Here it is: the hopefully-anticipated sequel to Sister, Where Art Thou? If you haven't read that yet, you should probably go and do so now before reading this one.
So here's the story behind the story: I was planning to just drop the whole Terrane idea after my last fic about him. But then I thought about what kind of possibilities he could have…as a Titan! So now I've planned a whole Elseworld series about him. (For those who don't know, Elseworld means something like 'a crazy story concept that couldn't have possibly happened but sounds good anyway.' At least, that's my definition of it.)
Anyway, sit back, grab a snack if you feel like it, and enjoy my newest addition to the up-and-coming Elseworld saga I like to call The Xenothium Compact.
I don't own any characters except the ones I make up. I guess you could also say that I own this Elseworld concept, but the story that it is based off of is not mine.
Unreal: Part One
Argent looked out the window of the new tower. She sighed. My very own team, she thought. About time.
Bushido walked through the door, his sword slung over his shoulder with three paint cans hanging from it. "You done admiring the view?" he asked, breaking Argent from her reverie.
"Oh, of course," replied Argent. The newly formed Titans South had begun construction of a base in Marble City, southeast of Jump City. They only needed a few more touches to make it perfect. Argent flew over to meet Bushido. "What do you need help with?"
Bushido pointed over to the door. "First off, you should probably stop Jericho from knocking down the foundations with sonic waves."
Argent stared at him. "You're joking, right?"
Bushido shook his head. "I never joke."
Argent hurriedly flew outside to see Jericho cranking up his newly acquired sonic boom-inducing guitar. This was formerly property of Punk Rocket, a villain obsessed with spreading the 'sound of chaos.'
Argent stopped Jericho before he played a chord. "What do you think you're doing?!" she shouted at the mute boy.
Jericho just smiled and said many things in sign language. Argent narrowed her eyes as she tried to comprehend them, but simply gave up. She was the team's leader, and yet the only one who didn't understand Jericho when he spoke in sign language.
"Stop, stop," she said, waving her hands. "Just write it down." She created paper from red plasma energy and handed Jericho a piece of graphite that was lying on the ground.
Jericho wrote out what he had been saying very quickly and handed the red paper back to Argent. It read, "We still don't have enough space to finish the building, so I thought I'd level a few of these hills to make room."
Argent put her face in her palm. "Jericho, I already knew there wasn't enough room. And I believe I already told you to wait for him to come and take care of it." She looked out to the setting sun, thinking, Where is he? He should have been here twenty minutes ago.
Jericho tapped Argent on the shoulder. He showed her the paper again, which had new words written on it. "So what should I do now?"
Argent waved him away. "Go help Bushido paint. Maybe you can help with the landscaping later."
Jericho nodded, walking off. Argent looked out at the sunset again. He said he'd come…was he lying? She thought about it for a second, then thought, Nah. He wouldn't do that. With one last look at the sunset, Argent walked back inside. Maybe Red Star needed some help moving things around.
Meanwhile, in Jump City…
Red X looked down upon the Jump City Museum from a rooftop. There was a new exhibit there today. They were displaying a rare stone: the Mirror Jewel. Red X didn't want to be late to the exhibit. He wanted as much time as possible to 'appreciate it.' In other words, he wanted to steal the jewel.
Red X waited intently while watching the guards. One minute left, he thought. Surely enough, about a minute later, the guard headed inside. It was time for shift change. Red X smirked under his mask. Showtime.
Red X jumped off the roof of the building he was standing on, landing on his feet in front of the door. He leaned against the wall of the museum immediately, looking around the corner. When he saw that the coast was clear, he crept inside. He had about thirty seconds to get past the lobby before one of the guards saw him.
Red X picked up his pace a bit, moving on soundless feet. He eyed a camera overhead, but he wasn't worried. He had made some modifications on his suit which protected him from the camera's sensors. He continued his trek out of the lobby.
Suddenly, Red X heard footsteps. He didn't bother looking back; he knew whom they were from. He looked at where he was for a split second. Five yards from the entrance to the first exhibit. Could he make it? He'd have to try.
