Prologue

Police transportation wasn't nearly as cool as it looked on the outside. There were flashy colors, a neat paint job, and detailed writing saying exactly what kind of car it was. Combined with its size, it can be pretty intimidating to look at.

Inside of it however, it was just a van. Uncomfortable looking seats to either side, forcing the officers to take a seat that went below their knees. Each one them silent, and very likely uncomfortable, if their constant squirming was any indicator.

Heh. They should try being in my cell.

Well, my old cell, perhaps I should say. After all, I wasn't going to be living there anymore. The thought gave me a pang of sadness as I remembered my friends in juvie, before I shrugged it off. They encouraged the entire deal. Hell, it had practically been their idea.

They had their plans for getting the hell out of that place, and I had mine. The only problem now was that I was going to have to rely on government officials to keep their word. Which wasn't exactly the best hope to have.

The large metal cuffs on my arms jiggled as I threw in another mint from my palm into my mouth. That made five. A guard shot me a nasty look for some reason. Whether it was because he wanted a mint, I was making noise, or just because I was a criminal in his eyes, I didn't care.

He could go fuck himself.

The only people that deserved to be helped were the ones willing to give in exchange. That's just how society works. Handouts were never free. There was always a price.

Another mint was tossed into my mouth. That made six.

By now my tastebuds were experiencing sensory overload with the amount of mint flavor stacked in them. The smell coming from my mouth was overpoweringly minty. For a brief moment, I considered escaping. Right here, and right now.

Using the overpowering minty smell to mask anything else I'd breath out into the van. Potentially overwhelming everyone inside in one fell swoop before attempting to smash out the back of the van.

Of course, the idea was quickly discarded.

From the beginning it wasn't something I took seriously. It was just one of those panic thoughts people have. Like that niggling thought you get when standing on top of a cliff saying to jump. Or passing a police officer carrying a gun and suddenly the idea to just grab it pops up.

It was just human nature.

Attempting to stretch my legs saw several guards snap their attention towards me. Their hands wavering towards their batons or stun guns. Why on earth they'd do that was anyone's guess. My arms had a heavy ass steel seal over them. Locking them against each other.

A small and pretty worthless mask was strapped over my face. For what reason I couldn't guess. Not like it prevented me from breathing normally, or speaking. Or really blocking my mouth. Allowing me to throw mints from the palm of my hand into my mouth.

Speaking of…

The next attempt saw said mint miss its mark and instead collided against my mask. Hitting the floor of the van with a small 'tack' sound. Almost all the officers in the van were looking at it with degrees of wariness.

…What a bunch of fucking dumbasses. It was unfortunate that the van seemed to have hit a speedbump in the road. Otherwise, that would have made seven-

The van groaned just a second before a hole was punched into it. The one who done the punching slammed into the other side of the van and caused it to lift up into the air before crashing down. Sending the guards sprawling around the place.

The only reason I didn't was because of the heavy weights attached to me. Keeping me securely tied up.
I continued to watch as a girl with the worst spray on tan ever seen before as well as glowing green eyes started to look about the place. Frantic with her movements before screaming at the guards in some sort of gibberish language.

Whatever it was, it did it's job. As the one's that didn't suffer concussions due to the Van getting flipped immediately vacated out the back. Running for their lives.

She then looked at me. Of course, I was no fucking Batman with nerves of fucking steel. That shit was kinda scary. But once again, moving at all was a pretty difficult thing to accomplish when I was strapped with about thirty pounds of metal over my arms and legs.

Besides…she was also kind of hot.

"Subaforgnah! Forgnah!?"

My first response on hearing her talk again was something along the lines of "Bitch, what?". Though that would have obviously gone rather poorly. So instead I decided to just show that I wasn't much of a threat, by gesturing to my giant, extremely uncomfortable, metal cuffs.

Something that seems to be in fashion, because she was sporting a rather familiar looking pair herself.

Wait. Hold up. Oh fuck. I thought that deal I made with the government had been the only one. What if there were others who were also being shipped over there? Was this just a big bust for a bunch of other juvie kids, or supers?

