So apparently I'm uploading this chapter a lot later than intended…if anyone is reading this, enjoy... off topic, what do you guys think would happen if I killed Robin off in the story.
The palm was mere inches away from my face, if I even looked like I was gonna try to move, I would no longer have a head. It was time for some quick thinking, and the only option I had was to take a risk. I kicked X in the shin and he dropped his hand just long enough for me to maneuver myself out of his line of sight and catch him in the shoulder with a crowbar. *SMASH!* I felt the bone crack from the impact. He clutched it and slowly backed away, never breaking eye contact. By now, I had the same rush of adrenaline I had when I snuck through the Shelter in Temple City.
"Bastard. You broke my damned shoulder!" he cursed at me, at which point, I really didn't care. I loved this feeling of power.
"Come on, I know the big, bad Red-X isn't getting all worked upped over little-ol'-me right? Listen, you got me with a sneak attack before, I'm ready now, and I'm not holdin' back." Okay, sure, I was a little cocky, but this rush of energy flowing through my veins made me feel, dare I say it, invincible.
He darted toward me, moving much faster than he was before. I focused my eyes on him and sank down into my stance for balance. He pulled his fist back and disappeared, I heard a faint blow of wind that alerted me to his location, I spun, holding on crowbar at face-level while doing so, I caught the X he shot at me and continued spinning, this time striking him in the chest with my other crowbar, I planted my foot on the ground to stop spinning and regain balance and hit him once more with the crowbar that I caught the X with. On impact, the X exploded into a cloud of red smoke. He wasn't expecting it, and I could tell I got a good hit, but he quickly recovered and began striking while we were both blinded, he hit fast and hard with pinpoint accuracy. I was being dominated in here I needed a way out. I let out a blood curdling yell and swung the crowbar, a hit? On impact, the smoke dispersed instantly. Power…
"The hell was that?" X was mad. But I didn't care, this was better than anything I had ever felt before. I swung the crowbar, he teleports, I swing again, he teleports, I swing one more time and he teleports, but I noticed that this time, it left a streak of green. We have ignition…
I think I found the trigger for my power, even though I only have the green flame, I can still try it out until I figure out how to use the black.
I flexed my arms and the emerald inferno blazed around me, "Go time, motherfucker!" I had to end this now, I reached out my hand and grabbed him around his neck. I could feel him flinch as he tried to teleport to no avail. I held him in the air and grabbed the xynothium from his belt and ignited it. It sizzled, so, naturally, I put it down his shirt. *BOOM* a large red conflagration blazed in the air and vanished almost instantly.
While the smoke was clearing, I looked around and realized that the titans had already freed themselves and had been watching for awhile now. I turned back around to see X lying on the ground, not unconscious, but unable to fight anymore.
"Okay kid, ya got me," He stood up and headed off.
Robin jumped down beside me, "X, wait, I know you've heard about the recent Renegade activity, tell us what you know about them."
"Renegades huh? Okay, since you guys beat me, here's the deal: They've been bugging me too, all of my informants and dealers are too scared to work in Temple now, I've got one guy that I think can help you, he's recently developed a system to track their activity and with the information, he can predict possible locations that the Renegades might attack next."
Robin raised an eyebrow, "Where can we find this guy?"
"I'd have to take you to him, he works the underground in west side Jump City, giving verbal directions is impossible"
Robin looked at Red X and finally came to a decision, "Okay, meet up with us at Titans tower in six hours, I trust you don't need directions right?"
"Yep, I made plenty of trips back and forth when I installed all of that surveillance equipment," said X, in a moderately joking tone.
"Whatever just be there…" Robin said with a grimace, trying to figure out if X was serious about that last part.
Raven Cyborg and I got into the T-Car, Robin hopped on his R-Cycle and Beastboy and Starfire flew back to the tower. As soon as we arrived, Robin called a meeting in the living room.
"Titans….what the hell was that out there? X kicked our asses and if Shade and Cyborg hadn't shown up when they did, we would have been finished."
Beast Boy piped up, "Dude, it wasn't us, we've all been off our game lately, there's been no down time because of all these Renegade disturbances, I know we're superheroes and all, but even we need rest."
"I hate to say it, but I think Beast Boy is right, we can't keep going like this, we need rest" said Raven, in her usual mundane tone of voice.
"Guys, I hear what you're saying, I'm tired too, but that's why we're going to see this guy X is telling us about, if we can figure out where they're gonna hit, it'll save us an assload of time."
"Oh, that reminds me," said Cyborg cutting in, " Shade, I need you to come down to the garage, I got something for you."
"Cool" and I followed to the elevator.
When we got back down to the garage, Cyborg cleared off some space on his work bench.
"Gimme your crowbars, if you're gonna fight, you're gonna need some major upgrades"
I put the crowbars on the work bench and Cyborg instructed me to leave and come back in an hour and a half, so I did as I was told, and left the room, I went back up to the living room where Beast Boy and Starfire were watching Superhero Movie.
"Please, Beast Boy, I do not understand Earth humor, what is your fascination with the male reproductive organ and bodily functions?" asked Star, with a genuinely confused look on her face.
"Well you see….that's a good questio- HA! DID YOU SEE THAT BOMB ON HIS BALLS," the seen was, admittedly pretty funny, Beast Boy enjoying it a little too much..
