Summary: Follow the adventures of Slack, Red, Lightlad, Tag, Blizkid and Sev members of the newly organized Teen Titans H.C defending Hallow City from the perilous dangers it faces day-in-day-out. They'll have to face an assorted array of villains including, A psychotic gang lead by a team of super powered teens, a deadly bounty hunter with a mysterious link to one of the Titans, a bloodthirsty werewolf willing to turn any one in his way into a midnight snack and a multi billion dollar genetics corporation that's not all that it seems to be to name a few. But their most dangerous threats come from facing and overcoming each others assorted pasts as a team. Expect tons of guest appearances by the original Titans as well as other D.C. Comics heroes and villains.
Welcome back ladies and gentleman. It's been a while hasn't it? But thankfully the months of neglect I've forced upon you the reader are over, instead it'll be nothing but this chapter for the next twenty to thirty minutes of you're life. As per usual, the next paragraph or so will be taken up by what I like to call "Pre-story Trivia" so, as usual, if you're not interested in reading about the hardships I had to face to create this chapter (Of which there were many), then just scroll past it.
First Off and most importantly: I'd like to formally apoligize for the severe lateness of this chapter, my only excuse is that halfway through it's production, I got a bad, bad, bad, case of writers block, which lasted at least a week. It's a weak excuse I know but it's the truth, but, some good did come of the writers block, as I was able to begin work on a Red centered chapter (Which, depending on how I play my cards, might be the chapter I put on after the next one...or maybe not, you never know).
Secondly: I'd Like to give special thanks to Death Jester who helped out, alot, with this chapter's plot, story and characters, basically, if it hadn't been for him, this chapter might not have ever seen the light of day.If I could give him a 'co-author' label I would (That's how much he helped out). So, big thanks to you. I'd also like to thank: Splint, Program X.A.N.A., Uberscribe and Glacier alchemist, who all reviewed. I know I say this a little to often, but, you guys really are what makes me want to continue writing this story, so, go ahead, give yourselves a pat on the back, you've earned it.
Thirdly: (This one's slightly less serious then the others, but it's still pretty serious), I made a pretty big (well actually, not that big) mistake last chapter in regards to Red's real name. His name should only be James Rooks, not James Tobias Rooks, so, yeah...not that big a deal I just thought I'd let you know.
Fourthly (I really hate to drag these out like this, but you gotta do what you gotta do): This chapter, like the last one, is seperated between past and present with the use of my favorite writing tool: Flashbacks, so, if you hated the flashbacks last chapter...hopefully these will be better. Also, the act of having the character waking up from their flashback will be re-occuring theme, so don't think I got lazy and just coppied last chapters intro and incorporated it into this chapter...cause that's only half of the story.
Finally: A disclaimer: I do not own any of the Teen Titans, Jump City or any other D.C. Comics owned property. This is a non-profit work of fiction. Fortunatly, I am able to say that I do own the characters: Slack, Red, Lightlad, Tag, Blizkid, Sev, Nikki Night as well as any other characters in this chapter who arn't already owned by D.C. Comics.
Well, with all that said, I guess the only thing left for me to do is start this chapter...so, here goes:
Chapter 10: Muse
Jump City.
One Year Ago.
Deep in the luxurious and expansive downtown of Jump City, sat a quiet and quant little coffee shop which was hidden away from the public eye by the large, industrial buildings surrounding it, leaving it's presence to be known only by few if any at all.
The shop held a small number of 'regulars', or reoccurring customers as they would be known elsewhere, leaving it with a lonely, but at the same time, familiar 'family' like feeling, the kind of feeling one receives when meeting with relatives or other family members that they hadn't seen in some time.
Currently all the patrons in the coffee shop had their attention focused on the small, wooden podium, where a local jazz band: The Tainted Blues played a rendition of the song "What a Wonderful World".
As the band finished playing the song, receiving a medium level of applause from the audience, the door to the coffee shop swung open loudly- though in no way the opener's fault, rather the fact that the door hadn't been well maintained for some time-a move which immediately received the attention from each and every member of the building.
In the doorway to the coffee shop stood the blackened silhouette of a teenaged boy, a gleam of bright light shinning off of him creating a golden gleam to form around his body, a gleam which assaulted the eyes of those staring directly into it.
The teen emerged from the glow of light he'd stood in previously, slowly walking across the floor, heading towards a small, black tinted booth that sat in the farthest corner of the room. The teen made each move with the knowledge that the entire coffee shop, patrons and staff, stood watching his every movement, though this went unnerved by him.
Finally he arrived at the booth and took a seat, before raising his head, looking towards the sea of eyes that stared at him, all of which slowly turned away from him as he looked at them.
Soon after he'd seated himself at the booth, an attractive waitress, who couldn't have been much younger than he was, approached the table. She was dressed in, what he assumed to be, the typical work uniform, which consisted of a pair of blue dress pants, a casual white T-shirt and an apron atop of it all. Her long, shoulder lenght, brown hair was set loose, draped across her shoulders, apparantly the servers wern't required to wair hear nets, though he could hardly say he found it offensive that they wern't wearing them.
"That was some entrance" She said jokingly. The teen looked up to face her and noticed that her face held a look of content, like she'd enjoyed his previous display of discontent, which was a nice change from the 'regular' looks he'd been getting from the other patrons.
"I take it you guys don't get a lot of new customers" he said, the waitress's smile increased as she drew a pen from her uniform's front pocket.
"You have no idea-"she said as she clicked the pen against her cheek, ejecting the pen's ink coated silver tip "-though the other day Raven from the Teen Titans came in here"
The teen's undivided attention had been captured by this last comment, he smirked, angrily, to himself at the name Raven, before exhaling a puff of air and returning his gaze towards the waitress.
"Really?" he asked, the waitress nodded her head and raised her arm, pointing towards the corner of the restaurant, where a small, blue, velvet booth sat.
"She sat right there. I served her myself you know? She's a lot like she is on the TV, soft spoken, rarely said more than three words at a time. To tell you the truth I could hardly tell her apart from any one else in the cafe" She said with a smile as she withdrew a small pad of paper from her uniform.
The teen smiled at her joke, stared back at the booth, which was now inhabited by an elderly African American man, before turning his head back towards the waitress, glancing up into the waitress's eyes.
"So, what can I get for you?" she asked as she brought the pen down to the pad of paper. Gently he grabbed the small, leather coated menu from the table, thumbed through it quickly and turned back to her.
"It says here that you guys make the best cappuccino's in town" he said as he closed the flaps on the menu.
"They should be I make them myself" the waitress said in a playful voice, flashing him a flirtatious grin which he returned with his own brand of ego-induced flirtation.
"Then I'll have one of those" he said handing her the menu, she grabbed it gently and pulled it from his hand, doing all of her actions in the same aura of playfulness that he held.
"Coming right up" she said as she walked off, heading back towards the small kitchen at the back of the restaurant.
As the waitress headed through the two silver doors that led to the kitchen the teen relaxed in his seat, sinking down a half a foot in the chair he sat in. He was used to having women, usually girls at his school, flirt with him, and he felt no way uncomfortable with it, but they're was something about this girl, that he couldn't put his finger on. Maybe it was that she wasn't 'fake' like the girls at his school, or anywhere else for the matter. He meant of course the kinds of girls who dressed in two hundred dollar pieces of desighner clothing and would never have to work a day in their lives, or maybe it was that after the hellish week he'd been put through all he needed was a friendly smile, which she seemed more than obliged to give him.
After a short while the waitress returned, sans uniform, with both his cappuccino as well as a cup of yellow tea, the waitress, or rather, without her uniform, the girl, placed the cappuccino in front of the teen and the tea on the spot opposite him, before sitting down in the seat.
"My break just started, and I couldn't think of any way that I'd rather spend the next fifteen minutes. I hope you don't mind" she said as she took a sip of her tea, the teen smiled.
"Of course not" he said as he took a sip of his own drink, the girl smiled and held out her left hand.
"I'm Nicole" she said, the teen smiled and gently grasped her hand with his own, shaking it lightly in the process.
"I'm Sam" He said.
Slowly a pair of light brown eyes began to open, taking a moment to adjust themselves to the surrounding, before a pair of hands, one covering each eye, began to rub them, rubbing away the small excess of 'dirt' that had collected in the corners of each one.
Finally as the pair of hands finished their task they returned back where they'd been held before, back to the sides of the torso of the man, or rather, teen, they belonged to, the torso of Lightlad, who lay in his bed, clutching the sides of his chest in an effort to regain the warmth he, along with the room, had lost during the night.
Slowly, realizing he was way past the point where he could fall back to his previous state of deep sleep, he decided that he might as well get up and prepare for the upcoming day.
Stretching his arms forwards, Lightlad yawned loudly and slowly rose his body up into the air, moving from a laying, fetal-like, position, to a upright, yet still slouched, sitting position.
Curling his arms back down towards his body he kicked himself out of the bed, knocking his covers across the deep blue, velvet like carpeting that lay across the room's floor, before standing upwards and staring at his surroundings, staring at the room he called his own.
Lightlad's room, much like the others room, was immensely large and extremely open, though, unlike the other's rooms, his had remained that way, with very little of his room being taken up by possessions which he owned, leaving it with an empty, yet comfortable feeling to it.
Lightlad began to walk across the room, slowly stripping his pyjama's-which consisted of a pair of 'Rat-man' pyjama bottoms, an extra large white T-shirt and a pair of heart patterned boxers- as he did, tossing them left, right and center, not really caring where they landed, he'd have time to clean them up later.
Finally as he was stripped down to his boxers he grabbed his costume, which was draped loosely over one of the room's lonely possessions, a leather arm chair, tossed it over his shoulder and entered the bathroom.
A short time later Lightlad exited the bathroom, now showered with his costume now covering his once unclothed body, he stretched his arms in the air and gave yet another excessively loud and-had anyone been in the room at the time-rude yawn before bringing his arms back down to his waist.
He stood there, in the same spot in his room, for a solid five minutes, doing nothing but thinking, thinking about the day, what he'd done before this day, what he'd do after it, and most of all, what he would to on it, there was something, something he'd been thinking of doing on this day, something of the utmost importance.
Slowly the memories came back to him and he recalled what exactly it was he'd been looking forwards to, how could he forget it, it was only the second most important idea he'd had in past month, today was the day, the day he asked Tag, his favorite and most admirable team-mate, out, and hopefully the day she said yes.
It wasn't like this idea, this plan, this action, came unprovoked, he had after all been flirting, be it lightly, with her all week, and, the week before that, and the week before that and so forth, and, if he wasn't mistaken, she'd been returning his flirt with one of her own. There were several hints, or so he assumed them to be, that she cared for him the way he did for her, the first was when she'd saved him from becoming road kill when an unmanned eighteen wheeler sped down the road he was ready to cross, not that that sounded out of the blue from a typical rescue, but the strength in which she grasped onto him when she was doing it, and the scolding she'd given him afterwards for not looking both ways when crossing the street were more than enough reason for him to believe she had the same feelings for him that he had for her.
Besides, even if she didn't return his affection, he could always pretend like the date was a way of him thanking her for the countless times she'd saved his sorry ass from a less than likable fate.
With that thought in his mind, as well as a way for him to approach Tag and ask her the question itself, he continued his train of thought as he walked out of his room and headed down the hall, heading towards the elevator.
As he stood in the elevator, which slowly and at the same time loudly, crept up the long, wide elevator shaft which led up to the lounge, he kept thinking about how much he was looking forwards to seeing Tag, there was something about her that he found extremely, attractive and at the same time adorable, and he had to say he did indeed adore her. He adored her child like smile, he adored her exotic accent and most of all he adored her fun loving, good natured and well rounded attitude, mostly because it was a contrast to his uptight, sarcastic, rude and abrasive attitude, an attitude which at times he wished he could drop and replace with the one she had.
In his life, Lightlad had dated many girls, the exact number he couldn't count on one hand, though the majority of whom he had never really connected with or shared any sort of 'feelings' with, due, in part, to the fact that he dated them only to fill the empty void in his life that his negligent parents had left on him.
The lack of any real 'love' in his life left him with a sense of emptiness that was rarely ever filled, though he did try to replace it with his sense of humour which did little more than remind him of why he was trying to fill the void, so to speak. But with Tag he truly did feel like the 'void' or 'emptiness' inside him was full. Her smiles, her laugh, every little thing she did he adored, and it had been a really long time since he'd ever felt this way towards another person, there were only two times the 'emptiness' had been filled, the first was when he had his first pet, a small, black cat named: Sergeant Whiskers, a name which he'd penned at the early age of six, and the other time he'd felt this way was when he was in his relationship with Nicole, but, like much of his past life, he didn't want to think about, instead he pushed the thought of Nicole, Sergeant Whiskers and all the other thoughts he'd thought of just minutes prior to the back of his mind and focused on the day at hand.
Swallowing lightly, he glanced up at the small panel atop the elevator doors which displayed "Lounge" with a bright, white, glow, he smiled to himself as he thought about seeing Tag for the first time that day, and slowly awaited the doors to open.
As the doors to the elevator opened Lightlad was pleasantly surprised to find that the site he'd been looking forwards to all day was present right before his eyes. There, standing directly in front of the open doors, was Tag with that golden smile he admired so much attached to her face.
"Hello, Lightlad' She greeted cheerfully before walking towards him, he smiled a 'I can't wait until I can tell her my secret' kind of smile, as she reached him and began walking towards the couches where Blizkid and Sev sat, with Tag following along beside him.
Blizkid sat on the couch with his legs folded up into a 'butterfly' like seat, his tounge petruding from his mouth as he focused his undevided attention on the onscreen action. To the right of him, Sev lay on the couch in an upside down position, with his legs curled over the back rest and his head gently draped over the leg rest. Both teens clutched a solid white video game controller, in the shape of a circular boomerang, in their hands as they engaged in an 'intense' game of "Extreme Shopping 2: Fifty Percent Off Mania".
Lightlad drew closer to the couch, where both of the battling teens turned, though only for a slight second, to greet their now awake friend and fellow team-mate, before turning back to face the large TV, ignoring their friend, for the moment, and continuing their virtual duel.
