Through all the languished proceedings of strangers pretending they liked each other; various clashing personalities and worldviews colliding around the room; stilted conversations beating him into cauliflour brain, let alone ears; inter-personal dynamics as friction-free as coarse-grade sandpaper dragged over a poorly-fixed pothole; saccharine and skin-deep sweetness shared by freaks and rejects. Vincent watched Cece with amusement - he'd seen her social media presence, it was hard not to with how aggressively present it was within the team - and wondered what she was like beneath instagram. He wondered if there was anything beneath instagram at all.

But he was getting sidetracked with quiet, self-satisfying belittling. At least instagram was a purpose. In truth, throughout all the goings-on, the practiced disinterested glaze in Vincent's eyes belied the true attention he was paying to Eilidh, who found herself assaulted on all sides, the inane chatter seemingly inescapable. There was a quality to the blind girl that stirred a long-suppressed protective streak in Vincent, something innately soft and comforting. The cynic in him wondered how much of that was the girl herself playing mind tricks. The rest of him wondered to what degree he was able to manufacture reasonsfor burning bridges. Eilidh fundamentally wasn't - couldn't be - fooled by his rehearsed aloofness. There was something equal part frightening and freeing in that.

Vincent's posturing self-diagnosis and armchair psychology was interrupted by Julian's goading about some new experiment, which was quietly absorbed and packed away and stored to be used as fuel for retaliation later. The ginger fuck's smug superiority complex never failed to light a fire under Vincent's ass. It was good to have a reliable source of motivation for pissing the self-important jerk off. Julian needed it, was Vincent's honest take; a mind and ego like his, without people to bring him back in line, was how mega-assholes like Julian's progenitor came to be.

But Julian and Vincent's back-and-forth was merely back-and-forth, and they both enjoyed it in a certain light; it was Hana's quiet jeering at Eilidh that really got Vincent's goat, and he slowly winched himself up off the floor to do something about it. What, he wasn't sure - Hana would probably put him through a wall far quicker than he could adjust his destination to a comfy mattress - but he was standing now and had begun walking and adjusted his direction and well, in for a penny. Make it count, smartass, because you won't be able to say much else a couple minutes from now.

Thank Christ then that the entire volatile tableau was disrupted by Booster's flying toaster, and Julian quickly changed into his big-boy pants and started alternatingly stroking his ego barking orders and stroking himself while getting all involved in tech and circuitry from the far-off future of two thousand-and-whatever. Vincent swiveled on the balls of his feet locked eyes with Julian, who he could see visibly sigh at what both boys knew was inevitable. Vincent stepped forward, one moment in the kitchen on the far side of the counter, the next his foot falling mere inches from Julian's toes.

"Six at least, who beat Booster's D-list ass into next week's F-tier? Co-ordinated? Prepped for intervention from actual, capable, seasoned professional capes?"
Vincent suppressed a smirk as he saw a flash of pique across Julian's face, hidden from the team but not from Vincent; he clapped a hand to Julian's shoulder and let the kid make a show of pushing it off with no small amount of force.
"I say if you wanna organise ritual teen suicide there are easier ways to go about it, chuck." Vincent leaned in surreptitiously, hushing his next words but making sure his body language screamed that he was talking of Hayden: _{"I mean christ, kid, some of us ain't even had the joys of puberty yet."}

Julian shoved Vincent back, and this time Vincent let the smirk blossom full force, which he was pleased to see caused a flaring of his would-be 'leader's' nostrils. He let the moment hang, wanting the next to be extra sweet for the subversion of expectations.

"I'm in. Either I get to say 'I told you so' after I've had to save you and the rest of the Chump Champs, or I get to make a clean getaway, or God's looking the other way and we pull it off and I can carve off a piece of glory." He patted Julian's quickly-reddening cheeks as he envisioned his room as clear as day, reaching through space to pull it towards him; as he took a step backwards, he said "Feels like a Win-Win-Win to me, Jules!", and then pulled his other foot through and let space unfold behind him, vanishing from the lounge entirely.

Red took a seat to play in Julian's chess match. At first he was somewhat nervous that the senior member had an alterior motive in pulling him into line over some new sleight or broken rule that he unwittingly committed, but as he saw the red headed team leader's focus never leave the pieces whilst he set the board, it put the larger youth more at ease.

He'd been teaching him chess for a while now. A strategic game, which could test his ability to learn and grow his tactical abilities. When he first told him how all of the pieces move individually, the two irregular moves and conditions of en passant and castling, and then showed him the set up of the board, Julian was impressed to hear Red accurately repeat everything he'd just learned without any need for correction on the first run through.

As for his first game though, that had been less than impressive. The first few games Red was satisfied with merely mirroring Luthor. Figuring that with Julian having a good understanding of the game, he would limit his mistakes. After quickly losing the first few it became apparent that this was not conducive to success. All he was doing was playing follower, being reactive to Julian, who would control the board and look to put him in check without fear of Red making any unique aggressive moves. Once he did that, the match would be entirely defensive and based on self preservation for Red, and Julian would dominate the remainder of those games.

So if mirroring wasn't the answer, that meant the game would call for the opposite - creativity. Which so far had not proven to be a strong suit for Red. It had started to yield results though. Occasionally he'd see Julian furrow his brow, or seem confounded by something he did which would seem unusual. He still was yet to beat him, but their matches now seemed more varied. Sometimes his creativity wouldn't pay off and he'd get quickly defeated, but others would last much longer. Either way, he was always learning. The large man seemingly always growing.

This time he went with something he'd heard Julian refer to as "The Sicilian Opening", apparently all of these early moves had names - which Red didn't find too strange, after all there were only 20 different potential opening moves each for both black and white. The game didn't really settle into a unique situation until later. The pair moved and countered fairly quickly early on, but the game started to slow as more thought came in... until it came to a complete stop entirely after the sudden entrance of a small golden robotic drone of some kind.

