Part 3: The Rundown

"Can we just get one thing out of the way right now?" Detective Chesbro said.

Savior sighed inwardly. He had a feeling what Chesbro wanted to say: the man had very reserved body language, but Noel had gotten an inkling in the short amount of time he'd spent with him.

The Titans had arrived in the early morning, and after surprisingly managing to find a semi-decent hotel, they had checked in for the night. Eight hours of sleep later, they had tried to call ahead to the police department to let them know they were coming, but were unable to get a response. Showing up at the station, they found out why: the department was in an utter uproar over the chaos Cauterize had caused last night, and with the police chief dead, others scrambling to cover their ass for one reason or another, and the general vacuum of command (which was caused because those who USUALLY put people in charge had been caught off guard and hadn't been able to pick a successor ahead of time, hence all the possibles were fighting amongst themselves), the entire place was running around with chickens with their heads cut off. Savior and the others had ultimately been dumped with Chesbro, who Savior knew from one glance was a step away from the rest of the police department. He was in control and responsible, and from the look in his eyes, thirty years older then his mid-twenties physical age. This man had clearly seen great hardship, the ever-stoic warrior amongst the incompetents and panderers that messes like Light City seemed to have. He reminded Savior of Gil Grissom from CSI, in general facial structure and hairstyle anyway.

So what was the problem? Savior had a feeling…

"I don't like you people." Chesbro said calmly, without any trace of prejudice in his voice. The type that disliked something but managed to live with it if he had to.

"Excuse me?" Terra said. The blonde haired earthshaker was the only Titan currently with Savior outside City Hall. Scalpel, before they had headed to the police station, had put in a call to his girlfriend Sophie, thinking ahead that they might need her. Once they had been "partnered" with Chesbro, the group had headed for City Hall, partly to get permission for a few things and partly to see exactly why he had been called here (the obvious aside. Savior wanted to know if there were any ulterior motives in this city asking for help to get the vigilante known as Cauterize neutralized. Savior was already seeing a whole bunch. He grimaced slightly: this problem was going to stink to high heaven…).

"Hold on Terra. Don't get mad. Yet." Savior said, gesturing with an arm. "You don't like us. Care to be more specific? You don't like us metahumans? Superheroes? Teenagers? Something else?"

"A and B, mostly." Chesbro replied from where he was leaning on his car, a Chevy that was actually it pretty good condition, all things considered. His pose was relaxed but alert. He was a good cop, who always kept one eye and ear open for potential danger. When you worked as a police officer, especially in a city that had shown metahuman and supercriminal activity, it was important.

"Ok. Will it affect our working relationship?"

"I don't think so."

"Ok then." Savior said, and would have left it at that. Terra, however, did not.

"Why?" she asked. Chesbro looked at her.

"Do you children actually think you're doing the world any good?"

"Please don't bring up the Final Night, The Last Wish, or the End of Metal incidents. We did all we could with those and quite frankly I'm tired…" Terra began.

"Not just that young lady. Just about everything you do. You don't seem to understand how…well, ADULT the world is."

"Define adult." Savior said calmly. His all white outfit and hair was drawing stares from some passerby.

"Look…I had to work for this. I studied my whole life to understand the intricacies of criminal investigation. These days…it's a very difficult process, mostly due to people who take the idea of reforming and probable cause too far. It's hard enough to convict criminals when we have people pulling out a labyrinth of obscure and outright ridiculous knowledge and facts to try and get them back on the street. Everyone deserving a fair defense noted, of course." Chesbro said. His speech had no accusations or ranting, just calm statements. Of course, whether that meant that Chesbro was a very level individual or just kept the violent part of emotions that all humans possessed tightly locked down remained to be seen. Savior made a mental note to keep an eye open for the latter. When you repressed things, nothing good came of it. The feelings never went away, and the longer they remained under lock and guard and in the dark, the more twisted and overpowering they became.

It made one wonder, was Cauterize like that? An aspect that had been locked away for so long that when it had emerged, it had taken a life unto itself? Possibly to the point of split personalities? Savior hadn't been there, but he had heard from Raven about Marissa Mori and her alternate personality Zia, who was violently homicidal and had wrecked havoc in her guise of the perception-warping Eyesore…

Chesbro was still talking. Savior filed that pondering to the back of his head to be examined later.

"You…superheroes…"

"I don't like that name myself." Savior said.

"Noted. When your kind, if I may say so, are dealing with normal human criminals, all you seem to think about is the glory part. Jump in, throw a few punches, pose for the cameras, and leave. You don't have any knowledge and regard for the really hard stuff. In fact, more often then not you wreck crime scenes, destroying or tainting evidence, hell, in some cases even leaving enough of your own bits and pieces that YOU could be convicted of the crime. And even if we excuse that, there is also the fact that most of you can't or won't be called upon to offer testimony, either because of the whole secret identities spiel or the fact you're too busy pulling cats from trees."

"Duly noted. Are you suggesting we should only tackle metahuman and psychotic mastermind criminals, or are you going to bring up the usual argument for that too?" Savior asked.

"Which is?"

"You surely know. "We bring our own kind." The argument that superheroes cause more problems then they solve because they either lead to the appearance of villains to match them or subconsciously deliver challenges to opponents to face them which results in the usual chaos and destruction and the running and the screaming and god forbid the loss of innocent lives…is that it?"

"Somewhat."

"Noted. Detective Chesbro, you might find the concept hard if not impossible to believe, but despite this…" Savior said as the Shimmer emerged from his hand and moved around a bit before sliding back in. "I'm still human. I understand that we do…it has flaws. We make mistakes. We probably don't do things as well as they could be done. But we try, detective. You can look at all the criminals who found loopholes and technicalities in the law and walked free due to our involvement, and you can focus on the massacres we haven't been able to prevent…but if you do, it's fair game for me to attack the corruption in your department and local government you haven't tried to stop and every single man or woman you have failed in some way in the course of you doing your duty to the best of your ability. Every sword is doubled-edged, detective. In the end, I consider two things. One, we've done a lot more good for this world then bad in the end, and two, we're not going away. So either live with us, or lump it. We're here to stay."

Silence.

"Why are we waiting here anyway?" Chesbro asked, as if the previous conversation had never taken place.

And then he appeared. Had the three of them not been so wrapped up in their exchange, they might have heard the slight buzzing noise as Beast Boy flew over as a fly. But they didn't, and hence his sudden appearance was quite startling. Chesbro even started to go for his gun.

"Intelligence." Savior said. "What did you see Beast Boy?"

"What kind of intelligence are we talking about here?" Chesbro asked.

"The kind that one needs in this situation. As you know, I wanted to meet the mayor mostly to get his permission to officially work with you in the various levels, so we could have unrestricted access to evidence and such. It's why my teammate Scalpel is gone: he's a doctor, and his girlfriend, who should be here by now, is an undertaker. The two of them are going to examine Cauterize's victims, or what we can get. It might help us with some insight. But I also wanted to get an idea just who is in charge around here…" Savior said.

He remembered Mayor Tercero, and the one word that came to Noel's mind when he had first seen him: PHONY. The man had tried to act like Savior was a dear friend, as if he was honored to be in Savior's presence…and the whole thing rang hollow to Savior from the beginning. If Mayor Tercero were such a great person, he would have just called the Titans directly, instead of calling in a favor from the police chief. Such subterfuge suggested much, and after seeing Tercero, Savior had suspected it even more. Tercero was a politician to the core, and Savior LOATHED politicians. They were wind-testers, going in whatever direction the people indicated, going back and forth on decisions depending on who wanted it more (or more accurately, who paid them more), They had no character or fortitude. They were not LEADERS. Savior respected leaders, even if they had ultimately led their country over a cliff.

Tercero had not an iota of leadership, so Savior, having worked it out beforehand with Beast Boy, had given him a signal, and the group had seemed to leave. Except Beast Boy hadn't: he'd turned into a fly and gone back to listen to what Mayor Tercero said when they weren't around.

"Report Beast Boy?"

"Not ten seconds after you were gone, the guy was on the phone. Said he had the situations handled, that the "freaks" were here and they'd do what he said, and then he and whoever was on the other end could continue their "deal". He also made several crude sexual comments about Terra to his deputy mayor and wondered if he was going to get sued by letting "that mutant" examine the bodies. I assume he meant Scalpel." Beast Boy said. Terra looked offended.

"Why that…"

"Save it Terra, he's not worth it." Savior said. "Well guys, it's official. SOMEONE wants to use us. We are not going to be used. We stop Cauterize, and maybe then we'll hang around and see if there's anything else we can do. I assume that is ok with you, Detective Chesbro, unless you're working for them, in which case I warn you, you better leave right now, or if you choose to stay, not betray us. The deepest circle of hell is reserved for traitors, and I'll make damn sure you get a taste of what's to come if you screw us over."

"I'm not working for any of Tercero's people. Believe me." Chesbro said.

"Let's hope we can. Beast Boy, who was he talking to?"

"Didn't catch it all. I believe he called him 'Mr. Pierce.'"

"Ok then. Detective, who exactly is Mr. Pierce?"

"Stephen Pierce is one of the great things about this city, a shining beacon that attracts peace and prosperity." Chesbro said.

Savior blinked.

"Do you actually expect us to buy that?"

"If you choose to. A lot of other people have." Chesbro said, and left it at that. Savior understood why. It wasn't so much fear as it was…caution. And if this Stephen Pierce has his fingers that deep into this city that even Detective Chesbro won't openly criticize him…this problem just acquired a brand new stench.

"All right then." Savior said. "Hopefully Scalpel is examining the body by now. Beast Boy, I want you to do aerial reconnaissance around the city. We don't know the terrain very well yet. I know, it's boring. Trust me, ok?" Savior said, cutting off Beast Boy's predicted complaint. The green-skinned teen shrugged and turned into a hawk, flying off into the sky.

