The Next Generation

At first, Raven wasn't exactly sure how to react. The single act caused so many sudden emotions to fire up inside her, that she almost had a sudden panic attack. So many emotions she struggled so much with to keep under control, locked away, and forgotten about, were bubbling up and it was nearly too much for her to handle. The feeling lasted only briefly, however, as she soon returned those emotions under control and focused on just the needed ones, to deal with the situation at hand. It had been a long time, years, since she'd ever been in this predicament with another person, and the last time it had ended badly. But this was different. Neal was different. They understood each other on a deeper level than anyone else. After the initial momentary uncertainty, during which she didn't react at all, sitting there motionless in shock, she finally brought her other hand over to join with her other and the both of his, then pulled them towards her chest and leaned forward, pressing back into the kiss.

Raven had a mastery over her emotions, and yet some things seemed to escape her while it came so easily to others. Yes, Neal was concerned that this entire thing would blow up in his face, but ultimately he had faith that things would just work itself out. He had faith in Raven, hope in their relationship, and several strong feelings for the girl sitting in front of him. It was one of the good things about being human; sometimes they just dived in headfirst and hoped for the best, and on several occasions it actually worked. As Raven returned the kiss Neal pressed into it a bit more himself, wanting Raven to have zero doubt as to his feelings or his intent. However, he knew that Raven was still a little uncomfortable with such things. Wanting to be respectful of her feelings, he slowly pulled away but allowed his gaze to stay upon her. He smiled at her, even despite the fact that her power would tell her how happy he truly was. "As I said, I can't read emotions as well as you can.......but I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did"

When the kiss finally broke, Raven slowly pulled her face back, eyes still closed and mouth slightly agape, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips. Her mouth closed a brief moment later, and eyes opened, her gaze drifting up to meet Neal's, as he smiled back at her. At around this time, the rain started to fall harder, wetting her hair down a bit as droplets ran down the sides of her cheeks. Swallowing again, she brought her hands up gently to his shoulders, where they paused briefly before coming up the sides of his neck and then cupping either side of his jaw, softly. She then finally allowed her forehead to press back against his. The joy that she sensed coming from him seemed to instill the same in her.

"Yes, that was... very nice," she said, breathing in deeply again. "I did enjoy it."

Neal's eyes glanced upwards for just a moment as the ran began to fall. In all the excitement and emotion of what was occurring with Raven he had completely forgotten that they were outside and that it was going to rain soon. He didn't have anything against the rain, although he wasn't sure if it was going to affect his concentration or not. As Raven's hands traveled to his face he only allowed his gaze to continue looking towards her, wanting to see every aspect of her if he could. He wanted to see how she felt, he wanted to know that he was treating her right and doing everything that he could for her.

As she spoke he gave a small nod and smile before raising his hands up to take hers in his own. "Well, I believe that we were going to meditate right?" he asked with a tiny laugh as he had almost completely forgotten why they were here in the first place.

"Yes, right, of course," Raven said, clearing her throat and sitting up straighter now. They had come there to meditate, and yet it had turned into something else entirely at first. Now that they had recovered from their short moment of intimacy, it was time to get started what they actually came there to do. She needed only a few moments to clear her head again, letting all thoughts flow from her mind. Within seconds, she was completely calm again, as if what had just happened moments before never did. It did not take long for her mind to slip away into a deep meditative state.

Within moments Raven seemed to completely focus on her meditation again, all signs of what had previously occurred seemed to vanish within her. Neal took a bit longer, taking a little bit of time to just stare at Raven and watched as she went back to meditation. It was a selfish thought for Neal, but he'd be lying if he said he wanted it to be harder for Raven to be so in control. He wanted to see her blush more, he wanted to see that she truly cared for him as much as he did for her. It was too much to expect though, Raven had mastered emotion from a young age, it was part of who she was now.

Neal tried to push the thoughts out of his head before closing his eyes and taking slow breaths. Within a minute, he too was in the meditative state that Raven was.

