Fandom Virtues of Youth

[Redwing]

A high-pitched whirling sound echoed throughout the hollowed-out mountain. No speakers had been installed yet, so the robotic voice that was meant to announce the entrance of visitors couldn't be heard, except for at the supercomputer that ran all of the various systems of the headquarters. The building was nearly empty; a holographic table was off to the side and was surrounded by about six seats, while the aforementioned supercomputer was in a room down one of the many hallways that ran throughout the mountain. The whirling of the teleporter settled as the blue light it emitted did as well. Two figures exited the machine. One was a woman, an adult for sure but no older than thirty-five. She wore a white mask that covered much of her face, and was dressed in a jacket and jeans that allowed for maximum movement. A katana was strapped to her back. She spoke in Japanese. "Here we are."

Her companion looked around the place but didn't respond for the moment. He was dressed head-to-toe in a dark-blue and grey outfit. His face was covered by a helmet with a visor that emitted an ethereal blue light. Various parts of his body had some light armor protecting it, though for the most part his uniform seemed to allow for greater movement over protection. Two blades were strapped to his back, while a small pole was carried at his waist. Eventually, he spoke. "Not much in here." There was little emotion in his voice; the statement seemed to be more of an observation than a criticism. The woman nodded. "Yes, for now." She glanced towards the teleporter. "The others should be here soon."

 

[RingSlinger]

The zeta transporter whirred to life as a beam connected this hollowed out mountain to a smallish green planet at the center of the Universe. "See, kid" the taller of the two figures who emerged began. "Not the first ones here at all. Not the last either. Perfect spot." The second figure to emerge from the zeta tube furled his brow. Lantern Gardner had just revealed to anyone in the room that he had been concerned with the order in which he arrived. Which revealed weakness. Luckily there was only one other member of this team in the room, and there was a chance he didn't notice. He wasn't upset with Lantern Gardner, that was sort of just his way. The man was extremely blunt. This was one of the things Trip valued most about the Lantern who had taken him under his protective wing.

"Katana," Guy nodded, "Long time no see. Bats still making it out to this here shindig? Haven't seen that curmudgeon in a minute either."

Trip strolled behind his mentor for a moment before taking a different direction and ambling across the room. A lot of this room seemed unfinished. Like there was more work to be done.

"I guess they really need our team up and running soon... Or maybe we're supposed to build some of this base ourselves..." Trip spoke slowly, his voice both vaguely sing-songy and cold.

"Come on, kid, don't be ungrateful. You should have seen the first base Justice League International had... made this place look like the Watchtower," Guy retorted, crossing his arms and putting on one of his signature smirks.

"Not ungrateful. I'm certainly excited to be here. I suppose I'm supposed to introduce myself." He looked towards what he imagined to be the eyes of Kuro, though it was difficult to tell with his helmet. "Hi there. I'm Green Lantern Trip Suzuki. You can call me Trip, or Lantern Suzuki... or even just Lantern if that strikes your fancy."

The young man, a long main of black hair flopped over the side of his otherwise shaved head, extended his hand with a seemingly genuine grin. Unlike Lantern Gardner, whose iconic Green vest was an idiosyncratic take on the Green Lantern uniform, Trip's seemed fairly basic. White boots over fitted black pants, with amostly green torso, featuring the crest of the Green Lantern Corp centrally located on his chest. He had done away with the Domino mask, however, as he never had liked the way that made him look.

 

[Redwing]

Katana nudged Kuro when the two lanterns entered. They watched as the two bantered with each other, and waited to speak until they made their greeting. She offered a small smile to the elder Green Lantern. "Hello, Guy. Yes, Batman intends on coming. He should be here soon."

As the two League members began talking, Ray examined the new arrivals. He'd seen Green Lanterns before in news articles and television programs, but had never actually interacted with one. His father had dealt with them, though usually in an antagonistic manner. Still, he felt no ill will towards them. They kept the peace and did the right thing. That's what mattered. The younger one was obviously meant to join the team, which made Ray's inspection of him all the more meticulous. What struck him most was the openness with which he presented himself. Heroes rarely introduced themselves by their real names, and even fewer showed their faces so openly. Nonetheless, he grabbed the young man's hand and shook it politely. "Wraith." He paused for a moment, deciding to be slightly less formal. "Ray is fine, too." His accent wasn't particularly thick, but it was still noticeable.

