Winds of Fate: The X Factor (Teen Titans)

[Faethie]

short and sweet. Nice stuff DS.

Back to the previous talk. The HoF is a popularity contest, and just cause more people read someone else's fic than urs doesn't mean that its better. And forget Welshi. He can be a pain can't he?! DONT listen to him okay! His lordship can be a bit stuck up and proud and such,....and if he catches me saying this GOOD FOR HIM!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I'm a bit rash, and a bit reckless, but I dont care if he kills me for that insult. SO THERE!!!!!!
:D

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat: Um...Well, at least I have support. That's certainly good.


I hope Crowgirl won't mind me saying that she seems to agree with you entirely, Vortexgirl.

On another note, I actually wrote some last night. A little bit of this, but not enough to post, and I worked some more on my Megas XLR short story.

[Rae]

Great update!

You wrote the characters amazingly and i loved it

What everyone else said about popularity

Write whenever you can, i will always read what you post!

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

:shrug: Oh, fine, I'll post up some more.

----------

The city seemed dead and desolate as Raven drifted over the calm streets, the wind nipping at her bare legs. No one had even bothered to fetch Starfire for the job that night for one reason or another—she was far too depressed and needed time alone, everyone seemed to agree. All the same, Raven still felt uncomfortable about not checking up on her before they had left, but Starfire didn’t seem to have wanted her company, preferring to sit in the solace that darkness provided.



(Tomorrow, I’m talking to Robin and fixing this,) she’d concluded with bitter resolve. Images of Starfire from earlier that day haunted her tenaciously, and she focused her anger on Robin to help divert guilt away from herself.



Her inner conflict dissipated as the building appeared before her. It was a titan of a building itself, towering twenty stories up. In enormous neon letters stacked upon its roof was the name ‘Wayne.’ Raven knew that this property was owned by Bruce Wayne, the famous businessman from Gotham City. Of course, Raven knew nothing about how Robin was tied to the wealthy man, but this structure was familiar, nonetheless. She remembered that this was where they had fought Robin while the leader had been under Slade’s thumb. This building housed a research facility that often held secret, experimental weaponry. Apparently, the facility had been broken into a few nights prior, and they were worried that the thief would return to steal the remainder of what it had originally come for: a suit of armor with powerful neural sensors. Potentially, this suit could be used on robots to control their every movement intuitively without risk of the owner becoming damaged. Why Slade would be after this type of technology puzzled the Titans and piqued their suspicion.



As Raven landed alone at the building’s entrance, she was greeted by two stout guards wielding plasma pistols. Aware of her identity, the two men shifted their bodies to the side like automatic doors, and Raven cautiously stepped in to find Cyborg’s solemn face a mere few feet into the main lobby.



“Raven? Where’s everybody else?” he immediately asked her .



“They’re on their way,” she muttered drearily, sniffling lightly. The bitter air had chilled her body on the way over, and she certainly wasn’t enthused about this job.



“And Star?” Cyborg checked curiously.



Raven simply shook her head, her expression dull and dark. “I don’t know…” she contritely moaned. “I didn’t see her before I left. She’s really depressed right now, and she wanted time alone.”



“I’ll talk with Rob, and we’ll worry about it tomorrow,” Cyborg offered calmly, staring at the display in his left arm. “The guys are comin’ right now, so we’d better get ready.”



“Yea,” Raven grumbled apathetically.



“Yo, Mario, Sonic!” Cyborg bellowed down a bleak, business hallway to his right. “How is it?”



There was a short pause before an echoing voice bounced to them, declaring, “We’re all good!”



It was accompanied by another ghostly call: “Yea, she’s secure!”



A couple silent minutes passed after that. The only sound heard was that of footsteps drifting through the drab lobby. Cyborg continued to check his scanners and eventually wandered off in the direction the voices has come from, vanishing into the uninviting corridors.



Raven let out a deep sigh as she stood alone, her body shivering slightly. Why was it so cold? She’d been inside for a few minutes, she should be warm by now…She bobbed up and down on her toes a few times, rubbing her pale, bare arms. Maybe wearing shorts and a short-sleeved hoody weren’t such a good idea tonight, she concluded. Still, something told her that it wasn’t the physical temperature that was getting to her.



Like a bolt of lightning, a worry clicked in her mind, and she immediately inspected her left arm. She huffed with discontent at the supernaturally blackened splotch of skin hiding just under her sleeve. Knowing precisely why it had returned, she growled quietly at herself and slipped the lavender cover back over it.



She grew impatient as she wondered where the other Titans were. They were on their way, right? Raven groaned irritably, shoving the intimidating double doors open with a careless shove.



She stood with arms crossed for a minute or so, the image of a deformed and frightened Starfire refusing to leave her memory. The roar of a motorcycle ripped her out of the pit within her mind and into another as she saw Robin pull up to the sidewalk. The rumbling stopped, and the Titan leader slipped off his green-visored helmet, scanning the building thoughtfully.



“There you are,” he muttered as he caught sight of Raven. “You should’ve let us know you left ahead of us,” he told her calmly. “We would’ve gotten here sooner.” As he paced by her, he asked, “Are you ready?”



Raven stood silently, her arms still latched around her waist. She was facing a dilemma, as she was angry with Robin for what he’d done. Even if Raven were to have answered that question, her reply wouldn’t have been heard, as a large slab of stone came thumping onto the street and a green cheetah jogged up from behind it.



The remaining Titans had arrived, and each one passed by Raven just as Robin had, saying “Hi” or “Hey” as they went by. Raven mumbled back in equal kind, quickly realizing that Starfire was nowhere to be seen. With an insipid whimper, the girl turned around and drearily reentered the gloomy building, hoping the night would pass by quickly.



----------


Stay tuned for Jinx in the next scene.

[Faethie]

Why must u leave me in suspense?!! Why??!!!
Intruiging update!!! I wonder why everyone seemed so...cold...
:p

[Destiny_Smasher]

Cold? Well, Robin, yes. The others, no. Everyone's pretty tired, and just want to get through this night. Too bad things haven't even started yet.

And I'm currently writing quite an interesting scene with Jinx, but, ya know, if people are too busy...

[Destiny_Smasher]

Oh, fine, very well...

----------


(Are they GONE yet?) she wondered impatiently, tapping her boot rhythmically against the floor. She was staring at herself in a life-size mirror that rested against one of the walls in Cyborg’s room. (Well, I’m gettin’ outta this dump,) she concluded, letting her crossed arms drop. She stepped to the door, the clopping of her boots against the floor the first sound she had heard in about five minutes. Upon confronting the door, she pressed the button that she had seen Cyborg use to exit, and, as expected, the door opened.



The enticing little world within the tower lay before her like a candy store to a kindergartner. Eager to pry into the lives of the Titans and keep herself occupied, Jinx fled down the hall like a giddy toddler, until a certain door caught her eye. It had the name ‘Robin’ inscribed upon it in ridged black letters. As Jinx approached, she readied her hands to hack into its security and cause an ‘unfortunate’ event, but she was startled when the doors opened by themselves, and her head was shot with a brief, sharp pain. She cried out, slapping her bony hands against her face in some feeble attempt to stop it. Fortunately for her, it ended shortly. Fortunately for her, there was no one in the tower to hear her small scream. Fortunately, Jinx was about to begin to understand what made her so different from the Titans, and, fortunately, was also about to realize what made her the same as them. Jinx was not used to being fortunate.



After a quiet moment to recover and regain her senses, Jinx carefully sauntered in, eyeing every little trinket around. A small puppet in the form of the Titan rested on a shelf, amongst other various relics, such as a small red and black ‘S’ pendant that, for some reason or another, looked familiar.



Upon a wall near the closet was a large portrait of Robin with a slew of friends, half of them ones that Jinx had never laid eyes on before. The picture looked quite new, and Robin was smiling his cool grin, as usual. A familiar red-haired girl with tan skin had a slender yet muscular arm playfully locked into Robin’s right arm, her head snuggling his shoulder. Raven, who Jinx knew well enough to recognize by name, was clasping the girl’s other hand tightly, beaming warmly, her cheeks pink.



Jinx’s gaze immediately jumped from that section to the one just above it, where her ‘hero’ resided, his black, human eye squinting from laughter as he held a green boy and a chocolate-skinned girl upon his broad, blue shoulders. A few moments passed, and Jinx’s stare remained fixated upon that face, unable to leave. When she finally snapped out of her daze, she felt disgusted with herself and tore her eyes away from the photo, detracting from the gleeful grins of Teen Titans and focusing on a newspaper article with the title: “Wayne Research Facilities Fall Victim to Theft.”



This didn’t captivate her attention for long, so she skipped to the array of framed pictures sprawled across his stern desk. There was Cyborg, yet again, scraping Robin’s skull with his knuckle, a devilish twinkle in his eyes. Jinx almost let herself get captured by that picture, as well, but ripped her stare from it to the pair of toppled photographs in the center of the desk’s head. They were both face down, and Jinx gently tipped them up, setting them back on their stands. She was confused when she noticed that they were both pictures of the red-haired alien girl. In one, she was elegantly posed upon the tower’s roof, though Jinx had no idea where it was, and a full moon shone down upon her in the background. Her face was pure and soothing, the emerald eyes on her face like a sweet song, and her smile a shy and warm chorus. In the other photo, she was dressed in fine, pink silk and was riding with Robin at her side, who was suited in a tuxedo. They were seated on a Ferris wheel, and their bodies were pressed into each other softly.



Forcing herself not to be captivated by the adorable and passionate picture, Jinx gave the room another glance, considering leaving the boy’s bedroom and moving onward; however, that large group photo snatched her away yet again. As she gazed into each and every face, part of her soul told her decisively, (You’re nothing like them. You don’t belong here,) while another part was muffled, struggling to scream out, (They’d accept you. Look at how different they are from each other, and they accept each other.)



If only for a moment, Jinx consciously wondered what it was she was looking for, and considered, quite briefly, that the Titans could offer it to her. Shortly after, a small bit of her heart wished she was part of that picture—part of those grinning faces and glowing eyes. The darker side of her took a mallet and batted at that insignificant section of her heart, and she let out a “Pft,” in spite of herself before turning away and strutting out of the room, letting the door slide behind her.

[Rae]

Those were two great updates!

Not much was really added to the plot but the character stuff was great!

I have a feeling that the fact that they are at the Wayne building is important, but i'm not quite sure as to what extent (besides if it is then it's probably something my brain couldnt come up with!)

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

Plot? Well, there's some in there--mainly that they're starting the job, and Raven's strange...thing...is back.

But that second update was obviously some character-dev. stuff with Robin and Jinx.

Hopefully you caught on to a couple of things in there that I tried to make obvious.

The Wayne building? Important? Um, yea. How? You'll have to wait to find out.

Suffice it to say that Bruce Wayne and his alter ego will be more important to the story than originally planned, due to the stuff I've added to the upcoming plot.

Don't expect a lot of a certain flying rodent, but do expect to see him.

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat:

Um...You DO know Bruce Wayne's other identity, right?

You do know of a small, black, flying mammal that is related to that, yes?

[Destiny_Smasher]

;)

Good.

:shrug: And, um...Yes, Pookey, do feel free to let the others know. :sweat:

I'd probably have something written up in this fic, but I've been working a bit on my other stuff, and the Ocarina of Time Manga (Japanese Comic) had me caught up for a couple of days.

Now I move on to Majora's Mask.

[Faethie]

Awesome chapter...jinx!!!!yay!!!!:D


and DS, can I tell Rae, cause thats pre-tty sad....
no seriously...especially cause ROBIN has a lot to do with him...
oh brother.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Again, that wasn't a Chapter. Maybe around here most Chapters of stories are really short...?

Anyway, I think she may just be joking around.

It's Batman, though, just in case. And, as I said, he does has some importance here. More than originally planned, anyway.

Heh. But that doesn't mean I don't have any surprises up my sleeve. I'm also considering another interesting cameo...But we'll see. ;)

[Faethie]

really, you have no idea how short chapters can be around here.Cant wait for the next part of chapter!!!:anime:

[Destiny_Smasher]

Actually, compared to all of my other fics, this story has the longest Chapters.

Anyway, sorry I haven't been writing over the past few days...I discovered the joy sof saving flash animations/games, and that's been crazy...

It's amazing what you can find on the net in the flash department...

I have seen horrible crap and heavenly action, and everything inbetween.

Hm...Couldn't really find anything on Teen Titans, though...Then again, that's probably a GOOD thing...-_-'

Oh, and by the way...If any of you guys use MSN Messenger, let me know so I can add you. Likewise, if any of you play Gunbound, let me know about that, too.

[Rae]

oh yeah :sweat:

Sorry, just didn't join the dots coz 'flying rodent' threw me off a bit

anyway, look forward to more!

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

By the way, I changed my mind- ANY MESSENGER ID, send me.

I have a program that can use all the messengers, sooo...Yea. Send me those contacts, peeps.

Raven's fate, impending doom?

Blah. I don't need to find a way around it because I've already established one--the fate of the Titans has been altered.

Raven's not gonna be AROUND for her...well, I would assume, like, 18th birthday...But she's not gonna BE here to have her dad try and use her as a portal, blabla...

I'm sure the storyline will rock, but the future and the death and the doom will not be the same in this story.

There's much worse problems to worry about than Raven's dad. Kamek could kick Raven's dad's ass at this point, methinks...Now, he might not be able to do it as easily as I imply, but I have faith that he could do it.

That's why our friends have a problem.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Yes, he is quite a problem.

Considering that he has plans to take over what I could esimate to be a galaxy...Or at least bring lots of pain to it...He's not exactly someone to be taken lightly...

Of course, he needs his colleagues to help him carry out that plan, and Metal Mario would be one of them. Heheh...

This planet is practically worthless to Kamek. Whoop-dee-doo, comic-book heroes, so threatening. Sure, there's a decent amount of 'em, but Kamek's got a nicely sized army right now that's growing quite quickly...

Too bad that I don't realy get to write him into this fic directly--he's far too busy.

But I am writing a new Prologue to Q4D! that will star him from 20 years ago...

Ah, well. I have part of a scene written with Starfire/Blackfire. I'm just lazy and busy...I'll finish it today and stick it up as soon as I can, I promise. :sweat: I've just been busy...and lazy...and have had a lack of readers. So, I haven't been terribly motivated to go on lately, except for the fact that college is around the corner...

--
Here's the first 'part' of this scene...

----------



“What?” she cried out indignantly. “But what of our agreement? You promised that I would not—”



The sinister man in the ‘throne’ chuckled slyly and continued. “I can assure you, Red, that with the help provided by our contractor, you’ll hardly have to see their faces.”



There was a brief silence in the dark and musty room. A single light shone down on the two sisters who stood before their boss, but the man who was issuing orders hid in the shadows upon his large, ornate chair. The emerald-eyed girl sighed with relief, but still shot a dubious glance his way as he instructed her older sister. She glared at the only eye she could see through his creepy mask and felt her insides churn.



“You’ll meet him on the rooftop. From there, you know what to do—he’ll take care of the rest.”



“Understood, Slade, sir,” Blackfire clearly announced with a small bow of the head. The two Tamaranian sisters were wearing tight outfits with metal boots, similar to Slade’s outfit. The main difference was that Starfire wore the dark shade of red, and Blackfire, of course, wore the black. Both outfits had Slade’s emblem embedded into the middle of their chest. Their hair matched their apparel, but they had yet to put on their masks.



Starfire felt wildly uncomfortable and out of place in this setting, but her sister assured her that it would ‘grow on her.’ Starfire didn’t particularly WANT this to grow on her, but she felt that this was a proper punishment for her actions.



Their job was to infiltrate a Wayne Research building downtown. Apparently, Slade had sent Blackfire not long before to steal a bio-neural suit of cutting-edge technology. However, since the suit was unexpectedly separated, Blackfire was unable to retrieve the entire thing. Not one to quit, Slade decided to try to finish what he had started—these two girls would do it for him.



Starfire’s mind was in too deep a state of disrepair for her to connect the concept that if she helped Slade steal this technology, he could use it to hurt the Titans—at least, until that very moment. Now she wasn’t so sure this was a good idea…Was Slade a man of his word?



(How I can trust a criminal?) Starfire wondered in disbelief at her own actions. (But…My sister is a criminal…Yet…I can trust her…)



“Come, Sister,” Blackfire called calmly, rapping at her shoulder to snap her from her daze. “We’re leaving.” There was a strange manner in the way she eased her sister along that Starfire hadn’t known for a long time. It was the same feeling she had experienced years ago when they were imprisoned in the dank compounds of…she couldn’t remember the name of the planet…She was glad she couldn’t remember the name of the planet. Having spent a period of time too short be considered an eternity but long enough to have one’s soul rotted, Starfire had hardly ever paid heed to the name of her jail. The name of where you were planning to die didn’t matter on the inside.



“Sister,” Blackfire repeated with a touch of hostility. “Come!”



Starfire, startled, hummed quickly, nodded, and eerily flew to the room’s exit, following her sibling to prepare for their task. She tried her best to swallow the lump of uneasiness that seemed to be stuck in her throat. Their exit was silent and dull, and Slade carefully watched the way they acted toward one-another. It was nothing like he expected. Then again, they were probably acting more ‘professional’ around their boss. Either way, as long as they could cooperate, things would fall into place. Slade was rather excited—these two foolish girls could prove to be quite productive and helpful, if used properly.



“Can you really depend on those two?” asked the worn, raspy voice of the wrinkled butler beside Slade. He had been shrouded in darkness, as well, observing the situation from ‘outside.’



Slade drummed his fingers on his chair’s arm as the door to the room slid shut. He locked his fingers together before him and answered, “I don’t have to depend on them at this point, Lawrence.” The room was even more deathly silent than it had been just a few moments ago. “This task is already complete. It’s the next step that is riddled with risks.”



----------

[Rae]

That was good!

Poor Star, she's getting into such a big mess

Is that suit the same one Slade gave Terra?

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

If by 'suit' you mean the one that Terra wore when she was evil and it was connected to Slade's brain, and if by 'suit' you mean the one he's trying to steal, and if by 'suit' you mean the one the Titans are currently guarding...

Then, yes.

Where is everybody, huh? I made my promise to, like, 2 people!

----------



“Are you ready, Starfire?”



The mutated ex-Titan jumped, having been startled by her sister’s distant shout. What had she been thinking about? Where WAS she? What was going—oh, wait. Slade. Blackfire. Theft. Right, right…Back on track, now…



“I wish I had slept more last night,” she groaned to herself irritably.



“What are you babbling about?” Blackfire grumbled as she burst into the room impatiently. The bland, almost empty room emanated a stench of rust, but, as Blackfire had said, it grew on her. Noticing her younger sister’s lack of preparation, the violet-eyed girl sighed and walked to a steel table, one of the two pieces of furniture in the dull, gray room, and scooped up a pair of sleek, bracelet-like objects. They were thick, black, and had small barrels atop them, appearing to be some kind of arm-gun of sorts.



“Gimme your arms,” Blackfire muttered quickly. She stared at her sister’s deformed face for a moment as the girl slowly stretched her trembling arms out to receive her equipment. Blackfire would have cringed at the sight of her scaly shoulders, gritty nails, and furry hands, but she simply paused, and as she gazed at her sister’s hollow eyes, something grabbed her, and her haste was converted into patience. She fastened the metal devices around Starfire wrists, taking care to be gentle. “Good,” she stated. “Now, where’s your jet unit?” she questioned.



Starfire, staring at the objects on her wrists in confusion, mumbled, “I believe they are on my bed…”



Blackfire had retrieved them and returned in the time it took Starfire to take a deep breath, and after attaching a rocket-booster of some kind to the girl’s back, she was caught off guard by her younger sibling.



“Sister, what is wrong with me?” Starfire asked in desperation.



There was a tranquil silence as Blackfire frowned sourly, biting her lip. The room felt lifeless for a few seconds, until Starfire heard her sister speak in a clear and rigid tone.



“There is nothing wrong with you. Don’t let anyone tell you that.”



She pressed her words into her little sister’s soul like a hammer pushes iron nails into wood. Blackfire firmly grasped the jet-device around Starfire’s shoulders quietly, her face stern and scornful as she inspected it.



“…I am sorry,” Starfire whispered. “I do not mean to waste your ti--”



“Promise me,” Blackfire interjected, gripping Star’s shoulders tightly. “Don’t let anyone say there’s something wrong with you.”



Starfire cocked an eyebrow at the odd behavior and scratched at one of her pointed ears. “…Sister…? Are you all right?”



“Promise!” Blackfire demanded solidly, jolting Star with a sudden shake.



She didn’t receive a reply to her request. Instead, she was met with another question.



“What is happening to me…?”



The bleak room seemed to grow ever colder with each breath from Starfire’s mouth, and Blackfire hot temper was easily cooled by it.



“Maybe you’re going through your Transformation,” she suggested hopefully, continuing to avoid her sister’s face and check to see that her equipment was operational.



“Are you sure?” Starfire woefully moaned. She turned to Blackfire, who was getting the blood-red mask from where she had placed it earlier on the desk in the room’s corner. “I have never heard of a Transformation being this serious...”



Blackfire sighed with a dull shrug and handed Starfire the mask, its surface a shining metal, even in the dim light. There was nothing on the mask, however, very much like Slade’s. There was only a green visor that spread over the eyes and a few slits for her to breath through her mouth.



“You’re probably right,” muttered Blackfire, who placed her hands over the mask to stop Starfire from wearing it. “I’m sure Slade will be able to get you back to normal. But…--” A pregnant pause followed, and Starfire dove into Blackfire’s violet eyes—two shallow ponds that had suddenly become lakes—to try and discover what it was her older sibling was thinking. Starfire could feel a tremendous worry and concern bulge from those purple eyes, but not a word was spoken, and Blackfire quickly concealed it, knowing fully well that this wasn’t the time or place—there was work to be done.



“…Let’s go,” she whispered dryly, dropping her arms to her sides and easing her sister to follow.



“What are these devices for?” Starfire wondered, tapping a knuckle against the bracelet mounted on the opposite arm.



“Slade designed those to amplify my starbolts, so he simply made another set for you.”



Starfire nodded, still unsure if she would be able to aim accurately. Shooting starbolts from her wrist as opposed to throwing them would be something she would have to get accustomed to.



“I was going to help you practice using them, but there wasn’t any time,” Blackfire explained. “I’ll have to show you on the way there.” She stood in the doorway, beckoning Starfire to come with her.



“And what of the aerial--?”



“I told Slade that your flying powers aren’t working very well, so he whipped up that for you. It’s only temporary, until we can get you off the ground by yourself again. It’s not too hard to use; but I’ll still have to give you some pointers.”



Blackfire would normally have grown wildly impatient, her boot tapping, her arms crossed, and her face bitter. Instead, she stood with a solemn expression, pouring every ounce of effort within her to be calm and patient. Not once did her tone grow harsh, not once did her face turn angry, and not a single time did she insult her sister during their conversation. This made Starfire feel even more out of place, as she only had memories of when Blackfire had acted this way. These memories were quite old and rusted, like the very room she was in.



“…Why must we wear these masks?” Starfire asked with doubt.



Blackfire pushed some hair behind her shoulders and nodded, having expected this question. Leaning against the door way, she replied, “You don’t want your identity shown, do you?” Starfire’s eyebrows lifted up, and her lips curled.



“My identity? What does--?”



“You WANT the Titans to see what’s happened to you? You want them to know you’re working for Slade?” Blackfire asked rhetorically.



Star’s eyes widened with fright at the mere thought of such an event. Her friends would be appalled, disgusted…They would be even more angry with her than they were. And Robin…He already felt betrayed by her, no doubt, but if he learned that she was working for his arch nemesis…



After slipping a tight hood from the back of her suit over her head, Starfire carefully put the mask over her face. A hole had been placed in it to allow her horn to poke through. With the horn coming from her forehead, the smaller ones protruding out of her neck, the hairy, clawed hands, and the enormous boots (her feet were huge) made her look distinctly unlike Starfire, especially with her current attire of red and black. With her mask on, the only part of her body that was exposed was her hands.



Blackfire grinned at her sister’s relatively sleek appearance and noted, “Much better. Now, come on, we have to leave.”



