#with a kick flip and electric blast

[lizplaysdragonage-blog]

Davrin grumpily telling Rook "try to keep up" when they first meet

Rook completely obliterating every darkspawn before he can touch them - all the way to the aerie

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (Yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (Previous) (Next)

(Chapter sixteen lmao)

He can't do this by himself. There was far too much ground to cover and far too little time. Every second that ticked by was another that the hatchling could be mauled.

“I lost the hatchling,” Guilt laced his voice as absolute mayhem broke out throughout the bond. Everyone was talking all at once, pelting questions at him.

“How could you lose him?!” Damian had no excuse. He should have paid closer attention. Something precious was entrusted to him and he'd squandered it. This was a failure he’ll have to carry with him for the rest of his life.

“Hold on, I'll be there in a minute,” Dick said, Damian made no protest.

Damian continued his search of the shallows, attempting to shove himself into caves, making as much noise as possible to lure the child into inspecting. If there was one thing he’s learned about the hatchling while watching him, it was that he’s territorial and curious.

Mere minutes passed before his brother was at his side.

“Is he dead? What do you mean you lost him?”

“I don’t know! He just vanished!”

Dick circled the shallows, nose pointed towards the surface. “I don’t smell blood,”

The hatchling’s blood had a distinct copper smell, that along with its deep red hue made it disturbingly easy to find corpses. He couldn’t be far, they'd find him soon. Even the tiniest of cuts would alert them of his presence. All they had to do was search.

“I think I found him!” Dick called out, his excitement killed by the painful-sounding wheeze of a Crashfish shooting out of its plant. The elder recoiled, thrashing backward, trying his best to avoid the explosive charging straight for him.

He failed, the blast spreading soot against the pale blue of his scales. The sudden explosion paired with the static electricity radiating off his body, resulted in a pained shriek from his brother. His own electricity damaged him, the stress causing jolts of electricity to shoot off him in response. His body seized, tail thrashing through the water, kicking massive clouds of sand up.

A frazzled expression rested on his brother's face, hand swiping at a threat that didn’t exist anymore. In any other situation, he might’ve found this hilarious, but now it was just a waste of precious time.

Precious time that could be used to find the-

“Go wAy”

It was faint, but hidden within the base of a creep vine stalk was the hatchling. The vines curled around the child’s body, tiny fingers curled around the handle of a blade almost bigger than his entire forearm. Odd, the hatchling would have come charging up to attack them but instead, the hatching nestled himself deeper in the vine, seemingly unaware of his detection. Kyanite blue eyes darted between him and Dick, eyes lingering on the elder. Apparently, Dick didn’t feel the wariness radiating off the hatchling in consistent waves of anxiety. If he did, maybe he would've refrained from squealing like Crabsnake and rushing towards the guppy.

“He’s so little!” The elder squealed, making grabby hand at the hatchling who held the blade out in warning. The hatchling wasn't the type to give warnings, only taking a few split seconds to attempt to tear flesh with tiny teeth too weak to do so. Something was preventing the hatchling from attacking Dick. Damian had a hunch as to what it was.

A peeper flipped belly up upon contact with Dick’s electric field. The elder didn’t seem to realize an aura of literal death surrounding him wasn’t appealing to a baby who couldn't understand they weren’t going to eat him. The little one flinched backward swiping wildly through the ocean.

Before Damian had the chance to snap, the guppy darted behind him, gripping onto a fin and attempting to use Damian as a shield.

“Damian, tell him I’m safe,” The elder begged, like Damian had any control over a guppy’s behavior! He wasn't some stalker who could be trained by tossing a couple pieces of meat in their direction! While it was possible to behavior train sentient beings, it was a hassle. A hassle that would land him another scolding from father who’d be… less enthused after the “incident” with Drake.

“Do you think I have him trained?” The elder paused as if considering what to say next. Good.

“I mean… Do you?”

“No! I didn’t train a baby,” He roared, tucking the child beneath a clawed hand, enough space for the child to dart through the gaps in his fingers but not enough for Dick to grab at him.

“DaMi ProtEct mE”

Dick froze, a squeal so high in pitch it disoriented a stalker that wandered into the shallows. “He knows your name! Come on kiddo, say my name too!” The elder encouraged, much to the hatchling’s terror. Damian sighed, lifting his claws to swipe at his elder brother.

“OW! What was that for?!” Dick pouted, rubbing his cheek.

“You’re scaring him!”

"I am not! right buddy?” Dick reached for the hatchling, the little one ducking away from the elder's open grasp.

“Scary,”

The hatchling screamed, the sound unnerving, sending shivers down their spines as the little one clung to Damian like a lifeline. Dick couldn’t have looked any more heartbroken.

“I told you, having both of us here would stress him out!” Damian snapped.

“You asked us to come help you find him!” The elder defended.

“Well, here he is. You can go now!”

"But-"

“Until Father dismisses me from this mission himself I will be the one watching this hatchling,” Damian interrupted.

“Damian…You know how fragile these babies are, we all need to be there for him,”

“I am perfectly capable of watching a hatchling on my own!” Damian snapped.

“You lost him about an hour ago,” Dick reminded.

“Irrelevant,” The hatchling squirmed, darting between his claws and booking it towards the surface. The hatchling did this often. Damian had learned pretty early on that it wasn’t cause for concern.

“…” Dicks silence spoke a thousand words. Damian prepared to explain the harmlessness of the action but was interrupted by his brother speaking.

“He breathes air?” The question rippled through the sea. It was an odd trait for a hatchling to have, very few creatures had the ability to breathe air. If you stuck close to the surface, you could see one of the only land dwellers flying through the sky.

“What is he?” They already knew all the babies came from artificial structures. Artificial structures that crashed down from the stars when shot down by the precursor’s structure. The children looked like their more vulnerable forms, just without the tails to jet them through the water. The all the hatchlings had legs different than anything they'd seen before. Legs suited for both land and sea.

“My guess is he’s like a cave crawler,” The child could swim, unlike cave crawlers who just walked around on the seabed. But they both shared the ability to walk on land. The hatchling stood on a piece of coral sticking out above water, staring at them intently.

The two of them watched the hatchling swim around, Damian smacking Dick to ease the child’s fear whenever he got too close for the guppy’s comfort.

“Stop hitting me!” Dick cried dramatically.

“Go back to the bulb zone and I will,” Damian snapped.

“Your electricity is killing the fish!” As if to prove his point, a garyfish floated into Dick’s electric field, almost popping from the sheer voltage the other was giving off.

“What do you think it’ll do to the hatchling if you actually manage to grab him, huh?” Damian questions, realization dawning on the eldest.

“Go back to the bulb zone and calm yourself. That Crashfish clearly stressed you out,” Damian finished, waving the other away.

“Fine, but I expect you to keep us updated!” Dick called out, boosting away from the shallows, using his hands to launch himself at top speed.

“We wIn!”

The hatchling declared, circling around him for a few seconds before fleeing to his nest.

Damian sighed, glad that the hatchling finally grew tired of attacking him.

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim @dragongoblet @noxcheshire

[sorinethemastermind]

Fluffcember 2024: Confessions | Rayllum & Sorvus & Clauderry Callum is determined to ask Rayla to be his girlfriend this Winter Break. But if he can't even start a fire, how is he supposed to create the perfect moment? Soren has decided to stay on campus this Christmas, but with Rayla and Callum as his only company, he's starting to feel like a third wheel. Except maybe it's not just the three of them left on campus after all. Meanwhile Claudia is trying to have a nice Christmas with her family, but maybe her family isn't at home...

 Corvus watched the slight swagger to Soren’s step as the other man led the way down to the breaker room. Usually they would have walked in stride with one another, but today Corvus found himself trailing behind, observing more than anything else.

 They hadn’t talked about it yet.

 Not that there was much to talk about. And yet there was everything to talk about.

 Soren threw a glance back at Corvus over his shoulder, giving him a little smile as he tossed the blond hair out of his face with a flick of his head.

 “You’re quiet.”

 “I’m always quiet.”

 “You’re super quiet.” Soren observed.

 “I’m my normal level of quiet.” Corvus said. It was true.

 “You’re not usually this quiet with me.”

 Corvus opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again without saying anything. That was also true.

 Soren slowed his steps until Corvus caught up to him, the pair of them walking side by side.

 “Are you… mad at me?”

 Corvus did a double take, glancing over at him in surprise. “Of course not? Why would I be mad at you?”

 Soren kicked at the ground a little bit, pausing at the door to the breaker room. “I dunno. I mean… you’ve sort of been… avoiding me since the thing.”

 “The kiss.” Corvus said. It was the first time either of them had uttered it aloud.

 “Yeah.” Soren glanced up at him from beneath his flop of blond hair. 

 “I am not mad at you.” Corvus told him, opening the door and shivering at the blast of cold air. “That would be silly. I kissed you.”

 That was definitely the first time either of them had said that. It was also the first time Corvus had admitted it to himself.

 “Yeah. Yeah, you did.” 

 Corvus caught Soren’s little smile and the slight flush to his cheeks, feeling his own face warm. He glanced away, stepping into the electrical room and looking around.

 “Alright, how do we fix this?” he asked, trying to focus on the task at hand. “Do you think we’ll need to-”

 Soren walked up to a nearby panel on the wall, popped it open, and flipped a switch down. He waited a moment, then switched it back up. After a moment, the lights flickered to life. Corvus stared at him.

 “I thought-”

 “You were sort of avoiding me.” Soren gave him a sheepish smile. “I saw an opportunity and…” he shrugged. “I took it.”

 Corvus laughed, then. Because it was such a Soren thing to do and he didn’t know how he hadn’t seen it when they came down here the first time. He’d tried to bring it up then, too. But Corvus had staunchly avoided the subject.

 “So you said the breaker was faulty.”

 “Sorry.” Soren shuffled his feet. “I just… I really wanted to talk to you about… the thing. I don’t want to have messed stuff up between us. I really like you.”

 “Again, I kissed you.” Corvus said.

 “Yeah. But it was my idea. I don’t know if you even…”

 “Like boys?”

 “Yeah.” Soren gave him an awkward smile.

 “I kissed you, didn’t I?”

 “You did.”

 “And did I kiss you like I don’t like boys?” Corvus asked, raising an eyebrow at him. 

 Soren grinned. “No. No, you definitely didn’t.”

 “Well, there you go, then.” Corvus leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest in an effort to keep warm. The heat would take a while to start reaching down here.

 Soren boosted himself up to sit on a nearby console, legs dangling over the side. He kicked them for a moment, not saying anything, and then glanced back up at Corvus, blue eyes filled with questions.

 Corvus sighed. “You didn’t mess anything up between us. The truth-” Corvus swallowed. “The truth is it was… I didn’t know…”

 Soren waited patiently as he blew out a nervous breath before collecting his thoughts.

 “I came out to my parents at Thanksgiving.” Corvus said, finally.

 “Oh.”

 “They didn’t have the reaction I… hoped for.”

 “Oh.” Soren slid off the console and crossed the little room to stand a few feet from Corvus, reaching out like he wanted to comfort him before letting his hand swing back to his side.

 After a moment, Corvus reached out and took it. “I’ve known for a while.” his thumb traced circles across the back of Soren’s hand. “But it was always something I could ignore. Then I went to college and I… didn’t have to, anymore. It was oddly freeing.” 

 “I don’t think that’s odd.” Soren said, giving him a sad smile. “You shouldn’t have to ignore any part of yourself.” he chewed his bottom lip, thoughtfully. “I know it’s not the same, but my Dad… he’s always been really hard on me. He wanted me to be different. I don’t know why, I don’t know what he wanted me to be. But I used to try and be whatever it was. I’m here studying law.” he laughed a little ruefully. “Because I thought that’s what he would have wanted. It didn’t change anything. Now he just thinks I’m doing that wrong.”

 “I’m sorry.”

 Soren shook his head. “I’m not. It… took me a while to not care. And sometimes I still do.” his blue eyes sparked. “But if someone doesn’t love you for you; for who you are, really and honestly and truly, then that’s their loss. You’re pretty fucking great, Corvus.”

 “You’re pretty great, too.” Corvus told him with a little smile.

 “Oh, am I?” Soren asked teasingly, leaning a little closer. “And what do you think is so great about me, huh?”

 “Hm.” Corvus thought about it for a moment. “So far? Everything.”

 Soren flushed and he smiled, taking a step towards him. Corvus brushed the hair out of his face and Soren leaned into his touch, gazing up at him with those bright blue eyes.

 Blue like the sky on a cloudless day.

 Blue like the hydrangeas in the garden of his childhood home.

 Blue like the little sapphire earrings his mother always wore.

 Blue like the hottest of flames.

 Everyone assumed that blue was cold, but maybe it was warm. Not ice, but fire.

 “We don’t have to do this if you’re not ready.” Soren said, softly.

 “I’m tired of waiting.” Corvus leaned forward, pressing their foreheads together. Soren’s hair tickled his cheek, their noses brushing. “Maybe it’s time to just be me.” he considered. “Us?””

 “I think it would be nice to just be us.” Soren agreed, closing what little distance there was left between them with a kiss.

 Corvus reached his other hand up to cup the side of his face; fingers brushing across Soren’s cheek as he reached up to tangle them in his hair. The kiss became more intense, Corvus’ back pressing against the wall as one of Soren’s hands came to rest in the small of his waist, the other traveling up his arm to land on his shoulder.

 Everywhere he touched it was like a little fire was spreading, warming Corvus inside and out, filling him up. And when they finally pulled apart, Soren laughing and smiling and the both of them out of breath, he could see that same spark dancing in those blue eyes. Bright and warm and welcoming.

[speedyartist30]

Botw AU:Hylia bridge 

The character on the right is my buddies @stellercherry💜 Her oc name is Rylei and she’s so cool and I love her design ✨✨

Anywho here’s a short story of their team up ✨

Jay sprinted towards the bridge,his form a streak of lightning through the storm. His mind was focused, each step bringing him closer to the bridge and the threat that awaited. As he neared the Bridge of Hylia, Jay’s eyes scanned the horizon. He could see the dark shapes of the guardians moving, their mechanical forms stark against the rain-soaked backdrop. His heart quickened, not with fear, but with determination. He could also sense the malice within them, a dark energy that made his skin crawl.

Without hesitation, Jay launched himself into the fray. His katana hummed with electricity, each strike precise and deadly. He floated above the ground, dodging the guardians’ lasers with ease, his speed and agility making him a difficult target. The rain added an extra layer of challenge, turning the bridge’s surface slick and hazardous. But Jay’s focus never wavered; he was the Champion of Souls, and he would protect this bridge at all costs. The guardians were relentless, their attacks coordinated and fierce. Jay danced through their ranks, his movements a blur of lightning and steel. He struck with deadly accuracy, his katana slicing through the machines’ defenses. Despite his skill, the sheer number of guardians threatened to overwhelm him.

Jay flipped out the way and threw a bolt of lightning, sparks glued as guradians fell back or careening over the sides and into the waters below. That didn’t slowly the corrupted machines down, Jay shifted his stance and readied himself for the next wave. Behind him he heard a faint beep behind him, a guardian ready to fire. 

*Sh*t..*

The gurdian was just about to fire when a large axed pierced its scensor. Thundering rumbled as a gray rito emerged from the sky, swiftly she landed and yanked her weapon free. Rylei, the Rito warrior, arrived with a calm aura, her feathers glistening with rain. She stepped gracefully beside Jay, her dual axes at the ready. Her calm, collected demeanor was a stark contrast to the chaotic battle around them.

”Master Jay, I see you can use a hand.”

“I’d appreciate it, great timing as always Ryeli.”

Jay held his hands up as a shield of golden lightning surrounded them, giving him a few moments to explain the situation.

“The guardians are corrupted with malice, it’s not a malfunction like we initially thought. We have to attack there cores to fully wipe them out or they’ll just get up again.”

Rylei nodded, her eyes narrowing with determination. “Understood. Let’s take them down.”

“I’ll go low, you go high.”

Together, they rushed towards the horde. Jay’s lightning strikes combined with Rylei’s fierce axe attacks created a deadly synergy. They moved in perfect harmony, each understanding the other’s intentions without needing words. Rylei’s agility and aggression complemented Jay’s speed and precision, their combined efforts devastating the guardians. 

Punching his fist into a guardian and crushing the core, Jay leapt back as a blast whizzed past his head. Rylei brutally cut a guardians legs off before plunging her axes into it as she rolled out the way of a stray beam. Jay knew they needed more than brute strength to see the end to this fight. Kicking a guardian over the edge jay ran towards her and yelled

“Ryeli meet me in the air I got an idea!”

She nodded and with a beat of her wings went into the air and blended with the clouds. With a spark Jay floated into the air after her and once he got by her side he quickly explained his plan

“I’m going to give you a boost of power, we can’t let this bridge fall.”

Ryeli looked at him a bit unsure, but he knew she wasn’t going to let her feelings get in the way. She nodded and with a sparking hand jay touched her shoulder. He felt the power in her soul and he fueld it with his blessed power. A teal aura surrounded her as she looked at the sparks around her weapons.

“I’ll head down first to distract them, I’ll clear a path for you.”

Rylei nodded, her eyes narrowing with determination.Jay charged up the lightning and fused it with his sword, he dove down in a bright golden light. He deflected the blasts with his swords and send bolts of his own as Ryeli followed behind him like a shadow. Seeing the opening Jay yelled over the storm

“Now, Rylei!”

Rylei responded instantly, she plummeted to the bridge like a shooting star with a powerful flap of her wings. She raised her axes high, and as she descended, Jay directed a surge of lightning towards her. The electricity enveloped Rylei, enhancing her already formidable strength. She struck the ground with a thunderous impact, sending shockwaves through the guardians.

The combined attack was devastating. The guardians’ cores were exposed, their malice flickering as they struggled to recover. Jay didn’t waste a moment, slicing through the weakened machines with his katana. Rylei’s axes followed, cleaving through the corrupted metal with brutal efficiency.

Finally, the last guardian fell, its mechanical body collapsing into the mud. The rain began to lighten, the storm breaking as if acknowledging their victory. Jay and Rylei stood on the bridge, breathing heavily but victorious. Jay’s eyes scanned the area, ensuring no more threats remained. He nodded to Rylei, who returned the gesture with a rare smile.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Nothing Is Lost

Khonshu x Fem!Reader

TW/CW: Burnout, exhaustion, overworked (aren't we all?) shit gets a wee bit too relatable

A/N: Did I spend too much time looking through how the gods were worshipped? Yes, yes I did. Do I finally have a way to vent the weird feelings I have about the angry bird man? Also yes.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Chapter 1:

Dust and Echoes

Day after day, night after night. The dreadful tedium of your life was not lost on you. The same job every night, the same work that left knots and tension in your back and muscles, your arms feeling like they were about to fall off and your feet feeling like you had holes drilled into the bottoms...

You couldn't work during the day, it was just simply not in your schedule. No matter how you tried, it was hard to stay awake during the day.

You had a severe case of insomnia, no doctor you went to (when you could afford them, which you barely could) could prescribe anything that would help you sleep. You even tried hypnosis. That was wild.

The dude said you flipped out and started talking in another language, and he was half tempted to call the church on you! That memory was always good for a laugh.

Could be worse, you supposed.

After all, your night job was cleaning a small office building (four floors, and your coworkers almost never helped) which meant mostly deserted floors and dozens of vacant cubicles.

It was kind of relaxing in a way, you could plug in your headphones, blast your favorite tunes and just go off into your own little world while you cleaned.

The world which you concocted was one many overworked and underpaid individuals such as yourself dreamt. A nice big house, food in the fridge, never having to worry about missing the next bill payment or not being able to afford insurance...

But you always had to wake up from that dream world.

You hated that part of your night.

While yes, you have always found the comfort and coolness of the night soothing, there were still dangers lurking out there in the dark.

You'd taken some half-assed self defense classes (you had to drop out because of your sleep schedule), but your skills were lackluster at best. So, you opted for your mace and taser as your trusty companions.

You'd been attacked and mugged five times in the last year and a half. You learned to stop carrying your money on you after the second time, only keeping your metro card on you.

You wondered why, why of all places, did you decide to move to New York? You were a country girl blinded by the dazzling lights, a stupid cliché trope you hated yourself for existing in.

And what did your naivete earn you? A shitty one room apartment that was barely the size of most motel rooms. The only reason you stayed was because at least your apartment had that small kitchen, compared to the rathole hostels you'd unfortunately been victim to before.

Your landlord was shrewd and strict, but at least the rent was affordable. That was the only blessing. Because your electric and other utilities were covered in your rent, you really only needed to worry about money for food. Which... you had been subjected to a rather unhealthy diet consisting mostly of tv dinners, dollar menu fast foods, and cheap Chinese takeout.

Half the time you felt like there was more to this, but logic always kicked in.

Then again, everyone felt like there was more to life when their life consisted of being a faceless, nameless, replaceable cog in the corporate machine.

But for you, even despite your logic, you just... you could feel there was more out there for you. Something meaningful.

You couldn't place your finger on it, but you just knew. It was like an itch under your skin, a tingling in your fingertips.

