So, when I heard about Comicbookfan's contest, I just had to join...two months after first seeing it... IMPORTANT! I totally did not mean to make this similar to Thicker Than Water. In fact, I didn't even read the story until half of this one was done. I went back and changed up some of the plot, but I'm sorry if it bares too much of a coincidental similarity.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
He sat on a small bed, which was covered with a plain, dark blue blanket. A few curtains rustled in the wind, letting a warm breeze infiltrate the room. A calming environment had been created, for the room was not too plain and not too decorative, just...normal. The past week's events were still fresh in his mind, poking and prodding at him, begging to be let out. As if there was some way they could be. He couldn't say anything in the matter.
He slowly stood up, noting the time was 10:00 PM. He moved silently over to the window, staring up at the vast amount of stars that the sky held. Everything was so peaceful right then, a first since that tragic night so many years ago. He didn't exactly know how long ago it was, for you could count it in years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes...seconds... Nothing changed what happened, and nothing ever would.
He remembered a time when he was perfectly happy, perfectly calm. A time when Joseph Wilson actually wanted to know what his father was doing when he wasn't around.
Flashback
"Joseph?" the angelic voice called out. Her auburn hair danced around her face as she peeked around the corner, trying to spot her son.
"Mommy!" the young boy cried, running up to her with open arms. She smiled and picked up her four year old son, stroking his curly golden hair.
"It's lunch time sweetheart," she told him, just before noticing his downcast expression. "Hey, what's wrong pumpkin?"
"Grant tried to break the piano keys again," he told her.
"And?" she asked, wanting to know what had happened next.
He turned away, not wanting to look at his mother directly, "I hit him," he mumbled, ashamed of himself.
His mother, Adeline, was taken back for a moment. Usually Joseph was all about 'safety' and 'non-violent resolutions.' However, she had to smile knowing that her son had finally stood up for himself. "Well, I guess that serves him right!" she told him, showing Joseph that she was not disappointed in him. Her son smiled back.
"When will daddy get home? He's been working late for a long time now!" He reported. At the time, it was such an innocent question.
"He'll be home before you go to bed, I promise," she informed him. It seemed to calm the boy. However, his father did not return until late that night, as he had been for the previous weeks. "Come on, Joseph, go wash up. Wintergreen is here and I want you boys to look nice!"
The boy's eyes lit up, illuminating his face. "Did he bring us presents?" he questioned. Adeline could only laugh.
End Flashback.
He had to admit that Slade was very good at keeping secrets, no matter how much he had despised giving that man any compliments. No one could have possibly known who he was; no evidence supported it, and it wasn't like anyone had suspected him of any crime. He was just your average US citizen.
It was...weird, for lack of a better word, how it had happened. The flow of every event came so fast that it took forever for the realization to finally hit him.
It was crazy how easily his entire life had shattered.
It was crazy how fast he had lost every trace of innocence in his body.
Flashback
"Joseph! Grant!" Her screams were muffled by her tears, which poured down her face as she clutched the ransom note in her hand. He eyes were sore and red, her body trembling. She turned around, coming face-to-face with the man she thought she could trust. Flames roared high in her eyes, feeding off of her anger. "You." She spat out, pointing a finger at her husband.
"Me? What did I do?!" he yelled, spreading his arms wide to emphasize his point
"What do you mean? If it wasn't for you, our-my-sons would still be alive! You...you...you traitor!" she accused, shaking with anger.
"We don't know that they are dead yet. This IS a ransom note, is it not? They will not kill them; they know that I would not tell them anything if they were to kill Grant or Joseph. That's why I didn't tell you before. You just wouldn't understand Addie. You just wouldn't understand," he told her, walking straight past his terrified wife.
Within moments, Deathstroke the Terminator was suited up and on his way to save his sons. They arrived at the scene of the crime just mere minutes after that.
"Now honey," Slade reasoned, grabbing onto his wife, "Don't do anything stupid. Don't even walk in there. Let me handle this." Adeline glared at him, but nodded, crossing her arms.
But curiosity got the best of her, so, walking past numerous covered windows and locked doors, she tried to find a way in, or at least a small opening so that she knew what was going on in there.
