Chapter 3: School of Hard Knocks
We, are from the school!
The School of Hard Knocks!
Who's ready to rock?
"Now this…I could get used to." Walt said, as he sat on the sofa chair. It was honestly the most comfortable piece of furniture he had ever felt.
"Yeah, for all the press bitches about property damage, we keep bills from being back breakingly high. High, yes, but enough to recover from. As a result, we can occasionally get some nice bonuses." Kyra said, sitting on a couch with her feet up on a table.
"You sure your parents won't mind us being in here?" Donar asked, looking around. The room had apparently not been used in some time, and there was only one working light.
"They retired the room, they didn't ban me from it. Careful though…" Kyra began as Donar set Mjolnir down and began to sit.
Which caused a cloud of dust to plum up from the cushions. Donar took one whiff from the dry powder and began to sneeze repeatedly.
"Or that'll happen. No one's been in here for a while. Heck, the Titans were officially disbanded, what…nearly six years ago?"
"Why was that anyway?" Walt asked.
"People grew up. They changed. With age comes experience, and it's not always good. We had new members come and go, with a veteran or two to hold things together, but in the end the makeshift groups never really clicked. In a way, I think it was for the best. They disbanded due to a mutual decision, rather then a feud within the ranks or a betrayal or a tragic loss. For all the adults who said teenagers shouldn't be superheroes, the Teen Titans actually did pretty well. They got knocked down plenty of times, but they were never knocked out."
The sound of a door opening came from the end of the room.
"And speaking of knockouts…" Kyra said under her breath, as Sierra made her return. There was no jealousy in the tone: she was simply stating a fact.
Sierra had looked pretty good when the three of them had seen her, and that had been considering the fact that she hadn't showered in days. Now, after a shower and a impromptu haircut made necessary by Matchstick's little stunt, Sierra had gone from pretty to radiant, her now shoulder length hair nicely brushed and in a ponytail secured with a scrunchie. Wearing some of Kyra's old clothes, she said down next to Walt.
"Thanks for everything guys. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate it." Sierra said.
"Not a problem. Though we'll need to get you some new clothes, don't want to be wearing my old junk." Kyra said. She glanced at Donar. "Hey, what's wrong buddy? You feeling sick?"
"No…" Donar said, trying to hide his now very red face. "No, I'm fine…just fine…"
"Well, I must say…" Walt began, before a loud growling interrupted him. He glanced at Sierra. "Are you by any chance hiding an animal under that shirt?"
"Sorry. I haven't eaten in three days…" Sierra said, and then her stomach growled again, even louder. "Uh…"
"Ordering now." Kyra said, pulling out a cell phone and dialing a number. "Hey Al? It's the T-Tower. Stop whooping, it's annoying. Yeah, usual order. No actually, make it twice that. Stop slobbering will you! Oh, your daughter is about to graduate? Great! Good to know all our pigging out brought some good. Bye bye." Kyra said, hanging up.
"What was that?"
"Pizza."
"Uh Kyra, not to be rude, but maybe you should have asked before you just went and ordered food." Donar said.
"What, you want something else? Chinese? Italian? Thai? Because I'm ordering them all and more. What good is a nearly limitless credit card if you can't use it for people?" Kyra said, and began dialing again.
"Why do we need so much?" Walt asked.
"I've invited a friend over. You'll see why when you meet him." Kyra replied, and began speaking on the phone again. Sierra's stomach growled loudly again. She looked embarrassed.
"Here." Walt said, as he pulled a small test tube out, and in a blur of his hands, mixed up a greenish liquid. "Drink this. It will deceive your gastronomical system into thinking it is wholly occupied. For a bit anyway, I haven't perfected it yet."
"Uh…" Sierra said as she looked at the liquid. "You sure it won't poison me?"
"I would not mix and offer anything I wouldn't be willing to drink myself. You want me to drink this? I can make another effortlessly."
"No no…" Seirra said, accepting the beaker. She downed it. "Hey, tastes like orange!"
"What? Ah fornicating feces! I was hoping for a grape taste. Back to the drawing board…" Walt said. He pulled open the small backpack he carried around and unfurled it to reveal lines and lines of test tubes, filled with liquids and powders. Donar's eyes bugged out of his head.
"How do you keep track of all those?"
"Well, I have an exceptional memory. Total recall, actually. Also, I've been doing this for over a decade, and I've learned to tell my chemicals apart by the slightest cues of touch and smell. Simple practice, in the end."
"Much like speaking like a dictionary?"
"…Right…"
"Hey…it's working! I don't believe it!" Sierra said. Indeed, the growling had faded away completely.
"Believe it. The mechanisms may not always compile wholly, but the destination is always positive in my head."
"So why haven't you patented any of these yet?" Donar asked.
"That is my ultimate intention, but you must be cautious with patents: one unscrupulous personage and you find yourself empty-handed while THEY make millions off their malificence. Besides, I have gotten along without massive quantities of currency so far, I can live without it for a bit longer."
"Uh…Walt was it? Thanks for the drink, but could you do one more thing?"
"Yes?"
"Could you talk normally? You're making my head hurt." Sierra said. Walt looked sheepish.
"Sorry. Just following my "creed", so to speak. I knew from an early age I would be classified as a "nerd". And seeing how violent one's peers can get when one tries to rise above their "station in life"…I figured it would be best if I went along with it." Walt said.
"One wonders why the authorities do not try and fix the school system, seeing how bitterly you and Kyra complain about it. Mostly Kyra." Donar noted.
"They don't think it's broken." Kyra replied, getting off the phone. "They were taught to be teachers, not social engineers. Most of them just can't comprehend how utterly vicious it can be in there. Lord of the Flies speaks of how men can so easily regress to an animal state when taken out of society. Sometimes I think that's better then what mankind can become WITHIN society. Regressing to a bestial level is bad, but at the same time, it's almost kind of pure. But the vile that so called "civilized" people spew, and the terrible poisons they can create in those they direct their venom at…it scares me. I honestly think people will never learn. They already have their perceptions, they'd rather not be confused with the truth." Kyra said, sighing.
Everyone stared.
"What?"
"Moving on…" Walt said. "So Sierra, do you have a last name? Or are you like Cher here?"
"Hey, I DO technically have a last name." Donar said. "Just not in the way you people do. You take your family names. But when you're the son of a god, you tend to take their name more then anything. If you really must know Walt, if I had a proper last name like you it would be like this: I am the son of Magni, therefore I would be Donar Magnison."
"Fair enough. You, Sierra?"
"My last name's Illescas, I don't know where it came from…I didn't know my mother very long. She died when I was seven."
"I'm sorry." Donar said.
"It's ok. She was very sick. It was a mercy. But she'd taught me everything she could on surviving, so I guess her death wasn't in vain…"
"Wait wait…you've been on the streets since you were SEVEN?" Kyra said.
