Just as Duncan had planned, Toon Girl's dynamite did a real number on the Big Brown Menace that was Clayface, blowing what passed for his upper torso across the whole damned room and making a big goddamned mess.

...And just as he probably should've thought about, the blast also knocked him ass-over-head and across the room, bouncing hard enough to leave a series of small divots in the floor as he went until he finally crashed ass-first into the far wall, making a neat person-shaped indent as he stuck into it for a few seconds before falling flat on his face.

"Well... that kinda sucked..." Grumbled Duncan as he stood up after a brief moment on the ground, seemingly unharmed but very clearly starting to get a little mad at the ridiculous turn his day had taken. Which was only exhasperated when he looked down and realized that although he was extraordinarily durable, his clothes were... less so.

Which is, all in all, a very roundabout way of saying he was now basically just standing there in his boxers and (most of his) undershirt with the tattered remains of his tracksuit hanging haphazardly off his body. He didn't have long to get too mad about it, however, because that was about when Monny finally finished putting itself back together and locked his solitary eye on the Rookie with a look that just seemed to scream 'TARGET ACQUIRED'.

He looked to his left and across the room and saw the Warden bearing down on Lizard like something out of a Ridley Scott movie. A glance to his right revealed that Captain Marvel had taken to punching Toon Girl in the face and whipping miscellaneous items at his other warped teammates. And if the sudden shaking of the walls were indicative of anything, it was that there was something else wrecking shit in this tower he hadn't seen yet.

All things considered, things were looking pretty grim and stupid in Metro Tower that day.

"Welp, no way 'round it..." The Rookie flatly stated, shaking his head and cracking his knuckles. "'Deep End' it is, then."

And so, with an audible inhale and a calming exhale, the 'Literally Who?' of the team took one step forward and abruptly sank slightly into the crater that formed around him as his foot hit the floor, before kicking off and rocketing straight through the sound-barrier and closing in on Clayface with a thunderous BANG! and a fist cocked back for the mother of all haymakers.

Was it a good idea? Almost assuredly not. But at least it was doing something.

As the elevator containing the trio of Polarity Man, Apollex and Blue Beetle finally reached the lobby, the lieutenant was the first to get out of the lift. "Alright. I guess I'll just leave you guys here?

"I'll... be fine... I... think..." Ted replied in his exasperated state. The pain in his chest was beginning to get stronger but he was sure it would pass in no time, just some old man aches.

"Yeah, I'll stick with Blue here" Lexi smiled at Polarity man "Thanks by the way." She flutters her eyelashes ever so slightly at Polarity man before linking an arm with Ted.

"What... she said..." Ted added. He knew if he hadn't been taken out of there when he was it was defiantly possible that he wouldn't have gotten out of there at all.

"I promise I'll be back soon. Hopefully with a way to change all of you back to normal. And with that, the Polarity Man raced for his mech suit. As he started it up, he could only wonder what the rest of his fellow unaffected Leaguers had found themselves in, specially against the mutated versions of the elemental members. Speaking of which...

Monny couldn't help but shuffle forwards as it's body continued to act out. The idea that it was going to hurt Rookie even more wasn't sitting well with the Clay Monster. It liked it even less as the man laid in a crater next to the wall he had crashed into.

The hero was made of sterner stuff then most humans. For even as Monny lumbered onwards Rookie picked himself up. Rookie glanced around the room and Monny felt his non-existant heart lift. Oh good! Rookie wasn't going to stay and try to fight it. Rookie was going to run. If Monny was an autonomous monster he would had sat down and the wave of relief crashed over him.

Then the worst occured. Rookie locked eyes with Monny. It was too loud in the room to hear what he said. Instead Monny watched his lips move before Rookie put his foot down, hard. Then the hero was gone. Just like that.

Before Monny even could figure out what had happened it felt it. Monny couldn't feel pain in the normal human sense. But it did feel something akin to acute discomfort when getting a hole punched through it's mud. Especially when a fist goes through the monster's face followed by a male, human body.

