Unsuspected Heroes
An alternate look at the Prophecies Universe
Preliminary A/N: Due to the fact that I'm sure a number of you are not familiar with the original Prophecies Universe fics, and due to a review I recently got, I thought I'd clear something up. This fic is set not long after the events of the Aftershock episodes…roughly a month afterwards. Contrary to the original two fics, one other episode has occurred by this point: Deception. This puts the time frame as roughly equivalent to X. But you shouldn't assume that any already aired episodes will hold the answers to any of these mysteries. "Prophecies Universe" refers to a separate version of the show that you see here, one that now primarily diverges from Deception. Incidentally, if you wish to join in on this and I judge your writing and story idea worthy, I might just let you write a fully-sanctioned side-story. E-mail me if interested.
A/N the second: Yes, this chapter has in it what I probably write best…combat, and martial arts based to boot. Enjoy.
"What? What?" Raven scowled as Cyborg's highly amused voice came through the earpiece of a T-comm disguised as a cell phone. "Did I just hear that little Raven doesn't have to be picked up because she has a DATE?"
She sighed. It was fortuitous that the 'phone' at least had a speaker and microphone that were like the normal variety. She was in the crowded halls right now, and Cyborg would have blown her cover had the thing worked like the standard variety. "Yes, dad. Your dear little Rachel has a date. I'm not so young…"
By which of course, she meant: Yeah, I'm going on the date with him. This identity's not so new as to not act on a pair of insanely obvious crushes.
"I'm a bit nervous though, dad. What if I can't be everything he wants me to?"
Translation: Azar curse it, why do I have to play the poor guy like this? I'm being the Terra to his Beast Boy.
"I know you're going to seriously entertain ideas of killing me for this…but who says it has to be fake?"
"Dear old daddy…and Miss Common Sense."
"What do ya mean? I think it'd be good for you to date this…oh…right. Sorry Rae. I forgot for a second there." Cyborg paused for a second. "I gotta say, though…you've gotten a lot better at expressing emotion without destructive consequences. Maybe it might be time to take a chance?"
"Maybe…and I suppose you could be right. I've only known him a week…" Let him try and figure out how much of that was camouflage and how much was communication, Raven thought, with not a little bit of amusement. She shut her locker and walked to the back of school, where Ker said that he'd meet her.
Faris's eyes narrowed as he watched his best friend and that new girl…the teleporter…get in Ker's car and drive off. "Kus." He shook his head and snorted angrily as he stood up from the table he had been sitting on. "I can't believe he'd do something so stupid."
"I don't know if it's so stupid, but Ker's done some pretty boneheaded things before," reminded Sarah from behind him. "Why the hell do you hate Rachel so much?"
"She's a meta," grunted Faris, as if that explained it all. When he got no answer from her, he turned to her and elaborated. "A teleporter. I'm sure of it."
Sarah's mouth formed into an 'o', then into a frown. "Rachel…she's not like, well…her."
Faris's face twisted in anger. "Are you so sure?" he asked in a low, angry voice. "You can't really be sure. You're not a telepath. And now Ker's got a crush on her…who's to say that he won't tell her what he knows?"
Sarah's frown deepened. "You're not a telepath either. And she'd have to be one hell of an actor to pull off a performance like the one I've been seeing towards Ker. Besides, Ker gave his word. If nothing else, you should trust Ker to keep his word."
"I would, if he'd just keep his mind in his head and out of his pants!" snarled Faris. The Middle-Eastern blooded boy stalked off, leaving Sarah standing by the table, shaking her head and sighing.
"Personally, I think it's with his heart," she muttered before she made her way to her car.
A skinny girl arched her back like a cat and looked around the temporary base that she and her comrades had set up. Rather unfortunately for her boredom, it was one of the few views that she had seen in over a week. Ever since 'Stone' had turned out to be Cyborg and had destroyed the HIVE's advanced academy, she had been stuck here. In a safehouse. With roughly twenty-four other HIVE students, most of them just barely graduates of the basic academy.
And worse, they were within the confines of Jump City, with all the wonderful opportunities for mayhem and exhilarating fights…and Brother Blood had forbidden them from going out and drawing attention to their hideout. "Oh, that's it. I'm going shopping."
A short, bald-headed boy in a jumpsuit and with goggles over his eyes looked up from where he was welding something. "Do you have snot for brains? The Brother told us not to get this place found! You'll bring the Titans down on us, and the Brother doesn't want that."
She scoffed. "I'm actually going shopping, Gizmo. Hard as it is to believe, I'm actually going to pay for anything I might get."
"Yeah, well you've got a distinctive face," mentioned a tall black girl as her impatient pacing brought her over to the argument. "You'll get recognized, girl."
"Oh, not a chance, Bee" said the skinny girl, with a dismissive wave. "I'm going to go get into some normal clothing." She started to walk off.
"Wait…" said Bumblebee, putting her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder. "I think I could use some shopping time too. Girls' day out?"
Jinx smiled, and there was a bit of a sparkle in her cat-like eyes as she nodded.
"Huh…" mused Ker as he and Rachel stood in the entrance to the mall. "I guess neither of us gets out as much as is expected of us by high school society, neh?" It was fairly obvious that neither of the two of them entered the mall on any regular basis.
Raven turned her head to look at Ker quizzically. "Don't get out as much as expected? Don't you mean as much as we should?"
He quirked a smile. "Let us say that I'm not convinced that society has everything right. Some things, for true it does…but there are many things that it lacks in. But philosophy is not my role at this moment, according to the strictures of society. Instead, I suppose I am to follow the lovely young lady at my side around and provide transport for any purchased items."
