Part 7: Sweat The Small Stuff
The door crashed open, and Raven ran through it, nearly tripping on her cloak. As she stumbled, she cursed, and dropped her crowbar to claw at the neck strap that kept that part of her costume on.
The fact that nearly all the doors in Titan Tower had electronic locks was starting to seriously work against the Titans: none of the locks were cooperating. When the Titans tried to punch in the opening codes, the door was as likely to refuse them as open. And that was NOT good when you had a horde of flesh eating zombies on your heels. Last she had looked, Beast Boy and Terra had gone to cover her and tried to keep the mass from enveloping and consuming them by knocking over a few zombies and trying to get the collection bogged down. From their curses and screams she had a vague idea that it wasn't working…
Then the door, a thick oak one, was finally unlocking, and she was scrambling through, and tripping…and where were her friends?
Beast Boy plowed through the door, yelling and screaming as he tried to wrench an arm off his shoulder…just an arm. But the limb was still quite lively, as demonstrated by the fact that Beast Boy was hacking at it with his hand axe.
Terra followed on his heels, dropping her katana as she tried to get around the door and close it. A slamming impact nearly knocked her off her feet, but she managed to hold her ground and put her shoulder to the door as arms clawed around the opening, grabbing at Terra. She shrieked as one grabbed her hair, and then Beast Boy finally got the arm off and ran over, swinging the axe down and slicing the fingers off the hand. But that was all he got to do as another giant shove pushed Terra backwards, made the opening wider, and knocked Beast Boy on his rear end, as a zombie managed to cram its torso and head through the opening as it moaned and reached for Beast Boy…
The crowbar swung down, the curled end crunching into the top of the zombie's skull. Raven yanked it to the side, pulling the monster's head apart, and then Beast Boy was up and shoving the body backwards and out the door. Raven dropped her crowbar and snatched up Terra's katana, and she and Beast Boy began hacking at the limbs until they had severed enough for them to get beside Terra and shove the door closed.
"That won't hold for long." Raven said as she tossed Terra's sword to her and retrieved her crowbar.
"It never does. How far to the stairs?" Terra asked, as she pulled away from the shuddering door, hoping the electronic lock had sealed behind them.
"Should be in the next room. I hope." Raven said. She looked very odd without her cloak: her one piece bathing suit esque outfit suggested that she was running for Miss Goth America rather then running for her life.
The Titans were almost at the other end of the room that led back out into the hallway and to the set of stairs they needed to take down when the door behind them crunched and broke off, and the zombies came pouring through again.
"Fuck! I wish there was some way we could slow them down all at once!" Terra cursed.
"Uh…yes sir it's thriller! Thriller night! And I could love you more then any ghoul face ever could…" Beast Boy sang, as he started dancing. Raven and Terra gaped at him: the zombies just kept moving forward. "Ah nuts!" Beast Boy said, as he stopped and ran out the door, Raven and Terra following him into the hallway.
"What the hell was that? Did you expect them to start dancing with you?" Raven asked.
"It worked for Michael!" Beast Boy replied.
"Forget Wacko Jacko, we need to get to the Eye of Archetypal!" Raven yelled. "There's the stairs!" she said, pointing to a door at the end of the hallway. The three sprinted for it.
Terra faltered near the end.
"Wait…"
The door to the stairs swung open as more zombies emerged. Raven came to a dead stop with a small shriek.
"Ah no, ah NO! Back the…" Beast Boy began.
The door they had just exited slammed open as their original group of zombies, still anxious to have dinner with their new friends, shuffled and stumbled out.
There was nowhere left to run.
Robin didn't have anywhere left to run either, as Jack Frost prepared to do his spiritual zombie brothers proud and make a meal out of his head.
"Hey!"
Curiosity killed the cat, says an old saw. Apparently Jack Frost hadn't heard this old saw as he stopped his bite and twisted his head to see who was talking.
Starfire's hands shot out, her arms burying itself into Jack Frost's chest (it may have looked like polystyrene, but it acted like snow). Jack arched a twig eyebrow and then took a swipe at Starfire, but he was too late as she yanked out her arms, placed them on his shoulder, and vaulted over Jack Frost. When he had turned around, Jack had backed away from Robin a bit, just enough to allow Starfire the room for grabbing Robin, trying to free him. Jack yelled as she managed to pull Robin from his still-remaining arm, but the snow reformed and readjusted its grip, grabbing Robin's cape as it prepared to reform it's body to catch and hold both the teens.
"No escape!" he yelled
Starfire reached up and pressed the tiny buttons under Robin's cloak that released it from the outfit and then grabbed him around the chest and leapt backwards as hard as she could, yanking him from the snowman's weakened grip as she dove to the side.
"Hey! No fair!" Jack said, as he turned. He threw the cape down and prepared to catch his prey again...and then he recalled that Starfire had shoved something into him. His eyebrow arched again, and he shoved his own arm into his chest and withdrew what Starfire had jammed in there.
