Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Teen Titans: Future Storm ❯ Side Story 7: Still Running ( One-Shot )

 

“Teen Titans: Future Storm”

Side Story 7: “Still Running”

Disclaimer: The concept of Teen Titans does not belong to me. Nightstar, Mercury, and Zatara II do not belong to me, either. Nightstar and Zatara II belong to DC Comics and Mercury belongs to DC and Marvel via Amalgam. Everyone else is largely mine.

Author's note: This is the epilogue to “Quicksilver” that I promised. The “proper” Mercury is restored to his timeline, but that doesn't mean that it's all over yet. Not quite.

He had the nightmare again.

“Terri!” the platinum-haired speedster shouted, running toward her. He was too slow, too slow by a fraction of a second. He was just in time to see her die, though.

“Terri! TERRI!”

His anguished screams could have reached heaven, but they could not quite drown out the insanely triumphant laughter of Terri's murderer.

“TERRI!” the boy known as Peter Allen and Mercury screamed, waking from his nightmare but still in the grip of terror.

There was no point in sleeping, the youngest of the next generation of speedsters, reflected. Not only had he spent the past week since his return from the Speed Force too wired to sleep, every attempt was halted by a nightmare. The nightmare was a twisted view of Pietro Allen's memories, the memories of the night his world had shattered.

I couldn't be like that, Peter thought. I'm me. I'm Peter Allen. I'm Mercury. I can't be a killer. It's not in me.

His dark musings were interrupted by a voice at his door.

“Peter?”

“Terri,” Peter murmured in relief. “Come in.”

The door slid open and Theresa Logan, dressed in a camisole and cotton pants, entered the room. She climbed onto Peter's bed, curling up against him.

“You were screaming,” she whispered. “The nightmare?”

“Yeah,” Peter confirmed. “I don't . . . I don't want to lose you.”

“You won't lose me,” Terri whispered.

“How can you be so sure of that?” Peter asked. “How can anyone be so certain that they won't die tomorrow, especially when they do what we do?”

“You're scared you'll turn into that other Mercury who took your place when you were in the Speed Force,” Terri replied.

“He scared me,” Peter admitted.

“He scared me, too,” Terri murmured.

“The scariest thing is that he and I weren't so different before you died,” Peter went on. “It was after you died that he lost it. It was like a world without you was so painful to him that the only way he could deal with it was to take it out on criminals.” He sighed. “Even scarier, some of it made sense. Why do we have to entrust people who are obviously going to keep on killing and keep on hurting people to a system that isn't equipped to deal with them?”

Terri looked at him askance. “Are you sure you're you?”

“Fairly,” Peter replied. “It's just that his memories and mine are mixed together. Most of them are similar, so I can hardly tell which are mine and which are his.” He held her tightly. “If I lose you, I don't know what'll keep me from becoming him.”

Terri wanted to tell him that he wouldn't lose her, but he was right when he said that it was impossible to be sure of that. She just let him hold her, hoping that the warmth of her body would be enough to comfort him.

Morning came and with it school. Peter Allen found himself sitting in class, utterly unable to stay still. Instead of concentrating on the lesson, his body was vibrating.

“Mr. Allen,” the teacher, Mr. Aparo, spoke. “Do you mind not turning into a living vibrator in class?”

The phrase “living vibrator” caused a lot of the students to laugh.

Peter growled under his breath, forcing his body into stillness.

“Thank you,” Mr. Aparo said. “Now if you'll turn to page 85 . . .”

Peter ran out of class, moving faster than a bullet. The only evidence of his disappearance was a soft, almost imperceptible breeze in his wake. Once he was out of the school building, he kept running, running and running around the world.

No matter how fast or how much he ran, it seemed as though he still had energy to spare.

He returned to class five minutes later, taking his seat as though he'd just gone for a bathroom break.

“Mr. Allen, where were you?” Mr. Aparo asked.

“Huh, what are you talking about?” Peter asked.

