Hero's Journey [Twitch]

[Gaunt]

This was pretty exciting. Kaie was out on her first solo patrol, in her new superhero duds. They were pretty rad. A white bodysuit, with ice-blue gloves and boots, and an emblem of a cracked mountain on her chest in a matching shade of blue. She didn't wear a mask, it would be pretty pointless anyway. It wasn't like she could have a secret identity at her size. She was looking forward to going back to school now. It might be kinda cool, going to class as a superhero. Over the summer she had gone from freak to semi-celebrity. She was more than just Kaie now, she was Rumble.

Kaie strolled along the sidewalk, treading carefully. These solo patrols were tougher than she'd expected, at least for her. She had to divide her attention between watching for crimes and not stepping on people. Most folks made room for the giant, but she couldn't be too careful. Occasionally someone was distracted and missed the dull booms of her footsteps, so Kaie had to slip around the littles.

So far, it had been a quiet day. It was mid-afternoon, and Kaie hadn't seen so much as a purse snatcher. She was starting to wonder if she was sent out more for deterrent than to catch criminals. It made sense, who would want to commit a crime while she was lumbering down the street. Only the real powerhouses were likely to try their luck with her, and there weren't too many of those in Jump City.

[Deleted]

I WATCH HOW THE MOON SITS

in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the sun, but the sun doesn't give the light to the moon assuming the moon's gonna owe it one.

Gaunt

"Stop! Dammit, they never stop..."

Words like that could define Twitch's entire vigilante career, short though it was. Aside from a few mysterious rumors, the new hero was pretty much unknown. Circumstances like that had bonuses and drawbacks. On the one hand, he didn't have news hounds after him in order to pay for their fruity drinks and fancy cars with another pile of dirt. On the other hand, he had no respect, leading to petty store robbers scattering and running instead of freezing like he told them to.

Cue the music.

There were two of them, both with pistols. They shot in Twitch's direction, but that didn't make much difference. They didn't hit him, and he rushed one as he tried to run into an alley. His black trenchcoat swept behind him in the wind, red and silver mask glinting savagely as he thrust his palm up and knocked the gun into the air. He kicked the thug in between the legs, caught the gun out of the air, and backhanded him with the weapon. The other guy was still in sight, and had turned around to point his gun at Twitch. The bullet whizzed by the vigilante's head, and he fired his own shot. Of course, being a hyperkinetic, Twitch had an advantage there. The bullet struck the criminal's weapon, fracturing the slide action.

Satisfied that that thug wasn't shooting anymore, Twitch dropped the real weapon just as he noticed the thunderous steps just down the street. He looked to see a gigantic girl in a superhero outfit. One of the new Titans, if he wasn't mistaken. She'd probably seen the whole thing. He help up a hand in greeting. "Hey! What's up? Can you help me with these guys?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Gaunt]

Kaie heard gunshots, and she picked up the pace. She wasn't really running, it was more of a jog, but with the length of her stride it could cover a hell of a lot of ground. The crowd parted, making way for the giant as she rushed to see what was going on. She came around a corner, skidding to a stop as she faced the source of the noise. A vigilante was facing off with two robbers. This was her chance to shine!

"Got it!" The masked man seemed to have the closer guy pretty well handled, but the runner was still an issue. "Everyone clear a path!" Kaie shouted out, charging after him. People cleared the sidewalk as the giant charged. She ran after him, covering the distance with surprising speed. One hand reached down, scooping the man up and tucking him under her arm. She plucked the gun from the criminal's hand, holding it delicately between two fingers. When the police got there, she would be ready to drop it right into an evidence bag.

Kaie walked back towards the other vigilante. She was keeping a good pace, but didn't want to run or jog for fear of hurting the struggling criminal tucked under her arm. "Hold still, will ya?" she said before turning to look at the mysterious masked man. "Need a hand with this one?"

[Deleted]

I WATCH HOW THE MOON SITS

in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the sun, but the sun doesn't give the light to the moon assuming the moon's gonna owe it one.

Gaunt

Twitch, satisfied that the giant could handle the now-unarmed runner, returned his attention to the other robber. The man chose that moment to throw a punch at him, and Twitch, ever the dramatic one, elected to punch him underneath the arm instead of simply dodging or blocking. The response was profound: the man swore, yelled a bit, and pulled out a knife. This guy. "Oh, no, not a pocketknife! My one weakness!" Another strike, this time to the man's elbow, and he caught the knife as the robber's hand spasmed in pain, throwing it so that it passed through the cuff of said criminal's pants and struck the pavement without touching him. "Not."

