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catxsnow · 4 years

Text

INTERRUPTED G.L.

Request: May i request a gar imagine where they keep trying to have their 'first time' but they keep getting interrupted by other titans. you don't have to write smut if you're not comfortable im just here for the the fluff + the titans reaction to the morning after for bonus because i feel like that would be so funny to write.

Warning: mentions of s.e.x.

A/N: This was so cute to right! I love writing for Gar

Word Count: 3.3k

Gar Logan was one of a kind.

He was the kind of person that could make you smile on your worst days. The only one who seemed to truly care when you needed to talk to someone. And most importantly, he was the one person in this world that you would die for. Over and over again.

You would do anything for him, repeatedly if he asked. Make him supper every night? Of course. Train with him? Every day. Fall asleep in his arms at night? You couldn't sleep without him. Have sex with him? As much as you wanted to, every time you went for it, someone got in the way.

It was frustrating how many times you got interrupted and soon you were about to do it whether or not someone in the team needed you. Each and every time you and Gar got some time alone, someone was always there to interrupt you.

Gar was a shy person, everyone knew that. He was awkward when it came to PDA and he frankly, had no idea what the hell he was doing half the time. Lucky for him, you could help along the way. He learned from you and to be honest, you learned a few things from his as well. You guys had molded into the perfect couple.

Dick wasn't happy to see the two of you dating. He knew how messy it could get to date teammates but there was also nothing that he could do to stop you. So, as he watched you from a far, he also reminded you to be careful. And you were, just maybe not in the sense that he told you to.

The first time you were interrupted was partially been your own fault. You knew that the Titans were busy with trying to take down their latest enemy and yet you still deemed it a good time to finally have your first time with Gar. It was relatively early in the evening but you couldn't stop the feeling running through your core.

You had barely gotten your shirt off when Dick came knocking at your door to say that the two of you were needed and to suit up. As disappointed as you were, you couldn't be mad at him for needing you and your boyfriend for a mission. So, reluctantly, you geared up and headed out while Gar tried to hide his rather obvious boner.

You didn't think that anyone on the team noticed that you were in the middle of something during that mission. Besides you being a little extra frustrated, it seemed that you and Gar was just hanging out. Dick didn't have an ounce of guilt in him - but he would have if he had known the truth.

By the time that you got back home, you passed out as soon as your head hit the pillow. Gar went to sleep that night dreaming of you.

The second time that you found your night ruined was by Rachel. Gar had stupidly forgot to lock his door and Rachel found herself barging in when he didn't answer the knock on his door. Gar was hovered of you, lips attacking your neck and shirt completely off. He was better than you - nothing but your underwear and the blankets to cover you.

Rachel screeched just about as loudly as the door slammed. She wasn't expecting to walk in on that - in fact she thought you were out of the tower for the night. Rachel nearly ran down the hall trying to get the images of her two best friends out of her head. In public, the two of you never showed any PDA to the point that she sometimes forgot you were actually dating.

Gar huffed in annoyance and rolled down beside you. His heart was racing from the experience and he couldn't help but the bright red blush that covered his face. He stared up at the ceiling and tried to get rid of his frustration at Rachel - he was really looking forward to finally having the time to have sex with you.

Never in his life was he so disappointed and embarrassed at the same time. Having his closet friend barge in on him on his almost first time didn't exactly get him riled up to keep going.

"'s a cute look for you," You teased him, poking at the redness in his cheeks and neck. He found himself blushing lots with you, and every time you couldn't help but admire him even more. Gar rolled his eyes and rummaged for two random shirt, one for himself and the other for you. "Rachel ruin the mood for you?"

"Did it not ruin it for you?" Gar jokingly scoffed at you. He watched you pull his shirt over your head and then crawl out of his bed. You knew what you were doing to him - swaying your hips as you walked by, bending down real slow as you picked up a pair of his sweats off the floor. His red face became even brighter as you pulled his pants up your legs. "I don't think that's gonna help."

"Can't say I didn't try," you winked at him. Walking by his mirror, your just barely got a glance at your neck. Faint bruises covered your skin - not dark enough to be obvious to anyone not paying attention but just enough to remind you that you were once again so close. "Never would have guessed you were a hickey kinda guy. Maybe it's the tiger in you."

"If it were the tiger in me I think you'd have a lot more damage," Gar joked. He laid flat against his bed and waited for you to join him. You flopped down on the opposite side of the bed and tilted you head to face him. "You've got pretty eyes."

"And you're a sap," You grinned, lightly smacking his chest. "Movie?"

"Sure," Gar quickly agreed. He loved movie nights with you. Warm blankets, you cuddled into his side, and nothing but happiness in his heart. "I'd say popcorn too but I'm too afraid to accidentally run into Rachel out there."

"There's my brave boyfriend I know and love."

The third time that you got interrupted was probably to most infuriating time. Jason, of all people had to be the one nagging at your door that he needed your help. You hoped that he would go away if you just ignored him, but he still didn't give up.

"I can hear you in there, (Y/N)," Jason knocked once more on the door. You were straddling Gar, hands on his bare chest and eyes squeezed shut in hopes that he would leave. It was no use. You wouldn't have been so mad if the two of you had already had sex at one point in your relationship - but it seemed like you never got the chance.

It had taken you so long to get Gar confident enough to be wanting to do it. This wasn't your first rodeo, but it was his. And as much as you wanted to make it special for him, it seemed like your time got more limited as the weeks went on. It wasn't just his first time, it was yours together - you wanted it to be romantic.

"You think he's gonna leave?" you whispered. Gar shook his head. With a sigh, you rolled off of him and plucked your clothes from the floor to halfheartedly put them back on to answer the door. Gar stumbled to do the same. Your hair was a mess and you were sure your shirt was on backwards but you honestly didn't care anymore.

You unlocked your door and whipped it open. Jason was standing with his fist raised and ready to knock again. He was taken aback by your appearance. Messy clothes, anger in your eyes - you were not pleased to see him. And you weren't. At all.

"What, Jason?" You snapped at him. This better be good for him to come knocking on your day. This time you really thought that you and Gar were going to make it through the night without anyone getting in your way. Apparently, you were mistaken. Again.

"Can I borrow your Led Zeppelin record?" Jason asked. You could swear that you felt your eye twitch with anger and steam coming out of your ears. You were beyond furious that he interrupted you and Gar just to borrow some stupid record of yours. Fucking Jason Todd.

Your hands clenched into fists at your side and the rest of your body was tense. It wasn't Jason saw Gar sheepishly sitting on the edge of your bed did he realize he made a mistake. You were ready to lost your shit at him for this, and you would have too if it wasn't for Gar.

He joined you at the door and placed a hand on your lower back under your shirt. His touch washed away your anger - at least some of it. "Hey, Jay," Gar smiled. You couldn't understand why he was able to keep his calm so easily, this affected him just as much if not more.

With a huff, you stalked to the corner of your room to find the record that he was talking about. You were tempted to smash it right in front of him just to leave him without the satisfaction, however it was one of your favourites too. Instead, you smacked it onto his chest and slammed the door in his face.

That should have been a big enough hint that you were furious at him.

"UGH!" you groaned as you plopped down on your bed. Limbs spread out on your messy sheets and disappointment rolling off you like waves. You were more horny than you ever have been in your whole life and yet you couldn't bring yourself to go back to what you were doing. This was a whole new kind of sexual frustration.

"Is this god giving us a sign?" You grabbed the pillow you weren't laying on and smashed it against your face. Gar chuckled at you and removed the pillow to kiss you. "Why? I just! Ugh! I'm so angry right now I can't even decide what I want to be angry about!"

"You're adorable when you're angry," Gar flirted. You glared up at him which only enticed a laugh. Usually, the sound of his laughter always brought a smile to your face, this time it just made you more frustrated with everything going on. You snatched the pillow out of his hands and hit him across the chest with it.

Gar raised his eyebrows at your outburst. He darted for the other pillow on your bed and smacked you back. He knew that this meant for him - a full out war. If there was one thing that you took seriously it was pillow fights. You never lost a single one and Gar had been the unfortunate loser every time.

"I take it back!" He cowered away from your raised pillow. You narrowed your eyes at him but slowly lowered your weapon. "You're angry already I don't want you to release it all out on me."

"Wanna go train?" You countered.

"At midnight? No!" Gar shook his head, bewildered that you wanted to go work up a sweat this late at night. It was one way to get your frustration at Jason out. You could already imagine that the punching bag was his face. "I'm ready to go to bed. And don't you dare say you're too angry to sleep."

"I'm angry enough to kick you out."

"No, you're not."

"No, I'm not."

Gar knew if that if the two of you got interrupted one more time, you might literally kill someone.

So, he did what any wise boyfriend would do and warned everyone on the team that if anyone knocked on your door that night, it better be because of the end of the world and nothing less of it. Though he never stated why, he was sure that the team all understood what his plan was for the night.

It was a few days after your last incident with Kori - a completely embarrassing story that you or Gar never wanted to think about ever again. That by far, had to have been the worse experience that you ever had within the tower and you hoped that Kori would never bring it up ever.

Gar had the night planned out in his head. With no one to bother the two of you, he hoped the night would go smoothly. After all your failed tries, it had to. All he had to do was wait for you to get back to the tower.

It felt like hours that he was lounging around in your room for you to come back. He went from playing some of your records to snooping around to looking at old pictures of you and your family. Time seemed so slow and when he finally heard the creak of your door open up he couldn't hide his grin.

"Holy shit, Gar!" you grabbed onto your chest. You had no idea that he'd be in your room. You draped your coat over your chair and dropped down to your bed. It had been a long day and there was nothing more that you wanted to do than to spend time with your boyfriend. "What are you doing in here? Creeping?"

Gar never answered your question but simply strolled over to your door and turned the lock. You raised an eyebrow at the sound - the only time you ever locked your door was when clothes came off. "I'm not sure if I'm ready to be disappointed with another interruption again."

"It's not gonna happen," Gar promised you. You sat up on your bed with a weary look. It was four times now that you had gotten your night caught off, a fifth time would only mean that you were nothing but bad luck. However, Gar's confidence in the two of you being left alone sparked an excitement through you.

You reached out to snatch his hand and tugged him onto the bed with you. Without even giving him a second to adjust, your lips were on his. Gar savored this kiss with you - the gentleness of your touch being dominated by eagerness. You wanted this night more than anything.

Gar was nervous - of course he was nervous. This was his first time and he didn't want to disappoint you. He knew that you would never be upset by him, no matter how the night went on his behalf. You wanted this night to be for him, not for yourself. But after all this time, you needed his touch just as much as he needed yours.

His fingertips danced along your skin and under your shirt. He was always so gentle with you; as if you were made a glass and a single harsh touch would shatter you. You didn't waste time to tug off his shirt, breaking your kiss for only a moment before coming together again.

Gar pulled you off the bed just enough to pull of your sweater and everything underneath it. Cold air dusted across your bare chest and enticed a shiver through you.

"This is usually about the time someone comes in, you sure that it's not gonna happen?" You joked. Gar's lips trailed down your neck, nipping and sucking as he mad his way to his desired destination.

"I'm sure," Gar promised. He left a more pressured bite right against your pulse point and you couldn't help but moan at the feeling. You could feel him smile against your skin, happy that he was the one causing you this pleasure.

