Pieces of the Puzzle
Alexnandru Van Gordon (and occasionally Victor Van Heiring)
Alex: Whoa—I have a total of 90 reviews! Hazzah! That's great, you guys, and this calls for a loud applaud for all you readers out there who have offered me their support and advice. I'll make brownies for you all!
Victor: (One eyebrow raised.) Ummm…dude—you're banned from the kitchen.
Alex-.- Right…—okay then! Kudos anyway!
Victor: Can we get on with the story?
: (Lingering in the very very very VERY! dark shadows of the basement behind the two teenagers. Eye narrows…)
Alex: Give me a break here—I'm just having fun since I haven't been on the computer in so long. It's devastating! Oh—and by the way, people, character deaths are ahead, but I won't tell you when, and it might not only be one person.
: (Thinking up of a plan…)
Victor: Fine! Whatever—but… (Shivers from intuition.)
Alex: (Shivers too and both boys stare over shoulders into the darkness.) Ooooh…creepy. I should seriously consider bringing a flashlight down here with me the next time I write. Is it just me, or do you feel like someone is watching you?
Victor: No…I feel it too…
O.O
DISCLAIMER: We don't own them…Victor, what's that? I thought I saw something move… (Getting up to check, limping on left leg. Victor watches curiously, worried of what it might be…Then Alex halts abruptly!) HEY!—
CHAPTER THREE: Time to die
Wintergreen paced back and forth across the room, not at all pleased with the latest report from his hired man. He wasn't replying to any message Wintergreen sent him, and he had mentioned something about Robin rushing over to the Titans East with the alien girl. What was that supposed to mean? The kid couldn't have caught on that quickly?
…Could he?
He shook his head, aggravated from waiting for so long. Everything should have been completed already! Slade would have been far more patient, but Wintergreen wasn't a tolerant man. Maybe he should have hired two or more men to get this done. He acquired the first four pieces alright on his own, and he been sure that this freak could deal with the last three. He succeeded in stealing Slade's pieces from the JL and Titans East easy enough, but when it came to Boy Wonder…that kid had to ruin everything sooner or later. He should have seen it coming.
But still! All that bloody man had to do was snatch up Slade's part from the T-tower, bring it back to the lair, and then return for Robin. Robin would have to return to Titans' Tower one way or another and that's when he could have nabbed him. Was that too much to ask! His grandmother could have finished the mission by now, and she was long dead in her grave (Alex: keep in mind that I really don't know if that's true or not). This was just going from bad to worse.
No. They had been pretty successful so far. Slade would soon be whole again and then they could begin to dispose of every hero and heroine in the world. This was just a minor setback. Nothing more.
Relaxing, he ceased in his pacing and sat in the chair behind his desk. He was just lucky none of Slade's body parts were destroyed, though he had no idea how that could have been done considering the man had taken a trip into a stream of lava. But still—the boy was smart enough to figure out that if Slade couldn't "pull himself together" he would be no threat to the world. Cutting him up was quite an interesting idea and it worked.
He smiled. He would have loved to see the look on that kid's face as he made his first kill. That would have been priceless…
-R-
Too bad there were no windows, and it really sucked that the air ventilation system was far too small for someone—even as tiny as he was—to slip into. It was all up to Batman and his nifty little laser pen that was slowly cutting through the thick steel door like butter. In no time soon he had a gigantic circle formed and gave it an almighty front kick to push it through. It fell with a heavy clank on the basement floor and the two of them ran out into the darkness. The alarms were off and so was the rest of the power. It was as dark as mud water in the basement.
He was tempted to ask "What now?" but held his tongue. Whoever was attacking them could have been in the basement right now. After all, who else would have locked the door on them? They weren't prisoners.
"Robin?"
It was Aqualad, and he sounded close.
"Yeah. I'm here." He replied just loud enough for his friend to here. Batman was fiddling with his utility belt in search of his small flashlight. Robin did the same and found his sooner, turning it on to find his friend.
The beam of light fell on the seaman only a few paces away form him. The boy raised an arm to cover his eyes as he adjusted to the bright light and made his way toward Robin, glancing around warily in search of the intruder.
"Any idea who is doing this?" Aqualad asked, standing beside Robin as Batman still searching for his darn flashlight.
"No. Sorry."
"No need to apologize." Aqualad laughed and smiled. His voice seemed to change into someone older, but still young. "It will make it all the more fun in the future."
"What—" He was cut off by the fist that caught his jaw and sent him flying back into Batman. The two of them landed with an umph, both confused beyond belief. This was certainly not Aqualad.
Having dropped his flashlight, it spun on the floor and rolled back and forth. Aqualad was illuminated for a moment and then again—to show someone else.
