A/N: An anonymous reviewer asked when the Hulk-type OC I mentioned will show up, so let me answer by saying "right after I finish reintroducing Starr," which happens to start out here, along with another dynamic of the story: the presence of a few non-super powered criminals. Anyways, enjoy.
Terror on a Starry Night
A woman in a suit was watching some screens in his office, all of which displayed scenes from the incident at the mall a few days back. Though she showed moderate interest in the six super-powered teens, her main focus was the figure dressed like an owl. "So, it's official: Dobbs Diversity is still up and running. To think, my former gag store owner of an associate should have taken care of that problem ten years ago with the little incident on the Devil's Trail, as it's now called," the woman stated, to which someone else stated, "To be fair, he failed to eliminate ALL of the planned targets." "Yes, I know. Still, a child shouldn't be too much to get rid of. Maybe THAT is why little Charles saw fit to appoint some extra security at his usual destinations by outfitting at least one of them with some of his family resources," the woman stated. "Um, not to patronize you, but how can you be sure that Night Owl and Charles aren't the same person? I mean, my nephew used to know him and told me of his fear of someone sharing his fate. That alone would be reason to have himself do what some hired hand could easily mess up," the employee stated, to which his boss stated, "That may be true, but I know some things about the boy myself, one of them being that he couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag, so that theory can be overlooked for now."
"Very well: do you want me to fetch your associate?" the man stated, to which the first man responded, "As much as I want to say 'yes,' I must hold my tongue for now if I want to squeeze the life out of the only family that truly succeeded in destroying my own in the past. No: I think you need to teach these heroes a lesson." "Very well, Ms. Telega: it's time for these so-called heroes to face TRUE fear," the man responded. As he left, the woman sighed and stated, "When are my associates going to understand that their free to call me Python when we're alone?"
The next day, the gang had begun conversing amongst themselves about something very important to their double lives. "So, what were we talking about again?" Jonsey asked, to which Nikki replied, "The only thing keeping me from slapping you for not paying attention is the fact that I don't want to mess up that cute face of yours." "Dude, we were talking about our codenames," Jude replied, to which Jen stated, "Do you want everyone to know that we're superheroes?" Wyatt then said, "Catlin and I have already come up with some good ones while you guys were arguing." Catlin then handed out a list to see what the others thought: they all liked them.
"So, what are you guys calling yourselves?" stated a figure from the shadows. "Dude: enough with the ninja skills!" Jonsey exclaimed, to which Charlie replied, "I can't stop my skills anymore then you can stop setting things on fire. Besides, I needed to those skills to get someone here for another one of your headsets without drawing too much attention. "Well, where is he?" Wyatt asked, to which the vigilante replied, "SHE is still in the Janitor's closet where I left her."
As they got near the closet, Charlie turned to them and said, "Before we proceed, I have to warn you: she happened to be holding a book on Gargoyles at the time our lives were forever changed." "So, does that mean that…?" Catlin began, before a voice inside stated, "That's exactly what it means." With that, the door opened.
What stepped out was the most bizarre thing the group had ever seen: a girl with scaly skin, claws, and what appeared to be batwings emerging from her back. "Well, look on the bright side, Starr: you didn't end up with too much of a 'tail' to tell," Charlie joked, to which Nebula replied, "Shut up, Dobbs."
"So, explain it to me again: WHY don't we just try to cure ourselves?" the current goth asked. "I'm sure we can ALL agree on three reasons," Charles stated, "First: we don't know what that compound involved in our accident was, so we wouldn't know how to reverse it's effects, assuming they can be reversed; second: we don't know how many others were affected by the accident, and even if we did, experience has told us that not all of them will be interested in being cured; third and most important: even if we didn't have to worry about super powered criminals, there might be other criminals out there who are just as dangerous, and truthfully, the average mall cop and/or police officer might not be able to stand up them, but we can."
Choosing her words carefully, Jen stated, "Um, not to be critical or anything, but how are we supposed to know when such criminals are active?" "You know, she has a point, Dobbs," Nebula began, "After all, if we show up every time a crime happens, not only do we risk the public thinking we ourselves were involved, but they might start relying on us too much." "Both of you have actually raised a good point, but I believe we will know when to act once the situation arises," the teen hero remarked. "How will we know when that happens?" Catlin asked.
As if on cue, the gang started to hear explosions go off in the direction of the now roped-off Khaki Barn, followed by some panicked screams. "Does that answer your question?" Wyatt retorted.
As the gang got closer to their destination, they began to reflect the panic going on around them. Strange thing was, the crowd around them seemed to be fearful, but not because of the attack. In fact, it almost seemed like the mall patrons barely even noticed the cloaked figure throwing bombs in several directions. However, the figure in question took notice of them the moment they arrived.
