Chapter 2
[30 minutes later - Jump City Supermarket]
Edward and Raven had gotten what was needed for the dinner that evening and were heading out after paying the cashier.
The cashier was a guy in his late 30s that Edward knew and respected. The reason is that the guy would treat his customers like they were family instead of just get them through the line ASAP and out of the store.
As Edward and Raven left, though, Edward's enhanced hearing picked up some words between his cashier friend and another customer.
"Wait here, please," Edward said, "There's a problem inside."
Raven said, "I know. The cashier's anger level just skyrocketed. His customer also knows him and is taunting the cashier with a woman that is also there. I don't know what else is happening."
Edward pointed to his ear and said, "I can hear them. Seems that this other guy is a military officer. We saw him and the woman, I believe."
"We did," Raven replied, "I sensed that she was very uncomfortable at the time."
Edward was annoyed and his eyes glowed red for a second, then, faded away.
"I'm going to love this," Edward said, "I am a 'retired' general and this guy is not ranked as high. Time for some lessons to be applied."
"Not going to hurt him, are ya?" Raven asked.
"Only if he's stupid and throws a punch," Edward said.
Edward's hearing told him that the altercation had ended and the cashier was leaving his station in a hurry.
The officer and his wife left the store. Edward shook his head, seeing the guy was in uniform.
"Why did you provoke him?" the woman asked, "He did nothing to you!"
"Bah!" the guy said, "He deserved it."
Edward snarled to himself and he fell in behind the couple in bird form. Raven chuckled, knowing Edward's tactics. He would allow the guy to hang himself for a few more moments and she got an idea.
The man was still making some rather negative comments about the cashier and as they got to their car, Raven did a quick teleport back to the Tower with the groceries and back again.
She used her powers to "disable" their car's tire.
That would give Edward time to finish his mission.
[He's not going anywhere,] Raven giggled, [He's got a flat tire.]
[Bahahaha!] Edward laughed.
Edward landed and resumed his human form.
"Excuse me, Captain?" Edward said pleasantly, "Might I have a word with you?"
"I'm sorry," the guy said, "I have to run. I'm due at the base shortly."
"I think you're going to be late," Edward said, "Your car looks weird to me."
"It does? Susan, get in," the man said.
She looked at the right rear tire and said, "This guy's right. We have a flat."
"WHAT?" the guy said and looked.
Sure enough, the tire was flat. The guy uttered a few choice words and pulled out his cell phone.
"Captain," Edward said, "Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Barnes…General Edward Barnes of the United States Army. Put the cell phone away."
The man saluted, which, was returned in accordance with military protocol.
"Seems you're up on how to salute," Edward said, "Sadly, your respect towards civilians appears to be lacking."
"What do you mean, sir?" the guy asked.
"Please, do not insult my intelligence nor my abilities," Edward said calmly, "See, I've got very good ears, almost as good as Superman, to be honest.
"I heard every word of not only your encounter with a cashier in the store, but, how you are treating your lovely wife as well.
"I'm going to say this, just once. You are a DISGRACE to the uniform and you do not deserve to be wearing it, nor the rank insignia upon your shoulders! You have committed Article 32 worthy violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and I would be within my rights as a very senior officer and under the regulations to field demote you right here, right now.
"But, I will give you an opportunity to correct this error of judgment. You can play nice and double-time march your rump roast into the store and apologize for every single word you said to that cashier that was not in accordance with military regulations and I will forget we had this chat."
"And if I refuse?" the guy said.
"I WILL BURY YOUR CAREER, PRIVATE!" Edward snarled, "You would be lucky to be assigned to latrine duty somewhere! You'd end up most likely assigned to some lonely outpost in Alaska and forgotten for a few years.
"Would you like to reconsider? Choose wisely."
Well, he chose all right. A look of rage came over the man's features and he tried to take a swing, only to have his punch hit an ebon black wall.
"AAARRRGH!" he yelled.
"I should charge you with insubordination and assaulting a superior officer for that," Edward said, picking the man up one handed, "You're lucky that Raven here intervened.
"Raven, call back to the Tower and have the MPs meet us here, please."
Raven did just that.
"You're under arrest for insubordination, and conduct unbecoming an officer," Edward said in an icy voice.
About 15 minutes later, the arriving Military Police came into the parking lot and Edward identified himself and informed them to that he was transferring custody of the prisoner to them and that he was to be confined to a holding cell.