Red watched as Julian rushed over and attempted to communicate and run a diagnostic scan on the small drone. Morrow's natural curiosity ran wild over "Skeets". If he was right it seemed the golden robot was powered by a form of nuclear fusion that was completely new to him, and was coated in some kind of golden alloy that he couldn't distinguish... and since he held the understanding that came from reading the notes and journals of his father, a world leader in robotics and cybernetics, this was no mean feat.

Apparently this was the robotic support for a Justice League member called "Booster Gold". This was someone who quite a few others were familiar with - and judging by Gabi's reaction, not entirely positive. He decided that he should ask her why later, maybe this Booster Gold and his actions might have something to do with his father's negative sentiments towards the Justice League. He had very little knowledge and experience dealing with... well, any superpowered people - thus far Julian seemed to want to be developing their teamwork slow, and putting themselves on the radar of the Justice League, Titans, or anybody those groups see as an adversary was counterproductive. This meant that as far as he knew his teammates only came in with their knowledge of these types from the outside world, tv and internet media.

Red's "outside knowledge" was barely a couple of weeks. Technically, Red could look famous superpowered people up online in the new smartphone Julian had provided him. But there was so much new to discover, he hadn't really found a way to discover new things in any organised way - the world was just so loud with new experiences, that he could barely take everything in at once.

Overhearing the conversation, he could tell this lack of experience shouldn't be directly relevant on this occasion however. Apparently they were dealing with a half dozen unknown superhumans, each far stronger than he was. Strong enough to "rip the door off of the bank vault". Red had never seen a bank, but they were where people kept their money, so he was pretty sure they were built strong enough that you shouldn't be able to do that. They had also beaten up this "Booster Gold". Which again, he knew nothing about other than being in the Justice League. But knowing how difficult it had been for his father, he assumed they were all extremely hardy.

Some of his teammates disappeared to get prepared. Red had no need. He owned very few items of clothing, and what he owned was mostly provided by Julian. As a result he generally wore what he was meant to "in the field" anyway. He quite liked the pair of cargo pants he was provided and was slowly getting used to the shirt. Made from a kevlar weave, which Julian then had painted with a shiny gloss red paint on Morrow's request, it largely formed his uniform - in that it was generally all he ever wore, if he wore anything at all. He found the shirt particularly tight and uncomfortable, but that was supposedly the point. Kevlar is supposedly bullet and knife resistant to some degree, and it's because it takes an enormous amount of energy just to stretch the fibres a little, making it very difficult to penetrate. Several layers of the fabric weave spread taut across a thin underlay of cotton and nylon to reduce chafing provide him with some physical protection, but it's hardly comfortable - particularly for someone who doesn't find clothing particularly comfortable in the best of circumstances.

One of his teammates, Vincent, seemed to be having quite a bit of fun at Julian's expense. Red could see he was being a source of irritation, but wasn't certain whether he should intercede - whether this was one of those 'joking'/'general ribbing' moments or if it was something more serious. He didn't want to be the cause of a poor team dynamic by attempting to break up something that was 'nothing'. Well, not again. So instead he just vaguely lent support, before the atmosphere became too negative.

"We are many more than just one, or even six. And at this point it's uncertain what exactly they are prepared to deal with."

Then a quote came to him. One of many that were piped through his classical virtual education recordings.

"And as for being stronger, Archimedes said 'Give me the place to stand and with a lever I shall move the world!'"

And despite his best attempts at a confident smile, which came across as appearing somewhat constipated, his choice of classical quote did little to stir emotions and raise spirits.

Perhaps it was a poor choice of lever...

Despite her ill will toward the fallen robot’s owner, Gabi listened intently as Julian detailed the current situation at hand, the joyful atmosphere of a potential movie night having immediately vanished.

She nodded as their leader spoke, taking her time to process everything he said. While she had been expecting her fair share of action as a part of this team, she did not really expect the training phase of her stay in the penthouse to end so soon. Sure, she had been working out down in the gym, but lifting a few weights had done little to make her part of a crime-fighting team.

Was she even ready?

That question plagued her mind as she rushed back towards her bedroom, causing her to accidentally collide with some of her teammates as she moved. While she was not one to change into a suit of spandex like many of the heroes she admired, she at least needed didn’t want to be running around in slippers and a brightly patterned cardigan. She threw them onto the floor as she stepped inside her sleeping quarters, before immediately grabbing a pair of worn leather boots and perching against the edge of her bed as she moved to pull them on.

Her fingers fumbled as she attempted to tie her laces.

What if she fumbled out there? Sure, she had faced simple thugs before, but that had been different. They weren’t powerful. Just weak men with guns. These guys at the bank however seemed to be the real deal. Actual supervillains. The kind of guys she would see on the occasional news broadcast and would end up fearing for her life from, despite being a whole continent away.

She thought about how scared she had been back then. How much she had looked up to the heroes that would eventually save the day. A smile escaped her lips as newfound confidence began to wash over her. Finishing her laces, she brushed her hair from out of her face, before grabbing the leather handle of her axe tightly and turning towards the window.

What had once been a beautiful spring evening began to change before her eyes, as clouds of grey quickly began to coat the Seattle skyline.

As the first drops of rain began to hit the glass of her bedroom window, Gabi rose to her feet, took a deep breath, and headed downstairs to the penthouse’s storage room to join her team.

---

A single bead of warm water unstopped itself from Roy's inner ear when Skeets came skittering in with a mission for Superman. When Julian accepted the mission, never acknowledging that they were many orders of magnitude less competent than they or that he could get in contact with the League themselves, he felt the sharp, slapping cold of ocean water slashing at his nerves, dragging him into the depths. He was used to tagging museum guards with paintballs and stealing priceless portraits, not fighting supervillains. He never even had it in him to talk to Nick Necro, to even ask if he could step out. He hadn't taken a single breath since Jules gave his speech when he felt his jackhammer heart quake against his lungs, as his stale blood and spent air tripped over each other's feet in a race to get the fuck out of his chest. In his minds eye, he could see himself turning blue. Maybe the others could, too.

