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'Not Afraid' is performed by Eminem
The shadows leapt to life around them, reaching and stabbing at them, pressing in from all sides and giving no quarter. As Alya and Alexei were seized by terror and unable to break its paralyzing grip, the other three struggled against the writhing darkness. It wavered between the corporeal and ethereal, frustrating Rose and Red Robin, whose weaponry were intended for more substantial threats. Eddie's flames banished the darkness, incinerating it in its solid state, but the cramped space of the alley and crowding of his comrades severely limited his movements and angle of attack. Overwhelmed by the shadows that hardened into blades, all bore several scars and wounds, some deeper than others but none of them particularly debilitating. Frigid, orange eyes suggested that such was the intent, the cruel smile taking obvious pleasure in the deaths by a thousand cuts. Shadow Walker stayed away from direct conflict, emerging from the higher patches of darkness on the walls, diving back into the inky blackness to evade the periodic batarang or spurt of flame. Taunts flew from his mouth, promises of hideous tortures and remarks on easily apparent shortcomings. Frustration was growing obvious amongst the young heroes while the siblings were still captives of horror. Twisting between a volley of several stabbing branches, Red Robin crouched beside Eddie.
"You and Rose need to grab the kids and then close your eyes. I got a plan," he hissed. Eddie answered with a sharp nod before burning away an oncoming spike and weaving between another batch to land beside the silver-haired girl. He opened his mouth but she was already talking.
"I know. I saw it," she explained. They slipped through a barrage of attacks before landing alongside the pair who they secured as Rose yelled, "Close your eyes!"
None checked if the others were complying before they all wrenched their lids shut, but the sudden flare of light was still obvious. There was something between a snarl and a scream followed by an instance of silence and then Red Robin was resting his hand on Rose's slender shoulder. "He's gone now, but I don't know for how long. We need to go."
They blinked their eyes open and stood, staring suspiciously at the benign, unmoving shadows before looking to the dark-haired boy wonder. Rose demanded, "What was that?"
"Flash pellet," he offered.
She crossed her arms across her chest, arching the brow over her good eye, "And you didn't toss it earlier because . . .?"
His stoic façade crumbled and he glanced away as he mumbled something and Rose leaned forward, "I'm sorry, what's that?"
"I, uh, forgotthatihadit," he gushed.
"Uh huh," she noted, a teasing smirk growing on her face.
He gave an obviously false cough before his face became serious and he declared, "Anyway, I need to get these two to somewhere safe, so-"
"We'll take them back to our place," Rose finished, Eddie nodding behind her as Red Robin frowned.
"I-"
"We've got the setup to handle them. We should probably tell Gar and Blackfire about what's going on anyway. They might have an idea on what to do," Eddie shrugged. Red Robin frowned, clearly upset with the situation but before he could voice his discontent, Rose continued where her teammate had left off, one hand on her hip.
"Look, Bats Jr., this is our city. We're the ones with the base within walking distance, not to mention backup, which we don't really need, but I think my point is clear. We're headed there. Got it?"
Cowed by the seething tone and scowl on the silver-haired girl's face, Red Robin gave a silent nod that appeased Rose. She whirled and pushed the siblings to their feet while Eddie gave an understanding smile and a pat on the shoulder to Batman's protégé, "Don't feel bad about that. For what it's worth, I think she could intimidate Batman."
"Probably not," he grumbled under his breath, "But thanks for trying. Hey, what happened to you? Last time I saw you, you had a suit. Unless you've gotten a lot better at making synthetic skin . . ."
Eddie glanced away, pretending to focus on Rose and trailing after her as she began to guide the siblings back on a path towards the base. Her training led her to drive them towards the shadows but their obvious reluctance, the fear that flitted across their faces as they scoured the darkness, caused her to pause, scowl, and direct them towards a brighter path. The red-skinned boy began to follow after her only for a gloved hand to catch his shoulder and Red Robin refused to drop his line of questioning.
"Eddie, what happened?"
