19. A Hive at the Opera part 8 Final
Beast Boy and I, who had spent so many awful hours in the infiltration of that opera house, were helpless to do anything but watch in stunned silence. The same can be said of Gizmo, Jinx, Mammoth, and Killer Moth; whose entire plan and motive hinged upon the strategic restraint of using that infernal trigger.
So it ended up being Cyborg—the stranger to these horrid proceedings—who dashed over, grabbed Killer Moth by the throat, and slammed him against a wall growling: "What's going to happen?!?!?!"
"You mean what is *already* happening!" Killer Moth retorted over the sound of the orchestra. "Thanks to my ever so 'dutiful' daughter, my creatures are being released far earlier than I had anticipated!"
"And just WHEN were you anticipating?!" Cyborg shouted.
"Never!!" Killer Moth shoved the android away and brushed his costume off. "My whole point was to just threaten the audience! Never truly release the swarm! Fear is the motivating factor in this case!"
"Then why have a freakin' hive to begin with?!"
"What is fear without a sense of reality?!"
Beast Boy kicked Gizmo off him and shouted down from the lighting fixture. "They'll be coming out of the river and heading for us any minute!"
"Um…bad?" Mammoth grunted with a question mark over his head.
Cyborg sweatdropped. He looked at me. "Any bright ideas?"
I stared at him dumbly.
"Right…Titan Smash," Cyborg switched his fist into a laser cannon.
"NO!" Killer Moth shrieked. "You will not hurt my chil—"
FLASH!!!
A bright pink hex wave struck at the costumed villain's feet and knocked him back into the wall.
Jinx held her glowing hands up and looked at everyone else. "Allright…who else here wants to live?"
"Me! Me!" Gizmo sprang to his feet, swung on a rope, and landed on a platform just in front of the roof-level exit. He swung the door open and shrieked as dog-sized moths swarmed into the theatre en masse, their wings buzzing with an intensity that threatened to drown out the unknowing opera below. Gizmo ducked the fluttering monstrosities, covering his head.
There was a screaming sound. We all turned around and looked at a hall leaning into the backstage where a few straggling stagehands ran dramatically away from a sudden cluster of blood-thirsty insects.
"They're coming in from all sides!" Beast Boy said, sliding down the backdrop and to the floor. He ran up to Cyborg and gestured, "How can we stop them all?!"
Cyborg glared over at the two H.I.V.E. youngsters nearest to him. "Gonna just sit back and watch? How cold blooded are you punks?"
Jinx rested her hands against her hips and smirked.
Mammoth shrugged and said, "Killer Moth…he programmed the bugs not to attack us. You're the ones who're screwed."
"Some programming!!" Gizmo squealed from up high. Everybody looked and saw the munchkin wrestling against a ravenous moth on the platform above. "Does this *look* like they're on our sides?! Get away!" He blasted it with a backpack laser and hovered away with jets.
Mammoth gasped, spun around, and shook his fist at Killer Moth. "Why….you…"
"Did you actually think I'd factor in your safety when it comes to chemically programming my swarm?" Killer Moth limply stood up. "All Hell has blown loose…and you're along for the ride, kiddies!"
More and more insects started filling the backstage.
Jinx charged up her hex energy and got into a defensive posture.
Mammoth cracked his knuckles.
Gizmo perched atop a prop and loaded two laser rifles from his backpack.
Cyborg looked at Beast Boy, me, and then everywhere.
"Split up!!" he commanded.
"Aye!" Beast Boy jumped to action. "I'll get the top side!"
"I'll get the hallways!" Cyborg shouted.
A pause.
They both looked at each other. "The front entrance!!!" they both shouted. Then, as if on cue, they looked at me.
I looked at them, the villains, and the bugs…and rolled my black eyes. I unsheathed Myrkblade, spun around to face the backdrop, and—with one fatal swing—broke the secret.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!
Gypsies and dancers and opera singers gasped and jumped out of the way as I burst through and onto the main stage. There was a rush and roll of screams and gasps and utterings of shock from the humungous crowd stretching before me. I would have gotten stage fright, had not the damn spotlight penetrated my onyx peepers underneath the shades and just about blinded me.
I stepped forward while some actors regarded me with confusion. Using an arm to block the glare of the spotlight, I scanned the audience, the seats, the opera boxes, the rafters, and the bulging doors in the back. Bulging?
I gasped.
There!
The huge double doors to the theatre were pounding and buckling in from some unprecedented force on the other side. My new foes in question.
The orchestra kept playing, too deafened by their own music to tell that anything was amiss with the interrupted opera or the shocked crowd as a whole.
Before stepping off the stage, I glanced down and caught sight of none other than Ms. Cartwright herself. She was staring up at me, mouth agape, a hand over her chest.
I simpered, sweatdropped, readjusted my shades, and blurred forward.
A woman or two screamed as I soared overhead. A river of heads and bodies parted as I whisped a B-Line for the bulging doors. Every other step I took was a leap off of a seat's headrest. As the back of the theatre rushed towards me, I held up Myrkblade.
The doors cracked.
I gritted my teeth.
The hinges shattered.
I trailed heated smoke and dove into…
SMASH!!!!
The doors fell apart and a veritable wall of evil moths poured out screaming and drooling, only to meet Myrkblade.
SLASH!!! HACK!! CUTTTTT!!! RIP!!!! SHRED!!!!
Legs and mandibles and thoraxes and abdomens and entrails flew as I showed the rabid insects no mercy. I had seen photos and autopsy evidence of them from previous adventures before thanks to Robin. But this was my first up close and personal experience. And I was making it last….for me at least. The bugs weren't so lucky.
A large one came at me, shrieking. I spun and slashed downward, cutting the creature in half lengthwise. Two more came from above. I knelt and raised my staff up to stab through the necks of first one, then the second. A crafty creature circled around and sneaked up from behind. Before I could feel a hair of its legs contact my neck, I swiveled on my knees, exhaled, and slashed upwards in a diagonal fashion. Bug juice littered the scene, and it wasn't long before the moths flew back into the now-smashed atrium of the opera house, searching for a safer way to enter and devour the contents within.
I looked over my shoulder and caught glance of the battle on the other side of the theatre. The actors and actresses had long cleared the stage, and Cyborg and Mammoth were blasting off an unrelenting wave of evil Insecta. Above them, Gizmo and Beast Boy flew on rocket fuel and green wings, firing and slashing at every intruder that came from the rooftop entrance. Killer Moth was frantically shouting at everyone to stop hurting his wonderful creations. And…Jinx? Well, I wasn't so sure.
The orchestra stupidly continued pounding away, and just about every other person in the stage was standing up and spinning around—anxiously and fearfully watching the violent situation at hand.
Then I heard a scream from above…above me.
I looked up, and saw opera boxes.
The balcony seats!
I had then figured out where the new route of the bugs' was taking them.
