Sharon hadn't much wanted to come to the ball, at first. She hadn't enjoyed herself in the slightest at last years gathering, spending most of the evening in a corner and trying not to be noticed. The Wickershams were one of Jump City's oldest, richest and most snobbish families- and the youngest daughter Emily Wickersham was a fine example of their breed. At the school they both attended, Emily was always quick with a remark about Sharon's height or her hair or her families (relative) lack of wealth. If she was lucky, they'd be alone when this happened, otherwise Emily's cronies would pile on, making her humiliation that much worse. Still, her dad was an up-and-comer in the city government, having been made head of the city's Sanitation department this year (and oh, wouldn't the snobs have something to say about THAT). So her family was pretty much obligated to attend, unless her dad wanted to commit career suicide.
It actually hadn't been so bad this year. A few of her friends had attended too, meaning she wasn't alone all night. The weather was better this year, meaning that the party had spread from the ballroom out into the garden, which in turn meant that the whole affair felt much less crowded. The food was better, too, less escargot and more cake. As everyone knows, the easiest way to improve anything is 'more cake'.
More than that, though, the Titans had decided to come, which meant that the Wickersham family spent their night dancing attendance on a group of heroes who obviously didn't much like them. Emily spent the whole night trying to cut in between Robin and Starfire, apparently under the belief that she could take the alien girl's place as Robin's girlfriend. This was fine with Sharon, as the wealthy girl's embarrassing obsession meant there was no time for her to pick on Sharon. Best of all, though, she'd actually gotten a chance to dance with Cyborg! She'd always thought the mechanical hero was handsome, and he'd been just as good a dancer as he was a fighter. He was charming, too, which was a very nice bonus. She'd even worked up the courage to slip the hero her number, telling him to call her sometime- she didn't really think he'd do it, but hey you never knew your luck, right?
So, when the party was interrupted by a green rhinoceros, Sharon was disappointed- terrified, because seriously that thing was huge and it was smashing the whole place up and could crush her to paste without even noticing, but also disappointed. She found herself rooted to the spot as Cyborg grappled the beast, while a blonde girl in a weird get up fidgeted around- it seemed like she couldn't decide what she should be doing. She was dressed like one of the Titans, but Sharon couldn't recall seeing her on the team before. Although, she DID kinda look like that rock-girl who'd hung around the Titans for a few months' way back when…
Cyborg pulled away and launched a powerful looking punch at the rhino's head. Before it could land, the rhino vanished to be replaced by the former Titan Beastboy, and the blow whiffed over his head. Sharon had heard that some of the Titans had turned evil, had even seen stories about them on the news. But she hadn't really BELIEVED it until now- she'd figured it would turn out to be alien duplicates, or another scare story from the news people. She just couldn't imagine one of Jump City's protectors turning on them. Seeing the two superhumans battling really brought the truth home to her. It also made her decide that it would be a good idea to leave the area.
As she moved towards the door, however, she saw a figure emerge from the shadows. It wore a dark outfit with metal pieces and a metal mask, half black and half orange. The man moved silently across the room towards the blonde, quietly drawing a sword as he approached her back. Some noise he made, or maybe just intuition, caused the blonde to turn around. Her eyes widened as she recognized her attacker, and she threw herself backwards to avoid the falling blade.
"TERRA! You can't fight him in here! Get outside!" Cyborg cried. His opponent took advantage of his distraction, changing into a green ape and hurling Cyborg across the room. Before he rejoined the battle, the green gorilla glanced at the blonde girl (Terra, Sharon supposed) with a sad look in his eyes.
Terra dodged another blow, still moving backwards towards the door leading to the garden, but her opponent (Sharon guessed it had to be Slade, this guy had 'arch-villain' written all over him) pressed the attack. He launched attack after attack, all of them powerful strikes with nothing held back. Terra dodged well but couldn't avoid the strikes entirely. Soon, there were gashes in her costume, and she was bleeding in a few places. Perhaps it was this last that caused her to stumble just a few feet from the door. Slade loomed above her, his sword raised for a killing stroke.