"I'll – I'll tell you about it later," he promised before jogging to catch up with Rose. Clearly displeased, Red Robin frowned before pulling a grapple claw from his belt and launching it at the overhang of a nearby building, taking a less obvious route across the rooftops.
Rose eased the door open, peering into the building before quietly sneaking in, urging the others to follow after her. Eddie played along and while somewhat confused, Red Robin followed suit, entering behind the astonished siblings who gaped at their surroundings. Alya's cold gaze snapped to the door as it shut and her seemingly perpetual frown dipped further on her face as her brow creased. Her brother laid a calming hand on her shoulder and most of the tension fled from her body though she did not relax entirely. She glanced about uneasily, her eyes scouting for any possible threats when a voice above them brought the entire company to a halt.
"Hey, you – Whoa!"
A green rabbit leapt from the webbing that it had been hiding in the shadows where the ceiling met the walls as a blast of lightning was launched at him. Sparks leapt from her eyes and coiled around her hands as Ayla raised her arm, readying herself for another blast before Eddie leapt in her line of fire.
"Hey, wait up! Don't shoot! He's a friend."
"A very handsome and endlessly amusing friend," Gar added as his form resorted back into a human shape, scowling at the five teenagers. "Who is mildly peeved that his bit less than a decade younger teammates bounced without letting him know. What would've happened if you got yourselves hurt out there?!"
"You say that like it's a possibility," Rose scoffed. "Besides, it looked like you and queen bee-with-an-itch were having a pretty serious game of tonsil hockey going on. I wasn't about to foul that up for you."
"You," he seethed, emerald eyes turning upon her and clawed finger extending to point at her, "You are going to be the death of me. I would've accepted a text. An e-mail. A note. Instead, you're just gone, and the next time I see you, it's a video on the web where you're duking it out with Sound and Fury there."
He paused and then took in a large breath, drawing in his hands and pressing the tips of his fingers together before he let out all his air in a long sigh. His eyes snapped open and while they were still harder than usual, it was obvious that he had calmed slightly. Turning his back on them, he ordered, "Come on up. We're going to have a nice long talk and you all are going to explain everything that's going on. Or else I am going to ensure that you're all sharing in this headache I'm dealing with. And don't think I don't see you back there, T. migratorius. Let's go."
Heads hung like petulant children, Rose still fought to maintain a semblance of defiance, the quintet trailed after the emerald man who grumbled under his breath the entire way up the stairs. As they entered into the spacious kitchen, the most personable common room, they found themselves facing a decidedly irate Blackfire who glowered down at them, arms crossed over her chest. Before Gar could lay into them, she began to fume, "I was thoroughly enjoying myself, but when this buffoon realized that you two had gone off without any sort of warning, he ran around racing to find you. I consider myself more than entitled to put all of you through every imaginable torture and some unimaginable to recapture the pleasure you forced me to miss out on!"
She had lifted several feet into the air, her eyes aglow as she roared at them, and Gar brought his hands up in an attempt to placate her, "Settle down there, my midnight sun. Okay? I got this."
Still growling at the youths, she settled back upon the floor and glared at them for a moment before her sharp gaze snapped to Gar and she decreed, "You will be making up this lost time to me, Garfield."
"Trust me, tall, dark, and ravishing, I'm going to enjoy every minute of doing so," he returned. Her rage mostly abated, though she delivered one final glare to the intruders upon her pleasure, she stalked to the door that led deeper into the complex. Gar watched her exit, a wide smile growing across his face and he murmured, "I just love watching her walk away. Flying is neat and all, but it doesn't have the same motion as walking. So, for what it's worth, you guys do get points for making her mad enough to step."
"I am thoroughly confused," Alexei admitted.
"Ignorance is bliss," Rose advised before smirking at the emerald man, "Isn't that right, Gar?"
"Uh-uh," he scolded, his face peculiarly serious and stern as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Not right now, one eye. You dudes are in hot water. Lobster-cooking hot. Those poor valiant critters . . . Anyway, I digress. You're in trouble . . . though, birdy boy, if you can provide a certain shape shifter with some snapshots of the more curvaceous members of the Bats' rogues gallery, I might show some leniency. Particularly if there is rope and restraining involved."