I swiftly flung the broken doors back in front of the main entranceway's frame, blurred up, and leapt towards the walls. My feet murking, I dashed straight up the siding, jumped off, flipped, and landed in an opera box where four wealthy audience members were cowering from an onslaught of three, drooling insects. With one gasp and horizontal swing of my blade, all moths were severed apart in an instant.
I heard a shout from the adjacent opera box and spotted a woman fighting off a moth that was trying to tear at her face.
I leapt over and slashed the head off of the insect just as a shriek brought me to the attention of yet another opera box.
And so I proceeded to cover the perimeter of the second story, hopping from balcony seat to opera box to balcony seat, rescuing patrons in the nick of time and slashing bugs apart with wild abandon.
About halfway through the trip, I streaked past Jinx. A bit startled, I looked back at her.
She cat-eyed-winked at me and acrobatically recovered my tracks, where apparently more insects were congregating. I realized that she had been covering the second story on the other side of the theatre, and I was doing the same task of double-checking her bug-crushing handiwork.
Below me, Cyborg was wasting bugs away with his laser rifle. To his dismay, bits and pieces of bug innards littered the first few rows like a Gallagher showing. Rich people 'icked' and 'ewwed' as their various dresses and suits of immaculate nature were ruined by the falling entrails.
Mammoth charged his hulking body through a throng of mutant insects. Every now and then he'd grab two of the vile creatures in his grip and smash their exoskeletons together. He seemed to be enjoying himself…that is until the creatures started biting back.
Gizmo hovered about, under and over ropes, in and around light fixtures. All the while he fired a steady stream of laserblasts at the swarming foe, littering the backstage with shells and wings and legs. Once or twice a creature latched onto jetpack, and the boy slammed the boost into full gear, burning the unwanted passenger into ashes.
Beast Boy had his hands, talons, and wings full of morphing into various airborne creatures to complete his expert dogfighting. With a pterodactyl beak, he bit through a bug or two before switching into a falcon and grasping another monster in mid-air before flinging it violently against another, then pursuing a new opponent with bat sonar.
Killer Moth was…well…a female dog.
Our battle eventually filled every corner of the theatre. Superpowers and mutant moths converged and conflicted at every level and under every shadow, and in every space available. Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I were careful to steer the action away from the innocent bystanders at hand. The H.I.V.E. members were more or less doing the same thing, howbeit admittedly with less concern for the occupants of the seating arrangement.
During the ordeal, Ms. Cartwright cowered in the front row with her fellow producers. In the sidelines, Sandy watched from a hiding place safely behind a set piece. Kitten and the other extras joined the actors in a mad dive into the orchestra pit, where they hid beneath the musicians and covered their heads and shivered. Mr. Anderson peered in from a clear hallway, gasped, pulled at whatever hair he had left, and went dashing away from the combat.
But it soon became evident that the quantity of the invasion outmatched the quality of our efforts. No matter how much we covered our ground and gave it our best, the stream of incoming mutants became more and more concentrated. Far more than I ever imagined the underwater dome capable of holding.
H.I.V.E. noticed this too…perhaps even earlier than my two teammates and I. I was within earshot of them, but too far away to act when they spoke to each other, back to back.
"Snort it!" Gizmo cursed. "This is a lost cause! Let's get that crummy jewel and be out of here!"
"Yeah! Nuts to this place!" Mammoth grunted, fighting off a moth or two.
"Jinx!" Gizmo spun and shouted towards the pink sorceress far above the ground-level fray. "The grappling hook! Now's the time! Get that fat woman's jewel and let's be done with it!"
Jinx looked down. She paused. Then she saluted…almost too formally for her own good.
It struck me curious.
Amidst slashing away at a few bugs, I looked at her through my peripheral vision.
The pink witch flipped down to the first floor, perched on a seat's headrest, and aimed her grappling hook at the Khaza Ruby far away on Ms. Calico's brooch. The large woman huffed forth a gasp.
Jinx winked and pulled the trigger.
POW!!!
People shrieked and ducked.
SWIIIIIISH!
The grappling hook soared over, its cord dangling behind, and clamped over the jewel.
CLANK!!
Jinx yanked on the cord.
WOOSH!!!
The ruby was ripped off of the woman's blouse and flew into Jinx's feminine grasp.
"You thief!!" Ms. Calico stood up, shaking. A desperate audience member pulled her back down for safety.
"Good! Now let's get out of here!!" Gizmo shouted.
"No you don't!!" Cyborg grunted. He made a move to intercept the H.I.V.E. members, but was caught up in a throng of blood-thirsty moths. Both Beast Boy and I were similarly preoccupied with our insectoid enemy.
"Come on, Jinx!!" Mammoth said, plowing his way towards the side hallways. "………Jinx??"
Mammoth froze long enough to get a good look at the girl.
Gizmo similarly froze. He glared at Jinx with curved, speck eyes and uttered. "Jinx?! What gives?!"
The sorceress stood still, perched on the edge of a headrest while the rest of the room tossed and turned in chaos. She stared directly at the gem in her hand. Deadpan.
"Jinx?!?!"
Slowly, the girl looked over at her H.I.V.E. companions. A Cheshire cat grin lit her face and her cat eyes thinned. "You know what's so special about this amazing jewel we're after?"
Mammoth smashed in a few moth skulls and glanced over, sweating and panting.
Gizmo flew over into the walkway between the seats and glanced curiously at Jinx.
"Sure…your answer will probably be, 'H.I.V.E. needs this for a weapon of unprecedented caliber'. And indeed, that is the truth. The Khaza Jewel has enough electromagnetic power to short out any and all fields of energy. With a high powered laser as its vessel, it can level out a city…a power grid…even half a country. But what's really special is what it can do to just about anything within arm's length. Take my tracking device for example…"
Those who could watch did so—dumbfounded—as the mercenary girl brought the jewel to her chest. The light source that was the tracking device in her neck blinked wildly as the ruby suddenly glowed and a tiny bolt of energy was exchanged between the object and her skin. Jinx winced ever so slightly, and a trickle of blood came out from the burn mark that was once her signature of imprisonment to H.I.V.E.'s control.
Mammoth gasped.
Gizmo twitched.
Jinx looked up, juggling the Khaza Jewel in one palm. "What's the matter, boys? Ever seen a free person before?"
"You…You…You…….," Gizmo stuttered. "You betray us?"
"As luck would have it…," Jinx mused and pocketed the jewel. "I have more important things in life to do than kiss up to H.I.V.E. any longer. Like selling this lovely gem to the highest bidder in the criminal underworld. I'm sure impressing the right people—aside from H.I.V.E.—is the best plan I have available for ever finding out where my sisters are. And, quite frankly, it sucks to be you."
"Why you…," Gizmo shook, aimed a laser rifle from his backpack, and charged up to fire.
Jinx spun gracefully and extended a hand.
A wave of pink light flew over the heads of the people and struck Gizmo's backpack. The item sparkled before exploding, sending the boy flying forwards with a cry.
Mammoth growled, stomped a moth in his way, and charged loudly towards Jinx from long distance.
The sorceress swiftly knelt in her perch and shot two arms out.
