Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Running Blind ( Chapter 15 )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Arc 3: “Quicksilver”

Chapter 5: “Running Blind”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me. The characters of Nightstar and Mercury do not belong to me, the former belonging to DC Comics and the latter belonging jointly to DC and Marvel Comics. Everyone else, aside from anyone you might recognize from DC (and with me, you'd need to be a comic book geek to do that), belongs to me.

Author's note: Oh, what a tangled web we weave. One Mercury is supposedly dead and has apparently been replaced by a dimensionally displaced counterpart. Notably, this other Mercury is a lot darker and more brutal than the Mercury we've come to know.

If you're wondering why he said to call him “Pietro” instead of “Peter,” the Dark Flash storyline explained that a staple of Hypertime is that two versions of the same person may have slightly differing names. So our Mercury is Peter and the other Mercury is Pietro. That might help you differentiate between them, since a lot of people seem to think that the other Mercury is still the Mercury from our world, only altered by running through time. To see how this pans out, continue reading.

“I don't trust him,” Samara said.

“I know you don't, but we're short-handed,” Nightstar answered. “The seven of us working together are unbeatable, but with just us six things become harder.”

“Doesn't mean we automatically bring a dangerous maniac into the team,” Inferno retorted. “Even if he could shatter the sound barrier a hundred times over.”

Bladefire was at the Tower mainframe. “Look at this.”

The other Titans gathered around him. “What is it, Blade?” Nightstar asked.

“Reports from Keystone and Central Cities,” Bladefire replied, scrolling down. “All of them boil down to the same thing: Someone with super-speed has been waging a one-man war on the criminal underworld. Survivors report being struck down by gale force winds or punches and kicks coming so fast and hard that their bones practically shattered.”

“Survivors?” Beast Girl asked. “You mean some of the guys he attacked ended up dead, don't you?”

“Yeah,” Bladefire admitted heavily.

“Still want him playing for our side?” Cipher asked.

“Whoever this Mercury is, he could use some friends,” Nightstar replied. “He was alone for an entire week in this dimension. He could have been alone for longer where he comes from. He came here because no matter what reality he hails from, Titans Tower is his home. If we show him that, he may calm down. So . . . show of hands. Who wants `Dark Mercury' on our team?”

“I don't think anyone particularly wants him on the team,” Samara remarked.

“Bad choice of words,” Nightstar conceded. “So . . . who can stand him on our team?”

Beast Girl raised her hand first. Cipher raised his next. Samara raised her hand after him. Bladefire and Inferno raised their hands as well.

“I guess it's unanimous,” Nightstar said.

“Oh, good,” Dark Mercury remarked sarcastically, having appeared outside the door.

“We're taking a big risk letting you stay with us,” Nightstar said. “We need a show of trust from you, Pietro. Your mask. Remove it.”

Dark Mercury stared at her impassively. “And why should I do that?”

“Listen, you,” Samara snarled. “Like Mar'i said, we're taking a risk allowing you to become a Titan. But we need something back from you so we know it's worthwhile. Now off with the mask.”

“You might want to ask more nicely,” Dark Mercury sneered.

A black aura engulfed Samara's hands and she raised them, fully ready to teach the dark speedster a lesson in respect.

“Please,” Beast Girl pleaded, taking Dark Mercury's hand in hers. “Take it off.”

Dark Mercury looked at her through eyes covered by semitransparent silver-white lenses. “As you wish.”

He reached up and removed his mask, revealing . . .

. . . the face of Peter Allen, only two or three years older than the Peter Allen who had vanished into the timestream.

Beast Girl found herself observing idly that Mercury - no matter what universe he came from - seemed to get even more handsome as he aged. It was only the cold anger in his eyes that took away from that, although his expression seemed to soften when she touched him.

“Happy now?” he asked the other Titans mockingly.

“Somewhat,” Bladefire answered.

“And if you'll excuse me, I have business to take care of,” Dark Mercury said. “Namely, the people who sold Schuyler diamond meth. Bad diamond meth. Have they been found and punished yet?”

“We've been working on that,” Nightstar replied. “Unfortunately, between schoolwork, homework, and other investigations on the table, we haven't been able to find anything. Of course, it doesn't help that Alderman won't let us investigate on school grounds.”

