This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own Teen Titans or any DC comics alluded to in this story. Kenkaku and his swords are mine, however.
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A/N: I am kind of disappointed in the amount of reviews I've been getting. I put my stuff up here to see what others think of it, good or bad. That applies to every chapter I put up. If you have an opinion, comment, or question. Please! Please tell me.
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Waves of Fate
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"text": spoken English
"text": spoken Japanese (translated or flavor text)
"text": war cry, English
"text": war cry, Japanese.
text: thoughts
-text-: stressed word
text: printed or typed English
text: printed or typed Japanese
'text': sound effect
Japanese flavor text will be in a glossary at the end of the chapter.
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Kenkaku cursed as he ducked under an overly large battle-axe. The weapon was a cheap fantasy design, but he wasn't feeling real eager to test how much damage it would do. A rising stroke from Kanesada opened the dummy from hip to shoulder, 'killing' it. This was taking way too long. And worse yet, with a sword shop, a video game store, and a movie shop, it didn't look like the corpulent criminal called Control Freak was going to run out of soldiers or weapons for them anytime soon. "KIAI!" Another pulse of ki energy drove his enemies back. He had pretty much mastered that technique.
'ZAP!'
Great. Now he's taking potshots with that phaser of his. Kenkaku jumped back, avoiding the energy blast, and stabbing backwards with Kanesada. Another dummy fell to the enchanted blade. I wish I could go into my accelerated mode, but I couldn't hear battle plans then.
Cyborg shattered the cockpit glass of one of the Mad Cats with a sonic blast before pumping it full of lead. "Boo-yah!" The mech fell to the side, knocking into the Atlas, which seemed not to have even felt the impact.
'TWAZANG-KUNG!'
The Gauss rifle shot blew a rather large crater in the ground next to Cyborg. He jumped back, switching his autocannon over to his particle cannon.
'TSSSAP!'
Red and green beams lanced out at him, striking his legs. Armor boiled off under the caress of the lasers. The remaining Mad Cat's machine guns opened fire. Thankfully, due to the scale, the bullets were smaller than BB pellets. The projectiles sparked against Cyborg's torso. "Ha-hah!"
'Chu-thunk.'
That was the sound of missile racks reloading. "Oh, shit." Cyborg dove for cover even as the Mechs fired.
'PSSSHOW!'
'BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!'
Missiles scoured the area Cyborg was in. But his jammers had done their job, albeit incompletely. He had only taken a few hits, but what he had taken took his missile armament out of commission. He did, however, still have the particle cannon.
'BZAM!'
Cyborg's particle cannon was a -very- powerful weapon. So much so that he didn't usually equip it at all. It was by pure chance that he had grabbed the wrong arm and had the heavy energy weapon today. But he wasn't complaining. The bolt ripped the left leg clear off the Atlas, sending the assault mech face first into the ground.
'BZAM!'
The shot cored the Vulture, ripping the mech apart. Now Cy ran into the particle cannon's other limitation. Namely, the fact that it only could store two shots at a time in its capacitors, and each shot took 15 minutes to charge.
'TSSSAP!'
More streams of laser energy hit Cyborg, boiling away at his armor. I just had to save a Mad Cat for last, didn't I? groaned Cyborg mentally, as warning alarms flashed in his mind.
Beast Boy ran as a wolf from the elf-like creatures with energy weapons. They had too much damn stamina, even keeping up with the wolf form in the roundabout run he had taken. Beast Boy had forgotten that the game they came from didn't involve getting tired, therefore they wouldn't. The game did involved getting killed though.
Beast Boy ran within Kanesada's range, and the long-eared creatures followed. They fell to a spinning left-handed slash that flew right over Beast Boy, clearing out as much room around Kenkaku as was possible.
'SSSSSSSLICH!'
Beast Boy morphed to Velociraptor form and backed Kenkaku up against the dummies. His tail smashed three of them aside and his clawed legs opened ragged tears in the cloth and plastic constructs. "Hey man! Help out Raven! I can take out theses guys!"
Kenkaku's eyes shot over to the beleaguered Raven, whose supply of opponents was far too great. And Control Freak was moving into the gangster movies. He spun his finger in the air and went into an accelerated mode. Sound distorted into the strange sensation that gave accelerated mode such a profound sense of unreality. Interestingly enough, the distortion before the complete switch sounded much like how the Matrix had it. Beast Boy caught the hint, spinning around in a tail strike.
'Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeoom.'