It was pretty much as soon as Rookie planted his foot into the ground that he realized a particularly glaring flaw in his choice of tactics; well, two really. One, Monny seemed like kinda of a nice guy and this was... pretty mean... and two; he was now travelling at mach-speeds and, unlike, say a Kryptonian who could bend the laws of gravity to fly around as they saw fit, he didn't actually have a means of stopping. Save for Newton's Laws of Inertia, specifically that bit about 'Objects in motion staying in motion unless acted upon by an opposite and equal force'.

Like, say... the fortified walls of the Metro Tower, specifically built to stand up to assault by superpowered lunatics.

Like the one he was careening towards at this very second.

"Oh God..." The half-naked hero panicked, slamming his feet into the ground and wearing out what was left of his shoes and socks as his heels dug fruitlessly in the floor for some traction to stop his forward momentum "Oh no, oh shit! Oh fuckFUCKFUCKFUCKFU-!"

BOOM!

He hit the wall. And unfortunately for his pride, the wall didn't win. Instead, he kept on going, through the steel door behind that wall. Then through the big window in the nice comfy sunroom behind that door, and straight towards the turd-riddled public dog park behind the tower.

Before the Rookie could do any damage to public property however, Polarity Man had managed to intercept his flight path to the ground. In order to stop him though, the Patroller mech had to crash into him head-on.

"...Mmph! Gonna wizz red..." The Rookie responded quite thankfully to the mother of all kidney-shots, but made no further complaints about being saved from landing half-naked in a field of puppy-patties "...Thanks."

"Think not much about it." Lieutenant Lawrence would respond, though the Patroller's on-board computers would have said otherwise. While The Rookie's collision managed to somehow inflict more damage to his hardware than Lobo, Polarity Man was still determined to end this conflict sooner than later. "I suggest taking the tunnel you created back into the room where Extant and his creations lay. Are you still able to fly?"

"Heh, uhh... funny thing that." Responded with a slight wheeze, still clearly nursing his side, but otherwise alert and ambiable "I can't actually fly. That was jumping."

"Hmm. Then I suggest holding on." With a flick of a switch, the remaining energy cells of the suit powered the mech's jet boosters, allowing the duo to safely re-enter the Metro Tower. Along the way back to their target though, an encrypted message would make its way to Polarity Man's console screen. A plight to one Supergirl, daughter of The Man of Steel. While it was definitely a surprise, it was a welcomed one and Lawrence decided to capitalize on the situation. Connecting to the Tower's Monitoring room, he would send out a distress signal that showed his exact location as he and the Rookie raced towards Extant.

"You've got a plan, right?" Rookie asked, seemingly starting to get his bearings back

"Go for the wizard. Hit him hard and hope for the best." Polarity Man would state. While this was seemingly simple, it was all he could ask The Rookie to do.

Duncan just stared at the Mecha-Clad Man for a few seconds before breaking into a shit-eating grin.

"Yeah... I think I can do that."

Back in the dim lit monitor room Supergirl seemed to get the exact push she had asked for. Just about every screen started flashing the same information and map. Some even with visual aid, much to her appreciation.

“YES!” Supergirl sprouted in relief. Turning to the others in the room, she did her best to inherit the virtues and voice of a real-life hero.

“Alright, you, eh… fine elderly people, someone will totally come and escort you out, when all this is over, I’m sure of it. Take it easy, chill and please don’t touch anything. The real Question wouldn’t want that. He’ll probably connect it to alligators in the sewers or somethin’. Superman says he’s kind of obsessed. Bye, bye”

With those words, she raised up from the nagging of cold floor, hovered for a second and then shot strait up like a bullet.

"Superskirt!" Rose yelled after the half-Krptonian hero. "You ever use a fuckin' door, we're trying to save the base dear, not destroy it any damn further!"

Wait, should I maybe have used the same hole I entered through instead?... Crap! Anyway, focus. The hall is… here!

Just as she touched down by the entrance two familiar people approached with great speed. Their movement was like something out of a painting of the Greek gods. The intensity in their eyes, the strength of their expression. Larger than life.

A feeling of being ridiculously under-dressed for the occasion crept into Supergirl's mind. Wearing pretty much the same as your average girl who wanted a workout, minus actual shoes.

“Oh, thank god. Rookie and Polarbear-man! Real honor and all that. Anyway, real quick here: W-what the shit is happening?”

