1Chapter Ten: Descent Into Darkness
The dull sound of his boots meeting cold pavement echoed up and down the deserted streets of Jump City; Few dared brave the night on these streets. Jump was a boom-town of the modern era, however like the same towns of old it attracted every sort of brigand, vagabond, and outlaw. Only these brigands, vagabonds, and outlaws had powers beyond that of any normal person, hence the term 'super'-villain.
Every few steps, there was the 'clack' of a cane also hitting the ground. Not that he particularly needed a cane per' say, but it served the purpose he had for it well. It was long, and solid black all the way up, ending in what could only be an obsidian orb. A hand covered in a black glove held it casually, fingers looking as if they were about to let go at any moment. The glove melted into the dark jacket of his suit, which in turn melted into the black depths of the cloak that adorned his shoulders, billowing behind him slightly. The tall shape of his top-hat only served to enhance the visage of timelessness, of stepping from a painting of old into this new future.
This was only broken by the large, perfectly circular glasses that hid his eyes. Glasses of perfect midnight, as black as the obsidian on his cane. In fact, the lenses could have very well been obsidian for all anyone knew. The only color about him was the pale ghostlike skin of his face, which practically screamed the signs of aristocracy.
Meanwhile, slightly down the street a fierce argument could be heard, a female and male voice accompanied by a loud crash every so often. The two were so engrossed in their quarrel they didn't notice their small daughter slip out of their first floor apartment and into an alley. She hid by the entrance to the street, behind several trash cans crying, wishing that her parents would stop yelling.
She had done this many times, increasingly so as the days went on. Sometimes they would stop fighting and she could sneak back inside and enter a restless state of sleep. Others they would continue far into the night, and she would fall asleep there unable to wait any longer. Luckily no one had found her asleep in her hiding spot, except for the garbage man that had come by once. He was a good, honest man; Another bit of luck on her part. Only he knew of her hiding spot, and that was the way she wanted it to stay.
Needless to say, it came as quite a shock when suddenly a shadow blocked out the dim glow of the street-light that provided a little illumination from down the way. She looked up, unsure who she was going to see. And there was the man, leaning a bit on his cane, looking like a guy out of a movie that she had seen on tv once. The bad guy from a movie she had seen on tv once.
Inhaling to scream, he quickly crouched down and pressed a finger to her lips, signaling her to be quiet. She obeyed; more out of fear than anything. He put two fingers under her chin, and slowly turned her face to the side to reveal a large bruise on her neck. She cringed in pain at the movement, "The nice garbage man comes in the morning doesn't he?"
Her eyes shot wide open, mouth dropping in shock as she backed away from him in terror, "H-h-how d-d-"
"Doesn't he?"
"Y-y-y-yes..."
"Then wait for him here. Show him the mark on your neck and tell him where you got it. Ask him to take you to the place he told you about, then do the same thing for them." He stood up, lost in his own trance, "My parents fought a lot too..."
After that, he was gone like the phantom he was. She dried her tears as best she could, deciding to follow the man's advice. He seemed nice, he hadn't hurt her really. She loved her mommy and daddy a whole lot, but she couldn't take any more arguing or hitting... When she looked to thank the man, he had dissapeared completely. Which started making her have second thoughts. Up and down the street she looked, even scanning the roof tops. Where had he gone?
She didn't think to look straight up, where stood on the building beside the one she lived in. Looking down into the alley, the blank pools of his glasses hid any emotion that his eyes would have otherwise betrayed. If there would be any emotion at all, there probably wouldn't be. The only reason that he had bothered stopping at all was he could draw too many parallels to Lindsey, that was the girl's name, and himself. Far too many...
He thought no more about it then, moving on from rooftop to rooftop with the same slow strides, punctuated by the occasional leap. The brighter lit buildings of downtown Jump City twinkled a mile or two away. A cold wind blew from the land towards the bay, stronger at the height he was on than at ground level because of the lack of resistance up there. His gaze slowly panned from the tall buildings of Downtown to the bay, and the tower that shot upwards from it's island home.
The sudden interruption in scenery made him frown, "Such exquisite beauty, disturbed by another of man's creations. Here, in this city by the sea, beauty marred by a giant 'T'. It's just your style really; no respect for natural order. Speaking of which, where are you... Where are you, 'old friend?'"
Lifting his cane upward, he placed the orb between him and the city. His eyes focused and re-focused upon it, and slowly it seemed to grow. It filled his vision till it was all darkness, all shadow. Voices, so many voices... Some crying, some laughing, some filled with love, others filled with hate, and more than a few were filled with terror. So much, blending, mixing, and swirling he was for a moment overwhelmed, but still he persevered...
