Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
Twenty Twenty
Chapter Eleven
The night was silent.
CRASH!!
Well, it had been silent.
"Keep it down, ya morons!" Three dark figures made their way through the freshly "opened" window of the local GameStop.
"Us? You're the one shouting!" Two male voices could be heard bickering with one another until another voice piped up.
"Shut up, already, both of you!" Undeniably female, a little whiny sounding, actually. The two men stopped at once and all three instantly began raiding the shop.
"So, uh, what exactly are we looking for?" the first male asked, his voice a little dumb sounding compared to his companions.
"Microchips." A second male supplied, his voice rough and curt.
"Microchips… right. Microchips. Microchips…" The first man repeated to himself over and over while the girl hissed,
"Do they even keep microchips at GameStop?" the second man pulled something off a top shelf.
"Probably in game consoles and stuff." He answered, no longer bothering to be quiet. No alarms had gone off and he was beginning to feel comfortable with their action.
"Right, game consoles…" she muttered. Video games had never been her thing and she wasn't exactly sure what he meant.
"Is this one?" the first man asked again. In his hand a tiny green square of metal and wired circuitry sat as the other two gathered around to gawk at it.
"…I think so." The girl mentioned and the second guy sneered.
"Not bad." he clapped the other man on the back, who in turn gave him a grin filled with crooked and chipped teeth. The first man grimaced.
"So," the girl ran a hand through her hair, her high voice immediately catching the attention of her companions, "is that it? Are we done? Can we go?"
The two men stared, blinked, then shrugged.
"That was easy enough." One scoffed as each of them turned to crawl back out through the broken window.
Upon seeing a shadow of a tall figure leaning against the parking meter just outside the store they froze.
"Who the hell're you?!" The man with chipped teeth demanded. The figure slowly and lazily pushed himself off the meter and stood straight, his hands crossed over his chest. He sighed.
"I, ah… I take it you guys are new to this whole 'robbing a store' thing, huh?" he asked, his tone between indifference and amusement.
The woman hissed, "Shut up! Who do you think you are?!" The figure sighed again.
Were they serious? They had no idea who he was?
With one final bored sigh and a peeved look in his eye, Arsenal drew his bow, took an arrow out of its quiver and aimed slowly and surely at the three clueless fools. They in turn all panicked, "He's got a bow and arrow! He's crazy! Run!" Where were they supposed to go when they were still inside the store and Arsenal was blocking their only exit? He released the bowstring and watched a net explode around the two men, ensnaring them easily. The woman, on the other hand, with quicker reflexes managed to let out a yelp and dive behind a display case just in time to avoid being captured.
Dumb luck. Arsenal thought, though this would make things a little more annoyingly troublesome if he didn't get her soon. Arsenal stepped cautiously through the window, idly wondering what was taking the cops so long to get there, and moved past the two ensnared men on the floor, choosing to ignore their curses and remarks.
She was so easy to hear, her sharp breathing, whimpering, all of it. She had no idea what she was doing and was scared out of her mind. The woman stayed behind the bookshelf, her knees drawn to her chest as she sweat bullets. Arsenal looked at her and felt sorry. She probably didn't know what she was getting herself into when she decided to do this.
"So," he mentioned casually, watching the girl tense as she slowly craned her neck to face him. She screamed again and tried to crawl away. Arsenal watched her make a break for the window and grimaced as she sliced her thigh trying to get out hastily. He jogged after her, diving through the window and rolling to land on one knee. His bow drawn once again he readied another arrow. He shot.
And this time he hit his target. She let out a cry as she tumbled to the ground, also caught in a net and tried squirming away. Arsenal strode up to her, and hearing him close in on her she began babbling, "No! No! Please don't hurt me! I needed the money! I'm sorry!" Arsenal picked her up and began carrying her back to the store, only half-listening to her ramblings about how sorry she was. He placed her down by the entrance, "Please! Please don't put me in jail! I can't go to jail! I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "We needed the money…" Arsenal's jaw was taught as he picked up the other two and pulled them outside to wait for the police to come pick them up.
All three were a mess of snot and tears, sobs and cries, Arsenal grimaced. He felt a little sorry for them, really. Just a couple of poor blokes that got caught up in something stupid and careless. Maybe they would get lucky and the jury would go easy on them. He briskly looked around and wondered how no one had been woken up or come out to see what was happening yet.
He sighed. It must have been about two in the morning and he was tired. After he had left Rachel's work he had gone to the gym for some much needed working out. Then, since he was bored, there was nothing better to do, and because he hadn't done it in a while, he decided to go on patrol, expecting it to be another uneventful night. And he was right, for the most part. He was just on his way home when he heard the window crash and decided to check it out. Perhaps it was a good thing he did…
"For crying out loud!" one of men cried hysterically, "it was just one microchip! We didn't touch the cash! Please, let us go, mister! We'll never do it again!"
Oh, he believed that. Curiously Arsenal looked back into the shop. Did they really not touch the cash register? After muttering a "stay here" he wandered back into the shop. Ignoring the crunch of glass beneath his boots he wandered over to the pay counter and frowned.
They were right. The money had not been touched… But if that were the case then…
Rushing back out into the street, Arsenal said in a serious and hard tone, "What do you keep talking about 'you needed the money'? What did you steal?"