A wave of pink struck the ground before Mammoth, forming a pothole in the stage that forced him to trip and fall thunderously crashing into the orchestra; finally stopping the loud music.
Jinx grinned and struck a feminine pose. There was nothing her still-enslaved teammates could do. Nobody could challenge Bad Luck head on.
"Crud…," Gizmo grunted and put out the flames on his jumpsuit with flurrying hands. "Crud crud crud crud…megacrud!"
"See you losers later," Jinx blew a kiss. "I'm off to get this pawned." And she proceeded to jump, flip, and dive her way out of the audience and towards the backstage.
Cyborg gritted his teeth and yelled over hum of invading moths. "Don't let her get away! There's no telling what might become of that jewel if she sells it into the wrong hands!" Just then, an irate Killer Moth took advantage of Cyborg's distraction and pounced him. The two struggled intensely amidst a swarm of ravenous moths.
Beast Boy circled overhead, snapping a beak through one mutant bug to another. At the sound of Cyborg's command, he switched into a falcon and bolted straight after Jinx. But the girl spun around and tossed a hex beam up at the ceiling. The chain supports of a light fixture snapped and the entire platform swung painfully into the feathered changeling, forcing him to collapse onto a precarious rope.
Knowing when I was needed, I gritted my teeth and slashed through a half dozen mutant bugs and then went into pursuit of the elusive, turncoat witch.
She hopped up a bunch of ropes and pulleys before reaching the top platform leading out onto the rooftop. I followed swiftly upwards, slashing through bugs along the way, and eventually slinking through the exit and going right after her.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Mr. Anderson swung open the door to his office. He wandered inside, sweating bullets. The man reached into a nearby desk and pulled out a pistol. He found a clip and loaded it. Then, with a sigh, he held the metal killing tool to his chest and slowly, solemnly, stepped out into the hallway and headed again for the backstage.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
I burst out onto the rooftop, the windy night kicking at my long black hair and banana. It was a surprisingly clear sky. Apparently whatever was left of the moths was all inside, attacking my comrades downstairs. All of them.
I looked around for a sign of Jinx. Instead, I was forced to block with an arm the sudden attack of numerous strobes of light. Brilliantly illuminating the top of the opera house were the letters for 'WESTHAVEN' as well as rotating search lights (intensely bright indeed) and the usual marquis set of electronically blinking bulbs.
My eyes twitched under the flimsy shades.
This is not going to be fun.
Amidst all the visual confusion, I sensed something pink blur past my side. I spun around, Myrkblade raised, and surveyed the scene. Nothing. No one. No body to be found. Just rotating searchlights and the huge letter 'W'.
Another streak of pink.
I spun around. I looked at air conditioning units. Shafts. Antennae. But there was no sign of the stealthy witch.
Except for her voice.
"Why hello there, ghost of Noir. Did you decide to come knocking on Heaven's door?"
I raised Myrkblade and slowly stepped down an 'aisle' of sort of gravel lying on the rooftop between the signs and lights. In fact, the gravel formed a sea of sorts…a deposit of gigantic grains of sand that shifted and shuffled loudly with each step I took. I considered murking my feet to whisp silently over the terrain, but realized that Jinx had to have known where my position was already.
"You're the sort of man to tempt fate……I like that…" she hissed from nowhere and everywhere at once.
I turned around in my walk, gravel shuffling beneath me. My eyes darted everywhere in search of my foe. My gripped Myrkblade tighter as I passed by a giant 'E'.
"Now do you truly need to chase me so?" her cute voice meandered down into my ears hauntingly. "It's not any government conspiracy I'm working for. It's not some clever plan to melt the world's polar ice caps or something. There're just two souls in this world I'd like to see. For the last three years of my life, Karma worked against me. It's about time hard luck turned on the flip of a coin. I'm sure you'd understand how it feels to desire the turn of the screw. Why don't you tell me what you're feeling? Sing me a soliloquy. Let me hear your voice bellow with desire…"
My brow furrowed. I approached a huge 'H' and looked behind it. Only flashing lights. I darted back out and looked all around, myrkblade held high.
"I never understand what you Titans fight for…," her voice rambled from all around. "You already have everything you could ever want. Everything in that fancy Tower of yours. Are you so selfish that you must interfere with the fate of others all the time?"
I reached the far side of the rooftop and looked down the side to see if she was clinging to the wall or something. No sign of her.
"For once, Noir, I have conquered the tools of checks and balances. The universe cringes to see what I can do next. For I was once a ghost…a slave in all the physical, emotional, and spiritual connotations for H.I.V.E. But like a true acolyte to the strings of Karma, the ghost has been blessed with salvation. I have been pulled out of the mire of my own misfortune and given a second chance at life. And my first task is to free another ghost. And that's you, Noir. If I couldn't exorcize you with water…then let's see how good fire does the trick! HA!!!!!"
"!!!!" I spun around and saw a blinding flash of pink in my face.
I lifted Myrkblade between my eyes, deflecting the blast at the last second around each side of my cranium.
Jinx leapt down from an antennae, landed gracefully in the gravel, and spun—flinging arm after armful of hex blasts at me.
FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!
I ducked, sidestepped, and backflipped towards a huge letter 'V' behind me. The missing hex beams struck the base of the letter. The whole electric structure shattered and creaked half a second before my feet planted into it, and blurred. As I leapt off it, the letter fell back and smashed against the marble entranceway of the opera house down below. In meantime I flew in my jump down at Jinx, blade first.
She flipped directly over my figure, barely missing the whole length of my weapon. As she hovered past my Six, she spun and launched two midair hex blasts. "HAAAAAA!!!
I heard her release and I felt them coming. I tilted my body forward in mid fall, landed in a handstand in the gravel, and jolted my smoking body straight up. I spiraled high into the air as gravel and pink light exploded beneath me. I flipped into an upright position and held my blade up in slow motion as Jinx, perched on the letter 'S', flung two more blasts at me. In molasses motion, I positioned my blade horizontally in front of my chest and played 'batter up' with the blasts, launching them back at her.
Jinx tossed herself off the 'S' right before the streaking pink returned and severed the electric sign apart. Sparks and metal shards flew everywhere. Jinx's body became a dark pink silhouette, floating to the floor.
THUMP!! She landed, kneeling in gravel.
WHUMP!! I landed on my knees ten feet in front of her.
She panted.
I panted.
We stared at each other.
A heartbeat.
We both charged.
Jinx growled and charged up pink hex.
I grit my teeth and smoke Myrkblade into warbling Destruction.
Jinx let loose.
I deflected the pink blasts and reached her, swinging high.
Jinx slid below the blade and below me. She came up and flung a charged wrist of pink at the square of my back.
I blindly aimed Myrkblade down between my shoulders and blocked. The action deflected Jinx for a half second of inaction. I quickly spun around with a heavy swing of my weapon.
Jinx ducked, loosing a few strands of hair from my lacerating bludgeon, and kicked me in the shins.
I half tripped.
She uppercutted me with a charged hand of pink.
