Chapter 6
Booted...
Polybius held on to the couch for dear life as Cyborg held it up over his head.
"I can't believe you lost the remote!" Cyborg shouted.
It had been three months since the tower was built, four months as a team. While things had been going smoothly most days, today just wasn't one of those days.
As Robin promised, a chores list was introduced and Polybius quickly learned to groan at Beast Boy's laziness. It was the green Titan's week to clean the main room, by far the largest task that any of the Titans had for the week. And in the mute Titan's opinion, it was something that really needed to be done daily, but as they were coming up on the end of the week, Beast Boy hadn't even touched it. It was a real shame since he took over that responsibility from Polybius, who always left it spotless by the end of his week.
Maybe that was why the remote was missing.
"What makes you think I lost it?" Beast Boy asked.
"Uh, 'cause you're you." Cyborg stated as he put the couch down.
The two then entered an argument as Polybius sat on the couch and placed bets in his head as to who would come out on top. It sure did get extra spicy when Raven got involved and that put the odds of Cyborg winning at a much lower than before.
"Woah! Hey Titans, combat practice is this afternoon." Robin said when he entered the room and the argument.
However, the argument was cut short when Starfire shot a starbolt at the blue stuff in the fridge. Polybius had assumed this was mold and was not appreciative of getting covered in it.
"Let's just go out for pizza." Robin proposed, who wasn't objected to by anybody.
While it wasn't characteristic of Polybius to tag along for eating out, he decided to go this time. Of course, he wasn't having any food, but it still made Starfire happy to see him come along.
And just as Polybius had heard about, an argument broke out over what to put on the pizza. Fortunately for the mute teen's ears, it would be cut short by a bus that was getting ready to plow over a baby carriage. Which was swiftly saved by the Titans, except it was odd that neither the bus nor carriage were occupied.
Taken by surprise, Polybius found himself getting blasted by some unforeseen laser projectile into a nearby building. The teen didn't hit the building all that hard and was quick to get up from the blast.
"Who are these guys?" Beast Boy asked as Polybius squared up.
"We're the HIVE." The little kid stated.
"And this is attack pattern Alpha." The female then followed up.
Polybius was thankful that she stated what she was about to do before she did it. He made sure to make a mental note in his head of what they were about to do.
The three attacked the six and the six couldn't find a winning move with any of them.
After Cyborg had a rocket put on his back and was sent flying in the sky, the big guy then turned his attention to Polybius, who by this point had drawn out his flare gun.
"What are you gonna do with that wimpy thing?" The big guy asked, "Shoot me?"
Polybius then fired a bounce fire flare at the large man. However, the little dude let off what looked like some sort of EMP pulse that shattered the flare mid-flight, letting it burn out on the ground, not even exploding.
"Looks like you need to work on your tech." The kid stated.
Polybius couldn't help but agree as he swapped his flare gun for his stone club.
"Oh, stone." The big guy said full of sarcasm "Now we're starting to get somewhere."
The big guy then launched himself through the air at Polybius. Naturally, Polybius gave a bit of ground to avoid the attack but was sent flying backwards by the shockwave the guy created from hitting the ground.
"Hey, no mute and deaf! I said upgrade, now downgrade, you snot pickin loser!" The little kid taunted as the mute started to pick himself back up.
The big guy then did another jump attack at the downed mute, and in response, the Titan rolled over to his right. As the big guy punched the ground, Polybius was barely out of the way and had his back to him.
Quickly rolling back over, Polybius tried to land a strike with his club on the male's head. However, as he rolled, the big guy just swatted his hand at him like he was a fly, sending the mute flying into another building.
Polybius hit the ground, but as he tried to pick himself up, he found himself getting launched again by a blast of one of the little guy's laser blasts.
Finding himself within arms reach of both Raven and Beast Boy, the three watched on in horror as Robin was quickly overtaken by the trio, who opened up the road and sent him into the sewers.
"Robin!" Beast Boy shouted as the three rushed to the edge of the crack.
Quickly acting, Polybius snapped his fingers at the two before pointing at them and then down into the sewers. The teen then slapped his own chest and pointed at them before charging off.
"Polybius!" Beast Boy shouted, "You can't take them by yourself!"