Then, so faint amongst the voices, he heard it. Exactly what he had been looking for, it surprised him that it had not taken longer, "...Come on Curly, I'm not going to wait forever!"
He smirked, slowly coming back to reality. He could practically see the alley, hear the loud drum of techno-music from the dance club across the street, smell the perfume that the girl wore. His eyes were fixed to that spot. His smirk widened as he said, "There you are."
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Jinx's hair was down, coming from a ponytail that stuck out the back of the baseball cap that rested on her head. She had considered trying to dye it, but decided it a wasted effort. She checked her watch again, he had two minutes before she was gone. Her neck was already on the line, where was he?
Little did she realize he had been watching her for five minutes, debating the possibility of a trap. She wouldn't, couldn't recognize him. Well, it was possible, but highly unlikely. He decided to test it and approached slowly. He masked his voice as much as he could when he asked her, "Hey there, what do ya' say you come out of that alley and join me for a drink or two at the club?"
Her pinks eyes darted to him, glancing over him unimpressed. His hair was a bit too long for her tastes, and the long black coat thing was done WAY too much. That, mixed with his baggy cargo pants and long shirt he looked like a surfer who couldn't decide whether he wanted to become gothic or gangster.
"Back off, before I beat the-"
"I rate my disguise a bit higher than yours, Jenny."
Her eyes widened, as she glanced over him again, "Curly?"
"Ya."
"What in the..."
He pulled out a bottle from his coat, something that looked like hair-spray, "Two seconds of this and I can kiss my curls goodbye. Speaking of which, I need a haircut," He said, pulling one of the strands in front of his face with a frown, "It's hard to tell how long your hair is when it's all twisted like mine normally is."
She nodded slowly, "Probably wearing contacts and you just changed coats."
"Pretty much."
"Did you come alone?"
He spread his arms wide, looking around, "Please, who would I bring?"
"...Good, follow me."
"Excuse the hesitation, but why would I willingly follow a known criminal into a dark alley?"
"Do you want my help or not?"
He feigned thinking about it, before following her, making an obvious move to the inside of his coat where he still carried innumerable weapons and devices. He didn't care how much bad luck she could give him; Even back luck failed after so many bullets. Besides, there was still the possibility that this was going to be legit.
"I thought you're supposed to stay with a group on a first date."
"Don't make me hurt you."
She glanced around as they came to a dead end after a minute or so of walking. Then she placed a hand on a seemingly normal wall, where a scanner read her fingerprints and caused a hidden door to swing open. Jinx hurried him in, before glancing around again and closing the door behind her.
They were in what could only be described as a mix between a bomb shelter and a broom closet. The walls were solid concrete, probably reinforced too, with supplies and weapons stocked up as if they expected to fight a war. Oh wait, they probably were sometime soon...
Jinx seemed nervous, which was uncharacteristic of her. But she was about to help someone take down a criminal that had brought Red X into hysterics by the mere mention of his name. That was cause for caution, "So, why do you want to take down Slade?"
"I'm no saint. He has something, I want it back."
"That simple huh?"
"Ya."
"...You have no idea what you're getting yourself into. You're good, there's no doubting that. I've seen what you can do, and I saw what you did to Gizmo back when we were in school... But you can't beat Slade."
"This is really starting to get old." He said, pointing a finger at her angrily, "I'll be darned if I get spooked by a ghost that hasn't even shown his face to me yet. It's been a long time since you've seen what I can do. Trust me, I'm better than anyone dreams. I fool around because I'm good enough to be able to. Now let me deal with our pal Slade and tell me where he is."
"I don't know."
"Gee, thanks for wasting my night."
"Hey, I don't 'know'. I have a hunch... There is a place he might be. Me and the H.I.V.E. have scouted around it already. Something is there. And Gizmo says that it's powerful, but unstable."
Curly thought about this, then nodded, "That's probably it. Where?"
She told him, and even though there was no way anyone could hear she whispered it to him. Then stepped back, biting her lip, "I'm going to regret helping you."
"No you won't. You want something, I can see it. What?"
"I wasn't kidding when I said we've been having second thoughts about where our loyalties lie. We're tired of being on the losing team. I know me and Mammoth want out, Gizmo is wavering. I can't speak for any of the others. I'm guessing you guys had something to do with X dropping off the map?"
"...Yes, and that's all I'm going to say. But trust me, you probably don't want to be shipped out with him. I'll take thisto bird boy. I'm sure there is something we can do. But you better not be lying to me, ya'hear?"
Jinx blinked, surprised by the sudden slang. His accent had changed drastically for no apparent reason. He exited the room, straightening his jacket a bit. However, she remained there to face whatever fate had in store if she and Curly had been followed. After a while though, she sighed and left, pulling the cap further over her eyes. Maybe she should've dyed her hair...
