Put the Fire Out | [closed]

[Violet Schultz]

Coming down the stairs from the guest bedroom, Violet ran a towel through her hair, ridding her black tresses of the last of her shower water. Olivia and Ruby had been staying there for a few days, but she had stayed there for security. She and Blaze were trading off shifts so that they could both patrol the city in the meantime. A carrier was dropping off groceries for them, and no one could say that the young mother and her baby were going without anything. She pulled her customary orange juice out of the cupboard and poured herself a glass before replacing the plastic container in the refridgerator.

Blaze would be back at around noon so that she could go on her next patrol. She was almost relieved to go on that patrol. Spending a lot of time as a watchdog for a young mother and her toddler dredged up memories from her former life, and she didn't really like to go through that territory. In a way, she welcomed it, though. Ruby was a sweetheart, and Olivia was just down on her luck. It was like she was giving someone else the chance that Robin had given her. She sipped at the orange juice as she waited for them to come down.

Out of nowhere, she felt a strange flutter in her heartbeat, followed by a sharp burning sensation in her stomach, which she met with a grunt of pain. Burning? When did she ever feel burning? The room blurred and began to spin... And then her eyes went dark. She fell to the ground, the glass shattering as it hit the ground. She was out like a light.

[Tim Drake]

Robin walked up the back pathway, his cape barely waving out behind him, likely because of the slow bleak drizzle in the air and the slight chill in the air, which gladly wasn't made worse by any wind, but then he was warm thanks partly to his cape, and partly from running here from the edge of the downtown area to here, the all purpose safe house.


Walking up to the back door, he let himself in and turned pushing the door shut and then wiping his boots on the door map as he shook his head lightly and ran his gloves through his damp hair.

As he turned around he noticed a trail of orange juice running across the older but clean linoleum, which he quickly trailed up to a shattered glass and the unconscious dark haired form of Violet, who had crumpled up in the floor...

"Darkbrand?" He questioned as he walked up and knelt down, feeling for a pulse on her wrist, and feeling a slightly weak and palpitating rhythm, that seemed to be trying to steady itself and was slowly doing so. "Violet? Violet, wake up!" Tim said as he turned her head to look at her face, a gloved finger pulling her dark blue eyes open, to see that they where heavily dilated and blood shot, and glassy.

Something was VERY wrong. "Robin to Blaze, Come in, Darkbrand's down, I'm not sure whats wrong, grab a TM-90/A unit from the Med lab and get to the safe house NOW."
Shutting his COM-unit and clipping it to his belt Robin carefully picked the sleek dark haired Pyro up and carried her to the Living room, stepping around a baby on a play mat and laid her onto the couch...

[Violet Schultz]

The darkness of the huge antique house was lit by only the warm fireplace, which sat at the center of the spacious family room. The old house had survived for centuries, through regimes and emperors, wars and peace. Now, it sheltered the small family of Doctor Jacques M. Schultz, MD. His small daughter sat on the floor, a tiny brush stroking the fine hair of her favorite baby doll as her parents read by firelight. Pre-school was beginning in three weeks, and when she went off to school, her mother would resume her old job at the library. These were the last few weeks they would have to spend together before their schedules would make them more scarce to each other.

"<Mama?>" the young girl asked her mother in French, looking up at her with big blue eyes. "<Why do I have to go to school? I wanna stay here with you and Daddy.>"

"<Because, flower,>" the dark-haired beauty replied, "<Daddy and I want you to learn as much as you can.>"

"<Why?>" she asked.

The firelight went out, only to be replaced by a flickering lavender flame. Her mother's eyes grew terrified as the flames grew and grew, consuming the ancient house. The young child leaped to her feet, her face white with terror as the flames passed around her and began to encircle her parents. A dark laugh echoed through the house, deep and cruel as only Slade himself.

