[Fic] Collection from the Pipster Prompt-a-Thon V
More fic from the thon
Author: runenklinge
Disclaimer: DC Property
Rating: PG-13
Nudity
Piper looked into the mirror. He was wearing a red shirt and white jeans. The red clashed horribly with his hair and the jeans....well, they weren´t that bad. He changed back to his regular clothes and exited the booth. Music floated softly through the clothing store. He put the shirt back and browsed around for another one.
He spotted James, with his arms full of clothes of all kinds, all in bright colors. Sometimes, Piper wondered if Roy wasn´t the only one who was colorblind. He wasn´t sure if James didn´t care that the colors clashed, if he even noticed it or if he was fully aware of his countless fashion-faux pas and just did it to piss people off. With him, all options were possible.
"Hey, Piper, look what I found!" Triumphantly he held a coat up. It was...red, and then plaid, pink, yellow, green, blue, even more red and "Where the hell did you find this? This is ...oh, you´re not thinking of buying that, are you?"
James grinned.
"Oh god, you are. You can´t be serious - compared to that, your usual get-up is tasteful and tame. That...does nothing to convince you to leave the coat."
"Nope," James said, pushed the rest of his clothes into Piper´s arms and put the coat on over his yellow Looney Toons shirt and pants with a blue wave pattern. If there had been a god of decency or fashion, he or she would have struck James with lightning.
Instead, James´ grin only got wider.
"When it gets cold, I can wear this over my costume instead of the cape!"
After they had paid for their clothes (with fake credit cards made out to Peter Donovan and Theodor Richard Starfield) and walked to the car, Piper said to James: "I admit that my fashion choices haven´t always been the best, but after the 90s I considerably improved. I didn´t think it was possible, but you have actually gotten worse. Is it because you´re a supervillain that you have to commit crimes against fashion?"
"No, because I enjoy it."
They stashed the bags into the trunk.
"James, I like you so much better when you´re naked."
Ummm...it´s not mine
The Rogues were having a nice day.
Beautiful weather for a picnic. Beautiful picnic for the annual Villains picnic. Usually, they didn´t socialise with the big guns very much.
Grodd with his "apes take over the planet"-agenda was getting on their nerves, the Joker just terrified them and Lex Luthor was a bald bastard who wanted world domination and just couldn´t understand that they didn´t want to rule the world, that was hard work! The rest of the supervillains were ...well, about half of them were okay guys. At least the ones that weren´t total nutjobs or homicidal.
The Riddler was okay, but his jokes sucked. Catwoman...oh, gorgeous, smart and every Rogues couldn´t help but to admit that she was very, very attractive. The rest of Batman´s foes - geez. It was like Halloween 24/7.
At least the booze was free...which was the main reason for why they came every year. But contrary to the rest of the supervillains, they always left before it ran out.
They were playing basketball, only occassionally cheating and having a very good time. Until they decided to have a break and something black wobbled over to them. It latched onto James´ foot and giggled happily.
It wss a baby, clad in a black onesie and it wore a very familiar mask.
"Um...it´s not mine," James said sheepishly.
"We have to get it back! Oh god, they´ll think that we stole a baby! The´ll think that we stole Batman´s baby. Oh god, oh god, oh god!"
"Piper, stop freaking out! Guys, huddle around James to give him cover. And now, I´m open for ideas."
As the Rogues had settled into a brightly colored, slightly inebriated pile on the ground with the baby as the center, they tried to brainstorm.
"We could leave it and run?" Mark suggested.
"And leave a baby - a hero baby - in the middle of drunken supervillains. Can´t see that going wrong...Sam, hit Mark for me," Len commanded.
"Ouch!"
"We return him?" Sam said tentiatvely.
"´Oh hello Batman, we found your baby on the supervillain side where it was subjected to unmentionable danger and exposed to about every evil under the sun´. Roscoe, hit Sam."
"Ouch! I was trying to be helpful!"
"Well, you suck at it. Better ideas?"
The baby gurgled and wobbled on unsteady little legs over to Len and latched onto his fur gloves.
"We are so screwed."
"Yep."
"Len, why don´t you make an ice slide, and we´ll just push the baby towards to hero side and blame Mr Freeze for it?"
"The best plan we´ve had yet."
"It´s still dangerous and ludicrious."
"I don´t see you coming up with anything better, Piper."
They sat in silence.
"How about we wait until the booze runs out and the annual charge at the heroes begins, we join in and in the chaos we slip the baby back and pretend we never had it?"
"Piper, hit Mick."
"Mark conjures up some fierce fog and we sneak over under the cover of it and put the baby back?"
"Well, that could work. But to be on the safe side, the rest of us are going to cause a big distraction and when we have all the attention, Mark sneaks over."
"Alright, let´s do this."
Len passed the baby over to Mark who cradled it against his chest and made cooing noises. "Who´s a pretty baby? You´re a pretty baby. Isn´t she cute? Are you sure we can´t keep her?"
This time, Len hit him himself.
"Alright, one distraction coming up. Hey Grodd! Ape supremacy is bullshit! Want a banana, monkeyface?"
Cracks
The universe goes about its business.
It´s destiny or chaos and both at the same time.
The universe is a book of stories, of terrifying tales, fantastic fables, amazing adventures and legends of love. The story goes on and on, neverending because there is life and where there is life there is love and adventure and beauty and a new story waiting to be told.
In this woven web of wondrous stories, sometimes rips open up, sometimes things that should not have moved slip through and sometimes, people fall through those cracks. Maybe they disappear forever and have never even existed, maybe they die, maybe they live on as lies and further corrupt other stories, distorting the truths, maybe they become cries of help.
And what every story needs is a hero, be he grand, be he noble, be he strong, swift, be he evil, be he a coward - a hero he is nontheless.
The Rogues had been fighting the Flash and his young sidekick, Kid Flash. After a long and hard battle, they had lost nontheless and were transported to Iron Heights.
"He knocked us out cold!"
"Tore through us like a tornado!"
"He brought discord to my symphony of sinister sounds!"
Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, Piep Piper, The Top, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, The Trickster and Rainbow Raider reflected upon their day in the police van when suddenly there was a commotion outside. The policemen yelled "Freeze!", then there was a bang and then there was utter silence.
The back door of the van opened. The Rogues squinted as the sudden sunlight attacked their eyes.
They looked at a costume-clad woman. She had black hair, wore a purple gown and a billowing cape.
They had never seen here before, but then the universe, the web rippled and they grinned. Of course, they knew her, she was one of them, always had been...right?
"You´re a sight for sore eyes!"
"You´re a rainbow on a rainy day."
"You certainly put a new spin on this day."
Linda Park, known as Stopwatch, grinned cheekily. "What would you boys do without me, I wonder..."
The Rogues got out of the van, shed their handcuffs and retreated back to their safehouse. Just as they opened the door, the time bubble in which the policemen had been sealed, burst. Weapons raised, mouths opened to shout and eyes trained on someone who wasn´t there anymore, the policemen soon realized with whom they had been dealing with.
"How are we supposed to fight someone who manipulates time?" they asked themselves.
Stopwatch was a master planner and plotter and a superb strategist. She rarely got out on the field herself. She told her gang that was because she was above manual labor, the Rogues thought it was because she was a little girl afraid of doing the dirty work, but it was really because she didn´t have her powers under control. She didn´t really stop time, she bent it, twisted it, tied a loop and nudged it into a particular direction. And it only worked when the adrenaline flodded throough her system, when her heart beat painfully and when the silence became so loud it overpowered everything else. In those rare seconds, her instincts took over, simple thoughts "protect", "save", "run" were being projected into action and then the universe rippled. Not for long, not with great consequences, but it did. And in that specific timeframe, Stopwatch remembered a life that wasn´t hers....or maybe it was, it featured a loving husband, two wonderful kids, a big, for some odd reason very colorful family and then a great lightning flashed in her mind and Stopwatch was herself again.
