Titan Community Service (Ninja)

Being a Teen Titan wasn't always about kicking bad guy butt. For the Titans to keep their hero license community service hours were required...weekly, to serve as an example for the public. JaK didn't quite like it but the shifts he signed up for were to help the people in the slums usually, which touched a soft spot with him because in Gotham it was either steal or don't eat. The local soup kitchen was a rather popular one for him - people were used to seeing JaK behind the counter handing out subs and bags of chips to the locals, who also hung with JaK at his favorite bar or played poker with him in unseemly back alleys from time to time. And of course one couldn't forget his little stint in the underground fight arena. Speaking of, today he had brought along a friend, and teammate, who was also a native of the slums.

The soup kitchen itself was located in an old rundown auditorium, which at one point was condemned, but now had been converted to a homeless shelter. The walls and center floor had many bunk beds and shared sanitizing stations.

Eunji actually didn’t mind the community work, it was like giving back for all those times her and her brother were on the other side of the table. She began prepping herself by putting on gloves and then followed Jak and the other volunteers to help carry crates full of juice cartons and other kind donations they were going to be able to distribute today, humming as she did so.  “I didn’t know this was part of the job description of being a Titan, I guess it comes with  all the aspects that come with trying to save lives huh.”

"I mean preferably I think they would like it if we did more stuff like this then crunching peeps noses," JaK said and then yelled heads up at one of his old buddies who had passed by. The teen lobbed a water bottle from behind his back, over the shoulder, and into the bearded gentleman's hands. "That being said, I think a busted nose is more affective than asking people to cease and desist."

“Oh, I agree one hundred percent.” Eunji said as she then began to proportion out the goodies by food groups so every meal would be a semi-balanced one. “I just mean this is a nice...not so life threatening alternative.” She chuckled, then smiled as she saw him chuck the water bottle. “Show off.” She muttered to him jokingly as she tossed him an orange.  “So what’s the plan for when we’re finished here? Go find some noses to punch?”

"Don't be jealous," JaK chuckled and caught the orange then started to peel it. JaK nudged her playfully as they passed out more goods to the population  of homeless. "Well usually I would go to the contagious ward of the hospital and hug all the children since I can't catch anything but how about we go to the beach and pick up trash?" JaK was honestly just try to slack off a bit in the sun, and seeing Eunji in a bathing suit wouldn't hurt his eyes per say.

“Awww how sweet” she commented about the hospital bit, she did find that actually really adorable. She then put her finger up to her chin as she thought about the second mention...picking up trash didn’t seem all that fun, and in the sun...she loved the beach but to be standing there all day, she for sure knew a sunburn was going to have to be dealt with later, something Jak didn’t have to worry about. But if they did manage to get a small break, being able to enjoy the shore would be hella nice. “You know what, that doesn’t sound all too bad.” She shrugged, “Sure, I’m down.”

"Great," JaK took a bite of the fruit. "Guess well stop and get you..Get..you--uhhh." JaK suddenly clutched his chest and dropped the orange. As did the man who had started drinking the water JaK had given him and any other slumers that had recently received a meal from them. Their eyes all glazed over with a red tint and they moaned as if in agonizing pain. The food, was it contaminated or poisoned?

“Get what?....Jak? Jak!?” She grabbed his arm to support him as she could see him staggering in pain and glanced around as panic ensued. Multiple people began to show the same expressions of pain and some even vomited their barely touched meals. “What the hell....” she looked around for any signs of what could be causing this, was it the food it had to be right? Right!?

JaK pushed her away. "G-Get away from me.." Others who had been afflicted began to fight with one another, shouting and screaming about situations that had presumably transpired in their past. Meanwhile, JaK angrily approached Eunji. "David you son a @#$% I'll never forgive you, I swear I'll rip out your f^&*#ing thoat!"

Eunji stumbled back as she was shoved. What in the blazes was going on?! She was about to open her mouth again to address him, but froze as he looked up at her with a blazing glare, a look she’d never received from him before. “David?” She then subconsciously began getting in a defensive fighting pose. “Who’s David?”

