A little inspiration. Its something I had been wanting to write for years, but I didn't feel compelled to do so until recently. Chapter One. We'll see how long this fic goes over time. Until next time MistFits!

please excuse any typos or punctuation errors.

WRECKED

"Alright everybody, listen up!" came Mr. Thompson's voice loudly at the airport gate that looked out onto Gotham International Airport's massive and intricately patterned landing strips. Jake Thompson was young for a teacher – but his credentials made the man a valuable asset to any school within Gotham's educational system (whether he realized so, or not). And what was more? Students not only loved him, but also learned easily under his tutelage. He made getting an education successful and fun and entertaining, and his classes obviously benefited from the man's methods. Plus, it didn't hurt that he wasn't hard to look at either: buff enough to earn the respect and admiration of the guys, and attractive enough to moisten any skirt nearby. Jake looked good – everybody knew it – but the thing that made him an even more shway guy was that he wasn't cocky about it. In fact, Jake was pretty downright shy when he wasn't ranting and raving about micro molecules, or the beauty of this century's evolution in knowledge regarding biological entities.

Standing at 6 feet even, the green eyed, fully bearded, brown pompadour haired Science teacher waved an arm. His normally soft tone filled in authority and seriousness, gaining the attention of 100 students. Their once rowdy voices instantly shushed; a welcomed change for the passengers and attendants in nearby gates. It was the first week of June, and Hamilton Hill High's senior class trip was already upon them. With a few parental chaperones in tow, Thompson had volunteered to watch over the teens during their excursion of redefined independence – partially because it was the responsible thing to do since none of the other staff members wanted to spend a week and a half with these troublemakers; also, because he quite frankly needed a vacation himself. Jake smirked and held up a pamphlet of paper for all to see. "Everybody got their trip itinerary?" He paused and listened carefully to the responding mumbles for a "no", and when there were none, continued. "Okay, so here's the run through: We're going to board the 747 for Florida – nonstop. Once we reach there, everybody will line up directly outside of our arrival gate. I'm serious. Not a single one of you better wander off." Thompson gave Nelson Nash a warning glare, causing the jock to smile innocently and shrug.

"Once everybody's off the plane, we'll wait for our bags to be delivered directly – courtesy of Bienvenidos Travel. From the airport, the group will board our buses and head to the hotel for the night. And in the morning-."

"MEXICAN CRUISE TO PARADISE, BABY!" shouted Nelson, earning the teen an explosion of praise and jubilee from the other students.

Thompson shook his head with a wide smile at the group's excitement before checking his watch for the umpteenth time today. "Half an hour to boarding time," the teacher announced. "If you gotta pee, better do it now!" Without another word, the approaching thirty young man plopped down tiresomely into his seat as a few female students suddenly crowded around him – yammering on about nonexistent concerns as an excuse to get a little closer to their hot instructor. Jake groaned internally. God, he hoped the whole trip wouldn't be like this…

Meanwhile, while everyone else was clearly off the walls about the miniature vacation, Maxine Gibson sat near a window towards the rear of the gate – twiddling her plum painted nails nervously. Max was a lot of things: genius, gamer queen, bad ass, street smart, one fiery dame…but one thing she wasn't, was fond of travel by boat. Max loved the water – she just hated being surrounded by it with the nearest piece of land two days away. She had her reasons. The thoughts of everything that could go wrong had been eating away at the girl for months – and now with this being the day of the trip, and day before having to board the ship, Gibson was starting to become overwhelmed with anxiety. She fingered the bottle of Xanax resting safely inside of her carryon tote, exhaling a little in relief each time she managed to touch it. "You're going to make yourself have a heart attack, Max. Swear."

And then there was this guy. "You've been saying that all day. Keep it up and it just might happen," was the girl's annoyed retort as she looked up at the frame of her best friend hovering over her – one hand in his shorts pocket while the other tugged at the loose collar of his t-shirt in indication that he was hot.

