Highschool was never kind to me [Vi]

[Violet Schultz]

"To tell you the truth, I have no clue how I got here," Violet admitted. "The last thing I remember before last night, I was going to sleep in an apartment in Topeka."

She drained the rest of the glass and set it on the table. She was still a bit sore, but a night's sleep can go a long way. She felt a lot better than she had the previous night. However, she still had to start working out again to regain the muscle mass she'd lost.

"But you're right, I wasn't born in America," she said. "I was born in Gascony, France."

Her eyes rested on the black mask that he wore. Didn't he ever take it off? Maybe she should get one... Nah.

((Short post. Sorry 'bout that.))

[Tim Drake]

Tim nodded and then paused; Topeka was barely thirty miles from Smallville, and that was where Lex Luthor had one of his many estates, and while it was an assumption, he knew that it was a fairly safe one to bet that it was at fifty fifty odds Luthor had a hand in Darkbrand's abduction and the tests, however the Pax-Que conglomerate was not owned by Luthor corp but did do a lot of exchanging with them.

Robin thought for a moment then shrugged, he would have to go back and try to find more clues, and he might even have to stop by the offices downtown and look about...

"Well, for now, your safe and welcome to stay here, and if you're interested, and fit the profile, you can come back to Titans Tower with me for some training and a shot at a roster slot on the team..." he paused and looked at her in an assessing manner before completing his sentence; "If things work out."

[Violet Schultz]

Violet jerked in surprise, her eyebrow rising.

"You..." she stammered, "You're offering a shot to join the Teen Titans? You don't know anything about me."

She'd never encountered anyone who was willing to give her a shot. Even the Shadows hadn't allowed her to join until she'd beaten a high-ranking member in a one-on-one battle. Of course, they'd assumed she was weak. Robin was trusting that she was good at heart. That was definitely a new twist... No one had ever assumed that about her before.

Of course, she could see from his body language that he wasn't a reckless person. She doubted that he would ever allow her to join without proving herself in that way.

[Tim Drake]

Robin geld a smirk back; "Not quite, I'm offering you the shot at trying out for a chance to join the Titans, and you're right, I don't know very much about you, so consider the next week or so you're chance to introduce me to who you are, which from what I can tell, you're just hard luck case who's trying to stay out of everyone's way, since you don't have a record according to our facial recognition software." he pulled the almost iconic, thick yellow and black disk shaped communicator up and gave it a small shake, then set the device down on the table before reaching into his belt and pulling out a small dark blue rectangle with muted silver stripes on it and slid it across the table top to her.

"That's a really dumbed down version of what a real Titan carries, it's basically just a simplified and armored up cell phone, but it's secure, and you can call any Titan within a hundred miles of you're location, which for now, is just me, and maybe Cyborg or Raven."

Tim gazed at her then shrugged as he stood and walked to the fridge; "Call it a gut reaction, but I highly doubt that you where some kind of bad guy being all wired up in a stasis pod like that, since most of the bad guys and even just the questionable players don't lock up and analyze their own just for kicks, even more so if they're from out of town."


He wasn't going to vocalize his suspicions about the probable Pax-Que and Luthor connection, at least not yet, because he was just paranoid enough to consider that this might be some VERY involved trap set by Luthor or even Slade, although if the girl was a plant, whoever had planted her had gone to incredible pains to get her here, which could only mean that he was growing (or had grown) predictable and that was something Tim knew he couldn't afford to do, not while the team was scattered about the globe trying to shore up the Titans numbers and presence around the world...


"So what do you say? Want a chance?"

[Violet Schultz]

Violet's face became impassive as he spoke and she tightened the laces of the black boots she'd slipped on in the bedroom. She stood and put the glass in the sink before heading for the door. The communicator remained on the table where he set it.

"Just because the police don't have a picture, doesn't mean that you don't have a record," she said. "It means that you've never gotten caught. Thanks for the help, but I don't think I'd fit in your world. Look up 'Violet Marie Schultz' in that database of yours."

