DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Teen Titans characters, or the DC Comic Characters. Nor any of the brand names found in this story!
Summary: Kori Anders, news reporter, has seen a lot in her time. With the recent killing of civilians, Kori is putting away her papers, and testing out her investigation skills. Not only worrying about becoming the next target, she is worrying about her old flame Richard Grayson who seems to be appearing a lot more often, especially when she is with billionaire and rival to Bruce Wayne, Slade Wilson. Who is killing the people and will Kori be next? Oh, and who is Nightwing?
- - - - - - -
Two
"Dick," Kori's silently cursed that he had to arrive now.
Looking at her old flame, Kori had to admit he was looking very, very sexy. His ebony black hair was slightly unruly and Kori remembered the times she had ran he fingers through his soft locks. His blue eyes shined with mischief. He was a bit taller than the last time she had seen him, and he was almost about a head over her. His body was more defined, and his muscles stood out in his black Armani tux. He wore his ever so famous lazy playboy grin, the grin of a true player.
"Oh I much preferred when you called me Richard. If I remember right you preferred to call me that too." His voice was in her ear and she felt chills go down her spine.
"No, I prefer Dick now, after all that's what you are." Kori hissed and turned back to Slade who raised an eye brow at her. "Sorry," Kori mouthed to him. He nodded his head and gave a gracious smile.
"Richard, I haven't seen you since you and Bruce attended my last little get together. I trust all is well?" Slade gave Richard a testing smile. Richard contained himself as he tried not to curse out this guy he hated so much.
"Good Slade, I trust you as well, are well." Richard had his fist in a tight hand and Kori didn't notice. It didn't go unnoticed by Slade though, and Slade's mind started planning to see his competitor snap.
"So Ms. Anders…" Slade turned his attention to Kori and she smiled at him.
"Please, I prefer to be called Kori." The slight lick of her lips made Slade feel a bit parched and he took a long sip from his champagne. Richard wanted to say something about Kori being a bit of a flirt but all of his thoughts were lost as Slade continued on with their conversation.
"So Kori…how would you actually like to attend my Christmas party with me, as…a date?" Slade looked at Richard's face grow red, and his blue eyes darken into stormy clouds of rage.
"I would love to." As the words escaped Kori's lips she wasn't thinking clearly. She only wanted to make Richard jealous. As much as she hated Richard, and didn't have any more feeling for him, she still liked to make him jealous, and Richard, well, he was easy to make jealous.
"Won't Xavier mind?" Richard asked quickly. Kori looked away from Slade and glared at Richard irritably.
"Xavier and I are over." Her words were flat, and as Kori glared at Richard he saw the slight hurt in her eyes. Living up to his reputation as an ass, Richard pressed on with issues.
"Aw, did Xavier break up with Kori?" His words were dipping with sarcasm, and Kori excused herself from Slade. She pulled Richard's arm with her as she walked away into a private hallway where she shoved him up against the wall. "No need to get feisty babe."
"You need to stop." She poked his chest hard. Both of them would never admit it, but they secretly loved being this close to each other. He could smell his favorite perfume on her, making her smell like berries and flowers. His breath smelled of cinnamon making her whole body crave to touch her lips to his.
"Stop what?" He played dumb, and Kori felt her temper rise. She was genuinely a nice person to everyone, even the people she disliked. Richard was a different scenario though. He just seemed to bring out the worst in her.
"You need to stop everything. Stop talking to me, and stop annoying me. Just stop being near me." Her voice was dripping with venom. He couldn't tell, but she would crack soon. She had yet to even cry about her breakup with Xavier, and that was awhile ago.
"I thought you would have missed me. Who could resist all of this?" Richard's voice was smug and he gave her that ever so famous grin. She rolled her eyes and lifted up her hand about to slap the son of a bitch. He noticed this quickly and grabbed her hand before it touched his face. "I wouldn't do that."
She pulled away harshly and grabbed her hand. He hadn't hurt her, no he was to gentle, and he would never do such a thing. She was just surprised he was able to do that, shocked actually. "Just leave me alone."
She poked him one last time before walking away, her heels clacking against the marble floors as she made her way back to Slade. Richard stood there against the wall for awhile breathing heavily. He regained his composure as he looked around glad no one had seen him and Kori.
