Summary: Follow the adventures of Slack, Red, Lightlad, Tag, Blizkid and Sev members of the newly organized Teen Titans H.C defending Hallow City from the perilous dangers it faces day-in-day-out. They'll have to face an assorted array of villains including, A psychotic gang lead by a team of super powered teens, a deadly bounty hunter with a mysterious link to one of the Titans, a bloodthirsty werewolf willing to turn any one in his way into a midnight snack, and a multi billion dollar genetics corporation that's not all that it seems to name a few. But their most dangerous threats come from facing and overcoming each others assorted pasts as a team. Expect tons of guest appearances by the original Titans as well as other D.C. Comics heroes and villains.
Welcome Back ladies and germs (Hahaha...but seriously you guys rule). The Captains back (Please..please, hold your applause) with a brand spankin' new chapter thats hot of the presses (I'll stop with the 'new' jokes now) totalling this awe inspiring story to 4 chapters of non stop asskicking making this 96 chapters away from my goal of one day writing a 100 chapter story for the people of the Internet (My other goals include, being a clown and running my own circus, owning a giraffe or elephant (Im not too picky), coaching the Dallas Cowboys and making 32 billion dollars)
I'd like to start things off with a up to date review of what's going on around my neck of the woods (Cause' I know you all care so much about me) .
First off, you might notice this chapter's a little diffrent from the last (If you don't that's cool...it just means your a little slow) that's because I've taken on a whole new writing style. After reading more than two (but less than four) books in the past two months I've learned a lot of new writing tricks (Did you know sentances have to start with a capital letter and end with periods...me either), as well as how to spell words correctly, proper punctuation and so forth. So expect a somewhat different chapter than the one's your used too (But change is a good thing don't forget).
Also I'd like to apoligize for any mistakes regarding the words Their and There for some reason my god damn Microsoft word kept reading it wrong and since I'm pretty lazy I assumed that the spelling corection was right..but it wasn't (What a shock), so here I am telling you all about it...I could have gone back and fixed them...but I am pretty lazy.
Secondly, I finally got Microsoft Word (Can I get a hell ya?), so this chapter will not only have less spelling, gramatical and punctial mistakes but should be much cleaner and easier to read, I'll be the first to admit it's not great (Hell it's far from it) but it bridges some gaps in the story line. Personally on a scale from 1-10, I'd give this chapter a seven, aside from giving a little backstory to a few of the characters, some funny quotes and showing possible love intrests for certain characters it's pretty much a 'Skim over once' chapter, but i promise starting next chapter I'll have some real substance, Im talking about real action, action crazy enough it would make Chuck Norris sweat...well not really but it'll be pretty big on action)
Thirdly: Since Lost is officially over tell late February I've replaced it with an equally addicting but so much more violent and disturbing show,Oz (I know it's not on the air...I just rented a couple of DVD's and watched those). If your not fammilliar with Oz, it's a sick, twisted and brilliantly disturbing show about how sick, twisted and disgustingly disturbing prison is (After watching what happened to poor Beecher in episode one I'm going to tone down my illegal activities from 'Life without parole' crimes to 'Slap on the wrist' crimes) Now the reason i brought this up was...something to do with...something...hmmm...I remeber telling my self not to forget...ahh screw it.
Fourthly: I've decided to start pushing myself to write a page (In Microsoft Word that is) of the story a day, meaning updates should happen more often than not, so fan's can all rejoice knowing that Im working my ass off for your enjoyment.
Fifthly: This is the longest chapter I've had the pleasure of typing (Nearly 10000 words here) and would like to take this time to say that all chapters after this will be equally, if not longer, than this chapter, so if you don't like the idea of reading 9000 words in a sitting, I might (Depending on what critiscm I recieve for it) break longer chapters into two part 'Story Arcs'.
Sixthly (Damn...Six already), I'd like to thank Splint (again) for reviewing, as well as my other readers, I know a lot of you don't review (That's cool with me..well not really but I'm glad you're reading the story) but I seriously can't keep typing chapter after chapter without recieving any form of compliments or criticism, so all I ask is that you take thirty seconds to write a simple compliment "Good story. I like that you did..." or constructive criticism "You're story would be better if...", so just keep in mind that YOU hold the power to either keep alive or destroy this story.
Finally, A disclaimer, I don't own Teen Titans (Oh but if I did...there'd be nonstop action, Beastboy and Raven would be officially togheter (Take that all you RobRae shippers), Robin would be downsized to "Silent Leader" as apposed to his "Mouthy Leader" attitude (I don't like Robin if you couldn't guess) and of course the characters Slack, Red, Tag, Sev, Blizkid and Lightlad would be frequent guest characters as well as having there own spin off show...Titans H.C (Kind of like a good CSI spin off...too bad there arn't any).), what i do own are this story, the characters, a copy of Gears Of War (Sickest (Sick in a good way) game of all time) and hopes of one day owning my own Nintendo Wii (A man can dream can't he?)
And now after much delay for the sake of adding words to my word count, I proudly bring you Chapter 4.
Chapter 4 Terminal Times.
Two hours had passed since the team split up and went to pack, some like Tag and Lightlad owned more possessions than others and had dedicated all their free time to packing, whereas others like Red and Blizkid owned less possessions due to there semi-permanent stay in Jump City, but now that the time was passed everyone packed, no matter how much they had to pack.
Twelve miles outside of Jump City sat Jump City International Airport, a large grey building that housed more than thirty terminals and could hold more than seventy airplanes at once, currently there were only thirty planes and less than twenty terminals open, but still the entire personal was putting double there usual effort into there work, it was a known thing that the Famous Teen Titans would be arriving on that day, and with them dozens of news crews and reporters and Jump City International had to maintain the image of "Best Airport in North America"(As voted by People Magazine).
