Author's Note: Here is chapter 28 for all my supportive fans whom I love so much! On another note, I wanted to point out that I try and make the chapters have around the same word count every time (roughly 4,000), and have been working on trying to make them longer. Butttttt sometimes I get too into cliffhangers and other things that I don't really get to make them longer than that. I will say these next few chapters will be much longer since there will be more drama! Thank you for all the support! Please REVIEW! Xoxo
TT
Chapter 28
The past few days were rough. Between the news of Kori leaving, everything going on with Rachel, and the early morning practices, everyone was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Kori and Richard's relationship has been on rocks ever since the day she found out she had to flee earth. They've hardly spoken to each other, not by Kori's choice though. She knew Richard was hurt, and his idea of coping with it was keeping quiet.
Rachel has been extremely hard on herself lately as well. She felt like anything that went wrong was her own fault. Her emotions were getting out of hand, and she could feel Trigon getting stronger because of it.
It was Sunday, and it'd been a week since they arrived to Gotham City. What was supposed to be a relaxed vacation ended up being the exact opposite. They still had three more days until Thanksgiving and had no idea if that was even going to go well.
Right now, Richard was standing on the roof of Wayne Manor. It was nearing lunchtime, but he needed time apart from everyone for a few minutes. Up there, he had a great view of Gotham. It was beautiful, with the clear blue sky and shining sun. This was the place he always came to whenever he was hiding from Bruce.
The thought of Kori leaving earth and never returning was a thought Richard could barely handle. He knew it wasn't her fault; it was her father's wishes. She was royalty as well, which played a huge role in her fleeing.
But Kori had made an imprint on his heart, and hearing her say she "had no purpose" on earth made him feel all kinds of sadness. She couldn't leave, she was not only important to him, but also to their friends.
Richard was also worried because he knew Rachel was feeling the weight of all this news. He also knew she was blaming herself, which wasn't good at all. Trigon would be coming sooner or later, and Richard would be lying if he said they were prepared. The fact of the matter was that not only were they not prepared, but they were all scared.
But something stood above all the fear and doubt: their friendship. The bond that they've created was stronger than anything else.
Bruce had been in the works of developing his own team ever since he'd heard about Trigon. It was like they were preparing for World War III. They basically were, in a twisted, demonic way.
Richard leaned on the railing as the wind blew through his dark hair. He sighed, thinking back to just a few months ago when everything seemed so normal. Even then, nothing was normal but compared to now, it felt more normal that anything.
Normal had never been a useful word in his vocabulary.
"May I join you?"
Richard's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his favorite voice. "Yeah…"
Kori stood next to him and leaned on the railing. The wind blew through her long red locks and the sun made her golden skin glisten. She looked exotic standing there with him, and he couldn't help but steal glances at her every few seconds.
"Richard, I do not like the treatment of silence from you," she finally said without looking at him.
His jaw clenched hearing this and a stabbing pain in his heart took place. "I don't like that you think you have to leave."
She still didn't look at him as she spoke. "You know it is much more complicated than that."
"No, it's not." He turned to face her with seriousness in his voice. "Your father saying you have no purpose here is bullshit."
Kori said nothing, mainly because Richard was right. But there was nothing she could say or do that would change her father's mind. She was going back to Tamaran before this vacation was over.
Kori finally turned to face him. She didn't cry, mainly because she was all cried out. Instead, she reached up and caressed his face. "I will never forget our time together, Richard."
He grabbed her hand and stared at her. Looking at her right now, all he could think about was how she changed his life, his values—his heart. He loved her, and he would never love anyone else as much as he loved her.
"Kori…" he trailed off and watched as she walked away.
He stayed up on the roof for a few more minutes before heading back down to join his friends for lunch.
TT
The gang decided that there was way too much sadness going on in the house so a trip out to the city would do them all good.
After lunch, everyone got ready to spend the day in the city. It was nice because everyone was going, and when the plans were brought up, no one denied.
They took two cars but had somehow managed to convince Bruce to let them go without security. It was a bold move, but Richard believed if they were all together they'd be okay. Plus, it was still early in the day and they'd be out in public. What could go wrong?
The first place they went to was a fun center. It had laser tag, bowling, rock climbing, and a huge arcade. It was Gar's idea to do something like this, and Richard couldn't help but suggest this place, for Bruce had taken him here a good handful of times when he was growing up.
Gar, Rachel, Roy, and Jade were in the arcade playing nearly every game there was. Isaiah and Vic were competing at the rock climbing area with Karen and Kori watching. Alain and Tula were going after them. Jason, Wally, Mal, and Richard decided on a game of bowling.
