Robin had treaded carefully when the Titans found the Hive Five at the museum clearly fighting with Frost and her group of Otherworlders. His hesitation had allowed both groups to escape far too quickly to give chase. However, the situation had been dealt with and museum damages had been limited; relatively speaking at least. Police did find the knocked out body of Doctor Light outside the museum, but that registered in a file that Cyborg liked to classify as 'meh
The Boy Wonder was many things, martial artist, super hero, acrobat, but more importantly, he was also a detective. While his Titan allies were at a loss as to what to make of the scene, Robin quickly deduced the events that had transpired in the museum merely by looking carefully at the signs of struggle on the floor and other furniture.
A grand total of ten people had gotten involved in the fight. That meant the revised Hive Five versus Frost, Nightwolf and three unidentified Otherworlders.
Robin hadn't been quick enough to tell Cyborg to film the event, but the Titan leader didn't need a camera when he had photographic memory.
He acquired a police sketch artist and went about describing every miniscule detail of the people he saw at the crime scene. He already knew Frost and Nightwolf's mug shots by heart, but even after seeing the three unknown fighters just one time, he impressed the sketch artist by giving her the most detailed recounting of faces she had ever heard.
Once they were back in the tower, and after procuring three copies of the sketches, Robin sat everyone in the living room and pasted the copies on a billboard showing a man with a robotic helmet, a long haired woman with Middle Eastern features and a hooded, masked man.
Beast Boy and Cyborg looked at each other guiltily; the hooded man was clearly one of the breakdancers from the club.
"Dude we're in sooo much trouble." The shapeshifter whispered to Cyborg.
"Be cool, be cool. I got this." He answered, although it sounded he was mostly trying to calm himself.
Technically Starfire and Raven could also take part of the blame, but the mystic looked far too grumpy to feel nervous. The Tamarean also appeared to be worried about her friend more than her own safety. Starfire kept stealing side glances at the brooding sorceress who appeared to have a dark cloud hanging over her head, literally in this sense. The mystic Titan didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it was possible for Frost to go back on her word about changing her ways. It was also not out of the question that she was could be working with the Hive Five and attempted to rob the museum with them before business went sour.
That meant that she was using her.
She took advantage of her trust and she used her!
Oh, she would pay for that. She would pay!
For Robin, it was business as usual. "Okay." He adjusted his eye mask and tapped at the bill board "Just who are these guys?"
All the response he got was a fidgety looking team.
"Right" It wasn't like he expected an actual answer anyway. "Let's go over what we do know. Raven, can I get a confirmation on the nature of these three guys?"
"They're Otherworlder /scum/ alright." Raven dead panned with more hatefulness to her voice that usual. "Every last one of them."
Everyone turned and stared for a moment, was that zeal or just plain bitterness coming from Raven?
Shrugging it off, Robin continued "Alright, since we at least got that covered we know were to look. I'll contact the Justice League and see if I can talk to Kurtis Stryker again and show him the sketches. He's hard to reach but right now he's our best source of info on the Otherworlders. For now we'll have to second guess what they're up to and be in the place they're going to strike before they do. I doubt that they were all in cahoots with the Hive Five but that's not something we can discard just because we found them fighting each other. The fact that they're starting to mingle with our local villain population speaks of all kinds of problems."
"Our main priority right now is to find out what they want. If they've moved to ransacking museums then that means they're not fighting people at random in the city. This is good, since it will involve less civilian casualties, but it could also mean the start of something far more problematic. Whatever their intent is, it can't be anything good."
"Patrolling is our safest bet for now, but we're going to split off in pairs so they can't all gang up on us. Cy and BB you'll be covering East Jump City, Raven and Starfire you take care of the other half. I'll be trying to talk to Stryker from here and will coordinate you if I find anything from the tower."
"There's no time to waste, Titans, move out!"
After their briefing was over, the Titans rose from their seat and prepared to fly out of the Tower, staring their protocols first before beginning their missions. While they were getting in position Beast Boy was heard whispering in high pitched tones furiously to Cyborg.
"You didn't tell him! Why didn't you tell him!"
"I was trying to but he didn't give me a chance to talk!"
"Tell what to whom?" Robin overheard their argument and slid next to them as silently as a shadow, making the two scream.
Cyborg just had to spill the beans then; he and Beast Boy tripped all over themselves trying to explain what happened a few days ago in what could only be described as machine gun language.
Irritated at their antics, Robin got them to slow down so he could understand what happened.
"And yeah..the two guys that were breakdancing tackled us before we could trap Frost and Nightwolf."
Robin knew that the Otherworlders could get quite quirky, but this was too much.
"Breakdancing? Seriously?"
He couldn't deal with punishing the two at that precise moment; there were far more important things to deal with. In a sense, it almost helped since it gave Robin new insight of what the Otherworlders were doing.
The Titan leader looked to his board and circled the mug shot of the hooded masked man, tapping at it with his pen as he looked to the rest of his team "Is this one of them?"
Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire asserted with their heads, although Raven still looked very distracted.