"Last chance, if someone walks into this room after this I'm not stopping for them."

Gar only unbuttoned your jeans in response.

"So, uh, fun night?"

You were never embarrassed about someone else knowing you had sex. Your friends used to harass you but they never got a reaction out of you. Even now, when your won teammates knew exactly what you and your boyfriend had done the night before, you felt no ounce of sheepishness. You couldn't say the same about Gar.

Last night had been perfect. Not a single person tried to get you for something and Gar had been amazing. You wanted to relieve that night over and over again. You didn't have a single disappointment and you were sure that Gar felt the same way.

He could see why you were so mad every time you got interrupted. He was missing out on so much all this time.

The next morning, the two of you strolled out of your room with painfully obvious signs of what had happened. Dark bruises covered your neck and you had his shirt from the previous day hanging on your shoulders. Gar's hair was a mess and no amount of brushing would tame it down.

Gar tried to sneak back to his room to shower but the second that he stepped out in the hall, Jason was passing by and ushered the two of you to breakfast. He could not wait to see the amount of teasing that you guys were about to get from everyone else. So, the two of you were seated in your normal spots as Rachel finished cooking for everyone.

Jason sat across the table from you and only smirked at your glare. Rose looked between the two of you. She opened her mouth to speak but then decided against it. It was finally Rachel that spoke up and asked about your night.

You cleared your throat before answering. "Um, yep. Just uh, chill."

"Mhmm," Dick nodded to your answer. He sat on the other side of you and stared directly at your neck while you avoided his gaze. Quickly, he raised his arm to flick one of your hickey's. "Chill night, huh?"

"Ow!" you hissed in pain. Without thinking, you kicked him from under the table, which only proved even more that you were lying - not that anyone needed more proof. "Stop being such, such a dick! I'm a grown adult too, you know."

"And the kids are suddenly all grown up," Kori joined in on the teasing. Everyone was aware of her... relationship, with Dick. She was in no position to tease you about having sex with a teammate.

"You've literally known us for less than a year," Gar pointed out after shoving a forkful of food in his mouth. "And you're not that much older than us."

"Yeah, we'll next time go to Gar's room and bother Rachel," Jason complained. He was pretty sure he nearly busted his eardrums from how loud his headphones were last night. There was still ringing in his ears. Gar's face flushed red and the comment and Rachel had to point it out to make it worse.

"Guy's stop bugging Gar," you rolled your eyes to their teasing. Your hand searched for his under the table and as soon as you found it you interlocked fingers. The last thing you wanted was for him to feel uncomfortable and then have to wait another long time before having sex again - this wait was far too long already.

"Young love," Rachel sighed.

"Well, thanks for breakfast Rach, I gotta shower," You stood up from your chair and looked around at everyone. The hickies that Dick had just made fun of reflected perfectly in the sunlight for everyone to see. Gar sat at the table with his head in his hands as everyone stared at him.

As much as you hated that everyone interrupted you at least once, being with Gar was well worth the wait. He was nothing but perfect with you, and that’s all that mattered.

"And I also just want to say I fucking hate you all, if you ever knock on my door again expect a punch to the face."

#gar logan #garfield logan #gar logan imagine #gar logan one shot #gar logan x reader #dc titans #titans #titans imagine #titans one shot #dc one shot #dc imagine #dc #fluff

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historicalfirearms · 4 years

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Dr. Wise on Influenza

The British Film Institute recently shared a public information film from 1919. The film was originally commissioned by the Local Government Board (later known as the Ministry of Health) the film showed how virulent 'Spanish Flu' spread and the precautions people should take.

youtube

The film includes some very early microscope footage of the virus, whether this is authentic I'm not sure. Fascinating nonetheless and must have had quite an impact on the audience to see the then invisible virus for the first time.

The film follows Mr Brown, an office worker, as he spreads the flu through his office and his coworkers then inadvertently spread it even further.

Mr Brown eventually becomes bedridden but it is several days before his coworkers also become ill. In that time they go about their business and spread the deadly influenza.

One of Mr Brown's coworkers takes ill while waiting in a busy queue - further spreading the virus when those nearby help him.

A telegram from Mr Brown's wife reaches his office, advising them that he has passed away from the flu and his funeral will be on monday.

The film then shows a nurse prepare several simple masks including the rudimentary cloth veil mask seen below.

She then demonstrates another mask before the film cuts to a hospital ward. This sequence is very similar to an American film which features Red Cross nurses in Boston preparing gauze masks.

The film then shows the nurses, wearing the various types of mask, working on a hospital ward. Dr. Wise outlines some precautions people should take to avoid infection, this was a effort made around the world, in this article we look at an advice poster from the US Navy’s senior medical officer, Captain G.L. Angeny, at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in February 1920.

Finally, Dr. Wise then shows his audience the latest death tolls from the virus from across major towns in Britain. With nearly 2,500 dying in London.

Film Source

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

#History #Spanish Flu #Spanish Influenza #Spanish Flu Pandemic #Coronavirus #COVID-19 #PSA #Public Health Film #public information film #BFI #Dr Wise

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origami-houses · 4 years

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My scar pales with each year that passes. The red draining slowly to white. It’s a small reminder that the pain is there, until one day, it just isn’t.

- G.L. Angelone

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lgbtqreads · 4 years

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This is an annual feature that runs a little differently from the rest on LGBTQReads, as the post builds on itself each year and new titles/sections are added with asterisks. These books are all queer titles by Black authors, the vast majority of which star Black main characters. (Obviously this isn’t remotely exhaustive.)

Sites

Sistahs on the Shelf – SotS is run by Rena, a Black lesbian who reviews Black lesbian books. You can also follow on Twitter at @SotS!

WoC in Romance – this is a site highlighting all Romance written by WoC, but there’s a page just for LGBTQ Romances. It’s run by Rebekah Weatherspoon, whose name you may recognize as being a prolific author of LGBTQ lit herself! You can follow on Twitter at @WOCInRomance, and make sure you check out their Patreon; link is in the pinned tweet!

Black Lesbian Literary Collective – To nab from their site, “The Black Lesbian Literary Collective creates a nurturing and sustainable environment for Black lesbian and queer women of color writers.” Looking for more reviews of Black lesbian fic? Ta da! The site is new, so it’s not packed with posts just yet, but there is already an active radio show linked to it. Find them on Twitter at @LezWriters.

The Brown Bookshelf – this is a site dedicated to Black kidlit; here are the posts that come up if you search LGBT.

Books

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*=new additions this year

Middle-Grade

Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender (Stonewall Award Winner)

King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson

Young Adult

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum*

The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta* (Stonewall Award winner)

This is What it Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron*

A Phoenix First Must Burn ed. by Patrice Caldwell

This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender*

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert (Stonewall Award winner)

Until You Came Back by Jay Coles

Jake in the Box by Ryan Douglass

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (National Book Award finalist)

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

The Secrets of Eden by Brandon Goode

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson*

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson*

Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson*

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

If it Makes You Happy by Claire Kann

37 Things I Love (in No Particular Order) by Kekla Magoon

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

Escaping Mr. Rochester by L.L. McKinney*

Home and Away by Candice Montgomery (Bi LI)

By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus (CSK Nominee)

Odd One Out by Nic Stone

Running with Lions by Julian Winters

How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters

The Summer of Everything by Julian Winters*

The Beauty that Remains by Ashley Woodfolk

Black Enough ed. by Ibi Zoboi

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NA/Adult Contemporary

The Way Back List by Lily Anderson*

Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole

A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole*

Hamilton’s Battalion by Alyssa Cole, Courtney Milan, and Rose Lerner

A Hundred Thousand Words by Nyrae Dawn*

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn

For Sizakele by Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo*

Work For It by Talia Hibbert*

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

The Spies Who Loved Her series by Katrina Jackson

The Welcome to Seaport series by Katrina Jackson

Neighborly by Katrina Jackson*

The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie*

She Called Me Woman ed. by Azeenarh Mohammed, Chitra Nagarajan, and Aisha Salau

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

When We Speak of Nothing by Olumide Popoola

You Make Me Wanna by Nikki Rashan*

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers*

Real Life by Brandon Taylor*

F*ths by G.L. Thomas

Sugar and Ice by Brooklyn Wallace

Tailor-Made by Yolanda Wallace

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

So Sweet by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Bliss by Fiona Zedde*

NA/Adult (Speculative)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James*

To Terminator, With Love by Wes Kennedy

Shatterproof by Xen Sanders

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

The Deep by Rivers Solomon*

The Root by Na’amen Gobert Tilahun

Better off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Every Dark Desire by Fiona Zedde

Comics/Graphic Novels*

Bingo Love by Tee Franklin

Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

Memoirs*

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson (YA)

How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me by Janet Mock

Poetry*

The Tradition by Jericho Brown

When the Only Light is Fire by Saeed Jones

Black Queer Hoe by Britteney Black Rose Kapri

Reacquainted With Life by KOKUMỌ

The Black Unicorn by Audre Lord

[insert] boy by Danez Smith

Homie by Danez Smith

Featured Authors

Katrina Jackson

Candice Montgomery

Julian Winters

Kayla Ancrum

Rebecca Barrow

Kacen Callender

Brandon L.G. Taylor

Rebekah Weatherspoon

Discussion Posts

Where is the Queer Black Male Voice in YA Lit?

Have more to share? Add them in the comments!

Black History Month 2020 This is an annual feature that runs a little differently from the rest on LGBTQReads, as the post builds on itself each year and new titles/sections are added with asterisks.

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onebourbon-oneshot-onetear · 3 years

Text

Aquatica

Chapter 7- The Brave and the Bold

I do not own D.C Comics, and I only own my OC and my versions of the plots.

"Evie, you're still in Gotham, correct?" Diana asked me through my earpiece. I sat up in my chair and pushed the button to answer her.

"Yeah I'm down here," I said. "I was just about to leave to go back to the Watch Tower. Why?" Currently I was reading the newspaper, looking for any big events where a crime could take place. I was due to go up to the Tower for my monitor duties in about an hour.

"Good, stay down there. Green Lantern is heading to Central City, where there was a report of a stolen truck full of radioactive isotopes. Are you available to help him?" She asked.

"Sure, I can be there in 10 minutes," I said.

"Thanks Evie, it's much appreciated." Diana said.

"Yeah, sure," I said while tying the laces on my boots. There was a click on the other end, signaling she hung up. I threw my coffee mug into the sink and ran out to my fire escape and climbed up to the roof. From there I jumped onto my ice disc and flew towards Central.

Within ten minutes I was in the city's limits. I pressed my ear to activate my communicator. "Hey G.L, you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Head towards the bridge. It looks like Flash is chasing the stolen truck now," Green Lantern said.

"I'm on my way." I flew as fast as I could to get to the bridge, and just as I came up on it I saw the truck Flash was chasing drive over the edge. In a blur of red Flash had gotten in the truck and saved the two men from going into the water. I was about to try and stop the truck from hitting the water but G.L beat me to it.

"Lose something?" he asked, levitating the truck using his ring.

"I was handling it," Flash said, seeming a little offended that we had to step in and help him.

Green Lantern and I both looked over at the rest of the bridge and the small fire that was leaving a trail of smoke in the sky.

"So I see." Green Lantern said.

"What are you guys doing here?" Flash asked us.