"Polarbear Man...?" Duncan repeated with a raised brow as he climbed off the Lieutenant's shoulder, quickly glancing at him with a silent, barely visible grin that advertised quite clearly that he wasn't going to let that one go anytime soon as his feet hit the ground.

"Hmm. What I would give for the powers of a polar bear." Lawrence would say with a slight headshake."Supergirl, I presume. Our allies in the monitoring room sent a distress signal hailing for you which I had intercepted, and I see you got my followup signal as well. Anyway, a dimensional corrupter known as Extant is erroding the League from within and we need to stop him." Polarity Man would state before setting down his mech. "Alright. Your presence actually makes my plan realizable. I need both of you to distract that wizard and keep him in place as I perform a... let's say, surgical strike. Sound good?" Before any of them could get a word out, the lieutenant himself would phase out of the mech and below the floor. What he had in mind apparently did not require heavy firepower.

"Hey, wai-!" And before Duncan could get a word in, the Lieutenant phased through the damned floor like a b-movie serial-killing monster. "...Well, shit."

Exhaling audibly, the Rookie straightened himself up and tiredly rolled his shoulder a bit, eliciting a few pops from the sore appendage before casually turning to Supergirl and offering out his hand out for a shake...

"Good ta meet'cha. And 'Rookie's just a nickname, you can call me Dun-"

...Before he abruptly froze in place as he looked down and realized that, after all the mayhem of the past half-hour or so had systematically destroyed his clothes, the only thing he had left covering his body was a pair of Canadian Flag boxer shorts. The Canuck's head shot up to meet her eyes again... then back down to his underoos, then back to the Half-Kryptonian again with a blank expression but eyes that very clearly articulated just how loudly he was screaming internally.

"-Can..." he managed to finish, very obviously avoiding her eyes now "Welp, I uhh... I'm just... gonna go beat on the Big Bad Evil Guy now... Okaygoodtalkbye."

And before she could get a word in, the Rookie did just that; slamming his foot into the ground and launching himself towards the fight. Landing hard on the training room floor the Lad wasted no time with speeches or other heroic fuckery, instead taking a second step that fired him towards the ceiling, which he then kicked off even harder to launch himself straight down upon the time-warping douchebag with a spinning, dive-bombing axe-kick that would turn normal people into paste.

Extant laughed at the attempt to shoot him by Clutch. Rookie's strikes landed pretty solid however, taking the red and black clad cosmic being by surprise. He used his power to throw debris at the unaffected heroes. His power however was still weak. Ambush Bug and Amazing Man began to age back to normal. Ice soon followed...

"NO!" Extant exclaimed as the monster made of clay was also shifted back to his original state, "I'm not done with Superman yet! His grandson has to be wiped from existance! His daughter must NEVER join the League..." he continued screaming as another hero landed a shot from out of nowhere.

Lizard took the opportunity to throw Warden away from the Monitor Room. Bum-rushing him inside the kitchen's fridge and closing the door with a loud bang.

Before she picked up speed and went for an alligator rush at Extant. "Oy! Magical Zap! Age this!" she said, cannonballing ontop of Extant. As she soon also kicked him in the knee.

Jim was both shocked and annoyed that his shots had no effect. He cursed to himself as he stopped firing and proceeded to turn up the power setting on his ray gun. He then fired off several more shots and was hoping that this would take down the villain.

"Go down!" he shouted angrily as he kept firing off more shots. He wasn't going to back down from his fight, not when the league needed him most.

Huge stone boulders and other debris fell like meteors towards the heroes, before a blinding light turned it all into sand.

At the end of the beam stood Supergirl, who struggled to turn off her laser sight once again, by covering her eyes. No easy task, but after a moment the bright glow in her pupils burned out and it felt safe to open her eyes. Standing in the middle of pure chaos, Supergirl used a moment to adjust to the ever-changing battle going on around her. Her palms felt like they were on fire, and her heart refused to slow down. And for a 19-year-old with limited training, it was more than a little confusing trying to keep up with the violent encounters. Yet she managed to single out the one guy, she had been asked to distract. She paused, breathed in a bit of courage and then launched herself forward.