As Lightlad continued his assent into the room he managed to catch a glimpse of the two team-mates he had yet to see, the first: Red, stood in the kitchen, his head tucked away inside the refrigerator.
Lightlad noted two things different about Red on this day; the first was his appearance, where Red usually dressed in a somewhat 'trashy' or 'cheap' set of clothing, which, almost always, included a pair of tarnished jeans, muscle shirt and a coat, on this day his 'costume' was different, his set of clothing was different from his usual clothes. This new 'costume' included a pair of clean blue jeans which clung to his waist with the assistance of a silver studded belt which ended with an oval shaped lock.
Above his pants he wore a fashionable grey muscle shirt with a red "R" emblem imbedded in the middle of the shirt, this being one of the over three dozen "Red-shirts" he'd been given for free, a by-product of an endorsement deal with one of Hallow City's major clothing realtors: Megapress Clothes. At first Red had shunned the idea of endorsing a product, but after some convincing by Slack and the knowledge that fifty percent of profits went to a charitable cause, Red allowed it.
The second thing Lightlad noticed about Red was that, after he pulled his head from the fridge he saw, much to his shock and awe that Red had not an angered frown or an annoyed grin, but a smile, a genuine, honest to goodness smile, attached to his face, which he had aimed at Slack, who, surprising Lightlad further, returned it to him.
It seemed like since 'The Caiman incident'-a term coined by the media which had run almost as many stories on it as they had when the team had first shown up in Hallow City-which had happened over a week ago, that the two had formed a strong bond with one another, and, had Lightlad not known any better, he might mistake this 'friendly bond' to be a bond which exceeded friendship, but, knowing both Red and Slack, he knew this not to be true….or so he thought, there was still a part in his mind that believed it to be true, be it an extremely small part, an extremely, extremely small part.
As Lightlad leapt on the couch, his eyes glued to the onscreen 'action' he felt a soft ruffle in the couch, the physical sign that someone recently had taken a seat beside him, he turned his head to see a smiling Tag sitting directly next to him, her gentle smile directed at him, he returned it with, what he liked to call, his "heart stealing" smile, a smile which seemed to make those he gave it to go head-over-heels for him, though he could hardly tell if it worked this time, as she turned away from him in a hurry, maybe it had worked after all.
The two sat together, both staring opposite the way the other was seated, so that the two faced away from one another, both in the same attempt to hide their shyness of the other from them. Finally, Lightlad could no longer take the stress that was eating away at his stomach, the stress from hiding away his emotions, it was killing him.
Standing himself up he turned towards Tag, who slowly turned her head to face him, he cleared his throat silently, an attempt to rid himself of the harsh pain that bit at his throat and had prevented him from speaking to her any earlier.
"Could I, uh, speak to you-" He took a moment to stare around the room, he couldn't ask her out in front of everyone, the embarrassment he'd receive from his team-mates if she'd rejected him would surely be too much for him to bare, especially from Sev, he had a knack for insults and this would give him a near endless supply of 'disses' to serve up to Lightlad, no, he needed to do this in private, somewhere if she said no no-one on the team but him and her would know about it. "-uh, maybe somewhere private?" he asked, his voice barely above an audible whisper, Tag, who had managed to hear him, silently nodded her head and rose to her feet, both heading towards the small corner section of the room, a section where none of the members of the team were likely to hear the two talk.
As they reached the corner Tag smiled at Lightlad before leaning backwards and falling over, landing softly on a large green beanbag which cushioned her fall, Lightlad swallowed back his fear and took a seat in one of the leather armchairs, which sat directly left of Tag's beanbag chair.
"Well, here we are, somewhere private. So, what did you have to ask me Lightlad?" Tag asked in an innocent, childlike tone, a tone which made Lightlad want to ask her all the more.
"Well, uh….I was wondering if…uh, maybe, I mean I wouldn't be insulted if you said no….but, uh….well-" Lightlad stuttered while he nervously ran his hand along the back of his neck. Asking girls out had never been this hard for him, but then again, he'd never truly cared what the answer he got from his previous 'askee's' was, this was different, he cared too much for her to say 'yes' that it was almost impossible for him to form the sentence, he was too scared to hear the 'no' he imagined her saying that he couldn't even ask.
Swallowing lightly he made up his mind, he'd ask her this time, no matter the hardship, he had to ask her, he'd never forgive himself if he didn't, even if she said 'no', he still wouldn't forgive himself if this opportunity went to waste. Swallowing again he bit his tongue tightly before taking a deep breath in and preparing to recreate his previous sentence.
"What I meant to say, was, well…I was wondering if maybe, yeah, me and you could uh, go on a da-" he began to ask before the final part of his sentence, the most important part to be exact, was cut off by the loud 'bree-bree-bree' wail of the alarm, which was followed, close suit, by a series of red and yellow light flashes.
Dammit, why did this have to happen to him? Esspecially right now? It was like, for whatever reason it was, trouble seemed to have it out for him, and it truly did have the worst timing. He could be in the middle of washing his, as well as the teams, clothes when a bank was being robbed, or taking a shower when a prison break happened, there must have been something he'd done to deserve this never ending amount of bad karma, maybe it had been the time when he'd flushed his goldfish down the toilet, or broken his neighbours window with a baseball, or more recently when he'd accidently put too much bleach in the washing machine and turned all of Red's clothes light pink.
Right before he could do so much as blink his eyes, the others, including Tag- who'd put the importance of those in danger over herself, something which Lightlad greatly admired- had rushed over to where Sev sat, seated behind his 'crimeputer'.
Lightlad took no time in rushing there himself, it was after all his job, but then again he did wish he could have a bit of fun every once in a while, oh well, these things could wait, there was trouble a foot.
As he reached the computer he saw several of the monitor's display a series of images, the focus of which was a small apartment building-possibly one of the city's oldest, as even in it's current state it showed signs of decay and ruin-ablaze, with dozens of silhouettes displayed behind the walls of flame.
Lightlad sighed, as mean as it sounded, he really didn't want to save them...well, that was a lie, he wanted them to be safe, but wished that he didn't have to do it himself, but the knowledge that no one else in the city had the potential 'life saving skills' that he and the rest of his team did, meant that he had to.
"Looks like a fire downtown" Slack said, ever the one to point out the obvious, but then again, that was her duty as leader, a duty which Lightlad could agree with her team-mates that she carried and served with great integrity and an equal level of care, and for that reason alone, he chose not to insult her like he did the others, or at least not a lot, and definatly not in front of her face, for fear of the consiquences that it would bring with it.
"Now, I might be mistaken here, but arn't there a select group of individuals designated to serve this exact purpose? I believe they're called fire fighters" he asked, sarcasm heavy in his tone. The others frowned at his comment, which wouldn't have normally upset him had it not been for the fact that Tag too was frowning, which sparked a somewhat distant emotion in him: Regret. He regretted saying what he'd just said.
"-not that I'm not up to it" he said in an attempt to salvage his sentence from becoming yet another one of his 'downer' comments, comments that he was pretty sure the others didn't like hearing anywhere near as much as he enjoyed saying them.
The others smiled, which helped to improve his fallen self esteem, but, it wasn't until Tag, who had worn a frown up until this point, broke out one of her own heart warming smiles, that he felt truly refurbished.
"Well, now that that's out of the way. Let's go save us some helpless civilians" he finished, using his best 'action hero' voice, which earned him admiring smiles from most of his team-mates, 'most' with the exclusion of both Red and Sev, who both stood with equal looks of annoyance, though that didn't bother him as he got to see Tag happy and that was all that mattered as of right now.
Smiling to himself at the thought of making her smile, he puffed his chest out proudly and followed after the team, who'd all began to walk towards the elevator.
Jump City
One year ago.
It had been a week since Sam's tour into the small, downtown café, which he just so happened to now call his 'hangout', a week since he'd made his first impression on the patrons he now called friends, and most importantly, a week since he'd asked Nicole out on a date.
After the two's lively conversation-which had lasted the duration of Nicole's break and shift, as well as had set Sam back more than thirty five dollars which he'd used to buy various drinks and deserts, all in an attempt to increase the time in which he had to chat with Nicole- the two had really hit it off, so to speak. Both finding something about the other that they just couldn't reproduce with others, there was something about the other that they found so…irresistible-for Sam, it was her down to earth attitude which had capptured his heart, as for Nicole, he could guess it was either his wit, looks or any other of his hundreds of charms-which was why the only answer Nicole could have given him when he'd asked her "For a real coffee sometime" was a loud-loud enough to cause the other patrons to turn and stare-"Yes".
Now, a week since that day, Sam was going to meet her at her house, he had a whole day planned out for their date. First: A movie, he heard from a reliable source, a good fiend of his to be exact, that Wicked Scary 3 was a great date movie. The movie was to be followed with a dinner at Le Chafe Italian, an overly priced, but for the most part, romantic restaurant. And, to top it off, at the end of it all, a nice stroll through Jump City park, not bad for a first date, but then again Nicole was worth it. Every penny he'd spend today would be worth it so long as he got to see her happy.
As he stood outside the tall oak door to her house: which was nothing more than simple, small, blue and black tinted bungalow with a grey roof and lightly rusted gutters, he raised his hand to the door and tapped it on it twice,, knocking both times lightly. He felt a small tinge of nervousness as he finished removing his hand from the door, swallowing lightly he tried his hardest not to break a sweat, he could only imagine what Nicole would think if she answered the door to find him soaked in sweat, and it really wasn't pretty.
He waited for the door to swing open and reveal the figure of his beloved…but nothing happened, there was no answer, not for a solid five minutes, only after he was about to knock for a second time did the handle to the door spring to life, spiralling around slightly for a second before the solid green door opened, ever so slightly.
There, in the slightly opened doorway, stood his little angel: Nicole, only she appeared different, different than she had appeared at the Café. Her hair, which at the café had been let loose, giving her an angelic like appearance, was now rangy with a thick lock of hair covering the left side of her face, and her face, the one he'd fallen in love with, was changed. Where she'd once worn a beautiful smile, she now wore a sorrow filled frown, a frown which tore at his heart like a jagged razor.
"Sam…I, I didn't think you'd come" She said in a half whisper, half panicked tone, she took a moment to glance behind her, as if she was waiting for something, before turning back to face him.
"Nicole…are you ok? You look a little funny" he said, there was something wrong here, something really wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it for the life of him.
"Yeah…I'm just, uh…sick, I..uh, had a long night…working double shifts, I had to cover for Ter-" She began to say before she was cut off by a voice from behind her.
"Hey, babe, who's at the door?" a deep voice growled out before a large, muscular, hand gripped the door and slammed it open, revealing not just the remainder of Nicole's figure, but a second figure as well, this one a man's.
The man, or rather, older teen, was a tall, muscular teen with greyish skin, clean cut face and a head full of long, black hair in an un-kept fashion. He wore 'casual' clothing, including torn and tarnished black jeans held to his pants by a grey belt, a black muscle shirt and a pair of black, fingerless gloves over his palms.
The teen glared at Nicole before giving Sam an angered glare, a glare which would have upset, or even induced a massive sense of dread in most, but then again, Sam had seen a lot in his day, and this muscle bound jerk wasn't the worst of it.
"Who the hell are you!" he boomed as he positioned himself in the open doorway, Sam furrowed his brows into an angry frown and glared up at him.
"I could ask you the same thing" He said, trying his hardest to sound intimidating, which, for someone of both his size-in proportion to the teen-and physique-also in proportion to the teen-he sounded somewhat convincing.
"The name's Rancid. Johnny Rancid-" The now named teen growled out in his best attempt at imitating the famous film line, though the mix of his lack of class as well as his scratchy and deep voiced ruined any chance he had at sounding anywhere near as phenomenal as the likes of Sean Connery. "-I'm her boyfriend"
Sam swallowed lightly and turned his head down to Nicole who slowly, and, from the looks of it, painfully, turned away from him, possibly out of shame, he didn't know, as she knelt her head down, the hair around the left side of her face loosened and exposed her left eye, which held, much to Sam's horror, a large, purple, bruise on her left cheek.
"Nicole….you're face" Sam said in a worried tone, she looked up at him and smiled, faintly, before brushing the hair back over her left eye.
"I…uh-" she began to say before she was cut off, not by Sam but by Johnny, who had a somewhat panicked, somewhat mean scowl on his face.
"She fell down some stairs" He said in a low growl as he shot Nicole a look that screamed "Keep you're mouth shut", something which Sam took great offence to, he didn't like violence in general, having raised himself as somewhat of a pacifist, but he was especially offended by violence against women, which to him was the lowest from of violence on the charts.
"You don't have any stairs" Sam said angrily, Johnny glanced around in a panicked state, he was right, there were no stairs, it was a bungalow not a hi rise suite.
"She fell down some stairs, people get clumsy sometimes" He said in an attempt to reassure Sam of the 'truth', but much to his dismay, Sam wasn't buying it, not one bit.
"Really? Because those markings look to me like a severe form of blunt force trauma, something you can't get from simply 'falling down stairs'" Sam said, who would have thought that reading some of his fathers scientific textbooks would have paid off?
"You're saying I hit her?" Johnny asked in a panic filled tone of voice. Behind him Nicole swallowed back her fear and cowered further behind Johnny, Sam noticed this and put on a hard expression.
"I didn't have to" He said, Johnny's face fell even more as Sam's face light up like a Christmas tree, he'd won, and, as much as Johnny hated to admit it, he was right, it was a miracle he'd gone this long without being finked out, a miracle that Nicole never ratter him out, a miracle that he'd never been caught, but, now, now he was caught, now he was finked out, now he was going to get in trouble, no, he couldn't let that happen, he wasn't going to go to jail over this little punk and that stupid bitch.
"Go to hell!" He said slamming the door on Sam's face before, spiralling around to face Nicole, who trembled on her side before him, he raised his right hand in the air and stretched out his fingers, ready to swipe his entire palm ferociously at her face for making him look like a fool.
