[IC] Young Justice 2020: Zero Year

[Aro]

I much preferred this place when it was just me here. It was far quieter. Michael thought to himself as he watched all of the other members of the team in the Kitchen. So far he had remained silent to gather what information he could on his future teammates, and so far he had learned little beside what the files the League already had on them.

In the kitchen when he arrived was their Angelic companion going under the alias of Guardian Angel. Now, what'd the file say again? He thought about the files he had 'borrowed' as he took another bite of the chicken and continued to watch the group. Right, sponsored by Zatanna, so she's gotta be using some kind of magic. She appears to be the oldest looking out of us, but that's probably an effect of whatever causes her to take that form. A rune, or an amulet maybe? If that's the case then Guardian Angel may be a separate entity similar to Doctor Fate, so then we haven't met the real... He swallowed the bite in his mouth as he recalled the name on the file. Sarah Donner! That's it! We haven't met the real Sarah Donner yet. Understandable, it can be a rather intimidating meeting new people for the first time.

He took another bite of the chicken as he moved on to the next member that had been present. Scourge. James Natchgale, using the alias Scourge. Sponsored by Red Tornado. Been living as a firefighter before Red Tornado brought him here if I recall the file correctly. Used his powers to help put out fires and save people's lives. Already use to being a hero, now he can put super in the front of it. Although he does seem to already be butting head with Kid Rogue, already.

He looked from Scourge to Kid Rogue. Dominic Miller. Formerly Kid Kold, now Kid Rogue. Sponsored by the Flash after being apprehended. He use to travel with Captain Cold and the other Rogues in Central City. It'll be interesting to have a hero that can think like a villain on the team.

He took one of the rolls and tore it in half, soaking it in some of the sauce on his plate before popping it onto his mouth. Who else is there, He looked at the last two that had been in the room when he arrived. Time Bomb and Shock. Raymond Tyler. Goes by Time Bomb and sponsored by Blue Beetle. Son of Rick Tyler and grandson of Rex Tyler. Former police officers of the Appleton City Police. Impressive records each, thanks to Miraclo, although the League's records are a bit scarce on that subject beside it's effects. It seems that once the family moved to Metropolis however Ray did a short stint crime fighting in the style of Batman. He looked the hero's outfit up and down as he soaked the remaining half of the roll in the sauce and popping it into his mouth. It would see that some things stuck even after he was given the formula to develop his own Miraclo. I certainly hope the side effects aren't to harsh on the kid.

He looked from Time Bomb to Shock as she got up from the table and began to make her way outside as a few newcomers made their way into the kitchen. Shock. Real name, Veronica Hawkins. Sponsored by Static. Since the two share a similar power set they must be family. Cousins? No, brother and sister is far more likely. She probably doesn't enjoy living in her brother's shadow. No doubt that is an attempt to let her discover herself as a hero and not just be Static's little sister. It'll be interesting to see how she develops as a hero, He looked down at the empty plate in front of him. As well as a chef.

He turned his attention to the three newcomers to the kitchen. Photon, Cassandra, and Starbolt. Photon. Real name Lin Sian. He's had it tougher than most of us here living in Gotham. Another villain turned hero. He was worked with Dr. Light, but after the League caught him he struck out on his own. That was until Raven caught him. Good thing she game him a second chance.

He turned his attention to the last two to enter into the kitchen. There wasn't much in the files for Cassandra and Starbolt apart from their names, Kendra Martins and L'Oriana. Apparently Kendra wasn't born with her power, but acquired them later on in her life. She did a short stint as a vigilante under the name Foresight, she later contacted the league herself and was sent to Wonder Woman. Since that time she's been training with the Amazons on Paradise Island. He turned his attention the Tamaranean as she greeted the others in the room. She was sponsored by Starfire, that makes sense since they're both Tamaraneans. I suspect that they have the same training and abilities, so she'll be a great asset to have on the team.

He gave one final look over each of the members present as he picked up his plate and walked towards the sink. Each of members present has a diverse skill and power set making the group capable to take on almost anything that is thrown at us. A grin spread across his face as he set his plate in the sink. I can't wait to see how everyone will act as a team in the field though.
A loud BOOM coming from the lower levels jarred him from his musing. "Son of a--" He stopped himself and turned from the sink. "Well, it would seem that there's an even better party going on downstairs." He began making his way to one of the exits that would lead him back down to the War Room. "If you'll all excuse me now, there are far better things going on."

