Thanks very much for those who have read and even more thanks to those who reviewed already! Nothing much else to add so, on with the story. To any of those who haven't seen the last few episodes of Season Five you might want to go refresh your memories somehow, lest you be confused…
The Wicked One
Chapter 2: Broken
The dimension was a quiet one. Despite the bright, demented and colorful look to its 'sky' and the large shards of rock that impossibly hovered in the air is was very, very, very quiet.
"Man, this is lame!" See-More gripped as he plopped on the ground, his back sliding against the energized bars of his prison, "How long are we gonna be stuck in here?"
"As long as that Herald character decides to keep us here I'm supposing," answered an older man, he stood in a similar cell beside the teenage thief, "And by the looks of things I don't think he will be releasing us anytime soon."
"Super…" See-More mumbled mostly to himself, "I hope Jinx and the others are ok…"
The older man spared the teenager a sideways glance and nothing more. He looked down at his chest piece and snarled.
"Looking for this?" a suave voice asked, the two prisoners glanced up to see a dark skinned, purple robed teen relaxing on one of the massive floating rocks overhead. He smiled down at them as he played with a disk shaped object in his hands, "Warp, is it?"
"Crafty Titan…" the man deemed Warp sneered, "What exactly is your intention in keeping us locked up like this?"
"Yeah man, what gives!?" See-More added, jumping up, "I thought you were like, one of the good guys!"
"I dunno," Herald replied lazily, attaching the disk to his belt before standing up, "I could use some company I guess; it does get kinda lonely around here."
"He can't be serious…" Warp hissed, looking over at the teenager, See-More could only shrug in return.
"So why'd yall attack me anyways?" the Herald continued, jumping off his rock and floating gracefully down onto the one they were imprisoned on, "Better yet, how'd yall even find me? I didn't think anyone knew about this place."
See-More was about to open his mouth and say something until Warp gave him a dangerous look. The teenager immediately sealed his mouth closed again.
"Sorry, but you won't get any information out of us." the time-based villain spoke instead, giving Herald a hard look.
"Really now?" the dark skinned teen said softly, looking from Warp to See-More. The single eyed thief merely grinned sheepishly. A slow smile spread over the Titan's face, "Mind if I show you guys something?"
"Uhh…" Warp and See-More said in unison, sharing a look, but before they could give a full answer the Herald spun around and, pulling out his trumpet, blew out a note that ripped open a whole above a particularly massive floating rock.
The two criminals simply stared as a humongous black and blue dragon fell out from it and crashed into the rock. From there it simply thrashed and breathed fire as it tried to move, similar bands of energy that made up the prison bars were encircled around the massive creatures body.
"I believe he said his name was Malchior, the dread dragon." The Herald said, smile still on his face, Warp and See-More stared with wide eyes/eye, "I trapped him in here a little while after you guys."
"Insolent human vermin!" the dragon labeled Malchior roared, "Release me from these binds lest I burn your body alive and devour you!"
The rocks shook beneath his voice and See-More lost his footing, Herald, however, seemed unfazed.
"I was going to use said binds to keep his mouth closed as well," the dark teen mused as he watched the raging dragon, "But the death threats kinda grow on you after awhile, ya know?"
Once again Warp and See-More share a dumbfounded look.
"Shouldn't you be…I don't know…out saving innocents and stopping bad guys or something?" See-More asked, ignoring the glare Warp was giving him, "I mean, aren't you a Teen Titan now?"
"Honorary Titan," The Herald corrected him as if it made a difference, he didn't bother to turn to face him, "And saving people and stopping people are for people who have admirers and enemies, I don't really have either of those."
"This 'collection' is starting to speak otherwise to the latter," Warp grumbled under his breath. The Herald then turned to the two, a small smile still on his face.
"Hey now, in all fairness you guys attacked me first," he countered, folding his arms and smiling a bit wider, "Before you guys invaded my home I didn't even know the Brotherhood of Evil existed!"
