March, 1999. A quiet, normal house in a quiet, normal suburb of New York City.

"We have to do something, Burt. We have to get him help, take him to a therapist, to..."

"It's not going to do any good," Burt sighed. He and his wife Ellen were sitting at the dinner table alone once more. They had almost gotten used to it. Almost. "You don't understand, Ellen. I've looked into his eyes...I've seen what's in there. He's lost to us. All we can do is pray that he walks out and never comes back."

"He's our son!" Ellen exclaimed. "He's only seventeen! He just needs a firm hand! You've always been afraid to discipline him! To be the strong father he needs! To--"

"Afraid?" Burt cut in. He pulled on his shirt collar to refresh his wife's memory. "Of course I'm afraid. He gave me this scar! An inch closer would've severed my jugular."

"He was only eleven!"

"That's the point, Ellen," Burt sighed. "That's the..."

The door to their son's bedroom creaked open. A voice from within spoke. "I thought you'd want to know I'm going out. You can breathe a sigh of relief if you wish."

"You can do this," Ellen whispered, placing a reassuring hand on her husband's arm. "You can."

Burt stood up. He cleared his throat. "Your curfew is eleven pm. I want you in by eleven."

"I'm sorry, what?" his son asked, stepping out into the kitchen.

"I said..." Burt sweated, "You're to be in by eleven."

"Father...I allow you and mother to live," their son spoke. He opened to front door and stepped through it. As he was closing it, he said, "Don't press your luck."

Burt was shaking with fear. Slowly, he collapsed back into his chair. He had lost his daughter...and was losing his son. He hugged his wife. "I'm sorry..."

"Let're rip, Arrowette!" Superboy called. "I'll catch one of those arrows if it takes me all night..."

Arrowette tensed and released yet another pair of arrows. They sped towards Superboy, who reacted with incredible speed to catch them. But all he actually did was let them bounce off his telekinetic body shield.

"Jeez," Superboy muttered. "Again!"

"I'm running out of arrows," Arrowette sighed, sliding another pair into position.

"We can always pick up some more later," Superboy replied. "Come on...again!"

Again, Arrowette let two arrows fly. Only this time, the team's mysterious leader, Robin, leapt in front of Superboy and caught both arrows.

"Whoa," Arrowette breathed out.

"I know you're practicing, but could you move it out of the communications center?" Robin asked, handing the arrows to Superboy. "I was trying to get some work done."

"Sure," Superboy shrugged. He looked at Arrowette. "Beginner's luck."

"You wish," Linda grinned at Kon. "Anyway, Rob...what're you up to? Anything we can help with?"

"Not really, no," Robin shrugged. "I've been following up on a few news reports of a new super villain in the city, supposedly calling himself Harm."

"Original name," Superboy said sarcastically.

"Some could say the same about Superboy," Linda grinned. "Why do you think I changed my name to Firebird instead of Supergirl? Well, besides the fact I got fire wings..."

"What little I've found out about him makes me worry," Robin continued. "He seems to be an incredibly skilled fighter and swordsman whose not afraid to kill. He's been challenging low-level and young super heroes wherever he can."

"That's a little weird," Arrowette pointed out.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Rob shrugged.

"Well, now that that's settled," Impulse said, speeding into the room, "what're we getting for dinner?"

"Dinner?" Linda asked. "I thought Jen and Cassie already went to pick it up."

"Did they go to that vegetarian and tofu bar again?" Superboy asked. "If I have to eat one more veggie burger and frozen yogurt..."

"I know!" Bart exclaimed. In a split second he was gone. Five seconds later he came back. "I need money..."

Robin sighed. "There's a fifty on the table."

"Oooo, big money," Impulse grinned. In another split second he, and the money, was gone. Ten seconds later he returned with three large pizzas. "Got dinner!"

Jen and Cassie walked in through the other door. Cassie grinned, "We've got...hey! You knew we were bringing home dinner!"

"But they got pizza," Jen grinned. She flew over to the pizza boxes. "I'm eatin' this."

Cassie shrugged and dropped her tofu and veggie burgers. "Pizza's fine by me."

And soon, the team gathered around their briefing table to eat dinner and enjoy some healthy conversation.

"So, what's Batman like?" Linda asked. "Is he all scary and deformed?"