You were special. You just... you knew you were. Sometimes you could predict what somebody was going to say before they said it, sometimes you could fix things you'd never even looked at before, sometimes, you swore you could see things before they happened.

Oh, and then there were the dreams. Those dreams gave you the willies.

Usually in those dreams, you were floating in a black void, blinking until things came into focus. Looking down at your feet, it was like you were walking on perfectly smooth water, stars blinking to life one by one, reflected on the surface like an inky black mirror, your own reflection not able to be seen.

You would walk and walk and walk... but never reached a destination.

That's when you would feel something. Like the first winter chill creeping into the autumn breeze.

A voice. Deep, raspy... mournful.

You could never make out what the voice said, but whoever it was, they sounded lonely; almost in pain.

But then all at once you would be swallowed up into a light, almost like you were falling back to the very Earth itself, waking with a jolt, your clothes soaked with sweat, your hair dripping with it.

Yeah. Those dreams were the worst. You never felt rested when you had them...

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Today was one of the rare days you forced yourself out of bed and ventured out into the light of day. After all, humans need sunlight. And you were starting to look dreadfully pale.

You were confident you looked like some sort of ghoul, the way people gave you such sideways glances...

You shrugged your bag over your shoulders, looking into the storefronts curiously. You weren't looking for anything specific. You were aimlessly wandering at this point, really. You had two days off (only because your boss flat out told you you've hit overtime twice this month, and even he was concerned for your health) and figured, hey... may as well get some vitamin D while you're at it.

You shoved your hands in your pockets, your pinky poking through the hole on the inside of the pocket on the left side. God, you thought, I should make a trip to the thrift store today, get some decently-used jeans. Need some with less mileage on em.

The smell of incense burned your nostrils, crappy "spiritual" flute music croaking over a speaker well past its prime, wind chimes toning lazily in the breeze.

You lift your gaze and spot the shop, some kind of "witchy aesthetic" kinda thing. Pentacles, Celtic symbols, as well as some Norse-Pagan paraphernalia littered the front window. As well as the gauche lettering depicting palm readings and fortunes, and of course "magic".

Pah. Stupid.

You were about to walk by when two young women clad in black walked by, happily chirping to one another about offerings, smudgings, or... whatever it was. It wasn't your business.

As you watched them go, you turned to continue on your path, but a hand gripped your wrist.

The owner of the appendage was a woman. Her brown hair streaked with gray, her olive-green eyes seeming like they were focusing on something far away rather than at you.

"Uh..." You said, slightly uncomfortable.

"Oh! Forgive me, dear..." She laughed, taking your hand in hers and patting the back of your palm with her free hand; the thick leather bracer on her forearm was an odd fashion choice, you mused.

"Would you like to come in? I have something for everyone!" She winked.

"Er, well, I'm not really into... this whole thing." You chuckle nervously.

"Oh you don't have to be, sweetheart. No harm in looking, is there?"

"....Alright." You concede. She had a good point.

Your noticed as she let your hand go, your "funny feeling" was starting to tingle your fingertips.

And as you walked past the threshold of the front door? Your whole body felt like it was tingling.

Wall to wall, the small shop was filled with things that dazzled the senses, both visually and you were certain in other ways.

The woman hummed as she led you deeper into her shop, gesturing for you to walk into a dark room that was bordered with a beaded curtain in the door.

Yeah. That was how dumb people in horror movies got murdered. No, thank you.

"Look, I can just... uh." You try to find an excuse to turn down the woman who treated you with such polite words and demeanor.

But something about her had you so, so curious. Your "feeling" could not anticipate this woman, anything she said or did seemed a mystery to you.

"You seem tired, dear." She smiled sweetly, her hands clasped in front of her.

"I... well. I'm..."

"Overworked. I assume this is your first day off in days? Weeks, maybe?" She sighed, a sympathetic look on her face.

"How did you--"

"You are very pale, dear. Here, come. Come. Sit with me, hm?" She giggles, reaching out to bring you past the beaded curtain and into the dark room.

Her name, she told you, was Jezebel.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Goddamn you and your curiosity. The things this woman were telling you were compelling you. It was insane, the things she knew about you. She was right on the nose.

Even about the muggings.

That was when she brought up the subject of protection. When you brought up your self defense and "weapons", she chuckled and waved it off, simply saying that she didn't mean "that" kind of protection.

When you asked what she meant by that, she walked into another room connected to the dark room you were in, the table draped in a velvet cloth with tarot cards laid meticulously set.

She came back with something wrapped in a black silk cloth.

"Here, child. Try this." She hands you whatever it is, and encourages you to unwrap it.

Wrapped inside was a small, old-looking (Ancient, if you were honest) statuette of some sort. You could tell, even with your uneducated eye, that this was done in some kind of style reminiscent of the statues of ancient Egypt that you'd only glimpsed in documentaries. At first you thought it might be Horus, but the head was all wrong...

"Pray to Khonshu, and he will protect you during your travels in the night." She said sweetly.

"I..." You can't tear your gaze away from the statue.

"I can give you prayers, incense, an altar cloth, and basic offerings to get you started, sweetheart. Wait right here."

Before you can reject her offer, she vanishes elsewhere in the store...

And before you know it, she hands you a burlap bag, putting the statue, plus the other items in the bag for you.

"I... I can't pay for this, I..." You stammer.

"Trust me, my dear. This is on the house. You need this." She winks, patting the back of your hand again.

"Now, go. Set up the altar when you get home, get some rest, and say a prayer. Do this every time you leave during the night, and Khonshu and his Fists will protect you."

Somehow, you felt compelled yet again to accept her word, leaving her shop, your brain in a fog.

As you walked, you felt something.

Like a soft voice whispering on a desert wind.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Jezebel watched you leave, a satisfied and happy smirk playing on her lips.

Above, she heard the croaking of a crow.

She made a soft whistle and held out her arm, the one wearing the leather bracer.

And in a blur, a crow, white as snow and eyes as red as blood, landed on her arm, making very happy noises, almost singing at her, in his own way.

"Yes, I know, Zephyr." She smiled wider as she walked inside, Zephyr waddling up her arm to sit on her shoulder.

"I could sense it, too. Perhaps He will answer that girl..."

She then pulled the leather bracer off her arm, and looked at the mark on her inner wrist.

When she looked at the scales, Jezebel smiled.

🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑

Chapter 2: Link

[sapphire-heart-tippy]

Sugar Crash Void Bash: The Fanfic!

Back to the beginning

CWs: Peril, unnatural body contortion, blood, violence, sharp weapons

Chapter ???: Piece of Cake

(there are two (2) endings)

Previously on Sugar Crash Void Bash:

Emmanuel strains and shudders from both the pain of being shot with an energy beam, and from being shocked by the cage’s bars. He finally has Jonathan fully enveloped in Slick’s shadow form. Now all there is left to do is pull him out.

Ramón wails as he slams the golden halberd down into the jewel repeatedly. Gilded Cobra slithers over to the fusion, unhinging his jaw and going in to take a finishing bite. Ramón looks over once again and shrieks,

“NOOOO!!!”

This time sobbing in terror. There is not much time left before Razz separates back into Ice and Tippy.

Now:

Emmanuel attempts to pull Jonathan into the shadows with him. Beleza sees this and sends Gilded Cobra to take care of it. The snake stand opens his mouth and sprays corrosive venom all the way up to where Emmanuel and Jonathan are. Razz kicks and kicks at Beleza, but it appears to no longer have an effect on him. That’s when he uses up any ounce of strength he has left to make Volatile Amethyst tackle Gilded Cobra.

Gilded Cobra sprays venom from his fangs, but is completely taken down by Amethyst. The corrosive venom barely misses Emmanuel’s face by a hair. He shakes it off and ends up finally enveloping Jonathan in Slick’s shadow form.

Beleza collapses onto the ground from his stand being attacked. He hisses from frustration and shoots an electric blue energy beam at Emmanuel, missing him just barely. 

“Okay, you know what?” The one-eyed man huffs and slips back into Slick’s shadow form, crawling down the wall. 

Ramón continues smashing the gem with the halberd, causing it to crack and chip even further.

Beleza stands up, about to blast Razz with an energy beam. Just then, the fusion is broken apart because his time is up. Vanilla and Tippy fall to the ground, completely depleted of strength.

CRRRK!!!

Beleza’s arm jerks away, blasting a hole into the ceiling,

“HUH?!” He looks at his hand with confusion.

Ramón smashes the head of the halberd into the gem, still pulsating with a red glow. Beleza contorts forwards, then backwards, popping his spine with an audible crack. His hands are stiff, fingers twisted in a disturbing fashion.

SMASH!!!

Beleza’s body twists and contorts.

CRRSHHKK!!!

Beleza’s eyes are rolled back in his head and his mouth is agape as he convulses violently. He is completely bent over backwards, twitching and stiff.

With a final crash with the enchanted halberd, Ramón completely destroys the gem. The lavender haired man’s eyes and mouth glow a bright blue. Energy pours out of his eyes and mouth until he limply falls over onto his back, presumably deceased.

Ramón scrambles to his fathers, Emmanuel does the same. They both gaze upon the two gentlemen with widened eyes.

Tippy rubs his forehead then points at Vanilla,

“V-Vans! Your… your hair.”

Ice touches his hair and sees that there are no longer grey streaks,

“W-what the hell?” He looks at Tippy, “You… oh no.” He looks up at Emmanuel and sees that he no longer has wrinkles on his face either, “Emmanuel… you too…”

“Me?” Emi gives Vanilla an incredulous look, then takes out his phone, flipping over to the front camera, “Another one of those ‘bloop’ things must’ve happened… that’s what that weird feeling was.”

“I don’t care what you guys look like!” Ramón wraps his parents up in a hug and weeps from relief. Vanilla and Tippy hug their son back with warmth radiating from their smiles. Ice goes in to kiss Ramón on the cheek, but stops himself. Instead, he gives his son a loving smile.

Ramón motions for his papa to lean down, to which Ice does. The teen gives Vanilla a soft kiss on the cheek and chuckles at his reaction. The family members all laugh and hug each other with joy and relief.

“Uuuunnnghh…”

Vanilla’s brows furrow in rage, 

“HE’S STILL ALIVE!!!”

Ice angrily makes his way to Beleza with clenched fists. The lavender haired man is on his hands and knees, hair over his face. Ice shoves him and grabs Beleza by the collar of the top, ready to punch him in the face.

“Vanilla?!” Beleza’s voice is more light, sweet, and a little lilted as opposed to the deep and sultry voice he had before. His eyes are dark brown and widened with pure bewilderment. Ice lets him drop to the ground on his knees,

“W-what?!”

Bel looks around, distressed and disturbed. He stumbles and crawls backwards on his behind,

“W-who are you?!” He shakily points at Tippy, then at Ramón, “A-and you?!” then points at Emmanuel, shaking even more, “A-AND YOU?!” He gives Vanilla an infuriated and betrayed look, “Where am I?! What the hell is going on, Vanilla?! Where did you take me?!”

Everyone pauses in stunned silence, all staring down at this new Beleza Muscadine.

“Um… would somebody be as kind as to free me, please?” Jonathan calls down to everyone.

Back at the mansion

Beleza is sitting in a chair, thighs squished together and hands holding his biceps tightly, clearly uncomfortable and defensive in this environment. He doesn’t look at anyone, only pouts and shakes his head to continue talking,

“I told you, I don’t freaking remember anything.”

Dio pours some tea into little tea cups as Bel goes on,

“All I remember is, when I was under the jewel’s spell, trying to kill Dio, then he banished me. The last thing I remember after that, was looking up at the moon and saying, ‘What am I gonna do now?’ That’s it. I don’t know any of you people besides Dio, Jonathan, and…” Bel sneers, “Vanilla.”

Ice ignores Bel’s disdain for him and asks,

“Do you know what year it is?”

“Probably like… 1991 I guess? I dunno, I mean, I guess like a few years have passed after I got possessed or whatever.” Bel pouts and rests his cheek on his palm. Emmanuel and Tippy grimace at each other. Tippy’s brows frown in worry,

“Well… it’s actually… 2038.”

Bel slams back in the chair, grabbing the armrests of it,

“WHAT?! Are you freaking kidding me?! That makes literally no sense!” Bel points at Vanilla, “If it really is that far into the goddamn future, then why aren’t you a wrinkly old bastard?! Did ‘Big Bad Mr Dio’ finally turn you into a vampire?!”

“Er… no.” Ice grits his teeth, trying to maintain composure.

The group explains to Beleza everything that had happened, including the second Big Bloop. Which, come to find out, others have decided to call it, “The Great Ripple”. They all check news outlets and articles both on the television and the internet. This has yet again affected everyone on the planet. A lot of people have reverted back to how they were 10-30 years ago, some physically, some with their memories, and some with both.

Vanilla looks down to his lower left and mumbles,

"There's a chance... They won't be so old now..."

"Hm? What was that, Vans?" Tippy asks, tilting zeir head at him.

"Nothing, sweetie. I'll, um... I'll tell you on the plane ride back home." Ice lazily rubs his husband's head.

Ramón reads more articles on his phone, feeling like The Great Ripple is partially his fault. Dio clicks the TV remote, making it turn off.

Bel is scrunched up in his chair. He has his nose wrinkled and lips twisted into a displeased frown. He pretends not to be fearful and upset, but he very clearly is.

Dio takes a sip of his tea,

“Quite daunting, hm?” He chuckles, “Well. I certainly don’t want the likes of you in my manor anymore, I don’t care if you don’t remember your crimes.”

“Whatever,” Bel crosses his arms, “As if I ever wanted to come back to this shitty little shack anyway.” He points at himself with his thumb, gripping the armrest with his other hand, “I made my own way out of a shithole before, and I’ll do it again.”

Tippy can sense that Bel is lying and he doesn’t know what to do after this. Ze feels great sympathy for him. After thinking for a few moments, ze finally speaks up,

“Hey, Bel?”

“Yuh huh?” He crosses his legs and gives zem a bored look.

“There’s… there’s room for a fourth person back home–”

“Yeah, and it’s going to Emmanuel. My family.” Vanilla interrupts Tippy, appalled that ze would be willing to let somebody like Beleza into their home.

“Actually, ‘cous,” Emi chimes in, “I’m good staying here in Egypt. Besides, I’m making bank being one of Mr Dio’s servants.”

Ice purses his lips and gives his cousin a piercing glare. Emi shrugs in response. Tippy steps a little closer to Bel,

“Well, you’re welcome to stay with us, Bel. It’s up to you, okay?” 

The lavender haired man is stunned at Tippy’s gentle tone. He blushes and gets angry at himself for being enchanted and feeling vulnerable. Bel pouts,

“Hmph…” He side eyes Tippy, “I’ll think about it. After all, apparently that guy saved my life.”

“That guy… would be my son.” Ice pats Ramón’s back. Bel’s face twists into utter confusion, his teeth are showing and he looks even a little disgusted. His eyes dart back and forth from Vanilla and Tippy. Quicker than a bullet, Bel’s face changes from confusion to realization at the implication,

“Oh.”

He stares at Tippy, feeling even more drawn to zem in particular.

The next day

Tippy is sitting on zeir suitcase at the front door, playing on zeir phone and waiting for zeir husband and son to finish getting ready. Bel hesitantly approaches Tippy. The blue haired person sees him from zeir periphery, but ignores him so as to not deter him from speaking. Bel clears his throat and leans his back up against the wall,

“So…”

“So…?” Tippy looks up at Bel. This makes Bel’s cheeks flush and avert his gaze,

“Hmph.” He glances over at zem a few times. Beleza nonchalantly pretends to scratch under his top, revealing his telling scar under his right pectoral. Tippy notices and realizes what he’s doing. Tippy smiles knowingly and mimics what Bel is doing, revealing one of zeir faded scars on the left side.

This makes the lavender haired man’s heart race and gives him a shot of adrenaline throughout his body. His cheeks heat up even more. Bel tries to stifle a giggle and hide his smile by pulling his lips into his mouth. Tippy chuckles and looks up at him, gosh, he’s… pretty cute.

One month later

Dio, Jonathan, Erina, and Emmanuel live a pretty lavish and cozy life in the mansion. Emi keeps in touch with his family. Erina and Jonathan are still very much in love and appreciate Emmanuel’s assistance as well as his friendship.

The family of three and Beleza Muscadine end up going back to the Ice family’s home. Bel didn’t want to intrude and stay in their house, so he opted for a hotel room until he can get back on his feet and get a place of his own.

After many visits and hang-outs, the couple and gentleman started becoming very close friends.

“Hey…” Vanilla whispers softly to his husband. Tippy turns to Vanilla, trying to see him through the darkness, using the moonlight pouring from the window as a lightsource,

“Yeah, baby?”

“I need to get this off my chest.” Ice sits up and puts his head in his hands. Tippy sits up as well, feeling concerned,

“What’s wrong, Vans?”

It takes Vanilla a while to speak. He drags his hands across his face and leans his head back against the wall,

“It’s about Beleza.”

“...Go on.” Tippy’s heart races, feeling a little anxious as to what Ice might say. The brunette exhales,

“I… I find him… I find him to be quite attractive. That’s not to say I no longer find you attractive, of course. I just have–...” Ice stops speaking. A giggle escapes Tippy’s lungs,

“I think I understand. He’s pretty cute!” Ze covers zeir face and squeaks. Ice’s cheeks heat up, making him shuffle around uncomfortably,

“Yep…”

The couple sit together in silence, Tippy holds onto Ice’s muscular bicep and nuzzles him. The brunette grimaces, 

“Wait– there’s… there’s something else.”

“Oh yeah?” Tippy teases him.

“I… I’m sorry.” Vanilla holds onto Tippy, “I love you so much. I suppose I have developed a soft spot for Beleza,” Ice kisses the top of zeir head, “He and I used to be at each others’ throats, but… I guess once Dio was out of the picture… he and I became rather close.”

“I agree.” Tippy smiles and kisses Ice’s left shoulder, zeir lips gently brushing up against his scars.

“I feel that it would be generous of us to go ahead and allow Beleza to move in.”

“I also agree!” Tippy joyfully replies.

Vanilla pauses, choosing his next words carefully,

“Bel is practically… already part of the family, heh. You know?”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Tippy replies, “It’s like he was a missing piece in our life.”

Ice chuckles in response, feeling his heart skip a beat. The brunette closes his eyes and speaks,

“Hypothetically speaking… what if… Beleza was actually part of our family? Perhaps… if he– hypothetically speaking of course, if he were to be an addition in a certain way…?”

Tippy chuckles and gives zeir husband a teasing smirk,

“Vanilla! Are you saying that you have…. F-f-feelings for Mr Muscadine?”

Ice waves his hands around with embarrassment and worry,

“No no no no! That’s not what I–”

“Ahaha! Relax, relax, baby…” Tippy touches Vanilla’s cheek gently to calm zeir husband. Ze looks away, then back at Ice,

“I like him like that too.”

This news relieves Vanilla to no end.

Soon enough, the three gentlemen end up dating and becoming a closed polyamorous throuple. Beleza moves in with the family and sleeps in a big cozy bed with his boyfriends…

The End (true ending)

The First Story!

Bel, Tippy, and Vanilla first kiss

Epilogue (COMING SOON)

[thisapplepielife]

Written for the @steddiemas challenge.

Two Queens in a King Sized Bed

Prompt Day 11: Pop/Alt Christmas Songs | Word Count: 1037 | Rating: M | CW: None | Tags: Modern AU, Established Relationship, Baby It's Cold Outside, Power Outage, Christmas, Domestic Fluff

I chose the song two queens in a king sized bed by girl in red.

Eddie wakes up early, too early, and he quickly realizes why: it's freezing. The power has gone out overnight. On Christmas? Really? Merry Fucking Christmas to them, he guesses. Luckily, Steve is a human furnace, so Eddie scoots closer to him, snuggling into his chest, and pulling the comforter up over their shoulders. 

Hopefully when he wakes up the power is back on.

They aren't that lucky.

Steve's on the phone with the electric company, trying to find out what the hell is going on. He finally gets off hold, and talks to a real, live person. 

"Somebody hit a pole," Steve says, hanging up the phone, "a little too much eggnog last night, I'm guessing. They're working on it. But it's Christmas. They'll have to call in a crew."

Eddie nods. Perfect. No electricity for Christmas is pretty shitty, but it's also shitty to get called into work on a holiday. This sucks for everyone. He wonders how many houses are stuck in the dark? A lot, probably. He doesn't know how many houses are served by one chain of poles, but it's gotta be a decent amount.

He watches as Steve gets a long lighter out of the drawer next to the range, and turns the stove knobs, to kick on the gas. Then he's lighting them each manually, because thank fuck they've got a gas stove, and they both stand there for a minute and Eddie warms his hands.

Then, Steve makes them breakfast, while Eddie sits at the counter, comforter wrapped around his whole body and head.

"It's really not that cold," Steve says, laughing as he catches sight of Eddie on the bar stool. "You look like a mummy."

"It's fifty-four in here, Steve. Fifty. Four."

"I hear you," Steve says, flipping another pancake in the cast iron pan.

"This house has shitty insulation," Eddie whines.