[twave]

A couple others had arrived. The one with the armor was interesting. There was a strange sense about her. While the angel couldn't pin down exactly what it was there was definitely a strange, almost counter aura about her. Magic was afoot. Not long after a orange skinned girl entered. Appearing unsure this one greeted them with a simple word. That was something she could work with.

Stepping forward she offered a hard to shake. "Greetings. I am Guardian Angel." Probably best to keep it simple. Break the ice and keep it simple to start. Hopefully then she will open up. Some of the others could use to do the same, Sarah included.

Some were leaving, having had their fill of the group it seemed. But the boom caused Angel to tense up. However some of the others seemed to have an idea of what it was and they didn't seem too worried about it. "What is happening below that would make such a sound?" Though she'd had a tour much of the technology was beyond her.

[Omega Man]

Scourge, Guardian Angel, and Black Hood had all come down to the viewing room of the War Room area of the HQ. Inside two Dittos could be seen drawing the attention of Grundy away from civilian holo-droids while another got them to the designated safe zones in this particular program. Once the civilians were all taken care of, it was a three man tag team taking on the brute in the already wrecked battlefield.

One of the Dittos dropped to one knee and cupped his hands together while another ran and propelled from the cupped hands into the air. The third Ditto got behind the legs of Grundy and crouched as the airborne Ditto landed a clothesline that took the behemoth off of his feet. The teamwork of the triplicate man was something to note, as Red Tornado had now found himself in the viewing room as well.

"It would seem teamwork comes naturally to this young man." the Tornado commented in a monotone robotic voice that sounded something like Morgan Freeman's voice with auto-tune.

After two Dittos landed several punches on the grounded Grundy the monster managed to bat one of the Dittos back with his free hand. The last Ditto, originally the one cupping his hands, leaped into the air with a piece of concrete debris weighing roughly three hundred pounds and came down on the pale powerhouse. The face of the holo-droid was cracked and the holographic 'skin' on the droid faded as did the damaged city block setting. The parts of the setting that were pieces of the room itself sunk back into the walks and floor of the War Room, a large hole closed in the floor, and the three men became one as Ditto wiped the sweat from his forehead and made his way to the exit. The windows became visible now upon getting closer to the exit and Ditto started to grin.

"How'd I do, Red?" the Carggite asked.

"You operated at 92% efficiency. Still room for improvement, however it is acceptable in the field. Good work." the Justice Leaguer stated.

"So, anybody else gonna give it a go?" Ditto asked, "And by chance was there any of the barbecue left?" he continued stepping away with another smile heading back to the rest of HQ.

~KL~

[LostDestiny]

Scourge tilted his head as he watched, he wasn't used to using his abilities in combat, he had only used them to assist in rescues and his job. He still hadn't understands why Tornado had decided to sponcer him. Tornado patted his shoulder indicating that he should go. James shook his head, "I'll just wait for when we do team exorcizes, I'm not so good with the fighting and such." He stated stepping backward. He looked at the others a little embarrassed. He had never actually fought any crime. Sure he had practiced the use of his abilities but as a firefighter he never had to fight anyone, especially with his abilities.

[Natty]

Kid Rogue groaned in annoyance at the loud booming sound that echoed through the tower and rose to his feet. Pushing aside what he was working on, he made his back through their new headquarters towards wherever the sound had come from. The sound’s source? The basement, or in other words, the war room. During his tour, this had been his favourite stop. The technology here was outstanding! Dominic smiled as he thought of all the possibilities that could come with weaponising this place! Fighting a supervillain? No biggie, all he had to do was materialise an army of hardened holographic Batmen. Unfortunately The Flash had refused to let his get his hands on the War Room’s machinery so that dream would have to wait.

He passed one of his teammates as he approached the room’s doorway. He believed the guy to be some kind of alien, evident from the bright yellow bleepers the guy had for eyes. Deciding that it was probably a decent idea to start learning some names, he entered the viewing room just in time to hear Scourge state his weakness in combat. Dominic was about to make a snarky remark before his eyes landed upon ol’ Tornado-Bot. Thinking it best not to insult Scourge in front of his sponsor, Kid Rogue instead flexed his muscles before volunteering himself.

