Sins of Youth Chapter 10: Females Three, an incredibles fanfic

Chapter 9: Females Three

"It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done."

Oscar Wilde

The alleyway stank of displaced garbage and other, harder to classify smells, the scent of despair and hopelessness. Or that's how a creative person might have described the faint undertones. Savior would have described it as a place that had seen too many homeless people and their not exactly efficacious hygiene skills. But he wouldn't blame them for that…mostly. He had a task.

Dash's entry to his world near the Titans' tower had had more then one advantage. Along with the Titans being right on the scene, it had allowed the energy anomaly of his entrance to be scanned by the myriad of security systems that the island had on it (the systems that were due to be upgraded and enhanced, Noel mused: he'd put in that order nine days ago, where the hell was it? Well he'd figure that out later). Cyborg's numerous tech tasks had included running what the computer had scanned through various systems in an attempt to find a way to pinpoint it if it repeated itself. His brilliance in machines shone through as he had designed such a scanner program within a few hours, but it wasn't perfect. Once Cyborg had found the traces of the energy again, within Jump City, he had managed to work the emergence point down to a few square blocks. Not a HUGE area to search…but since it was a section of run down warehouses near the Jump City docks, it left plenty of hiding places.

The fact that hiding places might actually be used bothered Savior. If anyone who went through what Dash went through came out mad, there should have been an easy to find trail, not dead air. But the six of them had found nothing.

Yet.

Savior's communicator buzzed, and Savior snapped it off his belt and opened it up.

"Savior."

"Cyborg here. There's an issue at the Tower Savior. Can I briefly break from the group and head back there to deal with it?"

"What is it?"

"Let's just say it's an issue that will benefit from my own…specific world, you might say."

"A food and video game addict?"

"Ha ha. I'll leave you the spare T-Car. It may not be my true baby, but Savior, try not to wreck it."

"Under…" Savior began.

And then a noise sounded at the end of the alleyway. Coming from within a rusted dumpster.

"Stood." Savior said, and signed off. He carefully put the communicator away as he looked at the dumpster, contemplating his options. If the mindset that had gripped Dash was not unique, Savior had no business doing anything violent. But he had to defend himself in case the lunatic attacked him, not to mention he had to get the person held down long enough to try and fix the damage.

In the end, Savior settled for forming the Shimmer into a large hammer with a softer density then he would normally use, with several other strands dangling from it so Savior could initiate 'faster entry' to his target's mind if he could. Focusing, Savior crept down the alleyway, as the dumpster continued to rattle, an occasional bit of junk flying out of its open lid. Other faint noises occasionally issued forth, but nothing Savior could pin down, as he drew close.

A disgusting something or other flew at Savior's face. He snapped his head to the side, barely avoiding it, as he coiled down a bit and then sprang up on the edge of the dumpster.

"Tuesday's newspaper?" Gauntlet asked, offering a repulsively soiled bundle of paper swollen with 'garbage water'. Savior's eyes widened a bit.

"Gauntlet! What are you doing?"

"Yeah, someone already did the crossword." Gauntlet said, tossing the paper aside.

"Why are you searching a dumpster?"

"Elementary my dear Watson. When searching for something, establish a perimeter first. So I'm checking all the stuff outside the buildings."

"Why not inside the buildings?"

"Why would a tear open inside the buildings? Wouldn't it more likely open outside, where there's more space?"

"That's not a bad assessment but why are you searching a dumpster?"

"What better place for a scared newcomer who may or may not be nuts to hide?"

"Maybe, but do you honestly think they'd burrow under the garbage, exposing themselves to god knows what, instead of just sitting on top of it?"

"Hey, in this world, expect the unexpected!"

"…Ok." Savior said, sounding out each syllable. "Well then, I'm going to check inside the building here. Try not to get too caught up digging for buried treasure."

"Ha! Fat chance." Especially considering one of the guests may be a hot, potentially available superhuman girl. Gauntlet added mentally, as Savior climbed up the wall of the building next to the dumpster and looked around the roof, hunting for a way in that didn't involve breaking a window.

It's funny the things you remember some times.

She'd never much cared for English in her school. Maybe it was due to bad teachers, but she always found the concept of taking a story apart and trying to find out what was special about it was much like what happened to the goose that laid the golden eggs: it ended up dead with no answers on how it made said gold and no more gold coming from it. Not to mention her school had a habit of assigning books far too complicated for their grade levels. Like Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. She was all for a strong tale filled with metaphors but Conrad's English was so advanced and inaccessible it regularly stumped college students, much less 8th Graders. Her whole class had barely been able to decipher a tenth of the novel, even with Cliff Notes and the teacher's help, and she was glad when they had finally finished and moved on to The Catcher In The Rye.

But despite being so monumentally complicated, that didn't mean she hadn't learned anything from it. One thing she remembered was what inspired the novel. Conrad, eight years before he wrote the book, had been a sea captain on a Congo steamer. His tenure had lasted one trip up the river, where he had witnessed so many atrocities he had quit on the spot.

Good for HIM, she thought now.

Because as far as she was concerned, he didn't have the slightest idea what atrocity was.

Oh, she was certain he'd seen terrible things. Quite possibly things that seemed beyond human evil. But the fact remained, that for virtually all their terrible acts, the evil behind humanity was just that, human.

Maybe that could manifest true horror…

But that horror was at least human.

Not what she had seen.

Not what had barraged her senses, torn into her mind, reached seemingly deep into her very soul with claws of ice and dragged them across her being. The horrendously alien incomprehensible ESSENCE of the place she had tumbled through, beyond her ability to grasp but not beyond her ability to experience it at all, hammering endlessly at her for who knows how long: it could have been mere seconds but it felt like an eternity.

Her mind was left in a bad way: twisted off its moors but not entirely so, lost both to the returning comfort of normalcy and the oblivion comfort of madness, neither here nor there. Lost, without any way of finding a path to either, in neither heaven nor hell but an unspeakable, unbearable limbo.

It, in a flash of lucidity, reminded her of another part of Heart of Darkness. The 'villain' Kurtz, and his infamous utterance…

The horror…the horror…

Beast Boy was sniffing at a curb in the form of a pig when his communicator buzzed. He swiftly returned to human form as he removed it, glancing at Terra as she came out of a nearby building, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head at him to indicate that SHE hadn't found anything, but who knew if there was actually nothing in the building.

"Find anything?" Savior asked.

"Sure. She just popped up now. Came out of a police box with a guy with big ears and another girl whose appearance I could describe as "lovely with a faint hint or two of trash". I think the guy forgot his medication as he seems rather animated about the whole thing."

"Ha ha Beast Boy. Keep looking. If you think this dimension hopping is similar to what the Tardis pulls, you're dead wrong. Things are never that easy."

"Yeah I figured. Out." Beast Boy said, as he put his communicator away…and was suddenly aware of motion nearby. He turned to find Terra was floating a trash can on a plank of rock near him, a grin on her face.

"Human! Exterminate! Exterminate!" She said in a dull robotic tone.

"Ah! Help! I need a flight of stairs!" Beast Boy mock yelled as he ran away, Terra chasing after him with her makeshift Dalek.

With Beast Boy's joke having caused him to start humming the Doctor Who theme to himself, Savior continued hunting for a door…and found the next best thing, an already broken window.

Down in the alleyway, Gauntlet pulled himself out of the dumpster, wiped himself off, and then deciding on a hunch, headed down the alleyway. He found a door much quicker then Savior did.

Normalcy beyond her grasp…

Was this a floor beneath her hands? A roof under her head? Air in her lungs? Did anything she perceive have any basis in reality anymore? Was she real? Or an echo of a now gone existence? The brief spark in some omnipotent omniscient mind that was already fading from memory? Was she anything at all? Did all the value she hold in herself mean anything when reality was reduced to such a shambling, distorted landscape, no more real then her dreams and her fantasies and oh god she couldn't stand this she needed something anything because she couldn't exist this way any more and if the price was her sanity and self she'd pay it but she needed something anything ANYTHING THE HORROR…

"Violet Parr?"

And through the shifting murk of limbo, the voice pierced liking a shining spear, as something finally asserted itself in the world as real. She needed anything, as she had said, and those words did just fine, serving as an anchor for her mind to seize onto, her eyes swiftly following, her view solidifying from random blurring speckled with flashes of unfathomable data to the more casual, well known factor of a room, a dark room filled with musty boxes, little light…and a person.

"Violet Parr?" Savior asked again.

Violet stared at the figure in white, and even as she did, the reversal sprang into high gear. Her trip had been different then Dash's. He had been completely exposed to the alien nature of the dimensional rip and hence had lost his senses rather quickly, but Violet had had her shield up when she had gone through. And it had protected her…though that made things even worse in many ways, as she had found herself trapped in that horrible impasse where she was neither sane nor mad and willing to do anything to come down on a side of a fence, and with her experience it would have mostly been the wrong side without a guiding hand and one she would have chosen willingly just so a choice could be made…if she had not be offered a hand. And now that the hand had been offered, in her name, in a gesture that clarified reality, Violet found herself tumbling back towards sanity.

