Mount Justice
August 8, 2017
21:10
It didn't take long for Noah to want to explore the base, hours passing since his arrival and introduction to the young team.
Well, mostly young… Noah thought. Most of the members on the team happened to be fifteen (Noah and Yessenia) or seventeen (Victoria and McKenzie), except Logan, who was a month shy from turning twenty. I wonder why he hasn't joined the Justice League yet, Noah continued pondering about the eldest team member, entering the training area.
The smacking of skin against pleather was loud, echoing in the large room in a repetition. Noah remained silent as he watched Victoria box against the defenseless punching bag, her fists making quick and steady contact with the object. It was late at night, so it surprised the young bat to see anybody working out, especially as vigorously as Victoria.
"Want to spar?" Victoria's sudden question had somewhat startled Noah; however, he confidently left his position from the shadowed corner.
The thudding continued, Victoria barely breaking a sweat. "Maybe later," Noah replied. Victoria grabbed the bag, pulling it towards her body as Noah stepped up to her. "Do you normally train this late at night?" Even though he just met her, her health was important to him. The girl shrugged indifferently, pushing the bag away as she advanced to the benches.
She picked up her chilled water bottle, "I usually don't, but this case we are working on has everyone on edge." She sat on the bench, taking a sip of the beverage. "Especially me, considering I'm in charge of it," Victoria added with a chuckle.
It was obvious the girl was stressed about the deaths occurring, feeling solely responsible for solving the case; however, she didn't reveal as much to Noah, instead choosing to be direct instead of emotional.
"You're the leader?" Noah asked in light shock, sitting down next to the girl.
Victoria, once more, shrugged her shoulders. "Everyone has their own cases, there really isn't a leader," Victoria revealed, resulting in Noah's confused expression. The Italian elaborated for the new member, "Obviously, Logan is in charge, but he doesn't like bossing us around. He gives us the chance to lead our own missions, and this one happens to be mine."
Noah's leg began bobbing up and down as he continued the conversation, "Why doesn't he accept a permanent leader position?" Out of everyone he met, Logan was the one to feel like an enigma to him. Even McKenzie slowly opened up to personal conversation with him, but the older male only talked about mission business.
Victoria stood up from her seated position, making her way back up towards the bag. Her work out session continued as she replied, "He did accept it for a while, but Batman made him quit. Felt it put too much pressure on him." Victoria's knuckles, which were raw pink from the friction against the bag, hit the seam, splitting the bag open. "Damn," the girl cursed, waving her hand in pain.
Noah chuckled at the action. "It's okay, I do that all the time too." Victoria flashed a smile in his direction as she removed the bag from its chain, throwing it in a stack with other discarded punching bags.
The rest of the team had found themselves in the kitchen, the two girls struggling to make cake from scratch. Yessenia cracked open an egg against the bowl, the yolk and the shell falling into it.
"This sucks! We should have just bought a premade cake," Yessenia chortled, using her free hand to scoop out the shell from their batter. McKenzie snickered quietly from behind her hand. The two girls weren't as close as Yessenia and Victoria, but McKenzie felt comfortable around the other girl.
"Want to add nuts to the batter?" McKenzie asked politely, stirring the ingredients together while Yessenia prepared the oven.
"Maybe not, we don't know if Noah is allergic to them or not," Yessenia replied, turning to the girl as she wiped her hands on her apron.
Logan entered the kitchen, his work bag slung across his back, "According to his file he isn't allergic to any type of nuts," the boy informed. It was no secret that the medic had memorized each of their medical records, but to know Noah's already was impressive to Yessenia.
He poured himself hours-old coffee into a travel mug, Yessenia scowling at the action.
"You're going back to work?" She complained, "You only had ten hours off shift. We were hoping to have a party," Yessenia added, fixating a hand on her hip. It wasn't every day that the group welcomed new entrees.
