Worst Shortcut Ever. (Nornir)

Hotwire was relaxing. He needed some time off from the titans. Things were rather grating. What with metahuman attacks and all the new members, he needed somewhere to get away from it all. Where better than the park? It was nice, natural, and spoke to his inner camper.

"Ahhhhh. Peace."





"Cmon man we gotta run. Cops are on their way." One man said as his cronies ran from the bank they had knocked over two blocks away.

"It's fine! I know a shortcut."

It had only been a couple of hours since Yuri got off the plane that took her to Jump City. Eager to do a little sightseeing, she had her luggage sent ahead to her hotel while she took a stroll downtown. It was a busy and bustling neighborhood that sort of reminded her of home. She had been traveling all over the world in the last year and this was the first time in a couple of months that she was in a big city type of setting.

She found herself in Central Park after doing a bit of walking. It had a nice and peaceful scenery. It was the kind of location where one could take a relaxing break or do a bit of recreational activity. She had a feeling she would be dropping by again if she felt like doing some outdoor exercise.

As she walked a bit further up the path, she noticed a rather suspicious group of people heading in her general direction. It did not look like they were there to enjoy being one with nature. They were carrying bags with them and constantly looked behind them as though checking if they were being followed. Yuri didn't need her intuition to tell her that they are or were up to no good.

Hotwire looked up as the men began to run through the park. All carrying a few duffel bags. This couldn't be good. He stood up, and concentrated for a moment as his hands lit up. Blue lines spread across his arms and slowly covered his body up to the neck. The lines grew until his body was bathed in a light blue glow. When it faded, hotwire's uniform was in place of his old clothes.

"Where you fellow's headed off to?" Hotwire asked stepping into their path. A couple pulled guns.

"Even better."

Before the suspicious men could cross paths with Yuri, they were intercepted... by a teen in a ridiculous outfit. Well, maybe it wasn't that unusual. But it was not the sort of thing she would expect to see being worn as casual clothes. He was probably one of those costumed heroes.

If she had her way, she wouldn't have given the men the chance to draw their guns. She wondered if the hero was an amateur or he simply didn't find guns threatening at all. She sincerely hoped it wasn't because he was showboating. In any case, Yuri was not just going to stand by while these men threatened to ruin a perfectly peaceful day.

While the hero had their attention, she circled around to the side, behind the trees. Making her way back to the path again, she decided to aim for the two at the rearmost part of the group. She managed to get behind them, delivering a solid roundhouse kick to the back of the head of one of them, instantly dropping him.

"Hey! what are you do-"

The second got a taste of her stun gun before he could finish his sentence. He too dropped to the ground, immobilized by the shock. Naturally the group would hear the commotion, most of them turning their heads in her direction. If the hero was any decent, he would take advantage of the opening.

Hotwire could have taken those two out. but it seems there was another hero ready to jump in. Not that hotwire was complaining. The first man with a gun was out of the way. Now for the other. Hotwire would hold out his hand, and the one with the gun would soon find himself unarmed. A shot of water blew it right from his hand. Hotwire had manipulated a water fountain in the park.

"Now for the rest of them." Hotwire said holding his hand up. The blue lines crossed it, and all of a sudden a small object whizzed in front of them.  Above them were small ground lights meant to light up the path at night. The thick wires from these light were pulled up with them. The lights began floating together, closing the circle around them. With a downward wave, the lights disassembled and melded together. They were trapped, with the girl on the outside.

It was a manipulation ability. If Yuri were to guess, telekinesis or technokinesis. Of course it could be entirely different. That was the difficulty with metahumans. There simply was no guidebook about how to deal with them and people with weirder and more unusual abilities kept showing up. The most helpful thing was really just experience and a good head. Fortunately, the bad guys seemed to be just ordinary thugs with guns.

When the hero was done wrapping them up, Yuri's response was a slow silent clapping. "Not bad for a guy in a costume."

She picked up one of the bags the men dropped and opened it, revealing a large amount of cash.

"It looks like we got the right people. All that's left is turning them in and figuring out where this money was taken from."

"I'd help with that but you would have to take the lead. I literally just arrived in this city, and I don't know where anything is yet."

The entire time, she cautiously kept an eye on the trapped men. Ordinary as they were, there was no guarantee they wouldn't try anything even after getting caught.