"No!" Robin replied. "He's nothing like that...he's a really nice guy...it's just, when he's in costume, he's got a reputation. And he plays the part. You don't wanna get in his way. He could probably take down someone like Captain America."

"You lie," Superboy said casually, defending his idol.

"But what's it like being trained by the World's Greatest Detective?" Cissie Jones-King, or Arrowette, asked.

"It's interesting," Rob shrugged. "I'm learning things that I would have never known before, and it's really helping me."

"But doesn't it stink to have your life controlled by him?" Cissie asked again. "You're not allowed to be seen in public, and even when we're lounging around here, you can't take off your mask...can't even tell us your name!"

"It is a little hard to follow the rules sometimes," Rob shrugged, "but I'm used to it. Sooner or later he'll have enough confidence in me to let me be my own hero and not just a side kick. He hopes that YJ will be a big step in the right direction."

"Speaking of YJ," Superboy said, "when are we gonna get some action? We've been around for over a week now and haven't really done anything but train. It's so boring..."

"Define 'getting some action'" Linda asked casually while letting a grin spread across her lips.

"I'm sure what he meant was fighting crime," Robin said.

"What else would he mean?" Impulse asked obliviously.

"Nevermind," Linda grinned.

Superboy exchanged a glance with Linda and grinned back.

Cassie frowned.

Impulse leaned over and whispered, "You look pretty torked...what's wrong?"

"I'm fine," she replied angrily. "Who asked you?"

"Yeesh," Bart replied, sitting back in his chair.

"In answer to Kon's question," Robin said, "I think it's a little early to be worried about inactivity. There's plenty of crime for us to fight...and I'm sure we'll be longing for these quite days soon."

"Burt, are you...are you sure about this?" Ellen asked. She was pulling on her jacket after she finished zipping up her suitcase. "Maybe I should be here..."

"Billy and I simply need time to work things out, man to man," Burt replied. "So you go to your mother's for the weekend. It'll be fine, Ellen. Everything will work out, you'll see. I promise."

"But...but I'm not sure that..."

"Look, you wanted me to handle it, and I'm prepared to do just that," Burt sighed. He opened the front door and his wife stepped into it, lugging her suitcase behind her. "But you'll just have to trust me that I'll handle the job."

Ellen leaned over and kissed her husband on the cheek. "I trust you. Good luck."

Burt stood there and watched his wife walk down to her car, get in and drive off. Slowly, he closed the door. He was beginning to cry. He lost his daughter...that was hard enough to get over. It was even harder to accept that his own son might have been her killer. But now...he couldn't bear the thought of what had to be done. But he knew he had to do it. There was no other way...

Impulse moaned. He was sprawled out across the team's briefing table.

"I toldja you'd feel sick," Superboy grinned. "One frozen yogurt's enough to make me feel a little sick. Two, I'll puke for sure...but you ate seven! At light speed! Not even your metabolism'll save you from that."

"I'm gonna puke..." Bart moaned more.

Linda laughed as she walked into the briefing room.

"Too bad the others are busy training," Kon grinned. "They'd love to see this."

Impulse moaned again and rolled onto his side.

"Don't you dare puke on my chair!" Kon yelled.

Then, suddenly, the computer behind the table kicked to life and an alarm went off. "Harm sighted! Coordinates scrolling across screen now..."

Linda tapped her comm unit. "Rob, get everyone up here...that Harm guy you've been tracking? The computer just got a fix!"

And later, aboard the team's transportation, the Super Cycle...

"I still can't believe we're calling this the supercycle," Jade rolled her eyes.

"I still can't believe we're finally getting some action!" Superboy grinned.

Impulse moaned, "I can't believe I ate the whoooole thing..."

"Hang tight, guys," Robin said. "The Cycle's tracking Harm's movement...but he's moving fast...probably in a car. And, watch yourself so Bart doesn't blow chunks on you."

"Eeewww," Cissie muttered, sliding herself away from Impulse.

"I've got a visual!" Robin replied. "See that sleek, black car down there? That's our boy. Wonder Girl, Superboy, Firebird, Jade...jeez we've got a lot of fliers...get Harm's attention."

"Right!" Firebird replied. Instantly her wings flashed out, not that she needed them to fly, but she took off. The others followed and flew above the car.

"Hey, bozo!" Superboy called. "You're speeding! Pull over!"