"Terra, you're with me. Detective, how many high schools are there in this city?"

"Four."

"What's the biggest one?"

"The official one, Light City High. It's in the suburbs."

"Take us there." Savior said, as he opened the door and indicated for Terra to get in.

"Uh…Savior…what are we doing?"

"Preliminary reports on Cauterize are sketchy, but they seem to agree that it's someone young, from their teens to mid-twenties. I think it's someone from mid to late teenage years. So we're going to the source of such people to see if anything jumps out at us. That's why I made Beast Boy do the surveying. Forgive me for saying it, but you and I look a tad more normal."

"Yeah, except our costumes are going to make us stick out like sore thumbs."

"That why we're going clothes shopping first. Chesbro, take us to the nearest clothing store."

"Let's get one thing straight: I'm not your chauffeur."

"Yes, but you also said no one drives your car except you, and we're not going to go swinging and flying around town getting lost and making a scene. Now please hurry. We have no idea when Cauterize will strike again, and considering how fast he moves, he could be done before we hear anything."

The head coroner of Light City, Dr. Peter Radney, was examining the tools that the alien known as Scalpel had brought with him.

When he had first seen the figure, with his "negative photograph" features combined with his crazy fashion sense, and had heard he was a doctor, he had expected all kinds of strange incomprehensible tools that probably looked like broken parts from one of H.R Giger's artworks. Instead, he found Scalpel's tools weren't much different from his own, modified to fit the alien's sharp appendages of course.

"Doctor, could you bring those over please?" asked Scalpel's companion, the undertaker known as Sophie Matthews. Scalpel had met her at the morgue and the two had gone in with their paperwork that said they could examine the bodies. Part of Dr. Radney had been insulted at the concept that he was being pushed aside so some alien teenager member of a superhero team could do his job, but another part of him was relieved, as he could now handle the huge backup that had been building during the spring. A lot of suicides. That seemed to be happening a lot more lately.

Nigel and Sophie had removed the top layers of the suits they usually wore and were now wearing green gowns, shower caps, and masks to prevent contamination of the evidence and filter out the terrible smells that dead bodies usually made. Dr. Radney delivered their tools and excused himself to work on another body at the other end of the large, cool room. An officer from the police station was nearby, seemingly to watch the process for some reason, evidence most likely, but he was keeping his distance. Probably because of the stench, Nigel mused. Probably.

Sophie was about to remove the sheet covering the body before she suddenly winced.

"Sophie? You ok?" Nigel asked. Sophie gave Nigel a look that was some embarrassment, part amusement, with just a slight dusting of resentment.

"You should know." She said. Nigel looked a bit confused. She gave him a slight smile.

"Nigel…next time we're together…wear gloves."

The bewilderment on Nigel's face lasted another second before he got it, and he blushed furiously.

"Can we not speak of such things in such a place?"

"Dr. Radney is busy and our police friend is occupied with not trying to throw up. And it's a point that has to be made, Mr. Pointy." Sophie said. Nigel blushed again.

"Can we please move on to business?"

"Of course darling." Sophie said with a tone that was mostly bemused "other" with just a tad of edge, as she drew back the sheet that had previously covered the body up to the neck. It was the man known as Idjit 2, who Cauterize had cut in half, and whose halves now lay on the gurney. Sophie put the sheet away and turned on the tape recorder.

"First recording. I am Sophie Matthews, assisting me in this autopsy is Doctor, er, Scalpel, from the Jump City metahuman team known as the Teen Titans. Both our credentials are listed in Jump City Records. We are examining the body of one Bailey Bennie, who was killed by the vigilante Cauterize due to his association with the Pranker, identity yet to be confirmed. Cause of death is apparently violent trauma to the midsection that resulted in a complete separation between the upper and lower halves of his body. Beginning the examination."

And so Nigel and Sophie began to poke around in the section of the body where Bailey had been "eviscapitated". Scalpel took one of his namesakes and began cutting at the lower half's burned tissue, checking to see how deep he had to go before he hit undamaged flesh. It took him nearly an inch and a half…which was considerable.

"Subject's veins were sealed shut by intense heat, preventing any blood from escaping the body and causing extreme livity." Scalpel said, indicating the condition on how the blood, after the heart has ceased pumping, would be drawn by gravity to settle to the lowest part of the body it could depending on the position, causing what looked like extreme bruising. This was helpful in determining time of death, but they didn't need to know that: the also not yet identified Japanese girl called Giggles had given them a precise time after she had managed to calm down with help from a victim's advocate. "Heat source was reported to be super-intense friction, caused by the killer's ability to move at incredibly high speeds while keeping such things under his control."

"Spinal column has been cleanly severed, indicating a speed that was able to negate any resistance." Sophie said. She wasn't surprised. They had been plenty of cases of things going through other things due to them being propelled at high speeds, usually intense winds. 2 by 4's through trees, aluminum siding impaled through car doors, marbles through people…

Sophie began feeling along the cooked flesh of the upper half of Bailey with a gloved finger.

"Look at this Scalpel."

"What?"

"This wound is almost as smooth as glass. I don't think there are any variants in the cut at all."

"What does that mean?"

"Cutting parts off humans is more difficult then it sounds. Even if you succeed, it often takes multiple strikes, or at least a blow that won't be perfectly straight. The very slight muscle twitches of the human body will usually make sure the wound will be ragged in some way. The only way you get such smooth incisions is through some kind of surgical technique."

"So Cauterize might be a doctor?"

"Not necessarily. His ability to move like he does negates a few things we would normally use when examining cuts…but this wound…look…" Sophie said, taking Nigel's scalpel. "If what I'm seeing is right…when he made the cut…he didn't cut like this…" Sophie repeatedly waved the scalpel up and down in a hacking motion. "Or this…" She thrust the scalpel in a horizontal line to the right and then moved her hand farther right and sliced it back towards the left. "It was one complete, smooth, cut." Sophie said, slashing the scalpel in front of her in a perfect line. "Now, this might be less important if the killer had a long blade, but witnesses have claimed that Cauterize's swords are not that long, maybe a foot at most. Cutting a human in half while wielding something like a claymore is easier done, even at normal speed. But to do such a perfect cut at high speed with a shorter blade…it's clear that Cauterize knows something about such things."

"You mean training?"

"Of some kind at least. Might be self-taught training. Whatever it may be, it's pretty clear he didn't start doing this last week. He's prepared himself. Possibly quite a bit." Sophie said. "Let's examine the wound some more. I want to see if I can find any traces of metal."

Ninety minutes passed while the two worked on the body. In the end, they came up with nothing.

"I think this confirms my suspicions on preparation. If Cauterize had just made them nice looking swords, moving them at that speed would generate INTENSE heat. More then just enough to seal the huge wound this cutting caused shut perfectly. It would have actually caused the metal to melt a bit. Not just melt, VAPORIZE. In any case, there would have been some trace of metal in the tissue if he had just whipped up a pair of swords. But there's nothing."

"Which means?"

"Which means that he's definitely done his homework on his abilities. From what you told me about super speed, you have to use it properly, or get gear that allows you certain allowances when moving like that. The Flash has a special costume that negates friction, for example, which keeps his clothes from bursting into flame when he's running at high speed."

"But doesn't the manipulation of such a talent also guard against these things?"

"Possibly, but even if he had learned how to negate the friction, it would have to do the tricky balancing act of doing it enough to make the cut the way he did without damaging the blade, and even with the ability to think at high speed, moving at such a pace would ensure he's slip up SOMEWHERE, just a bit, and would have damaged the blade anyway…unless he designed the weapons to specifically function at that level of intense resistance."

"Which means not only can he move at super speed, he knows HOW to move."

"Intimately. Which could be very dangerous Scalpel. It's bad when you have an angry metahuman with superhuman abilities…but this one has planned out how to use them ahead of time. Quite a bit, I might gather."

"So how bad is that?"

Scalpel and Sophie jumped at the sudden new voice, and turned to see a strange man standing there. He was wearing old, worn clothes, and his face and head were covered in a breathing mask and shower cap, respectively, guarding his features. Later, Scalpel noticed the police officer had left, probably quickly.

"Who are you?" Scalpel asked.

"Oh, sorry. You only saw me briefly. I'm the Deputy Mayor, Roman Fernendez. The mayor sent me to see how you were doing." Roman said, offering his hand. Scalpel just stared at it, and Roman withdrew it. "Right, probably can't shake hands at the moment. Just a courtesy. So, besides that Cauterize appears to have been preparing for this, have you learned anything?"

"Why are you wearing such ratty clothes if you're the Deputy Mayor?" Sophie asked.

"Because this place has a smell that gets into your clothes, so I wear old worn out ones. Those suits are expensive you know, can't have them smelling like bodies do when they stop working."

"Point." Sophie said, turning back to Bailey's body. "Our full report is on that tape, you can probably get a copy from the police department…"

"Is it possible you can give me a rundown now?"

"I suppose. Remember, autopsies are usually for determining cause of death. In this case, we had a witness that saw the exact cause. We wanted to see the body to see if we could determine anything about the actual killer."

"So, besides the fact that he's prepared, what else did you find?"

"Not much." Scalpel said. "It looks like he has some knowledge, at least, of metals and blades, as he was able to design a weapon that could cut at super speed without being damaged. That suggests special kinds of material, not just for his weapons but also for his actual outfit. Even if you try and control your own friction, your clothes can still be at risk. If you get special kinds of clothing however, you don't have to worry. I would assume the black one-way mirror-esque material that makes a good part of Caurterize's helmet is special stuff as well."

"So we could possibly trace the sales of such materials?" Roman said.