Terry held up his hands in surrender, urging the girl to simmer down a little. "I'm just saying you have nothing to worry about," countered McGinnis as he spun and fell dramatically in the seat beside her. "I mean, you've been through way worse." Terry winked suggestively. Max couldn't help it when she'd lidded her eyes alongside an all knowing, somewhat seductive grin. Damn straight she had been through worse – all on his account. But at least back then she knew that if shit hit the fan, he'd be right there to save her. The rules of engagement were different now. If Max had to choose between risking her life to save someone else's – or giving up her life so he could save someone else's – they both knew the choice she'd make. That's probably why Gibson was so anxious; it wasn't every day that you came to terms with the possibility of your own death. Then again, that was just the fear talking…they hoped. After all, if she could survive in mother fucking Gotham City before the Batman, she could surely survive now at the chance of him not being right there to save her if something went wrong. "But okay. I need to stop saying you're going to have a heart attack," admits McGinnis. "

"THANK you!" Max exclaims. "We've got enough bad juju in the air just living in Gotham. I don't need you adding to it!"

He smirked. Even when she was being ridiculous, she was still right. Still…"But c'mon Max. You're freaking yourself out over nothing." Terry reached out and took her hand into his own to comfort her. Despite the jokes, even Terry could see she really was struggling with this, and he hated it. If there was one thing McGinnis loathed the most, it was having the people close to him have any flitter of worry; especially since he was now the one person designed to erase those fears. "There's a whole group of us, and the travel agency is quite reputable."

Max leaned forward and adjusted the strap of her tired black flip flops before leaning all the way back into her chair, mimicking Terry's collar tug of her yellow cotton spandex one piece shorts jumper. It was feeling a tad warmer than normal in here. "Sounds like you did a little digging," Max pried with a flutter of her eyebrows in indication, giving his hand a soft squeeze of reassurance that relaxed him enough to let go.

Terry chuckled. "Had to. Bruce wouldn't have let me come, otherwise. But even though the old man practically pushed me out the door, I can tell he's tore up about it. I don't know how he's going to make it without me." The vigilante teen pressed the back of his palm against his forehead in a vintage fainting motion, and then snorted.

Max smiled at him. It had been a while since she'd seen her best friend so…free; so loose and relaxed. Terry loved his job – that was beyond obvious – but even Max wasn't blind to the fact that sometimes wearing the suit of vigilante justice took a bigger wear on McGinnis than the teen was emotionally ready to handle; much less admit. Still, he held on like a champ: never complaining, never even thinking about how much easier life would be if he'd just called it quits. Maybe that was why Bruce was so willing to let him go. And for that, Max was pleased, relieved, and nonetheless fully grateful.

"Besides," McGinnis added in a low whisper as he leaned toward the tech geek's ear, "you're perfectly safe with me around." His voice changed then: deeper, more mysterious – to someone whom the teen girl knew just as well – the voice of Gotham's Dark Knight. "I'll protect you…" A shiver raced up her spine and Gibson fought her damned hardest not to bite into her plump lower lip. He knew exactly what he was doing, and it pissed Max off a little less than she pretended – he knew that too. Asshole…

"What are you two whispering about?" asked a familiar voice. The two turned their gazes upwards to find their clique approaching after a final bathroom run: Dana, Chelsea, Nelson, Howie, and Blade. The voice who asked the question was Chelsea – who had a mischievous smirk on her face.

Great. "Max is still freaking out about the cruise," answered Terry with a roll of the eyes, leaning away from Max as if doing so would erase any ideas forming in Cunningham's devious little head. Of course, it didn't.

Things between Max and Terry had been quite interesting over the past year. McGinnis and Dana were officially broken up – via Tan's discretion. The two were still on superior terms, though – and because of that the group was able to still hang out together without things getting super awkward. But it wasn't until last year that the blonde's mind and awareness started tinkering for thoughts of something developing between the two longtime friends. That was when Max had been put in the hospital last year with pneumonia. Needless to say it took everyone by surprise. One minute Max was standing from her desk to throw something in the trash, and the next she was sprawled out on the ground unconscious. Terry had officially lost his shit. He wouldn't let a soul touch her until the ambulance arrived, and when they had, McGinnis was in the back of the vehicle quicker than Chelsea could swipe her daddy's credit card at an Abercrombie & Fitch sale. From what Cunningham could see over the days that turned into months of visits, Terry never left Max's side. She didn't know what all happened while Max was hospitalized, but the beauty did know that afterwards, the two had become noticeably closer…Dana had simply said she figured something like that would happen. Tan had smiled when she saw one of Wayne's cars pull up to the school parking, and saw Terry open up the passenger door to help Max out. All the former girlfriend had said on the matter was: "Maybe Max..." And without another word she headed inside of the school building as if nothing had even happened, leaving their blonde bestie to her formulating thoughts.