“I’ll gladly have a go!” He declared loudly, heading towards the door leading to the simulation area.

Eyeing the consoles he spotted what the image of Solomon Grundy and mentally gulped. Despite his arrogance, Dominic knew when he was outgunned! Unless he could the big guy down with just a few blasts from his grenades, Grundy here would most likely turn him into lunch. Putting on a fake smirk, he turned back to his teammates.

“You guys want to come along?” He offered, eyeing both Guardian Angel and the hooded archer. “May as well try and work on some of that teamwork shit!”

[twave]

The technology of the facility was well beyond her understanding. The way the room changed and seemed to make new environments was amazing. And there was a giant robot that looked like a zombie creature. Grundy aparently. This was going to be quite interesting. Scourge excused himself from trying a hand at the space below. However Kid Rogue wanted to spar against the automated contraction.

Nodding Angel stepped up to Kid Rogue. "I would gladly join you. Pray tell what is your skill so we may better assist one another?" The idea of building comradery was a plan that she very much wished to accomplish. The only real way to build it was together at every opportunity.

[Omega Man]

"Excuse me young man," the robotic Red Tornado spoke up to Kid Rogue, "Watch your language. You are being sponsored by a member of the Justice League and should act mannerly and with respect." Tornado said getting right to the point on cussing and showing respect.

"I believe, if you're ready to go, that I have an excellent simulation in mind." the robot continued.

In a gust of red wind Tornado flew up the stairs to the control room above the much larger War Room and took to the controls. The setting faded into place as what appeared to be a mall. At least a dozen civilian holo-droids in panic mode were running around as a holo-droid of an injured Flash laid on the ground. The enemy was the magnetism manipulator Magenta.



~KL~

[TheUnknowable]

Photon was sitting at the table when he heard an explosion. Someone is using the danger room. he thought. He'd get around to it. For now he would just sit back and talk with the others.

Of course, within seconds the others started to get up and head down there. He got up too, and strolled down to the war room. He arrived just in time to see the glowing-eyed alien take down a holo-graphic zombie. And here I thought we were doing training exercises, not playing second-rate video games. When Red Tornado reset it to a woman with magnetic powers, though he became interested. "Mind if I join in?" he asked. "I can manipulate light, if you were wondering, though these holograms have an underlying robotic core which I can't simply dissolve, so I can't defeat them that easily."

[Natty]

At the comment to mind his language, Dominic rolled his eyes in annoyance, although not before checking to see if his face was out of view of the walking tin-man. Normally he would have retaliated, much like he had done previously in the kitchen. Now however, he kept his mouth shut, as despite how he acted and tried to rebel, he wasn’t ready to give up all this junk yet! Instead he turned his attention to Guardian Angel as she spoke. He smirked at her question before eyeing her and her wings. If she really was an angel as she claimed, then that gal was surely packing some serious heat! You’d think that Dominic would be sceptical of such things, although after everything you saw on TV while growing up in a world like this, magic didn’t seem that hard to get his head around. It was just some kind of ancient science, right?

“Me? I can built things.” He spoke in an extremely vague manner as he adjusted his gauntlets. At the twitch of one of the servos on his wrist, the machines shot into life, with an array or violent emerald LED lights flickering on. Flexing his hands, he emitted a low level frequency in order to test that they were fine before heading once more to the door. As he moved, yet another voice caught his attention; a young man wearing a collection of neon lights. “Come on down Tron!” He called before entering the War Room, with him quickly followed by his two teammates.

Instantaneously the room around him began to shift and change, until finally Dominic found himself in an all so familiar location. Central City Mall. His eyes darting around through his mask, taking in the situation; the injured Flash, the panicking civilian and of course the big baddie herself. It didn’t take long for him to recognise her. Magenta. Personally he’d never met her, although he’d heard plenty of the Rogue’s speak about her. Apparently she was a class-A looney. Something about her being deeply in love with the Flash? The details didn’t exactly matter, just that she was a threat. Especially to Dominic considering her abilities. Magnetism. That pretty much meant that his gear would be useless if he didn’t act fast. His mind quickly attempted to pull together some kind of plan. Then he got it. Hypnosis!

