A/N Thanks for the reviews mysti-eyed and TheGirlWonder. I took down the description because I knew I would give away some parts or whatever. Alright, on with the fan fiction!
Ch 4: The Captor of Memories
After the training session, Speedy began to ease up, becoming his normal depressed self, slumping on the couch, bored out of his mind. Ember watching silently from her spot on the couch, and an eyebrow rose for curiosity and suspicion. Sighing, she stood, walking casually to Aqualad, sitting by the table, working on something.
"Is he always like this?" she asked, with a bit of worry in her voice.
"Who?" asked Aqualad, not paying attention, working on a "Seascapes" puzzle.
"Uh, Speedy." she replied, irritably, pointing towards the red-headed lump on the couch.
"Les significar Senor Speedy?" You mean Speedy? asked the twins, zooming around Ember, while speaking in fast Spanish, "Les usualmente lata non cerrar el hacia arriba!" You usually can not shut him up!
"Eh?" she murmured in complete confusion, scratching her head only knowing the most simplest words in Spanish, "Si… yes I guess…"
"We really need to get a 'Spanish to English' translator for them…" muttered BumbleBee from by the door, hovering over to them, pizza in hand, "Who wants pizza?"
"Sure!" exclaimed Ember, not having pizza for so long, made her extremely excited.
"Okay, cool…" the sea boy mumbled, still not paying any attention.
"Si, si!" Yes, yes! shouted Mas y Menos, whizzed BumbleBee, trying to grab the pizza from her.
"Whatever…" sighed the slumped figure on the couch, flipping TV channels.
"Extremely enthusiastic today, I see, huh Speedy?" the leader said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
"Oh yeah, extremely enthusiastic…"
"Speedy, you are hopeless…"
"Thanks, I take that as a compliment, BumbleBee."
"Alright, you win. I'm proposing that you're not hungry, so I'll give those few extra tacos to Mas and Menos to chow down on…" BumbleBee strutted innocently over to the fridge, setting down the pizza on the counter. Slowly, she grasped the two cold tacos, letting Speedy see what exactly what she was doing.
His eyes got big and moist, and his lips quivered. "No! Gimme back my tacos!" he shouted, jumping up and tackling BumbleBee to the ground, trying to make her give back his precious Mexican food.
"Alright, fine take your tacos, but you have to promise to lighten up, or your tacos are finished…" she warned, slowly sliding her pointer finger across her throat, getting the point across.
"All right, fine, have it your way," the hero growled, stroking his tacos protectively.
Aqualad, Mas, Menos, and Ember, blinked twice before, they all fell on the ground, laughing.
Later…
"So Speedy, you about ready to put down your tacos yet?" asked Ember sarcastically, after eating her pizza, "You've only been cuddling them for an hour now!"
"Yeah, Speedy, you have some major protective issues about food. Maybe you should go see a physiatrist." chuckled Aqualad, holding his gloved hand over his mouth.
Glaring daggers at Aqualad, Speedy and the others jumped when the alarm went off. BumbleBee run to the giant TV screen, a map of the city popped up when she typed in a password. "Uh oh, guys. There's been a break in down at the mall. Let's move!"
The whole team raced to the door, head over heels, leaving Ember in the dust. She just blinked, confused on what she should do, thinking about all the negatives that could happen.
Skidding to a stop, Speedy looked back at her over his shoulder. "You coming?" he asked, grabbing his bow and quiver of high-tech arrows.
Snapping out of her trance, Ember nodded, and followed him out the door, and into a huge garage of some sort. Apparently, BumbleBee flew, Mas y Menos ran, and Aqualad rode in some kind of one-person vehicle. She sighed in frustration as they, yet again, left her in the dust.
"C'mon, Ember! Duty calls!" called out Speedy, jumping on his motorcycle, and then patting the space behind her, before strapping on a helmet that matched his uniform. Smiling, she jumped on behind him, putting on the helmet he lent her, and then wrapping her arms around his waist. "Ready?" he asked her, about to push off.
"Uh huh." she replied quietly, nodding.
"Then let's go!" Pushing off, Speedy put the petal to the metal, the tires screeching on the pavement before suddenly jerking forward.
At the Steel City Mall…
Speedy's motorcycle screeched to the stopped at the nearly destroyed entrance to the Steel City Mall. Ember noted the scene, her gaze wandering towards the rumble, the splintered wood shaft, still burning from the so called explosion. She concentrated on the wreckage, beads of cold sweat running down her face, a flashback clouding her mind of a fiery death…
"Ember?" asked a voice, snapping her out of her trance, realizing she was still on the bike. "Ember?" Speedy asked again, "Are you okay?"
"Eh? Oh yeah, let's go." Ember replied; sweat still sliding down her face. Speedy raised an eye brow before shrugging, running inside the damaged building. She sighed, holding her head waiting for the psychological pain to dissipate.
Meanwhile, BumbleBee, Aqualad, and Mas y Menos were having a heck of a time trying to defeat the fiery menace, HotSpot, who combined forces with an even bigger threat, Slade. The smooth-talking major villain offered HotSpot a seat by his side when he would take over both Steel and Jump City. The greedy little devil such as him, the boy of fire could not resist; his urges for power and wealth were too over-bearing. In other words, he was now an even bigger threat than before.