"G.L is responding to a police call and I'm his back up," I said, floating down to stand next to Flash on the bridge.

Green Lantern followed and set the truck back onto a stable section of the bridge.

"Someone hijacked a load of radioactive isotopes." We opened the back of the van doors and saw containers that had the radioactive isotopes in radiation containers. Yikes, imagine what trouble they can cause if these things had gotten away.

"No wonder these guys were in such a hurry," Flash said picking up the two drivers by their collars. The man in the glasses started to stir, and he opened his eyes and seemed very confused as to where he was.

He blinked a few times and he let out a groan. "Oh…where am I?" He asked, rubbing his eyes, almost as if he had a headache. The other man Flash was holding stirred and woke up as well.

"You hijacked a truck and drove it off a bridge," Flash said setting the men down on their feet. "Any of this ringing a bell?" He asked, getting in the face of the dark haired man in glasses.

"What?" the man asked, sounding utterly confused. He looked around as if he would be able to find the answers written somewhere on the bridge. My gut was telling me that this man really had no idea what we were talking about.

"Before we start accusing them of anything, why don't we figure out who they are first?" I said, stepping forward, trying to relieve some of the tension that was mounting.

"Let's see some I.D," Green Lantern said. Using his ring he took the men's wallets from inside their jacket pockets. "Professor Arthur Chin and Dr. Mark Stevens," he read. "Both work at the River Bluffs Research Center where the isotopes were stolen from."

I raised my eyebrows, now I definitely knew they really didn't know what they were doing. I couldn't see these two respectable men who worked at such a high end research facility all of a sudden become truck hijackers. Just glancing over them I could tell they seemed genuinely scared.

"Man, and I feel guilty when I take paper clips from the watchtower," Flash said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"That's you? I can never find any when I need them," I said.

"Can you focus?" G.L glared at us. "Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this." We decided to call an ambulance to take the doctor and the professor to the hospital so they could be checked out and make sure there are no internal injuries that need to be taken care of. Once the ambulance left and workers started cleaning up the bridge, G.L put us in a green bubble and we made our way over to the research center.

The center sat alone on a cliff, facing the ocean. I thought it was a really nice and peaceful spot, that is, until I walked into the facility itself. The inside of the building was all painted steel grey, with no decorations or anything to make the office look nice. Once we were led to the actual laboratory the building became really unpleasant. The entire place was full of stainless steel counters that reflected off the harsh fluorescent lights, and the walls were lined with different cages filled with monkeys, some ranging from tiny ones that could fit in your palms to a giant gorilla, who sat sitting in his cage listening, as if he could understand us.

The scientist we were meeting was Dr. Sarah Corwin. She worked with both the professor and the doctor, but quite frankly, I didn't trust much of what she had to say. Her entire appearance was cold, she had bright blue eyes that were framed by dark rimmed glasses and dark hair that was pulled back in such a tight bun I though her forehead was going to tear into two. She wore a simple lab coat over a tight black dress.

"I'm sorry. I can't explain their behavior," Dr. Corwin said after we asked her what she knew about the professor and the doctor. "They're both highly respected experts in their fields," She continued saying.

"They certainly don't fit the profile of armed robbers," G.L said as he looked over their files. It sounded like he didn't believe what Dr. Corwin was saying, and quite frankly neither did I.

"To be fair, they've been under enormous pressure to finish their current project," Dr. Corwin said. "It's possible they simply snapped under the strain." I quirked an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest, having a bit of a hard time believing what this girl was saying. "I wish I could help you, but frankly this whole things seems…so preposterous."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Flash walk over the cages to look at the monkeys.

"What exactly is their project on?" I asked. If these two guys, who had perfectly clean records, would resort to armed robbery as a way to deal with their stress then this project better be really important.

"That's classified information," Dr. Corwin said, grabbing the file out of Green Lantern's hands. I narrowed my eyes and glared at her.

Behind Dr. Corwin, flash walked over to one of the bigger cages where a fully grown gorilla was sitting. "Want one?" He asked the gorilla, offering him a banana that God knows where he got it from.

The Doctor turned around and saw Flash offering the gorilla a banana and her cheeks flushed a deep red. She stalked over and snatched the banana out of his hand, and pointed at a sign on the wall that said 'Do not feed the lab animals.'

Corwin seemed to compose herself. "If you'll excuse me, I have work to do." And with that, she turned around and walked out of the lab.

"She seems a bit suspicious, or is that just me?" I asked. Flash only shrugged his shoulders and we all turned and walked out the door.

"Are you staying with us Evie?" Green Lantern asked.

"Sure, I have nothing else to do today. Besides, I'm intrigued." I said, stepping outside and squinting my eyes from the sudden sun.

"Yeah, Evie wouldn't leave her favorite people behind, would she?" Flash said, throwing his arm over my shoulders. I rolled my eyes at his antics, and kept walking away from the facility.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

After going to the lab we went back to Central City, looking for more leads in the investigation. That is, we would be investigating, if someone didn't get hungry. The second the three of us walked into the park, he got a whiff from a hot dog cart, and that was the end of that. He ran over to the cart, practically dragging me and G.L with him.

"We're supposed to be conducting an investigation." Green Lantern said, crossing his arms and looking very grouchy.

"Can I help it if I have a hyper accelerated metabolism?" Flash asked. "Besides, it's just a little snack," He said lifting up his entire armful of food.

"He has a point, Green bean," I said, nibbling on my own hot dog. Green Lantern only rolled his eyes and became even grouchier.

I looked up from my hot dog when I heard sirens in the distance and they were coming closer. "Uh-oh," I said, shoving the rest of my food into my mouth.

"Now what?!" Green Lantern said, obviously not liking another distraction. Suddenly, people started running from the direction the police car was going.

More and more people started running by us and we could hear part of what they were saying. "There's a gorilla on the loose!" One blonde man yelled.

"Did he just say gorilla?" I asked, not quite believing what I was hearing.

"I'm on it," Flash said, throwing all of his food at Green Lantern.

"Wait, I'll go…" Green Lantern started saying but Flash had already taken off.

"…with you." He finished. I looked at him, already jumping on an ice board.

"No worries Greenie, I'll help him." I said. I flew as fast as I could to try and catch up with him, but the speedster was too fast. I only was able to catch up to him when he stopped at the park and changed direction. I decided to follow the officers, incase anything serious happened and they needed help. The officers were wearing patrol gear and their swat gear.

It looked like they were chasing after something silver, but it moved too quickly for me to get a better look at it. By the time I flew around all the officers the silver thing was gone and all I could hear was the screeching of tires. I went over to the street and saw a man sitting on the ground.

"Sir, what happened?" I asked him, hovering a few feet above the pavement.

"I don't know, but something pulled me out of my car, it looked like a gorilla," He said, rubbing his head. Okay, he must have hit his head because as far as I know, gorillas can't drive cars.

I decided to follow the direction his car went anyway. After a few seconds of flying and dodging lampposts as fast as I could, I caught up with Flash, who was chasing a car…with a gorilla driving.

"Are you seeing this?" I yelled at him, trying to make my voice carry over the wind whipping in my face. Flash grabbed a rake and sped up, throwing the rake in front of the car, wrecking the tires. The car sped out of control and crashed against a dumpster and landed on its side.

I jumped off my disc and stood next to Flash. The gorilla leaned out of the car and landed on the ground.

"Easy, boy," Flash said, walking over and tried helping the gorilla and making sure I wasn't hurt. "We'll have you back behind monkey bars before you know it."

"Uhh, Flash, are you sure we should be going near him? He could, ya know, rip our faces off." I said, standing a few feet behind him.

Flash only shot me a look before putting his hands on the gorillas arm.

The gorilla rolled around and said, "Get your stinking paws off me you filthy human." That's right. The gorilla said that. Said! As in, speaking plain English. Flash and I both jumped back a few feet.

"Say what?!" Flash exclaimed.

"Did you slip something into my hot dog? Cause if not I may have hit my head on something," I said, staring wide eyed at the silver gorilla.

As we were standing there, there was a soft shooting noise and seconds later, electricity enveloped me and my body felt like it burst into flames. The pain was absolutely unbelievable, it felt like my body was on fire and being electrocuted at the same time. All I could do was scream, I couldn't move or feel anything other than the white hot pain.

I don't know how long the pain lasted, but it felt like forever. I remembered the day I got my powers, and the pain I felt when the chemical machine exploded. Then I saw myself, but it was like looking at myself from outside my body. I could see everything happening to me, but it wasn't me. I was walking along a hallway, but I was slowly melting onto the floor until I was a big puddle.

Suddenly I was in Gotham, flying around the city, when my body couldn't move. I was just stuck to my ice, until it started melting and I fell through. I was falling and falling until I saw a bright light at the bottom. As I fell through the light I landed on the ground and tried picking myself up, but I kept slipping.

I looked down at my hands and realized that I was see through, and cold. I was made of ice. I was finally able to stand up on my feet, and I was trying to think of what I could do next. I heard a noise, getting louder as it approached me. I looked up and saw that it was one of Batman's batarangs, and it was heading straight for my chest.

I tried to move but I couldn't, and the second the batarang hit me, I broke, shattering into a million ice shards.

I opened my eyes to see a bright white light right above me. I groaned and blinked, trying to make my eyes used to the light. Suddenly a face was over mine. "Hey, wake up," the man said. I looked at him, but only for a few moments as my head seemed to pound the longer I kept my eyes opened.

The man looked fairly old, probably around his late 50's. He had a neatly trimmed mustache and haircut that was a beautiful silver. He had piercing eyes that seemed to look right through you.

"C'mon, you're in my spot." He said. I sat up and looked around me, not recognizing where I was. I saw red out of the corner of my eye and saw Flash, he looked like he was slowly coming too.

As I looked around, I noticed more men were in the room with me, all wearing ratty clothes, and not looking like very nice people.

"Where am I?" Flash asked. He walked over to me and helped me up.

"I have no idea," I said, holding my head. There was a loud clanging noise and we looked at the front of the room, where there were metal bars.

"Flash, where the hell are we?"

On the other side of the bars were two men, one in uniform and the other a man wearing black pants, a tie, and a white dress shirt.

"You Justice League hotshots think you can do whatever you want," said the man, putting his hands on his hips and looking angry, quite angry. "Not in my city."

The officer stepped forward and put handcuffs on Flash and I.

"Hey!" I yelled. Flash tried protesting but he was cut off by, who I assumed, was a detective.

"Let's go, red. You too frosty."

Frosty? I thought, how rude.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do." He said. I was walking next to Flash and at this point I was seriously freaked out.

"Flash, what happened? All I remember was chasing the car with the gorilla in it," I whispered.

"I don't know, Evie. It'll all be okay. I'm sure," He said, being quite serious. That freaked me out the most, Flash being serious.

We were both taken to an interrogation room, where another man in a suit stood in the middle of the room, next to a table that had a really old t.v. on it.

"Sit!" The first detective said, pushing us into the two chairs at the table.

"Hey, easy. What did we do?" Flash yelled. The uneasy feeling in my stomach grew when the two men walked over to the t.v. and put in a VCR tape.

