You know writers block? Yeah, the thing where you know what you want to write but can't seem to put it into words? Or sometimes, in very severe cases, when you simply shrivel up from lack of ideas and STILL can't put anything into words that sounds halfway decent?
Writers block can kiss my ass and burn in hell.
Thank you to Queen-of-Azarath for helping me get…unblocked. You're awesome girlie!
CLAP FOR QUEENIE DAMMIT! WITHOUT HER, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE A CHAPTER!
-dead silence-
OKAY FINE! CLAP FOR HER BECAUSE SHE FINALLY POSTED THE FIRST CHAPTER OF HER SEQUEL TO THE TOTALLY AWESOME NORMAL TEENAGE LIFE!
-LOUD clapping-
There we go! If you haven't checked it out already, it's called Return to Normality and it's uber awesome. Lotsa the old school and even new age comix Titans! WHOO!
Disclaimer: If I owned Teen Titans, Robin wouldn't be saying cheesy lines like "Kardiac, you're under arrest!" Yeah. Just thought I'd mention that.
Dedication: To Jimmy the gothic egg! Nice um…penname. I wasn't aware that eggs could be gothic. Well, ya learn something new every day. Thanks for your reviews!
A second explosion shorted Raven's magic barrier entirely. The two female Titans were completely exposed. Time to switch to offense.
"Please, take the seven to the left!" Starfire called, already flicking her hand towards her self-designated batch of wasted punks. The first bomb chucker reeled backwards at the arsenal of green starbolts pelted at his feet.
"I'm on it." Raven extended her hands outwards, concentrating. "Azarath, Metreon, Zinthos…" Black magic glowed readily at her fingertips, and she used it to encase the three bombs already in the leading teen's hand. The explosives shuddered in midair, then deactivated themselves at the empath's will.
"You're gonna pay for that, gothic girl! You think I'm afraid of you?" The boy speaking spat at Raven's feet. Disgusted, the empath put two fingers to the teen's forehead.
"I don't know if you were, but you sure as hell will be…" The boy's eyes popped open and he screamed in terror. Awful images flooded his mind. It was dark…and cold…and awful…"That's what I thought." Raven's gaze was cold as she removed her fingers and the boy collapsed to the floor. The dose of hell she'd provided was enough to shock him into unconsciousness. No point in driving him insane, unless he really irked her for some reason…
Starfire let her eye beams bring a girl wearing a beanie to the floor, clutching her arm in pain and causing her to drop the gun she'd been holding and let out a string of four letter substitutes for the word 'ouch'. She was about to let off another round of starbolts when she felt a cold metal pressed against the back of her neck.
"If you move, I swear I'll shoot you." The voice was male. Tamaranians had many strengths, but being bullet-proof was not one of them.
"Let us be rational about this…I am sure that if we discussed it in a kind and tranquil manner…" There was a thud behind the red head and the cold metal feeling fall away.
"Honey, these types of people don't like to discuss things." Starfire whipped around to see Taurus floating behind her, a human boy sprawled below with a gun in his hand, double platinum lasers drawn and ready.
"Taurus! You should not be here! There is great danger and-"
"Are you kiddin' me? We fought in the Tamaranian Army together. I think we can handle a few kids without much incident. Besides…" Taurus cocked her gun and fired a concentrated burst at the nearest teen, bringing him to his knees. "I haven't had this much fun in two years."
"But-"
"I could use a little backup, Star!" Raven called from her side, fighting four teen at once.
"Ya'll heard the woman." Taurus grinned and took off towards the empath, blasting with practiced precision. Starfire sighed softly, but took up a battle stance again when she found some of the punks had surrounded her. As she shot off multiple rounds of starbolts, the red head watched her friend fighting out of the corner of her eye. Taurus was good, if not even better than she used to be. The fight dragged on, and Starfire couldn't help but find herself laughing.
It really was nice to have Taurus back.
