Team Beetle Chapter 5 Redux (Patreon)

Young Justice parody: Tier 1/Redux

Chapter 4 

Chap 5 New Beetles

Miss Martian was not pleased, ever since Nightwing left, Superboy seemed to avoid her like the plague. He was spending more time with Blue Beetle, so she started to think they were together. The two were bonding since Nightwing left, spending so much time together something was bound to happen. She kept trying to get involved and hang around them much to their annoyance.

Aqualad noticed this and did keep them separated on missions. She tried to find out what he was keeping from her, thanks to the gnomes he’s learned how to resist psychic probing. She couldn’t probe Blue Beetle’s mind without the scarab noticing.

She noticed he was a little miserable after their last chat. ‘Maybe he’s having second thoughts. He knows we’ll be perfect together.’ She had to know, if she couldn’t use your powers or get close, she decided to pull another thread. Beast Boy...

-x-

Superboy woke up, feeling spent, sore, and happily warm. He looked up and saw the unmasked face of his beloved Nightwing aka Dick Grayson. There was a brief moment where he thought this was all a dream, and he wasn’t really there, and when he woke up for real he was gonna be in bed alone. “Morning,” Dick kissed him, nope definitely not a dream.

“Morning,” he purred and hugged Nightwing.

“I wasn’t too rough with you was I?”

“No, you were amazing, I missed you!”

“I’m back for good, it’s time we formed a new team, we have a new enemy who is a threat to the Team and the Justice League, but with this new team we can take them down, and do a lot of good for the world.” Superboy looked at him.

“I’m with you all the way, you know that.”

“I know, let’s get you washed up, we need to start the day,” he scooped Conner up and carried him to the bathroom, once there the clone was completely at his mercy as he washed, lathered and teased his whole body. Fuck did he miss this.

-x-

Beast Boy trusted Miss M, he saw her like a sister. Originally he thought it was her blood donation that gave him his powers. After some tests it was proven all her blood did was trigger his own latent meta gene. He didn’t know she would try to use him. He had heard Nightwing was back and he was excited to see him again. “M’gann guess what, guess what?”

“What is it Garth?”

“Nightwing is back!” he said happily. He loved Nightwing a lot, he took care of the new team members and helped them train. He wasn’t like the instructors on the Justice League, Nightwing handled each of them differently. He once showed up to practice butt naked but Nightwing didn’t chastise him. He let Beast Boy get in touch with his wild side.

“Oh that’s nice,” she looked at Garth with a smile on her lips, but with ill intent on her mind. “Garth I need a favor from you,” he smiled, he had grown up some, not needing the monkey features to stand out.

“What what?!” he said with equal excitement.

“I want you to get close to Conner, keep an eye on him. I’m worried about him,” she played him. “After everything that’s happened, it’s not good to be keeping feelings and secrets bottled up.” he nodded.

“Alright, I’ll look after him, I know how much he means to you.”

“Thank you Garth, I knew I could count on you.”  Garth ran off to find Superboy. ‘I will have you back Conner,’ she thought.

-x-

Nightwing had to check in with Aqualad and run his plan by him, so Superboy was left to his own devices. He waited for the team to gather for Nightwing’s announcement. “Hey Superboy!” Beast Boy came running up to him.

“What’s up?” he asked, Garth blinked at him.

“You look different,” he said looking him over.

“Do I? Guess I am just happy,” he said with a smile on his face. “

Yeah you have this glow about you, what happened?” Superboy blushed.

“You’ll understand when you’re older.” He patted the boy on the head.

“It’s weird you kinda smell like Nightwing, were you guys sparring?” He sniffed Conner, smelling Nightwing’s scent all over him.

Superboy froze and began to sweat. “Oh umm sure.” He scratched his chin sheepishly.

“Isn’t it great that he’s back.”

“Yeah it is.” He smiled warmly.

The team was gathered together, and Nightwing revealed the scarabs.

“I want to give these scarabs to a select group, if you accept them we will form a new team, I will lead this select team.” To show them what he meant Jaime and Conner joined him and all three shifted into their beetle form. This surprised many of the young heroes, however Beast Boy thought it was cool. “The scarabs will analyze your abilities and adapt to your powers or skills.”

Seeing the three together Megan tried to volunteer for the team.

“I’ll be making the choice, based off my training with you guys and your activity these past few months. Aqualad told me about your progress.”  The two shared a look and nodded.

Black Beetle, raised up the purple scarab, “Static?” he looked to Virgil.

“Me? I’ll take it!” Virgil pulls off his hoodie and shirt exposing his toned upper body. In his mind this was a high honor. He came up to him and turned around offering his back. The scarab is placed on him, and he changes into a purple beetle. “Thank you for this honor I promise to not let you down,” he said and Nightwing patted him on the shoulder.

“You will be great. Now Blue will remain with the blue scarab.”