Raven smiled. "Well, I'm not really in agreement with society with all of those accepted roles, so I've got a different proposition. How about you provide an interesting companion while we walk through this den of consumer culture and we both enjoy watching these crazy fools?"
Ker chuckled. "Lord, what fools these humans be," he quoted, then grinned. "It's a tall order, but I suppose I could accommodate you on those grounds, Rachel."
"Oh good." The two of them walked off into the mall, wondering where this might lead. They weren't the only ones.
"What do you think, Beth?" asked Jinx as she held up a slinky little number in front of her slender frame. "Is it me?"
Bumble Bee nodded. "Yeah, Jean, I could see you wearing that to the next dance. I just don't know who you'd be taking. Most of the boys in our classes are pretty poor catches." She sighed, then looked out the shop's window. "I want to know why we don't get guys like that," she indicated Ker, who was talking with Raven as they sat on a bench, "in our classes. He's pretty hot. Shame that he goes in for pale skin…you might be able to steal him away from his little girl there, though, Jean." Bee chuckled, then looked over at Jinx. "Jean?"
Jinx was staring straight at 'Rachel'. "No…no way. It couldn't be. There's no way it could be her." Tearing her eyes away from the two teens on the bench, she turned her eyes to Bee. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that girl was Raven of the Titans."
The black girl returned her eyes to the couple, narrowing as she noted the similarities. "Overly pale skin, right height and build, same bone structure in the face…you may be right, Jean…Jean?"
Jinx was already making her way out of the shop. This she HAD to confirm for herself. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that she still held the dress she was thinking about purchasing.
Several things happened in very rapid succession. First, Ker and Raven stood up to go walking a bit more. Second, Jinx exited the store. This caused the ink tag to burst, staining the slinky dress indelibly with a migraine-inducing hue of green. Jinx, startled, reflexively snapped off a quick burst of hex that hit the ground under 'Rachel's' feet, that caused Raven to slip, only to be quickly caught by Ker, inducing a pair of blushes.
It was about then that the shopkeeper connected the pink flashes with the HIVE mercenary and screamed. "It's Jinx! Someone call the Titans!"
The pink-haired girl snarled. "Dammit, I'm blown! Bee, help me out here!" She snapped her gaze over to the tall black girl, who winced. Had the shorter girl not done that, she might've been able to get out of this as an 'innocent bystander'.
No helping it now, realized Bumble Bee, popping her folded wings through specially designed slits in her clothing, and doing the same with her zappers. "Talk about bad luck," she muttered, under her breath.
Meanwhile, Raven had nearly risen on instinct to engage the two HIVE students, but Ker's putting her on her feet and adopting a stance had surprised her. "Ker…what are you doing?"
"Run," he commanded. "I'll do my best to hold them till the professionals get here."
"But they're…" started Raven, seriously thinking about revealing her real identity so this powerless guy didn't get himself killed.
"I know…I guess you could say that I've had some practice at this." Ker got onto the balls of his feet and darted off, leaving Raven to wonder exactly what he meant. She snapped out of it quickly, though, and Rachel ran, her fingers fumbling for her 'cell phone'.
With her cover blown, Jinx didn't think anything of throwing a big wave of pink hex at the stupidly charging teen. She felt a little pang of disappointment in it…it wasn't often that a non-hero would go to such lengths as to engage her in combat, but she simply didn't have the time to toy with him if she was going to get out of there without the Titans coming down on her. Hence the hex wave which would likely end the guy up in the hospital.
She hadn't quite expected him to jump over it and snap a kick into her skull. It was quite a good one too, and had her flying into and through the storefront window. Bumble Bee was more than a little surprised as well, but she had the presence of mind to snap her zappers up and start firing, six packets of electricity flying in at the fool who did admittedly know how to kick.
But Ker wasn't a fool, and kicks weren't even the primary strike of the style that he trained in. A turning step to the side followed by an angled forward dive across the line of fire had all of the shots burning into the mall's walls, and Ker right up next to Bee, on the side that she hadn't expected, if down on his knees.
The black mercenary gritted her teeth in confusion and anger as she swung her right zapper down towards the tanned teen's face. Where had this guy come from, and how the hell did he get that good? It turned out to be a good thing that she had gritted her teeth. It kept her from biting her tongue off as pain lanced through her body and a sickening 'crack' filled the air.
He wasn't on his knees anymore, and his wrists were at her wrist and elbow on opposite sides of the forearm that had been threatening him with a zapper. Of course, that forearm wasn't bent the right way anymore. Ker had shattered her elbow joint by applying sharp, immediate pressure in the wrong direction, and now, as she watched in horror, his hands began what she knew to be a disarming routine.
Doing her best to swallow her scream, she fired the other zapper point-blank into this martial artist, sending him flying, and smoking a bit. Her stolen weapon clattered to the floor out of reach of Ker, but that didn't matter. He hadn't planned on using it, and she couldn't anymore. Grunting, with his hair still jumping from the electric weapon's charge, he pushed himself to his feet, only to be hit in the chest with another wave of hex, this one a much more measured and serious strike, rather than just an outpouring of power.
Breath blasted from his lungs, he smashed back against the ground and went skidding into a storefront.
Raven, still as 'Rachel', having just recently arrived on the scene, gasped in horror. I should have taken them and damn what that would have meant! She hadn't quite noticed the arm that hung at Bumble Bee's side, useless.
AN the final: Well, there you go. Hope you like, and there's more action to come. Review, huh? I like reviews, and they can inspire me to greater speed.