Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ TTHS-City Musical: The Phantom of the City ❯ Standing up ( Chapter 7 )

CHAPTER SEVEN

Saturday…

Usually a day for kids to enjoy themselves and adults to have some fun too, but not if you were in Jump-City. There were hardly any fun places for kids to hangout, and some adults were still facing unemployment and possible eviction due to Mayor Jackson's negligence.

Now he was getting even worse that morning when he was planning to demolish the children's hospital to make way for a new cark-park. The poor sick kids would have no where to go and no one to look after them, but once again the phantom interfered, scared off most of the workers, and those who tried to continuously stand up to him, he sent them off in more if his explosive illusions. “FEEL THE MAGIC…!” He shouted as he powered up his cane, made the single circle, and slashed three times. “ALA… KA… ZAM!”

Three workers were hit, fell over and vanished in a large explosion. One day they would return, but, “That will teach them to mess with the phantom.” The phantom hissed and he left the scene with the hospital still intact and the children were overjoyed.

Dick and friends were watching as well from the side of the street. “BOO-YAH! The man pulls off another one.”

Kori cheered the phantom's name over and over again, and Dick smiled strangely yet proudly, but once more the goths were not impressed, but decided not to bother about him. “You two got a date tonight?” asked Dick.

“But where are you going… I don't know many places around here to actually hangout at, other than Ben's.” said Kori.

The goths had their own places to have fun. Like dark alleys, the cemetery, and there were a few poetry clubs that weren't torn down. “Uh… o… kay…” Vic simply said.

That's when the gang turned and saw Terra was heading for town hall which was just up the street. “What's she doing there?” Dick wondered. No one knew, but could see Terra looked a little edgy.

…

Meanwhile, Jackson was madder than ever. So mad that no one dared to go into his office as they could hear him riving and thrashing The only person who was in there was Dodgers who urged Jackson to finally calm down.

Jackson knew he was right and settled down, but he didn't know how much more of this humiliation and delay he could take. “Sir… there's a girl outside who's been waiting to see you for an hour.” Dodgers said. “She says it's urgent.

“Very well…!” Jackson sighed.

He saw Terra but told her to make it brief. All Terra did was hand him the note and she said it was from the phantom. Jackson quickly snatched the letter form her, and dismissed Terra from he premises.

The phantom's letter was threatening, and warned Jackson if he dared to lay one finger on the northwest forest or the theater, he would personally come to punish Jackson himself.

Jackson crumbled the letter angrily and threw it down, and what frustrated him more was the fact that he had just dismissed the girl who obviously knew something about the phantom's whereabouts and other things like that. “Dodgers! Who was that girl?”

“Terra Markov, sir. She attends Murakami High.” Dodgers answered.

Jackson began to ponder, and he had a better idea, but it would have to wait as Jackson's receptionist buzzed him and said that the person they hired had arrived. “Show her in.”

In came a tall and pretty, but rather buff woman. She had with her a lot of weapons, and she looked much like a tomb raider. “Good morning…” she said deeply yet softly. “I am… Erin Samus the bounty hunter.”

…

As Terra left town-hall Garfield came up, “Terra…?” he called to her.

“Garfield…?”

He caught up to her and said he had been looking everywhere for her. “I came to give you this.” he gave her a note. Terra read it immediately it was another note from the phantom…

Well done! But I still require the letter from Dick Grayson. Obtain it and further instructions will be given to you.

-P

“So he has you in this too…?” Terra asked.

Garfield played along and lied to her, “Yeah… at least I think so… it all happened so fast, but I'd rather go along with his plan, whatever it is… if it means the town will be saved and my…” he stopped.

“What…?” Terra asked.

Garfield closed his eyes a moment and went through another flashback.

“Mommy! Daddy! Help me! HELP…!”

“Never mind…”

Terra asked again, “Maybe I can help…?”

“No Terra, you can't. No one can.”

Jackie and Jillian came along and saw that together. “Hey, brat-boy!” snapped Jackie.

“What do you think you're doing here with her?” added Jillian.

Garfield and Terra both rolled their eyes.

…

Dick and friends were walking down the street. “Look there…!” said Kori.

They could see what was happening and sensed there was going to be a fight, but Dick them all back form marching over there. “Wait…!” he said. “Nothing bad has happened yet. Give it a few minutes.”

Jackie and Jillian had had their fill of seeing Garfield near Terra, and they wouldn't stop insulting him and threatening to beat him up if they ever saw him with Terra again… but Terra finally spoke up. “Stop bothering him!” she snarled.

A long moment of silence occurred, Jackie, Jillian, even Garfield couldn't believe how Terra was acting. Terra explained that she was sick and tired of the girls always beating on Garfield. “Ever he came to our school, you done nothing but act like bullies towards him, when you don't even know him and he's never done anything to harm you in anyway.”

“But…?”

“But, Terra… you…?”

“BUT NOTHING…!” Terra said.

