A/N: First of all, sorry for not posting yesterday. I was busy with some extra classes and a test. As you might have guessed, a huge time skip is coming in this chapter. The base setting for his abilities are already set up, so, no use wasting time anymore.
To clarify some things, until now, everything was taking place three years before the first episode of Young Justice took place. But don't worry, I won't leave you hanging on the details about what happened during the time skip, it's all included in this chapter.
One last thing, there have been a lot of questions about the MC's overall power level, since this is the world of DC and he only has those powers and that too, from JJK; a valid concern, but remember, this is a fanfic and he is the MC. I won't give detailed explanations, but just know this, that all those abilities will be used as ridiculously as possible. Don't worry, he will be scaled to DC's top powerhouses, maybe even beyond in the future.... He is in fact, the MC, after all.
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The night before, after Cadmus was attacked by Orochi:
Around midnight, Dr. Desmond stood in front of a curved holographic screen that was suspended in the middle of a dimly lit room.
A voice echoed from the screen, the bright silhouette of a man glowing in the middle. "Dr. Desmond, care to repeat what you just said?"
Mark looked down and spoke, "Y- Yes, the snake that infiltrated the facility was sent by that kid. The one I tasked Sportsmaster to bring here."
"Leon Blade, huh. You said he was a magic user, a wizard?" the voice asked.
"Yes, he repeatedly called himself a sorcerer. And those creatures, his summons."
"What's the difference?"
"I, ah, don't—"
"Forget it. Where's Sportsmaster?"
Desmond replied, "We found him in a critical condition. Both his hands and legs had been crushed. (A/N: Leon did that for extra insurance before going back.)
But the worst part is that even our nanite cell reconstruction system wasn't able to heal him. Some kind of energy, possibly magic, stopped him from healing. I had no choice but to amputate him."
"Useless as he was, Lawrence was still an asset. And it is the result of an absolute carelessness on both of your parts. He'll have to get used to prosthetics, or he won't be of use to us.
Enough of this. For now, you're to put all your efforts into upgrading Project Match to Project Kr. How's the progress on that, by the way?"
Desmond gritted his teeth, replying, "The clones of the second batch all died of brain aneurysm, cause by the hyperactivity of their senses.
And the newest batch shows promise, as they've survived more than a few months now. I assure you, soon, we'll have a perfect clone.
It's just that we have so little sample from Superman that it's impossible to speed up the process without increasing the collateral waste of sample cells."
The voice snarled with a bit of anger, "We chose you for this task because you promised to make the impossible, possible, not to make excuses.
Tell me, haven't you been wasting your time on that nonsensical hypothesis of yours, which I gave a small leeway, and you lied to Sportsmaster that it was given priority by me? Then, worst of all, used him to his downfall, all in my name at that."
"Please, give me another chance. I'll make things right…"
"As I said, you won't do anything except focus on our main project. Remember the reason Cadmus even receives the funding in the first place.
And as for our sorcerer problem, someone more capable seems interested in that." The voice spoke, and a face that Desmond recognized came onto the screen.
It was a bald man wearing a black suit over a white shirt and a black tie. "Lex Luthor, I presume you've gone through all the details," the voice asked.
Lex replied, "I did… The one from that clothing store, the giant wolf from the dashcam, and that snake… Seems like someone who could be of use to us."
The voice added, "Or a threat that needs to be eliminated. What is your plan?"
"I want to observe this child and see if I can use him to accomplish a few things. His history is particularly interesting to me. Dr. Desmond, would you believe me if I said Leon Blade woke up from a four-year-long coma about a week ago?
This was him, before magically being healed." Two images appeared on the screen. One showed Leon's burnt face as he lay on the hospital bed.
The other one was from the shopping mart, where Leon looked completely normal. Desmond was wide-eyed. Had he succeeded in capturing Leon, he might have gotten somewhere with his research.
"And how does he interest you?" the voice asked, a bit intrigued.
"I did a bit of backtracking," Luthor replied. He continued, "And I might or might not have been involved in an incident where his parents died.
I was just wondering if he knows about that and whether I can use that to my advantage. Revenge is the most sought-out thing, after all, and is the easiest one to manipulate."
"Keep your friends close and enemies closer, huh? Alright, I approve. Keep a watch on him. But remember, the very moment I identify him as a potential threat to our grand plan, he is to be eliminated, no questions asked," the voice spoke; the static but deep resonance was full of authority.
