{(Chapter 16- BOOM!!)}
Slade couldn't help but smile as he towered over Sayuri's unconscious form. The last time he'd actually gone into battle himself, he'd been forced to retreat from the Teen Titans. Now… well… it felt good to be winning again.
Slade kicked her in the stomach. Hard. But she didn't wake up. Didn't even stir.
"I was planning on making her actually suffer for her treachery… but this'll do just fine." He reached into his coat sleeve, and pulled out a small dagger.
He held it just in front of his face, quickly examining the blade. The metal was lightweight, but very hard. The edge had been welded unbelievably sharply. The small weapon could cut through most anything. It was his own craftsmanship.
Slade held the dagger up over Sayuri. His grip loosed on it, as he prepared to drop the lethal object through the back of the girl's head.
It was at this moment that Cyborg decided to fire that plasma blast. It hit Slade's hand, efficiently knocking the dagger out of it. The knife flew up and back behind him, twirling in a lazy loop until it landed a good 9 yards behind him.
(A/N- *yawn* Hai… I am so cliché…)
Slade didn't flinch. Instead, he glanced wearily back at the three Teen Titans. After Sayuri had fired her attack, the three had rushed towards him with her spirit bullet. Now that he'd "mysteriously reappeared" where they had been seconds before, the Titans were hurrying back.
"Pathetic," Slade said, as he seemed to "disappear" once more.
"Over here!" he called, as they Titans reached the place he'd been previously standing. Beast Boy groaned, temporarily morphing back into his "normal" form.
"Hey! We can't keep chasing him around like this! We'll never catch him!"
Cyborg frowned. "I know. I'm thinking…"
Raven's brow furrowed. "What we need is a plan."
Both Beast Boy and Cyborg nodded. "We need Robin."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in apartment 314…Seiku was convinced he was close to finding the problem in his chip design. For the moment, he was concentrating completely on his blueprints – utterly oblivious to everything else going on around him.
Meanwhile, Robin and Starfire stared at the television screen in horror. Azuka was more curious then confused at the situation.
"So, how'd he do that?"
Both Titans continued to stare on in shock.
"Oi! Young'uns!"
"……"
Azuka's voice dropped to a whisper. "That man's new trick… must have caught you all rather unprepared… if you're both that horrified."
Robin shook his head, snapping out of his trance. But his eyes remained glued to the TV. Starfire continued in her wide-eyed stare.
The news was still showing the "exciting live footage" of the action outside the hospital. The two anchors' voices still ran over the shots.
"Did you see that, Brenda?"
"Sure did, Jake. One of the warriors just disappeared into thin air!"
"And reappeared about 20 feet away!"
"Amazing, isn't it?"
"Yes, I wonder how he did it."
Robin shook his head. "How did he do it?"
Starfire snapped out of her "trance". She sighed and shrugged.
"I'VE GOT IT!!!!" Seiku suddenly yelled.
Robin, Starfire and Azuka nearly fell off the couch in surprise. Azuka was the first to turn around to look at him. "Hon… you mean you figured out how that Slade fellow seemed to disappear?"
Seiku paused. "Eh… what are you talking about, dear?"
Robin shook his head. "Never mind that. What did you get?"
Seiku broke out into a grin. "I found the flaw in my design!"
"Y-You did?" Starfire looked at him hopefully, almost afraid to believe that everything was really gonna be all right again.
Seiku nodded. Starfire beamed.
"That's fantastic!" Azuka said. "What was wrong with the microchip?"
Seiku seemed impressed with himself for finding such a tiny mistake. "Well, I accidentally designed micro-wire 78a to be charged with .00089 volts too many, of negative energy. The access voltage threw off the electromagnetic balance in sector 5b. Thus, sector 5b shut itself down when activated, and Robin didn't loose the particular memories required for him to forget his morals."
Azuka yawned, teasingly. "But of course."
Seiku smiled. "I knew you'd find it just as interesting, dear."
Robin smiled as well. " So … I'm going to get my memory back?"
Seiku nodded. "Just as soon as I create the new, improved, exact-opposite chip."
"How long will that take?"