"Hey there, girlfriend," Piper said and interrupted her reminiscing.
"What can I do for you?"
Piper looked somewhat sheepish, shuffling his feet. "Promise me you won´t tell the others. This is ...weird, and you know how they react to things they don´t understand."
And because Linda knew exactly how the Rogues reacted to things like that (poking it with a stick and/or smashing it to bits), she nodded.
"Okay, listen. I have exceptional hearing, phenomenal, even. I can hear frequencies that no one else can. And lately, I´ve been hearing....a call. Someone´s calling."
"Oh dear," she said and placed her hand over his. She had been there to bust him out of the asylum after he had had his fit, courtesy of Professor Zoom, and she dreaded a repeat performance, "hearing voices, that´s...are you alright, Hartley?"
"Linda, it´s not like that. I know what going crazy feels like and this isn´t it. Someone is calling, but not me: someone is calling you. It´s always `Linda, Linda, where are you? Come back, I love you`."
Time rippled and she saw a cheeky grin and red hair, a pair of twinkling green eyes
Linda.
"Are you sure? That does sound weird."
"I know, but it´s true. I think that someone is calling you on a frequency you sadly cannot hear, like someone playing a dogwhistle - you can´t hear that either, but it´s there nontheless." He took heir hand. "I wish you could hear it, too."
Linda
She turned pale. "I...I"
Mommy
Her heart pounded in her chest, she remembered the life that was and wasn´t hers, the husband she didnt´marry and the kids she never had. She pressed her hands to her ears.
Linda
Time stopped and still, a golden lightning came from the sky. It struck the ground outside and in a flash, the Scarlet Speedster was at her side.
"Linda!" he called, and then Stopwatch was no more. Linda Park-West threw her arms around her husband´s neck.
"What happened? I..I don´t understand-"
"It was Zoom. He tampered with the Cosmic Treadmill, he removed you from our timestream and stashed you in this one, thinking I would never find you."
"But you did."
Wally pulled back his cowl and looked her in the eye. Gently, he brought his hands up to her face and caressed it.
"Of course I did. You are my light, my love - I will always find you."
She drew him into a kiss, and then the world faded into a blur of light and then she was home, among her family. Still, she remembered the past that never was, the heists that never took place, the jewels she never stole and the magnificent friendships she never had. She retained a certain fondness for the Rogues, an affiliation to the color purple and she got herself a new watch, for old time´s sake.
She never had had any superpowers, her time distortions were in fact tries of the web of stories to repair itself, to bring her back. And sometimes, she imagined a cloak on her shoulders, hair blowing in the breeze and an unexplained urge to cackle madly.
Maths
(set in an old AU of mine which features domestic bliss for everyone and kids for a lot of the Rogues)
"And now, multiply your number by 5 and you have: 50!"
The magician threw confetti in the air and made a gesture that should have been intricate and awe-inspiring, but looked rather like he had tied a knot into his fingers.
The kids looked at the magician with big eyes, open mouths and unbelieving expressions.
"Seriously, your dad got you a math-magician for your birthday party. Aunt Lisa is a world famous skater, why didn´t you get something cool for your birthday?"
The twins had an equal set of pouts on their faces. "Dad wanted the magician, he said it would be cool."
"At least we still have the bouncy castle," Billy said.
Owen rolled his eyes. "What are you, 4?"
Billy scowled. He blamed his affection for all springy, bouncy stuff on his Giuseppe DNA. And so what if they had a trampoline in their backyard, it was cool, no matter what Owen said. So his dad owned the biggest toy company of the east coast, so he did always have the latest and coolest toys...what did it matter? It wasn´t as if he was jealous or anything. Really.
"And now, give me a mathematical excercise!" the magician demanded with a dramatic voice. "Anything, I will solve it, for I am Hugo the Amazing, Math-Magician of the First Order!"
The kids sighed. They sneaked glances over at their parents who were sitting at the adults tables, eating cake, talking and laughing when Giovanni re-enacted an old heist. Everyone was there, even Dr Amar, grumpy Mr Desmond and Axel had dragged Tony Gambi there from Keystone. And they always had the best ideas for pranks!
And now, they had to listen to the amazing Hugo.
Great. Superb birthday activity, really.
Luckily, the kids knew how to deal with annoying adults and how to utilize their resources properly. All you need to get rid of the Amazing Hugo, was the son of a wizard and the resident redhead genius.
Janet raised her hand. "I have an excercise for you," she said. She got up to the Amazing Hugo´s portable blackboard and began to write. With a little magic assistance, she wrote an unsolveable equation on the blackboard.
"That´s easy, that´s 4....no, wait, it´s a....what? Pi? Pie? $ squared is a meaningless unit! You...you can´t divide by zero and ...did that number just move?"
The kids quietly high-fived each other. As the Amazing Hugo stood in front of a blackboard, with an equation that kept on changing everytime he blinked, they retreated to the bouncy castle.
In the end they had cake, candy and were all grounded for two weeks because they really should know by now not to listen to Tony and Axel when they had a "super fun" new idea.
Blood
It´s in the blood. Blood dictates life, it holds power and an unique strength.
It is magical and mystical and holds a strange fascination.
The heart pumps it through the body, pumps life through the veins, it brings energy with every beat.
And sometimes, there is more in the blood.
In some family, traits are given from father to son, to daughter, from mother to son, to daughter. Sometimes, these traits are physical, the same shade of color in hair or eyes, the shape of the chin, the same hands.
Sometimes, these traits are less tangible, in some veins flows bravery or cowardice, wit and wisdom, virtues and vices.
And then, sometimes, there is more.
The Lord of Hell visits the earthly plain on a black midnight as the clock chimes 13 times. It´s the hour of spirits and ghosts, or horror stories and nightmares come alive.
He is here for Misses Giuseppe. He crams himself into a mortal shell, he appears human for all intents and pruposes, but there is something in his eyes that screams that he is not human at all. Eyes can never lie and his speak proudly of his hellish home.
The night is over too soon and he leaves.
Mr Giuseppe will return to his wife in a few hours, having spent the night in someone else´s bed. His wife pretends not to notice while he pretends that it isn´t killing her from the inside.
It´s nine months later and a little boy is born. He is a tiny thing, fragile, so young and he has eyes that scare his mother to death.
Eyes can never hide who you really are and his eyes sing that he is something special, that he is not normal.
His mother can´t bear to look at him for long, he sees wisps of blond hair, she sees a sharp smile and she always sees the eyes that should not belong into a child´s face.
She leaves with a man called Death who takes her away into a land far, far away.
That is what his poppa tells little Giovanni. No, it´s James now.
Giovanni doesn´t understand why he isn´t allowed to use his own name anymore, but his poppa says that it´s a game. An eternal game of hide and seek. That, Giovanni understands and he becomes James.
And because he is the best at playing games and because there is something in his blood, he even hides his eyes.
The disguise is perfect, all emotions safely tucked underneath a wide smile, a cheery facade over all the deep feelings and thoughts. Giovanni Giuseppe is not James Jesse.
Neron sits on his throne. He has to be patient, he has to wait. His child must come to him of his own free will, he can´t force him, that´s against the deal. And if there´s one thing Neron adheres to, it´s his deals.