Everyone was in disbelief when they saw that Jason and Richard had decided to do something together without ripping each other's heads off. However, their bowling score was the exact same and of course, they both had something snide to say about that.
"You bowl like a girl!"
"Yeah that's why the last two I've gotten have been strikes!"
"Don't forget about the gutterball you did before those!"
"What about the fact that you had to have rails for the first three bowls!?"
Their eyes were shooting electricity at each other. Wally and Mal were sitting in the chairs behind them munching on nachos just watching the two bicker. It was pretty entertaining, to say the least.
"You know, if Richard wasn't dating Kori, I would think him and Jason would make a cute couple," Wally said nonchalantly.
Mal slowly turned his head towards the redhead, mid chip-biting and said, "Dude, I worry about what goes on in your head sometimes."
Wally shrugged and soon got up to take his turn. Truth was, Wally was an awful bowler. He only hit three to four pins each time. But he didn't care, he was only in it for the nachos.
He's had four orders of nachos so far.
After the fun center, they all decided on pizza for dinner. They sat out on the deck area that was shaped like a pizza, with the tables acting as pepperonis. It was pretty nice, and the day was going fairly well so far.
By the time they were settled in, they ordered all large pizzas. They decided on a veggie pizza, meat lovers, cheese, pepperoni, and Hawaiian. Everyone got something that they liked, so no one was dissatisfied with the order.
Only a few times did people come up to grab a picture or autograph with Richard. He hated when he got recognized, but he was never rude about it. It got annoying though, seeing as how he was always known as Bruce Wayne's kid.
Fangirls were crazy these days, to the point where they even asked for pictures or hugs or kisses from not only Richard, but also his friends.
The girls weren't exactly too fond of that.
"Man, I'm starving!" Vic said when the aroma of pizza wafted through the air.
"I feel like it's been years since I've had a slice of pizza," Roy said with a yawn. He leaned back in his chair. "I need a nap."
"Oh yeah, that arcade really took it out of ya, huh?" Jade asked sarcastically with her arms crossed.
At this, Gar stood up. "Hey, if anyone should be tired from the arcade, it should be me! It took exactly sixty-three tokens and over a thousand tickets to win that stuffed chicken for Rachel!"
All eyes turned to an unamused-looking Rachel, who had a very large stuffed chicken sitting next to her. She raised an eyebrow and pushed it over slightly.
A few minutes later, their pizzas arrived and they immediately dug in. Amongst eating and conversing with each other, all their worries were forgotten in such a short amount of time.
They weren't focusing on Kori leaving, or Rachel's haunting past, present, and future. They were focused on now, enjoying each other's company and redefining the meaning of friendship.
"We should have a movie night tonight!" Karen suggested.
Richard shrugged indifferently. "We do have a home theatre."
Jason rolled his eyes at this. "Of course you do," he then relaxed his annoyed expression and said, "But I'm down for whatever."
"Something funny!" Wally said.
"No, scary!"
"Romantic."
"What about a documentary?" Everyone turned to look at Isaiah, who smiled cheekily and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Ha ha, just kidding guys. That's so boring."
Something told them that he didn't find documentaries boring at all.
"We'll decide on something when the time comes," Richard said.
As they were enjoying their pizza, they hardly noticed what was going on not too far from them. They heard an ear piercing scream and immediately jumped up from their table. They looked out to the road and saw what was about to happen.
A large city bus was going downhill and was headed straight for a baby stroller that had wandered off in the middle of street.
"This is not good, this is not good!" Wally said with a panicked expression.
Richard took out his grappling hook and jumped up on the ledge of the deck. "GO!" He yelled to his friends and soared down to the street.
Roy, Jade, Alain, and Tula were quick to save any pedestrians that could possibly be in harm's way. Isaiah powered up and melted as many tires as he could on the bus while Vic took off his cover ring to show his true robotic form. He jumped in front of the bus to use his strength to slow it down.
Rachel transported herself from the deck to where Vic was and used her dark magic to pull the emergency brake on the bus. Meanwhile, Richard, Kori, and Gar were quick to save the baby in the stroller.
When they finally stopped the bus, saved the baby, and got to safety, Richard lifted the awning from the stroller to check on the baby but was surprised to find a teddy bear instead.
From a distance, Vic called out to them and said, "Yo! Aren't buses normally supposed to have drivers?"
Karen came out of the bus a few seconds later and added, "And people?"
Richard picked up the teddy bear with a questioning look. "And aren't baby strollers normally supposed to have babies?"
All of a sudden, the teddy bear's head moved to face Richard and it's eyes glowed yellow. Then, the teddy bear spoke. Yes, it spoke.