Meanwhile, inside the tower, Nightwing was waiting by the computer, working on deciphering some data while hoping someone would respond to the image he'd sent out earlier of the assassin. It had already been several hours with no response. Either the other heroes he'd contacted were too busy to take a look, or they had no idea. Either way, the silence wasn't helping their cause. If they were going to have any hope on stopping this new threat, they needed leads, and they needed it now.

It was well into the afternoon before someone responded. Nightwing was about ready to assume they wouldn't be getting any answers today, but just as he was about to leave the computer, the communication signal went off. He instantly pressed the button to bring up the call screen, and waiting for him on the other end was none other than Batman.

"Bruce," he said, calmly.

Batman simply nodded. "Dick."

"Should I assume this is in regards to the picture I sent to the Justice League earlier?" he asked.

"It is," Batman responded. "Though the image wasn't entirely clear, there was still enough to make out the subject. The assassin in question is called Lady Shiva, easily one of the most deadly in the world. Not only that, but as far as pure martial prowess goes, I've yet to see anyone better. That includes myself."

Nightwing narrowed his eyes. "I see... so what does this mean then? Why is one of the most lethal assassins in the world here in New York and taking out our mayor?"

"There's more you should know," Batman continued. "She's well known to work for the League of Assassins. If she's in New York, you can count on them being there as well."

"The League of Assassins..." Nightwing repeated, trying to think back on his knowledge of the group. "You mean the group of killers led by Ra's al Ghul. You've dealt with them quite a few times before, haven't you?"

Batman nodded. "Too many times for comfort. Ra's was always obsessed with trying to purge the world from those he deemed unworthy and taking control of whatever was left to create his own version of utopia. This could be the start of a new plot to accomplish that."

"Then we're going to have to weed out members of the League in New York..." Nightwing muttered. "And use them to get to Ra's so we can put a stop to his plan before it gets out of hand."

"I shouldn't have to tell you to be careful," Batman said. "The League's influence is everywhere They have eyes and ears in more places than you can imagine, so you'll need to be on top of your game. I'm busy with other matters at the moment or I'd come out there and help you myself, but in the meantime, I'm sending someone else in my place. She's also dealt with the league quite a few times and has experience in tracking them down when needed. She should be there shortly."

Nightwing took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. "She? You mean..."

"I know you don't like working with her," Batman said, "but she's the best option at this time. Just make sure to watch her. You know how... out of hand she can get when it comes to the League. Don't let her get out of control."

"Understood..." Nightwing said, turning off the screen.

---

Back on the rooftop, Neal and Raven were several hours into their meditation and slowly coming back to reality. Hey would be brought out of their meditation a little more abruptly than anticipated, however, when suddenly the roar of a jet approached rapidly. When the sound finally came up over the top of the tower and stayed there, Raven opened her eyes and looked up to see the batwing, Batman's tactical jet plane, hovering over the roof.

The bottom of the jet opened up, allowing a dark figure to drop down out of it. The batwing flew off almost instantly, once it had dropped off its passenger. At this time, Raven thought it a good idea to stand up with Neal, wondering who this new arrival was and why the person were here.

"Can we help you?" Raven asked.

"So, you are the Titans..." she said, looking at the two of them carefully. Her gaze wandered a little around the top of the tower. "I've been sent by Batman to help you with your... situation. My name is Cassandra Cain, but you can call me Batgirl."

Although Neal was coming back to reality, his eyes shot open as he realized that something rather loud had interrupted their meditations. He quickly looked up to see what could easily be one of the most recognized symbols in the superhero world. "Are you kidding me?" Neal asked himself as he stood up alongside Raven. Was that who he thought it was? That was Batman's jet after all! Was he really here!?

However, as the figure descended it wasn't Batman himself, but someone else that was associated with him. As she introduced herself as Batgirl Neal just blinked in surprise. Had she come as part of the team that was going to help identify the assassin? Why else would she be here? She was certain of who they were after all. "Nice to meet you my name is Neal, but you can call me Fade," he said before giving a nod over towards her.

"Are you here in response to the request that we sent the Justice League?" he asked curiously before giving a quick glance at Raven and wondering what she was thinking about the situation.

"I am," she responded tersely, walking past him and heading for the door that led to the stairs back into the tower. "I must speak with Nightwing at once, so we can determine how to best go about this. I should expect that by now, he's told you what you're dealing with?"

