Teen Titans / Star Wars crossover: Chapter 12: Escape

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I don't own either of these franchises. Of course.

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Chapter 12: Escape

The command center: the smoke had barely cleared, when one of the undamaged consoles beeped: incoming message. Han answered it. "Who is this?"

"Uh, uh, everything is under control. Situation normal."

"What happened?"

"Had a slight weapon malfunction, but uh, um, everything is perfectly alright now. We're fine, We're all fine here now, thank you. How, how are you?"

"We're sending a squad up."

"Uh, uh, negative, negative. We had a reactor leak here now. Give us a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak... very dangerous."

"Who is this? What's your operating number?" In response Han blasted the comlink, causing it to explode.

"Boring conversation anyways… LUKE!" he shouted into his comm unit, "WE'RE GOING TO HAVE COMPANY!"

The other side of the detention center: "Thought your little metal buddy said this place was unmanned!" shouted Cyborg at 3PO.

"He says it was, as of five minutes ago!"

'Yeah, well, a fat lot of good that does us now!" He unleashed a flurry of concussion bolts, many of which found their mark. But for every trooper who fell, two more seemed to take his place.

Suddenly, another series of blaster bolts shot past them from behind, targeting the stormtroopers. "Did you get my message?" yelled Han, as they took up positions alongside Luke and Robin.

"Which one was that?"

"About trouble coming!"

"I think we got the message," murmured Robin, under his breath, looking down the hallway at the approaching stormtroopers.

"We've gotta find where the princess is being held!" shouted Luke

"You mean, you gotta find!" Han shouted back. "Right now, I'd say survival is more important!"

Off to the side, Cyborg and Robin were behind their own corner. "I hate to admit it, but Han has a point," said Robin. "Cy? Any chance your sonic cannon can clear these guys away long enough for us to do our business?"

"I can try, Rob." So saying, he readied his arm, the limb reconfiguring itself into the cannon. He dodged up to where Han and Luke were. "Everybody, cover your ears!" And he sent one carefully focused blast down the corridor.

But even focused, the sonic beam diverged, hitting the sides of the corridor, and reverberating down the corridor. Some small parts of it were reflected back at the heroes. Fortunately, their "borrowed" armor proved good enough to keep the worst effects from them.

They looked. The corridor was strewed with quiescent white-armored forms, none of which seemed to be moving. Robin hoped they were only unconscious, but given the nature of things, he couldn't allow himself to be sidetracked. "Come on!"

"Hey, who died and left you in charge?" But Han followed, mostly because he had no better idea. It just grated on his nerves to be taking orders from a kid like this.

The quartet, followed by the two droids, made their way past the downed troopers. "Here," said Luke, reading the signs over the door, "This is where she should be. Wait out here," he told the others, "If we all crowd in there, she's sure to panic. I'll go get her and bring her out."

"Right, kid. You go into the small, enclosed place that's probably booby trapped. We'll wait out here for you." Han's cynical nature was irrepressible.

Luke zipped into the small cell. There was a girl, wearing the long robe he'd seen in the holo, lying on a low couch. She looked up at his entry, a puzzled expression on her face. "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?"

Wha-* Oh! Right! He ripped off his helmet. "I'm—*" A shout from outside, as Robin's voice carried over a new flurry of gunshots. "Luke! Get the girl and get out of there! Now!" "I'm, uh," he started to say, "I'm Luke," but it occurred to him she wouldn't know Luke Skywalker from a hole in the ground. "I'm, uh, here with Ben—*" He gestured towards the open cell door, intending to help her out of it.

"Ben? Ben's here?" The girl rushed up off the couch and climbed out of the doorway. She stuck her head out into the corridor, and only barely pulled it back in time, as a blaster bolt sizzled past her. "Dammit! I told those damned imperials to watch the hair!" She climbed out into the corridor, with Luke following her.

Once out, she took cover as blaster bolts sizzled around her. "Where's Obi-Wan? Where's Ben?" She happened to be closest to Cyborg, and addressed him calmly (well, as calmly as anyone could, given the circumstances), not put off by his metallic appearance.

He glanced at her, while readying another sonic blast down the corridor. "He went to see if he could sabotage the tractor beam that's holding us here!" But her attention was diverted to a short, squat figure hiding in the shadows.

"I don't believe you guys! I go to all the trouble of—* Never mind." She grabbed a gun from a fallen Stormtrooper, checked the charge, and said a word that made Luke blush. "Dammit, dammit, dammit." She turned to the others in fury. "This was your plan? Blast your way in and blast your way out? None of you saw anything lacking, shall we say, about that?"

Han kept on firing. "We wouldn't be here at all, except we were trying to rescue a certain royal pain in the ass. Now, if you've got any better ideas? I don't think these guys even know how to spell 'surrender.'"

