Team Y (novel)

Team Y is the second novel in the FJM Shared Universe series. It tells the origin story of the titular team of superhero, who travel through time and space. It was published on Wattpad on 28 April 2017. The action is set in different time periods: November 2114, March 2115 after a flash-forward, March 2015, between August 1939 and February 1940 and in April 1945.

Synopsis
The continuation of plotpoints from the novel The Acrobat.

Michael Foot is an eighteen-year old, who along with his music band has gained popularity in the twenty-second century world. However when he discovered an amazing superpower in him, his life took a 180 degree turn.

He decides to go back in time to meet his great grandfather, Phil Turner, operating as a superhero known as The Acrobat, in hopes that he could help him discover the mysteries of his power. Unfortunately the young Philip isn't experienced yet and in addition, due to an accident (or rather The Acrobat's arch-enemy), they lose their memories and land in distant times.

There they have to remember who they are and where do they come from, as well as fight General John, who had formed an alliance with the Axis Powers and created a paradox, alternating the course of history. There's nothing to wait for, but to save time and space! Luckily they gained new friends in the form of a certain squadron. There's only one question left - will the heroes actually succeed?

It is the second novel in the FJM Shared Universe, a series about Polish superheroes.

Act I
Twenty-second century. A concert is being held to celebrate the 160 th anniversary of establishing Bździszewo. One of the stars is Michael Foot and his friends as a band. After the show, Michael meets the friend of his family and the mayor, Gideon Timez. He offers a spot on the University of Bździszewo and the boy thanks him to then meet up with his parents and friends. The event is interrupted by a sudden attack of the terrorist group Thunderbolts. They surround a larger group of people, including Michael and his parents. Using their powers of electrokinesis, they kill everyone aside from Mike, who somehow resists it. He is electrocuted once again and falls to the ground. He awakens a few days later in the hospital, where he's being looked over by his friends and finds out that his parents died and he barely survived, falling into a coma. A few hours later he leaves the hospital and decides to visit Gideon's house. He wants to run there but after a minute he notices that he is sixty kilometers away from the town.

Upon reaching the mayor's house, he talks with him about this topic and they come to the conclusion that Michael is a Superhuman with the power of superspeed and inherited his gene after his great grandfather - Phil Turner, who in his times was known as a superhero Acrobat. Following that, Gideon shows Mike a cave under his house and reveals that he had known Turner before his death and the grotto was one of his later bases. He also presents the Time-Watch - a special watch, meant to transport to any place in time and space. They decide to use it, so that Mike could go a hundred years into the past and learn about the powers from his great grandfather. Gideon finds the Time-Space Crystal, meant to power the watch, while Michael begins his training to use his powers for good like his ancestor. He takes the moniker Flare and throughout the next few months he focuses on catching smaller-scale criminals, while Gideon is building a portal which would generate a wormhole to be the main gate to the past for Michael. Three months forward, Michael finally goes back in time and after doing so, he finds himself in another cave, exactly one hundred years prior. He is instantly targetted by the base's artificial intelligence. The AI recognizes him as an intruder, so he runs away. He ends up in the living room of one of the houses over the cave and finds a note, informing a certain Steve that its author - signed Philip - went to do shopping. This leaves him no doubts and he heads towards the nearby market.

Act II
Philip Turner is occupied with the routine shopping, when Mike stumbles upon him and asks for help, instantly revealing everything about himself, which causes Phil to pass out. Flare quickly transports him to his house, where he is welcomed by Steve. Michael explains the situation and Steve believes him. The two enter the house, where they spend three hours on talking, which makes them instant friends. When Phil awakens and meets the two in the living room, the two heroes confront each other again, this time without Phil falling unconcious. After a few minutes he suggests moving to the Acrobat's Cave. Upon enterng to the lair, they continue their talk and The Hero of Szczecin says that he doesn't actually know much about the Genes Y, as he had discovered his own powers merely a few months prior. In response, Michael suggests finding out more together, offering to work in a duet. Steve wants in to, but Phil declares that he doesn't want to include powerless people in those matters. Especially after the events from few months before. They are interrupted by a notification from the main computer. Acrobat receives a message from commissioner Oaksley about the escape of his two enemies - General John and Wolf-Man - from the prison. This gives the newly-created duet the first crisis to stop.