But he can´t help it, his blood is calling and something in James wants to answer. Something wants to drag him down, something wants to make him fall, to let go and just fall. He is young and scared and he is afraid to fall. He belongs in the air! So, James thinks of a solution. He doesn´t want to fall, but he needs someone to catch him. His poppa - no, he let him fall too often. His friends - he doesn´t have any. He is alone.
James reads stories of robbers that were heroes, of bravery and he wishes that he were like that. He wants to be smart and courageous, like the men in his books. And because there is something in his blood, something powerful, he is. James Jesse becomes the Trickster. He invents shoes that won´t let him fall, that liberate him from gravity, that make him free.
He meets the Rogues, who become his friends, his safety net, his family.
Down in hell, Neron has to grin. His son is so stubborn, he is subconsciously rebelling against his father´s call. And Neron can´t help but to be proud, because he had not expected it to be any different. He wants to drag his son down, but James is walking in the sky, free from any clutches.
Tragedy strikes, as death and madness invade the Rogues. The game of cops&robbers has become a deadly one. Neron didn´t start that, but he is happy to act as a catalyst. The Rogues die, until there is noone left. Only his son and the last challenge. Neron sets his masterplan in motion. And every supervillain gets a package delivered which contains a single green candle. The Trickster doesn´t get one, he has to come on his own. And as Neron expected him to, he had gotten himself a candle on his own.
The villains of Earth are assembled in Hell, wary, confused and excited.
The Trickster knows that something is wrong. He doesn´t know how, but something is there...something in his blood tells him that things are not what they appear to be. Of course he is right. Neron speaks to his son - finally, finally - but he doesn´t reveal who he is. He looks at the Trickster with his unearthly eyes and sees the eyes of a trickster look back. He sees the blonde hair and the smile and he rejoices, because his son is so much like him.
The Trickster foils his plan. Neron rages, tears through hell, screams his anger and frustration. So close, his son was in arm´s reach, so close! But, it had not been enough. There is something in him that is exactly like Neron, and the complete opposite, too. His son isn´t a demon, but he isn´t human either. He isn´t something in between, he is beyond that. His son is a Trickster, defying every law, made my man, made by nature, made by destiny.
It is in his blood!
Neron has lost this battle.
Time after Time, the Rogues return. The Trickster´s family comes to life. And his family has expanded, he has a son. Neron has a grandson. And as in him, as in the Trickster, there is something in his blood, too. And his eyes aren´t human either. They aren´t demonic like Neron´s, they aren´t seemingly human like the Trickster´s, they aren´t human like his mother´s - they are divine.
Neron doesn´t know, and is beaten again, by his own son and grandson.
He curses and rages.
He should have known.
A Trickster is all about balance.
And if Neron is black, the Trickster is grey, and his son has to be white.
Demon, Trickster, God.
There is something in their blood, something that binds them, but rips them apart.
Neron plots again. He had had the Trickster before, he had been so close. He needs to start again. But the Trickster, discouraged and alone, has become James Jesse again. He needs to change that, so darkness befalls his little make-shift family, death and madness strike again and from the ashes, the Trickster rises. Nerson smiles.
He will make the Trickster fall.
There is something in the Trickster´s blood that defies all rules - not even by choice, just by being there. The Rogues golden rule gets broken and the Flash dies. The Trickster begins to fall, deeper and deeper and faster and faster. Just before he hits the ground, he surged upward, he tries to break free, tries to fly, but Neron has learned from his mistakes.
The urge not to fall is big, but the urge to protect his family is even bigger.
The Trickster chooses to save his friend and dies.
He falls.
Neron sits on his throne and smiles.
His son is finally here. He can hear something in his blood calling, something that they share, something that binds them. He has come of his own free will.
His son is here with him.
And now Neron will never let him go.
I´ll just pretend that I don´t know you
Piper opened the door and stood frozen, the door handle still in his hand.
The Rogues were lying in a big pile of limbs, costume parts and bodies mashed together tightly. Arms threaded throug arms, legs tangled, chests pressed against chests, panting, faces red from exhaustion.
Right...he had forgotten about weekly game night and Trickster´s announcement/threat to introduce Twister to it.
"Piper, help me, we´re ...stuck. I´m getting cramps!"
Piper didn´t move. "I´m going to wash my hands of this weirdness," he said and left without another word.
"As soon as I can feel my arms again, I´m going to kill you, JJ!
...JJ?"
Unbeknownst to the other Rogues, JJ had slipped from the pile 20 minutes ago.
Community
The Rogues were different from the rest of supervillains.
They didn´t build doomsday devices and tried to take over the world (well, except that one time with the top-shaped atomic bomb). They didn´t hire henchmen, they didn´t have sidekicks or female assistants. They didn´t take hostages, they didn´t kidnap and they didn´t set up ridiculously complicated death traps.
They never aimed to kill, never hurt women or children.
But those weren´t the big differences; they were important, of course, but not what set them apart.
There had been leagues and alliances between supervillains, team-ups for mutual benefit. They never lasted and always ended in disaster, because there was no trust, no friendship, no kinship between them.
If a supervillain saw his partner drown, he´d wave a little, cackle, take the loot and run.
If a Rogue saw a Rogue drown, he´d jump head-first into the water trying to save his friend, his brother, completely disregarding his own health and the danger he was placing himself in.
Well, if the Rogue was one of the more level-headed ones, he´d think first and then act, but he´d give his life to save the other.
That was what made them different.
That was what made them a family.
Kids
"I spy with my little eye...something blue."
"Len´s shirt."
"Right, your turn."
"I spy with my little eye...something pink."
"Mark´s pants."
"Right."
"Those aren´t pink, they´re mauve. Mauve, you imbecile."
"Really? Looks pink to me."
"They´re not. That is a completely different color!"
"What the hell are you talking about, his pants are green."
The Rogues all (except for Len who kept his eyes firmly glued to the road and tried to ignore the rest of the van) looked at Roy.
"Why don´t we play something else?" Piper suggested.
"The number plate game?"
"Dude, we already played that for two hours."
"20 questions?"
"No."
"Never ever have I?"
"You´re not drinking while I´m driving!" Len commanded. A van full of Rogues on their way to California for beach, summer and sun was bad enough, but a van of drunken Rogues en route to their vacation - no way.
"Name that tune?"
"I´ll bash your head in with your flute if you keep suggesting that!"
"I brought my travel trivia pursuit, we could play that."
After a disastrous first game when Roscoe answered all but one question correctly and won while embarassing them all, they sulkily decided to play something else.
"Tap tap, ha ha?" James suggested.
"How do you play that?"
"Well, one person says ´tap, tap´, the other says ´ha ha´and that goes on and on and on."
Visions of horror began to play in Len´s head.
"If you do that, I swear that I will turn this van straight around and drive back to Kansas!"
...
"Who´s up for word chain?"
"Antilope"
"Easter"
"Rainbow"
"Wizard"
"Disharmony"
"Yatzee!"
"Mick, remind me to get so plastered that I will kill most of my brain cells and obliterate this trip from my memory."
"Will do, Len, will do."
Power
Piper caught James glaring at him. It was just a normal afternoon at the safehouse, no planning, plotting, just a day off from villainy. Piper was working on his sonic clarinet when he felt the inexplicable tingle of being watched. He felt stalked, like prey. He turned around and saw Len reclining on the armchair, newspaper over his face and softly snoring. Mark swung lazily from side to side in the hammock that had one day appeared in the corner. Digger and Sam played checkers. Mick was absent and there he was: James, sitting crosslegged on the couch, glaring daggers at him.
