Chapter 26
I know it's been a while and I apologise.
Last chapter: The Titans are attacked during the parade in Metropolis. Nobody saw that coming I'm sure.
Onwards!
Charly slid his foot round in a wipe sweep, knocking the robot's chunky legs from under it, causing it to crash through a window into a display, rather ironically, of video games entitled 'Robot Destroyer (4)'.
'You know,' He yelled to his nearest team mate, Starfire, 'These guys look a little familiar.'
He allowed his fist to flare as he slowed time to half speed, allowing him to punch a hole clean through the chest of the familiar foe.
'I too believe I have seen these particular robots before.' Starfire destroyed a group with a couple of well placed star bolts.
Robin flicked the remains of the robot he was fighting towards another, causing both to explode before addressing the two chatting Titans.
'Could we focus, please?' He scalded, slamming his staff into the chest of another 'bot without looking., 'Although, they are quite familiar. They seem like they're old too; second-hand robots.'
Cyborg pulled the arms off a robot and watched as a giant boulder crushed it from above, flashing a grin at Terra he turned to the others.
'These are the same 'bots that Brother Blood used, the ones based on me.' He explained, allowing everyone to 'oh' in unison and then become confused by their inability to notice this.
Raven destroyed four robots with a bus before turning to the team as everyone else had done.
'But who's controlling them? Brother Blood was transferred to the high security wing of Arkham months ago.' Raven was still trying to get the stains out of one of her cloaks from the occasion.
'We're all aware of that, Rae, but cheers for the update.' Charly was behind a robot before anyone noticed he had moved and twisted it's head off.
He threw the head to the ground and glanced around, the bots seemingly having vanished, he scratched his head confusedly. He swept his head in a wide arc, searching for their outdated foes.
'Well, that's a bit strange, I mean where'd they go? I can't even sense them anymore.' Charly walked over to the other Titans, who were formed in a small group in the middle of the street. 'What did they want, they can't have just come to fight us then left. I was about to flex the old pyro muscles again.'
Beast Boy flashed him a questioning glance, 'You use your power constantly, you make toast with it every morning!' He confronted the British teen.
'I meant in a battle situation, I use it all the time to keep myself warm, or other people, right Terra?' Charly sought confirmation, having used his power for the very purposes of making sure she didn't get too cold.
When he got no answer he looked bemused. He did a quick scan of the team.
'Someone tell me she went to get coffee or something, please. Guys…Where is she?' He frantically looked around the empty streets until he noticed an image flashing on the chest of a downed robot. He walked over slowly, keeping his guard up. The image was in fact a screen upon which was an image Charly hoped he wouldn't see again, at least for a while.
'Ah, there you are, the rest of the Titans are where? Ah, I see.' Brother Blood's infuriating voice poured from the speakers either side of the screen like pus from a festering wound.
'Well, as you may have guessed, these were my robots that attacked you, but of course I have no control over them. I contacted the person who does, one Control Freak, and he performed my task in my stead.' Blood was stalling.
'Get to the point, Blood, if you've done something to Terra...' Charly began.
'Oh I assure you I haven't…yet,' Blood's face curled into a sadistic smile, 'She is currently being transported back to Jump City by my Cyborg-bots.' Blood chuckled a little, causing Charly to force back vomit which had leapt to his throat.
'Yes, I want you to come after her, I'll get a large reward for getting rid of the Titans, but you especially, you've pissed off some important people in your time.' Blood, gesturing to a computer on which an image of Terra, bound and unconscious, being carried by a flying robot, chuckled again.
'I'm sure you can find me, Spitfire, with the help of your friends. In the meantime, I'll keep myself entertained with your precious Terra.' Blood laughed maniacally and went to switch off the comm. Link.
'You sick BASTARD!' Charly slammed a fist through the screen, causing large gashes in his hand from the glass, he didn't notice. 'I'll rip him to pieces, I'll tear off his head and spit down his neck!'
Robin put his hand onto the enraged pyrokinetic's shoulder, to comfort him perhaps, but someone in Charly's mind was raging about how it was to restrain him. Which was probably true.
'Robin, we're going back to Jump. Now.' He turned to his leader, but his eyes weren't what he had expected. Instead of a flaming swirl of anger and forcefulness there was a pleading helplessness running through the vibrant red.
'Of course, we'll get back to the tower and start looking for Blood, it wont be hard to track him. We'll talk to Control Freak first.' Robin slammed a fist into his palm, determinedly.
'Talk to, hurt 'till he tells us, same thing.' Charly set off back to the hotel to collect Terra's things as well as his own.
'Spitfire, your hand…' Raven began, starting after her brother but before she had taken another step he was gone. 'Temporal powers.' She sighed, rather pointlessly.
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The journey back to Jump City and the tower had been only a few hours long, but to Charly it had lasted a lifetime and more and by the time the car had stopped he was sitting on white hot irons.
