11/3/17

Cursed

Chapter Twenty: Dreams and Disasters

….…..…..

September 26, 2008

Blue light surrounds me as I walk through the forest. The trees are everywhere, with virtually no gaps between them. When there is a gap, all I can see through it is a pair of glowing eyes. There is no end in sight, but I must reach the end.

Then, I see it. A blue puddle of liquid, trailing down the path I'm walking on. I follow it, running as fast as I can, but when I reach the source I wish I hadn't. Lying there, unconscious and bleeding, is the boy in the Flash suit.

I wake up in a cold sweat, clutching my stuffed animals in a death grip. I try to calm myself down, but to no avail. Taking deep breaths isn't helping, and I can't distract myself either. This never happens. In all my years of having these dreams, they've all been peaceful. Happy, even. Never like this.

I hug Zippy closer yet, if that's even possible, and bury my head in my pillow. I don't know what that was. I don't know how to process it. I know it wasn't real, but it scares me. Choking on my tears, I try to figure out what happened, but I can't.

Minutes, maybe even hours, pass before I can make myself get up. I wipe my eyes on my blanket and set Zippy down next to Clover, not bothering to make the bed. I'll be tired when I get home from the mission, and if what just happened is any indication of how things will go I know I'll want to get to bed as soon as I can. Unless that triggers another nightmare. Maybe taking that nap wasn't such a good idea after all. I had good intentions, but as always things went horribly wrong. My powers suit my life perfectly. I'm just not lucky.

At least I still have time to get ready. Changing out of the typical uniform of the Junior HIVE Academy, I put on the stealth suit given to me by Headmistress earlier this week. I brush my hair and tie it out of my face, and then I lace up my boots. I push my backpack under my bed, since I won't be needing it, and double check my appearance in the mirror. I think I'm ready.

I still have a few minutes until I need to leave, so I organize my desk and try to sort out my thoughts. The dream didn't exactly hit me at a great time. I was already nervous about tonight, and I didn't need anything else weighing on my mind. If it was hard to stay calm before, it's even harder now. I decide to leave early, since I have nothing better to do. Not that I'm looking forward to tonight anymore.

When I get to the cafeteria, I begin to realize that I'm not the only one who decided to get there early. I'm greeted by the sight of students I knew years ago who have long since graduated to the HIVE Academy. The familiar faces calm me down, until I see Sarah, bullying Baran as usual. It's like she can't grow up or something!

"Do you really think you can actually graduate this year? Face it Baran, even you can't be that stupid. I don't even know why you bother trying- unless you still have that little crush on me. I almost pity you," she sneers.

I scowl and make my way over there, ready to give her a piece of my mind!

"Leave him alone you freak!" I snap as sparks of purple begin sizzling around my hands. Good. I needed a way to get some frustration out.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" she asks in one of those condensing voices middle-aged women use on babies. "Oh, right! You're that kid who used to hang around the traitors! I always knew Selinda didn't have what it takes."

That's it. Now I'm beyond angry!

I'm about to punch her pathetic face in when Mikron struts into the room. I force myself to calm down and look her in the eyes.

"You know what? I'm not even going to waste my time on you. Come on Baran, let's go hang out with someone who isn't too old to act like a baby," I sneer, taking Baran by the arm and dragging him away.

Shots. Fired.

"Um..." Baran stutters. "You didn't have to stand up for me like that. She's always like that."

"Oh shut up. If you don't want me to stand up for you, you need to learn to stand up for yourself," I sigh.

Baran's quiet for a moment, even as we take our seats next to Mikron. The younger boy doesn't seem to be willing to talk either, as he's currently tinkering with some kind of machine. The three of us sit in silence until Headmistress walks in carrying a briefcase. We notice her immediately, while the older students are too busy conversing among themselves to take notice. She clears her throat, and all eyes become focused on her.

"We will be starting early today. If any student is not currently here, we will continue without them regardless as to if they do get here. The first thing you must learn is that in this life you are not always going to be given second chances. In addition to this, if you are not early you are automatically late. This is a harsh lesson that is not learned easily. Consider yourselves lucky that the punishment I have chosen to inflict is not as harsh as it should be."

