Tired was an understatement to the teen. He was ready to collapse and slam his head into the goddamn pavement.
He painfully dragged his aching feet across the ground, moving at a snails pace. His brown boots, although padded, didn't help with miles and miles of walking. His loose, light brown pants clung onto his sweaty body like it was tapped right onto his skin. It didn't help that he wore multiple layers of clothing either, especially in the bright, hot sun of the city.
His first layer began with a rose printed cloth, colored a soft blue and tied at his shoulder, causing it to hang off the side of his body like a weird, a makeshift cape. Under was a dark blue short sleeved shirt, with a growing visible pit sweat. And of course, the last layer was made up of a cream colored long sleeves short with tight, golden colored wristlets. Even his hands were sweating up a storm, covered up a thick piece of leather with a blue gem within the middle.
He wiped the thick sweat cleanly up his forehead, causing it to slip into his thick, wavy black hair. Although his hair reached his shoulders, he didn't bother a stumpy little ponytail. Mainly because he didn't have a hair tie, nor saw one in sight.
With a deep sigh, the golden skinned teen flicked the excess sweat from his clammy hands and continued to stumble through the street like a drunken zombie. His pale blue eyes glanced up to the slightly cloudy sky, as though it was about to put out rain and probably solve half of his problems. His body begged for that gulp of water he drank hours ago. His lungs pleaded for that air that he couldn't seem to get. He felt like the wreck he looked.
It was his own damn fault of course for deciding to run most of his trip. If he would have been patient and just walked, he would still have water, his legs wouldn't feel like jelly, and he wouldn't want to slam head first into the pavement. He thought that now, at least. Yet, he always felt like he couldn't afford to just take a quiet hike across the forest or desert. Everything had to be planned out to the smallest detail. Well, almost everything.
Especially when it felt like something was breathing down his back.
The black haired teen lazily slammed his boot into the ground, as the sound of engines filled his ears. Sure enough, when he lifted up his head, through his sticky hair, he saw the sweet, sweet sight of cars. And buildings. And people. He finally reached what he was looking for.
A city.
With a sigh of relief that came out more like a throaty groan of fear, a smile crossed his face. It was a pure smile of joy, happiness, and utter relief, a smile that seemed to put the sun to shame for a moment. He finally made it. He finally found what he was searching for. He made it to Jump City. So, he continued his journey, ready to take on whatever dared to block his way.
In his dreams, at least.
4 Days Later…
It was just a normal day at Titans tower. Take now for instance.
It was only normal that Cyborg was kicking Beast Boy's ass into next week at the new fighting game. The cyborgs robotic fingers cleanly glided over the controls as the green skinned teen was slamming random buttons, in hope something would save him. Yet, when he lost yet another match, all that covered his face was utter disappointment.
As usual, Raven silently read her engrossing book in the corner of the room. She hovered over the kitchen counter, leaving her cape to hand off like a curtain. Trying to block out the yelling and cries of desperation, she tried thick ear plugs today. So far, they worked like a charm.
Like any other day, Starfire made another attempt at cooking her lovely, Tamaranian home cuisine. With a careful tongue hanging from her lips, she struggled to stir the pathetically green slop that was stick into the pot. When she lifted the spoon out of the pot, the slop crawled down the spoon and plopped back.
For what seemed like the 1000th time, Robin snatched the game controller from the weepy, Beast Boy and dug his fingers into the buttons in a strategic way. With his legs tightly crossed, the boy wonder fought against Cyborg like it was the last fight he would ever see. Yet, a grin grew across his face, knowing what the ending result would be. In his mind, it included Cyborg sulking like a little kid.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't see his prized victory.
Right as he went in for the winning kick, the alarms blared through the tower. All eyes turned up as a harsh red flashed through the common room, like something was dangerously on fire. Something was on fire alright. The burning flames of villains destroying all that they touched, that was.
Robin jumped up to his feet, throwing the control aside "Cyborg?"
A map popped up onto the screen, revealing the problem area in front of the cyborg's eyes "East corner of main" Cyborg read aloud.
"Alright Titans, move out!" Robin commanded. In seconds, he and the team rolled out of the living room, ready to take on whatever was ahead of them.
Robbers? No problem. Destroyers? Piece of cake. Just plain old villains? It was nothing. They were the Titans, after all.
The was the mindset that followed the boy wonder as he ran to the scene of the crime, right at the Bank of Perez, to be exact. This mindset nearly controlled him, well, until he finally reached the bank.
"...Huh?"
Robin blinked in surprise at the sight before him. What was supposed to be a casual bank robbery by two men with guns was only two men popped on the sidewalk wrapped tightly in string. Sure, they wiggled and cursed, yet their confines were no match for muscle. Nor the many cops that surrounded them.
"Yeah, you heard me right kid," the police officer said as he rubbed the back of his neck "We found them all tied up like this when he got here. Whatever guns, bags, or masks they had are gone too. Guess you were just late"
The boy wonder shook his head, erasing the surprise from his face "Do you know who could have done this?"
"Not a clue. The only thing the squad found was this"
The police officer lifted and spread out an elegant fan in front of Robin's eyes. It has a intricate design of a few golden colored roses bundled up against a black background, along with a soft yellow border along the edge. It looked just like any other fan: pretty, big, and useless in a battle.