Raven blinked, following after Batgirl with Neal. "He hasn't said anything to us yet. We've been... meditating on things."

"Well, Batman should have contacted him a short while ago about it," she said, heading down the stairs. "I suppose you'll find out when we're all together."

Raven merely glanced back at Neal and shrugged. Apparently, Batgirl knew exactly what was going on, but wasn't saying anything, and Nightwing also knew now, but hadn't told them yet either. It was a mystery waiting to be revealed until the Titans had all gathered in the main lounge, which they did several minutes later.

"Cassandra," Nightwing said, as the two met face to face.

"Nightwing," she responded, giving him a brief handshake.

When their hands clasped, he pulled her in closely to whisper to her. "Remember, you're working with the Titans on this. You follow my lead and do what I say. Got it?"

"Of course." Batgirl pulled her hand back and took a stance next to Nightwing as the others arrived.

"Okay, so care to tell us what's going on?" Cyborg asked, sitting down on one of the couches. "We wouldn't have been sent help if someone hadn't figured out what we were up against."

Nightwing started to speak, but Batgirl cut him off. "The assassin who chased off last night is called Lady Shiva. She works with the League of Assassins, a group of killers led by a man obsessed with cleansing the world of the unworthy and rebuilding it in his image. Their influence has found its way into this city, if if they're not stopped, they will gain total control before long."

Nightwing glared at her for a second, then took over the explanation. "We're going to have to track down the members of the League that are in the city and use them to find out where the leaders are hiding, most notably Ra's al Ghul, the top dog, and his daughter, Talia. If we can stop them, we can stop the League's plans for the city, whatever they are."

Neal returned the shrug towards Raven, having no idea what was really going on. Apparently Batgirl was already on her way when Nightwing was informed? That or perhaps he just didn't want to bother Neal and Raven during their meditations. After all, Neal did say that he was planning on going back to bed shortly. Still, the only way that they were going to figure anything out was to just press on and ask some questions.

As they finally all met up Neal watched as Nightwing greeted Casandra. Something felt off about their greeting although he couldn't place his finger on it. It seemed like Nightwing was tense about something, but hadn't these two worked together before? Neal just shrugged it off, assuming that perhaps he was getting the wrong vibe of the situation. This wasn't the best situation to be in after all.

Neal listened as the situation and everything that had been gathered was explained, unfortunately Neal had no idea what it was that they were talking about. As Nightwing finished his explanation Neal put up his hand. "Sorry to interrupt, but League of Assassins? Ra's al Ghul and Talia? Who exactly are these people? I've never even heard of them," he admitted as he looked at all of the Titans as he spoke. "And if they're so secretive, how exactly do you plan on finding the members in New York?"

"You've never heard of them because they don't exactly announce their presence," Batgirl responded sharply. It seemed rather obvious, didn't it? No secret society was going to broadcast their existence to the world. "They operate from the shadows, behind the scenes, and their influence reaches all over the world. You could have met a member of the League before and not even know it. That's how wide spread they are. You just leave tracking them down to me. While Lady Shiva is a master assassin, she has personal habits that she doesn't break, habits I'll be able to use to locate her. Once we've found her, we can track her back to the rest of the League."

Beast Boy scratched the side of his head. "Um... you must be really familiar with these guys to know one of their best assassin's personal habits."

"I've dealt with them enough," she said quickly. "Just trust me, when it comes to locating them, I'm something of an expert."

"And what would the... expert have us do?" Raven asked, narrowing her eyes. Something about this woman was rubbing her the wrong way.

"Go about your normal business, whatever it is you do," Batgirl responded with a flippant wave of her hand. "I'll get to work immediately and contact you all when I've found something. We'll need all of us to have any hope at taking on the entire League, once we've found it."

Neal just raised an eyebrow as Batgirl responded with a less than kind remark. Neal just wanted to know what they were going up against so that he could being to prepare. He didn't want to walk blindly into enemy territory before learning something about them first. He made a personal note to shoot all questions to Nightwing from now on. Much like Raven, Neal was already beginning to dislike this girl for her attitude. How could she work so deeply with the league to know one of their personal assassin's routines? He wondered, but didn't voice it out loud.

