So here we are, another sleepless night, another chapter of my fan fiction, Where'd we leave off? Oh yeah…
Recap:
Jinx revealed her part in whatever plot caused Charly's recent behaviour.
During an interrogation the police were called, leading to a SWAT raid on Jinx's home.
This was all after Charly discovered he was wanted for murder, thanks to some CCTV evidence, which he had no knowledge of.
Today's chapter:
'That's right hero; keep your hands where I can see 'em.' The nondescript helmet of the SWAT leader droned, a mocking tone dripping from every word.
Charly moved from his kneeling position to an upright one, followed by the guns of the apprehensive team. It wasn't everyday that you had to train your firearm on a member of the Justice League and it was making them nervous.
'D'you see the video of what this guy did?' One voice in the crowd whispered through it's concealed microphone, gaining a nod from whoever he had addressed.
'Are you gonna come easy, or should we start shooting?' The leader drawled at him, gesturing with the barrel of his gun. It was then that he noticed the other two occupants of the room.
'Don't worry ladies, we won't let him harm you.' He was playing the tough guy and was not a little oily along with it. This made Charly growl slightly, which in turn caused the gun barrels to be levelled on his face instantly and unwaveringly.
Tara stepped forwards, flashing her League membership.
'Terra of the Justice League.' She introduced herself briskly. 'What is the meaning of this?' She gestured towards the assembled SWAT.
'Your colleague here is wanted for four counts of homicide, doll face.' This term earned another growl from Charly.
'Easy there, Hero. Don't want one of the boys getting jumpy and putting a bullet in you before we have to.' The SWAT leader lowered his gun and stepped forward with the handcuffs he removed from his belt.
Tara stepped in front of him but Charly moved her aside.
'It's ok, hon. This'll all be sorted out soon enough. They can't hold me for a crime I haven't committed. The 'Tower will confirm the video as a fake and I'll be out looking for whoever did this.' He kissed her soundly before raising his hands to receive the 'cuffs.
'Visitors for you Mr. Spitfire, sir.' The guard announced as he let some people into the visitor's section, separated from Charly by a sheet of bulletproof glass. The guard's name was Earl, he believed Charly was innocent, but insisted he had to do his job.
Tara, Vic, Gar, Rachel, Kori and Rich all walked in looking sullen and took a seat on the far side of the glass.
'Well?' Charly began, his voice sounding thin and robotic, not necessarily due entirely to the small, tinny speaker that served to allow communication. 'What did the Watchtower say? The video's fake right?' He looked expectantly at them, his smile faltering.
Rich shook his head sadly. 'They didn't find any discrepancies on the tape.' He let that sink in.
'They also had a psychic read the residual energies. There's no mistaking; it was you on that tape and in that room.' Rich had something of apology in his tone. It helped to mask the accusation.
Charly didn't speak, he didn't blink, even; he didn't have to.
His hair caught aflame as he lifted his arm and brought it slamming down onto the desk in front of him, creating a small fire as he did so.
'God damn it! I didn't kill anyone!' He shouted, running his hands through his hair in frustration as the small fire seemed to put itself out. 'Did I?'
He looked at the assembled former team, all of whom looked disappointed, to say the least. But Charly could feel the waves of disbelief from them, the accusation, even the fear.
He stood, turning and giving a flippant hand gesture. 'Visiting hours are over.' He said quietly, forcing his voice not to come out as an angry yell.
'No, dude we've still got twenty minutes.' Gar didn't catch on fast enough, causing a furious Charly to spin, eyes ablaze, and yell at the separating glass.
'I said they're OVER!' With that he stormed towards the door back to the cellblock, which the guard hastily opened.
'That didn't go well.' Kori pointed out, uselessly. This caused a small grimace from Rich.
'What did you expect? He's always been unruly, right from day one.' He stood, spun on his heel and stalked from the room.
Vic looked at Kori, who nodded at the unspoken agreement; Rich didn't want to believe Charly was guilty but his confusion became anger, directed at the person he was trying to save.
They left without another word.
Charly lit another cigarette and leaned against his cell wall, watching the smoke drift lazily from his mouth, out of the window. He followed it, stopping only when he had to because of the bars.
Outside, a number of reporters, onlookers, well-wishers and haters rallied to hurl abuse or condolences in turn. He watched, letting his eyes focus beyond the shouted questions of the reporters to the back of the group. There he spotted something that made him do a double take.
Himself.