As he stood above the trembling Nicole, ready to swing his palm fowards he felt a hand grasp his, squeezing it roughly, spinning around he was met, face-to-fist with a thick set of knuckles that collided with his nose, breaking it on impact and sending him stumbling backwards before falling over and landing on his backside..
Covering his broken nose with his left hand, in an attempt to stop the bleeding, Johnny looked up to see Sam standing over his knocked over body, his right knuckle drenched in his own blood, Johnny gritted his teeth angrily and growled out an expletive, an expletive rhyming with "Runt".
Placing his free hand behind his body, Johnny got up to his feet and, normally, would have made an attempt on Sam, but the look in the younger teen's eye and the way he shielded Nicole's body with his own, he knew that Sam would kill Johnny if he had too, so, instead of swinging a revenge fuelled blow at Sam he only frowned and headed out the door, defeated.
Sam watched as Johnny walked down the street, every step taking him farther and farther away from the house, and more importantly, farther and farther away from Nicole, finally Johnny stopped at the end of the block, where a bus stop stood, he turned back to face the house, raised his arm, slowly extended his middle finger and spat on the cement, Sam smiled, he'd won, for once in his sad, miserable life, he'd won. He felt more alive at the moment than he had in a very, very, long time.
As he turned around to face Nicole he felt a pair of arms wrap their way around his neck, as Nicole pulled him into a deep, passionate, kiss, a kiss which made Sam's eyes widen in a mix of shock and stun. Though this wasn't his first kiss, he'd given that one away ages ago, but it sure did feel like it was, as, unlike his first kiss this one was done with love, concern…with feelings, not just to win a stupid game of 'spin the bottle'.
Breaking off from the kiss Nicole pulled her head back and stared into his eyes for a solid minute before speaking.
"Thank you, so much. No one's ever stood up for me before" She said as she pulled him into a hug and rested her head on his shoulder, Sam smiled and began to gently run his hand through her hair.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, she turned her head away from him and he instantly began to regret asking her that.
"I was ashamed, ashamed that I'd loved him, ashamed that he hit me, ashamed that I'd let him….but I swear, the day I met you at the café, I fell in love with you and wanted to be with you, but when I tried to break up with him...well, that's where I got this nice little 'beauty mark'" She said as she fought back tears, Sam, sensing the despair in her voice tried to make his next move an educated one.
Sam smiled, cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her head to face his, she tried to shy away, she was ashamed at how she looked, she was hideous, no one wanted to date a liar, nor did they want to date a hideous freak.
"You're beautiful" he said as if he were reading her thoughts, she stared up at him again, staring him dead in the eyes, she could tell, from the way he looked at her, that unlike Johnny, he wasn't lying, he meant it.
She leaned into his shoulder, burying her head in his embrace, trying to hide herself as he began to run a hand through her hair, she tilted her head to face him and found, much to her delight, his face held a firm smile on it.
"So, you ready for our date?" he asked, she smiled, lightly at first but when she saw the sincerity in his eyes her smile doubled in size and length, she nudged closer into her embrace before taking his left hand and allowing him to lead her out the door, in a gentleman like fashion.
The fire was large, too large; in fact massive was a better word to describe this fire, it was a massive fire which had almost completely obliterated the top two floors of the Maple Street Apartment Complex.
Two fire trucks as well as dozens of firefighters stood at the base of the building, though it was hardly of any use, the fire was just too intense, anyone left inside…well they were as good as dead, or at least that was the idea that was traveling around.
But all of the lost hope was soon restored when the silver and blue colours of the Titan's T-car came into view, it was if their presence alone carried the weight of two dozen cans of the most powerful energy drink. It was the kind of adrenalin rush that energy drink makers around the globe would kill to get their grubby little paws on.
As the T-car came to a stop, all of the inactive Fire Fighters suddenly sprung to life, rushing to and from the building, while the ones who hadn't given up hope doubled their efforts, this was defenatly motivation at its best.
The doors to the T-car slammed open and with them came the bodies of five teens, who, once out, received much applause from the numerous civilians surrounding the thin line of yellow tape that separated them from their heroes, though the teens took no time to pay attention to the applause, as they had a job at hand which required their undivided attention.
Slack rushed towards a fireman: Captain Hedges, the leader of the certain unit of firefighters who were tasked with putting out this fire. Hedges was a somewhat shy and nervous man who the team had met a week earlier when they were investigating a series of seemingly random arsons which he'd decided required their undivided attention. Hedges raised his helmet slightly, exposing his ash covered face to the team as they approached him.
"Thank God you made it, we were startin' to get worried" Hedges said worriedly as Slack approached him.
"Well…" She asked in a timid voice, the man paused and took a minute to look back at the building before turning back to Slack.
"Looks like a typical arson, someone upstairs must have dropped a cigarette on the floor or somethin', either way the whole top floor's a blaze, I'd be surprised if anyone's still alive up there…we managed to get everyone else out of the building, everyone except for the residents on the top two floors…poor bastards" Hedges said in a solemn tone.
"And you want us to save them?" Red asked in an irritated tone, it wasn't that he wasn't up for saving people, not at all, but the fact that since the Titans showed up in Hallow City, everyone seemed to suddenly come down with a case of severe laziness and expected them to do their jobs for them.
"We'd do it ourselves, but that fire…it's just too big for our people, and our ladders can only reach so far up" Hedges said scratching the back of his neck.
"We're not death proof Captain" Red said, the man stared solemnly at his thick black boots for a second before looking up at Red, an angered look in his eyes. Slack, who'd been monitoring the conversation, ready to save Red from public embarrassment, found this moment to be the perfect one to interfere.
"We can handle it Captain" Slack said, cutting into the conversation, preventing Red from beginning an argument with the man, like he'd done with countless other's in Hallow City. Red turned to her and gave her a confused look which she countered with an optimistic smile, Red frowned, lightly and gave her a slight smile, which, coming from Red, meant a lot to her.
"Alright team, Captain Hedges was nice enough to let us clean up his mess, so let's not make the same mistake he made" Slack said addressing her team, who nodded their heads before rushing towards the building.
As the team entered the burnt and tarnished waiting room of the building, they were met with several yellow uniform clad firemen who informed the team that the first seven floors of the building had been secured, leaving only the eight and ninth floor to be cleared out by the Titans.
The team rushed up the stairwell that led to the floor, stopping every now and then to dodge, and, with Blizkid's help, put out a pile of flaming wreckage and debris, finally, as the team reached the eight floor Slack, followed by the remainder of her team, stopped abruptly and turned to face her team.
"Since there are two floors we should break up into two groups" She said, Red nodded his head and slapped a hand on Lightlad's shoulder, who turned to face him a look of discomfort on his face, which Red quickly rebuffed with a wild, reckless look.
"Me an' Light-bulb will take the upper floor" he said, Lightlad cursed silently under his breath, rolled his eyes and nodded his head, he had little say in the matter, and it wasn't like arguing did much but waste words on his part, but oh well, life went on.
"Then me, Blizkid and Tag have this floor" she said with a smile which Red returned, Lightlad turned to Blizkid who simply shrugged his shoulders before entering through the large wooden door that led to the inside of the apartment floor, followed soon after by Tag and Slack, leaving the two heroes alone in the stairwell.
"What's with you two?" Lightlad asked as he followed after Red who'd begun his assent up the remainder of the stairs, Red turned to him for a slight second before quickly turning back.
"What do you mean?" Red asked as he continued up the stairs, making sure to avoid the areas that had been destroyed by falling debris.
"I mean you and Slack, you seem….close" he said, Red paused for a slight second, slowly turned to Lightlad and frowned at him.
"What are you getting at?" he asked, Lightlad cracked a soft smile and took several steps up the stairs, narrowly avoiding a large hole in the stairs that had been burnt through.
"Nothing…just curious" he said in a seedy tone, Red's frown increased as he took the remainder of the steps up the stairwell, stopping before a solid wooden door.
"Well, be curious later, we've got a job to do" Red said as Lightlad reached the door. Placing a hand on the door, Lightlad gave the door rough push, which, much to his speculation, did nothing.
"Allow me" Red said, placing his right hand on Lightlad's shoulder and moving him out of the doorway. Lightlad rolled his eyes as Red curled his fingers into a fist, Red had a large flair for the overdramatic, but, then again, he did appreciate it at times...but unfortuantly, this wasn't one of them.
Red wound his fist behind his back for a slight second before launching it forwards, slamming his fist into the wooden door with enough force to burst the door free of it's hinges, sending it quaking to the floor with enough force to shake the room feircly.
The inside, much like the outside of the building led it to believe, was a mix of ash and flaming wreckage, with only a narrow path of ash covered floor leading through the hallway, Hedges was right, it would be a miracle if anyone was still left alive.
Slowly the two stalked down the hallway, stopping every now and then to avoid getting too close to the raging flames attached to the walls, or to peer into one of the many open apartments, only to find, much to their horror, charred corpses, the site of which made Lightlad sick to his stomach, he'd never forget it for as long as he'd live, but he'd have to stay strong, at least until the end of the mission, then he could toss his biscuits.
As the duo neared the end of the hallway they heard a low pitched whimper, stunning the two slightly, Lightlad spun around quickly, just in time for him to see a teenaged girl, possibly his age if not slightly younger, wrap her arms around his chest, burying her head in his chest.
Red starred questioningly at Lightlad who gave him the same look he had before slowly, as if unsure if his actions would help, raised his hands to atop her head, patting her head slowly, though in no way patting her the same way he would a dog, more rather 'patting' her the way he would to a brother or sister, with loving affection.
Lightlad looked down at the girl, she looked familiar, very familiar to be exact, everything about her, aside from her black hair, looked exactly like someone he'd once know, actually she looked a lot like Nicole, though this could be debatable.
His thoughts were interrupted as the girl looked up at Lightlad, tears streaming out of her already bloodstained eyes, Lightlad, feeling a tinge of sorrow soar through his body, gently placed her head back on his shoulder.
"They're dead. Mom, Dad, Billy….they're all dead" She whispered in-between sobs, Lightlad, feeling nothing but remorse for the girl, continued to rub his hand through her hair. He felt his eyes began to become moist, and, trying to hide his obvious sorrow for the girl and her current situation, rubbed his palm across his eyes, taking with it the built up tears her story and reaction had helped to create.
To the right of the two, Red stood, his face holding a slight look of sorrow, with a larger look of annoyance, it wasn't like he didn't feel sorry for the girl, because he truly did, it was just that unless they got out of the building soon, they may never at all, and that truly concerned him.
Placing a hand on Lightlad's shoulder, Red lead Lightlad a few steps away from the girl, towards a more 'private' part of the room where he began to silenty whisper to Lightlad, who nodded his head, stared at the girl then gave Red a thumbs up, before he and Red both walked back towards her.
"I hate to rush you, but we've gotta get out of here…I can carry you if you can't walk" he said, the second part softer than the first. The girl shook her head sideways.
"I can walk" She said softly, Lightlad nodded and held out his hand, offering a hand out of the building, the girl accepted it, be it with a hint of nervousness.
"Now the way out is right ove-" Red began to say before he was cut off by a loud cracking sound from above them, all three teens raised their heads to see a large crack begin to form in the roof above their heads, a crack which got wider and wider as it crawled along the roof, before becoming too wide and collapsing, bringing with it a large chunk of flaming rubble which crashed down in-between Red, Lightlad and the girl, separating Lightlad and his 'companion' from the exit.
"Lightlad!" Red shouted as he rushed towards the fire, staying far enough back to avoid getting seriously burned by the flames, because, despite his natural resistance to fire, which he atributed to his otherwise monster like appearance, he was still capable of getting a severe burn, should the fire be hot enough.
"Yeah, we're fine!" Lightlad, who stood on the opposite side of the flaming wreckage shouted at Red. To the right of him the girl stood, practically trembling at the site of the raging flame before her, and who could blame her, from what Lightlad could gather, her family, the ones she'd mentioned only slightly, had perished in the fire, which, in itself would be psychologically taxing.
Lightlad wrapped an arm around her shoulder and curled her into his chest, hugging her affectionately, a move which she hardly seemed to may much mind too.
"It's ok, it's ok, we'll make it out of here, I promise you" he said as he continued to run his hand through her hair, she nodded her head slightly, gently broke off his embrace and grasped his hand, like she'd done before, though this time Lightlad could have sworn she did it in more of a intimate way, gently squeezing his palm, but then again, maybe it was just his imagination.
"What's you're name?" he asked in an attempt to better relate with her, knowing her name might not give him a detailed look at her life, but it would surely help him and hopefully help her. The girl looked up at him again before mumbling "Nikki" softly.
Lightlad smiled but this was short lived as a spark and crackle from the fire erupted, violently bringing him back to earth from his mental escape.
"We'd really better get moving. There isn't an alternate exit here is there?" he asked, Nikki shook he head before slumping to her knees and bursting into tears, burying her head in her hands as she sobbed.
"We're going to die here, just like the rest of them" She said as she wiped away the tears with her wrist, Lightlad, knowing full well that her prediction of their impending doom would be true if he wasn't quick, shook his head, he had to move quickly, he could regret what he was going to do later.
Rushing towards her he leaned down to her level, grappled her by the waist, pulled her up and into a tight embrace before kicking off of his back legs, leaping into the air for a short second before his body came in contact with the window, shattering it instantly.
He shielded her head with his wrists, gripping her head tightly as he did, protecting her from the brunt of the broken glass, which proceeded to slice through his costume and tear into his skin, he gritted his teeth in pain and almost, almost, dropped Nikki, but using the last of his strength managed to continue holding onto her.
As the two fell through the air, he felt Nikki's grip on his back tighten, and, like before, he may have been imagining it, but it seemed like this grip was less of a frightened grip and more of an intimate one.
As Lightlad reached the halfway point between the building and the soft grass below, he ignited his jetpack, one of the not-so-used features of his costume that, at the moment, he couldn't be happier he had installed.
Right as the two would have hit the ground, splattering them instantly, Lightlad shifted his weight to his feet, moving his body into a laying position and allowing them to miss the ground and speed off, moving through the crowds of photographers who snapped hundreds of shots of the duo, before Lightlad once again shifted his weight, moving into an upright position, sending him flying upwards.
