Chapter 32

Making a cure to the Man-Bat plague that was going around the city had dealt a pretty good blow to whoever was behind it. But even still, it only meant dealing with the creatures was much easier and safer. Whatever method they were using to distribute and test on people only continued to grow.

To the point where a section of Jump City had to be cordoned off due to the number of Man-Bats that were located within it. A few of the Titans and myself of course were dispatched to the area.

Robin left the tower too, but it wasn’t to join us. Instead, he was going to try to get any information from the people who were victims of the first man-bat transformations.

Personally, I thought it was a meaningless effort. The police were still gathering information and still asking people for information. And considering not only were the Jump City police better equipped than the GCPD, they were also much less corrupt. So, any news that came up in the case was immediately forwarded to us.

It also helped that even decently equipped officers didn’t really want to take their chances with a Man-Bat. And really, who could blame them? I sure as hell wouldn’t be risking it if it wasn’t for the fact that I was on a team.

When we arrived, Aqualad had decided to take up the mantle of ‘acting leader’. Which was pretty meaningless considering how easy this task was going to be and that it won’t really take much time. But I wasn’t going to speak up against him. I didn’t care enough to get on his bad side for it.

If anything, the only one who could even claim to be a ‘leader’ for this mission would have been Cyborg. Considering he was the main person helping us communicate with each other.

Despite the area and surrounding apartment buildings being absolutely filled to the brim with transformed Man-Bats, it didn’t take long to deal with them. My cure was pretty fast acting, and I was pretty much an infinite supply of the stuff…

Not because I would create it on the spot. No, that would be absolutely stupid. I didn’t nearly have enough blood for that.

Instead, I had already prepared for something like this…or rather, Robin hounded me to prepare in advance for something like this. Which meant I had plenty of vials on hand to dish out. A supply that will be near empty if all the vials that were prepared were used.

And considering the way everyone was distributing the cure, that seemed pretty likely. Cyborg being one of the few that would actually uncork the vials before pouring it on the victim. The others either throwing the vials, or in Galatea’s case, coating her hands in the stuff and just punching them out of the air. Which was still better than her previous method, which had been to just punch them with the vial still in her hand.

Speaking of Galatea, it was worth noting that she had only fought with the man-bats in the air for about half the time we were there. Before going back to ground. Considering the amount of sweat that was on her brow, as well as knowing very well what it actually took to get her to sweat…

Well, it didn’t look particularly good, is what I’m saying.

Due to the importance of my status as the person who can make the cure, I was kept mostly in the backlines, but not far enough to not run into the victims. That way I was still contributing as well as easy to get to in case anyone needed refills.

Yes, that’s right.

I had become a glorified soda machine.

What an honor.

“HELP! Please someone, help!”

Due to being on the backlines, it was unusual to hear…anyone really. Considering most of the people within the contaminated zones had already been escorted out by police. And considering there weren’t many transformed man-bats around…there wasn’t much reason to stay inside.

I looked to my left, and then my right. Unfortunately it seemed that there wasn’t any police officers or Titans nearby willing to do the job for me. This day just gets better and better…

I continued to wait in the middle of a street. The cries for help seemed to be moving, and a screech from a man-bat seemed to echo after him. While I’d love to say that I could instantly pinpoint his location due to his screams, the truth was I couldn’t. Not that there was really any reason for me to try.

He was running around, being chased by a man-bat. Which means odds were that he’d come to me instead of the other way around. In which case it’d save me some time and effort.

Sure enough my prediction became correct as he ran out of a building. Claw marks on his upper left arm and torso that were bleeding a bit. Sweat seemed to be just dripping off of him as he ran at top speed onto the street. The moment he saw me, he increased his pace until he was on top of me.

…He smelled worse than he looked.

“Y-you got to help me! T-t-there’s a m-monster just-“

“Stop screaming.”

I calmly instructed, as he looked back to me with wild and panicked eyes. He shook his head as if he didn’t understand what I had just said. No, it was likely he didn’t care about it. His emotions were running too high for him to really digest anything that anyone said.

“There’s-its, its over-“

Suddenly a Man-Bat creature came barreling in from the same path he had come from. Causing him to panic and begin to touch my arm. He started babbling nonsense very loudly before quickly falling to his knees and then to the ground.

The man-bat creature was in a similar position a few moments later.

If this was what I was in store for the rest of this mission, I was going to be very annoyed. Maybe next time I can request to just stay on the backlines and out of the containment zone. It wouldn’t be that hard to argue. Play up how important it’d be for me to support the police in making sure none of the man-bats escape and civilians are cared for. Yada yada.

Thankfully the mission only lasted about an hour and a half more. Which is also how long it took for my supply to dwindle down to only a fraction of what it had been before.

A tad annoying, but nothing that I couldn’t fix with time. I made sure to keep an eye on Galatea as we headed back to the Tower. She seemed fine, but whether that was because she actually was or she was just putting on a front was anyone’s guess.

From there, the day had progressed in much the same way as usual, except later that night. I was approached by a large portion of the Titans. Specifically, Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Kid Flash and Aqualad.

I was invited to a boy’s night out.

I noted that taking a break from the Lab would be good for me, so I accepted.

The first place we went was normal enough. A pizza place to grab some dinner. Mostly at Beast Boy’s suggestion, and afterwards Kid Flash had his own suggestion.