"A microchip! That's it! You made me drop it! Go look for yourself." Arsenal looked back into the store, and although it was hard to see in the dark he caught a glimpse of something that shone briefly on the ground and went to pick it up. Indeed, a microchip. He hadn't lied. A tiny one at that, too. He walked back to continue questioning the thieves.
"This is it?" They all nodded, "What did you want with this?" Arsenal sounded genuinely perplexed, and he was. The three sort of responded with "Um…" and "Well…"
"What did you want this for?" Arsenal crouched to their level, suddenly hearing sirens somewhere in the distance, he noted the looks of panic on each of the three's faces.
"Well… he told us to break into an electronics store, see? He said steal a microchip, but nothing else!" The girl spoke, her voice getting higher and more rushed as the sirens got louder. They were right around the corner now… "So we did! He said he'd pay us!" The cops were skidding to a halt, "We needed the money…!" they all began sobbing again and Arsenal realized they left out an important part of the story.
"Wait, who's he?!" A cop was getting out the car, "Tell me!" he whispered frantically, but instead they all crowed and cried, tears and mucus everywhere, they were a mess.
A short police officer jogged up to Arsenal, a sorry smile on his face, "Uh, sorry it took so long to get here… The alarm at the station didn't go off and we didn't even know what was happening until we got a call from one of the neighbors complaining about a couple noisemakers. He seemed to size up the three criminals and frowned. They were loud and scared and… looking mighty pathetic.
"Please don't take us to jail!" The pleaded one final time as two other officers surrounded them and herded them into the back seat of their vehicles, red and blue lights still flashing.
"So, uh… did they say anything…?" Arsenal frowned, "How much did they take?"
"This." he placed the item in the officer's outstretched hand and stepped back. The man inspected the little piece of technology and snorted.
"That's it?" Arsenal nodded solemnly. "Well, I'll be." He chuckled and placed the evidence in a pouch for safe keeping. He looked back at Arsenal who easily stood six inches taller than his and asked, "Did they say anything? Motivation?"
Arsenal waited for a second, then responded, "No. Nothing." The officer sighed, "They cried and screamed about how they were sorry and didn't want to go to jail… if that helps." Arsenal tried, shrugging but the officer was already walking back to his car.
"Thanks anyway, Arsenal." He gave one last dismissive wave and drove off with the other two cars that had accompanied him. Arsenal stood in the same place they left him.
He said steal a microchip and nothing else!
Arsenal grimaced.
He said he'd pay us.
Who was he? Arsenal sighed. Just what he needed. A freaking mystery.
"Wonderful."
The next morning…
Roy sat at the kitchen table, shadows under his eyes as he dully drank his coffee. Lian watched him curiously. He stared back at her and she gave a sort of smile and took a bite of her toast. Chewing she pointed to her eye and pointed to Roy's. He sighed.
"Daddy's tired." Lian nodded, looking like she understood and took another bite of her toast. "How was your stay at Grandma's house?" Lian shrugged indifferently. He nodded, taking another drink of his coffee and exhaling. "She said you got a new dress you want to show me." He could have laughed at how quickly Lian's expression changed from tranquil to annoyed. She glared at her plate, growled and left the table. She came back a few minutes later carrying the blue dress with her.
It was… cute… That's what Roy assumed a woman would think if they saw it. He was not really obligated to make those kinds of decisions. It looked like it was more for spring than the upcoming winter, and Roy hoped she wouldn't grow out of it by then. "Do you like it?"
Lian quietly stared at him before shaking her head slowly. Roy nodded. He thought not. From what he could tell, Lian was going to be a tomboy when she got older. Things like dresses and bows didn't interest Lian, she felt much more comfortable in jeans and overalls. Inwardly he hoped that would make it easier along the road as she got older and into the teen years.
Lian had put the dress on one of the couches and scrambled back into her chair to finish her breakfast which consisted of toast and strawberries and cream oatmeal. Roy sat back and stretched, glancing at the microwave clock. He looked back at his daughter, "So what do you wanna do today?"
"I dunno." Lian answered quietly. Roy thought for a second.
His eyes brightened, "You want to go to a movie?" Lian shrugged.
"Ok."
Author's Note: Completely lame way to end a chapter, I know. I probably disappointed all of you with the lack of Raven in this chapter. You all sounded so excited about that, and I'm sorry! That first scene took way longer than I expected it to and I didn't really know how to transition smoothly from all of that to a Rae/Roy scene. I had trouble doing the little conversation between Lian and Roy, but I was trying to show that Lian is far less hostile than she was not terribly long ago. How was this chapter? Like I said, probably a disappointment, huh? Raven might not be in the next chapter either. I'm thinking about bringing in Kori... But if I don't bring Kori in, Raven will definitely be in it, alright?
Oh yeah! That side story I mentioned a while ago (Wow, a whole one person supplied me with feedback on that, a big thanks to Star Melody, by the way.), I have decided to title it: In the Dark.
Here's the summary:
Robin watched his parents die. Raven knew her mother didn't love her. Those were the secrets they kept in the dark.
Sound good? Sound lame? Have any better ideas? Opinions? Let me know.
Anyways, thanks for reading.