"Now that I know exactly how I need to wire it? Mere minutes."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We need Robin."
Raven frowned, glancing over at Slade. He was pulling his knife out of the tar. It had been half-way wedged into the ground.
"Well, that is not an option right now. Improvise."
Raven bent down next to Sayuri, making sure the girl was all right. While she checked for breathing and a heartbeat, Cyborg and Beast Boy thought over the situation. A plan… we need a plan…
Suddenly, Beast Boy brightened. "I have an idea!"
Cyborg paused. "Really?"
"Yes! What's so surprising about that?"
"Nothing… nothing…"
Raven stood up. Sayuri was fine, save for a few nice bruises on her stomach and the back of her head. Still, she'd probably be unconscious for a little while.
"What's your idea?"
"I—"
"Sorry to interrupt your little meeting." Slade half-called. "But I do have to go retrieve Robin from those elderly people… sometime today."
Beast Boy sighed. "Well, just follow my lead."
He turned and took a few steps towards Slade. Raven and Cyborg exchanged weary looks, then turned and did the same.
Slade sighed an emotionless sigh as he looked at the three. "What an overkill."
One of his hands dropped to his belt, and he detached a small, red, metallic sphere hanging from it. He tossed it to the ground. "I don't need that to beat the three of you, anyway."
"What was it?" Cyborg asked.
"It's advanced technology." Raven answered. "Probably from Gizmo. My guess is that it somehow gave him great speed… so we couldn't follow his movements when he was going back and forth."
Slade mock-applauded. "Very good. But that thing has a short-term usage. It's dead already."
"Why'd you use it up so fast?"
"The gadget-boy told me it would last longer then that. But, like I said, I don't need that to take you three down. It's not of significance."
Cyborg sighed. "Alright… Titans… GO!"
Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven rushed towards Slade. Cyborg prepared himself for his attack. Raven's eyes went white as a few of the cars around her began to glow black. Beast Boy morphed into a cheetah to gain speed.
And gain speed he did.
Beast Boy was close to Slade. Mere feet away.
He was there!
And… he ran right past him.
Raven and Cyborg stopped dead in their tracks as Beast Boy ran out of the parking lot, and disappeared behind the hospital's neighboring buildings.
The remaining two Titans' mouths dropped open. The glowing cars turned back to their normal colors as Raven lost her concentration in shock.
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" Cyborg yelled.
Slade seemed amused. "What? The old pretend-to-run-away-so-you-can-have-a-shot-from-the-behind trick? Please don't say that's how you plan to beat me."
Raven shook her head, astonished. "No… he just… ran away."
"Seems your friend made a smart choice."
Cyborg squinted. There was no way he just saw that. Beast Boy had abandoned them!
Both Titans sharply shook their heads. They had to take down Slade, or Robin wouldn't have a chance at getting his memory back. Raven was half-surprised Slade hadn't attacked them in their moment of vulnerability. But… he probably figured he didn't need tricks to beat them. Stupid egotistic masked man.
The cars around Raven glowed back once again. Three of them went flying towards Slade. One rolling on the ground, the other two flying 2 feet in the air.
Slade skillfully dodged them. He flipped over the one rolling on the ground, with ease. Cyborg took his chance to close the distance between them. He took several swings at Slade. Slade avoided each blow, taking a quick step or two back.
Then… something green flashed by. It hit Slade from the side, knocking him to the ground.
It was Beast Boy.
"You're back!" Cyborg grinned.
"Of course! You really thought I'd just hit the road like that?"
Raven's eyes glowed white once more. A black circle surrounded the caught-off-guard Slade. It lifted him several dozen yards into the air, and then dropped him back down. It might have killed a lesser man. She was sure it wouldn't kill Slade.
The three titans cautiously inched closer to the motionless Slade. Cyborg slowly reached to take off the man's mask. He was a little reluctant – knowing full well that Robin desperately wanted to be the one to unmask Slade.
But… there was no sense in waiting for Robin to come and unmask him.
Cyborg lifted off the mask.
It didn't reveal a face. Not even a video screen.
Under the mask was a countdown clock.
"A bomb!" Raven gasped.
The countdown started when the mask was removed. 20 seconds. 19. 18.