Purple Beetle demonstrated his new power, the scarab allowed him to release metal spheres, charged with his electric power. He could control them and fire bolts at will. Rods rose up and acted as lightning rods and he felt he could recharge from this. He could manifest a beetle horn on his helmet that he could use like a lightning rod and a stun gun. ‘Is everything to your liking sir?’ Purple scarab spoke.

‘Yes I feel great, so what is your name?’

‘I do not have one, would you name me please?’

‘Sure, how about Shock?’

‘Excellent, I am Shock at your service.’ Static/Purple Beetle joined the ranks standing next to Blue Beetle.

When he brought out the green scarab, Miss M thought she was gonna get the chance to join the team and get closer to Superboy. The previous green beetle was a martian it only made sense that she’d get to take on the mantle. “Beast Boy,” her little fantasy was cut down in those two words.

‘What?!’ she mentally screamed.

“I’ll do it!” he stepped up, and removed his shirt, the scarab was placed into his back. The scarab armor encases his body, Beast Boy tests out his power, he changes into a tiger, and the armor changed with him changing him into an armored tiger. He returns to human form the armor changing with him. “This is so cool!!” He jumped into the air, and his rockets allowed him to fly around the room. Now he didn’t have to tire himself out when he turned into a bird.

He lands, and goes to stand next to Superboy. “You should give your scarab a name, he is your friend now,” Superboy said, and Beast Boy nodded.

‘I will provide armor and protection to all your forms master Beast Boy,’ the scarab explained as Garth tried to think of a name.

“I’ll call you Fauna,” the scarab accepted the name.

Next came the yellow scarab. “Impulse,” the future speedster came forward but he looked guilty.

“I’m guessing you wanted Kid Flash to take on this scarab.”

“He would have been my first choice yes, but he happily retired and deserves to be happy.” his words were filled with sorrow, Superboy heard it and knew how much the loss of the speedster pained him.

“I know how much he meant to you, I could never fill the shoes of Kid Flash but I can take up the honor of becoming your Yellow Beetle.” He removed his shirt exposing his thin body.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Aqualad told me how hard you’ve worked, you’ve made some mistakes but you give it your all. I want you as Yellow Beetle, and I’m sure Wally would be proud.”

He took on the scarab, when in full scarab armor the armor forged the flash symbol on his chest. He called his scarab Dash, and he quickly stood by Nightwing. Superboy and Blue Beetle noticed how close he was standing to him, and they couldn’t see it, but Impulse was blushing as he stood next to him. Impulse was weird, he had info from the future so he knew things but with how much the timeline has changed it was hard to say how much he knew was solid.

Black Beetle raised the orange scarab. Arsenal wanted this power, with that power he could take on Luthor with full force. “Tye Longshadow!”

“No way!” Blue Beetle exclaimed excitedly.

Tye walked in with a smile. “Hey buddy did you miss me?” The two hugged.

“I thought you weren’t into this whole hero thing?”

“Things have changed, a lot has changed. I know this is where I’m meant to be. When Nightwing approached me, it felt like fate.” He took off his shirt and accepted the orange scarab. He transformed and he looked bad ass. He activated his power creating an orange astral form projection, this time the form was solid, giving it an air that it was more durable. The projection also had a headband that had a beetle symbol on it. He gave his scarab the name of Chief. He stood with Jaime and Virgil.

“This last scarab, was hard to select an appropriate choice, however I feel this person deserves a chance to stand with us,” The last scarab was indigo. “Ed Dorado,” the boy was shocked to hear his name called. He teleported in front of him, he removed his maroon vest and gray shirt, and his scarf.

“Why me?” he asked, and Nightwing smiled at him.

“I think you have potential, and I wanted you to be a part of this team,” he placed the scarab on his back. He was encased with the indigo armor, he felt stronger. The indigo armor made him look sleek. He called his scarab Warp. “I will not let you down!” he came over and Static, Tye, and Blue highfived him. It felt great having the boys together on the same team.

“Admit it I make this look good!” He flexed a bit, causing Jaime to laugh.

“This is the beginning of Team Beetle!” Nightwing said, and was met with cheers. Aqualad stepped up. “Out of curiosity, why did you not select me as a beetle?”

“Because this team still needs you, my team will work with you and the League, but we have to bring down White Beetle, it is a danger to everyone, and only the scarabs can shield us from their power.” Once they took them out, then they could work together to bringing down the Light.

“Good luck my friend,” he said, and Nightwing shook his hand. “To you as well,” Black Beetle went to his new team. The team didn’t need telepathy to link them up, when activated the scarabs would do that. It would share their thoughts with the others, this signal was un-hackable and couldn’t be traced.

They had a lot of work to do, but this team would do great things together, and would become closer than the Justice League ever could.

To be continued Announcement and Training

Nightwing had made some promises to Superboy which he plans to fullfill with an announcement in front of the Team. Nightwing gathers the beetles together for training, though some have questions.