“You've been too kind,” Dark Mercury stated. “I'll get the facts out of them.”

“Don't kill any of them,” Bladefire commanded. “That's an order.”

“Fine,” Dark Mercury conceded, speeding out of the Tower.

Nightstar flew after Dark Mercury, accelerating to match his speed.

Dark Mercury stopped at an abandoned warehouse, hearing the sounds of electronic dance music outside. He walked in, quick-changing into a blue silk shirt and black leather pants. He observed the rave-goers, looking for anyone who might be passing out diamond meth. If he'd learned anything about criminals in his years of fighting them, it was that they thought themselves immensely clever and that made them cocky, which in turn made them stupid, which in turn made them perfect prey for him.

True to form, he did find someone passing out diamond meth. The person in question was wearing a red blazer over a red shirt and red pants. He had black hair streaked with blond and green eyes.

Dark Mercury rushed the red-clad person, probably no older than him, and pinned him to the wall much to the consternation of his clients.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“Were you the one who gave Schuyler Drew this crap?” Dark Mercury asked.

“I don't know a Schuyler!” the seller replied frantically.

“Liar!” Dark Mercury yelled. “He's about this tall with perennially disheveled hair -”

“Kinda like yours?” the seller asked.

“Yes, but don't change the subject,” Dark Mercury snarled. “The point is that you gave him bad meth and landed him in the hospital. Now I have half a mind to kill you right here and now.” He pressed two fingers to the seller's temple. “I could do it, you know. Just vibrate the molecules of my fingers until they pass through your skull. Normally, that would be harmless, but unless I control it, it triggers a continued kinetic reaction that ends in your head exploding. Want that to happen?”

“You're supposed to be a superhero!” the seller yelled. “Isn't there some rulebook that says you guys can't kill?”

“I just rewrote the rules,” Dark Mercury answered coldly. “Now you have one chance to avoid having to be identified by your prints. Tell me who makes the crap you're selling.”

“I can't tell you!” the seller replied. “They'll kill me!”

“Kill you?” Dark Mercury asked. “I'll kill you, you little bitch! I'll just enjoy it better.”

“Hell!” the seller exclaimed. “I'll talk! It's these two rich kids: Edwin Masters and Jared Novak!”

“I know those two,” Dark Mercury hissed. “From school.”

“So you're gonna let me go now, right?” the seller asked.

Dark Mercury shook his head slowly.

“Oh, hell, man!” the seller exclaimed. “You gotta let me go! I gave you what you wanted, dammit!”

“Not everything,” Dark Mercury amended. “You didn't give me where they're shacked up now.”

“They're in another abandoned warehouse,” the seller spat out rapidly. “Just five blocks away from the one they were using before! Now, goddammit, let me go, you maniac!”

Mercury vibrated his fist and struck . . .

. . . the wall next to the seller's head, blasting a hole in it due to not properly controlling his vibration.

“Ahhhhh!” the seller screamed.

The blast got the attention of the rave-goers, who began running around in a panic. Dark Mercury, still holding onto the seller, darted out of the warehouse and was about to make a run for the meth lab where Edwin and Jared were working when he was halted by Nightstar.

“Where do you think you're going with him?” she asked.

“I have two dirtbags to punish and I want this piece of dirt to see it,” Dark Mercury replied, his clothes changing into the tarnished silver and blue-black of his costume. “Now get out of my way.”

“Are you going to kill them?” Nightstar asked.

“If I told you yes, would you let me past?” Dark Mercury asked rhetorically.

“If your Nightstar is anything like me, you know what my answer will be,” Nightstar answered.

“Understandable,” Dark Mercury remarked. “But you're not stopping me.”

He went zero to 200 in a second, vibrating his molecules so that he passed through Nightstar, who shuddered from the sensation. He ran toward the meth lab, blasting his way through via uncontrolled vibration through the door. The dark speedster had enough time to observe that Edwin and Jared were rather clean-cut and well-dressed, not the kind of boys anyone would suspect of running a meth lab. He also noticed that they were wearing breathing masks over the lower halves of their faces.

