When Penumbra first became a titan, he didn't realize how big the tower was. It's huge! There are rooms for everything imaginable. Besides the apartments and commons rooms, there are kitchens and a library. Penumbra already spent hours in the library, but he needed to get on his feet again. Exploring the tower would take time. He'd not seen anyone so far that day.
A few days after being able to walk again (remember, Batgirl crippled him on his first day) he was walking around the tower and managed to find the gym. Part of his impromptu physical therapy was walking, running, and what he was hoping to do when he saw targets in the corner: target practice. A grin crossed his face as he inspected the target and walked to the shooting lane. "Perfect, I hope the backstop will stop bullets."
Slowly, he raised his pistol and took aim at the target. The long-slide 1911 and competition sights wouldn't miss the target. Slowly he lined up the bullseye and squeezed the trigger.
The amount of times Robin had heard a gunshot go off in the tower amounted to zero. This easily explained why he stopped in his tracks, the files dropping from his hands, and instantly ran the direction he'd heard the shot eminenting from. It was a gunshot. There was no doubt in his mind about that. He had heard them often enough in the sprawling alleyways of Gotham's metropolis that he knew it for what it was. It didn't take Robin terribly long to make it to the gym. The Boy Wonder slammed through the doors and skidded to a stop. His masked eyes took in Penumbra, standing at the range with a gun in his hand.
"What do you think you're doing!?" the rage and accusation in Robin's voice carried clearly as he stalked forward in full Batman intimidation mode. "This isn't a gun range. You could have killed someone!" the Boy Wonder stopped right in front of Penumbra with a scowl on his face. "The Titans don't use guns. Get rid of it, or leave."
"Target practice." The rage in Robin's voice was apparent, but Penumbra wasn't being intimidated today. Looks like I'm getting fired today... "This is the first time anyone's told me any rules about it." He spoke the truth, not taking his eyes from the target as he lowered the gun. Although Penumbra knew Robin was part of the Bat-family, he didn't realize how much he hated guns. The accusations, implying that he'd try to kill someone, hurt. It bothers me too...can't blame him for not knowing that. With trained precision, he stopped, took his finger off the trigger, and ejected the magazine. Finally, he cleared the chamber and held the gun out to Robin. After a moment, he looked at the target again. A hole was clean through the bulls eye.
Slowly, he looked back to Robin, "It's a tool, only used in the most extreme circumstances. It carries fear with it. It can hit something from afar and it doesn't have to kill. Any machine can kill." The empty gun clattered to the floor as he turned to walk to the target. About ten feet from Robin, he started again, "I'm not a skilled gymnast, martial arts master like you. I rely on stealth and distance to keep me safe." At that, he started "clouding" Robin's thoughts and disappeared, he spoke with the everywhere voice, "And even that is a lie. I'm visible, I'm in your head making you ignore me. Machines can see me, you can see me, and subconsciously you know. I'm here."
He reappeared by the target and pulled the bullet from it, walking back to Robin he held it up between them and told the truth, "It bothers me to be carrying a lethal weapon, but the gun isn't the problem. This is. This piece of metal. That said, this piece of metal should be what you blame, not the gun. That's like blaming Cyborg for having a canon on his arm, or blaming your arm for throwing a batarang. THIS is what needs to change. If you don't agree with me, fine. I will be carrying that gun even if it is unloaded."
At first Robin's expression when Penumbra handed him the gun were similar to being asked to hold a ringless grenade or a pile of dog excrement. He managed to school his disturbed expression long enough to take the weapon and set it on one of the tables off to the side of the gym. He tried not to look too disturbed by it, but it was obvious that Batman had gotten the idea that guns were always horrible into his impressionable young mind, and it was there to stay. He listened to what Penumbra was saying about guns, but it was very clear the young leader didn't agree with him.
"If your personal safety is what you're most worried about, then you have no business being on this team," Robin informed the other young man sharply. It was apparent in everything that Robin did that he valued the lives of others before his own. He expected his team to understand that. The lives of civilians came first. Then the lives of his team. Then his own life. He expected the others to follow his example. "We're heroes. We put our lives on the line to help others. That gun of yours puts more people at risk then it saves people," Robin countered. "Cyborg's sonic canon, and my birdarangs are nonlethal."
"The problem isn't the gun," Robin agreed. "But it's not the bullet either. That gun stands for something. It sends a message. Do you really want to share what it stands for?"
