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An explosion shattered the stillness of the night. Light flooded the land as the sky caved in, stars falling down to the Overworld like rain. The blast scattered the earth, its buildings and its people.
The damage too great to be undone, the world failed, and its players were lost.
Purpled startled awake to pounding on an iron door. Opening his eyes he found himself in iron restraints, strapped down to an angled table with a glass covering in an unfamiliar sort of netherrack cave. He felt the familiar magic of an inventory and reached towards it, finding it emptier than he had left it. All that remained was his sword, his pickaxe, the boots he wore, the chest plate under his violet sweater, half a stack of baked potatoes, and a dozen spectral arrows.
Purpled casted his pickaxe into his hand. The enchanted netherite glistened, casting a faint purple glow that reflected against the glass. He swung at the pickaxe's reflection, shattering the glass, before swinging downwards at the iron plate the restraints bound him to. The iron crumbled. Free, he dropped to the ground while the iron shards floated into his inventory, labeling themselves a block of steel.
He turned to the pounding noise he had heard, dodging as the door gave out and flew across the room. It slammed against the opposite wall, leaving a dent in the netherrack before falling to the floor where he had just been standing.
Purpled glared at the doorway, where a black haired teenage boy stood wearing a white skin tight suit with an emblem on the chest containing a bright red ‘S’.
“And that would be the reason for the pitstop,” said a younger boy with dark hair and a domino mask that stood behind the other. He too wore an odd outfit, full body coverage with heavy duty gloves and boots, along with a bright yellow utility belt, red, yellow, and green accents and an R over his heart.
A boy with bright red hair and a yellow suit with a red lightning bolt on the chest perked up. “Well then Pd we’re taking Supey out of here, wanna tag along?” he said with some uncertainty.
Purpled swapped his pickaxe for a sword with a flick of his wrist. He pointed it at the door that would've hit him had he not escaped beforehand.
“Don't know where you got the Pd from, but the name’s Purpled. And, don't,” he emphasized pointing at the door, “try to kill me.”
The one in yellow’s eyes widened before regaining their composure, “Sure thing Purpled! I’m Kid Flash, the short one is Robin, the guy who broke down the door is Superboy, and the disappointed one behind us,” he gestured to an aquatic hybrid with dark glistening skin and practically nonexistent blonde hair behind him who did in fact look quite disappointed, “is Aqualad.”
Robin elbowed him, “Great introduction KF, but I don’t think the bad guys are going to wait for a speech.”
“Then we must go,” Aqualad stated, giving Superboy an expectant look.
Superboy returned a glare before pivoting and starting to run down the hall with heavy steps. Kid Flash and Robin swiftly followed with lighter steps of their own, the first moving faster than even potions would allow, and the second being disturbingly quiet.
Aqualad flicked his wrist, motioning for Purpled to follow before rushing after the rest of the team. Purpled followed, not wanting to stay in a place that imprisoned him any longer than he physically had to. He cast his sword back into his inventory as he ran and felt a tinge of disappointment as the world around him lost its purple glow.
“So, Purpled,” Kid Flash said energetically, running beside him, “what brings you ‘round here? Genetic mutation? Being cloned? Kidnapped?”
A shout from Superboy cut in through the rambling, “Left!”
Kid Flash continued, “Are you secretly evil? Alien? Evil Alien?”
“How about you let me figure that out first, and I’ll let you know,” Purpled said, with annoyance seeping into his voice.
“Right!”
When they turned the corner the hallway stopped. At the end of the bare corridor was an air vent, ¾ of the way up the white walls.
Kid Flash quickly flipped moods and became frustrated, “Great directions Supey, are you trying to get us repodded?”
A soft “no, I don't understand,” came from Superboy. He had a look of genuine confusion and slight hurt, like someone had stabbed him and he hadn't quite processed it.
“Don’t apologize!” Robin exclaimed with a smile on his face, “this is perfect!”
The boy then began to climb the wall, using the high trim as a footrest. He unscrewed the vent cover with a tool at the fingertip of his glove. When he was done with the cover he threw it at Kid Flash, who caught it with what looked to be practiced ease, and climbed in the vent.
Superboy rushed forward and scaled the wall next, fitting into the vent with a little more difficulty. Kid Flash put down the vent cover before he climbed up as well.
“Go next,” came an order from Aqualad when Purpled hesitated to follow Kid Flash. He sent Aqualad a glare, he didn't like being told what to do without a certain monetary incentive, before climbing in any way. They didn't have time for arguing if he wanted to leave.