“What, didn't think anyone would find you?” he asked cruelly.

The seller jabbered out, “He made me tell! He said he'd kill me and he freaking meant it!”

The two boys attempted to run, but Dark Mercury blocked their path. They ran in another direction, but Dark Mercury blocked them again.

“Stay away from us, you freak!” Jared yelled in panic.

Dark Mercury smirked mirthlessly. “I can break the sound barrier at least a hundred times over. You idiots think you can run from me?”

Edwin made a desperate run for it, one Dark Mercury halted by punching him square in his face, breaking his jaw and knocking his mask off.

“Oh, man, why are you doing this to us?” Jared asked frantically.

“Because your drugs put a friend of mine in the hospital,” Dark Mercury answered. “What's the deal? Daddy's money not enough for you?”

“Supply and demand, man!” Jared shouted. “Diamond meth's big at raves!”

Dark Mercury shook his head. “Not an acceptable answer.”

“Hell, man, I gotta get out of here!” the seller exclaimed frantically. “The chemicals they're cooking; that crap's poisonous if you breathe it in! That's why they had masks!”

“So?” Dark Mercury asked. “They should breathe the fruits of their labors.” He dropped the seller and walked up to the pot of chemical solution on the table. He picked it up and held it threateningly at the three. “So . . . who wants to take a face-plant in this?”

“Are you crazy?” Jared asked. “That'll melt your face off!”

“Sounds good to me,” Dark Mercury replied with a cruel smirk.

Suddenly, they all heard sirens approaching them. The dark speedster let out a low snarl. Nightstar must have reported him. Oh, well. He would wait here. Unlike the seller, Edwin, and Jared, he had nothing to fear from the police.

The police vehicles stopped in front of the meth lab and a Hazmat team entered the lab in containment suits while police cordoned off the area.

“Do you have any idea what reckless endangerment means?” the chief asked after Dark Mercury had been detoxified.

“Do I look like someone who cares if criminals get killed by their own poison?” Dark Mercury asked. “Now these three bastards . . . I ask only one thing of you when it comes to them and that they all get the harshest, longest sentences possible. If that doesn't happen, I won't be happy and I'm not a nice person to know when I'm not happy.”

“Is that a threat?” the chief asked.

“Yes,” Dark Mercury replied.

“I'd like to talk to you about that stunt you pulled back at Central Banking,” the chief said.

“I took down those thugs,” Dark Mercury said. “What else do you want?”

“That wasn't for you to get involved in!” the chief shouted. “You could have gotten those hostages killed!”

“But I didn't,” Dark Mercury countered icily. “And besides, you don't reason with thugs like that. They don't listen very well to anything that doesn't involve violence.”

“The only reason I don't throw you in a power-dampening cell right now is that the Titans have a good history with this department,” the chief said. “I'm trying to respect that, but I don't exactly like the idea of rampaging vigilantes running loose in my city. Don't think I don't know what you've gotten up to Keystone and Central. If you think I'm going to let you repeat that crap here, you've got another thing coming to you.”

“I hope that makes you feel better,” Dark Mercury answered sarcastically. “Good night.” He was gone in the blink of an eye.

At Titans Tower, Nightstar and Dark Mercury were having . . . a debate. At least, that was putting it charitably.

“That is not the way we handle things!” Nightstar yelled. “We're supposed to work with the system, not against it!”

“Well, this system is broken!” Dark Mercury answered. “You play too nicely with these people. That's why you got stalled! These scumbags have no regard for human decency! That's why they're scumbags! And that's why we can't treat them with kid gloves!”

“You threatened to kill that guy!” Nightstar exclaimed.

“Like you don't hang those kinds of assholes by their feet from a rooftop back in Gotham or Bludhaven!” Dark Mercury challenged.

“I play at it!” Nightstar shouted. “I don't seriously intend to kill them; I just let them think that to get them to talk! You, on the other hand, were perfectly serious when you talked about vibrating your fingers through his head!”

“And maybe we need to be serious about that!” Dark Mercury asserted. “These people have no compunction about poisoning, beating, raping, and devouring their fellow human beings! As soon as they figure out we won't ever kill them, we lose their fear! If some of these murderers and dealers and rapists were to drop dead, they'd know we were serious!”