“You killed her!” JaK said as he flipped the table and swung wildly at Eunji but ended up striking another homeless man who had been shoved in their path. “The one person who loved you more than me!” JaK ran forward and leaped off the side of one table to try spin kicking her next. “Your own mother, our only family!!!” Tears welled up in JaK’s eyes. “HOW COULD YOU!?!” Jak ran and swung wildly at Eunji again.

“...what?” There was no more time for questions. He came at her with full force. Eunji didn’t even have time to feel bad for the man caught in the crossfire as Jak came at her kicks flying. She managed to throw her arms up in a block. “Y-You have to snap out of it!”  She began ducking and weaving at his crazy punches, it was breaking her heart to see him this torn, she really didn’t want to fight back, but knew at the same time he had to be subdued, or at the most knocked back into his senses. “It’s me Jak! Eunji!” She grabbed his arm as another swing came flying and pulled him into a twirl to divert his punch away.

“Stop laughing....STOP IT!” JaK said as he grabbed her wrist and then hurricarana'd around her body tossing them both to the ground. JaK kipped back up a moment later and ran to drop kick another gentleman towards her who was also possessed and violent.

Eunji gasped and inhaled sharply as she was tossed flat onto her back. She quickly rolled back up into a sitting position, just in time to see another rabid person be flung towards her. She grabbed their arms and planted her leg right into their stomach before propelling herself backwards and judo throwing him over her and into the tables behind her.

JaK kicked a foldable chair at her and then tried to approach Eunji again but was blocked by two other men who were trying to attack JaK now. JaK responded with a relentless assault and pummeled the 2 men at least 5 teeth had been relinquished from each of their mouths - sadly one of them was JaK’s bearded friend he had lunged the water too.

She caught the foldable chair and set it down beside her, and then prepared for him to lunge at her again. But instead saw the unfair attack on the two older gentlemen. “Jak!” She ran at him and pounced onto his back as he was continuing the assault and wrapped her arm around his neck, intertwining her arms to keep him from breaking free, and her legs wrapped around his waist. “ENOUGH!”

JaK struggled. “I won’t let you get away with this! I-I...” his healing factor had finally finished sorting through the drug in his system and the oxygen restriction was causing reality to flicker back into view as the illusion fell apart. JaK started to cough and tapped Eunji’s shoulder. “Eunji...the hell?”

Eunji, that was her name! She released her grip on him and let him go. “Sorry.” She stepped back to let him come to his senses and also catch his breath.

“God %#€>itt they got me with that V-9 ¥%#! again!?” JaK began puking up the orange slices he ate and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Meanwhile, he quickly took in the scene. Fighting! And a lot of it..they had to stop this before someone got killed. “Sorry if I hurt you.”

“V-9?” This was Eunji’s first time hearing about such a substance. “Why would they pick a soup kitchen...what could they possibly gain here?” Other than him knocking the wind out of her she was fine. She shook her head, “oh, no, I’m fine. I’m just glad you snapped back before we really had to tussle and I had to kick your ass.” She looked up at everyone else brawling and tried to think. “So my guess is you’ve had to deal with this stuff before...how do we snap everyone out of it?”

“It’s a drug, that makes you hallucinate things but your body still functions normally. It has to work its way through your system and we need to restrain these people.” JaK looked around as sober men and women fought the drugged up fanatics. “Let’s grab the bed sheets and tie them up.”

“Okay!” Eunji hopped to it, grabbing sheet after sheet from the beds. This definitely wasn’t an easy task, trying to pry people off of each other, or avoid getting hit. One guy came swinging at her and when he did, she had no choice but to wrap his hand, twist his arm behind his back and finish wrapping and tying him off like a burrito. Probably not the most comfortable position to be tied up in.

JaK went to work on attacking the aggressors. Like a magician he ran past the beds and yanked the sheets off in one swift movement. The boy performed various front flips, somersaults, and hand springs while weaving in between men and women who threw blows at him only to have JaK expertly bob and weave around them. JaK continued to make his rounds by looping and running around the deluded individuals, causing the sheets to only ensnare them more and then tie the linens together once he had completely cocooned each drugged person in his path.

Eunji wrapped one of the last drugged up individuals hands in a pillowcase as he was still trying to swing a free arm as the rest of him was encased. “So now we just wait for it to wear off? Is that how this works?”