"I've never been…off the streets…actually…" Sierra said, a shy and semi-hurt tone suddenly coming into her voice.
Kyra blinked.
"You've always been homeless?"
"Yes."
"Then where did you learn those fighting techniques? What, is there some mystical master hanging around an alleyway who teaches Bum Fu or something?" Kyra said. Her joke bombed horribly, and she knew it.
"People like you…with homes…tend not to realize just how many people slip through the cracks of your society. But there are more then you realize, and some have skills you would not expect. They taught me how to fight so I wouldn't be taken advantage of by people like those metas you trashed…which, again, I thank you for."
"Hey, they asked for it. Big time."
"And the light generating ability?" Walt asked.
"I was born with it. I don't know why or how I got it, but I've always had it. Mostly I use it for my performances, though I can generate stronger blasts."
"How strong?"
"I don't know…I did blind someone once, permanently. I wish I hadn't had to do that. I don't like hurting people. I like to help them. There's too much nastiness in the world to let yourself go along with it."
"Hell, there's too much nastiness in this room." Donar cracked.
"Say that again Donar, and though you may not actually be gay, you'll quickly have the experiences of someone who is, courtesy of my foot." Kyra said.
"Hey hey, I thought the idea was that we were going to be a team. Let's not throw out the baby before we even get it in the bathwater." Walt said.
"Point. Sorry Donar. I guess I've been infected with some of that general nastiness."
"I suppose I can forgive you for that. I've suffered my own hardships for my birthrights, and everyone deals with it their own way. I won't fault you for yours." Yet. Donar added mentally.
"Wait…I saw how much money you had made with your show. Why haven't you eaten in three days?" Walt asked.
"I gave it away."
"What? To who?"
"My talents allow me to make huge sums with relative ease. There are many like me who cannot, and never will be able to do the same. I can go a few days without eating, the baby one of my "neighbors" is raising can't. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, if only for karma."
Kyra blinked, and then she leaned over and seized Sierra's wrists.
"That ends now. You will have a home here as long as you want. No, don't try and deny it! I've seen life reward bad deeds far too much, I'll be damned if I can't even out that statistic. You can even go out and play if you want, room and board here is free. Same for you Donar, and if you need to stay here Walt, that can also be arranged."
"You sure your parents won't mind Kyra?" Walt asked.
"My mom looked to be ready to do cartwheels of joy that I actually brought home some friends. I don't think they'll mind."
Walt snickered.
"What?"
"Sorry. Your mom had a reputation for seriousness. The idea of her doing cartwheels is…amusing."
"I suppose. I'm used to it. My mom got that reputation due to my, how shall I say, grandfather, on her side. It's complicated, but his comings and goings made it very bad for her to express emotions. But it's ok now: my father and her and their teammates dealt with him once and for all shortly after I was born." Kyra said. What her parents had never told her was that she had been kidnapped as an infant and nearly sacrificed to allow Trigon another vessel into the world. It had backfired, big time, and Trigon had ended up being tossed into oblivion, ceasing to exist in any form at all. In a world where death sometimes seemed to be little more than an inconvenience, Trigon was not coming back. Ever.
Again.
Maybe.
"It's hard to think of your mother as a housewife."
"My father tells me the same. Apparently the sheer NORMALCY of it appeals to her. But it's best not to push it. One time, as a test, my dad asked her to get him a beer. She threw him out a window."
"Ow."
"Yeah, and the funny thing is my dad doesn't even drink beer. Too damn bitter, he says." Kyra said. "So Sierra, you've been homeless your whole life? How did THAT happen?"
"Don't really know. I never knew my father, and my grandparents were, ah, a bit fundamentalist, so they kicked my mom out. But she toughed it out. But in between raising me and all the problems that arose in the 2010's, she never could crawl out of the gutter. She tried too hard in the end…it's why I've been alone so long. I miss her." Sierra said, looking sad. Walt was about to put an arm on her shoulder, then he glanced at Donar. A few seconds later, he and Walt had traded seats, and Donar was consoling the saddened meta.
"So, who taught you to play?" Kyra said, showing a small lack of tact. No one really caught it though.
"I taught myself. When you're on the streets, you find you have a lot of time. I'm lucky, I suppose. It allows me to survive, and a few people have taught me how to defend myself, as I said."
"Well, no more surviving Sierra. Time to start LIVING." Kyra said.
"Indeed. Which reminds me. We're going to form a team. So shall we…" Sierra began
"Let's get one thing out of the way before we start." Kyra interrupted. "We are not forming the next generation of the Teen Titans. That team is dead. And its values won't work in these days anyway. Truth, Justice, and the American Way might sound nice, but I want to stand for something that won't be revealed as false when put under harsh light. We'll protect people, and avenge injustice, but I believe that our primary purpose is to punish evil. And punish we will."
Everyone stared.
"You don't like it." Kyra stated.
"Kyra, if we act like that, what better are we then a group of thugs?" Donar said.
"Yes, I thought that we needed to avoid those very things you so heartily say we should embrace. What good will it do if we're as brutal and vicious as the criminals?" Walt added.
Kyra was silent.
"Now, maybe…" Donar began.
"How many deaths can you stand?" Kyra asked. Donar stopped.
"What? Deaths?"
"How many people are you going to let die because you refuse to ram the point home into a bad guy's skull that he did a bad thing and that it will not be tolerated? Because believe me, one is too many for me, and if we follow the old way that superhero teams did things, there will be a lot more then ONE!" Kyra suddenly exploded. "Look, I'll admit maybe my view is flawed. Maybe I'm just too mean for my own good. But I know something regardless. The system my parents preached, with words like civilization and rehabilitation and fair hearing and law and order…put it under a microscope and most of it is nothing more then a lie, a delusion. It works right up to the point that it doesn't. Then, I say, there will be us. Let the system slave and grind through the letter of the law. Our team will re-enforce the spirit. And that spirit is, do a bad thing, and a bad thing WILL HAPPEN IN RETURN."
Silence.
"Um…Kyra, no offense, but since when did you vote yourself leader?" Donar asked.
"Hey, MY building, MY team." Kyra said. Then she sighed and sat down. "Sorry. When you're an only child, you get used to all the attention. Maybe I shouldn't try and force my own views on all of you, because if I do, I may as well go into business alone. But I'd rather not. Lone wolves are just so, well, lonely. I'd rather have friends to back me up. For all the things I don't agree with, my parents and their friends were just that…that, at least, was true."
"This does bring up a point: who should be leader?" Sierra asked.
"Well, in all fairness, there are only two real candidates: Kyra and Donar. Sierra, no offense, but you don't strike me as the leader type, and I know I'm not. But Donar has great power, and he probably knows a lot of Viking and warrior lore. And Kyra has extensive training in her abilities and the resources needed to run a proper team. It's a hard choice. Maybe we should hold a vote." Walt suggested.