"If they were twins then why there was only one of them at the museum?" The acrobat rubbed his temples in frustration, feeling a headache settling in. "None of this makes any sense. Just when I think I can find some logic or reason from the Otherworlders they start.. dancing at clubs!" He weakly whacked the billboard next to him, turning to the rest of his team.
"Star, Rae, you were there too. Did anything else happen?"
Starfire opened her mouth to speak, a hand already raised to her face to loudly proclaim her side of the story. She was however, deftly cut off by Raven's cold response.
"No."
The Tamarenean puffed her cheeks keeping her response from leaving her mouth. Instantly, Starfire knew why the empath had done that. What was she going to tell Robin? That she had found Frost and Raven dancing? That they were about to kiss? Or perhaps that she and Raven had allowed the Otherworlder group to escape because the mystic Titan was now in a relationship with the Otherwolder leader.
Starfire deflated and lowered her hand; there was nothing she could do.
"Are you sure?" Robin pressed on, sensing that something was wrong. "Raven, I'm not mad or anything. If there's anything that you saw back there it could it could help us out immensely."
"I said, nothing –happened-." Everyone could swear that the temperature in the room decreased a few dozen degrees after Raven's response.
A good detective knew when to back off to prevent aggravating a potential witness, Robin knew this perfectly well. He had now found a clue that something else was going on aside from a simple invasion. Raven was /lying/ to him, but there had to be a reason for her to do that.
He dared not think he had a mole in his group, but if he did he would rather not risk a huge disaster by exposing her publicly. The best way to uncover a mole was to pretend to follow their game in order to gather information from them instead.
The rest of the team looked at Robin and Raven as they tried to stare each other down, neither of them willing to give in first. For a moment they feared that they would come to blows until their leader finally retracted his unspoken challenge, knowing better than to get in an argument in front of the team.
"Fine." Robin said trying to not glare too much. "We're sticking to the original plan; you all have your orders. Titans, dismissed!"
The acrobat's cape whirled in the air as he took an abrupt turn away from his team and headed towards the main panel. Beast Boy and Cyborg exchanged relieved comments and compliments for having avoided any kind of punishment before heading off.
Cautiously, Starfire approached her designated teammate who didn't say anything; it wasn't until they were well away from the tower, flying out in direction of the city, that Raven stopped abruptly in mid air, levitating with the ocean floor far below them.
"I need to talk to Frost." The empath looked behind her to stare at the wide vibrant emerald eyes of her alien friend. They were worried, as they had been ever since the problem with the Otherworlders started.
Starfire nodded. "I understand friend Raven. You are worried for her are you not?"
"Yes." Raven admitted without revealing that she was in fact worried about what she was going to do to Frost when she found her. If she found out that Frost was trying to rob the museum there would be hell to pay; demi-deity or not, Frost was going down.
"Go to your lover then, my friend, and see if all is well."
Raven flinched at Starfire's choice of words, a spark of dark energy flying out from her temple. "Right." The sorceress glanced down to her belt reaching for her communicator. "I think Robin is on to us, I can't afford to have him track me down with this thing. If he finds out I was at the harbor again..." Raven stopped abruptly when Starfire snatched the radio from her hand, looking up at her with disbelief.
"I will hold this for you Raven, he shall be none the wiser."
"Starfire.." The girl whispered. "I can't ask you to do this for me."
In response the alien princess merely smiled kindly and shook her head. "It is well worth the risk Raven. Should you succeed in swaying her we can prevent a much bigger unnecessary conflict. These Otherwolders have suffered much already in their world, what they need now is understanding that only we can provide. Give them the love that was denied from them in their dimension."
Starfire's optimistic ideals were so infectious; even one as gloomy as Raven found it difficult to disagree. She was convinced despite the fact she would normally scoff at the notion that love could solve anything.
With her resolve steeled by the encouraging words of her friend, Raven nodded and began to float away.
"Thank you, Starfire."
"Please tell her I said hello!" Said the princess, waving.
###################################################
"Please tell me that didn't just happen."
Back at the Konqueror's lair, they were busy licking their wounds. Frost was flumped down on a sofa with her face buried on her palms.
"Then what would you like me to tell you?" Jade called tauntingly as she paced about the room looking at the carnage that the Hive Five had brought upon the once mighty Konquerors. Noob Saibot was collapsed in a corner, clearly unconscious even if his eyes were open. Sektor was seated on a chair next to the laptop table with Nightwolf by his side as the shaman attempted to remove the Electromagnetic Disruptor that Gizmo had attached to the cyborg's back with what little technological knowledge he had. This meant he was trying to pry it off with an energy knife, but every time he poked at it the device produced an electric shock that harmed Sektor even more.
Frost looked up at Jade with fury in her cold blue eyes but found no words to express her hatred; her ego had taken a huge blow and she wasn't handling it very well. She looked down again trying to figure out how that had happened.
"We're the strongest in this whole realm, you said." Jade continued; not about to let Frost get off that easy. "Naught but worms compared to the likes of us, you said. Does this appear to be work of worms, Frost?"
