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It was a grungy apartment, the floor a mass grave for candy wrappers, potato chip bags, and the inedible remains of fast food runs. The only light source was from the array of computer monitors, a mess of wires plugging into the towers that were cooled by several fans. Their whirring drowned out the incessant clacking of the keyboards as a boy and girl swiveled about in their chairs, their hands little more than blurs as they moved across the keyboards. On the left sat the girl with short dark hair, interrupted by a forelock dyed crimson. She was slender though much of that was lost in her bulky clothes and the canvas green jacket that was decorated with a horde of patches and pins, the latter of which clattered together with her movements. Prominent amongst them was a large badge that had a single red 'W' on a yellow background. Near her chair was a frumpy satchel that was decorated in a manner akin to her jacket, knickknacks and playful figurines cluttered on the straps. Her comrade was a tall lanky boy who looked to be the same age as her with a gawky body that he hadn't entirely grown into yet. A dark beanie with a white 'M' on it was jammed over his head, fringes of dark brown hair sticking out from under the cap. His hazel eyes flickered intently from screen to screen, occasionally glancing towards his companion with a smirk.
"I'm going to beat you."
"As if," she scoffed.
"Face it, sis. You can't keep up with these mad skills," he smirked confidently.
"Any chance that these are the same skills that got us caught when we tried to break into that database?" she retorted, looking down her nose as she blasted through several firewalls. "You're just lucky that I was there to save your bacon from the fire."
"I could've handled it. I was just surprised by the sophistication of the program," he defended himself before one of the computers to his far side began to chime. Wheeling over to it, he tapped several keys and one of the numerous camera feeds on the screen expanded to fill the entire monitor. It displayed a steel door being shoved open by a trio of rough-looking individuals, who had, amongst them, a sawed-off shotgun, a heavy handgun, and a submachine gun. Turning to his fraternal twin, he gestured, "That's either the ugliest looking bunch of cops I've ever seen, or looks like the goons found us. Either way, we need to bounce."
"All right. I'm starting the data transfer."
She scooted over to a light laptop on the edge of the station and clicked a few keys that brought up a download bar on all the screens. Leaping to his feet, her brother grabbed a large, black backpack that he raced under the room to fill it, stuffing in several bags of snack food, candy bars, and rolls of bills that were scattered about the room. Striding to the door, he grabbed a dark hooded sweatshirt and wriggled into it before striding back over to his sister, tapping impatiently on the back of her chair.
"Come on; we need to go. Now," he urged.
"It's not like I can make it download any faster, Marvin," she returned.
He groaned and jerked her chair about. "Don't call me that!"
She laughed before her laptop dinged and she rolled away from him, tapping at the keys before snapping the laptop shut and scooping it into the satchel. Bounding to her feet and swinging the bag onto her shoulder, she glanced over to her brother as he kicked over the towers, stomping upon them and smashing them to pieces. The monitors went dark and she began to push over the tables that they were on, sending them crashing to the ground. After helping her turn over the last one, he glanced to the door as he heard shouting from outside it as his sister hustled to the window that a black garbage bag had been taped over. Struggling to open it, she squeezed out of the space and urged her brother to follow. He shot towards her just as the door was ripped open and the men burst in, the man with the shotgun firing off a shell.
"Does nobody else think that this is an absolutely gross misappropriation of resources?"
Rose looked to Eddie and Blackfire for support but both were caught up in the movie being displayed by the projector of the central computer. Admittedly, Blackfire seemed more perplexed than anything, but she was nevertheless more focused upon the film than her teammate's inquiry. The red-skinned boy did seem legitimately interested in the inane movie, mechanically reaching into the huge bowl of popcorn that Gar cradled in his lap. They were seated upon the benches that lined the circular indent in the floor, lounging on Gar's demand after a rather intense training session that focused upon teamwork once again. He had insisted upon this, claiming that a team needed to do more than just be able to function together. For some reason that Rose couldn't entirely comprehend, he thought that forcing him to watch a film featuring the dubious acting of a man in a chicken costume robbing banks would succeed in accomplishing that. When nobody else offered an answer, Gar, with the mysterious brick still at his side after three days, chimed in.
"I'll have you know, lil' Miss Word-a-Day-Calender, that Chicken Thief 3 is utterly hilarious and absolutely worth any mis-probation that shall be committed today, gross or not. It's also Buddy Baker's last work before he became Animal Man."
