Chapter 4
Round 2
James apartment, Steel Canyon
Stacey’s voice mail message plays again. James says “Honey, its James. Please, how many times do I need to say I’m sorry? It’s been four days. Please pick up the phone.” All he hears is silence. “Please call me honey.” James hangs up his cell phone. Stacey has refused to take any of his calls and won’t answer her apartment door. James has seen her at school, but every time she sees him, she runs in the opposite direction, and every time James tries to follow, her friends run interference. James looks around the apartment and decides to head to the base and see if anything is going on.
Disciples of the Darkhand base, Steel Canyon
James walks into the base lounge and plops down on the couch. He sits there and wonders what else he can do about Stacey. He’s tried everything he can think of to get her to talk to him, but she refuses to respond.
“Still not talking to you huh?”
James looks over her shoulder and sees Titania standing there. “No, she still won’t get back to me.”
“Do you want her back?”
James looks at Titania again. “Why would you ask that?”
“I’m just wondering.” She just stands there and stares at James.
James stares back at her for a minute, wondering why she would ask that. He thinks to himself “Does she have feelings for me? Is that why she asked that? Or does she mean something else?”
“I don’t know if I do. Part of me says yes, I have a good time with her when we’re together. I mean, I don’t love her yet, we haven’t been together that long. Part of me just says let it go. She already doesn’t like me being a hero, so maybe it’s just best to call it good.”
Titania thinks about that for a second. “Okay” Then she turns around and walks off.
“Wait a minute! Where are you going?” James stares at her back as she strolls off, not answering him. “What the hell was that about?” James thinks. “Is she mad at me, or am I just reading to much into it?” James starts to get up and go after Titania when his cell phone rings, and he sees that it’s Stacey. “Hello?”
“James, would you come over to my apartment? I’m ready to talk now.”
“I’m on my way sweetie.” James looks off in the direction that Titania went for a minute, and then heads for the base portal.
One month later…
James Apartment, Steel Canyon
James and Stacey sat were sitting on the couch talking. Since their talk a month previous, things have been rocky. There have been several arguments between the two of them, and all of them have been about Titania. Three times during the month she called James on group stuff while he was with Stacey. The first time, Titania called to talk to him about an upcoming Task Force. The second time she wanted to let him know about a group meeting. The third was the worst though. Titania called an immediate all-group action, and issued an emergency recall. James ran off, leaving Stacey fuming in a Founders Falls restaurant.
Then yesterday, Stacey dropped a bombshell on James over the phone. She told him that as long as Titania was around, there was going to be problems between the two of them. That she felt like Titania was trying to steal James from her. James tried to assure Stacey that wasn’t the case, but she wouldn’t listen. She told James that if he loved her, then he would leave the super group, and Titania, behind.
Stacey looked at James “So are you going to do it or not?”
James sat back on the couch. “That’s a pretty unfair thing to ask me to do.”
“Not to me it isn’t. Either you love me or you don’t. Which is it going to be? Are you leaving the group, or am I leaving you?”
Before James can answer, his navcomm gives off a loud alarm. James picks it up and taps a button. Titania’s voice comes over the speaker. “James…” He can hear weapons fire and explosions and screaming in the background.
“T? What’s wrong?”
“James…………War Zone……….ship raid……….we’re……………ing overwhelmed………….Medi-port jammed……Rikti……………need help………I….” And then the transmission ends.
“T? Titania! Shit!” James runs to his bedroom. A minute later he comes back out pulling on his uniform. He grabs his navcomm, places it on his belt, and heads for the balcony. Suddenly there’s a hand yanking on his arm. He looks back at Stacey stopping him.
“Don’t go.” Stacey has an angry look on her face.
“What the hell is the matter with you? I’m going.”
Stacey shakes her head. “No, stay here with me, where you belong.”
“Are you out of your damn mind? I’m not going to let her die!”
“James, if you leave now, we’re through.”
Angry, James yanks his arm out of her hand and steps onto the balcony. “Lock the door when you leave.” He jumps off of the balcony and heads towards the base portal.