So to speak. While she may have escaped the snares of lunacy, that didn't mean her higher brain functions were all instantly reactivated. Far from it. Brought back to the land of the living, the immediate reaction of Violet Parr was simply and purely animalistic: she had no idea where she was, what was going on, and how many threats this lack of knowledge had. So her fight or flight instinct kicked in, and she did what was still more natural for her on a basic level, as she turned invisible.

Savior watched her wink out of existence, and his eyebrows narrowed, just a tad. Well, he hadn't thought that reaction was an impossibility. He ran through his options and decided trying to track her like she was a rabbit that had escaped from a trap would do more harm then good. Knowing that, he dispelled his Shimmer weapon and took a step forward, slowly looking around in as non-threatening a way as he could.

"Violet Parr. Invision." Savior said slowly and calmly. "I suppose this situation doesn't exactly build itself to trust. Humanity's greatest fear, since we began to learn to throw rocks, was always the unknown. You don't know me, you don't know what's going on, hell, I don't know if you're even still within the sound of my voice." Savior said. He glanced around again. "So let me try to dispel the unknown. My name's Savior. I'm a…Super, like you. I'm here to help. We found your brother Dash. He's very worried about you. I talked to him before I headed out. He said to say…Tony Rydinger is a bastard and a half."

Silence.

Savior pondered where to let the silence stand or keep talking.

And then, Violet shimmered back into existence, off to his right, semi crouched, wariness still in her eyes…but a wariness that was swiftly being crowded out by a soul shattering, overwhelming relief.

However, relief manifests itself in strange ways at times, as Violet's eyes suddenly teared up, her poise and brain shattering under a tidal wave of raw emotion, and then she fell into Savior's somewhat surprised arms, crying her eyes out, in her own way purging the horrific memories of her trip here and fully solidifying her grip on reality.

Savior stood stock still for a moment, and then adjusted his stance a tad, stroking Violet's long black hair, trying to put forth a comforting image. He felt rather awkward: this kind of outburst was something a girl should share with her mother, not a total stranger, but Helen Parr wasn't here, and Violet clearly, no matter how strong she might have been normally, needed a shoulder to lean on at the moment. And as harsh and cold as Noel could come off at times, he was fully aware of how humans needed kindness at times, if they deserved it.

"Shhhhhhhh." He whispered, feeling her tears stain his shirt. "You're safe. It's ok. It's ok."

It took Violet about three minutes of purging and weeping before she fully came to her senses and realized just what she was doing, as she jerked away from Savior, her moist eyes now showing some mortification.

"…Oh…I…well um…" Violet said, as she brought one of her hands behind her head in the way some people do. "I…sorry…I…I barely know you."

"It's ok. You went through something that would shatter the most hardened heart. A reaction like that is fully understandable." Savior said, as he hunted around in his jacket for a handkerchief, locating and offering it.

"No no, that's ok. I'm done, I'm done." Violet said, as she tried to adjust her mask…and found with a slight jolt of horror it had come off at some point in her weep session.

"Here." Savior said, offering the small black face concealment from where he had picked it up off the ground. "If it makes you feel comfortable. Your brother told me how your parents stressed secret identities. If it makes you feel better, my real name's Noel…Noel Collins." Savior said, taking a big step in trying to make Violet feel at ease. He figured it was worth the risk: there was no Maxwell Collins where she came from and hopefully she understood by her upbringing that such secrets were not given lightly and should not be taken so either.

"…Thank you, Noel." Violet said, taking her mask and actually looking at her rescuer (in a loose sense) for the first time, noting his genuine concern, his wise eyes…and his pretty attractive looks. She blinked.

"…You said Dash…oh my…Schism…what…" Violet stammered.

"It's ok Violet. Dash told me about Schism, about what happened…Violet, I can give you details later, but this is the basics. Something went really wrong and instead of warping you across town Schism warped you into another dimension."

"Another dimension?" Violet said incredulously.

"Yes…like I said I can explain the details later…but let's just say you've ended up in a good place. I'm a member of a local superhero group, the Teen Titans…we'd like to ask you back to our base for now. Your parents are still missing, and we believe (Noel did now anyway: Dash showing up alone had given him severe doubts, but when his sister had popped up not ten miles away, Noel revised his theory to near-certainty that all the Incredibles would end up in or near Jump City) that they'll show up soon, like you and your brother did. And once they do…we'd like to help get you back home."

"…But you barely know us…why?" Violet asked.

"…We're heroes. That's what heroes do." Savior said.

Violet blinked again. Handsome, compassionate, noble…and clearly well read.

A flush, ever so slight, went through her, even as her logical brain woke up and began yelling at her. Just from the minor details this Noel/Savior had told her, she had become involved in something big, perhaps much bigger then anything she had ever been part of. She needed to focus her mind on that, not something stupid like THAT…

And yet…she couldn't help but feel…

Savior, for his part, was oblivious to Violet's new look of subtle admiration: he had leader duties to attend to. Indeed, if he'd been paying attention, had watched Violet's eyes as a series of connections and building blocks fell into place in them, in a metaphorical sense, and read what that meant, he could have nipped what was about to happen in the bud.

But he didn't. He was focusing on pulling out his communicator.

"My team and I were out looking for you. I'm going to contact them and tell them I found you, and then arrange transportation back to our base slash home. Ok Violet?"

"Uh, sure." Violet said, as Savior's comment broke through the slight haze she had found herself in. Savior opened up said communicator and opened the general band.

"Savior here. I've located our new guest. Violet Parr, Dash's sister. Third floor of the 6th Main Warehouse, down at the corner of Mortimer and Wellwood…"

"Great!" Gauntlet's voice suddenly snapped out, startling Noel a bit. Gauntlet didn't say anything else, and a few seconds later Beast Boy and Terra confirmed his message and said they'd get the spare T-Car and drive it over.

"They're on their way." Savior said, snapping the communicator closed. "If you would follow me. I must warn…"

Savior suddenly found Violet right up next to him, her arms circling through one of his. He stopped.

"Difficulty walking?" He asked.

Violet blinked as she realized what she had just done. Her newfound confidence after Syndrome plus what Tony had done plus the fact that a small part of her still wasn't sure which way was up…

"…Sorry. Bit dizzy. I stumbled." Violet said, as she took her arms away. Or maybe stumble is the wrong word. Maybe I've fallen…

"As I was saying, I must give you a warning. Some of my teammates may look a little stranger then you're used to. We have superheroes here in this world as well, but we seem to have them in several other kinds of archetypes then your world, so some of them might seem a little odd…"

"Heeeeeeeey!" Gauntlet yelled as he leapt through the open doorway, doing a perfect Fonz.

Perhaps he should have tried a Joey Tribbiani, as Violet's reaction was to yell in surprise and then fire off a shield orb, slamming Gauntlet backwards and against the wall.

"Whoa! Hold it! He's on our side!" Savior said, putting up a hand. Violet blinked.

"He's one of your teammates?"

"Yes." Savior replied, deciding he'd spare Violet his and Rob's usual and not exactly jovial exchanges.

"…One of the archetypes you were talking about?"

"I think he deserves a category all to himself." Savior said. "Violet Parr, Robert Candide. Gauntlet in the business. Gauntlet, Violet Parr. I think Dash said you call yourself Invision now."

"You found that out?" Violet asked.

"I always listen for what needs to be known." Savior replied.

And he listens too…Violet thought.

"Ahem…ohhhhh Violet!" Gauntlet said, as he staggered back into the room. "Violet Parr! You're as lovely as you were in the mov…ing description your brother gave of you. All four of you." Gauntlet said, and then shook his head to clear his senses. "I'm Gauntlet! Pleased to meet you!" He said, thrusting out his hand and nearly shoving it into Violet's before she even got a chance to reciprocate.

"Uh…hi…" Violet said tentatively, as she reached forward.

Then her nostrils twitched.

"UGH. What is that TERRIBLE smell?" She said, backing up a bit, and Rob's face fell as he realized just what she was talking about. Quick! Say something clever!

"…Uh." Rob blurted out.

"He was helping look for you, and he thought you might have come out into a dumpster and gotten buried or been hurt or something in that vein." Savior explained calmly, not using any type of putting down or sarcasm in his tone. Somehow, that just made it worse for Rob, as he frantically wracked his brain, his brain that was usually so lightning quick, trying to find a response.

"You thought I'd be in a dumpster?" Violet asked. "What, did you think I'd burrow under the trash?"

"Well…uh…I considered it?" Gauntlet said.

The look in her eyes said it all, as she looked offended.

"Um Violet, I must explain. Your brother…something in your dimensional trip didn't react well with his brain. He came out completely mad, and he'd still be so if my powers didn't have the benefit of being able to help with brain damage. We honestly had no idea what kind of mental state you'd be in when you came out, so we had to cover all the bases. Including, I suppose, rooting through trash." Savior said.

"Dash came out insane?" Violet said, horrified.

"Yes yes, but don't worry. I fixed him."

"Fixed him?"

"Yes. He's fine. In fact he keeps hitting on one of my teammates. Which is annoying because she's seven years older then him and in another relationship."

Violet found herself laughing.

"That's Dash all right…if what you say is true, thank you. My little brother's an unbelievable pest, but I don't know what I'd do without him." Violet said, and much to Rob's horror, she gave Noel a hug.

"No need to thank me." Savior said.

"You can thank me! I helped catch Dash too!" Rob said. Violet turned towards him, and while her look was not unkind, there was enough reserve in it to plunge Rob's heart again.