"No." Kyra said. "Wait wait, I'm not being selfish. I can just see what's going to happen. Donar and I will abstain due to the fact that we'll either vote for ourselves or each other. Sierra will probably vote for Donar because he saved her, and Walt, you will probably vote for ME because you…were saved by me also, right?" Kyra said.
"Uh…right. She does have a point." Walt said. Now he was the one trying to hide a slight blush.
"That leaves us in need of a tiebreaker, and though one should be arriving any minute, he will vote for me because he's known me his entire life. So, I say that I should just be appointed as leader now, for the moment, and once we see if this works out we can look into things if you're unhappy. Ok?"
"Are you sure this isn't just a smoke and mirrors trick to get more attention?" Walt teased.
"SHADDUP!"
"I think Kyra has a point. Ok, for now, Kyra is our leader! Ok then, now that that is settled, and since our leader is so vehement about us NOT being the Teen Titans, I think we need a team name." Donar said.
"Team name, some of us need proper code names. At least our leader has one." Walt said.
"You mean Myth?" Kyra said distastefully.
"Well, yes…"
"No, no, NO. YOU guys can call yourself whatever the hell you want, my NAME is Kyra Collins. It's what my parents named me, and it's WHO I AM."
"I agree, somewhat." Donar said. "I am Donar of the house of Wotan. I need no silly name like Thundershock or Stormtrooper or Godsmacker or whatever, I am Donar. That is who I will be."
"Plus, we don't have secret identities to worry about. You do Walt, especially if we make some serious enemies. But I have the perfect name for you!" Kyra said.
"Beaker?"
"Ah, blast your bloody memory!"
"Not hard to remember. Ok then. I will call myself Beaker. Shall I wear a mask?" Walt said.
"We'll look into that. This place actually has a clothes making computer machine thingy in the basement, Cyborg built it when we kept getting new members and we didn't know them long or well enough to have special clothes made for them. It comes in VERY handy when you need a spare outfit because your latest battle with Captain Carnage shredded your last one. In fact, once we've settled things, we're gonna go down there and get you some new clothes Sierra."
"Yes, and you Sierra! You need a name!" Donar said.
"Whoa buddy, don't pull something in your eagerness." Kyra smirked. Donar glared at her.
"Well, I don't know…I never was good with names…"
"Oh come one, I'm sure the four of us can think up something to fit your abilities. They're pretty, at least, quite a bit of razzle dazzle…" Walt said.
"That's it! We'll call you…THE DAZZLER!" Donar yelled. Kyra and Walt facevaulted. "What?"
"And YOU were the one who pointed out the wrong comic book company." Kyra muttered. "Hey Sierra, you don't generate the light by changing it from sound, do you?"
"What? No, I don't think so. I've never had trouble making it when it's quiet."
"Right then, thank god for some favors." Kyra said. "Walt, I think you found the name. Sierra, you are Razzle Dazzle."
"Great!" Sierra said, grinning happily. In that moment Kyra saw so much of her Aunt Kory it was eerie.
"Ok then, names are settled. Now, how about a team name…" Walt began.
A loud buzzing filled the room.
"Oh, either he's here or the food is. Be right back guys." Kyra said, getting up and leaving the room.
"So Sierra, you abilities…is it just light? Or can you generate heat with it?" Walt asked.
"Um, no I don't think so…"
"May I check?"
"Sure." Sierra said, and held out a hand. Instantly, an orb of shimmering rainbow light materialized above her palm.
"My, you're not just a walking lightshow, you seem to have a prism ability as well." Walt said, as he produced a thermometer from somewhere and inserted it into the glowing ball. "No, nothing. It's just light. Ok then, how about impact?"
"What?"
"Let's say you make an orb. Can you throw it? Could it knock someone down? Blow a hole in a wall? Yes? No?" Walt asked.
"No. I can project the light away from me, and increase it's intensity away from me, a "light bomb" I suppose, but it won't knock anyone over."
"Ok then. Well, with your martial arts and light generating abilities, you're still pretty potent. After all, what people can't see, they can't hit! While you are immune to your own power, and therefore can hit them! By the way, what's your martial arts style?"
"Uh…"
"OK WALT." Donar said, leaning in and pushing the teenager back. "You'll have plenty of time to ask questions later. Knowing our author and her love of talking…"
LEAVE THE BLOODY FORTH WALL ALONE!
"Geez, tough crowd." Donar huffed.
"Guys, could you come over here?" Kyar called from the doorway. The three teenagers did so, as Kyra stepped through. Behind her lurked a figure, but the bad light kept them from making out any more then one detail: it was BIG.
"Ok guys, he's here. Come on in big guy." Kyra said. The massive figure hunched over, and with a surprising amount of caution, squeezed his massive frame through the doorway without breaking anything.
"Oh my." Walt said as the figure straightened up. While Donar had a body that hid its great strength, the eight foot plus, muscles on muscles figure that now towered before them may have well wore a sign that said "I can bench press a battleship". He had brown hair and was wearing custom made jeans, shirt, and a bomber jacket that matched his hair in colour. While his expression could not be called "dull", his visage was very heavily boned, hiding his eyes somewhat and giving someone who took a first look the impression of great stupidity. His eyes, however, were very clear, as he looked down at Walt, Donar, and Sierra.
"This is an old friend of mine, Brick. Brick, this is Sierra, Donar, and Walt." Kyra said. In a strange expression, after she had pointed out her new teammates she had crossed her arms, looking back and forth between the three and the giant.
"Hi!" Sierra said.
"Greetings, giant one." Donar said.
"Yes, hello. My lord…your size…such a magnificent exemplar of gargantuan splendor…" Walt began, but he stopped when a look of slight pain came over Brick's features and he brought a hand up to his temple.
"Please…don't use so many big words…" he said.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Force of habit. I'm just saying you're really impressive." Walt said. And he meant it.
"Look what you did Beak! You gave the poor guy a headache!" Sierra teased.
"My sincerest apologies, I just talk like that so often it's hard for me to use simpler nouns and such…" Walt said.
"It is ok. Hello to you all. I am glad…to meet you." Brick said. "I would offer my hand, but…"
"Yeah, it's understandable." Donar replied.
"And you all pass." Kyra suddenly said. Donar and Walt looked at her in confusion.
"Pass?"
"Yes. I wanted to see if any of you would have any…preconceived notions. Brick here has a history, and sometimes, even with the best of intentions, people will make judgments based on the history. None of you did, and even if it was because none of you know who this is, I can tell that you wouldn't. Anyway, let's all sit down. Brick, would you like a cushion?"
"No no, I can sit on the floor…just fine…" Brick said, a slight trace of struggle in his tone. Almost as if the words he was trying to retrieve weighed enough to even give him some trouble in lifting it.