He walked out of the hallway smoothing out his suit. He peeked around, and looked for Kori. He watched as she laughed at something Slade Wilson said. He bit his tongue. There was something about that business man, something sleazy. He was about to approach when Richard felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned around to see Xavier Redd, the most recent ex of Kori. His golden brown eyes were like honey and he melted most women with a single glare. He had a perfect dentist smile, and brown hair was similar to Richard's. He wasn't as tall as Richard, for Xavier was maybe only an inch taller than Kori. His body was nowhere near as built as Richard's either. He was like a clone gone wrong of Richard.
"Redd…" Richard glared and shrugged off Xavier's hand. Xavier grinned at his enemy, the smile of a predator.
"She a fine bitch right?" Xavier asked. He looked towards Kori, and in a moment's time Richard shoved Xavier against the wall. They went to the hallway again and Richard held him there staring him down.
"Don't speak about her like that." Richard sneered. He wanted so badly to knock out Xavier, but he couldn't do that. He wouldn't lose control of his anger and risk bad publicity for Bruce, the company, and more importantly himself.
"Aw someone have feelings for her still." Xavier grinned and Richard shoved him against the wall a little more before letting him go. He still held him there though.
"Hell no, I just don't like you Redd, and I especially don't like you because you work for Slade. Besides, I would say it is you who still have feelings for her, you're the one that has been staring at her all night."
"Just thinking of ways to maybe get a quick hook up tonight, maybe she will actually put out tonight." Xavier stared at Richard as he watched his reaction. Richard became even more pissed now and his fist was about to punch down into Xavier's face, he felt a strong hand stop him.
- - - - - - -
"Sorry to interrupt…" Kori looked away from Slade and stopped their conversation about politics as she smiled looked at her best friend Rachel in front of her.
"It's fine Ms. Roth. Kori, I will see you later, and if not I will call you." Rachel watched in a bit of disgust as Slade picked up Kori's hand and gave it a kiss and slight squeeze. He walked away giving her a wink and Kori waved dreamily at him. Rachel turned Kori towards her and just stared. Kori blushed.
"He's twice your age!" Rachel declared.
"He only happens to be thirty-three. That's only an eleven years age difference." Kori justified herself. Rachel rolled her eyes and glared at her friend. Kori sighed and finished her champagne by sipping down the remaining liquid. "So what did you want?"
"Have you seen Gar? He disappeared and Bruce wanted to talk to him about future business. The last time I saw Gar was when he was Vic. Have you seen the two?" Rachel looked around quickly, as did Kori. Kori saw figures in the hallway, and sighed.
"I think I know where I can find them."
Kori grabbed Rachel's hand as she led her to the hallway she was earlier arguing with Richard in. Her dress lightly trailed the floor as she took quick steps to where the boys may be found. Rachel walked briskly behind Kori trying to keep up with the tall girl's long strides.
The two girls arrived at the front of the hallway to see Richard pressing Xavier again the wall, and his fist up in the air, ready to strike. Victor Stone held Richard's hand back. Gar stood giving a dirty glare to Xavier.
"What are you guys doing?" The boys paid their attention to Kori and Rachel as they marched down the hallway. Rachel smacked Gar upside his head for getting into trouble, and Kori took Vic's hand off of Richards's fist. She then lowered the fist, ignoring the butterflies as she touched his hand, bringing it down.
She then pried Richard off of Xavier and gave the two dirty looked. "Victor…do you know what happened?" Kori gave a look to Vic.
Victor Stone was an attractive man. At the age of twenty-six, he was a successful business man, already owning his own mechanics shop, and to soon take over his father's job as a board member for the family computer technologies company, Stone Corp. He was bald, and had dark eyes that matched his coco skin. He was tall and buff from his years of playing football. He was a funny guy, but knew when to be serious. He knew to be serious now as he shook his head. He didn't want his hot head best-friend Richard to get into a fight with an idiot like Xavier Redd. "Nope, not at all, I was looking for Rich. Then I find him back here about to punch Redd's head off."
"Dick, don't be a dick." Rachel commented. Richard looked at Rachel who was practically his sister. She knew all of his secrets, well almost all of them. He gave her a dirty look and she rolled her eyes.
"He isn't worth it." Richard shook his head as he walked away, but not before giving a knowing glare to Rachel. She took this as a signal they would talk later.
Victor followed Richard out, trying to calm his friend and see what was on his way. He knew Xavier could be a douche, but Richard could normally control his anger. What had set him off enough to almost punch Xavier?
"Garfield, let these two talk." Rachel commented to her boyfriend.