Finally, after what seemed like hours but was only minutes, she reached a window and gazed inside. There, in the back of the room, were her sons. A knife was being held at Joey's throat, and although the guy with Grant had a knife in his possession, he seemed distracted. Adeline couldn't help it
"JOSEPH!" she screamed. Deathstroke turned swiftly to see his wife's horrified expression, as did the man by Grant, allowing him to escape. However, Joseph was not as lucky. As the knife did its deed, many people woke in the middle of the night to an ear piercing scream.
End Flashback.
He cringed at the memory. He put a hand up to his throat, subconsciously protecting it from attackers with knives. The memory was still fresh in his mind, as if it happened yesterday. It kept him up at night, and haunted every waking moment. He had trusted his father, trusted him more than anything in the entire world.
And his father had betrayed him.
Still, somewhere in a forbidden cavern, locked and sealed up tight, the trust he had for his father lived on.
He was family, was he not?
Then again, would family put you through the horrendous week he had just encountered?
-Monday-
"Jericho? Are you out here?" Herald called, opening the door to the roof. Jericho turned to face him and nodded in response. Herald gave him a smile and walked over to where he was standing.
"Good Morning, Herald," Jericho signed.
"Man, what are you doing out here? Robin's been looking for you everywhere! You and I had better get down there quick, unless, of course, you want to go on with your life with missing body parts, because that can be arranged," Herald warned, smirking.
Jericho turned around, staring longingly at the sunrise.
"Hey, Jeri, you still there?" Herald called, waving a hand in front of Jericho's face, making him snap out of his daze.
"Alright, Alright, I'm coming," Jericho motioned, walking towards the door.
X
"It's about time you two showed up," Robin said, a hint of frustration in his voice. The two had walked in rather late to a briefing. Many of them were honoraries, and because they were not used to working on a team, were very annoyed and bored.
"Sorry man," Herald said, 'I had to find Jeri over here." He motioned to Jericho, who raised an eyebrow at the nickname that Herald had unofficially given to him.
"Just come in and take your seats," Robin said, pointing to two empty seats.
"What? It's not like I could yell, 'Hey Jeri, where are you?' and he would yell back, 'Oh, I'm over here!' Uh...No offense there, Jer." Herald seemed to be in a nickname creating mood. Jericho only smiled and rolled his eyes, making his way into the room.
"Alright, now that everyone is present," Robin started, emphasizing the word 'everyone,' "I'll begin my presentation. I started thinking the other day, and I realized that having all of you scattered around may not be such a good idea. While it's stupid to have everyone in one area, I propose that we construct two operation centers; one in the North and one in the South. They wouldn't be quite like the Tower, and would be only about one or two stories tall, but they would act as a sort of emergency base, should anything like the Brotherhood of Evil pop up again."
"Uh, can we hurry this meeting up? I have places to go, people to see..." Kid Flash started, stopping when he received a death glare from Robin. "On second thought, I have all the time in the world!" Robin smirked, he was glad he had taken (unintentional) glaring lessons from Batman and Raven.
"Good. For your sake, you had better have all of the time in the worl-"
"So what exactly are these operation centers anyway?" Speedy interrupted. Robin groaned and ran his hand through his hair.
"I was getting to that. Anyway, the operation centers would, as previously stated, serve as emergency bases just in case we need it. Also, thanks to the Brotherhood of Evil, we needed a new way to communicate with each other, I thought that it would be in everyone's best interest, even if it is a little more difficult, to have all of the communicators wired to communicate only with the bases, Titans Tower West and East," Robin stated, glancing over at his team. Subconsciously, his glance was directed at Starfire, but no one said anything.
"Oh, okay, that's nice," Herald started, "But how do the bases communicate with us? And how does the base know when to send signals?"
Cyborg stood up, happy to finally have something to do. "Well, everyone who belongs to a specific base will have their communicators wired to everyone else in their section. And the base doesn't know how to send signals. Every titan in a specific section will work on two month shifts. If you are the operator at the current time, it is your job to direct any signals that the base receives to the correct titan. You'll have to put in a password, obviously, so that we don't have another instant tracking device on our hands. Then, there is the head operator. Whoever that is will come in for a week in between shifts and report everything that happened back to Robin, and make sure the base is ready for the next operator. Got it?"
