Titans: Rebirth
IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!
At least, that's what the dust covered, deteriorating sign on the skeletal remains of the homeless man stated. What flesh remained on the corpse was decayed and hardened, and what remained of the clothing was in tatters. For once, this crazy bastard might have actually been right. The once radioactive dust that flitted over the city street wafted lazily around the corpse, and the wind that blew it also rustled the black cape of the figure looking down at the sign. In the dim moonlight, the figure was nearly a walking shadow - if not for the skull mask and the red X's that adorned the black combat suit they wore. A deep breath was taken and let out as the figure hung their head, though it only came out through the voice scrambler as light breathing.
"What happened here...?" The voice, while scrambled, was quiet - the question itself being intended to be entirely rhetorical - though any sort of answer would have been nice. Taking a knee, he looked closer at the corpse, having noticed something as he was looking at the bones. Leaning down and lifting the arm a bit, the eyes behind the suit's mask squinted, and then went wide. "What the hell?!" He shouted, and promptly jumped back from the corpse having confirmed his suspicions. The markings he saw on the bones weren't from weathering - they were bite marks. Not from the jagged fangs of a wild animal though; they were human, or at least very similar to the jaw structure of a human. There were other corpses littering the sidewalks and street, some being nothing more than half or less of the body, but he hadn't really paid much attention to that until now.
Scrambling to his feet, Red X moved down the street and began checking each corpse he came across - and began to discover that most of the ones that were torn apart had bite marks. The rest seemed to have some sort of head trauma - broken skull or something of the like; some even had bullet holes in them. Things from old black and white movies began running through his mind, but X pushed the thoughts away. There was no way in hell that was possible. There had to be some sort of explanation better than that. There had to be one that made some amount of sense. Those hopes were dashed when he heard the sickening snarl of a creature behind him. In a knee-jerk sort of reaction, he half turned and leaned down, looking over his shoulder down the alley. What he saw brought his eyes wide open once more.
Before him stood what had once been a man, now barely clothed, and looking like he hadn't seen a shower in years. Worse, his body looked like it was falling apart, but he still lived - if you could really call that state being alive. He hunched over, arms forward and hands spreading open, jaws snapping at the masked teen - eyes yellow and bloodshot. X had a feeling he knew where this was heading, and the thought of what this... thing... might be intending made his stomach turn. The urge to take flight rather than stand and fight came to him, being faced with something that might very well want to eat him, but he turned and stood his ground - steeling his resolve. He'd take on all five of the Teen Titans at once and soundly defeated them with this suit. He could handle one... zombie... right? Right.
"You hungry?" The voice from the mask asked, and you could hear the smirk forming. "Come and get it, Skeletor." The second that the zombie tried to rush him though, screeching and jaws opened wide, it quickly froze in place as an X-shaped timed explosive buried itself in its forehead - and then exploded, splattering pieces of its head over the walls of the alleyway. "Boom goes the dynamite." The voice from the mask chuckled when he looked up from the remains; the smoke clearing as more of those same screeches and snarls were heard. Looking down the alley he could see a small horde crowding into the alley and running full bore at him. "Should have saved that..."
Quick as a flash, another x-shaped weapon was thrown down the alley, and the arms of it stretched out to connect with the walls of the buildings, then immediately pulled back toward its center, pulling the walls down. A smirk formed on the lips beneath the mask, and Red X turned, satisfied with his work. Another screech was heard and he looked over his shoulder, seeing one of the zombies climbing over the heap of rubble. Without pause, he set off at a run, trying to put distance between himself and the horde. Of course, there was a problem with this notion - he would get tired; they wouldn't.
A strike of luck then, or so he hoped. Ahead there was a pit that had been dug in the middle of a street, surrounded by fold-out road signs and cones, with a backhoe next to it. The city construction crew must have been working on the sewer lines before everything happened. Charging headlong toward the pit, he leapt down into it, and then ran into the exposed bit of sewer line. The horde wasn't too far behind, but the zombies stumbled and fell down into the pit, and had to pick themselves up afterward. He was able to charge on ahead without having to wait. He never slowed, never stopped to rest, he knew that if he was caught that he was lunch for these things - but what could he do to truly escape them?
Running through the dark, dank, underbelly of the city he finally came to a dead end - or was it? The end of the sewer was a large metal grate, and beyond it was a cavern system. A grin formed beneath the mask, and the spinning X-blades on the back of the suit's gloves extended and began to spin. A few quick swipes and then a swift kick, and the grate was sent into the cavern beyond. Jumping through the opening, he resumed running - and he could hear the horde closing in behind him. The caverns seemed brighter than the sewers had been, and as he ran, he soon found the source. In a large chamber, what looked like a lava tube, there was a statue - and a dead end; this one formed of solid rock.
Turning, he looked at the statue, and for a moment he couldn't help but look upon it. There was the faintest yellow glow surrounding it, giving off light enough to see the interior of the chamber, even if only faintly. For a moment he thought of going out, running out of this chamber and trying to find another route, but he could see the horde beginning to enter. He got ready to try and fight his way out, but he knew there were too many. He was done for, or at least that was his first thought. Glancing down at the suit's battery belt, an idea came to him. Locking the X-blades so that one blade was pointed forward, he slipped the belt off and waited for them to get closer.
As soon as they were next to the statue, he tripped the power core and threw the belt as hard as he could, then threw himself to the ground in the opposite direction. There was a brilliant light and a massive concussive force, and then it was over. Standing as the dust settled, he shook his cape and dusted his shoulders off, knocking bits of rock and dirt off of his black form as he got up. A cough came from him and he turned to look around the cavern. The radiant glow that had come from the statue moments ago was absent - save for two dim lights. Parts of the statue no doubt, or so he assumed.
Making his way toward the faint lights, he smacked into something, stepped back, and squinted. His eyes then shot wide and he immediately struck a blow to the zombie's face... but when that blow connected, it wasn't flesh on flesh. The zombie crumbled... like a dirt clod of some sort. He blinked and squinted in the darkness, seeing more and more of the zombies... and all of them were the very same way - frozen in place, and made of little more than dirt and brittle, decomposing rock. He blinked, and his head tilted in confusion, and then he looked to those lights again, focusing on them. When he did he could see the form of a person, but barely, and rushed to them.
When he got close, he could see that it was a girl with blonde hair in some sort of strange power suit. It looked like some odd combination of a bikini, chest plate, and the wrappings of a mummy. What glowed were her hands. Carefully he rolled her onto her back and stroked her hair out of her face. With two gloved fingers, he checked her pulse, and while it was weak, it was at least there. A gentle nudge was given then, and she groaned. He leaned back and then nudged her again.
"Hey, wake up..." Another groan came from her, and then she received another nudge, "...Yeah cutie, that means you, wake up..."
There was a grumble then, and words came from her. "Stop it Robin..." She spoke softly, "You know how jealous Beast Boy will get if you say that..." She curled up on her side, "Now lemme sleep... I'm tired..." She settled, and Red X tilted his head again, looking at her. Then all at once she seemed to have some sort of realization, and she suddenly sounded awake. "Wait a minute; Robin doesn't say stuff like 'cutie'..."
She sat up all at once and then lashed out at the masked figure next to her, smacking him twice across the face, and as if on instinct, her geokinesis kicked in, and a rock the size of a grapefruit knocked him over the head before he could move away. The instant that rock connected, the caped figure's world went dark.