UnseenMaiden
We are but shadows
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2008
- Posts
- 3,688
(For those of you who read this and are curious. This is a what if? future of the TTGB Next Gen:The Gathering Storm which is itself an offshoot of TTGB Next Gen and Teen Titans GenderBender AU.
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An object at rest will remain at rest.
An object in motion will remain in motion.
Unless an external force is applied to the object.
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Decided to pop by for a visit, have we? Well then, don’t be shy. Come into my parlor.
The voice whispered in her skull, almost like a caress, making her hair stand on end. Even with the advantage her genes leant to her senses, such as sight, she could barely see the glimmer of sunlight reflecting off the sands of the distant moon before her and somewhere on the dusty satellite was a prisoner of unique circumstances. Normally, he would be imprisoned on Earth or, if Kal’Elin had her way, the Phantom Zone, but the Justice League had decided it was best to keep the man on a loose leash. He hadn’t quite succeeded in doing anything world ending yet, but it seemed that this was his intent and, unfortunately, even in the league of heroes that protected their world below there were not many who could truly take Jules in a fight now. A hint of smile touched her lips as she sent her own words out across the vastness of space between them.
Said the spider to the fly.
Experience told her she was stupid for flying out here so quickly, for hoping that something good might happen if they just talked. She had been so happy to find out that he had come back, was alive, that it hadn’t mattered to her, those little signs she should’ve noticed before things turned bad, hadn’t mattered enough for her to question how exactly he had returned to the land of the living. It had been so naive of her, so damn foolish. People didn’t just come back to life, hale and healthy with happy endings for all. Something always went wrong, because there was always a price. For one of her best friends, it had been replacement.
“You have fifteen minutes, Knave.”
Turning towards the general direction of the rebuilt watchtower, doing its’ slow but sure rotation around the Earth below, and saluted her assent and understanding. She hadn’t really planned out what she was going to do once she got up here. The phone call had come and the blonde just couldn’t wait, not for Mal to get back and wrangle himself into a spacesuit, not for Kestrel to give the ok to leave, and not to grab any kind of helmet for herself. This was why the JLA was hacking into the Titan’s earpiece to talk to her now. No doubt Match was going to berate her later for her short sightedness, but they had known she was coming and if Jules did try something, well, mentally, she was ready to be among the first line of defense against the thing he had become anyways. Cold laughter echoed through her head, followed by a voice that was both sweetly familiar and chillingly strange with the menace behind the cajoling tones.
That isn’t my name. You know what to call me, my dear Alice, to make me come to you. Forget that child you once knew.
The urge to scream at him rolled over her, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. Her oxygen would only last so long and if she let him speed up her heart rate with anger, then that was just less and less time she had to do something, anything. Alice really didn’t want to admit it to herself, but some silly part of her had hoped that there’d be some sweet moment between, some sharing of a childhood memory or other, and poof he’d be her dear friend again. Dissociative identity disorder was the technical term they had labeled him with, once they had all managed to bring him under control from his semi-rampage of Jump City. Julien had simply cracked under the pressure to maintain the semblance of a life with Trigon rattling around in his head, not to mention he’d experienced death..more or less, which was traumatizing on anyone who’d come back to life.
Vlad, the personality that had risen up after Jules had come back, didn’t offend her as much as she was sure he meant to. Which was a very good thing, because she could feel the prodding on her mind, attempting to be subtle and probably succeeding if not for her acute familiar with having her mental self poked by Jules and others over the course of her life. It occurred to her to shut him out but she didn’t want the persona on the offensive, even if she couldn’t bring herself to address him how she wished. The radio crackled in her once again, just she had calmed herself down enough to respond to his velvet taunt.
“Titans Assemble! There’s a hoard of mechanical spider-like eldritch abominations attacking the tower and protections are kind of failing fast over here.”
Just like that, all of the things she had wanted to say were pushed aside. Simply put the tower was more important and their leader was liable to chew her head off if she decided to ignore the call just to ‘chat with a prisoner’ as Bats would have put it. Mentally sighing, the blonde gave a departing wave towards the JLA’s base of operations and tilted herself back just far enough that the Earth’s atmosphere, and therefore gravity, could embrace her once more. As she began her inexorable descent, a smirk flirted across her lips. A thought had occurred to her, one that gave her optimism just a glimmer of hope, and she couldn’t help but tell him so, even if it would just piss ‘dear Vladimir’ off.
’And yet, you still respond when I call.’
Closing her eyes, she let that hope sit nestled somewhere safe. Even after everything that had happened, despite how untouchable he now seemed, her friend still responded to his own true name. As soon as she had reached an altitude that would contain some kind of breathable air, she paused her fall, taking in great gasping breaths, letting her oxygen starved lungs recover from her neglect of them. The scant moments that passed seemed to drag on as she took the necessary amount of time to wait for the burning feeling to fade from her lungs and skin enough for her to operate. When she finally was left with only a sunburnt red tint to her features, the floating blonde pressed the button on the communicator, ready to let Match know that she hadn’t just abandoned her post at the tower as much as it probably seemed. In truth, she’d only been gone about five minutes. Long enough for things to go to pot apparently, but it wasn’t like she’d left the moment the rest of the titans went on their mini vacations. The others weren't going to be very happy about cutting those vacations short either.
“Where the fuck are you guys?!”
Match’s voice crackling in her ear, just as she opened her mouth, was enough to let her know that she was in for an earful regardless of how little time she’d been gone. Wincing, she resumed flying down towards Jump City and the bay as she relayed her apologies back to the ghost.
