Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Side Story 1: Red Night ( One-Shot )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Side Story 1: “Red Night”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me; it belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers. Nightstar and Mercury do not belong to me, either; the former belongs to DC and the latter belongs to DC and Marvel Comics. In addition, Red Hood and Black Canary III do not belong to me, as they are also owned by DC Comics.

Author's note: In case anyone was wondering if the Titans East had had children as well, you will find out in this side story. Note that this is a one-shot set in the universe of Teen Titans: Future Storm but is not part of the first arc of this story. Do not ask me for a continuation, as this is a one-shot. Get it? One . . . shot. Good.

Dressed in a purple halter top and black cutoff jeans, Nightstar unzipped her bag and threw several changes of clothes in it, followed by several nightgowns. Toiletries found their way into the bag as well. Shoes of various types fell in a second bag.

“So what are you packing your bags for?” Mercury asked, leaning on the doorframe of her room.

“I'm going to see Lian,” Nightstar replied.

“Hope you're not gonna come back in a new costume and try to slag us again,” Mercury remarked offhandedly, only to catch a dirty look from Nightstar. “Sorry. Low blow.”

Nightstar sighed. “I don't blame you. If I were you, I'd still be suspicious of me, too.”

“We already forgave you,” Mercury said, his tone growing serious. “Maybe when you come back from seeing Lian, you'll forgive you, too.”

Nightstar smiled. “Thanks, Pete.”

“You're welcome,” Mercury replied. “Now go have fun with Lian. And get me her number this time.”

“I thought you liked Terri,” Nightstar said.

“I do, but a guy has to be able to expand his horizons,” Mercury commented with a cocky grin.

“I'll tell her you said that,” Nightstar threatened lightly.

Mercury lost his cockiness right then and there. “Do I have to do anything to make sure you don't tell her I said that?”

“Yes,” Nightstar answered. “Tell her how you feel.”

Mercury hung his head and sighed. “Easier said than done.”

“Well, if you'd try approaching her honestly instead of flirting and making eyes at her, you'd have better luck,” Nightstar stated.

Mercury simply “blinked” out of existence, although Nightstar knew full well that he'd simply dashed away too quickly for her eyes to detect him. The half-Tamaranean girl slowly shook her head and continued packing.

Once she'd finished, she slung her bags over her shoulders and walked out of her room, entering the lock code so that no one would enter without her permission.

“I'll see you guys on Sunday night,” Nightstar said to the Titans.

“Have a good time,” Raziel said. After that, he shut his eyes and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “Shut up, Memnoch.”

Nightstar exited the Tower and took off into the skies, flying at a speed comparable to that of a race car. Within the space of thirty to forty-five minutes, she found herself in Star City. She continued to fly over the city until she spotted a familiar three-story house in the suburbs. Not wanting to make a scene, she quietly landed between houses and walked to the front door like a normal person. Once there, she rang the doorbell.

Within a few short moments, a red-haired, green-eyed man with a “soul patch” answered the door. “Hi, Mar'i. It's been a while.”

“Hi, Uncle Roy,” Mar'i greeted back.

Roy Harper, formerly known as Speedy and Arsenal, grinned at her. “Come on in.”

Mar'i took his invitation and entered Roy's abode not for the first time. Roy turned to the stairway and shouted, “Lian! Mar'i's here!”

“Coming, D ad!” Lian shouted from upstairs. Soon enough, a girl with curly red-orange hair, crystalline green eyes, and vaguely Asian features raced down the stairs. She wore a tight black T-shirt with the words “I love Daddy” written in pink on the front and tight red spandex pants. She grinned when she saw Mar'i. “Hey there.”

“Hi, Lian,” Mar'i greeted back.

The two girls air-kissed each other on the cheek.

“I suppose I'll leave you two girls alone,” Roy said. “Besides, I got a call and the Justice League and the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs are having another dispute. Bats is trying to calm everyone down, but I think fists are gonna start flying unless I step in and cool things off. See you around.” He walked to the back door and opened it. Before he left, he turned around and looked at the two girls. “Don't get yourselves in trouble, all right?”

“Sure, Dad,” Lian answered.

“We'll be good, Uncle Roy,” Mar'i added with a cloying grin on her face.