"I really wish you'd stop asking for that," he groaned.
"Hah, he's blushing! Look at that, his cheeks are nearly as red as that suit of his!" the one-eyed girl laughed.
"Focus," Gar growled. He blinked and then looked away, his eyes searching for something that wasn't there. "Wow, that felt so weird. Usually that's being said to me. All right. Somebody explain to me exactly what's going on. Preferably with small words, my head's still a little fuzzy from macking with gorgeous and golden. That girl – hoo, boy."
"I just threw up in my mouth a little bit," Rose grumbled.
"Rose and I were getting a bit stir-crazy, so we went out around town. And then there was a – um, not quite an attack, but these two, Alexei and Alya, were trying to attract our attention. They didn't hurt anybody, but they caused some damage. And they were looking for us, cause they escaped from these bad guys and heard about us saving all those folks at the bank," Eddie explained.
"Got it so far. Where's R squared come in?"
"I got this, Eddie," he stepped in, "I've been working on a side project for a while now. There's this group called N.O.W.H.E.R.E. who've been hunting and experimenting on meta-humans, particularly teenagers. I intercepted one of their transports, but lost these two in the process. I managed to track them down, but, well-"
"He thought that we were attacking these two jackasses and we went for a tumble. By the way, I'm ready for a rematch any time, pretty boy," she directed the tease at Red Robin whose eyes narrowed.
"Enough!" Alya snarled, sparks leaping from her eyes, "We are being hunted by Shadow Walker, and here you idiots are making jokes and playing games!"
"Alya, calm-"
"No!" she interrupted her brother's placating tone. "I told you it was foolish to trust them to help us. We are better off on our own."
"Yeah, right," Rose scoffed.
"What was that?" the electric girl snapped.
Ignoring the pleading expression of Eddie, the silver-haired girl retorted, "That creep appeared and you froze right up. No fight whatsoever."
"And your attempt at doing so was something other than futile?"
"If you didn't notice, we won."
"The boy in the mask managed to escape. Nobody won, and you simply swung around those little knives of yours, trying to make it look like you were actually doing something."
"Yeah? You want to see what I can really do with these 'little knives?'" Rose hissed. Each exchange had brought the two girls closer and closer and they stood less than a foot from each other, anger in their eyes and blades in Rose's hands. The boys watched with a growing sense of dread, Alexei attempting to sooth his sister's rising ire, but Gar watched the entire scene unfold with a small smile and a nostalgic glimmer to his eyes.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Red Robin whispered to which Gar arched a brow.
"Two healthy, attractive young women are about to brawl. The only thing that could make this better is oil and swimwear, and you want to stop it?" he demanded.
"Hell no," Eddie stated though he seemed shocked at his own words, unsure as to whether he had actually said it aloud or not. When he caught the amused glances of the other two Titans, he focused upon the ground self-consciously, refusing to meet their gazes. Gar gave a chuckle and then sighed.
"However, it's probably a bit creepy if I stand and watch two underaged dudettes duke it out. Enjoy the catfight, dudes. Come find me when it's done so we can get everything sorted out."
With a wave, he turned to leave, abandoning Red Robin to deal with the moral dilemma between overseeing a peaceful resolution to the conflict or join Eddie in the not-entirely-subtle ogling of the female form. He was saved from the tough decision by a sudden darkening of the room as the shadows seemed to come to life. Darkness oozed through the door and flooded the corners as a long shadow stretched from the entrance, ending several feet away from Alexei who scrambled from the shade, dragging the oblivious Alya along. She gasped at the long shadow and the others dropped into fighting stances as a figure emerged from the oblivion. The ever-present cruel sneer played across the blue-skinned man's face and he gave a mocking bow.
"Forgive the intrusion but I recently lost two of my pets. I think that the silly little things wandered in here. Just let me take them and I'll be out of your hair," he requested.
"Over our dead bodies," Red Robin declared.
"As you wish," Shadow Walker replied, holding out his arms and drawing forth a wave of darkness.
