Sorry for the delay,
I had a lot of shit going on irl. And FF is a pain to work with honestly, half the time it takes several days for the ch to show up after I've posted. So if you don't see an update here check my Ao3, it is so much easier to use as an author and to manage comments, and I might just end up posting there only.
Thanks for reading!
Chapter 7 ~ Diamonds and Glass
Dick reacted the fastest.
He grabbed Raven's shoulders as the crowd around them erupted into complete panic, forcing her down against the glass pane of the balcony railing. The other three crouched down almost on top of them, tucking in close.
Victor's broad shoulders created a sort of shield between the five of them and the rest of the walkway, bodies shoving into him as people ran frantically for cover. Kori's hair and eyes flashed with a surge of heat, flickering through the illusion spell on her, and green-tinted claws shot out of the ends of Garfield's fingers, scraping against the marble floor.
Raven tucked herself down against her knees, desperately pressing her hands to her ears, the screams slicing at her through the air from every direction. Terror and blind panic roared through her in a flood, darkness pouring out of her, spreading out across the floor in a swirling vortex.
The marble tiles cracked beneath her, the sheet of glass at her side shattering in its frame with a crunch, cracks radiating outwards from a point just behind her head.
"What the—" Vic looked wildly over his shoulder, shouting to be heard over the pandemonium. He tried to catch a glimpse of the floor below them through the jagged prisms of glass, the enhanced sensors in his cybernetic ear pinpointing the origin of the sound even over all the ambient noise. "That sounded like gun shots!"
"It was!" Dick shouted back. He peeked up over the railing, chancing a quick glance down at the row of stores on the other side of the open atrium.
His eyes zeroed in on a large store right in the middle, the glass windows filled with elegant displays of glittering diamonds and jewelry, a bubble of empty space growing around it as shoppers fled in every direction.
He could just make out several people standing inside the wide opening of the store, the angle blocking most of his view, their arms outstretched threateningly as if they were pointing weapons.
Half a second later a blaring alarm joined the din, and the security gate built into the entrance of the jewelry store dropped, barricading the store off from the rest of the mall. And effectively trapping everyone inside.
"Shit." Vic shifted his weight as Dick ducked back down, his left eye twitching again as he zoomed in on the scene below them. "I can see at least three armed," he said quickly. "Handguns. And there are people in there!" he hissed.
"How many?"
"There's a whole group, but they're all clumped together—" his eye clicked, switching to an infrared scan— "too far away to tell on thermals."
"The security cameras?"
Vic grunted in affirmation, already ripping back his sleeve, the computer screen in his arm popping open as the mall emptied rapidly around them, the screams dying away as people disappeared through all of the stores and exits.
"Raven—"
"I'm fine!" she gasped, her arms wrapped around herself, hugging tight. He met her eyes, their normal gray-violet color darkened to a deep purple—almost black—but the shadows writhing around her curled back in as she wrested back control.
"Can you get us in there?"
She nodded, dark eyes fixing on the blocked-off store below them as Vic tapped furiously at the computer embedded into his arm. The fear from the people trapped within leached out from the walls in a poisonous miasma, tainting the air.
"Vic, kill the feeds, we don't want a video of this."
Victor nodded distractedly, fingers flying over the keypad.
"Raven, as soon as we're inside, start transporting people out as fast as you can—"
"What?" She twisted sharply to face him, her eyes snapping open wide. "I—I can't—"
"We have to get them out of there. The alarm would have triggered a 911 call but it will take them time to get here, and those people are in danger now." He leaned in towards her, reaching out to put his hand reassuringly on her arm, taking her reaction as just nerves.
She flinched away from his touch, shaking her head desperately. Shadows swirled around her, her dark hair lifting to curl around her face as her breath caught in her throat. "No, I can't—"
"You're able to move us easily—you could take at least four at a time—"
"No," she rasped. Her eyes darkened, irises turning as black as her pupils. The glass crunched beside them, tiny cracks racing out in every direction.