Disciples of the Darkhand Base, Steel Canyon
James runs into the teleport room and onto the teleporter for the War Zone. He quickly enters his access code. The teleporter activates……
Rikti War Zone
….and he appears in the War Zone. James immediately heads for the Rikti ship. En route, he uses his navcomm to remote activate Titania’s locator beacon, and a blip appears on the lens of his goggles. He starts to follow the beacon. As James is coming down to the ship, he sees two Rikti standing over Titania’s unmoving body.
Roaring with rage, James flips in mid-air and turns his jump into a dive towards the Rikti. He smashes into them, driving them down into the hull of the ship. James jumps up. One of the Rikti is dead. The other starts getting up. James grabs a Rikti sword lying at his feet and swings it, instantly decapitating the other Rikti. James drops the sword and kneels down next to Titania. Her chest and abdomen are slashed open and she is barely breathing. James jams a healing stim into her leg to try and help stabilize her, and then cradles her in his arms and jumps off the ship in the direction of the Vanguard base.
As he leaves the ship behind, James notices a group of Rikti standing guard over some equipment. “That must be what they’re using to jam the medi-port.” He connects his navcomm to the Point Du Hoc firebase. “Purple People Beater here. Request fire mission. Location: 146.9, -3.0, -116.4. Target: Suspected Rikti Jamming equipment. Vanguard Hero Authorization: Alpha Alpha Zulu Bravo 774. Fire at will.”
“Roger that. Firing commencing.”
James passes Point Du Hoc as the firebase fires several missile salvos. A moment later James lands at the Vanguard base. As he rushes inside, Titania whispers “James…” James looks down at her. She smiles at him and raises her hand to his face. Titania then says something to him in her native tongue, “Namaarie,” Then her eyes roll back and she goes limp in his arms.
“No! Hold on!” James rushes into the medical center. He yells for a medic as he places Titania onto a bed.
A Vanguard doctor rushes over to the bed. He takes one look at Titania, checks for a pulse, then looks at James and shakes his head. “Sorry sir.”
As the doctor starts to move off, James grabs him by the front of the shirt. “You help her right now!”
“Sir, she’s gone. But there are many others here that I might be able to save. Please let me do so.”
James lifts him off the floor and shakes him, screaming at him. “DO SOMETHING!”
“Sir! Please! She’s gone.”
James lowers the doctor and relaxes his grip on him and almost whispers “No, there’s got to be something…” Tears are streaming down his face.
The doctor says “I’m sorry sir.” And moves away.
James looks around desperately and spots MedStar Angel across the room. He screams out “ANGEL!” She spots James and rushes over. James points to Titania and asks her “Please.” Angel nods and steps up next to the bed. She places her hands over Titania as they start to glow. The light quickly spread over Titania and James watches as all the wounds heal up. Her body shudders as her eyes fly open and she sucks in a breath of air.
James moves over to the bed. “Titania?”
She turns her head and looks up at him. “Took you long enough.”
James just shakes his head as Angel chuckles. She turns to Titania “You’ll be fine. Go home and rest for the next twenty four hours.” Then she moves off to another bed.
Titania looks at James “I’m ready to go home.” James nods and picks her up off of the bed. “James, put me down, I can walk.”
“Shut up T.”
Titania looks at him, surprised by his tone. She opens her mouth to say something, but seeing the look on his face, shuts it just as quickly. As James starts to walk towards the base portal, she wraps her arms around his neck, and lays her head on his chest.
Chapter 3
Things get awkward
Three months later…
Wednesday, Steel Canyon
A transmission comes over Purple’s navcomm. “Attention, this is the Paragon Police Department; there is an attack by the Council at the Steel Canyon Campus of Paragon City University. We are requesting immediate assistance from any available Hero.” Purple is only a couple blocks away, so he heads in that direction.
Purple arrives at the campus to see about twenty members of the Council fighting Police officers. Other Heroes are arriving to assist as well. Purple immediately jumps in and attacks the nearest Council member. As he is wading through the group, his head jerks back as one of the Council members grabs his mask and rips it off of him. “Dammit!” Purple turns around and unleashes a punishing uppercut to the Council member. He looks down at his mask, which is now lying on the ground, ripped beyond use. “Oh well.”