Deep inside the airport, past the baggage checkout and security, Red sat on a empty bench patiently awaiting his fellow members, the area he stood in was devoid of people aside from himself, no curious kids asking there parents whether or not Red was a monster, no disgusted men and women trying there hardest to ignore Red, no crying babies being cradled by there mothers who assured them that Red was just "A bad dream" but most importantly no bird brained Robin to give him orders.
As Red saw it he and Robin were like polar opposites, Robin was a heroes hero without so much as a bad bone in his body, it was true he'd at one point dressed as Red X as well as been Slade's apprentice but both times he was trying to expose the enemy not be one, Red on the other hand differed largely, he may not have been a villain, but his life up untill now couldn't be summarized as a fairy tale, he'd cheated, stolen, threatened, fought and even killed to get where he was today, though unlike a villain he wasn't proud of any of the things he had to do to survive, but growing up without a normal appearance or a billionaire foster father with a secret superhero alter ego did seem to make all the difference.
He lay his head back on the seat and was planning on taking a short nap as he waited for the rest of the group, part of him hated doing what he did, saving people, he knew that he would never be openly accepted into the world for his appearance, he'd saved half a dozen people, all of whom were less than happy to discover their "Knight in shining armour" to be a six foot tall monster, he never once got a "Thank you" from any of the people he'd saved, it bugged him, but like so many things that pestered him, he pushed it out of his mind and replaced it with memories of the past hour of his life.
Exactly an hour earlier he'd gotten his baggage checked by a woman who was less than compliant to work with him, after spending more than twenty minutes getting his bags checked out he spent more than checked through security where dozens of the people in line stared at him and silently whispered to there neighbours about him, he hated when people did that, when they hid behind a wall of quiet chatter and assumed because he was diffrent he was evil and a freak, it made him sick. After he'd gone through security he'd tried his hardest to avoid further confrontation with other people, finding a nice, quiet and empty part of the terminal to relax in, he'd since had no problems with other people.
He sat on the empty bench with one leg crossed over the other and his back against the seat, the seat was made of a uncomfortable plastic and filled with a foam like substance that didn't seem to want to settle. He used his left hand to play with the metal zipper on his jacket while he tapped his right hand along the metal pole holding the bench up, he was wearing a different jacket then the one he'd worn to the meeting building, he was now wearing a black hooded jacket with deep pockets on both it's left and right sides and the same red "R" insignia on the back, underneath his jacket he wore a black muscle shirt with a similar R insignia to the one on his jacket printed on the middle of his shirt.
As he sat, he placed his hands on his lap and silently tapped them along to the beat of The Sound of Silence which was playing softly over the speakers above his head; he closed his eyes and laid his head back on the back of the chair.
"Hmm I didn't take you for a Simon and Garfunkel fan" he heard a voice from in front of him, he looked upwards to see Slack standing in front of him with a friendly smile on her face and had a small black backpack draped over her left shoulder.
"Just passin' the time sweetheart" Red said offering her the spot beside him, Slack smiled and took the seat, there was an uneasy moment of silence between the two before Slack broke it.
"I'm sorry...we didn't really get too meet earlier, I'm Slack" she said softly, offering him her hand, Red took it in his and shook it gently, Slack immediately noticed that his skin was much warmer than hers, an unnatural kind of warm, like a child with a high fever warm.
"Red" Red said shaking her hand politely, Slack felt her face heat up and tried her hardest to suppress the building blush, Red noticed this and smiled a light smile, it had been a long time since he'd made a girl blush, a real long time.
"Well well well, what do we have here? A couple of Juvenile delinquents no doubt" a voice called from the side, both teens turned there heads to see Lightlad standing there with a cocky smirk on his face.
In response to his comment Slack's blush increased and Red looked considerably angry at him, Lightlad saw both of there expressions and his smile widened.
"I can see clearly that you two were having fun without me, a little to much fun by the look on Mrs. Tomato's face", Lightlad said, as he said this Slack's blush continued to grow and Red became more furious.
"Funny guy" Red said as he stood up so that he was right in front of Lightlad, had it not been for the height difference between the two they would be face to face. Lightlad looked up at Red and smiled a sarcastic smirk.
"I do what I can" he said in a sarcastic tone, both glared at the other, there was a dead silence surrounding the two as they continued to stare at the opposite, finally something broke the silence, someone to be exact.
"Can you two please act your age?" Slack spoke up as she stood in-between the two aggressive teens, using her body to break up the aggressive spell that the two had on the other, Lightlad gave Red a 'Listen to the lady' look and Red mouthed something that looked remarkably like 'Vacuum' (It starts with an "F" and rhymes with "Duck Poo"...give up?)
Both teens shot each other a final "Stay out of my way" glance before taking their seats; again the area was filled with an uneasy silence that lasted for a good five minutes, finally Red spoke, breaking the silence.
"So...any idea where the rest of our rag-tag group of miscreants are?" Red asked, sarcasm playing off his tone, Slack shook her head 'No' and Lightlad smiled before speaking up.
"I think I saw that Snowboy or whatever his name is down at the front with the rest of the heroes, basking in the glory of the public no doubt" Lightlad said taking a seat on the bench next to Slack, the seat plopped as he sat in it as he tried evening out the weight of his body.
"It's Blizkid not Snowboy...Light bulb" Red said to him from his side of the bench, Lightlad rolled his eyes at the insult and made a un amused face at Red's insult.