Red X dove forward, rolling as he hit the floor. He ducked behind a potted plant just as he heard footsteps coming toward him. "Who's there?" a security guard shouted.
"What's going on?" asked the guard who had just changed shifts.
The other guard took out his flashlight and closed in on Red X's position. He looked around for a minute, shining the flashlight in Red X's direction. Shoot…I screwed up, thought Red X. He prepared himself to fight them.
Then, the guard flipped away his flashlight. "Nothing," he said. "Probably just seeing things."
Whew, thought Red X. That was close. When the guards' footsteps dispersed, Red X got up and began to creep toward the exhibit of his interest once again.
After a minute of searching, Red X saw the article of his desire: the Mirror Jewel. It was quite a beautiful gemstone. It was clear, much like quartz. It had deep lines coursing all over it, making it look like a cracked mirror, hence the name.
Red X licked his lips as he eyed this precious jewel. He was very, very partial to shiny things. And he tended to steal things he liked. He began to walk toward the display case, but halted. Right, he thought. Gotta check it for traps. He took out one of his infamous X-shaped devices and held it out to the case. It scanned the case, and then opened up into three screens.
Red X looked the screens over. Only a laser field? he thought, suspicion in his mind. They must not care about this thing very much. He punched in a few keys on his X-shaped scanner. They're pretty tight…but I think I can do it. He pulled his gloves tighter over his hands as a surgeon would do before a tricky operation and pulled out another X. He threw this one into the air. It split up into several small pieces. Punching a few more keys on his other device, Red X sent these pieces in at the display case. The pieces shot down at the case, heading in a straight line through the lasers and latching onto it.
Red X smiled. Too easy, he thought, punching in the final commands on his device. The display case opened, automatically deactivating the lasers. Red X was thoroughly confused by this. That doesn't usually happen. He shrugged this thought off, reaching in for the precious gem.
Red X never even touched the gem, however. It disappeared in a flash of 0s and 1s, almost like it was data inside a computer. "What the hell?" Red X said aloud.
"I didn't think you'd make it past the guards," said a voice from the darkness. It sounded female. "Impressive, really."
Red X looked over to the source of the voice. "What's going on here?" he asked, to no one in particular.
The source of the voice stepped out from the darkness. It was, indeed, a girl. This girl was dressed in khaki shorts and a black turtleneck sweater. There were green goggles around her neck, and several gadgets and gizmos hung from the green belt of her shorts. Her eyes were dark green, and her hair was black as coal. She wore dark green lipstick to top of the whole 'green and black' look. She ignored Red X's question, advancing on the masked teen. "And those were the tightest lasers I could manage, but you passed with flying colors. Props to that."
"Thanks," said Red X. "Listen, I like being praised and all, but this whole thing is kinda starting to creep me out, so I'd just like to go now…" Red X tried to move, but found that he was being held in place by a strong cable of some sort. He looked down at it and saw that it was comprised of 0s and 1s, just as the Mirror Jewel had been. This was just getting weirder and weirder. However, all the while Red X was wondering, Where have I seen this before?
"Oh, you don't want to leave yet," said the green and black-clad girl. "Not until you hear what I have to say."
After struggling to get free, Red X gave up and said, "Fine, just tell me and get it over with."
The girl smirked, advancing ever closer to Red X. "I have what you were looking for right here," she said, taking the Mirror Jewel out of her pocket. "It's all yours…on one condition."
Red X sighed. "And what would that be?"
"Meet me outside Chang's old observatory, 8 o'clock tonight," she said. "I have someone who wants to meet you. Don't be late, now." She winked at Red X. With those words, she disappeared in a flash of 0s and 1s.
Red X was suddenly unbound, and found himself standing outside the museum he had planned to rob. How the hell did I get back out here? he asked himself. Then he heard footsteps. The guard was coming for shift change. No time to think about that; I'd better split. Red X darted away from the museum door, still a bit confused about the girl's words. What confused him even more, though, was the familiarity of her tricks. That technology…I've seen it before. But where?