“Sorry sorry, didn’t quite have the ability to speak there for a bit, Match. I’m not too far away so see you in a sec. How are the rest of you guys doin?”
-----------
An object at rest will remain at rest.
An object in motion will remain in motion.
Unless an external force is applied to the object.
------------
Decided to pop by for a visit, have we? Well then, don’t be shy. Come into my parlor.
The voice whispered in her skull, almost like a caress, making her hair stand on end. Even with the advantage her genes leant to her senses, such as sight, she could barely see the glimmer of sunlight reflecting off the sands of the distant moon before her and somewhere on the dusty satellite was a prisoner of unique circumstances. Normally, he would be imprisoned on Earth or, if Kal’Elin had her way, the Phantom Zone, but the Justice League had decided it was best to keep the man on a loose leash. He hadn’t quite succeeded in doing anything world ending yet, but it seemed that this was his intent and, unfortunately, even in the league of heroes that protected their world below there were not many who could truly take Jules in a fight now. A hint of smile touched her lips as she sent her own words out across the vastness of space between them.
Said the spider to the fly.
Experience told her she was stupid for flying out here so quickly, for hoping that something good might happen if they just talked. She had been so happy to find out that he had come back, was alive, that it hadn’t mattered to her, those little signs she should’ve noticed before things turned bad, hadn’t mattered enough for her to question how exactly he had returned to the land of the living. It had been so naive of her, so damn foolish. People didn’t just come back to life, hale and healthy with happy endings for all. Something always went wrong, because there was always a price. For one of her best friends, it had been replacement.
“You have fifteen minutes, Knave.”
Turning towards the general direction of the rebuilt watchtower, doing its’ slow but sure rotation around the Earth below, and saluted her assent and understanding. She hadn’t really planned out what she was going to do once she got up here. The phone call had come and the blonde just couldn’t wait, not for Mal to get back and wrangle himself into a spacesuit, not for Kestrel to give the ok to leave, and not to grab any kind of helmet for herself. This was why the JLA was hacking into the Titan’s earpiece to talk to her now. No doubt Match was going to berate her later for her short sightedness, but they had known she was coming and if Jules did try something, well, mentally, she was ready to be among the first line of defense against the thing he had become anyways. Cold laughter echoed through her head, followed by a voice that was both sweetly familiar and chillingly strange with the menace behind the cajoling tones.
That isn’t my name. You know what to call me, my dear Alice, to make me come to you. Forget that child you once knew.
The urge to scream at him rolled over her, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. Her oxygen would only last so long and if she let him speed up her heart rate with anger, then that was just less and less time she had to do something, anything. Alice really didn’t want to admit it to herself, but some silly part of her had hoped that there’d be some sweet moment between, some sharing of a childhood memory or other, and poof he’d be her dear friend again. Dissociative identity disorder was the technical term they had labeled him with, once they had all managed to bring him under control from his semi-rampage of Jump City. Julien had simply cracked under the pressure to maintain the semblance of a life with Trigon rattling around in his head, not to mention he’d experienced death..more or less, which was traumatizing on anyone who’d come back to life.
Vlad, the personality that had risen up after Jules had come back, didn’t offend her as much as she was sure he meant to. Which was a very good thing, because she could feel the prodding on her mind, attempting to be subtle and probably succeeding if not for her acute familiar with having her mental self poked by Jules and others over the course of her life. It occurred to her to shut him out but she didn’t want the persona on the offensive, even if she couldn’t bring herself to address him how she wished. The radio crackled in her once again, just she had calmed herself down enough to respond to his velvet taunt.
“Titans Assemble! There’s a hoard of mechanical spider-like eldritch abominations attacking the tower and protections are kind of failing fast over here.”
Just like that, all of the things she had wanted to say were pushed aside. Simply put the tower was more important and their leader was liable to chew her head off if she decided to ignore the call just to ‘chat with a prisoner’ as Bats would have put it. Mentally sighing, the blonde gave a departing wave towards the JLA’s base of operations and tilted herself back just far enough that the Earth’s atmosphere, and therefore gravity, could embrace her once more. As she began her inexorable descent, a smirk flirted across her lips. A thought had occurred to her, one that gave her optimism just a glimmer of hope, and she couldn’t help but tell him so, even if it would just piss ‘dear Vladimir’ off.
’And yet, you still respond when I call.’
Closing her eyes, she let that hope sit nestled somewhere safe. Even after everything that had happened, despite how untouchable he now seemed, her friend still responded to his own true name. As soon as she had reached an altitude that would contain some kind of breathable air, she paused her fall, taking in great gasping breaths, letting her oxygen starved lungs recover from her neglect of them. The scant moments that passed seemed to drag on as she took the necessary amount of time to wait for the burning feeling to fade from her lungs and skin enough for her to operate. When she finally was left with only a sunburnt red tint to her features, the floating blonde pressed the button on the communicator, ready to let Match know that she hadn’t just abandoned her post at the tower as much as it probably seemed. In truth, she’d only been gone about five minutes. Long enough for things to go to pot apparently, but it wasn’t like she’d left the moment the rest of the titans went on their mini vacations. The others weren't going to be very happy about cutting those vacations short either.
“Where the fuck are you guys?!”
Match’s voice crackling in her ear, just as she opened her mouth, was enough to let her know that she was in for an earful regardless of how little time she’d been gone. Wincing, she resumed flying down towards Jump City and the bay as she relayed her apologies back to the ghost.
“Sorry sorry, didn’t quite have the ability to speak there for a bit, Match. I’m not too far away so see you in a sec. How are the rest of you guys doin?”
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