Chapter Thirty Four:

Ravager surveyed her room again. She sighed heavily, feeling the pain in her back and leg already mending. She was leaving today; she knew it… staying here any longer was simply out of the question. She had been surprised she hadn't seen Terra yet- but it was probably better. Though Ravager met to ask if she had gotten the suit case yet, but she was running out of time at an alarming rate- Ravager didn't even know if Jericho was still where he was last spotted.

Yesterday the bullets had been removed; skin had to be broken to get them, as she was healing quickly. It had seemed to surprise the Titans, and their leader had then simply left to ponder a little more. He wasn't speaking to her, but she didn't really care too much. She had been quiet, not answering questions, not paying attention to them other than to refuse any sort of pain reliever or offers to calm her mental state and block of the pain of the operations. She had preferred the sawing and grinding feel to that of none at all.

When the doors opened with a profound swish, Ravager calmly looked over, her white hair falling from the ponytail and around her face; to which she had unmasked. The Titan's had seemed a little confused at how lightly she tossed her identity, even Robin had stared at her for a moment when she pulled hood from over her face, but they obviously didn't find anything to match her because they had yet to confront her. They wouldn't either; she held no such identity papers.

"Finally decide to come see me, eh?" Ravager said in a light voice.

"What's your plan?" Terra hissed, swishing herself around the room before skirting towards her.

Ravager shrugged. "Plans don't work for me."

"Fine, then what do you think you're going to do to get out?" The blond hissed next. She wasn't sure why she was helping… maybe Terra was just getting wrapped up in her role, or at least the role she thought she had to play.

Ravager lifted the cords that where hooked to her and lifted a brow. "These gonna sound an alarm if I take them off?"

"Yes."

"Disable them. What about the cameras?" Her tone seemed to have switched completely to a more serious one.

"Their down for maintenance." Terra frowned.

Ravager laughed, it was amazing how quickly she could change. "Good job."

Terra moved to the monitors, looking them over for a moment before bending behind the large machines and pulling the giant cord from the wall. Her throat felt swollen as she worked, but it was necessary. She looked up as the screens went blank, and she nodded to herself before looking to Ravager darkly.

"Too bad you can't fly," she scoffed. "It's be quicker than running through the Tower. "

Ravager ignored her as she took the plugs off. No sooner had she, then alarms starting going off through the tower, red lights flashing and blazing the entire room. Ravager sharply turned to Terra, but the blond gave her a wide eyed look and she shook her head.

"They couldn't have gone off." She said, blinking and looking around as her heart jammed up into her throat. After her mind raced with a million different types of situations she might have found herself in, Robin's voice came through the T-com on her belt with a hasty tone.

"Terra. Are you there?" He asked.

She clipped the voice button and held it to her lips. "Yeah, what's going on with the alarms?!"

"We got an intruder."

"I'll be there." Terra clipped the communicator back to her belt as she shot a look towards Ravager. "Get out of here." She hissed with narrowed eyes, before turning and running out of the room. As she ran down the hall, pumping her arms at her sides as her mind ran wildly in thought.

Who, what could have broken into the tower? In broad daylight? That doesn't make sense, Slade wouldn't do that- I can't think of anyone else who would either. None of Jumps normal baddies break into the tower at all, let alone in daylight.

The more she thought, the more she came to conclude it had to be someone either extremely confident, or stupid.

As she rounded another hall, she was met by a large blast penetrating the wall, the loud explosion knocked her backwards with a scream of surprise as she was thrown onto her back and skidded into the next wall. She opened her eyes to see a tall, large figure dash through the opening of the wall, stopping then and looking around. He could have been a ninja looking figure, if he wasn't bulging with muscle, and heavy artillery. His soulless eyes stopped on Terra, and seemed to widen, Terra's did accordingly from the cold look he had as he studied her. He looked similar to 'ninja dude' who had been following her and X, but she knew this wasn't him, too large.

"The geomancer is here as well…" he muttered to himself, before she could tell a wicked grin grew on his face.

Her eyes went wide as she scooted up right and pushed her back against the wall. The first thing to come to mind, after being referred to by the scientific name was Huffman. She shivered all over, knowing the man had broken out of prison from Slade's information… but she couldn't believe he was back in business so quickly. What if he had been behind the other two that had been chasing X and herself?