His wife looked stunned at what was happening, though. After her husband was taken away in handcuffs, she wheeled on Edward:
"Now what am I supposed to do to get home? How am I supposed to tell my little girl that daddy isn't coming home for a while?"
"Ma'am, I am sorry that had to happen. I was being quite nice about it," Edward said, "Had he taken the option presented, I would have let this slide. I'm not heartless. I will give it some thought, though.
"As for getting home, do you have a way to change the tire? Raven and I would be glad to help you in this respect."
She opened the trunk and looked for the spare tire. Her shoulders slumped.
"Don't worry about that," Raven said, "The tire is merely deflated, not damaged. We'll take your car to a gas station or the Tower to get it taken care of."
"Tower?" the woman asked.
Edward pointed toward Titan Tower.
"You're that Edward?" she asked.
"At your service," Edward said.
The young woman smiled and said, "My little girl adores you Titans. Would you…"
"It'd be a pleasure, miss," Edward said, "Let's get your car back on the road first, then, when you want to, give me a call and we'll arrange some time for your little one."
"That's great," the woman said, "Janey's turning 8 next week and this would be a nice present."
"It would," Edward agreed, "Bring her over on her birthday, then, if that's acceptable."
"I'd have to talk to my husband…who you just put into jail," she said.
"I'm not going to ruin your daughter's birthday, miss," Edward said, "He'll have to spend a few days cooling his heels as a lesson, but, he will be released in time for Janey's birthday. You have my word on that. I'll order his release in 72 hours and recommend to his superior officer that he be sentenced to time served and a fine."
She smiled, as did Raven.
"Gas station or the Tower?" Edward asked.
"I'm already late getting my daughter," the woman replied.
"Gas station, it is, then," Edward said, "If you'd hop in, I'll take you."
Susan got in and Edward conferred with Raven for a moment.
Edward morphed to a mini dragon and took to the air.
"Hang on," Raven advised Susan as she said, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" The car was floated into the air and Edward gently took over.
Raven got onto Edward's back and they headed for the first service station with an air pump.
It didn't take long to find one and the procedure was reversed.
After returning to human form, Edward noted that the air pump needed 50 cents to turn on. He put that into the machine and not only refilled the flat tire, made sure that the other tires were properly inflated.
Susan thanked him for the help and the promise to release her husband before heading home, with the Tower's land line number written down.
Edward and Raven teleported back to the Tower then. Edward used his method and Raven used hers. It was a game that they enjoyed, though.
[Titan Tower – Common area]
Raven barely beat Edward back to the Common area and smiled softly. She was very pleased with her boyfriend. He was returning to his regular self and she sighed.
Finally, my love is returning to normal. I was so worried he'd lose his temper with that guy, she thought, And, I sense he's reached a decision on something major, but, he's actively blocking his mind.
"Hey, hon," Edward called out, "Where did you put the stuff for the dinner?"
"Welcome back," Jericho signed, "Robin put the stuff away for you. Raven said that you were dealing with a problem?"
Edward explained as he located the items from the store.
"Wow!" Jericho said, "You're a general?"
"I've been technically retired for a while," Edward said, "I have a gentleman's agreement with the White House to come back should there be another war at the same rank."
Raven busied herself opening the various cans and smiled again. Since there was no longer even a remote chance of her father returning, her fears of openly showing emotions died with him. The other Titans had noticed the remarkable change in her personality. It was more than that, though. Raven was actively projecting her joy to the others, especially Edward.
She had also realized that she loved cooking. She had been discouraged after the "Pancake Disaster". The guys really did try to bolster her spirits then. She tried so hard that fateful day, but, seeing Cyborg falling over with Robin and Beast Boy barfing at the same time and Starfire comparing the pancakes to "the incinerated glorka roaches" on Tamaran.
Since then, though, Edward broke through her inability to cook almost right away. They made a great team in the kitchen, plain and simple.
Edward and Raven, ended up teaming up together on several projects and tonight was no exception. They cut the onions and the garlic in a few minutes, then, put the tomato products in the pot. They added plenty of Italian seasonings, garlic powder, onion powder and finally let it simmer.