Roy chuckled. “Uh-huh.” He pulled the door shut and walked to his car, opening it with the small remote attached to his key and slipping into the driver's seat.

Once he was gone, Lian turned to Mar'i with a wicked grin. “Ready to have some fun?”

“Whenever you are,” Mar'i replied with an equally wicked grin.

“Good,” Lian said. “I've got the movies and the snacks.”

Soon enough, Mar'i and Lian were sharing a bowl of potato chips while watching a Batman movie.

“It's amazing just how much filmmakers can screw up when they know virtually jack about their subject,” Lian remarked.

“For X'Hal's sake!” Mar'i exclaimed. “Batman is not a blood-drinking demon!”

“Try to be understanding, Mar'i,” Lian suggested. “These people know nothing about Batman aside from third-hand testimony from freaked-out criminals. If you think about it, it's really a movie based on a myth and it's kinda fun.”

Mar'i grunted and ate another handful of chips.

“I wonder what would happen if they made a movie about us,” Lian remarked.

“That would be harder for them to screw up,” Mar'i replied. “After all, it's not like our identities are secret.”

“You think they'll go with the rumor that Nightwing is really your father instead of Richard Grayson?” Lian asked.

“Hollywood is addicted to scandal,” Mar'i groused. “They'll run with it all they like, even if it isn't true.”

Years ago, Richard Grayson had realized that he couldn't marry Starfire under the guise of Nightwing, since Nightwing did not exist on paper. As a result, he'd romanced her in his civilian identity and staged a battle with his costumed alter ego - as portrayed by the shape-shifter Mirage - to convince the world that Richard and Nightwing were two different people. He'd had to do it, because compromising his identity would ultimately mean compromising that of the original Batman and every other vigilante connected to him.

“Ouch,” Lian remarked.

“What?” Mar'i asked, turning to the screen. “Oh, crap. He ripped that guy up like wet tissue paper.”

“That is so not Batman,” Lian uttered. “He has more respect for life than that and even if he were a demon, he's supposed to be a demon trying to redeem himself! Demons looking for redemption don't just callously murder people, even if they're criminals!”

Mar'i chugged down a full can of soda and laid it down on the coffee table.

“So how have you been?” she asked.

“I've been good,” Lian replied. “My dad is still pulling his hair out over me going out as a costumed crime-fighter, but why teach me all that stuff if he didn't want me to be one?”

“Maybe because he's scared you'll get killed?” Mar'i surmised. “I mean, your outfit has an arrowhead cut out of the chest so everyone can see your cleavage.” She chuckled. “You're like the Power Woman of the archer set.”

Lian laughed out loud at that. “Score one for you, funny girl. At least my outfit covers most of my body.”

“Hey, Tamaraneans are sun drinkers,” Mar'i responded. “We need our bodies exposed so we can properly absorb solar radiation.”

“Well, those little booty shorts do wonders for your ass,” Lian remarked with a wicked grin.

Mar'i blushed. She was used to Lian's flirtatious attitude, as she'd known the redhead for years, but her aggressiveness in that particular area was still a bit jarring. Despite that, she recovered quickly enough to retort, “And speaking of asses, yours looks great in those spandex pants.”

Lian's grin widened. “Thanks.”

The two girls turned to the TV and noticed that the movie was over. “Any other movies you've got?” Mar'i asked.

Lian walked over to the DVD player and ejected the Batman DVD, replacing it with a DVD of a martial arts animé movie called Dead End Game.

“About one hour and forty-five minutes,” the archer said as she plopped down next to the half-Tamaranean. “We'll be occupied for quite a while.”

“So what's the plot of this movie again?” Mar'i inquired.

“It kinda borders on being a hentai but it barely manages to escape that label,” Lian answered. “The plot behind it is that an evil martial artist kidnaps the daughter of his rival and stages a tournament, promising the winner his rival's daughter as a slave. Everything else falls into place after that.”

“Ok,” Mar'i uttered skeptically.

Approximately an hour into the movie, the tournament had boiled down to eight combatants: Tetsudou, the hero of the movie; Sora, a girlish-looking ninja; Mei, an Interpol agent and specialist in tae kwon do; Zeke, an American capoeira expert; Kana, a blind kunoichi whose other senses functioned with superhuman sharpness; Yukito, a specialist in jujutsu and karate; Yusaku, a martial artist with photographic reflexes; and Tsuchiryu, the main villain of the movie.