"And let me guess. He's your idol?"
He tossed a piece of popcorn at her, which she dodged with contemptible ease before giving him a single-fingered salute. Oblivious to the war being waged behind his head, Eddie gave a nod at Gar's comment, "He recently did that movie about the washed-up superhero, didn't he?"
"Yep," the shape shifter nodded as he flicked another kernel at the silver-haired girl who tilted her head and avoided the projectile. Acting as though he hadn't done anything, he continued, "Tights. It was pretty neat. And entirely why I have a back-up plan after I stop looking good in tights. Admittedly a very long time, but . . ."
"Would our time not be better spent stopping this thief rather than watching his exploits?" Blackfire interjected, her eyes narrowed upon the projected screen.
"Have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely adore the naïveté of aliens? Okay, so I imagine that our darling blazing beauty isn't exactly Bambi-innocent, but seriously . . . am I the only one who finds this ignorance cute?"
"Probably like looking in a mirror for you, huh?"
He tossed a cascade of popcorn at her that she not only caught every last one of, but began to eat triumphantly as Eddie leaned forward to talk to Blackfire. "It's a movie. It's not actually real or happening, just a form of entertainment. Those people are actors; they're paid to play those characters."
Blackfire nodded in comprehension after an instant, "I think I get it. It's like the gladiatorial fights at the Arenas of Shal'kallath."
"Um . . . sure?" Eddie offered. Seemingly content with the answer, Blackfire sat back to continue watching the movie.
"Gahah!"
Without any sort of preamble, Gar launched the bowl of popcorn over Eddie, upending it entirely upon a shocked Rose and drawing the stares from the other two. The large plastic bowl sat askew on her head as she simply sat there with her mouth agape, popcorn tangled in her short hair and dropping into her clothes. Jumping to his feet, the shape shifter gave a shout of victory and laughed when there was a sudden ding and the movie was replaced by the animated image of a disembodied head. It was of a simple design with blank eyes and geometric lines running along it and though it didn't seem to land itself to the expression of emotion, the team members suspected the head was smirking.
"I'm presuming that Gar is somewhere at the root of all this mess?"
The voice was hollow with a lilting tone that denoted a female aspect even disguised. Gar broke into a wide grin as he swiveled and nodded to the holographic head, "Oracle. I think you're looking well. How's it going?"
"Actually, I've ran into a recent bit of trouble. A few weeks ago, somebody hacked into my files."
"I never met the guy. I was at church. The check's in the mail. It was probably Rose," he said quickly, smiling as he hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans.
"I know that it wasn't you. The signature was wrong and it didn't leave any singing chipmunks that pop up whenever I hit the 'A' key. Anyway, they started duplicating everything I had before I could stop them. However, I did manage to insert a virus so that I could track them. The computer that hacked into my network was activated a little over an hour ago at these coordinates."
Another screen popped up alongside the head, displaying a map of the city in one of the city's more rundown districts. A red dot glowered over an apartment building and Gar took note of the streets that it was upon. The voice took on an apologetic sort of tone as she said, "Normally, I'd contact the Birds of Prey to handle this situation, but you're in the area and you owe me, so . . ."
"As much as I love seeing those glorious curves wrapped in tight-fitting spandex and leather, I got'cha. We'll handle this. You want us to take them down hard, or soft?"
"Gar, I was trained by the Batman. The only 'soft' I know is when I'm moving."
"True that. All right. Check you later, O."
He gave a salute and smile, which she returned with a slight inclination of the holographic head before the image flashed out of existence. Turning to his team, he spread his arms and pointed towards the door.
"Them's the marching orders. Suit up and we'll be heading out in five. And, Rosie-Posie, please be sure to clean the popcorn out of your hair. We don't want to be looking unprofessional."
She snarled at his playful smirk and wished that she at least had her daggers with her before darting after the others.
Within minutes, she had both her daggers and her swords but decided that seeking revenge while riding the green pterodactyl would not be the most wise, but shortest lived, of a series of bad decisions. Beside her, Kid Devil had his head tucked down, sending his long hair into a wind-whipped frenzy, and she pondered how much the talons digging into Changeling's hide hurt. He gave no sign that he was in any pain and instead was focused upon scanning the streets while Blackfire was lower to the ground, tracing along until she suddenly shot up. Alighting atop one of the crumbling apartments, she waved them down and Ravager's stomach dropped as Changeling went into a slanted dive. Several yards above the crumbling rooftop, he pulled back and his wings caught the air, dramatically slowing his descent and allowing him to land lightly upon the ground. He lowered his body to the ground, giving the younger pair easier access to clamber off.
