Suicide Blonde [Mia]

[bangbaby]

Players: Static Shock and Speedy
Location(s): Queen Manor
Plot Summary: Virgil swings by Mia's place to check in on her. This seems to be happening more and more lately.

Virgil would always be in awe of the Watchtower. It served as a silent vigil over Earth that was tuned into nearly ever radio frequency that existed on the planet. The ability to filter through thousands of different frequencies to find the latest biggest and baddest crimes was a technological feat that was virtually unheard of. The people who had put effort into creating the Watchtower were geniuses and there was nothing Virgil wanted to do more then join their ranks. Yet all he could do for now was call in a favor. “I can’t beam you in right at Ollie’s old house but I can get you pretty close. Those bombs Prometheus set off have resulted in some residual radiation that makes my teleportation system less than precise.” Virgil Hawkins stood on the top of the Empire State building as he pressed his cellphone against his ear in an attempt to hear Steel’s voice. Service to the moon wasn’t the greatest these days. Steel had given him his number in case he needed a favor and this was one of those times. Hopefully he wasn’t distracting the man from anything important. “Safe is safe. I ain’t tryin’ to get my molecules scrambled or end up stuck in a wall.”

“Hold onto your boots.” Virgil closed his eyes as he felt energy stream around him and for a second he felt as if his body was floating apart. Then he was standing in front of the Star City library. Then he was leaning against the Star City library in an attempt not to vomit. “You’ll stabilize soon enough. Did you have breakfast this morning?” Virgil shook his head and then realized Steel couldn’t see that. “Nah.” He said as he straightened to his feet. “You can’t teleport on an empty stomach. You’ll be feeling motion sickness for about an hour or two but nothing more. Get something in your stomach and you should be fine.” Virgil nodded and started off for the Queen Mansion. He wasn’t exactly rich and so he figured he could last a few hours without food. He did it all the time.

It took him considerably longer to get to the Mansion then it would have if he used his hover disc yet he didn’t mind the walk. Some parts in Star City were still in shambles and Virgil felt that it would be his duty to help these people one of these days. The relief effort in Star City had been somewhat weakened without the influence of Oliver Queen. When Virgil was finally at the Queen Mansion he knocked on the door before stepping backwards. He waited a good two minutes before the door opened and Virgil was greeted by Connor Hawke. Naturally Virgil had no idea who he was but he managed to save face. “Hello...are you Virgil Hawkins?” Virgil nodded. “...yeah.” The man’s faced beamed. “Great to meet you. Mia is always talking about you.....well...” Connor blushed as if he knew he had said too much. “Come in. Come in. She’s not here right now. She’s picking up some pizza...said she needed some time out of the house. I think you being here will be a pleasant surprise.”

As Virgil stepped inside Connor led him into the living room. “It’s great to have someone else here....it’s just been so...quiet.” That’s when Virgil realized how downcast Connor looked and realized that Connor was just as affected Mia was. “What’s your name?” Virgil questioned as Connor gestured for him to sit down. He noticed that Connor was watching a Bruce Lee movie. “Connor Hawke...I’m Ollie’s son.” He gestured at the television. “You like karate movies?” Connor questioned. Virgil grinned. “Of course.” Connor jumped from his seat. “Awesome. I’ll go get the popcorn.”

[Speedy]

Mia sped along the streets of Star .She could not get over how awesome her bike was. She wondered if this was what it was like to fly at times. Well, she remembered Wonder Girl flying her out of a few tight spots as a Titan. Those were the days. When she would hang around that tower with Virgil and Bart. Bart tended to kick their butts at video games. She would talk with Wonder Girl and Rose. She missed those days.

She had the pizzas placed safely on her bike. For her, Hawaiian on one half and then mushrooms and olives on the other half. For Connor, she had to wait like half an hour just to have them get soy cheese. Yeah, her brother, the vegan Buddhist who is the Green Arrow, couldn’t man up and eat cheese. Then, the poor pizza people put veggies on his pizza. There was going to be a talk between the two of them when she got home.

As the sound of the soundtrack from RENT piped in through her helmet, Mia could not help but sing along. She loved that musical. She had been through a lot of that. HIV, yeah, she had it. It did not rule her life though. Worrying about how long she had to live, that happened every day. She was honestly not sure what would kill her, the HIV or the being a hero. She had done drugs, not that she wanted to. The whole musical kind of spoke to her. The story of her early teenaged years in musical format.

