Sorry! I forgot the disclaimer last chapter! So here's two to make up for the last one.
I DON'T OWN THE TEEN TITANS.
I DON'T OWN THE TEEN TITANS.
Crimson and Adriana exchanged a look that told each of them that their personal dispute was not over. Then Emerald struck, Crimson dodged easily with a barrel roll. Adriana responded holding out both arms straight summoning liquid from every corner of Mickey's Diner to freeze. Icicles forming in glasses, pipes froze and snapped spraying enough frozen mist to momentarily blind the lizard. It stopped charging to shakes its head while Emerald tried to contain her beast.
Crimson recovered and black flipped to land right behind his sister on the saddle she sat on.
Emerald threw her elbow backward, Crimson dodged easily grabbing her and straightening it and pinning it behind her. Emerald yelped in the sudden pain, she snarled a curse and flicked her head backward catching him on the chin. By now the lizard had recovered from the distraction. Emerald pulled on the reigns making her beast rear on its hind legs. Crimson fell back and hit the ground.
Adriana froze the water from someone's empty booth and levitated it, shaping it with a single thought turning it into a deadly sharp iscicle. She stretched out an arm striking it against the lizard's throat and stopping just short before Emerald cried, "NO!"
Adriana stopped dagger just grazing the reptile's skin. Crimson picked himself up. Adriana glanced at him just briefly. Emerald stared at Adriana's makeshift weapon fearfully.
"I didn't come prepared to fight," Emerald said mostly to Crimson. She turned to him to stare at him. "I'm very disappointed in you little brother. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday."
"I did not order one of my teammates to follow me," Crimson said glancing at Adriana who still had her arm stretched out directly at the levitating icicle. Emerald sighed. She looked from the blue girl to Crimson again.
"I'll see you around. Tell Mom I said hi," she said sadly. Crimson nodded.
"Will do," Crimson agreed with a nod. With that Emerald turned back around and rode the lizard at a remarkable speed which was impossible for either of them to follow. Adriana let the iscicle fall and crash to the ground. Crimson glanced over at her direction as the sound of sirens were coming near. Shattered ice and rubble covered the floors.
"You wanna get out of here before the cops show up?" Adriana asked. It was pure habit for her to save the day and flee the scene, but since their vigilante became legal thanks to the Agency. Crimson was still watching the direction his sister had left. He sighed heavily.
"The surveillance should explain it all. If they want any more details they'll contact the Agency who will tell them everything they need to know," he said. Adriana nodded. With a wave of her hand the shards of ice rose and fused together making Adriana's ice platform. She stepped on top of it. It floated about a foot off the ground with Adriana's absolute telekinetic control.
"You need a ride?" she asked. Crimson didn't respond. He only stepped on top of the platform. Adriana directed the platform out the hole in the wall that Emerald's lizard had created. The ride home was silent. Adriana didn't feel the need to interrogate Crimson right away. Crimson didn't feel the need to scold Adriana for sticking her nose in his business just this moment. But as soon as they reached the abandoned nuclear shelter that was their lair Adriana parked the platform on the ground.
"Do you want to talk about this now?" she asked. Crimson sidghed.
"I suppose you're going to tell them anyway," he said. She nodded.
"Yeah. But it'd be easier if they had your side of the story," Adriana said. They stood at the asphalt outside the hatch in the floor that led to the nuclear shelter. Inside Ghost was probably narrowly side stepping Death with Hammer hot on his tail. Or maybe Celestial had finally calmed them down and they were all watching television. Or maybe they were training.
The latter was unlikely.
Crimson put his hands in his pockets.
"My mother and father are quite opposites. Their relationship was based on the fact that they loved argue with one another," Crimson started. "My father had grown up in a secret society, though Red had no idea of it at the time. He mastered in the arts of wizardry, magic, runes... He was to mystics as Albert Einstein was to physics. My mother mastered in technology and science. She believed in order. She created technology and weaponry for the Agency, though my father didn't know it of the time." He paused to look at Adriana for effect. Her brow was furrowed.
"Magic?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Really?"
"I know it seems unlikely," Crimson said. He stared at the nearby abandoned video store. He sat on the nearby curb not believing he was actually telling someone of his family history. "Both my mother and father figured about one another's secret lives. This of course set an entire chain of strange events. My mother tried to understand magic and use it for technology's benefit. My father did the same. They ended up creating terrible weapons that were banned by the government. When my mother was pregnant with my sister and I things turned for the worst."
"Are they divorced?" Adriana asked. She then felt a little guilty for being so forward.
"No. To this day they are still madly in love with one another," Crimson said. He continued, "We were born and my parents immediately started to notice inherited talents. I had an immeasureable IQ like my mother, Emerald had a talent with magic. When my father started to train my sister how to use magic my mother found out that he was using dark magic. She didn't like it. Then she found out that he was making... plans that had to do with his own ideals. They fought and my father ended up leaving with my sister, leaving me with my mother."
Adriana nodded and stared at the asphalt next to him on the curb.
"Your dad and your sister. They're villains," Adriana said with a tone of understanding. He nodded to confirm.
"The chip we found in Hammer had his signature," Crimson said. Adriana nodded. There was a silence. He was through talking. But there was one thing that was still bothering Adriana.
"What were the 'old habits' you were talking about?" she asked. She thought she almost saw Crimson smile.
"I used to be a theif," he said. Adriana's jaw dropped.
"You were a bad guy?"
"Only for a while. I had an opportunity to test my skills. Then it stopped being fun and the Agency caught up with me," he said. Adriana cocked her head in confusion. Something about the word 'fun' sounded strange coming out of Crimson's mouth. He stood up and brushed off his loosely worn suit. "Shall we go inside? I have a lot of explaining to do. Though I have a mind to tell Ghost and Celestial about Hammer's chip privately. No matter what Celestial says this encounter only proves we cannot just hand over our trust."
"Yeah," Adriana said. Crimson started to head toward the hatch in the ground. "Hey, Crims?"
He turned.
"I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I shouldn't have butt into your personal life," she said.
Crimson gave a naturally menacing smile.
"I suppose it was necessary. This was going to come out sooner or later. But I don't want to hear anything from you when I start to dig into your past," he said with a playful wink as he opened the hatch and started to make his way down.
Adriana paled. She wasn't sure he was joking.
Hehehe... I'm having fun. I hope you are too. But the most important thing is that I'm having fun.