Half of the Titans present wore the same confused look on their face. About a quarter of them weren't even paying attention, and the other quarter, Robin, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, all knew exactly what was going on. Cyborg sighed. "We'll go over this later. As for now, however, I'll just let Raven go ahead and give you your assignments."
Raven stood up and pulled out a list of all the titans. "Alright, just to get this straightened out, Titans East members will not be enlisted into any of the bases. Moving on, Operations South will include Wildebeast, Herald, Killowat, Argent, Pantha, and Kole. Your head operator will be Argent. Are you up for it?" she asked, directing her look towards the future head operator.
"I'll see what I can do," she said in her British accent.
"Good. Now, for Operations North. I have Hot Spot, Bushido, Jericho, Kid Flash, Jinx, and Red Star. As for your head operator, we have taken everything into consideration and selected Jericho." Kid Flash and Hot Spot pouted together, wishing they had been selected. Jericho, however, had a look of complete shock on his face.
"Why me? And what do you mean by 'taking everything into consideration?' Jericho asked.
"Well," Beast Boy started, "We noticed how well you worked when we fought the Brotherhood of Evil, and how you seemed to be willing to do anything you could to help. We also considered the fact that if someone tried to attack the base and get information out of you, they wouldn't have any luck!" The look of shock on Jericho's face turned into one of annoyance. Robin quickly jumped in front of him.
"What he means," Robin began, mirroring Jericho's annoyed expression towards Beast Boy, "Is that we trust you more than some of the other Titans."
"What about Kid Flash? Or Jinx?" He asked, almost in desperation.
"Well, the first and last time we left Kid Flash here to protect the city, he insisted on not arresting a villain, even if she has been an amazing addition to our team." He wasn't sure why he was giving her the compliment, Kid Flash and Jinx were too absorbed with one another to actually notice that they were even mentioned at all.
"And Jinx? Why not her?"
"We'd rather have someone who has been on the side of good for a little bit longer."
Jericho sighed. There was no way he was going to get out of this. He hated the fact that they trusted him so much, but it wasn't like he was going to jump onto the table shouting-er, signing-"I AM SLADE'S SON!" anytime soon.
"Alright, fine, I'll do it."
"Okay then, looks like this meeting is over with," Robin said. He was quite amazed, actually. He didn't know that everyone had super speed. But apparently they did, because he was the only one left in the room. Shrugging, he decided to go out for pizza.
-Tuesday-
A wise cat once said, "I hate Mondays." Obviously he had not only slept through all of Tuesday, but he never had to deal with anything related to what Jericho had.
"Titans! Alert! Get down here ASAP!" Robin's voice shook the tower, as several titans, both awake and asleep, followed the sound to the Opps center.
"What's the problem Robin?" Hot Spot asked, nearly out of breath. He was asleep on the bottom floor when he was awakened, and since he was not fully awake, had forgotten about the elevator and ran up the stairs.
"Yeah, it's like seven in the morning," Beast Boy complained. Raven, who was already there to begin with, glared at him.
"Well, in all honesty, I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. What I mean by that is, I was contacted by someone this morning. The message was: 'Tell my son that I'm coming to check up on him.' However, the message was anonymous, and he didn't state his son's name. Does anyone have any clue what this might be about?" Robin questioned. Several titans shook their heads 'no.'
"Have you tried tracing the signal?" Kole asked. Robin nodded, facing her.
"Yeah, it was the first thing I tried doing," Robin responded.
"And? Did you get anything?" Killowat asked. Robin sighed.
"Absolutely nothing. This guy was purposely trying to confuse us or something, because I wasn't even able to find out what time it was that the message was sent. I know it sounds like something minor, but if you think about it, someone might be in danger. If this guy went through all of the trouble to cover up his tracks, we may have a serious threat on our hands," Robin finished. Several Titans nodded in agreement.
In the back of the room, Jericho turned around and closed his eyes. He let out a sigh, being the only one who knew just exactly what was in store for them. He knew that this would happen; he'd known since the day that he first saw Beast Boy and accepted the communicator. He just didn't realize it would be so soon.
'Maybe,' he thought, 'Maybe that wasn't him. Maybe some other Titan has crazy father issues. Maybe Slade forgot about me.' Unfortunately, he seriously doubted it. Everyone else trusted each other so much that they would tell them if something this big happened.
His only excuse was the fact that he couldn't physically say anything at the moment, or ever again for that matter. And even that was no excuse for letting everyone down.