"What are you his boyfriend?" Lightlad asked, Red was about to stand up in rage but Slack stopped him, he growled under his breath before mumbling a number of expletives at Lightlad, hearing this Lightlad smiled to himself.
Again the area was filled with a uneasy quiet, this quiet continued for a short time when suddenly the room exploded in a chorus of high pitched squeals, shouts and cheers as a large group of heroes walked into the room from the two large entrance doors.
The group was followed by nearly two dozen camera crews, each one shoving there expensive equipment into different heroes faces, among the group of heroes were both Tag and Blizkid, Blizkid looked uneasy around the media whereas Tag looked more than happy to start a conversation with a attractive looking reporter.
As the group finished entering the airport they were suddenly swarmed by hundreds of fans who seemingly came out of nowhere, many of whom were dressed in poorly constructed costumes that reflected there heroes costumes, the fans were all of different ages, they saw several kids who looked to be ten or eleven as well as some fans who looked old enough to be receiving social security checks.
The trio watched as fan after fan attempted to get several heroes autographs, they also saw as several of the heroes, who took the attention to there heads, starting to gloat and demonstrate their powers.
Speedy was busily flirting with a trio of attractive blondes who had cartoony stars in there eyes as they watched their hero gloat about how he had "Single handily stopped the entire Brotherhood Of Evil and didn't even break a sweat".
Tag, now finished with her short interview, had several attractive male fans her age flirting with her, though she didn't seem to return the flirt with any of them, instead she seemed bored and un amused, she looked across the room and saw the trio sitting on the bench, her eyes immediately light up and she politely made her way out of the group and headed towards the trio but not before taking Blizkid by the arm and leading him with her, Blizkid looked more than happy to oblige having narrowly escaped a brigade of fans looking for free ice for there king sized Titan brand soda cups, one of the many fan made pieces of Titan esque products that were 'Less than legal', though none of the Titans seemed to mind this or any of the other pieces of products that bore there likeliness on them.
"Hey guys" Blizkid said as he approached the group, he had a small brown bag though his bag wasn't a suitcase but a small camouflaged coloured bag with a pair of dog tags hanging from a hole on top of the metal zipper, he sat in the chair beside Red and put his bag on his lap.
"Hello everybody" Tag greeted, she had several more bags than the other's, two brown handbags both of which she carried in her hands, she lay both handbags on the ground to the left of the bench and took a seat beside Lightlad who looked more than happy to have her sitting beside him.
Red gently grabbed the dog tags, they were rough, sharp and slightly rusted around the edges though that didn't bother him as he read them, they read.
Prowler (Last name)
Clifford T (First name and middle initial)
(Normally there'd be a social security number here but since Blizkid's dad comes from a fictional city it's not here)
O+ (Blood group)
Catholic (You can probably guess this one)
(I think these are what typical Dog Tags have written on them, I appoligize in advance if it's wrong I get all my info from Wikipedia so it's probably all wrong)
Red looked confused and stared up at Blizkid who was busy watching a group of girls his age who were sitting at a small coffee shop, he watched as the trio of girls laughed as one of the girls, a blonde, spilled her glass of coke all over her pants, but his thoughts were interrupted by a voice.
"These yours?" Red's voice called out interrupting his line of thoughts and bringing him back to the world, he was quiet for a minute before speaking up.
"These? No they belonged to my dad" Blizkid said uneasily, Red looked a little confused at his shaky sentence and thought of a mistake he may have made just then.
"Your Dad was in the army?" Red asked. Blizkid nodded his head 'Yes' before he spoke up.
"Yep he fought in the Gulf war I think" Blizkid said proudly, Red smiled at his sudden attitude change, there was no doubt that Blizkid was different, though not in a bad way.
"I'm sorry to interrupt but did you say your dad fought in the Gulf War?" Slack asked, Blizkid nodded his head, and Slack looked surprised.
"Why do you ask?" Blizkid asked Slack smiled a half smile before speaking.
"My brother fought in the Gulf War too-" she said with the half smile slowly turning into a sad frown "-but he didn't make it home".
"I'm so sorry Slack" Tag said from her side of the bench, she'd been somewhat listening the whole time and just a few words back started really paying attention, she liked the idea of a happy family and seeing as how she was now regarding this as her family was upset to see her 'sister' saddened.
"It's alright...it was a long time ago, I was only three when it happened" Slack said with a smile, Tag smiled too and both sat back in there seats, there was now an uneasy silence filling the area around them, all that could be heard were the rambles of the other people occupying the terminal.
"Say...aren't we missing Mr. Dog Crap?" Lightlad asked breaking the uncomfortable silence that had stirred up due to the last conversation; Lightlad was referring to Sev who the others suddenly noticed was noticeably missing from the group.
As if on que a very happy Sev walked happily towards the group, he was coming from a larger group of teenage girls who were all waving goodbye to him, he smiled back at the group of young women before returning his glance to the group in front of him.
He had the same clothes he was wearing at the meeting building on with the exception of a pair of large headphones wrapped around his neck, with it's long cord stuffed into his pocket.
"Sorry to be tardy to the party-" he said slyly as he approached the group who were all staring at him, he had several pieces of crumpled paper in his hand as well as a black back pack slung over his right shoulder "-but as you could tell I was a little busy. I tell ya you give those fan girls a autograph and a smile and they give you a phone number and seven dozen names for the kids they want you to have with them..hoo hoo and lemmie tell ya some of them are hoooot",
The others stared at him, not laughing, not smiling, not even slightly amused, just staring, there glares penetrating his comedic defences making him feel very uncomfortable, he grabbed at his collar and gently tugged at it.
