It was a week before anything actually happened, but that week was exactly what I needed.
For starters, I had some time to explore my new home. And I have to say, though there may be some shitty parts to my current situation, living in a superhero mountain fortress is pretty goddamn cool. The main room I had first entered in doubled as both a Zeta Tube hub and the main briefing area, as apparently that massive cylinder on the ceiling was actually a supercomputer with a holographic interface. It felt a little weird typing on a non-solid keyboards that floated right in front of me, but I was willing to put up with it as the machine basically functioned almost exactly how I figured the bat-computer would, with real time news updates, extensive databases on a number of subjects, and fantastic internet speeds. Beyond that there was also the sea bay, another massive room that had a water dock that led to a concealed exit in the side of the mountain. It had probably been used for cargo in past, though currently it was used as a space for M'gann's bioship.
Beyond that, there were also a number of amenities. There was a common room, game room, fully stocked kitchen, library, gym, medlab… pretty much anything you would expect from such a place. Too be honest though, I started having the most fun when I started getting into all the nooks and air ducts the place seemed to be littered with. Air ducts which, interestingly enough, were more than large enough for an adult man to fit through. I thought this was weird for approximately 2 second before I realized who probably designed this place.
And my belief was confirmed as short while later when, in scurrying about a particularly out of the way set of air ducts in my xenomorph form, I happened upon an old cache of Batman's back-up gear. Score!
Speaking of Batman, I had repeated contact with him over the course of the week, both in person and over the phone. One of the first things we did was go over every last bit of DC lore I could remember, no matter how trivial or weird. It was a long and awkward process, but the man didn't want to miss any piece of information so long as there was an even a slight chance that it could be useful later. For the most part, the universe I had found myself in was sufficiently different that none of what I knew was immediately useful, save for one thing: Intergang. I was able to tell him about their connection to Apokolips, and how we did not want to get Darkseid's attention if at all possible. I wasn't sure what he was going to do with the information about the New Gods, but I think I managed to impress the severity of it on him.
Beyond that, there was also a discussion of what exactly my role as 'support' in the team was going to be. The short, official answer was that I was going to hang back during missions and act in reserve, only acting in support roles in combat unless something required my specific skill set (Koriand'r proved that she had combat training, so this was restricted to only myself). However, I was able to read between the lines of what Batman was telling me and realized there was something else he wanted me to do: be a… mature influence on the rest of the team.
I never explicitly told him my age, but I did tell him that I was working as a programmer in New York, and I was sure that he knew I was not just fresh out of college. As such, he figured I was likely a good deal more calm and measured than the rest of my team. Not sure if he was right, but the other person who had that duty was Red Tornado, would would be staying in the Mountain to act as our 'den mother', and he wouldn't be going out on missions with us. A moderating presence out in the field could still be useful. Of course, that would require me to be a tad more social than I was used to; not a complaint, but it was not a skill I frequently used. I wasn't worried about Kori, as I got along with her surprisingly well, but the others…
I didn't have that much knowledge about my other two roommates. All I knew about Miss Martian was that she existed in the comics… and that was it. Hopefully that wouldn't come to bite me in the ass later. Superboy I knew a bit more about: he was a half-human clone of Superman, and he was really insistent that his power was 'tactile telekinesis', something only he ever had. Apparently that's just what you get when you mix human and Kyptonian DNA. I can't remember who cloned him in the comics, but in this universe it was Cadmus with the intention of making him an anti-Superman weapon. My remaining teammates had found him and broke him out of containment, convincing him that killing Superman wasn't a great life goal. Or as least that's what I managed to gather from the few conversations I had with him.
Superboy and I… got along, I suppose. He preferred to be alone most of the time, but he didn't seem bothered by my presence that much either. He also seemed a little moody much of the time, so I didn't really try to engage him in conversation too often. I knew I would have to change that at some point, but for the time being the two of us had a sort of quiet understanding without having to socialize. At least until one of the red heads dragged us out of whatever corner of the Mountain we happened to be in to gather us all for dinner.
