A New Day
AN: I wrote this for a 'Creative Writing' assignment that I had last year and thought I'd post it on here. It's a (very basic; none too descriptive) look at how Dick could have become Nightwing in my version of the DC Universe. Meaning that this is an AU. I plan on posting more of my works on here, some may be part of this "Earth", and others set on different Earths. This is just to get my feet wet, (this is my first posted story, though I am far from new to this site). So please, let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or its characters this is a fictional/non-canon story with some canon similarities. All I claim to own is the central plot of this story, the base-plot originating from mainstream comics. This was made for entertainment and educational purposes only. I do not make any profit from this. With that being said, please enjoy my short story.
Ch.1 A Cold Start
|JUMP CITY, CALIFORNIA
|June 23, 21:41 UTC | 2011
The air is brisk, the temperature dropping. There's not much time left, as a group of vigilantes chase after the cause of the weather anomalies occurring in the otherwise scorching city. A team of young heroes known as-
The Teen Titans!
The Titans are in chase after Icicle Jr., the son of Icicle Sr. Both of which use ice based attacks on the populous.
"Ha-HA! Face it losers, you're not gonna catch me. Not when you're falling down, all around yourselves!" taunted Icicle Jr. as he froze the earth beneath the Titans' feet with a flick of his wrist.
Icicle Jr. has spiky white hair, blue eyes and skin of a light blue color. He currently wore black track pants and a gray muscle shirt that he more than likely stole. He may deny caring for his father, but ultimately most of the crimes he's committed were aimed to impress him. An aspect of his that could easily be exploited. He is also psychotic and cares very little about other people's well-being, so even the blind could tell his parentage.
"Oh now you're gonna-"
-CRRRRRSSHH-
"Aaahh! Damn it, he froze the ground!" wailed the green changeling known as Beast Boy, as he slipped and slammed his face into the frozen ground.
Beast Boy is a young pre-teen with green skin, eyes and hair; all of different shades. He has patches of fur and scales on different parts of his body, which he shaves and peels respectively (to feel more "normal"). He wears a purple and black bodysuit that used to have a matching mask. After an agreement amongst the other Titans, it was decided that he didn't need the mask ("You're green. You don't have much chance of hiding your identity with a mask.") His suit is the same one used during his run with the Doom Patrol; so as to commemorate his time with them.
"Way to point out the obvious 'BB'." the half man half machine Cyborg, sarcastically replied. He too was having a hard time trying to keep his bulky body balanced on the slippery surface.
Cyborg is a regular African-American man. He just needs large prosthetics that replace most of his body and cover the majority of what remains, to survive. All you could really see of his normal body though, was part of his arms, part of his legs, and most of the right side of his face. The rest was all machine and high-tech gadgetry (which his father made (and he himself later improved or "upgraded"))
"HA! I'm just 'too cool' for you, losers!" Icicle gloated further as he ran deeper into the forest.
"We don't have time for this." stated the monotone half-demon empath Raven.
Raven has light gray skin, and violet-blue eyes. Along with shoulder length purple-black bobcut-styled hair; and a mystical chakra stone in the middle of her forehead. She wore a black leotard under a dark purple cloak that could cover her entire body when closed, kept together by a circular clasp at her neckline. She also wears a belt made up of medium-sized rings around her waist.
"I've got'em. Hold still guys." responded the alien princess of Tamaran, Starfire, as she melted away the ice with her 'star-bolts'.
Starfire has orange skin and glowing green eyes. Her curly, fiery red hair reached all the way to her feet. She wore dark-purple and light-gray body armor with matching gauntlets and knee-high combat boots. She, along with the other girls, was floating a bit above the ground.
"Hey, it's not like we can fly like you!" retorted the miffed Beast Boy.
"You can turn into a bird can't you." Raven stated more than asked.
"Guys" tried Wonder Girl, an Amazon from Themyscira.
Wonder Girl wore a red sleeveless one piece suit that covered her legs and zipped up at the back. A yellow Wonder Woman emblem that encircled her waistline was imprinted onto the suit. She also wore silver star earrings, black mid-calf high boots, along with her own silver "bulletproof" gauntlets and lasso of truth that the 'Female Wonders' were known for.
"Yeah, but a cheetah's faster. And besides, how was I s'posed ta know he was gonna freeze the ground?!" countered Beast Boy.
"Guys!"
"If you had used your brain and thought about what he said before-hand, you wouldn't have fallen like an imbecile."
"Hey!"
"GUYS! We need to focus. If we're gonna be a good team, we're gonna need to work together better."
Cyborg nodded his head and responded, "Wonder Girl's right. We need to take this seriously; people's lives are at stake. It's up to us to get the temperature back to normal. We need to catch up to Icicle Jr."
Sigh, "No need. If I know our leader-
He's already gotten the punk."
|JUMP CITY, CALIFORNIA
|OUTSKIRTS 21:45 UTC
Icicle ran out of the forest he was just being chased in and, thinking he had lost his pursuers, headed straight for his base: the old gas station at the edge of town. Unbeknownst to him, the leader of the Titans reached the station in record time. He quickly breached one of the frozen shut windows with a swift kick. Rushing to the basement/meat-locker, he took the steps three at a time.