The heroes go to the Old Brickyard, where the villains are supposedly headed, and get into an underground storage, where they find John and Wolf-Man. After having a short fight with them and the Transforming Robots, the heroes discover the criminals' goals - getting supplies of Fortellum, from which they would build armours unable to be destroyed even by The Acrobat. The fight ends with the villains escaping and leaving the heroes surrounded by a radioactive slime. Flare however, manages to get them both out. After going outside, they defeat their opponents and turn them over to the police. Acrobat tells Flare about the idea, which he came up with after John mentioned captain Jarowit Crucian, known also as a superhero Polish Patriot during World War 2. As he also was a Superhuman, Acrobat suggested using the Time-Watch to go back to the past and learn about the superpowers with Patriot's help. Despite some uncertainities, the future speedster agrees to the proposition and begins to set the date on the watch. The same moment, John gets out of the policemen's hands, jumping at the heroes. This causes Flare to accidentally set the year 1939, instead of 1949 and confirm the choice. Both heroes and John disappear from the present, which shocks Wolf-Man and the officers.

They land in a side alley of the pre-war Bobrowniki, but when they intend to stop the enemy, he presents them his brand new modification - a memory-erasing cannon. The heroes are treated with it and left alone. The next day, they wake up in the Dęblin Flight School and meet the young corporal Jarowit Crucian. Seeing as the two has serious lacks in memory, Jarowit decides to help. Suddenly, two other military men and one woman enter the room. One of them talks to the two heroes and introduces himself as General Carl Markowski. He also introduces Witold Urbanowicz and his own daughter Victoria. Seeing as they don't have a place to be and are in the college age, Markowski offers them to join the school, which is met with Jarowit's disapproval. General orders him to go to the training ground and once again faces Philip and Michael, who agree to the proposition. After exiting the room, they notice the Acrobat and Flare suits. Following that, they are led to the range, where they're assigned to The White Eagles group, which Jarowit belongs to as well. Urbanowicz also introduces the other members of the team: Hubert Kingfisher - Jarowit's cousin, Luke Archer, Evangelos Evangeli, Anthony Szorstki, Adam Crow, Michael Raisin, Jędrzej Goose, Jacob Knot and Lucas Hen.

The same day, John arrives in Moscow, where he interrupts the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with the intention to make a new plan of messing up time come into life. He still has his two adversaries on the target, believing that it would be easier to eliminate them, when being confused, they faced the two enemy armies attacking Poland. John offers to help both nations with his technology, to make the conquest of Europe easier. Despite his origin, he manages to convince the politicians and the pact becomes a three-sided alliance. The following day, Philip and Michael begin their training. During exercises, which are also a competition, their amazing, though suppressed by their amnesia, abilities become apparent. On top of that, Jarowit shows signs of a well-thought strategy, which grants victory to the White Eagles. A few days forward, 1st of September, all of the studens are awakened by an alarm and it turns out that their country has been attacked.

After three weeks of intense training in the school, White Eagles receive their first mission. Along with two other teams they are needed under Krasnobród, where they have to help in throwing the Germans out of town, as according to the intelligence, they put an additional guard around it. Jarowit is chosen to be the leader and after four hours, the brigades arrive and hide in the forest. Ultimately, Phil notices some tanks driving up the nearby hill and a man with a metal face standing on one of them. He shares the remark with the friends and Jarowit, along with the leaders of the other groups, decides to start the fight. The teams run out of the woods and a big battle emerges, in which Luke Archer manages to catch John's attention after losing his ammunition and using a bow instead. John mocks him for that and tells them to surrender, mentioning the people he wants to doom and how they look, which reminds Phil of the suits he had seen in the school. Eventually the battle ends with the Polish forces winning, but they still have casualties on their side. John manages to escape and five days later he is in Berlin, where he is conducting a mysterious construction. He is visited by Ribbentrop, who just like Hitler, wants to know what John is even building. Then, the cyborg unveils his giant mecha-dragon made from Fortellum. Although the visitor is astonished, he still has some doubts, due to the amount of expenses.

The Dęblin school is visited by a befriended brigade, who discusses with Urbanowicz and Markowski. At that time, Phil and Mike meet a teenager among the soldiers. While at first they assume he serves as a scout, it turns out that he also belongs to the brigade as a full-fledged soldier. He introduces himself as Stanley Ant and says that he is a Superhuman. He also mentions that he belongs to the group only due to his powers, which make him a powerful weapon able to win the war. Then, the conference finally ends and Markowski declares that he will go with the visitors to Western Europe, due to the lost case in Poland. He also says that the missions would now be given to teams by his daughter. She is happy that her father doesn't limit her anymore and allows her to stay in the country. When general is done with the announcement, everyone is surprised by a sudden shock. The school is being attacked by General John in the Mecha-Dragon. Although everyone is frightened, they soon begin to fight. Jarowit, Philip and Luke get inside one of the tanks. Soon, Stanley also joins the battle, dressed in a hero suit, using the moniker Hyper Man. Thanks to his powers, the mecha is weakened a lot. When Jarowit's tank is shot, the men have to evacuate. Defenseless Phil subconciously lifts the tank remains and throws it at the mecha, which ultimately destroys it. Seeing that, the Germans and John turn away. Despite the win, the school is destroyed and the heroes are forced to change their base and home.