"Thank you too Robert. I'd hug you but well…please, a shower is highly recommended." Violet said.

"…Ok." Rob said.

"Well Violet, you met Rob. May as well introduce you to the rest of the family, get you back to see your brother, examine you for any injuries that we may have missed. Come with us." Noel said.

"Ok." Violet said, as she fell into step with Noel, walking past Gauntlet.

Who, unlike Noel, was not distracted by other issues, and hence saw the look in her eyes. And just who it was directed at.

The Council of Rob's Psyche.

"This isn't fair! He already HAS a girl! Why is he horning in on another one?" Rob's Id complained bitterly.

"Now guys, it certainly can't be as bad as it looks..." Rob's Ego replied.

"I concur." Rob's Superego agreed. "Certainly he wouldn't be cheating on Raven."

"But if he is, we can catch Raven on the rebound!" Id proclaimed.

"Do you FEEL like being magically castrated?"

"...I repeal the motion." Id said.

"I propose that we just watch and wait. We don't need a repeat of the Power Girl incident." Ego said.

"Agreed!"

And now back to reality.

"It's just not right! This ALWAYS happens! I join a superhero team, all the girls are taken! I go to Tamaran, my hair color in their society declares I'm sterile! I meet a nice girl, her damn dad wrecks everything! And once again, a perfectly good available girl shows up, and what happens? Noel just happens to be there before me, and she falls all over him! Ugh! I am going to look up his records and make sure he didn't change his last name from Stu!" Gauntlet groused from where he was sitting on Terra's rock. Gauntlet's unpleasant smell had quickly gotten him vetoed out of riding in the T-Car, and hence Terra had been forced to carry him home while Beast Boy drove (much to his delight), Batgirl rode shotgun, and Savior sat with Violet in the back seat…which was another thing that irked him.

"Well Rob…I don't know what to say. I mean hey, you were the one who first helped me get a grip on my powers, and I'm forever grateful…but you never really gave any indication that you'd like that kind of gratitude, and hey, it's too late now." Terra said, and shrugged. The way she was flying her rock kept her downwind from Rob, hence she didn't have to worry about his unpleasant odor.

"But still! The girl! Available! Recently broken up with her boyfriend! Me! Also available! Quite insistent about said fact! Noel! Not available! Getting fawned all over anyway! ARGH!"

"Rob, relax. You know Noel's emotional states. It takes forever to get around his barriers, but once you've earned his loyalty he holds that loyalty like a fanatic. He wouldn't even look at another girl, and even if Raven broke it off with him, I think it'd take a while for him to get back into the game. He won't be doing anything with Violet. Your first impression may have been rotten, but trust me, I more then anyone here believe in second chances. This team gave me the mother of them."

"But…he…and she…in the backseat!"

"And it can't be innocent?"

"What kind of innocent doings could go on in a backseat?"

"Your brain seems fine." Savior said as he withdrew the Shimmer strands from Violet's ears. "You're lucky Violet."

"I didn't feel lucky." She said.

"Maybe not, but don't worry about those memories and feelings. I erased them."

"…You erased them?"

"No need for you to have nightmares for years." Savior replied.

Violet found herself flushing again, and almost went invisible to hide it before she realized that Savior was leaning into the front seat and conversing with the green furred humanoid named Beast Boy, who she HAD thought was odd at first, but had instantly reminded her of Dash the second he opened his mouth, and hence kept her from feeling any discomfort. Indeed, she'd been a bit more bothered by the black suited Batgirl, though it had helped when the girl had tugged her mask down to reveal she was a teenage girl just like Violet. Savior was speaking with them instead of looking at her, attending to the duties of his team. Well, no matter. She was still making up her mind, and if she did, if she wanted him to notice her, he would.

"The fact that you had such a lessened reaction bears notice though." Savior said as he returned to the backseat. "Were you doing anything when you went into Schism's portal?"

"…I had a shield around me." Violet said, finally remembering.

"Hmmm. That would explain a lot." Savior said. "Well Violet, the good news is your shield saved you from brain damage…horrific images and nearly going mad aside. The bad news is…your parents have no such shields. When they emerge…chances are they'll be like your brother was."

Violet let the words wash over her, and while they stirred fear in her heart, she didn't let it show on her face, as she nodded.

"Can you help them like you helped Dash?"

"I don't see why not. But there's a different problem Violet. Your brother's speed made catching him extremely difficult. Your parent's powers, the small details I've learned, present a whole new set of challenges. I'll warn you…we might have to go to extreme lengths to prevent them from hurting themselves and others…quite possibly quite extreme, indeed."

Violet took it in.

"…You do what you have to do. I can tell you're a man who carefully considers his actions and choices. You won't do anything lightly, or choose either."

"I'm glad we understand each other." Savior replied. "Now Violet, I've given you a check, but I'm not trained as a doctor. One of my teammates is, so I'd like to ask you, when we get back, to…"

And then the car suddenly thudded with a underside collision, and Noel found a sudden blast of momentum throwing him upward, his head slamming against the ceiling with fair impact, as he fell back down into the seat, clutching his cranium.

"Ow! Damn it Gar, this is why Victor never lets you drive!"

"I swear that wasn't my fault! I was watching the road! I never saw that pothole! I swear it must have materialized right before my quivering eyeballs!" Beast Boy protested as he turned around to face Savior.

"Did that so called materialization happen while you were fiddling with the radio knobs trying to see if Cyborg's immensely powerful system could pick up TV signals, or when you were pressing buttons to see if Cyborg had installed a milkshake maker in the front of the vehicle?"

"Dude, that's just harsh! I may not get behind the wheel very often but that doesn't mean I'm bad at it! In fact, I'd say I…!"

"Beast Boy, you are driving on the sidewalk." Batgirl calmly intoned. Beast Boy's eyes widened, and then he jerked back to face the road and shrieked as a newspaper box filled his field of vision, jerking the car back onto the road in a narrow miss.

Violet watched, her amusement growing, and it finally broke as Savior fully got up, his hair squashed flat from the impact: she started laughing, out of control, and Noel looked at her and then made an attempt to smooth his hair, which for some reason made her laugh even harder, and yes, she was still stuck in another dimension with teens she barely knew and who knew how they were going to find her parents and get home…but at the moment, she didn't care.

There were worse things in life.

Far worse.

There are surprises in life too, as the Titans got back to the Tower to find something they did not expect.

Outside of the Tower was a huge truck, and when I say huge I meant that it was surprising the bridge was still intact after it had crossed over. It really was a large monster, painted in the kind of dark gray that was usually be found on a war ship in the military. The cabin was so large one a six-footer would probably have found it rather roomy, though the mechanisms on the inside seemed to be adapted for a smaller occupant.

"Whoa. Who decided to let Gravedigger park here?" Terra said as she touched her rock down. Curious himself, Rob headed over and jumped up the steps to look in to the cab. He found a gear stick inside marked from one to five and a lever on the dash that was labeled 'high' and 'low'. From his somewhat basic grasp of automobiles, that was a switch so the driver could change the gears. In essence, it had two gearboxes, which made for ten gears; double that of a normal car or truck.

But seeing the hood, they could understand why: it was almost the size of the T-Car, and by that I mean the entire T-Car could have fit inside the engine of the truck.

T-car sized engine. The mind boggles at the pure power that kind of machinery could deliver.

Of course, that didn't mean anything if someone didn't turn it on. And no one was there. So the gigantic truck, which as well as itself had on the back of its cab a long trailer, adding even more mass to the machine (it was amazing the whole thing hadn't sunk the island yet) stood there, motionless.

Which was a problem as it was parked in front of the garage.

"Hmmmmm. Responsible." Batgirl commented as the passengers of the T-Car got out and looked at the mammoth machine.

"Geez. That thing's bigger then some of the doomsday machines my dad and mom stopped in their glory days." Violet said as she looked at the truck…and continued looking up past it at the T-Tower. "Wow…that's…big too."

"Yep. This is Titans Tower, the bastion against crime and evil in Jump City!" Gauntlet said as he ran back over to Violet…who still shrunk away from him a bit: evidently his odor hadn't much improved.

"If you're going to comment on the wisdom of building such an open air, attackable structure, I will point I wasn't here for the building, but at least out here there are no innocents who will get hurt if some villain targets us." Savior said.

"I guess." Violet said.

"How are we going to get the vehicle inside?" Batgirl asked.

"Simple. We go in there and find out who drove it in and get them to move it and hope changing its position doesn't alter earth's gravitational fields." Savior said, making a complicated comment on the size of the truck. "Someone has to stay outside and wait with the car. Usually that's the driver."

"What? Dude you're just paying me back for making you mess up your precious hair, make me sit out in the hot sun and…oh." Beast Boy said, as he realized he could just sit in the T-Car and blast the air conditioning. "Ok."

"What is that doing here anyway?" Terra asked as Beast Boy got back into the car and began driving it around to face the blocked garage doors.

"You got me, though I'll bet this is why Cyborg had to head back here." Savior said, examining the truck again. From what they could see from the trailer, it had been recently unpacked, though the straps were still on it and hanging loosely from the sides. Since they couldn't get in through the garage, they had to walk around the island to get inside the Tower, leaving the juggernaut behind.