"He's not." Raven said, "He's giving us an opening to go look for him."
"But-" Beast Boy said before getting cut off by Raven.
"We can't waste this moment! Polybius can take beatings that the rest of us can't! Now go!" Raven said as she flew down into the sewers.
The green Titan took one last look at his mute friend, who was standing only ten meters away from the trio, before jumping in the sewer after their leader.
"Is that true?" The little kid asked, "I've heard you can take one heck of a beating."
"Let's just see how much you can take before we break you!" The big guy said confidently.
Polybius had zero intentions of trying to win the fight. Rather, he was going to try and lead them away from this location and delay them in an attempt to try and maximize the amount of time Raven and Beast Boy had to go search for Robin.
"Come on pretty boy." The female taunted "Let's see just how far your luck will run."
The kid then unleashed a barrage of lasers on the mute Titan, who did his best to dip, duck, dive, and dodge, but ended up taking a handful of the hits from the weapon. However, just as was the case with Johnny Rancid two months ago, Polybius was able to just shrug off the hits.
"Oh, so the pit sniffer is tougher than he looks." The kid commented, "I've never seen anybody take hits from my laser and act like nothing hit him."
"Let's just see if he's as tough as he is cute." Jinx said.
That particular way of talking angered Polybius, and it was visible on his face. It was no secret that while Polybius would joke around about sexual stuff, but when it came to actual flirting or serious sex topics, Polybius would only get angry. The other Titans never knew why he did, but he just did. And at that moment, he cursed his good looks.
"Looks like somebody didn't like that." The female said, "Shame I have to break your pretty face."
The female then unleashed a series of pink waves in his general direction. This missed him, but rather hit the street lights that lined the sides of the road instead, causing it to come crashing down. To avoid this, Polybius began backpedaling, each one crashing only a few meters in front of him.
"Enough of this!" The big guy stated "Let's give him something he can't doge.
Picking up a nearby semi, the gigantic man threw the massive thing at the mute man. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, the mute Titan was forced to take the hit.
The tires of the semi slammed into his upper body, the majority of the truck missing him. But this was enough to take him with the truck and cause the mute to get pinned to the ground under the weight of the vehicle. But he did have his arms free and was able to load a sticky explosive flare into his flare gun.
The Titan struggled to get free but would be freed by his opponents as the large man lifted the truck and tossed it aside.
"Guess you aren't as good as you think you are." The kid taunted.
Polybius smiled as he had one last trick up his sleeve. Quickly aiming the flare gun at the kid's chest, Polybius fired it and with the distance being so close, he had no time to react to it and the flare stuck to his chest.
"Hey!" The kid shouted as he stumbled back "Get it off me!"
Polybius rolled over onto his stomach as the flare went off, catching all three of them off guard. As they recovered from the blast of the flare, Polybius picked himself up and sprinted away from the three as fast as he could.
The teen made sure to take a long, convoluted route through the city as he headed back to the tower to make sure he wasn't closely followed. Once there, he met up with Raven and Beast Boy who had just walked in the door.
"That didn't just happen." Beast Boy said, "Tell me that didn't just happen."
"It did." Raven put bluntly "We cannot change the truth. No matter how much we dislike it."
That quote really spoke to Polybius.
The three were then joined by Cyborg and Starfire. Both of whom were extremely disappointed to learn that not only had the other four been beaten, but they were also down a Titan.
Things seemed too good to be true for a mere moment when a knock on the door was heard by the group. This, however, revealed to be a false hope as the HIVE kids were back.
"You got lucky last time, but you're in our house now!" Cyborg intimidated as the three walked in.
"Yeah, well take it!" The kid declared.
The five Titans quickly found themselves on the back foot again. Polybius and Beast Boy in the form of a Cheetah took off in the tower and found themselves being pursued by the female.
"Come here you two." The female taunted as the two took off down a hallway "I'd like to have fun with a kitty kitty and a cutie cutie."
"Whose she callin cutie?" Beast Boy asked as the two took a moment to catch their breaths.
Polybius pointed at himself.
"Makes sense." Beast Boy stated, "I was the cat after all."
