Summary: A drabble series of various Titans and villans having a chance meeting with one ordinary citizen and learning what it really means to be a hero.
Drabble Four: Someone Like You
It began with a field trip.
Surrounded by her fellow, curious classmates, everyone fidgeted in their seats in a giant auditorium. The many shuffling of feet and hushed voices could be heard behind the curtains. A poster stood propped up on an easel, with an excellent drawing of a morbid mask and great big letters stretched out to spell, The Masque of the Red Death: A Community Theatre Production. And sitting excitedly in her seat, next to her friends in the third center row, was Terra.
For their English class, they had begun to study literature, in particular a comparison between Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. They had already seen a different play the week before, and were due to have a comparison essay on both the plays. For once, Terra was proud to be considered normal enough to be able to go to school and have to do homework, rather than fight crime. She did regret bits of her old actions. Bits. She wished she knew herself as well as Beast Boy used to.
The students soon began to cheer as a young woman stepped out. Although not in costume, it was better than sitting around and waiting. She looked out onto the broad class and smiled slightly.
"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Myra Tucker and I am a represenative for the Little Company Theatre. Today you will be watching The Masque of the Red Death, sponsored by Jones Inc. and written for the live audience."
Terra noted she spoke almost mechanically, and could only guess she'd been repeating the same lines to herself over and over in front of the mirror. Somehow, the deadpanness of it all made her hold back a giggle. Miss Tucker caught her eye as she spoke, and Terra feared she'd been caught. But the smallest of twitches on her jaw signaled she too was in on the joke.
"-and will be asissted by music from the Lincoln High School Band." she gestured to a group of young musicians in the corner, "Ladies and gentleman, do enjoy."
She walked off stage and sat in the front row, reserved for important sponsors and directors. Before the curtains opened, she caught Terra's eye again and gave a wink. Terra smiled back before looking to the play along with Miss Tucker, both of their attentions no longer wavering.
It was a good play, with some pretty spectacular scenes and beautiful music on the part of both the band and the actors. But as the students began to file out to go home, Terra hung back, looking at the actors and stagehands tearing down the scenery.
"I'll see you tommorrow, okay?" she called out to her gesturing friends. They walked further and further until they were out of sight and Terra walked boldly to the stage. She scrambled up and was surprised to see Miss Tucker helping take down the heavy swathes of sparkly, gauzy material from the stage. She had taken off her dress jacket and rolled up her pants and her shiny leather shoes were placed away to the side of the stage. Terra rolled up her uniform shirt sleeves and gestured to the work. Miss Tucker stopped to look at her.
"Can I help?"
"Sure can," she replied. She spoke in a dull, monotone, and it reminded Terra so much like the robot-like speech she gave before and bit her lip to fight back giggles again. She helped take down screens, wrap up the shiny, dark gauze, and carried water bottles to parched workers and actors. She handed one to Miss Tucker who sat exhausted on the stage.
"Thanks," she rasped slightly, chugging down a good part of the water, "I can't tell you how exhausting it is for me to wear something like this," she scowled at her now crumpled suit, for more and an hour. It's irritating." Terra now laughed audibly, no longer worried about Miss Tucker getting mad. She sat next to her and drank from a water bottle too.
"I like the theatre. Not just the acting, but the scenery and props and how you light things, stage directions..." Terra said in a dreamy tone, "We don't have a Drama Club at our school though."
"It's never too late to start," Miss Tucker noted. Then, in a lower, more hurried voice, "You wouldn't happen to be from Canada would you?"
"No Miss Tucker," she whispered back, although not really knowing why, "I'm from the US."
"Oh, I thought..." she trailed off, a somewhat glazed look in her eye, "You reminded me of someone I knew." Then she changed to a less serious tone, "And none of that Miss Tucker business. I am nineteen and a half years old, I'm still at that age to just be called Myra."
"Sure thing Myra,"
They sat in silence, as everyone else left for the day, one by one. Eventually Myra too pulled on her shoes and tied her jacket around her waist.
"Let's go get some ice cream or something and talk about your school getting a Drama Club," she said ruffling Terra's hair, "It's a waste of talent if you can't project what you like to do."
They made their way to a fountain, and with a cone in each hand, they talked, not only about a Drama Club, but about a million other things. Like Myra's revolutionary method to sniffing out illegal activity on the internet.
"The only problem we're going through now are the people we've just ruined," she explained over the sound of rushing water in the fountain. Terra nodded as she ate her ice cream, urging her to continue. "They run out of money and the amount they manage to scrape after all the trials and prosecution is just enough to buy a cheap gun...but not nearly enough to start their careers over again. We've been using our increased income not only to fight new methods of hacking, piracy, etc. but also to make sure our employees are safe." She snorted slightly as she chomped at her own cone. "I'm supposed to be in the most trouble...since I'm running the whole shibang, but honestly. A few dumb, desperate crooks aren't about to drive me away."