"Okay! It wasn't that bad!" The kunoichi attempted to argue.
"Not that bad? Look at what they did to Sektor!" Speaking as if she cared what happened to the killer android, Jade motioned to the cyborg who kept getting electrocuted by the zapper. In one such instance, his arms started swinging in circles and he yelled in a high pitched voice.
"TOASTY! TOASTY! TOASTY!"
Nightwolf brought a swift end to that by smacking Sektor on the back of the head, making the cybernetic ninja rub the place where he was struck. "I don't know why I keep saying that."
Frost was the type of person that would never admit to be in the wrong; she scowled fiercely at Jade. "I was doing just fine! If you idiots hadn't gotten your asses kicked so soon then I could have taken out that stupid girl with the pink hair! All you needed to do was hold them back a little and you couldn't even help me out on that!"
"Oh! And I suppose rushing blindly into battle without any regard to what is happening around is your idea of helping? I saw how you jumped clear over Baraka and the other fiend to go for their girl instead of staying with the group. You were just trying to hog all the glory!"
"So now you need me to baby sit your ass? I thought you were a skilled kombatant, Jade. I ain't gonna be fighting no battles for you."
"As if I would ever need the assistance of an incompetent child such as yourself. Do not test me girl, lest you truly anger me!"
Frost jumped off the sofa, serrated daggers extended, causing Jade to summon her chi powered bo staff. "You wanna jump off woman! Let's go!"
"ENOUGH!"
Jade and Frost felt overpoweringly strong hands pushing them apart sending them each almost flying to opposite sides of the room. Nightwolf had gotten between the two and had separated them.
"This is exactly the reason why we lost! Our arrogance blinded us into thinking that we could best our foes with sheer strength alone when they clearly had the tactical advantage. Never forget the teachings of the tournament; it is not about fighting hard or fast, it is about fighting smart!"
Nightwolf paused to look at Jade and Frost in turn, making sure that they hadn't gotten back up to attack each other. "If we are to survive in this place we must learn to work together. That includes not fighting amongst ourselves."
Frost sat up and rubbed her head, sure she was arrogant enough that she will never admit a mistake, but that didn't mean she was stupid. She understood the power of strategy even if she herself didn't apply it.
"Nighty's right, we gotta rely on each others' strengths and abilities like the Titans do, otherwise this is just gonna keep happening. It ain't like we're fighting one on one battles like we did at the tournament."
Jade agreed and got up as still looking quite angry despite her new understanding.
She averted her eyes, trying to not look at Frost who was beginning to infuriate her with her cocky attitude. It was bad enough that Nightwolf, Saibot and even Sektor considered her the leader but now she was trying to rub it in.
Exhaling as she tried to calm down, the woman suddenly felt a sharp tingling sensation of something drawing near. "Did you feel that?" She asked out loud, emerald eyes growing wide with alert.
"I did." Responded Nightwolf, who also started looking around. "Something has gotten past the barrier."
"Aw crap." Frost had sensed it too, and recognized the signature due to her being in close proximity with it before.
The floor shimmered with dark energy as the image of a black bird rose from the ground between the trio of kombatants. Extending its wings, the large bird made itself room before curling in on itself transforming into a hooded figure.
"Ravy!" The ice kunoichi exclaimed at the sudden appearance of her mystic girlfriend, sounding elated to see her. She walked towards the hooded figure with arms extended to embrace her only to be slapped right in the mouth.
"Ow! What the hell?"
"You lied to me!"
Raven just about flung herself at Frost, her hands reaching towards the girl as if to strangle her, the Titan's entire body covered in dark energy.
Frost was much faster than Raven, but the shock of her girlfriend attacking her unexpectedly prevented her from tapping into her ninja skills. She stood frozen in place as Raven lunged at her to choke her with her bare hands.
Regardless of personal feelings, Jade was and always would be a body guard. In a movement that had been ingrained in her over centuries, she instinctively got behind Raven and placed her bo staff around her neck to restrain her.
Jade may not like Frost, but she was still their leader and if there was one thing body guards did well it was defend the leadership.
Raven reached for the bo staff trying to concentrate and shift through it, however the grip was tight and was pushing hard on her trachea preventing her from breathing. No air meant no chanting and no chanting meant not powers.
"Stop! Let her go!" The spiky haired kunoichi demanded, forcing Jade to release the mystic Titan. Raven grasped her throat and wheezed in air finding that she couldn't continue attacking Frost until she caught her breath.
"Raven, what is going?" Frost attempted to approach the Titan, but was forced back with a vicious glare.
"Why were you at the museum?" She asked, eyes narrowing disappointingly "And don't you dare lie to me. I will read your mind if I need to, Frost."
Caught in a bad position Frost knew perfectly well that there's nothing more dangerous in the universe than a pissed off girlfriend, she should know having been in Raven's position before. She gave Nightwolf a look, running out of ideas on what to do, but the shaman was hardly the person to ask about relationships and he looked the other way.
"Okay, fine, you got me." The assassin sighed in defeat "I was going to rob the place."