The two didn't have long though until the female turned the corner. Beast Boy, being the closer of the two, took up a fighting stance and turned into a T-rex. He let out a thunderous roar, but this did not scare the female. Rather all she did was aim her pink waves at the ground, causing it to give way under him.
This left a marginal gap between her and Polybius, who was far enough back not to get caught up in the fall.
"If you surrender now, I'll make you my plaything." The female taunted.
Anger once again returned to Polybius's face as he picked up a piece of rubble and chucked it at her. She easily dogged this and then jumped the chasm. When she landed, Polybius tried to hit her with a right hook, but again, this was easily dogged.
"Shame." She said as Polybius tried to backhand her "It's a real shame that someone with a face as pretty as yours must be broken."
With one swift kick, Polybius found himself being sent backwards and falling down the hole she and Beast Boy had created.
And not long after that, the two Titans found themselves getting shot out of the tower and into the water along with Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire. This was followed up with a complimentary title wave that crashed into them. With this, for the first time in the Titan's history, they were truly defeated.
Now the what remained of the team found themselves washed up on shore, an argument broke out when Cyborg, who was rightfully pissed, snapped on Star. This evolved, but Polybius stayed out of it and looked out at the tower.
But what caught his attention is when the group started talking about if it was the end of the Teen Titans. Polybius refused to accept that level of defeat.
And he wasn't the only one because when the team needed him the most, Robin returned and laid out a plan for the recapture of the tower.
Meanwhile, inside Polybius's empty and vacant room, a particular girl was in there looking around, a big guy who was admiring the bear head on the wall, and the kid trying to hack his laptop.
"Wonder what this pit sniffer does on his laptop." The kid said as he opened it up.
"Don't call him that." The female defended "He's kinda cute."
"Ew!" The kid said.
"Oh come on." The female said picking up a picture of him off his desk "Mammoth, what do you think?"
The two turned to the giant man who was still admiring the bear head.
"Hm?" He questioned "Oh! Well, uh, no homo, but the dude is good looking."
"Looks like you gotta boyfriend!" The kid teased.
"Oh please." The female countered "He's not my type."
"So what does that mean?" The kid questioned.
"You'll find out when you get a little bit older." The female returned as she moved to his window.
"Yeah, I wish I had his looks." The big guy stated, "If I did, then I wouldn't have any problems finding a girlfriend as they'd all be drooling all over me!"
"A little more brain wouldn't hurt either." The female added.
The kid, by this point, was starting to hack the mute Titans laptop.
"Strange." The kid commented "I've never seen this brand. Probably some super expensive offshoot that nobody knows how to fix and it'll cost him a ton of money to get it fixed! I'm gonna wreck his whole system!"
The kid then extended a cord from his little, freshly repaired metal backpack and plugged it into the system. However, as soon as he began hacking, he was hit with a hard electric shock from the computer.
"AH!" The kid shouted as he felt the hard shock.
The computer then forced the plug out of itself and the kid fell off the chair.
"OW!" The kid said as he hit the floor.
"What happened?" The female asked.
"I don't know." The kid said breathing heavily.
"Maybe the computer is encrypted or somethin." The big guy stated.
"If that is protection, I've never seen anything like that." The kid commented.
Just as he said that his backpack began to spout electrical sparks.
"Hey!" The kid shouted, "It's crashing my system!"
The kid quickly dropped his pack and watched as the thing practically died on the ground seconds later.
"What kind of virus protection does that?" The female asked.
"I don't know." The kid commented, "I've never seen, or even heard of anything like it."
The kid then looked back up at the computer for a moment, which was on the home lock screen. It was displaying a beautiful forest.
"Whatever that snot eater's got on his computer, I ain't touchin it." The kid declared "And to think I just fixed this thing!"
The kid picked up this backpack and walked off, leaving the big guy and the female confused as they watched him walk out.
"Ha." The big guy stated, "It's always nice to see him get taken down a peg every once in a while."
"You said it." The female smiled "But he does bring up a good point. Whatever this cutie has got on his computer, if it can do that, then it might be worth taking."
"Yeah right." The big guy stated "So it can crash the kid's system. If he downloads too much on it, it does it anyway."
