The first thing that Tucker saw through the dimming haze of his waning unconsciousness was the rhythmic blinking light of his newly acquired ankle-monitor. Ignoring the intruding piece of technology, he lay sprawled on his back, completely still as he tried to place what happen beforehand to lead him to this point.

...He had been in a clearing with Danny and Sam, who were currently nowhere to be found and he better think about that later unless he wanted to completely panic, the Titan's attack them, after that the masked man, Slade, showed up and...

His eyes snapped opened as his once forgotten memories powerfully flowed back into him. They were screwed, more than screwed.

Plain and simple they were fucked.

Surrounded by the Guys in White, trapped somewhere in Jump City, and kidnapped by some high ranking supervillain. Of course things wouldn't go easy for them, and of course they would be separated not only from each other but from the Titans. The Titans, whom were probably the only people that could get them out of this mess.

Great, just great.

Subconsciously his hand reached for his P.D.A. and too his horror, he felt nothing but air. Tucker twisted around desperately as he patted down the many pockets in his customized outfit to find that they were all empty.

"Oh for the love of-! You couldn't have just taken Clair you just had to kidnap all of her sister's too?" Tucker shouted into the vast darkness of the cavern. Glaring hatefully at the very unresponsive walls around him Tucker pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet. As much as he wanted to angrily mope at the loss of his tech he needed to find Danny and Sam and get out of here.

Then he will kick Slade's ass and rescue his girls.

Tucker sighed in annoyance rubbing his face to find that Slade had also taken his balaclava, which meant that Slade had removed his glasses, taken off his balaclava then put his glasses back on his unconscious face. All in a way that was gentle enough to keep him from waking up.

...And now he was thinking about Slade gently stoking his face. Ew.

Thankfully, the madman had left his cloak alone allowing it to do its job by keeping the chilly cavern air away. At least that was one good thing about this cluster they had gotten themselves into. Their plan to escape through the Titan's was pretty much a failure, and with who-knows-how-long until the G.I.W decided to strom Jump City they needed to leave now. He knew that he spoke for all of them when he said that being taken in by the Guys in White would be the absolute worst thing that could happen to them. At least, it was the worst thing that could happen to them in this timeline.

It always surprized him how the media thought that he and Sam had left Amity Park with Danny solely for Danny's benefit. Not saying that they wouldn't have left Amity in a heartbeat with Danny if the G.I.W were trying to capture him. All he was saying that having the Guys in White blatantly chase after his and Sam's skins with a surprising amount of deadly intent was a great motivator to run.

In all the months he, Danny and Sam were on the run he had yet to figure out why the Guys in White were so hard pressed to capture Sam and him. However, he wasn't curious enough to actually go into the Guys in White's headquarters in order to find out. As the saying goes, curiosity got the cat captured and vivisected in a isolated government base.

The constant threat of fatal injury may have been getting to him...

Yet, it still made him wonder. He and Sam were not ghostly in any conceivable way. Yes, they had many neardeath experiences, but they have never actually died. Not even in the way that Danny technically did. By their own codes the Guys in White had absolutely no clearance to take in human villains. So why do Guys in White want to capture them so badly?

Tucker held back the icy grasp of dread that clawed up his spin. You know what? That was a something that could be thought about later. Much, much later.

Pushing away the last of his dread, Tucker picked a direction and started walking. Nothing ever got done by waiting around anyways. His eyes strained in the extremely poor lighting, and he found himself once again swearing under his breath at the loss of his technology. Those goggles would have been more than useful right now. It was so dark that he almost missed the outline of the massive door on the far wall of the cavern.

"Perfect." Tucker said to himself just to starve off the oppressive silence in the exceedingly large room. The quiet was really starting to get to him. Reaching out he turned the cool metal doorknob, and was instantly meet with resistance. Annoyed, but not willing to give up, he tried twisting the handle the other direction, which eventually lead to him roughly shaking the door. However, the door did not budge.