He didn't say anything. He hoped to high heavens that Eilidh couldn't feel the goosebumps boiling out of his blazing flesh. He cranked his neck back, exhaled quickly, louder than he would've chosen if he'd thought about it, before taking a slow, conservative ration of air to try and force himself to cool off. As his thumbs twiddled against the rainbow dots stitched across his polo, he clenched his eyes, pursed his lips and asked himself a simple question.

This is what you're here for. Isn't it?

By the end of today, he supposed, he'd have his answer. If he wasn't up to it it'd sort itself out. He'd either die a nobody, bitch out, or maybe, just maybe--become a superhero. That stupid thought was all it took to pierce the oxygen starved smog that clouded his mind, shattering the windows to his soul like a baseball. Hurling his eyelids open, he took a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other, marching off into his room, slipping into the familiar tights, and donning the guise of THE RAINBOW RAIDER!

Fuck yeah!

With a casual stretch of his arms, he pulsed off a prismatic puff of light that toasted his floorboards, spraying a zealous hoard of crispy snarkling hard light sparkles like droplets spurting out of a garden hose, warping the finish on the mahogany panels like marshmallows over a spit. And he took another step. And another step. He took so many steps forward that in two minutes flat he was standing downstairs in costume with everyone else, not looking the least bit cowardly.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, "given that I both crackle colors kaleidoscopically and have a protective aura, it makes sense that I should be the distraction if we need one. Mind you, I'm not really much for violence and, once I've drawn the attention of our felonious foes, would greatly appreciate it if one of you fine fellows would prevent them cracking me in half like a rainbow egg to see if the carpets match the drapes. With all that said, I should probably not go first."

Hayden’s stomach gurgled, still unsatisfied as the rest of the team situated themselves around the ultrawide television screen. She brought her knees to her chest, sitting beside Cece on the couch, and contented herself with looking at the screen. It was one of the amenities Julian had really invested in, at Hayden’s insistence. In Doctor Sivana’s lab, all she had was an old boob-tube CRT that had seen too many years and too many hairline fractures across its rippling screen. That, and a soggy cardboard box full of the same VHS tapes that only worked some of the time -- Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time were the most reliable, fortunately.

But here, Julian had spared no expense. They had surround sound that made Hayden feel like she was in the movie, with dino roars and Ric Brucesson’s dulcet tones filling her ears and her whole body. In the lab, the TV was an escape, an excuse to mouth along the words she’d heard a hundred times with Doctors Grant and Sattler and ignore the rattling screams emanating from the rest of the laboratory. Here it was a little slice of heaven, a chance to get swallowed up by the gentle couch fabric and enjoy the company of friends who were much less likely to stick her with a needle of patent-pending super-juice.

Mostly friends, anyway. To Hayden’s mind, friends had to be equals, partners, in a way. Otherwise you were just showing your pity for the creature in the cage, and Hayden had already gotten plenty of that from Captain Marvel. It was a perspective she was increasingly certain most of the team didn’t share -- the way Hana’s eyes passed over her and her dissected nuggets as she skirted around what exactly 7 Minutes In Heaven meant, the way half of the team pestered Jules about her inclusion in the first place, and especially the way they pretended they were being all sly about it. Even the way Cee tousled her hair set Hayden’s fingernails to dig into her own palms. I’m not five, she wanted to scream.

Then Skeets, the golden butler-bot windled into the tower, uncertain on his own thrusters. He hardly started babbling about his mission before Hayden disappeared from the couch, zipping between team members and bounding for her room.

She tore apart her box of dino nuggets as she ran, wordlessly dropping cardboard scraps in her wake that curled and folded themselves into the shapes of miniature dinosaurs. They would each take the form of a team member’s favorite dinosaur (or stated least favorite, in Julian’s case) and go to them, tugging on their pant leg or otherwise working their way into pockets or riding atop shoulders. It was rough at best, a pale imitation of Eilidh’s ability, but it was a way to get a sense of the team, vague impressions and feelings even from a battlefield away… When it worked. If nothing else, the cardboard dinos were good luck charms.

“Mission time, hell yeah!” She said breathlessly to Red as she twirled past him and gave him a slap on the shoulder, passing on a papercraft T-Rex. Past him and a dozen feet down the hallway she tore into her room, banging the already open door against the crack forming in her wall for the umpteenth time. She bounced over her otherwise plain claw-scarred bedspread (it had originally been dinosaur themed too, but a few sleeping transformations had now turned three sets of sheets to ribbons) and crashed into the pile of mostly clean clothes that constituted her wardrobe.

She scattered her clothes to the four winds searching for her costume, already kicking her way out of her jeans in anticipation. If she got ready fast enough, she reasoned, Julian wouldn’t have the heart to try and kick her off the mission. Finally, her mitts closed around the kevlar-scales that covered the fabric of her Dino-Man outfit. Go time.

This suit was the same as the one she had always worn, but this time with kevlar weave of Julian’s design instead of plain fabric, now that Captain Marvel wasn’t around to take bullets for her. As a plus, it could stretch to accommodate her transformations, or at least the most reasonable ones. It was, as the color-scheme-picker website had dubbed them, cretaceous blue and a fierce jurassic green, plated over with anti-stab scales of the same color that formed the structure of the costume. She wore a domino mask, but without the typical white microfilament that hid the wearer's baby blues. Instead, if you looked into Hayden’s eyes, a pair of slit saurid pupils looked back at you.

Roy was already in costume when she returned -- she must’ve lost time digging through t-shirt mountain. She looked his costume up and down. It was Roy’s own handiwork, an impressive construction of brilliant color that put the childish simplicity of her costume to shame. Her cheeks flared with red as she admired the tones in his costume, the way his shoulders curved like a taut bow, how his ‘Rainbow Raider’ voice sounded so much deeper...

“Fear not, raider of rainbows, Dino-Man is here to back you up!” She proclaimed, voice cracking as she tried to match Roy’s depth and bombast. She remembered herself and a hand came up to hide her blush, but she peeked back through her fingers at Roy.

There was flash across her mind and a warmth against her ankle. She looked down to find a cardboard dilophosaurus circling her feet, looking up to its master for guidance.