"Which we knew when we bought it," Steve answers. "Just go take a shower. The hot water heater is gas. So, knock yourself out."

Eddie does just that, shuffling towards the bathroom, comforter still wrapped all around him.

After his shower, he's warmed up until he opens the bathroom door and is hit with a blast of cold air. Now he's colder than ever and has wet hair. He'll surely die from this. 

"I'm going to die!" he yells at Steve, coming back into the kitchen dressed in all the clothes he owns. Well, almost all of them. 

"Yes, yes," Steve says, and puts a plate down in front of him. Eddie smiles. It's perfect. And warm.

"Thanks, sweetheart," Eddie says, momentarily happy again.

It doesn't last long. He's whining again, as soon as his empty plate hits the sink.

"Let's just go back to bed," Steve suggests, and Eddie nods. 

Eddie puts the comforter back on the bed, slides in, and promptly tries to crawl inside Steve's skin. Steve just laughs, and holds him as close as he can.

It's nice, and he's already warmer, so Eddie stretches up enough that he can kiss Steve. Giving thanks, giving love.

There are worse ways to spend Christmas than wrapped up against this man he loves so much.

Eddie jerks awake, with Steve's phone ringing in his ear.

"It's Robin," Steve says, and yeah, Eddie is definitely aware of that. He knows her ringtone. He hears it enough times on a daily basis.

"Put her on speaker, I wanna talk to," Eddie says, so Steve does.

"Hey, Rob. It's both of us, we don't have power so we're in bed, and Eddie is demanding to talk, too," Steve says, before giving her the entire backstory of their day.

"I'm surprised you're still alive, Eddie. I know how great you do with the cold," Robin says, and she's making fun of him, but it's true.

"I know!" he shouts, and burrows closer to Steve, crawling right on top of him.

"Yes, he's dying as we speak," Steve mumbles, trying to get Eddie's hair out of his mouth.

"So, you're just. In bed?" Robin asks.

"Yes, trying to not freeze to death," Eddie laments, being very dramatic. 

"So, you're two queens in a king sized bed?" Robin teases, and they both laugh, looking at the phone that's on speaker on the pillow beside them. Eddie is thankful Steve had fully charged portable batteries to charge their phones with. Leave it to Steve to be prepared. Eddie played games on his until his fingers were too cold. Then he took his third shower of the day. 

"Basically," Steve says, "Eddie is frozen. He's taken four showers today."

"Three!" Eddie shouts, clarifying. Lies. Steve's telling lies.

"Maybe he's just jerking off a lot," Robin says, and Eddie makes an affronted noise.

"If I was that horny, Buckley, Steve would be invited to be involved," Eddie announces, his cheek pressed right to Steve's chest. 

"Gross," she says.

"You brought it up," Eddie blames, listening to Steve's heart thrum under his ear. Steve's rubbing his hands up and down Eddie's back, under his layers of clothes, and they're big and warm. His hands always are. Eddie's are cold, year-round. But not Steve's. 

They're warm on his skin, and Eddie melts on top of Steve, enjoying the feeling.

Steve forces his hands into the several layers of pants Eddie is wearing, rubbing his hands over Eddie's bare ass. It feels good. Eddie likes it.

Robin would kill them if she knew it was happening while she was on the phone with them, so it makes Eddie like it even more, just for fun.

"You could just come over to my house, you know? It's warm and toasty over here," Robin offers, and Eddie knows they could do that. But she's thirty minutes away, and it's snowy and cold outside. 

"I know," Steve says, "thanks, Rob. Surely they'll get it back on soon, if not, we'll definitely be over before Eddie freezes solid."

And then Eddie closes his eyes, letting Steve rub down his body, continuing his efforts at warming him up as he talks to Robin. It's nice, and cozy, and Eddie dozes off listening to the rumble of Steve's voice in his chest.

It's cold, but this really isn't so bad, after all.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddiemas and follow along!

[iwishiwasbatman]

Me and My Ghosts We Had a Hell of a Time

Pairings- Titans x OC, Dick Grayson x Platonic!OC, Slight Jason Todd x OC

Warnings- Violence, Swearing, Torture, Kidnapping, Angst

Summary- Chaos ensues at Titans Tower, bringing together old and new heroes. Elana faces old foes and ghosts she thought were gone.

Word Count- 12,975

A/n- I’m back… but with a prequel to “Masked Love”. I swear I’m working on the next part :)

“Headed in outside box 6,” I sounded off into my comm while heading into the football stadium. Me, Donna, Dick, and Hank were taking positions around the stadium while Dick would confront Dr. Light head-on. My eyes widened when I got to my vantage point. Dr. Light was standing in the middle of the football, drawing power from every light in the stadium. “Guys, we should do something about this, like, now,” I said to the rest of my team. I activated my bow and strung an arrow right as Light finished charging. You could smell the electricity in the air.

“I’m glad you could make it!” Light yelled as Dick walked onto the field. “All of you!”

“Shit,” I mumbled.

“So much for the party of five surprise,” Hank sighed. Even from up high, I could see a smirk form on Dr. Light’s face as he fired a ball of light from his chest plate at Dick. It missed but provided the needed distraction for him to disappear.

“Anybody?” Dick asked into comms. I quickly made my way down to the main level.

“I got a visual,” Donna answered. “He’s headed toward the southern concourse exit.” I dashed out of the stadium in hopes that I could cut Light off. I got there just in time to see Dick dodge a beam of light, which ended up hitting a car, and flipping it. I fired an arrow that hit Light in the shoulder. He let out a cry of pain and ripped it out, but it didn’t seem to hurt him that much. In retaliation, he shot a ball of light at me, causing me to dive out of the way. I quickly rolled back up and sprinted at him. I ducked under another beam of light and uppercut him in the jaw. He stumbled back, allowing me to kick him down. He shot a beam of light that whizzed past my head, blinding me for a second, and used the distraction to stab my leg with the arrow I shot at him. I hissed in pain but managed to roll away in time to avoid another beam of light. I took cover behind a car to pull the arrow out of my leg.

“You know, I’m not supposed to kill you, but burning a hole through your head sounds like a good idea to me,” Light called from the other side of the car. I furrowed my eyebrows at his words.

“You’d have to catch me first,” I taunted, choosing not to ask about what he meant. A blast of light hit the car, and I had thrown myself just in time to avoid being crushed. I skidded across the cement into the car Donna was behind with a thud. Light stalked toward me with a smirk. I pushed myself up and readied my stance. As he prepared to fire again, Dawn came out of nowhere and tackled me to the ground as Hank ran at Light.

“I’ve got this! Cut him off from the other side!” Hank yelled.

“You good?” Dawn asked.

“Yeah, fine. I had that handled,” I growled.

“I know your did,” she said. Light shot a blast at Hank, hitting him in the leg. Dawn checked to make sure he was okay before calling in Light’s location.

“He’s headed to Buchanan,” she said.

“Got it!” Donna said, racing off. I pushed myself up and followed as fast as I could. Donna knocked him down using her lasso as I got over there.

“I got him,” Dick said. Behind him, a bus pulled through.

“Dick!” I called a warning. Dr. Light threw down his hand and disappeared in a flash of light that was so bright, we all had to cover our eyes. Light was gone. My eyes met Dick’s in a knowing glance. We’d screwed up.

—————————

I leaned up against the side of the elevator and took off my black surgical mask with a sigh. The anger practically hung in the air between all of us as much as the electrical smell did. I blamed myself for losing him. I should’ve been able to knock him out at the very least. His words had distracted me. Who told him not to kill me and why? The question hovered over my head, seeming to add weight with every step I took. Of course, the automatic answer that had popped into my head was the mercenary that had just made an appearance in town, but I shot that idea down quickly. Slade would never work with someone like Arthur Light. He’d end up killing the idiot himself.

The ding of the elevator pulled me out of my head. We filed out of the doors, Dawn helping Hank. Dick wordlessly offered to help me, but I brushed him off. My pride wouldn’t allow me to be helped. As he walked by, I caught sight of Hank’s seared flesh. His skin was an angry red and the area around the burn was charred. He definitely had it worse than I did.

“I’ll get some gauze from the infirmary,” Donna said, hurrying off. The tension between Hank and Dick was easy to see through the way Hank looked at the ex-boy wonder.

“You had a chance,” Hank broke the silence. His voice, along with his hunched shoulders and tense muscles, made his anger clear. His eyes seemed to shoot holes through Dick’s head. Dawn stood next to him, calm, but still clearly disappointed.

“He would’ve killed everyone on the bus,” Dick replied calmly. I was waiting for my turn to take Hank’s anger, but he never turned it to me. Why, I didn’t know.

“And he’s gonna kill how many more now?” Hank’s voice rose.

“I’ll get him,” Dick said.

“You mean we, right?” I crossed my arms. Dick‘s eyes flitted to me for a second.

“Maybe you’ve lost the taste for how this works,” Hank said, steeling his gaze and stepping toward Dick. His hostility made me tense up, ready to jump into action.

“We’ll get another shot!” Dick was getting annoyed.

“The old Robin would’ve taken the first one!” Hank said. I thought Dawn and I were going to have to stop Hank from beating up Dick.

“Hey, hey. That’s enough,” Dawn called Hank’s attention, turning his face to hers. Hank glared at Dick until Dawn had led him out of view.

“He’s not wrong,” I said, meeting Dick’s gaze.

“I don’t want to hear it. If anyone missed their shot, it was you,” Dick said.

“What I was gonna say before you so rudely interrupted me was that it was all our faults, not just yours,” I said, letting him hear my annoyance. “I think the pointing fingers thing we got going on is stupid and immature. We’re adults for god’s sake.”

“Where’s Dr. Light?” Jason’s voice drawled, pulling me and Dick out of our conversation as he, Gar, and Rachel walked in.

“Jason,” Rachel warned, sensing his antics.

“A little stealth job on a guy who shoots, what, headlamps?” Jason ignored her. “I mean, half the city’s on fire, and still no sign of Dr. Light.” He took a step toward Dick. I knew he was pissed with the older man, but I could practically see the stupid idea in his eyes.

“Not the time, Jason,” Dick sighed.

“Look, I don’t take orders from you anymore, man,” Jason said, getting even closer to Dick. “I do what I want when I want.”

“Jason,” I warned. His eyes moved to me for a split second, then back to Dick. Dick tried to get around him, but Jason matched his movement.

“Get out of my way,” Dick said.

“I think you got it all wrong. You’re in my way,” Jason said, hitting Dick. The air stood still with tension. Jason’s cockiness showed brightly in his eyes while Dick’s exhaustion and annoyance were evident in his. “Maybe you need to see a retirement package.” My whole body tensed even more than before. Jason looked over at me and I gave him a warning look that caused his eyes to soften. It didn’t last long. He looked back at Gar and Rachel and the fire in his eyes returned. He balled his fist, preparing to punch.

“Don’t,” Dick warned. Jason didn’t listen. Instead, he launched his fist at Dick who easily grabbed it and threw him to the ground. I sighed and rubbed my eyes. His inability to control his anger was going to get him killed. “Shit. Here.” Dick held out his hand for Jason to take. Jason looked up at Dick with more rage than before and slapped his hand away, getting up on his own. He shoved past Dick toward his room, stomping every step of the way. Dick sighed and looked over at me and I simply shrugged in response.

—————————

An hour later, I slipped out of my window and climbed down to the ground. I couldn’t sleep and it was a certain mask that was keeping me up. I needed to see if Deathstroke was actually in town. Maybe I could get the jump on him if he was and end our blood feud for good.

I made my way to a bar in the bad part of town called Lazzo’s. Tommy Lazzo, the owner, knew every criminal happening in town. If anyone had heard even a whisper of Deathstroke, it’d be him. I took off the jacket I wore for my suit and my mask, threw them in the small bag I was carrying, and walked in. Almost everyone was staring as I took a seat at the bar where Lazzo was wiping down the counter. He looked up at me and a huge grin spread across his face.

“Well, well, well. Look who it is. I haven’t seen you in here for a little while,” he said.

“I just got to town not that long ago,” I said.

“With the Titans?” he asked.

“Yup. Although, I’m here for your help with a more… personal matter,” I said.

“Ooh, this sounds exciting. What do you need to know?”

“Deathstroke was caught on camera a few days ago. What do you know about that?”

His eyes darkened. “This sounds an awful lot like what you asked for five years ago. We both know how that ended. I’m not particularly interested in repeating history.”

I slapped a hundred on the bar. “I can either give you something for the info or I can just take it and leave you empty-handed.” He looked down at the money, another smile growing on his face.

“This is why you’re my favorite, kid,” he laughed, grabbing the cash. “According to what I’ve heard, he’s been hanging out around the tunnels. I don’t have any specifics and those tunnels are huge, but I have full confidence you can find him with the way you operate.”

“The tunnels? Okay. I can work with that,” I sighed. “No one hears I asked. Could lead to trouble for you.”

“I’d never betray my favorite customer even if I wasn’t in danger,” he said. I raised an eyebrow. “That was once and you got through it easy. Don’t hold grudges. It’s bad for you.” I rolled my eyes and stood up. “You should come around more often. I miss having someone come and screw with people every night. It was entertaining.”

“You do realize I’m 19, right?” I asked.

“Didn’t stop you before,” he said.

“I have to be responsible now. I’ve got a babysitter who likes to do check-ins every night. He’s kinda crazy,“ I said.

“Let me guess… the tall brunette I’ve seen walking into the tower.”

“You know it,” I laughed. “I’ll visit you more, I promise.”

“That means you can’t get yourself killed tonight going after your mercenary friend.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said, grabbing my bag and heading for the door.

After changing back into my suit, I made my way to the closest tunnel entrance. It was dark and cold and smelled like shit. Perfect habitat for walking filth like Slade. I pulled out a dagger and advanced deeper in, sticking to the shadows.

About two miles in, I heard voices. I clutched my dagger tighter and moved toward the sounds. I was ready to put up a fight. If Deathstroke was hanging around here, anyone else in the area would be bad news.

“You wanna get out of here fast, Right? The two of us will get the job done in half the time.” I froze in my tracks. That was Jason. What the hell was he doing? And who was he talking to?

“Robin?” I called. Two figures peeked out from around the corner. Jason and Gar.

“Elana?” Gar asked, wide-eyed.

“Dude, code names,” I hissed. “We’re in the field.”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” Gar apologized.

“What are you doing down here?” Jason asked.

“I could ask you the same.” I crossed my arms.

“I asked first,” he countered.

“I’m on patrol,” I lied.

“No you’re not,” Jason scoffed.

“Are you looking for Dr. Light, too?” Gar asked.

“You’re looking for Dr. Light?” I asked.

“Dude!” Jason exclaimed, looking at Gar.

“Why the hell would you do that?” I asked.

“For the same reason, you’re going after him. That is what you’re doing down here, isn’t it?” Jason turned the focus.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Fine. Three people could make this go faster,” Jason said. “We should split up and cover more ground.” He didn’t wait for anyone to agree before taking off down the tunnel I had just come from. I didn’t want to tell him that tunnel was clear because if Deathstroke and Dr. Light were down here and he caught them alone, he’d end up dead. Letting out a sigh, I headed off into the tunnel in front of me. I heard Gar mumble something about dark and scary tunnels before heading down the middle tunnel.

As I walked through the long, winding tunnels, I could only dwell on one thought. If Slade and Light were both down here, they’d have to be working together. It made sense. Earlier, when Light told me he wasn’t supposed to kill me, did he mean because Slade wanted to do it himself? The problem was that we couldn’t even beat Light alone, so the chance we could beat both psychopaths was slim to none.

I was almost another mile in when I heard a metallic scraping. It seemed to trail me as I walked, so I kept my pace so as to not alert them. The noise got closer and closer until I could make out that it was the sound of a sword scraping against the walls. Slade was tailing me.

“Cowards stay in the shadows instead of coming out to fight,” I said, stopping in place.

“And stupid little girls pick fights they can’t win,” Slade shot back, stepping into the light in full body armor.

“I’m sure they do. You fight a lot of them?” I taunted.

“Just one.” He launched at me with his sword out. I quickly rolled to the side and pulled out my own sword.

“You got slow, old man,” I snickered. He growled and lunged at me again. I blocked his sword with my own and kicked at his ankles. He expertly moved back before striking again. Swing after swing, we took turns attacking and blocking. In the middle of one of my attacks, I activated my cuff and it shot out into the space between his armor on his shoulder. He hissed in pain and sent a particularly hard shove my way, allowing himself time to retreat. “You’re out of practice,” I taunted.

“If I wanted to end you tonight, I’d do it. You just got lucky. You’re not the target tonight,” he said.

“Then who is?” I sneered, hiding my fear for the two boys down here with me.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” a new voice chimed in. I snapped my head to the side to see Dr. Light. He shot a beam of light at me, but I simply moved my head to dodge it.

“You missed,” I shot.

“Maybe I meant to.” He smirked. The area around me lit up with fire, leaving me standing in the middle of a flaming circle. I stumbled back in surprise but quickly regained myself as Slade came at me with his sword once again. He swung at me, only for me to push him back, but that’s when Light shot a beam out of his chest plate. I quickly moved my sword to block the blast. It hit my sword and deflected away, but with enough force to push me back. I barely managed to stay out of the flames, the heat radiating onto my heels.

I was in too tight of an area, fighting a man whose armor protected him from the fire around us, and had a psycho shooting balls of heat at me. I was in a rough spot. The flames were too high to get over and I had nothing to put them out with. As I dodged another attack from Slade, I called into the comm line I shared with Jason.

“Get out of the tunnels,” I panted. All I got in response was static. A wave of dread washed over me.

“Something wrong?” Slade taunted. “Can’t call your teammates?” I growled and jumped at him. As he blocked my attack, I managed to throw my legs forward into his stomach, though my calf caught his sword. He went backward, giving me the chance to increase my attacks. I swung my sword at his chest. His form was weak as he blocked, so I was able to kick at his hand. He lost his grip on his sword and it flew from his hand. That distracted him enough so that I could sweep his legs and send him to the ground.

I was about to take my sword to his helmet when something hot hit me in the shoulder. Dr. Light had hit me with his blast. I was thrown to the ground with a hiss of pain. To make matters worse, I had landed too close to the fire and could feel the painful heat on my face as well as the burning on my shoulder. I tried to get up as quickly as I could, but a boot to my throat stopped me.

“The initial plan was to kill you first, but that seemed too anticlimactic for what I owe you,” Slade said. “I’m going to kill your entire team and make you watch. Just like I did to your parents.” As he had monologued, I found my dagger in my thigh sheath and jammed it into his leg. He cried out in pain and moved his foot. I jumped up and threw my elbow at his mask, but I could do anything else. He grabbed my burnt shoulder and dug his fingers into the charred skin. I yelped in pain as he threw me face-first to the ground. My head smacked the cement with a sickening thud and I could feel the warm blood pouring down my face.

Slade pulled me up by the hood and sent multiple punches to my stomach until I was completely numb and coughing out blood. He then threw me back to the ground and swung his sword down at my face. Using all the strength I had left, I caught it in one hand, earning slices along my palm. My arm shook as I pushed back against his sword.

“I thought you said we weren’t gonna kill her,” Light spoke up from somewhere I couldn’t see. I could feel Slade’s hate-filled eyes through his mask. With a growl, he withdrew his sword.

“He’s right. I’m not gonna kill you,” Slade said, looking down at me. I managed to push myself onto my stomach to try to get up, but Slade quickly stomped on my ankle, snapping it to the side. I bit my lip to silence my cry of pain. “But there are other ways to hurt you.” He started to walk out of the ring of fire.

“You’re a coward,” I growled, though my voice was strained. “You’re gonna regret not killing me now.”

“Not this time,” he snickered before leaving. I was barely able to see him and Light retreat through the flames.

At this point, my blood was mixed with sweat from the heat. My chest hurt, probably from the smoke in my lungs mixed with the hits I’d taken. Blood rose up my throat, so much so that I had to spit it out. My shoulder was completely burnt to a crisp, but I couldn’t feel it. I definitely would the next day, though. Through all my pain, I could only really worry about Slade’s words.

“Robin,” I choked out into my comms. I still only got static. I didn’t have a comm channel with Gar, so I decided to do the next best thing. “Gar!” I yelled into the tunnels. The yelling had caused me to start coughing, blood rising up my throat. When I got no response, I tried again, but still, no answer. My heart rate picked up. “Robin!” I tried this time. Silence. I dropped my head and shakily got to my knees. I needed to find a way out before I inhaled too much smoke.

“Elana!” My head jerked up to see a figure running around the corner. It was Gar. I breathed a mental sigh of relief.

“Do you know where Jason is?” I asked, before starting to cough again.

“No. We’ll find him in a second. I gotta get you out,” Gar dismissed.

“No! Gar, he’s in trouble!” I yelled, coughing up more blood midway through my sentence.

“So are you.” He got closer. “There’s a hose at the subway tunnel entrance. It’s not too far. I’ll be right back.”