"Tough crowd...tough crowd" he said pulling at his collar again, the group kept there un amused faces on him and his once smiling face fell into a shot down frown, now he really felt nervous, no one had gone two jokes without cracking so much as a smile, he was about to comment on this when Tag smiled, he sighed in relief and sat down beside Blizkid.
The group sat quietly for some time, Tag started a conversation with Lightlad that only the two of them could follow, Slack was listening to music using a green Ipod Mini (If only they paid me for this product placement), Red was napping with his hood up and his head rested on the bench, Sev was watching the group of heroes slowly break off into their teams and head to their terminals, and Blizkid was covering his growling stomach.
"I don't mean to interrupt or anything but I'm kind of hungry" Blizkid said as his stomach gave a low pitched growl, he covered his stomach with both arms and squinted at the slightly painful sensation his hunger caused, he hadn't eaten all day, the last meal he'd had was when Cyborg cooked a 'goodbye' meal for the group who were leaving, he'd only eaten a little and was now reggretting it.
"Ok...our plane leaves in fifty minutes so we have time for a quick dinner" Slack said and looked around the terminal in an effort to find a good meal.
To the left of them was a country style bar and grill restaurant called "Cowboy's Steakhouse", with a long slim cowboy hat shaped neon light above the restaurant, proudly displaying it's name with a neon glow, the restaurant was built in the shape of a barn and had hay bundles for chairs and large wagon wheels for tables.
'Not even if I was a Redneck' she thought to herself, she stared at her next option and her mouth went agape, in front of her was a fancy restaurant called "Le Bistro", it was a darkly light restaurant with a lounge singer who played classical music, fancy dinners were being served by a mostly male staff who looked around Slack and Tag's age and acted extremely friendly with there guests, now that was a place she really wanted to go to, she looked over at Tag who looked the same way at the restaurant.
Finally to the far right was a casual looking restaurant called "Donnie's", it wasn't fancy like "Le Bistro" was nor was it tacky like "Cowboy's Steakhouse" was, it was somewhere in the middle, not too fancy but not too themed, like the bowl of porage that was just right, still Slack wanted to go to Le Bistro but that looked like a lost cause.
"Ok...there's three places but only one right choice, I say we do this the old fashioned way, we play shoots" Sev said, the others looked at him with the same un amused gaze they had given him minutes prior, he slumped his shoulders in defeat and put on a frown "Or not".
"Clearly the right way to do this is to vote" Lightlad said walking in front of the group, he turned around so that he was now face to face's with the team, he put both hands forward to stop them, they stopped and he began to speak.
"Now if you want to go to Cowboy's raise your hand" Lightlad said, none of the heroes raised there hands and he frowned, he'd really wanted to go there but it looked like that wasn't the place he'd be going, pulling his face up into a smile he asked again "Le Bistro?" he asked, both Tag and Slack raised there hands a little to eagerly, Lightlad rolled his eyes, "Sorry ladies but looks like the others want to go to Donnie's" he said omitting the last vote as he already knew the result, both girls frowned and stared one last time at Le Bistro.
Three of the four male members smiled as they headed towards the restaurant, either unaware that they had made the female members upset or they didn't care, they were followed by Slack and Tag who, as much as they didn't want to, headed towards the restaurant, they walked halfway to there destination before Blizkid broke off from the group.
"I..uh have to use the washroom" he said uneasily as he headed towards a smaller section of the terminal with two large grey doors, the others shrugged only Red looked slightly curious, seeing as how the bathroom was the opposite direction he was heading, but putting his curiousness aside he continued with the group.
They stopped at the door where they were greeted by a attractive female teenager a little younger then Slack, she stood behind a wooden stand and was wearing a blue and white uniform with a name tag that read "Jennifer", she smiled politely as the heroes stood in front of her, inside she felt a little nervous being around them, most of them seemed normal, but then again there was the red one.
"How can I help you?" she asked, Sev smiled and stepped forward, a sly and attracting smile plastered on his face, she looked at him, he seemed more normal then the rest, that was aside from his metallic right arm, but compared to the tail coming from the red skinned teen, even that seemed almost normal.
"Hey were looking for a nice table. Something with class I'm sure you know what we mean" he said flashing her a smile, she smiled at him and felt her face blush a tad, 'At least he's nice and kind of...cute' she thought.
"I'll see what I can get you guy's" she said as she walked the opposite direction, Sev turned around on his heel and stood with his back relaxed against the podium and a satisfied smile attached to his face, he dusted his knuckles off on his shirt and spoke.
"Am I smooth or wha-" he said but was cut of when the podium he was relaxed on tipped over backwards, Sev, having his entire weight balanced on it fell with it, he tumbled over the podium and fell flat on his face, quickly he swung his feet around and stood up, slamming his head on a table on his way up and again falling to the floor, this time he used his metallic arm to grasp a stable counter and pull himself up, once up he dusted himself off and put on a cheeky smile.
"Oh your real smooth" Lightlad said with a smirk, Sev rolled his eyes and turned his head around, he was met with the sight of all of the restaurants patrons staring at him, he felt a little uneasy but put on a smile and spoke.
"Thank you folks I'm here all week" he said with a cheeky smile, the people in the restaurant looked some what un amused but went back to their meals; Sev gave a quick relieved breath and walked back to where the rest of the group was standing.
Some time later Jennifer, the waitress, came back with five or so menus in her arms and the same smile she'd held before still on her face.