"What's this?" he asked, as he looked at the grenade.
The explosive detonated at the same time as its brother, blowing Jack Frost's top half apart.
"Robin! Are you ok?" Starfire asked, as she got up.
"I will be if he stays down!" Robin said as he also got to his feet. He checked his belt: not much left in the way of incinerary weaponry…
"You little PRICKS!" came a muffled yell as the snow flowed together and reformed. "Do you have any idea, how much that stings?"
"Do you have some place we can shoot you which WON'T grow back?" Starfire asked as she retrieved her machine gun.
"I don't know honey-boobs, why don't you come over here and find out?" Jack sneered back, and then he removed his carrot nose and waggled it obscenely at Starfire. Starfire's eyes widened at the implication.
Then a Birdarang sliced the carrot in half. Jack stopped his lecherous look and turned his eyes to the severed vegetable.
"Hey! I can't exactly go into a car dealership and buy a car to replace what these mean, you know!" Jack yelled.
Starfire blew Jack's head off. It promptly reformed.
"Castrating little bitch, ain't she?" Jack commented, and slid forward. The two Titans backed up, riddling Jack with bullets, but they didn't even slow him down. Finally Starfire's gun ran out, and left with no other options, she hurled it at Jack. He promptly caught it…and ate it.
"Yum. I need more iron in my diet." He said. Had they not been fighting so hard to stay alive, the two may have groaned at his terrible puns.
Robin's gun was empty as well, and he dropped it and pulled out his staff.
"Go Star!" He ordered.
"But Robin…"
"Go! I'll hold him off!" Robin said.
"And your girl accuses ME of phallic envy?" Jack said, looking at Robin's staff.
Robin just leapt forward with a karate yell, spinning and swinging his staff down, as Starfire ran away.
The metal rod caught Jack in the top of his round head and went all the way down to his lower "stomach"…where it stopped. Robin tried to pull it out, but it was stuck fast, as Jack's upper body reformed as his mouth smirked at Robin.
"Lemme guess, splitting headache?" Robin ventured.
"Actually, I was going to go for "Gemna, eat your heart out.", but meh." Jack said, and yanked up one arm as a huge curved ice blade formed on it. Robin backflipped away as the deadly weapon slashed down, embedding itself in the floor. Robin spun up and then did a Matrix esque dodge backwards as his staff was fired at him at high velocity. Spinning back up, he gaped as Jack pulled his arm free and then leapt up, forming into a huge snowball that sprouted ice spikes and commenced rolling at Robin.
Robin pulled out his grappling hook and fired it at the ceiling, the cord yanking him up and away from the deadly boulder…until an icicle fired from the ball and caught the cord, slicing it clean off and putting Robin in freefall. He landed on the couch and knocked it over, rolling to a stop as Jack reformed into his snowman form.
"You didn't get the memo, did you?" Jack said, sliding forward, his right arm forming into a huge spiked mace. "This is a winter NO MAN'S LAND."
Not knowing what else to do, Raven swung her crowbar at the first zombie she could reach. The blunt end crunched through a rotten rib cage, and Raven twisted the bar aside and threw the zombie into the wall, splattering rotten pieces of skin and muscle on it. She swung at the next one at an upward angle and broke its brainpan open, but that only seemed to annoy it as he clawed at her, and she stumbled back.
Terra was looking back and forth as Raven retreated towards her and Beast Boy approached the original group. Which one should she support? If she supported Beast Boy she could slow the main mass down, but that could allow the zombies to form an impregnable plug at the stairs, but if she supported Raven Beast Boy could be overwhelmed by the larger group that had been chasing them. If only they could knock down all the zombies at the stairs at once…
And then she saw the fire extinguisher, and it clicked.
"GAR!"
"What?" Beast Boy said, twisting his head to see if Terra was in danger.
"Get over here!" she yelled (though she did not throw a spear, heh heh), as she ran over, trying to hold her katana with one arm while she unhooked the heavy red canister with the other. It finally came off, nearly landing on and crunching her foot, as Beast Boy appeared at her side. This ended the small blockade he had made against the mass that were chasing them though, and they were fast approaching…
"Beast Boy, hold this up!" Terra said, dropping her katana as she scooped the extinguisher up. Beast Boy yelped as she dumped the heavy, awkward cylinder onto his free arm. He struggled to hold it as Terra tried to adjust it to her purpose, and he turned his head and yelped: the zombies behind them were less then ten feet away.
"TERRA!"
"I'M TRYING! DON'T MOVE!" Terra yelled, as she made one final adjustment, and then quickly snatched her katana up. "When this goes off, be ready to run!"
"Wha?" Beast Boy said as Terra darted around him.