"Enjoying the ride?" he asked, she smiled up at him, a smile he noted to be a much more open and joy filled smile than any of the others she'd given him earlier, before curling up in his embrace, in an affectionate and otherwise flirtatious way, which he was both glad and embarrsed to say he was rather enjoying at the moment.
"Very much" she said as she raised her left arm to above his waist, where it had been previously, instead grappling it around his shoulder, moving her body from it's previous state of holding, changing it from a fireman like carry to a more bridal style of carrying, which had the effect of making Lightlad's already blushed face increase.
"Well now Nikki, I'm sorry to say that it's time for me to let you off" he said, Nikki's face fell, slightly, before lighting back up into her, as Lightlad had come to think of it, optomistic and attractive smile.
"Ok" she said lightly, Lightlad smiled at her before decreasing the power of his suit's jetpack, slowly lowering the duo to the floor below them, where a flurry of firemen, reporters and his own team all stood waiting for them.
Lightlad landed on the ground with a soft 'plop', his landing sending several dozen pieces of grass and leaves spiralling every which way, as he de-ignited his jetpack he gently released his grip on Nikki, offering her his hand in a gentleman like fashion as she regained her lost stability.
Nikki continued to straighten herself out as Lightlad watched the approach of the mixture of the reporters, medical workers and the remainder of his team, all of whom had looks of complete shock in their eyes, especially Tag, who he could see, even from the far off distance had a look of worry in her eyes, he smiled at the thought that her look of concern brought on, the idea that she cared enough about him to have that look on her face was a pleasing one to say the least.
As he felt a second blush, this one due to his hidden affection for his team-mate, build up on his face he remembered exactly what he was doing that had caused Tag to have the look of concern she held, and, doing so, he spun around to face Nikki who flashed him her beautiful smile, before reaching both arms up to his neck, pulling him into a deep and passionate kiss, a kiss which shocked the un-expecting Lightlad.
Lightlad's eyes shot open in response to this sudden shock, but he slowly began to revert to his previous stage of comfort as Nikki began to stroke the left side of his face with her hand, even beginning to kiss her back, which only seemed natural for him to do at the moment. All around him photographers snapped dozens, if not hundreds, of photo's of the two, making the odd comment about a snappy headline they could print on the next day's paper, headlines including "Lightlad receives 'special' reward for saving teen" and, the not so flattering "Teen Titan's Lightlad solicits a 'reward' from a teenaged victim".
It wasn't until he saw his team, whose faces all held an intense level of shock, that he realized just what he was doing, and not only that, but just how wrong it was.
Realization came to him in the form of a sharp pain to the stomach, a pain which tore at his innards like a jagged piece of glass, slowly, and painfully, creeping up his stomach, inch by inch.
He'd felt this pain before, many times, it was a stomach problem, some sort of Ulcer, brought on by stress and guilt, a stomach problem he'd been diagnosed as having since the age of six, with it getting worse and worse every year.
As Nikki began stroking the right side of his head with her left finger, he began to feel the pain increase, this was wrong, and he knew it, and there was only one way to stop it. Swallowing roughly, trying to stomach his pain and guilt, he placed both hands on Nikki's shoulders and gave her a gentle shove, a shove which helped to break off the kiss.
Stumbling backwards, not out of the strength in which Lightlad had pushed her, but rather a mixed cause of clumsiness and shock, Nikki stared at Lightlad, her eyes bearing a look of confusion, confusion as to why he'd just pushed her away, she thought for sure he held the same feelings for her that she had for him, it wasn't like he hadn't been flirting with her also, the way he'd saved her, cared for her, if that wasn't a true sign of love, then she didn't know what was.
"Lighty" she said, making the decision to give him a playful nickname, something she'd done in the past to the things she loved, stuffed animals, pets, anything worthy of naming, she'd make sure it had that name. Though she could hardly say he looked happy about being 'named', as his face held a large, un-amused looking, frown.
"Lighty, what's wrong?" She asked, in an innocent, naïve tone, which almost made Lightlad regret what he'd just done, and, had it not been for the guilt caused pain in his stomach, he surely would have.
"First off, it's Lightlad, not 'lighty', and secondly, I don't like you like that, I'm sorry if you got that impression, but there's someone else, and unfortunately for you, you aren't her" he said rather harshly, not that he was trying to sound harsh at all, but he'd had it with her, the stroking, flirting, he just couldn't take it, it was an all too familiar reminder of what he'd used to have with 'her', what he'd used to have with Nicole.
Nikki looked shocked, to say the least, actually, a better term for the look her face held was broken, she looked broken, emotionally broken that was, her spirits had been shattered, torn, ruined. She'd lost everything today, her parents, her brother, her home, her life, and finally when she was sure Lightlad, her hero, the person she'd focused all of her affection on, the person she thought shared the same feelings she did, was as in love with her as she was him she'd learned that not only did he dislike her, but that there was someone else, someone to take the love that belonged to her. No, this was too much, way too much for her to handle in one day.
Feeling tears beginning to burn through her pupils she closed her eyes, to try and hide the tears from him, before quickly spinning on her heel and rushing away from him, running as far away from him as she could get, she was embarrassed, embarrassed that she'd made such a fool of herself like that.
Realizing the severity of his actions, the pain in Lightlad's stomach only doubled instead of dissipating, like he'd planned it to have, the guilt of the damage he'd caused to both Tag and Nikki was too much for him to handle and the pain didn't help, well, he may not be able to do much about Tag at the moment, but he could try and fix what he'd said to Nikki.
As he began to rush through the slight path Nikki had formed through the photographers, shoving several of them away violently as he did, he wasn't going to let anything stop him from making amends, nothing.
Finally as he cleared the league of reporters he found himself face-to-face with the remainder of his team-mates, the remainder with the noticeable absence of Tag, which didn't help to quell Lightlad's stomach problem, he noticed something, with the absence of Slack, both Red and Blizkid's faces held looks of anger, with Blizkid's being a more serious look than Red's, which didn't require any explanation as Blizkid and Tag shared a 'brother/sister' relationship, a relationship which, at the moment, Lightlad was extremely jealous of.
"Look, you can be mad at me all you'd like, but I've really gotta go find Nikki" he said walking past the group, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by Blizkid, who blocked his path with his very body.
"Why, so you can make Tag feel worse!" He said aggressively, Lightlad swallowed back his guilt, had she really taken it that badly, taken his 'fling' with Nikki roughly enough that her 'brother' had to stand up for her. It made him guilty to see Blizkid, a kid who could barely speak three words without blushing or shying away, speak so many and so harshly.
"I've gotta make this right, so if you could just move-" he said moving forwards, trying to break a path between him and Blizkid, but Blizkid wasn't having it, instead he took a side step, which put him directly in front of Lightlad, this wasn't going to be easy.
"You hurt her…and running to 'Nikki' isn't going to change that" Blizkid said in a rather aggressive tone, and would have continued too had it not been for Red's sudden interruption, placing his hand on Blizkid's shoulder in order to stop him from saying any more.
"Bliz, why don't you go wait in the car?" he asked, using the nickname that he'd given Blizkid for this very kind of occasion, Blizkid sighed, glared angrily at Lightlad and began to walk towards the T-car, followed soon after by Red, Red only following after to make sure Blizkid was alright, leaving behind both Lightlad and Slack.
"I know this is difficult for you Lightlad and I can't say that I know what you're going through, but I do know that you'll be able to make things right" She said with a soft smile, her voice and appearance giving away the sorrow she'd hidden inside herself. Lightlad felt a sense of relief rush through his body, it wasn't much, but compared to the sharp knife that was his guilty conscious it was relief none the less.
As Slack began to walk back to the car Lightlad saw that Nikki was nowhere in sight, this wasn't good, and it didn't help to cure his stomach problems, not one bit, instead making them much, much, worse. Not only had he hurt Tag, the one person on the team who, for the life of him, he'd never try to hurt, the one person who he cared about more than anyone else in the world, but he'd also hurt Nikki, the person whose heart he had stolen and, unfortunately, broken, and now with her nowhere in the vicinity, he'd never get the chance to apologize to her.
Today just wasn't his day.
Sam smiled to himself as he lead the most beautiful girl in the world, who at the moment was blindfolded and blindly followed his words alone, by her left palm, gently trailing her through various forms of shrubbery.
The first part of their date, the dinner, had gone, in his opinion, extremely well, the staff at the restaurant had been a little reluctant to let Nicole in at first, assuming that Sam had been the one responsible for her bruising, but, with Sam's clever wording and Nicole's 'crying' act, in which she faked a teary tantrum in order to get in, the two had not only gotten in, but had also been treated to a free meal.
After their meal the two walked, hand-in-hand, to the Saint Angle's movie theatre, one of Jump City's oldest and, considerably, most romantic movie theatres, which stood only a block away from the restaurant.
As they arrived, they found, much to the two's delight, that they were among the only inhabitants, with only an elderly gentleman and a twosome of older, though nowhere near the age of the first patron, women.
The movie was laughably bad, bad acting, bad writing, bad special effects, the laundry list of 'bad' went on and on, but it wasn't the movie he was focused on. Continuously he'd take his eyes off the screen and divert them to the real piece of art in the room, Nicole, who wore a smile throughout the entire film, often turning to Sam, as he did to her, and flashing him a gentle smile before turning back to the screen.
After the movie, which, Sam was slightly embarrassed to say he'd taken her too, he'd have to punch his friend later for suggesting it, the two had taken a nice stroll, again with their hands gently grasping the others, through downtown Jump City.
It was odd to Sam, he'd never noticed how truly beautiful Jump City was before this day. The tree's were greener than he'd remembered them ever being, the rose's that grew in the dozens of small pot's across the street, redder than he'd remembered, even the Titan's tower, which was un miss able to anyone who looked upwards from where he stood, looked more colourful than it had ever looked in the past, and all of this he had to thank Nicole for.
Soon after their stroll through downtown Jump City, the two had come to Sam's final destination, Jump City Park, which, like everything else in Jump City, seemed more lively today than anytime in the past.
Once they'd stepped inside he'd asked Nicole to cover her eyes with a blindfold he'd had in his pocket since earlier that day, a request which at first she'd found odd, but after his reassurance she complied too.
And that's where he stood now, leading her by her hand to the twosome's destination, which, according to his memory, was right past the next bust.
As he passed the bush, still holding onto Nicole's hand, he smiled at the sight before him, turned to Nicole and gently removed her blindfold, before staring into her soft brown eyes, which held an intensly stunned look to them, an obvious biproduct of the view in front of her eyes, her face carried a completly shocked look to it, something which Sam had been expecting.
Before the two teens stood a large, crystal glowing lake, where ducks and geese gently floated atop it's cool waters, the sun gleaming off of it, giving it the perfect 'mood' effect, it was an awe-inspiring sight that artists would go their whole lives to find, and here it was, in front of the two, and neither could be more happy.
"Well, do you like it?" he asked in, what Nicole had come to call, his 'nervous' and 'unsure' tone of voice, a voice that she had to admit, she found cute and utterly adorable.
She turned to him, placed a hand on his cheek and gently pulled him into a kiss, which he returned with a great level of enthusiasm, had she not been in this position she would have smiled, he was warming up, becoming less nervous and she couldn't be more happy for him.
She broke off the kiss gently before laying her head on his shoulder, moving her arms up his back and hugging him tightly, Sam smiled, put one arm around her back and used the other to slowly stroke her hair, which, she had to admit, she was beginning to not only get used to, but starting to like.
"I love you Sam" she whispered into his ear as he continued to run his hand through her hair. For a short second Sam was in a state of complete shock, no one had ever said that to him before, not one of his previous girl friends, not even his own parents, no one, no one in his entire life had ever uttered the phrase "I love you" to him, he was overjoyed, actually that was an understatement, he was so overcome with emotions, all positive, that he couldn't think of a word to describe what he felt…other than love, he was in love and he couldn't be more happy. Staring down at the beautiful brunette he held in his arms he could only think of one sentence, one sentence and one sentence only that he needed to tell her, one sentence to express himself, one sentence to make her his.
"I love you too, Nicole" he said as she raised her head towards his, staring longingly into his eyes. Leaning her head forwards, she pressed her lips up against his, kissing him again before leaning back into his shoulder.
Sam couldn't believe it, he was in love, for the first time in his entire life he was in love, never had he felt such strong emotions for another individual, never, this feeling of soulfulness, the feeling of care, concern, the feeling that someone else cared for him was the greatest feeling he'd felt in all his life, and he liked it, he liked it a lot.
Several hours had passed since the Titans had rescued more than twelve survivors from the 'unstoppable fire', a fire which they'd also happened to put out during their time saving those deemed "D.O.A." or "Dead on Arrival" by the firefighters.
Currently, Dennis Hoffman sat in his leather armchair, a solid brown cigar hanging out the tip of his mouth, this was, what the people of Hallow City had come to call his "Iconic Pose" as nearly every photograph, portrait or artistic rendition of him captured the exact pose he was in at the moment.
He was in a deep state of concentrated thought at the moment, much like a man in his very position would be, his thoughts all revolving around the Titans, and all the misfortune they'd brought with them.
Up until the Titans had come to Hallow City he'd ruled supreme, free to do what he wanted, when he wanted, so long as he paid the police and news reporters "Hush Money", but now that the Titans were here things were different, the police were more motivated, and would waste no time to bring him down given the right evidence, and the media, which he'd once controlled with an iron fist, was just as brutal, if not more so, than himself, as he'd learned the hard way.
His company's stock had dropped significantly in the past three weeks, a by-product of the media's coverage of his company, which, along with insider info from an unknown 'mole' inside his company, had been enough to make the public weary of his status, which he regretted dreadfully, should he be able to find this 'mole' in his company, he'd make sure he, or she, would suffer as much as he had.
Suddenly, a slight 'beeping' sound, coming from the small, gold tinted telephone that sat atop his newly purchased marble topped desk, interrupted his thoughts, dragging him from his train of thoughts to real life.
