Junior Armada

Silver City; a towering symbol of human determination and a testament to the human imagination. The city is protected day and night by the most powerful knights the world has ever seen. They are the Hero Armada. Dozens of heroes united under one roof with a common goal. They protect the innocent, not matter the cost. They are led by the beauty of the battlefield, Warrior Woman, the man who can't be stopped, Mr. Amazo, and the strongest man alive, Omniman. Together from the top floor of Hero Tower they watch over the city and the world, monitoring to make certain all is well. And when something isn't such, they mobilize. But today all would fail to be well from under their own roof as a Latin American young woman in a red and blue tight outfit and brown coat walks into the building through the front door.

Ricochet. Tis true what they say. Hath no fury like a woman scorned. When this woman took up the mantle of the last to bear her title she did so half out of spite. She'd been instrumental in the cretin's defeat. Now she inherited his power and many of the burdens that came with his membership. The Hero Armada was watching her. She had been a valuable member so far but she was being difficult as of late. Soon this would be a problem.

Madam Control looks up from her desk as Ricochet marches through the room to the elevator. When the doors close, she picks up the phone. "She's on her way up and she doesn't look like she's here to sit around the campfire and sing kumbaya."

"All right," Warrior Woman says in response. "Thank you for the heads up."


Some time later the conversation between Ricochet and her superiors enters a heated argumentative stage as the rising heroine slams her hands down, forcefully, on chair's round table and sneers. "You've got to be kidding me! Can't spare the people? Zephyr and Ladybug haven't had a mission in weeks! Lion Heart is pounding on local street thugs and you have me on patrol duty! You're honestly going to sit there and tell me that we can't spare a couple of people for a small strike team?"

"Adrienne, listen," Warrior Woman says.

"In this building it's Ricochet. Mask or no mask,"Adrienne says before a brief pause then doubling back. "Ma'am," she says respectfully.

"Ricochet, Ladybug and Zephyr are both Level 7 Metahumans and have access to a number of missions that we can't give you details on," Owl says.

Ricochet turns to her respected darker superior and stands upright with a sigh. "So because I'm barely a level 4 meta..."

"It's not that. The Deadwave invasion last year...and then what happened with Richard," Omniman begins, "It's an overwhelming burden and we have to make sure we're dividing our resources well. This team is an excellent idea. If we had the people to spare, I'd be more than willing to sign off on it. Be we have the remainder of our heroes on the moon base right now."

"If we had a couple more heads in this building, we'd hand 'em over to ya for your team in a heartbeat, kid, but we don't," Mr. Amazo adds.

Ricochet thinks to herself for a moment then looks away through the window. She could see a few heroes flying about outside. It wasn't an uncommon sight around here. Each of them was on a mission though. She wasn't new to that. She'd had this conversation with the Armada's leaders before. Back then they worried about her mental condition. They were entirely honest and she knew in her heart that they were right then. But now?


Following that conversation, she leaves Hero Tower and decides to go for a freerun along the skyline. She enjoyed it really. Richard was an idiot to turn on the Armada the way he did. He had it made. Everyone loved him and he was in a position to actually receive compensation for his heroic deeds. Whether he liked working with them or not, he chose the losing battle. Of course that wasn't why she became the new Ricochet. She didn't get anything out of the relationship with the Armada like he did. No, she did it for the single purpose of spiting him...and she was entirely okay with that at first. But now? Now she stayed not to make him look bad, but because...it just felt right. She lands on a low rooftop in the city and looks around for a bit. Nothing happening here. She could rest for a bit.

Several light years from Earth, Fate's hand starts to set in motion events that will forever affect some of Earth's young heroes. However, this particular hero is very far away from his home world.

A solitary ship floats in the vastness of space. It's shining, metal surface does little to reveal the atrocities that were committed aboard this spacecraft. The silence of space is interrupted as a bright orange flash bursts from the ships interior, tearing a hole the size of a house through the craft's hull. From this gaping hole, flew out an adolescent boy. He was scantily clad, his lean and well-muscled chest bare to the world. His eyes glowed a bright amber, the same glow emitted from his hands. Bright as a sun, the young boy launched these bolts from his hands at the ship in a cry of both fury and anguish. As the smoke cleared, more than half the ship was in pieces.

This bronze-skinned Adonis took one last look at his former prison before assessing where in the cosmos he was. I do not recognize this part of the galaxy, he thought to himself. I'll just have to head for the nearest planet and seek help there.

Viewing his surroundings, there were several planets in the general vicinity, but none seemed more appealing than a planet that was a mix of blue and green: Earth. Quickly deciding that this was the best plan of action, he flew towards the planet slowly, drained from the weeks of torture he had endured. As the strange planet's pale moon came into view, he heard a robotic sound from behind him. Two drones from the near-destroyed ship were in quick pursuit after him. Panicking and not wishing to get captured, the boy flew with all the power he had left, heading towards the marble planet at near-light speed.

[Attn: All]

As Ricochet sits atop the classically built Silver City branch of North Labs in Middletown, she suddenly hears the sound of a screams echoing through the bustling streets below. It was one thing to hear a single person screaming. But when this many people were in an uproar in this city, it was never because a bus filled with prepubescent, questionably musically talented boys was rolling by. She looks a bit further down the streets to see a car picked up a thrown across the street, crashing into a hotel lobby. "Great," she says to herself. "I needed to blow off some steam." She then pulls her goggles down over her eyes and cracks her knuckles, standing as she prepares to "Bounce" down and tag whatever was causing this mess.

Suddenly it was made all too apparent what the source of this chaos was. A young man, roughly the height of a small building barrels through the streets in a rampage, sweeping anything in his way aside. Whenever a cop shoots at him, he hoists up the squad car and shakes them out before lobbing the vehicle down the street with a roar. "Holy Heaven!" Ricochet says. "I'm gonna need a bigger...ME."