No, I was being too paranoid. There-

"Lagarden flasneed rard!!"

That was the only warning the girl gave before slamming down her trapped arms onto my own. Cleanly smashing them through with one blow. Not only did she go through the metal cuffs, but also the bottom of the van, and even the road underneath.

My arms stung as I simply laid there on the floor having been forcefully freed. The girl across from me simply gave one look at my prone form before speeding away from the van. What the hell was I even supposed to do now?

I was free, but not quite in the way I wanted. If the government found me, they'd likely add a few extra years on my sentence before I could actually be allowed to leave, which was annoying. So, my only choices now were to meet up back with a guard, and trust that they won't try to make themselves look better from running away from a teen girl by saying they captured me trying to flee.

…Right, the better idea would probably just to turn myself into a police station personally. Or the second and riskier option. Take the opening that's been given. Escape. Fly to freedom.

Rake in cash by using my superpower anywhere that wasn't fucking Gotham. Hell, maybe even try to live a somewhat normal life. Anything but this.

At least until my other friends in super juvie were freed.

Yeah…that sounded pretty good.

As I stepped out of the wrecked van into a devastated street, I was immediately greeted with the sounds of numerous people screaming and crying out in fear. Likely due to the spray tan girl who was smashing up the place. After spitting out my wad of mints that had been in my mouth for the past half hour, I took a deep sigh of relief at finally being free.

This would be the moment I…

I...

…

Oh, for fucks sake. This isn't anywhere near Gotham. What the actual fuck is Robin doing here!?

The girl who lucked out in the super power lottery started to rip up the street fighting Batman’s sidekick. And she was doing a pretty damn good job in doing so. Likewise, the boy wonder was dodging whole cars being thrown at him. If I wasn’t damn near 100% sure that Batman was lurking in the shadows somewhere nearby, I’d have put money on the girl to win.

…Was it too late to turn myself in?

Instead of being an absolute idiot and fighting the sidekick of the caped crusader, I played it smart. That is, I let the spray tan girl and boy wonder fight each other as I slowly made my exit. Passing by a strange girl in an alleyway on my way out.

Did I owe her one? Yeah, I did. But just because I owed someone didn’t mean that I was willing to throw my life away for them. In any other scenario I’d throw my weight in, but the simple truth was that I valued my life above everyone else’s.

Now I currently had two sizable goals. The first was to get some new clothes. If Robin was around, that likely meant Batman was around. Robin I could probably avoid, but Batman? He was the type of guy to immediately know exactly where I was going and where I should be just by a glance.

The guy was crazy, but also crazy smart.

Not only that, but the guards would probably be on the lookout for me as well. And considering they didn't have much to do in that van ride but watch, the likelihood that they didn't remember what juvie outfit I was wearing was exceedingly low.

Thankfully I was in luck. Not only was there a thrift store nearby, but my lack of cash wouldn't be a problem. Because everyone had fled in a panic. Leaving me to take my time in getting myself to halfway presentable.

A half off little disc of hair gel would help me restyle my hair. Letting me slick it back a bit. Unfortunately, my dyed red hair wasn’t something that was easy to cover up. Even with a hat or a beanie I just had too much wild hair. They weren’t exactly fond of giving out free hair cuts at juvie. And the one’s they did give out was just shaving all the hair off.

And I’ll be damned if I’m losing all this hair. I want to pull of that rockstar look when I’m older. Maybe get a few tattoos. If I just shave my head bald, work out a bit, and get some tattoos, I’d just look like a fucking criminal.

After getting rid of my prison uniform and putting on something that was at least presentable, I left the store. Looking left and right for the all clear before heading towards the nearest, hopefully empty, grocery store. It’s been a fucking while since I’ve tasted actual good food. If I do get caught, at bare minimum I’ll have stuffed myself on whatever junk food I could find.

There was a nearby small theatre down the street.

That was going to be my target-

“People of Earth. We come to your planet hunting an escaped prisoner. A very dangerous prisoner.”