Marble City, an hour later…Argent looked at the finished tower: the Titan Tower South. It didn't look too shabby; it looked nearly as majestic as the original Titan Tower in Jump City. There was something off about it, though…something wrong…
Argent snapped her fingers. "We forgot to reinforce the foundations. If there's ever an earthquake here, how will this tower stay up?"
Suddenly, the ground began rumbling. Speak of the devil, thought Argent. She braced herself, looking over to the tower to see if it was all right. What she saw instead surprised her.
There was a layer of diamond coming up under the tower, wrapping itself around the bottom. As soon as the earthquake stopped, Argent heard a familiar voice: "I think that should reinforce 'em pretty well."
Argent spun around to see the figure of Terrane Markov, the fifth member of their team. He had a backpack over his shoulder and a smile on his face. He was wearing the same outfit he had been wearing earlier that day: A light spring jacket and baggy jeans. Argent was speechless for a second, but soon got her voice back. "Figure you'd turn up fashionably late?" she asked, advancing on Terrane.
Terrane landed in front of her. "Yeah, I would've come sooner, but I had to go sightseeing first. There are some pretty valuable gemstones out in those mountains, y'know. You guys should check 'em out."
Argent ignored this. "I said five o'clock, Terrane. It's nearly seven."
Terrane's grin disappeared. "Okay, sorry. I didn't think you'd be so rigid on arrival times."
"Didn't you think we'd be worried?" These words surprised even Argent. Her face turned a little red about two seconds after she said this.
Terrane was a bit surprised too, but then smirked affably and said, "Aw, Argent, how nice of you to worry about me."
Argent smirked a little too, the redness dispersing from her face. "Well, all I meant was that we needed help building the tower. Jericho nearly knocked over the tower trying to level some hills you could've leveled with a flick of your wrist."
Jericho shrugged and grinned foolishly.
Terrane laughed a little and said, "Okay, I guess it was kind of stupid of me to come so late. Here, I'll make it up to you. Let's go inside, though. It's starting to get chilly."
Argent nodded agreement. Her skin was starting to feel a bit cold. There were goose bumps all over her arms and legs. She walked inside, the rest of the team following her.
Terrane looked around in amazement at the tower. "It's…big," he commented. "And pretty nice. You guys did a good job." He turned to them. "But enough talk. I've got something to give all of you." He took a box out of his backpack. The box itself was pretty impressive: it was composed of all sorts of different minerals, such as diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, and amethyst. The assorted colors made it look like an artist's masterpiece. Red Star whistled at the sight of it. Terrane shook his finger. "No, no, this isn't it." Terrane opened the box and a pair of sparkling diamond gloves floated out. The left glove had a piece of garnet on the backside, while the right one had a piece of emerald. "For you, Red Star, ol' buddy. These gloves are made of pure diamond. They'll let you pack a little more punch, and they're comfortable, too. I made sure to make the diamond flexible."
Red Star tried them on. "They are comfortable, indeed," said Red Star, flexing his fingers and smiling. "How did you make the diamond so adaptable?"
Terrane smiled and wiggled around the fingers on his right hand. "Magic touch," is all he said. Another item floated out of the box: it was a diamond sword with a sapphire-and-quartz hilt. "For you, Bushido. This sword is made of diamond and fifty times as sharp as a regular one. It can slash through stone like a hot knife through butter. It's lightweight and easy to handle, too."
Bushido gave the sword a swing and smiled, satisfied with the performance of the blade. "Very nice workmanship," he said, holstering it with his other sword.
"Thanks," said Terrane. "Moving on…for you, Jericho, I knew I had to make something special. So I made this." A hunk of diamond came floating out of the box. It melted, and then reformed into a diamond replica of Jericho. "I've given this statue eyes, so that you can take control of it. But that's not all it can do." He motioned toward the statue. "Go ahead, give it a spin."
Jericho nodded and looked into the eyes of the statue. He became one with the statue. Once inside, he looked at his hands. "I don't feel any different," he said. Then his eyes widened. "Oh my god! I spoke!" He turned his head to Terrane. "I can talk!"
Terrane smiled, nodding. "You sure can," he said, walking over to the Jericho statue. "I made some artificial vocal cords inside the statue."