Purple looks around and sees that all the other Council members have been subdued, and the cleanup has begun. As he gets ready to jump away, he notices one girl staring at him in astonishment. Purple recognizes his girlfriend Stacey. “Oh shit.” He starts walking towards her. As he walks up to her he says, “Honey, let me explain…”
A couple hours later…
Purple heads back to his apartment. It’s been a rough couple of hours, explaining everything to Stacey. She’s not sure if she likes the fact that he’s a hero, but she’s willing to go along with it for now. As he enters his apartment, his navcomm starts beeping. He looks at it and sees that Titania is calling. “Purple here.”
“Hey James, nice seeing your uncovered face on the five o’clock news. So much for your secret identity huh?”
“What, they already have my name?”
“No, but you know how the reporters are around here. It will happen soon enough. Way to go noob.”
James frowns. “You know, the noob thing is getting a little old.”
“Sorry.” James can hear her smirking over the comm.
“No you’re not. Oh well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Guess I’ll just have to live with it. Is something going on that you need to talk to me about, or did you just call to give me shit?”
“Mostly to give you shit, but I thought I’d see if you wanted to come run some patrols with me tomorrow afternoon.”
“Sounds like a plan. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get cleaned up. Unless you have some other smartass comment for me. Maybe a short joke. You know how much I just loooove those.”
Titania laughs “No, I’ll save the short jokes for tomorrow. What time do you want to meet up?”
“How’s five sound? At the base?”
“Five it is. Seeya then Purp. Titania out.”
James tosses his navcomm onto the coffee table and heads for the shower.
Thursday, Disciples of the Darkhand base, Steel Canyon
James and Titania enter the base after a long day of patrolling. They’re both dirty, their uniforms have some tears in them and they’re covered in assorted scrapes and bruises. James is ready to get cleaned up and then get some much needed sleep. “I’m going to hit the locker room and get cleaned up.”
Titania nods, “Same, except I’m going to my room. Come see me before you leave, I want to talk to you about Saturday night.”
“Okay.” James goes to the men’s locker room. After showering, he throws on some jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers, stuffs his uniform in his backpack, and heads out of the locker room. He walks through the base to where Titania’s private apartment is and knocks on the door. Titania calls out “Just a minute!”
Titania opens the door. She’s wearing a top that looks like a Karate Gi, Pajama pants, her feet bare, and her long honey colored hair is untied and flowing around her face. It’s the first time James has seen her in anything other than her uniform. She has a faint scent of Cinnamon wafting off of her. James takes it all in, and thinks to himself “She should wear her hair down more.”
“Hey!”
James snaps out of it, realizing that he had been staring at her. “Sorry.”
Titania smirks. “So, Saturday night. The charity ball in Founders Falls. You’re going to be there right?”
“Yep. I’m all ready to go.”
Titania’s eyebrow rises. “You DO remember that this is a black tie event right?”
“Yes T. I’ve got my tux already, and I’ll look nice and pretty.”
“Okay, good. Are you bringing your girlfriend?”
James nods “Yeah, I told her about it earlier. She’s pretty excited to go. Said she was going to go out shopping for a dress while we were out patrolling. She says that she’s interested in meeting some of the SG. Are you bringing anyone?”
Titania gets a small frown on her face. “No, I’ll be there solo. I don’t…date much. But I’m looking forward to meeting your girlfriend.”
“Okay T, unless you’ve got anything else, I’m going to head home and get some rest. I’ve got classes late tomorrow, so I won’t be out patrolling. So I’ll see you at the event on Saturday.”
Titania shakes her head. “Nope, that’s all I had. See you then.” James smiles and nods, and then walks off, heading for the base portal. Titania watches him walk off, and remembers the look on his face when she had opened her door. She mutters to herself. “Titania…that boy is going to be trouble for you.” She shuts the door and heads for her bedroom.
Saturday, Founders Falls, the Vandenburg Ballroom
James and Stacey get out of their cab. They walk up to the entrance of the Vandenburg. James is wearing a Purple Tuxedo jacket, white shirt, Purple tie, black pants with a purple stripe down the seam, and polished black boots. Stacey is wearing a white evening gown. There are Paragon Police officers checking invitations. As James and Stacey walk up to the entrance, One of the officers says “Invitation please?” James pulls his navcomm out of his jacket and holds it up. The officer scans the screen, and looks at his scanner. “Purple People Beater and guest. Go right in sir.”