A massive hologram near the east side of the city showed an unbelievably big alien looking guy. Or at least I was assuming it was an alien. Mostly due to the spaceship thing overhead. Also, the whole ‘people of earth’ and ‘coming to your planet’ bit.

Then again, A lot of supervillains talk very strange, and look like they’ve been through the blender a few times.

Wait, was the spray tan girl the one they were hunting? Did that mean she was an alien too? Damn. She became just a bit less hot in your eyes.

“Do not interfere, and we will leave you city with minimal damage. But if you attempt to assist her, your destruction will be absolute.”

Oh hell yes. An alien threatening to smash up the place and maybe destroy a whole city? It didn’t matter that this wasn’t anywhere close to a Justice League members city. That’d get them here pronto.

And if they were here fighting some wackass alien, that meant they wouldn’t be after me.

…Wait, actually, maybe the Justice League arriving would be potentially worst-case scenario. Because that would mean some of the strongest heroes on the block might be looking for me after they’re done sweeping up alien chunks off the city.

Well, this has certainly gone from bad to worse.

At least no one will think twice if I just start to fucking book it out of the city. Then again, where could I really go?

First thing’s first. It was time to eat some massive chocolate bars and some overpriced buttered popcorn. Before washing it down with a comically large soda cup.

Upon entering the theatre looking place, I quickly learned that it wasn’t a theatre at all. Just a movie shop with theatre like decor. Interesting choice, but at the very least they did have the popcorn and chocolate bars I wanted. Oh hell yeah, and it was still warm.

The only disappointing part was that there was no soda machine. I had to make do with some bottled ones nearby. I guess this was the type of movie place that pushed for customers to watch or rent a movie and act like it was a theatre with all this food.

Not that I could really complain. The food was pretty good. Though that might be my stomach not having a decent meal in several years talking. Still, it definitely tasted-

I whirled around at the sound of something being knocked over loudly. My cheeks puffed up due to the butter and popcorn that filled them like some sort of chipmunk. Despite my intimidating glare, a figure stepped out of the darkness.

Revealing the spray tan girl from earlier. Or perhaps I should say, the spray tan alien?

She cautiously glared at me, and then the food in my hands. I don’t know if she recognized me or not, but it was better to not take any chances. Instead of continuing to glare at her, I relaxed and took another handful of fresh popcorn before shoving it in my face. Munching loudly all the while.

“That food…give it to me or-“

Well, that was an easy choice. I put down the Mr. Goodbars and large vat of popcorn I had acquired on the ground before turning around and simply making more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her cautiously take a step towards it, sniff it, before immediately shoveling it in her mouth.

Now when I said I was shoveling it in my mouth, I was mostly just exaggerating. Just eating big handfuls of popcorn quickly. The only reason it seemed necessary to point this out was the fact that the girl was quite literally shoveling it into her mouth and gullet.

Eating large king-sized chocolate bars whole. Wrapper and everything. And then with the popcorn bucket she just tipped it over her mouth and…just consumed it. Her head didn’t get bigger, nor did her mouth. Even more surprisingly, her stomach wasn’t bulging at the seems either.

And yet she was putting back enough food to feed an entire prison for a few days. And then after a rather loud burp, she turned back towards me.

“More.”

Who the hell did she think she was, the queen of England? Still, it was undeniable that I still owed her for earlier, so I shrugged and gave up some of the food I had been in the process of gathering. As I put it on the ground, she narrowed her glowing green eyes at me.

“Why do you submit? Are you scared?”

If she was trying to use up all the favors she gained from me in one go, she was doing a damn fine job of it. At her tone I narrowed my eyes and stepped towards her, to which her hands balled into fists at the aggression I was showing.

“I’m helping you because you helped me. It’s called returning the favor. So, for a bit, I’ll be your ally.”

Her hands lowered as she gazed at me suspiciously, before taking a step forward. That surprised me, until I realized she was trying to go for the food I had dropped. For fucks sake, could she not just take like five seconds and get it off the fucking rack in front of her?

Lazy as shit alien.