“That isn't the way to handle things,” Nightstar insisted, calming herself somewhat. “We have to respect life, no matter how reprehensible we find how some people choose to spend those lives.”

“That may work for you, but I've seen too much,” Dark Mercury answered coldly. “This isn't child's play. This is war.”

He stalked away to his room, or rather, the room that belonged to the version of him that once existed in this dimension.

“I'm starting to have second thoughts,” Bladefire admitted.

“I think we're all having second thoughts,” Inferno agreed.

“I feel . . . so much anger coming from him,” Samara spoke. “And behind it, a deep sorrow. Whoever this Mercury is, he's suffered greatly in his world.”

“That rage makes him dangerous,” Cipher said, “both to the criminal underworld and maybe to us.”

“What do you mean?” Beast Girl asked timidly.

“If we can't hold him back, if we can't teach him to value the sanctity of life,” Cipher replied, “then we will catch the heat for his actions. We already have a tense relationship with the local police and his rampages will only make it worse.”

“I don't even want to know what he would have done if I hadn't called the police to that meth lab,” Nightstar said.

“Reports say that he was rather unconcerned with the idea that those kids might have gotten poisoned by the fumes from their own drugs,” Inferno added. “Hell, Jared says he threatened to shove his face in that mixture of chemicals.”

“He's not Mercury,” Beast Girl said. “Not my Mercury. My Mercury wouldn't hurt people like that.”

“Someone probably ought to go and talk to him,” Cipher suggested, “but who would risk it?”

“I say Beast Girl,” Samara suggested. “She got him to take off his mask for us.”

Beast Girl looked at Samara quizzically. “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Samara confirmed. “Dark Mercury has feelings for you, just like the Mercury we know.”

“He scares me,” Beast Girl said. “He's so cold and angry and bloodthirsty. I don't want to be around him any more than I have to.”

“Well, you're probably the only one who can get through to him,” Cipher said. “Would you please at least try?”

“Sure,” Beast Girl conceded and walked to the room where Dark Mercury presently resided. As she got closer, she heard heavy, brutally pounding rock rhythms coming from the direction of the room. She knocked on the door. “Dark Mercury! Dark Mercury! Can I come in?”

The door slid open and Beast Girl was subjected to the full force of Dark Mercury's idea of music.

“Turn it down!” she yelled, covering her ears.

A second later the music was playing at a much lower volume.

“What did you want to see me about?” the dark speedster asked, his stare piercing into her like gold lasers.

“The other Titans are worried about you,” the shape-shifting geomancer replied.

“No, that I'm some kind of murdering fanatic,” Dark Mercury sneered bitterly. “Let me tell you something, my dear. These scumbags don't deserve our compassion. They're nothing but parasitic filth that suck the life out of innocent people. Criminals make life bad for everyone else, and our so-called justice system facilitates this with its revolving door policy. You remember Gotham City? Those murderous sociopaths Batman's always fighting keep busting out of Arkham, even when rationality demands that they all get the needle.”

Beast Girl took a step back from him, horrified by his words. Without another word, she turned and ran to her own room, where she buried her face in her pillow and wept.

Dark Mercury closed his door and turned his radio back up to maximum volume.

When Samara entered Beast Girl's room, she saw the younger girl facedown on her bed weeping. She sat on the bed and rubbed Beast Girl's shoulder comfortingly.

Beast Girl looked up at the older girl with bloodshot eyes. “What's wrong with him? Why can't he be the Mercury I know?”

“Because he isn't,” Samara replied sadly.

“What made him this way?” Beast Girl asked. “Why is he so angry?”

Before Samara could try to formulate an answer, the alarm rang.

All the Titans assembled in the main room, with the exception of Dark Mercury.

“It's Gemini,” Bladefire said. “Looks like she set off an alarm in the museum. Deliberately.”

“Why would she do something like that?” Inferno asked.

“Because she's a lunatic,” Beast Girl replied with an offhandedness she didn't feel.

“Where's Dark Mercury?” Nightstar asked.

“Aw, hell,” Bladefire uttered. “He's gone to fight her himself.”