Back in reality, Howie sniffed and pushed up his glasses anime style. Gibson had to admit: it surprisingly looked kind of cool. "Come now, Max," Howie taunted at the girl's unnecessary concerns with a criticizing smirk. "This worry of yours is entirely illogical. Do you know how low the probability is of anything bad happening on the ship? With today's technological advancements: fairly low."

Good ole Howie: always putting intellect and tech over good old fashioned gut feelings and common sense. No wonder he had thought building a robotic girlfriend was a good idea. Max snorted. "So they said for what was supposedly one of the greatest ships of all time. And we all know what happened to it…"

Nelson raised a brow and Max stared menacingly at everyone's blank expressions waiting for an answer of some sort before stating slowly: "Ice…berg…"

The group seemed to groan in unison. "You're being juvenile, Max," chimed in Dana as the Asian beauty sat in the chair directly in front of them while Nelson and Howie stood on each side of Blade, her arms linked through theirs.

"Super juvenile," echoed Chelsea, plopping down on Max's lap and squeezing the girl tight to her bosom before stroking her hair in pity. "Poor baby."

Max sighed loudly. "Knock it off. You guys are supposed to be supporting me!"

"Don't worry babe," promised Nelson with a wink of the eye. "We'll keep you so entertained, you'll forget about everything else. In fact, we can start in my hotel room if you like?"

Almost as if all of their minds were a collective entity, all the girls grimaced and pointed their fingers to the back of their mouths, "DREG!"

Bienvenidos Travel was a prestigious organization that marketed, booked, serviced, and even provided quality travel to their travelers all across the globe – making them specialists and perfectly in tune with offering the best of care. From personal, corporate, and group travel, they managed it all – and weren't lacking in the financial department in the slightest. Eugenio Salvarez, the current CEO of the organization, was unfortunately not as courteous as his predecessors. Eugenio cared about the customer – because he cared for their money even more. His great, great grandfather founded the business to help people experience the world's beauty from any and every where possible without going broke trying to do it. He believed the Earth was a gift every person should witness at some point. Eugenio believed they deserved the best…to line his own pockets with.

Because of Salvarez's greed, Bienvenidos often found itself excruciatingly booked; even sometimes going so far as to book travel when it wasn't exactly the safest to do so. He'd nearly lost planes in blizzards, trains in floods, boats in storms, hotels in hurricanes – just to make a dollar. "I really think we should cancel the Mexican cruise, Gene," came Richardson's voice from his business office in England. Kenneth Richardson – red haired, green eyed, young – was a family friend and currently, business partner.

Salvarez leaned back into his leather arm chair with his feet on the desk top, and merely continued watching the soccer game broadcasting on the 60 inch screen hanging on the adjacent wall. "We've been over this, Kenneth," started the CEO slowly.

"That's the problem," sassed the Englishman. "We've been over this way too many times. I'm all the way here and can see the weather is turning bad. It's the start of hurricane season down there."

"We've never had a storm come this early in the year, Kenneth," countered Eugenio with a tone laced with disrespect – a putdown.

Kenneth struggled his hardest to let that one go. Richardson wasn't an idiot – far from it. His family had their own travel company that serviced the UK. Very much like Salvarez, Richardson was a CEO – the difference was that Kenneth cared a bit more about his customers and their happiness than his friend claimed to. Still, he didn't like being played off like some unintellectual fool taking part in his first rodeo; because fact of the matter was that Salvarez needed Kenneth…not the other way around. "Eugenio, this company has some of the best meteorologists across the world. All of them have checked the data, and all of them agree-."

"That it's not a hurricane."

"But that's not the only problem!" Kenneth exclaimed with growing frustration, tearing a hand through his red faux hawk. "Forget the hurricane that may or may not show up. Forget the weather entirely and focus on the ship."

Here we go. Salvarez scoffed with a shake of his head. "The ship is fine. It received the necessary repairs-."

"Calling them necessary is a bit of stretch, Gene – don't you think?" challenged Richardson with a raised brow of disapproval."You may have tweaked a couple of structural problems, replaced a rusty bolt or two: but you and I both know that all of the proper configurations, updates, repairs, maintenance, and more have not been completed. La Mariposa failed her last inspection on so many categories I don't even see how you could even contemplate putting her in the water!"