The enemy, it seemed, readied himself to strike back after getting bombarded with shots. With tremendous force Supergirl collided with Extant, reached around and grabbed him from behind, holding his arm and body still, so Jim could unload his entire arsenal into the sick piece of shit.

“Surprise, douchebag. You’re about to have a real bad day!” she yelled into Extant's ear and grinned her teeth because of the few shots had also happened to grace her.

As the other heroes subdued Extant, the unnarmed Polarity Man finally decided to make his move. Dropping from the ceiling in his ethereal form, he would land behind Extant and Supergirl, protecting him from the firing range of Mister Clutch. "Took a while to navigate the air ducts. Also, you can stop now Clutch." The lieutenant would then raise his hand towards Extant's face. "Isolation of foreign bacteria is quite simple when you're eighty percent radiation and when it's composed of Doctor Fate's magic. In this case, I've concentrated it all on my palm." he would state before plunging his ghostlike fist into Extant's skull.

---

Lizard didn't notice much of what was wrong, namely her head was ringing rather loudly and she was quite certain that something was broken. Namely it had gone so quickly, suddenly she some young female Superman-like figure.

Then the next thing she felt was that same figure impacting Extant with the force of a freight-train. Or more like a jet. The physical force easily transferred over to her, since Lizard wasn't some dimensional world-changer.

Lizard was also certain, she shouldn't have been travelling that fast into a wall. As the sudden sound of somebody impacting the concrete wall was heard.

She did know, that her breathing shouldn't have been this difficult, or tasting blood or having it drip down from her skin. Or having those iron rods sticking out of her leg, shoulder or arm. 'Yeah...that is not normal,' she thought, before her brain caught up to the pain and broke the red light in her brain.

"AHHHHHGHH!" she screamed out, the pain much worse than she expected it to be. Loud enough to even match Black Canary in volume.

That got the Rookie's attention, who'd been standing there in stunned silence as the Lieutenant stuck his hand directly into Extant's body like some kind of Indiana Jones villain, causing his head to snap up and spin towards the source of that racket, face paling slightly at what he saw.

'Oooooh, Christ, that's a lot of blood...' Was the sole thought pounding through the man's head as he rushed towards the Lizard, appearing as a blur before before he stopped in front of her. Looking over the damage.

'Oh yeah, that's... wow. Shit.' His internal dialogue continued as he exhaled loudly to get over the sight, before he stepped forward and wrapped one arm around her mid-section to brace her on his shoulder as his other hand reached behind her 'Well... first things first, gotta do something about that rebar...'

"Not to sound like a smartass, but try not to move. This... probably won't be fun."

And without further ado, the Haligonian began snapping the bars between his fingers to free her from the wall as gently as he could. Though, unfortunately for Jess, that was still enough to send vibrations through the steel that would be the exact opposite of soothing, even if it only took a few seconds for Duncan to snap all three bars. Gently (well, as gently as possible given the circumstances) catching the reptilian as she fell slightly onto his shoulder, the half-naked, now blood-soaked lad carefully turned and started towards the monitor room. Heading away from Extant and his two remaining tranformed comrades at a brisk walk, being somewhat weary of running at his normal pace while carrying someone full of holes, big pieces of steel and alnost certainly a few broken bones.

---

Extant's powers continued to fade. More of the Justice League began reverting back to normal and the second Doctor Fate began regaining his youth his eyes crackled with energy and the helmet flew to his hands. Upon placing the helmet on his head the headquarters boomed with mystical energy and power. The gold and blue clad hero from WWII rose into the air and in a flash EVERYTHING began shifting back to as it was.

"Your hatred for the Superman legacy ends here!" Fate screamed picking the depowered Extant up with his raw magical energies.

The two teleported to parts unknown, possibly even another dimensional plane. Nevertheless, the League was back to normal with many of the heroes not realizing what had just went down. The walls were no longer wrecked, Vibe was alive and attempting to breakdance for some reason. And Bulleteer stood with his helmet off in the monitor room wondering why on Earth he had pissed himself.

"What in the hell just happened?!" he asked out loud.

"Extant learned you don't mess with the Justice League..." Superman said looking off into the high ceilings of the lobby in the Tower.

---

Sector 2813, Krypton

June, 1938...

