Chapter 1 - Just, Maybe...
"I can still feel it." It was still there.
He looked down at his forearm, laying flat on his poor excuse for a bed.
The amalgamation of scar tissue on his wrists served as a photo album of his life. He stared down at his left arm, grasping it with his opposing hand.
"I can still feel the pain."
The thousands of attempts at freedom remained eternally present on his body, as a reminder of who he had become.
As the days went by, the trauma grew stronger. The trauma in both his mind, and his body. Being isolated in this prison cell only gave him more time to watch his past creep up on him like those dumb dad jokes at Grandma's funeral.
No distractions, just trauma.
Such a simple blank slate of a room, yet it evoked such a horrible journey through the mind. All that love, all that power, all that appreciation, lost to time.
If he was honest, Y/N would much rather stay here than see the face of another innocent soul for the rest of his long, long, life.
He stared down at his forearm, the shards of his broken mirror in his peripheral vision. "Maybe, I could try again..."
Suddenly, the ground beneath him began to shake. The remnants of his broken mirror fell from the wall, shattering on impact.
"An earthquake in Jump City?". He rose from his bed.
"Is the world ending? Jeez, it's about time."
Then, with no warning, a 10-foot-tall man made entirely comprised of bricks came smashing through his cell wall, before proceeding to smash his way through the cells of the other prisoners.
Y/N stood and watched as the Brick monster disappeared in the distance, as the other prisoners observed in confusion.
"Am I on LSD?", Y/N thought. Perhaps his days of eating dead rats out of desperation had caught up to him.
Suddenly, the rest of the prisoners saw this as their chance.
"Hey hey! Look at this! Freedom!" They would shout. They began fleeing from their cells as fast as they could. Y/N observed their faces as they passed by.
"So many faces I've never seen before, yet we've been under the same roof all this time."
Y/N often pondered on the cruelty of human punishment. "Oh no, I'm getting existential again."
While the other prisoners ignorantly fled for their lives, Y/N hid in his cell, staying out of sight of any guards, or cops that could have been present. The camera systems had most likely been destroyed by that brick dude, which meant Y/N was safe in his cell.
"Got nowhere else to go..."
Eventually, all the prisoners had been captured and escorted back to their cells. They are constantly watched by guards due to the walls being destroyed. Unbeknownst to Y/N, the guards had some help in catching the prisoners...
...
Suddenly, Y/N heard voices... real ones...
"We never would've seen a jailbreak if Cyborg hadn't messed up!"
'Huh?' Y/N thought...
"Me? I messed up nothin! You got in my way!"
'Man, the voices in my head must be goin' through some weird stuff right now.'
"You were too far forward, and Cinderblock got away because of it!"
Suddenly, Y/N recognized the voices, "The Teen Titans?". Y/N peaked up from behind his cell wall, and noticed what he suspected: 5 Teenaged Superheroes standing together in the distance.
However, they didn't quite look as glorious as what they did in the posters.
"You sayin' this is my fault?"
"Want me to say it again?"
Y/N continued to watch on from the distance, "Some team..."
• • • • • • • •
Robin was furious.
Being in a team of hormonal teenage superheroes was relatively new business to him. Especially when those hormones let loose, often causing the occasional bad taste in his mouth.
Cyborg had supposedly stepped forward one second too early in their signature 'Sonic Boom' attack, and neither of them were taking it too well.
They fired insults back and forth like toddlers in the sandpit.
"Do you have a problem, Tin Man?" Robin shouted.
"Yeah! It's four feet tall and smells like cheap hair gel!" Cyborg fought back.
This was catastrophic. Robin and his hair were soulmates. They spent every February 14th, and every May 4th together.
"Well, you're an oversized klutz and your feet smell like motor oil!"
"You're bossy, you're rude, you got no taste in music!"
The rest of the Titans; Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire, watched on, as the two most confident and prideful members of the team bickered back-and-forth, like a champion tennis match. Being in close proximity to a variety of different individuals was relatively new to them all.
5 unsupervised teenagers under the same roof definitely posed some issues regarding responsibility and relationship stability. Most of the time, it was a miracle they even got along at all.
Starfire was an extra-terrestrial from the planet Tamaran, who knew next to nothing about Earthling behavior, or customs. Not to mention her broken English. Her history in being a human trafficking victim encouraged her to do her best to turn over a new leaf in this new life on Earth.
Raven, unbeknownst to the rest of the team, was a half-demon, half-human hybrid, whose powers were triggered by emotions. Her whole life she had been looked down upon for what she had been destined to become, giving her great insight into the concept of 'loneliness'.
Beast Boy was, well... a boy... who could change into an animal. He had had previous experience on a team known as the Doom Patrol, essentially his entire life prior to joining the Titans. However, the Doom Patrol's leader, Mento, also Beast Boy's adoptive father, was FAR from the prime example of 'leadership'.
Seeing two of their team members fighting like this was upsetting, and in some ways, traumatizing.
"I don't even know why you're on this team!" Robin continued. This really struck the blow.
"That makes two of us!" Cyborg got up in Robin's face. "I QUIT!"
The rest of the Titans were star-struck.
Robin attempted to choke out another sentence, but didn't bother. What kind of team leader was he? At least he still had the rest of the team. He could make this work... right?
• • • • • • • •
Y/N continued to watch from behind his cell wall, as the teens continued to bicker. An astounding, "I QUIT!" reverberated from within the building.
Even Y/N noticed on Robin's face, "Ow, that's gotta hurt."
Cyborg stormed away from the rest of the team, the essence of his anger resonating in the ears of everyone within roughly 500 miles. If Y/N was being honest with himself, he pitied for the team. He saw the potential that they had, and just sensed... something within them. Something he hadn't sensed before.
Suddenly, Y/N came to his senses. Was he finally seeing the light being shone on a clean slate? He hesitated, before thinking to himself...
"Maybe, I can help them out..."
• • • • • • • •