"<Why, Violet?!>" her mother screamed. "<We loved you!>"

"<Mama! Daddy!>" she shrieked. "<NO!>"

Violet's heart raced as her eyes wandered restlessly beneath the lids. The room grew noticably hotter as she lay there on the couch, tormented by nightmares.

[William Talbot]

Even before Robin had disconnected the COM link, Blaze had begun moving, and moving fast, and the fact that he had a slight head start, thanks to a sudden tremor and then disconnection from Violet via the link, it was like one moment she was there, humming to herself, being all warm and sweet almost, and then, "click!" she was gone...

Grabbing the Medical module Blaze then raced from the Med-Lab and out of the tower at top speed, the satchel he had stuffed the device in strapped to his back as he ran, across the bridge, and up the street, then around a corner, his feet a constant blur of motion, until he got to the parkway, then morphing on the fly, he became a large timber wolf, and was racing along at ill-advised speeds for the suburb where the safe house was, all the while, trying to connect with Violet again, and getting nothing but a far off feeling and a sound like soft crying from the abyss of void thought and torment that was Violet's brain.


Bursting into the house, Will ran through the kitchen into the living room, stepped over Ruby and handed the device to Robin with a huff; "Whoa... okay... *puff* wow that was a workout... Know what happened?" He had morphed back to his human form in the back yard so he could open the door and hand Robin the med-unit, and he was slightly winded, but the look of worry on his face told anyone who wanted to know, that he was worried big time.

"Violet?" he said as he reached out and took her hand in his, a sudden pull on the link causing him to close his eyes and try to grab her mind with his own, the link seeming to be static filled, and garbled.

"Something's messing with her mind..." he noted softly to Robin as the masked boy passed the glowing end of the hand-held unit over their fallen teammate and friend...

[Tim Drake]

Robin moved the TM-90/A over Violet, from her head to her lower abdomen and back again, his eyes locked onto the readout, as Blaze tried to wake Darkbrand up, but then when he was told that there was some kind of outside agent messing with her, he blinked at the wolfish boy and then inquired of him for the details; "Can you tell what it might be?"

Then the Med scanner beeped at him with a readout: Unknown substance present""


His eyebrows furrowed sharply as he considered this, and that made him think of the orange juice that was on the floor.
"Stay with her, put the device on her abs over her stomach and keep scanning, I'll be right back."
Getting up Robin walked straight to the kitchen and scooped up a sample of the orange juice and took a test strip from his belt and but them both into a small plastic vial, gave it a shake, and waited for the bubbles to vanish...


Hmm, wait... Where was Olivia?


{{{We're going to have a posting order soon, stay tuned}}}

[Violet Schultz]

((Italicized things are dreams. Everything else is happening in the real world.))

"Hey, V," a familiar voice called. A sixteen-year-old girl turned to see the boy, his golden hair swinging as he walked. Walking toward him, she embraced him warmly, her blue eyes radiant.

"Good morning," she whispered into his ear as they walked into the dank warehouse together. The other Shadows were gathered around a pair of boys who were horsing around, arm-wrestling, but a few of the girls smiled wryly at the common sight of them, his arm wrapped around her narrow shoulders. They were nigh inseparable these days. Since the end of the last war against the One-oh-Fives, they had been less busy and had spent more time together than they did when every day was a constant tustle for territory and food.

"Come here," Elias said, pulling her into a hug. She missed the meaningful glance he exchanged with his wing-man.

She didn't miss the sharp, sudden pain just below her kidney in her back. A shocked gasp escaped her lips while most of the others stared in shock. Mayhem erupted as Elias's supporters tried to keep the others away from the two, Violet sinking to the ground as blood streamed from the wound. She touched the wound and pulled her hand up so that she could see the blood that coated her hand.

She looked back up, wanting to ask...Why? Why did he do this? Instead of the pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes of Elias, she was faced with the dark features of Will, his cold stare watching her as she collapsed forward.

The heat increased in the little living room, and her heartrate increased again as the dream ended.