“Aw, did Hana leave you behind, little guy?” She said, scooping it into her cupped palms, “I guess you ride with Dino-Man today.”

Dandelion's quiet reverie with Eilidh was broken as the small robot came crashing into the penthouse, startling Dandy as well as seemingly everyone else. They got up to join the others gathering around Julian as he assessed the damage to the robot, but much of what he said went over Dandy's head, but they understood that Julian was about to lead the team on a dangerous mission. Dandelion's pulse quickened as human adrenaline flooded their bloodstream, but they suppressed the hormone and reasserted control over their "involuntary" systems; this was no time to let primitive human biology take control.

Mismatched eyes quickly flicking between the robot, Julian, and their various other teammates, Dandelion weighed the options as quickly and thoroughly as they could. Foremost, Dandy felt utterly unprepared for something of this nature, and the prospect of a potentially violent altercation was immensely unappealing. Even leaving aside the significant probability of Dandelion being injured, killed, or recaptured, the idea of having to exert violent force against humans made the imitation organs in Dandy's chest cavity quiver uneasily. What's more, if Dandy was forced to change shapes in order to survive, which was incredibly likely in this scenario, they worried that the spectacle of their transformation would only make their teammates distrust them further, or attract authorities that would seek to imprison Dandy again.

Dandelion's anxious thoughts were broken by Julian shoving Vincent, and Dandy snapped into focus, watching Vincent closely for signs that he was about to attack Julian. Rather, he laughed it off, declared his intention to join the mission, and teleported away. Dandy released a breath they didn't realize they were holding, and felt other team members do the same. Every other person in the room stank of adrenaline and other stress hormones, which Dandy hadn't noticed as they were wrapped up in their own thoughts. They were all frightened and alarmed like them, Dandy realized, even Julian. Even the ones showing a brave face had an elevated pulse that Dandy could hear. None of them were planning to sit this out, not even Eilidh. Could Dandelion sit by and do the same? This is where their new friends needed them, and so they would do whatever they needed to do. They were a Renegade now, and this was part of that.

As the others rushed off to change into costumes and gather their equipment, Dandy was left to linger, as they didn't have any other clothes to change into. The ones they were currently wearing were all they owned at the moment, having taken the time to gather them when they escaped the S.T.A.R. Lab. Furthermore, human clothes were not conducive to shapeshifting, as they were liable to be stained and ruined just by the fluids Dandy sometimes released during the process. This was a lesson learned early into their human education at the lab. However, Dandy noticed a small piece of paper, folded into a shape that was meant to resemble a dinosaur, left at their feet. Dandy only recognized the paper craft because Hayden had given them something similar once before. The reminder of Dandy's fellow shapeshifter friend dredged up the memory of a conversation they had shared some days before. The two of them often spent time together in the gym when few of the others were around, amusing each other by taking turns shapeshifting. There was a particular shape that Dandy could assume that Hayden enjoyed the most, and they wondered if it would work for them here...

Dandelion carefully stepped back to their room, taking the dinosaur with them, and shut the door firmly behind them. The dinosaur was set on their empty dresser, and their neatly-folded clothes next to it a moment later. Then, the changing began. Julian and Hayden were the only other Renegades that had ever seen Dandelion completely change from one "skin" to another, and while it didn't seem to bother Hayden, it only took Julian seeing it once to tell Dandy not to do it in front of anyone else. And so Dandy changed here, quickly, privately, and taking care to not make too much noise in the process.

After some struggling with the doorknob, what emerged from Dandelion's room was not the androgynous chimera that was Dandy's human form, but a very large dog. Ostensibly it was a husky, with a thick grey and white coat, but it was nearly double the size of a sled dog, with thick limbs and a deep chest. The animal blinked, and its blue eyes had become a mismatched pair of green and yellow when they reopened. The increased scale of the dog was of course to accommodate Dandelion's five-hundred pounds of biomass, but the already lupine features of the husky breed gave Dandelion's swollen form the presence of a dire wolf, or some other prehistoric mega-predator. The original template for this dog had been given to Dandy by one of the scientists in the lab, a sample of her own pet husky (Wilford had been the dog's name, Dandy remembered), as one of the early tests of Dandelion's shapeshifting ability. Besides the dog's size and bulk, Dandy had made only a few other small adjustments, as was their wont, but overall the dog template was left alone, and Dandy relaxed into their new skin.

The stairs took some doing to get down, given Dandy's new equilibrium and considerable mass, but working with this skin's natural instincts, Dandy eventually made their way down to where the others where. Dandy relished being able to change their skin into something other than human for once, as they were beginning to feel stagnant after staying in the same skin for so long. The instincts written into the dog's neurology were so much stronger than a human's, that Dandy could easily just relax and take a back seat to them, letting the skin move itself around with minimal input from Dandy. Even leaving those small comforts aside, Dandy knew that this would be a superior skin for a potentially dangerous situation. Obviously staying in any fixed skin at all was inferior to being able to change as they needed, but for the time being Dandy was enjoying the power and confidence that came from wearing a predator's skin. Humans were ostensibly apex predators, but thousands of years of civilization had dulled their instincts, and there was a difference like night and day between them and a dog, even after thousands of years of domestication had blunted its drive to hunt and kill.

Dandy sniffed around and at their teammates as they awaited... whatever they were waiting for. For now they were taking their hands off the controls, so to speak, and settled into this fresh skin, getting to know it a little better before the mission. They couldn't speak in this skin, at least not without some significant alterations to the dog's vocal apparatus, but hoped that their eyes were enough of a tip-off that their teammates understood it was them. Rather, they gave an excited bark, the volume and bass of the massive dog's scaled-up vocalization rattling the glassware in the penthouse.

It didn't take long for the lounge to fill out, everyone entering with their own greeting and comment on the movie choice. Selene herself hadn't originally been too keen on Cece's selection, but her enthusiasm was contagious enough that she found herself thoroughly focused on the opening credits when Skeets entered through the window.