"I doubt it. Even if your city had access to such stuff, it would be very expensive. I suppose Cauterize could just steal money to pay for it…but why do that when you can just steal the stuff itself? Hell, considering his potential intelligence, I doubt he got the material here. As fast as he could go, he could swipe the helmet materials in Metropolis, the textiles in Opal City, and the metals for the blades in Keystone and be back within an hour, probably less."

"I see." Roman said. "Well, from the evidence you have here, can you manage to puzzle out how fast he was going? It might help if we know if he has a cap on his abilities."

"I don't know very much about the Speed Force…but I'll try…" Sophie said, as she picked up the notes she had made. "Scalpel, your help please?"

A few minutes later, Sophie was at a computer and doing calculations.

"Ok…considering the depth of the burn…the amount of heat needed to burn so deep with the microsecond the heat was there…how much friction would be needed to generate that heat…considering the various alternate ways reality works when moving at high speed…"

Sophie and Scalpel puzzled over the mathematics of it for fifteen minutes.

"Ok." She finally said. "This is VERY rough and probably way off the mark…but my calculations show he was probably moving at, give or take several hundred…13,500 miles."

"13,500 miles an HOUR?" Roman said incredulously.

"No. 13,500 miles…a MINUTE."

Roman looked floored.

"Can…they actually move that fast?" he said.

"There have been stories of Speed Force users breaking the speed of light, of going so fast they cross time and space. And even if Cauterize can't go that fast…" Scalpel said. "Well, the Flash has been said to have cracked light speed. Let's say Cauterize can move, at maximum, a rough quarter of that speed…that's still the ability to move at 46,500 miles…a second."

Silence.

Roman took a deep breath, clearly trying to stay calm.

"In the time it takes us to blink, he could go around the world twice?"

"Possibly. This is just a theory. He might he able to go even faster."

Roman took another deep breath and put his hand on the wall.

"How do we stop something like that?"

"With a great deal of difficulty." Scalpel replied simply.

"Now…let me get this straight…you're Teen Titans?" said Principal Kelvin Tugwell, a man in his late forties. He had dull red hair that had gone mostly gray, an average face, a slight gut, and a rather nice suit, whose jacket was hanging on the back of his chair.

"Yes." Savior said. He and Terra were sitting in the principal's officer at Light City High, although no longer in their costumes. Noel was wearing black slacks with a turtleneck and a baseball cap, and Terra was in red jeans and a red T-Shirt that said "If you're reading this, stop staring you pervert."

"Um…do you have any proof?"

Noel took off his baseball cap to reveal his spiky, gravity defying white hair.

"That's unusual, I'll give you that, but that doesn't prove you're…"

Terra waved her hand, and the school office floor vibrated a little.

"…Ok, that's enough. So, why are you here?"

"As you might have heard, a vigilante has been operating in your city."

"Yes. Cut-up or something?"

"Cauterize."
"Yes, I heard. He murdered the chief of police. Terrible…" Tugwell said, closing his eyes as if recalling something. Whether it was found memories or foul, Savior didn't know. "But that still doesn't explain why you're here."

"Evidence is showing a strong possibility that Cauterize is in his teens. We came here to ask you if you had anyone who might stand out as a suspect."

"Why here?"

"You're first in the line. Just a hunch." Savior said.

Tugwell was silent, as a sudden blush of embarrassment spread on his face.

"Um…I'm not sure if I can help you."

"You don't have to go out and point fingers Mr. Tugwell. If you don't have any strong suspects that come to mind, just say so. You aren't paid to be a detective." Savior said, recalling that Chesbro was sitting in the car, listening to the radio and waiting for them. He wondered how long Chesbro would wait.

"Well um…Mr…um…"

"Savior."

"Savior…you have to understand something…it's been very difficult lately."

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Savior…I've been here for seventeen years…and for ten of those years I've been surprised this place is still here. Our esteemed mayor…he's not very big on education…"

Savior's face darkened again. The corruption was everywhere. No wonder someone like Cauterize had popped up.

"You have to understand…a lot of the funds…go to…other people…you know…"

"Yeah. I have an notion."

"I have to fight for every scrap of funding I can get. I have to negotiate for 12 hours every day, most of the time, to make sure that our teachers aren't all blathering incompetents or numb defeatists, that our school can have at least some things that have information from the past twenty years. It's very hard, Mr. Savior…and I'm sorry, but I don't have time to get to know the student body. At all. And my staff…it's the same for a lot of them. They're here because they have a love and a belief…and I'm afraid that might not last much longer, Mr. Savior. We used to have a great football team, which was something for this city to rally around…but that was a while ago. And our last hope…that was taken away last year. I fear…I'm just delaying the inevitable…but I'm not going to go quietly into the night. And I'm not sure if you understand that responsibility…but it takes all I have, Mr. Savior. I'm afraid…I don't know anything. I don't have it."

There was silence.

And then Savior reached out and took Tugwell's hand, which was on the desk.

"I'll do what I can. We all will. I promise."

"Thank you…but I don't think your good intentions can do more then add more bricks in our road to hell."

"You might be surprised how often I've seen that supposed inexorableness. Well, thank you for your help Mr. Tugwell. We'll be going now…" Savior said as he started getting up.

"Wait…I wasn't quite finished yet."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I can't help you…but…I might know someone who can. If anyone knows the coming and goings of this school, it's him. But if you speak to him…don't mention I sent you. He might have some…resentment towards me."

Savior contemplated asking, and decided not to. He'd had enough of seeing the knives people stuck in each other's backs around here.

The teenager had shrunk.

Or so it seemed, as to anyone paying attention, it was clear he was wearing clothes that were far too big for him. His jeans were clearly sewn at the waist and ankles, and his shirt, had it not been pinned back or rolled up, probably would have reached his knees. He had curly brown hair, VERY curly hair, to the point where the curls roiled off his head, forming a somewhat afro-esque shape. He had thin and rather weak features, and to top it all off, he was wearing glasses. All he needed to complete the nerd image was some suspenders and a pocket protector. He had neither, and since his glasses were shades, he didn't look too bad.

He was looking through his locker when Terra approached him.

"Excuse me…"

The teenager looked at her, noting her presence and nothing else.

"Are you Elijah Versaw?"

"Yes. What would you like help with?" Elijah replied, turning back to his locker and rummaging through it. Terra looked confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. You are talking to me for some other reason then help with schoolwork? That's not a common occurrence for me." Elijah said, as he withdrew a few binders and closed the locker.

"What do you mean?" Terra asked, her request momentarily forgotten.

"Oh, sorry again. I'm afraid I've been exposed to the hierarchy of the school system too long. I looked at you, a lovely woman, and since you're over here talking to me, you either want my help with schoolwork or you want to set me up for something, and people stopped doing the second awhile ago because I never gave them any good reactions. Lovely women don't talk to "my kind" for any other reason, do they?" Elijah said. Despite the verbiage, he didn't sound angry or bitter, just mostly resigned. A bit like Chesbro actually.

"Anyway, I'm sorry if I was rude. Can I help you?"

"Yes…my friend and I would like to speak with you."

"You are aware I was pulled a month ago and even if I did write it, it would never make it in. The Powers That Be didn't like what I was saying, after all, and you know what happens when they're displeased."

"What are you talking about?" Terra asked.

"Hmm, you are a unique one. What's your name?"

"Terra."

"Terra? Where have…" Elijah said, and then snapped his fingers. "Of course. I thought you looked familiar. You're one of those metahumans from Jump City."

"Why yes…I am."

"Hmm, there's something you don't see every day. What happened? You get kicked off and want to start a normal life somewhere else? If so I suggest a hair dye…"

"No no no. Some of my teammates are here, in Light City. We're on a mission…and we were told you could possibly help."

"Me? Well, I don't know. I know a thing or seven, but how can I help a superhero?"

"We're still human. We're not gods." Came Savior's voice, as he walked up behind Terra. He had wanted Terra to make initial contact because she stood out less then him, but since Elijah wasn't acting like some screaming fanboy that the Teen Titans were in the school, Noel decided it would be good to approach. Elijah looked at him.

"Ah. I believe it was Savior, correct?"

"Yes. How can I help you?"

"Before we discuss anything, is there any place we can talk in private? I don't want someone recognizing us and causing a scene."

"Sure, follow me." Elijah said, closing his locker and spinning the combination lock. Holding his binders close, he walked down the hallway, turned, walked to the end of the next hallway, turned left, and walked four doors down until they came to a door that said Light City Shining.

"This is the office for the school newspaper. We can talk in private here." Elijah said as he opened the door, revealing a small room with a very worn leather couch, a small printing press hooked up to an old computer, and a few other anachronistic devices placed next to carefully stacked piles of paper, ink cartridges, and all the other things needed to make a small newspaper. At the other end of the room was a door that said Editor, under which was a name written on with tape that said "Marco Corber". Elijah walked into the room, reaching up and removing the clip-on shades part of his glasses, revealing a pair of clear and sharp blue eyes. He slipped the clip-ons into a pocket. Despite the bookish features, Terra mused, he didn't look half bad. Maybe he was too hard on himself when it came to his idea of women only planning to mock him.

"Um, are you sure we'll allowed in here?" She asked.

"Oh certainly, no problem." Elijah said. He was sitting down on the couch when the Editor's door opened and a fat head peered out.

"Elijah, is that…oh, did you invite some friends?" the teen said. While not exactly ugly, the teenager's squinting eyes, overweight body, and slight but noticeable unpleasant smell didn't exactly give a favorable impression.

"Not exactly Marco. They wanted to speak to me."
"Ohhh, on a hot scoop Eli? Well, good luck!" Marco chuckled and closed the door.

"Who was that guy?" Terra asked.

