TT: G2: by Richard Van
The front door at the Titan Tower buzzed, demanding one of its teenaged, super-powered residents to answer it.
Moonshine, the split-minded, half-human Tamaranian looked at Steel Flash. Steel Flash, the ex-villain, human magnet looked at her. They both looked at Blank, the faceless, powerless, near-emotionless couch potato who never bothered to help anybody but himself, and occasionally Catrina, the cat-like beauty he had a crush on. At the moment, she was out with Southpaw, whose psychic ability was only matched by his strength. Blank didn't look at Moonshine or Steel Flash. He just continued to stare expressionlessly at the TV.
The buzzer sounded again. The Titans were in the upstairs living room, a couple stories up from the ground floor, and none of them wanted to run all the way downstairs to answer it.
"Fine! If you lazy bums won't answer it…", Moonshine said, standing up.
"No, hold on." Steel Flash crossed his arms dutifully. "You guys made me the leader, so I guess I have to accept the responsibility of making sure the door gets answered."
He sighed as he walked out of the living room and down the hallway. He pressed the rectangular button that opened the elevator, and waited until it arrived and the doors opened. He put his hand against the elevator bumpers to prevent it from closing.
He took a deep breath, leaned back, and screamed, "BLANK!!"
Moonshine looked at Blank and shrugged. "Guess you have to answer it. He is the leader."
Blank walked over to where Steel Flash was waiting and moseyed into the elevator. He touched the area where his lips should have been, then touched his butt. The elevator doors closed.
"Yeah, you too," Steel Flash said, walking back into the living room. He got comfortable in the same spot next to Moonshine and attracted the remote to his hand. He started surfing the TV for something to watch.
The arm closest to Moonshine was stretched over the back of the couch, so she slowly slid over and underneath his arm, laying her head on his chest.
"Moonshine, what are you doing?"
"Just getting comfy, Steelio."
"Well, you're making me un-comfy. Mooney-o."
"Mooney-o? You're so funny! I wish we had gone somewhere too. Staying in the tower all day is boring. How come you didn't take me on a date?"
"Because we're not dating, Moonshine."
"So! Catrina and Southpaw aren't dating either."
"Technically, they are. They're on a date."
"I mean they're not boyfriend, girlfriend dating. We can go on a date and not be boyfriend and girlfriend."
"I'm not interest- "
"I'm bored! I wanna go whoop some ass or something. Anybody would be fine- Canine, Blackfire's daughter, Sour Scream- I'd even fight those Slade-bots again."
The aluminum vase on the table crumpled into a ball and forced itself through the table. Moonshine sat up and looked at Steel Flash.
"You did that, huh? Sorry. Forgot to not say the 'S' word. But since we're on the subject…"
"Drop it, Moonshine."
"But-"
As Moonshine started to protest, the tower's power shut off, turning off the TV, as well as the lights.
"I hate the dark," she whispered. She heard Steel Flash moving a few feet away.
"Emergency power should cut on in a minute," he said.
"What are you doing?" Moonshine asked.
"The lights didn't cut off on their own. Someone turned them off."
"Who do you think it was?"
There was a quick flash of light that came from where Steel Flash was standing. The room was silent.
"What was that? Steelio? Who's there?"
There was no answer. Moonshine raised her hand level with her face and illuminated the area around her with a bright, red starbolt, revealing to Moonshine that someone other than Steel Flash was in the room. He was standing in front of her and holding a camera with a giant flash bulb. Before she could throw a starbolt and defend herself, there was a blinding white, flash of light.
Villains run amuck and the Titans are too old…
Teen Titans!
Before they separated, Robin set a new goal…
Teen Titans!
Cause there's still evil on the attack,
We can't rest until they've got our back,
The world still needs heroes on patrol!
TT: G2!
(Turntable scratches in background, then a hip-hop beat plays)
My name's Steel Flash, I'm the magnet guy
I can manipulate metal, super speed, and fly
TT: G2!
I'm Southpaw, I can fight with my mind
If not, I'll use superstrength to kick your behind
TT: G2!
I'll never be yours, so give up and don't bother
I'm sexy Catrina, I'm Catwoman's daughter
TT: G2!
Hey, I have split personalities! Everyday! All the time!
Sometimes I'm Moonshade, otherwise I'm Moonshine!
TT: G2!
I am Blank. I have no face or powers.
TT: G2!
(Turntable scratches again, and hip-hop beat stops)
The new Titans- always arriving fast…
Teen Titans!
All our problems, now they're in the past…
Teen Titans!
Catrina, Southpaw, Moonshine, and Steel Flash,
No thanks to Blank, they're watching your (ahem)
Cause when the world continues to lose control…
Teen Titans- Go!
Teen Titans: Generation Two!
Konichiwa!
--
Teen Titans: Generation Two
Episode 3: How to Lose a Girl in Ten Seconds
"It's a shame the movie's over. God, I've never laughed so hard."