"No questions asked," only Desmond replied, but Lex just had a smile on his face. The call was disconnected after a few seconds.
Mark sighed a breath of relief. He'd been let off easier than he'd expected. It was best that he took his mind off everything else for the time being.
However, Leon's words about his hypothesis being horseshit still echoed in his head. Normally, he'd disregard even the worst comments from anyone else about him.
But something about the way Leon said it made him think, 'Maybe he knows where I'm making a mistake. Heh, no way a 12-year-old would-'
'No, that wouldn't be too strange, considering the things that the world has seen until now.'
'Sigh… But what to do?' He couldn't exactly go and ask him, for various reasons, the first and most obvious one being his pride.
Imagine Dr. Desmond taking advice from a 12-year-old. 'Over my dead body,' he snarled and walked out of the room.
Downtown Public School, Washington, D.C.:
Inside the principal's office, Kate and Leon sat in front of a middle-aged man with balding hair, wearing glasses and a grey office suit.
He held four pieces of paper in his hand and spoke, "What do I even say, Ms. Blade? We made these tests particularly harder since it was a big decision.
But Leon here aced every one of them. Forget that; he even pointed out some mistakes that were in the questions.
Mrs. Thompson even gave him an extra ten marks for his outstanding essay." Principal Taylor seemed satisfied, to say the least.
Leon then said, "Not to sound rude or anything, I think most of those questions were lacking… The only one I had fun solving was-" before he could finish, Kate ruffled his hair, slightly pushing his head down.
"What he means is that he had a great time taking those tests. Isn't that right, Leon?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure… That's right," he replied with a smile.
"I have to ask, though. Do you really want to wear those sunglasses, even in class?" the principal asked, pointing at Leon's dark shades.
Kate replied in his stead, "Yes, his eyes are really photosensitive. Here's his medical report." She handed him some papers that she'd arranged at Leon's request.
The proceedings went normally after that. Leon was sent to his classes; it had already been a few months since the classes began, so he was given some extra materials to cover for the lost time.
By the time the school ended for the day, he'd already covered everything that he'd missed, including a bit of his own study session.
His school life started normally that way. As far as his academic curriculum went, he just had to attend the school to show that he was present most of the time. He didn't need to invest extra time in learning anything, as he was already beyond that level.
So, that's what he did. Apart from the training in his mindscape, which happened daily, he kept alternating between his own study sessions and his physical training.
Traveling to his training location became easier once he learned how to teleport using Blue. And that was when he changed his training location completely.
Denali Mountains, Alaska. The place was so remote and virtually inaccessible by conventional methods that it was a perfect location for him.
It took a bit of effort and ice climbing to find a perfect spot; a snowy valley that was surrounded by rocky snow peaks and had snowstorms occurring most of the time.
He could train as much as he wanted in that place. The cold and unforgiving climate made it more suitable for testing his endurance.
Leon was also expecting Cadmus to retaliate in some ways, but no, they were completely silent.
A year went by with this as his daily routine. He'd also taken his time to learn several other languages and histories of different parts of the world.
He was already proficient in several European, Asian, African, and South American languages. He was still learning Chinese and was searching for something or someone that would teach him some lost languages too.
But finding someone who, for example, spoke Ancient Egyptian was the same as trying to find a needle in a haystack.
So, he put that on the back of his mind and learned everything that was available at the particular moment.
In the middle of his eighth grade, a girl named Rose Worth, from tenth grade, suddenly started speaking with him, trying to be his friend. (A/N: Again, no, this is not a harem…)
Which he didn't find that strange at first, as they'd met in a library and talked about how they prepared for exams. He began to doubt when he started sensing her presence near his home.
She coincidentally started living near his home, and it was after a few more poorly made attempts to spy on him that he was sure Rose Worth was working for someone, but who?
Cadmus was the first name that came to his mind. But then he decided, 'why use my own brain if I can use the brain of something more resourceful?'
And it was then that he used a few months of his time to learn everything there was about computers and IT, from their hardware engineering to how the software operated.
Hacking and coding were so easy to learn for him that he almost found it boring at one point. And it didn't take much time for him to find out who Rose Worth was.
He made sure not to interfere with the government's observation systems, nor the Justice League's. Why? Because Rose Worth or Rose Wilson Worth was Deathstroke's daughter.