“Gar-“ He was gone before I could finish. The heat and smoke became second problems as images of Jason trying to fight Deathstroke flashed in my mind. I managed to push myself to my hands and knees, most weight on my uninjured shoulder. I wouldn’t be able to walk well, my ankle was messed up. I spit out the blood in my mouth and tried to push myself up to my feet. After a couple falls, I managed. It hurt in my ribs to stand up straight. I definitely had a broken rib or two.

“Ok, I got it!” Gar came running around the corner once again, this time with the hose. He turned the nozzle on the handle, but nothing came out. It felt like a fight against time. I needed to get out to find Jason and stop Slade from hurting him.

“Come on, Gar,” I groaned.

“I’m trying!” he cried. He hit the nozzle again, and, finally, water came out. The fire around me died with a hiss. Limping as fast as I could, I made my way to Gar. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“We gotta go find-“ I was cut off by a scream bouncing off the walls.

“Oh, man,” Gar muttered. We took off down the tunnel, adrenaline keeping me on my feet. We called his name as we ran down the dark passages, but got no response. Once we got to where his cry had come from, the metallic smell of blood hit me like a truck. Gar crouched down to look at something on the ground.

“What is it?” I asked, my breathing heavy.

“Blood trail,” he breathed. He turned to me, wide-eyed. “I think he was dragged away.”

I swallowed hard. “We gotta find him,” I said.

“We have to go back. Your head is split open and you’re in no condition to fight Dr. Light,” Gar said.

“Deathstroke,” I said.

“What?”

“Dr. Light is working with Deathstroke,” I told him. Gar’s eyes became the size of saucers.

“We’ll need help.”

—————————

Gar helped me into the infirmary and sat me down on the medical bed.

“I’m going to get Rachel. Will you be good until I get back?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. He hurried out the door as I started to take off my suit. I hissed as the fabric of my jacket rubbed up against the angry, red skin on my shoulder. The only way to describe how cleaning it felt was like literal hell. It burned at the touch of disinfectant and stung at every pressure applied. Still, I managed to get it cleaned and bandaged.

Once that was covered and I could move it easier, I hobbled into the monitor room and started searching for Jason’s tracker. I sat back in the chair with a huff as the search began loading.

“What the hell are you doing?” I groaned and spun the chair around to face Dick.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” I responded.

“Bleeding out from your head,” he said.

“I assume Gar filled you in.” I ignored his last comment.

“Yeah, he did. I want you in the infirmary right now,” he said.

“I’m currently busy running the search for Jason’s tracker.” As I said that, the search was completed.

“Subject: offline,” the female computer voice said.

“Well, dammit,” I muttered.

“If Jason’s still down there… all that concrete, stone, it would mask the GPS signal from the satellites,” Gar pointed out.

“Yes, it would,” Dick sighed. “We’ll deal with this in a minute. For now, you need to get cleaned up,” he said to me. “Come on.” I sighed and limped after him. “What were you thinking, going down there?”

“That I could deal with something you ignored, and then it’d be over with,” I said with a sarcastic smile.

“Ignored? We went after Light hours ago,” he said.

“Oh, you think- oh. I thought Gar told you,” I mumbled.

“Told me what?” He stopped walking and stared at me like his eyes could pry the answer from my brain.

“Do you really think Arthur Light could do this to me?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Who was it, Elana?”

“The orange and blue sword-wielding psycho.” As he stood there in shock, I shuffled past him, into the infirmary. As I sat down on the medical bed, he stomped in.

“Deathstroke has Jason?” he asked in a low voice.

“And Dr. Light, but yeah,” I said.

“You went out after Slade Wilson?” his voice rose.

“Yeah,” I said, preparing myself for a lecture.

“Why the hell would you do that?” he said, now shouting.

“I was trying to be helpful,” I mumbled.

“By getting yourself killed? Very helpful!” he yelled.

“Jesus, Dick, you’re gonna wake the whole tower,” I said. “And I’m very clearly still alive.” I didn’t raise my voice, no matter how much I wanted to, in fear of coughing up blood again. That would just make him even madder.

“Deathstroke isn’t someone to be taken lightly,” Dick exclaimed.

“You think I don’t know that?” I put on an ankle brace that was designed to hold my ankle in place, support it, and reduce the swelling. It was all I could do for the injury at the moment.

“He killed you before and you’re acting like him being here isn’t a big deal.” Dick crossed his arms.

“Thanks for reminding me, I forgot,” I bit sarcastically. “And for the record, I was 10 and he was a grown man who’d been an assassin for longer than I’d been alive. If I’d beaten him, something would’ve been seriously wrong. But that’s beside the point. Our main concern should be finding Jason right now.” I wrapped my hand that I had used to block Slade’s sword with the medical wrap that was laying on the table next to me.

“What you did was reckless and stupid. It could’ve been you instead of Jason and then we would’ve lost our best shot at stopping Slade. I need you to be more careful,” Dick sighed.

“If I say I’ll be careful, will you leave it alone?” I asked.

“Get cleaned up and then meet me by the elevator. I’m going to wake everyone else up,” he ignored my question. Before I could even reply, he was gone.

—————————

“Keep your heads on a swivel, guys, Dr. Light could still be down here,” Dick said into comms as we walked together in the tunnels. He had insisted I stuck with him. He was pissed after my stunt earlier.

“Dick, no sign of Jason's tracker on the third floor,” Donna said.

“Hank, did you find anything?” Dawn asked.

“Do rats the size of my head count?” Hank asked sarcastically.

“Stay positive, Hank,” Dawn sighed.

“I got dragged out of bed to trudge through sewer water 'cuz dipshit decided to go off half-cocked,” he growled.

“At least Jason found Dr. Light. Maybe he would have told you if you’d given him half the chance yesterday,” I pointed out.

“I don’t want to hear it from you,” Hank said. “You went after Light on your own, which is actually worse. Imagine what would’ve happened if you found him.” I furrowed my eyebrows, confused at his words, but I was distracted before I could ask.

“I found something. It looks like some sort of fuel and it smells like smoke,” Dawn said.

“Oh, ignore that. That was me,” I brushed it off.

“You were playing with fire? What are you? An arsonist?” Dawn asked.

“Only on Fridays,” I said. Dick gave me a flat look.

“Well, clearly you were doing something because there’s a bloodstain in the middle of a ring of the fuel,” Dawn said. I heard Hank start yelling at me, but I tuned him out and chose not to respond.

“Seriously?” Dick deadpanned. I just shrugged.

“Guys, I got something. Sending over the coordinates now,” Donna said. We all made our way over to her position quickly.

“Jesus,” Dawn breathed, seeing the blood trail.

“This is screwed,” Hank said.

“He was attacked here. Then dragged. Tracks disappear a hundred yards down,” Dick sighed, crouching down to examine the blood.

“He could be anywhere,” Dawn said.

“If he’s still alive,” Donna deadpanned. I snapped my head to her with a disapproving look.

“He's alive,” I said quickly. “If he was dead, Light would have left him here.”

“How does that make it any better?” Donna asked skeptically.

“I’m not saying it makes it better,” I argued.

“Dr. Light's using him as bait to lure us out,” Dick said.

“Back up. So the kid is bait to you now? Is that right? That's rich, Dick,” Hank scoffed.

“You were bagging on him a minute ago, and now he's your best friend?” The two men were face to face.

“Not about me, pal,” Hank said. “This is all because of you and your big, dumb, shitty idea to start up the Titans again!”

“I’m out,” Dawn said.

“Yeah, me too,” Donna echoed.

“What? Where are you going?” Hank called after them.

“To get Jason,” Dawn answered. “And for the record, this is all of our faults. Every single one of us.”

“Thank you,” I scoffed. “Someone finally said it.”

“It might be yours a little more though,” she said to me. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at her with an offended expression. “Still, get over it and move on. Jason’s out there and we’re wasting time.”

“Well, we can’t keep wandering the tunnels all night looking for this tracking signal,” Hank said. “We need a new plan.” I sighed and turned my head to look at Dick, but something else caught my attention.

“Elana?” Donna asked, seeing that I saw something. “What is it?” I lifted my flashlight and moved closer to the wall to find a camera. I ripped it off the wall.

“Well, it seems that our private conversation was not private,” I sighed, holding the now-broken hardware up. Sighs echoed from my teammates.

“Great,” Hank scoffed.

“Let’s just look around a little more. I’ll check in with Gar,” Dick said. I sighed and threw the camera to the ground before heading deeper into the tunnel. I wasn’t that far away when Dick called us all back.

“Guys, Gar’s got a signal on Jason’s tracker,” Dick yelled. We hurried after him as he led us just outside of the subway tunnel entrance.

“He’s not moving,” Dawn checked. When we got to the tracker’s location, we found something, but not what we wanted.

“It’s freaking Dr. Light,” Hank growled. Light was tied up to a post, bloody and very dead. He had a bullet wound on the side of his head. “What the hell?” Hank asked as a small piece of metal fell from the body. Jason’s tracker. Slade was playing games.

“Is that… Jason’s tracker?” Dawn asked, voice urgent.

“He cut it out of him,” I said, not specifying the “he”.

“Well, if Dr. Light’s dead, where the hell is Jason?” Hank demanded.

“He must be working with a partner,” Donna said. I looked at Dick and he met my gaze with a worried one. He hadn’t told the others about Deathstroke working with Light. The ringing of a phone came from the body and Dick was the one to grab it and answer.

I couldn’t make out words, but there was no mistaking Slade’s voice.

“Deathstroke,” Dick breathed. I clenched my jaw as my teammates' faces lit up with shock and rage.

“You piece of shit,” I growled.

“Ah, Miss Queen. I didn’t break any bones, did I?” Slade snickered.

“I swear to god-“

“Where’s Jason?” Dick cut me off.

“Oh, you mean your little sidekick?” The phone was now on speaker.

“Who the hell are you calling a sidekick?!” Jason shouted.

“Atta boy,” Hank said. The sounds of punches and grunts came through the line and I had to physically turn away. Dawn put a hand on my shoulder in an attempt at comfort. “You freaking bastard! Come try that shit with me!” Hank yelled.

“Just tell us what you want,” Dick said, his voice calm. The sound of choking made my skin crawl.

“As I was saying, if you want him back, hand over Rose,” Slade said.

“And we’re just supposed to trust that you’ll keep your word?” I bit out.

“Tonight. 3 am. Embarcadero Plaza. Outside. Use this phone to confirm.” With that, he hung up. The silence that hung over all of us was heavy, so I decided to break it.

“Well, shit.”

—————————

The elevator dinged as it opened and we walked silently into the entrance area of the tower.

“Kory?” I heard Dick ask as I walked around the corner. The pink-haired woman indeed stood by the bar.

“What happened to Jason?” she asked. Gar, Rachel, and Rose stood behind her, clearly waiting for our answer.

“Let’s talk in the training room,” Dick sighed. He turned to leave, everyone else behind him. I stayed back for a second to shoot Gar and Rachel an apologetic look, avoiding Rose’s eyes, then followed the rest of the team. When we got in, Dick caught Kory up.

“You should’ve thrown that girl out the second you knew she was Deathstroke’s daughter,” Hank said.

“Wait a minute. Pirate girl is this guy’s daughter?” Kory asked. I laughed.

“Yeah, and now he wants her back,” Hank said.

“Which we can’t do,” Dick added.

“Why not?” Hank argued.

“It’s not a crazy idea,” I added with a shrug.

“You’re not serious,” Dawn said, looking between me and Hank.

“I’m serious about ending this with Deathstroke once and for all!” Hank shouted.

“It might not be pretty, but neither is watching Jason get killed by that lunatic,” I added, raising my voice slightly.

“This isn’t Rose’s fault. We know it,” Dawn exclaimed. “The only reason we’re all still alive right now is because she’s here!”

“I’m not saying it’s her fault, I’m saying that if it comes down to her or one of our own, our decision should be obvious,” Hank said.

“We don’t give up kids to mass murderers,” Dick said.

“Why don’t we find this guy and neutralize him?” Kory offered.

“Elana already tried that,” Dick told her. “And failed.” I shot him a dirty look.

“It’s not that easy,” Donna said. “We barely survived his last attack.”

“Look, Jason is hurt, alone, scared,” Hank said. “And I-“ he cut himself off. “We all know what that feels like.”

“Bottom line is, he’s one of us and she’s not,” I said, crossing my arms. “So, handing her over, if it saves his life, I don’t know about you, but I can sleep a little better at night knowing I did the right thing!” After my words, there was silence.

“You good with this, Grayson?” Kory broke it. Everyone turned to Dick. He stood there looking like he didn’t know what to do. “Dick!” Kory shouted.

“Just give me a second,” he said.

“She’s just a kid,” Dawn argued firmly.

“Deathstroke’s kid,” I reinforced.

“Elana, we don’t need to hear any more from you,” Dick said.

“What the hell does that mean?” I narrowed my eyes.

“It means your personal grudges aren’t the only thing that I’m taking into account,” he raised his voice.

“This isn’t about grudges, it’s about logic!” I shouted.

“Shut up, both of you,” Kory snapped.

“Let’s be honest, the further she gets away from us, the safer she’ll be,” Donna sighed.

“If we leave her out there alone, Deathstroke will hunt her down,” Dawn said, the annoyance clear in her voice.

“Or worse, we lose leverage over Deathstroke once he finds out she’s in the wind,” Dick added.

“We’ve gone down this path before,” Dawn reminded us. “We all know how that ended. We’re not using Deathstroke’s kid to get to him again.” Everyone’s eyes traveled around the room, across every other face.

“Ah, screw it,” Hank said. “I’ll take her there myself. Good luck trying to stop me.” He turned to leave.

“Wait, have you lost your mind,” Kory called. “You’re all turning into monsters instead of trying to figure out how to fight one. If Deathstroke is as bad as you say he is, we all need to get our shit together and figure out how to fight him as a team. Otherwise, we’ve already lost Jason.”

“I wasn’t the one to-“ Hank started before something caught all of our attention. Rose what run past the training room.

“What was that?” Kory asked.

Gar came racing into the doorframe. “Rose, uh, overheard you guys talking about giving her up. She’s trying to leave,” he panted.

“Shit,” Dick muttered, racing off to lockdown the tower. We hurried out the door, splitting up and calling her name. I ran down the bedroom hallway, peeking into each room as I went. As I turned the corner, I saw her run past.

“Rose!” I called.

“You stay the hell away from me,” she spat.

“I’m not gonna do anything,” I tried to calm her. It didn’t work. She chucked a kitchen knife at me. I barely caught the handle as the tip was an inch away from my face.

“You want me dead! Why should I trust you?” she shouted.

“If it helps, I’m not allowed to kill you,” I muttered. She took off down the nearest hallway and I went after her. Before I caught her, she ran into a door that led to the training room and locked it. I groaned in annoyance before running in a different direction. I managed to run into everyone else back in the training room. Dick was leading the pack toward the kitchen where sounds of struggle could be heard.

“Rachel, don’t!” Dick yelled upon seeing the purple-haired girl standing over Rose. That’s when I got a good look at Rose. Her body was twisted in every direction, bones broken. She was dead.

“Shit,” I muttered. Rachel looked at all of us with tears in her eyes before running off. Kory called her name and ran after her.

“I’m sorry, kid,” Hank said to Rose, though she couldn’t hear.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Gar asked as Dawn went over to Rose’s body. We all watched Dawn carefully as she put two fingers to the girl’s pulse. Dawn perked up almost immediately.

“She’s alive,” she told us, turning around. A crack echoed through the space and I snapped my head to the source. Rose’s hand. Her entire body jerked and convinced as limbs began to reform themselves. It was a disgusting sight.

“What the hell?” Donna breathed. The last thing to crack back into place was her neck.

—————————

Any form of conscious thought I was having faded as I hit the punching bag. All that was on my mind was Jason. What was Slade putting him through? I almost didn’t want to know. It was all I could think about for the duration of my time at the bag.

As I sent what was meant to be my last kick at the bag, my phone started ringing. I huffed and walked over to answer it.

“Hello?” What I got in return made my blood run cold. The sound of punches and grunts of pain. I didn’t even have to think twice about who it was. My knuckles turned white as I gripped my phone. “What the hell, Slade?” I growled.

“Miss Queen, how are you? How’s the head?” he said calmly.

“I swear to god, for every bruise you give him, I’ll give you five,” I hissed.

“Your threats don’t mean anything to me,” he said. “But I didn’t call to upset you.”

“That’s believable,” I scoffed.

“You seem the only competent one in that tower and I know Dick Grayson is too prideful to give in and hand over my daughter. Bring me Rose and I’ll give you the birdboy,” Slade said.

“Screw you! Don’t listen to him!” I heard Jason yell in the background. My heart broke at how exhausted he sounded.

“I would advise you do. I’d hate to pluck his wings,” Slade snickered.

“You gave us a time and a place to meet. Why are you calling me?” I demanded.

“Your friends are probably going to try something they think is smart, and it won’t work. I’m giving you a chance to be smart about this,” Slade offered. “Bring me Rose an hour earlier, same spot, and this can be resolved without further conflict.”

“He’s lying! It’s a trap!” Jason yelled again. I wasn’t surprised. A cry of pain came from Jason.

“Slade!” I yelled into my phone.

“I’ll be there, and I hope you will too, for his sake.” With that, he hung up. I yelled out in annoyance and slammed my phone back down, burying my head in my hands. I was sure Jason was right in saying it was a trap, but the worry that whatever we did would fall through had already been in my head. This was my fault. Had I just told Jason and Gar to get out, this wouldn’t have happened.

“Is everything okay?” Dick peeked his head in the door. “I heard yelling.” I didn’t move, debating whether to tell him or not. “Elana?” he asked, moving closer.

“Slade called me,” I said quietly. “He’s baiting me into a trap.”

“What?” Dick’s voice rose.

“Slade called you?” Donna walked in.

“Eavesdropping’s rude,” I mumbled, still not looking up.

“What’d he say?” she asked.

“He wants me to meet him early and hand over Rose because he knows the rest of you won’t,” I said. “Because the rest of you are actually good people, and I’m me.”

“What the hell does that mean?“ Donna asked, sitting down next to me.

“You’re all heroes. You’d never trade a life for a life. But me?” I laughed. “I’m the type of person to give someone up to a terrorist just because I don’t like them. He knows it.”

“Are you gonna do it?” Dick asked.

“I haven’t ruled it out,” I muttered. “You guys already have.”

“Do you want to do it?” Dick asked.

“No, but I want to save Jason,” I said.

“Deathstroke’s baiting you,” Dick said.

“Well, I know that,” I snapped, finally looking up.

“What Dick’s failing to say is that you’re just as much a hero as anyone else in this building,” Donna took over. “Whatever Slade Wilson says to make you second guess yourself is bullshit. If any of it was true, we would’ve ditched you on the side of the road by now.” I couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“Donna’s right. If we were worried about you handing Rose over, we would’ve done something about it,” Dick reassured me. “We trust you.” I nodded in response. “Let’s go get Jason back.”

We made our way into the kitchen where everyone was crowded around the table.

“Hank was right,” Dick said. “You were all right. Jason needs us. We can’t just stand here and do nothing. Deathstroke wants to make a trade, we make a trade.” I furrowed my eyes at his words.

“We can’t hand over Rose,” Hank said.

“No, we can’t. We won’t,” Dick assured. “But I have an idea.” He held up the phone we’d gotten off Light’s body. “Gar, you and Rachel stay here with Rose. Protect the Tower. I’ll contact Deathstroke. Confirm our meet-up at the plaza. And then we take him down once and for all. Together.” With that, he turned and headed off, the rest of the team following after him. But something didn’t sit right with me.

There was something in his voice and the way he stood. His shoulders were hunched defensively. His words carried a sense of finality I couldn’t shake. He wasn’t revealing his whole plan. He was going to do something stupid. His words about a trade gave it away. He was going to make a trade, yes, but instead of Rose, it would be him. And like hell would I let him.

My head shot up and I marched to go get suited up.

—————————

I was supposed to be watching the south entrance to the plaza. At least, that was the plan. A common theme I’d shown for years now reared its head. Throwing plans out the window.

I’d arrived at the meet early and found my way onto the floor Slade was on. Despite the very strong urge to run headfirst at the mercenary, I maintained my self-control and took to hiding in the rafters instead. Slade had yet to show his face or Jason’s, for that matter. For all I knew, he was watching me at that very moment.

“We set?” Hank’s voice came through the comms. The room was so silent I was worried if Slade were here, he could hear Hank.

“Clear,” I whispered, pushing my doubts aside.

“Plaza’s clear?” Donna asked.

“Yep,” Kory answered.

“I’m in position,” Dawn said. “Dick, do you copy?” She got no answer as I heard the elevator ring. “Dick, come in. Anybody got eyes on Dick?”

“Dick, we’re at the plaza. Where the hell are you?” Hank demanded. “Dick?” I watched as the elevator numbers started increasing, meaning Dick was headed my way. Instead of listening to the others continue to yell at Dick through comms he probably didn’t even have, I turned mine off. That’s when I saw Dick exit the elevator.

