Feels good to be back to writing. Great way to break up the monotony of wake up, go to work, eat, go back to sleep. It took me sooooo long to figure out where to go with the last chapter. I've got the next couple storyboarded though, so they won't get writers blocked this time around.
Before we begin, I want tell you guys Merry Christmas! Some of you may not celebrate it, but even if you don't, here's a nice little update anyway. Hope you all enjoy!
Nightshade
NS-The Forrest-NS
The three Titans had marched their way to the ship in the woods, only to find that it wouldn't start much to Robin's chagrin. It had been about an hour to get all the way to the ship, and now Robin sat in the pilot's seat with his head down in the controls. Danny and Raven were standing outside, hoping that Robin would get the damn thing working.
"Do you think that the others know what has happened?" Danny asked Raven.
"I doubt that the Government would let slip that a city was destroyed. They'd do their best to silence whatever has happened," Raven replied.
Back in the ship, Robin had decided to try to use his communicator to send out a distress signal to the others. He pulled the device out, and silently prayed that the device would work. He flipped the front face out and pushed the center button. To his surprise, the device lit up like a Christmas tree. A small grin broke across his face, as he cycled through all the list of names until he found Cyborg. He pressed the call button, and waited for the answer.
"Robin! You guys are alive!" Robin overheard an overexcited Beast Boy.
"See, green bean. I told you he'd make it," Cyborg stated, calming Beast Boy a little.
"It's good to hear from you guys. Our ship is disabled, are you already on your way?" Robin asked.
"We heard this morning from an APB from the Justice League, we are currently over the Rocky's now. Star elected to stay behind to keep an eye on the city. She's worried about what's happened," Cyborg informed.
Robin let a mental smile break across his head, but pushed the emotions down for now. "We're going to stay at our current location. We'll send a ping out in a few hours, but until then keep on course for what's left of the city," Robin ordered.
"Ten-four. Cyborg out," Cyborg said, ending the call.
Robin leaned back in his chair, finally relaxing. He knew that he seemed overcautious, but he feared that with the government involving themselves in Danny's affairs now that his devices might be monitored. He got out of his chair then climbed out to where Danny and Raven were, wanting nothing more than to inform them of the first bit of good news in a long time.
"Cyborg and Beast Boy heard what's happened through the Justice League. They shouldn't be more than four hours away," Robin informed.
Both Raven and Danny looked at one another, before sighing and going back into the ship to wait for their friends to arrive.
NS-Undisclosed Location-NS
Slade had been monitoring the situation in Amity Park from a HIVE satellite that he'd hacked into. He rolled back the footage to moments before the city had been destroyed, and monitored closely. The explosion originated from a building in the suburbs, that first gave off a green shockwave. He leaned back and watched the buildings start to dissolve in the wake of the wave. Green lightening struck a few areas, leaving behind puddles of goo that ate into the ground. He observed as the wave hit the local school. Slade wasn't a squeamish individual by any stretch of the word. He'd watched people get ripped apart by grenades, get peppered by machine guns, and even had the unfortunate honor of watching one guy get burned alive. What he saw at the school was the closest he'd come to throwing up from a death. He watched the wave hit the school's football team during a practice. Their flesh ripping away, and their bones liquifying made his skin crawl.
Slade had been at this for hours, rolling back at another location. He'd hoped to find a hint at his target, but kept coming up short. At this point, he was ready to give up. It was around now that another screen popped up drawing his attention away from his current mission. A recording of another conversation from his own little obsession had appeared before him.
He listened to the conversation that only lasted a minute, but from what he'd gleaned, he could tell that Robin was in some sort of trouble. Why would his ship be disabled, and where were the Titans heading that required them to head east? He pulled up a tracker that Tera had placed on Robin's ship, but it didn't ping anything. It was dead along with their ship. This was a little unsettling to Slade, but he'd have his answer in a few hours from Robin himself.
Slade sighed, and decided that if he had to wait for Robin to give up his own location, that he'd better get more work done on finding his Phantom.
NS-Manson Mansion-NS
For the last few hours, the entire household had been packing. Mr. Manson had told them to pack light, and once Sam finished packing, she regaled on what she had. Most of her clothing was in the first suitcase she had packed, and her backpack had her toothpaste, anti-perspirant, school books, sketchpad, and other bits and bobbles. She wheeled it out into the living room, where she plopped down fully dressed and ready to leave. As she waited, she pulled out her phone and looked at the photos of her friends. She hoped to see them again, but somehow knew that it wasn't in the cards.
Tucker and the Foleys came down a few moments later with what little they were able to scavenge from their decaying home. Tucker was mad that his electronics were going to be left behind, but couldn't complain too much because he at least had his PDA. He sat down next to Sam, and sighed.
The rest of the Mr. and Mrs. Manson arrived a little later down stairs looking disheveled.