----------

[Destiny_Smasher]

Hey, I'm not the one who blatantly threw someone aside, now. :p

Bah, it's not as if I've been writing much lately, anyway. After all, no one's been reading any of my stuff anywhere, anyway.

Oh, whatever. Here's some more, at any rate.

----------



“Any readings yet, Cyborg?” Robin asked, his voice bursting with anticipation.



“Naw, man,” the bionic Titan replied, two small satellites spinning on his shoulders. “Heat sensors say that we’re still the only ones around. I’m not pickin’ up any other signs of life except us.” The lobby had quickly grown into a dismal place as the Titans had split up to keep watch over different parts of the building.



Robin groaned, his arms furiously crossed. Slade knew they were here, and Slade had already figured a way around their security—he knew it. That didn’t mean he was going to get away with it, of course.



The quiet squeaking of sneakers on the tiled floor eerily drifted through the right hallway as Raven entered the room. The silent steps she made sounded like drums in the dead tranquility of the night. Her brows were furrowed over her pensive eyes as she faced them, avoiding Robin’s gaze and darting to Cyborg.



“Cyborg, could you check something for me?” she asked quietly, her raspy voice slightly more so at this hour of night.



“Sure thing, Ray,” he answered with an inquisitive tone. “What’s up?”



“Are there any signs of movement on the roof?” she wondered, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.



A few seconds passed, and a couple of beeps reverberated off the bleak walls as Cyborg examined the display on his arm.



“I dunno,” he muttered with a contemplative frown. “I can’t pick it up from this far away. My heat scanners are tellin’ me there’s nobody there, though.”



Raven sighed and shook her head, placing her hands on her hips. “I have a feeling there’s somebody—or some-THING—up there.”



Cyborg noted the undisputable confidence in Raven’s eyes and decided that it would be a good idea to check. He lifted his arm to his mouth and spoke into it: “Yo, Terra.”



After a moment of crackling and buzzing, Terra’s voice could barely be made out in the garbled sounds, drowning in radio waves.



“—up—borg?”



The other two Titans lifted eyebrows at Cyborg, who shared their sentiment. After a pause, he continued



“Uh…Terra, listen: we think that there might be somebody tryin; to sneak in through the roof. Can you check outside for us?”



Cyborg slowly let his arm fall to his side as he awaited a response, hoping that this time, she’d be coherent. He groaned in dismay as he quickly realized that this was simply not the case.



“—uh? –don’t—what—you—ayin’…” Robin growled out a ‘Damnit’ before she went on. “—sh—jus—ay—ere—do—want—t’come—n?” Her voice seemed to rise at the end with confusion. “Is—thin’—on?—t’s—guys?!...I’m—omin’—ang in—kay?”



The transmission cut off there, leaving the three Titans in a bewildered state of worry and doubt.



Either nothing was going on, or something was going on.



“I’ll go and check it out,” Cyborg announced irritably, drawing his scanning tech back into his shoulders. “If somethin’s up, you’ll hear it.”



Robin nodded, baffled as to why the communicators weren’t working he had tinkered with them the night before to ensure that they weren’t faulty, and they should certainly have been working at the range they were at…



Raven’s face drained as she shot a fast glance at the puzzled teen with the cape beside her, and she fumbled for words before calling out, “I-I’ll come with you,” but was stopped dead in her tracks by a Cyborg’s firm tone.



“Nah, you stay here. It’s too risky. If somethin’ IS up, we’re gonna need as many people down here as we can to go tell the others.”



Raven stood in half step for a moment as Cyborg’s feet thunked down the dark hall. Her stomach tied up in a knot, she couldn’t force herself to turn around and face Robin until he heard him grumbling to himself.



“I can’t believe this!...Grahhh…Slade must’ve figured out a way to jam our systems…”



As he attempted to fiddle with his device, he couldn’t help but notice Raven’s pale face staring at him.



“What is it?” he snapped, frustrated.



----------

[Faethie]

more, cool!!!

throw someone aside?! ME?! Erm...thats what I do...I spoke my mind without thinking....yeah, I really have to stop doin that.....

Robin is acting like such a klorbag!!!!!

[Destiny_Smasher]

Yes, you threw Starfire aside, saying that you hope she gets clobbered.

However, you are very very correct on your point that Robin is acting like a kloback (wtv). ACTING like one, mind you.

[Faethie]

um, yeah....

as you may eventually come to realize, I'm a very complicated person. And I didn't get a great grade in math this quarter.:sweat: Heh, that what I get for skipping a grade and taking the harder math course....

Actually, I guess I didn't mention that I liked Star in this fic. I do owe her compliments, don't I...
I don't have any time for that.

I do like Rae though. She's my second fav character in TT. I luv her in your fic. You write her as well as Edd does...and thats a compliment, trust me...he's my fav author here...:D :D :D

And another Jinx scene! Sweet!:D

Oh Yeah, have a nice Graduation!!:anime:

<EDIT> Also part of the reason I drew that was cause my friend...he's obsessed with Star...and wanted me to draw a pic of her, and thats all I could think of!:sweat:

[Rae]

I liked that little update! The whole 'comunications jammed' thing screams suspicion, which Robin picked up on (duh, of course he would) and i liked the way you had Raven wanting to go with cyborg instead of staying with Robin (and you can't blame her because he's acting like a bit of a jerk)

Loved the "-up -borg?" hilarious

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

Edd? Um...I AM Edd...Oh, wait, you mean someone ELSE, don't you? :sweat:

Well, technically, I'm Eddy. And, well, even MORE technically, it's Ed-WARD, but who the he11 calls me that?

Yea, Raven kind of doesn't want to be with Robin this very moment, but part of it is because she desperately wants to yell at him, and she knows that now isn't a good time.

And, just for the fun of it, here's that little Terra bit, only you can understand what she's saying.

--
"What's up, Cyborg?”

The other two Titans lifted eyebrows at Cyborg, who shared their sentiment. After a pause, he continued

“Uh…Terra, listen: we think that there might be somebody tryin; to sneak in through the roof. Can you check outside for us?”

Cyborg slowly let his arm fall to his side as he awaited a response, hoping that this time, she’d be coherent. He groaned in dismay as he quickly realized that this was simply not the case.

“Huh? I don’t get what you're sayin’…” Robin growled out a ‘Damnit’ before she went on. “Um, should I just stay here, or do ya want me t’come down?” Her voice seemed to rise at the end with confusion. “Is somethin’ goin' on? What’s wrong, guys?!...I’m comin’, so hang in there, kay?”

--

Well, since I know at least a couple people are around, here's the next scene--obviously some important stuff here, you'll realize.

And by the way, just in case you're wondering, yes, there is a reason for the security being messed up, and the communicators not working right. It'll be explained in good time.

Oh, and yea, we'll still be seeing some more of the HIVE a little later.

*grin*

We've got an action scene pretty soon...Hopefully, it'll be a nice one. :D

----------



(Huh…What’s up with this? I thought she was all goth, and everything…)



As Jinx perused through Raven’s room (she had tried two rooms before it, but they had actually succeeded in keeping her out), she felt confused. This didn’t feel like the Raven she knew…Now that she thought about it, Raven had been wearing a sickeningly cute shirt in some of those photos she had found in Robin’s room—they didn’t match her old cloak and leotard at all. Jinx had expected Raven’s room to be dark, bleak, and unwelcoming. Instead, it was shy, gray, and inviting. There was a strange mix of creepy and warm, and it fried Jinx’s brain just to look at it. There was an old, antique globe sitting on a pedestal, and a colorful painting of a hotdog was beside it. Jinx had managed to make out a green, splotchy paw-print as a signature in the bottom. A small statue of a crow with four sinister eyes rested on a shelf to the left, but a hand-made, maple birdhouse sat beside it. The name ‘Terra’ was carved into its side. A wooden marionette that mimicked Raven’s older style was perched next to that, and the spitting image of Cyborg’s car in a model form was parked after that.



(Huh…Cyborg DID tell me she had changed…) Jinx noted to herself, observing the odd sights.



A rusted oil lamp hung from the wall between Raven’s bookshelf and her bed. Her bookshelf, a classical and no-doubt well-aged piece, had a painting of Titan Tower spread upon its side. Then, after gazing upon even more knick-knacks, Jinx reached the bed, which was placed in a back corner of the room, close to the windowed wall. It had black sheets and white pillows, and a gray blanket was laying in a tangled heap on top of it. That only held Jinx’s attention for a brief moment, because she quickly noticed the collage of photographs attached to the wall above the bed.



There had to have been a good three dozen pictures of various sizes and kinds stuck up upon the wall, most of them without frames, simply attached. The images were a wild rush of smiles, laughs, tears, and hugs. Raven playing chess with a dark-skinned girl, cooking hamburgers with Cyborg, playing football with the boys, braiding hair with the girls, volleyball on the tower’s roof, Go Fish, Twister, joy riding, free flying…The montage seemed endless, but Jinx’s attention was tugged by the huge, framed poster that acted as the core of the collage.



The piece was enveloped by a majestic frame composed of pure silver, which had sleek grooves cut into it to form mysterious waves in the metal. Mystical pastels congealed together into a warm, nostalgic image of two beaming faces: an emerald-eyed girl with hair as red and fluid as blood and a smile that snuggled the soul, and a violet-eyed young woman who radiated gratitude with her glowing expression. Jinx had no idea who in the tower had such painting skills, as they looked very lifelike, yet distinctly surreal all the same. Two words had been carefully penned at the painting’s bottom, each one in a different handwriting. The first word was in a radiant, joyful cursive, with the ‘i’ dotted with a heart, while the other word was shy, scratchy, and gothic.



“Friends Forever.”



Jinx’s cat-like eyes were pulled by the powerful painting, and her heartstrings were plucked into a heavenly chord. Paralyzed by the longing for the entrancing emotion she could taste from the painting, Jinx could feel her brain freeze up for a moment or two. Once she had suppressed her desire, she took a step back and desperately pried her eyes from the mystical painting.



Stumbling backward caused Jinx’s boot to bump into a table leg, knocking a small, weathered notebook across the floor. Jinx drew a brief, sharp breath of surprise as her eyes darted to the small book. It was a small notepad with a blue cover. It was simplistic on the outside, and Jinx’s curiosity drove her to scoop up the small book and slip through it. She skimmed through blurry, splotchy sketches, and then, words began to spread out before her—poems, at that. Jinx continued to turn pages, realizing that there had to have been a good dozen poems in the book. She reached the last full page and decided to read. Noting the date scribbled in the top corner—10/23—Jinx realized that the poem was written about a month before. As her eyes scanned the haiku, she felt the words connect with her soul.





Inside-Out

I'm feeling so cold.
Loneliness entangles me.
How can I stop this?

This feeling is old.
Day after day it plagues me;
It eats bit by bit.

Feelings lay hidden
Within the realms of my mind.
Can I let them out?

Feelings that have been
So lost that I cannot find
them; I'm feeling doubt.

At me they all gape,
For I'm so silent and odd.
They think I'm so strange.

How can I escape?
Can I stop this sad facade?
Perhaps I can change...

I'll leave my cocoon,
Spread my wings and find a way
To free my inside.

I must do this soon,
For if I don't, then someday
My heart will have died.



The rough, raspy letters of ink plastered to the page remained in Jinx’s mind as she carefully flipped to the next page.





She



Inside my mind the darkness reigned.

A bitter shadow I remained

Until the day She saved my life.



She came to me from up above.

This angel showed me how to love.

She warmed my soul, she touched my heart.

I’ll let nothing tear us apart.



But then, one day, She tripped and fell

And tumbled to the bowls of hell.

Tear-stained eyes and broken wings,

My hero has lost many things.



So now I must





Jinx was dumbfounded. (So now I must WHAT? That’s it?) The poem was incomplete. Jinx craved more. She wanted to know how it ended. Her hunger for this poetry frightened her, bringing back the same unknown feeling she kept finding within every room. It frightened her. That which people don’t understand, they fear. Frustrated by the lack of conclusion, the girl closed the book and dropped it apathetically to the table.



She took a deep breath, shoved her heart back into its cage, and took swift steps to leave the room and escape her own desire for this thing the Titans seemed to have so much of. She was envious beyond words. But this wasn’t something she could take. Every time Jinx had wanted something, she could simply steal it.



As she trudged through the black hallway, she realized that this thing she wanted could only be given and received, but not taken.



----------

[Rae]

Those poems were so touching! I realy loved them!!!!!!

The picture also sounded great! And i loved all the little things you placed in Ravens room, to make it seem warmer

Poor Jinx...she just doesn't understand friendship

Rae

[Crowgirl]

Awwwww..... that was really, really, really sweet.

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat: Welll...thanks. I guess that's about the perfect way of phrasing the reaction I wanted from that scene.

*sigh*

Long night...I got hooked on Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones real bad, so I didn't bother to write any. I promise I'll get the next scene finished for tomorrow.

---

I did get another update done, but no one's replied, so it'll wait until then.

---

Erm...Yeeeaaa...I've got three scenes done now. Again, I haven't heard from anyone, so all I can assume is that no one is paying any heed. Until then...

[Pookey]

-walks in a sits down- two words...freakin awesome...

yay i would have been here earlier but i feared for my life and havent been on TZ in awhile but im back YAY and reading your fic YAY and enjoying it and kicking myself for not reapling earlier YAY and....wel ya as i said freakin awesoem! woot!!!

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat:

Um...Well, I didn't quite understand all of that, but if somebody's actually readin'...

----------



On his way to the roof, Cyborg bumped into a worried Terra that was rushing to get downstairs.



“Terra!” he cried out as soon as he caught sight of her. “What’s goin’ on up there?”



Panting, Terra lifted an eyebrow and stopped to take a breath from her running.



“Huh?...I thought…you guys…were in…trouble…” she gasped, holding herself up on her bent knees.



“Naw, we thought somethin’ happened upstairs.” Terra shook her head and groaned, irritated by the waste of energy.



“I’m fine,” she sighed out, standing upright, a few beads of sweat stuck to her forehead. “Why’d you call me?”



Cyborg, continuing his journey to the top of the building, explained thoughtfully, “Ray said she could feel someone on the roof, so we tried to ask you about it, but--”



“You couldn’t understand what I was saying…” Terra realized with a nod. “Yea, same thing happened to me, and I thought that you needed me downstairs.” She shrugged and followed the bionic Titan, quietly awaiting his findings as his scanners analyzed the area. She was dying with curiosity to ask what he was picking up, but managed to restrain herself from doing so for a few minutes as they headed upward.



Cyborg was quite flustered as he put on a muse’s frown. Pounding his feet up a set of stairs to the roof’s exit.



“Nothin’,” he muttered stubbornly. “No heat readings, no movement…I guess Raven must be a little mixed up tonight,” he concluded with a shrug as he creaked open the door and peered outside.



“Yea,” mumbled Terra with a yawn. “It IS pretty late. How much longer is it ‘til we leave?” she wondered, stretching her arms out over her head.



“We’ve still got a good four or five hours to go,” Cyborg announced with apathy, closing the steel door and trekking down the staircase. Continuing to eyeball his arm for readings, he told her, “I’m gonna head back down to the lobby.”



The clomping of Cyborg’s huge feet echoed across the bleak hallway, and Terra called out to him, “What should I do if something comes up?”



“Just don’t use the communicator unless it’s an emergency,” Cyborg advised. “That way, we’ll know you need us if you actually use it. If we call you up, come down as fast as ya can, whether you can understand us or not.”



“Gotcha,” Terra responded firmly, nodding in salute. (Four or five more hours?) she whimpered within her mind, cringing.



----------



A sinister chuckle escaped from his sly grin as he stood on the rooftop, leaned against a metal air duct. He was quite amused with the efforts of the half-metal man who had just tried to sniff him out. Unfortunately, he himself was completely metallic. Heat readings didn’t pick up ice-cold metal, and motion sensors only read that which was moving.



Within a half hour or so, he’d be bathed in battle, enjoying himself. He was sure of that. All he had to do was wait for two teenage, alien girls to arrive.



Luckily, his wait ended about five minutes after the cyborg Titan had scanned the perimeter, as he could see two figures veiled by the night approaching on the wind. As they neared, their bickering grew louder and louder, though it remained quiet enough for their purposes. They were an odd-looking pair, Metal Mario decided. They wore sleek, skin-tight suits that suited thieves, and wore mysterious masks reminiscent of Slade. The black one was perfectly dressed, looking almost like a ninja, but her companion resembled an alien much more, with horns, huge hands, and huge feet.



Their chatter came to an abrupt halt as they noticed the dark man before them whose skin shimmered in the dim moonlight.



“You must be the guy,” the black one bluntly commented.



“A fist for hire,” he replied, tipping his silver cap up to reveal his colorless eyes. “I’ll take care of the Titans while you steal the package.”



Starfire was in shock at the sight of the figure.



“…Mario…?” she whispered in disbelief. Had he joined Slade, as well? Why would he do such a thing?



“Not quite,” the man responded. “You can just call me MM. You must be Starfire…”



The face beneath the red mask dryly replied, “Not quite.”



There was a tense silence, the thick of the night weighing down upon them, until Blackfire inquired, “You know him?” Her question was met on deaf ears, as Starfire was eager to get this job done and over with.



“Shall we proceed with the task at hand?” she asked sharply.



“We shall,” Metal Mario answered, stretching his stiff arms out into the air. “I’ll head straight down through that door,” he casually pointed an index finger to the direct entrance behind them, “and you guys head in through here.” He nodded his head to the large air duct beside him. “You know where you’re headed, right?”



Starfire was hesitant, but Blackfire nodded quickly, assuring him that they’d be able to manage.



“Good. I can’t make any guarantees that I’ll be able to keep ‘em off your back—there’s a lot of ‘em in there—but I doubt you’ll have too much trouble. Peachy?”



“Keen,” Blackfire murmured, easing her sister to the duct before them. “You ready for this?” she whispered to her little sister as Metal Mario adjusted his cap, ambling to the door.



“I-I think I am as ready as I can be,” Starfire stammered, her insides liquefying.



“I’ve got your back,” Blackfire told her with steel assurance. “Just follow me, and do what I say—you’ll be fine. Everybody gets scared on their first heist.”



----------

[Faethie]

And the plot thickens...or thins...whichever you'd prefer to say....:p
awesome!!!!!!!:D

[Rae]

Metal Mario is a fist for hire? Interesting!

I liked how Cy totally missed MM, he really needs to udate his scanners and to trust Rae a bit more!

Rae

[Pookey]

ohh will Starfire be able to pull off her first Heist or will she do the right thing? ohh the suspense is packed! i love it!

hehe im w/ Rae!!!

[Destiny_Smasher]

Oh, things are indeed going to get interesting, I'll assure you of that.

Metal Mario was standing still on the rooftop, and he's made of METAL, so Cyborg's heat scanners didn't pick him up. The whole roof is stone and metal, so, from Cyborg's data, he blended in.

Ah, but don't worry. Even if Cyborg HAD known he was there, it wouldn't have helped very much as far as taking him down, as you'll see.

The next scene is done, but I don't have my flashdrive on me...-_-' Sorry about that. I'll have it up tomorrow, for sure.

Speaking of which, I was on a writing storm last night. Well, not a hurricane, or a tornado, but a decent rainstorm. I just started Q4D! 47 a couple nights ago, and I actually got down to writing it last night--I'm already almost done with it.

If I concentrate the same amount of effort on this, this Chapter will be done by the week's end, for sure. But I don't know--we'll see. Stay tuned, and stay in touch.

And concerning Metal Mario being a fist for hire (mercenary, in case no one picked up on that)...Well, let's just say that this isn't exactly the case...

I decided on 'fist for hire,' because it was like 'gun for hire,' or 'sell sword,' which are phrases used concerning mercenaries, and I felt that this occupation fit the current situation.

I'm a bit giddy with anticipation as far as having Metal Mario and Mario meet, but I always am about that, because it's always fun, and some question-raisingt clues will no-doubt be thrown out, as those two know what's going on as far as the grand scheme of things is concerned.

--

Ohh, bumped to the second page? Harsh.

----------



“Raven,” Robin growled again, practically hissing through his teeth. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you staring at me like that?”



Raven’s dumbfounded gaze morphed into a cold and sour frown as her lips pursed slightly and her eyebrows arced menacingly. Robin returned a frown back to her, unable to pinpoint exactly what her problem was. He knew it had to do with Starfire, but his mind was far too deep in the matter at hand to worry about trivial things like trying to figure out the mind of a teen girl.



“Fine,” he dismissed her bluntly, returning his attention to his T-com to ensure that there weren’t any flaws.



“***hole.”



The word seeped into the air very much in the same way that toxic gas does—slow, hardly noticeable at first, and poisonous. Robin took in the comment very much in the same way a brick does not take in water.



“…WHAT did you just say…?” he whispered in disbelief. It wasn’t so much that he felt insulted as much that he had never heard Raven say the word or anything close to it—ever.



A few frozen moments passed by with no dialogue between the two. A icy glare was the only response Robin was given, and it was all he needed.



“You have no idea what I’ve been through these past few days,” Robin informed her with the same solid resolve that she had just insulted him with. “So before you judge me, you should—”



Scratchy, static shouting cut off his self defense as the T-com buzzed with Terra crying for help. One couldn’t make any sense of it without sitting down and analyzing with great care, but what could be understood was that Terra needed backup.



“Sounds like we’ve got company,” Robin announced grimly, dashing down the hallway toward the location of the guarded item. Robin knew that if someone had just been noticed, it was likely that the armor they were trying to protect was already in danger. Raven was given no orders, so she acted on her own judgment and darted in the opposite direction, where Terra, Cyborg, and this ‘guest’ were.



No more than a minute had passed when Raven could make out a fist fight in the shadowy halls before her. Cyborg was trading blows near a stair terminal with someone who looked vaguely familiar. The way he moved—his punches, his kicks, his flips—Raven knew them well, but she couldn’t quite place a finger on who they reminded her of. Wasting no time, Raven shot her palms out and fired two concentrated beams of pure, white light right into the back of Cyborg’s foe. To her surprise, the light ricocheted off his back, reflecting in every which way. In that moment, both Cyborg and Raven were astonished to discover that this man was an emulation of their companion, Mario.



In the moment that their bodies were paralyzed in shock, the metallic man whipped his arm in Raven’s direction to throw a goo-like object that seemed to come from nowhere, and followed up immediately by nailing Cyborg in the jaw with a strong right hook.



Cyborg was pushed back by the sheer force of the blow and stumbled down the staircase behind him in haphazard fashion, colliding with the wall below the half-flight. Raven would’ve expressed concern had she witnessed the action, but when strange substance that had been thrown caught her by surprise, she was too late in protecting herself, and could feel her skin screaming in pain as a fist-sized gob of half-liquefied metal, still searing hot, splashed onto her right shoulder. As she scrambled to remove the substance, she cried out from the pain, and Metal Mario flashed a sadistic grin as he bounded from the ground to the wall and pounced at Raven, giving her a swift kick in the head to ensure she remained down and out. With a ‘thunk,’ he landed on the marble floor beside her dazed body. Savoring the moment, he carefully tuned his ears for signs of movement, and could make out two distinctly different sets of footsteps headed his way—one from above, and one from below, both behind him. He knew that they were the two hosts he had previously engaged, and he quickly calculated a battle strategy. He figured he had two main options—use the girl moaning on the floor as a shield, or improvise. Though the cruelty of the first choice intrigued him, he was always one to go with the impromptu approach; then again, he could always fit the two together…



He scooped the girl in the lavender hoody by the ankles and gave her a quick spin for momentum before letting fly at Cyborg, who was prepared to launch a sonic blast. He immediately halted his attack as Raven’s back came speeding at his face. In an effort to prevent her from a violent crash, he spread open his arms and managed to catch her well enough where he only slid back a few inches. She was pretty light in comparison to him, after all. In the time it took him to recuperate, Terra had ripped six tiles of marble from the floor and snapped them like shurikens at Metal Mario, who either dodged them or held out an arm to let them smash casually by. Terra’s attack was countered with a flurry of flaming balls, some of which she managed to evade, but most of which pounded her and sent her onto her back.