Kenkaku jumped and planted his feet on the swinging tail, using it as a springboard to launch him towards Raven. As he flew at the wall of enemies separating her from the rest of the heroes, he spun Kanesada in a propeller like motion, angled forwards. Though it seemed like a medium speed spin to him, all any of the others could see was a solid cone of white, light flashing off of Kanesada's blade.
He shot through the lines of remote-generated enemies much like Cyborg's particle cannon blast had gone through armor. He rolled as he hit the ground, coming out of accelerated mode with the distortion in reverse this time. He popped up next to Raven. "Gashi!" said Kenkaku in a cheerful tone, totally belying the carnage he had wreaked to get there.
"Keep them off of me. You take melee, I take ranged."
"Puncture the lardass while you're at it wouldja? He's pissing me off!"
"You're not the only one, Kenkaku-san."
"KIAI!"Kenkaku lunged at the movie characters, going back into speed mode. Kanesada flashed as he cut into the wave. He came out of acceleration in a pocket in the enemy force. The bright blade of Kanesada jumped from foe to foe, ending fake life after fake life.
"Looks like someone figured out bullet time." Control Freak zapped a rack of DVD copies of the Matrix Reloaded. Agent Smith upon Agent Smith came pouring out. "Alright Ichi, let's see how you fare!"
"Dodge this." Raven sent a telekinetic barrage at the Smiths, forgetting their dodging skills. A few Smiths went down, but only through sheer density of the wave of projectiles. As they pulled out their Desert Eagles, she grabbed them all with a spell, lining them up in mid-air and using them on other, less elusive opponents. A sheet of lead crushed the mobsters. As they ran out of ammo, she flung them at her opponents as she would normally do.
Disarmed, the Smiths ran at Kenkaku, who unlike Neo, was not possessed of super strength. He was as fast though, and had a legendary sword. That should count for something right?
'Wheeeeeeeeeeeeoom.'
Definitely. Kanesada stabbed into the leading Smith's neck and Kenkaku used the blunt edge of the blade to throw the rouge agent at his copies, locking the blade against the jaw and skull before flinging him off it. Sound once again distorted. As a Smith punched at him, Kanesada severed the attacking arm then stabbed through the Smith's chest.
The ronin ripped the blade out of Smith and straight into another, lopping him off at the waist. A Smith jumped through the air at him as the others moved to encircle him. He caught Kanesada to the chest and went flying into a segment of the circle, knocking the angry programs over. Kenkaku had opted to simply impart force, not cut. The impact had still 'killed' the creation, but it let him use the corpse creatively. The dazed Smiths ended up near Raven's position. She had just finished off the last of her batch of opponents for the moment, so she seized their bodies and started using them as projectiles in support of Kenkaku. "Aw, how sweet, Trinity," mocked Control Freak. "But we all know how you fare!"
She shot a Smith at him. The fat man hovered out of the way on the suddenly-real Holtzman effect. The Smith buried itself in the ceiling.
'CRUNCH!'
"Kutabare! Monshi!" Yes, Raven was still speaking in Japanese.
"Such language!" Well, Control Freak certainly seemed to understand it, even if he wasn't speaking it. "Well, must congratulate you on your fine catch. Quite a bishounen. To bad you won't have much time to enjoy him. I'll leave you lovebirds with the Smith family here. Your friends need some more company."
The 'bish' heard precisely none of this, still in acceleration mode. Kanesada was moving close in and in such a way that it looked more like a pair of glowing nunchaku. On the other hand, nunchaku don't cut. With so little room to swing in, he had to go back to the cutting, as it wasn't possible to bring enough force to bear.
Raven moved to assist him.
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Cyborg's plan to get Robin and Starfire to just admit it already had just…
"Star, I…Kory…" stuttered Robin.
"Yes Robin?" Starfire looked up from his lap with hopeful green eyes.
"I…I think I…L…Loveyou!"
Starfire dragged Robin down for a kiss. Hey, actions speak louder than words.
…succeeded. Well, kinda.
You see, Starfire had her head on Robin's lap as he said this. They were sitting on a mall bench as this happened. Therefore when Starfire pulled Robin's head down, she kinda dragged him out from under her and twisted him through the air so that he would land lying on her. Rather unfortunate that she was filled with the -boundless confidence- that everything would be wonderful from there on out. In any case, the bench shattered under them.
'Smash!'
But as they lay slightly dazed on the floor, they got their kiss. Suddenly a Smith, somewhat the worse for wear, came walking around the corner and attacked them. He had been flung by Raven, and disoriented by the landing, had come in search of fresh targets.
