Juggalomalice: Applicant #013 Mutsumi Otohime, correct? (Before me sits a young woman with a bright smile, long brown hair, and soft eyes)
Mutsumi: Correct.
JM: So what makes you think you're qualified to be my assistant?
Mutsumi: I don't know. Why?
JM: Well I don't know. That's why I'm asking.
Mutsumi: What did you ask and where am I?
JM: And I was hoping this would go well. (Of course I have hidden motives, but still.)
Mutsumi: Really? In that case I work hard to do my job. Once I find out what job I'm applying for.
JM: Well in that case. (Turns around and digs through a cabinet and pulls out several files) I need you to make several copies of the following script and mail them off to the respective addresses inside. Also call Raven. I need her approval on the 'Teen Titans remiX" series even if I decide not to do it. If I do decide it'll make my life easier. (Hands her the files)
Mutsumi: Ok, I won't let you down. (She stands up and then collapses)
JM: (Pushes her with his foot) Hmm, she seems dead. Not good. Can't have more cops snooping around. Need to clean this up. (Gets a janitor's broom and sweeps her into a closet with several other dead bodies) Now then reviews:
Some Guy: Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Even I'm looking forward to what kind of crazy shit I'm going to be throwing into this story.
Lord Eli Spinel: That's cool, as for Koga hmm not sure. No offense, but I never really liked him. Actually planned on killing him in another story I was thinking of writing. (And Kagome too. Never did like her)
Delirium24: You know a lot of my friends who have read this story have said the same thing about Raven and Khalid. I might have to play with that idea later on just to tease people. (Maybe in the Christmas chapter)
Sieg: Will do.
Deathwish911: Though I can't grant your death wish I can grant you a new chapter.
PHAOE: Yeah, that's kind of one of Khalid's purposes here. With Starfire gone I needed someone who could kind of function as an emotional bridge builder between characters without interfering with my love triangle.
Shadow Beast1: Sorry bout that. I know the feeling. Well don't be discouraged. There are many characters that have similar archetypes, but end up becoming very different individuals due to environment and experience. Though you're character may be similar I'm sure s/he would come out very different from Khalid in the end. Well I wish you the best of luck.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story except Khalid.
Teen Titans X
Written by: Juggalomalice
Chapter 9: X-Roads of the Heart
Red X rushed at his opponent and launched a bone crushing kick at which Khalid instinctively caught and with a slight twist of his wrist pushing X spinning back. X landed on his back, but quickly recovered by using the momentum to initiate a head stand and performed two spinning kicks followed by a low leg sweep. Khalid easily blocked the two upper attacks but was caught off guard by the low one resulting with him ending up on his back. X then jumped into the air as he aimed his feet at Khalid's downed head. Khalid seeing what his opponent was planning he crouched his body like a spring as he bent his knees and lifted his own feet up to met X's. The moment their feet met Khalid pushed off the ground making the confused X airborne again and X did a graceful spinning recovery in mid-air so he could land on his back on his feet. His had little time to praise his landing as Khalid charged at him with a spinning high kick. Even though X blocked it the force of the attack sent him sliding back almost 10ft.
X lowered his arms as he studied his opponent from across the training room. Much like his self, Khalid had a mixed fighting style which encompassed dozens of martial arts and fighting tactics. X had seen him use everything from feudal ninjitsu to plain dirty street fighting. In fact X was rather taken back when during one sparring match while in a grapple hold Khalid had kneed him in the groin and followed through with a German suplex. X made a mental note to avoid grapples with Khalid after that. Even so X was rather grateful to have a competent sparring partner and someone else who relied primarily on fighting skills instead of fancy powers.
Yet today Khalid seemed to be having greater difficulty keeping up. He seemed slower though he was still matching X blow for blow. X wasn't quite sure what was wrong or if there was anything wrong. He would just have to run a quick test on Khalid's reaction time. X dived into battle again as he chained a dozen attacks into one flawless combo. His final attack being an offense push meant to put distance between fighters more than cause harm. In the end out of 12 attacks only five hit.
"Are you ok Khalid?" X asked with a puzzled voice.
"Why do you ask?" Khalid answered with a question as he lower his guard a bit.
"You seem a bit slower today. Usually I can never get in more than three hits on you during a combo."
"Oh, new coat." He answered though again his answer didn't really give much of an answer. Indeed his coat was new since the last one got shredded in the fight with the H.I.V.E. two days ago. He had barely got this new one in the mail this morning and had been wearing it since. It was still black but looked much thicker and heavier than his old one. It had a large number of black leather straps and buckles that held it tightly closed over his chest area yet it flowed open below the waist.
"I see. If I didn't know any better I say you were cosplaying some famous villain from the 'Final Fantasy' series." X observed. With his natural white hair and pale skin Khalid indeed almost look like that villain though X found his self unable to remember the name.