 

[Its_Just_E]

As the breach opened up, Julie and The Flash stepped through to be greeted by a huge, open hall with five people in it. The Flash stated to Julie, “Remember what I said. Stay calm, don’t get over excited, and let me do the introducing…” Julie had already started running all already the mountain base. “This place is huge!” as she ran from room to room covering the whole mountain just a few seconds. As she was zipping around everywhere, she finally stopped at the table where the five other people were conversing.

She stopped in front of the table, looked at everyone and said, “Hi everyone! I am Kid Flash. Real name is Julie. Pleasure to meet you all!” The Flash just hung his head and under his breathe said, “Why did I even come again?” He began to walk over to join the others. Nodding over to Guy and Katana.

He then noticed the two other younger kids about the same age as Julie. “They must be her new teammates,” he thought to himself. As he stepped behind Julie, he put a hand on her shoulder and said, “Remember the whole conversation we had before we came?” Julie stopped and looked up, “Oh, yeah, sorry Barry. I guess I just got too excited.” The Flash couldn’t help but smile as he looked down at her now excited and smiling face.

 

[Arne]

"For the record, I'm still strongly against you accompanying me dressed like that." A youthful voice chimed as yet another group entered the fairly empty room through the Zeta Transporter, this time connected to the much closer Metropolis and composed by a brown-haired young adult dressed in remarkably casual clothes in spite of the situation - specifically a fairly common-looking black hoodie with the logo of the Gotham University Nighthawks stamped on it and an equally inconspicuous blue jeans - and a young looking Allan Scott dressed in full superhero uniform - with all the classic looking dark green pants, gloves and cape greatly contrasting the red (and clearly tight) spandex.

"Stop being childish, Joshua. This is a serious occasion and I'm not about to lose the last opportunity to embarrass my youngest son before he officially joins his first team." The older - though not by much if you consider appearance only - man retorted as they made their way towards the rest of the group, earning a whispered "I'm telling mom you made yourself look younger just to impress the group." from the teenager that he promptly ignored in favour of joining the rest of the group, complimenting all the senior heroes before ultimately stopping beside the two green lanterns, probably meaning to talk for a bit with the people he was more familiar with as the youths did their introductions.

"Uh... If my old man's presence didn't blow it, I'm the Emerald Warden, part-time hero and rightful inheritor of the Sentinel's mantle." The boy quickly announced as soon as he approached the table, somehow managing to deliver all of his improvised introduction in a fluid way, without stuttering or wavering for even a second (though he did throw a furtive glance towards his father once after he stopped talking, in search of any negative reaction to his words). "Oh, the name is Joshua by the way." He added after a moment of silence, deciding to follow the trend of revealing their real names.

 

[RingSlinger]

I'm going to love him dearly or hate him with everything I am Trip thought to himself confidently as Joshua approached the young heroes already assembled. "Lovely to meet you, Joshua... I'm Trip" The young Corps member shook the hands of the speedster as well as the Golden Age Legacy hero. He cast a glance towards the adult heroes for a moment, in time to watch Lantern Gardner give a friendly if not too forceful pat on the back of the Sentinel.

"That's right I think I'd heard of you," Trip lied for reasons unbeknownst even to himself, piecing together information that he knew about the original Green Lantern of earth, disconnected from the Corps itself, "Your power comes from the Starheart, yes?"

If you need any help with your constructs, I'd be glad to assist he considered these words for a moment, before dismissing them. They were potentially too antagonistic. Perhaps their first interact ought not be filled with such a direct attack against his new teammate's abilities. He put on a smile that was potentially a little too overt. It was likely that nobody would have noticed this wasn't genuine as they didn't know what his true smile looked like. They would, however, become very familiar with his vaguely malevolent grin, as this was the look he found himself wearing more often than just about anything else.

 

[Arne]

Joshua couldn't help but give a curious glance at the trainee green lantern as they shook hands, his green eyes glowing with curiosity as he tried to make sense of this weird entity that was a teenager who actually got to become one of the Green Lanterns, a group that normally had strict means of recruitment that totally shouldn't allow someone that wasn't even a full-fledged adult by his species standards to join it. "Nice to meet you too, Trip." He finally answered after a brief delay, clearly distracted by his own conjectures.

