The Flawless Imperfects: Prologue - Rediscovery

The clouds consumed the skies in their grey vile. The sun, just over the other side couldn't pierce through the fluffy coat, leaving the world to a dreadfully long overcast. The humidity was unbearable. Clothing clung to skin, and the fruit flies swirled around the living with reckless abandon.

Tropical temperatures were merciless in that regard. The insects grew drunk on confidence, and the humans would only wish to be drunk. If it only rained, then perhaps the people could at least soak themselves in something mildly refreshing.

The clouds dangerously teetered on the edge of storming in large proportions. Thunder hummed in the distance, prompting for the wildlife to whoop, and growl in the dense forests. It was essential conditions for rain. Despite that, it would never rain, as the main contributor was absent. Much to the chagrin of his peers.

A long serpentine animal flew across the skies, its beady eyes staring vigilantly across the plain flat lands and the heavy vegetated forests. It's bronze wings flapped silently, suspending the aged beast. Thanks to its experienced eyes, it caught sights of a mouse.

The little mouse fooled around in the rice fields, digging in the damp dirt. The little mammal relaxed in the cool breeze. The dragon, on the other hand simply narrowed its black eyes before landing near the rice field. Its wings caused an uproar forcing the critter to startle and quickly recover.

"Shenlong, you better have an explanation," The dragon said in a booming and deep voice.

The mouse, by all means choked as it squeaked. A poof of white smoke followed as a small dragon appeared in place of the mouse. The purple scaled beast stretched no longer than five meters, and its mouth only had a foot worth of noodle-like-string coming from its nose.

"H-hey, Yinglong... Uh, lovely weather?" The new dragon, Shenlong responded shakily.

"Spare me your chicken clutter. You have evaded your duties... again," The former dragon, newly addressed Yinglong, said in a dry and irritated manner.

The younger of the two dragons curled up its narrow body into a cocoon, and then it groaned in complaint. Yellow eyes poked from under its scales as it looked up to the unflinching winged beast before it.

"I don't wanna," Shenlong said after a long pause.

"Ridiculous. It's not up to you," Yinglong scoffed.

"Sure it is, The mortals offended me," Shenlong responded, if the dragon didn't have a long razor toothed mouth, it would have been pouting.

"Oh? Do share the details."

"Uh... They looked at me funny?"

Yinglong narrowed his eyes into paper thin slits. He snarled, and a growl formed at the back of his throat. The younger dragon nervously laughed.

"You have sullied us for the last time, Shenlong."

"Aww, Shu-"

"I, Yinglong, the servant of Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, and the ambassador of the four Dragon Kings hereby denounce your privilege to remain in the skies. You are to learn to be responsible, to demonstrate work ethic an-"

"Wait, wait, wait! You intend to kick me out?" Shelong asked incredulously and in a panicked state.

"And respect by the looks of things," Yinglong paused and watched as the youngster squirmed in a terrified manner, his eyes wide in attention. The winged dragon sighed before he continued, "Shenlong, go learn to behave," he concluded softly, the sternness in the dragon's voice dissipated by the end of his lecture.

From the purple dragon, a second loud white poof of smoke burst and from the cloud a thin boy crashed into the rice field grasses. The tall plants consumed the falling body, but immediately after, a black haired head popped out from the grass. The boy, who more accurately looked like a middle aged teenager, stared up to the indifferent looking winged dragon.

"Wait, please. I'll make it rain, I swear I'll make it ra-"

"Silence, boy. You are to atone for your misconduct," Yinglong said, his loud commanding tone abruptly silencing the teenager.

The teen looked hurt, frowning and pouting. Then, the teen realized he actually could pout and started examining himself to the best of his abilities. He had narrow eyes and an olive undertone, quite a stereotypical complexion for the farmers who lived in the area. He wore beige generic eastern clothing and had thick straight hair.

"Yun Shenlong, You'll embark on a journey of rediscovery, In a few centuries, we may make contact with you," Yinglong said before spiraling up into a ball and shooting off into the clouds like a spring.