She continued to consume the pile I had left for her like before until a sound came from behind the both of us. Behind me was four individuals. A girl in a blue cloak that obscured her face (at least I think it was a girl), a hulking black guy in a hoodie who’s left eye seems to glow red, a small green child, and…motherfucking Robin.

God. Fucking. Damn it.

“Uh, those are better without the wrapper.”

She immediately turned towards them with her hands glowing green light. Roaring out a challenge. Ah fuck, at the very least I had already repaid my debt to her so I didn’t need to fight Robin and…the new and improved batfamily?

…Oh who was I kidding. I was going to be forced to fucking throwdown with Robin and...the rest of the batfamily? It’s been more than a few years since I’ve last been to Gotham, but I did hear something about new bat people. What the fuck was a group of bats even called? Fuck it, I was just going to keep calling them the batfamily.

I tossed a mint into my mouth as I started to get ready to fight. My arms started to sweat as I focused. Thankfully the only one who even looked in my general direction for more than a second was the girl in the cloak.

Robin put up his hands as he approached.

“It’s alright, we’re friends, remember?”

…What the fuck did I miss from the fight earlier? It seems there was context I hadn’t grasped yet. Even so, the alien girl didn’t drop her guard.

“Friends? Why? For what purpose did you free me?”

“Just…trying to be nice.”

Well now, that definitely didn’t sound like the Batman and Robin I knew.

“’Nice’ we do not have this word on my planet. The closest thing to it is rutha. weak.”

“If he did something to help you, then you are obligated to repay him.”

I threw in my own two cents, getting looks from both sides. After a brief moment of silence, the alien relented. She talked about how she wasn’t even really a criminal as much as some sort of slave for a group of people referred to only as the Citadel.

Huh. Well. She could be lying for all I know, but considering how she was an alien who only recently crashed into earth, it was hard to believe otherwise. Besides, even if she was lying, I’d have to stick by her, at least for now. That’s what it meant to pay off a debt.

Unless they threatened to make me a slave, or the odds of dying were too high to ignore. Then I was just fucking out of there.

After her explanation, a large hole opened in the side of the building. Through the hole were a group of ugly aliens with wings and spears. Ugh, could they at least have the decency to be somewhat pleasant to look at like spray tan girl?

“Seize her!”

And now I was forced to actually fight. At least until my debt was cleared up at least. Something that’d probably take about…twenty? Thirty? Of these guys?

Time to eat a mint.

Thankfully my hands and arms were already sweating when I approached the nearest alien. Who attempted to stab at me before I placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed slightly. Unfortunately, as I didn’t have super strength, it barely budged the guy, and instead he attempted to hit me with his spear again before retreating.

His head tilted to the left, before going to the right. After a few seconds, his body followed, before falling over onto the floor.

Huh. These aliens could be affected by sedatives. Honestly, I hadn’t even been sure if it’d have worked, or I’d just switch to something else, but it was interesting to see it happen. It made me interested in studying alien biology a little bit.

I was forced to dodge and weave as I went through several aliens. Thankfully I didn’t need to actually touch them to do the job. Instead, just splashing some of my ‘sweat’ was more than enough to take them down.

It was also during this fight I saw what some of the others were capable of. The green kid? Apparently could shapeshift into a rhino and a snake. Girl with cloak? Some sort of black energy field thing. The big guy? He was just really strong. Robin? Well, I already was well aware of what he was capable of, but it was nice to see how much he’s improved.

And spray tan girl? Not only did she have super strength that even Superman would be hard pressed to go up against, but she could also fly, and blast green bolts of energy. Which would cause massive explosions.

Did I say she lucked out in the superpower lottery earlier? I take that back. She rigged the fucking thing. She took on a larger margin of enemies than anyone else in the group. Which while she was entirely capable of doing so, it also made her easier to hit.

Leading to one of the few remaining aliens left standing to knock her to the ground. Which meant I had to step up. Unfortunately, as he was too far away for me to fling sweat at, I had to get a bit more creative.

So, I spit on his face.

