Jab. Jab. Cross. Hook. Uppercut. Body rip. Elbow. Cross.

Gabe repeated the combination over and over again, unleashing it upon the punching bag he'd recently installed into his room. The bag swayed with each strike, indentations visible where Gabe's knuckles had made contact with the leather. The teen hero was drenched with sweat; he'd been exercising non-stop since the sun broke through the horizon. He hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet.

Just as he was about to land a cross, a yellow light began flashing in his room, an alarm blaring along with it in synchronisation. ‘Finally. Some action!’ thought Gabe as he rushed to put on his supersuit.

The bullet wound he’d received, courtesy of the deceased Bronze Tiger, had marginally improved since his man-date with Magnus. He could now move around without having to grimace in pain, and he was nowhere near as weak as before. But he was still vulnerable. Any hard hit delivered to him would surely see him down for the count.

When he was fully garbed in his costume, save for the helmet, Gabe walked out into the hallway. Both Magnus and Killian were there and dressed in their supersuits, and looked as if they had only just run into each other. Gabe approached them, holding his headgear in his right hand.

“Trouble,” said Magnus, his tone indeterminable.

“Yup. Yellow’s for Rebello. And aren’t we a fine-looking bunch today?” spoke Gabe, smiling at his own incredibly lame attempt at rhyming.

Contrary to what Billy had promised him, Robert was not invited down to Young Justice HQ the day after they talked, nor the day after that. Several days had come and gone already and Robert had done nothing but linger in Boston, conducting routine patrols as per Billy’s orders and stopping crime where it happened. There had been no magical incursions, no creatures or mad scientists stirring anything up, just your typical, run-of-the-mill street crime. It was dealt with easily enough, but it left Robert’s mind time to wander, to think about what he was missing out on while waiting on Billy’s go-ahead.

Of course, this led to him immediately chastising himself. Billy had been nothing but good to him, granting Robert this power and taking him under his wing, forging him into a hero. If Billy didn’t want Robert at Young Justice, then he should listen to him.

But then why had Billy promised it to him? Why, when Billy knows it’s all Robert wants in the world, to be among a team of young heroes not unlike himself? Robert’s friends were great, but none of them knew his double-life, and not a single one of them would understand, even if they tried. The only person he knew that really understood him was Billy, but even his mentor could become distracted. His job, his classes… they were all things that commanded Billy’s attention just as much as Robert did.

So, he’s forced to wonder if Billy has some ulterior motive as to not allowing him into Young Justice. He doesn’t think Billy could be that manipulative, but even subconsciously… was Billy holding him back?

Again, Robert doesn’t believe Billy would be capable of that, but that doesn’t change the fact that Robert is by himself in Boston while Billy’s off at school and Young Justice is out there, waiting for him.

That’s most likely why Robert finds himself on the outskirts of Star City, flying towards the location Billy slipped him where Young Justice HQ was situated at. On his way into the city, though, he’s suddenly keenly aware of police cruisers, all of them lit-up and their sirens screaming for civilian cars to clear the road. By Robert’s guess, they’re all headed in the same direction, near the city’s coastline.

He smiles to himself. If ever there were a time to make his grand entrance, and prove himself to his future allies in the process, this would be it.

“Oh yeah…” He grins, picking up speed. Today, Thunder would earn his place in Young Justice, and show Captain Marvel just how far he can get without him.

The only thing worse than trying to convince my team mates that I’m fine is trying to find a new costume. Phil crossed out the drawing he was working on. It showed a vaguely humanoid shape, little more than a thick stick figure, clad in what was supposed to be golden armor. This is never going to work, Phil thought, balling up the sketch, throwing it across the room. It bounced off the Helm of Nabu sitting in the corner.

Phil thought back, almost two years ago now, to when he first saw it. Little did he know what that golden helmet would mean for his life. When he had put it on, Nabu explained how the newest in a long line of Lords of Order was a scrawny college student. Now, Nabu was trying to take over his body.

Suddenly, the yellow alarm went off. I guess I’ll just have to go with plan B, Phil thought, pulling on a gold exercise shirt and black pants and rushing down the hall. Magnus, Killian, and Gabe were already geared up in the hall.

“What’s the trouble?” Phil asked his team mates.

Phil, Magnus, Kilian, and Gabe all gathered in the exit-way ready to go. All of them anxious, adrenaline pumping. In the eyes of Star City they were heroes. Fate, Fenrir, Ditto, and Hellfire respectively. The alien Ditto didn't mind patience.

"Anybody think it's odd we used a yellow alert for a yellow humanoid coming out of the ocean?" Ditto joked opening the elevator door and looking over his shoulder to see if any of the others were gonna tag along.