She opened the door and stepped out onto the street and headed away. If 'bad' had anything to do with a criminal record, she wouldn't have a shot at joining the Titans. Although everything that she'd done was just to survive in the world in which she found herself, she doubted that he or his team would see it that way. She was wanted for manslaughter, theft, aggravated assault, arson, and several other more petty crimes. The manslaughter charge was the accidental killing of her parents, which had come about when her explosive powers had first manifested. Theft, granted. She often stole for food. Aggravated assault was for participating in gang fights. Arson, that was mostly accidental.

Still, she doubted that it would matter much to a crimestopper organization. A crime was a crime, and didn't get to be explained away by circumstances. The courts didn't care if you had valid reasons to commit crimes.

[Tim Drake]

Robin tilted his head and then punched a button on the COM unit, and it started scanning the name she had given, and several hits came up so he read the short list, then closed it and stuck it back on his belt as he followed her.

"Okay, so? In case you missed it, your free because I was breaking and entering, and your talking about my quote on quote world like you've tried to fit in before, well before you just walk away, let me remind you that I normally wear a cape and am dressed color wise like an angry stoplight, oh and my friends are from outer space, made of metal, have green skin and one was even fathered by an inter-dimensional demon lord."

He walked around in front of her and stopped, crossing his arms and glaring at her with his mask as he gave her one more sizing up and then spoke flatly; "Prove me right about you, explain to me everything you think is questionable or bad about your past, and then either turn yourself in or stop running from it all and get back in the house."

[Violet Schultz]

She stopped as he stepped in front of her, her dark eyes guarded. Running from her past? She'd been running from it since that terrible summer day in Gascony, when her temper had cost her parents their lives. How could she even begin to atone for all of the mistakes she'd made since then? How could she build a new life on her old life? After a moment of hesitation, she sighed.

"All right, but I'll tell you about it at the house," she conceded. "It's not the kind of thing I want as public knowledge."

Clutching her fist at her side, she turned around and headed back to the safehouse, walking at Robin's side along the way. Her jaw was clenched as she contemplated talking about it. She tried to avoid even thinking about it most of the time. Reliving the past like that was certain to make the nightmares come. She had enjoyed a night of peaceful sleep last night, but that was probably because she was too exhausted to dream.

[Tim Drake]

"Alright, I can understand all of that..." he said with a nod before he started walking back to the house, glad that this was such a quiet neighborhood, since he would stick out somewhat dressed in an armored outfit with a mask on.


Once back at the house, he sat in the living room and propped his feet up on the coffee table and waited for her to begin her explanation, his own carefully planned tale coming to mind as he leaned back and listened...

[Violet Schultz]

Violet sat in the sofa across from Robin, looking unusually withdrawn. Her eyes were on the table in front of them, rather than on him. She was ashamed of her past; she'd been running from it for so long...

"For you to understand, I'm going to have to go pretty far back," she said. "And I don't want to stop once I start, so this might take a while."

She sighed and sat back, still looking at the table, her eyes distant.

"When I was four, I accidentally made a paper catch fire. From that time on, my pyro abilities grew. My mom and dad were so understanding..."

The emotion was clear in her eyes; fond memories were passing before her blank stare.

"One day, I came home from school, and I found the reply for an application for art school in the mail. I didn't get in, and I was pretty upset. My mom tried to console me, but I was so angry..."

Her hand clutched her knee tightly.

"I remember energy building in my body, more than I'd ever felt before. My powers were manifesting in a new way, though I didn't know it at the time. When it built to the point that I didn't think I could hold any more in my body, it all... exploded. My mom was at point-blank range; it was like a bomb going off in her face. My dad was in the study upstairs, but it didn't protect him. I was knocked into a coma from the sudden loss of energy, the entire house was demolished, both of my parents were dead."

A single tear fell from her eye and onto her clenched fist.