"This is a surveillance tape from the police impound," said the first detective. The screen flashed on and showed a surveillance feed of the truck that we stopped earlier that day. The back of the truck was open and the rest of the radioactive isotopes were still in the back. "See that stuff?" The detective said, pointing at the yellow barrels. "The isotopes from the robbery you two and Green Lantern broke up? Watch."

Flash and I sat there, looking at the screen. A few seconds passed and I noticed something different on the screen. Two barrels of the isotopes were gone.

"I don't understand," Flash said. The detective walked over and leaned between Flash and I.

"Too quick for you? Let's try the freeze frame." He said, rewinding the tape and pressing play again, this time in slow motion. The video showed Flash carrying one barrel of the isotopes…and I was flying next to him, carrying another one.

My heart quickened as I looked at the screen. What were we doing? I don't remember going back to the truck, let alone stealing the barrels.

"Recognize anybody?" He asked us. I glanced over to Flash and saw that he had the same look of disbelief on his face.

The detective walked over to the other side of the table and sat down. "Why'd you steal the barrels?"

"We didn't!" I exclaimed. "I mean, those are our bodies but we didn't know what we were doing."

The detective raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you stole the barrels without knowing what you were doing?"

I wanted to face palm myself. "No, you're just twisting what we're saying."

The detective continued to glare at me some more, then he looked over at Flash. "Let's go over this again," He said.

"There's nothing to go over. We're innocent," Flash said, sounding even more frustrated than I was.

"So that's not you on the tape?" The detective asked.

"No. I-I mean, yes," Flash said, not quite sure how to explain what was on the tape. "I mean, I don't remember!"

"Where did you stash the isotopes?" The detective asked us yet again. It was pretty obvious he didn't believe us. I mean, why should he? We have only saved the world countless times, why wouldn't he treat us like criminals?

The blonde detective stepped forward, finally speaking up. "Just tell us your side. I'm sure the DA will understand. After all, you're a hero after all."

"Was a hero," the other detective said. "Forget his statement. We've got the tape."

"He's right. If you want to help yourself out, you got to do it now." The blonde detective said, walking over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a cup. Okay, now I'm done.

"Would you two quit the good cop, bad cop routine? If you're going to charge us with anything you would have by now. Just because you have the tape doesn't mean anything. I'd rather sit in jail then confess to something I wasn't responsible for, so you can take your tape and shove it." Flash stared at me, shocked by my outburst. Oops.

The detective across from me looked even meaner than he did before. I may have stepped over the line, just a little bit.

"I can't think," Flash said, thankfully breaking the shocked silence that had enveloped the room. "I'm tired, and hungry." He held his hands up to his face, almost like he had a headache.

"Maybe some coffee will help. How do you take it?" He asked, holding a mug of steaming, probably crappy, coffee.

"Cream and thirty seven sugars," Flash said, turning around to look at the blonde detective. I rolled my eyes.

When the detective turned around, obviously thinking he was joking, Flash said "No, really."

Suddenly the door opened and someone said the greatest sentence I had ever heard. "Put it in a paper cup. He'll be taking it to go." Dramatic and poetic? No. But it was still amazing to hear anyway.

Green Lantern walked into the room, holding a file in his hand. He threw the file on the table and the grouchy detective picked it up. "You actually posted bail for these lowlifes?" He incredulously asked.

"Hey!" I said. Excuse me, but I am not a lowlife.

"If they were really guilty do you think you could have held him here with a pair of handcuffs?" Green Lantern asked.

I smirked and took some moisture out of the air and used it to make water and put it over the handcuffs. Then I froze it and pulled my hands apart, the freezing cold easily snapping the metal.

Flash had already gotten his off and was twirling it around his fingers. Green Lantern led the way and we walked out of the department. I was pretty quiet, since I could sense that Lantern wasn't happy.

Once we walked outside, Flash was the first to speak. "Thanks for sticking up for us in there." *SMACK*

"Ow!" Flash said, rubbing the back of his head after Lantern slapped him.

"What were you thinking?" He yelled at him.

"I wasn't thinking anything," Flash yelled back. I just stayed where I was on the stairs and hoped that if I didn't move neither of them would notice me.

"Obviously," Lantern said as he started walking down the street.

I followed a fairly safe distance behind them, close enough where I could hear them but far enough I wouldn't be in range of a head slap.

"Look, if we wanted the third degree, we would have stayed in there."

Oh no, don't drag me into this argument.

"Like we told 'em, we don't remember." Flash continued. I decided now was the time for me to speak up.

"Alright, let's start with the last thing you do remember," Lantern said, continuing his fast paced walk.

"Look G.L, the last thing I actually remember is seeing you in the park and then flying off. Everything after that was just a weird acid trip." I said, remembering the visions I saw before I woke up.

"Yeah…after we caught the gorilla it told me that…" Flash said but he was cut off by Lantern.

"The gorilla talked to you?" Boy, did Lantern look at us like we were crazy.

"Yeah, it did!" I said, coming to Flash's aid. "It called us filthy humans. I mean, for a talking gorilla he was kind of rude."

Flash glanced at me and was trying to fight a smile. "She's right. It talked right after we stopped his car."

We had stopped walking and Lantern was full on glaring at us. "And I'm supposed to believe this?"

"Hey, we all got a Martian's phone number on our speed dial," Flash said.

"Yeah, we should get a benefit of the doubt here," I said. Lantern must have realized we were right, albeit he still looked a little skeptical.

"Let's check it out. Together this time." Lantern powered up his ring and flew behind Flash, who had already whisked away.

"Hey!" I called. I jumped on my ice disc and flew after them.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The three of us went back to the park where the original call came in, where the gorilla was on the loose. When we got there we saw there were still police in the area, apparently the gorilla wasn't caught.

"Looks like he's still at large," Flash said, once he stopped running.

"Or maybe he made like a banana…and split." I said.

Flash chuckled and we followed behind Lantern, who was using his ring to look for any clues about where the gorilla had gone to. Flash went looking in the bushes and I went on the other side of the sidewalk, looking for footprints or fur of any kind.

"Wait. I've got something," Lantern said. We walked over to him and saw that his ring was illuminating a giant footprint, of what I assumed, was made by a gorilla. He raised his ring and his beam of light followed a trail of gorilla prints.

"Of course the prints would lead to a dark tunnel. Why wouldn't they lead to, oh I don't know, somewhere bright and cheerful?" I grumbled. We all walked towards the tunnel and Lantern lit it up with light.

Standing in front of us was a silver gorilla standing on its legs. He was so tall that his head was practically scraping the ceiling. Did I mention that he didn't look happy to see us?

He let out an enormous roar that shook the tunnel and he started beating on his chest. "Oh no," I squeaked. Suddenly Green Lantern used his ring to zap the gorilla back, and sent him tumbling out of the cave. He sat up and instead of fighting back, he just sat on the ground.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked.

"I don't know, was scaring us really necessary?" I muttered. I followed Flash and Lantern as they walked out of the tunnel and closer to the gorilla.

"Okay, so he can talk." Duh, Lantern. That's what we've been trying to tell you. "Who are you?" He asked.

The gorilla stood up and walked over to us. "My name is Solovar," He said. "I'm chief of security for Gorilla City."

"Gorilla City?" Flash asked him, disbelief written all over his face. "You have got to be kidding."

"I assure you this is no laughing matter." Solovar said.

"Go on." Lantern told him.

"Safely hidden from humanity, we apes have lived in peace for thousands of years," Solovar said, looking up at the moon. "Until the black day when a power-mad genius named Grodd tried to conquer our city with advanced mind control technology." Well, that explains the doctor and professor from earlier, along with Flash and I, I thought. "We were able to thwart his evil plot but we couldn't prevent his escape. It wasn't until later that we discovered he had also stolen our city's security plans. Grodd has sworn terrible revenge on all who reside in Gorilla City."

Great, a power hungry gorilla wants to destroy a city full of other super smart gorillas. Why exactly are we being involved in it?

"So that's why you're here?" Flash asked him.

"Yes," Solovar growled. "To stop him from carrying out his threats."

"If it's true he has a mind control device that could explain the isotope thefts, and your memory loss," Lantern said, looking between me and Flash.

"He needs those isotopes to power his devices," explained Solovar.

"Alright, so where is Grodd?" I asked. Solovar stepped away and towards a bush behind him. Well, I thought it was a bush. As soon as he came closer to it, the bush disappeared and a bike took its place. Well, not just any bike, but a super fool futuristic bike.

"My investigation showed that Grodd had been carrying on an e-mail correspondence with a local scientist, Dr. Sarah Corwin." Solovar said, handing Green Lantern some papers out of a gold case.

"I knew there was something weird about that lady." Flash said.

"I hate to say it, but I totally told ya so." I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest. I didn't like her from the start, and now I have actual reason not to like her.

"We better call the others." Lantern said.

"Why?" Flash asked. "You think we can't handle one dumb old gorilla, no offense." He said turning to Solovar. "It'll be a piece of cake." I actually face palmed my head.

"Could you not insult the bad gorilla in front of another gorilla?" I asked him, elbowing him in his ribs. "I would like my arms to remain in their sockets." I turned to Solovar, "No offense."

And, for the second time that day Flash ran off, leaving the rest of us in the dust. I learned my lesson for the day, I stayed behind with Lantern.

"He's very fast." Solovar said.

"Yeah," Lantern said, obviously sounding displeased. "What were you gonna say?"

Solovar picked something up from the gold container in his hands. "These headbands will protect us from Grodd's ray." He held up a thin silver band that had a circuit board on the inside of it.

"Do you happen to have one in black?" I asked. The gorilla only looked at me and I scrunched my nose a bit. "Alright, silver it is." I took the band and out it on my head but under my ponytail. I felt a bit ridiculous.

"We'd better catch the kid before he gets into any more trouble." Lantern said, putting his headband on.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Solovar told us that he believed Grodd was back in Dr. Corwin's lab, so that's where we headed. We got to the building we assumed Flash had already gotten there. Lantern flew up to a window to see if he could see anything. "Great, Flash is out cold and Grodd is in there with Corwin." He called down to us.

I pulled my staff off my hip and extended it. "Hey G.L, you got the wall?" I called up to him. He floated down and nodded. Using his ring he blasted a giant hole in the wall and we all stepped through.

"Don't move, Grodd." Solovar said, holding up a gun. I winced a little bit at that, I really hate guns.

The black gorilla stood up to his full height, and I saw he was wearing a gold helmet on his head. "Solovar, you're a fool to come here." He said.

"You can't control us while we're wearing these." Solovar said, gesturing to the headbands.

I looked over at Flash and saw he wasn't wearing a band. Oh, no. Please don't let Grodd notice, please don't let Grodd notice, I chanted in my head.

"Actually, I wasn't thinking of controlling you," He said. Oh great, he noticed. The red button on Grodd's helmet glowed red, and Flash sat up, wearing an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. "Destroy them."

Flash immediately went over to Solovar and quickly threw a punch, strong enough to knock the gorilla down.

I jumped on an ice disc and rose up to the ceiling, trying to get out of the way and think of a way to stop Flash. Lantern used a force field to prevent Flash from hitting him, but Flash only bounced back and grabbed the gun that Solovar had dropped.

"Flash, snap out of it!" Lantern yelled. Flash must have noticed me because he shot up towards me, hitting my board and shattering the ice. I started to fall, but I was quick enough to grab onto the ceiling beam. I swung myself up and crouched on it, trying to protect myself from the blasts.