Terra felt cold, her body numbing at the danger she might have accidently brought to the Titan's- again. Beast Boy flashed through her mind, he too had been hunted by Huffman, and the surge of anger flooded her cold veins at the thought of hands being laid on the changeling again, seeing him in that lab like she had, the image burned.

Her brows narrowed dangerously on her face as her nose squinted against her face, wrinkles forming on her face as she screamed and threw her open hands forward. The metal debris lifted from the floor around her and bolted towards the man, who dodged and kicked away every piece, but it allowed her enough time to scramble to her feet. Hands glowing a trademarked yellow, Terra curled and spindled her fingers in their dance, working with the power she felt coursing around her finger tips, doing her best to grab at the power, to possess it and shape it into her will.

She advanced to the man, with a loss of breath she pulsed her hand forward, upturned her wrist then slammed it back down to the floor. Tremors roared under the man before the metal framing again surged from its fallen place, and began gathering around the man and tried locking into a tight embrace. But he roughly fought out of it and ran to his own advance, arm swung out for a brutal blow, Terra threw herself to the floor and dodged the first one, throwing her whole body up she hammered her fist into his gut, but stumbled back and whimpered at the hard impact that left her fingers feeling weak.

She looked up to see him aiming another fist for her face, and she gasped, throwing her hands out against the pain, and cringed from the energy leaving her body, the metal rose from the ground again and tapered against the man, who fought it back off, grunting as he slammed his body against the metal, advancing again to Terra.

With a loud screech, a green raptor surged between them, jaws clamming down with brutal intensity on the man's arm. The surprise made him startled before yelling out at the pain of fangs digging past skin and into pure flesh, Beast Boy bit harder, she could see his white eyes cringing deeper in hatred as he tried raising his sharply clawed feet up to further attack the man. But the man swung his arm in the air, with such might, and away from his body that Beast Boy had no choice. He managed to stay locked into the seared flesh for a few more moments, before a third swing into the wall rendered him to let go and skid over the floor.

The man had no further reaction time before star bolts entered the quake, and the rest of the Titan's eagerly jumped into the fight.

Terra blinked, breathing heavy as she looked to Beast Boy as he resumed human form. He stood up, brushing his suite off and looking to her with a shadowed face, it made her frown. "Are you okay?" He asked, his eyes looking her over.

"Yeah… fine… th-.." but she didn't get to finish before Beast Boy dashed away from her to rejoin his friends. "-anks…"

Terra stared, her mouth opening just slightly as her brows turned upside down and her face softened, watching the after effect of what she had done to him take place; the results she had been begging him to give her now coming open, she felt her heart ache as she helped herself up to her feet.

--

--

Fury of the invasion was obvious on Robin's face as he pulled his bostaff from place and eagerly attacked the invader. No one had expected an attack, not this early, and not in the daylight. The man had taken them by surprise, and his healing factor was making it increasingly difficult to make any leeway. They were able to stun him many times, Raven's energy holds could keep him still for periods of time, but he was breaking free, and countering them regularly, making it impossible to keep their ground.

Starfire had even joined the hand-to-hand combat, but her strength was only a little help, because when she overpowered him, he only healed and returned swiftly. The hall was too narrow for the entire Titan team to work together properly, and they were suffering because of it. Terra was doing what she could, but her impressive manipulation of metal was doing little against this man, and none of Robin's artillery was slowing the man down. Allen had accompanied the team to the intrusion, after reminding them that even if for a short period of time, he had spent some training with Batman, and wanted to test his own strength. Cautiously he had been allowed to come, but the poor kid was hardly holding his own ground, he wasn't helping anyone, but he wasn't getting in the way either, so no one said anything to him.

The boy wonder was up in the face of the battle anyways, he bent backwards to dodge a blow to his face, and pulled the full length and back flipped out of the way, bringing his heels into the man's chin as he did so. He heard the bones break, but as Robin regained proper footing, he saw the man again; was not hindered.