"Couldn't you call the Teen Titans about it?" Terra asked unflinchingly. She'd moved on far enough to talk about them normally in public.
"Naw, they've got bigger fish to fry. Stuff like this is best kept in the hands of the police. Unless one of the hackers ends up being some product of an experiment or just has superpowers, we'll see. Otherwise we just make sure we have a good sense of when to duck." Terra giggled as she wiped smeared ice cream off her mouth. Myra gobbled the rest up uncouthly and brushed off the cone crumbs with her dress shirt, before growling in aggravation as she pulled up the sleeves again.
"Stupid dress code. It's okay when I'm at the office but I always have to look 'professional' for public gigs."
"We have a school dress code but I guess its not as bad," laughed Terra. Myra shivered.
"Yuck. I never wore my school uniform when I was a kid. I was quite the delinquent back then too." she smiled fondly as she remembered back to her troublemaking days. Terra looked curious.
"A delinquent? Like a gang leader?"
"I wasn't a gang leader, because I couldn't get along with anyone long enough to form a gang. I just went around, extorting property charges from other punks and guarding my little piece of territory." She seemed to look off to something beyond her field of vision, "But that was so very long ago, and I'm not repeating it anytime soon."
"It sounds like you had it pretty rough," Terra sympathized. She too, made terrible mistakes when she chose to walk on the wrong side of the tracks...
"It started worse and ended worse kid, let me tell you," Myra sighed, rubbing her temples, "When a person picks a way to grow early in their lifetime, its very difficult to grow a different way. It was for me..." she paused, biting her lip, "And I changed in end...but sometimes I wonder if the price of all that was worth it."
Terra looked away from the bitter gaze of Myra, who was looking out into the unknown with a deep regret. If Terra hadn't heard it from her mouth the first time, she'd wouldn't have believed the simalarity. Whatever Myra lost couldn't be any less as tragic as her losing her friends...and Beast Boy. Terra took a breath, and turned to look at her reflection in the fountain.
"There was once a girl," she began, "Who had no control. Over anything. She loved her friends...one more than others...but she wanted control. She never had it...but when it was offered to her, she jumped on it." Terra saw the faintest flash in the water...as if it was reflecting that horrid mistake, "She didn't take a good look at who was offering it...but when she saw him for the first time...she was already in too deep. She gained control...but she lost the things she cared about most. What propelled her to control herself. In the end...her friends were forced to put away this danger...and...she died." Terra closed her eyes, and Myra gave her a weak smile.
"I reckon I know that girl pretty well." she wheezed slightly. She put a hand over her eyes, casting a shadow over her face. Both were quiet for a moment, the gentle trickle of water behind them. Then Myra began.
"I too knew a girl. And she was angry. Always angry. She had only one person in her life who strived to make her happy, who she strived to make happy, but that love she shared with that one person was not enough. She loved that person dearly, but she was selfish. More selfish than your friend." she looked up at the sky, eyes watering, "She climbed to the top, cutting down every threat in her way. For a while, she shone...but then," Myra began to tremble, "You go up without going down later."
"It was like a stone rolling down a hill. She screamed and clawed to climb back up. But once she hit the bottom, that stone cracked, and her rage was horrifying to behold. And then, without any consciousness of what she was doing, one thing led to another, and the one person who ever gace her any affection lay dead on the ground." Myra wasn't crying. But Terra could see, anyone could see, that she was feeling the same pain from age old cracks. Myra stood up suddenly, causing Terra to gasp at the suddenness. Myra looked up further into the sky.
"There are many ways a tree can grow. They can grow honestly and have good healthy branches...or they can grow to be fruitless and twisted. Once you grow one way, the branches won't leave. Even if you decide to grow another way, a monumental task, those twisted, dead branches will always be there for the world to see." Then, to Terra's surprise, she turned to smile confidently.
"But you must never trim away what's a part of you. Once its a part of you, you must accept it and understand that if you don't, there will be a day when it'll be gone and you'll regret it." And with that ever proud smile, she bent over Terra and patted her head gently.
"Even if your friend," she smiled knowingly, "Has believed herself to be gone, those memories, those pains, are forever etched in her skin. It's painful to carry, but there are just some branches that have to be endured."
And then she was gone. Turned on a heel and left. And Terra was left by that trickling fountain, wondering if she really knew those girls after all...