“I'm talking about the fact that when I turned around three minutes ago you weren't there,” Mr. Aparo replied. “Now you can go to the principal's office for using your powers to ditch class.”

Peter glared at him and went to Principal Alderman's office.

“Ah, Mr. Allen,” she greeted him. “I've wanted to see you since your illustrious return from the grave.”

“I wasn't exactly in a coffin,” Peter said.

“Well, the world seemed to believe you were dead,” Alderman answered. “Anyway, it seems like you were using your powers to skip class. This is the third time in a week. What's wrong?”

“You actually sound like you care,” Peter sneered.

“Not really,” Alderman remarked. “It's just that, aside from when you and the little green girl are getting `busy' with one another on school grounds you're better behaved than some of your Titan friends. I'd like to know what possessed you to skip class. Do you really think everyone is so much slower than you that they won't notice if you're absent?”

Peter merely stared at her in stony silence.

“Since it's the third time so far, I'll have to suspend you from school,” Alderman said. “You can gather your things and go home for the rest of this week and all of the next.”

“Sure,” Peter answered. “This place bores me, anyway, and you know something else?” He rose from his seat and locked eyes with her. “You bore me, too.”

A split second later, he was out of the classroom and gathering his things at his locker. Once he'd filled his backpack, he slung it on his shoulder and sped out of the school, returning to Titans Tower.

Now that I've got all this time on my hands, I ought to pay a visit to Schuyler, he thought. He sped out of the Tower, reaching Schuyler's house in mere minutes.

He rang the doorbell and waited. About thirty seconds later, Schuyler's father answered.

“Hi, Peter,” he greeted.

“How's Schuyler?” Peter asked.

“Right to the point, aren't you?” Schuyler's father remarked. “That's ok; I like directness in a person. He's almost ready to return to school.”

“May I see him?” Peter inquired gently.

“Sure, but may I ask what you're doing out of school?” Schuyler's father asked.

“Taking some time off,” Peter answered. “Being dead kind of takes it out of you.”

“That's understandable,” Schuyler's father said. “Come on in.”

Peter entered the house and went straight upstairs to Schuyler's room. He knocked on the door gently.

“It's me, Peter. You mind if I come in?”

“Sure!” Schuyler's voice answered somewhat hoarsely.

Peter opened the door and entered, seeing Schuyler still in bed.

“You're looking better than the last time I saw you,” Peter commented.

“Yeah,” Schuyler answered. “Detox may be a bitch, but after that, there's nowhere to go but up. Hey, I hear you caught the guy who was selling that crap.”

“Wasn't me, per se,” Peter amended. “More like a psychotic twin brother.”

“Same difference,” Schuyler replied.

“You saying I'm insane?” Peter asked, falsely angry.

“I'm saying you're close enough to it,” Schuyler answered. “While I'm flattered that you're willing to skip school for me, won't Alderman get on your ass for that?”

“She suspended me for skipping class for the third time in a week,” Peter admitted.

“What were you skipping class for?” Schuyler asked.

Peter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don't know what's wrong with me, but ever since I came back from the Speed Force, I haven't been able to sleep. I've got more energy in me than before and I can't stay still for very long anymore. It's taking all the will I have to keep myself here.”

“You know, if it's a problem, I'm ok by myself,” Schuyler said.

“No, it's not you, man,” Peter said. “It's me. I'm faster than I was before and my body's having a hard time coping with the speed.”

Suddenly, his communicator beeped. He withdrew the communicator from the back of his belt and answered. “Mercury.”

“We've got trouble,” Nightstar's voice replied. “Meet us at Silver Ave.”

“Got it,” Peter answered, closing the communicator. “I gotta go.”

“S'ok,” Schuyler said. “Save somebody for me, man.”

Peter dashed out, accelerating toward Silver Avenue. As he ran, he decided to pull out a trick he'd learned from Pietro. He smiled.

“Won't they be surprised?”

A blast of crimson heat struck Samara's umbrakinetic shield.

A car lifted by electromagnetic force flew at Nightstar, who sliced it apart with a purple energy garrote.