“Looks like we're gonna get some good fights now,” Lian remarked.

“I kinda like Sora,” Mar'i commented.

“Of course you do,” Lian said. “He reminds you a lot of Raziel.”

“Raziel's not that girlish-looking,” Mar'i rejoined.

“Uh-huh,” Lian sarcastically agreed. “I envy you.”

“Why?” Mar'i asked.

“Unlike me, you don't have to worry about all these snacks going to your hips or your thighs,” Lian answered.

“Lian, you exercise so much I'd be surprised if you gained any weight from these snacks,” Mar'i remarked.

“I do have to maintain this sexy figure of mine,” Lian remarked.

“So how about relationships?” Mar'i inquired.

“Nothing serious, just a few flings,” Lian answered. “It's a lot harder to find someone I can seriously consider a relationship with, especially since so many of the boys in my school are just immature jerks who only care about scoring and nothing about commitment.”

“Have you been careful?” Mar'i asked.

“Of course,” Lian replied. “No boy goes near me without a condom. I've been taking the pill just in case the condom breaks, and I've been careful to pick guys who are decent enough not to brag to their buddies about scoring with me.”

“Is that a difficult search?” Mar'i questioned.

“Damn straight,” Lian responded. “And why are we even discussing my sex life when we could discuss yours?”

“There's nothing to discuss, Lian,” Mar'i stated.

“Because you don't let yourself live a little!” Lian declared. “I mean, it's not like the city's going to fall apart if you take some time to have fun and find yourself a guy. What about Raziel? I'm sure he's very hot for you, no matter how cool and reserved he acts.”

“There's too much about him I don't know,” Mar'i said.

“So?” Lian asked. “He's a man of mystery. Most of us girls dig that.”

“I'm not most girls, Lian,” Mar'i countered.

“Doesn't mean you can't have a relationship,” Lian argued.

“We've done this before, Lian,” Mar'i groaned. “I can't have a relationship.”

“And why not?” Lian asked. “Does it cut into your periods of angst over your mother's death and your dad marrying another woman? It's not like Barbara's such a bad woman, Mar'i. Your dad could have done worse. Way worse. Remember Tarantula?”

Mar'i remembered Tarantula. She had never met the woman, but she'd overheard one of the later incarnations of her father's Titans speak of her. From what she'd gleaned from her eavesdropping, Tarantula was an amoral, psychotic vigilante with an obsession with the original Nightwing, who had tried in vain to save her from herself. When it became clear to him that she didn't wish to be saved, he'd remorsefully cut off all ties to her, much to her anger. She'd attacked the original Nightwing, a move that had resulted in her sitting in Blackgate Penitentiary.

“I still don't like it,” she finally spoke.

“That's your own choice,” Lian admitted. “Granted, I barely remember my mom; she's probably sitting in a maximum-security prison cell right now.” She sighed. “What the hell. Let's watch the movie while it's still on.”

After the movie ended - the hero won, of course - the two girls began playing a variation of Truth or Dare. The method of play required that one girl ask the other a question. If the other girl refused to answer, she had to do whatever the girl asking the question wanted her to do, no matter how embarrassing or humiliating.

“I'll go first,” Lian declared. “Mar'i, do you ever touch yourself at night and think of Raziel?”

Mar'i blushed. “Yes.” She glared at Lian. “How many boys - or girls - have you ever slept with?”

“Four boys and two girls,” Lian replied. “Why do you hate Barbara so much?”

“I don't feel like answering that,” Mar'i stated.

“Fine,” Lian conceded. “Call up Raziel and tell him you want to do him.”

Mar'i cursed in Tamaranean and flipped open her communicator, tapping into Raziel's frequency.

“Yes?” Raziel greeted warily.

“I want . . . to do you,” Mar'i greeted haltingly, abruptly closing the communicator.

“Aw, come on!” Lian whined. “Call him back and say it like you mean it!”

“I ought to strangle you for that,” Mar'i growled. “Either that, or take you over my knee and spank you.”

