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Red Hood: @everyone Wakeup
fairplay: ??? its 7 am on a Sunday.
Red Hood: Yeah, exactly. The early fish gets the kill or something
Wildcard: “or something” 😭 bros just pulling these out of his ass
cheshirecat: where do you GET these from
Red Hood: my genius bran
Red Hood: brain*
proxy: bran
cheshirecat: bran
Wildcard: Okay I think the early fish thing kinda make sense yk like if the fish is earliest it will get the food
fairplay: bran
Wildcard: bran
Red Hood: I HATE ALL OF YOU.
Red Hood replying to Wildcard: THANK YOU wait Nvm you said bran TRAITOR
fairplay: LMFAO?
proxy: IM CRINE unc crashout in real time
Red Hood: IM NOT UNC
cheshirecat: pushing 30 btw
Red Hood reacted 👎 to a message
Red Hood: @Wildcard WHERE DID U GO. DON’T RUN AWAY NOW. U HAVE TO FACE THE CONSEQUENCES
Red Hood: @Wildcard
fairplay: wait lemme try something
cheshirecat: NOOO pj why are u HELPING him,,, heart break emoji
fairplay: trust it’ll be funny
proxy: 🤔trusting
fairplay: @Shazam
Shazam: hello
fairplay: can you tag Jett pls
Shazam: yeah sure @Wildcard
Wildcard: Yeah?
fairplay: like a moth to a flame….
cheshirecat: LOL just gay as hell
Wildcard: …
Wildcard: I fucking hate you all
Wildcard has gone offline
Red Hood: HEY WAIT you get back here you little traitor
Shazam replying to Wildcard: all of us? even me?
Wildcard: NO NO no I don’t hate you
Red Hood: CHILDREN. Behave. Focus please
cheshirecat: its too early for this
Wildcard: You mean late
cheshirecat: ??
Red Hood: Jett, when was the last time you slept??
Wildcard: 🤔
Red Hood: Okay, change of plans. Jett go tf to sleep
proxy: I have a headache
Red Hood: Ezra go take mediciTuon
cheshirecat: mediciTuon
cheshirecat: wow ive never seen anybody fuck it up so badly
Wildcard: NO I don’t need to sleep lets just do the thing already
proxy: Jett sleeps= my headache gone
proxy: Jett
Wildcard: NO
fairplay: bruh
Red Hood: @Shazam
Shazam: yeah?
Shazam: oh
Shazam: Jett you should sleep
Wildcard: Your trickery wont fucking work on me
Shazam: :/
Wildcard: …
Wildcard: Fucking fine. 30 min nap
Wildcard has gone offline
fairplay: he’s not going to wake up for another few hours, is he?
Shazam: nope
Red Hood: @proxy did you take medication
proxy: whats medication I only know mediciTuon
Red Hood: Okay so you’re fine
cheshirecat: CTFU
Red hood: I will see you guys in two hours. Someone remember to wake up Jett
The sun beat heavily on his back, sweat gathering on his skin leaving him uncomfortably warm and sticky with his hair plastered to the back of his neck. Eugene lay face down on the grass, sucking in deep panting breaths with a shudder as he tried to catch his breath. Behind him, Lian sat lazily sipping out of a plastic blue water bottle looking as if she had barely broken a sweat and, knowing her, she probably hadn’t. To his right, Ezra sat with his legs spread wide and hands propping himself up, looking just as exhausted as he felt. In front of him, Jett sat picking at the grass with mild curiosity, his face glistening with a sheen of sweat and flushed high at the cheekbones, his pink hair spread messily and mussed, leaving him looking dishevelled. He looked up, meeting his eye and greeting him with a cheeky grin, a smirk of sorts with a sparkle in his eyes despite the exhaustion that radiated off him in waves and the heavy atmosphere surrounding the group. In the distance, PJ and Jason stood discussing something in low voices.
“Damn, you guys look like an absolute mess.” came the rough voice of Jason Todd as he approached, Jeffrey in tow.
“It’s this heat man,” whined Ezra, looking up upon his arrival “please tell me you have AC back at that shack of a home.”
The man shook his head, white tuft flying wildly as he did so.
“Nope, and I don’t got no car to drive any of you back either.”
A collective groan rang around the group, Jett going as far as flopping forward headfirst into the grass, little tufts of hair sticking up as he did so. Eugene snickered.
“Ooh! Oh! We should go the mall. There's one about a 15-minute walk from here. There should be AC.” exclaimed Lian, head bobbing excitedly as she spoke.
The mood of the group seemed to brighten, Jett perking up from where he had flopped down earlier.
“Yeah sure.” shrugged Jason in agreement “Reminder that I’m flat out broke though, so we’re not buying anything.”
“We don’t have to.” Eugene piped up, “We can just roam around and enjoy the AC.”
