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 be 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.
Well, well, welcome back folks. It's you're host, saviour, master of disaster, and all other legend describing words you could think of to describe me: The Captian J.T. Wolfe, who brings with him A BRAND SPANKIN NEW chapter that's bound to make you feel every type of emotion possible...well, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I will say that the stuff in this chapter (Aside from the action) puts everything else I've done to shame.
First things first (Do I really have to tell you what the next paragraph and a half will look like?) It's time for me to get my thanks and micellaneous items of news out of the way, so we can get on with this story, so, with that said. Let's move on to our first topic shall we?
First order of buisness: I've done this countless times before, but what should make this any different? I'd like to appoligize for the severe lateness in which I've presented you with this chapter. It's entirely my fault, I've been really busy lately and...well...that's what held me back.
Secondly: As alway's the big Numbah 2 will be used to thank those of you who were kind enough to review, last or any chapter for the matter. So here it goes. I'd like to express the deepest of deep thanks for the following readers who took the time to review: Splint (Respect to you brothah), Death Jester (Dude, thank's for all the help with this chapter, Couldn't'a done it without ya), Markus Saint (They'res a reason why you're name's Saint...wow that sounded lame on paper, but still, thanks a ton bro), Dragontwin (I'd like to make a snappy joke with you're name like I did Markus's...but the opportunity doesn't really present itself. So instead I'll wish you sincere thanks: Thanks a bunch) and Glaicer Alchemist (Being last on my list doesn't mean I like you the least...it just means I ran out of idea's for funny jokes and figured: Why not pretend like I didn't? Thanks for the review by the way). You guy's rule and help to keep this story from the cold, dead, clutches of a hit stand still and eventual death, so give yourselves a pat on the back...my treat.
Third Topic: I'd be lying If I said I was running out of story idea's, basically, because that's a lie, but what I am lacking, is a good series of short, one shot typed chapters I can use to put inbetween action/drama/backstory heavy chapters such as this. So if you're willing to contribute to the 'keep the story alive by way of sending my PM's or reviews with plots for filler' charity please feel free to do so. The idea and resulting chapter can be based on/or designed after anything, Fluff, humour, action, romance, anything as long as I have something to break up and slow down the flow of this story. (P.S. I know I asked the exact same thing last chapter, but I figured it couldn't hurt to do it again).
Fourthly: I don't mean to let you down with this, but I can safely say the action in this chapter isn't as great as it was in the past two, the reason for this: is that a lot of the creativity and what not went into writing Slack's flashbacks than went into the action, but I still think it has a good amount...but that's my opinion, and you're free to have you're own, so if you disagree, feel free to say it.
Fifthly: This chapter will be the first of (Possibly) many to include Flashbacks that will help detail, flesh out and allow you to better understand the characters. This is my first time writing a flashback heavy story...ever, so I'd appreciate any opinions you have on the flashback story and how I presented it, if you don't like it, please feel free to tell me, otherwise..how will I know. Remeber they'res no such thing as stupid questions...just stupid people (Not that any of you reading this are...please don't be mad at me).
Finally: A disclaimer: I do not own any of the Teen Titans, Jump City or any other D.C. property owned in this non-profit work of fiction (As much as I'd like to). What I do own are the characters Slack, Red, Tag, Lightlad, Blizkid, Sev, Detective Patches, Detective Brice, Arnold Busmalis, Clancy Arkady, Simon Jones, The City: Hallow City, Silent Falls and Hallow Point Prisons, the plot to this story/chapter and any other non-DC comics owned property in this chapter...unless it falls under other copyright issues, in which case I do not own it.
Now, without further adue, It's my great pleasure to give you the first in many backstory heavy chapters I plan on writing...the first of which I like to call...
Chapter 7: Caiman
Arnold Busmalis, a thirty two year old, olive skinned, clean shaven and somewhat attractive man, stood on the long, concrete loading bay that led to Silent Falls Correctional Facility's 'special' cells, the ones coated in padding where patients were refined with straightjackets, or as they were called by their wearers "The jackets that hugged back", a statement which was both mildly humorous and intensely depressing at the same time.
As the name might suggest, Silent Falls was more of an Asylum for the criminally insane than a high security prison, Hallow Point Penitentiary filled that void as it was more secure and reserved prison. Attached to a small island off the main land, it greatly resembled the famous high security prison Alcatraz, though, unlike Alcatraz, no prisoners had ever been known to have escaped Hallow Point, not even one.
Busmalis, just so happened to be an employee of Silent Falls. He, as well as thirteen others like him, were all members of S.P.T.A.R.T. or The Special Prisoner Transport and Recovery Team. A team of security professionals, all with backgrounds that differed greatly from regular security employee's, some were Army Veterans, others former officers of the law, though they all shared the same 'hook' in their backgrounds, that 'hook' was that they all had significantly better training than the other staff members.
S.P.T.A.R.T. was made up of fourteen men, divided into two, seven man units, each unit tasked with transporting the more 'dangerous' residents of Silent Falls, as well as given as much jurisdiction as the police force to track down, and should the need arise, kill escaped convicts. They were feared by the convicts in Silent Falls, and much more feared by the ones who'd escaped.
Currently Busmalis stood with six other men, all dressed in similar outfits to his own, which happened to consist of black padded pants, a black jacket with "Busmalis" printed uniformly on the back, though the name was found only on his, as the others wore uniforms with their last names instead of his on their backs, a vest of black lightweight security armour, or an 'L.S.A. Vest' as he, and the others, had come to call it, and, the last piece of clothing he, as well as the others, wore was a small helmet, in the style of a bicycle helmet, attached to each one's head. These, like both their armour and coats, had their last names imprinted on them.
To his right stood his friend, co-worker and superior at Silent Falls, Simon Jones. Jones was a taller, older and practically humourless black man, who not only held much more responsibility as co-leader of S.P.T.A.R.T. but also as
Like Busmalis, he dressed in the same uniform as his co-workers,, though Jones' was , shaded a shade lighter than the others, as well as held several small red and black stripes on the left and right shoulder, each representing a 'kill' Jones had made during his time on the force. In total his clothing held seven of these stripes, meaning he, and only he, was responsible for ending the lives of seven escaped convicts.
At the moment, the two stood with another member of S.P.T.A.R.T.: Miguel Carmine, a twenty four year old, suburban raised man of Spanish descent, who'd served as a police officer for six months before being discharged after an act of 'insubordination'. Aside from his cowardice past, he also had another thing going against him, he was the unit's newest recruit, and, as such, was usually assigned missions of little to no difficulty, something which his fellow members, frowned apon, as they found the fact that he was younger and less experianced to be too easy an excuse for him to get the missions they wished to have themselves.
All three of the men stood on the right side of the loading bay, with four others S.P.T.A.R.T. members, Cases, Pick, Baker and Hedges, all dressed in outfits reminiscent of the three other members, though all of their outfits came fully equipped with full faced gas masks, which as the name would imply, covered each member's entire face.
To the right of the men, a large truck slowly backed into the parking lot, generating a loud, mechanical 'beep-beep-beep' noise as it did. On the back of the truck stood a large metal box, roughly ten feet tall and wide, the box was divided into two uneven half's, the bottom half, being the larger of the two, was made of a solid metal and decorated with a yellow and black border, the top half, which was significantly smaller than the bottom, was made entirely of long, slender, silver tinted bars, each roughly three inches thick and half a foot long.
To sum it up, the box looked more like a futuristic cage than a box, especially since it's inhabitant, from what the others could hear, sounded no where near human.
As the truck backed up, the bright blue lights of a nearby structure came to life, exposing a large yellow crane attached by a small cinder wall, to the farthest side of the building.
The crane stood roughly twenty feet tall and had a ball capped man operating it's switches, the crane's magnet touched down on the roof of the cage, slamming into it roughly before hoisting it five feet into the air, the crane took the cage from the back of the truck and moved it to above the men's heads.
The men quickly gathered around the area in which the cage would be dropped, it was a small flat metal slab, that looked exactly like a mattress, only made of metal specially designed to hold cages exactly like the one in the air, on the sides of the 'mattress' stood several small clutches with hooks on the end. These were used to secure the cage so that, should the prisoner inside be able to, the cage would be moveable due to its restraints.
As the cage finished lowering the men, minus Carmine, who stood somewhat confused as to what exactly was going on, gathered around the cage and, in two men teams, began to raise the clutches to the locks attached to the sides of the cage.
Jones, who worked with Busmalis to raise the heavy clutch, turned to Carmine and furrowed his brows into an angry glare, his hatred of recruits derived from the fact that none of them ever knew what the hell they were doing, and Carmine was no exception.
"Carmine, What the hell are you doing!" He shouted, Carmine, without an answer himself, simply shrugged his shoulders in response. Jones sighed heavily, he hated recruits, he really did.
"Get your shock stick and give our new freind a good jab will ya? If he keeps banging the sides like that it'll knock this damn cage to the ground" Jones shouted as he continued to raise the clutch.
Carmine nodded, grappled his stun stick, the same kind of electrical shock emitting device that the security in Biogen used, rushed to the cage and stabbed his stick inside, the device hit something hard but still, in it's own way, fleshy, like rough skin, though it was inhuman, if he had to guess, he'd say it felt like he was stabbing an elephant's skin rather than a humans.
Suddenly, he felt a grip on the length of the stun stick, the person inside, who ever the hell he was, was grabbing it, which too was inhuman, he tried his hardest to wrestle his weapon out of the hands of the creature and back towards him, but it was too late, the thing inside, what ever it was, had stolen his weapon from him, which made Carmine intensely afraid.
Before he could do so much as call for help, his stun-stick was thrust back out of the hole it had been jabbed into only seconds earlier, the stun-stick managed to get in-between the gas mask he wore and his armour, stabbing deep into Carmine's neck, earning little more than a gurgled "Help" before he collapsed backwards.
Jones had just finished with the clutch when he heard the disturbing noise of a body dropping; he turned to Carmine body, which lay constantly twitching on the floor behind him.
"Jesus Christ!" he shouted as he rushed over to Carmine's body, he grabbed onto his gas mask and pried it off his face forcefully, exposing Carmine's light brown skin and black hair to the light.
His entire face, as well as the top part of his armour, was drenched in a light blackish red liquid, his own blood, with the colour change created from the lack of light around that area of his body.
The twitching of his body came from the fact that the Stun stick, which was stabbed deep into his neck, was still on, sending thousands of volts of electricity coursing through his body at a hazardous pace, though at this point it didn't really matter, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Carmine was dead.
"Damn. It was only his second week on the job" Jones muttered in a calm tone. Death wasn't such an unordinary thing for the S.P.T.A.R.T. team, hell, he alone had seen three of his own men die in just one mission, tracking down a serial killer who had gotten the better of them.
He turned back to the cage, which now shook hazardously away from Busmalis' side, shaking towards his other men. This wasn't good, not good at all. Before Jones' could do anything about it, the cage broke through its holds, snapping the thick metal holds in half, and came crashing down onto its left side, the side where Cases, Deeds, Baker and Hedges stood.
The cage crashed fiercely onto the four bodies, knocking them to the floor and crushing all four men with a sickening 'crunch' of broken bones. The door to the cage slammed onto the floor, forcing it open, this worried Busmalis, who stood defensively, his hand grappling the small regulation pistol attached to it's holder.
Suddenly, a duo of green lizard like arms stretched out from the broken cage. The arms, while lizard looking, retained several attributes of a human arm, including four human like fingers, despite the large black claws that were attached to each one, and a thumb, which also came with a large claw.
After the arms emerged from the cage, a reptilian like head slowly crept out from the darkness. The head looked like a cross between an alligator and a iguana's head, with the general shape of the head looking a lot like an iguana's head, be it a large iguana, this included a series of thin spikes jetting out from the back of it's head, as well as a series of crescent shaped spikes across the flat side of his head.
Soon after the head, came the remainder of the body, which, like the arms, was mostly reptilian in design while still containing some human like figures, for example, it's torso was built a lot like a human's, with humanoid biceps and ribs, though it's skin tint, like the rest of it's body, was green and lizard like.
Finally the creature finished emerging from the cage, bringing with it a set of human like legs, both ending in a pair of reptilian, clawed paws, as well as a long green tail, were a series of knife like spikes jetted out from the bottom of it.
As it stood, on it's two hind legs, it measured at least ten feet tall, if not more, it's chest and
Busmalis' hand slowly crept down to where his small, handheld sub machine gun sat, holstered against his right leg. Slowly he unclipped the safety strap that kept the gun from flailing about, ran his hand over the dark black handle and prepared to draw the weapon.
Behind him, Jones had already drawn his weapon from it's holster and aimed it at the creatures chest. Unlike Busmalis, he didn't hesitate to squeeze the trigger, a move which caused the gun to explode in a loud uproar of yellow flames as two and a half dozen bullets spew from its orange glowing barrel and soared through the air.
The bullets cut through the air for a short second before coming into contact with the creature's body, tearing through the creature's deep, thick, lizard like flesh, jerking it's body from side to side, each direction his body jerked in a byproduct of the area where the bullet struck on the creatures body.
Finally, after what seemed like ages to the two men, Jones gun ceased to fire, he'd expelled all of his ammo, finished firing his entire clip of ammunition into the creature's torso, leaving a cloud of grey smoke surrounding the, presumably, deceased creature's torso.
As the smoke settled, both he and Busmalis were shocked to see the creature standing just as it had before, only, it was now covered by several dozen bleeding wounds across his chest.
Both of the men watched with a mix of horror and amazement as the creature's wounds began to heal at a inhuman pace, quickly reverting back into the creatures green tinted skin. As they finished healing the healed wounds ejected the golden bullet tips that had been lodged into the creature's skin seconds ago, each one dropping to the floor with a soft 'click-click-clang' sound coming from each one.