Raising his forefinger, he pressed it down gently on the button labelled "Talk", which caused the telephone to cackle lightly before the timid, stutter filled voice of Aaron Lloyd began to speak.
"Mr. Hoffman, sir, you're Three O'clock is here" Aaron Lloyd said through the intercom system attached the telephone, Hoffman smiled, this might just be the thing he needed to cheer himself up.
"Send her in Lloyd" He said, harshly into the device, again he was met with a slight cackle of static, before the line went dead.
Dead ahead of him, the massive oak doors that lead in and out of his office slowly began to open, bringing with them the shadowed figure of a female.
Hoffman's face light up with a devilish smile, which spread across his face, growing from cheek-to-cheek, as the figure finished entering into the room, revealing her to be none other than the previously heartbroken Nikki.
Her face held a swollen frown as well as moist cheeks, a sign that previous to this encounter she'd been crying, something which Hoffman felt a tinge of sorrow over, though he made it brutally unapparent.
"Mrs. Night, I presume?" he asked as Nikki slowly began to approach his desk, She nodded her head, "Yes" in response and Hoffman smiled, he'd seen what had happened on the news, and if what they said was really true, he might be able to have some fun with this one.
"Please, Mrs. Night, have a seat. Can I get you anything, a drink perhaps?" he asked, offering her his hand in a gentleman like fashion as she took her seat. She stared up at him, her eyes a mix of sorrow and hurt, giving him a look that, for a slight second, Hoffman was guilty to say made him feel 'bad'.
"…..a glass of water" she said in a tiny voice, it being the only thing she could muster up, but who could blame her? After the horrors she'd lain witness to in just under an hours time, watching her family, freinds, house...everything she held dear dissapear behind a wall of flame. Even Hoffman could sympathize with her, he was after all, only human.
"Right away. Mr. Beest-" he said, turning his head to the corner of the room where Bruno Beest stood, Bruno nodded his head and walked towards the Mini-bar in opposite his body.
"Now then, what can I do for you today Mrs. Night?" Hoffman asked, leaning both elbows onto his desk.
Nikki glanced up at Hoffman, her eyes still holding the same look of sorrow and hate they had before, she swallowed, lightly, before uttering one single word, a word which brought a smile to Hoffman's lips, a word which spoke more than any sentence ever could.
"Revenge" she said in a cold, dry, tone of voice.
Hoffman sat back in his chair, grabbed the remainder of his cigar out of the ashtray and placed it in his mouth.
"Now you're speaking my language" he said in an gleeful tone of voice as he took a long drag from the cigar, blowing the smoke out directly at the spot on the window where the T-tower was visible.
"Of course you know, in order for me to provide the means for you to re-enact you're vengeance against the Titans, who I am to assume are those responsible for the revenge you seek, I'll need you to sign a few papers first, nothing too serious, just a couple of papers saying that you wanted the powers I'm ready to give you. You will sign them won't you?" Hoffman asked with an almost giddy tone.
"Mr. Hoffman, I'll sign any papers in order to get my revenge on Lightlad" She said with a large amount of malice. Hoffman's smile only widened as he snapped his fingers at Beest, who nodded his head and walked over to a small, gold tinted filing cabinet.
"Of course you will Mrs. Night" He said as Beest arrived next to Nikki, his right hand clutching a stack of yellow papers, which he lay on the table in front of her.
"Sign here" he said in his gruff, hoarse voice, as he pointed at a small, yellow, dotted line, Nikki smiled as Hoffman gently handed her a pen. She couldn't believe how nice Hoffman was, the media made him out to be such an evil, soulless villain, but here he was a caring, concerning, gentleman, not at all like the Titans, the Titans, the heroes who couldn't save her family, the heroes who couldn't save her neighbours, the heroes who couldn't even save her, they were the villains, not Hoffman, she could see it, and now all she needed to do was show the world it.
As she finished scribbling her name on the dotted line, Hoffman smiled and gently pulled the sheets away from her, placing them in one of his drawers, which he proceeded to lock with a key he'd hidden away in the breast pocket of his undershirt.
"Now, if you'd be so kind as to follow my associate Mr. Hoxie, he'll take you down to the labs, where you'll be taken care of properly. After you're done with you're 'operation', I'd like for you to come back here, I have a little job for you that I'm sure you'll be more than overjoyed to hear about. And remember Mrs. Night, no matter what happens out there, you'll always have me as an ally" Hoffman said with a kind and gentle smile. She too smiled and walked towards the door, where the man, who she assumed to be this "Mr. Hoxie" stood.
"Take good care of her Dexter" Hoffman said to Hoxie, who only smiled and nodded his head before leading Nikki out of the door and walking her down the hall, leading her towards the elevators.
As the massive oak doors to the room shut quietly behind the two Beest turned to Hoffman, whose face held an gleefully equipped smile, which with all his past experiences working with Hoffman, Beest knew to mean he was planning something, something big to be exact.
Back at the Titans Tower, the group had shifted, pretty much, back into their regular daily routines. Sev and Blizkid continued their video game tournament, which they'd been having since earlier that morning. Slack had taken the remainder of the day off in order to fill out paper work, which, once signed, would help the families of those lost in the day's earlier events, if there was one thing Slack was, it was selfless, she thought more about others than herself, a fact that her team-mates respected as much as her leadership qualities.
Red had spent his time since returning from the mission, training in the weight room, having taken partial responsibility for the day's actions which had led up the confrontation between Lightlad and Nikki, he believed that, had he only acted faster, he could have prevented the whole thing, of course this was an untrue statement, nothing could have been done to prevent what had happened, but Red liked to believe that he could better himself, it gave him motivation, it gave him purpose.
As for the remaining members of the team, things differed greatly for them, Tag had exited the day's earlier adventure earlier than her team-mates, feeling great shock, and hurt, from what she'd seen of Lightlad and Nikki's 'romp' and had immediately transported herself away from him, locking herself in her room back at the tower, were she had remained for the remainder of the day. And Lightlad, soon after he'd come home from the mission he immediately attempted to apologize to Tag, only to receive no answer, but lucky for Tag, Lightlad was as persistent as he was stupid, and had spent the last hour and a half attempting to get her to speak so little as one word to him.
"Tag…come on, I'm sorry I hurt you're feelings, I didn't mean too. I just wanna talk to you…..please" he said as he gently beat his hand against the door, before loosing strength, having expended it earlier that day, and falling against the door, his body sliding down onto the floor in the process.
Suddenly, and much to Lightlad's delight, the silver metal door slid open, opening to reveal the figure of his beautiful angle: Tag, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest in an annoyed and angered expression, and he couldn't blame her, if he was in her position he wouldn't have even opened the door.
"Yes?" she asked in a semi-irritated tone, Lightlad got to his feet and gave her, what he liked to call, a set of his 'puppy eyes', which he was shocked to find she found resistible.
"Tag, I'm sorry I hurt you, really I am, what happened between me and Nikki….shouldn't have happened, and I know I'm to blame but you have to believe me when I say I wished it hadn't happened, I would never hurt you're feelings on purpose, or at all, I swear it" he said, waiting for Tag's response, which he knew in his heart to be a 'no'.
Tag stared at him, she knew she couldn't stay mad at him, no matter how hard she tried, and he was really trying to make amends, which she found sweet, she smiled and placed both hands on his shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
"I really am sorry" he said as he placed his hands on her back, pulling her tighter into his embrace, which, from the looks of things, Tag didn't particularity seem to mind.
Just as Tag was ready to tell him she forgave him, the two were interrupted by the mechanical "Bree-Bree-Bree" drone of the alarm system, twice in one day, this was an all time high for the number of times trouble had managed to ruin important events in his life, but oh well, life went on.
Breaking off the hug, and staring somewhat shyly at the other, both Tag and Lightlad rushed towards the stairwell located at the end of the hall, practically bumping into one another as they did.
Finally when they reached it, Lightlad, fancying himself a gentleman, held the door open for Tag, yet another sign that he was still seeking her forgiveness, she smiled sweetly at him, a smile that, had Tag been paying closer attention, would have noticed that it had made Lightlad turn a shade of red comparable to the colour of Red's skin, before rushing up the stairs, followed soon after by himself.
As the two made it to the lounge they burst through the door, again clumsily, only this time they truly did bump into the other, with Lightlad tripping over Tag's left leg, launching her to the floor softly and sending him spiralling through the air before landing, roughly, on his head.
"Well, I'm glad to see you two made up" Slack said with a smile as the two got to their feet, blushes attached to each of one the two's faces as they did. Behind Slack, both Red and Blizkid stood, Blizkid's face held a nervous smile, nervous due to the fact that he'd treated Lightlad terribly all afternoon and now felt terribly upset about it.
"Uh, Lightlad…..I'm sorry for being such a jerk earlier. Do you forgive me?" Blizkid asked, scratching at his neck feverously, Lightlad smiled and rubbed a hand roughly through his hair, perhaps a little too roughly as it seemed to bother Blizkid.
"Well, if you feel that badly, I guess the only way to make it up to me would be….to do my laundry for the next two weeks" he said sarcastically, Blizkid frowned and pushed Lightlad's hand out of his hair, Lightlad smirked, shrugged his shoulders and turned to Slack.
"So, what do we have?" He asked casually, Slack, in response to his statement, turned to Sev who smiled, draped his hands over the black keyboard of his computer and began to strike the keys lightly, bringing up a small screen on the largest of the monitors.
"Man, you guys won't believe this…" Sev said with a smile as he tilted the monitor towards the team, all of whom looked shocked as they glared at the monitor.
The video feed was a grainy, black and white view, which, according to the clock in the lower left hand corner of the screen, was from seven minutes prior, appeared to be shot by a home camera, which, apparently had been dropped carelessly in the middle of the street.
On the screen, standing in the middle of the street was none other than Nikki, who stood before half a dozen black and white police cars, each with a pair of police officers standing outside, their guns aimed directly at her. Nikki, unlike earlier, was dressed-instead of the 'civilian' clothing she'd worn previously-in clothing, or rather, a costume, which, much to the shock of Lightlad, was somewhat revealing.
The costume was made of a mixture of long, loose, black pants, which held a flame like pattern from the ankle to well above the knee as well as looked to be made of the typical superhero styled 'spandex', her costume also held a flowing black sleeveless robe, the hood of which covered her head almost entirely, leaving only the bottom of her head, including her mouth and jaw visible. The last accessory to the costume was a white 'shirt' which covered her chest but left an extremely large amount of open space between her stomach and chest.
"She, uh, didn't look like that earlier today, did she?" Sev asked as he stared, almost obsessively at the image of 'Super-Nikki", Lightlad rolled his eyes at Sev's testosterone induced statement.
"Yeah and she didn't have those powers either" Red said as the onscreen version of 'Super-Nikki' developed a small, round ball in her hand, a ball which from the look of it, appeared to be made of pure flames, though, due to the mix of the lack of colour from the video feed and the grainy picture it was hard to tell. All eyes turned to Lightlad who stood with an equally confused look on his face.
"Hey, I know as much as you do on this one" He said in his defence. Suddenly the onscreen image of Nikki drew her arm behind her back, and, with the force, strength and precision of a major league baseball pitcher, hurled the 'ball' directly at one of the many police cars standing before her.
The ball, upon impact with the car, burned a deep hole in the hood of the car before a slight white glow began to envelop the car, causing it to suddenly explode into a massive ball of flame, a ball of flame which launched the car into the air a good twenty feet, before it came crashing back down on the paved road.
"Wow" came the shared expression from the team, who watched in both horror and amazement as 'Super-Nikki' continued to throw these 'balls' at the police cars that surrounded her, each 'ball' that touched a police car created the same explosive result that the first one had. The video was suddenly interrupted when one of the remaining police cars, or rather the flaming wreckage of one of the police cars crashed down upon the camera, crushing it and completely obliterating the camera feed.
"Yowzers, I wouldn't wanna run afoul of her anytime soon….and lucky for me I won't have to. Thakfully there are perps to having a desk job" Sev said as he exited the program in which he, along with his team-mates, had used to watch the carnage happen.
"Yeah, it's a damn shame" Red asked sarcastically, Sev only smiled and waved his palms at Red, whishing him away.
"Don't you have a city to save?" Sev said, instigating the argument the two were having by waving his hands, in a 'shooing' manner, Red grinned, turned to Slack, who gave him a soft look, and frowned.
"I guess so" He said as he followed after the team, who'd taken the time to get several steps ahead of him, and all now stood, neatly, before the elevator doors.
"Ta-Ta-For-Now." Sev said as he waved his hand, mockingly, at Red, who only glared angrily at him before entering into the now opened elevator along with the remainder of his team.
As the elevator doors closed shut Sev spun his chair back towards the computer, turned the monitor to face him, and draped his fingers over the keys before tapping them down on the black coated buttons, lightly.
"Now Slack, I don't wanna sound like I'm rushing you or anything, but from the looks of things, Scythes is preparing to call in the sharp shooters to take out our little friend. I'd get there as fast as I could if I were you" He said, speaking into one of the computers internal microphones.
"Can you try to stall him?" Slack asked as she pressed a finger to her own earpiece, there was a slight mechanical crackling before Sev's voice broke through.
"I'll see what I can do" Sev said as he slammed his fingers against the keyboard, prompting half a dozen programs to be brought up on screen, he smiled as he dragged the mouse over the first one.
"Let's get cracking"
Sergeant Scythes stood behind a large, bullet, and hopefully, giant flaming orb, proof wall, a wall which blocked off the four blocks around the area where Nikki, as they'd come to learn her name, stood, directly in the middle of the street, paitently awaiting, what the others assumed to be, the Titans.
He stood with a stern look on his face, he didn't like what was and had happened, he'd just watched as a teenaged girl, at least thirty years younger than himself, blew apart an entire convoy of police cars, leaving six of his men injured, and one almost fatally.
