New Warriors Vol. 4: Cry Uncle

Betrayed By Blood

Having escaped from prison, the Jester and the Trapster decided to try their hand at running their own business, setting up a little shop in Brooklyn.

"Are you sure about this?" Jester asked. "I thought we weren't supposed to draw attention to ourselves?"

"We need the money, and with all these heroes running around, the only way to do it is by starting our own legitimate business," Trapster told him as he finished putting up the sign. "Welcome to Villains for Hire! If the heroes can do a temp service, then so can we! Now we just sit back and wait for our first customer!"

"I wonder who it'll be," Jester said. "Maybe the Kingpin or the Hobgoblin or--"

"You two idiots!"

The two villains turned around, shocked to see who was standing in front of them.

"I've got a job for the two of you."

*

New Warriors Headquarters

Midnight

Everyone was asleep in the renovated abandoned mall that now served as headquarters to the team of teenage superheroes who called themselves the New Warriors. Well, almost everyone.

Adam Aaronson didn't need to sleep, after all, he was an android that looked like a regular teenage boy. The closest he came to sleep was when he stopped to recharge his battery, which didn't require anything but patience since recharges usually took several hours.

So while his teammates slept in their respective rooms, Adam usually just wandered around the headquarters, trying to keep himself busy. The teenage android looked in on his friends, seeing them all sleeping soundly. Andy was snuggled up with his puppy; Valeria had fallen asleep on her bed while reading a book; Kittania had worn herself out from sword practice; Josh and Sam had fallen asleep on the couch in Sam's room while watching a horror movie marathon, and Juston had fallen asleep at his workbench while trying to upgrade his armor. Adam picked his friend up and carried him to his bed, pulling off Juston's sneakers before tucking him in.

"Goodnight, buddy," Adam said.

"Aw, that was sweet of you," Franklin said as he stood at the doorway while eating an apple. "Now I know how I always end up back in my bed when I spend the night here."

"I just try to make my friends more comfortable," Adam told him. "Why are you awake?"

"Midnight snack, bro," Franklin said as he took another bite of the apple. "Why are you up?"

"I am always up," Adam said as he turned off the light on Juston's nightstand. "As an android, I don't require sleep."

"Oh, right, I guess I keep forgetting you're a machine," Franklin told him. "Even though your hero name is Machine Teen. What's it like to not have to sleep?"

"I honestly can't say, I've never known what sleep is," Adam said as they walked along the corridor. "My father would just shut down my CPU to simulate sleep at night until I learned what I truly was. But he's... gone now."

"Bummer," Franklin said, taking another bite. "So I guess you don't know what it's like to be a real boy, huh?"

"I was programmed to think and act like a real boy," Adam told him. "I even had a girlfriend at one point."

"I think that's your problem; you were programmed to think and feel like a real boy, but your father was an old dude by that point. How would he know how a real boy thinks and acts?" Franklin asked as he thought about it. "You know, I've been getting used to my powers... maybe I could try--"