Chapter 4: Cupid Stabbed Me in the Butt

Theme Song: Tynisha Keli: Live Without You and Imogen Heap: The Moment I Said It

"Tempt, come here, now," Slade called from his cave. "Of course, all mighty king asshole. I'm not doing anything at all. Jackass," I mumbled and shoved the rest of my chocolate pudding with rainbow sprinkles in my mouth. "And who the hell said you could interrupt me when I'm eating my pudding? I know I made a rule about this," I mumbled to myself as I walked down the stairs to the 'cave'. "What do you want, Slade? I know I told you not to interrupt me when I'm eating my pudding." Slade didn't even give me a glance as he continued to furiously type on his keyboard. "This is more important than your fattening treats." I stopped abruptly in the middle of the floor. "Are you calling me fat?"

"No, now get over here," he responded in a deadpan voice. I rolled my eyes and stomped over to where he sat, and then leaned on the back of his chair. "What?" "I'm planning to withdraw money from the city's bank account and I need you to distract the Teen Titans should they arrive to come and stop me." "Why can't you just withdraw the money from the bank from here?" "The codes only work on their personal database." He pulled out a plan from a drawer underneath the keyboard. "I'll be in here once I've knocked out all the guards," he pointed to a room on the upper left part of the paper. " Will Stone, Plug, or Gush be coming?" "Only if you want them to," he replied.

"I'll call for Gush if I need him. When's this supposed to go down?" He swiveled around in his chair and stood up, knocking me slightly off balance. "Tonight. Be ready by 7pm." With a stiff nod, I went to go get another pudding cup. "Next time, wait until I'm done with my pudding to talk about something so trivial as money."

7 PM

I met up with Slade at exactly 7pm. Instead of my usual half-hoodie and sweatpants, I wore tiny black short shorts and a forest green tank top with black combat boots. "What are you wearing?" he asked me, irritated disdain in his eyes. "Clothes," I replied in a 'duh' voice. "Why are you wearing it?" "For a cover, duh. Do you want me to walk down the street in my usual clothes and risk practically everyone recognizing me? Use your head, old man. I think you're starting lose it." He huffed as I walked by him, yanking the keys from his hands. "Come on! I need to get back to watch Jersey Shore."

DOWNTOWN

At Jump City's bank somewhat near the pizza place, people still roamed around aimlessly, shopping and enjoying the time of their friends and family. Seeing them so happy and laughing, kids fussing with their siblings, parents fussing over them; it reminded me of the hole I had in my heart. It ached, not being able to do the same with my own family. I only remembered a distant memory of a flicker of my mother and father's face. I would have remembered my little sister if Ash hadn't killed my mother. I never even got the chance to meet her. Anger sparked in me once again and I silently reinforced my vow to myself to make my brother pay.

"Tempt, are you ready?" My thoughts were interrupted by the stone voice that was Slade's. His persona always changed into a devious, malicious crook when he was conducting 'business'. "Of course I am. What kind of question is that?" "One that doesn't need a smart-ass remark," he replied, glaring at me. Rolling my eyes, I exited the car and looked around, shaking out my amber waves of hair. I slipped on my sunglasses and started up the steps to the pizza place while Slade worked at disarming the lock on the back door to the bank. Of course, the pizza place was conveniently located across the street from the bank and would ya guess who was there? The infamous Teen Titans, brave and fearless, ready to fight crime, and celebrating victories with pizza at the end of every day. Well, I guarantee this won't be a fight they'll be celebrating.

I walked into the restaurant and followed the waitress to the top deck where the titans sat joking at a table by the far side of the deck. "I'll sit over here," I told the waitress and sat at a table across the deck from the titans where I could get a clear view of them. "Well is there anything I can't get you?" she asked me. Barely glancing at the menu, I ordered the first thing I saw. "Two diet cokes and a large Hawaiian pizza." "Yes, ma'am," she said and left to attend to my order. The Titans remained totally unaware that I watched them like a hawk. Pitiful. One of the first basic rules of any good superhero is to be aware of your surroundings. The least you could do is make sure you're not being watched or that no one's in trouble.

I looked around, bored. How long did it take to hack into the bank's central account and transfer the money to his own? The waitress came back with my order. I thanked her and gave her a five dollar tip. "T-thank you," she stuttered in disbelief and blushed. I nodded, watching her scamper off, probably to go brag to her coworkers about what she had gotten. I was about to lay my head down when the alarm to the bank suddenly started to blare. "Finally; I was beginning to think the old man had fallen and couldn't get up," I muttered under my breath. Grabbing the pizza and sodas, I jumped off the ledge and onto the pavement below. People screamed behind me at my abrupt leap. A car horn honked and I turned to see Slade waving frantically for me to get in.

Behind me, the Teen Titans called for us to stop. I threw our pizza in the backseat and put the sodas in our cup holders. "You got another car waitin' for us somewhere, boss man?" I asked him and jumped into the passenger seat, slamming the car door. Slade sped off the second the door closed. The Titans were left blinded by our dust. "I do. You got us something to eat?" I leaned back and smirked. "Well I couldn't just very well leave us to starve tonight, could I? I hope you like Hawaiian, old man." I could practically see the vein in his forehead pulsing with irritation. "Old man?" I chuckled. "Heh, just paying respects to my 'elders'." He rolled his eyes and frustratingly huffed.

I laughed again. "So where's this getaway car of ours?" He motioned with his head. "Over there." We turned into the spot where he had somehow hidden the car. Our sexy stallion of a car was hidden by tons of vines and bushes. I jumped out of the car before he could park and squealed excitedly, "No way! You jacked Batman's car? Sweet!" The ignition cut off and the masked man smoothly slipped out. "You must be dumber than you look if you really think that," he stated, rather than asked as he grabbed our food out of the car. I turned to glare at him. "Excuse me? I'll have you know I was at the top of my class. I have a very high IQ."

He looked at me with a bored expression. "Were you raised into a family of squirrels?" I crinkled my nose, confused at his strange question. What was he getting at? "What? No!" I exclaimed and snatched the keys out of his hand. "Give those back!" he demanded. Ignoring him, I pulled on my shades and reapplied my lip gloss. "Shut up and get in the car," I replied and backed out of the dark cover of the trees. Slade narrowed his eyes at me, buckled up, and sat back in a brood at getting his ass handed to him. 'He just too cute' I thought and smirked as we cruised down the road. "You'd better not wreck my car." I rolled my eyes and waved him off. "Oh, don't worry about me, sergeant. I'm an excellent driver. I got one of the highest grades on my driver's test." Slade sighed and turned his attention back to the road where his eyes widened to the size of porcelain bowls.

"Look at the road!" Slade yelled. My head snapped back to the road. A deer was standing stupidly in the middle of the road, not even bothering to move. I swerved to keep from hitting it while Slade screamed in my ear, fighting me for the wheel. "I don't wanna die!" I shouted, tiny tears peeping out from my eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you!" Slade yelled at me, "Push on the damn brakes already!" I let go of the wheel, finally letting him take hold. "I can't find it!" I wailed. With a frustrated grunt, he slapped my leg, earning a startled, pained yelp and slam on the brake. We finally stopping crookedly half way in the middle of the road, half off.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled to the pissed masked man in black as I walked past him to the other side of the car. "Whatever," he snapped. "Just shut up and get in the car! You are never driving again. Excellent driver, my ass," he bitterly muttered the last part.