Moaning, twin zombies reached for her. She cleaved the head and right arm off one (had she been attacking a normal human, she probably wouldn't have been able to make such a potent cut, but these zombies had soft, vulnerable bodies…) and then sliced the second in half. Rotten blood sprayed her, but she ignored it as she turned…
And the top half of the zombie, crawling along the floor, reached out and grabbed her ankle, sinking its teeth deep into her boot. She yelled and forgot her task as she began dancing, even as more zombies approached…
And then Terra twisted her foot away, a hunk of tough leather coming away from her boot as she managed to get her right foot under the zombie and, with a burst of adrenaline, half kick half lift the top half of the body into the air, sending it crashing into the crowds and knocking them back. She whirled back to Beast Boy, who had been a good boy and hadn't moved. If they survived, she'd think of a way to reward him for that.
"RAE! HIT THE DECK!" Terra screamed.
Raven whirled from the latest zombie she had managed to bludgeon into submission, even as half a dozen more came, and she saw Terra swing her sword up while Beast Boy stood with a fire extinguisher on his shoulder, and she suddenly realized what was going on and dove for the floor.
Terra's blade slashed down, severing the end of the extinguisher. The carbon dioxide gas exploded out, the high pressure it was under firing the cylinder like a torpedo. It flew across the hallway and smashed into the lead zombie with a sickening wet crunch, splattering it to pieces as it smashed into the zombie behind it, taking off its rotten head. Within a few seconds the impromptu missile had flown through all the zombies that were coming out of the stairwell, knocking them into pieces or at least down.
Terra was already running after it, dragging Beast Boy. Raven was just getting up when the green teen grabbed her and they all ran past the twitching pieces, reaching the door and hearing the moans to their left. More zombies, all the way up the stairs…but none down. That path was clear, and as the fire extinguisher fell down in the center gap that circled down to the ground floor and landed with a loud clanging noise, the three were stampeding down the stairs, the zombies that had been in the stairwell when the fire extinguisher missile flew in getting up and resuming the chase.
The three Titans ran and jumped down two flights before they went through a door, stopping and opening it with as much caution as they could due to their pursuit. But no zombies emerged from this door as it swung out into an empty, dimly lit hallway, and the Titans ran through it.
There was no lock on this door, but there happened to be some benches, chairs, and a filing cabinet nearby (Raven thought this was the rarely used administrative floor). Within ten seconds the door was barricaded, and then a filing cabinet was shoved in front of it as the door began to shake, as arms pounded on it and voices moaned in unholy hunger.
"You better hope it had enough heat to melt through two floors." Raven said as she turned, trying to match up the blueprints in her mind on where the Eye of Archetypal would be if it HAD melted through two floors.
"And if it didn't?" Terra asked.
"Well, we could always hope there aren't any other zombies infesting the stairs. Or hey, maybe one of our teammates left a mini-gun lying around." Raven replied tersely, as she stalked off, her gore-drenched crowbar dripping blood and worse on the floor beside her.
Scalpel didn't have a barricade. He didn't even have a door. All he had with his glaive, and he couldn't even lift it, as the first of the zombies stepped into the room.
Scalpel began running through his options. Maybe they couldn't bite through his skin, and even if they did, his blood was as potent as napalm…
And then he remembered why that highly potent blood wasn't eating through his gurney. Because it no longer had the qualities of Blacktrinian blood. It was human, and so was he, and that made him…
The zombies moaned, and began shuffling across the room.
It made him a snack.
"Hey."
Jack stopped at the female voice, the voice that very close to him, and promptly showed he had learned nothing from last time as he turned around.
Starfire was back, and she had a weapon. But it wasn't another gun, or a grenade, or a flamethrower. Instead it was one of the lamps that the Titans had in some of their rooms: the type with a large, round, heavy bottom. Starfire had either found a lamp with a very long cord or managed to stumble across an extension cord, because the bulb at the end was still alight.
Jack looked at this and smirked.
"Oh what are you going to do, make shadow puppets?"
"Actually, yes." Starfire said.
"Oh really, that's…WHAT? Did you just agree with me?"
"No, but this served as a suitable distraction for Robin to grab his special fire explosive."
"WHAT?" Jack yelled, and swirled around again…
To find Robin was still trying to get up from his fall.
This kept him from seeing Starfire rear the heavy end up and then shift the lamp in her arms so she brought the other end down, smashing the light bulb against the ground and shattering it.
"Oh look, I lied again." Starfire said.
Jack spun around, spikes forming on his arm…
And Starfire jammed the end of the lamp into his chest. There was a loud crackle and then the lights began to flash crazily as Jack's snowman body provided a great conductor for electricity, and he yelled, thrashed, and spasmed as the energy pulsed through him, the heat distorting his features and then destroying them entirely as he melted.
Starfire dropped the lamp as Jack Frost slumped into a pile of loosely defined sludge and then fell apart completely, the electricity reducing him to a puddle.
"Nice work." Robin said as he got up, limping slightly.