"You always show guests this good a time?" Violet asked as the Titans poked their way across some rocky terrain.

"I apologize. Seems there's been a lot going on recently that's been out of my hands." Savior said.

"Terra! Why don't you get a rock and float our guest! She had a hard trip!" Gauntlet said.

"What? Gauntlet, I just got back from carrying you across town! I need a moment to rest! You want to give me heatstroke?"

"Come on! Don't be lazy! You can…"

"We're here." Savior said, as they arrived at the door, Savior keying in the number code and ushering Violet inside.

They found Scalpel, Sophie, and Dash waiting for them in the entrance room.

"VIOLET!" Dash yelled, as he was suddenly across the room and leaping into her arms in a very unDashlike way…but you probably know why. Violet did too, as instead of shoving him off as she normally would she just returned his hug like she thought if she released him he'd vanish before her eyes again.

It took them approximately eight seconds before their old habits kicked in, as their eyes opened and then they nearly threw each other away from themselves.

"…I was worried. Good to see you're ok." Dash said with some embarrassment.

"Yeah…yeah you too." Violet replied.

"Ah siblings. So glad I'm an only child." Gauntlet said.

"You're not an only child. You have an older brother." Savior pointed out.

"Darn it! I'd almost convinced myself he was an evil imperfect clone!"

"What are you talking about?"

"…I don't know!" Rob said, and he honestly found he didn't. Ever since he'd seen what Violet had…no no. He just needed to drink a Coke and calm down, then he'd turn the whole thing around.

"Nigel, I'd like you to examine Violet, make sure she doesn't have any injuries."

"As you wish." Nigel replied. As predicted, Violet looked a bit shaken as she finally saw the alien.

"Oh don't worry Sis! He's cool! He just looks a little weird!" Dash said, and slapped Nigel on the leg.

The reflexive kick only missed because Dash was so short. He stood there, stunned and horrified at how close he had come to being decapitated.

"…Heh. Oops. Sorry. Army combat training tends to breed inflexible reactions." Nigel said. Dash had by now turned a shade of gray quite similar to Nigel.

"Hah. New world, same old little brother. And I do mean LITTLE." Violet cracked.

"Hey! I'm just a late bloomer! Dad said so! You heard him!" Dash yelled back, his color abruptly returning as he proceeded to get in Violet's face, as the two recommenced their usual means of communication: argument.

"Ah, that's better. Back in character." Gauntlet said. Savior, who had been talking with Batgirl, finished up, noticed the argument, rolled his eyes, and then walked over.

"Violet, you'll go with Dr. Hastings?" Savior asked.

"Um…yeah. If Dash says he's ok he must be."

"Hah! So you DO think I'm right!"

"By the sheer fact of random chance you had to be eventually!" Violet snapped back, and the argument recommenced. Savior rolled his eyes again.

"Ok Gauntlet, Terra, you look after the siblings, feed them, do whatever you have to. I'm going to go find out who invited Minion over." Savior said, and headed off down the hallway.

"Will he be back?" Gauntlet suddenly found Violet asking him, and he groaned inside…and then realized this was his chance.

"Noel? Eh, probably. You should go with Nigel now though, make sure you're ok…"

Savior headed down to the main lounge, where he expected to find whatever had been on the truck and whoever had driven it. He was right.

What was on the truck had been crates. Crates that now filled the lounge. Lots of crates. Big ass crates. And with them was the person who had brought them. So to speak.

Standing next to Cyborg with a crowbar in her hands was a five foot five woman, wearing a black and white dress of the Gothic & Lolita persuasion, with the frilly front, frilly cuffs, multiple layers and the puffed up shoulders, along with the skirt that, while it reached her knees, puffed out a little, almost like a doll's dress would. It even had a petticoat going under it. From a distance it seemed as if she was also wearing black and white stripped stockings, but in actual fact they were her legs. Another thing that was striking about her was that her skin seemed to be a dull blue/green color, as well as her hair being a deep, dark crimson that seemed to, somehow, shine black where the sun collided with it. Her eyes seemed lifeless, but not soulless: they were a dark color, though it was too dark to distinguish exactly what color that was though.

At the moment she was opening one of the larger crates, or at least attempting to, while Cyborg looked over the manifest list, his back turned to the strange person that was there and having great difficulty opening a crate. It was the first time Savior had seen someone put so much effort into something (it was a DAMN big crate), and not show a whit of it on their face. Then again, as he recognized her, that was hardly surprising.

The young redheaded woman looked up and paused in her seemingly futile attempts to break open the crate and its contents.

"Well hello." She said, rather coldly. But it wasn't ice cold, it was just rather... flat.

"Good day Viridian." Savior said, allowing himself a slight smile as he thought of all the readers cringing that yet ANOTHER character was being introduced…

Yes, it was Viridian! A distant ally of the Titans, she was a young android who had been created a few years ago to fulfill a plot in which her clones, her 'children' would end up being sold to the highest bidder and then started a war for profit. She escaped with the aid of the Titans, but if you want to find out the whole story, then do yourself a favor, and read Flashing Lights and Sounds by the miraculous Jedi-and! And yes, don't worry, Legend Maker will be back writing soon (as I have stolen her computer), but allow me to babble on a FEW more moments. She had appeared and helped the Titans numerous times, but was still not an official Titan by any standards, which was something that Noel wondered if he could rectify. She would be a good Titan, and would be good at base defenses, as she didn't need to sleep. But this was Noel thinking in military terms, not hero…oh dear Legend Maker seems to have axed her way out of the bathroom…methinks I better go…

Blasted Brit…

"Savior. I apologized for being late to Cyborg, so I won't repeat it." Viridian stated. "But I have brought everything you asked for. Low caliber photon rifles, machine guns, wall mounts to adapt existing weapons to base defenses, tear-gas launchers, energy nets, lots more 'toys' and the type 3 Ion Cannon you requested."

"Wait, a WHAT!" Cyborg yelled, looking up from the invoice sheet, as Noel mused that his pondering of where his defense request had gone had had apt timing: it had shown up that very hour. While the Titans were all out of course: god forbid coincidence could ever be GOOD for them…

"A type 3, ground based Ion Cannon. I also have the back-up generator for such a weapon so it can be fired with the power off, however it takes ten minutes for the generator to warm up and another five so it can be used safely."

"NOEL! YOU ORDERED A WEAPON THAT CAN DESTROY THE WATCHTOWER!" Cyborg bellowed, glaring at Noel. Indeed Ion cannons, while being mainly spaced base, could be land based. Type one was a space based, orbital cannon, like the one on the Watchtower belonging to the JLA. Type two was a high-atmospheric, one shot ion cannon, which as explained fired one shot and then collapsed, or had to take a while to recharge, running on the gasses in the ozone, like carbon dioxide… Lord knew how that worked exactly. Finally there were the land based Ion cannons, the type three which could fire upon the type ones and twos without much trouble, but they had to have a lot of cooling equipment as they were not in the cold of space, hence a large number of the boxes and hence, the truck.

"Yes, I did ask, and the next time Scrapheap shows up in a giant junk body or the Puppet King pulls out his Puppet Golem again, you'll thank me. And speaking of thanks, thank you for bringing it Bliss." Noel nodded to Viridian, or Bliss as her 'real name' was.

"No need to thank me, I was ordered to do it." She replied simply, and as Cyborg shot another glare at his white haired friend, Viridian once again took up her seemingly endless struggle involving the crowbar and a stubborn lid.

"Well then, perhaps you could rectify something. I could have sworn I said that looking like a china doll was impractical." The white-haired Titan commented, referring to Viridian's clothes as he watched her exertion.

"And you being the height of fashion would know this." She commented offhandedly as she put all her weight into getting the lid off, and seeing as she was made out of metal, that was surprisingly heavy. Her weight, even though she had a slender frame, was enough to finally rip the lid off and throw her to the floor…along with Viridian. She got up and dusted herself off.

"That doesn't look like Ion cannon parts to me." Cyborg commented, peering in the very large crate.

And indeed, Viridian groaned as she took a look herself, for he was right. Inside were many metallic and techno odds and ends, which looked like they could be assembled to form a colossal human-esque figure, minus the head. It stood at least six foot five inches, nearly as large as Cyborg (without the head on it), and it was large and blocky, many pieces sprouting from it, some attached to larger parts and some just there in and of themselves. The teen machine picked up a long, heavy tube with a bag on one end, which he removed to find a muzzle.

"Bliss...these are tank parts."

"How embarrassing." Bliss commented, still in that semi-dead tone, though now it had a hint of frustration and hesitance as she held her head. "It seems, due to a clerical error, I have brought the wrong box. Sorry gentlemen, no Ion Cannon today."

"Aww…" This was one of the few moments Noel allowed himself a human expression. "So what are these then?"

"Well they are body parts... for me." She paused. "A few months back, the guys in Uberton made me this body for a science project...it…um..." She cut herself off and mumbled the last of the sentence, making it barely audible, but noticeable all the same.

"What?"

"Transforms." She finished reluctantly. "They made a transforming armor for me."

"Transforms? You mean more then meets the eye ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh?" Cyborg said, perfectly mimicking the electronic noise the Transformers in the older cartoons had made when they changed shape.

"Yes. I would be able to turn into a tank at will."