Just as the giant stomps down the street and prepares to step down on a cop that'd angered him, the cop is suddenly tackled out of the way by what appeared to be a young man but with a bandanna over his face with eye holes cut into it for use as a mask. "Y'know, Jack, next time ya get an idea to plant mysterious beans that some guy gave you, do us a favor and don't, 'kay?"

"Incoming!" Shouts a young girl, also in a bandanna mask as she hops up onto the squad car in the middle of the street. Her arms suddenly transform, taking an almost robotic quality as jumps from the roof of that car and punches into the street, ripping it apart and creating a fissure that the giant one steps into a trips on. "Timbeeeeeer!"

[Attn: All]

Ricochet decides to sit this one out as she sees these two kids battling it out with the giant. Then she takes notice of something. The giant pulls his foot out from the fissure and looks down on the two young heroes and growls. "Okay, that didn't work," the girl says.

"Gee, how could you tell?" The boy retorts.

As the giant brings his fist down over them, the boy grabs the girl and darts out of the way. Then he turns around and as the giant notices them. He sees the young man in the space suit also and Ricochet takes note of him. Helping civvies...she thinks to herself.

The angered giant punches a building corner and reaches down, grabbing the young man in the bandanna and picking him up then reaching and grabbing the girl as well, looking at the both of them.

[Attn: Open]

As the haggard looking boy continues to race towards Earth, the drones shoot a strange looking beam continuously at him. He does his best to dodge them all, but eventually one makes contact with his hands. A strange pair of handcuffs form on his wrists to midway on his forearm. He turns around to fire his strange bolts at the drones, but he finds that he can no longer use them. Cursing in his native tongue, he continues his trek towards the planet.

As he enters the atmosphere, one of the drones fires a laser, hitting him dead-on. He's knocked unconscious and starts plummeting towards a shining silver city like a meteor.

[Attn: Guy]

"Uh...you could say that," the guy says. "Where'd you get the flashy duds?"

The giant catches the car and growls before lobbing it at the wind bringer and the two newbies. "Cover your ears," the girl says before holding out her arms and releasing, from them, a concussive sonic pulse the hurls the car out from their path. "Sweet."

Suddenly the giant charges for the three of them but is met in the jaw by a red and goldenrod streak that flies down the street. At the end of it is a captivating foreign young girl with long, blonde hair tied back. That punch alone throws this giant from his course though he collects himself quickly and shakes it off, looking to the girl and swatting at her though she weaves out of the way, shouting at him in some foreign tongue.

[Attn: All]

As the fighting goes on, an orange streak appears in the blue sky above. Looking like a flaming meteor, it's headed right for Silver City! As it gets closer, it looks like it's about to crash land right where the battle's taking place.

[Attn: All]

Adam begins to slow down and shrink, getting to the point where he is kneeling down on one knee and trying to regather his breath when a sonic boom suddenly rolls over the skyline. He and everyone in the vicinity, including Ricochet look up at the orange streak roaring down from the sky toward the battle.

As the projectile makes impact with the concrete below, anyone who's within a city block is blown back. Windows break and the glass falls to the ground.

As the dust settles over the area, a young boy is found in the crater that takes up more than the width of the street. Lean and muscular, yet looking like he hasn't eaten in weeks, he looks like a beggar. His tan skin is bruised and scraped, yet no significant damage seems to have been done from the impact. His dark hair has hints of red in it, but whether or not that's blood or just natural has yet to be seen. He appears to be unconscious... as to probably be expected after falling to Earth going at the speed of sound.

[Attn: All]

Suddenly and arm reaches out from the smoke thrown up by the impact and snatches up the blonde girl and Twista whereas the other massive arm hoists up the bandanna kids. Adam emerged fully from the smoke and turned himself, looking at the crater where the alien had landed and growls, approaching it in preparation to stomp down on him.

The girl in the red and gold starts to pry open Adam's hand from around her and Twista as he nears the alien below them all.

[Attn: Adam, All]

Suddenly opening his amber eyes, the strange alien-boy shoots out of the crater, hitting Adam hard in the jaw with his confined arms.

"Dortka ma'n gorfek," the boy shouts at the young heroes as he hovers above them.

[Attn: All]

Adam staggers back briefly then collects himself and growls before turning and running towards the heroes, sweeping his foot as if to football punt them all. "Goldie" sees this incoming and grabs the two in the bandannas then flies out of harm's way with them, leaving Adam to punt the alien into a building, approaching the building he'd impacted.

"Okay," says the young boy sporting a bandanna, "Those two obviously don't like each other. They can duke it out and we can draw 'em away from here, to an open lot or something."

[Attn: Twista, Adam]

The boy looks at the odd-looking humanoid communicating with him. After a few seconds of this staring contest, the alien boy flies at Twista; his eyes glowing orange with a seemingly hostile intent.

[Attn: All]

"Already on it!" The boy says, getting near Adam and charging up his fists. "Don't worry, big guy, this'll only hurt for a week!" Then he shocks him foot that sends a slight jolt through and Adam turns around in a rage. "Right...so what was step two?"

Adam pursues the two in the bandannas toward an area where a large open lot, waiting to be developed was. Meanwhile, "Goldie" follows them and picks them up, flying in that direction with them. She didn't need to understand what they were saying to know what they were doing. Once their, the bandanna girl swivels around and unleashes a sonic pulse that causes Adam to stagger back again then Goldie flies up and punches him across the jaw, yelling at him again in her own language.

[Attn: Twista]

"Ur'mal dev go'um du nev," the alien shouts as he chases Twista.

As he chases the human, he seems to drag his bonded arms through any and all buildings that cross his path. This doesn't really seem to slow him down all that much, though.