Without any warning, a pair of coils flung out from the car's trunk and grabbed one leg of Superboy and Wonder Girl. The coils began swinging them around, knocking them into each other, Jade and Firebird, as well as the ground.

"That's not nice!" Jade called. She used her power to create a pair of giant scissors and cut the coils off. She flew in lower to get a hand on the car to find the driver. But as she did, the driver slammed on the breaks and she went flying, smacking right into Firebird.

"Impulse, Arrowette!" Robin ordered. "We've gotta get down there and help!"

"Right!" Arrowette replied. "Impulse, get me down there! Er...Impulse?"

"Oomphug!" he puked over the side of the cycle.

Arrowette blinked. "Gross..."

Superboy flew at the back of the car, smashing his right fist into it and knocking it forward. To his surprise, he barely dented it, and the car bolted forward.

"Crap!" Firebird exclaimed. She grabbed Jen and flew up out of the path of the speeding car.

Superboy and Wonder Girl flew after the car as Robin landed the cycle.

"You two okay?" he asked.

"Fine," Jen answered.

"Impulse puked all over the seat," Arrowette frowned.

"Did not!" he defended himself. "Just got a little there...most of it went over the edge of the cycle and landed over there."

He pointed, and Robin smacked his head. "Come on, back in the cycle...we've gotta catch up to Kon and Cassie!"

And as they were getting ready to follow in pursuit, their other two members were already there.

"Careful, Wondy," Superboy said. "Watch out for another coil..."

"Right," she replied. If I could just take my eyes off of you for a few seconds...come on, Cassie! Get it together..."Whoa!"

Wonder Girl flew right into a low, brick bridge and stopped herself halfway through it.

"You alright?" Superboy asked, stopping in mid air.

"Sure...fine...just humiliated," she sighed. "Just go! Don't lose him!"

And so, once again, the chase continued. Superboy went off solo, relying on his big ego to protect him. As he got closer, he noticed the car slowing down.

What's the deal here? he thought. Maybe this guy's finally ready to get his butt whooped.

And as Kon-El got above the car, it exploded!

"Holy crap!" He exclaimed, though he knew he'd be protected by his tactile yadda yadda yadda...

He lowered himself down to explore to blown up car. Using his telekinesis, he slowly smothered the fire and looked for a driver. "He's...gone?"

The cycle landed next to the car.

"What'd you do?" Robin asked.

"I didn't do anything," Superboy shrugged. "The car just exploded and he disappeared."

"He couldn't have disappeared," Robin thought. "Impulse, if you're feeling better, could you run around the car and suck out all the oxygen feeding that fire?"

"Sure," Impulse shrugged. He then did as told, creating a whirlwind to put out the fire. Three seconds later, it was done.

Robin approached the car and looked it over. "The car reached it's final stop over a sewer...and the bottom of the car's gone. He jumped into the sewer to ditch us."

"Why?" Arrowette asked. "It's not like we were actually posing him a threat..."

"I'm not sure," Robin shrugged. "Maybe--"

When all of a sudden, two fists smashed through the street from below and grabbed the legs of Arrowette and Wonder Girl, pulling them down and smashing them through into the sewer.

"Jesus!" Robin exclaimed.

Superboy instantly tried to follow, but found some sort of force field had sealed up the hole. "What?"

"We've gotta break it!" Firebird said. She started pounding it with her telekinesis, but it didn't budge.

"Look," Robin pointed through the invisible force field. "He left some sort of device that's generating it...but I doubt it can stretch across the whole sewer. Impulse, Firebird, Superboy, break into the sewer at another point and try to follow...I'll monitor him from the cycle!"

The four took off, doing as one had ordered. Robin moved the cycle as he tracked Harm's movement.

While, underground...

The villain Harm finally revealed himself!

He planted a kick into Wonder Girl's chin, smashing her into the wall, and he caught the arrow fired at him by Arrowette.

"How?" she asked, surprised.

"I'm going to be the best super villain ever," Harm grinned. "Catching arrows is child's play."

Wonder Girl recovered quickly and dove for Harm's legs, who responded by pulling out a sword and slashing at her. He did connect, and managed to knock off...her wig?

"Ack!" Wonder Girl yelled, realizing that her wig was off and her blond hair was showing. "Gimmie that back!"

She managed to connect a punch to Harm, but not a second.

"You're blond?" Arrowette asked. "Why did you wear a wig?"