"The new school newspaper editor. At least in theory. I still do all the work. Come up with the articles, write them, and put them together. He helps with the printing sometimes, but mostly he sits in his office looking at porn and taking credit for my work."

"How did that happen?" Terra asked.

"Oh, the usual. I was the editor since my sophomore year, but I, shall we say, stepped on too many toes. I called things like I saw them, and apparently they didn't want that. They wanted fluff and nonsense, so I was, you might say, asked to step down so that a new editor could be appointed. I'm not sure if they appointed Marco to teach him how to do a job like this or because his incompetence was so great it would quickly lead to the newspaper closing down. The fact that he didn't notice that two superheroes were in the lounge makes that pretty clear. In any case, the other reporters quit…but I stayed on. In secret of course. One of those kind of secrets that everyone knows."

"And you allow this?"

"What can I do? Complain? No one will listen. No one can, any more. Don't worry. It's a bad situation, but it's just one phase of my life. I graduate this year. I'll sure I'll be able to find someone that respects and needs journalistic integrity."

"I think that's an oxymoron." Savior said.

"Ah yes, I read you don't much like the media. Different strokes. Anyway, how can I help you?"

"Do you know anything about Speed Force users?" Savior asked.

"Say what now?" Elijah replied. Savior made a pointed mental comment to himself that not everyone studied superheroes and explained to Elijah what he knew about the Speed Force and Cauterize. Elijah sat and absorbed the info, occasionally making a note in his binder.

"All right…I think I have an idea. You're saying that people can tap this dimension and use it to move really fast and do other speed tricks…but how does one go about tapping this dimension? Is there anything specific?" Elijah asked.

"Well, there's never been a set reason or way to tap it. Impulse, er, Kid Flash now, was born with the ability to tap the Speed Force…but others have stumbled across it. One of them found the dimension after spending all night breathing hard water fumes. Another got splashed with electrified chemicals. Johnny and Jenny Quick tapped the Speed Force by reciting a mathematical formula. Others have found other ways. There are potentially a million paths to tapping this power, I suppose."

"Right then. Do you think that someone could tap it…through sheer determination?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, while you were talking, I was reminded of something. Did either of you see the Animatrix?"

"I did." Terra said.

"Well, remember that one episode, what was it called, World Record? Where the sprinter at the Olympics was so determined to surpass his limits that he actually managed to break through the fantasy world the machines had him locked it and saw reality as it was? Do you think that someone could tap the Speed Force for a similar reason?"

"It's possible."

"Well then…I've been thinking it over. Cauterize supposedly wants this place to be a "nice town" again, which I assume means going back to the time when we were popular with the tourists, and he's willing to kill people to get his desire. If I consider that with desperately wanting to surpass your limits as a possible way to tap the Speed Force…I might just have a suspect for you."

He lay crouched on the ground in the runner's stance, his muscles taunt and his body sweating and dusty. His shorts and shirt had large sweat patches on it, and his exertion had clumped his slightly below shoulder length blond hair into dripping strands. Peering out from behind the strands were the handsome features and the intense brown eyes of a hardcore athlete. A runner.

Nearby, another teen with similar looks, abet with some more muscle and closely cut black hair, raised his arm and snapped it down, and the blonde burst from his position and sprinted down the line of the small track near the school, his body exploding with energy, as if he was running for his life. And in a way, he was.

"There he is. Toby Garigen. One time shining star of this school, reduced to also-ran status. Or so it may seem. Toby is determined to prove Mother Nature wrong." Elijah said as Toby ran past them in the distance, crossing past the black haired teen whose arm was out, holding something. Savior assumed it was a stopwatch.

"What's his story?" Savior asked as Toby stopped, rested for a bit, and then trotted back to his friend/teammate/timekeeper/something.

"This school used to have a great football team, but a combination of budget problems and a drug scandal pretty much destroyed those glory days. But this city needs something to rally behind, and ultimately Toby was the one picked."

Toby suddenly burst out into loud yelling, though the distance kept the group from making out the words. He seemed angry, though not with his timekeeper, who was trying to calm him down.

"Toby was a sprinter, and one hell of a one too. His first year he was here, he broke every record the school had, then broke them all over again. People were drawn to him, and his track meets began to draw huge crowds. Toby was talented and disciplined, but he was also a showboater who loved to have his ego stroked, and this did it, big time. By his third year there was talk of putting together a collection so they could send Toby to the Olympics…and then in the middle of the third he tripped on a pebble during a meet and tore his calf muscle right off the bone. It was a pretty bad injury, and the doctors said that even if it healed, it wouldn't have the proper tightness or something for him to match his glory days. Toby would have none of it, of course. He healed up and began to train himself back to his running weight…but the crowds had left him. In a way, I think, they felt betrayed by Toby's sudden fall, which wasn't his fault, and he honestly didn't deserve it, but that's the way people are."

"Oh yeah." Terra said.

"Toby was held back a year due to his injury, but I think he prefers that. He's out here virtually every day, ever seen he was told he could run again, trying to force his body back into the way it was. He'll run for hours on end, and then come back the next day and do it again. He's determined to show the people that he's not just as good as he was before, he's better…"

Toby had, by now, trotted back over to the starting point. Noel thought he heard something about "bad start" as he headed past and re-resumed the position.

"Thing is…I don't think the people are going to listen. They put their faith in Toby, put in him their dreams that had been robbed of and lost, and he let them down. That kind of wound never really heals…"

The timekeeper waved his hand again, and Toby exploded off the end. It was clear this time he'd erupted on all cylinders, as he sprinted down the track even faster this time.

"So you can probably see why I'd consider him a possible suspect. Toby lives to run, can't live without running…and I can see him pushing past the brink and finding something else. And considering the fact that he resents the way people once worshipped him and then abandoned him…I can see him taking out his rage on the town."

Toby crossed the finish line and stopped, then turned back to his timekeeper. This time, he seemed relatively pleased, clapping the timekeeper on the back.

"Well…what do you think?" Elijah said.

"I'm weighing Occam's Razor against the fact that life loves to screw with my kind." Savior said, his thumb and forefinger slightly gripping his chin.

"Whatever the case, thank you for your help Elijah. If you're right, maybe we'll let you interview us." Terra said. Elijah turned towards Terra, and hence didn't see the semi-shocked look that came over Savior's face.

"You'd do that?"

"Oh sure. I mean…" Terra said, ignoring the way Savior was now waving his hands in the expression of "Stop!" "You clearly want to be a reporter, and every reporter needs a big break, and what could be better if you could…" Noel was now slashing his finger across his throat. "Interview some superheroes, including one that regularly spits on the media?" Terra said, indicating Savior. Savior managed to switch his body language before Elijah turned around again.

"You would actually do that?"

"Uh…we'll see how the Cauterize case pans out. For now…" Savior said. "Terra, maybe we should discuss something."

"Because that would be incredible! I could write my own ticket with an interview like that! Everyone always wants to know about superheroes! I mean, people friggen obsess about them…" Elijah babbled.

"Now you've done it." Savior said as he walked off with Terra, Elijah following them as he continued to spew his excitement.

None of them noticed the dark look that was being given to them behind the sweaty blonde locks of Toby Garigen.

"I'm sorry about my outburst back there. I don't usually behave like that." Elijah said. He had trailed the two back to the school, where the two had let themselves in through the gym entrance (the men's locker room was closer, but Terra refused to walk through there with a blindfold on and so the three had had to wander around until they had found an entrance in the gym itself. "I mean I…whoops!" Elijah said, as he stepped on his own pants cuff and lost his balance, stumbling a bit before he put his hand out to balance himself. Terra took a step back to see if he was ok.

"Nothing wrong, I'm fine." He said.

"Why are you wearing such ridiculously large clothes anyway?"

"My financial situation…has been pretty bad as of late. To afford some things, I had to sacrifice other things. These belonged to my dad, who was a big man. It's inconvenient, but I'm willing to make sacrifices for my life." Elijah said, straightening the loose cuff out. "Now, as I was saying, sorry about that outburst…"

"Understandable. Everyone has his or her moments. You should have seen Savior here when he met Superman." Terra said.

"Hey, you weren't much better." Savior jibed back.

"Well yeah. It's Superman. And no Elijah, I don't think we can get you an interview with him." Terra said.

"I wasn't even going to ask." Elijah replied.

"Elijah! There you are!"

Walking up the hallway was a girl. Savior slipped his hat back on and wasn't prepared to pay much attention…until she noticed she was Asian.

The vigilante seemed to have some kind of weird sexual fetish for the victim…did not actually harm her but tore off her clothes and spoke on how he'd like to, at the least, have sex with her…

"Hey Kei. What's going on?" Elijah

"I got a B in my history exam!" she said, in a kind of reticent excitement.

"Good! I knew you were worried about that." Elijah said. Up close, the Japanese girl was revealed to be a tad bit drab. She wore a shapeless dress and had her eyes behind thick glasses, her hair tied in a very tightly wound ponytail behind her. She was carrying a book bag with a few buttons on it. Savior saw two. One said "Fight Bad Spellers" underneath one that said "Shave the Whales." Noel half smirked and half groaned inwardly.

"Oh, um…Kei, this is um…Sam and Tara." Elijah said, indicating Savior and Terra, and Savior smirked inwardly at Terra's look of attempted concealed shock as Elijah inadvertently used her real name. "Guys, this is Kei Mickiko, who once identified the American Revolution as "A type of fish"."

"Oh that's a lie you jerk!" Kei said, hitting Elijah on the arm.

"Good evening miss." Savior said.

"Heya girlfriend." Terra said, instinctively friendly.

"Kei here is my personal thorn. She ignores me until she has trouble with something, and then she won't leave me alone until…" Elijah began.