"If you'd follow me?" she said as she led the group through the restaurant, several people eating at the tables took time to stare at the heroes, mostly Red, Red in recognition to this shot several of the observers dark glances that caused them to immediately turn there attention away from the crimson giant.
As each member sat down Jennifer handed the menus to the group and pulled a black pen out of a pocket on her uniform and a pad of paper from the back of her pants, she smiled again and placed the pen on the paper.
"Can I get any of you drinks?" she asked.
"I'll have a diet coke" Slack said, Jennifer nodded and scribbled down "D Coke" on her pad of paper.
"I'll have a glass of orange juice please" Tag said smiling to Jennifer, Jennifer smiled, nodded again and wrote "O.J." on her pad of paper.
"I'll have a coffee" Lightlad said, again she smiled and scribbled, this time she scribbled down the full word instead of an abbreviation.
"I'll just have a coke" Sev said, Jennifer smiled at him, it wasn't a casual smile more of a admiring smile, Sev returned it and she turned away, but only for a second.
"And for you...sir?" she asked Red, pausing slightly as she felt her heart beat increase as the monster on the far end of the table stared her in the eyes, she swallowed and tapped her pen on the sheet of paper.
"Water" he said briskly, she smiled her typical fake smile that accompanied the job and quickly skipped off in the opposite direction, leaving the group to sit in silence before Lightlad decided to spark a conversation.
"So..what did all you do before being recruited? I mean I can't really see Red working at a J.C. Penny's" he said, curious to learn more about the heroes he'd be spending months maybe even years with, from across the table Red glared at him in response to this he gave him a cheeky smile.
"I was in Guatemala when those two adorable heroes Mas and Menos came back to help save there village from a monster, I helped them defeat it and eventually Bumblebee offered me a spot on the team and a trip to America" Tag said with a smile as she replayed the memory in her head, she neglected to mention a few facts about the story, like how Speedy had unsuccessfully flirted with her and how she'd had a slight crush on the nice guy Aqualad.
"Wow. Guatemala I hear it's beautiful there" Slack said excited to learn more about her fellow hero, understanding where she, as well as the others came from was step one in being able to relate to them, and relating was key to being a leader.
"Oh it sure is; they have trees as tall as a house in all colours" Tag said smiling at Slack, she was more than happy to talk about her native country, especially in good light.
"Well I'd hate to interrupt but I have a pretty cool back story if I do say so myself" Sev said interrupting the conversation, the female duo rolled there eyes but still listened.
"I was in Hong Kong working at a repair shop when who should stop by, none other than Cyborg looking for a repair on his left leg, well I fixed him up so well that he offered me a place with the others" Sev said, this story wasn't followed by any complements or questions of how nice of a place Hong Kong was which depressed Sev.
"I stopped my da..er-" He said stopping himself from mentioning that Dr.Light was his father had they not already known, "-Dr.Light from robbing a bank in downtown Jump City, of course the others didn't trust me at first.., but when I saved them from a chameleon robot freak they were so eager for me to join they were almost begging" Lightlad said leaning back in his chair.
"I was living with a friend in Jump City when I helped stop the Hive Five from robbing a jewellery store with Kid Flash and Jinx" Slack said, suddenly all eyes were turned towards Red who sat in his chair balancing a butter knife on his index finger.
"I saved a five year old kid from becoming a grease stain on the front of a speeding train, only the kid didn't like the idea of being saved by a 'monster' so he called the police, then the Titans showed up and chased me around the train yard, we fought, i ridiculed them on 'first impressions' and somehow everything sorta' fell into place after that" Red said moving the butter knife from his index finger to his middle finger slowly.
The others sat silently for a minute before Jennifer came back with there drinks, she handed Slack her diet coke with a smile, Tag her orange juice, Lightlad his coffee, Red his water and finally Sev his coke, she handed it to him with a napkin under it, she smiled at him and mouthed "Flip it over".
Sev flipped the paper over and smiled, on the bottom side of his napkin was a seven digit number that he guessed was her phone number, he flashed her a smile and gently put it in his pocket.
"So can I get you guy's anything to eat?" Jennifer asked, Sev opened his menu, quickly looked it over and spoke.
"I'll have the Bacon cheese burger with no tomatoes" he said and handed her his menu, she nodded, smiled at him again, pulled out her small pad of paper and pen and scribbled down "B-Cheese burger, Tomatoes" and crossed out the word tomatoes with her pen.
"I'll just have a garden salad please" Tag said gently handing her, her menu, Jennifer smiled politely and took it, holding it in her left arm she scribbled down "G-salad" on her pad of paper before looking at Lightlad.
"For you sir?" she asked, Lightlad folded his menu closed, handed it to her and smiled before he spoke.
"I'll have a chicken burger" he said, she smiled and scribbled down "Chick-burger" quickly on her paper.
"For you miss?" she asked Slack, Slack took a minute to look at her menu, narrowing down her choices to either the chicken salad or the chicken breast, after a second minute of deciding she closed her menu, handed it to Jennifer and spoke.
"I'll have the chicken salad" she said, again Jennifer scribbled down something on her paper before turning her attention to Red.
"And for you sir?" she asked, Red already decided what he'd wanted from the minute he saw the menu; he handed her the menu and spoke.
"I'll have your best steak as bloody as humanly possible" he said, once again she scribbled down something on her paper before spinning on her heel and heading towards the kitchen to deliver her orders.
From across the table Tag had a disgusted look on her face, the others gave her a confused glance before Lightlad finally broke the silence.
"What?" he asked plainly, she frowned at him and spoke.