"I find that odd considering the Brotherhood had plenty of information on you!" Warp shot back before his eyes opened wide, realizing what he just said.
"They had information…?" Herald said slowly, losing his smile he stepped a few feet closer to Warp's cell, "…on me?"
Warp simply looked back into the teen's eyes, for the first time seeing surprise, seeing an opening… seeing an opportunity. He smiled, "Pages…"
"What kind of information!?" The Herald snapped, now inches away from Warp's prison bars, "Tell me what you know!" Warp's smile only grew wider.
See-More watched on in silence, his one-eyed gaze drifted from the two to the dragon. He was surprised to see the great beast had stopped thrashing and was completely still, for he was staring at the two as well as if he was…waiting.
"If you must know I am aware of many things about you…Adam." Warp spoke slowly, his smile growing ever wider as Herald looked on in horror, "For you see I am not just some old man with the ability to create portals like you, I am a time traveler from 100 years in the future, I read all about you in the Hero's Archives…I know about your sad, sad childhood, I know about the dark halls of your mind, of the never ending screams of your people…"
"No…" Herald muttered, his hand clenched his trumpet tightly, "You don't know anything…"
"I know about the Temples of Candor, the Pool of Pagon, and the Prophecy of Adam."
"Shut-up…" Herald growled, his fists shaking, "Just shut-up…"
"Hey man, maybe you should chill?" See-More called to his companion, he could see great cracks begin to form on the rocks around them, "I don't think messin' with this guy is such a good-."
"In the future your life is merely a history book," Warp continued, disregarding the teen completely, "I know the day you were born and I know the day you died, I know why you roam this sad dimension, alone and frightened for the rest of your life…and Adam unless you want me to spoil the surprise of why your father will never love you I suggest you free me from this cell at on-!"
"I said…SHUT-UP!" The Herald exclaimed gripping his trumpet and pressing it to his lips he released a sound louder than any See-More had ever experienced. The sound waves made the air itself tremble and the rocks all around them smashed as the full force of the energy hit Warp and his cell before he had time to scream.
"Foolish move!" a great voice roared, See-More turned to see the dread dragon, Malchior, falling from the sky, his rock had crumbled. But even as the dragon fell his mouth was still open and trained directly at the dark skinned teen.
Without thinking See-More yelled at the fellow teen, "Herald! Look out!"
The Herald turned from his attack on Warp just in time to see the dread dragon breath out his fire. The blast of heated energy collided with the teen and he was instantly erased from sight, Malchior continued to plummet beneath See-More's line of vision. Though the thief only had his eye for the spot where Herald had been standing mere moments ago.
Without a word the teenage thief slumped back onto the ground and even when the energized cell disappeared he no longer had the strength to move. He simply sat there, staring into the now even emptier dimension.
"Ahh, finally! Free at last!" he heard a terribly familiar voice cry out, a hair's breadth later Malchior was in the 'sky' above him, the dragon's bindings disappearing when See-More's did.
"Dim-witted stone age lizard!" an angry voice shot, See-More's eyed widened. Warp?
Sure enough, when the teen sat up a bit he saw the time-traveler storming up to the stone's edge. His golden armor looked more like ribbons on his body, but otherwise he seemed alright, besides the fact that he was name calling a colossal beast about 200 times his size. Malchior glanced down at him.
"Without that child or my time traveling disk there is no way for us to return to our dimension! You've trapped us all here!"
"Watch your tone with me, human!" the dragon roared back, spitting fire, "Lest I do the same to you that I did to the boy!"
"That boy was our only way out of here!" Warp continued, staring down the dragon. See-More got to his feet, he didn't like where this was going. "If you hadn't of blasted him to kingdom come I might have been able steal my disk back and of been out of here by now!"
"I have had enough of your mindless talking," Malchior rumbled, a familiar energy building up in his throat, "I will relish in your death…"
"Guys! Hold up, hold up!" See-More cried out, stepping in front of Warp, "We can't go blasting ourselves to bits, where will that get us!?"