Cyborg had just finished placing Raven on the ground and removing the lava-like material from her arm when he realized that Metal Mario had vanished. His guard down, Cyborg was easily sent face-first into the ground as Metal Mario fist came from behind with downward thrust.



“Who’s next?” Metal Mario chuckled with sinister anticipation, dashing down the halls to where he presumed the rest remained, his clanky footsteps reverberating off the walls, floor, and ceiling in an eerie echo.



----------



Tikal and Amy had been standing guard halfway into the basement. The underground portion of this building was six stories down, and the armor that was being guarded rested in a tightly locked room on the bottom-most floor. The hall was dreary and dark, and Tikal and Amy weren’t having any fun moping about it the shadows. They would start conversations here or there that would eventually peter out. It had been about a half hour of silence between them when Tikal asked Amy a question.



“Amy…Why are you here with us?”



Amy, sitting against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway, blinked up at her groggily. Her eyelids were half-opened, and her head was bobbed slightly.



“…Whrr?” she mumbled in coherently.



Tikal smiled weakly at Amy’s barely awake face. It had to be about four in the morning, she imagined. If memory served her well, Amy was not one to pull an all-nighter.



“Why are you here?” Tikal repeated politely, realizing that Amy must’ve been on the verge of slumber. “This isn’t your responsibility—you’re not a Titan. You could be at home sleeping…”



Amy rubbed her eyes and groaned, but she had understood what Tikal had asked perfectly. Unlike Sonic, Amy could wake up quite quickly.



“I know,” she murmured with a yawn. “But I’d be alone…I don’t care if I’m not a Titan. I can help, right?” She glanced up at Tikal expectantly, her eyes slightly bloodshot.



“Well…Yes, of course,” Tikal agreed.



“We all have to get back home—together. If helping these guys out will get us home faster…”



Their ears were jolted by a sudden whirring noise, causing their hearts to skip a beat. They were relieved to know it was only the air conditioning kicking in.



“…So what are going to do…?” Tikal muttered in a pensive tone.



“About what?” Amy wondered, her brow lifted. She scratched her fingers through her pink hair for a moment, curious.



“About us,” Tikal answered simply, glancing at Amy with hopeless eyes.



Amy felt more doubt within her just by looking at Tikal’s face, and she tried to console her friend.



“Don’t worry about it,” she insisted. “We’ll get back home. I’m sure that we’ll figure it out soon.”



“Not THAT,” Tikal moaned, shaking her head and letting out a huff of air. “I meant…US…and Sonic…”



As Tikal’s words jumped into Amy’s mind, she felt her insides churn. She feared that the love triangle between her, Tikal, and Sonic would end up in a mess, so she tried to avoid conflict with Tikal when possible. Fortunately, both girls had yet to fight about the matter, and Amy hoped things would stay that way.



“…Wh-wh…” She stumbled for words for a moment, until she managed to find a sentence. “There’s nothing to do about it, Tikal—you and Sonic are…--” She let the end hang in the air, as she felt it was obvious, and part of her didn’t want to admit it.



A sigh slipped from Tikal’s lips, and she advised, “Amy, you can’t just give up like that…”



“I-I…I can’t?” Amy stammered, befuddled and eager at the thought that she still had a chance.



Tikal’s dull eyes of sapphire stared critically at Amy, piercing into her mind.



“Amy, Sonic’s confused. He doesn’t know what to do, because he doesn’t know either of us as well as he should. He knows me better because we’ve been dating here, yes, but…The only reason we are is because you weren’t here…I’m sure of that…”



Amy’s stomach was tightening into a knot the further they dove into the topic. Tikal noted by Amy’s puzzled expression that she didn’t quite understand what was trying to be told to her.



“Sonic needs to make a choice, but how can he choose when he doesn’t know what his options are?” Tikal rhetorically pressed. Amy sighed and rubbed her head drearily. It was four in the morning…she didn’t need this on her mind.



“…I…” She paused for a moment and huffed. “What ARE his options?”



Tikal laid out what she was trying to say bluntly. “Amy, Sonic likes both of us, but he needs to decide which one he likes MORE…How will he ever know that if he doesn’t give you a chance?”



There was a tense silence as Amy processed the thought within her mind. It was certainly true that Sonic had never given her a chance, yet he never completely pushed her away…



“So, what am I supposed to do?” Amy asked, baffled. “I can’t just ask him out—you two are already dating. That’s just...—” She grunted, her half-awake brain overloading.



“Amy, Sonic and I are only dating because I took advantage of the situation,” Tikal sharply informed her, guilt pouring from her expression. “You weren’t around, and because of what happened, he didn’t quite remember you, I guess…By the time our memories started to come back to us, I had already gotten attached to him, and…I’m sorry…” Tikal’s eyes were about ready to burst from her confession. “He didn’t really have a choice when we got here, because I was the only one here…I’m sorry,” she repeated, shaking her head in shame. “I shouldn’t have...—”



Amy jumped from the floor and sat beside her friend, patting her shoulder.



“It’s all right, Tikal…I would’ve done the same thing…” she admitted.



“DOWNSTAIRS, NOW!!”



The bellowing of a furious Robin shattered their moment as he stormed down the hall, heading their way. They scrambled from the floor and followed his command, brushing away their worries and tears concerning their blue-haired friend as best they could. Amy dashed alongside Robin, able to keep up easier than he would’ve expected, while Tikal soared behind them, confused.



“What’s going on?” Amy demanded. “Somebody break in?”



“Ir some-THING,” Robin grimly stated. “And I have a feeling that whoever it is, there’s more than one of ‘em. Cyborg and a couple others are distracting whoever broke it through the roof while we get everyone else to the room where the target is being held, because we know that’s where they’ll strike.” Robin madly hopped down stairs, falling down stories at a time. He’d stop at each floor to shout out to whoever was occupying it, then continue his descent, Amy proving to be just as nimble as he, which made him wonder where she had been earlier that week. Within a few seconds, he’d reached the correct floor, and had a few more tagging behind him, all eager and willing to defend the prize that Slade was trying to win.

----------

(Curse the asterix. I had to change Raven's naughty word to an edited version. Bleck. I hate that.)

---

Almost to the third page? Oh, that hurts. :sweat: Well, now you know why I don't bother to update very often, because when I do, it turns out being a waste of time. Had I not written this update until today and posted it THEN, it wouldn't have made any difference as far as hearing from people, now, would it?

[Destiny_Smasher]

Wow, an entire week with nary a word from anyone.

This thread's as bleak and desolate as The End, only there's no Trigon.

Well, since I don't like my fic being on the THIRD PAGE after a week of no replies despite an update, I'm going to stick up my week-old update. Obviously, not long enough for a full update, but enough to be an excuse to remind people this fic exists.

----------



Upon catching word of the news, Sonic had quickly zipped downstairs to the large room where the suit was being held. The trip wires were still in place around the armor, and it remained safe and sound, while Mario and Luigi stood near the entrance of the room, conversing solemnly to each other.



“Of course I haven’t told them yet,” Mario spat at his brother. “They’ve got enough things to worry about right now, like this crap here. Our situation can wait until everything’s stable, ya know?”



“Guess you’re right, Bro…But don’t you think—”



“Hey, Waddle-Dee and Waddle-Dum!” Sonic growled at them as he skidded to a halt before them. “What the **** are you doin’? Didn’t you hear? Somebody’s broken in! Keep your eyes on the merchandise, huh?”



Luigi practically jumped at Sonic’s words, while Mario casually shrugged them off, glancing effortlessly at the technology.



“Seems OK to me,” he muttered apathetically. “What are we up against?” he wondered, his interest piqued at the matter of opposition.



“I…I dunno,” Sonic fumbled out. “Robin’s spazzin’, so be ready for that.”



“What else is new?” Mario chuckled. “That guy’s string tighter than your shoe laces, Sonic,” he joked, nodding his head to the taught threads on Sonic’s stylish red footwear.



“Is he always like that?” Luigi wondered, his eyes glued to the armor and the room surrounding it. It rested within a plexiglas class, and red lasers surrounded it in a complex web, acting as its security.



“Not all the time,” Sonic shrugged. “But lately, he’s been pissed all the time.”



“Bah,” Mario dismissed. “He’s just upset because we haven’t been doin’ so hot, and with him, everything needs to be done perfect. He takes his job a little too seriously,” he explained to Luigi, who nodded pensively.



“Oh, he’s just all wound up because him and his girlfriend aren’t gettin’ along,” Sonic put in, rolling his eyes.



Mario stared at him doubtfully. “You know it’s more than that, Sonic. Besides, you’re one to talk,” he added, tipping his cap over his eyes as he awaited the group that was storming their way like a tidal wave.



“Wh--? What’s that supposed to mean?’ Sonic snapped irritably.



“Have you guys seen anything yet?” Link asked with dire expectation, cutting past Sonic into the room.



“Nah, we’re all good—for now,” Mario casually told him. “I’ve got a feeling things’ll heat up real quick, though.”



----------

[Rae]

Sorry i didn't reply to the last update, but you edited it in and i didn't realise.

Anyway, the first one was interesting, the interaction between Rae and Robin was hilarious!

The second one was shorter, but i still liked it, and we finally got a scene between Tikal and Amy about Sonic

Look forward to more

Rae

[Faethie]

EEk sorry I havent read anything lately. That was really good, and I like how Raven's getting realllly pissed at Robin...I didnt think shed' actually say that, it was very unexpected.

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Destiny_Smasher]

Yea, that was kinda the point with that little part there.

Well, I have part of the next scene done, but I'm really working more on Q4D! at this point, since I'm getting close to catching up to the Winds of Fate as far as timeline goes.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Well, as upset as I may from not hearing from anyone in, what, a few WEEKS or so...? That aside, I've been workig my ASS off on Q4D!, but I guess none of you read that.

So, I finished up the latest scene. So, MAYBE, if I'm lucky, I'll hear from someone.

----------



“I fear we shall be roasted like Bargolean Wurtpelts…”



“Starfire, stop your complaining! We’re almost there…”



“But Sister, the ventilation is unbearable…”



The two suited thieves had been sneaking through the vents of the building with great care, but the heat had automatically turned on—it was autumn, and could get fairly chilly. The heat that blasted over their bodies was quite unbearable, indeed, though their stealth suits deterred it somewhat from broiling them. However, the noise—the consistent humming—provided ample cover for them as they neared their destination, where a congregation of Titans had congealed.



“We’re fine,” Blackfire said quietly, signaling her sibling to stop crawling with an upright palm. “Shh. Our ‘friend’ should be arriving any second to give us some time.” They had stopped near an opening in the very room they were planning on raiding. The rushing air that blew them by preventing them from hearing the Titans words in the room, and they weren’t at an angle where they could see them, either. But after about five minutes sitting quietly, they knew that something was going on.



During those five minutes of waiting, Starfire slowly slipped into a brief spell of depression. The faces of the Titans who were mere yards away pounded at her brain. They were all better off without her…Thirteen people were dead because of her selfish wishes, her jealousy…



One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten.

Eleven.

Twelve.

Thirteen.



Such a debt to owe to the great beyond. Thirteen lives, compared to her one. Thirteen souls lost and gone. She had paid some price, perhaps, but one not nearly enough to cover the amount she felt she owed.



CLANG!



The ducts reverberated with the sickening sound of a body colliding with an adjacent wall, and Starfire was brought back to the situation she was stuck in. Blackfire tugged on Starfire’s shoulder and roughly dragged her sister toward her.



“Are you ready?” she asked solemnly.



Starire nodded, and though Blackfire couldn’t see the worry in her eyes from beneath the green visor, she could feel it coming from her sister’s demeanor.



“We’ll both go out, and I’ll break the casing it’s in, then you swipe it, and we’ll head out the way we came in.” Starfire was trembling now, like a small forest animal in a cage. “Don’t worry so much,” Blackfire eased. “If anything happens, don’t worry about me—I’ll be fine. I’ll meet you outside at the roof. Got it?”



Starfire, or, ‘Red Comet,’ nodded shakily. “…Y-yes, of course,” she squeaked, doubt dripping from her lips as a grimace crawled across her face. Blackfire could see that grimace by only the tone of her voice and sighed.



“This should be a breeze, Sister,” the Black Comet assured her sister with unbridled confidence. She rubbed Starfire’s shoulder quickly for encouragement and gave her a couple of pats for good measure. “Focus,” she insisted. “It’s like arresting a robber…except…you ARE the robber…” She snickered a mischievous, sneaky snicker, and it only tightened the knot in Starfire’s intestines.



“B-but…”



“All right, here we go!” Blackfire shouted as she charged energy from her palms into the cannon around her wrist. She fired after a few seconds, and a blast of intense, red energy shot forward, zipping through the air and melting the vent instantly. As it exploded in the distance, Blackfire zipped through the new entrance to the storage room, and Starfire carefully dropped out and landed on the metal floor.



Starfire was paralyzed for a moment as she watched Robin exchange fierce blows with the metallic Mario. Using his bo, he swiped at the being with quick, clean attacks and mind-numbing variety. The foot, the pelvis, the shoulder, the eye, the pinky…But no matter where he aimed his blows, the stealthy steel being ducked, weaved, jumped, flipped, or blocked. He made it look as he could go on forever. The other Titans present were either recovering from a daze or waiting for the right time to strike.



Jolted to her senses, Starfire’s brain was bent like a pretzel when she saw ANOTHER Mario—the one she knew well—standing before the durable casing in the middle of the room, his arms spread out at his sides like a cowboy preparing to draw. Starfire could see his palms trembling as flame engulfed his fingers. As his eyes twinkled and a smirk—that classic smirk—slinked its way onto his face, Starfire suddenly realized that her sister was about to get ‘a can of the whup-ass.’



During precisely the same moment this concept slapped her, she was sent to the ground with a brutally swift kick in her left ribs. She stumbled back to her feet and came to the conclusion that Sonic had just assaulted her while she wasn’t paying attention—she had left herself as a blatantly easy target to practice upon, for sure. It was like a deer walking across the lawn of a decrepit, shot-gun toting man in a rocking chair with a can of beer at his side, and just standing in front of his rickety, old porch.



Having clambered to her feet, she was faced with a decision—to fire at Sonic before he attacked her sister, or to simply let Blackfire fend for herself. Either way, someone was going to get hurt. After a second of pondering the decision, Sonic was sent tumbling to the ground when Robin’s body collided with his, and she heard her sister’s voice speak through their radio link, unheard by anyone else.



“Sister, what are you doing? Break the glass with your cannon and steal it while we keep them distracted!”



“Y-yes! Of course!” Starfire squeaked, pointing her right arm—a shaking appendage—at the casing, which housed a series of security lasers and a mysterious set of armor. It was silver, made of strips of metal plating. Starfire stood cautiously for a few moments, struggling to keep her energy under control as it built up within the device strapped to her arm. After a few seconds, she felt like her hand was going to explode from the pressure. Constantly checking to make sure no one was approaching her and keeping her quivering arm in place, she held it with the opposite hand and flicked a small switch near the gadget’s base from ‘1’ to ‘2.’ As she finally released the mighty shot, it erupted from the barrel with tremendous force, and she had to use all of her upper body strength to keep it aligned with the target. A highly concentrated beam of green energy, no thicker than a few centimeters in diameter, whizzed through the cold, musty air and into the casing. After a couple of seconds, the glass began to crack from the intense force and shattered. Glass sprayed everywhere in an explosion, leaving many to take cover. Link shielded himself with the special equipment Cyborg had helped him produce, Tikal protected herself with her mysterious abilities in a fashion similar to Raven, and Tenochtitlan twirled her bo in rapid circles and propelled the glass shards. Mario and the Black Comet ignored the impact, letting it wash over them as they had a fist fight.



Taking the spare time she had, Starfire made a dash for the target, rushing right past Mario and Blackfire as they dueled. She could feel a fireball smash into her shoulder, leaving little damage on her armor, and she snatched the armor with both arms, much to the dismay of the Titans.



“Don’t let them get away!” she could Robin scream from the other half of the room. Her heart racing, she held the armor, which was surprisingly light, to her side, hugging it like a football. She charged through the room and readied her jetpack, praying she could maneuver herself well enough to escape. As she drew closer to her exit, she grew concerned about her sister, whose clash with Mario was proving futile.



Starfire’s eyes stayed glued to her means of escape: the vent near the ceiling in the back of the room. She heard Tikal shriek in agony, followed by a sickening ‘clang.’ She heard Luigi let loose a battle cry, and a brief explosion could be heard thereafter. She could hear Amy grunting in unison with a series of ‘twangs’ and ‘shings,’ matching the metal man’s steel body with her sword skills, no doubt. She could hear a sickening crack, followed by an unidentified groan, which was shortly followed by the sound of yet another body colliding with the wall. Starfire was horrified by the sounds, but dared not to look back and see her friends in pain. In some sick way, part of her, deep inside, felt that she should turn and watch, if only to be more disheartened by the sights, because she deserved it.



Sonic was hot on her trail as she drew seconds away to her destination, and Mario had let Blackfire go to pursue her as well. She turned her head to steal a glance at Sonic’s bruised face rushing at her, and he roared, “Get back here, Rhino-girl!” as he tackled her from behind in a dive, sending her to her stomach. As he prepared to assault her with a barrage of punches, his body was swept off by a chunk of energy from Blackfire, leaving him legs-up against the wall feet away. As Blackfire advanced to help her sister escape, Mario was blocked off when his metallic self came sliding in front of him.



“’Bout time,” Mario slyly muttered as he came to a stop. He shifted his stance to that of a street-fighter and wiped sweat from underneath his nose as his bobbed a bit, his fists at the ready.



“I like to save my favorite for last,” Metal Mario replied with sadistic glee. “Though, that hedgehog girl’s swordsmanship was a pleasant treat.”



Overhearing such dialogue gave Starfire’s brain a terrible cramp, so she ignored it and made sure the package she had been carrying was tightly secured within her hands.



“You got it?” Blackfire checked doubtfully as she sprinted onward.



“Yes,” Starfire insisted, pressing a small button on her hip to activate her jetpack. She braced herself for flight, and was rocketed into the air with tremendous stress for a second until she made a sharp turn and skidded into the air duct, scraping against the walls before turning off the device. Fortunately, she was unharmed, and the neural armor was perfectly fine.



“Get out,” Blackfire instructed calmly, her breathing slightly heavy from her running. “Don’t worry about me—just get out, I’ll be fine.” Starfire began to claw her way through the ducts, heeding her sister’s decree.



Meanwhile, Metal Mario and Mario were walking around each other in cautious circles, their arms at the draw, their stares and stances like two gunners from the old west waiting to have a shootout. Their hands glowed red as they both compressed fiery forces into their hands. The various Titans around them were either too dazed or too scared to interfere, except for Robin, who ran clear past them and flung a blue disc at the Black Comet from behind as she took to the air. It flew with ninja-like speed and accuracy, and encapsulated Blackfire’s body in ice, sending her to the ground. Robin, running at a comfortable speed, launched his grappling hook into the ceiling before him, and took off with a swing to the vent. As he soared over the Black Comet, who shattered to the ground, he pulled a few small smoke bombs from his belt and flicked them downward, drowning Blackfire in a thick, gray fog as he ascended. Rolling into the shaft, Robin doggedly followed the traces of the Red Comet. The condense chase lasted about a minute or two, until Robin came clambering out of the large vent on the rooftop. He didn’t stop to watch the frightened thief flee—with steadfast agility, he made a mad sprint for her and unleashed an outbreak of yellow frisbees that zipped through the air. One of them jolted Starfire’s right leg, while another connected with the pack on her back. Both exploded upon impact, sending the thief careening to the ground below, hundreds of feet away.



As the other bombs were set off in midair, Robin readied his grappling hook and dove from the roof to the streets below, headfirst. The vertigo he felt was an invigorating rush, his hair flapping in all directions, the only sounds heard those of air whistling by his ears and his cape rustling. He carefully aimed his hook at the corner of an apartment building nearby and fired, halfway down the building. After pulling the trigger, it gracefully flew, sinking into the stone wall with a rough bite. Robin let the directory he had set himself up for take course, swinging around the building and to the sidewalk below like a human spider might. Retracting his hook in, Robin let his feet skim the cement below, and broke into a run as soon as he had been placed on the ground. Immediately bolting for the crash site, Robin was eager and willing to send the masked culprit to jail.



A few blocks away, Starfire was moaning in pain, having just forced herself to her feet. Her head was throbbing, and she could feel pressure on her skull with every heartbeat. Holding her head in a nauseated state, she wobbled around a bit in a confused state of agony, groaning all the while. As she gradually came to, she remembered what she was doing and began to search for the item she had worked so hard to escape with. She found it on the ground a few feet away, thankfully, along with a few shattered pieces of metal of red and black. They twinkled in the light of the streetlamp above her, and they seemed familiar, but her mind was too clouded to piece it together correctly. She was blinded by a bright flash of white light—brief and intense, amplifying her headache. Shielding her face and squinting her eyes, she bent over, almost fell to her side from her dizziness, and scooped up the device that Slade had asked for. All the while, the flashes continued, and she cried out, “Please, stop,” with a whimper. Much to her relief, the bright light did, in fact, stop, for a few seconds, giving her time to limp away a few feet. Her right leg made her wince with each step, and it took a few seconds for her to remember what had happened to it.



It was at that very moment that Starfire wondered to herself, (Does every criminal feel this way? So desperate…so alone…so hated…?)



Tears were streaming down Starfire’s face, and she longed for the warmth of her home and the embrace of her friends. As she stood in the middle of the street, a quivering, crying, pathetic excuse for a thief, her head was about ready to explode with regret. If it had, it would’ve been a great relief, but a horrible mess. Starfire was determined to not let herself be caught by her ex-friend. No. That was not acceptable. She tripped on the curb of the sidewalk, and wasn’t quite able to catch herself on the way down. With a hopeless snivel, she pulled herself to her knees, her eyes tightly shut as she concentrated hard to block the pain out. Her hands squeezed the metallic abdomen fiercely and instinctively as her brain locked up.



She remembered the last time she had been embraced by Raven. She remembered sitting on a Ferris wheel with Robin at her side. She remembered all of her friends, their grinning faces, and how things were a week before. She kept spraying her mind with thoughts of her recent past and peppering it all with Raven’s face, hoping to dilute the anger, confusion, and self-hatred.



Slowly, the pain seemed to disappear, and she felt as if she was gently soaring through the clouds. However, unlike most people, Starfire actually knew what this physically felt like, and as she opened her eyes, she realized that it was true—she was far, far above Jump City, unable to pinpoint exactly where she had been before. The bitter-cold mist of the clouds she drifted too ensured that her trembling continued, but she’d rather be chilled than be spotted. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was going, nor did she care.



(I hope my sister…and my friends…are all right…)



----------


There'a bout one more scene in this Chapter, I'm thinkin'--maybe another short one after that to seal the Chapter and bring to light where the name of the Chapter comes from.

[Rae]

The theft scene was really good, and i really liked the description of what star was hearing as she left, it was visual, but not, if you get my drift...it sounded like you were actually listening to it!

Poor Star! Though she does seem to have regained her flight, which is a good thing i suppose...
I'm going to take a guess and say that Robin saw her face and that's why she didn't get captured

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

I won't say anything--I'll just wait to finish the next scene or two (hopefully will be done by tomorrow) and you can see for yourselves...er...'self,' I mean--singular. :P

And yea, in case any of you are clueless and don't get the 'Rhino-girl' comment, remember: Starfire has a HORN sticking out of her forehead! I also should revise a bit there, mentioning after she's in the sky that everything doesn't have a green veil, and that her horn doesn't feel terribly pleasant...As in, her mask shattered and her horn got bent because she landed face-first into the pavement.

And thus begins a very interesting theme that the title of this Chapter eludes to...It'll make more sense in a little bit. Stay tuned, or whatever.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Gone? As in, they don't ever come here gone? Why's that? I hardly hear from anyone anymore, but I still come here!

*sigh* Figures. I spend weeks worrying about readers that don't exist anymore. -_-'

I'm done with the Chapter, so here's the 2nd to last update.