"A tank? More like a moving weapons platform. This box has more firepower then most third world countries." Savior commented.

"Yes. I noticed that, which is understandable as I have such better eyes then you." Bliss replied.

"Viridian…why are you hauling this around? If they built it, why not use it?" Cyborg asked.

"I am a person, not a weapon, I have said that to you time and time again."

"Oh. Right. Your 'I am not a gun' hangup." Cyborg said. "Well, all the same, welcome back to Jump City."

"To be honest I'm grateful."

"Grateful?"

"You got me out of Uberton, that's something worth thanking."

"What, are they that bad?"

Placing the back of her hand on her forehead, Viridian arced her back and placed her knees together in what only could be described as a feminine pose.

"Oh for shame. How sad a life I have, without Robert my fleshy existence is meaningless. I must... write poetry and join school plays to show how angsty I truly am." Bliss said. Savior darkly chuckled to himself. The girl Viridian was mimicking was Amy Erickson, aka Paragon, the literal girl next door to Rob's hometown of Ubertron who of course had loved him since the first grade, and he didn't have a clue. It was one of the things Savior kept his mouth shut about: he would criticize Gauntlet on his performance all he wanted but he'd stay out of business that frankly wasn't his.

Viridian lowered her hands and returned to her default pose. "I still don't understand how you organics are the planet's 'superior' race."

"We're too stubborn and stupid to admit otherwise." Savior said as he finished poking through another crate. "Is everything in here?"

"Pretty much."

"Good, then you can get yourself outside and move that gigantic reject from Duel out of the way so we can actually use our garage, and also you can move a bunch of these crates into more appropriate areas as we're entertaining more then a few guests and expect more, so we need the space. And try not to run over Beast Boy or break the island in half when you move the truck."

"And since when did you become my master?"

"Since now. Come on, really." Savior said.

"As you wish, but I do this more out of my needs then yours." Viridian said, and picked up a crate with one arm and headed out of the room.

"Still hasn't lost that damn HAL tone." Savior commented.

"Hey knock it off man. I was the one who helped free her, not you. She can use any damn voice tone she wants." Cyborg said. "So, you found the source of the signal."

"Mmmm-hmmm. Dash's sister, Violet Parr. She was apparently spared the madness that claimed her brother due to her force field power. I cleaned up the damage it did do and gave her to Nigel, who will hopefully find nothing else wrong. Got the computer set up to read any more emergences of the signal?"

"Not just that, I launched probes so that we can zero in on it not just in the city but in a five mile radius beyond it."

"Good work Cyborg."

"You expected anything less?"

"No. I do have a request Victor: I've decided that I'm going nightwalking tonight. Batgirl's coming with me. So I'm going to grab a nap now for several hours. Think you can handle being in charge until then?"

"Handle it? Heck, by the time you wake up they'll all have voted me in as permanent leader and Tim can suck on a lemon." Cyborg said, and grinned wickedly.

"You do that." Savior said, as he left the room.

Savior had fully expected to be woken up by the Tower's alarm, signaling that either Violet and Dash's parents or some other trouble had emerged to bother him, and was rather surprised that what woke him up was the low buzzing of his own alarm. He blinked and then shut it off. It was a little after 9 PM, just as he planned. Well, at least some things went right.

Savior took a shower, selected the best of his clothing/battle outfits, added several trinkets he though he might need, procured a few cash rolls for bribery in the special box Robin kept that only he, Raven, and Cyborg knew about, and headed back downstairs to see if there were any problems.

There were none: indeed life was going on in the T-Tower just as it did when there were no immediate threats. Savior wasn't surprised Dash and Violet had integrated so quickly. The Titans' motto had once been 'Truth, Justice, Pizza' and they'd known how to have fun before he showed up and showed a predilection for wrecking such things.

Dash was in the kitchen, eating ice cream and talking with Sophie, Terra, Cyborg, and Scalpel. Cyborg was apparently telling a story, so Savior went into the fridge, and dug all the way to the back until he found the special nutrient drink that Nigel had several cans of. It was one of many things Nigel had brought to the Titans' life from his 'all war, all the time' society: the liquid within would provide Noel with all the vitamins and whatnot a human body could need for up to thirty-six hours. The problem was, it tasted vile, so not many of the Titans cared to drink it. Even Noel had to chase it down with chocolate milk.

"I mean, I didn't much take it seriously at first, but when I met him…I mean geez! I had trouble fighting him, I was laughing so hard at times!" Cyborg was saying as Noel walked up.

"Evening people."

"Hey Noel." Came the general reply.

"You doing all right Dash?"

"You guys have awesome adventures! I want to stay here with you!" Dash said. Noel chuckled.

"What are we discussing?"

"The Ventriloquist." Terra volunteered.

"Ah Mister Wesker. Let me guess: about how he can't pronounce the letter B and hence everything he says has a G sound in its place."

"Exactly. You should hear the guy Noel. 'Gatman and Rogin! How did you find my gase? Well it doesn't matter, I have yet gegun to fight! And that means you too, Cygorg!'" Cyborg said, doing a near perfect imitation of Albert Wesker's voice. Noel chuckled a bit, though he couldn't help reminding himself of the darker facts behind the amusement: Albert Wesker, aka the Ventriloquist, was a dangerous schizophrenic whose dark side split manifested around a wooden dummy named Scarface, a puppet carved from a tree that had been used as the site for hundreds of hangings. You thought it was funny until Scarface (in reality Wesker, but he was nuts and wasn't really aware of the fact) whipped out a mini machine gun whose bullets were just as deadly as normal sized ones.

"How you feeling though Dash? How are your legs?"

"Still sore. Probably need another day's rest. Or a real good massage." Dash said, glancing sidelong at Terra.

"Not in this or any lifetime kid."

"Awwwwwwwww."

"Cyborg, could I speak to you for a moment?"

"Sure Noel." Cyborg said as he got up and followed Noel out of the kitchen. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. I assume no problems?"

"Nope. Violet's fine, I explained exactly what happened to her with the Super Strings and all, she understood it, we ordered food, had ourselves a party, kept an eye on the computer, nothing yet. You can rest easy."

"I assumed I could…but there's something else Victor."

"Oh?"

"I don't know how to say this, so I'll be all-encompassing in my query. Are you ok?"

"What?"

"Are you all right?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Vic…you haven't quite been yourself. Oh, you're still fighting and gaming and building and booyahing, but something…well, I get the impression something's off."

Cyborg had a prickle of unease. He should have figured that if anyone was going to puzzle it out, it would be Noel. But Noel still apparently had no idea of the specifics, and Cyborg didn't much feel like telling him them because he knew exactly what Noel would say. Fortunately he didn't show his unrest: being half machine gave you one hell of a poker face.

"Like what?"

"Well…all the time you spend in your room…when something urgent isn't preoccupying your mind you seem to go off into a zone like you're pondering a knotty problem…and how that preoccupying keeps making you hand your half of the leadership duties over to me. Vic, I need you for a balance. By myself, it's just too easy to slip into old habits, my usual way of doing things…things that usually go over with the rest of our friends as well as a lead balloon. And even I know that's not a good thing."

"…I suppose." Cyborg said quietly.

"I'm going to assume that even if there was something, you wouldn't want to talk about it."

Sure Noel. Just not to you. You're too close. I never blamed you for a second, but in a roundabout way the reason the last woman I loved died was because of you. Now I'm beginning to really think that I'm having those feelings again…for someone you would never accept. Perhaps never could accept. Not with the way you view humanity.

"…I'm all right Noel. Just a little off. If you think I'm not picking up my slack, I'll start. But be careful now, or you'll find yourself out of a job." Cyborg said, grinning in an attempt to mask his disquiet. If Noel saw through it, he said nothing.

"Yeah well, it's still your job for the moment. I'm going out to hunt the night…which reminds me. You're telling Dash stories?"

"Yeah."

"…I really think I shouldn't have to ask this, but I'll do it anyway: are they APPROPRIATE stories?"

"Appro…oh yeah yeah. The harmless stuff. When we got sucked into Mumbo's hat and were running around the TV with Control Freak and Kwhiz Kid and all that. Nothing about the likes of Jack and the Sorceress."

"Good."

"You think he's too young?"

"I think age is meaningless: most people should never be exposed to such things, even in secondhand information. It is one of my great regrets that such actions are one of the things I can never stop." Noel mused.

"Even if he was older, I wouldn't tell him. He's told us a lot of stories about his world too…it's a lot like ours, but if what Dash has seen and heard can be said to be an accurate observation, it seems a lot…"

"Purer?"

"Yeah. Lots of mad scientists building death rays and newly empowered wackos out robbing banks…but no one ever seemed to die or get seriously hurt…at least in the past. Dash told us about that Syndrome, how he killed so many of the 'Supers' in order to get to his dad, to test a machine, and it makes me wonder…maybe whatever darkness we're familiar with has finally started creeping into his world."

Savior sighed at this.

"It makes me wonder too…why does this happen? Why does something that, despite being against the laws of society, villainous even, somehow seem quaint and almost innocent when looked at in retrospect? How in the old days the good guys always seemed to win and the bad guys went to jail and that was that…and then it just seemed to get…darker. Is this an inevitable transition for superhuman evil? That it starts out enjoying itself almost as much as the heroes, and then starts becoming blacker…sicker…more inhuman…until we have madmen becoming gods and burning down most of a city because he honestly believes it deserves to die? Or bloodthirsty aliens literally taking a bite out of their opponents not for any tactical advantage or the fact they're hungry but because they like doing it? Or…well, we could go down that rabbit hole forever, and it's probably not wise. We might find out it doesn't have a bottom."