Jericho smiled. He tried to walk around, but found that he couldn't. He frowned. "I can talk, but I can't move. It feels like I have lead weights on my feet."
Terrane scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, about that…I couldn't quite make the statue light enough for you to be able to move. So you'll be able to talk, but not to walk." As Jericho stepped back outside the statue, it turned into a bracelet with an amethyst set in it. "It's portable, though, so you can use it anywhere."
Jericho picked up the bracelet, smiled, and gave Terrane a thumbs up.
Terrane turned over to Argent. "And finally, a gift for the lady." He set the box down on a table and bowed.
Out of the box floated a necklace. There were five different gemstones on it. Argent's eyes sparkled along with the gleaming stones on it. She picked it out of the air and gazed at it. "Terrane, it's…utterly astonishing."
"I thought you'd like it," said Terrane, smiling. "Check it out: the chain is pure diamond. Then, there are five different stones on it. The first one on the left is amethyst. The one next to it is a mix of sapphire and quartz. To the far right, there's a mix of garnet and emerald. Next to that one is topaz, and in the center, of course, is a mix of ruby and opal."
Argent looked at it for a minute, then over to her teammates. She eyed each of them until her eyes landed on Terrane. "The gemstones…each of them represents one of us, right?
Terrane's smile widened. "Ever the intuitive one, ey?" he said. "Yes, each of the stones does represent one of us. The one in the middle is obviously you."
Argent nodded. "Well, this is quite a generous gift."
"Ah, ah, ah," said Terrane, shaking his finger once again. "I wasn't done explaining." Argent raised an eyebrow. "What, you thought your gift wouldn't do something cool, too?"
Argent shrugged. "I thought its only job was to look pretty."
Terrane chuckled. "And it does that quite well. Nevertheless, it does have another use. Try using your power on the garnet-and-emerald."
Argent put her hand out to the necklace and enclosed the garnet-and-emerald with red plasma energy. Suddenly, she felt immensely strong, as though she could lift a ten-ton boulder, even without her powers. "What's…what's happening?" she asked, mildly frightened.
Terrane held up his hands. "Calm down. You've just linked yourself to Red Star's power." Indeed, the gemstones on Red Star's gloves were glowing.
Argent understood. "That's amazing…" she said in awe. She put on the necklace and gazed over to the tall blonde teen, stopping the flow of her power into the necklace. "Terrane, I've only seen a little of your work, but I'm sure you've really outdone yourself this time."
Terrane shook his head. "Hey, just think of this as a thank-you gift," he said. Then, after a pause, he looked at his feet and added, "And an apology."
As Terrane looked at his feet, Argent walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," she said. "You have nothing to be sorry about. We all know that Slade lied to you." She looked into his eyes and repeated, "You have nothing to be sorry about."
Terrane looked back into Argent's eyes. His smile came back a little as he said, "Thanks. You don't know how relieved that makes me feel."
Argent smiled back and patted his shoulder. "No problem," she said. She looked over at the clock Bushido had put on the wall overlooking the door into the main hallway. "Seven fifteen," she said. "What say we go and check out the town we're supposed to protect?"
"Excellent idea!" said Red Star
"Sure, sounds good," replied Bushido.
"Let's go," agreed Terrane.
Jericho simply smiled and nodded.
"Well, then, let's get going!" said Argent. She flew toward the door, her team following her.
Chang's Observatory Hill, 7:30 PMRed X walked up the hill, soaking in the view of the night-lit city. The way he figured it, this rendezvous would be quick and easy. He'd find the girl, meet whomever she wanted him to meet, and get his prize. Just in case she had set a trap, however, Red X had come thirty minutes early to inspect the field. "Always know your surroundings," his father had said. "You never know when they'll turn into a battleground."