As Batgirl told them all to go about their usual business Neal couldn't help but shoot a look towards Raven and raising an eyebrow. The way that she phrased her question made him believe that she was thinking in a similar fashion to him. He made a motion with his head towards the hallway, wondering if they should leave and talk about it.

And then just like that, Batgirl was out the door to get started on her investigation, not involving any of the Titans or including them in her plans. Instead, she would contact them when she found something. At least she was a team player... Nightwing let out a visible sigh once she was gone and rubbed his forehead, as though he had a headache.

"Allow me to apologize ahead of time for her," he said, shaking his head. "She gets very... obsessive when it comes to the League of Assassins. Of course, her natural self destructive and reckless nature doesn't help... Batman insists she's a sweet girl underneath all that, but I've yet to see it. In any case, we just have to put up with her until this threat is solved."

Neal turned his attention back towards Nightwing who began to speak after Batgirl had departed. Well that was a relief, and here Neal was worried that he was the only one that didn't like this new girl. At least he wasn't alone in that. He heard Nightwing out the rest of the way and gave a nod. "I guess I can't complain as much as long as she truly is able to help us out," he admitted as he glanced towards the direction that Batgirl had left. "So, do you agree with her? Do you really just want us to wait until she's reported something back?" he asked curiously.

"Unfortunately, I think that's all we can do right now," Nightwing stated. "If she can track down this Lady Shiva as she claims, then might as well let her. She isn't going to be involving us with it either way, so best to continue our usual business. I'll let you know if any alerts come up that we need to respond to. In the meantime... I need to clear my head." And with that, he left the room, heading to the elevators to go outside.

"Well..." Beast Boy said, scratching his head. "That could have gone better."

Yeah..." Cyborg agreed. "Anyway, time to cook us up something to eat, I'm starved.

Neal gave a nod. Nightwing was going to work with Batgirl despite the fact that he obviously didn't enjoy having her around. Hopefully she was going to be able to provide like she claimed she could. After all, if she couldn't provide they were going to be stuck until she killed again. Hopefully they would be able to avoid that though. "Hope ya feel better" Neal called out simply as Nightwing left to go get some air.

Neal than glanced over towards Cyborg who claimed that he was going to cook. "Now you are speaking my language," Neal said before glancing over towards Raven. "If Cyborg's cooking I for one am in favor"

The next few days passed without much progress. Batgirl didn't return to the tower during that time, though she did call in every now and then to inform them of any of her findings. So far, she had little to go on, but there were several leads she was going to be checking up on soon. Hopefully, one of those would lead to Lady Shiva or another member of the League of Assassins. Until then, the Titans continued about their usual business.

Nightwing had been paying a lot of attention to the news lately. It appeared as though that Clint Dickson guy, who was campaigning against the Titans in his run for mayor, was actually now the favorite in the upcoming emergency election. Several other candidates had thrown their number into the hat, but for whatever reason, Dickson seemed to have a lot of supporters, more than one would have guessed. His verbal attacks on the Titans had become more aggressive lately, as well, finding just the right ways to paint them in a negative light, whether or not his supposed facts were entirely true. It didn't matter if they were true; people would believe it if they were afraid they might be true. Either way, things weren't looking good for them.

Later in the afternoon, an alert went off on the computer, calling the Titans to attention. An armed robbery was in progress at a nearby bank, hostages and everything. They were on the job. Within minutes, Raven had them transported to the proper location, where the bank was surrounded by cop cars and police officers with guns drawn on the building.

"What are the details?" Nightwing asked, walking up to the commissioner. He couldn't help but notice that some of the surrounding officers were giving the Titans some strange looks... almost contemptuous.

"Five armed men, twelve hostages," the commissioner explained. "From what we understand, they have the hostages locked up in the bank vault, while three have taken up residence in one of the central offices. The other two are at the vault, at least the last time we spoke to them. if we try to breach the place and take them down, the two guarding the hostages will kill them. They've also promised to kill one hostage for every hour that their demands aren't met. It's been thirty-five minutes."