"'Final Fantasy'?" Khalid asked confused clearly having never heard of the media reference that X was speaking of.
"It's an RPG game for the PS." X explained.
"Oh, well this coat was custom made by a girl I know in Japan. I guess you could say she is a bit of an otaku. I actually commissioned it over a week ago. I do not know what she based it on, but I do know it has the customizations I asked for."
"And what kind of customizations would those be?"
"Nothing special honestly. The only notable thing of real interest would be the quick draw function on the sleeves." Khalid flicked his wrist in demonstration as a thin steel rod slide out of the sleeve into his hand which he then converted into his preferred weapon, a nagamaki. "Provides easy access for converting weapons. Besides that," the nagamaki was converted back to a steel rod with a blue light which he then used to tap his sleeve which produced a metallic sound, "There are half-inch plates of plasma resistant didrate steel woven into the coat fabric."
"Didrate steel? That stuffs hard to come by. Not to mention heavy as fuck. Where did that girl get that stuff?" X asked amazed
"Yeah that's true. The girl is a child genius and can buy anything from Russian missile parts to plutonium with $100. Don't know how she does it and I don't care. It works."
"Hmm so what's her name?"
"Su, Kaolla Su. She works in Weapons Development back in her home country now. Married too though she's still pretty young. Think she's only 16 now."
"She's married at 16?" X asked with a shocked voice.
"Yeah, she really loves the guy and apparently her home country allows 'underage' marriage as I guess you would call them here. Whatever." He said brushing the overall topic aside as if it was of no importance.
Seeing no reason to argue about foreign country marriages laws X dropped the subject. "So how heavy is that thing?"
"Hmm, if I had to give it an estimate I say about 180-200pds."
X gives a low whistle, "That's heavy, but couldn't you have gotten a poly-carbon synthetic equivalent. It would be just as strong and only about half the weight."
"I considered that, but poly-carbon material has a very high heat resistant, but very low plasma resistance. I figured that the only way I could actually die is I would have to be completely vaporized and a strong enough plasma energy blast can do that."
"So just covering all your bases huh?"
"You could say that. Just because I'm immortal doesn't mean I have a death wish. Anyway, I'm into heavy metal." Khalid had commented several times in the past that he liked metal music and X gave a weak laugh unable to tell if Khalid had just made a pun or not.
"Hey Khalid, Raven's been avoiding you recently hasn't she?" X asked in an attempt to reengage conversation with the apath.
"True and judging by the memory of mine she saw I don't blame her." Clearly not surprised by the dark empath's actions in the recent days.
"True, but everyone else has seemed to bee able to accept and deal with it except her." X response slightly concerned for the amount of strife developing in his team.
"Yes, but hearing and seeing are two different things."
"No denying that." X admitted.
"So what's your excuse though?" Khalid asked turning the tables of the conversation.
X gave him a confused look though it was not obvious while he wore his face mask. "What are you talking about? I don't avoid you."
"I wasn't talking about me, baka." Khalid insulted though his monotone voice made the insult sound not very insulting. "I meant, why have you been avoiding the girls? Jinx actually thinks you're mad at her and I'm sure Raven has been thinking something similar."
"Oh well…" X hesitated in his answer unsure of what to say or how Khalid was perceive any answer he gave. "I'm just not that good with women and my feelings about them."
"That's a stupid reason." Khalid commented as he drank out of one of two nearby water bottles.
"Hey!" X countered though at that moment his communicator gave the familiar beeping sound of an incoming communication. He pulled the yellow device out and flipped it open. "Red X here." He said stiffly.
"X! It's terrible!" Came the panicked voice of Jinx through the communicator.
"Jinx what happened? Where are you?" He nearly shouted back clearly worried about what had happened.
"In the commons room. Come quickly. It's an emergency!" She shouted back before her communication went dead.
"Jinx come in. Jinx answer me! Jinx!" X yelled as he put the communicator back and dashed towards the commons like a high speed black bullet as his black cape flowed like a wild flag behind him.
Khalid shrugged as he took another swig out of his bottle before dropping it in a nearby trashcan. He had no idea what his 'adoptive sister', as he now mentally referred to her, was up too, but he doubted it was anything as urgent as she said. Still he dashed out following X in the case that it was a genuine problem.
X burst into the Titans living room expecting the worst only to find Beast Boy playing a video game and Raven reading a book and both of them now staring at X like he was a mad man.
"Hey guys wasn't something… you know bad happening here?" He asked dumbly
"Nope." Beast Boy said while going back to his game.
"Not unless you consider Beast Boy bleaching as a crime." Raven sarcastically remarked in which Beast Boy let a large burp erupt as his response.