JaK dusted his hands together. "That should do the trick for now. I just hope it's not a stronger strain than before." JaK turned his head back towards the meal distribution. "I'm more interested in who set the trap for us in the first place? No way this was meant to just screw with the slum's population. They knew I do this often. Luckily, they didn't know I'd bring a badass teammate with me this time."

Eunji smiled at the compliment, he thought she was badass? She then returned her focus to the task at hand. “Do you have any leads on who They could be?” She then glanced around for anyone who seemed out of place, or their actions suspicious like they were just there to inspect. “Think any of them could still be here? Taking in the scene, trying to jot down the results?”

"I dunno," JaK knelt down and started examining and smelling the rest of the food. "Keep an eye out though." JaK eyeballed the company who had made the orders. "My guess is it's revenge. The guy who I caught originally peddling this stuff is dead now and I was involved." A lightbulb went off over JaK's head. He reached up and turned it off then walked towards Eunji as it dissipated. "Were looking for a caterer."

“Oh?” Eunji was looking at all the crates of bottles and cartons as it seemed even the water had been contaminated. “A caterer huh?” All the drinks looked like generic brands so, they just had to pinpoint who made the delivery.

“Don’t worry, well visit the source....” a half hour later JaK and Eunji were at the warehouse the food was first delivered too and repackaged. At first the security wouldn’t let the Titans inside but JaK was in a very convincing mood....

The warehouse owner was walking around the corner when suddenly the largest of the security guards was launched across the hallway and JaK approached the owner with a menacing look.

Eunji had already been instructed before they got there to follow his lead on the good cop, bad cop routine. JaK gripped the owner by his collar and slammed him up against the wall. “Who made the orders this morning?! Who packed them!?”

“I-I can’t tell you that,” The owner said. "That’s employee confidentiality.”

“But you see, a lot of innocent people were hurt this morning. And it was already pinpointed to be caused by the food your warehouse packaged.” Eunji said with a bit of sympathy, “See we’re trying to get to the bottom of it before anyone else gets hurt, could you imagine is this got all the way up to the health inspectors, even worse the cops and detectives? If anything you’re lucky we got here first.” Eunji said “So please mister, if there’s a bad apple we wanna catch him before he contaminates the whole bunch.”

"Think about what she said before you say no, because she's asking nicely, I'm not asking at all." JaK narrowed his eyes.

"Alright, ok, Jason did the meal prep today, ok? He lives in down town. That's all I know. Jason Whitmoore." JaK dropped the owner and nodded to Eunji to move.

"Let's go, were heading to the train station." JaK said.

They got a name, great! Eunji nodded at the mention of the train station, once they outside the factory, she held her hand out for a fist bump, “Great job in there merciless bad cop” Now they had quite the run up ahead of them to get to the station, but to know they actually had a lead in this was exciting.

JaK and Eunji made it to the subway station and hopped on. They stood there heading towards Jason’s apartment as people at the next stop began to file in. While the Teen Titans waited JaK could be seen speaking into his communicator.  “Sage to Tower, run facial recognition scan for a Jason Whitmoore.” The communicator made a loading screen and then pin pointed Jason’s last location was at the train station. “What? This can’t be right...based on the time he would be right in...front..of us.” JaK looked at the face on his communicator of Jason and then looked up and saw a guy with a duffel bag sweating bullets a few feet away. “HEY!” JaK yelled. Jason yelped and took off into another train car. “^#%*+ after him!”

Eunji looked at Jak’s communicator as he brought up Jason’s image. She really needed to play around with hers more and figure out all of its features. Wait...in the same train? That couldn’t be right could it? Just then Jak spotted a man carrying a duffel bag and yelled, causing Eunji to glance in the same direction. The man darted to the next train, oddly suspicious he did without them having to yell out his name. Eunji gave chase as best as she could. “Excuse me, pardon me!” She’d force her way through the train, using the poles to swing off of and even jumping off of some empty seats, but when they’d catch up, he was already making his way into the next. But he couldn’t keep this up right, only so many carts in a whole train. They just had to get to him before the train stopped and the doors opened.