Raven held very still for a moment, darkness beginning to envelop her slowly as she stood there looking at Frost. Her cloak looked like it was coming alive, growing tendrils of darkness around the edge that began to writhe around like tentacles. She started to grow taller, surpassing everyone in the room. Even more horrifying, her eyes were now glowing red and there were not two of them anymore, but four.
Not even Jade was bold enough to try and intervene on that one, Frost was on her own, Nightwolf even moved out of the way and started dragging Sektor, not about to leave the poor helpless cyborg anywhere near that monstrosity. No matter his past crimes he didn't deserve the punishment Frost was about to receive.
"Wait-wait-wait! Listen!" Frost suddenly felt very small, smaller than she had ever felt before. She almost went down to her knees as she raised her hands up to her face, waving them desperately in an attempt to get Raven's attention. "I had a good reason to! I was just going to get one thing that was going to help me protect this realm, honest!"
"/EXPLAIN/ /NOW/" Raven's voice came distorted, as if there were numerous Ravens speaking at the same time. It also sounded deeper, warped by darkness, evil… dangerous.
"Have you ever heard of the Eye of Solomon? It's a talisman that prevents scrying. Noob Saibot and I came up with a plan to reverse its enchantments and use it to apprehend any criminals we found by scrying them instead! You can read my mind if you don't believe me!"
The truth that was that Raven was bluffing about mind reading; it was something that she very rarely did even against villains. It was something far too personal to use freely. It was dangerous even, to make a direct link from her mind to others; she could never know what sort of insanity was going inside the people the Titan's fought. She was certain that she would not survive a trip inside Control Freak's brain for example, however brief it was.
A couple of factors were different this time around though, for starters Frost had given her permission, it'd be hard for her to hide her thoughts now that she was projecting them, secondly she was currently in her demon form which shielded her own mind, and lastly but not least, she was ticked off, to hell with privacy.
Raven narrowed her eyes, all four of them, and took a dive inside Frost's mind.
Silence took hold of the Konqueror's lair; Jade, Nightwolf and even Sektor stood there just watching the two girls stare at each other. They knew the truth, that while Frost had indeed planned to use the eye of Solomon with Saibot to take down the evil doers of Jump City, she was only doing it to take out the competition.
Raven probed Frost's mind and saw this easily, but she went beyond doing simply just that and went past the girl's surface thoughts. Feeling curious, Raven dived deep into Frost's subconscious to explore her past taking this opportunity to perhaps find out why Frost of all people counteracted her powers.
She saw her fighting numerous people, monsters, demons, sorcerers and blue ninjas just as her. She saw her fighting in the steppes of a great pyramid against a blond woman in military uniform. Raven went deeper, seeing her training in the Lin Kuei temple preparing to stop the Deadly Alliance, looking up to a man she heard her call Sifu Sub-Zero with respect she though Frost was incapable of.
Raven knew all this already from overhearing Stryker and went deeper still, going back as far as Frost's childhood. There she saw a scared little girl, frustrated by the role society was forcing down her throat. She was told to be meek, demure and feminine yet because of this she was constantly harassed by men when walking out in the street, never feeling safe.
It wasn't until she was finally cornered and forced to fight back that she truly felt like she was in control of her life. Frost had learned from a very tender age that in order to be respected she needed to harm others to make them understand she was not one to be trifled with.
Raven saw an image of the same little girl, battered, bruised, bloodied, tired and more importantly, happy. The girl smiled a blood covered smile as she laughed standing in the center of a group of fallen, bleeding men who had just been stabbed to death. The girl had a crimson coated kitchen knife in her hand.
The sorceress pulled out of Frost's mind making them both gasp as their spiritual link was severed. Raven seemed satisfied from what she saw and began to shrink.
Starfire was right, Frost wasn't evil, she simply didn't know how to be good because kindness was never taught to her. How could she emulate an emotion she wasn't even aware existed?
Raven understood her; pitied her. At least in the sorceress' case she had been taught that the demonic ways of her father Trigon where wrong. Frost never had such a luxury. If Raven allowed Frost to continue in her destructive path, she would not only be failing Frost, she would be failing herself as well.
"That was a very foolish thing you did, Frost. Maybe your heart was in the right place, but stealing is still wrong and you can't go about taking anything you want simply because you can. The eye of Solomon does not belong to you."
Frost endured the chastising without complaint this time around, she was just glad that Raven hadn't bitten her head off. "Sorry." The girl straightened up finding her inner courage. "But I ain't about to ask for petty permission to defend people. That's not how we did things in our realm. We're warriors by nature, we save lives through combat prowess, not by negotiating. If we feel we must do something to ensure the safety of others we'll do it first and ask permission later. No one asked us if we wanted to have a Mortal Kombat tournament, that decision had been made for us thousands of millennia before we were even born."
Raven opened her mouth to speak, Frost interrupted her again. "If we had waited, those guys would have taken the eye of Solomon for themselves, and I'm pretty sure their intentions were a wee bit less noble than mine."
Sighing, Raven knew that for once Frost's rash acting had been for the best. She still had a long way to go to truly steer away from the violent path she had taken, but at least she was making progress.
