Auhor's Note: I don't own any of the characters or anything.
The Masked Showdown (Part 2)
Location: Jump City Bayside
"What the hell! Did he forget something and come back to get it?" Red-X shouted aloud. He had no idea how Robin managed to catch him. The security system had really put a damper on Red-X's plans.
It put a damper on someone else's plans too.
His heart pounded as he mentally tried to will the mini-sub to go faster. He had hoped that he could somehow lose the other masked fighter when he arrived at the edge of the bay, but as his sub neared the surface, he saw Robin waiting for him. He felt inside the compartments on his suit to brandish his weapons, and he pulled out some brass knuckles.
"Didn't even know I had these on me" he said thinking out loud again. He started putting them on, but midway, he stopped and took them back off. They sometimes hurted his hands, and he couldn't afford to have them out of comission right now. Instead, he just took out some of his X's and prepared for battle.
"Come out and face me, you theif!" Robin snarled, feeling a sense of determination. Normally, Red-X was a pretty tough customer, skilled enough to take down Robin's whole team. But right now he felt like he could take him. X looked like he was panicked, like he hadn't expected him back so soon. 'I guess I can't be mad at Cyborg for this morning anymore.' he thought with a smirk. 'Although Beast Boy will still need to get an extra long tounge lashing.'
"Guess it wouldn't have been any fun without a fight" Red-X said, his synthesizer obscuring the tone of his voice. He stepped out of the sub and onto land, X's in hand.
Robin jumped up, extending his staff in midair and attempted to bring it down on the theif. Red-X had just enough time to dodge before the staff came swinging at him again. He leaped backwards and Robin threw some flashbomb disks his way. They didn't hit him directly, but the explosion's force took him off his feet. Just as he was getting back up, he saw his adversary throw a bird-a-rang at him and then leap into the air with his staff again and attempt to bring it down on him. This time, Red-X was able to counter. First, he blocked the bird-a-rang's hit with a harder piece of armor underneath his costume. With a flick of his wrist, he threw an explosive X which hit the boy wonder right in his midsection. Upon impact, the explosion knocked him out of the air violently.
When he noticed that Robin wasn't getting up too fast, Red-X turned to take off again.
"Hey, get back here!" Robin shouted, and drew his grappling hook, sending it sailing towards the theif. Red-X anticipated this, though. He caught the hook by the rope, and when Robin yanked it back, he simply let it take him. He repositioned his body so that his left foot was sticking out towards Robin. Red-X had used the grappling hook as a rubber band of sorts to spring his foot right into Robin's midsection.
Robin got kicked so hard that he was knocked backwards into the bay. Luckily he had pulled his grappling hook into the bay with him, though he dropped it once he hit the water. He needed to find it fast.
"Handled that like a pro" he heard Red-X say. Shortly after, he heard another explosion, like one of the exploding X's was going off. Then he heard footsteps quickly getting further and further away. Red-X had escaped, and kicked his butt too. He tried to listen to which direction he heard the footsteps going, but his chest hurt so much from the kick that it was difficult. He was sturggling to stay above water despite the pain. Once he caught his breath, he prepared to swim under the water to find his grappling hook. It turned out it hadn't gotten far. The hook had latched onto a large rock before it could fall too deeply under the water.
Once he had it, he used it to get back onto land. It took him a little longer than he thought. He decided he'd start a new training routing on how to get out of water quickly. he was going to waste no time hopping on his motorcycle to pursue Red-X, but when he got up there he made a horrifying discovery.
His motorcycle had been destroyed. Red-X had blown it up before darting away. He decided to check on his team to see how they were doing with the Hive. He opened his communicator and attempted to call Cyborg, but all he got was static. He then tried Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire but got the same results.
"The water must have damaged it!" Robin was disappointed. So much for an ordinary day. One of his most prized possessions was in the hands of a criminal, and he was hoping to get in touch with his team to get some help from them. He thought back to that morning. He would have definitely rather listened to his teammates fight all day than spend his time doing this. He usually enjoyed fighting crime, but this was stressful. He breifly wondered if his teammates were okay. He dismissed the idea that they were in trouble. How could they have a hard time against the Hive? They were easy.
His eye then fell on the bird-a-rang he had thrown. He picked it up and inspected it. The tracer he had placed on it prior to throwing it was gone. He pulled out his tracking device, and started sprinting in the direction that it lead him.