"'No' would've worked just fine. Why do we always encourage them?" Eddie grumbled as he unleashed a furnace blast of fire. Rose and Red Robin leapt into the fray and seconds later, an emerald wooly rhino smashed onto the scene, striking at any tangible target. Trading the power of the rhino for the ferocity and agility of a jaguar, Gar battled against the obsidian tendrils alongside Rose and Red Robin. The siblings stood further back, clasped by unyielding terror once again and suffocating in its grasp. Eddie stayed close to them, warding off any writhing tendrils that made it past his compatriots with fierce blasts. They operated in cohesion, staying close together and defending each other's backs from every threat as they struggled towards the central figure in the mass of shadows. Rose and Red Robin found the same problem in their last fight, the unreliable tangibility of the foe and the variety of angles of attack that was operating against them at every move.
Despite the valiant efforts, Shadow Walker sneered at the heroes, waist deep in the darkness and untouched by their assaults, solidifying and erecting walls of shade whenever a batarang arced towards him or a snarling beast came uncomfortably close. It was not often he was let off his leash, the master seeing fit to task him to handling more internal affairs. However, when two of the subjects had escaped during transit and the job of tracking them down and dragging them back to the master was presented, he all but leapt at the opportunity of the hunt – and the punishment of those who had failed the master. He had found whatever holes they had crawled into and enjoyed watching the light of life flee from their eyes, the pupils turning dark and deep as the space between stars. Now he gave them their shot at redemption, fueling his assault upon the meager beings that stood between him and his quarries on the glimmers of life he had consumed. An indigo tongue slithered across thin lips as the tide of battle turned against the fools who sought to impede him, and the never-satiated hunger that lay coiled in his gut, heavy and cold, began to writhe once again at the prospect of new meals.
Gar, Rose, and Red Robin had been too eager in the charge, too sure of their victory and now they were too deep in the shadows to escape. The tendrils were ensnaring them, wrapping about the limbs and binding them before he lifted them into the air. Shadow Walker shielded himself from Eddie's attacks using the young members of the team as he carried the emerald shape shifter over to him. He gave his sickening smile as Gar struggled to break free only to have the darkness fit to every form he took. When blue fingers reached for him, he flinched away but Shadow Walker's hand hovered inches away from his skin and he mused, "I can feel. Practically taste it. There's so much life in you."
His fingers grew closer when a fierce light suddenly burned through his darkness, singed his form and suddenly the changeling was ripped from his grasp. He snarled at the golden woman who hovered before him, a slender arm looped about the waist of the grateful, verdant man. Her eyes shone with a violet light as she growled, "Yes, there is. And it's all for me."
"That's a rather blatant innuendo. In fact, I'm not sure that has the tact to even be called an innuendo," Gar noted.
"I will drop you," she warned.
"Five minutes and I could have you singing a completely different tune. Well, moaning," he growled lustily, his eyebrow arching and a playful gleam leaping into his eyes.
"Stop playing around!" Shadow Walker roared and the darkness swelled about him before stabbing forward. Blackfire snarled as a stalk stabbed into her shoulder and scars were torn open in all the heroes as the dark stabbed at them. Kid Devil whirled about, scooping up Alexei and Alya and leapt behind the counter, pushing their heads down as he heard the wood splinter but stop the attack of darkness. He gritted his teeth as a hollow echo filled the room.
"This delusion that you can stand against me – it should be dying now. Your friends have fallen, boy. Those two are dead weight. Why don't you just hand them over, and I'll spare your life?"
Eddie wished that he could have offered some sort of banter, the confident quip that usually rang from Gar or Rose's lips even when the world seemed set against them. Wished that there was something running through his mind but fear, something in his veins beside leaden terror. That there was something in his ears besides the siblings' ragged breaths or Shadow Walker's chilled voice.
"A man once said, 'No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has got there first, and is already waiting for it.' I paraphrased slightly, but you get the point. Whatever you do – useless. You don't have a chance at beating me. Why not roll over and accept defeat?" he urged.
Gathering the quickly fleeing shreds of courage and confidence, Eddie's brow furrowed and he growled, "Like Hell."