Now, Sharon had never considered herself a particularly brave girl. Being the tallest girl- hell, the tallest STUDENT- in one's class quickly teaches the value of staying quietly in the background. For a brief moment, she considered running- this wasn't her fight, she wasn't a superhero and the costumed girl could presumably take care of herself. But, seeing the other girl helpless on the floor caused something inside her to snap. How many times had the Titans jumped into fights to protect total strangers? She had to do something.
She reached over to the nearby buffet table and hefted the crystal punchbowl. With a heave, she sent the weighty bowl flying into Slade's back. The fine crystal exploded when it struck the swordsman's back, splattering him with bright pink punch and peppering his costume with shards of glass. The impact put him off balance, causing his sword to miss its target. The madman turned to look at the girl who had dared to do such a thing to him. The funny thing was, Sharon would later reflect, Slade hadn't even looked angry or even offended but more bewildered- as though a civilian assaulting him with a punchbowl was completely incomprehensible to him. Sharon pushed past her fear and yelled "RUN GIRL!"
Terra didn't need to be told twice. Stumbling to her feet, the blonde girl threw herself through the doors and out into the night air. Beastboy made no move to stop her; indeed, he actually appeared to slide out of her way. Slade, having overcome his shock at the surprise attack, was barely a step behind her, but he was already far too late. As soon as she landed on the ground, her eyes began to blaze with golden light. From all around her, stones and rocks flew through the air to rest around her form. The stones combined, melding together like wet clay, to form a kind of armor. Soon, an eight-foot tall golem of stone stood where Terra had been. Slade barely had time to bring his sword up before he was under attack. Stone arms battered at his blade, but the villain was somehow able to block the assault and circle around the golem, looking for some weak point.
Sharon decided that as interesting as this was, it really didn't have anything to do with her. She'd done what she could already- more than anyone could have reasonably expect her to do, really. Now it was time to get herself to safety. She would go meet up with her parents and get as far away from here as possible. Maybe tomorrow she would tell her friends how she'd saved a Titan's life- or maybe not, after all who would believe her? But first, she had to get out of here ASAP. However, before she could reach the door that lead out of the ballroom, a black and purple blur crashed through them, rolling across the floor until it came to rest at the center of the dance floor. Slowly, it rose up, revealing itself to be a hooded girl- Raven.
"Nice shot, Starfire. But it won't catch me twice." The gray girl called, as black spheres rose into the air around her. She glanced around her at the people "It's about to get very dangerous in this house. If I were you, I'd head out the back way. It'd be…"
Whatever else the hooded girl wanted to say was cut off by a bolt of green energy that flew towards her, only to be blocked by the floating balls. A second bolt missed its target entirely, crashing into a nearby column and shattering it into so much stone debris. At that point, Sharon decided that Raven might have a point, and fled back outside. Brawling metahumans might be dangerous, but they were less dangerous than a collapsing house.
She saw her parents at the far end of the garden, standing by the open gate. She was relieved to see that they seemed alright- her daddy was looking flushed and her mother looked like she'd run a marathon but otherwise they seemed fine. Spying her, they began to wave to her, urging her to come join them. Sharon would've loved to have joined them but unfortunately her path to safety was once again blocked by the battling metahumans. Beastboy and Cyborg continued to tussle, neither able to definitively gain the advantage over the other- the mechanical hero's strength and weaponry negated by the changeling's sheer versatility and speed. Occasionally, one or the other would manage to land a blow and Sharon would swear she could HEAR each impact, so powerful were the attacks.
A little further away, Terra and Slade continued their duel. The mercenary seemed to have changed his goals, however, and appeared to be trying to escape the fight while Terra used her new, massive stone body to keep him from doing so.
Sharon wasn't stupid. She knew that getting in the middle of a superhero battle was just about the stupidest thing anyone could do. But on the other hand, staying out here wasn't a much better option. It was only a matter of time before someone started tossing around energy blasts or something, and she had no desire to end her life as collateral damage. She glanced at the path to the gate- she guessed it couldn't be more than fifty or sixty feet. She'd always done well at running (thanks to her long legs), and she figured she could make that distance in a few seconds. If she was careful, she'd be able to avoid the battling metahumans and make it safely to her parents.
