30. Dream team of six characters:
Vixen, Nightwing, Grace Choi, Hardware, Argent, “Mr. Scarlet”
This could be complicated to say the least, but I’m incorporating New52 continuity into this, so, needless to say, it’s a challenge.
A traveler from another dimension and world found himself in this young, yet familiar world of heroes. He felt a connection to this world, particularly to five unconnected strangers, whose only ties are that they have extraordinary talents and have fought alongside legends.
Taking on the moniker Mr. Scarlet, the traveler stayed within the shadows and not part of the system while assembling a small collective of heroes that he feels could change the world for the better. While his familiarity to the Justice League is sparse, he feels that there is enough room for another group of heroes to assemble. Some aren’t so willing to be part of one.
One of those is Mari Jiwe McCabe, the heroine known publicly as Vixen. After taking some time off to recover from her injuries from the Hall of Justice bombing, she wonders if her path of being a hero should continue. Mari knew it was a dangerous job, but she knew her abilities to be one with the animal spectrum were given to her for a reason. She becomes the first recruit. A bouncer named Grace Choi has only learned about her strange lineage months ago and would prefer not to engage in “spandex fights,” but an attack by a group of alien soldiers known as the H’San Natall convinces Grace to embrace her phenomenal strength and abilities.
The third recruit has only recently reemerged to the public. The armored hero known as Hardware once called Dakota his home, he recently moved to New York bringing his talents to S.T.A.R. Labs as Dr. Curtis Metcalf. Rarely a team player, he has mellowed a bit in the years, even mentoring a very gifted technician in his own right, Virgil Hawkins. A group of H’San Natall soldiers took over a ballpark during an All-Star baseball game, and the trio of Mr. Scarlet, Vixen, and Grace took them on and were aided by Hardware, who joins the small team. After the team’s victory, they set up shop in New York.
Unbeknownst to the team, Batman and his protege Nightwing were monitoring this team’s activities. Nightwing actually befriended Mr. Scarlet months before the crimson avenger actually started his recruiting efforts. In fact, Nightwing actually was the one who gave him the idea of creating a team in the first place and gave him the funds to search for the first three members as well as set up a permanent base of operation. This sense of trust is rare, but there was something about Mr. Scarlet that felt familiar, almost like he was somebody he used to know in another life. Nightwing later joins Mr. Scarlet’s team officially mostly because he’s more at ease with this group of heroes and also to be part of something he feels bigger than himself and beyond Gotham.
While the team was being formed, Toni Monetti, a daughter of a US Senator who was one of S.T.A.R. Labs’ chief backers before he got elected and someone who Hardware knew quite well, was just discovering her newfound abilities. Her skin turned pale white and a silvery substance cocooned itself around her body creating an armor. She could project solid silver light projectiles, platforms, and creatures. For a while, she could turn it on and off, but once the Natall invasion occurred, Toni’s powers took over her mind and she was clearly not in control of her actions. The heroes investigated the incident and learned the truth about Toni by her parents, including the circumstances of her birth. After extreme tests and therapy, Toni gained the ability to control her powers, and Mr. Scarlett gives her a code name, Argent, and she joins the team.
A far-reaching event involving the H’San Natall in the heartland brings Mr. Scarlet’s team and the Justice League together for the first time. The Natall is revealed to be dimension crossers who are searching for their Earthling “offspring” (Argent is the first Natall offspring to be seen so far) and the outsider who shouldn’t exist in this world, the one who destroyed their home planet. The destroyer’s name is translated from the H’San language as “the Dark Flash,” who is being now calling himself Mr. Scarlet. The battle concludes, and the heroes are victorious and have more questions than answers. Mr. Scarlet tells his team everything, who he is, where he came from, why he’s in this world, and why he formed this team. Knowing the truth, the team asked him what they should call him, to which the enigmatic leader gave only this reply:
“Just call me Wally.”