James and Stacey move past the officers and into the Ballroom. They look around at all the different heroes all dressed to their best. Stacey, in awe, exclaims “Oh my god is that Statesman over there?
“Sure is,” James replies “Want to meet him?”
“Sure!” They walk over to where Statesman is standing.
“Statesman?” Statesman turns to them. James holds out his hand. “Purple People Beater sir, it’s an honor to meet you.”
Statesman shakes James hand and smiles. “Ah yes. Nice to meet you. I’ve heard some good things about you youngster. Keep up the good work.”
James smiles at the compliment. “Thank you very much sir.” He gestures to Stacey. “This is my girlfriend, Stacey Wright.”
Statesman shakes her hand. “Nice to meet you.” Stacey blushes and nods. “Thank you both for coming tonight to support this charity.”
James says “Thank you sir.” Statesman nods to both of them, and the two of them move off through the crowd.
Stacey tells James “Oh my god that was awesome! Thank you for bringing me to this honey.”
James smiles. “You’re welcome hon. Let’s mingle.” They walk around the ballroom. James spots MedStar Angel and Urban Arclight, heroes he has ran with and become good friends with. He introduces Stacey to them and chats with the two of them for a few minutes. They continue through the crowd, James introducing Stacey to heroes that he has run with.
As they start looking for their table, James sees Titania just in front of him just as she turns around and spots him and Stacey. “James!” She takes in his tux. “Oh dear god.”
James stands there, stunned at how she looks. Her hair is arranged up in an intricate braid work pattern. She is wearing a black strapless evening gown, with a slit up the side almost to her hip, and black high heeled shoes. All James can think to himself is, “My god, she’s beautiful.”
James feels a smack on his arm, and jolts out of his trance. Stacey is frowning at him. “What?”
“Your eyes are supposed to be on me mister.”
James blushes in embarrassment. “Sorry honey.”
Titania walks up to them. “What ARE you wearing?”
James looks down at his tux, then back at Titania and grins. “What’s wrong with it?”
Titania rolls her eyes. “I should have known” Titania smiles at Stacey and holds out her hand. “Hello, I’m Titania, the leader of James’s super group. You must be Stacey. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Stacey stares daggers at Titania. With one arm wrapped protectively around one of James’s arms, she holds out her other hand to shake Titania’s. “Nice to meet you.” Her greeting isn’t too enthusiastic.
Titania pretends not to notice Stacey’s behavior, and looks back at James “Our table is over here. She leads the two of them over, and they all sit down. Stacey frowns as Titania takes a seat on the other side of James. Wait staff start bringing dinner to the table shortly after that.
As the night wears on, James can’t help but continuing to stare at Titania, which causes Stacey to get more upset. Titania tries to pretend that she doesn’t notice what’s going on. Finally, at about eleven o’clock, Stacey tells James “I’m tired, and I want to go home.”
James nods. “Okay honey.” They say their goodbyes to everyone and walk out of the ballroom. As they get outside, Stacey yanks her arm away from James. “God, I am so mad at you right now! You are such a jerk!”
James looks startled. “What did I do?”
Stacey’s voice rises “What did you do? What, besides stare at that ‘leader’ of yours all night? You were practically undressing her with your eyes! I might as well not even have been here!”
James holds up his hands. “Honey…”
“Don’t honey me! God, I am so humiliated. I know just everyone noticed how you were behaving! How could you treat me like this?”
James tries to calm her down. “Honey please, we’re in public.”
“I don’t care! Men! You’re all the same, nothing but pigs!” She glares at James. “I’m going home.” She moves to the waiting cab and starts to get in. James follows her and as he gets to the door, she stops and shoves him away from it. “I’m going home…ALONE! Find your own cab buster.” Then she slams the cab door in his face, and it pulls away.
James sighs and turns around. He mutters to himself “Well, that could have gone better.” He sees Titania standing there watching him, a look of concern on her face. James tries to give her a smile, and as she takes a step towards him, he just shakes his head and jumps off into the night.
