The Outcasts

Chapter 1

Cole's POV

Clack, clack, clack, clack.

Fast footsteps echo through the dark alleyway. The full moon overhead was blocked by sky-high buildings and city smog but there was still enough light to for me to see the fleeing figure below me. Looking down the barrel of my gun, I pull the trigger. The figure lets out a shout as it collapses.

Static crackles in my ear. "Dammit Longshot. I had that one."

Letting out a snort, I quickly dissemble my sniper and start my way down the fire escape. "Didn't look like that from where I was Lady. He was about to get away from you."

There was a thump next to me as Lady jumps down from the fence. Her yellow-green cat eyes glare at me and she lets out a growl. Crossing her arms, she says, "It's no fun when you do it quickly."

"You shouldn't play with your food," I comment, walking over to the injured criminal. When he sees me approaching, he tries frantically to crawl away. Shaking my head, I deliver a quick kick to his head, effectively knocking him out. "Whiplash and Glitch got the rest?"

"Yep," Lady answers, stalking forward to tie the guy up. "Stop being such a worrywart. It was only a small burglary, nothing we haven't seen before."

I give her a small frown. "I'm not a worrywart. If anything happened, Swan and Phoenix would kill me." And no one would ever find the body. I shiver at the thought as Lady lets out a bark of laughter.

There's a rush of wind and two spandex-clad teens appear in front of us. A petite figure in a circuit board patterned bodysuit jumps out of the arms of the larger one dressed in a black and blue outfit similar to the Flash's. Whiplash plasters a lopsided grin to his face and gives me a mock solute. "Everything's cleaned up, Boss."

"More like tied up," Glitch's robotic voice jokes. Hiding my amusement, I roll my eyes at while I bend down to double check Lady's knots.

Whiplash appears next to me and leans over to peer at he injured criminal. "I can see that Luck didn't have much luck with hers."

"I would've gotten him if someone wasn't too eager to step in," Lady growls pointedly at me. "And you guys need to agree on what to call me. It gets confusing when one person calls me Lady and someone else calls me Luck."

"We could always just call you L Squared like Jester does," Glitch suggests. "It's your fault anyways for picking a two-part name."

"Yeah, look where it gets Baby Flasher," Whiplash adds, shaking his head sadly. "No one can get his name right."

"Including you," I say, giving him a little slap on the head as I pass him. "Now stop chatting. Let's head back to base."

Lady falls into step next to me, muttering something about how Black Swan and Doc don't have problem with their names. Letting out a sigh, I roll my eyes at the brunette's antics. A couple seconds pass before I feel Glitch brush against my arm as she skips past. "I wonder if the others ran into anything," the blond wanders out loud.

"This is ," I answer. "I'm sure they found something."

____

Twenty minutes later, the four of us walk finally walk into Base. Surprisingly, the only other person there was Phoenix, who was watching the monitors when we entered but looked up to give us a friendly wave. "There you guys are! You're the last back."

"Really?" Whiplash asks, voicing all our surprise, pulling down his cowl to reveal a mop of brown hair. "I thought we were back pretty early."

Phoenix's amber eyes darken for a second before she gives him a smile and shrugs her shoulders. "It was a quiet night. Be happy, that means you have more time to study for that test you have tomorrow."

Sam groans as he heads to the changing rooms. "Don't remind me, I still have to read all of The Scarlett Letter tonight."

Scowling, I shout at him. "I thought you said that you finished reading that last week!"

His laugh echoes through the basement and a second later, I feel a gust of wind and hear the door to the house open and shut. I glare at the stairs. Damn lazy speedster, he should be focusing more in school.

"Wow, you really are a mom," Ebony teases as she passes me. "Come on Freddie, I'll make you some food."

The blond races past me to meet the older meta on the stairs, leaving me and Des alone. Thinking back at her words, I frown again. Blüdhaven was never quiet; it was worse than Gotham on a good day. Walking up behind Des, I ask the winged girl, "Do you think something's up?"

She hums and I hear her feathers rustle a little. So that's a yes. "Crime rates been down for the last couple weeks. And anything that happens is minor, even the police could deal with it."

Frowning, I cross my arms and look at the dots on the screen myself. They're the record we had of the crimes happening in the city. Alarm bells ring in my head. Right now, there was only a handful of dots scattered across the map, nothing like what it usually is like. Something big looked like it was about to go down.

"Where's Riley?"

"She's doing another round, trying to see if she can find anything out," Des answers. Even though the half-breed was acting calm, I could still see the tenseness in her shoulders.

"Do you want me to put out some feelers?" I offer. She gives me a smile in appreciation and I make a mental note to call some of my contacts later.

Des looks back at the screen and I see her eyes shift again. She rests her chin on her hands and continues to watch the screen. "I just hope whatever is going on isn't big enough to attract the League's attention."

I narrow my eyes and force myself not to growl. We've thankfully managed not to attract the Big Guys' attention for this long but if something really was going on, it might attract them to Blüdhaven, which would probably lead to a run in with them. Hopefully if they decided to intervene, they would only send the kiddies and not actual Leaguers. Even then there was too much of a chance of an accidental encounter.

"Don't worry," Des says firmly, interrupting my thoughts. "I deal with them if it comes to that."

I give her a look out of the corner of my eye. "We'll deal with them together like we always do." She gives me a disapproving glare and opens her mouth to say something. Before she can reprimand me, I start to walk to the dressing rooms. "I'm going up to check up on the others. Make sure Riley doesn't stay out too late."

I feel amber eyes on back as I walk away. I know Des wanted to argue, saying she was the oldest and the leader so it should be her responsibility, but we were a family. We would deal with whatever came our way together.