A few months later, The White Eagles are operating from a secret base near Bern. After this much time, Phil, Mike, Jarowit, Hubert and Luke become good friends. One evening, Jarowit goes to a workshop and develops a new weapon for himself - a shield made out of Fortellum gathered after the battle with John, as well as a sword. Inspired by Hyper Man, he decided to become a superhero and a symbol for Poland. He also creates goggles shaped to an eagle's appearance and a jetpack with red and white coloured wings. Thus, he becomes the Polish Patriot. Several days later, the soldiers are notified that Witold would also have to leave them. A goodbye ceremony is held for him, connected with granting Jarowit the rank of a captain and transferring the leadership in the base to him. Additionally, Jarowit announces the transformation of the White Eagles into a pilot squadron called Squadron 404, as well as the beginning of his career as the Polish Patriot.

Over the next few weeks, the Squadron attends several missions connected with the supposed spottings of Germans in the western Switzerland. One of them leads them to Basel, where they once again face John and the Nazi soldiers. The fight ends once John snatches the Time-Watch that Mike had on his arm until that moment. Uncertain of his intentions, the team decide to chase him. They get to Bern, where Jarowit notices that John is heading to Lyon. The Squadron then splits up with some of them going to their base to get to France in planes and the others continuing to drive there on their motorcycles. After an hour, the land part of the team passes the train John's in and arrives at the location where the road and tracks split, so they decide to get into the train. They manage to land on the roof and jump in-between the cars, when they are about to get inside a tunnel and then hide in the last one. After sending Luke Archer, who resembles an Aryan man to find out what John's plan is, they learn that the cyborg attempts to get another supply of Fortellum, as well as bring his mysterious allies, using a piece of Time-Space Crystal from the Time-Watch. Eventually, they arrive in Lyon and run to the nearby airport, where they meet the rest of the Squadron.

General John is on the same location and opens a wormhole, which brings the surprised Transforming Robots to their leader. They then claim that they had seen John a moment before and the whole situation had already happened, ending with John's loss while fighting Acrobat, Flare and three other heroes on 13 March 1940, and imprisoning the Robots just a minute prior. Realizing that his army was in a time loop, John decides to make some changes to the events, but first he sends the Robots to face Squadron 404. Subsequently, he provokes them, wishing his people good luck in Poland. The good soldiers get inside the planes and fly after John and the Nazis. The battle lasts for a few minutes and ends with the Squadron's victory, until they're approached by a whole fleet of other planes, which turn out to be the robots, connected with the rest of their plane-bodies through the cockpits. The so called Cyberplanes easily take down most of the members, until only Jarowit, Michael, Phil, Luke and Hubert are left. When the latter is shot too, he is forced to jump with a parachute, which had been his fear for his whole life.

Hubert is falling down and despite his parachute stuttering, he manages to open it and land safely, though in a snow drift. Getting through it is hard for him and he eventually stumbles from the cold. His body begins to go through sudden changes - he gets colder and is surrounded by a blue radiation, until he falls unconcious. He wakes up in a cave and notices another man in the same room. It turns out that he knows his name and what he had been through due to telepathy. Subsequently, the man introduces himself as Andrew Banaś, who used to operate under the moniker Nature-Man. He then explains to Hubert everything regarding Genes Y, including a chunk of Superhumans, called The Elemental Warriors, which him and Hubert are a part of. The soldier decides to use his power to fight the enemies and asks the man whether he knows anyone else with a similar power. His savior says that after reading his mind, he found out that Jarowit, Philip and Michael have superpowers too and in addition, the latter two comes from the future, but forgot about it. Hubert instantly wants to help, but the man explains that in order for them to get their memories back, they need to go through the same process that stole them. He then tells Hubert that with his power, he will be able to create an artificial form of transport, as well as an Elemental Warrior suit. Hubert focuses and takes a new form with a light blue skin, as well as creates The Ice Helicopter. A few days later, he is trained enough and ready to return to his friends.