The female Kryptonian and member of the Justice League blipped into existence just as the villain had said she would. Her planet exploded in front of her eyes and the planet wide boom and shock sent her and much debris flying back further away from the sector. Landing somewhere near sector 1984, Solara finally got herself together in the tattered remains of her alien attire.

"None of this would have ever happened... if I'd never joined the Justice League! Which way is Earth?!?" she screamed in the vacuume of space where nobody could hear her bitching.

"You'll watch your adopted planet die just as I witnessed ours Kal-El. This I swear!" she continued flying towards the closest planet around.

Rose didn't clap along with the other Leaguers as Superman introduced Superskirt as both his daughter and the League's newest recruit. A bitter twing of jealousy reverberated through her chest as she watched the way Lara adored her father, the way Rose had adored her father.

At least, at first.

Superman did something Rose had never experienced though, he returned the affection, the admiration. He glowed with pride looking at his daughter, content with who she was. Rose had never been on the receiving end of these things. Her father had only pushed her to be stronger, faster, deadlier. And when he could teach her no more, he had brought in others to teach her, some voluntarily.

And some by force.

Phantom pain began to eminate from her right eye as the memories of her father's blade flashed in her mind. The cold steel pressed against her face, the sudden shock followed by burning pain as a warm liquid ran down her face, mixing with salty tears all while the 'hero' watched, helpless to stop the monster that was her father.

Putting a hand over her blind eye, Rose brought herself back to reality as she turned to leave the restored training room.

She needed a dart and a drink.

Making her way to an upper floor, Rose exited the building onto a balcony as she over looked Metropolis. Taking a swing from her hidden hip flask, Rose felt the rum warm her throat, erasing any lumps that might have formed there before she gingerly put her lips around a cigarette, lighting the end and inhaling deeply.

Blowing a ring of smoke, Rose leaned over the railing as she studied the city below. Beneath the glistening skyscrapers and clean streets, she knew there was a city that was hurting. It may not have been Gotham or Hub, but Metropolis had a dark side most people couldn't see beyond the large 'S' that protected it.

Shaking her head, Rose rubbed her temple. She couldn't remember a thing from after Extant had appeared until everyone was celebrating below. She hated having her mind screwed with, yet another thing to thank dear ol'Dad for.

'I've got more daddy issues than fuckin' Lucifer.'

Rose smirked slightly at her own internal monologue as she resumed looking down on Metropolis. The League was something the world needed, but Rose couldn't help but think they could do a lot more. The League only responded to events where Supervillains were present, what about the little girls kidnapped in the night? What about the corrupt CEOs of the world, here was so much crime the League did little to intervene within. Before she had joined, Rose was putting down scum left, right and center, it was part of what had gathered the League's attention. But Rose suspected that Bats and 'Wing didn't want her to become her father. The League was just a giant daycare for 'loose cannons' like her.

Letting out an exasaperated sigh, Rose blew another ring of smoke.

"How much longer will I even fuckin' last here?"

In the wake of Extant's attack on the League, Superman had personally asked Ted to stay on full time at Metro Tower in order to train and prepare the greener members of the League should the Tower come under attack again. Like any good trainer, Ted had woken the group up at the crack of dawn, taking them for a five mile run before returning for breakfast. Breakfast had been nothing but a thick green liquid, engineered by the Batman to maximize nutrional intake and output, unfortunately it sacrificed taste and appearance in exchange.

Looking out over the gym, Ted examined the sparring partners before him as he had Whiplash and Clayface fighting one another for Supergirl and the Rookie traded blows on the other side of the room. Whistling sharply, Ted made his hands into a 'T' as he took a couple steps forward, motioning for the group to come in for a talk.

"Alright, that's enough of that for now folks." Ted said, rubbing his hands together. "Now, we're going to focus on how you work as a team. You've tested each other's strengths, you've built your bonds, but now we're going to work on communication and co-ordination." He explained as a group of training bots emerged from the walls of the training room.

"These robots will take the shape of some of the foes encountered over the years by the Justice League and the Justice Society. Each one will be chosen specifically to challenge the abilities of one of you, meaning that you'll need to work together to compensate for your weaknesses." Ted concluded as the bots began to change shape, the first training bot suddenly expanded in size, as its liquid metal nanites took the hulking form of the being known as Solomon Grundy.

