Introductions

Walking alongside Zatanna, Ben marveled at the facilities in the Watchtower. They made their way to a massive cafeteria where he saw quite a few interesting characters. Sitting at one table was a man who seemed to be mostly robotic, an all green baboon, and a short person wrapped in a purple cloak. The baboon was digging into a watermelon as the robot man had a pile of steaks and the cloaked person was just sitting quietly.

When Zatanna saw them, she sped up a bit to go talk to them with an annoyed look on her face.

"Why the hell are you guys here?" she asked.

Ben just stood next to her and kept quiet.

The robot guy started coughing in surprise as a large chunk of steak got caught in his throat and the baboon looked up, his face covered in red liquid. Ben tried to hold in a small chuckle but he felt Zatanna's glare, which shut him up. He kept a grin though.

Before the foodies could answer, the cloaked person spoke.

"We're here because Robin wanted to talk to Batman over a possible mission," the woman spoke.

"Isn't this your fourth time here this week asking for the same thing?" Zatanna asked, "You guys know that the league won't give you any high profile missions."

The baboon spoke which kind of surprised Ben.

"We know dudette, but Robin is like, super determined," it spoke like a stoner.

"So are we," the robot guy said, "but we also know that it's gonna be impossible now."

"Why is that?" Ben couldn't help but ask.

The two teens and the baboon looked at Ben like they just noticed he was there.

"Because we're just teenagers and most of the league's members think most stuff should be handled by adults," the baboon spoke.

"Aren't you guys also members?" Ben asked.

"More like honorary," the cloaked woman said, "even though we've been taking care of a city for years, they won't let us officially join yet."

"If Nightwing still led this team, I bet he would've convinced them by now," the baboon said.

Zatanna froze a bit when she heard that name but quickly gathered herself.

"Yeah, the new Robin is a dick," the robot guy said.

"New Robin?" Ben asked, "what does that mean."

"You don't know bro? Batman calls all his apprentices Robin. Nightwing was the previous one."

Ben thought that naming your apprentices the same thing was really weird and a bit demeaning.

Before he could respond, red flood lights filled the room.

[All personnel meet in the common area. This is not a drill] Martians voice played over speakers.

"What the hell?" Ben muttered as he followed Zatanna and the others to the common room.

The baboon transformed into a short teenage boy who was swearing a red and white suit but his hair, eyes, and even his skin was green.

"So I'm guessing you're a shapeshifter?" Ben asked as they lightly jogged.

"Yeah dude. Animals and even dinosaurs. It's awesome," the kid responded.

Ben nodded his head and was about to ask what the woman in purple could do right before he bumped into the back of Zatanna, almost knocking her over.

She muttered a curse but just continued through the open doors to the common area.

"Sorry about that," Ben apologized.

"It's fine. Let's just hear what's going on," she lightly said.

The small group found a packed room with the rest of the members. There were people wearing spandex and some had bows and swords while others floated in the air.

"We have an emergency," Superman's voice filled the room, "Manhunter picked up signatures of an unidentified fleet of spaceships making their way towards Earth. We need some scouts to go and see what's coming and everyone else needs to prepare for a potential war."

Murmurs filled the room as people were speculating what could be coming.

"Who's going to be the scouts?" A random voice spoke above the rest.

"We're going to put Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Zatanna and our new member, Omni in a javelin," Martian Manhunter said.

"Why me?" Zatanna asked.

"Because not only are you one of our strongest magicians, you're also still guiding Omni here, whose powers will come in handy," Flash spoke.

"Now that that's out of the way, you all get ready. The fleet's ETA is two hours," Green Lantern said to everyone.

Everyone but four people left the room. Those four were Ben, Zatanna, Captain Atom, and Blue Beetle.

Captain Atom was a tall man who was silver all over with an atom symbol splayed across his chest. He could absorb and manipulate energy. Ben was reminded of Chromastone at that. Blue Beetle was a bit shorter and had a blue, semi mechanical looking suit on. Only his eyes were visible. His suit allowed him to do a multitude of things such as flight, create weapons and shoot energy. After they introduced themselves, Ben did the same.

"Hello, I'm Omni and I can use the powers of millions of aliens and even transform into them," He explained the quick way.

"Really? That's awesome," Blue Beetle remarked.

"Yeah but we should get going and scout," he replied.

They made it to the tower's hangar and all climbed into a javelin that had the fleets coordinates already inputted. They lifted off and started traveling through space. Captain Atom was piloting as Blue Beetle messed with his suit in the seat next to him. Omni and Zatanna were in seats next to each other behind the other two.

"I've had this suit activated for a while so I'm going to deactivate it now if that's alright with you guys. I heard that identities are protected," Ben said. He didn't actually feel uncomfortable but he wanted to break the ice a bit since they wouldn't see the fleet for a good half hour.

"That's true. Don't worry about it," Captain Atom replied without taking his eyes off the...empty space.

Ben lightly slapped the symbol on his chest, which caused his helmet and suit to melt into liquid which seemingly crawled its way back into the form of a gauntlet on his left arm. After that was done, he ran a hand through his hair.

Zatanna had trouble thinking straight as she noticed the almost skin tight shirt on Ben's muscled torso. When she looked up, she noticed that his beard had some slight silver streaks as his emerald eyes seemed joyful. When he made eye contact with her, she thought she saw hints of sadness behind his eyes but it quickly disappeared when he spoke.

"Are you okay, Zatanna?" he asked.

"I-I'm fine," She quickly stammered.

Blue Beetle softly chuckled at that and asked Ben a question.

"How old are you man? You got silver in your hair."

"Hey, I'm only thirty-two," Ben retorted, "I happen to like it and it fits my future."

"What do you mean by that?" Zatanna said, still sneaking glances to his torso.

"Well, I've literally seen my future self, many times actually."

"Wow, how'd that happen?"

Ben spent the next ten minutes telling about how he was forced to time travel and about the times his future self came in periods of crisis.

"Holy shit," Beetle said.

"Yeah...…...Holy shit," Captain Atom suddenly said.

"I just said that man,"

"No, look," he pointed ahead, "The fleet's right in front of us."