Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners and not me. Only this story is mine, nothing else. Please read and review. Helpful reviews welcome, flames shall be ignored and/or deleted. Enjoy.
To my Reviewers:
Squeak & Erica: Thank you for you complements.
AngelWarrior74: Please do not ask any questions about the story unless you are confused about something.
Swizz: I thank you for your constructive criticism and to argue why Terra did what she did, you have to understand that as far as the show goes, we only have very limited information about her past. Who's to say something similar to what happened with the Titans hasn't happened before? Also, like you said it is an argued topic on whether she was Good at the End or Rotten to the Core. My take is that she was both in a sense, largely due to her past. Plus remember she's not human anymore and we're not sure how her captivity in that statue affected her. I hope to better clarify this in later chapters.
P.S. To everyone,
I plan to keep author comments to a minimum and to NEVER have an author comment in place of a chapter. I will only do that if I plan to discontinue this story. Thank you.
Stone Prison
By: Demonabyss
Chapter 5: Detection
I walked down the halls of the Community Center in my janitor's uniform. It wasn't much, but it was a job and the best I could do under the circumstances. Right now I was living in a small apartment downtown near the Center. Again, wasn't much, but it was something. Besides, I wanted to be ready to skip town quickly should the League get too close again. The bus ride here had been uneventful, though I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched the whole time. Since I couldn't shake the feeling, I was extremely careful when I used my powers and when I relaxed into my stone form. I was getting better at holding my human form, though if I got stressed it became much more difficult. So in response, I tried to keep my "life" as easy and stress free as possible so I could maintain my appearance.
Since I arrived in Dakota, I had dyed my hair from black to a bright orange red color, lost the glasses, and gotten contracts to make my eyes look hazel instead of blue. I also adopted the name Jaina McAllen and a Scottish accent to go with it. On my travels I had run into a number of acting troops and circus performers who had given me a ride and a few acting lessons, which have served me very well. I also received training in deception and misdirection from that bastard Slade and though I'm gonna hate myself for some time for admitting it, his training has helped me a lot to survive so far. The only thing I kept from my last identity was my newsboy's cap. For one I liked it and two, it helped me by hiding my long hair under it, giving me a more tomboyish look.
No one really noticed me as I wiped the floors with the mop, which was just fine with me. The less direct contact I had with people, the less chance I had of being discovered again. However, the entire time I was here in Dakota, I had the distinct impression that someone was watching me as I've mentioned before. I couldn't place whom or what was watching me, but I knew they were there. Oh well, I could keep this up longer then them and once I caught them, whoever they were, they would spill their guts, literally or figuratively speaking depending on how they acted, Heh.
(Normal POV)
Jaina (Terra) mopped one side of the huge auditorium while some kids played basketball on the other side. During which she kept her eyes and ears open for the guy trailing her. So far she only had suspicions, but she was determined to nail the guy. She was sure it was someone who worked at the Center, but she just couldn't place whom. Whoever it was, they were good, not as good as Slade had been, but good none-the-less. She had nearly caught the guy twice now, but he had slipped through her fingers mostly because she had run into civilians. The red haired girl silently swore under her breath that they wouldn't escape her again.
Jaina finally finished with the mopping for today. Out of nowhere as she was doing so, she heard someone yell. "Look out!" She quickly turned and caught a basketball before it slammed into her head. "Whoa, nice catch," one of the boys on the court commented. "You play?"
Jaina just smiled and from beyond half court, she shot the ball and made a perfect basket. "Aye, I've played a few games here n' there," she commented in her usual accent. "So, who's team am aye on?" she asked with a grin. Jaina then started to play with them, giving them all a workout and enjoying every minute of it.
Terra smiled to herself as she played with the teenagers. For the first time in a long time, she felt like a normal person. Not a meta-human, not an outlaw on the run, not a fallen super hero, not a criminal in hiding, just a normal girl playing basketball. For a short time, she could forget who and what, if she did know, she was. However, as her mind wandered, so did her control on her form. Her arms started to be enveloped in a very faint gold glow as did her eyes. 'Damn it, not now!' she thought wildly as she suddenly ran out of the gym.
"Hey, what gives?" one of the players asked.
"I donna feel so good," the janitor quickly said as she ran out to the rest room.