Robin scowled. "Raven!" He shot, eyes going to the empath. Right away she followed what was expected of her, florescent light shining from her eyes and finger tips, Raven danced her hands in the air, grunting and swinging them forward. The aura shot around the man, binding him tightly and threw him against the wall, pressing his body like dough against it, almost suffocating, but the Titan's no longer cared about serious injury on him; they knew he could withstand it.

Shooting with all haste, Robin got up into the man's face and gripped his jaw with his hand, his fingers digging into the material mask and pressing close to the skin with fury. "Why are you here?! Why do you want that girl?!" He cried as his brows narrowed while his body shook.

Instead of answering though, the man groaned and trembled, before breaking free with arms thrown out. The force knocked Robin in the jaw, sending him flying backwards as the man quickly pulled a round kick to the teenagers chest to make sure he stayed for the moment. He threw out a knife that jammed into Cyborg's cannon, rendering him unable as he spun elbowed Starfire in the jaw.

The man spun with the sword he had kept to his belt now drawn as he aimed it towards Robin's neck. The boy's eyes went wide behind the mask, things were happening so quickly, he heard metal creaking, Terra gathering her power back as claws scratched on the floor, Beast Boy was coming- but the man was here, right now, sword drawn, ready for a final blow that would end him.

Shooting from behind the side hall corner, Ravager shot forward between them, she cart wheeled over and landed with a sharply placed and well balanced boot locked up under the man's chin. Her boot heel cupped around his bone line, and her brows narrowed before she cried out with effort and kicked him to the side and right back into the wall. Spinning in a circle, she brought out her katana and swiped it with ease along his neck. Blood squirted out, streaking her face in a thin line as her scowl stayed put.

The otherwise deadly assault, rendered the man helpless for the moment, but he was healing already. Ravager turned to the stunned boy, a small quirky little grin on her face as she tilted her head to the side slightly.

"Now we're even wonder boy." She said, before losing her grin and taking off back down the hall.

The man was back already, his wound healed, the skin showing from the ripped clothing around his neck. He looked around, scowling that Ravager had gotten away, but was already forced to get back to defending himself.

Robin was back to his feet, and fighting with even more ferocity, as now his friends were forced to dodge the sword that was skillfully wielded. Allen found himself even more useless, and growled to himself at the situation, while Cyborg was made to work up close and personal, with a now broken cannon.

--

--

Terra didn't have time to think about Ravager's actions, she was trying desperately to help her friends; but working as a team had become a odd thing for her. She hadn't worked with them in a long time, Area 51 not counting for its short existence. And with them all with only one target, it was like trying to share one game with a too-big of crowd, even when trying to get in the action, they were forced to sit it out and watch.

She pulled her concentration together, again summoning the metal as a opening to join was shown to her. Terra breathed inwards, feeling the power before she exhaled it back into the metal, letting it live as she pulsed her hands forward, the metal obeying and swinging at the man and choking around his neck before forcing him to the ground. She smiled at the success, but she didn't expect his broad sword to swing out like it did, and it cut into her calf.

The rip of skin made her scream, she didn't know how deep it was, but was deep enough to bleed like crazy, and hurt like hell. She fell to her knees and wrapped her hands around the wound instinctively as she bit the inside of her cheek to keep the pain to herself.

When her eyes opened, they were slightly blurred by tears, even if she had felt worse before, it still hurt. She saw Beast Boy charge forward, the wolf form bit into the man's leg, and in return, the man lifted his sword to bring it down on the changeling. Terra gasped, jolting forward from her position on the ground.

"Beast Boy!" She screamed. "Look out!" Yellow caught onto her eyes, the deformed strand of metal lifted and rushed forward, it didn't make it before the sword cut a slice into the changeling's shoulder and enticed a loud yelp; but it did stop the sword from making further damage as it forced it back against the wall.

As the other Titan's rushed to see to the man, Terra crawled over to Beast Boy and looked at his shoulder. "Are you okay?" She asked, watching as he resumed human form and winced at the bleeding trail that came from his shoulder.

"I'm fine." He muttered, his eyes quietly looking down at her leg, before she could tell he was gritting his teeth in anger. He looked away from her, jolting forward in tiger form to help his friends, and leaving Terra there.