I flew up into the air from the impact, fell back, and landed with my shoulders against an AC unit that hummed loudly behind me.
Jinx charged, sending off rounds of pink like a two handed gunsmith.
I stabbed Myrkblade directly into the metal unit behind me, forced my weight onto the hilt, and tilted my lower body up. The pink impacted with the metal beneath my legs, and when Jinx was close enough I dropped my lower body, tugged on the hilt, shredded Myrkblade out from the AC unit, and brought it down on her.
She twirled to the side, the weapon taking off a few strips of her blouse's sleeve. At the end of her twirl, she flung a hex blast right in my face.
I ducked as metal exploded behind me, slid beneath her legs, came up with a jump, and swiveled around with a mid-air kick that impacted her shoulder and sent her sprawling across the sea of gravel.
I landed, jumped again, bounced off the bright letter 'E', spun, and then flew down at Jinx's prone body, the Myrkblade jabbing downward.
She rolled backwards a second before my blade impaled the ground where her legs were. She backflipped gymnastically and landed in a pose and a grin.
A grin?!?!
"If you want a jewel, you're gonna have to try harder than that, ghost," she smiled. "Come face your fears…"
Whatever she meant by that, she certainly was taunting me. I cracked my neck, regripped Myrkblade, and charged at her.
She stood still…ready.
I charged closer…closer.
Her eyes thin. Her Cheshire gat smile beamed.
My face fell while running.
Something's wrong here.
She suddenly flung her arms towards the front row of lights on the opera house's face. A blast of pink or two impacted with a few lightbulbs, causing them to explode. And explode they did….along with the air…along with my eyes…in the immense release of light that ensued.
"!!!!!!!!" I literally stumbled, tumbled, and rolled to a painful stop on the gravel rooftop just a foot or two before I would have reached Jinx.
"What's wrong, big boy?" Jinx stuck her tongue out. "Can't rest easy with a nightlight?"
I stood up, wincing…only to gasp and clutch my shaded eyes when Jinx unleashed another pink hex onto a lightbulb.
FLASH!!!
I stumbled back. My head spin. My eyes were on fire.
"Tsk tsk…," she paced towards me, smirking. "You should have stayed with the creepy attics and graveyards, Noir. You're not welcome in this place."
I blinked desperately at her, but everything was hazy and spinning.
She burst another lightbulb or two.
FLASH!!!! FL-FLASH!!!!
I winced painfully and fell back on my rear, gripping my face.
Everything…burning…pain…so bright…fire…
Her cat eyes narrowed and she hissed pleasurably. "Silly mute. Forgot to let the cat out." She proceeded to charge two handfuls of bright pink and launch them at my skull.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Downstairs, the same old chaos was taking place…only more chaotic.
Beast Boy had himself surrounded by an angry throng of drooling, ravenous insects. He switched desperately between squid, stegosaurus, and porcupine to ward them all off at the same time. All he accomplished was being held at bay by a meager few while the rest of the swarm concentrated on the theatre.
Cyborg had his hands full of Killer Moth, but since his duty was to the innocent people in attendance, he glanced over his shoulder every now and then and found an opportune time to blast an attacking bug or two from long range with his laser rifle. This only angered his close-combat opponent all the more, and soon he and Killer Moth were wrestling hand-to-hand once again.
Mammoth was taking out his frustrations on the insects by flinging every instrument he could find in the orchestra pit at them. He smashed a few flying exoskeletons in with a violin or a guitar and then crushed a large one with a drum set before finding a whole horde of insects to sandwich with a grand piano. Kitten and the actors and the actresses shrieked and flinched from the nearby struggle. The conductor of the orchestra was sobbing.
Gizmo was putting up an awkward battle, ever since his backpack was dismantled. He had picked up a severed laser rifle and was manually blasting away at soaring creatures over the ducking heads of the audience. Sweat rolled down his bald head and between his speck eyes until he decided things were getting too complicated.
"Time to sink this crumhole!" he grumbled and whipped out a remote to the photonic amplifier.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
I rolled painfully to the side and impacted with the huge, illuminated letter 'A'. I gripped my shoulder, wincing. The exploding lightbulbs did a number on my eyes. I could barely see anymore.
Jinx sauntered over and glared down at me. "What's the matter?" she smirked. "Cat got your tongue?"
I tried to stand up, but fell back. My shoulders rested against a leg of the letter 'A' and I slid back to the gravel. Panting. Looking up in her 'general direction'.
Jinx took a few more steps and posed. Right behind her rested the cannon that held the photonic amplifier loaded.
"Sorry if I don't have much in the way of parting words…," she slurred, charging up her two hands with pink. "It's a little pointless to eulogize someone who should already be dead."
I winced and weakly awaited my fate.
Jinx took aim…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Gizmo ducked a flying, shrieking insect and reached into his pocket for a remote. He grabbed it in shaking hands, fumbled for a trigger, and pressed it.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
CLINK!!
WHURRRRR—WHAM!!!
The cannon came to life, spun around, and incidentally swept Jinx's legs out from underneath her.
"YAH!!!" she fell, tossing her hex beam haphazardly.
I shuddered.
FLASH!!!
The two beams of pink struck the supports of the huge electric 'A' behind me. Sparks fell down on my shoulders.
WHUUUUUURRRR
The cannon aimed down through the roof and fired.
BLAM!!!
CRASH!!!
Gravel and splinters flew high up in the air.
On the floor, Jinx covered her fair head.
The building shook.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Huh?!" Cyborg looked up as a translucent ball sailed down through the ceiling and landed in the stage's floorboards between him and Killer Moth, successfully forcing the two apart from the blast.
Killer Moth landed hard with his back against a wall.
Cyborg slid to a stop in the row between seats. "What the hell is that thing?!"
"Our ticket out of here!" Gizmo shouted. He was about to press another button when a bug came up from behind and impacted his shoulders. The little man fell forward with a grunt. His controller slid and was stomped on accidentally by a panicked audience member.
The device sparkled and died.
Gizmo gasped. "Oh sludge…"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The shaking rooftop caused the 'A' behind me to groan and tumble over.
I blindly sensed its imminent collapse, and tried running away. I dove forward and fell to the gravel. And as the light crashed down, I could do nothing but duck and cover.
SMASH!!!!
I was unharmed. My body had found a niche safely in the opening in the center of the 'A'. A new breath came to me, and I found that I could stand.
Jinx stood up, wincing, shaking her head.
I flipped off the rooftop and hid myself somewhere along the sidewall beneath.
When Jinx looked up, I was gone. She growled. "Nooo!!" Then she stood up and started firing pink hexes everywhere. Desperately. Sweating.
Signs exploded. Gravel flew. Lightbulbs flashed.
I was safely on the building side, my back pressed against the wall. I panted. Found my vision slowly murking back. But she was far too dangerous.
I swallowed, composed myself, and thought of something.
While Jinx unleashed her rage above me, I closed my eyes and whipped off my shades…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Cyborg sweated and looked at the situation. The swarm was drawing back, but only to return for an immense attack run. He glanced over at Beast Boy's predicament and blasted him a path to get through towards the main entrance.
