Disclaimer: I do now own Teen Titans or any of the Star Wars movies or Kodak.
Undercover yet Head Over Heels
Chapter Three: Abducted and in Trouble
Richard had recently unpacked all of his belongings into his dresser in an attempt to pass time since he now had no friends or anything to do with his time. It would be impossible to simply call up the rest of the Titans. If he kept hanging up on whoever he was on the phone with at the moment whenever someone walked in it would look highly suspicious.
He flopped down on his mattress which now had sheets, and stared at his ceiling. It was the only fine quality object to look at because of all the dime store smut hanging on the walls. With a heavy sigh he began to wonder where his two new roommates had gotten to. It'd been hours since he last saw them. All he'd done today was obtain a map of the school from the main office, familiarize himself with the entire building and unpack. Something that had only taken the unmasked Boy Wonder little time to finish with his outstanding photographic memory. They were most likely just like Beast Boy and probably stayed at the arcade all day. It was kind of a rude thing to do to the new guy, even if Richard didn't enjoy their company.
He rolled on his side not particularly caring whether they came back or not just as long as he got peace and quiet while he slept. He began to wonder what he'd do if he saw Wendy tomorrow on the first day. Should he immediately start talking to her or lay low for a while to see if she openly uses her powers? Richards mind, however, did not dwell on this solution for long because after a long trip to Sacramento and a boring useless day with nothing to do, he was wiped. His mind began to slip into unconsciousness and in no time he was out cold.
Around one A.M. three boys, fully dressed in black, slinked into the darkness of the dorm room. They spotted Richard sound asleep on his bed and they eagerly began to whisper and point. Quietly, they tip-toed over to the edge of the bed until they were looming over the young boys face with tape, a pillow case, and rope in each of their hands. One of the boys lightly hit the other boys arm and motioned to Richards face. The boy pulled off a piece of tape while the other two readied themselves with the pillow case and rope. With lightening speed, Richards's mouth was taped and the pillow case was thrown over his head.
Richard shot up in bed alarmed by the disturbance and yelling a muffled scream when he was caught off guard as he realized his upper torso was being tied up tightly with thick, wiry rope. Though he struggled against his subjugators, even Robin of the Teen Titans was rather easily apprehended by the three relatively muscular boys. Richard was considerably helpless being that he couldn't move (besides his legs) or see. All he could do was make the situation as complicated as possible for his captors by fighting as much as he could with his now thrashing legs.
They hoisted him out of bed and began to shove him out of the dorm and down a series of passages and hallways. Two boys held Richard by his elbows while he could hear and sense the third walking just ahead. Even with memorizing the map of the school it was tricky to know where you were going when you were taking uneven steps because you were being yanked and pulled in different directions.
Richard was soon dragged up a pair of steps and figured he was being taken into a room since he could hear large doors being thrown open. He was pushed into the middle of the room and thrust down onto his knees painfully. The pillow case was yanked off his head roughly and he hastily squinted his watering eyes as they abruptly adjusted to the light. The ropes were then loosened and removed. He began to bring his hand up to his mouth to remove the tape himself but one of his subjugators reached down swiftly and wrenched it off him himself. The stickiness pulled painfully at his skin but Richard suppressed a small 'ouch' for the moment.
He was inside a large candle lit unused classroom. Some twenty or so boys were surrounding Richard in a circle, each of them holding one candle and wearing a long, dark brown cloak that had a hood which hid their faces in the darkness. It reminded him of the new Star Wars movie that had just come out where Anakon Skywalker was wearing the same billowing cloak. It seemed as though this was some sort of ceremony taking place. The unmasked Boy Wonder was in the center of it all held in place by the two who had been holding his elbows. However, they were now clutching his shoulders keeping him from getting up. Even the boys holding him in place were now covering the black outfits with the same brown cloak. The boy who'd been walking just ahead of them was now throwing his own cloak over his shoulders.
"What's going on? Where am I?" he questioned immediately and coldly. A rather tall broad shouldered looking boy stepped from his part in the circle.
"Duke and Diffy have informed me that a newbie kid who was worthy arrived today and was their roommate. They said that it was the ever famous Richard Grayson, the son of the millionaire Bruce Wayne," said the boy.
"Yeah… That's me," Richard said tentatively and quite bluntly.
"Don't you think we know that already?" the boy snapped. He turned around and began walking to a table behind a row of boys who quickly shifted to allow him access to it. He set down his candle on a holder and began to speak, "Here at Sacramento's Finest only the finest run the school and that's us. Unless you're a freshman, we take everyone we think has what it takes and see if they've got it in them to be considered one of us. I guess you can consider us a kind of… fraternity."
"Or a gang," Richard exclaimed. All the heads in the classroom turned toward the boy who Richard supposed was the one in charge. He spun around and strode over to Richard with his cloak flailing out behind him in all directions. He reached Richards knees and stopped. Richard craned his neck to glare up at the boy who smiled a very sinister smile.