.....

His Carggite stubbornness finally had him entering the elevator, his brothers in arms [not his duplicates, the other guys] rushing in behind him. The seconds of the ride felt like forever, but as soon as they hit the surface level they rushed to the docks where the yellow humanoid had been spotted. The land-to-air vehicle their fallen hero Cyber had left behind, that the Engineer also had a hand in building, served as their transport rather than each of them dashing to the docks on foot. Unknown to the young heroes the yellow girl was an Atlantian mutant, experimented on by the underwater scientists of the advanced city. Her strength was formidable, her speed and reflexes heightened as well. But the mutant girl was confused and on the attack. As the heroes touched down in their vehicle she quickly went on the move slashing at it's exterior.

"Watch it guys, this fish has claws and fangs!" Ditto said jumping from the craft and splitting into his three selves.

Ditto2 tried going in for an attack and was backhanded into the water and through a small boat.

"Guys... ideas?" Ditto1 asked in a puzzled tone to the rest of the group of young heroes.

~KL~

In pursuit of the authorities, Thunder eventually wound up at the docks, the police responding to an aquatic monster that had come up out of the ocean and was inciting chaos. He wasn’t sure what the monster had done, if anything, but the question of how to respond seemed to be answered for him when Young Justice arrived on the scene. The monster immediately went on the offensive, attacking their transport.

Thunder hovers in the air, watching as one of apparently three of the same hero lunged at the monster in an attempt to subdue it. He’s quickly swatted away, sent falling towards the shallow water of the ocean below.

“That’s gotta hurt.” He winces, watching as the team falls back to assess a plan of attack. He knows he should show himself, join Young Justice and help come up with a plan. He’s got the Wisdom of Solomon behind him; he can see a dozen different ways to take this creature down with the aid of heroes such as them.

But a part of him, probably Achilles or Hercules whispering in his ear, tell him that it’d be much more impressive to take on the monster single-handedly, and win. He opts to listen to them, at least for the time being.

After all, he’s not really a member of Young Justice yet, is he?

He dives down through the air, picking up enough that he’s coming at the she-beast sideways. Whatever it is she’s capable of, he knows she’s fast because she sees him coming before he gets to her. Still, she isn’t quick enough to stop him.

He gets her with a right hook, skidding to a stop along the worn wood of the dock. He brings his arm back and catches her with an elbow under the jaw. He adjusts, stepping back away from her, bring his right arm down and slugging her in the gut once, twice, three times, though the third time is when his fist is caught. He tries to come back with a punch from his left, but she catches that. She’s strong, too, not just fast, has him backing down as she pushes him to his knees. With her looming over him, his eyes not seeing much before her snarling face and the clouds above, he gets an idea.

He lets her overpower him, pressing more and more into his space so that she’s practically right over him.

Exactly where he wants her, “CAPTAIN MARVEL!”

The area around the two explodes. Thunder is thrown from the blast, sent rolling and smoking but still his heroic self; the villain of the week was kind enough to play interference for him.

He comes to a stop at feet of the Young Justice team assembled, though he doesn’t pay them much mind at first. He’s too invested in seeing if his gambit paid off.

She’s still there, against all odds, on her knees and herself smoking a bit from taking a direct hit. In front of her is a hole in the dock, no doubt from where the lightning touched down. Thunder watches as the monster picks her head up, though, growling at him and the other heroes assembled, slowly, staggeringly, rinsing to her feet again, no worse for wear and ready to fight. Apparently she’s a bit tougher than he had anticipated.

“Oh, come on…” Maybe having a team would pay off in this situation.

Fenrir rushed after his pack mates, pulling his wolf-mask/helm into place as he moved. Hawkman had designed the costume personally, aiming to evoke the savagery and ferocity of Magnus's 'Wolf' form. The Thangarian had succeeded, the whole kit being quite intimidating. Any would be crook thinking about causing trouble would have second thoughts when seeing Fenrir now. Carter had told him that the breast plate, helm and gauntlets were made from Nth metal and should increase his strength and allow him to fly, but Magnus had yet to tap into that ability yet. His mentor theorised it would just take time, but Magnus was in no rush to unlock the secrets of the Nth metal. Truthfully he hated flying with a passion.

. . . Which made their trip to the docks all the more irksome for him. The packs new flying machine wasn't the smoothest of rides, and the fact that the designer, Cyber-Knight, had gotten herself killed by Computron hardly filled Magnus with confidence. The journey was thankfully brief, Magnus white-knuckling it the whole way. He was leaping from the craft before the yellow mutant had even swung for them, landing on the dock with smooth balance on the balls of his feet. He was about to leap to the defence of Ditto2 when Thunder beat him too it.

