Hello my lovelies! Yes, we've actually posted.
So so soooo sorry for the wait, I've been away on vacation with the fam for a while. I know, This isn't a good excuse... I'm sorry! *Gets down on knees*
Here is Part One of Chapter five.
*WE'RE STILL ACCEPTING VILLAINS, FORM ON MY PROFILE*
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The Targets
Chapter Five Part 1
How hard can this actually be?
~Dragon POV~
"Yes! I totally just virtually kicked your butt. OH YEAH! You owe me a cake." Pyro squealed, fist pumping and making a funny duck-face.
I groaned, falling back onto the blue couch in my room frowning at the thought of cooking. Eww, even the sound of that word was unappealing. I tossed my controller over onto the empty cushion to my right; this was the sixth time in a row I had lost. I was usually good at this! Pyro's skills actually came to a surprise since I had to practically beg the girl to play. Now I was regretting this whole thing.
"I'm sure you don't want my cake, I can't cook like- at all. I'm not saying it because I don't want to; I'm saying that because you probably don't want to die."
The redhead laughed, shaking her head a little but she failed to hide the look of uneasiness that crossed her face.
"Uhh- maybe you should just buy one for me then? I really don't want death-by-cake. That sounds very- messy." She frowned tossing her controller onto the floor.
We'd been playing Call Of Duty for about two hours and frankly I was Call Of Dutyed-out. I gave a yawn before bending down and throwing my red Converse to the side of the couch. I then pulled my legs to my chest laying my head on top of my jean covered knees, gazing over at my best friend. The redheaded girl pulled her headband out of her hair, running a pale hand through the short wavy locks attempting to calm them to no avail. She let out an irritated noise when a shorter piece fell into her eyes.
"I don't know how you stand to have that long hair of yours, I can barely deal with mine and it's short!" She growled before giving up and shoving the white band behind her ears.
I gave a short laugh in amusement before tugging on my own hair which was in its signature ponytail. It was pretty long actually and had the "ombre" look, starting at the roots a dark black and fading out to a fiery red at the ends. I giggled, giving her a large smile before leaning on the arm of the couch. I scanned the area of my room, still not used to it completely even thought it had been a month and a few days since I'd first gotten it. By now though, it contained more personal items like pictures of my little brother and me along with large stacks of video games and books that aligned the walls and covered most areas of the floor.
Pyro seemed to notice my line of vision as a frown set on her face, "How's your brother?"
My silvery white eyes snapped to her face seeing the actual concern that resided there. Pyro was the only one on the team that knew about my little brother. I had told the girl in confidence after a brutal day at training. I was having a particularly horrible day and was worried sick about my ten year old brother. He had told me a few days prier that some kids were picking on him at school; therefore I'd been on edge all day long. I hardly got to see the kid anymore since hero training had begun and being his legal guardian I was worried he wasn't getting the right care and attention he needed. So I'd literally flipped and spilled everything to Pyro. From then on we became best friends.
Even though she was a year younger than my 16 year old self, I was fine getting along with anybody, especially one such as Pyro whose slightly unpredictable personality somehow managed to gel with my own.
"He's fine, unless he's burned down the house since I've been gone. Though to be honest, it's more likely me that'll do that..." I chuckled quietly, smiling at Pyro, whose concern eased from her face as she laughed at my pathetic excuse for a joke, and she popped up speedily from the bed she sat on and ran towards the door.
"You coming? We need to get out of this room, we're going to look antisocial if we stay in here any longer," she pointed out, beckoning me to follow her. I groaned at the effort required of my tired muscles and I heaved myself up to follow the leader.
We hadn't even been walking for more than a few steps when out jumped a certain tall, light haired boy that happened to be in charge of our little group of delinquents. And naturally, the girl with the secret crush slammed straight into him. Textbook relationship starter.
"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry," the guy we had gotten to know as Clayne asked, holding out his hand for Pyro to latch onto. She laughed it off, smiling at him like he was the most adorably charming thing in the world. She was covering her crush well enough, but her burning red cheeks kinda gave it away.
"That was embarrassing..." she mumbled, accepting his hand up and brushing herself down. Once she was satisfied, she looked over to Clayne and gave an awkward half smile.