Garfield Logan, who always preferred to be called Gar grunted. He hated his name and knew Rachel only called him that when she was serious or mad, or most of the time, both. His forest green eyes left the sight of Kori and Xavier.
He turned towards his girlfriend, and walked towards her. He slipped an arm around her waist. He was only slightly taller than Rachel, being short all of his life. He was a stand-up comedian, along with as a Vet Tech. As Kori saw his blond hair disappear from sight she turned towards Xavier who was staring at her body.
"What the hell did you do?" Kori hissed. She didn't like when people made a scene, and if Richard had successfully punched Xavier, there would have been a huge one.
Xavier smirked at his ex girlfriend and stood up straight against the wall. He looked quickly at her body, and how it filled out the dress rather nicely. This went unnoticed by Kori, much to Xavier's relief.
"He's just a hot head. So how have you been cutie?" Xavier started to walk down the hall way, Kori by his side.
"Xavier stop right there. No calling me cutie." Xavier rolled his eyes at her stubbornness.
"I can do whatever I want cutie. So just shut your pretty little mouth."
As Kori was about to slap Xavier she smelled alcohol in his breath, a lot. He had been drinking so she didn't slap him. She allowed his drinking to be an excuse as to why he was being jerky tonight. Even though most of the time…he was a jerk to begin with. Her eyes met his, and they were dark and held secrets behind them. She looked away and pulled away from him as his arm began to snake around her waist.
"You're drunk." Her voice was quiet as she stated the obvious. Xavier rolled his eyes and began to walk away from Kori.
"You're not, so I'll go find myself a nice girl to shag." He turned around quickly to give Kori a wink. She shuttered in disgust.
- - - - - - -
"Vic, have you seen Rachel?" Kori asked him. It was late now, being twelve thirty in the morning. The party was still in full swing and after a few drinks and talking to the many drab personalities of Jump was beginning to tire Kori out.
"I think she left with Gar a half hour ago or so. Why do you ask little lady?" Vic had a drink in hand, taking a small swig from the glass. He smiled down at his friend who looked exhausted.
"She was my ride home." Kori groaned lightly.
"Do you need a ride then?" Victor asked. Kori was like his little sister, and he wanted to make sure she got home safe.
"Yeah, thanks Vic!" Kori smiled and as she was about to hug Victor and voice surprised her.
"Do I hear that you need a ride home Ms. Anders?" There stood Slade Wilson. He looked the same as earlier, only a bit more worn out.
"I've got it covered." Victor was quick. He didn't like how he got a weird vibe from Slade Wilson.
"If I am correct you live on the other side of town Mr. Stone. Certainly you needn't go through all that trouble if she is on the way."
Kori felt tension brewing. She sighed lightly and looked at the two gentlemen. "I'll call a cab, no worries. I need to stop at my work. I realized I forgot some papers."
"Then please let me take you, you are on the way." Slade gave a smile and Kori looked to Victor who just shrugged in response. She gave him a hopeful smile and then looked back at Slade.
"Thanks." Kori gave a charming smile and he nodded his head.
"I'll get your things at the closet and will meet you there when you are done." He walked away and Kori looked as Victor's fake smile turned into a worried expression. She rolled her eyes and smiled at him.
"I'll be fine. Slade is a good guy, he wouldn't do anything." Kori hugged Victor tight.
"I've heard that before." Victor muttered out loud. He was happy Kori didn't hear him. "Just call me when you get home please." Kori nodded her head as she let go of Victor.
"I will, take care Victor!" Kori waved as she walked away and to the coat closet where she slipped on her sweater, and grabbed her purse from Slade.
"Shall we go?" Slade asked thoughtfully.
"We shall." Kori let out a giggle as they made their way towards the door. Bruce stood there saying goodbye to another couple as they left.
"Bruce I had a pleasant evening. I will see you at my Christmas Eve party, maybe I can outdo your party." Slade said with a chuckle. He shook hands with Bruce and walked out the door standing at the bottom steps for Kori.
"Good-bye Bruce." Kori kissed his warm cheek as she enveloped her older father like figure in a hug.
"You're going home with Slade?" Bruce raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"No, he is just giving me a ride home for Rachel left earlier." Kori said pulling away from Bruce. He sighed as he looked at the beautiful young girl in front of her. He looked behind her to see Slade's glare on the two as they talked.