Curly debated his options, the spray already wearing off, hair returning to it's usual state. He could go back and tell the others about this info and probably take it up tomorrow, or he could do it himself and settle it tonight. The only problem was, if this guy was as good as everyone seemed to think he was, it would be one heck of a fight that he might not win. That didn't particularly appeal to him.
But then, not much was appealing to him lately. And option two left out the variable of the Titans interfering and/or screwing up. The only thing that could go wrong is if he lost. And if he started to lose, he wasn't so prideful as to not run away. Well then, he was going to pay Slade a little visit...
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The building did indeed house some sort of hideout. And the hideout housed some kind of labyrinth that Curly had to figure his way through, bypassing the security systems at every turn. It wasn't particularly difficult, but there was some nagging feeling of wrongness in the back of his head that wouldn't go away. He shook it off though; nerves weren't going to stop him.
How long had he wandered these dark hallways? He didn't know. He could've checked, but saw little point. This place was something, but if it was one thing it most certainly was deserted. Jinx was probably lying to him... or maybe she was...
He whirled, hearing what he thought was the swish of a cape, a sound he'd grown to know from being around Raven and Robin. He didn't even know he had a gun in his hand, it had been purely instinctual. Ok, that wasn't his nerves...
"Go..."
He blinked, trying to figure out where that voice had come from. That hadn't been something he'd thought... was it? Whatever it was, it sounded more sure than he did, so he dashed down the hall completely uncaring of any detection systems he might be tripping. He no longer cared. There was something following him, or watching him, or something that was freaking him out and he was going to get away from it if it was the last thing he-
"You!"
Curly slid to a halt in a square shaped, arena like room devoid of any furniture or crates. Across from him on the other side of the room, stood another figure. He was shorter than Curly by a bit, but looked slightly bigger. His green eyes were wide with shock, under his brown bowl-cut hair. That hair cut that had earned him the nick-name...
"Souphead?"
"...Hello Curly..."
The two regarded each other, their shock slowly condensing into anger. The deep anger that only hatred could bring, as they entered the room circling one another with even steps. Curly was the first one to speak, "I see you still have that same stupid haircut."
"I could say the same for you."
"It figures that you're in with this Slade guy."
"Oh? I'm not the one wandering around this place as if I owned it."
"Then what are you doing here?" Curly shot back.
"I got a call, saying that you were in Jump City, and that you were trashing the place trying to find something, or someone. A rival, a bomb, or whatever it is, I don't want to know. All I know, is that I don't want you to have it for whatever it is you want to use it for."
"Bull. If you watched the news, you'd realize I'm with the GOOD GUYS in this town."
"Well gee, that's a first."
"Well, while we're on the subject..." He began, stopping all movement, "How about you? Come on, you know what I'm talking about. Why did you sell us out Aaron?"
Aaron glared, getting into an attack position, "No one else is here for to confuse with you're lies you backstabbing son of a-"
A gunshot, followed by a ricochet as the bullet went wide. Before this could register in his brain though, Aaron was already coming, hands grasping something behind his back. Curly barely had time to duck and roll away before his opponent drew a sharp sword from a sheath on his back in a crescent slice that left a gouge a foot deep in the metal walls. Curly had him in his sights now though, and odds of him missing this time were slim.
"You know what, fine. If you don't want to own up to it, that's fine. But don't you dare try and place what happened on me Aaron!"
"I have nothing to own up to, I saw you telling the Colonel of our plans."
"I never talked to the Colonel alone, I hated the man more than anyone else. I had nothing to gain from talking to him!"
"Nothing but your own yellow hide!"
Small pellet-like objects hit the floor with a might 'BANG' and bright flash that stunned Curly for a moment, so he just started firing madly with no real intent but to put some hot lead between him and the cold steel of Aaron's katana. It worked; better than he could've hoped. He heard a scream of pain, and when he opened his eyes he saw he'd clipped him in the arm, the wound bleeding profusely.
"You..."
"I trusted you man. We all trusted you. But see how much that mattered."
Another explosion, followed by the distinct sound of the stampede like charge that the Titans were so famed for. Heaven knows what it must've looked like, but the reaction was enough for the most part. Everyone was getting ready to attack everyone. Curly had one pistol on Aaron, the other pointed at the Titans out of surprise more than anything. Aaron had drawn another sword, ignoring his wound which had been numbed by the adrenaline. And the Titans had them both outgunned and in their sights.
"What the? Ok Curly, start talking, what's going on?"
"Curly? Pfft, you haven't even told them your real name? Why's that, will it make it easier to betray them when you do?" Aaron asked sharply.