--- ----------



“Ohhhh…” Amy groaned, leaned against the wall beside the entrance, her head bobbed down. Her palm was loosely massaging her forehead, which hadn’t experienced such pain in a while. She wasn’t quite used to being knocked around like this, at least, not recently, but that wasn’t going to stop her. Now that her head was aching, she was even more pissed than she had been before. She couldn’t deny the pleasure she had swinging her sword. She didn’t bother being amazed by her own abilities—she just fought. Grasping the hilt between her hand put her right at home, for some reason. “That ******** is ****ing dead…” she growled, much to Luigi’s surprise. Having regained enough balance to stand up, Amy took a deep breath and tightened her grip on her thin sword.



Luigi, holding an arm against the wall to help ease him to his feet, grabbed Amy by the shoulder and warned her, “You’d better stay out for a round.”



Amy blew some disheveled bangs from her eyes and glared at him, her emerald eyes twinkling with tenacity.



“Just...Let my brother have a chance, huh?” Luigi muttered, wishing for her well-being. “You got a shot before, right?”



Amy sighed and dropped her arm to her side, suddenly aware of how tired it was.



“Fine,” she mumbled calmly, keeping her gaze locked on the fight before her.



Moments after Amy’s reluctant surrender, the mysterious black girl had flew through the same tunnel that Robin had crawled into, and the two Marios were just about ready to fire things up.



“Who is he, anyway?” Amy wondered, wiping blood and sweat from her forehead and cringing as she realized how much there was.



“He’s…Metal Mario,” Luigi answered simply, not quite positive himself.



“…I figured that out, dumbass,” Amy grunted irritably, poking at a nasty bruise on her shin as she sat back down.



Something about the way these two capped warriors constantly glared at each other gave all the other Titans present the jibblies. The jibblies, of course, are a variety of goose bumps, only they cause your entire body to be stand up on end instead of just your skin. The group was paralyzed by the mystical aura that sparked between the two, and by the time their battle started, they couldn’t move an inch.



It all started in the blink of an eye as Metal Mario’s hand, dripping from the heat within his palm, was flicked up, his index finger pointing at his foe like a gun. Mario took quick action and did the same, and an exchange of shots took place, filling the air with the shocking sound of gunfire. A total of eight shots were fired, but the two had immediately rolled or jumped away from the other to avoid getting plugged full of…fire. Flaming red streaks filled the air for the few seconds that they blasted away, and the bullet trails flew dangerously close to either of them.



There were cries of surprise, and Amy screamed out, “HOLYSHITHOLYSHIT!” as she felt the intense heat of one of the bullets caress the side of her head. Stumbling away from the bullet, petrified and angry, Amy watched as Luigi inspected the smoldering spot in the wall. A glowing bullet of bright red was embedded into the steel wall, and was slowly melting the metal around it.



Having expended their rounds, the two foes, now solidly locked into combat, eagerly craved some melee blows. With movements as fluid as fluid itself, they whipped heir fists and feet at one-another, trading blows with blocks and dodges. A roundhouse kick was ducked and countered by a sweep, which was flipped over and retaliated with an upward swipe of the legs in mid-air, which was sidestepped. What would later be described by Beastboy as ‘friggin’-wicked-sweet-awesome’ continued for about thirty seconds, their limbs flying around like a scene from a good kung-fu movie to the third power. Quick and clean, their blows were executed with finesse that surprised those watching—some of them, anyway.



Booming footsteps could be heard slinking down the hallway outside toward them, so Luigi walked out to see Cyborg, Terra, and Raven. Cyborg’s brows hung over his eyes with vengeful grit, but Luigi shook his head and held out his palms in warning.



“Guys, wait a minute. My brother’s got things under control—someone else came in and escaped with the armor, so Robin took off.”



Cyborg nodded and pulled up his arm to inspect Robin’s whereabouts.



“Got it.” He turned to Raven and said solemnly with dull eyes, “Let’s go.” The two veteran Titans left, leaving Terra to poke her head into the room and join the spectators.



“Whoa,” she meekly muttered as she watched the conflict erupt before her very eyes.



Mario had finished their melee spat by jumping at Metal Mario’s head and kicking himself off, bounding into the air behind him. Metal Mario growled and whirled around, straightening his silver cap and he sprinted for his adversary, who was bolting right into a wall. The steel being, who Mario watched closely, even as he ran, pointed his fist out and launched a barrage of fireballs into the air, each one as big as his hand. Mario easily zig-zagged to let the flames crash into the wall before him, leaving partially melted craters in its surface. A second or two following the fizzing sounds of fire against metal, Mario’s feet shifted to a vertical dash as he scuttled straight up, each step propelling him higher. Metal Mario followed suit, hot on his trail. The Titans were baffled by the sight—two Marios, both running up a wall. But what was truly baffling about it was the fact that they didn’t stop at the top. They didn’t jump back off the wall and land on the ground—they kept running, right onto the ceiling. There was a dumfounded awe shared by all in attendance as the rivalry was taken to the ceiling, where they both ran as casually as they would on solid ground. About halfway across the room, upside down, Mario skidded to a stop and spun round, dropping—or rising, technically—to sweep Metal Mario’s feet from the ‘floor’ with a quick rotation of his legs, keeping his hands stuck to the ground—or rather, the ceiling—as he did so. The metal man, who was only screeching to a stop (literally), was tripped by the simple maneuver, and came falling to the ground, catching himself with his hands. No sooner had he landed and righted himself did Mario launch from the ceiling, heading like a rocket to the ground, his right fist glowing red as he reeled it back to strike.



Metal Mario didn’t have quite enough time to react, and his head was blasted by a fierce punch as Mario used his momentum to slam the silver creature into the ground. Mario had somersaulted using the motion of his punch, his feet landing on Metal Mario’s back to give him a good platform to land on. He back-flipped lightly off his foes back, shooting a few of his own fireballs as he did so, each one rushing with ravenous speed and power into Metal Mario’s back. As he landed, sliding along the floor slightly, there was a brief scratching noise of his boots against the steel ground, then silence as he waited for his adversary to rise.



“You’re a bit out of practice,” Mario noted, a tinge of disappointment in his sly remark. “Shame. I didn’t think I’d let myself slack off.”



Metal Mario rolled his head around on his neck once, cracked his knuckles, and straightened his cap.



“Guess this part of us likes to cut corners,” he muttered in amusement. By this time, Mario had already pierced the air with a sharp clap, proceeded to press his palms into the ground. The room was drowned in clean, white light for a couple seconds, and when it had all cleared, Mario stood with his destruction-bound smirk, toting a silver-colored hammer of metal over his shoulder, its head a little bigger than his own.



Amy, a little off in the distance, clenched his fist before her and muttered with satisfaction, “Yes! Hammers rule.” She was standing up now, cheering on Mario silently, inspired by the fight before her.



“Well,” Metal Mario chuckled, swing his right arm in a quick motion. In the short time it flew through the air, it shifted shape, and part of his arm became a thick blade. “You HAVE been practicing. But why not a sword?”



“Haven’t taught myself how to properly use one yet,” he admitted. “So I’ll stick with what I know, for now.”



A few of the Titans were itching to pounce on Mario’s foe, but something compelled them to stay precisely where they were as the hammer and the blade bounced off of each other in a jaw-dropping ballet of melee.



----------



Robin stared carefully at the small crater in the pavement for a few moments, but couldn’t deduce much from it, aside from the blatantly obvious—something had recently smashed into the ground. He cautiously inspected the nearby scene, and immediately caught the glimmer of a collection of metallic shards sprayed about in a radius around the site of impact.



He quickly concluded from the evidence that the assailant had landed face-first, and their mask had shattered. He also knew that whoever they were, they had managed to take such a blow better than most would, and had already escaped. There wasn’t much of a point in trying for footprints without any equipment, as there were simply too many around. Noticing a shifty man in a trench-coat leaning against a streetlamp on the sidewalk behind him, Robin inquired the man, who was reviewing a small notepad in his hands.



“Excuse me. Sir?”



The oddball didn’t reveal his eyes, keeping them hidden from beneath his brown, tipped hat.



“Did you see anything suspicious here a few minutes ago?”



The man, who was puffing at a cigar, tapped some ashes of its tip and muttered, “It’s my job to see suspicious things, kid.”



“Did you see something or not?” Robin pressed firmly, not in the mood for games. In his impatience, he gripped the man’s shoulders and slammed him into the bar. Though the man wasn’t shaken by this action, he spoke.



“I saw some…THING…crash right there in the street.”



“What did it look like?” Robin inquired rigidly.



“Had a crooked horn growin’ out of its head…Pointy ears…”



“Where did they go?” Robin questioned calmly, loosening his grip. The man took his chance and shoved the Titan off of him brusquely. After dusting his arms, he shrugged his head to a dark alley across the road.



“They went that way,” he mumbled. “Last I seen of ‘em.”



Something about this guy disabled Robin from feeling guilty for roughing him up a bit. Robin couldn’t place it, but the man freaked him out, sending goose bumps down his spine. Without giving the mysterious man a ‘thank-you,’ Robin darted for the alleyway, hoping to follow a trail to the culprit; however, his options quickly ran out. Though there were signs that someone had recently been there, they seemed to stop abruptly. It was as if the person had just…vanished. Perturbed beyond words, Robin knew that they had failed, and wondered what he was going to have to deal with in a few hours.



----------

[Rae]

I loved that fight scene! It was ‘friggin’-wicked-sweet-awesome’I'm curious as to who that man is aswell, for some reason i think Slade, but i also think that's really wrong

AS for why people haven't been reading this, well Crowgirl is away at the moment, which would explain why she hasn't been replying, but as for the others, i'm not sure....Though Raven54 hasn't been seen for ages and neither has Reid (oneeyemonkeypie)

Hope that helps a bit

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

oneeyemonkeypie?

Oh, God, please don't remind me of him. I guess you weren't one of the ones clued in on how insensitive he was. Maybe he got scared off, or maybe he just got tired.

Anyway, that mysterious guy on the street...Not as important as I make him seem. Believe me, he has a role that does drasticaly affect something--maybe you'll figure it out--but he himself will never show up again, I don't think.

Kinda like 'me.'

Anyway, if you think runnin' around on ceilings is weird, Mario willm of course, explain that phenomenon later on. I've actually invested a good amount of time over the past year thinking about how 'everything' works as a whole, including 'souls,' and 'magic' and this sort of thing, and I've borrowed concepts from multiple places and sort of glued them with my own little touches to make up a coherent system of explanations for things like this.

Of course, just because there's a rule that explains how Mario can walk on a ceiling, it doesn't mean there is a rule that can explain EVERYTHING.

That's part of the whole concept of 'The X Factor,' isn't it? Well, sort of.

Well, I've been on the net for 4 hours straight, and I have nothing to do now. Sooooo...Bye.

[Pookey]

woah that was great..well great isnt the word im lookng for, somethign w/ more depth hmm well when i think of it ill let ya know b/c it was amazing! the fight scences were freckin sweet, gives me insperation to write more action...althought mine suxs BUT thats not the point...point being awesome writing! srry hanvent been here aewile repling, i do apologize, its not htat i dont like the fic b/c i love it im behind everywhere -sweatdrop- great updates! great writign! keep it up and im out -runs waving-

[Destiny_Smasher]

Well, thanks for at least stopping by, Pookey. Every little bit helps.

Without further rambling, the dramatic conclusion to Chapter 16: Breaking the Habit.

----------



“Where are we going with this?” Mario asked, having just thrown his opponent back with a heavy slam to the gut. The thundering clang of his hammer against his adversary’s body jolted the entire room, rumbling eardrums. “Why are you here?”



“You KNOW why I’m here…” Metal Mario growled. “The same reason you are.”



“Why are you HERE?” Mario repeated, stressing to ensure the meaning got through. “Why in this building--right now? What do ya want?”



Metal Mario scratched at his sideburn and grumbled, “You haven’t figured it out? What do you THINK I want?”



“…” Mario knew the answer, but he was curious as to whether there something extra attached to it.



“You’re a little outnumbered…” Mario noted, tempering his hammer’s chipped edges with his alchemic abilities.



“Ha!” Metal Mario laughed, finding the comment to be a crude joke. “That hasn’t stopped me thus far…I’ll just have to go one at a time, hm?” He scanned the room for a victim, his colorless eyes twinkling devilishly.



While his back was turned from her, Amy, who had grown rather impatient and very sick of watching, bolted toward Metal Mario, her sword at the ready to slice at his neck. However, Metal Mario didn’t need to see or hear her coming to feel it, and he flipped sideways through the air in her direction, flying over her head as she swung where he had just been standing—a clean, majestic sweep through the air. As he came back down, he grabbed both of her wrists with his icy hands and swung into her back, slamming her face-first into the ground. Crushing her back with one foot, he dropped her free hand to the ground, pinning it down with his other boot. Before she could react, he sunk his fingers into her hair and pulled her head up, forcing her own sword to her throat. This all happened within the span of a couple of seconds, leaving Mario inches away, at the ready to strike, but knowing what a mistake it could prove to be.



The tense air in the room had thickened in the blink of an eye, and everyone was paralyzed by the situation.



(****!) Amy roared at herself within her mind. (Nice, you ****ing IDIOT!) She couldn’t say a word, though, her eyes watering from the pain of being crushed by the heavy weight upon her and having her hair about to be ripped from her skull. Her tightly squinted eyes were dripping wet, and she whimpered in agony, her teeth clenched. She realized that if she so much as swallowed the wrong way, she’d be bleeding, based on the pressure of the blade against her neck. Her body trembled uncontrollably, and Metal Mario chuckled sinisterly at her desperation.



Mario glared at his satisfaction with disgust, sweat dripping down his face as he stood feet away, a flaming ball in his fist.



“Ya know, I’d really hate to clip such a pretty little rose,” he sneered, his tone peppered with threat. “But if I have to, I’ll cut this little wildflower to get a bouquet.”



He stared at Mario expectantly, awaiting the capped-crusader’s choice. He slowly dropped his arm, the fire dissipating.



“You *******…” Mario growled. “You’ve reached a new low, you know that?”



“Desperate times call for desperate measures, my friend.”



Mario glanced about the room at all the wide-eyed faces for a few moments, a blanket of frigid silence covering every body. He could see Sonic twitching, just dying to fly in and pulverize the guy, but he warned Sonic with a solid stare and a slight shake of the head, trying to settle him down. As he turned to his brother, whose expression was solemn and contrite, he received a nod.



“So what’ll it be, partner?” Metal Mario asked, holding his position. Mario watched Amy struggle to keep the pain from getting the best of her, and seemed to be succeeding, for the moment.



“We’re not partners,” he grimly corrected, looking back up.



“Is that so…?” Metal Mario snickered, letting the subject go. He shook his head. “I really don’t see why you’re making such a hassle of this. So what if I kill this girl?” He jerked her head around a bit, and she cried out in surprise and fear, grateful that her neck was still intact. “You know just as well as I what would happen, don’t you?”



Mario nodded in dire agreement, his hands twitching.



“She’d turn out just fine,” Metal Mario laughed. “A bit…disoriented, perhaps…” he added with a touch of twisted humor. “A little more…sedated, maybe…”



“Shut up,” Mario snapped bitterly. “Playtime’s over. What do you want?”



“What I want?” Metal Mario checked. “Or what WE want? If I had it my way, I’d have chopped this fragile little head off some time ago. But, you see, that wouldn’t fly too well back at HQ, unless I had something to show for it.” He nodded thoughtfully for a moment and boldly declared, “I think the real question here is what YOU want…”



“What are you saying?” asked Mario cautiously. “You tryin’ to strike a deal with me? That it?”



Metal Mario tilted his head to the side, his eyelids half closed and his brows raised. “There’s an idea…”



Mario’s fists were quaking in frustration. “**** any ‘ideas’ you’ve got,” he dismissed bluntly, his brows furrowed. He shot a quick glance at Luigi, who had a gritty expression, his hands glowing neon green.



Before any more dialogue could be exchanged, Metal Mario caught sight of a blue blur rushing at him from his left, and took immediate action, dropping Amy’s head and shooting a rapid-fire series of molten metal orbs at the spiky-haired teen. Amy felt the blade cut her neck slightly, and she forced her neck up as far as she could muster. The sword, which was still in her own hand, though firmly squeezed inside a metallic one, began to sink, much to her relief, and as Sonic came skidding face-first into the floor, Mario nailed his metal counterpart in the head and pried Amy’s light body from underneath in a fierce jerk, causing him to stumble over on his back. He nimbly rebounded to his feet, eager to strike Mario while he had Amy slung over his shoulder, but was caught off guard as Luigi sent a stream of green electricity through the ground and into his feet. The charge shot up through his body, causing him to jolt erratically for a second of two. In that single moment, every Titan in the room took arms against the bizarre being before them. As a flurry of blows was dealt, Mario leaned Amy against a wall.



The girl coughed violently a couple times, holding her neck with her hand as blood trickled out. No sooner had she been set down on the ground did she feel a sharp slap hit her in the back of the head. She flinched violently, thoroughly shaken by the event that had just occurred. Upon realizing that Mario had just smacked her upside the head, her hoarse voice hissed out indignantly, “What the hell?!”



“You’re damned RIGHT, ‘what the hell!’” Mario growled at her, his eyes burning with anger. She couldn’t remember having ever seen him with such fury in his eyes. “What the hell were you THINKING?” he ‘corrected.’ “That was ****in’ stupidity, you know that?”



Amy wasn’t settling on shutting up and taking the harassment, as much as she agreed that her actions were foolish, so she defended herself with a harsh tone.



“I don’t need you telling me—”



“I don’t need you getting KILLED!” Mario snarled, ignoring the violence behind him, his tone much harsher than hers. “Don’t you EVER do something that ****ing STUPID again!” he roared. Despite her fierce eyes and sour frown, she cringed with every syllable he stressed. “You got it?”



“Yea!” she barked back in an edgy croak.



Mario sighed as he noticed the continuing stream of blood that dribbled through her fingers and down her neck. She was still shaking wildly, as if her whole body had been in an freezer. Her cheeks were wet, her eyes glazed, her puffy hair was wildly scruffy, and her clothes had traces of blood on them from various cuts and bruises she had collected. That wasn’t to say that her fellows looked much better, of course.



Metal Mario’s duel with his polar opposite, combined with the ambush he had just experienced, left him lacking the strength required to defend himself properly, and he fled the room within a minute or two. He’d have to regroup and recalculate his strategy. He still had some trump cards up his sleeve, and was sure that he had the time to pull them out. It was all a matter of when and where, but he was certainly not giving up yet. Mario knew this, and had concluded long ago that getting rid of his opposite self would prove to be as easy as getting rid of his own shadow.



----------



Starfire had been soaring for a couple of minutes, merely wandering through the skies in a daze, when bright blue flashes of light came from beneath the clouds. They were distinctly familiar—she linked them to Cyborg’s sonic cannon. She couldn’t help but wonder why Cyborg would be--…



In a quick decision, she steered around and headed for the lights, staying safely within the misty clouds. She searched in desperation for her sibling, who she was sure was heading up. Starfire suddenly remembered that the two had a tracking system built into their suits so they could locate each other, so she lefted up her left arm and pressed a small button on the underside to reveal a tiny screen with a radar. There was a red dot in the middle, and a faint purple dot that was gradually growing fuller in color. Based on her readings, Starfire came to the conclusion that Blackfire wasn’t very far off, and decided to stay within the copious cover of the dense clouds and wait for the Black Comet to find her.



A minute and a half passed, and, sure enough, the silhouette of Blackfire was speeding through the dark clouds, cutting through them with brisk impatience.



“GO!” she bellowed, and Starfire sprung into action in response, rushing as fast as she could away from where Blackfire had entered. Thirty solid seconds of breakneck flight passed, the freezing vapors splitting as Starfire dashed through them. Icy droplets stuck to her face and wet her hair. They stung at her eyes, though she squinted them to prevent this with some success. Slowing to a stop, she paused for a few seconds, and Blackfire emerged from the thick condensation behind her.



“You have it, right?” Blackfire checked, though Star still only heard this through the small radio piece lodged in her left ear. She nodded, and presented the soaking wet armor. “All right.” Blackfire’s serious tone simmered into content relief. “Good job, Sister.” As the two popped out above the clouds, the mystical moonlight bathed them, and all they could see was the stars above, and clouds and ocean below. Blackfire removed her mask and toted it along in her underarm as they drifted in the cold air, the sun peaking up over the horizon.



Blackfire suddenly noticed that her sister had small amounts of blood dripping from her forehead, but it seemed to have been frozen by the nippy air. It originated from the base of the horn on her head, which, to Blackfire’s surprise, was slightly bent. She immediately closed in to inspect it, a gasp spilling out.



“What happened?” she demanded in shock.



“…Nothing…”



Starfire let her sister gently probe her head to make sure that she was all right. She carefully wiggled the horn a bit, which seemed oddly loose, but Starfire didn’t make a sound.



“That doesn’t hurt…?” the Black sister asked, confused.



“…No…” the Red sister replied dully.



Leaving the oddity alone, Blackfire noticed that the rocket pack, as well as Star’s mask, were missing, and she pieced things together.



“You crashed, didn’t you?” she murmured with regret. She came out this mess perfectly fine, but she had been deadest on seeing her little sister do the same. Disappointed with herself, Blackfire felt her guts shrivel up with guilt, a feeling she didn’t have all too often. “But you’re all right?” she double-checked.



“I’m fine,” the hostile thief insisted



“I’m sorry,” Blackfire quickly mumbled, tossing the words out as fast and painlessly as possible. “I thought you’d make it out OK…”



“No, I did not...” Starfire informed firmly. With a dark tone, she added, “Because Robin is more determined to catch criminals than he is to help his friends.”



Blackfire had a good hunch that she shouldn’t remark, because she hadn’t seen her sister possess such a grim fury ever since they had parted ways on Earth.

“This is a bad habit that must be broken…” Starfire decided with resolute confidence. “Not all criminals are the same, and I do not think Robin realizes this…Some must be treated with mercy, while others must be punished severely…But Robin does not ponder this: to him, a criminal is a criminal, no matter what their purpose may be.”

Starfire left the conversation at that, wet brows furrowed, her soaked hair flapping in the whistling air, her emerald eyes admitting defeat, but determined to fight again. She completely ignored the frightened look on her sibling's face. Blackfire was unnerved by the tenacious words she was hearing.

(I must break this habit of his…before it destroys both of us...)

~[<+--\-<*>-/--+>]~

End Transmission

{\+<--/-<*>-\-->+/}

[Rae]

Everyone's getting a bit touchy...Mario about Amy (though she probably deserved it) and Star about Robin (though he definately deserved it)

But I'm liking this loads! Especially the way everything's going wrong for the good guys, coz the bad guys never win

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

Yea, that's the first time I've ever written Mario pissed at someone who's not a bad-guy, and he has every right to tell her she's a moron.

I wouldn't worry about Amy, though. Starfire and Robin...those are the ones to worry about...-_-'

[Destiny_Smasher]

<-{--[ Begin Transmission ]--}->



The Destinia Saga...



Winds of Fate: The X Factor



Chapter 17- Boulevard of Broken Dreams



Dead. Dark. Quiet. Frightfully quiet. It was ten in the morning, and the tower felt like a morgue—bodies resting in peace in their coffins throughout. After a frustrating defeat, the Titans had slunk back to their home, defeated, dejected, and aching. The aching part was emphasized, as Metal Mario had proved to be quite a tricky opponent, being Mario’s polar opposite and all. Everyone had turned out fine, which was a relief—well, fine being defined as ‘not dead,’ anyway. The more Raven dwelled on the matter, the higher her regret rose—Amy could’ve been killed, and she could’ve stopped it. Mario had assured her that there was nothing she could have done, but she wasn’t so sure she believed him. What did he know, anyway? He was some pizza waiter…that happened to be able to move like a ninja…and shoot fire from his hands…and, well, jump stories high in a single bound…OK, so he was a superhero, too. And, well, sure, MAYBE he just happened to understand this villain a little better than she did. But that still didn’t give him the right to tell her she couldn’t have helped. Had Raven seen Mario running around on the ceiling, shooting flaming bullets from his fingers, and swinging his fists and feet with a furious wrath unmatched by any of the other Titans within the tower, Raven might not have thought this way. However, she HADN’T seen those things. So, she was allowed to have her biased opinion, one could conclude.