"Leave it to us," Nightwing said. "We'll be in and out before they even know we're there. Do you have a map of the building's layout."

The commissioner nodded. "I can have one for you in five minutes."

"Alright, good." Nightwing turned to Raven. "See if you can project your spirit in there and try to get a clearer view for what's going on and where everyone is."

Throughout all of this interaction, the nearby police officers were staring at them. One might say they were even scowling. Had their opinions of the Titans been swayed, thanks to Clint Dickson?

Unlike Nightwing, Neal hadn't been paying too much attention to the news. As someone still relatively young he didn't see what the point of watching it all was. He'd vote under his real name and that was going to be the end of it. He still kept hoping that Clint Dickson wasn't going to win, but if it happened it happened and that was going to be the end of it. Along with that, he was also still busily training with Raven ever since Batgirl had shown up. They were taking it a bit easier after Neal told Raven about his nightmares, and thankfully they really did start to ease up. Still, there was little rest for the weary as the Titans received another distress call.

"Hostage situation at a bank? This all seems a bit too familiar," Neal said to himself as they appeared outside of the building. There were police already there, but it seemed like no serious action had been taken yet. Good, now the Titans could go in and stop these guys before something terrible happened. Apparently they were going to start killing within twenty minutes. Of course, if they knew the Titans were coming it was going to be a lot sooner than that.

As Raven worked on getting a better layout of the building Neal couldn't help but notice the dirty looks that they were getting. Something felt off, normally the cops were grateful for the help that the Titans were able to provide.......now it seemed all too different though. Neal waited until Raven returned, wondering what the plan of attack was going to be.

"Two of the gunman are in the central office," Raven said, after returning her spirit to her body. "One is patrolling near the back entrance, another is in front of the vault, and the last is inside the vault with the hostages."

"Alright, our primary objective is to save the hostages," Nightwing said, going over the map of the building layout that the commissioner had retrieved for them. "We'll start in the vault. Raven goes in first and uses her soul-self to possess and take down the gunman inside the vault. When he's disabled, Raven will bring us in. Beast Boy, Cyborg, you get the gunman in the back, Neal and myself will go for the two in the center, and Raven will work on the gunman standing in front of the vault and free the hostages. Everyone got that? Then let's go."

They were inside moments later. Raven projected her spirit into the vault gunman and swiftly knocked him unconscious, much to the shock of all the hostages inside. She then returned to her body and opened a portal for the others to take them into a good position to go after their targets. She finally made her way to the last gunman guarding the vault, using the same method to knock him out, then opened the vault to allow all the hostages to escape, much to their relief. Shushing them all to be quiet, Raven quietly led them out to the front of the building, away from the other gunmen.

Nightwing and Neal stood on either side of a doorway, where the two gunmen they were assigned to take down were waiting inside. Nightwing has slipped a snake came under the doorway to get a visual on their exact locations, so they could be swift and precise, taking them out before they had a chance to fire back. He then rolled a couple of smoke bombs under the door, waiting for them to go off.

"You take the left, I'll take the right," he whispered, holding up five fingers and counting down with them. The smoke bombs triggered, causing the two gunmen inside to cough and stumble around. Nightwing then breached the door and rolled in low, quickly disabling his target with a couple of gadgets.

Neal stood on the left side of the doorway, looking towards Nightwing as he confirmed the plan. These were the last two armed men that were in the bank, these still needed to be taken down despite the fact that the hostages were already being evacuated. Once these guys knew that there leverage was gone, who knew what they might do out of desperation? "Understood Nightwing, ready when you are," Neal said as he turned his attention back towards the door that they were going to burst through any second.

As the two gunmen began to cough from the effects of the smoke, Nightwing and Neal were already on them. While Nightwing was more than capable of handling the situation, Neal didn't have too much experience disarming armed men at close range. He had no idea the horror of what he was about to do. Neal charged forward, quickly throwing a blow to the man's ribs and one to his neck to try to disorientate him. It seemed to work as the man moved backwards from the blows. Neal saw this opportunity and quickly moved in to grab the man's gun from him. However, his enemy wasn't down quite yet.