"When I finally woke up, I was terrified. My family was dead, and the police were at a loss as to how it had happened. I didn't want to end up in an orphanage, so I ran. I stowed away on the first plane to America I could find. I landed in New York, but I kept going. It was such a huge city, and it was so dangerous at night. I finally arrived in St. Louis, and that was where I met the first of my sensei's. He was a homeless ex-Green Beret, and he taught me how to defend myself. He taught me so well that when the local gang came to find new blood, I was able to fight off their recruiter. Unfortunately, that put me on the radar of every gang in the area."

The words came easier now that she was started, and past some of the hardest.

"In order to keep from being killed, I had to choose a gang to join. I didn't have anywhere safe to sleep, and the Red Shadows specialized in attacking in the dead of night. I fought my way into their gang, and within a few months, I was their leader. No one else had ever had any formal martial arts training, and after a while, people stopped challenging me. They knew they didn't stand a chance in a fair fight. Unfortunately, none of them liked my...policies, I guess they were. I stopped the drug trade and the drug use, and the only crimes that I would let them commit were to get food for those of us who didn't have a home."

A self-mocking smile flitted across her face.

"I was naive to think that I could keep control of them when I was denying them the very things that they'd signed on for. More than once, members tried to kill me to end my rule. Needless to say, it was only a matter of time before things ended badly. In this case, it happened because they finally found out about my pyrokinetic abilities. I hadn't used them in front of anyone in all of my time in America. I was too afraid of a repeat of history. So, when they finally did find out, even my most loyal friends turned against me. Of course, I didn't know it at the time... I really wish I had seen it coming."

Her fist clenched again, this time in anger.

"In the next fight with a rival gang, the leader of their gang plotted with my ex-boyfriend to get me killed. Elias had stabbed me once before, but no one had told me that he'd come back to the territory afterward. Anyway, I was shot in the battle, and they all left me there to die. I was lucky that a woman on the street found me and got me to the emergency room in time. After I recovered, I left St. Louis and headed west. I trained myself to control my powers, but it must've gotten the attention of whoever owned that lab. I went to sleep in Kansas and woke up here in California."

[Tim Drake]

Robin sat and listened, and when she had at last stopped talking, he waited for a few moments before he leaned in and let a small sigh out, then reached up with gloved fingers and pressed his right index finger into the middle of his mask, and ran his thumb and middle fingers around the outer parts of his mask, which caused it to suddenly go limp and fall from his face into his gloved hand, and then with a quick motion, the gloves and bask where in the table between them and Tim stared at Violet, his bright electric blue eyes and still mildly pubescent eyebrows looked back at her, his face now completely human as he ran some fingers through his mop of black hair and sighed.

"My name is Tim, I was born and raised in Gotham City, and I became Robin almost year ago, sometime after I managed to figure out who Batman and the original Robin where, and when Robin became Nightwing, I had to prove myself to be worthy of the mask and the cape of Robin."

He wasn't going to spill everything just yet, but he knew he had to gain more of her trust, just like she had to gain more of his.

"My mother died in a car wreck when I was five, and my dad was injured while working for Bruce Wayne back in Gotham, after he died from complications, Mister Wayne hooked me up with a trust fund, since my father had been his most senior security guard at Wayne Tower, anyway, once I hit 17, I just busted my butt and graduated way early, and it was right after that I figured out who Batman was, and soon I was training under him and Nightwing, then about the time Robin led the Titans against the Brotherhood of Evil, things changed between the first Robin and Batman, after the Brotherhood was dealt with, I became Robin, and I came out here to be with the Titans, and now, under the suggestion of Nightwing, I have the team out trying to recruit more young supers because there are still threats, big ones, and we need to be ready to act with as much firepower as we can get, no pun intended."


He looked from the gloves and mask back up to her and searched her face to try and get an idea on how she'd react, but one thing he'd observed about Violet was that she was very guarded with how she displayed her emotions, so she was a hard read...

[Violet Schultz]

Violet nodded in understanding. It made some sense and it cleared a few things up. It surprised her, though, that he would trust her enough to take off that mask of his. He had worn it every second since she'd met him, even when he was sleeping. That was strange in and of itself, but who was she to criticize? She usually avoided detection herself, just without the mask. She stuck to the shadows, as she'd been trained to when she joined the gang in St. Louis.