Edward separated about 25% of the sauce for Beast Boy, Arella and Jericho as they were vegetarians. With that done, he added several pork short ribs to the rest of the sauce and set both to cooking
[90 minutes later]
The vegetarian sauce was pretty much done, except for just letting it thicken, so, Edward added a 1/8th teaspoon of baking soda to the sauce, reducing the acid content and enhancing the natural sugar in the tomatoes at the same time. He took a taste and judged it almost ready. He added a pinch more Italian seasoning and let that mingle.
He moved to the meaty sauce and considered removing the short ribs, but, left them in. He repeated the process of minor adjustments and baking soda. Then, he added ground beef and sausage to the sauce and let that simmer for another hour.
When that was done, he tasted the sauce and after adding another 1/8th teaspoon of baking soda to both pots, he removed the short ribs from the meat sauce and he discovered they were extremely tender. He decided to enjoy one of them and offered a rib each to the other Titans.
Cyborg stripped the meat off the bone and declared it "Delicious!"
That compliment was echoed by the rest of the meat eating Titans.
"That will hold you guys till the rest of this is done," Edward said.
For the vegetarians, he allowed them to get a small bowl of sauce to hold them over.
Jericho took a taste and he rapidly signed, "This sauce is AWESOME! Thank you so much!"
Edward and Raven smiled broadly.
[And you thought you can't cook, Rae,] he said via the link.
[I've got a good teacher,] she replied.
[Ah, but, we're not quite done. You get to help here,] he stated, [Get the noodles and the pot, please.]
She got the requested items and filled the pot with water.
Edward then talked her through mixing the cheeses for the filling. When that was done, the water was boiling and Edward had Raven add the noodles to the water.
When the noodles were half-done, he drained them and talked Raven through the rest of the process, watching over her shoulder to be safe.
"You're doing fine, Rae," he said, "We have the sauce base down, let's add the noodles to the layer."
A few moments later, "Great! Add the cheese layer, please."
Raven added the cheese and another layer of noodles. They repeated the sauce, noodles, and cheese layer a couple of more times, ending with a final sauce layer.
"Let's make sure that the sauce covers the noodles, no sense having them over toasted," Edward said.
They added a layer of fresh mozzarella cheese to the top and covered it with non-stick foil. That first one was the veggie lasagna and it was set aside.
Then, they assembled the larger meaty pan. By then, the oven was at 350F and ready to receive the two pans of lasagna.
[An hour later]
Edward removed the foil from the two pans and put the oven into broil mode and put them back in to allow the cheese to brown quickly.
That didn't take long to do and a scant five minutes later, the cheese was a nice golden brown and the oven turned off as the pans were removed.
The hardest part: Keeping Cyborg away from the dinner for the next few minutes while the cheeses set.
But, after several long hours, the dinner was done. Slabs of lasagna and garlic bread were doled out as well as a salad.
[This is turning into a big family affair, honey,] Edward said.
Raven merely smiled softly at that one as the team enjoyed their treat.
That was until the alarm sounded.
"Dang," Edward muttered.
"Looks like a ship in trouble," Robin said, "It's about 50 miles west of the Tower.
"We'll take the T-sub for this one. Jericho and Arella stay back, though. Titans, GO!"
The team raced for the undersea vehicle and within moments, they were speeding through the underwater tunnel and heading west.
[50 miles west…30 minutes earlier.]
The Concordia was a US flagged cruise liner with regular trips between Los Angeles and the resorts of western Mexico.
Well, this trip had just gone from routine to a disaster. There had been an explosion on board the vessel, in the engine room.
Within moments, there was fuel spraying from a dozen places. What no one knew, though, that this was no accident. It was an act of terrorism designed to sink the vessel quickly.
But, it wasn't quick enough. The captain ordered a distress call to be sent out before the power died completely. The ship was crippled and adrift in the ocean.
Further explosions rocked the ship as well. The later explosions punched through the hull of the ship.
As the T-sub approached in response to the distress call, Robin was trying to raise the ship on the radio without luck.
Edward had opted to ride on Raven's shoulder in his mini-dragon form as the sub was designed for the original five Titans.
As the got closer, though, Raven was getting more worried.
"I'm picking up a lot of panic," she said to Edward.
"It'll be OK, sweetheart," Edward said.
They surfaced as they approached the stricken ship and saw that it had settled in the water a bit.
"Can we get them on the radio?" Edward asked.
"No, their systems are dead," Robin said, "There are fires raging throughout the lower decks.
"I think she will sink, sooner rather than later. We gotta hurry."