Transporting the four of them had been dangerous enough that first time. They had been absolutely terrified, and it had taken everything she had to not lose hold of them, to not lose hold of herself with their heightened emotions bombarding her in that deadly not-space between the fabric of worlds. But their terror had been manageable—they had known what was happening, had known how her powers manifested, and trusted her enough not to think she was actively trying to kill them. Their terror had been a fear of the unknown—not a blind fear of her.
If she materialized down there and just started grabbing people and dragging them into the darkness…
"But—"
"They will be terrified of me!" She braced her hands against the cold floor, ducking her head and closing her eyes tightly, trying to force her breaths to even out. "I can already sense their fear from up here. They will see me—my powers—and panic, and it will be throwing gasoline on a fire and I will lose control." She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. "I can't."
Dick's eyes widened, finally understanding.
A kind of aching, empty chill leaked out from her, flooding the air, his chest going cold as it touched him. "Oh…"
"Psshh—" Garfield leaned over, moving right into her personal space, and nudged her playfully with his elbow. A grin pulled at his mouth, sharp tooth sticking out. "You're not that scary—"
She shot a glare up at him, the darkness in her eyes starting to spread out across her pale cheeks like cracks on a porcelain doll.
He rolled his eyes. "Well, now you're just being dramatic—"
"Okay, no transporting—" Dick waved a hand to shut Gar up, his eyes fixed on Raven, pushing down the spasm of guilt twisting through his gut— "but you can still shield them?"
She gave a sharp nod, and he tried to ignore the pain hidden in her eyes.
"Uh—and us," Victor grumbled, giving Dick an accusatory look over Raven's shoulder before focusing back on the computer. "I'd really rather not get shot, Rae. That would kind of ruin my day."
Dick frowned back at him. "Aren't your cybernetics bulletproof?"
"No! Only some of the chest plating—and so's your armor, you still like getting shot?"
Dick winced involuntarily.
"Aww, don't worry, I'll protect you." Gar grinned at Victor with a syrupy smile, then tensed, preparing to shift, his muscles twitching and growing under his skin. A green tint spread across his face and down his arms as his body pushed past the bounds of Raven's glamour, the fabric of his shirt and jeans stretching uncomfortably tight as his body expanded—
"Shit!" he yelped, snapping back into his human form, his claws retracting. "I can't shift! I don't have my suit on!" He looked down frantically at his arms, skin back to a light tan, eyes flicking back and forth, "And I turned green again! What—"
"The spell only works when you're human," Raven snapped. "I'd have to make a different illusion for each shape."
His face fell. "Oh—"
"That's probably a good thing." Dick looked between the four of them, his expression hardening. "These aren't giant aliens we're fighting. These are humans. Regular, not superpowered, very breakable humans." He met each of their eyes quickly in turn. "We are not."
"Well, I mean, you are…" Gar muttered.
Dick shot him a murderous glare.
A flash of silver and a flick of his wrist, and a blade appeared in his hand from seemingly out of thin air, sharpened edges shaped like a pair of wings in flight.
"What— "Gar did a double take at the weapon— "where did you get that—"
"You're armed?" Vic snapped.
"I'm always armed." Dick turned his glare on Victor, and the corner of his mouth twitched up in a wicked smile. He flicked his fingers and the weapon separated into three individual winged blades, disguised as one by his grip. "And so are you, don't look at me like that."
"You have issues, dude"
Dick scowled back at him. "No, I was just trained to be prepared."
"But where were you keeping it?" Gar leaned in, peering at Dick's jeans and t-shirt incredulously.
"There are people with guns down there," Raven snapped, desperately holding tight to the power writhing inside of her. "Maybe we should focus on that."
An eerie, empty silence descended around them, the mall that had been packed with people and cheerful noise just moments ago now completely emptied out.
Bland music wafted out of the mall speakers, playing softly behind the tinny wail of the alarm from down below.
Dick nodded sharply. "We need to disarm them and get the civilians out—but disarm only." His gaze flicked to Kori and she nodded gravely, understanding that he meant his warning mostly as a reminder for her—for the superhuman strength that could so easily break bones with a careless strike.
"Ready?" Dick looked up at Victor, and the taller boy nodded.
