Chapter 25: The Gang

It had been nearly two days since my last encounter with Cheshire - or more like death sentence - and things seemed to be getting back on track. M'gann seemed to be doing fine after I told her to ignore the fact that I was gone for three days and did not dare speak of it and Zatanna and Artemis' stares seemed to be changing into light smiles and waves.

Honestly, I was pretty proud of the boys in the team - aside from Roy - with Kaldur not daring to speak to me and Wally seeming to have finally shut up from his ongoing talk about something random - with help from Artemis of course; her hand really comes in handy at times. Robin was quiet as usual, with his respectable sense of how others felt and Superboy was more naive than ever, shrugging my return off like a bug, which I felt pretty happy about.

Now, the adults on the other hand...let's just say that Dinah had a few 'letting go' issues and that Oliver should either tape his mouth shut with a whole roll of duct tape or understand and realize the boundaries, metaphorically speaking. And don't even get me started on Barry's wife, Iris, who seemed way too involved to be human - or even a civilian.

Being a Tuesday, I felt more at home actually leaving the bedroom. With Dinah and Oliver gone - with the help of a few wedding magazines and a file of paperwork - and not to mention Roy in the midst of completing his last year of school, I had descended down the stairs and toward the front door to take a quick, peaceful walk.

I pulled the black jacket over my head and walked out the door, turning onto the sidewalk and following the semi-straight road. I had gotten nearly a block away from the highly expensive mansion when I was bothered.

"Where ya going...?" I heard a deep, slurred voice say behind me. I sighed and my shoulders shrugged. I turned around to see a few men in their early twenties staring at me, hunger in their eyes. I rolled my eyes in laughter.

"Somewhere." I said in a semi-dark voice. The didn't seem to notice through the tall glass bottles full of brownish liquid they held. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head back to that somewhere." I turned around and froze as I felt a hand take my arm roughly. Out of all the days the guys could harass me, it had to be that day.

"You're not going anywhere." One of them said. I could feel his alcohol-covered breath on my neck and sighed, laughing afterwards. I turned around as they started walking towards me.

"We'll see about that." I said, kneeing one of them in the stomach and kicking him to the ground. I smiled at the others. "Which one of you bastards are next?" No one moved as the guy I kicked to the floor started to get back up. My anger built up as they smiled and I rolled my eyes, slightly feeling bad that they weren't going to remember any of that by the next morning - when they woke up with a huge hangover and a chest full of broken ribs. I kicked the guy once more, knocking him out cold as the alcohol spilled onto the street. I sighed.

"Well, since I wish not to waste all my energy on beating up a bunch of losers, why don't I let you chose whether we're going to do this the easy way...or the hard way." The guys all looked at eachother and then back to me with the same hungry look in their eyes. I shook my head.

"We'll take the way we know best." I rolled my eyes as one of the guys walked toward me.

"Which of course is going to be the easy way." I said quickly, the four men looking at me, clearly confused. I laughed and reached behind my back, pulling out the heavy metal object and aiming it towards the closest guy. He laughed and I cocked the gun back, smiling brightly.

"You're not going to shoot a couple of innocent guys, now would you dear?" He said as if I was a child. I laughed.

"Of course not..." I began to say. "Well not in the street! God, I'm not that horrible! I'd much rather kill you in a dark alley or a warehouse where I could torture you with fire and knives and whatever else I can find!" I wanted to laugh at their awe-struck and horrified faces, but I kept a straight face.

"So you're not going to kill us?" One of the guys asked. I smiled.

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you. Either this fire will, or your cell mates will when you end up going to jail for sexually harassing a young woman."

"We didn't even touch you!" One of them yelled. I smirked.

"That's not what the police will think, nor will the court."

"And there is no fire!" He said again. I laughed.

"Yes there is." I said as I shot at the spilled alcohol on the ground. It lit up like a firework and I smiled as they quickly pulled away the guy on the floor away from the burning flames. "And just to warn you...I'm always armed." I walked away from the on-going fire and practically ran to the house to change out my clothes. If that incident turned out to be on the news, there was no way in hell I could be described from the wasted men and wear those exact same clothes in front of who knows what.

I ran inside and up the stairs, jumping into the shower quickly to get rid of alcohol smell I had gained from the bottle that had splashed on me. I changed quickly, exchanging out my sweatpants and black jacket for a pair of dark colored skinny jeans and another one of Dinah's 'priceless' T-shirts she had bought for me. Honestly, I actually kind of liked the shirt, since after all, she had covered my personality almost seventy-five percent with the cartooned skull on the front of the plain white tee with a small pocket on the top right.

I sat down on the couch, turning on the t.v. to the news and pretending not to hear the door open and shut as I turned up the volume. Roy dropped his backpack on the floor by the couch and sat down, raising a brow as he watched me attempting to be interesting in the boring weather broadcast.

"What do you want?" I asked, still staring at semi-animated clouds on the screen.

"I see that time you took off didn't seem to make you less of a bitch." I glared at the screen, pretending that it was Roy.

"And I see that my time away didn't make you rethink your actions nor make you less of a spoiled rotten bastard." I said. Roy seemed quiet and I looked at him to see him glaring heavily at me.

"Is your name actually Sarah?" He suddenly asked. I was awestruck at his unrelated question. I raised my brow.

"Excuse me?" I said, semi-thinking that I heard it wrong.

"Is your name actually Sarah?" He repeated. I was frozen.

"Why in the hell would you ask me that?" I asked, my darker blonde eyebrow raising at the question. His emotions seemed to be blank.

"Cut the shit, Sarah. I know you're not here for the team or even for Dinah. I heard Oliver on the phone with Batman talking about you as if you were some pet. What the hell are you doing here and what the hell do you want from us?" He spit out harshly. I rolled my eyes.

"If I wanted anything from you or your little friends I would've already gotten it, and if you don't believe me then listen to this. I've been through hell this month with you guys. I've climbed mountains, taken you on a trip, listened to your conversations, had my ex almost kill me, been kidnapped by your crush and sexually harassed by a gang. I think I would've left this town by now or even this damn country!" I stormed off, slightly pissed that Roy couldn't just give up on his quest to find me somehow guilty.

Though I knew that I had nothing to take or give, I still felt guilty for lying to everyone the whole time. The team; Roy, it was all one big lie. But I couldn't tell them, nor did I want to. The last thing I wanted to happen was to have the Team on my bloody path and Roy unable to except me. And Roy's unacceptance wasn't what I wanted, or technically was he wanted.