"Just don't do that again, please. If you really want help tracking people I could help you, all you need to do is ask. You don't need to do things for on your own anymore."
Frost passed a hand through her hair, allowing herself to smile at Raven's worried tone, at least she didn't sound angry anymore. "Okay, heh, I guess I forgot I had a sexy sorceress girlfriend that could help me out with that kinda stuff now."
Raven shook her head and lowered her hood to get a better look at Frost. "You never take anything seriously do you?"
The ninja gave a cheeky smile and a light shrug of her shoulders as she extended her arms, inviting Raven in. "Sure I do, you wanna kiss and make up?"
Unexpectedly, Raven jumped into Frost's arms hugging her tightly surprising near everyone, for a moment even the kunoichi thought she was going to get attacked again.
Her fear was dispelled as the mystic shuddered in her arms, burying her face on Frost's neck. The ninja felt cool to the touch, it was a refreshing sensation, calming her from her previous fit of anger. Smiling still, Frost reached for Raven's back and began to rub her gently, resting her chin on her hair to enjoy its softness and nice smell.
The magician girl held the hug for quite a long time, breaking away only to lift her gaze up to Frost and lock eyes with her, staring at those bright endless pools of brilliant blue that intrigued her so much. Hers where so different than her own placid purple, they were so full of life and passion.
She wanted the passion that had been denied to her for so long. Raven realized that this experience was as revitalizing for her as it was for the ninja.
If Starfire wanted Raven to teach Frost how to love, she would have to experience it first, they would have to learn together.
Raven boldly moved up to press her lips against Frost's, the ninja was a fair bit taller than the empath which meant she had to arch up slightly if she wished to touch Frost's lips. A position that the kunoichi used to assume the dominant role and grasp Raven by the small of her back, bending her over slightly forcing the sorceress to wrap her slender arms around her assassin lover.
The two girls continued kissing softly for a while; the only sounds heard in the whole warehouse were their breathless sighs as they paused momentarily to catch their breath before resuming their caresses.
As perfect as the scene was, when Raven began moaning due to Frost's hand threatening to slide inside her leotard and touch the moisture building between her legs, Jade, Nightwolf and even Sektor all cleared their throat at the same time letting them know they were not alone and that the others weren't going to vacate the room just for their sake.
###########################################
It was night in Jump City and Frost oversaw the luminescent landscape from atop a tall building, her spiky blue hair billowing with the cool night breeze.
Raven had kept her promise of helping Frost eliminate powerful criminals and she now had a lead on a remarkably powerful rogue who could prove bothersome in the future. With them out of the picture, Frost was ensuring fiascoes like the one with the Hive Five would not repeat themselves.
Though she had offered, the task of fully convincing Raven hadn't been easy. Rightfully so, the mystic speculated that Frost would not be able to control her twisted, violent urges to gruesomely kill any criminal Raven helped her find.
After much negotiation, which involved a lot of furiously passionate sex, the ninja managed to sway Raven to her cause so she would assist her, if only just this once.
Raven still doubted Frost's true motives as the girl had proven to be completely unpredictable. However, there would be no better chance to test if the ninja was truly considering changing her ways or she was only playing with Raven's heartstrings. Besides, if Frost proved to be uncontrollable and flew off the deep end by killing someone, she would be taking a criminal's life and not an innocent. It would be regrettable, but it was an acceptable risk.
Raven could be ruthless too, if she really needed to be; it was probably one of the many reasons why Frost liked her.
Since she had been the recipient of Hive Five attacks in the past, Raven knew how to fix damaged they had made and graciously helped Sektor get rid of the zapper on his back as well as revitalized Noob Saibot by administrating a large dose of dark energy to his body.
Once the Konquerors were back in shape, Raven got together with the shadow wraith and the Apache shaman in order to create a scrying spell that would far surpass the power of the Eye of Solomon.
Raven provided her empathic powers to scour the city looking for the right emotion, Nightwolf summoned the wind spirits to carry their enchantment to all the corners of Jump City, and lastly, Noob Saibot provided the raw magical energy required to hold such a spell. With their combined powers they achieved what all the Titans with their extensive amount of resources couldn't.
They found Red X's hiding spot.
This would be particularly sweet for Frost. Raven had informed her that Red X was a notorious criminal that had always been a top priority for Robin. Tonight she would be striking down a potential rival and annoy the Titan leader with one shot; she couldn't have asked for a better gift.
Well, except perhaps for Raven dressed in nothing but the Dragon Medallion.
As she surveyed the scene, hearing idle chatter of her allies through her radio as they got into position; Raven appeared behind Frost in her usual enigmatic way.
"Back to check up on me one more time, babe?" The kunoichi smirked to herself but didn't bother looking back at Raven.
"I have to make sure." The mystic took a deep breath. "Please, promise me again you won't kill him."
"Relax, most people don't need both their lungs, I'm sure he'll be okay if I rip out just one."