He looked angry and a scowl was on his face.
"Is everything alright, James?" Piper asked. Did he do anything to offend James today?
"Yes, perfectly," James spat out viciously and crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively. He was clearly projected "I am extremely pissed"-vibes. Piper sighed. Just because James was the youngest didn´t mean that he had to act like a petulant teenager. And he had lately, had snapped without reason, didn´t pay attention, whined, had mood swings... Piper decided to be the responsible one and stood up. "A word, James, please," he said and walked out of the living room into the garden, far away from prying eyes and ears (metaphorically prying eyes and ears since no one of the Rogues seemed even vaguely interested). James rose from the couch and followed Piper, kicking the carpet as he went into the garden.
"James, what´s wrong? I can see that something is troubling you, so what is it? Maybe I can help?"
James snorted. "That´s rich, coming from you. You can help me. Suuuuure you can, Pipes."
"I don´t understand, what are you talking about?"
"About you! This is your fault!"
"My...my fault?! What the hell, James? What have I done?"
"´What have I done?´," James mocked, "what did you do?!"
"What?" Piper was confused. He wrecked his brain for an answer. Did he do anyting to James? No, there was nothing.
"You and your stupid sonic hypnotic thingmajing! You did this to me!"
"James, what? I have no idea what you´re talking about?"
"Fine, play the innocent, but I don´t buy it. I´ve seen your gizmos, your gadgets, I´ve seen the hypnotizing stuff, the mind-control, the hypnotic suggestions planted in the subconscious. You thought you were so clever, but guess what - I see right through you. I can see you looking at me when you think I don´t notice. I can feel you staring when you think I´m asleep. I know, Piper, I know."
Piper was shocked. He had been so careful, but surely, that was nothing to justify James´ wrath. So his eyes had lingered on James´ form a couple of times, but always in safe situtions, full clothing, nothing suggestive. In fact, Piper had resigned to the idea of distance, knowing that James was not in the least interested in him anyway.
"I...okay, I think you´re attractive, but you don´t need to freak out, it´s not like I have done anything-"
"Wrong!" James shouted, his face red with anger and something else that Piper couldn´t identify. "You did something to me. I know, you used your stupid flute or a sonic gadget or something, you did this thing with my mind!"
"What? No, where-"
"Don´t lie to me. You messed with my head. I can only think about you, I dream about you, I wonder....Piper, I wonder how your hair feels like, what it would be like to ...touch, to kiss you. Everytime I look at you I feel weird and light-headed. At first I thought I had the flu, but I know better now. It´s you. Everytime I see you, it gets worse. My heart pounds in my ears and I can only think about you, what you like, where you´re from, what you want to do tonight, if you need help, if you like me... what is this power you have over me? Hypnosis? Sonic...stuff? Piper, it´s tearing me apart, make it stop."
Oh. OH.
"You think I made you feel like this and think like this?"
"Of course, I don´t ...feel like that, never did before and then you come, with your silly flute and the powers and then suddenly I can´t stop thinking about you, when you smile I smile and my heart feels like it´s exploding over and over again?"
"James, you´re an idiot. I never manipulated you, I never used any of my gadgets on you. Did it ever occurr to you that maybe you felt like this way without being influenced? That maybe, these feelings come from inside you?"
"What, I - I don´t understand..."
Piper looked at James and saw the honest confusion in his eyes. He really had no clue. James had fallen for him (James had fallen for him?!) and didn´t know what to do with these feelings and rationalized them as an outside manipulation of a master of hypnosis. Oh boy, this just kept on getting better and better.
"James, take a deep breath and relax. You know me, would I manipulate you for days and mess with your head?"
"Weeks, that all started weeks ago."
Piper felt like laughing and crying. James, you incorrigible, little...
"I didn´t do anything, I swear. That´s all you, James."
"It is?"
Piper nodded. James buried his head in his hands.
"I feel like an idiot," he admitted sheepishly.
"You´re just a bit confused. This is new for you, isn´t it?"
James nodded soundlessly."So, you didn´t ...put these feelings into me?"
"No, James, I´d never manipulate you."
"Oh."
They stood there for a little eternity, Piper with his hands in his pocket unsure what to do with them, James with his arms wrapped around himself.
"Then," James began, "I...I"
He raised his head to look at Piper. "I have been such an ass," he said, "but I was confused and curious and a mess and... forgive me."
"Of course, James."
James took a step forward and hugged Piper. He sighed. "I wondered for weeks what that felt like," he admitted and buried his face in Piper´s neck. Hesitantly, Piper raised his arms and wrapped them around James.
"And?"
"It´s kinda nice," James said.
Piper was startled when he heard James sniffing his hair.
"James?"
"Apples, I knew it," he replied, and Piper laughed.
"Piper?"
"Hmmm?"
"I don´t know what the standard procedure is, but ...do you have plans for tonight?"
Piper thought of repairs that needed to be done, upgrades and experiments.
"No, I´m all yours."
"Dinner and a movie?"
"You´re catching on quickly."
"I´ve had weeks to plan the perfect date in my mind", he replied.
In the kitchen, Mick stood at the window with binoculars.
"Any of you a lip-reader?" he hissed.
"Nope," the other Rogues replied as they pressed their faces against the glass pane.
"How long did it take for them to catch on?" Mark asked and pondered whether he should add a little weather effect, like sun breaking through clouds or a rainbow, but decided against it. Too obvious.
"It´s been sodding 2 months and 3 weeks," Digger replied, "about time one of them finally caught on. I can´t stand this pining and the looks,"
"Yearning gazes of desire," Len added and snickered.
"Lovelorn sighes and heavy hearts," Mick said and bit his lip to keep himself from laughing.
"Tender caresses and romantic dreams," Mark supplied and grinned.
"Shush, they´re going to hear us,"Digger said. The Rogues secretly watched as Piper threaded his hand through James´ hair.
"Awwwww," they said in unison. Shortly afterwards, they fled back to their original spots and pretended that absolutely nothing had happened, that they had seen nothing, heard nothing and were generally very, very oblivious.
Curses
It´s a rotten deal.
He should not take it. He should not trust Neron.
But he just can´t anymore, he just can´t - it hurts too much.
He lives under constant torture, he spends an eternity looking at a small crystal orb, as he sees madness and death tormenting his friends, his family. But the orb doesn´t just show what is, it shows him what was, what he had done and there is so much he has to be sorry for, so much he has to account for, all those things he can never undo, all these things he´s sorry for. It breaks his heart. And then, the orb shows him the future. What will happen to his friends and he is unable to stop it. He sees the terror, the monsters, he sees his friends dying and he can´t stop it. Not like this.
Not alone. He needs to get out, now.
He tricks and schemes, he tries everything - he tries for an eternity and fails agains and again. He despairs and that is when Neron comes to him. The Trickster is grasping at straws and every source of comfort, every faint glimmer of hope, as fake and wrong as they may be, is better than this helplessness.
The voice is sweet and melodious and infects his mind.
"I can help you, together we can be strong. Together we can leave this place. Help me to help yourself. I don´t want to hurt you, that was never my intention." James looks into Neron´s eyes, the prince of Hell is but a shadow of himself, incapable of leaving hell himself, incapable of fighting.
James can´t struggle anymore.
"Yes."
They are one, together they can leave. Two shadows form one whole.
From sunrise to sunset, James is alive, the Trickster is flying.
From sunset to sunrise, in the night, Neron walks on earth.
He grins maliciously, green flames engulfing his body. He laughs and it sounds like darkness, midnight and utter terror.