Going out to a club.

Not a strip club thankfully. I didn’t have much in the way of small bills so that would have been a disappointing event. Robin, Cyborg and Aqualad were a bit against the idea, but it didn’t take much convincing to win them over.

The club bouncer took one look at us before simply deciding to let us all in. Even Beast Boy. From there our party started to become a bit more…unstable. Beast Boy, deciding to do the most Beast Boy-esque action he could take, decided to show off how much of a party animal he was.

By of course turning into animals.

Thankfully most people weren’t freaked out by this. Likely due to him actually having decent socializing skills. And probably a bit of it due to just how…unintimidating he looked in his normal form.

Cyborg seemed to gravitate to the corner near the bar. Attempting to almost be out of sight. Everyone besides Beast Boy joined him, and actually had a few drinks. Well, maybe not Robin. He always ordered when no one was around.

It didn’t take long for us to start bonding over the one thing we all shared in common. Wanting to fuck chicks. Which lead to us daring each other to ask out the various chicks in the club in costume. Just to see how far we could get.

Kid Flash was the first, and he had actually been pretty lucky. The girl he asked out was actually pretty receptive to him, but over time he seemed to say something that started to get on her nerves. Prompting her to leave. A round of chuckles happened before the next guy was up.

Which was me, of course.

I went up to a hot punk chick with tattoos running down her left side. It didn’t take her long to realize what I was there for and quickly informed me that she was a lesbian. Despite the laughter that greeted me back at the table, I didn’t really feel any real disappointment.

While Aqualad kept refusing, we finally broke him down into at least giving us a reason. There was a girl back home in the ocean that he was sweet on. Causing us to make a few jokes at his expense before moving on.

Cyborg had been staunchly opposed to this whole game since it’s inception. Or rather, he had been opposed to being one of the ones to hit on a chick. Otherwise, he was completely happy to be another one of the guys.

However, after having a few drinks, he worked up enough courage to actually give it a try. He did so for about a minute on some blonde chick in a ponytail and about several hundred tacky looking plastic bracelet looking things. She seemed to gently let the guy down, leading him to come back to the table.

But the atmosphere in which he had done so was much different than everyone else’s. A sort of genuine pain was on his face that made us think twice about joking around with him. So instead, we just continued on.

After a bit more drinking, we all pretty much started to drift away for a bit. Whether it was to take a piss, continue to hit on chicks, or to just get some air. After getting a bit tired of drinking, I went onto the outdoor patio to get some air myself.

Upon which I was greeted by Aqualad who offered a nod. It was a quiet little place, with the noise of the club kept back by two pretty impressive almost sound proof sounding doors.

“…Law.”

I looked up at Aqualad who had called out to me. He was wearing a serious expression, but that didn’t tell me much. He was always wearing that expression, and I didn’t know him well enough to be able to notice any slight deviations.

“Yes?”

He paused. Looking towards the wall as he seemed to think. Was he working up the nerve to tell me something perhaps? Interesting. Finally, he seemed to have come to a decision before facing me once more.

“I’ve…been informed a bit about your past.”

Mmm. You know, that didn’t quite hit as hard as I was expecting it to. Perhaps because I’ve already had time to work up my reputation in the group. As the first impressions are the most important, I knew very well that if any of the other Titans learned of my past, that I would be judged a lot less harshly for it.

Ah, just thinking that sentence has revealed something else to me that I had been unaware of. I didn’t seem to care much about Aqualad. We didn’t really hang out together nor did we really talk outside of the mission. Likely due to how both of our personalities didn’t exactly mesh well with each other. He was a very no nonsense and serious kind of guy who took his work overly seriously. Which meant that he wouldn’t be the one to go out of his way to start up a conversation.

My personality was different, but considering most of my attention towards the Titans had already been monopolized by the others, I just didn’t have time to give him any. Nor would he ask for it.

“Alright.”

I acknowledged with a nod of my head. At the very least he was informing me that he knew. Giving me information that I didn’t have previously. Which was beneficial in a way.

But it was obvious that him telling me that wasn’t the reason he started up this conversation. No, he didn’t strike me as the kind of person to do that.

“I was told that you’ve…killed people before.”

Hmm? Ah, how peculiar. I had always gotten the feeling that the Atlanteans were a bit more militaristic than most. Which pointed towards them being not exactly queasy when it came to war or bloodshed.

But it would seem I was either wrong, or that Aqualad was a outlier.

He continued to look at me silently…was he waiting for an answer perhaps? Confirmation?

Logically the best course of action was to deny said actions and shift the blame. Something that was done quite a lot by the social workers before Juvie. I could say that I was used as a tool to dispense suffering, and that wouldn’t be incorrect.

And yet…

For some reason I felt relaxed. Perhaps it was the alcohol, or perhaps it was simply due to the good mood I was in. Either way…I felt like being truthful.

“I have.”

I confirmed Aqualad’s words. Instead of flinching or giving me a disgusted look, he simply nodded. A much calmer look coming over his features.

“Thank you. I appreciate you being truthful with me, so I will do the same. I do not think I can trust a murderer to have my back…but I can at least try.”

After a few moments, he left. Leaving me alone on the patio with my thoughts.

Heroes…they had such a strange way of thinking. It was the one thing I could never understand about them. But then, if they didn’t have that spark of insanity…

Then they wouldn’t be heroes, would they?