The New Generation: Earth-53

"I guess they're free to wear what they want to wear," Rose said, wit ha small shrug. "Though, I can see why a lot of parents don't want their kids looking up to them as role models, especially their daughters... I mean, could you imagine if they started making Halloween costumes based on them?" Placing a card down, Rose leaned back in her seat and let out a short breath. "They're one weird bunch, too. I mean, you got the Cleavage Queen leading them. Then there's the guy who dresses up like a bat, and the woman who can make all those giant green weapons. And let's not forget about the guy in all that red leather with the bow and arrow, because archery is such an intimidating super power. And you have the that other one, the woman who dresses like a slutty stage magician, and then that other blonde with the stupidly loud scream. The super speed chick with the Bret Hart glasses, though, I guess she's alright... even if she isn't wearing pants. Am I leaving anyone out? Oh, right, the big muscly guy who dresses up in red and gold spandex, with the big white cape. Something about him just feels... weird. I mean, have you heard him on that interview exclusive? He sounded like a teenage fanboy or something. Oh! And let's not forget the green guy who claims he's from Mars. They're a special bunch, alright..."

Neal went on to listen to Rose describing the main members of the Justice League. He wasn't super familiar with all of them, but it didn't sound like Rose was either. She knew them from description but not name. Neal was much the same, when she mentioned them he could picture them all in their uniforms but he had no idea what they really called themselves. They had very strange names, and he couldn't even imagine what any of them were. Whenever they came up on the television, Neal's dad was normally pretty quick to change the channel. "Well, it's not like people like Angelina Jolie are any better to model after," Neal pointed out. "At least these people want to make a real difference"

"...Okay, true," Rose muttered, pursing her lips in thought. "I suppose it's better to look up to a cleavage exposing woman who punches bad guys in the face than someone like... a Kardashian. Ugh." She shuddered slightly, placing down her next card. It wasn't like she kept up with low grade celebrities, but good good those annoying bitches were everywhere on tv. She tried her best not to pay any attention to them, lest she gouge out her eyes over just how annoying they are. "I'd take a slutty magician over that any day."

"We don't say the K word in this house," Jordan said as she walked by the table that Neal and Rose were playing at. She had a book in her hands and didn't even look at them as she walked by.

Neal only laughed at this before turning to Rose. "Sorry, family joke. Our father HATES the Kardashian family with a passion," he explained. "And now he's furious that supposedly one of them is going to try running for mayor in the future. He hates all the reality television and the crap that it brings. He says they're the reason that kids are bad and other countries hate us," Neal went on to say. "And believe me, I'm sure we would all take the slutty magician any time," he added before looking at his hand.

"Damn it......all I have left is a two of hearts," Neal said before throwing it down. "I can't believe you won..........are you sure you haven't played before?"

"Some of us for different reasons, I'm sure," Rose muttered, in response to the slutty magician comment. Her expression didn't even slightly change, remaining calm and indifferent as she looked down at her cards again, then back up at the ones they had already put down. When he said that she won, she just sort of stared for a moment. "I won? Huh... I honestly didn't even know what I was doing half the time. Imagine that." She out the last of her cards down and then leaned back in her seat, thinking. "Alright, what should we do now?"

Meanwhile, outside, a car was pulling up on the side of the street right in front of Rose's house. The man inside sat calmly against in his seat for a few moments, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. It was five o'clock right now, still a lot of daylight left. It didn't really matter, of course, whether he did this at night or during the day. Either way, he'd get what he came for and be gone before any police showed up. Finally, he shifted the car into park and got out, heading up the walkway towards the front door.

Neal just had a tiny smile show up on the corner of his face as Rose mentioned that perhaps there were different reasons that motivated Neal for wanting to see a slutty magician. Well, that might be a little bit true. And Neal wasn't quite going to deny them if Rose actually pushed towards those questions. For the moment though he just smiled and remained quiet until Rose showed her surprise at winning the game. "Well perhaps you just picked it up a lot better than you think," Neal said as he gathered up the cards and placed them in the box.

"Wanna get a little something to eat? I could use a bite of food right now"

"Well, my parents should have dinner ready soon," Rose said, glancing out the window towards her house. She could see her mother cooking in the kitchen from here. It looked like meatloaf... her mother's meatloaf was quite possibly the most delicious thing ever conceived on the planet. Needless to say, she was quite looking forward to it. "But I suppose a small snack wouldn't hurt. What do ya got?"