Letting go of the handle Tucker banged his head against the unjustifiably sturdy wood, "Perfect."

He swore Danny's bad luck was starting to rub off on him, or was it that without Danny around his own bad luck had nowhere to spread to. Either way he was still stuck in who knows where without his technology and was quite frankly defeated by a door that both Danny and Sam would have been able to breakdown.

He just had to lag behind in the physical strength aspect of training, didn't he? Sure he wasn't weak by any stretch of the word, but he wasn't strong enough to break down the door with shear strength like Danny, or had the skill to kick the door in half like Sam.

He could just hear the lecture that Valarie would give him if she could see him now. Especially since he now had to walk through the probably booby-trapped darkness of a supervillain's base to find another way out.

Tucker sighed roughly as he pulled his head away from the door, "Well at least it couldn't get much worse." He muttered to himself.

A sudden feeling of apprehension robbed him of his breath as he heard what only could be call a disorienting and heavy scrape-like reverberation from somewhere in the immense darkness of the cavern. The slow lumbering drags came to a stop and Tucker was exposed to a hard huffing intakes of the hidden creature's laboured breath. There was a brief pause all throughout which Tucker held his breath, weakly hoping that the creature had a terrible sense of smell. Then, the creature made a new sound.

A very low, very hungry animalistic bellow.

Some few heartbeats later and Tucker heard what could only be hundreds of countless and heavy clicking steps directing themselves in a constant pace heading directly towards him.

In recognition of the horror coming towards him, Tucker soundly banged his head against the door. The door which promptly mocked him with how little it moved and the pain that exploded in his head from his own hasty actions.

Spitting out wood chips, Tucker had only one thing to say about this situation,

"God-dammit Murphy."


Sam should have been happy, really she should. Of all the things that could have happened to her this wasn't the worst. Her legs could have been broken leaving her helpless, she could have been trapped in a small cell, or worst under some kind of mind-control spell that forced to fight her friends in some sort of twisted death battle.

As she said, much worst things could have been done to her...

"We're going this way." He said roughly pulling her arm with his careless gesture.

"Why?" She asked looking in the direction that her arm hung limply at, "Do you see something?"

"No, but I have a feeling that Slade is there. Hurry up."

...but why did she have to get stuck to Robin?

She woke up at the same time he did. Robin had quickly jumped to his feet, and she had abruptly eaten dirt because of his panicked outburst. All to the courtesy of the titanium handcuffs that Slade had ever so generously given to them. Now the very angry and wholly irrational leader of the Titan's was towing her along in his own personal vendetta fuelled search for Slade. Robin had yet to acknowledge her as anything other than a particularly heavy deadweight slowing down his search, and truthfully it was really starting to tick her off.

"Yeah, what a great idea oh fearless leader. Let's go after the homicidal manic on his own turf. What an ingenious plan!" Sam scoffed, her sarcasm thicker than cold molasses, "Who cares if we don't have any of our weapons, or that we have no idea where either our teams are, or that we can't actually fight since Slade handcuffed us together? This plan just has success written all over it!"

Silently ignoring her, Robin continued to drag Sam along through the winding corridor that they had woken up in hours before. Not skipping a single step as she continued to fume.

Sam huffed in anger and couldn't help a sudden spike of pettiness, "Oh, so now you're ignoring me? Well ignore this!" Sam looped her hand around on the cuffs chain and she tugged hard catching Robin on his instep. Causing him to temporally lose his balance.

Using his falling momentum Robin swung his foot back to into well-aimed kick at Sam's head. At the last moment Sam ducked slamming her free hand against the cold concert floor and swung her legs up giving Robin a hard kangaroo kick at his chest winding him.

Sam's victory however was short lived as in her attempt to get back at the Boy Wonder she forgot that they were handcuffed together. The power from Sam's kick yanked unforgivingly on her arm, the momentum casing her unanchored form to helplessly spin over Robin sending them both crashing painfully onto the ground.