“Cover your ears, boys and girls!” He declared loudly, raising his arms in a very dramatic manner. “I’m leading the rats out of Hamelin!”

Flexing his hands, he activated his gauntlets.

[twave]

Angel looked at the gauntlet with interest. Inventing was not one of her skill sets to say the least. Sarah was much more ingenuitive than she. "Fascinating. I must confess I am rather naive to your technology and how it functions. I have not been in this world but a year so I've much to learn." The gauntlet before her seemed to hum from a simple movement. A brief study brought her hand to chin but the contraptions operation eluded her. "I look forward to seeing how you vanquish a foe with these gauntlets." She followed him into the room.

Upon entering the chamber and seeing it change before her eyes Angel marveled for a moment before it became apparent that their opponent was before them. Crouching she was about to launch herself into the fray when Dominic advised to cover their ears. What could he be planning to do. Stepping back she did as instructed but took to the air none the less. Perhaps her movement could server as some distraction from the ground.

[LostDestiny]

Sourge sighed as Kid suggested that they get some teamwork. Shaking his head he chuckled to himself. "Can't admit when you might need help huh?" He thought to himself. "Well if we are going to try to work on our teamwork I might as well join in." He stated as the simulation appeared. He watched Kid demonstrate his ability before deciding he should let the others know what he could do. "Might as well let you guys know my ability. I can create and manipulate fire, as well as manipulate smoke." He decided to leave out the fact that he could absorb fire and raise his body temperature to very unnatural and deadly levels. He didn't use those often especially the last one unless needed. "Just a word of advice, if at anytime I say don't touch me, don't do it. I'm not trying to be rude in those cases it is a safety thing for others." He decided he should at least give them a warning about what he may potentially do.

When he entered the room they were told to cover their ears he did as told and covered his ears waiting for something to happen.

[Natty]

_{A collab between @natty, @t2wave, @TheUnknowable and @LostDestiny}

Photon plugged his ears to keep the socic weapon from ruining his hearing.

Seconds later, a high pitched screech filled the air, with Dominic's gauntlets being the sound's source. A strangely calming tune could also be heard, which was somewhat mixed in to the noise. All around the heroes, the civilians stopped in their tracks as the sound met their ears, with the pupils of their eyes increasing in size. The people ran, as if chased off by the sound, heading towards the exits as fast as they possibly could, their bodies fading away in nothingness as they entered the doorways. Ah hypnosis. Piper's tech had been one of the most complicated pieces he had operated on during his time among the Rogues. What had been even more complicated was assigning it to his gauntlets so that he didn't have to prance around with a flute. Luckily it did the job, enabling Kid Rogue to clear the entire area, or so he thought.

It seems that Magenta, while initially being distracted by Guardian Angel taking to the sky, was quick to catch on to what was going on. The villain followed suit and covered her ears, glaring at the two teenagers still on the ground as she did so. Once the sound of the hypnotic blast came to an end, she sprung right back into action, with her sending what appeared to be a metal bar in Dominic’s direction. The blunt force of the bar knocked the technopath to the floor, where the teen groaned in both pain and annoyance.

When the man was done attacking, Photon walked over to him and touched his arm to get his attention. "Here, let me try." he said. "The thing about magnets is that they stop working when you heat them up." Photon pulled light from his suit and shifted it into the infrared. After a few seconds he had gathered and, the hard part, shifted enough light. He focused it into a beam and fired at the holographic enemy, but the woman had lifted a manhole cover in the way. All he managed to accomplish was to create a red-glowing manhole cover. "Huh. I guess it's not going to be that easy, then." he said.

"Well..." coughed Dominic as he climbed to his feet, evidently still winded from the metal bar. “Well at least you tried mate.”

Swooping down where her teammates could hear her, Angel spoke. "I do not posses any weapons for range. To assist I need to face our opponent directly. Flying to her does not appear to be a wise decision. Should she be distracted I may be able to get close enough to attack." She avoided what remained of the manhole cover. Agility wouldn't win them the day though.

Scourge uncovered his ears when the sound stopped. He was rather impressed by the ability but now was not the time to lollygag. He looked to the man who mentioned heat and magnets. "Well if it's heat you want, it's heat I got." He stated shooting a stream of fire at Magenta, the fire turned blue as he slowly began to heat up his body. Not enough to cause him physical exhaustion but just enough to rise the temperature of his flames. He still wasn't used to using his abilities to attack others but he assumed he would get used to it.