Ultimately, Mike, Luke and Phil are also shot down by the Cyberplanes, leaving Jarowit alone. Fighting alone, he decides to go higher and the robots chasing him do the same. However, Jarowit doesn't stop and flies almost to a hundred kilometers above the ground, partially wrecking his plane and almost losing conciousness, before manouvering and turning back down, while the Cyberplanes, which didn't suspect that, fly even higher, outside the Earth's atmosphere. The half-concious Jarowit awakens mid-way towards the ground. He starts to change his plane's position and manages to fly horizontally again. Being on the Italian border, he decides to find his friends, who are on the ground, besides Philip, whose parachute got caught in a tree. He falls down, landing on a huge metal part, which causes him to knock out. Meanwhile, Mike and Luke are surrounded by a bunch of German soldiers and find out that they're near a concentration camp.

The following day, Philip awakens in a cell and has an unpleasant faceoff with a mean guardian. After Mike's intervention, he is given five minutes and finds out that Anthony, Evangelos, Michael Raisin and Lucas Hen had been executed. The moment of silence is interrupted by the guardian returning and ordering them to get to work. After three hours in the mines, Phil once again meets the warden and stops him from tormenting the barely standing prisoners. He is joined by Michael and they are both led to the camp chief, who turns out to be General John. Unaware of who they truly are, he erases their memories, which actually causes those to come back, but the cyborg tells his people to walk the two to a gas chamber. Having regained their memories, the men are terrified of dying before being born, but are saved in last minute by Jarowit. They tell him the truth about themselves and their friend quickly realizes that they aren't kidding. Together, they decide to discuss everything in the base, but first - to get their weapons back and cause an uprising in the camp. Thus, they get the weapons from the same warden they meet for the third time and give some of them to Luke, Adam, Jacob and Jędrzej. During the battle, Jarowit loses his shield, protecting the friends, while the prisoners are freed. The Squadron leaves the camp, but John goes right after them.

Upon returning to their headquarters, they meet with Victoria, but are instantly forced to hide in the shelter, spotting a bomber pilotted by John. Before closing, Phil notices a mysterious figure freezing the bombs before they hit the ground, which saves them. He introduces himself as The Living Ice, but quickly takes his human form, revealing that it's actually their friend, Hubert. The friends catch up and subsequently, Michael, with Jarowit's help, explains the paradox caused by John and how it could be fixed. It's also explained that even if they repair the damage to the timeline, they will retain their memories. Thus, Phil proposes establishing a team, which would focus on stopping various threats to time and space. Everyone agrees, with Victoria, Adam, Jacob and Jędrzej deciding to support the group as allies, not full-fledged members. Next, they think of a name and Hubert, after realizing that most of them (despite Jarowit's denials) has the Gene Y, proposes the name "Team Y".

Over the next few weeks, the team successfully stops all of John and the nazis' plans, until on 13 March 1940, the seemingly final showdown with the cyborg happens. He is finally frozen by The Living Ice, so Phil and Mike are able to return to their times. Squadron 404 and the other soldiers come back to Bern, while Flare quickly lifts The Acrobat to his present and runs to the future himself. The Hero of Szczecin notices however, that the brick factory is in ruins and upon looking around, he only sees an endless desert. Upon returning to 2115, Flare also notices that the place he arrived in didn't look like his home. He runs to the ruins of a nearby library, where he reads an article explaining everything. Immediately after their departure - the Polish Patriot was murdered and the Nazis won the war under John's leadership, with him killing Hitler himself. Flare is suddenly caught by wild warriors, led by a man in a silver armour, who introduces himself as Mr. Time - the king of the existing dystopy and a hunter of Superhumans, whom he had wiped out many years ago, thus he's surprised seeing Flare. After taking off his helmet, it turns out that the man is an alternate version of Gideon Timez. However, Flare manages to escape and go back in time. In a modified 2015, Acrobat is also trying to find out what happened. John is revealed to be a setup Transforming Robot, which the hero destroys in fury. He also finds out about the death of Polish Patriot from a biography written by Hubert. Soon, Flare arrives and they know they have to come back to 1940. However, due to Hyper Man, both Acrobat and Flare's ancestor, being killed in the alternate timeline, the future hero's hand is beginning to fade away.

Act III
In 1940, John is preparing to kill Jarowit from hiding in front of the Squadron's base. When he is about to shoot out from his laser cannon, Acrobat and Flare return, warning Patriot. He turns around the moment the beam is shot and stops it unconciously, unlocking the power of telekinesis. Seeing that, John flies away and the two heroes explain to their friends the reason why they came back. They decide that they need to be sure the war is won by the Allies. However, not to lose five years of their lives, they agree to travel to the most important moments of the war, gradually fixing the timeline. They do so and after dozens of missions, they arrive in Szczecin, on 26 April 1945.