"But this is different." The female said "Not only did the system defend itself against him, but it also attacked his own. With that kind of protection in the HIVE Academy, then nobody would ever have to worry about getting hacked again!"
The female then moved to grab the laptop, but when she touched it, she too was given a hard shock that sent her stumbling back.
"Ugh!" She cried as she was shocked.
"Alright, that's it." The big guy said, "I'm smashing it."
The big man then raised a closed fist over the laptop. However, as he brought it down, his fist was suddenly stopped six inches away from the laptop and froze mid-air.
"What the?" The big teen asked before he too was given a strong electric shock from the machine.
"Ow!" The big teen cried as his fist was let go of by the machine and he drew it up to his chest and cradled it.
Both of the two intruders looked at the innocent-looking laptop, which was still showing a picture of the forest lock screen.
"Man screw that!" The big teen said, "Whatever is on there, isn't worth it!"
"Yeah." The female was quick to agree "Let's get out of here before something else happens."
Scooping up her picture of the mute Titan, the two-headed out leaving the computer sitting open with the picture of the lock screen being the only light to illuminate the room. However, a minute after they left, the screen that was displaying the forest turned to a black screen as the device shut off.
Even later in the night, the trio of invading intruders were lounging around the tower when they suddenly found themselves attacked and surrounded on the roof of the tower.
Polybius's part in the plan was to play the role of the 'handcuffs.' As soon as the Titans had dispatched the three intruders, Polybius, who agreed to do it, was to use his back tentacles to restrain them.
The fight went very well for the Titans. And it was very quick that the three intruders were dispatched and taken care of. Despite getting their butts handed to them, they still tried to put up a fight.
"Be careful." Beast Boy taunted.
"The cutie behind doesn't look all that happy." Cyborg followed up.
The group turned around to see the mute Titan standing there with no backpack on.
"Oh look! It's the stone age clutch head! What's he gonna do, throw rocks at us?" The kid taunted.
Polybius smiled as he willingly put himself in pain. Opening up his back, three black tentacles shot out.
"What the!?" The kid said as the jaws of the invaders dropped.
Moving fast, Polybius shot his tentacles at the three. The kid was taken immediately and drawn back to Polybius and held up.
The big man tried to grab hold of the tentacle and did so, however, despite putting all of his grip strength into his hand, the tentacle just slid right thought it and entangled him too. And even with his enhanced strength, he was helpless against the lone tentacle.
As for the female, she tried to somersault away, but Polybius's tentacle was too fast and caught her foot and quickly wrapped itself around her whole body, causing her to drop his picture in the process.
Holding the three up with his tentacles, Polybius was expending little effort in holding them all, even the big guy.
"Let us go you barf sniffing hairba-" The kid tried to insult the Titan, but Polybius's tentacle slapped the kid up the head.
After being dazed for a moment, the kid then said something that would change the course of the Titans forever.
"Ah screw this, we need to call Slade." The kid said.
Robin walked right up to the kid and Polybius put him at face to face level with the masked leader.
"Who is Slade?" The Titan asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know." The kid snickered.
Polybius then put the squeeze on him to get him to talk.
"AH!" The kid cried out in pain "Alright! He hired us! He said our mission was to destroy you! That's all I know! I swear!"
Looking over at Robin, the leader nodded and Polybius lightened up the pressure on the kid.
Once the invaders were handed over to the authorities, the team settled back in their tower.
"I can't believe this!" Cyborg said "The whole place gets cleaned and I still-"
He cut himself off when he saw Robin holding up the remote.
"Ha, ha!" The teen laughed in victory as he took the remote from Robin.
Polybius meanwhile, was inside his room inspecting it. Specifically, his laptop, which had recorded everything that had happened to the trio of invaders. Not only that, but his system hacked the kid's system, crashed it and stole a copy of everything he had downloaded on it. So now Polybius had access to all his blueprints, which he would be emailing over to Cyborg shortly.
The teen smiled as he watched the footage of the three get trashed by his computer. He began shaking his head as the footage ended. Never had he been so glad he got that laptop until now. And to think he got it for free too!
And that is it for Chapter 6. I thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed. I hope you have a good rest of your day.
PS: Important information to come on Sunday with the next upload.