“I know you’re here,” he called out, presumably to Slade. “I’m sure this has nothing to do with Jason or Rose.” As he moved around the room, I followed his every step with my eyes. “You want your pound of flesh. Revenge for what happened.” Dick put his hands up in surrender. “And I want this to end once and for all.” My whole body tensed, ready to pounce and save the shithead below me. “So, how about we make a deal, huh?” He looked around the room before taking off his bulletproof vest and throwing it to the ground. I wanted to yell at him for being stupid and to keep it on, but not only would he not listen and it would blow my cover, but Slade would also find another way to kill him. “You can have me, instead of Rose or Jason. Pretty sure I’m the one you’re mad at anyway. Here I am.” Dick put his hands behind his head and got down on his knees. “Unarmed.” I saw a shadow move to my left before bullets flew at Dick, close, but not hitting him.

“You never learn, do you?” Slade said, stepping toward Dick. “Always the hero. But you’re not gonna dictate how this will go. You’re not a martyr. You’re a con man. Preying on those weak enough to follow you. The problem with con men… is that they never know when to stop. And someone else always pays.”

“Let’s just get this over with, huh?” Dick growled. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, ready for a fight. If anyone made a move, I was going down there. I almost did when I saw a certain pink-haired woman make her way to the corner of the room.

“Get up,” Slade ordered Dick. The ex-boy wonder did just that, hands still on his head. “Take a look.” Slade pressed a button that revealed Jason, tied to a platform, outside the window with a bomb on the wires holding him up. My heart jumped. “Say goodbye to your friend,” Slade said as he held up a detonator. As he was about to press it, I shot an arrow at the detonator, knocking it out of hand. Kory, who was hiding in the corner, shot a stream of fire at Slade, knocking him to the ground. Slade recovered quickly, pulling out his gun.

“Are you seriously listening to this bullshit?” she sighed, stepping out. I dropped to the grounding a smirk. Slade was torn between who to aim his gun at. I could feel his rage from across the room.

“What are you guys doing here?” Dick asked.

“Did you really think you were gonna compliment my hair instead of saying goodbye, Dick Grayson?” Kory sighed. Slade shot at Kory, who blocked the bullets easily. Dick jumped out of the way and I shot three arrows at Slade, covering for the three of us moving to one side of the room. A light from outside lit up the room as Slade began shooting at us again. I ducked behind Kory for cover before shooting out low. I swept his left leg, but it didn’t do much. Dick rushed forward and disarmed Slade of his gun, prompting a fistfight. Kory and Dick took his left and right and I jumped in the middle when I could. Slade expertly dodged our hits, most of them landing on his armor. I was able to kick out his knee, but my teammates weren’t fast enough to take advantage of the situation and were kicked to the ground. I covered for them as they got back up by throwing a dagger at Slade followed by swinging my bow at his face. Slade tried pulling out another gun, but Kory burnt the end of it off. Dick tried to grab onto Slade’s arm, but the older man threw the same arm into Dick’s face, knocking him back. Slade threw Kory into me and slammed Dick to the ground. Kory and I rushed back up to help Dick but had a gun fired at our faces. Kory was able to shield herself with her powers, but I had to roll out of the way. Kory rushed at Slade and the two began their own fight.

“Go get Jason!” Kory yelled before tackling Slade through the wall. Dick and I ran over to the window.

“Jason! Hang in there, buddy!” Dick tried to reassure him. I made eye contact with Jason. Fear was all I could see. I nodded to him in hopes to provide reassurance. Dick tried banging on the glass, but simply looked like an idiot.

“Move,” I ordered. I peeled off the rubber grip from my bow, exposing the metal part, and began slamming it against the glass. Every swing was harder than the next, adrenaline coursing through my veins. At last, there was a crack beginning to form. A crash came from behind us and I whipped around, looking for Kory.

“I’ll go help her. You get him in here,” Dick told me. I nodded and resumed pounding on the glass. The crack expanded an inch with almost every other hit. I was getting closer to shattering the glass every time the metal hit the window. Jason was watching with nervous eyes. I only stopped when I heard Jason’s muffled voice through the glass shouting a warning. I ducked just in time to avoid Slade’s sword and set my stance with my cuffs activated.

“Fine. I’ll do all the heavy lifting,” I muttered. He pointed his sword at my face before charging. I blocked his first swing with my right and jabbed at him with my left. He jumped back and tried to come at my feet, but I retreated a step and built up momentum to charge at him. Our blades clanged against each other as they cut through the air. He was as skilled as me, but I was faster. I picked up my pace and started throwing in kicks. I threw a kick at his face that he batted away, but it gave me an opening to bring my elbow down onto his knee. He fell onto one and rolled to the side before my blades could touch him. This caused me to overswing and lose my footing for a second, which was more than enough time for Slade to kick me backward. I caught my footing by leaning against the wall right as Slade swung his sword at my head. I ducked under the blade and kicked him right under his mask. He stumbled back and I charged his again, getting him in the armor break between his knee and thigh. He growled in pain and was barely able to block my next attack. He kicked me away from him and then threw down his sword. I retracted my cuffs with a smirk.

He squared up as I did, fists up and ready. I watched his steps, knowing they would reveal when he was about to strike. I was taken off guard when that wasn’t the case. He punched high and I blocked it with my forearm. My moves became involuntary as the speed of our fight increased. It was like riding a bike. I went to sweep his leg only to realize he had pulled out a dagger. My advancements turned into retreating steps as I tried to avoid the blade. Slade never played fair. That meant I didn’t have to either. He had me backed up into another part of the area where there were random scraps everywhere, so I was able to snatch a metal pipe and hit him in the face with it. He stumbled back and I swung again. After about my fourth swing, he caught the metal pipe and tore it out of my hand with a growl. As I began to block his punches and avoid his small knife all over again, I noticed Kory stirring in the ground. I took the window to jump out of the way, letting Kory send a stream of fire at Slade. He flew backward, but not before he threw a green, buzzing grenade toward me and my teammates.

The explosion went off at a deafening volume, making my hands fly up to cover my ears. Even that didn’t help as a buzzing made itself known in my head. I looked up in search of Slade and found him standing near the window with the detonator in his hand. I only managed to push myself upright as he pressed the button.

It was like time stood still. My heart froze on the spot as the windows shattered and Jason dropped out of sight. I rushed to the window with Dick on my heels, both of us completely ignoring Slade at the moment. We found Jason barely hanging onto the edge of the building, just outside the window.

“Jason, give me your hand!” Dick yelled to him, offering his. Jason took it as I frantically looked around for something that could help pull him back to safety. Jason’s other hand lost its grip and tried to grab Dick’s hand, but failed. “Hold on,” Dick tried to tell him.

“Don’t let go.” My voice came out in a pleading tone. Jason’s fingers slipped before finally giving way. His screams mixed with mine and Dick’s yells. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I was completely and utterly helpless as I watched Jason tumble through the air.

Then the unimaginable happened. Something, someone, came out of nowhere and caught him in midair. The relief I felt far outweighed my confusion. It was like he had a guardian angel.

“Let’s go,” I said hurriedly to Dick and Kory who both looked incredibly dumbfounded. We rushed into the elevator and after what took way too long, made it to the ground floor right as the sound of gunshots was heard. I was the first out of the elevator, sprinting into the street where Jason stood by a car with the man who caught him leaning against it in pain.

“Jason!” I called. We rushed over to him and Dick leaned down in front of the injured boy who I had noticed was wearing the Superman symbol.

“What happened?” Dick asked.

“That’s the guy who saved my life,” Jason said. Kory and Dick helped pick the boy up and lead him to the car. Jason and I let our eyes follow them until they couldn’t anymore. Then we turned to each other. I wanted to rush over and hug him, but I knew I couldn’t do that.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he reassured me.

“You fell for a while before you were caught. Are you sure?” I asked.

“I promise I’m okay. Don’t worry about me,” he said. He was definitely lying, but I wasn’t gonna get him to admit it.

“Jason! Elana!” Dick called.

“You go. My bike is back here. Tell Dick I’ll meet you guys back there,” I said before jogging off in the other direction.

As much as I’d like to say I meant that, I didn’t. Slade and I had unfinished business and I intended to finish it tonight. I’d leave breadcrumbs for Slade to follow me to the old records shop that was now a rundown, empty building. It was where Jericho worked. That’s where I’d end him. I knew Slade couldn’t be far from the scene, he was probably watching me already. If he saw I was on my own, he’d follow me. I threw on my helmet and sped off toward the records shop.

The drive there was smooth. Little traffic and no check-ins from Dick. I was there in a matter of minutes, taking off my helmet and picking the lock on the door before slipping inside. The amount of dust I inhaled upon my first step into the room was almost enough to make me turn back. Clearly, no one had been in the building for a while. My footsteps echoed through the dark space. I had come in to do surveillance of Jericho, but I had never been particularly interested in records. Maybe if I had been, I could’ve gotten to know Jericho and I would’ve been smart enough to know to keep him out of our problems. I sighed and moved further into the room. I had inadvertently caused the death of Slade’s only tolerable child and now it was back to haunt me. It was like the universe’s way of mocking me. First, it was Rose coming around the Tower, and everyone siding with her even though I knew she was up to something. And then it was the whole Dr. Light thing. And now it was Slade going after Jason. To think I was starting to feel a little sorry for killing Grant.

Something flew at me from behind and I whipped around just in time to catch the dagger as it was an inch from my face. Slade was standing in the doorway.

“Back for more?” I hissed.

“Isn’t that what you wanted?” he tilted his head.

“It’s exactly what I wanted,” I snarled, flipping the dagger in my hand so I could attack. He was the first to lunge, swinging an armored fist at my face. I parried the attack and jabbed at him with the dagger. My movements were fluid. Quicker and more precise than in the building less than an hour ago. I kicked at his chest, but he slid away and tried attacking me from a different angle. I stayed on top of his every movement. He matched my footwork with every step I took, making it hard to do anything but collide fists. I tried to move low to sweep his legs, but he was ready for it and hit me in the stomach, throwing me off balance. I growled and kicked out my legs, hitting him in the jaw. I tried to kick him again, but he caught my leg and threw me to the side. I rolled back up to my feet, now a distance away from him. “You remember what this place is, right?” I taunted. “This is where Jericho worked. He loved it here. Probably because it was his escape from his psychotic father.”

“You don’t get to speak of him,” Slade growled. “You’re the reason he’s dead.”

“I don’t remember being the one to put the sword through his chest,” I snapped. He took off his helmet and let it drop to his side with a thud.

“I want to look you in the eyes when I kill you,” he said cooly, taking out his sword. I took off my hood and threw down my mask.

“Took the words right out of my mouth,” I hissed, taking out my own sword. I charged first, my sword aimed for his throat. It was blocked by his before he got hit. I swung low, nicking his ankle. He growled and came at my face. I caught his arm when he overswung his attack and tried to put it in a lock, but he shot his arm out before I could get a hold, punching me right under the eye with his sword hilt. That would leave a bruise. Because of the position I was in, Slade was able to yank me forward and send a punch to my stomach. As I fell back, his sword caught the skin on my cheek.

“Had enough yet?” Slade snickered.

“Not even close,” I growled. I shot at him again, this time with the speed of lightning. I kicked his chest, distracting him enough to be able to send a slice down the break in his shoulder armor. He retreated a step, but I stayed with him with a kick to his throat. He struggled to keep up with my hits as I drove him back toward the wall. He got desperate and tried to strike back, barely managing to scrape my side with his sword, but I was too quick for him to cause any real damage. I activated my left cuff and it shot into his side. He grunted in pain before slamming his head into my own, which made me fall back a little, taking my blade with me. My head spun as I stepped back into my stance, ready for him to come at me. When he did, he was slower which allowed me, even with my dizziness, to gain the upper hand and disarm him. I kicked out his knees, making him fall to the ground, and then pinned him with my sword hovering over his chest. “Tell Grant I say hi,” I spat with a smirk. I was about to bring my sword down on his chest when something flew into the room, distracting me. It beeped midair and I realized what it was. A grenade. Before I could move, it went off, throwing me back into the wall and smoke covered the room. I groaned, rolled onto my back, and coughed out smoke before getting up to my feet and looking for Slade. He was nowhere to be seen. “Shit.”

—————————

I crept out of the elevator into the dark Tower lobby, hoping no one would see me. I had limped about three steps forward, taking off my hood and mask, when the lights flipped on, causing me to curse and squeeze my eyes shut.

“What the hell are you doing?” Hank asked, standing in front of me with his arms crossed. “You look like shit.”

“Gee, thanks, Hank,” I bit sarcastically. Donna, Dawn, and Dick were with Hank, all staring at me intently.

“Where were you?” Dick asked. His voice was calm, but I knew the tone. He was pissed.

“And why do you look like you just got hit by a car?” Donna added.

“It was a truck actually.” I grinned. No one returned the gesture. “Okay, not funny. Got it.” I tried to hide the blood seeping through the side of my shirt with my arm.

“It’s almost five in the morning,” Dick said.

“My favorite time of day,” I said, still avoiding the conversation about my whereabouts.

“We told you no patrol. Jason almost died two hours ago,” Donna said, anger in her voice.

“Relax, I wasn’t on patrol,” I reassured them, though I knew what I’d actually been doing was worse.

“She wasn’t on patrol, she was hunting Deathstroke,” Dawn spoke up. Everyone’s gazes turned into lasers into my skull.

“Snitches get stitches,” I muttered. My head had been screaming at me for the duration of the conversation and as the air in the room seemed to stand still, it got even louder.

“You’re freakin crazy!” Hank said. “What the hell were you thinking?!”

“She wasn’t,” Donna said. I looked at Dick who was rubbing his eyes with his head toward the ground.

“I don’t know why you’re all so worked up. I’m fine,” I said.

“We have a right to be upset!” Dawn exclaimed. “This man killed Garth and his own son!”

“You said it yourself, he wants you dead!” Hank said. “Considering how you look right now, I’d say he almost succeeded!”

“Oh my god, guys! You’re being dramatic! You’ve known me for five years, some of you more! You should know I can handle Deathstroke!” I shouted, getting angry. The outburst caused me to feel blood rising up my throat. I had to fight to keep myself from coughing it up.

“Do you not recall the conversation we had yesterday?!” Donna yelled. “You know, the one about how you can’t go off on your own, especially against Slade Wilson!”

“For the record, I was pretty tuned out that whole lecture,” I pointed out.

“You’re going to get yourself killed!” Hank said.

“It’ll take a whole lot more than Deathstroke to kill me,” I defended, crossing my arms. “I think we’re done with this conversation. It’s getting ridiculous.” I turned to leave only to see Hank blocking my way out. “Are you kidding me? Are we seriously doing this?”

“Yes, we’re doing this,” Donna said.

“Even like this, I can still kick all your asses,” I threatened. I noticed Dick had gone quiet which was never good. He was leaning on the island with his head down.

“You came back here 24 hours ago with your head split open, two broken ribs, and some internal bleeding,” Dawn ignored my comment. “I don’t want to see your medical report for today.”

“Lay off, okay?! He looks worse than me!”

“That’s pretty impressive seeing as you look like you just survived the freakin zombie apocalypse!” Hank yelled.

“Slade Wilson killed my parents and almost just killed someone else I care about! I was ready to end it for good!” I screamed, probably waking up the whole Tower.

“And did you?” Hank demanded. “End it?”

“The asshole ran before I could finish him off,” I said bitterly.

“So it was all for nothing?!” Donna seethed.

“I don’t get why you’re all so mad! I went out to help this team! He wants to rip us all apart piece by piece and I figured if I stopped him for good, I could protect everyone in this tower!” I cried.

The bang of someone slapping the counter grabbed my attention. The room went silent and all eyes turned to Dick.

“You are unbelievably selfish! You say you went out to help, but everyone here knows that you went for your personal vendetta! If you would’ve died tonight, what do you think would happened to this team?! We wouldn’t last another three days! I don’t care about your blood feud with Slade! You being injured and still going after him was probably the dumbest idea you’ve ever had! Last time you did that, you almost died!” Dick yelled. He looked me in the eye with an intense glare. His eyes held a mix of anger and worry. I opened my mouth to comment, but he cut me off. “What if he had ambushed you?” he said, voice at normal volume.

“He didn’t,” I replied simply, though I knew it was a dumb answer.

“But what if he did?” Dick repeated.

“Then I would’ve handled it,” I said. Scoffs sounded from everyone else in the room and Dick’s glare got more intense.

“Go to your room and get cleaned up. I’ll be in there with medical supplies in a minute,” he said, his voice never losing its firmness.

“Are you telling me to go to my room?” I asked in disbelief. There was no way he was treating me like a kid.

“Yes.” His eyes told me not to challenge him, and though normally I would, I was too tired to argue further. With a huff, I limped up toward my room.

Once inside, I took off my suit so I was just in my sports bra and leggings. Blood was still leaking down my skin from the deep slice in my side and multiple bruises littered my skin. I couldn’t tell which injuries were from yesterday and which were from today. Although, my pride hurt more than the physical injuries. I had let Slade get away. Sure, I had been hurt, but that shouldn’t have stopped me from going after him. And this was after yesterday when he and Dr. Light jumped me. I had to do better.

A knock came at my door, pulling me out of my self-loathing. Jason stuck his head in.

“Mind if I come in?” he asked.

“If you want to,” I said. Lately, our friendship had been strained which was entirely my fault. I was terrified I’d end up getting him hurt. In a way, I had with the whole being thrown off a building thing. Slade had said that there was more than one way to hurt me as Dr. Light had trapped me in a circle of fire and shot beams of light at me. I quickly realized he meant Jason. “Aren’t you supposed asleep?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said tiredly. “Nightmares. You know how it goes.”

“Yeah,” I said softly.

“I heard what happened. Are you okay?”

“Me?” His question took me by surprise. “I’m- I’m fine. How are you?”

“Exhausted. Who would’ve thought falling would be tiring?” I laughed a little. He looked a little awkward standing there, so I patted the bed next to me. He got the message and came and sat down. I noticed the haunted look in his eyes the minute I saw them up close. “Did Deathstroke do that?” He pointed to my side. I nodded. “Why’d you go after him? He could’ve killed you.”

“I was pissy and emotional,” I said with a shrug. “I almost had him before he ran like a coward.”

“Where’s your first aid kit?” Jason asked.

“You don’t need to take care of me. You should be resting anyway,” I tried to tell him.

“I can’t sleep. Might as well do something productive. It’ll also be a good distraction.” He stood up. “I assume you still keep it under the sink.” I nodded.

“Dick’ll be in here in a minute,” I said.

“Sucks for him. I beat him to you,” Jason said with a smirk. I let out a small laugh. He came back and sat down next to me with a washcloth and first aid kit. Without another word, he started cleaning the gash in my side. As the blood began to fade, I spoke up.

“I’m sorry.” He didn’t stop with the cloth but looked up at me.

“For what?”

“I was there. In the tunnels and I wasn’t able to stop Slade from taking you. I should’ve stopped him, but I didn’t and because of that, you got hurt,” I apologized. “I’ve also been a shitty friend lately.”

“What happened with Deathstroke wasn’t your fault. I got cocky and it didn’t play out for me. None of that is on you. And I get the stress this whole Deathstroke situation has put you under. You don’t want to lose someone else to him.” He moved on to putting the stitches into my cut.

“That’s no excuse. I was a jerk and you didn’t shove it right back in my face like you probably should’ve. I’m sorry.”

“We’re good. I promise,” he said with a small smile.

“Jason, you should be resting,” Dick’s voice came from the doorway.

“Well, I couldn’t,” Jason said, annoyance creeping into his voice. “So I decided to do something productive.”

“I need to talk to Elana,” Dick said.

“Then just act like I’m not here,” Jason said with a shrug. I gave him a small smile to thank him.

Obviously, that wasn’t the response Dick wanted, but he only sighed. “You should’ve told us what you were doing. I know all about you and Deathstroke and I get being angry, feeling like you need to do something about it, but you need to remember he feels the same way. Your comment about him wanting to rip us all apart might’ve been more about you than all of us.”

“You’re projecting,” I deadpanned.

“I am not!” he snapped. I raised an eyebrow and Jason bit back laughter. “I’m not,” he lowered his voice. “I’m worried about you. Going after Deathstroke almost killed you once. The only reason you made it last time was because I was there to get you home.”

“Oh my god. Could you tone the ego down a little?” I scoffed. “You almost died too.”

“I’m trying to figure out why you thought it’d be a good idea to go at it alone and injured. We almost lost you.”

“You would’ve been fine,” I said.

“I disagree,” Jason piped up quickly.

“Ask anyone. You not coming home tonight would’ve torn the Titans apart,” Dick said. Jason finished up the last stitch and put his tools down. “And I know it’s selfish, but I’ve already lost too many people I care about. I can’t lose you too.”

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I snickered.

“Don’t expect me to say anything else nice. I’m still pissed,” he said.

“Fair,” I sighed.

“I’m gonna restitch your leg. It looks like you pulled out stitches from earlier,” Jason whispered to me. I nodded and moved my leg onto the bed.

“But, you’re benched from patrol alone until we get Deathstroke,” Dick said.

“What?!” I exclaimed, jerking up which threw Jason’s stitching off.

“Stay still,” Jason reminded me.

“Dick, you can’t do that!” I hissed as I settled back down.