"Thanks. W-wait! What do you mean 'For a guy in costume'?" Hotwire said with a slight blush. This girl was cute... and that meant a difficult interaction for hotwire. He was snapped back to reality by her comment about the money.

"The money thing was obvious. Multiple duffel bags, all the same make, with the bulging right at the sides at right angles. Suggested to me wads of bills. Who usually carries wads of bills? Banks." He explained his eyes flashing light blue. He scanned his surroundings before finding what he was looking for.

"The silent alarm has just been triggered at the bank about two blocks from here." He said. Sirens sounded as the police rounded the corner.

Yuri managed a small smile at seeing the hero's flustered reaction to her comment. "Ah, don't sweat it too much. I fancy myself a hero too. But unlike most, I don't see the need to don a pair of tights every single time I need to do a good deed. Nothing against tights. They're good on occasion. To each his own."

Yuri found his powers of observation to be quite good and his deduction was the mark of someone who had been doing this for a long time. The former was probably developed alongside his special abilities.

"Oh, a good eye for detail and rather experienced as well. 80 points. Maybe 85. I guess that means our work here is as good as done."

She extended her hand to initiate a handshake.

"It's Glint. Just a tourist, but I have a feeling my trip here will be an extended stay. It was a pleasure to get a chance to work with another on the side of justice."

"They aren't tights. They're a nanobot weaved metalafiber lining. It allows the nanobots in my nervous system to form my outfit at a moments notice." Hotwire said, explaining his reasoning.

"Y-yeah! I guess it is." Hotwire said, hand behind his head as the police arrived. Hotwire flashed his communicator to the officers as they loaded the crooks into a couple squad cars, while two more officers handled the stolen money.

"Hotwire. Teen Titan. If you plan on staying any amount of time in Jump, you'll probably see a bit of us around here." He said. Then he realized that might be construed as arogant.

"N-not that I'm trying to show off or anything." Hotwire backpedaled, waving his hands in front of him.

Yuri listened to his short explanation before commenting. "That's very interesting. But I sure hope you didn't tell me anything about your abilities that could be used against you."

She watched him flash some sort device to the officers who seemed to recognize it. That was another thing that got her curious. Her intuition told her that she had just met someone rather important. After all, not all heroes were readily acknowledged by the police. Her suspicions were soon confirmed.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Hotwire. Did you just say you were a Teen Titan? Well, this is quite fortunate for me. Meeting the Titans was something I had been meaning to do after coming to this city. I certainly did not expect to run into one so soon. I guess that just goes to show how on top of things your team is. It's commendable."

"There's nothing wrong with showing off if you have something to show and if the act does not compromise your duties nor make you lose sight of what's important. It's natural to want attention. We're teens. I personally like doing things with style." She said, flipping her hair with her free hand.

"I uh. Yeah. I'm a titan." Hotwire said with a slight stutter.

With her hair flip, hotwire blushed one of his usual bright shades of red, but quickly shook it off.

"Well then. I guess the titans will be keeping in touch. If you have any superhuman powers, you should probably let us know. Never want to end up on the wrong end of a titans fight." He explained.

"Powers huh. Well I'm sorry that I couldn't give you a demonstration. Personally, I think they should only be used when necessary." Yuri replied, slightly curious of why he would suspect her of having abilities. He was right of course, but she wondered what gave it away. Maybe it was her confidence of taking on armed men up close.

"I'm not sure how you'll be keeping in touch when neither of us have each other's number. But.." She reached into her pocket for her business card and handed it to Hotwire.

"...I'll save you the trouble of asking for it." She said with a professional-looking smile.

"I'll be frank. I'm interested in signing up for the team. But I want to finish my sightseeing first and get a good grasp of what this city is like. So far it seems there's always some trouble that needs to be stopped. I hope you don't mind me stepping in. I just can't bring myself to ignore someone who needs help."

"Oh uh... thanks." Hotwire said taking her card.

"We'll be in touch." he said walking back over to the officers, and helping with the processing.

His dedication to his work was also good. That was the impression Yuri got. Though he probably needed to have a little more confidence, not that she should talk. But overall she got a positive impression of her first run-in with a Titan.

"I'll see you around then."

She continued on her way out of the park and out of sight, a little excited about what else the day had in store for her.