[i][b]Hall of Justice Washington, DC July 4th - 11:14 am[/b][/i] Nightwing immediately turned the corner of the hallway as the device on his wrist gave its foreboding beep that something had happened and the alarm was active for all members of Young Justice. After coming in from one of the special zeta tube in Gotham City, Nightwing had to go from one end of the hall to the other. Thankfully no one was really there to make a mess of things. Save for a tourist from one of the viewing areas, wondering why the young hero was in such a hurry. Still they were easy to ignore after a little. The Hall of Justice itself was certainly a facade. While it was the actual HQ for the Justice League it now only served as a fake while the real one was up in space. The Young Justice squad had made it into their own base. Since plenty of rooms in it were abondoned or now just stored random things. The team was able to use a lot of it for their own personal needs while staying respectful of its former occupants at the same time. Still Nightwing was too much worried about what the alarm was for when he turned a corner to see Aqualad and Supergirl. Both of the young heroes were already in costume, having arrived fresh from zeta tubes in Coast City and Metropolis respectively. They wasted no time in making their way to the central hub of the Hall of Justice, the secret room where their team usually held meetings and mission briefings. Pulsing red lights bathed the chamber in a hellish glow and blaring klaxons assaulted their ears with a deafening wail. Coming to a screeching stop near them Nightwing panted slightly, the closest he'd normally come to sounding tired. "Whats going on? Where's Kid Flash?" "I'm not sure." responded Aqualad. "I tried raising him on the comms as soon as we got here, but he didn't answer." The Atlantean adolescent peered curiously around the room. There was no one there who could have activated the alarm, the only ones capable of doing so being members of the Justice League or their own team. As if on cue, the alarms stopped suddenly and there was an awkward pause in noise. Nightwing's mind started playing through all the dangerous scenarios that could play out. Supergirl hovered nearby, a perplexed expression suddenly coming to her face. "Wait. There's something strange. I smell... smoke?" "PFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" "WOO! PARTY!" Kid Flash, clad in his own superhero suit, with a noisemaker in one hand, really silly looking party hat on his head, and a cake with a candle in the top of it balancing on his other hand. Came into the room with the most joyous expression his body could clearly muster. Though he looked like he was already in a party Nightwing just stood there completely dumbfounded. "Okay... Wally? What the hell... just seriously." He couldn't get much else out before pinching at the bridge of his nose and shake his head slowly. Having another moment in which he had to seriously ask himself why he was friends with someone who can transition from smart to completely stupid so seemlessly. Kaldur'ahm managed to open his mouth and ask the important question."I think what Nightwing is trying to say is... what's up with the alarm?" Aqualad looked only slightly amused, while Kara simply stared at the cake Wally held in his hand. "Yeah, that." Nightwing finally replied with a sigh, having a personal moment of despair over his life choices. "Hey hey I know. I'm not suppose to activate the alarm unless its an emergency." Kid Flash put down the cake onto the table where on the top 'Happy 1 year Young Justice' was written in on red icing. "I figured you guys didn't realize or remember, but it was one year ago we saved Supergirl and this whole thing got started! I mean we've just spent 365 days kicking ass and taking names. Why not get together and celebrate the occasion?" Kid Flash had the smile of pride on his face that made it hard for Nightwing to hate him too much longer... fully at least. "Look Wally you still can't just go pulling the alarm whenever you feel like hanging out..." "You never gave me your phone number and the last time I went to the batcave that new Robin nearly tasered me to death..." Kid Flash quickly pointed out, his tone more just to the point from the previous cheeriness. "Point made." Nighwing retorted. Aqualad chuckled under his breath, placing a hand on Nightwing's shoulder. "C'mon, Dick. Don't you think it's sweet what Wally's doing here? Going to all this trouble. Making us this cake... Wait, did you actually [i]make[/i] the cake?" He turned to Wally now, a skeptical look on his face. "What me? No no, I learned my lesson from last time!" [i]'How can the flour get EVERYWHERE LIKE THISSSSSSSS?!'[/i] Nightwing, finally just letting the sorrow in his heart go for now. Sighed as he let a smirk come out and pat Aqualad's hand. "Yeah I guess you're right man, it'll be nice to have a little R & R after the last week days personally." Gotham City has been really going through its paces lately. Notably from a lot younger people Nightwing had noticed. Some of them lame like a guy who was dressed as a giant ketchup bottle named Condiment King, a lot of the others were a lot more vicious though, he had been planning on talking to Batman about it. "Look for real, I bought it from a Central City bakery. They gave me a 25 percent discount too! The benefits of being Flash based royalty my friend!" Kid Flash proudly was telling Aqualad as Nightwing was momentarilly in his own thoughts. Kid Flash dashed out of the room and a second later returned with a large knife from the kitchen in the Hall. "Alright anyone want any particular part? I'm calling a corner for sure, much more frosting yo!" Suddenly in a flash Kid Flash's arm was a blur going through the cake in all different directions before stopping. The cake having perfect slices in both directions as Kid Flash stopped to gently wipe the sides of the knife off of its chunks of cake and frosting with a thumb before licking it off of his digit. Aqualad divvied out the pieces of cake, handing one to each of his three friends. "Thanks, Wally. It really was thoughtful of you." "Oh! I almost forgot. Forks." Wally once more vanished into the kitchen only to reappear an instant