The man quickly shot his free hand forward as Neal grabbed a hold of the man's weapon. His hand quickly wrapped around Neal's neck and held him there for several moments before lifting up his leg and delivering a powerful blow right into Neal's chest and sending him back. The man was strong, sending Neal back at least a good five feet as he landed on his back. The man quickly reached around to his back pocket where he was drawing out a pistol.

"Dont! Don't do it!" Neal shouted as the gun came into view. That was when it kicked in. More than any of Neal's other emotions his desire of self preservation suddenly kicked in above all others. Several images of various films that Neal had seen flashed through his mind, all of them ended with the hero shooting the bad guy down. It seemed simple enough in the moment, but Neal would soon regret it.

BANG

As the smoke cleared Nightwing would see exactly what had happened as the gunmen that Neal was supposed to take down now had a nice bullet hole right through his neck. He stood only a second longer before falling face first on the ground, a pool of blood now forming where he lay.

Neal was in shock as the realization of what happened just came to him. "No.....that can't be right" he said to himself as he hadn't even gotten to his feet yet. The man was dead though, and not even Neal's power of illusions could change that reality. "Shit.....shit shit shit. I.....I didn't mean to it just happened," he said as he looked over towards Nightwing.

Nightwing didn't even have to say it though. Neal was already beginning to wonder how this was going to affect everyone. The young hero couldn't take his eyes off of the dead man though. Neal had severely hurt people all the time, but he had never taken a life before.

Nightwing's head turned sharply at the sound of the gunshot. "Neal!" he yelled, suddenly afraid that somehow the gunman had gotten lucky and landed a shot on his fellow Titan. But that's not quite what happened at all. Rather, when the smoke cleared, it was the gunman lying face down in a pool of blood, and Neal poised over him with the gun. What the fuck?!

"What did you do!" Nightwing shouted, grabbing Neal by the shoulders and forcing him against the wall. "What was that?! What did I tell you the first day you came to us? We don't kill. We don't kill! You have a whole belt full of ways to take down a hostile. You have your illusions, you even have your soul-self! Why the gun, Neal? Why the gun?! Are you crazy? Do you have any idea what this will do to us? Dickson is already attacking us in too many ways to count, what do you think is going to happen when he starts branding us killers?!"

It was at this moment that the other Titans arrived. Cyborg and Beast Boy stared at the sight with their jaws hanging slightly open. Raven looked from the dead gunman, up to Neal, and then turned her head quickly. She'd never felt shame before, but she felt it now. She then abruptly left the room, disappearing into a portal.

---

"What the hell is going on in there?!" the commissioner yelled, as the gunshot went off. "We have shot fires, I repeat, we have shots fired. Get in there!"

With the hostages safe, there was no reason to hold back now, as the building was suddenly swarmed with police. They found their way to the room where the Titans were gathered to discover the scene. The commissioner lowered his weapon and took a long look at the dead gunman, then up at the other Titans.

"What the hell happened in here?" he asked.

Neal didn't even have any more time to recover before Nightwing's powerful grip came around his shoulder like an iron trap and he forced him against the wall. All he could hear was how angry Nightwing was, the specifics of the words mostly escaped him as the image of what had just happened kept playing itself over and over again in Neal's mind. "I didn't mean for it to happen! It just popped into my head and I reacted!" Neal said in his defense. He knew how weak of a defense it sounded, but what else could he say?

He turned his head sharply as the other Titans finally showed up. He could tell from their expressions that they were less than pleased. However, it was Raven's actions that hurt most of all. She didn't talk to him, she hardly even looked at him. Once she realized what had happened, she turned and left. He just stared after her, not hearing anything else that anyone might have been saying.

Once again though Neal's attention shot up as the commissioner came running again, apparently having rushed in once he had heard Neal's gun shot. The other man didn't even have time to shoot a bullet at Neal before he had been executed. Now the commissioner wanted to know what had happened, and there was no way this was going to end well.

