Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Teen Titans or any other trademark character. They're all copyrighted properties of Warner Brothers and their respective creators.
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Somewhere in the cold reaches of the northern edge of the globe.
In a stark wilderness of dead-cold winds and stricken icy grounds, a band of unusually dressed men walked across the frozen tundra on some unknown quest. They were men dressed in think white suits that made them almost invisible in the white backdrop of the Arctic landscape. The parts of their attire that were not white were their gray metal breathers and the tubes that connected to a large metal backpack from which a long pole-like weapon hung from, and bright red goggles that hid their eyes.
Six of these men walked forward in formation, seemingly unaffected by the chilling wind and steadily falling snow. Behind them was rather unusual vehicle to be seen in an Arctic setting, or any setting for that matter. The vehicle was a large crawling truck of some sort, about fifteen meters long and twice as thick as the average city bus. The vehicle ran on a set of regularly spaced thirty-seven inch wheels that ran the length of the beast of a machine.
The front of the large caterpillar-like vehicle was a cockpit which was a large half-globe made out of glass and supporting metal frames. Inside the cockpit, two more of the oddly suited men piloted the vehicle as it continued to trudge slowly across the frozen wasteland.
They whole party was walking for quite a while until they spotted something in the distance. Barely visible in the snow was a rock face about a quarter-mile ahead. The party treaded a little faster but kept a relatively casual pace, not wanting to tire themselves out for they know what their job involved at the time.
They reached the base of the rock face and found what they were looking for: a cave entrance. The party stopped just a few meters outside the opening. The man at the font of the party eyed the cave with mixed wonder and curiosity. The cave was about two stories high and in an almost-perfectly round shape. This suggested to the man that the cave was somehow dug artificially. After about a few seconds, a door at the side of the large roving caterpillar opened up. Another white-suited henchman appeared this time wit a slight alteration in his suit. The suit had twin black stripes that ran vertically down the length of his right side, distinguishing him from the rest.
The rather bland decoration of his suit seemed to mean a lot to the other henchmen as they suddenly stood straight, as if out of respect. The apparent officer of the group waved a hand to signal them to ease up as he walked towards the cave entrance. He took a few steps into the cave itself and took out a small device from his belt. The device was a small scanner of some kind. He pressed a button on the pad and the device turned on with a slight "whirrrr" sound.
He pointed the device into the cave depths and waved it around a bit. After a few minutes of doing this, a message appeared on the LCD screen of the device which only he understood. Though his face was hidden, his gestures suggested he was satisfied with what he read. He waved a hand at his fellow henchmen and motioned them to follow as he himself walked deeper into the cave.
Soon, the entire party disappeared into the darkness of the cave. Outside, hiding behind a bank of snow, a small girl with bright pink hair popped her tiny head out and watched as the party of strangely suited men and the large mechanical caterpillar entered the cavern. The little girl, who was easily recognizable as the honorary Titan, Kole, narrowed her eyes.
A moment later, another head popped out from above Kole's. The head that popped out of the snow back belonged to a large caveman, recognizable as Kole's best friend and trusty partner, Gnarrk. Gnarrk, who had no idea of what was going on due to his lack of knowledge of the modern world, looked inquiringly at Kole and waited for her say in the situation.
Only a short time ago, the strange caravan wandered close enough to Kole and Gnarrk's sphere of detection that they were obliged to take a look. The two residents momentarily abandoned their underground home to investigate, wanting to know if the party was something they should worry about. Through her encounters with Dr. Light and The Brotherhood of Evil, Kole had learned to be wary of strangers that wander into her territory. Eventually the caravan left, apparently having no interest in her, Gnarrk, or their home and have possibly came close to them only because they simply made a wrong turn somewhere.
That should have been enough for them both, but their instincts as honorary Titans convinced them that this wasn't something they could just leave along for to long. The two heroes proceeded to follow the caravan from a safe distance while the caravan got back in the right direction and finally reached their supposed destination a good number of miles away.
"On a scale of one to ten," said Kole, "this definitely is a twelve on the "really strange and unlikely to happen" list."
Gnarrk simply grunted something that closely sounded like his own name (the only thing he is able to say) in apparent agreement, not fully understanding what Kole said but pretty much got the context of it. He then grunted a question which only Kole seemed to ever understand.
Kole turned her head to her partner. "Well we'll just have to find out, won't we?"