Robin certainly seemed to have his own opinion on things lately, and expressed it with blatant disregard to anyone else’s feelings. At least, that’s how Raven felt about it, being a teenager with just as many hormonal imbalances as he, if not more. Superpowers plus adolescent hormones equaled an emotionally unstable explosion waiting to happen. Raven was a little worried that all of this unhinged tension would soon crumble the tower apart from the base. Crumble wasn’t the right word, though—more like...spontaneously combust. Much better. Then again, it didn’t matter how it was phrased—if something wasn’t done, the team could be proper ****ed, from the inside out. With adamant resolve, Raven was determined to do one of two things today: force Robin and Starfire to sit and discuss their differences, whether she had to duct tape them to chairs or not, OR, just do things the old-fashioned way by taking Robin outside and beating the **** out of him. Perhaps the second approach was a bit too forthright? Nah. He deserved it.



Eager to open a can of whup-ass on her own leader, Raven had started the day before anyone else had, her stomach growling for breakfast, and her rebellious attitude seeking some relief. She had decided to do what she always liked to do in the morning: drift through the tower in a drowsy stupor and fetch the mail.



SOMONE had to wake up at a decent hour if they going to pass themselves off as a team of superheroes, right? Of course! How could you pass yourself off as a team of crime-busting icons if everyone slept in? Did Batman sleep in? Um, NO, he didn’t. That was one thing that made him Batman. Then again…he was…BATMAN…and they were…TEENAGERS…Hmm…No, no. Someone still had to wake up before noon, at least, if only to make tax-payers happy. Raven had decided that she could do without some sleep today, anyway—it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially since she wasn’t able to get much of it that night. Something had kept jabbing at her brain like a little kid constantly asking her questions. Only, they weren’t questions like, “Where do babies come from?” or “How does Santa get around the world so fast?” No, no…They were questions like, “Why is Robin being such an *******?” “How have I changed so much?” “Why has STARFIRE changed so much?” “What can I do to end this ****?” But there was one that sort of lay entrenched in the back of her head all night, like some stubborn, old dog—it’d stay hidden in its doghouse, come out, crap, and go back in. Yea, that’s what it felt like—having dog crap dumped in her cerebral cortex every here and there. And this wasn’t any dog crap, either. We’re talkin’ about a friggin’ Great Dane dump. Mm-hm. And every foot-tall dump in her head, sprawled across her brain like a minefield now, had a question written on it: “What if Starfire leaves?”



Over and over and over and over, and a few extra times, for good measure, she asked herself that question. It kept coming back and back, for reasons she couldn’t determine, but she’d always ignore it, if only because she really didn’t want to answer that question. Nope. Wasn’t gonna even ponder the possibility, because Starfire would never be that stupid. Getting plastered on one-hundred-proof berry juice from another planet, stalking around in one of Raven’s cloaks, and muttering insults in drunken Tamaranian…She could distinctly remember her saying something that sounded vaguely like, “Tomato-crank-blogged-the-frothy-worm,” but…Anyway, Starfire would never do something like that.



And, you know, it was the damnedest thing: she HAD.



And Raven would never, in a million years, smile at will, express her emotions openly, get jealous over a boy, apologize for getting jealous over a boy, get her hair braided, let an absent-minded girl read her books, wear a lavender hoodie and blue sneakers, cry openly in front of her roommates, or show so much concern for the well-being of her friends. And she would certainly not let them know how much she appreciated them.



Heheh. Yea, damnedest thing: she HAD.



So, with questions crawling around her brain and burrowing tunnels in it like ants, she journeyed forth to retrieve yonder post. The newspaper would help her flex that brain into doing something besides worrying. Yea, it’d get a nice, good ol’ workout doing bench-presses with the word search and pull-ups on a crossword puzzle.



After a while of drifting through the bleak, dreary hallway, Raven was growing nervous from all the silence. It wasn’t natural—not in this place. This deadly silence reminded her of her past, and she avoided that like a plague, which, more or less, it was. This eerie tranquility reminded her of who she used to be, and who she didn’t want to be anymore—floating around in nothingness to erase her emotions. It was like a nightmare she just couldn’t shake off. Reaching the front door of the tower, Raven was relieved that her mind could be averted to different matters. The mail: that would clear her head, refresh her mood, and give her something to distract her doubt. If her brain was, in fact, like some old dog, then the newspaper would be like a big, juicy steak for it.



Raven finally reached the defining moment of her journey: the mailbox. Only, it wasn’t really a box, per say, but more like a compartment in front of the building. Letters and the like were sent through an intricate tubing system that ran from a local post office to this small area embedded in the front wall of the tower. Not only did this take away the long walk up the ‘driveway’ to the mailbox, it saved a mailman one hell of a trip. Ah, laziness—what was federal funding for?



Like a zombie, Raven scooped up the mail that had arrived earlier that morning, clawing at it with sluggish motions. Wow. She didn’t realize she was this tired. Grr. Geh. Come on…There we go. Dumb fingers, they didn’t want to exert the pathetic force required to pick up the cursed paper, but she managed. Sure, sure, powers, magic, blabla—but she had to stop using them all the time, or she’d have her limbs lost from atrophy.



There wasn’t much that morning: two letters, and the newspaper. But, oh, the newspaper! Yum. Crossword puzzles, here she came. With a small cup of tea levitating beside her (it had been following her like a little kitten), she held the mail in her underarm and rubbed sand from her eyes as she plopped down at a coffee table nearby, settling into the slightly uncomfortable chair of gray. Couldn’t they afford better chairs? They had this complex system for sending mail, but their chairs sucked royal. What the hell? And damn, was she in the mood for cursing up a storm this morning. That didn’t happen too much, did it? Oh, ****, what did she care? She was pissed, and that was all there to it. Getting two hours of sleep out of fourty-eight…not so good. Gah, maybe that was over exaggerating a little…OK, OK, it was more like six out of forty-eight. STILL…that was just…not so good at all.



She used her powers to slowly set the objects she had carried on the table before her, giving her the opportunity to stretch and yawn a lion’s yawn. Whoa, was she tired. Why was she out of bed, again? Oh, right…Because for some damned reason, she’d decided to be ‘noble’ and wake up before everyone else. She wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to make breakfast properly, especially in such a lethargic state. Ah, screw breakfast. She’d let Cyborg or Luigi do that. Besides, she wasn’t a terribly good chef as it was. That, and she was way too grouchy to eat.



The first of the two letters was from none other than Bruce Wayne, the wealthy man that owned the building the Titans had tried to keep secure the night before. Bruce Wayne…had they met? No, she didn’t recall meeting him in person. But damn, was he cute. He had ripped arms, and strong, adept hands, not to mention his marvelous chin and intense eyes. Whoo! Chills just thinking about that—yea, waking up a little bit now.



But, Raven wasn’t sure whether she should open this letter or not for the moment, and quickly decided that Robin would throw some kind of fit if she did. Sure, it’d be a serious, solemn fit, but she didn’t want to deal with it right now, because she’d probably kick him in the crotch. The second letter, however, had no return address on it, and Raven found this quite suspicious. Curiosity took over, and she concluded that waking up at this unholy hour entitled her to open it. Of course it did. She had to get SOMETHING out of thus crappy deal. Now all she had to do was get the letter out of the envelope.



Uuugghhh…



Yep. Any second now…yea. Gonna just…open the letter, and get on with the day. Uh-huh. Yea. All right. Here we go…



(Why am I awake, again? Like, right now? Why? How did I get forced into this? And why do I continue to stay awake?)



She shouldn’t be using her powers so much, because she really needed some more physical exercise these days. But, damn, did she not give a crap about that at ALL anymore. Waving her arm with what little energy was in it, she ripped the envelope open with her powers, causing a flash of light to engulf the paper as it was neatly torn. A small note floated out with grace, and Raven grasped it in her hands as she scanned the typed words.



“We’re watching you.”



That was it. That was all it said. Something about those three simple words gave Raven a terrible chill that rushed down her spine. Well, she was awake, now, for sure. Disturbed—very disturbed—but awake. She dropped the letter to the small coffee table as if it were infected, and stared at it for a few seconds. Dirty, nasty, infected paper, it was, and if she stared at it any longer, she’d start to think horrible thoughts of snipers sitting upon the structures of the big bridge that passed over the bay behind their tower, aiming their rifles at their heads. They’d walk outside, then BLAM! Her mind now unstable and uneasy, she grabbed the newspaper, now hoping to drown the unnerving tingling sensation in her head that had replaced the shaky doubt. Groping for the paper, she groaned, and decided to do things the lazy way yet again. It wasn’t even a decision at this point, so much as an instinct. The sharp-colored, crisp set of papers hovered before her, a thin layer of white encasing it. The paper unfolded itself neatly, revealing the front.



Raven stared at the first page for a few moments with wide eyes, immediately captured by the headline: “Mutant Thief Outsmarts Titans.” She had quickly jumped from the words to the photograph printed below it, as that was the thing that really caught her attention. This wasn’t a steak to feed that old dog in her brain—this was a friggin’ dog catcher, only he used a shotgun instead of a net. She couldn’t remove her gaze from that photo, captivated by the raw image of desperation it portrayed. It didn’t make any sense…No. That wasn’t right. Of course it wasn’t right. It was impossible. Yes. That couldn’t be Starfire, because Starfire was upstairs in her room, and she had been there all night, and the entire day before that…Right?



Damnedest thing…



The newspaper flew through the stiff morning air, falling apart as it drifted to the floor in a disheveled pile of black and white.

----------

[Rae]

Uh oh...The titans have been threatened and Starfire was caught on camera....and all this before they've even woken up yet

That was cool, and i really liked Raven's attitude towards Robin, it was hilarious!

Look forward to the next update

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

Great morning, eh? Wonderful morning.

Of course, the only one that knows about Star's weird transformation is Raven...

Anyway, here's a few little pieces put right next to each other, just in case you don't piece them together:
---
She was blinded by a bright flash of white light—brief and intense, amplifying her headache. Shielding her face and squinting her eyes, she bent over, almost fell to her side from her dizziness, and scooped up the device that Slade had asked for. All the while, the flashes continued, and she cried out, “Please, stop,” with a whimper. Much to her relief, the bright light did, in fact, stop, for a few seconds, giving her time to limp away a few feet.
---
He quickly concluded from the evidence that the assailant had landed face-first, and their mask had shattered. He also knew that whoever they were, they had managed to take such a blow better than most would, and had already escaped. There wasn’t much of a point in trying for footprints without any equipment, as there were simply too many around. Noticing a shifty man in a trench-coat leaning against a streetlamp on the sidewalk behind him, Robin inquired the man, who was reviewing a small notepad in his hands.

“Excuse me. Sir?”

The oddball didn’t reveal his eyes, keeping them hidden from beneath his brown, tipped hat.

“Did you see anything suspicious here a few minutes ago?”

The man, who was puffing at a cigar, tapped some ashes of its tip and muttered, “It’s my job to see suspicious things, kid.”
---
Raven stared at the front page for a few moments with wide eyes, immediately captured by the headline: “Mutant Thief Outsmarts Titans.” She had quickly jumped from the words to the photograph printed below it, as that was the thing that really caught her attention.
---

So, maybe now those little things clicked togther, right? I hope? (For Din's sake, I hope so.)

Anyway, did the beginning of this Chapter seem different? I mean, in the way it was presented. Like, did the styl feel different in any way? I'm trying to work on my writing style, since I've been reading my best friend's work, and it's friggin' GOOD, and I don't like that mine isn't as good as it could be.

I need to work more on describing things besides exactly what's going on and what people are saying. I can't quite phrase it, but there's something missing, and I'm working on filling it in. That last update was a step in the direction I'm looking for, I think.

[Rae]

Yeah, as soo as you mentioned the flashing lights again, i put two and three together to get six...no...i mean five

Anyway, yeah i did notice that the beginning was a bit different, but it's a good different!

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

It should be even more different now. I just revised it, quite a bit, so please take another look at the THIRD version of that single scene, and tell me if it's even better than it was before.

I think I like that style right there. I need to have my friend read it, so I can see what he thinks of it.

[Rae]

That wass cool! I loved the sarcy bits with Batman and then all those things that Raven would never do, but had, it was hilarious!

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat: Thanks...Ehhh...Yea, so, you're about the only one reading this right now,clearly.

Well, check it out. I'm paying one of my best friends to draw the 7 X-Factor Titans for me. This is the only fully finished one so far, and if it's any indication, they're gonna look sharp. 4 are already drawn, meaning there's 3 left to draw and 6 left to color. I'll post them up one by one as they get finished.

Picture (http://img314.imageshack.us/img314/1952/linkx9ax.jpg)

Yea, definitely happy, don't you think?

[Faethie]

Sorry i havent replied in awhile.

Nice chapters!!!!

Nice pic of link, too.

[Pookey]

sweet pic and great ch! wanted to let ya know of that, next time i drop by ill leave a longer post, gotta run somewhere but wanted to let a know that its a kick ass ch! and i like the pic!!

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat: Oh, uh, thanks. Yea, the pic is really nice, and I hope that my friend can get another one done soon.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Well, well. My friend finished another last night. This one has more flaws than the last one, but this picture is also more complicated.
I shouldn't be complaining, anyway, since he's doing these for me, and I'm only paying him, like, $2 per pic. You can notice the cool texture he added to the skirt, to make it look like it was denim. If you look close, you can see the waves in the texture, too.

Picture (http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/9929/tikalx5lm.jpg)

[Faethie]

Nice pic. yeah, I did notice some flaws, but the texture and posititon was really nice!:)

[Destiny_Smasher]

Yea, it's still pretty good, for sure.Can't wait to see how the final 3 turn out--they're not even drawn yet.

[Destiny_Smasher]

It's a shame there's no one around to read my new style, but...Oh, well.

Que sera, sera, I guess.

----------



Dead. Dark. Quiet. Frightfully quiet. That’s what the tower had been for some time, until Raven came tearing through walls like a missile, murmuring words inaudible to those around her. Upon hearing the conversation she had with herself, most would question her social skills and deem her unfit to live a ‘normal’ life. During the course of the thirty seconds it took the Titan to rocket herself from the front door of the tower to Starfire’s bedroom, she rambled to herself constantly. The word ‘no’ seemed to pop up dreadfully often in this exchange of dialogue. It wasn’t so much of an exchange of words—rather, it was a petrified release. The phrase ‘she wouldn’t’ was moaned rather often, as well, but ‘no’ was most definitely the favorite.



“No…No, no, no…She wouldn’t…No. How could she? WHY? No, no, she WOULDN’T…”



The words, packed with dissatisfaction, seemed to keep coming and coming, like an automated assembly line processing cheese. There was no thought put into them—they just came flying out with by bizarre, mechanical instinct as Raven struggled to rationalize the events that had transpired the day before. Clicking all the pieces together was incredibly difficult when some pieces were missing—making sense of the incomplete puzzle was even more tedious. Like a computer scanning for files that weren’t on its hard drive, Raven kept trying to explain to herself what had happened and why.



Scanning drive for required files: System error.

Scanning drive for required files: System error.

Scanning drive for required files: System error.



The process repeated itself a seemingly infinite number of times over those thirty seconds, which was quite feasible when taking into consideration the fact that the average brain can make millions of calculations within that time span. And then, in the instant when she reached Starfire’s door, everything finally froze up.



File does not exist.



It took a few seconds, but Raven managed to convince herself that there was an explanation—she just didn’t know everything yet. For all she knew, Starfire was still in her room. Yes, of course. How could she jump to conclusions like that? Starfire would still be in her room, craving love and support, and Raven would flood her with it forever and ever until everything was all better, and then they’d go have some Fairy Perry’s ice cream. Her mind deluded with fabricated hopes, Raven didn’t think to enter the door with her powers—she entered the access code as she remembered it: 07734. The cold, steel door slid open with the fluid grace of a toaster popping out toast, and Raven dashed in like a member of a SWAT team, inspecting every corner of the dark chamber with methodical movements.



Opening Best_Friend.exe…

…

The required data could not be found.

This file appears to be damaged.

System Error.



The systematic search for life computed an end result: there was a .03 percent chance that Starfire was in the room. The .03 percent could be reached by taking into account the slight possibility of her body having been burned to ashes, thus serving as fertilizer for the potted Whapzar Ingerblot that was sitting on Starfire’s dresser. Though a horribly common breed of Ingerblot, the Whapzar was adorable, nonetheless, with its bitty little razor teeth and bloodshot eyeball. However, Raven concluded that the scenario of Starfire hiding within the potted soil of this plant was very, very unlikely, if not slightly questionable.



Other rooms. She could be in another room. She could be ANYWHERE in the tower, and anywhere was a pretty big place to look. However, before her panic could fuel another search, there was something—a few somethings—on Starfire’s tidy, inviting bed that grabbed her attention, held it in a chokehold, then hogtied it and kicked it for good measure. A blue cloak, creased into a rectangle, a purple CD in a clear case, and a folded up square of paper with the word, ‘Raven’ scribbled in cursive upon its crinkled surface--these three items were each inspected with the care and curiosity of a scientist, though Raven hardly touched them. She didn’t need to even read the letter to have confirmation that Starfire was no longer residing in Titan Tower.



It was at this moment that Raven’s core processor kind of sputtered and choked, and every little component of her reality was sucked into a standstill moment of tense silence. Programs were being shut down all over the place, until an abrupt message popped onto the computer screen of her brain. It read as follows:



Flagrant System Error.

Computer over.

Virus = very yes.



There was an unmeasured period of time—perhaps five seconds, perhaps five minutes—when Raven was oblivious to the world around her as she had her systems reboot. She found herself in a daze, sprawled over Starfire’s bed, her legs dangling over the edge. She moaned and sat up, regaining her bearings as quickly as possible.



Describing exactly what went through her mind at that point would be very difficult, but could be summed up by explaining the throbbing pulses of anguish that coursed through her in waves, the jolts of guilt and self-hatred that steadily shocked her like a stun gun, and the frustration and regret that clung to every cranny of her frontal lobes.



Fierce claws of desperation clutched her heart tightly, threatening to squeeze it like a balloon until it popped, but they were soon driven away by a little crow—a four-eyed, sinister-looking crow. This monstrosity was given good company as about thirty more of its feathered, red-eyed brethren erupted from Raven’s cerebellum. They began to prance all over her poor, battered brain, chanting like savage natives around a bonfire.



Robin. Robin. Robin.



----------

[Destiny_Smasher]

What up with this, man? You know how late I stayed up writing that last update?

*sigh*

Que sera, sera.

Sonic is finished--but I can't seem to get him uploaded right now. I'll have a pic of him up soon...like, within the next few days soon...

See, I have a job now.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Yea, three posts in a row...?

Anybody here anymore?

Guess not. :sad:

At any rate...Thanks to ImageShack yet again for hosting these, as well as any other pics I upload to the net...

Picture (http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/7061/sonicx2small1wt.jpg)


Wow...That's uh, really big...No wonder I couldn't upload it before...(This is half the size of the original...)

Well, whatever. How's he look? My friend insisted that he say that silly little quote, which is fine and good.

I need to get him to draw the last three real soon...

[Destiny_Smasher]

Well, no one seems to be AROUND, but I DID happen to finish a scene last night, for what it's worth. If you check out the end of the last scene and the beginning of this one, you may notice a more unique transition that usual.

Nothing big here, but trust me, it's coming.

----------



“Robin…Robin! ROBIN!”



A disinclining groan spilled from the young man’s mouth as he turned in his bed like a bear trying to hide from spring. His mind wasn’t awake enough to send the message to his arms to reach out and whack the metallic man who glowered down at him with dulled annoyance. However, Robin’s brain did make an attempt, which resulted in his arm flopping over the side of the bed and hanging limp afterward.



“It’s eleven in the morning, Rob,” Cyborg grumbled, pinching Robin’s shoulder with his hand and mechanically lifting him onto his feet, a distasteful glaze over his eye. “Come on, man, get up.”



Robin’s legs instinctively held him up in place, though this wasn’t saying much. His mind was as clear as tomato soup as his eyelids were gradually lifted up high enough to kind of make out the fuzzy Cyborg that towered over him. He attempted to speak, but nothing discernable came out. Whatever he had lazily pushed out of his lips, it hadn’t been words, that was for sure. Cyborg jolted the barely conscious boy, jerking him back and forth a few times by the shoulders. So much for him being the early bird…



“Mmmeh?” he drooled out. It wasn’t translatable, but it was at least SOME kind of speech—a step in the right direction, if anything. Cyborg’s partially robotic mouth let a wholly human sigh of impatience spill into the rusty morning air of Robin’s bed room.



“Yo, Robin,” he spoke, his tone as soft as concrete. “When you’re awake, come downstairs, a’ight?” There was a dim-witted pause, then a couple of slow, thoughtless blinks, and Cyborg threw in the towel. Tossing his arms in the air in a swift and apathetic motion, he groaned irritably.



Leaving the Titan leader to his own devices (which were more like primitive tools than devices at the time), Cyborg exited the room with the same casual air that he had entered, and went straight down the hall to his own room. By now, he was sure that everyone was awake, besides Robin, of course.



Although…Raven hadn’t been in her room when he checked. But, then again, there hadn’t been any signs of Star being in HER room, either. This wasn’t peculiar, really. Yea, Raven had probably managed to get Starfire out and had taken her off somewhere. At least Star hadn’t had to go through all of the crap from last night…Which reminded him: his main man Mario had some explaining to do. He had a LOT of explaining to do. The next thing he knew, that guy would be goin’ all ninja, doin’ all that ninjutsu crap—kung fu, duplicatin’ himself, doin’ that disappear-get-replaced-by-a-log thing…Where did he learn to do that stuff, anyway? Cyborg had a very funny feeling that Mario knew very well what was going on concerning his friends, and whatever it was, it was a lot bigger than Slade—it wasn’t natural.



He opened the door to his room after sticking him palm to the sensor on the wall and sending in code through his fingertips. It slowly slid open, and he couldn’t help but yawn as she trudged in. His eyes opened just in the nick of time to detect the skinny little witch with pink hair whom he had almost yawned right into. She didn’t look terribly pleased, either. No, she was definitely bored, he could tell. There was a brief moment of silence as the door closed, and they stared at each other for a moment in a far from comfortable silence.



“I’m going out today,” Jinx announced with bold nonchalance. She inspected her nails afterward, making sure they weren’t damaged in any way. She figured that she should probably ensure that her appearance as a whole was decent enough, because she wouldn’t want to go out in public without looking as good as she could. She was doing her best to look perfectly casual and in control, but Cyborg knew better. Jinx was bluffing her ass off—though he would compliment that it was a moderately cute ass, at that. The point of the matter was that she was hoping he’d help her get out and back in within being spotted. She had to get some air today, and being stuck in this room for a few days straight (aside from last night) had not been very fun. Oh, well, sure, she’d been escorted to the restroom during that period when need be, but that didn’t really count, now, did it?



Cyborg had trouble holding back a hearty chuckle. Though her air was arrogant and calm, he knew that deep down, her remark wasn’t an announcement, but a plea. She wanted to leave the tower, but something—maybe his scanners picked it up, or maybe his intuition did—whispered to him that she wanted to come back in when she was done having her fun. Ah, what the hell? Couldn’t hurt, right? She was a cute little witch, and she had bared with him this far…She deserved some time to herself.



Things would have to handled quite delicately, however—wouldn’t want Rob finding out about this. Ahhh—no. That’d be quite unpleasant. Hm…Better to get this out of the way now while it was early and the Titans were still lethargic.



There were a few moments of awkward tranquility as Cyborg’s processors analyzed the situation, and Jinx could feel her intestines wrap around her stomach, squeezing it into submission. She had to get the hell out of this tower for a while, or she’d go insane. Moreover, she could feel queasy pulses of misfortune tingling through her body—her powers, which she had managed to keep under control for the past while, were itching to bring some bad luck to the world around her.



“A’ight.”



Wh--? That was all? What was the catch…?