“You wouldn't,” Lian taunted. “I am your best friend, after all.” She grinned wickedly. “But the spanking sounds like fun.”

“What's it like being with a girl?” Mar'i asked.

“I like both girls and guys, but I'd say it's slightly better with a girl,” Lian replied. “More . . . sensual, instead of just being physical.” She grinned. “Any girls you're attracted to?”

“No,” Mar'i responded. “What was your first time like?”

“Not that satisfying,” Lian admitted. “It felt nice, but that's about it. I got nothing more than that out of it.” She looked at Mar'i. “Wanna go bust up some bad guys?”

“Hell, yes,” Mar'i replied.

Mar'i and Lian changed into their costumes, sneaking looks at each other's bodies when each thought the other wasn't looking. Mar'i's body was femininely muscular, in the sense that her muscles didn't bulge like a bodybuilder's or a wrestler's. It was obvious she had them, but they were akin to those of a very agile athlete or fighter, not to mention that they didn't draw attention away from her curves. Lian's body was more slender, but kept from the point of anorexia by her athletic training and occasional pigging out on chocolate chip cookies. While her curves were not quite as generous as Mar'i's, no one looking at her would deny that she had them.

Lian pulled out her quiver and filled it with a generous amount of arrows before slinging it onto her back. She picked up her collapsible bow and crossbow and slid them into holding slots hidden on her costume. She took up her red cloak and placed it on her shoulders, raising her hood.

“Why do you call yourself Red Hood, Lian?” Nightstar asked.

“If you're thinking that I named myself after the Joker's initial alias, you'd be rather wrong on that,” Red Hood replied. “It's actually after Little Red Riding Hood.” She pointed up at the hood she wore. “See?”

Nightstar and Red Hood exited the house and got on a sleek scarlet motorcycle, Red Hood taking the handlebars and Nightstar sitting behind her.

“Let's ride,” Red Hood said, revving up her motorcycle. She drove into the night, Nightstar holding on tightly to her. “Hey, you're breaking my ribs.”

“Sorry,” Nightstar shouted over the roar of the motorcycle engine and loosened her grip on Red Hood.

“Hey, there's that chop shop I've been staking out for a week!” Red Hood exclaimed. “Wanna take it down?”

“I don't see why not,” Nightstar answered.

Red Hood drove right at the chop shop, building up speed and momentum until she burst through a dirty, fogged-up window.

“What the frig?” one of the carjackers exclaimed.

“Shoot them!” another carjacker yelled, pulling out his gun and shooting. The others followed that particular carjacker's lead and began firing at Nightstar and Red Hood, who leaped off the motorcycle in opposite directions.

Red Hood pulled out a crossbow and opened it, revealing an energy string. She fired a bolt right into the barrel of a carjacker's gun, jamming it. She ran at him and delivered a whirling kick to his gut that knocked the air out of his lungs.

Nightstar lashed with her energy whip, knocking the guns out of the hands of three carjackers. She flew at one carjacker and her flight propelled him into a wall with such force that it knocked him unconscious. The other two charged at her, but she spun with her leg out, striking one in his rib cage and another in his gut. Both crumpled into insensate heaps.

Red Hood and Nightstar performed cartwheel after cartwheel, moving out of the way of the bullets of the remaining carjackers. The two jumped into the air and came down with brutal kicks to the heads of two carjackers. They back-flipped into the air and Red Hood pulled out her collapsible bow, folding it out into its full size and revealing an energy string. She nocked an arrow and shot it into the midst of the two remaining carjackers. When the arrow exploded, it released tear gas, causing the carjackers to choke, gasp, and cry. Putting on a rebreather and giving another one to Nightstar, Red Hood rushed into the gas cloud and knocked out one carjacker, leaving the other to Nightstar, who took care of him in short order.

“Oracle,” Red Hood spoke. “You mind sending an anonymous call to the police so that they can pick up these carjackers?”

“Will do,” the digitized, genderless false voice of the Oracle responded.

By the time the police arrived to take the carjackers into custody, the teen crime-fighters were already riding to the next crime.

“So who else are we going after?” Nightstar queried.

“I know a gaggle of dirtbags that's been asking for it for quite a while,” Red Hood responded.

“Lead the way,” Nightstar said.