Rolling off Robin and dislodging her elbow from his gut, Sam muttered, "That was a stupid thing to do."

"What is wrong with you?" Robin grunted out as they both got to their feet.

"I hate being ignored." Sam said dusting herself off before flashing self-serving smirk to Robin's antagonized glare, "Especially if I have something to say, and hey I finally got you to stop brooding and pay attention. So I'm calling this a win."

"Even if your actions could have gotten us both injured on top of everything already hindering our escape?" Robin said gesturing to the chain hanging between them.

"A slight oversight." Sam said beaming wickedly at him.

"Are all villains this reckless?" Robin muttered in annoyance.

"Hey I take offense to that." Sam huffed, "My recklessness has nothing with me being a villain." Sam then paused and thought about what she said, "If I was a villain which I am not. I haven't even done anything actually villainy. Like that will stop people making up ridiculous stories about me." Sam said running her hand through her hair. Somewhere along the path she lost her hairband. Her last hairband and now her loose hair was starting to annoy her.

It wasn't a matter of vanity that she mourned the loss of her hairband. When they had starting running the first thing that went was all semblance of vanity. Which included their hair. Danny and Tucker had it lucky. Danny's hair didn't grow that far past his shoulders and Tucker's hair grew slow. Hers on the other hand did not stop growing and hacking away at it with a dull blade had been a terrible idea. Maybe once everything was said and done she could ask the League or the Titan's for a favour. It wasn't like she was a terrible enough villain to deserve maximum security...

Her thought process trailed off when she realized that Robin had suddenly became very quiet. It wasn't like the annoying silence he had before. It was just quiet, as if he didn't want to speak...

"Robin?" Sam asked worried at the completive look that Robin was purposely not aiming at her.

Robin turned his gaze on her and her heart twisted painfully with his next words, "Sam. That's the name you like to go by, right?"

"Y-yes it is." Sam replied her earlier bravo dying pitifully in her throat.

Robin sighed before gently tugging her with him as he sat down. "You probably should sit for this."

Not really having choice she sat down next to him, "What's going on?"

Even though there was no hesitation in his voice Robin still chose to look off into the expansive distance around them rather than look directly at her face, "I would rather tell all three of you about this, but it looks like I won't get that chance. Slade showing up isn't the only reason we came to the field that night." Finally Robin turned to Sam staring her down, "You are all in great danger…"

Throughout Robin's explanation Sam found that she couldn't move from her spot on the cold ground. Her mind drew to a screaming blank as the realization of their now precarious situation sunk in.

"No, that's impossible." Sam whispered as she shook her head in disbelief trying to figure out horrible line of events lead her here, "How could be? We haven't done anything remotely…" Her blank stare became a hard glare directed at Robin's passive face, "We would never kill anyone. Especially people that couldn't protect themselves."

"I know that, my team knows that, even the League knows that." Robin said calmly talking down Sam's glare. "The people and politicians of America, of the world? They don't know that. If the people cry out to the Justice League they will have to act."

"Even so they have no right to come into your city!" Sam voiced loudly her thoughts veering on panic even as Robin tried to reassure her. "What about the hero's code?"

"I hate to admit it, but heroes can become villains." Robin explained smoothly causing Sam's face to drop, "It is the Leagues duty not only to protect the world, but to manage and direct the world's heroes as well. The hero's code doesn't hold up if the hero is doing evil. For example," He said staring directly at her, "harbouring dangerous criminals."

Sam swallow deeply trying to remove the incredibly dry cotton like texture in her mouth, "H-how long? How long until the League comes for us?"

"I don't know."

Sam roughly dragged her handcuffed arm toward herself forcedly pulling Robin toward her, "What the hell do you mean that you don't know!" She snarled.

