find him, but if he did, he'd bring Hell upon whoever so much as dared to harm his former teammate. As he walked down the hall toward another collection of offices - he didn't care if police or the Titans or a Bat came and approached him - he reached to the communicator in his ear and clicked it on.

"Alice, we need to talk."


WORDS:; 490
OUTFIT:; Costume
TAG:; CLOSED
MUSE:; n/a
NOTES:; FINISHED

Tweak:

Sai was currently questioning his choice of company. He wasn’t entirely sure if he considered Jester to be his friend – they were more like acquaintances. Not that spending time with the miniature madman had been his choice. He’d been out on the grounds of the Titan Tower, setting up some targets to shoot, when someone or something had jumped onto his back, clutching onto him with arms wrapped around his neck. Naturally, he’d elbowed the supposed attacker in the ribs before flipping him off his back and onto the ground.

That was why he found himself staring down at Jester, who seemed close to literally laughing his ass off. His laugh wasn’t nearly unnerving as the Joker’s, but it still gave the archer an instant headache. When Jester managed to open his eyes through tears – God, why was he laughing that much? – his laughter quickly died down at the sight of a sharp arrow pointed straight down at him, knocked against a bow and ready to be fired.

“What the bloody hell is wrong with you?!” Sai snarled, glaring at him through his mask.

There was a light thump against the ground behind him and he groaned, expecting one of the clown’s teammates. A hand quickly and firmly grasped his shoulder and he heard, “Quickshot!” Recognizing the Boy Wonder’s voice, he shot a look over his shoulder, but he didn’t lower his arrow. Robin’s grip on his shoulder tightened, his fingers digging in. Neither he nor Jester knew whether Sai was willing to take a life or not – though Robin doubted he’d kill Jester. “Put. That. Down.”

Sai glared, but lowered his arrow, returning it to his quiver and slinging his bow onto his shoulder in a quick, swift movement. He didn’t have to listen to Robin, but he was fairly sure that the Gothamite had more training than him and could possibly kick his ass. He wasn’t in the mood to fight, not with an ally at least. He shook his shoulder out of Robin’s grasp. “Aren’t you supposed to be his babysitter?”

The glare Robin sent him sent a shiver up his spine. The leader of Young Justice stalked around him and reached a hand down to Jester, helping him to his feet. “I’m no one’s babysitter, but I protect my friends.”

Sai raised an eyebrow and gestured between the two. “So the Bat’s brat is friends with Joker’s kid? Yeah, like that’s gonna go over well with the ‘rents.”

If Robin could have glared harder, Sai was sure he would have. “New topic.”

“Are all Brits as stiff as you, Quicky?” Jester asked with a light laugh, though he stopped when Robin smacked him upside the head. “Ow!”

Sai rolled his eyes behind his mask. “Thank God there’s no one like you in Steel.”


WORDS:; 477
OUTFITS:; Costumes (see Sai, Josh, Harvey)
TAGGED:; Anna, @portiagordon, other Titans
NOTES:; Sai, you can be such a presh arse uwu

The moment Harvey had left the base in costume when he wasn’t scheduled for patrol, Josh had suited up and followed him. His friend had a habit of getting himself into trouble. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how Harvey had managed to survive all these years. He’d gone to jail several times, but always managed to get out somehow. That, too, baffled the Boy Wonder. Following Jester had proven to be a good idea, however.

He’d been ready to knock the bow right out of Quickshot’s hands if he’d pulled back the string any more or made the slightest movement to let the arrow fly. He didn’t underestimate the archer’s ability, but he knew that he’d been in the crime-fighting business for much longer and had many years training over Quickshot.

He was thankful when Athena showed up, since from experience, he was certain that Quickshot listened to every order the Titan leader gave, though he wasn’t part of her team. He wasn’t sure who Annette was, but from the look that crossed Quickshot’s face, he guessed that she was the leader of his team. He knew that the archer didn’t get along well with his team. Why? He wasn’t sure.

Quickshot was a moody person. He’d dealt with a tragedy before coming to the United States. That was all Josh really knew. He figured that when he joined the East Titans, he hadn’t been in the best mindset and perhaps only joined out of convenience. At least that was Robin’s guess. Perhaps his personality had just clashed with everyone on the team when he first joined and they hadn’t gotten past that?

“So long as he’s anyone’s problem but mine, he can go wherever he likes,” Josh stated, gesturing to Jester. He shot his friend a quick glare, though. “But you’re not allowed anywhere near Gotham.”