"They said they saw someone about your guy's age carrying it around," The officer explained "Tall, dark skinned, wearing some kind of blanket over his shoulder. That's all I got"
Robin nodded as thanks, before the officer disappeared back with his colleagues and continued the case. His attention turned back to the gold and black fan. It was sort of strange to say the least to find something like this in Jump City, definitely not the robbers property. Putting one and two together, it must have been that tall, dark skinned guy's fan. Yet, with no real justified owner, he shrugged, and proceeded to clip it to his utility belt.
A slight, empty hiss escape his mouth as a wave of sharp pain filled his arm. Sure enough, when he scanned down to investigate the damage, a thin, long cut appeared on his arm, slowly pulsating out dark blood. When he slowly unfolded the fan, his eyes, or rather mask, widened in surprise. There, a small spot of blood was revealed on the curved edge.
Silk just couldn't cut people. If it was, silk, the boy wonder thought.
Like the wind, he unfurled the fan and sliced it through the nearest light pole, taking out a small, sharp chunk. Robin narrowed his eyes.
"So, uh, I guess we're not needed here, huh?" Beast Boy anxiously said with his hands stuffed into his pockets. He stared down and kicked a small pebble across the street, feeling much like that broken little rock: small and utterly lost.
Cyborg studied the map on his arm, waiting to pick up another signal. Yet, with no crime, all that was there was an clean map of the city "I'm not picking up anything else. Either the maps need a serious update, or someone beat us to it"
"Someone did"
All eyes turned to Robin, who approached his team in a clam, orderly fashion. They couldn't help but notice that weird black fan hung on his utility belt, like he just found a new weapon. He suddenly whipped it out of his belt and spread it out for all eyes to see.
"Robin, are you alright?" Starfire asked in curiosity, her green eyes drawing to his fresh cut.
"I'm fine," he responded blankly, yet failed to move his arm at all "but I intended to find out who did this"
With a clear mission in mind, the Titans flew, drove, or even simply walked back to the tower. Little did they know, a pair of pale blue eyes closely followed them.
A pair of horrified eyes.
"No, no, no, no, no…"
The golden skinned teen mumbled that word under his breath over and over again as that masked teen practically snatched that beloved fan of his and stole it away form his hands. Well, not snatched, nor even stole. But, he did take that fan of his.
He sighed and collapsed against the alley wall in utter self pity. It was his fault. It was always his fault. He just had to lose that fan of his.
It was not like any other day to him. One minute he was walking the streets of Jump City desperately searching for a market for food, the next, he heard screaming and gunshots. Next thing he knew people flooded out of the bank, very few with bricks of cash on hand. He could have just walked away and pretend he didn't see a thing, sure, yet that queasy feeling in his stomach said differently. The rest was a complete blur to him. He remembered a failed gun shot or two, but that was about it. Until he found that his fan was missing of course.
Right as he hurried to the alley where he was now and peeked behind the wall, he saw the fan. In that masked teens hand. Slicing through the light pole. That was enough to give in a miniature heart attack. When he walked away with what seemed like to be his team, the pale blue eyed boy was in a melt down.
He didn't have clue of what to do next. He could have done the easiest thing in the world, fastest thing to get his fan back.
You know, ask him for the fan.
But then that would just be too easy. And confrontational.
A million scenarios raced through his head at the thought of even asking for his fan back. He could refuse, he could ask countless, he could go to jail. He was done for if that masked teen did small talk.
Asking politely was useless to him. He didn't have the guts to, anyways. So, like he always did, he planned for the path with probably the most resistance. And of course, the plan with the least amount of contact with people. The thought of small talk made him cringe in fear already.
He suddenly whipped up his head and clenched his fists confidently. He could do this. He could follow his plan and get his fan back with ease. And he didn't have to talk to single soul.
Before he knew it, he picked himself off the ground and thoughtlessly darted across the street. With absolutely no common sense on his mind, the only thing he thought of was his precious fan.
Not the masked teen who was holding it.
Hello! I'm glad you were interested to read this fic of mine.
I'm not very new to this fandom, I've made a fic or two before here (That "other" one has been deleted long, long ago. You might remember it! If you do, well...sorry. This is dramatically different). So, I've been waiting to another fic here for a long time. I finally got a burst of inspiration, so, here I am.
I have a set plan for this fic as follows (vaguely):
-It will follow the T.V show. I've been here long enough to know there's a trope of literally copying and pasting episodes and plopping OC's in and hoping for the best. It's fun to read at first, don't get me wrong, but after a while it becomes stale. Although I will follow the episodes, it WON't be like that. I'll do my very best to have the structure, but with a twist. It's much more fun like that, anyway.
-It has a very SLIGHT cross over with Marvel. So small, you don't have to know a thing about that fandom, nor what characters are in it (because they won't show). Really, the only reason wrote this because I want to put where credit is due, and not seem like I'm stealing another concept.
That's about it for now. I don't want to drag this any longer than it needs to so...
Hope you enjoyed! Let me know your thoughts in the reviews, as they are appreciated.
- X-Xepher-X