[William Talbot]

Will listened distractedly as Robin worked, his senses picking up Olivia and Ruby upstairs in the bedroom, which came as a relief to him, as one of the first thoughts he'd had when realizing Violet's condition was that maybe someone had poisoned her to get to Livvy and Rue, but that didn't seem likely now, as they where the only others in the house at the moment.


Grasping Violet's hand, Will closed his eyes and pressed into the link, touching her mind with his own, and finding a hazed and slightly panicked sensation rather than the warm but guarded feeling he was used to, and the big shocker was that he suddenly found himself in a warehouse surrounded by people...

... Young people, teens of various ages, and most of them seemed panicked or shocked, and he joined in on the shock when he looked down at the ground and saw Violet paler than was healthy, staring up at him with a look of complete betrayal on her face, her dark blue eyes asking a wordless question as a small pool of blood formed under her as she slowly crumpled over, a thugish looking teen boy in a hoodie and a side ways ball-cap tossed a four inch blade onto the concrete floor next to her, bright red blood covering the cold hard steel as everything suddenly faded and he could hear the one sound that would always break his heat right down the middle: A girl crying...


"Violet?" He asked, his voice sounding small yet massive all at once, the long delay the echoing of his voice made not only took him off guard, but also sent a shiver down his back, into his very soul as he realized that he was inside her mind, peeking into her very soul, and right now, all he could make out was a massive empty expanse that seemed almost claustrophobic in a way, the only sounds where the beating of his own heart, his foot steps, and the slow long sad echo of his voice, over the soft, deep sound of tears falling and sobs slipping away into nothingness...

"Violet!" He called out as he saw the faintest of silhouettes form at the farthest reaches of his perception, a soft purple aura about the sleek feminine figure as it stood there, the distance slowly vanishing as he sprinted toward her, the time it was taking to get there seeming entirely disproportionate to how far off she seemed and how fast he was running...


Even as the room grew warmer, Will could feel his powers flare out to match and quell her's the stress wasn't anything yet, but Will knew that if she surprised him that they would need a new couch...

[Olivia Levine]

It had been a hard morning already. Violet was over, and she had been cleaning up the bedroom until Ruby woke up. She had peed through her onesie, and forced Olivia to have to clean that up right away. That was not the big deal though. Once Ruby was hosed down, as well as the bedding and Ruby’s clothes put into the hamper to be promptly brought down. Olivia was used to these gross happenings, since, Ruby was a baby. Babies had no self control yet. Olivia managed to redress Ruby, getting her a fresh diaper, and changing the pack n play sheets. As Olivia zoomed around, she barely noticed the fuss going on down stairs. Ruby was set on the now made bed, where Olivia ‘slept’ (if you could even call it that).

The next “disaster” was just as bad. As Olivia picked up Ruby, Ruby projectile vomited all over herself, and the bedding. “C’mon Rue” Olivia said, getting Ruby undressed again, throwing the new, pink onesie into the pile of pee covered fabrics. The tot was then sat down on the carpet, where she started to crawl, Olivia shut the door quickly, trying to watch Ruby, and rid the bed of the tots vomit. Ruby then managed to find Olivia’s suit case while Olivia tried to get all the laundry into place. The last step of getting down stairs was grabbing Ruby, and in true Levine fashion, that can’t happen easily. Olivia picked up ruby, who let one more bout of sickness hit all of Olivia’s clothing. “Honestly Ruby” Olivia sighed. Ruby was clear of the vomit, but Olivia’s clothes were covered. The teen sighed, running her hand through her hair.

Finally, after getting all the dirty clothes and sheets together, and making sure Ruby was clean, Olivia came down the stairs, grabbing the pile of soiled things, and hurrying down the stairs. As she got closer. What was going on? She hurried down the steps, and placed Ruby down, throwing the laundry by the kitchen. “Whats happening?” Olivia asked. She was nervous, seeing all of this go down… she caused bad luck everywhere she went…

Ruby, however, started to cry, fingers at her chin. She was picking up on Violets thoughts, and it wasn't rainbows and butterflies. Olivia stood there,frozen, looking between the two, feeling guilty for both girls pain.