Gnarrk softly grumbled a statement which Kole easily interpreted.
"Of course we have to. What kind of honorary Teen Titans would we be if we didn't?"
Gnarrk grumbled something in apparent agreement. She had a point.
"C'mon, follow me."
Kole stepped over the snow bank and ran towards the cave entrance, her Cro-Magnon companion following closely.
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Inside the cold ice cave.
The party proceeded forward in the surprisingly wide space that was almost obviously dug-out on purpose. The giant metal caterpillar easily passed through the cave while illuminating it with a number of halogen lights attached to its hull. The cave gave a rather ominous shade of blue due to the abundance of frozen water in the interior.
The party moved on, in an apparent search for something. The commanding officer, the one with the stripped uniform, lead the way for them all as he constantly waved the same scanner in front of him. The small instrument in his hand seemed to be leading them to whatever it is they are looking for which was deeper still in the earth. Eventually they reached something totally eye-catching.
Pure rock wall gave way to carved stone walls. Icy floors gave way to paved pathways. Frozen stalactites and stalagmites gave way to tall, ornately decorated pillars of stone and some unknown metals. The cave opened up into a cavern big enough to hold a fully loaded cargo ship five times over. The cavern consisted of a combination of natural rock formations and ruined dwellings, structures, and various other architectures made out of an unknown material, carvings, and some broken statues of unknown deities or political figures.
Overhead was another awesome sight. Embedded in the ceiling of the cavern by some odd looking architecture was a gigantic, round crystal of some sort which, unknown to the people below at the time, took sunlight that was being fed to it by multiple tunnels leading to the surface and are hidden in the mountains above. The giant crystal them simply amplified that light and illuminated an ancient ruined town of untold origins below it.
One of the men in white eyed one of the more complete statues. Immediately he could tell that whatever the creature was, it wasn't what one would call human. But it was humanoid. Two arms, two legs, one torso and one head, but some things that were distinctively human were not there. The body was deathly thin for human standards, if the statue did depict the average stature of whatever species it was. Whatever that was growing out of the top of the creature's scalp, long thick ribbons of some sort, was not exactly what can be called hair. The creature's eyes, it's most unusual feature, resembled an insect's. Aside from the eyes, nothing else was obviously present on its face.
The entire caravan kept moving towards the center of the large underground cavern, still following whatever the leader's device was tracking. A few moments later, Kole and Gnarrk appeared at the entrance. The two heroes got a good view of the cavern interior for the first time. Naturally, they were awe-struck.
"Whooooaaaaa…" said Kole.
Gnarrk grunted something to that same respect.
They soon realized that they were standing out in the open and quickly found a rock to hide behind before any of the white-suited men were able to spot them. The watched from behind their hiding place as the men continued deeper into the cavern.
"Okay," said Kole, "this is definitely way too strange. I've never seen this place before. Have you, Gnarrk?"
He shook his head from side to side. It would seem that both of them were completely oblivious to the cavern's existence up until now.
"Then the question now is what those guys here are for. They sure as heck don't look like the average kind of treasure hunters. And… there's something about them that's a little familiar."
Gnarrk grunted in agreement and the two continued to follow the caravan. Meanwhile the caravan had reached the center of the cavern.
In the center was what looked like to be a rather large courtyard once upon a time. All that was left of the courtyard were the tiles different colored tiles comprising its floor. If one were to look from aove the different colored tiles on the ground would have formed the image of a winged figure being either worshiped or repulsed by a population below it. This didn't concern the men however.
The leader waved around his little device until it started beeping a new sound. This happened when he was standing right next to a seemingly bottomless hole right in front of him. The hole was about six meters in diameter and seemed to go down to extreme depths. The leader nodded his head approvingly, knowing that they finally found their target.
The leader signaled to the cockpit of the large metal caterpillar. The pilot nodded and engaged in a quick conversation with his co-pilot. They began operating a series of switches and controls inside the cockpit. Outside the other's watched as out of the roof of the large vehicle, a long mechanical crane arm started to lift itself at an angle from near the front of the vehicle.
The crane arm revolved itself and started to extend so that its tip was directly over the hole in the center of the courtyard. At the same time, the door on the side of the caterpillar opened up and more men came out only these men were dressed a little differently. There were a total of three men who came out of the caterpillar door who were all dressed in black, form-fitting suits making them look a lot slimmer than their counterparts. Their mask were of the same material but were more reminiscent of gas mask with a large disk in the moth area. They also had similar metal backpacks and harnesses.