"I don't know, I've never betrayed anyone; I just have your example to follow."
"Both of you, just put down your weapons and we'll get this sorted out, ok?" Cyborg said, his sonic cannon charging with blue power. Raven was taking her chance now. Curly had a mental equivalent of a brick wall to hide his thoughts and memories from her, while this 'Aaron' had a picket fence. Making a quick sweep she was bombarded by emotions of anger, hatred, and rage directed at Curly. She had felt some of these herself, betrayal, lose, confusion, and a thirst for revenge. The feeling were too strong, providing only a vague picture of a blurry event, like staring at a piece of artwork through stained glass. The overtones completely overshadowed whatever happened.
"No... There's nothing to sort out. I just have to give him what he deserves!"
With that cry, Aaron charged at Curly, wildly slashing with his weapons. However, he only managed to cut a bit of the white coat that he wore, and was followed by blue sonic-energy and starbolts that forced him off the attack. Cursing, he took off down the hallway, Robin, Starfire, and Beast Boy hot on his tail.
Cyborg stopped Curly from running off after him as well, the monolith of steel and flesh daring the much smaller teen to try something. Gritting his teeth, Curly motioned with his pistols, "Move, please."
"No."
"I asked nicely, now I'm telling you, you have three seconds to move or I'll blast my way through you and anyone else that tries to-"
Curly was suddenly jerked backwards by a black tendril of energy, slamming him against the far wall, "Cyborg, go."
"What? Raven, what if he-"
"He's got a tight lip and I want answers. I'll be fine, I'll call if I need help."
Nodding slowly, the half-robot teen dashed off leaving the sorceress with Curly who was rising to his feet slowly, "...That's twice you've kept me from reaching my goals. I won't tolerate a third."
"And since when are you so cut throat?"
"If you aren't with me, you're with him. And I don't like people who are with him."
"I'm with no one; And I want some answers. I was going to be nice, but now you've forced my hand. I don't know what you're doing in Slade's old hideout, I don't know what he was doing. But I really doubt I'd like either one, so lets start off with basics. What's your relation to him?"
Very calmly, he walked towards where Aaron and the others had gone. Raven projected a black barrier in front of him, in almost a taunting way. He turned back slowly, his arms tightening with anger. His voice was flat as he said, "I said I wouldn't tolerate a third time."
Five bullets were barely blocked by Raven's sheild, which she had summoned just in time. Now she realized that this wasn't going to be an interrogation; this was going to be a no-holds barred death match. What was going on, what had happened to the Curly that they had been joking with only hours before? There was something definitely not right, and this was enhanced when the curly-haired gunman feel to his knees screaming as if in pain. Grasping his head, he began to mutter incoherently, "Not again... This isn't me... I won't get tricked again... THAT WON'T WORK THIS TIME!"
"What are you talking about?" Raven asked, very wary. Three possibilities presented themselves to her. Either he was faking this in order to catch her off guard, he was having some sort of complete mental breakdown, or worst of all there was a third party that she wasn't aware of. Carefully reaching out her mental powers, she reached out to Curly's mind. What she found was the equivalent of strands of spider webs, like that of a puppeteer's strings. When her mental powers encountered these they recoiled swiftly in complete shock.
As the scientific teen took a deep breath, he collapsed onto all fours from the exertion of keeping his mind under his control. Raven's eyes widened as she glanced into the darkened hallway. Where there once had been shadow, there now stood a man with one hand outstretched, mouth agape in surprise.
Going into a fighting stance, Raven asked in a steely voice, "Who are you?"
"You son of a..." Curly muttered, trying to stand, only to be crushed back down by an invisible force.
"Now now, we'll have none of that."
"I'm going to-"
"Going to what, old friend? You can't even stand. And not even that mental barrier you so pride yourself on can keep me out completely."
Hands gaining a black glow, Raven repeated her question, "Who are you! Answer me or you'll regret not."
The man strode forward, his cape billowing behind him as he walked by Curly. Raven raised her hands and yelled, "Azerath Metreone Zi-"
A pain unlike anything she had ever felt coursed through her mind for the briefest of moments, shattering her concentration. She tried to chant her mantra again with the same result. Slowly, pain began to make the room seem fuzzy as it dug into her like a migraine. Dropping to the floor, she looked up at her assailant one last time, trying to conjure up any kind of spell... Before fading to blackness.
"...Incredible," He muttered, slowly shifting some hairs from Raven's face. Then he turned back to the gradually recovering Curly, "As for you. Take it easy for a while; You're purpose has almost been served."
He vaguely felt his body being lifted. The last thing he saw was a cold, hard wall rushing to meet his face...