"Thank you for flying Changeling Air. Please take all luggage and exit in a calm, orderly fashion with some speed before this roof breaks underneath me," he urged. As soon as they were off, he melted down into a rabbit and bounded towards the small structure that contained a door into the interior structure. The others followed after him and his shape flowed into that of a burly bloodhound who nodded his head to the team. "All right. Goldie and I are gonna take the top half of the building. KD, bright eye, you've got the lower half cause I don't want to walk all that way. Move quiet. This building's empty so anybody that you find here, we're going to want to at least question them. Hold 'em, try not to hurt 'em. Ready? Break!"
He dashed away, leaving a rather perplexed Blackfire who glanced towards the others and asked, "Exactly what is it I'm supposed to break?"
"Nothing. It just means 'go,' or something else like that," Kid Devil offered.
"I see," she nodded before lifting into the air and heading after Changeling. Ravager waved a hand, signaling for her comrade to follow as she headed down the stairs.
"All right. Let's take a look around."
She made her way down the stairs with a silence that marveled Kid Devil and inspired him to try to, in vain, emulate. The talons on his toes gouged the crumbling wood of the stairs and while she drifted down them with all the presence of a ghost, he seemed to find the point to make each one squeak the loudest. He winced at each sound he made as they descended to the bottom floor while she did nothing as dramatic, he imagined that the noise wasn't exactly endearing him to her. Glaring at his feet and willing them to be silent, he didn't notice when she same to a sudden stop until he bumped into her and nearly knocked her down the steps. Her body was stiff as she tilted forward and with a small yelp, he managed to catch her wrist to keep her from crashing into the stairs just before her body became limber once again. Blinking at the floor in surprise, she angled her head to look back and up at him. Giving her an apologetic smile, he tugged her back upright and she quickly steadied herself before taking a step closer to him. He sent a silent plea that she wouldn't feel or would at least misinterpret the heat that rolled off his body as she whispered into his pointed ear.
"Somebody's been watching us."
Instinctively slipping into a fighting crouch, he searched for any sign of an observer but his eyes returned to Ravager after a fruitless search. "Who? Where?"
"About five seconds from now, I spotted a camera. It's definitely new, not from before this building was abandoned. I bet we've already passed by several," she answered softly, lifting her gaze to check for other cameras.
"'Five seconds from now?'"
"Having a pretty face and hot body isn't my only powers. I'm a precog. I get visions of possible futures from time to time," she explained.
"That explains why 'tag' took so long," he muttered.
"Actually that was because I'm flat out awesome and I've been on the run from far more proficient seekers since I was a baby."
"I'll take your word for it."
"Good. Now do me a favor and spit that fire of yours in that direction. And make it hot."
Following the direction of her finger, he drew in a large breath before unleashing a veritable inferno towards the lower landing. The flames licked along the walls, roiling about and lighting the dark stairwell. Ravager pulled back from the intense heat of the flame and shielded her eye from the sudden illumination before tapping Kid Devil's shoulder, surprised by his heat.
"Hey, I think we're good. You can settle down."
He closed his mouth, swallowing the inferno before he could unleash any more from his mouth and the fire persisted for a moment long before flickering out of existence. Stepping up to the handrail, Ravager crouched down to peer at the spot she suspected the camera was positioned. When she was content that the surveillance equipment was no longer a concern, she waved him on and they continued down the stairwell. She led the way, proceeding cautiously and several feet ahead of Kid Devil to spot out cameras that they either eliminated with his fire breath or she launched some projectile at, smashing it to pieces. They soon made their way down to the bottom floor and began their search for anybody inhabiting the building. Aside from the swarms of vermin that took refuge in the refuse that every room and hallway in the building seemed to be buried under, they found no signs of life. Working their way through the floors without any success, they met up with the other half of the team who nodded at their approach.
"The search turned up zilch," Ravager grumbled.
"Not for us," Blackfire responded, turning to lead them down the hall. Changeling walked alongside her and illustrated his conversation with his hands.