The three thinner men moved to the edge of the hole as the crane arm's tip started feeding out a leangth of cable with a hook on the end. One of the white-suited approached the black-suited men another length of cable that was rolled up in a loop and one of the black-suited men hung it over his shoulder. As the crane continued to lower the cable, the three black-suited men, one by one, started jumping over the hole and grabbing onto the cable. Slowly, they all disappeared into the darkness of the pit.
On a nearby ancient balcony, peering over the solid guard rail, Kole and Gnarrk watched as all this took place. "This is getting shadier and shadier by the minute," said Kole.
Her Cro-Magnon partner grunted in agreement.
"What are those guys up to? And why do they seem so familiar…?"
After a brief moment of reflection, Gnarrk turned to Kole and gave out a series of grunts as if he was trying to say something. Kole looked at him inquisitively as she deciphered his speech. Her eyes grew wide suddenly in realization as she realized Gnarrk was right. Kole let her memory reply a few events she experienced in recent history.
"Of course!" she exclaimed softly, "During the time when we raided the secrete lair of the Brotherhood of Evil. Those guys were the henchmen of that whacked-out scientist who gave the brain that freezing device he used on the other Titans. What was his name? Professor Chang?"
An agreeing grunt came from Gnarrk. He himself had clear enough memories of that night to remember the almost ancient-looking professor who temporarily served under the Brain and his little organization of villains known as the Brotherhood of Evil.
The two heroes continued to watch as the crane stopped feeding the cable. After a few moments, the cable was now being reeled up back into the crane arm. Kole and Gnarrk, as well as the rest of the white-suited henchmen, watched with anticipation what was to come out of the hole. After a few more moments of waiting, the first of the black-suited men emerged from the hole, still hanging off the cable. The second and third of them soon followed.
Kole and Gnarrk thought that this was a bit unusual until they noticed that the crane still had some more cable to reel in. A moment later, something else emerged from the pit. Tied to the end of the crane with the extra length of cable was something that looked like a large, black, perfectly spherical piece of rock. The three black-suited men hopped off the cable and stood by on the side while the leader of the group stepped forward with his little device once again.
He scanned the rather odd-looking but otherwise unassuming rock. The device beeped constantly trying to discern anything of interest form the thing. After a while it stopped beeping and displayed a message on its LCD screen that only the leader of the group could decipher. A minute of analysis passed and he looked up to his comrades and gave an affirmative thumbs-up. The rest of the men nodded approvingly to their leader and then to each other in silent congratulations. Mission accomplished, it would seem.
Meanwhile, two honorary Titans were pretty much still lost. Kole and Gnarrk had just witnessed the large rock emerge from the pit in the middle of an underground cavern, that contained the ruined reminiscence of some ancient architecture, by some white and black-suited men then scanned by a strange device for whatever properties then found to be satisfactory to whatever their needs would be. Anyone who listened to that statement for the first time would never be able to point out a single part that made sense.
"What is that thing?" asked Kole to no-one in particular, not even her partner, Gnarrk, since she knew that he was probably as lost as she was.
Gnarrk leaned in closer to try and get a better look at the rock that the men dug up. In the process of doing so, Gnarrk's fingers accidentally pushed a small pebble sitting on top of the balcony's solid guard rail. The pebble fell off the balcony down about twenty feet right onto a large piece of a broken wall made out of some unknown ancient metal. The pebble hit the broke piece of wall and in turn resounded a loud gong sound that echoed through out the cavern.
Naturally every single person in the cavern turned their attention to the sound. The henchmen looked to where the sound came from and soon noticed the two heroes peeking over a balcony and looking down at them.
Kole noticed that she and her partner were no spotted and a drop of sweat ran down the side of her head as she grinned nervously. Gnarrk, realizing his minor blunder, softly uttered something that would be his personal equivalent to the term "oops."
"Uh…" said Kole, "…hi…?"
There was a brief, awkward silence that enveloped the space.
Suddenly, all of the white-suited henchmen quickly reached behind to their backpacks and retrieved their weapons. Half the men, including the leader, carried taser rod which shot red bolts of electricity while the other half of the men carried cement hoses which spewed super quick-drying, red-colored, cement like substance.