“Based on what’s happened the past two nights, I think I can,” he said.

“I wasn’t alone last night,” I said.

“You essentially were,” Jason said. I shot a glare at him. “It’s true.” He gave me an apologetic look.

“Come on, guys. That’s not fair,” I whined.

“It’s to protect you,” Dick said.

“I’m an adult, I don’t need to be protected,” I said.

“Considering how much blood you come home without, I’d say you do,” Dick said, crossing his arms.

“I’m fine,” I stressed.

“Clearly,” Jason scoffed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?” I asked.

“I’m on my own side always, Lanes,” he said with a smirk.

“You’ll be fine,” Dick said. “Both of you get some sleep. You both need it.”

“Yes, sir,” Jason mocked.

“Whatever you say, boss.” I gave a fake salute. Dick rolled his eyes and mumbled something about kids these days as he walked out.

“You’re all stitched up,” Jason announced.

“Thanks, Jay.” I gave him a small smile. “You’re a pro,” I laughed, examining the stitches.

“Considering how often I’ve had to do this, I should be,” he chuckled. “Your head is bleeding, too.”

“I’ll get that in the shower. You’ve helped enough already.”

“You sure?” he asked.

“Yeah.” We sat across from each other in silence, but we were both thinking the same thing. His eyes drifted to my lips and I realized mine had, too. Unconsciously, we had moved closer. As we drew even closer, reality hit me. “I’m sorry, Jay. We can’t,” I whispered, pulling back and lowering my head.

“Yeah, yeah,” he breathed. I felt him grab my hand and plant a kiss on my forehead. Without even thinking, I leaned into his chest, much like we used to do. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer and he rested his chin on my head.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Of course.” He matched my tone.

[winged-golden-wanderer]

Goldie Vs. Gym Leader Misty

---

[ATTACHED: A recording of a gym match.. Goldie is seen walking down the narrow pathway leading to Misty's platform on the far edge of the gym, where the proclaimed "Tomboyish Mermaid" stands tall and proud. As they walk up the stairs to the small elevated battlefield, her mouth lifts into a slight smirk. "Welcome to the Cerulean Gym, challenger!" Misty announces. "Glad my trainers weren't enough to deter you, you took both of them out pretty easily. But I hope that hasn't got you thinking I'll be a pushover- you better have brought your A game!"

"Um," Goldie mumbles as they look back at Cheese, who's waiting behind them with the rest of their Pokemon. The Pikachu squeaks, quickly dashing up to her trainer's side, her red cheeks sparking a little as she takes a battle-ready position. You see Goldie smile a little under their scarf, before turning to Misty and nodding. "Okay." For a minute Misty seems a bit bemused by their somewhat awkward demeanor, but takes it as a sign that they're ready to begin. She flicks her wrist, and a Staryu comes spinning out of its Pokeball. The star-shaped Pokemon lands on its side of the battlefield and lets out a "hyah!", the red jewel in its center flickering. "You get the first move, challenger," Misty decides, waiting to see what Goldie will do. She crosses her arms, seeming confident that she'll be able to handle anything they throw at her.

"Um," Goldie turns back to Cheese, pointing across the battlefield at Staryu as they give the command. "Thundershock." Cheese gives a nod of understanding, before dashing forwards on all fours. Her cheeks gain an orange undertone as she charges up electricity inside them, and once she reaches Staryu she takes a running leap up into the air to unleash her first strike. The yellow glow of crackling electricity fills the air, nearly swallowing the screen for a moment, but once it fades it reveals the Staryu vanished from where it once stood. Landing on all four paws, Cheese twitches her ear in confusion as she whips around, searching for her opponent. All of a sudden, the Staryu comes bursting out of the water behind her at breakneck speed, and blasts a spurt of water from its gem.

Goldie gasps, and tries to shout in warning, but it happens too fast. The attack strikes Cheese in the back, sending the little Pikachu sliding across the arena and out of its bounds. She slips and dangles off the edge, kicking her feet frantically against the smooth floor pool wall panels to try and scramble back up. "Pika! Chuchu!"

Thankfully, she's recalled before she can lose her grip and go plunging into the water below. Goldie clicks her Pokeball back to their belt and reaches for another one, before tossing it out onto the field. Peanut comes bursting out, flipping through the air before landing perfectly on her feet and performing an eager little dance.

The fight picks up again right away, with Peanut actually able to keep up with the Staryu's speed relatively well. The two bounce around the arena in chase, the Mankey narrowly dodging water guns left and right. Before long, Peanut catches up, and Staryu is forced to resort to a Tackle attack instead. Peanut leaps over its pointed head with ease though, and lands a devastating kick to its backside. Staryu is sent flying across the field, before it teeters over and face-plants at its trainer's feet.

Peanut cartwheels back to her side of the field, and starts to jump up and down, chattering gleefully to herself at her victory. It isn't over yet, though; after giving her Staryu a pat for a job well done, Misty recalls it and sends out her next Pokemon- the evolved form of her previous, Starmie.

The purple starfish is an impressive size, twice as big as the Pokemon that preceded it. It bellows out a deeper "Hiyah!", puffing out its faceted gem stone in pride. It isn't long before the next match-up is on its way. At first, it carries out much similar to the first, except with Starmie being the one in pursuit of Peanut. It's slower due to its larger size, though, and each of its Rapid Spin attempts only end with Peanut bouncing out of the way effortlessly. Eventually, Starmie seems to tire itself out for a brief moment, and Peanut takes the chance to attempt dispatching it the same way she did with Staryu.

As soon as she goes front-flipping her way over its head, though. something unexpected happens- the moment she goes in for a kick, Starmie swivels around and faces her head on.

"Water Gun!"

What comes erupting from the Water-type's gem seems less like a Water Gun and more akin to a Hydro Cannon, the way it jets out with such roaring ferocity and blasts Peanut straight up towards the ceiling. The Mankey shrieks, careening through the air for a moment before plummeting back down to earth, dunking right into the pool.

Goldie rushes to the edge of the water, just in time to see Peanut bob back up to the surface, groaning weakly in defeat. Letting out a nervous sigh, Goldie recalls her to her Pokeball and paces back to their side of the field.

Misty smirks, awaiting their next move patiently as they reach for Cheese's ball again, only for another to pop open with red light. Lizzie materializes in front of them, and they tilt their head at the her in confusion. The Charmeleon lets out a few grunts, and soon, that expression shifts to one of understanding. Goldie seems hesitant, glancing down at their shoes contemplatively, but soon responds to their Pokemon with a nod. Lizzie smiles, and gives them an affirmative thumbs up as she turns to face down Starmie. Misty quirks a brow at their choice, what with the obvious type disadvantage, but decides against commenting on it as she shouts out her next command. "Water Gun, again!"

The gush of water comes bursting out with the same viciousness as last time, but to your surprise, Lizzie stays glued right to where she stands. She brings arms up to her chest, and uses them to endure the ruthless blow with as much strength as she can muster. The damage it did is still obvious though when the attack fizzles out, from the way the Fire-type stumbles down onto one knee and has to catch herself on her hand.

Despite her weakened state, though, she looks up and grins deviously at the Starmie ahead of her.

"Smokescreen!" Goldie calls out.

Lizzie fires off a tight ball of inky black smog from her maw, one that quickly swallows the Starmie like a net once it makes contact. The starfish shouts and stumbles back on its pointed legs, trying to shake the shroud of smoke off, but it clings to it like some kind of aura.

Before Misty can decide her next plan of attack, Goldie quickly returns Lizzie to her ball and switches her out with Cheese. The Pikachu, seeming to have recovered well from the hit she took from Staryu earlier, comes jumping out energetically onto the field.

Starmie growls in frustration, and fires off another water gun at Misty’s command, but from the combination of the smoke clouding its vision and Cheese’s sheer speed upon dashing out of the way causes it to miss.

“Thunder Wave!”

Cheese stops behind Starmie, before her cheeks start to glow an electric orange and emit a yellow, crackling pulse. Misty’s ace freezes up as the waves of energy brush past it, now paralyzed where it’s stood.

Cheese rushes in for what you hope will be the final blow, but Misty interrupts with another order.

“Swift!”

Starmie fights through the paralysis for just a moment, mustering up enough movement to swing itself back and fire off a barrage of star-shaped projectiles upwards. The attack shoots straight up into the air, but starts to veer around and lock in on Cheese. It hits her in the side, causing her to stumble and roll over onto her back.

“Now, Starmie!”

Once again, the starfish Pokémon manages enough strength to wobble around until it’s directly facing Cheese. You notice Goldie tense up, likely knowing that taking a Water Gun from that close up is sure to end poorly- if not guarantee the win for Misty entirely.

But then, a miracle happens- Just as the Starmie begins to charge up a ball of water inside the center of its gem, sparks sizzle up the sides of its body, locking it in place. As soon as the opening presents itself, Cheese is taking advantage of it before Goldie can even give the order. Swiveling onto her stomach and propping herself back up on all four paws, the little yellow mouse builds up all the electricity she can muster. Then, she releases it all in a devastating shock that just about swallows the battlefield. Once it subsides, you see Starmie start to wobble from side to side, before clattering onto the concrete battlefield like a coin. After a few seconds, the words “Victory!” appear on screen in bold, golden letters. Just before the recording ends, you see Goldie dash to Cheese and scoop her up in a hug, while Misty just sighs and places a hand on her hip as she recalls Starmie to its ball.]

---

[braveclementine]

Titan

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

Tony was hidden with the others in the ruins of Titan. The purple grape came through a portal of black, blue, and a little white, looking around, and sighing heavily.

"Oh yeah." Stephen said. He was sitting in the rubble, looking almost sexy with his sitting pose. "You're much more of a Thanos."

"I take it the Maw is dead." Thanos asked and Stephen nodded his head. "This day extracts a heavy toll." He walked towards where the wizard was sitting, "Still, he accomplished his mission."

"You may regret that." Stephen replied in a gravely voice, "He brought you face to face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."

"And where do you think he brought you?" The purple grape grew closer and closer to the wizard.

"Let me guess." Strange said, almost sarcastically. "Your home?"

Thanos paused where he was standing propping one leg up on the rock, almost leaning on it, "It was. And it was beautiful."

The world changed around them, almost giving Tony motion sickness. He could even see people walking down where the fountain square would have been. The destroyed machines in the background were flying now in the sky, and the others were large buildings for conventions and such.

"Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, and not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."

"Genocide." Strange finished for him, looking skeptical.

"But at random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." The illusion dropped, returning to its normal, ruined state.

"Congratulations." Strange's voice definitely dripped with sarcasm this time. "You're a prophet."

"I'm a survivor."

It took all of Tony's strength not to sing, 'I'm a survivor, I'm not gonna give up.'

"Who wants to murder trillions." Strange answered harshly.

"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers, and they would all cease to exist. I call that. . . Mercy." Thanos said, demonstrating the snapping of fingers with his ungloved hand.

Stephen stood up then, walking down the steps, "And then what?"

"I finally rest. . . And watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

"I think you'll find-" Stephen clasped his wrists together, "our will-" the orange shields started to appear, "equal to yours."

"Our?" Thanos asked as Tony flew down with the hunk of metal in front of him. He was scanning through it to see his target below him.

"Piece of cake Quil." Tony retorted as it smashed to the ground, squashing the man like a bug.

"Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off." Quil responded, flying in from the other side.

Purple power erupted from underneath the metal and then red glowed as the metal all turned into bats. Tony tried to shoot them, but they swarmed him, flying him backwards, overwhelming him.

Peter webbed him in the eye and Drax leapt down, slashing Thanos across the back of his leg. Strange summoned a blade, but Thanos stopped it, ripping the webbing away from his eye. Advancing on Strange, attempting to kick him as the wizard produced a shield. It blocked the kick, but the force still sent the wizard flying backwards.

Quil and Strange worked together, Quil blasting him with his gun, Stephen throwing magic at the purple eggplant.

Ew. Tony was going to have to stop sending eggplant emojis to Y/N after this.

Quil shot Thanos from behind, causing Thanos to turn. He used Stephen's portals to jump from each of them, flipping behind Thanos, placing a bomb on his back. He turned to face Thanos, disengaging the face plate. "Boom!" He shouted, giving him the middle finger, before falling backwards into one of the wizards' full portals. The bomb went off, electricity crawling over the grapes' body.

Stephen's cloak wrapped around the gloved gauntlet, before the wizard started opening portals and the spider kid started jumping out of them.

"Magic!"

"More magic!"

"Magic with a kick!" he kicked Thanos in the face.

"Magic with a-" Peter was cut off as Thanos grabbed him around the throat, slamming him into the ground. He threw Peter at Strange and the wizard was knocked to the ground, the spider slammed against the metal box.

He ripped the cloak off his hand and Tony took that as his cue, swinging back around, dropping explosions and sending bullets at the standing Titan.

Tony groaned as the Titan sucked the flames up, before sending them at him. Tony cried out, caught up in the flames, getting blasted back into one of the now destroyed and ruined buildings.

Tony made it out to see a blue thing go flying and crashing, before the wizard wrapped glowing red ropes around the gauntlet, pulling. Drax knocked the Titan to his knees. Tony landed, the ropes releasing and he started to pull with all of his strength as Peter started to wrap rope around him.

Stephen opened a portal above his head so that Mantis could drop down and put the Titan to sleep.

They were all grunting, Strange digging his heels in as he used the red ropes on the other hand now. Peter digging the new legs Tony had designed into the concrete. Mantis pressed harder against his temples and Drax kept him down with his arms around his legs. Tony continued to pull at the gauntlet, feeling it give, inch by inch.

"Is he under? Don't let up." Tony commanded.

"Be quick. He is very strong!" Mantis said, her feelers glowing white and she squeezed her eyes closed.

"Parker? Help! Get over here." Tony called out. Peter hurried to his side, "She can't hold him much longer. Let's go. We gotta open his fingers to get it off!"

Quil suddenly landed, almost gloating as he sauntered over, "I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where's Gamora?"

"My. . . Gamora. . .?" Thanos groaned.

"Oh, bull–shit. Where is she?" Quil growled. Tony already knew the answer, because Quil had screamed in pain earlier. Tony already knew the answer, because the soul stone was on the glove.

"He is in anguish." Mantis finalized Tony's thoughts. He pulled harder at the glove. Once Quil realized, punches were going to be thrown and he needed the glove off before that happened.

"Good." Quil replied coldly, not realizing what that meant.

Mantis was crying now as she continued, "He. . . he. . . he mourns!"

"What does this monster have to mourn?!" Drax asked angrily.

"Gamora." The blue woman person robot thing whispered.

"What?" Quil asked her.

"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone. . . but she didn't."

"Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now, understand?" Tony panicked, warning him. He watched Quil turn to Thanos and pulled harder, "Don't, don't, don't engage, we've almost got this off!"

"Tell me she's lying." Quil ordered. "ASSHOLE! Tell me you didn't do it!"

"I. . . had. . . to. . ." Thanos mumbled.

Quil was starting to tear up, realizing what his past pain meant. "No, you didn't. . . No, you didn't" Quil hit Thanos across the face with his gun. "NO YOU DIDN'T!" He hit again, throwing Mantis' hands off of Thanos, starting to wake him up.

"Stop!" Tony grabbed Quil, trying to get him away from Thanos.

Thanos fought them with an equal strength and Tony saw that Strange actually looked surprised as he was yanked and tossed over Thanos' head. Thanos stopped the blue girl, Quil, and Drax from charging with the power stone.

Tony lunged, bringing his arms down, fighting against Thanos now. The Titan head butted him and Tony went flying backwards, tumbling over backwards.

Tony watched as Thanos pulled power from the moon above them. Tony lunged into the air as it started to come down on Titan. Tony flew up, placing his back against it, trying to boost upwards, but instead, was crushed underneath it, between the moon and the planet.

🎃 :::::  🧡  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  🧡  ::::: 🎃

Stephen stepped onto a rock as things started to explode on the planet. The young boy was turning out to be useful, saving the others as they were unconscious in the air.

Stephen wasted no time, pulling up his shields and then slamming them into the ground. Thanos managed to dodge them just barely, trying to slam him with a burst of power from the power stone. Stephen blocked it with a mirror dimension, sending it at him.

He managed to suck the mirror dimension into one of the other stones, before sending it at Strange. He created a shield, the power turning into gentle blue butterflies.

Stephen lifted into the air, using his powers to create multiples of him, all of them identical and flowing outwards. In sync, all two hundred of them lashed out at him with their ropes, capturing his entire body.

Thanos used the power stone, dispersing his copies back into his body. Stephen was jolted in the air a little. Suddenly, Stephen found himself flying towards the Titan, into his hand around his neck.

"You are full of tricks wizard." Thanos said, before ripping the eye of agamotto off of his chest. "But you never once used your greatest weapon." He crushed it in his hand revealing. . .nothing. "A fake." Thanos almost smiled. Stephen struggled to get out of his grasp.

He tossed Stephen to the ground and he rolled over until he was on his stomach.

He heard Iron feet hit the ground and heard Tony say rather angrily, "If you throw another moon at me, then I'm gonna lose it."

Stephen almost chuckled.

"Stark." Thanos hissed.

"You know me?" Tony asked.

"I do. You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."

"My only curse is you." Tony responded.

Stephen rolled over in time to see Stark send missiles at him.

"Come on." Thanos growled, lifting his gauntlet to block them.

Tony flew forwards, bashing him in the chest with his feet, doing a back tuck in midair, landing then. His blasters slammed Thanos back into the rock behind him. Thanos reached forward, ripping the head off, going to punch him and did so, just as Tony blocked it with another helmet.

Nanotech. Stark really had outdone himself.

Thanos ripped the lock that Tony had placed on his hand, blasting him with purple aura from the power stone. Tony blocked it with one of his shields. Then Tony flew out from behind the shield, slamming his hand down, locking it with a new prothesis of his foot, his arm turning into more of a hammer shape, slamming Thanos across the face.

"All that for a drop of blood." Thanos grinned.

He knocked Stark to his feet, punching him over and over. Stephen wished he could get up, even though he had seen what would happen, knew Stark would survive. He still wanted to get up.

He had to admit, Stark gave it his all. Even as bits of his suit were destroyed, he sent it to other parts, trying to use his blasters. Switching from his legs, to create a sharp weapon. A weapon which Thanos broke off, and then stabbed through his stomach.

Stephen knew at that moment on Earth, Y/N would scream in pain and know that Tony was in danger. But she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"You have my respect Stark. When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you." Thanos stepped back from him.

"Stop." Stephen cried out and Thanos turned, not lowering the gauntlet which he was going to destroy Tony with. "Spare his life and I will give you the stone."

"No tricks." Thanos growled.

Stephen shook his head, heart beating in his chest. Betraying everything he knew. At least. . . at least when it all ended, neither he nor Sam would have to spend that five years without each other. They would both be gone, and then both come back. And they would help each other through that missing five years.

"Don't." Tony choked out as Thanos turned the gauntlet of stones towards Stephen.

But Stephen lifted his hand, revealing the green Time stone. Thanos held his hand out for it and Stephen felt like he was near tears. Yes, he and Sam would survive. But Natasha wouldn't. Stark wouldn't in the end. Even though he barely knew the two, he knew Y/N at the very least. And they had kids. . .

Stephen let the stone go, and it floated towards Thanos. Tony grunted, trying to breathe through the pain.

"One to go." Thanos grunted.

A bullet suddenly bounced off his gauntlet as Quil came flying out of nowhere, shooting at him. Thanos didn't even looked phased, stepping backwards into the same portal as he had come. Quil fell forwards into the wreckage.

Quil got to his feet, dropping his face plate, "WHERE IS HE?"

Tony closed up his wound with sort of icing mechanism.

And then Quil asked, "Did we just lose?"

Stephen heard Tony asked quietly, "Why would you do that?"

Stephen simply said, "We're in the endgame now."

And they would lose.

But they would win. . . with loss.

🎃 :::::  🧡  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  🧡  ::::: 🎃

Tony was helped to his feet by Peter. Quil had an arm around Mantis' body while Drax and the blue girl came down as well. He noticed that the wizard stayed where he was, beaten, bruised, bloody, defeated.

He remembered on the ship that the wizard had said he wouldn't trade the stone for any lives. But he had traded it for his.

"Somethings happening." Mantis said shakily and Tony watched with horror as she suddenly started to turn into what looked like dust or ash. Maybe even small, curled dead brown leaves. Quil stared in surprise.

They looked over and saw Drax looking down at his arm. And all he did was look back up and ask, "Quil?" Before he was completely gone.

"Steady Quil." Tony said, feeling panicked himself. Was Y/N witnessing this? Or worse- was this happening to Y/N?

"Oh man." Quil whispered, before turning into dust.

"Tony."

Tony turned around to face Stephen. He had his arm propped on his knee, holding the photo of Sam that Tony had given him. Yet, he still looked up at Tony while he spoke, "There was no other way." And he held his gaze until he too turned into dust.

"Mr. Stark?" A pained voice said.

Tony slowly turned to face the kid, heart ramming painfully in his chest. Surely he wasn't going to lose every single one of them, was he?

"I don't feel so good." Peter cried out.