Back at Rose's house the doorbell rang. Lillian looked up from the stove briefly, then wiped her hands on a cloth. Slade was out back working in the yard, so she'd have to answer the door. Hurrying across the house, she opened the front door to see a man standing there, a man dressed in a long coat with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He doesn't say anything, simply standing there and staring at her.

"Uh... can I help you, sir?" she asked, opening the door a little wider and shifting her weight.

"Lillian Wilson, I presume?" the man stated, giving her a careful look.

"Yes... that's me," Lillian said, narrowing her eyes at him.

The man paused a moment, then began reaching inside his coat. "I'm looking for your husband.

"Oh, well he's out back right now... if you wait just a second, I'll go-"

"That won't be necessary," the man said quickly, cutting her off. In the next moment, he pulled out a sawed off shotgun from inside his coat. Before Lillian even has a chance to react and run away, the gun fires, unloading a round of buckshot directly into her chest. As she collapses, blood pooling out beneath her, the man walks over her into the home. "I'll find him myself."

"Alright, a snack it is," Neal said as he began to walk over towards the kitchen area in order to find some sort of snake for them. "Well depending on what you're hungry for we have a lot. We got some mini pizzas, chips, some fruit snakes, waffles. a really large variety in all honesty," Neal said with a smile as he looked back over at Rose with a smile. "My dad always feels bad for coming home late tonight, so Jordan and I can guilt him in to getting pretty much anything we want" Neal added with a laugh.

His laugh was cut off short as a gunshot rang throughout the air. Neal froze suddenly, because he could tell that the shot was somewhere nearby. It was loud and clear, but it wasn't in their own home. "Something's wrong," Neal said as he kinda glanced around. "I need to call my dad," Neal said before running to the phone. "Jordan! Get in your room, lock the door, and hide! Don't open it up for anyone but Dad or I!" Neal shouted as Neal went to grab his phone and rapidly started dialing some numbers.

Something wasn't right, and the only person that could handle something like this (that Neal knew of) was his father.

Rose looked up sharply, as the gunshot rang out. A numb sensation began to form in her throat, as she realized just where the shot had come from. She couldn't be sure, since it had been so loud, but it had certainly sounded like it had come from right next door... from her house. Instantly, she was running out the back of Neal's home, half in a panic. When she got outside, she could see her dad running towards their house from the backyard.

"Daddy!" she shouted, her heart beating a hundred times minute. "What's going on!"

"Rose, stay there!" Slade called back. "Stay inside!" He stopped momentarily outside the back door, peering around the corner. Then, he rushed inside.

Rose just blinked there for a moment, before starting to sprint back through Neal's house. SHe was heading for the front door. "My parents are in trouble!" she shouted, starting to freak out a little. What the hell was going on!"

"A gunshot Dad I'm certain of it. At least.........I'm certain enough to get you down here. Come on Dad, I know that you want me here to protect Jordan but there's not a whole lot I can do against a gun," Neal said as he spoke to his own father. He had picked up a little bit ago and Neal explained what happened.

"Alright son just stay put and be as quiet as you can, we don't want him thinking that you called anyone. Me and my partner are just a few minutes out, we'll be there soon. You'll be safe son, I promise," Clint said before hanging up.

Just as Neal hung up the phone he saw Rose sprinting through the house towards the front door. Her parents were in trouble? What the shot had come from her home!? "Oh no," Neal said under his breath before running after Rose. "Wait stop!" Neal shouted to get her attention. "There's a guy with a gun! What can you possibly do to help? We need to stay here and keep ourselves safe! I'm sure that's what your parents would want Rose"

"But- but I can't just do nothing!" Rose countered, stopping near the doorway. She knew he was right, of course, that running into her home to attack some guy with a gun would probably not end well for her, but so what? Her parents were in trouble and she had to help them! She had to. She paused only a short second longer, then opened the door and took off running.

Inside her home, Slade approached the front door, at first being, but then suddenly forgetting anything about that as he saw his wife lying by the open door. Her eyes were wide, lifeless, the front of her dress shredded open and gushing blood from the buckshot wounds. Dropping to his knees next to her, he just stared in disbelief for a few moments, his head starting to spin and stomach going nauseous.

"Lillian...?" he uttered, raising her head with his hand. "Lil? Oh god... oh my... No, no, no, come on Lil, don't..."