Flash was distracted from me and turned his attention to Lantern. I looked over and saw that Grodd and Dr. Corwin were escaping. I made another disc and flew down and chased after them. They got to the door, but I froze it shut.

"Hey monkey breath! Don't move." I yelled. Grodd turned to me and looked furious. "Oh, I wasn't talking to you." I said, and looked over at Corwin, indicating I was talking about her. Grodd looked even more furious. He picked up a piece of concrete that had fallen during the fight and threw it at me. I put up and ice shield but the force was too much and it threw me back. When I sat up, Grodd and the doc had already left.

I walked back over to Lantern and saw him standing over Flash, who was out cold. "You guys okay?" I asked.

"I am, Flash…not so much." He said. I could already see a bruise forming on Flash's face. Ouch.

Solovar and Lantern ran through a door and I stayed behind with Flash, who started groaning and stirring a little bit. A few minutes later I heard a really loud buzzing coming from the other room of the lab. I stood up and walked towards it when I saw a bright yellow light coming.

I ran over and put Flash and I into a strong ice sphere, but the second the light touched it, it melted. The light hit us and it felt like a really weird prickling sensation, almost like my entire body had fallen asleep and I had pins and needles everywhere. As quickly as the light came, it vanished and I collapsed on the floor.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I woke up, with yet again, another small headache. I groaned and rolled over on my back to see G.L and Solovar standing there.

"Good, you're awake." G.L said, lending a hand to help me up. I took it and he hauled me off the ground.

"Geez, what happened?" I asked, rubbing my temples.

"We don't know."

"Well that's comforting," I snapped. Lantern only gave me a look. "Sorry."

Flash was laying a few feet next to me, groaning.

"The mind control, is he still…" Lantern started to ask Solovar.

"No. This should protect him." He said, walking over to Flash putting a band around his head.

Within seconds Flash sat up, now wide awake. "Who? What? Where?" He spluttered, trying to get a grip on his surroundings. We all looked down at him, hoping he would remember what happened. "Oh, man, not again." Flash said, rubbing his head. "What did I miss?" He muttered.

G.L only put out his hand and helped pull Flash off the ground. "That dumb, old gorilla got away." G.L said, referring back to what Flash called Grodd only an hour before.

"Go ahead, rub it in." I looked at Flash, then back at Green Lantern.

"There isn't anything to rub in. It could have happened to any of us. No hard feelings, right G.L?" I said, giving him a pointed look. He only sighed and shook his head.

"This time, we're getting some backup." He said. He reached up to his comm and called the Watchtower. "Green Lantern to Watchtower. Watchtower, come in." He waited a few seconds to see if he got a response. "My comm link's off line."

Flash and I both reached up to check ours, and lo and behold, mine only gave a small static noise, and nothing else could be heard. "Same here." I said.

"And for good reason." Solovar said, walking over to the opening in the wall. We all followed him and saw the city was still there, but there was a haze in the sky. It was moving, and I assumed it was a shield or something.

"Man, what is that?" Flash asked the silver gorilla.

"It's just like the shield that protects my city." Solovar said. "Nothing can get in…"

"Or out." I said, finishing his sentence. Great, now we have no way to contact the team and let them know where we are.

"Unless I can shut down the generator." Green Lantern said. We all raced into the back room where the light came from and saw the generator was still running. It was a giant ball of light that was being held in the air. Lantern held up his hand and used his ring to try and penetrate the light, which would cause the shield to go down.

His green light only hit a shield surrounding the generator and created a bright light, but it didn't do anything more than that.

"Not even a scratch." Flash said.

"Gorilla technology is highly advanced." Solovar said.

"Yeah, no kidding," I said, still in awe over the generator.

"Come, let's find Grodd." Solovar said, leading us out of the room.

"Are we sure we want to go back and find the crazy, super smart, mind controlling gorilla?" I asked. And as usual, I didn't get an answer. "Right, good plan everyone."

"Oh relax Evie, we can handle him again." Flash said.

"Again? We didn't handle him a first time." I said. He thought about it for a second before accepting that I was right. We walked out of the building and into the rest of the city. Except it didn't feel much like a city. It was dead quiet, with not a single person out walking, well, except for the four of us.

"Weird, am I the only one creeped out here?" Flash asked, sensing that the city was too quiet. "Where is everyone?"

"Nope, I don't like it either." I said.

"Perhaps the shield frightened them." Solovar said.

"Could be, but usually when a city looks this empty flesh-eating zombies are involved." Flash said.

"Seriously? You just had to say that? I swear to God, Flash, if I see a zombie I'm whooping your butt." I said, taking out my staff.

"You two watch too many movies." Lantern grumbled.

"Shh! Listen." Solovar said, sticking his arm out so we stopped walking. We could hear voices, lots of voices. And they didn't sound too happy.

"Well, the apocalypse has started…I call Batman on my team." I said. Lantern rolled his eyes and Flash chuckled. We hurried closer to the sound and saw a giant mob gathered in the amphitheater, staring at a screen that had a live feed of Grodd on it.

Grodd raised his arms above his head and the crowd did the same, screaming and cheering for him. "We're too late. They're already under his control." Solovar said.

"Uh, how many of these headbands you got left?" Flash asked him.

"Two." He said, simply.

"That's not gonna be enough." Flash said, eyeing the mob up. We pushed our way through the crowd up towards the front. Grodd silenced the crowd and began to speak.

"People of Central City, the age of hairless simple-minded humanity is over. Today, a new age dawns. Today, Grodd rules." He finished and the crowd erupted around us.

"Guys, we have to figure out a way to snap them out of this." I said, hoping that no one would realize we weren't cheering.

"Humans are slow, ugly, immoral, and have an unpleasant body odor."

"Hey! Who are you calling slow?" Someone yelled from the crowd. It took me a second to realize that that someone was Flash.

"What are you doing?" I hissed at him as the people around us became silent and looked at us.

"Flash, don't heckle the supervillain." Lantern scolded.

"We don't have to listen to this."

"Humans are inferior creatures," Grodd continued, thankfully he hadn't heard Flash. "fit only to serve at my whim. But after Gorilla City falls, you will be the paving the stones on which I will build my new empire!"

"Hey, monkey boy, why don't you go climb a skyscraper?" Flash yelled, even louder than before. Great.

Grodd must have finally noticed us. "Intruders! Destroy them!"

We all made a circle and had our backs towards one another. "Couldn't keep your big mouth shut, could you?" Lantern asked him.

The people just kept coming closer and closer, and I didn't know what to do. Yeah, they were trying to destroy us, but they still were civilians. I can't just go and punch them in the face.

"We need some breathing room." G.L flew up and created a trench around us, forcing the people in the mob to slow down in order to get to us. "Make yourselves scarce, I'm going after Grodd." He said and flew up into the sky.

People started climbing the trench, and they were doing it pretty quickly. "We need to do something." I gathered some water from my staff and coated the inside of the trench with it, then froze it, making a solid sheet of ice. One man started slipping down the ice, and they were having trouble getting a good grip.

Suddenly, two girls that Flash knew (I don't even want to know how) started throwing rocks at us. I put up some ice to deflect them off of me and started making ice in the trench thicker, so it would be harder to climb up.

Suddenly an explosion went off above us and we saw guards aiming missiles at G.L. "Would you excuse me?" Flash said, leaving me and Solovar on the mound surrounded by a mob. We kept trying to keep the mob away without using too much force, but it became too much.

"Flash is coming back, you stay here and I'll go with Lantern." I told Solovar. Before he could respond I was already on an ice disc and flying up. I flew next to G.L and he was frantically looking around. "What's wrong?"

"Grodd got away. We need to meet up with the others." Lantern said, sounding disappointed. Lantern used his ring to follow Flash and Solovar's trail and we found them in an alleyway a few blocks away from the mob.

"Grodd got away again." Lantern said, interrupting the conversation Flash and Solovar were having. "But if he used his rocket bike, my ring can follow his trail."

"I've gotta get me one of those." Flash said.

"What would you need a bike for? You're already fast. If anything, the bike would slow you down." I asked, putting my staff away and making step back onto an ice disk.

"Yeah…but I would look cool. Besides, chicks dig guys on bikes." Of course. Flash is thinking about how attractive he would be. What else is new?

Lantern used his ring to follow the trail of Grodd and the rest of us followed behind him. We had travelled a few miles before I recognized where we were at. "Isn't this near the military base?" I asked.

"Yeah, and the trail is heading directly towards it." Lantern said.

"Great, a crazy monkey with a genius level IQ and mind control technology went to a military base where they store military grade weapons. Could this day get any better?" I said.

"Yeah, we could have zombies." Flash added to my little rant.

"Enough you two." Lantern said, landing next to Grodd's motor bike. Well, looks like we are finally here. "He must be inside."

"Okay, so what's the plan-" I started to ask, but a movement out of the corner of my eye stopped me. The guard came out, and pointed gun at us.

"Stop, in the name of Grodd." He yelled before shooting at us.

"I thought the saying was 'Stop in the name of love'." I yelled over the shots. Solovar jumped over to the soldier and knocked him out with one swing. If only I could do that, my days would be ten times easier.

"Hurry, before Grodd finds out we're here." Solovar called back to us, before he broke the barrier. Suddenly a loud alarm started blaring, and I thought it was the intruder alarm going off.

"Something tells me they already know we're here." Flash said. I started to agree, until I actually listened to the alarm carefully. Wait, I know that sound. I could feel the color draining from my face as I realized what the sound was.

"No, that's a launch alert." G.L said, confirming my fear. I don't know how I could forget about that noise, I used to hear them all the time when I was in the military.

Suddenly four missiles were blasted off from their launch pads and shot into the air. "Guys, those are nukes." I said, immediately recognizing the shape and designs of them. I looked at Lantern and a mutual understanding was passed between us.

"Evie and I will go after the missiles. You stop Grodd!" Lantern yelled, already soaring towards the missiles. I jumped on a disk and shot after him.

"G.L, we have to get the control out from the middle of the rocket, it's the only way not to set it off!" I called to him, trying to make my voice heard over the rushing of the wind past my ears. We each caught up to one of the rockets and went on either side of it.

Lantern used his ring to cut a square right where the detonator was, and I used my water to slash through the wires, rendering the missile useless, just before it caught fire in the air and flew down to the ocean. Well, one down, three to go, I thought.

We caught up to the second one and did the same thing, taking out the control box and exploding the rocket before it hit land. We looked back at the rocket just in time to see it explode, but a piece of metal flew off in hit G.L right in the face, rendering him unconscious and sending him straight to the ground.

"Lantern!" I screamed. I glanced up at the other two rockets, but decided I needed to save G.L before he became a green pancake. I surfed through the air as fast as I could, trying to get to him but he was too fast. I gathered my water from my staff and sent it around him, creating a platform of ice for him to fall onto. He woke up right as he hit it.

"Are you okay?" I asked, making sure he didn't break anything in the fall down. "Let's just go." He said, taking off at super speed. I followed him, going faster than I ever had before.

"NO. I'm too late!" Lantern said, seeing the missiles almost make it to the city. I thought for a second, before thinking of something really stupid.

"Make a slingshot and throw me." I said.

