The TV was on.

"And the search continues for the group of rogue heroes Young Justice currently on the run from the law. They've clashed with both the Super-Unit Police and a task force released from the Department of Extranormal Operations. Neither were successful, though the DEO has said that they are currently operating in New York City under full authority by the Mayor's office to find the renegade super-humans. Sebastian Shaw, wealthy industrialist, has said that he is doing everything he can to support the search for Young Justice, hoping that by captured them, they won't be allowed to do to anyone else what was done to him and the Hellfire Club."

"Rather dangerous for their first real mission," Mister Bones said quietly.

"You doubt my plan?" Mitchell Shelley asked. Even if he was not the head of the DEO, he would still be a dangerous man.

"Of course not, sir," Bones answered. "It's just because of the media's involvement. And since Husk is Cannonball's sister. I am rather certain they will recognize each other."

"No they won't," Shelley replied. "Golden Eagle will take him out of the fight first thing. It is necessary."

"But if she realizes?"

"She is replaceable. Any member of that team can step up and fill her spot." Shelley had a hint of a smile on his face. "After this mission we should have eliminated any weak links."

Inside stood the members of Young Justice:

Hallie Takahama, a.k.a. Jolt: Enhanced speed and reflexes, on top of electric shock punches!

Linda Danvers, the Firebird: Flight, telekinesis, super strength, invulnerability, and large fire-like wings of a psionic nature!

Jennifer-Lynn Haden, the emerald Jade: The green-skinned beauty could create and maintain any object with her own force of will!

Cissie King-Jones, a.k.a. Arrowette: A keen eye and one of the greatest archers alive!

Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl: With her ionic powers, she's super strong, invulnerable, and capably of flight!

Sam Guthrie, the human Cannonball: He blasts into the air like a rocket, while being protected by an indestructible blast field!

Bart Allen, a.k.a. Impulse: Too fast to tag!

Kon-El, Superboy: Super strength, invulnerability and flight are provided by his tactile telekinesis!

Chuck Barnes, the urban legend named Robin: A normal human pushed to physical and mental perfection, team leader and highly skilled fighter!

In the door stood the members of Generation Next:

Thomas Palmer, Valor: Invulnerable, super strong, heat vision and flight are only the tip of the iceberg for this young man!

Jonathan Palmer, Chamber: Releases psychokinetic biochemical blasts from his face and chest!

The mysterious Secret: A body made of smoke than can be shifted to any size, become temporarily solid, teleport and more!

Paige Guthrie, Husk: A shape-shifter of sorts, Paige can tear off her skin and become something completely new!

Grant Emerson, Damage: Fires intense concussive blasts!

Toni Monetti, Argent: Ability to create and maintain anything with her own force of will!

Angelo Espinosa, Skin: His body has six plus feet of extra skin that he can stretch, shape, or control any way!

"My name's Valor. These are my associates: Chamber, Secret, Damage, Skin, Argent and Husk. We're the DEO task force Generation Next. You're Young Justice, and you are under arrest."

"Wasn't there another member of our team here?" Chamber asked psionically.

"Oh yeah," Skin said. "Where'd Golden Eagle go?"

"Raaa!" the last member of the Generation Next task squad burst through the ceiling. He wore a golden suit of armor and gold wings. He flew straight at Cannonball and tackled him, carrying both of them outside the warehouse and into the water beyond the harbor.

"There he goes," Argent said, matter-of-factly.

"Young Justice," Robin rallied his team. "We didn't start this fight, but I'll be darned if a bunch of rookies are gonna handle us!"

"Rookies?" Valor asked. "Remember the briefing, take them down."

"Bring it!" Superboy yelled.

Kon-El flew right to Thomas, and both began slugging it out. With their similar powers, that's a fight that could last.

Skin's fingers stretched forward, grabbing and quickly trapping Impulse before he could get away.

"Eeeewwww," Impulse said, looking at the grey skin. Bart vibrated his body at an incredible speed and became intangible, allowing himself to escape. "You're disgusting!"

"Hold still!" Damage said, taking aim with his arm at Wonder Girl. "It'll only hurt a second or two!"

"Yeah, sure," Wonder Girl said, taking flight. "It'll take more than you to -- "

Damage fired a blast that connected dead on with Wonder Girl, sending pain through her body.

"Umm . . . nevermind," she said, then coughed.

Argent leapt at Jade and created a group of blue plasma spheres to send flying at her. Jade quickly defended herself, creating a green sword and shield, blocking and cutting through the spheres.

"You have my powers," Argent said.

"You have my powers," Jade answered. "Guess this battle'll just come down to force of will! And, of course, seeing if you can create anything more than little spheres!"

Chamber pulled down the leather scarf keeping his energies from showing. He took aim at the flying Firebird and cut loose, trying to take her down.

Linda easily created a telekinetic shield to block, yet found her shield barely held against the opening salvo. This one's really strong . . .

Jolt leapt over to Husk and tagged her with a bio-shock punch, causing the young blonde's hair to frizzle.

"So, whatcha got?" Hallie asked her.

"You'll see!" Husk said, tearing her skin off. Her body was then that of dense stone. She slammed a fist into the ground which Jolt barely dodged.

"Make it easy on yourself," Secret said as her misty body swirled all around Robin.

"Sorry, I always do things the hard way," Robin said, pulling a gas mask off of his utility belt and sliding it on.

"Who's left?" Arrowette asked, pulling a pair of trick arrows from her quiver. "Oh, come on . . . there's gotta be someone I can fight . . . "

"There's plenty of fight to go around!" Wonder Girl yelled, dodging another blast from Damage. "Just jump in and help out!"