The grey overcast shattered due to the windy gust that came forth from the large bronze dragon. The teen, Yun as his dragon counterpart said, was left in complete horror. What the hell was he supposed to do in order to 'rediscovery' himself anyways?

55 Years Later. . .

In half a century, it became painfully clear that Yun wasn't going to age past a 16 year old body and never benefit from the luxuries known as legal drinking. The teen sat on a wooden crate, bottle in hand as he downed it with unforeseen vigor.

He was on a large packed boat headed to the United States, a country for the ambitious, daring and intelligent. The crowded space didn't allow much for drinking, but Yun was a dragon, and as a dragon, he had a few perks to give him an edge. For instance, he had lived for nearly 200 years and was well varied in the human psyche. Manipulation was essentially as simple as child's play.

He sat on a wooden crate, yes, but he was also sitting outside the Captain's cabin, bottle in hand. He drank it vigorously.

The clouds were grey. They reminded the teen of his misfortunate error. Bitterly, he made it rain, large chilly drops fell onto the boat and the waves crashed against the hull. Yun wouldn't scamp his chores any longer.

20 Years Later . . .

Yun slouched against the chair. He felt itchy, and thus scratched his nose with the back of his hand. His golden eyes refused to leave the sight of the monitor. His face was faintly illuminated by the screen as he absently typed away with his free hand as the other continued to satisfy his itch. He was finishing up his resume.

Still as a 16 year old boy, it was borderline torture to find jobs, he'd have to quit every three years in order not to raise the suspicions of the mortals. As the years went by, it became more and more difficult to find jobs, something about education laws and all that unnecessary content a dragon like himself really didn't need.

What he did need was to finish his resume. On cue, the ex-dragon clasped his hands together and rubbed them in satisfaction. Just in time, the internet cafe was just about to close too. The teenager stretched his sore limbs as he lazily yawned. He then emailed his resume to every job listing ad he could find and called it a day.

Yun fixed his jacket as he exited the building into the cool damp night. The winds blew ominously, as they always did in Gotham. Brushing it off, the ex-dragon walked down alleyways and lone streets. He was oblivious to the crimes that happened in plain sight. He simply needed to get to his one room apartment and crash for a century long nap. Metaphorically, although he did attempt it a few years ago.

It didn't work, nor did his peaceful return to his humble abode. Just as he rounded the last alleyway he walked into what looked like a gnarly crime. Two men beating down an undoubtedly richer one. Blood here, bruises there, the rich blond never should have walked in alleyways to begin with.

The two grunts stopped their actions, one carrying a- thankfully, clean knife, the other gripping the blond by his dress shirt collar. The two criminals shared a confused glace before looking back onto the allegedly young teenager.

"You came to the wrong side of town, kid," The first said, smirking, showing missing teeth, and those that remained covered in yellow grime.

"Yea, You'll wish you never left home," The second said, flicking his wrist, showing off his knife skills.

Yun blinked twice, "Oh..., heehee, wait, you don't wanna do that," he said nervously.

The two grunts roughly let the rich blond slump on the brick wall as they advanced towards their newly found prey. Yun, was, by no stretch of the imagination, scared. But, it helped not to raise suspicions as much as he could. Ever since heroes and villains and super powered titans started becoming the forefront of society, the ex-dragon realized he wanted to spend less time associating with the mortals. Some could even defeat Yinglong in combat. The very thought made Yun shiver.

The grunts bellowed triumphantly. To startle the kid so easily was a present sent from above... below? Nevertheless, to think all they had to do was flash their teeth, or flex, throw their muscle around to scare the teenager was ideally the best outcome. Child's play, amateur stuff, and ultimately one easy ticket to making even more money. The teen shivered, more than likely realizing the situation he was in.

"Hand over everything you got," The first grunt said confidently, even going as far as pumping his chest out.

Yun smiled sweetly, digging into his pockets. He read somewhere that cooperation was the best course of action in mugging situations. The teen continued fondling the inside of his pant pocket for a few seconds before he's smile quickly morphed into dreadful thin line.