And then another gunshot called him from his grief. A hot pain flashed through the back of his leg, causing him to fall forward. His hand hit the floor, stabilizing himself. The next thing he feels is a hard blow to he back of his skull, the butt of a rifle, or shotgun, or some kind of gun. This time, he lands on his stomach, dazed and bleeding.

"Almost too easy," the man said, planting his boot down firmly on the back of Slade's neck. "Been a while hasn't it? Tell me, how is my dear older brother doing these days?

Neal opened his mouth to say more, but Rose didn't stick around long enough to hear it. She took off to go to the aid of her family. Damn it, what was he supposed to do now? There was nothing that Neal could do to a guy with a gun, absolutely nothing. And yet Neal knew that he couldn't just sit here as his friend went to go help her own family. It was a very brave thing to do. "God help me," Neal muttered before running out the door after her. Jordan was locked up in her room, so at least she would be safe.

He chased after Rose, not having any idea what was about to happen to them.

"Wade..." Slade muttered, trying to push himself up from under the man's boot. "You... have the nerve to come here? To shoot attack my family? To shoot my wife?!"

"It's not nerve," Wade said, pressing his foot harder against te back of his brother's neck. Well, not really brothers. Half brothers. The same mother birthed them, but they had different fathers. When your mother is a whore, though, it's generally expected. Slade might have loved their mother just the same, but not Wade. No, Wade despised her, walked out on them, even took his father's last name instead, the name DeFarge. Slade kept the bitch's name of Wilson. "It's just business. Orders, you see.

Slade grit his teeth, hands forming into fists. The anger inside him right now was unbelieveable. "Wilkins? He ordered this? Just because I quit?!"

"Something like that... doesn't matter, though. You're coming back, you see. They have big plans for you."

"Get off him!" another voice suddenly shrieked.

Rose sprinted through the open doorway and leaped at Wade from behind, delivering a hard kick to the back of his knee. The man's leg buckled briefly, allowing Rose to jump on his back and throw her arms around his neck, trying to choke him. Of course, she didn't really have the strength to do it, and Wade simply shrugged her off, then grabbed her by the neck and threw her across the room. She crashed into a china cabinet, glass and wood breaking around her, as she fell to the floor, dazed and bleeding.

"Little bitch," Wade growled, raising the shotgun and pointing it at her. "That's no way to greet your uncle."

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Slade tackled him. In spite of his injured leg, he wasn't about to let this man hurt his daughter. He'd fought through worse injuries before, after all. Both men falling to the ground, Slade pushed the gun away and began throwing punches. Wade took a few hits, then began to defend, trapping Slade's arm throwing a palm strike to his jaw.

Rose, meanwhile, was struggling to get up, the whole room spinning. Shards of glass were embedded in her arms, leaking blood. "Daddy..." she uttered, blinking a couple of times.

Neal's hesitation placed him partially behind Rose. She had gotten a good bit ahead of him, but he was following behind closely. He didn't want to get hurt, but he couldn't just allow himself to stay behind while someone he liked went in to a bad situation. She was dealing with a guy that had a gun after all, her fists were only going to be able to do so much. Neal's father had always told him to be brave and do amazing things for your friends. He couldn't stay behind now, not after she had only just made a friend.

Neal wasn't going to let her down.

As Neal got to the door he was greeted with a terrible scene. Rose was hit up against some cabinet with glass in her arm, a woman was bleeding out from the gun shot, and Rose's father was beating up some guy, probably the shooter. Neal knew that he couldn't help to beat up the guy, so he needed to get to Rose. He ran over to her and knelt down next to her.

"Rose! Are you alright!?"

"I'm... I'm okay..." Rose said, shaking her head and trying to get her senses to come back to her. She had hit the china cabinet pretty hard, after all, and she could barely think straight, let alone get up and do anything.

Slade let out a grunt, as Wade pushes him back into a wall. Ducking out of the way of another punch, Slade brings his knee forward and drives it directly into his brother's chest, then headbutts him in the face. "Neal, get Rose out of here!" he shouted, as a kick finds its way into the back of his wounded leg, causing him to stumble to one knee.

"I'm getting a little tired of this," Wade muttered, bringing up another kick to Slade's chin, forcing him back against the floor. Looking around, he finds his gun shortly afterwards and goes over to grab it.

"You don't look okay Rose," Neal said honestly as he looked down at Rose's arm in particular. It was all covered up in glass, and it looked like it was really doing a lot of damage. Neal was no doctor, but he could tell when things weren't that good. A lot of blood was normally a bad sign after all, he had learned that much in health class.