[Tim Drake]

{{{ OK, lol after some thought, I have the posting order, so starting with this post the order will be, Tim, Violet, Will and Olivia then repeat }}}


Robin walked back to the living room and reached into the case the scanner had been in and he pulled out a small cleaning kit that he used to wipe down a part of the coffee table then set the vial down on, the white test strip now a pale rusty brown color, indicating some type of neuro-toxin, but Robin had never seen that color before and it wasn't listed on the chart, so he took his COM-unit and connected it to the Titans Mainframe, then set the vial onto the small fold out scanner, a wireless connection between the Med-Scanner Will was holding, Robin's Com-unit, and the Mainframe forming as the sample of orange juice was analyzed...


Looking up at their house guest, Robin blinked behind his mask a few times, then looked at the pile of dirty clothing and then the sick looking baby she held, a thought coming to him almost instantly; "Hi... Sorry for all the noise, uhmm... Have you or your little girl had any of the orange juice that was delivered yesterday? Any at all?"

He also had twenty other questions ranging from if she had noticed anything strange about the delivery boy, the sacks of grocery's, or if there had been anyone else that Blaze or Darkbrand hadn't known about in the house the last few days, but he kept it simple for now, since the baby seemed to be highly upset for an as yet, unknown reason...

[Violet Schultz]

The dark place in between dreams was almost preferable to the dreams themselves, but this time, she thought she saw someone racing toward her before the dreamscape shifted again. She didn't have time to think about it.

She was running down the decrepit alley of a Topeka street, her breath coming in short gasps as she tried to escape the men on her tail. The pouring rain and disgusting garbage gave the street that familiar sour smell that she recognized from most of her life, but what she really recognized was that look in the eyes of the men chasing her down. It was the predatory intent of someone who was close to realizing their goal and catching their quarry. She was the rabbit, they were the foxes.

That wasn't what scared her most. No, what scared her was that she couldn't feel any fire, not even within herself. It was as if all of her powers were gone, and the timing couldn't be worse. They were closing in, and they weren't just going to invite her to tea. Relying on all of her experience in parkour and escaping in general, she barely outpaced them. It didn't help that she didn't know the city very well.

Rounding a corner, she raced down another narrow alley, looking for a fire escape that would lead to the roof. She came screeching to a halt as she found herself trapped in a dead-end, no fire escape in sight. She only paused before she ascended the brick wall, using all of her strength to rebound off of the wall so that she could propel herself up to the first window. She felt a pinprick in her arm followed by a strange wooziness, and suddenly she couldn't grip the wall any more.

She fell backward and landed on her back with a heavy thud, her vision hazy.

A bald man bent over her, his eyes cold and his clothing expensive.

"Welcome back, 025-20-B," Lex said. Her eyes went dark again.

Her system struggled to keep up with the demands the nightmares required; adrenaline, heartrate, neurochemicals. But a body can only stay in panic mode for so long before their heart fails...

[William Talbot]

Everything faded away, into a swirl of sensations, so fast it was disorienting, but soon Will knew where he was, knew the sights and smells, even though he had never been to this city, he knew it to be Topeka, and he knew that there was danger close by.

Moving quickly, Will caught a flash of motion from the corner of his eye, a dark haired girl in jeans and a hoodie or jacket of some kind moving like a blur of energy, with a graceful abandon that told him instantly who it was, but before he could call out, she ran into an Alleyway, a group of four to six men converging on the entrance to what he somehow knew to be a dead end, but that wasn't the chilling thing, the chilling thing was that one of the men, a wide shouldered man with not a single hair on his head, dressed in the nicest dark gray suit Will could imagine, reached into his jacket and pulled a strangely shaped gun out, a beam of red lancing into the alley, guiding his aim, before he fired, a silent "Pifft! Click-hiss..." sounding just as Will ran up behind them, Violet's figure falling to the ground with a thud, her eyes slowly rolling back into her head, and her lip bleeding...