Author: runenklinge
Disclaimer: DC Property
Rating: PG-13
Nudity
Piper looked into the mirror. He was wearing a red shirt and white jeans. The red clashed horribly with his hair and the jeans....well, they weren´t that bad. He changed back to his regular clothes and exited the booth. Music floated softly through the clothing store. He put the shirt back and browsed around for another one.
He spotted James, with his arms full of clothes of all kinds, all in bright colors. Sometimes, Piper wondered if Roy wasn´t the only one who was colorblind. He wasn´t sure if James didn´t care that the colors clashed, if he even noticed it or if he was fully aware of his countless fashion-faux pas and just did it to piss people off. With him, all options were possible.
"Hey, Piper, look what I found!" Triumphantly he held a coat up. It was...red, and then plaid, pink, yellow, green, blue, even more red and "Where the hell did you find this? This is ...oh, you´re not thinking of buying that, are you?"
James grinned.
"Oh god, you are. You can´t be serious - compared to that, your usual get-up is tasteful and tame. That...does nothing to convince you to leave the coat."
"Nope," James said, pushed the rest of his clothes into Piper´s arms and put the coat on over his yellow Looney Toons shirt and pants with a blue wave pattern. If there had been a god of decency or fashion, he or she would have struck James with lightning.
Instead, James´ grin only got wider.
"When it gets cold, I can wear this over my costume instead of the cape!"
After they had paid for their clothes (with fake credit cards made out to Peter Donovan and Theodor Richard Starfield) and walked to the car, Piper said to James: "I admit that my fashion choices haven´t always been the best, but after the 90s I considerably improved. I didn´t think it was possible, but you have actually gotten worse. Is it because you´re a supervillain that you have to commit crimes against fashion?"
"No, because I enjoy it."
They stashed the bags into the trunk.
"James, I like you so much better when you´re naked."
Ummm...it´s not mine
The Rogues were having a nice day.
Beautiful weather for a picnic. Beautiful picnic for the annual Villains picnic. Usually, they didn´t socialise with the big guns very much.
Grodd with his "apes take over the planet"-agenda was getting on their nerves, the Joker just terrified them and Lex Luthor was a bald bastard who wanted world domination and just couldn´t understand that they didn´t want to rule the world, that was hard work! The rest of the supervillains were ...well, about half of them were okay guys. At least the ones that weren´t total nutjobs or homicidal.
The Riddler was okay, but his jokes sucked. Catwoman...oh, gorgeous, smart and every Rogues couldn´t help but to admit that she was very, very attractive. The rest of Batman´s foes - geez. It was like Halloween 24/7.
At least the booze was free...which was the main reason for why they came every year. But contrary to the rest of the supervillains, they always left before it ran out.
They were playing basketball, only occassionally cheating and having a very good time. Until they decided to have a break and something black wobbled over to them. It latched onto James´ foot and giggled happily.
It wss a baby, clad in a black onesie and it wore a very familiar mask.
"Um...it´s not mine," James said sheepishly.
"We have to get it back! Oh god, they´ll think that we stole a baby! The´ll think that we stole Batman´s baby. Oh god, oh god, oh god!"
"Piper, stop freaking out! Guys, huddle around James to give him cover. And now, I´m open for ideas."
As the Rogues had settled into a brightly colored, slightly inebriated pile on the ground with the baby as the center, they tried to brainstorm.
"We could leave it and run?" Mark suggested.
"And leave a baby - a hero baby - in the middle of drunken supervillains. Can´t see that going wrong...Sam, hit Mark for me," Len commanded.
"Ouch!"
"We return him?" Sam said tentiatvely.
"´Oh hello Batman, we found your baby on the supervillain side where it was subjected to unmentionable danger and exposed to about every evil under the sun´. Roscoe, hit Sam."
"Ouch! I was trying to be helpful!"
"Well, you suck at it. Better ideas?"
The baby gurgled and wobbled on unsteady little legs over to Len and latched onto his fur gloves.
"We are so screwed."
"Yep."
"Len, why don´t you make an ice slide, and we´ll just push the baby towards to hero side and blame Mr Freeze for it?"
"The best plan we´ve had yet."
"It´s still dangerous and ludicrious."
"I don´t see you coming up with anything better, Piper."
They sat in silence.
"How about we wait until the booze runs out and the annual charge at the heroes begins, we join in and in the chaos we slip the baby back and pretend we never had it?"
"Piper, hit Mick."
"Mark conjures up some fierce fog and we sneak over under the cover of it and put the baby back?"
"Well, that could work. But to be on the safe side, the rest of us are going to cause a big distraction and when we have all the attention, Mark sneaks over."
"Alright, let´s do this."
Len passed the baby over to Mark who cradled it against his chest and made cooing noises. "Who´s a pretty baby? You´re a pretty baby. Isn´t she cute? Are you sure we can´t keep her?"
This time, Len hit him himself.
"Alright, one distraction coming up. Hey Grodd! Ape supremacy is bullshit! Want a banana, monkeyface?"
Cracks
The universe goes about its business.
It´s destiny or chaos and both at the same time.
The universe is a book of stories, of terrifying tales, fantastic fables, amazing adventures and legends of love. The story goes on and on, neverending because there is life and where there is life there is love and adventure and beauty and a new story waiting to be told.
In this woven web of wondrous stories, sometimes rips open up, sometimes things that should not have moved slip through and sometimes, people fall through those cracks. Maybe they disappear forever and have never even existed, maybe they die, maybe they live on as lies and further corrupt other stories, distorting the truths, maybe they become cries of help.
And what every story needs is a hero, be he grand, be he noble, be he strong, swift, be he evil, be he a coward - a hero he is nontheless.
The Rogues had been fighting the Flash and his young sidekick, Kid Flash. After a long and hard battle, they had lost nontheless and were transported to Iron Heights.
"He knocked us out cold!"
"Tore through us like a tornado!"
"He brought discord to my symphony of sinister sounds!"
Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, Piep Piper, The Top, Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, The Trickster and Rainbow Raider reflected upon their day in the police van when suddenly there was a commotion outside. The policemen yelled "Freeze!", then there was a bang and then there was utter silence.
The back door of the van opened. The Rogues squinted as the sudden sunlight attacked their eyes.
They looked at a costume-clad woman. She had black hair, wore a purple gown and a billowing cape.
They had never seen here before, but then the universe, the web rippled and they grinned. Of course, they knew her, she was one of them, always had been...right?
"You´re a sight for sore eyes!"
"You´re a rainbow on a rainy day."
"You certainly put a new spin on this day."
Linda Park, known as Stopwatch, grinned cheekily. "What would you boys do without me, I wonder..."
The Rogues got out of the van, shed their handcuffs and retreated back to their safehouse. Just as they opened the door, the time bubble in which the policemen had been sealed, burst. Weapons raised, mouths opened to shout and eyes trained on someone who wasn´t there anymore, the policemen soon realized with whom they had been dealing with.
"How are we supposed to fight someone who manipulates time?" they asked themselves.
Stopwatch was a master planner and plotter and a superb strategist. She rarely got out on the field herself. She told her gang that was because she was above manual labor, the Rogues thought it was because she was a little girl afraid of doing the dirty work, but it was really because she didn´t have her powers under control. She didn´t really stop time, she bent it, twisted it, tied a loop and nudged it into a particular direction. And it only worked when the adrenaline flodded throough her system, when her heart beat painfully and when the silence became so loud it overpowered everything else. In those rare seconds, her instincts took over, simple thoughts "protect", "save", "run" were being projected into action and then the universe rippled. Not for long, not with great consequences, but it did. And in that specific timeframe, Stopwatch remembered a life that wasn´t hers....or maybe it was, it featured a loving husband, two wonderful kids, a big, for some odd reason very colorful family and then a great lightning flashed in her mind and Stopwatch was herself again.