Harvey looked hurt, but it was obviously faked. “But I was born there! I may not have a birth certificate, but I’m a citizen of that wonderfully gloomy city too.” The glare Josh continued to give him told him that the topic wasn’t up for discussion.

Quickshot sighed and looked to Athena, trying to ignore the other two boys. “I was going to practice when this irritant attacked me,” he explained, earning a protest from Harvey, though the clown clamped his mouth shut when Josh’s gloved hand covered it. “If you want, I can knock him out cold and box him off and ship him to Annette.”

Sai stiffened at the sound of a very familiar voice. He hadn’t seen Naomi in months, possibly a year, he wasn’t quite sure. He also wasn’t sure why she was in Jump City. “Naomi,” was all he said when it came to a greeting. Robin and Jester exchanged a look, neither of them knowing who the blue haired girl was. “I don’t have a temper. And what the bloody hell are you doing here, dare I ask?”

The three boys stood together as Athena and Naomi walked away. Sai rolled his eyes, though the action was hidden by his mask. “Jesus, she’s the child here.” He noticed the grin Jester was giving him and wished he could smack it right off of his pale face. Instead he turned his attention to Robin, who was looking at him quizzically. “What?”

Josh glanced over at Athena and Naomi, the leader in him wanting to be part of any leaderly conversations, but he turned his attention back to Sai. “She seems nice. Honestly, I’ve read reports about the East Titans on Batman’s computer, and the only negatives I’ve heard about them have been from you. You’re like a little boy complaining about his siblings.”

“And he would know,” Harvey piped up, pointing a thumb in Josh’s direction. “He is a little boy who complains about his siblings.” He cackled until the heel of Josh’s boot slammed down on his foot. “OW!”

“Anyways,” he said, glaring at Harvey for a moment before looking to Sai. “They can’t be that bad. If they were, you’d have left that team, right?”

Sai didn’t like where the conversation was going. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, praying Naomi couldn’t hear any of it. “What are you trying to say?” he childishly asked. He knew where Robin was going with this. Unlike the Boy Wonder, he’d grown up as an only child. The company of other kids, especially teenagers his own age, was nice. And perhaps his team had grown on him. But he was never going to admit that he liked their company, even the slightest bit. He’d continue letting the East Titans think he was annoyed by every single one of them.

“I’m just saying,” Robin explained, “That it’s nice to have a team. They’re friends, but they’re also like family. You may not feel that way about them, but ask yourself: do they feel that way about you?”

Sai looked away. “New topic.”


WORDS:; 840
OUTFITS:; Costumes (see Sai, Josh, Harvey)
TAGGED:; Anna, @portiagordon, other Titans
NOTES:; Wow, this is muuuuuch longer than I intended o.o

Sai wasn't pouting. He wasn't childish so thus he didn't pout. Robin hadn't made him uncomfortable by pointing out and bringing up things he didn't want to talk about. He wasn't going to let the Boy Wonder know he'd gotten to him because he hadn't. And he wasn't pouting - he was scowling. But Robin seemed to just know that he'd gotten to him. He didn't look smug, but rather sympathetic. Sai would have preferred a smug look. He didn't like receiving sympathy from others. Thankfully, before Robin could say anything else, Naomi's voice reached the three boys and they simultaneously looked over at her and Shift.

"Wait, what?" Sai asked, resisting the urge to correct Naomi's grammar - and he really wanted to say "Sai and I" but he was fairly certain he'd seem even more childish than he was if he said that. "What facility? Why do we need to know who owns it? And why the bloody Hell am I just now hearing about this?" Irritably, he folded his arms across his chest. Now he was scowling, rather than pouting. If Annette told him to go with Naomi, he knew that he could refuse but it wouldn't be a wise choice. He was part of the East Titans, after all, so he had to listen to Annette. A head's up would have been great, however, he couldn't help thinking.

"That sounds so boooooring," Jester whined, earning an elbow jabbed into his ribs and a look from Robin that told him he should shut up. He added, mumbling, "Well it does."

"I can join you if you'd like," Robin said, much more professional than the other two boys. "Or I can spare one of my teammates. I have to get to know my newest member a bit more, but I think Catgirl could be helpful in a stakeout." He gestured to Jester, but spoke up again before his friend could say anything. "And Rider's Deck has a new member that could use the experience, if you like. I promise he's much more enjoyable than Jester. But only if you need our help." It was Naomi's mission, after all. He didn't want to intrude.

WORDS:; 363
OUTFITS:; Costumes

TAGGED:; Anna, @portiagordon, Titans

MUSE:; N/A
NOTES:; None.