"Well, if it isn't the teenage heroes I've been hearing about," the figure mused. "Wow, this guy already knows about us," Jonsey remarked. "Dude, that isn't a good thing," Jude commented, to Jonsey replied with, "I know: I was just afraid that we'd have to wait a lot longer for people to recognize us."
"If that's true, you really don't know what it means to be afraid," the guy in the cloak remarked, "but you will soon enough." At that moment, he tossed several bombs in the direction of the team. Jonsey was quick to act, throwing a fireball at each of the bombs and destroying them. However, this caused a weird smoke to surround the team.
"Thanks for the help," the man stated, "Even though it won't matter in a moment, allow me to explain the situation a little: those bombs you destroyed had a built in emission system that ordinarily releases a special gas of my own design once exposed to the fire produced by the incendiary components. Since you took the liberty of making my job easier, I'll return the favor by making sure you receive adequate therapy. After all, not too many go without it once they experience the Night Terror."
As the gas took effect, the members of 6teen soon began to realize why the crowd around them looked so terrified: the gas seemed to bring fears to life. How else could they explain what they were seeing? With Jonsey, it was an image of his future self without any paying job and/or any companionship; for Nikki, it was ending up just like the Clones; meanwhile, Wyatt was seeing his music sheets being used for roasting marshmallows and Jude kept hearing Catlin's voice saying that she didn't want to be part of the group anymore; speaking of which, she was having a pack of rapid dogs chase her while wearing a mail carrier's uniform, while Jen was facing the possibility that Charlie may never forgive her for what she had done.
"This is terrible: we have to do something," Nebula stated. "I know, but first," Night Owl stated as he took out a syringe. "Wait, what are you doing?" she began, to which her companion stated, "I always figured that whatever company my father turned down might go through with their fear gas plan anyways, so I decided to look into the possibility of finding an antidote should this sort of thing ever happened. This inoculation I'm giving you will temporarily prevent his toxin from affecting you, meaning you should be able to deal with that guy without too much trouble, assuming I got the concentration correct. However, with all things considered, between this and your unique condition, you'll be fairly immune to his gas."
"Okay, but what about you?" Nebula asked, still a little nervous. "I have to administer the antidote to our friends, as well as the infected civilians, before it's too late," he stated, "After all, if they don't calm down soon, they could go into cardiac arrest. Oh, and don't worry: I can handle our friends."
"Are you nuts? Curing them won't be easy, especially given that I doubt they're able to tell friend from foe" the girl asked, to which he replied, "Oh, I know that, but ever since I found out about their powers, I've been working on ways around them should I ever have to face someone who either shares or mimics them: I might not technically have any real powers, but that just makes me all the more dangerous."
"I'll ask you about that later," Nebula remarked, "But I feel I should let you know that I'm not too fond of needles." "Would you rather face that guy without a trump card?" her friend asked, "Besides, my mom was a doctor in life and told me how its wise distract someone when giving someone an injection, meaning that while you were busying trying to stall me, I already gave it to you." "Oh," Starr stated while blushing a little bit.
"Who would think that a bunch of super heroes would be defeated so easily by a mere mortal?" Night Terror remarked, "None can stop me!" "You sure about that?" stated a figure from the shadows, to which the man smirked. "Ah, the one my boss was worried about," he began, "Have you come to challenge your better?" "As much as I would love to make you eat your words, my attention is needed elsewhere," Night Owl stated, "In the meantime, I'm sure my friend will be more than a match for you."
"Oh, please: if you're trying to scare me, it won't work," the cloaked figure said with a smirk, "Nothing scares me!" "Are you sure about that?" came a question from above him. Reacting on instinct, the man took out a gun from his coat and fired. Unfortunately for him, the flying figure avoided the bullet and knocked him to the ground. "What's the matter? Don't tell me you've never seen a Gargoyle Girl before?" his opponent mocked.
Meanwhile, Night Owl was making his way through the mall, looking and listening for his friends. He'd already given Ron enough of the antidote to cure the non-supers: one shot from an air pistol or medical team would be all it would take to cure them. However, he had given special instructions to leave 6teen to him.
So far, he had managed to cure Nikki, Catlin, and Wyatt with minimal difficulty: Nikki's heat signature gave away her position and the only reassurance she needed was to be reminded that even when she was tricked into acting like her former boss, she was never anything like the people they had recently put away; Catlin's sensitive ears were her downfall, and just needed to be convinced that even highly trained attack dogs had as much to worry about when it came to alley cats; meanwhile, it seemed that Wyatt could use his telekinesis to intercept any direct attack, so Nikki helped out by sneaking up behind him and knocking him to the floor.
