Enter: Red X

[stoleyoursuit]

Date: June 21 - BEFORE Hull Breach
Characters: Red X, whoever wants to greet him.
Location: Observation Deck
Summary: Shock and awe.
Warnings: TBA

Comments

[boy_wondering]

Coincidentally, it was a Teen Titan who was heading towards the observation deck at that moment. Robin needed a place to think, to turn over the facts and observations and theories and impressions related to Richard Hammond's death... and the observation deck was the best place for thinking. The rest of the colony was too... claustrophobic, too stifling.

Clutching a pad of paper and a pencil in one hand (taking notes helped his thought process), Robin pulled himself up the ladder. He slid the hatch open, pulled himself partway up through the hole in the floor... and froze.

Red X. ...Red. X.

The Boy Wonder sagged back against the edge of the hatchway, staring in aggravated disbelief. "...Great. Just great. They could've sent anyone, but it had to be you."

[stoleyoursuit]

Red X raised his eyes upon hearing the most familiar of voices. At first he was glad to see a familiar face - any familiar face - but then he realized, wherever he was, he was stuck here with at least one of the Titans... or was it them who was stuck here with him?

"Surprised?" Red X said, getting to his feet, his familiar air of arrogance and narcissistic confidence returned to the glint in the eyes of his mask. Red X's cape fell around his shoulders, only the leftmost 'leg' of the X on his chest visible in the dim light. The sight of all the stars behind Red X was almost ominous. "And for the record, whoever sent me here did it without saying 'please.'"

[boy_wondering]

"Surprised is one word..." Robin muttered, mostly to himself. He hauled himself the rest of the way out of the hatch, standing. "Yeah, I know," he said, facing Red X, his own cape falling about his shoulders, cloaking him in black. He held Red X's gaze in silence for a long moment.

They couldn't have sent one of the Titans? he thought, peevishly. ...Then again... there's a lot worse out there than Red X.

Robin sighed. "...We're in the same boat," he admitted. "Whoever brought you here brought me here too. I've been here for months...." He gave Red X a serious look. "We're stuck here together," he said bluntly.

[stoleyoursuit]

Months? But... I only saw him a week ago, thought Red X, but shook his head, casting the thought out of his head. The rest of the words hit him like bullets. Stuck here? Brought here by whom?

"Great," he said, the perturbed tone in his voice enough to cause an entire room of chronically happy people empathize into depression. "Seconds away from a payday worthy of an oil executive, and I end up in Kurt Vonnegut's wet dream."

Red X turned away from Robin, and slammed his fist down on a ledge, causing a slight dent. He took a dream breath, still trembling somewhat, and turned back to Robin. "So, from your displeasure at 'them' sending me, none of the other martyrs of Jump City are here?"

[theshortdoctor]

The Doctor was puttering about as usual, pacing the corridors anxiously, his body full of the suppressed energy to dash about the universe and be in constant peril. He was coming to hate this prison, and think more and more desperately of far-fetched schemes of escape. If only the TARDIS that the Master was growing were mature. If only he knew when they were, if only they had some communication with the rest of the universe, if only if only.

He paused in his jerky, abstracted wanderings when he saw a masked boy near the observation deck. He was about Robin's build and height, and the Doctor, remembering how the young man was fond of wearing masks, jumped to the natural conclusions.

"Hello, Robin," he greeted, "Is this a new outfit? I don't like it." He said the last with a bit of a twinkle, only half-serious, teasing the sometimes over-serious boy.