Busmalis silently drew his gun and aimed it at the creature; he wasn't going to let this thing get out of the area alive. As he squeezed back the gun's trigger, the creature spun around backwards quickly, swiftly, and masterfully, dodging all twelve of the shots Busmalis had fired at it, which proceded to dig into the wall behind the creature.
With one quick movement, the creature whipped its massive green tail at Busmalis' hand, the movement was faster than anything he had ever seen and took him by surprise.
The tail struck his wrist, with the strength of force and the long, sharp and jagged spikes, being enough to slice the hand from its wrist, leaving nothing more than a jagged, bloody stump of an arm in its place.
Busmalis screamed as he grabbed his stump, falling to his knee in the process. The creature opened its mouth as a red, slimy, snake like tongue ejected from its open mouth and hung, tauntingly, at Busmalis.
Meanwhile, Jones had reloaded his weapon and aimed it at the creature, who now stood over the hunched over Busmalis, he squeezed the trigger for a second time, firing twelve more shots at the creature's back, all hit with perfect precision and dug deep into the creature's flesh, again the creature seemed unaffected, aside from showing a slight sign of pain. He quickly spun around and faced Jones.
The creature moved its legs backwards before shifting its weight onto its hind legs, preparing to leap at Jones. Jones continued to fire at the creature, knowing full well his efforts would be in vein, but he still continued, so that, should it be possible, he'd at least die with the knowledge that he'd die saving his friend.
Just as he'd predicted, the creature leapt at Jones, moving both of it's claws in front of its body as it did, the creature flew for several seconds, with bullets constantly burning into it's body as it did. Finally its aerial transport came to a halt when it's claws were met with a hard entity, Jones body. The creature immediately slashed upwards, its claws stabbing through Jones' armour, digging deep into his flesh.
The creature, now standing on its hind legs, drew its claws, with Jones body still impaled on them, above its head, Jones screaming in pain while this was happening. The creature gave, what could only be described as a smirk before he began to pry them apart.
Busmalis, who now lay on his stomach, closed his eyes as Jones body slowly began to become split into two halves, all he could hear was the sound of ripping flesh and Jones high pitched screams of pain. Should he make it out of here alive, he'd be haunted for the rest of his life by this.
The creature dropped what was left of Jones' body to the floor, earning a disturbing 'squish' sound from the fallen chunks, before turning it's attention to Busmalis, who lay flat on the floor.
The creature walked over, creating large 'thump's with every slam of it's foot and a series of 'clicks' as it's claws touched down on the rough concrete, slowly working it's way over to Busmalis' body, as it reached his body, it put it's right paw atop his head, it's claws digging into his forehead roughly.
The creature raised it's foot above his head, ready to stomp his head into the ground, instantly killing him, the creature heard Busmalis whimper out a prayer, a prayer of peace, a prayer for his fallen friends, a prayer for redemption.
The creature smirked again and stomped it's foot down, slamming deep onto the concrete beside Busmalis' head, shattering the concrete floor, sending thin slices of stone every which way.
The creature lowered it's head to Busmalis', so that it's head was directly beside his ear, Busmalis was fear filled to say the least, he had no idea why this creature was toying with him, why not just kill him? Why let him live?
The creature opened its mouth and, instead of devouring Busmalis' head like he'd imagined it would, it did something which caused Busmalis extreme curiosity, it began to speak, the previously anthropomorphic reptile spoke, in perfect, if not grimly grisly, English.
"I'll let you live" it said in a menacingly gruff and at the same time reptilian voice, Busmalis wasn't sure if he'd truly heard the voice he just had, or whether he was past the point of mental stability.
Slowly the creature left Buslamis body, stomping off towards where a solid brass manhole stood, the creature brought it's foot above the top of the manhole and stomped down on it, slamming it's foot atop the lid and cracking it into the darkness of the hole.
The creature raised it's head into the air, taking a moment to spot out all of Hallow City. He looked first at the dozens of sky scrappers that filled the area surrounding the prison, then his gaze focused on the large, white 'T' shaped tower, he snarled.
"So this is Hallow City" he said in his heavily villainous and reptilian voice. From behind him, he heard the noise of feet stomping, probably more security come to catch him, he smirked, they'd never catch him, not now, not the next day, not for a thousand years.
With one swift movement the creature leapt down into the manhole, quickly evading the sights of the half a dozen S.P.T.A.R.T. soldiers who had gathered around the horrific crime scene he had created just moments prior.
Metropolis.
Twelve Years Ago.
A young, black haired and pale skinned girl, roughly six years of age, stood alone in a large, empty, white room, which held several dozen plastic chairs and tables, all coloured a shade of whitish blue. The girl stood teary eyed and heartbroken as she stared around the, formerly lively and
The wall opposite where the girl stood was made entirely of clear plastic 'safety' glass, the term 'safety' coming from the fact that the glass was thick enough to withstand tremendous forces, including small firearm fire.
This room the young girl stood in was known as an 'Observation Pod', the term coming from the fact that it overlooked a large white room where scientists, such as her father, showed off their scientific discoveries to those wishing to watch the, in this case, biological, experiments taking place.
The room was full of Science Fiction looking equipment, large, box shaped supercomputers lay, attached to the back wall of the room, large white tables sat in front of them, stacked with small laptops, glass test tubes, beakers and all other forms of chemical producing, and storing devices.
The room also held a large, flat, white operating table in the shape of a flat bed, the table had broken restraining straps, with an obvious explanation of how they got that way, and a large, red, mark smeared across the bottom of the table.
The girl fought back tears as her eyes moved across the grisly crime scene before her. In front of her, her very own mother, the woman who'd given birth to her, who'd raised her from a tiny infant to the young girl she was today, lay dead, her face pale and eyes wide open with a series of large red wounds in her stomach, which bled a flow of crimson liquid onto the solid white floor, forever tainting it that menacing colour of crimson.
Across from her lay the shattered glass remnants of the supposedly 'indestructible' glass of the safety glass window, with a large hole shattered in the middle of the window, that hole being her mother's murderer's entrance into the Observation Pod.
Down in the room below which was full of torn cloth, damaged technology and broken machinery, half a dozen bodies lay sprawled across the floor, their bodies twisted and mangled worse than her mothers body had been.
Two of the mangled bodies belonged to security guards, one she knew as Barney Transholm, a childhood friend of her father's, the other she hadn't known and now never would.
The other four bodies belonged to scientists, each dressed in a white coat, now drenched in red blood, two of the four bodies lay face up, with the same large red gashes on their chests as the ones on her mothers, the young girl recognized both of these people.
The first body was Lawrence Tagedy, another friend of her fathers, Lawrence was, or had been, a twenty two year old, African American, understudy of her fathers, who often joked, that since he'd lost his first son during the Gulf War, Lawrence had become his second son.
But that was all in the past now, now that Lawrence was nothing more than a mangled and tarnished corpse in a room full of them but, despite this, the young girl could clearly make out his famous smile, the one that he'd used time and time again to brighten up her day.
The second of the two turned over bodies was the hardest thing the young girl had, or ever would have to, stare at in her life, the second body, the frail, lifeless and mangled body, was none other than the body of her very own father. The man who, for the past six years had been her personal idol, her hero, her everything, the man she loved more than life itself, was now nothing more than a bloody, tangled corpse in a room full of death.
Slowly the young girl fell to her knees, she couldn't muster the strength to stand, she couldn't muster the strength to do anything, not even cry, for what ever reason it was, she couldn't do any thing aside from stare at the terrible tragedy that surrounded her. A thousand thoughts rushed through her mind, running at a speeds that not even The Flash could reach, such thoughts, which poisoned her mind, included 'Why had this happened to her?' 'Why her parents?' ' Why her friends?'
Though, throughout all of her over three thousand, rhetorical questions, the main question, burning into her mind was 'Why?', she truly didn't deserve this , she'd been a good girl, what was God expecting of her? She wasn't perfect, no one was, not even her father, her idle, her mentor. Slowly she began to cry over the thought of how she'd never see him, or her mother, or Barney, or Lawrence, or any of them again.
She didn't know it at the time, but despite what she thought at the moment, this heartache, this tragedy, this brutal abomination, would help shape her into the person she'd become in the future, help mould her into the person who she would be who she would be in the future, and despite the terribleness of the tragedy, it would only prepare her for the harsh, brutal and vicious that the real world was….The real world, not the sugar coated, silver lined cloud counting, free ride world she'd been living, the sick, twisted, world that everyone living on it called Earth.
Quickly a pair of dark, pale, blue eyes shot open, before gazing around the room frantically, acting as if in a serious state of panic, a state of threat…a state of fear.
This frantic, panicked gazing continued for a short while longer before the pair of eyes began to relax themselves and take the time to adjust with their surroundings.
Slowly the owner of the pair of eyes rose from her slumber, revealing into the light the figure of a female, this female just so happened to be Slack, the fearless, heavy hearted leader of 'the biggest band of freaks, geeks and creeps' as Lightlad had dubbed so elegantly.
Slack shot up in her bed, panting lightly, a panicked pant, the kind one gives after watching a horror movie, or sleeping alone in a large, empty house. She gazed around the room for a second, before realizing that she wasn't in the lab, she wasn't living it again, it was just a dream, a terrible, terrible, dream. She gave a sigh of relief and began to get out of her bed, this wasn't the first time she'd had that dream, that nightmare, and it surely wouldn't be the last.
That nightmare, or more rather, the actual event, the tragedy, the travesty, the reality, it was the one thing that plagued her mind day-in-day-out, the one sign of weakness she could never shed, the one scar on her heart that would never heal, no matter how hard she tried, it would stay there, haunting her, a constant reminder of how she'd once been weak, scrawny, useless.
She tried to wrap her mind around a different topic, instead of thinking about the painful past; she placed her thoughts on the past two weeks of her life, which had been, for the most part, extremely enjoyable.
As she recalled, it had been two weeks since the teams first day in Hallow City, two weeks since The Reapers defeat, two weeks since Hoffman's public and personal embarrassment, and two weeks since their first triumph over Hallow City's two most notorious enemies.
During that time, Hoffman, under great distress from both police and protestors questioning his involvement with the bank robbery, had claimed no responsibility what so ever for the events that had transpired, instead blaming Cain and his team as "Spending my money on their vices, crack-cocaine, and heavy boozing. It was a by-product of those three factors", or so he claimed in interviews with all of Hallow City's major media correspondents, who passed this claim off, as unrealistic as it was, as the truth.
After a full federal investigation by Hallow City police, he was let off with as little as a warning, something that the team, as well as both detective Brice and Patches, saw as more than a 'stroke of luck' as he claimed in a later press conference, both, the team of heroes, and team of detectives, suspected 'hush money' was involved, but since, like his involvement with The Reapers , they're was no evidence to prove it and neither teams decided to let this idea expand past a theory.
Even after his trial, his involvement was still questioned by citizens of the city, forcing him to go through great lengths to re-assure the people that he held no responsibility, going so far as to donate two and a half million dollars to reconstruct the damage Cain and his troupe had done to the bank, a move that the citizens of Hallow City believed to be a true gesture of his 'kind heart' as local media cited, this just so happened to win over the favour of Hallow City's citizens.
As for the Reapers, after being bailed out of prison, they were but on a nine month parole, which they'd been apparently following as none of them had been seen by the media for the past nine days. For their members things hadn't been all to well, since Cain's probation disallowed for him to drink, he slowly fell into a state of mental depression, which, in a way, made Slack feel somewhat sorry for him. She constantly found herself feeling a tinge of guilt whenever she read an article about how "The Reapers former leader falls into great depression" or "Checks into Rehab", but then again, that was a fault of his own. Fox had followed Cain to rehab, not that she was an alcoholic, just because she had nothing better to do. Quake had been blinded in one eye by Lightlad, which had affected him for the worse, as of late, he was forced to wear a tissue over his eye, and, judging on the level of care he received, might be forced to permanently wear an eye patch over it, something he sought out revenge for. As for The Reapers final member, Lizard, things had been pretty much 'normal' for him, he constantly bummed around the city, picking fights here and there, but mostly staying out of the publics view.
Slack knew, as much as she'd like for it not to be true, that they were planning something, something big, but just what it was she couldn't tell, and since she had no evidence other than a gut feeling, she couldn't stop it, instead she'd just have to wait and see what happened.
Finally, it was time to talk about her favourite team of them all: Her team. The public had been far greater to them than they'd expected. The team received record amounts of fan letters on a daily basis, with, surprisingly, more than half of the letters addressed to Red, which upset both Tag and Lightlad, though Red usually ignored or threw out his letters, most were from protest groups, religious groups or angry parents who disliked Red, several times Red had been protested against in public venues and more than once he'd had eggs, tomatoes and just about every other form of vegetable tossed at him, earning him the nickname 'The living salad' from Lightlad.
Magazines, talk shows, radio shows, newspapers and all other forms of media entertainment had crawled on their knees both figuratively and, disturbingly enough, literally, to get a shot at an interview with the team. The team constantly found themselves dodging paparazzo's who tried their hardest just to get a picture of the titans, twice they'd had to exit a crime scene through the back exit and dozens more times they'd had to have riot control help them get to their vehicle.
As for the fans…there wasn't much they wouldn't do to get a chance to meet their heroes, Slack and Tag found themselves with thousands of letters of fans expressing their love for them, some were more 'tongue-in-cheek' amusing, but others crossed the 'humorous' line and treaded far into the 'deeply, psychotically disturbing' line, which had forced Tag to have Lightlad, who seemed overjoyed to accept the position, read all of her fan mail before she did.