He held out the command pad on his arm, showing the video feed on the screen from inside the jewelry store to Raven and the others.
It showed a grainy, out of focus black and white view of the store from somewhere up above the back counter, a group of customers huddled against one wall in a clump, the would-be thieves facing the jewelry cases, gesturing sharply, handguns dark shapes in their hands.
Dick's bright blue eyes raced over the screen, taking it all in, his mind practically humming with audible noise. "Follow my lead—let me do the talking, I'll try to talk them down."
Victor rolled his eyes and pressed a button on the keypad on his arm. The video feed turned into a wall of static, the ringing alarm shutting off in the store below them, and he snapped the computer panel closed.
Dick turned his attention back to Raven, biting the inside of his cheek. "Can you—"
She shot him a glare, then closed her eyes, her mind spearing down towards the store on the level below them. Bright flickers of consciousness met her awareness, the petrified fear of the trapped shoppers and the tense, adrenaline filled agitation of the intruders forming a clear demarcation line through the space.
"Ready?" she asked roughly.
"Go—"
Shadows billowed out from Raven's small figure instantly, enveloping their group in impenetrable darkness. As soon as her power touched them, their presences solidified around her, her sense of their jumbled emotions condensing into five vivid, distinct personalities in her mind. She grabbed tight to each of them, binding them to her as securely as if her arms had locked around their bodies.
The floor vanished from beneath their feet, and they dropped down through empty space.
They barely had a chance to fall—the distance between points so close—and then the floor solidified under them again, the darkness around them dissipating like viscous smoke under the bright lights as they rematerialized in the physical world.
Kori and the boys quickly reoriented themselves, getting their bearings in the new location. Their kneeling positions around Raven had shifted, the five of them suddenly spread out from where they had been tightly huddled on the balcony just a second before.
A group of about fifteen people cowered against the wall behind them, the customers all grouped together under the guard of one of the armed robbers, his gun pointed down at them.
Another three men stood scattered throughout the store—all with weapons raised threateningly. One hovered by the large glass display counter directly across from them, a suited employee sweating and fumbling with a ring of keys as he attempted to unlock the case at gun-point, another leaning over the opened display counter that ran the length of the right side of the store, hastily scooping out the glittering contents and dumping them unceremoniously into a brown duffel bag.
The third stood in the empty space in the center of the room, his back to the blocked-off entrance, a second, small figure pinioned beside him.
Shocked gasps cut through the store as the five of them suddenly appeared crouched on the shadowy ground.
Everyone jolted with alarm, the group of people clumped behind them flinching back. An elderly woman let out a sharp shriek, her eyes on Raven as the darkness swirled around her.
The tall, thin man standing guard over the group—really more of a lanky kid than a man—yelped, snapping the gun to the side in a quick motion to point at her.
The much bulkier man in the center of the room spun to face them at the sudden noise, jerking around the girl he held pinned against his chest, a vise-like grip on her skinny arm, his other arm extended out past her head, gun clenched tight in his hand.
Big blue eyes stared back at the five of them, a curtain of straight, silvery blonde hair falling over one side of the girl's face as she stumbled, thin legs splaying awkwardly as the man yanked her around. Her clothes stood out from the rest of the other customers in the elegant store, cut off denim shorts, a gray tank top, and dirty, high-top hiking boots, a faded yellow and orange flannel shirt knotted over her slim hips.
And something about her—her age, the way she was dressed, the deceptive calm lurking behind those wide blue eyes—struck a discordant note with Dick.
He disregarded it, focusing instead on the man gripping her arm—and at all the guns now pointed straight at them.
He stood up in a slow, smooth motion, angling his body carefully to keep the blades in his hand concealed from view. Koriand'r unfurled to her full height at his side, Vic pushing heavily to his feet on the other, and Gar half straightened up in a defensive stance slightly behind them.
Raven stayed kneeling low to the ground behind the other four, dark blue material pooling around her. The lights from the delicate silver chandeliers hanging overhead pierced at her eyes, a prickly, frantic, aggressive energy skittering over her skin and making her heart race. It mixed sickeningly with the fear slicing at her from the people trapped behind her, and her power responded, surging up inside of her and fighting for release. Her fingers clenched against the gray carpet, locking it down within her skin, dark eyes watching the scene in silence from underneath her hood.