Kole and Gnarrk naturally dove backwards to avoid the barrage of unusual projectiles and fell flat on their faces as the font par of the balcony was completely demolished. They quickly got up and started running deep into the ancient town. The men below stopped firing and looked towards their commanding officer. He gave a series of signals towards his men and their corresponding orders.
The men with the cement hoses proceeded to load the rock they found onto the large caterpillar. The black-suited men ran up the ledge where the two were first seen and gave chase. The leader called onto his other men holding the taser rods to follow him as he lead them in a separate direction hopping to cut off the two Titans from escape.
In his mind, the leader had already decided that he would not let those two live past this day.
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Deep into the ruins.
Kole and Gnarrk ran for a short while before finding a small abandoned house, shaped like a small dome. Inside, it was a lot roomier than it looked from the outside with two floors of space. The first floor was bare floor with remnants of ancient furniture of unusual design littering the space while the second floor was just a wide ring that was attached to the wall with a small staircase at one side so the house was just one large room. Hanging from the highest part of the dome ceiling was something that looked like a lamp of some kind.
The two heroes stood in the middle of the first floor, panting for breath. Kole found what was once a stool and took a seat so that she could recover. Gnarrk stood vigilant and carefully watched the door from which they entered. There were no other visible doors or even windows and thus if any danger was coming it would be coming from the one entrance into the dwelling.
"I think," said Kole in between deep breaths, "we lost them."
Gnarrk looked back at her and grunted something that told her to be ready then turned his attention bac to the door. Kole understood and got back up to her feet and moved towards her partner. Half-way to Gnarrk, Kole noticed something on the edge of her sight and looked up. What she saw prompted her to go bug-eyed and yelp in surprise.
Gnarrk heard and looked back at Kole just as three black-suited henchmen leapt off from the upper floor and landed in-between the two Titans. Two faced Gnarrk while the third faced Kole. Gnarrk stood ready letting out a low growl while Kole was nervously backing away but kept her guard up as best she could.
The three men reached behind them into their back packs. They each pulled out a black cylindrical object that was roughly a foot long and as thick as a handle on a bicycle. Simultaneously, they each flicked the object with their wrist and an extra two feet of metal that was of a more silvery color, extended from the black cylinder. The extra silvery length then started to menacingly generate red sparks of electricity. They were wielding taser sticks.
The two heroes only got more nervous. Without warning, the three black-suited henchmen charged at their targets, two towards Gnarrk and one towards Kole.
Kole was forced to momentarily turn tail and run as the henchman chased after her with a red-sparking taser stick. Kole managed to evade the close-call strike of her chaser while doing her best to widen the gap between them by jumping over old furniture and tipping stuff over. Her chaser, however, was far from deterred.
Kole suddenly dove under what resembled a coffee table in modern terms and was about the same dimensions. Kole's small body easily slid below the table and prompted the black-suited henchman to stop as he was unable to follow her. Just before sliding all the way through the other side, Kole stopped and turned on her back while still under the table. She propped her legs up and placed her feet on the table's underside. She then kicked up the table with all the strength she can muster.
The coffee table unexpectedly flew up at an angle towards the henchman's face. The henchman was then caught off-guard and the table effectively pushed him back and collapsed on top of him as he was floored by the thing's weight. Kole got up and stood victoriously for a moment.
"Yeah!" she cheered, "That'll teach you to mess with--"
She soon found-out that the black-suited henchman was more resilient than she gave him credit for. The table was soon pushed off and the man stood straight once again and held his taser stick at ready. Kole was frozen in place. The henchman charged at her, stick swinging wide. Kole reacted by assuming a defensive position, crossing both arm in front of her head to block, and turning her entire body into crystal in an instant.
The henchman's taser stick struck at Kole's indestructible crystal body and recoiled violently causing the man to loose his balance. Kole instantly returned to her organic body and capitalized on the moment to charge in and knock the henchman over with a hard shove. The henchman fell flat on his back and momentarily lost his weapon. Kole ran past him towards the staircase that led to the upper floor. The henchman eventually got up to his feet again, retrieved his taser stick, and continued to pursue her.