"There's this room up here that has a bunch of wrecked computer equipment. More importantly, there's blood heading out the window. Not sure who, but I'm betting it's our lil' hackers."
"Hackers?"
He nodded to Kid Devil and continued, "Yeah. I've got at least five human scents in that room. Two are more widely spread throughout the room while I suspect the others were somebody else who they managed to cheese off."
Entering the room, they took note of the mess of electronics and casing that were scattered over the trash of the room. Most of the equipment looked like it had taken a standard trampling, but several pieces supported what Ravager immediately recognized bullet wounds. Crouching down to look at the damage caused by the shots before wandering over to the wall and window frame that had sustained similar fire. Tracing several of the holes, she pronounced, "I can see a submachine gun of some sort. Most likely an uzi. This here's from a shotgun; I'm putting money on sawed-off. The pattern of the last one here . . . not entirely sure. However, given the close quarters, I'm gonna hazard a guess and say pistol. Something big."
Setting one hand on his hip, Changeling nodded at her, obviously impressed, "I honestly have no idea if you're right or not, but you sound confident enough to be so. Now onto the blood . . ."
He gestured to a scarlet splatter that stained the window sill and a portion of the wall that Ravager regarded before commenting, "It looks like the hacker – hackers – were headed out the window when whoever was chasing them burst in. One of them got shot-"
"The male member of the duo got shot in the upper part of the leg. He's going to need to get that treated and soon," Changeling finished.
"So we should start checking hospitals," Kid Devil suggested.
The shape shifter gnawed upon his lip for a minute before nodding slowly, "Yeah. Okay. You and Blackfire start looking into that angle – I'd check out clinics first. Ravager, you're with me."
Dropping into the form of a wolf, he bounded out the window, and, with a mocking salute to her other teammates, Ravager leapt after him, rolling into a crouch as she landed upon the fire escape. Glancing to the other two, the emerald canine directed, "Remember, start close. The kid's not getting far on that wound. If you can't find anything by sundown, contact us."
"On what?" Blackfire asked.
He blinked at her before giving a bark that Ravager suspected had already been paid to the swear jar. "Forgot that we don't have communicators."
"Why don't we have those fancy little gadgets that the other Titans have?" she demanded.
Staring at the dark-haired woman for a moment, he quickly uttered, "Generic answer meant to distract and not actually answer your question followed by overdone compliment."
"What?" she arched an eyebrow, not entirely certain she'd understood him.
"And away! Come, bright eye," she called as he bounded off of the fire escape, turning into a gliding squirrel and gently descending. Leaping after him, Ravager caught a window sill before pushing off and launching herself to the building across the alley before giving another jump and landing gracefully upon the garbage-cluttered pavement. Changeling shifted back into a wolf and after taking a second to locate the trail of the blood amongst the refuse, they set off. Kid Devil glanced after them, unaware of Blackfire as she lifted through the window, pausing to glance back at him.
"Let's go."
Snapping his head towards her as she hovered in the air, he gave a weak grin, "Um, you know, I can't actually fly or anything."
"So?"
"So, it would be a lot quicker if I didn't have to walk everywhere."
"Then run."
His mouth opened but he could offer no retort and closed his jaw before staring at her with a hopefully plaintive look that could coax her over to his side. After staring at him for a moment, she huffed but swooped down and offered him a hand. Lighting up at the offer, he reached for the proffered limb as he clambered out of the room only for her to suddenly seize upon his forearm and zoom into the sky, hauling him after her. Despite himself, he gave a short shriek before clamping his other hand over his mouth at the sudden climb in altitude. Fighting the overwhelming sense of vertigo that swelled every time he looked at the distant ground, he scanned the streets for the first stop in their search.
Elsewhere, Ravager considered her team supervisor as he led her through the alleys, shambling in the form of a large bear, after informing her they had one of the best olfactory senses of any land animal. She resisted the urge to use this chance to ride a bear, and instead noted, "You don't think they're going to get treatment."
"Not from somebody else, they aren't. They're going to try to take care of it on their own."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. That's why I sent babe-licious and BBQ boy to check out treatment places. But around a decade ago, I was these kids. Well, minus the apparent prodigious hacker talent. I didn't develop that skill until Steve said I had to learn how to crack the Brain's security systems."