"How can you eat meat? It's wrong" she said, Sev smirked and Red smiled a twisted smile, Tag's disgusted look increased as she saw how lightly the two were taking her, she frowned and spoke again.
"Do you know how many animals had to die to make Lightlads burger?" she asked, this time it was Red's turn to smirk, he raised his hand in the air the same way a student does to get the teachers attention.
"Not enough?" he asked, Tag looked both angry and disgusted at him.
"No. At least three" she said before explaining how chicken burgers were made of not just chicken but turkey and sometimes even cow, again Red smirked.
"Oh your breaking my heart" he said in a mock concerned voice, Tag looked angrily at him, seeing the anger in her eyes Lightlad stood up.
"That's enough man" he said, Red too stood up and glared daggers at him.
"What are you her boyfriend" he said repeating the insult Lightlad had used on him earlier, Lightlad felt himself get not only angry but a bit shy, he realised he had a blush on his face and tried to hide it.
"No but your being an asshole" he said, Red smirked.
"I'm an asshole?" Red asked tauntingly.
"Yeah. A stupid, red assed, monkey tailed, freak of an asshole!" Lightlad said aggressively, this insult seemed to affect Red more than the previous insults as his face was now burrowed into an angry expression.
"Screw you Light bulb!" Red shouted gathering the restaurants undivided attention, the loud and painful wails of a young baby could be heard from a table two booths away, Red and Lightlad stood glaring at each other for what seemed like ages before Lightlad broke the silence.
"Nice one Red...you made the baby cry, probably just got a good look at you though" he said through gritted teeth, Red stopped glaring at him and stabbed his butter knife into the table.
"You got a problem Light bright?" Red asked, Lightlad smirked.
"Yeah I do its big dumb and red" Lightlad said, Red glared at him again.
"Listen nutsack your one flick of the wrist away from being a full body cast!" Red shouted.
From her seat Slack looked both angry at and embarrassed the fighting duo, the other members of the team looked questioningly at her, she too worried what might happen between the two but as team leader she had a job to do, she stood up in her spot which was located in-between the two of them and gave her first order as a leader.
"Enough you two, you're acting like a bunch of kids and I don't want to have to play Referee to you two over and over again!" She shouted at the two fighting members of her team, Lightlad huffed loudly and sat down, Red glared angrily at him and walked away from the table and towards the exit.
"Where are you going Red?" Slack asked, her aggressive tone gone, replaced with a worried one.
Red looked back at her, she no longer had her brows burrowd into an aggressive frown but reversed into a sympathetic look of concern, Red silently took a breath before speaking.
"I'm going to find the kid" he said angrily before storming off, leaving the others in a deathly quiet silence, there gazes moved, one by one, towards the butter knife stabbed through the table, it became apparent to them at that moment that angering Red wasn't the best course of action in the future, they sat silently, no one in the entire restaurant moved said so much as a word, then the baby started crying again, and everything seemed to slowly go back to normal.
Across from the restaurant, Blizkid sat on a stool behind a large grey table that was part of a unfinished lounge area in a shadowed part of the terminal, his gaze focused on a young boy and his two parents who were showering him with love and affection, he felt jealousy build up in his stomach as a tears started to form in his eyes, it wasn't fair, he wanted to be loved like that, be with a family that openly accepted him and wasn't ashamed of him, but more importantly he wanted to be normal like the boy was.
"Jealous?" he heard a voice from behind him, he spun around quickly in the chair, a little to quickly for his own good, as he finished spinning he came face to face with Red who had a sympathetic look on his face, Blizkid could tell he wasn't here to make him feel bad or call him down for being soft.
"You know you shouldn't feel like you're a freak, you aren't the one with a tail after all. It's like my mom said at one point or another 'There's no such thing as normal, just the impression of it'-" Blizkid smiled to himself as he could tell Red was being genuinely nice but Red wasn't finished his sentence as he began to speak again "-of course she did leave me to die in an alley five hours later" he said rather bitterly.
Blizkid stared sadly at his friend, from what he could tell Red was just as much, if not more, angry at the world as he was, looking closer at Red he could see not just hate in his eyes but also a deep hurt, like a lost puppy that only needs a place to stay only to get turned down every chance he gets.
Red felt the anger quickly build up in his body while referring to the woman he called mother, the woman who gave birth to him then left him to die like a dog, but with one deep yoga esque breath his anger just as quickly subsided, caving inside him and tearing at his inside like so much more of the hurt he'd buried inside him over the years. He couldn't understand for the life of him why the boy, the perfectly human boy was so depressed about his appearance, Red would quickly take up that form in the drop of a dime, here he was, a large monster of sorts, ostracized from his peers for his brutish and demonic appearance, unable to fit in with a crowd because of his appearance and unable to get any positive reactions from those he braved hell and high water to save and the kid, sure he stuck out like a sore thumb, but he didn't have nearly the negative appearance that Red did, no one cowared when he walked by, they just shied away and returned their gazes to whatever it was they were doing previously.
Putting his feelings aside he stared at the silent boy beside him who had a less than excited look on his face, he thought for a minute before speaking.
"Say kid why don't we go back to the resturant and get a sundae...my treat" he said, Blizkid took a final look back at the family, he swallowed his jealousy and hopped off the chair and started chasing after Red who'd gotten a head start, Re was now halfway between the restaurant and where Blizkid was, Blizkid quickened his pace and eventually beat Red there.
Red and Blizkid walked back to the restaurant where the others sat waiting silently, there meals had been delivered to them by that time and each member had taken a few bites of there respective dishes, as Red approached them Lightald stood up, Tag looked at him briskly, and he rolled his eyes and spoke.