"I learned from the best." Starfire said. "But I am not sure if that will work…"
"Well I don't think he can regenerate as long as he can't…"
And then with a final crash, the lamp pole shorted out, the electricity stopping.
Robin and Starfire looked at each other, and then they broke headlong for the nearest door.
"I DON'T THINK SO!" came a loud yell, as a pool of water zipped past them. They stopped dead as it flowed up and reformed back into Jack Frost. The two stared in horror.
"Getting the picture? YOU CAN'T KILL ME." Jack said.
A loud bang sounded behind Jack. He looked like he wanted to blink, except he didn't have eyelids to do so, so he just settled for looking down at the large hole that was now in his chest.
"You people are slow learners. Must have been too many snow days." Jack said, turning around to look at his attacker.
The shotgun boomed again as Cyborg fired. Jack was tossed backwards a bit from the impact, another hole appearing in his body. Robin and Starfire got out of the way as the battered and bruised and mad as hell Cyborg cocked his gun and again fired. Jack bounced back a bit more. Cyborg cocked it again, boom, bounce. Boom, bounce. Boom, bounce. Boom, bounce.
Click.
Cyborg's eye widened as his gun failed to produce another "Boom, bounce." Jack finally stopped, looking down at his swiss cheese body, and then the holes closed up. He looked up, raised a digit-less snow hand, and waved it back and forth, again imitating Robert Patrick's immortal villain.
"What were you expecting? A pit of molten steel to spring up behind me? I don't know what's been in the snow you're eating, but I don't think it was urine." Jack said.
"Can you please stop with the puns? Kill me, but stop with the puns." Cyborg said.
"Oh? You could do better?" Jack said.
"Actually, come to think of it…I could do worse."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah…let's just say…urine for it now." Cyborg said.
And Jack registered the figure behind him and turned…
"ANTIFREEZE!" Gauntlet yelled as he thrust out his right arm, a line of liquid spraying out from the plastic container he was holding and splashing onto Jack.
Jack Frost screamed, and then Gauntlet swung out his other arm and splashed another container of the car fluid onto the snowman. Jack Frost staggered back, screaming, as smoke poured from his body.
"……..ANTIFREEZE?" Robin said, as he joined Gauntlet's side, as Jack Frost continued to thrash and shout.
"When in Rome, do what would be ridiculous in real life." Gauntlet replied.
"I thought you said this was the room!" Beast Boy yelled.
"It is. Damn thing must not have generated enough heat. We have to go up a floor." Raven said.
"Oh great…" Terra said, wishing she had never heard of George Romero and Tom Savini as the three headed for the nearest staircase. They had heard distant crashing in the distance: their friends were back on the chase.
When the door to the stairway opened, however, there were no zombies. The three allowed themselves four seconds of recon before they sprinted up the stairs and into the door one floor above. No zombies there as well, as the three made their way through the hallways, jumping at every small noise.
"Ok…if I remember correctly…the orb should be right…" Raven said, and stopped.
She stared at a door she had seen many times, but it was as if she was seeing it for the first time.
It was the door to Cyborg's room. Usually it was always open…because when it was closed…
It was locked.
"FUCK!" Raven yelled, slamming her hands on the door. The two other Titans gasped at this sudden display of profanity. "The orb is in here! And the door's locked!"
"Well, let's go find Cyborg and ask for the key…" Terra began…
A nearby door suddenly crashed open, and the three jerked their heads as zombies began emerging.
"When did THEY get the ability to teleport?" Raven cursed.
"Standard horror film rule No 36, though it usually applies more to…"
"That doesn't matter!" Raven yelled. She grabbed Beast Boy and shoved him forward a bit. "This door has a code lock! You're great friends with Victor! Crack it!" Raven yelled, and then she picked up her crowbar and stalked towards the zombies.
"But…but…" Beast Boy said.
"Oh come on Gar, you've done this before." Terra said, and then she sprinted to join Raven as the two prepared to hold off the zombies while Gar tried to break into his own friend's room.
"Uh…ok…Cyborg?" Beast Boy said, typing it in. It buzzed, indicating it was wrong. "Damn. Um…Victor? No. Stone? No. VictorStone? No. Vic Stone? No? Hmmm…Grobyc? No…"
"HURRY!" Terra screamed as she hacked off the limb of one zombie, spun around, and then split one from his thinning hair to its festering crotch. She would have been proud of herself, except the one now lacking an arm was trying to get the job done with its teeth.
"Something has occurred to me…" Starfire said.
"What?" Robin asked.
"If the antifreeze was fatal…why is he still moving?"
BLUUUURRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH! Jack opened his mouth and out came flying a glut of…something…wait…someTHINGS.
"Heh. Sorry. Indigestion." Jack said, and actually wiped his "mouth" as what he had vomited up kept twitching…and squeaking.
"Oh please Pangloss, no." Gauntlet said, as he saw what had come out of Jack: a mass of yammering, trembling snowballs. With eyes. And sharp little teeth.