"Hey guys, what's up?" I strolled in and took a seat next to Beast Boy.
"Shade, what is a 'dick joke'" the question, obviously asked by Starfire, threw me off guard.
"A dick joke is a description of the length of Beast Boy's-"
"HEY!"
"What, I was gonna say attention span.."
"Oh, heheh…Hey wait a minute!"
We all laughed and after watching the first half of Beerfest, I went back down to the garage to check on Cyborg.
"Yo, Cy, you down here?"
"Yeah, I'm just adding the finishing touches, come on in"
I stepped in and looked around but I didn't see the crowbars, "Um, Cy…what the hell did you do to my weapons?"
"Chill, they're in the case over there, go check 'em out" he said with a smug grin.
I walked over to the black case that Cyborg had motioned to and opened it, inside, there were no crowbars, but actual weapons. They were beautiful, the head was no longer just blunt, but it was sharpened on one side, along with a handle that was much more comfortable than just lugging around cold steel all the time.
Cyborg walked up behind me "Other than looks, these things now have some major upgrades; now you can attach them to each other, use them as grappling hooks, you can hold your own against a sword, the new design is also compatible with your powers and because of that, you can channel them through it, I've also taken the liberty of adding a few miscellaneous gadgets like smoke bombs, flash bombs, concussion grenades, and a taser which are located on the backside of the handle and can be accessed with the push of a button.
A few hours later, X showed up on his motorbike (A/N: Does anyone know what Red-X's motorbike is called?) and we headed out, Robin got on his R-Cycle and rode right next to X, while Starfire flew above them, the rest of us rode in the T-Car. Raven called shotgun next to Cyborg, while Beastboy and I chilled in the back seat where I eventually fell asleep.
After what seemed to be about an hour of riding, I woke up. Everyone had gotten out or off of their vehicles except for me and Beastboy, the latter of which was still trying to wake me up.
"Duuuuuude get up already!" Beastboy had to be about two inches away from my face which was, to say the least, loud and uncomfortable.
I opened my eyes to a green blur in my face and something repeatedly poking me in my shoulder. "Beastboy, I'm going to give you four seconds to get off of me, if you're not at least eight feet away from me by then, then I swear to God…I WILL EAT YOUR FIRST BORN CHILD!" instantly, the green blur and the annoying poking disappeared.
I got out of the car and dusted myself off and joined the other. I looked around and realized, that we were in nothing but a dark alley, no doors, no fire escape ladders, windows, dumpsters…nothing but a streetlight at the very end. We walked down the alley a few feet, following X when he suddenly stopped.
"This is it," everyone looked at X, confused. Then he pushed in a brick on the left side of the alley, and on the right side of the alley, a few bricks raised up, revealing a narrow passageway.
"Secret entrance…how cliché" said Raven, in her trademarked sarcastic tone.
Red X turned to her with what I imagined to be a grimace underneath his mask,"Whatever Miss Deep-Dark-and Brooding, do u guys want the info or not?"
"X is right," Robin interrupted, "Until further notice, he's an ally, and like it or not, we have to work together, so can we please just get along?"
"Fine…" they both said simultaneously.
X began walking and we followed him down the hall in a line, he knocked on the door at the end of the hallway, a small sliding door opened near the top of the door, revealing a pair of glassy grey eyes.
The eyes darted around, scanning each of us mentally "What's the password?"
Red X rolled his eyes, "Skywalker."
The peep hole closed and shifting locks were heard, along with Beast Boy's faint chuckling and the door opened, revealing a guy that looked like he was the type to kill you for looking at him the wrong way. He wore a black trench coat with boots, black turtleneck, black gloves, and some very dark goggles (Dare I say….black?)
The man looked around, staring each of us in the eye and then shifting his attention to Red X, "X, I recall a rule about visitors, oh yeah, I think it was something like NO VISITORS!"
X stepped up to him, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut your trap already, I know the rules, I fuckin' MADE the rules." He turned to us "Titans, this is an….associate of mine. Meet Access, my informant. Access, meet the Titans, my….anyways, we need an update on the Renegades."
Access looked at X, surprised"Wait, Titans, your helping these guys now?"
"Hey, these Renegades are serious shit, you and I both know we can't handle them alone, we need them on this one, especially when I got more and more guys punkin' out on me cuz thes damn Renegades keep scarin' 'em away"
Robin stepped forward, "We're not here to start any trouble, when this is all over, the Titans will look the other way on this whole secret base thing okay?"
He stood and thought for awhile, "Fine, but this doesn't make us friends or anything, got it?"
"Whatever floats your boat"
He smirked, "Step into my office."
We all walked into the big room, covered in lights, buttons, monitors, keyboards, the usual make up of a D-list evil genius lab.
He took a seat " 'Scuse the mess."
X stood behind him "Okay, whaddo we got on the Renegades so far?"
Access spun around in his chair, "I'm sure you'll be glad to know that we got quite a bit of Renegade activity not to far from here"
Robin piped up, "Where?"
"Gotham…"
A/N: That's right folks, we're goin down that route, I would like to apologize for Starfire's poor character development, but seriously, the only thing she's good for is eye candy. She has no defining qualities besides being "the freakishly strong, alien, dumb redhead." I'll try to update more, but I'm gonna need some reviews.