She cast about. Luke and Robin both marveled at her composure. Even in the midst of a firefight, this young woman was by no means distracted. "Here!" She pointed her liberated gun at a grating, blasting it off. "Down here!"

"Hey, I don't recall taking orders from you, oh miss high and mighty princess! I take orders from only one person: me."

"Fine," she said, already slipping into the blasted gate. "You stay up here and follow all your orders you want." Robin just gave Han an amused look, as he and Cyborg followed the girl.

More firing. "Yeah, yeah, make it all my fault," muttered Han, returning fire. "Chewie! Get going! I'll hold 'em off as long as I can!" The Wookie dived into the chute.

Han waited a moment, then plucked a grenade he'd found on a trooper off his belt. In his long and illustrious life, he'd learned a thing or two about grenades. They could be really useful little bastards.

He pulled the pin, and rolled it down the corridor…

….

The group found themselves in a dark pit. It seemed to consist of a great deal of junk, with some liquid waste thrown in. It stank to the highest stars. "Uh oh," said Han, "I gotta baaaaaaad feeling about this…"

"It's a garbage chute," insisted Leia, unnecessarily. "Garbage usually isn't heavily guarded; we should be able to find our way out from here easier." She turned back to Luke. "You said you were with Ben? Where is he?"

"He said something about trying to destroy the tractor beam mechanism that pulled us in here."

"But he's here? Did he get my message?"

"About him being your only hope? Yeah."

"Not that message, vacuum-brain! The real message!" She glanced at the R2 unit, "standing," along with C3PO, along one wall. "Oh, please tell me you got this droid to the Rebellion before bringing him here?"

Luke's own temper was beginning to show. "Look, uh, Your Highness, but we've been pretty much fighting for our lives ever since these droids came into 'em. I don't know anything about any other message, and if Ben does, he didn't tell me! So quit with the attitude!"

"People, people," soothed Robin, "Look. We find ourselves kinda thrown together here. Now," and here he turned a look on Leia that she turned away from, "whatever's gone down in the past...well, it's in the past. What we have to work on is the future. And, personally, I want my future to include getting someplace less smelly?" He smiled. "So let's work on it from that angle for right now, 'kay?"

"Uh, Rob? We, uh, we may have a bit of a problem here…

…..

Elsewhere on the Battlestation: "I believe it's safe to say your friends are behind those alarms. If so, knowing my Master, the first thing he'll do is secure all exits and entranceways." He turned to Marek. "You say you came in a ship?"

"Yeah. Don't know if it'll hold all these people, though."

"Then another is called for." He stopped, and closed his eyes, feeling about with senses Vanderk knew he'd never understand. "And one may be rather close. But…

"...it is right at the epicenter of the dark Power I sense."

….

The young man known as Darth Asmodeus looked up, as though to see through the walls and ceiling. "Yes, My Master is sending troops to that very area, to secure the ship."

"He's already sending troops?" said Marek. "So why even bother going there? The place'll be swarming with Imps."

"Maybe not. Now, listen closely, for I will not repeat myself…."

…

"A trash compactor?! We're in a TRASH COMPACTOR?!"

"Y-yes, Master Han, it seems we...fell into one of the main recycling centers for the station."

"Hokay, everyone." They all looked up at him. The footing was treacherous, and Luke could have sworn he felt something brush past him. "We're here. How do we get out?"

Nobody looked like they had any ideas. After all, garbage collection machines and devices weren't designed so garbage could get out. It was generally considered a one-way trip.

And just as that thought crossed his mind, the walls began to move…

…..

"Rae, this is a really dumb idea, you know that, don't you?" Raven and Beast Boy had oozed out of the shadows of the Millennium Falcon and were currently in the cockpit, looking out. Even with no lights on inside, Beast Boy still fretted. "I mean, we're right out here. They can see us."

"Oh, they'll see us, Garfield, but they won't, either. It's really a very simple spell, actually. All it does is make the target simply uninterested in the caster. I've used it, in the past, to walk right past heavily guarded fortresses, and right into the main meeting hall.

"But I have to have some sense of openness, before I can begin to contact the others, know where they are. That power I told you about...it's making it hard for me to focus. Now shush. I have to concentrate."

…..

"Alright, your ship is right ahead," said Asmodeus, pointing. "Just follow that shaft to that corridor—I can sense it's unoccupied—and into the hanger deck. Once there, get into the ship."

"Oh, right. We're supposed to march right out there, in broad open space, carrying her," and he gestured at the still somnolent Starfire, whom Vanderk had slung over his shoulder, "and just expect the guards at the control tower to just let us go? Tell me again how this is a good idea." Marek was still fingering the hilt of his lightsaber.

But Asmodeus had pulled a small, tablet-like device from his pocket. "The guards," he said, in a distracted voice, "are about to have enough to worry about without bothering with you three. But...timing will be crucial. You!" He addressed Vanderk. "Think you can run that distance carrying her? Maybe dodging blaster bolts?"