"Are you sure we shouldn't at least send the League a message or something?" While they technically weren't affiliated and many members had resentments towards the League, Booster very much was with them; not to mention a more monitored member in the group. It figured he would get himself into trouble while the heads of the League were on the other side of the globe. The thought brought the dawning of an idea to Selene, who was suddenly sitting up straight and intently listening to the rest of the party.

"I might sit this one out, seems like you have enough eager volunteers already" She nodded in the direction of the open window Hana had just launched herself from. A few weeks ago she probably would have followed, desperate to prove a point. As it was she had just seen half a dozen teenagers who hadn't worked together before all go off to fight a handful of B-list crime-fighters. Whatever addition she could bring would only add more chaos to the situation. Not to mention she was familiar enough with Booster to know his failure didn't always indicate a very serious level of threat. At least not for a team like theirs.

"Good luck!" She waved goodbye as the last of the team left her alone in the lounge. Carefully, she picked up the small humming robot on the coffee table. It was dense, and slightly warm but could easily fit inside the front pouch of her sweatshirt.

Once she returned to her room she locked her door and placed Skeets down on her desk. It remained dim and motionless. After only a few seconds Selene took up pacing and worrying her already badly bitten nails to no avail. Her plan involved both both using Wonder Woman's personal login credentials and tapping into the League database, and while she hadn't been specifically forbidden from doing either she doubted Diana would react positively. If she found out. Indifferent to her nerves and impatience, the robot remained still. Selene finally opted to sit and stare at it from the bed while trying to slow her racing heart.

CONOR AND JULIANS WORKSHOP // EDGE TOWERS // SEATTLE

As Conors hands ran over the runes on his controls, feeling the runes beneath his fingers. The slight indentation of where he had carved them into the console. The light solidified in the room as a small paper dinosaur came running up to him. Conor waved it away as he continued to work, the last thing he needed while he was working on this was a little dinosaur nudging him increasing the chances of him making a mistake. There wasn't really a margin for error on these kinds of things. Eilidh came down and asked what he had been working on and Conor merely smiled towards her, trusting that his 'aura' changed enough for her to get the idea. Julian's tracker blipped, indicating that someone had already taken off at speeds. Which would probably be Hana conforming to her stereotype. Vincent also disappeared from the scan, but then the two of them didn't really need any assistance getting anywhere.

As more and more people filed into the room the lights softened slightly but stayed bright as all across Julians console readouts sat in the green indicating that everything was ready to go. Dandy came into the room, as a dog and Conor had to refrain from rolling his eyes. What kind of use was a dog? I mean sure it was a big dog, but, it was a dog. Conor sighed as he resumed his work, sliding his hand over several runes several circles became illuminated on the floor. Each had a different numerical sigil within it, he took several stones out of his pocket and handed them out to everyone that had gathered so far. "Take your stone and stand in the corresponding circle, this will make sure that if we choose to teleport back you land on the correct pad and we don't end up with any sort of crossover."

When he got to Eilidh he put the stone in her hand and guided her to the respective circle, careful to guide her rather than pull her with any level of force. When he got to Dandy, he stopped and showed the sigil to the dog. "So, do I just tape it to your leg or what?"

So this is their first mission, stopping a bank heist that this Booster Gold could not stop. Admittedly Varo is still learning about the heroes of Earth and there sure is a lot of them. But, if Julian knows that Booster Gold is not a weak hero and that the robot could not be damaged easily. Then they got a fight on their hands, and Varo was not sure about the team. Sure they have various powers and abilities but, he still does not really know some of them. Let alone know what they would work together as one. Guess he will see how the team handles and how he handles since this will be his first real fight. Sure he helped his father on his quest but never in a combat role.

As others went to their rooms to get their costumes ready, Varo felt no desire to. Mainly since him having a costume when he is clearly an alien is pointless to him. He does not want to hide the fact he is one so instead of getting a special suit to use. Varo is just going to be in his normal clothes. It might be weird to see but, what is weirder than an alien that uses magic. At least weirder on this world.

As soon as Varo came downstairs did he get his rune stone from Conor. "Hmmm, human magic," he said to himself. Inspecting it as he made his way to his corresponding circle. Standing on top of it and waiting eagerly to see human magic at work. Varo is still new to how and what magic humans use. He has some idea from talking with Conor and Selene but has yet to really get a taste of it. Bound to be very interesting for him though it is a pity that Selene is not coming. She chose to stay behind, missing a chance to see her magic in action but, that is her decision. Still, Conor is coming, so there is that.

Then came Dandelion in a dog form, which was a sight that he was not expecting. The only other alien in the group, and he is some kind of shapeshift of a race Varo does not recognize. It is strange that he has not heard of someone like Dandy during his travels with his father. You would think that Varo would have heard of a race of shapeshifters like Dandy. He has heard of alien shapeshifters before his time in space but, nothing like Dandy. So far, Dandy has kept its distance from him, and he is okay with that. Admittedly, Varo also keeps his distance from Dandy for the reason that he is alien to him, which coming from an alien should mean something. Regardless, it will be a sight to see Dandelion see in action soon and see how these bank robbers deal with an alien like Dandy. Varo cracked his neck in anticipation of the coming fight. It is time to see what this team is made of.

Kitchen -> Garage -> Da Street // Edge Tower // Seattle

Johnny had mental whiplash as he looked out the HQ's window to realize the sun was now closer to setting than rising. He rubbed his face, realizing he had slept the day away and cursed himself for staying out so late.

"Crikey" he said quietly to himself as he continued to collect various ingredients for his brunch-for-dinner. He grabbed some frozen waffles and stuffed them in the toaster while he took some leftover Chinese food out of the fridge. It wasn't a gourmet meal by any stretch but the groggy superhero had two distinct hankerings and he wasn't about to deny himself either just because the flavours wouldn't jive. Just as the toaster popped up his delectable snack, a commotion came about with the appearance of a golden invitation to super heroics.

The little drone apparently belonged to one of the big wig heroes who was, evidently, in trouble. Everyone made a mad dash to get ready to go save for Johnny and Selene. Initially Johnny planned on going, bouncing in place as he prepared to dash for the door once he was done nuking his Chinese food but with Selene's own omission from the mission, Johnny decided to follow suit.