While all this media coverage and fan endearment was entertaining, Slack had really found solace in spending time with, and getting to know her team mates. They were like the family that had been robbed from her oh to soon in life, Blizkid was her little brother, well…he was the teams little brother, he was cute, in an adorable kitten sort of way, which was why she found it so easy to relate and spend time with him. Lightlad was the aggressive, jerky, brother, though underneath his exterior, Slack, could tell that there was a gentle and generally nice guy, though he had yet to admit it to himself. Tag was like a sister's sister, she did practically everything Slack did, with few exceptions. Had the two looked more alike, they could probably have been mistaken as twins, or at least real siblings. Sev was kind of like the 'geeky' or 'weird' brother, like the ones they'd always show on Television shows. He had an odd fixation with computers, which, to some might seem normal, had it not been for his 'need' to name, give personalities and admire each one, as if they were real people, though this 'flaw' was easily overlooked by both his increasingly appeasing humour and his flawless pre mission tactics, which had helped to prevent more than twelve robberies already, he was valuable to the extreme, as well as easily likeable, which made him seem like the sort of 'weird, yet funny' brother, which left, of course Red.
Red…they're really wasn't much to say about him, except for the fact that he was the best friend she'd ever had; he was kind, caring, concerning and, much to her delight, he always had time to listen to her, or, any one else's for the matter's, problems, as big or little as they were, she, as well as the rest of the team, knew that deep below that thick coat of 'badass' he wore, beat the heart of not only a saint, but a true gentleman, the kind of man young Slack dreamed of one day falling in love with, of course she didn't love Red…did she? No that was just a stupid thought, they'd only met fifteen days ago, that wasn't enough time to actually fall in love with someone, then again, she'd never actually been in love for a first time, so who was to tell her it wasn't.
Trying to hide that thought from her mind, she decided to get out of bed and prepare for the rest of her day. As she got up, she slowly rubbed her eyes with her hands, wiping away both a small build up of dry sand as well as wet moisture, the same kind of 'wet moisture' tears were made from, she'd been crying and from how damp her face felt, it had been a large amount of tears for a long amount of time.
Wiping away the last of the built up tears, she pushed the upsetting thoughts towards the back of her mind and prepared to go through her usual, daily routine, taking a shower, drying off, dressing and seeing what was doing with the others, all of which took her less than an hour and a half, she should know, she had counted half a dozen times.
She hadn't planned a Training session for today, as, unlike Robin, she had more of a 'mercy' approach to training. Where Robin would train his team to the point of near death, Slack had much more of a soft side for training and she did hate training herself.
Instead of daily training sessions, which had a nasty habit or tiring out heroes, she decided that training would take place every second day, at Nine O' Clock, no later. She knew it was better for her team not to push their limits, she couldn't risk having a member be incapable of helping out when the need be, instead every second day was more than fair, especially since they only trained for two hours.
Nearly an hour after she'd awoken Slack had finished her daily routine and emerged from her walk in closet, dressed in a fresh, clean and fully furbished, costume over her skin and a fully equipped utility belt wrapped tightly around her waist.
Next she began to walk towards the door, when something caught her eye. Laying on the dark brown hardwood cabinet attached to the wall beside her door, lay a series of small, square, black and white pictures, which was odd, as she hadn't recalled opening the drawer the previous day, nor did she recall going through those pictures, those were private pictures, pictures she held dear. She wouldn't have just left them lying around, that was what peaked her curiosity the most.
The pictures showed a family of three, a tall man, the same one from her dream, her father, with his arm wrapped around the woman from her dream or her mother. Both had their unexposed arms, wrapped gently around young Slack's shoulders, all three held large smiles on their faces.
As she reached the table, she sat in the chair, gently grabbed the pictures and gave them a quick 'run over', which she immediately regretted as she began to feel a tremendous amount of sadness, depression and anxiety as she looked them over.
The pictures showcased a young girl, the same one from her nightmare, herself at the age of six, with two older adults, one a tall, black haired man, her father, and the other a shorter, blonde haired woman, her mother. The two had their arms draped over the young girl's shoulders as all three smiled into the camera. She began to feel her eyes water, in what felt like the first time in ages. The picture had been taken, what? Two, three day's before both of the two had been so brutally taken from her.
She sniffed quietly and tried her hardest to push this new thought from her mind, a task which she found impossible, instead, she hugged the pictures into her chest gently; she missed them so much, so much that at times it hurt. It wasn't fair how they'd been taken from her, how others could walk around with the comfort and warmth of a loving, embracing family and she couldn't. No, she couldn't think that, these thoughts were all selfish thoughts that she'd taught herself years ago to let go of, to forget herself and be happy for what others had that she didn't, happy, not envious.
She began to feel her eyes water, she wanted to wipe the tears away and pretend, pretend like she'd done every other day of her life, that she didn't mind the fact that they were gone, pretend like their deaths hadn't affected her in the least, pretend that the pain would heal, pretend to be normal. But she couldn't, she couldn't keep this charade, this lying to herself, denying the fact that she missed them any more; instead she let loose her stream of tears, which rolled down her face and landed, drop by drop, on the hard wood desk in front of her.
For the first time in, who knew how long, she cried, not just cried, but really, bawled her eyes out, releasing her pent up emotions in the form of wet, drops of water from her eyes.
Her crying continued for several minutes, though, in truth, at the moment it wasn't really crying, more like silently weeping, like her stranglehold on her emotions, she'd also held a much more fierce hold on her tears, which now showed more than ever, as she tried continuously to stop weeping. Finally, after what felt like ages, she heard a soft knocking on her door.
Sniffing quietly, she wiped the remainder of her tears away with her forearm, she didn't want anyone else to know what she was doing in her room, this was something private, something only she should know about, she had no intentions of dragging the others into this, no intentions of having them share her pain…it wasn't fair to drag them into it.
She walked to the door and pressed her finger down on the 'talk' button, she sniffed again, hoping desperately that the person on the other side didn't hear her.
"Ye-yeah?" she asked in a semi shaky voice, the crackle of static could be heard before a voice broke through the mechanical hiss of static.
"Slack…are you ok?" she heard Blizkid's voice ask, his voice wasn't just curious, but genuinely concern filled, he really cared. She smiled slightly, for whatever reason it was; she felt some level of comfort in his voice.
Again she pressed her finger on the 'talk' button, only to hold it for several seconds without speaking; she wanted to say "No I'm not O.K. I just had a nightmare where I saw my parents, friends and everyone else I loved and cared for be butchered before my very eyes" instead she did what she saw best, not only for morale's sake, no one wanted a weak, crying, sissy of a leader, but for their personal concerns too.
"…..Yeah, I'm fine" she lied into the device, she waited patiently for a response, had her cover been blown? Eventually the response she longed to hear came in the form of an uneasy "O.K" from Blizkid.
Slack sighed heavily, pressed her back against the wall and slumped down into an uneasy sitting position, she had to shake these thoughts from her mind, or find some way to confront them, otherwise it would end up tearing her up inside.
On the other side of the door, Blizkid turned his head to Red, who stood with his back pressed against the wall, his eyes staring into Blizkid's curiously.
"Well…." He asked in a concerned, yet at the same time, calm, cool and collective tone, the tone the others had grown far more than accustomed to over the past fifteen days.
Blizkid shook his head from side to side, he had some idea of what Slack might have been doing in there, than again he could be completely off, who knew?...well Slack did that was for sure, instead he just shrugged his shoulders casually, he couldn't say for sure what was wrong with Slack, so he'd say nothing at all, turned towards the hallway and strolled towards the elevator.
But a simple shrugging of the shoulders wasn't good enough for Red, no, he had to find out the truth, something was bothering Slack, and by doing that, bothering him.
Slowly, he brought his hand up to the small keypad attached to her door, his finger hovering slowly over the small, flat, 'open' button, the 'open' referring of course to the door. As his finger traced along the smooth surface of the keypad he found himself unable, for whatever reason it was, to press down on the button. Hell, she was probably like him, she just needed some time to cool off, without interruption. He pulled his finger back, sighed heavily and stared at the door, imagining what she might be doing inside.
"Come on, Red" he heard Blizkid's voice call from down the hall, followed soon after by the soft 'ding' sound of the elevator, he sighed again, stared a last time at the door for a second before turning towards the elevator.
Detective Patches stood in the large, open, concrete loading bay of Silent Falls Correctional Facility, his right foot stopped right before a large streak of dark brown, dry blood stained on the concrete floor he stood on.
He'd seen a lot of crime scenes in his twelve years working as an officer of the law, he'd seen people get killed before his very eyes, blood and guts burst from their posts on a human's body, he'd seen it all, or so he thought he had. In all of his time he'd never seen a crime scene this disturbing, this frightening, this…..sick, and that was after the bodies had been removed.
He reached into his coat's pocket and scooped out a packet of cigarettes; he shook one from its container and placed it in his mouth, biting down on the tip of it roughly.
Behind him, various members of the Crime Scene Investigation team wandered around the crime scene, taking pictures of blood stains, collecting small portions of the entrails that lay splattered across the remainder of the crime scene.
Patches eye's wandered over the crime scene, it was always disturbing to him to see something like this happened, when lives were lost in such a horrible way, He sighed and turned his head towards where Detective Brice stood.
Brice stood to the right of Patches; he held a small black and white cell phone up to his ear and listened to the device with a mix of controlled anger and uneasy patience.
"...Thank you for you're time Mr. Busmalis, and I hope that you get well soon" he spoke into the device before shutting the phone closed and snapping it gently onto it's holder.
"I just got off the phone with the hospital, according to Busmalis, a giant lizard-like 'thing' attacked him and the rest of the S.P.T.A.R.T. team…before escaping through that manhole" He said pointing to the broken Manhole cover which was surrounded by black and yellow striped tape.
The two walked over to the manhole and peered down into the lonely, darkness that was Hallow City's sewers, Patches took one last puff on his cigarette before spitting the remaining tip down into the sewer, waiting patiently for the slight 'plop' it would bring.
Seconds later the slight 'plish' of water splashing against itself was heard, Patches smiled and reached into his pocket for the same pack of smokes he held earlier.
"You think we should send an investigative team down there?" he asked as he pulled a cigarette loose from the pack with his teeth, Brice shook his head sideways and looked up from the manhole.
"No, it's to dangerous. If what Mr. Busmalis described really is down there, it'd take a SWAT team or something to get it out" Brice said, Patches smirked.
"And you believed what he said?" he asked, Brice only nodded his head, Patches smirk lowered into a frown.
"Really?" He asked in disbelief.
"Why not, I mean, maybe a month ago I wouldn't have believed it, I wouldn't have believed that half the crap we've been put through in the two weeks was real, but with the Titans here and all the crazy, messed up crap we've seen in the past two weeks, what makes an eight foot lizard so unrealistic?" Brice asked. Patches frown increased.
"Fine, then let's just call them and have them go down in the sewers and worry about this 'seven foot lizard'." Patches said in disbelief.
"Eight feet-"Brice corrected him; Patches rolled his eyes before taking a long hard drag on his cigarette. "-and that doesn't seem like such a bad idea".
Patches only rolled his eyes and tossed the remainder of his cigarette onto the concrete ground, before stomping on it roughly, angrily more like, making sure there was nothing left of the paper wrapped tobacco, erasing it entirely from existence.
Brice reached for his phone, pulled it from its holder and tapped several buttons gently before bringing the device to his ear.
"Hello. Titan tower?" He asked into the device.
Patches frowned again and stared questioningly at his partner. Why the hell did he trust those kids so much? Just because they wore ridiculous and could fight against equally ridiculous enemies he, and the whole damn city, thought they were 'all that', hell, if he had a spandex workout suit he might as well parade around the town as Patches-man, that way he might get a little attention from the media for the work that he did.
He growled under his breath and stared back at Brice, He'd never understand for the life of him how Brice could maintain such and optimistic outlook on life, he'd seen more officers killed in action, or K.I.A., than any other officer in the city, well, with the exclusion of Scythes, who held ten years of work experience on Brice. Than again, he did have a loving family, two sons: Samuel, his six year old and Martin, his four years old, a teenaged daughter: Kendra and a wife: Sarah, maybe a family was what kept him sane, hey, if that's all it took, he might as well marry the next woman who laid eyes on him.
Metropolis
Twelve Years Ago
The young girl, or rather, Slack at a young age, stood clutching her mothers right hand tightly as she watched her father and his small group of colleges prepared to enter the experimentation room, the room which was located below a large white observation pod.
The girl gently released her grip from around her mothers hand and rushed towards where her father stood, running up to his legs and hugging them tightly. The man looked shocked at first, but upon discovering the trauma around his legs to be the force of his very own daughter forgot all about his shock.
He patted her on the head gently before bending over onto his knee's, so that his head was slightly above her head, he looked down at her with a smile, behind him, each one of his colleges smiled at the scene present before them, it was rare, with their hectic lives, to observe such a spectacle, especially with one of their own.
"Hello, Chloe" He said wrapping his arms around the young girls back, gently lifting her into the air. The young girl, or rather, Chloe, smiled and hugged his chest gently.
Across the room, Chloe's mother looked around in a panic; she'd been talking with a friend one minute and the next her daughter had disappeared, she stared around for several seconds before laying eyes on her husband and daughter, locked in a hugging embrace, it was one of those moments she wished she had a camera for. She smiled before walking over to the two of them, putting her hand on her husbands shoulder and gently pecking him on the cheek before taking young Chloe into her own arms.
"Mom, I want to watch daddy's job" She said as her mother lowered her gently onto the floor, her mother smiled slightly.
"I'm sorry Chloe but daddy has a lot of important work to do-" She began to say but was cut off, be it politely, by her husband.