"Beast Boy!" he shouted. "Let's start getting these people out of here! The bugs seem to want us now! Not them!"
"On it!" Beast Boy saluted. He cheetahed out from the circle of insects and soared across the stage. He leapt over the orchestra pit, only to be grabbed by the neck and yanked down. Mammoth growled and held the green cat in a strangling grasp. "You'll do no such thing!" he growled. "Help kill the bugs and we'll all be safe! Forget about these people!"
The cat's green eyes glared. Suddenly it sprouted scales, a snout, a tail, and ferocious claws.
Mammoth sweatdropped as he found himself choke-holding a velociraptor.
The dinosaur shrieked and snapped at Mammoth's nose.
"YAAAH!" he stumbled backwards, flinching. The raptor hissed, swung its tail, and tripped Mammoth to the floor. It then leapt, jumped painfully off the giant's chest, and landed in the center aisle. Beast Boy swiftly changed into a wildebeest and stampeded to the other end of the theatre. He plowed through the double door entrance and jumped back into a green elf, upon which he gestured to the crowd with a jump and shouted:
"Everyone! Let's get out of here! Single file! We'll take care of you along the way!!"
People murmured, nodded their heads, and scampered towards the exit. Beast Boy leapt from headrest to headrest in the seats, overlooking and directing the escape route with shouts—making sure nobody was falling down and getting stepped on. While he was perching somewhere along the sidelines, a sharp glove grabbed his shoulder and forced him around.
"You….," Killer Moth growled. "You ruined this!! You ruined EVERYTHING!!"
Beast Boy gulped.
"So help me…," the villain raised a serrated paw. "I'll rip every morphing strip of meat out of you!"
SMACK!!! A heavy fist flew across Killer Moth's cheek, effectively putting the evil cretin to sleep.
"!!!!" Beast Boy turned and looked up. He gasped. "Bruce Wayne?!?!"
"That'll take care of him," the wealthy billionaire said, having emerged from the crowd. Standing tall and strong in his gentlemanly tux, he looked darkly down at the young green Titan and said: "I'll help get the people out. I think you've got greater jobs to attend to."
"B-B-But sir!" Beast Boy stuttered. "This place is dangerous! You need someone like me to escort you and the other people out—"
"Trust me on this," Wayne said, his eyes narrowed. "I can get the people out. They're all financiers. They know me." He supplied a rather scripted smile and wink.
That seemed to work for Beast Boy. "A-Alright, sir…" He saluted and jumped back across the theatre to assist Cyborg in his bug smashing.
Wayne watched silently, then turned around and shouted commands to the escaping populace. "Alright people. Let's move it! Go!!"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"RRRRRHAA!!" Jinx growled and flung hex blast after hex blast at random hiding places on the rooftop. She was getting tired. Frustrated. Despondent.
Then, a shuffling sound.
She looked across the sea of gravel and smiled at the sight of a familiar, tall shadow.
"So…out of the woodwork finally." She growled, lifted two hands, and flung a bright flash of pink.
FLASH!!
I raised Myrkblade and deflected it with ease. Then I stepped out of the shadows.
Jinx blinked.
My shades had been replaced with my bandana, wrapped tightly over my eyes with its ends dangling behind my neck. All light, all visibility was blocked out by the cloth covering my mutated eyes. I was as blind as a bat.
And yet I wasn't…
I gripped tightly to Myrkblade, extending smoke energy outward. Like that fateful night on the lake, I felt Jinx's position with my spatial awareness. I felt her legs, poised and ready for my move. But I also felt her arms, limp and dangling by her sides as she eyed me with curiosity.
I wasn't there to oogle. I got into a pose, rose Myrkblade, and stretched out my hand, ready to spring into action.
"….," Jinx blinked at me. "Um…"
I rushed towards her. Whisping.
"ACK!" she stepped back and flung a hex beam at a lightbulb.
FLASH!!
I kept charging, unaffected.
She bit her lip and flung another beam at a lightbulb, shattering it.
FLASH!!
I was upon her.
"Oh sh—"
SWOOSH!!! I brought Myrkblade down.
She barely jumped to the side. The field of Destruction my sword emanated sent pain through her system.
I sensed the sea of gravel shifting beneath us. I felt the current of her stumbling legs. I felt where her body was, and that's where I swung my foot.
WHAM!!
I kicked her in the side.
She rose in the air.
I spun, swung, and struck her with the broadside of my sword.
WHUMP!!!
She went spiraling, falling, and sliding to a stop in the gravel ten feet away.
I ran, jumped, and fell down, blade first.
She spiraled up to her feet and backflipped as I came down. I immediately charged at her. She jumped, literally leapt off my lunging sword, and came down on me platform shoe first. I shifted the weight down on the part of my body she impacted with and retracted in the opposite direction, launching her across the rooftop and slamming straight into the huge 'W' of 'WESTHAVEN'. She fell down, clutching her shoulder in pain. I came charging with Myrkblade. She ducked as I swung, ripping off the top half of 'W'. She uppercutted me. I flew with the impact of her strike and let myself flip so I landed on my feet and slid back in the gravel. I shot out my spatial sense and met her coming at me with a flying fist.
I ducked at the last second as she swung over my blind head. I then elbowed her in the chest, spun and tripped her with my leg, and kicked her airborn body across the rooftop.
WHAM!!
She went spinning, spiraling across the ground and landed like a ragdoll beneath the letter 'W' as its sparkling pieces fell down all around her.
BAM! WHAM! WHUMP!! SMACK—CRUNCH!!
I felt Jinx get on her knees, rubbing her head. Then suddenly she shrieked. She was cupping something in her hands. Her body shaking.
I lifted an edge of the bandana blindfold and snuck a peak.
Across the way, in front of blinding sparks and lightbulbs, Jinx cradled the broken locket of her sister's faces. The heart-shaped treasure had been smashed by one of the falling debris from the letter 'W' sign. The clasp was shattered into a hundred pieces. The photos of Fate and Fortune were shred into indistinguishable parts. As Jinx regarded it, her bottom lip quivered…but soon turned firm into a frown. Her eyes glowed a hot pink and she slowly stood up, facing me.
I quickly lowered the bandana back down and held Myrkstaff at ready.
Jinx took one…two steps towards me. Cat eyes aglow. The frown turning slowly into a devilish smirk. Her words were thick with malice and thin with bitterness all the same.
"I'm going to make you wish you could scream."
There was an intense hissing sound. For a while, I was at a loss as to what it was. Then I realized it was the sound of the air literally burning from heated field of hex energy Jinx was building up in two raised hands and then launching at me.
"RAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"
FLASH!!!!!!!
I charged up Myrkblade, grit my teeth, and jumped the huge blast. A crashing liken unto thunder rolled through the air as the blast single-handedly smashed through half of what was left of the 'WESTHAVEN' signs. I came down from my jump and had to roll as I sensed a heated streak of energy slide over me.