"Cripes!" Sam said, blasting free of Golden Eagle's grip. No place to land over all this water . . . means Ah'm lookin' at an aerial battle. Don't have too much experience with the sort . . . but I'm not totally unprepared.

The Eagle took another pass at Sam, slashing at him with the talons on his gauntlets. They slashed harmlessly against Sam's blast field, which kept him protected.

"Why'd you start this fight, buddy?" Sam asked, punching the armored Eagle in the chest. "Ah was hopin' we could talk our way outta this . . . but chances are, by knockin' me out here, all you've done is start a fight!"

"Just following orders," the Eagle replied. "The DEO says you're to be taken in. I listen. I get told you're my primary target and it's my job to distract you, that's what I do."

"Distract me?" Sam asked, dodging a punch. "What is it that you're distracting me from?"

"Beats me," the Eagle said. "But don't worry . . . soon you'll be unconscious and have no more worries about distractions . . . "

"Not a chance!" Sam exclaimed. He tore one of his fists through one of the Eagle's wings at rocket speed, tearing a small hole through one. He then turned and rocketed back towards the warehouse.

Sebastian Shaw sat in his private office as he had many, many times. Emma Frost entered, called as she had been, many, many times.

"You rang?" she asked.

Shaw didn't answer. Instead, he grinned.

"What is it?" Frost pressed.

"Project: Wideawake?" Shaw asked her, though he knew she needed no refresher course to remember it. "The Sentinels, White Queen. They launched ten minutes ago."

"They did?" Frost's eyes went wide."

"Their primary target . . . is Young Justice."

"Trade partners!" Robin ordered. "Bart, I need you to handle Secret! Arrowette, tag Husk! Jolt, on Chamber! Wondy, Firebird, give Superboy a break and take Valor! Kon, do some damage to Damage! Jade, get Skin! I'll handle Argent!"

And in moments, the tide of battle turned.

Bart began running circles around Secret at incredible speeds, trapping her smoke body in a vortex and causing her to slowly lose consciousness.

Arrowette fired an explosive arrow at Husk, smashing her stone body.

Chamber turned his attention to Impulse who had just taken down Secret. In his moment of distraction, Jolt leapt up behind Chamber and gave him a shock punch to the head.

Superboy floored Damage with a couple of quick punches.

Jade trapped Skin in a green cage, and Robin tore a path through Argent's defenses to give her a quick whack with his bo-staff.

Wonder Girl and Firebird pounded Valor with a barrage of punches. He stayed in the air trying to fight back. He was the only member of the team left so he fought harder and more persistently than ever. Robin was right when he called Generation Next rookies. Young Justice had quickly beat them using teamwork honed in countless other battles.

Cannonball entered back in the hole in the wall that marked his exist. "Ah see things're mostly under control," he said with a smile.

"Sam?!" Husk exclaimed as she saw him enter.

"Paige?" he exclaimed back.

"Who?" Bart asked.

"You two . . . know each other?" Jade was curious.

"Of course we do!" Sam exclaimed. "Paige's mah sister!"

When Firebird, Wonder Girl and Valor heard the word sister the battle suddenly stopped. Valor was glad for the pause . . . he didn't know how much longer he would have been able to hold out.

"Omigod . . . " Paige said. "Ah - I had no idea!"

"That's why Golden Eagle's orders were to distract me," Sam frowned. "Ya'll've been set up. The DEO gave Eagle orders to keep me distracted from the fight . . . prolly 'cause they knew that Paige an' I'd stop the fight if we recognized each other."

"We haven't been set up," Skin frowned. "You're a menace to society, hombre! We were sent to take you down. And we were eager to do it . . . especially after you trashed that DEO task force the other day."

"They attacked us," Superboy frowned.

"Look," Robin said. "There's obviously been a misunderstanding here."

"I'll say," Paige said. "Sam, since when did you become a criminal?"

"We're not criminals," Sam frowned. "We're just misunderstood. Yeah, we're a little reckless sometimes . . . but we have reason to believe Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Hellfire Club's secret Inner Circle, is using his pull on government officials to see to it we get in jail. See, he's really mad at us for our fight with him an' his forces . . . which we won."

"Is this for real?" Valor asked as he landed on the ground.

"It is," Paige said. "Sam had told me about the Hellfire Club. And he wouldn't lie to me. He's telling the truth."

"We couldn't have been duped," Argent frowned.

"You weren't," the Golden Eagle flew back. "So rocket boy is Husk's brother. Well, that sucks for her. But we've still got an assignment."

"No," Secret said. "This is wrong. It must be a mistake . . . "

"It is a mistake," Robin said, walking over to Secret. "We're not the bad guys. We've just been wrongfully blamed. And we want to clear our names."

Chamber watched Robin approach Secret carefully. He wouldn't let him harm her . . .

"Well, then," Valor frowned, "seems like it's time for me to make a decision . . . I was told I was going to be team leader, so . . . "

"But you don't want to be team leader," Paige cut in. "And I was told I was being considered too . . . "

"But you're emotionally involved here," Valor frowned again. "So, I'm going to make the decision. I see no reason for this fight to continue until we find out what is going on."

Golden Eagle tensed, but did nothing.

"That's good to hear," Robin said, extending his hand.

Valor nodded, accepting the arm in a handshake.

"Now what's say we -- " Robin started. "What the -- ?"

The roof of the warehouse was suddenly torn off. Through the gaping hole the two teams saw three, large, mechanical heads with glowing red beady eyes staring down at them.

"Halt, mutants," the middle one's voice boomed. "We are Sentinels. Surrender now. Resistance is futile . . . "