"I'll stick around too!" Johnny called to the others "gimme a call if things get outta hand and I'll be there lickity split!"

With the pressure off, Johnny was left in a now eerily quite kitchen save for the movie that was still running in the other room. The silence was broken by the microwave beeping letting Johnny know his unholy concoction of food could now be enjoyed. With the initial adrenaline spike subsiding, Johnny headed for the living room to see what was playing, only to be initially disappointed to see it looked like some chick-flick. That being said he was already in the room and his arse had found it's way to the couch so he figured he was in it for the long haul.

---

He shoved Vincent, playfully. Guy was being a dick. But maybe that kind of swift, metaphorical kick in the ribs was exactly what Julian needed. He was their leader, he couldn't let his own fear get in the way. He had to motivate these young heroes. He had to guide and lead them. He had to move them like chess pieces on a boar-

Hana blasted out of the window as Julian turned around, stuck in thought. He let out a shout after the green-lantern, throwing his hand out as if he would be able to catch her - not with the 10 karat weight on his finger. A hand that was now also the home to the small paper dinosaur thanks to Hayden.

"Hana!" He shouted, but she was already gone. He mouthed 'fuck' under his breath, before he assured everyone else that it would be fine anyway, even if Julian himself was a lot more worried than he wanted to let on. He quickly moved to his quarters, where all he picked up was a pair of fine leather gloves and a black leather briefcase with titanium hinges and some kind of biometrical lock on the front. He moved to the workshop where Conor had already begun introductions of their little project. But Julian would take tone and explain properly - he couldn't have his Renegades think this was just magic mumbo-jumbo, there was real science and elbow grease in this project.

He made sure Cece wasn't recording any of this - he didn't have the patent figured out just yet. And it was pretty bad if anyone of their soon-to-be enemies would get the brilliant idea to copy this.

Conor explained the tracking system, how they all had their chosen places to be brought back to, to avoid uh, 'particle fusion', Julian dubbed it. Which would be a lot less cool than it sounded. The tests on organic matter Julian had done weren't exactly pleasant. But, hey, if the Justice League could put teleportation tubes in just about every city in the world, there was no reason Julian couldn't build it here.

"This utilizes Kent Nelson JR's thesis on Magitech, his decertation explains in great detail how magic could - or might, interfere with Magic. Something tells me that the grandson of Doctor Fate would be something of an authority on the matter- especially after he donned the gold-bucket himself a couple of times."

"But, as I care about the well being of you guys, and myself. Yeah, even you, Vinny. I didn't just stop there by reading the Lord of Order's ideas on Magitech. I also studied Adam Strange and Ray Palmer's Zeta Beam theory. Even took a field trip to the Hall of Justice to do some scans. Swanky stuff, really. Really exciting." Julian continued.
"You've all been gifted with a tracking chip, Vincent was first, and I didn't just mark him like a stray dog for fun. No offense, Dandelion... But rather because it presented me with the unique opportunity to see how the Lexcorp and Wayne Industries satellites I've 'borrowed' would do with tracking someone who can walk out a door in one end of the building and wind up four blocks over, stepping out of a bathtub."

"Long story short. This is some really advanced teleportation. With pinpoint accuracy, frankly, it surpasses the League's own capabilities." He caught himself, in overexplaining something that frankly, most of his cohorts probably didn't give a damn about. All of that Luthor-brand bravado he had just worked up collapsed on it's own shaky legs as Julian blushed a little upon realizing he was going 'full Julian' as Conor and Vincent both had said on multiple accounts.

"The team that goes to the bank's gonna be hot. They have disabled the security cameras, so we are now blind. They are strong, and dangerous. I've sent out a beacon to the League, so if we end up being outgunned, we're playing keep away till someone wearing a big blue and red S can arrive for backup."

Speaking off, he blipped his phone. "Conor, Redmond, Eilid, Charity, Vincent... And Dandelion.". He couldn't let Dandelion out into the public in case they had to change forms, the bank was far more restricted from prying eyes. Besides, he was curious to see what the alien could do. He pointed at them all one by one, as the designation they stood on slightly vibrated, he himself walked up to his own, the rune glowing under the weight of his foot. "You're with me. We're Alpha squad. We are going into the bank. Securing Booster Gold and any of the other hostages is what's important. The money's insured."

"Gabriella, Hayden, Varo, Kevin, Jonathan and Roy, you're Beta squad. You're saving the hostages at the Police Department. Preservation of life is priority number one. Fighting is secondary. When you clean it up, you come and help us at the bank." He made sure everyone present understood their mission. He sure wished Hana hadn't gone off on her own.

Dandelion milled about the room, sniffing at their teammates as Conor continued his inscrutable machinations. By this point Dandy was already quite familiar with their teammates, and had committed their distinct scents to memory, but they were still trying to settle into the dog's skin, and allowed themselves to be literally led around by their nose for a while. Out of any of them Varo had the most unique smell, given his alien biochemistry, but Dandy still nudged the dog's instincts to swerve themselves away from him. One thing humans commonly misunderstood was that not only were humans alien to anyone who wasn't born on Earth, but so were other aliens. Dandy had at least been living among humans in some capacity for a few years now, but they had almost no experience with Varo's people, making him an unknown variable. Even so, Dandelion still sometimes looked to the other alien for cues on how to interact with humans, as he had spent longer living in human society than Dandy, and seemed to have a great deal of experience traveling and meeting other alien races under his belt. Seeing Varo accept Conor's small runestone and take his place on the teleporter went a long way to soothing Dandy's concerns about whatever enigmatic machine they were about to risk their lives going through.

After gently guiding Eilidh to her place, Conor came over to offer Dandelion a runestone so that they could be safely teleported as well. Rather than allow Conor to attach the stone to them with some sort of adhesive, as he was suggesting, Dandy craned their canine head up to meet Conor's hand, nudging his fingers open with their muzzle. Then once they had access, Dandy gently took the stone in their mouth, and after a moment's contemplation, swallowed it. They licked Conor's fingers, intending to reassure him that he would still get the stone back.