He wore all black—no skin or hair visible to the human eye. His cape flowed down to his knees, torn at the end like Red-X's suit. Actually, it much resembled Red-X's save for the mask. He wore a tight cloth mask over his head (Victor: think Spiderman) with two slits to show his frightening eyes. They were cold, icy blue and stared deep down into Robin's soul, freezing his heart for the briefest of moments. There was nothing but pure evil in those eyes and Robin felt he wouldn't hesitate if he had to kill the man.
WHY WAS HE THINKING THAT! Death was on his mind too often, and now he was thinking of murder as easily as he would think about the weather. It was something he picked up from Slade…
That made him shiver.
"You're a brat—you know that?" The young man laughed. "Couldn't stay put in your little tower, could you?"
Robin stood, helping Batman to his feet. They could take this man on.
The man laughed again. "Sorry, kid—but daddy's going to have to watch from the sidelines."
What was that supposed to mean?
The man grabbed the edge of his cape and spun around, his figure slimming and disappearing altogether before he completed a 360 degree turn. That was pretty amazing—but pretty creepy at the exact same time. He could be either invisible or teleporting somewhere else.
Whatever the case—Robin knew what to do.
He snatched up his flashlight and switched it off, backing away from that spot to confuse the enemy. If you can't see your opponent, even out the battle—make sure they can't see you either. That had been one of his first lessons from Batman, and it worked…most of the time.
He heard Batman grunt over to his left and made his way cautiously in the dark toward his mentor. But he found nothing when he held out his hands to feel. Then followed a long eerie silence.
He suddenly didn't like being left alone.
-HW-
That was the oddest thing ever. First, you were attacked, and then your opponent disappears when they're winning. What was with that?
"What should we do?" HW asked Starfire as they lowered back onto the ground beside the battered up motorcycle. Robin wasn't going to be happy when he found out it was wasted.
"We head back home." Starfire replied as she gave the bike a gentle kick. She cringed at the sight of smoke that rose from the engine. "We must make sure the final piece of Slade is kept under our watch, least our thief friend decides to claim it."
"Do you call everyone friend?"
She shook her head. "Not the man whom you electrocuted, and not Slade—I do not know them well enough."
HW's mouth dropped open. This girl was a little naïve in thinking that everyone in the world could be friends. Some people just weren't that good…
"So…" She turned away from the motorcycle and stood on the deserted road. "Do we hitch-hike, or do you think you can fly us both to your HQ?"
"Fly—your metallic vehicles are not very fast."
That was interesting.
Starfire moved behind HW and grabbed her behind the waist before taking off into the darkening sky. Star was right—cars were slow compared to her. She flew as fast as Batman, and that was saying something!
-Ra -
They stood inside the evidence room, waiting for someone from the JL to come and pick up Slade. Beast Boy informed them of everything—including the interesting part about some girl named HW getting arrested. Raven and Cyborg never had the chance to meet the girl and get to know her, and that was why Raven thought Beast Boy was stupid to instantly believe the girl was innocent. He had bad talent in picking friends, many of which who turned on them in the end.
Hence—Terra.
Trust was a major factor when it came to relying on the person, and Raven wasn't one to trust easily. She learned that the hard way, even when she knew from the beginning that she was right. Maybe she should follow her sensible feelings more often.
Cyborg stood beside the square crate holding Slade's head at the back of the room. It stood a little over knee high to the robotic boy and was made with metal thick enough to take a welder forever to melt through. It was near impossible to open and they hoped that would have stopped thieves from thinking they could suddenly resurrect the villain. Whoever was willing to waste half their life getting all the crates open was crazy—but that didn't steal this culprit from stealing them. It had to be a close friend of Slade's, or someone he paid before hand to fix things if he were to die. That man had enough back-up plans to make you sick.
"You guys aren't going to arrest her…are you?"
Raven rolled her eyes. Beast Boy was still going on about that electric girl and how she was too good to through into prison. Raven didn't know if he had a crush on her or what, but Raven was kind of…jealous…
"We will hold her until everything is cleared up." She answered, rubbing her temples in annoyance. "That is all Beast Boy—now will you quite asking!"
"Someone's in a bad mood…" He muttered, eyeing her in his upset manner. Actually, she was. They had been uptight all day, ever since Robin left all of a sudden in the morning with Starfire to save HalloWeen. It was going to be night soon and she was cranky. Where was the JL? Weren't they sent for in the morning?
"We're all a little tired…and worried." Cyborg said, trying to calm the fire before it could grow. "Who wouldn't be nervous? Someone found and collected all of Slade's body parts in just two days and they've all been taken besides this one. Whoever we're up against isn't going easy to defeat."
"And with Slade alive, it'll only make matters worse." She added, agreeing that they were scared.
Beast Boy stared at the crate and Raven could tell he was tempted to kick the stupid thing. "But maybe Robin should have stayed here to be safe. I mean—doesn't Slade want to get his revenge?"
"It splits up Slade's secret force if Robin is not in the same place as the last piece." She explained, somewhat relieved Robin had thought of that. "And if it's just a skilled individual collecting the pieces, it will only make it harder for them. This buys us more time."