Already, I can sense a difference in the way she treats the students of the Junior HIVE Academy from the HIVE Academy. I'm used to her being harsh and blunt, yes, but not this much. Things are certainly more strict here, and I'm not sure that I like it. Isn't second chances what life is about? If you fail at something, shouldn't you be allowed to try again? My father -not my biological one, of course-once told me that the best of artists start out drawing stick figures. If someone would've saw Picasso making his first attempts at drawing and proceeded to ban him from ever making another artistic endeavor, the world wouldn't have his paintings. We would've lost something special, just because someone had the same worldview as Headmistress. And if she told us to meet her in the cafeteria at a certain time but meant to have us leave early, shouldn't she have told us the correct time to begin with? I understand that she's trying to weed out the apathetic, those who aren't as excited and hard working, but is there not a better way?

I know better than to stand up to someone so powerful, but as I continue to silently listen to her I can't help but wonder if I'll make it through even a day of the HIVE Academy's stricter rules.

"Now, as you know, today we are undertaking a task so daunting, only the most driven of students could be selected. If you are here today you can not only consider yourselves lucky, but also the most likely of your classmates to be destined for great things. If everything goes as planned, it will change the way the HIVE operates for all of eternity. The method of creating the most powerful new meta-humans will be at our fingertips! We will have the ability to create armies of soldiers overnight! Just imagine- world domination has been a dream of many, but today we stand closer than they could ever dream," Headmistress says, beaming with pride.

Sarah smirks, whispering what I can only imagine to be a derogatory comment to her friend sitting next to her. What I can't imagine, however, is what Headmistress would want with world domination. While her motives have always been unclear to me, world domination just doesn't sound like something she would plan. The Headmistress I grew up with was always kind and willing to help children whose families turned their backs on them. What would that Headmistress want with the control of the entire planet?

"I have utmost faith in my students. You all already know how proud of you I am. Disappoint me, and there will be consequences. Now, as I have reviewed with you previously, our top student, Sarah, will lead the team that will be retrieving the stolen file from STAR Labs. Inside this file is the precious information on Killer Frost's transformation, and that information cannot stay in the hands of rivals any longer. Whatever they themselves were planning to do with this information, it is not as important as our mission!"

I can't help but feel that Headmistress has completely forgotten about Baran, Mikron, and I. She keeps saying that she has previously mentioned things, but she never told us any of those things! And in addition to this nonsense, she also told us what they're going after. Earlier, didn't she tell us that it wasn't any of our business? What happened to that?

As though she can read my mind, she finally turns to us and adds, "Mallory, as you are aware, you are to lead your own half of the mission. Your job is to distract the student guards that have been appointed since your last visit. Inside the file I will give to you is a detailed route of their usual paths, taken from security footage. You are to review it with your team and determine the best manner to split up. I must warn you, however, that as with the file stolen from us on the multiverse, the Justice League has shown interest in retrieving the file and giving it back to its proper owners. If they choose to strike tonight, there will be no way to track their movements, so you must be alert!"

I nod my head as she walks towards us and places a file on our table. I try to get her to pause for a moment, to give us any other information she has, but she walks away before I can even bother. She returns to her previous location, and finishes her speech.

"Any questions?" she asks. As tempting as it would be to ask for more clarification, her tone makes it clear that the question was out of courtesy and wasn't meant to actually be answered. Even if it was, I'm sure it her offer would've only applied to the students in the HIVE Academy, not those of us from the Junior HIVE. So I keep my mouth shut.

"Then let us begin."

…..

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or anything else I may mention

(I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but Baran and Mikron are actually Mammoth and Gizmo's secret identities from the comics. Which are kind of strange names, but in a way they kind of suit them?)

Hi again! National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, if you will) is officially in full swing! Expect me to attempt posting more updates than usual this month, and for whatever I post to be a bit wordier than usual. I'm attempting to write 50,000 words this month, but that most likely won't happen. Still, it's better to try than to just tell yourself you can't do something and just give up.

Chapter title comes from the song "Dreams and Disasters" by Owl City, since I had it stuck in my head while I was writing this. While I'm not entirely sure that the song itself fits the chapter, the title definitely does a good job at foreshadowing what's to come so I'm just going to roll with it.

Thank you Cliche Girl for reviewing (If memory serves, at the moment Mammoth is 14, Gizmo is around 5 or 6, and Jinx is 12. This puts them at 19, 11-ish, and 17 during the battle against the Brotherhood of Evil. The Titans will be making their first appearance pretty soon if I stay on track with my outline, and Kid Kold and Roy are actually going to show up again much sooner than that ;) ), Jiinxie for following, Guest for reviewing, and Silver-Infinite for reviewing ( :) )

Quote of the day!

"If there was a hole here, I'd wanna crawl into it! I wanna dig a hole and hide!" -an NPC on Pokemon Moon who shares my opinions on social gatherings

May the odds be ever in your favor,

Spectrobes Princess