A YJA Moment - The League of Assassins

The League of Shadows was once known as The Hidden Ones.  Formed in Ancient Egypt in the aftermath of the reign of Rama-Tut, they sought to proactively eliminate threats to the ancient world. They trained in subterfuge and stealth, allowing them to infiltrate any enemy stronghold and strike down every foe.

Eventually, they came into conflict with both the Brotherhood of the Eye and the Order of Ancients, two unrelated secret societies who were already in conflict with each other.  Attacked from all sides, they were ousted from their positions of power and were forced to migrate from Egypt into Persia and the rest of the Ancient World.

Over the millennia they emerged from the Middle East and spread across the globe, finding the greatest spies and hunters to recruit into their order.  They took on many names during this time, but it was in the 11th Century that they would take on their most enduring name - the League of Assassins. Led by their legendary Old Men, they would change the world from the darkness, by the edge of the blade.

The goals of the League were altruistic in the beginning.  They were seekers of stability and freedom and sought to bring justice in the world. This brought them into direct conflict with the Order of the Ancients whose immortal members had a singular goal of global domination.

In the 14 Century, a young man rose to become the newest Old Man of the Mountain. He was not like the others who took on the mantle and had no interest in maintaining the traditions of the past.  He called himself The Demon's Head or Ra's Al Ghul and set about reforging the order in his image, remaking the League of Assassins into the League of Shadows.

From that point, the League became a group solely dedicated to the whims of The Demon's Head, undertaking assassination, extortion, power-brokering, and terrorist acts at his sole command.  Using the regenerative power of the Lazarus Pits, Ra's Al Ghul remained the leader far past his normal life-span and into the modern-day.  

So powerful had the League become, that it was a foregone conclusion that Vandal Savage would invite him into his villainous alliance known as The Light.  Ra's knew the threat in joining the Templar grandmaster, his archenemy.  However, the Demon's Head was pragmatic and knew the rewards were worth the risk.

Ironically joining The Light would be Ra's undoing.  The Light had made an alliance with the alien species known as The Reach, trading the resources of Earth for aid in furthering their goals.  The Young Justice team had sown discord between the Reach and the Light, leading to an altercation between the two groups.  In the process Black Beetle stabbed Ra's through the chest, killing him.  Though Ubu managed to get him to the Pit in time, it gave his enemies time to act.

Utilizing her position, Ra's daughter Talia took over the League and forced her father to retire.  Sent to their former center power, Infinity Island, where he was given a life of luxury ... and a full force of guards to make sure he stayed inactive in League affairs. As the new Head of the organization, she replaced all of those leaders loyal to her father, rebranding the organization as Leviathan.

In the wake of the attack on Earth, the loyal followers of Ra's broke away from Leviathan and freed The Demon's head from imprisonment.  Ferried him away to one of their ancient fortresses, Nanda Parbat, Ra's plotted his next move.

Returning to his roots, he has reformed the old League of Assassins in order to bring down Leviathan, retake what is his, and teach his wayward child the cost of underestimating her father.

A YJA Moment - Splinter

There lived a rat, but one very extraordinary rodent.  His ancestors were granted sentience from a fragment of the same alien meteorite which uplifted the primates of Gorilla City.  While playing in his forest, he was caught in a rainstorm and was flushed away in the flood that followed.

The young rat would surely have perished if he hadn't been rescued by a young man named Hamato Yoshi.  Yoshi was a famed assassin for The Hand and was attempting to escape his own demise at the hands of the League of Shadows, whose regional overseer he had just murdered.  After escaping the Dark Archer Malcolm Merlyn, he returned to his home in New York and made the rat, whom he named Splinter, his pet.

For many years Splinter served as the beloved pet for Master Yoshi, who had risen in the ranks of the Hand to become one of the leaders of the Eastern Seaboard. Possessing an eidetic memory, Splinter learned the arts of Ninjitsu through watching his owner and students practice.  Soon his knowledge rivaled that of the greatest shadow warrior in The Hand.

Oroku Saki was one of Yoshi's former students, who had risen within the ranks of the Hand.  His ambition knew no bounds and he chafed under the rules and codes of honor of the leadership.  During an argument between Saki and Yoshi, the fight broke out which destroyed the dojo and set Splinter free. Saki slew his old master and took his place as a Ninja Master.

The young rat escaped into the sewers where he lived for many months, feeding on refuse that he found.  During one such foray for food, he was dowsed by radioactive chemicals that had seeped into the drains from an accident on the road far above him.  This Mutagens changed Splinter, granting him an anthropomorphic shape.  They also altered four young turtles as well.

Now mutated into a humanoid form, Splinter took the four turtles as his charges, keeping them safe and teaching them the ways of Ninjitsu.  After years of training, he has set them on a new path, discovering their origins and seeking vengeance for the death of Hamato Yoshi.

A YJA Moment - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Not much was known about the four Turtles before they became the urban legends that they are today.  It is believed they were a young child's pets who got released into the wild and wandered into the sewers. They would have perished in the offal if it hadn't been for the Murdock Incident.

A shipment of Mutagen was being transported from the T.C.R.I. building in downtown New York when a young boy named Matt Murdock ran across the street.  The truck containing the toxic substance crashed and flipped, spilling its radioactive contents all over the boy and the rest of the street.  The chemical then oozed into the storm drains and into the sewers.

The Mutagen fell on the young turtles, altering them and giving them anthropomorphic features.  Aided by the rat Splinter, also changed by the chemical, they found refuge in one of the forgotten sections of the New York Subway.  There they made a home for themselves, using both the sewers and the train tunnels to get across the city.