When he arrived at the entrance he blitzed through, knocking Icicle Jr. to the ground. And rushed over and placed his foot on his chest.
"Wha-! How did you find me?!" the flabbergasted ice-man questioned.
"Wasn't hard, you left a long trail of tears all the way here. Puddles really." he mocked.
"Rrrahhh!"
Icicle shoved him off and followed it up with a small barrage of ice shards. But the lone Titan knew all too well that it was coming, and simply turned away his shoulder as the shards collided with the wall behind him.
"You weren't even with the others!" yelled Icicle as he shot off another round of shards at his feet.
The Titan leader simply jumped over them and retorted, "Didn't need to be, they informed me while I was out of town." Another shard throw, dodged. "I finished work there and caught up to your tear trail." Dodge. "Seriously, this is getting old fast." Dodge. "And I know fast."
"Shut Up! Rrrrraaahhh!" Icicle yells out as he creates an ice-ball the size of a bowling ball.
"Please." The Titan rolled his eyes as he sped over and knocked Icicle's feet out from under him.
"Oof!" Icicle hits the floor hard, "Aaahh-!" and the ice-ball hits him square in the face.
"Told'ya I was fast." the yellow speedster quipped to the now unconscious human 'ice-cube'.
Kid Flash had spiky red hair, freckles and green eyes. He had a lean yet slightly muscular build. His suit was yellow with red pants, red gloves, and yellow shoes, with a red lightning bolt within a white circle on his chest. His suit has been updated and slightly modified over the years, appending shoulder pads and body protectors due to his often use as a human cannonball. Being the best-friend to a certain former boy-wonder had many perks. One of them being, having access to 'exclusive' Wayne-Tech.
"Now, to reverse the damage that you've caused," he said. He then sped over to the massive machinery at the center of the room. "No way he got this kind of tech on his own." He tries to bypass the security by inputting every possible code with his fast fingers. "Damn it!" After taking too many wrong answers the system locks him out. "Ugh, if only-"
"Hey!" Kid Flash looks back to see the revived Icicle Jr. with a trigger in his hand.
"Dodge this."
Everything happens in slow motion.
Icicle Jr pulls the trigger. The screen on the giant freeze-ray flashes red, and the speakers blare out: 'Self-Destruct sequence, activated'.
Kid Flash taps into the speed force and speeds over to Icicle Jr. He swiftly grabs him and runs them through the open freezer door, and slams it behind them just as the explosives detonate.
-BOOM-
The steel door had been blown off of its hinges and accelerated them up the stairs. With Kid Flash's quick thinking, and years of going through similar situations, he was able to maneuver them through the nearest window. Which happened to be the same one facing the stairway that he had entered through.
"Uuugghh," he groaned as he looked back to the rubble of the now destroyed store. He then checked on Icicle Jr. and sighed in relief when he confirmed that he had only lost consciousness again, nothing fatal.
Kid Flash then began to stand up, "Well... Good news is: I got Icicle Jr. before he could cause any more harm." He grunts, popping his sore back, "Bad news... I wasn't able to restore the weather back to normal." He then brings down his heat/infrared-vision goggles, and checks the status of the weather. "But there's more good news, the temperature seems to have stabilized. Heh, maybe Beast Boy turned into a giant dragon and started breathing fire into the sky. Heh heh heh... No, I can't be childish. I'm leader now. I need to act more responsible. I need to keep a straight head and figure out how to bring the temp. back up. I need to... Ugh, stop talking to myself."
He walks over to Icicle and picks him up in a fireman's carry.
"Alright, quick drop-off at Belle Reve. Then I need to get back to my team at 'The Tower'... Huh, but it's not my team, is it?
-Woosh-
|TERREBONNE PARISH, LOUISIANA
|BELLE REVE PENITENTIARY 23:57 UTC
Since Icicle had broken out of Belle Reve, they accepted him back readily. And when Kid Flash warned him that he better fess up on how to fix the weather in Jump. Icicle simply brushed him off with a: whatever 'Flash-Boy'.
"It's Kid Flash! You'd think after all these years they'd at least get it right."
The disgruntled Kid Flash sped off, back to his friends, at their home...
"Kid Flash to Cyborg, just dropped off Icicle Jr. at Belle Reve, I should be there before the '10 O'clock News'."
"Good work KF, and sorry again for interrupting-"
"Don't worry about it Cy, I'll be there soon. It's a little late to properly catch up, so how 'bout we go out for some pizza tomorrow?"
"Hell Yeah!"
"Hey there BB."
"Alright sounds like a plan, see you soon boos-man."
"This doesn't feel right at all."