"Red...uh-" he stopped to scratch the back of his neck, again Tag looked sharply at him and he frowned at her "-I'm sorry that I.uh...said that stuff about you...so uh...we freinds?" he asked holding his hand out, Red stared at him, Lightlad looked slightly confused.
"What are you 'going to do. Stare me to death?" he asked sarcastically, gaining an angry look from Red, Lightlad threw his arm in the air and glared at Red.
"You know what fine...here I was, a god damn good Samaritan offering you my hand in friendship but no you had to be all walking tall thinking your the toughest son of a-bitch around, well you know what screw you!" Lightlad said angrily and sat down, Red frowned before he too took his seat, Blizkid looked uncomfortably from Lightlad to Red then back to Lightlad, Tag tugged him on the shoulder, pulling him towards her head, she whispered something into his ear and he too frowned before taking a seat beside her.
Across the table Red sat in his chair, his left hand grasping the dull steak knife he'd gotten with his meal, his right palm laid on the table with his fingers spread out, he stabbed the knife in-between his fore finger and his index finger, the others all stared silently at him, was this how he got rid of his pent up anger, through acts of self harm?
"Red, man, I'm sorry alright" Lightlad said from his side of the table, Red stared at across the table at him, he stared for a solid five minutes before shaking his head.
"Yeah…me too" he said silently, Lightlad looked a little shocked at the fact that he not only accepted his apology but apologized too, maybe Red wasn't as bad as he thaught he was.
Blizkid sat more silent than the others, his stomach growled softly and he covered it with his arms, Red noticed this, looked at his plate and frowned, he grabbed it with one hand, got out of his chair and moved to the empty space beside Blizkid, lowering his plate in front of Blizkid, Blizkid looked at him questioningly, Red nodded and handed him his fork and knife.
"Well it's not exactly a sundae, but it's food isn't it?" Red said Blizkid smiled at him.
"What about you?" he asked stabbing the fork into the steak and using his knife to cut off a small piece.
"Some how I think I'll live" he said sitting back in his chair, from across the table Slack looked impressed by Red's display of generosity, this look seemed to travel from face to face as the others all shared her look.
Twenty minutes passed as the group eat almost silently, taking the odd break to talk to there neighbour, for the most part it was a peaceful meal, finally everyone was getting along much to the surprise of Slack, she'd expected at least one fight to break out between Lightlad and Red in the time but to her surprise nothing had happened.
As the group finished eating, Jennifer the waitress came back with a small black envelope; she placed it on the table and quickly skipped off in the opposite direction.
Slack took the envelope and opened it, inside were several small mints wrapped in a white plastic package, Sev and Lightlad reached across the table and grabbed as many as they could fit into there hands, returning back to there seats and storing the candies in there pockets like a squirrel storing his nuts for winter.
"Is that a bill?" Lightlad asked as he finished stuffing the last mint in his pocket, Slack read it quickly and nodded.
"Wait…there billing us?" Sev asked in disbelief, again Slack nodded slowly.
"I don't believe this we save the world every day and they have the nerve to bill us..who do they think they are?" Sev asked, Slack shrugged her shoulders and reached into her utility belt, she pulled out a small blue and white plastic credit card with a large white "T" on it, Sev looked confused.
"What the hell is that?" he asked, Lightlad chuckled.
"Your kidding right?" Lightlad asked, Sev shook his head in a sideways 'No'.
"Dude everyone got one of these, there our Official Titan Issued Credit Cards…they pay for everything, clothes, food you name it" Lightlad said pulling out his own card.
"Huh…guess mine got lost in the mail" Sev said, Lightlad smiled.
After the bill was paid, with much delay due to a debate about Sev's "Rule" where he refused to tip waiters or waitresses which paralleled Tag's rule of "Always give to those who served" the two made peace with the idea of giving Jennifer a ten dollar tip, the group moved to the terminal where there plane was prepairing for take off.
The small terminal had several long leather benches were less than thirty people sat awaiting there plane, a big screen T.V. playing a old news report showing the Teen Titans stopping Dr.Light, the video included several shots of Lightlad in heroic poses as well as calling him "The Hero Of The Day", Tag congratulated him after she watched the report, in response to this Lightlad turned a shade of red that could rival Red's skin colour, they group sat, chatting and sharing stories for a good twenty minutes before a announcement came over the intercom telling the heroes and the others that the plane was ready for departure.
As the civilians and eventually heroes boarded one by one, Red stood looking uncomfortably at the small hallway that led to the airplane, he swallowed and took a deep breath.
"What's wrong?" Slack's voice asked from behind him, he turned around slowly and stood staring at her.
"I've..uh…never flown on a plane before" he said uncomfortably, it took a lot to make Red uncomfortable, he'd seen things that would make most men cringe, yet here he was practically trembling at the idea of boarding an airplane.
Slack smiled gently, she'd flown dozens of times in her life, to her there was nothing better than flieng, seeing the world below her slowly shrink to the size of ants was one of her favorite parts of flieng and she wanted to share that with Red.
"Well now's a good time to start Red" she said taking his hand and leading him towards the hallway, he started following after her slowly, he was shaking slightly and small traces of sweat could bee seen dripping down his face, he wiped the sweat away with his sleeve, took a deep breath and continued walking down the hall that led to the plane.
Finally he and Slack stood in the doorway of the airplane, it was much larger than he'd imagined it to be, in his mind he pictured the door to be a small submarine like hatch that led to the cockpit of the airplane but now that he was face to face with the full sized door he felt stupid for thinking that.