He heard Aqualad get in the vent behind him and Purpled cursed the position he was in. He didn't know these people, the entirety of this could be a trap. Hell, it could even be Quackity on a manipulation trip like blowing up his UFO, as if his poor excuse of a job at Las Nevadas wasn't enough.
Plus, this world had modpacks he’d never seen before. What the hell was steel? What kind of redstone went into Robin's gloves? Aqualad could be explained away by being an aquatic hybrid of pretty much any sort, but Kid Flash was moving at impossible speeds casually. Even if potions were enhanced on this server for some reason surely they wouldn't be used so recklessly?
But there's even more! They imprisoned him in glass! While he couldn't reach it with his hands, his items weren’t even removed properly, he still had tools! They were acting like he, a full formed and deadly player, was a villager. Though maybe they thought they had taken all his items? If he had truly switched servers why were they not all gone?
As for why they imprisoned Purpled, he had no clue. The gloves covering his padded hands, the makeup hiding his second eyes and the pins he used to pin his hair around his antennae so they’d lay flat were untouched. It was like they hadn't even had a chance to touch him after locking him in a quite frankly insulting cage.
After no more than 3 minutes of crawling through the iron -aluminum, he scraped some off to see- vents that were oddly big and oddly clean, Kid Flash had had enough.
“At this rate we’ll never get out!”
Superboy told him to keep quiet, “listen”.
They all paused for a moment, and sure enough even muffled by his hair Purpled’s antennae could pick up the vibrations of 5 creatures running on all fours. Their steps were oddly uniform, completely in sync.
“What do you hear, Superboy?” Aqualad questioned.
“Genomorphs, a group of them.”
Robin shifted to a sitting position, something he was just small enough to do, and held out his wrist in front of himself. A blue projection glowing out the top. Robin began to use his glove as a keyboard as advanced code flickered across the projected screen.
“Video down,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. He typed for a few more moments before looking up with a smile.
“I hacked the motion sensors,” he stated proudly.
“Sweet!” came a reply from Kid Flash before Robin continued to move, the rest of them following.
After another minute or so of crawling they reached another vent cover. Robin turned to the side and kicked it off of its screws. He launched himself out of the vent elegantly, landing much softer than the vent cover as it clattered to the ground.
“Still plenty of them between us and out,” Robin stated. Kid Flash tumbled out of the vent before jumping back up on his feet.
“Then I’ve got room to move!” he exclaimed, running even faster than Purpled previously thought he could towards a push door. The rest of them climbed out of the vent to only see a blur of yellow disappear in place of him.
“How the fuck..?” Purpled muttered to himself. Superboy looked at him confused, which Purpled ignored in favour of running after Kid Flash, and Robin who had followed. He heard the footsteps of the other two behind him, Aqualad seemed reluctant to leave anyone behind him.
Purpled pushed open the door the other two had run into, revealing a large stairwell. He hurried up the steps to where Kid Flash was knocking over grey four legged creatures with red eyes unconscious that scurried similarity to the ones in the vent, with Robin punching any he missed.
Purpled started to help take care of the stragglers, allowing Robin to focus more on the terminal he had open on his glove.
“More behind us!” Robin shouted, and in response Superboy ripped the section of metal steps off the wall behind them. He then threw the ripped off section into more steps below, taking those out as well. The genomorphs, as Superboy had called them, screeched out in pain as they knocked into and were hit by sharp, metal similar to iron, steps.
The stairs stopped at sub-level 1, and the group pushed back into the main building. Kid Flash ran ahead, something which seemed to be a pattern in the odd group Purpled had found himself in. The garage door to the outside world was closing slowly but forcefully, and Kid Flash ran into it just as it closed.
“We're closed off from the street,” Aqualad noted, skidding to a stop in front of the door. He wedged his fingers into the small gap left from the two door halves closing together and tried to pull them apart. Superboy stepped up to help, grabbing the other half and pulling the opposite way.
Kid Flash sat on the floor rubbing his head, grimacing, “Thanks my head hadn't noticed.”
Purpled took out his pickaxe and swung it sharply against the door. He expected it to show a crack or any sign of how long it would take to break, but it showed little mark other than a dent.
“Stuff’s worse than obsidian,” he said frustrated.
Kid Flash’s voice came from behind him, “obsidian's actually-”
Robin cut him off, “can't hack this fast enough,” he turned to a side hallway and pointed at it, “this way!”
They ran down the hall Robin had pointed at until they ran into more Genomorphs, and not just the ones that had been chasing them earlier. The ones that stood at the back were huge, reaching the ceiling while on four legs. Their muscle was evident, like a hoglin’s, the kind of body you knew could throw you across a room with no trouble. Smaller Genomorphs sat on the shoulders of the larger ones, crouched and unblinking. They seemed too small to cause physical damage at the size of a small slime, but the way they were positioned wasn't protective. They were still powerful creatures.