FLASH!!!
I slid on the gravel, got up to my feet, and ran as Jinx summoned blast after blast that barely landed at my heels.
FLASH!! FLASH!! FLASH!! FLASH!!
I ran up the side of an antenna, jumped off, flipped, and swung Myrkblade upside down. I successfully deflected two or three hex blasts back at Jinx.
She stepped through them, unflinching, and angrily threw more beams of energy at me.
Gravel flew. AC units exploded. Lightbulbs flashed.
I jumped and flipped through the carnage, honing in on my spatial sense and looking for an instance when I could strike her. I kept my cool, knowing full well she was losing hers.
Jinx kept growling and launching her energy reserves at me. Her glowing eyes were slowly turning into glowing tears. The world was melting down into a dreadful lull. The images of her sisters faded. Her lips started quivering again. The jewel shook against her chest in her pocket. Everything felt so real…so weighted. So cold and unmerciful.
I jumped over a poorly flung hex bolt and flew down at where I sensed her figure and jabbed Myrkblade into the rooftop.
SMASH!!
The blow sent her flying back. Remarkably, the Khaza Jewel fell out and slid in the gravel a few feet off.
"!!!!" I dove for it.
So did Jinx.
We collided, I blindly and she numbly. We tumbled a bit and when we both stood up, Jinx had the red ruby in question her grasp.
Not for long.
With one breath, I slashed Myrkblade upwards and knocked the gem out of her grasp and nearly twenty feet into the air.
CLANK!!
"AAAUGH!!" Jinx flung a huge hex at my legs.
I jumped back, was hit by the force of the blast, and slid awkwardly to a stop on the far side of the rooftop. In a kneeling position, I paused. Time slowed down. I sent smoke through shoulder, down my arm, along my fingers, and into the sea of gravel. The sea of gravel swam its way in waves along the front row of lightbulbs and eventually to the pair of Jinx's feat implanted in the rooftop. Up her legs, I noticed her whole body tense and caught up in one act. Her head was tilted up. Her hands stretched towards the heavens. She weakly eyed the falling jewel high in the air. Her one ticket for her sisters' salvations.
However, at the same time, it was all that stood in the way of some criminal developing a weapon of mass destruction.
I gripped Myrkblade and blurred towards her. My feet stomped in the sea of gravel.
Jinx kept aiming for the sky.
I slung the weapon down besides me.
The sorceress took a deep breath.
The ruby fell.
I grit my teeth.
My black eyes murked from underneath the blindfold.
I stretched Myrkblade to the far side and purposefully struck each lightbulb in a string of succession as I ran.
SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Bright bits of light flew across the rooftop. Shards of lightbulb glass flew everywhere.
I was immune to the strobe, but it was blinding Jinx. Her pink eyes twitched and strained as she focused all her strength on the falling ruby overhead which was getting more and more hazy.
SMASHSMASHSMASHSMASHSMASH!!
FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASHFLASFH!!!
As my running reached a peak in speed, so did the exploding light bulbs. Soon, my shadowed figure was trailing a smoking missile across the length of the rooftop, showering Jinx with blinding flashes and flying shards of glass.
A trail or two of red streaked across her cheeks. She exhaled. Her cat eyes thinned.
She could no longer see the ruby.
I let out a gasp and dug Myrkblade into the floor beneath me as I ended my charge with a slide. Myrkblade warbled with smoke as it plowed into the sea of gravel and sent a humongous wave of stones and pebbles flying into Jinx's prone figure.
For a split second, she was bathed in the rubble before the impact of the sea of gravel sent her sprawling backwards and way out of the falling trajectory of the ruby.
I ran up, grabbed the ruby, held back myrkblade, and literally ran up Jinx's sprawling body. I leapt off her shoulders, backflipped, and sailed down through the hole that Gizmo's cannon had made.
To say the least, I made the hole bigger.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
SMASH!!!!!
I sailed straight down into the theatre with the ruby in my grasp. Gravel and splinters and light fixtures and metal debris rained down alongside me. Cyborg and Beast Boy spun around from what they were doing. Women shrieked and men gasped. I impacted with the floor softly with a curtain of murk. No sooner had I landed, I lifted Myrkblade straight up into the air and unleashed a canopy of dark Destruction. All the falling debris and gravel deflected off of some smoke-filled dome temporarily formed over the tip of my blade and successfully avoided collapsing on top of the innocent craniums of spectators surrounding my landing site.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
On the rooftop, bruised and slightly cut, Jinx panted.
"….lucky catch," the witch sighed depressingly.
She then fell down in the sea of gravel with a PLOP!
And was out cold.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
I brushed off some debris, pocketed the Khaza jewel, and replaced my blindfold with my shades.
Beast Boy flew down as an eagle and finished biting through a bug's head before perching on a headrest in elf form. "Glad that you could drop in," he mused, smiling.
I glanced at him and gave him a sarcastic grin.
"What is this thing?!" shouted Cyborg from the stage.
We looked over through a swarm of cyclonic bugs and saw our android partner holding the tiny Gizmo up by the scruff of his shirt collar. Cyborg pointed directly at the translucent spheroid and spat:
"Why did you shoot it into the theatre?!"
"It's a silver bullet!" Gizmo strained to say. "I made it so that we could finish the insects off in case this would happen!"
Behind the curtain, Mr. Anderson poked his head out. He took a look at the two in confrontation and raised his pistol.
"And just how is it supposed to work, then, genius?!"
"It emits a bright light! Attracting all giant moths! Naturally! At least, it's supposed to. When my remote got crushed, it couldn't finish relaying the signal!"
"So it's supposed to destroy the insects by shining a flashlight in their faces?!"
Mr. Anderson squinted a wrinkly eyelid, aimed the pistol at Cyborg's head, and pulled at the trigger.
WHACK!!!!
Mr. Anderson was knocked out cold. His body fell forward as Sandy emerged from hiding, patting a wooden sword prop in her palm and grinning.
"Well….um…," Gizmo sweatdropped and grinned sheepishly.
"Well what?!" Cyborg growled.
"That thing's also kinda sorta got a few pounds of C4 packed into it for blowing up the insects when they come near. And now that it's….ya know…lying on the floor and only a few feet away from us, I'd say it's only a matter of time before we're all burnt to crud."
"Damn!" Cyborg dropped the midget—who yelped and landed on his butt. The android stomped over to the translucent sphere, picked it up, and gave it a look over. "I think I can switch on the light. We just might be able to use this infernal thing of yours." He glanced up at the lights all around. "But not with as bright as everything is…"
"I'll take care of it," Sandy shuffled up.
Cyborg glanced at her. "Okaaaaaay….you are?"
"Someone who knows where the circuit breakers are. Just give me a second!"
"Let her do it!" Beast Boy said, flipping into the center of the room—taking out a moth or two in gorilla form—and reverting back to the infamous elf. "She's a friend of ours."
Sandy was already running down the hallway and towards a wing of the cellar.
I slashed at a swarm of moths and glanced over, sweating.