"Hey there, girlfriend," Piper said and interrupted her reminiscing.
"What can I do for you?"
Piper looked somewhat sheepish, shuffling his feet. "Promise me you won´t tell the others. This is ...weird, and you know how they react to things they don´t understand."
And because Linda knew exactly how the Rogues reacted to things like that (poking it with a stick and/or smashing it to bits), she nodded.
"Okay, listen. I have exceptional hearing, phenomenal, even. I can hear frequencies that no one else can. And lately, I´ve been hearing....a call. Someone´s calling."
"Oh dear," she said and placed her hand over his. She had been there to bust him out of the asylum after he had had his fit, courtesy of Professor Zoom, and she dreaded a repeat performance, "hearing voices, that´s...are you alright, Hartley?"
"Linda, it´s not like that. I know what going crazy feels like and this isn´t it. Someone is calling, but not me: someone is calling you. It´s always `Linda, Linda, where are you? Come back, I love you`."
Time rippled and she saw a cheeky grin and red hair, a pair of twinkling green eyes
Linda.
"Are you sure? That does sound weird."
"I know, but it´s true. I think that someone is calling you on a frequency you sadly cannot hear, like someone playing a dogwhistle - you can´t hear that either, but it´s there nontheless." He took heir hand. "I wish you could hear it, too."
Linda
She turned pale. "I...I"
Mommy
Her heart pounded in her chest, she remembered the life that was and wasn´t hers, the husband she didnt´marry and the kids she never had. She pressed her hands to her ears.
Linda
Time stopped and still, a golden lightning came from the sky. It struck the ground outside and in a flash, the Scarlet Speedster was at her side.
"Linda!" he called, and then Stopwatch was no more. Linda Park-West threw her arms around her husband´s neck.
"What happened? I..I don´t understand-"
"It was Zoom. He tampered with the Cosmic Treadmill, he removed you from our timestream and stashed you in this one, thinking I would never find you."
"But you did."
Wally pulled back his cowl and looked her in the eye. Gently, he brought his hands up to her face and caressed it.
"Of course I did. You are my light, my love - I will always find you."
She drew him into a kiss, and then the world faded into a blur of light and then she was home, among her family. Still, she remembered the past that never was, the heists that never took place, the jewels she never stole and the magnificent friendships she never had. She retained a certain fondness for the Rogues, an affiliation to the color purple and she got herself a new watch, for old time´s sake.
She never had had any superpowers, her time distortions were in fact tries of the web of stories to repair itself, to bring her back. And sometimes, she imagined a cloak on her shoulders, hair blowing in the breeze and an unexplained urge to cackle madly.
Maths
(set in an old AU of mine which features domestic bliss for everyone and kids for a lot of the Rogues)
"And now, multiply your number by 5 and you have: 50!"
The magician threw confetti in the air and made a gesture that should have been intricate and awe-inspiring, but looked rather like he had tied a knot into his fingers.
The kids looked at the magician with big eyes, open mouths and unbelieving expressions.
"Seriously, your dad got you a math-magician for your birthday party. Aunt Lisa is a world famous skater, why didn´t you get something cool for your birthday?"
The twins had an equal set of pouts on their faces. "Dad wanted the magician, he said it would be cool."
"At least we still have the bouncy castle," Billy said.
Owen rolled his eyes. "What are you, 4?"
Billy scowled. He blamed his affection for all springy, bouncy stuff on his Giuseppe DNA. And so what if they had a trampoline in their backyard, it was cool, no matter what Owen said. So his dad owned the biggest toy company of the east coast, so he did always have the latest and coolest toys...what did it matter? It wasn´t as if he was jealous or anything. Really.
"And now, give me a mathematical excercise!" the magician demanded with a dramatic voice. "Anything, I will solve it, for I am Hugo the Amazing, Math-Magician of the First Order!"
The kids sighed. They sneaked glances over at their parents who were sitting at the adults tables, eating cake, talking and laughing when Giovanni re-enacted an old heist. Everyone was there, even Dr Amar, grumpy Mr Desmond and Axel had dragged Tony Gambi there from Keystone. And they always had the best ideas for pranks!
And now, they had to listen to the amazing Hugo.
Great. Superb birthday activity, really.
Luckily, the kids knew how to deal with annoying adults and how to utilize their resources properly. All you need to get rid of the Amazing Hugo, was the son of a wizard and the resident redhead genius.
Janet raised her hand. "I have an excercise for you," she said. She got up to the Amazing Hugo´s portable blackboard and began to write. With a little magic assistance, she wrote an unsolveable equation on the blackboard.
"That´s easy, that´s 4....no, wait, it´s a....what? Pi? Pie? $ squared is a meaningless unit! You...you can´t divide by zero and ...did that number just move?"
The kids quietly high-fived each other. As the Amazing Hugo stood in front of a blackboard, with an equation that kept on changing everytime he blinked, they retreated to the bouncy castle.
In the end they had cake, candy and were all grounded for two weeks because they really should know by now not to listen to Tony and Axel when they had a "super fun" new idea.
Blood
It´s in the blood. Blood dictates life, it holds power and an unique strength.
It is magical and mystical and holds a strange fascination.
The heart pumps it through the body, pumps life through the veins, it brings energy with every beat.
And sometimes, there is more in the blood.
In some family, traits are given from father to son, to daughter, from mother to son, to daughter. Sometimes, these traits are physical, the same shade of color in hair or eyes, the shape of the chin, the same hands.
Sometimes, these traits are less tangible, in some veins flows bravery or cowardice, wit and wisdom, virtues and vices.
And then, sometimes, there is more.
The Lord of Hell visits the earthly plain on a black midnight as the clock chimes 13 times. It´s the hour of spirits and ghosts, or horror stories and nightmares come alive.
He is here for Misses Giuseppe. He crams himself into a mortal shell, he appears human for all intents and pruposes, but there is something in his eyes that screams that he is not human at all. Eyes can never lie and his speak proudly of his hellish home.
The night is over too soon and he leaves.
Mr Giuseppe will return to his wife in a few hours, having spent the night in someone else´s bed. His wife pretends not to notice while he pretends that it isn´t killing her from the inside.
It´s nine months later and a little boy is born. He is a tiny thing, fragile, so young and he has eyes that scare his mother to death.
Eyes can never hide who you really are and his eyes sing that he is something special, that he is not normal.
His mother can´t bear to look at him for long, he sees wisps of blond hair, she sees a sharp smile and she always sees the eyes that should not belong into a child´s face.
She leaves with a man called Death who takes her away into a land far, far away.
That is what his poppa tells little Giovanni. No, it´s James now.
Giovanni doesn´t understand why he isn´t allowed to use his own name anymore, but his poppa says that it´s a game. An eternal game of hide and seek. That, Giovanni understands and he becomes James.
And because he is the best at playing games and because there is something in his blood, he even hides his eyes.
The disguise is perfect, all emotions safely tucked underneath a wide smile, a cheery facade over all the deep feelings and thoughts. Giovanni Giuseppe is not James Jesse.
Neron sits on his throne. He has to be patient, he has to wait. His child must come to him of his own free will, he can´t force him, that´s against the deal. And if there´s one thing Neron adheres to, it´s his deals.