"Yeah. Jim Barry's one of the funniest people I've ever seen."
"Southpaw, you're kidding! Jim Barry isn't half as funny as you spilling the popcorn in your lap and choking on the drink straw."
"Me choking wasn't as funny as you strangling that guy with your whip."
Catrina batted her long, evenly spaced eyelashes. "He was staring at my ass. He had it coming."
"True, but if I wouldn't have stopped you, you probably would've killed him."
Catrina didn't know how lightly to take that comment. Southpaw was capable of seeing into the future after all, and it bothered her to think that she would have killed someone.
You're thinking a little too hard about it, Catrina, she told herself.
"I've been wondering about something, Southpaw."
Please give me permission to ask you on another date, he thought.
"I don't really know how to ask you this, and I'm not sure how you'll respond."
Just say, 'Do you want to start a relationship?', and I'll say 'Yes'.
"The best way for me to ask you is to just ask you, so here it is."
His heart leaped into his throat. This is it, he thought, All that dreaming, meditating, and praying is about to pay off. If it weren't for Blank giving me his favor from Catrina last week, this wouldn't happen. I have to thank him.
"Southpaw?"
"Yes, Catrina?"
"Since you have psychic powers, shouldn't you be able to fly?"
Southpaw almost fell over. He hadn't really expected her to ask him to ask her out again, but his inability to fly was the last thing he expected to be on her mind. "What?"
"It just seems like psychic powers and flying go hand in hand to me."
"Well, I can kind of fly."
"You can? You have to let me see!"
"I mean I can't really fly-"
"You can or you can't. Which is it?"
"I can't. I can't fly, just levitate."
"Oh don't be modest. Come on. Show me."
Catrina grabbed him by the arm. She was almost jumping up and down with excitement, which was completely out of her character.
Its kind of cute, Southpaw thought, she's never flown, so I guess she's excited. The joy of flight isn't something you can take for granted.
"Tighten your grip, Catrina. Ready?"
Catrina gave him the sweetest look her make-up free, naturally beautiful face could muster. Her eyes brimming with joyful tears, she kissed him halfway on his cheek, and halfway on his mouth. It was her way of saying- For now I've got my guard down, so I'd go anywhere with you.
Southpaw smiled and said, "Here we go."
Catrina looked up towards the night sky, which was filled with brightly lit stars, all welcoming her to come up and meet them. Southpaw closed his eyes and concentrated all his psychic energy on moving upward. Catrina almost let go when she realized they had left the ground, and they floated up and up, higher and higher, until Southpaw had gone as high as his psychic knowledge permitted. Catrina looked at the ground and temporarily lost her breath.
"Oh my God. You're kidding me. One foot? That's it? Let me go. I can jump higher than this." He put her down and she wiped her kiss off his face, slapping him in the process. "Blank can fly higher than that. Let's go home," she said.
"I told you I could only levitate. Don't be mad."
"Shut up. The others are probably having a Hell of a lot more fun than I am."
--
"Catrina and Southpaw have got to be having more fun than we are," complained Moonshine.
Steel Flash, Moonshine, and Blank were all separately trapped in large pictures on a wall that was adorned with newspaper and magazine clippings, and crude drawings of various superheroes. When their captor had hung them up on the wall, Steel Flash had noticed that a lot of the articles were centered on Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, and Robin. Looking around the room, the two Titans and Blank could see that who ever had kidnapped them was beyond obsessed with the old Titans. On the walls written in what was too dark to be red paint or ketchup were the words "In with the old, out with the new" and "Die! Die! Die!". Next to these words were well-drawn bloody doodles of the old Titans.
"Steelio, where are we?"
"Well, lets see… seeing as how I wasn't in the trunk listening to you crying the whole time-"
"Knumba Wunfan," Blank interrupted.
"What?" Steel Flash asked.
"Knumba Wunfan," Blank repeated.
"What about him?"
"His house."
"What's his- Oh, he lives here?"
"Yes."
"But why would that guy kidnap us and take us to Knumba Wunfan's house?" Moonshine wondered.
Steel Flash sighed. "Moonshine, the kidnapper is Knumba Wunfan."
"Oh, that makes sense."
"Yeah, it does."
Knumba Wunfan was a newspaper writer whose only goal in life was to bring back the original Titans and prove that the second generation of Titans was garbage. Blank had read every one of his articles (they were well written and almost convincing) and could tell by the Teen Titan paraphernalia that smothered every wall except theirs that he had been the one who had kidnapped them.
Blank, Moonshine, and Steel Flash heard a door open to the left of their frames, but being two-dimensional they could only wait until the intruder stepped into their view. He did, and they could easily see that he was as eccentric as the walls suggested. He was wearing white pajamas with black polka dots, a dirty, gray blanket tied around his neck like a cape, bright red knee high boots, and a pair of yellow latex gloves. On his face was a mask made out of aluminum foil and pipe cleaners, and in the middle of his chest was a large paper camera that looked ready to break free of the tape that held it. He looks like a superhero on a low budget, they thought.