Chapter 2
Fitting In
A month later…
Disciples of the Darkhand Base, Steel Canyon
James sat relaxing in the base lounge, having just finished up his homework. The past month had been pretty great, getting to know and running missions with the members of his new super group, Disciples of the Darkhand. He finished his probationary period and became a full member two days previous. James was a lot more confident now in his abilities as a hero. With the help of the group, he had increased his security level to 20. James also learned more about his powers, and even learned some new ones, including super jump, which he thought was extremely fun way to travel around the city. His raptor pack was now sat unused in his locker at the base.
College was going well also. Despite his evening excursions as a hero, James was keeping up with his classes and his homework, earning good grades. He was even dating a nice young girl from one of his classes. He managed to spend a couple nights a week with her despite being so busy with his ‘Job’ as a messenger with the Paragon Messenger Service, which was the legitimate front for the super group.
James had developed several contacts that he could go see about getting missions, but he really enjoyed getting on Task Forces. Since joining DDH, James had participated in two. One from Positron, and one from Synapse, and Titania mentioned to him the day before that Sister Psyche might have something for them this coming weekend, so James was looking forward to getting in on that one too.
James dumped his backpack into his locker and headed for one of the teleport rooms in the base. One the way, he ran into Mouse and Lady K., a husband & wife team who had joined DDH a couple days after he did. “Hey guys, I’m headed over to Faultline to check out a new contact. You want to come along?”
Mouse shook his head. “Sorry man, we’re headed for home. Got some family coming over for dinner tonight.”
“Ok, catch you two later!” James went on to the teleport room and stepped up to the pad for Faultline. He keyed in his access code to the control panel and waited. The pad lit up, and with a flash of light, he was teleported to Faultline.
Jim Tremblor, his new contact, was a little standoffish at first, but after a few minutes of talking, asked James to do some missions for him. James put a team together and headed off. First, they rescued a friend of Tremblor’s, a hero named Fusionette, who had gotten in over her head with some Lost. They moved on to defeat a Lost leader named Kurse, and then an Arachnos Night Widow named Nocturne, though she teleported away at the last second to avoid capture. After that, James decided to call it a night, said goodbye to his teammates, & headed for the base.
The next day…
James walked out of his last class of the day. He figured that he’d stop by the apartment to drop off his books, and then head over to the base to see if anything was going on.
“James!” a voice called out behind him. He turned around to see his girlfriend Stacey headed to him. As she got to him, James put his arm around her waist and kissed her. “Hey babe, what’s up?”
“There’s a new Italian place called Vincenzo’s over in Talos that just opened its doors. I thought we could go check it out tonight if you don’t have to work.”
James smiled. “I’m all yours honey. Where in Talos is it?”
“Just a couple of blocks east of the tram.”
James nodded. “Sounds good. What time do you want to go?”
“How’s 7:00?”
“Okay hon. After that, why don’t we go over to my place? We can throw in a video or something.”
She smiled. “Sounds good to me. I gotta get to my next class. See you at 7:00.” She kissed him and ran off to one of the campus buildings.
James was almost to his apartment when his navcomm beeped. He pulled it out and saw that he had a call coming in from Titania. He hit the answer button. “Purple here.”
“Purple, I need you to swing by the base for a quick meeting about the Task Force for this weekend.”
James looked at his watch. It said 4:00. “Is it going to take long? I’m going out to dinner with my girlfriend tonight.”
“Nah, should only take about an hour.”
“Okay T, I’ll be there in about 30 minutes.”
James and Stacey walked hand in hand out of Vincenzo’s. The food was fantastic, and they headed for the Tram to go over to his place. As they walked out of the restaurant, James noticed 5 Warriors standing across the street. As he and Stacey walked away from the restaurant, the group started across the street towards them. Stacey saw them too.
“James?” He could see that she was a little nervous.
“Just keep walking honey, and act like nothing is wrong.” At first, James was hoping that they could make it to the tram station and get past the police drones before the group caught up to them. Stacey didn’t know that he was a hero, and he wasn’t ready for her to find out yet. The Warriors started running towards them though, and he knew that they weren’t going to make it.
As the 5 Warriors stopped in front of them, James pushed Stacey behind him and said. “We don’t want any trouble guys.”
“Well that depends on you,” said one of the Warriors. “You see, this here is our street, and if you want to keep walking down it safely, then you’re going to have to pay a fee.”
James took all of his cash out of his wallet and held it out. “Here’s 150 dollars, that’s all I have.”