Soon after the city is won, John arrives in it with his new ally - Mr. Time, whom he had met a few days prior. The latter went back to those times from his future, chasing after Flare. Seeing the joined forces of two villains, Acrobat goes back to the present for a minute and brings his Flying Car, as well as Steve, who joins the Team, Victoria, Jacob, Jędrzej and Adam in the final battle. At one point, The Living Ice is severely injured, but manages to telepathically call Nature-Man, who quickly shows up on the battlefield. He cures Hubert and the other injured to then join the fight, as well as the Team. Eventually, both opponents are beaten, or at least General John is, as Mr. Time gets up and tells the Team that he is their greatest enemy, to then travel in time. Being aware that he likely went to the future, Flare, Acrobat, Patriot, Living Ice, Nature-Man and The Hunter land in the fixed Bździszewo, 2115. They meet the original Gideon and confuse him with Time, however they quickly find the alternative one, who is shattered by his kingdom not existing anymore and not being able to come back to his home.

He swears vengeance on the Team and once again goes back to 1945, but he is ultimately defeated. Wondering where to put such powerful villains, Flare mentions about the Time Police, which is known in his times. Right after saying that, two Time Officers teleport to that moment to receive John and Time. Acrobat and Flare also want to turn themselves in, due to causing the paradox. However, they find out that the creation of Team Y wasn't accidental and was a stable point of the timeline. A victory celebration begins and Team Y poses to a photo, which Philip tears into two parts, so that the one with him and Flare would remain a mystery. After a few hours of fun, Phil, Mike and Steve bid farewell to their new friends and return to the present times. Then, Phil immediately falls asleep, while Michael and Steve go to eat in the kitchen. They talk about their adventure.

Epilogue
In the first scene, after saying goodbye to the friends, Jarowit notices how one of the robot remains activates again. He immediately reacts, throwing it into the river and the Time Police shows up again, remembering about the robots.

Seven months later, Phil and Steve are telling the story of Team Y through a video chat with Greg Enius. When Phil makes a joke, Steve is embarrassed and talks to Enius, only to find out that he had fallen asleep, as it turns out, around the time of Flare's origin. For his defense, Greg says that he doesn't have a doctorate in psychology and cannot really help if Philip has trauma after that adventure. However, he replies that he was recapping it, as Gregory needs to know the whole background, because Team Y needs his help. When Phil asks if he is available, Greg opens his mouth and the book ends.

Main

 * Jarowit Crucian/Polish Patriot
 * Michael Foot/Flare
 * Philip Turner/The Acrobat

Secondary

 * Hubert Kingfisher/The Living Ice
 * John Smith/General John
 * Luke Archer/The Hunter
 * Victoria Markowska
 * Andrew Banaś/Nature-Man
 * Gideon Timez [A]/Mr. Time
 * Adam Crow
 * Jędrzej Goose
 * Jacob Knot
 * Steve

Episodic

 * Gideon Timez
 * Stanley Ant/Hyper Man
 * General Markowski
 * Witold Urbanowicz
 * Walter Huntsman/Wolf-Man
 * Evangelos Evangeli
 * Lucas Hen
 * Anthony Szorstki
 * Michael Raisin
 * Time Officer-142
 * Time Officer-143
 * Peter Sawka
 * Victor Szymański
 * Alexander Gibert
 * Margaret Foot
 * Eugene Foot
 * Agent A
 * Agent D
 * Agent E
 * Gregory Enius (guest appearance)

Trivia

 * The first version of the novel was finished in February 2016, but just like in the case of The Acrobat, the author decided to rewrite it.
 * The intial version only had 160 pages.
 * Originally, Luke Archer wasn't supposed to be a superhero yet.
 * In the first version, Nature-Man's role was limited only to saving Hubert and telling about the Elemental Warriors to him. Only while rewriting the novel, the author decided to add him as a support in the final battle and make the hero join the team afterwards.
 * At first, the original Team Y members were only supposed to be Acrobat, Polish Patriot, Flare and The Living Ice. Additionally, it was supposed to be only them and Steve taking part in the final battle. During the rewrites, Luke Archer as a superhero, The Hunter and Nature-Man were added to the group. Besides joining the two to the showdown, Victoria, Jacob, Jędrzej and Adam were added as well.
 * In the original version, the characters of Victoria and general Markowski didn't exist at all and the latter's role was filled by Witold Urbanowicz, who also had a bigger role than in this version.
 * When the heroes are giving their proposals for the team name, some of them are "Time-Space Buddies" and "Time Guardians", but they're immediately declined. Both names were considered as the name for Team Y, as it was being created in real life.