A man criminally wanted by the Justice League and almost all the governments in the world. Real name; Slade Wilson. Wife; Lilian Worth, deceased.
He wanted to know more, but the Justice League's firewall for their detailed records, was more secure than the U.S. president's himself.
And he didn't want Batman or cyborg on his back, who he was sure were responsible for most of the technical stuff in the Justice League.
He also had a hunch as to who Batman really was. No ordinary vigilante would have the budget for rocket-powered cars, high-speed bat planes, and such insanely practical suits, other than some insanely rich guy with a lot of free time.
Triangulating some rich guys in Gotham, there was only one with enough money and probable past/agenda that could have become the Batman.
Back to Deathstroke: him being an associate of the League of Shadows was somewhat public knowledge. But what did the League want with him?
Or was he looking at this in a completely wrong way? Whatever the case, his personal life was not being disturbed, so he simply ignored the spying perverts.
Besides, they could only observe what he wanted them to observe about him. That made it a bit easier, having them think that they were in control.
Another two years passed by.
At present: (A/N: The same year the first episode of Young Justice takes place)
He'd already mastered Blue, Dismantle, and Cleave. Infinity was now fully automatic; unlike Satoru, he surprisingly didn't need RCT to balance the overload of information.
His mind, along with the rest of his body, had grown significantly stronger and more resistant. Again, Satoru and Sukuna concluded this as him not being limited like them.
He'd also managed to tame four other shadows: Max Elephant, Piercing Ox, Tiger Funeral, and Round Deer.
He'd hoped he would gain an understanding of RCT from the Round Deer, but there was a difference between just seeing how the shadow used it and trying it himself.
And Mahoraga, well, Leon had a feeling he wasn't ready for that fight yet. The fact that the other shadows took him a relatively long time to tame and considering how Mahoraga's abilities worked, he needed an attack that would erase the shadow from existence with just one strike. However, he wasn't too hurried about it either.
He had already been taught all that there was about Jujutsu Sorcery. Sukuna seemed more and more intrigued in teaching him everything.
And then there was the martial arts from Satoru. Leon was now on par with him as far as his skills were concerned. And his shadows too had grown stronger with him.
There was also one other change that he went through; somehow, the tattoos on Sukuna's body had started appearing on him too.
But fortunately, they stopped right beneath his neck, so his face was still unaffected. Those tattoos didn't change his personality or anything; they were just there.
He had to sit down and give a long-ass believable explanation to Kate on why those tattoos were a part of his abilities.
Now at 15 years old, looking back, the three years had passed with almost the same routine; the only difference was that he had grown stronger, every other day.
Maybe the tattoos, but since they didn't affect him in any way that was barely a change at all. His height would be the other thing, as he already stood at the height of six foot.
'Haah… Except for me getting stronger, nothing too interesting happened, I guess,' Leon thought to himself, lying on his back atop a commercial airplane, flying over the North Atlantic Ocean, thousands of meters high in the sky.
Leon was wearing a dark-purple coat with fitting pants of the same color and black leather shoes, his signature dark shades over his eyes, his ear-length snow-white hair getting wildly ruffled by the sheer wind from the plane's speed.
He held a small device in his hand, a translucent screen of fiberglass that was showing the location of something in the ocean below.
'It should be somewhere around here,' He thought, seeing the device beeping. He was getting near his destination now.
He had flown to there first, but seeing the incoming plane, Leon just decided to relax for a bit. He suddenly stood up, his feet attached to the plane's surface with Blue.
A cargo ship had recently sunk around this region, and the company to which the ship belonged was offering big prize money if anyone was able to retrieve some important files from the sunken ship.
But Leon wasn't here to just retrieve some files. If they were ready to pay a few hundred thousand for that file alone, they'd better up their pay when he gives them the whole ship. (A/N: Poor Leon, he's yet to learn how the world of insurance works.)
He'd earned a lot of money after doing some legal odd jobs or, rather, jobs that would be impossible for a regular human.
Like this one; search and return lost things and treasures that people would pay a fortune for. He'd also convinced his aunt to invest a lot of that money in different companies, mostly Wayne Enterprises.
With a smile on his face, he put the device in his pocket and walked towards the tail rudder. He gently leaped down with his legs pointing down, arms spread wide.
Leon deactivated the Infinity, letting gravity do its work. He tilted down, the wind hitting his face, fluttering his clothes and hair, a big smile plastered on his face.