Shards of ice were melted by jets of flame from Inferno.

A young man wrapped his malleable body around Beast Girl, squeezing the life out of her until she morphed into a fly and flew out of his suddenly-much-looser grip.

A jet of green flame was bisected by Bladefire's blue energy sword.

Emerald bullets from emerald guns were dodged by Cipher.

If one had to guess the Titans' opponents by powers alone, they would conclude that the young heroes were battling Superman, Static, Ice, Plastic Man, Fire, and Green Lantern, all of whom had been members of the Justice League at one point or another. However, they would be very wrong . . . for the Titans were not dealing with the Justice League.

They were dealing with six young punks who'd taken “meta-steroids” - drugs that could alter normal human physiology in such a way that they gained superhuman powers. Much of the time, those powers were based on those possessed by prominent superheroes.

Just as Cipher was about to dodge another emerald bullet, said bullet was caught by a silver-fingered blue glove.

He looked up in slight astonishment and amusement. “Mercury?”

“Yeah,” the platinum-haired speedster replied.

Mercury's new costume was a silver-and-blue full-body suit. The blue part covered his shoulders and much of his torso, extending to the insides of his thighs and the outsides of his arms. His hands were covered by silver-fingered blue gloves that extended to halfway up his forearms and his feet were covered in blue knee-high boots. His mask had stayed more or less the same, still marked by large goggle-like semitransparent lenses and silver lightning caps on the ears.

The Green Lantern-imitator continued firing his emerald guns at Mercury, who just caught the bullets at hyper-speed.

“The only weakness of a Green Lantern's power is that it requires a hell of a lot of concentration and willpower,” Mercury remarked. “Let's see how well you can concentrate against this.”

He zoomed toward the emerald imitator and attacked him in a flurry of hyper-fast blows. The imitator was, as Mercury had predicted, unable to concentrate against a speedster's attack and was shortly dispatched.

“That's one,” he said. He scanned the battlefield, only to find the Plastic Man-imitator wrapping his elongated neck around Beast Girl's face, trying to suffocate her.

Before the Plastic Man-imitator knew it, Mercury was on him, a flurry of brutal punches and kicks charged with enough inertia to land with superhuman force assaulting him. The young tough tried to shift his way out of Mercury's furious battering, but the young speedster was simply too fast and unrelenting.

A blast of heat vision turned Mercury's attention away from the malleable thug and to the Superman-imitator. He manipulated the air molecules around him into a shield that deflected his heat vision.

“I dare you to try that again,” Mercury hissed, his eyes alight with killing intent.

The Superman-imitator glared and fired again, only to receive an unpleasant surprise. The aforementioned unpleasant surprise was Mercury's hand covering his eyes the instant before he'd fired, forcing the heat to turn on his eyes. He screamed in agony as the heat seared his optic nerves, blinding him.

“I still have super-hearing, you little -” the Superman-imitator started to say, before Mercury boxed his ears in a super-speed motion, delivering the blow with enough proportional force to burst his eardrums.

“Now you're both blind and deaf,” Mercury sneered before whirling with tornado-like speed to punch the Plastic Man-imitator, who collapsed in a malleable heap upon being struck. “Who's next?”

“You could try leaving some to the rest of us,” Samara jibed.

Before the speedster could respond to that, his eyes suddenly glowed with lightning-like emissions and his body began to crackle with lightning. He collapsed, screaming in agony.

The remaining three meta-steroid users chose this as the opportunity to gang up on Mercury, brutalizing his agonized form while he could barely defend himself. Fortunately for him, a giant wave of flame from Inferno persuaded them that they'd be better off running for their lives.

“Mercury!” Beast Girl exclaimed, running to him.

“I hate to state the obvious,” Cipher said, “but we have to get him back to the Tower.”

The world was one giant whirlwind and Mercury was reaping it.

Ghostly presences swirled around him, calling out to him, crying for help.

Creatures of evil grasped at him, trying to pull him down into their realm.

A light shone upon him and gentle yet strong hands pulled him away from the creatures and into that light.