"You heard of me? Seriously?" He couldn't help but blurt out as the green lantern continued to talk with him, visibly surprised by the fact that anyone had heard of him in specific - after all, it's not often that someone hears about a relatively new hero that actuates solely in the safest city in the world (When it isn't being attacked by supervillains, that is). His surprise quickly died once the following words were proffered, though.

"Oh... You're talking about that." He mentioned in a visibly less avid way, taking a couple seconds to figure out what he should answer. "Well, yeah. I guess you can say that, though it's not 100% accurate." He didn't really feel like explaining the whole deal about his connection to the starheart - especially since he didn't really figure out all of it by now - choosing to just voice a brief agreement and let it be followed by an awkward silence instead.

 

[Processed Stardust]

Even after the whirring ceased, her eyes remained tightly closed. One of the small fists was hidden in her pocket, the other clasped around a couple shiny stones, carefully sculped in perfect ovals, slightly smaller than her thumb. The palm was sweaty, but the stones didn't slip. She always carried them with her; it made her feel safe and in control. Her eyes opened abruptly when a hand on her shoulder startled her. Her heartbeat raced a bit, but rapidly went back to normal when she looked up at her mentor. He squeezed her shoulder a bit and offered her a smile she didn't see often. One that was comforting in a way that reminded her of how her father used to smile. "Don't worry, kid." She smiled back.

Behind the dark lenses of the goggles, the blue eyes scanned the room, stopping briefly in every person standing there. It was hard to keep the soft smile from opening into a bigger, more genuine one. Since the first time he'd told her about this meeting she had been ecstatic. Finally she'd have the chance to meet other people her own age able to do all sorts of amazing things. Even if she loved having her abilities, it could feel lonely not being able to discuss that with anyone else.

Geo-Force's eyes still burned on her nape, so she took a few steps forward. With the corner of her eyes she saw him moving, approaching some of the other grown-ups there. Perhaps some other time she'd be anxious to meet them as well, but after all this time, talking to no one but Geo-Force about things she really wanted to talk about, they were not exactly her priority. She approached the others. "Hi! I'm Rockie", she announced to no one in particular. "Or Sierra. Well, Sierra Lester. But Rockie is fine, that's what he calls me anyway." She pointed her thumb over her shoulder, pointing to where her mentor had gone to, and beamed at the other trainees, her voice flowing a bit faster and higher than usual.

 

[fin]

The sound of the zeta transported boomed through the mountains once more, the spiked silhouette of Batman filled the room as the Dark Knight strolled into the center. A slightly smaller, skinnier teen followed behind him in what seemed more like a Halloween costume than a legit super hero outfit. Simon pulled off the cowl on his face, allowing his messy brown hair to fall down onto his face, sheathing his left eye. Simon's eyes scanned through the teens that already filled the room, a jittery speedster he immediately recalled as Julie summer, the other, more stern looking boy, as Trip Suzuki. On the way there he'd already been debriefed of the team he'd be working with, with the others being Josh Scott, who was also present as well as Kuro Hattori. The others hadn't seemed to show up which didn't bother Simon much as long as this was all over with. He didn't see a team of teenagers lasting too long, the former Teen Titans had only gotten lucky in his opinion.

"We're all saying names, huh?" Simon said nonchalantly. Bruce had inched over towards the other Justice League members now. "Katana. Gardner. It's been a while. Seems Sinestro hasn't attacked in a bit, nor has Deadshot been doing enough to bring us together, eh?" Bruce started, but was never too good with small talk unless he was in his alter ego. As for Simon, talking didn't seem to be going to well either. "Starheart's pretty dope. I researched it a bit in my free time in Iraq, plus Bruce has got tons of books on it. I'm Simon, I'm pretty familiar with you lot, even if you aren't with me."

 

[RingSlinger]

"Mmmm," Trip mused as the last two arrived, "Is that the whole team then? are we all collected together?" the words Rag Tag seemed to apply, though he wouldn't say that. "That makes sense," he replied to Simon, eyeing the boy carefully. He placed a single hand on his hip, his other hand balling into a fist that he leaned his head into, adopting a fairly relaxed stance. It towed the line into femininity. His eyes cast across the other teens. This was the first of several checks. His thoughts on this team would depend fairly well on how they reacted to his identity. Lantern Rayner had discussed this with him in detail. Better to be yourself, Rayner had said, than to pretend to be anything else. It was the one thing, honestly, he and Lantern Gardner had agreed upon.

