This is Gotham's Breaking News Report.
We just got in reports that there was an explosion at the WTC building in Jump City. More information with our reporter Mary Thompkins , who was there during the events. Mary please tell us what's happened so far.
Gotham News!
Thanks you Tom. What started as one of the greatest party in recent years turned into tragedy when just a couple minutes ago during the third day of The Jook N Box & Laaze The DJ Ludicrous Rave hosted by Wayne's Entertainment Inc. the building started shaking after what multiple witness describe as an unidentified aircraft crashed against the building just a couple of floors below the roof where the party was located. Words alone can't describe what just happened Tom, the entire building shook as part of the roof collapsed, even now that we stand outside the building we can appreciate the damage caused by the plane. It's a terrifying sight, a huge part of the rooftop is simply gone!
Thankfully most of the guest managed to evacuate the party unharmed but Laaze the DJ suffered serious injuries when his leg was crushed by a falling debris. Jook N Box on the other hand was promptly evacuated from the event by his security team but not before giving these reporter a message for the responsable of this act, he said and I quote: "I will stab you". That's all for know Tom, I will be back with more information as soon as possible. The only thing this reporter have to ask is: Is this an accident or was it a deliberate act? And if soo who is the mastermind behind this nefarious act?
0o0
*Zap*
A bolt of electricity brought him back to life. He screamed and trashed as his muscle painfully contracted against his will. His throat was sore and dry, he could barely hear himself over the loud ring like noise pounding inside his head. He felt the cold wind hitting his face, he opened his eyes saw the light of the stars shining through the night. Wait stars? That wasn't right. How could they be stars if he was... inside of a.. Building…
His eyes widened, he took a look around his surrounding. It was gone, the device, windows, walls, roof, guards, everything! It was simply gone. All that was left was a huge hole in the room he was in, if you could even call what was left a "room". He started to hyperventilate. He lost control again, all of what happened was because of him, he could hear them screaming, crying for help., asking f-
*Zap*
Another shock brought him to his senses, this one wasn't as strong as the last one. He raised his hand in curiosity. His inhibitor was still attached to his right hand, it was little busted, some wires were hanging loose and the normally green light was now yellow. Honestly the only thing he wanted to do right now was to rip that thing off his wrist but he would probably lose his arm first in the process.
He tried to stand up, his leg was buried under some debris, he had to dig it out before limped toward the wall or more accurately where the wall used to be. He felt something wet falling down his cheek. He wiped it out with his hand only to find it covered in something red. Blood, probably his He could see the entire city from up there. Once you passed the carnage and destruction bellow, it was honestly a beautiful sight.
*Boom!*
A beautiful sight that was ruined by another explosion, this time outside the city. He squint his eyes trying to locate the source of the explosion. He was probably facing east judging by all the landmarks he could recognize, but the only thing outside of city in that was in that direction was the …. Academy.
"Oh no…" Lincoln said, his face was slowly turning white, probably due the blood loss, but also because he could see pillar of smoke rising from the academy's general location. He turned back looking for his communicator. He couldn't feel it in his pocket, so that meant that it must had fallen during the blast, hopefully it was still intact.
He finally found it. It was a couple of paces away from where he woke up. The screen was cracked and sparks were flying around the device but it still somehow work. He had a new message.
*Bzzt* Red Ale- *Bzzt* Academy und- *Bzzt* Ttack! *Bzzt* Emergency Proto- *Bzzt* 9 activated *Bzzt*
He heard enough, he hold tightly the comm in his hand. Someone out there was attacking his home right now, his friends, his family. He didn't stop squeezing until what was left of his barely functioning comm was crushed, rendering it unrecognizable and untraceable. He was going to stop them. But first he needed to figure out a way to get down.
0o0
"This was bad. Very bad." though Cyborg as Jinx helped him stand up. Seemore was laying next to him, his helmet was smashed showing part of his bloody face but thankfully he was still breathing. Fortunately Gizmo was distracting the Titans with his holograms which allowed him to carry the unconscious Seemore to out of the danger zone.
Why were they here in the first place? He hadn request evacuation and he was so close to find what the headmaster was planning. Running wasn't an option, the doors were sealed tight, he tried to force them open to no avail.
"The doors are sealed!" Cyborg said through his comm. "Can't open it, can somebody help me, Seemore hit his head pretty bad during the explosion, he's alive, but he needs a medic quick!"
"No can do, doofus" answer the voice of Gizmo. "The system is designed to completely lock down any area of the academy in case it's invaded so the rest of the facilities aren't compromised. If you want the doors to open then get over here and help us kick these dorks asses back to their stupid tower!"
Cyborg didn't like it but he would need to fight his way out of this one to maintain his cover. He slowly creeped around the hall toward the battlefield and saw that Mammoth had already joined the fight, the big guy was holding up against his robot duplicate but was being worn down by the combined attacks of Beast Boy and Starfire. Jinx on the other hand, seeing no way out, had quickly started shooting at Raven preventing her from supporting her team. Cyborg then changed into his "Stone mode" and lept into the fray.
Now usually when facing multiple opponents the Titans would use the classic "Divide & Conquer" technique, but ever since he went undercover they had to switch up to a pretty standard combat formation in order to protect his robot duplicate from any kind of damage that could blow his cover. This change of tactics had given the Hive 5, who Cyborg suspected were handpicked by the headmaster due to their abilities being perfect counters against the Titans, the best odds in the field. Add Lincoln's "Bad Luck Aura" into the mix, a perfect disruptor that could easily turns the tide of any fight, and no wonder the Titans never won a fight against the students since he joined the academy.