Beast Boy stared wide-eyed at the sight before him. These teens, whoever they were, did not intend to shoot at the Titans. Another gang had appeared on the other end of the street, and now the two groups were trading fire.
"Dude…we're in the middle of gang turf war crossfire…" The Changeling would have paled had his pigment allowed it.
"Yeah…and if we don't do somethin' fast, half these people will wind up dead."
"Beast Boy…Cyborg…we're in the middle of a turf war!" Robin's voice crackled from the communicators, scarcely heard over the sound of gunfire. Both Titans snatched their communicators and spoke the same words simultaneously.
"No frikin way…"
Robin closed the transmission, his mind devoid of possibilities. How the hell were three people, superheroes though they were, supposed to disarm two whole gangs? Two of them couldn't even fly for God's sake…
What was that? Footsteps behind him! The Teen Wonder stiffened at the sound, maneuvering a set of freeze discs between his knuckles. As soon as the soft padding noises got close enough, Robin spun around only to come face to face with…
"Starfire?" The ebony haired teen's eyes swept his girlfriend's two companions. Raven and… "What are you doing here?"
"She wishes to assist us, Robin." Starfire stepped forward, extending her hand. "She is strong and sharp witted. I assure you that she will work efficiently. She was very useful in our first battle!" Instinctively, the leader turned to Raven for some sort of analysis.
"She is good." The empath admitted, sweeping her hood back gracefully. "Cut our fight time in half."
"So what's goin' down in these parts?" Taurus, tired of her abilities being questioned, was itching to return to the battle field. Robin tilted his head slightly and gave the three girls a quick rundown of the situation.
"Gang turf war. Fire from both sides. One gang's on the upper end of the street, one's on the lower. We need to disarm them without inflicting too much damage. Do us all a favor and try not to get shot…" Robin trailed off at the look in Taurus' eyes, crackling with merry dancing delight. Her anticipation was apparent as she excitedly grabbed Starfire by the shoulders.
"Star…you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Starfire grinned eagerly, memories rushing through her veins.
"The Tamaranian Two Sided Double Threat."
"Exactly." Taurus released Starfire, positively joyful. "My, my, it's been a long while since we've done this. Should be fun."
"The Tamaranian what now?" Raven stepped forward, examining the two girls critically.
"The Tamaranian Two Sided Double Threat." Taurus explained, turning to the empath with a kind eye. "It's a famous war tactic that can only be done in pairs. Star an' I were masters of it."
"Robin…" Starfire reached out and laid a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Please, alert Cyborg and Beast Boy to collect any fallen weapons as they see them. You and Raven shall do the same as well." The Teen Wonder raised an inquiring eyebrow and smirked.
"You're giving the orders now, Star?"
"Ya'll had better believe it!" Taurus cried happily, Raven shrinking back with an odd look as she did.
"Taurus…" Starfire shot a small glance at her friend and shook her head, then turned back to Robin. "Please, I do not wish to instruct you, it is just that…the idea is likely to work and-"
"Consider it done, Princess." Robin smiled, taking her hand from his shoulder and lightly pressing it to his lips. "I have no better plans."
"Princess?" Taurus wore a wild grin on her face, watching the two. "Okay then…let's kick gang banger ass!" She took to the sky and Starfire quickly followed, winking at Robin before departure.
"I don't know if you noticed or anything…" Raven stepped up to Robin's side once again, smirking slightly, "but we wasted valuable disarming time when you took the time to kiss your princess' hand."
"Ah, shut up." The two laughed lightly. "…Raven?"
"Yeah?" The empath looked up at her leader, who held a good four inches on her.
"…Beast Boy's made a…a good change in you possible." Robin smiled at her. "A very good change."
"I know…" Raven tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and prepared to set to work as soon as she saw some disarmed thugs. "I know."
Beast Boy and Cyborg had just received Robin's instructions, but were utterly confused. Collect all fallen weapons, the leader had simply said.
What fallen weapons?
Several green orbs and tawny colored bursts showered the ground, the former to the left and the latter to the right. Several guns spun out of drunk teen gang members' hands and clattered to the floor.