And, even now as SWAT sharpshooters, the best of the best when it came to removing terror inducing insurgents such as the one standing, peacefully, behind the barriers, lay across the rooftops, ready to prevent this girl from causing any more damage to the city, he was being held back, held back all because the Titans, who in the past three weeks, he'd come to rather enjoy, believed that saving someone was their top priority, even when the girl they were willing to save was a criminal. Some things he'd just never understand.
His frown only increased as he saw the approach of a white and silver tinted sports utility vehicle, the T-car as it was known. He sighed, why did they always have to involve themselves in his affairs, it wasn't like he wasn't already up to his neck in the paperwork from the team's last heroic act, saving a kitten from a tree, and this...this, even if it ended well, would require a hell of a lot of his time. Oh well, at least he had a good use for the dozens of pens he had laying around his house.
As the Titans piled out of the car, for the second time in one day, Scythes approached them, lending out his hand to Slack, who stood ready to shake it.
"Nice to see you again Sergeant" she said as she shook his hand, he smiled, lightly and peered past her shoulder for a slight second, before turning back to her.
"Agreed. Though under different circumstances would have been nicer" He added in, Slack nodded her head in agreement before following after Scythes, who'd taken the lead, leading the team, who followed after Slack, towards a where a small black chalkboard stood, shielded by a green tarp and surrounded by several, black clad SWAT members.
"Now, we have snipers aligned across the rooftops, should one of them get the chance…." A black haired man, dressed in the same uniform as the other SWAT members, minus the tactical helmet, said, as he pointed his finger towards the chalk board where crudely drawn soldiers, who all held cartoony guns, were shown aiming their 'weapons'-which in reality looked more like water guns than the tactical weapons they were truly given-at an extremely poorly, and over exaggerated-in inappropriate places-picture of what appeared to be Nikki.
"Ah, Sergeant, I was just showing my team here our next course of action" the man said as he removed his finger from the board.
"Nice pictures, Rhodes. My niece can draw better than that, and she's hardly a year old" Scythes said in a rather unserious tone of voice, addressing the man by name.
"Well, I wasn't all too good at art in High School, guess that's why I became a cop" Rhodes said.
"-SWAT" one of the SWAT members corrected him, Rhodes frowned and slapped his palm against the man's helmet, generating a soft 'clunk' noise.
"Whatever-" Rhodes huffed angrily, before turning his attention towards the Titans. "-so, uh, wow. You guys are the Titans" He said in astonishment, as most officials who first met the Titans did. Lightlad smirked.
"Thanks for noticing" he said in a sarcastic tone of voice, Rhodes' frown only increased as he cleared his throat.
"Obviously the media makes you out to be a lot nicer than you are up close and personal. But, uh, yeah, well, I guess since you're here we can just pack up and call it a day, huh? I mean you're gonna take good care of that fireball throwing, cop car exploding, sniper deploying, sorry ass, good for nothing piece of Jailbait, huh?" He blurted out in a rapid paced tone of voice, a tone which implanted the idea that he was both an on the edge and extremely nervous individual, into the Titans heads.
Suddenly all eyes, even those of his own SWAT members, whose were hidden behind their thick goggles and helmets, turned towards him. Rhodes swallowed lightly and nodded his head to himself.
"I'm rambling aren't I? I do that when I'm stressed out, I mean I got bills piling up, child support due, all sorts of problems just crawling out of every orifice….but you don't wanna hear that" he said waving his hand in front of his face and slammed his palms down gently on one of the several tables surrounding him.
"Well, avoiding any more public humiliation on your part, why don't you just tell us you're plan?" Scythes said in a stern tone of voice. Rhodes nodded his head vigourosuly before pointing his finger back on the chalkboard.
"Ok, well. We've got snipers lined up, here, here, here and here" He said, pointing his finger at a spot on the chalkboard where a foursome of poorly drawn stick men brandished comically oversized guns in their thin arms, all four of the figures sat atop an array of equally, if not more so, poorly drawn buildings which equated to a square shaped image.
"Now, our little super powered, flaming orb tossing friend is here and you're here-" He said, continuing to point at the images on the chalkboard "-so, if you come in here-" he said aiming his finger in a small opening at an image of a wall, which was supposed to represent the wall surrounding the four streets that had been blocked off by the SWAT team "-then, it'll give you a good vantage point and my men a limb to lean on when it comes to aiming at her, not that they'll shoot without permission. Now before you freak out, you should know that this isn't a Waco, shoot all the religious fanatics, leave no man, woman or child alive sorta siege you know, I mean we're not gonna pour boxes of bullets into her if she makes a false move, we take our time here, we're not a bunch of crazy, trigger fingered Texans…no offence Sergeant"
Scythes huffed aggressively, a move which the others had come to consider Scythes own version of a retort to anything Rhodes said that crossed the line.
"Any way, like I was saying, those sharp shooters are armed with tranquilizer darts, not real bullets, that could have really led to a messy situation. Now, once you've taken her down, you know, gotten her in cuffs-and I don't mean the kind of cuffs you'd get a five hundred dollar stripper to use-" he added in, in a cheeky tone of voice, "-then give an "O.K." sign with you're fingers and a group'll be ready to make the arrest, but, should things not go according to plan, just give one of my men a 'thumbs' up' and they'll hit her with a dart, nothing too big, not even a lethal dose, I'd say about enough to take out an elephant, but don't worry, she won't die….at least hopefully not".
"Well, on that reassuring note, how'd you all like to go an' save the day?" Scythes asked as he led the heroes towards where the real life, and almost as small as on the chalkboard, hole in the wall stood.
"Ladies first" Red said in a half flirtatious-half serous tone as he offered Slack his hand, leading her through the wall, she smiled whole heartedly at him as she went through, a smile which garnered some "I thought so" attention from Lightlad.
"Who's next?" he asked.
The inside of the walled out area was, truly, nothing short of a breathtaking view for any one spawning from the pyromaniac community, charred cars lay scattered along the street, spewed all along the road with little to no pattern to their destroyed metal carcasses.
Large burn marks stained the sides of the buildings, presumably coming from the flaming cars which had collided with them, and, along with the severe burn marks found on the road, several dozen pieces of melted city objects, ranging from garbage cans to light posts, drooped down towards the ground, giving the area an extremely artistic, but at the same time tragic, look, which could only be viewed once in a lifetime.
As the team slowly finished arriving through the wall they saw, much to their combined shock, that, standing in the middle of the squared off city limits, stood Nikki, her face aimed directly at them, though, if she saw them was questionable, as she didn't seem to show any signs of fear or anger.
"I have twenty dollars that says Hoffman's got something to do with her spiffy new attire, not to mention those snazzy powers" Sev's said, his voice cutting through Lightlad's ear-peace. Lightlad smirked in response and quietly, along with the rest of the team slowly began to emerge through the mess of burned cars.
Lightlad stumbled through the melted maze awkwardly, he stopped after every step he took in order to check on one of the factors included in this awkward square he was in, every first step he'd stop to make sure Tag was safe, then he'd step again, stop to make sure Nikki didn't see them, take a third step, and stop again to make sure the snipers hadn't shot Nikki without their consent.
Lightlad continued his form of 'step-look-step-look' as he trailed after the remainder of his team, and despite the time it took in order to insure that his system worked, it seemed to be working, at least to him.
Taking several more steps he was sure that this time, unlike every other time in the past, that, maybe this time, they'd be able to talk their way out of a situation, well, so long as they stayed stealthy as a ninja this plan might just work, as he lowered his foot he was horrified to feel his foot press down, not on the thick char covered ground, but instead a soft, curved, pane of glass, which upon putting pressure on, produced a loud, and definitely noticeable, cracking sound, which alerted not only his team's attention and the sniper rifle carrying SWAT members along the roof, but also, much to his and the others disappointment and anger, the attention of 'Super-Nikki', who literally leapt to her feet in retort.
"You!" She shouted, aiming not only her comment, but also a hand, with a glowing orb beginning to form on the palms inside, at Lightlad.
"Heh-heh-heh" Lightlad said, giving her his best cheeky laugh, though none of those observing him found their current situation the least bit laughable.
"Nice job Lightbulb, I swear if we make it out of here I'll make sure you can never make this mistake again" Red shouted angrily as Nikki launched the ball of flame she'd held in her hand at Lightlad.
"Lightlad!" Tag shouted as the ball drew closer towards his body, she rushed out from her hiding place, tucked away beside Blizkid behind one of the burnt police cars, and leapt at Lightlad, grappling him roughly and tackling him to the floor, the ball narrowly avoiding the two and instead flying towards the wall, denting it deeply and causing an intense ripple to form alongside of the wall.
"That was close" Lightlad said quietly as he looked at Tag who had a relieved look on her face. It might have just been his imagination but Tag seemed to be squeezing him extremely tightly, well, tight enough for her to cause more damage than the fireball would have, though he knew, if she was holding on as tightly as he'd imagined, then it must have meant she cared for him, or, cared enough to risk her own life saving him.
"Titans, Split up!" Slack shouted, barking her orders to her team-mates.
"You don't have to tell me twice" Red said as he emerged from his hiding place, which, like Blizkid and Tag's, had been behind one of the nearly a dozen destroyed police car.
Placing a hand on the car's roof, Red shifted the weight to his arm and kicked off the ground, using his intense strength to launch himself into the air at least ten feet, his body hurtling towards Nikki's 'throne'.
"Oh, so the dog wants to play a little game" Nikki said with a smile as she charged a twosome of the flaming orbs in her hands. As Red neared closer to her she quickly shot both her arms forwards, launching both of the orbs directly at the unsuspecting Red's chest.
"You gotta be freakin' kidding me!" Red said angrily as the orbs drew ever closer to his chest, he closed his eyes as he felt the first of the two orbs burn deeply into his chest, followed soon after by the second, and even sooner than that, the two's ensuing explosion, which launched Red's body through the air violently before it came crashing down onto the hard cement road, his body skidding along the road with an intense speed before finally stopping when he slammed into the thick barrier wall, the force creating an extremely large dent in it's side.
"Red!" Slack shouted in a horrified tone, as she abandoned her hiding place, hidden behind a melted bus stop, and rushed over to where her team-mate and, more importantly, best friend, lay, his unconscious body digging deeply into the wall, denting it severely.
Nikki watched as Slack reached Red's body, practically leaping down onto her knees and cupping his head in her hand, instantly checking for any injures he'd sustained. Nikki smiled a deep, cruel smile, raised her arms towards Slack's body, and fired two more orbs, her target completely unaware of the oncoming danger. Had she known beating the Titans was going to be this easy she wouldn't have had to have caused this little 'distraction' which had caused her to wait a good half an hour for them, she might as well have staged a full on assault on the T-tower.
Slack spun around as she heard the soft sound of a roaring fire that accompanied the orbs, which continously drew closer to her body, she was met, just in time, with the vision of a blue clothed leg, which stepped before her head. Looking up Slack smiled as she saw Blizkid selflessly blocking the oncoming assault with his body, his arms held in front of him, creating a large wall of ice in the process.
The duo of flaming orbs hit the ice wall, both burning a duo of deep holes into the wall of ice before exploding, the shield stopping it from creating a massive and dangerous explosion, instead causing it to burst the ice wall with enough force to send both Blizkid and Slack flying backwards, and sending countless shards of jagged ice in every which direction, several pieces of which assaulted the three unconscious teens who all lay against the wall, cutting through their uniforms and digging into their flesh, be it slightly.
"Looks like it's just me and you" Lightlad said to Tag as he got to his feet, she nodded her head and immediately rushed the opposite direction of where Lightlad stood, their strategy: divide and conquer. It had worked in the past, and hopefully it would work again.
As Lightlad rushed through the sea of melted metal, leaping, ducking and dodging in order to get through, he raised an arm towards Nikki, charged the first of many 'light-blasts' and began to fire a them, in a series of fours, at her, though he fired them as weakly as he could, he didn't want to hurt her, well, not that badly.
Meanwhile, Tag who ran the opposite way as Lightlad, saw, much to her mixed delight and anger that Nikki had been distracted by Lightlad, upset that her diversion put Lightlad in the line of danger, but happy that she was distracted, Tag blinked her eyes shut and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke, only to reappear, mere seconds later, directly next to Nikki.
Nikki, feeling the presence of another, spun herself around in time to catch the view of Tag's fist slammingst into her own face, well, her cheek to be exact. The punch struck her with enough force to knock her back several steps, only for her backwards descent to be stopped when she slammed her back against a metal fence, which stood alongside the sidewalk.
"My turn" Nikki said with a sadistic smile as she pushed herself off of the fence and rushed towards Tag, who stood waiting defensivly for her. Kicking her left foot up fiercely, she managed to break through Tag's two handed defense and strike her directly in the soft flesh that surrounded her kidney, a move which was easily regarded as a cheap shot in anyone's book, but she didn't care about the rules, all Nikki cared about was winning and she'd do whatever it took to win.
Tag's response to the sudden pain was understandable; falling to one knee she clutched her wounded kidney tightly, in an attempt to withdraw the pain from the area. As Nikki raised a foot over her head, ready to deliver a strong legged kick to her forehead, Tag managed to overcome the pain that Nikki had inflicted and kicked off of her knelt down foot, leaping up at Nikki and wrapping her arms around her chest tightly, tackling her to the ground roughly.
Both Nikki and Tag hit the ground intesnsly, with Nikki bearing the brunt of the damage, Tag, now standing over the downed Nikki, was ready to strike again, this time a swift punch to the face, which might have sounded overly aggresive, but given the circumstances, it was more than acceptable, esspecially given the fact that she was more than convinced that Nikki would kill her if she was given the chance.
As Tag began to bend down, her left hand reaching for Nikki's hair with her left hand streched behind her back, prepparing to strike, Nikki used this time to make her own counter move, raising both her legs up into the air, she curled them, so that she appeared to be kneeling, down onto the floor before shooting them back up, her knee's slamming roughly into Tag's back, which, combined with her intense strenght, launched Tag off of from above body as well as the ground, her body shooting through the air before gracefully for a slight fifteen second interval, before finally hitting a stop, a solid green lightpost, which she launched into back first, her body slumping down along the pole, her head rested gently against her shoulder and her eyes shut in a deep sleep. Tag was unconcious, Nikki reigned victorious.
