Chapter Three:

"Goddamn it…What time is it?" grunted the teen, Fred Xavier as he rolled off his bed and to the cold floor. Still wrapped in his black blanket, he straddled towards the bathroom.

"Six A.M, great" he sighed after looking at his watch. Only four more hours until the time when he actually needed to wake up. He examined his face in the mirror and traced his finger along his right cheek

"Damn thing" he swore as he touched a more rugged surface of his cheek. He punched the water inside the sink, emitting a loud splash and a spray show that covered the mirror, and him, with small drops of water

"Respect among thieves, yeah right…" he swore again, waking his mom from her sleep

"Red?" she cried through the darkness of their house. At the sound of his name, he cringed

"Yeah, mom?" he cried back, expecting no answer, he knew what she wanted, just to make him stop swearing, she hated cuss words.

"What time is it?" she asked. Her voice was softer. Red shot up when he realized she was standing next to him, also looking at his reflection in the mirror. Her white nightgown drifted and brushed against his body, running chills through it

"Six" he replied "Better get ready for work, mom" the elder woman smiled.

"Just don't get yourself into trouble, Red" she said and turned out of the small bathroom, walking towards her room.

"I'll just head back up to Gothem. E.Z and Sub promised me to help with our stuff, you know, to get them here" he said and also left the bathroom, grabbing the yellow cordless phone which was placed on a small table

"Gothem is half an hour drive away, I won't let you walk all the way" she stated. Red gave her an odd look

"Who's talking about walking? I'll take a bus" he said while dialing in the numbers and placing the small phone next to his ear

"Hello…yeah E.Z, it's Red…I know it's six A.M. No, I ain't calling back at ten…Because I know you got that tutoring thing at nine, you think I want your momma to get pissed at me like last time? Look, I'll meet ya at my place in…Yeah I'm taking a bus. I'll meet ya there in an hour. Call Sub and tell him to hotwire that scrap bucket his dad calls a truck and meet us there. Chao" he hung up

As he threw some clothes out of his closet; a pair of black cargo pants, a long sleeved black shirt and his favorite trench coat, he sorted through his pockets for some bus money

"I'm out, mom!" he cried out "Be back by lunch time, I hope" with that, he left the house, closing the door.

His mom grinned; he was a good boy, she knew it, showing it to the rest of the world was the problem.

(S)

"Morning? Already?" Kori asked herself. She groaned and rolled off her large bed, but stopped as soon as the sound of another set of breathing hit her ears. Looking on the bed, she saw Terra, crouched into a fatal position, her thumb in her mouth. Kori smiled to herself and nudged the blonde slightly. The sleeping girl shook back and forth, still sucking her thumb, but opened her eyes moments later

"Go away, mom! I'm still on holiday!" she shouted in her half awake state and hurled a pillow in Kori's general direction. The red headed girl caught the flying projectile and threw it back at Terra

"I am not your mother!" she protested. Terra snapped awake all at once, nearly jumping up the moment she saw where she was

"Kori?" she asked and looked around at her surroundings "What am I doing at your place?"

"Never mind you…"Groaned a voice. A head raised itself above Kori's bedside. It was a girl, her face was rather pale, eyes colored purple, like her hair, she looked all around tired

"What am I doing here?" she asked. Terra glanced at her

"Forget that" she said "Who are you?" Raven closed her eyes, trying to think hard. She gave up on that moments later

"It hurts to think" she replied, groaning once more "I feel like I wore a brick on my head"

"Try to imagine you place your pain is located elsewhere, outside your body" suggested Kori. Raven raised an eyebrow

"Yeah, try to imagine your pain is where your clothes are" added Terra lazily. With that out, Raven's eyes widened; she looked down on herself to see she only had her black bra and panties to cover her naked body

"What-Where-Who-Why?" she stammered, still shocked. Her pale face was painted red with embarrassment. Kori was trying hard not to laugh, but at the same time felt sorry for the girl. Terra sighed

"Now that you've covered all of the W.H questions, will you relax? It's not like you got something we've never seen before" she said. Raven glared at her

"Maybe you're comfortable with being almost naked around people you don't even know" she shot venomously. Terra winced and was about to reply when a shower of clothes landed on top of her and Raven's head

"Make your selection. I do not wish you to fight over a meaningless subject as clothes" Raven dug into the pile and pulled out a red midriff shirt and a pair of tight jeans, putting them on quickly and getting on her feet, she headed towards the door

"Well, it was really nice talking to you…uh…Blonde and…Red head. I'll give you your clothes back the moment I…" she collapsed to the ground. Terra and Kori grabbed her; Kori by her shoulders and Terra by her legs and they both helped her back to the bed

"You will have to remain here until your…" Kori snapped her fingers a couple of times, trying to remember the term "Over-hang has worn off"

"Hang over" corrected Terra. Raven looked at them, faintly

"Hang over?" she repeated "How much did I drink last night?"

"It's not the quantity that counts, it's the quality" said Kori, sounding sarcastic. Raven looked at her in an odd manner

"What Kori is trying to say is…You had a loaded drink last night"

"Loaded?" Raven repeated "With what?" Terra sighed and walked towards the bathroom, opening the door

"Well, it wasn't any sugar, I'll tell you that" she said and moved aside. It took a while for Terra's words to sink in, and that's when Raven shot from the bed, through the open bathroom door, and puked her soul into the toilet bowl.