Meanwhile, Gnarrk was having problems of his own. The two black-suited henchmen he was facing against were no pushovers, that was for sure at that moment. Gnarrk, with his highly developed physical prowess, was able to withstand the repeated beatings of the taser sticks which to Gnarrk were only minor stings even though they could easily stun a normal person instantly. However, he knew he wouldn't be able to withstand them for long.
Plus, he knew that Kole was in trouble and he needed to get himself out of his current predicament in order to save her. He looked around for any weapon he could use. He saw a ling pole-like thing on the ground that might have been a piece of decoration back in ancient times.
Gnarrk grabbed it and held it at ready as the two henchmen charged at him simultaneously. Held the pole horizontally and blocked both of the taser sticks that came swinging down. Fortunately for Gnarrk, the pole was some kind of ceramic and did not conduct any of the sticks' electricity. He pushed off the two sticks and forced the two henchmen to stumble back. Gnarrk then charged forward with the pole still held horizontally.
Gnarrk nailed one of the henchmen on the chin with his pole as he charged and knocked him down. The other was lucky enough to be able to duck and the pole missed him as Gnarrk passed by. The still-standing henchman capitalized on the opportunity and leapt up onto the caveman's back and put Gnarrk in a choke hold.
Gnarrk, noticing the extra added weight on his person, dropped the pole and did his best to shake off the henchman that was latching on to him by thrashing around violently, bumping into stuff all the way. Gnarrk also grabbed onto the henchman's arms which were around his neck and tried to pry them open but the henchmen proved very resilient indeed. Gnarrk was effectively distracted by this and couldn't see the other henchman recovering.
The second henchman was now back up on his feet. He noticed the struggling Cro-Magnon and waited for an opportunity to capitalize on. Eventually, Gnarrk was able to pry open the hands of the henchman and promptly tossed the black-suited henchman overhead and away from him.
The other henchman took this opportunity by charging in and swinging his taser stick straight up into Gnarrk's chin. The uppercut caught Gnarrk completely off-guard and the caveman fell on his back unceremoniously. The henchman came at him again while he was down. Gnarrk saw it coming that time and rolled to the side as the taser stick struck bare floor. Gnarrk jumped back up to his feet in a ready stance.
Both men were now facing Gnarrk once again and Gnarrk simply grumbled something in apparent frustration. Both men charged at him again with taser sticks held high. Gnarrk reeled up and waited for the opportune moment. When the two henchmen were only a few feet away, Gnarrk used his powerful legs to leapt high into the air and over the two henchmen.
Gnarrk landed a good distance away fro the two and grabbed the nearest thing he could find: a broken old chair of some sort. He held it high over his head and threw it towards his two adversaries in the distance. The two henchmen had enough time to avoid the airborne piece of furniture by jumping on either side of its flight pat. The chair crashed on the floor and smashed into splinters and a cloud of dust.
Gnarrk waited for a moment as the dust cleared to see of the result of his attack. He was disappointed when the two henchmen were still standing and holding their weapons at ready. He grunted in exasperation and made himself ready for another attack.
While all that occurred, Kole was still trying her best to lose her pursuer up on the second floor. Her pursuer was keeping pace with her as she ran circles around the upper floor, constantly dropping or pushing random stuff in the way of the henchmen in attempts to slow him down, which was not very effective.
After a couple of laps around the upper floor she pretty much knew she needed to find another option. While running around, Kole managed to get a glance at Gnarrk's situation down below. Her partner seemed to have trouble getting rid of the two who were then approaching him menacingly. Kole got a bright idea.
"Gnarrk!" she called out to him.
Gnarrk looked to where she called from and noticed Kole suddenly jumping over the rail and off of the second floor. She immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest and kept her body as straight as she can as her entire body crystallized in mid-air. Gnarrk got the idea pretty quick. He reached out a hand and grabbed Kole's crystal body by the legs. At the same time, one of the two henchmen charged headlong at them both.
Gnarrk saw it coming and swung at the guard using Kole's body much like a club. The caveman nailed the henchman in the side of his stomach and sent him flying towards the wall. The second henchman charged in after seeing his comrade fall and hoped to have caught the big man off-guard. Gnarrk was quicker than that and was able to block the second henchman's swing with the taser stick easily using Kole. Gnarrk quickly released one hand's grasp of Kole and promptly gave an uppercut to the unsuspecting henchman. The henchman was floored immediately.