The speedster suddenly snapped back into the real world, sweating, out of breath, and lying on a cot in the infirmary.

“You're awake,” Bladefire greeted.

“What happened?” Mercury asked.

The other Titans looked at each other, all silently asking, “You wanna be the one to tell him?”

“I did some tests on your biochemistry,” Inferno finally answered. “When you came back from the Speed Force, you did so with even greater speed than before and new ways of applying it. Unfortunately, that had some side effects. You haven't been able to sleep or stay still this past week, have you?”

“Yeah,” Mercury admitted.

“That's because your body's struggling to adapt to the increased kinetic energy,” Inferno explained. “If you were an adult, it'd be easier, but your body is still developing and therefore it can't adapt as easily. That'll ultimately be fatal to you.”

“Are you saying that I shouldn't be using my speed anymore?” Mercury asked.

“That's exactly what he's saying,” Nightstar replied. “I can't have you endangering yourself out there. As of now, you're off-duty until further notice.”

“That's not fair!” Mercury exclaimed, getting off the cot. “I can still -”

“Not if you're dead,” Samara harshly cut him off. “Listen to her. This is for your own good.”

Mercury muttered something under his breath.

“What was that?” Samara asked, daring him to repeat it by her tone.

“Nothing,” the speedster replied bitterly. “Just leave. Leave me alone.”

“Fine,” Samara answered.

Beast Girl looked at Mercury sadly, wanting to stay with him, but Samara gently pulled her away. The other Titans filed out after them, leaving Mercury by himself.

The young speedster ruminated on his visions. He'd seen ghosts, monstrosities that looked as though they came from hell, and almost heaven itself. Was it all just some messed-up delusion, or was it something more?

“Help me,” a voice whispered to him.

“Who's there?” Mercury asked.

“Help me,” the voice repeated.

“Who are you?” Mercury asked.

“Help me,” the voice repeated.

“Goddammit, answer me!” Mercury yelled. “Who are you?”

A faint, ethereal mist seemed to form in front of him, growing into a humanoid shape and then taking on definite human features. Long reddish-pink hair, green eyes, a button nose, pale lips, small ears, clothes akin to those a so-called Goth would wear, and five-fingered hands.

“Leila,” the ghostly figure, who was most definitely female, answered.

“Why are you following me?” Mercury asked.

“You can see me,” Leila replied. “I need your help.”

“What makes you think I can help?” Mercury asked. “In case you weren't paying attention, Nightstar just sidelined me because my powers are toxic to me.”

“You can see me,” Leila answered.

“I might not be good at this, but I know someone who can help,” Mercury said. “Let's just hope he's ready for an impromptu visit.”

He sped out of the Tower, the sight of his signature blue-white lightning trail making Samara mutter, “That idiot.”

Mercury ran down to Sacramento, where he saw a dark-haired young man in stage magician's garb shout, “Sllaberif!”

Fireballs materialized in the magician's hands and he threw them at a hulking creature, which seemed to resemble a shadow with glowing green eyes. The creature bellowed and charged him.

“Deeps!” the magician shouted and suddenly dodged the creature with superhuman speed. “Hsals!”

Suddenly, a gaping slash wound emerged in the creature's torso, causing it to bellow in pain and flee.

“Yeah, you'd better run,” the magician remarked.

“Zatara,” Mercury greeted.

“Hey, Pete,” Zatara II greeted. He looked next to Mercury and saw Leila. “Ah, so you're here about a girl, and a dead one at that. What's the matter, Petey, living girls don't do it for you?”

“Very funny, asshole,” Mercury grumbled. “Just so you know, she's not my girlfriend. She came to me because I could see her.”

Zatara's sarcastic demeanor faded. “You've seen past the veil.”

“The veil?” Mercury echoed. “What veil? I just had a bunch of screwed-up visions.”

“The veil dividing life and death and the physical world from the metaphysical world,” Zatara clarified. “Come with me. We have a lot to discuss.”