“Move, move, mo—-oh no...” the next cart everyone’s eyes were lit up red. “Eunji go on ahead, CATCH HIM!” JaK caught the next 2 fists that came his way and twisted their palms then kicked both people backwards. Afterwards he continued to parry and redirect blows from all the people Jason had just infected with V-9. “BE CAREFUL!”

Eunji continued to press on, her eyes not leaving the dufflebag. She jumped over someone who tried to tackle her down, then stepped on another’s face and used him to leap off of. “Sorry~” she continued whatever means necessary to get closer, and it was working! She reached out and managed to grab a strap of the duffle-bag which Jason tried to pry from her grasp to no avail. She pulled him towards her then grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back and tackled him down, pinning him to the ground. “Oh no you don’t.”

Jason pulled a syringe from his pocket while in agony and looked to jab it into her person.

Eunji saw the syringe and was about to reach and grab it when an infected person grabbed her from behind into a chokehold giving Jason the opportunity to inject her right in the thigh. She winced as she  managed to push the man off of her, and that’s when she felt  it. The world blurred and what was once the face of the culprit, morphed and transformed into that of her father’s. “N-no...” she barely managed to whisper out in shock as rage began to swell. “You’re supposed to be dead!! I killed you!” Her hands wrapped around his neck as they had once before in a vast memory that she was now reliving. Tears began to stream down the girls face, “You’re a monster! You’re nothing but a monster!!”

The person Eunji was choking wasn’t Jason but another passenger. Jason left his duffel bag but made his escape at the next stop.

Meanwhile, as the person Eunji choked out lost consciousness JaK stumbled upon Eunji and immediately realized what happened. “No!” JaK grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away from him. “You gotta wake up, you gotta be stronger than this!”

“No! H-He can’t come back!! He can’t!” She yelled as Jak pulled her away, she turned around to face him and gripped his arms trying to pry him off. As she was doing so she was absorbing all the sounds of yelling and screaming, tripping her healing factor on. She continued to cry but she seemed to stop fighting him, eventually just leaning into his chest as she began to calm down. “Jak...I’m sorry.”

JaK held her closer. “It’s alright, it’s ok. I gotcha.” JaK said as the people funneled out of the train.

                                                   

With Jason having made his escape the mission was a bust but they did uncover a large sample of V-9 from inside his duffel bag - enough to synthesize an antidote.  Some was taken back to Titans Tower and some was given to the police. Back at the Tower JaK could be seen sitting on the roof overlooking the bay.

Eunji came up the elevator and stepped out onto the Tower, man the breeze always felt the best up there. She also had a hunch she’d find her band mate up here, and no not just because that’s where her communicator said he’d be. She walked and took a seat right next to him and began swinging her legs. “Yo.” She didn’t turn to look at him, instead kept her view out at the vast open ocean. “Sooooo, I’ve been thinking long and hard about this...but I think I wanna move into the Tower, think there’s room for me here?” She joked about the last part, knowing the vast size of it already.

JaK remained quiet and then looked at her. "Yeah," he chuckled. "I think we might have a bit of room." JaK's face grew serious again. "Look we failed today. But that's part of the job. I guess I should be happy we saved a lot of lives. But knowing this was all some elaborate trap for me in the first place?" JaK shook his head. "I can't help feeling like it's my fault all these people were in danger at all."

Eunji hugged her knees as he spoke up, her demeanor changing to a more serious one. “It was a failure...and I even had him in my grasp too...” She then laid back and looked up at the sky. “But I can either beat myself up for it, or beat him up later when we find him, cause we will find him. But if you’re feeling that bad about it I can beat you up too if you want.” Okay maybe she had a hard time staying serious.

"A good punch in the mouth when I'm feeling sorry for myself may just be exactly what the doctor ordered," JaK said with a wide grin. "Alright," JaK said after taking a nice long stretch. "Let's go pick out a room for you. I think that Terra-girl's room is still available."

She gave a genuine smile that formed into a sincere grin as she sat up. Her own room, in the Tower, the Titans Tower. If she didn’t feel official already, she certainly did now. She was excited to move in, she felt that this would be the place she would be the most useful. She was going to help them get to the bottom of this drug scheme and any other villainous scheme that came after, and maybe....just maybe they could help her along the way too. She stood up and began to follow Jak. “Terra? Who’s Terra?”