Mia pulled up to the garage and parked her bike. She pulled her helmet off and put it in its spot. She shut off the RENT soundtrack and took her iPod from its dock and put it into her pocket. The pizzas went into one hand as she walked into the kitchen and looked around. ”Connor? I’m home. I have the pizza. “[/b]

She looked around, slightly confused as to where the heck her brother was. He could be many places. There were a lot of rooms in this house. It was pretty much a mansion , not like Wayne Manor. That place was freaking huge. You could hold five circuses in that place and still host Monday night football. She set the pizza boxes down on the counter. She noticed that someone had made popcorn recently. Best. Clue. Ever.

Mia knew that Connor was probably watching some karate movie. At least it was not Robin Hood. Any movie involving archers, mainly the Robin Hood movies. God, the way Ollie would yell at the TV. Then, when Roy had been over those two- Well, that hurt a bit too much to think of. Then, as she walked towards the living room, she heard another voice.

She knew darn well that wasn’t Connor’s voice. It sounded very familiar though. She was not entirely sure it was Virgil. The guy lived in New York now. That was pretty far away from Star City. It was on the other side of the United States. Low and behold, she walked into the living room to find her brother and he fellow Titan sitting on the couch, eating popcorn, and watching a Bruce Lee film.

Mia let out a happy yelp as she called out Virgil’s nickname. ”Sparky!”[/b] She then launched herself at him and ended up hugging him and winced. ”Owww. Ok, flying tackle hugs while having a cracked rib or two, not my best idea.”[/b] Mia said in a slightly pained voice. That was the least of her injuries from Jade’s attacks on her. She was just amazed Jade has left her alive and not cut off any limbs or extremities.

The female archer had never really been good at observing the whole personal bubble thing. Maybe it was because she did not seem ot have any personal bubble of her own. Of course, she did notice the awkward position the two teenaged heroes were in with Virgil sort of pinned underneath her while she hugged hi and her sort of on his lap while her torso lay on top of him. She chose to ignore that. It was fun watching Connor get flustered, watching Virgil get flustered was fun as well. Now, she could watch them both get flustered at the same time!

”So, Virgil, what you doing hanging around Star City? How’s New York? Long time, no see. Oh yeah, introductions. Although he’s already probably done them. Virgil, that’s my older brother/sidekick, Connor Hawke. Connor, this is Virgil Hawkins, aka Sparky. We were Titans together.”[/b]

She had a huge grin as she sat up and moved to sit next to sit in between the two males. ”So, what have you been up to lately, Virg?”[/b]

[bangbaby]

“The best part about Bruce Lee’s movies are the realism. I feel like Jackie Chan brought a strong sense of flair and humor to Martial Arts but Bruce Lee was precise and-” Virgil was listening to Connor’s lecture regarding a fight scene on the film when he heard someone yell his name. He had initially heard the door open and had known it was Mia but had figured he’d let her find him instead of the other way around. Besides Connor was an interesting person to talk to and it wasn’t like he wanted to cut their conversation short. So their discussion went on for another two minutes before Mia actually realized he was there. The ambiance of the room shifted from calm and relaxing to upbeat and energetic. Virgil couldn’t say he minded though he kind of wished that Connor had been able to finish what he was saying. “Hey Mi-oof!” Mia practically tackled him with her considerable strength and Virgil felt his ribs groan under the sudden pressure.

“Cracked rib?” Virgil’s smile turned to a frown and he glanced at Connor. The older man was just staring at Mia with a look of concern. His gaze was so focused on her that Virgil realized he probably wouldn’t get any answers out of her. He imagined that Mia would tell him when she was ready. She definitely hadn’t had any problems with mentioning that she was wounded. It was only natural for her to eventually tell him how and why. Yet while they were friends Virgil wasn’t exactly in the mood to get involved in some type of Twister esque scenario on the couch. Especially when Connor was right there. He quickly extricated himself from their hug and sat back down again. Connor stood to his feet and stretched before feigning a yawn. “I’m pretty tired. I think I’m going to slee- er meditate before I go out on patrol.” Connor jogged into the kitchen and grabbed a slice of pizza before jogging out of the room and upstairs.

“Nothin’ big really. I nearly got myself killed by Cheshire and some ninjas a few days ago but other than that I’ve been chillin’.” He paused. “How about you?” He would have asked “How are you holding up?” but he knew that Mia of all people wouldn’t want to be reminded of Lian. Not right now anyway.

[Speedy]

Well, ok, so Mia felt a bit awkward now. She was normally really good at handling awkward moments. Of course, she tended to be the one who created the awkward moment, such as now. The fact that Virgil had brought up Cheshire though, it made her ribs hurt. Not to mention she felt terrible after what went down at Roy’s apartment last night.