Mercury followed Zatara back to his apartment, fighting down the painful cramps caused by the use of his speed. Once inside, Zatara turned to him and Leila.

“Now, you mind explaining just what you need help with?” he asked.

“That demon you fought was the one that killed me,” Leila replied. “I know because my friends and I summoned it. We thought it'd be fun to play at summoning a demon. I mean, they wouldn't sell the real books to ordinary girls like us, right?”

Zatara snorted contemptuously. “Should have known better. The real secret of magic, girl . . . any puss could do it, but it takes a certain amount of skill to do it right. Let me guess, you knew the summoning spell, but you didn't know the control spell.”

If Leila weren't a ghost, she might have blushed. As it was, she sheepishly confirmed his deduction with a faint “yes.”

“Always have the control spell ready when you do a summoning,” Zatara said. “That's how you prevent dying at the hands of a demon that goes on to rampage through freaking Sacramento.”

“How exactly do we stop this thing?” Mercury asked. “What's it even called?”

“It's a shadow demon,” Zatara replied. “It lives in the darkness and kills only under its cover.”

“What's it called?” Mercury questioned.

“Magra,” Zatara answered.

Before Mercury could ask any further questions, he found himself in an entirely different world than he'd been before.

It was a bleak landscape, dusty red ground and slightly darker-colored sky, wind whistling malevolently.

“What is this?” he asked.

“My domain,” a cultured, suave voice answered.

Mercury whirled and saw a man dressed in white with neatly cut blond hair and icy blue eyes.

“Holy crap,” he uttered. “I'm standing in front of the freaking Devil!”

“Please, call me Lucifer,” the Devil responded.

“What do you want with me?” Mercury asked.

“Just your ear,” Lucifer replied.

“You wanna cut off my ear?” Mercury wondered in horror.

The sound that came out of the fallen angel's mouth was a darkly melodious laugh. “Not quite, Peter Maxwell Allen. What I want with you is something else entirely. I want you to be my knight, my soldier of the lightning.”

“Would I have to do a whole bunch of evil acts for your sake?” Mercury asked. “Tempt people to the dark side, kill anyone who gets in your way, etc.?”

“Yes, you'd have to do all that and more,” Lucifer confirmed.

“And what makes you think I'd agree to any of that?” Mercury asked.

“You're dying,” Lucifer replied. “Your own power is tearing you apart and if you desire to protect your precious Theresa, you will have to stay alive. I can give you that. I can stabilize your power and give you even greater power, power beyond your wildest imagination. All you have to do is accept it.”

Before Mercury could give him an answer, he found himself back in Zatara's apartment.

“You vanished,” Leila said. “Where did you go?”

“I was in hell,” Mercury answered, deeply shaken. “I met the Devil. The freaking Devil!”

“Relax, man,” Zatara said.

“`Relax'?” Mercury repeated. “`Relax'? How do I relax when I got Lucifer after me?”

Zatara paused. “That changes things a bit.” He sighed. “Time I explained to you how the world really works.”

“You sound like my father,” Mercury muttered.

Zatara chuckled before he cleared his throat.

“Here's how it goes. Eons ago, the forces that governed good and evil - call them God and the Devil or whatever else you like - waged war. Entire segments of the universe were obliterated because the power they brought to bear on each other was so immense. But one day . . . humans came along and with them, a new battlefield.

“The battlefield I speak of is the human soul. Instead of outright war, Good and Evil would act through spiritual agents - call them angels and demons, if the Judeo-Christian context is your thing - to influence humans, to sway humans to one side or the other. A very small percentage of humans are purely good and will never stray from that. Similarly, a very small percentage of humans are purely evil and they'll never deviate from that. The rest of us fall in the middle, some of us edging closer to good or evil but all of us just as capable of being swayed in either direction.

“Somehow, your speed has evolved to the point that you can more-or-less freely walk between the physical and metaphysical worlds. This makes you a special target for these forces. You can see them and they can see you.”

Mercury swore.

“That's just the background,” Zatara said. “Right now, we need to find that Magra bastard and shut him down.”