X
"Hey, Jericho, how are you? You seemed kind of depressed and worried today. Is there something you want to tell me?" Kole asked, approaching Jericho. The two of them were standing on the Tower beach, staring out at the ocean.
"Ah, it's not that big of a deal...yet," Jericho sighed.
"Well what's wrong? Is there anything I could do to help?" she asked him. Jericho looked at her.
"Can you go back in time and make sure I was never born? Because that seems to be the only thing anyone can do right now," Jericho told her. Kole frowned.
"I don't know what's up with you, but I'm going to find out. You're never this downcast. Well, I mean, I only met you three days ago, but I'm still pretty confident that this is uncharacteristic of you," She replied, before turning and walking away. She stopped and looked back at him once more. "If you're not going to tell me, then I will find out myself." With that, she retreated to the Tower.
Jericho sighed, almost regretting not telling her the truth. He was beginning to think it was the better idea to go ahead and tell the Titans, before another 'Terra' incident occurred. He hadn't heard much of the details, but all he needed to know was that his father was involved to know that it was bad.
Looking at his watch, and realizing it was almost midnight, he slowly walked back to the Tower, promising himself that he would tell everyone tomorrow before it was too late. After all, these were not only his teammates and his friends, but they were also the first people to actually understand what he was trying to tell them since he lost his voice. The least he could do was to not betray their trust in him.
-Wednesday-
The sun crept over the Earth, its warm rays bathing the cold Earth in sunlight. Golden streaks infiltrated the room, causing Jericho to reluctantly open his eyes. Today was the day that he would tell everyone his darkest secret, and saying he was nervous was the biggest understatement of the year.
To say the least, he had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to tell them, or how they would react to what he said. Silently groaning, he crawled out of bed and walked over to the closet in the guest bedroom he was staying in. He was so nervous about the day's events that it took him ten minutes to decide what to wear. It was only after those ten minutes did he realize that all of his uniforms looked exactly alike.
He got dressed, and looked in the mirror. Frowning, he realized that his uniform was on backwards. 'This is beginning to get ridiculous!' He thought to himself, as he attempted dressing himself once more.
After he was sure that he was through with any and all uniform problems, he shuffled out of the room. He was incredibly happy at the moment that he was staying on the bottom floor and not near the Opps Center. It gave him time to think about how he would present his case to the others.
He passed several titans on the way there, including Hot Spot, Pantha, and Wildebeast. Never had he been so thankful that he couldn't make any sounds, because if he was able to, the smell that Wildebeast was giving off could make a grown man scream. After regaining his composure, he continued on his not-so-long journey.
As the Opps center came into view, he felt time slow down. Each step became more and more suspenseful. When he finally reached the Opps Center door, he jumped slightly. He was still getting used to having everything open automatically. It wasn't like mountains had automatic doors every three feet, and seeing that a mountain was where he had lived for roughly half of his life, it was sort of uncommon for him to run across something like it.
He reluctantly stepped in, where he saw the rest of the Titans enjoying their Wednesday morning. All except for Raven, who was currently debating on whether or not she should throw Beast Boy or Cyborg out of the window first. 'Well,' he thought to himself, 'Nobody seems to notice I'm here. Oh well, guess I'll just go!'
"Good morning, Jericho!" Starfire cried. Jericho sighed. 'So much for that thought.'
"Hey, Starfire, do you think you could get everyone together? I need to make an announcement," Jericho told her. Starfire wore a confused look on her face.
"My apologies Jericho, but I'm afraid that I do not know sign language. However, with your permission I will acquire it from you," She told him. Before he even had time to figure out what she meant by that, Robin was pushing Starfire away.
"Uh, no, you don't need to do that, Star. I know sign language," Robin told her, trying his best to stop her from kissing an unsuspecting Jericho.
"Are you sure? Because I believe it would just be easier to learn it now. Languages do come in handy," She replied.
"No they don't! " Robin said, finally convincing her that he would handle the situation. After she had left, Robin turned to face him.
"So, what do you need?" He asked.
"I need to make an announcement related to the message we received yesterday. It's really important," Jericho signed to him. Robin nodded and walked over to the intercom system, and announced for all titans to report to the meeting room.