"Frost!" The girl said in warning, one of the things that Raven had never enjoyed was dark or toilet humor, she couldn't tolerate from Beast Boy nor could she from Frost.
The kunoichi giggled and looked over her shoulder, waving her hand slightly. "I'm just kidding! Don't worry, we won't touch a hair of his pretty little head and your beloved leader will get his precious armor back. Trust me on this toots, I'm an assassin, I'm all about seeing that the job gets done."
Raven wanted to remind Frost that according to her background she was a 'rookie' assassin which made quite a bit of difference, but she didn't feel like arguing. She was exhausted after the enchantment, and more importantly her loins still ached after all the 'negotiating' she had done with Frost. The empath was in dire need of meditation to restore her powers... and perhaps some lotion.
"Very well, I wish I could stay here and help but I must get back to the Tower."
"Don't sweat it. Me and my guys got this covered."
Shaking her head at Frost's usual confidence, Raven turned to leave, though she did give one last look at the ice ninja. "By the way, I'm sorry about slapping you earlier."
Frost winked at the girl. "It's okay, I kinda liked it. Got me all hot and bothered."
Raven almost chocked at the response, her face feeling warm, and she instinctively brought her hands up to her cheeks to hide it. Frost felt like teasing her more about it but overheard Sektor's message that the target had been sighted.
"Gotta go sugar! Love ya!" The ninja ran off the edge of the building and jumped off leaving Raven staring at the space where she once was.
"….love you too." Whispered Raven.
Stealing the Red X suit had been a mixed blessing for the criminal who now wore it. The suit had granted him incredible power, allowing him to perform heists that he could only have dreamed of before. However, the suit's fuel, Xenothium, was a rare luxury to come by and he found that most of his ill gotten revenue went towards powering his suit. There were times where he would attempt robberies simply to get more of the stuff.
It was also highly radioactive, which meant he had to forsake his cozy lair for a more spacious area where he could hoard the material without putting himself at risk of getting skin cancer. He had no intention of cutting his criminal career short just because of a few miscalculations.
As such he had to move to an underground abandoned parking lot and make his head quarters there. It was out of the way, it was secluded and it was quite spacious; meaning he could easily stuff large piles of Xenothium without anyone even being aware of the radiation it gave off.
This came with a price of course; there was no way Red X could claim the entire parking lot for his own. There were no actual gates barring entrance meaning anyone could just walk in, and indeed they did. Red X had to share his lair with the many homeless people that chose to make the underground their home. They of course had no idea somewhere in the darkest corner of the place they called home resided one of the most notorious villains of Jump City, but despite the relative safety Red X found the lack of privacy incredibly irritating.
Also there was no real space to make a proper living, so the thief lived in a cramped up area with a corner reserved for Xenothium and a corner for himself where he slept on a sleeping bag.
For all his accumulated riches, Red X lived like a hobo.
It did have the benefit that Robin never considered searching there, reasoning that some so wealthy could get a better hide out.
In order to perform a successful raid on Red X's secret base, anyone would need to know all this information as it was critical to make any would be raider's presence unknown lest they drew attention from any homeless people. The Konquerors' already had this advantage since the spell Raven, Saibot and Nightwolf had performed gave them all the knowledge they needed of where Red X hid.
As the professional thief made his way to his lair after another successful Xenothium run, he felt a presence lurking in the shadows, tailing him towards his domain.
The young man turned and scanned the silent, dark corners of the abandoned parking lot, seeing nothing, but definitely feeling something.
"I know you're out there, show yourself!" His demand was met with even more unnerving silence. Red X could run, but if he did so he would only lead whoever was tailing him deeper into his quarters. If they were here following him they either already had a trap set for him, or they just needed that extra incentive from them to fully corner him.
Red X stood his ground and stared into the darkness, unwilling to continue until whoever was following revealed their presence.
There was no response for a long time, letting Red X simply stare into the abyss with his mind telling him that it could have perhaps been a rat that he heard. The thief knew better than to convince himself to ignore danger like that; he wouldn't move until he got a clear answer. Better to waste a few hours staring into the dark than turn around and get strangled.
His patience paid off. As he scanned the area his eyes caught movement from behind a pillar seeing a vague humanoid figure moving there.
Red X's body tensed as he watched a dark hooded man emerge from the shadows as if he had been born there. The man's eyes were completely white and he stared with a dead gaze at the thief while walking very casually towards him, almost as if he was walking through the park.
"Red X, I presume?" Called the man standing a few meters away, not close enough to appear threatening, but not far enough that Red X would get a big lead on him if he tried to make a run for it.
"Who wants to know?" The thief considered his options briefly. This man appeared dangerous, but when you are a professional criminal meeting a shadowy stranger it could either be a close call with an assassin or a job opportunity. Red X stood still and waited for a response. What would it be tonight? Business or something else..?
"Your executioner." The shadowy man responded briskly, still walking towards the thief.
Something else it was then. Red X started hoping backwards knowing better than to attack a foe head on without any idea of what they were capable of. The man seemed content with walking towards him for now, forcing him to keep his distance by walking back until he ran out of room.