The group returned to their seats, Brick taking off and carefully folding his jacket before he sat on the floor, once again slowly and with caution.
"Brick here is an old friend of mine. That's actually his name by the way: Brick Doe. You sure none of you recognize him?" Kyra asked.
"Well…there is SOMETHING familiar…but I can't put my finger on it…" Walt said.
"Well…Brick, we've been sharing our histories. But since we don't know yet if you'd like to be a part of this, maybe we shouldn't…" Kyra said.
"It is ok. I would actually…prefer it." Brick said. "Kyra, would you…mind?"
"Sure big guy. Ok guys, sit back, its history time…"
***********************************
Once, there was a brilliant scientist named Dr. Henry Vogel, who had worked with various biotechnologies. Unfortunately, Dr. Vogel's work looked to be cut short prematurely when he was stricken with an incredibly rare disease that caused his muscles to begin atrophying and wasting away. Desperate to escape the reaper from before he believed his time, Dr. Vogel had created a dangerous serum that would, in theory, reverse the degeneration. As usual with such things, there was no time for proper tests, and Dr. Vogel had taken it.
It worked.
Too well.
The disease was eradicated as the serum reversed the condition, but the serum didn't stop there, as it began to cause Dr. Vogel's muscle growth to continue increasing. That was bad enough, but it also caused one of those bizarre ironic effects that always seemed to happen: as Dr. Vogel's body grew stronger and tougher, his mind (perhaps naturally) began to degenerate in turn. Before he could discover another solution, it was too late. Dr. Vogel had ceased to exist, replaced by the dim-witted giant who had been dubbed the Brick. He was strong as a brick, tough as a brick, and as dumb as a brick.
Childlike and easily manipulated, the Brick was quickly drafted into the services of a crime lord known as the Don. But Brick was, at best, a hit and miss prospect: while he could smash virtually anything and absorb punishment like it was going out of style, his mind was now so deteriorated that remembering even the most basic of plans was highly difficult. There was an infamous incident where the Don had sent the Brick to destroy a superhero (though who it was, Kyra forgot, if she ever remembered in the first place), but by the time the Brick had gotten to where the hero was, he had forgotten his mission. The superhero, perhaps being too smart-ass for his own good, had told the Brick to go back and ask again. Except by the time the Brick got back, he had forgotten about what he was supposed to ask he had forgotten about! This little game of ping pong had gone on all day before poor Brick had gotten tired out and went to sleep in the middle of a street, at which point the superhero had gone over to the Don's location and smashed everything.
Eventually, such flaws had led to the Don's arrest and imprisonment, but it hadn't taken long for the Brick to be picked up by another evil genius, Dr. Nathaniel Peregrine. Brick once again resumed his role as the weapon that could smash anything, but forgot to do so half the time. It drove Peregrine up the wall, but Brick was loyal, as immature minds tend to be, and strangely, after some time, Peregrine had actually grown fond of the Brick.
Which is how things had come to be, for Brick's condition continued to worsen. He grew ever stronger, while growing ever stupider. In perhaps the only show of compassion the man had ever shown, Dr. Peregrine had decided he would try and save his ally, and dare he say it, his friend. He managed to find notes written by the old Dr. Vogel personality, which had long dissimulated into nothingness, and using his theories, he decided to try and transfer Vogel's brain into a new body. Peregrine had a strange ally in this experiment: Noel Collins, who had sometimes fought the Brick and sometimes fought beside him, and whose Shimmer ability allowed certain manipulations of nervous tissue that would have rendered the experiment impossible otherwise.
And it had worked, as Peregrine was successful in cloning a new body and transferring Vogel's brain to it. Freed from the deliberating effects of the serum that had caused him to become the Brick, as well as the disease that had forced him to take the serum in the first place, Vogel returned to normal, the personality of the Brick gone. However, Vogel's original body still remained, frozen but now without a brain.
Vogel, while he was recovering, began studying his old body to try and figure out where the serum had gone wrong, and had actually managed to find the flaw and correct it. Feeling sentimental perhaps, he decided not to dispose of his old body but to see if he could find a use for it.
And in the end, he did, as another old ally of Peregrine, a woman named Karli Malone, who had worked beside him as Cestus, suffered a tragedy when she lost her eight year old son David in a car accident. Peregrine, perhaps not thinking, especially when he saw the grief she was in, decided to try and help her.
And so, again with Noel's help, though he did not know it this time (he believed he was aiding Dr. Vogel again), Peregrine and Vogel transferred the boy's brain into the Brick's body. The operation was again a success, as everything connected, and the boy returned to life. And due to Vogel's efforts, the flaw in which the mind degenerated as the body grew had been eliminated. There was, however, one small side effect: the body had been in that condition for so long that it caused a small "dulling" of the brain, of sorts: it could process information normally, but a tad bit slower. While David's new body would never allow him to be a genius, he would, unlike the original Brick, to be able to think and function like a normal person. And so Peregrine had returned to Cestus her reborn son.
Had Noel known what he was doing, he would have called the situation from a mile away and prevented it, but for once the wool had been pulled over his eyes. Cestus, of course, refused to admit that her son was once again alive, at least in the body of the former Brick. The rejection had driven David into a rage, and he had wrecked half of Jump City before the Titans had managed to calm him down.
In the end, David remained in Brick's body, and Noel made sure he was given every advantage he could have in order to build a new life from this tragedy and the foolishness of a man who dared to play God. Even so, the new Brick remained withdrawn from society, not accepted by the woman who gave birth to him and treated by all others as the old Brick might have been. His only friends had been Noel, who had made sure that everything he could need was provided…and Kyra, who had befriended him at a young age and kept him sane.
Brick had tried to go on as best he could, but it was difficult to learn as a normal child would, considering his body and condition. But he had pushed on. He was 16 in non-chronological terms, though his body was nearly three times older then that. He had gotten all the education he could manage, but eventually it became clear that he would rather be alone, content to teach himself. So Noel had gotten him a special basement apartment, and that was where he spent his time, reading and doing…pretty much nothing else.
He, like Kyra, was special.
For better…or for worse.
*************************
"And that's it." Kyra said. "And you can save your sorrys. He's heard enough of them in his life. Just treat him like a person, which you did. You didn't get scared, and you didn't talk to him like he was a retarded two year old. You just treated him like a normal, abet very big man, which is a lot more then pretty much everyone else ever has." Kyra said. She turned to Brick. "Well big guy, I invited you here with an offer. I know you've always wanted a reason why you were brought back. I'd like to offer you membership in this team. Your abilities can be used to save a lot of lives, and I swear to you on my life and family name that we will never, EVER, treat you like an outsider or a dunce or a tool to be used and discarded. You'll be one of us. I can't promise you happiness, I can't promise you good times, and considering the people we have to protect you probably know you'll get the opposite more often then not…but I can promise you a cause, and all the possibilities of that cause. So, what do you say?"
