It's Been a Long Time (EW)

The man walking down the alley had no idea what had happened. But now he was staring down three pistol muzzles. At either end of the alley was a motorcycle. This little street gang had come up with a pretty good system. They turn normally safe alleys into unsafe ones by blockading them with their motorcycles. This allowed them to make bigger catches.

But not tonight. They quickly turned as one of their lights turned on with a flash. A young man, clad in black and orange rushed down the alley. They fired on him, only to have the bullets knocked blocked by the metal from the cycle spinning around him. The wheels and motors began to attach to his wrists. They looked in fear as he got up to them, and with one circular slash, knocked one of them clear into the wall.

"Who's next?"

A girl dropped down from the roof a cigarette hanging from her mouth as she landed drop kicking one in the face cracking his skull in many places as she jumped up kneeing another in the face while at the same time arcing her back and shot in another's knee caps. she straightened her back as she landed looking to the few remaining aiming her pistols at him as she slightly turned her head looking to the boy from the corner of her eye the boy would know her face but see her hair now short and black, her long ears cut down to a little shorter than normal civilian ears, and a nasty scar on her stomach. "You wanna take em or should I...?"

The other two men shook in fear as another person dropped in. At that moment, hotwire wasn’t looking at the newcomer. He needed to take the other two out. With a spinning swipe, one of the remainers was shot into the other. Both were taken out with one go.

Hotwire was ready to go. He needed to keep moving to avoid being spotted by law enforcement. ”Keep safe sir. And I wasn’t here.” He said rather matter of factly. He then turned to face the girl. ”And I must thank you for all the he-” He began. Then he saw her face. ”Hell” He dropped off wide eyed. It was her. Jenny.

Jenny watched him as he took down the last two and stared at him as he started at her with a straight face and she put her pistols back in her boots. "Lived through it... not as fun as they lead you to believe." she started to float up and held her hand out to him as police sirens came their way. "Lets talk somewhere more private since one of us isn't registered." She knew that he wasn't registered thanks to the news and the fact she knew he was apart of that titan group that didn't register.

Hotwire weighed his options. He could stay and take on the police, a fight he could win at the expense of injuring some officers. Or he could go with Jenny. She was registered, sure, but she wasn’t going to fight him right off the bat. So she really did just want to talk. For now.

So he grabbed her hand and let her go where she wanted them to go.

She flew off holding him with one hand, it was weird seeing him again even if she didn't know him all too well. She flew for a bit before landing on a roof with a fire escape so he could leave when when ever he wanted and wouldn't feel trapped. She though he might think that she might arrest or fight him since she was registered. "So... how have you been...?" she said trying to make conversation but her expression didn't really change much.

"Me? I figured you'd know by now." He said. It had been in news. All but two of the titans split. Now... they were rogue heroes, working outside of the law. He walked to the side of the roof.

"We're in hiding" He said plainly. "Nobody trusts us anymore. And the feeling is mutual." He said, looking more glum than jenny had ever seen him. He had always been that happy go lucky nerd of the team... what happened?

Jenny watched him  as he spoke and looked down a bit, she wasn't the only one to go though and change a lot and she knew it. She walked up and gently placed a hand on his shoulder speaking softly. "I know what happened.... I just figured maybe you'd want to talk about it."

She sighed. "Look... trust me when I say it would be far worse...  Just think about being in this same situation but you are alone with no one the be there for you or even talk to you... now doesn't make you feel a little better know you still have your team maters by your side? And if you ever lose them know that you have me. You have done nothing to me to cause me to disstrust you so I don't even if you might dis trust me."

Hotwire looked up. He did have his team. But he couldn't even keep them together. Kale left. In fact... hotwire could make slightly make out his huge tree in the distance.

"Don't get me wrong... I would love to trust you. But I have so much to lose if I trust the wrong people. Especially those on the registered side of this whole thing" He said looking over the city sprawling before them. "It's nothing personal."

She looked down a bit. 'It's fine.... I have bad luck in picking those to trust anyways.... I'm not sure what else i could lose anymore...." she turned from him "If you don't want to trust me its fine... i understand I was just hoping to regain a friend ... I don't have many of those who stick around anymore."

Hotwire closed his eyes. "I see this city now. This place I swore to protect. And it's not the same." He said. The lights of the city were the same as ever, but they were alien to him now. "There's something here. Something just beneath the surface. I just can't place it. Maybe its in the government itself... maybe its in someone wishing to take advantage of it... I just don't know." He said.

"But whatever it is. I'll be ready"

Jenny silently listened to him as he spoke and slightly turned her head to him. "The cuty, it's people, us..... everything has changed Hotwire... its a natural thing to happen... I don't know if the government is taking advantage of us or not but.. if you ever need me call me... I'll be by your side even after the last breath..." she handed him her number. "if the city is being corrupted by it's government it needs heroes to save it.. even if those heroes are look on as it's enemies."

Hotwire took the slip of paper and entered it into his wrist communicator. "Thanks. This... means a lot actually." He said. "I place a call, it'll be through a restricted number on an encrypted bandwidth, so keep that in mind." He said walking to the edge of the roof.

"Glad to see an old face."

She nodded once "Will do and it was nice seeing you again too hotwire, keep up the good work." she gave a slight wave before starting to fly off in the opposite direction of him.