"Are you going to keep brooding, because if you are, I think Terra is telling the story of when that damn virus infected me and I have to do damage control. Later Noel. Don't get too bleak, it's not healthy." Cyborg said, and went back into the kitchen.

"Heh. Unhealthy." Savior mused. "Symptoms of a sick world perhaps? Or maybe just growing pains? In whatever case, I'll stand tall against it."

Savior heard the yells all the way down the hall as he hunted for Batgirl, annoyed that she didn't have a communicator. He peered into the lounge and saw Beast Boy standing up, waving a controller around as he yelled at Viridian, who was sitting on the couch and calmly watching him as if he was sitting reading a book instead of yelling at her.

"…plug yourself right into the Gamestation! Foul! I cry foul!" Beast Boy said, and then turned into a chicken.

"You wished to play me, and therefore wished to play against any and all advantages I might possess, which include linking my systems of that of the game playing machine. It is not my fault you decided to challenge such a superior opponent in a medium where you could be trounced so easily and repeatedly."

"But the…with the…haven't you ever heard of fair play?"

"Fair play? From your species? The same ones who gave diseased blankets to native people in order to take their land or just took other people outright to serve as slaves? The ones who inject steroids into themselves for sporting events or change numbers around in their business' accounting books in order to seem like they're making more money then they are? Yes, you meatbags really have a strong position to talk about fair play."

"Are you blaming me for the sins of humanity, past and present?"

"No Garfield Logan. I am simply pointing out you don't have a leg to stand on. So either accept your inferiority in this matter or choose another."

"Why you…" Gar said in his best Three Stooges, at which point Noel got tired of listening and resumed searching.

It had taken some time, but Rob thought he was finally making headway into the Violet issue. She'd stopped wearing her mask around him at least. And Noel not being around had probably helped. Still, he had to tread carefully, otherwise instead of giving her a gentle push away from Noel he'd shove her right into his arms, at which point Noel would probably tell her he wasn't interested and…hmmmm, maybe he SHOULD shove her into his…no no, knowing Noel's luck with women he'd probably end up convincing Raven to have a ménage a…no no even NOEL wasn't that good in that aspect…

"Rob? Shouldn't leave your mouth open. It attracts flies." Violet commented. Rob snapped out of his daze, again annoyed. What was going on? He admitted he neither had nor cared for a mind sharpened to a razor's edge like Tim or Noel, but he wasn't a drooling moron, like Noel sometimes insinuated in his fouler moods. Why did he keep zoning out? Maybe it had something to do with the fact he was sitting next to a fictional girl made real…a fact that only his brain still seemed to know. Rob had done some research in the past few hours. Every time he had tried to access a webpage with information on the Incredibles, the computer had crashed. And he had a feeling that if he went out to a video store on the hunt for a copy of the film, it would prove as elusive as the so-called true snuff film. Maybe his daze had something to do with his brain trying to cope with its exclusive knowledge…or maybe he had had such bad luck with women that he was subconsciously setting himself up to fail because that's what seemingly always happened…and why should he be obsessing over such theories? That was what NOEL did. He wanted Violet to like him for him.

Maybe he should cut through the games and just be delicately blunt.

"So Violet…how do you like this place?" Rob said. He figured that was as good a line as any, as he'd just finished telling her about how he'd come to join the Titans. She'd seemed interested, in more then a professional sense…though that might have just been him…no no no! No thinking along those lines!

"Freaked me out a bit at first. I'm not used to such, how shall I say, in your face bases. Even before the lawsuits that drove my parents into exile, the superhero groups tended to prefer subtler, concealed places to work in, and since our return we're still re-discovering how to do business, as it were, much less getting back into some of their old haunts. But inside, I can see why you keep it. This really is a place one could call home."

Hmmmmmm. Sounds like she might be interested in staying even if we could find her a way back. Perhaps…

"Yes, it's a great place. For great people, if I may say so." Rob said. "And actually…something occurs to me."

"What?"

"Well…you say that you could see this as home…"

"Yes?"

"Well…um…there's no real way around this, so I'll just say it. There might be someone in here that's…interested in you."

"Oh?" Violet said, as a very minute flush once again pervaded her features. Blast. She'd been with Tony so long she'd forgotten what it was like to be shy at times.

"Yes…so interesting you say this place seems like home…because he's wondering…want to try it…as home?"

"Well…I don't know…who is this person?"

"Oh…he's close. Closer then you realize. In fact…" Rob said.

And then, life crept out of the shadows, cackling wickedly, and drove the lone dagger Rob agonized over at times in his back once more, as Noel picked that EXACT moment to walk into the room.

"…Noel!" Rob said. And while his voice conveyed it as him being surprised Noel had shown up, what he really meant was "Not now! What, did you do this on purpose?"

"Rob, Violet." Noel replied, and started across the room.

Rob suddenly found Violet looking at him, and before he could say anything, she took and patted his hand.

"I see." She said. "Thanks Rob. You're a good friend."

Rob didn't have any time to dwell on how the rug had been neatly yanked out from under him again: Noel was heading over to them, and Violet was looking at him again.

"Hi Noel. Where were you?" Violet asked.

"Resting. I'm going out for the night, and it's best to be fresh for such things." Noel said.

"Have you seen Batgirl Rob?"

"Uh…she was around here a minute ago…wait a minute. You're going out vigilanting with her?"

"I have a need to."

"…Noel, I admit that when it comes to thinking ahead, you and I are, so to speak, not quite on the same level, in more then one way, but even I know that going out in the dark in a bright white outfit is a bad idea. Sure, criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot, but you don't have to be a brave and mentally adroit person to point a gun at such an obvious target and…"

While Rob had been speaking, Noel had removed something from an inner jacket pocket, and as Rob was finishing up Noel twisted it.

A flash of color surged over him, and when it was done Noel's clothes were now jet black, like a motorcycle rider. As well, a shaved scalp had replaced his long pointed white hair.

"I know Rob, but thanks for pointing it out." Noel said, as he tucked the holopin back into his jacket.

Rob stared.

"…Huh. Look at that. From white bread to white trash within a second."

"Rob!" Violet said, slapping Rob's shoulder. "Don't be so rude!"

"It's all right Violet. Rob prides himself on his quips, may as well let him stay sharp." Noel said. He was about to say something else, when he noticed a flutter of movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see Batgirl now in the hallway entrance he had come from, waiting for him. Well, looks like she had found him instead. That would do.

"All right. You ok Violet?"

"Yes, I'm fine Noel."

"Good. All right, I'm going out for the night. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask the other Titans."

"Ok."

"Like I said, I'll be out late Rob, so don't wait up. My communicator is turned off: only an emergency signal will get through, so please don't hail me unless it IS an emergency. And we've run out of Pepsi, could I please get some more since I'm in the city, is still not under those guidelines."

"D'oh!"

"Besides, there's plenty in the fridge. I'll be going now. Good night Rob, Violet. Sleep well." Noel said, nodding, and headed over for Batgirl.

"He's quite a guy, isn't he?" Violet asked.

"Yeah." Rob muttered under his breath. "He's quite a lot of things."

"I apologize if I delayed any schedule you wanted to keep." Batgirl said as Noel reached her and she fell into step beside him.

"No problem. You feeling all right?"

"Yes. Do you have a plan for the night?"

"Sure. First we go visit my informants and find out what prying eyes and ears have seen and heard. And then we go find the criminal and the vile who thought that hiding in the cracks of Jump City would allow them to escape the notice of the young heroes on the island who seem to be more preoccupied with more colorful types, and we teach them a harsh lesson on why such an assumption is folly."

"Sounds good to me."

"Ah my dear Cassandra." Savior said as he cracked his knuckles. "There's nothing good about it."

Considering the general opinion he got from seemingly everyone he met while on his way, Jackal had wholly expected the need to punch in a secret code in the elevator to take him to a floor that wasn't registered on the Hiveathanas' blueprints to get where he wanted to go. But no: it was just a floor in the middle of the base, a floor he had just reached, as the elevator doors slid silently open, revealing a long hallway that stretched off into the distance.

Jackal headed down it, his boots making a low hollow echo as he walked. It didn't take him long to come to the door at the end of the hallway. The entrance was coded, and supposedly Blood was the only other one who knew the code. So Jackal pressed his fingers in and rewired the computer from the inside out. He put in his new code and the door opened.

The giant room that the door opened up to show was silent as a tomb.

Jackal walked in, looking around. Seemingly everything that a student of science could want or need. There was a chemical section, a mechanical section, a section Jackal recognized from his gigantic knowledge stores as an area to study viruses, and nearly half a dozen other places for other studies. Several very large computers dotted the room, which was as simplistic as possible: steel for walls and floor, steel and other metals for all other surfaces, occasionally some dull gray wood where it was needed.

The only variant was the large glass chamber in the center of the room that Jackal's eyes were now slowly being drawn to.