"Pull their passenger manifest and employee manifest," Edward said, "Need to know how many souls on board."
"Already done," Cyborg said, "According to the listed manifest, there are 2500 souls on board with lifeboats capable of holding 3,000 total passengers.
"The systems are a dual electric and manual deployment, though. With the power dead, they will have difficulty in deploying the lifeboats."
"Shouldn't be a problem for us," Edward said, "We'll get them off. What about other rescue craft?"
"Coast Guard is deploying ships, so is the US Navy," Robin said, "There are also three passenger liners heading this way."
Edward teleported to outside the T-Sub and dove into the warm waters.
[This feels good,] he said, [I'm going to swim around the ship and see about hull damage.]
[All right, hon,] Raven said. She relayed that to Robin who agreed with the idea.
Edward switched to a dolphin form and swam around the ship, noting several ragged holes in the plating. Those were large enough to sink the vessel.
[Not good!] Edward relayed, [There are several large holes in the hull, too large to repair. The rescue ships might not get here in time.]
Edward went to his Dragon form and breached the surface of the ocean and swam back to the stricken ship.
As he approached, the gathered passengers let out a collective cheer.
"Don't be cheering me just yet, y'all!" Edward said, "We gotta get you off this ship! As in yesterday!"
The T-Sub had also taken up position nearby and the other Titans were ready to be deployed.
"Titans, get aboard and help passengers to the lifeboats," the captain called down via a bullhorn.
"You heard the man," Robin said. He fired off a grappling hook and used that to get aboard. Starfire picked up Cyborg and they headed aboard. Raven and Beast Boy flew up as did Edward, who had to dive for a moment to get the speed needed to get airborne.
"Let's rock," Edward said after going back to human form.
They deployed themselves at various positions along the ship and started guiding people to the lifeboats.
As expected, there was some panic aboard as folks realized that the ship was going down.
The lifeboats were leaving half full and Edward put a stop to that instantly. He remembered his time on the Titanic and his outrage that the first lifeboats were barely full.
"Edward to all Titans," he said into his communicator, "No lifeboat is to be deployed with less than 95% capacity, unless it's the last few boats."
Also, some of the lifeboats were hard to deploy without ship's power. Those were brute forced by Edward, Starfire or Cyborg.
"Terra to Edward," Terra said.
"Go, Terra," Edward said, "What ya got?"
"Hello, geomancer powers, remember?" she said, "I might be able to lift the ocean floor."
Edward thought about it and knew that the depth was going to be hard for her to overcome. Her powers, while they had returned fully over the last few months might not have the ability to lift thousands of tons of rock about 5,000 feet. He was also concerned about setting off a tsunami in the process.
"I'd advise against that, little lady," Edward said, "You're talking about a lot of weight and about 5,000 feet of earth/rock tower to force up. If you overstrained your powers and that collapsed…it could set off a tsunami. That would cause untold damage and deaths."
"I can do this, Edward," she protested.
"Terra, I love you for wanting to try this, but, I can't recommend that," Edward said.
"Edward's right Terra," Robin said, "We can't risk that. I have to veto that."
Terra looked upset, but, surrendered that point.
Edward had opted to go through the ship and make sure that everyone was on deck that needed to be.
But, to do so, he needed to go through a lot of smoke in the process.
As he moved through the decks, the smoke got worse and he was forced to crawl after a while.
He would check doors that were closed and leave them open if there was no one there.
Some doors were locked with Do Not Disturb signs on them. Edward couldn't comply and pounded on the door, telling folks to evacuate the ship.
A few thought it was smart to tell Edward to go away, only to see their door knocked down.
"Haul your ass!" Edward snarled, "This isn't a damn drill!"
Edward came across some locked gates and that got his blood boiling in a big way. Those gates were ripped out and mangled. That allowed some folks to run for safety.
[What's wrong, dear?] Raven asked, [I can feel your anger through the link.]
[Whoever thought to install gates better have a damn good reason because I'm wasting time tearing them down. Let Robin know to expect more passengers and crew,] Edward said.
As Edward got down to the lower decks, the flooding was very obvious. Oily water was everywhere and it was a matter of time before that ignited.
In fact, it was sooner than Edward wanted. A secondary explosion was heard and a moment later, a ball of flame raced toward Edward!
"SHIT!" he exclaimed verbally and through the link.
Edward then transformed to Dragon and countered the racing flame with a sustained icy burst that while it lessened the force that slammed Edward, ignited the oil and fuel regardless. That ended his search.