"Are you pit sniffers normally this stupid?" The teddy bear said and no sooner than a second later its eyes shot out bright yellow lasers.
Richard was quick to throw it out of the way before any harm was done. He then backflipped out of the way and looked around cautiously. He knew instantly they'd been played.
"Show yourself!" Richard yelled to whoever was taunting them.
Some of the gang pushed back all the pedestrians and a few minutes ago, the police had showed up to block off the street. The gang searched around for whoever the enemy was.
All of a sudden, a bright pink flash shot out in rays in line with Richard, Kori, and Gar. They went flying through the air and landed rather harshly on the ground. Then, the empty bus was suddenly picked up above Vic's, Karen's, Isaiah's, and Rachel's heads and was crashing down on them.
Rachel created a forcefield last minute to protect them but the impact still shook them up. The bus was tossed off to the side to reveal one of the enemies.
"You all look like you saw a ghost!" laughed a very large and muscular man with long brown hair and bushy eyebrows.
"It looks like they saw more than just a ghost!" A boy who was pint-sized walked up to the scene. It was more like he crawled up to them, for his small body was hanging from four, giant metal spider legs. "It looks like these amateurs saw an entire graveyard of zombies!"
The gang was shocked as to who their enemies were. They had no idea who they were, just that they'd fooled them and had caused such a ruckus within the city.
Richard stood up and helped Kori and Gar up as well. He eyed the two enemies. He had no idea who they were, he's never seen them in Gotham before. Surely Bruce had no idea who they were either.
"Alright, who's the last one of your little entourage?" Richard called out, knowing there was at least one more to this team. He doubted pint-size and Woolly mammoth were the ones who sent out pink hexes towards them.
Suddenly, a girl with pink hair and pale skin appeared to stand between her two other teammates. "That'd be me, pretty boy." She smirked. "And I'm guessing you're wondering just who we are?"
Richard narrowed his angry eyes at her. He said nothing because he didn't want her to think she had a leg up on them. However, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't the slightest bit nervous.
"We are," the girl purred as her teammates spread out. "The HIVE!"
TT
"The name's Jinx," the girl said as her eyes glowed a vicious pink. "Consider me the worst luck you're ever gonna get."
Jinx raised her hands and sent out another wave of hexes towards Richard, Kori, and Gar. Kori immediately grabbed Richard and flew them out of the way while Gar transformed into a hawk and soared through the air.
"And I'm Gizmo!" The smaller boy smiled evilly as he snuck up behind Vic and placed some kind of device on his back. "Have fun you lug nut!"
Vic yelled out in pain as the device sent an electric shock throughout his body. Karen was immediately at his side. She was about to help him up when Gizmo sent her flying through the air with one of his spider legs.
Jason acted fast and caught Karen before she hit the ground. He charged for Gizmo but was soon hit by what felt like a truck. He tumbled across the pavement and looked up to see the bushy eyebrowed guy cracking his knuckles.
"Don't forget about me," he drawled with a smirk. "Mammoth is the name."
Mammoth then picked up a nearby car and chucked it towards Alain, Tula, Roy, and Jade. The four of them didn't have time to react, for their biggest concern was the huge crowd of people behind them.
Suddenly, the car was enveloped in black magic and tossed aside. Rachel's eyes glowed black as she then used her magic to knock Mammoth clear across the road with a streetlight. He tumbled over a few times before stopping right outside of a game store.
Jinx narrowed her eyes at Rachel and they flashed pink for a split second. The ground beneath Rachel began to tremble and crack open.
"Rachel, move!" Richard yelled.
It was too late, though, for the ground split wide open. Rachel felt herself falling into the deep dark abyss and the feeling of panic rose inside of her. Everything around her was pitch black.
All of a sudden, she felt something latch onto her shoulders and begin bringing her above ground again. She looked above her to see a green pterodactyl ascending back to where their friends were.
Once Rachel was brought back to Richard and them, the rest of the gang gathered around. Gar morphed back into his green self, and they all stood together staring at the three new enemies.
Jinx stood not too far away with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. She laughed out loud and said, "How cute. Your little friend group couldn't beat us even with our hands tied behind our backs."
Richard's scowl turned into a smirk as he replied with, "Oh yeah? Let's test that theory out."
They all charged for the three enemies. First, Richard, Vic, Roy, Mal, and Kori all headed for mammoth. They were sure all five of them stood a solid chance against one guy. He may have been huge, and as tough as a brick wall—but there was always a way through a brick wall.
