Pieces of the Puzzle

Alexnandru Van Gordon

Victor: Victor here and I'm sorry to say Alex is stuck at the medi-center again. It snowed last night and when he stepped outside he slipped on the hidden ice. Let's just say he took a very unpleasant trip down the long porch steps. If that didn't break his leg, I don't know what will. But I have his story here—and he wanted me to say sorry for not up-dating lately. I didn't know there was a rule for not double-posting a story, so when we wrote our crossover...I kinda did. He couldn't update up until now so don't bash him for my bad.

I can't believe I'm standing up for preacher boy…

Anyway—I have his notebook and I'm going to get started for you guys. He should be back in a couple of hours so you'll hear from him at the end of the chapter. Just remember to say a little pray for him so he doesn't end up killing himself before 2006. I've never seen him so accident prone…

DISCLAIMER: I don't own them; Alex doesn't own them.

CHAPTER NINE: Suspicious behaviour

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Jacob froze in mid-step. Cautiously, he peeked around the corner into the large room and stared at HW who was sitting on a chair by the table. In her hand was a gun.

What the hell was she up to?

Stepping inside he got a better view of the near wall. There was a small circle no larger than a tennis ball created by the bullets—pretty close to a circle anyway. She had fairly good aim with a firearm, having been taught by Jacob and her older brother when they went hunting.

"Might I ask what on earth you're doing?" He asked.

It was then that he noticed Wintergreen sitting at the other end of the table, fixing one of his guns. He was just as confused as Jacob. "Yes…" The older man said. "Why are you shooting at the wall?"

HW turned to face them both, looking even more confused than both of them put together. "What does it look like I'm doing?" She asked.

Jacob's mouth hung opened slightly. "Shooting the wall, perhaps?"

She nodded, coming to a conclusion in her mind. She pointed to the wall. "When you connect the dots, what do you see?"

"A circle?" They answered in unison.

She frowned at them and shook her head. "A hexagon—how can you have a circle without curved lines?"

S-

He heard the gunshots and his pace quickened. It came from the main room where Wintergreen kept all their weapons. Who in their right mind would fire a gun inside a building like this? Does anybody know what the word ricochet means?

He stopped in the doorway when he heard Jacob's question. He watched from the darkness as they asked her their questions and were utterly baffled by her insanity. Slade had questions about her, knowing she was insane from something Jacob said about her earlier. It was a lot worse when she was younger, but pills kept her easy. Until now, that is…

"A hexagon—how can you have a circle without curved lines?"

With Jacob wearing a mask, he could only guess the young man was confused, but the baffled look on Wintergreen's face showed utter bafflement. The look had been even weirder the first time Wintergreen saw the girl enter their hideout and not attempt to kill him. She was an odd one…

"Your point?" Jacob asked, still staring at the circle—hexagon.

She shrugged. "If I added another six bullets to the hexagon, what would it be then?"

"Something other than a circle?"

"Yes—and if I added even more until all the dots were touching?"

Wintergreen shook his head slowly. "Then you would get a circle?"

She gave him the weirdest look of all and shook her head with yet another frown, staring at him as though he was the craziest person alive. "No! It would be some sort of lumpy oval."

"…Your point?"

"You can't change something to make it perfect. What you've done in the past is always going to have a major impact on the future. I would have to have the world's best aim to make a perfect hexagon with my first six bullets."

Interesting. She was lecturing them.

"And why are you telling us this?"

She seemed to ignore them before standing in front of her brother and said. "Do you think I could ever kill another human being?"

"You're crazy."

"I agree." She said apathetically and took aim before pulling the trigger.

Jacob jumped back quiet a distance and Wintergreen stood in instant.

Click…Click. Click. Click…

She gave her cousin a questioning glare. "What's wrong? I can't shoot you without any bullets."

Slade remained still like always. Unlike the two sane people in the room, it wouldn't have bothered him if she shot Jacob or not. The kid was good at his job, but death was inevitable. It would have been interesting to see if the girl was truly able to kill. Her insanity was something entertaining to watch.

He stepped inside and prevented any arguments from beginning. Walking up to HW, he took the gun from her hand and tossed it onto the table. She stared at it for a long time as it slid down to Wintergreen before looking at Slade.

"Something wrong?" She asked plainly.

