Substitute Teacher (AmaZin and Paige)

"Greetings, students. I will be your substitute teacher for this history class today." The thin man in a black suit wrote "Mr. Patterson" on the white board. His red eyes looked over the teenagers. The next generation looked promising.

Mr. Patterson leaned on his cane and addressed the students. "Today's lecture is about meta-humans. Is anyone in the class a member of the Teen Titans? No? Perhaps the HIVE Academy? Nobody wants to talk, and I can't blame you. In the current age, it is not considered socially acceptable to be a meta-human. And yet, statistics suggest that there is at least one meta-human in this class."

Patterson looked around at the students, searching for a reaction. "Who could it be? I think we shall need to draw out this meta-human before we can continue with our lecture, for visual aid, you understand."

Patterson would grab the face of a female student in the first row. His hand would suddenly transform into butter and would push itself into the young girl's mouth and nose. The girl would find herself unable to breathe and unable to escape as the butter solidified.

"Now then, are there any Titans in the room who can save this poor girl?"

Suddenly from the side a bright blue laser would shoot towards Butterfinger's hand in an attempt to sever it from the butter in her mouth and nostrils. The culprit of such a blast came from Teen Lantern, not a Titan, but a hero none the less. Mark had sensed the commotion from the class next over. So yes, Butterfinger's assumption was almost correct, but then again, Mark Rowan wasn't a meta-human. He was a member of the Blue Lantern Corps, protectors of of universal Hope. "I'm sorry, does a Nighthawk count?" TL had sensed the situation due to the amount of fear generating from that one location; his ring could locate strong emotion. Immediately, he thought he should check it out and faked a stomach ache to get relieved from class, when actually as soon as he stepped outside the room he quickly changed into his uniform.

"What about someone who lives with the titans?"

Paige stood by an open window in a defensive pose. SInce she wasn't a student she had been obsriving the class from a near by tree to see what public shcools were like considering she had only been home schooled before she ran away from home. Her hands and the jewel on her fore head started to glow red showing she was ready yo fight.

"I'm not sure what a Night Hawk is, but it will suffice." The boy in the blue outfit had severed Butter Finger's hand. Not bad, but the supervillain teacher had yet to be impressed. His hand reconnected almost instantly, but he pulled the butter out of the poor girl's face. There was no need for her to suffer anymore. She had served her purpose.

A girl shouted from the window. She said that she lived with the Titans, interesting. "A second meta-human? I guess it's true. You're never more than 5 feet away from a spider. Please, both of you, sit down."

Mr. Patterson, aka Butter Fingers, would write "Heroes" on the white board.

"This term, "Hero" is used most frequently to describe meta-humans. This is due to the prominent members of "superhero" organizations. The second most used term is "supervillain," which denotes evil intentions. These titles have created a barrier between meta-humans and "normal" society. We never call the mailman a "Hero" or a "Villain." You don't title your friends as "Heroes" or "Villains." So why do we title meta-humans as such? Perhaps one of our guests has an answer."

Paige seemed confused as her ears fell down making them point straight out. She stayed in the same position even though he asked her to sit down. Her mouth droped in confusion. As he finished wrighting on the white borad and asked a question. Paige's face turned red and her fists clenched harder. She flung her hands backwards as she sreamed at the teacher her ears now down all the way.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOIN ON HERE!!!!"

She huffed in anger through her nose with a red face still in the same position waiting for an answer.

"I'll stand thank you very much." Teen Lantern, was looking peculiarly at the man. He had freed the girl, so what was the point of drawing them here if he didn't want to fight? Just to lecture a classroom and assuming him, plus the new girl who he could only assumed to be a new Titan if whats he said was true, a leson about why calling metahumans heroes and villains was illogical? What a bunch of crock, and a waste of time.

"You don't have to be a meta-human to be a hero and you don't need powers to be a villain. Take for example yourself; anyone who terrorizes children and trespasses on private property can be a villain, while I, a Blue Lantern, who receives his power through a ring that harnesses the power of hope am the hero." That being said, Lantern constructed a gun with multiple other barrels propping out form all over it in his palm, akin to Hellboy's "Big Baby" and pointed it at Butterfingers in an effort to intimidate. "Now I suggest you give up now sir. Since you know so much about hero and villains, then you'll know in your role as the villain it is your job to lose in epic and usually embarrassing fashion right about now."

Butter Fingers raised a hand to calm Paige. "A lecture. You should know this, even if you don't attend public school." He then listened to Teen Lantern's answer. As expected, TL held to the idea that the 'villains' caused the problems and the 'heroes' solved them. Butter Fingers shook his head slowly.

"That is a very popular answer, Blue Lantern. However, let us look at the evidence. I smeared some butter across this girl's face, and you respond by producing a gun. Your weapon could easily break through the walls of this building and kill innocent students in the next room. Do you not realize that you are putting all of these children at risk?"

The students looked tense as they looked between the 'teacher' and the Blue Lantern's gun. Most of them didn't know who either of them were. It looked almost certain that a fight was about to break out. The last two times metas had fought in the school, it had been destroyed.