As the Turtles grew, they were given names by Splinter, who based them on Renaissance painters.  In addition, he spent many years educating them and training them in the ancient art of Ninjitsu.  Though they looked identical, each one was unique - Donatello was a brilliant mind; Michaelangelo was streetwise; Leonardo was disciplined, and Raphael was strong-willed and determined.

After becoming Ninjas, Splinter then tasked them with discovering their origins.  Finding the remains of one of the Mutagen containers, the Turtles focused their investigation on the Trans-Continental Research Institute, or T.C.R.I., which was only a few blocks away from where the accident took place.

As they attempted to infiltrate the T.C.R.I. Building, they encountered shadow warriors belonging to the Foot Clan, who were protecting the business from intrusion.  The head of this force was a man clad in bladed armor who called himself The Shredder.  When given a description of this new threat, Splinter knew it was the murderer of his master Homato Yoshi, the man known as Oroku Saki.

Now the Turtles have another task - bring down the Foot Clan and seek vengeance upon The Shredder for the death of Homato Yoshi.

A YJA Moment - T.C.R.I.

 When S.H.I.E.L.D. took control of the nation's security apparatus after the implosion of Checkmate, they decommissioned many operations throughout the United States.  In New York, Oscorp found itself having to divest itself of many of its questionable holdings, lest the authorities looked too closely. Willing to snatch these assets up was a small upstart company known as T.C.R.I.

Trans-Continental Research Incorporated emerged almost ten years ago, founded by brilliant geneticist Baxter Stockman.  Stockman is said to be one of the world's foremost minds on genetic engineering, having studied with the legendary scientific pioneers Nathaniel Essex and Herbert Wyndham.  Operating out of a small lab in Hell's Kitchen, they soon gained a reputation for cutting-edge research into genetic disorders.

When an accident involving hazardous waste injured a young Matt Murdock, investigations into rumored undisclosed and unethical experiments were launched by the FDA and the Office of National Security.  The fines and sanctions that resulted nearly bankrupted the young company.  Floundering financially, T.C.R.I. all but ceased operations for many years until after the Apokalips Invasion.

Receiving an influx of cash from a silent partner, he built T.C.R.I. and immediately scored important contracts with S.H.I.E.L.D. and other government agencies.  In particular, they were tasked with continuing the research into metahumans which has been started by the Hammond Institute and furthered by Checkmate.

Few know that T.C.R.I. is now funded by the villainous technological organization known as A.I.M. Baxter Stockman no longer exists, having been ousted from leadership.  His name has been co-opted by the entity known as the Cerebral Repository Adapting New Genetics or C.R.A.N.G. Nicknamed the "Brain in the Jar", C.R.A.N.G. is composed of brain tissue grown from DNA combined from the greatest minds on the planet.

In keeping with A.I.M.'s goals or unrestrained research, T.C.R.I. has been taking their knowledge of genetics and moving to the next step.  Acquiring a xenobiological transgenic sample, an individual who possesses both human and feline DNA, they have been working to create a viable nanotech or retroviral means to convert humans into half-animal forms.

Their initial research was believed to be fruitless, creating nothing but a radioactive goo that had seemingly no beneficial effect on test subjects.  Not long after the Murdock Accident, T.C.R.I. scientists discovered that this goo, which they now named The Mutagen, did have the properties they sought.  In humans, it was capable of activating latent meta-genes, but in animals, it could cause them to develop anthropomorphic traits.

As the current Mutagen is not refined and causes unstable results in the test subjects, it gained little notoriety until agents of A.I.M. discovered it had produced stable results.  The runoff of the Murdock Accident had mutated a rat and four turtles.  Trained in the art of ninjitsu, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are not a subject of a city-wide manhunt in order to capture and vivisect them.  Only then can T.C.R.I. perfect the Mutagen.

A YJA Moment - Starro the Star Conqueror [Redux]

[Note:  Due to changes in our game chronology, I have split the Star Conqueror entry from the old Mind Stone and made it its own independent entry]

Legend states in the far past, long before any of the sentient species traveled the stars, there was a planet which was known as Starro.

Starro was home to a dominant life-form, a species of creature which greatly resembled echinoderms. They had a unique structure, where a central Queen communicated with her Drones via a complex neurological signal.  The Queen had biological control over her children and could alter their genome during gestation, usually doing so to adapt to some environmental threat or correct a genetic flaw.

There were many Queens on Starro, dividing up the planet into territories.  Clashes between Queens and their broods were common, with the most evolved Drones winning the day.  The constant conflict and need to dominate each other fuelled a rapid evolution amongst the species.

Then something happened.  One of the Queens had a developmental leap.  Whether by simple biological chance, interaction with some outside catalyst, or intervention by a third party, a Queen birthed a rapid succession of new generations of Drones which showed exponential evolution.

Finally, a new generation of Starro Drones was birthed with enhanced intelligence and psychic ability, all linked to the Queen via a complex hivemind.  This Queen then conquered and consumed her sisters on the road to being the dominant life form on their world.

Though the colony maintained the biosphere adequately, there was a side-effect of the rapid evolution.  The Queen needed psychic stimulus in order to remain in peak capability, something only available through tapping into the brainwaves of sentient beings.

Without such stimulus, the Queen went into a dormant state, her drones then followed suit.  There they remained in hibernation for untold years, awaiting the arrival of intelligent beings to awaken them from their slumber.

When a Bolian explorer vessel made an emergency landing on the planet, the Starro Drones were immediately awoken.  They captured and took control of the crew without incident.  With a starship cargo hold full of Drones linked to a telepathically empowered Queen, the Starro have made a move to expand into Known Space.