“Maybe hit the food court.” added Jett
“Okay, fine. We can spend a little at the food court, but that’s it, okay?” huffed Jason, crossing his arms in a way to appear begrudging, but his tone was all endearing.
A chorus of agreements echoed around the group, all happy with the notion. With a new goal in mind, they got up gingerly in anticipation for a post training snack.
The trek to the shopping mall was surprisingly quick, despite them being exhausted from training. Idle chatter filled the walk paired with laughter and the occasional shouting. (“I’M NOT OLD? I’M IN MY TWENTIES?” “Yeah, nineteen twenties!”) Eugene was mostly silent, aside from the occasional response or two to one of his teammate’s remarks. He simply appreciated the casual conversation and listened along with an open ear. Most embarrassingly of all however, was when they came to cross a big highway, and Jason made them all hold hands like they were in preschool again. There were various protests, mostly from Jett and Lian. Which led to Jason grabbing the pink haired boy from the back of the collar – like someone scruffing a kitten– earning a disgruntled squawk until the boy finally caved. In the end, Eugene found himself on the end of the line besides Jett, their hands clasped by the side. Jett smiled at him, whispering, “I think he forgets how old we are sometimes.” Eugene let out a laugh, nodding whole heartedly and squeezing the others hand, warranting to him what sounded almost like a squeak of surprise.
The mall greeted him with a cool gust of wind and sweet, sweet relief from the heat. Jason gathered them up, waving his arms around that briefly reminded him of a mama duck herding in her ducklings. He laughed at the thought.
“Alright. Do whatever you want, I don’t care. As long as you stick together, or at least near me. Some of you have parents that won’t hesitate to kill me if I don’t get you back in one piece.” he tacked on the last bit with bite, his eyes drifting over PJ and then Lian. Who knows what extremes Roy would go to if Lian was injured under his watch? Jason shuddered at the thought.
“We won’t get lost, grandpa. Besides, these two are basically walking neon signs with their hair.” spoke PJ, gesturing towards Jett and Lian
Eugene snickered into his hand, Jason rolling his eyes dramatically as they began to walk at a slow pace.
“Okay! Let’s do this!” exclaimed Lian, clapping her hands together. “I saw a jewellery store over there and I really want to check it out. Come on, lets go!” she grinned, hooking her arm around Ezra’s and tugging him with her as she took off. Ezra yelped, the blonde wobbling precariously to maintain his balance.
“Slow down!” Eugene let out, starting to run to keep up with the two.
Jett huffed behind him, falling into a jog as Lian practically dragged poor Ezra down the mall corridors. Behind him, PJ kept up at a decent pace, whilst Jason was busy dragging his hands down his face and looking like he was regretting all of his life choices leading up to this which, he probably was.
The jewellery store was, admittedly, pretty awesome. There were accessories of all shapes and sizes in here, from bedazzled sunglasses encrusted with sparkling gems of a variety of colours, to a whole ass geode, split down the middle and open in a glass display case.
“Hey Eugene, how swag do I look?” asked Jett, a fragile looking headpiece balanced precariously on his head. It looked out of place, with his bright pink chaotic hair and the delicate sparkling headpiece. He poked a face, pursing his lips in a poor imitation of someone from wall street.
Eugene stifled a laugh; he looked truly comical.
Jason however, did not seem to share this sentiment.
“Put that down! If that breaks, you’ll be working here for the rest of your life to cough up for it.” hissed Jason, “We are way too broke to be in here.”
“It’s fine. We’re not even buying anything!” echoed Lian's voice from somewhere in the back of the story.
Jett’s face dropped, rolling his eyes as he reluctantly put the headpiece back into its case and popped the lid close. God knows how he got it open in the first place.
At the front of the store, a commotion had begun to occur.
“Alright, everyone on the ground now!” reverberated a deep voice, gargled in a way that indicated it had been electronically filtered. A voice changer, then.
Three or so big burly men entered the store, decked in black hoodies, sweatpants and ski masks, guns raised in the air as warning.
“You!” cried a voice, shooting a bony, outstretched finger pointed towards Jason. Eugene swallowed nervously, “Big man in the black and red, come here.”
The shuffling of footsteps from the back of the store could be heard. Lian, Ezra and Pjs voices audible. “Hey, guys whats going on-” started Ezra
“Fuck.”
“Big man, if you don’t get your ass over here now, I’m gonna start shooting. You pals grab what you can!” yelled the robber, tacking on the last part for his little friends.
And then suddenly, all hell broke loose. In a flurry of action, the robber had moved to aim his gun at Jason, Jason moved swiftly, knocking the gun out of the way that resulted in a loud gunshot and hole in the wall. Ezra began yelling orders at them over the noise of bullets and glass smashing. Quickly, the titans got to work. Ezra and PJ ran around the store, trying their best to evacuate civilians whilst keeping calm. Lian and Jett stood back to back, working off the other two robbers with practiced ease, sharp swings and tough kicks. Whilst Eugene? Eugene just froze.