"I. Don't. Know." Robin grated out before gaining a weak hold over his own flaring temper, "Batman told me that the League would hold off a personal investigation until the government released those files. For all we know the League could be making their way through this compound right now."

Sam held Robin's glare for a moment longer, her face slowly going from righteous anger to depressed acceptance. Her body hunched into itself, her black hair hiding her face from Robin as she trembled, "Then that's it. We can't ever go back, can we?"

Robin's posture deflated at the sight of Sam losing her bravo and at the clear drops that fell from her obscured face. "If you mean back to Amity Park, no you cannot. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry you didn't have anything to do with this." Sam responded quietly while roughly wiping her eyes with the back of her free hand. Composing herself with a harsh sigh she looked up at him a weak self-pitying smile on her face. "It looks like Slade was right. We have nowhere to go, and no one can help us."

"That's not true." Robin said lightly, awkwardly placing a hand on her shoulder, "All you have to do is explain yourselves to the League. They have the pull to get you guys pardoned and on good terms with the government. Thinking about joining Slade for protection is the absolute last thing you want to do."

Sam snorted, shocking Robin as she began laughing in the ugly way that was solely reserved for people who just finished crying and still have snot in their systems, "You don't have to worry about us joining that fruitloop. Danny, Tucker and I made a promise to never join a villain in the name of protection, well at least not again." Sam scoffed and waved Robin's disapproving look off, "Oh come off it. We all agreed that it was a stupid mistake that should never be repeated. Besides, we have a plan for something exactly like this."

Robin went from disapproving to skeptical, "You made a plan for escaping a city that is surround by the Guys in White, about to be sieged by the Justice League while one of you are tied to one of the heroes of said city?"

"Well, not a plan for this exact unique situation, but we do have a plan for this." Sam said a rueful smile coming to her face as she stood up taking Robin with her, "The pleasantly named and much debated Operation: F.U.B.A.R."

"And this Operation: F.U.B.A.R is supposed to fix this situation?" Robin asked, as Sam stretched her back releasing a series of pops.

"Yes and no. It's kind of a Kill Switch Plan." Sam admitted before studying the ceiling above them, "And before you ask no, I will not tell you about the plan. Especially not with Slade probably watching us. Seriously, the fact that he hasn't done something yet is worrying me."

"Why is that?" Robin said mimicking Sam's gaze patterns around the corridor.

"Because, if Slade isn't messing with us he's doing something to our friends."


Clank.

"So, you're a demon?"

"Half-demon."

"That's cool."

Clank.

"And you're a ghost?"

"Half-ghost. Just for future reference, I'm in my ghost form now. So, ooooh~."

"Cool."

"You know you could act a little bit surprized."

Clank-thwap!

"Argh! Son of a bitch!" Danny shouted as he dropped his chosen rock in favor of holding his aching hand. "Who the hell shackles people by their feet anyways?"

"Slade. Slade does things like this." Raven replied calmly before continuing to attack the glowing chain connecting them together. "I'm actually surprize he didn't do something worse."

Danny shook the last of the pain from his hand before picking up his rock and aiming it at the spot he had been working at since he had woken up, "I admit Slade is one of the most twisted villains I have ever meet, but comparing to the people I know he doesn't seem that bad."

"He tried to use me as a portal to bring on the apocalypse, and so that he could sacrifice the souls of the innocent to feed Trigon, his demon overlord, who is also my father. He did this in the hopes of regaining his humanity after his death sent him to hell and melted the flesh from his body." Raven said not missing a beat as she methodically worked. "Somehow, Slade separated his connection with Trigon and got his human body back, although he did lose the hell-fire powers that Trigon gave him. So yes, Slade can be pretty bad."

Danny blanched, his eyes going impossibly wide while Raven continued to rhythmically strike the chain. Quickly picking up on Danny's gasping expression and seeing that he probably wouldn't get back to work on his own. Raven responded to his unasked question.

