Well I'm finally back. I've been inspired to write again and so hunted around for some inspiration for the next chapter. I found it whilst listening to Korn and typed it up in about four hours on New Years Eve. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or any related material in this fanfic.
Also if you want to know, I updated my profile page with more stuff (including rants). Why you're reading this I do not know.
Jump City-1:49 am-14th November-Jump City Central Hospital Roof
A flash of thunder illuminated a black clad figure standing on the roof of the hospital. A moment later the figure was again concealed in a blanket of darkness, sheltered from prying eyes. Another flash a minute later revealed the figure to be a man. A man with green skin.
Gar Logan stood on the roof, a stony expression set on his face. Gazing into nothingness, the changeling stood stock still as raindrops pitter-pattered on his jacket. The rain gave little discomfort compared to what he had endured over the years. Raindrops splashed on his face yet the man did not wince, not even when a drop landed within a hair's breadth of his eye. Despite the seemingly endless roar of water crashing down on the rooftop, the sharp-eared changeling heard the approach of his enemy.
"Why are you here, kid?" a tinny voice uttered.
Gar wheeled to face the speaker and didn't even flinch at a sight that would cause a heart attack in an elderly man. A skull-faced figure stood a few metres behind the former Titan; a cape hid all but the head as the figure stood as still as Gar had been previously. The rogue changeling regarded his opponent with curiosity, wondering why he had dared to confront the man he was to defeat. Surely Slade did not give out the order to have his renegade apprentice killed so soon after Shimmer's defeat. Gar couldn't be too sure of his foe's intentions until the cape was swept aside and the thief's body language revealed.
"I could ask the same of you, X," droned Gar. Gar's expression and body language never once changed in the slightest.
The man known as 'X' observed his opponent for a moment before taking a step forward and pushing his cape to the side. Gar's eyes narrowed but the changeling deemed the thief's purpose was not to cause trouble.
"I'm merely here to ask you what you're doing standing on top of the hospital gazing out at the city," Red X paused a moment before continuing, "or are you here to merely enjoy the sight of the city you once almost sold out to Slade."
The former Titan snorted, "Like you're one to talk."
"Oh, but I am," X retorted. "I'm merely helping Slade to take care of you, not to conquer the city or destroy the Titans." X appeared to be smug, seeming to be happy that he was a better person than the former hero, Beast Boy.
"That's exactly why you're dragging the Titans into this mess," Gar shot back sarcastically. "You're not going to destroy the Titans by dragging into a battle between Slade; the Titans greatest enemy might I add, and his former apprentice, the former superhero, Beast Boy, who betrayed the Titans to foresaid nemesis." The former superhero sneered at the man opposite him.
"You still wish you were part of that team don't you. If so, then why did you betray them? Why did you sell them out to their archenemy? Your archenemy? Even better is the fact that you then betrayed said archenemy. It's as they say, 'never trust a betrayer'."
Gar's features settled into a glare but no other muscles shifted even the slightest. X noticed the effect his words had had on the changeling and smirked, not that his enemy could notice.
"So you want to know why I did it, do you?" questioned Gar, X nodded. "Why should I tell you? No, don't answer that. Instead I'll have you answer a question of my own. Answer that and I'll answer yours.
"Why are you helping Slade? When we first face off against you, you said you were merely a thief. Why, now, do you aid a madman bent on conquering the city?"
X took a deep wheezy breath and replied, "For the money. I told you that I was only looking out for Number One," X jabbed a thumb into his own chest at this. "Slade offered plenty of money in return for my services, I would be a fool not to help him. I could have fun, get some moolah and then, 'cause Slade took all the blame, get off scot-free.
"But I'm betting you also wanna know why I'm helping him take you down?" Gar nodded in response. "It's because of what you did, are doing, to Jinx."
At this Gar raised an eyebrow. 'Red X and Jinx! Interesting.' The changeling shoved the thoughts away and refocused on the person giving the monologue.
"Giving her ideas of being a superhero. Pulling into your battle. You have no right to pull her into you little feud. If Slade finds out she's being a superhero he'll -"
Gar quickly cut in, "First of all, X, she came to me, I never asked her to help me, she made the offer. Also, she's the one entering my battle; I'm not pulling her in. I've tried to talk her out of it but her heart's set on it and believe me it has nothing to do with me!" Gar raised his voice a little in the last sentence but quickly willed himself to calm down. "Besides, what's your relationship with her?"
"That's two questions, greenie. That means two answers," X spouted off before answering the question. "My relationship with her, you ask? Simple. We were good friends. Really good friends. She said she wanted to get away from those dunderheads she used to work with, saying they were too unprofessional and attracted too much attention. 'Course, she didn't know I was working with Slade." X's voice grew sullen at the last sentence and Gar realised that X hadn't always enjoyed working with Slade.
"One night, I went off to do a job. I was to steal something and replace it with a replica, so no one would think anything's amiss. That's what I thought at least. I'd told Jinx where I'd headed and so when I woke up in the morning and found Jinx staring slack-jawed at the TV, I was in big trouble." Gar had a feeling he knew what had happened.