"RUN FOR IT!" Cyborg yelled.
"No!" Raven said, quickly. "The hospital!"
12. 11. 10.
"Well?? What do we do then??"
8. 7.
Beast Boy was quickly reminded of a movie he once saw. "Throw it in the air! As high as you can!"
5. 4.
"Okay."
Cyborg picked up the small bomb, and chucked it into the air. It went surprisingly far.
"Wow." Beast Boy whistled through his teeth. "Nice throw."
BOOM!!!
The bomb exploded at a very safe distance, high in the air. Other then the possibility of frying a few birds, they'd kept everyone unharmed.
"But… if that was just another double… where's the real Slade?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Done!" Seiku smiled as he brandished a brand new microchip.
"Well, go on, then." Azuka said, giving Robin a little shove. "No use in wasting time."
Robin nodded, and stood up from the couch. Before he could walk over to the table where Seiku sat, a loud knock at the door stopped him in his tracks.
"Oh…" Seiku's smile faded. "I wonder who that could be."
(A/N- ^__^ Hope you aren't wondering too.
I'm soooooooooo sorry these updates are taking so long. It's taking me a while to update… what, with the Christmas holidays coming and all. Still, I probably wouldn't have even updated this soon, if it weren't for a Christmas miracle. You want to hear about it?
Well, I had finished writing out this new chapter, and was in the middle of writing holiday greetings in my author's note… when the power went out. I hadn't saved the file! The power came back on, so as my computer started back up, I was pacing around the living room and praying "Oh, God… please, please, please… intervene somehow… please…"
When my (old) computer finally turned back on, I typed in my password, a window immediately popped up. It said "Chapter 16 (recovered)". All my work was still there!!!
O-M-G… I don't think I can even describe how relieved I was…
Review responses:
Chibi-Suiko: I'm not really sure how many chapters more I'm going to go. Probably… erm… 2 or 3 more. And then a nice epilogue. Don't hold me to it, though. ^_^;
Chibi Momoko: Hai… I'm fully aware that my story has more clichés in it then the average story. But it's not too bad. Playing on a cliché or two is actually fun… just as long as you don't go too far with it (like centering an entire plot line around one cliché). What I think makes clichés fun is that you're taking a widely used idea, and twisting it in around your own particular way… and the way everyone twists it is different… sometimes you can tell things about a person, from the way they write clichés. XD Still, I do prefer fanfiction without them.
Starre: No, I don't think it would hurt to have a mild crossover. Just try and make sure you aren't confusing your readers who don't watch Sailor Moon.
Showstopper: Wow. A wonderful mix of criticism and compliments. I think I will now refer to your review of my story as The Ultimate Review. ^_^ Thank you. Also, I'm aware that Sayuri is a Mary Sue. Believe me, I've been told many, many times now. But, she is the first OC I've gone (sort of) in-depth with… so… please go a little easy on me. I've learned a lot from the criticism I received about Sayuri. I can guarantee you my next OC will not be a Mary Sue.
Sailor Otaku: O-M-G!!! YOU NOTICED WHERE THE ARAIS ARE FROM!!! ^__^ I can't believe it! You're the only one who's recognized the names!! *Tosses you Christmas cookies* Snaps for being so smart!! ^^ And I'm glad you approve.
Ocdsugar: *nods* Raven, Slade and (less so) Robin are all out of character. Keeping people IC is not one of my talents. I'm trying to change. Let me explain why I altered, though… See, I have a really bad habit of changing characters around for the sake of romance, or the plot of my story. Raven is acting OOC because sessha wants Raven and Beast Boy to be together, and they can't really be very happy together, if Raven doesn't learn to come out of her cold shell around him. Slade is OOC because he needed to be to fit the plot of the story. Or to have any villain humor at all (I don't like writing about the villains without humor. It makes it awfully boring). Robin is a tad bit OOC because… well… that was an accident. ^^;
I hope you're all having a wonderful winter break! I hope to update again real soon… since it's likely I won't get the change during the holidays.
Please review!!!
Have a good Kwanzaa!
Happy Hannukah!
Merry Christmas!!)