"Uh... I don't have anything to give," he said quietly, a tad bit bashful.

The grunts looked at one another before turning to the teen. Yun was bobbing on his toes, his eyes glued to the ground like a recently scolded child.

"You stupid or something? Who walks around Gotham without money?"

Yun didn't take kindly to being insulted. But, he pushed through it, simply nodding. If he ended up fighting the grunts, he'd more than likely need to travel to a new city again.

Four years ago, he had the unfortunate experience of drenching a ruffian who brought up the taboo of his external appearance. A dragon being forced to remain in a human body was the equivalent of a human being treated strictly like a dog. Said ruffian brought up his height, and Yun lost it, half the town experienced unforeseen showers and there were some witnesses to boot. The ex-dragon left the next day.

"Hey, shrimp, you deaf or something?" The second grunt asked, picking his tooth now with his jagged blade.

It seemed the grunts had an attention span befitting of thugs. Yun simply smiled back at the two, as a benefactor dragon, he technically was forbidden from killing humans. But, sometimes the race really deserved it. To bring up his height just after meeting him, did they want to die?

"I... I don't understand... what you mean." Yun said in an eerily calm manner.

"Stupid, small and short? How nice," The first grunt sassily said.

Yun lost it. To be insulted by a thug, was laughable. It went against the very tide of the chain of being. He, as a spiritual being was more important than kings themselves. The grunts were performing literal blasphemy. His face heated up in anger, but the ex-dragon remained calm.

It started to rain from cloudless skies. The droplets icy cold and abnormally large, the size of golf balls. The grunts flinched to the touch, Yun however remained completely icy. The winds wisped through the alleyways, changing their former trajectory altogether.

"You...You...You..." The teen only managed to repeat the same word.

He struggled to follow through with whatever statement he had in mind, like a broken record refusing to stop playing, he continued repeating himself. He's been insulted before, and due to his circumstances, has learned to tolerate it. But, his presence bordered gods, he was equivalent to gods. To be sullied like that by the humanly lowest pillar of worth was offending on not only a royal level, but it shook him to the very core of his pride.

"... You, you'll wish you didn't say that," Yun said quietly.

The rain became torrential, soaking the grunts and the teenager to the bone. Oddly enough, the hurricane-like conditions were exclusive to the alleyway. Yun opened his hands, and at his palms, two orbs of water started to form. Their growth rate was in direct correspondence to the tropical rain shower. Said orbs took up the tangible form of translucent spheres, however, they were unstable and constantly shifted shapes.

The grunts, to say the least were glad it was raining. Their composure was gone, eradicated, obliterated and naturally their killing intent was strongly overshadowed by the teenager before them. Was he even a teenager? He carried himself with such a pretentious stance, his chin raised high as if he were looking down on them, coincidentally enough, he refused to make eye-contact with the two of them.

"For your treachery, rediscovery your value in the afterlife," Yun said, although it came blatantly across as an order.

As he raised his two aquatic orbs, a nightly figure shimmered into existence. Yun froze in place as he witnessed the third new party swoop into the fray and in one swift motion firmly grasp the back of each grunt's head. Then, instantaneously afterwards he brought their heads down into the wet pavement with enough force to splinter the ground.

The rain stopped altogether and the two orbs fell to the ground as gravity took hold, they crashed into the ground with a splash. Yun was shocked, a tad bit startled, and maybe intimidated. It was one of those new mortal titans he heard of. Although, he didn't know them by name, he knew it was one of them by the man's emblem.

A blue hawk was printed on the chest of a black combat-esque suit. Its wings were spread wide, as if it were taking flight, and the man bearing the suit wore a mask across his eyes, making them white slits. He also had black hair, that due to the unforeseen weather forecast was patted down and wet.

The two eyed each other. Yun out of caution, the older man more out of curiosity. The man started to walk around the ex-dragon, circling him like sharks do their prey. With a hand to his chin and the other holding it in place, the black-clad man eventually stopped before the teenage dragon.

"How... whelming," The man concluded.