He put his hands on his hips in a hero-like fashion and said, "I am Polaroy! I know you're wondering what my planshh are, shho I will tell you."
Moonshine snickered. Polaroy sounds like his tongue is too big for his mouth, she thought.
"What'shh shho funny?!" he demanded, "I am Polaroy! Do not laugh! Thoshh who laugh will be vanquisshhhed!"
Moonshine was howling with laughter. She was laughing so hard it seemed like her picture frame was going to fall off the wall.
"Shhut up!" he yelled, "I am Polaroy!!"
"Hold on," Steel Flash said, laughing himself, "Polaroy? As in Polaroid? Like a camera?"
"Yessh," he answered, "Shho?"
Moonshine snickered.
"What was the point in taking the 'd' out?" Steel Flash asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Your name's not Roy. It doesn't make any sense."
"It doeshhn't have to! It just shhhounded nice and you don't know my name! It could be Roy… Now shhut up!" he yelled, mainly at Moonshine, whose picture was crooked and blurred in areas where her tears stained her portrait from laughing so hard. "Now, as I shhaid, you're wondering what my planshh are, shho I will tell you. I have invented two new flashbulbs: A paralyzer and a portrait-alyzer. Ashh you can plainly shhe, it wash the latter of theshhe two that captured you. After I capture the other two Titanshh, I will own you all ashh pictureshh on my wall. Then the shhity will be in peril, and the old Titanshh, the real Titanshh," he added, "will come back to keep it shhafe-"
"But they're all thirty shhomething now and everyone except my mom and dad are on some shhpace mission." Moonshine was obviously mocking him, and everyone except Polaroy was laughing themselves unconscious.
Polaroy was trying his best to ignore them. "They'll come back and when they reach the height of their careershh, I'll capture them and put them on my wall next to the pretend Titanshh."
Moonshine couldn't help but giggle again at Polaroy's slurred speech.
Steel Flash was checking his frame for some way of escaping.
Blank, who had been standing next to the downstairs television when Polaroy had "portrait-alyzed" him, was watching music videos.
They all were ignoring him, not only because he was a thumbtack compared to all the villains they had fought during the few months they'd been together, but because Catrina and Southpaw were following the remote-activated tracker Steel Flash had triggered in the Titan Tower.
Or so they thought.
Southpaw and Catrina were sitting outside of the Titan Tower, wishing they had remembered to bring their keys with them on their date.
"We could break in," Catrina offered. There was an obvious hint of anticipation in her tone.
"No, we can't. The defense systems would kill us before we could think about picking a lock."
"Well Mr. Wiseman Bodybuilder," Catrina said in a way that suggested she had been around Moonshine too often, "What do we do? Sit outside and wait for the others to get home?"
"I can't believe they went somewhere. Steel Flash stressed the fact that he wasn't gonna take Moonshine anywhere."
"You know how nagging she can be."
"And Blank? Why would he go with them?"
"Good question. Maybe there was a crime they had to stop or something."
"That's possible, but I doubt it."
"Why don't you meditate and find them?"
Southpaw was dumbstruck. "I hadn't thought of that."
"You didn't foresee me telling you to do that?"
"No, I didn't. I'm not perfect."
"I know."
"That's not funny, Catrina. I'm sorry I couldn't fly- "
"No, its fine. You're grounded like me. Now try and find the others, okay?" Catrina sat on a broken boulder and began to count the number of diamonds encrusted in her pinky ring.
"Okay," Southpaw said in a half sigh-half whisper. He sat down on the rocky soil, folded his legs, and crossed his arms. He closed his eyes and drew a mental picture of Steel Flash and the others. Concentrating on each of their unique energy signals, he managed to pinpoint where they were.
"C'mon, Catrina. I found them."
Catrina didn't respond. An hour had passed while he was meditating, and she was curled up on top of the boulder, apparently asleep.
"You look so cute like that," Southpaw said to her. She was purring in her sleep. "You may not believe me, but my feelings go deeper than appearance. We have so much in common and can talk about anything."
Her chest rose and fell slowly as the slow breeze blew her hair into her face. Southpaw moved a golden curl from her forehead and Catrina's hand involuntarily scratched him.
"Ow. Cute little things like that- When will it be okay for me to ask you out?" Southpaw begged, getting on his knees. "I want to be your boyfriend, damn it!"
"Okay, it was cute until that last part. That was kind of scary."
Southpaw's voice jumped into the lake that surrounded the tower and was eaten by a large fish.
"So," Catrina said, bending over backwards and stretching her back, "you found them?"
Southpaw's voice came back. "I thought you were asleep."
"I was catnapping. And I have really good hearing."
