Learning the Ropes

Chapter 1: Pilot

|Metropolis Docks

|November 5th, 2:20 EDT

Walking along the many large freight crate alleys was a hooded figure. A tall and broad-shouldered man milled about the sparsely populated docks of America's most populated city. His thick boots mask the noises of his heavy Meta-Steel feet. He trekked deeper and deeper through the metal maze. Surveying his surroundings and biding his time.

The man was called John Corben, otherwise known as Metallo! The infamous villain of Superman. The cyborg responsible for being the first man ever to put the big man in a hospital bed was skulking through the Metropolis Docks. Something he had never done before in his history as a supervillain. He was more of a public disturbance type of villain. Very public and open, not private and confined like the docks he was in. However, it was in his employer's best interests that he started a fight here.

Though Metallo was slightly peeved that he had to perform what was basically a back-alley brawl with the Man of Steel, something a nemesis of the powerful man in the world shouldn't be doing, he remained silent and did his job. After all, considering the amount of money just a button press away from filling up his bank account, this was a decent sacrifice.

Whoever was forking the cash to the middleman to pay him made his last payday look like pocket change. Seriously! This was John's lucky break! A payday amount to afford a private island in the Bahamas and all he had to do was a skirmish with the blue and red Boy Scout and give him some radiation sickness to leave him out of commission for the next few days. Not to mention they've added a little bonus: a prison transport breakout. Looks like the guards at Belle Reve won't be dusting out his old pen this time.

Going around another corner, he came across a large brightly lit building where all the dock road lines intersected to. It was the garage for the vehicles used around the docks. Some bays had big rigs while others held small Utes. All of them could create a big boom when hit at just the right angle. Then there was the workshop adjacent to the building. Plenty of flammable substances and stuff that makes a mess when broken. Metallo saw the whole building as the perfect place to make a mess. With a smile on his face and a crack of his knuckles, Metallo stepped forward out of the shadows and into the light. It was deathly quiet as he approached the building. He kept his augmented vision through the walls of the garage and his ears open for any signs of trouble. He froze just before the building as he noticed several beating hearts above the building. There were seven. Three were calm and soft while the other four were beating with worry. Metallo looked up and was met with a sight that both humoured him and frightened him.

Standing atop the building and looking down at him with bravado poses were the Wonder Brats. Not their actual name, but it was something the bitter criminal underground loved to call them. Comprised of the Justice's League's sidekicks, they were trying their best to compete with the big wigs that they played second fiddle with. Taking point was Aqualad, the Atlantean teen and portage to Aquaman. Either side of him were his teammates: Miss Martian, the sidekick to Martian Manhunter, Kid Flash, the accomplice of The Flash, Robin, the Boy Wonder and Batman's partner in crime, Superboy, Superman's rumoured love child, and lastly...

Metallo had no clue who this Green Arrow knock-off was. Metallo was expecting Speedy, not the female tween version of the Emerald Archer. Did Green Arrow replace the little brat? Did someone kill him? Shame. Metallo would've loved to teach the boy and the Green Arrow how useful a bow and arrow was against modern weaponry and a super-cyborg individual. He guessed this knock-off would have to do for now.

Metallo stared condescendingly at the kids. He noted that the kids weren't wearing their original costumes. Kid Flash's armour was bulkier and adorn with silver bands around the legs and arms. Superboy had a massive black and blue trench coat that covered all of his body below the neck. Miss Martian had a coat and cloth bands around her limbs. Robin had a thick red, black and yellow painted armour set strapped to his torso, thighs, shins, forearms and biceps. Aqualad and the Archer both had the same armour set as Robin, only in their respective colours and patterns.