"We defeated and sealed Trigon before he could spread his undead flame army past Jump City and then we erased everyone's memories after everything was said and done." Raven said as nonchalantly as ever, "Everything is fine now."

Danny continue to gape. His mouth moving while producing no sounds other than an initial mouse-like squeak.

"What? I said we defeated Trigon. He's not coming back to the mortal plane anytime soon." Raven elaborated.

That snapped Danny out of his stupor, "Wait. You're telling me that a demon lord who can single-handedly bring on the apocalypse is just floating around in the Ghost Zone?!"

"I said that we sealed him away from the mortal plane I never said that we sealed him in the Ghost Zone." Raven said an eyebrow raising at Danny's outburst.

"There's two astral planes?" Danny said in complete shock.

"Actually there's about forty-two."

Danny blankly looked at Raven before griping his rock and striking the glowing chain holding them together, "Nope. I am not dealing with this now. Let Sam deal with astral planes and demon lords, I'm a half-ghost fighter not a half-ghost researcher." Danny said putting some extra force into his blow only to have his rock break and crumble within his grasp. "Oh for the love of-"

"There's no point in getting angry. The idea that we could break the chain with a rock was a farfetched one from the start." Raven said dropping her rock and standing up. "At least he gave us enough length to move freely we should look for a way out."

"Yeah, freely." Danny said cynically but getting up all the same. "What does he want with us anyway? Like it terms of apprenticeship. Just saying, I am terrible at extra credit work." Danny joked as they fell into an easy pace that barely tripped them up as the ventured forward.

"With Slade? It could be anything from really wanting to turn you into his own person avatar of evil to using your powers to launch his next plan." Raven explained with a shrug, "You don't want to do that. Trust me, it sucks."

"I'll take your word for it." Danny replied looking into the surrounding gloom, "Now to get out of here. Can't you teleport us or something?"

Raven shook her head, "My powers keep failing me." She demonstrated by making a darkly illumined fist only to her power's strange glow rapidly flicker then disappear, "If my powers go out while I'm teleporting, something, bad could happen."

"How bad?" Danny asked raising an eyebrow at Raven's vague explanation.

"Getting trapped in a circle of hell and being dammed for all eternity bad."

Danny gulped, body shivering with an unwelcomed spike of cold dread, "That's bad. Let's not do that. Like ever."

"Good idea." Raven agreed before starting her own questioning, "Can't you phase us out?"

Danny shook his head, "My powers are flickering too if they blinked out while we were still in the walls…" He trailed off, "Ever got completely fused in solid stone? No? Well neither have I, let's keep it that way."

"So now what? Keep on walking?" Raven asked pulling her hood off.

"Pretty much." Danny replied unenthusiastically throwing his arms over the back of his head stretching his back with a few satisfying cracks. "Well might as well enjoy the moment. The quiet sound of an empty cave. The sound of our soft footfalls. The warmth around us…"

"The sound of hundreds of squealing robotic parts coming closer towards us?"

"Right the sound of-" Danny stopped a few feet in front of Raven. "What."

From the darkness that they had just left the sound of hundreds if not thousands of quickly moving robotic parts rapidly neared them. Starting first as a soft buzz it gradually becoming more encompassing, and soon nigh deafening.

"You jinxed us." Raven deadpanned.

"Oh, no. I am not taking responsibility for this!" Danny shouted getting into a fighting stance as he realized that they could very much not out run the fast moving enemy, "I am not this unlucky! This is Murphy's fault isn't? Dammit Murphy I will find you and kick your ass. I know you exist. If there can be a freakin Box-ghost there is a ghost for Murphy!"

"Here they come." Raven said blatantly ignoring Danny's tantrum in favour of putting all her attention on the incoming battle.

The grating metallic sound became deafening as the enemies came close enough for Danny and Raven could make them out.

It, was a swarm.

Hundreds of thousands of palm size sharply angled mosquito like robots blocked out their view. The robots darkly coloured metallic bodies reflected what little light was in the cavern turning them into something akin to a surging black tide.

