THIS IS PERSONAL | yj next gen

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17:35
12 JULY, 2011
BEACH BESIDE MOUNT JUSTICE

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"Ladies and gentlemen," he began to announce, which immediately received puzzled looks from both groups of teenagers. Zac paused, frowned, and muttered, "that's not right." The magician could hear Mar'i exasperatedly face palm behind him. "Sorry, habit," he grinned a little sheepishly. "The show life. Anyway, more importantly, as you probably know by now our telepaths have blocked access to our minds from Miss Martian." Some people on the team from the past nodded, furrowed eyebrows and suspicious expressions running rampant among them. "That's because what you would find there would be dangerous for you, and us." They all still looked rather confused and on guard, Robin, Batman and Black Canary subtly shifting stances to offensive.

'Get a move on, Zac,' Alex thought, gritting his teeth. 'I think they're about to attack us.' He wished fiercely that his dad and granddad were not so quick to judge them.

"Okay, okay," he replied out loud, looking back at Alex. Turning around again, he said, "No need for this to get violent, guys. By danger, I mean disrupting the timeline. We're here to prevent history being changed for the worse. We're this team," he gestured a hand at their parents, "from the future." Now, when he announced this, Team Future didn't know what to expect. Maybe a bang or a flash of light or something, ridiculously of course, but it was kind of disappointing to see that the other team actually didn't believe them at all. "Look, I'm Zatara." Zatanna gasped a little, because for her, the wound of her father becoming Dr Fate was still fresh, and Zac winced in pity. He'd never known his grandfather, but his mother would sometimes tell him stories of the great things he did and what he was like. He'd loved those stories, but always got upset when his mother did. "This behind me is Nightstar," Zac continued, jerking a thumb in her direction. "She's the leader of our team, but I'm the one introducing us because I'm just a better people speaker." He smirked as she hit his arm, playfully. "And down the line we have Zenith," Hallie waved, still looking curiously at her parents, "Wonder Girl," Helena smiled a little, focused on deducing who was who, "Hornet," Peter nodded a little, "Velocity," Irey beamed and giggled quietly under the spotlight, "Falcon", Alex raised a thumbs up as Zac skipped over Mar'i, "Sorceress," Cayden barely noticed, quietly studying Solstice and marvelling at how alike they looked, "Apollo," Apollo grimaced a little, raising a hand, "and finally, Superboy and Titanium." The twins offered smiles.

"What year are you from?" the 14-year old Robin asked curiously, stepping towards them. Behind him, Conner was staring intently at the boy who shared his name, gaze burning holes into the back of Clark's head.

"We're not allowed to tell you that," Apollo interrupted before Zac could say anything. 'Timeline. Dad reminded me before we left,' he added through the link. "It would be too dangerous."

"We'll be here for two days only," Mar'i reassured them, continuing on from the others with authority and glancing at her team. "If you and the League can leave us be for forty-eight hours, we'll be out of your hair and on our way home. I could explain the circumstances if it would encourage you to trust us more." Hopefully, all eleven of the Future Team watched the group opposite them, especially Batman and Black Canary, because if the League wanted them stopped from doing their mission, they were the ones who could really do something about it and probably the ones they would have to convince if they did. Alex was right; they were not supposed to encounter them so soon, let alone at all. Everyone meanwhile side-noted that Black Canary looked a lot like Laurel, her daughter. Their uniforms were similar too, though Laurel didn't fight, she was only their combat trainer. Peter remembered catching her and Don Allen together once and shivered at the thought. Then, after a moment or two, Batman stepped through the nine confused teenagers with a grim setting of his jaw that made Mar'i, Alex and Lena glance at each other. They knew their grandfather's expressions. This was a stubborn, suspicious one. He'd barely got the words, "We cannot let you-" out before Mar'i had signalled Cayden with a quick, resigned and apologetic nod. The Atlantean replied by slipping into a wide, strong stance, twisting her hands in sweeping arcs and bringing them down again horizontal to the ground in a matter of two seconds. The sea spanning out behind Team Past followed her movements precisely and the green-blue lip of the ocean closed over and down in a crashing wave between the two groups, effectively separating them. The only person on Team Past to figure out what was happening was Aqualad, alerted when he saw the formerly invisible tattoos running down her neck and bare midriff glow a bright turquoise blue. He barely managed to prevent them all from being drenched in sea water, but by the time he'd cleared the mass over their heads, the other team had vanished.