"And I am not trespassing, I am actually a substitute teacher. Are you really willing to destroy this school simply to end class early?"

Butter Fingers leaned on the teacher's desk, waiting for a response.

Paige stoped her defensive pose and put her hands on her hips looking a TL.

" He has a point you know. I'm not saying useing your powers on a kid to draw out a hero or metahuman is ok but, he used butter and you pulled out a gun."

Paige seemed to claim down a bit. She started to float in the air in a meditating position but her hands were crossed and her eyes were closed.

"And it's good to know that you aren't tresspassing Mr. Butter dude so we can take that off the crimes list. This seems to be an itresting school I might even enroll after i put you in jail. you did injure or atleast tryed to injure a student."

She opened one eye to look at the teacher.

The Blue Lantern conceived what Butterfingers was saying, along with the other girl. It was most likely a lie or a trick, but at the same time Mark was genuinely a nice and trusting guy. So for now he would stand down and immediately allowed his gun to dissipate as he begrudgingly folded his arms and allowed his blue hue to completely fade away leaving just a boy with a ring standing in front of the substitute teacher in uniform. "Ok then, I'm going to give you a chance and I sincerely hope you don't prove me wrong. Now like she said you still have to answer for applying to be a teacher today and needlessly attacking a student, but other than getting fired I don't think there's a need for real violence either. Now speak your piece, I'll listen, but only because I need to watch the class until your lesson is over. Just to make sure you don't try anything."

Butter Fingers nodded to the girl who had talked the Blue Lantern down. "Thank you, miss. You seem smarter than the average vigilante. I can tell you have a bright future ahead of you."

Fingers drew two circles on the white board. He labeled one "Heroes" and the other one "Non-heroes."

"You keep insisting that I must go to jail, Blue Lantern. It seems to me that you are suffering from ethnocentrism. Let me explain. You 'heroes' believe that anyone who opposes you, any non-hero, must be a villain, and furthermore must be beaten and put in jail."

"However, do any of you feel guilt for eating your pizza? No. The reason is quite simple: you are far more advanced that the pizza, so it is yours for the taking. In the same way, meta-humans are far more advanced than normal humans, so is not humanity simply a resource for metas? Of course, violence is never needed, not even in this case."

Butter Fingers turned on a projector screen, revealing a new bridge in Jump City. "This bridge cost the city $20,000 to build. Unfortunately, it has been laced it with explosives, which will detonate unless my demands are met. I wish for a mere $5,000, which is only a 4th of the price of the bridge. If I am given this $5,000, I will happily disarm the bombs and go home. However, if anyone tries to disarm the bombs, I will detonate them. Don't worry, there will be no intentional loss of innocent life. The road that leads across the bridge has already been blocked, and the police are already standing by to make sure nobody gets too close to it."

Fingers smiled at the two heroes. "Here's where it gets fun, children. Whoever brings me this money has to be a 'hero.' I'm not sure how you will get this money. Perhaps you will rob a bank. In any case, it is up to you to save the city $15,000 dollars and give me the resources I deserve. This is your homework."

Fingers chuckled. And people said school was boring.

As Butterfingers thanked her Paige desided to sit down in the frount row at a desk. She took out her pen and note book and started to take notes like she was a real student that was listening to an everyday lesson. She coninued to take notes unphased by him saying he wasgonna blow up a bridge. After he was finshed she put down her pen and held her note book in the air.

"There all done I finished my note taking..... wait a minet..."

She rereaded her notes then realized what he said about the bombs. She held up her hand like a normal student would and spoke.

" Hey Mr. butter dude! Being a thief for 2 years I think I know how to reasolve this without violance."

Thinking like a common thief Paige pulled out her laptop. She wasn't really being a good hero at this time. She was still new to the hero stuff so she didn't know that this was most likely the worst idea possible at the time.

"You see sir I could easly hack into any store, bank, atm, ect. of your choosing and get your money without any needed violance. I think it would be a good idea, unless blue dude over there has a better idea."

Many might've believed Teen Lantern would be like one of those heroes that just said the villain in this situation was demented or crazy, but as stated beofre Mark was open minded and trusting. Instead of just disagreeing he listened and logically came up with a counter argument. Mark Rowan was actually a pretty straight A student and in his debate class he dealt with people like this guy before. He listened to every word he said, even the part about the bombs and then tried to calmly reply to his claims first before getting to the urgent issue of the explosives. "You see the problems with your argument sir, is that unlike pizza, humans breathe, think freely, and are the basis for meta-humans. Therefore, by misusing the source material you will alter and corrupt the product. Using a pizza was a faulty example because were not comparable to an inanimate objects, and might I point out not all meta-humans are better than humans; perfect examples being Batman and the infamous Grundy. One I've read a file on and seen on Tv, the other I've met in person. One has abilities the other does not. Yet, the human is far superior to the other, not because of his natural abilities, but because of his inner workings. It's not your powers or what you do that makes you the villain, it's imply the evil that dwells within. For example, you believe you DESERVE money because you threaten the natural order of a society, however, all you really are is a terrorist, a manipulator, and criminal." As Mark spoke each derogatory word his ring glowed with his anger.