The masked vigilante punched the criminal in the gut before catching his arm and pulling it behind his back. He put his knee on the small of the robber's back and pushed him to his knees, then pulled out a zip tie from inside his coat and used it to immobilize the man's hands. The giant had the other one literally tucked under her arm like a disobedient puppy. It made Twitch laugh, but he composed himself enough to answer. "I got it."

The police had thankfully been called, so Twitch didn't have to get someone to use their phone to do it. Jump City PD had great response times, too. The officers that approached looked none too happy that superheroes had handled a mundane robbery like this, but nobody seemed terribly injured, though the zip-tied one had one hell of a nosebleed. An officer took the gun from Rumble with trembling hands and an expression that looked like he was walking on shards of glass. They were considerably less cautious with Twitch. The man with the broken gun walked over to Twitch, holding it so that the bullet lodged in the slide was clearly visible. "And what is this? How did a bullet hit just the slide?"

Twitch just shrugged and kicked the working pistol up on the ground and presented it to the officer. "Ballistics on this gun match the bullet lodged in that gun, officer. I saw it happen." He didn't look too satisfied with the information, but he and the others took the criminals and drove away, headed to the station to get a start on the justice system. Twitch let out a sigh of relief. Everyone usually got all pissed if he shot in the general direction of anything with a pulse. Why didn't they get that he didn't miss? He looked at the giant who had assisted him and grinned. "My name's Twitch. And you are?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Gaunt]

Kaie gave the thumbs up to her fellow hero. He seemed to have handled himself well. She wondered if he was just well-trained, or if he had some kind of superpower. Maybe he was like those guys in Wanted, he seemed to be good enough. The masked man was much more peaceful, though. He had roughed up one of the guys, but hadn't done any lasting damage to anyone.

The cops arrived, and Kaie was pleased as punch. Another successful collar for Rumble! She handed off the gun, too excited to really mind how scared the officer was. She wasn't sure why he was so nervous, she was one of the good guys. Sure, she could toss a city bus, but she wouldn't. That wasn't what heroes did. Once the gun was bagged, she held out the perp to be cuffed. He was pretty docile by now, being held out like a stuffed animal by someone twice your size tended to do that to people. An officer put the cuffs on him and Kaie handed him off, letting them escort him into a police car. She brushed her hands off, grinning. Another victory for the good guys.

With that taken care of, Kaie went over to talk to the new hero. She knelt down next to him, offering a finger for him to shake. "Twitch, eh? I'm Rumble, th' new Titan. So, what's it ye do?" She was pretty curious. Maybe he could be a good addition to the team. This was pretty much how she had joined up, by teaming up with Titans on a bust. He'd shown promise, she would have to talk to Robin if he wanted in.

[Deleted]

I WATCH HOW THE MOON SITS

in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the sun, but the sun doesn't give the light to the moon assuming the moon's gonna owe it one.

Gaunt

Twitch leaned against the wall of the alley as the sounds of the police cars faded into the distance, slumped in obvious relief. "I'm hyperkinetic. I have good reflexes." In truth, it was more than that, but he didn't want to spill his whole bag of tricks. Just enough to satisfy this Rumble. If she was on the Titans, she might be able to get him a meeting with Robin, maybe help him get in. He wanted to help, after all. Being on a team would be much more effective.

Twitch stood up straight and walked closer to Rumble, hands in his pockets and mask reflecting some of the light that hit the silvery portions. He started chuckling a bit at the situation. "So, that happened. If they hadn't been robbers I'd almost feel bad for those guys. Especially the one you got. First his gun takes a bullet then he gets scooped up like a stuffed toy. He'll be shaking for days, I bet." He stopped his chuckling then, in order to ask a serious question. "You said you were a new Titan? How'd you get on the team?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Gaunt]

Hyperkinetic? Kaie hadn't heard of that one before, but it sounded cool. She had seen enough action movie slow-mo to know how awesome that sort of thing was. He could probably do some sort of Matrix stuff, that would be great. Maybe he knew kung fu, too. That would be pretty rad. Kaie's brain immediately jumped to a sparring match with Robin. Then they could make out a bit No, not gonna happen, Robin/Starfire OTP. "Cool power." She gave him a smile, not letting on about all the strange thoughts that had just blown through her head.