Just as Sharon was psyching herself up to make a run for the gate, Slade managed to break away. The masked man dashed for Beastboy and Cyborg, clearly intent on tipping the balance in the green boy's favor. Terra thrust out an arm and launched a baseball sized stone at her erstwhile opponent. Slade managed to dodge it, and the stone struck the wall of the manor… before rebounding into Sharon's head.
Pain.
Darkness.
Sometime later, Sharon opened her eyes- and immediately slammed them shut again, as the harsh light seared into her retinas. From somewhere to her side, she heard the scraping of a chair against tile before she felt a familiar set of arms wrap around her.
"Oh, darling you're awake!" her mother cried, in a voice thick with tears. "We were so worried! We saw the rock hit you and we were afraid…"
"Never mind that. She's awake and that's all that matters now" her father's voice said. Sharon smirked. Her dad was using that special, extra-brusque tone he always used when he didn't want to show how he was feeling- and which generally meant he was a hair away from crying. "Now, Sharon, what do you remember from before you were knocked out?"
Sharon finally opened her eyes, doing it slowly to let them acclimate to the light and to give herself time to marshal her thoughts. Glancing around, she saw she was in a hospital; the off-white walls, spotless floor and tell-tale smell of disinfectant told her that, as did the fact that she was lying on a hospital bed. There were her mom and dad, looking down at her- dad still short and round, mom petite and skinny (no one quite knew where Sharon's height came from). Seeing her parents' expectant looks, she began to recite.
"Well, we were at that stupid ball tonight. Emily and her cronies were too busy kissing up to the Titans to be awful. I danced with one of the Titans and gave him my number. Then the other Titans, the bad ones, burst in. I threw a bowl of punch at a supervillain…"
"You WHAT?!" Her dad squawked, all attempts at stoic calm abandoned. "Sharon! What in God's name were you thinking?!"
"That I couldn't just let him kill that girl he was attacking!" Sharon retorted, and her father fell silent. She knew he'd be angry but that, in the end, he'd agree that there was nothing else she could have done. "Let's see… I tried to go out the front door, but Raven and Starfire were fighting, and I couldn't get by them safely. Plus, the way they were throwing around fireballs and magic, I figured they'd bring the roof down sooner or later. So, I went out the back and saw you both out by the back gate. I tried to run through the battle to get to you, but something hit me in the head and then I woke up here."
"That seems right" her mother said, breathing a sigh of relief. "At least your memory seems to OK."
"It is." Said a heavyset man in a white coat as he strode in the door- her doctor, presumably. He stopped at the side of Sharon's bed and looked carefully in her eyes. "Her eyes are focusing well, and she's definitely lucid. I still want her to go for a brain scan tomorrow morning, but on the whole I think she's in the clear. Congratulations, young lady, you were VERY lucky tonight."
"You call catching a rock to the head and getting knocked out lucky?" Sharon scoffed.
The doctor bent over to look her in the eye, his face severe. "Listen to me very carefully. You were caught up in a metahuman battle. You were struck in the side of the head by a rock the size of my fist. This normally would have either dented your skull or broken it, either of which would have been catastrophic if not fatal. You were then knocked unconscious for several hours, and despite what Hollywood would have you believe, that is a VERY serious matter. Being knocked out is the result of your brain being slammed into the inside of your skull. Finally, you were unconscious IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE. The fact that you managed to get through all that with nothing more than a headache is beyond lucky and nearly into the realm of miracles."
"Geez, when you put it that way maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, huh?" Sharon joked weakly. Suddenly, the reality of the last few hours hit home. She could have died so easily…
"We'll split the winnings fifty-fifty" the doctor retorted with a smirk, rising back to his feet. "I'll schedule you for a full battery of tests tomorrow morning- not too early, because you still need to rest, but we'll try to get you home by mid-afternoon at the latest. Good night."
"I'm sorry I worried you guys" Sharon said once the doctor left the room. "It can't have been easy to watch me get hurt, especially when it was doing something stupid."
"Sharon, darling, nothing you did was stupid. Reckless, perhaps, but not stupid." Her mom said, taking a seat on her bed. "You were right to save that girl- oh stop glaring, Richard, you know she was- and there really wasn't much else you could do in the garden either. You did your best to stay out of the danger zone, and keep out of the fighting. When it was clear you had no choice, you tried to make it to us. You couldn't have known that the rock would bounce off the wall and hit you. It was just, well, just bad luck."