She finally realized how heartless her now ex-friends were. They were just like their fathers, and Mayor Jackson-- Greedy, wrenching scoundrels. “You tell everyone else what to do and force them to go along with it even if it's not a great idea, and that's what you two have been doing with me for a long time. I go where you go. I do what do… well for the first time… I'm doing what I want to do… and it's something I should've done in a long time…”

She looked as if she was on the verge of tears, but she whirled round grabbed Garfield's shoulders, “Terra… UH…?!?!” Garfield said nothing more because Terra had placed her lips over his, much to the girls' shock, and the others amazement.

“She's kissing him!” cried Kori.

“Dang! Girl's got guts.” added Vic.

Dick was so transfixed at what he saw, he didn't notice that his letter to the president was sticking out from his pocket and got blown by the breeze that started to rustle.

Garfield just stood there not blinking his wide eyes. Terra finally pulled herself off of him. She was blushing madly, but she looked both cross and sad at the same time as she faced the girls again. “I'm not going to hide it anymore…! I'm in love with Garfield and I have been since grade nine! I may not know about him, but he inspires me and he's not like other boys! I love him!”

No one said a thing, and Terra ran off. “Terra…!” Garfield called to her. “TERRA…!” but she was already gone. Garfield stood there gazing up the street. “She's in love with me?!” he thought to himself. “I don't believe this!”

…

Terra was in the park, in a lonely area by herself. He head was leaning against a lamppost as she cried. She felt a like a complete idiot. “What did I just do…?!” the thought heavily to herself. “I just blurted out how I felt!”

She was now skeptical about ever being able to see Garfield again. How would he treat her the next time he saw her?

Then suddenly, she felt something hit her foot. She wiped away her tears and saw it was a letter. Dick's letter to the president. She had no idea how it got here, but she had it now, which made her phantom task all the more easier.

…

At town-hall Jackson and Dodgers were talking with Erin. She was international mercenary and bounty hunter who never failed. “So, you want me to track this alleged phantom of yours and put him out of the picture?” she asked.

“Yes…” said Jackson. “And we're prepared to pay you generously.”

Erin warned them that her services didn't come cheap. “My minimum fee is ten-million ahead. All hits and bloodshed cost fifty-percent extra, and capturing my victim whether dead or alive if five million more.”

Jackson and Dodgers gawked at each other in shock. The mention of such a price. “What do you take the mayor for?” asked Dodgers. “He…”

“Will pay that and more…” Jackson cut in.

“Sir…?!” Dodgers asked in disbelief.

Jackson explained that he was willing to pay as long as it meant the phantom would be out of his hair. “And it means I can make even more money than what I pay.”

He did wish to see a demonstration of her talents first to which Erin agreed at no extra charge. She was taken to the police training dojo a few blocks away.

She was armed her weapons with stun-darts instead of real ammo, and she gazed at all the men that would be fighting her. “Only fifty? This shouldn't take long.” she smirked.

The fight began, and Erin had killer moves and skills that Jackson and Dodgers could barely believe. The practice-cops tried their best, but none of their shots hit Erin and she ended up stunning them all either with her own weapons or her own signature hand-to-hand combat attacks leaving them out-cold.

Soon all fifty men were down and Erin hadn't broken a sweat. “Well… now that we're through with the appetizer, why don't you tell me about the main course. I'm still very hungry.”

Jackson snickered with an evil look in his eye. He explained to Erin that, “Start with this girl.” He said holding up Terra's picture form her city records. “She seems to have some connections with the phantom.”

Erin got a good look of the girl and once receiving all the information. “Remember… I expect my money in cold-hard cash. No checks!”

She suited up, loaded her weapons, “Now… I'm off!” and she was gone, leaping across buildings just like the phantom. “My goodness, but she's good.” said Dodgers.

“I know… that's why I hired her.” said Jackson. He was thinking about how wonderful to would be when the headlines posted articles of the phantoms downfall and all the money he would make with no more disruptions.

“Oh, dear…!” Dodgers had a feeling the mayor was about to sing his favorite song again…

(Music cue)

(Jackson)

Money is such a beautiful word
It soars in my mind like a beautiful bird
Better than that
It makes me feel like an aristocrat
That's where it's at
Money is such a beautiful word

Money is such a beautiful thing
I find that I use it for everything
Money is power
If it were food, it's a dish I'd devour
Every hour
Money is such a beautiful word

Money's my passion

Always my fashion

Stashin'

Cash cream in the cream

That is my gleam

Money's my favorite

That's why I crave it

Being… a rich, rugged man-which!

Money for me is all that there is

I make it so well, I'm the best in the biz…

Money and I…

We're as happy as apple and pie

Haven't ya heard

Money is such… a beautiful word.

Money is probably as evil as satin

And probably worse.

A dreadful yet wonderful curse.

I'd steal from a wallet and take from a purse

Money is the… most beautiful… word!

…

Dodgers left Jackson to be alone with his money. “Sometimes I wonder why I bother working for him!” he grunted under his breath. “I wish I were mayor, I'd be much better than him.”