Mia wasn’t sure if her normal upbeat, awesome, happy face had fallen into her more serious looking one. It most likely had. Virgil would be able to tell anyways even without the facial expressions though. He was ok at reading people, but he could learn a lot more. She looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

”She runs with ninjas now? Wow. I’m glad you got out of that with all your limbs attac-.”[/b] Mia sighed and hung her head as she had not thought before she had said anything. Now, she was thinking of Roy, who was missing in action and missing an arm. Which led her back to her thoughts of Cheshire almost killing her last night. She knew that she couldn’t dance around it forever. Maybe if she just told Virgil a bit, right now. She could deal with the rest of it later. Dinah had said it helps to talk about it.

Mia’s tone of voice came out much different then it had been. This was a more serious topic, she knew she sounded sadder. Her voice tended to get quieter when she had to talk about anything remotely depressing. She couldn’t even look at her friend, knowing she’d see his expression change and having a better read on his thoughts. She didn’t want to deal with the thoughts in his head going across his face after she told him.

”I ran into Cheshire last night, well early this morning, I guess. She, she wanted to know what happened. I couldn’t not tell her, she has a right to know and.. She nearly killed me, Vrig. I guess the worst part is that I would have let her.”[/b]

She was trying to keep herself from crying, she really was. A few tears had to fall though, which she just reached up and wiped away some of the make up which hid the large bruise on her cheek. She took a deep breath in and let it out before looking at Virgil and smiling.

”Enough with the heavy stuff for now though. I turn into being kind of useless I’ll tell you more later, k? I promise. Now, besides the whole “chilling” thing, which I will fix later on, we’ll talk as we walk. Mainly because I forgot to get the mail on my way in. How’s New York been?”[/b]

-She smiled and took Virgil’s hand and led him out of the room after putting the movie on pause. She did not like sitting still for long periods of time. Mia thought she might be part Speedster at times. She stopped and looked at him for a second and crossed her arms in faux frustration. ”You grew again. I think I might have to prune you, Virgil. You are getting far too tall.”[/b] Mia tried to sound annoyed while talking but it didn’t sound real at all. She always threatened to prune him due to his height, while she stood at 5’4” and seemed to stop growing there.
{color=fabb35]”Getting mail, and then I’ll go find the hedge trimmers. Pretty sure we have a pair somewhere around here.”[/color][/b]

[bangbaby]

To say that Virgil had gotten out of the situation with his limbs attached was also a contribution to the theory that there were actually miracles. There had been so many sharp blades during that fight that Virgil was surprised he hadn’t been sliced to ribbons by the end of the evening. He still wasn’t sure if it was a prank or if he had somehow stumbled onto some small scale Comic-Con of sort. Ninjas were never the types to attack in packs but he guessed that he had history all wrong. In one night Virgil had learned about a secret organization of assassins who had been manipulating the events of history since the beginning of time. (Or that’s what they claimed. He was still certain that most of it was hyperbole). It turned out that 90s hiphop wasn’t all that far from the truth when they had made allusions to the Illuminati. Virgil could take some small comfort in the fact that he had managed to beat back said ninjas with little effort. It had been the Emerald Ninja who had caused him the most trouble. To be fair they had been on the same side but Virgil was always a nervous wreck while siding with criminals.

Virgil noticed that Mia’s voice had trailed off and winced internally. She had led herself right into that one and he realized that he would be walking on eggshells this whole conversation. It looked like they’d never be watching Star Wars again. That would be hitting to close to home. It was a shame since the Original Trilogy marathon was a common occurrence in the Tower. If you could actually convince people to sit down for 9 hours. He was going to console her but Mia immediately launched into her story. Instead of adding anything unnecessary he simply stopped and listened. That’s what she needed the most. He had a feeling that most people would try and tell her things would be alright when it wasn’t. Virgil had faced a death in the family as a child and he knew exactly how it felt when people tried to tell him how to feel or how the situation was. “That lady sure does get around.” Virgil noted with a slight shake to his head. “You should never let someone try to kill you…if they try to kill you you should try and kill them right back.” It was a classic Firefly line. Yet again he was certain that bringing up the subject of killing bad guys was foolish as well. “Er…” He sputtered for a moment and fell silent as Mia suddenly smiled and dragged him out the room.