"You heading over to the "den"?" Pyro asked, smiling as she said the last word, obviously it was some inside joke between the two of them as Clayne smile and laughed, nodding in reply.
"I'm hoping the others will be there so I can complain to Luke or Trinity. They seem to understand the pain of training." Clayne seemed to get along well with the two original members of the team, finding companionship mainly with Luke and Pyro, but Trinity was like a sister figure. It made me a little sad when I looked at Pyro and Clayne talking with each other, joking and laughing about whatever nonsense popped into their heads... Sure, they were happy, but...
The girl had been friendzoned.
~Tremor POV~
I hummed along to song that blared from my iPhone, nodding my head in time to the beat as I walked down a slightly crowded sidewalk in Gotham. My hands were buried in my leather jacket, not bothering to remove it even though it was like eighty degrees outside. People around me chatted to themselves, everyone going separate ways.
A group of schoolgirls sauntered in front of me, giggling about some guy at their school. I had decided on tuning them out but that was becoming quite the chore since they all talked so loudly with their high pitched voices.
"Maddi, what do you mean you can't come to Christina's party? We've been talking about it for months and we literally just got invited. You can't flake out now." A blonde girl said, glaring over at a redheaded female that walked beside her.
"I'm sorry Cynthia, I'd love to go but I'm –busy." The redhead turned towards the other girl, half of her face now visible.
She didn't look like anything special to be honest; the only thing that really was worth noticing on her face was her dazzling blue eyes and freckles. They stood out against her average face. But, something about the way she said "busy" was really suspicious.
I quickly looked away before either girl noticed I was staring and found myself looking at their feet. Huh, well looks like little miss average has a tattoo of a rose with thorns on her ankle.
Both girls then turned and started across the street to the sidewalk on the other side.
Shrugging, I continued walking till I came to a stop sign. A loud *BEEP* came from my phone almost making me jump in the air. Jesus, was that really necessary? I wrenched the object out of my pocket, glazing down at the screen to see I had a text from Trinity.
Trin: Our first mission briefing is in an hour, meet back at base.
Holy shit, our first mission is today?
I all but sprinted down to a telephone booth, forgetting my previous journey to the Gotham City Library.
I yanked open the phone booth and quickly beamed myself into the mountain, my molecules rearranging a little. That beta tube thingy always made me feel a little like I was going to projectile vomit, but I resisted the urge when I spotted Trinity standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by my teammates.
My teammates... It wasn't something that was easy to get used to. They were an odd mixture of people from all four corners of insanity, but as long as they weren't interrogating him, he got along with some of them well enough.
"Ah, glad you could join us, Tremor," Trinity drawled, obviously not impressed. I realized I didn't have on my mask in about two seconds and yanked it out of my pocket, placing it on my face calmly. It's not like they could see me anyway.
"Take a seat next to Replay," Luke instructed, gesturing to the empty space. The guy dressed in a black morph suit with a green rewind symbol beckoned me over, smiling widely. He seemed to be the only one dressed in costume. For some reason, most of the people in the team found Replay frustrating, annoying even, but to be honest, the guy didn't bother me much. He was just like a little kid, enthusiastic and fun and he made me laugh a little, mostly inwardly. The only people I didn't like so far were that annoyingly naive "leader", Clayne, and that stupidly loudmouthed brat, Porcelain. It was ticking him off how people that were supposed to be teenagers had personalities like 5 year olds. It's not like he would let them bleed out in the field, but he didn't get along with them, and they knew it.
"Hey, man, couldn't have gotten here sooner? I was forced to listen to Luke explain about each member of the Justice Leagues food preferences and psychologically why they have that," Replay complained, earning a nudge in the side from Blue Storm, or Stormy, as I had started referring to him as.
"You noob, he was talking about their FIGHTING preferences!" the guy laughed, shaking his head at his friend. Replay shrugged.
"Eh, I wasn't listening properly anyways."
There was an odd silence as Luke and Trinity mumbled to each other in hushed voices about what was going to be said, and it was in that silence that I noticed it. Every time I looked over at a person, I would catch them staring at me, then they'd look away hastily. I couldn't put my finger on why.
"What are they staring at?" I hissed. Reply perked up and studied them all. He made an unintelligent grunt.