Magnus watched the confrontation with interest, trying to match the newcomer up with any of the hero's Hawkman had forced him to learn off. The blue garbed interloper didn't really match any of the descriptions, but he seemed powerful and was apparently on their side. Blue's match with the mutant didn't last long, the two breaking apart after being struck by lightning, the newcomer landing no more than two feet in front of the Wolf-man.

"Oh, come on. . . "

The feral meta ready's himself for the attack then, but something stays his hand, something that's been bothering him since the pack arrived on the scene. There was something familiar with the way the yellow woman was moving, some sense of distant kinship. Her smell was off too, the tangy bitterness of rage and aggression playing over something sweeter but equally primal.

It was fear, he realised, she was afraid. Then it hit him. He had never met the yellow girl before, but he knew why he thought he had. He had been in her situation before, when he had first escaped Granny. Fenrir had been on his own in a world that was unfamiliar and suspicious of him, and he had lashed out in his terror. He knew deep in his heart that this strange looking woman was going through the same thing. She had probably never even seen this surface world before, and now she was here and being attacked.

"Stop!" he roared at his pack. He wasn't sure they would listen, or if the newcomer in blue would take heed, but he had to try to calm the yellow girl before letting the violence go on, for his own conscience if nothing else. He began walking towards the Atlantean then, slow and easy so as not to spook her. He had her full attention now, but wasn't sure that was an entirely good thing as she watched him with dark alien eyes that were as inscrutable to him as the ocean depths. As he walked he doffed his mask and unbuckled his knife belt, trying to show he didn't mean any harm towards her.

"Easy now." He stopped just in front of her, arms held wide at his side. The ball was in her court now, he just hoped she wouldn't hit him with it.

"Easy now..." said the less feral wolfman showing some restraint in his new more human looking appearance.

The yellow female creature blinked her eyes a few times and tilted her head. She walked towards the somewhat hairy individual after being struck by the new hero on the scene. She blinks a time or two again before swatting at the beast man like a fly and sending him through a boat that's anchored down at the dock. When the group of young heroes begins to stand ready once again she turns to one of the Dittos and spits a bluish green jelly like liquid from her mouth that burned the hero's suit. After an attempted strike from Shock with her souped up steel pipe staff the young heroine was also swatted away like a mere fly.

The yellow creature from the depths of the ocean slashed at a few more heroes before evading a few response attacks and making her way closer back to the edge of the docks. It wasn't much longer before she vanished into the ocean almost as quickly as she appeared out of it. No rhyme or reason. Almost as if she came into the city JUST to get info on this new superteam. But with Aquaman dead, who in the ocean would care enough about the YJ team to send someone to test their skills? The heroes dusted themselves off an began piling back into the sky cruiser....

"My heads hurt..." Ditto1 said before reabsorbing his two duplicates, all three took a bit of a beating.

~KL~

The fight seemed to be over sooner than it began. The yellow fish lady had slithered back into the ocean. Phil didn’t even have time to launch an offensive. A crowd started to gather around the battle scene, now that the fight was over.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked to no one in particular.

“Aren’t you heroes supposed to be the one who knows?” asked an adolescent girl from the gathering crowd. She looked like she was a couple years younger than as Gabe. That thought alone made Phil feel twice as old. Her friend decided to answer the question for Phil. “He’s not a hero, Madi. Where’s his mask? Come on, ignore this guy. I want to see the cute one...”

“Yeah where’s your mask,” Madi asked. “All superheroes have masks. Unless you’re Superman. Cause, he’s Superman.” She had all the shrewd insight of a major crimes detective. The matching withering stare was encased in a pair of fake glasses with a small, pink bow on them.

Phil had forgotten he didn’t have a mask. Hopefully nothing bad comes of this... “Well, uh…”

“And who are you supposed to be, anyway? Gold Lantern?” Madi asked, pointing to the heal spell encompassing Phil’s arm. “I mean, I heard that they expanded since Green, but come on. That’s pretty lame.”

“Come on Madiiii. I want to see him.” Phil didn’t need to guess who she was talking about. The girl had on a homemade “Plastic Man makes my heart melt” t-shirt, complete with a drawing of the would-be heartthrob, melting from the knees down. It sickly reminded Phil of the time that Cyberknight did melt the zany hero.

“Looks like Gold Lantern wasn’t invited to the party” Madi said in her sarcastic droll. The girl lazily motioned to where Phil’s teammates had gathered, beyond the newly erected police perimeter. She was obviously bored of the situation at this point. Well, she was obviously bored of every situation at every point.