As Nikki stood over Tag's unconcious body, again raising her foot to her head, and again, ready to stomp her foot down atop of Tag's head, a move which, given her apparent heightened strength, would have seriously injured, if not killed, her, she was stopped, suddenly, by a pair of bright yellow flashes, both of which hit her in the shoulders, knocking her backwards several steps, though in no way seriously injuring her.
Peering upwards, she was met with a shocking sight, there, standing directly before her, was Lightlad, a serious and agressive look attached to his face, his right arm aimed right at her, his hand holding an intensely powerful 'Light-blast'.
"Don't make me have to do this Nikki. You know I don't want to" He said softly as he held his arm directly at her, Nikki, feeling the same intense anger that had fuelled her an hour ago begin to course through her body, she raised her own arms at Lightlad, a cocky, challenging look in her eye.
"You broke my heart. And now I'll break yours" She said, removing her arm from it's aim at Lightlad, moving it to where the unconscious Tag lay, Lightlad, knowing full well that if she was able to make the move she was threatening to make, that she would easily kill Tag, knew that drastic steps had to be taken in order to insure Tag's safety.
As Nikki prepared to fire at Tag she felt her body become lifted off of the ground she stood on, as she was, much to her delight, literally swept off her feet by Lightlad, who proceeded to bend his head down to her level and kiss her passionately, something which Nikki took great pride in, she'd won, she'd won Lightlad's heart, won it from Tag, and it felt good, real good.
Running her hands through his hair roughly, she began to kiss him back with an intense aggression, an aggresion that could match a lion's, practically biting onto his lower lip as she did. Lightlad found himself in an awkward situation now, as what had started as a simple distracting kiss in which he'd wished to achieve the safety of the person he truly cared for, had led to a feverous make out, with Nikki, disturbingly enough, acting as the 'man', being the more aggressive of the two.
As Nikki continued her heated 'make out session'-with Lightlad now bearing the mantle of the more aggressive partner, as he slowly inched her closer and closer towards the metal fence where she'd been flung by Tag earlier-Tag, who just moments prior had lain in a heavy state of unconsciousness, found herself regaining her lost conscious, slowly opening her eyes to find the horrific sight of her, now previously, best friend and most confident team member, locking lips with not only one of their worst enemies, but also the girl he'd sworn, just hours previously, not to have loved.
She felt the intense pain of betrayal hit her for a second time that day, it wasn't enough that he'd kissed her, in front of her own face before, but lying about his feelings for her, that was too much. But she wasn't going to run this time, no sir, running was the cowards way out, instead she'd face her problems, like a real hero of her calibre, was supposed to do.
Fighting back the tears that this heartbreaking betrayal brought on, she swallowed lightly and lay her head back down on the dirt, not wanting either of the two lovers to see her like this, to see her in her current state of pain. She was hurt, she truly thought that Lightlad cared for her, the flirting, playful banter, even holding the door open for her, they were all as fake as his earlier apology, and this knowledge, knowledge that he'd lied to her, twice, in one day, broke her heart.
Slowly, and seductively Nikki began to stroke Lightlad's left check, like she'd done earlier that day, as Lightlad continued to move her backwards while the two continued their public display of affection, it wasn't until Lightlad slammed her back against the metal fence, lightly, that she stopped to break off the kiss and moving her hands down to her hips, Lightlad's hands atop of hers as she did.
"I knew you still loved me" She said to him in a low, sultry and seductive tone, a tone which would have made most teens his age heartbeat double, if not triple, though this statement didn't seem to have quite the same effect on Lightlad, as he only smiled, cheekily, as he released his grip from around her hands.
"Always and forever" he said in a sarcastic tone, before giving her a mocking wink.
Nikki, un-understanding why he'd use that tone of voice regarding his feelings towards her, attempted to raise her hands to his face, as she reached a half a foot of the way to his face she felt her wrists and arms come to a violent halt, a product of being held back by a thick brace which happened to be fastened around her wrists.
Looking down she saw, much to her shock and anger, that both of her hands had been handcuffed to the fence, with a pair of lengthy handcuffs. It was a ruse, the whole thing, he'd never loved her, he'd just tricked her into thinking he had so he could cuff her, what a son of a bitch.
"I hate you!" She screamed as she tried desperately to break free from her restraints, she didn't want to go to jail, not like this at least. But it was no use, the cuffs, whatever they were made of, were tougher than she was as she found herself only losing energy as she continued attempt to escape her captor.
Lightlad flashed her a sarcastic grin, a grin that practically screamed "Gotcha", before touching a hand to his ear, pressing the 'talk' button attached to his mike with his index finger.
"Those new handcuffs of yours work like a charm Sev" he spoke into the mike.
"Glad to hear it." came Sev's response, his voice crackling through his earpiece.
As Nikki slumped over in defeat, having expended all her energy in unsuccessfully attempting to free herself from her entrapment, she began to sob, deeply and longingly, this wasn't a fake, sympathy grabbing sob, the kind she would have used had the situation been different, this was a truly, defeated, both physically, and emotionally, sob.
"I thought you loved me" she said as she stared Lightlad directly in the eye, giving him a look so full of sorrow that he had to turn away before he himself began to fill with tears.
Lightlad's face quickly dropped from his casual, sarcastic, grin to a look of pure and utter demoralization, he hadn't expected breaking her heart to make him feel this guilty, he'd actually expected it to make him feel better, but that wasn't the case as the guilt he'd felt throughout the entire day seemed to double with her one simple, yet powerful, statement.
"...I'm sorry" he said softly, unable to bring himself to stare at her, for the guilt he knew it would provoke, he simply glanced at the ground which lay in front of her, kicking the dirt at his feet with his left foot, using all his remaining strength to continue to fight back the tears building up in his eyes.
"Snappy cleanup kid" he heard the familiar voice of Seargent Scythes call out from behind him, wiping away his built up tears with his wrist, he turned around to see Scythes, Rhodes and a six man SWAT team standing before him, the SWAT team immediately rushing over to where Nikki sat sobbing quietly.
"That was some strategy, making her think you loved her than crushing her and her emotions like a freaking tin can. You didn't take lessons from my ex-wife did you?" Rhodes asked in a joking tone, though his statement didn't help to improve Lightlad's guilty conscious, not one bit.
"Come on, Rhodes, leave the kid alone. Don't you have some paperwork to fill out?" Scythes asked, Rhodes rolled his eyes before walking away from Scythes and deflecting over to where the SWAT members stood, moving Nikki, who walked along with them with her head hung low, along to the outside of the wall.
"Lightlad, I can't say I know what you're going through, with all this media attention centered on you and her, but I can tell you that I'll make each one of my men swear that they didn't see what you did today. That sound fair to you?" Scythes asked, Lightlad nodded his head as Scythes held out his hand and gripped Lightlad's with it, giving him a firm handshake.
"Now, I'm sure you're team could use a good wake up call right now" he said as he too exited the area, leaving Lightlad and his unconscious team-mates alone in the boxed in fort.
Red slowly and painfully opened his eyes and immediately felt his body become engulfed in a stinging, searing and burning pain, gritting his teeth tightly, he attempted to get to his feet, he felt like a god damn freight truck had just rammed into him, no, scratch that, make it a convoy of them.
His attempt to get to his feet failed as he succumbed to the pain from one of the many large gash across his body, this one on his forearm, stretching from his elbow to his wrist and had taken a large portion of his flesh with it.
Falling back down onto his bottom, Red placed a hand on his wound and looked up to see a truly delightful sight, there, standing in front of him, blocking his view from the path of the sun light, stood Slack, the gleam of the sun surrounding her giving her a truly angelic appearance.
She stood with her hand held out, extended directly before her, offering it to Red, who only smirked as he reached his undamaged arm forwards.
"Well, if you're not a sight for sore eyes, I don't know what is" he said with playful sarcasm, his face holding an equally playful grin with it as he graciously accepted her hand.
Slack smiled as she helped pull him too his feet, he was heavy, much heavier than herself, but his weight wasn't a pain to bare.
As he got to his feet she gave him a sincere smile, before bending him down to her level and running a hand through his hair, in a mix of worry and affection then staring him directly in the eye.
"Are you hurt?" She asked in a soft and sincere tone of voice, a tone which carried a true sense of care and concern with it. Red shook his head and turned to her.
"Only my pride" he said with a cocky grin attached to his face, though his statement was obviously misleading as he now walked with a slight limp, stopping every second step to grin his teeth before taking the next few steps, Slack frowned, he was defiant, that was for sure, but not in a bad way and besides, taming Red was just another one of the many challenges she'd have to complete in order to prove herself as a great leader, and, to tell the truth, she really didn't mind having to.
Behind the two older teens, their team-mates were slowly pulling themselves back into the previous state of security they'd held. Blizkid, who, for the most part, had remained pretty much un injured, a slight series of cuts being the worst he'd endured, stood beside a pained looking Tag, who continuously glanced down at Blizkid worriedly and, glanced more often, at Lightlad, before turning away in sorrow.
"Seeing as how Nikki's not here anymore, I assume it's safe to say that you got the job done?" Red asked Lightlad, placing his right hand on his shoulder, attempting to snap his unadjusted shoulder back into place.
"I don't want to talk about it" Lightlad said softly, Red refrained himself from saying anymore, he'd obviously hit a soft spot, and judging from the lack of enthusiasm in the typically spastic voice of Lightlad and the distress filled looks from Tag, something serious had obviously happened to alter the two's moods to one another, and, as much as a shame as it was to see the two, who were so close previously, to look they way they did right now, he didn't want to risk ruining what little friendship he had with Lightlad.
"Fair enough" Red said as he, along with Blizkid and Slack, headed towards the car, leaving both Tag and Lightlad several steps behind, both turned slowly to glance at one another, before turning away shyly, and in Tag's case, distressfully and followed after their team-mates, who were now several dozen steps away from them.
Jump City
One year ago.
Sam smiled to himself as he casually approached the front door to Nicole's house, a door, which, might he add, had a fresh, red, trim to it. A trim resulting from the near six hours he'd taken off of his own time to help her "fix up the place", though to him this was no chore, actually, a privilege would be a better term for it, Nicole had privileged him with allowing him to paint her house.
As he struck his knuckle against the door, in tune to the chorus of the song "More than a feeling" a song he and Nicole referred to as "their song", as cliché as it sounded, it had been the first song the two had heard on their first date and had stuck with them, as a duo, ever since.
Awaiting the door to open Sam suddenly began to get a sneaking suspicion that something just wasn't right, usually Nicole would open the door, with a great level of enthusiasm no less, and practically leap into his arms, but this just wasn't the case.
Twisting the doors handle, Sam slowly crept the door open, generating a slightly creeping sound with it, though this could only be heard by himself, it was still just as eerie, as the door finished opening, Sam saw a series of sights that only raised his suspicion.
The first of the signs that something was wrong lay on the floor directly under his nose, this 'sign' taking the form of a pair of thick black worker boots, which, Sam, could have sworn he'd seen somewhere else in his life, but couldn't remember for the life of him where.
Creeping into the house, making sure to step over the extra pair of foot attire as he did, Sam continued to creep through the small, light orange coloured hallway that led to the end of the bungalow, where he'd learned Nicole's room sat.
As he crept through the hallway, making sure, for whatever reason he gave himself why he was doing what he was doing, not to make so much as a sound as he did, he heard what sounded like the faint sound of laughter though this was in no way the gentle laugh that Nicole gave off, instead it was a harsh, rough and, crude sounding laugh, which like the boots, Sam was more than sure he'd heard before.
Finally, as he reached the door, he paused for a moment in order to allow his heart to take time to calm itself down, it having nearly doubled it's pace during his 'stealthy' trek through her house, finally, as it regained it's normal pace, if not a little slower, he placed a hand on the handle and slowly spun it open.
"-you should'a seen the look that ol' Birdbrain had on his face when I showed him my pipes, it was a lot like this" a rough, loud voice, sounding similar to the one which had been laughing, spoke roughly, which was followed soon after by the soft, infectious laugh of a very, very familiar voice, Nicole's.
No longer being able to bear the suspense, Sam pushed his entire weight against the door, literally slamming it open as he did, only to see the most painfully shocking sight of his entire life. There, laying on the bed, Nicole's bed, was the twosome of Nicole, his 'assumed' sweetheart as well as the tough face of, who he now realized to be, Johnny Rancid, Nicole's abusive ex-boyfriend, his arm draped over Nicole in a very, affectionate sort of way, while Nicole's own arm wrapped under and around his back, gently groping his stomach in not only an intimate but also affectionate sort of way, both of her hands in his hair, leaving this a very loving, yet, for poor Sam, heartbreaking scene.
Sam's mouth went agape as he tried to comprehend the scene present before him, there she was, HIS girlfriend, with HER hands wrapped around her ABUSIVE EX-boyfriend's chest, in a way which he could have sworn was reserved for only him, with HIS own arm wrapped around her in a way that he thought only he was allowed to do. A pair of devious, yet full-hearted smiles attached to each of the two cheating teen's faces, like they enjoyed this secret relationship they shared.
Feeling a surge of not only rage, but also betrayal, soar through his body, he raised a hand and aimed it directly at Nicole, whose face had fallen from her warm, loving, smile, to a look of pure and utter shock, which he himself had held only seconds prior.
"Oh my God, Sam! This, this…isn't what it looks like" She said as she quickly tore her hands from atop of Rancid's head and brought them down to her chest, before attempting to get up out of the bed, only to be stopped when Sam pointed his arm, equipped with a 'stop' sign made out of his open palm, a stern, but still pained look on his face.
"I stood up for you, I protected you, I loved you. And…I thought you loved me" he said in a soft whisper, using all his strength to fight back the tears that this painful betrayal was beginning to bring on. Nicole only bit her lower lip, tightly, tight enough to turn her chin a slight, pale colour of purple.
"…I'm so sorry Sam….I-" Nicole said, attempting to excuse her actions, but Sam, now past the point where he could take anymore quickly stopped her, mid sentence with a harsh "Just shut up! I don't wanna hear it!" which shocked everyone in the room, even himself.
