A OneShot
Daniel Sebastian Goodwin and Corey Dean McAllister, two New Jersey roommates in a small row house. They both had watched Teen Titans for a while a few years ago, but both of them lost interest and grew out of it by the third season, not even watching the seasonal finale.
But then, they bought the Fourth on DVD, their interest was shortly renewed before they both found out the show was canceled.
They didn't know it, but they'd contribute to the 'continuity' of the forgotten series before too long.
Three years later. They were in a much worse financial situation, forcing the once beer-chugging couch-potato Dan Goodwin into getting a job at the local arcade.
Dan had buried his grandfather the year before, and had fallen into depression for a few months after. His gambling addiction threw his roommate, Corey, into near-bankruptcy. After Dan cleaned up his act, their financial situation seemed to balance out. Luckily, they had a franchise-name gas station diagonally across from their home.
They lived in 2-story row house on the corner of a busy four-lane intersection, facing the west, but the first story was basically the garage, a make-shift washroom, and a staircase. The second story was where they lived. It included an open-area kitchen and living room, with no dining room to speak of. They had a main bedroom belonging to Daniel on the north side of the house, which faced another house right beside it. Corey' bedroom, a tad smaller but with a higher ceiling, and a space-filled window, was on the south side, facing the road coming in from New York City. Corey' room was a bit cramped but more well-lit, where-as Dan's room was roomy, but filled with mess and not as well-lit. Though both of these room styles were due to the people in them, not because of the rooms themselves. But behind where the TV was situated was a guest bedroom facing the west that was used for Corey' girlfriend when she visited.
Her name was Kaitlin, but everyone called her Kate.
Corey, despite being a high-school drop-out like Daniel, got an online degree in computer science, and ended up getting a well-paying computer-security job with a law firm in Manhattan. The law firm had their computers tampered with during some high-risk cases, and even hacked with personal information stolen. After that led to a witness being murdered, the law firm was in need of a computer safety expert, and that came in the form of young Corey McAllister.
In a surprise move, the law firm relocated to San Francisco, which meant either Corey would have to move too, or lose his job.
The idea of moving across-country at first seemed laughable to both Corey and Dan, but the company offered him a large permanent raise if he stayed with them, due to their large need in a computer safety employee. That, and their 'guaranteed' employee in San Francisco had moved to Denver, Colorado and gotten a different job, leaving them exposed again.
The money was too good to pass up, and Daniel saw no reason to stay in New Jersey anyway. Even Kate didn't object, saying she'd visit them, and that she always wanted to visit San Francisco anyway, to see the beautiful city's scenery.
So they hired a cross-country moving company… which was, by the way, very expensive. They drove their stuff cross-country and settled in an upper-class neighborhood in the housing area of San Francisco. After sinking in the experience of having a brand new house, they got back into their lives. Daniel went back to his old ways, and went to find a place to buy a six-pack. Corey got in his rusty 4-door sedan, which he kept because it was his deceased father's gift to him on his 19th birthday, despite several notions to buy a new one for the job.
He drove to downtown, and parked his car. At first it was a hassle, until he caught someone pulling out of their spot and swooped in to nab it.
The building was huge as he entered it. Way fancier than the one in New York. It had large glass windows that gleamed off the sun in a dazzling way. He entered into the fancy lobby, really feeling the effect of the environment now.
"I'm here for Mr. Snyder. I have an appointment with him," he began, as the middle-aged receptionist looked through her computer.
"I'm sorry, sir, I don't see any appointments for today."
As Corey was crest-fallen, a man approached from behind and said loudly, "Ah, Chris!"
"Uh, not to be rude, but my name is Corey," he replied stunned by the suddenness of that, as the man shook his hand firmly.
"Mind if I call you Mr. McAllister?" the man said quietly with a smile. He wore a grayish business suit with a red and black tie, with the stereotypical 'business' short black-dyed hairstyle.
"No, I don't," Corey replied, still a bit confused.
"Ron Snyder at your service. I'm sorry I didn't have you on the books right now, considering how our history with computer privacy has been when you're not around. For all we know, we could've already been bugged!" the man began, walking Corey towards the elevators. He made a nervous and almost paranoid laugh at the end of his last sentence, getting an odd but unnoticed look by Corey.
"Well, I heard about the raise," Corey said quietly as the doors closed.
Several floors upward, the elevator dinged and the door opened, with Corey and Mr. Snyder shaking hands in agreement.
"I'm glad to have you working here again, Corey. You wouldn't believe how badly this has been for us in these past few days. We've already gotten two big cases, and even worse, there's a budget shortfall for police officers and detectives now, not to mention one of the departments is on strike!"
As the man began to rant, Corey' eyes widened, and he began to slowly tune the man out, staring away.
There was a female that he swore he knew at the end of the long hallway, standing in front of a window. It wasn't Kaitlin, and it wasn't anyone in the family.
She had long blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and was very young, about 7 years old. Seemingly her mother came nearby, and put her arm around her.
"Yes, yes," Corey replied to Mr. Snyder almost systematically, even though he didn't know what he was saying.
"So, who is that?" he asked, pointing down the hall.
"Oh, that's the girl involved in one of our big cases. It's a big international one. Her father was some high-up individual in Mongolia, and she was sent here so he wouldn't be impeached or whatever they do over there. Well, now her legal guardian is trying to get her under protective custody, but a Mongolian diplomat attempted to murder her. We think he was doing that so her father wouldn't be lose all his power, and we're trying to prove that."
After the long explanation, Corey asked, "What's her name?"