Springing to his feet, he whirled about to face the man cloaked in shadows and unleashed a plume of flight that forced away the encroaching darkness. Pausing only to take breaths, he launched furnace blast after furnace blast at Shadow Walker, lighting his natural element and forcing him back, but each plume was weaker than the last. He was beginning to fray, and Shadow Walker noted this, a small smile blooming on his face as he pulled back, saving his energy and biding his time. Sweat coated Eddie's skin before it was quickly converted to steam, a result of both his weariness and the heat that was rolling off of him. His firm stance crumpled and he placed his hands on the counter to steady himself, but his energy was fading. When it was too far gone that not even his arms could support his weight, he slumped further, his arms folded on the counter and his chin set upon them. As his eyelids grew heavy, fluttering and fighting to stay open, he tried to maintain the burst of flame, refusing to give up the fight. Shadow Walker laughed at the faltering youth as he rose, the darkness pulsating and swelling about him.
"I warned you, boy. You should not have stood against me."
"No. We should have."
A sudden roar filled the room and a rippling blast launched Shadow Walker's solid body into the far wall, temporarily dispersing his shadows. He slid down the surface, slumping on the floor but his eyes were alert as they snapped to the strangely defiant Alexei. Shadow Walker scowled and cocked his head as the shadows pushed on his back, lifting him to his feet.
"Thunder. How . . . unlike you. You would turn on me? After all we've been through? Don't you remember all the good times we shared? The hours I spent torturing you, leaving you wishing for the end, for death."
Alexei offered no response beyond another sonic blast from his chest only for Shadow Walker to slip out of the way, rolling to his feet as lightning lanced in front of him. He arched a brow in surprise at Alya as she stood next to her brother, electricity coiling about her outstretched arm and her angular face grim.
"You . . . not as much of a surprise."
"We are done, Shadow Walker. And so are you. There is no point to surviving if we cannot live with ourselves," Alexei declared.
"I'm afraid the outside world has made you a bit sanctimonious, Thunder. Don't worry though. I'll work that out of you."
An assured smirk decorated the blue man's face as his shadows lifted him higher into the air and he sneered down at them. To his surprise, they did not cower as they had back in the Colony. Instead, they stepped closer together, taking each other's hands and directing a resolute stare at their former tormentor. Lightning sparked in Alya's eyes and danced about her body and the light upon Alexei's chest brightened and began to thrum. The former growled, "We've felt something since we broke free. Out here, out of the colony; we're stronger. And when we're together . . ."
A bolt of lightning struck as thunder roared and Walker's pedestal of darkness crumpled, sending him toppling to the floor with a thud. He lifted himself only to receive another blast of sound and fury, propelling him into the wall and holding him there. With the electricity came pain, blinding and searing, and he could not hear his own scream of agony over the sonic blast. The siblings, hand-in-hand, approached him, unrelenting in their attack and Alexei picked up from where his sister had paused.
"We are stronger than ever before. And we are done being scared. We are returning all the pain that you and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. have forced upon us . . ."
"With a little bit of interest," Lightning concluded as light suddenly poured from Shadow Walker's eyes and mouth open in an unheard scream above the shriek of Alexei's blast. He reached for them, tried to summon his powers in a last ditch effort to save himself, but he knew it was a futile gesture. The light overwhelmed him and his body vanished, flashes of darkness that were soon incinerated in the luminescence. The siblings released a collective breath and hands, before glancing behind them as they heard groans coming from the floor. Gar rolled into a sitting position and rolled his neck, cracking it as he groaned to himself.
"All right, that is it. We are never having guests over again."
If anybody's curious, the quote (the one Shadow Walker uses) is from Terry Pratchett.
So, sorry we haven't posted in a while. We honestly were not getting enough reviews to encourage us to write more. Also, it was one of our birthdays yesterday so we were gorging ourseles on comics and cake (honestly, what more could one ask for?), but those are all just excuses. We hope you all enjoyed this chapter and that you continue to do so as we will be trying to post chapters more regularly. We have a plan for this story. Thank you for reading and please review.