She was watched closely by one of the players, Virgil Hawkins, also known as the superhero Static Shock. He had seen enough meta-humans to know when one had their powers start to emerge. 'I better tell Ritchie about this. We need to keep an eye on her,' he thought to himself as the African American left the center to talk to his friend and partner, Ritchie also known as the technical superhero Gear. Too bad he didn't know he wasn't the only one who noticed.
A man in dark clothes slipped away to an empty office and got out a communicator. "This is agent 0245. Target is confirmed. I repeat, target is confirmed. Awaiting further orders," the man said in a monotone voice.
There was silence for a moment before the response came. "Return to base immediately," came the clear-cut command. "Over and out." The communication's operator turned from the radio system towards a woman with long black hair and dark eyes. "Milady, the target is confirmed. We will make preparations for her immediate capture," the soldier said while bowing to the dark woman.
"Excellent. Make sure you do not fail; my father does not tolerate failure of any kind," the woman said in a calm authoritative tone. The guard nodded and went back to work, leaving the woman to her thoughts. 'Soon my dear, you will belong to my father,' she thought with a confident grin.
"I'm telling you Rich, her hands and eyes were glowing bright yellow like a traffic light or something," Virgil explained to his friend and partner. "And I can't shake the feeling that I've seen that somewhere before." Ever since he saw that strange gold glow in her eyes and on her hands, he knew he had seen it before, but he couldn't place where. Like he had seen it on TV or heard about it somewhere.
The blonde haired teen in glasses just shrugged. "Well maybe she was on the news or something. I can run a search and see what I come up with," he suggested as he wheeled over to his computer. He too recognized the description from somewhere, but he couldn't remember where. He began typing as he started to search various databases for anything similar to what his partner described.
"All right, in the mean time, I'm gonna keep an eye on our red haired friend," he said as he quickly changed into his Static uniform and flew out on his disk.
Jaina walked down the street, silently cursing her self. 'Damn it, how could I have been so stupid! Serves me right for forgetting who and what I really am,' she silently berated herself as she walked to the grocery store for some supplies. However, she was broken out of her thoughts by a strange whistling sound that she herself knew quite well.
Reacting on instinct, Jaina dove and rolled out of the way as an energy blast hit the place she had been standing. She turned and looked up to see a man in an odd uniform with a strange looking gun aimed at her. Instantly, she ran down the street but was cut off by a black painted truck that was deploying more men in similar uniforms. Just as she turned, her other exit was cut off as well by another truck with soldiers. "Crud." She turned and ran into the alley, narrowly avoiding the man with the energy bazooka as she ran from the soldiers. Jaina heard voices, yelling things like "After her!" and "Don't let her escape!" right behind her.
Jaina kept running, unwilling to use her powers just yet. 'There's no need to give myself away. If these guys don't know who I am, there's no reason for me to tell them. However if they do know, then I'll show them some real rock 'n' roll,' she thought as she ran into a construction area for a new parking garage. She got to the middle of the construction yard but was cut off by more goons in weird uniforms. In no time they surrounded her. All of them were bearing weird high-tech weapons. "Uh, if this is about the rent, you can tell Mr. Smith I get my paycheck Wednesday," she said flippantly.
They seemed to ignore her as one of the soldiers spoke to the others. "Be careful mean, she hasn't used her powers yet so we don't know what she's capable of. Remember, our orders are to take her alive," he spoke with authority, though he didn't know what he had just caused.
"So you do know I have powers. Well that saves me some trouble," she muttered as for the first time in awhile, she brought her powers to the front. "Let's rock." She grinned as the entire area shook violently, knocking them all to the ground. Terra's hands and eyes glowed bright gold as she sent a wave through the ground, tossing them all into the air. Lifting the rocks around her, she sent them at the troops while diving out of the way of their fire. Focusing her powers, she made spires of solid rock shot up under them, tossing them to the ground. However, they some of them quickly got up and started firing on her. Thinking fast she brought up a wall of rock all around her for protection. However it wasn't going to last long as they continued to hammer at it with increasingly more firepower.
'Think Terra, think!' she said as she looked around for something to help. She then saw a cement mixer that was still full. 'Sweet,' she thought as she raised a hand to the machine. Summoning the liquid rock mixture within, it flew out of the truck and start slamming the soldiers as well as making them get stuck in the stuff. Soon, all the soldiers were caught in one massive ball of liquid concrete that was hovering in the air thanks to Terra. She immediately hardened the liquid into solid concrete, thus keeping them from doing anything. The only things not in the goop were their heads and the occasional limb.
Most of them were either yelling to get loose or cursing her, both of which she promptly ignored. "Okay buddy, who do you work for and why were you hunting me?" she demanded as she set the massive ball of asphalt and soldiers on the ground.
The leader of the group spat at her before speaking. "We will tell you nothing infidel. For the glory of the Master!" he yelled as he bit into something in his mouth. Upon hearing a slight beeping noise, Terra immediately ran for cover. Diving into a ditch just in time to miss the massive explosion of red energy followed by a few other explosions. After the blast she slowly got up and was shocked to see . . . . .nothing. There was nothing left but a perfectly domed crater. They had vaporized themselves and left nothing, no clues, no evidence, nothing. The other explosions had been the trucks they had come in, thus preventing her from making any use of them. All and all, there was nothing left.
"Well that's just perfect. What else can happen?" the red head asked out loud. Just as she said it, she heard a strange sizzling sound that seemed to be getting closer and was coming from behind her.
"Hey you, hold it right there," a young voice called out. Terra just groaned as she recognized it as Static's from the news. It was just her luck that he had shown up. "All right, who are you and what happened here?" he asked in a serious tone. Not wanting to answer his questions, without turning around she immediately summoned a localized dust storm, blinding Static as she quickly made her escape. Once the dust settled, all that was left was one dome like crater, a few piles of scrap metal, and one confused teenaged, electric superhero.
Terra sat in her apartment, what little she had now packed up in her two bags. She went over the confrontation with the soldiers over in her mind. They weren't just after a random person; they had been after her, not Jaina McAllen, but Terra. From their uniforms they certainly weren't government agents or part of the Justice League. So that meant they either belonged to a corporation of some sort or a crime lord since those were the only ones who had the money and power to organize such a thing. She had ruled out Slade immediately for several reasons. One, he was dead (she thought so anyway), two Slade didn't use soldiers, he used robots because they were cheaper, expendable, and followed orders without question. Three, this didn't seem like his style. He liked to play games with his prey's mind first, not just openly try to capture them. Whoever this was knew who she was and what she could do and she had no idea who it was.
'Great, another person/group out for my hide,' she thought sourly as her hands fell to her sides. It was then she noticed something in her coat pocket. Pulling it out, she found it to be the communicator the Question had given her. So far she hadn't attempted to use it, afraid the League would track it's signal right to her. 'What the hell, if they do track it I can just chuck the damn thing into a river,' she thought as she turned it on.
Way up in the Justice's League's Watch Tower, the Question was busy working at his computer as usual. Just as he was studying some information, a communicator next to his desk started beeping. 'I was wondering if she'd ever call,' he thought to himself as he turned it on.
"Question, you there?" a young female voice asked.
"Terra, you all right?" he asked in his usual casual tone.
"Oh I'm just fine, considering I just got attacked by a bunch of weird soldiers," she said exasperated.
"What? Care to explain?" he asked. She then recalled what happened as he listened intently, asking for any little detail she could remember. Once she was done, there was a bit of silence before he spoke. "All right, I'll try to see what I can come up with. You'll be okay?" he asked with a slight hint of concern in his voice.
"I'll be fine, just find out who else is after me. By the way, how close is the League to finding me?" she asked with a bit of worry in her voice.
Question chuckled a little before answering. "They have no clue where you are right now. After the train, they couldn't get any leads on where you went since they thought you were in on of the towns the train passed by. Also, it seems J'onn can't find you telepathically either for some reason," he explained.
Terra chuckled slightly. "I should hope not. In preparation for fighting Raven, Slade gave me a number of neural safeguards as well as showing me techniques to protect my mind against invasion and telepaths. If I ever see the bastard again I'll have to thank him for it," she said in a sad laughing manner. "In any case, thanks for the help, Terra out," she said as the communicator went silent, leaving the Question to his work of finding out who else was after the geomancer.
A soldier turned from the comm. system to the dark haired woman scowling silently behind him. "I'm sorry milady, but they failed to capture her. The agents were terminated so no evidence was left," he explained. Her scowl deepened and he shrunk away.
"Send word to my father, he will not be pleased. Make arrangements to use more . . . . .. Forceful means," she ordered calmly as she watched a recording of a red headed girl in casual clothes summoning rocks and cement to take down her foes.