"Well, that's the first time I see blue dots there" commented the blonde and continued "You go, Go-Go Girl" Raven turned her head towards her

"Go-Go Girl?" she said. Terra laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her head

"Let's just put it this way…" she put both hands behind her head and started doing the Pelvic Thrust.

"That was you, last night" she said. Once seeing that, the Goth turned her head back to the porcelain bowl and threw up again, coughing and getting up, she gave Terra a hard look

"Please tell me you were joking" she said. Terra shook her head no

"So I actually…" she nodded. Raven sighed

"Great. One night out and I turn into a partying freak" she said

"Do not feel that bad" Kori, who had just entered the bathroom told her "At least you were lucky enough to be found by us and not….him" she narrowed her eyes. Raven seemed curious

"This is where I ask who is him, right?" she said and smirked. Terra laughed, but shushed as soon as Kori's glare landed on her

"Fang" she clutched a fist "He's a bad man, a very bad man"

"Maybe we should go down, get some breakfast, what do you say Kori?" asked Terra, looking perfectly horrified by her friend's outburst. The red-headed girl looked at her, but then squealed with joy

"Yes! Some breakfast would do us all good, friends, come!" she said and ran downstairs

"Yeah, I'll just have a few bites and be on my way" added the Goth girl and followed Kori. Behind her, Terra smirked; that girl obviously hasn't heard of Kori's infamous breakfasts.

(S)

"It's now one P.M and this is me, Chad Youbetcha (A/N: Yeah), with the news; recent developments show that the heat wave that's passing through our city is going to stay for at least two more we-" Dick turned the radio off and sighed; this heat was out of this world, and the large biker helmet on his head didn't do him any good.

"No matter, just fifteen more minutes and I'm home" he calmed himself and looked around; the interstate was rather empty at these times, since most people were either working or staying home and hiding from the heat. He swerved his look towards the stoplight, which was still taunting him with its red light.

Hearing fade tunes of techno music, he turned around; an old red pickup truck that looked as if it was ready to fall apart due to corrosion was making its way to the same position as he was, also willing to drive to Jump City he guessed. In front of the ancient automobile was a brand new Suzuki racing bike, colored black.

As the bike and truck pulled over next to Dick, the rider of the other bike; a teen about his age, wearing tight blue jeans, like Dick was and a loose black shirt, which stood in contrast to Dick's tight rider's shirt, pulled back on the throttle twice, emitting two high pitched hums from his bike's engine.

Under his helmet, Dick grinned. He did the same, his Harley's engine being louder, obviously

"Well, you're defiantly louder. Question is; are you faster?" teased the other teen

"Maybe, wonna go check?" he shot back.

"Defiantly" he replied "Name your race"

"First one to reach Wayne High wins, you up for it?" the two teens shook hands

"The moment that sucker turns green, we go, comprende?" Dick nodded and they both leaned forward, staring at the red light in front of them. At long last, the stoplight went green; reaction time was near zero as both riders kicked their bikes into motion and gunned the throttles

"See ya at Wayne High, kid!" Red screamed and blasted forward into the empty interstate, Dick closely behind him. Inside his mind, the boy on the Harley was already coming up with shortcuts to his destination, he just hoped that the guy on the other bike wouldn't pick it up and follow him, the Suzuki racing bike was a lot faster than his.

Red gunned hard against the black asphalt, he looked back to see the kid on the red bike taking a wrong turn, he took the Steel City off ramp and was now completely gone of his sight

"Idiot" he thought and looked ahead, to see a sign that said Jump City, five miles. He grinned and squeezed more and more speed from his machine, storming into the busy city and now cruising between the numerous cars to get to his destination

"41. Steel…Bingo!" Dick screamed and took a left turn. His opponent wasn't smart enough to know of a shortcut in Steel City that leads to Wayne High, after all, it was built on the outskirts of Jump City, for reasons unknown. Dick was constantly reminding himself of his opponent's great speed, he cruised over and under to get faster and faster, always listening to the hum his engine was emitting, of the fuel pumping through his huge machine, burning hard, loose and clean. He took the left turn beyond a messed up construction site and headed full speed, he could already see the tall red roof of the main high school building

"Just a couple more seconds" Red hummed….he took a right and cut between two trucks, finally seeing the main street that leads there. He cut in between a scooter and a large minivan and bolted at top speed towards the large building ahead

Just to see Dick waving at him

"Shit" he hissed between his ground teeth and pulled right next to him, shaking his opponent's hand

"Nice driving" he said. Dick smirked under his helmet

"Thanks, you ain't half bad yourself" he stopped and hopelessly tried to change the subject "So…where do you go to school?"

"Right here, I moved in from Gothem yesterday" Dick's eyes widened

"Really? Well, you'll get a chance to even the score with me" Dick got back on his bike

"How?"

"There's a racing gathering at Friday night, and well, since it's just a couple of days from now, it'll be like a rematch" he said and grinned

"You can count on me being there" Red concluded and turned his bike around "Untill next time" he said and rode off.