"Sorry people, but you should know…never try to kill a monster the same way it was done before!" Jack crowed, as the snowballs floated up. "SIC' 'EM!"
The Titan scattered as the mass of flying, carnivorous snowballs flew at them. Cyborg yelled as one zipped over and latched onto his metal hand, gnawing at his fingers. He grabbed for it, but the body was mushy and soft and hard to get a grip on, so he settled for running and slamming his hand against the wall. The snowball splattered…and then one chomped on his rear. Cyborg yelled and turned, slamming THAT part of his body against the wall, and then staggering away…and then the snowballs slurped off the wall, reformed, and attacked again, and he danced around screaming.
Gauntlet dove for the nearby couch and snatched up a cushion, putting it between himself and the hungry little ball. While the feathers flew he tossed it aside and rolled over to a spilled bowl of Cheetos. As a second ball flew at him he grabbed it, spun it upside down, and slammed it down on the snowball, trapping it on the floor as he reached and grabbed a heavy book that was normally used to prop up the couch to hold the bowl down. The bowl kept thrashing though, as he moved away from it…and then ran for his life as his cushion snacking friend and one of its brothers gave chase.
"Get behind me Star!" Robin said as the snowballs flew at him. "Whoooo…"
One ball zipped at him, and an expert slice of his staff splattered it. Another zipped at him and he spun and splattered that too…and the third…
Starfire backed away. Jack Frost seemed to have ceased his attack so he could watch his children play, his hands clasped and a look on his snowman face that could have been construed as fatherly pride…or as close an expression of fatherly pride that a snowman that looked like it was made of polystyrene could make.
And they were clearly his children, as Robin prepared to smack his forth attacker apart…and suddenly the first one was gnawing at his ankle. He yelled, and then screamed as the forth one sank it's teeth into his shoulder and the second one regenerated in time to fly up and chomp onto his side. Starfire shrieked and looked around for a weapon, any weapon…and then Gauntlet ran past her. She looked in his direction and screamed again as his own snowballs changed course and flew at her…and then something crashed into her back and she fell as Gauntlet replaced Starfire with the broken wreck of the TV that Terra had used against Ghostface. The three snowballs crashed right into it, and he hurled it away as they tried to find a way out.
"How do we kill these things?" he yelled.
"Shooting Jack did not work. Blowing him up did not work. Electrocuting him did not work…and dumping antifreeze on him certainly did not work…have you any ideas?" Starfire asked.
"Um…bananas?"
"BANANAS? Of all the ridiculous, no-brain ways to kill a monster…"
"It was the first thing that popped into my head!"
"Well, try again!"
"Well…uh…maybe we could lure them to the furnace?"
"We don't have a furnace!"
"Oh great, what were the contractors thinking…" Gauntlet muttered, and then he yelled and ran as the snowballs finally returned. Starfire rolled away, looking around for a weapon…
And then she saw it. Nearby was a closet where they kept cleaning supplies when they bothered to clean the kitchen and lounge up…and it included a mop bucket. And a huge sink to fill it up properly.
She had an idea.
And she better do it fast, because if she didn't, her friends were going to get torn apart by evil snowballs, and even THAT was too ridiculous a death for her.
"Um…Gamestation? No…dammit Vic, you don't strike me as the tricky password type! That's Noel's turf!" Beast Boy said.
"I heard that!" Raven yelled. Startled, Beast Boy realized the girls were mere feet from him: the zombies had pushed them back. If he didn't figure out the code soon, the zombies would push them away from the door, and unlike last time, there was no fire extinguisher to act as an anti-zombie projectile…
"Guys, I can't figure this damn password!" Beast Boy yelled.
"Did you try "password"?" Terra asked.
"What? What kind of a moron would…" Beast Boy said, even as his fingers keyed it in.
Ding!
And then the door opened up.
Raven ran past him before Beast Boy could wrap his head around the fact that the password had been…password.
"Stupid! So stupid!" he cursed to himself as he snatched up his axe and ran into the room.
"Just keep them off me for a few more seconds!" Raven yelled, as she continued her process of pulling apart the room. The orb was here: she could see the hole in the ceiling, but that just meant it was somewhere in the room, and Cyborg, like most bachelors, wasn't the neatest person.
Terra joined Beast Boy at the door as they tried to close it manually, but the damn zombies got in the way, and so they tried hacking at them with one arm while trying to keep the door closed with the others.
And even as she hunted, Raven was aware that outside the storm seemed to be returning: she could hear thunder and lightning. Well, at least they were inside…
Unfortunately, due to the little interruption of monsters and fiends and general nasties from hell, Raven had not learned something she might have found useful at the moment: there had indeed been a storm, which had triggered these events, but thunder and lightning could also signal another thing.
Chucky's voodoo spell.