After a quick pep talk, in which it was explained to Wyatt that even Back and Beethoven had their critics, it was agreed upon that they would split up: Wyatt would go help Starr fight Night Terror, while the others would try to help out their friends. Since they had a pretty good idea about what fears the others were experiencing, it was decided that Nikki would go help Jonsey, Catlin would calm Jude down, and Charles would go cure Jen.
A few minutes after the group parted, Charles' com-link came to life. Apparently, Wyatt had reported to Ron that Starr had subdued Night Terror. What was more, Nikki and Catlin were able to get through to their respective teammates. All that was left to do before rounding up the victims was to track Jen down.
Despite this good news, the head of Dobbs Diversity was starting to get nervous. After all, with his new skills, he had not only deduced that his ex-girlfriend was beginning to have her feelings resurface, but she was beating herself up about what she had done to him. He also knew that the toxin had a way of twisting your fears, so it was possible that simply administering the cure might cause some unforeseen after-effects. It would be risky, but he would have to try to talk her down BEFORE giving her the cure.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Charles found himself knocked off his feet and slammed into a wall. As he attempted to recover, he found him face to face with his fellow Penalty Box employee, who was looking more than a bit mad. "Hello, darling," she spat out.
"Jen, what are you doing?" the vigilante tried, which the speedster responded to with a hallow laugh. "Oh, just eliminating you like you planned to do to us," was her simple reply. "What are you talking about?" Charles demanded.
"Don't give me the innocent routine: while I attempted to calm myself, I overheard you talking with Nebula and couldn't help but notice that you were making kill switches for us," Jen exclaimed, making the normally brave teenager a bit nervous. Collecting himself, he stated, "You're only half-right: I do have contingency plans made out for you guys, but none of them are meant to kill anyone. In fact, they all are meant as a failsafe in case any of you went over to the other side or succumb to mind control of some sort and none of them do any permanent damage." "Then how come you didn't make yourself a failsafe?" Jen demanded.
"I'm fairly certain this is the fear toxin talking; how else do I explain how blind you're acting?" Charles exclaimed, now getting a little irritated himself. "What is that supposed to mean?" his ex demanded, getting a bit impatient. "The plan for stopping myself is YOU, Jennifer!" Night Owl stated, not noticing that Starr and the other members of 6teen had arrived at the scene.
As Nikki invisibly administered Jen's cure, Charles continued to rant. "No matter how much you hurt me in the past, I couldn't bring myself to hate you. If I ever TRULY went over to the dark side, I know deep down you are the only person I wouldn't be able to hurt: you remind me too much of my little sister, and I could never hurt her. The ONLY reason I can't trust her with this responsibility is that she died of cancer a year or so before my parents were killed. Shortly before she died, she made my family promise her that, after she left the hospital, we'd go camping at the Grand Canyon on her birthday. Of course, it supposed to be a FAMILY campout, meaning that we couldn't bring anyone who wasn't part of the family fortune along and that more than one person was required. So far, I've yet to keep that promise and I know full well that if I hurt you, the one person who has made me truly feel as happy as I did when my parents were alive, that promise will NEVER be kept, because one of the rules of being part of my family is that once you've taken a life, you're life with the company is finished. For me, it goes deeper: if I physically hurt the people who give my life meaning, Dobb's Diversity is finished, because my family might own a company that works for the military, but they worked their whole lives trying to promote peace, along with the ideals of truth and justice. If you don't get that, then you're NOT the woman I feel in love with!"
Needless to say, everyone was awestruck. Jen, however, was near her breaking point: she already felt guilty from her misunderstanding at work, but now she was heartbroken. All this time, he trusted her with his very soul, and she took it for granted. True, some of that was the fear toxin that trench coat guy dosed her with, but she wasn't sure if ALL that stuff she said and did was the work of whatever was in that gas. "I don't deserve you," she said.
"I know you're seeking forgiveness," Charlie stated, as he lifted her chin to look into her eyes, "Just so you know, you've always had it." Jen smiled a little as tears trickled down her cheeks. Moments later, their lips touched.
"You're telling me there's another one?" the women in the suit exclaimed. "Yes, and we don't know how many others are out there," her associate said over the phone. Sighing, Python stated, "Don't worry: we'll be ready for them. In the meantime, we'll keep our distance until we know exactly what we're dealing with." "Does that mean that the plan will proceed as scheduled?" Night Terror asked. "Once the proper arrangements are made, and we're sure of what to expect, we'll be able to squeeze the life out of any who oppose us. However, I won't be able to secure your release for a while: I have a few appointments to keep."
A/N: There you have it: the first "normal" villains. Next time, not only will we be seeing something "incredible," but an old foe will return. Until then, you can help me out by suggesting what Charlie's sister should be called (as she might be making a cameo later on). Thanks in advance.