“You know how?” Mercury asked.

“Yeah,” Zatara replied. “But . . . it's with my cousin Mara Masters.”

“What's wrong with her?” Mercury asked.

“She's a relative on my father's side of the family,” Zatara replied, “and my mother doesn't want me having anything to do with my father's side of the family.”

“Oh, yeah,” Mercury remarked. “Your dad's John Constantine.”

“My dad gets a bad rap,” Zatara said. “They say he's a con artist, a trickster, someone who'll walk away with a smile before you even notice the knife in your back. They're probably right.” He pulled out a square of nicotine gum and popped it into his mouth, chewing on it. “For Avia's sake. She didn't like kissing someone who `tasted like an ashtray.'”

“What happened between you two?” Mercury asked.

“I'm bad news,” Zatara replied. “That's what happened. I inherited my old man's curse - everyone close to me dies. That's why I keep away from my mom. That's why I broke up with Avia. I couldn't let her end up dead on account of me.”

“Don't you think Avia can defend herself?” Mercury inquired. “No offense, but she could kick your ass easy.”

“In a physical contest, you'd find very few people who could match her,” Zatara answered. “But this is the world of spirits, the world of demons and angels. It's an entirely different ballgame.” He sighed. “Why the hell am I going on about my personal life with you?”

“Never mind,” Mercury said. “Where's Mara?”

“In London,” Zatara replied. “If I'm right about the time difference, she's probably in one of the clubs in the red-light district finding someone to lay.”

“I'll find her,” Mercury said. “Just . . . what does she look like?”

“Dark red hair with lighter red tips,” Zatara answered. “There's hardly anybody else with hair like that, so if you see someone like that where you're going, it's probably her.”

Mercury was out like a bolt of lightning, streaking across the Atlantic. He just hoped that he didn't crap out in the middle of his run.

To his incredible relief, he didn't. Once in London, he streaked toward the red-light district. One of the mixed blessings of being a superhero was that one became very streetwise in a relatively short period of time, learning the places to go to get in trouble like the back of one's hand.

He went for the seediest club he could find . . . and was rather shocked by what he saw.

The speedster saw people dressed in either skintight fabrics or in barely anything, writhing against each other on the dance floor or in very intimate positions on the strategically positioned couches. He found himself blushing at the debauchery he witnessed and happy as hell that the lighting was such that no one could see him do so.

He looked around, searching for a head of dark red hair with lighter red streaks. His search was rewarded with the sight of a young woman with that exact hair color, dressed in a black buckled corset and matching leather hot pants with knee-high platform heels and snuggling against a blond young man in an unbuttoned leather vest and pants on a couch.

He began walking in her direction, only to be halted by a girl dressed in entirely too little clothing for his tastes.

“Nice outfit,” she complimented sultrily. “How would you like to go somewhere we can get a little more . . . intimate?”

“Thanks,” Mercury replied, still blushing. “But no thanks.”

He slipped out of her sight and continued walking in the redhead's direction, plopping down on the couch where she and her lover-to-be were sitting.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Hey,” Mara Masters greeted, blue eyes alight with mischief. “There's always room for one more.”

“Not what I'm here for,” Mercury answered. He leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Your cousin sent me.”

“You mean Johnny boy?” Mara asked.

“Yeah,” Mercury confirmed.

“I'll catch up with you later, love,” Mara whispered to her lover-to-be.

“That's all right,” he said. “I can keep myself entertained while I wait for you.”

Later, Mercury was inside Mara's apartment. While small, it was rather well-kept.

“Came all the way to London just for li'l ol' me,” Mara remarked. “And you're not here to screw my brains out. I'm kinda surprised.” She smirked. “Are you that fast in everything you do?”

Mercury blushed, catching the double entendre. “Not quite. I can slow myself down when I need to. How else would I interact with the world?” He paused. “But that's not what I'm here for.”

“I know,” Mara said. “You wanna know how to kill this Magra beast.”

“Yeah,” Mercury said.