"Your mother's right" Dad sighed, patting Sharon on the shoulder. "You did a very brave thing back there. You acted like a true Wainwright, a proud member of our brave family line!"
"Didn't you tell me your ancestors were all bookkeepers, clerks and lawyers?" Mom said with smirk.
"True." Dad admitted "But they were BRAVE bookkeepers, clerks and lawyers! They filled out their paperwork without fear and filed their documents boldly!"
Hearing her parents laughing felt good, like the night was really over and she was safe. Sharon's eyelids got heavier and heavier, and soon she felt herself drifting off to sleep.
The next morning was reassuringly normal. She was woken by the nurse for breakfast, a bowl of oatmeal (which tasted like glue) and some fruit (which somehow managed to have no taste at all). She went for a CAT scan and a series of tests. It was all very boring. When everything came back clear, the doctors decided that she was fit to be released. Her parents were relieved and happy, even more so than Sharon herself. When she went to her room to get her belongings, however, normality and boredom went right out the window. Sitting on her bed waiting for her were Robin and Terra. She hadn't expected that, and neither had her parents judging by the way they goggled at the young heroes.
Robin cleared his throat and rose from the bed. He stuck out his chest in what was clearly meant to be an 'official heroic' pose. "Ms. Wainwright. We are glad to hear that you escaped unharmed from last night's unpleasantness. On behalf of the Teen Titans, I would like to extend our thanks to you for your assistance last night. Your intervention saved the life of one of our team mates, and reminded us of why we are proud to call this city home."
There was a long, silent moment as Sharon and her family stared at the Boy Wonder. In return, Robin became increasingly uncomfortable, shuffling his feet and twitching his fingers. In the end, the awkwardness was broken by Terra who gave a short laugh.
"Shame you guys didn't like that little speech. Robin spent, like, the entire trip over here practicing it." Terra said. Robin shot her a look but then gave a small, embarrassed smile and a nod.
"Seriously, though" Robin said, his manner and words much more relaxed now "We really do owe you our thanks. You came through for Terra and for the rest of us when we needed help."
"Well, it just seemed like the right thing to do." Sharon replied with a shrug. "I couldn't let her die. But, if you really do want to thank me, remind Cyborg that he's got my number. It'd be nice to go dancing with him again sometime. He's really light on his feet for such a big guy, and I had fun talking to him. Plus I don't have to strain my neck looking down at him, like I do with shorter guys. Um, no offense, Robin. Sir."
"I'll pass that message along." Robin chuckled. "Terra, you wanted to say something to her?"
In response, Terra moved to Sharon and gave the taller girl a hug. "Thank you so much for saving my life. When I saw that sword coming down at me, I thought it was all over. I am SO sorry I hurt you- I've been working on controlling my powers but I guess I forgot to take ricochets into account. It's typical of me, really. Someone saves my life, and I go and put her in the hospital because I'm stupid. I hope you can accept my apology."
Sharon put a hand on the other girls head and pushed her back a pace so they could look one another in the eyes. "Don't be down on yourself. It was a chaotic situation, and everyone makes mistakes. I made a big one that night, when I saved you by hurling the punchbowl at Slade." Terra looked up at her, shock and hurt in her eyes. Sharon smiled, as her own eyes danced with mischief. "After all, my dad always told me to never be the first one to throw a punch."
Both of Sharon's parents laughed at that, as they had the same taste for puns that she did. Robin snorted and covered his mouth to hide a smile. Terra pushed away from Sharon's arms and turned her back on her, arms folded in disgust.
"I'm not sorry anymore" huffed the geokine.
A/N
Sorry this chapter took so long. See, I started this chapter months ago, but in a completely different format. It started as an ordinary chapter, describing events from an omniscient third person perspective and jumping between different fights to show what was going on. It was seriously like pulling teeth to start with, as I had to force every sentence onto the page, especially describing the battle. I was about halfway done when I had an idea- what if I told the story from the point of view of one of the civilians at the party? I looked back on the last chapter and decided that Sharon would be an interesting choice.
So, I scrapped everything I'd written before and started over. Naturally, that took time and so this chapter wound up being later than I'd intended.