"I have a job for you." He replied and walked over to her abandoned seat, sitting down with his arms crossed. "Do you know what happened to my three humanoid monsters?"

She nodded. "They were taken to a more secure prison in Gotham after escaping numerous times form the one in Jump City. You want them back?"

"One by one, yes." He reached into one of his belt pouches and tossed a disk over to her. "Look familiar?"

She gave it a good long stare before nodding. "Overload—right? This is a key to his prison cell?"

"Yes." He said, glad she was understanding thing so far. "Now, I know you are only here as long as your cousin is, but I'm in no mood for betrayers. Call this a test if you will—one that will cost either you or several other people their lives."

She stared at the disk again, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "You want me to release him?"

"Half of him is already here." Slade explained. "From what I heard, you absorbed almost all of him. All I need you to do is retrieve his disk, shock him back to life, and sic him on down town Gotham. Understand?"

"Perfectly." She said, pocketing the disk in one of the compartments on her belt. "But it's going to be painful. I don't have much control over my powers and I could either kill myself or absolutely destroy your little henchman. You really want to risk it?"

He smiled behind his mask. "The question is—do you really want to risk it?"

She muttered something under her breath and spun around toward the hallway. The building was a maze, but she knew her way out.

"And remember—" Slade added before she left the room. "I'll be watching, little witch."

"Little witch…" He heard her growl and then she was gone. It would be a test, and also a small attempt to see how crazy she truly was.

C-

The moment he could walk again he was practically doing the type of back flips he saw Robin do. Boy…they weren't easy. He was lucky he didn't land on his head.

Now that he could move and fight, he pulled out his communicator and called up whoever was awake…Beast Boy didn't answer—that was understandable…Raven didn't answer—that too was understandable…and Robin wasn't answering. What was his excuse? Well, he could be asleep, but the kid was something of an insomniac. Robin barely slept, and barely ate for that matter.

He grew impatient, but the moment he was about to hang up—

"Friend Cyborg, you are well!"

He blinked and then grinned. Thank God someone was working and thank goodness she wasn't in a sad mood. At least he knew things should be okay…

"Where are you guys? Robin won't answer."

She bit her lower lip and rubbed the back of her head. If he didn't know any better he would have said she was sitting in a tree.

"Robin is currently under surveillance within Slade's hideout. I doubt he has his communicator on him."

"WHAT!"

How could this happen—again! Once was a little creepy, twice was getting annoying, and thrice was just a thorn in the side. But a fourth time? It was so frustrating he wanted to tear out his hair…if he had any. Would Slade ever give up? Sure, he kept catching Robin—but wasn't losing him every time enough to tell him that he wasn't going to get Robin?

"Are you there to save him?" He asked, hoping Starfire had a plan.

"HW and I are here. She is with the enemy but not exactly with them. She is working on the inside and will inform me of the next stage to our plan the moment she deems the time right."

If Raven was here she would burst an artery. Raven didn't trust new heroes and she certainly didn't like the sounds of HW when they heard she was accused of stealing Slade's piece at the Titans Easy HQ. But Cyborg was different. He heard from Robin that HW was a trustworthy person.

"Fine—but you better keep in contact with me. Tell me where you are."

"We are presently on the edge of the city of Gotham. But you are still not well, Cyborg. I do not believe it is wise for you to fight just yet."

He grinned. "I'm not coming alone, Star. I have a friend to call up."

"Very well, but do not overexert yourself."

"Oh—I won't."

He shut off his communicator and pushed a couple of button on his left arm. After a moment, the screen changed to show someone else.

"Grayson here."

G-

He had to be kidding. Again? That sounded like Slade alright. Trust him to bring himself together…literally. He was just lucky no one in his dimension tried to piece Slade back together again. That would be an utter disaster.

"Do you know who Wintergreen is?"

Cyborg paused on the screen. "Ummm…Sorry—I can't say that I do. I might have, but I don't know right now."

"Kill him."

"Excuse me!"

"Trust me—he's a pain in side. If you don't get rid of him while Slade is still weak, you'll have one hell of a rumble on your hands."

"Dude—I don't do the whole murder thing."

He rubbed his temples in irritation. He just wasn't getting through to this guy.

"Then get someone else to! If you free Robin I'm sure you can talk him into it."