"This really isn't a good idea guys," Dick said calmly.
"How did you—" The man in the center gaped at them, his facial features—and the rest of the thieves'—covered by a ridiculous black ski mask.
Dick had to bite back a snort of derision at the stupidity of it. The man may have covered his face, but the large black scorpion tattoo curling around his bicep—proudly displayed by his cut-off shirt sleeves—might as well have been a name tag stuck to his forehead.
"Put down your weapons," Dick responded in a calm, steady voice, his blue eyes hard as iron but his body staying loose. "The police are already on their way, and you do not want felony murder charges added to your sentence, trust me."
The employee behind the display case watched them with terror-filled eyes, shrinking back, his whole body shaking.
The tattooed man laughed after a beat of tense silence, a raspy half-hysterical sound clawing its way out of his throat, and the jittery energy in the air spiked. "Trust you? What are you, like twelve?" He stepped forward aggressively, dragging the hostage with him, his movements sharp and jerky, brandishing his weapon menacingly at Dick's unprotected chest. "Get on the ground and shut up!"
"No."
Dick held his ground, voice even and strong, not even flinching.
Vic, Kori, and Gar held still by his sides, waiting.
"Put down your weapons," he repeated. "Nobody needs to get hurt—"
"Give me one good reason, you little smart-ass."
The corner of Dick's mouth twitched up. His chin dipped forward, eyes locking on his target, and his easy and nonthreatening posture shifted suddenly into something aggressive. Dangerous.
"I can give you five."
Kori and Vic both took the cue, dropping their glamours simultaneously, Gar just a second late behind them.
Heat flared around Kori's tall figure, warping the air around her with a faint mirage, her eyes glowing with neon green light. Her mass of scarlet hair appeared to light on fire as the spell failed beneath the surge of energy, the little plastic flower barrettes melting away in an instant, her flaming red and orange and fuchsia curls tumbling down around her shoulders.
The cybernetic modifications on Vic's face and hands blinked into view, the metal panel over the left side of his face reflecting the bright fluorescent lights, red optic sensor glowing fiercely where his eye had once been. His arm expanded outward at his side, the fabric of his sweatshirt shredding as the pieces of his metal prosthetic rotated and opened up. Bright blue-white light flared to life within the weapon with a hum of electricity.
Gar turned back to his normal, vibrant green, his hair darkening to a rich emerald and eyes going a bright yellow-gold. Claws shot out of the ends of his fingertips, sharp, lengthened teeth flashing in a feral grin.
"Holy shit—" The men flinched back, their eyes widening under the masks, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as they flicked rapidly between Kori and Vic, the short barrels of their pistols following every movement.
The girl held between them stiffened, her mouth falling open slightly. Pale blue eyes flitted over each of them—as if counting silently—and landed on Raven partially hidden in the back.
The hand gripping her tightened, the man's fingers wrapped all the way around her slim arm, pulling her into his side.
"Do something," he hissed.
The girl shot a look up at him as he yanked on her, her sheet of hair falling forward to conceal her face from view. Her fingers clenched into fists at her sides.
The air flexed, rippling with a sudden surge of strange energy. A magnetic pull that Raven somehow felt, but didn't at the same time, the force passing right through her without any effect.
The diamond-filled display cases exploded.
Screams rang out as sparkling debris sprayed out across the room, the trapped patrons and criminals all throwing their arms up and covering their heads desperately, shards of glass and gemstones and bits of jewel encrusted silver and gold flying in every direction.
A rippling pane of solid darkness erupted into being across the length of the store, right in front of Dick and the others, and the shrapnel bounced harmlessly off of it.
They all looked at Raven in alarm.
The screams behind her pitched higher, the customers trapped in the store scrambling to get away from her power.
The young thief on the left—the one who had been watching the hostages, pulled the trigger in panic.