Brick looked over and Kyra.
"Be a part of something with you? Kyra…it would be an honor."
"Glad to hear it big guy. Glad to hear it." Kyra said.
*************************
"So…Brick? You like Brick?" Walt said. It was about fifteen minutes later, and some of the food had finally arrived. Kyra was on the phone again with someone, and Sierra was being very unladylike as she frantically shoved food in her mouth, Walt's potion having worn off. Donar was trying to make sure she didn't choke.
"It is my name now." Brick said, as he took a whole large pizza, folded it in half, and ate it in two large bites. Strangely, he avoided spilling anything.
"Ok then. Well, um, what shall we call you? I'm good with chemicals, so Kyra dubbed me Beaker, and Sierra is Razzle Dazzle, but Kyra and Donar are keeping their own names. You want to as well?"
Brick appeared to be thinking, as he ate another pizza. Walt could see why Kyra had ordered so much food: Brick was eating most of it. And considering how much energy his body probably needed, Walt couldn't fault him.
"I am…not sure…" Brick said. "People who remember me tend to think I am Vogel…perhaps I need a new name…but…I must admit, Brick does suit me…"
"Well, uh, how about a small add on? How about, say, Brick Wall?"
"Brick Wall…hmmmmm…I know, I kind of like that. Thanks." Brick said.
"Not a problem." Walt said. He started to shake Brick's hand, and then realized that his hand was the size of the average computer monitor and settled for shaking his index finger.
"Ok!" Kyra said, walking into the room. "I fired up the clothes maker and I turned on all the switches, so all the lights should come on…"
The lights all suddenly turned on.
"AHHHHH! I'M BLIND!" Someone jokingly yelled.
"Thank god my dad kept this thing upgraded." Kyra said as she walked over to what had been the Titans' main computer and turned it on. She looked over to her jacket and it floated over to her, called by her telekinesis. She slipped it on, and began using the chains to operate the computer.
"Ok, everything seems to be in order…" Kyra said. "All right guys! Now all we have to do is wait for some idiot to break the law, and then we run in and clean their clocks! And considering how many stupid people there are, there should be a reported crime any minute now!"
15 minutes later…
"Well, there's bound to be slow patches. But any second now!" Kyra said.
30 minutes later…
"Are you trying to make me look like a cynical bitch!?!?!?" Kyra yelled, waving her hand at the ceiling.
"Kyra, who are you talking to?" Donar asked, reading an issue of People.
"Anyone who will give us some asses to kick!"
"Kyra, again, this team is supposed to protect people. I know that your proclivities tend towards the extreme violence part of this life, but really, if you do not master your rage…" Donar began.
"Your rage will become your master?" Kyra finished. "I saw Mystery Men too you know."
1 hour later…
"You were right on the clothes making machine Kyra." Walt said. He had returned from downstairs with one new piece of clothing: a lab coat. Well, as per his tendencies, if once was going to adapt a look one might as well go all the way. The lab coat had been hand designed and was filled with small loops to hold vials of chemicals. Walt was, at the moment, trying to decide what went where.
"I'm just glad it still works." Kyra replied. Walt didn't answer, as he was weighing a part of the coat with several beakers inserted in the loops. He muttered a curse and began removing them.
"Whoa whoa Walt. Don't push yourself. You're brand new at this. We'll cover your ass till you pick the swing of things. Believe me, I can see it in you. You'll get the knack of it in no time." Kyra said.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but always better to err on the side of caution." Walt said, as he continued to re-arrange the vials.
1 ½ hours later…
"URGE…TO STAB THINGS…RISING…" Kyra said, as she glared at the computer that refused to report any trouble. Sierra was still downstairs making her clothes, Walt had finally settled on an arrangement for his coat and was now practicing pulling vials out from various parts of it, and Donar and Brick were playing, of all things, a chess game. And Brick was winning. As mentioned, he thought slow, but it didn't mean he was dumb.
"Queen to G-4." Brick said. Due to his huge hands, Donar was moving both sets of pieces. A frown crossed his face as he did so. "Check." Brick finished.
Donar moved his king out of check. Brick sat and looked at the board for nearly four minutes before he spoke.
"Rook to F-8." He said. Donar moved…and then his eyes widened.
"Checkmate." Brick said, smiling slightly.
"You really aren't stupid." Donar said.
"I find I have a lot of time…to read. I'm not stupid. Just…slow." Brick said.
"Hey Sierra." Kyra was saying. Donar turned and saw the blonde walk in with golden flare pants and a white shirt that said "Light My Life" on the front. And that was quickly all he saw, as Sierra spoke with Kyra about something.
Brick coughed to get Donar's attention, but coming from his massive frame it sounded like a bomb going off. Donar nearly hit the ceiling, he was so startled.
"Sorry." Brick said to the room. "Another game Donar?"
"Uh, sure."
"She does…look nice."
"Huh?"
"Come off it…Donar. I am slow. I may even be a bit stupid in some…senses. But I…am not an idiot."
"You mind not saying anything?"
"Man to man…now…how about…"
2 hours later…
"I am slowly going crazy." Kyra softly sang, hanging upside down from the ceiling from her chains. "One, two, three, four, five, six, switch."
"Crazy going slowly am I." Sierra sang along. "One, two, three, four, five, six, switch."
"So it's come to this. The newest and possibly greatest ass-kicking machine ever assembled, with the brawn, the brains, the beauty, and the badass…ness…and we're singing kid songs." Kyra sighed. "I am slowly going crazy! One two three four five six switch!"
"Crazy going slowly am I! One two three four five six switch!" Sierra sang back. As the song was supposed to, you sang every line faster.
"Iamslowlygoingcrazy! Onetwothreefourfive…oh, screw this!" Kyra said as she twisted around and landed. "Ok guys, if trouble isn't going to come calling, I say we go looking for it! If only to establish patrol routes!"
"I suppose some action would be nice." Donar said, getting up.
"I still don't have a mask or any real disguise by the way." Walt noted.
"Ah forget it Beak. It's pretty clear that no one's going to bother us tonight." Kyra said. "Well, either that or we'll fight a sludge monster, but people tend to be too busy with the running and the screaming to notice details like faces in those kinds of situations."
"Sludge monster?" Sierra said.
"LONG story…"
*************************
"OK…maybe we should have thought this through a bit more." Kyra said.
The yet as unnamed team had run into a small snag regarding travel. Donar could fly, and Kyra could swing through the air with the greatest of ease, but Brick, Walt, and Sierra had no such skills, and they were constantly being left behind. Worse, Brick (carrying Walt and Sierra on his shoulders), to keep up, had tried running, which made more noise then a herd of elephants and shook the streets, while smashing huge potholes in the road by his feet. So Donar and Kyra had headed back, and Donar had pulled Brick up to a roof, while Kyra had dragged Walt and Sierra up.
