SOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOONG! I'm proper sorry and all that. Work and stuff.
I'm freaking out, sorry.
So, here's the fifth chapter.
Disclaimer: You know the drill.
Tara sat at the dining room table in the Logan household, trying her hardest to refrain from biting her nails. After Charly had stormed out of a crime scene following Roy's innocent remark she had come back to find the mansion empty, aside from Rachel, who was working on a new novel.
'He's done this before,' Rachel had tried to reassure her, to no avail; 'You shouldn't worry too much.'
Tara had merely nodded and made herself another cup of coffee.
Charly reappeared the next morning, looking worn out and a little hung-over. That in itself was a little strange and Tara noticed.
'Have you been drinking?' She asked him as he slumped into a chair opposite her.
He nodded, grabbing her mug of coffee and taking a sip.
'I thought your body burned alcohol before it entered your system.' It wasn't a question.
He coughed, seemingly to make his throat work and when he finally spoke it was a grating almost rattle.
'You don't know how much I've drunk.' He almost grinned. Almost.
'I was worried sick about you, you bastard!' Tara raged, standing, which caused Charly to lean back slightly. His shocked expression softened slightly and he leaned forwards again.
'I'm sorry honey,' he started, 'I didn't mean to worry you, it's just… why now, y'know? I've got enough to worry about than a resurrection of the man I killed.'
As something flashed in Tara's eyes Charly realised what he'd just said. It was more sobering than all the anti-hangover drugs ever designed.
'What do you mean by that?' She asked, nonchalantly.
'Erm…' He floundered, 'I just mean, coming back here…seeing all the old gang again…it's tiring.'
Tara wasn't convinced, and it showed.
'That night at the club… after I left you met Jinx.' She began, forcing him to meet her eye. It was like looking straight into the sun for him but he held her gaze.
'Did something happen when you took her home?' She asked, taking his hand across the table.
Charly felt the anxiety gather in his solar-plexus, the feeling was very much like taking a punch. From Starfire. An angry Starfire.
'No!' He yelled, leaping up and making to leave, 'No, nothing at all. How could you suggest that? No, that's silly. Preposterous.' He floundered around then finally met her gaze again.
'Ok…well…maybe.' A look crossed her face that was a mixture of rage and intense pain. 'It wasn't my intention though, in fact I didn't even have a choice… She… there was water and some kind of drug that… Tara,' He slowed down and stepped towards her, 'I love you, I would never do that to you, not knowingly.' He took another step.
She stepped back.
Charly's fear flared into sudden and illogical anger which he tried to contain, unfortunately he couldn't.
'Who told you? How did you know? It was Rachel, wasn't it?' He spat his sister's name like it was foul-tasting dirt in his mouth.
'What? No!' Tara was taken aback by this sudden outburst, even slightly frightened despite knowing Charly would never harm her.
'She made me a promise! She told me she believed me!' He practically ran to where Rachel was working.
Gar was back from Vic's and was talking to his wife when Charly entered, practically foaming at the mouth.
'You!' He yelled, pointing a flaming finger at the startled Rachel. He made to step forwards but Gar stepped into his path.
'What's the matter with you dude?' He asked, concern and wariness tinting his tone. 'You look the same as you did when we fought Brother Blood that time… The last time.'
Charly shuddered at the name but regained composure and restarted his tirade.
'You told Tara, after you said you wouldn't! After you told me you believed me! I'll kill you, you bitch!' He practically screamed over Gar's shoulder.
Rachel, who was about to reply, was struck dumb by the profanity. Charly had never called anyone that, especially not his friends. Gar seemed as surprised too, but that didn't stop him taking a step forwards.
'Don't threaten her, Charly.' He said quietly, eyes narrowing. 'I think you should leave.'
Charly stopped as though he'd walked into a highly-polished glass door. He suddenly seemed to realise what had happened.
'What?' He asked, quietly.
'Get out of my house.' Gar growled just as quietly. Tara had entered and was sitting with Rachel, whose confusion had brought her to the verge of tears.
Charly glanced over, to be greeted with a scared and angry look from Tara, before turning on a heel and exiting swiftly.
'I just asked him if something had happened with Jinx that night. He flew off the handle like he was possessed or something.' Tara explained, still half calming Rachel down.
'Yeah, that was weird.' Gar agreed, 'I'm gonna call Rich, see if he's got Watchtower connections.'
'Garfield…' Rachel started, but Gar cut her off.
'I'm gonna get you some tea, then I'm gonna call Rich.' He smiled sweetly at her and she returned it.
'Possessed…' Gar mused quietly as he left.
---
'What the hell did I just do?' Charly thought, walking down a semi-crowded street in the city.