"Why is HotSpot so hard to defeat?" asked Aqualad, grunting while he was nearly hit by a fireball, sending him into the tiled floor, "He used to be really easy to crush him." He obviously didn't know that Slade was also included in the young villain's wrecking spree.
"He must've trained or something!" BumbleBee shouted, flying at HotSpot head on, dodging all the attacks he made until the last one, which sent her also into the 'dirt'.
"Exactly, my dear." said a voice, coolly, a masculine figure emerging from the shadows.
"Senior Slade!" Slade! shouted Mas, Menos' mouth literally dropped down to their feet.
"Yeah, it's Slade alright… I'd recognize his stench anywhere!" Speedy shouted, sending an arrow, filled with ice at HotSpot, hitting him dead on.
"Good shot, Boy Wonder the second. Now it's my turn!" remarked Ember, with a smirk on her face, sending a blast of flames at Slade's head, her accuracy extremely good.
Slade sneered under his orange and black mask, blocking by just moving his head to the side. "Aw, another fiery child; HotSpot is a wonderful apprentice, maybe you will be too, girl… or should I say, Susannah." he said dryly, staring at the girl, who was completely dumbstruck.
Ember's face paled, before her angered curiosity made her color return. "H-how, do you know my name?" she thought, then yelled it out at Slade, "How do you know my name!"
"Don't act so surprised, my dear Ember, I know everything about you; you, your past, and your future." Slade coolly remarked an invisible sly smile spread across his hidden face.
"No you don't know anything about me, or my past!" She then became silent, before adding softly, "I don't even know about my past…"
Speedy looked at Ember with sincerity, seeing she was nearly close to tears. BumbleBee slowly floated down to the floor slowly walking toward the girl; as did the rest of the team.
"Don't you see I don't have any memories of my past? Not even one! Not any of my childhood, not even my family… I don't even know if I have a family!" Susannah blurted out, tears cascading down her pain-stricken face, sinking down to her knees.
"Ember…" murmured Speedy softly, reaching out for her shoulder. Slade saw this, and then nodded to his apprentice. HotSpot nodded back, before knocking the young hero out of the way with a fire ball.
"Speedy!" she yelled through her tears, rushing up to help him. Before she could even stand, Slade was by her side pinning her in her previous position.
"You cannot escape your past, dear Susannah, it is far too important." Slade whispered cruelly, so that only she could hear. "You have been living all your life in a curse, not remembering any of your childhood memories, for you had amnesia. You probably think you were all alone throughout your life but you weren't. You left a past no one had to struggle through but yourself…"
"No! Stop it!" she yelled, holding her head in pain, shivering. "Stop! Please!"
"…I was there to witness it all. When you discovered your powers, you almost killed yourself and your beloved parents because you were out of control…"
"N-no… P-please stop it…" she whispered, tears streaming down her paler face, beginning to see flashbacks of her horrific past.
Several yards away, Speedy groaned, before he slowly got up with BumbleBee's help. "Wh-what is Slade doing to Ember?" he asked groggily, still dazed from the blow.
"Don't know, but he seems to be manipulating her…" BumbleBee muttered, still assisting Speedy. Aqualad on the other hand, was nervous. The leader noticed this. "Aqualad, get Speedy out of here. Mas, Menos, and I will-" She was cut off by a painful scream.
"Stop!" Ember screamed, but Slade only made his voice louder, still holding her down.
"No. I have to stay… To help Ember…" Speedy murmured, slipping from BumbleBee's grasp, standing on his own raising his bow, an arrow locked in place…
"…And then on your birth date, control was out of your reach, destroyed all you had left…" Slade said louder, his voice influencing her to see memories; the agonizing ones. HotSpot narrowed his eyes at Ember, almost pitying the girl.
"No!" she wailed, sobbing struggling to get away from Slade and her pain.
"…The last things you remember are your mother's screams, your father's prayers, and de-"
Suddenly, the villain stopped talking, releasing his grasp on her, to dodge Speedy arrow. One it hit something solid, it exploded, creating a mass of blinding smoke around them all.
"Another time perhaps…" said Slade coolly, slipping into the shadows, along with HotSpot.
Speedy coughed, his arm covering his mouth. "Ember? Ember where are you?" he called out between coughs, trying to see a few feet in front of him.
The team frantically tried to search for each other, BumbleBee hovering above the cloud of smoke, but still couldn't see hardly anything. "Guys?" she called out, "Are you all okay?"
Mas and Menos whizzed around, bumping unto just about everything that came into their path. Finally after a few minutes, they managed to bump into Aqualad, literally. A large 'crash' was heard, making them lay on the floor 'swirly eyed'.
As the smoke cleared, everyone sighed in relief. Speedy however, spotted Ember's motionless figure, kneeling a few feet away.
"Ember? Ember, speak to me!" he whispered, running over to her, squatting down beside his newly found friend. Her eyes were dark, and she was not moving, tears still falling occasionally.
"I-I r-remember…" she whispered, her voice shaking, before everything went black…
A/N Obviously, this chapter is a lot longer. Please R&R! Also, I will not be updating until I have at least 7 reviews or more.