As the Titans exited the Tower, Cipher asked, “Who are we going to have to aid, her or him?”

“A good question,” Nightstar replied. “One I hope we don't have to answer.”

In the museum, Gemini stood, as though waiting for her inevitable fate.

“Gemini,” a voice spoke, full of barely repressed fury and bloodlust.

Gemini turned, but there was no one there.

“Gemini,” the voice spoke again.

“Don't think you can frighten me so easily,” Gemini challenged.

“Are you so sure of that?” the voice asked.

Gemini shot her fist in the direction of the voice like a slingshot, hitting the wall instead of flesh. She snarled. “Quit playing around.”

“Oh, but this game is rather fun,” the voice spoke.

“You want to play games, you little diaper stain?” Gemini asked. She shot both arms out and they stretched at insane speeds, splitting into multiple tentacles and moving in different directions.

She got lucky, as the owner of the voice - one Dark Mercury - was pinned to the wall by his hand.

“Got you,” Gemini hissed in triumph.

“Do you?” Dark Mercury asked with a deadly slowness. He vibrated his hand into intangibility and passed it through the tentacle that had impaled it. He inspected his hand curiously, finding a small, bloody hole in the center of his palm. His speed aura crackled around his hand as he accelerated its healing. The wound closed within seconds.

Gemini fired her fingers - which she had shaped into claws - at Dark Mercury like slingshots, only for him to dodge them and charge her. She made her body like a safety net and turned the force of his charge on him, throwing him back. Dark Mercury landed in a crouch and snapped his fingers, setting off a sonic boom that should have blown Gemini apart.

Instead, she seemed to absorb the force of the blast, perhaps due to her body's extreme malleability, and turn it back on him, resulting in him being knocked into a glass-covered display. Dark Mercury caught the glass shards with invisible hands as they fell and redirected their motion so that they were now flying at Gemini, who literally twisted out of the way.

The dark speedster launched himself into a flying kick, directing all the inertia from his motion at Gemini. Unfortunately, her malleability cushioned the blow and she knocked him back. She shot her hand at him as it enlarged into a huge claw, grabbing him and wrapping the extra length of her arm around him to secure him.

“Not a good idea,” Dark Mercury spoke grimly and vibrated his body until the friction burns forced Gemini to release him. She shot her hand at him again, but he dodged and her fist slammed into another display. The glass fell, but Dark Mercury redirected the shards' motion so that they flew at her. Gemini twisted out of the way and she shot her leg out in a fast stretching kick that slammed the platinum-haired dark speedster into another wall.

Dark Mercury's response was to grab her ankle and lend enough speed to her molecules to literally blow her foot off.

Gemini stood on one leg as her other foot re-formed.

“Nice try.”

“You haven't seen all I've got yet,” Dark Mercury retorted, slamming his fist into the floor and setting off a linear wave of destruction through it. The twisted shifter fell to the floor. “Now what was the point of this?”

Gemini smirked as she shot her head at Dark Mercury like a slingshot and head-butted him. “I was hired to kill you.”

“Who?” Dark Mercury managed to ask, his speed-enhanced powers of recuperation reorienting him quickly.

“Can't say, but they offered a ton of cash for your death,” Gemini answered.

“Well, I'm not going to let you get rich off my blood,” Dark Mercury snarled, charging her again and directing his inertia right at her. Again, her malleability cushioned the blow, but he was prepared for that this time. He vibrated through her . . . without controlling the vibration.

The end result was that Gemini was splattered all over the museum hall.

“Got you,” the dark speedster spoke.

At that moment, the other Titans arrived.

“What happened, Dark Mercury?” Inferno asked.

“I took care of Gemini,” Dark Mercury replied. “She won't be troubling us for a while. The interesting thing is that someone hired her to kill me.”

“That's why she set off the alarm,” Cipher concluded. “She wanted to draw you out.”

“The problem is that she wouldn't say who hired her, only that they offered her a lot for my head on a platter,” Dark Mercury added.

“Why don't we make a list of all the crime lords who would have the resources to put a hit out on you?” Beast Girl asked sarcastically.

Dark Mercury smirked. “Good to see that you still have your spirit.”