"Adedui Damballa…" Chucky chanted, his hand on Savior's forehead, even as the teen began to come groggily back of life. "Verenchella Santaria Ouuu Ya Shungoo Yim Ya…Give me the power, I beg of you!" Chucky yelled, and went back to chanting in Creole French, even as the clouds thundered and the spell began to take effect. Chucky could feel a strange sensation: he was looking down on the teen and then for a brief moment he was looking up on himself. He smiled wickedly and continued.
"Le'veurre merci debeaux chaiom…"
"Get off! Damn it! Fuck! Little monsters!" Cyborg yelled as he yanked and punched and clawed at the little ferocious creatures. But the things continued to hang on and gnaw at his metal body, and while it didn't hurt like it would a human…it still hurt.
Robin was worse off: he had body armor instead of a metal body and hence he didn't have the degree of protection, as he flipped over and squashed the two snowballs clinging to his back. He kipped up and ran, doing a flip as he whirled and fired off two Birdarangs to slice two more snowballs in half, but more came. Gauntlet was the smartest of the lot: he was utilizing the Saotome Desperation Move. For those who don't watch anime, that move was: run away until you think of a better plan.
And it was working until one of the snowballs zipped in and latched on his neck. Gauntlet immediately stopped and commenced trying to get it off. Despite his façade of a goof, Robert Candide knew plenty about life, and he knew that if this thing gnawed through his carotid artery, he would bleed to death in minutes, maybe even minute.
And Jack laughed, pleased in this little display of carnage.
And Starfire emerged from the closet.
"HEY!"
You'd think Jack would have learned by NOW, but he hadn't, and his snowballs followed his lead as they all briefly paused to look at Starfire.
Who KNEW she needed one hell of a hook. But she had it. Though she didn't like the fact that she had to do it. But that snowman-thing was clearly a pervert…and like fathers like sons.
"Why chew on THOSE things?" Starfire said, and then she grabbed her top and flipped it up.
Had it not been such a serious situation, Jack Frost's coal eyes shooting out on stalks of snow like in a Warner Brother's cartoon would have been comical.
"Are those REAL?" he asked.
And the snowballs apparently decided to answer his question, as they all peeled off their targets and went straight for Starfire as she pulled her top back down and ducked back into the closet.
"Don't be shy NOW, you tease! Hey! Wait for Daddy to get there!" Jack yelled as he headed for Starfire.
"Forget it you…!" Cyborg yelled before he was smashed through another wall by an extended ice mace hand.
But that gave the snowballs time to reach Starfire, their sharp little mouths slavering, as they all bunched up and dove it for a bite…
And Starfire held up the mop bucket.
Unable to stop, all the snowballs flew in.
And Starfire twisted the bucket upside down as she whirled and shoved it into the sinkful of boiling hot water she had drawn.
The water seared her hands and arms, and the process of shoving a semi-empty bucket into a sink full of water upside down was a task that required great strength, but Starfire was running on adrenaline. Screams erupted from the sink, but Starfire ignored them as she turned the bucket at a slight angle to ensure the entire container was filled, not one snowball escaping it as the boiling hot water melted them in seconds.
Even as Starfire twisted her arms and yanked out the plug in the sink.
"NO!" Jack Frost screamed as the water began to drain. And it was a very clean drain, which meant the water drained fast, even as his essence weakened and split apart, the snowball creatures becoming less like creatures and more like snow, and snow in hot water did one thing: melted and went down the drain.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Jack roared, and went for Starfire as she turned the sink emptying, as she drew back her arms, the orange tint now seared red.
"STARFIRE!" Robin yelled, and leapt for Jack Frost. The snowman thrust out an arm and a huge snow hand extended from it, grabbed Robin, and hurled him across the room. Gauntlet, not knowing what else to do, picked up a nearby chair leg and charged as well, but a shovel sized backhand sent him flying into a nearby hallway.
"I'll rend you into so many pieces no two parts will look alike." Jack snarled, ice fangs brimming at his mouth as he approached Starfire.
"Got IT!" Raven yelled, as she pulled the Orb of Archetypal from a pile of fast food containers.
And Beast Boy and Terra screamed as the door was shoved open and the zombies came pouring in. Terra took two huge swings before her sword got stuck in something and was yanked away. Backing up, Beast Boy continued to hack at the mass, even as Terra began grabbing everything she could find and using it as a weapon.
"Sorry Victor." She said as she grabbed his electric guitar and broke it over a zombie head. "Sorry Victor." She said again as she did the same with his personal DVD player.
And Raven realized she had a problem. The last time she had reversed the curse of the orb, she had been utilizing her demon side powers as well as a spell she had learned from the Melchior mess (And speaking of that, she still owed Noel a pounding for his reaction when he returned, the event having happened in his absence. His leave had come because the Shimmer was well known to have certain abilities when it came to human neurological systems, and a team of doctors had requested his aid to help separate a pair of conjoined twins attached at the head. He had left to do so, and though he didn't brag or take credit, the HIGHLY delicate nature of the operation meant a low chance of success. Noel had helped that low chance come through. Meanwhile, the Melchior thing happened, and Raven had spoken of it to him when he had gotten back. Savior had listened quietly during the whole story, and at the end he quietly commented "And a book speaking to you didn't give an indication that something was wrong in the first place?" Bastard. She should…). But this time she was on her own…and she didn't know if she could succeed.