Guy grinned, and put his hands on his hips. If Bats were going to be friendly, he'd be friendly too. "It's been a minute. Pretty busy out in space, I imagine Gotham's been a handful lately, feels like it always is. Tell me about your kid there."


Lantern Trainee Suzuki cocked his head, maintaining his pose, "Simon, Sierra... lovely to meet the both of you..." He returned his attention to Josh. "Now, now... I hope that didn't strike a bad nerve, I promise I didn't mean to. I'm fascinated by how similar and yet different our powers are. You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to talk about. If that's not the thing you'd like me to know about you, I'd love to know something about you that you would like me to know."

He paused, casting another glance around the room. "Actually, I hate to be icebreaker guy, but that might be fun. Maybe we can all share something about ourselves that is completely unrelated to our powers or abilities... something we might not otherwise get to find out... I assume we'll get to know our powers fairly quickly once we get into any sort of excitement..."

 

[Its_Just_E]

Julie’s excitement started to die down and she finally started to realize that she was in a room with some top notch heroes as well as a younger cast that have some experience to them as well. Julie on the other hand, had little to no hero saving experience. Of course, she has helped out the occasional purse thief, robber in an alley way, and saved people from getting hit by a car but she really only did those things because of her speed. She still wasn’t sure why Barry had chosen her to be on this team.

Julie finally sat down at one of the chairs at the table. She watched as the green lantern, known as Trip, was talking with what seemed like another lantern but he had a different look to him. His name was Josh. Next was another boy named, Ray. He was, a bit intense when he first stepped through the portal. He had a vibe to him that just seemed, intimidating to say the least. Next through the tube was a familiar face. One of the founders of the Justice League, Batman. Following him was a boy that Julie wasn’t sure who he was. He knew there was Nightwing and Robin but who was this boy? He introduced himself as Simon and he seemed to know all about Julie and the others. That should be expected from a trainee of Batman’s. Julie started to worry as if she was going to be on a new team of all boys and herself. That would be fun to say the least. Luckily, the portal opened up again. Low and behold, a man and a girl walked through. The girl looked about Julie’s age so she assumed that she was on the team. Julie breathed a sigh of relief. She introduced herself as Sierra. She seemed, shy and a bit intimidated. Kind of like how Julie felt. With that in mind, Julie found some courage and got up to approach the girl.

“Hi Sierra. My name is Julie Summer. I go by Kid Flash as well. It’s nice to meet you!” Julie tried her best to be friendly but since she was so nervous. It came off kind of creepy a bit.

Processed Stardust

 

[Processed Stardust]

The smile on Sierra's lips softened a little, but remained visible. Being late, she missed part of the introductions, but she nodded her head shortly to the guy that greeted her and the newest arrived, Simon. The first seemed to be about the same height as her and had a relaxed and long mohawk on top of his head. The other, Simon, was considerably taller and... She pursed her lips to hold a laugh. He wore something resembling a low-cost Haloween costume. She knew she shouldn't laugh, but she also knew she would be able to do something much better than that while still in kindergarden, but she pushed the thought aside. For some reason her nervousness subsided greatly knowing she hadn't been the last one to arrive and her heart quieted down in her chest. She cocked her head to the side, thinking about The Mohawk's question and what she could add to that. She was about to start talking about how much she loved designing and sewing clothes when a red-haired girl approached her. Which perhaps was for the best. Once Sierra started talking about clothes it was hard to make her stop.

The girl was nervous, it was clear from her posture and her tone of voice, so Sierra offered her a calm, friendly smile. "Hi, Julie. It's nice to meet you too." Without moving her head, her eyes quickly glanced back at the rest of the group, hidden behind the dark lenses. It seemed at least some of the other trainees had knowledge, even if limited, of the others' powers or backgrounds. Back at Julie, she didn't have to ask or wonder what her powers were, after all, if her outfit didn't make it obvious, her name did. Looking around once more, realized she and Julie were the only girls.

( Its_Just_E )