"Illicit, Part 2"
Disclaimer: The future DC Universe depicted here does not belong to me. It belongs to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner.
Author's note: This time, the story will be told from Mar'i's perspective. It'll essentially be the same as Part 1, but in Mar'i's perspective. You'll see what it was like for her to join the Teen Titans and what she thinks of being there with them. Plus, there'll be some more Mar'i/Rose hinting.
Mar'i Grayson had been sunbathing on the roof of her father's apartment complex when her father came up looking for her. She looked at him briefly before turning back out to the sun. "What do you want, Dad?" she asked warily.
"Rose came by with an invitation for you," Dick replied. "To join the Teen Titans."
"So she offered to take me off your hands," Mar'i said. "You should be happy."
"It's not like that," Dick answered, the hurt evident despite his guarded expression. "You can be with people your age. Make friends. See Lian again."
Those last three words struck a chord with Mar'i. "Fine. Tell Rose I'm in."
That was how Mar'i Grayson, otherwise known as Nightstar, found her way into the Titans Tower in San Francisco. She was grateful that Rose was using the San Fran Tower instead of the New York City Tower. If her father didn't want her near him, she didn't have to be in the same city as him.
She entered Titans Tower with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. It was filled with a change of clothes for every day she stayed in Titans Tower, along with some other necessities. Once inside, she spotted Rose, garbed in her Ravager gear sans mask, and Lian, who was in her Red Hood attire. Said attire consisted of a hooded red-and-black zip-up vest and black pants with red thigh-guards, along with red archer's gauntlets and black platform boots. A collapsible bow was strapped to her thigh and a hand crossbow was holstered at her hip.
"Lian," Mar'i commented. "You dyed your hair."
"I wanted to make a change," Lian replied, regarding her originally black and currently red hair. "Do you like it?"
"It looks good on you," Mar'i replied.
At that moment, a blur of yellow and red breezed into the Tower. It stopped suddenly, revealing that it was really a redheaded teenage girl. She was dressed in a modified version of the Kid Flash uniform, sleeveless with a lightning symbol similar to that on Jay Garrick's Flash uniform. The lightning symbol's base segued into the red of the girl's pants, trimmed with yellow lightning on her outer thighs. A loose thin belt hung on her hips and she wore a leather jacket in addition to lightning-stemmed red sunglasses.
"Iris," Rose greeted. "Good to see you."
"SorryIgotupfiveminutesago!" Iris West II, a.k.a. Kid Flash III, spoke in a hurry.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Rose said. "I can't understand you when you talk that fast."
Iris slowed herself down. "Sorry. I got up five minutes ago." She looked at Mar'i. "Long time no see."
"Sorry I haven't kept in touch," Mar'i answered.
The next person to show up was Cerdian, who was garbed in a skintight dark blue wetsuit-like garment with black wave patterns taking up much of the uniform. He spotted Lian and immediately turned slightly pale. Hesitantly, he walked forward, his feet dragging every step of the way.
"Come on, Cerdian," Lian greeted. "No need to be shy."
Cerdian continued to walk forward, despite the fact that he had the look of a hunted man deliberately giving himself over to his hunters. He was giving off all the signs of sheer terror as he finally stopped in the midst of the four females.
"Feeling shy because you're the only guy among a group of beautiful women?" Rose asked, feeling like teasing Cerdian a bit. Her response was an even paler Cerdian.
The next two to show up were Chris Kent, alias Superboy II, and Damien Wayne, alias Robin V. Chris wore a blue skintight suit with red boots and cape, along with a red belt and the standard "S"-shield. Damien wore a short-sleeved black uniform with a thick red stripe descending down the middle to cover his inner thighs from a burnt gold birdlike symbol which wings connected to burnt gold V's on his shoulders. A burnt gold utility belt wrapped around his hips and a black cape with feather-like scallops covered his shoulders. Black gloves with small compartments on the gauntlets covered his hands and red-soled and steel-toed black boots covered his feet. A birdlike black mask covered his eyes, but left his black hair and most of his face exposed.
"Hi, everyone," Chris said. Beside him, Damien remained silent, appraising everyone present with just his masked eyes. By the set of his jaw, no one made a very favorable impression on him.
"Everyone's here now," Rose said. "That means we can get down to business."
"And that would be?" Damien questioned bluntly.
"There's only so much you can learn from your mentors," Rose replied sagely, "and even more you can learn from each other. Your first lesson is going to begin soon. Follow me."