Cyborg grinned. "And when the JL gets here, they'll only waste more time trying to find the last piece again. We can't afford to let this get stolen."
A red light flashed and they all paused. Someone was requesting entrance to the tower and that meant members from the JL were here. What took them so long was beyond her—they were far away, but not so far to take this long. Maybe they ran into crime.
"I'll get it." Beast Boy sighed, jogging from the evidence room. It was best to leave to two more powerful heroes.
"Let's just hope the JL picked a spot that isn't too easy to find." Cyborg muttered. "I thought Antarctica was a good idea, but I guess I was wrong."
"I honestly don't know if any place in this world is good enough to hide in."
-BB-
Beast Boy made his way to the door and shouted out for the hell of it. "I'm coming!"
He fiddled with the control panel next to the door and stood back as the right one slowly slid inward a crack to let someone in. Usually you could open it manually, but they were just about fully locked down for the emergency.
"Hello?" He asked when no one entered. He stepped aside to see through to outside—and saw Flash and the Green Lantern lying there on the ground.
Alarmed, he switched to his raptor form and stalked toward the door. He was going to tear apart whoever did this.
But before he could do anything, a dark cloaked figure slipped in through the door and whipped out a Bo-staff. For a moment he thought of Slade, but that was impossible. Besides, he couldn't see the guy's face from beneath the shadows of the hood.
Skilled, the mysterious man twirled his weapon at Beast Boy and slapped him across the snout. The powerful blow turned his head sharply to the left, injuring his neck badly. The pain was so incredible, he was forced to transform into his normal humanoid form and stumble back before falling to his knees. He had no time at all to block against the next attack which was a vertical strike to the top of his head.
"Lights out." The man cackled before he brought out the staff.
Then Beast Boy fell back to the ground, body going limp.
-W-
He had expected more of a fight, but he supposed it was true that the green changeling was the weakest of the five Teen Titans. It was an easy take-out—but he didn't know if the child was simply knocked unconscious or dead. Maybe Wintergreen would get lucky and the kid would end up dead…why did he care. The two JL members were a cinch to take down, even though he supposed he should have killed them, and this kid was just a small setback. If Robin and the alien girl were still gone, that meant he would only have two more to go…
Stepping over the transformer's limp body, he strode down the long hall toward his destination. Not knowing his way, it took him a while of searching around to find the evidence room—but he was forced to hide around the corner when a levitating girl came from the room ad zoomed down the hall, muttering something about Beast Boy. She sensed him too late and barely had the time to gasp before his staff came down hard on the back of her head. She too lay limply on the ground—dead or alive? Again—who cared?
He walked around her body and slowly stalked toward the evidence room door. It was left open when the girl left and the cybernetic boy inside had yet to close it. So, still eager to keep his element of surprise, he waited a moment before peeking around the corner at the robotic man. The one called Cyborg was staring at his arm cannon, readjusting something he didn't like about it. He was so naïve. If he was smart, he would have watched the door.
"I know exactly what to do with you…" Wintergreen whispered to himself, opening a pouch on his belt. Inside were a few small electric disks—the exact same type he gave to the hired man to set the electric witch up. She deserved a life long sentence in prison after almost killing him. He didn't know how his heart didn't give out on him.
Whistling, he walked into the room and stopped once the hero saw him. It took a moment for the intrusion to register in the boy's mind, but even a heartbeat was too late for him. Wintergreen tossed the disks at him and watched as he was engulfed in a cloud of electricity. The light was blinding, but Wintergreen could only smile. The boy screamed before falling to the ground limply, either dead or alive like his companions, and then the crate was undefended…
Wintergreen stepped over the boy and stopped before the crate grinning down at it. He wondered why Slade had so much trouble with that pathetic group of children who dared to call themselves heroes. Oh well. He would have to ask him later…
And then he took the crate.
-A and V and…someone else…-
Victor: (Broom in hand, whacking the hell out of someone hidden in the darkest of shadows) Give me back my cousin!
Alex: Stop it! You're hitting me!
Victor: O.o? What…did they get away?
Alex: (Coming from the shadows, rubs sore head and limps to chair at desk.) Whoever they were—yes…and now I have a splitting headache. Where'd you learn to hit so hard?
Victor: Don't know…but we'd better get to work.
Alex: Oh yes… (To the readers.) Sorry this is taking so long. I've finally begun to co-write a story with Victor because…I'm too nice. If you've ever seen Hellsing or Trigun the animes, please read them. The one currently posted right now is Hellgun—and no, it's not a comedy crossover. I can't write comedy, and that's why I've settled in with angst…
Victor: By the way…Did you really kill Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg.
Alex: (Evil grin.) Need you ask…
Victor: (Shocked.) O.O…
-Bowing low
-Alexnandru Van Gordon,
and
-Appalled
-Victor Van Heiring