"Whoa." Raven commented as the tide pulsed forward in a manner very much like a tsunami. Utterly unstoppable.

"Okay, running now!" Danny shouted as he jumped into the air and propelled himself forward dragging Raven along with him.

Shocked into motion Raven started blasting at the rolling wave of pure technological evil, barely effecting its advance.

"What the hell is that?" Danny shouted as he barreled through the darkness around them his natural ghostly glow their main source of light.

"Slade's work." Raven dryly quipped.

"Why the hell would he make that?"

"Because he can." Raven said glancing quickly at Danny, "That and seeing this, us fighting for our lives amuses him."

Danny teeth grated against each other as he forced more power into his flight. Shouldn't they have reached the end of this tunnel by now?

With the utmost frustration Danny screamed out to Raven, the black tide, and whatever deities that could see his suffering.

"Why the hell-"


"-does this keep happening to me!" Tucker screamed as he ran from the monstrosity slowly gaining up to him.

There were many things that Tucker didn't like. Salads, sports, Super foods which were not food but a certain fake-ness that dared to call itself food. Superfood like Kale which wasn't lettuce, but a certain cruelty that tasted what he believed misery would tasted like. Now, Tucker had another S-word to add to the list of things that he hated. Centipedes.

Yes, he knew that Centipede started with a C, but at this point he really couldn't be bothered to care.

Tucker picked up speed when the Centipede behind him nearly missed his head with a claw strike. Once again Tucker thanked the exercise that he forced to do running state to state from the G.I.W. Strong he was not. But fast?

He threw himself to the ground sticking one hand and both feet into compressed earth floor. His gloved hands and steel toed boots bit into the ground while he skidded creating a thick cloud of dirt as made the sharpest of turns. The Centipede barreled past him hundreds of gleaming dark-red scythe-like legs barely missing his head by mere inches. The Centipede released a fractured hiss-like scream as it found that its prey had once again evaded it. By this time Tucker had already left it in the dust and he was not going to slow down for anything, not even for the three Titans squinting through the gloom a stones throw away from him.

"Run!" Tucker screamed while quickly pasting who he registered was Beastboy, Cyborg and Starfire.

It only took one glance of the gleaming maroon hell-insect behind him for them to quickly catch up to Tucker's fleeing from.

"Yo what the hell is with that thing?" Cyborg shouted at Tucker. "Why the hell is there a giant Millipede chasing after you?"

"Actually it's a Centipede." Beastboy, who Tucker realised was not in any of his beast-forms, quipped, "Millipedes only have one set of legs for each body segment and don't have claws or fangs."

Tucker shot him a glare, "And how does this help?"

"Well Centipedes are carnivores, so we know it wants to eat us."

"Oh really?" Tucker said snidely as the Centipede let loose another angry foam-filled scream, "I would have never guessed that the monster trying to bite my head off wants to eat me!" He gasped for breath. Shouting loudly while trying to out run a creature that has ten times the amount of feet you had was a very stupid idea.

"Well you don't have to yell at me!" Beastboy snapped.

"Friend Beastboy and not-villain Tucker please no more of the fighting." Starfire, who was running with them, said.

Tucker watched as the Tamaranian ran beside them, he had never even seen her stand on the ground, "Ah, Starfire? Are you okay? Not to be rude but you seemed to be a little, grounded."

"I fear that the Slade has done something with my powers. I cannot fly." Starfire replied quickly between huffs.

"Well that's just great, what about you Cyborg and Beastboy? Are you guys out for the count too?" Tucker asked resisting the urge to hold the bridge of his nose.

"Slade drained most of my power, but if I get to a generator I will be fine." Cyborg said glancing at his battery power.

"I tried transforming a while ago," Beastboy winched in memory, "It took me and hour to turn back."