An act that seemed to gross the alien out before it fell over. Shortly afterwards, the rest of the aliens started to retreat.

Looking back at the group, I was greeted with a series of raised eyebrows, suspicious looks, and ambivalent gazes. Unfortunately, Robin was not one the ambivalent ones. Fortunately, before he could ask any questions, he was cut off by the massive alien hologram going online once again.

This time he informed everyone that they would be promptly destroyed. Well now, wasn’t that cheery?

As if to show even more emphasis on his words, the massive alien spaceship over head then began to cover the area I was currently standing in. As well as bringing out a small gun like turret that was pointed in everyone’s general direction.

It didn’t take long for the spray tan alien to start yelling at Robin, who started to yell right back. Then the green child started to yell at the big black guy, who was apparently some sort of robot? Yeah, I didn’t want to know.

As I was pretty sure remaining in the city was probably a terrible idea, I decided it was time to probably-

“QUIET!”

The girl in the cloaked stated loudly. Getting everyone’s attention before pausing for a few seconds and simply saying “Hi.” In an awkward manner.

Yeah, I was starting to get the feeling that these guys didn’t actually know each other. Which was good for me, but also bad for the city. After a bit of talking, Robin decided to make a plan in order to save the city. Something I wasn’t really keen on doing considering one, this team thing was being lead by Robin, and two, after having saved spray tan girl from that one alien, that meant my debt was just about paid off.

But of course, that meant that my debt wasn’t paid off yet. Not only that, if these guys failed, that meant that I’d probably die before I could get to safety. Which meant I'd have to help out.

Life was unfair like that.

The weird cloaked girl could apparently teleport everyone inside the space station up above. Something that seemed to take a lot out of her. The teleportation effect was also more than a bit off putting. Mostly due to all light being cut off before suddenly revealing the inside of an alien ship.

Which was about as foreign and strange as I imagined. Thankfully as we weren’t being immediately swarmed with enemies or a blaring alarm, it seemed like we were able to continue along stealthily. I noted that the black energy girl seemed to be pulling towards the back of the group, which got the metal guys attention. He seemed to have it covered.

Looking back to the front it seemed Robin was staying ahead of the group and taking point. The green kid was a bit behind him creeping in a very…comical way. Despite being capable of fucking flying, spray tan girl seemed to walk with everyone. Even going so far as to slow down to keep pace with me.

“…I ‘thank you’ for continuing to help me.”

I paused as she randomly decided to speak before continuing forward. Glancing back at her as I responded.

“No need to thank me. I’m just repaying my debt.”

“Is it customary for humans to repay their debts several times over?”

I frowned as I considered her words. Yeah, she was right. After this I’d have gone above and beyond for her. Which means…

I gave her a grin as I regarded her again.

“Guess that means you’ll just have to repay me afterwards, doesn’t it?”

For some unknown reason, she smiled at that. I’m not sure why. Nothing I said there could be considered uplifting or even positive. That’s like smiling when a debt collector reminds you that you owe someone money. Well, whatever. Aliens were probably on a different wavelength.

Robin was able to give everyone a warning before aliens flew downwards to attack. This time I didn’t have time to start sweating sedatives, so instead I decided to go with something a bit faster. Leaving me to breathe into the aliens faces, leaving a white looking cloud in my wake.

Spray tan girl showed off her intelligence by choosing to actively not go anywhere near the clouds I was breathing out. Something the other aliens didn’t need to do. But they seemed to walk through the clouds unphased. Which either meant they don’t need to breath, or they weren’t nearly as susceptible to nitrous oxide as humans were.

Alright, if I can’t knock them down with that, maybe it was time to switch gears. Let’s see how they like capsaicin instead.

I breathed out a particularly potent cone of pepper spray at the aliens. Something that had immediate effect if their howls of anguish were any indicator. Pain that seemed so bad that any thought of fighting had left them. Instead, all they seemed willing to do was…roll on the ground in agony.

Hmm. Maybe I should roll back the potency there.