Looking down to pick up his hat, Logan found himself pushing his Ray Ban glasses further up his nose to avoid them from falling off his face. "I'm on call for the next two days," he briefly explained to the young girls, straightening out his jacket.
McKenzie stopped mixing the batter, "Do you want us to wait until you have a day off?"
"No, it's okay Mack. Your party would probably be more fun without me there anyway," Logan suggested in a light manner. After each word he said, he had walked closer to the duo.
Yessenia sucked on her teeth, rolling her eyes in the process. "Yeah, no kidding. You'd probably just mother us the entire time," she joked, although completely serious in her accusation.
Logan ruffled Yessenia's hair gingerly, "That's the spirit. See you two later!" After offering both girls a smile, and McKenzie a pat on the shoulder, he left the base for the night.
"Are we adding nuts to the cake or not?" McKenzie repeated her earlier question, looking up towards the Amazon. Yessenia pushed her baby hairs off of her forehead with her wrist, humming in questioning thought before nodding.
New York City
August 9, 2017
03:14
"What about you Zimmerman?" Logan looked up from his files, an eyebrow arched in confusion at his name's mention. His coworkers all sat around the break room, coffee wafting through the air as most of the squad ate. He closed his manila folder, which had contained information about the murder case the heroes were working on. "Why are you an EMT?"
"I don't know," Logan responded lamely. He stifled a yawn behind his hand, checking the time. I should take my medication soon, Logan internally reminded himself.
"Oh bullshit," his coworker, Nate, joked. "Nobody puts in 1,200 hours in technical training for something they aren't sure of." The older man interrogated, eating a sandwich as he spoke. "And they certainly don't take other people's shifts if they don't like the job."
"Well, I did," Logan retorted, his lie appearing flawless. He didn't like to be dishonest, but this was one of the occurrences were a fib was better than the truth.
Nate rolled his eyes, before turning his attention back on the other squad members, allowing the hero to inspect the crime case once more. Even though the case was Victoria's to handle, he still found himself examining the murders whenever he had the chance.
He checked the clock again, debating whether or not he would be able to skip today's dosage. His eyes fixated on his arm, hidden behind his jacket, sighing when he found his conclusion. He took the orange vial out of his jacket pocket, swallowing his pill dry.
It had been two years since the incident, yet it still haunted him. His mother's horrified expression and his younger sister's scream embedded into his mind, embarrassing him enough to stop contact with the two. His arm itched at the memory of his family.
The lights in the room shifted, changing from its constant white shimmer to a blaring red, a siren crying as the light flashed repeatedly. Nate, the squad leader, stood up quickly, shouting orders. "Brown and Zimmerman, you're riding in the back; Edwards, you're with me." His words were drowned out by the siren's wails and the scuffle of feet running towards the ambulance.
The teenaged girl looked at the EMTs through tear stained eyes, struggling against the bounds of the gurney she was strapped in to. "Were you trying to kill yourself?" The female paramedic asked the younger girl, her training over ruling her emotions.
The girl only cried in response, apologizing profoundly through hiccups. While the female technician talked to the patient, Logan attempted to clean and apply gauze to the girl's wounds on her wrist, holding her arm tightly to cut off blood circulation.
"Have you tried killing yourself before?" The female paramedic interrogated, connecting the girl to an IV. Logan looked at his coworker, still gripping the young girl tightly. The girl struggled against the bounds, the strap rubbing at her arms uncomfortably, widening the width of the self-harm wounds.
Logan unbound her arms, helping her up into a sitting position. "What the hell are you doing Zimmerman?" Veronica Edwards demanded in a near-panicked tone at the young male's disregard of training. The teenaged girl had calmed down slightly, her hiccupping slowing.
"I like the band on your shirt," Logan complimented the girl, gazing down at her 'Fall Out Boy' clothing. She looked up at him, her blue eyes meeting his brown. "Have you seen them live?" He asked. The girl nodded her head.
"Yeah, it was one of the best nights of my life," the sixteen-year-old admitted. "I can't wait to go again," The girl continued the conversation, her crying stopped. The tear streaks on her face evening out.
Nate turned his head to look into the back, "ETA in two minutes," he informed. The two EMTs in the back nodded.
Veronica began stitching up the wounds, grateful that the girl was too distracted to resist. Logan had a kind hand on top of the girl's hand, smiling reassuringly. "I have another concert planned in two months."
The ambulance had pulled into the hospital, Logan strapping her into the gurney again as she spoke. When the emergency vehicle stopped, the back doors opened, nurses grabbing the gurney and rushing her into the ER.
The duo watched the doctors vanish inside the building, leaving them behind. Veronica began putting supplies away, "You broke protocol," she reprimanded in an angry tone. Logan sat up from his previously crouched position, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"She's just a kid, Vi. She was scared," Logan defended his action, helping her clean the area. The older technician shook her head in disapproval, opening her mouth to argue with him.
After leaving the driver's seat, Nate had joined the two technicians in the back, stepping up into the van and interrupting the two. "Leave him alone Veronica, the girl would have passed out from panicking if he didn't release her." Nate patted Logan on his back with a smile. "For a job you didn't know you wanted, you're awfully good at it."
Mount Justice
August 9, 2017
07:30
Noah entered the kitchen, yawning as he greeted his already present team members, who were idly talking as they ate breakfast. After pouring himself a bowl of cereal, the boy sat in a chair next to Yessenia, joining them.
"So, what's the next step in your case?" Yessenia asked, directing the question towards Victoria. The taller girl swallowed the remaining bits of her granola bar before replying.
"Now that we have Noah, I want to revisit the last crime scene to see if he can talk to the victim," Victoria planned with the group. The necromancer chewed on his meal lazily, his hand supporting his head.
"I can do that later, right?" The boy would be lying if he said he wasn't tired. He had spent most of the night tossing around, unable to properly sleep in the new environment.
Victoria stood up, cleaning after herself. "You can finish breakfast, if that's what you mean by later," Victoria disclosed, the boy moaning at the order. McKenzie and Yessenia chuckled, watching the boy's head drop deeper into his hand.
"You'll live," Victoria assured. "We leave in thirty minutes." With that said, majority of the occupants left the kitchen in order to get ready for the mission; however, Noah stayed behind, groaning in complaint as he finished his Lucky Charms.
McKenzie exited the bathroom, her uniform hugging at her body.
The armored leggings shielded the bottom half of her body, hidden underneath a short green skirt, while the top of her uniform was designed in a snake diamond-like pattern. The entire costume was based off the teen's powers, which were similar to that of a snake, or more honestly, the God Asclepius.
McKenzie traveled down the hallway into the docking bay, where her team sat waiting for her arrival. The shy girl blushed when she realized she was the last arrival, fidgeting nervously.
Victoria, with her hands on her hips, smiled. "Glad you could join us Mack," she teased. She ushered the team into the jet as she checked her utility belt for its usual weapons.
Noah sat down in the seat closest to the back, adjusting his dark trench coat so he could sit easier. "Hopefully you all don't have assigned seating," he japed as he buckled in. Once finished, he applied his domino mask to his face, similar in style to the rest of the bat family. The mask wasn't the only similarity though, for his black long-sleeved Kevlar shirt adorned a red bat symbol and his black combat pants were being held up by a utility belt.
Yessenia sat down in the seat next to him. "Lucky for you, we don't," she quipped. Noah readjusted himself to look at her, smirking lightly.
"Alright good, because I wasn't going to move," he taunted with a leer, leaning back in the seat triumphantly. Victoria finally entered the jet after the others situated themselves, moving towards the cock pit in long strides, her knee-length combat boots clicking on the metal flooring as she walked.
Victoria's dark purple cloak danced behind her as she moved, the hood up to cover her dark brown hair. Despite the cloak's cover, her thighs, chest, and face were exposed from her dark purple body suit, a white cross stretching throughout her chest.
Victoria closed the doors to the cockpit behind her, leaving Noah, Yessenia, and McKenzie to prattle by themselves. The three glanced at each other awkwardly, expecting the other to say something first.
Yessenia sighed when neither Noah or McKenzie initiated conversation, taking it upon herself to commence one. "So, No, how are you going to help us with this case?" Yessenia asked the boy, playing with the metal cuffs on her wrists as she spoke.
Noah ran a hand through his hair, answering, "I'm a necromancer, so I can summon the dead." Am I really a part of the team, or am I here only for this case? Noah questioned himself internally after Yessenia's question, biting on the side of his cheek.
McKenzie turned to them both, a soft-spoken 'wait' interrupting Noah from continuing. "So, let me get this straight… Yessenia is 'Yes' and Noah is 'No'?" The girl taunted, giggling behind her hand. Yessenia's mouth gaped open, shock evident on her face at the ironic realization.
Noah cackled, sharing a look with Yessenia. "I guess so Mack," he admitted.
Keystone City
August 9, 2017
09:23
Noah couldn't wait to stand up and stretch his legs, so when the jet finally landed on the roof of the apartment building, the boy immediately left his seat. He impatiently waited by the latch for the others, twisting his ring on his finger.
Victoria left the cockpit, opening the latch for the group to escape the jet. Noah exited, turning to see the others exit as well. His eyes widened in awe as the jet morphed itself in an invisible stature. "Sweet," he commented under his breath.
"Come on," Victoria led the group down the fire escape, before shimming through a window and into an apartment. Yessenia followed her first, readjusting the sword sitting on her hip. Both Noah and McKenzie waited until the weapon was clear out of their sites, before they entered as well.
The room they entered was dark, the air chilly and stiff with death. The moonlight shining through the window provided the group with enough vision to see a bloody print on the carpet, the CSI tape outlining the position of the removed body.
Noah bent down to investigate the blood spatter on the living room couches, the liquid pooling on a seat cushion. Noah squinted at the furniture, before sighing, "You know you can turn on the lights, they don't scare the dead."
McKenzie flipped the light switch on, unveiling the gory scene in front of them.
The blood spatter was sparser than they previously expected, it lying on the walls and half way across the apartment. Noah closed his eyes momentarily, before reopening them.
"Do you see anyone?" Yessenia asked eagerly, looking around the small living room. The room's temperature dropped, the lights dimming suddenly. The Amazon girl unsheathed her weapon, holding it close enough to her chest to obscure the Wonder Woman symbol on her black cropped shirt.
Noah stared passed Yessenia. "Hello mate," Noah greeted the intangible ghost. The deceased man glided closer to the necromancer. "Do you know who killed you?" Noah questioned.
The ghost's eyes shifted to Yessenia, glaring at the weapon in spite. He turned to Noah. "He will kill you all," it warned, somewhat over dramatically. Noah's eyes furrowed, who is he?
"Who is he? Who killed you?" Noah repeated, stuffing his gloved hands inside his jacket pocket. The room's temperature dwindled once more. Noah spared a glace in the direction of the girls, all of them shivering, even Yessenia, who adorned a brown leather jacket.
The ghost's figure lightened after each second that passed. "He will kill you," the man reiterated in a moan-like tone, before disappearing completely. The lights shone brightly again, the temperature increasing after the ghost's departure.
"What did he say to you?" Victoria inquired, stepping closer to the boy. She was careful to avoid stepping on any of the blood accentuating the carpeted floor.
"He said, 'he will kill you', but didn't tell me who he was," Noah informed the girls, taking his hands out of his pockets. The group shared confused looks with one another, all wondering what the deceased man meant.
Mount Justice
August 9, 2017
11: 03
The Zeta-Tubes flashed, announcing an arrival to a deserted base. The silence of the empty mountain almost echoed, giving the area an eerie vibe.