"What?" He asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Just do it!" I yelled, seeing the missiles get closer to the city. Lantern actually listened to me, and he made a giant slingshot out of his ring energy and put me in it.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Nope." This is the dumbest thing I have ever done, but there is no way we would make it there in time just by flying. I've always wondered how fast a bullet traveled, and I think I just found out. I flew through the air, catching up to the missile in seconds.

As I entered the airspace around the town I saw that J'onn had already taken out the detonator in one missile, and Diana was trying to stop the other half of a missile that Hawkgirl had broken in half. I may not like her, but I knew it was the right thing to help her.

I flew down and grabbed the back of the missile while Diana was trying to push the front. I used all the water I had around me and froze it to the edges of the missile and pulled the ice up. I couldn't tell if it was helping or not, but I had to at least try something.

We were heading to the ground, after crashing through a couple buildings. I was pulling with all my might and I kept putting more ice and water around it, pulling every molecule up and trying to relieve the force.

I felt the missile hit the ground, with Diana holding the front of it. Which was great, except that meant the back flew up…and hit me in the face. The edge came up and cracked me in the forehead. I lost concentration and my ice melted, which meant that all the pull from the back end was lost. The missile came apart and the back end was thrown up, and since I was still holding onto the edge, I was catapulted through the air, and landed on the ground.

As if that wasn't enough the entire piece of missile rolled right over top of me. It was completely dark and my ears were ringing. I tried lifting the metal off me but I was in no way strong enough. That seemed more like a Superman worthy job. I thought I could hear yelling, but my ears felt like they were clogged with cotton, it was all muffled.

There was a loud groan coming from the metal moving and there was a sliver of light. I reached my hand over to the edge of the missile where the light was coming from and felt someone grab my hand. Still disoriented from hitting my head I tried to crawl my way over but my legs were stuck. Suddenly a green light enveloped the missile and the hand that had grabbed me lifted underneath my arm and dragged me out.

I blinked at the sudden bright light and felt someone grab my face. …Evie…you…alright?" I blinked some more and saw that the person holding onto me was Batman. "Evie! Are you alright?" He asked again and I winced at just how loud his voice was.

"Why are you talking so loud?" I asked. He only looked at me, but his hands were still on my face. "Bats?" I whispered.

"You have a concussion." He said, dropping his hands from my face and standing up. I tried standing up only to fall back down again. Bats bent over and picked me up bridal style. Normally I would be throwing a fit, but between my head feeling like it was going to explode and the bruises and cuts that littered my body, I didn't worry about it.

Bats suddenly looked up suddenly and put me down. "I need to go help Diana." He said, before rushing off. I looked towards the direction he headed and saw the other half of the missile lying on the ground with no Diana in sight.

Bats slid down and started digging near the missile and I realized why. Diana was crushed underneath of it. I somehow managed to stand up and walk over next to J'onn. "Diana?" I weakly asked.

J'onn walked over after a minute and laid a hand on Batman's shoulder, signaling that there was nothing he could do. I just stared, tears filling my eyes. Just cause I didn't like her, doesn't mean I wanted her to die. I mean, I should have done something more, I could have tried harder to stop the missile, I could have-

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of metal being lifted. I jerked my head up and saw Diana lifting the missile off of her and throwing it aside, with the detonator in hand. I let out a breath that I was holding and thanked whatever being there was that she was alright.

We all helped each other stand up on the ridge that was made by the missile and looked at the citizens of Gorilla City.

"The fates were kind today. Your city is safe." Diana told all of them. The gorillas al cheered as they learned their city was safe again. I was standing in between J'onn and Batman when I realized that I was starting to get a little dizzy. Not wanting to seem weak, I stood there, trying not to puke on all the happy gorillas.

I saw Diana shift and walk over to Batman and kiss him on the cheek after saying something to him. I would have laughed at his really red face, except I noticed the feeling inside of me. Now, I could blame this on the concussion, but when she kissed him I felt this burning in my stomach. Was I jealous? I mean, why should I be? We're all only friends. Right? Another wave of dizziness came over me and I couldn't take it anymore.

Sorry Bats, but I'm about to make you a little uncomfortable. I took a step sideways and put my head on his shoulder. I felt him immediately tense up at the close contact but I really didn't care. "What are you doing?" He asked, his voice sounding harsher than normal.

"I really don't feel good and the world is spinning, so just let this happen." I said, really quietly. His muscles relaxed a bit and he turned his body a bit so it wasn't so uncomfortable for me to lean on him.

"Evie, come on, we are going to one of the main buildings to talk with the, uh, silver gorilla…?" He trailed off, not quite sure what his name was.

"Oh, Solovar? He's nice." I said. I stood up straight and blinked a few more times.

"Are you good to walk?" Bats asked me.

"Yeah…I'm sure I'll be fine." I said, before taking a step and feeling no ground beneath my feet. Apparently in my concussed state, I didn't see the end of the trench right in front of me. Two hands grabbed my arms and pulled me back before I could fall on my ass, and probably concuss myself some more.

"Here." Bats said. He picked me up bridal style again and I started to protest before he stopped me. "Just let it happen Evie." I looked up at him for a second before shrugging and laying my head on his shoulder again. I had to hand it to the man, he was very comfortable.

We arrived at the building and walked in (or carried in) to see Flash, Solovar and another gorilla standing there waiting for us. "You can put me down now." I said. Bats gave me a look and he seemed a little reluctant to do so. "Seriously, I feel a bit better." He set me down gently and I wobbled a bit, but it was a definite improvement from the last time I tried to stand on my own feet.

"I'm sorry we misjudged you." The gorilla with the scar over his eye said to us. "We can never repay you for all you've done."

"No biggie." Flash said, taking most of the credit for himself. He deserved it though, after the day he had today. "What's gonna happen to Grodd?"

"I'll show you." Solovar said, leading us over to a cage on the side of the wall. "The feedback from his helmet completely wiped out his mind." Grodd was just sitting in the cage, holding a banana in one hand and pushing a tire swing with his other hand, a completely blank look on his face.

"I almost feel sorry for him." Lantern said. Yeah, I did too. I mean, sure he almost killed us but he just seemed so…empty now.

"You have my solemn word that he will receive the best of care." He turned and led us down the stairs and out the building.

I heard Flash and G.L talking in the back but my head was hurting too much to understand it. "Can we just go home now?" I mumbled.

Bats put a hand on my shoulder and led me towards his jet. "I'll take you back to the Watchtower now and get you fixed up."

"Don't you have to go back to Gotham?" I asked, gently sitting in the jet.

"It can wait until tomorrow night. You need to fix your head first."

We took off and I leaned my head against the window.

"Thanks, by the way." I said.

"For what?"

"Helping me after the missile landed."

He was quiet for a few minutes, and I thought he was just going to ignore me. "You really should be more careful. You're lucky you weren't killed." He said, and I was thankful he was keeping his voice quiet.

I continued looking out the window and I noticed we were seeing stars now. "Are we almost there? I'm tired." I hated how I sounded like a little kid, but my head was hurt and I was getting tired.

"Yeah, just hold on." He said, landing the jet. He helped me out of the jet and walked into the Watchtower. We were walking for a few minutes but I wasn't paying attention to where we were going. I just assumed we were going to the med bay.

"How are you feeling?" He asked me.

"A little better, why?" I asked looking at him.

"Just wanted to make sure you won't drown." He said with a smirk on his face.

"Whait…what?" I said and I looked around and realized that we were in the pool room. Then, the Bat pushed me in the pool. I landed with a splash and I sunk to the bottom. I immediately felt better and I watched my cuts and bruises heal. I popped up to the surface to see Bats standing above the pool, with an actual smile on his face. A smile, might I add, that looked very familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

"Much. My head still hurts but it isn't as bad, and I'm still tired." I said, climbing out of the pool. I took the water off me and threw it back into the pool.

"You should still sleep here tonight, just in case something happens. Someone will be here to help you."

He was probably right, but it still sucked I couldn't go home. "Yeah, you're right." I said, walking towards the bedrooms. I felt like a zombie. My eyes were half closed and I was stumbling around. I thought it was a little weird that Bats was still following me, but I didn't say anything other than a few mumbled words that he couldn't make out. He followed me into the room and I took off my jacket and my boots, and sat on my bed.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked me again.

"I'm fine Batsy. Be careful, you ask too many questions people will think you actually aren't that scary." I teased. He smirked a bit and leaned up against the door frame. "Thanks again for everything." I said, climbing under the blanket and closing my eyes.

"Just get some sleep Evie." Bats said quietly.

The last thing I remember was closing my eyes and mumbling, "Night Bruce."

#Batman #Bruce Wayne #Batman x Oc #Bruce Wayne x Oc #Dc #Superhero oc #Justice League 2001

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unspeakablecharm · 3 years

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Location: The Burrow Date: 10 August, 2002 Tagged: @mollyeweasley

The late summer sun was perched high in the sky and bouts of wild flowers whipped uncontrollably in nearby fields. The day was chalking up to be a beautiful one, which is why Katie opted to take the scenic route to her destination. She marveled at the swirling clouds and birds flying overhead, wishing to be as free as they were—wishing to soar again. The thought was as tantalizing as the warm breeze rippling across her skin.

Dirt tracked on the bottom of her shoes as she continued trudging uphill. The blue horizon leveled out before the burrow came into focus. Katie adjusted the cherry red bow tying strands of her dark hair into half a pony-tail before lightly knocking on the front door. That’s when she noticed her fingertips were still stained with a ripe layer of blueberries she picked earlier in the day before carefully baking them into the warm pie she now clung to.

Freshly baked pie was a staple of the G.L. Fan Club, and Katie made sure to go to great lengths whenever it came time for hers to be in rotation. It was a little intimidating any time she arrived at the burrow with pastries in tote. Mrs. Weasley was an expert baker and she always feared being laughed away from the door. The beast of self-doubt was one Katie preferred not to challenge, slinking away from it unlike she would a game of quidditch or experiment down in her lab.

The knock at the door went unanswered, so Katie did the logical thing any longtime friend of the Weasleys would, and saw herself inside. “ Mrs. Weasley? ” Her voice carried across the familiar threshold as she adjusted the strap of her bookbag sharply cutting into her shoulder blade. She scurried down the corridor, her quick feet carrying her toward the kitchen—Katie’s favorite room in everyone’s home.

A loud clank reverberated off the table as she sat the warm pie tin down on it accompanied by an autographed copy of Magical Me. The galvanized dessert container reflected off the natural stream of light flooding into the room, accenting the bold book title floating on a lavender backdrop. The edges of pie crust were raised and golden, forming the fallen petals of flowers much like the ones she passed on the way over. Katie’s attention to detail was precise, conjuring a careful stream of magic to accurately carve the clusters of garden roses and anemones. Admittedly the idea of slicing into her pie felt a bit disheartening after the sheer amount of labor she poured into it. Bittersweet was all she could think, but she wouldn’t worry about that just yet. Katie greatly cherished book club with Mrs. Weasley and would do anything to see to it their uninterrupted hour gushing over Gilderoy Lockhart went off without a hitch, even if that meant her near perfect pie crust would be chopped and mangled by the pair soon enough.