"Yeah…but he doesn't know we hear him shout out in his sleep. I came into his room one night with Starfire and he was spitting up blood. We were gonna wake him—but he kinda shot up in bed and didn't notice us in the corner of his room. Luckily he falls back to sleep quickly…"

"Then I'll do it." He sighed. He wouldn't have much time in their dimension, but at least he could try his best. "If no one else there is willing to do it, then I'll go and kill gramps."

"But why is he so dangerous?"

"The guy knew Slade back when they were in the army. Slade saved him—yadda, yadda. To make a long story short, Wintergreen is just about Slade's only trustworthy friend. Just watch out. He doesn't fight like an old man."

"I suppose he was the guy that broke into our tower."

"Yeah…sounds like him. I honestly don't know how people can become so psychotic…"

"And what about your world? What about Wintergreen and Slade…and Raven and HW."

"Wintergreen is dead-dead; you already know Slade is chopped up in my world; Raven never fell into a coma; and HW…is insane. I don't know where she is, but I think she moved back to Canada to clear up the crime there."

"Oh…"

"But don't worry, kid, I'll help you out. Raven's a tough bird and HW isn't the villain type." He said reassuredly. He really didn't know if he could do much of anything, and now he was worried about Raven. She was a good friend, even if she was a little gloomy. And HW—she was insane, but she came up with pretty good ideas. The Four remaining Titans found her when all hero groups joined as one to fight against Slade. Robin was still under his control then, but he knew who HW was through secret communicator with his friends.

As long as she…

"Cyborg—does HW keep any pills with her?"

Cyborg looked confused for a moment, but thought hard. "Don't know...At least I don't think she does. Why would she?"

Grayson started to clench and unclench his fists—a bad habit he picked up from none other than Slade. "You might want to find out. She has a mental disease that…Well, let's just say she's looking for the purpose of life by relating to other things."

"Why would we have to worry about that? A lot of people try to find the purpose of their life."

"Because Death is connected to Life—she questions Life."

"So what—" Cyborg stopped himself and slowly nodded. "I see. So she's the type who would hold the end of a gun to your head and ask why or why not she should kill you just to find her answer. And if she didn't get what she was hoping for, she'd continue asking other people in that fashion until she was no longer confused. Am I right?"

"Precisely."

"Anything else I should know about her."

"No…but I want you to call her home back in Canada and ask for the prescription from her family. That's what you did in my dimension when you found out what she did every night she went out on her own."

"Did we—in your dimension—arrest her?"

"You locked her up for a short while until she was okay again, but you needed the extra help, so she was only held for a couple of months."

Grayson thought back on that. Yeah…that was right. And if they got her medication sooner, they could probably prevent the whole thing from happening. As long as Slade didn't ask her to kill anybody or destroy any buildings, HW would be alright.

"Do you have her number?"

"Oh—yeah." Grayson put the communicator down on his workbench and ran to his desk, looking through the files. Once he found it, he read it off to Cyborg.

"And Cy…"

"Yeah?"

"For the love of God—please hurry. I'll see you in Gotham the moment I tell the others what I'm up to. I might even bring some help."

"Sure thing, Robin."

Robin…an old name. He wondered how the young hero was holding out…

A and V-

Alex: I'm back…and I have a brace on my leg. It's removable, but it makes it harder for me to move up and down the basement stairs. My poor, already injuredleg…

Victor: (Laughing) I can't believe your luck!

Alex: Shut up! (To readers:) I'm glad to hear Victor took the blame for his mistake about the double-posting issue. That was a pain in the neck.

Victor: Yes. I apologize again.

Alex: Anyhow—I have something interesting planned so I had to put HW in the spotlight for this chapter. Trouble is at hand. Also—I was thinking about it and I might have Grayson bring a friend along from his dimension to even out the teams when I split all the good guys up. I'm listening to requests—so that means this is your chance to make a major impact on my story. Tell me who you want and why, and I just might take your suggestion. I'll only add one person, though, and that's only if things work out—so let's see who the winner will be!

Victor: Besides that-so long people! Have a nice day…or—like Alex and me right now—night!

Alex: Vale amici! (In Latin that means: Farewell, friends!)

Until next time,

Alexnandru Van Gordon

and,

Victor Van Heiring