later with four forks in hand. He shared them with Dick, Kara and Kaldur and they all seated themselves at a nearby table. Kara eyes remained fixed on her piece of cake for several moments as if she was unsure what to make of it. She prodded it curiously with her fork, seemingly fascinated by the color and texture. Finally, she speared a portion of the piece and shoved it into her mouth, chewing pensively for a few seconds before her eyes grew wide with delight. "This is wonderful! How is it so spongy and so moist at the same time?" She continued to chew the cake with a joyful expression, putting more and more of it in her mouth. As Kara continued to stuff more and more of the cake into her mouth Dick, Wally, and Kaldur all stopped eating their pieces, even chewing altogether just to watch Kara devour her part of the cake. "You think she's going to eat the fork too?" Wally asked curiously, as it wouldn't be the first time. "Batman to Young Justice unit, report." The screen behind them came on with the dark knight's menacing face. Not leaving Nightwing much time to wipe his face and swallow his food before addressing his colleague and mentor who was on the big monitor. "Yes Batman... we're here." "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Batman's voice unchanged at all, but had the small notes to it that Nightwing knew as mild concern. "Not really, Kid Flash brought cake since its the first year anniversary for us... I guess." Nightwing quickly realized he has no idea if Wally was speaking the truth or not. Its been a busy year. "Well as soon as you can report in to HQ, we need to speak to you four on possible future status." "Well he seemed like a joy as always." Wally noted gulping another piece of cake down, his face covered in small chunks of cake and frosting. "He's a black forest cake kind of guy honestly." Nightwing joked with a grin as he turned back to the others. Aqualad set his fork aside, contemplating Batman's instructions. "I think he must have been confused. We're already at our headquarters." A look of recognition suddenly dawned on Kaldur'ahm's face. "Wait... Batman said HQ. Do you think he means... the Justice League's headquarters?" Nightwing paused in thought before shrugging, "Well yeah I mean whats what I took out of it and..." "DUDE DID HE SAY FUTURE STATUS?!" Wally finally practically flubbered out of his mouth, not looking very graceful as he spittled out cake. "Dude, DUDE. Future status? Do you guys realize what that means?!" "You're going to clean up the mess you just made?" Nightwing asked, mildly disgusted. "We're going to be in Justice League!" [i][b]The Watchtower July 4th - 12:13 pm[/b][/i] Kid Flash's jaw dangled down in a limp at the news, his eyes gone for a moment as the reality of the news came to them. "Wait... WHAT?!" Kid Flash gasped out in shock. "See Batman I told you he wasn't going to take the news well." The Flash, Justice League member, more importantly Kid Flash's father. Quietly shook his head as he stood next to the remaining stoic Batman. The rest of the core Justice League standing behind Batman. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, all standing before the Young Justice members who saw them in front of the massive window overlooking space and the now suddenly small seeming Earth outside. "I'm aware Flash. But getting back to the point, the Young Justice program has been too vital for us to give you the promotion for any time in the near future. Instead we're going to expand your base to a new location, and increase the ranks with several new recruits. Each of whom the four of you will be in charged of training how you see fit." A holographic projection popped out of thin air in front of the assembled group, showing what looked like a large mountain or volcano situated on a peaceful stretch of coastline. A series of smaller images framed the scene, each of them the face of a different recruit. "From now on, your team will be operating out of Mt. Justice. It was the former headquarters of the League, but hasn't been used in several years since... a certain incident." Batman paused for the briefest of moments before continuing. "You will report directly to me on all operations and for mission briefs. Any questions?" "Who... How... WHAAAT?!" Wally stammered, mouth still agape. "I'll take that as a no. Consider yourselves dismissed. The recruits will be joining you here shortly, and after that all of you will take the Zeta Tubes to Mt. Justice." With that, Batman and the rest of the League withdrew to the Zeta Tube platform, their silhouettes disappearing into a dazzling flash of light as they left the team behind. The four of them remained standing there, each one dealing with their own thoughts and emotions stemming from the revelation they had just been dealt. "Well... That wasn't quite what we were expecting." Kaldur'ahm broke the silence, always one to state the obvious when nobody else would. Kid Flash just remained there, almost twitching as his brain was not handling at all the news. "Pf... I...gah! Come on we're so much better no COOLER than this!" Kid Flash was finally able to blurt out all too late. Nightwing held his chin cupped in one hand, the other scratching his temple as he stood focused in thought. "There's got to be something they're not telling us. Something they don't want us to know." It didn't make sense for the Justice League to take its crop of young heroes, who have been borderline flawless for a year, and not just bring them into the Justice League all together. Nightwing wasn't just struggling with the question on a logical level but a deeper level. Unlike the others he was keeping the disappointment tucked away inside. "All these new recruits." Kara looked up at the hologram, taking in the faces of those they were about to meet. "Will we really have to train them all?" Suddenly, a loud whirring was heard from the Zeta Tubes as they fired up once again. The voice of the Watchtower's computer could be heard as shapes took form within the bright light of the tubes. "Incoming arrivals. B05... B06... B07... B08... B09...B10... B11..." Nightwing looked on at the zeta tubes surpressing a gulp of worry for what was to come, "Guess we're about to find out..." He told Kara.