In an abandoned warehouse, the six wealthiest drug pushers in Star City sat at a table.

“What are we doing here?” one of the pushers asked.

“I don't know,” another pusher replied.

“All I got was some weird voice on my cell telling me to come here,” a third pusher added.

“We all got that voice on our cells,” a fourth pusher interjected.

The last two pushers didn't say anything at all at first. After several minutes though, one of them got the courage to speak.

“So who was that voice?” he asked.

“Actually, that was a friend of ours,” a feminine voice replied from above them. “She called you here on our behalf.”

The six pushers looked up at the catwalk and saw two teenage girls standing on it. One was dressed in a skintight black leather suit with an arrowhead cut out of the chest, red bracers, red knee-high boots, and a red cloak with the hood up. The other wore a tiny black top emblazoned with a purple wing emblem, tiny black shorts, thigh-high black boots, and purple wrist-guards.

The girl in black and red was well known to the criminal element in Star City and most people, even the criminals, only had to turn on the TV news to see the girl in black and purple.

Red Hood and Nightstar.

“Frag those bitches!” one of the pushers yelled, pulling out a semi-automatic and firing it at the two vigilantes, who jumped off the catwalk. The other five pushers followed his lead and began firing their weapons as well.

Red Hood and Nightstar dodged the hail of bullets, staying airborne and constantly moving so that the pushers couldn't get a clear shot at them. However, it was easier for Nightstar to stay airborne because she could fly. She flew a serpentine path through the bullets and delivered a haymaker to the jaw of one of the pushers, knocking him unconscious. Red Hood fired three arrows at the pushers, jamming their weapons. Just as she and Nightstar were about to take care of the remaining two, a sudden piercing cry rang out through the warehouse, disorienting both the vigilantes and the drug pushers.

Once it was over, a still-conscious Nightstar and Red Hood heard a female voice say, “Sorry! Should have made sure you two were out of the way first.”

“Damn right you should have,” Red Hood grumbled. “And what are you doing here, Black Canary? We were doing just fine.”

“Yeah, but you would have had more thugs to fight if I hadn't shown up,” the third young woman to bear the name Black Canary countered.

Nightstar and Red Hood turned to face their rescuer, who was dressed in the traditional leather and fishnets of the Black Canary. However, this Black Canary was far from traditional, having had her limbs, spine, and part of her brain replaced by cybernetics in the wake of a horrible accident. This small fact was not very obvious due to the fact that her cybernetic prosthetics were sheathed in artificial flesh to give her the appearance of being fully human.

“What do you mean?” Nightstar asked.

“What I mean is that there were more thugs hidden near the exits and entrances,” Black Canary explained. “They'd have swarmed you if I hadn't taken them out for you.”

“Well, thanks,” Red Hood said.

“So, mind if I interest you two in some fun?” Black Canary asked.

“Sure,” Red Hood replied. “We've been patrolling for half the night. We could use the break. How about it, Starry? You wanna have some fun?”

“Sure,” Nightstar answered.

That night, the three girls - all in civilian wear - found themselves in Tabula Rasa, a nightclub frequented by young people looking for a little fun after sundown. A central glow-panel on the ceiling provided muted red light and mirrors set up in the corners of the club made it look more spacious than it actually was. Techno, trip-hop, and trance - all spiced with a little industrial - pulsed throughout the club.

“Hey, it's Olivia!” one of the patrons exclaimed.

Instantly, the Black Canary was surrounded by adoring fans.

“Olivia, I bought your latest album with the Steel Angels and I love every song!” a wide-eyed girl exclaimed. She pulled out the CD in question and held it out to the green-eyed blonde. “Could you please sign?”

Olivia Queen pulled out a Sharpie marker and signed her name on the CD.

“Thank you!” the girl squealed and departed into the crowd.

In addition to being a superhero, Olivia Queen was a musical sensation, performing with her friends and band-mates Avia Free and Mallory Duncan as the Steel Angels. Their particular style of music was a combination of trip-hop and rock, packaged in a way that made it accessible to many without “selling out.” Although most people didn't know this, the Steel Angels as musicians was merely a cover for the Steel Angels as a covert crime-fighting team. While most people knew that Olivia and Avia were superheroes, they didn't know the truth of the Steel Angels.