'As far as I can see, you flipped out and threatened to kill your sister. You then proceeded to call her a bitch. Now we're here.' Wisdom was, as usual, being very unhelpful.
'I know that. We got any idea why? Also, we got any idea where I'm going to go? Gar will have called Rich and Kori by now, Vic'll be next. I can't go back to the watchtower without something to report… Think the new Titans'll let me crash in my old room?' He thought as he passed a TV store showing pictures of the Tower.
'No.' Wisdom answered all his questions with one word.
'Thanks.' He didn't mean it.
He found he had walked into the park so he walked slightly further and sat under a tree. It was a brisk autumn day so not many people were out. A few dog walkers, a couple of persistent kids playing some game or other.
'You could,' Knowledge piped up, 'Give the Watchtower a call, see if they can find anything out about… what just happened.'
Charly brightened up at the thought and activated his comm.
'Hey, it's Spitfire. Who's on Comms?' He asked as he connected.
'It's me man.' Bart's voice floated through the system. 'What can I do you for?'
'I need some info. Get anyone with knowledge of…' He stopped.
'You still there? Knowledge of what?' Bart asked, ever impatient.
'I don't actually know. Here's what happened…' He began.
He told Bart the whole story, secure in the knowledge that he would be writing it down to show to others as he did so, when he was done he seemed to have robbed even the Flash of anything to say.
'That doesn't sound like you at all. I'm thinking I should get everyone who knows about mind control. I'll be back in a sec.' There was silence for all of a second. 'I'm back, everyone in the Watchtower with any knowledge is about to get a page.' As if to prove his point, Jonn's voice boomed over the intercom in the background, demanding anyone with mind control knowledge to meet by the transfer pads.
'Cheers, mate. I owe you one.' Charly stood. 'I'm going to have to come back up there aren't I?' He asked.
'Yeah, and Charly, you owe me loads.' Bart laughed.
'Do not tell Clark I'm coming back up yeah?' Charly said just as he was transferred.
---
'You're right Gar, that isn't normal.' Rich finished. He was now seated on Gar's sofa, along with Kori and Vic. Rachel was sat in an armchair and Gar was pacing like a caged tiger, the likeness was uncanny.
'Maybe Charly was still under the effects of alcohol. We know that he is not used to being drunk, we believed his body could not absorb alcohol.' Kori attempted.
'This doesn't sound like drunken rambling to me. I smell a rat, and it's a rat that can control the emotions of a slightly empathic pyrokinetic.' Rachel put in. 'That's not exactly easy.' She added, when she spotted her friend's looks.
'Any luck with the Watchtower?' Vic asked Rich, looking worried.
Rich sighed and shook his head, looking genuinely disappointed.
'There's something going on up there that's stopping me getting through. From the small amount of connection time I managed to get it seemed like half the residents of the station were congregating nearby. Bart wouldn't tell me anything.' He finished rather lamely; Nightwing isn't someone who doesn't get what he needs when he needs it.
'I think,' Tara began, 'that I should pay a little visit to a certain bad luck sorceress.' She stood, as did everyone else. 'I don't need you guys to come with me; it's just a friendly chat.' She grinned a little more evilly than she intended.
---
Charly sat on an operating table in the Watchtower's medical area, awaiting the results of his final test. A blood test.
'Well, Spitfire,' a small man in a long white coat which made him look a little like a child in a ghost costume on Halloween spoke from behind him, 'there's nothing in your blood that shouldn't be there. The only anomaly is the higher concentrations of… well, everything in there than in your original sample from when you joined the League. It's like you've suddenly gained more of your own blood from somewhere.' The doctor seemed to be rambling slightly now, as though to himself.
Charly sighed and hopped off the table, grabbing his shirt and throwing it over his head.
'I appreciate what you did Doc. Really I do, but you haven't helped at all, so I'll see you when I break a wing or something.' He traipsed out and ran straight into something, or rather someone. The effect was very much the same as turning round to find Vic stood behind you, only with a meaty thud, rather than a clang.
'You might want to watch where you're storming, hot-shot.' Clark smiled down at him, a half sincere smile that one might imagine a shark would flash at a baby harp seal if it could. 'We need to talk, about your mission mainly.'
'We need to talk.' Charly repeated dumbly, and then something began to dawn on him. 'We need to talk!' He snapped his fingers, trying not to do the 'palm punching' thing Robin always did. 'All of this started when I met Jinx. Well, got worse when I met Jinx. Sorry Clark, I've got to jet, I need to pay a little visit to a certain bad luck sorceress.' With that he sprinted back to the transfer pads.
---
Jinx landed heavily onto a pile of already broken trinkets, ornaments and gadgets, scrabbling back slightly to avoid the slab of rock that slammed into the floor where she had been a second ago.