#everyone’s dash needs to be blessed w this gem #aka molly & katie fawning over gilderoy 🤣#( the g.l. fan club )#( molly weasley. )#( molly 001. )#mollyeweasley

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posi-pan · 4 years

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Books recs for queer books that aren’t visibly queer often lack books with pan rep, so [cracks knuckles] let’s do this. This is mostly YA, because this type of rec is usually aimed at closeted teens.

This list is based on the cover and synopsis on Goodreads. It’s possible a different synopsis, author bios, blurbs, and google searches might mention queerness. I’ve noted the books that are listed under queer categories on Amazon (*) and queer shelves on Goodreads (**).

The Alchemists of Loom by Elise Kova

Alexey Dyed in Red by A.M. Valenza **

The Almosts Trilogy by L.C. Mawson **

American Hippo by Sarah Gailey

The Andersson Dexter series by M. Darusha Wehm

Ardulum series by J.S. Fields * **

The Barrow series by Mark Smylie

The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud

Base Status: Online by Emmy Engberts

Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp

The Black Tree by Michón Neal

The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer **

Blood in the Water by Tash McAdam

Borderline by Mishell Baker

Breakfire’s Glass by A.M. Valenza **

Calloway Sisters series by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie

A Darker Shade of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

Every Day by David Levithan *

Fallible Justice by Laura Lassko

Final Draft by Riley Redgate * **

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

The Girl at Midnight series by Melissa Grey *

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Good Angel duology by A.M. Blaushild **

The Hollow Sun series by D.L. Wainright **

I am the Storm by Tash McAdam *

The Incarcerado Trilogy by John Hornor Jacobs

Island of Exiles by Erica Cameron **

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith**

Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee **

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series by Rick Riordan

The Mark of Noba series by G.L. Tomas

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen

Millenium series by Stieg Larsson

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare

Never-Contented Things by Sarah Porter

No More Heroes by Michelle Kan **

Now a Major Motion Picture by Cori McCarthy

On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher **

Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy * **

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman **

Rogues of the Republic series by Patrick Weekes

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger

Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

The Spider’s Web by Sophia Beaumont

Superheroes Anonymous series by Lexie Dunne

Sweet Revenge series by Elliot Junkyard * **

Tybalt Perdition by John Cordial

Under Dark Sky Law by Tamara Boyens

Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire **

We are the Catalyst by Tash McAdam * **

Wild and Crooked by Leah Thomas * **

Please let me know if I missed something and any of these aren’t so stealthy! For more details on these books/pan rep, check out my list of all pan book rep and my pan rep masterlist!

Happy (stealth) reading!

#pansexual #pansexuality #panromantic #pan pride #pan positivity #pan week #pictures #mine #figured this would be nice around the holiday #whether you want to get or give some stealth pan books as gifts #or if you get money and want to treat yourself to some stealth pan books #pan books #panalterous #pansensual #panplatonic #panaesthetic #long post

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gothicwidowsworld · 5 years

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Starstruck ○ G.L #1

Requested - I LOVE the cast of Bohemian Raphsody!!! can I please ask for a Gwilym Lee imagine where yn is also on the movie, but she and Allen are Friends since they worked together on downton abbey and Gwil and Lucy are huge fans and the boys love to tease his crush-that-turned-into-girlfriend😍❤

This is gonna be a 2 parter (or maybe more idk lol) anyway lol hope you enjoy part 1

Imagine…

“I’m literally 5 minutes away chill” Y/N giggled into the phone driving through the streets of London at this time in the morning was something she hated but would have to get used to over the next few months. “Alrighty see you soon” she ended the call before returning to having a mini concert in her car. Pulling up to the large white building Y/N breathed deeply, even after years of meeting new cast mates she still got nervous but lucky she had Allen to help her. Grabbing her now lukewarm at best coffee she began to make her way inside. “Finally. I thought you were never going to show up.” Allen laughed from his position against the wall his famous Irish accent making its appearance. “You know I don’t do well with early mornings.” the welsh girl simply stated palming off her half drunk cup to the blonde man to tie her y/h/c out of her face.

Taking a sip of the drink Allen pulled a face even after working together for a while on Downton Abbey he still hadn’t gotten used to how strong she liked her coffee in the morning, the pair had often joked it was what she needed to be able to act. Nudging her shoulder lightly Allen guided the female into the office space they were using for the read through for the next couple of days. There weren’t a lot of people in the room as most had gone next door to help themselves to some of the food on offer.

The pair walked over to the collecting group of cast members eager to break the ice and start to get to know each other. “Ah hello Husband” Y/N said cheekily to a tall gentleman she recognized. Startled the brunet man jumped a little when he saw her “What?” he asked confused “Your Gwilym Lee right?” Y/N questioned gently. “Huh oh yeah!” Gwilym stuttered out face flushed red in the process “I.. I just didn’t know you knew who I was…” he trailed off softly hoping he hadn’t already messed up. “It’s just you’re you! Um you’re Y/N L/N” giggling the y/h/c girl nodded “Well I was last time I checked yeah.” Gwilym was still slightly red in the cheeks and was now just wishing the ground would swallow him whole. “I just really like your work. You’re amazing!” he let out the compliment quickly. Grabbing his large hand in hers Y/N smiled delicately “Just breath.” it was really sweet that he was so starstruck but at the same time it was a little strange I mean he’s Gwilym Lee. After calming the man Y/N smiled again but this time took her turn in complimenting him “You know I’m a fan of yours as well. You were so cute in the Tourist and Jeez I love an episode of Midsomer Murders who doesn’t.” Chuckling lightly Gwilym shook his head at the fact his celebrity crush had seen some of his work.

Suddenly a bubbly voice interrupted the pair “OMG your Y/N L/N I loved Lady Constance.” the blonde haired female practically screamed as she launched herself into a hug. The y/h girl managed to catch the person before they both almost went tumbling to the floor. “I’m so sorry.” the blonde whispered energetically helping the y/h/c girl off the floor. Grinning the blonde introduced herself “I’m Lucy. Lucy Boynton. I’m so excited to work with you.” greeting Lucy back just as energetically Y/N cheerfully chatted away to the girl.

With the read through over for the day Y/N packed up her stuff slowly mulling over the day and what the shoot had in store. So far the cast seemed absolutely lovely, having worked with Allen and briefly Ben before it was great to work with some other actors. “Hey Gwilym do you want to hang out sometime?” Y/N questioned quietly smiling up at the taller man “It would be nice to get to know you better I mean we are going to be playing Husband and Wife for a while.” Shrugging on his coat Gwilym’s heart skipped a beat was this real life. “I have a bottle of red and an episode of Y Gwyll waiting. Maybe we could order some pizza or something.” Y/N suggested. Nodding quickly Gwilym agreed.

Lazily curling up on her sofa Y/N leaned forward to grab a slice of the deliciously cheesy pizza the pair had ordered “So tell me about your childhood? I want to know everything.” she stated her y/e/c eyes sparkled in delight. “Well there’s not much to say” Gwilym trailed off trying to think of what to say. “Well where are you from? Any Siblings?” the girl started listing of things he could tell her. “Well I was born in Bristol, and I’m the youngest of 4. There’s Geraint, Owen, Rhiannon and me.” Y/N giggled slightly still listening intently “What?” the man questioned pulling a comedic face at the girl. “Nothing but you’re the most Welsh Englishman I’ve ever met.” she looked at him and for a minute it felt natural, painfully natural. For a second they weren’t actors or celebrities they were just two ordinary people having a laugh. “OK well what about you?” Gwilym quizzed. “Okay be prepared to have your mind blown.” Y/N cleared her throat jokingly “I’m from Abergavenny, I have no siblings it’s just little old me and my parent’s own a farm..” Y/N continued. The two of them went well into the night telling each other stories of their childhood.

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blackkudos · 4 years

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Afrika Bambaataa

Afrika Bambaataa (born Lance Taylor; April 17, 1957) is an American disc jockey, rapper, songwriter and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing and is respectfully known as "The Godfather" and "Amen Ra of Hip Hop Kulture", as well as the father of electro-funk. Through his co-opting of the street gang the Black Spades into the music and culture-oriented Universal Zulu Nation, he has helped spread hip hop culture throughout the world.On May 6, 2016, Bambaataa left his position as head of The Zulu Nation due to multiple child sexual abuse allegations dating as far back as the 1970s.

Early life

Born as Lance Taylor to Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants, Bambaataa grew up in The Bronx River Projects, with an activist mother and uncle. As a child, he was exposed to the black liberation movement, and witnessed debates between his mother and uncle regarding the conflicting ideologies in the movement. He was exposed to his mother's extensive and eclectic record collection. Gangs in the area became the law, clearing their turf of drug dealers, assisting with community health programs and both fighting and partying to keep members and turf. Bambaataa was a member of the Black Spades. He quickly rose to the position of warlord of one of the divisions. As warlord, it was his job to build ranks and expand the turf of the young Spades. He was not afraid to cross turfs to forge relationships with other gang members, and with other gangs. As a result, the Spades became the biggest gang in the city in terms of both membership and turf.

After Bambaataa won an essay contest that earned him a trip to Africa, his worldview shifted. He had seen the movie Zulu and was impressed with the solidarity exhibited by the Zulu in that film. During his trip to Africa, the communities he visited inspired him to create one in his own neighborhood. He changed his name to Afrika Bambaataa Aasim, adopting the name of the Zulu chief Bhambatha, who led an armed rebellion against unfair economic practices in early 20th century South Africa. He told people that his name was Zulu for "affectionate leader." Bambaataa formed The "Bronx River Organization" as an alternative to the Black Spades.

Career

Inspired by DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Dee, Bambaataa began hosting hip-hop parties beginning in 1977. He vowed to use hip-hop to draw angry kids out of gangs and form the Universal Zulu Nation. Robert Keith Wiggins, a.k.a. "Cowboy" of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, is credited with naming hip-hop; the term became a common phrase used by MCs as part of a scat-inspired style of rhyming. Writer Steven Hager claims that the first time "hip-hop" was used in print was in his Village Voice article where he was quoting Bambaataa, who had called the culture "hip-hop" in an interview.

In 1982, Bambaataa and his followers - a group of dancers, artists, and DJs - went outside the United States on the first hip-hop tour. He saw that the hip hop tours would be the key to help expand hip hop and his Universal Zulu Nation. In addition it would help promote the values of hip hop that he believed are based on peace, unity, love, and having fun. He brought peace to the gangs; many artists and gang members say that "hip hop saved a lot of lives." His influence inspired many overseas artists like the French rapper MC Solaar. He was a popular DJ in The South Bronx rap scene and became known not only as Afrika Bambaataa but also as the "Master of Records." He established two rap crews: the Jazzy 5 including MCs Master Ice, Mr. Freeze, Master Bee, Master D.E.E, and AJ Les, and the second crew referred to as Soulsonic Force including Mr. Biggs, Pow Wow and Emcee G.L.O.B.E.

In 1982, Taylor, who was inspired by Kraftwerk's futuristic electronic music, debuted at The Roxy a test cassette of EBN-OZN's ground breaking, 12-inch white rap/spoken word "AEIOU Sometimes Y". It was the first commercially released American single ever made on a computer, a Fairlight CMI, ushering in the era of music computer sampling. In that same year, Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force stopped performing with a live band, and began to use only technology. Bambaataa credited the pioneering Japanese electropop group Yellow Magic Orchestra, whose work he sampled, as an inspiration. He also borrowed a keyboard hook from German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk and was provided the electronic Roland TR-808 "beat-box" by producer Arthur Baker and synthesizer player John Robie. That resulted in "Planet Rock," which went to gold status and generated an entire school of "electro-boogie" rap and dance music. Bambaataa formed his own label to release the Time Zone Compilation. He created "turntablism" as its own subgenre and the ratification of "electronica" as an industry-certified trend in the late 1990s.