"Okay not a good situation by not the worst I've ever been in." Tucker muttered pausing to once again outmaneuver the raging beast. "Right I have a plan, something I've seen playin- um, something that I have done before. Beastboy turn into a dragon and let us on your back, when we have put enough distance between ourselves and the centipede blast it with everything you got."

"Ah, dude? I can't turn into a dragon, or breathe fire." Beastboy said a sheepish look on his face

Tucker turned to glare at him, "What do you mean you can't turn into a dragon?"

"I can't or I never tried." Beastboy said, "Also I'm pretty sure that dragons don't you know, exist."

"Beastboy," Tucker said through gritted teeth, "I want you to look at our situation and tell me straight to my face that dragons don't exist."

"I doesn't matter what you say if I can't turn, I can't turn!" Beastboy said aggravation tinting his voice.

"You know you're really letting me down here." Tucker deadpanned.

Starefire interrupted them, "I would like to not be getting in the way of your plan not-villain Tucker, but I would really like it if we could stop the centipede now." She said the strain clearly showing in her voice, "I cannot run from the centipede forever."

"Damn, that thing is like a freight train!" Cyborg grunted sweat pooling at his forehead.

Tucker blinked the gears in his mind slowly starting up, "Cyborg say that again."

"It's like a freight train?" Cyborg said his voice showing his confusion even as he strained to keep up.

The gears in Tucker's head were now moving at a pace that out-clocked Danny's top speed as a large feral grin spreading across his face. He loved it when the solution to their problems began to puzzle themselves out to him. "I have a plan!" He exclaimed the manic grin on his face fizzled away at the looks that Starefire, Beastboy and Cyborg were giving him. "What?"

"Dude, for a not-villain you have a really evil smile." Beastboy pointed out.

Tucker eyes widened, "Really? It can't be that bad..." He shook his head, "Forget it my evil smile isn't important right now! We have to get the centipede to turn around I have a plan to defeat it."

"I don't think we should listen to you." Beastboy pointed out honestly pointing out Tucker's dark attire and pitch black bellowing cloak, "Like, how do we know that we can trust you?"

"I'm not telling you to trust me I just think-" Tucker's eyes went wide in panic as a large shadow loomed over them, "Go left!"

They ran to the left, barely missing the creature's pounce. The sound of the centipede's almost comically huge claws tearing through the solid ground resonated through their bodies. The centipede released an ungodly screech as it whipped its heavily spiked tail at them.

"Left!" Tucker screamed once again and once again missed they barely missed another heavy armour plated attack from the overgrown insect. Seeing that they were somewhat in the clear Tucker shouted out while pointing out to the darkness in front of them, "Run!"

They took off like bullets into the gloom.

"Where are we going?" Starfire yelled over the sounds of the charging centipede.

"Don't worry about that, just, just, trust me on this!" Tucker shouted back keeping his eyes fixed forward.

He knew where the wall was. He knew where the only door out of this enclosed placed was. He was sure that there wasn't another way out of this trap, no way but the door that he found when he first woke up.

Tucker vaulted over familiar depressions in the ground. The fact that he didn't realized that they were in a bowl sooner was teetering on annoying. The fact that he wasted so much time and energy running around like an idiot was more so.

Then again the bug did scare-startled him, jumping out at him like it thought it had any right to exist on their mortal plane. Well that didn't matter because if everything worked out he wouldn't have to worry about the centipede anymore, at least he hoped.

The depressions in the ground got more and more pronounced, just as he knew they would. Keeping his gaze forward Tucker addressed them, "Guys listen up. On my mark we split up!"

"This plan of yours better work!" Cyborg said.

"It will!" Tucker replied roughly effectively pushing down the panic in his voice.

As the came to the wall Tucker felt as the ground smoothed out as they came closer to the wall.