"Born on a Monday..." The bot bellowed towards the Rookie as the second began to vanish from sight before the wispy outline of the Gentleman Ghost stood in its place.

"Good morning Sirrah." The Ghost said with a tip of its etheral hat towards Clayface as the next bot took the form of the immortal Vandal Savage. Spinning a knife around in his hand, the master of warefare eyed Whiplash hungrily as the fnal bot began to transform. Its body turned purple as its mass began to grow only to suddenly shrink down into a wirey frame as beady eyes turned towards Supergirl, a mouth filled with rows of teeth opening wide before snapping shut.

"So, hungry..." The Parasite moaned as Ted took a few steps back before a force field activated seperating him and the recruits.

"Remember, work together." Ted called as the simulated foes began to bear down on the new heroes.

The tools at the League's disposal never ceased to surprise Rose as she held onto a cargo strap above her head as the League's jumpship made the transition from flight to undersea submersible as it dove below the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Although she had only been a child, even leaving in Cambodia, Rose had heard of the war between Atlantis and the United States when the Atlantean, King Orm had chose to go to war with the surface dwellers.

However, Atlantis was repelled and their kingdom ended up being destroyed during the war leaving the surface world content to believe they would never face another attack from the mermen under the Atlantic. Thus the idea of wearing an Atlantean material hybrid wetsuit into Atlantis never actually crossed the mind of Rose Wilson until she was drafted by the Dark Knight into a mission to intercept a foe known only as Black Manta from retrieving the mystical trident reserved for the ruler of the lost city.

Alongside Rose was once again Jessica Jester, the team's resident aquatic expert. The Lizard being a part alligator, part red-blooded woman was far more suited for the cold murky depths than Rose even in her scaled get up. At the helm of the jump ship was none other than the team's coporate sell out as Mr. Clutch deftly piloted the ship below the surface. Despite all his other numerous flaws, Rose had to admit, he could at least drive. The final member of their squad was the team's resident powerhouse, at least he had been until Superskirt showed up. The current Captain Marvel stood near Rose, his hooded face concealing the content and quiet man as Batman turned away from the helm to address the team.

"The Trident is an artifact we understand very little about. It's origins and limits are vague at best, but what we are certain of, is that it can not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands." The Dark Knight stated as Rose felt tempted to roll her eyes. Everyone and their mom had seen the CNN footage of Orm taking on hordes of the US' best with the over-sized fork. It was more of a shock, that the League had captured the weapon while the war was still happening.

"Black Manta is a new player, we believe he was one of Orm's Lieutenants during the war and now is making a play to put himself in power. It's rather odd given the length of time that has occured since we've last heard from Atlantis, but we can't afford to allow this to go unnoticed." Batman continued. "While Atlantis is predominantly destroyed, there are still pockets of the city with full life support where we'll be able to survive within. Clutch is going to bring us as close as possible to the capital, but it sustained the most damage during the final battle. It's likely we'll be forced to land well outside of it, and find a way through the city's extensive infrastructure."

Taking a moment to look at each member of the team, Batman continued. "The primary goal is to find the trident and get out. Avoid combat at all costs, Atlanteans can survive outside of the city, you cannot." Batman paused, looking towards Lizard. "Not even your physiology will allow you to survive the crushing pressure at this depth." Turning to look at the helm, the team was created by the sight of the destroyed city as the jumpship's lights illuminated the ruins of Atlantis. Crumbling stone and metal work was visible from all sides as faintly functioning shields illuminated several pockets of the once vast city.

Pointing to a pocket towards the center, Batman instructed Clutch to take the ship in.

"Captain," Batman paused as he turned to the group. "I won't be departing with you here, so I'll be requesting that you take point on this operation. I trust you'll be able to keep this group in line." Batman added, his look turning towards Rose who did roll her eyes this time.

"I clearly have more field exp-" Rose began as Batman raised a hand.

"And you're more likely to violate every rule that I've requested of you." He retorted. "Captain, can I trust you to lead this operation?" Batman asked as he turned his attention back to Captain Marvel.