Richard sent kick after kick, and punch after punch at Mammoth. He dodged Mammoth's attacks expertly and managed to squeeze in a surprise right-hook. Mammoth stumbled back slightly.
Next, Kori sent an extremely powerful punch to his face, sending him soaring across the air. Before he could hit the ground, Mal opened up a portal and Mammoth flew into it. Within seconds another portal but on the other end of the street opened up and Mammoth came flying out.
He tumbled across the pavement and was about to get up when suddenly an electrically-charged arrow shot right into his back. He yelled out in pain and as the bright blue electrical currents shot throughout his entire body.
Vic then charged for the man-beast and yelled out, "Nice shot, Roy!" He smirked and slammed into Mammoth with his metal-plated shoulder.
Mammoth growled as he rear-ended a car. He was hunched over and breathing heavy. He looked about beat, and as the five of them gathered around, they gave him a look as if to ask if he really wanted to continue.
Meanwhile, Karen, Gar, Wally, Alain, and Jason teamed up on Jinx. She was acrobatically talented, so getting to her was a little more challenging. She was sly, with fast reflexes as well.
First, Karen was trying her best to land one of her stings on the pink-haired girl. She even tried hand-to-hand combat but failed when Jinx landed a kick to her chin. Karen then fell backwards and clutched the injured spot.
Gar was quick to change into a Gorilla, slamming his fists into the concrete hard enough to make it shake and crack. Jinx did nothing but laugh, backflip into the air, and send a wave of hexes towards Gar. It seemed as if there were question marks around his head as he wondered what was about to happen. He then noticed a series of street lights that were sliced in half beginning to tumble down on him.
Gar quickly morphed into a turtle and poked his head back inside. He barely missed the falling streetlights and decided to stay like a turtle for a few more moments.
Alain charged for Jinx saying, "Not so fast!" He used his hydrokinesis powers and sent a wave of water from a nearby hydrant towards her.
In a matter of seconds, Jinx was hit with the powerful water and she let out a grunt. She rolled over a car and landed on her butt. She was drenched and angry.
Before she could get up, Jason threw one of his knives down on her long sleeve. She tugged at it but it wouldn't budge. Once she flashed her eyes pink, the knife dispersed but her sleeve ripped. As soon as she was up, though, Jason sent a flying-kick to her face. She stumbled backwards and clutched the sore spot.
All of a sudden, a gust of wind hit her like a sharp object and her body did a complete 180. She almost fell to the ground but was caught by a pair of arms.
Wally looked down at Jinx with a cocky smile. "Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark."
Jinx scowled. "Let go of me you idiot!"
Wally made a pained expression. "You know, you'd be way hotter if you weren't such a bitch." He smiled down at her.
Jinx let out a frustrated scream and her eyes glowed pink. Before Wally knew it, he was sent through a shop window.
"Wally!" Karen yelled as she quickly went to aide him.
Jinx looked over to see Gizmo battling Rachel, Isaiah, Jade, and Tula. He wasn't doing too bad, considering his size and the number of people against him.
Gizmo was specialized in all things technological. However, Jinx was fed up with all the fighting that she raised her hands high in the air and sent out one big hex.
The earth shook for three seconds too long and the Main Street of Gotham City crackled. Richard and the gang froze in their spots. All the fighting ceased for almost a full minute. The pedestrians were in full panic mode as the police tried their best to keep everyone safe.
Jinx waited for Gizmo and Mammoth to make their way back to her before facing Richard and his friends once more. She was thoroughly pissed, but that didn't stop the evil wheels from turning in her head.
"Enough of this!" She yelled. "Give us the one we came for, or I'll have to resort to plan B." As she said the last part, she couldn't help but let an evil smile spread across her face. At this, Mammoth also smiled but ran off somewhere.
Richard perked up, torn between facing Jinx or not letting Mammoth get away. He stared back at Jinx and said, "So you're working with Slade! Well sorry to disappoint you, but you won't be getting what you want now or ever!"
Jinx shrugged. "I thought you might say that." She crossed her arms and smiled as she looked off to where Mammoth once stood.
The gang's eyes followed hers and soon saw Mammoth come walking back to his own teammates, but this time he was dragging a girl with him.
The girl was gagged, tied up with rope, and looked like she'd been tortured for a few days or so. She could barely walk and Mammoth was dragging her by her tied-up hands.
The group's eyes grew wide with surprise and this was definitely a game changer. Their hearts sunk into their stomachs as they saw just what plan B was.
Isaiah shot forward, his eyes angry for a fight. Vic and Roy held him back. Richard grunted, for he could not believe this was happening.
The girl they'd somehow managed to capture and use against them was none other than one of their own: Toni Monetti.