Mara opened her closet door and reached back behind her clothes, many of which were not something any father would want his daughter caught in, to reveal a hidden panel. The panel slid back, revealing a row of mystical objects and weapons. She took down a dagger and held it out to Mercury.

“What's on the blade?” he asked.

“The killing words,” Mara replied. “The words must be driven into him. That's why the blade was made.”

“All right,” Mercury said, taking the blade. He was rather shocked when Mara pressed herself to him and kissed him on the lips, tongue and all. When she pulled away, he gasped for breath. “What was that about?”

“Just felt like it,” Mara answered. “You're too cute for words. Your girlfriend must be lucky.”

“Uh, yeah,” Mercury said. “See ya.” He bolted out of the apartment, speeding back to Zatara's apartment. Once there, he collapsed in agony, the lightning glow manifesting in his eyes and body.

When he recovered, he was on Zatara's bed, the magician sitting next to him.

“What the hell's wrong with you?” Zatara asked.

“My powers are killing me,” Mercury replied. “I was in the Speed Force for a while and when I came back, I ended up fighting a doppelganger who'd gone nuts because his universe's Beast Girl was killed by one of our enemies. We ended up merging for a bit, and that took my powers up a few notches along with the time I spent in the Speed Force. Apparently, it's a few notches too many, because it's starting to rip me apart.”

“And you came all the way here, anyway,” Zatara said. “You got diamond rocks. Soon as you're recovered, we're gonna get that Magra freak.”

“How's Leila?” Mercury asked.

“She's been a dear,” Zatara replied.

“Yeah, I've been really good,” Leila agreed.

“Let's get Magra,” Mercury said. “I got the dagger.”

“Did she kiss you?” Zatara asked. “Because you got some lipstick on your face.”

Mercury blushed and wiped it off.

Later on, the speedster and the mage were following the shadow demon as it looked for prey.

“It's almost daylight, so Magra knows it's gotta hurry,” Zatara said. “It's no better than a human trying to sneak in one last smoke even though he knows he's gotta start that cold turkey stuff.”

“When do we make our move?” Mercury asked.

“Now,” Zatara replied. “Nrub!”

The shadow demon was instantly aflame, causing it to let out an inhuman roar of pain. Mercury was instantly on him, impaling the creature with the dagger. Magra's roars of agony intensified in volume as spidery cracks emerged throughout his jet-black form. Finally, the creature exploded in a shower of light and green ooze.

“You look gross,” Leila said.

“I know,” Mercury grumbled. “Think you can move on now?”

“You want me to leave?” Leila asked in mock hurt.

Mercury stammered.

“I'm just playing,” Leila said. “I know I gotta leave. This world's not meant for me, like that song said.” She floated to Mercury and laid an ephemeral kiss on his cheek. “Bye.”

That was the last Mercury saw of Leila, as her spirit had passed on to the next world.

By the time Mercury returned to Titans Tower, he was confronted by six very peeved Titans.

“Where . . .

“The hell . . .

“Have you . . .

“BEEN?” Nightstar asked.

“Out,” Mercury replied.

“Out?” Nightstar echoed. “Out? You're shortening your lifespan every time you use your powers and you don't even care, do you? Do you want to die or something?”

“Your anger is very palpable,” Mercury quipped. “Mind if I leave you to regain your bearings so that we may converse in a more civilized manner?”

“Don't play with me, Peter,” Nightstar growled. “I am seriously not in the mood.”

She did something very surprising, then and there.

She hugged him. Held him tightly as though he would fade away if she stopped holding on.

Mercury blushed. As a red-blooded male, he had to admit that Nightstar had figured in a lot of the idle fantasies that he'd had prior to starting a relationship with Beast Girl. After all, both of her parents had been exceptionally stunning people and she'd inherited all that striking beauty, so he wasn't exactly alone in that idle fantasizing. Still, he'd admitted to himself that he'd never had a chance with her; besides, Beast Girl had been the girl of his deeper dreams and wishes, anyway.

And this . . . this was just flustering.

