"Illicit, Part 7"
Disclaimer: The future DCU and its characters as depicted here belong to DC Comics, which in turn belongs to Time Warner. I have no decision-making power in either, sorry.
Author's note: This chapter is going to be told from the perspectives of Damien, Cerdian, and Lian. The next chapter will be told from both Rose's and Mar'i's perspectives and after that, it'll be back to the status quo of alternating perspectives with Rose and Mar'i.
Robin went to his room, dropping Cerdian off at his own room before he reached his. Once inside, Robin peeled off his mask, revealing the blue eyes of Damien Wayne. He removed his cape from his shoulders and his gloves from his hands, placing them on the bed along with his mask. He stripped off his utility belt and boots, leaving behind a short-sleeved full-body suit. He found the hidden catch in his suit and undid it, peeling the costume off his body and leaving himself about as naked as he felt.
He went to his closet and looked through it for some clothes to wear. He found a pair of black leather pants and a black T-shirt. He threw on a black jacket with metal plating on the shoulders and slipped a kris inside the pocket. It was a habit Tim had tried to get him to break, but Damien didn't care. He felt naked without a weapon and he couldn't very well go with a Batarang without compromising his secret identity.
Donning a pair of steel-toed boots and satisfied with his appearance, Damien exited his room and went to find Cerdian. The Atlantean boy was dressed in a blue button-up shirt and black jeans with black-trimmed white sneakers. Damien gave him the once-over and decided that despite the younger boy's hesitance, he would be just fine. The two didn't have to go far to find Lian; the archer had found them first. She was dressed to kill in a red halter top and gray hot pants with thigh-high black boots that were fastened on by thick zippers and buckles at the top. She smirked at Damien and Cerdian.
"Aren't you two looking good?" she remarked.
"Let's go," Damien grumbled. Beside him, Cerdian blushed.
Later, the three were out of Titans Tower and walking through the city. "Where are we going?" Damien asked.
"I'm keeping it a surprise," Lian replied, walking ahead of the two boys. Her hips swayed alluringly as she walked, drawing Cerdian's attention – somewhat against his will – to her backside. Unbeknownst to him, but not to Damien, Lian was perfectly aware of what she was doing to the younger boy. That's it, Cerdian. Look as much as you like. If you're good, I'll let you touch.
The trio eventually made it to a warehouse that had been revamped as a hotspot for teen partygoers. Cerdian looked rather nervous once he took a peep inside. Damien rolled his eyes slightly before Lian dragged him and Cerdian inside. Inside was a cacophony of multicolored strobe lights, occasionally and haphazardly illuminating gyrating bodies while industrial electronic music blasted from the wall speakers. Lian grinned and dragged a terrified Cerdian behind her onto the dance floor. Damien groaned to himself and followed them, determined to keep his word to Mar'i.
Lian wrapped her arms around Cerdian and began to dance, grinding softly against him. Cerdian blushed a heavy scarlet, the coloring of his face disguised by the multicolored lights. Against his will, he felt himself responding to Lian's touch and, suddenly possessed by a boldness that would have been regarded by those who knew him as uncharacteristic, pulled Lian closer to him. Lian's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing lustfully, a purr of approval escaping her lips. She undulated sensuously against Cerdian, the younger boy moving along with her.
Damien watched with a slight smirk of approval, but kept his eye on the two in case the Cheshire Cat decided it was a good time to strike. He felt a tugging on his leather-jacketed arm and turned to see a girl with electric blue hair styled into wire-like braids and dressed in a one-sleeved black suit jacket with the middle buttons closed over an open white shirt and a black tie hanging loosely from the collar. The girl wore black pants so tight that she had to leave them unbuttoned and partly unzipped. The reason her suit jacket was one-sleeved was that her left arm was a cyber-limb.
"You're kinda cute," the cyber-limbed girl purred. "Wanna dance?"
Damien gave her the once-over. She wasn't unattractive by any means. She had an unconventional look, but she wasn't unattractive at all. The cyber-limb had some . . . interesting possibilities if he were to go that far with her.
Great, he snarled internally. Now I'm thinking like Harper. What Tim was thinking putting me on a Titans team with her, I don't know.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Kei," the girl replied. "Yours?"
"Damien," the Dark Squire answered and pulled her into his arms, moving gracefully with her. To his surprise, he was enjoying dancing with her. He was expecting to just chaperone Lian and Cerdian and just utterly hate being there, but he was coming to discover that he liked being there. What a difference a strangely dressed girl with a cyber-limb made. He peered over Kei's shoulder and spotted several young men and women garbed in chrome-plated leather clothes moving toward Lian and Cerdian. His eyes narrowed.
"What's wrong, Damien?" Kei asked.
"My friends might be in trouble," Damien replied.
"Cutting in," one of the chromed-out young men said, pulling Lian away from Cerdian as one of his companions moved to restrain Cerdian. Lian's response was to stomp his foot and viciously slam her elbow into his stomach. Unfortunately for her, neither did any good for her; it was like striking a brick wall. Granted, she knew some martial artists who would probably be capable of shattering a brick wall, but she was not one of them.