"It will get me two less loathsome humans out of my sight…" Malchior hissed, his red eyes leering down at See-More.
"Well...uh…Malchior is it? Like it or not as long as your trapped here you need us!" See-More waited then and when he was sure that the dragon wasn't about to deep fry him and Warp he continued, "And…well…I don't know that much about dragons but I'm pretty sure ya'll lack the ability to warp through dimensions!"
"And you can? Human?" Malchior questioned after a moment of silence. See-More grinned sheepishly at that.
"Well…uhh…no," See-More began and when he saw the dragon's eyes begin to leer again he quickly continued, "B-but my friend Warp here can! He-."
"Well then, what are you waiting for?" the dragon asked flying closer towards them as he turned his attention to the older man. Warp had his arms folded and was looking pointedly away, "Use your powers and release me from this!"
"I cannot," Warp snapped, his eyes locking with the dragon's again, "That child you incinerated held the disk that grants me my time traveling powers! Without that piece I am nothing more than a man with a highly evolved battle suit."
"Then the both of you are of no further use to me…" the dragon decreed, his mouth building up energy once more.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" See-More begged, talking faster now, "If the guy, Herald's, trumpet survived or if Warp's time thingy survived then I can fix it up and we can use it to return us- I mean you, home!"
The dragon hesitated a bit but still the fire burned in its throat.
"B-b-but if you decide to finish us off now you will have no chance!"
Malchior's fire died a bit lower as he thought on this. See-More suddenly felt Warp at his back.
"My suit is nearly destroyed," the time-traveler whispered, "Even if we do find my disk the chances of it still being useable are slim, and I highly doubt that trumpet will work for anyone but The Herald."
"Well, it's the only chance we got," See-More whispered back, his eye still trained on Malchior, "And it's either that or be eaten alive by a talking dragon, pick your favorite!"
Warp scowled but stepped back and said nothing more. And even though See-More was shaking into a million pieces on the inside he stared confidently up at the towering dragon.
"So, what'll it be?"
XxXxXxXxXxX
"This is your base?" the floating robot chimed, I didn't miss the same humorous note in her voice. Though I chose to ignore it, plus, she had a point.
The base was a mess after we first created it, us being lazy teenagers and all, but after Kid Flash had his way with it…it didn't seem like it would ever be deemed 'clean' again.
Food littered both the kitchen and the living room. The TV was still smashed from when Mammoth punched a hole into it after we first learned of Jinx's absence; our game station lay cold and dusty on the floor before it. I walked past the damaged relics and into the hallway that held all of our bedrooms.
I passed all of my friend's bedrooms, their doors were closed but I didn't need to see inside to know what would be behind them. Gizmo's garage like room would be cluttered with dust, his numerous gadgets worn down from months of neglect. Mammoth's weights would still be jammed deep into his walls, his room still destroyed from that temper tantrum he had dealing with Jinx. Billy Numerous' random stolen object collection would still be where he left them, cold and meaningless. See-More's basketball posters would be peeling off his walls, the only thing not aging would be the stolen picture of Jinx he kept hidden beneath his pillow. Jinx's room would still be a complete mess caused by Kid Flash that she never bothered to clean up.
I stepped up to the final door down the hall. My room.
The familiar hissing sound greeted me as my door slid open. I stepped into the dark room with the floating orb right behind me.
"Your room, I'm assuming?" it asked me. I simply nodded in reply, "Figures, it's just as gloomy as you are."
I glanced around. The walls were still painted black, no windows, and no lights. The only furniture was a simple bed that rested against one side of the room. I slowly walked over and lay down on it and, despite being frozen solid for five months, I felt very, very tired. Blackfire seemed to understand what was going on.
"Fine, rest now Kid Wykkyd, but tomorrow we begin the plan."
I cracked my neck beneath the metallic collar that held me prisoner.
Oh goody. Can't wait.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
To Be Continued…