The six teens followed Rose out of the Tower into the training area. "Here is where the lesson begins," she said to them. "You're going to practice fighting as a team against a singular opponent. That opponent will be me. Don't hold back. Don't kill, but don't hold back."
"That's rather paradoxical," Damien commented grimly. "If you expect us not to hold back, then should you not expect that we will kill you?"
Rose drew her swords, her mindset switching into that of the Ravager. "Come on, then, Robin. If you think you can kill me, then go ahead and try it.
Robin drew a small rod from his belt and extended it into a four-foot stave. He held the stave in both hands as he somersaulted into the air and brought the stave down on Ravager, who blocked it with her swords. Robin flipped over Ravager and swung the stave at her seemingly unprotected back, only for Ravager to casually whirl and block him. Robin spun into a vicious kick that would have done some serious damage had it connected, but Ravager simply crouched to avoid it and swept her leg out to trip him. She succeeded, but he turned his fall into a back-flip, landing on his hands and placing himself back on his feet.
"Go time," Nightstar said to her teammates, flying at Ravager, who simply twisted and bent backward to evade Nightstar's flying charge. Nightstar quickly recovered, making a sharp turn into a flying kick that Ravager barely avoided. Deathstroke's daughter flipped into a kick aimed at Red Hood, who blocked it with her gauntleted wrist. Kid Flash was literally quick to attack, assaulting Ravager with a hyper-speed flurry of punches. Ravager was about to attack Kid Flash when she felt Nightstar approaching, so she ducked and let Kid Flash's and Nightstar's attacks strike each other instead of her.
"Watch where you're going!" Kid Flash yelled.
"You're the one with super-speed; couldn't you get out of my way?" Nightstar retorted.
"This isn't the time," Superboy said, drawing in a sharp breath and exhaling in Ravager's direction. Ravager ran to avoid the gale force winds Superboy was creating with just his breath. Suddenly, a tidal surge washed over her, leaving her drenched.
"Not bad," Ravager commented, rising from the soaked ground. Without even looking, she blocked a kick from Robin and dropped him on his back again. She held her sword at his throat, signaling to him that he should yield. "That'll be enough for now. You can all hit the showers."
"Where are the showers?" Kid Flash asked.
Robin rolled away from Ravager's sword and sprang back onto his feet, holding his stave in the battle position. "We're not done yet," he snarled, launching himself into the air and coming down with a fierce strike on Ravager. Ravager blocked the strike and threw Robin back onto the ground.
"Damien, that's enough!" Nightstar shouted.
"I'm not finished yet!" Robin yelled, pulling his stave into two and revealing a cable wire between the two smaller sticks. Before he could make a further attack on Ravager, he was shot by a purple starbolt from Nightstar. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Stopping you from doing something stupid," Nightstar replied. "She said we're finished."
"We're finished when I'm finished," Robin retorted, walking toward her with killing intent in his body language. As soon as he was close enough, Nightstar slapped him hard enough to knock him to the ground. He rose to his feet with rage evident in his body language.
"That's not how it works here," Nightstar answered. "Here, we're a team and a team works with its leader, not against her."
Superboy interposed himself between Nightstar and Robin at that moment. "That's enough, Damien," he said to Robin. "Calm yourself down now."
Robin glared at Superboy, who answered the glare with a steely stare of his own. Finally, Ravager broke the stalemate between them with her voice. "That's enough. Training's over. Hit the showers."
The six teens filed into the Tower, making their way toward the showers. No one missed Ravager's warnings to Red Hood or Superboy. To his credit, Superboy looked flustered and began to protest, saying something that sounded like, "I'd never do that!"
"Sure you wouldn't," Kid Flash answered tolerantly.
"So, Chrissy, you wouldn't mind if we had to share the shower sometime, right?" Red Hood asked.
Superboy just stammered. "Uh . . . uh . . . I, uh . . . guh . . ."
As Nightstar made her way to the shower, she felt like someone was watching her. She didn't know where that feeling came from, but she knew, somehow, that she was being watched. She looked around to see if there was anyone lurking, but she saw no one.
"Hey, Mar'i, you looking for someone?" Red Hood asked.
"No, not really," Nightstar replied. "It's nothing."
End Notes: All right, so the Rose/Mar'i hinting I was hoping to put in this chapter didn't materialize as I'd hoped it would, but it's only the first two chapters. There's more to cover and I so hope you will enjoy this. The story won't just be Rose/Mar'i; there'll also be fights with super-villains and appearances from other future versions of DCU children. In the meantime, you're free to let me know what you think of this story so far.