THIS IS PERSONAL | yj next gen

PROLOGUE

16:32
12 JULY, 2041
WATCHTOWER

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Ten kids were sitting around a circular table in the centre of the Watchtower mission room, bored out of their minds. Five girls and five boys, all ranging in age, ethnicity, hair and eye colour, dressed in civvies. They could be mistaken easily for normal high schoolers and middle schoolers, even though half of them were not entirely of the human race.

Finally, after a long, long ten minutes in silence, a light brown haired girl with pretty Indian features stood up indignantly, knocking her seat back with a noisy scrape.

"That's it. Zac was supposed to be here ages ago. Let's just leave without him." A boy of about fifteen with pupil-less eyes of pure, dark emerald green replied using the perfect amount of sympathy and agreeableness, putting his legs up on the table and swinging backwards on his chair, a picture of relaxation.

"Five more minutes, Cayden. We kind of need him for this one." Cayden, seeming to have lost her sudden flame of irritability, sat down heavily and raised her eyes to the sky, only to leap back up again with the rest of the group. A huge bang and a swirl of smoke and all of a sudden a tall boy in a black and white magician's suit holding a top hat appeared standing on the middle of the table.

"Am I late?" Zac asked, grinning toothily. He was completely aware that he was and seemed to be pleased with their diverse reactions, taking a boyish joy in making his friends jump. Three girls who had been around the table had not only risen from their seats in shock, but had literally fallen backwards into the air. An annoyed scowl crossed the face of one. Her ink black hair spilled around her shoulders as she floated suspended a few feet above the floor, and her eyes, like her brother, also had no pupils. But instead of green, they were a hard amethyst.

"I'm going to kill you, Zachariah Zatara," she stated in an icy matter-of-fact tone, touching down just after the other two girls, who glanced at each other, trying not to smile.

"Chill out, Mar'i," he grinned, hopping down from the table with a flourish, twirling his top hat around his finger.

"It's not only her you have to worry about," a dirty blond haired sixteen-year old boy responded to the eldest two of the group, gesturing at Mar'i with the arrow he'd previously been fletching while glowering at Zac. His eyes were narrowed in irritation, his no-nonsense attitude so similar to his mother's that it had made him averse to most stupid pranks and immaturity, which ironically was exactly what his little sister was like, especially with her speedster abilities from such a young age.

"Apollo, dude, don't do anything too rash," Mar'i's brother spoke from behind him, humour lacing his voice. "Hallie and Irey aren't even thirteen yet, at least wait until they've gone through the zeta tube to stab him."

"Speak for yourself, Alex," snorted Hallie, the twelve year old with green skin, immediately firing back at him.

After that, all eleven of the kids started arguing, continuing for several minutes until their resident hackers, Alex and a dark haired girl, received messages on their holo-computers. Everybody stopped bickering for a brief moment when two video messages popped up on their separate screens.

"It's from the Justice League," a dark haired and skinned African-American boy remarked to no one. Both files were identical, so Alex turned his off while the brown-haired girl tossed her projector lightly into the air in front of them (where it hovered silently, awaiting orders) and pressed play. Nightwing pixelated into view, transferring from the holo-screen to his full-bodied projected form as if he was really standing before them.

"Team, this is Nightwing. Helena, Alexand'r-" Alex winced when his full name was used in front of everyone. Some might have thought it silly or childish that he so disliked it, as it sounded almost identical to the human version Alexander. However, it seemed to him that broadcasting the fact that he was half alien every time someone called his name was just looking for prejudice or some form of discrimination from close-minded humans. It was bad enough that his eyes gave it away almost instantly. It had become such a habit for him that he still made some form of rejection towards the name whenever it was spoken, even in company of people who would not mind in the slightest.

"Jeez, dad," he muttered, only the twin Martian-Kryptonian boys noticing his uncomfortableness.

"-or whichever one of you is watching, tell everyone they need to come to the wreckage site of Mount Justice, the base of the old team in half an hour. We have an important mission for the group, so bring your suits. It's 48-hour retrieval of a magic artefact, but it's a pretty complicated situation, we'll explain more when you arrive." The image of Nightwing disappeared again and Lena closed a hand over the hovering projector, then attached it to the holo-computer. An excited buzz burst the tension in the air as everyone automatically faced Mar'i, the leader of the team.

"Let's go then," she shrugged, confused. Why would the Justice League ask them to go to the razed base of the old team? Wasn't that a little obscure, even for her dad?

"Aren't we supposed to be in our suits?" quipped Irey, the youngest out of the whole group, alerting them to their forgetfulness. They halted, some smiling sheepishly.

"Oh yeah, let me," Zac cleared his throat. "Egnahc sehtolc otni ruo smrofinu." Smoke surrounded most of the group and dissipated in moments, leaving the people who needed to actually change clothes (unlike the Kents who could simply shape shift their civvies) suited up and ready to leave. He smiled, rather proud of his handiwork. "One of the first spells I learned. Now we can go," Zac said.