"Well, I'm sure Einstein turned himself all kind of colors before he invented the light bulb…" Raven said, and began the spell.
And speaking of spells…
"Cecieoux entie ami pourte morte." Chucky chanted, as the thunder boomed and lightning flashed. "Mortiesse Me'Ludeveirre chordemie VAUCHIEI!"
Savior was waking up, but he didn't know what was happening. His body ached, he couldn't move, and his perception kept distorting…
"GIVE ME THE POWER, I BEG OF YOU!" Chucky bellowed, and Savior, recognizing the line, realized just what was going on. He began to thrash, but the cocoon gun held him down. The weakest part of the guck was around his right arm, with Chucky standing on his opposite side, but his vision was blurring and…
Who cared, GET FREE!
Savior began to thrash, his right arm loosening, but Chucky paid it no mind. Even if it did get free, he could just step back, and the spell was almost done, and then…it was playtime.
"A'DELE POURTE QUESAI DAMBALLA!" Chucky shrieked, as wind began blowing at his hair…
"That which you took unwillingly, you shall give back willingly. Aigogij Winajuuygy Bugyatorthcaw…that which you stole you now return…"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Beast Boy screamed as he lost his footing, and the zombies fell on him.
"Nowhere to run whore!" Jack snarled as he closed in.
"A'DELE POURTE QUESAI DAMBALLA!"
"That which is lost….Iuhguyqbuy Pou Yguyin Mijhu…I command thee to return…by the power within me I defy your punishment…return! RETURN! RETURN!"
"I don't know why you did what you did, but then again, maybe I do…" Jack Frost said. He was now standing right in front of Starfire, who had not tried to run. She might die now, but she wasn't going to die a coward. "I mean, what kind of chance could you stand against me?"
Jack brought up his arms as ice formed in cruel shapes. Had certain other horror villains been around, and seen what shapes Jack had formed his arms into, they might have offered him a job.
"What chance?" he asked again.
And then a ripple zipped across the room, flowing over Jack. He seemed to notice it, barely, and he arched a twig eyebrow.
And then he looked at Starfire.
Whose eyes were glowing green.
As she shoved her right hand into his chest.
"A snowball's chance in hell." Starfire replied.
And she unleashed every bit of stored up rage, disgust, and fear she had been swallowing to prevent from running, even as she willed her newly repowered body to focus it a certain way, and Jack opened his mouth and let out a cut off scream as Starfire did not so much fire a Starbolt as she detonated one directly in the core of his being, a Starbolt of intense heat that fired out, scorching the walls, melting nearby plastic containers, setting the wallpaper on fire, and disintegrating Jack Frost into vapor and straight out of existence.
Silence.
Starfire lowered her arm. She was vaguely aware of the others getting up, new strength filling them, and looking at her.
"Is it dead?" Cyborg asked.
Starfire smiled contently.
"Terminated."
The zombies suddenly exploded from the ground, thrown back and away by an intense force…a green rhinoceros.
Even the zombies seemed shocked, as Beast Boy whirled, stomping and smashing apart everything around him, and then returning to human form.
Even as Terra opened her eyes, a golden yellow glow now infused in them.
"Hello boys." She said, as she raised her arms. From the floor, seven long shards of rock tore through, floating up before her. "Ready to rock?"
Rotted teeth leaned down to sample this strange being…
And then twin claws reared up and clamped on the zombie's face, simultaneously crushing and shoving the head down as the clawed hand squashed the cranium straight down into the upper torso. A slashing kick with clawed toes caught the second attacker and sliced it into two pieces at upper chest level.
As the clawed hand snatch up a nearby glaive.
"A'DELE POURTE QUESAI DAMBALLA!" Chucky bellowed. "A'DELE POUR…"
And Savior's eyes snapped wide open, even as his right arm spasmed, and with a sudden great burst of strength it was free, as a white line shot from the palm, and Chucky stopped the spell right then and there as his eyes widened as his jaw dropped, even as the line lanced and coiled out, searching for something, anything…and finding it, and bringing it back…
"What the hell?" Chucky said.
As the Shimmer returned to Savior's hand…bringing with it the Welder's blowtorch.
"Pretty much." Savior replied.
And he turned the torch on right into Chucky's face.
Chucky's screech of pain filled the entire room as the intense flame shot out and lanced straight into his face, igniting his hair even as it seared and melted away the plastic of his features. Shrieking at the top of his lungs he staggered away, clawing at his flaming head, drops of liquid plastic falling next to him, as Savior dropped the blowtorch. Shimmer strands tore through the cocoon and threw it off him.