Neal was silent and stared at the ground for some time before looking up. "It's my fault," he said simply as he stared at the man. It was always easy to look people in the face when you wore a mask, but today Neal felt more exposed than he ever had. "I disarmed the man but he pulled out a secondary weapon, I fired on him before he could kill me"

The commissioner let out a disapproving sigh, holding a hand to his head and shaking it. "I see... damn shame. Some people just enjoy throwing their lives away like that." taking out a stick of gum, she started chewing on it, before bending down to check on the downed gunman, fingers pressed to the neck. "Yup, he's dead alright. Call an ambulance, take the body to the morgue."

"Yes, sir," one of the officers said, exiting the room.

"Well... I guess things are taken care of here," the commissioner said. "Could have handled it a bit less messily, but these things happen. Heat of the moment and all that, I understand better than anyone."

Nightwing shook is head. "Not to us," he asserted. "It never should have come to this, Commissioner. You can be damn sure it won't happen again. Isn't that right?" He gave Neal a long glare.

The commissioner nodded slowly. "Of course. Thanks for the help, as always."

One of the nearby police officers blinked in surprise. "Wait, that's it? Commissioner, you're letting them go? One of them just killed a man!"

"It was self defense, Smith," the commissioner said quickly. "Can't arrest anyone for that. Besides, if the only casualty in a hostage situation is a single hostile gunman, I can live with that."

"But, sir-"

"I won't hear anymore about the matter," the commissioner snapped, cutting him off. He was apparently doing everything he could to defend the Titans. "Go help Sanders tape off the scene. Now!"

Neal couldn't help but look up at the commissioner with a curious expression. That was it? Was that all he was really going to say about the situation? Neal thought that Nightwing was going to be the easy part, but it seemed like he was taking it much harder than the commissioner. Neal allowed his gaze to look over towards the body as the puddle of blood had finally stopped expanding thankfully. For a few minutes Neal wasn't sure if it was ever going to stop getting bigger. That stain would now live as a testament to what Neal did today.

Neal couldn't help but feel his hand curl into a fist as Nightwing shot him the glare. He didn't respond or say anything, he merely gave a nod of his head. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a bit mad with Nightwing. Like the commissioner said it was self defense, Neal might have died had he done nothing. Was THAT what Nightwing would have preferred? Neal almost asked it, but part of him was worried about what the answer would be.

As the commissioner shut up the other police officer Neal couldn't help but feel nervous. What exactly did that one officer want? To arrest Neal? To arrest Fade? Who did he think he was? He just stood on the sidelines while Fade risked his life to try to save people. He of all people should have understood how terrifying of a situation that was! Still, it was best not to voice his opinions at this time.

As they left the scene Fade didn't bother saying anything unless he was directly spoken to. Also, no one would notice it unless they were paying very close attention, but his nose was bleeding heavily and not from any would that he had received.

It was all over the evening news, the Titans' break up of the hostage situation, as well as Neal's, or rather Fade's, act of killing the gunman. While the spin was that Fade had done it in self defense, in the process of saving hostages, some were questioning why he had to kill the man. The Titans were supposed to be heroes, after all, with special abilities and skills beyond that of what most people can do. For years they'd been able to break up any situation without having to take a life, even in threatening situations like this one. So why today? With so many other methods to incapacitate a target at his disposal, why did Fade choose the 'shoot to kill' option?

Clint Dickson was already all over it, in a new interview. "The Titans are as reckless as ever now, becoming more and more like the brazen vigilantes that they are. The police might have been able to talk the gunmen down without the need to shoot anyone, but instead they allowed the Titans to go in and do things their way, and as a result, a man is dead. Granted, no one will question that the man might have deserved his fate, but it was still unnecessary nonetheless.

"And of course, the commissioner won't charge Fade with anything, because it was 'self-defense'. But when one looks further into the self-defense defense, a person can still be charged with manslaughter if using excessive and unnecessary force to defend himself. Given that these heroes are so well trained in being able to take down criminals without killing, it would certainly seem like this Fade used such excessive force, wouldn't you say? But is the commissioner doing anything about it?

"Of course not, because he protects the Titans as his personal A-Team, because he's too lazy to want to handle things himself, so he needs to enlist superhero help to get the job done. Adding on to my campaign, I can assure you that a new police commissioner will be appointed, one that can actually do his job without needing to lean on these Titans."