"Well...I dunno," she shrugged, grabbing her wig and putting it back on. "but come on...let's kick this guy's butt!"

He laughed. "You're giving yourself too much faith in your abilities."

He charged forward and punched Wonder Girl again and tackled Arrowette. He recovered quickly, grabbed her leg, and flung her into the recovering Wonder Girl.

"Too easy," he laughed. He looked up at the ceiling. "Not gonna catch me off guard..."

He leapt up through the ceiling, smashing into the street and grabbing Jade by the neck. "Hello."

He grinned wickedly and tossed her into Superboy.

Impulse sped forward, smashing his fists into Harm and succeeding in knocking him back several yards.

"You, Impulse, might actually give me a challenge," he said, facing his foe, "unless I didn't know better."

"Oh yeah?" Impulse asked, ready to move.

"Yup," Harm grinned. He pointed, "Look! Tella Tubbies!"

"Eh?" Impulse turned to look. And Harm smashed him upside the head with both his fists.

In the next instant, he found himself being slammed into the ground. He only saw Firebird hovering in the air and glaring.

"Right...telekinesis..." Harm thought. He moved his tongue around to find something in his mouth. "Whoop de doo."

He took a deep breath and blew. A miniature dart flew out of his mouth and nailed Firebird in the neck. She yelled in pain, grabbing it with her hand. Which, in turn, disrupted her concentration to allow Harm to get up.

"What'd you do to her?" Superboy asked as he punched Harm in the face.

"Took her out of the fight," he answered, swinging his sword up against Kon's body.

"Crap!" He exclaimed. "If not for my --"

"Tactile Telekinesis, yeah, we know," Jade said. "Here's how we end this!"

Jade acted quickly, creating a solid green bubble prison to capture Harm in. She lifted him up into the air. "This fight's been going on for long enough."

"You're right," he grinned. He pulled a button off his costume and it instantly exploded, causing a bright flash of light that blinded Jade and Superboy, causing her to drop her ball and allow him to escape. "Too easy."

Harm next felt a quick blow to his chest. He looked up to see Robin standing before him, clutching his bo staff and frowning angrily.

"The Boy Wonder," Harm grinned. "The only real challenge in all of Young Justice."

"I'm here to put you down," Robin frowned.

"I'm sure you'd like to believe that," Harm grinned. "And maybe you might have a chance at stopping me. But not tonight."

He tossed a pair of smoke bombs onto the ground in front of Robin. Before the World's Greatest Detective-in-training could react, Harm was gone.

"Rob?" Arrowette asked as she and Wonder Girl climbed out of the sewer.

"He's gone," Rob shook his head. "And this is the reason we've been training all week. He's one guy and he nearly beat us. We'll track him again when we're ready...but now, we're going home."

"We can't just...let him walk away!" Superboy protested.

"I said we'll track him down later," Rob sighed. "When we're better prepared."

"I saw you on television."

"Oh. Did you."

"Why...are you doing this, Billy?" Burt asked, sighing, sitting behind the kitchen table.

"Because I'm going to be the greatest villain of all, father," Harm replied. "And right now...practicing. Practicing on the heroes who are my 'peers,' and frankly, I'm not impressed. I admit, I'm self-taught...but I'm learning fast."

"And you think I'm just going to allow this to happen?" Burt asked.

"What are you going to do, dad?" he asked, taking a drink out of the fridge. "Get me thrown in jail? Trust me, I'll escape."

His father stood up as he walked towards his room. Harm opened the door. "Or maybe you'll just ground me." The door closed. "Oooh, I'm so Terri--"

BLAMM!

Silence for the briefest of moments. A hole in the door. It swung open, Billy stepped out, clutching his chest as the blood poured out.

"I'm...Bleeding?" the realization was a shock. He collapsed to his knees. "Why am I...bleed...?"

He collapsed to the ground.

"I...promised your mother I'd handle it," Burt said, holding the gun nervously. "She's...counting on me...I'm...I'm so sorry, Billy...but this is...it's for the best. For everybody's best."

"D...dad..." Billy choked on his own blood. "Don't..."

Burt shivered as he aimed the gun once more. The tears were welling in his eyes. He closed them. He couldn't watch as he did it. "God...there's blood all over the linoleum...your mother's going to kill me..."

BLAAM!

The End