Red X shook his head. His sayings are about the only thing he was good for, thought Red X cynically. His old man hadn't been what one would call a family man. He had been away a lot, and was quite melancholy whenever he did show. Red X didn't know much more than that about his father. He was a better friend with his sister anyway…
Red X stopped thinking about his family when he saw the green-and-black girl leaning against Professor Chang's old observatory, the ground around which was lit by a single streetlight. As far as Red X knew, that old coot Chang was currently frozen in some high-tech base in France, or so he'd heard. He still remembered his fight against the old man. His first fight side-by-side with Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans. They actually made a pretty good team. But they could probably never work together, being on different sides of the law and all.
As Red X came closer to the girl, he noticed she was playing a handheld game. Her goggles were on and her tongue was out to the side. She was obviously very engrossed in the game. She didn't even notice Red X approach her. Red X shrugged, taking this as an opportunity to look for traps. He quickly scanned the building with one of his X-shaped devices and saw that there weren't any threats inside or outside. Seeing nothing else to do, he walked up to the girl and cleared his throat noisily.
The girl looked up from her game. "What is…" When she saw Red X, her eyes widened. She quickly hid the game behind her back. "Oh, it's you!" she said a bit nervously.
Red X chuckled. "Didn't expect me to come this early, ey?"
The girl shrugged, taking off her goggles with one hand and dropping them back over her neck. "Honestly, I didn't expect you to come at all. My…er…friend said you might not."
Red X raised an eyebrow. "Did he, now?" Then he looked behind the girl's back. "Uh…are you still playing that?"
In fact, the girl's fingers were still flying across the buttons on the game, as if programmed to do the right thing without even looking. And, by the sounds of the game, they were doing pretty well. "Oh," she said, looking down at the hands behind her back. "It would seem I am."
"Uh…right…" said Red X. "Look, can I just meet this guy and have my jewel back?"
The girl looked around for a second, all while pressing the buttons on the game. She cleared her throat, turned off the game, and put it into her pocket. She stood silent for another few seconds. Then she said, "You…uh…came a little earlier than I expected. The person I want you to meet…well, he kind of isn't here yet."
Red X groaned and rolled his eyes. "Are you serious?" he asked. The girl nodded meekly. "Well, this is just great. So what now?"
The girl shrugged. "I dunno. I guess we've gotta pass time somehow. Um…so, what's your name?"
Red X looked over to the girl. "Red X."
The girl shook her head. "No, I mean your real name."
"You don't need to know that."
The girl scrunched her face. "Fine. Be that way." She looked at her nails and resumed leaning against the observatory. "In case you're wondering, my name's Gigabyte. Nice to meet you…I guess."
Red X said nothing. He simply sat down and looked out to the moonlit sea surrounding Jump City. After about a minute of silence between the two, Red X said, "Gigabyte."
The girl looked up. "Hmm?" she said.
"I noticed that you used some advanced kind of tech back in the museum." Red X looked back at the black-haired teen. "Would you happen to know the name of the computer system you used?"
Gigabyte looked up to the sky. "It's a system of my own. I haven't named it yet."
Red X laughed once and looked away. "Liar."
"Hey!" she said, walking over to the masked teen. She put her hands on her hips and leaned over to look at him. "I'm telling the truth!"
"No you're not," replied Red X. "That's not yours. You got it from someone. Probably this 'friend' of yours, am I right?"
Gigabyte sighed and sat down by Red X. "Yeah, you're right. But I'm probably gonna patent it as my own, once I work out all the kinks. Nobody's gonna object. That 'friend' of mine said that the owner's dead."
Red X sighed. "He sure is."
Before Gigabyte could question what Red X said, a voice sounded from behind them. "Sorry you two had to wait," it said. It was a male voice, though Red X couldn't see whom it belonged to.
Gigabyte got up to meet the man. "About time," she said, heading toward the darkness. "It was pretty awkward with just him and me here." She turned back to Red X. "This is the person I'd like you to meet. Or rather, he'd like to meet you. Red X, meet Slade."
The muscular figure of Slade stepped out into the light. "Ah, Red X. I've heard oh so much about you. But where are my manners?" Slade took a bow. "Slade, at your service."
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And there's Chapter One. Yeah, the addition of Slade was probably pretty predictable, but it's necessary for the story. Anyway, gimme some reviews and tell me what you think! Chapter Two is on the way!