Julian began to ramble on about the capabilities of the teleporter, but almost all of it was nonsense to Dandelion, who padded over to their indicated spot on the transporter as he spoke. Obviously built to accommodate a bipedal skin, Dandy sat back on their haunches and curled their tail around themselves to make sure they fit. Julian then listed who would be going where, and the assurance that Dandy would be staying at Julian's side was another considerable relief to them. Being able to support and take direction from Julian made this entire prospect seem considerably less daunting. Momentarily forgetting they were a dog, Dandy tried to pitch in some positive affirmations to share with their teammates, but only succeeded in making some indecipherable mouth-sounds. Nothing new there, Dandy thought to themselves dryly.

Seattle PD // West Precint
^{810 Virgina Street // Seattle}

A police car tumbled through the air, end over end. As it collided with the ground the siren died down in a very cliché 'awoowoooooowoooowooooooooo'. Chaos reigned as fires burned, the grey clouds above threatened to release rain down to complicate things further. A masked man near the police station laughed as he picked up various objects throwing them through windows into the building, he stumbled slightly before pulling a patch from his pocket. Slapping it into his arm he renewed his assault with increased vigor. Whenever an officers head appeared in a window, that window was instantly filled with some object being thrown. None of the windows were particularly window shaped anymore, as so much had been done. The entire glass front of the building at the door was cracked and broken with a swat van lodged firmly in the lobby.

Behind him, taking cover, were a group of men dressed in similar clothes. Instead of excess muscle they carried assault rifles, scanning the area away from the police station. Whenever an officer attempted to enroach on their 'territory' of the precint they were unceremoniously shot from one of the rifles.

If the front of the precint was chaos. The rear was utter mayhem. The masked man had built himself a nest with police cruisers and various vehicles shielding him from the outside, the four of the henchmen with him focused on the building taking pot shots as people popped their heads out meanwhile two sat atop the makeshift barrier taking shots at anyone brave, or foolish, enough to try and push up to try and retake the building from the rear. The masked man at the rear laughed as he ripped off a wheel from a cruiser and launched it into the station. "Beats studying for finals!" He lobbed it into the building, laughing as he heard several screams echoing from within the building.

Gabi starred around in awe around the workshop, as Conor directed her towards her spot on the floor, eagerly taking the inscribed stone he handed her. She knew about Conor’s thirst for knowledge regarding all things magical – he had even promised to investigate some Mayan mythology for her -, but she had no idea this thirst had extended this much. He really knew his stuff, compared to her, whose own magical knowledge merely consisted of making it rain and swinging around an axe.

It was just so wonderful to behold. Nothing like she had seen before.

Yet her amazement was temporarily put on hold as their elegant leader made an appearance, with the super genius beginning his role-call.

Varo, Kevin, Jonathan, and Roy were all good choices. Each one someone she would gladly fight alongside. Varo with his knowledge from beyond the starts. Kevin with the fighting fire he often displayed down in the gym. Jonathan dashing about with that sapphire armour. And Roy, with that fantastical rainbow-coloured suit, and the passion and power to match.

Yet as she heard their names called out, and their mission statement detailed, all she could do was angrily hold her tongue. Hayden was being sent in. Little thirteen-year-old Hayden was being sent to fight some guys that just took down a member of the Justice League. Gabi couldn’t believe what Julian was doing. She had spoken to him about this before, but it would seem that her protests had fallen on deaf ears.

She brought the inscribed stone up against her chest tightly. Looks like she would have to protect them herself.

“Send us in.” She said boldly. “I’m ready.”

---

Everyone were in their positions, ready to deploy onto the mission - except in the last second, Johnny raised his hand up into the air and held his hand in front of his mouth, before running away from the scene. Apparently, the fish tacos he had had for dinner last night weren't sitting right with him. Julian whistled, loudly.

"Buddy, when you're done putting your insides on the outside, you can fly and meet us!" The ginger-leader of the Renegades yelled, before turning his focus back to the crew of young heroes. None of them seemed all too excited. Though, some of them had this steely eyed look. One that filled Julian himself with confidence. He pulled up his phone and the entire system of the teleporter began whirring.

"Mr. Rune, hit it." He commanded from his partner on this project, as the Irishman stomped his foot, all of the runes lit up and in a moment, every single person were swallowed up by a purple hole and dropped into their designated areas. Julian, in the bank. Quickly, he looked at his teammates. They were all there - none of them fused together or stuck inside of a wall or anything.

"Holy shit! Conor! It worked!" he exclaimed, lacking his usual composure.



The bank was quiet, if not for the banging noise heard from down the stairs, a floor under the newly-teleported Renegades.
Julian pulled out his phone and tapped his glasses, they began lighting up as he used the phone to see electrical currents in the building and could therefor figure out where the Vault was as well as any security systems. The power was cut off. Fantastic. His glasses would track the heat signatures. Four men standing up, with unusually high body temperatures - 45 degrees Celsius.

"There's four of them. All stuck together." As well as a fifth one, sitting on the floor next to some cold structure, probably the captured Booster Gold. He was alive, but his breathing was slow. Julian walked to one of the panels on the wall, it lead into the electrical main of the building. He plugged his phone and and managed to bring the security camera back to life, showing the image on his phone. His glasses would analyze the scene.

"They've put the money on carts... 9 and a half million dollars. Guys. Maybe we won't have to fight. I'll just walk up to them and pay them double that to go away. And I'll track the wire and sick the League on them at a later time." Julian formulated his plan, looking over at them with a smirk. Had he already managed to win this one? He continued looking, only to realize there was a second object of these burgulars desire. His glasess read "S.T.A.R PROTOTYPE; Estimated Value 406M USD"

Optimism, gone.
"... Okay, so maybe we do have to fight after all."