With a swift strike he knocked out Star, who was distracted by Gizmo's holograms, sending her down and leaving the path clear for his true target, the one with the answers.
With a quick leap he got in the right position before catching Robin out of guard by grabbing one of his legs. A quick pull and Robin was thrown to to the other side of the room, far away from the other students and any other prying ears.
"Cyborg! Take it easy, you don't have to act anymore!" Robin hissed as he dodged a punch from Stone/Cyborg.
"Take it easy?! You guys are gonna blow my cover!" Responded Cyborg as he catch a flying kick, then punished Robin by smashing him into the floor… hard.
"Your cover has already been compromised!" Robin grunted as the floor cracked on impact. "Someone hacked into the system, they made a copy of all the mission files including yours!"
"But that's impos-" Cyborg was interrupted when he felt a strong blow on the back before he was sent flying through a wall.
He grudgingly managed to stand up and was ready to go back when his path was blocked by his duplicate. Whose eyes were now color red.
Great, the hit he just gave to Robin must had being hard enough to trigger the robot's "Teammate in Danger" protocol, he had honestly forgotten he had installed that in the first place.
"Target acquired" said the mechanical voice of the "Cybot" as it launched itself toward its creator. Cyborg didn't gave it a chance to retaliate and with a single punch that sent his creation flying back through the wall and quickly gave chase toward the hole he just made.
Back in the gym things weren't looking good for the Titans. With Star out of combat, Mammoth had gained the upper hand against Beast boy after he was accidentally hit by one of Raven's blast that was aimed at one of Gizmo's hologram. Speaking of Raven, she was unlucky enough of being in Cybot trajectory and was now acting as his cushion, Cyborg could see the annoyed look she was giving him from beneath Cybot's metal body."Ouch!..." He was definitely in trouble once this assignment was over.
He could hear someone pounding on the other side of the blast doors, probably some glory seeking students trying to get them open in order to help in the battle against the Titans. He couldn't focused on that too much due to being busy dodging a surprisingly sneak attack from Cybot.
He noticed that something was off about his duplicate, sparks were flying all over his fist, as it started to glow hot red. "Shit!" Cyborg thought. The bot's core must had overloaded during the fight. As if dodging a rampant robot duplicate was hard enough, now each punch it throws was electrified, man he really couldn't catch a break!
Well two could play that game, he rerouted all his backup energy into his fist and positioned himself in front of the bot catching his attention, both of them locked eyes before charging. They let out a scream of rage as they both got closer to their targets. Both fists clashing against each other.
The shock-wave was strong enough to stop all fighters on their track.
A cloud of smoke and dust invaded the room, Gizmo was sent flying out of control but was barely caught by Mammoth in time. Jinx ducked just in time as a piece of debris lodged itself in the wall behind her.
It was mechanical arm, or more accurately a disembodied mechanical arm.
The dust settled down revealing a still standing Cyborg with a damaged but still attached fist raised in victory, under him was what remained of Cybot, its body severed in half by the force of the blast, one of his arms was missing and his face was smashed opened allowing everyone to see its mechanical interior. Such was the commotion that nobody noticed a blast door opening.
The room went silent, no one dared to make a sound. Many inside couldn't even believe what they were seeing.
Then the sound of silence was shattered by a quiet murmur that went unnoticed by most of the fighters, too all but one.
"Vic-Victor?" said a voice that Cyborg could recognize anywhere. He turned towards the now open door and saw Lincoln. Most of his white hair was now a light shade of red as small streams of red liquid travelling down his dirty face. He showed many signs of being near an explosion but what caught his attention was the look of unbelief in his face.
He lifted up his hand towards him, but Lincoln flinched back. The look turned into one of realization, followed by one of horror. Cyborg's eyes widened when he finally figure out why everyone had stopped fighting.
It was his holo-ring, that last electrified punch had fried its circuits making it useless. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the best idea to locate his concealment device on the fists he use to punch people faces. He was now in his true form for everyone to see.
Cyborg tried to say something, but Lincoln started to hyperventilate, his bracelet started to fizzle and sparks started blowing from it. The light turned from an opaque yellow to a bright red.
*Bzzzts*
*Bzzzts!*
*Crack!*
The inhibitor suddenly cracked open from Lincoln's arm and hit the floor with a resounding *Thump*. It continued fizzling and sparking as it melted the floor around it.
"Lincoln, this isn't what it loo-" Cyborg was interrupted by a pop up message that appeared in his vision
Error!
Followed by another, and another and another. Dozens of messages invaded his screen.
Error!
Error!
Error!
Error!
Critical Failure!
*BANG!*
Time seemed to freeze. He felt an extreme pain inside his head, as if his brain was hit by an electric sledge hammer. He managed to give one step forward before finally fall over to the floor. He saw the look of horror in Lincoln's face. Then everything turned black.
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Well the proverbial shit has hit the proverbial fan.
Hey guys Mike here. Man its being a while since I last updated. So sorry about this chapter being a lot later than usual but I don't have a lot of free time to write now that the new semester just started. Having said that I am officially cancelling any schedule I have for my stories. Don't get me wrong, I will still try to write them constantly and update weekly, but now they may take a little bit more or less depending on the amount of work I have for the week. Taking that out of the way, as usual thanks to my beta reader Prof. Quad and to all of you who follow and review. Hope you enjoy the chapter.