"-Oh come on Mary, she's young and curious. Besides, I'd love for you to watch this, I'm making break through work with this experiment, If all goes well I should have government funding for all my future experiments" he said with confidence.
Her mother: Mary, frowned slightly, she really didn't want Chloe to watch this experiment, he'd been rambling for the past two weeks about how it involved all sorts of needles, injections and all other sorts of things she was sure would be damaging on her daughters young mind, but then again, he did want for the two to see this 'scientific breakthrough', and how many times in her life would she be able to say "I just witnessed a new page being written in history"?
Slowly she sighed, nodded her head and gently grabbed Chloe's hand, her husband smiling all the while; he loved when they got involved with his work and anything they did was a confidence booster indeed.
"Mr. Stevens, We need you in the experimental room right away" A voice from behind him beckoned, he sighed and walked towards his wife and daughter. Leaning down he gave Chloe a peck on the head and his wife a kiss on the lips, before turning towards the large, white door that led to the experimentation room.
Meanwhile, Mary and her daughter began walking across the hall, walking towards the large, silver rimmed door with "Observation Pod: 1" neatly printed on the door, where an elderly, grey haired, clean shaven, security guard, with the name tag "Transholm" stood, placed beside the door. He greeted the two cheerfully as they approached.
"Hello, Mrs. Stevens, little Chloe" he said tipping his hat towards the two, Mary smiled lightly.
"Hello, Barney" she greeted; he smiled again and placed his hat back on top of his head, doing all this with a friendly smile. Mary could hardly understand how he could keep such a gentle, warm and friendly smile, especially with all the awful stuff he'd seen in his expanded career.
"Well, I'd better be heading into the Ex-room, you take care now" he said, walking towards the same door her father had entered earlier. Mary smiled before advancing into the room, where a large, white staircase stood, the staircase ending with the glass door to the observation pod.
Chloe, familiar with the layout of the observation pod, rushed up the stairs, opened the door quickly and raced to the large, glass window, pressing her body up against the glass in order to get a better view.
She saw Lawrence Tagedy, her father's young lab assistant. Lawrence was a tall black man with a small, puffy afro, a thin strip of hair below his lip and a large pair of headphones around his neck, something which drew great criticism from his peers.
To Larwrence's and the rest of her father's understudy, who she hadn't met previously, lay something which upset Chloe, a flat, white, table, hoisted above the ground by a small crank like device, though that wasn't what upset it, rather what was on top of it.
Laying on top of the table, lay a muscular, half dressed white man. The man had a completely shaven head and a broad chest with a series of tattoo's, which had Chloe been older, would have realized held many inappropriate words, phrases, images and symbols.
The man was strapped into the chair tightly, with two security officers standing atop of his semi-conscious body, one of whom happened to be Barney Transholm.
Behind Chloe, the crowd murmured to themselves as they watched the setting up of the experiment, scientists walked paced back and forth in the room, waiting for something, though Chloe had no idea what.
Finally, her father, who'd been standing remotely in the corner, approached the microphone attached from the roof to the middle of the room, grabbed it gently and began to speak into it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed members of the press and any one else observing. I'd like to welcome you to the introduction of what my colleges and I believe to be the next step in curing one of the worlds' most deadly diseases as well as the next greatest discovery of the century" He spoke into the device before walking towards a solid white table, where a micro scope a small computer and a series of beakers stood
"To the right of me lays Clancy Arkady, one of the city's most notorious serial killers, caught and convicted August First, 1985. Mr. Arkady was recently diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, fortunately for Mr. Arkady, the cancer is only in an early stage. Now Foxford Maximum Security Prison was kind enough to allow me to experiment our company's latest experiment on him: EDA, a drug combining genetic strands of the newly discovered gene in reptiles which allows them to regain their lost limbs, with the experimental drug Traceium, a drug designed to awaken a dormant gene found in human's, a gene which allows humans to combine and adapt foreign genetic makeup. In simple science: it allows humans to take certain qualities from animal DNA and convert it to usable human genetics. If our experiment goes according to plan, you will witness the first step in the worldwide cure for Cancer"
On this revelation, the entire audience went into a state of complete silence, even Chloe indulged in that state of quietness, not speaking so much as a word to her mother, who stood by the door behind her, watching her husbands work with curiosity and fondness which couldn't be rivalled by anyone in the world.
"We've already tested this concoction on several field animals, which were diagnosed with terminal cancer, all managed to overcome the disease within two to three weeks. This will be our first experiment on a human test subject, but hopefully all will go well" Her fathers voice spoke through the speaker above her head. Several members of the press began jotting down notes.
Slowly her father grabbed a large, silver, syringe off of the table; the syringe had a small glass side, exposing a vial of reddish, orange chemicals, slowly he walked towards the table, where Arkady lay in a blissful state of unconsciousness.
Her father slowly inserted the needle into the man's neck, the thin, knife like tip slowly probing into his jugular. As soon as the needle was fully inserted, he slowly began to apply pressure to the top of the syringe, slowly expelling the reddish orange liquid into Arkady's body. In response to this, Arkady's limb's began to twitch, his chest, head and arms began to build up a small sweat which streamed down his body.
To the right of Arkady stood a stand with a small monitor perched atop of it, the monitor displayed his vital status with a wavy blue line, which continuously lowered as his twitchy demeanour increased, before the wavy line finally diminished into a flat, straight line, which was accompanied by a faint "Beep".
Mark: Chloe's father, panicked, he was dead, Arkady, his test subject was dead, the experiment had failed, his research had failed, his team had failed….he had failed. He stared first at the body, then up at the display window, staring deep into the eyes of his young daughter's, which were filled with tears. No, he couldn't give up, not yet…he had a job to do, he had to make things right, for his team, for himself, for his family, for her…for Chloe.
Slack gazed around at the same crime scene Patches, Brice and the crime scene investigators stood in at the moment. She and her team had arrived at least a good twenty minutes before hand, she had immediately struck up a conversation with Detective Brice, who had informed him of all the information they knew.
Behind Brice stood Patches, his arms folded, one atop the other, and a frown on his face, Slack found it both amusing and annoying that he disliked them so much, behind herself stood Blizkid, his eyes, like hers had, wandered around the crime scene, though he looked more frightened by it than curious.
Lightlad and Tag stood around the manhole, both staring down into it with great curiosity, despite the numerous amounts of times they'd fought in the city, even back in Jump City, neither of the two had ever fought in a sewer.
"They want us to go down there?" Lightlad asked in disbelief as he withdrew his head from its position of staring down into the manhole.
"That's right" Red said, Lightlad frowned.
"It's chock full of diseased craps, bugs, alligators-" Lightlad began to ramble.
"-Lightlad" Red said in a testy voice in an attempt to stop his rambling, knowing full well, once he stopped, he couldn't be stopped, he was like the rambling Energizer Bunny, he just kept going and going and going, on and on and on.
"-probably get some kind of super-AIDS from walking down in that crap-" he continued on, ignoring Red's attempt at stopping him.
"Lightlad!" Red said in a more aggressive tone, Lightlad ignored him and continued to ramble on about his hatred of the sewers.
"-I'll bet we'll run into some sort of freakin' mutant army or something down there, damn toilets why can't they just empty they're useless crap somewhere else…like I'd enjoy walking in it-"
"Lightlad!" Red shouted, Lightlad stopped talking and turned towards him, curious as to why he'd randomly shout his name out loud, It was acceptable for a woman to do that, hell, he'd be upset if woman didn't constantly scream when they saw him, but Red wasn't a woman, or a chick, he was Red….plain old angry Red.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Shut up" Red said. Lightlad frowned.
Across from the two, Slack had finished gathering what information she needed from the two detectives, thanked them politely and headed towards the manhole. Halfway between the large entry way to Hallow City's sewers and the duo of detectives she was met by Red who accompanied her on her walk to the manhole.
"So, Slack. Do you have a plan?" he asked as the two drew closer to the manhole, Slack looked at him and smiled.
"Of course" she said, Red smirked, he always found it comforting when Slack had a plan, especially when she was this sure it would work.
"You're plan isn't to go down in that nasty smelling sewer is it?" Lightlad asked. Red's smirk widened.
"What's the matter, afraid of getting a little wet Light Bulb?" Red said. Lightlad rolled his eyes before speaking.
"No, not at all, it's just that I think I might be allergic to excessive amounts of dog, cat and people crap, is all-" Lightlad said, leaning his head over the open manhole, he took a humorously increased sniff with his nose, making sure to apply heavy drama to the disgusted face he made afterwards."-not to mention it smells worse than the death down there" He finished off. Now it was Slack's turn to smirk…well not really a smirk, more like a smile influenced by a mean spirited joke on Lightlad's behalf.
"Well I'd hold my breath because that's where we're going" she said with a smile as she, Red and Blizkid removed the small pylons that held up the yellow crime scene tape.
Finally the five heroes stood over the open manhole, surrounding the hole with their bodies, blocking the sun from reaching deep down into the pits of the sewers.
"Well then, if that's the case, I guess its only polite to say: ladies first" Lightlad said, offering Slack the chance to head down into the abyss first, Slack gave him a fake smile before grabbing hold of the cold, black, metal ladder that led down into the sewers, slowly she descended down the ladder, rung by rung, she made her way to the bottom of the ladder.
Releasing her grip on the ladder, she took her first steps into Hallow City's sewers, walking through 'water' which reached the lower part of her thigh, she immediately covered her nose at the awful smell which emitted from every single inch of the sewers, it smelt worse than she thought it would have, like a mix of rotting fish, human waste, excrement and oddly enough, dry blood, a smell, which as of two weeks prior, she would have no idea about, but after her time in Hallow City, she'd become more than familiar with the smell of both dry and wet blood…too familiar for her liking.
The next person to 'plop' down beside her was Red, who, like herself, immediately found the smell extremely offensive, but unlike her he didn't cover his own nose, as the two began to become more accustomed, though no less offended by, the smell, they were soon met with Blizkid, Tag and finally after a moment of hesitation Lightlad. All three new additions covered their noses, with Lightlad gagging heavily at the smell. They're really wasn't a word for the smell, even disgusting didn't do it justice, but they'd have to put they're disgust aside; they had more pressing measures to worry about at the moment.
"Man, I hope there arn't any alligators or crocodiles living down here….wouldn't want one of those things biting me in the ass when I have my back turned" Lightlad said staring around at the water with a mix of worry and curiosity.
"If what Brice said is true…we have a lot more to worry about than alligators" Red said, taking a good look at his surroundings. The tunnel he, as well as his team-mates, stood in was long, lonesome and damp, the 'walls' of the tunnel were painted a faded shade of green, the same colour as a evergreen tree, possibly in an attempt at having workers cope with the idea of working in such a disgusting environment. Several lights hung from the ceilings, all of which giving off a very, very, slight amount of light.
"So, we gonna do this the old fashioned way?" Lightlad asked, referring to the teams number one tactic, a tactic he liked to call the "Scooby Doo Strategy", as, like on the show it was named after, the tactic involved the team, who worked better as a unit then as separate agents, breaking into one man teams and covering more ground that way.
"Not this time, it's far to dangerous" She said, Lightlad nodded before starring down the long sewer 'hall' which ended in a round, open, room with three separate waterways going through the room, each one a different path to a different area of the sewers.
"Now all we have to do is pick which crap tunnel we want to travel down" Lightlad said pointing his finger at each separate 'crap tunnel', before singing 'Eenie Meanie Miney Moe" to himself as he went from 'crap tunnel' to 'crap tunnel'.
Red meanwhile had found something of great interest along the walls, a series of large, semi-circular, scrapes along the wall, markings if he wasn't mistaken, he tapped a finger to his ear, where a small, black, circular head phone rested gently against his ear. Tapping the 'talk' button gently he began to speak into the device.
"Hey, Sev, can you hear me?" he asked into the device, there was a slight cackle of static, which made Red cover his year, before Sev's voice broke through.
"Yeah" Sev said through the device, Red smiled and drew a small, flat, silver camera from his pocket. He raised the device up to his eye and aimed it at the markings, pressing down on the top button he captured a picture of the markings before pressing a button labelled "Upload".
"You getting this?" he asked, re-touching the 'talk' button on his earpiece.
"Hell yeah" Sev's said, his voice heavy with excitement, cutting through the mechanical static.
"What's it look like to you?" Red asked as he placed his hand on the markings, gently wiping his fingers across them. He didn't know much about large animals, like the ones he imagined had made this, but he did know that no alligator, crocodile or any other sort of lizard rumoured to live in the sewers could have made it, it was impossible for something which stayed so close to the floor could reach that high….or so he imagined.
"Well, judging from the size, width and depth of the markings, I can safely say that whatever the hell made them isn't from the Animal Kingdome….the closest thing to those markings would be the black panther, which I highly doubt is living in Hallow City's sewer system" Sev said. Red nodded his head, reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver lighter which had "B.A.M.F." printed on it, an odd present from Detective Brice as neither of the two men smoked.
He pressed down on the wheel, igniting the bluish white flame from its square shaped tip, the flame shot up and formed a triangular shaped flame, lighting the darkened sewer tunnels, exposing several more of the markings which ran along the wall.
"I think I just found which way he went" Red said as he began following the markings with a bloodhound's intensity, the others followed after him struggling through the thick sewer water, but following nonetheless.
The markings led down a long, dark, damp and heavily fortified tunnel, which, surprisingly, had little sewage water in it, as compared to the rest of the sewer system.
"Sev, where are we?" Slack asked into her earpiece.
"According to my maps of Hallow City, you're in the, soon to be destructed, Crankville sewer system, which would explain why there should be little sewer water running through there" Sev's voice said through her earpiece.
"Soon to be destructed?" Lightlad, who, like the rest of his team, could hear every word spoken by Sev, asked into his own device.
"Yeah. Basically it means: If you're gonna smash anything in the sewers, do it here" Sev said, Red smiled a genuinely happy smile, something he did rarely, if ever.
"That's what I like to hear" Red said with a zealous smile as they continued down the long sewer tunnel.
As Slack continued down the long walkway, she couldn't help but feel like they were being watched, nor, as much as she tried to, could she shake the feeling. She constantly found herself checking behind her back, only to be met with the sight of the long stretch of decaying rock and pool of disgusting water they'd just traveled down.
As they continued to walk down the tunnel, each member began to feel the same thing Slack was, the eerie, creepy, stalking feeling, Red leaned down to Slack's ear and whispered something into her ear, she closed her eyes and nodded her head, Slowly Red branched off from the group, straying off into the darkness of the tunnel, his eyes, with their animal like sensitivity, paying focus to the ever moving translucent body that stalked behind the team, the large, humanoid, yet still strangely animalistic, 'shadow' of their stalker.
Red couldn't wrap his mind around it, but they're was something about the way 'it' moved, not that the fact that the creature, which he assumed it was, being a creature of such large proportions wasn't strange, but the way it stalked, while still staying focused on the team, was odd to him. He'd watched dozens of animals in his lifetime, maybe even hundreds. All animals that stalked their prey watched it with all of their attention, and so did this animal, which was normal, but the level of focus it paid on the team, especially on Slack, was abnormal, like it wasn't just stalking them, it was watching them, observing their every movement…which upset Red.
Slowly he ran his hand down the brick wall he stood against, his hand searching for a loose brick, bone or any hard object he could use to distract the creature. His prayers were answered when his fist grappled a damp brick which wobbled loosely from its hold in the wall.
Gripping the damp brick, he gently pulled it from it's slot in the wall and raised it to head level, preparing to toss it at the moving translucent humanoid frame.
He tapped a finger to his ear, pressing down on the 'talk' button, signalling to the others that the first part of his plan was in play, he turned his head to see the others all prepare to attack, be it slowly and surely, making sure to show no signs of knowledge towards the creature.
Red drew the brick behind his self, slowly moving his body forwards to allow room to toss the brick, arching the muscles in his arm he quickly whipped his arm forwards, tossing the brick at the creature in the process,
The brick flew for a slight second before coming into contact with what could be assumed to be the creatures head, deteriorating the brick into little more than rubble, which crumpled down into the sewer water with a slight 'pitter-patter' as it hit the water.
The creature gave a low 'howl', a sound that sounded like the mixed product of a howler monkey's scream and a angry human's shout, before it's figure slowy began to become exposed, shedding off it's camouflaged state in return for it's fully exposed state.
"Jesus tap-dancing Chist " Lightlad shouted in shock as the figure's camouflage wore off, exposing the figure of an eight foot reptilian monstrosity, which stood, glaring angrily at the teens, all of whom stood with an equal level of intensity, aside from Slack, who stood uncomfortably quiet and remote.
From where she stood, Slack gave a horrified glance at the creature, which wouldn't seem surprising to many, but to Red, who watched, it seemed extremely unusual, especially since the face she made wasn't a 'I just saw a monster' horrified glance, it was more of a 'I just saw a dead relative' horrified glance, or so he believed.
Suddenly the creature pressed its back legs into the ground, lowering its body in the process, before any of the team had time to do so much as blink, the creature began to rush forwards at breakneck speeds, running right towards Slack.
Slack leapt out of the way in a split second movement, narrowly avoiding the creature's spiky forehead from slamming into her torso, which instead slammed into Blizkid's, who had stood behind Slack, knocking him onto the floor before sending his body shooting through the sewer water, only to stop when his back slammed into the farthest brick wall across from him.
"Blizkid!" Tag screamed in concern for her fallen friend, she began to rush towards him when a green tail, whipped at her chest by the creature, came into contact with her stomach, sending her body flying across the room before landing gently against the brick wall opposite where Blizkid lay.
"You son-of-a-" Lightlad began to say as he aimed an already charged Light-blast at it's torso, he fired the shot, only for it to miss the the creature, who dropped to the floor fiercely, and cut through the air before coming into contact with Red's chest, burning deep into his flesh and launching him against the wall he stood against moments earlier, ruining his attempt to help Lightlad.
The creature smirked at this new development before whipping its tail up at the unaware Lightlad, who was momentarily distracted by the guilt his miss aimed shot and the resulting accident it had caused on his team-mate caused. The creature's tail connected with Lightlad's chest with enough force to not only slice deep into his costume, slashing a large, cresent shaped gash on his chest , but also to send his body shooting upwards, slamming it into the brick wall above his head, cracking it and launching his body into the sewer water, knocking him unconscious.
The creature rose from it's lowered state, standing up on it's hind legs, now towering over Slack's body by at least two feet, as for Slack, she stood, somewhat trembling below the creature, he hands shaking with fear.
"You…." She said shakily, a smirk traced along the creature's reptilian mouth as it leaned its head down to face Slack's. Its head now directly in front of Slack's the creature huffed out a ragged breath at Slack's face, the force of which sent Slack's hair flailing backwards. She cringed at the awful, disgusting smell of it's breath.
Slowly the creature began to circle her body, with Slack too scared to do much else by stand completely still. As the creature reached behind her, it stopped moving and moved it's head to beside her face, Slack shivered for a slight second, even giving a slight whimper.
"Ah, little Chloe, how you've grown, I never thought I'd be able to see you're pretty little face again. You couldn't imagine how much of a privilege it is" He said as his thick, red, reptilian tongue jetted out from his mouth, and slowly traced a line of thick, white, mucus like slime along the side of Slack's head.
Slack cringed both at the disgustingness of the situation, and the near death like smell that the trail of slime left behind, they're truly wasn't a word for how awful it smelt, it was like mixing a decaying animal carcass with an outhouse.
Slack began to feel droplets of sweat trickle down her forehead, traveling slowly down her face before dropping to the floor, leaving behind a wavy line of built up moisture.
She felt a tinge of fear creep up her spine before surging throughout her body, she swallowed, closed her eyes and began to count to five, an age old remedy she'd been taught by her father.
"One" She counted, slowly and raggedly, as the creature's heavy breath continued to crash against her back.
"Two" she counted, suppressing a whimper of fear.
"Three"
"Four" Her father coughed out as he pressed his palms against Arkady's chest, attempting to reinstate the life back into the man, he wasn't about to let him die, not like this.
He lowered his head down to Arkady's and took a deep breath into his mouth, attempting to fill the man's lungs with oxygen.
"Five" he said as he again pressed his palms down on Arkady's chest, unfortunately, and much to his horror, the flat line didn't change, it remained the same, Arkady was dead.
"Dammit" he cursed loudly, though none of the audience could hear it, at this point all form of sound emitters were shut off; allowing none of the audience to hear what had been going on.
"Mark...it's not your fault" Lawrence said, trying to calm his lab partner and mentor down, Mark turned to him and sighed heavily, before slamming his fists into the large active TV screen, breaking the device thoroughly.
He slumped down against the wall, pressing both of his hands against his head and slowly slamming the back of his head against the wall, suddenly, and very unexpectedly, something miraculous happened, the once 'beep' wail of Arkady's dead heart, slowly began to convert into a 'bump-bump', Mark's eyes light up, he wasn't dead, he was alive.
He shot up quickly and watched as the heart rate continued to change, watched as it began to speed up, speeding up drastically….. too drastically.
Quickly, a little too quickly, the flat heart rate of the once deceased serial killer changed into the mad thumping heart rate of a man who'd just ran a marathon, but it didn't stop they're.
Just as the heart rate had changed, Arkady too was changing, large blobs of skin began to grow across his body, before smoothing out and adding extra muscle and flesh to his body. Before long his skin started to change tint, it went from tanned brown to reptilian green, and just as quickly began developing scales, lizard scales.
As his mass increased and his body continued to mutate, the audience began to get involved in the hysteria, instead of running like had been expected, they began to snap photo's of the mutation, something they'd soon come to regret.
By this time, both security officers had rushed to where Arkady lay, surrounding him by this point, both of the men had their weapons drawn and aimed for his head, which couldn't be called a head at the moment, as it was more of a triangle shaped lump, which slowly began to form into a reptilian head. As this was happening, Arkady's arms, legs, feet and hands, began to increase in size before shooting out a series of razor sharp, dark black claws, which went unnoticed by the twosome of guards whose pistols were aimed solely at Arkady's reptile head.
"Freeze!" Barney screamed, cocking the hammer of his revolver with his thumb. Arkady, in reptile form, only smirked and hissed out "Make me" in a deep reptilian tongue.
At that very moment, he flexed his massive reptilian muscles, allowing him to break loose from his restraining straps, which flew across the room in all different directions.
Both officers fired at Arkady, who fell back into his laying position as the bullets dug into his chest, only for him to kick himself off the table, both of his claws stabbing into the second officer, slamming his body onto the floor with the weight of his body, instantly killing him.
As Arkady removed his feet from the dead officer's torso, Barney cocked and fired a second shot at Arkady, the bullet digging deep into his left shoulder. Arkady flinched, only momentarily, before bringing his right hand above his head, all five of his razor sharp claws struck out in a slashing position, and quickly slashed his hand down at Barney's chest.
The claws struck his chest, tearing through both his uniform and flesh, slicing deep into him with enough force to instantly kill the elderly security guard, who dropped to the floor like a bag of bricks.
Across from the deceased officers and reptilian monster, three of the four scientists beat their hands against the locked silver door, which, unfortunately, happened to be their only escape. Each one hoping, praying, that someone would answer. Unfortunately for them, the door could only be opened with security cards, which were only held by the security team, both of whome lay dead on the floor behind them.
Slowly, Arkady turned his head towards the scientists, stuck out his long reptilian tongue at them and hissed in a snake like vain, before he began to make his way towards the scientists, his claws rattling along the wall as he moved towards them, the claws generating a 'clat-clat-clat' noise as they slashed gently against the wall.
All four members of the science team looked at one another with a mix of fear, worry and depression; this was it, the end of the line, the end of their lives. As Arkady continued to advance on the scientists, Mark rushed before his team, placing his body in front of them, using it as a shield to protect them. Arkady only smirked a devilish smirk, smirking at the honourable sacrifice he was willing to make, and the thought that it would mean nothing as he'd just kill the rest of the scientists after. His smirk widened as he imagined the slaughter he'd soon be responsible for and raised his right claw high above his head, Mark, doing so little as flinching below him.
Back up in the observation pod, Chloe, whose eyes were fixated, though not in a healthy way, on the butchery below, fell to her knees and shut her eyes, she couldn't watch this, the image would never escape her mind if she did, it would haunt her, every time she closed her eyes, and, though she didn't know it at the time, she was right, it would haunt her, haunt her for the rest of her life.
Behind her every member of observation pod, with the exception of Chloe and her mother, had rushed to the exit and were fighting, viciously to escape out of it, with her mother, fighting desperately to enter through it, to find her daughter, to save her daughter.
She pushed her way through the crowd, screaming out her name in an effort to attain contact with her daughter, though this effort fell in vein as her voice could hardly be heard above the increasingly loud voices of the men and women attempting to escape.
Finally, with a stroke of luck, she managed to move an obese, balding, journalist out of her way, allowing her entry into the now fully deserted room. Her eyes wandered around the room, tables, chairs and other objects were spew across the floor, deserted by their previous patrons, finally her eyes made contact with the small, crouched, figure of her daughter, who lay on her knees in front of the large window, with her head pressed gently against the glass.
As she approached her daughter, she could hear her humming the tune of 'Ave Maria', a song which she herself had hummed countless times to her at a young age.
She was several steps away from Chloe when she heard a series of violent thumps coming from the room below, followed by a series of pain and sorrow filled screams, she didn't need to be told what they were from, covering her eyes with her hand she stopped moving and slumped down onto her knee's, tears streaming out of her eyes at a very rapid pace.
As she finally reached her daughter, who by this time was crying as much as, if not more so, than herself, she heard the loud, nerve shattering, sound of shattering glass, followed by a duo of loud, ground shaking, 'thumps'.
Turning her head to the right, she was met with the sight of the large reptilian creature: Arkady, who had just laid waste to the room below as well as ended the lives of her friends and husband.
Arkady began to advance on her, a devious, sinister, sickening, smirk sprawled across his reptilian face, his tongue stabbing out of his mouth, tracing along the rough, scaly surface of his lips.
"What do we have here?" he asked tauntingly as he continued to approach the mother-daughter duo, who lay weeping for those lost on the floor. "Looks like a nice, juicy, helping of gator bait and something for me to take home later….a nice, slender, busty, midnight snack".
"Chloe, stay behind me sweetheart" Mary said in a paniked, yet still strong tone. Disgusted and afraid of Arkady, she knew the wellbeing of her daughter was more important than her own life, knowing that she stood up and stared directly into Arkady's large, round, reptilian eyes, which narrowed down into two thin slits as she stared at him.
She gave him a pleading look and attempted her hardest to speak, though every word she tried to say got stuck in the back of her throat, she swallowed hard, looked him in the eyes again and found the strength to speak.
"Please…." She begged, tears streaming down her soft cheeks, Arkady's smirk widened as he approached her. He raised his arm up to her check, his slick, wet, reptilian paw rubbed up against her cheek as his long, slender, index finger wiped away her tears.
"Ok" he said as he ran his grotesque hand through her hair roughly, she smiled, or rather, forced a smile, and turned to her daughter, whose eyes were closed, shut, tightly, she wished she could do the same, close her eyes, and forget this had happened.
Suddenly, she felt a series of sharp pains, five in all; shoot across her chest and stomach, followed soon after by the feeling of her clothes becoming damp, she lowered her head to see, just as she'd imagined, five black claws, the end of each one drenched in a reddish liquid, her own blood, she suppressed a scream of pain, and slowly, gently, closed her eyes, she had no intention of her last sight on the earth being the awful state she was in right now. Instead, she filled her mind with the thoughts, and accompanying images, of her family, her handsome husband, her beautiful daughter, and herself, all embraced in a loving hug. With that thought in her mind, a smile traced across her lips.
Arkady withdrew his claws from Mary's stomach slowy, before grabbing hold of her body, gently, and placing it on the floor, he may be a man murdering, reptilian serial killer, but he still held some ethics, just not as many as the average man, far less to be exact.
As he prepared to make his escape, using one of the tables to shatter the glass window which held a view of Metropolis's bay and would allow him a seamless, clean getaway, he turned towards young Chloe, and felt, what could only be described as 'guilty', though he wouldn't know what that was, as he'd never felt it himself…until now that was.
He approached her and knelt down to her level, his head directly in front of hers, she sniffed gently, wiped away the remainder of her tears, and looked him directly in the eyes, her own filled with both a deep sorrow as well as a intense hatred which burned like hellfire in her pupils.
"Little Chloe, you will always hate me for what I've done today, that hatred will build and build inside you until you can't take it anymore, when that happens, and you're looking for you're revenge, I'll be ready, but don't think I'll let you kill me…because that would be a mistake worthy of you're life…and I won't hesitate to take it" he said.
Chloe, too upset to do so much as speak, only nodded her head up and down, before wrapping her arms and legs into herself, curling herself into a upstraight sitting fetal position, Arkady smirked and stared at the glass window, or as he saw it, his way of escape.
Grabbing a hold of one of the large, white, round tables, he swung it around violently before releasing his grip on it, the table flew towards the window, shattering it and allowing him an easy exit. He turned back towards Chloe.
"I'll be waiting for you, Chloe" He said before leaping towards the windowsill, escaping through it and disappearing, leaving Chloe to mourn the damage he'd created.
Slack opened her eyes to see Arkady's head in front of her own, she swallowed and tried to manage the courage she needed to attack him, but it wasn't easy, seeing the man, or creature, who'd destroyed her family, who'd made her what she was today…it was all too painful for her to bear.
"You know something, you're a lot like you're mother….sweet, smart, beautiful, and of course, scared to death of me. You even have the same look on you're face that she did all those years ago, you'd remember it, it was the kind of face that stuck with you, imprinted on you're mind, so that you spend every waking moment with it in you're mind's eye. It's weird that I can remember this, after all these years, but than again, you don't forget something like that, do you, Chloe?" He asked, a sinister smile traced across his face.
Across from where Slack stood petrified with fear, Red had gotten to his feet after being knocked down from Lightlad's misaimed blast, which had burned quite the large hole in his chest, but that didn't matter to him, at the moment, nothing but saving Slack mattered to him, not even his own life, which was exactly why he was going to risk it saving her.
He reached above his head and grabbed hold of a rusty pipe. From the dull, unmoving feel of the pipe; he could tell that no water ran through it, which was good as it would help with the element of surprise.
Tugging on the pipe with force, he managed to pull a sufficient, two and a half foot length of it off of the roof, with the end the length destroyed by decay, leaving the tip of it as sharp as a broken bottle, not very sharp but still jagged and decayed enough to leave a meaningful impact on Arkady should he have to, which, judging from how things were going, he would most likely have too.
Holding the pipe in his right hand he pressed his feet against the floor and readied himself for the pain that the creature would surely endure upon him should he fail at his objective, swallowing hard he pressed off against the floor, his body lifting in the air for a slight second before he began to pick up a pace.
He rushed at Arkady, fuelled by a hated intensity. As he reached within five feet of the creature, he moved the pipe into a stabbing position and kicked off the ground, leaping into the air.
Arkady turned his head just in time to see Red, with the pipe held in two hands, stab it deep into his chest, with enough force for the two foot length to have stabbed in one end and shoot out the other, stabbed through his chest diagonally. Red, still holding onto the tip, kicked his feet into Arkady's chest and leapt off of his body, kicking Arkady backwards as he did.
Red landed gracefully beside Slack and, as quickly as he'd landed, placed both arms on her shoulders, straightening her out, shaking her gently in the process, he cupped her chin with his hand and gently raised her head to face his own. Her eyes held tears, painful memory created tears, which he rubbed away with his thumb, it pained him to see her like this, it really did.
"Slack….are you ok?" he asked, she smiled slightly and wrapped her arms around his back, pulling him into a deep, embracing hug and resting her head against his shoulder.
"It's ok, it's ok" He said as he raised his hand up to her head, gently running it through her hair. He'd seen it done in a movie and, being inexperienced in the art of comforting scarred women, figured: If the movies could do it, why couldn't he?
Slack gently raised her head from it's resting place on Red's shoulder, and saw, much to her horror, Arkady quickly advancing on the duo, the pipe which had been stabbed into his chest, now in his right hand, with a rapidly healing wound where it used to be.
"Red!" She screamed as she broke off the hug and spun him around backwards, in an attempt for him to have a chance against Arkady, who was now less than a foot from him, unfortunately, her plan worked in Arkady's favour instead of her own.
Arkady swung the pipe vertically, slamming it into the side of Red's head, knocking him to the floor strongly. Red attempted to get up, only to have Arkady's large foot press down on his back, keeping him down, his large claws slowly digging into Red's skin.
Red cringed as the claws cut through a thick layer of his skin, now digging deep into his muscle and soon to dig into his bone, he continuously tried to raise his body, a task which had it not been for the sudden pain across his body, would have been easily accomplished.
Turning his head he managed to catch a glimpse of Slack, who had the same worried look on her face she did earlier, he gritted his teeth as he felt the claws dig through his muscle before mouthing something to Slack, something which made her drop the sorrow filled face she held in exchange for a hardened 'battle stare'.
She reached behind her back, reaching into a pouch on her utility belt, and grabbed a hold of a large, 'S' shaped knife, or a glaive, a weapon, designed to work much like one of Robin's 'birdarangs', though in now way designed like it.
She held the glaive in her hand by its round, blue tinted, midsection, with both of the sharp edges, each one in the opposite direction of the other, lay flat on a vertical angle.
She brought the weapon behind her back, reading it for throwing purposes, before tossing it, with the force, precision and expertise of a baseball pitcher, forwards, her aim directed at Arkady's massively thick, reptilian, throat.
The glaive spiralled through the air, creating small waves of sound as it did, before it ran bast Arkady's large, thick, throat, slicing into it and slashing it open, causing it to spray a thick burst of greenish blood, before circling around his neck, slicking the opposite side of his neck, and returning to Slack's hand.
Arkady grabbed onto his throat with both of his arms and took several steps backwards, withdrawing his foot, and claws, from Red's back as he did, Red, slowly and painfully, got to his feet and stared at Arkady, who moved backwards slowly, each step he took was jerky and unstable, which made Red more than happy.
Arkady steadied himself out and began to stand still, his hands still placed around his neck in an attempt to stop the bleeding, Red took this opportunity to his advantage, he rushed at Arkady, wrapped his arms around his chest and tackled him to the floor, attempting to slam his head on the ground, in an effort to knock him unconscious.
Unfortunately, his plan didn't go as he'd imagined, it turned out, Arkady had been faking the damage to his throat, which, as of the moment, was fully healed. He stared at Red, whose face held a look of extreme discontent, smirked and grabbed his head with his hand, his claws digging into the back, side and chin, of and on Red's head. Red gritted his teeth, raised both of his fists and began tossing punches at Arkady's head. Each one hit with enough force to knock a fully grown man out, only Akrady wasn't a fully grown man, he was a fully grown reptilian freak, but the punches hurt none the less, and it showed as Arkady began to get extremely agitated.
Using his one free arm, Arkady reached around for the pipe he'd dropped when he covered his throat. As his hand touched the object, he gripped it roughly, drew it above Red's back, and stabbed it down; unsure of what he'd stab it into as he couldn't see the object.
The pipe struck a hard, fleshy piece of Red's body: his leg, or rather, his thigh to be exact. The pipe dug deep into his thigh, digging through the flesh, muscle and bone of his leg, before shooting out the opposite end. Red shouted out an expletive which rhymed with "Mother Trucker", an obvious response to the sudden pain, before grabbing a hold of the part of the pipe which stuck out from his leg, attempting, feebly, to remove it from his thigh.
Arkady smirked and used this new advancement, the 'advancement' being the knowledge that Red couldn't fight back at the moment, to his advantage. He flexed his knuckles, concealing his long, claws, before slamming both of his palms into Red's chest, knocking him off of his body and launching him down the long strip of sewer he'd send Blizkid launching down earlier.
Arkady rose to his feet, turned towards Slack and shook his head from side to side, a sign of disgust at her actions, or rather, her lack they're of, disgusted at the fact that she'd just stood they're and watched her friend be injured…but oh well, it made it easier for him. He raised a claw above his head, readying it to strike Slack, when a burst of yellow struck his side, burning a large hole in his stomach. He cringed and turned towards his assaulter, he was met with the sight of Lightlad, his arm aimed at his chest, a small yellow glow beginning to build up around his fist.
Arkady stood with both of his massive claws aimed at Lightlad's throat, ready to slice his throat with enough force to turn him into a human Pez dispenser, a move which surely would have killed the teen, when the built up blast fired off, shooting from his wrist and burning a small, but still painful, hole in Arkady's chest.
Arkady growled and slashed both of his claws at Lightlad, only to have his claws cut through the air, instead of the flesh, muscle and bone of Lightlad's neck, much to his surprise; he was met with the feel of nothing, nothing but air.
Un-understanding of how he'd missed, he turned his head to the right, where he was caught with the site of a puff of white smoke, which slowly vanished into thin air, exposing Tag, with her arms wrapped around Lightlad's chest, this action being the one which allowed her to travel with Lightlad.
Both Tag and Lightlad stood with Blizkid and Red, both of whom now stood on their feet, with Red leaned over Blizkid's shoulder, a large, red, gory, hole in his leg, and the bloody pipe which had caused it lying at his feet.
Arkady turned his attention from the heroes, back towards Slack, who now stood alone, both her palms clutching a pair of silver glaives, one of which was the one she'd used to slash his throat earlier, as both of its opposite facing blades were drenched in his thick green blood, she raised the weapons to a throwing level, and stared at Arkady, she wouldn't make the mistake of letting him live this time.
Arkady only smirked at her and dropped to the floor and rushing, on all fours, which allowed him a much faster rate of travel than on two legs, down the remaining length of the tunnel,
"Get Red up to the surface, I can take care of Arkady" Slack said, Red attempted to voice his distress on the matter, but was of no avail as Slack ignored him and began following after the escaping reptilian.
"Slack!" he shouted as he attempted to follow her, only to be stopped by Tag, Lightlad and Blizkid, he spun around and glared angrily at the three of them.
"We have to follow her" he said in a worried tone, Lightlad sighed and tossed an arm around Red's shoulder, restraining him from following after their leader.
"What we 'have to do' is get you up to the surface. If you're leg doesn't get healed right away it could get infected with AIDS, measles, or something worse" Lightlad said. Red shook Lightlad's arm off of his shoulder and took several steps towards the tunnel where Slack had began chasing Arkady.
"That's a risk I'm willing to take" he said as he took several more steps, on his fifth step he applied too much pressure on his right leg, causing an intense amount of pain to shoot up to his wounds, forcing him to fall to his knee's, only to be helped up by the trio of Tag, Blizkid and Lightlad.
"As much as I hate to say this Red, Slack can take care of herself" Sev said, speaking through the device around Red's ear. Lightlad, again, lended Red his shoulder to lean on, Red, regretfully and hastily, accepted it. Maybe they were right…maybe she could take care of herself.
Regretfully, he, as well as the rest of his team, abandoned their leader and escaped the sewer entrapment out of the entrance they had entered in from, the entrance where this had all started.
Slack rushed through the deep sewer waters, she was hot on his trail, or so she thought she was, honestly she couldn't tell if she was following Arkady or was just lost, maybe he was following her, following him.
She sighed heavily, as much as she hated to admit it, she lost him, she lost her first criminal, something she would have to live her whole life with, which wouldn't bother her so much if it wasn't for two things: One: the fact that she could be sure she'd never again find Arkady and Two: She'd blown her chance at avenging her parents, friends and family's deaths, something she would never live down.
Suddenly, from behind her, she began to hear the 'thump-splash, thump-splash' she'd been following all along, she hadn't lost him, he was right behind her, and she still had a chance at righting the wrongs.
Slowly Arkady emerged through the tunnel she herself had emerged from, his reptilian body fitting through the tunnel very narrowly, as he finished exiting the tunnel he turned to Slack, his eyes burning with a mix of anger and excitement, or so she thought, it was hard to tell with him especially since he had those 'insect eyes' like she preferred to call them.
"I said one day you'd have the chance to get you're revenge…well, today is the day Chloe, which makes me wonder, do you have what it takes to kill the man who destroyed you're family, the man who ruined you're life? Can you do it?" he asked as he moved directly in front of her.
Slack thought back, way back, back to the day when she'd lost everything, back to the day when she'd felt such extreme anger and sorrow, hatred and distress, despise and depression, with all these emotions now running through her head, it was obvious what the answer was.
"Yes" She said angrily as she reached behind her back and grabbed hold of two round, silver and blue coloured, flat circles. She drew the two devices in front of her body and pressed both of her thumbs down on the blue 'button' in the middle of the devices, causing the blue to glow for a slight second before two thick blades shot out, each one going the opposite direction of the other, they were glaives, the same kind of device she'd used to slash his throat earlier.
"You may have you're snazzy blades and gizmos. But I've got good ol' fashioned talons of steel...which have years of experiance, you'd know, wouldn't you?" Arkady said curling both sets of claws tauntingly at Slack.
"You know, they're was something you're mom said, that I'm sure you didn't hear, or if you did, you probablly didn't remember…you know what that was?" He asked in a taunting voice, Slack shook her head angrily and Arkady smirked. "-She said: Don't hurt my baby…well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to break my promise to her, because when this is over and done, I'll make you feel every ounce of pain I made her feel...and just like I did that day, I'll enjoy every second of it".
Slack, feeling the anger surge through her body, rushed at Arkady, both of the silver blades raised in front of her face, aimed directly at Arkady. Arkady smirked, followed after
As Slack reached Arkady, she slashed both glaives forwards at the same time as Arkady slashed both of his claws forwards, both of her blades struck Arkady's chest, tearing deep into his torso and remaining stabbed into his ribcage, causing him intense amounts of pain, which showed as his face was twisted into a sick, demented, pain induced frown.
As for his own strike, Slack, through a quick movement, managed to dodge the just of his attack, succumbing only to a right claw slashing across her left arm, all five of his talons digging through her uniform and tearing open five large wounds on her arm, thankfully not deep enough to seriously injure her, but enough to make her know that he was going to let the next hit really count.
The two finished passed each other, both stopping on opposite ends of one another, their backs facing each others, quickly both spun around to face each other, and see what damage they'd inflicted on the other.
Arkady stood with both of the blades stuck in his chest, too preoccupied to remove them, instead fixated on the damage he'd dealt to Slack's left arm, which she covered with her right palm, though the wounds bled more than she was able to contain, with large streams of red liquid flowing off her hand and trickling down into the already disgustingly dirtied and tarnished sewer water, forming a large red puddle in the sea of greenish brown 'water'.
"Looks like I got you Chloe" he said with a smirk, aiming one of his mighty claws at Slack's arm wound, which still bled freely. Slack gritted her teeth as she applied pressure onto her arm wound, gripping her femininly soft arm muscles, which ached with her touch.
The two stood opposite one another, taking deep, ragged and heavy breaths, for what felt like an hour, before she broke the time free spell, breaking it by gazing at the two blades she had stabbed into his chest, a smile spread across her lips.
"Looks more to me like I got you, Arkady" She said as he lowered his head at the blades and saw, much to his horror, what she was referring too, the blue 'handle' of the blades, was continuously flashing a faint blue light, while a mechanical voice counted down from Five. These weren't just blades; they were explosives, explosives which had stuck to him. She'd got him, the stupid, good for nothing bitch had gotten him.
"Aw…shhhhhi" he said, looking up at Slack with distress filled eyes, pleading eyes, the same type of eyes her mother had given him when she feared for her life, this was ironic punishment, punishment which Slack couldn't be more happy about.
Above ground, Red, Tag, Blizkid and Lightlad, sat and stood, around the still very much alive and jumpy crime scene, jumpy and alive with the sound of reporters who stood, like a pack of wild, rabid, hounds, outside the thin yellow tape that surrounded the crime scene, stabbing their microphones and camera's forwards and shouting questions at the various police officers and crime scene detectives who stood around the area.
Suddenly, from the ground below them, they're came a soft rumbling, which shook the ground they stood on, each member glanced first at the ground, then one another, they stood staring at one another for a quiet minute before the shaking stopped abruptly.
Down the street from the team, a brown, rusted, manhole began to shake, slowly raising above ground and slipping onto the side of the road, all eyes were suddenly drawn to this new advancement, with both Blizkid and Lightlad aiming their arms, Blizkid having a build up of ice and Lightlad a build up of energy, aimed at the manhole.
The team's spirits were raised when a long, slender, feminine arm, emerged from the open manhole, followed soon after by Slack's head, her face covered slightly with a mix of red and green blood, and after that the remainder of her body.
Quickly, Lightlad and Blizkid rushed over and helped their leader to her feet, offering her support should she need it, like they'd imagined, she refused, thankful and gratefully before turning her head to Red, who sat with a smile on his face, she flashed him a smile which he returned with a nod of his head before getting up, despite the pain it caused, and walking over to her.
"Need a hand?" She asked casually, offering him her shoulder as leverage, Red finished walking towards her and smirked.
"You have no idea, sweet cheeks" He said as he tossed his arm around her shoulder, turning his head towards her and smiled, she smiled at him and gently rubbed her free hand through his scruffy hair.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I really, and I mean really, want to take a shower" Lightlad said, both Slack and Red turned to him, as well as the rest of the team, which made him fall silent.
"I'll…just, uh…go wait in the car then" he said in a defeated tone as he walked towards the car slowly, Tag following after him in a giddy hop, no doubt to try and cheer him up, Blizkid followed behind her at a quickened pace.
Slack and Red watching them walk to the T-car before turning to one another, it was rare moments like these that made being a super hero, putting her, as well as her team-mates, lives on the line day in and day out, worth every second of it.
"I'd be lying if I said you didn't kick all kinds of ass today" he said in a joking manner as the two moved towards the T-car, slowly as Red's wound forced him to move at a very slow pace.
"Oh yeah?" she asked, going along with his playful banter, not only finding it humorous but also extremely comfortingly, which, after the day she'd been dragged through, was exactly what she needed, someone to comfort her.
"I mean the way you handled those blades….words can't describe the amount of style you showed off today" Red said as they reached the car, she helped him into the passengers seat, there was no way she was letting him drive in the condition he was in.
"So, how'd things go with Caiman?" Sev asked as Slack got into the car.
"Caiman?" Red asked into his device.
"That's what the media's calling him: Caiman the crocodile king...apparently some CSI guy overheard you talking and spilled the beans to the media, and according to him" Sev responded, Red smirked at the incredibly ridiculous names the media gave to their unanimous villains, as if the names they gave themselves weren't bad enough.
"So….how did it go?" Sev asked, as much as Slack wanted not to talk about it, she felt it was important to keep her team's morales up, and if that meant going deep into her pain, finding a slight hint of pleasure she'd taken from killing Arkady and using it to keep her team's spirits high, she felt the sacrifice would be well worth it. She smiled and thought back to what had happened in the sewers, how the bombs she'd stuck to him had exploded and collapsed an entire sewer tunnel atop of him, crushing him into oblivion.
"Let's just say: he's stuck in-between a rock and a hard place at the moment" she said with a well deserved, satisfactory smile on her face.
"But you didn't see him die?" Sev asked, Slack looked worried, what did that have to do with it? She'd seen him get crushed and trapped under dozens of feet of rock, dirt and debris, wasn't that enough? Did she need a freaking death certificate?
"He did get crushed under pounds of rubble, isn't that enough?" She asked, they're was a moment of silence before his voice was heard again.
"Well, some lizards, especially iguanas, have been known to live without oxygen for as long as thirty minutes, and since Arkady was basically a giant Iguana, or so Red described to me, I'd say he could go without Oxygen for….a day and a half at the most" he said, Slack, all of a sudden felt a tinge of depression, which Red noticed as he stared at her.
"What you mean to say is that he's dead…right?" he asked, they're was a second pause before he continued.
"Yeah, probably, I mean, it's very rare for anything to live without oxygen for long periods of time. I'll have Sergeant Scythes send a recovery team tomorrow to make sure though" Sev said. Red took the time to notice that Slack's mood seemed to have brightened at this, slightly, but brightened none the less.
"Well then, if this whole thing's been resolved, let's head on home" Lightlad said from the back of the car, Slack nodded and pressed her foot down on the pedal, starting the cars massive engine and taking them the first step of the way home.
Several hours had passed by since thier time at the sewers, and it was now late into the night, making this one the fifteenth the team had spent in Hallow City, which had, by this point, grown to accept them as an everyday part of their lives.
The entire team had spent most of the time since arriving back at the tower-with the exception of the first twenty or so minutes which were dedicated to healing the injuries they'd succumbed to during their mission, though none of the injuries were as bad as previous missions, Red's leg wound being the worst, requiring a brace around his leg to allow him to walk properly-showering off the grime, feces and all other disgustingness that made up the water of Hallow City's sewers, using more than three hundred gallons of water, each, in order to rid the disgusting feeling of sewer water off their bodies, Lightlad alone had gone through twelve bars of soap in the measure of just one shower.
After their showers, the team had gone through the usual, post-mission routine, which they'd familiarized themselves with over the course of the past two weeks, this routine included: eating dinner, which was usually pizza, burgers or any other form of heart stopping, calorie adding, diabetes causing fast food, the pizza was always ordered from Nappa's Pizza, Lightlad, Blizkid and Sev's favourite pizza shop. It's owner: Antonio Nappa, an elderly Italian-American man, had taken a shine to Lightlad's wisecracks, and often asked if he was of Italian heritage, which, he couldn't say for certain.
After dinner the team usually settled down by the expansive TV and watched a movie, tonight they watched Sev's 'favourite' which was odd as usually every movie he picked was considered his 'favourite', this movie: Scream Factory 13: The Revenge of The Ghost-man, was what the team had come to call a 'Sev' movie, which were usually plot less, gore fests, filled with scantily clad women, grim looking heroes, whose appendages, arms or legs, were usually replaced by typical, every day items, and giant, usually always rabid, monsters.
The movie was typically followed by the exchange of 'good night's', well wishes and fears of bed bugs biting, afterwards the team retreated back into their domains, spending the remainder of the night sleeping off their blues.
By this time of night, Slack had showered, dried off and just finished dressing in her usual night time attire, a pair of bluish white pajama bottoms, a pink pajama top and a pair of pink bunny slippers, a present from Tag, which, despite the 'over-cuteness' of the gift, she still cherished and wore them.
As she traveled around her room, looking for the one, extra fluffy, pink pillow she was sure she'd left lying around, she found herself again facing the hard wood desk and the depressing thoughts it provoked.
Swallowing hard, she walked towards it, sat down in the small, leather recliner stationed behind the desk and picked up the pictures for a second time that day.
She thumbed through the pictures; trying her hardest to stop herself from crying at the painful memories they brought on, but, like before, found it too hard a task to complete.
She couldn't do it, even with Arkady dead, she found herself mourning over the loss, killing him didn't bring them back, it couldn't, it didn't help her put this whole thing behind her, not in the slightest, and it never would, never. No matter how hard she tried.
Feeling the tears beginning to form in her eyes, she knew she couldn't hold them back, that she couldn't' stop them from spilling loose; instead she accepted it and began to weep, silently, but still fiercely. Streams of tears spilling from her eyes, her head buried deep in a pillow made from her arms.
She felt a hand touch her shoulder, shocking her and causing her to spin around in the chair quickly, only to come face to face with Red, who stood behind her uneasily, something attributed to the large, black, brace strapped onto and around his right leg.
She wiped away the remainder of her tears with her wrist, swallowed back the nerve she had to break out in tears and looked him directly in the eyes, which at the moment looked more sympathetic than she'd ever seen them look before.
She tried to say something, to defend herself in his presence, to pretend, like she'd done countless times before, that she hadn't been crying, but just….yawning, or whatever lame, sorry excuse she could think of, but she couldn't, she couldn't do anything other than lay her head on his shoulder and burst out into tears, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, gently squeezing onto the hard, defined, muscles which ran along his back, while burying her head deeper into his shoulder.
Red brought his own arms up to her back, gently running his hand through her hair like he'd done earlier that day, at the risk of sounding like a pervert, he liked the way her hair felt, it was soft, gently and silky-like, as if that were a word, but it was true none-the-less.
"Shhh. It's ok, it's ok" he whispered into her ear, trying to sooth her out of her bad mood, if he was half the 'soother' he thought he was….well then he wasn't doing a very good job, but, from the look on Slack's face, a look that looked to him like a mix of sorrow and relaxation, apparantly he was doing a good job.
The two held the warming, calming, embrace for some time, with Slack's head now resting gently against his shoulder, her eyes almost entirely free of her distress created tears, with Red still patting her head gently. Finally, after an extended period of time, Slack finished crying, wiped the remainder of her tears away with her wrist and moved her body backwards, with her arms still grabbing a tentative hold on Reds forearms.
She looked him directly into the eyes, staring deep into the bluish brown eyes, the ones which she found herself staring at time and time again, the thought brought a smile to her lips and allowed her the strength to speak.
"You must think I'm the softest girl in the world, seeing me cry twice in one day" She said in a shaky voice, her words constantly being broken by forced back sobs, turning her head away from his in a mix of shame and shyness.
Red cupped her chin in his hand and gently tilted her head back to face him, her eyes still held a tint of sadness in them, and he couldn't blame her, after everything she'd been through, and in just one day. No one wanted to re-live the terrible experiance of their parents demise, nor did anyone want to meet the man responsible, or have to fight and kill him, but she'd done all three, in one day's time, less actually, more like three hours time, three hours being the estimated time of their mission, but either way, he could understand why she'd be so filled with sorrow.
"Not at all. After everything you've been put through, the pain you've felt and dealt with…you're not 'soft' at all. Slack, you happen to be the toughest girl I've ever met...and that's no lie, I promise you" he said softly, she again found the strength to muster a soft smile, which she flashed for him, causing him to smile, slightly, but still a smile.