"I took one look at the TV and put it all together. The replica wasn't some cheap copy. It was a bomb, a very powerful one at that. Killed eleven people. Needless to say, Jinx wasn't very happy with me, then again, neither was I for that matter. She stormed out, slapped as she left. Didn't see her again until last night when she saved you from your Titan 'buddies'." Yep, spot on, big bad bomb blows up building, Jinx storms out and poor Red X is left with no one but Slade to look to. X was merely another pawn in the game.
"Well, I guess it's my turn to talk. I'll give you two reasons why I betrayed the Titans." Gar began but X quickly cut in.
"Two reasons! It was two questions not two reasons!" X was miffed. He was so close to figuring it all out and the green guy wouldn't tell him everything!
"Hey you gave me two reasons for helping Slade; your selfishness and your relationship with Jinx so I'll give you two reasons, don't worry they're two out of three of the main reasons." X looked a little bit happier but was still unhappy.
Gar sighed before beginning his own monologue, "When I was a Titan I was essentially the outsider, the freak, the one everyone makes fun of. The public didn't respect me or even like me, the team tolerated me and called me their friend but I never got very close to any of them except for Cyborg and Raven, well as close as one could get to Raven.
"The people of the city, quite a few of whom I had saved the lives of insulted me, slandered me and poked fun at me. I was called a freak, a joke, a disgrace, a waste of space and a dozen other more unwholesome things. It really doesn't help your self-esteem when you can hear every comment made behind your back – even when it's from across the street. That wasn't what really worried me; it was the fact that whilst everyone else in the team had a kind of 'group' they fit in with, I had nobody. Nobody was grateful when I saved their life, no one cared that I risked my life to save their children when they were too afraid or lazy to do it themselves.
"The worst of it was when a saved a little toddlers life. I was the only one who could do it, Star and Raven were inside the building and Robin was on the ground with his grapple away when the kid fell. I heard the cry and instantly went to the rescue. I brought the little guy to the ground and people began to come over. The little guy opened his eyes, saw my face… and screamed. It hurt, in more ways than one. Starfire coddled the child whilst Raven and Cyborg cleaned up. Robin told me not to pull a stunt like that again; he then proceeded to congratulate everyone on a job well done. Everyone but me, of course.
"He then put me on a new training program. I did double the amount of training as anyone else. I had virtually no leisure time. It gets even worse. The media had jumped all over the incident, calling me a 'little monster that frightens children' or even better a 'cradle robber that masquerades as a teenage superhero'. I could have every one of them sued for slander; Robin merely said that I 'got what I deserved'. To be honest, I still don't know what his beef with me was. That was easily one of the worst weeks of my life.
"That's the first reason which leads on to the second reason." Gar continued his monologue. X seemed surprised at how the famous Boy Wonder could be such a jerk to people he called friends. Gar only hoped Robin, now Nightwing, had evolved into a better person over the years.
"With the extra training and Robin on my case 24-7, I'm surprised that I didn't snap earlier. Cyborg and Raven had figured out that something was up and that Robin wasn't doing a single thing about it so they took matters into their own hands. They told Starfire that I had been behaving unhappily lately. That was where everything started to go downhill at roller coaster speeds.
"Starfire tried to cheer me up with all sorts of crazy methods. I had just finished a doubly hard training run so was not in the mood for her 'antics'. By the time I reached my room, I was ready to explode."
"And explode you did I take it," Red X added in. He had been strangely silent the whole time and when he spoke, it was very soft even with the voice modulator.
"You got that right. I basically tore her apart. I threw every possible insult, jibe and nasty comment I had ever thought right at her in one tirade. Needless to say she ran off bawling her eyes out. Robin charged into my room half a minute later looking like he was facing Slade rather than puny little Beast Boy.
"The others appeared at my door looking quite angry. Robin was yelling his head off but it wasn't until he shoved me against the wall that I fought back. I threw everything he had thrown at me the past fortnight right back in his face. The others found out about his extra training for me, the crap he put me through and the lies he told. He was standing there stunned when I punched him. I broke his nose. I then smashed through the window and flew off.
"I found out when I returned that the other's (minus Robin) were able to forgive me, saying that I was under a lot of stress. My friendship with Starfire however was all but crushed. Robin was pissed off at me. Raven was unsure about me and so kept aloof. Cyborg tried to be there for me but was suffering from doubts of his own.
"That's those two reasons. I believe we're even now." Gar finished.
X nodded but still had one more question, "Why me?" Gar cocked an eyebrow at the strange question and X reworded the question, "Why do you tell me all these things? Why do you tell your opponent personal details about your life?"
Gar closed his eyes and raised his head towards the stars before uttering, "I just… needed to get this off my chest. I needed to tell someone what I felt and what had happened to cause me to betray me ideals. Heh, you might not be the best person to talk to about that but you're only one who'll listen. You're not all bad."
X nodded and the two adversaries fell into silence that was broken only by the roar of rain.