“Promise me you'll stay back until we find a way to stabilize your powers, ok?” Nightstar asked softly.

“S-sure,” Mercury stuttered.

Mercury devoted the next two weeks to testing his theory on how to stabilize his powers. Since he was suspended from school and from his Titan duties, he had plenty of free time.

On the last day of the second week, he was ready.

Before him was a tub of chemical solution, made up of the same substances that had spilled on Barry Allen and Wally West just before the lightning bolts that gave them their powers struck. If anyone had heard his theory, they would have most likely asked him where the lightning would come from.

Fortunately, there was a panel inside the tub that when touched would send jolts of electricity through the chemical solution.

He breathed deeply . . . and lowered himself into the chemical solution. Just before he could immerse himself completely, he heard the door slide open, eliciting a mumbled swear.

“Peter, what are you doing?” Inferno asked.

“Stabilizing my powers,” Mercury replied as though it were nothing out of the ordinary.

“With a tub of chemicals?” Inferno asked.

“It's actually gonna be an electrochemical bath,” Mercury amended. “Hey, it's how my great-grandfather and Wally got their powers, so it ought to stabilize mine.”

“I'm waiting for the part where this starts making sense,” Inferno replied.

“It's simple,” Mercury said. “Those accidents linked them to the Speed Force. I was born with a connection to the Speed Force, but that connection was strengthened by my time within it and then overloaded by my merging with Pietro. An electrochemical bath - like the ones that gave Wally and Great-Grandpa Barry their abilities - will create a second connection to the Speed Force that'll overlap my natural connection and stabilize it.”

“That's pretty clever,” Inferno remarked with an impressed grin. “You're a hell of a lot smarter than you like to act.”

“Hey, my father's a goddamn encyclopedia,” Mercury said with a mock-offended tone. “And my mother's pretty smart, too.”

“I'm sure,” Inferno said. “But I'm staying here so you don't get yourself dead.”

“Fine,” Mercury said. He immersed himself completely and reached to his side to hit the panel. Five seconds later, electricity surged through the chemicals and he let out a watery scream.

Five seconds later it was over and he was drifting in the solution. He barely felt Inferno reach inside and pull him out.

“Pete? Pete?” Inferno asked.

Three seconds later, the pyrokinetic heard his speedy friend say, “If you call me Pete, I reserve the right to call you Jerry.”

“You know I don't like being called Jerry,” Inferno said.

“Just playing,” Mercury answered, grinning widely at Inferno.

End Notes: That's pretty much it.

If you're wondering how Mercury could see dead people and trip into hell, it's on account of the fact that his speed has increased to the point that he cannot always be contained in one dimension. His vibration patterns have also become somewhat unstable, thus meaning that they will sometimes match those of another dimension and he will end up seeing into it or physically in it. This state was inspired by the Flash of Kingdom Come, who had achieved a similar level of power. I might be able to mine that for comic relief.

Zatara II, in case you haven't been able to guess, is the son of Zatanna Zatara and the grandson of Giovanni “John” Zatara. As stated in the text of the story, his father is John Constantine, whose adventures you can read in the DC-Vertigo title Hellblazer. His short-lived relationship with Avia, whom you might remember from her short appearance in Chapter 8/Side Story 3, was borrowed from The Kingdom, which is the somewhat maligned sequel to Kingdom Come.

If you've seen the film Constantine, you might have noted that I borrowed Zatara's explanation to Mercury on the nature of the war between good and evil from the context of the film. However, I meant his use of the phrase “the Judeo-Christian context” as a little dig at the makers of the film for framing it in a Judeo-Christian context to the exclusion of the other mystical elements that often found their way into the comics.

I got the idea of “meta-steroids” from Mutant Growth Hormone - a drug in the Marvel Universe that temporarily grants an ordinary person powers similar to those of a known superhero or super-villain.

As for Lucifer, my take on him was inspired by his portrayal in the recently ended Vertigo series of the same name. The clothing was largely from his interpretation in Constantine.

That's all out of me. See you later.