"So… What do-I mean… since you heard-"
"You found them?"
"Huh? Oh, uhhh, yeah. Follow me. I found their auras. I'll take you to them."
Moonshine was busy telling Steel Flash how Nightwing was taking Starfire on this wonderful cruise in a few weeks, and was clearly suggesting that he use his portion of the Teen Titan Donation Fund to take her along with them. Blank had gotten tired of watching the same music video over and over and had fallen asleep. Polaroy was watching a television monitor he had hooked up to a surveillance camera outside.
"Oh, look!" he said, pointing at the screen, "Itshh Catrina and Shhouthpaw."
"Its about time," Steel Flash said checking his watch, "What'd they do- get locked outside and rely on Southpaw's aura searching ability to find us?"
"They're going to try and shhave you, but why make it easy? I'll take them hoshhtage after I have a little fun." Polaroy snapped his head in Moonshine's direction. "Wh-Why are you laughing? Shhtop it! I am Polaroy! Shhtop it now!"
Moonshine was in hysterics. "Did you say they were going to shave us? That's hilarious."
"No it ishhn't. And if you keep laughing at me, I'm going to cut your picture in half," he said, pulling a large pair of hedge clippers out from under his desk and flashing them at her. She shut her mouth. "Now, let'shh shhee how they handle level one of my anti-Titan shhcurity program."
Catrina had followed Southpaw to a one-story house that had plastic flamingoes in the front yard and a well-tended garden. Catrina wanted to go in and retrieve the others, but Southpaw was hesitant.
"Something's not right. Why would they be here?" Southpaw wondered.
"Maybe Blank's grandmother lives here and they want tea and cookies. Who knows? We won't find out standing on the other side of the street." Catrina grabbed his arm and started dragging him across the street.
"Catrina, duck."
"What?"
"Duck!" he yelled, pushing her head down just in time to avoid being hit with a baseball.
"Who the Hell just threw that?"
"You mean what."
"What?"
"Exactly." Southpaw pointed at a pitching machine in the middle of the yard that looked more like a junkyard accident. Its arsenal was stored in a washing machine attached to its side and there was a television monitor on top that served as its head. A badly colored poster-board cut out of a camera had been pasted to the door of the washing machine. The monitor clicked on, showing a man with a receding hairline in his mid-forties.
"I am Polaroy! You have defeated level one of my program and now- "
"That was level one? A baseball?" they heard Steel Flash ask in the background.
"Shhut-up!" Polaroy yelled. "No other mortal has defeated level one before- "
"You've used it on other people?"
"No, they were the firshht… but that doeshhn't matter! Shhouthpaw! Catrina! Level two!" he yelled.
"Who is that?" Catrina asked.
"I don't know," Southpaw answered.
"It's Knumba Wunfan, the writer for the newspaper who usually writes the bad articles about us," Blank told her.
"Wow," Southpaw said. "That's the most I've ever heard Blank say at once."
"That's because I'm the only person he really talks to. Isn't that sweet?" Catrina said, smiling. Southpaw looked as though he had been punched in the face. "Alright then, Polaroy, let's do level two."
"Yeshh, let'shh," he said.
The machine started to rumble so hard that Southpaw and Catrina could feel it from the middle of the road. The machine continued to shake as smoke began to seep out of the cracks, giving the impression that it was going to explode.
"Uh, oh. This doesn't look too good," Catrina said.
Then the machine suddenly stopped. They looked at each other, then back at the machine. Then, before Southpaw had foreseen it, two 120 mph fastballs came hurtling at them. Catrina flipped out of the way, dodging the ball intended for her. Southpaw pulled back his massive arm and punched the fastball headed for him. There was a loud pop and Southpaw, Catrina, and the machine just stood there, seemingly frozen.
"Oh my God, Southpaw. Tell me you're okay," Catrina said, "That sounded like it hurt."
"Fine. I'm okay. But that's the last time I punch a speeding anything." Southpaw growled as he relocated his shoulder.
"Oooh, that was sexy." Catrina put her hand over her mouth. Didn't mean to say that out loud, she thought.
"You think so?" Southpaw asked, ready to dislocate and relocate his arm as many times as she wanted.
"It was sexy in a macho manly kind of way."
"Oh. Well, since you think that- "
"We should be paying attention, Southpaw. We need to be ready for the rest of level two."
"That washh level two," Polaroy said, his face laughing on the monitor. "Now for level three!"
"Hold on. Is level three just one more baseball?" they heard Moonshine ask.
"Yeshh," Polaroy answered.
"That's really wack, Polaroy. Why don't you take it up to level forty or something? That'll be really interesting!" Moonshine as well as Steel Flash had gotten bored, and having a good view of the activities outside, she decided to make things more interesting.
"Yeshh! That'shh great! Why washhte time when I can take it higher and shhtop them now? Shhouthpaw and Catrina, are you ready for level forty?"