The teen speedster was gone in a flash heading back to his friends.
|JUMP CITY, CALIFORNIA
|TITAN ISLAND 22:00 UTC
"Ah, Titans Tower. It's good to be home." said Beast Boy with a grin. Him and the other Titans arrived at their base, on which has been known to be called Titan Island (Formerly Alcatraz Island *see 'A jump for a city'). The young heroes entered their base through the front doors. Because the tower was relatively new, the security system had yet to be updated. There were currently only two ways to enter the tower without setting off the defense system. If someone was already in the tower, they could allow those outside entrance. But in the case that the tower was vacant, like it is now, the only other way to get in, was for Cyborg to sync his system to the Tower's security grid.
After the mechanical-man opened the doors, a yellow and red blur sped past them and headed up to the Com/Living-Room. Each Titan had their own way of reaching the top of the tower. Kid Flashes, was a ramp that inclined out from the floor whenever the doors opened. Wonder Girl and Starfire flew up, Beast Boy turned into a hawk and joined them, while Raven created a small portal for herself and Cyborg to enter, and exit out up top.
Cyborg walked over to the massive computer after he reappeared and plugged himself in, uploading their encounter with Icicle Jr. that was recorded by his red cybernetic eye.
"Man, that was just embarrassing. I sure hope you got some good news, 'cus we got ziltch on our end," Cyborg said to Kid Flash.
"I managed to send Icicle back to Belle Reve, but he destroyed his 'Weather-Machine' before I could reverse what he did. Though I did manage to get a good look at it before it brought the whole place down," he replied.
"He blew up a building?!" asked the bewildered changeling, who had by this point changed back to his human form.
"Don't worry B.B., it was just us in there. And the place was falling apart anyway, been abandoned for years. What was really bothering me, was the scale of the thing. It was huge, and the security was tight. Looking back on it, I think the trigger was just for show," said KF as he handed over the trigger he had confiscated from Icicle to Cyborg, whom began scanning it with his eye.
"The "Deep-Freezer"(1) was too high-tech to be controlled by this thing," after receiving a weird look he clarified, "The name was painted on the side of it, I didn't pick it."
"Well you're right; scanners are showing that this 'trigger' couldn't open a garage door. I think it's just a regular R.C.-car controller," confirmed Cyborg.
"He was stalling. He wanted you to look away so you'd have a higher chance of getting caught in the explosion," Wonder Girl input.
That made Beast Boy wonder, "Then what did trigger the explosion?"
Kid Flash thought for a moment before answering, "My guess is that it was set to self-destruct if too many wrong codes were entered into it."
This information got all of the Titans to ponder their current situation for a moment. Finally, Cyborg spoke, "No way he got this kind of tech on his own. He has to be working with someone. I mean, this is Icicle Jr. we're talking about."
"You're right. I was thinking the same thing. But like you said, this is Icicle Jr.; he's more than likely to be working for someone. Question is, who?"
Another brief silence is held between the Titans as they all think about what type of enemy they could be dealing with.
Kid Flash lets out a frustrated sigh and 'walks' over to the couch, collapsing onto it. He then proceeds to remove his goggles with one hand, and pull back his cowl with the other.
Wonder Girl tells everyone to skip on watching the news for now; that they'll see the recording in the morning over breakfast, and called it an 'early' night. As they head to their respective rooms the two leaders are then left alone in near-silence. The only sounds coming from the low hum of the computer, a soft tapping noise, and the light steps of Wonder Girl as she slowly walked over to her dear friend.
She then sits herself beside him, and takes a moment to examine his current state:
He has his free hand covering his face, while his other lay beside him, clutching his goggles, left foot is tapping on the floor at a steady, yet abnormally fast pace, chest rising and falling as he pulls in and lets out jagged breathes; he's deeply stressed.
She reaches over and grabs his knee, stopping his excessive tapping. He then removes his hand from his face, and acknowledges her for the first time since sitting down.
After looking into her eyes for all of a second, he crosses his arms and stares at the floor. This, combined with his slouched posture and the now rhythmic tapping of his fingers on his forearm, made him look like a little pouting kid who isn't getting his way. Even at the steady age of 17, and the stretched height of 5'11". Nor did it matter that a light 5 O'clock shadow could be seen if one were to take a closer look, like Wonder Girl was now.
"Wally."
Silence.
"Wally look at me."
"Donna, please. I just want to be alone right now."
"No can do 'Mr. Leader'. You're troubled. And as your second in command, it's my duty to share some of that stress with you. You need a clear head if you're gonna lead this team efficiently."
"But that's just it! I don't wanna lead you guys... I can't."
"Can't what? Can't think ahead of our opponents and figure out a way to beat them? Can't lead the charge into battle when the need arises? Can't-"
"I CAN'T REPLACE HIM!"
The tower suddenly had an eerie chill about it. The other occupants stopped what they were doing to strain their ears and listen in on their leaders' no longer private conversation. Every one of the Titans knew who He was. But only the original titans know him as his civilian identity: Batman's first partner, the first Robin.
AN: Please keep in mind that this story was written for an English teacher that knew little to nothing about these characters. Any future stories from me should be a lot better than this. Also the site editor was a bit tricky and my files didn't transfer properly.