[You all right?] Raven asked.
[Hope you like smoked lizard,] he quipped, [Everyone OK?]
[What was that rumble?] she asked.
[Secondary explosion,] he explained.
[Well, get back up here!] Raven said, [Whatever that was just increased the damage to the ship. Smoke and flame are pouring out of the ship. Cyborg said that there's no time left. We're evacuating.]
As Edward watched, a bulkhead collapsed and a wall of water headed his way.
He formed a mini-dragon and teleported as the wall of water hit him.
He emerged from the teleport encased in ice! That didn't last as it was quickly covered in Raven's powers and shattered.
Edward gasped and said, "That sucked! Thanks, Raven!"
The lifeboats were deployed and the last ones off were the senior staff and the Titans themselves.
It was in time as about 15 minutes later, the ship slowly capsized and "turned turtle". There were underwater explosions and one that blasted a hole in the keel.
As the survivors watched in horror, the ship sank beneath the waves. As it sank deeper, they heard the implosion of the ship.
The captain said that several folks from the engine room were unaccounted for, but, that the other passengers and crew were safe.
"Captain," Edward said, "Why were their some locked gates?"
"Not for passenger control," he replied, "Those were only for authorized crew members. Why?"
"I had to destroy several of them," Edward admitted.
"Considering my command is halfway to the ocean floor, mangled gates just doesn't seem all that important," the man said.
Edward put his hand on the captain's shoulder, "I wouldn't worry too much. The damage I saw from the hull showed explosions from inside the ship. More powerful than what I would have suspected could sink her."
"Damn," he said, "Anyway to verify that?"
"Not without specialized equipment," Edward said, "I can't go that deep, even. That's why I haven't swam to the Titanic."
"You were there?" Robin asked.
"I was," Edward said, "I'll tell you guys the story sometime."
[An hour later]
The lifeboats were being picked up by the several vessels that arrived in response to the distress call and the Titans were en route home after a long day.
Edward was bothered, though. He knew ships had a lot more safety features built in over the last 100 years since Titanic went to Davy Jones' locker.
Yet, this ship had just sank into thousands of feet of water for no reason.
Why would this ship have exploded? He thought.
"I don't know, dear," Raven said aloud.
"Yo, dawg!" Cyborg said, "My scanners detected the presence of explosives. With the excitement, we couldn't really act on the information."
"Agreed," Edward said, "We had to focus on getting as many off as possible. But, some folks didn't make it, so, if this was an act of terrorism…"
"We take them down," Robin said.
"Damn straight," Edward said.
Edward gave it some thought and decided to investigate alongside the official inquiry, but, he had a feeling that this was an act of terrorism. He would access the tower's AI system when they got back and have it start working on theories.
"Victor," he said, "hang onto those readings, please. I'm not liking what I'm seeing.
"Ship was in the middle of nowhere and sinks. Nothing around for miles to sink her.
"Then, there are explosions on board and your scanners picked up explosives during the rescue attempt, evidence which is beyond even my abilities to recover easily.
"The holes I saw from outside the ship bear that out as well as those were certainly blown outwards.
"Then, before she sinks, it capsized and a hole in blasted through the keel. That makes me wonder if that final explosion wasn't supposed to have happened earlier."
"What do you mean, friend Edward?" Starfire asked.
"Had that explosion happened first, that ship would have sank in minutes, if they were lucky," Edward said, "I've seen other ships sinking that fast. Put a large enough hole in a ship's keel and it can sink with the propellers still going at full speed. American and Japanese ships sometimes sank 45 to 90 seconds after being hit. If their weapons holds were hit, those would violently explode."
"Are you saying that we should treat this as a terrorist act?" Robin asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Robin," Edward said, "I've got some contacts in the Navy and I might be able to secure the use of Naval assets to prove this theory.
"Sadly, this is too deep for me to handle, as I said. I would need to use forms that are more suited for those pressures and even that's risky for me. A sub that could handle those depth is easier."
Robin smiled, "Don't worry about that. We've got some outside help of our own who can handle those depths without any problems."
OK, I know the second section (regarding the ship) kind of sucks, but, there this sets up Aqualad at some point.
The first section is based loosely on a real life incident with a friend of mine, but, I fictionalized it to include how I would have loved to see things go.
Chapter 3 coming up :)