Standing at the back of the crowd and smirking evilly was a perfect copy of himself, exact in every detail except the sparkle in his eye. A sparkle that was both mocking and challenging to equal measure.
Charly dropped the Marlboro from his mouth and stared, wide-eyed at his doppelganger.
'This is not happening.' He quickly told himself, rubbing his eyes. 'Am I going insane?'
When he looked again the vision of himself was gone, replaced by an ordinary looking teen in a 'Free Charly' T-shirt. He retrieved his almost forgotten smoke and went back to sit on his paper-thin mattress.
'Mr. Spitfire, another visitor for you.' Earl sounded confused and a little scared.
'I don't want to talk to anyone, Earl, I'm not going back out there, not for anyone.' Charly sighed; he couldn't face anyone right now, not even Tara. Especially not anyone senior from the League.
'Oh, come now,' a too familiar and yet strange voice drifted through the bars, 'not even for yourself?' The vision from outside stepped into view, holding a lit cigarette and smiling in a half sneering way.
Earl hurried away, leaving a Charly on either side of the bars.
'Who are you?' The real Charly asked, angrily. 'Am I the real Charly? I don't understand this! What's the point in all of this!?'
'I'm Spitfire, formerly of the Teen Titans, currently under employ by the Justice League. I'm six foot one inch tall, weigh about 12 stone, my hair is naturally black but I've been known to dye it red of occasion.' The Charly on the other side of the bars rattled off.
'Congratulations, fraud, you can recite information you could read in any magazine or on any website.' Charly mocked. 'What else you got?' He asked, flicking ash in the direction of the impostor.
'I'm currently unmarried but am romantically linked with Terra, also of the Titans and the League.' The sneer in the fake's voice took on a malicious edge.
'You stay away from her.' Charly growled, as menacingly as he could manage. He was happy to note his double's sudden discomfort, even if he did recover very quickly. 'You committed those murders, didn't you?' Charly demanded.
'Yes, I did, with your face, and now you can rot in here till they decide what to do with you. I hope it's something good, it's been a long time coming.' The doppelganger sneered again.
'What has?' Charly grabbed the cell bars and thrust one arm through to grab the other man, who dodged just in time.
'Oh nothing, nothing… Well, be seeing you.' The double turned to leave and flicked his cigarette butt at the incarcerated Charly.
For a while Charly seethed in his cell. He had been set up, and someone was using his face somehow to commit crimes. Whoever this person was they had destroyed his already fragile life; his friends didn't trust him, the people he once protected hated him and just because some bastard wanted…
'What does he want?' Charly mused suddenly, moving back to the window. He caught a glimpse of the double walking away from the police station and made a snap decision.
'Tara's always telling me about doing this kind of thing. Oh well.' He said, stopping the relative temporal dimension and melting the bars on his window. He waited until he was safely out of sight in the surrounding trees before starting time again.
'Time to see where my trail leads to… That was weird.' With that Charly set off in pursuit of himself.
Bart sat at the comm. controls of the Watchtower, scanning news websites at super-speed searching for any further information on Charly. He stopped when he read a breaking news bulletin on that stated:
'Justice League member and suspected murderer Spitfire has escaped from his holding cell and vanished into the surrounding area.'
Bart stared for a minute or so; wide-eyed as he read the further info link, sighing heavily just as Tara walked into the area. She had returned to the space station to 'clear her head'. It wasn't working.
'Charly, what have you done this time?' Bart asked the screen quietly, not noticing the geokinetic standing just behind him.
'What has he done now? If he's done something stupid I'll…' She trailed off as she too read the article.
'I don't get it, sure the dude had issues, but all you Titans did. I knew he was slightly eccentric but I didn't think he was actually insane.' Bart rattled off. Tara thought he was referring to the accusation of murder and subsequent escape, but he was pointing to a certain phrase.
'The guard had this to say, 'Just before he escaped I saw Mr. Spitfire talking to himself, seemed like he was pretty mad at himself for some reason.'' Tara read over Bart's shoulder. Bart was about to make another comment when Tara shushed him quite forcefully.
'You didn't read it all, whiz-kid, there's more; 'When I say he was talking to himself I don't mean like a crazy guy might, I mean there was two of him. One inside the cell, one out. Like his twin or something. It was weird, soon as the one outside the cell left, the one inside the cell escapes. I think maybe he was following the other guy.'' Tara sighed loudly, running a hand through her hair. 'Charly, do you ever think before you run off to fight evil?' She asked, before trying to raise Charly's comm. unit with the equipment Bart had forsaken just a moment ago for coffee and Oreos.