The six of us continued to fight through the horde of aliens until finally getting to a big roundish looking door. That was promptly smashed open by my current favorite spray tan alien.

Most of the aliens were about the same power level as before, except for their leader. Who quickly showcased why he was in fact the leader. With his strength he withstood the bolts of green energy from the alien girl before tanking a charge from the green kid’s rhino form before battering him so hard, he transformed out of it before hitting the back wall.

As he approached to finish off the green kid, the girl with the blue cloak put up a dark energy field. Shielding her and the green kid from the man’s strength. Which was a good call, considering everyone else was a bit busy clearing out the rest of the room’s occupants. Which included me.

As the shield was forced backwards, Robin jumped on his back. Using his extending pole to choke the alien as he pulled against its throat. After finishing up with the last remaining enemy, I turned my attention to the final boss. He finally threw Robin off of him, and tossed him into the nearest wall.

The spray tan alien and the half metal giant both started to rock the massive alien’s world. Leaving him dazed for a moment from the bombardment. But he eventually was able to overpower them. Smashing the spray tan girl against the floor so hard that if I had been on the receiving end of that attack, I would just be dead. Yet she continued to fight out of his grasp. The metal man helped her get free by clocking him in the face, but in return got clocked himself.

He roared in pain as I blew pepper spray into his eyes, but he still kept fighting. Swinging at me wildly despite his vision being obscured, and clipping me in the side sending me rolling.

Eventually even more aliens came in to support their boss being under attack. Figures.

“Do not hurt my friends.”

The girl in blue stated before spreading her arms out. The green boy laying his head on her shoulder. Everything in the room seemed to be covered in darkness including us. And then a large explosion echoed in the chamber. Forcing the ship to tip down until it crashed into the ground a few seconds later.

And due to the loud splashing sounds, it sounded like the ship had been a bit over the nearby lake. Thank God they hadn’t positioned the ship over the city to destroy it, or that could’ve ended pretty badly.

Still, everyone was still a bit shaky from the fall. All except the big alien boss. Fucking Christ, what the hell was he made of? The rest of the aliens that had come in as backup had either been taken out by the blue cloaked girls attack, by the fall, or from everyone beating them up earlier.

As he approached everyone, he was suddenly overtaken by a blast of blue energy. Coming from the robot guy’s hand. He wobbled for a second, turning slowly, before finally crashing down with a triumphant THUMP.

“Booyah.”


Alright, now that was pretty cool. It took a second for everyone to catch their breath and recover from the fighting. Me personally I was mostly just tired out. Any pain I felt from getting clipped by the big boss alien had been nullified with a bit of morphine.

And despite having gotten dealt worse injuries, Robin seemed to be mostly unaffected. It seemed like the ship had crash landed next to a small island like outcropping in the lake, which made for a nice place to crash for a bit.

Unfortunately, that bit was quickly used up when Robin wanted to talk. For a long moment he just stared at me behind his domino mask. I already had my suspicion, but that all but confirmed it in my eyes.

“…You’re Lawrence, aren’t you? Lawrence B-“

I put up a hand to stop him.

“Yep. You caught me. Long time no see, boy wonder.”

Again, another awkward silence passed as we exchanged looks. Until finally, he seemed to pull out some type of circular device on his belt. A communicator if I had to guess.

“You know, you did a lot of good here. We all did.”

It could be taken that way, yeah. I nodded along, not sure what he was getting at.

“Cyborg, the guy over there, and I made these communicators. I thought we should all keep in touch and even possibly form a team.”

What? Huh? Wait…there’s no way I heard that correctly. Robin, the boy wonder, wanted to team up with me? That was quite literally the last thing I expected him to say, and it must have shown too, as he laughed a bit at my reaction. As he tossed it at me, I caught it and looked down at it.

“And don’t worry about the police. I’ll…get someone to deal with it. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

Huh. No shit? That was…really nice of him. Owing him one was a bit too much considering the situation…but it was definitely a step in the right direction. If he could step over my past, maybe I could too.

Maybe…maybe this hero shit wasn’t too bad?