Change of Scene
Moonshine9012
What's up guys? Decided a few weeks ago to write this for my friends and I. Hope yall enjoy it! Also, the Titans are as follows age wise: Cyborg-19; Starfire-18; Raven-18; Robin-17; Beastboy-17
Oh and if you saw any spelling errors in the story, please tell me. I'm my own editor at the moment. Thanks!
(The following statements are borrowed from CalliopeMused)
1.) I don't own the Teen Titans. This disclaimer applies to the entire story. If there is a change in this status, I'll be sure to let you know. Got it? Good. I'll say this once more, for the last time this story: The Teen Titans are not mine. Thank you and good day (or night, or whatever it is where you are), keep being a great audience.
2.)Couples are not changing from my opinions. So, deal or go away. Flame me, and I'll laugh it off. I have just enough confidence in what I'm writing to not be discouraged by a flame or two. (If there are more flames than reviews, I'm either not doing well or attracting the wrong readers.)
3.) Chapter length will very. This will be a long story, and some chapters will have more happening in them. This is just a fact of fiction, especially fiction published (or close enough) so casually.
4.) Constructive criticism accepted, appreciated, and noted. If a mistake somehow confuses the story, feel free to ask questions. If you ask a question in a review that merits an answer (no, plot points will not be disclosed), I'll post the response on the next chapter. Reviews help me know which parts of this story are good/could be better/bad.
Chapter 1
Change. It's what people expect most of the time. They prepare for change, whether good or bad, and adapt to the situation. Doesn't matter if they like it or not, even if they try their hardest to stop the change. In the end, it usually comes anyway. That day was a day full of change, specifically for me and my two friends.
We sat in English class, waiting for it to end, thus concluding the day. We sat at a round table in the back of the room, half asleep. Correction, me and my friend Ellie sat around the table, reading and half asleep. Our other friend, Tyler, sat on a bean bag in the corner by our table. T-Walk sat/lay there, ear buds nestled snugly in his canals, dead to the world.
Everyone else in the room sat around the other tables and were either listening to music, talking, or also close to falling asleep. Our teacher, Mrs. Melony, sat at her desk in the back of the room, browsing on her computer. She, like the rest of us, was bored out of her mind. As we sat at our table, Ellie looked up from her book and said, "Tom, are you sure about later? I mean, there are better ways of getting food and a place to sleep."
I looked up at her and thought for a moment. Ever since the Accident, me, T-Walk, and Ellie had been staying in an alleyway in downtown Forester. Not exactly the best place for anybody in the city to live, even for less then twenty-four hours. It's a miracle we haven't been at least mugged, considering we've been there a month.
"No, I'm not but what other choice do we have? The Raging Dragons may be a gang but at least they take care of their own. We'll be safe with them- safer than we are now I mean." My supposed assurance didn't do much in calming her nerves.
Lowering her voice, she asked, "What about our... problems though?"
My eyes darted around, scanning the area to make sure no one had been close enough to hear her. Looking back at her, I answered, "All we have to do is keep them under wraps and make sure nobody finds out about them. Oh, and for goodness sake, please to mention it around the Dragons."
"Might want to take your own advice" she retorted.
Both shaking our heads, we went back to reading our books and waited for the bell to ring. When it did finally ring, we gathered our things and I went over to Tyler to try and wake him up. Now, when T-Walk is asleep, it's sometimes lethal to wake him up, especially when he has his music in his ears. I slowly took a ruler from nearby and, ever so cautious and slow, began tapping him on the shoulder. It took about five minutes of constant tapping before he groggily opened his eyes.
"This had better be important" he grumbled.
"School's out bro. Come on, we gotta get back home and get ready for tonight" I said, ignoring the glare he gave me for waking him.
He grumbled again as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes before getting up and collecting his stuff. The three of us walked out of the room and headed down the hall. Getting out of the building, we followed the sea of people to the buses. Forester High School is settled in the neutral part of town, right in between lower downtown and the rich, upper city.