He had a funny feeling that this was about to be ultra-coincidental, and he was already thinking of Dan's cell phone number.
"Tara Danov," the man began, as Corey' heart skipped a beat.
The man continued in the background, as Corey got out his cell phone quickly.
He dialed, as Mr. Snyder said these words:
"Oh, and not to mention her father trained her to write the country Mongolia as Danovia instead, claiming it was his country. Sounds like the egotistical bastard needs to be knocked off his throne anyway."
"Pick up, damn it," Corey whispered.
Way back at the new house, Dan was laying on the couch, watching TV. He was interested in the new channels… about as interested as he was in New Jersey.
"Cooking, cooking. Oh look!… cooking… Reality TV. Reality. Reality-" Dan muttered to himself, but paused as he heard buzzing. It was his cell phone on vibrate.
He jumped up from the couch hastily, shouting a profanity before racing to the phone, which was sitting on the upstairs railing. Was he concerned with the person on the other end not being answered? No, not as much as he was that the phone would vibrate off the railing and fall and break. He couldn't afford to have to buy another cell phone.
He grabbed it and answered after some hesitation.
"Hello?"
"Dan," Corey began, excusing himself into the bathroom.
"You won't believe this. Remember how I constantly rant about Terra being a freeloader?"
"All the time," Dan sarcastically yet truthfully responded.
"And you brought up that being impossible because of her being royalty, because she was the daughter of some king in 'Danovia'?"
"Yeah, and you said That's in the comics, Dan, it doesn't count. Yeah, I remember, so what?" Dan replied.
"The lawyer firm has a case that has to do with the daughter of a high-power person in Mongolia… and her name is Tara Danov."
"Creepy, now I'm going to go think of a way to try to fool you into believing some bullshit, then brag about how my way was better than yours. Bye." Dan replied starkly, and hung up.
"Dan!" Corey began, and then shook his head, hanging up on his end.
Dan went back to laying on the couch, picked up his beer bottle and his remote control, and began flipping channels again.
He caught on a talk show, that was talking about FEMA issuing a warning about a large-scale earthquake that could annihilate the San Francisco skyline, and the ensuing blaze would only spare the bay's islands. Dan saw this as just scary talk, and flipped the channel to the local news.
According to the news, there had been a huge raise in crime since a police strike in downtown San Francisco, and the economic downslide had been hitting the San Francisco Bay area hard.
Dan was getting tired of the news, but before he could find the remote, there was one more story that came out of his TV speakers. Due to all the chaos, suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge were at all at time high, as well as off skyscrapers.
Dan switched the channels again, and began surfing for something to watch.
"Cooking. Commercials. Commercials. Comedy… hmmm…. Nope. Commercials, Reality shows, Reality… Reality…"
He finally decided to go back to the news program, but it was already on commercial. He used TiVo box under the TV, trying to find a way to bring up a menu showing all the channels and shows.
Again, he heard a vibrating sound. He grabbed his cellphone, and clicked 'Answer' with a sigh, expecting it to be Corey again. "What is it, dude?"
But his eyes widened, as he still heard the buzzing sound. And he realized his cell phone wasn't moving. He looked down on the coffee table, and noticed what was making the noise.
His beer bottle, vibrating off the table. He stared, dropping the remote, and accidentally making it go on a 10-second loop in the middle of the news coverage.
A gigantic earthquake struck, and the architectural marvel of a house began to collapse, as Dan unsuccessfully dove under the low-sitting glass coffee table, as a support beam of the high ceiling fell and crushed the couch behind him.
Back at the office, the room began rattling violently, and Corey ran back outside the room he was in. Mr. Snyder was shouting down the hall. "EARTHQUAKE! EARTHQUAKE!"
The building collapsed around them, but Corey focused on the blonde haired girl down the hall, Tara.
He ran forward, as everyone else ran towards the exits, excluding Tara and her parental guardian, who were frozen in fear.
"You!" Corey shouted, hanging onto a chair as the huge expensive building began to lose its stability and began to lean back towards its neighboring high-rise.
"Stop this!" he shouted more, as Tara stared right at him.
"I'm not doing it!" she began, as Corey quickly doubted his random assumption. He came to his senses, turned, and began to turn, trying to run towards the nearby stairwell that other workers were running down.
"Stop it now!" the woman behind him began to tell the girl, as Corey froze and began to turn around slowly.
"I'm not doing it!"
"Stop!"
And finally, the girl screamed out.
"I'M NOT DOING IT THIS TIME!"
Corey's eyes bugged out, and he turned towards her, as the building was seconds from collapse. Even if he ran downstairs, he wouldn't make it out.
"Are you her?!" he began shouting, as the sounds of the building collapsing deafened him.
"Get away from me!" she finally shouted, and jumped out the weakened glass window nearby.
"Tara!" her legal guardian shouted, as Corey looked up, as the ceiling above them collapsed entirely. With a split second left in his life, he stared out the window, seeing a piece of debris flying up instead of down. Before being crushed, he muttered one last sound. "It's Terr-"
In the house, electricity had miraculously stayed on, using a spare generator the house had that was still running down in the dug-in concrete-wall basement. A large support beam landed on the left side of the table, crushing Dan's legs, causing him to scream out.
"Somebody!" he exasperatedly yelled, before looking at the still-on TV. His eyes bugged out, part in pain, and part in realization.
As he took his last breaths and the TV shorted out, the phrase from the repeating newscast echoed in his ears.
"-…in a record number of suicides, earning the city the nickname 'Jump City'."