Jinx’s feline eyes narrowed at him, and she latched a hand on her hip, shifting her light weight a little to the side. Cyborg pitied those sharp, yellow eyes. They cut through his steel body and circuitry, piercing straight into his heart. They were resentful, doubtful, afraid…This girl had never known was true security was. There was always something that prevented it. Cyborg could only guess what factors would prevent her from knowing what safety was, but those eyes—those chilling retinas that questioned his integrity—they made sure he knew how much the girl really didn’t understand. She was a broken wretch of a woman, and Cyborg wanted to change that with every watt, volt, and ampere within him.



“C’mon.”



With that one word—clean, simple, and understanding in nature—Cyborg grabbed Jinx’s tiny, fragile hand in his goliath palm and dragged her out of the room. Giving the halls a quick check before he pulled her out, the bionic man made brisk steps toward the elevator at the end of the hall. Jinx gasped when a couple of small satellites of differing design cropped out of the broad, strong shoulders of titanium that supported his fierce, bold head. She found them to be rather adorable, spinning in happy little circles. Bleck. Where did THAT come from? But whether he was a robotic man or not, at least he was a big, strong…machismo-filled man...who had a sculpted face that drew her in—like a tuna to a fisherman’s net. She flopped and flapped, but no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t escape.



There was something else about him that really turned her on: he was genuinely…nice. He actually cared about people, and it was hot with an extra ‘t.’ Ermm…Not that she was going to tell anyone that, of course.



Besides, what the hell did she care if…HE cared? If he was going to be all nice and go out of his way to help her, risking his reputation and putting his loyalty on the line, going through so much trouble to sneak her out and in and such…why should she care, right? It was his choice, just as it was her choice to take advantage of it.



Why, then, did she NOT want to take advantage of the situation? Urgh, stupid…What was the word? Conscience? That was close enough, anyway. Damnit, what was with this ‘conscience’ crap? She didn’t like it at first, but it wasn’t showing any signs of going away—it had already unpacked its bags, thrown its laundry in the washer, and put its clothes in the closet. This ‘conscience’ was here to stay, and she’d have to suck it up and deal.



“When’re you comin’ back?”



Hm? What? Oh, hey—fresh air! Holy ****, was that stuff so nice…



Jinx couldn’t help but take a moment to suck the precious gases in. It had been some time since she’d tasted it. A hint of damp salt filled her nostrils as waves were pushed by the brisk wind, crashing into the shores and spraying their contents into the air—that tasty, irresistible air. Yum, yum.



“Uhhhh…Yo, Jinx,” Cyborg tapped her bony little shoulder with a single finger—a chunky, sturdy finger.



Jinx’s relief was jolted so much that it was scared back into the little hole it had crawled out of, and her attitude took the reigns again.



“When did I say I was coming back?” she retorted with a spicy smirk.



Cyborg kept his cool, immune to her sass. He knew fully well that she intended to return, as she had no where else to go. With a calm shrug, Cyborg turned his back and said to her, “All right. Guess we’ll meet up the next time you rob a jewelry store, an—”



“Eight o’clock,” Jinx spat out in a rush as Cyborg opened the gigantic doors to his home.



Cyborg glanced over his shoulder with his black, nonchalant eye. There was a pause, then: “’K. Whatever. See you then.”



Sweeeeeeoooosshh. Gone.



Part of Jinx didn’t want to leave that big ol’ ‘T.’ She was sure it would grow on her…Whoa, whoa, wait. What? Geh, she had to stop thinking like that. Titan Tower was NOT her home.



But…as she stared up at it, and remembered all those things she had seen the night before…she realized that she wanted it to be.

----------

[Rae]

Sorry, i've been away three weeks!

Those pics were awesome, i congratulate your friend!

Those updates were also awesome, i really liked the whole bit with Raven's mind being compared to a computer, it was interesting

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

:yawn: Well, at least I hear from SOMONE, then. :shrug:

I'm currently at my college campus (which really isn't big, since I came here all the time in the summer...) but right now, I'm officially a student.

This basically means less time to write, so when I DO bother to write, it'll hopefully turn out decent.

[Sproxie]

*Looks at previous chapters* :eek: It might take a wile for me to catch up here....
i haven't been around for a while (as you most likely noticed ^_^')




:EDIT: Well, i guess it didn't take THAT long for me to read everything! ...just about 2 hours.... :sweat: Anyway, It's all coming along great!


Anyway, that mysterious guy on the street...Not as important as I make him seem. Believe me, he has a role that does drasticaly affect something--maybe you'll figure it out--but he himself will never show up again, I don't think.

Red X. He wont show up as himself, he'll show up as Red X, right?

Metal Mario is seriously cool as hell, i can't wait till we see more of him, and seeing Blackfire's more caring and sympathetic side is definitely a nice touch, it's nice to see she actually cares for Star. And all the moments with Jinx are really sweet. Touching. ;) sorry i can't say much more, but i kinda at a loss for words, but your a great writer, please don't ever quit- even if you dont get many reviews. (which, i dont seem to understand, why don't you get reviews?? you're story is great! maybe you scare people off with your serious replies :p )

[Destiny_Smasher]

Um...Wait, so, what the heck does that quote have to do with Red X?

Anyway, the Red X will show up in this story, fairly soon, and be VERY important, AND you will know their identity when it all goes down.

So, suffice it to say that it is someone that you WILL recognize--I guarantee it.

Aaaaand...I've started my classes. AND I have 26 hours a week of work, or so. Soooo...Yeah, that'll be for the first few weeks of classes, so I can't say I'll be able to write much over the next few weeks.

Hardly hearing from any of my readers on ANY of the sites I post my stuff up...Yea, doesn't quite give me motivation, either.

But nice hearin' from ya. Hop eyou enjoyed it.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Oh, I see how it is. I make the 666th post on this thread, and it falls to 3rd page, with no signs of life in a weeks. Dandy.

Well, I'm in college now, and getting no feedback at all doesn't motivate me much.

But here's the next scene, for those still around.

----------



“Ohhhh…This isn’t riiiiight…”



An incredibly frustrated huff spilled from the little girl’s mouth as she pouted in spite of herself. This wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. She’d been wandering around for hours, tirelessly trudging from dimension to dimension. It got quite exhausting after a while, and she was getting REALLY hungry. Of course, when you were little, being hungry was a matter of life and death. The world screeched to a halt when you couldn’t do exactly what you wanted to do, and five minutes felt like a week.



The girl was tempted to throw a tantrum, but somehow managed to dig up some self-control from within her tiny (and empty) gut, but it was burned up pretty quickly. She had to get to this place really soon…Hm…Maybe that buck-toothed kid with the cape could help her out?



He was a chubby, short fellow with big eyes, a bulbous head, and large, goofy front teeth that poked out of his mouth. He wore a cape of yellow and black, and was dressed altogether to the likeness of a certain Teen Titan—not that Sideris could recognize this. His legs were hardly noticeable, and his arms were tiny, too, but, at the time, his right index finger was, to be put bluntly, freaking huge. Sideris could overlook the teeth, and the other things, but the FINGER…It kinda SCARED her. The boy was waving his finger around in the air—well, actually, it wasn’t air, but could be better described as time-space, or something to that extent. After observing the boy for a moment, Sideris was enthralled to see a small puppy scribbled into existence. Then again, maybe it wasn’t really a puppy. It was so sketchy and deformed, one would have some difficulty describing what, precisely, it was. As far as Sideris was concerned, it was a puppy—a green-lined, clear puppy with black, crayon-esque eyes. It was cute.



A childish laugh that border-lined maniacal boomed from the boy as he twirled through the air, celebrating the ‘birth’ of his new creation. Suddenly, he noticed the girl that was watching him with confused eyes of emerald. He froze in mid flip, staring at her puzzled expression with one to match, hanging upside down. There was a calm, curious silence between them, until Sideris mumbled out a question, her face flushed red.



“Umm…Could you help me…?”



“Nosyarg Kcid helps everyone!” Declared the boy with confidence that was as bright and bold as the sun itself. He rapidly spun his body like a top, then bolted to the girl’s side, smiling a goofy smile mere inches from her face. Her neck craned back a little, and she couldn’t help but grin at his humorous attitude.



“Nozzyerr…what?” she mumbled, clogging her laughs with a cork of solemnity.



“NOZZ-YAHRG-KIHD!” the bizarre boy pressed, slamming the girl with slow, harsh syllables.



The girl twirled her bitty finger through her springy, crimson ponytail for a moment as she mumbled, “I’m Sideris…”



Nosyarg, with more enthusiasm than was healthy, perhaps, grabbed Sideris’ left arm, which was otherwise unoccupied, and jolted it up and down in quick, pumping motions, a piston of merriment.



“Great!” he squealed. “So, what’s the problem? Nosyarg can help!”



“Nozz…yer…” Sideris’ brain fizzled out at the mere thought of pronouncing the title of this being beyond her mind, which was already stretched thin, carrying weights beyond its normal limit. “Can I…just call you…Yoshi, or something…?”



Nosyarg chuckled and lifted his gargantuan index finger to the small ‘R’ printed on his chest, changing the stitched emblem to a ‘Y.’



“Sure! Yoshi it is!” Another giddy, overexerted laugh poured into Sideris’ ears, though one may wonder how sound was traveling when there was no air to be vibrated. Nosyarg, under his new alias, began to prance about in all manner of random celebration, proclaiming his new nickname to all who would listen—‘all’ being one little girl, of course.



However, Sideris wasn’t in the mood to put up with what she anticipated would be a long, drawn out babble of pointlessness. Being of the same nature as Nosyarg, she had a VERY thin patience, and by the time the third ‘Yoshi’ had battered her eardrums, she was bored and irritated.



She groaned and lifted her arms, trying to settle ‘Yoshi’ down, who was bounding around like a pinball, smacking into everything around in chaotic fashion. The multi-colored doors that littered this strange place were smashed by his rubbery body, and the poor little ‘dog’ that he had drawn earlier was shattered as he rolled through it like a grinning bowling ball. What little it had for a body was ripped to shreds that were forced outward, but continued to drift, onward and outward, as if no gravity held them down.



Sideris’ arms dropped in a slouchy fit to her sides, and she pouted irritably, crossing the arms over her chest. Just when she didn’t expect it, her body was slammed from behind, causing her to go tumbling forward onto her face, her arms unable to react quickly enough to save her. She whimpered out in melodramatic agony for a few moments, lifting her short, thin body from the ‘ground,’ a slow and painful process.



“What was that for?!” she growled out with blunt indignity.



“Oops,” Nosyarg (‘Yoshi’) mumbled meekly, rubbing the back of his neck in shy regret.



Sideris noticed his nonverbal apology was genuine, and felt foolish for inflating the mishap. She had places to go, things to do…She didn’t have time to play with this guy.



“Um…Anyway, could you help me, please? I’m in a hurry.” The mumbled words slipped from her mouth with a grease-like quality.



“What’s wrong?” the recently ‘re-named’ boy pondered.



“I need to find the Teen Titans…” Sideris murmured with doubt, glanced at the multitude of doors around her, all of varying colors, sizes, and textures.



Yoshi chuckled and slapped his knee. “Which ONES?” he asked incredulously, bouncing about on his bottom, which seemed to act like pair of rubber cheeks.



“Um…” Sideris felt her intestines constrict her kidneys at the remark. A worst-case scenario popped into her brain: ‘I won’t be able to find them now.’



“I gotta know more about which ones we’re lookin’ for,” Yoshi explained, waving his mystical finger through the air to draw a small rectangle. The shape took the form of a clipboard, and Yoshi summoned a purple crayon from his wrist like before. He prepared to scribble down an outline, and Sideris proceeded to fumble for details.



“Mmm…There are…12 of them…Aaaand…one of them is named Mario…”



Yoshi nodded quickly, jotting his scrawled notes down in haphazard form. Anyone else attempting to comprehend what he wrote would find no sense in his doodling, but he could understand it perfectly, apparently.



“Mario, huh?” he muttered, amused. After staring at what little he had to go by thus far, he nodded in agreement with his own hunch and carelessly chucked the board and the crayon off. Instead of falling, they continued to float off. “Ohhh! I know what YOU’RE lookin’ for!” he slyly snickered, drifting into the air as casually as one stands up. “I saw it around here…” He ominously floated through the seizure-inducing avenue of portals to a small green door with a yellow ‘R’ painted on it. Yoshi paused before it and contemplated for a moment. Sideris jogged in pursuit, and came to a halt as abruptly as he had. Puzzled and inquisitive as to the location of her destination, she waited patiently.



Yoshi nodded to himself and lunged out at the door, but, to Sideris’ surprise, he fly AROUND it. Wait, what? Where was he going?



With a grunt, the young girl blew her bright red bangs up and sprinted off between the green door and one of its neighbors. She skidded to a screeching halt when she realized that Yoshi had stopped just behind the portal and was staring it from behind—there was another door. Only, this other door…WAS the door. But on this side, the letter ‘X’ was painted in a sloppy red.



“It’s here, it’s here!” Yoshi exclaimed with joy, clapping his hands together repeatedly. “Come on!” He dashed to Sideris and snatched her by her fragile arm, tugging at her to follow him. Before she knew it, he’d swung the door open and had flung them both into it.



----------

[Robin96]

Lol! you're adding Larry! Well, larry-yoshi. I can't wait to find out why Sideris wants to find the titans. i can't wait for the next update!!:anime:

[Faethie]

Hmmm.......

Ahh, Larry the Titan. Also known as Dick Grayson spelled backwards...:p ....

This story is verrrrrrrrrrrry interesting....

[Rae]

That was great!

I Love Nosyarg Kcid! He's great! And you wrote him really well!

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sad:

Um...Right. So, in case ya haven't noticed, I haven't been all too motivated to write this so much, since I hardly ever hear from anyone even when I DO post an update.

Edit:
I've redone this scene and am posting it down below.

[Rae]

That was good! The bresakfast scene was entertaining, and i loved the interaction between Mario and Amy

Hope you write more soon!

Rae

[Robin96]

That was good! The bresakfast scene was entertaining, and i loved the interaction between Mario and Amy

Hope you write more soon!

sorry for the lack of originality, but i couldn't agree more.

Link suddenly wondered why the hell all of this cooking was going on when they didn’t seem to have much to eat. Come to think of it, why hadn’t anyone done the grocery shopping in so long? Some superheroes—couldn’t even stay on top of the groceries…

i absolutely loved that line. it made me laugh.
__________________________________________________
sorry. i don't know how to make it so it shows up as someone else saying it.:sweat:

[Faethie]

Geez.....i havent replied in a long time (SSSSSSSOOOORRRRRYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:crying: )

I have been reading it tho. And I have been saying "WOW!" through all these chapters.

As for the last one....yeah, i found that pretty funny!!

[Funkatron]

Geez.....i havent replied in a long time (SSSSSSSOOOORRRRRYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:crying: )

I have been reading it tho. And I have been saying "WOW!" through all these chapters.

As for the last one....yeah, i found that pretty funny!!
Same here. Nice to catch up to this kickass story. Great work as always, Destiny Smasher

[Destiny_Smasher]

Oh, wow...There's still people reading this. That's good, then. Haven't really heard from any fans anyWHERE in months, sooo...

Yea. I'm in college now, meaning I don't quite so much have the time to do this stuff. I mean, I WILL finish this sooner or later.

For right now, I'm gonna try and write a Naruto One-Shot to get my creative juices flowin', and see how that pans out first. Not having any writing classes this semester does NOT help, and neither does my desperate need for social interaction that can't seem to be craved.

---

But I promise you, I WILL get back to this, sooner or later.

I don't go back on my word--that's my way of the ninja.

'Til then, see you on Mario Kart:DS, or something.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Bumpety bump bump BUMP, eh?

Well, after taking about 6 months of hiatus, I'm back in college again for my 2nd semester, and I'm trying to scrape up what fans I have left (assuming there ARE any left) as I attempt to go back and continue my work.

I will be honest and say I'm now doubting whether or not the Destinia Saga will ever meet its end, but this story WILL, because it's my best work thus far.

Anyway, I've been doing some...remodeling to the last scene, so I'm gonna post that up now.

(By the way, for any Naruto fans out there, I'm still working on my one shot, and I could use beta readers, so PM me if you're interested!)
Naruto? No, he is not going to be in this story. Matter of fact, as much as I love him, I have no plans of ever putting him in any of my fics connected to the Destinia Saga.
I don't like him because he's cute, I like him because he is a dork, and a knucklehead, and a moron--just like real people--but he doesn't let that stop him from trying to be the best he can be. And I think that if someone can blend Ratchet and Clank with TT, or Mario/Sonic/Link/whatever I have with TT, people can blend Naruto with TT. But that's my opinion. I like Naruto as a series because it is the classic example of what makes a good anime series. Yes, it has it's stupidity like DBZ, but it has things DBZ will never have, like, say, heart. Anyway, sorry for that little burst there, just a little offended by the Naruto slam in the rules section, I guess. If you're gonna pick on him, pick on everybody too, please.

---

“Come ON!” Beastboy groaned with insipid disgust. “Why SAUSAGE?” He glared at the steaming, hot, juicy cylinders of meat undergoing the process he often referred to as ‘cookification.’ Discouraged by Tenochtitlan’s glowing eyes, he sighed at the expression, her hunger portrayed in a burning yellow.

“It smells so good…” Tenochtitlan murmured with anticipation, practically drooling over Luigi’s shoulder.

“Thanks,” the green-garbed chef replied with a grin, probing at them with care. “Just wait ‘til you TASTE ‘em…”

“I dunno, Bro.,” Mario disagreed in good humor, tipping his cap up as he flipped a pancake with ninja-like skill—it twirled through the air like a ballerina, landing perfectly on the opposite side. “I’m thinkin’ these pancakes are gonna rock the house.”

“No way!” Cyborg protested, pouring his custom-made mix into a waffling iron. “They’ll be talkin’ about my waffles all day, man!”

“Oh, really?” Luigi quipped, his voice spiced with doubt.

“That so?” Mario countered alongside his unusually confident sibling.

“You bet!” Cyborg jeered, slapping the iron closed. The kitchen was alive with the sizzling of sausages on the frying pan, the fizzling of pancakes on the grittle, and the hissing of waffles being steamed into creation.

Dairy, dairy, dairy. Beastboy KNEW it. There wouldn’t be a single thing there that was non-dairy. Or, well, meat. What the heck, dude? Did anyone ever take into account his diet? He shrugged it off as he noticed the hungry delight in Tenochtitlan’s demeanor. At least she was happy, scavenger though she was.

A dull-eyed Link came strolling into the room with methodical movements, his hands nestled in the roomy pockets of his large pants. He didn’t even seem to notice the cook-off going on around him, but it was clear he was here for food, as he headed straight to the fridge—no greetings, no gestures…Very typical.

Terra, who entered right beside him, beamed with excitement at the prospect of having a full-bodied meal. She grinned at the three Titan chefs, her hands on her hips, and she complimented on each one as she passed them by.

“Oh, man, those look so good!” she whispered in awe at the fleshy, darkened sausages, much to Luigi’s satisfaction.

Link slowly opened up the fridge, ignoring the bustling morning sounds around him, and pulled a quart of milk out. He stared at it with dismay for a moment, disgusted at its genre of pasteurized goodness. Skim milk? What the hell? He double-checked the fridge, which was relatively empty. It was a very sad and gloomy fridge, with only a plastic container of week-old potato salad, a few cherry tomatoes, a nearly empty bottle of Dyspepsi Cola, and that half-filled quart of skim milk to keep it company. Oh, wait—there was a full carton of fresh eggs in the back. What a miracle THAT was…

“I can’t wait to try those out,” Terra told Mario with a giddy smile, her voice a bit distant.

Link suddenly wondered why the hell all of this cooking was going on when they didn’t seem to have much to eat. Come to think of it, why hadn’t anyone done the grocery shopping in so long? Some superheroes—couldn’t even stay on top of the groceries…

In the background, Terra said to Cyborg, “Oh, I remember the last time you made THESE…” The fond memories crept into her taste buds, as if her brain willed her to taste them again.

With an insipid sigh that oozed apathy, Link dragged a glass from a cupboard nearby and tilted the carton of skim a bit, giving himself a glass half empty. With minimal effort, he slipped the carton back into the depressingly empty refrigerator and took a swig of the skim, its slim, tasteless texture scratching his tongue like claws on a chalkboard.

The room grew slightly quieter when Robin seemed to sneak in, his pace quick and eager. He waved the chefs good morning as he passed quietly by, and headed straight for the fridge. He was in a bigger rush than Link, and just by looking at their polar opposite faces, one could deduce that he was a in a very solemn mood. He retrieved the eggs that had been stored in the back, and made haste to the stove beside Luigi. Luigi had left a couple of the six burners free, and Robin placed a pan on each in a mechanical fashion.

“Good morning, Robin,” Tenochtitlan greeted, her bright voice slightly shaken by his lack of emotion.

“Good morning,” he replied, his voice as dry and rough as sandpaper.

Tenochtitlan grimaced and gave Beastboy a puzzled glance, but the green one gulped and answered her with a shrug. They sat down at the island near the counter where Link stood. As they planted their bottoms onto the red stools, Robin began cracking eggs and letting their contents drip into the teflon pans before him. The sizzling of the room turned up another small notch.

Terra almost greeted her leader, but decided not to on a gut choice, so she sat beside Beastboy’s right at the island. She leaned over casually, her elbows supporting her.

“So, uh, you guys sleep well?”

A few minutes of dismally bland conversation commenced, and soon enough, Luigi began dropping his cooked meat upon plates, serving it up. Link passed the offer with a raised palm, and Luigi sighed the matter off. His loss.

Just as Link set his glass into the sink—he was amazed he had managed to down it—Mario went around the island, sliding pancakes onto the three plates available. After receiving words of thanks, he set the rest in the middle of the counter for the others. The immense stack he left was a tremendous sight to behold—there had to be a good twenty cakes atop one another, and they were large cakes, to boot.

Luigi had gone back to his cooking, but Mario had decided to head off for a small morning workout. He bid his fellows ‘farewell,’ and slowly disappeared down the hall, his fingers locked behind his neck, his elbows pointed out over his shoulders like a lazy but anxious kid.

After a few minutes, Mario entered the weight room, expecting it to be uninhabited. He was surprised, however, when he saw a thin-framed girl on her back doing bench presses. As he approached, he smiled in amusement, watching her struggle to lift the weights up with her skinny arms. Her face was oily, and sweat dripped from her slicked bangs of disheveled pink. In such a position, the fresh scar on her neck was easily noticeable. She grunted and groaned, forcing as much strength into her arms as she could, pushing and pushing upward. Her emerald eyes burned with determination—a determination that was distinctly reminiscent of the night before. When her arms were finally stretched out, she bared the pain, her entire body trembling. With an exasperated gasp, she let the barbells come crashing down onto the supporters above her, landing safely above her chest. With that ‘clang,’ she was done, and moaned out, rubbing her aching arms as she panted from the exertion.

“Ya let it come down slow—better for your arms.” Mario chuckled at her and shook his head, which received a frustrated growl from below—like a child huffing at her parent.

Mario took a seat on a bench near the wall to Amy’s right and scooped up a sturdy barbell, working out his biceps as he began his mechanical work. His arm moved like a slow piston—up, down, up, down—and Amy stared for a few moments in silence, almost hypnotized by the steady motion. She shook it off like a cat clinging to her back and slowly raised her body up from the padded bench. A slow, tired movement of her arm shifted over her forehead, collecting sweat and removing it. She shook some drops off of her wrist and took a deep sigh, glaring at Mario with rebellious discomfort. She couldn’t see his eyes, though, as his head was tilted down, and his cap’s brim cast a shadow over his brilliant eyes of blue.

Up…down…up…down.

His arm pumped with rhythmic force, and Amy watched the muscles in his arm contract and loosen. That cat was still clinging to her back, its claws stuck in her. Instead of shaking it off this time, she gently removed it.

“I’m sorry.”

The words did not spill from her lips with ease like water from a bucket, but were released like molasses from a colander. The tensed arm that had been lifting weights froze for a moment, then slowly unwound, resting the barbell in its owner’s lap. The opposite arm tipped the red cap up slightly, and Mario’s sapphire eyes received Amy’s hard, prickly glare.

“I should’ve thought things through before I acted like a dumb-****…”

A nonchalant “heh” slipped into Amy’s ears, and she watched that sly smirk form on his face.