Speaking of which, I had been joking to the other male earlier about the BFF thing, but my god did those two girls bond at a frightening speed. Both of them were incredibly friendly and upbeat, and quite frankly far more sociable that either Superboy or I. For the past week the two they had damn near been inseparable as they indulged in immersing themselves in human culture and customs. Mostly that involved watching a lot of TV, media, and other bits of pop culture. I also noticed that while M'gann seemed to favor more modern styles, Kori had developed a taste for the 80's. And prog rock.
I'm not sure why that surprised me.
Of course, the two could only get so much Earth culture from inside the Mountain, and were eager to get out. Unfortunately, it turned out that this base was supposed to be a secret base, so we couldn't be seen wandering about the area lest it draw attention (at least in the case of myself and Kori). Plus, the League wanted to establish a proper cover for us before we started popping up anywhere in the world via Zeta Tubes. Honestly I think they were being a bit paranoid in that respect; Superheroes just pop out of nowhere all the time. I was hoping they would finish whatever they needed soon, because while I'm perfectly fine staying indoors for long stretches of time, Kori was getting tired of it pretty fast.
That all aside, that week indoors also gave me the time I needed to experiment with my powers. Up until that point I had mostly been guessing as to what I could actually do, but after that week… well, I was guessing slightly less, but it was still an improvement.
It was difficult to analyze the nanites I was made out of without the help of Lantern Stewart, but the Mountain was equipped with enough advanced technology that I was able to make due (with a great deal of instruction from Red Tornado on how to work the various devices in the Tech Lab). Ultimately the data dump that Stewart gave me from his ring was the most helpful thing I had, but after some poking around on my own I had discovered something I don't think he noticed. Namely, how my nanites held together.
I had assumed that they were simply gripping on to one another, and while they were doing that, it wasn't the whole story. Turns out that they were also partially held together by Van der Waals forces, the attractive force that can attract atoms and molecules together that arise from quantum level interactions. It was the same thing that allowed spiders to climb wall, and probably what I was leveraging to do the same thing. It also likely why those electric shocks the Psions kept giving me were so debilitating; they were disrupting the thing that was holding me together. I would have to look out for that in the future.
A more in-depth analysis of my shapeshifting ability helped me get a handle on how it worked. My body couldn't separate its parts too much due to how the nanites held together and communicated, but other than that I could assume almost any simple shape I wanted with ease. More complicated things though were… odd. My body tried to shape everything it was changing into at once, and finer details took longer than simple ones. This resulted in slowing the entire process down unless I focused on simple things first followed by more and more levels of detail. Which was a useful skill to practice, but probably wouldn't come into play in combat anytime soon, as I was going to focus on function over form in those cases. Plus any tech I've eaten seems to shape without running into this problem. Was I storing a blueprint somewhere or…?
Speaking of eating technology, I had managed to get my hands on quite a bit during the intervening time, though most of it was mundane. I had put the request in to Batman to get me… well, everything he could. His response was that he wanted to see if I could handle what I had before he started handing me every last bit of super-tech that happened to be lying around, especially if I wasn't completely sure what the consequences of my consuming them would be. Which I suppose was reasonable, though it didn't stop me from feeling a bit put out. That said, he did get an extra set of almost everything that was already in the Mountain. That included everything that was in the medbay, as well as a few types of generators and scanners. And… most of it wasn't as helpful as I wanted.
Without the ability to replicate its software, a normal computer was basically just a calculator for me. I mean, it was great that after eating a laptop I could perform mathematical calculations easily, but I wanted to be able to browse the internet with my mind. It was a similar story with most of the other technology I consumed; if it relied on software to function in any meaningful way, I could only get parts of the device, like sensors or emitters. On the other hand if the tech was all most all hardware, like speakers and radios, I could replicate it just fine.
I needed to find a way around this somehow, even if it means having to write my own software. I was certain that I was capable of it (after all, how was my consciousness running otherwise?), I just had to figure out what a machine code for a swarm of biomechanical nanites looked like. Unfortunately, while I actually do have training in the right field for doing that, I feared the task would be beyond me. I wasn't a hyper-cognitive.
Yet.
Alright, maybe I was being a little optimistic, but there had to be some way, shape, or form that I could use to augment my intelligence. I was still an amateur at all this but I was willing to put in the hours to learn the hard way if it came down to it. Practice had helped, after all.
Still, the area I had the least amount of success with was making myself look human again. For the time being I had seemed to hit 'peak human' with my armored form. And simply removing the plates didn't really help. For one thing I didn't actually have muscles underneath them, so my body's proportions looked malformed and rigid, not actually flexing as I moved my limbs. For another, the softer 'skin' I was able to make was still too rough and textured, looking akin to exposed muscle. Given that it didn't help improve my sense of touch either, I decide to just stay armored for the time being.
Which wasn't to say I was giving up on that front. My skill with shaping my body had been improving, and I had an idea for something that might help. I… hadn't really wanted to try it before, but I knew that I would probably have to get around to finding out if it would work at some point. Which lead me to my current position.
"… You want me to get you a corpse." The image of Batman said flatly from the holographic screen. His tone was usually flat, but I was pretty sure he was making an effort this time considering how the sound refused to echo even a little in the cavernous main hall.
"A cadaver." I corrected. "Preferably male, age 18-25, physically fit. One marked as an organ donor would work just fine, as I am after the skin, musculature, and nervous system." I also wanted the endocrine system, but I didn't have great hopes of that being intact after any reasonable amount of time being dead.
"You didn't say that your replication ability worked on biological constructs."
"To be honest I'm not sure that it does," I replied. "But the only way I can know for sure is if I try. And since I'm not keen on trying it on a living person…"
"Have you considered trying to use it on animal cadavers first?"
I hesitated. "I… would prefer a human, if that's alright. I'm not sure how much I would be able to get from an animal."
"Regardless, acquiring a human body is a much more sensitive and complicated task than getting an animal one." He said firmly. "Try it on an animal first. If that doesn't provide the results you're looking for, we can talk later to find another option." And with that the connection dropped and the screen closed.
I frowned as I looked at empty air. He had a point, I guess, I just… if it partially worked with say a pig, I had a feeling that Batman would try to convince me that it was good enough and not actually get a real human body. I was probably just getting paranoid though, as-
"Recognized: Aqualad. B-0-2."
I turned in time to see the golden light fade from one of the Zeta Tubes and I spot a teenager in a jacket and slacks walking into the hall. He was a tall, dark skinned youth with short cropped blonde hair. At first glance he seemed perfectly normal, but after a second or so you could see the differences compared to a human; the slightly elongated proportion, the slightly too big eyes. Oh, and the clearly noticeable gills running up his neck.
And yet somehow the first thought I had when I looked at him was There are black Atlantians? I hope that wasn't racist.
He spotted me quickly and walked over to me, offering a nod. "You must be one of the new arrivals joining the team. I am Aqualad, but my true name is Kaldur'ahm. You may call me Kaldur."
I smile as I extend my hand. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Jacob."
He shakes it before he hesitates for a moment, uncertain of himself. "I am sorry if this is rude, but I wasn't told much about you in particular. I heard that you are supposed to be a native of this planet…"
"And yet I look anything but." I finished for him. "It's fine, I imagine that I'm going to have to explain this a lot. I was human up until a few days ago, then I was abducted by aliens and turned into this. For now I've decided to go with the term post-human." It seemed a more appropriate term for describing me than meta-human in any case. Plus it was a Wildstorm reference.
He tilted his head to the side. "An… interesting designation, though I suppose I can see the logic. That aside, I am a little surprised that Batman assigned you to us. I would have thought that a new superhero would have preferred to work alone at first."
"Well, not me." I admitted. "I am literally just starting out at this whole superhero thing, so I'm glad for any help or instruction I can get. I'm pretty sure that's why I was placed on this team in the first place."
It was slight, but I saw Kaldur's mouth press into a thin line at that comment. "Because this is where they put the 'inexperienced' ones." He said, a hint of bitterness in his tone.
Before I could ask about that, Kori flew into the main room, likely drawn by the sound of the Zeta Tube being used. "Oh, someone new!" She said before she settled down next to me. "Are you one of our other teammates?"
Kaldur paused as he looked her up and down before responding "Yes. I am Aqualad, also known as Kaldur. And you are…?"
"I am Koriand'r of Tamaran." She paused to look him over in turn. "I have not spent long studying the races of this world, but you are an… Atlantian, are you not?"
He nodded. "Yes, though there are many different morphologies that can make the same claim. I am one of many that call the sea home."
"Ah, fascinating to have so many different kinds of sapients on a single planet." She said. "In any case, I am glad to finally meet you, comrade Kaldur. Hopefully it won't be long before we meet the remaining members of our team and we can finally be about our purpose of vanquishing evil."
A slight smile graced Kaldur's lips. "I agree. In fact, that is why I am here, and why Robin and Kid Flash should be arriving shortly. We wish to see if Red Tornado has any assignments for us yet."
I hadn't exactly been yearning for action quite like the two next to me, but I did feel a bit of excited tension at that prospect. Training was all well and good, but some point it was time to step outside and save America by beating people up. "Alright, but you'll have to wait a bit. Red Tornado went out on League business this morning. I think he'll be back soon though."
"Hmm, perhaps we can see his location now…" Kaldur said before he stepped forward, summoning a holographic interface with a gesture. A few key strokes later and we were presented with an image of the Eastern seaboard, and a red blip moving up the coast. "Not long, he should be here in about ten minutes."
So, we waited in the main hall, and at some point we were joined by M'gann and Superboy (I did technically know his name, but since he hadn't given it to me himself I had to make sure I only used his title). We mostly kept the topics light, and Kori and I deferred Kaldur's questions about us until the others arrive so that we would only have to explain things once. Sooner than I would have thought, and just when the red dot on the screen reached the Mountain, I heard the Zeta Tubes whir to life.
"Recognized: Robin. B-0-1. Recognized: Kid Flash. B-0-3."
The light from the Zeta Tubes flashed once again, and I caught the tail end of a conversation. "…all I'm saying is, it feels like they're trying to take the team away from us." The redhead remarked as he glanced over at the dark haired boy wearing sunglass. "How can we say the team is ours if the League just keeps adding their own people?"
The boy tilted his head with a smirk. "So, you wanna kick all the new comers off? Including Megan?"
The red head held up his hands. "Whoa whoa, let's not get crazy here. Megan is cool. But who's to say that these new guys are-" he cut himself off as he finally noticed all of us standing there looking at him.
Particularly, he noticed Koriand'r in her casual tank top and shorts combination as she stepped forward, her hands on her hips. "Oh? What is this 'cool' and why don't you think we have it?"
"…Never mind, this is the greatest team ever."
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I didn't need confirmation to recognize a Wally West when I saw one. I stepped forward and offered my hand to him before he could say anything. "Hi, I'm Jacob. Pleasure to be working with you two."
He gave a start as he turned to look at me before he regained his composure. "Oh, uh, yeah! I'm Kid Flash, this is Robin. And you… are really not what I was expecting."
"Way to make him feel welcome, KF." Robin said sardonically. "Don't mind him, you're just a little… bigger than we thought."
And you are a lot smaller than I thought, I mused as I looked down on the boy who I could only assume was 13 years old. I knew that I was going to be working with teens, but for a moment I actually started to feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of letting this 'boy' get into combat.
"Why do you always seem to insist on shaking hands at first meetings, Jacob?" Kori suddenly asked. "I've seen you do this several times now."
I turned to her. "It's how my father raised me. A handshake is both a greeting and a sign of respect, and the simple act of contact can help the two establish a connection going forward."
She folded her arms across her chest. "Then why haven't you offered to shake my hand yet?"
"Because it's well established that the only thing more respectful thing than a handshake is fighting back-to-back against horde of monsters." I replied. "Since that's how we met, a handshake would be insufficient now."
"Oh. Alright then." She said with a nod, completely satisfied by my explanation.
Wally went to speak again, no doubt to Kori, when I heard the sound of the large mechanical entryway that made up our front door opening. Robin must have had pretty good ears too, because at the same moment he perked up. "That must be Red Tornado! Come on, I'm itching for some action!" He said before he scurried off in that direction.
The rest of us looked at each other before we followed. Wonder what my first mission will be?