Once the others were present, Jericho stood up. He knew that half of the Titans there wouldn't be able to read his hands fast enough, or wouldn't understand him at all, so he had a computer set up. He would type on it, and his words would be projected behind him.
"Hello everybody. I haven't had much of a chance to get to know all of you, but for those of you that I been able to meet, well, it was nice knowing you. Anyway, I have information on that message we received yesterday. It was from Slade." A few gasps and shocked expressions were exchanged at the mention of the villain's name. Many had heard about the evil man, but not one of them had actually planned on running into him in the one week they would be staying in Jump City. Jericho was about to continue, when Robin stood up.
"That means that Slade has a son, and he's in the city somewhere. If those two meet up, it could be very dangerous. I want everyone out looking for him," Robin commanded.
"But how do we know it's him?" Bumblebee asked, "I mean, it's not like we can just walk up and ask random people if they are Slade's son. He wouldn't tell us either way!"
"Just find someone that looks like Slade and bring him back for questioning," He told them.
"What does Slade look like?" Aqualad asked.
"Just find him!" Robin yelled, before storming off. The titans exchanged confused looks before walking off. The entire time that had been going on, Jericho had been trying to get everyone's attention. At this point, he just gave up. He spent the rest of his day walking around town pretending to be on the lookout for, well, himself.
-Thursday-
As if Wednesday didn't go bad enough, Jericho awoke to the alarm being set off at three in the morning. He ran upstairs, being the second to last one who arrived, right in front of Killowat.
"What's up, Robin?" Speedy asked.
"Slade! He's shown himself! I tracked his location down to that abandoned factory. Titans, let's move!" Before anyone could protest, robin was already on the R-cycle and speeding out of the garage. The rest of the titans, excluding Kid Flash who was always full of energy, slowly made their way downstairs and out of the Tower.
When they had finally arrived, much to Robin's annoyance (He had been there for about fifteen minutes already), Robin gave everyone their assignments and the plan was put into action.
Robin went in first, followed by the rest of Titans West and, against all protests, Jericho. The only reason he was going in with the rest of them was because he somehow knew who had sent the message. The other Titans were waiting outside and surrounding the place, just in case Slade decided to attempt an escape.
Jericho looked up at the moving factory parts; the gears and levers seemed to be moving flawlessly, and their size was just a bit intimidating.
"Dude, why don't we always check here? Slade is at this same spot every time we meet up with him. I think it would just be best to start our search here," Beast Boy stated. Robin ignored him.
Seeing as no one was paying attention to him anyway, Jericho hid behind a large pillar, hoping to stay hidden until he was needed.
"Well, well, well," a malicious voice said, echoing throughout the factory. Jericho shuddered at the sound of it. "If it isn't my friends, the Teen Titans." Slade stepped into view.
"Slade. What do you want?" Robin demanded. Slade laughed to himself.
"I believe that I've already told you that. Did you give my son the message?" He asked.
"No, you didn't leave us any clue as to who he was. Even if we did, we don't want you two anywhere near each other. Besides, you didn't give us any evidence as to who you were. If it wasn't for Jericho knowing, then-" Slade cut him off.
"Then what? Let me ask you this, Titans, how do you suppose Jericho, who doesn't even have the ability to talk, knew that it was I who sent you that message, hmm?" He questioned.
"I don't...I mean...well..." Robin started, trying to find any other logical answer than the one that was presented to him. Although it was impossible to see, Slade's smirk was hard to miss. Dumbfounded, the titans stood still, not knowing what action to take.
"I didn't think it would be too hard to figure out. In all honesty, I gave you a vague image of myself to go off of when you fought the forces of nature. True, I do not have the ability to possess other people, but the stories I could tell about regeneration."
"Regeneration? What are you talking about?" Cyborg wondered aloud, sure that the entire thought of Slade being nearly immortal was out of the question.
"It's a nice little story, but I'm growing tired of all of this small talk. Why don't you tell them, son," Slade said, glancing over at the pillar that Jericho had been hoping to hide behind. Defeated, he stepped out from his hiding spot, which only confirmed what the Titans now knew to be true.
"Well? Aren't you going to tell them?" Slade asked.
"I'd be able to if it weren't for you," Jericho signed, giving the impression that the floor was particularly interesting at the moment.