"Well, now that that's all on the table, what now?" she asked.

It wasn't unusual in her life not to know where her life was headed, but she sensed that she was at a crossroads. If she took one way, her life would continue along the aimless path, and she would eventually end up somewhere she probably didn't want to be. Maybe even back in that lab. If she took the other way, she would have a team, and the loyal companionship that she'd never experienced, but so often longed for. And the direction she took wasn't solely in her own hands. It was a bit unsettling, but she didn't feel the discomfort she would've expected from such a thing.

Was this feeling... trust?

[Tim Drake]

Tim leaned back and shrugged lightly; "Well, now you recover, only you when when you're at one-hundred percent, so until then you can stay here, I ordered groceries to be delivered, not too much, just enough for five or six days, so then once you're sure you're back to speed, we'll go to Titans Tower, and get you you're own room, figure out some sort of uniform and then start your training, which s much more than how to fight, which I'm guessing you already know how to do."


There was also all kinds of paper work and other things that had to be deal with, and turned into the Justice League, but that could wait for now, at the moment, the main thing was to get her back up on her feet solidly and then start to integrate her into the team, which would be interesting since the team was ll over the place...

[Violet Schultz]

"I'll be fine in a few days," she said with a small smile. "I heal a bit more quickly than the average person."

Her muscles weren't as sore as they were the day before, but she knew that it would take some serious working out before they were back to their fullest. Luckily, she had a healing factor which would help her to advance more quickly. She wasn't afraid of hard work, and experience told her what work-outs were the most effective for her. She didn't doubt that her parkour skills had deteriorated because of her captivity, but a bit of practice would get her back to top form.

"I appreciate this, though," she added. "Seriously, Robin. Thanks."

Her dark eyes were unusually soft.

[Tim Drake]

Tim nodded in understanding then held up and hand and shook his head; "No problem, and the first rule you'll learn about being a Titan is that, when the mask is off, I'm just Tim, but when the mask goes on, it's Robin, as if I where two different people, because as far as the world knows, Tim and Robin ARE to separate entity's and to be honest, that's how I view it personally."

He smiled at her and then picked his gloves and mask up and took his time sliding them all back on and adjusting them as he stood and spoke to her; "Okay, for now, recover, lay low, and keep your COM unit handy, I have a few things to deal with, namely analyzing this info I copied from that lab, and trying to check up on the other Titans." he adjusted his mask one last time before reversing the process that took his mask off, the space-age fabric clinging to his face like an extra layer of skin.

"I'll check up on you sometime tonight, likely late, then I'll come by in a few day's as free time permits, and as soon as you feel your up to speed again, I'll take you to Titans Island.

He extended his hand to her and gave one last smile...


(((OOC: Wanna FF to when she's ready to go?)))

[Violet Schultz]

((Surely!))

One week later...

She was feeling a lot better that morning than she had for a long time. She was finally back to her full self, able to go for a parkour tour of the city without feeling exhausted when she got back. She still sometimes felt sore, but it was a good sore. It meant that she had accomplished a good workout. Of course, her healing factor was coming in handy more and more, helping her recover from workouts more quickly, and giving her the ability to push herself harder than a normal person could have. In any case, she was feeling back to her old self, and it felt great.

She walked down the stairs in clothes she'd managed to convince Robin to buy: a tight black three quarter sleeve shirt and baggy black cargo pants. It was the outfit that she preferred, since the freedom of movement and the night camouflage it offered helped her to stay invisible when she needed to. And the black cargo boots might as well have been soft-soled stage shoes for all of the noise they made when she wore them. With the terrain that the city offered, the thick soles of her shoes were needed in order to protect herself from the broken bottles and other dangerous litter that sometimes was encountered when travelling parkour-style.

Taking her customary morning glass of orange juice, she sat down at the table again.