“New York is cool…it’s different but it’s cool. There’s just as much crime but not as depressing. Believe it or not but the criminals are even wackier in New York City then in Dakota City.” That was mainly because you were more likely to find a white supremacist in Dakota City then a flamboyant villain who could shoot ice out of her palms. “Most of my height is the air.” He patted his head fondly. If he combed it out it’d be an actual full afro but for now he was all about the dreads.

[Speedy]

Mia had a few moments where she was, well, a bit slow. As she basically dragged Virgil along with her outside she smiled and then looked at him after suddenly stopping. She tried not to have too big of a smirk as Virgil patted his dreadlocks. The small peals of laughter managed to escape her mouth though. She did think he looked better in dreadlocks then with the full on afro. [”OH, I know that Virgil. I do remember the one time Bart decided to comb your hair out for you while you were asleep. And the next morning,,,,I think I may have said something like your hair looked like it was the cross between a disco Furby and a Koosh ball. Iwould keep the dreads if I were you. It’s hard to take anyone with an afro seriously.”[/b]

She was trying really hard to not laugh too hard at that memory. Those were the days. She let out a happy sigh and then glared at the driveway, which was half a mile long because Ollie was slightly paranoid. It made her roll her eyes every single time she had to walk out to get the mail. Seriously, why such a long driveway? The house, ok, more like a mansion, sort of, was already quite a few miles outside the city.

As she walked down the drive way, she dropped Virgil’s arm from her grasp. It wasn’t like he was a toddler that needed to be put on a child leash. Mia did not like people who did that to their kids. Few situations called for that sort of thing to be done. The blonde blinked and turned around and started walking backawards as she realized something. ”You quoted Firefly! Don’t say anything about how long it took me to realize that! My brain is busy so it takes a bit longer to process certain things.”[/b]

Virgil should know that she meant no blonde jokes. Mia and Wonder Girl had been subjected to many of those over the course of being Titans. Of course, Cass had Conner to intimidate anyone who dared to utter such a joke. Mia had her vast knowledge of comeback lines. It’s ok ,they totally got their revenge in the end. The knowledge of taking certain Titan’s underwear, getting it wet and then putting it in the freezer would go with her to her grave.

”Vrigil, of course New York City is different from Dakota. It’s NEW YORK CITY! Pretty sure it ranks second for having the weirdest and craziest bad guys, right after Gotham. I mean, you can’t really beat the whacked out mess that is Gotham city. I mean, the Joker kind of trumps everyone. That and there is the certain ex-bat who blew up my high school. Boy, one of these I want to wipe the smirk off that guy’s face.”[/b]

So, Mia ranted a bit. Virgil knew she tended to talk, a lot. He just kind of followed along and rolled with it. The two of them had been really good friends with Bart. Bart Allen, however, talked more then Mia did. He would talk so fast you could barely understand what he was saying too. Flash speak, Virgil and Mia had dubbed it.

As they walked towards the end of the driveway, the pair finally reached the mailbox. Mia opened it and pulled out the mail for today. It consisted of bills, the odd junk mail, a letter to Connor from his mother and a white envelope for Mia from a lab.
She gulped hard at the sight of the envelope. Mia really did not like ever getting the lab results from her blood counts. The suspense built as soon as she saw it every time. The questions would run through her head. How much longer did she have now? Did she have to change meds again? What precautions she should start taking now? Would she have to give up being a hero?

Mia sighed heavily and shook her head. ”Great, my blood work is back. Cue the dramatic building of suspense. I’ll open it when we get back inside. In the meantime, how is NYU? Have you decided on what you want to major in yet? Let me guess, it is going to be something science related.”[/b]

Just like that, Mia was able to go from worrying about her health to acting distracted and upbeat again. She was a total pro at this by now. It would not surprise her if Virgil went into some science related field. He was also really good at math too. Hence why she had enlisted his help with Trig the first time around.

Did Virgil know she was slightly faking the upbeat happy smile to keep from worrying herself sick on the walk back? Yeah, he most likely did. Was he going to say anything about it though? Most likely not. Virgil knew when to leave stuff alone. They were pretty good at reading each other by now. She knew that Virgil would ask how everything is going and how she was doing by the end of the day. The guy just could sense when she was close to popping and managed to make sure that didn’t happen. It made her smile a bit more.