BANK OF THE WEST // SEATTLE

As soon as they arrived in the bank Conor ran to the doors, pulling a piece of chalk out of his satchel he wrote a couple of runes across the front doors, once he finished them he placed his hand over them and closed his eyes as he transferred his energies to them. They glowed as a sheen covered the door. It would be able to withstand a little more punishment now, he couldn't do anything about the hole in the wall but at least the police wouldn't be able to run in as easily and get in the way. He turned as Julian was confessing his disappointment that he couldn't just use his money to get rid of the problem. "You realize that paying off bank robbers wouldn't really count as heroic anyway, right?"

He clenched his left fist, his fingers rubbing against runes as an energy shield formed. As he opened his fist the shield disappeared again. Confident that it was still working he took the lead as he started to walk deeper into the bank, carefully stepping over the debris as to not make too much noise. He stayed alert the whole time, doing his best to be aware of where everyone else was, but how uncoordinated they were was easily apparent.

---

As Conor made his way deeper into the bank, the rest followed behind, Julian carried the briefcase in his right hand, phone in the left, monitoring the camera. He saw four of the figures on it, still loading. One of them looked smaller than the other three, while Julian could recall them all four being the same size on the footage he had seen earlier in the Renegeade HQ. A eerie feeling ran down his neck as the ground trembled once the group approached the stairs. Julian turned to Conor who commented on paying them off.

"Good thing I'm not trying to be a hero. I just wanna stop the bad guys." The Luthor said with a smirk, the ground trembled again, this time it didn't seem to come from below them in the vault.

"They're just below here, the vault's are through both gates and then to the left. It's gonna be a tight fit to fight them there. Cece, Red, Dandelion. You'll have to bring your a-game. Vinny, Conor, help them wherever you can. I'll-" He spoke, only for the wall to his right breaking as a 220 CM-tall man who's biceps were the size of Julian's Torso burst through the drywall. He wore a ballistic mask that looked like a hockey mask, clotheslining Cece and Conor, throwing them towards the wall on the other side. Julian with all of his brains and way with words found the most appropriate one.

"Fuck."

There were five bad men in the bank. That's why one of them was a different size.

With haste he put his phone back into his pocket, lifting the briefcase up, a previously invisible panel lit up once Julian's gloved hand touched the briefcase, and out popped the handle of something. Lifting his hand from the scanner, Julian pulled the handle, revealing a .45 colt handgun. No tricks, no gimmicks, no billion dollar investment or alien technology. Just cold steel. He aimed at the man's back and fired three rounds. He was stunned, the bullets penetrating his skin but getting no further than half an inch before his dense muscle mass prevented more serious injury. All it did was piss him off, as he turned on Julian, Red, Eilidh and Dandelion. He rampaged towards Julian who fired more rounds - the hulking man protecting his body with his forearm, each bullet leaving him with a small, bleeding wound. Julian's gun clicked empty and was thrown aside, Julian barely having the time to pull up the suitcase as the punch came in, using the suitcase as a shield he was thrown across the room, a solid ten meters sliding on the floor.

'You'll never need kinetic shielding in a suitcase, Mr. Luthor.' Julian mocked the RnD people at Lexcorp - talking to his 'father'. A memory that wasn't his. Julian had never been to Lexcorp's RnD. This suitcase wasn't his own design. He might've been given a concussion, but it also might have set the ball in motion for him to uncover something. Julian began recovering as the rest of his recruits began attacking the lone beast - the Genius barely taking the time to consider the fact that there's four more of them down there.

One solution at a time, Julian.

Conor's inscrutable device was activated, and Dandelion was promptly dropped through a hole in the floor. Their dog skin yelped reflexively in surprise, before hitting the floor with their legs splayed in an unceremonious heap. They gave a low whine as they picked themselves up off the floor and tried to take in their surroundings, mildly regretting picking such a clumsy skin for this mission. The bank was almost completely darkened, and was mostly quiet save for Julian barking out information as he acquired it from his little device. Dandelion performed their own reconnaissance, sniffing the air intently, trying to pick up whatever trace scents the robbers left behind. Stale smells of blood and sweat hung in the air, alluding to an earlier struggle. Multiple individual scents mixed together in a melange, making it difficult to tell who they were and when they had been there. One thing was for certain, there was something very... off about most of these human smells. There was a strange, sweet smell in the air, not dissimilar to sugar, which Dandy couldn't quite place.

Dandelion's investigations were broken by one of the robbers bursting through a wall and charging at them. The sudden noise and shock stunned Dandy, leaving them standing helplessly by as Conor and Charity were tackled by him. Julian produced a human weapon, a firearm, and fired a few rounds at their assailant, to seemingly no effect. Dandy winced at the incredibly loud noise of the gun, before Julian as well was sent flying by the hypertrophic bank robber.

Seeing Julian in harm's way awakened something in Dandy, or more accurately in the dog skin they were living in. Dandelion recognized these as pack instincts, and let them take over, content to surf the wave of the dog's territorial aggression. Adrenaline flooded Dandy's canine muscles, quickening their pulse and spiking their blood pressure. Cortisol released Dandy's vast stores of glucose into their blood, filling them with volitile energy. Dandy's skin growled, hackles raising and lips pulling back to reveal snarling yellow fangs. Then, as the robber was likely even noticing the angry dog closing in on him, Dandy lunged.

Dandelion knew that the most effective place to sink their teeth into the robber would be the throat, but despite the exaggerated size of the dog skin, Dandy would never be able to reach up that high while the robber was standing. The dog skin seemed to know this too, and so impulsively went for the most vulnerable target in reach: the robber's crotch. More accurately, his femoral artery, as the dog's teeth sunk into the flesh of the robber's inner thigh with all of Dandy's strength. Bullets had little effect on the robber earlier, and Dandy's teeth had similarly little effect, but Dandy's incredible muscular strength at least kept them firmly latched onto the robber's leg, despite his reflexive attempts to shake them off. The dog's hunting instincts were going mad with bloodlust, shouting at Dandy's higher consciousness to sink their teeth in deeper, to rip out his hamstring and then his throat, but Dandy suppressed these instincts. They were only here to protect Julian, not to decide which of these humans would live or die. They would leave that decision to other humans.