"Right..." Yun started, he was still at a loss of words, lots happened in roughly five minutes, "so, uh, who're you?" the teen asked confusedly.

"Nightwing. You're the Hurricane," The superhero responded, he appeared indifferent.

Nightwing continued to survey the ex-dragon. He had done his research, there were reports of a thing, or a boy causing uproars. First started in China, and it was frequent, more than half a century ago. Then the reports started to dwindle, until they resurfaced again in here in the States.

To see the source of the mysterious downpour phenomenon was truly a... whelming experience. The former Robin sighed, he was hoping for something more flashy, or someone more reasonably aged. There had to be something wrong with the reports.

The reports themselves were old, definitely outdated. Nightwing would have liked to brush it all off as a misunderstanding. But, what he saw was too accurate to be coincidental. The reports basically descried what just transpired. Mystery rain, teenage boy, and a short fuse for a temper. Exactly like the reports said.

"Y'ello? What's this Hurricane business?" Yun asked his arms folded across his chest.

"Right, It's a codename." The superhero supplied, he had no reason to keep it a secret, and he did let it slip before.

"Codename?" The ex-dragon repeated, he scrunched his brows together as he thought up a plan of action.

"Exactly, this may come as a surprise to you, but you aren't as inconspicuous as you think."

"Well, then, uh... what does that mean?"

"Conspicuous. It means you're conspicuous."

Yun pouted and Nightwing fought back the urge to smirk, he was speaking to an alleged Chinese legend after all. Before the hero could continue, he heard the grunts stirring from their fallen position. The hero took note of it and decided to push for the real purpose at hand.

"Hurricane, I want to offer you a job," Nightwing said.

"You already got my resume?" Yun asked hopefully, he didn't notice the twitch in the hero's eyebrow.

"You could say that," The man responded, thinking back to the reports he has on the teen.

"What kind of job is it?"

"I need you to assemble and supervise a group of teens for me," Nightwing deadpanned, he went with the blunt and to the point approach, since the person before him seemed to be anything but receptive.

"Well, I'm a teen too ya know?" Yun tried to play it off, he smiled nervously and cringed his eyes in a friendly manner that was supposed to portray an innocent look, he read it somewhere.

"Hurricane," The hero started, "I know your age varies between 80 to a 100 years. You're more th-"

"200 years actually," Yun corrected arrogantly.

Nightwing raised an eyebrow but otherwise remained indifferent. The ex-dragon realized his mistake a moment later as his face morphed from smug confidence to devastated horror, he gaped at Nightwing like a fish.

"200 years, right. As I was saying, I would like you to help me manage it."

"Hmm... If I don't wanna?" Yun ventured dangerously, he watched movies to keep himself culturally aware, he was at the point where the protagonist asked the silly questions to stall time.

He didn't know why he was stalling, maybe out of spite. He may have lived as a human for 75 years, but that doesn't mean he improved in work ethic. Even jobs spent more time firing him than not.

"I won't force you," The hero paused gauging the ex-dragon's reaction, for some reason the teen looked displeased, "but, we do offer free residence and free fo-"

"When do I start?" Yun replied hastily, drool practically hanging from his mouth and a blissful shine in his yellow eyes.

3 Months Later . . .

Yun gazed onto the brochure, and then he would gaze up from it to the scene before him. The brochure, then the scene. He did so for a few more circuits before finally coming up with one conclusion.

"Where is the mountain?"

His brochure showed a sunny depiction of Happy Harbor, a small town at the seashore with a giant yet magnificent mountain reaching the skies and surrounded by lush vegetation. What he saw however was a mountain that looked like it had a chunk bitten out from it, luckily there was still some green present, a few small trees here and there, not to the extent of the over promotional brochure, but it was better than nothing.

Nevertheless, Yun was told that his base of operations would be Mount Justice. He just didn't see much of a mountain. He walked through the streets of Happy Harbor. He fixed his jacket collar as he fetched for a crumbled paper in his pocket. Unfolding the sheet, it read out an address.

