8: Under Cement and Dust
Olivia raced after Robin down the hall just in time to see him head for the roof via window fire escape. She didn't allow even a second of hesitation before following him. Armed with only her camera and a determination to make the front page, she leveled herself and snapped a frame before making her way to the roof. Once there She was met with a low hum that sounded like a helicopter and watched the blond psycho ascend over the rooftop atop a killer moth.
She captured another frame, the girls face was stoic, watching a building crumble. She didn't seem angry, or upset, just going about her destruction with an eerie calm. She turned suddenly at the utterance of her name.
"Kitten!" He yelled.
She looked down on him. "Hello Robin. I suppose you're going to try and stop me now."
"I doubt I'll have to try very hard."
"HA! Now that's where you're wrong my dear. I've made some improvements to my father's design and I'm just thrilled you're here for my little reintroduction as jump city's princess of crime."
"I'm flattered, but you'll have to deal with more than just me." With that, a barrage of green starbolts lit up the the great humming beast's left flank. It screeched roared, turning to face the threat. Kitten growled and yelled a command, causing the moth to open it's mouth and charge some kind of blast, destroying the upper floor of a building while Starfire dodged the attack. Kitten laughed maniacally and yelled the commands repetitively, causing buildings all around her to catch fire and rain debris down onto streets. Olivia paused and watched the devastation, hurling her camera to the ground and sprinting back to her apartment- deciding at once what to do.
The Titans charged the moth, beast boy was attacking in the form of a pterodactyl when kitten yelled the command again. Beastboy thought fast, coiling around the monster's mouth as python halting the attack. Starfire took the shot, and flew into kitten, wrenching her from the moths back.
The moth flew into a rage, charging after Starfire. Beast Boy lost his grip and spiraled to the ground. The moth didn't fire at Starfire, but kept pace with the alien, roaring furiously.
"Let me go you dumb bimbo!" She raged, trying to free herself.
"You are vulgar and rood!" She flew higher, trying to lose it, to no avail. She decided the moths delicate wings could probably be destroyed by buildings, so she flew lower, into the city. Robin stood on the roof giving commands through an ear piece.
"Cyborg, Raven- Evacuate the damaged buildings! Beast Boy- give Starfire an assist."
Olivia was madly rummaging through her drawers in search of a little black box. She pulled a sweater away from a drawer revealing the box in question and ran to the rooftop. She was met with a scene unfolding in front of her that took a moment to process. Robin was firing his grappling gun to escape the impact of the giant moth. Beast Boy had hit one of the wings and sent it off course, straight towards Olivia.
The moth barreled through the building and kept going. As the roof crumbled down, she took a deep breath, aimed, and jumped, landing at the last second on the moths back. She hung on for dear life as the moth took up persuit of Starfire and kitten once again.
Robin watched from a rooftop with horror as he spotted Olivia on the creature's back.
"Starfire! Get lower! A civilian is on the moth!" He yelled frantically into the earpiece. He watched her process the information and make a dive for an empty city street. As the moth grazed the ground at dangerous speeds, it suddenly disappeared, a lava taking its place, and throwing Olivia to the ground.
Robin cursed and grappled a building in the general direction.
He was the first on scene. He sprinted to his friend lying on the cold cement. She was out, laying in the fetal position clutching a slimy larvae to her chest with one hand and a little black box with the other.
He checked her pulse and yelled her name. He shook her arm as the others arrived, looking on solemnly.
"Olivia-wake up. Olivia! Can you hear me? OLIVI-" Olivia suddenly opened her eyes and rolled onto her back, coughing. She lifted the sluggish bug off her chest into the air.
"Somebody take this thing." She said through gritted teeth.
"Ohthankgod." Robin sighed, taking the bug. "What the hell were you doing?!" He yelled.
Olivia sat up carefully, checking herself for injury. "I was just- saving the day." She gave him a weak smile, holding up the black box.
"A cellphone jammer?" Asked cyborg, taking the box and helping her up.