But he can´t help it, his blood is calling and something in James wants to answer. Something wants to drag him down, something wants to make him fall, to let go and just fall. He is young and scared and he is afraid to fall. He belongs in the air! So, James thinks of a solution. He doesn´t want to fall, but he needs someone to catch him. His poppa - no, he let him fall too often. His friends - he doesn´t have any. He is alone.
James reads stories of robbers that were heroes, of bravery and he wishes that he were like that. He wants to be smart and courageous, like the men in his books. And because there is something in his blood, something powerful, he is. James Jesse becomes the Trickster. He invents shoes that won´t let him fall, that liberate him from gravity, that make him free.
He meets the Rogues, who become his friends, his safety net, his family.
Down in hell, Neron has to grin. His son is so stubborn, he is subconsciously rebelling against his father´s call. And Neron can´t help but to be proud, because he had not expected it to be any different. He wants to drag his son down, but James is walking in the sky, free from any clutches.
Tragedy strikes, as death and madness invade the Rogues. The game of cops&robbers has become a deadly one. Neron didn´t start that, but he is happy to act as a catalyst. The Rogues die, until there is noone left. Only his son and the last challenge. Neron sets his masterplan in motion. And every supervillain gets a package delivered which contains a single green candle. The Trickster doesn´t get one, he has to come on his own. And as Neron expected him to, he had gotten himself a candle on his own.
The villains of Earth are assembled in Hell, wary, confused and excited.
The Trickster knows that something is wrong. He doesn´t know how, but something is there...something in his blood tells him that things are not what they appear to be. Of course he is right. Neron speaks to his son - finally, finally - but he doesn´t reveal who he is. He looks at the Trickster with his unearthly eyes and sees the eyes of a trickster look back. He sees the blonde hair and the smile and he rejoices, because his son is so much like him.
The Trickster foils his plan. Neron rages, tears through hell, screams his anger and frustration. So close, his son was in arm´s reach, so close! But, it had not been enough. There is something in him that is exactly like Neron, and the complete opposite, too. His son isn´t a demon, but he isn´t human either. He isn´t something in between, he is beyond that. His son is a Trickster, defying every law, made my man, made by nature, made by destiny.
It is in his blood!
Neron has lost this battle.
Time after Time, the Rogues return. The Trickster´s family comes to life. And his family has expanded, he has a son. Neron has a grandson. And as in him, as in the Trickster, there is something in his blood, too. And his eyes aren´t human either. They aren´t demonic like Neron´s, they aren´t seemingly human like the Trickster´s, they aren´t human like his mother´s - they are divine.
Neron doesn´t know, and is beaten again, by his own son and grandson.
He curses and rages.
He should have known.
A Trickster is all about balance.
And if Neron is black, the Trickster is grey, and his son has to be white.
Demon, Trickster, God.
There is something in their blood, something that binds them, but rips them apart.
Neron plots again. He had had the Trickster before, he had been so close. He needs to start again. But the Trickster, discouraged and alone, has become James Jesse again. He needs to change that, so darkness befalls his little make-shift family, death and madness strike again and from the ashes, the Trickster rises. Nerson smiles.
He will make the Trickster fall.
There is something in the Trickster´s blood that defies all rules - not even by choice, just by being there. The Rogues golden rule gets broken and the Flash dies. The Trickster begins to fall, deeper and deeper and faster and faster. Just before he hits the ground, he surged upward, he tries to break free, tries to fly, but Neron has learned from his mistakes.
The urge not to fall is big, but the urge to protect his family is even bigger.
The Trickster chooses to save his friend and dies.
He falls.
Neron sits on his throne and smiles.
His son is finally here. He can hear something in his blood calling, something that they share, something that binds them. He has come of his own free will.
His son is here with him.
And now Neron will never let him go.
I´ll just pretend that I don´t know you
Piper opened the door and stood frozen, the door handle still in his hand.
The Rogues were lying in a big pile of limbs, costume parts and bodies mashed together tightly. Arms threaded throug arms, legs tangled, chests pressed against chests, panting, faces red from exhaustion.
Right...he had forgotten about weekly game night and Trickster´s announcement/threat to introduce Twister to it.
"Piper, help me, we´re ...stuck. I´m getting cramps!"
Piper didn´t move. "I´m going to wash my hands of this weirdness," he said and left without another word.
"As soon as I can feel my arms again, I´m going to kill you, JJ!
...JJ?"
Unbeknownst to the other Rogues, JJ had slipped from the pile 20 minutes ago.
Community
The Rogues were different from the rest of supervillains.
They didn´t build doomsday devices and tried to take over the world (well, except that one time with the top-shaped atomic bomb). They didn´t hire henchmen, they didn´t have sidekicks or female assistants. They didn´t take hostages, they didn´t kidnap and they didn´t set up ridiculously complicated death traps.
They never aimed to kill, never hurt women or children.
But those weren´t the big differences; they were important, of course, but not what set them apart.
There had been leagues and alliances between supervillains, team-ups for mutual benefit. They never lasted and always ended in disaster, because there was no trust, no friendship, no kinship between them.
If a supervillain saw his partner drown, he´d wave a little, cackle, take the loot and run.
If a Rogue saw a Rogue drown, he´d jump head-first into the water trying to save his friend, his brother, completely disregarding his own health and the danger he was placing himself in.
Well, if the Rogue was one of the more level-headed ones, he´d think first and then act, but he´d give his life to save the other.
That was what made them different.
That was what made them a family.
Kids
"I spy with my little eye...something blue."
"Len´s shirt."
"Right, your turn."
"I spy with my little eye...something pink."
"Mark´s pants."
"Right."
"Those aren´t pink, they´re mauve. Mauve, you imbecile."
"Really? Looks pink to me."
"They´re not. That is a completely different color!"
"What the hell are you talking about, his pants are green."
The Rogues all (except for Len who kept his eyes firmly glued to the road and tried to ignore the rest of the van) looked at Roy.
"Why don´t we play something else?" Piper suggested.
"The number plate game?"
"Dude, we already played that for two hours."
"20 questions?"
"No."
"Never ever have I?"
"You´re not drinking while I´m driving!" Len commanded. A van full of Rogues on their way to California for beach, summer and sun was bad enough, but a van of drunken Rogues en route to their vacation - no way.
"Name that tune?"
"I´ll bash your head in with your flute if you keep suggesting that!"
"I brought my travel trivia pursuit, we could play that."
After a disastrous first game when Roscoe answered all but one question correctly and won while embarassing them all, they sulkily decided to play something else.
"Tap tap, ha ha?" James suggested.
"How do you play that?"
"Well, one person says ´tap, tap´, the other says ´ha ha´and that goes on and on and on."
Visions of horror began to play in Len´s head.
"If you do that, I swear that I will turn this van straight around and drive back to Kansas!"
...
"Who´s up for word chain?"
"Antilope"
"Easter"
"Rainbow"
"Wizard"
"Disharmony"
"Yatzee!"
"Mick, remind me to get so plastered that I will kill most of my brain cells and obliterate this trip from my memory."
"Will do, Len, will do."
Power
Piper caught James glaring at him. It was just a normal afternoon at the safehouse, no planning, plotting, just a day off from villainy. Piper was working on his sonic clarinet when he felt the inexplicable tingle of being watched. He felt stalked, like prey. He turned around and saw Len reclining on the armchair, newspaper over his face and softly snoring. Mark swung lazily from side to side in the hammock that had one day appeared in the corner. Digger and Sam played checkers. Mick was absent and there he was: James, sitting crosslegged on the couch, glaring daggers at him.