After signing a few more autographs, Olivia faded into the crowd and began moving to the music along with Lian and Mar'i. The three girls got a number of eager would-be dance partners and Olivia and Lian danced with some of them while Mar'i turned them all down.

“Come on, Mar'i,” Olivia encouraged in a singsong voice. “Just let go and have fun for once.”

“That's what I keep telling her, Liv,” Lian said.

“I can have fun just fine with you two,” Mar'i countered. “I don't need a guy to have fun.”

“Oh, is that an invitation, Mar'i?” Lian asked a coyness that was proven false when she wrapped her arms around the half-Tamaranean girl and began dancing with her.

“You two make quite a pretty picture,” Olivia remarked, continuing to dance next to them.

Later on, the three girls headed home. “So what did you mean when you said Lian and I made `quite a pretty picture'?” Mar'i questioned.

“You could be a very cute couple, in an erotic lesbian Butch and Sundance kinda way,” Olivia answered.

Mar'i blushed at that, while Lian merely smirked. “See you later, Olivia,” Lian said.

“See you later,” Olivia responded, getting on her black motorcycle, putting her helmet on, and driving away.

Lian got on her own motorcycle and put on her helmet, passing a spare to Mar'i, who gratefully placed it on her head. Mar'i sat behind Lian and held on to the slightly older girl as she revved up the motorcycle and drove back to her house.

“You had a good time tonight, right, Mar'i?” Lian asked some hours later, wearing nothing but a black camisole and blue satin panties and lounging on the sofa.

“Yeah,” Mar'i admitted, wearing a black nightie. She went to sit on the sofa and Lian sat up to make room for her, proceeding to rest her head on Mar'i's lap once the slightly younger girl had sat down.

“Good night, Mar'i,” Lian whispered. “I hope you have sweet dreams.”

“Thanks,” Mar'i whispered. “Sweet dreams.”

When Roy returned from his job with the Bureau of Metahuman Affairs, he found Mar'i and Lian in the same position they'd been in when they'd fallen asleep. He didn't rouse them, just smiled softly at the scene in front of him and went upstairs to his room.

End Notes: That's it for this side story.

First off, I will say that Mar'i and Lian are not a couple. They are two best friends who happen to be very comfortable with each other. As to their orientations, you can clearly see that Lian is bisexual, while Mar'i might be simply bi-curious.

For those of you who don't know who Lian Harper is, rest assured that she is not an original character. In Titans canon, she is Roy Harper's (Speedy/Arsenal) daughter with an assassin named Cheshire (Jade Nguyen). The alternate future depicted in the DC Elseworlds graphic novel Kingdom Come shows Lian following in her father's heroic footsteps as the Red Hood.

Olivia Queen, Black Canary III, also comes from the Kingdom Come timeline and is the daughter of Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) and Black Canary II (Dinah Lance). Like in this story, she is a cyborg. However, I didn't exactly know what she looked like as a cyborg - since all I know of Kingdom Come is what I've gathered from Wikipedia - so I made her more of a Ghost in the Shell-style cyborg.

Those of you who've read DC Comics ought to have an inkling as to who Power Woman is. For those of you who don't, the short explanation is that Power Woman is the identity an older Power Girl assumes in Kingdom Come. Explaining about Power Girl herself will take too much time, so I won't bother.

The idea of Olivia leading a superhero team under the guise of a music group was inspired by an animé called Bubblegum Crisis, in which the main characters are power-suited mercenaries in the guise of a music group. Then again, it's a general animé cliché: crime-fighters disguised as a type of person no one would suspect as a crime-fighter.

Olivia's line comparing Mar'i and Lian to Butch and Sundance was inspired by Grace Choi's remarks about Nightwing and Arsenal (Robin and Speedy) in the Outsiders comics.

If you've actually read the comics and you're wondering why Lian has red hair whereas most canon comic appearances have her with black hair, she had red hair in her first appearances. For some reason, a later colorist thought she'd look better with black hair and it stuck.

The Bureau of Metahuman Affairs, in name, is made up by me. In reality, it's based on several government organizations in the DCU that have attempted to regulate metahuman activity.

That's all out of me. See you with the next side story.