"You probably intimidate them. You've got the whole "bad boy" vibe and it's setting them on edge. Might want to work on that rusty personality of yours, you are kind of antisocial and lazy except in training. You're bound to turn some heads."
With those words of wisdom, I gave up looking at the team and dragged my eyes instead to the doorway through which Impulse, Beast Boy and Zatanna were entering through.
"OK, listen up people! We've got a mission to brief, and I don't want to miss my snack'n'nap because of it!" Beast Boy announced, his green skin glowing slightly in the light.
"As you all know, this will be your first mission, so don't take it lightly. Just stick to the given plan and if anything goes wrong, call in for back-up from us." Zatanna warned, obviously totally reassuring us.
"The mission will start in the most poverty-ridden area of Star City, and before you say anything, yes Star City has a large amount of homeless and poor people living there, but most of it is hidden by media coverage, so be sensitive!" Impulse said, speed-walking around the room to get a better look at the team.
"Your mission is Angelo Rodriquez, a 14 year old meta living in those slums with his cousin and her husband, Maria and Ricky. You will need to take extra care with all of these people, Angelo is blind in and Maria has aggressive cancer so she is fragile."
I was silent for a moment as I took in this information, but the absorption process was interrupted by a certain loudmouthed redhead.
"Why are we taking him in? What're his powers?" Porceline asked. Zatanna answered this curtly.
"Why, is none of your concern. His powers are his bat-like wings and a very rare foreshadowing ability, the main reason for him to have so much protection from us."
So a kid that's blind, a woman dying of cancer, a most likely depressed and tired man having to look after the both of them... A very fragile mission. Why did he have a feeling this would all go wrong?
"Hurricane, as mission leader, it is your job to ensure that everybody follows the plan and is under control. You say when and what. Porcelain, you've been put in charge of Ricky, protect him and shield him with your life. Dragon and Tremor, you will be working as a team to give Angelo 360 degree protection from harm. The rest of you will be backing them up and keeping an eagle eye out for trouble."
"Hey- how hard can this actually be?" Replay shrugged, giving a wide confident smile.
~Narrator POV~
"How hard can it be? HOW HARD CAN IT BE? Did you SERIOUSLY have to ask that Replay?" Black Triad a.k.a. Trinity screeched sounding rather infuriated as she dodged a punch from Vulture.
"Don't blame me! I didn't know birdbrain here was gonna show up and try to wreck the show." Replay whined.
Black Triad, Replay, The Professor, Blue Storm, Hurricane and Pyro had been in separate posts outside the rundown apartment complex in Star City, the one where they were supposed to retrieve Angelo. Hurricane had instructed Tremor, Dragon and Porceline to go inside and commence with their part of the mission. Things had been going fairly well for the most part. Barely anyone was around and things seemed on the quiet side. Of course that all took a turn for the worst when Pyro let out an ear-piercing scream from her post in an alley.
That's when they discovered Vulture. A pale skinned male with amazingly birdlike qualities. The guy had literally thrown a feather at the red-headed pyrokenisis. Wait, I know what you're thinking. A feather? Like what the hell? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Yeah well guess what, that feather is razor sharp and can probably cut through almost anything. Now you see their concern.
Immediately the Team rushed to Pyro's aid to realize that A) her leg was cut pretty badly and she was practically limping as B) she attempted to protect herself from Vulture.
"Hey! Leave her alone you asshole. Can't you see you've already done enough?" Black Triad jumped in not bothering to wait for orders from her leader, grabbed a hold of Pyro's arm and dragged her away from the villain.
The brunette hissed out "eit mih pu," just like her mentor Zatanna had taught her.
The birdlike man was quickly tied up and lying on the ground in mere seconds. Before anyone could yell in victory though, he broke free using his sharp bird feathers.
"Ahh man! That's so not fair! You can't do that." Replay whined, jutting his lower lip out in a pout.
"Too late," Vulture smirked, giving a weird 'caw' and transforming into a falcon before flying high above them.
"Well what do we do now boss?" Blue Storm asked, causing everyone to look over at their leader.
Hurricane glared up at the falcon before looking back at his team, "Don't let him get inside. Keep him away from our target."