Neal glanced over as Slade shouted for the boy to get his daughter out of there. Neal wanted to do something more to help, but what else could he do? This guy looked tough, and Neal had like zero training in stuff like this. "Yes sir!" Neal shouted before picking up Rose. He didn't touch her arm as he didn't want to get glass all over him.

With Rose in hand, he tried to run out of the house and back over to his place. Hopefully, they would get inside before that guy followed them. Neal wanted to help Rose and her family, but he really didn't want this guy knowing where they lived. "Come on Dad, hurry up" Neal muttered to himself.

Rose was hardly even aware of what was going on, when Neal picked her up and started to carry her out of the house. Everything was still spinning. She did, however, catch sight of her mother on the way by, lying motionlessly on the floor and bleeding heavily from the wound on her chest. At this sight, Rose began to thrash and struggle in Neal's arms. "No! Mom! Mommy!" she screamed, calling out to her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, and she didn't want to leave. Her mother was dying. Dying! She couldn't just leave! But she had no choice in the matter, too weak and dazed at the moment to break away from Neal's grasp, and even if she did, she'd have a hard time standing.

Meanwhile, back inside the house, the two brothers were in the middle of beating the crap out of each other. Wade might have had the advantage, what with not being the one shot in the leg and all, but Slade was still Slade, the best there was. And damn did he show it, fighting back tooth and nail and overcome the bastard that had just entered his home, shot his wife, attacked his daughter... he'd kill Wade this time, of that he was certain.

That is, of course, if ever got the chance. But he never did. After kicking the man square in the face, Slade collapsed forward a little, starting to feel woozy. Wade fell backwards, landing hard on the floor, but within arm's reach of his scattered shotgun. As Slade began to rise back to his feet and come forward again, Wade snatched up the gun, raised it instantly, and shot the approaching man directly in the shin. Slade went down in a hurry, screaming in pain and holding his leg. He wouldn't be getting up this time.

Scrambling back to his feet, Wade walked forward and delivered a vicious kick to his brother's head, this time knocking him out cold. He then reached down, grabbed Slade by the collar, and began to drag him back outside to the car. As he made it to the doorway, however, he stopped for a moment and pulled a small grenade off his belt. Not a frag grenade, mind you, but an incendiary grenade. Tossing it back through the house, it landed in the living room and swiftly ignited in a swirling, wild fireball. Within seconds, the flames engulfed the room and began to spread throughout the entire house. On that note, Wade marched straight back to the car, threw Slade in the back seat, and then sped off down the road.

Neal couldn't even imagine what was going through Rose's mind right now. Pain, that was the only thing that that he could start to picture, but the emotional chaos and price must have been tearing her apart inside. Her family and home were under attack by some crazy person, and there was nothing that she could do in order to help. It was because of her condition that Neal had to get her out of there. They would go back to his house and lock the door and everything, Neal's dad couldn't be that far away. This isn't something that he would delay on. The only thing that Neal could do was make sure that Rose got to safety and out of harm's way.

"I'm sorry Rose," Neal uttered weakly before eventually moving to his own home. Within a minute they were inside, Rose was placed on the couch, and Neal locked everything on their front door. He also closed the blinds and went to check on Jordan. After that he turned off the lights and sat next to Rose. "How bad does it hurt?" he asked. He wasn't sure what else there was to say right now. Rose might have just lost her parents, and Neal knew what that was like. He had lost his mother, but even he didn't know what it was like for someone he loved to be killed.

"Do you mean the glass, or my parents being attacked?" Rose said, in snappy, bitter tone. Her senses were starting to come back to her now, leaving her in a state of anger combined with grief. She so badly just wanted to retreat into her head, curl up into a ball, and disappear, but she knew that wasn't going to happen. She had seen her mother lying on the floor dead, or close to it. She couldn't get the image out of her head, it was burned there like a brand on a cow's rump, and it wasn't going away. And then there was her father, doing everything he could to protect her against that psycho man, but she'd seen how injured he was. Could he possibly beat the other guy with that kind of wound?

Of course he could... he was her dad, the toughest man that she knew. No one could beat him, no one could... And that's when she noticed the growing bright orange glow coming from behind the blinds. Looking up in shock, she blinked a couple of times, tears still streaking down her face. In a hurry, she leaped from her spot on the couch and yanked the blinds up. When her mind registered the sight of her burning home, now engulfed in a towering inferno, Rose's eyes went wide, her face filled with horrific grief. "NOOO!" she screamed, falling limply against the edge of the windowsill. Her legs had just suddenly gone limp. "MOM! DADDY!"