Logan emerged from the light, his legs on auto pilot as they brought him to the living room. He was grateful that the teenagers weren't hanging out for once as he sat down on the couch, covering his face with his hands.
Eight people died today in under twelve hours, he reminded himself almost bitterly of his shift. What's the point in being an EMT if everybody still dies around you? The man pulled his hat off, gripping it tightly in his hands, his knuckles turning white from pressure.
He knew that the girl from earlier that morning was safe, but it didn't outweigh the losses to him. The dark circles on his face indicated the day's events, announcing his sleepless week profoundly. Logan leaned back into the couch, taking in a shaky breath.
He debated whether he had time to sleep before the group returned from their expedition. It had been maybe four days since he was able to sleep, and blinking was beginning to feel painful. His internal debate on the couch turned into an unplanned nap, the boy's glasses falling off his face as he leaned back onto the cushion.
Victoria ripped her mask off her face as she walked towards the debriefing room, glad that she would be able to add new information onto the case file. Even though the information the team received was stressful, it was information nonetheless, putting the team one step closer into finding the killer.
The group watched the leader's retreating figure with knowing looks, McKenzie and Yessenia fully aware of the daunting task. McKenzie looked at the taller girl, elbowing her in the side to get her attention.
"Do you want to go ice the cake now?" McKenzie whispered lightly, hoping that the bat wouldn't be able to hear her. Yessenia nodded curtly, watching Noah turn into the hallway where the bed rooms were. The two girls waited until Noah was out of ear shot before talking once more.
"I'll ice the cake and you get the balloons," Yessenia ordered, not waiting for the girl to agree. Yessenia quickly moved towards the lounge sneakily, while McKenzie went to retrieve the balloons hidden in her bed room.
As Yessenia entered the lounging area, she spotted a mop of messy brown hair peaking from the couch's edge. Her intentions of the kitchen were forgotten as she walked deeper into the living room, an eyebrow arched in confusion.
Her eyes softened when she saw Logan's sleeping figure, her hands moving to his face to remove his askew glasses. She held the frames in her hand for a moment, surveying the older boy's rugged and messy appearance.
The neatness had vanished from his stature, it being replaced by exhaustion. He looked paler than usual, his freckles appearing darker in contrast, and Yessenia could only guess that it was because he was over working himself.
McKenzie ran into the living room carrying the balloons and party poppers, one hanging from her mouth excitedly. Before she could blow into the noisy toy, Yessenia brought a finger up to her lips, silencing the smaller girl.
Yessenia moved closer to the girl, whispering, "We can wait to have the party. Give him two hours to sleep." Even though he had suggested having the party without him, Yessenia didn't want the eldest to be left out of the fun. Even if you feel too old to have any fun anymore, Yessenia added mentally.
The party poppers vibrated in the air, the noise cackling in the previously quiet kitchen. "Welcome to the team!" Everyone, save Noah, cheered.
The bat boy nearly leapt onto the ceiling in fright at the sudden noise, surprised that the group was even able to surprise him. He smiled genuinely when he saw the banner and balloons drifting about the room. The decorations resembled a birthday party more accurately than a welcoming one, but Noah was too grateful of the kind action to mention it.
"So does this mean I'm officially on the team?" Noah asked. Victoria smirked, wrapping an arm around the smaller boy's shoulders.
She pulled him in the direction of the cake Yessenia and McKenzie had made, the party poppers still echoing around them. "Yes, sadly!" Victoria joked cruelly, pushing into the boy. Noah smiled lightly at the cake.
Maybe this will all work out after all, Noah thought to himself as he looked around the room of smiling faces.
A/N: Hopefully you all enjoyed this (short) update. Once again, I have questions for my OC creators:
1. Who is your favorite character at the moment? (Besides your own)
2. Do you want this story to remain being rated T or do you want it to be rated M? (Rated M for angst, not smut)
3. What are you liking and disliking in the story so far?
Also, if you were invited to the blog and it asks you for a password, the password is my username. Happy readings!