"I don't like your use of vocabulary," he said in a slow drawling voice which eerily reminded Richard of Slade. The boy smiled once more and bent his knee back and slammed it into Richards's exposed and vulnerable stomach. Richard let escape a small 'oomph!' from his lips and doubled over clearly in pain clutching his stomach. However, the boys who had been holding his shoulders keeping him in place heaved him back up to face the leader towering over him.
"Usually when you're taken into this classroom and asked to join our fraternity, the losers are happy! If they get accepted into our fraternity then they're set for the rest of their high school career regarding friends anyhow. Not only are you set with friends but you'll also run the place as though you're king. Everyone knows that we're not afraid to put a beat down on anyone who gets in our way. Do you understand that now? Do you understand why you can't turn us down!"
Richard clenched his teeth. Apparently, this guy didn't 'understand' that the famous Richard Grayson could easily turn him down and that he had the power to make his life a living hell simply because he was Bruce Wayne's boy. But running to Bruce was something he certainly was not going to do especially when he was working undercover with the Titans but getting beaten up was something he certainly did not want either. They would without doubt notice his martial arts skill and begin to question him. Richard found it rather hard to try and hide it. He somehow found a way to make every punch look fancy. "Y-Yes," he croaked due to the pain swelling in his abdomen.
"Good. Now that that's settled, let's get down to business. We don't just let anyone join what we like to call Black Zodiac Fraternity. Even if you do look worthy we need to be sure. You have to go through a very rigorous initiation. And I've just decided to make a new rule effective right now. If anyone who attempts the initiation and fails, then they'll have to suffer the consequences and if they try to turn down the initiation in order to avoid the punishment if they fail, they'll have to suffer the consequences. Everyone in favor of this new rule which will be put to use immediately say 'I'."
A number of monotone i's rang through the room making the vote unanimous and Richard was briefly remembered of the decision back at Titans Tower when they all decided if Robin was the best for the job. Gee, I have such a wide range of choices here, thought Richard but his mind raced back to Titans Tower. He hadn't had such a wide range of choices there either. The boy in charge turned back to Richard pleased with the results of the vote as he quietly said, "So what'll it be? Beat down or initiation with a possible beat down?"
"I'll take the initiation."
"Wise choice, my friend, wise choice," he responded coolly. He walked back over to the table (boys edging to create a gap once again), picked up a small object, and walked back over to Richard and as he did so tossed the object at Richard who caught it easily in his hands regardless of the firm grip still on his shoulders. There in his palm was a small silver digital camera.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Why that's part of your initiation of course. You have to take a picture for us."
"Of what?" the Boy Wonder asked. This all seemed too easy. Simply take a picture and he's in? That's it? Nobody could fail that. No, there had to be a catch.
"That's where the tricky part comes in. We don't want just a picture of anything. We want a picture of the headmaster…"
"Can't you just do that yourself? Sounds easy enough."
"…in his underwear," he finished. Okay, not so easy.
"Fine. I get you your picture, I get no beat downs, and I get initiated into your Black Zodiac fraternity and become king, am I correct?"
"Bulls eye. You have one week to get us our picture. If it's not in the hands of your roommates by eight p.m. next Sunday then you're getting your beat down and there will never be another chance for you to enter our royal family. And we want a good shot. His face and everything so we know it's him. No funny stuff like just his body and it turns out it's a friend of yours or something being a poser."
"Don't worry. You'll get a Kodak moment."
"I better."
"So what's your name?"
"There will be introductions later if you make it. We're not sure we can trust you yet and if you get caught trying to snap the picture of our dear headmaster, if you have the guts to do it that is, we don't want any names floating around in your head to blame it on," he answered in a slow drawly voice as if waiting for Richard to yell out that he was in fact a tattletale. When none came he motioned for the Black Zodiac to leave the classroom. They began filing out one by one leaving Richard still kneeling in the middle of the room rubbing his sore stomach, wondering how in the hell he was supposed to get a picture of the Headmaster in his underwear without getting kicked out and blowing the entire mission.
Richard walked into his math class that Cyborg set him up in with a mild limp. His stomach had a mild bruise there but it felt worse than it looked. Ironically this girl Wendy had to go to a school where nearly every boy was just as buff as Richard if not more. The leader of Black Zodiac sure did pack a good kick.
The school wasn't like any high school he'd ever been to. Most of his classes had half-moon stadium seating like a college. There were small tables that you shared with one person spaced evenly around the classroom and if you talked to anyone near you it was a one hour detention. Not like Richard would be talking to anyone but the last thing he needed was to have a one hour detention.
He was early for class and the Professor, as they called them rather than teachers, hadn't even arrived yet. He yawned from his strange and tiring night and flipped open his cell phone and found the updated picture of Wendy Cyborg had sent him from his communicator. She had long blonde hair, green eyes, peachy skin tone, about five foot four and weighed about 100 pounds. Snapping the phone shut, he looked up and around at the seats for the girl whose image he mentally memorized. She probably hadn't arrived to class yet either.