"You're alright." Tony said, almost harshly, more trying to convince himself.

"I don't know what's happening." Peter said, looking down at his hands, stumbling forwards. He tripped, falling into Tony and Tony caught him in his arms. The boy clutched him hard. "I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go. Sir, please. Please, I don't wanna go."

Tony slowly lowered the boy until he could lay him flat on his back. Tony tried to remind himself that even if Peter had stayed on Earth, it would still be happening to him. "Sir." Peter whispered, looking at him, before his eyes adverted to the sky, and he was gone too.

Tony slid his hand into the ash, finding nothing, before wiping his hands. He sat up, curling into himself a little.

"He did it." The blue girl whispered behind him. She sat down, not quite next to him, but close enough.

Tony felt a strange emptiness in him. They had lost. Completely. Yet, Strange had said it was the only way. . . there had to be more.

His hands were covered in blood- his blood. His wound was closed up, his suit was destroyed. And he was left in space, on a planet that he didn't even know had existed, with a girl that looked like she was a cyborg with blue skin.

"Oh God." He whispered. "Oh God." 

[happyfanofeverything]

Calling on all non-Black ppl & abled ppl to contribute funds & share this aid request for my dear friends Liv & Webb!

We urgently need money for electricity & water, otherwise Liv may be killed on the streets by cold, life-threatening infections (especially COVID), and police/white supremacist violence.

venmo: Webwil1240

cashapp: $DaunderDogg

paypal: @ORiveraWilson

one link with all their direct paylinks: moneyyy.me/$livi5567

food wishlist on amazon

cleaning supplies wishlist on amazon

gofund.me/bed23894

what to know about this emergency situation:

--🌹🥀🩸--

Liv & Webb NEED their own secure housing to keep Liv safe from infection, especially covid.

She’s constantly bleeding, with an open stomach wound, has frequent seizures & even heart attacks, & has been only repeatedly abused by hospitals who, for example, coerced & manipulated her into signing a DNR.

Medical abuse & neglect has worsened her condition to unimaginable extents, even though treatment can significantly help her if only they could have enough money.

Webb always watches over her, tends to her body, keeps surfaces sanitized, protects her from abuse, desperately brings her back when she stops breathing.

Her teeth have broken apart and fallen out because she’s always throwing up & doesn’t have enough food to eat.

Liv worked extremely hard to graduate college with a degree in cybersecurity, but this cruel world has forced her to give up on her career dream.

Liv and Webb have been in love together for many years and would do & have done anything and everything for each other.

Webb has been physically disabled by a car crashing into him and by more medical abuse on top of that.

(Months ago, they forced him to walk 12 miles daily to physical therapy in excruciating heat with a fractured neck & back & everything because he didn’t have a working car nor money to get there using rideshare, and if he didn’t show up every day they wouldn’t pay his settlement for the car crash… even though they clearly knew it was only making his condition worse. Deeply evil).

Even in his physical condition, Webb has worked extremely hard to make money for Liv, but employers exploit his labor & cheat him of fair payment for his work because they know he can’t do much to retaliate.

Liv and Webb care wonderfully for their multiple beloved pets with their extremely limited resources, their puppy Blue loves and protects Liv.

Liv & Webb’s families are horrifically abusive and cruel and have left them to die, gloating to them that they’ll throw a party after Liv dies, sending the most horrible abusive messages to Liv.

One abusive family member forces them to pay full rent & utilities for a home that he frequently kicks them out of.

They can’t stay when he’s there - previously, he has brought friends to rape and beat Liv, he has purposely used up all of their living supplies, set the temperature to flip between extremes & blasted loud audio just to torture them, he has poisoned their beloved pets.

It’s extremely dangerous for Liv and Webb to stay outside: even when they have a car, they’re constantly chased away and harassed and threatened by strangers because they’re Black and poor and disabled. They’ve barely been eating anything at all.

Liv and Webb have been crowdfunding online for a long time (years!!) and received immense floods of harassment.

Liv and Webb need community support, money to secure their housing every month, money for their car, money for food and basic hygienic needs.

Liv and Webb are extremely important to me. They show me every day that people with illnesses and disabilities (like me) deserve unconditional love and care and support, that it’s possible for two people to love each other so dedicatedly that they weather & survive insurmountable obstacles & constant hatred from the world around them, no matter what, for years, even as their living conditions permanently alter their bodies and souls.

We need to support Liv & Webb so that they can continue living and caring for each other in this horrible world.

[spookyspaghettisundae]

What He Signed Up For

The EMD’s battery whined. Green, yellow, and red bars glowed on the side of the futuristic weapon, set for maximum power output.

A measured response to a Tyrannosaurus Rex. A mighty dinosaur in the flesh. Its deafening roar curdled Chloe Grant’s blood and shook her to the core. Their previous encounter with a Purrusaurus had haunted her nightmares with memories of the giant crocodile, but it paled in comparison to this tyrant lizard and its towering appearance.

The earth quaked with every step the beast took. Despite its frightening mass, it displayed an even more terrifying agility. The T-Rex ducked underneath metal girders connecting different parts of the oil rig. Gigantic claws crashed down and kicked up clouds of dust, suffocating the crystal blue sky behind it.

Mischchenko shot first. Electric blasts discharged into balls of lightning where they struck the giant lizard. It roared in pain. Its roar petered out into an angry growl—a single shot from the EMD, even at full capacity, was not enough to knock the dino out.

Grant flipped her internal safety switch. Stopped thinking. Acted on that dread that had been paralyzing her at the sight of the T-Rex, and now acted like she used to in the field, as a soldier. How different could it be from shooting at a tank?

Two blasts from her EMD hit the T-Rex in its snout, dead center. It roared again, reared back, and metal squealed where the lizard’s body smashed through the oil rig’s girders.

From the flanks, more EMD shots sliced through the air, three in number. Ruiz, crouched upon an old blue container shell, sniped at the T-Rex from his elevated position. His first shot sent the beast reeling, stumbling back another few thundering steps. Static crackled around the scaly beast’s body. It shuddered, barely staying standing. Before it could recover, a second and third shot elicited a strange mewling sound from the T-Rex’s maw.

Mischchenko ducked. In doing so, she covered the dirt-caked boy in the blue container behind them. The boy shivered behind her, whimpering, cowering at the sight of the T-Rex. Small hands covered eyes, screwed shut in terror.

Grant stepped farther out from the container, aiming down her EMD’s scope at the beast. It stumbled back another step.

Ruiz’s voice on intercom crackled, tinny, commenting with coldness.

“Careful now. I ain’t carrying that big-ass lizard back to any Anomaly.”

The T-Rex looked disoriented. Its toothy maw opened and clamped shut, and its massive claws kicked up more dust, tearing up ground around the abandoned Midland oil rig.

Grant muttered into the intercom, “How the hell did nobody spot this thing on satellite image? Yo!”

Mischchenko skipped the answer to her question. She barked, “We need a location on the Anomaly! Yesterday!”

The T-Rex lurched forward and the ground shook again.

Murder flashed in reptilian eyes.

“We aren’t getting anything here!” Singh whined across the airwaves. “Not even a visual! Where are you?”

Grant kept her gun’s muzzle trained at the dinosaur’s head. She clicked her tongue.

The T-Rex reared back another thundering step. Its tail whipped around and tore a chunk of metal out of the old rig’s body. Metal bars bent and groaned and screeched where unstoppable saurian force tore them apart.

Huge legs buckled. The EMD shots always hurt.

“It’s going to run,” Burch said over the radio. It dawned on Grant that Burch could see everything they were seeing at the oil rig, as their helmets were continuously transmitting visual feeds. Burch repeated, with more urgency, “It’s going to run!”

Mischchenko took a step forward, Ruiz stayed as still as a statue, and Grant’s finger curled around the trigger.

Time slowed to a crawl. A single second turned into an eternity.

No thoughts. Only action.

Grant shot first, then Ruiz, then Mischchenko. Five more EMD discharges total, and the T-Rex emitted another mewling groan. It stumbled again. It crashed. A living earthquake, shaking their world. Flakes of rust snowed down from every metal girder, and the blue containers rocked. All metal groaned.

The three field operatives breathed steadily, keeping their weapons lined up for more shots.

The T-Rex’s tail slapped the ground, whipping up another violent cloud of dust.

There was almost a tragic beauty in how the dust broke the rays of broad daylight in this Texan desert.

Nobody else on the team commented. Stunned, they watched what the helmet feeds transmitted.

The T-Rex no longer budged. Its maw closed with slowness. Eyelids fell shut.

The dinosaur slept off its stupor. The EMDs had taken it down. For now.

“Specimen incapacitated,” Mischchenko confirmed. “We need eyes on the Anomaly, damnit!”

Nothing. The huge cloud of dust surrounding the T-Rex still settled, slowly. Ever so slowly.

Doctor Solomon broke the silence. “Working on it. I think something’s interfering with our detectors. And something else is affecting the satellite images. Standby, please.”

Ruiz sighed. “We ain’t got all day, and we’re gettin’ spread thin. Wasn’t there another dino out here we need to worry about? And the federales team?”

Stantz replied via radio. “Me, I’m on the military, don’t worry about it. We need to find out if there’s more damage I need to control. Carter—you should regroup with the rest of field ops. Two o’ ya keep your eyes on the T-Rex, two start sweeping the area. How hard can it be to find another big lizard and a big glowing orb of energy?”

“Doctor Trémaux would beg to differ.” Doctor Solomon interjected. “It’s not simply energy, it’s—”

“I don’t care, man,” Stantz cut in. “You eggheads worry about quantum physics or whatever it is you do, I worry about keeping the lid on things.”

“No objections from me,” Carter growled. “Except the part where you’re the media guy, and not our C.O., Stantz. That being said, I got no arguments about our next steps. On my way to rendezvous with y’all, Mischchenko. Sit tight.”

Ruiz hopped down from the blue container. He lifted his helmet’s visor to reveal symmetrical features and a three o’clock shadow on his face. Brown eyes sparkled as he stared daggers at the downed T-Rex.

In a fluid motion, he produced a crumpled pack of cigarettes from a pocket, then brought one of those cigarettes to the corner of his lips.

Mischchenko cleared her throat. She emerged from the blue container with the small boy, helping the child to climb out.

“Not concerned about setting a bad example?” she asked Ruiz.

He shrugged and lit up his cigarette with a blade-like flame from a storm lighter.

Mischchenko sighed. She lifted her visor and hunkered down next to the boy, meeting the child at eye level, and resting a gloved hand on his shoulder. In hushed tones and a soothing voice, she spoke to the kid, soon learning his name was Aiden, and telling him that he didn’t need to be afraid of any dinosaurs as long as they were around.

Figuring Mischchenko had that situation handled, Grant shouldered her EMD rifle and sauntered up to Ruiz.

While he smoked, they kept watch on the unconscious T-Rex.

The dinosaur’s sides heaved with an almost peaceful tranquil. Breathing steadily.

Part of her wanted to approach it. Part of her imagined removing a glove, running her fingers over those scales, to learn what it felt like.

The rest of her body and instincts screamed at her. She was as close as she needed to be, and didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if that beast bit anybody.

Instead of approaching it and sating that lethal curiosity, Grant stood still as a statue, a sentry.

Ruiz scratched his chin and smoked, eventually peeling his attention off the T-Rex, and meeting Grant’s gaze.

Smoke billowed from his nostrils and he chortled. “Well, would you look at that. Feels like yesterday when Carter was complaining about walkin’ into a T-Rex on a mission, huh?”

Grant forced herself not to study his handsome face. He looked like an artist had chiseled a perfect likeness of a man into the shadow of his helmet.

Ruiz must have picked up on it. A smirk played around the corners of his lips, framed by a subtle twitch that he wrestled back into a stoic expression.

Grant had no idea what Ruiz knew. He knew why Future Proof’s team had missed the Anomaly, and still had no visual on the T-Rex. Or them, for that matter.

Just that morning, the mystery woman with the red hair had briefed him on it. Briefed him on it all.

* * *

“We’re about to leak this intel to Future Proof,” said the mystery woman. Loretta Corsino.

If Ruiz’s smirk bore self-confidence, then Corsino’s smirk was smug.

This morning, however, long before Future Proof’s team arrived in Midland, Ruiz wasn’t smirking at all.

He was frowning.

Flipping up and down the brief on the tablet’s screen, its contents were painting the frown on his face.

Corsino’s group, the nebulous company who was wiring obscene amounts of money to Ruiz for his espionage work at Future Proof, had finally gotten a leg up on them.

The screen displayed grainy satellite images of dinosaurs on the loose in the dusty outskirts of Midland. And satellite images of an Anomaly, a glittering, glowing orb in a wasteland.

Ruiz scrolled past a picture of Captain Dariel Rose—bearded, dark, carved with wrinkles from black ops abroad, staring into the camera with a grim expression—acting head of the military operations team en route to secure the specimens.

He scrolled past number crunching, cold mathematics. Corporate language, callous in its specificity, with all the fluff cut out for clarity. Ruiz scrolled past it all. He wasn’t interested in the details. The specifics made his stomach churn and knot.

The stats summed up a preliminary death toll, measured in civilians. They weren’t doing a damned thing.

Ruiz wasn’t liking any of this. It wasn’t what he had signed up for.

The tablet, dropped from his hand in frustration, clattered on the café’s table between them.

Loretta Corsino still smirked at him. Maybe she was just sadistic enough that his reaction amused her. Impossible for him to read. Hers was a beauty to rival his own, and her role in all of this… it frightened him.

Valentìn Ruiz thumbed his upper lip and stifled a sigh.

��What am I supposed to do with this, now?” he asked, throwing up his hand in frustration.

Corsino’s eyes sparkled in the morning sun. She took a timid sip from her cup of coffee, and the smirk never faded from her lips.

“You do your job, Mister Magician. Show up to work, play dumb, and be our eyes and ears at Future Proof. We want to see if Doctor Solomon can beat our new toy before we pull the plug. If this works out right, we’ll always be a step ahead of Future Proof from here on out, and you can expect another big, fat paycheck for your good work.”

Ruiz almost muttered “fuck me” with another sigh. Almost.

Instead, he took a deep breath and sipped his coffee. Suppressed the shake in his hand.

Almost like the shakes he used to have, back in the day of work as a sharpshooter. First Recon. The shakes had gone away after he left the service, went private. Didn’t even need booze or drugs to take off the edge.

And here it was again, the shakes, threatening to return.

What had it all even meant?

The coffee cup almost rattled against the saucer when he put it back down.

Corsino still smirked at him.

He needed to play it cool, always. But the shakes were coming back.

* * *

His hand shook as he smoked while standing next to Grant outside the abandoned oil rig. Ruiz suppressed it again, taking a long, deep drag from his slim cancer stick.

Grant shook her head, staring at the downed T-Rex.

“Seriously, though,” she said. “How does a bunch o’ trained pros miss a damn T-Rex on live sat imaging?”

Ruiz shrugged again. Blew out smoke.

“Who knows,” he growled. “That lizard snuck up on us, too. Maybe something about the oil fields, tech that’s interfering?”

“Unlikely,” responded a voice on their intercom. Doctor Solomon. His voice crackled with static. He added, “Unlikely the energy companies out here had tech like that in place, let alone leaving anything like that behind when they shuttered operations out here. But—not impossible.”

Carter also growled on the radio. “Speakin’ o’ which. Should we be worried about EMDs settin’ off fires, with the oil around here, and stuff? Seen some—”

“Yes,” replied Doctor Solomon. “Yes, Mister Carter, you should be worried about that. I advise caution whenever wielding your EMDs. I saw several puddles of leakage on the airlift. And given how dry the flora out here is this time of year, one misplaced shot could be a recipe for disaster.”

Carter groaned.

Grant and Ruiz both stared at the cigarette cinched between Ruiz’ black-gloved fingers.

He shook his head, dropped the cigarette, and stamped it out, grinding it under his heel into the dust.

Mischchenko joined them. Her EMD rifle hung from her shoulder by the sling. With her free arm, she held hands with the boy.

“This is Aiden,” she introduced them to the kid.

Aiden only shot them furtive glances. His stares lingered on the futuristic rifles they bore, and he stole glimpses of their fearsome black armored jumpsuits, and the name tags emblazoned on their chests.

“Hey, Aiden,” Grant said. Her voice cracked.

She had a problem with dogs, but not with kids. Immediately felt sorry for this boy, and that sentiment only deepened by the minute.

His was a thousand-mile stare. Blank, hollow, piercing outward from a face caked in dirt and dried blood spatters. Grant had only overheard fragments of Mischchenko’s conversation with the boy.

His family was probably dead. Probably definitely dead. Killed by stampeding dinosaurs. Eaten alive. Traumatic shreds of descriptions had bled through his stammering earlier. Grant hadn’t listened to all of it, and didn’t particularly care for the details. She shuddered at the thought of growing up like Aiden would have to grow up now.

She couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of therapy he would need. She only found solace in the thought that her work here at Future Proof might ensure her own family never met such a fate.

“There we go,” Doctor Solomon said on the radio, every syllable vibrating with confidence. “The figurative fog has lifted, and we can start reconstructing tracks on satellite visuals. Burch? Burch, come, look at this.”

“Once Max gets here,” Mischchenko told Aiden, “We’ll escort you back to camp. You’re safe now.”

Someone grumbled on the radio. Likely Max Carter. Grant gathered he didn’t care for kids.

Aiden stared blankly up at Mischchenko. His tiny hand in her gloved palm looked feeble. Lifeless. She squeezed, to punctuate her words with earnestness.

Ruiz cleared his throat, and nodded.

“Just listen to whatever Missus Mischchenko here has to say, okay? We’ll take care of the rest.”

He took a knee and rested his Type-3 EMD rifle on his palms in front of the kid, like a knight, presenting his sword to a small king. Ruiz spoke with a surprising calm. Also made Grant wonder if Ruiz had experience with kids, or just younger siblings.

Ruiz said, “It’s lighter than it looks. Go ahead, won’t break easily. Maybe you’re gonna do this kinda work one day, too.”

Aiden hesitated. His eyes flashed. The thousand-mile stare focused on the silvery rifle in Ruiz’s hands.

Slipping out of Mischchenko’s grasp, two small hands shakily grabbed the EMD rifle.

[cartoonfanaticmonsterrobotalien]

Solar Opposites in: Ultra Opposites Episode #6: “All Hands on Deck” (for @avaveevo)

Here is out it began, a pirate is watching over the town evilly, who goes by the name of, Captain Rusty!

Captain Rusty: Well, well. This is GeenaDavisville. Let’s wreck some havoc boys!

The Pirate Army laugh evilly. The next day, Terry sees an attack happening around town.

Terry: Holy shit! Korvo, come here!

Korvo: Coming my love! Kids, let’s go!

Jesse: Yes! Crime-fighting time, bitach!

Yumyulack: Hell yeah! Let’s fucking go!

The group transforms into the Ultra Opposites as they do their super hero stances.

Terry/Solar Flare: Ultra Opposites, let's kick ass!

Then, the Ultra opposites flew to the city, while everyone watches them, including Yumyulack and Jesse’s classmate Sonya

Sonya: Wow.

The Ultra Opposites sees a bunch of pirate goons and starts to fight them off.

Terry/Solar Flare: Eat fire, motherfuckers!

Solar Flare shoots fireballs at the goons

Jesse/Electra: Guess what Goonies! You just got Electra’d

Electra waves her wrecking ball around as she channels her anger and hits it with the electric charge of it!

Goon: Get the ice guy!

Legendary Super Shlorpian growls as his eyes glow aquamarine and he turns into his Super Shlorpian form. Solar Flare bites his lip as he looks at his husband.

Super Shlorpian Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: You pirates bitches need to fucking chill out!

Legendary Super Shlorpian fires his ice breath at the goons that freeze them and roars. He uses his ice breath to freeze the goons as Solar Flare blushes at his husband and kiss him on the cheek. Legendary Super Shlorpian giggles and blushes.

Yumyulack/Psylock: Now it’s my turn!

Psylock uses his mind blast with his kind reading powers and it blast the guards away. Psylock charges up his powers and yells as he lets out a brain wave explosion. Daryl blushes as he smiles

Sonya: Wow! These aliens are heroes!

Daryl: Hey, babe!

Psylock winks at Daryl.

Goon: Aaah! Retreat!

Jesse/Electra: Yeah! That's right! Ya better run!

The town cheer, but then Solar Flare looks at the pirate symbol.

Terry/Solae Flare: Hmmm….

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: turning back to his normal self What is it dear!

Yumyulack/Psylock: What is it?

Terry/Solar Flare: A pirate symbol. We better get this to Janiz.

Back at the house, Janiz looks at the photo of the pirate symbol.

Janiz: Yep this Captain Rusty alright. Dangerous pirate of all the lands. Been plundering villages and stuff

Jesse/Electra: Yeesh. I had no idea pirates were real!

Janiz: Well, they are. And I think they're after you guys.

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: How do you know who he is?

Janiz: Let’s just say. I read some history. gets out a book about Shlorp and other planets’ history and creatures

Terry/Solar Flare: Damn.

Janiz opens a book, which reveals the facts about Rusty.