'Now, we'll try again. What have you done to Charly?' Tara hissed at her, breaking another chuck of sidewalk and bringing it in through the window to float almost casually in front of her.
'Nothing he didn't want me to.' Jinx tried her luck again, delivering this sentence with a suggestive grin. Tara simply made a noise something like a growl and took a step forwards.
'You aren't answering the question.' Tara told her, moving the rock closer towards the woman in a sort of half crouch across from her.
Tara was about to reiterate her question when another voice cut through the darkness outside the apartment.
'Jinx, we need to talk.' Charly stepped through the destroyed door, not seeming to notice its state. 'What have you done to me? Whatever you drugged me with didn't just last one night, did it?' He stopped when he saw the scene, glancing around with a look in his eye that suggested he saw this sort of thing every day.
'I see we have a common cause.' He addressed Tara, keeping his eyes on Jinx. 'That's good.'
He took a step towards the half-prone sorceress, causing her not to shuffle back defensively, but to physically cower. Charly even thought he heard a small whimper of fear.
'What's wrong with you?' He asked, abruptly, thrown off by the reaction.
Jinx looked up at him, tears of fright filling her eyes. She spoke in a shaky voice, quiet and unlike her.
'What's wrong with me? I'm not the one who ripped an innocent man apart for no reason.' She flinched when he made a sudden movement, but he was simply turning to the newspaper she pointed to, among the other items strewn across the floor.
The headline read 'Witness 'finished off' by so-called Hero'. Charly read the first few lines out loud.
'The manhunt continues for Spitfire, former Teen Titan and current Justice League member, who brutally butchered the key witness in the case involving the recent string of attacks. It is assumed that Spitfire is involved in the crimes, and was covering his tracks by taking this assignment from the League.' He stood for a while, his hands shaking slightly until the paper began to smoulder and finally burst into flames.
He turned to Tara, who looked just as shocked as him, and seemed to begin pleading with her.
'You were there, you saw the guy and the paramedics. I left, because of what Roy said. I didn't kill anyone. Did I?' He looked utterly helpless at this point, and Tara very nearly forget everything that had happened recently in her effort to comfort him. A protective instinct that threatened to overrule her anger.
As she was about to speak Jinx plucked up the courage to talk again.
'There's video footage. CCTV. Proof that you're a killer!' She yelled at him.
He rounded, frantically and stormed over, causing her to flinch violently, but she held his gaze.
'Where did this footage come from? No. More importantly, what part did you play in all this? Why did you drug me?' He demanded angrily.
'I was just paid to administer the drug and then I had you to myself for a night. I had no idea of the after effects, please, I swear it's the truth!' She tried to pull away as Charly grabbed her arm.
'There's one other thing.' Charly glanced at Tara before he asked his next question. 'That night I brought you back here, secure in the knowledge I was doing the right thing by helping you? You drugged me and I blacked out but my body still worked. Did anything happen? Did we 'do' 'anything'?'
Jinx looked like she was about to laugh a little when she replied.
'I had you do my dishes. Then it was just a case of telling you to sleep in my bed. It's hardly like I haven't seen you naked before either, or vice versa. Remember those parties at the tower? Strip poker? You were there, you remember.' She said to Tara, before tossing her a playful wink.
Tara was clearly still fuming, but with this new info her anger towards Charly had cooled.
'Nothing happened! He remained faithful to me even when he wasn't in control of his body!' Her mind shouted, clearly ecstatic.
Charly flickered a glance in her direction and caught a look he hadn't seen for a little while, it was a look that lifted his spirit and he never wanted that moment to end. But it did, when the sound of sirens grew louder along the street; someone had called the cops because of the noise Tara had made during her 'interrogation'.
'If the police think you killed a man, is it safe for you to still be here when they arrive?' Tara asked Charly, taking him into an embrace which he returned.
Charly flicked a strand of hair from his face and chuckled a little.
'I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. I mean, I'm in the Justice League. I've served this city since I was a kid! Heck, they'll be coming here to see if we need any help.' He joked, helping Jinx off the ground.
The pounding footsteps of the police grew louder as Charly turned to the door, a smile on his face. A smile that lasted a very short time, as twenty armed SWAT members kicked the door open and trained their guns on him.
'Kiss the ground, hotshot.' A voice came from the foremost nondescript helmet.
Tara looked on in horror, Jinx laughed and Charly dropped to his knees, hands on his head.
'This is not good at all.' His voice whispered, barely audible.
I'll apologise right now for anything that might be pissing people off.
How late this is.
That this chapter's not up to much.
That I'm being brief here.
That I haven't apologised (now redundant.)
That it sucks.
I've been working.
Reamis.