"No, we're not," Southpaw said.
"Yes, we are," Catrina disagreed. "We are ready."
"Catrina, no. We need to just get this over- "
"It'll be the cherry on top of a wonderful evening at the movies. Please?"
"Alright."
"Wonderful!" Polaroy said. "Not that you had any choice. Level forty!"
A mechanical arm unfolded from behind the pitching robot, reached inside of the washing machine, and grabbed a baseball. A second mechanical arm appeared and using a flamethrower attached to its arm, set the baseball on fire.
"Thanks, Moonshine," Southpaw said, pulling off his vest and throwing it behind him.
"You've got to be kidding me. We dealt with fire last week," Catrina said, tying her hair up.
"And Blank'shh not going to help you."
After Blank defeated Jimi Flames, the city realized that an ordinary person could go from couch potato to serious threat simply by using another superhero's DNA, so a recall was set in motion, and the FPAMBIDSIPTW 5000 ointment had been deemed illegal and hazardous.
The mechanical arm holding the flaming baseball loaded it into the pitching machine, grabbed another baseball, and repeated the same baseball burning and loading process with the other arm.
"So, what's level forty?" Southpaw asked. "Forty baseballs?"
"You'll shhee," Polaroy said. "But don't die. I can't shhtick you in a picture if you're not alive."
"Don't worry. Catrina and I can handle this. Right?" Southpaw turned and looked at Catrina. Her attention had been averted from the machine when Southpaw removed his vest. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing. I was just uhhh… was wondering how you got so cut up."
Southpaw smiled. "I was raised in the wild."
"Really? How'd that happen?"
"My mother, Kaira, was a psychic, and my father, Amaru, was born with superstrength. He could never control it, so he was outcasted from society. When he turned seventeen he left home and went to live in the wild. My mother grew tired of society on her own, and she went to live in the forest and happened to meet my father. They fell in love and had me." Southpaw shrugged and blinked to dry his eyes. The machine in Polaroy's front yard continued to load itself, and Catrina continued to make conversation.
"That would explain the bear skin outfit. But what made you go from living in the woods with your parents to stealing for 'charitable reasons'?"
"Well… my parents died of old age- they were sixty when they had me- and I was eleven and on my own in the woods. I was lonely for four years, and when I turned sixteen, I made my first visit to civilization. At first I was mesmerized by technology, but after a while I realized how appalling society was. Killing others and themselves; treating life and the world they lived in like garbage; none of it was right. I hated being lonely, but if companionship meant becoming like everyone else, then I didn't need it. So I popped in and out of Gotham, visiting certain places that fascinated me- the movies, fast food places, history museums- and one day, a homeless person asked me for food. I was shocked to learn that he hadn't eaten in weeks, so I stole him some. In return, he introduced me to his other hungry and needy friends, and I ended up stealing food, among other things, for them too. After a while, it became a habit, and they started calling me Robin Hood. Then- "
"The police picked up on it and shhtarted calling you Robbing Hood," Polaroy finished. The machine had finished loading, and Polaroy was glad to learn the history of one of his future portraits. "Amashhing."
"We're ready," Southpaw said, stretching.
"No, hold on," Polaroy said. "Thishh ishh intereshhting. Where did the name Shhouthpaw come from?"
"I was wondering the same thing," Catrina said.
"My real name is Amaru Corello, but Southpaw is a nickname my mother gave me. I'm left-handed, but it's meaning is deeper than that." Southpaw turned over his left hand and rubbed his palm. He stared at it for a moment, and noticing he had gotten silent, spoke. "My mother had a symbol on her cheek. It was a yellow sun she got when her and my father fell in love. When I fall in love, when I meet the person I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with, I'll get a symbol on my left hand."
Catrina caught a glimpse of his bare, symbol-less palm before his hand dropped to his side. So it isn't me, she thought.
"That'shh touching, Amaru junior. After I turn you into a portrait with your friendshh, you can tell me more." The machine started to rumble again, and this time they were ready. When the machine stopped, Southpaw rolled to the left in time to dodge a burning baseball, rolled again, jumped over another, ran forward so two flew behind him, and stopped running in time to let two pass in front of him.
The moment he said, "Thank God for my foresight ability", he had to start moving again.
Catrina meanwhile, was dodging the fire-wrapped baseballs with no problem; she seemed to be enjoying it. As the first came towards her, she backflipped and it passed just over her chest. Then a second came right after that, passing over her back as she landed on her feet. She jumped over a third, turned upside down in mid jump, landed on one hand, and kicked one of them back at the machine. The machine reached out in time to grab it, and threw it back. "What a poor sport," she said. She sprung off of her hand, the flaming baseball missing her by less than two inches, and spinning 360 degrees in the air, evaded two others. She landed on her feet, breathing hard. "I'm a little out of shape, Polaroy, but you're making this way too easy. I used to sneak past security systems directly designed to keep me, and my mother in some cases, from breaking in. And when we broke in anyway, the systems changed to keep us from breaking out."