“Eugene!” yelled Jett over the noise, separating from Lian to make his way over. He leapt over the counter, crouching down to the shorter boy's height as he grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Eugene, what are you doing? Are you okay? We gotta scram the cops are coming!”
“S- Shit. Sorry, you’re right. Lets go.” he stammered out, letting himself be led by the taller. He was so out of it he didn’t even notice the concerned look he sent his way, or the fact that they were once again clutching hands.
His mind blearily buzzed as he tried to recount what the hell just happened. Footsteps echoed like pitter patter as the group ran up a stair well, long and winding until they reached the top. Jason slammed open the door, the group spilling onto the mall rooftop.
“Everyone okay? No injuries, bullet wounds or bruises I should know about?” he asked gruffly, voice unusually worried.
There were various thumbs up, quiet mumbling of “all goods” throughout the teens.
A pointed cough sounded from behind Eugene.
“Jason, Jett’s clutching his hand weirdly and crossing his arms.” tattled Ezra.
“Jett!” barked Jason, “Get your ass over here.” commanded the man
Jett huffed, “Snitch.” he spat, as he made his way over to Jason. He held out his hand with a grimace, revealing bruised and split knuckles.
Jason sighed, taking the boy's injured hand in one and running his other hand through his hair. Wrinkles gracing his forehead with worry, making him appear at least a decade older than he actually was. With all the teasing from the teens, he might as well have been.
“Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Ezra, how much energy do you think you have right now?”
“Ummm. A good amount.” he shrugged, making a so-so motion with his hand “I was mostly helping civilians evacuate. Plus, I’m surrounded by all you guys.”
“Okay. You think you can levitate us all down? Then I’m going to call an uber and we’re gonna go back to my place so I can patch this brat up. Maybe call your parents too.”
Ezra nodded, taking a sharp inhale as he began to concentrate.
Getting levitated down was a strange feeling. Not necessarily unpleasant he would say, but he would prefer flying over this any day. The group landed softly on the ground with a plop. Ezra let out a sigh of relief.
Jason gave him a proud nod, whipping out his phone as he began to tap away, working to what Eugene assumed was to order an uber.
Jett sat on the couch, freshly cleaned and bandaged knuckles resting in his lap as his eyes threatened to flutter shut. The teens were scattered around the living room, tv droning softly with a passed out Jason in a crooked rotten looking armchair. Ezra sat to his left on the couch, fixed attentively on the tv. Lian sat on the floor in front of him as he braided her hair. PJ sat beside her, fidgeting with what looked like a tech deck. Besides him, Eugene sat squished into Jett's side.
“Hey,” he whispered, nudging the other boy with his elbow, “Wanna go to the balcony?”
Eugene nodded, carefully getting up and creeping behind to avoid waking the sleeping man. Lian spared them a glance, but was quickly nudged by Ezra who was busy doing a complex braid.
Jett slid the balcony door open gingerly, stepping out to the open air. Eugene followed behind hesitantly.
“You okay? You seem pretty quiet.” asked Jett, voice unnervingly calm
“I’m always quiet.” replied the ravenette
“More so than usual, I mean.”
Eugene shrugged, choosing to stare out into the distance of the city.
“Eugene, seriously. What’s wrong? Don’t lie to me.” pushed Jett, whose voice wavered with uncertainty.
Guilty, he obliged, moving his hands to the railing as he turned to face the taller boy.
“I don’t know, I just... I’ve never felt so useless. I just froze, back there.”
“The robbery?” probed Jett
He nodded a confirmation. “Yeah. It didn’t even matter that I didn’t have powers, you guys barely used yours at all. I just, I just stood there. I could have moved, helped people escape, or maybe.." he trailed off, hoping the point came across.
Jett's face softened, an expression uncommon on the boy's face, yet it suited him.
“That’s not your fault. It could have happened to anyone. Who knows how I would have reacted if I was without powers.”
“But-” he sputtered
“No, Gene. I get it. Powers give you a sense of security. Of course you're gonna be safer with them. So it makes sense that you freeze when you’re in a dangerous situation without them. You couldn’t have done anything different.”
Eugene nodded, body slumping as he realized there was going to be no arguing with him.
“Most importantly though, is that you’re not useless. You matter. To all of us. You matter to me.” babbled Jett, eyes drifting off into the Seattle skyline to avoid the awkward act of eye contact.
He turned just as the short boy dove at him, wrapping him into a tight hug. Jett's shock quickly morphed into a smile as he hugged back. Eugene only laughed, pulling back and tugging at the taller boy’s pink hair, gaining a faux gasp of offence.
“Thank you Jett.” he breathed
“It’s my pleasure.”