“But you didn’t think first,” Mario concluded, his head tilting to the side in acknowledgement to his own comment.

Amy felt her insides bubble up with crude frustration, and she felt like digging her nails into a chalkboard. What the hell? Why the **** did she even bother apologizing in the first place? She shouldn’t have even—

“You didn’t think because you can’t control your anger, just as you can’t right now.”

This swift smack in her head paralyzed Amy, releasing her body from its tightened state. Her arms loosened, her clenched fists unwound, and her grit teeth were relieved. Something about those words had grabbed her brain and given it a good throw down. She couldn’t place exactly why, but they had. Mario delivered a bit more prattling, shifting his weight to the other arm and repeating the pumping process with the left.

“You can’t explain it, but you get pissed off really easily. Inside, you’re angry all the time, at everything, and you don’t know why.”

The pink-haired girl couldn’t look him straight in the eye as he said these words, averting her gaze to her red boots—they were loose boots of red with a white stripe running down the center. As she admired the white stripe, tapping the boots together with anxious impatience, Mario finished, amused by the reaction. He wasn’t surprised, of course, but amused, nonetheless.

“Don’t worry too much about it—it’s no shocker, given your condition. But you’ve gotta learn to control it better. If you let that anger out at the right time, you’re golden.” He rolled his eyes as he struggled to look her in the face, but was only able to see slick bangs. “Hey—chin up.”

Amy’s face jolted up just enough so that her fierce gaze met his icy calm expression.

“It’s no big, Rose. We’ve all got our problems, ya know.” Mario finished his brief arm exercise and stretched his limbs out over his shoulders. In mid-groan, he added with nonchalance, “Maybe if you stopped looking so pissy all the time, you’d be a step ahead…You’re cute when you’re pissed, but you’re cuter when you’re kind.”

Stupid ass-wipe. He thinks I’m pissy? Ohhh, I’m show him pissy. I’ll shatter his jaw—

“It’s all about attitude. If you dwell on your anger, that’ll only make it worse.”

Amy had been so lost in her own irate mind that she hadn’t noticed how the capped one was now on his back on the floor, feet pinched beneath the bench he had been sitting on. With his arms tucked over his shoulders, he executed a smooth series of sit-ups, continuing the conversation with no thought of it.

“See, problem is, you have more natural anger in you right now than you’re used to; that’s ok. As long as you can harness it, like I said, it’s all good. So get to work on it, eh?”

Amy forced back her pouting frown, maintaining a neutral—and very blank—stare. Was he telling her to go through anger management? Psh, whatever. What the hell did HE know, anyway? He acted all high and mighty, like he knew everything about her, but he didn’t know ****. She oughtta kick his ass, and—

OK. Deep breath…all right. I’m NOT angry. I’m not angry. I can do this. I can DO this. ‘More natural anger?’ What did he mean by that? I mean, I DO feel like I’m more pissed off than I SHOULD be, but…Why is that? Damnit! He knows, doesn’t he? Why isn’t he telling me? Why is he being such an ass about it?

“Because it’s what you need right now.” That’s what he’d tell her. Wait…isn’t that what he just said? Like, out of the blue, just now? Her piercing eyes of green glared at him, emitting waves of doubt and suspicion.

Can you read my mind?

“When I want to…Sort of,” he corrected in a mumble. “Kinda.”

Why?

“Wish I knew. Been creepin’ me the hell out lately.”

Amy paused, her brain stirring the mush of ideas and thoughts around like mashed potatoes. They didn’t turn out too fluffy when she was done—still plenty of chunkiness to it.

Do you know why we’re here?

Mario, still as casual as ever, jumped to his feet and carelessly pumped out some jumping jacks. “I do,” he replied to Amy’s pondering, leaving it to dry like a raisin.

“WHY?” Amy growled out impatiently.

Mario’s routine sputtered to a halt, a wind up toy whose key was reaching the end of its cycle. When he finally was still, his rough thumb flicked the brim of his cap up an inch, and like a man of the ol’ west, he leaned against the wall behind him, arms thoughtfully crossed over his chest.

“You really wanna know, huh?” he murmured, his left brow creaking up a couple centimeters. His eyes twinkled with mystery, alluring Amy’s head to nod. She bobbed her head with care, however, almost afraid at what answers may await her.

The tension in Mario’s smirk sealed it for her, and nagged at her patience all the more, reeling her in. How did he know about all of this? Once she got an answer about the cause of this whole mess, she could finally get down to—

“Don’t feel like tellin’ you just yet.”

Amy’s mind was shattered, and shrapnel was careening out in all directions.

“…Excuse me?” she hissed out, eyes narrowing. Oh, hell no. He wasn’t gonna get off that easy. If he didn’t explain to her what he knew, she was gonna castrate him, and then—

“See what I mean?” Mario calmly pointed out, tapping his index finger at her forehead while she snarled. “Gotta work on that anger issue. We don’t want another situation like last night, now, do we?” A condescending glance was all Amy needed to calm down. She ran her fingers across the inch-long scar on her neck and was drawn back to that moment the night before.

“A true warrior fights with his mind, heart, and body—not just his fists or his sword,” Mario muttered with a pensive nod, shoving his hands into his gaping pockets.

“Yea…” Amy admitted in a forced grumble.

Damnit! I’m getting showed up by a loony dressed up like a plumber…Then again…maybe I’m the loony…

Her self-doubt was interrupted by a slap on her back that eased her to her feet.

“You got two of those three aced,” he commented. “Now you need to work on the third one.” He grinned as he jabbed his finger into her head. She shoved it away, a small smile sliding into her expression.

“You eaten breakfast yet?”

“No.”

“Well you should, ‘cuz you need to make sure the guys know my pancakes are the best.”

---

I know, I know, I've been neglecting my duties as a writer-in-progress, but now that I have more...well, THOUGHT inducing classes this semester, as well as some self-motivation, I'm gonna try to get back into things and see how it goes.

So if anyone's with me, let me know, for God's sake. :sweat:
And by the way, I am not going to be taking the episode 'Go!' into account as background story, as I am pretty much ignoring Season 5's existence. :mad: Stupid lack of enthusiasm...Poor developers....You can just tell they ran out of steam after Season 4...

Lastly, how do I move this to the Titan fiction forum?
Oh, my bad. It WAS moved. Very good.
(Heheh. I KNEW it'd get its own section sooner or later! ;) )

Oh, yea, regarding the whole 'can't stay on top of the groceries' thing--that's actually important, believe it or not. The next scene should make that clear.

Wow. I still have that Frankie Foster scene from Q4D! in my sig. That's 4w3s0m3. I need to write in that story some more...

--

...

Pookey got banned? O_o'

[SilverKnight]

Wow, I wouldn't have pegged Mario for an arrogant ass. Guess you learn something new every day.

I can't say I've had the pleasure of meeting you before, DS. Nor can I say that I've had the chance to catch up on all of this, however, your writing style is fluid and nicely detailed. I'd like to take a moment to say, though, that you might want to watch the language in the story some, or at least properly denote the rating of this story from the get-go. I may not have read the entire story, but I did read the first post.

Not bad. Keep it up.

Edit: Oh, and just to let you know, you might want to acquaint yourself with the new rules of this board. Things may be a little...stricter than what you remember from six months ago. :)

[Destiny_Smasher]

I read the rules.

Thanks for the tip on rating. I forgot that I didn't rate it accordingly. I'll get to that, because I am NOT taking out language. I put the f-word in there, I want it in there. Not for the sake of swearing, but to express the characters' thoughts and dialogues.

Mario, arrogant? I'm not sure that's quite the right word. He's the leader, remember. And in that particular scene, he's acting that way on purpose to piss Amy off. Why? Because he wants to Amy to realize just how angry she really is. Amy's anger is very important, so put that to mind. It'll all make sense in a little while, after the main mystery of the story is unraveled.

Mario acts arrogant in a good-mannered way. At least, that's what I'm going for. He doesn't really think his cooking is that great. He just tries to lighten the mood. After all, we actually saw him ANGRY last night, for the first time in this whole story. And that's because Mario knows his responsibility: to get his allies back to where they're supposed to be.

Wait...you haven't read all of this, have you...? :sweat: Maybe I'm explaining something that doesn't need to be explained...

Well, I'll try to have more up when I can, but I've actually been working on what I've already written of this Chapter. I'll start work on the next scene tonight. Can't say when it'll be DONE, but...

[SilverKnight]

I read the rules.Just wanted to make sure. Can't be too careful. :D

Mario, arrogant? I'm not sure that's quite the right word. He's the leader, remember. And in that particular scene, he's acting that way on purpose to piss Amy off.He did a good job of it, then. :)

Mario acts arrogant in a good-mannered way. At least, that's what I'm going for. He doesn't really think his cooking is that great. He just tries to lighten the mood. After all, we actually saw him ANGRY last night, for the first time in this whole story. And that's because Mario knows his responsibility: to get his allies back to where they're supposed to be.Arrogant is still arrogant, no matter the nature of it. :p Never the less, since I was reading an apparently exaggerated version of it, I suppose I shouldn't be so quick to judge.

Wait...you haven't read all of this, have you...? :sweat: Maybe I'm explaining something that doesn't need to be explained...Perhaps not. But if it's worth explaining, and since you want me to continue reading, then I'm sure you wouldn't mind, no? ;)

And since we're on this subject, might I ask who all of these characters are, since they share no relation to the characters I grew up with? I'm certain it was explained somewhere along the way, however, I've back-tracked a few posts and still, no dice. I can't say classic Mario has any real character whatsoever, but whatever that character is doesn't exactly jive with the one you're showing. Link, nuh-uh. Can't say I recognize him, either. Maybe you could bring the newbie up to speed? :D

[Destiny_Smasher]

Um...-_-'

Maybe, if you had read from the BEGINNING, things might make a little more sense. Funny how that works out sometimes, right? Not trying to be mean about it, but the writing speaks for itself. I shouldn't have to explain things, because that's what the story itself does. Backtracking a few posts is simply not going to give you the information you need in a 17-page fic. :P

I mean, geez, I just wrote in a personified version of my inner child as a character, for crying out loud. That post most likely didn't help explain much, now, did it? A lot of the explaining has already been done--I'm focusing on character development for a while, then we have the big exposition, then the conclusion. So, technically, we'll have two climaxes.

Mario's personality is a little more 'adult-like', but it's more or less my own twist on him.

Since Link doesn't HAVE a personality as a whole (though he seems to in Twilight Princess, and had some in WW), every version of him in fiction seems to be different. Also, he's incredibly apathetic for a VERY important reason--the same reason that Amy is so angry. I can't say what it is, because it would ruin plot.

Also, people can act arrogant without actually being arrogant and actually being modest. Might not make any sense, but I've seen it before. It's called being facetious. :P

Anyway, these characters shouldn't be exactly as you 'remember' them. If you were to read the story, things would make more sense, and by the end of the story, things will make a lot more sense. ;)

Like I said, this story is connected to a saga with these characters, but you don't need to know the backstory to enjoy, since the backstory that matters is explained later. It stands on its own, but can be enjoyed even more when you understand all the references and what-not.

And I really need to work on writing some more, but, then again, the only person reading this isn't actually reading it. :sweat: So I don't feel too pressured.

[SilverKnight]

Um...-_-'

Maybe, if you had read from the BEGINNING, things might make a little more sense. Funny how that works out sometimes, right? Not trying to be mean about it, but the writing speaks for itself. I shouldn't have to explain things, because that's what the story itself does. Backtracking a few posts is simply not going to give you the information you need in a 17-page fic. :PQuite. For the record, I would like to inform you to watch your tone a little when replying to people who respond to your stories. Scaring them off with an attitude might be the reason why you don't get those replies you seem to be pining for. Just a thought.

I mean, geez, I just wrote in a personified version of my inner child as a character, for crying out loud. That post most likely didn't help explain much, now, did it?I'm...sorry, I have no idea what that means. Was that a response to something I said, or did I completely miss more than I apparently have? I hope I'm not missing much.

Since Link doesn't HAVE a personality as a whole (though he seems to in Twilight Princess, and had some in WW), every version of him in fiction seems to be different. Also, he's incredibly apathetic for a VERY important reason--the same reason that Amy is so angry. I can't say what it is, because it would ruin plot.Be that as it may, the point remains that you have these characters acting a certain way because of a huge plot point that you refuse to reveal. Now, while that may work well a lot of the time, holding onto it for too long can lead to reader frustration and cause them to drop the story entirely. Just saying.

Also, people can act arrogant without actually being arrogant and actually being modest.Is that a fact? You might want to work more on that, then. I see you've yet to master it.

It's called being facetious. :PActually, I don't think so. Facetious means being playful or humorous. I.E. a smart ass such as myself. I even took the liberty of looking up the word here (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=facetious), in case you don't believe me. :)

Anyway, these characters shouldn't be exactly as you 'remember' them. If you were to read the story, things would make more sense, and by the end of the story, things will make a lot more sense. ;)I suppose they would, if you wrote it correctly, however that will take me a great deal of time. As you've said, back-tracking a few chapters isn't the same as reading 17 pages of ficcage. I do hope it's worth the effort. :D

And I really need to work on writing some more, but, then again, the only person reading this isn't actually reading it. :sweat: So I don't feel too pressured.It's a shame you think that you only need to put effort into something when you think you'll receive recognition and accolades for them. Methinks you're missing the point of writing entirely. But hey, what do I know? Don't feel pressured, by all means. :D

[Destiny_Smasher]

I actually didn't have a true 'tone,' but you interpreted one--still my fault, of course, but I didn't intend to have a rude tone. Also, most other people who reply to this don't skip to page 17 and assume things about the characters. And sorry if I sounded like I had a bad tone. I just wanted you to realize that you haven't read the whole thing, so I don't see why you're asking for an explanation when you haven't read it. That's just kind of odd to me, I guess.

And I do know what facetious is, by the way. And I think that Mario is very facetious at times. Either way, whether he acts arrogant or not, it doesn't mean he IS.

I've been writing this story even without hearing from anyone, mind you. I want to finish it. But I don't like writing when it's not being read by anyone.
When I have readers, it gives me incentive to write more often.

"Be that as it may, the point remains that you have these characters acting a certain way because of a huge plot point that you refuse to reveal. Now, while that may work well a lot of the time, holding onto it for too long can lead to reader frustration and cause them to drop the story entirely. Just saying."

Why don't you ask readers whether it's frustrating or not?

I have read fics where these characters act in wildly different ways, but sinc eyou can't tell me what Mario is 'really' like or what Link is 'really' like, it's more about how it's done rather than what it is, I think.

This main plot point does not hinder the story at all from people relating to the characters or enjoying the plot. It's more or less something that will be a realization later on that will make you go, "Oh, I get it now!"

Anyway, instead of contending my writng style and storytelling choices, please read the story, THEN critique it all. Then I can actually pinpoint what you're saying should be changed, because you can connect everything together.

If you don't want to read it, that's perfectly fine. I just ask that you don't judge the characters or story elements until you've read it.

And with that, *poof!*

[SilverKnight]

I actually didn't have a true 'tone,' but you interpreted one--still my fault, of course, but I didn't intend to have a rude tone.Well that's good to know, at least. Perhaps you should keep an eye on how you word things, regardless. People misinterpreting all over the place. The internet's funny like that.

Also, most other people who reply to this don't skip to page 17 and assume things about the characters.I didn't realize having a first impression was a breach of etiquette. I also didn't realize that it was illegal to read what was most recent to see if it was worth going through the effort of 17 pages worth of story. My apologies.

And I do know what facetious is, by the way. And I think that Mario is very facetious at times. Either way, whether he acts arrogant or not, it doesn't mean he IS.If you knew what it meant, then you must have known you used it improperly in your explanation, and I can only guess as to why you did that. But that's neither here or there. You're right in that people who act a certain way (in this case arrogant) may not be who they really "are", but in most cases, that is derived from either the person being socially inept or just trying to cover for something they feel they strongly lack. Again, I can only guess as to why that is, but I'm assuming that's also a part of the big, "Oh I get it" moment?

I've been writing this story even without hearing from anyone, mind you. I want to finish it. But I don't like writing when it's not being read by anyone. When I have readers, it gives me incentive to write more often.I can respect that. Never the less, it's a pretty cheap tactic to guilt people into replying because they're not satisfying your need for feedback. We all have to deal with that, a lot more than we'd like. Begging and ransoming for it is a tool for the greedy and desperate, and I personally don't like it one bit.


Why don't you ask readers whether it's frustrating or not?Perhaps they've already told you it is by not responding. :p Still, I wasn't explicitly saying that's what's happening in your story, because as we both know, I haven't gotten through it enough yet to make an opinion on that either way. I was merely pointing out that milking the suspense-cow too much can sour the experience. It was a tip, not a slight. But I guess you already know that, hm?

I have read fics where these characters act in wildly different ways, but sinc eyou can't tell me what Mario is 'really' like or what Link is 'really' like, it's more about how it's done rather than what it is, I think....Alright, run that one past me again, because I'm pretty sure I misunderstood that. I can't tell you what the characters are "really" like, so I have to accept how you write them? If that's what you mean, and I'm not entirely sure it is, I'd have to respectfully disagree. I might not be able to tell you who they are, but I can tell you who they aren't. Again, though, I'd have to read more to get a better understanding, because you seem dead-set that my first impressions are incorrect, so I must be missing something.

This main plot point does not hinder the story at all from people relating to the characters or enjoying the plot. It's more or less something that will be a realization later on that will make you go, "Oh, I get it now!"Hm. We shall see.

Anyway, instead of contending my writng style and storytelling choices, please read the story, THEN critique it all. Then I can actually pinpoint what you're saying should be changed, because you can connect everything together.I don't believe I ever 'contended' your writing style. In fact, I'm pretty sure I commended it. Simply put, the scene/chapter/whatever you wrote, in the context of someone apologizing to someone else and then that someone else purposely baiting them to prove a point, was personally a little off-putting, characterization wise. Also, given that it was Mario and yet was someone wholly different than what I could have ever envisioned was an extra loop thrown over my head. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Destiny_Smasher]

I do find it amusing (though not surprising) that the past series of posts are more or less us debating with each other over interpretation.

I'm telling for the third time, Mario may act arrogant, but at heart he isn't.

And he baited Amy for a very specific purpose--to get her to realize just how riled up she can get in such a short period of time.

If you want to randomly read the latest post in a long story, be my guest, but I found it offensive that you went out and said, "Boy, I wouldn't have pegged Mario as an arrogant ass!"

If you were to read the latest parts with Starfire, you'd probably tell me how ridiculous and out-of-character they were, too, but you haven't read all of the events leading to such an event.

That's like watching the episode where Terra is being a royal brat without watching anything else, and deciding that she's a brat as a general rule. At least, that's where I'm coming from.

I'm not trying to milk a suspense cow. If, by the time you reach this point in the story, you are left in suspense as to the beginning of this story, then I think you're going down the wrong road. You shouldn't care so much right now how Mario wound up here--he's been here for quite a while, and right now, there atre more pressing issues.
It's kind of like wondering where mankind originated from when something is threatening our existence, in a way.

My readers haven't told me anything by not responding. They haven't been responding because I haven't been writing, I would assume. I've been through this process many times now. Whether I'm at a cliffhanger or not, if I don't write, my readers drift off to somewhere else. I have about 7 different incomplete fics floating about, and I eventually hit a snag in them, my readers disappear, as there is nothing to read, and I feel little motivation to continue with most of them, partially because I simply run out of steam with an idea.

And I'm not trying to force people to reply to get me to write, so please stop telling me how dispicable that is. All I said is that the lack of feedback discourages me. Please don't twist my words or assume. No one has been replying to this for months, and I didn't expect anyone to just because I posted more. But I posted more, just in case someone was still interested in reading it.

So now, all I have as a 'reader' is someone who has been debating various things without having read the story itself. Yea, that's real motivation for me to continue...:shrug:

Concerning who you assume a character is...That's your assumption. If you like to believe Link is nothing like he is in this story, that's fine. I certainly don't expect you to take this version of Link as your own. After all, some people write Raven/Beastboy, and some Raven/Cyborg. In a way, they're doing the same thing I am. Anyway, I don't think Link's very much like the way I write him in this story, either. Why, then, am I writing him this way? As I said before, there's a distinct plot point core to his very existence here that holds that in place. I'm not saying it's a wholly reasonable plot point, but, then again, when compared to many other things I've done with this story, it's not unbelievable, either. Teen Titans can be serious and silly at the same time, and so can this fic.

I'm not saying you have to accept my interpretation of Mario/Link/Sonic/etc. as who that character is in the games. This is NOT a video game, however. I use the basis of the games and twist the characters in ways that makes them more enjoyable to write about. Whenever I read a fic, I go in with an open mind. I have seen a million Marios, Sonics, and Links. Some of them, even though they acted very different from their game counterparts, I liked, and could believe, if they were written in a way that was enjoyable.

If we want to get to the core, Link should not be talking at all. But he is. And Mario? He should be babbling in a ridiculous Italian accent and sputtering 'wa' and 'yahoo' everytime he friggin' moves. However, I find those elements to be silly and out-of-place in a story that tries to take itself seriously. Besides, Mario and the gang are taking the forms of a teenage humans--if that right there doesn't strike you as a bit out of place already, I'm not sure what will.

I try to make the Titans themselves feel like their TV counter parts because I find those characters more believeable to begin with, I guess.

Mario is acting the way he is for a specific reason. So are all of the other oddball characters that don't belong here. That's not to say these characters act radically different in the other stories connected to this one. But, I will say it again, there is a method to the madness.

And I'd rather not reveal the bloody answer to you just so you will leave me alone about it, unless you aren't going to read this anyway. -_-' I don't mean to be rude, but I feel offended that you have no time to read any of the story itself, but you have time to point out every flaw I make in explaining myself and further grilling me. That's grand, and I should be forced to explain myself, but it just doesn't feel just when you haven't read all of my work but only a sliver of it. Had you read the entire story, not only would you not be misjudging things, you would be able to point out true flaws in it that I can actually look at, like whether I rely on suspense for too long, or what-not.

I mean, had I watched a random 2 minute chunk of King Kong 20 minutes into it, I would walk away feeling disgusted. But you have to watch the entire thing before you can understand (or not understand, for that matter) why that section of the film was the way it was. (In this case, not understand, I suppose)

Ya know, this is actually a theme I made pretty obvious in a previous scene with Raven. She keeps judging Robin because Robin has been acting like a jerk, despite the fact she doesn't know what Robin has been through--and neither do my readers, who still make the same judgements.

Now sure, ideally, Robin shouldn't be a jerk whether he's been through he11 or not, but the point is that it's not up to Raven to decide whether he has the right to or not.

And, ideally, I could've spent all of this time writing the story itself. But it's hard to continue a story when one is judging your writing (or implying faults in the style and choices of literary devices) and hasn't event read it--at least to me. I mean, even if you HAD read it, judging it would force me to look at it and see what you see, anyway.

And the points you've made about stylistic things and literary device choices...I can see where you're coming from, and if I were to inspect it all, I'd probably agree with a lot of it. I just feel offended that you're judging these things without reading. I can judge the wacky PS3 controller (looks like a Batarang) all I want, but I really have no right to do so until I've USED it, right?

I hate being judged, just as most people do. If you know everything about me, THEN you can judge me.

If you've read this entire story, THEN you can judge it, and what I have done wrong, or right, or what could be improved, etc. etc.

Now, if you were actually critiquing the last scene as opposed to telling me what an ass Mario is and how out of character he is, your feedback would be treated very differently.

My best friend hasn't read all of this, but he has been critiquing my recent work on it--however, he critiques the writing style, not what I'm writing about.

:yawn:

There's some garbage off my chest. Thanks, I kinda need that.
Being a freshman in college, decided to be a writing major, but not having any writing courses for the 1st semester and thus not writing very much at all...doesn't help so much.

And when I finally start getting back into it, I'm getting criticized over what I'm writing about (or so it seems, and if I'm misinterpreting, well, that happens on the internet), not how I'm writing it.

Whew! Well, sorry if I went overboard or something. :sweat: Don't mean to offend you, but when I get offended, I have a habit of biting back.