Aw, crap, Lian thought. He's a metahuman.
Cerdian was more successful in breaking free from his capturer, although that was due to the fact that his Atlantean physiology granted him superhuman strength. He proceeded to deliver a swift kick to the chromed-out young man who had been holding him, only for that kick to be dodged. Fortunately, his partner's surprise at what had befallen him loosened his grip enough to allow Lian to slip loose and rejoin Cerdian. The chromed-out teens charged the two teen heroes, only for one of them to be pierced in the nape by Damien's kris. The boy went into spasms and collapsed.
"What . . . ?" Cerdian uttered. "Damien?"
"Take a good look at the back of their necks," Damien answered tersely.
Lian looked at the nape of the boy Damien had just apparently stabbed. A sparking metal circle was attached to the base of the boy's neck. "Wetware," she concluded.
"What's wetware?" Cerdian asked.
"The circle on the back of his neck is a neural interface controlling the cybernetics woven throughout their bodies," Damien explained. "That's wetware."
"That explains their strength," Cerdian said, just as he dodged a punch from a chromed-out girl. He dropped low and swept his leg out to trip her, but she was better than he expected, jumping over his leg and kicking him while he was still low. Cerdian rolled onto his feet as he was swarmed by more wetware-enhanced teens. Damien and Lian would have helped him, but they had their own attackers to deal with. Even worse, neither Damien nor Lian had any superhuman abilities and they had to fight several people who were superhumanly strong and fast.
Damien slashed at the chromed ones attacking him with his kris, only for his swings to be dodged almost mockingly. One of them grabbed Damien's wrist and used it to hold him while kneeing him in the solar plexus with enough force to knock the breath out of him. To his credit, Damien didn't crumple to the floor, instead choosing to wrap his arms around his assailant's leg. He threw himself backward, taking his assailant with him and wedging a leg between them, using said leg to kick him off.
Lian weaved between punches and kicks from the chromed teens, relying on her training and experience to see her through. Whenever she couldn't dodge, she blocked, and whenever possible, she attacked. Fortunately for her, constantly moving kept her almost untouchable by the chromed ones for all their enhanced strength and speed. It was a little something from Dick that actually stuck with her. Leaping and flipping and contorting about allowed her to stay just a half-step ahead of her foes.
"Stay still, you bitch!" one of them yelled.
Lian's answer was to kick her hard in the back of the neck, contorting to punch another one of her assailants in the back of his neck. "How about no?" she answered.
Cerdian fought his way through his chromed attackers, easily matching them in strength and just slightly outdoing them in speed. Additionally, he did have some telekinesis to aid him, allowing him to generate shields of psionic energy to block their strikes whenever he couldn't simply dodge. He also managed to wedge some of that psionic energy into the nodes in the backs of their necks, scrambling the cybernetics in their bodies. This triggered spasms in all of his attackers, making them collapse.
Whereas Lian's style was unpredictable yet graceful in its movements, Damien's style relied on swift brutality. The first chance he got, he stabbed one of his attackers in the node on her neck, sending her into spasms that ended in her unconsciousness. Another one tried to jump him, but he flipped over him and threw a three-pronged shuriken at the node in his neck. The shuriken hit its mark and knocked him unconscious, too. Damien landed with a brutal descending kick to another attacker, elbowing him in the node on his neck. He flipped off him and kicked two more in the nodes on their necks, moving and fighting more like a demon. Eventually, he felled all but one of them.
That one, he grabbed by the collar of his jacket and asked, "Who sent you?"
"The Cheshire Cat," the chromed-out teen spat before he suddenly went into spasms.
"What?" Damien uttered. "I didn't . . ." He snarled. "The Cheshire Cat . . . damn him." He threw aside the now-unconscious wetware user and went to Lian and Cerdian. "Are you two all right?"
"We're fine," Lian replied.
Kei looked around. Unlike most of the other patrons, she had stayed for the fight. Seeing Damien fight like that was awesome, scary, and quite a bit of a turn-on. His friends weren't too bad, either, although the younger boy seemed to be some kind of meta.
"You stayed?" Damien asked in puzzlement.
"Yeah," Kei replied. "I kinda wanted to jump in and help, but it seemed like you guys were handling them just fine on your own. What martial arts school did you study in to get that good?"
"No school here teaches what you need to know for the kind of combat we regularly engage in," Damien answered. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from me. I'm a dangerous person to know." He aimed a sharp look at Lian and Cerdian and they moved to follow him out of the club, leaving behind a perplexed and annoyed Kei.
End Notes: There you have it. It's the return of bastard!Damien. Hopefully, you liked Lian and Cerdian's interaction and for those of you that actually liked her, Kei will make an appearance in the future of this ficlet series. Next chapter will be all (or mostly) Rose/Mar'i. I hope.