X carefully scanned the room. "Where's Jinx?" and almost if on cue X felt someone jump on his back as pale slender arms wrapped around his neck. Instinctively gripped his attacker and flipped them over so that he now had whoever it was pinned down to the ground facing him. X looked into the pink cat like eyes of his attacker.
"Jinx?" he asked more confused than ever.
"Hi" She playfully answered back. "You know X you don't have to be so forceful with me. Next time why don't you just ask?" She followed with a teasing giggle.
It was at that moment that X realized the compromising position he was in. Jinx had some how managed to keep her hold on X's neck when she was flipped and now held him with her arms around neck like she would a lover. Raven's teeth were grinding so loud that it made a cement mixer seemed quiet as she gave death glares at X for the position he had allowed himself to fall into. True the position they were in would look inappropriate to anyone who had not seen the full turn of events and X was glad that the whole team was present so that no one would draw false conclusions.
"Wait! Where's Khalid?" X thought and again almost if on cue by some high power movie director Khalid walked in. He cast a downward glance at the two teens sprawled in the most suggestive of manners on the floor.
"Hey Big Bro!" Jinx cheerfully greeted the immortal with the affectionate nick name she had recently adopted for him.
"Hello Jinx." He calming nodded in greeting as he shifted his view to X. "Hello X. Am I interrupting something?" He asked with a slightly raised eyebrow and with just a hint of suspicion in his voice.
"This isn't what it looks like!" X immediately answered in an embarrassed tone of voice.
He turned towards Jinx who was shining her ever eternal mischievous smile back up at him. For a moment X found himself not wanting to brake away from her hold. Almost like she had some hold over his mind as well as his body. Though it was only for less then a second it was long enough for Jinx to some how sense the different atmosphere around them. Her face shifted to a strange look of realization as her eyes shined, not with her normal eyes of which portrayed a desire to cause trouble, but with a brilliant shine of pure bliss. X slowly stood up and Jinx, still refusing to let go of his neck, was brought up with him.
"Jinx what were you doing?" X asked in a very assertive, but gentle voice.
"I just wanted to get your attention is all." Jinx replied in a soft voice so unlike her common loud outspoken one. Her cheeks holding a brighter red blush than her makeup usually portrayed. The room went silent was everyone present sensed the sudden shift in the two's relationship.
X stared deeply into Jinx's pink eyes unable to pull away. He was willing to admit that Jinx was attractive. He was willing to admit she was funny. He was even willing to admit he had a crush on her, but never had any of those thoughts made him act like this before. Was it possible? Was he willing to admit he had fallen in love? He didn't know. All X knew was that at that moment he didn't want to let Jinx go. He didn't even care that the possibility of Khalid cutting him open and hanging him up like a party decoration by his intestines was slowly increasing. Nothing matter at that moment… except a whisper in his head. "Aren't you forgetting about someone?" the inner voice asked.
"Yes and no. I'm forgetting about the world, but that's only because I'm looking at my world right now." He mentally answered.
"Oh really?" The voice mockingly asked as an image of Raven passed by in his mind.
"Raven" He broke his eye contact with Jinx and looked up at Raven who was sitting on the sofa and suddenly there was someone else who mattered in his world. Just a few moments ago Raven was glaring at him cursing him with death and now she was even looking at him. Her head was down and there was a look of depression in her eyes deeper than any X had previously seen in her before. Her eyes were glossy. "Is she crying?"
Raven was indeed silently crying to herself. She could not bear to look at the sight of Jinx and X together like they were right before her eyes. "Damn it X! Couldn't you have waited to I at least left the room? At least then I could have had an excuse for being so helpless." She continued to curse X's name in her mind till she felt someone's eyes burling into her. She quickly wiped her eyes with her wrist as she looked up. Her heart skipped a beat. X was looking in her direction. No, not in her direction. He was looking right at her. "Damn it X! Why the hell do you have to look at me now? Stop looking at me. If you keep this up… If you keep this up I won't be able to control myself. My powers. Stop staring." She was silently begging him in her mind to stop staring at her but he never once lifted his gaze.
"Raven" X felt terrible. How could he have forgotten about Raven? The girl who had helped him start the Titans. The girl who supported him in his times of doubt. The first girl to openly accept every dark secret he had and still welcome him with open arms. The girl who had promised never to leave his side. "How could I have forgotten about you Raven? How could I have forgotten all the time we've spent together? For better or for worse you've always been there. How could I have forgotten that day at the amusement park after we defeated Trigon? The sound of your laughter. The beauty of your smile." He unconsciously ran his hand along the right side of his mask where his cheek would have been. "The velvet texture of your lips as you kissed me on my cheek goodnight."