Genomorphs of the kind that had been chasing them earlier surrounded them. They guarded two figures, one male human in gold armor with a small genomorph on his shoulder, and one humanoid genomorph in a lab coat with large horns.
Purpled barely caught a glance of the humanoid before it glowed red and he felt a pressure in his mind.
Before he knew it he had hit the ground.
“What is your choice, brother?” came an echoing voice from an unknown source as Purpled shook himself back awake.
“I chose freedom,” Superboy answered definitively to the humanoid.
Purpled reached for his inventory, sliding his fingers across the solid code until he found his sword. He equipped it as he stood, comfortable with the familiar weight and the threat it sent to the Genomorphs. Purpled stared at the humanoid as its horns glowed red once again, then the human dressed in gold spoke shakily,
“Feels like fog, lifting…”
Aqualad leaned forwards analyzing the man, “Guardian?” he asked with uncertainty.
“Go,” Guardian replied with force, “I’ll deal with Desmond.” He straightened as the small genomorph on his shoulder jumped off and scurried onto the shoulder of a larger.
“I think not,” a voice came from behind. Purpled turned to see a man in a lab coat holding a beaker with glowing blue liquid not unlike concentrated glow squid ink.
Desmond’s eyes widened to a point of insanity as he declared, “Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus,” before downing the vial.
Purpled had figured they were working against madmen from his poor excuse of restraints earlier, yet this brought the situation to a new light. Desmond grunted in pain as the potion started to take effect. He fell to his knees, shaking in agony as his skin took on a blue hue. Yet, the skin itself wasn't blue, something underneath was. The second skin showed itself as the man’s body changed, becoming muscular, large, and animalistic.
All Purpled could do was watch.
Desmond's skin ripped, some of it hanging off his new frame while the rest floated to the ground in sheets. He continued to grow, stopping at around 3 ½ blocks tall with a bulky figure and overly round face. Once his form stopped changing the Guardian tried to attack, but he had waited too long. He was thrown across the room and Desmond immediately turned to Superboy as the biggest threat.
Purpled circled the battle between Superboy and Desmond, looking for an opening with his sword in hand. The other three shifted, also looking for openings; though it's safe to assume they didn't know what to do since their companion that could rip stairs off walls was struggling.
The battle moved when Desmond ran into Superboy midair, breaking through the ceiling and heading up to the main level above ground.
The four of them simultaneously paused.
“That's one way to bust through the ceiling,” Robin said, reaching to his utility belt for an unfamiliar type of gun.
“You think lab coat planned that?” Kid Flash asked, wrapping his arm around Robin's shoulder. Robin shot the gun at the ceiling, a claw connected to string shot from it. The claw shot through the hole in the ceiling attached to a support beam on the floor above. As the gun retracted it pulled the two boys to the upper floor.
“I doubt he is planning anything anymore,” Aqualad said, jumping to the next level.
At the same time Purpled placed the block of steel he picked up earlier at his feet. With the added height he dragged himself upwards to be met with the sight of a struggling battle.
Kid Flash was running around Desmond in circles, looking for openings and punching the ones he got. His hits did more aggravating than damage, leading to him getting slapped across the room.
Superboy’s punches were strong, but rage fueled and sloppy. His pure strength wasn't enough to take down the monster, evidenced by him too being thrown, and leaving craters in walls where he impacted.
Robin kept his distance, throwing metal disks at openings and searching for weaknesses. His eyes kept visibly flicking even behind the lenses of his mask, and he tensed every time Kid Flash took a hit.
Aqualad summoned hammers using the sticks sheathed as dual swords on his back. The weapons battered against Desmond, sizzling with electricity whenever they were used with extreme force.
The four of them were uncoordinated, moving to cover the same spots at the same time and constantly forgetting the others were there. Purpled himself wouldn't even be able to get a hit in without hitting one of the other teenagers. Because of this he hesitated, standing tensed with sword in hand for a moment too long, and got hit by a thrown Superboy.
A sharp sizzle rang out as Superboy’s leg grazed the tip of Purpled's sword. He shouted in pain, hands going to the cursed wound.
Desmond took this opportunity to attack them.
The monster took long strides forwards, indifferent to attacks the other three did. He threw Kid Flash when he tried to block his path and had complete indifference towards Aqualad’s hammers.