A sharp bang exploded through the space, and the bullet struck the barrier of molten darkness, sinking in several inches before coming to a halt, suspended in midair within the swirling energy.
Raven bit back a shout of pain, curling over her knees as the force of the projectile punched straight into her chest. Shadowy energy danced over her body in dark flames, the shield shuddering wildly, flexing and undulating as her power surged, the lights in the chandeliers flickering with little pops.
"YO—" Vic flinched back from the little piece of lead hovering half a foot from his chest.
He stared at it, mouth open, then scowled up at the shooter, his electronic eye flaring like a red laser as it narrowed in.
"See," he growled sideways at Dick, "that would have really ruined my day."
The group in the center of the room straightened slowly back up, slices of bright red all over their exposed skin from the explosion of glass, gaping at the darkness, at the bullet it had stopped.
"Now," Dick hissed under his breath.
Raven let the shield drop.
Dick moved forward in a blur of speed, dashing towards the thief and the hostage in the center of the store. The blades held behind his back flew out with two flicks of his wrist.
The silver birds shot across the room in a glint of steel, and the man in the center of the room snarled, the gun in his hand knocked to the side with a crack of metal on metal.
The man in the back yelped as the sharpened wings sliced across his fingers, the weapon flying from his hand. The employee beside him ducked down behind the counter as he scrambled after it.
Kori launched into motion just behind Dick, Gar bounding eagerly at her heels, and Vic fired the cannon in his arm.
A bolt of electric blue light arced forward, a pale imitation of the full-powered beam, and hit the young man that had shot at him. He crumpled like he had been tasered, collapsing in a twitching, jerking heap on the ground, the gun dropping from nerveless fingers.
Dick closed the distance between him and Scorpion Tattoo in a blink.
The man panicked, shoving the girl away from him desperately to free his hands, and Dick twisted as she tumbled into his path, spinning around her as she hit the floor, tucking into a ball.
He leapt forwards as the gun swung up towards him.
He grabbed the weapon with both hands, stepping in and to the side, and rammed his knee up into the man's groin.
The man let out a high-pitched yowl, doubling up in pain, and Dick drove the hunk of metal in his hands up and back, sending the gun colliding into the man's face with a sickening crunch.
A few bounding steps, and Kori reached the counter as the thief that Dick had disarmed snatched the fallen weapon back up off the ground.
She snatched his pistol away from him, heat rolling off her body, the metal warping beneath her glowing fingers, and twisted his arm up and around with her other hand, forcing him to turn with a cry as she pushed him down to the ground.
Dick yanked the weapon out of his opponent's hands as he collapsed backward, crumpling into a ball on the floor, his nose a bloody smear across his cheeks.
In two movements he had the pistol disarmed—dropping the magazine to the floor and ejecting the round in the chamber—and carelessly tossed the useless weapon over his shoulder.
Kori held the other man effortlessly, her knee on his back and his face pressed into the floor, her hair flickering in loose curls around her lavender dress.
The one in the back ran for it.
He scrambled for the door to the back room of the store and the mall service corridors beyond it, and Gar bolted after him, his body faster and more agile than a human should have been able to move.
The thief dropped the duffel full of jewelry in panic, the bag hitting the floor in a spray of gold and glittering stones as he fumbled to draw the gun stuck into the waistband of his jeans.
Gar launched himself forward.
He dove for the man's legs, arms closing around him as he crashed into him at full speed, tackling him into the ground.
The gun went flying from his hand, hitting the floor and sliding out of sight.
Gar dragged the much larger man down, keeping hold as he struggled wildly, cursing and kicking out at him with everything he had.
Claws shot out of his fingers, sinking into fabric and flesh, and green fur raced up his bare arms, the muscles doubling in size. He focused ferociously on containing the transformation to just his head and arms, letting strength roll up his fingers to his biceps while firmly locking the rest of his body in its human form.
The man threw a punch and Gar ducked, grabbing the arm as it swung at him. He pinned the limb down against the floor, and his other hand closed on the thief's throat, claws piercing into unprotected skin.
His eyes turned a feral yellow, his jaw elongating, sharp fangs punching out from his open mouth—just inches from the man's face.