Then stupidly instead of backing him, the Titan girl offered him the money!? Yup, she was definitely new at this. Giving into demands of a bully is one of the first lessons you learn on the playground. In doing so, all you're really doing is suppressing the matter once. The bully will come back and ask again in a manner of the same style. Rome made this same practice with other nations and then wiped them out the one time they couldn't pay the price. Blue Lantern intended to nip this in the bud now! "Ya, I've got one, we take him down now. If you detonate even one of those bombs, I guarantee you'll never go home again or even planet Earth for that matter." Teen Lantern's ring glowed a bright hue as he felt rage in his heart, which of course was weakening him, but his trust had indeed been betrayed by this man.

"If the bridge is blocked off and there's no chance of casualties, then I have no reason not to take you in. You're the real threat here, not the bombs, and a large one at that if you were really able to coordinate such a thing without anyone noticing. Letting you leave with money is just plain dumb, because if I take you in now and you do blow the bridge, the only thing you've done is put the nail in your own coffin. You'll be incarcerated with over 20 witnesses to hear and see your confession and my ring's ability to record whatever I see. Not to mention the assault on a minor charge. Now I'm no police officer, but if I calculate this correctly that'll get you at least 14 to 20 years. Especially since your messing with the city's money so I doubt a judge will be too lenient." A counter to his proclamation or better yet, calling a bluff. The Blue Lantern was betting this guy wasn't willing to throw his life away over five large. He was indeed right about one thing though; TL didn't need violence to beat him, just a battle of wits, which he was certain he had won. Considering the extremely 'green' heroet over there didn't screw things up by offering to wire him money too. "As you should know as a teacher, ultimatums never work. It's better to have one definable choice. For example, you gave us the option of paying you or the bridge gets destroyed. However, no matter what you do in my scenario, it all ends with me taking you in. The only question is how much time you're going to serve and what physical condition I'm going to deliver you in."

Fingers looked at the Blue Lantern. "Yes, yes. We could argue until we're blue in the face about the finer details of my metaphor, but the fact remains that humans are powerless to stop those who are superior. However, in good conscious standing, meta-humans can offer normal humans a means to serve both of their interests, and thus earning their place in this world."

Butter Fingers would smile at Paige after she had spoken. She was a bright one. "That would be acceptable. I'm glad someone was paying attention. Please begin the hacking process."
He really didn't want to blow up the bridge, but he wasn't against it either. This was merely an experiment for him, as well as a way to get some lunch money.

But what was this? The Blue Lantern still wanted to take him to jail? Butter Fingers listened to Blue Lantern's long, noble speech with an amused face. "Again with the violence? Didn't you hear what this young lady said? There is a peaceful solution. Simply handing me the money is far less expensive in the long run than having a bridge blow up, and destroying half the school with your fool attempts to bring me to justice. Not to mention, you'd be placing hundreds of students at risk. If you can't understand this, don't run for office."

Butter Fingers would sit down in the teacher's chair and put his feet up on the desk. "Of course, there are plenty of people who can defeat me in a fight, but you, Blue Lantern, are not one of them. Also, I assure you that I can detonate those bombs at any time. You will not find a large, obvious red button in my pocket. Now, miss, will you kindly transfer those funds?"

Paige eyes widened when she heard about half the school being blown up too. She couldm't say she was completely amased because any good theif knows that if you want to get money by rasome you need to make sure you have clear hostages/ victums. Paige eyes narrowed she pulled on each glove she was gonna hack something but it wasn't for the money.

Webscreens flew across the screen to fast for anyone but her to see. She alerted all police to come to the school. All police cars with GPSes would be told to come to the school. All teachers but the one infront of her would get an email from the "princibal" to evacuate the students from the school.

She was almost done but she needed to make it seem like she was hacking the banks.

"Ok I'm in whats your pin number and I'll transfer it."

She hacked the Police radio and made it say the current siduation she was in. She checked the locations of the police cars. They were all around the block. Suddenly they could hear stomping of peoples feet out side the door. the teachers and students had recived the mail and were evacuating. paige turned to the door holding back a smirk.

" huh looks like a fire drill or something. Shouldnt we go to?.

She clicked the enter key activating the schools fire alarms hoping to get mt. butter dude out side. The people out side the door ran faster as the alarms went off.

Fingers noticed a sudden change in Paige. She was typing and clicking really fast, and he was getting suspicious of why. He hadn't given her a real time limit to hack into the bank. Did hacking really require such speed? Or had he said something that had made her panic?

The answer to both questions was no.

Paige asked what his pin number was. He was about to answer her when the fire alarms went off. Students from other classrooms were already in the hallway, heading for the door. This was truly unfortunate timing for a fire drill.

Fingers had to shout to be heard over the alarm. "Indeed. Everyone, remain calm. Let's head outside. It's probably just a drill." The students stood and headed for the door. Fingers stayed near the door to usher them through it.

The last two in the classroom were Paige and the Blue Lantern. "Come on, you two as well."