"I value their lives more than mine, and I can't remember having to use the gun before." Penumbra looked to see any crack in Robin's armor. Whoever told Robin that all guns were evil really, really irked Penumbra. That's like saying that because a thief wears running shoes, that all running shoes help thieves get away. I can't just go running around in case I get on their bad side, right? He though it might be a good idea to put things into perspective for Robin. Slowly, not trying to sound threatening, Penumbra laid down an uncomfortable truth, "Anything can be lethal, Robin. Don't kid yourself. What would happen if you hit a hemophiliac with one of your birdarangs? Internal bleeding? Death?"
Penumbra paused, then shrugged, "I didn't come to argue that. If you won't let me use any gun, not even something not-lethal, then I'll just have to deal with it." Part of him wanted to leave, but he knew that the alternative would put him on the wrong side of the law. Right now, with Barbara knowing his identity, he couldn't afford that. Politics could make him or break him. What's worse, for Penumbra, Robin was an unknown, and the opposite was true for Robin. If someone's temper flared, there would be more problems. "My skill goes wasted," Penumbra clenched his fist and opened it slowly, more out of 'needing to hold something' than anger, "so, please, could I use some gun that isn't lethal?" Looking over at the gun on the table, he started to walk away, leaving it behind, "I'm sure the policemen who use guns see it as a symbol of cowardice and fear too, and not a sword of justice or tool to complete their job."
"Anything might be lethal, but some things were made for that purpose. If you try to tell me that we didn't invent guns to kill each other, then you're more a fool then I though," the young leader replied derisively, scowling at Penumbra's insistence that their nonlethal weapons were just as dangerous as his gun. The Boy Wonder obviously wasn't buying it, though the idea of killing someone accidentally with a birdarang or a poorly placed hit caused the young man to blanch in horror.
"Don't talk to me about policemen. We wouldn't have to do this if all of them did their job." it was obvious Robin came from a corrupt police jurisdiction, and Jump City honestly wasn't much better. Luckily, here it was more monsters then high level criminals. That didn't mean the police were terribly competent. "I'll consider your request," Robin replied, watching as Penumbra walked away. The boy let his cape fall in front of his arms, leaving his body obscured in a mock of his mentor. "But no guns."
"Bats are nocturnal." Barbara muttered, pulling her blanket over her head at the loud noise that roused her from her beauty sleep. When her sleepy mind finally registered what that noise was, she sat up in her bed. "A gun? Who the hell is shooting a gun in the tower?" Shaking her head, she drug herself out of bed and hastily got dressed, shimmying into her tight pants and tank top before pulling the jacket over her shoulders and zipping it up. A quick look at the mirror revealed her ragged appearance, dark circles under her eyes from nightly escapades, and a tangle of red hair atop her head. With a groan, Batgirl attempted to tame the beast, glad she didn't have to do much with the top that would be hidden by her cowl. After pulling on her bright yellow rainboots Doc Martens, she was good to go.
With a last yawn barely covered by her gloved hand, she blinked the rest of the sleep from her eyes and headed down the hallway in the direction the shot had came from. Arguing voices finally beat the last traces of sleepiness from Babs' head as she registered them as Robin and Penumbra. Great.
When Batgirl reached the gym, she leaned against the doorframe and observed the two debaters. "What's going-" Her eyes finally fell on the gun near Penumbra. Anger crossed her face, her eyes narrowing as she strode between them to pick it up. "That was you?" She demanded, holding the gun in front of Penumbra's face. Blinded by her anger, she brought the side of the pistol across her friend's face, resounding in a fairly loud smack. "What the hell do you think you're doing with this? How does this make you any better than the criminals on the streets?" With disgust, she made sure the magazine and chamber were empty before tossing it back where she found it.
"Guns are for criminals and policemen. Not Titans."
Halfway to the door, Batgirl appeared and initiated her tirade. The shock of being smacked, hard, with a gun, by his FRIEND Barbara stopped Penumbra dead. Instantly, his face started throbbing and the swelling began. After a few seconds of opening and closing his fists in an attempt to hold it together, a pained tear started fogging up his goggles. He managed to croak out a few words as he disappeared (using his powers), "I'm not hurting the innocent, killing anyone, or used it... it's just ...a tool."
At that, Penumbra was gone, and the doors flew open with an invisible force as he ran. He didn't stop running until he was out of the tower, and then he started climbing and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. By now, he didn't care if he was visible or not. All he wanted to do was collapse at home. When he finally got to his roof, he rolled down into his window and just sat there, mask off. They're right he thought, beating himself up while he rubbed his swollen shut eye, I'm... just an idiot with a gun... useless... It had been a while since Alphonse Carey was put in his place, and that terrified him.
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Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
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