"Don't worry, Catrina, level forty was deshhigned for variety." The cute pink flamingoes that Moonshine had marveled at from within her picture frame just a few hours before now unplanted themselves from the ground like animatronic nightmares. There were six in all, and from within the house, and on the monitor still mounted on top of the makeshift, pitching machine, they could hear Polaroy cackling. "I hope you're prepared, Titanshh."
"Evil flamingoes? That's level forty?" they heard Steel Flash ask.
"Yesshh."
Steel Flash sighed. "If you don't mind Moonshine, I'm gonna end this now."
"Yeah, I was having a lot more fun sitting at home, bored."
"Blank, you mind?"
"No," Blank said.
"Okay, good." Steel Flash concentrated his powers over magnetism, closing his dark amber eyes and holding out his two-dimensional hand. Nothing happened.
"I washh prepared for your interference," Polaroy said, his lazy tongue wiggling idly in his mouth. "I've designed each of your picture frameshh pacifically for you."
"You mean specifically?" Steel Flash offered.
"What?" Polaroy asked.
"No, Steelio, you have to say it like you have cotton in your mouth- Shhpacifically." She giggled, and Steel Flash laughed too.
Polaroy intentionally pushed the hedgeclippers to the desk's edge with his elbow. They stopped laughing. "Shho ashh I wash shhaying, your portraits have been designed shhpacifically for you-" he glared at Moonshine "- so each one of your picture frameshh is enhanced with your weaknesshhes."
Steel Flash laughed. "My what?"
"Electromagnetishhm."
He scoffed. "It presents a challenge, but its not a weakness."
"And what about me?" Moonshine said.
"Zanthian shhteel. You can't ushh your shhtarboltshh. Or shhuper-shhtrength. Not that you have much of that anyway," he added, and laughed at his joke.
" Ha ha ha, not funny," Moonshine said. "Oh, and Blank? What about him?"
"Cardboard." Polaroy laughed again, but this time he was joined by Steel Flash.
"That's not funny, guys." Moonshine shook her head and pouted at Blank.
Blank was asleep.
Richard Van:
Okay, Jesi n other readers, y'all are gonna have to forgive me cause I can't force myself to write crap. I kept goin over different ways for the Titans to stop Polaroy, but I realized that Polaroy is wack, and I can't force myself to have these characters stoop to his level. So, I'm gonna finish this out with what happens after Polaroy had been defeated, aight? Just know that Catrina and Southpaw break Polaroy's camera n that frees Steel Flash, Moonshine, and Blank. That's all you need to know.
So now Blank's been dropped off at home, and Moonshine convinces Steel Flash to take her to the movies. Catrina and Southpaw decide on a second date in the same night and tag along.
Oh and Blank's not gonna be dropped off. He's with the Titans. I changed my mind.
Steel Flash, Moonshine, Southpaw, Catrina, and Blank handed the ticket-taker their tickets. His nametag said Marcus, and he had an uncanny resemblance to 50 Cent. Catrina flashed him her pearly whites and Southpaw bumped into him as he walked by; Moonshine ran back and asked for his full name and number, but was snatched away before Marcus D. Brownrose 330-700 etc. could finish.
Steel Flash dragged her towards theater 8 with an odd-look on his face Moonshine had never seen before. She was overwhelmed with joy and smiling so wide she thought Moonshade would get sick of it and take over. Its weird, she thought. He actually got jealous.
It is, Moonshade agreed in an equally odd tone.
Moonshine looked up. "What's wrong, Steelio?"
"Nothing," he said. The look was gone and he had gone back to standing at his full six-feet, one-inch as though to make a point to everyone around him that he was the leader.
"Oh. I could've sworn you looked jelly though, Steelio."
"Jelly- I mean, jealous of what?"
"Me and my cute butt."
"Oh, are you a poet now?"
"You know it- "
"Wow!" Catrina said, smiling so hard her eyes were squinting like an anime character. "You two seem to be getting along. That's so cute."
Moonshine wrapped her arms around Steel Flash. "We are, aren't we?"
Steel Flash quickly unlatched her arms from around him, then picked her up and moved her away from him. He moved a few steps away and fell into step with Blank, who was by himself. Moonshine and Catrina caught up with Southpaw.
"So…" Moonshine began, her eyes shifting from Catrina to Southpaw, "are you two, uhhh…"
"No!" Southpaw said in a hurry.
Catrina seemed to have found something interesting on her fingernails, then quickly moved on to inspecting her shirt, and then became interested with the curls in her hair. She's just being herself, thought Southpaw. But Moonshine recognized the signs.
"Hey Southpaw, Can I talk to Pretty Kitty for a while? Alone?"