"I don't suppose you have a formula that can make us lighter then air, Walt?" Sierra asked.
"No…though wait…"
"Forget it Walt. I don't believe in giving temporary flying powers to people who can't fly. They wear off at the most inopportune times." Kyra said. "Ok Donar, how long can you carry Brick?"
"Well…he doesn't weigh enough to bother me…much anyway, but if we get attacked, I might need my hands free, and I just can't drop him. He won't get hurt, but other people might."
"Ok then…maybe we should get back to the Tower and look into having Cyborg commission us a car…" Kyra said.
A loud explosion suddenly blasted nearby, making everyone except Brick jump. Kyra blinked, looked over to the smoke rising in the distance, and then looked up and began waving her hand at the sky again.
"Took you long enough!" she yelled, as her brain shifted. Ok, she was the leader, and she wouldn't mind staying the leader, so she would have to lead. Ok, she had watched her dad and Uncle Tim, not to mention Conner, Bart and Cassie when they had led the Titans. What would they do…
"Ok people! Donar, carry Brick! Walt, tie your coat. I'm carrying you and Sierra and I haven't done that a lot so it's gonna be bumpy! If that's what I think it is, here's what we're going to do…!"
**************************
Kyra had guessed correctly: it was a bank robbery.
Which was a rarity. Jump City had benefited from the Titans being there: actual crime wasn't too bad (though stuff people did that you couldn't arrest them for was as high as ever). But disband a team and eventually people are going to grow bold.
Pity for them.
Only two police cars had arrived by the time Kyra and Co had arrived. Their entrance didn't go well, as the cops appeared to be on edge and nearly shot Kyra when she landed nearby.
"AH! WHOA! ON YOUR SIDE!" Kyra yelled. The first cop kept his gun trained on them, though the second lowered it a bit.
"Titans?" he asked.
"No, but we're the good guys! What's going on?" Kyra asked. The second cop was about to answer, except he suddenly yelled and pointed his gun at Brick as Donar lowered him down. Before he could do anything, Kyra disarmed him by grabbing the gun with a chain.
"On our side! Relax! Now, how many are there? Are there any hostages? Any metas?" Kyra asked.
"Uh, um, we're not sure…" the police officer stammered, still a bit intimidated by Brick's towering size. "Don't any of you have X-Ray vision?"
"Not this group. Check back tomorrow!" Kyra said, giving the cop back his gun. "Ok guys, we have absolutely zip in the way for info. My suggestion is we charge in and get them before they know what hit them."
"What about innocent bystanders?" Walt asked.
"The lack of any shooting at the police indicates they don't have a reason to fear them, which means they'll probably be looting the place and not holding a gun to anyone. We hit them before they get that idea! Or anyone else got a better one?"
"Um…well, no." Donar said.
"Fresh out as well." Walt said.
"Ok then. Do what I planned! Brick, GO!"
Fortunately, there was a stretch of grass around the bank: Donar picked Brick up and dropped him on it as Brick charged at the side wall. The grass muffled his footsteps, and only the last three made any noise as he stepped back onto rock, storming towards the side wall.
A wall he rammed into with his shoulder at top strength.
Kyra expected a sizable hole. She did not expect the whole wall to collapse on Brick.
"….OOPS." She said. "GOGOGO!"
Inside, the bank robbers had been doing just what Kyra had said: raiding the place. To say they were surprised when the wall suddenly exploded inward and then collapsed was an understatement. As the smoke cleared, revealing Brick none the worse for wear, the robbers immediately opened fire on him with their automatic weapons.
Which was the plan. Brick stood there and took the blows, not bothered in the slightest, as he looked around for hostages. He could see five, scattered around with their heads down as the robbers continued to fire. His skin absorbed all the impact, preventing any ricochets.
Kyra was suddenly on his shoulder.
"Two on the left…three on the right…" Brick said to her.
"Got it!" Kyra said, dropping down behind her human shield. She held out her arms and her chains extended around Brick and glided across the floor, wrapping the people up and half carrying, half dragging them back towards Brick. It wasn't the most comfortable trip, but it accomplished its purpose: it got them away from the bank robbers.
"RUN!" Kyra yelled as she set the people down outside. They had done it: gotten the hostages out without any of them catching a spare bullet. She glanced over to Sierra. "Ready?"
Sierra nodded.
"WAVE A!" Kyra yelled. Brick knelt down as he closed his eyes and covered them with his hands, the others doing the same as Sierra rose up, holding out her hands.
The flash of light was so strong it blinded the nearby cops for a few seconds. The robbers screamed as their vision exploded in light. Sierra ducked back down as Walt opened his eyes and finished mixing the chemicals he had been preparing.
"Ok guys, hold your breath! This will dissipate quickly but it'll be potent! WAVE B!" Walt yelled. He tossed the beaker to Donar, who reared back and hurled it into the bank as everyone sucked in air and held it.
The beaker exploded, and thick purple smoke swept through the bank. It wafted over the group of teens, and even with her breath held and her nose pinched Kyra still felt a bit sick.
The robbers had it much worse, as sounds of vomiting were quite clearly heard. The purple smoke began to dissipate, revealing their forms as they retched and spat.
"What WAS that stuff?" Sierra asked Walt.
"Combination smoke bomb and regurgitants. They can't see and they can't keep their lunch down. Good mix." Walt said.
"Sierra, stay with Walt. The rest of you, CHARGE!" Kyra yelled, as she, Donar, and Brick headed into the bank. Kyra leapt over and kicked one robber across the face, and then chain-slashed another into a wall, as Donar summoned up some wind to blow away the rest of the gas and two of the other robbers into another wall. The last one made a break for it, but Brick caught him before he could and knocked him out with a tap of his finger.
"That's all of them." Kyra said, as Sierra and Walt walked over into the bank to join their comrades. Walt looked down at the either unconscious or moaning robbers. I helped do this. He thought. The idea pleased him. He could definitely get used to this.
"That it?" Sierra said.
"I think so." Kyra said.
"You think wrong Titans!" came a new voice.
Another plume of purple smoke exploded near the teenagers, who recoiled. Kyra recalled her chains as she got ready to run behind Brick (and not because she was scared. She and Brick had worked out that since he was so strong and virtually invulnerable, he would be the "tank": taking the blows so the others wouldn't have to) if she had to.
"Apparently your parents and predecessors didn't teach you it's a bad idea to cross…the Amazing Mumbo!"
Kyra's eyebrow arched as the blue skinned long nosed magician appeared.
"Mumbo?" she asked.