"YOUUUUUUU FUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!" Chucky screamed as he managed to get the fire out. His hair was mostly gone, his scalp and most of his face scorched black, pink plastic melted away to expose blackened undercoating and wires, his right eye melted nearly shut, his cheek hanging open with teeth exposed, even as his still remaining eye rolled and he screamed in pain and rage.
And he pulled out his knife and charged, swinging it up…
And the Shimmer intercepted him, the line lashing out in a bladed end that caught Chucky's right hand and carved into it, slicing all the way to the middle of his forearm. Chucky howled in agony, the knife dropping as the arm flopped into two hanging parts, blood dripping from the mauled limb.
Within the wound Savior could see more wires. Charles Lee Ray's curse. Trapped in a doll, stuck between humanity and death, in a form that seemed so weak and yet would not allow him human mercies like shock or fainting to escape the pain. He had to bear it all.
It didn't raise an ounce of sympathy in Savior.
"Still want my body, Ken?" Savior asked.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!" Chucky howled, as he snatched up the knife with his other hand.
The Shimmer lashed out, this time striking Chucky like a whip, throwing him into the air even as it walloped him with great impact. Savior saw one of the parts of Chucky's arm go flying off even as Chucky screamed, all the way, until he hit the wall with a mighty impact and fell to the ground.
Savior formed a brace for his ankle even as the Shimmer flowed out from his right hand and formed a blade. As tough as Chucky could be, there was one surefire to kill him: pierce his heart.
"Come on Chucky…" Savior said as he walked over. "I know you don't like these little experiences. Why don't you give it up? After all, you ALWAYS come back…" Savior said, as he turned around where Chucky had fallen.
And found him gone. All that was left was the remaining half of his mangled arm.
Savior snorted.
And then Chucky leapt on his back. Somehow the doll had snuck up behind him and managed to get on a crate without him realizing it.
And he was mad as hell, screaming and shrieking as he slashed at Savior's neck. Savior twisted and the knife barely missed his jugular, instead nicking the back of his neck. Shimmer strands shot up to protect its host, but Chucky got lucky and slashed through one, and Savior fell to his knees with a muffled scream. Chucky reared back, and then plunged his knife straight through the small hole his laser gun shot had made, causing Savior to scream again as he twisted the knife. Chucky shrieked once more in insane rage and pain as he yanked the knife out and brought it down towards Savior's spine…and then Savior was rearing back up, his hand reaching around and grabbing Chucky by his overalls as he yanked him off his back and hurled him through the air. Chucky yelled the whole way as he smashed into another metal crate.
Savior stared as his body fell, spasmed, and then got back up. Somehow, he had held onto the knife, and even with rags of his right arm hanging off and his face scorched and melted into a demonic fright mask he came at Savior.
Whose eyes had spied something else.
"There comes a time, for a man, to put childish things away…" Savior said as he reached over, even as Chucky screamed once more.
As Savior pulled out one of Killjoy's handguns.
"So stay put."
The first bullet blew off Chucky's right leg. The second careened off his skull and sent blackened bits of plastic flying, and the third shot aimed true, striking Chucky in the chest and blowing him backwards in a spray of blood and one final shriek.
And then he landed, and he did not move.
A pause, and then Savior realized he had been holding his breath. He let it out slowly.
"Robin wasn't kidding…" he remarked, as he got up, wincing as his wounds reminded him of their presence. "But at least…our powers seem to be back…in some capacity…"
Savior used some of the Shimmer to form stitches for his cuts and a brace for his leg, and then he walked over to his communicator, which had fallen off him at some point. Maybe…
"Savior here. Anyone respond?" Savior asked the communicator. But just like last time, all he got was static. "Damn. Anyone here, respond!"
Static.
"Fuck. I guess I'll have to go look for them." Savior said, and turned and limped for the door.
And then Chucky leapt through the air, screaming a sound you didn't think could be made by a human throat, his knife flashing, his lone eye ablaze with madness and rage, as he pushed off the crate and leapt at Noel…
And the Shimmer shot out, grabbing up the last part of the Killjoy exhibit: his repaired shotgun, as it brought the gun to Savior's hand and braced it for the backlash as Savior turned and aimed.
"Fuck off, Chuck."
The shotgun blew Chucky into pieces, scattering him across the entire evidence room. There was no scream for this, even as his head hit the ground and rolled over to the door.
Savior snorted, checked the gun, and found that the only shells that had been in it, he had just used. He tossed it aside and started for the door again, looking at the blackened head as he went.
"Hi." It suddenly said. "I'm Chucky. Want to playyyyyyyyyy…"
Savior's foot slammed down on the head, crunching it underfoot. He ground his heel a few times to be sure and then stepped off the finally dead monster.
"I guess, in the end Chucky, you wish it was only make believe." Savior said, and headed out of the evidence room.