Cyborg popped out a tool from his wrist. He aimed it at the photonic amplifier and tweaked it with a small shower of sparks.
"Hey! Watch it!" Gizmo shouted out from the floor. "Those are delicate circuitry, you binary buffoon!"
Beast Boy swiftly turned into a green octopus and squirted ink all over the little man, shutting him up. He became an elf again. "Got it?"
"Just about….there!"
FLAAAAASSHHH!!!
My eyes positively burned. I jerked my gaze away and nearly fell amidst my battle with a throng of killer bugs. Okay……I'm not looking over there anytime soon……
"What now?" Beast Boy gasped.
The insects stirred. Only a scant few of them noticed the beacon of light. Something else had to be done.
"We wait for that…erm…friend of yours to—"
CHUNK!!!
Lights went out one at a time overhead. The theatre was bathed in pitch black for but a second before the light of the amplifier drowned everything out. Moonlight streaming down the hole in the ceiling was eaten up.
Naturally, the insects' instincts were piqued. They all hovered towards Cyborg.
The robot was rightfully complacent..
"Okay, she's good. I'll give her that." Cyborg sweatdropped. "But I ain't holding this for long!!"
The bugs flew past me and towards the stage. I squinted in their direction, waiting for their next plan of action.
"I'd get that thing out of here if I were you," Gizmo wheezed, coughing up ink.
Cyborg looked up at the hole in the ceiling. "I can toss it….I think…but not far."
"Give it to me!" Beast Boy shouted. "I'll get it out of here! Magic feathers of green, remember?"
Cyborg looked over at the straggling bunch of people dashing out of the theatre and back at him. "Okay…get it out of here as far as you can!"
"Roger!" Beast Boy switched to a pterodactyl, grasped the orb, and soared up toward the ceiling of the theatre.
Dumbly drawn to the light, the giant bugs pursued him ravenously.
The winged changeling sailed upwards through the hole, and every insect followed suit.
I smiled as the room emptied.
Sandy came up from a hallway and folded her arms, proud.
Cyborg looked down at Gizmo, blinked, and then asked: "Say…what's the fuse on that thing anyway?"
Gizmo chuckled. "Oh….I dunno…fifteen seconds?"
Cyborg's jaw dropped.
My black eyes went wide.
Immediately, I turned around and dashed out the entrance of the opera house. Past the throng of people. And to the center of the debris littered lawn before the opera house's face. Everyone—including myself—squinted up at the sight of a bright comet-like object sailing up towards the stars with a tail of hundreds of killer insects.
I opened my mouth wide, but had nothing to say.
BOOOM!!!!!!!!!
A fireball erupted in the sky.
Everyone shook and cringed. A few screamed. Others covered their eyes.
I froze in place…my whole body numb. Something in me murked, and I streaked a blurred path around the opera house and at the shore of the lake where the body parts of dead bugs were gradually littering the ground in a shower of death. I panted and dug through the organic debris gradually collecting on the soil. My body ached with each subsequent second that no sign of my Titan comrade appeared.
I dropped Myrkblade, fell to my knees, and palmed the earth. Sighing. I clenched my eyes shut and shivered.
"………….."
"…………..yo…face East. Mecca's thataways."
My eyes popped open. I looked up.
Beast Boy cutely posed. "What? Elves are immortal, remember?"
I pounced him, tossed him to the ground, and proceeded to rub every angle and point of my knuckles into his green scalp.
"A-A-Allright!!" Beast Boy giggled. "So I b-barely made it! Come on, man! I'm sorry!"
I shoved him away from me and tried not to smile. But I failed. I sniffed out silent chuckles and fell on my back, exhaling in exhaustion.
Beast Boy laughed his head off. "Ha ha ha ha ha…KABOOM!!! Beast Boyless! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
I exhaled.
Cyborg walked up from the side of the opera house, took one look at us, and smiled in relief.
And the moonlight won out that time.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Police squad car lights blinked across the scene. A throng of straggling audience members watched from beyond a taped off area as Mammoth, Gizmo, and Killer Moth—under restraints—were led off into the backs of armored vehicles. The last to go was Mr. Anderson. He glanced forlornly up at the bottom of the steps to the House's entrance. There we stood, alongside Ms. Cartwright and a few other directors.
Cartwright flipped through a few documents and glanced back and forth between them, Mr. Anderson, and the papers again. "It's hard to believe…," she said. "All these items gathered from his office. They all speak in volumes of his…second life."
"I don't think any of us know the extent to which he's dabbled with the criminal underworld," Beast Boy said. "When I get that old, I hope all I do is play golf and keep my teeth."
Mr. Anderson looked down at his shuffling feet as he was carted off into the van.
"I trusted him so much…," Cartwright dropped the papers to the marble and sighed. "…all this time, my mentor was a fraud."
"Hey…everything you worked for…that was you, Ms. Cartwright," Beast Boy said. "That's where the real talent existed. Not anywhere else."
"And what good is it now?" she tossed her hands and spun to gesture at the building's smashed exterior and damaged interior. "The opera house is ruined. The show made a laughing stock. All that work for nothing. An absolute waste."
"Ahem…," Cyborg cleared his throat, smiled, and offered an arm. "If you may…."
Numb…yet curious all the same…Ms. Cartwright accepted his hand. The android led her around the front of the building and to where most of the rich audience members were gathered. At sight of the woman, a cheer of applause and exaltation filled the night air.
"Yaaaaay!"
"There she is!"
"Ms. Cartwright, that was amazing!"
"Great show, Ms. Cartwright!!"
"Best night we ever had!!"
The dark haired woman blinked and stuttered, "You….l-liked it?"
"Of course we did!" Veronica Vreeland exclaimed. "That completely knocked the socks off any regular showing of Il Trovatore! Your knack for the unexpected is most….incredible!!"
"Um…well…," she glanced at us and scratched the back of her head. "It was all rather…..erm….accidental…"
"It was spectacular!"
"Amazing!!"
"We'd pay thousands to see it done next year!"
"Millions!"
Cartwright blinked. "Millions??"
Beast Boy folded his arms and smiled up at me.
I whistled innocently.
"Well…um….you bet….just that…," she turned and pointed up at the disaster. "Got a few things to take care of."
"I don't see a problem with that…," said a deep voice.
Cartwright looked over.
Bruce Wayne smiled from the crowd. "We're gonna see to it that you get back on the right foot. We owe it to you for your steadfastness and inspiration."
People nodded at the billionaire's statement. There was a slow murmur that arose in clapping among dozens, scores, then hundreds of people from the crowd.
To say the least, the stage director was flattered.
She blushed and waved a hand. "Allright….I do hear Falstaff will be in season next year. I'll see what I can do…"
More cheers. More applause.
Cartwright chuckled and turned around…facing me. Her grin slowly left.
I swallowed and looked away.
"…..," She blinked. "You seem so….different now. Not the charming, talkative, youthful gentleman I thought you were."
I bit my lip.
"….and in a way, you're more real now," she said. "And more honest."
I looked at her.