Mr. Manson straightened himself up and said, "Sam, your mother and I have decided that we're going to move back to Gotham City. Your we weren't able to phone your grandmother, so we will have to contact her when we get there."
Sam felt a twist in her stomach as she blurted out, "What about Jump City?"
Mrs. Manson said, "I'm sorry sweety, but this isn't something that we can compromise on…"
"Look Sam, we've given you a lot of freedom in your life, but it's time to grow up!" Mr. Manson snapped, cutting his wife off midsentence. "You wanted to go vegan, so we let you without a peep from us. You decide to wear all black, and we kept our peace on that topic. Now we find out that you've been risking your LIFE fighting these ghosts! Where do we draw the line?" Mr. Manson finished.
Sam clamed up at his outburst. She felt tears well up in her eyes, as this was one of the first times that she'd heard her dad yell like this. In fact, she'd held everything in for a long time, but now the stress of the situation had gotten the better of her. She was leaving her friends behind, everyone she knew was probably dead, even though she didn't like most of them she wouldn't wish them dead.
"Look, Sam, I'm sorry, but this is finalized. We moved out here to get you away from Gotham, but we're out of options now. Just promise me that you won't risk your life there. Gotham chews up people who play hero and spits out the bones," Mr. Manson said.
Sam knew her voice would be too shaky, so she only nodded.
"So, Mr. Foley, where will you go?" Mr. Manson asked.
"We have some family out in California. We can move back there for a while before we find somewhere a bit more permanent," Mr. Foley informed.
Everyone fell silent at this. Both families were hurting, but both knew that they would have to live on for those who had passed. The Foleys especially felt that they had been given a huge second chance, they weren't going to waste this opportunity.
NS-The open road, Masters Car-NS
It took Vlad a long while to convince Maddie to leave what was left of her city behind. They had spent the last couple hours driving in complete silence before Vlad couldn't take it anymore.
"Run me through what happened?" Vlad half asked, half demanded.
"It's too painful," Maddie answered.
"Are you sure? I'm an excellent listener Madeline," Vlad coaxed.
Maddie sighed, and said, "I'm sorry."
Vlad said, "It's alright, but answer me this then. Why do your clothes smell like wine?" The scent had been messing with Vlad for a little bit of time. He silently damned his heightened sense of smell.
"I'm afraid that if I start talking, I won't be able to stop Vlad," She said.
"I'm here for you Maddie. I won't abandon you in your time of grief," Vlad assured.
"I found out that my own son is a ghost," She whispered.
Vlad faked shock, seeing as he already knew. "You're joking!" He exclaimed.
"I know, it sounds so wrong just to think it. I gave birth to a healthy baby boy, not some ectoplasmic monster!" She raised her voice, but then added, "I made a bad decision when I was drunk one night. I attacked my son with a blossom that weakens ghosts. I wanted to get my son back, but I made the ghost in him push me away."
Vlad detected a hint of disgust in her voice, and repeated to her, "You wanted your son back. It's not your fault that the monster that latched into him took him further from you. I've researched these things, and I believe it's possible to get him back."
Maddie shot him a hopeful look and said, "Tell me!"
Vlad knew that she was desperate for her son back, and he also knew that if he rid Danny of his other half that he'd have them both as he felt was his right. So for the rest of the ride he talked, while she listened. And, for a brief moment, he could tell that she had more reason to live now than an hour ago…
NS-The forest, Amity-NS
Robin had sent out a ping a little over twenty minutes ago. It had taken a long time for the large ship to make it to them, but it had finally landed. Everyone filed into the craft, besides Robin. He placed an explosive onto the other ship, and several other smaller devices onto the trees surrounding the ship. When he pressed the detonator, the ship went up in flames while the trees sent out a shockwave of ice. This prevented the forest from catching on fire, while the ship was burned into little more than ashes and twisted steel.
"What happened?" Beast Boy asked the three others.
"There was an explosion that destroyed the entire city," Raven said.
"I get that, but could it be connected to us?" Cyborg asked, feeling concern for his comrades who nearly died.
"No way! Nobody outside of the league knew that we had Danny, so how could anyone guess we were going back to his home?" Robin countered.
"That's what I mean, though. We got hacked, Rob. They could have known that we would return Danny home," Cyborg reiterated.
"My closest friend hacked you guys. I doubt he'd kill everyone he knows in order to get to you guys," Danny informed.
Cyborg nodded, as Beast Boy asked, "Okay, so wrong place, wrong time then?"
Danny sighed, looking out of the side window.
"I think you struck a chord Beast Boy," Raven whispered to the Green Teen.
"I'm sorry Danny," Beast Boy apologized.