What he got was a fresh can of whoop-ass. Robin flipped up and smashed his bo into the already-damaged Smith before Starfire gave it a very large starbolt for interrupting them. It died and faded away. "Control Freak," growled Robin. He switched on his communicator.
The sounds of a pitched battle came over it. Robin and Starfire didn't even need to exchange words as she grabbed him and flew off the way the Smith had come.
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As Robin hung from Starfire's arms, he evaluated the battle. Even with the nearly endless hordes, the Titans were faring fairly well. They had split into combat pairs, BB and Cy supporting one another as Raven and Kenkaku teamed up. Each group had one person playing the role of ranged combatant, Raven and Cyborg, and one playing the role of brawler, Beast Boy and Kenkaku.
'RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!'
The plan was kinda falling apart in Beast Boy and Cyborg's case. They were hiding behind whatever cover they could find, facing an onslaught of machine gun fire from a bunch of enemy drones from FPSs. Cyborg stuck his autocannon out from behind cover and blazed away, his fire scything through the goons, but like they did in those games, they kept on coming. Some were smarter than the others though. Some of them just stood there, some shot their own comrades accidentally, but some seemed almost human. Control Freak had not, unfortunately, included any shotgun-armed enemies from Max Payne. If he had, the odds would have been a lot better.
An enemy dashed at them with an assault rifle. Cyborg's fire caught him and he went flying back, shredded. He had been from Soldier of Fortune II. His SAW slid to next to Beast Boy. The elf shrugged, turned into a monkey, grabbed the machine gun with his tail, and pulled it over to him. The weapon was far too large for him to handle so he went gorilla and broke off the trigger guard before laying into the enemies with his stolen weapon, blind-firing much like Cyborg.
Actually, it wasn't working too well for the other pair either. Kenkaku was covered in Smiths, much like Neo, and Kanesada lay on the ground, far out of his reach. Raven made to pick it up and help him, but a shout stopped her. "IYA! DO NOT TOUCH KANESADA! IT'S DANGEROUS!"
"Then what do I do!?" She tried to strip the Agents from him with TK, but it wasn't working well.
"I don't need super strength to get people off me! KIAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
'SHOOM!'
The Smiths went flying, dead. Kenkaku stood up shakily, shook his head, grabbed Kanesada, and was suddenly looking a lot better. He was still rather disheveled however. Robin guessed that he had simply regained some ki by simply having Kanesada in hand. They looked ready to help Cyborg and Beast Boy, or at least go after Control Freak when Neo and Trinity stepped out of the store.
"Neo's mine," said the ronin, swinging Kanesada at Neo. The main character from the Matrix blocked with a hand, much like he did in the movie. Or at least he tried to. Kanesada simply sliced part of his hand off. Kenkaku flicked the blood off the blade before sheathing it, then drawing the blade in a slash so fast it couldn't be seen. This was then followed by a series of lightning-fast slashes, including a final downward stroke that hit the ground and tore a fissure in the mall floor.
'PSLECK! CRRRRBRUM!'
Neo burst into chunks and the video store's entrance collapsed. The wave man panted, as he whispered the name of the technique. "Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu Iaijutsu kyou Fenikkusu no Tsume." He was very pale. Raven simply bashed Trinity against the ground with her TK, smashing open the woman's head. Kenkaku fell to one knee, holding himself up with his katana. Raven moved to assist her combat partner.
The gun battle had killed the last of the mannequins. Robin quickly formulated a plan. "Star, you'll back me up. You're going to drop me, then make a strafing run. I'll run in and finish off what you don't. He pulled out the communicator. "Cyborg, Beast Boy! Stop firing!"
In both cases, it was a moot point for the weapons they currently had enabled. Both had run dry. The two male Titans went completely behind cover as Starfire dropped Robin and flew low across the battlefield, releasing the fury of her starbolts.
'ZAK, ZAK, ZAK, ZAK, ZAK! BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM! THUNK! SSSS-THUNK!'
Robin landed running and threw three fistfuls of discs. He dispatched the last few FPS fodder with his bo and looked around. The Titans and Kenkaku walked up, all (except Robin and Starfire) nursing medium-level wounds. "Dude," asked Beast Boy, "Where's Control Freak?" None of them had an answer.
But someone did.
"Collecting his payment." The speaker stepped out from the shadows. It was the knife fighter from the hovertank. He had dirty-blonde hair in a buzz cut, somewhat ugly features, a road rash, presumably from when Starfire had gotten him, and two very large bowie knives in his fists. "I, however, am here for a fight."
As the Titans snapped to battle readiness, he shook his head. "Only with one before me is my fight. I wish to take on the wielder of Kanesada."