Birth of the Zulu Nation

In the late 1970s, Bambaataa formed what became known as the Universal Zulu Nation, a group of socially and politically aware rappers, B-boys, graffiti artists and other people involved in hip hop culture. By 1977, inspired by DJ Kool Herc and DJ Dee, and after Disco King Mario loaned him his first equipment, Bambaataa began organizing block parties all around The South Bronx. He even faced his long-time friend, Disco King Mario in a DJ battle. He then began performing at Adlai E. Stevenson High School and formed the Bronx River Organization, then later simply "The Organization." Bambaataa had deejayed with his own sound system at The Bronx River Houses' Community Center, with Mr. Biggs, Queen Kenya, and Cowboy, who accompanied him in performances in the community. Because of his prior status in the Black Spades, he already had an established Army party crowd drawn from former members of the gang. Hip hop culture was spreading through the streets via house parties, block parties, gym dances and mix tapes.

About a year later Bambaataa reformed the group, calling it the Zulu Nation (inspired by his wide studies on African history at the time). Specifically, Bambaataa watched the 1964 film Zulu, which sparked the name for the group. Five b-boys (break dancers) joined him, whom he called the Zulu Kings, and later formed the Zulu Queens, and the Shaka Zulu Kings and Queens. As he continued deejaying, more DJs, rappers, b-boys, b-girls, graffiti writers, and artists followed him, and he took them under his wing and made them all members of his Zulu Nation. He was also the founder of the Soulsonic Force, which originally consisted of approximately 20 Zulu Nation members: Mr. Biggs, Queen Kenya, DJ Cowboy Soulsonic Force (#2), Pow Wow, G.L.0.B.E. (creator of the "MC popping" rap style), DJ Jazzy Jay, Cosmic Force, Queen Lisa Lee, Prince Ikey C, Ice Ice (#1), Chubby Chub; Jazzy Five-DJ Jazzy Jay, Mr. Freeze, Master D.E.E., Kool DJ Red Alert, Sundance, Ice Ice (#2), Charlie Choo, Master Bee, Busy Bee Starski, Akbar (Lil Starski), and Raheim. The personnel for the Soulsonic Force were groups within groups with whom he would perform and make records.

In 1980, Taylor's groups made Death Mix, their first recording with Paul Winley Records. According to Bambaata, this was an unauthorized release. Winley recorded two versions of Soulsonic Force's landmark single, "Zulu Nation Throwdown," with authorization from the musicians. Disappointed with the results of the single, Bambaataa left the company. The arranger credit on these recordings is correctly attributed to Harlem Underground Band leader, Kevin Donovan. This led to the false assumption that Bambaataa's real name was Kevin Donovan, which was widely accepted by the hip hop community until recently, following sexual abuse allegations, when Bronx River residents spoke out and revealed in oral testimonies that Bambaataa's real name was in fact Lance Taylor.

The Zulu Nation was the first hip-hop organization, with an official birth date of November 12, 1977. Bambaataa's plan with the Universal Zulu Nation was to build a movement out of the creativity of a new generation of outcast youths with an authentic, liberating worldview.

Recognition

In 1981, hip hop artist Fab Five Freddy was putting together music packages in the largely white downtown Manhattan new wave clubs, and invited Bambaataa to perform at one of them, the Mudd Club. It was the first time Bambaataa had performed before a predominantly white crowd. Attendance for his parties downtown became so large that he had to move to larger venues, first to the Ritz, in a show organized by hip hop pioneer, Michael Holman, with Malcolm McLaren's group Bow Wow Wow, then to the Peppermint Lounge, The Jefferson, Negril, Danceteria and the Roxy. "Planet Rock," a popular single produced by Arthur Baker and the keyboardist John Robie, came out that June under the name Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force. The song borrowed musical motifs from German electronic music, funk, and rock. Different elements and musical styles were used together. The song became an immediate hit and stormed the music charts worldwide. The song melded the main melody from Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express" with electronic beats based on their track "Numbers" as well as portions from records by Babe Ruth and Captain Sky, thus creating a new style of music altogether, electro funk.

Afrika Bambaataa was booked on the first ever European hip hop tour presented by Europe One and Fnac France. Along with himself were rapper and graffiti artist Rammellzee, Zulu Nation DJ Grand Mixer DXT (formerly Grand Mixer D.St), B-boy and B-girl crews the Rock Steady Crew, and the Double Dutch Girls, as well as legendary graffiti artists Fab 5 Freddy, PHASE 2, Futura 2000, and Dondi.

Bambaataa's second release around 1983 was "Looking for the Perfect Beat," then later, "Renegades of Funk," both with the same Soulsonic Force. He began working with producer Bill Laswell at Jean Karakos's Celluloid Records, where he developed and placed two groups on the label: Time Zone and Shango. Bambaataa recorded "Wildstyle" with Time Zone, and he recorded a collaboration with punk rocker John Lydon and Time Zone in 1984, titled "World Destruction." Shango's album, Shango Funk Theology, was released by the label in 1984. That same year, Bambaataa and other hip hop celebrities appeared in the movie Beat Street. He also made a landmark recording with James Brown, titled "Unity." It was billed in music industry circles as "the Godfather of Soul meets the Godfather of Hip Hop."

Around October 1985, Bambaataa and other music stars worked on the anti-apartheid album Sun City with Little Steven Van Zandt, Joey Ramone, Run–D.M.C., Lou Reed, U2, and others. During 1988, he recorded "Afrika Bambaataa and Family" for Capitol Records, titled The Light, featuring Nona Hendryx, UB40, Boy George, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and Yellowman. He had recorded a few other works with Family three years earlier, one titled "Funk You" in 1985, and the other titled "Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere)" in 1986. In 1986 he discovered an artist in Atlanta. (Through MC SHY D) by the name of Kenya Miler a.k.a. MC Harmony (Known producer now as Kenya Fame Flames Miller), that was later signed to Criminal Records and Arthur Baker. The group was Harmony and LG. The first single, 1987's "Dance To The Drums/No Joke," was produced by Bambaataa and Baker with musicians Keith LeBlanc and Doug Wimbish. Bambaataa was involved in the Stop the Violence Movement, and with other hip hop artists recorded "Self Destruction", a 12" single which hit number one on the Hot Rap Singles Chart in March 1989. The single went gold and raised $400,000 for the National Urban League to be used for community anti-violence education programs.

In 1990, Bambaataa made Life magazine's "Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" issue. He was also involved in the anti-apartheid work "Hip Hop Artists Against Apartheid" for Warlock Records. He teamed with the Jungle Brothers to record the album Return to Planet Rock (The Second Coming).

Gee Street Records, Bambaataa and John Baker organized a concert at Wembley Stadium in London in 1990 for the African National Congress (ANC), in honor of Nelson Mandela's release from prison. The concert brought together performances by British and American rappers, and also introduced both Nelson and Winnie Mandela and the ANC to hip hop audiences. In relation to the event, the recording Ndodemnyama (Free South Africa) helped raise approximately $30,000 for the ANC.

From the mid-1990s, Bambaataa returned to his electro roots. In 1998, he produced a remix of "Planet Rock" combining electro and house music elements, called "Planet Rock '98," which is regarded as an early example of the electro house genre. In 2000, Rage Against the Machine covered his song "Renegades of Funk" for their album, Renegades. The same year, he collaborated with Leftfield on the song "Afrika Shox," the first single from Leftfield's Rhythm and Stealth. "Afrika Shox" also appeared on soundtrack to Vanilla Sky. In 2004, he collaborated with WestBam, a group that was named after him, on the 2004 album Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light which also featured Gary Numan. In 2006, he was featured on the British singer Jamelia's album Walk With Me on a song called "Do Me Right," and on Mekon's album Some Thing Came Up, on the track "D-Funktional." He performed the lyrics on the track "Is There Anybody Out There" by The Bassheads (Desa Basshead). As an actor, he has played a variety of voice-over character roles on Kung Faux.

Bambaataa was a judge for the 6th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. On September 27, 2007, it was announced that Afrika Bambaataa was one of the nine nominees for the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions. On December 22, 2007, he made a surprise appearance performing at the First Annual Tribute Fit For the King of King Records, Mr. Dynamite James Brown in Covington, Kentucky.

On August 14, 2012, Bambaataa was given a three-year appointment as a visiting scholar at Cornell University. The appointment was made in collaboration between Cornell University Library's Hip Hop Collection, the largest collection of historical hip hop music in North America, and the University's department of Music. His archives, including his vinyl collection, original audio and video recordings, manuscripts, books, and papers arrived at the Cornell University Hip Hop Collection in December 2013.

Child molestation allegations

In April 2016, Bronx political activist Ronald Savage accused Bambaataa of molesting him in 1980, when Savage was 15. Following Savage's allegations, three more men accused Bambaataa of sexual abuse. Bambaataa issued a statement to Rolling Stone denying the allegations. In early May 2016, the Universal Zulu Nation disassociated themselves from Bambaataa as part of an organizational restructuring that saw the group removing "all accused parties and those accused of covering up the current allegations of child molestation" from their current roles in the organization.

On May 6, 2016, Bambaataa left his position as head of The Zulu Nation.

In June 2016, The Universal Zulu Nation issued an open letter apologizing to the alleged victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by Bambaataa.

"On behalf of the members of the Universal Zulu Nation worldwide, who have made their voices heard through their chapter leaders, we extend our deepest and most sincere apologies to the many people who have been hurt by the actions of Afrika Bambaataa and the subsequent poor response of our organization to allegations levelled against him," the Zulu Nation said in a statement signed by dozens of UZN chapter leaders worldwide.

"To the survivors of apparent sexual molestation by Bambaataa, both those who have come forward and others who have not, we are sorry for what you endured and extend our thanks to those who have spoken out for your bravery in bringing to light that which most of us were sadly unaware of, and others chose not to disclose."

The apology was signed by nearly three dozen members of the Zulu Nation, including leaders from as far as New Zealand. The organization also apologized to Ronald "Bee Stinger" Savage and Hassan "Poppy" Campbell, two of Bambaataa's accusers, who they said were "subjected to unjust and inexcusable attacks on their characters in official statements by our organization when they chose to speak their truths. ... We hear you, we believe you, and we stand with you."

In October 2016, Vice published an in-depth article titled "Afrika Bambaataa Allegedly Molested Young Men For Decades" and reported the stories and testimonies of the alleged victims and witnesses. The article stated the accusers "claim that these accounts of alleged abuse have been common knowledge in the Bronx River community and beyond since the early 1980s, including among many of Bambaataa's closest friends and Zulu soldiers."

Despite the multiple allegations and testimonies of victims and witnesses, to date no charges have been brought upon Afrika Bambaataa and he has not been prosecuted for these alleged crimes. This is due to New York state statute of limitations, which provide that actions for civil damages for defined sexual crimes, including sexual abuse of a minor, must be brought within five years of the acts constituting the sexual offense.

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