The leader of the group took the money. “That’s very generous of you young sir, however, our normal fee is 300.” He looked at the rest of his group. “What do you think boys? Should we show some generosity and let this fine couple be on their way?”
One of the other Warriors said, “I think that we should take the rest of our fee out of his girl there.” He stepped forward and started to reach past James for Stacey.
James grabbed the guy’s arm with his left hand and delivered a swift uppercut to the jaw with his right, staggering the Warrior. James picked him up and threw him into 3 of the group. The leader took a swing at James. He ducked under the swing and delivered a quick combo to the man’s stomach, causing him to fall to his knees and vomit on the concrete. James jumped over him to the other four, who were starting to get up. He delivered quick punches to all of them, knocking them out. James walked back over to the leader, who was still on his hands and knees. He took his money back out of the guy’s hand and told him “Should have quit while you were ahead mate.” James then took Stacey’s hand and the walked around the group and down the street towards the tram station. When she wasn’t looking, he pulled a PPD transport tag out of his pocket, activated it, and tossed it among the Warriors. As the two of them walked away, it activated, and transported the Warrior’s to the PPD Central Lock-up.
As they walked up the ramp to the tram, Stacey, who was a little wide-eyed at what had just happened, asked him “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
James smiled at her. “Oh that? I took up boxing when I was in junior high. I still practice a little at the gym.”
She hugged him. “Wow that was amazing!”
“Well, I couldn’t let them do anything to you now could I? Here’s our tram.” As they got on, James was thankful that he didn’t have to get too flashy while taking them down and expose his secret. He wasn’t quite ready to let Stacey in on that yet.
Wow, it’s really been a while since i’ve done anything on here. I’ll have to do something about that. I’m going to post all of the stories co-written by my best friend Carrie & I on here. Hope they are enjoyable for you.
“Mister, why doesn’t this cow have any horns?” asked the young lady from a nearby city. The farmer cocked his head for a moment, then began in a patient tone, “Well, ma’am, cattle can do a powerful lot of damage with horns. Sometimes we keep’em trimmed down with a hacksaw. Other times we can fix up the young ‘uns by puttin’ a couple drops of acid where their horns would grow in, and that stops ‘em cold. Still, there are some breeds of cattle that never grow horns. But the reason this cow don’t have no horns, ma’am, is ’cause it’s a horse.”
A man tells his wife that he’s going out to buy cigarettes. When he gets to the store he finds out it’s closed. So the guy ends up going to the bar to use the vending machine. While there, he has a few beers and begins talking to this beautiful girl. He has a few more beers, and the next thing he knows he’s in this girl’s apartment and having quite a pleasurable time. The next thing he knows, it’s 3:00 AM.
“Oh my, god, my wife is going to kill me!” he exclaimes. “Quick give me some talcum powder!”
She gets him some and he rubs it all over his hands. When he gets home his wife is up waiting for him and she’s furious. “Where the hell have you been!”
He says, “Well to tell you the truth, I went into a bar, had a few drinks, went home with this blonde and I slept with her.” “Let me see your hands!” she demands. He shows his wife his powdery hands.
” You damn liar, you were out bowling again!”
1. You’d rather have a pencil driven through your retina than be exposed to sunlight.
2. Trying to gain control of the situation, you continue to tell your room to “Stay still.”
3. Looking at yourself in the mirror induces the same reaction as chugging a glass of fresh paint.
4. You’re convinced that the chirping birds are Satan’s pets.
5. You set aside an entire morning to spend some quality time with your toilet.
6. You replaced the traditional praying on your knees with the more feasible praying in a fetal position.
7. The bathroom reminds you of a carnival barker shouting, “Step right up and give it whirl!”
8. All day long your motto is, “Never again.”
9. You could purchase a new bike just by recycling the bottles around your bed.
10. Your natural response to “Good morning,” is “Shut up!”
Sorry about getting this one up so late. Enjoy!
After being with her all evening, the man couldn’t take another minute with his blind date. Earlier, he had secretly arranged to have a friend call him to the phone so he would have an excuse to leave if something like this happened.
When he returned to the table, he lowered his eyes, put on a grim expression and said, “I have some bad news. My grandfather just died.”
“Thank heavens,” his date replied. “If yours hadn’t, mine would have had to!”