If he remembered correctly, he was told to go there for the last personal meeting with Nightwing. A diner, as like all the other times. How the hero knew so many restaurant stops was beyond the dragon, maybe he travelled lots.

The teen walked into the building, a bell chimed as the door opened, he walked to the counter and was ushered to a booth. There, waiting for him was Nightwing. Or at least, who he thought was Nightwing.

The hero was in civilian clothing, wearing some shades. But, still generally nothing like his other persona.

"Milkshake?" The hero asked casually.

"You promised me residence," Yun averted the question with a demand instead.

Nightwing slurped the creamy beverage, sighing after the refreshment went down. He then looked at the angered teen with his usual indifferent expression.

"The secret base is in Mount Justice."

"There isn't even a mount," Yun pointed out disappointingly.

"That's what makes it a secret," Nightwing responded, taking a second slurp from his strawberry milkshake.

"Uh..."

Nightwing laughed before sobering again, "Look, some things happened in the past, but, I can assure you its fully functional."

Yun plopped his elbows onto the table and held his face in his palms, he contemplated the information, after a while he spoke again, "So, why do all of it?"

"Do what?" The hero asked, finishing up his milkshake in the process.

"Assemble a team, re-make a broken base, what's going on, I thought there was peace?"

Silence, then the man placed the empty cup onto the table. He fetched for a napkin and whipped his mouth before staring intently into his counterpart's eyes. For some reason, Yun had a bad feeling about what was to follow.

"Peace is fragile, and the cracks are prominent. I want to make sure we'll be ready,"

"For?" Yun prompted,

"You'll have reports in your dorm. Read them, and pick the few you think have the most potential, then, persuade them into joining," Nightwing instructed, taking up the team leader role he had only a few years ago.

Yun pouted, he didn't like being ignored, but at the very least the man before him wasn't insulting his size. So, that was an improvement from half the people the ex-dragon ever associated with.

"Also, be quick about it, I have a feeling you won't be the only one looking for the talent," The hero concluded.

Nightwing fetched into his pocket and grabbed a few coins before placing them on the table, with that the hero excused himself and left Yun alone. The dragon sat there for a little longer before deciding to eat after all.

The hike to Mount Justice was underestimated. The terrain was unkempt and hard to maneuver, the baby trees he saw earlier were actually bigger than he thought, already standing at around 6ft, and they made visibility tediously difficult.

After three hours of aimless walking, an hour long hike finally came to its conclusion. The ex-dragon finally arrived to the base of the former mountain. Puzzled, he scouted the area for the entrance, to no avail. Kicking up some dirt, he was about to call it quits when double metal doors hissed open.

The inside was surprisingly far more impressive than the exterior. The kitchen was packed with fresh food which had Yun wondering just how recently the base was remodelled. The training area, lounge, and other rooms all looked sanitary and fit for life. He was satisfied with the treatment he received.

Eventually, Yun made his way towards his room, and like Nightwing promised, a few envelopes were neatly placed on the bed in the shape of an arc. Separate files consisting of nearly a dozen figures or more.

The ex-dragon flipped through the pages, lots of the characters were big shots, some sidekicks or heroes of noticeable fame, he even recognized a few of them. But those types of characters didn't sit well with Yun.

He was told to look for people with potential, but, his true motives fell in finding people who needed a second chance, maybe even a third, people who knew that being a sidekick wasn't enough. He wanted candidates who needed a journey of rediscovery. With his sights on target, he fetched out a cup of tea and tackled the reports with utmost earnest.

A/N: Hello, This is my second attempt at a SYOC. My first... well, Lets not delve on the past. I've been doing lots of writing that revolves around superpowers. Thought it was about time I put it on paper. So, this is where you come in! I need some Teenage superheroes! Don't be shy, I know you want to. Here's some rules to follow though, nothing in life is easy or free:

This story will take a main focus on dialogue. I guess, I want to write a story that passes for a TV show kind of deal. Which generally means, lots of dialogue. Review and whatnot. Yeah, see ya in a while I suppose.

Update 23/02/2016 The Format has been moved to my Profile.