"Okay. Hold!" Tucker said as he felt the centipede gaining, the raw smell of its exoskeleton burning at his nose. "Hold!" The beast let loose another enraged roar causing Tucker to temporally loose his footing. "Hold!" They were almost at the wall, the centipedes stifling breath dampened his clothes and left a light sheet of moisture on his neck, he heard Starfire whimper…

"Now!" They quickly broke away from each other almost tripping over one another's feet in their haste to get away from the still charging beast.

And the beast did charge. Unable to change its trajectory it was forced to run head-on, its weight dragging it forward on an unstoppable collision course with the wall.

Just like a freight train with no brakes.

If the screams of the centipede could describe as being loud enough to shake the world, the sound that it made when it collided with the door could be described as being loud enough to shake a person's very soul.

Tucker clawed the ground as everything shook with a vengeance. The shockwave from the impact slammed against his body and squeezed his organs with a vice grip. Dust and chunks of wood were flung around him as he forced his head down against the uneven ground. As the dust settled a whistling silence played at his ears and at his nose the scent of fresh or at least fresher air.

"Roll-call, Tucker!" He shouted into the silence around him coughing on the dust that still hung in the air.

"Ugh, Beastboy." Replied a very disgruntled Beastboy.

"Cyborg, with way too much sand in my limbs." Cyborg called out shaking what seemed like an endless stream of sand from his arms.

"Starfire here, I am alright. Though I wish not to do that again." Starfire said getting up and pulling bits or wood from her hair.

"Alright!" Tucker exclaimed taking a few seconds to choke out some more sand, "Another perfectly executed plan by yours truly. Man, I. Am. Good." He said standing up only to stagger and fall back down. "Okay, let's not do that." Tucker said holding his head as it spun again. "Hey can someone check out where the door leads, preferably before I pass out."

Starefire walked over to the hold and peered in, "It is bright in here, but there is being another problem."

"Oh what is it now!" Beastboy exasperated getting up to join Starfire at the door, "Oh come on!" He shout throwing his hands up into the air.

From Tucker's place on the ground with one arm thrown over his eyes he spoke, "Great, in what way did the universe screw us now?"

"Um, well it wouldn't have been so bad. All we had to do was cross a wooden bridge over a pretty large gap." Beastboy started sheepishly.

"You're speaking in the past tense. Why are you speaking in the past tense?" Tucker asked hating his newest feeling of unease.

"The centipede broke the bridge, and my biggest transformation will not carry us all across." Beastboy finished looking at the completely demolished bridge.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Tucker glumly muttered, dragging a dirty gloved hand across his face.

"Why are you complaining?" Cyborg interjected snidely, "You're the one who decide to use the centipede as a battering ram."

"Cyborg. I will come over there and kick your idealess ass." Tucker shouted angrily flicking off Cyborg with his free hand.

"Please let there be no kicking of ass." Starfire said trying to once again play peacemaker. "Let us think of a way to get out of here."

"We can't leave here. What are you going to do? Use your super strength to throw me and Cyborg over the cavern and have Beastboy use his one transformation to turn into a bird or something that could fly you both over? Yeah right what a great idea." Tucker mutter sarcasm thick in his voice.

"Wait." Tucker said sitting up to look at the Starfire, Beastboy and Cyborg or more like the very alarming looks that they were giving each other, "I was joking. That's was a terrible idea."

"Well it is the only idea we have." Beastboy said shrugging.

Tucker looked at them blankly, "You're crazy and you're going to get us all killed."

"Think about it like this," Cyborg said, "We can do that or we can stay here and see what else Slade has in store for us."

"You don't think Slade is so depraved to release another monster on us." Tucker asked honesty disbelief on etched his face.

Before any of the Titans could respond a new larger and more rabid growl from deep within the cavern's gloom echoed around them raising the hair on all their necks with its promise of ruin.

Tucker sighed rubbing at his eyes starving off another headache. Very suddenly, he was really starting to hate Jump City, "Okay," He said getting up and joining them at the open doorway, "Who's going first?"