The third and last of the black suited henchman, who was, up to that moment, chasing Kole around, was already preparing himself to leap off the railing and down onto the first floor with his taser stick at ready. Gnarrk's highly tuned senses detected the incoming henchman as he went airborne. Gnarrk faced the oncoming threat from above, gripped Kole's legs tightly, and took a ready stance.
When the henchmen was about ten feet from the ground, Gnarrk swung Kole's crystal body like professional baseball player and nailed the henchman right in the kisser, sending him flying back up onto the second floor, completely knocked out.
Gnarrk gave a wry smile as he casually tossed Kole's body into the air. The girl returned to her organic form instantaneously and landed on her feet with ease. She turned to her partner who gave her a thumbs-up, one of the few things he ever learned from modern communication skills. Kole returned the gesture along with a smile.
"Good job, buddy," she said, "now let's get outta here before the others catch up with us."
Gnarrk nodded and leaned down slightly. Kole then casually climbed up his back and held onto his shoulders, piggyback like. They both ran out the door, hoping to find their way out of the cavern.
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Outside.
Kole and Gnarrk were as lost as they could ever hope to be. In a town that was as ancient as natural history and being chased by a bunch of weird guys in strange black and white suits with crazy-looking weapons, few people would have the time or ability to pick up a sense of direction. They continued down streets and alleys hoping to find the cave entrance once again but weren't having much luck at all.
It would have been possible for them to simply travel over the town; as in jump from one building to another the way Gnarrk usually does in their jungle home. However, Kole eventually pointed it out to her partner that that plan would make them way too vulnerable to the men who were chasing them. They stopped at a street in order to find their bearings.
"Oh man, we're so lost," said Kole, "I can't remember which way we came from anymore."
Gnarrk grunted in agreement as he tried to catch his breath.
"Well, bright side is that if we're having this much trouble, I guess those guys in the suits aren't having an easier time finding us, right? So we should be in the clear for now."
As she said this, a bolt of red electricity hit the pavement in front of them a little too close for comfort. Kole gave a surprised cry and Gnarrk gave an alarmed yelp as he jumped back slightly. They both looked up onto a nearby rooftop and found the leading officer of the henchmen (the one with the black stripe on his suit) holding out his taser rod and preparing to open fire again.
Gnarrk didn't waste time in waiting and immediately began running again with Kole on his back as red bolts began pelting the ground behind them. The two managed to escape in the cover of a nearby alley and the leader stopped shooting. He steadied his taser rod and pressed the side of his mask where his ear would be. Underneath the breather mask, he gave orders to his comrades.
The two heroes traveled down a few more alleys of the ancient city, taking randomly chosen turns. While running down one alley, Gnarrk was prompted to stop when a bunch of the white-suited men appeared at the end of the alley. He slowly began to back away as they threateningly aim their weapons. Kole popped her head out and analyzed the situation.
"Hey, Gnarrk, still remember what we've practiced?" she asked with a wry smile.
Gnarrk looked back at her and nodded while also giving a wry smile.
Kole then climbed up over Gnarrk's shoulders and leapt off. In mid-air, she tucked herself into a ball and crystallized her body. Gnarrk grabbed her in mid-air maid like a professional bowler by bowling Kole's body down the alley towards the white-suited henchmen who were caught off-guard by the unusual offensive.
The henchmen tried to counter the attack by shooting directly at Kole's body but failed as Kole was totally invulnerable to anything they could ever hope to muster. Kole's body barreled down the alley and into the crowd of white-suited henchmen. All of the men were tripped then fell flat on their faces, some knocked-out. Those that were able to recover were subjected to a follow-up clobbering by Gnarrk who had alreaday followed Kole down the alley.
Kole returned to her organic form and stood victoriously over the fallen henchmen. Kole the called for Gnarrk and climbed up o his back again and they resumed trying to find an exit. They went for a while without running into any trouble. Kole looked behind them as Gnarrk kept running.
"I think we lost them this time," she said.
As she said that, Gnarrk skidded to an abrupt halt as he was suddenly ambushed by the gang leader who appeared from out of an alley, taser rod ready. Kole turned her head and noticed the leader getting ready to shoot. She thought quickly and climbed over Gnarrk's shoulders once again.
"Gnarrk, get down!" she yelled out as she landed on the floor in front of him. She spread her arms wide and turned into crystal just as the leader fired.