A blood-chilling, inhuman snarl tore out of his throat.
The man went absolutely white, paralyzed with instinctual fear.
Gar leaned back, now nearly kneeling on top of the man's chest, and his face and body snapped back to their normal proportions. He blinked at the look of absolute terror on the thief's face.
He glanced down at his own chest, cringing, nervously hoping that he had managed to preserve at least some of his clothing, and blinked again, amazed to find his jeans and t-shirt still in one piece.
He looked back up with a wicked smile, one sharp canine poking out.
The human flinched back.
Gar twisted back to face the others, still pinning the man to the floor, an elated grin stretching across his face. "Ta-da!"
That strange, magnetic pull stretched out through the air again.
Raven tensed, eyes snapping open wide, and the skinny blonde girl they had just rescued threw her arms up over her head, tucking into a ball on the carpet.
None of the others reacted—as if they couldn't feel it at all—
She threw her power out on instinct, shadows surging through the entire store in an instant, chandeliers knocked swinging, lights flickering madly, protective blankets of darkness wrapping tight around Dick, Victor, Kori, and Gar.
Half the glittering rubble covering the floor shot up into the air, and a wave of gemstone encrusted projectiles launched across the room.
Darkness shot out, a black wall snapping into place in front of Raven and the civilians grouped behind her, solidifying just in time.
Bits of jewelry struck her shadows in a barrage of sharp, stabbing impacts, ricocheting off into the walls, leaving gouges in the plaster where they struck.
The girl in front of her scrambled to her feet before the pieces had even finished hitting the ground, glass crunching beneath her dirty hiking boots, her shimmering blonde hair flying as she launched herself across the store.
"Wait—" Dick reached out to catch her as she shot past him, but Raven's shield blocked him in.
The girl shot a frantic look back at him over her shoulder through the shadowy barrier, pausing for a heartbeat, her pale blue eyes wide.
And Dick finally realized why she had stood out to him.
She didn't match the other customers trapped in the store—she matched them, the robbers. She didn't have a mask on, but she was wearing the same unkempt, worn clothes that they were.
She wasn't a hostage, she was one of the criminals.
Their stare broke, and she dashed for the doorway.
Raven's shields melted away.
"Stop her!"
Dick broke into a run as he shouted, and the girl's hands closed on the duffel bag full of jewelry where it had fallen just behind Gar, scooping it up to clutch it against her chest, stumbling to keep her balance as she kept moving.
Gar stared in surprise, his eyes widening as she barreled towards him.
He jumped up to intercept her, and she slammed into him at full speed before he could get fully to his feet, bony elbow meeting his sternum, knocking him tumbling back as she threw herself through the doorway.
Dick raced after her.
He plowed through the back room of the jewelry store and burst into the service corridor right on her heels, the dingy concrete hallway starkly lit by a line of florescent lights overhead.
"Hey! Stop!"
The girl spun around, nearly tripping over her own skinny legs, her knees scraped and bloody from her fall on the glass.
And with a terrified look at Dick, she slashed her arm out defensively across the space in front of her, fist clenching as it swung through the air.
The wall next to his head sheared apart.
He ducked, his training taking over, and dropped into a somersault, letting his momentum carry him forward, coming up on one knee on the concrete floor.
The hunk of stone hit the other side of the corridor with a crack, dust and small chunks of concrete raining down to plink against the floor.
Dick stared up at her in absolute shock.
She gaped back at him, breathing heavily, sheet of disheveled blonde hair strewn over her face, her hand still outstretched between them.
The unzipped bag shifted in her grip, and a piece of stolen jewelry tumbled free, hitting the concrete floor with a sharp clink.
She retreated a quick step, her eyes fixed on his.
Then she turned and broke into a run, racing away down the corridor.
Her boots slipped slightly on the polished concrete floor as she flung herself around the corner up ahead, thick rubber soles squeaking, and she vanished from view.
Dick looked down, to the trinket left behind.
A silver hair comb shaped like a butterfly lay on the dirty concrete, its glittering, diamond-encrusted wings flashing in the stark lights.
