Drug.
This is a Risk and Inertia story. I was thinking about Risk the other day as I'd just discovered that he was a drug-user because he'd lost an arm (he could have asked for a robot arm!). I then thought about Inertia with his Velocity 9 and I realised that they'd probably have a lot of empathy with each other. So here is my POV on this shared empathy. PLEASE REVIEW!
Disclaimer: Don't own DC.
There was a heavy banging on the walls of the Titans East Tower. The other Titans hadn't arrived yet and the only occupants of this dark stick building were Slade Wilson a.k.a Deathsroke, Risk and Inertia.
Right now, Risk was going through an unpleasant case of cold turkey – Deathsroke refused to let him take anymore drugs. Inertia had to listen to his team-mate's yells of anguish.
"LET...ME...OUT!" A fist pummelled the steel door of the sanctum which Risk was temporarily being kept in. It was followed by a brutal sobbing.
Inertia felt really sorry for him, as odd as it sounded. Creeping quietly to the door, Inertia sat down with his legs crossed patiently in front of it and waited calmly (or as calmly as he could be at this point) for Risk to quieten down so that they could converse appropriately. It took an incredibly long time for Risk to shut up and Inertia was nearing the end of his patience.
"I know how you feel." He muttered softly and the tired hammering stopped suddenly.
"Who are you?" The voice was gruff and angry. Inertia wondered if he sounded like that.
"My name is Inertia."
Risk seemed to be considering something, for his heavy breathing was all that could be heard. Inertia fiddled with one of his silver cufflinks on his ebony and green costume.
"You built this place...didn't you?"
Inertia's eye twitched before nodding. "Yes."
"Interesting. You REALLY live up to your name, huh?"
The other blonde wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that.
"How do YOU know how I feel anyway?" Risk challenged roughly and Inertia smiled bitterly.
"I have to take Velocity 9."
There was a short silence; then Risk sounded sympathetic.
"That sucks man."
"I suppose it could be worse."
That was the only conversation that was exchanged between them that day. The recovery from drug withdrawal symptoms and the arrival of the other particularly colourful Titans East members proved to be a rather consuming and distracting factor.
The next time the two unlikely team-mates got to talk to each other, it was on a Wednesday night, about a week after Titans East had settled into their hulking Tower. The flickering light radiating off the TV illuminated the four Titans currently watching it. Inertia's golden eyes seemed to glow like a cat in the dark.
"Hey, could you change the channel? I'm not really into chick flicks." Kid Crusader asked Risk warily, uncertain of the other's reaction.
"Don't worry, was gonna do it myself anyway." The older blonde replied casually, flicking expertly to a cooking programme.
Seeing it made the only speedster on the team hungry – maybe it was classical conditioning, Inertia thought wryly as he stood up to zip into the kitchen and whip a few snacks from the fridge while pale Match wasn't looking.
Or, he would have, if he hadn't experienced a sudden rush of vertigo. Reaching out, Inertia gripped the back of the cracked brown sofa with his left hand while bringing his right hand to grope at his face in confusion.
"Inertia?"
He vaguely heard a concerned tone, felt a touch of comfort to his thin shoulder. Overwhelming heat and dizziness surged forwards and then he didn't remember anything else.
"...nertia! Inertia!...ake...Wake up!"
Somebody called to him and lightly slapped his warm face. The TV's white light still flickered on the plain walls.
"No good...way out...9's worn off."
That hollow feeling in his stomach; his speed drug must have worn off again.
"I..." Numbly, he tried to speak but the boy felt himself covered with something warm and soft and he was gone again.
When his gold eyes finally fluttered open properly, Risk was sitting quietly by his bedside.
"R...isk?" His voice was croaky.
"Hey kid. You feeling okay?" Risk smiled kindly at him.
Inertia nodded numbly. "Where am I?"
"In your room. It was really weird because you were just so still for a bit and then you were shaking and crying all over the place. Slade injected you with Velocity 9 to help you recover."
Inertia's face flushed with embarrassment and curled up on his side. Only he knew what the crying was really about.
"The thing is..." Risk continued, with an awkward pause. "Your body is getting too dependent on Velocity 9 and apparently you're going to be doing a lot of fainting every time you run out of the stuff."
Inertia looked very upset and Risk felt sympathy towards him; he knew how he felt.
"I feel like a crack addict now..." Inertia mumbled and sighed, drawing himself up into a sitting position and clasping his arms around his pumped runner's legs.
"For now, whenever you feel like you're gonna run out, you have to inject yourself with more of it...okay?" Risk put a brotherly hand (the only hand he had actually) on Inertia's slim shoulder and gazed quietly down with concerned, coral blue eyes.
"Trust me, I know."
Since then, since that battle with the Titans West, Inertia hadn't seen Risk at all.
He missed him, in a roundabout sort of way.
It was difficult to describe the relationship with the man he had literally only spoken to twice. But for a while, it had felt...like family.
Drugs had made them a two-person family.
Maybe they weren't so bad after all.
Hope you enjoyed!