X cast a glance at Jinx who now had a slightly concerned look on her face. She had sensed his change. She knew something was wrong. She just didn't know what. Indeed something was wrong. Very wrong inside X's mind. One part of him wanted to stay there with Jinx and forget about Raven. The other wanted to push Jinx aside and embrace Raven. What was wrong with him? He shouldn't be feeling like this. Batman had warned him time and time again not to fall in love. That it just complicated your job and here he was breaking that rule. Not only had he fallen in love, but he had fallen in love twice, at the same time, with two different women. If Batman found out he would… no if anyone found out outside of the Titans Tower he would be in trouble. Every villain in the tri-state area would be coming after him. No, coming after Raven and Jinx. Double the targets double the pain. Why the hell was he thinking this? It was only making matters worse. He felt like ripping out his hair right then and there.
X gently pushed Jinx away and a look of sadness engulfed her once blissful eyes. She couldn't believe what X was doing, but he had to do this. Anyone who got to close to him would get hurt. They were both in enough danger as it was being Titans. He didn't want to add to that danger by making either one of them his girlfriend. He pushed all the emotions he had experienced just now in the past… How long had it been? Five minutes, one minute, 30 seconds, 5 seconds. He had no clue. But he picked all those feelings up and pushed them aside and any that acted up and wanted to be expressed he mentally beat down with his Bo staff.
He looked back at Jinx, but she could feel that it wasn't the same look he had given her earlier. "You mean you called me out here with a lie about an emergency because you wanted to play a game?" He asked. His voice once again cold and firm as he once again took on the persona of Red X, Teen Titans team leader.
"No, we really did have a problem." She defended.
"And what is it?" X asked with an impatient voice.
"Ah, we're hungry." Jinx answered with her head cast down. She barely realized how foolish and childish she sounded and now X was mad at her. She felt ashamed. Almost like she wanted to cry.
"That's it? Then make something to eat." X hastily answered.
"That's the problem." Beast Boy piped up to relieve Jinx of some stress. "No one wants to cook."
X balled his fist. He was not in the mood for this. To much had already happened and he was not only physically tired from his sparring match with Khalid, but not mentally exhausted from his little emotional burst just now. He was about to say something. He didn't know what. He just knew he was going to. Whatever popped out of his mouth he guessed, but right before a word left his lips he felt a numbing cold on his shoulder. His suit was insulated so he shouldn't have felt it, but this cold, which was in the form of a reassuring hand; seem to shoot past his climate controlled suit.
"Who wants pizza?" the words came out expressionless and cold and sounded so alien from the person who said them.
X looked to his side. The cold hand that had held him back was Khalid's. Though cold, it was an almost comforting grip that said, 'Rest now. I'll take care of the rest.' An approving holler came from the rest of the team. The feeling of hunger overlapping any of the awkward feeling that had been displayed earlier. X cast Khalid another sideway glance as cold immortal walked over to the kitchen phone. Sometimes he wondered if the former demon was a telepath himself. For he always knew when to interrupt with his strange blend of wisdom. Either way it didn't matter right now. Right now he had to relax. He was hungry and he had to sort out all the emotions that had surged out today. He walked over to the couch and flopped his self next to Beast Boy.
"What's the matter?" Beast Boy asked as he looked back at a confused looking Khalid who held a phone to his ear. The rest of the team gave a semi-interested look towards Khalid curious of what could make him give such an expression.
"Hey guys," He began drawing the full attention of the four teens.
"What's the number to the pizza place?"
End Chap. 9
Awww, this chapter was suppose to be "Pizza Night" I had everything planned out but this chapter went long an now I have to push everything back a bit. Aww, and "Pizza Night" had a really romantic scene with Jinx and X under a full moon sky. Aww damn it. Now I have to write a chapter that puts the story back on course. Crap, I hate it when I write sometimes. I get so carried away I forget to stay on track.
Kaolla Su, one of the 'Love Hina' girls. (Don't own that either) Got to love those mad scientist types. The story on how she gets married is actually part of another fanfic I haven't written yet.
Ironically, the story line for the 'Teen Titans X' is actually the last installment of the 'Black House Universe' (Like the Marvel and DC universe just where I make the rules) I'm sure when this story is done everyone's going to have a lot of questions of how and why some characters are together and know each other and what not. So once it's done I plan on working backwards interlinking a bunch of my other fanfics together to explain all those questions. Everything to Su's marriage, in-depth look at Khalid's past, and my favorite cross-over coupling of Inuyasha and Ruki (from D3. Yes I'm weird, but I like them together.) Even loser things like Bonus Stage will be mentioned and explained. Lol, true madness.
Oh, the voice in X's head was just a mental manifestation of his guilt at having forgotten about Raven.
I might have to pull this chapter and rewrite that beginning fight scene. I don't think it came out right.