Salvarez twiddled a pen behind his fingers, eyes never leaving the television screen until his receptionist peeked her head inside the office and pointed to his computer. Eugenio noted a recent chat message and opened it, smiling to see that his recent travel group had safely landed in Florida and would be ready for departure via La Mariposa in the morning. Appeased by this good bit of news in the midst of his current conversation, Salvarez sent a provocative emoji back to his receptionist's chat box – letting her know to be ready to pull up that skirt as soon as he got off the phone. When she peeked back inside, the beautiful Latina stood fully in the doorway and traced a hand down the side of her thigh before crossing over and raising the front of her grey skirt just enough for the hand to slip under. Eugenio licked his lips as the young woman rotated her hidden hand, all while giving him the most seductive of stares. Her hips bucked as she threw back her head, suppressing a moan solely so that the man on the other end of the line wouldn't hear. "Listen, Kenneth," began Salvarez as he began to swiftly pull off his jacket and prepared to end this pointless conversation early.

"Don't you 'Listen, Kenneth' me, Gene. This is important!"

The receptionist held out her opposite index finger and shook it from side to side to stop her boss as he was getting ready to rise to his feet. Like an obedient lap dog, Eugenio stopped, staring at her readily for her next command. She continued to rub between her thighs, biting her lip hard and putting an index finger to her lips in indication of silence. Removing her hand from the outer limits of her underwear, she quietly tip toed back to her designated desk after closing the door. Eugenio growled. He was going to fuck her brains out as soon as he got off this damned phone.

"I'm serious on this one," continued Kenneth – completely unaware to the room's recent happenings. "Call it off. That ship isn't sea worthy-."

"DAMNIT, Kenneth, she's ready ENOUGH!" yelled the Latino male with a bang of the fist against his desk, causing absolute silence on the other line and within the office. "I made the necessary repairs and provisions. Do you hear me? The necessary repairs and provisions. This is my last major cruise of the year because of that call you made to the inspection unit! Because of you, all three of my liners are out of commission until the work is done. But the Mariposa is fit enough of those three – and I am not going to lose money just because of a couple rusted parts and outdated computer systems. That's what the fucking crew is for: TO RUN THE DAMN SHIP! Fuck the auto pilot system and the engine coolants or whatever the hell it is. MAN drives that boat. He's been driving it since before my great, great grandfather even made this company. She's fine enough-."

"NO SHE'S NOT!" Kenneth couldn't believe a single word he was hearing. The England native knew that his childhood friend could be a tad greedy, but he never once expected Gene was so blind to dollar signs that he would put an entire ship of people's lives at stake just to make an extra buck. He was mad because the inspectors were called? What the heck did he expect after all three of the ships had stalled in the middle of the ocean? What did he expect when El Toro's (the youngest of the fleet) radar system had malfunctioned, leading the blind captain and crew straight onto a random large reef off of the French Islands that caused the vessel to take on water and start to capsize? What did he expect when La Bella Paloma's engine's suddenly spiked and overheated…and caught fire right off the coast of Africa, and made everyone have to abandon ship? Each ship had major malfunctions that required immediate inspection – an inspection that benched all three permanently until a secondary inspection after all the repairs; repairs that would cost Bienvenidos Travel millions of dollars (a major financial loss that could have been avoided if Eugenio had gotten regular maintenance on the vessels done like he should have).

Eugenio turned off the television. "I think you've forgotten who you're talking to, Richardson. This is my company-."

"NO, I think you've forgotten who YOU'RE talking to!" Eugenio snapped his jaws shut. Kenneth had had e-fucking-nough. No more back talk. No more disrespect. No more games. If Eugenio wanted everything put out on the table – if he needed a reminder – then fine; Kenneth would fucking give him that. "Your company was on the verge of nonexistence after your ignorance caused that 747 to crash in the mountains of Switzerland. 100 people died on that plane, and the suits had bled you dry. It's because our families have been such great friends that I bailed you out! I bought a fair share of Bienvenidos and not only kept you afloat, but helped silence that incident and build you up to where you are now. Now, you are right about one thing: you have the final power to continue on with your plans – but I will not support this decision – and if anything happens to those students, I will not only renounce you, but will take you for everything you have." The line hung up, leaving Eugenio sitting up tautly in his chair with a balled up fist and vast anger in his eyes. Damn.

To be continued…