"Just be careful." Bruce said nicely. Kori rolled her eyes at his protectiveness.
"I will Bruce. I will see you soon possibly. Thank you for the lovely evening!" Kori called as she began to walk down the steps.
"About that interview you were asking for earlier…what if you stopped by two days from now?"
"That sounds good. Bye," Kori finished walking down the steps, and Slade led her to his black limo which was pulling up.
Wintergreen the butler of Slade opened the limo doors for the two. He then resumed his spot as the driver. "Where are we off to sir?" He was polite, and eyed the young lady that his boss was with.
"Off to the Jump City Post. After that, we will return Kori to her home at the…" Slade looked at Kori for conformation.
"At the Titan Apartments," Kori finished Slade's sentence and the old driver nodded.
"Then home for us," Slade chimed in.
The ride was silent as the two share a newly opened bottle of champagne. Taking small sips Kori studied Slade's face closely. He had a small scar underneath his right eye, it was barley visible. He had small ears as well.
"So Ms. Anders what are you requiring from work?" Slade made small talk.
"I have to grab a folder I forgot, Mod wants me to look up some information on this "S" killer." Kori took another sip. "Just basic information that you can find on the internet currently. Since my computer isn't working properly I couldn't do it at home."
"Ah, yes, the "S" killer. Is that what they are calling him?" Slade let out a hearty chuckle and Kori smirked.
"Is there a better name for our killer?" Kori asked him raising an eye brow.
"What about the Terminator?" Slade said as he rested back against the cool black leather seats.
"Are we trying to be Arnold Schwarzenegger?" Kori smiled and Slade pondered this.
"What about Deathstroke?" Slade asked after much thought.
"That's an interesting name. How did you think of that?" Kori wondered. She leaned in a bit closer anticipating a good answer.
"Just came to mind. Look we're here." Slade said, and Kori sat up straight and looked at the window to see the large building in front of her.
Wintergreen came to her door and opened it for her. Kori let out a whispered thank you and got out of the car stretching. She picked up her gown, hoping to not ruin it on the filthy sidewalk. The windows of the limo rolled down as Kori looked at Slade's face.
"We'll be waiting out here." Kori nodded her head as she walked to the entrance of the building.
Using her keys to get in, she walked into the almost empty building. A security guard sat at a large desk that you saw when you walked in. Kori checked in with him, letting him see her ID, and so on.
She then left the desk walking to the elevator and waiting for the familiar ding to sound. As it did sound, the doors opened and Kori pressed the number eleven on the elevator. Though part of the building housed the Jump City Post office, the remaining six floors were used for other businesses. The Post claimed the top five floors.
Kori worked on floor eleven, where all the other high office paying writers worked. She walked out into the dark room and walked into the ghostly room. It was dark in here, the only light from the windows from the outdoor street lights, and moon.
Kori then noticed a small light in the very back of the room. "Is there someone here?" Kori asked out loud.
The light turned off and Kori felt her heart racing, no one responded. She walked forward more, forgetting to flick on the office floor lights. She walked quickly to the back ignoring the feeling in her heart that she shouldn't go back there alone.
"Hello?" Kori asked. She was now at the back of the room, completely opposite from where she came in. She was at the door whose light had previously been on, Mr. Mod's light.
"Mr. Mod?" Kori asked, her voice cracking slightly. She heard a noise and knocked on the door. "Mr. Mod…is that you?"
She opened the door and flicked on the light. She panicked at first before a scream came out of her lips. She felt her heart going a mile a minute as she held onto the office door for support.
Papers scattered the floor in a mess. A file was held in the dead hands of Mr. Mod, yes Mr. Mod was dead. His body lay face down on the table, and Kori felt herself gasping for air as tears came.
Blood dripped onto the wooden floor for a knife was in his back, and an "S" shape was carved onto his skin, blood was everywhere, and the scent was becoming overwhelming. Kori saw the hook off the phone, and then she heard a noise. Turning behind her Kori screamed even more.
There was a young man that stood in front of her. He wore a black opaque mask that covered his eyes. He had short black hair that was slightly gelled up. He wore a weary expression, and his outfit was black. His nice physique filled out his black latex suit well. A blue streak went across his chest and down his arms.
Kori looked back and forth between the two. To the gruesome body of her dead boss and to the dark man that stood before her. She kept looking back and forth until they both made the connection. Kori believed she was looking at the "S" killer, and another terrifying scream was released from her dry throat as the man approached her.