Leaping straight out of the seat, he ran as fast as he could to Ops, where he began pounding on keys, searching for Control Freak.
'Where are you? Come on.' He muttered to himself, angrily.
By the time the other Titans reached the room he was seething quietly to himself as his fingers skipped over the keys as though they were working independently of the rest of his body. They caught snatches of his ramblings, which made him sound a little deranged. They were under no illusion that, at least at this point, Rage was controlling him.
'Got you, you worm!' He slammed one last key and the coordinates locked on the screen were transmitted to Cyborg's car. He swung round to the others, the frantic look gone, replaced by a seething hatred of everything that breathed.
'We move. Now.' He growled in a voice a little too much like an angry lion to be at all natural.
Starfire, unable to control herself, whimpered slightly and stepped back a little.
'Suck it up, Princess. Let's go.' He swung round and began to leave the room, rather infuriatingly he couldn't hear the others following. He rounded on them. 'What? Why aren't you coming?'
'Because,' Robin began in his 'authoritative-but-comforting' voice, 'Even if we could get to him now, what good would we be? We haven't slept in two days.' As though to prove his point Starfire let out a huge yawn.
'You want me to SLEEP? You're as heartless as Blood. I'm going alone.' Charly turned to stomp out but was blocked by Cyborg.
'You need to rest man, sleep on it, most of all you need to calm down.' He put out a hand to rest on the pyrokinetic's shoulder, Charly jerked backwards and gave him a withering look.
'Charly, you aren't going anywhere. We'll see to this in the morning.' Robin tried to reason, his hand moving to his belt just in case.
After trying to articulate his argument through looks and frantic hand movements Charly relented, his head dropping to his chest and his hands hanging limp. 'Fine, you guys sleep but, all due respect, I don't think I could.' He looked up at Robin's face, which was in a sympathetic half smile.
'We'll find her, and Blood will pay, you can be sure of that.' The leader said quietly, turning to go, the others following to their respective rooms.
'Oh, he'll pay alright.' Charly stalked from the room into the common room.
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A loud bang startled Charly from his altered reality, he spun to see a figure hopping up and down clutching their foot. He snapped his fingers and lights sprung into life around the room.
'Trigon damn it to the seventh circle!' Raven cursed, hopping onto the counter and rubbing her stubbed toe.
'Nicely put, what are you doing?' Charly asked, he had calmed down slightly and was willing to listen to people. Anything that could take his mind of the situation.
'I was worried when I suddenly couldn't feel your sorrow and anger anymore, I thought maybe you'd…' She trailed off.
'Left to find Blood alone?' Charly prompted, slumping over and sitting on the floor with his back leaning on the sofa.
'Done something terrible to yourself.' Raven finished lamely, flashing him a look.
Charly chuckled a little, feeling a little feeling flooding back into his numb being, he gave her a smile which clearly said 'thank you for caring'.
'What good would I be then? I wouldn't do that when Terra's counting on me. On us. Now, that can't be the only reason you're up?' He probed a little, raising his eyebrows in a questioning look.
'Same reason you haven't slept. We have a link so what you feel, I feel, slightly weakened of course.' She confided.
Charly suddenly felt bad about the times he'd felt bad, inadvertently making his sister feel his pointless, trivial pain.
'Yeah, that kind of thing.' Raven stated bluntly, nudging him playfully with her foot.
'I'm sorry.' Charly shut out his emotions but it only lasted for a second, then his anxieties came flooding back.
'There's nothing you could do, but thank you for trying. It's just…' Raven searched for the words, 'I'm feeling what you're feeling now as though it was one of my own emotions. A particularly powerful one.' She searched his look for understanding, but felt she needed to expand. 'I couldn't possibly know what you're going through, but I know that it hurts more than anything I've ever felt.'
Charly again tried to shut off some of his emotion, to spare the dark girl from his pain. It again didn't work. Opening his eyes again he saw she was heading to the door. 'Raven!' He shouted after her.
She turned quickly, looking a little worried.
'Thanks.' He intoned, looking down.
'You should at least try to sleep, for your own sake.' She advised in a motherly tone.
'I'll try, again thanks.' Charly looked her straight in the eye, showing his sincerity.
'What's family for?' With that, Raven left for her own room.
Charly turned back to the window and leapt onto the couch, closing his eyes and trying to force sleep.
For minutes or hours he tried, time was a blur to him, and eventually fell into a fitful sleep, his dreams tormented by the face of Brother Blood, marked with deep scars which oozed blood and puss. His eyes changed colour, all of them sickening and his mouth was a twisted mockery of human features.
Laughing.
Laughing.
This chapter's not as long as others. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I'll explain in a note.
Thank you for reading this despite the delay, I'm really grateful, I think my next few chapters will be different and perhaps better, my writing has shifted in style and is now more flowing and poetic.
So thanks again.
Reamis, out.