'Charly…..Read me?…..Tara……..atchtower and……escaped!?…….you thinking!?……..eed backup?' Bursts of static stopped Charly hearing the whole message, but the meaning was clear enough, was he ok and did he need backup? He activated the relay of his earpiece and sent a message back, hoping Tara would receive it properly.
'Tara, I read, but not well. Yes I escaped, but you've got to understand, I can't clear my name if I'm stuck in jail! I'm on my way to have stern words with myself, no doubt you've heard about my 'visitor' by now, I think backup might be nice as a reassurance but I'm not convinced it's a necessity. Also, do you know anyone besides me that could take me out? Excluding the people you wouldn't ask for help, I mean, and your good self.' He paused, taking a deep breath after that outpouring and considering his next words. 'Tara, I love you, I just gotta clear up my rep and we can be together and happy again. We can forget all of this. Did you get all of that?' Charly took a huge breath and waited for a reply.
'I read……..understand……..thanks and………..ove you too……..don't be too hard on yourself, ok?' The final joke got through unaffected by the interference, making Charly chuckle slightly.
In the time it had taken to receive and send all of that his cautious pace had brought him to a dead end, or at least what seemed to be a dead end. There were signs, however, that the large rock wall was an entrance to something or somewhere.
'Now,' Charly began out loud, 'Would they be expecting me to sneak in or to enter with a lot of noise?' He lit another cigarette from a small flame on the end of his thumb and began to stare intently at his impromptu lighter. 'More importantly, which one would I enjoy more?' He flicked his hand towards the concealed door…
Rich was pacing in the Logan's sitting room, the television was on quietly showing images of Charly from throughout his life in the public eye, even some early Titans footage, including his first battle with Adonis.
'It seems so long ago…' Kori began, gesturing to the wide-screen.
Rich stopped and took his hands from his pockets, frowning at the screen.
'Where is he? What could he be doing?' He asked no-one in particular.
His answer came from the doorway, as Tara rounded the corner. She looked relieved, angry and worried all at once.
'He's followed himself somewhere.' She stopped at the look this gained her and continued slightly angrily. 'You've heard about the doppelganger, right? He escaped and followed him to somewhere, but I haven't been able to get a fix on his location.' She sat in one of the large armchairs furnishing the room and sighed heavily.
For a long time Rich continued to pace, until finally Gar yelled in frustration.
'Dude! Sit the hell down, you're making me dizzy and wearing a track into my rug! Sure, we're all worried, but pacing about isn't going to make him appear.' He shouted, flashing his fang somewhat, a habit he picked up to ward off dangerous animals when shooting somewhere.
Tara, who had been fidgeting for a while, finally found what was causing her discomfort. A pack of Charly's cigarettes was underneath the seat cushion; she fished it out and began turning it over and over in her hands, as though considering something.
'Guys!' Bart's voice suddenly blared through the television, causing everyone in the room but Tara to jump.
'I had no idea you guys could do that.' Rich pointed out, with a slight reprimand in his voice.
'We can worry about the morality later, but right now I think you should know…' a thermal-imaging picture appeared on the screen where Bart's head had been, '…This is near a selection of underground tunnels and caves, and this dot here,' an arrow appeared, pointing out an orange and yellow spot moving in a direction, 'is a person.'
'So?' Kori asked, none too politely.
'So,' Bart continued, 'Watch.'
The dot stopped moving and an elongated section moved out of it, presumably the person was raising an arm. Bart zoomed in a it more, showing more details, as a flash of red passed down the arm onto the end of a line of blue protruding from the figure's head, clearly a cigarette.
The former team watched silently as the figure seemed to consider the sot of red on it's hand before flicking it at a wall of blue in front him. The wall of rock exploded in a flash of red and the figure strolled through the sea of what was presumably fire.
'One guess as to who that was, hmm?' Bart's head had reappeared, but with the frozen thermal image shrunk into the top left corner of the screen. 'Rocky,' He nodded at Tara, who was still fiddling with the half full cigarette packet, 'Supes has given you full jurisdiction on this one, so what's the plan?'
Everyone turned to stare at Tara, as she looked a little bewildered.
'Fuck it,' She conceded, stuffing a Marlboro into her mouth, 'I'm having one.'
So, that's that chapter.
Sorry it's taken this long guys and gals, college, job, homework, excuses. You know the drill.
It's 00:45, so I'll give this a quick redraft some other time and shove it up on the site.
Peace out,
Reamis.