The villain's attention was swiftly turned toward him. "Someone do something quick before I get hit. I'm not used to this whole attacking thing." He stated honestly as he slowly moved behind a random object for a little bit of cover, unsure if what he was doing had the desired effect or not. "Here is your opening Angel I'd take it now! I know how to control these enough to not burn you.

Hearing Scourge's cry for help, Kid Rogue darted off to the left, circling around behind Magenta. As he ran, he plunged his hand through one of the mirrors on his gauntlets. Entering the mirror dimension was always an odd experience although Dominic liked to think that he had gotten used to it by now. Rumaging around, he found a grenade to his liking and pulled it out through the mirror portal. Activating the explosive, he tossed it towards the villainess. The explosion was small in size, although enough to distract her from Scourge.

Recovering quickly, Magenta turned, this time so that Guardian Angel was now located behind her. Scourge was right, this was certainly time for Guardian Angel to make her move.

Her teammates did work surprisingly well together given they'd never had the chance to practice. Spotting what would likely be the best opening Angel flew up and clasped her hands together. Hands raised they came down like a club on her back. The impact forced Magneta down. The villian's attempt to recover was met by Angel flying straight down, feet first. Hitting the ground, Magneta was decently shaken up. The whole thing was not particulatly elegant but effective. "You all make excellent allies."

"You're not so bad yourself feath... Guardian Angel." Kid Rogue gave the female a smile, as he approached the rest of the team. Around them the room seemed to fade away, disappearing as fast as it had originally appeared. They did a good job. Well, a good job for their first try as a team. "Yo, Mr Tornado!" He called loudly to the control room. "How'd we do?"

[Omega Man]

"Yo, Mr Tornado!" Kid Rogue called loudly to the control room. "How'd we do?"

The Red Tornado had been a hero for nearly a decade. The metals and alloys in his robotic body weren't as shiny as they used to be and he had clearly seen better days. However, the amount of heroic metahumans had decreased over the years while metahuman criminals popped up in every state. The Young Justice Program needed to exist simply to see heroes for the future should something happen to Superman and the League. Tornado took everything in from the War Room, collected the raw data, and had the young man's answer.

"You operated at roughly 90% efficiency individually. Still room for improvement, however it is acceptable in the field. Good..." the Justice Leaguer stated began to answer as another Leaguer stepped in.

"You all did amazing, the statistics don't mater that much." Superman stated, "The civilians were out of harm's way in good time and the threat was neutralized. That's all that matters in the end..."

You could tell the heroes were somewhat in awe. Tornado himself even straightened up a little more and stood a little taller when Superman walked through the entrance. He was the first hero. The reason people called them all 'superheroes' in the first place. The Kryptonian stood around 6'3 and towered over even the taller members in the Young Justice Program.

"I'll walk back up with you guys. I'd like to see what Ditto is up to before I go..." Superman started to say before asking a question to the small group that included Photon and Angel, "Have any of you heard him play that guitar-ish instrument he made from discarded trash and materials?"

When they arrived back on the ground level they began to pass the personal quarters of the members in the 'Program. The young man from Cargg had his door open and was playing the instrument that resembled a sitar somewhat.

"Kilian, how're you holding up?" Superman asked as the others seemed to walk on.

"Three meals a day and a roof over my heads, more than I could ask for.

Across town, deep within the sewers...

A man in a lab coat approached several homeless men, at least a dozen, who had most definitely seen better days. He simply tossed down a bag of food around their steel drum fire pit and the half dozen men or so dove for the delicious smelling bag. Tearing into the food within minutes most of it had already been eaten. The vision of one of the men began playing tricks on him and he screamed. The others soon followed. They all panicked, ran into walls, tripped over each other, all before screaming in pain as their skin mutated and their clothes ripped. Green scaly skin covered them all now. Their heads and jaws becoming as massive as their bodies. All they were missing were tails, but that wasn't always a thing to the original.

"Go forth my Killer Crocodile Men, make your daddy proud..." the man in the coat stated in a creepy tone as they took off in the sewage.



Back at Young Justice HQ...