And then the door Elijah was standing next to suddenly swung open, slamming into Elijah's front so hard it actually knocked him down, scattering his binders to the floor.

"Hey!" Savior said, as Kei made a strange alarmed noise.

"I'm ok…" Elijah said, trying to get up.

"Oh I'm sorry! What did I….oh, it's YOU."

From behind the door, now dressed in a track suit and with his wet hair combed back, Toby Garigen emerged.

"Did I break something? I hope so."

"Somehow Toby, I doubt you just swung the door out that hard with the random hope that I might be behind it." Elijah said, getting up and adjusting his glasses. "I would think by now you would let bygones be bygones."

"In a pig's eye you fucker."

"Toby, I've said this before. It was an honest mistake."

"FUCK YOU! You ruined my life!"

"You're still here and still healthy. I hardly see how that qualifies as life-shattering." Savior said. Toby glared at Savior, but with his white hair tucked under his hat, he didn't seem to recognize him.

"You're obviously new. I saw you guys hanging out watching me. He spewing the usual shit about me?"

"Actually, he was talking about how hard you were working to recover your racing form."

"Oh really? Well then, this must be his evil twin, because no sooner was I in the hospital then he printed an article about me saying that I might be using steroids and that was what caused my injury!"

"First of all Toby, it was an opinion piece. I stated repeatedly I had no hard evidence. Two, at the time it looked pretty suspicious to me: you hadn't given any indication of weakness in your muscles before. Three, when a drug test revealed no trace of steroids, and you being in the hospital left it impossible for you to have faked the drug test, I printed a retraction in the very next issue and apologized profusely, saying I had been wrong. I even printed medical documents showing steroid-damaged muscle and how your injuries didn't match up. You can't really blame me Toby. You were a marvel, hell, a prodigy. And in this day and age, people don't look at people like you and say, "Wow, he's amazing", they look at you and say "He's obviously taking drugs". Those were my suspicions as well. But I was wrong Toby. You proved me wrong, without a doubt. Now, isn't that good enough?"

"No." Toby said, and shoved Elijah up against the lockers.

The hallways rang with a loud clang as Elijah slammed into them. Toby looked to be ready to follow up, except Savior got between him and Elijah.

"Ok buddy, you proved your point. You're angry, and you don't like him. But the past is the past. So focus on the future and get over yourself."

"You going to fight his battles for him?" Toby sneered.

"I don't know. He seems pretty satisfied with his masculinity. How about you? It's a clear sign that when you go after a weaker target you have doubts." Savior said.

Toby glared at Savior, and then stepped back. Savior stepped aside as Elijah got back up.

"Ok asshole, you get off easy this time. But next time, you won't have your bodyguard." Toby said. His gaze slid over to Kei, who had helped Elijah up. "And when are you going to quit your study of the nerds and come over here where you belong Kei?"

"Fuck you you asshole." Kei spat, surprising Terra. She hasn't seen the capacity for such venom in the Asian teenager…or was that just her own small prejudices talking?

"Yeah, whatever, keep denying your lust for me. I'm patient. I'll wait for you to come to your senses. Just remember…he might get you passing grades…but only I can truly appreciate someone like you." Toby said, and turned and left, heading back into the locker room.

"Bastard." Kei said.

"You can't really blame him. It's what he knows." Elijah said, pushing himself off the lockers and going to pick up his binders.

"You ok Elijah?" Terra asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. He mostly got my left foot when he opened the door." Elijah said, picking up the binders. He clearly winced when he straightened up and took a slight step. Toby really had nailed his foot pretty hard it seemed.

"What do you mean, it's what he knows?" Savior asked.

"Oh, Toby has, you might say, exotic tastes. He likes "different" women. You know, blacks, Hispanics, Asians…it's what floats his boat. And the old days when he was the darling of the town, he got used to women throwing themselves at him. Now that he's no longer the golden boy, that doesn't happen any more…but he still thinks it should. Let him have his delusion. Everyone deserves a little happiness. Even if it is in a figment of his imagination." Elijah said. "You need anything else, Sam, Tara?"

"No Elijah, I think we've gotten all the info we need. But in case we need to talk to you again, do you have a phone number or something…"

"Here." Elijah said, opening his binder and extracting a business card. "This has my home address and number. Just be careful who visits if you have to: my mother is fragile. If one of your more colorful members shows up, you could give her a real serious shock…and that would be bad. Ok?"

"All right. Thanks Elijah. See you around. Maybe." Savior said.

"And don't forget that interview you promised!"

"Oh yes, how COULD I?" Savior said, giving Terra a sidelongs glance. Terra looked sheepish.

Terra sighed as she walked along the field, wishing she could fly. Once they were out of the building, Noel had told her to go get Detective Chesbro (her punishment, most likely, for the whole interview offer) while he called Beast Boy and Scalpel to find out what they had learned and fill them in with what they had learned. Only instead of finding a highly irritated Chesbro, she had found something else, and she figured she had better tell Savior. But Savior had moved from where they had parted, and hence Terra had been forced to hunt around for him, and she couldn't fly because she would attract attention.

And she was getting sick of looking. She'd walked around the school, and then tried looking in it. The only thing she had found was a classroom that was used for science classes and a male student who had gotten his hands stuck to a table via some concoction that had formed an incredibly powerful and foul smelling glue. Terra had almost tried to help, but in the end the science teacher had done it for her, as he poured what Terra had overheard was salt water on the glue, which had led to it dissolving. Terra had moved on then, and was now back outside.

She pondered Toby. True, it looked good…but then again, didn't that mean that Toby WASN'T Cauterize? Or maybe Occam's Razor really was in effect. In any case, they didn't have any proof. Hopefully it wouldn't take much, because all things considered…

And then she heard the thundering, and she turned to see the huge wall of dirty green uniforms charging headlong at her like a stampeding horde of bulls.

Terra almost ripped rocks out of the ground and smashed them, before she realized it wasn't a threat. Kind off. It was Light City High's football team, the Illuminati, clearly on some kind of training drill, and they weren't slowing down for anyone. Terra ran through her options, ruled them down to two, then ruled out getting trampled and was down to one.

She dove to the side, using a very subtle ground thrust underneath her to give her some extra distance, and managed to dodge the mad dash, barely. She rolled and came up on one knee. Not bad. All she'd gotten was a little muddy and highly annoyed, as the team was running on as if she hadn't been there.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!!!!!!!"

Terra started at the sudden yell, and turned around to see someone stomping towards her in the stride of the enraged.

When he arrived, Terra almost snickered. He was barely as tall as her. But he clearly had muscles, the kind that showed the determination to keep one's body ahead of time. He had a buzz cut so close to his skull it was hard to tell the exact color of his hair (dirty blonde, looked like) He had a bulldog face with mean little eyes, and he was stabbing a long finger in Terra's face.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING ON THE FIELD! ALL STUDENTS ARE BANNED DURING TRAINING TIME! CAN'T YOU FUCKING LISTEN!?!?!"

"Sorry…" Terra said, flustered.

"YES YOU ARE! WE DON'T NEED YOU DISTRACTING MY MEN, YOU BUBBLEHEADED WHORE! NOW GET THE FUCK OFF MY FIELD BEFORE I KICK YOUR LITTLE ASS OFF OF IT!"

Terra looked offended, and was about to respond when the man (the coach, she assumed), actually grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around.

"I SAID GET!" he yelled, and then he slapped her hard on the ass.

The next second the earth erupted under his feet, throwing the coach off his feet and onto HIS ass. Terra turned around, her eyes intense.

"Touch me again, EVER, and I'll put you six feet under." Terra snarled.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" the coach screamed, scrambling up. Inside, Terra goggled. It was like he hadn't even noticed that Terra had moved the earth to toss him. Apparently, all he registered was the offense to his manhood. "NOBODY DOES THAT TO ME! I'LL…" the coach screamed, as he raised a hand. Terra's bewilderment increased: he was actually going to hit her!

He never did, of course. Terra would have stopped him, but she never got the chance, as a white line roped around the coach's upraised wrist and arm and yanked him back. The man slammed into Savior's chest, even as the teenage superhero coiled the arm not occupied with a Shimmer strand around the coach's throat and yanked the coach's arm back with the Shimmer even more.

"BACK OFF. RIGHT NOW." Savior said in an intense whisper. The coach opened his mouth to yell and found the Shimmer grabbing it and snapping it shut. On the other end of the field, the players had completed their drill and had turned around to see the end of this little scene. A ripple passed through them as they tried to figure out what was going on, and then with a few muffled yells ("They're attacking the coach!") they started heading for the three.

The coach yelled under his Shimmer gag, muffled shouts with no sense, as the football players closed in. Terra walked up, her eyes hard, demurring to Savior at the moment. He was leader of this team, and she knew he was a good tactician, for all situations.

"I suggest you tell your team to back off, or they'll find themselves buried up to their neck in dirt. Considering you're probably trying to return the team to the level of glory it once knew, I think that would be a real morale killer." Savior said, gesturing to Terra, who raised an arm in the direction of the team as her eyes glowed orangish-brown.

Savior gave the coach one last intense squeeze via the Shimmer, keeping just a hair away from the force that would have snapped his wrist, and then released the coach, as the football team closed in.

"What's going on Coach?" one of them asked. Two dozen angry teenagers glared at Savior and Terra. Savior wasn't much concerned. After tangling with such forces as Doomsday and Myth and his evil doppelganger Asphyxiation, angry teenage boys, even those with lots of muscle and testosterone, were low on his list of concerns.

"Just…a misunderstanding. Everything's fine." The coach said. Savior nodded. Good man. He knew when to back off.

Maybe.

"You sure?" asked another. Savior noted that it was Toby's timekeeper.