Okay, now was definitely not the time to be talking to Rose clearly. Neal should have realized how stupid of a question it was anyway. It was even worse than when Rose asked about Neal's mod, at least Rose wasn't positive about what had happened. How could Neal ask such a question and not expect Rose to get defensive? It only got worse as they both saw the flames that were coming from her home. "Dear God," Neal said in shock as Rose panicked about her mother and father.

Neal's heart nearly jumped out of his throat as his front door opened. He turned, wondering if the attacker had come for them. What he saw instead brought some relief to him. "Dad!" Neal said before running over to him and hugging him.

Clint wrapped a single arm around his son, as the other hand was busy holding onto his side arm. "Are you kids alright? What happened?" he asked. Neal went on to explain everything that had happened. "Damn it, in a neighborhood like this how does that happen?" Clint said before pulling out his phone. "Don't worry Rose I'll get help here as soon as we can," he said before stepping back and making a call. Clint's partner had taken Rose's house, of course there wasn't much that he could do other than call the fire apartment and some additional backup to report what had happened.

Neal could only look at Rose. Within ten minutes her entire world had been destroyed.

Rose was on the floor at this point, having difficulty standing. Her insides had knotted up, nausea bubbling into her throat. Face pointed at the ground, she held her eyes closed and tried not to cry too hard. She had never been one to really cry that much, she always liked to be strong for her parents. But right now, no matter how hard she tried, the tears just kept coming, her voice quivering and sputtering in horrified sobs. Eventually, something else quivered inside her, and she suddenly got up and ran into the bathroom, not even taking time to close the door as she lifted up the toilet seat and vomited into it, arms shaking on the edge of the bowl. Why had this happened? Why to her? Who would want to do this to her family?!

"I'm sorry for this Rose, it's just procedure,". Those were the only words that came from Neal's father before the police began to question both Rose and Neal to what happened. They wanted details and they wanted answers. This wasn't a neighborhood that was known for gang activity, nor would this be the work of some kind of serial killer. It was too calculated, too professional. According to the kids the place was burned down after the family was killed, a serial killer would want people to see his direct work, not do something like that to cover his tracks.

Eventually, the police left and everyone went about their work to try to figure out what had happened. They gained a rough sketch of the man from Rose and Neal, but it was only a sketch. Rose's family had no next of kin, so Clint agreed that he and his family would watch over her for the time being.

After all the cops left, Clint took a seat next to Rose and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry sweetie, I can only imagine how you must be feeling"

The rest of the day went by in pretty much a blur. Rose's wasn't really all there, during the questioning and whatnot. Her mind was scattered, in a haze, almost like an out of body experience. The whole time, she felt sick, like she was going to throw up again, and yet in never happened. Instead, she just sat there with her arms hugging her stomach, rocking back and forth in her seat and absently answering questions when asked. Once all the police finally left, Rose sort of curled up into a ball, hugging her knees to her chest and staring at the floor. Even when Neal's dad tried to console her, she didn't respond. She didn't really want to talk right now at all, just wanted to be alone, just wanted to cry, just wanted... her parents...

"I'm tired," she said, finally, swallowing a hard lump in her throat. "Can I... go to bed?"

Clint just put a small frown upon his face as Rose didn't hardly say anything to him. He just patted her shoulder. "Of course you can Rose. You'll be staying in Jordan's room, she agreed to take the couch," he said before standing up and pointing down the hallway. "It's the first room on your right. Mine is the second one on the right, if you need anything at all don't hesitate to come talk to me," he said before walking off down towards his own room. He hated dealing with cases like these. They were too hard.

Neal just looked over at Rose, he had been sitting in a chair across the room. "Feel free to come to me if you need anything as well," he offered. "Mine's the room right across from yours"

"Right... thanks," Rose muttered, slowly getting up to her feet and wandering to the correct room. She was like a zombie, just shuffling off without any sort of emotion whatsoever. She could barely even think straight right now. In one day, her entire world, her entire life, had been obliterated. She had no home, no parents, no nothing anymore. Why... why why why... She kept asking herself that, but she wasn't any closer to getting a solid answer. As far as she knew, this had been completely random and senseless. And what would she do tomorrow? With no mother, there was no home schooling during the mornings. She didn't go to a real school, so she'd still be stuck home, alone. And with no father, there would be no more training, no more bonding together. That was all gone now... all gone.