"I want to ask you two questions….if it's okay."
I shrugged.
"…..did you save me from the collapsing verandah?"
I slowly nodded.
Cartwright looked down. "Okay. And the second question is……how old are you? Really?"
I blushed and pointed at the 'T' on my communicator with emphasis. I simpered embarrassingly.
She blushed and cleared her throat. "Well…good thing I'm not being arrested tonight too."
I cocked my head to the side.
Cyborg's voice from the side distracted us.
"Here's the ruby back, Ms. Calico," he said, handing the obese woman back her Khaza Jewel. "Sorry you had to have it stolen from you so roughly."
"Quite allright, young man," she smiled fatly. "But with the knowledge of why those ruffians were after it in the first place…I'm not so sure I'm happy with it around my neck. I believe I will take the government up on their offer and donate it to their research."
Cyborg smiled. "Couldn't have said it better myself."
"Though I must say…it would have looked good on that pink-haired child."
"……….n-not really."
Beast Boy chuckled.
I smiled. Then looked up. At the top of the stairs stood a girl in a dress and a cloak wrapped over her shoulders to ward off the nightly winds. She regarded us from behind her glasses.
I made my way up the steps, slowly, and approached Sandy.
She smiled and finally said, "Time to ride off into the sunset, huh?"
I nodded with a grin.
"You know….people like us…we're both very similar."
I gave her a curious look.
"I volunteer….you kick butt….either way, we don't get paid."
I took a breath and nodded knowingly.
A pause.
She looked at her feet. "What you all did was a brave thing. And you? I thank you for your understanding. Believe it or not, I work here not just to improve myself…but to learn from other people. Individuals are so fascinating. It's like reading a book with each face you find."
I shrugged and gestured to her.
She replied, "No, I never read that novel. Why you ask?"
No reason.
"I see…"
A pause.
I shrugged, waved, and made to go.
"One second…"
I stopped and glanced at her.
She blushed. "Could I ask for one thing….before you go?"
I stared.
"….could you kiss me?"
Um……the Hell?
"You heard me…" she murmured ever so quietly.
I waited on that…waited some more…then stepped forward.
Her eyes were glued to the ground. The lids lowered.
I kissed……her forehead.
Sandy smiled, took a breath, and looked up at me. "Cute."
I pointed at her heart, smirked, and walked off.
I nearly ran into Beast Boy. The changeling glared at me with his hands on his hips.
"Dude! What is it with you?! Why can't women be crawling all over me?"
I gestured an elephant snout with my hand to my nose.
"It's not like I'm an animal all the time! Sheesh! I'm more of the boy than the beast!"
That made me sniffle out a chuckle.
"Hey! That's not a bad thing! What's so funny?!"
"Ugh…let's just go home already," Cyborg said, making way to the T-Car.
"I get shotgun!" Beast Boy ran happily ahead of us.
Cyborg glanced at me through the corner of his red eye. "He sure switches from 'captain' back to 'sidekick' really quick, doesn't he?"
I gave the android a thumb's up.
We got into the car, and rode home.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Far away from the police-lit opera house, where the lake met the forest, a lone figure stumbled into the first line of trees. She leaned against some bark, and stared behind her.
After a beat, she glanced down into her pale hand and looked at the shattered remains of her locket.
"I'll find you two….I promise."
Her eyes glowed pink as a tear or two trailed down, and she walked off into the shadows.
Mournfully free.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Hours later, as morning light shone, the three of us had returned to the Tower.
We rode the elevator up to the juncture at the Main Room.
Beast Boy spoke: "I don't get it, Cy! Why'd you come alone? I mean, it was a successful mission and all….but we could have used all the help we could get!"
"Pfft…some help that would have been," the android smirked.
The doors opened with a DING! and we walked out.
"And just what do you mean by that?" Beast Boy squealed.
"AAAAACHOOO!!!" Starfire sneezed.
A starbolt randomly flew by and smashed something in the kitchen area.
Both Beast Boy and I jumped back.
Cyborg didn't even flinch. There was a blasé look of exhaustion on his face as he sighed and glared at the sickly scene before him. "I've been the head nurse of this camp for the last three days…"
Raven, Robin, and Starfire moaned from three spots in the room, sprawled on couches and miscellaneous blankets. Tissues were all around, along with cups of water (some empty) and medicine bottles.
Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Looks like we missed quite a party."
"Turns out Robin didn't just have the common cold," Cyborg said, getting a pitcher of water and refilling a cup for Raven. "It spread like wildfire right after you two left."
Beast Boy gulped. "Is it serious?"
"As much as bronchitis is serious."
The changeling and I winced.
"Uggghh….a kingdom for new lungs," Robin wheezed.
Starfire sniffed. "These Earth diseases are most….sniff….annoying…."
"You look rather green around the gills, Raven!" Beast Boy managed to muse. "That's a new thing for you! I'd never thought I'd see the day!"
Raven blinked her puffy eyes angrily at him. "I don't do 'sick'," she said monotonously and attempted to center herself. "Azarath Metrion Zin…Zin…ZinnnnAAACHOO!!!"
A nearby table turned black, hovered, and shattered into pieces.
"Ah Hell," Cyborg shook his head. "Not again!"
"Hey, how come you didn't catch anything??" Beast Boy pointed.
"Like I told you before," the android retorted, laying a wet washcloth on Raven's forehead. "I don't get sick!"
"Oh…yeah….right…heheh…" Beast Boy chuckled, scratched his neck, and stepped back with me towards the elevator. "I think we'll….stay on the far side of the T while you do your Clara Barton impression."
"Gee…thanks…"
I exhaled a giggle as we left the room.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Thanks for keeping me company, Noir. You're not a bad dude, dude," Beast Boy said. We settled down on the bean bag chairs in his room as he whipped out a remote and shuffled through the disc changer of the DVD system. "I've got the best thing for us to pass the time before the rest of the folks get better."
I nodded and smiled curiously.
"It's an oldie but a goody! A classic Marx Brothers film called 'A Night at the Opera'!"
He pressed play on the remote and the two of us leaned back on our bean bag chairs and watched the intro.
"…."
"…."
"…."
"…."
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
I stared.
He took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right. Let's watch Schindler's List instead."
He changed the disc and we sat back.
At some point, Beast Boy interrupted the film saying: "Wait a second…whatever happened to Kitten?"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the orchestra pit of the dark-lit Westhaven Opera House, a blonde thing lifted her head and looked to see if the coast was clear.
"Whew…," the brat panted and stood up. "What a bother. I gotta get out of here and see if there's some other wrinkly, rich punk who can bail his butt out of jail. Now where did I keep my stupid gypsy sandals?!"
She looked at a piano bench beside her and lifted the lid.
A hidden bug shrieked and jumped out at her.
"AAAACK!!! NOT AGAIN! DADDDY!!! DADDDDDDDDDDY!! Where'd that old man go?! DADDDYY!!!!"
A pause.
"Oh yeah…jail. Um…SOMEBODY KNOW FIRST AID?!?!"