"YES! AND I DIDN'T ORDER A BREAK! BACK TO IT ASSHOLES, DOUBLE TIME!" The coach bellowed, and the team took off down the field again. He turned smoldering eyes back to Savior and Terra.

"Make sure you give them water breaks. I'd hate for one of them to die from the exertion, which would force me to come back here to arrest you for criminally negligent homicide." Savior said, and turned to leave. Terra fell into step beside him, leaving the furious coach behind.

"Slight problem Savior." Terra said.

"What is it?" Savior asked. Terra started to answer, but she didn't get the chance as the door in front of them opened and out stepped Elijah Versaw again, this time wearing a backpack.

"Guys! I thought you would have left by now." Elijah said. Savior groaned inwardly. He wanted to like the kid…but he was a reporter. You saw the problem, or at least you would if you regularly read my work, and if you don't, SHAME ON YOU! Er…we now return you to your regularly scheduled fanfic…or something…

"We hit a slight delay. But it's good we ran into you Elijah. We have one more quick question." Terra said, indicating the coach, who was back into full on drill sergeant mode. "Who's that?"

"Ah, stepped on Coach Van Toolman's field, huh? You must like to live dangerously." Elijah chuckled.

"More like HE does." Savior muttered.

"Well guys, remember how I said that the Illuminati were once a force to be reckoned with on the field? Just before it came crashing down, Toolman was the quarterback, and he was good, a crucial part of a well oiled machine. However, just before they got into the championship, he suffered a slight leg injury, much like Toby. His was much less severe though, and he probably would have recovered in time for the big game. Except almost immediately afterward, that steroid scandal I mentioned broke. Van got caught in the middle. Like Toby, he wasn't taking steroids, but his leg injury suggested that he had been, and despite being medically cleared, his team was disqualified from the game. He went on to college, but his credibility was shot: no one believed that he, the centerpiece of the team, wasn't using drugs when several of his teammates were. He had wanted to play football for a big college and the NFL, but once that scandal hit, he was finished. He struggled through college, trying and failing to get on the team, who didn't want to admit him because professional sports was getting crucified for steroid use and they didn't want to go near anyone who even had the slightest trace of suspicion. Once that was done, he drifted through life, never getting anywhere, and eventually he wound up back here, as the coach of the team that he had helped led to glory…at least until the people turned on him."

"That seems to happen a lot." Savior said.

"It didn't use to be that way. If this had happened back in the glory days of this town, they would have given him the benefit of the doubt. But ever since the town started to go down the tubes…people have gotten harder. Angrier. And like most people, they need someone to blame for their pain. Van was one of them, like Toby."

Elijah sighed, shifting his backpack.

"You know, it makes me wonder…whoever Cauterize is, he sounds like someone who's sick of being the victim. Which is worrisome. For now, he's going after bad people, criminals…but people who blame…it never ends. If this city runs out of bad people…I don't want to know who Cauterize might target next."

He gave Savior a friendly pat on the back.

"Good luck guys. I think you're gonna need it." Elijah said, and he turned and left. Savior looked at Terra, and then the two wordlessly turned and left.

"Who were those guys Coach?" one of the football players asked Toolman, who had kept his eyes on the two metahumans, holding his sore right wrist.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out, and they're going to pay. NO ONE does that to me. No one."

"Where did Chesbro go?" Savior asked calmly. Instead of a police car, he had returned to where Chesbro had parked to find a luxury car, a Rolls Royce with tinted windows.

"That's what I wanted to tell you. Someone apparently radioed Chesbro and told him to head back to the station. They sent this car to chauffeur us around instead. They said it was a token of appreciation."

"Token of appreciation my left eye." Savior said. The chauffeur had by now gotten out of the car and opened it for the two of them. Savior looked at the car like it was some kind of rotting animal. The young chauffeur didn't seem to notice.

"Terra, get on a rock and hook up with Beast Boy, do a few more sweeps of the city. Scalpel says he's heading back to the hotel, I'll meet you back there. We'll try and plan a strategy."

"What are you going to do?" Terra asked.

"Settle something." Savior said, and then he headed for the car, getting in and indicating for the chauffeur to close the door. He did so and headed for the front.

Terra would have complained, except she had an idea what was going to happen and she really didn't want to be around. With a slight rumble, she found a large rock under the surface, raised it up, hopped on, and took off.

A quick call on her communicator allowed her to meet up with Beast Boy, who swooped in as an eagle and landed on her rock roughly twelve minutes later.

"Hey Terra. How's it going?"

"Noel and I learned some interesting information." Terra said, and filled Beast Boy in.

"Huh. You think there's anything to it?"

"A lot of people lived in this city, we could be exposed to a hundred such situations and none of them would be Cauterize. But still…I have a feeling in my gut…in any case, we'll all need to compare notes. We can't all go off chasing our tails, nothing will get done that way."

"That some kind of diss?" Beast Boy teased light-heartedly. Terra smiled and giggled…and then there was suddenly that awkward silence between them. Terra coughed, and Beast Boy scratched the back of his head.

"You find anything?" Terra asked Beast Boy.

"Not much…but I'll tell you, this city used to be really nice. But now…it's really dilapidated. Things really have gone downhill."

"Yeah, and we know why." Terra said, pointing up. The rock was floating a few hundred feet below the masses of chemical smoke that were belched forth by the factories off in the distance, mixing with the clouds to form a thick barrier. The sun could pierce through it, somewhat, but the moon remained covered, or at least it would when night would fall.

Silence again.

"Well, Noel said we should do a few more sweeps before we head in. You take the east, I'll take the west?" Terra asked.

"Sure." Beast Boy said, and took the chance to step off the edge of the rock and fall, turning into an eagle again and flying off with a shriek.

Terra sighed. So much want and yet so hard to find a connection, as she turned the rock and flew off, down towards the buildings.

The mask hides all.

Right in front of them and they didn't have a clue.

Silly children.

Perhaps he would run into later. Perhaps not. But it matters not.

It was time to get back to work.

The city had to be cleaned.

It had to be a nice town again.

Savior had, for the sake of it, told the driver to take him back to the hotel. But he expected such a trip to take little more then ten minutes. They had been driving at least twice that long, and as Noel had found out, the windows were tinted both ways. Savior had no idea where they were going. Not for the first time today, he regretted leaving Robin's car back at the police station.

"You know, this most likely isn't the way to the hotel. Or are you just a really bad driver?" Savior asked. No answer. Savior tapped on the glass separating him from the driver and again got no answer. He had a feeling that if he tried the door, he would find them locked. That didn't really matter: the Shimmer could tear the whole car apart if he wanted it to. But not yet.

Six minutes later, the car stopped.

"Are we at the…"

The door opened, and Savior turned his head to see a big beefy man with an ape-like skull and no neck aiming a rather large gun at him. On the other side of him, Noel heard the door opening, and turning his head, found another huge meathead with a similar gun aimed at him.

"Don't move." One of them said.

Savior didn't. The two slid into the car seats next to him, crowding him, never lowering their guns. After a few seconds, two more men, these ones smaller but also holding large guns, got into the car and put themselves in the seats in front of Savior (apparently it was a combination Rolls-Royce/limousine).

The five waited in silence.

And then one of the pair to get in second slipped out again, and another man slipped in instead, the man with the gun quickly slipping back in after him.

Savior's face darkened. He knew who this was.

"Good evening." Said Stephen Pierce.

Deep inside him, Savior felt the anger begin to stir. Not because of the dilemma he know apparently found himself in: he had expected that. No. It was the fact that Stephen Pierce, the man who now owned and commanded Light City…bore a striking resemblance to Noel's father. Maxwell Collins.

Not too much of one, but Pierce's carefully cut long black hair, streaked with grey that added to a distinguished look rather then showed age, and his neatly trimmed beard, which was a tad bit pointier, almost a van dyke (and wouldn't THAT be a cliché), looked quite a bit like Maxwell Collins, Noel's father (and eternal shame). But while Maxwell Collins had smooth features, Stephen Pierce's features were rough and rugged, a dash of pirate buccaneer on the hardened stone of someone who had clawed his way to where he was.

Savior snorted. The gunman who had got out to let Stephen Pierce in removed a small sleek case from inside his jacket and popped it open to reveal fine cigars. Pierce took one.

"Smoke?"

"I don't."

"As you will." Pierce said, lighting it with a lighter offered by his man on the other side. Savior stayed silent.

"I assume you know who I am."

Savior nodded.

"Then you know we have a problem. One of your kind, if I may say so, has shown up in this city. Now you must understand…I've been here a long time. This city is very dependant on me. This Cauterize, most likely, has schemes of making me one of his victims. I want assurances that you will do everything in your power to neutralize this threat, to me, and this city, posthaste."

Savior continued his silence.

"Now young man, this is supposedly the duty you took on when you put on that silly costume, if you were wearing it anyway, and called yourself a superhero. I don't really care if you like me or not. You have been summoned here for a task, and you will carry it out. And only that task. This city was fine as it was, and it will be fine without you. Do the job you were hired for, and leave. If you don't, well, I don't like making life difficult for others, but I take pride in doing it well."

Silence.

"Answer Mr. Pierce." One of the apes growled.

"Fuck you." Savior replied. The ape's face blazed with rage, and he brought back a hand that was the size of the average human thigh.

"Hold it Flint. Not yet." Pierce said. Flint lowered his arm, his eyes glowering, begging for a chance. "Young man, you do not understand. This is MY city. I know everything that happens in it. I've worked long and hard to make it that way. If you want to cause me problems, well…I have dealt with problems my whole life."

"If you kill me, or I disappear, every single Titan will be here within a minute, and they'll tear this city apart until they find you." Savior said.