It was a massive rectangle of glass, at least twelve feet to each side, pressed firmly against the floor from where it emerged from the ceiling: at the top Jackal could see several mechanical apparatuses that he assumed controlling the lifting up, dropping down, and other functions of the rectangle. The glass wasn't clear, but it wasn't mirrored or completely obscured either.

Which allowed Jackal to see there was someone in it.

The glass was foggy enough to keep him from making out anything more then general shapes or movement. Jackal walked over. A quick stroll around the glass showed that there was no door. Not sure what else to do, or if the figure inside had even noticed him, Jackal reached up and knocked on the glass.

There was no answer. The figure didn't even seem to notice.

Jackal rapped harder.

Still no answer.

Jackal was smart enough to know when he was being deliberately ignored. And he had never much cared for it, as he placed his fingers on the glass wall and concentrated.

The wall shifted and then began to crumble, a hole being eaten away from the Jackal's hand, as he transformed the glass into sand.

As he finally got a clear view of the inside, he saw the figure stop, turn around, and watch Jackal as he made his own door. It blocked what was behind it mostly, so Jackal could just get a good look at the figure itself.

He supposed it was female, though it was hard to tell: the figure was wrapped in heavy layers of clothing that skewed its shape more towards male, especially around the shoulders. Her hair was covered in a surgeon's cap, her eyes were covered in dark goggles, and her mouth was covered with a facemask. The top layer of her clothes appeared to be a classic lab coat, over another layer of clothing over another one still. She wore buckled boots on her feet, the only part of her body that didn't seem overly large. She watched as the last of the glass disappeared, leaving a large hole for Jackal to walk in, if he wanted to. She looked down at the sand that had been glass a moment ago for a second, and then looked up at Jackal. If she had any expression, her facial coverings hid it.

"That was a plastisteel variant of my own design. A wrecking ball couldn't have cracked it." She said.

Jackal would have replied sooner, except he was thrown by her voice.

Jackal had heard dull voices before, voices that were flat and lacking inflection. But the voice that came out of the female before him…it was beyond that. She sounded exactly like a computer, minus any electronic tones. It was as if she had never spoken in a different way her entire life; that was how smooth and lacking in flaw the flatness was. Had Jackal known Viridian, he would have noticed a similarity in her speaking and this female, but Viridian didn't have a choice: her voice box was artificially constructed and she probably couldn't speak with much emotion in her voice even if she wanted to. This female before him was fully human…and yet she talked 'better' then a robot.

It threw him for a moment: he'd never heard a voice quite like that before. But it didn't last long.

"Let's just say a Sonic Screwdriver has nothing on me." Jackal replied.

"Agreed." The female said. "Move."

It wasn't a polite request, or even a request at all. It was a command, somehow delivered with absolutely authority without the voice changing an iota. It was a voice of a person that had sized another up and dismissed them in one breath. If such things offended Jackal, he probably would have taken her head off.

But he'd gone beyond such offenses now, at least when it came to minions. So he moved aside. She walked past him without a second glance.

"My correct assumption is that you are the new meta who has ousted Blood and assumed command of the Hive." The female said as she walked over to a computer. Jackal's eyes followed her for a bit, as she started taking off the surgical gloves she wore…gloves he saw were covered in blood. Remembering that she'd been standing in front of something, he turned to look.

Though in his heart he was not surprised, the degree of what he saw still stirred a mild reaction in him. And considering he was no stranger when it came to impossible manipulations of human flesh and bone, that was really saying something.

Laid out on the metal surgical table was something that might have once been a woman. Now it looked more like a frog high school children would dissect in biology class…except twenty times more elaborate. It would have given a Cenobite pause, what had been done to the body, which was also hooked up to various machines. Jackal would have made a deeper observation if he hadn't been distracted by the fact the female was speaking to him again.

"I will assume you do not know the details of the agreement Blood and I had. And by the fact you are the first to bother me after his expulsion, that you do not wish my absence." The female said, as she finished removing the upper layers of clothing she had been wearing, carefully placing them in a strange machine. With the layers removed, she wore a plain white bodysuit that showed a slim and muscled form, perfectly trained. A tad bit TOO perfectly, but Jackal would ponder that later.

"Perhaps. Are you Incandescent?"

"No." The female replied. "That is a name given to me by the fools under Blood, who insisted on putting a title on my vision. I do not answer to the name. I am Lucinda DaFoe. No less." Lucinda said, as she removed her face mask and surgical cap, as long golden blonde hair spilled out from underneath. From what he could see of her face, as she put the mask and cap into the machine as well, she was quite lovely, a pure cheerleader type, which was noted as he walked closer.

And then she reached up and removed her goggles, looking at him.

And suddenly Jackal knew exactly why Gizmo and Jinx had been terrified of Lucinda, why they didn't want to be in her presence, indeed, why any human would.

Jackal recalled Gizmo's description of Lucinda. She was a genius beyond compare, an IQ that literally could not be measured, surpassing even him (he said this very grudgingly) in the pure smarts scale, though he argued he was still a better mechanic. But Gizmo had said that this…well it clearly framed something that made his animal instincts scream, though he couldn't elucidate on just what it was.

But Jackal saw it.

Her eyes were a light blue.

And like her voice, Lucinda's eyes were dead. But this wasn't the dead of some street punk raised early on to believe there was no hope and no consequences mattered. No. Some violent little psychopath didn't hold a candle, didn't hold a whole Menorah candelabrum, to what was in Lucinda's eyes.

Because of what was behind the emptiness.

Intelligence was not something that necessarily showed on the face. General photos of Albert Einstein tended to show a man who looked a bit tired and dull, never indicating a brain behind the gaze that had formed the theory of relativity and made major contributions to Quantum and statistical mechanics. Leonardo Da Vinci's self-portrait in red chalk conveyed the same expression of a tired old man, never showing the great brilliance behind the lidded gaze. And Ken Jennings looked a lot more like a happy dork then the possessor of a mind filled to the brim with information and armed with a lightning quick set of reflexes that brought it to bear (though one could argue that Jennings' knowledge was a mile wide and an inch deep, but I digress…).

But sometimes it did show, whether in stereotype or unique quirks of facial structure or expression.

And sometimes…

No wonder her given code-name was Incandescent. There was a light in Lucinda's eyes, a brilliant, unbelievable light. Her intelligence was so great it literally shone through.

But this wasn't the light of a star or even the metaphorical light of humanity. It was a bad light, a…

Another random bit of information popped up in the Jackal's head. From the Stephen King magnum opus It, about a creature that lived under a small Maine town and preyed on children. While the book had been a bit vague and unclear about what It actually was, one could get that It was a creature from another realm of existence that had crossed over to the world of humanity, where it could assume any physical form it chose. When not consciously assuming a form, It could only been seen as human senses could be allowed to see it, in which case It appears as a nightmarish spider monster. But as said, that was only because humans lacked the function to see It as it truly was in their realm. In the final battle, the main character is transported to a strange world of imagination and dream, a world that allows him to cross over to the place where It originally came from. This is, however, a very bad thing, and the main character has to be rescued from doing so by a friend of his, pulled back from the brink of where It lives on the other side, where It existed only as "All-destroying light". A light that came from Its eyes. What King had termed the Deadlights.

Yeah. That fit all too well here. Lucinda's eyes were the Deadlights. The light that shone forth from them was the light of a void, the light of an all-consuming force that would destroy anything in its path. The light of a genius beyond compare…and nothing else.

She had nothing more beyond that gaze. No emotions. No heart. No humanity.

No soul.

No wonder the Hive children were terrified. They were, despite their powers and strange forms, still human. Lucinda wasn't. She wore the form of a human, but what came forth from her gaze was anything but.

Lucinda knew she was God.

She did not think, or believe, or insist.

She KNEW.

And that fact even drove the Jackal to silence.

For a moment, before his own knowledge reasserted the truth of him.

"All right then. Lucinda."

Lucinda didn't reply, as she laid her goggles down in the carefully laid out clothing she had worn and pressed a button on the machine. The laid out attire slid into the machine, as Lucinda turned and walked over to another computer.

Jackal was aware of strange mechanical noises just before it nearly ran over his foot, as a large mechanical droid ran across the floor and to Lucinda. It was about the size of the large dog, in a general arachnid shape with six blurring legs. Had Jackal known of two teen superheroes who operated out of Dakota, and of the mechanical companion of one of them, he might have compared that droid to the one that ran across the floor and classified it as Backpak's evil twin. The droid hopped up on the computer array that Lucinda was typing at.

"Rig, replace the damaged section of the Study, then bring any results of the clothing scan to me." Lucinda said. The Rig, assumingly the name of the droid, hopped off the computer and skittered across the room, even as the rectangle of glass began to rise up from the floor, possibly from a silent computer command on Lucinda or Rig's part.

Jackal wasn't used to being ignored, but with Lucinda, he found he wasn't really surprised. Buzz Bomb had supposedly not been afraid of him because he had been raised in a strict household, but Lucinda was clearly incapable of feeling fear at all. She WAS like a computer placed in a human body: unstopping and unflinching in doing what she had to do. If something got in her way, she would deduce a solution to the problem and carry it out, never letting anything like doubt or fear enter her mind.

"You say you and Blood had an agreement." Jackal said.