"Right, I figured... you know, what's a teenage girl going to use if she needs to send a signal to the moth?" Starfire rifled through kittens pockets, producing a pink flip phone with a little butterfly dangle.
"This is the cell-phone?" She asked. Cyborg nodded. Starfire gave kitten a cold glare and crushed the phone in her fist.
"YOU BITCH!" She screamed. Starfire looked extremely satisfied with herself. The trail of profanities didn't end until the cops drug her into the back of the cruiser and left.
Olivia looked on sadly as the JCFD tried to extinguish the inferno that was once her apartment.
"What are you going to do now?" Inquired Starfire, with genuine remorse in her voice.
She considered her words for a moment. "I'll have to start all over." She sighed.
"Not completely." Robin said, brushing the dust off a plain blue folder. He gave her the file. Olivia opened it and smiled as tears made clean trails down her cheeks through the layer of dust.
"Good. I still have a job at least."
"You should stay with us!" Everyone looked at Starfire. Robin was surprised, considering how she protested Olivia earlier.
"Yeah! It's the least we can do!" Agreed cyborg.
"Seeing as how we destroyed your apartment." Said Raven. Beast Boy remained silent, crossing his arms and glaring at the ground.
He was outvoted, and made it clear he was displeased. "I'll meet you back at the tower." He said, making brief eye contact with each of them. "It was nice to meet you Olivia." His words were polite, but his tone was low, almost aggressive. He became a bird and flew off.
Robin looked at Olivia, who had a look of shock on her face. "Well? What do you say?" She considered for a moment before nodding.
"Okay... just until I find a new place." She smiled at the team warmly.
Starfire exploded. "Wonderful! We can become best friends!" She hugged Olivia tightly, causing her to gasp for air.
"She can come with me" offered Raven kindly.
They all set out at once, leaving raven and Olivia alone. "Let's go find some clothes." With that raven formed a dark bubble around the pair and levitated to the level of the apartment. They salvaged a few articles of clothing and a suitcase, and phased back to the tower.
A warm welcome awaited, accompanied by a tour of the tower, (limited to the communal living spaces for security) and the code for the guest room.
After a shower and dinner, only Robin and Olivia were left in the ops room. He flipped on the tv hoping to catch his favorite show, but it had ended, so he settled for channel flipping. "That was some move you pulled today." He said. Olivia was on the other end of the couch, writing notes to go with the villains month pictures. She smirked at him and continued writing.
"I don't know what I was thinking. I just reacted." Robin nodded and continued channel flipping.
"That's how we do it." He stated matter of factly. She looked at him with some confusion. "Heroes. You know. We're all a little crazy. If we ever stopped to think about how dangerous a situation is, we probably wouldn't do it."
"Than you've got a real problem with impulse control my friend."
He laughed and stopped on an old sitcom for almost five seconds before flipping some more."Would you like to join us for training tomorrow?" Olivia looked up, hardly hiding her surprise.
"You wouldn't mind me taking pictures?"
"Oh, well actually I was asking if you'd want to train with us." She looked skeptical, so Robin pushed on. "I'm guessing you've had some pretty extensive training. I'll admit I was pretty impressed by what you did today, and the pressure point thing you used leads me to believe fighting is more than just a hobby for you."
She didn't respond right away, but simply nodded. "That's true. I've been trained since childhood. How very perceptive of you."
"You don't like fighting?"
"It's not that, it's just... it's not something I like to broadcast."
"You don't have to go, I just thought I'd-"
"I'll go." Robin looked at her with a calming warmth. He was genuinely glad she would be joining them for training. It meant he had coaxed her one step closer to joining the team.
That night after everyone else had gone to bed, robin sat awake at his computer.
Somewhere, deep in the cavernous depths lurking deep below the bedlam of Gotham city, Bruce Wayne opened an email.
He carefully scanned the attachment that his protege had sent him. An ominous thundering laughter flooded the cave, bringing to life the nocturnal screeching lifeforms dwelling forever in the darkness. Bruce laughed. This picture captured them so well.