"Yeah." He shrugged and joined Steel Flash and Blank. The three of them went into theatre 8; Catrina and Moonshine stopped outside.
"So what's the deal with you two?" Moonshine looked eagerly up into Catrina's eyes. Catrina was only two inches taller than she was.
"Well… I'm not sure. I mean, he's sexy and all- flawless from top to bottom with a humble, yet proud demeanor and plenty of sense to match- but I don't know; I just feel uneasy. You heard the thing about his hand. Then there's Blank- "
"Yeah, I feel sorry for Blank, too."
"I have plenty of reasons to go for it, but I-I'm a little uneasy about giving myself to some man. All my mother ever talked about was what a problem commitment is." She was silent for a moment, but Moonshine was silent too, listening. "I like him, I do. But what if he starts to act different, and stops being so sweet? Or what if he over does it? What if he's being nice just to get my attention? What if it doesn't work out and we're not friends anymore? What if it gets in the way of our job? So many 'what-ifs'… So many questions… But I really like him, Moonshine. I would do anything he asked me. I trust him more than I trust myself, and coming from me, that means a lot. If he told me jumping off a building was the only way to learn how to fly, I'd do it."
"That's how I learned," joked Moonshine, beaming.
"Moonshine- "
"I did."
"I'm being serious. And what are you smiling about?"
"You love him."
"What?! No!" Catrina yelled, shaking her copper and gold mini-curls and waving her long, slender, diamond-studded hands. "No, it's not that. Everything but that."
"No silly, not L-O-V-E, love. L-U-V. You're infatuated with him, head over heels, smitten- You L-U-V him."
"I don't- "
"I'm the same way with Steelio. I have the same feelings, although I'm a lot more open with mine, and Steel Flash is a lot more shy, but I have a lot of questions too. I just have to explain to myself, in more than ways than one, that my affection for him outweighs all the 'what-ifs'. I can deal with his infamous history later- Steel Flash is what matters to me now."
Catrina paused a moment to take all this in. "And what about Blank?"
"Hire a prostitute look-alike to sleep with him and convince him to move in with her."
"What?"
"Sorry, that was Moonshade, not me. I don't know, Pretty Kitty. You have to think about what matters the most."
"Thanks, Moonshine," she said, smiling.
"No problemo. Now let's go find the other Titans."
Catrina and Moonshine sat on the outsides of the three, next to their respective partners with Blank in the middle. Blank hadn't noticed Moonshine crossing his path to sit down; he was so into Bloodlust he seemed to have left his body to be in the movie. Steel Flash and Southpaw were the opposite. Southpaw had been waiting for Catrina to get back and got so worried that he discovered he had a new power, and knocked out everyone in the row in front and behind him. Catrina sat down next to him, and taking Moonshine's advice, engaged him in a deep conversation he had long awaited. Steel Flash meanwhile was asleep. Moonshine leaned on him and began to watch the movie.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zenthos!" Wooden planks from the nearby pier covered in Raven's signature telekinesis-based black magic launched themselves in Magnus' direction. He simply floated to the side so that they missed him by only a small margin, then he patiently waited for her next attack, smiling behind his mask. Raven had never been this irritated. I wish Trigon were here to kill me again. That would be a Hell of a lot less aggravating, she thought.
Raven was by herself, as Robin had asked her to be, and was supposed to be gaining his trust and convincing Magnus she wanted to join his efforts. The Titans had practiced it enough times. They figured the only way to affect his weakness was to attack his strength- his obsession with power- and all Raven had to do was tell Magnus that her powers were also meant for evil and that she could lend him more than a helping hand. He wouldn't have been able to turn the offer down, and then she could get him to rely so heavily on her powers that when she removed them he would be crippled from lack of using his magnetic abilities. Robin also hoped Magnus would then reject Slade's control. It was supposed to be that simple.
But it wasn't.
She hadn't counted on him not attacking her, but treating her with an eerie kindness. She hadn't counted on him making the offer for her to join him before she did. And she certainly hadn't counted on him knowing her better than she, or Trigon, or her mother, Arella, knew her. When he started recounting her life, from beginning to end, she realized that what he knew went beyond what Slade could have known from his time as Trigon's errand boy. He began with her birth in Azarath, told how her mother had taken her in among the people and were able to protect her from her demon-father, Trigon only a short while, and continued with how the Titans found her and convinced her that her powers could be used for good when they prevented Princess Starfire from being taken away as a prize by one of the many enemies of the Tamaranian people. Raven was breath-taken, but was further bewildered when he continued with Trigon's ending the world, the Titans' solution, and ended with just moments before the present moment, relaying the Titans' plan to use his obsession with power against him.
That was when she started throwing things.
Magnus was being as calm and patient as ever. He just floated from side to side, only using his powers when Raven had ignorantly thrown something metallic. It's like he's trying to make a statement. Prove something, she thought. But what?