"I'll bring you down to Metropolis sometime next week and we'll go to that Chinese place if you want." Superman said one alien to the next.

"Whenever is good for you, Kal! I'll see ya!" Ditto exclaimed as Superman made his exit to the teleporter room.

~KL~

[Natty]

No matter how much he told himself that Superman wasn't that great, or that he was just some kind of stupid boy scout, Dominic felt that meeting him was one of the most powerful experiences of his life. Just being in the same room as him made Dominic's throat go a little dry. He began to overthink what he wanted to say. What about 'hello? Or 'How are you?' Or maybe even 'Jee whiz, can i get your autograph'. Regardless though, Dominic stayed quiet. Why ruin such a glorious moment? Superman just gave off a strong feeling. He makes you feel useless and powerful at the same time. All he could do was smile gleefully.

Having to use his hand to shut his jaw which had lowered slightly during the interaction, Dominic gave the superhero a short nod before following the group as they made their accent out of the War Room.

Clearing his head, he thought back to the simulation with Magenta. He may moan and groan a lot, but Kid Rogue had to emit that they were a good team. Even scrooge Mcduck himself wasn't a complete waste of space with his fire as he had expected. They were going to do quite well, in Dominic's opinion. Now all he wanted to do was see what the rest of the guys could do! Who knows, maybe there's a big baddie just around the corner for them to punch!

[LostDestiny]

James gave off a small smile at his mentor's words. The metal hero wasn't good with compliments, so that was the best they were going to get. At least for now, and it wasn't half bad for the team's first time working together. Even The Kid was useful when he wasn't flapping his lips and looking to start trouble.

When Supermen entered the room and gave his piece James couldn't help but smile a little bit more. Though he said nothing he was praising everyone in his mind. As they left the room he nudged Dominic. "You aren't half bad for a snot nosed brat." He smiled as he said this and his tone was clearly made to sound as though he was joking. "Seriously though, you did well. Though you gaping at the boss man like a codfish was a little embarssing, even for me." Again his last statement was more to tease the other male than anything. "It would seem we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, my intentions when addressing you were not to start a fight." James looked forward as he spoke he wasn't to good at apologizing to others when he didn't feel he had to, but someone had to patch things up and he hoped this would work. "Anyway, I am looking forward to working with you, as long as you can handle a joke or two here and there." He looked back at Dominic and smiled putting his hand out for the other to shake. An act of a sort of truce between them.

[Exodus]

Beck had about six steps into the door before he was standing in front of Superman himself. He froze. Superman. The hero seemed to be on his way to somewhere or other within the HQ, but stopped for a moment when he saw Beck.

"Frostbite! For a little while, I thought Ice wasn't going to have you join."

Beck was completely paralyzed at this point, and his duffel bag slipped off his shoulder. Thankfully, he was too stiff to drop the cardboard box he was holding in his other arm. He didn't know quite what to say to the man standing in front of him, his mind having gone completely blank. Superman had a powerful presence, even in such a casual situation.

"Y-Yessir, I-I think it'll be good for me. Experierence on uh, a larger team, y-y'know?"

Superman nodded.

"It will. I'm glad you could make it."

He must have been able to tell Beck was starstruck. Superman. He was used to it. He had to be. However, he seemed to disappear down the hall just as quickly as he had appeared, and Beck was once again left alone. It wasn't long, however, before he found a group in the hallway. The other new Young Justice members, he assumed. Perhaps it would be better to get aquainted now.

"Oh, hey, all. You must be my teammates. I'm Frostbite. Uh. Ice powers. But my name is Beck."

Yep. That summed it up.

[Omega Man]

Days Later...

It was like any other day in Star City. The sun was shining, cars beeping and going about their day, hundreds of thousands of citizens walking and communing up the busy streets. Everything seemed to be calm, until reports started coming in that homeless people were vanishing. The story on the 11 am News on Channel 52 broke the story, with an exclusive interview with Henry Haynes aka 'Lightning' to his homeless friends. Henry claimed that he saw a lizard man pull his friend Jack down into a manhole in the alley behind an old abandoned Queen Consolidated building. The video went viral and after sketches from a local artist spooked the homeless man the authorities now had a face on this abductor of the homeless....



