Okay, I've had this question for a while now, but watching Batman is not helping me out much. What is Bruce's personality like? Or even Batman's. Do they act the same, or is Bruce friendly and Batman all silent? He's a philanthropist, right? Does that mean he has to be friendly? In the next chapter (and in the rest of the story) he plays a pretty big part, so I just wanted to get him as close to real (ish) that I possibly could.
Thanks to Dancing-StarFrenzy, kjesStar, BerryDrops, RavenSis, Jeanniestorm, cartoonfire, Daniella, tennisgal456, Karuma Kinsei, and WillowLeaf2560 for reviewing!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.
She was so, so tired, but they had to flee. The tracking device had been destroyed, but their location was recorded. Dick's exhaustion was showing, too, but he never complained. He had told her that no Rent-A-Car agency would be open at this time of night, so they could at least catch an hour of shut eye.
An hour turned into two, two into four, four into--BAM! The door tumbled down as four Gordanians barged in with the screaming motel manager between them. "Princess of Troqs," they hissed as Koriand'r and Dick jumped up, "this is your final warning." They pulled out terrifying, electricity-tipped staffs, causing the manager to scream and struggle even more. "This is the end of the line."
They were speaking in Gordanian, so Dick was unable to understand them. He could actually attempt to work out a plan with a cool head. Koriand'r, however, was caught up on one word. "YOU WILL NOT INSULT MY PEOPLE!" Her fists began to glow green, which was obviously too much for the manager, who fainted out of pure terror. The Gordanians pulled her body taut and pointed the staffs at her throat.
"One false move, and she dies."
Koriand'r could not hurt an innocent bystander, however snotty the said bystander had been to them earlier. Her anger disseminated into helplessness, and the glow began to fade. They were right. So many people had been hurt and killed already, and for what? Her freedom? What did it matter? Why should someone as insignificant as her have to cause so much pain? So many lives could be spared if the Gordanians had one...her. Even Dick would be relieved of this unexpected burden she'd thrown on him...Koriand'r glanced at him, watching him desperately search for the easy way out. There was none. She took a step forward.
Black magic suddenly engulfed the Gordanians, freezing them all in their tracks. "Don't do it, Princess. This idiotic race has to learn that they can't always have what they want."
"Raven!" Dick breathed in relief, smirking at the subdued Gordanians. "I can't believe how glad I am to have you conscious..."
"We'll deal with the warm, fuzzy feelings later," she deadpanned. Carefully, she extracted the manager from the Gordanians' claws. "All yours, Princess Koriand'r."
Kory's eyes and hands lit up again. "It will be my pleasure."
They found the spaceship the Gordanians had flown in on, out where no roads were within sight. There the four KO'ed bodies were deposited before the three of them flew back to the motel. The manager had just woken up, groggily wondering where she was and recalling her awful nightmare. Dick, Kory, and Raven scooted past her, not wanting to trigger any traumatic memories.
"So...Princess, huh?" Dick asked Kory as they got ready for a mid-morning nap. Raven claimed she was tired, too ("I was in a healing trance, I wasn't sleeping, you idiot.") but Dick had just waved her off.
Kory blushed. "I...yes."
"That's why those things want you back so bad?"
"Yes."
"Any reason you didn't want to tell me?"
She shrugged. "I did not think it was important."
"You didn't want me to treat you any different." A nod. "Believe me, Kory, I know how it gets. You've got to be polite all the time, meet people you don't even know or like and be forced to respect them, understand everything that's going on around you, never be yourself--"
"You forget the suitors," Kory added dully.
Dick pretended to be hurt. "Is that why you didn't want me to know?"
She threw a pillow at him.
After he was done groaning from the near-lethal wound and she was done apologizing, Kory explained herself. "It is not enjoyable to know that you will not be able to pick your own husband...and even with that knowledge, you see hundreds of men every day attempting to get your attention--"
"--Plus the annoying ones who won't stop following you around--"
"Yes! Who constantly irk you and you must put far away so they may not bother you--"
"--On Earth, we get these awesome things called restraining orders--"
"I dearly wish we had something as such."
They glanced at each other and then burst out laughing. "This is the strangest way I've ever gotten to understand a person," Dick admitted. A comfortable silence descended between them, before Dick broke it with a troubling thought. "But there's something else, Kory...when those Gordanians were here...what were you doing?"
"I do not understand," Kory said, frowning.
"You were going to go with them."
She sobered, looking away from him. "I apologize for being so weak. On my planet, everything I have done so far would have been considered dishonorable and foolish." Dick waited for her to come back onto the real topic. She sighed. "I suppose I have been away far too long...that giving up seems to be the only choice left to me. You cannot tell me that your life has not changed dramatically. Then, Raven herself was pulled to a planet that is galaxies away from her home, but not without almost being taken hostage first. Nearly every single prisoner on our ship is dead. Vic is dead. Even people I do not know, who helped us along the way, are dead. And the manager almost died today, yet I am still being hunted. Many more people will die before this is over, and I am most definitely not worth it."
"You think it'll make any sort of difference if you give up, Kory? Even if you went back, the Gordanians would keep killing people. They'd keep taking prisoners for centuries. We've been so lucky so far, I think we might get away with this. What if we actually stop them once and for all? What if we end the bloodshed that--get this--is all their fault, and not yours?"
"That is not possible. If Tamaran's armies could not do so, what chance do the three of us have?"
"And that, Kory, is what proves you haven't met Bruce Wayne yet. Maybe I didn't know about his alien project before, but I bet you, as soon as we get there, he'll be ready to take on a whole planet. He gets a lot of things done, believe me. But right now, let's not give up. At least until we get to Gotham," he asked of her. "You know that this isn't your fault. You know that whatever you're doing is right."