"You aren't hitting me because you don't want to, Raven." He answered her question as though he had read her mind.
"Why wouldn't I want to hit you? I hate you." More boards and rocks from underneath the pier aimed for Magnus, but he slowly dodged them all.
"Why do you hate me, Raven?"
That's a ridiculous question, she thought. He knows why, it'll just make him feel good to hear it. "You're a heartless and selfish killer doing another heartless and selfish killer's bidding."
"Oh, I knew that. Why else, Raven? What makes you hate me more?" He insisted on saying her name like a psychiatrist trying to read her mind. He's just another version of Slade, she thought. "Me and Slade are a lot alike in ways, but nonetheless, we're not the same person. Slade is old and dying. He only has one eye, and an ailing body, and wants so bad to find a replacement for his evils, to leave his mark, that he's putting more of himself into it than he knows. I can't explain what that means though, Raven. I just know two things- his reign is going to end before it begins, and mine won't begin until you join me, Raven."
"None of that makes since. How could you know all that, and all about me, but not know any of it. You're playing mind games, just like Slade did with Robin and Terra. But the difference between them and me… is that I won't fall for it! Azarath, Metrion- "
Before Raven could finish her spell, Magnus had sped behind her and knocked her to the sand on the beach. She threw him off and into the water, and used her black magic to still the violent rush of waves the wind was stirring so that he couldn't fool her and sneak behind her. She waited for a brief moment for him to come up for air, but when it never came, she started towards the shore. A hand reached up out of the sand and grabbed her ankle, startling Raven. The sand blew into the air in a torrent of emotion and Darkness as though she had stepped on a land mine. He was faster than usual and had gone again in the cover of Raven's angry explosion. Without thinking, she tore the entire pier free of the ocean floor and threw it in what turned out to be a random direction, because it flew no where near him and crashed into the board walk a couple meters away, knocking cars, palm trees, and hot dog and snow cone stands out of the way like flies into the side of buildings. Then the pier covered itself with a black veil and launched itself back at Raven. She was stunned for a moment, because neither her spell nor her emotions had done it, and at the last second she flew out of the way, and put up a shield behind her to prevent herself from being injured by the debris. She glanced back at the wreckage, and crashed into Magnus so hard that they both fell to the water below, but before they touched the water they stopped, and they seemingly floated on air and landed gently on the beach, with Magnus on top of her.
"Did you- "
"Yes, Raven."
"But how- "
"You'll understand."
"But I don't understand anything. You know so much about me… I don't even know me."
"What do you know then, Raven?"
"That I love you."
Magnus removed his black and gray mask, revealing his face underneath. She was startled to see full lips, a medium-sized nose, and a caramel-brown face capable of expression matching his cold, amber-brown eyes. She knew he loved her too, she couldn't explain why, but she knew; she knew this signified the end of Slade and his apprentice Magnus, and the beginning of Magnus and his queen Raven; and she knew that her love for him had supplied him with her black magic, and always would as long as they shared mutual feelings. She knew.
He leaned in and she met his lips with her own, and for what seemed like a ten second eternity, they shared a consciousness. She knew what he had been through and what had brought him to this moment; he knew she truly loved him and would follow him to the ends of the universe.
I'll take you there, Raven.
I've been lost forever.
But now I've found you. The others have lost you. I'll love you forever.
I guess I do too, Steel Flash. Or are you dreaming?
For the second time, Steel Flash awoke from a reversion to his past to find his lips locked with Moonshine's. Only this time, she had gotten a lot more intimate, or at least he had without meaning too, because he was straddling her, and her lips were still open, as though her soul was begging for more, and when he looked into her ravenous and eager eyes, he noticed one of her pupils was its usual wine red, and the other was a dusk purple. In this position, the same sensual position he had just been in on that beach in his mind, she looked a lot like Raven.
"Moonshine?" he asked.
"Not exactly."
"Moonshade?"
"She'd like to be home right now, but… Its hard to explain."
"Are you both?"
"Its not that simple. More or less."
Steel Flash was lost. "Where are Southpaw and Catrina?"
"They're officially dating now. They went to go do whatever it is we were gonna do before you came back to your senses. So how do I get you started again? Knock you out?"
"What? Who are you?"
As though that question had been an exhortation for her schizophrenic subconscious to resurface and resume command, Steel Flash, still straddling her, witnessed an internal battle in her psyche as her eyes constantly switched form red to purple and purple to red. They stopped on red.
Moonshine opened her eyes. Without even waiting for herself to become completely aware of her surroundings and the people staring at their adolescent heroes, she looked at Steel Flash sitting in her lap and reached forward and tried to grab him to kiss him. He pushed her into the back of the seat, and also unaware of the audience no longer watching Bloodlust, he said, "I hate you, Moonshine. Let the others know you're leaving, get whatever you need, and go live with Chakra. I'll let you know when to come back- if I want you back."