"Ah yes, the impotent threat. You know why I am not afraid of that possibility, young man? Because for it to be carried out, you have to die. And no one wants to die, young man."

Savior smirked.

"You're right." He said. "I don't."

And the Shimmer strand, the one that had flowed out of the foot Noel had kept firmly planted on the floor, that had carefully, without making noise, drilled its way through the base of the car, flowed out and seized a firm grip on the under chassis, and then formed a crude jack under the grip, a jack that Savior sent a mental command to.

The car suddenly bucked up like it was the mother of all lowriders, and Pierce and his men suddenly found themselves in the equivalent of a blender, knocking men off guard and guns off target.

Savior attacked, whipping around and slamming his hand in a knife edged chop into the side of the neck of the yet-unnamed simian goon, causing a sudden interruption in the blood flow to the brain that resulted in a swift faint, even as he was turning around, even as Flint roared and tried to shoot him, even as the Shimmer sprang out and slammed into his throat, turning his bellow into a muffled wet gasp, even as the strand split into two and slammed into both sides of Flint's temple, a blow that would knock even a man of his size out. The strands flowed down and latched onto Flint's large shoulders and propelled Savior out, as he slammed his foot across the third of Pierce's men's face, even as another strand flew from his back and slammed into the gut of the last man, then whipped up and lashed across his face as he doubled over, even as more strands slashed out and grabbed up the fallen guns, even as Savior finished his turn as more Shimmer lines sprang from his arm and formed into a twin-pronged blade that he stabbed out, the blades stabbing into either side of Stephen Pierce's head, whose face now bore a look that was a lot less confident and sure then it had been three seconds ago.

"Oh, you have a problem, Mr. Pierce." Savior said, as the four lines bearing the guns of Pierce's men floated in front of the crime boss, the lines merging into one that brought the guns together and enveloped them in solid white energy. "You have a problem with this city…" Savior said, as strange noises began to come from the sphere the guns had disappeared into. "You have a problem…with Cauterize…and now…you have a problem…with ME."

The sphere opened up, revealing a perfectly formed ball that had once been four guns, crushed and shaped to perfection.

"You think you have power, Mr. Pierce? You may have power in this small city on the edge of damnation…but to me, you are nothing, Mr. Pierce. NOTHING. So let me tell you how it's REALLY going to go, Mr. Pierce, since you were so kind to tell me how it is…We will deal with Cauterize, Mr. Pierce, and if you have somehow survived his wrath, we will make sure that before we leave, we will deal with YOU. And that's not a promise, Mr. Pierce. That's a prophecy. And a curse."

Savior pulled the blades out of the car wall and dropped the new paperweight at Pierce's feet. A Shimmer line blasted the door off, and Savior stepped out to reveal a very surprised and scared chauffeur, who had gotten out to see what all the fuss was about. Savior looked around and found himself on a cliff overlooking the chemical plants, forever belching their concealing smoke, at the edge of Light City.

"You can leave now. I'll walk home." Savior said, and with a Shimmer line he was gone.

"Mr. Pierce…" the driver said, looking into the car.

Stephen's Pierce's fist slammed into the driver's face, knocking him clean out, and the so called owner of Light City stepped out, his face purple with rage, as he snapped open his cell phone.

He would show that impudent teenager. Right after he ripped Tercero a new one for bringing them here in the first place.

Terra lay on her back, floating on her rock and staring up at the clouds. She'd done her few sweeps and all she had gotten was a bad case of depression, looking over once prosperous neighborhoods now filled with boarded up businesses, litter-strewn streets, and people whose eyes that showed nothing but bone-deep exhaustion. If only Cauterize wasn't a killer. He probably could do…

A sound…floating on the wind…angry yelling…no…wait…

Screaming.

Terra snapped up from her prone position, and then her battle instincts kicked in. It was him. She knew it.

She headed for the noise, wondering if she would find anything. She knew she'd find one thing at least. Aftermath.

Whether it would be recent or still happening remained to be seen.

The burning car silhouetted the costumed form of Cauterize, as he slipped the blade back into his gauntlet.

"The pimp. A cruel, vicious job practiced by stupid, violent, misogynistic men who regularly do things that would make the average decent human being sick. Yet here we are, as the so-called signs of a pimp find their way into popular culture. Ohhh, looka my bling bling! Looka mah hoes! Even the word itself has become something that could be construed as positive. Look at my ride, see how pimped out it is! This is a very bad lesson to be teaching the next generation, don't you think? Don't you think they should work on properly demonizing the profession, so the few decent men that actually do it get an idea to get out and all the other pieces of slime get the proper punishment they deserve?" Cauterize said to the collection of scared looking hookers clustered at one end of the street.

"What? You don't agree? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now ladies. Your bosses are dead. Your customers, the ones who were around at the moment anyway…they're dead too. And don't bother going elsewhere, you'll find that across the city, situations mirrors this one." Cauterize said, the flames reflecting off his glass faceplate. "I took care of the drug business last night. Now the sex business can join it in chaos. But don't worry ladies, you can still sell rock and roll. Nothing wrong with a little good music, don't you agree?" Cauterize said, and actually played a little air guitar. "Yesno?"

The hookers were backing away, well, as best they could in their heels. Cauterize frowned.

"Is this really the life you want? Stalking alleyways until you overdose or meet some john who wants something way rougher then usual? This is no life ladies. Not for you or anyone. Nice towns don't have your kind…well, to this degree anyway. Can't completely purge the dark side of humans…but I can damn sure…cut it down to its bare minimum." Cauterize said. "Oh, but sir, my family kicked me out, my father raped me, I need the drugs, I need the pain…shut up. You're human beings. You have something that has a nearly infinite amount of potential. Tap it. Use it. Find a better life. A nice life. In the nice town this place will be. And if you need a little motivation…"

And then Cauterize was over by one of the hookers, his arm down and his blade out. She looked at him in shock.

And then her body split in half at an angle, her head and left shoulder and arm falling away from the rest, as the hookers began to scream.

"Clean up, or DIE. There are no other options. GOT IT?" Cauterize snarled.

The hookers ran for their lives. Cauterize snorted and spat on the ground, and then his eye caught something. A second later he was in front of one of the fleeing ladies. Specifically, a Korean one.

"Ah…another lovely…too much makeup though…" he said, reaching up to brush her face. "Also too thin…you should eat more…"

A piece of rock buried itself in the ground next to Cauterize, making a foot-wide hole.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER YOU MURDERING BASTARD!" Terra screamed from above, as she dropped down into the street, so hard she shattered her rock platform into pieces.

Cauterize didn't seem very perturbed. In fact he didn't even look at her.

"It appears we have a situation. You'd best leave, things are about to get ugly." Cauterize said, and turned around to face Terra as the Asian prostitute ran away as fast as she could.

"So…the powers that be snap their fingers and here you are ready to serve. All that great rhetoric about saving the world, and you prove to be little more then mercenaries. A shame." Cauterize said.

"Shut up you psycho. I wouldn't want a cent to do what has to be done. You're so fast…" Terra said, as she levitated up the largest chunk of rock left from her former glider. "DODGE THIS!"

And she fired the piece at Cauterize as fast as she could, which was actually very fast. Slade, an absolute master of combat and planning (and in another life, Terra's teacher and mentor), would have had some trouble dodging it.

Cauterize seemingly didn't even bother. He just held up his left hand.

The rock hit his hand, and to Terra's utter shock it shattered on impact, fragmenting into a thousand tiny pebbles that scattered around Cauterize, bouncing off his mask and gathering around him.

"No…I don't even think I had to." Cauterize said, lowering his hand. He raised his other one, which was now clutching one of his blades, which he waved back and forth in the motion of a chastising adult.

"How….how…?" Terra gasped.

(He'd zipped up to the rock and slashed it so many times that when it had actually hit Cauterize it had broken as such…all so fast she hadn't even seen him move).

"I am nothing but a sport, young lady. If you really feel that your cause is righteous, then surely some divine hand would guide you to victory, won't it?" Cauterize said. Terra's face contorted in anger. His voice didn't SOUND like Toby's, or Van's…or Chesbro's, or anyone she had met today. But then again, the tricks one could use with the Speed Force were legion. What if he was vibrating his vocal cords or something that caused his tone and pitch to alter to his taste…

Forget it. She'd find out who he was when she pulled off his mask, as she raised her arms, her eyes glowing as the street tore up, thousands of rocks of all shapes and sizes rising up next to, above and behind her.

"All right…you want the truth?"

"Can you handle the truth?" Cauterize replied.

Terra didn't answer. Instead she just raised up her right arm higher…

And then clenched her left fist. Giant daggers of rock exploded up from around Cauterize's feet, a sheer mass of them that quickly stole him for her vision. Then, with a scream, she fired, hurling all her projectiles past her, her hair whipping from the breeze they caused as she poured them all onto the area where Cauterize was. Part of her didn't want to kill him…but the other part rationalized there was really no other choice.

The barrage went on for twenty seconds before all the rocks were used. A cloud of dust enveloped Terra.

She didn't look at it. Instead her eyes were closed, even as the dust settled, revealing a massive pile of rubble in front of her. She took two deep breaths.

And then she turned, a sharp dagger of rock breaking out of the concrete and flying up to attach to her fist as she turned around and stabbed behind her, knowing and hoping she would hit flesh, KNOWING that…

Nothing.

She opened her eyes and blinked. There was nothing behind her.

And then a voice spoke.

NOW it was behind her.

"You have good instincts."

Terra whirled, and then the blade chopped her rock dagger off at the base before it whirled before her eyes, the eyes that were reflected in Cauterize's helmet.

"Check this out."