"Yes, sir. If not, I'll die trying."

Asmodeus looked amused. "Still calling me 'sir,' even while committing a treasonous act?"

Vanderk drew himself up as much as he could, in the cramped space. "You are an officer in the Empire I still serve, sir. As such, I accord you the respect you are due."

Asmodeus stared at him for a moment. "You know, you really believe that, don't you?" Vanderk said nothing. "Tell you what. After all this is over, look me up. I've some plans I'd like you to be a part of. If you survive, that is. But I suppose that's a given." So saying, he left them, turning a corner as silent as a shadow.

Asmodeus sighed quietly as his eyes flashed sulphuric red beneath their normal brown under his fury before returning back to brown. The young Dark Lord continued down the hallway as he tried to push down his rising irritation.

…..

Earlier: "A trash compactor?! This is your idea of an escape, 'your highness'?" The sarcastic inflection in his voice was obvious.

"It beats where we were! Now all we have to do is find the exit." So saying, she began looking around. Luke looked at Han and shrugged, joining her in her search, as did Chewbacca. Han shook his head. "Damn amateurs. Now look what they've got us into." Then he too began to look.

"Uh, Master Han? Master Luke?" In the confusion, they'd forgotten about the two droids, who'd been dumped in with them.

"Not now! We've gotta find the way out before—*" And just as if on cue, they heard a massive groaning of stressed metal, and saw the walls of the disposal unit begin to move inwards…

"Hey!" shouted Han, over the noise, addressing the droids. "Where's the exit for this place?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you, Master Han! There isn't one!"

…..

"I don't get it. We're supposed to make a mad dash across that open space? Kid, where'd you find this guy?"

"Me?! I didn't find him, he found me! Or rather, us.

…..

A few minutes earlier: "Oh, I just knew this was the way I'd end my days!" moaned C3PO. "Smashed together with a pile of organic refuse…"

"Does his mouth have an 'off' switch?" asked Han, even as he and Chewie were rummaging around, trying to find something, anything, to slow down the impending doom. Cyborg had already braced himself. Grim, and nearly deadly, experience had shown them that neither blaster bolts nor sonic cannons had any effect on the inward-moving walls.

All of a sudden, the compacting walls stopped. "Whu?" said Han. "What happened there?"

"Don't know, don't care," shouted Robin. "There's bound to be a way out of this-* And at that very moment, an overhead hatch screeched noisily and slid aside. The heroes stared in amazement. Then, to add to their surprise, two plastoid ropes emerged from the darkness of the upper level, uncoiling down towards them.

"You know," said Han in a quiet, almost awed voice, "I would say somebody up there likes us, but that's kinda cliché…"

"Stuff your cliché!" shouted Leia, already climbing up the rope. "Just climb!"

"Hey, what about R2?" shouted Robin. "He can't climb!" The little droid beeped and booped dismally.

"Hey, no prob, Rob. Got it all figured out," said Cyborg. As the others were climbing up to safety (?), he'd wrapped the end of one especially long cable around both him and R2, and began climbing upward…

….

Back at the darkened corridor, in the hidden alcove Darth Asmodeus had led them to, Vanderk and Marek were conferring. Marek was clearly nervous, but Vanderk seemed completely calm. "Kid, do you really have that much faith in that Sith? They're not trustworthy; I know. I once was one. Power and revenge is their only goal."

"Then," replied the renegade Stormtrooper, "don't you think helping us must therefore somehow be in his interests? After, it's like he said: He didn't have to do anything. Sooner or later, we'd have been caught, and we couldn't fight off every soldier on this station, not to mention Lord Vader."

Still Marek fretted. "'S gotta be a trap…"

"Pretty damn obvious trap," said Vanderk. "Running across open ground like that? Hell, I could do better than that." Marek glared at him. "Besides," he gestured with his chin at the still-sleeping Starfire, slung over his shoulder, "I'm getting a cramp."

…

A darkened corridor, seven figures conferred. "Okay, where are we?"

"Dunno. Hey, princess! Any more bright ideas? Like maybe hiding in the barrel of that superlaser?"

"There's no time for that," said Robin. The others, even Han and Leia, had come to respect his authority. "R2! Any way you can direct us to the ship?"

More squawks and beepings. Then the little droid mated an extension with a nearby port. One brief boop. Then he projected a 3D map into the air in front of them. One single blinking dot showed them where they were. A line showed them the way to the hanger deck where Han's ship was. "Okay, I'd say that's pretty much got it."

"Hey, Rob," said Cyborg, "didn't you come here looking for Starfire?"

"I will...as soon as I get the rest of you to safety. If our timing is correct, Ben should have disabled that tractor beam by now. Once I get the rest of you in the ship, and off, I'll go back and look for her."