"You won't be able to use Kanesada, if that's what you're after," said Kenkaku wearily.
"Iie. I may not be able to use it, but there is someone else who can."
"They are deluding themselves. The legend clearly states…"
"Are you sure you know the full legend?" interrupted the other man.
"Iie." Kenkaku sagged.
"Then do not lecture me. Fight me." He held up his knives.
"Ii ka.. Shimei, ka?"
"Brute."
"Kenkaku."Kenkaku assumed a ready stance.
"You aren't seriously…" started Raven.
"Hai," he affirmed.
"Hold it!" yelled Robin, seeing what was happening, "You can't fight him now!"
"Hajimeru!" yelled Kenkaku, attacking in an easy-to-predict jump slash. Crossed bowie knives caught the katana, the two combatants face-to-face.
'CLANG!'
"You could do with some fighting skill. I fail to see why Kanesada chose you."
The ronin just smirked. "Kiai."Brute froze, his major muscles paralyzed. Kenkaku pushed him over.
"No matter. The others will come. You shall not leave this place until we are all defeated or Kanesada is ours," spat Brute.
This was the last thing Kenkaku heard before he passed out.
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Kenkaku awoke in the backseat of the T-car, Raven looking over him. "You seem to be passing out a lot," she observed, halfway amusedly.
"That's what I get for playing fast and loose with my ki," he groaned. He sat up. "Where are the others?"
"Finishing up in the mall. Cyborg and Beast Boy headed for the arcade…" answered the mage.
"Of course."
"Yes, and Robin and Starfire are off doing something or other. They already took care of the press release. You've been mentioned merely as a friendly superhero. I think the father and mother of the dysfunctional family known as the Titans finally hooked up."
"That's nice to hear. So what are the other roles?" asked an interested wave man.
"Well, Cyborg is the jock older brother, I'm the depressing but intelligent sister, and Beast Boy is the class clown younger brother. If I was to add you, I'd say crazy boarder."
"Sounds about right."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Head off to Japan, I guess. This city is a black hole for my ki." He stretched. "On the other hand, I seem to recover it a lot faster here. Whatever."
"Not heeding that guy's orders?"
"You mean Brute-san? I'm not scared of guys like him." He gave a sad smile. "I've gotten very good at wandering."
"I guess you have." She had nothing to offer but a frown.
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The Titans watched as the ship left, Kenkaku waving to them from the stern. "SAYONARA!" he yelled. The Titans all yelled their good-byes back, turned, and walked away. Except Raven. She stood there a while longer, her cloak blowing around her in the ocean breeze.
"Right person, wrong circumstances?" asked Cyborg quietly as he walked up behind her.
The waves were going screwy, coated in obsidian energy, but Raven didn't care. "For both of us, I think."
"Life can be like that," said Cyborg sagely. "You'll see. It'll turn out alright."
"Yeah." She looked down at the waves. "I need to meditate."
"Well, see you back at the tower." Cyborg walked off.
"Sayonara, Kenkaku-KUN." She turned around and walked off.
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The sun was setting as Raven decided to go outside to meditate. She had just reached the bottom of the tower and was about to open the door when…
'Knock, knock, knock.'
'Drip, drip, drip, drip.'
Raven opened the door to see a very wet, duffle-toting, sword-wearing, long haired teen in an outfit she had seen bought that very day standing there before her. "Okay, so maybe I'm not as good at wandering as I thought. How's the rent here?"
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Japanese Flavor Text:
Kiai: Battle cry
Gashi: "Greetings."
-san: Honorific. I've already explained it.
Ichi: "One."
Kutabare: "Fuck you."
Monshi: "Die in agony."
Bishounen: "Pretty boy."
Iya: "No." (Strong)
Touki no Fenikkusu-ryu Iaijutsu kyou Fenikkusu no Tsume: "Fighting Spirit of the Phoenix School, Sword Draw and Talons of the Phoenix."
Iie: "No."
Ii ka: "Fine then."
Shimei: "Name."
Ka: "?"
Hai: "Yes."
Hajimeru: "Begin."
Sayonara: "Good-bye."
-Kun: Honorific. Can be used in a superior to inferior form (uncommon), to a friend, and from a girl to her male love, as well as occasionally from both sides. We're seeing a blend of #s 2 and 3 here.
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A/N: Here's the end of our first episode: Driftwood. Questions shall be answered, the plot shall advance, comedy shall present itself, and of course, more over-the top action will put James Bond movies to shame. Tune in next time. And please review.