He looked angry and a scowl was on his face.
"Is everything alright, James?" Piper asked. Did he do anything to offend James today?
"Yes, perfectly," James spat out viciously and crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively. He was clearly projected "I am extremely pissed"-vibes. Piper sighed. Just because James was the youngest didn´t mean that he had to act like a petulant teenager. And he had lately, had snapped without reason, didn´t pay attention, whined, had mood swings... Piper decided to be the responsible one and stood up. "A word, James, please," he said and walked out of the living room into the garden, far away from prying eyes and ears (metaphorically prying eyes and ears since no one of the Rogues seemed even vaguely interested). James rose from the couch and followed Piper, kicking the carpet as he went into the garden.
"James, what´s wrong? I can see that something is troubling you, so what is it? Maybe I can help?"
James snorted. "That´s rich, coming from you. You can help me. Suuuuure you can, Pipes."
"I don´t understand, what are you talking about?"
"About you! This is your fault!"
"My...my fault?! What the hell, James? What have I done?"
"´What have I done?´," James mocked, "what did you do?!"
"What?" Piper was confused. He wrecked his brain for an answer. Did he do anyting to James? No, there was nothing.
"You and your stupid sonic hypnotic thingmajing! You did this to me!"
"James, what? I have no idea what you´re talking about?"
"Fine, play the innocent, but I don´t buy it. I´ve seen your gizmos, your gadgets, I´ve seen the hypnotizing stuff, the mind-control, the hypnotic suggestions planted in the subconscious. You thought you were so clever, but guess what - I see right through you. I can see you looking at me when you think I don´t notice. I can feel you staring when you think I´m asleep. I know, Piper, I know."
Piper was shocked. He had been so careful, but surely, that was nothing to justify James´ wrath. So his eyes had lingered on James´ form a couple of times, but always in safe situtions, full clothing, nothing suggestive. In fact, Piper had resigned to the idea of distance, knowing that James was not in the least interested in him anyway.
"I...okay, I think you´re attractive, but you don´t need to freak out, it´s not like I have done anything-"
"Wrong!" James shouted, his face red with anger and something else that Piper couldn´t identify. "You did something to me. I know, you used your stupid flute or a sonic gadget or something, you did this thing with my mind!"
"What? No, where-"
"Don´t lie to me. You messed with my head. I can only think about you, I dream about you, I wonder....Piper, I wonder how your hair feels like, what it would be like to ...touch, to kiss you. Everytime I look at you I feel weird and light-headed. At first I thought I had the flu, but I know better now. It´s you. Everytime I see you, it gets worse. My heart pounds in my ears and I can only think about you, what you like, where you´re from, what you want to do tonight, if you need help, if you like me... what is this power you have over me? Hypnosis? Sonic...stuff? Piper, it´s tearing me apart, make it stop."
Oh. OH.
"You think I made you feel like this and think like this?"
"Of course, I don´t ...feel like that, never did before and then you come, with your silly flute and the powers and then suddenly I can´t stop thinking about you, when you smile I smile and my heart feels like it´s exploding over and over again?"
"James, you´re an idiot. I never manipulated you, I never used any of my gadgets on you. Did it ever occurr to you that maybe you felt like this way without being influenced? That maybe, these feelings come from inside you?"
"What, I - I don´t understand..."
Piper looked at James and saw the honest confusion in his eyes. He really had no clue. James had fallen for him (James had fallen for him?!) and didn´t know what to do with these feelings and rationalized them as an outside manipulation of a master of hypnosis. Oh boy, this just kept on getting better and better.
"James, take a deep breath and relax. You know me, would I manipulate you for days and mess with your head?"
"Weeks, that all started weeks ago."
Piper felt like laughing and crying. James, you incorrigible, little...
"I didn´t do anything, I swear. That´s all you, James."
"It is?"
Piper nodded. James buried his head in his hands.
"I feel like an idiot," he admitted sheepishly.
"You´re just a bit confused. This is new for you, isn´t it?"
James nodded soundlessly."So, you didn´t ...put these feelings into me?"
"No, James, I´d never manipulate you."
"Oh."
They stood there for a little eternity, Piper with his hands in his pocket unsure what to do with them, James with his arms wrapped around himself.
"Then," James began, "I...I"
He raised his head to look at Piper. "I have been such an ass," he said, "but I was confused and curious and a mess and... forgive me."
"Of course, James."
James took a step forward and hugged Piper. He sighed. "I wondered for weeks what that felt like," he admitted and buried his face in Piper´s neck. Hesitantly, Piper raised his arms and wrapped them around James.
"And?"
"It´s kinda nice," James said.
Piper was startled when he heard James sniffing his hair.
"James?"
"Apples, I knew it," he replied, and Piper laughed.
"Piper?"
"Hmmm?"
"I don´t know what the standard procedure is, but ...do you have plans for tonight?"
Piper thought of repairs that needed to be done, upgrades and experiments.
"No, I´m all yours."
"Dinner and a movie?"
"You´re catching on quickly."
"I´ve had weeks to plan the perfect date in my mind", he replied.
In the kitchen, Mick stood at the window with binoculars.
"Any of you a lip-reader?" he hissed.
"Nope," the other Rogues replied as they pressed their faces against the glass pane.
"How long did it take for them to catch on?" Mark asked and pondered whether he should add a little weather effect, like sun breaking through clouds or a rainbow, but decided against it. Too obvious.
"It´s been sodding 2 months and 3 weeks," Digger replied, "about time one of them finally caught on. I can´t stand this pining and the looks,"
"Yearning gazes of desire," Len added and snickered.
"Lovelorn sighes and heavy hearts," Mick said and bit his lip to keep himself from laughing.
"Tender caresses and romantic dreams," Mark supplied and grinned.
"Shush, they´re going to hear us,"Digger said. The Rogues secretly watched as Piper threaded his hand through James´ hair.
"Awwwww," they said in unison. Shortly afterwards, they fled back to their original spots and pretended that absolutely nothing had happened, that they had seen nothing, heard nothing and were generally very, very oblivious.
Curses
It´s a rotten deal.
He should not take it. He should not trust Neron.
But he just can´t anymore, he just can´t - it hurts too much.
He lives under constant torture, he spends an eternity looking at a small crystal orb, as he sees madness and death tormenting his friends, his family. But the orb doesn´t just show what is, it shows him what was, what he had done and there is so much he has to be sorry for, so much he has to account for, all those things he can never undo, all these things he´s sorry for. It breaks his heart. And then, the orb shows him the future. What will happen to his friends and he is unable to stop it. He sees the terror, the monsters, he sees his friends dying and he can´t stop it. Not like this.
Not alone. He needs to get out, now.
He tricks and schemes, he tries everything - he tries for an eternity and fails agains and again. He despairs and that is when Neron comes to him. The Trickster is grasping at straws and every source of comfort, every faint glimmer of hope, as fake and wrong as they may be, is better than this helplessness.
The voice is sweet and melodious and infects his mind.
"I can help you, together we can be strong. Together we can leave this place. Help me to help yourself. I don´t want to hurt you, that was never my intention." James looks into Neron´s eyes, the prince of Hell is but a shadow of himself, incapable of leaving hell himself, incapable of fighting.
James can´t struggle anymore.
"Yes."
They are one, together they can leave. Two shadows form one whole.
From sunrise to sunset, James is alive, the Trickster is flying.
From sunset to sunrise, in the night, Neron walks on earth.
He grins maliciously, green flames engulfing his body. He laughs and it sounds like darkness, midnight and utter terror.