"You know that wasn't my fault," Slade told him, "However, it seems that your friends don't have a clue as to what is going on. You should tell them before it looks like you're betraying them."
"I didn't betray anybody. It was you who betrayed me," Jericho replied, still not looking at Slade. The shocked expressions on the Titans' faces were starting to disappear. Slade shrugged.
"Alright, think of it however you want. This doesn't change anything. I'm still going to rid this town, and the world, of the titans, whether or not you are a member," Slade told him, before walking off into the shadows where he had first come from. Robin shrugged, and the titans began to exit with Jericho trailing silently behind them. He was a little afraid of how they were going to react. Beast Boy seemed to be the first one to completely get over astonishment.
"So...wait. Let me get this straight. Slade sent us a crazy message, and we spent a valuable rest and relaxation day looking for his son, which was really Jericho. Then, when he shows up, not only does he not threaten us, but he just walks away? Did I miss something?" he asked, flailing his arms above his head. By that time, they were outside of the building.
"Hey, what happened to Slade?" Jinx asked, confused as to why the battle had lasted about three and a half minutes. Robin smiled as Jericho slowly walked out.
"It was just a false alarm," he said, causing Jericho's head to dart up. A questioning look appeared on his face.
"What about his son?" A voice called out. "Yeah! Who is he?" another one asked.
"Beats me," he told them. By that time Jericho was really confused. Why had Robin lied about him? He looked around, but all of the titans that were present seemed to have erased the entire past three minutes out of their mind.
-Friday-
Even Raven seemed a bit disappointed to see everyone go. However, she got over that feeling very, very quickly.
Kid Flash and Jinx had left already, but not before Kid flash had managed to finish off Cyborg's entire emergency turkey supply. It was used for days when Raven would threaten to send Cyborg to a dimension where everybody was a singing vegetable and Beast Boy to a dimension where meat grew on beef jerky trees. Neither of them would be allowed to cook, and both would retreat to their emergency food supply.
Argent, Kole, and Pantha had gone home, courtesy of Herald. Killowat had stayed a nit longer than the rest, but eventually departed also. Hot Spot had gone to say goodbye to Wildebeast, when he accidentally caught Wildebeast's fur on fire, so the two were at a hospital, either being treated for burns from fire, or nausea from smell. Red Star and Bushido had gone late the night before, so they were not around. The only one left was Jericho, who was just packing his things.
"Hey, Jericho, can I talk to you?" Robin asked, leaning in the doorframe of the room Jericho was in. He turned, and nodded.
"You're probably wondering why I didn't tell anyone, and the only reason I didn't was because you didn't join his side when you were given the chance. That and the fact that not many of us are wild about our pasts, either. Take Jinx for example. She hated us and now she's one of us," Robin said, slightly laughing at how everything worked out. "And, just between you and me, I already knew who you were. Sometimes it's easier to play along. I told myself that if I exposed you, someone, if not you yourself, would figure out who I am." With that, Robin left the room, leaving Jericho more confused than before and now wondering who Robin really was.
X
Something beeped, causing him to lose his balance and fall off of the window sill. Joseph sighed. He looked at the clock once more. The clock read 11:59 PM. He supposed it was time to get some sleep, but it was so beautiful outside. Getting up, he walked over to the circular disc on his desk. Opening it up, he saw Robin's face.
"Does everything check out Jericho?" Robin asked. He nodded.
"Good, you should get some sleep. Robin out."
Joseph put the communicator down, and walked over to the wall. He held his hand up to a scanner, and after a moment, a computerized voice began to speak.
"Operations North is locked down."
Yawning, Joseph made his way to his bed. The battle with his father was over, and he wasn't sure who had won. However, the war was not, and would not be over until either he or Slade was the only one left standing.
However, at the moment, it didn't matter whether or not he could say anything, because there was nothing left to say.
This is by far the longest thing I have ever written. At 13 pages and 5,500 words, this story comes to a close.
I did more research for this story than any of my school research papers. However, Wikipedia didn't really say all that much about the confrontation of Joseph and Jackal, so I kind of sort of made it up.
Please join Comicbookfan's contest!
Jeez, my hands are freakin' shaking from writing so much! Also, on a completely unrelated note, I was watching the Lion King I and II, so I based Slade off of Scar for some unknown reason. Read and Review!
XxNightfirexX