Had you actually read this story (and I;m not telling you if it's worth it or not, as that's up to you) I wouldn't be so offended, because that's the core issue--you HAVEN'T read it, but I feel like I'm being judged. I don't think skipping to page 17 is a way to see if reading the rest is worth it. That just makes no sense to me. To me, a journey isn't about the destination--it's about how you get there. This story isn't about the ending, it's about the journey.

If you aren't going to read this, then don't. I could understand after all this hub-bub why you wouldn't want to bother. But after having quite a decent number of people tell me that they really like this story, it would be refreshing to have someone who has read it step up and help me improve my own skills by challenging them, I guess. Whether you think I'm making literary mistakes or not, I am passionate about this story, I am writing it for my own purposes, but like any other artist, I would like my work to be examined and appreciated, or least examined.

If you paint pictures just to let them sit in your own basement and never to be seen or used, well, that's your choice. :zim:

Now, if you want to tell me about poor word choices, or stylistic flaws, or clunky dialogue, or something to that extent, please, do. I'm all ears, because that's one of the reasons I put my fiction on the net in the first place.

And I really should go to sleep now, or something...:gir:

So I'm sorry for exploding, but it did help me feel a little better and get my brain at least doing some sort of work tonight.

[SilverKnight]

>poke<

Guess you missed the irony in all of this, huh? :D

>poke<

Now you sorta know how Amy feels about someone purposely pushing your butons to prove a point.

>poke poke poke<

I despammified this thread, DS. I read the reactions that you gave to other people's replies, and to say the least, I was annoyed by what I saw. Immensely. That 'tone' you didn't know you were taking with me, you took with everyone. What I've been trying to do is purposely rile you up to see how easily offended you get at a response you don't seem to favor, in the hopes of maybe getting you think more about what you say before answering. I'm not sure if I've succeeded or not, but eh, you can't win 'em all on the first try.

I'm not going to argue to your response, because you're pretty much right, and that was generally the entire point I was striving to make, in a subtle, devious way. For what it's worth, I have tried to read this story from the beginning, several times in fact, because aside from everything else I do like your writing style, but I just couldn't get past your comments to other people. You really ought to watch how you word things, especially on the internet, because half of what you say/said makes me want to inflict physical pain upon you. I guess that shouldn't matter, and I'm sure you probably don't care at the heart of it, but unfortunately, it does. From my perspective, you treated the people who took time out of their day to read and respond to your story with a lot less respect and human decency then was warranted, and that bothered me. (Honestly, you're lucky I only found this thread while I was despamming it and not six months ago; I would've had your head on a platter.)

Believe it or not, nobody's obligated to do jack, and regardless of who that person is, what you think of them, or what they reply with, even if it's just, "Wow, cool story!" they deserve to be treated with a modicum of respect, not, "Oh...well, at least it's a response...:shrug: -_-" or "What, that's it? Um, go into detail, people! Come on!" There's no excuse for those kinds of replies. None. If you can manage enough time in your schedule to reply at all, you can reply with something resembling a reasonable tone. It's a nice gesture.

Anyway, the point of this is to just watch how you treat the people who read your stories. And if it makes you feel any better, I don't think your Mario is an arrogant ass; he just plays one in fanfic. ;) Kidding, kidding. :p

Oh yeah, and don't try to be cute and cheat the censors; it's a warnable offense. Consider that an in-thread poke. Thank you.

[Destiny_Smasher]

In-thread poke?

Anyway, if you think I've been 'inhumane' to my 'readers,' then I guess I should apologize.

But it's hard to be 'guilting' people into reading this when no one is here to BE 'guilted' in the first place.

When I say stuff like "Oh...well, at least it's a response...:shrug: -_-" or "What, that's it? Um, go into detail, people! Come on!" it's because I feel robbed.

I can spend hours writing a scene, only to get some pointless replies. And yes, it is true that they at least took time to read it, and they DID at least reply. However, I don't see how else I am supposed to respond to pretty much the exact same reply over and over and over again over thy course of a year or so.

And now I actually feel even more upset because if I was, in fact, being interpreted as being a jerk, I have no recollection of anyone telling me this. I hate being stupid and no one telling me that I am--because then I just continue to be stupid. So thanks for pointing out my 'tone' concerning feedback. I have my reasons for responding in this way (which I don't do wherever I post my fiction, by the way), and after I've known some of my readers for a long time (as on other sites) I can talk like that, but they'll know I'm not trying to be mean. Since I've been posting on other sites long before this one, I probably just sort of brought that over here to people who don't know me as well.

But it's incredibly frustrating to spend 2 years writing something, and putting effort and detail into various elements that NO ONE EVER NOTICES. That's very annoying, frustrating, and otherwise disheartening. But yes, it's still not a good excuse.

So thanks for actually pointing this out to me, and I'd like to hear from the readers I did that to explain that to me to, but the truth seems to be that there simply isn't anyone reading this, which only makes it worse.

On top of that, I have you trying to debunk something you didn't even read, which was the entire reason I got angry in the first place. I don't need you to tell me how easily angered I can get over getting judged on something you haven't even read. I said so myself, that just really gets to me. So I don't think you helped me realize that, since I already KNEW that, but you did help to point out how I may have treated readers, ya know, 10 months ago, when a couple were actually reading this.

Had you found this 6 months ago, my head wouldn't have been on a platter, because my head wasn't HERE. :p 6 months ago, there was STILL no one here, and had you banned me or what-not, it probably wouldn't have mattered much, as this is the only thread I post in, and there hasn't even been activity.

Now, I DO care how I treat my readers, but one doesn't always know how their words are interpreted. If my readers react to my words by taking it with a grain of salt, I won't know I did anything wrong and will assume they understand why I said what I did. I do agree that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, of course, and despite what you said, there ARE excuses, or rather, reasons, why one would respond that way. Nevertheless, you're right, and if those comments hurt my readers, I shouldn't have said them.

Now, I might not 'favor' you dissing my choices of literary devices, but I wouldn't respond the way I did if you had actually read the story through. So if you are going to manage to read it, please do. I havew to go now.

[SilverKnight]

In-thread poke?Mmhmm. A warning that isn't really a warning, more like a nudge, if you will.

But it's hard to be 'guilting' people into reading this when no one is here to BE 'guilted' in the first place.In that, I believe you might be somewhat inaccurate. I'd imagine only half the people that read actually reply, so you still may have readers yet who are either too busy or too afraid to interject on our nice conversation to state something. Furthermore, you do you realize this is a low traffic forum, yes? Meaning not many people are going to be going in and out of this place on a daily basis. As such, it's not the best idea to be putting up stories here under the impression that you're going to be swamped with replies, because, well, you aren't. And, as you've already stated, most of the replies you get aren't exactly dissertations. (Then again, the kind of replies you're craving for are difficult to find anywhere, on both high and low traffic forums, so yeah.)

When I say stuff like "Oh...well, at least it's a response...:shrug: -_-" or "What, that's it? Um, go into detail, people! Come on!" it's because I feel robbed.I can understand the feeling, all the same, it's a poor way to act out on it. You may feel robbed, but in saying things like that, you belittle the reviewer, and as a result, they may not bother responding again at all.

I can spend hours writing a scene, only to get some pointless replies.Way to respect your readers. A real class act. Unfortunately, "pointless replies" is the very nature of the internet; you can say what you want, when you want, without fear of retribution or complete censorship. Sounds a great deal to me like you missed the point entirely. It doesn't matter what they say, if they reply when they don't have to, you should try being courteous, at least.

And yes, it is true that they at least took time to read it, and they DID at least reply. However, I don't see how else I am supposed to respond to pretty much the exact same reply over and over and over again over thy course of a year or so.Hmmm. "Thank you," could work. That's always been a fan favorite.

But it's incredibly frustrating to spend 2 years writing something, and putting effort and detail into various elements that NO ONE EVER NOTICES. That's very annoying, frustrating, and otherwise disheartening. But yes, it's still not a good excuse.Again, I can understand the feeling, but coming from someone who learned the hard way, it's best not to viscerally act on that frustration, lest you wind up spouting off and end up having to pry your foot out of your mouth. ...I'm still prying out mine.

So thanks for actually pointing this out to me, and I'd like to hear from the readers I did that to explain that to me to, but the truth seems to be that there simply isn't anyone reading this, which only makes it worse.You updated all of, what, three days ago? Be patient; you never know when someone may notice this back on the front page.

On top of that, I have you trying to debunk something you didn't even read, which was the entire reason I got angry in the first place. I don't need you to tell me how easily angered I can get over getting judged on something you haven't even read. I said so myself, that just really gets to me. So I don't think you helped me realize that, since I already KNEW that, but you did help to point out how I may have treated readers, ya know, 10 months ago, when a couple were actually reading this.I was trying to show you how angry you get over any reply that isn't a doctorial thesis. If I told I'd read the entire story, and still came to the same conclusions, I'm willing to bet you'd have the exact same response. I must not be reading it correctly, I must be judging it improperly, the character is supposed to be this, even though you wrote it like that. I'm not saying that's the case, of course, because again, I don't know for certain, but this theory was initially formulated as a result of the replies I've read though. I was merely testing it a bit to see if it were true.

Had you found this 6 months ago, my head wouldn't have been on a platter, because my head wasn't HERE. :pOh yes it would have. Trust me. :p

6 months ago, there was STILL no one here, and had you banned me or what-not, it probably wouldn't have mattered much, as this is the only thread I post in, and there hasn't even been activity.I might care to remind you again that this is a low-traffic forum. If you want fast replies, head to ff.net. There are lots of hyper-active teenyboppers there who love to reply to anything and everything they read.

Now, I DO care how I treat my readers, but one doesn't always know how their words are interpreted. If my readers react to my words by taking it with a grain of salt, I won't know I did anything wrong and will assume they understand why I said what I did.And that's what I'm here for. >grin<

I do agree that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, of course, and despite what you said, there ARE excuses, or rather, reasons, why one would respond that way. Nevertheless, you're right, and if those comments hurt my readers, I shouldn't have said them.Yes, there are reasons, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a good, or at least completely justifiable, one. But I'm glad you agree, in any case.

Now, I might not 'favor' you dissing my choices of literary devices, but I wouldn't respond the way I did if you had actually read the story through.And my point was that my actually reading the story through was irrelevant, because if it hadn't been my not reading the entire story, it most likely would have been my not reading it 'the right way', or letting past character biases skew how things 'should' be seen, or that I'm just friggin' stupid and couldn't get it if it jumped onto me and started clawing my face. That is what I was trying to show you, and given your general obliviousness to that, I suppose I failed in my attempt. Either way, further discussion in this would be around the board pointless on either side and should be kept to PM.

Peace.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Um...OK...Funny thing, I'm pretty sure I said a lot of what you already said...Like, I already agree with a lot of what you said in the last post...Like how I don't expect people to post here that often, etc.

So, to end that whole matter, I hereby apologize to anyone I have ever hurt in this thread and will try better not to do so any more. And if I do, slap me in the face and tell me before 17 pages have gone by--I give you permission.

And on top of that, I thank anyone who has taken time to read any of this, whether they read it all, a little bit, they're banned from these forums (poor pookey), or they're been reading all along and don't ever reply.

And thanks to Silver Knight for pointing out these things to me and drawing my attention to the matter.

However, as you said yourself, you will never know how I would react to you critiquing my story until you HAVE read it and can give me good examples of what is wrong or not as good as could be about it. :p

"Now, I might not 'favor' you dissing my choices of literary devices, but I wouldn't respond the way I did if you had actually read the story through."

I meant what I said. Sure, I'd probably defend it, but I wouldn't have been so hostile about it, is what I meant. I'm a sucker for digging myself into holes in debates, but like I said before, I'm more concerned about the process of debating and me learning something than actually proving my point. I just have to be stupid about it in order to learn something, sometimes. :sweat:

Now, then, if you do happen to take the time to read this, Silver Knight, I thank you for being so patient with both me and the time it will take to read, and I invite you to challenge me on how I write this story. You can't be mad at me for defending it, since a.) it's my work, and b.) an argument needs to be challenged in order to prove its validity, yes?

On that note, I should probably be doing homework...But I intend to write some more tonight. Jynx likes drawing unicorns, huh? :anime: So mad I missed that episode...>_<

[Destiny_Smasher]

Um...I thought the last post had been deleted...?

Oh, well. If anybody's out there, here's some more, I suppose. I thought I had posted it already. :sweat:

---

The air was fresh and cool, the spices of autumn drifting through her nostrils and tickling her soul. Oh, man, did it feel so good! After being cooped up in a dark room full of computers for so long, this was a brisk refreshment. And it was so different, going outside just…to go outside. She wasn’t out on a mission to steal anything…she wasn’t worrying about making sure things ran smoothly…She was just here to enjoy here.

The wooden bench was a bit hard against her bony body, but she was enjoying the atmosphere too much to notice.

The sky was a pale palette of bluish gray in the early afternoon, and the sun was up in the sky, not glaring down, but drearily staring. Jynx caught a glance of a flock of geese rising from a brief break at the pond in the distance. They ascended from the pool in a flurry, spraying feathers in their wake, and soon enough, they were ordered into their mighty formation.

The sound of a dog’s bark yanked her gaze from the birds to a small pug, it’s face wrinkled up in disgust…or maybe it was just wrinkled up already. Jynx couldn’t tell, and she didn’t care for dogs at all. Based on the discriminating growl and judicious glare she was receiving from the mutt, Jynx concluded that this dog didn’t care much for her, either.

A sharp whistle cut through the air, lashing around the grouchy dog’s neck like a lasso. It remained transfixed on Jynx, dead-set on ensuring that she knew how pathetic she was. With a disdained snort and a stiff growl, it trotted off, leaving puddles of pride in its footsteps.

Mere seconds after the mongrel was gone, Jynx’s attention was jerked in another direction as the cries of children chimed in her ears. They came in a group of three—none older than seven.

The first was slightly taller than the other two, with spiked maple hair and sharp, eager blue eyes. He had a defiant grin that radiated mischief. The second child was a girl, slightly shorter than the ‘leader,’ pointed pigtails of orange, and olive eyes of ferocity. Though her demeanor hid it, those eyes and her equally sneaky smile conveyed the same glow of tomfoolery as her ally. The third child looked a little younger—he had to be about five. His shy, glazed eyes observed the world around him with timid alarm; he wondered if that shaking leaf would fall on him, or if those flying birds would be a threat, or if that pug near the pond was mean. He kept a balloon at his side, squeezing its string like a lifeline and keeping it pressed to his chest, as if to make sure none would so much as tarnish its shiny, blue surface.

They were all running in single file, chasing after a soccer ball that their ‘leader’ was hording in his grubby paws.

“Cheater! Cheater!” cried the girl, sprinting after him with arms stretched out to catch the boy. Her words were playful and bubbled with giggles.

“Wait! Wait!” whimpered the frail child playing caboose, his balloon drifting behind, bobbing about haphazardly.

The frenzy was cut short as the leader tripped on his untied shoelace. He flailed like a fish out of water as he plummeted to the ground, and the girl behind him shrieked as she fell over him. Both landed flat on their faces in the grass, and the soccer ball popped out from under them. It playfully rolled its way across the grass, and lightly tapped against Jynx’s left boot. She bent over and scooped it up, and a faint memory of her childhood washed over her and left as quickly as it came.

Jynx’s insides were sloshing around inside her, rocking back and forth in an unsettling fashion. As the children scrambled to their feet and rushed her way, she almost felt like throwing up for a moment. The kids came to an abrupt stop, a few feet in front of her. A bad omen washed over her mind—she knew this feeling from somewhere.

No, not right now…Why right now?

“Um…Hi, Miss…”

The words of the feisty child leader slapped her and brought her attention back to the reality laid in front of her. Those three small children stared at her blank expression with an expectant stare for a moment of awkward silence before Jynx’s brain wandered off yet again.

They were so…cute and innocent. Playful, mischievous, and curious. And they wanted their ball back.

“Please? Miss?” The girl clasped her hands together in a coy plea.

“Oh, um…” Jynx fumbled with the ball in a clumsy manner, embarrassed by her own thoughts. Her fingers were tingling, a shiver ran down her spine, and a shock of pain went through her head as she stretched out her arm to hand it to the child—pop.

Wait…pop?

Three pairs of horrified little eyes stared at the black and white lump in her hands. The ex-soccer ball that rested between her skinny fingers had practically been shredded in half. It had started. Why did this have to happen now?

Pop!

The smallest child screamed in terror as a gunshot rang through his air when his blue balloon exploded. Afterward, his fear and grief congealed into a shrieking cry, tears gushing from his eyes. As the girl went to comfort him, the little boy frowned and marched toward Jynx in a fit. Jynx’s hands quivered uncontrollably, and the flat ball slipped from her hands to the grass below. It hit the ground at about the same time as the boy’s face did—he’d tripped on his untied shoelace.

Jynx’s mind was being pounded by throbs of pain and confusing thoughts. A frisbee flew over and whacked the girl in the back of the head. Someone talking on a cell phone walked past her back, shouting into his device due to an absence of reception.

Three children bawling before her, Jynx sprung to her feet and sprinted off, putting distance between her and the poor people her powers were bringing misfortune to. She blasted off, and soon enough, she felt her lungs would burst, but she kept going. She ran and ran, almost out of the park, when a huge, fleshy thing came out from behind a tree, blocking her way.

Something about this large, round, fleshy thing was familiar. For one thing, it smelled pretty rank, and Jynx knew that rank stench from anywhere.

She stared up in turmoil at Mammoth, who glowered down at her with a tainted grin.

“Hey,” he grunted with gruff chuckle.

“Well, well, well,” chimed the whiny voice of Jynx’s other old ‘friend’ as he came dropping from a tree branch, metal spider legs holding him in place. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

Jynx glared at them with jealous fury, hissing, “What do you want?”

“Just sayin’ ‘hi’ to an old pal,” Mammoth slyly explained, his eyes twinkling in a way that suggested otherwise.

“Bull****,” Jynx seethed, her fingers twitching with pain.

“Fine,” Gizmo huffed. “Listen, snotface, we’re only here because our crud-munchin’ Headmaster has an offer for you.”

Jynx’s heart pounded at the thought of going back home, back to the life she once had. This didn’t erase her doubt, however. There was certainly something fishy going on. How did they know she was here? All the same, they had an offer, and she figured she might as well listen to it.

“…What kind of offer?”

---

[Rae]

This scene really makes you feel sorry for Jinx, what with her powers runing amock and her not actually wanting to hurt people for once. Your portrayal of the little kids was good, they seemed cute, yet devious (aren't they all), but you still fet sorry for them when they lost their ball

Overall, a nice little scene with some good descriptions, as usual, and it should be interesting to hear what offer the Hive has for Jinx, and whether she'll take it

Rae, who is still here

[Destiny_Smasher]

Hey, Rae. :sweat: Uhh...Yea, sorry about all that stuff up above. Thanks for checking it out, glad you liked it.

I didn't really concentrate on it much, but I was trying to imply that Jynx has a soft spot for little kids.

There was also a pretty important little hint dropped in there that pertains to something key to the plot right now. Did you notice it? ;)

I was going to continue the conversation, but I decided I'd finish the conversation in a different way, stylistically.

Gah, I have SO totally been neglecting my writing lately...:sad: I don't know how much writing I'd be able to do tomorrow, as I have an exam which I seriously need to study for.

But I'm really looking forward to writing the next bits, because the Raven/Robin conflict will finally be reaching that boiling point. :zim:

Yea...so...what happened to Pookey, anyway? She was banned, or something? I'd really like to know, if anybody could tell me.
And sorry if I've seemed like a jerk for begging for reviews, etc. what-not, but I feel insulted when people read my work and let it sit there. I don't put it here just for the sake of me writing it--I might as well just stick it in my dresser if it was just for me. And I'm glad if there are people still reading this and enjoying it, but I'm trying to become a better writer, and if no one ever tells me what they got from my writing, then there's no way of me to know if I'm writing correctly, what my flaws are, what my talents are, or how can I improve.
Again, I'm sorry for any way I may have mistreated people, and thanks to whomever has stuck with me. But if you expect me to write this solely for myself, why are you reading it? :P

[Destiny_Smasher]

Hello, yet again.
Yes, yes, I'm a dirty bum because I don't write anymore.

I'm posting here more to see if anyone here is still interested in where this story has yet to go, as this is the only fic I am truly comittied to and want to finish at some point or another.

Oh, hey. Now we have :raven:'s. That's cool.

Anyway, I really want to get back into writing this again and finishing it, so I'm wondering if there's still anyone there who is still interested in reading it. It could help give me some motivation to continue, I guess.

[Rae]

If you write more of this story, I'll read more of it! You're a good writer, and this story shows that with its good plot and sub plots and the character interaction, descriptions and just about everything are really good. It really would be a shame to lose such a good story and a good author/writer/whatever you want to be called.

Rae

[Destiny_Smasher]

:sweat:

Oops. Another 3 months gone by, another...absolutely-no-time-spent-writing-fiction. :shrug:

Am I a writer? An author?
I'm not so sure anymore...

I used to be...
Back when I'd rather sit and write by myself or play video games instead of socialize and build bonds with people...

I'm not sure what I am anymore. I'm still figuring that out. But I DO want to finish this, damnit!
If only as a tribute to my teenhood, and all the time I spend writing in high school, I want to finish this before I'm no longer a teenager...

Which means I need to regain my bearings and unrust myself, which could get really ugly.

[Funkatron]

:sweat:

Oops. Another 3 months gone by, another...absolutely-no-time-spent-writing-fiction. :shrug:

Am I a writer? An author?
I'm not so sure anymore...

I used to be...
Back when I'd rather sit and write by myself or play video games instead of socialize and build bonds with people...

I'm not sure what I am anymore. I'm still figuring that out. But I DO want to finish this, damnit!
If only as a tribute to my teenhood, and all the time I spend writing in high school, I want to finish this before I'm no longer a teenager...

Which means I need to regain my bearings and unrust myself, which could get really ugly.

Sweet, you are alive! :p

Sorry I haven't been reading your story. Gonna catch up this week. Hope you get your bearings.

Just to let you know your one of the authors that got me into fanfic to the point I'm writing it myself. Thanks for the inspiration. You rock, Destiny Smasher.

Quick question: any relation o Legend Maker from FFN?

[Destiny_Smasher]

That's right, my name is still the older version, ain't it? :p
Oh, well.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your support. I've been hearing back from some of my old readers, and I guess I inspired a lot of people...
If I did that, then at least something came from all my writing. :sweat:

Legend Maker? Fanfiction.net, is that what FFN is?
No, I don't have any relation...at least none that I know of...?

*checks*

Nope, never heard of her.
Looks like she has some interesting stuff, though.
How did you connect us, anyway?

Man...now I kinda want to write some more...but if I start writing some more, I'm gonna be damn rusty...grah...:raven2:

[TorchLighter]

Soo, headmaster has a proposal, eh? Well, the next installment is going to be interesting. with Starfire gone, Raven searching, and Larry- sorry, Yoshi- on the scene, this counld get very ugly. Star needs to stop blaming herself for the problems caused by the moths. She should start blaming Robin, who frankly, is also a worry. Who cares wo started it? It happened, and the only person we should blame is Kitten. Why am I giving psychological help to imaginary characters?

Great read!!

[Elder Leaf]

Please continue this story! Please! :sweat: I came across some of my old bookmarks recently and that's why I'm here again. But I'm not lying when I say that this is the only fan fiction that I've ever followed, at least up until a few months ago.

[Destiny_Smasher]

:robin:

I'm glad that a couple of people are still enjoying this.

I really want to finish this story, I really do!

And I will try and make time to write some of it...sometime...within the next week and a half. Try. We'll see.

Life has changed a lot since I started this story almost 4 years ago...
As have I.

But I want to see this to its end. Hopefully it will get there sooner or later.

[Destiny_Smasher]

Can you say "fail?" :sweat:

Recently had this brough to my attention. A lot has changed and I've basically discontinued all of my fanfics officially, except this one, which I am having a hard time doing so with...I'm going to have to decide in the next couple of days whether or not I'm going to try to finish this or just give up and throw out an official leave complete with plot explanation.

You guys deserve a resolution of some kind. :raven2: