Last Time on The Chronicles of the Missing Jay: When we last saw Jay, they required several weeks to charge a spirit bomb large enough to defeat the Dark Lord Writers Block. Thankfully with the help of Chrystalwolfbrat89 our great hero Jay prevailed.
Butter my bisects and call me a hen, we've finally made it to chapter ten.
(I seriously get too much enjoyment out of writing these chapter rhymes.
I hope you guys like them too.)
P.S. I would like to apologize in advance for all the cursing, shit is an extremely common word in the part of LA Robin is in. I kid you not, they can replace every noun and verb with shit and still understand what is being said. So yeah, if you're sensitive about that stuff just pretend not to see the curse words.
Chapter 10
Boundless
-Day 44-
-3 Hours Remaining-
"...id.."
Noise.
"ay...id.."
He didn't like it.
"et...up..."
He needed to make it stop.
"Get outta here, kid!"
Out of the nothingness, something gripped him hard.
He didn't like that at all.
His arm snapped out and landed on something fleshy. He grabbed and squeezed. The thing in his hand was thick and shifting, as it vibrated in time with the irritating noises that filled the air.
"W...w-what dah fuck man."
He squeezed tighter knowing the noise would stop. Eventually.
The thing thrashed in his grasp and landed a blow to his face. His head snapped back and when he brought his bleary eyed gaze back, he saw that it was a man. The thing he grasped was a throat.
Robin shook his head. Was he still dreaming? He gave his hand an experimental clench and sure enough the hand on the man's neck clenched as well and it was flesh he felt under his fingertips. That snapped everything into focus, memories and sensory information flooded back to him. He was in a pallet yard. He had escaped from Slade. He had fallen asleep in a pile of moving blankets. It was now dawn. He was on top of a man, strangling him.
Robin gasped and let the man go.
"Holy fuck, man." The man gasped as he backpedaled away from Robin.
Robin tried to say something but no words would come, he had gone to long without speaking for them to come naturally.
"Sorry." He tried. It was a raspy noise, like fall leaves on pavement.
The man who was already making his way to the door stopped at that, as if the word stung him, and turned around slowly.
When he did, Robin got his first real look of the guy. He was Mexican, probably around twenty or so, with nondescript long hanging clothes, and from the look on his face his words hadn't stung him, but instead shocked him. Robin watched as the look on the man's face changed from shocked to wary.
"Fuck man, are you on some shit." the man asked in a tentative way that sounded awkward with his heavy accent, "'Cause I need to have a place to hide out and I can't be around any out that shit, man."
Robin paused for a second not really sure what the man was asking but pretty sure he was talking about drugs.
So he shook his head, "No."
"Alright, man. I'm on probation, so I can't mess with that shit, if you know what I mean."
Robin simply stared at the man not sure if the guy understood that he had almost killed him. Robin understood exactly what had happened. He had gotten too lax yesterday and even if it lead to his escape he couldn't lower his guard with Richard. Even now, as he watched this man drone on about finding a hideout, he couldn't help but notice the way he stood was unbalanced. It would be so easy to slip into his space with a few quick steps, draw his blade as he shouldered into the guy. Deliver the final blow with a swing of his kn-. Robin stopped himself. He had gone too far. He was on the edge and he couldn't fall now. He was too close to Jump, too close to his escape from all this to fall into his darkness now.
He stood up abruptly and the man startled from across the space.
"What's up, man?" the man asked, clearly not expecting the movement at all.
"I have to go." Robin told him, his voice tight and strained.
He gave a brief look outside and then down to the pile of blankets he had been sleeping in and decided to borrow one. Robin heard a small strangled sound as he picked up a blanket and he turned to see the man with A look of horror on his face.
"You mean you're going out?" The fear almost seeped to be leaking out of the man in a way that screamed prey and he felt Richard twist his gut. "On Collection day?!"
"Yes." He replied tersely as he swiveled away from the pitiful display, not entirely sure what a Collection day was but knowing the emotions the man was oozing where bad from him.
His steps were swift as he exited the shed, with the man still talking to his back.
"Are you mad?"
As he moved away, he felt Richard rear up. The man's fearful panic was like the thrashing of a drowning man, drawing the sharks.
"It's collection day!"
Robin continued to move. He just needed distance. If he just got far enough away he would be fine, Richard would settle.
"You can still hide!" The man's voice was getting fainter.
Turn around, Robin! Richard roared, his voice sounding like it was being screamed through a pillow as Robin smothered it.
"...Ou...Crazy?" The man's voice was fading fast as Robin speeded up his retreat.
Get. Him. Robin! Robin felt his body trying to wrench its self around. And that caused him to break out into a run.
"...Deathwish!" And the man's voice faded into nothing after that.
-2 Hours Remaining-
Robin sprinted along the streets with an awkward gate, realizing that he must of hurt his ankle on the fall into the pallet yard, but it wasn't the ankle that made him find a place to rest on the streets. He honestly couldn't feel his ankle over the pain that was screaming up from his feet. Robin found the nearest fire escape, and with a bit of trouble he hauled himself onto the first grated landing. With his hiding place secure and his borrowed blanket protecting him from the bite of the metal landing, he started to carefully examine his feet. They were bare, seeing as how one would not need shoes when locked in a warehouse, every inch of the bottom of them that wasn't embedded with gravel or glass was soaked with blood. Robin immediately started to go to work on his feet, picking away the gravel and glass, and wiping at blood with a sleeve that he had ripped from his shirt. He then shredded his shirt and went about wrapping and bandaging them, and even expending the extra fabric to wrap up his aching ankle. When he was done he couldn't help but wonder what he looked like. Crazy haired with a scarred face, shirtless with army style pants, mummified feet and a moving blanket. Then there was the collar. Large and somewhat clunky, it stuck out like a sore thumb on his bare chest. He would need to be able to vanish into a crowd, and remained unnoticed until he could make it back to Jump. He might have been able to make it work without a shirt but with a collar there would be no way. He needed to get it off pronto.
With careful maneuvering and a minimal amount of pain, Robin was back on the street level. He walked briskly down the streets, brooding over what would remove the collar. Ideally he would be looking for a pair of metal shears or maybe a bolt cutter but he honestly couldn't hope to ever find such things on the streets, so instead he searched for a pick up truck. Pick up trucks were most likely to have tools that he could easily get to or even a tool chest he could break into.
So he walked the streets, weaving so he could search every block for what he needed. As he moved along he noticed a slow change in the city around him, long blocks of storage and lots transformed into dirty cluttered storefronts with a variety of metal sheeting and fencing protecting their windows. He also started to see people, strewn about amongst the trash, that gathered in little leafy mounds along the curbs. The people were laid out on cardboard mats as long mounds of piled blankets, sleeping. As he walked the density of people grew, all laid out in various stages of sleep or unconsciousness. It didn't take too long for the smell and filth to overpower him, the smells alternated form sleeping mound to sleeping mound between sewage, alcohol and a majority of the time both. He tolerated it as long as he could but after nearly stepping in a mound of poop for the fifth time. he moved off the street he was on. To his dismay, the conditions continued on every street he turned onto. He remembered seeing this place occasionally make the papers under the title of Skid Row, but he had never imagined it was this bad.
Look at it this way, Birdy. Richard chuckled faintly in his head, At least you fit in.
And he did, messy hair and missing clothing was commonplace here. If anything he looked too well off with his pants still retaining their original color, everyone here had the same grey-green colored cloths that died their clothes regardless of what color they used to be and Robin couldn't help but feel a little pit grow in his stomach a the realization that daily life here left people in the same shame as running away from an assassin had left him.
-1 hour remaining-
As time slowly progressed so did Robin, every step closer to the tall sky scrapers was a step into deeper filth, after a while Robin got worried about the cuts on his feet and climbed up telephone pole to retrieve a dangling pair of shoes. He had never understood the reason why someone would throw shoes away like that, but now he was grateful. Despite the fact that the shoes where a little big, he covered more ground with them on. He was standing at a corner scanning for any that would cut his collar when it caught his eye. What he saw was a bright pink building, he didn't know why he moved towards it, most likely because all he had seen for hours was dirty grays and dull browns, but he walked in a bee line to it. When he made it to the building he read the sign, The PlayPen, in slightly stylized black letters. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of the place but then he saw a group of giggling girls walk out with a shopping bag, one of them waving a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs and he instantly turned bright red. He ducked his head and walked quickly away from the pink building and he made it halfway down the street before he turned around and with his teeth clenched he started back to the bright pink store.
x
The bell at the door rang lightly as Robin stepped inside, and the girl at the register glanced up at him. He had straitened his hair and cleaned up his pants and acquired shoes but he was still shirtless and about ten shades more red than any tomato.