"If it'll make you feel better, I can say that I used to cry all the time. I cried when my old man starved me so badly that I felt like I could eat my own fingers to stop the pain coming from my stomach. I cried when he beat me bad enough that I could barely walk, and I cried the day he died, because, as much as I hated him, as much as he hated me and as much as it pained me to live with him, I knew no one deserved to die the death he did, not even him, not even after all the pain he caused to me-" Red said in a down trodden tone. "-It's when you stop crying, when you loose touch with you're feelings, when you can't feel anything inside yourself but hate, that tears at you, eating away at your insides, that you're really lost"
Slack suddenly felt a huge amount of guilt rush through her body, she felt selfish, she felt spoiled, here she was crying over the loss of parents who'd died defending her, parents who'd raised and nurtured her, parents who'd loved her, when Red had cried, all those times, over the abuse from and eventual loss of a parent who hated and despised him. Words coudn't describe the amount of sympathy she felt for him, it was almost more than the sympathy she felt for her own parents, almost.
"Red, I'm so sorry" She said uneasily, it wasn't that she didn't feel sorry for him, because, truly and honestly she did, it was just...well, she'd never been good at talking to or about people's pasts, apparantly Red could tell as he smiled faintly and stroked the left side of her head with his index finger, a gesture which brought her a great deal of warming comfort.
"Don't be. Not for me, but for yourself, don't live with my guilt on your conscious, it's not worth it, trust me" he said softly, the last thing he wanted was for someone else, someone like herself, who truly shouldn't be dragged into the crap he'd been dragged into himself, he'd learned once that dragging others into his own pain was a stupid idea...and the guilt of the experiance haunted him to this day.
Slack stared into his eyes, which were so full of hate, hurt, pain, sorrow, distress, she could use every word in the dictionary to describe how 'sad' his eyes looked, really she could, but she couldn't bare to. She could understand why he was such a hate filled person and she couldn't blame him, no one could live life without someone to love them, and, if what Red said was true, not that she doubted his word, than he truly had no one who loved him….or so he thought.
Placing both hands on his cheeks, she began to gently pull his head towards her own with Red putting up no resistance to this new development. Slowly as his head reached her own she pressed her lips up against his, kissing him with a fiery mix of passion, care, concern and, what might even be called, love. For all she knew, she was in love with him, though she'd never admit it to him, or any one else on the team for the matter, if she was, that was. The more she thought about it, the idea of being in love with Red, the more she found herself enjoying what she was doing at the moment, and it didn't seem like Red minded either as he was now kissing her back, with an equal level of emotion as she showed, running his hand through her hair as he did.
It was odd to her how the fates had transpired to put the two together like this yet again, having the two of them been in near identical positions, save for the kiss, two weeks prior, call it a coincidence, fate or whatever you wanted too, but this was definitely a sign of something. Maybe things were finally looking up for her, she had a family, maybe not a literal, blood related, family, but they were her family never the less and she loved them every bit as much as she did her real family.
After a short time, the two broke off the kiss, with Slack's hands placed gently around Red's, before pulling him into a hug, her head again resting on his shoulder, her lips beside his ear.
"Thank you, for everything you've done to help me" she whispered into his ear as she pressed her lips gently against his cheek, gently stroking his left cheek with her index finger, running her finger through the patch of hair that shot down from the top of his head, gently curling his hair playfully.
"It was a pleasure. Besides, the reward was well worth it" he said with a flirtatious grin, she flashed him a smile which held an equal level of flirtation as his did. She had to admit, at times he could be extremely charming, and this was one of them, she lost the fliratious smile and gave him a heart warming and love filled smile, before nuzzling deeper into his shoulder, solidifying the loving, warming, embrace the two held.
Slowly Red tilted her heads towards his own so that the two's eyes were directly linked with one another's, Red was relieved to find that her eyes no longer possessed the disappointed, depressed look they had only minutes prior, maybe, just maybe, that meant he was doing a good job.
"Chloe" He said softly, running his hand through her hair gently, she looked up at him with her deep blue eyes penetrating into his stare, filling him with a sense of sadness.
"I'm sorry, I didn't meant to upse-" He began to say, trying to defend himself for accidentally upsetting her, he honestly hadn't meant too, it was just, Chloe was such a nice name, at least to him it was, maybe she didn't see it that way. Maybe that's why she was upset. He hated how he could do something like this, how he could unpurposefully ruin the mood of a moment, he really did.
"It's ok, it's ok, it's just..." She said, falling silent after the first couple of words, she began to look away from him, moving her gaze onto the floor.
"What?" he asked with a saddened curiosity, he tried to make it up to her by stroking the underside of her chin with his thumb softly, which seemed to work as she smiled up at him, allowing him to know this was a good sign.
"It's just that, now that you know my name I feel like you know so much about me…..and I don't know anything about you, I mean I don't know you're name and...well...I don't know" She said in a voice that carried an "I'm unsure of what I mean" spirit with it, Red smiled, bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead gently.
"James. My name is James. James Tobias Rooks" he said with a smile.
Slack suddenly felt a new kind of warmth, or as she now figured it to be, love for Red, or James, as she'd now learned his name to be. He'd just shed his skin, come out of his shell, given up the one identity that he still held as a dear secret: his own, and she couldn't have been more happy, not just for him, but also for herself, as it helped her to better understand him, and that's what she'd been hoping for this entire time, to better understand and get to know her team better, and so far it looked like she was walking down that path queit well.
Knowing that the two shared a bond where not so much as their names were secrets from one another meant that they could trust each other with things which were more personal and private than could be shared with the rest of the team, which was both good and bad in their own little ways.
The good was that this was another step up the mighty ladder the two would have to climb to one day achieve the goals they wished to achieve, which Slack now believed to be a relationship, not just a 'crush' or 'attraction' kind of relationship like she could read about in the tabloids, but an actual, emotionally and spiritually fufilling relationship, the kind she'd been without for far too long.
The bad was now that they had formed this relationship...this bond, they would no longer see each other in the same light as they did a day ago, they would no longer see each other as just Slack and Red, they would see each other as Chloe and James, and, without the proper amount of restraint, they're emotions, for one another, might interfere with their duties on the team...but that was a risk both were willing to take.
As the two held the same loving embrace they'd been holding for what felt like an eternity to one another, Red suddenly felt the urgency to find out exactly how long they had spent together, not that he minded the idea of being with Slack, which he surely didn't, it was just that he knew, as well as she did, that if the two missed out enough sleep, or were found in the same room the next day, the team would surely get suspicious of their nightly activities, and, with all the suspicion the two of them already created, he couldn't blame them if they found this to be any more suspicious.
He glanced at the wall mounted clock across from Slack's shoulder, which read 1:14 with a bright green florescent glow, Jesus, he'd spent an hour and a half in her room, not that he was complaining, the more time he spent with her, the more he found himself at piece with himself, which, living in the constant mixed state of rage and self hate he did, he found a nice relaxing break from things…but, reminding himself of what he'd thought minutes prior, he knew what needed to be done.
Sighing to himself he gently broke off the embrace he and Slack held, she looked at him curiously, filling him with a sense of sadness, which was only momentary as she too glanced at the clock, she too sighed, it wasn't fair, things had been going so well between the two of them, frowning she knew that nothing good can ever last, she knew that all too well.
The two began to walk towards her door, slowly at first as neither really wanted to leave, finally picking up their pace halfway to the door, finally they reached the tall, silver, door which acted as the exit of Slack's room and to the entrance to the hallway. Red stopped before the door as did Slack, staring once again into each others eyes, Red frowned and went to press the small 'open' button on her door, before he was stopped by her hand, which gripped his gently and brought it, along with it's partner which was gently grasped by her other hand, down to her sides, before staring him in the eyes again, she smiled, leaned forwards and kissed him on the lips for a second time, before leaning back backwards, breaking off the kiss.
"You call that a kiss?" he asked, his tone carrying a playfull taunt with it before giving her the same flirtatious grin he'd given her earlier, she smiled at him before he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into a deep, passion filled kiss, a kiss which could rival the one she gave him earlier.
After a short minute of the kiss, Red pulled his head away, looked her dead in the eye, smiled and ran his hand through her hair again, fondling her cheek gently with his fore and middle finger.
"Goodnight Chloe" he said, gently pressing his finger down on the 'open' button on the keypad, causing the door to slide open with a gentle 'whish' noise, she smiled and stroked her fingers behind his ear, gently massaging the nerves which lay behind them, like she would a dog, though he was in no way a dog...more like a tiger, lion or any other kind of fericious, yet gentle, creatures she'd read about in magazines, the ones who put their lives before those of their cubs and life mates, which Red surely would do.
"Goodnight James" She said, leaning forwards to give him the final kiss for the night, a gentle peck on the right cheek, which he rubbed with his forefinger for a slight second before heading out the door, which closed after him with the same 'whish' noise it'd made seconds prior.
As the door finished closing, Slack released a heavy breath, ran a hand through her hair and lay back against the wall beside the door, slumping all the way to the floor. She continued to run her hands, the second one, the left, joining with it's sister seconds earlier, through her hair. She shook her head from side to side vigorously, she had a crush on Red, or maybe she was in love with him, she didn't know, all she knew was that she couldn't live without him and wished desperately that he felt the same way about her.
Sighing heavily she got up, ran a hand through her hair for what she hoped to be the last time and walked over to her bed. She pulled the covers back and sunk deep into the comfy confines of her fluff like mattress, before pulling the silk like covers over her body, smiling happily as she relived the last hour and a half of her life, and how being with Red had made her truly happy, she felt like nothing could make her depressed, nothing could make her sad again, nothing….she liked this new feeling, she liked it a lot.
Deep in Hallow City's sewer system, a small, black rat, distinguishable from the rest of it's pack by a large white spot on top of it's head, scurried through the debris, rubble and remains of the broken sewer system he'd just so recently called home.
The rat crossed over several rocks, each one stretching a not so hard to cover distance, looking desperately for a bite of food to eat. It's prayers were answered in the form of a large, chunk of flesh poking through the rubble, he rushed towards the flesh and prepared to take a bite form it when the land beneath his feet began to rumble, before the land below his feet began to move. Trying desperately to escape from this moving land, only for it's efforts to be shot down, or rather, crushed, quite literally as the creature was squeezed by a large, green, scaly hand, which shot out from the rubble, followed soon after by a large, green, scaly, head, which stared around at it's surroundings for a quiet second before uttering a silent curse, a curse directed at one particular individual, who happened to be none other than Slack, or more rather, Chloe Stevens….the individual who'd trapped him in the hellhole he now lay under.
Finishing squeezing the life out of the rat, he opened his massive jaws, placed half the rat's body underneath his massive fangs and bit down, slicing the creatures body in half, half of it he swallowed in one giant gulp and the rest he held in his palm.
He smirked at the dead creature's torso and tossed it away from his body violently, sending it flying half a dozen feet across the rubble before landing in a puddle with a quiet 'splash'. Now that he was fed he had only one thing on his mind, one thing aside from escaping the rubble which held him prisoner that was, and that thing was Revenge.
Well...that's chapter nine...did you enjoy? I know I sure as hell did.
Now I know what you're thinking (Talk about Psychic), you're probabbly thinking "Man, The Captian J.T. Wolfe is sooo badass, let's give him lots of money"...and if that's not what you're thinking than you're probabbly thinking something along the lines of "Dude! Slack and Red getting togheter already? What were you thinking?" Well if you are thinking that, I can tell you that I'm not done with Red and Slack...not by a long shot, I've got so many plans to throw a wrench into their developing relation ship that I wouldn't be surpised if many of you hated me after I'm done.
While still on the topic of Slack and Red (Man...I like writing those two names, they sound good one after another): I'll be the first to say (and the only one since I'm the only one who knows) that the scene with Red and Slack at the end of this chapter almost wasn't. At first I wanted it to be an exact remake of the last scene from the last chapter, but I figured you guys would eat me up if I did that, so instead I changed it to a quick peck on the cheek from Slack and a 'good night' but that seemed too...light, and since I don't want this story to turn out to be the Diet Coke of fluff, and since I kept you fans waiting for soo long for this chapter, I figured I'd put two and two togheter and do something we can all enjoy...and hopefully you did.
And while were still hanging onto the topic of 'couples' (Not that we ever were really on that topic), I've decided that Blizkid shouldn't be so lonely (One of the first flaws I found with him was that he really needed someone to confide in, someone who wasn't Tag or Red), so as such I've decided that the chapter after the next one (That's 2 chapters if you didn't know) will be not only focus almost entirely on him but will also be dedicated to finding Blizkid a soul mate.
And, while still lingering on the topic of Trivia, I might as well give out the little bit of Trivia that appears in this chapter: First off, all the medical mumbo jumbo in this chapter is utter and complete crap I made up in my head, but I tried (Really I did) to make it sound legit, I mean I looked all over Google, Wikipedia...that about does it for my information searching. But if it doesn't make sense and any of you are specialists in the feilds of medical sceinces, I wouldn't get mad at you for sending me a flame over it, just remeber: I'm not a Harvard Graduate, I'm just a guy who writes story's.
Another thing (Not Trivia...well not really): I wrote the scenes at the end (I might as well call them 'The love scenes') between Red and Slack while listening to Too Much Love Will Kill You By Queen. So, if you really want to get a 'feel' for the scene, I'd read it while listening to that song. Again, this is not really triva, more like a helpful suggestion and waste of about fifty or so words.
Next Chapter: Lightlad takes the stage as he's thrust into a very, very, akward situation. After saving a girl his age from an otherwise deadly fate, he finds himself bombarded with not only her thanks, but her undying affection, but after realizing his feelings for another and letting her down gently, he finds himself with another problem, her affection towards him will force her to take matters into her own hands and she's determined to get her hands on Lightlad one way or another.
Well that does it for me, hope you enjoyed reading this chapter half as much as I enjoyed writing it (If so than you enjoyed it a lot more than I imagined), take care now, and until next time, keep on rockin' in the free world.