"How do you know they're kids?" she asked as they rounded a corner, startling an unfortunate bum who had crawled from his cardboard hovel in time to witness a verdant grizzly barreling down the alley. Wisely, he retreated back into his flimsy shelter and curled into the fetal position, rocking himself.
"Adults that eat that much junk don't have near enough mobility to be hopping out of windows and fleeing armed goons unless they've got some sort of super metabolism. It's a very hectic lifestyle."
"You used to live it?"
"Please. I ran an army of gorillas for a while. And not even the sentient ones! It was a glorious mess. Hold up."
He paused as they came upon yet another seedy building though Ravager noticed that this was legitimately occupied. Giving a few sniffs, he stood on his hind legs and returned to his human shape and signaled for her to follow.
"Come on. I can smell them in here."
"That actually sounds pretty disgusting."
"Name aside, you aren't too 'rosy' yourself, bright eye," he returned as he bounded up the crumbling stoop of the seedy motel. Inside was nothing surprising: a cramped, dingy lobby that the cockroaches found hospitable enough as a large greasy man leaned on the wooden counter that bore countless gouges, scars, and rather questionable works of 'art.' The man was looking through the newspaper, chewing sloppily upon a meatball sub that he didn't seem to notice was dripping on his reading material or his shirt. Beetle black eyes that were almost lost in the fat of his face flickered towards them before returning to the apparently engaging article as he sprayed crumbs.
"No cosplay retards here. Out."
Undeterred, Changeling strode towards the desk and said, "Today, two kids came in. One of them was hurt and they paid in cash. Where are they?"
"Listen, bud –"
"Never mind. Just took me a minute to work past that stench you're exuding. I found 'em. Let's go, stab-happy."
As the shape shifter headed for the stairs, the incredible bulk managed to push himself off the grateful counter and waddled towards him, scowling fiercely, "Hey, you little freak, what did I just-"
The dull sound of metal stabbing into the flimsy wall and support beam behind it gave him pause and he eyed the keen edge of Ravager's katana, tiny eyes glancing at her. She gave a psycho smirk that she was certain would have impressed the Joker and leered, "I like guys like you. There's just soooooo much fun to cut apart. What piece do want to lose first? Honestly, I like starting with the toes, but if you go for the little dangly bits right off the bat, you know that they're paying attention."
Slowly backing away, the man stammered, "Y-y-y-y-you know w-what? You g-g-guys go r-right on ahead. I-I'll just stay out of your way."
She beamed at him as she returned her blade to its sheath. "Good piggy."
Racing up the less-than-reassuring stairs, Ravager met up with Changeling as he meandered down the hall, sniffing the air. At her approach, he noted, "That was an insult to pigs everywhere. They're actually quite intelligent."
With a roll of the eye, she claimed, "I'll apologize to the next piece of bacon I see."
"See that you do," he returned seriously before morphing into a bear and sniffing about again though he added, "You know, you play psycho chick pretty well."
"No," she smirked, "I play normal chick pretty well."
"Normal's overrated anyway," he muttered before he shifted into a garter snake and slithered under one of the doors. An instant later, he pushed it open to admit her and she slipped into the room lit by the television where a number of men in red underwear were making a wall out of corpses. As she shut the door, a masculine voice called out.
"Wendy? That you? I hope you managed to swipe some pain killers. My leg's starting to kill me."
Sharing a glance, Ravager slipped in front of Changeling in the small hallway and emerged into the main part of the room. A lanky boy, no older than her, was reclined on one of the ratty beds, remote at his side and a red-soaked cloth knotted fiercely about his leg. He opened his mouth to call out again before seeing her there, his eyes widening in shock. Attempting to push himself up, his efforts were thwarted when Ravager sailed across the room and straddled his abdomen, simultaneously whipping out her daggers and pressing them to his skinny neck. She tilted her head and gave a large grin as Changeling emerged from the shadows.
"That's right, Tinker Bell. Wendy's back. And she brought Peter Pan to play."
We'll start off the outroduction by saying that the first person to figure out the new character from last chapter is Dragonkyng who has already chosen a character to premiere. Thanks for playing everyone.
We hope everyone enjoyed this chapter as much as they seemed to like the last one. We'd like to thank you for taking your time to read this and we hope that you can continue to do so. And please remember that this story is fueled by reviews ;)