It hit her…something. It rather felt like a giant pillow (what it was was a carefully manipulated wind blast) that both struck her and shoved her, and yet in a way that she didn't lose her balance, as she slid back along the ground like it had become ice, her boots leaving a trail in the dust, sliding back for fifteen feet before she stopped.

She blinked, and then realized she had been holding her breath. She let it out in a gasp, as her eyes darted back and forth, trying, PRAYING, for any indication, any at all…

"You can't win." Said a voice in her ear.

Terra turned and thrust up her elbow, but of course there was nothing there.

He was at her right.

"I could slice you from groin to gullet and take a trip around the city before you would begin to split apart."

Terra swung at the voice, but there was nothing again.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Cauterize said. He was in front of her. She lashed out with a roundhouse kick. He was gone, and so was her balance, as she fell…

He caught her, leaning over her like she was a ballroom dancer.

"Go back to your city. Go back to the problems you can solve."

Terra, her rational thinking and battle calculations now getting swamped under all the adrenaline her system was dumping into her brain, grabbed up a rock by her hand and threw it the old fashioned way.

Bad idea, as the next thing she knew, she was standing where Cauterize had been.

So her own rock hit herself. She stumbled back, the taste of blood filling her mouth from a split lip.

He was there, behind her, his blade at her neck.

"Any time child. Any time."

The blade was gone. He was there, in front of her.

"I don't want to have to hurt you. But believe me, I can do it, VERY VERY well."

And Beast Boy leapt.

He had followed the distress signal Terra had given out from her communicator. He had flown down. He had seen her commence her rock assault, had hidden in the shadows, waiting, hoping that Cauterize would toy with her, and when he did, he silently turned into a puma and began to creep up on him, his attention focused on Terra, hoping he would make it, and he had, and he had leapt, and now he could see Cauterize turning his head and at the blank black glass that hid his expression but it was too late his claws were two inches from his hide and even HE couldn't get away that fast…

And then Cauterize was gone.

And Terra was standing in his place.

Somehow, she had the time to scream.

"TER-!" Beast Boy got out before they collided, tumbling down, Beast Boy trying to retract his claws, feeling them snag and tear something anyway and praying it wasn't skin or flesh, as they tumbled in a heap even as Beast Boy forced himself back into human mode and tried to get his bearings…

Cauterize appeared and watched the little circus act with amusement, even as he took deep breaths.

"Pumaman…he flies like…a moron…" Cauterize sang, and then had to stop for more air. He got his breathing under control as the tumbling stopped, and brushed the dust off himself as the green-skinned one got himself under control and started standing up. Then his mouth winced slightly. As Beast Boy got a good look at him, he appeared to be favoring his right wrist. Maybe Terra had managed to hit him?

Whatever it was, it passed, as Cauterize rubbed his wrist a bit and then looked at Beast Boy.

"Not half bad of a move…if you really want to be generous." Cauterize said. "I would love to continue this dance, my friends…but quite frankly, you bore me. Ta."

And he was gone, a line of flame exploding on the ground where he had ran, escaping for Beast Boy could even finish taking the breath he had been taking.

"……………………Shit." He said. This was going to be a real big problem…

"Um…Gar…." Terra said.

"Sorry Terra, I thought I…" Beast Boy said, turning around.

And found that his hands were clutching something, something had gotten tangled up in them when they had been puma paws, a tangled…garment.

Terra's shirt.

Which had been torn off her, which had forced her to stay sitting, her arms crossed to cover herself, giving Beast Boy a combined look of resentment, anger, embarrassment, and amusement.

Beast Boy turned as red as the parts of Cauterize's costume.

"SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY…!" Beast Boy said, whirling around, not only to hide his face but the…other part that had reacted to a half naked Terra. He had a feeling that the feelings linked to that part needed to be brought up, but this was a very bad time…

"Not your fault…" Terra said, getting up. Beast Boy discarded the torn rags of Terra's shirt, and then, after thinking for a second, pulled his off.

"Here. It should cover you." Beast Boy said. He felt Terra taking the shirt, then a brief period of silence.

"It fits." She said, and Beast Boy turned towards her.

Terra arched an eyebrow.

"Wow Gar. You been working out?"

"Hmmm?" Beast Boy said, and then looked down at the small but tightly formed muscles on his chest and gut. "Oh well, you know, this is a strenuous life, and you heal better if you're in shape, and uh…well…er…" Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head. "I think we should head back to the hotel, fill Savior and Scalpel in. After this…we definitely need a plan."

"Definitely." Terra said, and in a few moments the two were heading back on a rock platform.

Neither stayed too close to the other.

They didn't want certain things revealed.

"That fast huh." Noel said flatly.

"I couldn't even see him move. It was almost on the verge of teleportation, except I think teleportation would have been slower then this. I couldn't make an offensive move at all. I have a feeling that while my brain was forming my plans into actions he could have zipped into a bar, drank a beer, and zipped back to dodge everything, and then went back and drank ANOTHER beer before he headed over to me." Tara said.

"Great. Perfect. Shit." Noel said. "Nigel, brew up some coffee. This new wrinkle is a big one, and we're going to have to do some serious work."

"Um, Noel…maybe we should do more then brew coffee. Maybe we should call the T-Tower and…"

"No. We have no idea of any possible plans behind this Nigel. For all we know, Cauterize could be part of a larger plot to draw the Titans away from Jump City and leave it open to attack. If it is that, I don't want to be the one who was responsible. I couldn't live with myself."

"What about that Rolls-Royce?" Tara asked.

"That problem is less pressing then the one with Cauterize. We have to figure out some kind of strategy…Nigel, is something wrong?"

"Bullying coward." Nigel growled. "I LOATHE humans who act like that. I dearly hope that we can solve this Cauterize problem in a way that allows us to deal with Stephen Pierce. He needs to learn the truth of some things in this world."

"Indeed. But he's probably still licking his wounds. We need to focus on Cauterize. Gar, you saw him in the fight. At the end, you said he was tired?"

"He was breathing heavy anyway. Is that good?"

"Possibly. Those who tap the Speed Force for quickness can also use the dimension's energy in place of theirs to greatly retard exhaustion. But it's still an exertion, and its clear Cauterize is pushing himself. That might be our opening. Might be the only chance we have…" Noel said, and then the ringing of the hotel phone interrupted him. "Damn, I only gave a few people this number, I hope it hasn't been leaked to reporters…" Noel said, as he went into the other room to take the call.

"So…you have some suspects, you said?" Gar asked Tara.

"We have some possibilities, Gar." Tara replied. "Nigel, you did some medical research, right?"

"Yes."

"Good. We'll combine that with whatever the police have, see if we can form a clearer picture…" And hope it's not so big we get lost in it. Tara added mentally.

The phone hung up in the next room, and Noel returned. He did not look happy.

"Amenddum guys! Make yourself nice and pretty tomorrow, because Mayor Tercero has called a PRESS CONFERENCE to show off his problem solvers, namely, US!"

"WHAT?" Gar yelled. "Does he want to MAKE himself a target?"

"I don't know! If I'm not dealing with criminals, I'm dealing with liars and fools!" Noel yelled, throwing his hand into the air. "I changed my mind! Nigel, fire up the laptop and call Tim so we can hook it up to the main computer. I am not getting caught with my pants down in this!"

"I think if he wants your pants down, Cauterize will have them down. Probably before you even know what happened." Tara said.

Abet not loud enough for Noel to hear.

"Is there anything else anyone wants to add?" Noel said.

"Oh yeah! I think Tara managed to hit him once. While we were down, I saw him cradling his right wrist like it was hurting him. That might mean…" Gar trailed off at the odd look that had come over Noel's face. "What? Does that mean something?"

"I don't know." Noel said, recalling events of the day. "But I wonder…"

Chesbro awoke with a start, nearly tipping backwards and out of his chair. He blinked and rubbed his eyes.

Dozed off again. Dammit, this shouldn't be happening. He was 26, not 56. True, he hadn't been getting much sleep, what with one thing and another…and this Cauterize wasn't helping either.

He took a sip of coffee, winced at the cold bitterness of it, and resumed his studies.

Of Mayor Tercero.

He'd lived his life through hunches, and in this situation he had a feeling he needed to know more.

"But Toby…!"

"Mom, would you relax? I have to do this. The more I do, the quicker I can rebuild the muscle. It has to be actual running Mom, I can't just run in place."

"But Toby, you just got back from a run! You were soaked in sweat!"

"Yeah Mom, but your meal was delicious, and it gave me new energy. I have to burn it off…" Toby said as he opened the door.

"But Toby, that vigilante is out there! What if you run into him?"

Toby laughed.

"Mom, he's out to kill criminals. I don't think he has any interest in me. I'll be back in an hour at most. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Toby said. He closed the door and rolled his eyes. He loved his mom, but she was a serious worrywart, probably a step away to keeping him locked up in his room all the time to prevent any harm from coming to him.

Which was ridiculous. He needed to run.

It was what he was born to do.

He took off down the street at a brisk jog, feeling as if the world was waiting for him, and soon he'd have it all again.

And somewhere else, in darkness, a figure creeps through the shadows. He has left a picked lock in his wake, and the night security has long ago settled in for his usual nap. He won't be disturbed.

He finds the safe. He dials the combination by feel. He thinks he doesn't know, but he does.

And he suspects something. Something that has required this step. He has to know.

He opens the door and withdraws the file. He sits down, snapping on a tiny mini-flashlight that he holds in his teeth to read.

And he reads.

And it awakens in him. The anger. The fury at what was being done to this city. HIS city.

And it was even worse then he though, as he read page after page, and finally came to the end and saw what was scribbled there.

His jaw drops slightly. The mini flashlight falls to the floor and goes out.

Silence for a bit.

And then, one sentence, a hiss of pure vehemence.

"You fucking BASTARD."

To Be Continued