“Erm, um, thanks,” Phil awkwardly waved, then, deciding instantly that was a terrible idea, put his hand back down. Madi smirked at his faux pas.

“Oh and if you see Plastic Man, can you tell him that I’m a fan?!” Madi’s friend craned her neck to make sure she hadn’t missed her idol coming to greet her.

“I don’t see what you see in that rubber boy,” muttered Madi

“He’s a man, Madi. Plastic Man!” Phil could hear the two friends’ bickering as he walked towards his teammates. They seemed to be gathered around an unknown person in blue...

The broken heap of the destroyed boat shuddered slightly, before Fenrir tore his way clear. He was mad now, both at the pain and his own foolishness for showing the open hand when he should have brandished a closed fist. The Wolf in him knew that to show weakness was to court death, yet Magnus had ignored that sage advice and had paid for it. He could almost hear the Wolf saying 'I told you so' in amongst the snarls for vengeance, but by the time the Wolf-man had clambered out of the debris heap the yellow mutant had already retreated into the sea once more. As unsatisfying an encounter as Fenrir had ever had.

He stomped back up the pier, collecting his knife with ill grace. The Pack had drawn a small crowd now, but none were foolish enough to try and bother a feral metahuman in a bad mood. He hopped back into teams sky car and snarled at no one in particular, favouring anyone who strayed to close with a menacing glare. Two girls walked past blathering about Plasticman, which further enraged Fenrir. Perhaps he had misjudged his foe, but Plasticman and Orbit hadn't even made an appearance. The failure was theirs as much as it was his.

He had failed his Pack, but he Pack had failed him too.

Mounting an ineffective offensive against the yellow sea monster his first time in front of Young Justice was bad enough, but taking another swing at the beast and getting swatted away like he was nothing before he could land a single blow had hurt his pride even more.

He’d tried to come back from his lightning strike gambit, but was rewarded for his hard-headedness by being knocked into a bench nearby on the dock, demolishing it with the strength of the monster’s hit.

By the time he’d managed to stumble up to his feet again, the she-beast had withdrawn, disappearing back into the ocean. Young Justice was regroup, apparently no other team member faring as well as he had, save maybe for the wolf-looking guy who had tried to make peace with the monster, and he’d been put through a boat for his trouble.

Now, though, the police had arrived in full force, cordoning off the area and beginning to question some of the Young Justice crew. He’d spotted one member off talking with an onlooker, and the wolf-man had managed to pull himself from the water and stomped back into the team’s transport, clearly upset with how events transpired.

He wasn’t the only one.

Thunder grumbles something under his breath, picking himself off and brushing the debris from his costume. With his costume restored to its almost-pristine look, he steps out of the pile of rubble that was once a public bench and makes his way over towards the team, intent on introducing himself like he had planned to do before everything with this sea monster had happened.

As he nears the group, he seems to grab their attention before even saying a word. He only realizes a moment later that it’s because of the lightning bolt adorning his chest, sparking wildly, no doubt in combination from his anger over the monster showing him up and his nervousness at meeting the team, a team he had for the longest time been hoping to join.

Courage of Achilles, remember? He reminds himself. Suddenly, jumping off of the Prudential Building back home seems like a piece of cake compared to this.

He comes to a stop in front of the group, rubbing the back of his neck and grabbing a piece of wood he missed previously.

“Uh… hi.” He greets, flicking the splinter of wood away and smiling shyly at the group, “I’m Thunder, Captain Marvel’s partner.”

No-one immediately responds, and his smile quickly turns into a frown, “…Captain Marvel mentioned me, right?”

Oh, Billy was gonna pay for getting his hopes up like this…

Out of the corner of his eye, Phil saw Fenrir sulk over to the flying car and get in. He still hadn’t talked to the former wolfman since the last battle. I should say something to him later, Phil thought. I hope he doesn’t blame himself for… He flexed his healing arm and focused on his newest teammate. This mystery man in blue introduced himself as Captain Marvel's protege, Thunder.

Phil heard Kent’s thoughts emanating from the Amulet of Anubis once more: ”Thunder here is rippling with magic energy. Between him and Captain Marvel, we have more than enough raw magic to make up for finesse. But we need to make a move soon, before the Agent does.”

"Hey, Thunder. I'm Phil, er, I mean Fate,” Phil said, looking around, checking to see if someone overheard his slip up. “Captain Marvel didn’t say anything about you… But it’s good to have another magic user on the team. Maybe we could teach each other a thing or two."