The city of Forester itself is set next to a bay that connects to the Pacific Ocean. In the bay, on their own small piece of land, stood the Titan's tower. Hope we don't run into them in the gang... I thought in vain. I knew we had too at some point, the Titans would eventually confront us one way or another. Heh, who am I kidding? We're gonna get creamed if and when we see them.
We sat at the back of the bus, like we always did. Nobody ever sits near us, not because of how we were, it was mostly because of our looks. Ellie wore a dark green cloak that covers every inch of her body. She always wears the hood over her shrouding her face in total darkness. Along with the cloak, she also wore underneath faded blue jeans and a long sleeve, black shirt. T-Walk wore his favorite hoodie, an old white with black stripes; underneath he wears an old shirt with stick men on the front. He's kinda our comedy guy, when he has his moments. He also wore ripped up blue jeans we had saved from the Accident.
I myself wore the only set of clothes I still owned after what happened in the Accident. I wore a worn out, navy blue blazer with khaki pants and a dirty white dress shirt. None of us wore shoes, our old ones had worn out by now and we never really liked stealing. Because of this, our feet had become accustomed and adapted to the rough terrain of the city. Not that anyone saw our feet anyway, and pants (and cloak) covered them pretty well.
We all varied in height: I myself am about five foot eleven, T-Walk is almost five foot three, and Ellie is close to about five foot four. The other part that set us apart was our difference in looks: while others were, for the most part well kept, we were almost always dirty. Ellie has short, choppy brown hair and relatively white. Tyler has long black hair that falls to about his mid back. Now, just because he had long hair, he made sure no one messed with him about it. The last unfortunate soul to do that had been rushed to the hospital with a couple of bone fractures.
Tyler was never caught though, how he wasn't, I'll never know. Strangely enough, even with his long black hair, T-Walk is actually very tanned. As for me, I can definitely say I'm part of the 'special' group of looking people. I have bushy black, gray, and white hair while my skin has a kind of grayish tint to it. Now, combining that with what I have to wear every single day, it makes for a pretty weird picture.
As the bus pulled up to the first stop, the three of us rose and exited, ignoring the looks we got from everyone else. When we had gotten off, the bus almost sped off, not that anyone could blame them though. Downtown was NOT a place you would want to be if you didn't have to. We looked around for a few seconds before darting down the sidewalk and disappearing into our alleyway on the right.
As we got the back of the dead end, we each plopped down on our old, thrown out mattresses we had found in a dumpster. They were worn and disgusting but they did their jobs. Besides the thin blankets that lay on our mattresses, and the small amount of food we hid, there really wasn't anything else in the alley. We all lay on our make shift beds for who knows how long before our stomachs started growling furiously.
Getting up, I went to the only other thing in the alley, which just happened to be a dumpster. I took hold of the sides of it and pushed it away from the alley wall. A hallow in the brick wall was where we stored the precious, and little, amount of food we could either work for, find, or sneak from our lunches from school.
Taking two small paper bags from the from the small alcove, I moved the giant trash can back against the wall before walking back to my friends. I distributed the food as evenly as I could: each of us got a a small water bottle, a bag, a mini bag of chips, and a half a peanut butter sandwich. It was definitely a meager meal but it was adequate for now, considering what we had had to eat in the past.
While we munched on our food, we talked only a little but what we did discuss was important.
"So, are you still sure we should go through with this initiation? There are better ways to make a living" Ellie said, looking over at me.
Sighing, I finished what food I had left and, looking back at her, said, "We don't have any other choices, unless y'all can come up with something else in the next half hour."
T-Walk sat up from where he lay on his mattress, having already finished his meal, and said, "Look man, I'll go ahead and say this now: I'll follow you through this but if things take a turn for the worst, we're gone. It doesn't matter if we are exposed, we all get out. Deal?"