Gnarrk did as he was told and ducked behind Kole's crystal body which neutralized the incoming bolt of red electricity from the taser rod. Gnarrk thought quickly and grabbed onto Kole's body and held it out in front of him. The leader fired a few more times. Gnarrk was able to protect himself fairly easily with Kole's assistance. With Kole's indestructible body as a shield, Gnarrk charged at the leader who's only choice was to jump out of the way of the barreling caveman.
Gnarrk ran past the leader and continued forward deeper into the town. Kole turned back to her organic body and resumed her position of piggybacking Gnarrk. They kept on running for a while, again, seemingly free of their pursuers.
They stopped on top of a wide bridge that overlooked a deep chasm so that Gnarrk can catch his breath. Kole hopped down off of him and scanned the nearby area with her eyes. After a while, nothing happened to indicate that they were still being pursued. She turned to her partner to deliver the good news.
"Okay, this time," she said optimistically, "there's no way they could follow us."
As she said that, the three black-suited henchmen from much earlier suddenly dropped out of nowhere and covered one end of the bridge, taser sticks held at ready. Both heroes turned in shock and did their best to look ready. A moment later, the small group of the white-suited henchmen, wielding the taser rods, came out of a nearby alley and blocked off the other end of the bridge. Kole and Gnarrk were now virtually surrounded with no way out.
"I should really shut up now," said Kole meekly.
Gnarrk grumbled with agreement.
Moments later, the leader appeared from somewhere to the side. He eyed the two honorary Titans with hidden anguish beneath his mask. He wielded his taser rod and readied it. The two heroes looked back, doing their best to restrain the fear in their faces. The leader aimed at them, but did not fire. He then aimed at the bridge supports above them and began to fire indiscriminately. The result was as one would expect.
As the bridge already ruined supports gave way, the entire structure collapsed and the two heroes fell into the deep gorge under them and were soon swallowed by the darkness as their screams died out. All was silent for what seemed like the longest time where nothing happened. Satisfied, the henchmen eventually decided to leave, believing they had finally earned victory.
Unlike Kole and Gnarrk, the henchmen had no problem finding their way back to their caravan due to a tracking system installed in their suits which allowed them to locate each other easily. By the time they arrived at the central courtyard, the rest of their group had already finished loading up their unusual cargo onto the large mechanical caterpillar of a vehicle. Soon the caravan was on their way out of the cavern with their 'prize', leaving nothing in their wake.
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A short while later.
Within the chasm, a soft groaning could be heard. If anyone were to look deep enough, they would see that the two Titans that fell were not quite as dead as the strange-suited henchmen would have wanted them to be. But their position was perilous nonetheless.
Gnarrk was hanging from Kole's body which was again in crystal form, straight bodied, and unceremoniously stabbed into the side of the rock wall. During the fall, Kole must have transformed herself in this state and Gnarrk jabbed her to the wall in order to stop the fall, saving their lives. But now, they needed to get out of this situation and they already knew that much.
Gnarrk freed a hand and grabbed onto holds he found on the natural rock wall. He then pulled Kole out of the rock and allowed her to hang onto his back again as soon as she returned to her normal body. Gnarrk started free climbing up the rock face, eventually reaching the top where the bridge used to be. As Gnarrk caught his breath, Kole again started to scan the are for danger. She detected nothing.
"At the risk of jinxing the moment once again," she said quietly to her partner, "I really think we're safe now, pal."
Not wanting to disagree, Gnarrk nodded accompanied by a soft groan. He wanted to be optimistic for once in the day.
"They probably think we're goners now, which means they'll be leaving. C'mon, let's see if we can still follow them."
They started to travel through the town again, this time via the rooftops as was originally suggested, no longer needing to be wary of being pursued. They soon found their way back to the courtyard only to find it empty. The traced the paved road on which the caravan traveled and made their way back to the cave. They traveled cautiously, not wanting to give away the fact that they were still alive.
Fortunately and unfortunately for the two heroes, they never encountered the caravan in the cave. They soon reached the outside world and their faces were soon stung by the cold winds of the arctic once again. Try as they did, they could not spot the caravan and only saw the pure white of snow in front of their eyes.
The caravan was gone.
Gnarrk looked down at Kole and grumbled something.
Kole looked up at him. "We need to tell the Titans about this, that's what we'll do now…"
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