The team nodded in acknowledgement and readied themselves into a fighting stance. Pyro was sitting on the floor trying to keep as stills as possible with Black Triad standing over her, murmuring words that Hurricane didn't understand while the boys attempted to get Vulture back down to earth.
"Laeh... Laeh... Laeh..." she repeated it over and over again, a strange glow emitting from her hands and the wound.
"Black Triad, we need to get into positions, he's coming back around." Hurricane instructed, eyes not moving from the would that seemed to be stitching itself back together.
"I need two seconds, I'm almost done here..." she said, continuing her chant. Hurricane sighed and jogged back to position.
"Ok that should do it. It's a patch job since I was in a rush, might leave a nasty scar, but it should be a whole lot easier to walk on."
Pyro stood up uneasily and rested her weight on the injured leg, smiling when she discovered that next to no pain followed.
"Thanks, Tri- I mean, Black Triad. Is the bird back?" she questioned, scanning the skies. Black Triad followed her gaze.
"Not that I know of. He's up to something..." Black Triad mumbled, scratching her head thoughtfully.
And then the cavalry arrived.
Out of the shadows, before anyone could shout a warning, a group of about six people all dressed in costumes akin to villainous ones jumped out from seemingly nowhere.
"Let's start the party!" one of them screeched.
Without any further warning, the villains dove in at the heroes, all guns blazing. They seemed to have a perfectly formed plan of action, all attacking specific members each in perfect unison. The confusion quickly diffused into anger as the team began to fight back.
Black Triad, not currently attached to any villain, was free to move around and see exactly who she was up against. She recognized a few from data files Luke had hacked a while back, some really nasty pieces of work, even the Sharp Shooter of the Shadows had turned up, Black Shooter. If only the little guy was here to back her up...
Exactly on cue, Trinity noticed out of the corner of her eyes a familiar tweed jacket worn by a small teenage boy.
"Professor!" She hissed, beckoning him over with a smirk. He jogged over in his super grip converse, gloves discarded somewhere beyond, giving her a clue about what he was going to do next.
"Who are these guys?" Black Triad asked her teammate, the boy simply shrugging.
"Villains. I have no idea what they're doing working together, but the team are doing a great job," he complimented. Black Triad had to admit, she was pretty pleased with their progress. All except...
"REPLAY!" she exclaimed, charging over to knock the darkly dressed girl in front of him over and onto the ground. Relay wasn't moving. He was standing in utter silence, eyes darting around nervously. He didn't look well, that was obvious enough from his grey skin and shaking form. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself before Trinity took him on
"Fight the girl!" she instructed, holding her down with magical chains. Luke sat on the floor beside the wriggling villain and placed a hand on her exposed forehead.
"Uh, Black Triad? She's a fear inducer."
That stopped the hero before she could cut into Replay anymore. It certainly explained his strange behavior. If they had this girl on their team, he dreaded to think of what else awaited...
On the other side of the fight, Hurricane was tumbling through the air, freefalling at random points to avoid the perfectly precise arrows being shot his way.
"Who are you people?" He shouted angrily, blasting a spurt of high pressured water he created at the Black Shooter.
"That's none of your concern. If I were you, I would be focusing more on the task at hand..." He said, stopping shooting his arrows and directing his gaze more towards the window of the scummy block of flats. Just inside was the form of a large bird clawing and scratching at three people while a large tigers wildly bit and clawed at them, three frightened looking people at the side.
It was his teammates. Bird Brain and some other shape shifter were attacking them while they protected the targets.
"Black Triad! EVERYBODY! Get inside; we need to complete the mission!"
Oh my Lord, A CLIFFHANGER! HEHEHE.
Yes we did go there.
So what did you think?
What POV should we do for Part 2?
What will happen?
Again, I'M SOOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN AWHILE. I've been on vacation or as my lovely co-author says "Holiday".
Part Two will be out soon!
Don't forget to check out rlb190's SYOC YJ story, Anything But Ordinary.! She's absolutely amazing!
*WE'RE STILL ACCEPTING VILLAINS, FORM ON MY PROFILE*
REMEMBER TO REVIEW OR DIE. WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO AWESOMELY KILL OFF YOUR CHARACTER IF YOU DON'T GIVE US FEEDBACK.
-TJ & SG