Slack walked in first, she was no longer holding his hand instead using her now free hand to grab her tickets from her utility belt, she handed them to a stewardess (I think thats what their called) who ripped the back of it off and wished her a nice flight, Red swallowed, pulled out his tickets and stepped onto the plane, the stewardess smiled as she took his tickets, she ripped the end like she'd done with Slack's and smiled.
"Seat 3-F, enjoy your flight sir" She said, Red thanked her briskly and walked through through the hallway towards his seat.
He as well as the rest of the team were sitting in First Class, it was much nicer than coach, the chairs were bigger and more comfortable and had much more leg room, on the back of each chair was a T.V.
In his row Blizkid sat in the window seat, his head rested gently against the glass, he was fast asleep and looked like he'd been for some time, beside him Sev sat with his headphones attached to a headphone jack in the armrest, he was laughing at something, Red could see a cartoon show on the T.V. attached to his seat, the characters were all running around the room in a extremely fast way, it was childish but Red guessed it was what was making Sev laugh his head off.
Red took his seat beside Sev, the chair he sat in was incredibly comfortable much to his suprise, he was use to sitting in uncomfotable chairs made of rough metals, the steel benches in the meeting building and the metal stools in the airport to name a few so this change of seating was greatly appreciated by him.
As he sat, still a little uncomfortable, he felt the plane shake slightly which only added to his uncomfort, he swallowed and sat back in his chair, trying his hardest to relax, above him a rectangular sign flashed a orange light and made a 'Bing' like noise, this added to his uncomfort. The sign had a picture of a cigarrette that was crossed out and a picture of a seatbelt that was iluminated, Red geussed it meant 'Buckle up'.
He stared at the seatbelt on his lap, it was unlike the car seatbelts he was used to, it had a two straps each ending with a mechanicle device, one was a flat sheet of metal with a square shaped hole in the middle and the other was a small box half the size of his hand, he stared both confused and uncomfortably at them for a minute, finally a pair of hands reached atop his lap, each hand grabing one of the peices of the buckle, while the pair of hands did the buckle up Red traced the hands upwards to be met face to face with Slack, she smiled gently at him and Red couldn't help but return the smile, this continued for a short while a stewardess walked past them, in which time Slack turned her head away in an attempt to hide the blush that had built up on her face.
Slack, now with her blush fully vanished, lay back with her head rested gently on the seat, in the two seats next to her Tag and Lightlad sat lightly flirting with the other in the form of a 'serious' disscusion about the puppets on a kid's television show that was playing on the small T.V's attached to their chairs, she reached onto her utility belt and pulled out the same Ipod Mini (Again some corporate advertizing...but what'cha gonna do about it?) she'd listened to earlier, she spun the wheel untill her curser hit a playlist labeled "Naplist", she clicked the center button twice, as the music started to play she closed her eyes and let it slowly drown out all of the surounding the noises that the plane made as it prepared for take off, slowy she felt herself drift off into a deep sleep, a deep, peacefull sleep, not so much as a worry polluting her mind, leaving room for nicer thaughts, like how nice it was too see her team finally getting along, how the chairs in first class were as comfortable as a soft bed and just how beautifull Guatemala really was.
Well that's chapter 4 hope you enjoyed it almoast as much as i did writing...er...typing it, now for another one of The Captains Trivia Segments ('cause I know ya love them so much)
So as you can tell I gave a little bit of backstory to each character, a little more for some (Red, Blizkid and Slack) and less for others (the rest of the group), but I promise you that each character will have a chapters focusing on their backstories (With some others such as Red, Blizkid, Slack and (possibly) Lightlad who have more backstory than the other heroes), these chapters will have 'flashbacks' to their earlier lives and will almoast always begin with a 'flashback' and the character whose flashback it was waking up from a dream (You can call it a Captain trademark. Tarantino has his 'Trunk shots', Speilberg has his 'Insane Camera Angles', Uwe Boll has his "Video game movie abortions" and I have my 'Wake up from Flashback' sequences).
Slack's mentioning that her brother was in the war as well as her story at the diner table involving her freind who she lived with weren't just there to take up space and without spoiling too much I can say that both will be the focus of one of her chapters.
To save time later I'll let you know now that Red doesn't have full knowledge of his birth and abandonment so what he said will contradict with what really happened (Just lettin' ya know so you don't say "Well that doesn't make sense" because it does you just have to keep reading)
Donny's was supposed to be a parody of Denny's where a typical graspy voiced, old aged waitress served our heroes their food without respecting them, but somehow that idea got lost, instead I made Donny's into a Applebee's kind of place, The crabby waitress was replaced by Jennifer and I completely tossed the idea of them being treated like dirt. The other resturants Cowboy's and Le Bistro are also parodies of famous resturant chains, Cowboy's is a parody of the resturant Montana's and Le Bistro is just a parody of those "Fancy" resturants. (Sorry if this was boring info...I just thaught I'd add it for kicks)
Each character's story at the dinner table about how they were asked to join the Titans will be written sometime in one of the future chapters, Originally i planned on having them as prequels leading up to the first chapter but...somehow that idea got pushed aside and well here we are.
Next Chapter: As our heroes plane lands in the infamous Hallow City our heroes learn that Hallow City may need more help then they can give as they face off against two impending dangers, the first is Biogen, a genetics company that happens to be Hallow City's number one source of income but Biogen has a less than noble agenda when if comes to their experiments, Biogen also happen to be led by a man who has various ties to Hallow City's seedy underworld. Their second problem lies in one such tie, a gang of vicious street teens called The Reapers who are led by a group of super powered teens with their minds set on not just beating the Titans but destroying them.