"Right as it may be, that cannot stop me from feeling guilty."
"I can understand that. But Kory...you are worth it." She blushed and suddenly found the blankets very interesting. This silence was not so comfortable. Hoping to end it again, Dick searched for something to say. A devilish smirk crept over his handsome features. "You know, Kory, I haven't gotten you back for beating me up with that pillow..."
"You are not starting a pillow fight," Raven warned, stepping out of the shower. Dick grinned and threw his pillow at her, with Kory following suit. Her's was more of a threat to Raven, and was immediately focused on and stopped with magic. Dick's, however, bounced off the top of her head, leaving her dumbfounded while the other two cracked up. "Idiot. What in the world would possess you to pick a fight with me?"
Once Dick had recovered (again) from being battered with his own pillow, the three had a small nap and set out to buy everything they would need for their journey to Gotham. Kory had stood ogling the windows of Macy's until Dick had finally been able to convince Raven to buy something for each of them. Kory had whirled through the whole store, gasping at how 'glorious' everything was and annoying the cashiers. They'd all paid a visit to the mall's food court, too, where her wrapper-eating habit was discovered by Raven and proved to be hard to control.
"What is this?"
"Those are ties, Koriand'r," Raven explained exasperatedly.
"And this?"
"Those are purses."
"And this?"
"Those are socks."
"And this?"
"That's cologne."
"It smells wonderful!"
"It's not for you. Why don't you get an outfit so we can leave?"
As soon as they were gone, Dick discreetly sprayed a little puff on himself.
None of them noticed the five shady figures in the windows.
At around three o'clock, they all met up, with (miraculously) only one shopping bag each. "Let's go back to the motel and change and check out--Kory, hold on, you can't eat that either. Anyway, the longer we wait, the less likely we'll get to an airport in time for us to catch a flight to Gotham."
Five scaly heads perked up at the name of the city.
"We need not catch any flight. Raven is capable of teleportation, yes?" Kory pointed out.
Raven nodded. "And I think you owe me a little bit of an explanation on what's been going on so far, and we probably can't talk about that on a plane. For one thing--" she smirked. "--When did your name become Kory?"
As they walked away from town, hoping to leave behind any humans that would have otherwise been disturbed by three people disappearing in the middle of nowhere, Kory brought Raven up to speed. "Vic was truly a wonderful friend, even for a short time...but he...he is gone..." Raven actually looked sympathetic, something Dick hadn't thought her capable of.
The two girls looked like twins, with their baggy sweatshirts and jeans that covered up most of the damage the Gordanians had done. At least it wouldn't be out of place in the autumn weather. It was far better than what they had before, and they did well not to make their first appearance in Gotham looking like a bunch of circus-loving hobos. "And then, while I was showering, I discovered a small tracking device on my left foot, which made Dick and I believe that--"
"Azar, Koriand'r! Why didn't you tell me that before?" Raven growled at her.
"Sorry you were out of it for who knows how long, Raven!" Dick defended. Obviously, Raven's moment of sensitivity was over.
"No," Kory said, her face paling, "I cannot believe I did not think of this!"
"Think of what?"
"I was a prisoner of the Gordanians, too, wasn't I?" Raven snapped at him, her eyes flashing red. "Now we're in danger...again! Where did you find that tracking chip, Koriand'r?" Dick finally got it, and he shuddered. Just when they thought all their alien troubles were under control...
Kory pointed down to her left foot. The tiny chip would've been covered up by any shoe except flip-flops (and Dick was pretty sure most aliens didn't wear those) and the red probably would've looked like blood anyway. Kory and Raven (and probably him, too, now that he thought about it. After all, he'd been hurt quite a few times) were covered in cuts. It was a miracle Kory found it in the first place.
Raven dug around in her shoe and winced as she plucked the little chip from her skin. Two black blades appeared out of thin air, slicing the chip to bits. "Good. Now let's get out of here, fast."
It wouldn't do them any good.
Dick hated that feeling of nothingness he always got when teleporting with Raven. He couldn't even see himself, or the other two girls. This trip was much longer than most of the others, because they were traveling hundreds of miles. By the end, Dick was shivering with cold and emptiness.
"Oh, suck it up," Raven told him.
Their arrival in the middle of one of the very few groves of trees left around Gotham had scared away much of the wildlife (that wasn't rooted to the ground, of course). Had any humans been around, they probably would've been scared out of their wits by three people popping up from the ground like plants on Red Bull, too. The rest of the animals, annoying to Raven, were chased out in a matter of seconds by black magic. Only one of them stayed.
"Shoo, you stupid cat."
It was a very, very strange cat. For one, it was green. All green. Definitely weird. Two, it's head was completely unproportionate to the size of its body. Kory thought this insanely cute, and gathered up the little animal in her arms, giggling. "Dick, the animals on your planet are quite wonderful!"
The feline was desperately wriggling to get out. Dick's eyes narrowed. "Kory, put that down. It's not norm--" The cat screeched suddenly, starting to scratch Kory. She let go immediately, jumping into a battle stance.
In a second, the cat stretched to a grosteque size (for a house cat) and the limbs grew out, the tail was sucked up, the ears moved down, the nose enlarged, and the whiskers disappeared. A green, furious man stood before them, only a little shorter than Raven, but just as intimidating at this point.
"Aliens!" he snarled, morphing into a giant gorilla to attack them.
Yay, it's Garfield!
If anybody knows about the Bruce/Batman thing, please let me know!