Location: Hive battle scene
The fight had been led into what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. The four other Titans were engaged in battle with the Hive, when suddenly, they brandished jetpacks and began flying away. They crashed through the warehouse windows.
"Hey, what gives?" Beast Boy asked.
"Have fun bein' trapped, losers!" Gizmo shouted with a loud cackle.
Suddenly, four trapdoors opened up in the floor, plummetting the teens into darkness. They were okay after they hit solid ground. When they were back on their feet, the lights came on. They were in a large, metallic room.
"We'd better get out of here and go catch up with the Hive" said Cyborg. He spotted what looked to be a control panel near what was clearly a huge door. He started fumbling with it to get the door open.
"The lock is super encrypted. It'll be a while before I can get the door open." Cyborg said.
Raven attempted to use a portal to teleport herself and the others above ground, but she couldn't leave the room that way. "It's magic proof too." she said.
"Alright then, we'll have to try and bust out the old fashioned way." said Cyborg, putting his fists together. "BB, Star, you guys ready?"
"Yeah, let's do it!"
"We are the ready!"
Beast Boy turned into a bull, then he, Cyborg, and Starfire charged the door with all their strength. The door didn't budge. Beast Boy resumed human form and fell out backwards on the floor. Suddenly a holographic figure appeared on the far side of the room.
"Hello, Titans." It was Slade's voice. They all looked up and saw the hologram.
"The Hive did a great job leading you here. As you can see, leaving this room will prove to be somewhat difficult. But don't worry. I have a few of my robots to keep you company. But seeing as to how Robin has seperated from you, there won't be as many as I intended. After all, I'll need a few to escort him to this party."
Compartments along the walls suddenly opened up and hordes of Slade-bots came through and attacked the four Titans.
"We need to warn Robin." Raven said, dodging an attack from one of the robots.
Beast Boy pulled out his communicator, but all he got was static. He looked around to find the others having much the same luck.
"It's no use! The signals are jammed!" Cyborg shouted while blasting some robots with his sonic cannon.
"I truly hope Friend Robin has retrieved his mask from the Red-X." Starfire said worriedly.
Location: Jump City streets
Red-X knew that Robin would have been able to catch up to him in no time flat had he still had his motorcycle, even with the head start he'd gotten by knocking Robin into the bay. The thief's own motorcycle was at his hideout on the other side of the city. He had thought clean and quiet was the best way to go about this rather than loud and fast. Too bad things went sideways and now he could have used a fast getaway. But thinking ahead, he destroyed Robin's motorcycle with another of his explosive X's to slow him down. He needed to be careful though. He had only brought three explosive X's with him, and he'd used two of them.
Red-X also knew about Slade's plans for the Titans today. He frequently touched bases with the Hive and they occasionally hire him to steal things for them. Gizmo and Mammoth were so excited about setting the trap that they went ahead and blabbed to Red-X about it. The theif was happy to recieve the information, and made a mental note not to share any top secret information with them. He knew that they'd get out of Slade's clutches, they always did, but it provided the perfect opportunity for him to snag that mask he'd had his eye on. Of course now he still had to deal with Robin, but the others most likely wouldn't be showing up to help him anytime soon. If they had eluded the trap, they would have been on his tail already.
Right now, he was looking for a place to hide for a bit. He'd gotten a safe distance away from the bayside, and now he needed a chance to catch his breath. And get this case open that contained the mask. Once he dove into an abandoned shop, he took a few seconds to get his stregnth back. Then he pulled out the screwdriver and started working on opening the case.
He had been at it for about thirty-five minutes when he looked out the window and noticed some Slade-bots scouring the streets. So Slade had redirected some of his robots to send them after Wonder Boy? This was great news for the theif, or so he thought.
A robot entered the shop he was hiding in, and raised its arm. Its gun arm. Red-X had a couple of seconds to dodge the shot that the robot took at him. He dismantled it quickly with his X-a-rangs but he could already see more bots coming his way. He tossed a few short-curcuiting X's that were meant for Cyborg at the group of robots, using the breif pause in action to create some X-blades to put on his hands. He then started slicing up the remaining robots.
'Slade's machines must not be able to tell me from Wonder Boy.' he thought. He very much doubted Slade would have a reason to go after him. Oh, well. So much for using Slade's bots to his advantage. Nothing seemed to be going right today.
Author's Note: This story will end up being three parts. Next chapter will show the conclusion and a little bit of the aftermath. Reviews are much appreciated.