[bangbaby]

There were parts about being a member of the Teen Titans that Virgil loved to reflect on and there were parts he didn’t. He had to say that Bart’s pranks were a mixed bag. Most of them were fun and light-hearted but others were downright annoying. Virgil was the only man without a barber’s license who touched his hair. That was a simple truth. He had gotten Bart back good for that. He couldn’t blame Mia for bringing it up though. In retrospect that had been pretty funny. Though he had to admit that her next statement irked him. Afros were cool! The only reason Virgil didn’t have an afro is because he didn’t feel like picking out his hair every morning. Ironically he found dreads just a little easier to maintain. Yet he decided to keep his mouth shut. Mia was in a bad space right now and the last thing he wanted to do was trigger white guilt. Mainly because Virgil was sick of warding off apologies whenever someone offended him with something silly.

It would seem as if Mia wanted Virgil to follow her down the ridiculously long driveway of Queen Manor. It was a walk that Virgil had already made and it wasn’t one that he was in any hurry to do again. Yet he followed her dutifully because he had a feeling that there would be bad news in that mailbox. He had friends who suffered from HIV/AIDS and there was very rarely any good news for them. It would seem as if the cure was always on the horizon. It would seemingly stay that way for quite some time. Luckily Mia had access to the funds necessary to help her stay on track with her medication and new blood work. There were hundreds of people in Dakota City who weren’t quite as lucky. “Guess you’re not as big of a nerd as me.” He joked as they finally made it to the mailbox. “Crazy bat-boy?” Virgil paused for a moment and then realized that it’d be best not to tell Mia he had met said crazed “bat-boy” not too long ago.

“I always thought New York was relatively tame when it came to the World’s Greatest Heroes’ turf. It seems so much more... real than Metropolis and Gotham.” He wasn’t sure why. Metropolis and Gotham had always come off as [respectively] cartoonish and dark due to the heroes who protected them. He guessed that all the rejected villains had headed to New York City. These rejected villains were just as crazy as The Joker but nowhere near as deadly. Virgil often had to deal with them en masse since they lacked the foresight to do anything truly devious. Virgil supposed that he’d have to be thankful for that. “I’m sure it’ll be good news. I can open it with you if like.” He wasn’t sure if it had helped but it was something Richie had done with one of his gay friends. It was the gesture that mattered.

“NYU is aight. And I did major in something scienc-y.” Engineering was the way to go these days.

[Speedy]

Mia looked at Virgil and couldn’t help but smile a bit. She knew she wasn’t his only friend with HIV/AIDS. The blonde archer really appreciated the gesture of just having him open the envelope that held the results of her latest blood work. It was such a simple little thing but, Mia knew she wasn’t the only person who felt those lab results caused stress. ”That would be really nice, Virgil. Thanks. Don’t worry, I won’t reporting you for committing a federal offense even.”[/b] Mia joked a bit at the end as she handed over the white envelope that may seal her fate or not to Virgil.

As the seemingly odd pair walked back towards the house, the resident of Star City groaned. She had totally forgotten that Virgil had already declared his major and everything. Man, sometimes, Virgil Hawkins made her feel totally inadequate. He was smart, funny, and an all around good guy. There were moments when she wondered how exactly she got such awesome friends. Mia had a tendency to have her mouth open and things would come out that annoy or anger people. It amazed her that the Titans had easily accepted her as one of their own so quickly.

The blonde could not help but smile a bit as she looked at her friend. ”I guess I can sort of see what you mean about New York City villains. Star City used to be mainly white collar crime before.. Well, before everything went downhill. “ [/b]

Her voice tapered off a bit as she still had no idea what to call what had happened to Star City. It had been a total catastrophe. It was a disaster. An act of malice and evil and nothing good came out of what had happened. Those bombs had not just blown up her home and the city she loved. They blew her family apart and then ripped them from each other. She took a deep breath to try and quell her thoughts.

It was not until Virgil gave the awkward silence cough that Mia realized she had just left a large pause, and an awkward silence in their conversation. Well, now was as good a time as any to change the subject again. Mia knew Virgil would soon confront her about starting onto a subject that was truly bugging her an then stopping before she even reached a middle point. She would try and delay it for a little longer.

”I totally forgot that you already declared your major and everything. Engineering, right? I still haven’t declared mine yet. I had two that I was thinking of but, well, I don’t know if going into those fields would be the best idea for me now. You sure you can make heads or tails of the report, smart guy? “[/b]

IT was just like that Mia went from nearly breaking down to being upbeat and happy again. Her initial path of majoring in elementary education seemed painful now. She loved kids but, just seeing children now made her hurt and miss Lian. Becoming a counselor had seemed a good idea but, how was she supposed to help others with their problems when she couldn’t even face her own? Mia had been faking a smile and being upbeat for too long now. She knew that there were cracks in her facade and that if anyone could see how close she was to breaking, it was Virgil.