Red X sent a few flying X shaped shurikens at the man, who merely smacked them aside in mid air with his forearm, not even wincing after deflecting a blade with no apparent protective gear.
Extending a hand towards Red X, the man controlled the very shadows around him and sent a copy of himself running towards the thief. The shadow lept at Red X with a flying kick towards his face, forcing the thief to get out of the way with a roll. When the shadow flew right past him it collided against one of the support beams of the parking lot, splitting the stone column in half as if it were nothing. The entire structure trembled as it began to crumble under its own weight. Red X took his eyes away from the destruction just in time to see the dark hooded man send another shadow running at him. Just as before, Red X dodged it by sliding sideways and the shadow ran past him, punching at another column to shatter it as well.
Red X quickly realized that the man was trying to make the ceiling cave in on him and dashed to the left going into a corridor that led to another zone of the parking lot, using the collapsing ceiling to block any attempt at pursuit.
The man crossed his arms and chuckled even if it looked like his prey had escaped. He reached under his hood to activate his communicator.
"Saibot here; he's heading in your direction."
Red X dashed with blurring speed down the corridor, his mind going almost as fast as his legs. A million thoughts passed through his mind as he tried to deduce who that man was and why he wanted him dead.
He was confident that his deposit of Xenothium was safely hidden; his main priority right now was to escape.
As he went around a corner he was greeted by a burst of flame, the searing heat forcing him back as he covered his face with his arms.
Two figures this time; a red cyborg and a woman clad in only a green top and a loincloth blocked his way. The cybernetic assassin extended his arms towards him showing he had flamethrowers strapped to his forearms and shot another blast at Red X.
He had no other choice but to turn and run, not daring another confrontation with unknown foes. While he was unsure of his ability to overpower such opponents he was more than confident about outrunning them.
"He's getting away! After him!" The robot yelled to his companion as Red X made a run for it, making a mad dash for the closest exit out of the parking lot. For a moment it looked like he could make it if he just kept that speed.
"Don't let him jump! Jade!" Red X heard the sound of a bladed object spinning towards him and ducked to see a circlet chakram fly past him, barely avoiding getting a new haircut.
The circlet was thrown at such an angle that it started bouncing on the walls rapidly right in front of the thief threatening to slice him if he kept running. Red X knew that if he could time it just right he could sneak past it. That however would take a moment to calculate and he heard another object being thrown at him. A quick look over his shoulder revealed that this was a missile most likely shot at him by the robot.
With no time to think, the thief acted and ran to the side sneaking into a corridor that lead further into the parking lot. The missile shot at him by the cybernetic assassin struck the chakram that was barring his way, exploding and thus bringing a good chunk of debris down to seal that exit.
Jade had to admit that was quite skillful on the part of her team mate and congratulated him as they continued pursuing Red X. "A masterful shot Sektor."
"Yet easy for one trained as a Lin Kuei." The cyborg replied smugly and reached for his forearm communicator. "Sektor here, in pursuit of the target, he is heading in your direction!"
Red X entered a secluded crossroads that split into three different directions. Turning to his left in an attempt to lose his pursuers, Red X entered an unknown corridor just trying to pick a random route to put as much distance between him and the people following him.
There was a flash of green and a sensation of pain as Red X was rammed by something solid, hitting him right in across the skull mask he wore to send him tumbling back to the center of the crossroads. As he landed on his rear, his eyes cleared and he looked forward to see what was it that hit him. The thief furrowed his eyebrows when he saw, to his confusion, a muscled man approaching him dressed in an Apache get-up who had clearly just elbow smashed him right in the face.
Red X got back to his feet and realized that he was surrounded, with the cyborg and the woman in green blocking the path from the way he had come from, and the dark clad man suddenly appearing on his right side. Although he was panicking, Red X couldn't help but laugh at the group that gathered there to trap him.
"Okay, okay, so we have a robot, an Amazon, a ninja and an Indian. Are we missing anyone?"
Red X felt a cold gust of wind on the ceiling and looked up to see ice accumulating right over him. The frozen water dripped down taking the shape of a young woman with spiky blue hair.
"Ah, of course, the plucky hipster girl that the audience can identify with. I take it you're the comic relief?"
He barely dodged an ice kunai tossed at him, the serrated teeth of the weapon scratching the side of his mask.
"Actually, I'm the leader." Frost said adjusting her own bandit mask as she exhaled plumes of cold breath. "And you're dead meat, chump."
"Who are you people anyway? What do you want with me?"
"That armor you got on, it ain't yours ya know. And stealing is wrong." Frost tittered as she said those words sounding cynical. The girl began to circle around Red X casually, her arms relaxed as if she were addressing an old friend. "As for who we are, you can just call us the Konquerors."
"I didn't know the Titans employed mercenaries now." Red X got into a fighting stance now that retreat was no longer an option.
"Well, ya know the Titans." The girl continued to giggle, passing a hand through her spiked up hair to compose it as she too assumed a light Tong Bei Quan stance. "Somebody's gotta be there to clean up their messes."