Kaie let her hand drop when she saw he wasn't going for the finger shake. She was a little disappointed, those were always fun. There was just something inherently silly about having someone shake her finger. Other than that, Twitch seemed friendly enough. They shared a laugh about the spooked robbers. "Yeah, I were thinkin earlier they send me out here to scare off the baddies more than to catch em. I don' get too much trouble." She sounded a little disappointed about that. Kaie had started heroing for adventure, and most of what she'd done so far was go for glorified walks. Patrols were no fun when you didn't halt some criminal scum.

She perked up a bit when he asked how she joined the team. That had probably been the best night of her life to date. "Oh, I were walking by when the Titans were fighting Cinderblock. Robin got thrown, and I caught him and joined in. Helped capture him, too." Kaie said proudly. That was by far her coolest moment, body-slamming the huge villain. "Went for dinner with the Titans after, and they asked me to join. Ma had some demands first, but we worked it out."

[Deleted]

I WATCH HOW THE MOON SITS

in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the sun, but the sun doesn't give the light to the moon assuming the moon's gonna owe it one.

Gaunt

Twitch laughed at Rumble's apparent disappointment at the uneventful patrols. "Hey, it's not all sunshine and rainbows when they don't take you seriously. I have to disarm a guy before they even think I'm of consequence, and then they usually just run. It's kinda irritating, to be honest. Hey, can you walk with me for a bit? Could use the company." The hyperkinetic started walking down the street backwards if she agreed; still conversing, but carrying on his patrol. "Cinderblock, huh? And all I've done was help with normal criminals so far. Not like I particularly want to tangle with a supervillain, but it's getting kinda boring. I think my Krav Maga is getting rusty from lack of use. Speaking of Robin, how do you Titans stay in touch? Cell phones?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Gaunt]

"Yeah, a lot of folks run from me too. I can catch em, though. Got long legs, can go pretty fast if I gotta." She could sympathize with him. Kaie hadn't had a supervillain fight since her first rumble with Cinderblock, it was getting a little dull. She needed some proper excitement. Even a good enough group of regular criminals would be good. She couldn't dodge bullets like Twitch could, but she was tough. With her size and her density, bullets would barely get through her skin. They hurt, but it was more like a splinter than a life-threatening injury.

Kaie nodded, happy to accept his offer. "Sure, some company sounds nice!" She resumed her patrol, walking along next to the hyperkinetic. He seemed pretty interested in the whole hero thing. He was doing a better job of it than she had. He already had a costume and was out stopping crimes, she hadn't even done anything until she stumbled upon a fight. She hadn't even gotten a uniform until she'd been a Titan a few days. Then again, uniforms were harder to come by at her size, and Ma would NOT have let her get away with having one before she'd made the deal with the Titans.

"Oh, we got communicators." Kaie pulled hers out, showing it to him. It was quite a bit larger than the usual Titan comms, about the size of a small plate. "Mine's custom. Canna use a regular one." She held out the device, showing it off. It was lightweight, but still very durable. Anything a super carried on patrol had to be, especially with Kaie's size. It had been designed to survive her falling on it, so it was practically a tank. "Why, ye wanna meet him?"

[Deleted]

I WATCH HOW THE MOON SITS

in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the sun, but the sun doesn't give the light to the moon assuming the moon's gonna owe it one.

Gaunt
Silv

Twitch tilted his head at the strange communicator. Bright yellow, with buttons on the side, the screen seemed to default to a white T on a black background. The device was also about the size of his head, so that was part of it. He nodded at Rumble's explanation: it was easy enough to get. She had to have custom gear because normal gear was waaaay too small. His smile could not be contained when she asked if he wanted to meet Robin. While he wasn't one of the raving fans, he was rather excited to have a chance at meeting the leader of the Teen Titans and trying to get a spot on the team. "I would love to, if it isn't too much trouble."