Oh. Those fallen weapons.
Starfire and Taurus floated back to back, airborne, both releasing rounds of explosive energy with exact aim. How often they'd done this in the face of a Gordanian ambush. The brunette pushed up her Stetson with her left handed gun, the right still firing away. She laughed, relishing in the excitement of battle that she remembered so well.
"After bein' holed up for two years, this is a lovely welcome back to society!" Another four amber beams disarmed an equal amount of teens.
"Holed up for two years?" Starfire questioned, starbolts flying, "How is that you were-"
"Later, honey!" Taurus turned and grabbed her friend, pushing the red head to the side as a bullet sailed past. It seemed that the gangsters had taken to shooting at those disarming them rather than one another. The good news, however, was that their numbers had decreased exponentially. There were now little more than fifteen people on either end of the street. As each teen had lost their weapon, they'd run for fear of being shot without a weapon to shoot back with.
"Now what do we do?" Taurus eyed the field with care.
"Move closer and attack from behind." Starfire decided with an unusual confidence, her old war self coming back to surface with a smile.
"I like, I like!" The two girls nodded at one another and sailed in separate directions.
Raven watched on the roof of a building as her teammates worked. Robin was snaring grounded weapons with his grappling hook. Cyborg ran into the lightened crossfire, shielding all his human parts as best he could, and stanched at the guns left in fleeing gangster's wakes. She, herself, was using her telekinetic powers to raise any loose firearms to her position on the roof. She'd established quite a nice collection. And Beast Boy…where was Beast Boy?
"Rae…" The green teen appeared behind the empath, morphing from hawk to human and depositing the large weapon previously in his claws onto the pile next to her. "Are you alright?"
"Of course I'm alright." Raven scoffed, looking slightly confused. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Uh…no reason…just…um…yeah…" And with that stuttered reply, Beast Boy leaped from the roof and soared back to the ground. There was definitely something wrong with him. Some kind of confusion existed within. She didn't even have to pry to feel it; the indecision freely flowed through his aura though she doubted that Beast Boy was aware of it.
As she continued to telekinetically retrieve weapons from the ground so many stories below, Raven's eyes drifted to Taurus, who seemed to have changed attack plans with Starfire as each had now descended to ground and were now fighting the few gangsters left at a much closer range. The empath watched as Taurus' lasers shot off many a weapon and sent many teens scampering away with their tail between their legs. Raven didn't really know what to think when it came to the newcomer. She'd only arrived around two hours ago, yet here she was fighting alongside the team as though she belonged. Not to say that she wasn't good with combat, she was. But then Terra had been good with that too. There was something different about Taurus, though, something kind. Raven wanted to trust this brunette. For some odd, unfathomable reason, she truly did. After all, she was Starfire's best friend and there was undoubtedly a good reason for that. After Terra, however, Raven felt that she could never be too careful. It seemed she'd just have to wait and see. She'd make her opinions on this newcomer later. For now, the empath decided as she saw Taurus and Starfire joining once again at the center of the street and fighting off the last of the teen gangsters, it was nice to have the newcomer for some backup.
WOW. I had SUCH a bad block on that. I actually don't think it turned out too bad. I mean, I probably could've done better, but…ahh well. I hope you liked it. I can promise that the next chapter will be longer and, as you have requested, reveal how Taurus came to be alive, find the Titans, and WHY THE HELL SHE HAS A SOUTHERN ACCENT.
I don't do things without a reason you know. If she had a southern accent, then she acquired it when she was…well…just know that there's a story behind it. In ANY case, I'll see you all in the next chapter!
Oh! And before I forget…some of you have commented on how just the idea of Taurus coming back won't make a full story. C'mon guys! Trust me, I know what I'm doing. I think. -grin- I wouldn't have a story that was just like "OMGZZ! TAURUS IS BACK! HUG! THE END!" You guys should know me better than that.
Love,
SushiChica