Frost charged, tired of talking and itching to spill blood. Her palm was extended towards Red X in an attempt to grab him by the face and drive him up back to a wall where she could punch him to her heart's content.
The thief didn't want to have the girl with the cold aura anywhere near him, and summoned buzzaws from his gloves, taking wild swings on a wide arch to keep the frenzied kunoichi away.
Frost caught on before over committing herself to the attack and skidded to a stop, backing away from the saws just barely. Knowing the nature of Red X's weapons however, gave her an edge in the fight and she blew a curtain of cold air right between them.
When Red X stepped in to take another swing at her, his saws came into contact with the curtain and froze solid.
"Hahaha! SUCKER!" Frost laughed and swung a kick directly at the thief's arms, shattering the frozen blades as well as knocking his arms out of the way. Opening him up for an attack. Frost used that same leg to kick him on the side of the head, breaking a good chunk of his mask in the process.
The thief held his bleeding temple and peered at Frost with shock in his eyes. "I don't say this often, but you're really good. Are you by any chance-"
"NO!" Frost screamed guessing what Red X was about to say. "I'm not related to Robin okay! I'm not his sister, we didn't train under the same master, I'm not his evil twin, I didn't even know he existed until recently! So y'all better shut the hell up and quit that mess about us being related CUZ I DON'T EVEN KNOW THE GUY!"
The girl breathed in and out hard with cold air flowing out from her mask as she stared at Red X.
"Actually, I was going to ask if you practiced Tong Bei Quan."
Frost blinked and straightened up "Oh, right. Yes, yes I do."
Red X nodded, an awkward silence heard in the scene after Frost's little outrage.
"Although now that you mention it, I do see the resemblance with Robin."
"THAT'S IT! YOU'RE DEAD!"
Frost launched herself at Red X who now that he didn't have his saws had to rely on hand to hand skills in order to defend himself. The thief threw a punch right for Frost's face and struck her, but the ninja was so infuriated that she didn't care about blocking, all Frost wanted to do now was hurt Red X and hurt him bad.
Ignoring the pain that she felt on her cheek, Frost summoned her serrated ice daggers and stabbed the thief right on his left thigh, piercing through his peritoneal artery and crippling his leg. Screaming in pain as he limped back, Red X extended an arm, desperately trying to keep Frost at bay only to feel sharp pain as the ninja stabbed him through his bicep, tearing apart his ligaments and rendered his arm useless.
"That's what you get, ass wipe!"
The rest of the Konquerors approved of the battle and nodded to each other once their prey fell to his knees. Their first operation as a team had been a disaster, but now, not only had they redeemed themselves, but Frost had also proved herself an efficient leader; if perhaps a little overly aggressive.
Nightwolf's smile turned into a scowl suddenly, as he felt pressure on his chest, cursing when he realized the evil spirits within his body had been stirred by the sight of carnage. "Yes!" The shaman yelled raising a fist, his white eyes wide with excitement, forgetting the original intention of their mission as he yelled;
"FINISH HIM!"
The cry began a chain reaction that whipped through the rest of the Konquerors, awakening the primordial blood lust engraved upon them from participating in the Mortal Kombat tournament.
"FINISH HIM!"
Sektor yelled next, his priority protocols being overridden by the sorcery of the tournament.
"FINISH HIM!"
Noob Saibot's soulless nature got the better for him. The man known as Bi-Han knew of compassion and mercy when necessary; the wraith had no use for such things.
"FINISH HIM!"
Jade said lastly, knowing only that thieves such as Red X deserved death.
"FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM! FINISH HIM!"
Hearing the cries of her team calling for the death of Red X, Frost glanced down at the kneeling criminal currently soaked in his own blood.
Raven's words passed through her mind, the kunoichi remembering the promise she had made to the sorceress that she would take the villain alive. She knew what she needed to do, but the chanting from her team was drowning out the soothing sound of Raven's voice.
The girl grabbed Red X's neck, lifting him with one hand just to show off how strong she really was, and let the thief's legs dangle while she hoisted him up in the air, his head just above her own. Her eyebrows gave slight twitches as she stood there, unsure what to do. She had never doubted herself about performing a Fatality; she had never considered that it might be wrong somehow to take a life in such a brutal way.
"D-Damnit, I give up!" Red X struggled to say but it fell on deaf ears. Frost placed a hand on his chest which caused chills of fear to run through the thief knowing that if he didn't do something fast he would be killed.
"No! Please.. j-just.. you can't kill me! You have to turn me in!"
The girl scoffed, still hearing her team call for the thief's execution. "I ain't no hero, begging for mercy won't do you any good."
Red X felt the girl's palm growing cold and he started shaking, his one working arm reaching up to grasp at Frost's wrist in a futile attempt to get her to let go.
"Who are you!" The man asked, wanting to at least have the relief of knowing the name of his killer.
The girl smirked. "I'm Frost" She clenched that hand gripping at Red X's chest tightly. "I'm the coolest ninja ever."
The kunoichi's hand glowed with the cold chi shooting from her palm right through Red X's chest...
And freezing his heart.