I didn't say anything, just nodded my head, and once again let silence creep back into the alleyway. Minutes passed as Ellie finished gobbling up her meal and Tyler and I tried to pass the time with rock, paper scissors. I ended up losing best three out of five with him by the the time Ellie had finished eating. Once done, we threw the left over trash in the dumpster and proceeded out of the alleyway.
Turning left down the sidewalk, we started towards the abandoned side of downtown. As we trudged along, we passed many a loiterers, drug dealers, users, thieves, and pretty much any other type of criminal out there. Downtown and the lower city was basically a different planet compared to the rich, clean, upper part of the city.
After a few minutes, we came to an old, abandoned brick warehouse that looked to not have been used for maybe fifty years. Double checking the slip of paper I held, I compared the address to the one on plastered the front of the building. Seeing as it was indeed the correct place we had to be, I looked at my friends beside me. My gaze shifted from them, to the building, then back to them. I took a deep breath and started into the crumbling structure.
Walking through what was left of the doorway, I saw that it was relatively difficult to see in the warehouse. It was late afternoon and the building had only two windows, beside the front door frame, and those only let in a little light. We started to walk forward a few feet when suddenly, bright, over head lights blared on. What looked like steel coverings shot over the windows and over the door. My arm shot up over my eyes to try and protect them from the sudden light. I only saw most of it though after I lowered my arm.
The entire warehouse had been completely cleared out of anything and everything that had once occupied it. The walls were lined all the way around with masked men garbed in black and red tunics. The masks they wore were painted with the gang symbol across the surface: a blood red dragon breathing an inferno of black flames. The rest of the designed masks were stark white.
In the very center of the room stood a tall, red robed man that was as intimidating as he was mysterious. He stood there, hood up, hands behind his back as the three of us walked towards him.
"Welcome" he said, curtly, as far from welcoming as he could be. Continuing, he said, "Stand where you are and state basic information." His voice was deep but not at all friendly.
We stopped abruptly, about four and a half feet in front of him. I glanced at my friends for a moment before looking back at the man. I could barely make out his face from underneath his hood. He looked Asian, Chinese or Japanese possibly, and had a thin white scar that traced from his left temple down to the edge of his right jaw line. His age was impossible to guess.
"Thomas Binks; seventeen years; senior in high school" I rattled out, stepping forward.
Ellie stepped- glided is more like it- forward and said, "Elliesa Collier; eighteen years; senior."
Tyler stayed where he was, wearily looking around the room, and said quickly, "Tyler Walker; seventeen; senior."
The hooded man nodded and said in his deep voice, "I am Shen. I will be overseeing your initiation."
He nodded his head again, as if to affirm his statement, before turning on his heels and briskly walked to the back of the warehouse. Coming to the back, he stepped onto a platform and it raised to the roof of the warehouse. A few moments passed before quite suddenly, we were surrounded by all of the gang members who, but a moment ago, had been standing against the walls.
"Woah, woah, woah!" I shouted, looking around wildly. My friends and I immediately jumped back into a triangle formation, our backs pressed against each others.
The robed man laughed and said, "This is your initiation: you survive, you're in. You get beaten to a pulp? Well, let's just say we don't need squealers."
My eyes continued to dart around, trying to think of something- anything- that could help us, even in the slightest. None of us had never had any kind of lessons in fighting and the stuff we did know we had picked up off the street. The odds were stacked against us because the only way to adequately defend ourselves was by using our secrets but we DEFINETLY didn't need those becoming common knowledge.
Crap! I thought as I started to panic a little. I didn't need to panic long though, my panic quickly turned into a fight-or-flight instinct.
An explosion blew through the wall to our left, knocking away those unfortunate enough to be near it or in the path of debris. What looked like smoke grenades detonated nearby, causing half the gang members to double over coughing. The smoke must have been messing with them, it didn't affect me or my friends in the slightest. As the sound of coughing started, I heard two words I never thought I'd ever have to hear.
"Titans, go!"
Ahhhhh... shoot.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Review please!