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Gaunt]

Twitch's enthusiasm was contagious. Kaie couldn't help smiling, he was just so happy at the idea. "Okay, I'll give him a call." She tapped a few buttons on the communicator, setting up to send a message to Robin. "Hey Robin, a super I found out here stopped a robbery. His name is Twitch, and he got super reflexes. I'm thinkin he could be a good Titan." She tapped another set of buttons, sending the message and activating the tracker. He should be able to find them with no problem that way. She'd left out her own involvement in the catch on purpose. Twitch had been the one to disarm both crooks, she'd just scooped one up. It didn't seem fair to take too much credit.

"He should be along soon enough. He's got the R-Cycle, it's no hard to catch up to us when we're walkin like this." She kept an easy pace, not wanting to make him jog. With her long stride it was easy to outpace people by accident. "So, ye thinkin of joining?" she asked. The team didn't have too many quick supers, he would make a good addition.

[Silv]

Robin didn't always let people know when he was coming. There was the roar of a motorbike growing steadily louder before the flashy red vehicle made it's way around the corner and towards the gigantic and easily recognizable form that was Kaie. He maneuvered effortlessly near where the cops were finishing their job yay paperwork and slowed to assess the situation for a second before speeding back up to catch up with Rumble and the tinier form besides her.

He slowed down besides them, lifting a hand in greeting to his fellow Titan before parking his bike on the side of the road. The kid shut off the tracking system he had used to find them before pulling off his helmet and getting off his bike. The young leader was the sort of person everyone noticed. It was probably because he had no concept of color coordination. The boy set his helmet in the compartment on his bike before he began walking towards Rumble and her new friends. He ignored the civilian interest in them.

“Hey Rumble,” the boy greeted the giantess who was more than twice his size. “Nice job” he said gesturing over his shoulder back where the police were doing their job. “Twitch was it?” the Titan's leader turned towards the other young male with a grin and held out a green gloved hand to shake. “I'm Robin,” he introduced himself. “It's great to meet you.”

[Deleted]

I WATCH HOW THE MOON SITS

in the sky on a dark night, shining with the light from the sun, but the sun doesn't give the light to the moon assuming the moon's gonna owe it one.

Gaunt
Silv

Twitch nodded when Rumble asked if he was thinking of joining the team. "It seems like the best way to help people." The growl of a motorcycle approached from the crime scene down the street, and Twitch pivoted to see the bright red bike with the even-brighter-colored Robin astride it make a precision stop in front of them. It was an impressive maneuver, but then again Robin had quite a lot of practice. It was probably part of the training with Batman.

"Twitch was it? I'm Robin. It's great to meet you."

Twitch shook the brightly-colored Titan's hand."Yeah, it's Twitch. It's great to meet you, too." He really had no idea what to do now. He didn't want to brag, that'd just be rude and he needed to make a good impression. "And here I was thinking I'd just spend another day walking around looking for trouble." He ran a hand through his hair, a nervous little habit of his that left it standing up for a half a second before the blue strands fell back into place. "If you don't mind me asking, is there some benefit to the cape that I don't know about or is it just for show?"

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

[Gaunt]

Kaie didn't flinch as Robin slid up to them. He was cutting it close, but she knew their glorious leader could be trusted with his rad motorcycle tricks. The Boy Wonder liked to show off, but he wasn't going to put fellow heroes in danger for it. "Hey Robin!" She waved down at the Titan, puffing up with pride when he complimented them on the collar. "Thanks, it were mostly Twitch. He disarmed em and grabbed one guy, I just scooped up the runner."

The giantess took a step back, letting the two of them talk. She could barely contain her excitement. Twitch seemed like a good hero, and it wouldn't hurt her ego to be the one to have invited him to the team. She looked on as they talked, grinning from ear to ear. A few passersby gave her odd looks as they noticed the giant's fangs, but Kaie didn't notice them. She was too busy thinking about how awesome it would be to have a new Titan and not be the rookie anymore.

[Silv]

Robin listened to each of their greetings and recounts in turn. Kaie said more, but he knew her, and that made Kaie less likely to be intimidated by him being there. The corner of the Boy Wonder's lips twitched in amusement when the other guy seemed to try to make a joke about the unpredictability of life. He gave a curt nod, and opened his mouth to ask a few important questions when he was interrupted.

Why was it people were always to fascinated by the cape? The boy grinned and shrugged. “Mine's made from high density polarized titanium, ten times stronger than steel. It can be used as a shield.” he explained simply, “And I think it looks cool,” the boy confided as his grin broadened.

“But we can talk fashion later. You ever thought about working on a team?”