The man only stayed engaged in the battle for a little time. His target had left, and the Titan's where surprised he stayed as long as he did. No one was getting anywhere in this battle, it was dragging, and no point was being made about it. Finally the man blasted another wall (much to their disarray) and then leapt from it to the lake below. With little talk, Robin chose Starfire to go with him to chase the man, the others either needed healed, or to help with the healing.

--

--

"Looks like it hurts." Allen commented as he looked Terra's leg over, she was waiting for her turn as Raven tended Beast Boy's wound first.

"You don't look so clean either," Terra grinned a little, tilting her head to the side as she stared at Allen's fat lip and bruised face.

"First fight, give me a break." He laughed.

Terra stiffed a chuckle, before hugging her wounded leg closer, feel the blood start to soak past the not-so-white-anymore towel she had been holding to the wound. She frowned suddenly and her shoulders sagged, she glanced towards Beast Boy, she wanted to say something, something like 'thanks for having my back out there' or along those lines. But he only looked to her once, and after that he stiffly looked back away and asked if Raven was done yet. Terra blinked slowly, looking away as her eye lids drooped over, her face becoming clouded.

This is what you wanted.

She heard whisper; but then the old proverb came back to her mind just as quickly.

Be careful what you wish for… you might just get it.

--

--

"And the shipment? What happened to those?" The man asked, sitting back in his chair as he laced his fingers together. Grim lines appeared over his aged face, white gray hair, slicked back neatly was a sharp look with his gray business suit. His favorite knife, laying on the desk in front of him, a reminder to all of his employers of his way of handling things.

The man standing in front of him gulped and stuttered slightly. "They-they were stolen… sir."

"Stolen?" Tony Zucco asked, lifting his brow up on his face. "By who? Or where you too busy drinking to see? Or maybe you were paying attention, and it was slipped from under your noses?" He smiled. "But come now, who took it? You got a face, at least?"

"He-he was wearing a mask… sir."

"Really?" Zucco leaned forward, resting his elbows on the wooden desk. "What did it look like?"

"We think it was Jump cities thief… the Red X." The man shifted his weight, feeling uncomfortable. "Sir."

"Red X?" Zucco pushed his lips together as if he wasn't surprised. "You let a boy steal weapons from you? An armed man?"

"He ain't no boy," The man startled, eyes narrowing for a moment, before he reined himself in quickly with a glint of fear in his eyes at the look his boss flashed him. "A kid couldn't do the stuff he did. The guy flipped our car."

Zucco scoffed, picking his knife up with his hand and watching it tenderly. The pretty thing glinted in the light, a quick silver of beautiful metal with a softly carved handle wrapped in leather. The master of the knife a loving little look as his eyes looked to the man again, the knife still held in the air- as the man was taking serious note of. "That was your first mistake, Mister Jacob. You underestimated him. If he is anything like his father, he can't be underestimated." Zucco chuckled before setting the knife down, the man seemed to let out a heavy sigh of relief. "But apparently you can't seem to stop from making such mistakes." Zucco turned away, waving his hand in the air.

The man's eyes went wide. "No- T-tony c'mon! It was just one-"

Two more men came in, both bearing AK-47's around their necks as they took 'Jacob' by either arm. "I have kids! Tony!"

"Doesn't everyone these days?" Zucco said dully. "Get rid of him boys."

With that, the two men escorted Jacob out of the building one last time, though it didn't bother the mobster, why would it? Such as one pathetic little life to be taken out of the gene pool, talk about doing the world a favor; not that he was looking for favors.

Tapping his fingers against his sharp chin for a few moments, Tony picked his phone from his pocket and pressed the speed dial, lifting the cell to his ear a moment later. As a voice greeted him, his smiled widened on his disrupted face. "Yes, I will be coming over tomorrow." Tony waited. "What for? To check on how my army is doing, of course."

I already got the next chapter a good six pages of starting material, so hopefully it will be longer. This one was only eight xP AND YAY ELIE CAUGHT UP! WOOT

QUESTION: Is this fic getting too long? Are you guys getting bored with it at all? Let me know what you think. Because this fic could well reach into the 50's chapter wise, unless you want me to start skipping out on any humor chapters, BBT drama, or action sequences.