Janiz: Says here a mermaid broke his heart which caused him to become evil.

Terry/Solar Flare: What? Seriously

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: Well that’s a dumb reason for revenge

Janiz: What the book says it's true.

Jesse/Electra: I agree this is bullshit!

Janiz: And it gets worse!

Yumyulack/Psylock: It does?

Janiz turns to a page to reveal an ancestor of Korvo and Janiz fighting Captain Rusty.

Janiz: Turns out Rusty knows about the Cosmic Blast! I think he might be after you powers!

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: He is?

Janiz: Luckily our ancestor stopped him. But Rusty vowed to get even one day!

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: Oh fuck

Jesse/Electra: Well, that's it! We're fucking done for! OUR LIVES ARE OVER!

Solar Flare then notice a strange black page in the book while L.S.S. comforts Electra.

Terry/Solar Flare: Huh?

Janiz: What is it?

Solar Flare flips the page over the black page where it has a headline…. “MUNDANE”

Terry/Solar Flare: What the fuck?

Yumyulack/Psylock: What's a Mundane?

Janiz: Another monster Shlorpian…

Janiz explains the origins of a Mundane which shows a young Shlorpian who resembles to Terry walking but then a group of Shlorpians starts to taint and ridicule him.

Janiz: Long ago, during the times of the discovery of the Super Shlorpian, a young Shlorpian was always ridiculed and put down by others

Terry/Solar Flare: What happened to them?

Janiz: He ran off alone, the reason why he was ridicule is because of a pair of lava black scabs all over his body, which was something he was born with

The young Shlorpian runs off in tears, and he tries to fall off a cliff.

Jesse/Electra: That's awful.

Janiz: He was so depressed and overwhelmed, he fell off a cliff until suddenly, a Super Shlorpian came and saved his life…

The young Shlorpian fell as he close his eyes, but then he open his eyes and a sees a Super Shlorpian. The young Shlorpian gasps.

Janiz: He so amazed by its beauty. It was our ancestors, Koran, the first one to become a Super Shlorpian.

Yumyulack/Psylock: Woah...really?

Janiz: Yes. He knew about the young Shlorpian’s condition. So, he gave him a special medicine, that helped his wounds

The young Shlorpian hugs Koran and leaves.

Janiz: But days past, the Shlorpians still continue to ridicule the young Shlorpian, even after his cure condition. That is one day, he suddenly began to change.

The young Shlorpian starts to feel a sharp pain in his head while his finger tips suddenly turns black.

Janiz: Something in him snapped, turning him into a terrifying creature.

The young Shlorpian eyes then starts glowing, he starts growing bigger and muscular, his voice deepens and his robes and shows rip apart as he roars. The other Shlorpians ran off screaming as the beast snarls.

Jesse/Electra: Did he become the Mundane creature thingy?

Janiz: Tragically, yes…

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Oh no...

The young Shlorpian, now a Mundane growls until he sees another female Shlorpian in trouble. He roars and kills the bandit that tried to rob her as she gasp. She then smiles and comforts the Mundane creature, that starts whimpering.

Young Female Shlorpian: Ssh…

The Mundane stops snarling and sobs. The young female Shlorpian soothes as she smiles at it, it then whimpers as she wipes as his tears and turns back into the young Shlorpian, the female Shlorpian smiles. The flashback ends.

Janiz: Afterwards, the young half Mundane fell in love with and wedded with a lifemate. But, as the years past, it has passed on to their Replicants during their come of age, who passed it onto theirs, once they turned 13 years old. Luckily, the only way to control the beast within ia to channel their powers and remember the ones who love them the most before they lose it.

Terry/Solar Flare: Shit. That's deep...

Legendary Super Shlorpian starts crying.

Jesse/Electra: I agree…

Solar Flare sees his husband crying and gasps.

Terry/Solar Flare: Baby, what’s wrong?

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: That poor Shlorpian...he's been through so much...

Terry/Solar Flare comforts Legendary Super Shlorpian as he holds him close.

Terry/Solar Flare: I know, honey, I know. But it's okay. That was a long time ago.

Electra then looks at the monster and then realize something.

Jesse/Electra: Hey I think that’s the monster from my dreams when I was a sproutling.

Yumyulack/Psylock: It is?

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: You saw a Mundane as an infant?

Jesse/Electra: Yeah. Terry disappeared and that monster showed up. It was crazy.

Terry/Solar Flare: No way…

The flashback starts with baby Jesse crying until she saw something through own eyes but there was muffling. It was Mundane with glowing orange eyes, but looks familiar. The Mundane heads up close to baby Jesse as it picks her up and starts soothing her as she continues crying.

Mundane: muffling It's okay...Sssh. Daddy's here. Don't cry.

Baby Jesse whimpers but then notice something behind those orange eyes as she taught the Mundane’s face and giggles. Back to the present...

Jesse/Electra: The weirdest thing is... he sounded like you, Terry.

Terry/Solar Flare: Really? To be honest, I don’t remember any of that…

Jesse/Electra: Me neither. One minute I open my eyes, I was in Terry’s arms and he was back and the Mundane was gone.

Janiz: Odd...we must-

Suddenly, they heard a screaming sound. It was Sonya, who is taken by Captain Rusty.

Yumyulack/Psylock: SONYA!

Jesse/Electra: Oh no! Our classmate is in trouble!

Legendary Super Shlorpian wipes away his tears and looks determined.

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: Come on guys! We got a girl to save!

Terry/Solar Flare: Got it!

Once Legendary Super Shlorpian transforms into his Super Shlorpian form and carries Pupa, who giggles, the heroes fly off to save their friend. The heroes land on the ship.

Captain Rusty: Well well well, if it isn’t the Ultra Opposites and their pet blob!

Pupa is offended.

Jesse/Electra: Hey! Don’t talk to our baby brother like that!

Captain Rusty: Well it is!

Terry/Solar Flare: No he is not! He is our precious sweet baby boy, you fucker!

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Give Sonya back!

Yumyulack/Psylock: Yeah! Let our classmate go!

Captain Rusty: Battle my first mate and I'll consider.

Terry/Solar Flare: Uh oh… I don’t like the sound of that…

A giant robot appears.

Yumyulack/Psylock: A fucking robot?! That is not piratey!

Captain Rusty: Crush 'em!

The Ultra Opposites smirk and springs into action while Sonya gasp in amazement. Jesse/Electra attacks with her wrecking ball. It created a hole in the robot’s left arm, that spark while Electra ducks and grabs Sonya as Sonya screams.

Sonya: Woah! You are awesome!

Jesse/Electra: Really?! Thanks, the name is Electra!

Sonya: Well, Electra, I appreciate the rescue.

Psylock then creates wave blast that nearly knocks the robot as it tries to grab him, but luckily Psylock manage to fly up.

Yumyulack/Psylock: Jesus, that thing has a screw loose!

Super Shlorpian Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: Stand back! I got this!

Legendary Super Shlorpian uses his ice breath. The robot’s metal then reflected the ice breath while the Ultra Opposites fly up while Legendary Super Shlorpian carries Sonya!

Super Shlorpian Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: You okay?

Sonya: Yeah. Thanks to you four! Thanks for coming to rescue me!

Terry/Solar Flare: No prob. Now let's-

The Ultra Opposites then dodge a laser shot by the robot as they courageously fly back down there. Psylock reads the robot's mind to find his weakness

Yumyulack/Psylock: I found his weakness! A trample wire in his head! That can help take him out!

Jesse/Electra: I'll handle it!

Electra grins as he gets out her wrecking ball but then Captain Rusty grabbed her as she gasp.

Jesse/Electra: Hey!

Captain Rusty: You're not going anywhere, you little brat!

Yumyulack/Psylock: Oh no! He’s got Electra!

Something in Solar Flare snaps.

Terry/Solar Flare: Ggggrrrr! You bitch! flies down there with orange glowing eyes

Solar Flare then lands and growls as he looks at Captain Rusty in fury.

Captain Rusty: Ooh. Someone snapped. I'm so-

Solar Flare punches Captain Rusty in the face as he throws Electra towards the robot as she gets out her wrecking ball as she grins

Jesse/Electra: TAKE THIS!

Electra swings her electric ball around and it hears straight to the robot’s head, destroying it as it explodes.

Jesse/Electra: You just got Electra’d!

Everyone cheers for her.

Captain Rusty: Noooo! My robot! You ruined everything you little- suddenly gets punched by Solar Flare, who suddenly starts snarling in rage

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Terry? Are you-

Solar Flare grabs Captain Rusty by his neck part and growls as he clench his fist.

Yumyulack/Psylock: Jesus, Terry! Calm down!

Terry/Solar Flare: screams in fury DON’T GO ANYWHERE NEAR ME OR MY FAMILY AGAIN!

Legendary Super Shlorpian runs up to his husband and tries to soothe him.

Terry/Solar Flare: snarls at Legendary Super Shlorpian, but then stops once Legendary Super Shlorpian soothes him by hugging him

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: It's okay.

Terry/Solar Flare: groans, but then starts whimpering

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Hey, it's okay...

Solar Flare starts crying as Legendary Super Shlorpian comforts his husband. The two then kiss.

Yumyulack/Psylock, Jesse/Electra and Sonya: Eeew. Aw come on. Boo. Gross.

Pupa: Ew.

Captain Rusty: Oh this ain’t over! I’ll be back you fucking scurvy dogs and-

Sonya kicks Captain Rusty in the face.

Solar Flare and Legendary Super Shlorpian: Huh?

Jesse/Electra: That. Was. AWESOME!

Yumyulack/Psylock: Whoa. I didn’t know you could do that!

Pupa: Oooh!

Sonya: That was for kidnapping me!

Legendary Super Shlorpian then smirks and turns back into his Super Shlorpian form and blows Captain Rusty and his team away.

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Good fucking riddance!

Sonya then hugs Legendary Super Shlorpian as she smiles, much to his surprise.

Sonya: Thanks, mister.

Super Shlorpian Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: Anytime kiddo. You were very brave. Maybe one day, you’ll be a hero too.

Sonya: I hope so!

Jesse/Electra: Yeah. But remember, you don’t have to have powers to be a super hero. Just be yourself. And one day, you’ll be a hero too.

Sonya: I will! hugs Solar Flare

Solar Flare smiles while the town cheers. Later, after the Ultra Opposites return Sonya back home to her parents, Terry looks down sadly.

Yumyulack/Psylock: Terry?

Terry/Solar Flare: Kids, may I speak with your father alone please?

Jesse/Electra: Uh, sure?

As soon as the kids left, Legendary Super Shlorpian heads towards Solar Flare in concern.

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Terry, what's wrong?

Solar Flare cries hysterically and runs into his husband's arms.

Terry/Solar Flare: Korvy… I’m scared…

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Why?

Terry/Solar Flare: What happened to me?

Korvo/The Legendary Super Shlorpian: Oh, Terry, It's okay. You just got angry...

Terry/Solar Flare: tearfully But I lost my shit back there… like I am so sort of wild animal… what is happening to me…

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: I-I don’t know… Terry… is maybe some sort of new power of yours?

Terry/Solar Flare: It's not fair...I didn't do anything on purpose...

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: I know you didn’t… I know…

Terry/Solar Flare: Korvy? Can I kiss you?

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: Oh. Why honey? Is because you feel scared?

Solar Flare nods.

Korvo/Legendary Super Shlorpian: It’s okay. Even super hero aliens can be scared too. But, don’t worry, we’ll figure out how you are acting like this. I promise…

Terry/Solar Flare: Thanks...

The two superhero alien husbands then kiss away in a orbital background. But as the camera pans up to the sky, a black glowing orb piece appears as it heads towards Ophelia’s fortress. Ophelia grabs it as she looks at it curiosity.

Ophelia: Hmm...interesting.

As she looks at it closely, Ophelia grins evilly as she puts it in a loin cloth and folds it carefully without breaking it.

Ophelia: Brace yourselves, Ultra Opposites.

Ophelia laughs evilly while the camera pains over to a photo of Miss Frankie with an X on it and the episode fades to black.

TO BE CONTINUED

[infernal-general]

@infernal-feminae

Murder was a simple, easy and usually permanent way to solve problems. Not to mention satisfying. But blood spilt more than enough to fill the bed of lake Balaton behind her centuries, that sometimes option didn't hold any entertainment for Rozália.

“ ‘Want to have fun?’ Dance instead. Unless you're afraid of looking terrible next to me.” she folded her arms after taking in the group of sinners who had clear intent of causing harm and possible death; lightly armed, it would've been a simple practice. But that still would be three bodies at the end of the day.

She sensed the shift after a few moments, she figured her new...problem solving method gained popularity through the internet. Probably due to the shock value.

"Why not" the girl of the small group shrugged decisively, music blasting instead of gleaming knives. Definitely modern style and to her surprise, not bad. Not bad at all.

Actually physics defying when the young man struck a horizontal pose midair, drawing many shouts of surprise from the already forming crowd. The unchanging electric excitement shot down her spine, she couldn't leave such challenge unanswered. Cape elegantly tossed over her shoulder, starting with a warmup samba, despite her statue and build seemingly weightless glide through the pavement. Steps morphed into a handstand in less than a second, legs forming perfect splits both directions, spine curling to briefly rest in the scorpion handstand. Her whole body seemed to spin and the inferno was back on her feet, teasingly dusting her hands off.

The core strength was truly admirable along with it being the most stylish crotch grab she has witnessed as the girl stopped her spinning for a second to do that, balancing herself on one hand. Rozy found herself laughing in awe as the girl replicated her split still one handed and proceeded to stand from said split in slow motion with a a serpentine upper body.

All heads whipping to the General for her reaction: an elegant flip forward followed by a spin transitioning into a standing split which morphed into a high roundhouse kick. But it wasn't enough. Her mind recalled a ballet jump she had seen, she allowed her body to carry it out, gliding through air and stopping. While her foot structure made her incapable of actual ballet, it was still flexible for enough hold onto the lamppost.

There was a good reason why pole dancers were almost naked and not due to eroticism (most of the time). Therefore Rozy didn't attempt to gain more hold, it would've been useless and relied only on her feet for support. She was hanging completely upside down supported by crossed ankles, arms straight to form the image of an inverted cross as she slowly spun around accompanied by the applause.

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

This addition to Noel’s team was suggested by @littlemisslemonbits!  Sleipnir, a Rapidash inspired by the move Zero Gun: Sleipnir, Noel’s Exceed Accel. Ability:  Run Away Moves: - Wild Charge - Stomp - Fire Blast - Agility

The other members of her team, introduced in my earlier posts, are;

Fenrir (Arcanine) M Ability:  Justified Moves: - Extreme Speed - Flame Burst - Flame Thrower - Reversal

Thor (Pikachu) M Ability:  Lightning Rod Moves: - Swift - Electro Ball - Agility - Iron Tail

Zero Gun: Sleipnir was added in Central Fiction, along with the rest of the cast’s Exceed Accels.  Like Fenrir and Thor, Sleipnir is named after a creature of Norse Mythology- specifically, Odin’s horse.  I had been considering looking for a Pokemon to represent Noel’s Sleipnir, but at the time none of the horse Pokemon I looked at seemed like Pokemon Noel would be drawn to, so I had given up on the thought.

As mentioned, it was Ilebuy from @littlemisslemonbits who suggested the Ponyta/Rapidash line.  I’d overlooked it at the time, but it’s definitely easy to see Noel fawning over a Ponyta, and the Fire-Typing translates well to the aesthetics of Bolverk’s blasts!

I chose Run Away for the Ability for a number of Reasons.  First, to allude to Noel’s extremely/evasive fighting style, with all the flips in her animations and dodge moves in her BBDW appearances.  Secondly, to reference how Bolverk’s emotional limiters work to enable Noel to ‘run away’ from her emotions and her trauma instead of facing either head on.  Lastly, I just thought it suited her shy personality.

Wild Charge is the primary attack in Sleipnir’s moveset meant to represent the Sleipnir from CF.  It’s a flashy Electric-type move to bring to mind the rail gun that appears in the Exceed Accel.  Stomp serves as a reference to the kicks that appear in Noel’s general animations, while Fire Blast represents Bolverk’s usual shots.  Agility serves to reflect Noel’s acrobatic and fast paced fighting style- pretty much the same reason I gave the move to Thor previously.

Since my older posts, I’ve done some rewrites to how I would envision Noel in a Pokemon AU, so I’ll share them here too!

I still like the idea of Noel growing up with her parents somewhere around Floaroma Town in Sinnoh, and she would still meet her Growlithe Fenrir in the same manner- both of them becoming lost in Eterna Forest. 

Instead of sending her off to just any Trainer School, she would travel to attend Uva Academy in Paldea.  Perhaps Thor would be the Pokemon she would be given to raise upon entering the Academy, or maybe she would catch Thor during her Treasure Hunt.  Either way, it’s in Paldea that she would meet Makoto, Tsubaki, and her other friends.

I haven’t quite decided where she would meet Sleipnir...  I’m sure I want her to catch him as a Ponyta.  They likely meet while she’s back home in Sinnoh, though I’m not sure if it should be during a school break or after her graduation.

As a closing thought, I wonder if this version of Noel could be a Faller, specifically an extra-dimensional version of Ragna and Jin’s sister Saya...

[twfarlan]

Damn but I miss this crew. Wild nights, chummers.

Alt text for those looking for it:

Okay, sit back, cause y'all ain't gonna believe this drek. Hand to sky, this happened exactly as I'm going to describe.

I'm driving the van, which Rook has named "Harold." I legitimately do not want to know why. Rook's passed out in the back, as is Dex who has learned that there's a reason the shake machine at Stuffer Shack is meant to be broken. (He's calling it "Suffer Shack" and I cannot argue.) Butch is polishing her suit or something; lady, I have a tailor in Missoula that you DESPERATELY need to meet. Deadeye is performing surgery on that frickin drone, mounting the Eye of Sour-bun on it. Damn wiring smoke is worse than the leftover Meat Haters pizza Butch claimed. There's a reason no one else had touched it. Dandelion sprouts do not belong on deep dish pizza.

We get a call from Mr. Smuggler Guy, something I may regret. Wants something smuggled, there's a shock. Oh, he wants a LOT of it smuggled. Oh, we have to pick it up. Oh and we probably need to steal it. From the people who stole it in the first place. It's bound for a clinic in Minneapolis-St. Paul, a place where literally nothing and no one else is bound for. I'm thinking of blocking Guy's number.

We pick up a call from a femme of military bearing whom I've decided in hindsight to refer to as "Uniformed Asskicker." She's got field intel and an address, so she's already ahead of us. We park at the Stuffer Shack across from the place we're going to hit to review the plan: she's going in to rough things up, and then we come in like a horde of rabid squirrels. Great plan.

Rook wakes up about the time I drive Harold through the gate and Tokyo drift one orc ganger onto his ass. This would be just in time to see Deadeye kick the back doors of the van open, flip up onto the roof, and start preparing to lasso a semi. Seriously. Butch slings a fierce spell at some concrete that was insulting her, or we can admit she missed. I pull up to the driver's side of the semi, which Deadeye swings over next to planning to hogtie it or some damn thing. Butch takes another shot at the gangers coming our way, this time blasting what I can assume is the next pothole the yard owner will have to fix in the tarmac. (coughwhiffeditcough)

Deadeye sticks that revolver of hers in the face of the semi driver who apparently forgot how to start a push-button semi... well paid rigger, right there. Dude thinks he can grab a gun outta his face, so Deadeye talks cowboy shit and drills him one all over the inside of the cab. Rook has her CDL, thank the spirits, and Deadeye has to sit in the wet spot. Me, I warned Butch to cover her ears, cause Ares makes a shout when he speaks. Damn near strips the clothes off that poor guy I shot. Butch hears the glory of the coming of the bells of St. Mary or some equally tormented metaphors, but still managed to glower at the guy so hard that his soul withered and died. His buddy, seeing the better part of valor, runs headlong into Uniformed Murdergirl, and that's the end of his story.

After the most exciting stuffing of a shack that joint had ever seen, we roll the frag up the highway for a couple of hours. Deadeye is treating us to round 84 of Seelie Dan or Dr. John and the Electric Mayhem or whatever off-key Western mess she was singing, when lo and behold, we find ourselves making a new friend! Mr. Five-Oh pulls over the semi; I can't imagine what made it stand out aside from being graffitied to death by NeoScum and being stolen. I mean, we stole it from people who stole it; doesn't that cancel out? Double negative or something? Butch is sleeping through this and refuses to believe me, but Deadeye was hiding in the sleeper cabin and heard the whole thing. Rook... gave this poor rookie smokey a line of such radioactive bullshit that it made him reconsider being a cop. He walked away; he left his car, man. She punched him in his will to live as a human being. Last I saw him, he was walking off the highway into the woods to join a sasquatch commune. I quit as the resident liar; Rook is Mes ti'Dungmouthiesh: she follows the Way of the Bullshit Artist.

Hand to heaven, y'all. If I'm lying, I'm dying. ... At least, if I'm lying about this. Don't pin me down on anything else right now.

-- Will Rill Hetrick, no regerts (except about deafening Butch; gomen-nasai, omae.)