"Yes Titans! Tremble with fear! Your forerunners' greatest foe has returned, ready to amaze you even as I crush you!" Mumbo said, waving his wand.
"I could have sworn he retired." Kyra said.
"You heard wrong! I am the greatest magician of all! My performance will never end!" Mumbo said.
"Right. Since when do you need armed goons to rob a bank Mumbo? Maybe your magic isn't as great as you thought it was." Kyra said.
"Ah, the child of Raven and Savior! I should have known! You doubt my powers? Foolish girl! Allow me to show you why I was the bane of your parents' existence!" Mumbo yelled, and waved his wand.
Nothing happened.
"….That it?" Kyra said. "If so, just surrender. It'll be easier if…"
"AIIIIIIYYYYAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sierra suddenly screamed. Kyra jumped, looking over to see what was going wrong.
She never got the chance.
*************************
Walt heard Sierra scream, and he looked over as well. But the girl was just running away, from nothing…what was Mumbo doing?
Well, maybe he could nip it in the bud. His hands reached into his jacket and began extracting vials, and within a few seconds he had brewed up a potent knock-out gas. This would look great: he took care of Mumbo all by himself!
So he threw it, and the gas exploded by Mumbo's feet, as he yelled in surprise. Walt grinned. Bullseye.
Then it all went wrong.
Mumbo should have passed out immediately. Instead he started gagging, grabbing for his throat.
"What the…" Walt said. Mumbo was now making peculiar gasping noises. It sounded like he was trying to scream, but couldn't even as he continued to claw at his throat.
And then a terrible chill ran down Walt's spine.
Oh god, what if I mixed up the chemicals?
Another gasp, and then he turned to see Donar keel over, grabbing at his throat. Kyra turned to look at him in shock and horror, and then she grabbed her own throat, even as Mumbo's skin seemed to LIQUIFY, sliding off his face like wax, even as the terrible poison Walt had mixed up by mistake felled Brick and then Sierra…
"NO! NO! IT WASN'T SUPPOSE TO DO THIS! NOOOOOO!" Walt screamed.
Then he felt his lungs begin to burn…
**************************
Odd that Walt was seeing his friends suffocate on a poisonous gas. Because that wasn't happening. Actually, they had their own concerns.
Sierra screamed as she ran. At her heels was a grizzly bear, bloody mouthed and snarling.
Sierra could handle people who tried to hurt her well enough, but animals presented their own problem: most of them replied more on other senses then sight. Even blinded, they could find her.
Just like a bear had found her one night, when she was hitching across the states and camping in the forest, a huge, terrible smelling mass that had awoken her while it sniffed at her head. It had moved on, leaving a terrified Sierra, but this one was apparently hungrier.
And even if she blinded it, it would keep going. It would find her.
It could smell her fear.
**************************
Being a demi-god, you don't have a huge amount to fear. But everyone fears something, and even though it may be utterly irrational, that didn't make it any less real.
What Donar saw, and felt himself being surrounded by were women. At least a dozen of them, all wearing next to nothing, and all pressing on him, breathing on him, grabbing him in places he didn't want to be grabbed.
Wait wait, you're saying! This should be every man's dream!
Maybe, but Donar was different. He was a little shy around women, true, but he wasn't afraid of them.
What he was afraid of was what would happen. Donar was a demi-god, the grandson of Thor. He was far stronger then any other man. And he had trained himself to keep himself in control.
Except when he was like this.
Donar may have been over seventy in chronological terms, but he was still a teenager in age. And even as hormones flooded his brain, he fought to try and keep the women away, before he couldn't hang on any longer.
Because if he lost it, these women would not survive it.
Though one might say they'd die happy…
***************************
Brick liked his solitude. His only real friend was Kyra, and perhaps these new teens she had introduced him to when she was forming this team. They seemed like nice people. But years of people staring at him, running from him, and generally REACTING to him in some way (almost always bad) had made him prefer his own company.
Hence, he didn't much like it when all the people appeared.
And when they started booing him, well, Brick couldn't stand it. He tried to leave, but he found he couldn't move, even as the crowd continued to boo. It was pretty silly on one level: here was a huge group of people booing as if Brick was the member of a bad stage play. But to Brick, who had been avoided and ignored and generally regarded as an outsider, this was terrible. Now they weren't just trying to avoid him, they were vocally telling him he didn't belong. They KNEW he didn't, on a deep biological level, and they were expressing it without any need for violence. Their words were quite enough.
He leaned down, sticking his fingers in his ears, trying to block out the boos, but they just got louder and louder, drilling into his brain, consuming his very being…
****************************
And finally, Kyra. What she saw was pretty similar to our last vision. Except this one was a lot more brutal.
"FREAK!"
Kyra felt the stone hit her cheek, and she stumbled back.
They were all here. From Hugo Bouche in the 3rd grade, to Violeta Grodski in the 5th grade, all the way up to Carissa and Isebella with their gang of football players, all throwing things at her, calling her a freak and a mutant, trying to destroy her, burn her away…
She could feel the objects hitting her, hear the screams and accusations, almost taste the terrible hatred the crowd radiated…
And she didn't buy it for a second.
"MUMBO!" she screamed, and walked forward. She ignored the objects hitting her, ignored the men spitting on her, walking straight into the mass of humanity…
Which disappeared as she touched it. The visions fell away, the pain she was feeling disappeared like someone had thrown a switch, leaving a shocked Mumbo looking at her.
"No! It can't be!"
Kyra glanced behind her. Her teammates still caught in the illusions Mumbo had fed into their minds, all of them looking terrified and/or in pain. Kyra, already angry, felt her rage triple as she turned back to Mumbo, who had started to back away.
"How did you know? How?" Mumbo said.
"You said it yourself! I'm Raven and Savior's child! The former members of the Teen Titans, who had a sheet on you as long as your arm! I just had to remember!" Kyra snarled as she stalked forward. "I know you started losing your abilities as you got older, you body weakening and not able to handle the strain from all your usual tricks. In the end, all you had left were a few mind reading spells. You tried to compensate by building a special hologram generator into your wand and changing your tactics. You'd read people's minds and then you'd use your holograms to distract them while you got away, tailor making them so you would be sure people would believe them."
"But…butbut…" Mumbo said, as he hit the wall behind him. Nowhere else to go.
"You could have done that Mumbo. You could have sent us chasing after some phantom hostage. But NO. You had to get PERSONAL. You had to PROVE you were still "The Amazing Mumbo"! So you hit us with our worst fears, a cliché among clichés, and the worst thing you could have done. This isn't my Daddy's world any more Mumbo. This is my city now. I'll choose how to defend it. And you have done a very very bad thing. You've terrified and possibly mentally scarred the first friends I've had in a long time. Let me show you how I deal with that!" Kyra snapped as she closed in, wrapping her chain around her right hand.