"Violet!" He yelled, his eyes glowing as he ran full speed at the men, his fists raised to strike her attackers down, but as he swung, he realized that the men didn't even turn to look at him, despite the volume of his voice when he had yelled, and when his fist came down on the nearest man, Will fell through him, as if his own body was a mist, and it was then Will realized it was truly a dream, and he was just an observer, helpless to lend Violet any real aid...

[Olivia Levine]

Ruby continued to Cry, wiping her eyes and sniffling. She didn’t like what was going on. Everyone was scared, and she didn’t like it. It made her nervous, and anxious, especially at what Violet was thinking. Ugh, too much excitement makes a baby stressed out. Ruby started to lay down on the carpeted floor, cover her ten month old face and cry. Ruby was then lifted up by Olivia and thrown gently over her shoulder as she attempted to calm the tot down. “Hush Bee, please” Olivia begged of Ruby. The elder blonde sat on the small love seat, rocking back and forth as she was joined by the masked stranger. “Oh, no, Its no big deal” Olivia nodded, as she attempted to console Ruby. He asked her about the juice.

Olivia thought, yesterday was a lot less hectic, a lot more laundry, and a little bit less ‘free’ time. The blond bit her bottom lip, and thought. The delivery came from the gawky, acne ridden redheaded boy whom she sees at the supermarket quite often. She spoke to him for a quick moment, before unpacking the groceries, and making Ruby lunch. Ruby had orange juice with her dinner, so, yes. She did have any of the juice. “She did have juice.” Olivia answered ending the play by play in her head. “Is she going to be ok, I’m pretty sure she puked up most of it. “ Olivia said, looking to Ruby as she turned her around, in case Robin needed to scan her too.

Then, Ruby’s face became slightly redder, as she gave one more projectile vomit of whatever was left in her system. The target… Robin….

“Oh! “ Olivia shot up, “I am SO sorry,” The blonde said, grabbing rubys blanket from the floor… it needed to be washed anyway.

[Tim Drake]

Tim's eyebrows shot up as he was sprayed with puke, which wasn't the most pleasant of things to go through, but not exactly on the top ten worst list of things he'd dealt with in his life.

"No it's fine, trust me I've dealt with worse... I think its a good thing she's gotten it out of her system, however, I may need to scan--"

"BWEEP BWEEP!"

Robin's head snapped to his communicator as he chirped at him, his eyes reading the results of the analysis of thee sample, which showed some form of mild neurotoxin and some other chemicals...


"Hmm, I may need to Scan Ruby... This is some nasty stuff in that juice..." While the exact compounds where not yet identifiable it was clear that they where blended to to hit hard and fast, and seemed to be fairly inert in this chilled form, which would mean that Violet's higher body temperature would trigger it, and Ruby's would not, at least, if he was understanding what the early report was on this...

"BWEEP BWEEP BWEEP!"


Looking back at the readout, Robin paled slightly at what was in it and what it truly was: it was a highly refined hallucinogen based off of a gas formed neurotoxin that was highly reactive to body heat, and according to the read out, the higher the heat, the more powerful the reaction, and that meant that it was all based around...
"... RDx-6, Acenosulfate, Dextratcromothym... A highly reactive liquid compound between the temperatures of one-hundred and one to two-hundred and five degrees Fahrenheit, Inert and stable in all temperature ranges--"

Robin muted the audio overview as he glanced over at Darkbrand and Blaze, both of their eyes where closed, and Blaze was muttering to himself every now and then as if in a trance, and Robin could only guess that he was now linked to her in her dream state, since Dextratcromothym was a brand new, highly experimental hallucinogen and RDx-6 was a powerful sleep aid that could knock out a full grown man for a full twenty hours, which meant that Violet could be out for much longer than that, given her smaller size...