“You troublesome brat,” Gemini snarled from behind Dark Mercury before impaling him with her arms-turned-sharp tentacles. There wasn't much for him to do except collapse.

“Dark Mercury!” Beast Girl cried out, horrified. With a shrill, catlike wail of grief and fury, she morphed into a feline-human hybrid shape and lunged at Gemini, claws out.

Gemini dodged, smirking cruelly. “What's the matter, Beastie? Angry I killed your boyfriend?”

Beast Girl roared and attacked the malleable young woman again. Gemini grabbed the shape-shifting geomancer with her stretching limbs, pulling her into her body as it expanded to consume her. With a burst of geomantic force, Beast Girl broke free and attacked the malleable maniac viciously, slashing her again and again with golden-glowing claws.

Gemini extended her fists like slingshots and Beast Girl dodged with feline agility. Unfortunately, one of Gemini's attacks actually made it through and knocked Beast Girl into a wall. Gemini quickly seized her and began smothering her with her enlarged claw-hand.

Nightstar lashed with her energy whip and sliced Gemini's arm off, freeing Beast Girl. Gemini regenerated her arm and shot it at Nightstar, who flew out of the way and fired an optic blast at the twisted shifter. The blast blew a considerably sized hole in her abdomen, but that hole quickly closed.

Suddenly, jets of heat assaulted her, causing her to cry out and attempt to shield herself.

“What's the matter?” Inferno taunted. “Can't take the heat?”

“You . . .” Gemini hissed, attempting to strike down the fire user with one of her extending arms. Her arm didn't even get three-quarters of the way to him before it started melting from the heat emanating from him.

Seeing that she couldn't do anything while Inferno was assaulting her with heat waves, Gemini reluctantly began to flee.

“Samara, heal Dark Mercury,” Bladefire ordered. “The rest of us will go after Gemini.”

“Sure,” Samara acquiesced in a tone that suggested she wasn't entirely pleased with Bladefire's orders yet not willing to press the issue.

Gemini fled the museum, only to run into a barricade of police vans and Nova Blue operatives.

“Freeze!” one of the operatives shouted, pointing a cryonic rifle at her.

“Get out of my way,” she snarled, stretching her fist at the operative. The operative turned out to be rather quick-witted and with good reflexes, as she quickly fired her rifle, freezing Gemini solid.

The sight of the frozen Gemini and the Nova Blue operatives was what the Titans found when they exited the museum.

“Good work,” Nightstar complimented.

“Thanks,” the Nova Blue squad leader answered. “You guys must have softened her up pretty good, though; she was kinda panicky when she ran out. We'll take it from here.”

“All right,” Bladefire said.

Once Gemini had been taken away, the five Titans returned to the museum to see Samara and a restored Dark Mercury.

“Where is she?” Dark Mercury asked.

“Nova Blue put her on ice,” Cipher replied.

“Should have broken that ice and scattered the pieces all over the world,” Dark Mercury sneered. His expression softened when he saw Beast Girl. “She didn't hurt you, did she?”

“No,” Beast Girl replied. “But when I thought she'd killed you . . .”

“Takes more than that to kill me,” Dark Mercury answered. Under his breath, he darkly added, “And I won't let us be parted by death, Terri. Not ever again.”

End Notes: That's it out of me for this chapter. Now, you've expected that my arcs will be five chapters long. That was true with the first two arcs, but this is gonna be at least six chapters long. If I have enough material, I may very well do seven chapters. You are going to see Dark Mercury live up to his name in the upcoming chapter.

In my opening notes, I didn't tell you the full story behind Dark Mercury being called Pietro instead of Peter. True, in Hypertime, two versions of the same person can have slightly differing names. However, Dark Mercury's name is homage to the Mercury of Amalgam Comics, who is a template for both versions of Mercury in the canon of Future Storm.

If you're wondering who Cipher is and where Raziel went, you should have read Side Story 4 (chapter 14). Cipher is Raziel's new codename.

Note the last words spoken in this chapter. They will be very important later on in this arc. Mainly, you will see just how far Dark Mercury will go to stay with Beast Girl.

Now I hope you don't mind letting me know what you think of this chapter.