NS- Undisclosed Location-NS
Slade gave a small smile when the communicator that Robin had pinged right outside of Amity Park. He had to guess that the Titan was responsible for the Phantom to be almost completely scrubbed from the internet, and now he deduced that he was attempting to recruit the Phantom. This would complicate things ever so slightly, but it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility. He then felt his grin widen as there was a small explosion detected in the woods a few moments ago.
He played the footage in reverse until he could see when they first arrived. He counted Robin, and the sorceress Raven, but the third person with them was a boy. Could this be his target? What did Raz need this boy for? He then played the footage in reverse throughout the entirety of that day following them until he saw the boy glow for a second. He then saw him take flight off towards the center of explosion. When he saw the boy reach the epicenter, a wave a green energy erupted from him. It was much too late for the explosion to take place, so whatever the boy did was a different event. Then he watched as the boy flew back to where the Titans had been. It was after a few more minutes reversed that he saw the original explosion smash through the city, only to be stopped by a blur around one home. Everything behind the house was spared the wrath of the explosion. He then followed the titans with the target all the way back to the ship from the start. He watched the events unfold once more in the correct order, not reversed this time.
His jaw widened as he deduced that his target was with the Titans from the moment they arrived. Now he was with the Titans, and if he knew his Robin, the teen would have sent something about his target. He hacked his remote access point and gained access to the Titans files. He found a file that Robin indeed wrote about the teen. He shuddered as he realized that the boy really was a wrath of some sort. He would need to go to the black market for devices that could hurt the boy if he refused to comply. Then Slade realized that Raz needed the boy for his talents. An undead ghost would be an excellent assassin.
Slade laughed at the logical fallacy in the report. 'No known weaknesses' yet the boy arrived after being poisoned. Slade would have to find this poison in case the boy was ever sent after himself.
Slade did a mental recap; the boy would be in Jump City tomorrow. He would be locked in a Tower that would be nigh suicidal to attack directly, so he would have to wait to kidnap the boy. He would need something to detain the ghost, so he'd have to facilitate a new seller into his network of weapons dealers. Lastly, his greatest advantage was that the Titans didn't know that he was even here, let alone after the ghost. And even if they did discover his existence, Robin would assume that Slade were after him, not the boy he was now harboring.
NS-Clockworks Tower-NS
An old ghost watched closely as the ruins of what had been Amity suddenly appeared inside of the ghost zone far to the east of his tower. This was monumental, as the last time this happened was with parts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Sad events, just like the ones that just unfolded. Clockworks gaze turned to his viewing through the glass as he reverted to a small child.
He saw so many potential paths for the world changed ever so slightly now. Not all was gloom and doom, but a few of them still lead to the destruction of the world. Perhaps it was the right call to turn the boy over to the half demon. Clockwork laughed a little.
"You think this is funny?" An observer asked as it had approached the ancient ghost.
"Not at all," Clockwork informed. Pointing at the looking glass to reveal that the potentials had changed.
"The boy should be destroyed!" the observer snapped in frustration.
"That reality is in the panes as well. Looks like that reality would still leave us with the residence of the former Amity Park as well," Clockwork stated, changing once more.
The observer sneered, "There wouldn't be as much chaos! Almost all futures lead to the death of the world still!"
"Their world WILL one day end, but these humans aren't the only beings in the universe. Small drip in a large bucket," Clockwork countered.
"You are supposed to keep the timeline in check! This chaos is on your head. If things end badly, it would throw your usefulness into question. What good is the Ghost of Time, if he wont do what is necessary to protect the future!" The observer said, putting distaste on the Ghost of Time part, before disappearing.
Clockwork shook his head again as he reverted back into his old form, his cycle completing itself once more. He knew they could do nothing to stop him, unless they were to awaken the old king to destroy him from existence, but then what would stop the king from consuming the entire zone into chaos worse than what is happening in the realm of the living once more.
End of chapter.
Another one down, and boy was it interesting to fill you guys in on what EVERYONE was doing. To recap, Tucker is moving closer to Danny while Sam is moving farther away. Maybe I will do an offshoot of what Sam gets up to in Gotham, but we will wait and see on that. Both Vlad and Slade seem to be getting closer to what they want, but I wonder where that would leave them both in the end.
Had to dig all the way back to chapter 5 for some of the information on Danny that Slade had gotten, which is always nice. It's been so long since I've seen some of these chapters that it might be worth my time to reread. Also, I hope you guys enjoyed the Clockwork bit. I added that at the last minute when I realized everyone else had an update on what's going on besides Starfire. We'll see what she's getting up to later.
Lastly, work is screwing me out of hours next week from when this is written. Retail is an amazing job! I have an entire week off, so if I don't get called in then my next check will look bad. The fortunate side effect is that the story will be updated on time for the next week.
Last question: Should I return to updating the story on weekends? Or stick to Wednesday from now on? If I do weekends, it may be another 11 or so days for an update. Just some food for thought.