Just as Richard was deciding what to do when she got there a short blonde suddenly walked past him. Her hair swished side to side while her slim figure, wearing jeans and a red tee, walked up the steps and chose a seat dead center between all the other seats. She carefully placed her books on the edge of the desk and as she turned her body and sat in her chair, Richard got a glimpse of a girl with bright green eyes and a peachy complexion. She opened her notebook and leaned over her work writing diligently while her bright orbs darted all over the paper.
This girl was Wendy, his target.
He began to walk up the steps in a nonchalant way so as he could take the seat next to her. But just as he neared the desk, a well-built guy took the seat next to her since he had walked up the steps in the other isle. He began conversing with her with a concerned expression as she shut her notebook irritably, stacked on her other books in the corner of her desk, and began speaking to him with her eyes narrow and a frown enveloping the rest of her face. It appeared as though they were having a small argument.
Disappointed, Richard took a seat a row higher and a column over so that he was diagonal to Wendy and in clear view of her. He sat down unnoticed since Wendy's mind was preoccupied with the tidbit fight she was wrapped up in. Richard watched her every movement carefully out of the corner of his eye and only looked away when a boy sat next to him and introduced himself. Professor Vector ambled into the class minutes later with a dark, ruffled air about him. He tossed his briefcase on the desk in front of the black board and stood behind the desk with his hands gripping the back of the chair. His beady and angry eyes stared at each of the students in turn. All talking immediately stopped.
"I am in a bad mood today. Everyone please find a seat now or I will assign one right in the front which I am sure none of you will enjoy very much. If you do not discontinue the meaningless chattering I have come to find over my miserably years of teaching that you adolescents do, then maybe a two hour detention with me will shut you up. That's right two hours not the usual one. I make my own rules as this is my class. This is a very difficult math class and if you do not achieve a B or higher in either semesters then I will absolutely not recommend you for the next level and you will unfortunately have another lovely year with me all over again. Let me just call out roll, oh, which brings me to another rule I have. If I find you skipping, not only will it be a two hour detention but you will also have three percent removed from your grade.
"I already know about my nickname, Venomous Vector, and I will admit that I am harsh with my students but it is only my fruitless attempts to whip you lot into shape. Too many disrespectful, misbehaved and stupid students I've seen pass through this school and I must say it has disgusted me and I can only hope that this year will be different and that my students can, somewhat, make me proud enough for me to even say I teach you."
His eyes swept over each body in the class before he softly said, "Now… roll."
He called out everyone's names and just as his nickname proposed, he spoke with nothing but pure venom in his voice. When he reached Cassandra, Wendy, the girl previously having the heated argument with the boy seated next to her gave a light 'here' and returned to staring intently at her desk in silence. After a few more names he reached Grayson, Richard, and Richard having not answered to that name in years continued to stare at Wendy unaware that he'd just been called.
"Grayson, Richard!" Professor Vector called again. The boy, named Alex sitting beside Richard gave him a slight nudge in the ribs and snapping him back to reality.
"Oh, here!" Richard answered a bit too late. Professor Vector let his stern gaze fall upon Richard for a moment before answering an answer so full of hatred, that Richard was sure he was on his 'to fail list' already.
"Pay attention. I have no conscience therefore I can still sleep peacefully knowing I docked a few points from your grade for even no reason at all."
He went on with roll and Richard let his wandering mind set its sights on Wendy once again. Venomous Vector finished roll and moved onto the first lesson. He had a habit of randomly picking on students to answer questions and come up to the board to solve formulas and such. Richard knew he should have been paying attention enough to know what was going on but he couldn't help letting his eyes peel away from the blackboard to steal glances at Wendy. He told himself that it was his conscience that was plucking at him. It was the mission that he hadn't uncovered anything on that bothered him. That was why he kept chancing peaks at Wendy. But deep in the back of his mind he knew it was not the mission that was driving his wandering eyes and mind but it was her immense beauty and that fact that he was supposed to get close to her. He wanted to meet her, know her, and be her friend; maybe even more but he pushed away the feelings that told him he wanted to get to be more than a friend to her.
"Mr. Grayson!" Richard snapped out of his stupor the moment Vector decided to strike. "Since you believe you can let your mind wander into space because you of course must already know this, then why don't you show the class how to solve the problem?"
Richard stared at the man as though he must be crazy then squinted at the blackboard to see the problem clearly. It was a quadratic formula. A piece of cake for Richard.
"Three times the square root of fourteen all divided by two," he answered clearly.
Venomous Vector stared at him and Richard was sure he almost saw his jaw drop. Many of the students in the class turned around with their chairs screeching and scratching the floor. All eyes were on Richard. He had just mentally solved a problem which would have taken any normal student a calculator and a few minutes to finish. To top it all off he hadn't even been paying attention. Vector placed his chalk on his desk roughly causing it to snap in half before he softly spoke. "I would like a word with you after class Mr. Grayson."
Richard nervously nodded and took refuge to staring at his pencil. When he was sure the moment was dying and everyone was focusing their attention back on Venomous Vector's lesson, he glimpsed a look back at Wendy. She was staring straight at him. What was odd was that she wasn't blinking and she seemed to be thoroughly thinking about something. Richard turned away his eye and didn't look back at her the rest of class.