'Nothing beats the feeling of freefall… Okay, maybe slightly less than eating dark chocolate,' He thought and accelerated himself with Amplification, breaking the sound barrier multiple times, leaving several sonic booms behind.
The wavy surface of the ocean was suddenly filled with a huge splash as Leon dove straight into the water at that insane speed.
After a while, the ocean surface was silent again, with only the small waves caused by wind traveling around the water.
A bit far from where Leon had dove in, the water suddenly started bubbling, and soon enough, the surface was suddenly raised as if a wave was forming out of nowhere.
The surface rose higher and higher until a giant cargo ship splashed out of the water, but it didn't stop there. It began to lift up into the air, gaining higher altitude each second.
Leon was at the bottom, casually holding the ship on one hand above his head. While he was easily able to hold that weight, it wouldn't have been possible without extending Infinity over a large area of the bottom of that ship, just so that it would hold its own weight.
It was a bulk carrier ship, with almost half of its cargo missing. Its total weight right now was somewhere around 350,000 to 400,000 tons.
After reaching a bit higher, Leon raised his free hand and snapped his finger, both him and the ship disappearing with a big implosion that sucked in the surrounding air right after that.
Boston, Massachusetts:
The Global Transports Company's Cargo Ship Bay was just going along with its normal day. Ships docking at the portside, cranes loading and unloading the cargo containers.
When suddenly, the sky above the port turned dark, something gigantic covering the sun itself.
"A spaceship! Aliens are here! Run!" an employee immediately started panicking, enticing others to do the same.
A middle-aged man with glasses, probably a manager, gritted his teeth, shouting in anger, "Tsk! Fools, that's our ship that we lost a few days ago. It's that sorcerer kid I contacted… He's here."
Looking down, Leon saw an empty port filled with water and slowly landed the ship there. Now, he was inside that manager's office.
"Do you have any idea how much time and effort it took for us to put that ship at the bottom of the Atlantic?" the manager asked in anger.
"Wait a minute? What the hell do you even mean by that?" Leon asked, confused as hell.
"Sigh, you know what, I'm not arguing about this. The whole insurance plan is now down the drain, and since you very much bombed this job, you'll only get half the payment."
"Excuse me?" Leon raised his eyebrows.
"Don't 'excuse me' me. The boss is livid. Even I am lucky that I'm getting to keep my job," he replied.
Leon couldn't argue; he should have just stuck to the job description and not gone out of his way. 'Sigh, a small price for wanting to do whatever I want, I guess. Well, the payment's still around 350k, so that's a win,' He thought with a shrug.
"Your funds will be transferred to your account. Please, as I always request of you, just stick to what your clients ask for. Doing too much can also be bad sometimes, you know?"
"I can throw it back to the ocean, if you want," Leon pointed at the ship that was visible outside the window.
"No, please don't. That will be a whole other set of trouble, now that it's already here," the manager replied, sounding a bit worried.
Leon shrugged and went out. He wasn't oblivious to what the company might have wanted from the start; he just felt like showing off today, that was all.
Back at home:
Kate was laughing her ass off as Leon shared how his job went today. "Oh, Leon, why do I have a feeling that you knew what you were doing this whole time?"
"Why would I want to be paid less?" Leon raised his eyebrows.
Kate shrugged, replying, "Who knows? Maybe you saw how that company sunk the ship and, with it, the cargo of so many smaller, innocent companies, just for their insurance scam."
"Like I'd go that far," he mumbled.
"I'm sure you wouldn't," she replied with a smile.
She added, "Oh, by the way… That friend of yours was here. Rose Worth, right? She said she needed to speak to you about something."
Leon thought with a frown, 'That girl. I'm getting tired of her antics. It's been two whole years now, and they haven't even tried anything bold.
What kind of long-term spy bullshit is she up to, anyway? I haven't even seen Deathstroke once, around this place. What are they really really up to?
Though, she does disappear every so often. Maybe Deathstroke and Ravager do go on a job together once in a while.'
As of right now, Leon probably knew more about them than they did about him. He sometimes wondered who was actually spying on whom.
...… To be continued!
A/N: This was a hard chapter... I was having so much trouble properly addressing the time skip and not just skim through it like it didn't happen. I hope I didn't mess up... Hope you guys like it... And for delaying this for one day, I'm giving you chapter 10 too... Enjoy!