"No! Please! I surrender! I'm sorry! I give up!" Mumbo cried, throwing his wand down.
Kyra's fist snapped out anyway, slamming into the side of Mumbo's head, throwing him a full four feet to the side before he hit the ground, his head bouncing off the ground before he was still.
"You hurt people I care about Mumbo. Terrible, TERRIBLE mistake." Kyra spat, and slammed her foot down on the wand, shattering it and the illusion-generating device within it.
Instantly, the false images and feelings vanished. Walt found his lungs breathing fresh air again. Brick found the boos were gone. No women were getting Donar all hot and bothered. And the bear was gone, as Sierra stopped and looked behind her with confusion.
And one of the bank robbers was getting up, looking at Mumbo, who was lying motionless on the ground, a small pool of blood starting to gather around his head. He then looked at Kyra, who was looking at Mumbo, no pity in her eyes. And the bank robber got up, drawing Kyra's attention.
"YOU CRAZY BITCH! HE'S 67 YEARS OLD!" the bank robber screamed.
"That's ok." Kyra said, and then her foot snapped out, kicking the bank robber squarely in the testicles. "I HIT YOUNG FUCKS TOO!" she yelled, and delivered a chain-wrapped backhand that knocked the robber into next week.
Another one of the robbers was getting up. Kyra's eyes were drawn to the motion, and she started over.
"AH! NO! I GIVE UP! DON'T HURT ME!" the bank robber screamed, falling back down and curling into a fetal position. Kyra kept heading towards him.
"KYRA, NO!" Donar yelled, flying over to stop her. She's lost her mind!
Donar made it…
In time to watch Kyra walk past the man, heading over to Walt, who was closest.
"You ok Beak?" she asked.
"Kyra? You're ok…then what…?"
"Magic trick. But it's ok now. I dealt with it." Kyra said, and turned. She was heading over to Brick when Donar reached her.
"Kyra, have you lost it? You can't…" Donar began.
"SAVE IT GOD BOY. That guy surrendered, so I didn't hurt him. But Mumbo tried to mess with our heads. Anyone who tries to hurt us is GOING to get hurt in stead."
"But he's an old man!"
"Then he should have known better." Kyra said, and stepped up her pace, walking away from Donar. The demi-god stopped, unsure of what to do.
Then the police were there, yelling and shouting, and Donar's worries were lost in the chaos.
***************************
"I think we did pretty well in there." Kyra said as she and her team walked down the bank steps. "We saved the day, and the only ones who got hurt were the bad guys."
"I still say the way you dealt with Mumbo was excessive, at best." Donar said.
"Donar, if it makes you feel any better, I know how to hit a guy. I hit him hard, yes, but if I really had been out of control, I would have taken his head off. You say excessive, I say just punishment. On this we'll just have to agree to disagree."
A loud cacophony suddenly erupted as a horde of men and women headed towards the group, lights flashing in them.
"The press." Kyra hissed, her mood darkening. Like her father, she despised the mass media. They were little better then cockroaches in her eyes, scuttering insects who ripped apart privacy and personal secrets in the name of "information" and "the truth". And if you didn't give them what they wanted, they would just make stuff up, and the millions of dull-brained sheep out there would believe it because it was easier then thinking.
Fine. She'd give them a story.
"Let me talk." Kyra said as the crush closed in, shoving microphones and yelling questions.
"SHUT UP!" Kyra screamed. Amazingly, they did so.
"I want to get one thing out of the way. We are not the Teen Titans! The Teen Titans are dead! And just as the past is dead, so are the old ways. My friends and I exist for the sake of protecting those who cannot protect themselves! That is why we are, and it is how we will act! We will stay within the laws, but our goal is the spirit and not the letter! So this is the first and only warning to any criminals who will darken our city's door: either clean up or GET OUT. We will show NO mercy to those who have none!"
"But if you're not the Titans, who are you?" someone yelled. Kyra kept that question from being followed by a million others by waving a chain.
"Who are we? Hell, we aren't some silly thing like the Omega Men or the Justice Society! We're just a union of people. A union of people you oughtta respect, son!" Kyra said. "Wait…Union of People…that You OUgtta Respect…Son…hell, scratch that. We do have a name. And it's also our view of you people. UP YOURS!*"
And before the press could reply Kyra's chains snapped up and she was off. Faced with the bloodthirsty pack of wolves that was the average reporting group, Donar quickly got the rest of them out of there as well. The only other thing the reporters got was Sierra waving sheepishly and saying "Hi, I'm Razzle Dazzle." before Brick picked her up along with Walt and Donar flew off with them.
They met up with Kyra on a nearby roof. They landed.
"Up Yours?" Walt said.
"Forget Teen Titans. We're a brand new team and a brand new ATTITUDE. 'Sides, it came to me on the spot and I couldn't resist."
"I am not sure…if it is a good idea to present the image you presented Kyra." Brick said.
"Maybe Brick, but I know the press. I could have gone out there and spoken of carrying on my family's legacy and all sorts of noble crap, and they would have eaten it up and loved us until they found something they could use to tear us down, and then they'd turn us into the spawn of Satan. I figure, may as well save them the trip." Kyra said. "Forget the press. They're irrelevant. What matters is us. We can always change our name, but a team name isn't important if we don't have a team in the first place. And we have one. We need to iron out a few kinks, but believe me, so did my Dad and Mom, but we work well and compliment each other. I say we stay together. How say you my friends? Shall we make them remember our names, or will Brick Wall, Donar Magnison, Beaker, Razzle Dazzle, and Kyra Collins be a one night only thing?"
Silence.
"I find…I rather liked this evening. The hallucinations aside." Brick said.
"Yeah, same here. We helped save some lives…even if we smashed that bank up…" Sierra added.
"It was just a thing. And all possible…disagreements aside, I can see a future in this." Donar said.
"My mom probably won't like it…but all the same, I will be happy to make it unanimous." Walt said.
"Great. Just great. Maybe my dad was right about this thing after all." Kyra said, holding out a fist. "Here's to justice for the weak and punishment for the wicked."
"And law and order." Donar said, slamming his hand down on top of Kyra's.
"Yes." Brick said, adding his own massive palm.
"I always wanted to say this." Walt said. "Down on the ground and ready to go…"
"We be fast…" Sierra continued, adding her hand.
"AND THEY BE SLOW!" everyone chanted. (What, they can't all have seen Ghostbusters 2?).
And so, the newly formed and tested (thought not so tastefully named) UPYOURS headed home.
And on the way, they fought a sludge monster.
Some things NEVER changed.
***********************
In the shadows, he stood, watching the little birdie with her new friends. He leaned against the wall as they chanted their little vow.
And he chuckled.
"War it is." Jack Djinn said, and then he was gone.
*The first person to correctly name the origin of UPYOURS gets a free plug in the next chapter.