"Um, Hey." He said with a nervous laugh.
The register girl rose one pierced eyebrow, "Hey."
"I need a little help,"He started.
Register girl tried to bring her eyebrow up higher.
"Um, my girlfriend bought this online and doesn't know how to take it off." He tried to continue looking register girl in the face but failed miserably.
He was surprised when register girl let out a kind hearted laugh, "Aww, poor guy. Here," she motioned him over, "Why don't you sit here while I get something for that." She patted a red stool and walked away without even looking if he sat down.
He sat and fidgeted while he waited, trying to avoid looking at the racks of magazines and videos with naked figures on the covers along with the assortment of other items on shelves.
Register girl came back a few seconds later with a big tattooed guy. She told the guy the same story Robin had given her and the guy laughed and vanished into a back room. When tattoo guy came back he had a blessed pair of bolt cutters and Robin almost cried out with joy.
"Man, this is some heavy duty stuff." The tattoo guy comments.
"Yeah." Robin laughed a little, "Do you get this kind of thing often?"
There was a grunt and a snap before the guy responded, "Yeah, mostly handcuffs gone wrong."
Robin made a noise of agreement, after all it was a pair of fuzzy handcuffs that lead him to this place to begin with.
It took a while for the guy to finally work the thing off Robin's neck, and when he did Robin felt boundless.
"Caulk?" Tattoo guy asked with a poke.
"Haha, oh yeah." Robin started to remove the rubber, "It got really irritating on my skin."
"Yeah, no shit man."
The tone confused Robin for a second and then he remembered the burns.
"Yeah, well thanks man." He said quickly.
He shook the man's hand and bolted from the shop. With the removed collar in one hand and his blanket in the next Robin moved away from the store. He wove through the streets, guided by small landmarks until he made it to a safe place. The place that he had designated safe, when he had passed by it before was a small side entryway to a closed store. The entryway was indented into the building, putting it safely off the street but still allowing for some amount of vantage of the street. He settled into the space with his head down and his back turn ever so slightly outward and brought out the collar from under the blanket. It was the first time he really got to examine it and even with his limited knowledge of cybernetics he knew that this was a masterpiece. The collar still had the same basics he remembered from seeing it in his bathroom mirror, a seamless ring over an inch wide and somewhere near a half an inch thick. It had a solid weight and edges that tapered to a thinner and rounded edge. Now that he held it in his hands he noticed more about it. He could see where the metal plates met at fine pinstripe lines but they where so close together that Robin couldn't feel the edge no-matter how much he ran his fingers over the lines. Another thing that he now noticed was how strong the collar was, he remembered all the beating he had given the collar the first day he had gotten it and was amazed that there was only a few shallow scrapes to show for it. Turning it around in his hands, Robin caught a glimpse of something odd along the inside of the collar. With his brow furrowed he examined a ribbon wide strip of metal that had a different shine to it than the rest of the metal around it. It only took a second for Robin to realize that the strip was the conductor of all the shocks he had received and without thinking he brought a hand up to his throat protectively. His curiosity with the collar was instantly turned into wariness and he decided that that was all the examination he would do of the collar, he was still on the run after all and sitting around was condemning. So with a quick dusting off of his pants, Robin set off once again onto the streets of Los Angeles.
-0 hour remaining-
-Author's Note-
RELEASING THE DEMON IS 40TH PLACE WITH ITS FOLLOWERS IN FICS WITH ROBIN AND SLADE!
This is awesome you guys! Out of all the 510 Robin and Slade Fics we are in the top 40! We still have a long way to go before we reach the top 40 in all the teen titan fics (we are currently in 769th place) but we will get there and when that happens I will cry tears of joy. I'm actually tearing up now ;D. All my followers make me so happy and I am proud that you like my story. Now lets make Releasing the Demon FAMOUS!
You know I did start writing this chapter with Robin waking up to the sounds of rats then going outside to laugh, cry and rage as the sun rose and started a new day, but then I realized that Robin was in LA and that shit doesn't happen. So I changed his wake up.
I Love You All (°v°)
-Missing Jay