"What! Rob, that's suicide! You can't take on the whole station!"

"Maybe I won't have to. If I can just find her, I can squeeze the both of us into one of those-what are they called?-TIE fighters. We'll meet you out there." Or we won't, one of the two.

But we'll be together.

But one thing was certain, and Cyborg knew it: Robin was not leaving without Starfire. And he knew better than to argue the point.

….

"So now what was this sign we were supposed to be waiting for?"

Vanderk shrugged. "He said we'd know.

Marek shook his head. "Trusting the word of a Sith Lo-*" And at that exact moment, the plastoid glass over the con tower shattered into a million pieces."

"And there it is!" shouted Vanderk. He didn't have to say it twice; Galen Marek was already in motion, moving towards the Millennium Falcon. He'd have to retrieve his own ship later. Right now, that was the least of his worries

The two dashed across the open space. Over to one side, they caught a glimpse of lightsabers in action, but couldn't afford to be distracted. Already, the officers in charge had summoned Stormtroopers, via their personal communicators.

At the same time, another group emerged from the shadows, also racing towards the Falcon. Robin started to fire on them, when he recognized the one the Stormtrooper was carrying over his shoulder. He lowered his blaster, but kept it ready. "Ah, I believe we have something to talk about," he shouted over the commotion.

"If you know the owner of this butt," shouted Vanderk back, "we certainly do!"

"Everybody, in!" Raven emerged from the ship. "I can shield us from their sensors!" At least, I hope I can. She was acutely aware of not being at her full strength.

Great doors began to open, and Stormtroopers began to pour through, already firing their weapons. Robin stood his ground, and fired back-but taking careful aim. He was remembering a bit of wisdom from the gunfighters of the Old West: it wasn't always the fastest gun than decided the day, as it was the one whom its wielder had taken the time to aim properly. That did not prevent him from dodging, however, and seeking cover when available.

Luke also emerged, firing his own blaster. "Get down, you idiot! We don't have to take them all on, just enough to get free from here!" Robin shouted.

"I'm not going anywhere without Ben!"

"Then you may not be going anywhere! Look, Ben went to sabotage the tractor beam. If you wait 'till they repair it…"

But then their attention was drawn to another entranceway, and the glow of lightsabers, one red and one blue. "There he is! Now come on! Get inside! I'll-* But what Robin was intending to do would remain a mystery. As they watched, Ben raised his saber in a kind of salute, and the dark figure's lightsaber cleaved through the air where he'd been.

"Ben, no!" Luke began firing wildly at the dark presence, who did not seem the least intimidated by the blaster bolts whizzing past him. Indeed, he turned towards Luke's group.

The deck plates trembled.

At first, Darth Vader thought there must be some problem with the drive system, or perhaps with the artificial gravity. Then he saw the dark girl in blue...and the blackness, the powers that were swirling around her.

So this was the presence both he and his apprentice had sensed? Truly she was a formidable foe. She'd make an admirable ally, if he could just contain her...he sent out a Force-choke towards her.

For a brief moment, the girl looked surprised. But then her rage reasserted itself...and the Force around her neck literally exploded outward.

Vader was impressed. He'd never heard of anyone-*

Something black hit him with the force of a runaway comet.

Vader was driven back into the bulkhead, the Power reaching into his cybernetic systems, shorting many of them out. He struggled to regain his feet...and realized something.

For some reason, the girl wasn't even using her full strength.

She snarled, and directed her power into the floor beneath him. It rolled up like a scroll, wrapping Vader securely. He struggled to use his command of the Force, and was able to get free...only to find himself dodging machinery from the hanger deck. Some he was able to deflect with the Force, some with his lightsaber. But she was throwing so many of them, it was only a matter of time before one or more connected. And he could tell, from the force with which the others were being hurled, that he couldn't take very many of them in his weakened condition.

Much more of this, and they'd compromise the Emperor's prized battle station. That simply could not be allowed to happen. There was only one thing to do. "Captain!" he shouted over the general comm wavelength, "Withdraw all troops! And then, open the hanger bay!"

"S-sir?"

"Do not question me! Just do it!"

On the main comm: "All troops! Double time it to the nearest entrance!"

"Raven!" Robin shouted, noticing the troops' withdrawal. "Come on! They're planning something!"

"So am I," Raven growled, her will rock solid in her voice. "He will pay."

That's when Robin slugged her.

Taken completely by surprise, Raven's eyes rolled up into the top of her head, and she slumped down into Robin's arms. He effortlessly picked her up, and ran up the steps to the Falcon.

Han was already closing up the hatchways, and had prewarmed the engines...when the hanger bay doors suddenly opened, and the Falcon, along with a number of TIE fighters that hadn't been securely fastened down, as well as a few Stormtroopers who'd been too slow in retreating, was blown out into the eternal night of space.

To be continued…