All three of the house's patrons stood and in Johnny's case, lay lazily, in silence for a solid five minutes before Lightlad, having used the 'silence time' to gain a somewhat better understanding of the events before him, broke the uneasy silence.,
"I hope you're happy" he said silently, but still scornfully, as he slowly turned towards the door and began to slowly stalk away from the the backstabbing bitch.Walking away from his past and into his unsure future.
As he reached the door he gripped the handle tightly and slammed it, violently, behind him, the last sign of his passing aggravation, before beginning his long trek out of the house and back to his house, which lay several dozen blocks away. Normally he would have taken the bus, but, for some reason that just didn't seem appropriate to him right now, actually, a nice long walk seemed just like what the doctor ordered.
Several hours had passed by since the fight with Nikki, and aside from a few wounds, which Sev, with all his medical expertise, had taken care of, the team was pretty much back to normal, well, normal with the exception of Tag and Lightlad. Tag, having spent her time since returning home in her room and Lightlad, who was buisilly prepparing his 'Date' speech, the speech he'd use to ask Tag out, in his mind.
Currently, Lightlad stood, once again, before the solid silver door, which led to Tag's room, though this time he carried with him a new found confidence and strength that he was sure he would use when it came to his current objective.
Knocking on the door, boldly, Lightlad patiently awaited the door to open, already conjuring up the mental image of what Tag's face might look like when he asked her the question he'd been waiting all week to ask her, and he had to say, the results he saw in his mind were spectacular.
Slowly, the silver door whished open, bringing with it the face of Tag, who looked a lot less cheerful then she had in his mind, actually, she looked, dare he say it, sad, a lot more so than he'd seen her in the past, though, to be fare, aside from earlier this day, he hadn't seen her without a smile on her face.
"What?" She asked silently, her voice no longer carrying it's usual optimistic tone, the tone that he'd grown so accustomed too over the past couple of weeks that he'd known her, instead her voice carried a somewhat deadpan and, dare he say it, hurt, tone with it.
"Well, uh…I was wondering, since everything's been cleared up between me and….uh, Nikki-" He said, speaking her name quietly as not to get her any more upset than she appeared to be "-if, maybe you'd like to….go out for a coffee sometime?" he asked, eagerly awaiting her response, which he was more than sure would be an enthusiastic Yes.
"No" she said softly as she slowly turned her head away from Lightlad, trying her hardest to avoid staring at the pained expression that her single word had sparked on Lightlad's face.
"N-no?" Lightlad asked, his voice shaking heavily as he did, he couldn't believe what his ears had just heard her say, maybe he'd hallucinated, she couldn't have said no, he'd apologized to her at least five times, wasn't that enough?
"I'm sorry Lightlad…" she said in a soft whisper as she turned her head back towards him, her eyes were moist with tears, which slowly started to fully develop before rolling down her cheek, each dropping to the solid metal floor with a soft 'flip-flop-flip' noise, which broke the uneasy silence in the hallway.
She wiped her built up tears away with the back of her wrist, bowed her head down at the floor and gently raised a hand to the door's keypad, typing the numbers gently with her fingers before retreating into the rooms dark confines, the door sliding shut as she disappeared into the darkness.
Lightlad stood in a complete state of shock, he'd been rejected, and while this sensation wasn't new to him, the feeling of rejection he now felt was, and it hurt, it hurt a lot, actually he would go so far as to say it was the single most painful experience he had ever felt in his life.
As he ran his hands through his hair, trying to regain a grip of his lost stability, which felt like it was slowly slipping away, he felt intensly dizzy and seriously lightheaded, he needed to sit down...to think about things.
As he attempted to regain his composure he heard a quiet 'creek' from behind him, removing his hands from running, feriociously, through his hair and lowering them to his waist he turned around slowly to come face-to-faces with the remainder of his team, all of whom's faces held looks of dispair, even Red's.
Swallowing down the guilt and pain he felt, he bowed his head to the ground, much like Tag had, and began the short trek back to his room, leaving the rest of his team alone in the hallway, an uncomfortable silence begining to fill the empty space.
"Yikes" Sev said uncomfortably, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had entranced the foursome. Slack, who'd stood uncomfortably along with her team as they listened in on the two's conversation, bit her lower lip tightly, she could only imagine what Lightlad must have felt like at the moment, having gone through so much in one day wasn't easy for anyone, esspecially someone like Lightlad, esspecially since she knew, or at least thought she did, how much he cared for Tag. Releasing her teeth's grip from around her lower lip, she silently broke off from the group and headed down the hall, she knew what she had to do, it was her duty, not just as leader, but also as Lightlad's friend.
Lightlad lay silently atop of his bed, no longer wearing his costume, which lay on the floor several feet away from him. Instead he was dressed rather casually, actually, the clothes he wore now were the same clothes that he would have worn on his and Tag's first date, a pair of blue jeans, his favourite pair, a grey T-shirt, red dress shirt and his 'lucky' pair of green "Sesame Street" socks, the same ones he'd worn on his first trip to the café where he'd first met Nicole.
Grinning his teeth in a painful manner, he tried to push that thought, the thought of the fun times he and Tag would have shared, the thought of him being the perfect gentleman for her, pulling her chair out from under the seat and lending her a hand out of the T-car, the thought of him and her sharing a laugh over a movie they would have been watching at the theatre, the thought of himself being happy, from his mind, but, since he couldn't think of anything to replace it with, he found it to be a difficult task.
As he released his pent up, intense rage, all of which was towards himself, in the form of a heavy, ragged, groan, he heard the silent 'Whish' of his door opening. Not wanting to know who it was, he turned his head away from the open light, instead turning it towards the far side of his room, where the solid silver metal wall displayed the imprint of a female figure slowly approaching his bed.
His heart skipped a beat, she'd came back, Tag had came back, for whatever reason it was, probably to let him apoligize for, or at least explain his earlier actions, and boy-oh-boy, did he have one hell of an apology planned for her. He smiled to himself, turning his once sorrow filled frown to an overjoyed smile, before he leapt up and off of the bed, whipping his body to face Tag.
As he turned his head to face her, an apology for his earlier actions already scripted in his mind, his smile dropped, slightly, as he saw that instead of Tag, like he'd imagined to be standing there, a smile on her face and embracing arms wide open, there stood Slack, with a strong look of heavy concern, which he'd never seen in her before, attached to her face.
"Oh…it's just you" he said softly, trying to cover his obvious disappointment, Slack's smile dimmed slightly before she walked towards the bed he now sat on, plopping down a seat right beside him.
"Sorry to disappoint you" she said with a semi-smile, Lightlad smiled slightly before exhaling another deep breath of seeded rage.
"I'm sorry…I was just…well, you know" He said softly, Slack's smile increased slightly as she moved closer to Lightlad.
"I don't mean to sound offensive…but, uh, why exactly are you here?" he asked, Slack's smile increased tenfold as she turned to him.
"It may not seem like it at times, but I care about you. Just like I care about the rest of the team. So I came to check up on you and see how you were doing…and to let you know that if you want to talk, that I'm here to listen" She said warmly, Lightlad frowned slightly, he wasn't really in a 'talking mood', breaking a heart and having your's broken sure didn't make him feel like doing much else but lay in his bed and bask in the 'glow' of self-pitty, thinking about what he'd done, could have done and should have done.
"I don't really feel like talking right now" He said laying his head back down on the bed, Slack nodded her head, she was almost entirely sure he would have said that, but who could blame him, after everything he'd gone through today it was amazing that he'd even talked to her, and, while it was somewhat saddening to know that she couldn't help him, on the bright side, at least she could say she tried to help.
"Ok" she said with a soft smile as she got off the bed and began to slowly walk towards the door, walking slow enough to give Lightlad just enough time to re-think his options, as was the second part of her 'plan'. Swallowing lightly, Lightlad realized that not only had he been rude to the one person willing to talk to him, but also that talking might just do him more good than not. Gathering up the strenght to admit to himself he was wrong, he cleared his throat and called out to Slack.
"Slack…wait" he called out, Slack stopped right in front of his door, a smile attached to her face, she knew he would say that, turning around she walked back to her place on the bed and again plopped down beside him, her face carrying a gentle smile the whole time.
"So, why don't you start at the beginning?" she offered, Lightlad nodded his head, scratched his chin lightly and began to tell his long, tiresome and, in his own mind, depressing story.
"Well, I guess it all started one day, about a year ago, when I stopped off at this small Café in the middle of Jump City-" He began, starting from what he assumed to be the beginning of this seemingly random turn of events, which had led to this very moment.
Across from the brightly gleaming 'T' shaped tower that the six teens the city called heroes lived in, Hoffman sat, impatiently, in his brown leather chair, his index, middle finger and thumb tightly gripping a half smoked brown cigar.
"Mr. Hoffman, sir?" he heard a voice call out from behind him, spiralling his chair backwards to see his associate, Dexter Hoxie standing in his now open doorway, half of his body in his view and the remainder hidden in the dark shadows behind him.
"Yes, Mr. Hoxie?" Hoffman asked as he put the Cigar to his lips.
"She's here" Hoxie said, Hoffman cracked a soft smile, turned his head to the corner of the room, which was concealed by a dark shadow, caused by the dark, moonless night which shone through his window, before turning back towards Hoxie.
"Very nice. Send her in please, Dexter" he said, Hoxie nodded his head and walked into the shadowed hallway, before re-emerging shortly after, this time followed by a second body, this one the body of a teenaged girl, who, stepping into the light, revealed herself to be Nikki.
"Ahh, Mrs. Night, please, come in, come in" Hoffman said kindly as he waved for her to come forwards, which she did gracefully.
"Mr. Hoffman sir, thank you, so much, for getting me out of jail….I owe you so much more than I can ever repay you. I'm sorry I couldn't get the Titans……I was, distracted and-" She began to say, speaking in a quick, jittery and nervous tone of voice, only to be 'hushed' down by Hoffman.
"Please, Mrs. Night, there's no need to feel remorse, none at all. You did exactly what I wanted you to do, you tested them, gave them an 'exam', and with the knowledge you're little endeavour gave me, I've devised a foolproof plan to put them to an end once and for all…but first, I'd like for you to meet some, friends of mine Mrs. Night-" Hoffman said turning from Nikki towards the shadowed part of his room, he raised a hand and ushered a 'come here' gesture with his knuckles.
Suddenly a series of bodies began to slowly emerge from the shadowed area of the room, the first was an attractive, brown haired and pale skinned teen, whose face held a sarcastic grin with it, he was dressed in an entirely black uniform which included pants, shirt and jacket, with all three articles of clothing going together to form a sort of 'uniform', which, Nikki had to admit, made him look extremely desirable.
Behind him stood a beautiful, for lack of a better word, blonde haired teenaged girl, her face holding a flirtatious smirk as she winked, seductively, at Nikki, a wink which, Nikki was embarrassed to say, made her blush, be it ever so slightly, she, like the first teen, was dressed in an all black uniform, but, unlike the first teens, her jacket was replaced by a black hoodie.
To the right of the blonde haired girl stood a significantly taller and more muscular teen, he had a small patch of hair underneath his lip as well as an aggravated grin attached to his face, his head was partially covered by a black bandana which was tightly wrapped around his forehead.
The final member of the foursome was a short, or at least shorter than the others, teen, whose long, ratty hair, which almost formed a set of natural dreadlocks, shielded his face, leaving only his body exposed, which, in turn, was covered by his own version of their 'uniform' his taking the form of a black vest, white muscle shirt and grey cargo pants, with a pair of tip-less black gloves covering his hands.
The first teen stepped forwards, held out his hand and gave Nikki a heart grabbing smile, a smile, which Nikki was almost embarrassed to say made her double up with nervousness as she slowly extended her arm to his, gripping his hand tightly, a cause of her nervousness, when she did.
"I'm Cain-" he said with a smile as he turned to face the rest of the teens, extending an arm towards them as he did "-and I think you and I would make real good friends".
Nikki's smile only widened as she continued to shake Cain's hand, she liked where this was going, she liked it a lot, continuing to smile, almost flirtatiously, at Cain, she gently released her grip from around his hand and lowered it to her waist gently.
"Please. Call me, Muse" she said with a flirtatious grin, taking that very moment to decide upon her new name, taking the first step towards abandoning her past as boring old Nikki Night and embracing her future as Muse, a future which she'd share with Cain and his 'friends', and she had to admit, she was looking foward to it, looking foward to it alot.
I really hate to leave you all with yet another cliffhanger ending, but, I can assure you, they're all leading to something, something big (or so I have planned, but things do change). But, without any further ado, it's time for the most important part of the entire chapter, that's right, another of The Captains Crazy Trivia segments.
The first bit of trivia would be that, originally, I'd intended for Nikki to really be Nicole, but decided against it and instead decided to make her seem vaguely fammiliar to Lightlad as a way of bringing back his dreaded memories, again, this trivia makes "Trivial pursuit JR." look good, but it's the best I could cook up with such a short amount of time on my hands, so, please, enjoy what little useless tidbits I present you with, I'll make sure there's more next chapter.
Well, with that little bit o' trivia said it's time for part 2. The character of Captain Rhodes, the morally pathetic, socially challenged and akward to be around SWAT captain, is modeled after actor Jason Bateman (Of Arrested Development fame)...useless trivia I know but I thought I might as well share it with you.
Aside from the above, there really isn't that much trivia to write about with this chapter, it was a pretty standard chapter with a few standing out points, but, I know as soon as I post it, I'll remeber something really important and regret having to edit it...oh well, live and learn.
Next Chapter: After a young teenaged girl is bit by a 'rabbid dog', leaving her hospitalized, the Titans are called in to investigate, but when the bite marks turn out to be from an animal non-existant in the animal kingdom, the Titans find themselves having to hunt down an animal they thought only existed in the realm of low budgeted horror movies. Meanwhile, a distressed Blizkid is tasked with watching over the hospitalized teen, a task that he doesn't seem to mind fufilling.