"Yes. He allowed me the resources needed to discover the exact function of the truth, and in turn I had to discover a way to make him immortal. Do you wish the same, because it will take some time to adapt Blood's immortality to your considerably different form." Lucinda said, never looking at the Jackal.

"…No…I do not want to be immortal…that's not a problem." Jackal said. "I do have a list of orders for you."

"I do not take orders. If you wish to request something of me, I may consider it." Lucinda replied. Once again, her voice never changed a bit, but the will behind it was as indomitable as any god's. And why not? Lucinda was a true believer. Take any arrogant or foolish man or woman who believed quite highly of themselves, in various and mounting aspects, and put them under the right kind of stresses, and eventually they would break down and abandon the so-called truths of themselves they so firmly held onto. But not Lucinda. Jackal had a feeling you could torture her for a thousand years and she'd be saying the exact same thing she said when she started.

What a unique woman.

Perhaps…she could actually find a way.

"Very well then. Requests." Jackal said, as he literally willed a sheet of paper out of nowhere. He held it out to Lucinda, who spent several seconds finishing her typing before she turned away from the computer and took it, reading it quickly.

"…Have you miswritten this last request?" She asked. Jackal couldn't help but smirk. The wrong was always in others. It was impossible that she might have, say, misread the request. Jackal found it charming.

"No."

Lucinda looked up at him, analyzing him.

"Rig."

Jackal noticed that the Rig had come back into the room from another, carrying a large pane of glass assumingly to replace the one Jackal had 'Sonic Screwdrivered'. Since the pane was roughly fifteen times as large as the droid, the robot was carrying it with two energy tendrils that extended from its back, rather like the power Jackal had seen that white haired meta using earlier, though these tendrils were a pinkish red in color. The Rig set the giant pane of glass against the Study, as Lucinda had called it, and scurried over to its master.

"Scan."

A small device popped out of the Rig, and bathed Jackal in a greenish light. Before he could do anything except arch an eyebrow, the Rig finished and scurried over to the computer, hopping up and plugging itself in. Data began rapidly appearing on the screen, Lucinda studying it for a few seconds before turning back to Jackal.

"You are not human."

"You noticed?"

"If these readings are right, you possess everything any of those small minded wrecks could ever desire all wrapped up into one. Yet this last request…you want that."

"Yes."

"…Very well then. I can easily accomplish all your requests except the last: I will require extended research for that. But in return you will have to rework the agreement I had under Blood."

"Very well." Jackal said, as the Rig scurried back to the Study and resumed its task of replacing the glass section.

"Everything that was in Blood's agreement, I keep. I will tell you the details later."

"As you wish."

"I also want something else." Lucinda said, as she walked past Jackal said, as the machine she had put her bulky overtop clothes in opened up to reveal them. Lucinda began dressing once more, not saying anything else. A bit put off, Jackal walked over to her again.

"What else do you want?"

"I will inform you when my work is done. All I will say for now is that I believe it is vital for my discovery of the truth, and that is all that matters."

"The truth?"

"Yes."

"What is the truth?"

"I am going to save humanity from itself."

"Oh? Why do you feel the need for this?"

"Because it's broken."

Jackal arched an eyebrow and wondered if he wanted to continue down this line.

But curiosity, as the saying went, killed the cat.

"Humanity is broken."

"Yes." Lucinda said. "I assume that you want the truth explained to you."

"Do please."

"It is really quite simple. This species is incorrigibly flawed, and it needs to be fixed. I have seen this, and I will discover the way to fix it and finally bring this species into its chosen fate."

"I see." Jackal said. "And you believe this why?"

"As foolish as the rest. The answer is right before you. Look at them. Their history and lives. They walk through their everyday existences believing lies because they cannot stand the truth. To guard themselves from the basic truths of their existence, they have slaughtered each other for centuries, eons, made up higher beings and god who seemingly have a benevolent hand behind their creation, turned to science in an attempt to discover the inner workings of existence, all to try and tell themselves they are something special. Never wanting to understand what they really are."

"And that is?"

"Tools. And broken tools at that. I have seen the truth of this fact. All that remains is the exact truth behind what makes them broken. Once I discover that, I will fix it, and humanity will assume it's proper place."

"As tools."

"Yes."

"Under your command I would assume."

"Tools are to be used by those who understand them. I am the only one who understands. It is only right." Lucinda said, as she began stuffing her hair under the surgical cap.

"I see…so…what does that have to do with that body on the table?"

"Look at the world. So many variations, so many ways to be brought up, so much differentiation. Yet the dysfunction is universal. They all delude themselves, that they are happy, that they are free, that they are living the lives they want, from the richest lord with the world at his fingertips to the diseased bum who take what tiny spurts of joy he can in the oblivion of a bottle. None of them are happy, none are free. They are slaves to their petty desires, their niggling beliefs, their pettifogging hatreds and vices, their picayune fears. They all lie to themselves, deceive themselves, blind themselves to the truth. A tool that does not acknowledge itself for what it is is a tool that is not working properly. It has to be fixed." Lucinda said, as she finished by hanging the surgical mask around her neck and putting her goggles on her forehead. "This clear factor across all difference shows that it is not a factor of nurture. It is a factor of nature. So, somewhere in the folds of the human race, is the solution behind their flaw. I will find it, no matter how long I have to search. And once I do, I will save the world from itself."

"I see." Jackal said, as Lucinda walked up to the Study, as the Rig was finishing up replacing the pane of glass. "You are aware that this is not a new belief. That plenty have had it before."

Lucinda looked at Jackal, and while her eyes remained blank, not showing even the slightest hint of contempt (though that was because she did not know how to express such a thing rather then the feeling he was not deserving of it), with her eyes the way they were that was somehow worse.

"They were human. Deluded even in their beliefs of delusion. All of them. I am not. Therefore I am the answer."

"You look human to me."

"Looks are nothing compared to the truth. The truth I will find eventually. All great discoveries cannot escape being discovered forever, whether it be penicillin or the HIV virus." Lucinda said.

"And what do you plan to do when you find this flaw?"

"I will fix it. And humanity will finally enter its chosen use."

"As your tools."

"Yes."

"And all that stuff about freedom and caring and such and such will be made irrelevant."

The replacement was complete, and the Rig picked up the damaged glass plane with its energy tendrils and started carrying it away, as Lucinda looked at Jackal once more.

"They will not need any of it. They reason for existing will be achieved. They will be content. That is what they will know, that is all they will need to know."

"That's all they deserve?" Jackal asked.

"Deserve has nothing to do with it." Lucinda said, and walked over to her table. "Once I am done with my latest specimen, assuming I find nothing, I will go meet you. We will discuss the exact renegotiations of the agreement at leisure."

"If you wish." Jackal said, as he walked up a few steps. He still wasn't sure what to make of or to do with Lucinda. On one hand, her unbelievable mind might actually hold the key to his greatest desire, or at least tie into it. On the other hand, it would be impossible to use her or manipulate her. She may have acted like a computer, but she commanded enough aspects of the human animal to make her impossible to program. Actually getting her to work with him would be hard enough, let alone asserting any authority over her. Then again, she definitely wasn't like the other Hive members, who needed to know their place so they could properly aid him. Lucinda knew her place, and it was unassailable.

Savior. Visionary. God.

At least he had the assurance that she wouldn't usurp his leadership. For one thing, her quest for her truth was all that mattered: leading the HIVE was of no use to her. Plus, the Hive would never let themselves be led by her: not with the way she probably looked at them, wondering if their bodies held the truth she desired, wondering just how to cut them open and…

And then he saw it.

He had been a bit distracted before, so he hadn't noticed. But he saw it now.

Saw how the exposed lungs were moving…just a bit. Every so slightly. Still…pumping air.

And how the lone remaining eye…still had a spark of something in it.

Horror beyond belief.

Good lord, the girl was STILL ALIVE.

Even Jackal couldn't hide some astonishment at that fact, astonishment Lucinda seemed to notice.

"The flaw is within the living human animal. Dead specimens…are only so much meat. The answer lies in the living. So living they remain." Lucinda said, as she put on a new pair of surgical gloves.

Jackal boggled at this. At the way Lucinda has cut the girl up, somehow keeping her life and mind intact…at what else she could possibly do…

And realizing with her brain, Lucinda probably still had thousands of routes she could explore.

And she'd want to explore as many as possible.

"…How?" Jackal could only ask.

"I am the one destined to find the truth. Such a truth has proven elusive. So I have become quite good in my hunt. Very, VERY, good." Lucinda said as she looked up at him one last time.

With that light behind her eyes…

When she put the goggles back on, it didn't help. Not now when he knew what was behind them. It still shone through. The goggles, as a certain famous comedic quote went, did nothing.

"I have to work now. Leave." Lucinda said.

And the Study began coming down again, sealing Lucinda away from the world once more, as she hunted for her specific godhood in the flesh of humanity.

Jackal stared at the Study for a few more seconds, and then turned and started leaving.

He'd need to give this some thought. Because despite the mild malaise she had stirred in him, Jackal could still see how extraordinarily useful Lucinda could be.

After all, he had no right to cast the first stone.

Yes, she'd be very useful. Possibly more so then all the other Hive members.

He'd give her what she wanted.

And she'd give him what he needed.

He left the room…and even then…he could still feel that vision boring into his back.

The Deadlights.

The horror, the horror.

To Be Continued.