Purpled kicked his leg out from under Superboy and gripped his sword as Desmond raised his fists. His sword met Desmond’s hands as they tried to slam down on Purpled and Superboy. The same burning sound that had come from Superboy’s flesh now came from Desmonds, though this flame was far stronger with intent. Spare flecks of the doctor's old skin set alight, burning his hands further and letting the flame creep up his forearms.
Purpled swiped his blade across Desmond's hands, increasing the agony. He kicked the distracted monster backwards, who landed in the middle of the room.
“Superboy, Purpled, the pillar!” Robin shouted from across the room.
Purpled glanced around and found that out of the six support pillars around the rectangular room, the one right beside him and Superboy was the only one not destroyed or littered with blinking metal disks. His sword flickered into his pickaxe. Purpled held the pickaxe to the pillar and swung as a crackling burst of electricity flooded the center of the room where Desmond had landed.
Without its supports the walls broke under the pressure. Cracks started where the roof and walls connected, crawling towards the center of the roof. At the ceiling's center, they circled and swirled in beautiful patterns. Then all at once the mosaic fractured, and stone began to rain.
All of them pushed to the nearest wall as it was more lively to survive the cave in, if they were beside a structure that had a hope of remaining standing. They huddled and covered their heads, though it didn't stop the pieces of stone from clattering against the rest of themselves.
Purpled felt bruises forming with each hit. Even after they were covered completely, left kneeling under the weight, thumps still rang through the pile on top of them.
When the rubble finally stilled they breathed a collective sigh of relief. Superboy shifted, planting his feet firm on the tile below them, and placed his hands on a large chunk of wall that covered them. He threw it aside.
The night's soft light drew Purpled's attention. He stared, enamoured, at the clouds as Robin and Kid Flash exchanged excited celebratory words.
“We did it…!” Kid Flash said between exhausted breaths, smiling.
“Was there ever any doubt?” Robin replied with an equally large grin on his face.
The two went to high five each other, only to grunt in pain at the prickles it sent to their ribs.
Purpled stood slowly as he continued to stare at the twilight clouds that decorated the unfamiliar sky of both his freedom and his imprisonment. The stars glittered in the spaces between the clouds in unfamiliar patterns and colours. The sky shifted, and the moon came into view.
“See,” Kid Flash exclaimed, “The moon!”
The bright orb of the night sky shone a brilliant shade of warm white. Its craters were carved in an unfamiliar pattern to Purpled, with a particularly dark one in the moon's centre. The spot grew as Purpled squinted at it, taking a humanoid shape.
“And Superman! Do we keep our promises or what?” Kid Flash continued.
The ‘Superman’ wore a skintight red and blue suit with the same shield Superboy wore. He led a bunch of people in a similarly obnoxious dress code. Some flew down of their own accord, either with wings or simply floating, while others rode on various translucent platforms.
Superman landed, his eyes cycling through the teenagers, hovering on Purpled, before landing on Superboy. The kid walked forwards, lifting the rags of his suit to reveal the emblem on its front. Superboy looked up at Superman hopefully, only to be shut down by a glare.
A man came around Superman’s left side dressed in all black with a yellow symbol of a bat across his chest and a utility belt similar to Robin’s.
“Is that what I think it is?” He growled monotonically.
“He doesn't like being called an ‘it’,” Kid Flash said in a low voice.
Superboy looked up again with determination, “I’m Superman’s clone.”
The white lenses that covered his eyes showed the squint from the bat man.
“Start talking,” he said, turning to glare at Purpled, “both of you.”
Superboy started listing everything he knew about his creation. That his DNA was stolen from Superman, and his purpose was to replace him should he turn from the “light”. Superman tensed more with every word spoken. His eyes kept moving between the boy in front of him and Purpled, like he wanted to switch the conversation.
“You should probably put the sword away. League’s not big on unidentified magical objects,” Robin warned quietly. Purpled only glared and held the blade tighter.
Kid Flash started recalling how they found Superboy. How they had seen a shadow they now knew was the humanoid in an high speed elevator that didn't match the two story building that had now fallen. Then they spoke of their journey down the floors, finding energy creating genomorphs that keep the 50 sub-levels off the city power grid, and their brief encounter with the humanoid that led them further towards what Cadmus, the facility they had just left, called project Kr.
Project Kr turned out to be Superboy. Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash found him in a pod, similar to the one Purpled had awoken in, only with small genomorphs feeding him information telepathically. As soon as the boys had managed to get Superboy out of stasis the genomorphs had given Superboy the order to attack.
They lost the battle and were transported to chambers to have their DNA extracted and create more clones. It was then that Aqualad called for Superboy's help, who fought their captors. Once they were all free, Superboy started leading them out, grabbing Purpled along the way.