Hours after the story broke, the Batman android that assisted with things at the HQ of the Young Justice Program called a meeting in the monitor room. A grizzly somewhat older than most are used to voice came over the receiver in the Bat-Bot.

"I'm sure you've all heard of the attacks in Star City, that there are one or more lizard men abducting and possibly eating homeless citizens. Here is a map of the city sewers large enough for workers and large lizard people to walk through..." the Bat-Bot began as a map of the underbelly of the city popped up in a colorful blue and yellow 3D hologram.

Only a handful of the young heroes were at the HQ. Beepers was something Bruce Wayne had already been looking into for the group. But being with the team remotely via robot was good enough for now. Ditto was among the small group, eyes glowing a gold color watching on trying to pay as much attention to the layout of the pipes and sewers.

"..I believe what we're dealing with is some sort of mutated human in a similar form as Killer Croc here in Gotham. Nobody outside of Gotham would have Croc's DNA to tamper with so I'll do a little digging here and find out who's behind this. For now, the lot of you try and keep the homeless from becoming lifeless. Open up the lobby on the bottom floor to the homeless if the shelter is full tonight." the Bat-Bot continued to instruct the handful or so members not currently running around in the city doing the normal mundane stuff in day to day life.

"IF by chance you make contact with one of the Killer Crocs, do NOT pursue without backup. If these things are anything like the real Croc they're strong and fast for their size..."

Kilian made his way to the teleporter room after grabbing one of his white shirts for battle wondering if anyone had already beaten him there. Superman had suggested Kilian get something a little more combat oriented. While he didn't like how snug it all was on his body he thought it looked good. The boots were still a little bulky, but they just needed to be worn in.

~KL~

[TheUnknowable]

Photon looked over the hologram. "I've never run into Croc before, but if these guys are like real crocodiles, they'll have excellent night vision. That should make it easier for me to blind them. Great reflexes though. Also, is he cold blooded? If so, we just need to cool them off to gain an edge." He was hoping to get to know his enemy, but they didn't have a lot to go on. "Then again, they could be some other form of reptile-hybrid, and not related to him."

[twave]

For most of their time here Sarah had remained AG's form. However for this particular job it might be better to be her usual street punk self. "Understood. If Sarah wants to I'm sure she could blend in with the homeless." Approaching the teleporter the angelic form disolved in sparkles of light and Sarah stepped free of the residual magic. Brushing it off she huffed. "Gee thanks a lot Angel. Are you trying to say I look homeless?" Appearing to het the answer in her head the girl rolls her eyes.

[Exodus]

Beck was out and about when news of the Crocs broke to the team. He was sitting in the outdoor area of a restaurant, with a girl sitting across from him. He took a sip of his tea through the straw as he looked at her, and then smiled. Brown hair, green eyes... She was pretty cute.

"So," she said. "What about you? Got any interests of your own?"
"Well, fitness, for one," he chuckled. "Not to be that guy, but I'm sure you've noticed by now."
"Yeah. I've noticed," she said with a wink.
"But, uh, other than that... Video games, gardening-"
"Gardening?"
"Yeah, is that odd?"
"No, no, I just didn't expect you to be s-What are you looking at?"

He happened to notice something out of the corner of his eye, and started staring. A large, green something, with a tail. There was screaming for a few seconds, but it was silenced quickly. The homeless man who'd been sitting there quietly was gone, and so was the something. He'd have to move fast- this was worth investigating. He looked back to the girl as he pulled out his wallet.

"What was that?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know... And, I'm so sorry. I've gotta go. So, so sorry. I'll pay for the drinks, and, um..."
He scribbled something down on his napkin and placed it in front of her with the money.
"That's my number. Call me, we'll try this again, okay?"
"O-Oka-"

He'd already hopped the fence and took off toward the alley.

He didn't have his costume on hand, except for the mask. He carried it for situations like this where he needed something to protect his identity, but couldn't carry the suit or go and change. He'd have to go after it in jeans and a button-up. As soon as he'd rounded the corner in the alleyway, he slipped on the mask and rolled up his sleeves while he moved. In roughly the center of the alley, there was a manhole cover, just slightly out-of-place in its hole. He approached it, and lifted the cover off. He could hear splashing below. He sighed as he climbed down, lamenting the fact that he'd never get the smell off of these clothes.