Unplugging his COM-unit he dialed a rarely used number, knowing that it would be his only hope as saving Darkbrand with as little damage as possible to her system, since doing nothing or trying to find or make an antidote would be doomed to almost certain failure...

[Violet Schultz]

A dignified woman of forty years stood in the midst of a garden of irises, their purple petals brilliant in the midday sun. Her long black hair encircled her face, framing a pair of dark brown eyes which showed a kind intelligence. With a different cast of emotions, her narrow face could have looked hawkish and severe, but the gentleness of her expression could have disarmed a rabid tiger. At her side, there stood a graying man of the same age, his silver glasses not dampening the effect of his deep blue eyes. There was a thoughtfulness about him which, combined with the care of his smile, spoke of a man with determination to help others.

Violet approached them both, her eyes wide in disbelief.

"<Mama?>" she asked. "<Papa?>"

Their eyes turned to her, confusing replacing the calm of their face. Looking up at her husband, Aurelie Schultz stepped backward, fear registering in her eyes. Jacques stepped in front of his wife, his stance protective. Violet recoiled as if slapped. Why did...why did her parents look so afraid of her? They had never been afraid of her. Never. Even when she found out about her abilities, they had always been supportive. She'd worried at first that they would be afraid of her, but...

"<Get away from us,>" her father warned, his eyes fearful but firm.

"<But...Daddy, it's me,>" Violet said. "<It's your daughter!>"

"<I don't have a daughter,>" he said coldly. "<I have a freak who murdered her parents.>"

"<Daddy...>" she trailed off, taking a step forward, her hand extended. A few rebellious tears rose in her eyes.

"<I said, 'Get away!'>" he repeated, backing up another step. Her mother cowered behind him.

[William Talbot]

The suddenness of the transition was jarring for Will, but he soon had his bearings, and found that he was standing at the edge of a lovely garden, row upon row of lovely purple flowers, the name of which escaped him at the moment, bent around the side of a stone house that looked as if it had come straight out of a movie about the post World War two French countryside, the vines and other flowers that grew along the side gave a pretty picture, but Will knew it was almost just that, his other senses told him that this was far from real, the flowers barely gave any fragrance other than of a potent chemical, flooding a stream of blood, partly digested food now mixing with the odors his nose was picking up on, the scent of others telling him that...

His head hurt, his mind couldn't decide what was real and what was the dream as the scent of fresh cut grass, and blossoming Irises filled his nose, a slightly damp musty twinge backstopping the scents as a feeling of heartbreak and fear filled him, and he turned to see Violet, in battered street clothes, not unlike the ones he had worn when they had first met, stood a few feet from a startled and frightened couple, who bore a VERY strong resemblance to Violet, so much so that Will would have sworn that if they where much younger, they could have been her older siblings or even her parents.


Moving like the wind while taking only a scant few steps, Will was suddenly at Violet's side, his eyes deep and glowing as he reached out to her and rested his hand solidly on her shoulder at last...
"Violet... It's not real... Vi please hear me, it's Will, you need to listen to me, you've been poisoned or something, you passed out in the kitchen of the safe-house and you've been in a distressed sleep ever since... Violet... Violet? Violet!"

He called and called to her, but his hand suddenly burned, for the first time in his life he felt the pain of being burned, and as he pulled his hand away, a flash of lavender flame followed, smoke trailing from his fingers as he sucked a breath in through his nose as he saw for a flash, a pillar of purple flame, dark purple, almost navy like blue hair, the palest lavender eyes, and pure royal purple skin, shifting as if liquid flame instead of skin.

Will for the first time in some time, felt real true fear as he looked at his hand, his skin a translucent blue, flaming patterns having formed under his skin, flaming blue patterns that begged to be vented out, and it was then he realized that reaching Violet was going to take every ounce of will power and every bit of his skill and cunning to cut past her barriers and defenses...


"Violet... Please..." William murmured as he gripped her hand a little tighter and willed himself to find a way...