As soon as Robin had finished relaying that he hadn't had time to grab any files Cadmus would've had on Purpled, the bat man looked at Purpled sternly. His eyes tore into Purpled’s as if expecting an explanation for his existence.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“Purpled,” he replied after a moment of hesitation. His sword in his hand was a comforting weight under the scrutinizing stare.
“That’s a name.”
“Didn't know that ‘who are you’ meant asking for an autobiography.”
The bat man squinted.
“I could ask the same of you! We could've lost a life and now after we take down whatever the fuck that blue guy was you guys decend from the sky asking for mission reports?”
Aqualad stepped up to Purpled’s side, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Language, Purpled,” he warned.
Purpled swiped the hand off his shoulder and took a step away. He extended his arm, putting his sword firmly between himself and Aqualad.
“Okay,” Kid Flash said in exaggerated brightness as he ran between Purpled and Aqualad, “no stabbing good guys, Purpy.”
Purpled stared at Kid Flash in bewilderment, “... Purpy?”
“Your name is hard to work with!” he said sheepishly.
“Then don’t work with it! At all!”
Aqualad spoke up from behind Kid Flash, “if this could be resolved later, Batman has asked Purpled a question.”
Both Purpled and Kid Flash turned back to Batman, who was staring in disapproval.
“Right,” Purpled started, “how do you want that question answered? Life story? Highlights? A list of every tournament I’ve-”
“What are you.”
Purpled glared at Batman as he gave his answer. “Human, what are you? Part bat?”
“Humans don’t have purple eyes.”
“You should meet some more humans.”
Robin snickered off to the side.
“He’s not going to hurt anyone B,” Robin said, “No evidence of brainwashing, and he helped us get out the same as Superboy did.”
Batman contemplated his answer before stating, “we will revisit this. Continue.”
Continue they did. They told the rest of their story, though this time Purpled interjected at certain points. “Then Purpled’s sword turned into a pickaxe-” “It didn't ‘turn into’ a pickaxe I switched them out.” “Then Purpled switched out for his pickaxe and still could barely make a dent in the door- '' And Purpled’s sword was sent many suspicious looks at the mention of its enchantment. “It burned his hands. Dead skin carried the fire higher, nothing else made it show much physical pain.” “The sword’s enchanted? With what?” “Flame. And of course it’s enchanted, it's glowing!” Though other than that their story telling went quite smoothly with minimal confusion.
At the end of their tale the Justice League (as Purpled had learned they are called) split into groups, murmuring amongst themselves. The teens stood, unsure of where they were wanted.
They stared at the rubble of the building as League members lifted it in search of Desmond. A man in green summoned a translucent green redstone contraption to lift blocks of concrete. Purpled walked over to the pile of removed rubble, and was eyed suspiciously as he took out his pickaxe and mined a block.
Purpled held the block of concrete for a while, mildly comforted by the fact that this world had some similarities to a standard one.
“We’ll figure something out for you,” Purpled turned to see Superman talking to Superboy, “the League will I mean.”
Superman looked for an excuse to get away from the conversation, “For now I better make sure they get that Blockbuster creature squared away.”
Superboy quickly returned to Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash, even though the three were being reprimanded by their mentors.
“Cadmus will be investigated,” Batman said, “all 52 levels, but let's make one thing clear.”
“You should have called!” Flash added.
Batman nodded at the statement, “end results aside we are not happy. You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives.”
Purpled walked forward as Batman spoke, standing behind the four teenagers in a silent show of support.
“You will not be doing this again,” Batman said, his voice bordering on threatening.
The five kids shared a look before Aqualad spoke up.
“I am sorry, but we will,” he said with finality.
The other aquatic hybrid, Aquaman straightened, “Aqualad, stand down.”
“I am sorry my king,” Aqualad said, placing a hand over his heart, “but no.”
Aquaman looked as if he wanted to introject, but Aqualad continued.
“We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together, on our own, we forged something powerful, important.”
“If this is about your treatment at the hall,” Flash started, “the three of you-”
“The five of us,” Kid Flash corrected, "and it's not."
“Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us, or why teach us at all?” Robin reasoned.
“Why let them tell us what to do?” Superboy said snappishly, walking forwards with determination, “it's simple, either get on board, or get out of the way.”
Batman stared at Purpled, waiting for his inevitable response as well.
Purpled weighed his options for a moment, he could either figure out how to make it back to the SMP on his own and be miserable there, or he could stick with the overpowered teenagers and maybe get his hands on some of their technology.
“I have a tendency to stab people when I don't get my way,” he said with a grin.
Batman sighed.