Jinx crept through the hospital hallways, quiet as a mouse. She had slipped past the front desk by using her powers to blow up a vending machine. The havoc that ensued gave the pink-haired girl more than enough time to slip away unnoticed. She'd even managed to locate the room that her target was staying in. Now, all she had to do was reach her target without getting caught.
Jinx hid inside a closet as a nurse passed by before walking up to the door. She tried to open it. Locked. 'Guess it just needs a little help,' Jinx thought to herself with a grin. She put her finger to the lock and let loose a small burst of pink magic. The door sprung open without a creak and Jinx strolled inside.
Most of the room was uninteresting, what caught Jinx's eye was the hospital bed that held a young woman. Jinx slunk right up to the bed with nary a sound. She made sure to hide her face in the darkness so all her attacker would see would be her black-clad figure. Jinx reached out with her arm and clamped a hand over the woman's mouth. The woman was awake in an instant and struggling.
"Hello, Shimmer," Jinx hissed, doing everything she could to make her voice more intimidating. The trick seemed to work as Shimmer instantly stopped struggling and instead stared at Jinx's shadowed face with wide eyes.
"I'm here to warn you. You failed, Shimmer. We don't like failure." Jinx continued to hiss in a soft voice. Shimmer began to shake. "Don't worry, I'm not going to do the deed. That will happen later. I'm just here to warn you, like I said."
"So, consider yourself… warned," Jinx finished and stepped back releasing the frightened woman. Shimmer continued to stare at where Jinx was standing. Jinx grinned and her eyes lit up with a pink glow causing Shimmer to give a little squeak. Two blasts of pink magic later and Shimmer was in a collapsed heap with her bed on top of her.
"We won't meet again," Jinx said in her normal voice before crashing through the window and making her exit.
Red X started when he heard a shriek from down below, "What the hell is going on?" The thief started for the edge but stopped once he put two and two together.
"Get the hell back here!" X yelled at the sprinting changeling before chasing after him. Red X hurled one of his X blades at the retreating man but Gar dropped into a roll. Unfortunately, this allowed X to catch up and tackle him. The two rolled before Gar turned into a snake and slithered away. Red X shot a gooey X (the type that acts like bubblegum on impact) at the reptilian changeling but Gar turned into a hawk and began to fly away.
"Oh, no you don't," X growled as he began to chase. Loosing a sticky X (the type that wraps people up), X managed to attach one of Gar's wings to him body, causing him to spiral out of control. X quickly sprinted to the roof edge and leapt after the falling bird.
Gar returned to his human form before hitting the roof of the below building, falling into a roll. He growled as he realised that he couldn't use his left arm. He heard a sound and spun but was greeted by two feet to the chest and was sent crashing to the ground. He rolled to the side as two blades crashed into the spot where he was a moment before. Gar quickly jumped up and back as X came at him with his wrist blades.
X took a few swings at his foe before spin-kicking Gar to the ground. He shot another sticky blast at the changeling but it was shredded by a grizzly bear's claw. Gar used his extra strength to break free of his restraint and attempted to block X. When the thief overbalanced, Gar took the opportunity by turning into a gorilla and launching X across the rooftop.
As Red X flew through the air he shot a red line from his hand that wrapped around Gar's torso. The changeling was vaulted into the air after X and crashed into the ground just in front of his foe. X retracted his line and shot a goo blast at the changeling but Gar flipped himself back onto his feet just in time. The former Titan then launched himself at X in the form of a tiger but was blasted backwards by an energy blast.
Gar spun on the ground and tried to kick the feet out from under X. The thief flipped over Gar before spinning around and swinging a blade at his foe. The green man deflected the attack with a bear claw before turning into a donkey and kicking X. The super-suited man was sent tumbling backwards as Gar tried to make his escape. Red X then shot his line at Gar and then retracted it. The rogue changeling was sent flying towards X but managed to turn into a bull before impact.
The two fighters were sent flying off the rooftop. Gar quickly turned into pterodactyl and tried to fly away but was stopped by extra weight on his right leg. Looking down, Gar saw that X had grabbed the changeling's leg in order to arrest his fall. As Gar tried to shake X loose, the thief grabbed Gar's other leg.
"Well, would you look at that," X suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a green dot that was gradually getting bigger. "Looks like somebody noticed us and now your little 'friends' are coming to solve the problem."
Gar replied by turning into an elephant.
"Holy crap! You trying to kill me!" X yelled. The thief then shot his red line at a nearby wall and retracted. He barely managed to escape being crushed to death as he soared towards the wall. X gripped the wall and shot a goo blast at the changeling. Gar was hit directly and trapped in his normal form.
"Say hello to your 'friends' for me will ya'," X called cheerily before making his exit.
I finally get to have a proper cliffie. Yay!
Okay, so you can expect the next chapter in a few days (hopefully). I've already got it planned out but don't expect any more updates for a while. I'm strapped for ideas on this story and am currently working on my other story, 'Inverse Titans'.
So what did you think of the chapter? Too much talking? Well tell me what you think in a review if you read the chapter, don't be afraid to point out problems in my story. I'll appreciate any help you guys give me.